The Basic Guide

This Guide is intended to encourage newcomers to join the boards by giving some basic starting information.  It is not a full in depth guide, but will provide a solid foundation to beat times on the board.

**STARTING GUIDE:**

Water types are seemingly the current Meta.  To begin, you will ideally want 2 Articuno ex cards and 2 Misty cards in your Water deck.

The current strategy, especially for battles in beginner difficulty, is to pull Articuno and Misty on turn 1.  Misty is vital to the strategy because she allows the player to flip coins in exchange for energy.  You will receive 1 water energy for every successive heads.  With 3 water energy, Articuno ex can do 80 damage per turn (plus 10 to benched pokemon) which is enough to defeat most basic pokemon. In beginner difficulty, this will result an an immediate win, as the beginner AI never placed benched pokemon on first turn.

I also recommend 2 Cramorant cards, which act as a backup for when you don't draw Articuno in your hand on turn 1.  Cramorant deals enough damage to defeat most basic pokemon quickly with only 2 water energy. Having Cramorant as a backup increases the percentage of viable runs.  Pretty much just use cramorant as a backup replacement for Articuno.

**ALTERNATIVE DECK:**

Although Misty and a Water deck are current Meta, a Fire deck with 2 Moltres ex cards is viable for longer runs.  This strategy IS NOT VIABLE FOR BEGINNER DIFFICULTY!  This strategy will never defeat your opponents on turn 1 like Misty can.  However, Moltres is useful for longer runs if drawn on turn one.

With 1 fire energy attached, Moltres ex can flip 3 coins, providing an energy for each heads to a benched pokemon.  This can quickly stack energy into a powerful card on your bench, allowing you to use attacks that defeat most Pokemom in one hit early in the game.

Ultimately, it seems that this is not as effective as a Water deck with Misty and Articuno ex.

**POTENTIAL STRATS:**

This section is just a couple strategies that I feel may help shave time in specific instances.

If you need to put a card on the bench you can quickly toggle the "auto" button before ending turn. This can save you time because it's a simple tap rather than a hold and drag that you'd otherwise have to do.  The auto button is also directly next to the end turn button, making it very fast to use before ending turn.  While auto play is almost never faster overall than playing yourself, it is useful for quick toggles to save time.

To address Cramorant again, his attack adds an extra coin flip which does add a couple seconds.  This is why Articuno is ideal, while Cramorant is a backup. If the game becomes more competitive with more and faster times, Cramorant will no longer be a viable strategy.

**CONCLUSION:**

This is plenty to get you started in the current state of Pokemon TCG Speedruns :D

Hopefully this guide helps at least one newcomer. I hope it encouraged others to join!

The game is a live service game, so I'm sure the Meta will continue to change with time.  This guide may go out of date, but for now it is accurate.

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