Pokemon TCG Pocketis a relatively simple card game. The strategies aren’t overly complex, and more often than not, developing a winning approach involves playing the Pokemon with the highest attack power.
A key aspect of Pokemon Pocket is resource management, and not every high-attack Pokemon uses energy efficiently. However, it’s helpful to examine the hardest-hitting boss monsters and see if you can build a viable strategy around consistently getting them into play and maximizing their powerful offense.
130
Pack
Genetic Apex Charizard
Often overshadowed by its sibling, Ex Moltres, the base version actually hits nearly twice as hard as the Ex version. Moltres has the highest attack of any basic Fire-type in Pokemon Pocket, and with an attack cost of only three energy, it’s impressively efficient.
By turn three, you can fully power up Moltres to devastate any active Pokemon in its path. Moltres may be underused simply because Ex Moltres often takes its place; Ex Moltres’s ability to provide up to three energy per turn can be too advantageous for most players to ignore.
Genetic Apex Pikachu, Charizard, Mewtwo
Centiskorch is one of thestrongest Bug-typesdue to its unique typing in the video game and serves as a budget-friendly offensive choice for fire deck users. Its basic form, Sizzlipede, is quite weak but only requires one energy to start attacking, allowing you to deal some chip damage while you gather energy to power up Centiskorch.
Though Centiskorch packs a decent punch, its high energy cost means you’ll likely need Moltres Ex to use it effectively. It doesn’t quite match the power of other fire cards like Charizard Ex, so while Centikorch has one of the highest attacks in Pokemon Pocket, it functions more as a placeholder until a stronger option is available.
140
Rarity
3 Diamonds
Often overshadowed by its basic form, Pikachu, Raichu brings incredible burst power to the game. Raichu has enough strength to take down problematic Pokemon like Articuno, Moltres, and Zapdos.
However, Raichu’s Thunderbolt attack comes with a significant drawback—it requires discarding all attached energy. This makes it an excellent card to pair with Lt. Surge, who can help replenish energy quickly. Additionally, you may passively build up lightning energy by keeping Magneton on the bench; its Volt Charge ability generates one lightning energy per turn, ensuring Raichu has the resources it needs for its powerful attacks.
150
Genetic Apex Pikachu
Reaching the 150 attack tier, Golem is powerful enough to one-shot heavy hitters like Mewtwo Ex, Arcanine Ex, and Snorlax. The major drawback is that Golem deals 50 damage to itself with each attack, which, combined with its four-energy requirement, is a steep cost.
Golem functions as a classic glass cannon; after one powerful strike, it becomes vulnerable to a counterattack from a benched Pokemon. Additionally, both Golem and its pre-evolution, Graveler, are resource-intensive, meaning Golem likely won’t enter the battle until very late in the game when significant setup has been completed.
It’s no surprisethat one of the most popular Pokemon, Charizard, also boasts some of the highest attack power in Pokemon Pocket. Even in its non-Ex form, Charizard outclasses most other Pokemon cards in terms of offensive capability.
Since Charizard is more common than Charizard Ex, it serves well as a placeholder until you can acquire the more powerful version. Pairing Charizard with Moltres creates a high-energy setup, enabling a steady flow of energy to sustain consistent offense with this budget-friendly boss monster.
Genetic Apex Mewtwo
Not only is it the strongest character in the lore and video games, butMewtwo Ex may be the best card in Pokemon Pocket.Mewtwo Ex has an ideal combination of high attack power, speed, and energy consistency.
Pairing Mewtwo Ex with Gardevoir addresses its energy demands, and since Mewtwo Ex is a basic Pokemon, you don’t need to draw many cards to complete your setup. With Mewtwo Ex ready to attack before most other hard-hitting monsters, it’s often too late for opponents to mount any significant counter-offense.
100 (160)
Even though Blastoise Ex has a base attack of 100, it effectively reaches 160 in practice. Blastoise Ex is one of the few Pokemon that can scale with five energies, giving it enough power to knock out Dragonite in a single turn.
While there are several conditional Pokemon like Golurk, Marowak Ex, and Zapdos Ex that can deal 160 damage or more, their attacks rely on coin flips, making their average output much lower. Blastoise Ex, on the other hand, consistently deals 160 damage, with the option to attack for 100 if it has less energy.
200
Among the strongest non-legendaries in the show and games, Dragonite also boasts the highest attack power of any Pokemon that is not an Ex.
Dragonite has many unique features: its evolution line is the only one that uses both lightning and water energy, it is one of the few cards capable of hitting benched monsters, and it has no control over its damage output. Unlike coin-flip based Pokemon, Dragonite guarantees 200 damage with each attack, but the distribution of that damage is random. You could easily deal 200 damage to a benched Meowth or to an active Alakazam.
Similar to the original release of the Pokemon TCG, Charizard Ex is the highest attacking Pokemon in the initial set of Pokemon Pocket. Venusaur Ex has the most HP in the game with 190 but still cannot withstand Charizard Ex’s Crimson Storm. Unlike Dragonite, Charizard Ex’s damage is not randomized, so any Pokemon in front of it is guaranteed to go down that turn.
To compensate for the large amount of energy required to use Crimson Storm, almost all Charizard Ex users include Moltres Ex in their decks. With one of the best energy engines supporting it and boasting the highest attack power, Charizard Ex decks are among the strongest in Pokemon Pocket.
