I took part in the first League Cup of the season and brough my trusted Team Rocket’s Box that I also played for Pokemon TCG League Challenge 2026-09-26.
My deck
I love my Team Rocket’s Box. If you want to read more of my thoughts on the archetype, check out the above-linked note to the previous tournament.
I made one change since the last time: I switched on Team Rocket’s Archer to Team Rocket’s Wobbuffet. I still don’t have Lillie’s Clefairy ex that I would like to add to the deck to make Dragapult ex matchups easier.
Pokémon: 6
2 Team Rocket's Articuno DRI 51
4 Team Rocket's Spidops DRI 20
1 Team Rocket's Kangaskhan ex ASC 162
2 Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex DRI 81
4 Team Rocket's Tarountula DRI 19
1 Team Rocket's Mimikyu DRI 87
1 Team Rocket's Wobbuffet DRI 82
Trainer: 17
1 Bug Catching Set TWM 143
1 Maximum Belt TEF 154
1 Enhanced Hammer TWM 148
3 Team Rocket's Giovanni DRI 174
2 Night Stretcher ASC 196
2 Team Rocket's Factory DRI 173
1 Sacred Ash DRI 168
2 Handheld Fan TWM 150
4 Team Rocket's Transceiver DRI 178
2 Lucky Helmet TWM 158
3 Team Rocket's Ariana DRI 171
1 Special Red Card CRI 113
3 Team Rocket's Proton DRI 177
3 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
4 Ultra Ball MEG 131
1 Energy Switch MEG 115
Energy: 3
1 Basic {P} Energy MEE 5
6 Basic {G} Energy MEE 1
4 Team Rocket's Energy DRI 182
Total Cards: 60
The tournament
This time we had 14 players (no byes, yay!) and played 4 rounds of 30-minute best of one matches.
Round 1: Loss against Ethan’s Typhlosion/Drakloak
Imagine this: you sit down to play the first game going first and your opponent flips a lone Dreepy. “Finally, I have a good matchup”, you think and play your Team Rocket’s Proton to prepare your board. Articuno, Mewtwo, Mimikyu — all ready to fight.
Then you pass the turn and see them play Ethan’s Cyndaquil to the bench. Yikes.
We had a great back and forth match regardless of my bad first turn choices. At one point, I had an option to play Team Rocket’s Proton and fill my bench or play Lillie’s Determination and hope. Playing Proton would have given me an early KO but I was hopeful and made the wrong choice. I missed a KO which against a single-prize deck is really bad.
Even with that, this deck can still beat the deck because my deck is faster to build new attackers than a stage 2 deck that often doesn’t play a ton of recovery. But he set up really well and I struggled because I had filled my board with bad options. In the end, he Boss’d my Mewtwo ex for the last two prizes, well played.
It was a fun match. I was expecting to see Drakloak evolve to Dragapult ex at some point but I learned after the match he didn’t play it. Back in the day, I used to add one Dragapult and psychic energy to the deck as an extra attacker so I was hoping I’d get a nice KO from that.
Round 2: Win against Grass Box
My second round was against a really cool Grass Box. It played the common Meganium/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex engine and used Yanmega ex and the new Alolan Exeggutor to accelerate a lot of energy to the board and building up a 500HP Exeggutor (150 base HP, 250 HP from ability and 100 HP from Hero’s Cape).
My deck has one card I love so much: Handheld Fan. I had done 220 damage to the Exeggutor and when it attacked my Mewtwo ex, I was able to move an energy to the bench, turning its ability off and taking a cheeky free KO.
One of the strengths of this deck is having Team Rocket’s Giovanni and Team Rocket’s Transceiver as it gives me a lot of power to take out opponent’s most important pieces — as long as I have sufficiently set up my board.
In this match, I was able to take out Meganium and a turn later, a Chikorita to turn off the engine.
I had a lot of fun in this match and it was cool to see both of our decks manage to do what they were built to do. In the end, I managed to set up my board a bit better and thanks to the Handheld Fan trickery, the win eventually landed on my side of the table.
Round 3: Win against Dragapult/Munkidori
Combining this Cup and the last Challenge, it took 7 rounds to finally face a Dragapult matchup.
I went first and set up with Proton against a lone Dreepy. I had two main decisions to make:
- Should I attach a Grass energy or Team Rocket’s Energy to my active Mewtwo ex? Since Dragapult ex heavily plays hammers these days, I decided to start with the basic energy, knowing I could later recycle it to the game with Team Rocket’s Spidops.
- Should I pre-emptively play my Secret Box to have a stronger, playable hand for next turn if they Budew? I chose not to and it turned out to be the correct play in retrospective but I think it was the wrong decision at the time.
So I play energy to Mewtwo, bench a bunch of Pokemon, including a Team Rocket’s Tarountula.
My opponent hits their hammer and discards my energy, attaches one of his own and passes the turn.
I needed to find Team Rocket’s Spidops and Energy Switch to win. I attached Team Rocket’s Energy to Mewtwo, played Secret Box to find Energy Switch, stadium and a tool and to thin my hand. I had Ariana with an empty hand. The first card I drew from the top was Spidops that allowed me to reuse the energy that was discarded with Crushing Hammer and switch it to Mewtwo for a quick win.
Round 4: Loss against Dragapult/Munkidori
The last match for me in this tournament was a win-and-in match against another Pult. It was a very tight match going back and forth. We were tied on prizes at the end when I gusted his Dragapult ex with no energy to the active and hit 280 with my Mewtwo ex.
I had gotten rid of some of his Fire energies earlier thanks to Handheld Fan and KOs so I was hopeful he’d struggle to find the energies to power up.
After a series of draws from Drakloaks, the last card of Dudunsparce’s Run Away Draw was Crispin and there was enough right energies in the deck to use it and blow up my board.
Losing to Dragapult ex always feels bad, especially given that it’s a favourable matchup for me on paper but this was a really good and fun match.
Final thoughts
A 2-2 record with three great matches and one boring donk, I’m very happy with the day’s fun. We have such a great community here and the matches — other than the few bricks that always happen — are very demanding and challenging no matter who you face and what decks you play.