Gardevoir ex is a deck that was popular and successful pre-rotation. It has a heritage across competitions and has seen much play. Of course, Gardevoir ex got its moment in the spotlight during the 2023-2024 standard format.
Now, as we shift into the post-rotation era, Gardevoir ex will be required to tweak and evolve. Shining Arcana Gardevoir, Mirage Step Kirlia and Zacian V are gone, and the archetype will change.
But in doing so, it promises to remain relevant in the TCG meta, bringing with it a new supporting cast that makes this psychic set-up a formidable force. From the extrasensory to the ethereal, here’s how the Gardevoir ex League Battle Deck shapes up, giving you a structured set to play now:
Table of Contents
What does the deck build look like?
The foundations of this deck centre around Gardevoir ex, obviously. Pokémon such as Mew ex, Drifloon, Cresselia and Radiant Greninja bring synergy of strategy throughout, while Lumineon V makes an appearance to help you cycle through your deck, finding those game-defining Supporter cards.
The rest of the 60-card deck comprises Supporter cards, Items, Tools, and the chosen Stadium card, Artazon. These cards either help you bulk up your attackers, draw cards to set up your plays or gust out your opponent’s benched Pokémon so you can deliver knock-outs.
Deck List
How does the deck strategy work?
This mystical deck is primed on the power of loading the discard pile with Basic Psychic Energy cards and then accelerating them back to your Pokémon.
Your first turns will prioritise setting up the foundations and getting Ralts and Kirlia into play as soon as possible. Cards such as Nest Ball and Ultra Ball help to get you up and running. This archetype often has to play from behind, though it reaps the rewards later.
Once Kirlia is in play, you’ll want to use its Refinement ability and begin stacking Basic Psychic Energy cards in your discard pile. Then, when set up, it’ll be time to evolve your in-play Kirlia into Gardevoir ex.
Gardevoir ex, the headline act of the deck, can bring your other basic Pokémon into play with its broken Psychic Embrace ability. Psychic Embrace allows you to attach a Basic Psychic Energy cards from your discard pile to one of your Pokémon at any time during your turn. In exchange, that Pokémon receives two damage counters.
This trade-off brings the most deadly attacker in this deck to life, giving it the optimum conditions to wreak havoc. That Pokémon is the sinister floating balloon, Drifloon.
Drifloon isn’t usually considered a deck's heavy hitter, though its attack, Balloon Blast, can truly deflate your opponent. The 70HP Drifloon's Balloon Blast does 30x damage for each damage counter on the Pokémon. You can add damage counters through Gardevoir ex's Psychic Embrace ability. This means an attack of 180 is possible…
You can push this further by attaching the Bravery Charm to your Drifloon, giving your Pokémon an extra 50HP and the opportunity to load up more damage counters. The net result is a potent attack that could take down those troubling Charizard ex’s.
You then have complimentary profiles in your deck such as Radiant Greninja, which can feed Gardevoir ex's Psychic Embrace ability by helping to load Basic Psychic Energy cards into your discard pile.
The fan-favourite frog does this using its ability Concealed Cards, which lets you draw two cards from your deck, but only if you discard an Energy card from your hand. At the same time, you can snipe your opponent’s bench Pokémon with its attack, Moonlight Shuriken, showing that it’s not just there for set up.
Cresselia's attack, Moonglow Reverse, lets you take shots at your opponent’s benched Pokémon. This attack allows you to move two damage counters from your Pokémon to one of your opponent’s. So, if things become a little heavy on your side of the field through Psychic Embrace, you’ll have a way to balance things out and take aim through this single-energy attack.
Finally, you have Mew ex, which can act as a draw engine using its Restart ability and manipulate your opponent's Pokémon using its Genome Hacking attack to copy their moves. A particularly useful play for facing up to the most powerful archetypes in the meta at present.
Deck Upgrades
The recent release of Temporal Forces has given us plenty of ways to elevate this deck further, whether it be swapping cards that provide the same support or introducing new potent attackers that add to the strategy.
For example, you might want to start by adding a deck-essential ACE SPEC card. Here, Hero’s Cape is an obvious straight swap for Bravery Charm, as it gives your Pokémon an extra 100HP versus the 50HP offered before. What a way to bulk up your balloon and give yourself the opportunity to add more damage to Drifloon.
Another obvious straight swap is Nest Ball for Buddy-Buddy Poffin. While Nest Ball allows you to grab one basic Pokémon to set up during the early game (i.e. Kirlia), Buddy-Buddy Poffin allows you to bring two. It’s a simple way to optimise your early game approach.
And then there’s the potential to introduce new attackers who buy into the Psychic Embrace game plan. The Ancient Pokémon Scream Tail is perfectly complementary, with its attack Roaring Scream doing 20x damage for each damage counter placed upon it. There is more potential to dish out psychic retribution.
Wave Veil Manaphy also holds solid potential because it can protect your bench. This is particularly useful when you are transitioning between setting up your Ralts and Kirlia—and even more so given that you’ll only really want one Gardevoir ex in play at any given time.
That said, there’s so much more you can do to edit and personalise this deck as you see fit. Technical Machine: Evolution can complement the use of Arven and help you quick-step your way from Ralts to Kirlia. Mimikyu, with its Safeguard ability, can provide useful disruption to decks such as Charizard ex and Iron Hands ex, two of Gardevoir ex's tougher matchups. And you could even include a Gallade as a potential late game curveball; its attack, Swirling Slice, does 160 damage and allows you to move a damage counter to one of your benched Pokémon, meaning it again fits the prototype we are after.
Basically, you’re not short of options with this competitive build. Are you ready to embrace this psychic set, and how would you play Gardevoir ex?
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Pokemon TCG: Gardevoir ex League Battle Deck
£26.75
£29.99
Description Get ready for battle with Gardevoir ex, Mew ex, Lumineon V and Radiant Greninja! These Pokémon are yours in this powerful, League-ready deck for skilled Trainers and Pokémon TCG players. With a slew of cards including premium foil cards,… read more
