After a tremendously successful launch in November 2024, Pokémon TCG Pocket has created a thriving competitive meta as 2025 promises to bring more and more cards.
The Genetic Apex (A1) and Mythical Island (A1a) sets brought several powerful cards, resulting in a wide variety of decks. The strength of such decks isn’t limited to EX cards alone but also involves certain Pokémon that boast handy Abilities.
These Abilities often end up becoming the game-changing factor, getting players the victory. So, we shall explore the Pokémon cards with the best (and future-ready) Abilities from the Genetic Apex and Mythical Island sets, in no particular order, and you may gauge the ones that you can include in your decks. Let’s begin!
Druddigon may be among the most forgotten Dragon types in general but in TCG Pocket, it has become the go-to Dragon Pokémon thanks to its Rough Skin Ability.
Keep this card in the Active Spot, and as it gets hit by attacks, it does a chip damage of 20 to them! Typically, it easily lasts one, two, and often three turns whilst weakening the opponent. Most importantly, it gives you enough room to build your EX cards on the Bench, especially those that require evolutions and/or Energy supply. No wonder it has become a staple in the famed Druddigon | Gyarados EX | Greninja deck.
Ideally, you need a combo of Druddigon and Leaf, to bring in your ready-to-go attacking card as soon as it is evolved/has enough Energy. Many players use it as a sacrificial pawn for the greater good since the upcoming strong card can secure KOs effortlessly. Since it has only one role and doesn’t need to attack, Druddigon can fit into any deck. Definitely going to be useful as more cards come into play.
Serperior slithered into the meta when Mythical Island released and instantly made Grass one of the most feared decks due to its insane Jungle Totem Ability.
To put it in simple words, Energy attached to any Grass Pokémon is counted as double. So 1 Energy is 2 Energy, 2 Energy is 4 Energy, 3 Energy is 6 Energy, and so on. It’s literally “Prepare for trouble, and make it double!” 😈
This Ability is a blessing in disguise for the formidable Celebi EX card. As Serperior doubles the Energy accounted for, you do as many coin flips, paving the way for high damage output. So, a Celebi EX with just 2 Energy is 4 Energy and you do 4 coin flips, with all heads amounting to 200 DMG (OHKO any card). The more Energy you attach, the better.
Aside from Celebi EX, Jungle Totem also readies up Venusaur EX in half the time. Serperior will continue to be an asset for any upcoming Grass decks and all future Grass-type EX cards. Truly, an evergreen Pokémon! 
Greninja is one of the most popular Pokémon in the franchise and its Genetic Apex card (which also includes an alternate art promo) is a deadly addition to any deck, not just limited to the Water type.
Water Shuriken is a household name and in TCG Pocket, it is a feared Ability that does 20 DMG to any one of your opponent’s Pokémon each turn. Active Spot or Bench… whatever!
20 damage weakens high HP EX cards like the Kanto starters, Gyarados, Mewtwo, and Exeggutor, bringing them in the firing rage of your strongest cards. For instance, Mewtwo EX’s 150 DMG Psydrive can’t OHKO Gyarados EX by default but with just two hits from Greninja (who’s comfortably positioned on your Bench), those cards are well within your OHKO radar.
Hot tip: Greninja combines very well with Druddigon to do a lot of damage to many of your opponent’s cards. The best part? Druddigon and Greninja can be accommodated together in decks of any type!
Gardevoir has been the long-standing partner-in-crime to Mewtwo EX. Basically, all you need to do is have Mewtwo EX on the Active Spot, and as soon as you get Gardevoir on the Bench, it transfers one free Psychic Energy to it every turn courtesy of its Psy Shadow Ability. So, once Mewtwo EX has 3 Energy, it gets the one extra Energy required for the 150 DMG Psydrive for free from Gardevoir and
Also, remember that Mewtwo EX discards 2 Energy whenever it uses Psydrive? Not to worry as even when Mewtwo is reduced to 2 Energy, it gets one free Energy from the new turn and another free Energy from Gardevoir! The result? You can spam Psydrive every single time as long as you have Mewtwo EX | Gardevoir set up.
Gardevoir’s Ability has also been of great help to Mew EX, whose Genome Hacking move replicates any of the opponent’s moves (particularly useful against the EX cards of Charizard, Gyarados, and opposing Mewtwo).
With the Psychic type including several Legendaries and Mythicals, we can expect EX cards of Lugia, Latios & Latias, Necrozma, Jirachi, etc and Gardevoir is bound to benefit them!
Weezing is one of the most underrated cards in TCG Pocket. Aside from being reasonably bulky for a non-EX card at 100 HP, its Ability Gas Leak instantly poisons the opponent’s Active Spot Pokémon. Once poisoned, the Pokémon in question drains out 10 HP every turn, forcing a switch-out especially when an EX card is poisoned!
But, that’s not all as Weezing, unlike the other Ability-based entrants in this write-up, also does a neat 30 DMG for only 1 Energy, further weakening the opponent. If you thought that’s all there is to Weezing, think again! With the Koga Supporter card, a low HP Weezing can be recalled back to the Hand and then be put on the Bench, all healed and good to go! 😯
Another great pointer about Weezing is that it can be fitted into any deck as long as you’re willing to only use it to poison targets (it can only attack with Darkness Energy). The poisoning jig is anyway the biggest perk of this card, so feel free to include it in your non-Darkness decks and throw your opponent’s strategies out of the window!
Abilities are undoubtedly a huge part of the TCG Pocket competitive meta and the five cards above are likely to be mainstays moving forward. Honorable mentions go to Mythical Island Vaporeon’s Wash Out, Genetic Apex Victreebel’s Fragrance Trap, Genetic Apex Hypno’s Sleep Pendulum, and Genetic Apec Butterfree’s Powder Heal.
Happy collecting and battling, TCG Pocket-ers!
