Get more from Pokémon TCG Live when you use the in-game Battle Pass. With the Battle Pass, you can complete quests to earn experience and unlock new tiers by playing Ranked or Casual matches. Each Battle Pass is accessible only until the next expansion releases.

Begin your own Path to the Peak along the Global Beta Battle Pass with the 2022 Pokémon TCG Masters Division World Champion deck featuring Arceus VSTAR. Advance through the Battle Pass to unlock booster packs, Credits, a Collector Crate, and an additional new deck featuring Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR—originally piloted by the 2022 Pokémon TCG Senior Division World Champion—to net you the chance to scoop up some wins yourself.

You can also redeem Crystals for a Premium Pass to unlock two additional decks. Unlocking the Premium Pass will immediately grant you an all-foil deck centered around Eternatus VMAX. Premium Pass tiers offer fun items themed around Eternatus, booster packs, Coins, another Collector Crate, Crystals, and an additional all-foil Mew VMAX deck. To celebrate the Global Beta, you can also obtain some of the cosmetic items from past Premium Passes (and don’t worry: if you already own these cosmetic items, you’ll still receive up to 300 Credits instead)! The Premium Pass + gives you a 15-tier head start to your journey on top of the items offered with the Premium Pass.

Read on to learn how to play these powerful decks in Pokémon TCG Live!

Ondřej Škubal’s ADP deck

What can counter Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR most effectively? That was the question coming into Worlds 2022, and Masters Champion Ondřej Škubal’s ADP deck provided the answer. Behind the powerful offense of Arceus VSTAR lies a Bibarel-driven draw engine complemented by multiple Trainer cards chosen for their search and draw capabilities—and with the flexibility to discard so Bibarel has more room to draw. With Flying Pikachu VMAX and Path to the Peak to neutralize incoming attacks and Boss’s Orders to ensure no Pokémon is safe, this deck leaves the opposition toothless, targeted, and trapped!

Due to some unfortunate timing, the triple TAG TEAM of Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX never saw play at the World Championships, but this ADP deck delivered. The combination of Arceus VSTAR, Hisuian Decidueye VSTAR, and Flying Pikachu VMAX focuses a lot on flexibility and opening as many options as possible. Arceus VSTAR is the center of this deck: its Trinity Nova attack does 200 damage and charges up your Pokémon V with up to 3 basic Energy cards from your deck, while its VSTAR Power, Starbirth, searches your deck for any 2 cards. With so much access to the cards in your deck, you can effectively shape your turns and the game as you wish.

Hisuian Decidueye VSTAR is another powerhouse, flipping Energy cards in your hand into damage. More importantly, it’s great at KO’ing Fighting-weak Pokémon like Arceus VSTAR without having to discard any cards. While you normally want to use Arceus VSTAR’s Starbirth Ability, Hisuian Decidueye VSTAR’s Star of Fortune Ability is a good way to recover from a small hand size if you’re in a pinch. You can use only 1 VSTAR Power per game, so choose your timing wisely.

Flying Pikachu VMAX is the final key attacker in this deck. Its Max Balloon attack does 160 damage (enough to score a Knock Out on Lightning-weak Pokémon) while also protecting it from damage from your opponent’s Basic Pokémon. It also doesn’t have a Retreat Cost, making it a great card to pivot to after one of your Pokémon gets Knocked Out. All this combined makes this deck a perfect counter to many strategies and highlights its effectiveness at combating whatever it’s facing.

This deck wants to fill your board with Energy cards as soon as possible. If you’re struggling to get Arceus VSTAR’s Trinity Nova up and running, try to use Arceus V’s Trinity Charge attack, which shares the same effect but doesn’t do any damage. Note that Trinity Charge can be used with a single Double Turbo Energy, making it a powerful choice to use during your first turn if you’re going second.

You’ll want to choose who you attach that Energy to carefully: think about what deck your opponent is using, and then choose the attacker who best fits that matchup. If you’re not sure which attacker to choose, consider what types your opponent’s Pokémon are weak against—and don’t be afraid to set up another Arceus VSTAR if neither Hisuian Decidueye VSTAR nor Flying Pikachu VMAX seems like the best option.

Want to learn from the best? You can watch this deck in the hands of Ondřej Škubal in the Masters Division Grand Finals. Then hop on the ladder and wield the power of a World Champion yourself.

Advance through to Tier 25 to unlock a new Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR deck:

Liam Halliburton’s KKR Palkia Deck

Liam Halliburton piloted one of the most popular decks from the latter half of the 2022 season—one that featured Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR. Together with Drizzile, Inteleon, and Irida, no card was out of reach for him! With Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR’s aggressive early-game pressure and the aforementioned flexibility, the tempo this deck offers at all stages of the game is truly worthy of a World Champion.

Taking a deep dive into the core of this deck, Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR leads the way with its Star Portal Ability. This VSTAR Power attaches up to 3 Water Energy from your discard pile to your Water-type Pokémon in any way you like, making it possible to use its powerful Subspace Swell attack on Turn 2 even if you didn’t attach any Energy to it during your first turn. Speaking of Subspace Swell, this attack scales with the number of Benched Pokémon in play—both your own and your opponent’s—so you’ll want to fill up your Bench to maximize your damage. You can even get extra tricky with Echoing Horn and add another Pokémon to your opponent’s Bench to dial up the attack’s might!

The Inteleon Evolution line dominated the competitive circuit the entire season and reached its climax in the World Championships. Both Drizzile and Inteleon have the Shady Dealings Ability to search for Trainer cards (that means any Item, Supporter, or Stadium card). These Trainer cards can also sometimes be used to find other types of cards, meaning that Shady Dealings can effectively get you any card in your deck. This can be a good way to find a second copy of Cross Switcher, an Irida to grab a Water-type Pokémon and an Item card, or a Path to the Peak to lock down your opponent’s Abilities (but note that this will also shut down some of your own Pokémon’s Abilities). This Evolution line also pairs well with Scoop Up Net, letting you use Shady Dealings again to dive even further into your deck!

Radiant Greninja is the Pokémon to help push this deck over the top. Its Concealed Cards Ability lets you discard an Energy card in your hand to draw 2 cards every turn. This not only helps dig you deeper into your deck, but it also helps fuel your discard pile for Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR’s Star Portal and the Supporter card Melony. You might also want to consider using Star Portal to help power up Radiant Greninja’s Moonlight Shuriken attack. This attack does 90 damage to 2 of your opponent’s Pokémon, making it a great way to snipe off your opponent’s Basic Pokémon or finish off a damaged Pokémon that retreated to the Bench.

While almost every Pokémon in your deck can attack, you’ll want to focus on using Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR for its huge, consistent damage output. Don’t be afraid to be generous with the Pokémon you put on your Bench, especially with Sobble early in the game, but be cognizant of what kind of deck your opponent is using before committing to Benching all five Pokémon. You’ll want to think about whether you need to use one of the Bench spots for a Pokémon like Manaphy to prevent the opponent from hitting your Benched Pokémon, or maybe you’ll want to drop a Galarian Zigzagoon (or more, with the help of Scoop Up Net) to get some extra damage counters in.

To get more insight into your new deck, there’s no better player to watch than the World Champion himself in the Senior Division Grand Finals. Bend space to your will like a World Champion with your KKR Palkia deck, Trainers!

Next, let’s take a look at the all-foil Eternatus VMAX deck you can unlock with the Premium Pass.

Eternatus VMAX

This deck focuses on Darkness-type Pokémon, but your deck will sparkle with all the foil cards in it! Eternatus VMAX leads the pack with its Eternal Zone Ability, which allows you to increase the number of Pokémon on your Bench to 8 if all of them are Darkness-type Pokémon. Thankfully, all the cards in your deck fulfill that simple condition, and a lot of them have good Abilities to help your deck maximize its potential. Having a huge Bench isn’t just great from a utility standpoint, but it also lets Eternatus VMAX’s attack, Dread End, do up to 270 damage for just 2 Energy.

Galarian Weezing is great in both the early and late game while you find all the cards you need to fully utilize Eternatus VMAX. Its Neutralizing Gas Ability shuts down your opponent’s Abilities as long as it’s in the Active Spot. This is especially easy to do since it evolves from Koffing, whose Ascension attack can search for Galarian Weezing and evolve into it as early as your first turn! Galarian Weezing also has an efficient Severe Poison attack that makes your opponent’s Active Pokémon Poisoned and adds 4 damage counters instead of 1 during Pokémon Checkup. You can combine this with Radiant Hisuian Sneasler’s Poison Peak Ability to up the clock by an additional 2 damage counters, meaning your opponent’s Active Pokémon will be taking 6 damage counters during every Pokémon Checkup!

While your shiny Pokémon certainly make for a gorgeous display, let’s not forget the Trainer cards that are there to support them. Piers is especially useful in this deck since it gets you both a Darkness-type Pokémon and an Energy card, or even a Special Energy card. You can treat this like an Air Balloon on demand by searching for a Hiding Darkness Energy, which will not only provide a Darkness Energy for the Pokémon it’s attached to, but also eliminate its Retreat Cost. This pairs well with the Galar Mine in your deck to lock an opponent’s Pokémon in the Active Spot while Galarian Weezing’s Severe Poison works its magic or gives you time to set up for a Eternamax-sized Dread End!

That said, let’s take a look at some of the beautiful cards you can use to trounce your opponent’s Pokémon!

Get your hands on this sparkling deck and then advance through to Tier 25 to unlock another all-foil deck!

Mew VMAX

The bling continues with this Mew VMAX deck highlighting another key Pokémon from the Sword & Shield Series. Mew VMAX headlines this deck and will be your primary attacker most of the time. Mew VMAX’s Cross Fusion Strike attack allows you to copy any attack from your Benched Fusion Strike Pokémon for the low cost of two Energy of any type. Cross Fusion Strike provides flexibility that allows you to pick and choose which attack to use depending on the situation. Thanks to all the different options it offers, Mew VMAX can be a strategically rewarding card to play with, so be sure to think through each turn carefully to map out a plan to victory. Mew VMAX’s own Max Miracle attack does 130 damage and isn’t affected by any effects on your opponent’s Active Pokémon, making it a strong choice as well.

Genesect V’s Fusion Strike System Ability is incredibly useful when combined with the Fusion Strike Pokémon in this deck, allowing you to fill your hand turn after turn and increase the odds you’ll find the cards you need for any given situation. Cards like Cram-o-matic and Ultra Ball combine especially well with Fusion Strike System, allowing you to discard unnecessary cards to make room in your hand. Being able to draw a massive amount of cards and have a suite of different attacks at your disposal for the low cost of filling your Bench with Pokémon is a great example of the synergistic power of Fusion Strike Pokémon.

While Mew VMAX will be your primary attacker, any of your Pokémon can act as a substitute. Meloetta shines especially bright here, offering you a single-Prize attacker whose Melodious Echo attack can do up to 280 damage if all four Fusion Strike Energy are in play. A great way to get these Special Energy in play is to use Elesa’s Sparkle, a Supporter card that chooses up to 2 of your Fusion Strike Pokémon and attaches a Fusion Strike Energy from your deck onto each of them. You can also consider charging your Benched Pokémon with Elesa’s Sparkle and using a Double Turbo Energy on your Mew VMAX to keep Melodious Echo as an option later into the game.

Finally, let’s take another look at some of the awesome cards you’ll earn in this deck!

Dazzle your opponents with the power of the Fusion Strike Style when you wield this Mew VMAX deck!