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—no exchanging for Trainer Points necessary! Each Battle Pass is accessible only until the next expansion releases.

Begin your path along the Pokémon TCG: Scarlet & Violet—Journey Together Battle Pass with a new deck featuring Hop’s Zacian ex. Advance through the Battle Pass to unlock booster packs, Collector Crates, Trainer Points, Trade Credits, and up to 16 additional cards that can be swapped into this deck!

Halfway through the Battle Pass, you’ll unlock a new deck centered around N’s Zoroark ex. You can also earn 16 more cards that can be used to bling out your deck. Try to collect them all!

Now, let’s explore how to play and upgrade these powerful decks in Pokémon TCG Live.

Hop’s Zacian ex leads the charge with Insta-Strike, which hits the Active Pokémon and a Benched Pokémon of your choice for 30 damage each. Once foes have been softened up, you can send them packing with a Brave Slash. While this attack is costly, you can use Hop’s Choice Band—which also lets you use Insta-Strike for no Energy—to reduce the cost by .

Deck List

Strategy

Hop’s Snorlax’s Extra Helpings Ability, the Postwick Stadium card, and Hop’s Choice Band each lets your Hop’s Pokémon do 30 more damage to your opponent’s Active Pokémon. All combined, you can make any of your Hop’s Pokémon hit for 90 more damage than usual!

While Hop’s Zacian ex’s Insta-Strike is cheap to use, Brave Slash’s Energy cost can seem like a bridge too far. Thankfully, you can use Archaludon ex’s Assemble Alloy Ability, which attaches 2 Energy from your discard pile to your Pokémon when it evolves. With Hop’s Choice Band attached, Hop’s Zacian ex can use its ultimate attack with just one more Energy attachment.

Archaludon ex’s Ability can also be reused with cards like Professor Turo’s Scenario or Scoop Up Cyclone, which adds the entire Evolution chain (Duraludon and Archaludon ex) to your hand. Another good target for those Trainer cards is Hop’s Dubwool, whose Defiant Horn Ability lets you switch in one of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon when it evolves, effectively letting you turn these scoop-up effects into a Boss’s Orders.

Hop, Hop & Away

Halfway through the Battle Pass, you’ll unlock the cards listed below:

In addition, if you make it a little bit further, you’ll unlock another special illustration rare version of Hop’s Zacian ex! Feel free to add it into your deck if you want a team of Hop’s Zacian ex to bravely stand against your opponent.

Once you’ve hopped through the first half of the Battle Pass, you’ll unlock the N-ext new deck.

N’s Zoroark ex’s Night Joker copies any attack from your Benched N’s Pokémon. You can use N’s Darmanitan’s Flamebody Cannon to target your opponent’s weaker Pokémon. Or you can swing for 170 damage with N’s Reshiram’s Virtuous Flame—or if your N’s Zoroark ex is damaged, counterattack with Powerful Rage.

Deck List

Strategy

The core of your deck is N’s Zoroark ex, and they are at their best when a ton of them are working together. Its Trade Ability lets you discard a card to draw 2 new ones, helping you to dig deeper into your deck to unlock any crafty strategy you might need. With all four of N’s Zoroark ex in play, you can draw up to 8 additional cards every turn with Trade alone!

Arven is one of your best Supporter cards early in the game as it can grab an Item and a Pokémon Tool card. Good Item choices are:

• Buddy-Buddy Poffin to put 2 N’s Zorua on your Bench

• Nest Ball to Bench one of your bulkier Basic Pokémon

• Hyper Aroma to find Stage 1 Pokémon if your board is ready to evolve

• Earthen Vessel to grab some Energy from your deck

Another card you can search for with Arven is N’s PP Up, which can make use of any Energy cards N’s Zoroark ex discarded to Trade. This Item card lets you attach a Basic Energy from your discard pile to one of N’s Pokémon on your Bench. Generally with this deck you’d only want to be attaching to N’s Zoroark ex, but in a pinch, N’s Darmanitan can use Back Draft if your opponent has enough Basic Energy in their discard pile for .

As for Pokémon Tools, Technical Machine: Evolution can help get your Evolution Pokémon into play at the cost of your attack for a turn, while attaching Powerglass to your N’s Zoroark ex will make it easier to attack after copying N’s Darmanitan’s Flamebody Cannon, which discards all Energy attached to the user.

N-ticing Rewards

The following cards will be granted to you as you head toward the finish line:

You can swap these sparkly cards with the ones in your deck or use these extra copies to make the deck your own.

Near the end of the Battle Pass, a fourth special illustration rare copy of N’s Zoroark ex will join your party.

Finally, from tier 64 to 75, you’ll unlock a plethora of booster packs, Trainer Points, Trade Credits, cosmetics—and even some Collector Crates.

Once you reach the end of the Battle Pass, you’ll earn Iono’s Bellibolt ex, N’s Zoroark ex, and Spiky Energy as hyper rare cards!

Enjoy your new decks, cards, and Battle Pass, Trainers!

For more Pokémon TCG Live strategy and analysis, visit Pokemon.co.uk/Strategy.