Looking for the cheapest decks to play? Here’s a list of the 10 best budget Pokemon TCG decks around!
In Pokemon TCG, deck building offers limitless opportunities for players to bring out the hidden potential of every card in games. It’s quite fascinating to think that a pile of cards with individually weak abilities and moves can synergize their effects and achieve victory in a tabletop game.
A common misconception among newer players is that building a Pokemon TCG deck will require a massive collection of cards, but this is not always the case.
While every booster pack might cost you around $3 to $5, The Pokemon Company actually offered a bunch of options to build or own a deck without buying booster packs.
Lo and behold, our list of battle decks that you can buy for low prices!
| Product Image | Product Name | Features | Check Price |
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 | Pokémon TCG: ex Battle Deck (Tapu Koko ex OR Iron Leaves ex) |
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 | Pokémon TCG: Houndoom ex Battle Deck (Ready-to-Play 60-Card Deck) |
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 | Pokémon TCG: Melmetal ex Battle Deck (Ready-to-Play 60-Card Deck) |
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 | 2023 Pokémon TCG World Championships Deck – Gabriel Fernandez … |
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10 Best Budget Pokemon TCG Decks
Battle decks are products that contain a ready-to-play 60-card deck. Each battle deck can be played using a specific strategy, so it’s highly recommended that you practice the following decks first if you want to play them in your local Pokemon TCG community.
The ranking below won’t be based on price alone, as some of the decks might come up with higher costs in exchange for powerful cards that can compete well with the current metagame.
10. Tapu Koko ex Battle Deck
Like most Lightning-type decks, the Tapu Koko ex Battle Deck contains various hard-hitting Pokemon like Tapu Koko ex, Eelektross, and Zeraora.
This deck is capable of playing aggressively in the early phases of the game, thanks to Electric Generator, which can provide energy cards needed to power up any Bench Pokemon.
9. Iron Leaves ex Battle Deck
Released on the same day with the Tapu Koko ex Battle Deck, Iron Leaves ex Battle Deck is another budget deck capable of wreaking havoc in the field with Iron Leaves ex, Trevenant, Vileplume, and Tangrowth.
Iron Leaves ex in particular, can be played instantly to the Active spot through its ability Rapid Vernier, and you can save it from getting Knocked Out by Professor Turo’s Scenario.
8. Houndoom ex Battle Deck
The Houndoom ex Battle Deck features a strong team of Dark-type Pokemon with moves that can increase depending on the evolution stage of your opponent’s Active Pokemon.
If your opponent is playing a Stage 1 or Stage 2 Pokemon, Houndoom’s Daring Strike can dish out a whopping 120 damage for just a couple of Dark-type energy cards.
Basic Pokemon may even experience a harder time against a Houndoom ex deck, with Houndoom ex’s Evil Claw can either knock it out or prevent it from attacking in the next turn.
7. Melmetal ex Battle Deck
This deck’s main Pokemon, Melmetal ex, works in the same way as Charizard ex, but apart from powering itself with Energy cards, its move Full-Metal Knuckle can be further amplified based on the number of Energy cards attached to Melmetal. Yeah, scary Pokemon indeed.
Other Pokemon that can support Melmetal ex in this deck are a Revavroom that can allow you to discard Metal energy cards from your hand and a Zacian that lets you retrieve those energy cards from your discard pile and attach them to one of your Bench Pokemon.
6. Tinkaton ex Battle Deck
If you loved hoarding lots of cards in your hand during games, you will surely enjoy playing this Tinkaton ex Battle Deck featuring the newest and one of the best Fairy-type Pokemon, Tinkaton.
In exchange for two Colorless energy cards, you can use Tinkaton’s Big Hammer to squash the opposing Pokemon with damage that increases the more cards you have in your hand.
5. 2023 Pokemon World Championships Deck Colorless Lugia
Gabriel Fernandez’s winning Lugia VSTAR deck is now available for purchase as one of the 2023 Pokemon World Championships decks.
In addition to its anti-Stadium mechanics, this deck can also initiate a combo, starting with playing Professor Burnet to discard two Archeops and then putting them into play with Lugia VSTAR’s Summoning Star ability.
4. Chien-Pao ex Battle Deck
Chien-Pao ex Battle Deck’s core Pokemon include cards like Baxcalibur and Radiant Greninja, which serve as support Pokemon to provide enough energy cards to this deck’s main guy, Chien-Pao ex.
As a deck that heavily relies on generating energy cards, Chien-Pao will need every Water-type energy to deal tremendous damage to the enemy team. All the discarded energy cards from Chien-Pao’s attack are still re-usable with the help of Super Rod and Superior Energy Retrieval.
Related Article: 10 Most Valuable Cards in Paldea Evolved
3. Miraidon ex Battle Deck
For its low price, the Miraidon ex Battle Deck is an excellent build that can fight well against a variety of Water-type meta decks.
Miraidon ex is a Basic Pokemon that you can take advantage of in the early to mid-game. This Pokemon ex can be used both as a draw engine and an energy supplier for your other Electric-type Pokemon.
2. Charizard ex League Battle Deck
We already covered everything about Charizard ex in one of our previous guides, but for the sake of those who are new to the recent Pokemon TCG events, this Charizard ex deck build is one of the top meta builds if we’re talking about the decks from the Scarlet and Violet era.
Charizard ex alone can end the game in your favor, as it can generate its own energy and deal damage depending on the number of Prize cards your opponent has already taken.
And if you can’t find a Charizard to evolve your Charmeleon, you can use a Pidgeot ex to search your deck for a copy.
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1. Gardevoir ex League Battle Deck
Gardevoir ex League Battle Deck might be an ironic entry for a list about the best budget Pokemon TCG decks, but trust us; this one is quite worth every penny, especially when you finally mastered the strategy behind Gardevoir ex’s Psychic Embrace ability.
This deck will center around Gardevoir ex, your main Bench Pokemon, and as you spam its ability, you can attach almost any number of Psychic energy cards to power up your active Psychic-type Pokemon.
Related Article: How to Play Gardevoir ex
Conclusion
The best budget Pokemon TCG decks mentioned in this article can be played in the Extended format. If you want to check if they are legal in Standard, you can read our latest updates regarding the current Pokemon TCG Standard Rotation.
If you think a battle deck of your choice can still be improved in one way or another, you can always remove certain cards and replace them with singles that you bought online. This method is obviously better than buying lots of booster packs and praying that you will pull the card that you need.
We hope this article gave you a clue on which deck you should invest in in case you’re short of funds. For more contents related to tabletop Pokemon TCG, Pokemon TCG Live, and Pokemon TCG Pocket, feel free to read our other pages here at PokeCardHQ.
