With the launch of Pokémon Trading Card Game Live, players have an exciting new way to play and collect the Pokémon TCG. The Pokémon Center is celebrating with Pokémon TCG Live apparel that comes with matching digital gifts so players can twin with their in-game avatars.

Pokémon TCG fans are sure to stand out in the red, blue, and yellow pullover hoodies, with hats to match. The pairing of bold, sporty stripes running down the sleeves with an iconic Poké Ball on the chest of each hoodie makes a fashion statement that’s recognizable to fellow Pokémon fans around the world.

With each Pokémon TCG Live hoodie purchase, fans will receive the following digital gifts in Pokémon TCG Live:

• 1 of each red, yellow, and blue deck accessory item (9 items total)
• 1 booster pack from each of these Pokémon TCG expansions (7 total): Sword & Shield—Fusion Strike, Sword & Shield—Brilliant Stars, Sword & Shield—Astral Radiance, Pokémon GO, Sword & Shield—Lost Origin, Sword & Shield—Silver Tempest, and Crown Zenith
• 2 booster packs from each of these Pokémon TCG expansions (6 total): Scarlet & Violet, Scarlet & Violet—Paldea Evolved, and Scarlet & Violet—Obsidian Flames

Check out the new Pokémon Trading Card Game Live line at the Pokémon Center.

Source: Pokemon.com

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 path along the Pokémon TCG: Scarlet & Violet—Paldea Evolved Battle Pass with a new deck featuring Chien-Pao ex. Advance through the Battle Pass to unlock booster packs, Credits, a Collector Crate, and 16 additional cards that you can add to your new deck!

You can also redeem Crystals for a Premium Pass to unlock an additional deck, which is centered around Forretress ex. Premium Pass tiers also offer a deluge of fun items themed around Chien-Pao, including booster packs, Coins, another Collector Crate, Crystals, and 16 additional cards to upgrade your Forretress ex deck. The Premium Pass + gives you a 15-tier head start to your journey, on top of the items offered with the regular Premium Pass.

Learn how to play and upgrade these powerful decks in Pokémon TCG Live.

Chien-Pao ex leads the charge with its Shivery Chill Ability, letting you search your deck for 2 Basic Water Energy cards and add them to your hand. Although you can only use this Ability while it’s in the Active Spot, it’ll be right at home there: it can dish out some serious damage with Hail Blade, discarding Water Energy attached to your Pokémon (even your Benched Pokémon!) to do 60 damage for each card discarded that way.

A good way to get all those Energy into play is with Baxcalibur, whose Super Cold Ability lets you attach any number of Basic Water Energy cards from your hand to your Pokémon. This can be useful not only to power up your Pokémon’s attacks, but also to help them retreat if they find themselves in a sticky situation.

Deck List

Pokémon: 17

1 Chien-Pao ex PAL 061

3 Baxcalibur PAL 060

1 Arctibax PAL 059

3 Frigibax PAL 058

3 Wailord SIT 038

3 Wailmer CRZ 031

1 Lumineon V BRS 040

1 Radiant Greninja ASR 046

1 Manaphy BRS 041

Trainer Cards: 27

3 Professor’s Research (Professor Turo) SVI 190

4 Irida ASR 147

2 Candice SIT 152

1 Jacq SVI 175

2 Boss’s Orders PAL 172

2 Ultra Ball SVI 196

1 Level Ball BST 129

1 Nest Ball SVI 181

4 Rare Candy SVI 191

2 Energy Retrieval SVI 171

1 Escape Rope BST 125

1 Switch SVI 194

3 Skaters’ Park FST 242

Energy: 16

4 Jet Energy PAL 190

14 Basic Water Energy SVE 3

Although Chien-Pao ex is one of your strongest attackers, it isn’t the only one! Wailord can do 240 damage with its Special Wave attack as long as it has a Special Energy attached. Thankfully, your deck comes with four copies of Jet Energy, which can helpfully switch Wailord into the Active Spot from your Bench. It’s also a big issue for your opponent, quite literally! Its Jumbo-Sized Ability lets it take 30 less damage from attacks, and when combined with its gargantuan 200 HP, it makes for a very resilient single-Prize attacker.

Radiant Greninja also isn’t a slouch when it comes to attacking, although it takes a more calculated approach. Its Moonlight Shuriken attack discards 2 Energy from Radiant Greninja, and in return does 90 damage to 2 of your opponent’s Pokémon. This makes Radiant Greninja great in the early game to take out your opponent’s Basic Pokémon before they can evolve, or to finish off damaged Pokémon that retreated to the Bench. Its Concealed Cards Ability doesn’t do damage but can discard an Energy card to draw 2 new cards, which might help get what you need for your strategy.

Let’s take a look at a few of the many helpful Trainer cards in this deck. Irida can search for both an Item and a Water-type Pokémon, which can get you Baxcalibur along with a Rare Candy to quickly get the Stage 2 Pokémon into play. Energy Retrieval can help get Basic Energy from your discard pile back into your hand, where it can be put into play with Baxcalibur’s Super Cold Ability or discarded to Radiant Greninja’s Concealed Cards. And Skaters’ Park refunds all the Energy discarded for a Retreat Cost back into your hand, where it can be immediately reattached with Baxcalibur!

Upgrading Your Chien-Pao ex Deck

Advance through to Tier 16 to unlock the following 15 cards:

Unlocked Cards

2 Chien-Pao ex PAL 061

1 Squawkabilly ex PAL 169

2 Iono PAL 185

1 Iono PAL 269

4 Battle VIP Pass FST 225

4 Superior Energy Retrieval PAL 189

1 Super Rod PAL 188

Adding two more Chien-Pao ex doesn’t just let you attack with it more often—you can now chain Shivery Chill Abilities in a single turn to quickly flood your hand with Water Energy. This pairs well with Skaters’ Park so you can retreat your Active Chien-Pao ex into a Benched one (and you can even tack on a Switch or Escape Rope if you want to use Shivery Chill a third time!).

Squawkabilly ex is the perfect way to quickly accelerate our gameplan with its Squawk and Seize Ability, letting you discard your hand and draw 6 new cards. But note that you can only use this Ability on your first turn, so plan to search for this Pokémon as soon as possible.

A good way to get Squawkabilly ex into play early is with Battle VIP Pass, another card that can only be used during your first turn. It searches your deck for 2 Basic Pokémon and puts them onto your Bench, making it a good way to get Frigibax and Chien-Pao ex into play. Avoid getting Lumineon V with this card, though—unlike Squawkabilly ex, its Ability can only be used when you play it from your hand onto your Bench.

Both Superior Energy Retrieval and Super Rod help get discarded resources back. Superior Energy Retrieval is especially good here, as it puts 4 Basic Energy cards from your discard pile into your hand, ready for Baxcalibur’s Super Cold to put them back into play.

Finally, Iono not only gives you more draw power but also helps to disrupt your opponent’s strategy, especially as the game progresses and they take more Prize cards.

But what’s this? It looks like there are two versions of Iono you can obtain with this Battle Pass.

That’s right! Starting with the Scarlet & Violet—Paldea Evolved Battle Pass, you’ll now start to see alternate-art cards like this special illustration rare version of Iono being granted to you as you work your way through the Battle Pass.

If you want to really dazzle the competition, you’ll also unlock a special illustration rare of Chien-Pao ex by reaching Tier 50 on the Battle Pass that you can swap into your deck.

Adding cards to your deck requires removing other cards to fit them in. Here are suggestions for cards to remove from your deck:

Suggested Cuts

3 Wailord SIT 038

3 Wailmer CRZ 031

2 Candice SIT 152

1 Jacq SVI 175

2 Energy Retrieval SVI 171

4 Jet Energy PAL 190

Wailord is a fun card, but having to evolve into a Stage 1 Pokémon after already using resources to get a Stage 2 into play can be difficult. Now that we have more Chien-Pao ex in our deck, we can cut back on this attacking line. That also helps free up slots that Jet Energy was taking up, now that we don’t have attacks that rely on having Special Energy attached.

Candice and Jacq are useful for getting certain cards, but Iono helps draw more cards and Battle VIP Pass will quickly fill the Bench with Basic Pokémon. We can safely swap these cards out.

Enjoy playing your new Chien-Pao ex deck! Next, let’s take a look at the Forretress ex deck that you’ll unlock if you acquire the Premium Pass.

Forretress ex explodes onto the scene adorned with a Tera Jewel. This deck is built around its Exploding Energy Ability, which Knocks Out Forretress ex but lets you attach 5 Basic Grass Energy cards from your deck to your Pokémon however you like. While this effect is powerful, keep in mind that your opponent will take 2 Prize cards for the Knock Out, so avoid using Exploding Energy when your opponent only has a couple of Prize cards remaining.

You could use Forretress ex’s Exploding Energy Ability to attach to other Forretress ex you have in play so they can use the Guard Press attack, but consider powering up Ambipom instead. Its Full Tilt Fling attack flips a coin for each Energy attached to it, doing 60 damage for each heads. With just the 5 Energy that Forretress ex attaches, you can do up to 300 damage if you’re really lucky! Ambipom even has some built-in protection with its Primate Dexterity Ability, letting it prevent attack damage done to it with a lucky coin flip.

Deck List

Pokémon: 15

3 Forretress ex PAL 005

3 Pineco PAL 004

1 Kricketune ASR 010

1 Kricketot ASR 009

1 Lumineon V BRS 040

3 Ambipom PGO 057

3 Aipom PGO 056

Trainer Cards: 30

3 Professor’s Research (Professor Sada) SVI 189

4 Iono PAL 185

3 Boss’s Orders PAL 172

1 Arven SVI 166

1 Gardenia’s Vigor ASR 143

1 Jacq SVI 175

4 Ultra Ball SVI 196

4 Nest Ball SVI 181

2 Switch Cart ASR 154

2 Super Rod PAL 188

2 Defiance Band SVI 169

2 Lost City LOR 161

1 Collapsed Stadium BRS 137

Energy: 15

3 Reversal Energy PAL 192

12 Basic Grass Energy SVE 1

Although giving your opponent Prize cards is generally seen as a downside, you can turn that into your favor with some of the cards included in this deck. Chief among them is Iono, a powerful Supporter that both draws you cards and disrupts your opponent’s strategies based on how many Prize cards each player has.

Reversal Energy is a new comeback card introduced in this expansion that normally provides 1 Colorless Energy to the Pokémon it’s attached to. But, if you have more Prize cards remaining than your opponent, it instead counts as 3 Energy of any types! Note that this effect only works on Evolution Pokémon that don’t have a Rule Box, so don’t attach this to your Forretress ex unless it needs exactly 1 more Energy to retreat!

Upgrading Your Forretress ex Deck

Advance through to Tier 14 to unlock the following 15 cards:

Unlocked Cards

2 Wo-Chien ex PAL 027

1 Wo-Chien ex PAL 257

1 Shaymin VSTAR BRS 173

1 Shaymin V BRS 152

1 Squawkabilly ex PAL 264

4 Battle VIP Pass FST 225

3 Fighting Au Lait PAL 181

2 Bravery Charm PAL 173

Adding Wo-Chien ex to your deck gives you a flexible and consistent attacker. Its Forest Blast attack does a solid 220 damage for 4 Energy, enough to Knock Out most Basic Pokémon. Meanwhile, its Covetous Ivy attack can be used for 3 Energy to do 60 damage to 1 of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon for each Prize card your opponent has taken, a great way to snipe off a threat—or do 300 damage if your opponent is down to their last Prize card to end the game. Forretress ex’s Exploding Energy doesn’t just help fulfill these bigger Energy costs, it also ramps up Covetous Ivy’s damage.

With such a powerful attacker as Wo-Chien ex at our disposal, it makes sense to build our deck around it. Battle VIP Pass not only helps us grab the Pokémon but helps to find other Basic Pokémon to support it as soon as possible, like Pineco to evolve into Forretress ex, and Squawkabilly ex to draw cards. The new Bravery Charm Tool card helps to keep Wo-Chien ex on the field longer and stacks with Kricketune’s Swelling Tune Ability to give it up to 90 more HP, making it a beefy 320-HP behemoth.

A good way to make use of all of that HP is to call on some of the most potent healing effects in the format. Shaymin VSTAR’s Star Bloom VSTAR Power is an Ability that heals 120 damage from each of your Benched Grass-type Pokémon, which works perfectly with the Switch Cart cards in your deck. If you want more immediate healing, the Fighting Au Lait Item card can heal 60 damage from any of your Pokémon, but only if you have more Prize cards remaining than your opponent. Remember that Forretress ex can help your Pokémon qualify for that tasty medicine if you and your opponent are in a stalemate!

Those with a keen eye might notice that the Premium Pass has become even more premium than last time! Starting with Scarlet & Violet—Paldea Evolved, some cards unlocked with the Premium Pass will have different rarities than normal, including alternate-art cards like the special illustration rare version of Squawkabilly ex. You might even get parallel foil cards like the four copies of Battle VIP Pass in this Premium Pass!

Try to make your way to Tier 50 to unlock an additional special illustration rare version of Wo-Chien ex to swap into your deck.

To make room for these new cards, consider removing the following from your deck:

Suggested Cuts

3 Ambipom PGO 057

3 Aipom PGO 056

4 Nest Ball SVI 181

2 Defiance Band SVI 169

3 Reversal Energy PAL 192

Although monkeying around with Ambipom is a lot of fun, Wo-Chien ex will generally make for a more consistent attacker. This also frees up the space Reversal Energy was taking in the deck, since it won’t work on our new Rule Box Pokémon.

Battle VIP Pass can swap in for Nest Ball. While it can only be played on your first turn, it gives you a lot of value in the early stages of the game when getting a ton of Basic Pokémon is the most pivotal.

Bravery Charm is the Pokémon Tool of choice in this deck centered on Wo-Chien ex, so you can remove Defiance Band. But don’t be afraid to add Defiance Band back in if you find yourself just barely missing Knock Outs!

Iono what your opponents will do as you explode onto the Ladder with this brand-new Forretress ex deck, Trainers—but it’ll be fun to find out!

Be sure to try these two decks in Pokémon TCG Live when you use the in-game Battle Pass! And be sure to keep checking Pokemon.com/Strategy for more in-depth Pokémon TCG coverage.