Welcome to another Pokémon TCG Pocket deck tech! Every tuned PTCGP deck serves a purpose in the metagame. For some, it’s to dominate. For others, it’s to suffer. Still, a few of these decks aim to leave things up to fate. This deck tech will focus on a dark horse entry that aims to gamble for its victory. Let’s take a look!
Naptime! – A Gambler’s Dream?
First of all, it must be stated that Naptime!, the deck we’ll be discussing here, is by no means a meta deck. If you’re looking for a tech for one of the most meta decks in PTCGP, you can find it here, with System Shock. No, this deck is a fringe competitor in the truest sense.
Naptime! revolves around Gengar EX and Hypno as a core foundation for the deck. Gengar EX is your heavy hitter and will bar opponents from playing Supporter cards. That means a lot; no Professor’s Research, no Giovanni, and no Sabrina means your opponent may be locked out of over three-tenths of their deck. Those cards are so ubiquitous right now that these impactful Supporters becoming dead cards can cause some serious salt.
However, many of these cards will still see play. Why is that? Well, we can play Supporter cards just fine outside of a mirror match. Sometimes a well-placed Sabrina is all we need to cause a rage concession (although rage is not what we intend here, of course). For some reason, Pokémon TCG Pocket is a rather salty game, and we can use that to our advantage, but that’s not the point.
Speaking of rage, Hypno is a must for this deck if you want to keep your opponent from doing things. With its ability, Sleep Pendulum, it has a 50/50 chance of putting the active Pokémon to sleep. With two Hypno out, that chance goes up to around 75%, meaning anything fully evolved is going to be very stuck, very often. Now, the opponent has a 50/50 chance to wake their Pokémon up before their turn starts, so that kind of whomps. However, again, wishfully, you’re setting your opponent up to lose quickly, one way or another.
Decklist Logistics and One Alternative
The following is our list for Naptime!:
Naptime!
Pokemon: 10
Items: 6
Trainers: 4
- Professor’s Research x2
- Sabrina x2
Occasionally, I’ll also sub in a copy of Meowth for this deck for its card-draw capability in case of a slight stalemate, but it’s not always needed. Use your discretion if you’re pursuing a strategy like this!
You can also find the decklist for the Naptime! deck here or by checking out the image below:
How Much Will This Pokémon TCG Pocket List Cost?
According to the rarity of cards in this list, you’ll need the following currencies in order to get all the cards for this deck:
- Shop Tickets: 16
- Pack Points: 1,720
As discussed in my deck tech for System Shock, you’ll need Shop Tickets to acquire a few of the Trainer cards in the game. All Item cards, as well as Professor’s Research, can be acquired in this way, so let’s not waste Pack Points on them, thank you!
As for the Pack Points, you’ll be getting Gengar EX’s line from the Mewtwo subset of Genetic Apex, the only set that is currently out. You’ll be acquiring mostly packs from there to get this deck going. Gengar EX costs 500 Pack Points (not accounting for heightened cosmetics). You’re better off opening these packs primarily, before focusing on any other for these purposes. Hypno’s line is in the Pikachu subset. As such, Pikachu will be your second most-acquired pack for this deck. Hypno costs 150 Pack Points apiece. For that reason, you’ll want to bother with it after you get the pair of Gengar EX copies. As for Sabrina, you’ll be getting these copies from the Charizard subset. However, this card is, again, so ubiquitous that you may have it already. Otherwise, we advise that you spend your Pack Points on it at the end of construction.
Pleasant Dreams!
Naptime! is a strong deck, but it falters to the “Big 3” of Pikachu EX, Charizard EX, and Mewtwo EX. Therefore, it’s better to keep this deck in reserve for non-ranked games, either random or among friends. Even so, when you play this deck you’ll find it to be exciting for you, albeit salt-inducing for the random players you encounter. Have fun with it!
New to Pokémon TCG Pocket? Check out our guide on how to battle and build decks here.
