Pokémon Pocket C Series: First Partner ex, Dual-Type and Future Meta Predictions

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Hola Everyone! It’s your boy Anketsu here, and welcome to a brand new Pokémon TCG Pocket guide.

Pokémon TCG Pocket is about to get a lot more powerful.

Piplup ex can accelerate Energy while attacking, Fuecoco ex can reach 120 damage for just two Energy, and Mega Mewtwo X ex introduces Dual-Type Pokémon to the game for the first time.

All three cards were revealed during the 2026 Pokémon World Championships and will arrive in October with the new C Series, which will also introduce First Partner Pokémon ex.

Now grab a seat, relax, and enjoy the guide!

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Piplup ex: Fast, Simple, and Maybe Too Good

Let’s start with Piplup ex, because I think this is probably the easiest card of the three to understand. Piplup ex is fast. Maybe even too fast.

At first glance, it reminds me a lot of what Mega Sharpedo ex is trying to do. Its attack deals 40 damage for just one Water Energy and, more importantly, it also takes a Water Energy from the Energy Zone and attaches it to one of your Benched Pokémon.

The difference is that Piplup ex has lower HP and deals less damage than Mega Sharpedo ex, but there is one huge advantage: Piplup ex is a Basic Pokémon. You don’t have to evolve into it. You put it on the board and it’s ready to attack.

If I were looking at this card based only on today’s meta, I could probably tell you to put it into almost every Water deck and call it a day.

It gives you an early attacker, but at the same time it accelerates Energy for whatever you want to put on the Bench next. That makes it particularly interesting for slower strategies and big Water attackers such as Mega Gyarados ex. Piplup ex can start doing something immediately while preparing your real threat in the background.

But I don’t think comparing it too much with today’s meta makes sense.

This card is coming in October. By then, the entire format could look completely different. We’ve already seen how quickly Pokémon TCG Pocket can change when a new block begins.

New mechanics, new Energy acceleration, new Trainers and new Pokémon can make cards that looked essential only a few months earlier suddenly feel outdated. The arrival of Mega Pokémon is probably the clearest recent example.

So instead, let’s look at what Piplup ex is telling us about the future of the game.
Because 40 damage for one Energy on a Basic Pokémon is a lot.

Until now, a typical starter Pokémon would often deal around 20 damage for one Energy. Some Pokémon could reach 30, but there was usually some kind of condition attached to it. Here, Piplup ex simply deals 40 damage.

There is no complicated setup, no drawback and no special condition.
And then it also accelerates Energy.

That makes me wonder whether the developers are preparing to raise the general power level of Basic Pokémon.

Look at the current Baby Pokémon, for example. Against something like Piplup ex, many of them are basically walking zombies. They come into play with very low HP and can be knocked out almost immediately by a Basic Pokémon that only needs one Energy.

Could we see higher HP values across the board in the new block? Maybe Baby Pokémon moving from around 30 HP to 40, and regular Basics moving from roughly 60–70 HP to 80–90?

That’s pure speculation, of course. We have nowhere near enough information to say that this is actually going to happen.

But I think it’s a reasonable direction to look at when a card like Piplup ex suddenly tells us that 40 damage for one Energy is becoming acceptable on a Basic Pokémon.

And that’s what I find more interesting than simply asking whether Piplup ex will be good in the current meta.

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Fuecoco ex: No Combo; It Just Hits Hard

If Piplup ex is about speed and utility, Fuecoco ex is much simpler; It hits hard.
That’s pretty much the whole idea.

Fuecoco ex has 130 HP, and its first attack deals 30 damage for one Fire Energy. Again, we’re looking at a Basic Pokémon ex that can start putting pressure on the opponent extremely early.

But the interesting part is the second attack:
For two Energy, Fuecoco ex deals 50 damage plus another 70 if Fuecoco has already been damaged, meaning it can reach 120 damage.

There is no complicated combo hidden behind the card. Fuecoco doesn’t accelerate Energy for the rest of your deck, doesn’t search for anything and doesn’t have some elaborate effect that you need to build around.

IT JUST ATTACKS!

And if you want to see what that could look like with the cards we have today, the first combination that comes to my mind is Flame Patch + Rainbow Cave.

You can place your normal Energy on Fuecoco, use Rainbow Cave to discard an Energy and then use Flame Patch to put that Energy back onto Fuecoco. If everything lines up, Fuecoco can reach the two-Energy requirement very quickly and start throwing out 120 damage.

It reminds me of the kind of setup we already use with Mega Blaziken ex, just applied to a Basic Pokémon ex instead.

That makes Fuecoco particularly interesting for Fire decks that currently rely on Entei ex or simply need a strong early-game attacker. Instead of waiting for a more complicated setup, you can put Fuecoco down and immediately start threatening meaningful damage.

But once again, I think the more interesting question is not whether Fuecoco ex is good today.
It’s what this card tells us about the cards that are coming next.

Think about it for a second: we’re talking about a Pokémon that can potentially deal 120 damage for two Energy, and it’s not even a Mega Pokémon.

If this is the kind of power level we’re getting from regular Pokémon ex in the new block, what are the other cards going to look like?

Maybe the answer is simply that the entire game is getting faster. Maybe future Pokémon will have even more HP, stronger attacks or better ways of accelerating Energy.

Or maybe the opposite happens. Maybe these cards are simply going to be so efficient that they become dominant and force the meta to adapt around them.

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Can Piplup ex and Fuecoco ex Evolve?

I’ve seen quite a few people asking this question, so let’s clear it up: can a Basic Pokémon ex evolve into the next stage of its evolution line?

Under the current rules, the answer is no, not normally. A good example is Pikachu ex from Genetic Apex: even though Pikachu is normally able to evolve into Raichu, Pikachu ex cannot evolve into Raichu.

The exception is Eevee ex, which has a specific ability that allows it to evolve into its different Eeveelutions despite being an ex.

Piplup ex and Fuecoco ex work the same way. Unless the new cards introduce a specific effect that allows them to evolve, they will remain Basic Pokémon that cannot evolve into Prinplup or Crocalor.

So, for now, you should think of Piplup ex and Fuecoco ex as fully powered Basic Pokémon rather than the first step of their evolution lines. If the new block gives them a way to evolve later, that will have to come from a specific card or effect.

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Mega Mewtwo X ex: The First Dual-Type Pokémon

And now we get to the card that changes the rules of the game.

Mega Mewtwo X ex is the first Dual-Type Pokémon revealed for Pokémon TCG Pocket, combining Psychic and Fighting. The mechanic itself is completely new to Pocket, even though Dual-Type Pokémon have existed in the physical Pokémon TCG in the past.

Mega Mewtwo X ex has 180 HP and is a Basic Pokémon. Its attack costs three Energy — two Psychic and one Colorless — and deals 100 damage, plus another 40 if there is a Stadium in play.

That already gives you a very respectable 140 damage before we even start talking about the Dual-Type mechanic.

And this is where things get interesting.

Mega Mewtwo X ex is both Psychic and Fighting.

We had already seen something somewhat similar with Urshifu. It wasn’t technically a Dual-Type Pokémon, but its ability allowed it to interact with the game in a very similar way. If you’ve played that deck, you already have an idea of how strange — and potentially powerful — this mechanic can be.

Mega Mewtwo X ex can exploit weaknesses associated with both of its types, meaning it can potentially deal increased damage to Pokémon that are weak to either Psychic or Fighting.

But the really interesting part isn’t just the extra damage.
t’s the card pool.

Because if Mega Mewtwo X ex counts as both a Psychic and Fighting Pokémon, it can potentially interact with cards that specifically support either type.

For example, two of the first cards that immediately come to mind are Peculiar Plaza and Arena of Antiquity.

Normally, these Stadiums are tied to specific types. With Mega Mewtwo X ex, however, you have access to both sides of that support. And that’s where the Dual-Type mechanic suddenly becomes much more than a way of exploiting extra Weaknesses.

You can start mixing the tools of two different archetypes around the same Pokémon.

And that’s where I immediately started thinking about what a first Mega Mewtwo X ex deck could look like.

Something along these lines:

• 2× Mega Mewtwo X ex
• 2× Peculiar Plaza
• 2× Arena of Antiquity
• 1× Korrina
• 2× Riolu
• 2× Lucario
• 1× Cabbie
• 1× Psychic Meloetta from Fantastical Parade

Obviously, this is not a finished decklist. We don’t even know the rest of the cards coming in the new series yet, so building a serious list right now would be premature.

But this is the kind of skeleton that immediately comes to mind when you look at the card.

You can combine Fighting support such as Lucario’s Fighting Coach ability and Korrina with Psychic cards and Stadiums that interact with Psychic Pokémon. You can use Meloetta as another way to help find your Mewtwo, while the Stadium package gives Mega Mewtwo X ex another way to increase its damage.

If everything lines up, the numbers become pretty scary.

We’re potentially looking at up to 190 damage in a single attack with the right combination of effects.
And there are other details I really like about this card.

Mega Mewtwo X ex has a zero-cost retreat once Peculiar Plaza is active, making it much easier to move around the board. It is also relatively easy to search for compared with a Stage 2 attacker because it is a Basic Pokémon.

At the same time, 180 HP isn’t actually that much for something this important.

And this is where I think Mega Mewtwo X ex gives us an interesting reality check.

Earlier, when looking at Piplup ex and Fuecoco ex, I was wondering whether the new block might simply raise the average HP of Pokémon across the board. But Mega Mewtwo X ex makes me less convinced.

Yes, 180 HP on a Basic Mega Pokémon is a lot compared with many current cards. But it’s not an absurd number either.

If Fuecoco ex can get set up quickly with something like Flame Patch and start throwing out 120 damage, a Mega Mewtwo X ex that needs time to build three Energy could find itself in serious trouble.

So maybe the future of Pocket isn’t simply about bigger numbers.

Maybe it’s about SPEED.

Maybe the new format will be built around Pokémon that can hit hard almost immediately, while more powerful attackers will need better support to compensate for their slower setup.

And that’s where I think these three cards become much more interesting when you look at them together.

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Is Pokémon TCG Pocket Heading Toward Another Power Creep?

It’s way too early to make any serious predictions. We have three cards. That’s it.

But I’ll be honest: looking at these three cards together gives me a strange feeling about where Pocket might be heading.

It almost feels like we’re moving back toward the early days of the game, when a handful of incredibly powerful Basic Pokémon ex could carry an entire deck.

The perfect example for me is the old Darkrai ex + Giratina ex style of deck. You didn’t need a huge evolution line or ten different Pokémon to make the strategy work. You had a few extremely powerful Pokémon, you built them up and you let them do the job.

Piplup ex, Fuecoco ex and Mega Mewtwo X ex aren’t necessarily recreating that exact formula, but they are definitely pushing in a similar direction: fewer Pokémon, more power, faster setup and much stronger Basic attackers.

And then we have Dual-Type Pokémon on top of all that.

Will we see a real power creep, with old cards slowly becoming obsolete? Will Basic and Baby Pokémon finally get more HP to keep up with these new damage numbers? Or will the developers simply push the game toward faster and more aggressive strategies?

We don’t have enough information to answer that yet, but these first three cards are already giving us plenty to speculate about. And honestly, that’s what makes this reveal so exciting. We can already start imagining where the game could go, even if we don’t know whether these cards are a preview of the future or simply three particularly strong exceptions.

What do you think? Are Piplup ex, Fuecoco ex and Mega Mewtwo X ex the beginning of a major power creep, or are we reading too much into three cards?

And what do you expect from the new block?

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F.A.Q. 🚨

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