Best Gardevoir ex Pokémon Trading Card Game deck builds

Of all the Psychic-type powerhouses in the Pokémon TCG, Gardevoir remains among the most consistent. It’s strong, offers plenty of utility, and works perfectly with some meta-defining cards that are currently sweeping the competition.

Here’s a complete guide to the best Gardevoir ex Pokémon Trading Card Game deck builds, including a card list and a breakdown of how this mystical deck performs in common matchups.

Best Gardevoir ex Pokémon TCG deck

Gardevoir ex is an exceptional deck in terms of draw power, flexibility, and Energy acceleration. There are several types of Gardevoir ex decks kicking around the community, and the one that we’ve built focuses on Energy control and damage output.

While many Pokémon can move Energy around, Gardevoir ex’s access to Psychic Embrace is invaluable. It offers almost unlimited Energy recycling with a small damage counter tax.

Pairing it with Munkidori or other Pokemon that benefit from damage counters, like Drifloon, negates the harmful aspect of the ability entirely and can even make it offensive instead.

Gardevoir ex isn’t as popular nowadays as it once was, thanks to the 2024 rotation, but it’s still a powerful deck worth trying out. It works brilliantly alongside several cards that sets like Twilight Masquerade and Shrouded Fable introduced, and it matches up brilliantly against popular decks like Terapagos ex.

This deck list will likely go through another round of changes shortly when Regulation F cards rotate out, as several of the cards are from older expansion sets like the Refinement Kirlia and Wave Veil Manaphy.

For now, though, the deck is in a solid position, and it’s good fun to pick up despite a few difficult matchups in the current meta. (Looking at you, Gholdengo ex.)

Pokemon

We recommend experimenting with two key variants for Gardevoir ex: Drifblim Gardevoir ex and Dusknoir Gardevoir ex.

While testing the deck, we found the most success with Drifloon and Drifblim, hence their inclusion in the full Gardevoir ex card list below. However, the Dusknoir line is a worthwhile swap if you’re a fan of fast-paced, damage counter-centric attacks.

Alongside the maximum amounts of Ralts, Kirlia, and Gardevoir ex, this deck features a couple each of Drifloon, Drifblim, Munkidori, and Mimikyu.

Munkidori is a crucial part of this deck, allowing Gardevoir ex to spread out damage counters that it picks up from Psychic Embrace while helping the team with its ability to inflict Confusion.

Drifloon and Driblim can stack damage nicely, working with Munkidori’s Adrena Brain ability, and Mimikyu helps to stall deck aces like Charizard ex or Dragapult ex with its Safeguard ability. On top of this, Mimikyu can also one-shot several crucial Basic Pokémon in the early game.

There are also singular copies of Manaphy from Brilliant Stars and the Paradox Rift Jirachi, which help block damage counters and Benched damage. These critters help to prevent opponents from sneaking in early kills while Gardevoir ex sets up.

If you wanted to experiment with the card quantities, you could drop a copy of each Gardevoir evolution chain member and put in an extra Mimikyu, Munkidori, and Drifloon instead.

We’d recommend having at least two Mimikyu and Munkidori at all times, as they are crucial for mitigating damage and utilizing Damage Counters.

Trainers

As with every Pokémon TCG deck performing well in the meta right now, this card list features a slew of necessary Trainer cards. Gardevoir ex is powerful enough in its own right, but evolving it and finding the right Energy before there are any cards in the discard pile requires a handful of Items and Supporters.

We found the Unfair Stamp ACE SPEC to be a good get-out-of-jail-free card, but this could be subbed out for any of your favorite ACE SPECs. Deluxe Bomb, Prime Catcher, and even Hero’s Cape can all perform well in this deck.

Super Rod and Pal Pad help to keep your cards out of the discard pile where needed, while Nest Ball, Ultra Ball, and Buddy-Buddy Poffin make finding crucial Pokémon cards easy. Earthen Vessel and Crispin are Energy essentials when Gardevoir ex isn’t ready yet.

Energy

This deck is a little more Energy-reliant than others we’ve previously written lists for, like Raging Bolt Ogerpon ex. You can tweak the amount slightly if desired, but ensure you have more Psychic than Dark, as the latter is less commonly needed.

The Psychic Energy cards are necessary for the majority of the Pokémon in the deck like Gardevoir ex and Mimikyu, while the Dark Energy is strictly for Munkidori, letting it use Adrena Brain and move damage counters around the board.

Additionally, having the two Energy types up for grabs means that Crispin—arguably one of the strongest Supporter cards from Stellar Crown—can be used early on to get several Pokémon Energized and ready for battle.

How it works

Despite revolving around Gardevoir ex, this deck has several win conditions, making it flexible and viable for various matchups.

The general aim is to get Gardevoir ex set up and ready to use Miracle Force, working with the Psychic Embrace ability to get enough Energy and utilizing several Munkidori Adrena Brain abilities to spread the damage counters across the opponent’s team.

190 damage isn’t enough to one-shot most late-game critters like Dragapult ex or Charizard ex, but it is enough to prevent an opponent from setting up in the first place. Adrena Brain also makes Bench sniping easy, preventing Pokémon like Pidgey from reaching their final forms.

If you’re running with the Drifloon and Driblim build, Adrena Brain can also help to stack damage on Drifloon and spread out damage from Driblim, providing an alternate damage source if you can’t get your Gardevoir ex in position for some reason.

Having both Manaphy and Jirachi may seem like overkill, but the amount of Bench snipe and damage counter options in the current meta should not be underestimated. Gardevoir ex can easily be wiped in the first stages of the game, so Bench protection is crucial.

Mimikyu is the unsung hero of this deck—you can sub out most cards or change quantities, but we’d heavily advise having at least two Mimikyu—as it can stall most popular decks with ex and V Pokémon cards.

Additionally, it can deal 70 damage, which may not seem like much, but it’s enough to one-shot most crucial Basic critters from popular decks like Pidgey, Comfey, and Dreepy.

If you choose to use the Dusknoir build instead of the Driblim build, think ahead about which Pokémon would be the most efficient to use Cursed Blast on. Pay attention to your opponent’s Prize Card count to avoid winning the match for them.

As for matchups, this deck performs incredibly well against the popular Terapagos ex deck that’s sweeping the community right now. It performs decently against any Lightning-type decks like Zeraora V and Miraidon ex, and it holds its own with niche decks like Greninja ex, too.

Gardevoir ex can take out Charizard ex, but it does require a little bit of luck in terms of the opening hand as it faces a severe type disadvantage in this matchup. Other tricky decks include Roaring Moon ex and Gholdengo ex, with Dragapult ex and Chien-Pao ex being beatable in some situations.

While Gardevoir ex can feel cumbersome to set up when you’re getting to grips with the deck, it is incredibly fun to play and can provide a real challenge for most of the popular card lists in the meta.

If you’re keen on playing Gardevoir ex but don’t want to invest in the real cards just yet, copy and paste our card list into Pokémon TCG Live‘s deck builder to see what it’s like.