Are you looking for a rock-solid deck that’s fully locked in on Team Rocket to celebrate the launch of the Scarlet & Violet—Destined Rivals expansion? We have a fun deck list filled to the brim with Team Rocket’s Pokémon, Supporter cards, and Item cards, with a strategy inspired by an archetype that just turned 20 years old—Rock Lock! We’re not sure this deck is actually rock-solid in the current Pokémon TCG metagame, but read on to learn how you can give it a try and maybe make a few adjustments on your own.
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Team Rocket’s Tyranitar and Team Rocket’s Ampharos
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4Team Rocket’s Energy
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2Basic Lightning Energy
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2Reversal Energy
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1Basic Fighting Energy
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4Team Rocket’s Ariana
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4Team Rocket’s Proton
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2Team Rocket’s Archer
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2Team Rocket’s Giovanni
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2Team Rocket’s Petrel
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4Team Rocket’s Factory
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1Neutralization Zone
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4Rare Candy
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4Team Rocket’s Transceiver
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4Ultra Ball
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2Team Rocket’s Great Ball
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2Technical Machine: Devolution
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1Night Stretcher
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1Super Rod
What Was Rock Lock?
Rock Lock was a classic strategy that debuted in 2005 with the release of EX Team Rocket Returns, a Pokémon TCG expansion that featured a variety of powerful Dark Pokémon. The stars were Dark Tyranitar and Dark Ampharos, both Stage 2 Pokémon with powerful Poké-Bodies that whittled down the HP of opposing Pokémon. Many Trainers played this combination to great success while it was Standard legal, but none better than the legendary Jaime Guerrero, who rocked the Pokémon TCG World Championships with a 5th-place finish in 2005 and a 9th-place finish in 2006.
Dark Tyranitar’s Sand Damage Poké-Body put 1 damage counter on each opposing Benched Basic Pokémon between turns (during Pokémon Checkup, in today’s language) as long as it was in the Active Spot, and Dark Ampharos’s Darkest Impulse Poké-Body put 2 damage counters on opposing Pokémon when they evolved. These Pokémon were brilliantly paired alongside the powerful Trainer cards Desert Ruins, Rocket’s Tricky Gym, and Ancient Technical Machine [Rock] to take advantage of decks that evolved Stage 2 Pokémon using Rare Candy (Ludicolo/Magcargo, for example), as well as Basic Pokémon ex.
During this era of the Pokémon TCG, Rare Candy could be used to evolve a Pokémon on the turn it came into play, making both Dark Tyranitar and Dark Ampharos immediately impactful against most evolving decks. With its Explosive Evolution attack and a coin flip, Dark Pupitar could even search for a Dark Tyranitar to evolve into while doing 10 damage to each of the opponent’s Pokémon, making for some serious power plays.
It was also common for this classic duo to rely on Pidgeot and its Quick Search Poké-Power (which will look familiar to those who play Pidgeot ex in the current Standard format). Pidgeot was a strong Rare Candy target at the start of the game to get rocking with a fully powered setup.
With Double Rainbow Energy and Scramble Energy both in the deck, you could attack with Pidgeot, Dark Ampharos, or Dark Tyranitar when the time called. Most often, though, Dark Tyranitar was the best attacker to keep in the Active Spot due to its Poké-Body and high HP. Once the opponent’s Pokémon had enough damage, you could either pick off key targets using Feint Attack (provided by Rocket’s Tricky Gym) or more often use the Stone Generator attack (provided by Ancient Technical Machine [Rock]) to devolve high-HP targets and immediately KO their pre-evolved forms.
Rock Lock Returns!
The classic strategy isn’t quite the same—the Pokémon TCG has changed a lot in 20 years—but Team Rocket’s Tyranitar and Team Rocket’s Ampharos boast Abilities that are distinctly reminiscent of Dark Tyranitar and Dark Ampharos’s Poké-Bodies. Team Rocket’s Tyranitar’s Sand Stream Ability puts 2 damage counters on each of your opponent’s Basic Pokémon during Pokémon Checkup as long as it’s in the Active Spot, and Team Rocket’s Ampharos’s Darkest Impulse Ability puts 4 damage counters on your opponent’s Pokémon when they evolve in the usual way.
Aside from both Abilities being twice as strong as their predecessor Poké-Bodies, the only difference is that Team Rocket’s Tyranitar’s Sand Stream also damages the opponent’s Active Basic Pokémon, unlike Dark Tyranitar’s Sand Damage (which only hits the Bench). The bigger difference between Rock Lock then and Rock Lock now is the era they’re being played in—Pokémon have significantly higher HP these days. Still, most evolving Basic Pokémon have similar HP to those in the past, and that means there’s still one card that can take advantage of evolving Pokémon ex—Technical Machine: Devolution, which is functionally similar to Ancient Technical Machine [Rock]. As you whittle down the HP of your opponent’s evolved Pokémon, you can use the Devolution attack to put the highest Stage Evolution card on each of them into your opponent’s hand.
Like the original Rock Lock strategy, Technical Machine: Devolution is especially effective when used against Stage 2 Pokémon that evolved using Rare Candy, making it easier to get an immediate Knock Out upon devolving. Unlike the original Rock Lock strategy, Team Rocket’s Tyranitar and Team Rocket’s Ampharos probably aren’t reliable enough as attackers on their own, so we’ve included a few Pokémon that can help pack a punch: Team Rocket’s Zapdos, Team Rocket’s Sneasel, and Team Rocket’s Mimikyu. Because every Pokémon in the deck is a Team Rocket’s Pokémon, you can rely on Team Rocket’s Energy to power up all your attackers!
The Team Rocket’s Supporter Engine
The original Rock Lock deck featured a variety of Trainer cards and usually at least one Pidgeot, but this version is going all in on Team Rocket’s Trainer cards, and they do their best work when played exclusively alongside Team Rocket’s Pokémon. Every Supporter card in this deck has “Team Rocket” in its name, so they can all be found with the Item card Team Rocket’s Transceiver
Team Rocket’s Proton can be played on the first turn of the game when you’re going first—which is already uniquely powerful—and grabs you three Basic Team Rocket’s Pokémon, perfect for getting set up with Team Rocket’s Larvitar and Team Rocket’s Mareep. Team Rocket’s Ariana will help you draw cards as you build your board (and draws more cards when you only have Team Rocket’s Pokémon in play), and Team Rocket’s Petrel can find Trainer cards like Rare Candy to get your strategy fully online.
It's not all about setup—you’ll also need plenty of utility to enable your win condition. Team Rocket’s Giovanni has a powerful gusting effect that both switches your Active Team Rocket’s Pokémon with one of your Team Rocket’s Pokémon on the Bench and switches in an opposing Benched Pokémon to the Active Spot. This makes it easier to get Team Rocket’s Tyranitar in and out of the Active Spot, while KO’ing key targets along the way.
Gusting your opponent’s Pokémon is notably disruptive, but a Team Rocket–themed deck needs to wreak even more mayhem. If anyone dares to Knock Out your Pokémon, you have Team Rocket’s Archer to fall back on, which shuffles both players’ hands into their decks and gives your opponent a measly three cards compared to your five. Combine this effect with the handy ACE SPEC Stadium card Neutralization Zone, which makes Pokémon without a Rule Box take no damage from opposing Pokémon V and Pokémon ex.
Making Rock Lock Your Own
We’ve had a bit of extra fun here relying on only Team Rocket’s Pokémon and Supporter cards here, and while we’re sure you’d love to live out your villainous dreams, you can take this deck in a few different directions. One direction that stands out is relying on Arven as your Supporter card of choice, since it usually forms the backbone of consistency engines that rely on Rare Candy and Pokémon Tool cards.
If you want to try Arven, we recommend including Pidgeot ex to provide turn-by-turn consistency, just like Pidgeot in the original Rock Lock deck. You can also experiment with including Supporter cards that provide similar effects to the Team Rocket’s Supporter cards currently in the deck, like Iono and Professor’s Research.
At the end of the day, we wanted to pay a bit of homage to a fan-favorite archetype from the past and look at how you might want to play Team Rocket’s Tyranitar and Team Rocket’s Ampharos together in today’s game. Give the combination a try and experiment with a strategy 20 years in the making!
