Pokemon TCG Pocket Lapras ex event guide, best decks, rewards and more

The Pokemon TCG Pocket Lapras ex event is live, with rewards and new cards that you can earn now by beating solo battles against a series of water-themed decks. Effectively, you want to earn the Lapras ex card, you need to prove you can beat a deck that uses it! However, that's still easier said than done - though the early solo battles are more manageable, the later ones are pretty tough, and beating the associated challenges even tougher. 

With that in mind, we've got everything you need to know about the Lapras ex Drop event here, including the rewards, new cards, how to beat the solo decks and the associated challenges attached to them. Time to surf your way to victory.

The Pokemon TCG Pocket Lapras ex event and how to beat it explained

The Lapras ex Drop Event in Pokemon TCG Pocket is currently live and works as follows:

• New limited-time solo battles against water-type decks have been added.
• Each deck you beat unlocks the next tier of difficulty, with four tiers total.
• If you win any battle, they reward players with promo cards, shop tickets and shinedust.
• Each attempt against a Lapras Event battle costs you 1 "Event Stamina", a special resource. Event Stamina recharges over time, but you can spend Gold or Event Hourglasses to speed up the process.
• Each solo battle also has one-time optional challenges associated with it, for Wonder Hourglass rewards.

Lapras ex Event date and times

The Lapras ex event in Pokemon TCG Pocket is live now, and will end at the following times (depending on your region): 

• 21:59 AM 17 November (PST)
• 00:59 AM 18 November (EST)
• 05:59 AM 18 November (GMT)

It's not clear right now if the Lapras ex event will return in the future, and there's certainly been no indication that it will. Not only that, but the Lapras ex card specifically is not available in any of the current "Genetic Apex" packs, so those who want it will need to milk this event for all it's worth.

How to beat the Lapras ex Drop event solo battles and challenges

There are four Lapras ex solo battles that players can unlock: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced and Expert. All of these are variations and upgrades on the same water-themed deck, and have their own challenges attached.

To beat any of the Lapras ex battles, we definitely recommend a Lightning deck, as all the water cards (and even some of the normal ones you'll see in the Solo/Intermediate decks), are weak to electrical damage. 

The Lapras decks also focus on getting out "glass cannon cards" that do high damage quickly, so slow decks will suffer as they try to set up their strategies. The Golduck and Starmie ex cards that come out later on both hit hard and fast.

Best deck for the Lapras Ex event

The meta-pushing "Pikachu ex" deck is great for dealing with the Lapras Ex event. We've laid it out below: if you are missing any of the cards involved, find a substitute based on the principles we outlined above:

• Pikachu ex x2
• Zapdos ex x2
• Zapdos x2
• Pincurchin x2
• Potion x2
• X Speed x2
• Poke Ball x2
• Sabrina x2
• Giovanni x2
• Professor's Research x2

The Pikachu ex is especially devastating here, as its ability to do up to 90 damage with two energy is a potent one. You can make working decks without it, but if there's a better model for dealing with the Lapras ex event, we haven't seen it.

Of course, if you don't have these cards or even anything close to them, it's worth considering the Lt. Surge Rental Deck that you can unlock. It's not as good and you're not guaranteed victory, but it can work in a pinch.

Lapras ex event rewards

The Lapras ex event has the following list of rewards:

• The first time you beat any Lapras ex solo battle, you'll get:
  • Pack Hourglasses (number varying depending on difficulty)
  • Shinedust
  • 1 Shop Ticket
• EVERY time you beat a Lapras ex solo battle, you'll get one, some or all of:
  • 1 random promo card from the list below
  • 25 Shinedust
  • 1 Shop Ticket
• Optional challenges (battle tasks) for each battle reward players with:
  • Event Hourglasses (if they're on Beginner/Intermediate)
  • Wonder Hourglasses (if they're on Advanced/Expert)

All event promo cards and how to get the Lapras ex card

There are five promo cards you can get as part of the Lapras ex event:

• Lapras ex
• Butterfree (alternate art)
• Pikachu (alternate art)
• Clefairy (alternate art)
• Mankey (alternate art)

You can get all of these as part of the "promo packs" that are won for beating any of the event's solo battles. A promo pack with a single random card in it will then be sent to your gifts inbox, which you can then open. You can win all these cards multiple times, so if you haven't got the Lapras ex card yet, you just need to keep trying.

Speaking of which, the Lapras ex card is the only mechanically unique card added by the event. The others are alternate-art versions of already existing cards - the Pikachu you win in this event will have a different picture on it, but function exactly the same on the battlefield as a normal Pikachu.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission