Pokémon TGCP has taken the world by storm, especially in my household. I’ve been addicted to collecting the cards of my youth and battling with my friends as well as playing complete strangers from all over the globe. Building your deck, taking part in challenges, opening the booster packs with that crinkling sound that so many of us remember from our childhoods… it’s the stuff that dreams are made of.
The first event dropped today with the Lapras Ex Drop Event, giving players the chance to get 5 different cards to add to their collection. This event revolves around solo battles that you can play anytime, anywhere against the computer opponent. The event runs until November 18th, and as well as getting Exp from each battle, there are new ‘Chance Rewards’ featuring Promo Pack A Series Vol. 1 packs and shine dust to obtain.
The Promo Packs contain one of five Pokémon cards inside that you can get from each battle. As the name suggests, you’re not always guaranteed to get this pack and the card inside is completely random. And yes, Lapras is the hardest card to get…
I’ve been playing the challenge all morning and have some tips about which cards will work best in your deck, strategies at each stage, and the moves you need to look out for. I will say at this point that while I’ve beaten every stage multiple times, I’m still waiting to get Lapras. I’ve got so many multiples of all the other cards, but Game Freak is certainly making it hard to get hold of the Lapras Ex card in this event.
So, let’s take a look at how to complete the Lapras Ex Drop Event in Pokémon TCGP and get opening some Promo Packs!
NB – Once you use a piece of Stamina to open up a round, it will stay open until you’ve completed it. If you are defeated, you don’t need to use another piece of Stamina.
Table of Contents
Getting Prepared – Building Your Deck
As you might have guessed with a Lapras Ex Deck, it will definitely help to use a strong Electric deck during the rounds in this challenge. If you’ve got a lot of hourglasses saved up and fancy opening a lot of packs, then select 10 Packs of Genetic Apex Pikachu packs and get working on a custom Electric deck. I’ve been lucky enough to pick the Zapdos Ex and Jolteon cards above that help a lot in these battles. Along with Raiachu and the Lt. Surge card to pull all Electric Energies to it when in an attacking position, I’ve been able to defeat all of the stages relatively easily – it’s all about clever tactics and knowing when to retreat and swap out for other critters.
One thing I would say is to try and put a Pokémon with lots of HP and an easy attack up front for some of the harder stages. I’ve been using Kangaskhan to take the brunt of some of the blows from Starmie and Lapras while getting energy onto Zapdos and Jolteon. While its attack doesn’t have any Electric power to get extra points as a weakness against Water-types, it can whittle down some of the base Pokémon the computer throws out while you prepare. If you have an X-Speed, then you can always withdraw it when it’s on low health to avoid the computer getting a point.
Pack Opening Results So Far
There are 5 Pokémon to open up from this new set – Pikachu, Mankey Clefairy, Butterfree, and Lapras. So far from the 20 battles I’ve done this morning, I’ve had 6 Clefairy, 4 Pikachu, 2 Butterfree, and 1 Mankey. I know that the whole process is random, but I’ve had poorer results when it comes to pulling a Promo Pack from completing Round 2 than I have any of the other stages. My friends have also had similar experiences, so while it’s a random pick, this seems to be something that’s happening across the board.
Mankey seems to be one of the harder cards to pull other than Lapras, but I got this card the third time I replayed the first Beginner round. The main key here is perseverance and keeping on slogging until you get all the cards. You can also rack up Shine Dust needed for flair while you’re at it, but you don’t necessarily need to do the Expert Round multiple times to get the best cards!
1. Round 1 – Beginner
The first Lapras Deck is set at Beginner Level, and if you’ve been concentrating on your deck building, then you should have all the Pokémon needed to be able to take out the Pokémon here. There are no Ex Cards in the first two sets, so you shouldn’t have much of a hard time taking home some wins.
From the battles I’ve had so far, the main cards that come out are Tentacool, Goldeen, Staryu, Poliwag & Krabby. The original Lapras will come out from time to time, but it needs over 4 Water Energy to be able to up its Hyrdo Pump from 20 to 90, so you don’t need to worry too much about it.
I used Zapdos’ Peck get 40 off the Water Pokémon pulled out in the early stages and evolved Eevee to Jolteon to take out the rest. I have also completed this beginner round by only using Kangaskhan’s Dizzy Punch and a Potion to replenish any health taken off by lower-level moves.
2. Round 2 – Intermediate
The Intermediate round is the one that’s provided the least results so far when it comes to pulling Promo Packs. It’s also when things start to get a little more difficult with the arrival of Goldeen and its evolution, Seaking. Staryu doesn’t really cause many problems here, and neither does Lapras as it never really gets chance to get enough Water energy onto it to prove much of a problem.
My tactic here, as you can see from the picture above, is to use Kangaskhan as angry cannon fodder while levelling up Zapdos or Jolteon. I’ve also been using Helioptile & Heliolisk and getting in a Quick Attack, spinning coins to get extra attack power. If you have Zapdos Ex with one electric energy, then Peck takes 40 damage away every time. Again, moves like Thundering Hurricane will more often than not finish off your opponent. Sometimes you’ll be unfortunate and all four coins will land on tails. It’s happened a couple of times much to my disappointment, but that’s life!
Horn Hazard is the move you need to watch out for the most here – Jolteon is incredibly powerful, but when you get attacked by a move with 80 attack power, things suddenly get real. Horn Hazard can easily wipe out the base Pokémon that you’re trying to evolve as well, so again, if you’ve got someone big like Kangaskhan or Dubwool, then put them upfront to give you a little bit more time. The good thing about Horn Hazard is that if Seaking’s coin shows Tails, then it does no damage. It’s the luck of the draw (or luck of the flip) but hopefully, the Pokémon gods will be on your side.
NB – If you have a Giovanni card or have enough Pack Points to buy one, then I would seriously recommend it. Adding 10 to your attack can sometimes mean the difference between defeat and success, especially when Starmie is concerned in the upcoming stages.
3. Round 3 – Advanced
Now you’re going up against Ex cards, which means it’s time to go up against the Lapras Ex card that we’re all trying to take home with us. Hyrdo Pump didn’t really get a chance to hit home on the normal Lapras card, but the computer has a nasty habit of getting Bubble Drain primed and ready to use incredibly quickly thanks to the Misty Trainer Card, allowing users to keep adding Water Energy to cards on their bench.
Quick Retro Dodo Trainer Tip
There are three Trainer Cards that you should definitely have in your deck at this point. I’ve already mentioned Giovanni adding an extra 10 to the attack stats of the Pokémon in the active slot, and Lt. Surge is definitely a good card to have when pulling Raiachu into the hot seat. The third useful Trainer Card is Sabrina, a card that forces your opponent to swap the Pokémon in the active spot for a card on their bench. If they swap it for a card like Lapras which has a retreat cost of three energy, then that can give you a little bit of time to prep Pokémon like Zapdos, Jolteon, or even Electabuzz.
Lapras Ex uses Bubble Drain, a move that takes off 80 HP and heals Lapras by 20 HP every time you use it. Twinned with Seaking’s Horn Hazard, they make an annoying pair to defeat (but not as annoying as when Starmie rears its ugly head in the Expert Stage).
My main tip here is to use Sabrina to push Lapras back when it’s about to use Bubble Drain until your Zapdos is ready with Thundering Hurricane. If you’ve managed to knock Lapras down with Dubwool or Kangaskhan, then there’s a chance Jolteon can use Pin Missile to take down the rest of its health, but be careful that you don’t get caught in a situation where you can’t recall a Pokémon due to a high retreat cost – always keep an X Speed to hand so you can make a quicker exit!
If you pull Zapdos Ex at the beginning of the match, then Peck will knock Goldeen’s health down sufficiently that dispatching Seaking should be pretty easy. Notice I just used ‘dispatching’ like I was some sort of Secret Agent – that fish has really flipped me off today!
4. Round 4 – Expert
The expert round is incredibly tricky, but not impossible. The computer tends to bring Staryu out quite quickly and evolves it into Starmie in a couple of moves. As you can see above, Hyrdo Splash is supremely annoying as it takes 90 health off your Pokémon with just two Water energy attached, something that the computer can do very easily as I’ve already said when using a Misty Card while on the bench. It’s a powerful move for little energy, something to remember when you’re going up against Fire cards used by your enemies… I mean friends.
My main advice here is to (once again) use Kangaskhan to hopefully get a couple of hits in before Starmie can make an attack. I use Sabrina around this time too to give myself more time to add energy to another Pokémon. As you can see above, I also use an X-Speed to reduce Kangaskhan’s retreat to 2 and get it out of there before I lose a point. I then bring Jolteon out and finish Starmie off with Pin Missile and a lot of crossing my fingers for good luck.
Zapdos is usually pretty reliable to knock Lapras Ex out, unless you get the dreaded ‘four Tails’ result when the coin flips as I mentioned above. Don’t forget that with Ex Pokémon you get two points for each one you knock out, so if you can manage to take out a Staryu early doors, then finishing off a Starmie or Lapras Ex will give you a victory. Remember that the same goes for your Ex Cards, however, which is why I tend to rely heavily on Jolteon and Raiachu in the latter stages of the Expert Round. If you have the Lt. Surge card to pull all Electric Energy to Raiachu, then that’s also an effective way of administering the coupe de grace to Lapras or Starmie and ending the match.
Final Thoughts
As I said a couple of times above, I’ve used up all my hourglasses and stamina battling today to try and get Lapras Ex to no avail. It’s not a case of beating the event and getting the card at the end; you’ll need to keep playing and hopefully pull it in a pack. The card picks might be random, but the tactics used to defeat each stage have worked for me time and time again.
I’m afraid that this is definitely a case of ‘if at first you don’t succeed, keep trying until you win and don’t show weakness’… that’s how the phrase goes, right? As I said above, you won’t lose your piece of stamina if you do get defeated, so keep trying until you get that win. Sometimes the cards just won’t be in your favour, but your time will come eventually.
The event ends on November 18th – good luck, and I hope you pull a Lapras Ex!
