Meowscarada – Shining Revelry
Date Reviewed: April 7, 2025
Ratings Summary:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
Meowscarada (A2b 007, 073) is a Stage 2 Grass Pokémon that evolves from Floragato. It has 140 HP, (R) Weakness, (C) Retreat Cost, and the attack “Fighting Claws”. For (G)(G), this attack does 60 damage to the opponent’s Active. Fighting Claw’s effect text states that, if the opponent’s Active is a Pokémon ex, then the attack does an extra 70 damage. Meowscarada is available at the ♦♦♦ and ★ rarities.
Stage 2 Pokémon are the most demanding to run. Needing extra cards, extra time to hit the field, and it all to show up in the correct order, means they’re not only less reliable, but you won’t have room for as many other cards in your deck. Currently, we only have Sprigatito (A2b 005; P-A 052) and Floragato (A2b 006); both are (G) Pokémon with (R) Weakness, (C) Retreat Cost and one attack each.
Sprigatito is a Basic with 60 HP, and the attack “Cry for Help”. Priced at (G), this attack adds a random (G) Pokémon from your deck to your hand. Floragato is a Stage 1 with 90 HP, and the attack “Slash”, priced at (G)(G) and doing 40 damage. Sprigatito would be more useful if it had more HP; there are too many games where I’ve had to attack with it, only for it to be OHKO’d the next turn. Floragato is less useful of an attacker, and proportionately, still a big risk to leave Active.
The (G) Type has a lot of support1, but most of it isn’t competitive. Erika and Sprigatito are likely to matter, and maybe Leafeon ex. The [G] Type is solid at exploiting Weakness; you’ve got certain (D) Types like Darkrai ex (A2 110, 187, 202; P-A 042), and some of the useful (F) Types, like Sudowoodo (A2a 036, 079). Notable (G) Types to work with are Beedrill ex (A2b 003, 079, 107), Celebi ex (A1a 003, 075, 085), Exeggutor ex (A1 023, 252), Leafeon ex, and Yanmega ex (A2 007, 180, 196).
Meowscarada has 140 HP, which is decent for a Stage 2… but definitely within OHKO range for many main attackers. (R) Weakness only matters when being hit by supporting attackers, as Pokémon like Charizard ex (A1 036, 253, 280, 284), Infernape ex (A2 029, 181, 197), and even other Charizard ex (A2b 010, 080, 108) OHKO it before applying Weakness. The Retreat Cost of (C) is good, though I confess there are times when even that proved too much.
Meowscarada’s claim to fame is it’s attack, Fighting Claws. 60 for two is a little low, but against Pokémon ex, it balloons to an effective 130 damage. That still falls short of OHKOing most Basic Pokémon ex, but if you can toss in a Red (A2b 071, 090) you can take down all Basic Pokémon ex and most Stage 1 Pokémon ex as well. It tends to be feast or famine with this cat, as it takes a poor setup for your opponent’s own single point Pokémon to be outpaced by Fighting Claws.
There are already multiple Meowscarada variants seeing at least some competitive success. At the time of writing, Pokémon Zone is classifying it as a “High Tier” deck. I don’t entirely agree, but perhaps I’m running one of the lesser variants. Anyway, their write-up contains three distinct variants: Beedrill ex, Exeggutor ex, and Arceus ex (A2a 071, 086, 095, 096). If you check things out at LimitlessTCG, you can see how those three are doing, plus several more less used (and likely less successful) variants.
Beedrill ex/Meowscarada is the one I want to play, but I haven’t pulled any Beedrill ex yet. Running two Stage 2 Pokémon looks like a nightmare, but otherwise, I like what each line brings to the table. What I have run is the Exeggutor ex/Meowscarada deck and… it’s “okay”. Could just be my bad luck, but enough games have been effectively lost because I couldn’t evolve into either evolution, or I’d get the less desirable one. That’s going to be a problem with Beedrill ex as well, but it doesn’t have a Retreat Cost of (C)(C)(C).
If Arceus ex/Meowscarada seems odd, do remember Carnivine (A2a 009). Thanks to it, you have a Turn 2 assault you can unleash, while manually building up Arceus ex or Meowscarada. I really should give this one a try, as it’s probably the least vulnerable to the problems the others have faced. Including one I didn’t yet mention; Fire Types. I’ll have to use the version that runs one Arceus ex and one Arceus (A2a 070), because I don’t have two of the former.
Rating: 3.25/5
No, I didn’t score Meowscarada lower to try and justify how I left it out of the Top 7, and even the three honorable mentions. My early playtesting with the card was terrible. While some of that was my build, or perhaps my luck… even after looking at winning lists and copying from them, the deck still had enough problems once I ran it long enough to climb the ranks. Meowscarada is a good card, but it’s still a Stage 2 designed to combat Pokémon ex.
If that doesn’t sound like a concern, don’t forget all the supporting attacks that are not Pokémon ex like Druddigon (A1a 056), Kangaskhan (A1 203), Magnezone (A2 053), Snorlax (A2a 063; P-A 049). Whether attacking or being a meatshield, especially with Rocky Helmet (A2 148) included, Meowscarada has to rely on its partner… which is usually a two-point Pokémon ex. Still, Meowscarada is doing far better than Paldean Clodsire ex (A2b 048, 085, 093) and Grafaiai (A2b 051, 076).
1Caterpie (A1 005), Erika (A1219, 266), Leafeon ex (A2a 010, 082, 091), Lilligant (A1 030), Serperior (A1a 006, 070), and Sprigatito.
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