Some of the AI decks are tough to beat if you don’t have a good deck. The AI as a player is terrible at all difficulty levels, but the cards can still be hard to take down.
You’ll probably need to find a meta deck that you have the cards to build, or focus your free pack openings on just the sets that have the cards you need. Once you have a top performing deck and learn to play it you’ll win most games against the AI.
I just reached master ball rank for the new season. 
I had a lot of success with the Charizard / Incineroar deck. Below is my deck list if anyone is curious.
I’m 100% non-paid too. It is basically a numbers game of opening up enough free packs until you can build a decent deck. The Ai does become very easy to beat, even on Expert, especially with a deck that takes advantage of their weakness.
In the beginning, I had to start just by building the best decks I could around whatever ex Pokemon I randomly pulled from packs. You’ll rack up a ton of free packs by playing thru the solo matches of all the different expansions.
If you didn’t know, there’s a “Thanks” lobby you can use to just concede and exchange thanks.
I have an Incineroar deck but haven’t played Ranked at all this season. Thought I would wait for Lillie but I have still pulled none of them lol. I tried one match yesterday got hit by Mars and then didn’t continue after the loss lol.
Just had some awful Wonder Pick luck 
3 out of 5 I needed so went for it. Got a dup 
Ok fair enough.
Saw another where 4 out of 5 I needed. Surely this time! No. Got the dup 
I talk about pocket more in the discord than here but I’m feeling a bit bored. The collecting aspect is still fun but I’m not enjoying pvp. Last season I basically didn’t try but got lucky enough pulls to have a darkrai/tina deck, GB2. This season I haven’t pulled as many good new cards, struggling in GB4. The addition of shiny cards is kind of a bummer because they remove the pack from wonder pick. I’m gonna keep playing for now but it’s lost its (fabled) luster for me between the pvp element and so many new packs
I battled just once so far this season lol. I actually did well pulling 2 Incineroar ex very early on and used that for my solo battles. I saw the decklist had Lillie which I have still pulled none of and just haven’t had the motivation to battle anyway.
It is unlikely to change but pull rates suck. Like RNG will be RNG, but as a free-to-play, when you hit a bad streak and are pulling below average it gets boring and frustrating fast.
I know many people have been conditioned to spend on digital artefacts but I don’t think I’ll ever get past that so when you’re up against monthly sets, bad pull rates, bad RNG - yeah it’s not very fun.
To be fair, I haven’t bought a physical pack since WOTC either. The whole gambling aspect of TCGs is just not up my alley, but at least physically I can just get the singles.
Yeah ill never pay for premium in this or any mobile game. When it becomes pay to play is about the time I dip out. I got the original 2 week trial and then dropped
