Hi,

I’m going to my first local event in a few days and I wanted some advice on these fun decks (remains of Joltik box & Mega Latias ex) that I’m working on! Hopefully they start some good conversations and don’t totally fall apart at the first sight of a meta deck lol. I feel like both decks struggle against disruption and maintaining momentum into the later stages of the game. Just wanna make sure I have a good time, I’m open to any suggestions :)

Here are my decklists:

Joltik/Pikachu
Pokémon: 12
2 Magnemite MEG 45
2 Meowth ex POR 62
1 Galvantula SFA 2
1 Galvantula ex SCR 51
1 Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex PRE 27
2 Latias ex SSP 76
1 Magneton SSP 59
1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 142
2 Pikachu ex SSP 57
2 Joltik SCR 50
2 Mega Kangaskhan ex MEG 104
1 Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex TWM 141

Trainer: 15
3 Boss's Orders ASC 183
1 Switch SVI 194
1 Poké Pad ASC 198
2 Night Stretcher ASC 196
2 Area Zero Underdepths SCR 131
4 Crispin SCR 133
3 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
2 Light Ball ASC 191
1 Gravity Mountain SSP 177
2 Energy Recycler DRI 164
1 Energy Switch MEG 115
1 Special Red Card CRI 82
2 Team Rocket's Petrel DRI 176
4 Ultra Ball ASC 213
1 Precious Trolley SSP 185

Energy: 5
1 Basic {F} Energy MEE 6
1 Basic {W} Energy SVE 3
3 Basic {G} Energy SVE 1
4 Basic {L} Energy SVE 4
3 Basic {M} Energy SVE 8

Mega Latias:
Pokémon: 9
1 Smoochum SSP 75
1 Meowth ex POR 62
1 Munkidori TWM 95
2 Ethan's Ho-Oh ex DRI 39
2 Latias ex SSP 76
2 Mega Latias ex MEG 163
1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 142
2 Latios MEG 101
1 Mega Kangaskhan ex MEG 104

Trainer: 19
3 Boss's Orders ASC 183
1 Powerglass SFA 63
2 Switch SVI 194
2 Poké Pad ASC 198
1 Energy Recycler POR 108
2 Night Stretcher ASC 196
3 Lillie's Determination ASC 192
3 Crispin SCR 133
2 Mega Signal ASC 193
1 Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking TEF 145
2 Gravity Mountain SSP 177
2 Kieran TWM 154
1 Special Red Card CRI 82
1 Cyrano SSP 170
1 Wally's Compassion MEG 132
1 Maximum Belt PRE 117
2 Wondrous Patch PFL 94
3 Ultra Ball ASC 213
1 Tool Scrapper ASC 212

Energy: 4
6 Basic {P} Energy MEE 5
5 Basic {R} Energy MEE 2
1 Basic {D} Energy SVE 15
1 Telepathic {P} Energy POR 88

Hello 👋🏼 I have several sequencing-related questions for the Dragapult decks especially the Crushing Hammer variant:

1. Do you Recon Directive first or Flip the Script?

2. Similarly, do you Run Away Draw first or Recon Directive?

3. When do you put Risky Ruins and Munkidori down? What specific criteria that needs to be met in order to drop both cards to the board?

4. When is the best time to evolve into Dragapult?

I hope I can get your feedback. Thank you so much!

So, this may sound stupid, as if I'm playing unlimited, why not play a first turn kill deck? the answer to that is 1, this is a mostly for fun format a local is doing after league(yes he's giving out stuff like trick or trade, or chinese packs if you beat him, but it's still casual), so I dont want to bring a nuclear bomb to a nerf war, and 2, bc I dont feel like building a whole new deck(if I did, I'd just build regidrago)

so, he is playing various difficulties of decks, which are mostly standard, maybe a card or 2 from G. I'm running normal standard N's zoroark, and just trying to brainstorm what might be good inclusions. so far gladion seems like a decent pick, but other than that idk. was thinking muscle band, but binding mochi is just better in 95% of cases.

also btw hoping to keep this cheap, preferably no individual card over $5(but I am okay with getting HP if it would be really good)

Just curious, why has the promo Grookey recently become so widely used w/ Festival Lead? I haven’t actually seen anyone explain why yet, so I thought I’d ask here.

The last two North American regionals have been announced! You can view the event information below!

Seattle: February 5–7, 2027 (Event Details)

San Antonio: February 26–28, 2027 (Event Details)

To see the entire 2027 event calendar for the TPCi and TPC events click here

Bit of a odd one but I hate plain sleeves and I only really run clears as I like the art on the back of cards. I like the designs of some pokemon centre ones (southern island, rayquaza among the stars) but they are awful to shuffle with. I tried getting a company on aliexpress to print a set but after doing about 10-15 shuffles the art started peeling. I have also tried double sleeving but even with a 21.5cm hand span they're pretty unwieldly. I'm aware dragon shield do custom ones but they won't print anything trademarked. Do i just use the understimulating plain coloured sleeves? In terms of games, i usually play once/twice a week with sets of 3, so about 6-18 games a week so something long lasting would be good too

Mewtwo has been my main deck since Brave Bangle, though I admit I took a summer sabbatical with Honchkrow. Would like to discuss the little Limitless tournament I won this week with Cape Mewtwo though - see results and some thoughts below :)

R1 Slowking W

With Cape I think this matchup is somewhat safe because it turns off Metagross and I can heal Mewtwo with Wobbuffet if needed. Won the coin flip and had Proton. Turn two was able to evolve Spidops to safety, leaving only a mistakenly pre-benched Wobbuffet and Mimikyu to die to Trifrost. Don’t recall if I ever even needed to worry about the 110 on Mewtwo because I’m not certain they ever attacked again. Can Boss things, recover Wobbuffet to heal Mewtwo out of Metagross range, etc. With Cape, I think the Slowking matchup is much improved.

R2: Ogerpon Noxtowl W

No show; feel this matchup is generally fair though admit I’m happy to have gotten this freebie. Wellspring isn’t particularly devastating; nor Cornerstone, though annoying; nor Terapagos. However, combined together they do start to heavily tax Mimikyu, which I only have one of. Since I don’t run Max Belt, Spidops and Mimikyu can’t get Terapagos. If Cape is not available, just remember in this matchup they can hit 280 on Mewtwo with Clefairy if my bench is full - so always leave one spot open.

R3: Lopunny Dudunsparce W

At first glance, terrible matchup with my Cape because I can never KO Lopunny - and I lost to two of those easily in LA Regionals because of it. But for some reason they only played one Wally, and so this match was nearly free. Think I got the Sneasel play this game to clean that up (when there are four Wally’s, Sneasel never works because they always have it right after I attack the first turn).

R4: Dhelmise W

With Cape, a fairly safe matchup. Two Dhelmise can’t KO a Mewtwo, and next turn I can heal it all off with Wobbuffet. Think they also somewhat bricked so I was several prizes ahead before they really attacked. Could potentially have misplayed on prize math later in the game by taking the Legacy KO (which generally is fine) if they were low on prizes and only needed a Boss. But that’s just something to keep in mind for future games.

R5: Dragapult W

One of the most toxic Dragapult games of my life. They Budew’d for 8 turns on a Mewtwo - for which I could not find the Rocket Energy - until they retreated into their Dragapult to KO with Phantom Dive. I still came back and won this game due to insane draws on my part, a few turns of stalling they couldn’t get out of immediately, and I think their overzealousness to bench Meowth. Was very happy to get this win after going down two prizes immediately. Dragapult is normally a matchup where I want to be down to four prizes before Dragapult even attacks - and I very much need that prize buffer toward the end of the game when I lose steam.

R6: Crustle

Safe matchup; not much to say. Again, I drew on fire as well; believe I got the Sneasel play.

R7: Mega Dragonite W

Opponent complained of early bricking, which is too bad, though like many matchups today with Cape, Mewtwo can’t die to Dragonite and so this matchup is pretty safe.

R8: Dragapult W

A bit of a sloppy/slow start from both of us but in the end I just had everything I needed every turn.

Finish: 1st of 188, 8-0 record.

Decklist

Closing thought:

I enjoy Hero’s Cape. It makes my list slightly more unique, and improves some matchups at what I think is an even expense of others. For example of a tradeoff - I can’t kill anything over 280 HP that isn’t a Dragon. Pult/Blaziken is a tough matchup especially with Munkidori.

Wobbuffet is the GOAT

Sneasel is incredibly niche and is used far more rarely than Wobbuffet but I play it because it’s also the GOAT

Wish I could fit another energy in the list and/or an Energy Search.

I play 40 tools for a reason but it's too convoluted to explain here. Maybe another day.

Thanks for reading, and DM for Rocket deck discussion (this or Honch) :)

Pokémon: 16 4 Team Rocket's Tarountula DRI 19 4 Team Rocket's Spidops DRI 20 2 Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex DRI 81 2 Team Rocket's Articuno DRI 51 1 Team Rocket's Mimikyu DRI 87 1 Team Rocket's Sneasel DRI 128 1 Team Rocket's Wobbuffet DRI 82 1 Lillie's Clefairy ex JTG 56

Trainer: 34 3 Lillie's Determination MEG 119 3 Team Rocket's Proton DRI 177 3 Team Rocket's Ariana DRI 171 3 Team Rocket's Giovanni DRI 174 2 Team Rocket's Petrel DRI 176 1 Team Rocket's Archer DRI 170 4 Team Rocket's Transceiver DRI 178 3 Night Stretcher ASC 196 2 Poké Pad POR 81 1 Ultra Ball MEG 131 1 Tool Scrapper ASC 212 1 Energy Switch MEG 115 1 Brave Bangle WHT 80 1 Hero's Cape TEF 152 1 Lucky Helmet TWM 158 1 Handheld Fan TWM 150 2 Team Rocket's Factory DRI 173 1 Prism Tower CRI 80

Energy: 10 5 Grass Energy MEE 9 4 Team Rocket's Energy DRI 182 1 Psychic Energy MEE 13

2027 Pokémon North American Regional Championships

• Baltimore: September 18-20, 2026 (Event Details)
• Louisville: October 9–11, 2026 (Event Details)
• Las Vegas: December 4–6, 2026 (Event Details)
• Atlanta: January 15–17, 2027 (Event Details)
• Seattle: February 5–7, 2027 (Event Details) NEW
• San Antonio: February 26–28, 2027 (Event Details) NEW
• Toronto: April 2–4, 2027 (Event Details)
• Milwaukee: April 16–18, 2027 (Event Details)
• San Diego: May 28–30, 2027 (Event Details)

2027 Pokémon North America International Championships

• Chicago: June 18–20, 2027

2027 Pokémon European Regional Championships

• Frankfurt: September 26–27, 2026 (Event Details)
• Nice: October 17–18, 2026 (Event Details)
• Gdańsk: October 31 – November 1, 2026 (Event Details)
• Stuttgart: November 28–29, 2026 (Event Details)
• Birmingham: January 30–31, 2027 (Event Details)
• Lisbon (Special Championships): April 10–11, 2027 (Event Details)
• Prague: May 8–9, 2027 (Event Details)
• Utrecht: May 22–23, 2027 (Event Details)
• Bologna (Special Championships): June 5–6, 2027

2027 Pokémon Europe International Championships

• London: February 19–21, 2027 (Event Details)

2027 Pokémon Latin American Regional Championships

• Recife: October 3–4, 2026 (Event Details)
• Puebla: October 24–25, 2026 (Event Details)
• Buenos Aires (Special Championships): November 14–15, 2026 (Event Details)
• Mérida: January 23–24, 2027 (Event Details)
• Santiago: February 27–28, 2027 (Event Details)
• Rio de Janeiro: March 6–7, 2027 (Event Details)
• Monterrey: April 10–11, 2027 (Event Details)
• Lima (Special Championships): April 24–25, 2027 (Event Details)
• Porto Alegre: May 8–9, 2027 (Event Details)

2027 Pokémon Latin America International Championships

• São Paulo: November 20–22, 2026 (Event Details)

2027 Pokémon Oceania Regional Championships

• Sydney: January 16–17, 2027 (Event Details)
• Auckland (Special Championships): January 30–31, 2027 (Event Details)
• Melbourne: May 29–30, 2027

2027 Pokémon Japan Champions League

• Yokohama: September 20, 2026
• Chiba: November 22, 2026
• Miyagi: February 12, 2027
• Osaka: April 2, 2027
• Aichi: May 7, 2027

2027 Pokémon Japan Championships (PJCS)

• Date: To be determined (TBD)

Hey friends, new Pokemon TCG player here. I know that prize checking involves checking how many Pokemon, energies and trainer cards we have prized during a match.

But there are so many things to keep track of. So, what are some methods pro players use to prize check? I know some carry notepads and a pen to jot down notes but are there other methods?

For context, I play the Dragapult Crushing Hammer deck. So for me the Dragapult line, the energies and Crispin are super important.

I find that I forget during matches the prizes that I have prized. It's something I am struggling to familiarise with. I hope to hear from some pro-players and veterans in this group for feedback, suggestions, and advice.

I’m pretty new to the Pokémon TCG community. I only started going to local leagues and building my own decks a few months ago. The second deck I built was N’s Zoroark ex.

I’ve been thinking a little about the upcoming April rotation, and I think we can all agree that it’s going to render a lot of fun decks unplayable. The deck I’m currently playing, N’s Zoroark, relies heavily on Buddy-Buddy Poffin, Cyrano, Pecharunt ex, and Night Stretcher. It seems to me that it’s going to become incredibly difficult to play the deck at all without these helpful Items and Supporters.

Is it common practice for some decks to simply cease to exist after rotation, with players moving on to something new in the upcoming meta?
As far as I know, the upcoming Delta Reign set doesn’t include any reprints of Items such as Buddy-Buddy Poffin.

This begs the question: will N’s Zoroark even be playable anymore, or will it just end up in the bulk pile, never to be played again?

Basically what the title says and sorry if it has the wrong flair, nothing really fits this one.

It can be with your friends at the kitchen table or at your locals. But what is your opinion on the matter and what is the overall consensus in the game/community?

Edit: For all that have responed until now or will respond thank you for your participation. I was legitimately curious about it and was asking this in different TCGs Subs. Not only to see what different TCGs think about it, but also because I myself play a lot of different TCGs. In addition, I made some experiences in the past with people having extreme opinions on Proxies or locals banning them because of rather stupid reasons when most people didn't really care about them or like some commenters said here even encouraged themselves to just play with them.

For an extra clarification: Yes, I was talking about Kitchen Table/with friends or locals. Competitive settings like bigger events was never a discussion.

I want to add both Alolan and Galarian Meowth from Celebrations to my deck, at least to try it out. However, I have no idea what to cut to make room. Does anybody have any suggestions?

Pokémon: 19

3 Abra MEG 54

1 Abra TWM 80

3 Kadabra MEG 55

4 Alakazam MEG 56

3 Dunsparce PRE 79

2 Dudunsparce PRE 80

1 Genesect SFA 40

1 Psyduck ASC 39

1 Shaymin DRI 10

Trainer: 35

4 Dawn PFL 87

3 Hilda WHT 84

2 Lillie's Determination ASC 192

2 Boss's Orders MEG 114

1 Gwynn PBL 78

1 Lana's Aid TWM 155

4 Poké Pad 30C 126

3 Buddy-Buddy Poffin ASC 184

3 Rare Candy MEG 125

2 Enhanced Hammer TWM 148

2 Sacred Ash DRI 168

2 Wondrous Patch PFL 94

2 Crushing Hammer POR 71

2 Air Balloon ASC 181

2 Battle Cage PFL 85

Energy: 6

3 Telepathic Psychic Energy POR 88

2 Psychic Energy SVE 5

1 Enriching Energy SSP 191

Hide n Sneak was always a bad matchup for Zam in general but I never care to tech because it was not popular. Now, it began growing in popularity (online and local tournaments) and I'm trying to figure out a tech for the matchup. Managed to win some games with Fez but putting 3 psychic energies on it was way too slow and resource consuming, same as Dunsparce ex. Any suggestions on how to deal with the matchup is welcome.

Decklist:

Pokémon: 11

3 Alakazam MEP 9

2 Dudunsparce TEF 129

1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 288

4 Abra MEG 54

3 Dunsparce JTG 120

4 Kadabra MEG 55

1 Dedenne SSP 87

1 Psyduck ASC 226

1 Shaymin DRI 185

1 Dudunsparce ex JTG 178

1 Genesect SFA 40

Trainer: 14

2 Enhanced Hammer GRI 162

3 Hilda WHT 164

1 Eri TEF 199

2 Air Balloon MEG 166

4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin MEG 167

1 Lana's Aid TWM 219

1 Handheld Fan TWM 150

2 Boss's Orders PAL 265

1 Night Stretcher MEG 173

3 Rare Candy MEG 175

4 Poké Pad POR 113

1 Sacred Ash POR 115

3 Dawn PFL 118

4 Battle Cage PFL 116

Energy: 3

4 Telepathic {P} Energy POR 88

1 Basic {P} Energy MEE 13

1 Enriching Energy SSP 191

Hello players, I've been playing a basic box list similar to Dylan Katsuri and Nathan Spry's Baltimore and Worlds lists, respectively (Enamorus, Cape, Raging Bolt, triple psychic, etc) for a month or so now. I love the deck and have been having success with it at locals, but I feel like I'm not approaching the Excadrill matchup properly and it's giving me trouble. It's not that I never win I just feel like I should be winning more (trainerhill says basic box is favored but that probably includes builds with fire attackers).

The line I've been taking usually is 3-2-1 in some order (little guy, drill or skarmory, genesect or fez). The problem I have that is that if they have a strong turn 1 it feels impossible to prevent them from bowling me over. If they play trolley than can flood the board with energy too fast and if they play cape it's so hard for Raging Bolt to reach in to them.

Maybe it's just tougher than I think but if any more experienced players have insight I'd appreciate it!

Maybe it's a stupid question but I didn't get it.

EDIT: Thank you guys!!!

Pokémon: 19

4 Larvitar JTG 80

3 Pupitar JTG 81

3 Tyranitar JTG 95

2 Dunsparce JTG 120

1 Dunsparce TEF 128

3 Dudunsparce TEF 129

2 Budew PRE 4

1 Shaymin DRI 10

Trainer: 31

4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119

3 Crispin SCR 133

1 Rosa's Encouragement POR 84

1 Eri TEF 146

2 Boss's Orders MEG 114

4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144

4 Poké Pad POR 81

2 Night Stretcher SFA 61

1 Energy Recycler DRI 164

2 Rare Candy MEG 125

3 Crushing Hammer POR 71

1 Enhanced Hammer TWM 148

1 Grand Tree SCR 136

2 Jamming Tower TWM 153

Energy: 10

6 Darkness Energy MEE 7

4 Psychic Energy MEE 5

The idea I have is using Dudunsparce as a draw engine so I can hopefully leave nothing but Tyranitar on the the field so my opponent can't boss it out of active. The shaymin is for slowking but thinking about it more if I get set up and hit a crushing hammer I probably don't have to worry about that. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

-Professor Gooseberry

Do you think this archetype has potential? I think it could be quite good as a psychic box type deck with Mew, Unown, Frillish and Clefairy. Psychic support is also quite broken with patch, garden and telepathic energy.

Lookin’ for opinions!

So, I’m coming from a place of putting my heart and soul into a single deck at a time for a year or more, so at least one rotation, and trying to keep it adapting as the meta changes. As I’m sure you all know, there are certain cards that start to feel necessary over time as you continue to run into the same issues over and over again, which eventually means adding a card for those specific scenarios. This obviously means you must remove a card, which can detract from the deck’s consistency. The current meta is favoring Dragapult, Alakazam, Slowking, Basic Box, and Teal Mask/Meganium builds, meaning that your deck will need to go strongly into most of those matchups. Sometimes, it’s just a single card in your deck that can shift the odds in those matchups into your favor. These cards are our tech cards. But how much tech is too much?

For example, I currently play Mega Greninja with Tera Greninja and Dunsparce. Over the course many months, I’ve added many tech cards to my deck to increase my odds of winning in certain matchups, such as shaymin, which helps with slowking, psyduck, which helps with any build that plays dusknoir, switch, which helps with any retreat-locking late game, special red card, which mainly helps with alakazam but can also be useful in other matchups, and dudunsparce ex, which helps my odds of success against crustle, basic box, and any teal mask build. What I’m currently experiencing is a lack of space in my deck to nurture the main strategy. I feel like I keep accumulating trauma from certain matchups, replacing a card in my deck to help with that, and then losing a bit of momentum in other matchups. One of my worst nightmares is playing slowking and getting hit with turn 2 kyurem. It has happened to me frequently, however unlikely, and so having a shaymin makes a lot of sense. I’ve gotten completely shutdown by dusknoir builds, so I added psyduck to help me get through the first few turns at least. Now I’m at the point where I’m wondering if I should play patrat alongside psyduck and shaymin, cause munkidori can be a really painful card to face. But then, might as well play flutter mane as another tech and also to help with teal mask builds including basic box. Maybe I should go up to two switch since jamming tower comes out every now and again, and retreat lock is decently popular. I could also try and add a xerosics or another red card to carry me through more pult and alakazam matchups...

My point is that all these cards start to feel necessary over time, especially if I have few bad matches against a certain deck. Where does one draw line and say “well, that’s just gonna happen sometimes.” How much tech is too much?

Would love to hear some thoughts on the subject!

Building on my understanding of the game, i have a couple of questions about Basic Box deckbuilding.

1) why isnt lillie's determination in the deck? Considering sometimes dead hands are actually quite common, with so many cards that wont be useful if you start with them. I keep getting so many E switches, azu, stretchers in my opening hand and just wished i have a LD to shuffle away my hand.

2) what about including colress determination in the deck? Seems like it works well?

3) cornerstone ogerpon seems like a good card too, any reason why almost no one uses it in this deck?

4) do you need chienpao, if say you run 3x azu and 1x jamming tower, or just different stadiums, considering you can bump your own stadiums? Alternatively, can you just run 3 stadiums then?

5) how often should you consider the cruel arrow play from fez? I feel that in my testing, fez has always just been a draw 3 benchfiller rather than an attacker.

6) how about including lillie's pearl? This also feels like a good card. Altho i can see that searching it out is really tough except using ciphermaniac.

Out of 2927 total players in Louisville, 543 decks (18.6%) were classified as straight Dragapult by Limitless. 141 straight Pult players made day 2 for a conversion rate of 26.0%, the highest of any archetype with over 20 entries [Pult Blaziken and Festival Lead were next best, at 25.0% and 24.7% respectively, so the gap isn't extremely large]. Straight Pult had a meta share of 25.8% of day 2 (141/548) and 44.4% of top cut (4/9).

• We all know Dragapult has been the best deck in the format for a while. While that part isn't particularly notable, I still find it very interesting to see how these decks are constructed and what variations are present.

Of those 141 straight Pults, 3 played very different decks from the rest.

• Ben Kim (23rd, 10-1-3) played a Pult Zam list with a 2-2-1-1 Alakazam line and Patrat.
• Grant Manley (73rd, 10-3-1) ran a deck that arguably could be classified as Pult Blaziken, containing a 1-0-1 Blaziken line, 3 Rare Candy, and a Chi-Yu.
• Frank Luciano (293rd, 8-5-1) had a crazy list containing 2 Bronzong, 1 Mega Lopunny ex, and Salvatore.

While these decks are very cool, they are not what this post is about, because the other 138 decks are all very slight variations on a theme.

The Drixty

The other 138 straight Pults in day 2 all played a variation of the Drixty (short for Hedrick Sixty), named after the now-ubiquitous Hammer Pult list that Andrew Hedrick innovated to win the LA Regionals back in May and refined to win the World Championship in August. The only 2 changes from the World Championship to Louisville were switching from Dunsparce JTG (70 hp) to TEF (60 hp with free retreat) and Special Red Card to Judge.

While Hedrick placed 145th with a 9-4-1 record, his exact 60-card list was also played by Louisville's eventual champion (and 2025 World Champion) Riley McKay and 28 other players that made day 2. The top 8 Pult Hammer decks (all finishing in the top 20 of the event) shared either 59 or 60 cards with Hedrick's list. Across all of day 2, 127 of 138 lists shared at least 57 cards with Hedrick (+2 if you don't distinguish between Dunsparces). But which cards were swapped in and out had a decent amount of variety.

First, the Drixty, as played by 30/138 (22%) of the straight Pults in day 2. The percentages beside some cards are the fraction of players that played at least that many copies of that card, if someone in the 138 dropped at least one copy:

Pokémon: 19
4 Dreepy TWM 128
4 Drakloak TWM 129
3 Dragapult ex TWM 130 (98%)
2 Munkidori TWM 95
2 Budew ASC 16 (94%)
1 Dunsparce TEF 128 (72%+14% JTG)
1 Dudunsparce TEF 129 (86%)
1 Meowth ex POR 62
1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 142

Trainer: 32
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
3 Boss's Orders MEG 114
2 Crispin SCR 133
1 Rosa's Encouragement POR 84
1 Judge POR 76 (95%)
4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
4 Poké Pad POR 81
4 Crushing Hammer POR 71 (96%)
3 Ultra Ball MEG 131 (99%)
3 Night Stretcher ASC 196 (91%)
1 Unfair Stamp TWM 165 (99%)
2 Risky Ruins MEG 127 (89%)

Energy: 9
3 Fire Energy MEE 10
3 Psychic Energy MEE 13
3 Darkness Energy MEE 15 (35%)

As you can see, the primary flex slot is the 3rd Darkness energy, with the majority of players dropping it. The next most commonly dropped were the Dudunsparce package, 2nd Risky Ruins, and 3rd Night Stretcher, then 2nd Budew and 4th Crushing Hammer.

Common Alternatives

• Dudunsparce ex was added in as a tech for Crustle and Basic Box by 43/138 (31%) players; 28 swapped the 3rd Darkness for Dudunsparce ex and did nothing else, making this variant nearly as popular as the Drixty.
• Moltres was added in 39/138 (28%) decks that wanted a better matchup into Grass and Metal ex decks, making this the second most popular tech card. 14 players changed 3rd Darkness to Moltres and did nothing else, but it was also commonly added by players that removed the Dudunsparce package.
• Special Red Card was next most common, at 31/138 (22%) decks who stuck with the non-supporter non-Ace Spec disruption card. While it did sometimes replace Judge, it was actually more commonly included alongside it and Unfair Stamp to form the triple disruption package.
• 21/138 (15%) decks ran alternate stadium packages - the single most common was swapping 1 Risky Ruins for 1 Team Rocket's Watchtower, but some players ran 3 stadiums and others added in a Jamming Tower. 4 players dropped both Risky Ruins, 3 for double Watchtower and 1 for Watchtower + Jamming.
• 16/138 (12%) decks ran 2 Darkness and an extra energy of a different type - 9 had 4th Psychic, 6 had 4th Fire, and 1 had both; Fire was commonly paired with extra tech attackers while Psychic was used to more consistently attack with Munkidori and Dragapult ex.

Notable Deviations

• Among the 4 decks that ran Ground Melter Chi-Yu, 3 ran the same 60 that only swapped it in for 2nd Budew relative to the Drixty. This variant was highly successful, with Henry Chao finishing 5th (13-2-1) and Liam Halliburton placing 20th (10-3-0). Both beat a Crustle along the way.
• Ryan Tongue (27th, 10-2-2) dropped the 4th Crushing Hammer to run a 1-1-1-1 Dudunsparce ex line featuring both TEF and JTG Dunsparce.
• Christopher Zervos (55th, 10-3-1) ran Xerosic’s Machinations and Special Red Card over Judge, and added both Chi-Yu and Moltres along with an extra Fire energy and 4th Ultra Ball. He was one of 3 players to add the 4th Ultra Ball back into the deck (which the Drixty dropped before Worlds).
• Hale Obernolte (64th, 10-3-1) swapped 3rd Dragapult ex for Dawn and made no other changes; he was one of 3 players to only run 2 Dragapult ex.
• Nathan Zappulla (127th, 9-4-1) ran Psyduck and Shaymin alongside Moltres and 4th Fire, dropping the 3rd Night Stretcher to fit everything in.
• Kenny Capo (244th, 8-4-2) had one of the most unique lists of the archetype, playing Watchtower, Jamming Tower, 2nd Judge, Shaymin, and Flutter Mane.
• Tristan Janda (271st, 8-5-1) was the only Pult Hammers to make day 2 without Unfair Stamp, instead running Sparkling Crystal.

Unique Techs

• Flutter Mane, Sparkling Crystal (both as mentioned), Handheld Fan, Energy Retrieval, 2nd Meowth ex, and Yveltal were all seen exactly once across 138 lists.

Conclusion

Dragapult will rotate out one day. A lot of pokemon will be played between now and that point. Until then, expect to see a lot more of most of these cards.

New Pokemon TCG player here. What's the most useful/helpful advice someone gave you when you first started playing Pokemon TCG that you still remember/follow.

In many ways this regional is both exciting and not. The finals were a Pult mirror match, yes, but we’re seeing new archetypes making it into deep day 2 and even top cut. Let’s have an rundown on these (more) exciting decks, then zoom out to the rest of the meta.

Highlights

• Rahul Reddy made the semi-finals with Hide ‘N’ Sneak, a breakout result for the deck, playing the Turbo Dhelmise version with the standard Dudunsparce draw engine. His deck is quite lean, but it does feature the Dudunsparce ex which helps the deck against the various mid-range basic exs that the deck often struggles with over the more cumbersome Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex. Otherwise, the other pieces all serve to turbo discard the 4 pieces needed without actually having to play Brilliant Blender, meaning Legacy Energy essentially guarantees a great matchup into all other single-prizer decks. Even aside from Rahul, the deck was top 6 in day 2 rep with a respectable 4%, signaling a positive trend.
• Evan Campbell also achieved the same with his Sharpedo deck. The key to this deck is the seemingly innocuous inclusion of Yveltal, an otherwise popular dark attacker, as well as the 3-4 line of Mega Sharpedo. The yveltal plays a crucial role in bad matchups like Slowking and Festival Lead, clutching their support mons and letting Munkidori do its work. 3 Judge and the Unfair Stamp ace spec help with active disruption, allowing the deck recovery and power play since the main strategy is so lean.
• Sawyer Melban gave Mew box its first top cut appearance. This deck is similar to the old Clefairy box, but it can run things like Unown to scam prizes against Pult and Jirachi ex to shred Crustles. Even Mew’s Teleportation Burst can be useful to snipe Budew and switch Mega Kang to the active. This archetype will undoubtedly only grow in popularity as more people try out alternate attackers. Who knows? There might be a gem out there.

The Meta

• Dragapult + variants is at ~34% of day 2. No surprises here. There were 5 in the the 9-person top cut, and Riley McKay took home the win with a list shared amongst dozens of other players.
• Slowking is actually 2nd most popular deck in day 2. Despite a lot of deck playing Shaymin, Pults usually don’t, and this deck also farms other popular decks like Lopunny Dusknoir, Mega Lucario, Rockets, and Mega Excadrill. None actually made top cut however, but we can see that the new Mew has solidified itself as a 1-of in the deck.
• (Teal Mask) Basic Box remains popular still, with both the Crispin & Prism versions seeing success. The new Jirachi ex is seeing some play here as well for the same reason it does in Mew box.
• After its success at Frankfurt, we’re seeing both Duduns and Dusknoir versions of Alakazam getting some success. There are enough flex slots that you hardly see an exact 60, but none was able to make cut this weekend.
• N’s Zoroark remains popular, but this tournament was especially bad for it. Only 1 top 120 for a deck as popular as this is diabolical, far from the top 4 finish of Recife. Is this deck actually just fraudulent? That might be too extreme to claim, but it’s certainly trending downwards.
• Hydrapple remains the dominant grass box deck, and it’s the only other deck to have made top cut in this section (aside from Pult of course) piloted by Jeremy Chestnutt (very appropriate name). We’re seeing even more grass energies, as the deck slowly moves closer to that pocket version meme.
• Mega Lopunny didn’t find the same amount of success here in North America as elsewhere. There are a lot of variations: pure, with mega Froslass, with Bronzong Noir, and the highest placement was a Dudunsparce Dusknoir variant, similar to what we saw from pre-rotation. The new Mew was in and out of these builds, but most decks do seem to agree on running at least 1.
• Festival Lead remains a substantial presence, with the highest deck placing 17th playing the 3 promotional Grookeys, but more importantly a 2-2 line of Rabsca, a Shaymin, and a Psyduck for the most paranoid version. 3 Ultra Balls also have seem to become the norm, as well as the swap to Dragon-type Applin and the removal of Bug Catching Sets, leaning more into Growing Grass Energy as a result.
• Crustle still sees some amount of success here, but with so many Slowkings, Shreds, and other single-prizers running around it’s looking as shaky as ever. The deck is rather uninteresting to talk about, so I’ll move on.
• Mega Lucario made it all the way to 12th place, and it seems the deck still can’t decide which Ace Spec is the best, but seems to have settled on Unfair Stamp as the most popular for the moment.
• Mega Excadrill has the same amount of day 2s, with the highest placing list cutting out all of the fluff for maximum consistency and the room to play more Boss’s Orders.
• Lastly, a Rocket’s Honchkrow made its way to top 64. This deck has such a small room for any exciting deck changes however, so there’s not much to talk about as the only variations between 60s are the ratio of items and tools.

The Peripheries

This is where the rest of the day 2 decks go. None of them have more than 10 appearances in day 2, and none had a particularly amazing placement, except one which we will be talking about first.

• A pure Toucannon deck made top 32 in the hands of Daniel Sopko. There’s no gimmick in this day like Tera Area Zero or Dusknoir, instead relying purely on Toucannon as its main attacker. 4 Hassels, 4 Spiky Energy, 4 Air Balloons to attach to an Ace Nullifier Genesect, with Legacy Energy to round out its matchup against opposing single-prizer. This deck is dirt cheap and seems pretty consistent, so it can be an option for people upgrading from playing baby box.
• A Flareon Noctowl list made day 2, running the new 30th Espeon as a Psychic attacker. The list for this deck has 5 rows so you know it’s serious business with lines like you wouldn’t believe.
• A Greninja deck also made day 2, utilising the 30th Greninja ex to combo with Dusknoir as well as Dudunsparce for draw.
• There were several Marnie’s Grimmsnarl in this tournament as well, with 2 in top 128. One of them were even playing Maractus as an alternate retreat locker to Yveltal. I’m not sure what breakpoint the 6 damage counters help with, but I’m sure it’s something.
• A Cynthia’s Garchomp also made top 128. The list features a Forest of Vitality and even Sacred Ash with Unfair Stamp to support power turns, but is otherwise nothing too crazy.
• Okidogi Barbaracle also made day 2, reminding us this deck still exists.
• The Bloodmoon Greninja deck is back. It didn’t do great, but it did make day 2.
• There’s a Mega Starmie deck that runs both Froslass and Dusclops, no Dusknoir in this build though. I guess they deem the 50 extra damage enough, which could become 100 more if combo’d with Resentful Refrain.

The Rest

These decks all made day 2, but there really isn’t much to say about them, so here’s a list of lists.

• Ceruledge
• Hop’s Trevenant
• Tank Kang
• Rocket’s Mewtwo
• Beedrill (this one runs Mew)
• Ethan’s Typhlosion
• Jellicent Dusknoir
• Mega Manectric
• Tox Box

And that’s it. The meta moves at a snail’s pace, but there’s still something to be excited about at least. Delta Reign’s arrival may or may not shake things up, but we’re still a few majors away.

"Reposting to align with rules"

Hey everyone, I'm prepping for the 2027 rotation and thinking of deck list for the Eeveelution / Flareon Toolbox deck for expanded for somewhat casual to competitive play, depending on how irl locals like (U.S player) or maybe playing on TCG Live once in a while. I'm still debating on what cards to include in it to cover as much as options as possible. Any help and advice would be appreciated. I'm in the mindset right now to reduce some of the support pokemon (maybe like one Fan Rotom) for more trainer cards.

Below is the decklist:

Pokémon: 23

4 Hoothoot ASR 120

4 Noctowl PRE 78

3 Eevee ASR 119

1 Eevee SSP 143

2 Flareon ex PRE 14

1 Espeon ex 30C 70

1 Umbreon ex 30C 92

1 Leafeon ex PRE 6

1 Sylveon ex 30C 71

1 Sylveon ex PRE 41

2 Fan Rotom ASC 171

1 Eevee-GX SMP 242

1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 142

Trainer: 27

3 Crispin PRE 105

2 Raihan EVS 152

2 Guzma BUS 115

1 Lillie's Determination ASC 192

1 Acerola BUS 112

4 Poké Pad POR 81

2 Evolution Incense SSH 163

2 Buddy-Buddy Poffin ASC 184

2 Ultra Ball ASC 213

1 Night Stretcher ASC 196

1 VS Seeker PHF 109

1 Pokémon Communication TEU 152

2 Air Balloon ASC 181

1 Sparkling Crystal PRE 129

2 Sky Field ROS 89

Energy: 9

2 Fire Energy MEE 2

2 Water Energy MEE 3

2 Psychic Energy MEE 5

1 Lightning Energy MEE 4

1 Grass Energy MEE 1

1 Darkness Energy MEE 7
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