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Metagame TCG Standard Metagame Discussion

Arai

Arai

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Metagame Discussion
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This thread will be used for discussion of the 2026 Standard format metagame. This includes discussing metagame trends and strategies you enjoy using. Please be constructive and thoughtful with your posts. One liners or shitposts will be deleted, and disrespectful behaviour will not be taken lightly.
 
With the likelihood of many people beginning to learn the TCG because of this, I figure that the best way to help onboard people is to do a meta primer of all of the top decks. Please feel free to add or correct any information I miss.

:sv/dragapult::sv/blaziken: :sv/dusknoir: :sv/dudunsparce:

The undisputed king of the metagame and it’s not even close. Dragapult excels at having both a built-in draw engine via Drakloak, but also an incredibly strong attack in Phantom Dive, allowing it to two-shot most attackers while picking off weaker, supportive Pokemon on the bench. Every deck in the game must respect Dragapult, because its ability to set up and sheer variety of options makes it a formitable threat. Dragapult also boasts a large amount of partners it can choose to run, further making its flexibility even deadlier.

:dragapult:: Ironically enough, Dragapult’s best secondary wincon is none at all. This mainly helps against the Dragapult ditto, as it denies the opponent the oppurtunity to snipe their supportive Pokemon or their other Dragapults, as Tera provides an immunity to all effects while on the bench. So how does Solo Dragapult make up for the loss of a partner? Crushing Hammer. Nicknamed “Hammerpult” by the community, Solo Dragapult seeks to remove the energy from their opponent’s attacker, putting them at an energy defecit. While still reliant on coinflip, this can prove to be the momentum denier you need to win the game. Note that when I say Solo Dragapult, that doesn’t mean it’s the only Pokemon in the deck. Hammerpult decks often run Munkidori to heal up your Dragapults and slowly chip away at the opponent, and Fezendipiti EX and Meowth EX as consistency pieces to help strengthen your early board.

:blaziken:: Blaziken variants of Dragapult seek to capitalize on the absolute Grass infestation the meta currently faces. Teal Mask Ogerpon, Hydrapple, Festival Lead, Sinistcha in Hide ‘n’ Sneak decks, Crustle, and Beedrill all HATE facing Blaziken, who is easily able to OHKO them with relative ease when Dragapult would just barely miss out on them, mainly with Ogerpon and Hydrapple. Blaziken also acts an energy recycler, being able to recharge your next attacker after one is knocked out or retreats.

:dusknoir:: Dusknoir further enhances Dragapult’s main gameplan of spreading damage counters onto the bench with its ability Cursed Blast. At the cost of knocking itself out, Dusknoir is able to apply 130 damage counters to a single target. Trading one Pokemon for another might sound a bit worthless, but as Dusknoir is a 1-prize card, you’ll likely gain a 1-prize advantage assuming you hit an EX or KO the active Pokemon. Dusclops also possesses the same, ableit weaker ability, which places 50 damage counters on a target, which can also help to snipe weaker targets or chip a tankier one.

:dudunsparce:: The least common Dragapult variant, it forgoes offensive prowess for unparalleled draw power. Dudunsparce lets you cycle through your deck incredibly fast, letting you hit consistency pieces at the cost of it being a sitting duck for anyone with a Boss’s Orders or another Dragapult. While Hammerpult builds do occasionally fit a 1-1 line of Dudunsparce, full Dudunsparce builds will slot in a Dudunsparce EX to serve as a cheap backup attacker when you don’t have a Dragapult ready.

:sv/ogerpon: :sv/clefairy: :sv/kangaskhan-mega:
For the uninitiated, a Box deck is one that typically refers to those that possess multiple attackers rather than just one. In this case, Basic Box (also nicknamed “Slop Box” by the community) decks are those designed to give Dragapult as much hell as possible, while also being an overall well rounded deck. Basic Box consists of 3 major components: Mega Kangaskhan, serving as the deck’s main draw engine and tank, Teal Mask Ogerpon, providing energy acceleration (the ability to play more than one energy per turn) and a similarly strong attack, and Lillie’s Clefairy, giving the previously weakness-free Dragon type a new Psychic weakness while also being able to hit them incredibly hard. The three form a potent core for most Basic Box decks, but they’re often not alone and benefit immensely from other support Pokemon:

:latias:: Removes the retreat cost from your Basic Pokemon (which is all of them), allowing you to use Mega Kangaskhan to tank hits and switch her out freely once your attacker is set up.

:ogerpon-wellspring:: Traps the opponent’s active Pokemon, which can be used to chip out a support Pokemon or lock in their main attacker to be knocked out next turn. Torrential Pump can also function as a strong attack used to hit the bench.

:iron_leaves:: Has the ability top swap out your active Pokemon and take its energy for yourself, which you’re most likely using on Ogerpon. Can push KOs Ogerpon likely wouldn’t get unless you dump all of your energy onto it.

:chien-pao:: Utility card that lets you discard any active stadium once played. As Basic Box decks run Area Zero Underdepths as their main stadium, Chien-Pao can be used to discard unnecessary cards like Budew or cards within Phantom Dive range. It can also be used as a niche control option against decks overtly reliant on their stadiums like Festival Lead, although unless you’re certain they don’t have access to another it’s really only used for cleaning your board.

Basic Box can also afford to run even more options such as Raging Bolt, Bloodmoon Ursaluna, Mew, and even recent additions of Passimian and Iron Crown. It really depends on what strengths you want your deck to excel in.

:sv/slowking: :sv/kyurem: :sv/metagross:

Slowking decks are on the more difficult end when it comes to piloting, but benefit greatly from cheap, dangerous attacks. Slowking’s primary attack of Seek Inspiration lets it use any attack from the top card of your deck without needing that attack’s cost. The biggest abuser of this is Kyruem’s Trifrost, an absolutely devastating attack letting you deal 110 damage to 3 of your opponent’s Pokemon. While possessing an absolutely ridiculous cost of 2 Water energy, 2 Metal energy, and 1 colorless energy, Slowking can completely bypass the high cost the attack possesses. Slowking’s other major attack comes from Chaos Rising Metagross with it’s Metallic Hammer attack, being able to reach up to 300 damage with the cost of discarding 3 Metal energy. However, Slowking can simply opt for the stronger attack without needing to spend any Metal energy at all, meaning that any Pokemon below 300 HP will be annihilated in its path. And thanks to the stadium Academy at Night, letting it put the attacker it wants on the top of it’s deck, Slowking is able to easily prepare it’s next attack without having to rely on pure chance. There are other attacks Slowking can opt into using, like Destined Rivals Zeraora’s Thunder Raid dealing 210 damage to an EX Pokemon, or Ascended Heroes Spectrier’s Phantasmal Barrage letting you place 12 damage counters on one of your opponent’s Pokemon. While Slowking can struggle if it isn’t able to find these attacks in time, the payoff is more than worth it.

EDIT: I mentioned in the original post that Slowking could bypass the energy discard requirement of Trifrost. This is not true in the slightest, and I’m not really sure why I wrote that. However, Slowking doesn’t really mind this limitation as Seek Inspiration only requires 1 Psychic and 1 Colorless energy, while also having access to Wonderful Patch to get energy from the discard pile in a pinch.

:sv/zoroark: :sv/zekrom: :sv/reshiram: :sv/pecharunt:

N’s Zoroark is quite similar to Slowking in a sense, as it’s able to cheat out strong attacks without needing to pay high energy costs. But it has 2 major advantages over Slowking: a built-in draw engine, and a good Dragapult matchup. Trade lets you discard 1 card to draw 2, which lets you discard unnecessary cards in hopes to find your necessary pieces. While the attacks Zoroark can access aren’t as powerful as Slowking’s, they can still be quite strong and can be reused as long as they’re on the bench. The main attack is N’s Zekrom’s Rampaging Thunder, a 250 damage attack, that, while strong, doesn’t fully land KO’s on some Pokemon. However, thanks to Pecharunt EX’s Malignant Chain ability, letting it switch a Pokemon out in exchange for Poisoning the active Pokemon, a Binding Mochi to increase the damage of Poisoned Pokemon by 40, and a Black Belt’s Training to further increase the damage of EX Pokemon by an additional 40 damage, you can push the damage to deal 330 damage, which is exactly enough power to OHKO a Dragapult. N’s Reshiram allows you to take advantage of any chip damage your Zoroark might have with Powerful Rage, a 20 damage attack that increases in power by 20 for each damage counter on your Pokemon. With a deck that’s fast to set up and possessing the rare ability to take out Dragapult in one go, N’s Zoroark seems like the perfect way to deal with the top threat. Unfortunately, Zoroark fares quite poorly into almost all major Grass decks, being cleanly one shot by most of them and is vulnerable to Zekrom and Reshiram being taken out via gusting (forcibly switching out a Pokemon). It’s good matchup into the top dog still does warrant a strong placement however.

:sv/dipplin: :sv/thwackey: :sv/seaking:

Festival Lead is almost the opposite of N’s Zoroark in a way, as it possesses a strong matchup into nearly every deck except Dragapult. With the Festival Grounds stadium in play, Dipplin, Thwackey, and Seaking gain extra power thanks to their abilities. Thwackey becomes a search engine, letting you take any card from your deck as you please to build up consistency, while Dipplin and Seaking become devastating attackers. Dipplin deals 20 damage for each of your benched Pokemon, which with a full bench becomes 100 damage. But with Festival Grounds in play, Dipplin is able to attack again for a solid 200 damage attack. And with a Brave Bangle equipped, you get an extra 30 damage for each attack, totaling up for 260 damage. Seaking has a similar ability, but has a weaker attack in exchange for card draw. Festival Lead’s biggest advantage, however, is the prize advantage. As almost all Festival Lead decks do not run any 2-3 prize cards, your opponent will have to pick off 6 of your Pokemon to gain a lead, while Festival Lead players will only need 2-3 (unless facing Slowking, Alakazam, or fellow Festival Lead decks). However, without Festival Grounds in play, the deck is pretty terrible, and that’s quite easy to make happen as almost every deck runs their own stadium. Additionally, the aforementioned Dragapult matchup is extremely bad, as it can easily spread damage to your bench to pick off at later times. While Pokemon like Rellor and Shaymin can help deal with this to an extent, they can still be forced out and removed entirely. Still, Festival Lead proves to be a strong deck, and if you like unevolved Pokemon, this might be the deck for you.

:sv/alakazam: :sv/dudunsparce: :sv/dusknoir:
Alakazam strives for a simple gameplan: get as big of a hand as possible and start blasting. Alakzam’s Powerful Hand attack places 2 damage counters for each card in your hand, and thankfully Alakazam has no shortage of draw power. It and its preevo of Kadabra draw 2 and 1 cards respectively, Fezendipiti for drawing cards when an ally is knocked out, Telepathic Psychic Energy for finding 2 Basic Psychic Pokemon, and strong supporters like Dawn and Hilda. Like Dragapult, Alakazam decks also have Dudunsparce and Dusknoir variants. Dudunsparce takes the decks already high draw power and launches it to the moon, being able to develop a 30 card hand in just 2 turns. Dusknoir trades draw power for offensive power, picking off benched Pokemon attempting to set up or providing utility to the opponent. The deck faces a few problems in the current landscape. Special Red Card forces you to shuffle your hand into your deck and draw 3 cards, although with Dudunsparce builds it’s not extremely difficult to build back up. The deck’s main issue is the Hide ‘n’ Sneak matchup, as all Pokemon with the ability are immune to any effects caused by opponent’s attacks, meaning that Alakazam essentially cannot do anything to them. While some builders attempt to circumvent this weakness by adding Lillie’s Clefairy or Dudunsparce EX, it’s almost always a losing matchup. Aside from that, nothing is able to snowball in the way Alakazam is able to do.

:sv/hydrapple: :sv/ogerpon: :sv/meganium:

Hydrapple is the ultimate energy dump deck, without even needing to spend that much energy. With Ogerpon’s ability to expend energy for draw power, you are able to comb through your deck to set up your main attacker. What makes Hydrapple decks stand apart from other Grass decks are 2 major momentum pieces: Mega Evolution Meganium and Forest of Vitality. Forest of Vitality allows you to evolve a Pokemon on the same turn you play it except for turn 1, meaning that you can obtain a Hydrapple and Meganium on the same turn they’re played. Meganium is what makes this deck, as its ability lets every 1 Grass energy count as 2. With both of these factors, Hydrapple can deal utterly absurd damage as early as the 2nd turn, while still benefitting from consistent draw from Ogerpon and its own ability for healing. These decks also slot in Mega Evolution Celebi, allowing you to search for your Forest of Vitality and extra energy, and Shrouded Fable Tapu Bulu, boasting a strong attack for a single-prize card. Hydrapple is able to remain consistent results, and can prove a strong option for new players.

:sv/dhelmise: :sv/banette: :sv/sinistcha: :sv/spiritomb:

Hide ‘n’ Sneak cards are unique in that they possess an immunity to the effects of their opponent’s attacks. The two major ones you’ll utilize are Banette and Sinistcha, who allow you to search for a card and place 4 damage counters on each of your opponent’s Pokemon if you have 6 Pokemon with Hide ‘n’ Sneak in your discard pile respectively. The real star of the deck, however, is Dhelmise. If you have 4 Hide ‘n’ Sneak Pokemon currently in your discard pile, Dhelmise will do 170 damage for only 1 Psychic energy. Paired with Lillie’s Clefairy, you’ll be able to KO Dragapult with one hit, and thanks to cards like Gwynn and Naveen, it won’t be that difficult to hit the discard requirement. Spiritomb functions as a backup wincon, as if you have 13 Hide ‘n’ Sneak Pokemon in your discard pile, you can quadruple the damage counters on two of your Pokemon, something you can easily apply thanks to Sinistcha. Hide ‘n’ Sneak serves to pester and chip away at the opponent until landing a finishing blow with Dhelmise or Spritomb.

There are some decks I didn’t mention like Mega Lopunny, Crustle Control, Mega Excadrill, and Mega Lucario, but those are some of the most common deck types you’ll see in the metagame. I hope this post helps you understand the meta, and inspires you to pick up one of these decks to try!
 
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Small note: the main reason people use Chien-Pao is to get rid of their own Area Zero Underdepths, letting you remove up to 3 damaged/liability Pokemon from play, and then potentially play a new one and start benching more Pokemon. Just bumping a random Stadium isn't really worth it because you can use any other Stadium to do that, although of course if you're already using a Chien-Pao it can be a small bonus.
 
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Newish to TCG, but afaik ASC Spectrier isn't really seeing play in Slowking anymore. From my experience it's a high risk card with a deceptive reward since it requires a full discard and it's mainly used to pick off Shaymin. But decks that run Shaymin also have ways to recycle it in a pinch, which in turn means you have to recycle Spectrier if you still want to Kyurem. Afaik the tech is looking more like (feel free to post corrections if/when i'm wrong lmao)

SSP :annihilape: KOs both active. Can't be used recklessly but very helpful for getting past high HP mons not named Mega Luke or Pult (Cynthia Chomp, Shark, Starmie, Exca) and recyclable unlike Bangle. The catch is that it can't take out Mega Lopunny with Mist Energy which Bangle can

PBL :annihilape: Deals 100 and puts 5 damage counters on a benched Pokemon. A less committal way to pressure Shaymin if you want while also allowing you to pick off low HP Pokemon, namely Abra and Duskull if your opponent is on Zam

:munkidori: There's a spicy Slowking variant that swaps out Secret Box for Prime Catcher and runs Munkidori and a Crispin engine. This not only lets you hit nice KO thresholds, but also means Annihilape -> Munki takes out Shaymin on your own turn and lets you Kyurem without care

:cofagrigus: Cof puts 6 damage counters on all Pokemon with an ability. Risky, but obviously crazy against Zam and gives you damage counters for Munki (and also sets up a Shaymin KO)

:drapion: and :pawmot: Both paralyze the foe while damaging you; Drapion deals 100 and poisons but does 70 to you, while Pawmot does 130 and the Para is an optional effect that does 60 to you. There's a fair number of decks in the format that can't switch out easily which this can come in clutch against, but it also makes Munki plays easier; granted, I feel like a lot of the B tier decks have an out to this card. Pawmot is probably better in general (Drapion's 70 puts Slowking in range for a Dusclops KO) but the poison gives Drapion some nice applications, especially in the mirror (since if you hit an opposing Slowking with Drapion they'll get KOed at the start of your turn, which is a huge tempo swing)

30th :unown: Deals 40 but lets you take an extra prize if it KOs, good for weakened Pokemon and punishing Budew (albeit Lucky Helmet does this too). Also combos well with Drapion and Pawmot.
 
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More deck talk, but this time I want to talk about the weaker decks that I find really enjoyable. Also one I utterly despise but hey it’s still interesting at least.

:sv/crustle:

Let’s just get this out of the way: I utterly hate playing with this deck. It’s so fucking awful to pilot and more likely than not your opponent has some way to fuck you over. Fuck you Crustle.

Biases dealt with now, Crustle Control actually has a lot going for it. With Crustle’s utterly amazing ability of Mysterious Rock Inn providing complete immunity to any and all EX attacks, many decks just lose on the spot as they simply have no way of dealing with Crustle. With the Crustle line and Mega Kangaskhan typically being the only Pokemon ran in the deck, Crustle is free to add as many tech cards as it desires. It can utilize Jumbo Ice Cream, Pokemon Center Lady, and Bianca’s Devotion to heal off any chip it might receive, Eri to get rid of any possible Item cards the opponent might have, Xerosic’s Machinations to forcibly mill the opponent’s hand and to cripple Alakazam, and Gravity Gemstone to keep the active Pokemon trapped. Additionally, Crustle decks typically run almost exclusively 3 types of Special Energy: Growing Grass Energy for extra health, Spiky Energy to apply extra chip to the target, and Mist Energy to ignore the additional effects of targets. Sounds like a pretty strong deck right?

Yeah you already know where this is going. Despite the few matchups Crustle is highly advantaged into like N’s Zoroark who doesn’t really have a way to deal with it other than trapping it with Yveltal and praying it doesn’t get set up, pretty much every deck has an answer to Crustle. Obviously single prize attackers like Alakazam and Dipplin completely bypass Crustle’s ability, and while they are vulnerable to some options the deck has, they can easily steamroll through all of the Crustles the opponent might have. Even decks with EX attackers aren’t immediately screwed, as options like Dusknoir, Munkidori, Solrock in Mega Lucario, Tapu Bulu in Hydrapple, Metagross in Mega Excadrill, and others I didn’t even think of can be prioritized to deal with it. And even if they don’t have any of those cards, it’s pretty likely they played a Mega Kangaskhan in order to set up, so they can knock that out to deal with it. And finally, despite the ability, Crustle is an absurdly awful card. Requiring a 3 energy attack for an ok 120 damage that bypasses any effects the target may have is fine, but the 3 retreat cost makes this deck HORRIFICALLY vulnerable to gusting. If you don’t have a 2nd Crustle set up if your active Crustle gets hit by a Boss’s Orders, you’re basically a sitting duck into you can find all of the energy. In conclusion, Crustle is a no-good, terrible, horrible, awful, and just plain bad deck. But if you want to play it I won’t stop you maybe I just have a skill issue idfk

:sv/excadrill-mega: :sv/metang: :sv/genesect:

Mega Excadrill is the premier Metal deck of the meta, and it’s not really hard to see why. Being able to one shot Dragapult without needing anything other than 5 energy, and thankfully Excadrill has no issues in getting that energy thanks to its partners. Temporal Forces Metang searches the top 4 cards of your deck and lets you attach any energy you find in there to any Pokemon you want, making Excadrill quite an easy card to set up. Precious Trolley and Genesect EX also making setting up your Metangs rather easy, as you’ll be able to fill your bench with the Beldums you need and Genesect can find the necessary Metangs and Excadrills. Excadrill also has many backup attackers it can rely on. Pitch Black Metagross can turn your energy engines into dangerous attackers, Mega Mawile can use your prize advantage to deal massive damage with Gobble Down, and Mega Skarmory can destroy any chipped benched Pokemon with Sonic Ripper. Despite this, the deck is very greedy with energy, as Mega Excadrill requires a lot of it to function properly while Metagross and Skarmory discard energy for their big attacks. Additionally, if you prized your Precious Trolley or Genesect, set up can be incredibly slow as Excadrill benefits greatly from the momentum they provide. The deck is still incredibly fun however, and it might be able to prove itself later on.

:sv/honchkrow: :sv/porygon2: :sv/articuno:

Team Rocket’s finest offerings are with the birds. Rocket Honchkrow makes prime usage of the many Team Rocket supporters by using them as ammo for its Rocket Feathers attack. By building up a hand full of Rocket supporters (which can be easily done with the help of Rocket’s Ariana and Roto-Stick), Honckrow is able to land massive KOs against most threats at the cost of your own resources. This does make the deck vulnerable to bricking, but its nature as a single-prize deck and access to strong comeback cards like Rocket’s Archer and Giovanni can lead to good positions. The deck’s other main attacker in Rocket’s Porygon2 benefits from the supporters you discard, although it cannot utilize Rocket Energy (a special energy type that counts as 2 Psychic and Dark Energy) as effectively as it requires a 3 energy cost. The niche Rocket’s Porygon-Z does bypass this issue, as it reduces the cost to 2 energy and even gains an ability that lets it discard 2 cards, although an Ignition Energy on Porygon2 is preferred most of the time. Pair them with Rocket’s Articuno for bench protection and Rocket’s Mimikyu to fire a Tera Pokemon’s attack back at them (mainly Phantom Dive), and you get an inconsistent yet extremely entertaining deck. Join Team Rocket today for your free hat!!

:sv/mewtwo: :sv/spidops:

Take Rocket Honchkrow’s bricking issue, make it worse, and then get stuck with a card that doesn’t even function without 3 other Rocket’s Pokemon, and you get Rocket’s Mewtwo. While it doesn’t suffer the hardest from bricking (that honor goes to Cynthia’s Garchomp), the deck still has a very hard time getting the resources it wants due to Rocket cards not providing the best draw power outside of Ariana and Proton. You’ll find yourself praying for a good draw from Team Rocket’s Factory or a fresh hand from Lillie’s Determination too often for this deck to be consistent. But when it does work, it’s pretty solid. Mewtwo is able to constantly hit its strongest possible attack thanks to Rocket’s Spidops being able to recycle the energy Mewtwo discards. Spidops itself is a pretty solid attacker in its own right, being able to hit for 150 damage for 2 energy if you have a bench full of Rocket’s Pokemon. Modern lists have started to add Lillie’s Clefairy to the deck in order to ensure Mewtwo is able to deal with Dragapult more consistently. A fun deck, although probably one to avoid if you don’t like getting bricked.

:sv/beedrill:

We have now made it to the good shit. I would not call Beedrill a good deck. Not in the slightest. It requires far too much to go in its favor to even get decent damage. But there is no deck that provides greater euphoria when you build up a full bench of Beedrills and deal 440 damage to the unlucky shmuck in front of you. Yes, you do need to ensure you keep your bench empty, which thanks to Dudunsparce is possible. Yes, getting one of your Beedrills or Weedles prized is extremely bad, but most targets will fall to a 330 damage attack anyway, and realistically this is what you’re going to be peaking at most of the time. Yes, you lack a real way to keep the damage up once your opponent knocks out some Beedrills, but a Sacred Ash can restore them and they can come back the same turn thanks to Forest of Vitality. No deck makes you feel as unstoppable as Beedrill, as barely anything can stand in its path once you set up. If you want the most entertaining deck in the game, play Beedrill. I ensure you it is worth it.
 
Mr. Uncompetitive said:
Newish to TCG, but afaik ASC Spectrier isn't really seeing play in Slowking anymore. From my experience it's a high risk card with a deceptive reward since it requires a full discard and it's mainly used to pick off Shaymin. But decks that run Shaymin also have ways to recycle it in a pinch, which in turn means you have to recycle Spectrier if you still want to Kyurem. Afaik the tech is looking more like (feel free to post corrections if/when i'm wrong lmao)

SSP :annihilape: KOs both active. Can't be used recklessly but very helpful for getting past high HP mons not named Mega Luke or Pult (Cynthia Chomp, Shark, Starmie, Exca) and recyclable unlike Bangle. The catch is that it can't take out Mega Lopunny with Mist Energy which Bangle can

PBL :annihilape: Deals 100 and puts 5 damage counters on a benched Pokemon. A less committal way to pressure Shaymin if you want while also allowing you to pick off low HP Pokemon, namely Abra and Duskull if your opponent is on Zam

:munkidori: There's a spicy Slowking variant that swaps out Secret Box for Prime Catcher and runs Munkidori and a Crispin engine. This not only lets you hit nice KO thresholds, but also means Annihilape -> Munki takes out Shaymin on your own turn and lets you Kyurem without care

:cofagrigus: Cof puts 6 damage counters on all Pokemon with an ability. Risky, but obviously crazy against Zam and gives you damage counters for Munki (and also sets up a Shaymin KO)

:drapion: and :pawmot: Both paralyze the foe while damaging you; Drapion deals 100 and poisons but does 70 to you, while Pawmot does 130 and the Para is an optional effect that does 60 to you. There's a fair number of decks in the format that can't switch out easily which this can come in clutch against, but it also makes Munki plays easier; granted, I feel like a lot of the B tier decks have an out to this card. Pawmot is probably better in general (Drapion's 70 puts Slowking in range for a Dusclops KO) but the poison gives Drapion some nice applications, especially in the mirror (since if you hit an opposing with Drapion they'll get KOed at the start of your turn, which is a huge tempo swing)

30th :unown: Deals 40 but lets you take an extra prize if it KOs, good for weakened Pokemon and punishing Budew (albeit Lucky Helmet does this too). Also combos well with Drapion and Pawmot.
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Fun fact, with Clefairy on board and no Munkidori on the opponent's side, Pawmot into Unown ko's dragapult for three prizes :)
 
:sv/mew:

A deck I’m currently not sure how to feel about is Mew Box. On the one hand, Mew is able to respond to pretty much any threat thrown at it, such as using Ogerpon-Wellspring’s Sob for trapping, Lillie’s Clefairy for good all-around damage (especially with Area Zero Underdepths), and Iron Crown for good bench chipping. On the other hand, Mew feels BAD to use. With an absolutely pitiful 160 HP, pretty much anything can take it out without even trying. Setting up can feel pretty bad too, as a lot of its best attacks require different energy types, as you need Water energy for Wogerpon’s Torrential Pump and Fighting energy if you decide to add Koraidon EX or Passimian. I don’t think it’s a bad deck, I just don’t see the point of playing it over a typical Basic Box strategy. Perhaps it just needs the right support in a later set to shine.

:sv/sharpedo-mega:

On the contrary, I have been very impressed during my testing of Mega Sharpedo. The damage its able to deal is utterly ridiculous, with it’s Hungry Jaws attack being able to deal 340 damage when boosted with Binding Mochi. Complementing it is its Greedy Fangs attack, which can pick off weaker Pokemon and provides valuable card draw, and possesses an incredibly valuable free retreat to get out of danger. Sharpedo’s package of Toxtricity and Pecharunt EX made it feel incredibly consistent to set up, although there are still some bricking issues in case you get a bad hand. Still, I find Mega Sharpedo an incredibly fun deck to pilot and recommend giving it a try.
 
Two Rocket’s Honchkrow and a cool Greninja Dusknoir Starmie deck made top cut in Gdansk this weekend. One misplayed a lot and lost to Tord in first round, while the second made it all the way to finals while miraculously not hitting a single Dragapult the entire weekend. It got absolutely bodied by Slowking in the finals though. The deck is probably still not a good pick, but it shows that if you have a god tier run you can make top cut.

Tord showing that Dragapult Dudunsparce (basically Mattais’ original cook minus the hero’s cape) has very strong options into everything that’s not Dragapult Hammers
 
RainGal6 said:
:dragapult:: Ironically enough, Dragapult’s best secondary wincon is none at all. This mainly helps against the Dragapult ditto, as it denies the opponent the oppurtunity to snipe their supportive Pokemon or their other Dragapults, as Tera provides an immunity to all effects while on the bench.
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Small correction: Tera only stops direct damage, not effects of attacks. I think the reason straight Pult is favored into alternatives is just consistency + Crushing Hammers.
 
Mekkah said:
Small correction: Tera only stops direct damage, not effects of attacks. I think the reason straight Pult is favored into alternatives is just consistency + Crushing Hammers.
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Ah right, got the effect mixed up when I wrote that. And yeah, the consistency is a big factor I forgot to highlight in there. With you not needing to slot in a full line of extra Pokemon, you can fit whatever tech cards you want to help patch weak spots.

On an unrelated note, Delta Reign has finally arrived, and with we'll see the biggest spike of relevant cards in a long time. Mega Rayquaza EX and Talonflame EX are already proving to have quite the grasp over the meta, and have already seen success in Japan. But I don't want to talk about either of them right now, but rather the card I think has the potential be the unsung dominator in this new environment:

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I sincerely believe Cacturne might be one of the most powerful new attackers in the game right now. For only 1 energy, Cacturne can deal upwards to 310 damage, assuming the opponent has 6 Pokemon with abilities in play. But with how many decks in the game rely on using a lot of Pokemon with abilities, it isn't that difficult to get Cacturne to maximum power, or at the very least very high damage. As for what would run it... that's hard to say at the moment. Hydrapple would seem like an easy slot in, but you'll be committed to three evolutionary lines in one deck, which can lead to extreme consistency issues. No other deck can either fit the line in or just has better options. But regardless, Cacturne can absolutely be able to steal games, it just needs the right deck for it.
 
RainGal6 said:
Mega Rayquaza EX
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I'm honestly not that convinced on Mega Rayquaza. It was hailed early in Japan's release as a Dragapult killer, and it... isn't that. It's actually a pretty simple matchup for Pult; Risky Ruins sets up Phantom Dive math perfectly on Rayquaza, it works on Talon too with Munkidori, and any Hammer flips are just gravy. Pult just has to make it out of the early game without giving up double Dreepy. Mega Ray's best quality is being an additional colorless Mega for Talonflame ex, which is a really good card! Put it in your basic box deck!
 
biggest winners from DLR to me are crustle :crustle: and basic box :ogerpon::clefairy:

the new tasty rice ball card is a net +300 heal to crustle that also allows the player to heal in very specific ways to make a full heal from biancas devotion practically guaranteed. the new baby azurill card is also solid in the deck and i think we will see its inclusion be frequent but not ubiquitous. pyroduct is a concern but im not sure of its broad application in many decks, to me it seems only really playable in rayquaza or quad thorns but i am hesitant to call those very viable at the moment.

talonflame ex on the other hand allows basic box extremely good tutor for their combo turns while also being a very generically strong attacker into basically every evolving deck, being capable of somewhat realistic setup as early as turn 1 going second i see this making an immediately strong presence in basic box going forward. deceptively bulky and even 2hkos opposing mega kang in mirror; seriously good card.

biggest losers look like hide n sneak :dhelmise::banette: and lucario :lucario-mega:
talonflames introduction will make both of these decks struggle more when prize racing basic box going forward and hide n sneak in particular really doesnt like seeing crustle get buffed, caped kang can now heal off dhelmise attacks much sooner which makes the odds of them ever winning that matchup significantly worse.

pult :dragapult: update:
surprise surprise, still bdif by a lot. i forsee dudun ex being played a lot more. i would cut 3rd dark from the drixty personally. this card is good into both basic box and crustle, and while they dont autowin either matchup they make both a lot simipler and more consistent to play. namely swinging with dudun is very hard for basic box to respond to when used in combination with hand disruption (ideally stamp but also judge) and crustles ability does not stop the second attack though it is slow to setup requiring at least 2 turns to attach 3 energy, and importantly does not ohko if they have cape or a growing grass.
 
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Speaking of glowups from Delta Reign, I have to highlight quite possibly the biggest winner of the set in my eyes:

:sv/iron_thorns:

Iron Thorns has gotten some small amount of support since it’s World Championship win and rotation, but Legendary Pyroduct personally brings it back into meta relevance. Iron Thorns itself is already quite a pretty devastating force, shutting down the support engines of many decks like Mega Kangaskhan, Latias, Ogerpon-Teal, Fezendipiti, and Meowth. But with Pyroduct in play, you also get to stop Dudunsparce, Drakloak, Alakazam, N’s Zoroark, and Crustle from doing anything meaningful. Pair it with a Judge to hopefully cripple their hand and you will trap your opponent in a nightmarish loop of bricking. Of course, a lot of that power comes from Pyroduct itself, so if your opponent is able to get rid of both of them then it can be an uphill battle if you don’t already have a lead. But due to Iron Thorns’ small Pokemon count, you are able to fill your deck with as many tech options as possible. Crushing Hammers and Nighttime Mine give extra Dragapult annoyances, Mist Energy makes the Alakazam matchup an instant-win in case it already wasn’t extremely in your favor already, Gravity Gemstone to keep your opponents in, and Jumbo Ice Cream or AZ’s Tranquility to keep your Thorns’ healthy and your opponent furious. I don’t think it’s going to be a super dangerous contender, but I do believe it has enough decent to good matchups that it’s worth building around.
 
Did a little Golisopod testing in person
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I think in practice I didn’t really like the Dudunsparces—MunkiLass really wants to use up a lot of bench spaces, which means you have to choose between Golisopod, Dunsparce, and Fezandipiti for limited bench space. I also found out that the Hydrapple matchup is completely terrible. To these ends, I’m now on 3-3 Froslass and a 1-1 Cacturne line; Cacturne can help out with the prize trade and can attack for big numbers without instantly losing the game if it’s knocked out immediately. Not having draw support on board stinks, so I may eventually try going down to 3-2 Pod and adding in a Judge and a Morty’s Conviction.

All of that said, the deck is fun, and plays pretty much how I expect it to! Basic box feels like a pretty good matchup, Pult is winnable, and you can always do MunkiLass + Budew stuff in bad Golisopod matchups. I’m not super experienced with Froslass but it’s not too difficult to pick up.

The BCC deck list has been updated to my current version and will stay that way for the duration of the tournament :)
 
Arcticblast said:
Did a little Golisopod testing in person
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I think in practice I didn’t really like the Dudunsparces—MunkiLass really wants to use up a lot of bench spaces, which means you have to choose between Golisopod, Dunsparce, and Fezandipiti for limited bench space. I also found out that the Hydrapple matchup is completely terrible. To these ends, I’m now on 3-3 Froslass and a 1-1 Cacturne line; Cacturne can help out with the prize trade and can attack for big numbers without instantly losing the game if it’s knocked out immediately. Not having draw support on board stinks, so I may eventually try going down to 3-2 Pod and adding in a Judge and a Morty’s Conviction.

All of that said, the deck is fun, and plays pretty much how I expect it to! Basic box feels like a pretty good matchup, Pult is winnable, and you can always do MunkiLass + Budew stuff in bad Golisopod matchups. I’m not super experienced with Froslass but it’s not too difficult to pick up.

The BCC deck list has been updated to my current version and will stay that way for the duration of the tournament :)
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This deck is super fun to play and really strong (as far as my testing versus other BCC decks has gone), I would say I even think adding the Judge/Conviction would be super helpful personally, having played the deck w/o it a good bit
 
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