Kash Top 25 List: Best decks from SVI to PFL and how 2026 rotation will affect them

Stuttgart Regional has come and gone and with that, the final TPCi regional is done for the season. We still do have one more TPC major event to go with cards featured in Phantasmal Flames (Hong Kong's Premier Ball League) and while Aichi is happening this week, that will feature cards we will see next year so it won't matter for people who are preparing for the next few big events such as Toronto, Birmingham, Mérida and Auckland. And also for those of us prepping for our League Challenges, League Cups, Great Ball Leagues and Ultra Ball Leagues.

So I thought now would be a great time to look at top 25 decks in this format and up till say January when the next mini-set arrives. And with rotation just around the corner in April, why not see how some of these decks will be affected by it. And spoiler alert, this rotation is a big one and a lot of decks will be affected by it and of course, some of them will soon be extinct (aka my way of saying no longer playable in Standard because the main attackers have been rotated).

So I took 25 different decks, all of which were featured in Day 2 of Stuttgart Regional and show what rotation will do for these decks. And for those wanting to pick up a new deck to play, I'll show the prices of these decks too (as of December 4th 2025).

As a reminder, rotation is G Block so sets affected are:

• Scarlet and Violet (SVI)
• Paldea Evolved (PAL)
• Obsidian Flames (OBF)
• Pokémon 151 (MEW)
• Paradox Rift (PAR)
• Paldean Fates (PAF)
• Scarlet and Violet Promos (SVP)
• SVP 001 to 086, 088, 093-096, 099-101, 103-104, 119-121, 124-125, 130, 132, 137-140, 142-143, 160-161, 167-169, 196, 

I have one rule that can affect the rotating numbers. For decks with evolving mons, if the highest stage is rotating, then every card rotates. If it's not rotating and are using a Basic from the G-Block, they are not considered rotating. 

We are getting Ascended Heroes mini-set too. These are some of the cards that will likely see play that we will get in the upcoming mini-set:

• Mega Froslass ex
• Mega Dragonite ex
• N's Zekrom - 250 damage for N's Zoroark and also a Shred attack for 70!
• Light Ball - +50 attack for Pikachu ex
• Thick Scales - Dragon mons takes -50 against Grass, Fire, Water, Lighting
• Canari - Search up to 4 Lighting Pokemon
• Poke Pad - Searches out any non-Rule Box pokemon

25) Dragapult ex/Blaziken ex

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 18th

Total Price: $48.16

Cards Rotating: 18 (30%)

• 2 Reversal Energy
• 1 Luminous Energy
• 4 Iono
• 4 Arven
• 1 Counter Catcher
• 1 Super Rod
• 1 Earthen Vessel
• 2 Technical Machine: Evolution
• 2 Artazon

We start with a fun deck that Fabien Pujol has been piloting for a while now, but this might end up being a secondary way for people to play Dragapult ex post rotation. With Zard gone, there "main" way to accelerate energy onto Pult is now gone, especially with Luminous Energy being rotated soon, so I can see something like Blaziken ex helping to sort that issue out.

What this deck, and many other decks, will lose out are great supporters in Iono for disruption and Arven to set up your board and also many good items too, such as Counter Catcher for gust, Super Rod for recovery and Vessel for getting energies. But perhaps one of the main losses is the TM Evo, which will hurt a lot of evolving decks such as this one, especially those with multiple lines of Pokemon in the deck.

24) Cynthia's Garchomp ex

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 35th

Total Price: $17.66

Cards Rotating: 11 (18.33%)

• 1 Toedscool
• 1 Toedscruel
• 4 Arven
• 1 Professor Turo's Scenario
• 2 Technical Machine: Evolution
• 2 Town Store

Cynthia's Garchomp ex is one deck that doesn't actually lose much from rotation, but what it does lose is all it's outs to get Gabites and and Roserades in the field at the end of Turn 1 with Arven, TM Evo and Town Store all rotating, meaning it'll be harder to set up the field.

Everything else isn't as big as a loss, Toedscruel is a new inclusion to deal with Gholdengo and well they're both rotating so they cancel each other out. Turo rotating is a big one for many decks and now the only good way to heal stuff with supporters is Wally and to switch out, we'd need either a Switch or Kieran or a Pokemon with an ability to help with that.

23) Dragapult ex

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 20th

Total Price: $46.17

Cards Rotating: 16 (26.67%)

• 1 Toedscool
• 1 Toedscruel
• 1 Hawlucha
• 4 Luminous Energy
• 4 Iono
• 1 Professor Turo's Scenario
• 2 Counter Catcher
• 1 Super Rod
• 1 Artazon

As you'll see later on in this list, Dragapult decks technically won't lose much but what it loses really does hurt, the big ones being Luminous Energy, Iono and Counter Catcher. Pult decks love to play from behind and the two cards that enable that style of play is Iono and Counter Catcher and with both gone, playing from behind is now a lot tougher when you can't disrupt and gust something up at the same time.

Everything else is as mentioned, Hawlucha rotating does mean the deck will have a harder time of hitting the perfect 70 HP on a Basic Pokémon, or hitting something for just enough to KO with the 10 Hawlucha ping. Turo is another loss for late game Ursaluna attacks but there are like-for-like replacemtns in the form of Switch or Kieran. 

22) Ethan's Typhlosion

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 97th

Total Price: $48.05

Cards Rotating: 11 (18.33%)

• 1 Iron Bundle
• 2 Professor's Research
• 1 Professor Turo's Scenario
• 1 Earthen Vessel
• 1 Counter Catcher
• 1 Picnic Basket
• 2 Technical Machine: Evolution
• 2 Artazon

Well this deck is sadly still around, but with Gholdengo rotating, is ther even a point of this deck still being a thing? I feel as though Alakazam has already replaced it as the best budget deck in the format. But Typhlosion can still hit for big numbers with Ethan usage and Brave Bangle and a few other damage modifiers. 

The deck doesn't lose much to rotation. Artazon is a big one as the deck does want to setup a board full of Cyndaquils and Victini and other supporting mons like Shaymin and Psyduck. Losing TM Evo does hurt this deck a lot too. 

21) Dragapult ex/Charizard ex

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 114th

Total Price: $41.39

Cards Rotating: 21 (35%) - Soon to be Extinct

• 2 Charmander
• 1 Charmeleon
• 2 Charizard ex
• 1 Chi-Yu
• 4 Luminous Energy
• 4 Arven
• 2 Iono
• 2 Counter Catcher
• 1 Nest Ball
• 1 Super Rod
• 1 Technical Machine: Evolution

And now we've arrived to our first soon to be extinct deck. The main reason is because the whole Charizard ex line is rotating thus this Pult Zard build will cease to exist come rotation. There are a few different ways to replace it, the main one being Blaziken ex but you do lose out your end-game closer with Zard ex.

Like for every other Pult lists, losing stuff like Luminous Energy, Iono and Counter Catcher hurts and losing the Zard pieces means losing stuff like Arven and TM Evo to set-up. Chi-Yu rotating isn't a big of a loss as Gholdengo ex is also rotating and decks like these can now just run Moltres from Phantasmal Flames to deal with stuff like Teal Mask Ogerpon ex.

20) Charizard ex/Noctowl

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 1st

Total Price: $35.45

Cards Rotating: 20 (33.33%) - Soon to be Extinct

• 3 Charmander
• 1 Charmeleon
• 2 Charizard ex
• 2 Pidgey
• 2 Pidgeot ex
• 1 Klefki
• 2 Iono
• 4 Nest Ball
• 1 Super Rod
• 2 Jet Energy

Ahhh Dawn Zard, my favourite deck for the past month or so. I'm so happy it won Stuttgart Regional because I was a believer of the deck since November. In fact when I first read Dawn I was already thinking to myself...well I can get Zard or Pidgeot for my Stage 2, what about my Stage 1....and the first thing to hit my mind was Noctowl and here we are! 

Unfortunately this deck also ceases to exist soon, as not just the entire Zard ex line is rotating but the Pidgeot ex line is rotating too! It will be a sad day when that happens. Losing Klefki is also really big for the enitre game as now decks with Psyduck can go unchecked with no real counter with to deal with it. Losing Jet also sucks for a lot of decks, less options to move around stuff on the field.

19) Mega Venusaur ex

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 373th

Total Price: $26.06

Cards Rotating: 10 (16.67%)

• 1 Toedscool
• 1 Toedscruel
• 1 Wo-Chien ex
• 2 Iono
• 1 Professor Turo's Scenario
• 2 Nest Ball
• 2 Earthen Vessel

Mega Venusaur ex actually doesn't lose much from rotation. Toedscuel is only there for Gholdengo ex and they're both gone. Losing Iono and Turo are more painful to the deck. Most decks would also be hurting losing Nest Ball and Vessel but this deck already has Bug Catching Set so that's a like-for-like replacement.

And with more Grass attackers to come in the future, the combination of Meganium-Teal Mask Ogerpon ex-Mega Venusaur ex could help to speed up their attacks much like how the soon-to-be rotated Regigigas have done as a counter to Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex.

18) Gholdengo ex/Joltik Box

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 9th

Total Price: $63.05

Cards Rotating: 22 (36.67%) - Soon to be Extinct

• 3 Gimmighoul
• 3 Gholdengo ex
• 2 Iron Hands ex
• 1 Miraidon ex
• 4 Arven
• 1 Penny
• 3 Superior Energy Retrieval
• 2 Earthen Vessel
• 1 Nest Ball
• 1 Picnic Basket
• 1 Bravery Charm

Well now we reach another deck that will be extinct soon. I will touch on the Gholdengo stuff when we get to the main guy but this deck also loses it's early attacker in Iron Hands ex. Most of the time, Iron Hands ex helps to take your first two prizes, sometimes your next two prizes as well, and Gholdengo ex is the closer.

So with both of them gone.....it's just a Joltik deck powering up Pikachu ex? Yup it's now a Joltik deck (bear in mind, Miraidon ex is also gone). It also loses Arven so the deck will be a bit slower to set-up with no Miraidon, no Nest Ball. Nothing. SER rotating is a bit poetic since it's really only seeing play in decks with Gholdengo ex.

17) Mega Sharpedo ex/Toxtricity

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 173rd

Total Price: $40.33

Cards Rotating: 10 (16.67%)

• 3 Professor's Research
• 3 Iono
• 1 Professor Turo's Scenario
• 1 Nest Ball
• 1 Super Rod
• 1 Town Store

One of the main new decks to come out of Phantasmal Flames is the Toxtricity Box, be it with this build with Mega Sharpedo ex or a more Box style deck with many different attackers such as Mega Absol ex, the other Brute Bonnet, Seviper and whoever it may be. Dark Box is back again!

Although the deck doesn't actually lose much, it does lose some key consistency cards like Professor's Research and Iono. Super Rod I can see being swapped for Energy Recycler as the deck wants these energies in the deck anyway. This deck isn't that much affected by rotation so I can see more people likely picking the Tox Box deck up soon. In fact I'm already seeing a lot of these decks at my locals anyway!

16) Mega Kangaskhan ex/Bouffalant

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 27th

Total Price: $40.91

Cards Rotating: 17 (28.33%)

• 2 Jet Energy
• 4 Arven
• 2 Iono
• 2 Penny
• 2 Nest Ball
• 1 Earthen Vessel
• 2 Bravery Charm
• 2 Technical Machine: Turbo Energize

The good news, none of the Pokemon in this deck is rotating, which is much better than most other decks on this list! You're still a Mega Kangaskhan ex deck at heart just trying to make it as tanky as possible with Bouffalant and Lively Stadium.

The bad news? Bravery Charm is gone so Khan won't be as tanky as it could have been. The deck also loses it main support engine in Arven, which helps to get Precious Trolley, said Bravery Charm and TM Turbo Energize, both of which are rotating. Losing Nest Ball also hurts the deck as you'll want to get Munkidori and Bouffalant down in most games (you can replace it for the upcoming Poke Pad but it doesn't search out Mega Kangaskhan ex). Losing Penny also hurts to help pick up a heavily damaged Kangaskhan or any other benched mon.

15) Joltik Box

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 88th

Total Price: $46.97

Cards Rotating: 18 (30%)

• 2 Miraidon ex
• 2 Iron Hands ex
• 1 Mew ex
• 4 Arven
• 4 Nest Ball
• 1 Earthen Vessel
• 1 Super Rod
• 1 Future Booster Energy Capsule
• 1 Bravery Charm
• 1 Vitality Band

Joltik is one deck that was so heavily affected by the upcoming rotation, I did wonder if I should just put it under the soon to be extinct tag but decided not to. Joltik is still around, and it can still charge to Pikachu ex. And that's about it sadly. Miraidon ex rotating hurts the deck's consistency and Iron Hands ex hurts the deck's ability to prize race evolving decks. That being said, Pikachu ex will get a new tool to play with in the form of Light Ball to give it an extra 50 damage, so a Joltik charging Pikachu type of deck might still live.

Arven and Nest Ball are another two big losses for the deck as the deck wants to be as consistent as possible to execute it's gameplan every other match. 3 of the 5 tools are also rotating, all of which have their own useful needs in many match-ups. I'm not even sure how this deck will look post-rotation, or if it will even exist. It might soon turn into a deck that uses Joltik and Eelektrik to power up other attackers with the new Canari being the engine of the deck, in a similar with to Dawn for Dawn Zard.

14) Flareon ex/Noctowl

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 25th

Total Price: $44.38

Cards Rotating: 11 (18.33%)

• 1 Pidgey
• 1 Pidgeot ex
• 2 Jet Energy
• 1 Iono
• 4 Nest Ball
• 1 Counter Catcher
• 1 Vitality Band

Eevee-Box, or Flareon Owls, or whatever this is called, actually doesn't lose much to rotation which is always good news. Sure the 1-0-1 Pidgeot ex line is gone, but some lists don't even use it anyway! Jet is another one that I don't see many lists using. Iono can easily be swapped for Judge so you still have ways to disrupt your opponents.

The biggest lost will be Nest Ball. You still have a lot of outs to bench stuff like Fan Rotom, Eevee or Hoothoot, especially with Poke Pad releasing soon but now the deck won't have the easiest of times to bench something like Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex, Terapagos ex, Fezandipiti ex or Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex which means you will have to rely on either Tera Orb or Ultra Ball, which is not what this deck wants as it doesn't like discarding cards.

13) Tera Box

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 42nd

Total Price: $38.13

Cards Rotating: 9 (15%)

• 1 Iron Bundle
• 1 Ditto
• 1 Mew ex
• 1 Professor Turo's Scenario
• 4 Nest Ball
• 1 Earthen Vessel

For Tera Box, you can pretty much just copy and paste whatever I just said for Flareon/Noctowl. The funny thing is, the only thing both decks share that they are losing is the Nest Ball. Tera Orb isn't the best like-for-like replacement as it cannot search out stuff like Lillie's Clefairy ex or Fezandipiti ex. 

I do see Tera Box still being relevant in the meta as it won't lose much anyway. If anything, it might evolve to add more stuff. We could see a mix of Tera and Mega Box in here as you do have Mega Signal to search out stuff like Mega Absol ex or Mega Mawile ex. It's still a good deck with loads of attackers! One of which won't be around is Mew ex.

12) Mega Lopunny ex/Dusknoir

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 28th

Total Price: $40.52

Cards Rotating: 14 (23.33%)

• 1 Pidgey
• 1 Pidgeotto
• 1 Pidgeot ex
• 1 Klefki
• 1 Ditto
• 2 Iono
• 2 Nest Ball
• 1 Counter Catcher
• 4 Jet Energy

Another new deck that showed up with the arrival of Phantasmal Flames is Mega Lopunny ex/Dusknoir! It looks just like the old Terapagos ex/Dusknoir deck that first showed up in Stellar Crown, with many of the same pieces in the deck, the Dusk line, the Pidgeot line, Fez and 4 Rare Candies.

But come rotation, the deck does lose a lot of useful stuff. The whole Pidgeot ex line will be gone but perhaps the biggest loss will be Klefki. Without Klefki, decks can simply shove in a Psyduck and know, unless it gets gusted up, we won't be able to use our Dusclops or Dusknoir for the games. The other big loss is Jet Energy. The deck works so well because Hilda gets you Mega Lopunny ex and Jet Energy to get that 230 damage on the board out of nowhere. These two cards being rotated will change how this deck looks come April.

11) Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 21st

Total Price: $38.27

Cards Rotating: 19 (31.67%) - Soon to be Extinct

• 1 Slither Wing
• 1 Mew ex
• 1 Squawkabilly ex
• 4 Professor Sada's Vitality
• 1 Penny
• 4 Pokémon Catcher
• 4 Nest Ball
• 3 Earthen Vessel

The big bad Bolt is still around....but not for much longer? Raging Bolt ex doesn't rotate, Teal Mask Ogerpon ex doesn't rotate, so why did I put in in the extinct distinction? Well this version of Raging Bolt will be gone. Quite simply, losing Professor Sada's Vitality might be a bit too much for this deck. 

Sure you still have Crispin and can probably play 4 of it for this deck going forward, but have one extra attachment is nothing compared to 2 extra attachments. The deck might now need to rely on stuff like Glass Trumpet to keep the energy attachments going for Raging Bolt ex to hit as much damage as possible. So it can still survive but not having Sada will hurt the deck a lot. Also losing Nest Ball AND Earthen Vessel is a big hit! Slither Wing rotating means you now don't have an answer to Pikachu ex.

10) Alakazam/Dudunsparce

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 50th

Total Price: $23.24

Cards Rotating: 4 (6.67%)

• 1 Jet Energy
• 1 Tulip
• 2 Nest Ball

Probably the best budget deck in the game right now and here is the scary part, the deck loses almost nothing to rotation. Jet energy? Not much of a loss to be honest, it's there to help you get out of retreat lock and confusion stuff, and you can keep re-using it with Dudunsparce. Tulip? Sure that might be the biggest loss for the deck but there are many other replacements for it.

As for Nest Ball? Losing another out to Fan Rotom or Abra isn't so bad, but losing the out to get Fezandipiti ex will hurt the deck as you can't really afford to play Ultra Ball in this deck. The name of the game for this deck is to keep what you have in hand, not throw it. So there is no real ways to just get a Fez down for this deck apart from drawing into it. But other than that, this deck should thrive in rotation, especially with Iono gone which is great news for Alakazam, and with Klefki gone, Psyduck can help to make sure Dusk bombs won't hurt the deck.

9) N's Zoroark

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 239th

Total Price: $57.52

Cards Rotating: 18 (30%)

• 2 Toedscool
• 2 Toedscruel
• 2 Iono
• 1 Arven
• 1 Penny
• 2 Counter Catcher
• 2 Super Rod
• 1 Pal Pad
• 1 Nest Ball
• 2 Technical Machine: Evolution
• 2 Artazon

30% looks like a big number, enough to kill off any deck but I don't think that will be the case for N's Zoroark ex. Losing Toedscruel is fine as Gholdengo ex is rotating. But losing Arven, Iono, Artazon, Super Rod and TM Evo is huge, these are all great consistency card for this deck. Arven and Iono will likely be replaced by cards with similar effects but they won't offer the same pros as having an item and TM Evo for this deck, as you want to get your Zoroarks on board ASAP.

If anything, N's Zoroark might just get a bit stronger come rotation because of the inclusion of the new N's Zekrom from the upcoming Heroes Ascended mini-set. And since Zoroark is a Trade deck, you're not too fussed about throwing some consistency cards once you set up so a lot of the rotating cards will likely make way for similiar cards. The ones that don't have a good replacement is Counter Catcher and Pal Pad.

8) Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex/Froslass

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 58th

Total Price: $41.38

Cards Rotating: 18 (30%)

• 1 Iron Bundle
• 4 Arven
• 3 Iono
• 2 Counter Catcher
• 2 Nest Ball
• 1 Energy Search
• 1 Super Rod
• 2 Technical Machine: Evolution
• 1 Technical Machine: Devolution
• 1 Artazon

This deck is still around but for a deck that doesn't really lose any of it's Pokemon line, Grimm sure loses a lot from consistency cards. Arven has been key for most of it's game to get TM Evo going Turn 1, Secret Box mid game or TM Devo in the late game, and yes, all of those cards except Secret Box will be rotating. In fact, I'm not even sure the deck might play Secret Box as it'll be a lot harder to find it without Arven but there is a like-for-like replacement in Team Rocket's Petrel. 

Nest Ball won't be a big loss for the deck with the new Poke Pad likely to replace it. Counter Catcher is a big loss for the deck, this deck does like to play from behind and losing that and Iono will hurt that gameplan, as mentioned previously for Dragapult decks too and as I will for Pult and Garde decks coming after this. Marnie's Grimmsnarl will look a lot different come rotation but it should still be a factor.

7) Ceruledge ex

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 77th

Total Price: $26.50

Cards Rotating: 13 (21.67%)

• 1 Squawkabilly ex
• 2 Jet Energy
• 1 Professor Turo's Scenario
• 1 Professor's Research
• 4 Nest Ball
• 2 Earthen Vessel
• 1 Pal Pad
• 1 Super Rod

Ceruledge isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Sure, it loses Squawkabilly ex which means it can't have explosive Turn 1s in combination with Carmine. Sure it loses mobility cards like Jet and Turo, but in all fairness, they aren't all that bad. In fact, I think most of the card this deck loses can be easily replaced except for one.

The big one being Pal Pad. This deck does like to run though the deck quickly, which means you often have to discard important supporters early on, be it Briar or Boss and losing Pal Pad will make it a bit harder to recover those cards. There are some Pokemon that can recover trainer cards but this being an aggro deck, you just want to be attacking all the time. Losing Vessel does hurt a lot too as you won't be able to throw away as many energies as you'd probably like. But the core part of the deck is still in tact so there's still hope for the Ceruledge believers. 

6) Mega Box

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 53rd

Total Price: $59.20

Cards Rotating: 18 (30%)

• 4 Arven
• 3 Penny
• 2 Iono
• 2 Nest Ball
• 1 Counter Catcher
• 1 Earthen Vessel
• 2 Bravery Charm
• 2 Technical Machine: Turbo Energize
• 1 Town Store

30% is a big number for a deck that recently showed up with the release of Mega Evolutions! Mega Box does get badly hit by rotation with losing one of it's main engines, Arven + TM Turbo Energize. It's what the deck wants to see pretty much every game in Turn 1 going 2nd. And it's not just the starting bit, the ability to take hits will take a hit as well (no pun intended) by losing Bravery Charm and also Penny.

But both Mega Absol ex and Mega Kangaskhan are just too good to ignore. This version of Mega Box might not exist for much longer but I can still see both of them being big players in the game for the next 2 years. Khan just has a great ability and can be a tanky deck with Bouffalant and find a different way to charge energies. As for Absol, the next best option is likely the Toxtricity Box for it, or the deck might just thrive on with a combination of Toxtricty, Crispin and whatever it may be!

5) Gardevoir ex

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 46th

Total Price: $52.31

Cards Rotating: 28 (46.67%) - Soon to be Extinct

• 3 Ralts
• 2 Kirlia
• 2 Gardevoir ex
• 1 Drifloon
• 1 Scream Tail
• 1 Mew ex
• 4 Iono
• 2 Arven
• 1 Professor's Research
• 1 Professor Turo's Scenario
• 3 Earthen Vessel
• 2 Nest Ball
• 1 Counter Catcher
• 1 Super Rod
• 1 Bravery Charm
• 1 Technical Machine: Evolution
• 1 Artazon

Well, thankfully it's time has finally come. Gardevoir ex will rotate in the upcoming rotation so this deck is gone. There's not really much for me to say about it. I will touch on Jellicent ex in the next entry. As for Mega Diancie ex, it could still work as it only needs 2 Psychic energies to do 240 damage but getting those energies consistently might be an issue now that there is no Psychic Recharge.

Munkidori will still thrive, just not with Gardevoir. It's likely new best home is either Marnie's Grimmsnarl with Froslass, just Froslass itself, Toxtricity Box or some sort of Khan tanky-style deck. I'm glad to see it gone, this deck just kept getting way too much help honestly, it was getting annoying to see.

4) Gardevoir ex/Jellicent ex

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 10th

Total Price: $58.62

Cards Rotating: 24 (40%) - Soon to be Extinct

• 2 Ralts
• 1 Kirlia
• 2 Gardevoir ex
• 1 Mew ex
• 1 Scream Tail
• 4 Iono
• 1 Professor Turo's Scenario
• 3 Earthen Vessel
• 2 Nest Ball
• 2 Counter Catcher
• 1 Super Rod
• 2 Bravery Charm
• 2 Artazon

Same as above, this deck is finally rotating, thank god. Why was Gardevoir ex good you might wonder? Well it has one of the best abilities in the game. I do like decks that can accelerate energies (Malamar, Welder and Arceus VSTAR to name a few) and because there are so many good Psychic attackers, you can pretty much pick and choose how to attack. And you don't even need to take KOs because of Munkidori which is why this, as some say, is the best comeback deck in the game.

As for Jellicent ex, it will still be an annoying force to deal with in the game. It will need to find a new home and early signs point to it potentially being Dragapult ex or Blaziken ex. 

3) Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 5th

Total Price: $56.89

Cards Rotating: 28 (46.67%) - Soon to be Extinct

• 3 Charmander
• 2 Charmeleon
• 2 Charizard ex
• 2 Pidgey
• 1 Pidgeotto
• 2 Pidgeot ex
• 1 Chi-Yu
• 1 Klefki
• 2 Iono
• 2 Arven
• 1 Professor Turo's Scenario
• 2 Counter Catcher
• 2 Super Rod
• 2 Technical Machine: Evolution
• 1 Defiance Band
• 1 Mesagoza
• 1 Artazon

While I'm glad to see Gardevoir finally rotate, this one makes me sad to see leaving the format. Charizard ex and Pidgeot ex, a deck I've played almost non-stop for the last 2 years. Sometimes the BDIF, sometimes unplayable which is why I like it more than Gardevoir, you just never know what you'll get. 

Charizard ex has amazing ability, charging 3 Fire energies onto the board, and to anyone. Pidgeot just finds anything you want. There will still be a Charizard in the format in Mega Charizard X and also the upcoming Mega Charizard Y, but they both will not have the advantage of using Infernal Reign from Tera Charizard ex (They can use Oricorio ex at least). Since the main attacker and engine is rotating, the whole deck is done for. I mean almost half the deck is rotating anyway! It's not the biggest number on this list though.

2) Dragapult ex/Dusknoir

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 2nd

Total Price: $49.34

Cards Rotating: 13 (21.67%)

• 1 Hawlucha
• 4 Iono
• 1 Professor Turo's Scenario
• 3 Counter Catcher
• 1 Nest Ball
• 3 Luminous Energy

Dragapult ex is already one of the best decks in the format and the scary part is, while it's rivals Gardevoir ex, Charizard ex and Gholdengo ex are all rotating, Dragapult ex is here to stay. It doesn't lose much but what it does lose is it's ability to play the comeback games. With Iono and Counter Catcher gone, Pult decks won't be able to rely on sitting behind a Budew to make a comeback anymore.

But that's not the only painful loss, the other being Luminous Energy. It helps to pay one of Dragapult's awkward attack cost and can also be used for Munkidori. Now the deck will have to rely on manual attachments of basic energies to get those going. But with already a stable baseline, I expect Dragapult to still be the biggest threat going into the new rotation. But no fear 70 HP and 210 HP buddies, Hawlucha is gone so you're safe.

1) Gholdengo ex/Lunatone

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 3rd

Total Price: $50.21

Cards Rotating: 29 (48.33%) - Soon to be Extinct

• 4 Gimmighoul
• 4 Gholdengo ex
• 4 Arven
• 2 Professor Turo's Scenario
• 4 Super Energy Retreival
• 4 Nest Ball
• 3 Earthen Vessel
• 1 Super Rod
• 1 Vitality Band
• 2 Artazon

And to answer your question, well Kash who is the most affected by rotation? Gholdengo/Lunatone. But that's more because Gholdengo ex is rotating. And it's not just the main attacker that is gone, the engine of the deck is also gone. Arven? Gone! Super Energy Retreival? Gone! Earthern Vessel? Gone! Nest Ball? Gone! 

What does it mean for the rest of the deck? Well Lunatone and Solrock is such an amazing engine for decks that will live on, be it with Ceruledge ex, Mega Lucario ex, or whatever else people might want to crack it with. Genesect ex might sadly be going back in the binder unless something really good shows up for it to be relevant again.

Well that's all the deck but now time to do some comparisons because looking at numbers are fun!

Decks that are least to most affected by rotation

1. Alakazam/Dudunsparce - 6.67%
2. Tera Box - 15%
3. Mega Venusaur ex - 16.67%
4. Mega Sharpedo ex/Toxtricity - 16.67%
5. Cynthia's Garchomp ex - 18.33%
6. Ethan's Typhlosion - 18.33%
7. Flareon ex/Noctowl - 18.33%
8. Ceruledge ex - 21.67%
9. Dragapult ex/Dusknoir - 21.67%
10. Mega Lopunny ex/Dusknoir - 23.33%
11. Dragapult ex - 26.67%
12. Mega Kangaskhan ex/Bouffalant - 28.33%
13. Dragapult ex/Blaziken ex - 30%
14. Joltik Box - 30%
15. N's Zoroark ex - 30%
16. Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex/Froslass - 30%
17. Mega Box - 30%
18. Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex - 31.67%
19. Charizard ex/Noctowl - 33.33%
20. Dragapult ex/Charizard ex - 35%
21. Gholdengo ex/Joltik Box - 36.67%
22. Gardevoir ex/Jellicent ex - 40%
23. Gardevoir ex - 46.67%
24. Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex - 46.67%
25. Gholdengo ex/Lunatone - 48.33%

And the prices of these decks:

1. Cynthia's Garchomp ex - $17.66
2. Alakazam/Dudunsparce - $23.24
3. Mega Venusaur ex - $26.06
4. Ceruledge ex - $26.50
5. Charizard ex/Noctowl - $35.45
6. Tera Box - $38.13
7. Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex - $38.27
8. Mega Sharpedo ex/Toxtricity - $40.33
9. Mega Lopunny ex/Dusknoir - $40.52
10. Mega Kangaskhan ex/Bouffalant - $40.91
11. Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex/Froslass - $41.38
12. Dragapult ex/Charizard ex - $41.39
13. Flareon ex/Noctowl - $44.38
14. Dragapult ex - $46.17
15. Joltik Box - $46.97
16. Ethan's Typhlosion - $48.05
17. Dragapult ex/Blaziken ex - $48.16
18. Dragapult ex/Dusknoir - $49.34
19. Gholdengo ex/Lunatone - $50.21
20. Gardevoir ex - $52.31
21. Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex - $56.89
22. N's Zoroark ex - $57.52
23. Gardevoir ex/Jellicent ex - $58.62
24. Mega Box - $59.20
25. Gholdengo ex/Joltik Box - $63.05

First of all can I just say that 72% of these decks all cost $50 or less to build! If ever there was any proof to how aforable and easy it is to get into the game right now, this is it! And some of these decks might be a lot cheaper if they weren't playing the almost $8 Psyduck (which used to be around $20). 

And sure enough, the most expensive decks are the ones that are the most succesful (Garde, Gholdengo, Mega Box, Zard), which just makes sense to me but the fact that the most expensive deck on here is only $63 is saying something. Thanks for reading!

Singapore Premier Ball League 2026 - Finally made Top Cut with Zard/Pidgeot!

 Our first of two major events of the year here in Singapore just wrapped up a few days ago, the 2025-26 Singapore Premier Ball League. A few changes from last year's event, the main one being that the two finalists would earn their Worlds invite for the 2026 World Championships in San Francisco! The other being that instead of a Top 32 Cut, now it was a Top 128 cut!

For those who don't know, my aim for this season is to try my best to get my 2nd Worlds invite, just because it's in San Francisco, a place I'm quite familiar with. Plus it gives me a good excuse to go visit my cousins so why not! And I've yet to play in an official event in the US and San Fran is probably the easiest place for me to go from here in Singapore so I have to try my best.

The format for this event is a bit weird. While everyone else is playing SVI to MEG, we're playing that plus the cards that came out from the Mega Diancie ex and Mega Gengar ex start decks. So these cards which are coming out in the latest Phantasmal Flames set were legal for play for our last UBL and this PBL, aka this was the PTCGO "ladder format":

• Mega Diancie ex
• Meloetta
• Milcery
• Zacian
• Wondrous Patch
• Mega Gengar ex
• Toxtricty
• Seviper
• Sableye
• Dawn
• Grimsley's Move
• Punk Helmet

The biggest threats are Mega Diancie ex which is an upgrade for Gardevoir ex and because it's weak to Metal typing, it means stuff like Charizard ex, Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex and Mega Absol ex can't just take easy KOs on it. The other big card from this portion is Dawn which I suspected some Dragapult decks and a few Charizard decks would play.

What to Play?

Well I do have a comfort deck in Charizard ex/Pidgeot, something I've played for 2 years now, the issue was that Dragapult ex/Dusknoir is still way too popular here in Singapore, Garde now having Diancie makes the matchup more even and Gholdengo ex is a bit trickier now with the Lunatone/Solrock package. So I tried out 4 different decks for the 4 Ultra Ball Leagues leading up to the Premier Ball League to see which one would work best.

Ultra Ball League #1 S1

Deck: Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex/Dusknoir

Score: 4-4 (80th/278) +5 LP

Ultra Ball League #2 S1

Deck: Joltik Box

Score: 4-3 (56th/224) +6 LP

Ultra Ball League #3 S1

Deck: Gholdengo ex/Lunatone

Score: 6-2 (18th/191) +9 LP

Ultra Ball League #4 S1

Deck: Dragapult ex/Dusknoir

Score: 5-3 (47th/274) +6 LP

After playing all 4 I made notes of what I thought of the decks and if I would consider them for the PBL:

Charizard/Pidgeot

+ Well it's my comfort deck,

+ And people always say playing the deck you know the best is better than playing the best deck most of the time

- Most of my losses were out of my control (Bad prizing vs both Grimm and Garde, first Grimm I had a chance to win but my Iono got him Boss, and Pult was last round)

- Still some really bad matchups to consider, especially since Singaporeans love playing Pult

Joltik Box

+ Good into a lot of the expected meta

- Problem is they can still play around the deck since the gameplan is quite linear

Gholdengo

+ Seems like the best deck to counter the top two (Pult and Garde)

- Just still not as familiar with the deck as I'd like to be

Dragapult

+ Can outplay any deck

- But I felt like I kept misplaying with the deck, not playing it optimally since, like Gholdengo, I'm not as familiar with it as I am with Zard

Statistically, it seemed like Gholdengo was the best play for the event, but my heart still wanted to play Charizard/Pidgeot (with Dusknoir). So I went to my excel spreadsheet to figure out some numbers and this is what came out of it:

1. Alakazam (what the heck are you doing here?)
2. Gholdengo
3. Ceruledge
4. Charizard/Pidgeot
5. Raging Bolt/Teal Mask Ogerpon

First of all, Alakazam numbers has to be fake, how is it the top when it hard loses to the two top decks Pult and Garde? Big nope from me. I don't have Ceruledge and never liked playing Raging Bolt so it was back to the two I was pondering on for the past month or so, Gholdengo or Charizard.

I did have a few other options, one being a 4-Dawn Charizard/Noctowl list that Oscar Madsen had been working on. It was high up on my list at one point after testing the deck so I was rushing to find myself 4 Dawns to play for the event but I never did get any Dawns before the PBL so I had to give up on the idea.

But then my brother made a really interesting point. "Isn't this the last time you can play Charizard ex in a major event?". And he's right. Because my next planned major event is Melbourne Regional, which is in May, which is AFTER rotation hits so this is my last chance to play Charizard ex/Pidgeot and my hope was to finally get a Limitless entry page with my favourite deck! I've got five on there, just not one with Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex so far so this was my last shot at fixing that.

The List - Crafted by Stats

So Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex it is. But what's the 60? Well I could easily just copy paste one of the top performing Zard lists and run with it, but it's me we're talking about and I like to see numbers and stats on what cards are doing well and what numbers of certain cards I should be running. So this is what I did on my excel spreadsheet, to find the most optimal Charizard/Pidgeot/Dusknoir list:

Anything with a star on it is what I ended up going with. Most of them are just because the choices of the two/three cards have seen more success in Zard lists apart from the Charmeleon split

• Charmeleon
• Was going for the 2 100 HP but the last second switch in my list was to go with the 1-1 split thinking there might be a couple of TM Devo decks. Never did run into any of them so this split didn't matter
• Other Energy
• Went with Mist for pretty much the same reason as above, an out vs TM Devo, Clutch plays and Munkidori confusion plays
• Pidgey
• Also went with the 1-1 split, didn't want two 50 HP birds because of the Dusclops threat
• Pidgeotto
• 90 HP since it can survive a hit from Solrock with Vit Band
• Alternate Attacker
• Chi-Yu felt the best choice with Gholdengo's growing presence in the meta
• Shaymin
• Definitely needed it with Gardevoir likely the most played deck and good into Raging Bolt and Tera Box too
• It took the tech spot in my deck, my other consideration was Budew, especially for mirror
• ACE Spec
• I'm still a fan of Max Belt, especially now that Mega Diancie is in the meta and it makes it KOing that much easier as it'll likely have 350 HP
• And with that choice, it gave me a 2nd slot in the deck for a tech choice or a consistency booster -> the 4th Ultra Ball which for me is a must anyway
• Gust Option
• I was initially going with a 3 Boss 1 Counter Catcher split but after talking to my friend Luke Morsa, we figured that would only be good against Gardevoir, so went back to the 2-2 split and I'm kinda glad I did as Catcher saved me a lot of times during the event
• 2nd Stadium
• Town Store as an extra out to get TM Evolution if Arven is not a choice I can use, and also for late game Max Belt and just generally an extra stadium bump

And thus the 60 I played:

Also just for fun, I'd like to point out my card art choices because that's a fun one to talk about!

And if you're wondering, yes I played a full art Briar and the secret art Dusknoir just for prize checking purposes, because some of my games will come down to needed a combination featuring those two cards. As for Pidgeotto, that's my #1 priority when it comes to using TM evolution so the green background really stands out. Pidgeot? I've always used that one.

The only yellow bordered cards in my decks are my two gusting options (Boss and Counter Catcher) along with Ultra Ball and Rare Candy, the pieces I need to get Pidgeot and Charizard up, so they're the most important stuff I need to look through when I'm doing my deck searches. Everything else is just normal.

Premier Ball League 2025-26

Now onto the event!

R1 W vs Ronjo

I went: 1st

Deck: Gholdengo ex/Energy Search Pro

Their final Score: 0-3 Drop (563rd)

He had a super slow start, just a Fezandipit in the active and a Togepi on the bench while I had set a Duskull and Charmander down. I already had Charizard, Arven and Dusclops in hand so it was game. Pop the Dusclops on Togepi, he takes a prize, I find Rare Candy for Zard, and do 210 on Fez, game is over within 3 minutes.

I will say however, this dude weirded me out. When I shuffled his deck, he told me "please don't shuffle my deck that way, it's disrespectful". Brother, if you choose to go to an OFFICIAL event and play your blinged arse cards in them, I will shuffle them however I want, I don't give a shit if your cards cost $5 or or $5000, they're still cards meant to be played at the end of the day. So that did annoy me asking me not to shuffle, especially calling it disrespectful. That's a first!

R2 W vs David Lim

I went: 2nd

Deck: Dragapult ex/Charizard ex

Their final Score: 1-2 Drop (379th)

Nice fella! He told me he had to leave later on to go on a holiday trip to Malaysia so he would give me the win which is nice. I still wanted to play to practice at least, and it was an interesting game. I was not expecting to see Pult Zard even though it was a last minute consideration for myself too haha. 

He got KOs early on with Pult and a late game Iono + Max Belt got me back into the game and the late hand disruption bought me enough time to close the game out while he couldn't set up a 2nd attacker quick enough.

2-0, good start so far!

R3 W vs Koh Jun Yong 

I went: 1st

Deck: Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex

Their final Score: 5-2 (67th)

Grimm is typically a very bad matchup for Zard but from the way he played, I could tell he was a newer player and didn't know the matchup that well so I did my usual, target down his Froslass and for some reason he never went to build a 2nd one up. He went quite aggressive with Grimmsnarl so Max Belt ended up getting me the last 4 prizes on two of his Grimms.

3-0 start. I was feeling good, I didn't expect to have a good run with how my testing games had gone the week leading up to the event, I was losing more games than I was winning so this was the confidence booster I needed. And then R4 happens.

R4 L vs Sebastian Fok

I went: 2nd

Deck: Gardevoir ex/Flutter Mane

Their final Score: 6-1 (20th)

First friendly fire of the day, and I knew Seb was likely to play Garde and my suspicions were true when he flipped over Ralts. I went 2nd, did my first deck search to get Arven and TM Evo to get my Pidgeotto set up....and it's prized. But wait...

...where are my Charizards???? They were both prized! And I saw a Super Rod prized too which is something I really needed in this matchup. I got a good chuckle out of this but I was dying inside, how am I supposed to be a Gardevoir deck without my main attacker? So I decided, I guess I'm now a Pidgeot deck that will just keep spamming Dusknoir. The problem is, as mentioned, one Super Rod is prized.

This was a long game as expected, I mean Garde is a slow deck but due to how I had to play, I was forced to take it slow too and build up my board. The first prize I took from my Dusk Bomb was Pidgeotto to help me set up two Pidgeots (the first one will go down anyway since it's attacking). 

I got my first Zard as my 3rd prize, from a Dusknoir bomb (I had to use my only Rod to get it) and started to make a bit of a comeback but it was a little too late, he had his board set up to take 3 prizes. I'm still happy with how I played that game, somehow almost winning it with no Zards around until my 3rd prize was taken.

3-1, still in it.

R5 L vs Craig Ong

I went: 1st

Deck: Dragapul ex/Dusknoir

Their final Score: 4-3 (134th)

I knew Craig was on Dragapult Dusknoir as I had sat next to him in an earlier round so of course I was a bit worried, it is THAT matchup. There was quite a lengty delay due to a wrongly submitted score, about 20 minutes. I went first, I got a Buddy-Buddy Poffin to get my stuff set up, and hopefully not prize anything silly, check my deck and errr....

....where are my Charmeleons??? They were both prized! Again? The one match I can't use Rare Candy in because they'll attack with Budew, I need TM Evo to get into my Charmeleons and I can't do that when they're both prized! But it gets worse, I noticed my 3rd Charmander is prized too. Typically in this matchup I want all 3 Charmanders on board, as they tend to do the usual board wipe and might go 2-3 prizes up, so if I can get my Charizard up after that, I should be in a good spot.

But guess what? Even with all of that, I still managed to put myself in a decent spot in this match, Pidgeot being my MVP for the 2nd game in a row taking out some big KOs. But not seeing a Charmeleon or being able to set up a Charmander at any point of the game just killed me off. I did get to within 2 prizes left to win that game somehow! So I was happy again with how I played despite all the rubbish prizing, found my route to win and sure it wasn't enough but I had to give it a try right?

3-2, which is a dangerous spot to be in with 2 rounds left to go. Like last year, anyone with an x-3 score is dropped from the event and I've not dropped from an official event in ages, maybe 2018 was the last time? I didn't want this to be the first one. And yes even when I start 0-3 in GBLs, I will still play it out because it's not easy to get into these events anymore so to me, it's a privilege to be able to play in these events so why ever drop. 

R6 W vs Justin Pang

I went: 2nd

Deck: Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex

Their final Score: 3-3 Drop (230th)

I can't lie, I breathe a sigh of relief when he flipped over Raging Bolt ex as his starter, I knew this matchup very well. And it went as I expected. I set up a Zard and a Chi Yu to bait him into attack Zard which he did and Chi-Yu just cleaned house and took 4 prizes for me with my 2nd Zard taking the last 2 prizes.

4-2, the match is now the win and in to make Top 128 cut.

R7 W vs Bryan Wong

I went: 1st

Deck: Blissey ex/Centiskorch

Their final Score: 4-3 (192nd)

And of course it's a friendly fire in the most important round of the day. Bryan is a homie but I had no idea what he was playing. I was a bit worried because I knew he had been doing well with Yanmega ex which is not my best matchup. He told me his deck had a horrible matchup to Zard and flips over Sizzlipede (OMG CENTISKORCH WOOHOO) and yes, I figured out it was Blissey it does have a bad Zard matchup. The problem is...

...I started Fezandipiti ex. That's the only thing in my hand going first. I have no Turo in this list. Blissey does 180 and since he was playing Centiskroch, he can easily get damage on his Munki to move damage and KO the Fez so he has a free two prizer on board. This was a scary matchup to leave Duskulls or Pidgeys on board because they were easy targets too.

It turned out to be a long grindy game and we went to time. Bryan had the outs to win but sadly messed up, he had KOed something and tried to Counter Catcher but we were equal on prizes, then forgot Mega Absol's first attack says the active needs to have 60 damage counter to KO it, my Charizard had 90. Then he forgot that Absol's second attack needed two Dark energy, not one. It was painful to watch because I've been in that spot where I'm nervous and making mistakes I shouldn't be doing so I tried to comfort him after the game because it's happened to me before. Don't want to see that happen to a friend too. I tried to lift his spirits up after the game, like I said he's a homie after all.

5-2 and I made Top 128 cut as the 59th seed! Initially it said I was 58th and I asked around to know what my Top 128 opponent was playing, and I heard it was Garde Jelli which sure can be painful but I know if I can set up, I should be able to win. Then the order got switched around a bit and now I'm 59th seed and asking around, I found out my opponent was playing Zard Pidgeot.

Oh great a mirror match, just what I needed. Especially with how my Top 32 game went at the Master Ball League last season, that was also a mirror match (Pult Zard) and i dead drew both times.

Top 128 L vs Eng Thia Kang

I went: 2nd

Deck: Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex

Their final Score: 6-3 (Lost in Top 64 to Jeremy Leong)

And it happened again. I had the slower start despite going 2nd. My opponent only had a Pidgey and Charmander on board and I was hopeful for the best even though my start wasn't the greatest. He got a Pidgeot ex up and a Charizard ex up Turn 2. I wasn't that worried because I know in the mirror match, I'm not supposed to attack first so I didn't mind him doing all of this because that meant I could get the first hit on his Charizard ex, good for my prize trade.

But things just got weirder from there. I was not drawing into stuff I needed to set up the perfect board state. I even had to boss a Duskull to prevent him from getting a 4-prize turn which would kill me off. And since he used a Dusknoir to KO one of my Charmeleons first, I was down to 4 prizes and he's got a damaged Charizard still on board. I went to search through his discard to see what he might need and noticed he played 7 Fire energy which was really weird, which Zard list does that? 

My biggest issue is that I still didn't have the perfect combination of cards to pull off the 4-prize turn combo for game. The biggest issue being that my Fezandipiti was still prized so I couldn't draw extra cards so I had only Pidgeot to help me get one card per turn. Normally I'd want the Fez in there so I could have more options and hopefully draw into stuff like Super Rod and Poffin to set my Charmanders up to become Zards later on. But all that was impossible when all I could rely on was Fez.

There was a turn where I think I misplayed a bit, I had Briar in hand but nothing else was helpful to help me set up my board so I went for Lillie to draw more stuff out, but I had almost the same hand but no Briar so now I gave myself even more work to do to pull off the 4-prize turn.

So it came down to the last turn of the game. He took out my Zard, my board is Pidgeot ex, Charmander, Tatsugiri, Dusclops and a Pidgeotto (I was half expecting him to go after my first Pidgeot with his super fast start so I had to set the second one up just in case while he only had one bird and I never got to punish him for doing that). On his board there are two easy targets for me to gust up, and his Charizard had 240 damage on it, which means Dusknoir KOs it. 

But I had a really tough choice to make with my draws in hand. All I had was Iono, Lillie, Candy and some rubbish cards. Do I Lillie and try to draw into any combination of Candy, Zard, Catcher and Dusknoir and leave Pidgeot to get me the last part? Do I play it safe and just get my Zard up, Iono him, hit the active and force him to set up the Zard. At this point I still didn't know what Ace SPEC he was playing too. The problem with the Iono play was, because he had Pidgeot AND Fez, he can easily set up a Zard and get Boss to KO as he hadn't even used one yet.

Play it safe, or take the risk? My whole tournament run was on the line from this one decision.

I decided to take the risk but also using my Pidgeot first to set up my Zard to gurantee a KO and thin my deck out in the hopes I would draw into any outs to a Dusknoir and one of my two Counter Catchers. So I used Lillie and prayed.

I got the Counter Catcher but no outs to a Dusknoir. Now I was feeling defeated because even if I hit into the Zard, his hand size was way too big to easily set up a Zard and get Boss to KO me. So now I had another decision, KO the Zard and try to make him have all the answers to KO my Zard back (or anything on the bench) or KO the Pidgeot to make sure he doesn't have the exact answer he needs to KO back. 

This is where I misplayed and went for Pidgeot. I should have gone for the Zard and make him have the response back. The problem was, I had already seen him use Super Rod, so he'll have Fire energies and a Zard. No Boss used so I have easy targets for him. And sure enough he shows me a Town Store to get Max Belt.

Lost in Top 128. That hurts. Like I mentioned previously, my whole target this year was to get my Worlds invite to go to San Francisco so to lose in the first round just destroyed me. A went and hid somewhere just to reflect on what happened. Did I make the right call to go with Lillie? Should I have gone for Iono? Should I have used an earlier Lillie in the hopes to draw more useful cards? Should I have KOed his Zard and not the Pidgeot? 

Still a long season to go so I will need to be better for the 2nd and 3rd part of this season, I cannot keep making silly mistakes that will end up screwing me over. And since I didn't make it to Top 64, I sadly did not get the PBL playmat and it looked really nice. It did annoy me when one guy kept asking me if I wanted to touch it. I do touch stuff I didn't earn.

But hey on the positive, I finally got my first top cut finish with Charizard/Pidgeot after two years of playing and I was doubly excited because finally I'll have my favourite deck featured on my Limitless page. Woohoo!

What's Next?

Well what is next? We have a new set coming out soon in Phantasmal Flames, but I don't think it really changes the meta all that much. Garde, Pult and Gholdengo are still going to be up there. I still have high hopes for Charizard especially now that we have Battle Cage to deal with the spread peeps. Mega Lopunny ex is easily the best new attacker in the game, it can be in pretty much any deck because of it's tying and two amazing attacks.

I can't wait to play in the new format. The problem is....we don't know when our next events are. No dates have been announced for our next Great Ball League or Ultra Ball League. From what I heard it might be mid-December which is not good for me, because that might mean I have to miss more GBLs and I already missed a lot in Season 1.

As for the future, well I have played my last major event with Charizard ex so I was hoping to give it a good sendoff but alas was not to be. My next major is likely to be Melbourne Regional, my one TPCi event of the year, and bo3 so actual fun games to be played. But post rotation so I need to find a new deck to play too. But I did play Dragapult Dusknoir and made Day 2 last year. 

Whatever the case is, I hope I can repeat that run. As for the season, aim is still to be at least top 8 in the standings to get the invite, currently I'm like mid-20s area. More work to be done to achieve the goal. Also congrats to my homies Yu Xian and Jeremy for their finals placing in the PBL, two great players and two former Worlds competitors so it makes me happy to see the best getting the top results. Thanks for reading!

Play Limitless - 5 Years On

 On this date, 5 years ago, Play Limitless was launched and a small test tournament was set up to test out features on the site. Little did we know that we were helping to test what would turn out to be the biggest thing to happen for those of us playing Pokémon TCG in online tournaments during the pandemic, which is when in person play was suspended, and for the Pokémon TCG game overall. 

2020. A year not many will look back on fondly as it was the year the Covid pandemic hit and shut the world down, be it work, school, sports or even games. For those of us playing Pokemon TCG, the circuit was cancelled. In memories serves me correctly, the 2020 Toronto Regional was cancelled just days before it happened due to the pandemic, with Perth Regional, Guatemala SPE and Santiago SPE being the last IRL events to happen before the shutdown.

All in-person events were cancelled so for those of us who enjoyed playing the game, well what to do we now? The simple solution was playing online. I was used to it as I had played online events for a few years at that point, mainly the Pokebeach Monthly PTCGO Tournaments. You would be paired with an opponent and given 3-4 days to complete a bo3 series. But it wasn't an on-demand PTCGO event. 

That would soon change with the first Limitless Online Series Qualifier in April ran by the Limitless team and Robin Schulz. This live online event looked to mimic the feel of playing in an IRL event, where you'd play an opponent and say after 30 minutes time, you'd play another round against another opponent and so-on until top cut or the final swiss round. 

The qualifier events were initially a success, the first seeing 900+ players and the next two crossing the 1,000+ player mark. However the biggest issue came from the hosting site, start.gg (initially smash.gg). The hosting site was struggling to deal with the increased numbers of player, especially for the later events. Although the event was a huge success, Robin and the limitless team had plans to do a Limitless Online Series event. But with start.gg having it's issues and questions on whether other online platforms at that time (mostly Battlefy hosting events from the likes of Hegster, PokeX) could host a bigger amount of players, where could the team host such events? Thus the idea of Play Limitless!

"The idea for building the site came up when running the original Limitless Online Series at the beginning of 2020. We used start.gg for tournament operations, but it quickly became obvious that the site just wasn't ideal for our use case. 

We thankfully got help from rk9 for decklist submission, but since the pairings had to be external, there was no way for us to automatically remove people who didn't submit a decklist. We had to close decklist submission an hour or so early, go through the list, and drop people manually. Support for Swiss was also weak, for example records didn't carry over by phase, so we had to add up day 1 and 2 manually in Google Sheets before top cut. 

Overall, there were just a lot of tasks that felt way more difficult than they should be. We knew that if we were ever to run online tournaments again, we'd need a different system.

Since there were no official tournaments at the time, my motivation to work on the regular Limitless website wasn't very high, so I decided to try to solve the problems we ran into myself and started this new project. The initial goal was to create a Swiss-centered pairing system with integrated decklist submission, and it worked out quite well!" - Robin Schulz

And thus on September 2020, Play Limitless went live. But before the first Limitlss Online Series Weekly event could go live, the team held two test events to see how the new hosting site would work, be the checking-in, submitting of scores and pairings. I was one of the lucky few to play in the first test event, and I knew right away, Play Limitless was far superior to any other online hosting site being used, and that was only their first attempt! 

The best part for me was, not just that it was open decklist but we'd have a link to click that would open up your opponent's decklist in a picture form which was far better than many other sites, where you'd have to copy the list and post it on the Limitless tool. It's all done for you here by Limitless themselves which I thought was perfect! Funny little sidenote, but I did somehow actually win that first test event, but sadly it's not on record on the site anymore.

From there on, the first Limitless Online Series Weekly event would go live on the 3rd of October, almost 5 years ago! It was a free-to-enter league cp style tournament, which PTCGO codes given out as prizes. Edward Valencia (USA), a good friend of mine, would end up taking the win with Centiskorch VMAX, beating Henrique Jorge's (BRA) Blacephlaon deck. 165 players would enter the event which was quite a big number comapred to other online events on-going at that time.

It wouldn't be long before the first online event on Play Limitless would cross 200 players, that being the Atlas Collectables Sunday Open event with 210 players, won by JJTcg (ITA) with Pikachu & Zekrom-GX. And before the year ended, we crossed 300 players, Mike Fouchet (USA), again with PikaRom, winning the GGtoor Chill TCG Cup #1 event, with 383 players! 

As more players got word about Play Limitless and with IRL events still postponed, more players would join in on the fun of these online tournaments, with events happening on a daily basis! And it didn't take long for the numbers to continue growing. 

• 400+ Players: Jan 30 2021 - Limitless Online Series Major #1 won by Edwyn Mesman (NED) with Centiskroch VMAX - 490 players!
• 500+ Players: Apr 10 2021 - Limitless Online Series Major #3 won by keropon (JAP) with Mad Party Box - 528 players!
• 600+ Players: Jun 10 2021 - Chill Series #34 won by Stéphane Ivanoff (FRA) with Mewtwo & Mew-GX/Rillaboom - 750 players!
• 800+ Players: Aug 5 2021 - Chill Series #41 won by DiamondKing (TWN) with Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX - 842 players!

Yup, 842 players in one online event on the 5th of August 2021, 10 months after the launch of Play Limitless. Sure these numbers wouldn't be seen on the regular but events would hit 200+ players more often that people might think. And the number of big events being hosted on Play Limitless have been growing lately. To show that:

• 2020 - 11 200+ Player Events Hosted (obviously a small number)
• 2021 - 86 200+ Player Events Hosted (first full year)
• 2022 - 71 200+ Player Events Hosted (IRL events returns this year)
• 2023 - 58 200+ Player Events Hosted (first full year with IRL events back)
• 2024 - 112 200+ Player Events Hosted (big increase in big events from 2021)
• 2025 - 141 200+ Player Events Hosted (biggest number so far with 3 months still to go)

Side note, if you were interested to see results from these events, I've made an excel sheet for all of the PTCGO/PTCGL online events on Play Limitless that had 200 players or more in it here!

The numbers have been increasing since 2024, and many more online series are starting to see consistently big numbers, compared to 2022-2023 when it was only one online series that would hit these 200+ player cap. Nowadays there's easily 5 or more events hitting 200+ on a regular basis. Players, be it casual or competitive are still using Play Limitless to practice for big events or just wanting the feeling of playing in a big events and just this year, we finally saw the first event to hit the 1,000+ player mark with The Smart Series back in July hitting 1539 players!

"I did not expect the platform to become as big, in fact initially it was only intended for our own use and didn't even have a proper admin panel. However I'm very happy how it evolved over time. I wasn't sure whether online tournaments would slowly fizzle out after the return of official tournaments, but was pleasantly surprised that the scene kept going and is probably as strong as ever today!" - Robin

As the site continue to grows, it's not just the Pokémon TCG players who are enjoying their game being hosted on Play Limitless. Eventually more games would start to get included, including Pokémon VGC, Pokémon GO and games not named Pokémon too (Digimon, One Piece and Lorcana to name a few), and not just online but some host IRL tournaments on Play Limitless as well! And just announced recently, Riftbound and League of Legends TCG will be supported on the site soon.

• Pokémon VGC 
• First event on Jan 20th 2022
• Most Players in an event during 2025: 285
• One Piece Card Game
• First event on March 24th 2023
• Most Players in an event during 2025: 1008
• Digimon Card Game
• First event on August 5th 2021
• Most Players in an event during 2025: 131
• DBS: Fusion World
• First event on February 24th 2024
• Most Players in an event during 2025: 153
• DBS: Masters
• First event on May 14th 2023
• Most Players in an event during 2025: 66
• Battle Spirits Saga
• First event on May 20th 2023
• Most Players in an event during 2025: no events
• Gundam Card Game
• First event on April 10th 2025
• Most Players in an event during 2025: 64
• Disney Lorcana
• First event on October 2nd 2023
• Most Players in an event during 2025: 287
• Star Wars: Unlimited
• First event on March 21th 2024
• Most Players in an event during 2025: 115
• Pokémon TCG Pocket
• First event on October 24th 2024
• Most Players in an event during 2025: 2829
• Pokémon GO
• First event on October 22nd 2024
• Most Players in an event during 2025: 5

With all these games now supported, things can get a bit challenging for the Play Limitless team, especially seeing the numbers Pokémon TCG Pocket have been pulling, with 22 events that have had more than 1000+ players!

"The biggest challenge was probably the addition of Pocket about a year ago. The game suddenly brought a lot of new people to the site and created some wild tournament attendance numbers that the site wasn't originally made to handle. But that's not a bad problem to have!

Also more generally speaking, ever since starting the tournament platform, it became more difficult to prioritize what to work on. Before that, when I wanted to work on Limitless, it was very straightforward, while now there's several projects I need to balance. It's still fun but definitely more challenging." - Robin

Not only has the game of Pokemon TCG grown bigger, but Play Limitless has grown quite big as well, with some card games using the platform to host IRL regional events! There have been talks about needing to input results online for Pokemon TCG and while that is currently only in Asia, could we see it elsewhere around the world and with Play Limitless? 

Whatever the future is, Play Limitless will continue to be a great source for players getting ready for events in the future. Some may not pay much attention to online events that much these days but it still can impact how the meta might shift, the prime example being the emergence of Regidrago VSTAR for Worlds last year. Granted it got a top 16 finish at NAIC but soon more players started to play it in online tournaments. And it won. And it won some more to the point everyone took notice and knew it would be a major player going into Worlds, along with a few new cards added from the Shrouded Fable set.

"Most importantly, I think it would be cool if online tournaments keep being a relevant part of the competitive community, and I'll do my best to maintain the site's position as the best place to host them and play in them. I do have some ideas on additional features it could provide, but it's not a main priority right now compared to the other newer projects like labs or the deck builder. TPCi already has a great partner in RK9 so I don't have any ambitions to ever be involved with official tournaments." - Robin

5 years later and Play Limitless is still a great resource for players to use, be it to play in these events to practice for their upcoming IRL events, or just to see what decks are doing well and try them out themselves. I myself use it often, as some might know, I do enjoy playing in these online events and I use it as practice for the real thing. Then again it's hard to get into events here so it's nice to just play and try to imagine how it would go for the real thing. 

I also use it to look at not just decks but data too. Seeing which decks are the most played in some of these bigger online events to figure out a potential metagame and also, the one I use it for the most, see the matchup data for these decks. I know, it's not the best one to see as some of these players might not be the best pilots for these decks but it's still better than having no resources so I'll take it. 

I'm glad that Robin and the Limitless team gave us this platform and I hope it continues to thrive for the next 5 years! So if you’re ever wanting to play Pokemon TCG from the comfort of your own home, you can always jump on to Play Limitless, there is bound to be an event on any given day. If you’re from North/South America and Europe, you’ll get the most options. And if you’re from Australia or Asia like myself, unfortunately there aren’t many events happening in timezones for our regions. Still, I do find myself getting up early or staying up late just to play because I do like playing the game! And with Play Limitless, it makes things so much easier.

Just wanted to give special thanks to Robin Schulz for answering some of my questions for this piece!

But where's the stats bit you ask? Don't worry, I got you covered! (Results are as of October 31st 2025)

Ever wondered which decks have won the most of these online events? I've gone through 479 online events to look through and this is what we've got for the most winningest decks (on a side note, the results will likely be more favoured to decks played recently as there have been way more events in the last 2 years on Play Limitless), and to keep it short, it's the top 20 winningest decks: 

1. Gardevoir ex - 36 Wins
2. Lugia VSTAR/Archeops - 26 Wins
3. Mew VMAX/Genesect V - 25 Wins
4. Dragapult ex/Dusknoir - 21 Wins
5. Lost Zone Box (Radiant Greninja) - 20 Wins
6. Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex - 18 Wins
7. Pidgeot ex Control - 18 Wins
8. Pikachu & Zekrom-GX - 15 Wins
9. Dragapult ex - 14 Wins
10. Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex - 14 Wins
11. Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone) - 13 Wins
12. Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex/Froslass - 12 Wins
13. Lost Zone Box (Radiant Charizard) - 11 Wins
14. Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX - 11 Wins
15. Snorlax Stall - 10 Wins
16. Miraidon ex - 9 Wins
17. Regidrago VSTAR - 9 Wins
18. Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR/Inteleon - 8 Wins
19. Eternatus VMAX - 7 Wins
20. Centiskorch VMAX - 6 Wins

As for players you might ask, it's a bit more difficult as most of these players are playing under nicknames so it's very difficult to know the true answer but I tried my best and got something to work with. As there are so many players who have won these events, I tried to limit to those that have won at least 3 200+ online events on Play Limitless:

1. Alloutblitzle - 12 Wins
2. Gabriel Fernandez - 7 Wins
3. kasazizooka - 6 Wins
4. Joe Maressa - 5 Wins
5. David Hendrickson - 4 Wins
6. Evan Campbell - 4 Wins
7. KingHeracross - 4 Wins
8. Supercellcambo - 4 Wins
9. Adam Kalamat - 3 Wins
10. Aleksander Rutowicz - 3 Wins
11. Andrew Hedrick - 3 Wins
12. Angel Aranibar - 3 Wins
13. Augusto Beringuer - 3 Wins
14. Bart Musser - 3 Wins
15. Chalo Zamorano - 3 Wins
16. kappadocards - 3 Wins
17. Kashvinder Singh Mann - 3 Wins
18. Nathan Osterkatz - 3 Wins
19. TRTs101 - 3 Wins
20. Unowngamert - 3 Wins
21. wadedaze - 3 Wins

I don't think it's fully acurate but that's the best I can come up with. Thanks for reading!