Kash Top 30 List: My Favourite Decks that I have played so far

It's Pokemon Day (Feb 27 2026 as I'm typing this but it may be released at a later date) and it's the 30th anniversary of the first Pokemon games, Red version and Green version which were released today 30 years ago in Japan (Feb 27 1996). As someone who has been playing the game ever since it first hit our shores overseas in 1999 and also playing the TCG since Base Set in 1999, you know it's always a fun time when Pokemon Day rolls around!

So I wanted to a do a short special Top 30 list of my favourite decks I've played so far. Not my best decks, not my most successful, but just the ones I've really liked playing. And well my most successful ones are the ones I liked the most I guess! 

30th - Arceus VSTAR/Charizard VMAX

List: 1st/57 - 8/2/0 - Online - LIGA INTER #1 - SEASON 2

Season: 2021-2022

Wins: 3 (Online)

I've only actually played this deck 4 times, 3 times online and once IRL with a bunch of proxies because I never did own Charizard V, Charizard VMAX or Charizard VSTAR but I still wanted to give it a try. But this deck, although it's probably not good, it was fun to play! 

I got to combine playing my new favourite card in Arceus VSTAR with one of my favourite mons! And it's kinda funny that I only played this deck 3 times online....and won all 3 events!

29th - Zapdos/Jolteon GX

List: 1st/8 - 3/0/0 - Project EXT Locals

Season: 2018-2019

Wins: 2 (IRL)

This deck was cool to play. I wished I had tried out Zap Beast more though, that deck looked really cool but for some reason I never played it much. But the whole combo of Jirachi finding your stuff, and then going into Zapdos to hit for big numbers was neat. You had loads of ways to switch Zapdos out to attack, 4 Guzma, 4 other item switch outs and even Acerola! 

Jolteon was nice attacker at times too and of course we can't forget the Tapu Koko package with the stadium, the Prism energy attacher and also Tapu Koko-GX for some big damage at the end of games! Cool deck.

28th - Miraidon ex

List: 1st/157 - 9/1/1 - Online - TOURNAMENT OF DOOM! WORLDS WORLDS WORLDS

Season: 2023-24

Wins: 4 (3 Online, 1 IRL)

When this deck works, it was actually a lot of fun to play. And this was the famous winning list where I was paying attention to what was happening at Worlds 2024 and also playing in Doom at the same time so I wasn't really paying much attention to my games....and still somehow won the whole event!

Generator makes the deck click and since you've got Iron Hands ex in this one, you can get an Amp You Very Much off turn 1! This deck also has one of my favourite VSTAR move of all time....from the Forest Seal Stone tool card! I didn't play Miraidon much but it was fun to mess around with it a few times.

27th - Lost Zone Box/Radiant Greninja

List: 1st/106 - 8/1/1 - Online - Pokémon Battle Park

Season: 2023-24

Wins: 4 (3 Online, 1 IRL)

I didn't always enjoying playing Lost Box but this version was at least bearable enough for me to try and actually have some fun with it. The deck had some many ways to take big KOs right off the bat, and even two prizes KOs from either Radiant Greninja, Dragonite V or if you're really lucky and you hit the nuts, a Turn 1 Sableye! 

And you had so many ways to get cards into the lost zone, be it from Comfey's ability, Colress and Lost Vacuum. Loads of different attackers too which for me is always fun because it gives you options to win in many different ways as possible and no two games are always the same! The deck can be frustrating to play too, sometimes you get two really important stuff from your Flower Selecting choices and you regret why you ever chose to play the deck.

26th - Pikachu & Zekrom-GX

List: 1st/17 - 5/0/0 - Online - PokeX Tag Bolt #5

Season: 2019-2020

Wins: 3 (2 Online, 1 IRL)

It's probably many others favourite Tag Team deck, it never was mine. It is a fun deck, and a very a good deck too! PikaRom was just such a good attacker that it can set up many different attackers, or set itself up for Tag Bolt GX, and that attack was scary if you got it off! 200 to the active and 170 to the bench if you got the 3 extra Lighting attach, and there's usually always a Dedenne-GX on your opponent's bench, this was the era where almost everyone did play it!

And there are some cool cards in this deck too. Of course it has Jirachi was my favourite card during that time for the consistency boost but also you had Reset Stamp. I still call Unfair Stamp as Reset Stamp by accident a few times, and there's a good reason for it! Your opponent drew cards equal to how many prizes they had and you had so many ways to get it, either from Jirachi or Volkner. This deck was one of the best Reset Stamp users during this time.

25th - Dragapult ex/Charizard ex

List: 26th/524 - 6/3/0 - 2024-25 Singapore Master Ball League @ Suntec City

Season: 2024-25

Wins: 1 (IRL)

I've always liked playing Charizard ex, Dragapult ex has always been strong no-matter who it was paired with and together, the deck always seemed good! Sure it's probably better as their own decks but I enjoyed playing it whenever I had the chance. I build this list when I was watching NAIC during my cousin's wedding in California and at that moment, I decided this was going to be my MBL list.

And I made top cut with it! Sure I lost right away in top cut but hey the deck worked with the little amount of practice I had, it was one of my best results last season too! And this deck did play Unfair Stamp, which is even better than Reset Stamp. Both shuffle, you draw 5, your opponent draw 2 so if they took an early KO, you could easily punish them and destroy their board in no time. I'm still enjoying playing this deck right now even though it's not as good as it should be I feel!

24th - Dragapult ex/Dusknoir

List: 67th/563 - 5/2/0 - 2025 Melbourne Regional @ Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Season: 2024-25

Wins: 1 (Online)

I've gone from one Dragapult deck to another, and the one most people enjoy playing, and some might say their favourite deck. Or heck I could even say Singapore's favourite deck, everyone plays it here! It's just a really powerful deck that is prone to dead drawing, I should know. But when it works, it can actually be quite fun to play.

And I found this out when I chose to play it for the 2025 Melbourne Regionals. I didn't know what to play for the event and thought this deck might just be the one for me. I didn't know how to play it perfectly but I did enjoy learning how to play the deck on the fly and made Day 2 at the event! I will probably end up playing this more in the future since it will still be legal. Maybe it'll go up my list the next time I do it? Or not even on the list.

23rd - Dragapult VMAX

List: 2nd/154 - 8/4/0 - Online - Sunday Open

Season: 2019-2020

Wins: 3 (Online)

And we end this trio of Dragapult entries with the OG Dragapult! I always liked this one a bit better. It had a one energy Shred attack and the same attack as Dragapult ex, Max Phantom did 130 to active and 5 damage counters to your opponent's bench in any way you like. Sure now it's 200 and 6 but at that time, 130 + 5 was really good!

And this deck had so many ways to put damage counters on your opponent's board, the main one being Horror Energy. If your opponent's active hit it, 2 damage counters go back to them. Spell Tag puts 4 damage counters after the mon that has it gets KOed. Zigzagoon put one damage counters to anyone when played. And of course, the best part of the deck is using Shrine of Punishment to destroy these GX and EX mons. This deck was really fun to play, and a true spread deck! Oh and it's another deck that plays Jirachi too, plus points for me.

22nd - Lost Zone Box/Radiant Charizard

List: 1st/6 - 3/0/0 - Brick's Play Locals

Season: 2023-2024

Wins: 3 (2 Online, 1 IRL)

I know this wasn't the most favoured version of playing the Lost Box deck but personally, this was my favourite! I always felt this version of the deck was just more consistent and you can attack with Radiant Charizard really quickly too. Oh but what if it's prized? No worries, we have Hisuian Heavy Ball! (And if they are both prized, well that's just unlucky).

This deck also had TM Devo which was cool as you can set up numbers from hitting 110 with Cramorant or spreading damage around with Sableye and then go for a board wipe! And yes there is a Crisis Punch for some cheeky last turn KOs. But most of the time these are easy fodders for the Lost Zone with the double (sometimes triple) Lost Vacuum! I honestly wished I had played this deck more.

21st - Gouging Fire ex

List: 1st/32 - 5/0/0 - 2024-25 Singapore Great Ball League S2 #12 @ Concept City

Season: 2024-25

Wins: 3 (2 Online, 1 IRL)

This was never the best deck, but I had so much fun playing it and I managed to win a 170-person Doom online event with this AND got my first GBL win last season with it too! This was one of the funnier aggro decks I played, using both the usual Entei and the old Entei aka Gouging Fire! 

Gouging Fire could hit for 260 for just 3 energies attached and we had easy ways to get these energies, be it Magma Basin or Sada or even Energy Switch! And of course we had Radiant Greninja to help not just get these energies into the discard pile but also help draw cards from it. Not the best deck to utilize Munkidori but it sure came up a number of times.

20th - Gholdengo ex/Energy Search Pro

List: 32nd/220 - 5/2/0 - 2024-25 Singapore Ultra Ball League S2 #1 @ Kreta Ayer Community Club

Season: 2024-25

Wins: 6 (3 Online + 3 IRL)

Ok I know I know, the Lunatone version is better. But come on now, how many decks can say they used every basic energy available in the format? Not many can and this Gholdengo ex deck not only did, but it was quite good too! I always liked playing this version more and Energy Search Pro is an amazing card, getting potentially 8 cards out of the deck was always quite valuable and helps to get some big KOs.

And with all these energies the options are endless. 2 Water energy meant we could do a snipe attack with Radiant Greninja, Dark on Munkidori to use Adrena-Brain and a few other lists later on played an extra Lighting energy for the new Levincia card in place of the rotated Greninja. Before this season, this got me my best UBL score!

19th - Terapagos ex/Dusknoir

List: 1st/63 - 8/1/1 - Online - Silver Squad Standard “Lille Regionals 2025”

Season: 2024-25

Wins: 2 (Online)

This deck was really cool. It works in a similar way to how Dawn Zard works, just a super aggro deck that uses Noctowl to piece up some combo plays. There's also Pidgeot to help us get any card we want each turn and with Double Turbo Energy, Terapagos only needs one energy attachment to start attacking.

And of course, we have Dusknoir in this deck and yes sometimes this deck could just board wipe some boards out of nowhere. Even big attackers are not always safe from the combo of Dusknoir and Terapagos. And of course we got the biggest combo card of them all, Briar! The more I talk about this deck, it's like I'm talking about Dawn Zard, aren't I?

18th - Arceus VSTAR/Inteleon

List: 1st/25 - 4/0/0 - Goodness Gracious Gaming Locals - Southern Island Qualifiers

Season: 2021-22

Wins: 4 (2 Online + 2 IRL)

This version of Arceus was super consistent and I really liked it. Your only target to power up other attackers from Arceus is other Arceus but hey that's all you need sometimes! And if Arceus isn't the preferred attacker, well we got the Inteleon line which pretty much makes this whole deck work so smoothly. 

We've got the Drizzle for Shady Dealings to get one Trainer card which is such a good ability, and sometimes more than enough to set up Arceus for the turn to use Starbirth to find any 2 cards. And Inteleon does the same, but for 2 Trainer cards. 

And we can re-use it all over again thanks to Scoop Up Net. Let's not forget about the other Inteleon with the Quick Shooting ability that just puts 2 damage counters on any of your opponents. Sounds familiar doesn't it? That is usually enough to help Arceus VSTAR take down any other V mons.

17th - Suicune V/Ludicolo

List: 1st/71 - 6/1/0 - Online - ATLAS - Turtwig Den Series Challenge 6

Season: 2021-22

Wins: 1 (Online)

We go from one Inteleon deck to another. This one is also a combo deck but with Suicune V now attacking almost everything. It hits for + 20 for as however many mons are in play which can go up to 220. Still missing some damage? No problem, we got Ludicolo that when played, lets our basic mons hit for an extra 100 damage that turn which is nuts.

And how this deck work so well? Yup it's because of the Inteleon line. The double Quick shooting helps Suicune to reach the numbers it needs or just set up plays for double KOs a turn. Melony is one of my favourite supporters, it's a bit like Welder, you attach a Water from discard to a V mon and draw 3 cards. 

And you're always drawing an extra card from Suicune's ability too. And let's not forget, Suicune can become an annoying threat to opponents to deal with because of Cape of Toughness giving it an extra 50 HP. I really liked this deck, I wished I had more success with it though. 

16th - Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX/Inteleon

List: 1st/37 - 7/1/1 - Online - Southeast Asia Open #26

Season: 2021-22

Wins: 4 (Online)

And yes we round up this trio of Inteleon decks with probably my 2nd favourite version of Inteleon to play, with Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX! It hits for 150 if it moves from bench to active which isn't very hard to do as we have the stadium that gives our Rapid mons -2 retreat cost and Escape Rope. 

But the real selling point is the second attack, G-Max Rapid Flow to hit 120 to two Pokemon at the cost of discarding all your energies. It does have an awkward energy cost but Rapid Strike Energy solves it and thanks to Melony and Octillery, you can get the attack up and ready in no time! 

And sometimes we can set up some numbers to be just perfect for the dreaded Yoga Loop from Medicham V, which puts 2 damage counters on anyone and if that mon is KOed, we get an extra turn which is really broken, think of Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR and how good their V-STAR attack was. The deck had so many ways to set up numbers, either from Urshifu's attack or from Inteleon's Quick Shooting ability.

15th - Ultra Necrozma-GX/Malamar

List: 6th/24 - 3/2/1 - Project EXT League Cup

Season: 2019-2020

Wins: 2 (IRL)

I know many people liked the pure Malamar version more but I always had a soft spot for the Ultra Necrozma-GX version, and it got me better results too anyway! Malamar's Psychic Recharge meant you could attach a Psychic Energy to one of your bench and if you had 2 Malamars, you'd get 2 charges! 

It's often paired with Giratina to have a scary 1 prize attacker and the scary part is it's ability, if it's in discard, you can put it on the bench and put 1 damage counter on two of the opponent's bench Pokemon. And with Ultra Necrozma's Sky Scorching Light GX attack, you can wipe out any 60 HP and with Giratina's help, 70 HP mons off the board, the catch is you can only use it if both players were still at 6 prizes. 

And there's plenty of one-off attackers for the eck to use, like a typical Malamar deck and it's been paired with so many different things, not just the ones in this picture. Stuff like Necrozma-GX, Tapu Koko, Lunala Prism Star to name a few. I always liked using Ultra Necrozma-GX because it hit for 80+ for all Psychic energy you had to discard, which can sometimes be up to 4 if we had 4 Malamar on board, and that's reach some big numbers, let alone 3, hitting 260!

14th - Tapu Bulu-GX/Vikavolt

List: 1st/7 - 3/0/0 - Project EXT Locals

Season: 2017-18

Wins: 3 (IRL)

Ah good ol' Vikabulu. Not the best deck I've played but it sure was one of my favourites. The game plan was simple, set up Vikavolt to use Strong Charge to attach a Grass and Lighting energy to anyone on board, usually Tapu Bulu-GX and it hits for some big numbers. And we're maxing out as many consistency cards in this deck to make sure we get enough to set up these Vikavolts, sometimes even 2. Later builds had Lillie to get up to 8 cards in hand going first!

Tapu Bulu-GX had a really good attack. If we discarded all energy attached to it, it would hit for 180. And that would become 210 with Choice Band, which is enough to KO guess who? Yup the format defining pokemon that was Zoroark-GX! There's also Tapu Koko-GX to get some big KOs especially with the GX move. There were a few one off attackers as well but it works because of Vikavolt! I had so much fun playing this, not much success but hey it's all good!

13th - Zoroark-GX/Lucario-GX

List: 1st/13 - 3/0/0 - Project EXT Locals

Season: 2017-18

Wins: 2 (IRL)

Now this is a deck I really wished I had played more of. Of the 3 times I played it for locals, I went 3-0 twice and 2-1 in the other event, it was that good especially since I wasn't really a good player at this time. We've got Zoroark-GX to just keep drawing us cards with trade, aka N's Zoroark ex for you current players. But Zoroark-GX was just better, it's attack hits for 20 for each pokemon on your side, so 120 for just one attachment.

That meant it was splashable with just about any attacker. One of my favourite pairing for Zoroark-GX was Lucario-GX. It would hit for 120 for just one attachment if it evolved that turn. 120 becomes 150 from Strong Energy and then 170 from Diancie Prism Star. If that's not enough, Professor Kuki draws us 2 cards and we do 20 more damage, so now we're up to 190. And if we're up against an EX or GX mon, we've got Choice Band to hit for 220. All from just one energy attachment!

Lucario-GX also had a great GX attack, hitting for 30x each damage counter on it. And there's plenty of ways to keep Lucario-GX attack for big damage, mainly from Acerola. And hey, this deck did play 4 Puzzle of Time which meant we can re-cycle an Acerola or another Strong Energy or another attacker back into the deck. Also this deck has one of my favourite cards of all time, Evosoda! You can evolved one of your Pokémon by searching for the evolution from deck! Can we please have this be reprinted sometime soon? This deck was really cool, I wished I played it more.

12th - Volcanion-EX

List: 1st/13 - 3/0/0 - Project EXT Locals

Season: 2017-18

Wins: 1 (IRL)

Speaking of decks I wished I had played more, good ol' Volcanion-EX. I didn't play it as much as I really should have, because it was so good! Both Volcanion just made the deck work. Volcanion's Power Heater did 20 while attaching two a Fire energy to two of your benched Pokemon. And how do we get those Fire energy in discard? Say it with me now, Steam up!

Volcanion-EX's ability was just too good. Steam Up lets us discard a Fire energy and our basic Fire pokemon does 30 more damage that turn. With two Steam Ups, Volcanion could hit for 80 while attaching those Fire energy we just discarded. And there was plenty of ways to use those Fire energies, be it Prof Letter (modern day Earthern Vessel), Energy Retrieval or just drawing from it from our supporters or supporting mon, even Starmie had an ability that was similiar to Energy Retrieval.

And Volcanion-EX isn't a bad attacker itself. 130 and you can't attack next turn which is no problem, since there are 4 Float Stones and 4 Guzma to constantly move around our attackers. And if we're not moving, we can hit for big numbers. Choice Band lets us hit 30 to EX and GX, and plus two Steam Ups, we're doing 220, and a 3rd for 250 which is knocking out most GX pokemon at that time! One of my favourite decks and it's not even in the top 10!

11th - Charizard ex/Dusknoir

List: 1st/14 - 3/0/0 - Inferno Gaming Locals

Season: 2024-25

Wins: 4 (2 Online + 2 IRL)

I always loved the pairing of Charizard ex and Dusknoir. Charizard does more damage for each prize card your opponent takes and how can we acheieve that if they're not taking prizes? From Dusclops' and Dusknoir's Curse Blast ability. Then your opponent has to take a prize because we knocked our own pokemon out while spreading some damage too, sometimes good enough for Charizard ex to take a big KO out of nowhere.

Sure it's mostly seen with the Pidgeot ex build but I did play around with just Charizard and Dusknoir for the longest time and honestly, it was some of the most fun times I've had playing Pokemon, just trying to reach for big combos and big KOs. We'd usually sit for a turn to get TM Evo up to get a Charmeleon or Dusclops ready and the turn after that, you could be taking 3 prizes just like that! One of my favourite fun decks of all time for sure and hey I got a couple of wins out of it too!

10th - Metagross-EX

List: 1st/17 - 3/0/0 - Qishan Locals

Season: 2016-17

Wins: 2 (IRL)

Ah Metagross-GX. Good memories from this one. This was the deck that made me go....wait maybe I can be good at this game after all! Took me about a year or so to win my first locals and it was with Metagross-GX. Geotech System was just such a good ability, letting you attach a Metal AND Psychic energy from discard to your Active Pokemon. And this is where the fun begins.

Oh I have to give a special shoutout to Alolan Vulpix, it had the attack Beacon for no energy cost, searching out 2 Pokemon! It was the best way to set up a Metagross while just sitting on Vulpix to seach out more stuff. Then we attack with Metagross-GX with Giga Hammer for 150 (180 with Choice Band) and can't attack next turn. No worries, we just retreat and go into the next Metagross-GX, fully charge it up from two use of Geotech System. 

And we often play a lot of Max Potion to heal up the damage Metagross we just retreaed and Max Potion would heal off all damage from a Pokemon at the cost of discarding all energy, see the combo we're doing here? Attack, retreat, heal, attack, rinse and repeat! And I haven't even mention it's broken Algorithm-GX attack, searching up for 5 cards and put into hand. Sure you are at the mercy of N but if your opponent doesn't disrupt your hand, you can build off some insane combos right after!

9th - Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX/Inteleon

List: 1st/105 - 10/1/1 - Online - Master Ball #13 Series #2

Season: 2021-22

Wins: 4 (Online)

When it comes to Inteleon decks, I think Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX will always be my favourite way to play the deck. Sometimes paired with Suicune V but it’s all about Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX’s attack Max Lance, hitting 10 +120 for one Water discarded or +240 for two. 

These numbers can go up thanks to Inteleon’s Quick Shooting and of course we got the Shady Dealing package in here to make the whole deck work. And you didn’t always need to use Max Lance, the first attack is already good, 10 +30 for each of your opponents benched mons.

I did forget to mention why that line works and it’s because of Sobble letting you search for other Rapid Strike mons and put them on the bench, making it easier to use Drizzle later on. And it was quite easy to set it up with 4 Level Ball and 4 Evo Incense. Max consistency, that’s why I really liked this deck.

8th - Zygarde-GX/Lycanroc-GX

List: 1st/15 - 3/0/0 - Project EXT Locals

Season: 2017-18

Wins: 3 (IRL)

Good ol' Zygarde.

7th - Zoroark-GX/Decidueye-GX

List: 4th/32 - 5/2/0 - Singapore Pro Circuit - 2018 Autumn Invitational

Season: 2018-19

Wins: 2 (1 Online + 1 IRL)

Easily my favourite way to play Zoroark-GX! 

6th - Charizard

List: 3rd/22 - 3/1/1 - League Challenge at 2019/20 Singapore SPE

Season: 2019-2020

Wins: 5 (IRL)

Yup, this is my favourite single-prize attacker of all time and nothing will ever change that.

5th - Charizard ex/Noctowl

List: 1st/32 - 3 different GBLs from 2025-26 season (S2 GBL4, GBL5 and GBL 8)

Season: 2025-26

Wins: 9 (4 Online + 5 IRL)

And here's my current favourite deck to play right now, it's Dawn Zard! 

4th - Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR

List: 1st/189 - 9/2/0 - 2022-23 Singapore Regional League Vol. 2 @ NTU Alumni Club

Season: 2022-23

Wins: 12 (8 Online + 4 IRL)

What more do I need to say about ArcTina? 

3rd - Reshiram & Charizard-GX

List: 1st/19 - 4/1/0 - League Challenge @ Pokebar

Season: 2019-2020

Wins: 8 (IRL)

ReshiZard! Some of you might be surprised not to see it at #1 but there's good reasons for it.

3rd - Centiskroch VMAX

List: 1st/209 - 10-2-0 - Online - Hegster Season 3 - #16

Season: 2020-21

Wins: 10 (Online)

Ah yes my ol' pal Centiskorch VMAX, the deck that made me well known during the pandemic. 

1st - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex

List: 92nd/647 - 5/3/0 - 2025-26 Singapore Premier Ball League @ Suntec City

Season: 2025-26

Wins: 17 (11 Online + 6 IRL)

And here it is, my favourite deck to play of all time and it just had to be this deck right? For starters I can use a Charmander, my favourite Pokemon! 

Dawning of a new Zard era - Singapore 2025-2026 Season 2 Recap

Season 2 of the 2025-26 season here in Singapore is done and we're straight into Season 3 already with GBLs happening this weekend. But I still wanted to do a quick re-cap of the previous season, where I played Dawn Zard for all but one event, and that one event sure enough was my worst performance of the whole lot because I played Pult Dusknoir, what's new haha.

Dawn Zard exploded onto the scene ever since Nicolai Stiborg's win in Stuttgart back in December, the first event to feature the new Phantasmal Flames cards and also the last TPCi event of the year 2025. 

But Dawn Zard isn't new to me, I've actually been testing it out for a while now and had a list ready for the Premier Ball League back in November, big thanks to Oscar Madsen for helping out with the list and all the times I've been testing the deck the past few months. 

But I didn't get any of my 4 Dawns in time to play it. But I did for the start of the first GBL of the season and I would end up playing it for the whole season. And I think I can safely say it was my best "season" so far since this new format of seasons within a season started here in TPC Southeast Asia.

The Dawn Zard Lists

I tried all sorts of builds of Dawn Zard but these 13 were the ones I put more time with and tested games online with. There were a few others were I tested maybe a few games with but didn't bother to follow up with after a while so I didn't keep my record with them. But for these lists, I've got at least 300+ games recorded on my excel for them!

But here's the first one and this was before PFL was released, just to show the first build of Dawn Zard and what I wanted to play for our PBL:

v1.1 - My initial PBL 2025 list

v1.2 - Stuttgart Winning List

55 Games on Record: 41-14 (74.55% Win Rate)

The base list, the only thing I didn't like was not having Pidgeotto against item lock decks. It was a good list to learn how the deck worked and all the ins-and-outs of the deck and I picked it up really quickly. 

v1.3 - My edit aka the 3 GBL winning list

130 Games on Record: 93-37 (71.54% Win Rate)

Probably the list I spent the most time with, I played this list for 8 of the GBLs I was in and just once in a UBL. I honestly didn't miss the 4th Nest Ball all that much but I did understand needed it for more consistency as I did have a few too many bad starts which got me to change it after a long while. This list did just win the last UBL of our latest season (2.4) thanks to Ian so it still works!

v1.4 - Oscar's fun list that won a Cup

11 Games on Record: 5-6 (45.45% Win Rate)

It was a fun idea but I've got more losses than wins with this deck so need I say more? The Clefairy tech sadly didn't help out the Pult matchup, did help out with stuff like Absol and Khan at least! 

v1.5 - Unfair Stamp build

5 Games on Record: 3-2 (60% Win Rate)

I saw this Unfair Stamp build going around and I had to try it out. I didn't like it as much as the Prime Catcher build, I've just never been a big fan of Unfair Stamp because my opponents somehow always draws out of it so I've never trusted it. I'd rather play a more useful ace spec that helps me win than a card that attempts to help make my opponent lose and usually never does that.

v1.6 - Azul's edit from the winning Stuttgart list

7 Games on Record: 5-2 (71.43% Win Rate)

Anytime Azul GG is testing a deck I like, I'll be paying close attention to it! So of course I had to try out his version of the list. It was fine but again, I didn't really like the Unfair Stamp version of the deck. And my biggest issue with the deck was Ditto just not being Klefki, I was missing it a few times and I never really found the need to use Ditto in most of my games, it felt a bit useless when we had so many outs to get Terapagos ex down anyway.

v1.7 - Jackson's list

11 Games on Record: 9-2 (81.81% Win Rate)

When a top Zard player is talking about the list, you better listen to him so sure enough I paid close attentio to Jackson Ford's guide when he spoke about Dawn Zard. It was just the one change and similar to what I had been running but keeping the Nest Ball and cutting the 2nd Iono. Not sure why I didn't put in more game time with this list, it was doing really well for me. 

v1.8 - Korea winning list

25 Games on Record: 20-5 (80% Win Rate)

I saw the winning list from the Korean League, and saw just one Fan Rotom which made me think....wait why did I do this the whole time?  My first Dawn Zard list only had the one Fan Rotom and it was working fine initially anyway! This list got me very close to a Top 8 finish at the 3rd UBL. 

v1.9 - Trying out Black Belt's Training in online events

19 Games on Record: 15-4 (78.95% Win Rate)

I had seen someone testing Black Belt's Training in Dawn Zard and it got me thinking, was that the missing piece I needed? In theory it felt like a good idea, being able to KO Gholdengo much earlier which can be an issue sometimes and also KOing Absol out of nowhere is always a nice surprise. So I really liked the idea and might explore it more going into the new format. I got 5th out of 289 players in an online tournament with this list, my best "big online tourney" result in a while.

v2.0 - Birmingham Top 8 list aka the one with 1 Pidgey

31 Games on Record: 23-8 (74.19% Win Rate)

So I knew about this change before this event happened as Oscar had mentioned about it. It felt alright but I was a bit worried since I'm playing in a bo1 format and prizing the one Pidgey can be quite painful. After a while I got used to it and it actually didn't feel as bad as I thought, except against decks like Gardevoir since you can't just search out a Jet out of nowhere with no Pidgeot in play.

v2.1 - Merida Top 32 list (Waterpon build but no Sparkling Crystal with 1-0-1 Dusknoir)

4 Games on Record: 1-3 (25% Win Rate)

Ever since I got back from my holiday trip in Japan, suddenly all my friends were on Dawn Zard too but not the one I was playing, they were on the Waterpon build. I had tested it before and never really liked it so I had to try it out again. And well I was right, I still didn't like it.

v2.2 - Toronto 19th list (Waterpon build with Sparkling Crystal, no Dusknoir)

6 Games on Record: 3-3 (50% Win Rate)

I tried out the Sparkling Crystal build and I still didn't like it. My biggest issue was the fact that it was quite a useless Ace Spec and this build felt more like a cheese to win kinda deck. The Munkidori + Psyduck was nice but I still lost to a Pult deck with them.

v2.3 - Toronto 25th list (With Jamming tower)

6 Games on Record: 5-1 (83.33% Win Rate)

I gave up on the Waterpon build, I just didn't like it. I stumbled upon this build with 3 stadiums which made me wonder if that was the answer to my Watchtower issue. It honestly felt alright when I tested it, but I didn't like that this list had no Klefki. The Jamming Tower did come in handy in certain situations which got me thinking of whether I could explore with it more in the future.

 

2025-26 Season 2 - 11 GBLs + 4 UBLs

 As you might remember, I've already spoken about the first few events that happened so I won't talk much about those 3 GBL wins since it's already on this post.

GBL #13 Season 2 @ Dueller's Point - 3rd/48 - 4/1/0 (+12 LP)

• R1 W Gholdengo ex/Lunatone
• R2 L Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex/Froslass
• R3 W N's Zoroark ex
• R4 W Ceruledge ex/Lunatone
• R5 W Gholdengo ex/Joltik Box

List

I thought my R2 loss to Grimm would cost me a good points day but thankfully my opponent did well and her score dragged me up to a 3rd place finish, and 12 more points which helps my points tally and my push for the worlds invite! Every other game other than that one went really well for me. 

After that I missed a number of GBLs because I was in Japan for 2 weeks. So my first one back was literally hours after landing back in Singapore.

GBL #23 Season 2 @ Card Connect - 4th/40 - 5/1/0 (+12 LP)

• R1 L N's Zoroark ex
• R2 W Gholdengo ex/Lunatone
• R3 W Mega Lopunny ex/Dusknoir
• R4 W Dragapult ex/Dusknoir
• R5 W Dragapult ex/Dusknoir
• R6 W Festival Lead Box

List

This was a bit of a lucky run for me. The first game was not so lucky, I got hit with that racist card Watchtower when I prized one of my stadiums and just got stuck for too long. I needed a lot of luck to win my R3 game and I started off very slow and I got lucky that both my Pult opponents didn't have the best of set-ups/misplayed. And the festival box I had to go outside the box and play very differently to squeak a win out of that one. And thankfully my efforts weren't wasted with another Top 4 finish!

GBL #26 Season 2 @ Deckard Gaming - 3rd/32 - 4/1/0 (+12 LP)

• R1 W Cynthia's Garchomp ex
• R2 W Dragapult ex/Dusknoir
• R3 W Gardevoir ex/Jellicent ex
• R4 L Charizard ex/Noctowl
• R5 W Gholdengo ex/Lunatone

List

This was the first GBL in the whole season where I finally made a change to my list, cutting an Iono for the 4th Nest Ball to help with some awkward starts I've been having. This was the first event where I finally lost in the mirror match, but it was to Ian who had also won a few GBLs with the list I gave him, I had a slow start and I just couldn't catch up in time. I once again needed some luck in the last round vs Gholdengo to get the win and luckily my opponent didn't get the Turo he needed.

GBL #29 Season 2 @ Concept City - 14th/32 - 3/2/0

• R1 L Alakazam/Dudunsparce
• R2 W Slaking ex/Pidgeot ex
• R3 W Charizard ex/Noctowl
• R4 L Charizard ex/Noctowl/Wellspring Ogerpon ex
• R5 W Mega Lopunny ex/Dusknoir

List

My worst performance with Dawn Zard so far. I had a complete dead hand vs Alakazam, having to lose 4 prizes after just 3 turns and me not doing much is not a good thing, especially with just 1 iono in the list. My other lost was to the Waterpon version of Dawn Zard, I had another slow start and I just couldn't comeback in time. Just the way it goes sometimes.

UBL #1 Season 2 @ Aloft Novena - 15th/299 - 6/2/0 (+12 LP)

• R1 W Bye
• R2 W Mega Kangaskhan ex/Bouffalant
• R3 W Dragapult ex/Dusknoir
• R4 L Gholdengo ex/Lunatone
• R5 L Greninja ex/Pidgeot ex
• R6 W Flareon ex/Noctowl
• R7 W Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex
• R8 W Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex

List

This one was a weird event, I had like 5 bad starts and survived 3 of them. But of course the other 2, I just got done in. The Gholdengo played just drew literally everything they needed and I only got my first prize after they had taken 3, so I didn't really have much of a shot of winning that one. The Greninja game was painful, that hand didn't look that good so I chose not to Iono them and it cost me, and they literally had everything in hand to board wipe my two Manders and it cost me the game and I couldn't comeback from that. 

Shoutout to Klefki for winning me in R3 and R7 games! I chose to play the one Fan Rotom for this event and honestly, other than one game when it was prized, I didn't mind this change all that much...initially. But hey finally my first Top 16 finish at an Ultra Ball League event!

GBL #30 Season 2 @ Deckard Gaming - 4th/32 - 4/1/0 (+12 LP)

• R1 W N's Zoroark ex
• R2 L Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex/Froslass
• R3 W Roaring Moon ex/Brute Bonnet
• R4 W N's Zoroark ex
• R5 W Dragapult ex/Dusknoir

List

Another GBL at Deckard, another Top 4 finish but this time I didn't get the points since I had hit my BFL so I needed a Top 2 finish at a GBL to score points. My one loss was to Grimm, again. Another slow start and not much I could have done about it. 

Shoutout to my R4 opponent Zach who gave me the win even though he was in the better spot in that game (we went to time). He does have his Worlds invite already so that was a cool thing from him to do for me. Also another shoutout to Nick for winning this event with Dawn Zard, apparently he watched my video and it helped him out a lot so that was nice to hear!

UBL #2 Season 2 @ One Punggol - 28th/303 - 6/2/0 (+9 LP)

• R1 W Gholdengo ex/ESP
• R2 W Alakazam/Dudunsparce
• R3 L Gholdengo ex/Lunatone
• R4 W Ceruledge ex/Lunatone
• R5 W Gardevoir ex/Jellicent ex
• R6 L Gardevoir ex
• R7 W Gardevoir ex
• R8 W Charizard ex/Noctowl

List

This was the only UBL out of the four I was elected in. I had to use my bye for the first one just to guarantee I could play. Both my losses here really sucked. I dead drew once again to a Gholdengo player, but this time because he used Iono Turn 1 and gave me a hand full of nothing! The other loss to Gardevoir really annoyed me. 

His watchtower came at an awkward time and he played a bit too slow to the point where I was rushing to take cards just to make sure we didn't get a DGL and I think that actually hurt me more as he ended up being in a position to win. Had I not rushed, perhaps I might have been in a position to win the game. Still I rather lose a game than take the DGL, my stance on it is still very clear.

UBL #3 Season 2 @ Nee Soon CC - 10th/300 - 7/1/0 (+12 LP)

• R1 W Gardevoir ex
• R2 L Dragapult ex/Dusknoir
• R3 W Ceruledge ex/Lunatone
• R4 W Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex
• R5 W Mega Kangaskhan ex/Bouffalant
• R6 W Gardevoir ex
• R7 W Greninja ex/Pidgeot ex
• R8 W Gholdengo ex/Lunatone

List

So going into this event, I didn't even know what to expect since I had been ill for the past week, and I actually had a fever the night before the event so I didn't even know if I could make it! Trying to play 8 rounds and dealing with all those issues sucked, it was not fun at all. So imagine my surprise to go 7-1 while dealing with a headache, a runny nose and coughs! 

My first X-1 score in a UBL but sadly, I only finished 10th because I lost in R2 and my Rounds 6 and 7 opponents dropped immediately after I beat them, can you people stop doing that! Not much I could have done in the R2 game, I just dead drew and my board got destroyed, especially since I prized Charmeleon in that game. The 1 Fan Rotom didn't cost me much but I did prize it one game where I finially realized how painful it can be since I can't search out for Noctowls from it too. Sure I can get the Basics out but without the Fan Rotom, we can't get the evolutions out as well.

UBL #4 Season 2 @ Nee Soon CC - 22nd/300 - 6/2/0 (+9 LP)

• R1 W Joltik Box
• R2 L Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex/Froslass
• R3 W Gardevoir ex
• R4 W Miraidon ex
• R5 W Tera Box
• R6 W Dragapult ex/Dusknoir
• R7 W Dragapult ex/Dusknoir
• R8 L Tera Box

List

What is it with me and losing to Grimms R2, it's the third time it's happened and once again I had a slow start and because I prized my other Boss, I couldn't deal with her 3rd Froslass and that cost me game. Also my R1 opponent hit a Watchtower Turn 1 which wasn't nice but in the end had to bump his own stadium just to use Bloodmoon Ursaluna which got me the win.

I played the 1 Pidgey list that got Top 8 in Birmingham and while the idea is nice in a Bo3 format, I didn't really like it in a Bo1 format, especially since I prized it in half my games!

The R8 loss to Tera Box hurt, especially as that was the win and in for top 8 and this time my resistance was good unlike yesterday so I knew if I won, I would finally get my first Top 8 finish at a UBL and score more points. But I went 2nd and had a slow start, slow enough that I knew I would be down 4 prizes before I could do anything. And sure enough that's what happened. A few misplays on my part too, especially when I should have attacked with Terapagos ex and not Charizard ex since it's quite easy for him to get Crispin + Vessel to get his Teal Mask Ogerpon set up in time (I wasn't expecting him to hit his 3rd Noctowl in a row). 

That loss really hurt and took a lot out of me, I couldn't even physically move at one point because of how down I felt. I was so close and once again didn't get the job done. But still, to get Top 32 finishes in all 4 UBL events, going x-2 in all of them is a pretty decent achievement I guess. But it just isn't enough for me, I wanted to do more, and I needed to get Top 4 at the very least to be more safer in the fight for the Worlds invite. 

As it stands, I'm now 7th in the standings, 5th of the 8 who don't have the invite already. It may look safe but I still don't feel it is just yet. After my 4th 12 point score, I hadn't added any yet and I'll need to win a few more GBLs in the 3rd season to be in a much safter spot to be in contention for Worlds in San Francisco, which has always been my plan. I didn't bother with the last two Worlds because I wasn't interested in going to either places but for SF, I have to try my best!

And just for fun, I wanted to share my record against the meta decks in this format for the games I have recorded:

Season 3 starts this weekend and I already know Dawn Zard is not in the best spot because Dragapult is about to be very popular, and that's one of my weaker matches. Another deck I expect to be stronger are the Froslass decks, and that's one of my weakest matchups across the board so I might have to start testing other decks to get those GBL wins I need to make it safely to the finish line. Thanks for reading!

2025 Re-cap

Just wanted to do a short re-cap of my Pokemon TCG adventures in 2025. Unlike 2024, I actually have stuff fo talk about this time.

A brief summary of the year, I got my first GBL win and I ended the year with 5 GBL wins, I made top cut at both of the major events held in Singapore, I travelled to Australia to play in a TPCi regional for the first time since OCIC 2020, and made day 2 in that event! I got my biggest online win so far out of 300 players. 

It was cool to add 3 more entries to the limitless page and as per tradition, they’ve all been different decks even though they kinda mix all together anyway! I mean it’s hard enough for a Singaporean player to be featured on Limitless due to the lack of major events we have (just 2) so to have 3 new ones to my name feels like an extra bonus. 

It really was a great year, not as great as 2023 but I don’t know if anything can ever top that. But I’m just happy I finally got the Zard Pidgeot entry on there after 2 years of trying.

January - Triple Declined for UBL

The year didn’t start so well for me. I was doing well in the first season of GBLs and put myself in a good spot to challenge for the top 8 spot for the world invites. Then January happened. 

I got declined for all 3 UBLs. It’s ok, I can walk into one right? Nope I failed the walk-in for all 3 too. So missed the first 3 UBLs and I was out of the top 20. And then Budew showed up and making me change decks too because Zard was not in a good spot.

February - First GBL win!

At this point I was still jumping around decks and one of the decks I really liked playing was Gouging Fire ex. Was it a good deck? Well it’s no Tier 1 or 2 deck but I liked playing it!

I played it for a Tournament of Doom and out of 171 players, I actually won it! It was a really good run and gave me the confidence to try it out for a GBL a few days later and I ended up winning that too, which was my first Great Ball League win so far since the new changes of events were introduced at the start of this season back in September.

March - Finally getting to play in UBLs

Well not much happened in March to be honest but I will point this out, I finally got elected to play in a UBL. To be fair I was guaranteed to play in one because I won a GBL and for doing that, you get a R1 bye for a UBL.

And how did I do in those events? Well not that great to be honest. 32nd out of 220 with Gholdengo, 72nd out of 260 with Gardevoir (this was the painful event where I started 4-0 and ended 4-4) and finally 43rd out of 300 with Lugia. I just wanted to play a deck with the VSTAR marker one last time before rotation hit us. 

April - My biggest online tournament win

April meant it was time for the new rotation. I was ready for it and I had been testing the Terapagos ex/Bouffalant deck by buddy Luke Morsa had been working on. He did quite well with it in one event that was convinced me to give it a go too. 

So for the Tournament of Doom on April 5th, my first online event in the new rotation, I went in with no expectations. And somehow ended up winning the whole thing out of 306 players! That is by far my biggest online tournament win yet, and as some of you may know, I do play in a lot of them, won 70+ events by now but not with one featuring 300+ players!

I was not expecting to do this well with a deck I hadn’t really played that much from the new rotation too. I mean I had practiced with it but not actually played it to a tournament yet so it was a nice surprise to win it and with a deck not many had known about too.

May - My first Day 2 finish at a TPCi major event

To be fair I didn’t do much in May. GBLs wasn’t going well for me and the other missed UBL in January meant I was losing touch with the leading contenders. And I was about to miss yet another UBL but this time, so would many of my friends too because we were all travelling to Australia for the Melbourne Regional.

But again I still wasn’t sure what to play for this event so I landed on Dragapult Dusknoir because it felt a better deck  to play in a bo3 setting than a bo1 setting. And even with the limited amount of games I had with the deck, I managed to make Day 2 for the Melbourne Regionals!

Day 2 didn’t go so well, one win shy of making some money from a top 32 finish but I’m glad that I can prove ri myself that I can do well in a TPCi regional. It was also my first one outside of Asia too! Hopefully I can do it again in the future. 

It was cool to play against players not from Singapore once again and I even got the chance to play against two of the very best players in the world, Kaiwen Cabbabe and Daichi Shimada. Sure enough they were the two that handed me my two losses in Day 1.

June - Top Cut at Singapore Master Ball League

I actually spent most of June in the US for my cousin’s wedding but I did bring my deck with me just in case I got the chance to play in an American local. The one deck that caught my eye was the one Rowan Stavenow won an invitational event with Dragapult Charizard.

After watching the streamed games I built the deck having brought all the pieces to build and started practising with it. Rowan and his crew had a decent run at NAIC and I decided just to keep with that same list for the Master Ball League.

I had one of my best runs, starting 5-0 as well, of the whole year in that event to make it into the top 32 cut, I couldn’t believe my luck, having struggled in every UBL I played this season yet somehow it was the big one, the MBL that it goes right. Sadly I lost to the mirror in Top 32 to two dead hands, it happens.

July - In my Rouge era with Charizard ex/Dusknoir

There wasn’t much for me to play for in July. Our MBL was over so the season was done and dusted. I wasn’t going to Worlds in Anaheim so I didn’t need to test much. But sure enough, I kept grinding and playing even in the off season.

But I was more having fun with one of my favourite decks to play with this year. It was a rouge variant of Charizard ex and Dusknoir, that’s it! You want to build up as many Dusknoir as possible, destroy their board state and having Zard clean up and since Dusknoir gives your opponent prizes, it helps Zard to do more damage.

I ended up winning two small online events with it and also two local gym events with it. It was fun seeing people confused by what version of Zard I was playing. 

August - Winning small events with Gholdengo

I got an online tournament  win with Dragapult Dusknoir out of 27 players, then an online tournament win with Gholdengo (also just 27 people), and a local qualifier event for some team event, also with Gholdengo. The less said about that specific event late on in October the better, I haven’t been that upset by a TO in a long time.

September - Nothing much happened here

Yeah, that’s really nothing for me to talk about here, nothing happened. I didn’t win a local event or an online event and our season had just restarted with me only playing in 2 GBLs, and just one Top 8 finish to show for it. 

Why only 2 you ask? Well I got declined for most of the ones I could go to and the rest? Well I wasn’t in Singapore as I went to Japan for a short trip with the fam.

October - GBL Win #2

Honestly, I almost had nothing to talk about for October as well if not for the GBL event that happened at Brick’s Play, which was also the last GBL of the first season of the 2025-26 season.

I still had no clue what to play so I just went for what looked like the most powerful deck to play, Dragapult Dusknoir. I don’t trust Gardevoir and Zard still wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be. 

And it worked out better than I expected! I won my first GBL of the new season but my second for the year of 2025. I got super lucky to be fair, my last two games were against Charizard Pidgeot and since I’m the Zard guy, I knew how Pult beats it and it helped me to get the win. 

The GBL win also meant I earnt a Round 1 bye for an upcoming UBL, aka I don’t have to worry about stupid lotteries declining me as usual.

November - Top Cut at Singapore Premier Ball League

November wasn’t the easiest start of the season for me. I ended up playing 4 different decks for the first four UBLs of the season (Zard, Joltik, Gholdengo and Pult). I used my GBL bye for the 3rd event and that’s the one I got my best UBL results so far….just 18th. I still haven’t cracked the top 16 yet.

So I wasn’t feeling the most confident going into the PBL. My choices were to stick to my usual Charizard Pidgeot, play what I felt was the best deck for that format in Gholdengo Lunatone or go completely rouge with a new deck, Dawn Charizard with Noctowl. 

I ended up going for my comfort pick in Zard Pidgeot. My brother was the one that pointed out to me that it was my last major event I could play that deck in, so I had to right? And it worked out quite well.

I made the top 128 cut, having survived two brutal games of bad prizing (both Charizard vs Gardevoir and both Charmeleon vs Dragapult). Unfortunately, the theme of me losing the first round of cut or winning an event continues…

…I didn’t win the event so yes I lost in Top 128 to a mirror match where I started slow and couldn’t pull off the big 4-prize KO for game turn in time. That’s just how it is sometimes, just have to deal with the cards you’re dealt with, and it being bo1 too.

December - GBL Wins #3, #4 and #5, all within 5 days!

And now for the last month of the year and maybe my favourite period of this whole year. I had my deck in mind for the second round of GBLs to start but I wasn’t sure how good or bad it will be because it was the new Charizard Dawn Noctowl deck I had been testing for a bit. And then Stuttgart Regional happened.

Dawn Zard actually won it from a player who got the list from my friend Oscar who had been helping me with the list as well. So now I knew if it could do well in the biggest stage, maybe I can get some decent results from my GBLs. My first event didn’t go so well, starting 0-2 but I did climb back to go 4-2.

And at the next event, I won my 3rd GBL of the year! And in the very next day, I won my 4th GBL of the year! I didn’t do so well the day after that but 2 days later, I got my 5th GBL win of the year! 

3 GBL wins in the space of 5 days (or say 3 City League wins or 3 League Challenge wins) was something I didn’t think was possible for someone like me to do. If it was one of the top players I’d believe it. Especially since it was Bo1 setting and the luck of variance can really put you out of the game before you can even do anything.

I won all 3 with the same 60 card list too and I got two other online tournaments win with Dawn Zard too, I could have made it 3 but I lost in the same 60-mirror due to my own bad mistake. Still I’m happy with the recent run of results and it’s giving me a realistic chance to achieve my goal for this season which is to earn my 2nd World Championships invite. I was planning to go anyway since it’s in San Francisco but it would be better to go as a player and not as a spectator.

And if you’re wondering how I ended my year of 2025? By playing Pokemon TCG of course, but for once, in Japan! I hadn’t really had much chances to play in Japan before but I had the chance to play at Toreca Camp’s New Year’s all-night test event. 

So went the clock struck midnight and 2025 became 2026, I was playing Pokemon TCG! Sure it was in a different language but the game is still the same! I wish you all a great year ahead for 2026! Thanks for reading.