I played a few decks in the past 12 month or so. Some might say a few too many. Enough to make up a Top 25 list even! For those wondering, I did play 37 different decks to either IRL tournaments or online tournaments but I wanted to showcase my top 25 decks, according to how many wins I got with them in IRL/Online.
This will be a smaller entry, just wanted to do this for fun and reflect back on some stuff I played in the previous season. Some good, some bad, mostly fun!
25) Tera Box
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| 1st/24 - Utopia Games New Expansion Event - Apr 27 - IRL |
Events: 7 (2 + 5)
Record: 16-13-0 (6-3-0 + 10-10-0)
Win Rate: 55.17%
Win: 1
Top 4: 1
Top 8: 3
So Tera Box is one of the rare few decks on this list, maybe the only one too, where I played it more IRL than I did online. And it's easier to play online events! I did ok with it during smaller events but when it really mattered during the Ultra Ball League, I bombed with it, going 3-5. It feels like Lost Box which is a deck I liked playing but I didn't quite like playing this one.
24) Lost Zone Box (Radiant Charizard)
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| 8th/56 - Bak & Bak PokeLeague #14 - Aug 28 - Online |
Events: 6 (5 + 1)
Record: 16-15-0 (15-12-0 + 1-3-0)
Win Rate: 51.61%
Win: 0
Top 4: 0
Top 8: 1
Speaking of Lost Box! I always liked the Radiant Charizard one better but it just wasn't as good as the Radiant Greninja version. I didn't play much of it after the first few months of last season but still got enough wins to put it on here. Cool deck, I do miss Radiant Charizard a lot. What a cool card. We still do have Spiritomb in format but it's pretty much useless now with no Vs in roation.
23) Klawf/Terapagos ex
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| 3rd/48 - Redacted 2nd Chance #7 - Mar 9 - Online |
Events: 6
Record: 16-13-1
Win Rate: 53.33%
Win: 0
Top 4: 1
Top 8: 3
I only ever played Klawf/Terapagos ex poison deck online and for a good reason. I don't actually have Oranguru V or Radiant Sneasler! I didn't play it much but I did enjoy the deck, it wasn't as easy as it looks as you had to keep track of your damage output, especially when you are trying to KO your opponents through Poison.
22) Charizard ex/Terapagos ex
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| 2nd/15 - SMG Nightly Standard - Nov 11 - Online |
Events: 5
Record: 17-12-1
Win Rate: 56.67%
Win: 0
Top 4: 2
Top 8: 2
Here's the 2nd of 3 all online decks on this list. I always liked the idea of pairing Charizard ex with Noctowl, since it's a Tera Pokemon after all. The issue was just getting the Noctowl to work, which meant pre-benching a Terapagos ex or already having the Charizard ex on board. It was a cool idea to try but it pales in comparison to the traditional version of Pidgeot ex or even the Turbo Dusknoir version.
21) Lost Zone Box (Radiant Greninja)
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| 7th/93 - Moujii's Dojo - Oct 17 - Online |
Events: 6
Record: 25-15-0
Win Rate: 62.5%
Win: 0
Top 4: 0
Top 8: 2
The go-to Lost Box deck. This was the last season for us to use it and I just didn't bother playing it IRL, I had my time with it so I just decided to have some fun with it online whenever I had the time. The deck was still strong but when Dragapult ex became more prominent, especially with Regidrago VSTAR, that's when this deck fell out of favour for me. Still preferred playing this over Tera Box.
20) Archaludon ex
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| 1st/32 - WarGames New Expansion - Apr 2 - IRL |
Events: 8 (3 + 5)
Record: 26-12-0 (11-9-0 + 15-3-0)
Win Rate: 68.42%
Win: 2
Top 4: 4 (1 + 3)
Top 8: 6 (1 + 4)
The first winning deck on this list. I thought I would enjoy playing this deck, it looked like Metagross GX from back in the day, a deck I played loads of, but it just never felt the same for me. It was strong for a while but now it's just not quite there.
In fact, you don't even see much of it in the metagame right now. I did get two cheap wins with it in New Expansion events, it was the best deck for those events anyway during that short period.
19) Ancient Box
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| 6th/156 - Pokemon Battle Park - Sep 1 - Online |
Events: 11
Record: 28-22-0
Win Rate: 53.85%
Win: 0
Top 4: 0
Top 8: 2
I'll be honest, I completely forgot the stretch where I played this deck a lot so I was surprised to see it on here, let alone ahead of a few others. Didn't play it IRL though. The deck wasn't as easy as it looks to play which made it more fun for me to try and master it. I don't think I ever did which is why I stopped playing it after January.
18) Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex/Froslass
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| 4th/256 - Sunny's Weekly #216 - Jul 28 - Online |
Events: 9 (7 + 2)
Record: 33-20-0 (31-16-0 + 2-4-0)
Win Rate: 62.26%
Win: 0
Top 4: 1
Top 8: 2
One of the newer decks on this list and of course I had to give it a try, most online before I managed to get a few pieces to play the deck IRL. It's a different type of spread deck but I've dabbled in my spread decks before so I knew I would enjoy the challenge of trying this deck out. I'm still trying to master it but seeing a 60%+ win rate is a good start so far. I haven't done well with it IRL yet though.
17) Lugia VSTAR/Archeops
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| 1st/107 - Biznaga Challenge #5 - Feb 26 - Online |
Events: 7 (5 + 2)
Record: 33-14-1 (24-10-1 + 9-4-0)
Win Rate: 68.75%
Win: 1
Top 4: 2
Top 8: 3 (2 + 1)
I've never really been much of a Lugia player so I never really played it much, but I did do quite well with it in the past season which now makes me wonder, why didn't I play with it more? It's funny that the one win I got with it is probably the most unusual Lugia list you'll see, the Munki build which many people probably never even knew it existed and not the usual build with Cinccino or the big basic builds.
But the deck worked and honestly, it was my favourite to play of all the Lugia variants I did get to play. This was also the last deck I played IRL before the latest rotation, so the last ever VStar I ever announced was Summoning Star! Too bad Arceus VSTAR wasn't playable if not it would have been that.
16) Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR/Terapagos ex
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| 1st/43 - Mentis Fortis IX - Sep 22 - Online |
Events: 8 (7 + 1)
Record: 33-14-2 (31-13-2 + 2-1-0)
Win Rate: 67.35%
Win: 1
Top 4: 2 (1 + 1)
Top 8: 2 (1 + 1)
This deck was fun to play and I really wished I played it more, and the results shows too, 67% win rate is quite something for me. The combination of Palkia with Area Zero and Terapagos just made so much sense to me and I tried to make it work.
The deck had so many options to do stuff, you can even do a surprise Chien-Pao ex attack out of nowhere. And this deck played Bibarel too, and everyone knows how much of a fan I am of that beaver. I still wish it was legal for play, the amount of decks I could put the beaver in would surprise people, aka, every deck possible!
15) Miraidon ex
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| 1st/23 - Goodness Gracious Games PL Qualifiers - Feb 11 - IRL |
Events: 11 (9 + 2)
Record: 36-24-1 (29-22-1 + 7-2-0)
Win Rate: 59.02%
Win: 2 (1 + 1)
Top 4: 2 (1 + 1)
Top 8: 2 (1 + 1)
Miraidon is a deck that just keeps evolving. It's gained a lot of new tools as the season went on, now it has the likes of Magneton and Eelektrik to charge energies from the discard. The main bits of the deck have stayed pretty much the same, charge to Iron Hands and just smack from them and get something like Raichu V or Zekrom ex to close out the games. I will say, I never enjoyed it as much, I didn't like my games being decided on Generators when it failed a number of times to get me even 1 energy.
14) Terapagos ex/Noctowl
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| 1st/306 - Tournament of Doom! The New Frontier! - Apr 5 - Online |
Events: 8 (4 + 4)
Record: 37-11-1 (25-6-1 + 12-5-0)
Win Rate: 75.51%
Win: 1
Top 4: 3 (2 + 1)
Top 8: 4 (2 + 2)
I didn't get to play this deck much but I hell as sure wish I did. 75% win rate, the highest of any deck on this list! It was the deck I focused on when rotation hit and I tried to make it work as much as I could. I saw my buddy Luke do well with it, asked him about it, took his list and won my biggest ever Online event (306 people)! So I have a soft spot for this deck.
And hey, 75% win rate, half my events with this deck ended with a top 8 finish, be it IRL or online, this was one deck that I really clicked with. Sadly the format evolved too quickly and the deck just never made much of an impact as I thought it would. I've never really done well with a tank-style deck before so this showed me I could play stuff like that.
13) Gouging Fire ex
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| 1st/171 - Tournament of Doom! Falls in love? - Feb 15 - Online |
Events: 13 (9 + 4)
Record: 38-21-2 (29-16-2 + 9-5-0)
Win Rate: 62.30%
Win: 3 (2 + 1)
Top 4: 3 (2 + 1)
Top 8: 5 (2 + 3)
This was one of those fun decks that I kept going back to throughout the season. It wasn't the best deck but I felt like I knew I how to play it as best as I could as possible, more than other decks. Plus I do love my Fire decks!
I just happened to gel with this deck for whatever reason. I got me a win in the Tournament of Doom series out of 171 people and it was also the only deck I got a win with in any Great Ball League event last season. I liked it in pre-rotation better, you had stuff like Delphox V for snipe attacks and Radiant Greninja to help power up Sada later on. Post rotation, honestly, I haven't played it much.
12) Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex
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| 2nd/16 - Tornio Teste - Aug 23 2024 - Online |
Events: 14 (10 + 4)
Record: 41-36-0 (35-28-0 + 6-8-0)
Win Rate: 53.25%
Win: 0
Top 4: 2 (1 + 1)
Top 8: 2 (1 + 1)
This deck is a ride or die deck to some. Great back-up option to many others. Me? Not one I clearly enjoy playing. I've tried playing it at the start of the season, when Noctowl was introduced, played with it, played without it, I tried all sorts and I just never got it honestly.
The deck looks simple to play but it's really not. So many things can go wrong if you squence stuff wrongly or don't hit what you want which has happened to me many times playing this deck. No surprises that I barely have a 50% record with this deck, it was always very hit or miss for me. More miss when I'm playing it IRL apparently.
11) Dragapult ex/Pidgeot ex
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| 1st/19 - PCG Conference #94 Bo3 - Sep 25 - Online |
Events: 13 (11 + 2)
Record: 43-19-3 (38-18-3 + 5-1-0)
Win Rate: 66.15%
Win: 2 (1 + 1)
Top 4: 2 (1 + 1)
Top 8: 6 (3 + 3)
Some of you might not even know that this deck was even a thing for a while! One look and you'll see it....doesn't it look like the old Charizard Pidgeot build? Yup you're right, just swap a few stuff around and switch the Charizard line with the Dragapult line.
I thought this deck was quite decent for it's time. It wasn't the best deck for sure, Regigigas VSTAR was still running around and wrecking havoc but I enjoyed playing it for what it's worth. Having Quick Search from Pidgeot ex is the ultimate consistency booster for a deck like this, you can gurantee attacks, disruption or gust whenever you need it. Pult decks now looks completely different but this one, I did actually like playing.
10) Joltik Box
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| 4th/128 - Sunny's Weekly 203 - May 5 - Online |
Events: 13 (10 + 3)
Record: 46-20-0 (34-15-0 + 12-5-0)
Win Rate: 69.70%
Win: 0
Top 4: 3 (2 + 1)
Top 8: 4 (2 + 2)
Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love playing decks with energy acceleration in it so I knew I had to try this deck out. And the first time I played it with little practice, was this top 4 finish in the Sunny's event with this highlighted list.
Yes, it looks simple to play but what's wrong with that? My Arceus decks all looked simple and got me a lot of good results. And at the tail end of the season, it was Joltik Box that got me a number of good results, Online and almost a top 4 at a GBL too. Not gotten a win with it yet so I'll try to check that off the list soon. Also got a 69% win rate with it which is rather nice, I don't have a high win rate with that many decks.
9) Terapagos ex/Dusknoir
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| 1st/63 - Silver Squad Standard - Oct 13 - Online |
Events: 14 (11 + 3)
Record: 47-24-1 (41-21-1 + 6-3-0)
Win Rate: 65.28%
Win: 2
Top 4: 3 (2 + 1)
Top 8: 5 (3 + 2)
This was a really cool deck to play, shame it was only viable for about one format. But within that format I did get a lot of games in with it. It was a heavy-combo deck but I enjoyed trying to piece the puzzles this deck would often give me.
Terapagos and Dusknoir just made so much sense together along with Quick Search Pidgeot AND Jewell Seeking Noctowl pretty much getting you whatever you needed to get not just 1 prize, not just 2 prizes, sometimes 3 or even 4 prizes in one turn! Heck I've seen 5 prize turns before as well. That's the power of this deck. Too bad it faded away very quickly.
8) Roaring Moon ex
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| 1st/22 - Goodness Gracious Games Gym Event - Dec 10 - IRL |
Events: 15 (14 + 1)
Record: 48-30-3 (45-30-3 + 3-0-0)
Win Rate: 59.26%
Win: 1
Top 4: 4 (3 + 1)
Top 8: 5 (4 + 1)
I did dabble around with Roaring Moon too! I forgot how much I actually played it during this past season. Also it's kinda funny how the one time I played it in IRL, I actually went 3-0 and topped a local with it. Looks quite simple, throw a tonne of energies, charge them up with Sada and having the Roaring Moons attacking and sometimes taking 1-hit KOs.
This was a ture turbo deck, you wanted to run through your deck as fast as possible with the likes of Squawk, Rad Ninja, Sada, PokeStop, Vessel and Running Shoes just to name a few stuff. But sometimes it's not always that simple, there might be times where you needed to attack with Pecharunt or the baby Roaring Moon just to set stuff up. This deck is still around, I just haven't played the newer version of it much.
7) Gardevoir ex
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| 1st/9 - Concept City New Expansion Gym Event - June 2 - IRL |
Events: 15 (10 + 5)
Record: 52-32-3 (41-23-3 + 11-9-0)
Win Rate: 59.77%
Win: 1
Top 4: 4 (3 + 1)
Top 8: 6 (4 + 2)
Gardevoir is a great deck, some might say it's the best deck and has been so for two years now. And who am I to dispute that. But those around me knows the story, I just never got it with this deck. I've struggled so many times to make this deck work and never did.
I brought it with me to an invitational event and flopped. I started 4-0 at an Ultra Ball League event with it, thinking I can make top cut, and lost the remaining 4 games to go 4-4. It's no easy deck to master and maybe that's why I'm still struggling to make it work even in this new season. I did get lucky one time to top a locals but the competition just weren't that great that day so I was lucky to get that dub.
6) Dragapult ex/Charizard ex
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| 26th/524 - Singapore Master Ball League 2025 - 28 June - IRL |
Events: 15 (11 + 4)
Record: 59-26-1 (44-19-1 + 15-7-0)
Win Rate: 68.6%
Win: 1
Top 4: 2 (1 + 1)
Top 8: 7 (5 + 2)
I didn't play Pult Zard as much as I wanted to but whenever I did, it never really failed me that much. 68% win rate means 2 wins every 3 games which is quite decent for a deck not many really thought was all that good. I'm sure people will go on and say, why not just play a Pult deck or a Zard deck!
The combo of the two just works perfectly. Pult needs a Fire energies, Zard helps to get said energies and they're both two of the best ex-Pokemon attackers in the game so why not! One excels in the early game, one in the late, sounds like the perfect partners to me. And the deck got me a top cut finish at the Master Ball League this past season. Too bad it failed on me the time I needed it the most.
5) Charizard ex/Dusknoir
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| 1st/23 - Midnight Mickey 12 - Jul 21 - Online |
Events: 17 (13 + 4)
Record: 63-29-2 (53-26-2 + 10-3-0)
Win Rate: 67.02%
Win: 4 (2 + 2)
Top 4: 6 (3 + 3)
Top 8: 7 (4 + 3)
Even though I only really started playing this version of Charizard around March-April, you know how much I enjoyed playing it when it's gotten me the 5th most wins of all the decks I've played! And a 67% win rate too. And only two other decks got me more wins than Zard Dusknoir! Is it a good deck? Maybe? Is it fun to play? Absolutely.
This deck can wipe out any deck, when you set it up perfectly, at any point of time! It's a combo deck like the Terapagos Dusknoir deck just more aggressive I felt. And I played 3 very different versions of this and they all seemed to work perfectly fine for me. I honestly still think this deck can be a good choice in the meta. I've beaten Pult Dusk, Crustle and Grimm with this before, so it can beat Zards traditional worse matchups too! It's easily one of my favourite decks to play this past season.
4) Dragapult ex
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| 2nd/57 - MM6 Return of the Midnight Mickey - Jul 11 - Online |
Events: 21 (13 + 8)
Record: 64-43-1 (47-31-1 + 17-12-0)
Win Rate: 59.26%
Win: 0
Top 4: 3 (2 + 1)
Top 8: 8 (4 + 4)
The highest placing deck on this list without a win this season but I did play it a lot. It was just a very consistent deck, get the Drakloaks down and you are in business. It was helped by stuff like Lance, Jacq and now Brock's Scouting.
But I wouldn't say this was my favourite way to play Pult. Sure you had two Munkis to help out and stuff like Budew for early game and Bloodmoon Ursaluna for the late game but it never felt enough for me so I've always prefered the Dusknoir builds more to this, but as you'll see later, there's a reason why I kept going back to this. The deck now has more control elements to it going into the new season which isn't my favourite thing, since we only have 25 minutes to win a game, not even a tie!
3) Gholdengo ex
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| 1st/74 - BZGC Online Lvl 19 - Jul 23 - Online |
Events: 23 (13 + 10)
Record: 72-34-0 (47-22-0 + 25-12-0)
Win Rate: 67.92%
Win: 4 (2 + 2)
Top 4: 6 (3 + 3)
Top 8: 11 (5 + 6)
I've always liked playing Gholdengo ex, no matter what guise it was in. Be it the Palkia VSTAR build, the Dragapult ex build or the latest builds with Genesect ex, be it with Scizor, Togekiss, Joltik Box, Dusknoir or by itself, the deck is just so consistent that it can make any gimmick work with it, even if most of the time, those gimmicks don't work (I'm looking at you, coin flip cards).
And I got 4 wins out of this deck which is decent for someone like me I guess? And 67% win rate is neat too, I don't have that with many other decks, especially the next deck on this entry. Half the time I played the deck, IRL or Online, I ended up top 8 which is quite good I suppose. I can see myself playing more of this deck and the year goes on, especially when the new Mega Pokemon comes out with their 3 prize payoff and who can easily take KOs? Yup, ol' cheesy dingus right here.
2) Dragapult ex/Dusknoir
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| 67th/563 - 2025 Melbourne Regional - 18 May - IRL |
Events: 25 (17 + 8)
Record: 87-55-5 (70-34-3 + 17-21-2)
Win Rate: 42.5%
Win: 1
Top 4: 4 (3 + 1)
Top 8: 9 (7 + 2)
Pult Dusk, yup this deck. The first thing that might poke out right away is my win rate with it, it's not even 50%, it's 42.5%! Most of it are from IRL as you can see, I had my two worst results of the season with it, 2-4 on two occasions at Great Ball League events.
But for some reason it also gave me my first ever Day 2 finish at a TPCi event, and at my 2nd regional event ever too in Melbourne. Maybe I'm just not meant to play this deck in Singapore. I do like playing the deck even if I've not had as much success with it as I would like to have with it. And honestly, if not for Melbourne, my win rate with this deck might have been less than 40% too.
It's been very hit or miss for me with this deck. Sometimes I'll get a good run with it and sometimes I just crash and burn with it. Just like this past week, I got a top 4 out of 200 players in the Tournament of Doom with it and a few days later, probably placed last out of 20 players at my locals going 0-3 with the same list. But I guess that sums up the deck, it can go very right if you get the right cards or draw decently or it can go very wrong.
1) Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
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| 1st/214 - Tournament of Doom! is listening to Lo-fi Tunes - Oct 19 - Online |
Events: 80 (53 + 27)
Record: 268-139-3 (70-34-3 + 17-21-2)
Win Rate: 65.37%
Win: 8 (5 + 3)
Top 4: 23 (11 + 12)
Top 8: 33 (16 + 17)
I mean.....it had to be this right? It was my most played deck in the 2023/24 season, and I pretty much only played this deck to all but one official event that season. I wanted to continue with that trend for this season but with the introduction of Budew to the format and Dragapult ex/Dusknoir now being the most played deck in Singapore since January, it's been a dark time to be a Charizard player in Singapore.
Still, I got as much games in with it as I could, 80 events! I almost hit 67% win rate with it which doesn't seem so bad out of 410 games with it in IRL and online events. 8 wins is my most of any decks, and two were in 100+ players online tournaments, the biggest one being in a Doom event. Of course most of it were pre-rotation, when we still had the likes of Rotom V, Lumineon V and Forest Seal Stone to make the deck work most of the time. Man I miss this combo right now.
Zard with Dusknoir and Pidgeot just works like a charm. Pidgeot gets you whatever you need with Quick Search, Dusclops and Dusknoir don't just help to put damage around, but by knocking yourself out and the opponent taking prizes, it also adds 30 more damage for Charizard's attack. And hey I get to play Charmanders in this deck so that's a big win for me! These days the deck is still alright but the poor Pult Dusk matchup is just not good, especially when it's way too popular in Singapore.
And it's my last season that I will get to play this deck so I will do my best with it to give it the perfect send off in April. Like I said when it was first released, I will play it the first day it was legal right up to the last day it's legal. We will get some new partners soon in Mega Charizard X ex so that will be up to cook something up with it.
Before I end, I wanted to share some fun stats throughout the season, and also some stuff from World 2025.
Deck with most games won in events (just top 15 here)
- Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex - 268
- Dragapult ex/Dusknoir - 87
- Gholdengo ex - 72
- Dragapult ex - 64
- Charizard ex/Dusknoir - 63
- Dragapul ex/Charizard ex - 59
- Gardevoir ex - 52
- Roaring Moon ex - 48
- Terapagos ex/Dusknoir - 47
- Joltik Box - 46
- Dragapult ex/Pidgeot ex - 43
- Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex - 41
- Gouging Fire ex - 38
- Terapagos ex/Noctowl - 37
- Miraidon ex - 36
- Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex - 8
- Gholdengo ex - 4
- Charizard ex/Dusknoir - 4
- Gouging Fire ex - 3
- Terapagos ex/Dusknoir - 2
- Miraidon ex - 2
- Archaludon ex - 2
- Dragapult ex/Dusknoir - 1
- Dragapult ex/Charizard ex - 1
- Gardevoir ex - 1
- Roaring Moon ex - 1
- Dragapult ex/Pidgeot ex - 1
- Terapagos ex/Noctowl - 1
- Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR/Terapagos ex - 1
- Lugia VSTAR/Archeops - 1
- Tera Box - 1
- Banette ex/Gardevoir ex - 1
- Ethan's Typhlosion - 1
- Hydreigon ex/Pidgeot ex - 1
- Terapagos ex/Noctowl - 75.51%
- Joltik Box - 69.70%
- Lugia VSTAR/Archeops - 68.75%
- Dragapult ex/Charizard ex - 68.60%
- Archaludon ex - 68.42%
- Gholdengo ex - 67.92%
- Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR/Terapagos ex - 67.35%
- Charizard ex/Dusknoir - 67.02%
- Dragapult ex/Pidgeot ex - 66.15%
- Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex - 65.37%
- Terapagos ex/Dusknoir - 65.28%
- Lost Zone Box (Radiant Greninja) - 62.50%
- Gouging Fire ex - 62.30%
- Marine's Grimmsnarl ex/Froslass - 62.26%
- Gardevoir ex - 59.77%
