1 point short of making Worlds Day 2 - My Second Worlds Experience (Worlds 2026)

Worlds 2026

 It's been a week or since the 2026 Pokémon World Championships concluded and I got to participate in it for the 2nd time, my previous attempt was back in 2023 when I finished a respectable record of 5-3 so obviously I wanted to do one better, and get into Day 2 of Worlds this time around. And if you read the title of this entry, then you can kind of guess what happened.

Deck choices

For this Worlds, I wasn't too sure what I wanted to play. Charizard ex got me my invite but it was rotated and post rotation, I played Raging Bolt ex for 3 UBLs and the MBL, but I didn't too that well in any of them so I wasn't sure if I should stick with it. So I started testing many different options.

The decks I tested the most and was seriously considering:

• Dragapult ex
• Hammer build
• with Dusknoir
• with Blaziken ex
• with Dudunsparce
• with Toucannon
• Slowking
• Basic Box
• Ogerpon Box (Prism Basic Box)
• Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex
• Lillie's Clefairy ex
• N's Zoroark ex
• Mega Excadrill ex
• Mega Lopunny ex/Dudunsparce
• Greninja ex/Dusknoir

A month out, my initial ranking would have been this from my self testing I had done:

1. Basic Box (Prism Basic Box)
2. Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex
3. Slowking
4. Dragapult ex/Blaziken ex
5. Mega Excadrill ex

Let's just explain the last few ones, Zoroark I just felt I didn't have enough experience and game time to bring it to the biggest event of the year so even though I liked the Tome build, I couldn't go with that just due to lack of experience with the deck. Excadrill was my "in case of emergecy brake glass" deck, I was still suffering from some health issue leading up to Worlds so if it was still bad, I would have just sent Excadrill, thankfully everything cleared up as I was in Japan just before heading off to San Francisco. 

Lopunny and Greninja were just rouge choices I had played a lot of, but just didn't feel confident enough to bring either. I do like both deck but just didn't think they'd get me there. Speaking of rouges, I did know of the Malaysian Tox Box deck for about 2 months, but as I didn't play much with it, I chose not to go for it.

Slowking was at one point my initial choice to play for Worlds, my spreadsheet said it was the best play and it I had played it at 3 local events, went 3-0 in all of them so I thought....maybe that's the one. But something changed as I was in Japan, the deck just started not doing well and I had my doubts with it and decided to go with the comfort choice of Raging Bolt.

As for Dragapult, I know it's the deck to play but I had a very simple reason for not playing it to Worlds. There's gonna be 100+ players better than me in that room, and they know the Pult mirror better than me so I don't hold any advantages there. And I didn't play Pult much this season either so that just felt like the wrong choice to me. So Bolt it was, it had a good Pult matchup and can keep up with almost every deck not named Alakazam and Festival Lead which I didn't think would show up in big numbers so why not go with that choice (I was clearly wrong when it came to Alakazam).

Deck List

Before showing off the list I played, I wanted to share the ones I was testing initially. But first up is not Raging Bolt, but one I was initially thinking I would end up playing. It's the one that won the Japan Championships and I played it to the Pokemon World Cup with Team Singapore, winning 3 of my 4 matches, only losing to Jackson Ford in a very close game too. My main issue of the deck was that it couldn't do enough damage to stuff like Mega Excadrill ex and it was everywhere before Worlds, which made me think it was going to be a popular choice (it wasn't but I still did hit 2 of them in the latter rounds).

The list I played for Pokemon World Cup

The first was one I had seen doing well in so many online events which got me back into testing Raging Bolt in the first place, this was from Jose Roberto Rueda. Big shoutout to him for doing so well and also him and Juan Sebastian Caballero had a well written Bolt guide on Metafy, give it a look!

The first list

I tested with this the most and even won an online tournament with this exact 60 and it kinda made up my mind that day that this was likely the one for me to go with. 

Then I got a message from Harpr who was also testing Raging Bolt along with the South African players and wanted to share notes about it and I was more than happy to since no-one else from the Singapore contingent apart from Jeremy and Kaizer were considering Bolt so I didn't really have anyone else to talk about the deck with. He too had made a Metafy guide on Bolt, another one I would consider checking out.

I played his list with a few changes (the main being a 2-2 Lighting Fighting energy to see if the list could open up a space for some techs) to a local bo3 event in Japan at Ragnarok Gaming as they were hosting a test event for those going to Worlds and well....I am too so why not! 

Harpr's list

I ended up finishing 1st out of 14 players and I got to play a friendly bo3 set with former world champion himself Takuto Itagaki and also won that set which gave me more confidence going into Worlds. Takuto was also nice enough to give me some suggestions on what I should change from the list, mostly going for Unfair Stamp over Prime Catcher and some tech cards I should keep or change.

A day before Worlds, my fellow SG Raging Bolt player Kaizer shared me his list and it was something similar to what I played for the Master Ball League with Koraidon and Raging Bolt in the list as single prize attackers. It was probably better into stuff like Festival Lead and Alakazam but because I had been testing the first list the most, I wanted to keep with that and stick with what I'm comfortable with and not change something last minute.

Kaizer's list

As for the final list, here it is:

My list for Worlds 2026

I did make some changes in the end:

• Iron Leaves ex for Switch
• The idea was I had more outs to draw into an Iron Leaves ex to counter Sob lock plays than I would had I played Switch since I had Cyrano and Ultra Ball to get Iron Leaves as well
• The cost was if my bench is full, I wouldn't be able to get out of Sob lock
• Jamming Tower for the 4th Area Zero Underdepths
• This one had been weighing in my mind for the longest time. I knew of Excadrill players and also a few Pult players likely going for Hero's Cape and I wanted some outs to it. And I knew Basic Box were likely to depend on Lillie's Pearl. I also wanted out to silly stuff like Handheld Fand, Lucky Helmet and Binding Mochi
• It can also act as a pseudo Chien Pao to clear out my bench of unwanted bench sitters

On hindsight, I should have gotten rid of Iron Crown ex, it turned out to be the most useless card in my deck. It's there for Alakazam and Festival Lead and even in testing, I never got to pull off the Turn 2 attack any time. Probably a Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex as a late game closer or the 3rd Boss's Orders.

Late into Thursday I also started toying with the idea of switching my 2nd Raging Bolt into a 2nd Lillie's Clefairy in case the field was really 50% Pults, but because I hadn't tested it out much, I stuck with it. I had no idea most of the Bolt players had the same idea and all went for the 2nd Clefairy. But yeah that's the list I went with.

Pokémon World Championships 2026 - Day 1

Round 1 vs Nobuto Hongo (Slowking)

• G1 I go 2nd L
• G2 I go 1st W
• G3 I go 2nd W

He looked very nervous going into the first round and as I spoke to him, I found out it was his first WCS so I told him not to worry, just have fun and do your best. Little did he know, I was also very nervous. (I also didn't realize he won the first Champions League of last season too!)

Back in 2023, I went into that event quite calm, no nerves, nothing. But this was different, I was more nervous than I usually was. To the point I finished my drink even before the first game ended! 

And that first game was just so bad. I had forgotten to bench Mega Kangaskhan ex for some reason and he punished me by getting prime catcher off his Lille and ultra ball for the attacker and got Wondrous Patch too. Then I forgot I had no Latias on board and tried to retreat by Khan, whoops. So I scooped game 1.

Game 2 he bricked, he just had no attackers going so I was able to build up the Wellspring + Boss to KO both Slowpokes that came down on the field and he never recovered. 

Game 3 was actually looking really bad, he got the KO on my Khan and since I knew he could easily do that, I took the risk to set up two Khans to attack. My hail marry move was to set up Unfair Stamp through Cipher and hope he would struggle from it, take the one prize and hope he had no response (I had done a Wellspring KO before then to take the first 2 prizes) and now all I needed was boss to KO his Mega Khan. 

He drew pass and I started to set up my Rag Bolt to attack his Khan while retreating into Chien Pao to make it harder for him to take his final 3 prizes. He took out the CPao but I had everything I needed to boss KO his Khan with Bolt.

1-0 up, good start so far but I was still feeling nervous.

Me playing in Round 1

R2 vs Jeremy Castro (Dragapult ex)

• G1 I go 1st L
• G2 I go 1st W
• G3 I go 2nd W

Next up was a name I recognised, because I did remember Jeremy had made Day 2 at both EUIC and NAIC, especially the latter just months ago with Dragapult so I've got someone who has a proven track record with his deck.

Game 1 ended in turn 1 on his turn because my turn 1 was attach a grass energy on TM Ogerpon and pass but he had ultra ball for Meowth to get Crispin to set up Moltres for the KO. The problem is, I had an Iron Crown ex I could have started in hand so that was a mistake. 

Game 2 he just could not set up any Drakloaks at all, finding his first one after 4 turns! Game 3 was much more even, his hammer flips were mostly tails so that helped. I managed to go with the usual game plan, Khan takes first two, Clefairy took the next two and thankfully he didn’t disrupt my hand as I had stretcher and Crispin to KO his 2nd Pult.

R3 vs Kohei Kurita (Dragapult ex/Dusknoir)

• G1 I go 2nd W
• G2 I go 2nd L
• G3 I go 1st W

For once I won a game 1 and it was a quick one as he struggled to set up and scooped after the 3rd turn as I had taken 3 prizes already. Game 2 actually didn’t start until 7 minutes later, as we got deck checked and guess who the judge was? Yes my own friend and fellow SGer Charmaine haha! (Why you always bully me lol)

The judge call did actually calm me down funnily enough so I wasn’t feeling so nervous anymore but Game 2 was terrible, I had a dead hand and just couldn’t set up at all and his Dusk bombs did a big number on me. Game 3, just like the other Pult game, went to plan! 2 prizes up, KO Pult with Bolt and last KO with Clefairy. 3-0 start at Worlds, I'm feeling good right now. Then I see my pairing for the next round...

Uh-oh

R4 vs Diego Cassiraga (Alakazam)

• G1 I go 2nd W
• G2 I go 2nd L
• G3 I go 1st L

Remember when I said I wasn’t feeling nervous anymore? Oh it came back in a big way when I saw who I got paired with for Round 4. None other than the 2017 World Champion Diego Cassiraga! Nervous but also excited, now I get to see how I’d stack up against one of the greats in the game.

And then he flipped over Abra and I thought “oh god….this is bad”, this was one of the matchups I was hoping not to hit. It’s a near autoloss. I say that even though I did win game 1 thanks to a well timed Sob on his Fez. I was trying to set up KO on it and one of his Kadabras to deny him the draw but one of his last Dudunsparce got him the Shaymin. He put it down and I went after the Shaymin to KO both with boss and he scooped as I was down to 2 prizes with no Khans on board thanks to CPao.

Don’t remember much of game 2 but his Genesect didn’t come down early so I got the stamp off this time but he drew out of it and i couldn’t keep up with him.

Game 3 just reminded me why he’s a World Champion and I’m just a nobody. I went first, started Khan but no energies in hand and passed. So he essentially got to start first.

I did get to a point where I did get attacks going off and the turn I was going to take my 2nd prize, my top deck was unfair stamp, and I thought to myself, oh this could be good since he has to attack next turn. His next turn, he draws some cards and uses Eri and immediately throws my Stamp away haha. I looked at him, he looked at me and we both knew that was game. 

He was a fierce competitor for sure, in game he was ruthless, scary even I’d say. But before the game and after the game, he was just the nicest guy ever, even told me “hey I follow you on Twitter” and we had a nice chat before our game. That’s probably why he’s a World Champion after all. I learned so much just from that set against him, and even though I lost, I still felt good. I was bummed for him when he lost in finals.

Also this game kinda made me realise…maybe I made a mistake by having Iron Crowns in the deck as it was useless in this one matchup I needed it the most.

R5 vs Hayden Matthews (N's Zoroark ex) 

• G1 I go 1st W
• G2 I go 2nd L
• G3 I go 1st W

Another name I recognized only because we’ve played each other in online tournaments a number of times! Another lovely guy to play against, he was super friendly the whole way. 

He whiffed the first two prize KO in the game which meant I had the advantage as I took two single prizes down with Khan, followed by Iron Leaves and then finally Teal Mask Ogerpon.

2nd game he took the first two prize KO and I just could not catch back up in the prize race and scooped as I saw the writing on the wall after the 3rd and 4th prizes since he still had two more bosses to work with. My Hail Mary of the Stamp didn’t work either.

3rd game was a bit similar to the first but the two prizes came from Wellspring which was my ideal attacker. His red card did make it a bit sketchy for me but I got a bit lucky to draw into the pieces I needed for TM Ogerpon to take the final KO.

R6 vs Emiliano Zapata (Mega Excadrill ex)

• G1 I go 1st W
• G2 I go 1st L
• G3 I go 1st L

So the funny story is I didn’t even realise Emiliano was on stream the round before this, whoops. But it was my first Excadrill matchup of the day. Game 1 came down to the wire, it took us a long while haha! He had his Excadrill set up with Cape but thankfully I had Jamming Tower in the list as my last minute tech choice and it won me that game. 

G2 wasn’t looking good for me, he got the ideal setup and took out my Khan very quickly. We traded prizes back and forth, I even KOed his Metagross with my Latias ex! It came down to a point where I just could not draw the pieces to get a Raging Bolt attack going and had to gamble on Mega Khan hitting 3 heads from Rapid-Fire Combo. I got two heads, but not the third for the KO and the win so I lost that one.

G3 was just sad, I started with just a Teal Mask Ogerpon so I was already quite behind despite going first. I managed to claw myself back into the game, and I put myself in a position to win off a boss, I just needed him to not draw into 4 energies off his 3 Metangs for game, and since he had used Recycler the turn before, it was very likely he would get it and he did, winning on Turn 2 of overtime. Had he missed, I had boss waiting in hand for game.

That was a painful loss to take because I felt I should have won that, having tested that matchup a lot going into this event. I knew what I was supposed to do and just couldn't draw well enough to get me there. 4-2, now I needed to win two more games to me in a better spot for Day 2 at Worlds.

R7 vs Isaiah Cheville (Mega Excadrill ex)

• G1 I go 1st W
• G2 I go 1st W

My heart sank a bit when the pairings went up because I knew the next two games were must win games.....but against my own friend Zaya???? I was not expecting a friendly fire this late on in the event.

This was my only 2 game set of the entire day and unfortunately Zaya had poor setups in both games. G1 I managed to get Wellspring going very quickly and Zaya scooped to go to G2. Raging Bolt pulled it's weight for the next game. I did get some favorable draws this time around, unlike the last round. 

5-2, and I just need one point to make Day 2, aka an intentional draw (ID). The issue is, I've been down this road, I took the ID at Melbourne Regional and screwed myself of any chance of doing well, so I already knew I can't do that again. I had a few friends come up to me to talk about the last round, all agreeing that I should fight for the win unless I hit an Alakazam or Festival Lead, then I should just take the ID since both of them were unwinnable matchups.

R8 vs Fabio Battistella (Basic Box)

• G1 I go 1st W
• G2 I go 1st L
• G3 I go 2nd L

Pairings went up and I recognized this name from doing all my reports for Pokestats, I knew how good Fabio is so this was always going to be a tough round. He offered the ID to me right away (I had no idea at this point that he had just gone from 5-0 to 5-2 so I kinda understood why he wanted the ID), but I told him I couldn't go for that, I had to give myself the best shot of doing well for the event and going into Day 2 at 5-2-1 would kill my hopes of making top cut. Sure I can still earn some money but that's not really my aim, I'm aiming higher than that. Go big or die trying right?

Game 1 went perfectly, I kept the Jamming Tower tech hidden until I took the 3rd and 4th prizes and all I needed was a boss to clean up the game. Game 2 I drew poorly and never came back from his Unfair Stamp, he had boss for game in the end when I was just about to make a comeback.

Before Game 3 started Fabio once again offered the ID, and once again I had to reject it. But I was feeling super nervous now, this one game will decide whether I will get to play in Day 2 of the World Championships for the first time or be a spectator for tomorrow, I've come too far not to at least give it a try. My first mistake was probably choosing to go 2nd, I had noticed he kept wanting to go 2nd so I thought I should take that option away from him.

Then came the big misplay, I had my Mega Khan set up to KO either his Clefairy or Meowth. I was holding on to Jamming Tower in my hand, my initial instinct was, just put it down, take the KO on Clefairy and find a way to go around the 2nd Pearl (either KO Clefairy and Khan or double Boss for game). And then a second thought came to mind....what if I just Boss KO Meowth first, save the Tower for the KO later on and give myself to close up the game with just 2 prizes left. 

What I should have done is just put down Jamming Tower and KO his attacker, and find my way to get the last 4 prizes. I should have also been aware that he has an easy way to search out Unfair Stamp, in the previous two games he went aggressive with Meowth for Cipher to always get Stamp so that should have been on my mind since he'd need to build up another attacker. So I don't know what got to me to boss up the Meowth instead, that was the wrong move that pretty much killed my game I think.

As I suspected, he did get Stamp off and I drew two unplayable cards out of it. Clefairy hit my Khan, draw for turn, another unplayable card. Draw 2 more cards from Run Errand, and it was two Area Zeros, aka still more unplayable cards (my hand if I remember correctly was 2 Area Zeros, Iron Leaves, E-Switch and Mega Khan). 

It felt someone somewhere was punishing me for that bad misplay, that was karma for misplaying the turn before. I did manage to put myself within two prizes of winning the game but I knew hoping he wouldn't draw a boss for game was a tall task. And sure enough he had it. 

5-3, I took the gamble to play it out and it failed on me and I only have myself to blame for that. But I wasn't the only one playing out their games, to my right was the one and only Tord Reklev playing it out and unfortunately he too lost. The table next to me had Sander Wojcik as well, and he too lost. 

And just like my first Worlds, the 3 players who beat me all made it into Day 2, but this time there was a 4th as Kohei also made Day 2. In fact, all of my opponents apart from my first opponent won 5 games, so yeah those were some tough players I had to go through so I hope my 5-3 score meant something after seeing these scores at the very least.

Reflections

It just hurts to miss Day 2 by just one point this time, and sure, I could have just IDed and get into Day 2 if that was my ultimate aim, but my aim was higher than that, I wanted to push for a top cut finish because I felt I could do it. Maybe unrealistic but I had put so much time into this deck, I thought I should at least give myself the chance to go for glory and not settle for just being in it for the sake of it.

What hurt more was the misplay and two people close to me thought it was perhaps my lack of playing in such high-stakes game that led to me making the misplay in game 3 of Round 8, to which I can agree with them. It did get me and I got nervous and made the wrong choice when I should have stayed calmed and followed my initial instinct of KOing the Clefairy with the Jamming Tower (great tech choice btw).

It's a bit funny that I got the same exact score as I did in 2023 (5-3 both times) but both were completely different. The first time I was confident in my deck but not in my skills as a player and that got me. Well much more of the same this time around but a little different too, less confidence with my deck but more with myself as a player and I could see improvements already from these 3 years. 

I still have so much more to improve on as a player, and at least now I know I can make it to Day 2 of the World Championships. I just need to keep doing better, keep improving, be more alert to situations in the game, adapt when things are starting to go awry, just trust myself, make the correct deck or tech choices and just keep calm. The last part can be a bit hard for someone like me as I get nervous very easily and I can get upset and let it get to me when things aren't going well, I just need to find a way to fix that.

And I probably need to learn how to make good deck choices too. We all know Dragapult was the best choice, and I probably should have played it. There were other things I could have played too and I knew I my heart Raging Bolt probably wasn’t the best choice but it was my comfort pick. Which leads me to my biggest issue…

Confidence. People that know me know I’m not a very confident person. I’ve struggled with it ever since I was a kid, be it in school, at work, in the army, or gaming, I don’t know what it is, but I always end up second guessing myself under pressure when I know what I’m supposed to do. 

Prime example being that misplay in Game 3 of Round 8 when I knew the right play was to KO Clefairy with Jamming Tower, I just don’t know why I went the other direction. This is probably the hardest thing for me to work on. It’s all a work in progress if I ever want to compete at the top tables like the best players in the world tend to do on a consistent basis.

Top tables at Worlds in Round 11

The Worlds Experience!

Now for some fun.

So my trip actually started the week before Worlds, I flew to Tokyo for about 6 days, got some practice in, played some locals, wrote down my matchup concepts and some notes, watched other pro players playing the same deck and that was my prep, other than just having fun walking around. 

I flew off to San Francisco on Sunday, but went to Sacramento first to see my family and spend the night with them, which I could have done more days. Stayed at my cousin’s place at Walnut Creek for the next few days which was about a 40 minute train ride on the BART, didn’t find it that bad.

Tuesday - Checking out the venue

Went to see the venue on Tuesday and wow the decorations looked amazing. Bumped into the lovely Joe and Emily from Omnipoke, lovely people! Went to check out the badge pickup place and saw Tord walk past me and I was like….”oh shit it’s real now haha”. There were many familiar faces but I was too nervous/shy to say hi to any of them. Luckily Natalie saw me and calmed my nerves down for the event. Always great talking to her.

The venue

Wednesday - Badge Pickup/Play Testing

We did our badge pickup on Wednesday with the Singapore crew, it was way more smoother than the last one in Japan and from what I heard a vast improvement from Anaheim so kudos to the team.

I got my last few play testing games in today as well, tested with Yu Xian on straight Pult and Kai on Pult Blaziken, always a pleasure to get to test with top players from around the world. Even though I lost I learnt a thing or two or what to do in that matchup.

At this point the Singapore crew were mostly on Dragapult apart from me and Kaizer (Raging Bolt) and Terry (Excadrill). The Malaysian duo of Kai Jian and Brendan joined us in testing where I finally got to see their Tox Box deck in action and it looked really decent, I knew those two had been testing that for months so kudos to them. 

Thursday - The Pokemon Center

And now for the big one….as in big damage to all of our wallets. I didn’t think I would spend a lot of money and I wasn’t picking a lot of stuff up until I saw the San Francisco line of merch and up they got me. There were too many nice things to buy so let’s see if I can remember what I got: 

• Double deck boxes in all 3 versions
• Playmat for the XP and San Fran version (I don’t know why I didn’t pick up the Worlds one, I had it and put it back at some point)
• Sleeves for all 3 versions
• Dice box for all 3 versions
• Worlds binder
• San Fran Worlds bottle
• Some fancy Charizard shirt from Europe
• The XP Zard shirt
• The Charmander and Geodude Lego set
• San Fran keychain (I have loads of keychains featuring San Francisco btw haha)
• Ascended Heroes booster bundle (before you people ask, yes I know I should have picked up the booster box too, that’s a misplay on my part, I didn’t realise how much it was worth)
• Some random Charmander sticker set 

And I think the total damage was $514 USD. Way more than I expected but in a way, I was kinda happy to see 500, I feared it might have been 700 or something like that.

This SF line looked sick

On the way back to the hotel, while seeing the black market alongside the badge pickup area, I finally met up with my friend Marco Cifuentes, I think I spend the most time chatting with him than anymore I met at Worlds, what a lovely fella and a great player too. I played him loads of times during the pandemic and I’m so happy to see him become the top player I knew from that time. 

I also got to meet Sunny, the only other Singh playing at Worlds so it was cool to have another one repping our people at the biggest stage and I’m so happy for his success this season and he got Top 64 too! I wished I had taken a photo with him though, I usually don’t ask people for it and the only other one I too was with Marco and Azul.

Thursday night we were all in Yu Xian’s room helping to check each other’s 60 cards to make sure we don’t get a silly penalty for no reason. Shauna was the latest to jump off the Pult train and back to her Grimm routes. 

Also I had a hard time finding locals to play during my stay there which was a bit weird. The 2 I had picked out in Concord and Berkeley (both were close to me when I was staying at my cousin's place in Walnut Creek) either cancelled or switched to a different format and the ones in downtown SF was either full or too expensive for my liking.

Pokemon Center line

Friday - Worlds Day 1

I didn’t see much, I was busy playing. I was just in the Worlds hall for pretty much the whole day, and anytime I had free time in between games, I was either chatting to my Singaporean peeps, just walking around or saying hello to some friends like Julius, Alex, Marco and also Vini who I finally met for the first time, I've known him since the pandemic days too.

Saturday - Exploring XP

I did think about joining the Open but I was having a bad headache after Friday I thought, I should sit that one out and just enjoy the experience of Pokémon XP. Plus my cousins were coming down so I had a reason not to play.

The XP venue was HUGE! There was so much to see and loads of stuff on display and even after 3 days, I don’t think I saw all of it honestly. 

As a lifelong LEGO fan, the LEGO section was cool to see, especially all the upcoming sets. I still have not seen one in Singapore so I’m not sure how my Pokémon LEGO collection will grow.

The OG trio in Lego

The art of Pokémon TCG card section was a nice touch, especially the Yuka Morii displays with all the clay Pokémon in those cards too. Too bad the other stuff had lines to get into them which I'll talk about soon.

I didn’t get to see much of the Funko or Switch areas but they were massive. I didn't see much of what was happening on the stage area but it was huge and streamed on Youtube at least. The biggest letdown for me was not being able to see the 30th celebration display or the Pokémon Museum (something I really wanted to check out), because the lines for both were always too long! Same for the Lego stuff. Same for the Switch stuff. Same for the Funko stuff. Long story short, WAY TOO MANY LINES! 

Trubbish!

I thankfully did not take part in the stamp rally, I heard it was a complete mess and it didn’t let players go into the venue which would have pissed me off. So I was happy to hear it got canceled on Sunday haha. I didn't actually get to see the trade zone area so I had no idea how hectic it was, I remember it was super hectic back in Yokohama. The night market at the Marriott hotel was also hectic, that was an experience for sure.

Rayquaza Road was amazing, there was so much going on around it, especially the photo opps with the decorations all around, and of course the Rayquaza cable car haha!

I didn't get to check out what was happening at Buena Gardens which was a bit sad, walked past it on Saturday and Sunday. Looked nice though but didn't see what else was going on there.

Overall I thought XP was fine, lots of cool stuff to check out as Pokémon fans like myself but the long wait queues for just about anything was my biggest issue. I don't have time to stand in line for 1-2 hours just to see stuff for a few minutes, it's not worth the trouble and hopefully whenever the next XP happens, they can fix that.

The starting scene from Pokemon Red all those years ago

Sunday - Championship Sunday at the Chase Center and the Big Announcement for Worlds 2027

Watching the finals of all the games taking place at an arena for last year's event was really cool so I was psyched to see how much more grander it will be since it'll be at the Chase Center. I've been inside once for AEW Revolution PPV back in 2023 and I thought it was huge. 

And sure enough, it blew away my expectations. The lighting, the graphics on the floor, the overall presence was just amazing, fitting use for a Championship Sunday I would say. I saw a bit of the GO games, it was alright. The TCG stuff was awesome as always, the Juniors game was probably the best one. And seeing a friend like Andrew win the World Championship was pretty damn cool, especially in person! 

The VGC games had the most hype from what I saw, it got the most reaction too and hey, it was the first time Champions was used for Worlds. I should download it and try it out myself too. 

After everything was done, champions were crowned, and a mini performance. We got some announcements, for GO, Champions and TCG. The TCG one I thought was a bit of a letdown, they just showed alternate art of cards we already have in standard, and I do not care one bit. The only thing they did tease was the new ex star, whatever it may be! Oh they announced a new Pokémon movie, which had a TCG theme going which is cool. I'd check it out for sure. And then we get the announcement, where is Worlds going next?...

Pokemon World Championships 2027 in Singapore!!!!!!

Worlds 2027 in Singapore!

You heard it right, my home country of Singapore is hosting Worlds next year!!! I mean I knew about it from 2 months ago when I friend of mine broke the news to me, and I never leaked! But still to see the Solgaleo show up on the screen, I already knew since Solgaleo is our new Pokémon Center mascot. 

But yeah, Worlds at home, I never thought I'd see the day. I know I've been jokingly asking for Worlds to be in Singapore for about 10 years but to actually see it happening is pretty cool. And my first live official TCG tournament happened in 2017, so it does feel a bit of a full circle moment for Worlds to be happening in Singapore 10 years later. 

I do hope I can be one of the lucky 12 people out of 700+ players here in Singapore who can represent the home crowd in the biggest stage. It won't be easy since everyone will want to get their invite this year since we don't have to travel for once! I probably feel I have the most pressure out of anyone here because when the announcement was made, all of my friends were telling me, hey I guess I'll see you next year! And the only way for me to do that is to qualify for Worlds for a third time (I could get a spectator pass too but that's very unlikely to happen this year since Worlds is at home). 

World in 2026 felt more bigger, more grander, more hyped than when I was in 2023 which I thought was impossible since it was in Japan after all! But SF made it a special one for sure. It did help that I was staying in the city too for once, I was staying in Tokyo for Worlds in 2023, 1 hour away from Yokohama. I do hope next year's Worlds in Singapore will be just as special.

I also have the addition motivation to do one better than this year's Worlds. Both my runs so far have ended at 5-3. Lost in Round 7 in 2023, lost in the win and in at Round 8 this year, and I know I can make Day 2 so that's my aim for this next year, if I qualify in the first place. I'll do my very best to get there and hopefully see you all here in Singapore!

Team Singapore in San Francisco for Worlds 2026. See you all next year in Singapore!

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. When I first read the card I thought....wait this could be good. And sure enough it was good. My friend Rauf built a list and I was the first victim of Zygarde-GX and I saw right away how good it truly was. So I, along with a few others, jumped on the Zygarde-GX train, one of them being Klive who went on a superb run of results that year, along with a Top 4 finish at Worlds!

Cell Connector does 50 and attaches 2 Fighting Energy to Zygarde-GX, meaning it can swing for 130 with Land's Wrath by Turn 2, or Verdict GX for 150 and Zygarde-GX can't be hit by damage the next turn! And how do we get those energies on board? We've got Ultra Ball and Scorched Earth to discard energies!

And because this is a fighting deck, the damage can go up even more! Strong Energy gives us +20, so does Diancie Prism Star, meaning with one Double Colourless Energy attachment, Zygarde-GX can already KO most basic mons with 70HP. And if it's not in active, Lycanroc-GX can gust around and we've also got Guzma. I really liked this deck.

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! I wished I had spent more time playing it, this was the deck that really made me see the game in a whole new level and I learnt so much even from my short time playing it. After seeing my friend Clifton get Top 4 at LAIC with this deck, I had to try it out. I had always liked Decidueye-GX with it's ability to just hit 20 damage anywhere and Zoroark-GX to draw but something always felt missing for this deck.

Then can Alolan Ninetales-GX, it's ability got us 2 Item cards, most of the time one of them would be Rare Candy. But it's not just a good support mon, it's also a good attacker. Snowy Wind hit for 70 to active and 30 to bench, and we have Decidueye-GX to ramp up those numbers. And this was a deck that did like to play from behind, with stuff like Counter Catcher and Counter Gain! 

And I'm sure you're looking at this picture, seeing that Magcargo and wondering...where the heck is Slugma? Well with Ditto Prism Star, we don't need it. Ditto Prism Star can evolve into anything, so most of the time it'll be Magcargo to fix our top deck but if we don't need Magcargo, it can just be an extra out to get Zoroark-GX or Alolan Ninetales-GX. Anytime there's a retro event in this format, this has always been my go to deck and I even won a retro online event with this deck!

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. When I first read Charizard from Team Up I thought to myself....this cannot be real? I've finally see a playable Charizard card! Roaring Resolve attaches 2 Fire energy from deck to Charizard, while putting 2 damage counters to yourself to activate the ability. But that's not all.

The attack is stupidly good too. We have to discard all Fire energies attached and it does 30 +50 for each Fire energy discarded. And the ability already gets us 2, and with a manual attachment, we're swinging for 180! And if you play Welder to attach 2 fire energy from discard to Charizard, that number goes up to 280, KOing even the scary monster that is Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX (it's not on my list for a good reason). 

But this deck had some cool ways to play too. We had either Salazzle or Zebstrika to discard something from hand to draw cards, helping our Welder to be useful. If not that, we had Ninetales from Team Up with the awesome Nine Temptations ability, discard 2 Fire energy to gust anything up to the active. This will always be my favourite one-prizer deck, I had so much fun playing it, and I won 5 locals with it too and got Top 4 at a League Challenge that featured players from all around Asia too! 

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! When I first read Dawn, the lightbulb went off. I can get a Basic, Stage 1 and Stage 2? Charizard ex is my Stage 2, probably Charmander or Duskull or Fezandipiti ex is my Basic but who fills the roll for Stage 1? That's when Noctowl came in. 

This is where Dawn truly shines. After setting up with Fan Rotom, we can get Terapagos ex, Noctowl and either Pidgeot ex or Charizard ex to have our board set up perfectly in just Turn 2! The 3 Noctowl line was the perfect number for this deck to set up early game and also right at the end, especially for the Briar turn in combination with Dusknoir or Prime Catcher.

And sometimes we don't even need to attack with Charizard ex, Terapagos ex itself is a good attacker, especially since the deck played Area Zero Underdepths. And it's got the Dusknoir pieces to pull off some whacky combo and also Klefki, that little thing has helped me more times than I can remember. 4 online wins and 5 IRL, with 3 of them actually being GBL wins in the same week too, this deck will always have a special place with me from now onwards. 

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? This is the deck that got me my first major win and set me up to get my first Worlds invite, and of course, I had to play it at my first Worlds Championship. Was it a good deck? Not really, it had never won a major event before the Singapore Regional, and funnily enough, after I won, my friend Landen Kaetler won in Portland with it too on the same day!

Arceus VSTAR has always been one of my favourite cards, Starbirth gets us any two cards and Trinity Nova hits for 200 while attaching 3 energies onto any of our V pokemon, be it another Arceus VSTAR or Giratina VSTAR which is usually the closer because Lost Impact does 280 while sending two energies into the Lost Zone (1 if you choose Double Turbo Energy). 

So how does this deck actually win? Well, we have 3 Path to the Peak to shut off other V Pokemon's ability and 4 Judge to constantly disrupt their hand. But it shuffles my hand too right? That is where our good buddy Bibarel comes in, drawing us cards until we have 5 in hand. But it gets better, if our cards were bad, we can just use Skwovet, shuffling our hand into the bottom of our deck and drawing one card, and combo-ing it with Bibarel, we can pretty much draw what we need if we played everything in the right order, especially with a Boss play. That's why I chose to play this deck for Worlds, mostly for comfort but I knew I could make it work. I was one win short...

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. I mean for the longest time it was my favourite deck of all time but then two other decks showed up. I picked up this deck in time for the Singapore SPE, not really expecting much from the event and got my first ever top cut in a Major event with it!

And then came this turbo version of ReshiZard that was popularized by Tord Reklev at the 2019 World Championships, when I saw it, I jumped on it. Reshiram & Charizard-GX had 3 really good attacks! Outrage would hit 30+ whatever damage counters you had on ReshiZard. Flare Strike would hit for 230 and you couldn't attack the next turn which wasn't a big issue as we had Switch and Super Scoop Up. And then the big one, Double Blaze GX, 200 normally but with 3 additional Fire energy, it would do 300 damage instead and ignore all effects on the other side.

And now you're wondering, why are we playing 18 Fire energies here. Well this is a turbo deck and it's finest. Ninetales with the broken Nine Tempations discards two Fire energies to gust. Heatran-GX can jump into the active when played and hit for 130, or with Hot Burn GX, 50x each Fire energy on it, and that number can go way up especially in the late game. We also had two really good stadiums. Giant Hearth gets us 2 Fire energy from deck at the cost of discarding one card, sometimes another Fire energy. Heat Factory Prism Star is similar to the previously mentioned Scorched Earth stadium, but now we can only discard Fire to use it, but we draw 3 cards! 

And then we have the MVP of this deck, Victini Prism Star. Infinity, appropriately named btw, hit for 20x each Fire energy in our discard, which can sometimes go up to 15, aka hitting for 300 from a single prizer! And then you shuffle the energy back into the deck but sometimes you just need it for the end game. And I really enjoyed playing this deck, it got me my first and only League Challenge win, my first Singapore Invitational win, 6 other local wins, a Top 8 at the Singapore SPE with an older build, my only ever Top 4 finish at a League Cup event and a whole bunch of CP earnt with it, at least 200!

2nd - 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. This was a card when I read it, I thought....hang on this could actually be good right? G-Max Centiferno hits for 40 +40 for each Fire energy on Centiskroch VMAX. So with the two needed to attack, we're already doing 120 base damage. But it gets better, if we did damage, we get to attach a Fire energy onto it, so the damage output goes up!

And it goes up even more considering we play the absolute best Supporter card ever printed, Welder! Attach 2 Fire energy from discard to any pokemon and draw 3 cards! So we can reach up to 280 with 6 energies on Centiskorch VMAX and it's not that hard to do, especially if we started with Volcanion Turn 1 going 2nd and use Flare Starter to attach 3 Fire energies to Centiskorch V! 

And this deck had a lot of support. We had the Jirachi to find any Trainer card from the top 6 of our deck, Dedenne-GX to discard and draw 6, Crobat V to draw up to 6 (why is it all 6?), Eldegoss V to get a Supporter card from discard back into hand and it's usually to use Welder again or for Boss, which is why I called it Eldeboss! And let's not forget big bag Heatran-GX, that could do way more damage because of Centiskorch VMAX and Welder piling alot of energies on the field. 

Another piece I liked in this deck was Scoop Up Net, it was one way for us to re-use Jirachi, or to use Galarian Zigzagoon to put 1 damage counter on any of your opponent's Pokemon or to re-use Giratina to discard special energies. PokeComm is another card I've really missed in current format, swapping a Pokemon for another Pokemon, what a great effect. I managed to get 10 online tournament wins with this deck which is quite a huge number for me, as I don't often win events in the first place! I really wished I got to play this deck IRL, what could have been.

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? I couldn't in good faith put Centiskorch VMAX first for the lone reason that I only got to play it online. I did paly Zard Pidgeot online a lot too, heck I got more online wins with it with 11 but I played it a lot in IRL as well (and 6 wins but sadly no GBL or UBL wins with it so far). For starters I can use a Charmander, my favourite Pokemon! 

But the main part of the deck was Charizard ex, with a good ability that self-charges energy and an attack that can keep doing more damage, sounds familiar? Yup when I read I thought....wait this is a better version of Charizard from Team Up and I played that deck all the time! Infernal Reign lets us attach 3 Fire energy from deck to anyone when Charizard ex is played. Burning Darkness does 180 +30 for each prize your opponent has taken. 5 prize taken from them means it's 330 damage done! Or 380 with Max Belt, that's KOing Mega Venusaur ex!

But what if our opponent chooses not to take prizes? Well have the Dusknoir line to force them to take prizes due to Curse Blast from both Dusclops (5 damage counters) and Dusknoir (13 damage counters). This I felt was the missing piece the deck needed to make it insanely good. And I haven't even mention the engine that runs this deck, Pidgeot ex! Quick Search lets us get any card each turn. ANY CARD. EACH TURN! Which is why most of the time I'm trying to get Pidgeot ex up first before doing anything else. 

And because Charizard ex is a Tera pokemon, that means we can use Briar when they're down to 2 prizes to take an extra prize, and we have ways to make sure they are down to 2 prizes thanks to the Dusk family. I've had the most fun playing this deck and there's a good reason why I've played Charizard ex from the moment it was released till the day it rotates. And right now it's quite un-playable with Dragapult ex being the best deck in the ASC format....and I'm still playing Charizard ex because I still believe I can make it work, even in this sea of Pults. 


Those are my favourite decks I've played so far for the last 10 years or so, hope I did most of them some justice at the very least. Thanks for reading!