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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

25) Dragapult ex/Blaziken ex

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 18th

Total Price: $48.16

Cards Rotating: 18 (30%)

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

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

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

24) Cynthia's Garchomp ex

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 35th

Total Price: $17.66

Cards Rotating: 11 (18.33%)

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

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

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

23) Dragapult ex

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 20th

Total Price: $46.17

Cards Rotating: 16 (26.67%)

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

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

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

22) Ethan's Typhlosion

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 97th

Total Price: $48.05

Cards Rotating: 11 (18.33%)

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

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

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

21) Dragapult ex/Charizard ex

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 114th

Total Price: $41.39

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

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

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

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

20) Charizard ex/Noctowl

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 1st

Total Price: $35.45

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

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

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

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

19) Mega Venusaur ex

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 373th

Total Price: $26.06

Cards Rotating: 10 (16.67%)

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

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

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

18) Gholdengo ex/Joltik Box

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 9th

Total Price: $63.05

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

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

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

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

17) Mega Sharpedo ex/Toxtricity

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 173rd

Total Price: $40.33

Cards Rotating: 10 (16.67%)

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

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

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

16) Mega Kangaskhan ex/Bouffalant

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 27th

Total Price: $40.91

Cards Rotating: 17 (28.33%)

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

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

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

15) Joltik Box

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 88th

Total Price: $46.97

Cards Rotating: 18 (30%)

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

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

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

14) Flareon ex/Noctowl

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 25th

Total Price: $44.38

Cards Rotating: 11 (18.33%)

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

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

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

13) Tera Box

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 42nd

Total Price: $38.13

Cards Rotating: 9 (15%)

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

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

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

12) Mega Lopunny ex/Dusknoir

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 28th

Total Price: $40.52

Cards Rotating: 14 (23.33%)

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

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

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

11) Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 21st

Total Price: $38.27

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

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

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

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

10) Alakazam/Dudunsparce

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 50th

Total Price: $23.24

Cards Rotating: 4 (6.67%)

• 1 Jet Energy
• 1 Tulip
• 2 Nest Ball

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

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

9) N's Zoroark

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 239th

Total Price: $57.52

Cards Rotating: 18 (30%)

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

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

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

8) Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex/Froslass

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 58th

Total Price: $41.38

Cards Rotating: 18 (30%)

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

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

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

7) Ceruledge ex

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 77th

Total Price: $26.50

Cards Rotating: 13 (21.67%)

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

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

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

6) Mega Box

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 53rd

Total Price: $59.20

Cards Rotating: 18 (30%)

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

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

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

5) Gardevoir ex

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 46th

Total Price: $52.31

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

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

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

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

4) Gardevoir ex/Jellicent ex

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 10th

Total Price: $58.62

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

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

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

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

3) Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 5th

Total Price: $56.89

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

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

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

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

2) Dragapult ex/Dusknoir

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 2nd

Total Price: $49.34

Cards Rotating: 13 (21.67%)

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

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

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

1) Gholdengo ex/Lunatone

Best Finish at Stuttgart Regional: 3rd

Total Price: $50.21

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

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

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

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

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

Decks that are least to most affected by rotation

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

And the prices of these decks:

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

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

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

Play Limitless - 5 Years On

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kash Top 25 List: My Best Decks from 2024/25 Season

 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

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)

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

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

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)

 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

1. Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex - 268
2. Dragapult ex/Dusknoir - 87
3. Gholdengo ex - 72
4. Dragapult ex - 64
5. Charizard ex/Dusknoir - 63
6. Dragapul ex/Charizard ex - 59
7. Gardevoir ex - 52
8. Roaring Moon ex - 48
9. Terapagos ex/Dusknoir - 47
10. Joltik Box - 46
11. Dragapult ex/Pidgeot ex - 43
12. Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex - 41
13. Gouging Fire ex - 38
14. Terapagos ex/Noctowl - 37
15. Miraidon ex - 36

Deck with most event wins

1. Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex - 8
2. Gholdengo ex - 4
3. Charizard ex/Dusknoir - 4
4. Gouging Fire ex - 3
5. Terapagos ex/Dusknoir - 2
6. Miraidon ex - 2
7. Archaludon ex - 2
8. Dragapult ex/Dusknoir - 1
9. Dragapult ex/Charizard ex - 1
10. Gardevoir ex - 1
11. Roaring Moon ex - 1
12. Dragapult ex/Pidgeot ex - 1
13. Terapagos ex/Noctowl - 1
14. Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR/Terapagos ex - 1
15. Lugia VSTAR/Archeops - 1
16. Tera Box - 1
17. Banette ex/Gardevoir ex - 1
18. Ethan's Typhlosion - 1
19. Hydreigon ex/Pidgeot ex - 1

Highest Win Rate % (just top 15)

1. Terapagos ex/Noctowl - 75.51%
2. Joltik Box - 69.70%
3. Lugia VSTAR/Archeops - 68.75%
4. Dragapult ex/Charizard ex - 68.60%
5. Archaludon ex - 68.42%
6. Gholdengo ex - 67.92%
7. Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR/Terapagos ex - 67.35%
8. Charizard ex/Dusknoir - 67.02%
9. Dragapult ex/Pidgeot ex - 66.15%
10. Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex - 65.37%
11. Terapagos ex/Dusknoir - 65.28%
12. Lost Zone Box (Radiant Greninja) - 62.50%
13. Gouging Fire ex - 62.30%
14. Marine's Grimmsnarl ex/Froslass - 62.26%
15. Gardevoir ex - 59.77%

And now some fun stats about how the Day 2 players did and how they ended up in their own season. 

The new season is starting very soon, this weekend in fact for those of us in Singapore. Thanks for reading!