Kash Top 20 List: Decks from BRS to PRE and how rotation will affect them (Rotation Day in Japan)

 

Picture from @hororopokeca

It's January 24th (in Japan) and while it may not mean much to us everywhere around the World, it's release day for the new Battle Partners set in Japan. But even bigger than that, it's Rotation day in Japan! Which means cards from the F-Block are no longer legal for Standard play. For the rest of us, it will be April 11th.

Let's have a reminder of what cards are rotating, there a whole load of them so I will only focus on the ones that are playable and have seen play in many decks.

Want an easier way to figure out what cards are rotating? Literally anything with a yellow border (unless they have been reprinted with the silver border). So this isn't just any normal rotating, we are also rotating the yellow board cards era which stretches back to Base Set back in 1999 (and yes I still have some of my old Base Set cards still with me)! This is the new era!

First things first, every and ALL Pokémon Vs are gone. If it has the big V, it's gone. That also means the VSTAR mechanic is rotating. Which means were are now no longer able to:

• Starbirth (Arceus)
• Find any 2 cards and put into hand
• Star Portal (Palkia)
• Attach up to 3 Water energies to any of your Water Pokémon
• Star Chronos (Dialga)
• Do 220 and take an extra turn
• Star Abyss (Darkrai)
• Take 2 Item cards from discard and put into hand
• Ancient Star (Aerodactyl)
• Gains ability to stop V and VSTAR mons from using their abilities
• Moisture Star (Goodra)
• Heal all damage from this Pokémon
• Star Requiem (Giratina)
• KO opponent's active Pokémon if you have 10 or more cards in Lost Zone
• Legacy Star (Regidrago)
• Discard top 7 cards from your deck, then take 2 cards from discard into your hand
• Summoing Star (Lugia)
• Put 2 Archeops  Colourless Pokémon from discard onto your bench
• Star Alchemy (Forest Seal Stone)
• Yes it's a Tool card but it still works as a VSTAR on any V Pokémon. Find 1 card and put into hand.

Yes they were all called Star if you never noticed it. As for Giratina, there's another big loss, that is the Lost Zone mechanic. Which means we lose:

• Comfey, the main draw mechanic for Lost Zone (LZ)
• Cramorant, hits for free when LZ is 4
• Miragate Gate activates when LZ is 7
• Sableye spreads 12 to anything when LZ is 10
• Giratina VSTAR KOes active when LZ is 10
• Colress adds 2 more cards to LZ while adding 3 cards to your hand
• Lost Vacuum sends one Stadium or Tool from either side to the LZ including one card needed to use this card

There's one cool mechanic we are also losing, which is the Radiant Pokémon! You can only have one of these in your deck but they can be game changing.

• Radiant Greninja, draw engine
• Radiant Charizard, late game attacker as a single prizer
• Radiant Hisuian Sneasler, adds poison damage
• Radiant Alakazam, moves 2 damage counters around your opponent's side 

But in reality, there are some big cards rotating from this block that will change the game, especially because some of them are the engine for successful decks we all know and love:

• Lumineon V, takes any supporter
• Rotom V, draw 3 card then ends turn
• Manaphy, bench protection
• Bibarel, draw engine
• Radiant Greninja, draw engine
• Kirlia, draw engine
• Comfey, draw engine using the LZ
• Snorlax, blocks retreat
• Archeops, engine accelerator
• Regigigas, engine accelerator

It will take some time to get used to not seeing some of these staples for sure. I especially will miss having Arceus, Giratina and Bibarel legal as these three were instrumental in my Regional win and also my Worlds run in 2023. But we're not just losing Pokémon cards obviously, we will have to say goodbye to some big Trainer and Energy cards as well!

It's not a big list of cards but I felt these were the more important ones to point out and I included some old favorites just in case. 

When it comes to Supporters, we'll miss some really helpful cards:

• Irida, finds a Water Pokémon and item
• Cyllene for the gambling people
• Roxanne, disruption when your opponent is down to 3 or less prizes
• Colress, draw power
• Worker, stadium bump and draw power
• Thorton, currently a favourite with many decks to help switch Basic Pokémon from discard with bench

But the biggest hit I feel might come from the Items because we do lose some really important stuff here:

• Cancelling Cologne, I mean need I say more? Cancels opponent's active effects
• Feather Ball, great for searching out Pidgeot ex especially
• Hisuian Heavy Ball, a card I personally like because you can look at your prizes then take a Basic Pokémon. Helps with prize checking!
• Switch Cart, another switching option
• Trekking Shoes, helps to thin the deck out a bit
• Lost Vacuum, stadium or tool disruptor
• Capturing Aroma, ball search on a coin flip

There aren't any real big Tools we will lose but the obvious big one is Forest Seal Stone, it's too good as mentioned on my VSTAR bit. For Energy we're only losing two big ones. Gift Energy is mainly for Lugia decks but losing Double Turbo Energy will hurt a lot of decks and now decks have to find another way to power up attackers needing two colourless energy to attack. 

And finally Stadiums, there are some big ones here:

• Magma Basin, helps to attach energy from discard for Fire attackers
• Collapsed Stadium, limits bench to 4, often used to get rid of a bench sitter
• Temple of Sinnoh, stops Special Energy from having their effects
• Lost City, sends a Pokémon that was KOed into the Lost Zone
• PokeStop, discard top 3, any Item card discarded goes into hand. 

Losing PokeStop will hurt a lot of decks and it was one of the main draw engine for many decks. That could also be changing as playing a lot of Item cards now may not be the best of ideas with the introduction of Budew into the format. Still a good way to thin the deck out!

And with that, I wanted to share 20 decks from the current format and show how rotation will effect these decks. There are some notable exclusions but these are for the obvious reason that the main attacker is rotating, be it Regidrago, Palkia or Lugia.

#20 Iron Thorns ex

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 21.67%

Iron Thorns may not look like it will lose much from rotation but losing Double Turbo Energy hurts the deck way more than losing the other 3 cards not named Cancelling Cologne I feel. 

Yes losing Cologne is a big deal for the deck as now it will have no answers to stuff like Mimikyu. But without DTE, the deck might just seize to exist. I feel like if anyone still wants to play Iron Thorns, they should switch over to the Dragapult built.

#19 Dusknoir/Charizard ex

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 13.33%

This might be the only rouge deck that won a City League in Japan and it's a really cool way to play Charizard with Dusknoir and of course Budew. It's quite a turbo build with Radiant Greninja, PokeStop and Trekking Shoes in this list which you don't usually see in Zard decks.

And guess what? Those cards, along with Lumineon V, are the only ones rotating so this build might not even last as there aren't many good replacements for these specific cards. So if you want to try this version of Zard, you got a few months to make it work!

#18 Hydreigon ex

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 6.67%

This build of Hydreigon is only going to lose 4 cards, one of the lesser affected decks but three of them are major losses for many decks! This is just the first of many decks on this list will feel the pain of losing the Forest Seal Stone combo package (Stone + Lumineon and/or Rotom). 

Losing Dark Patch does mean you lose a way to power up your benched Dark mons but that shouldn't be a big issue. In fact, I feel Hydreigon gains one big thing from the rotation, that being the loss of Manaphy from many decks. 

And you might notice one yellow border card wasn't cancelled off because you can easily swap this Duskull to the one introduced in Shrouded Fable. 

#17 Charizard ex/Noctowl

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 10%

Ok let's address the elephant in the room. Yes that's a Brandon in the list. I don't even know what it does. I just took the first decent list for Charizard/Noctowl I could find and this looked the most decent of the others so yeah, it is rotating, but let's act as if it's a Cancelling Cologne or something else.

This build of Charizard won't be missing the Stone package, in fact it won't lose much. Sure losing DTE means Terapagos can't attack out of nowhere now and has to rely on either two attachments in 2 turns or Zard ex powering it up. For this, I can see either Mela or Crispin making it's way to the deck to solve this issue. Losing Manaphy does suck, but Rabsca is still a thing just in case. Other than that, Zard Noctowl doesn't really lose much. But like any other good Zard deck, losing Thorton will hurt, and we will have to play more of our basic mons now.

#16 Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 21.67%

Yes Chien-Pao is still a thing. Yes Baxcalibur is still around and while the two of them are staying, the deck is losing a number of key pieces. Thorton is a new inclusion so it won't miss that more than others. But we are losing Irida, the key piece to establish Baxcalibur on board!

But if it's not Baxcalibur we are getting out of Iridia, often times it's Radiant Greninja as it is one of the draw engine of the deck, and well that is rotating. But here comes the bad news, the other draw engine in the deck, Bibarel, is also rotating. The deck could turn to Revaroom as a psudeo replacement for both Greninja and Bibarel. But wait it gets worse, PokeStop is also gone. The deck will need a complete makeover to get back into contention but I do think it can adapt. These raindance-type abilities have always been good anyway.

#15 Dragapult ex/Charizard

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 11.67%

Dragapult and Charizard had a big showing this weekend in Birmingham and it's not as if it's a new idea that just showed up, Pult and Zard have had some results over in Japan as well and I do expect it to still be a thing going into rotation. Sure, you will miss the Stone package and Manaphy, but other decks will also have to adapt to it.

The one thing the deck might miss greatly, like any other Dragapult deck, is Radiant Alakazam. It helps to move damage counters around, especially to help you get KOs on 70 HP Pokemon when you can only spread 6 damage counters from Phantom Dive. Alakazam helps to set up some big KOs and sure Hawlucha can help as a replacement to it but while Hawlucha's effect only comes in once, Alakazam effect comes every turn so that's a huge change. 

#14 Pidgeot ex Control

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 26.67%

Pidgeot Control is one of the more affected decks by rotation. It loses a tone of stuff. You can't discard cards from your opponent's hand from Luxray anymore or retreat lock with both Snorlax and Mawile. It also loses Miss Fortune Sisters, one of the best ways to run your opponents out of important item resources. 

But the big loss surely has to be Rotom, Lumineon and Forest Seal Stone. These decks tend to rely on Rotom early on to draw them enough cards to start setting up the perfect board state to either lock opponents or slowly disrupt their setup or hand. Without the Stone Package, it will be much harder to set up Pidgeot ex by Turn 2, which is what the deck needs to get everything going. Losing DTE also means Wellspring Ogerpon now has to do 20 damage with Sob instead of no damage, which is not ideal.

#13 Gouging Fire ex

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 20%

Gouging Fire actually loses a few important stuff to make the deck running the way it does currently. Not having Radiant Greninja will make the deck significantly slower and not having Magma Basin means you can't just establish an attacker with 3 energy attack cost out of nowhere now. It loses a few attackers as well, Entei V is now gone and even though it's not in this decklist, Delphox V is another big loss as it can help take two prizes on someone not prepared for it. 

The other main loss is Switch Cart. Gouging Fire ex needs to retreat to use it's Blaze Blitz attack again and without Switch Cart, now you are just relying on either hard retreat (or Latias ex), Jet Energy or the new Surfer supporter card. It's still a decent rogue choice all things considered, and can easily adapt to the new format. Let's not forget Hop's Zacian ex is weak to Fire type so there's some food for thought. 

#12 Terapagos ex/Dusknoir

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 13.33%

Technically, this deck only loses 5 cards. One of them is enough to competely change the way this deck looks into the new rotation. Without DTE, Terapagos will now need to find another way to attack, and that might require the use of Glass Trumpet or Supporter cards like Mela or Crispin. 

Losing Thorton means the deck can't get a surprise Cursed Blast out of nowhere anymore as well. The other cards rotating aren't as big but losing Feather Ball does mean that you now just can't use Noctowl to search out a Feather Ball and Rare Candy to get a Pidgeot ex up and running so we're back to old faithful Ultra Ball for the time being. The new Brock supporter card from the next set might also help with that.

#11 Gholdengo ex

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 13.33%

As you might notice, I'm not sharing the Palkia build for a very good reason, Palkia is gone so Gholdengo players will switch over to the Energy Search Pro build. But either side of Gholdengo will miss 3 main cards. Radiant Greninja is one of the deck's draw engine along with Gholdengo itself and also PokeStop, another card also rotating. You could replace Greninja with Revaroom as a new sub-draw engine alongside Gholdengo.

Losing Irida is also big as now you can't directly look for an Item card, likely Super Energy Retrieval or Energy Search Pro, to use right away. The deck will now have to rely on the likes of Ciphermaniac and the combo of either Gholdengo or Fezandipiti to find those specific combos. Ignoring all that, it's still the same deck that just wants to see lot of energies to Make It Rain.

#10 Roaring Moon ex

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 18.33%

Turbo decks in general will take a big hit in this next rotation as a number of them will lose the combination of Trekking Shoes, PokeStop and Radiant Greninja. Roaring Moon ex is no different but it also loses Dark Patch so like Gouging Fire before it, now it can't power up an attacker that needs 3 energy to attack out of nowhere.

Everything else is still the same, Sada is still the best way to get energies onto your attacker but the deck might start to morph more into a toolbox type deck where it starts off attacking with Roaring Moon and Koraidon first while trying to get Roaring Moon ex ready to attack later on.

 

#9 Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 13.33%

Speaking of Turbo Decks, I present to you the king of Turbo Decks! And unlike Gouging Fire and Roaring Moon, Raging Bolt only needs two energy cost to attack so it's attack is not affected by rotation. The deck's draw power however, is the one that takes the hit. 

Without Radiant Greninja and PokeStop, the deck now has to rely solely on Teal Mask Ogerpon ex, Prof Sada's Vitality and Fezandipiti ex. The big question going into rotation is the more intruging one, does the deck still partner up with Teal Mask Ogerpon ex or the incoming Iono's Bellibolt ex, which charges up Lighting Energies. Ogerpon attaches energy once but you get to draw a card. Bellibolt attaches energy as often as you like, but it has to be on an Iono Pokémon. 

#8 Ancient Box

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 10%

It might look as if not much is rotating from Ancient Box but the cards rotating is enough to affect the deck, just ask any Ancient Box players. The deck is another one that is heavily reliant on the Radiant Greninja and PokeStop to run through the deck as quickly as possible. Greninja could be replaced by a Revaroom line which might mean more energies in the deck.

Hisuian Heavy Ball is also helpful to get, usually, Radiant Greninja out of the prizes. The deck still has plenty to survive the rotation, it will just have to get used to finding new ways to thin through the deck as there aren't any good replacements for PokeStop.

#7 Terapagos ex/Klawf

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 25%

This Poison build of Terapagos is one of the decks most affected by rotation. A few of the cards work in tandem so if one were to leave, naturally the other would too. 3 Switch Cart was usually the best way to get Oranguru into or out of the active to get a Forest Seal Stone, and yes those 3 are gone. 

Radiant Hisuian Sneasler is a big loss as it was one of the ways to put more damage counters on Poisoned Pokemon in between turns to help you get KO at the perfect timing, be it before their turn so they can't use Fezandipiti ex or going into your turn so you can get another KO. The other big issue is the loss of DTE. Terapagos and Klawf will now need to find another way to attack, and relying on double energy attachments in two turns isn't always the best way. This poison build will need a complete makeover to be viable going into the next format, or perhaps find another partner.

#6 Archaludon ex

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 3.33%

We go from one of the most affected decks by rotation to probably the least affected deck by rotation. Yes, there is a Dialga build but since that is rotating, I will showcase the other build that is just based on Archaludon. It's only losing 2 cards! 

Lumineon V isn't even a big loss for the deck as it has ways to find the supporter it needs with PokeGear and these supporters are mostly 2-offs or more. Radiant Greninja however is the big loss, the deck was quite reliant on it to not just draw cards, but to help discard energies for Archaludon ex to make use for it's ability. Thankfully there is a natural replacement in the form of Revaroom, and this is probably the one deck that can easily get Revaroom out of the active thanks to Archaludon, Turo and Scoop Up Cyclone. 

#5 Ceruledge ex

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 10%

While I chose not to showcase the loss of Dialga VSTAR in Archaludon, I felt I had to do so for Ceruledge with Palkia VSTAR. Ceruledge has often relied on it not just as a back-up attacker but also to threaten Moonlight Shuriken with Radiant Greninja. 

There is a replacement for Greninja thankfully for the deck in Revaroom and even PokeStop isn't as big as a loss for the deck as it can just replace it with Cycling Road, which helps to discard energy which is what the deck wants anyway. With all that in mind, the deck actually doesn't lose much from rotation and might just be in a better spot for it.

#4 Miraidon ex

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 11.67%

Miraidon is one of the few decks, perhaps the only one, on this list where it actually loses attackers more than Trainer cards. Losing Raikou V and Raichu V means the deck now no longer has an attacker with 2 or less energy cost for attacks. Both are important for the deck, Raikou for extra draw and Raichu to hit big numbers for a one-hit KO. 

Even Zapdos will be missed as it helped to fix numbers, especially against stuff like Iron Thorns ex with it's 230 HP. And even though Iron Hands isn't rotating, losing DTE means the deck now has to either rely on hitting energies off Electric Generator or from Magneton. And with Budew lurking, you might not even get to use Generator. But there is some hope in the form of Iono and her Bellibolt, that card might completely unlock new combos for this deck to exploit. 

#3 Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 8.33%

And now we come to my personal favourite deck. Charizard actually loses just 5 cards, but they're all quite important to the deck. We've got the trio from the Stone package which helps to unlock the deck's combo pieces so it will greatly miss that. Rotom has a natural replacement in Cleffa but there aren't any replacements for Lumineon or Forest Seal Stone.

Another card that helps with getting the perfect combos is Thorton, you now can't surprise your opponents out of nowhere after they had taken a KO on your Pidgey or Charmander or the occasional surprise Cursed Blast out of nowhere. 

Maybe the biggest loss for the deck is Radiant Charizard, it's the only true single-prized attacker in the deck and it help with the late game prize trade. So yes, Zard is one of the least affected, but the cards rotating will leave some big gaps in the deck. That said, it will still be one of the strongest decks going into rotation however as you still have the holy trio of Charizard, Pidgeot and Dusknoir.

#2 Dragapult ex/Dusknoir

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 10%

With the introduction of Budew, Dragapult might replace it's dragon brethren Regidrago as the best deck in the format. And going into rotation, well Regidrago VSTAR is gone so Dragapult goes back into being it's own deck and it's already doing so in the Prismatic Evolution format. 

But it does lose some big cards from rotation. Lumineon and Forest Seal Stone helps to enable some key combo pieces for the deck as it does rely on getting the perfect board state. Radiant Alakazam, as mentioned previously, is another big loss as it loses another key piece for it's combo to take multiple prizes. Manaphy is another dangerous loss as the deck might now be open to early game snipes. 

Losing Lance is quite a shame as Lance as finally found it's home in this new build of Dragapult. There are some natural replacements in the form of Jacq or Perrin but for a Dragapult deck, Lance will always be the best choice to help set up your Dragon line. Like Zard before, the deck is still in a fantastic spot going into the next rotation. It still has it's draw engine in Drakloak. The same cannot be said about our final deck on this list.

#1 Gardevoir ex

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 13.33%

8 cards rotated. It may not sound like much but half of them will be the reason the deck changes completely. The current Ralts we all play can be easily replaced with another 70 HP Ralts. Kirlia however is irreplaceable. Refinement, or Trade, has always been one of the best abilities in the game and this helped Gardevoir to become one of the best decks since the introduction of Gardevoir ex. 

And we're not just losing this draw power, the other draw power of Radiant Greninja is also gone so the deck might to rely on something like Revaroom, since you do want to discard Psychic energies anyway. Losing Manaphy might not be as big of a deal if the board isn't filled with Kirlias now. 

I'm very curious to see a Gardevoir ex deck will look like post rotation without Refinement Kirlia. Those are all the decks I've got for you and if you're wondering how they all fare for rotation, here's a quick little recap:

Decks affected by rotation from least to most

1. Archaludon ex - 3.33%
2. Hydreigon ex - 6.67%
3. Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex - 8.33%
4. Dragapult ex/Dusknoir - 10%
5. Ceruledge ex - 10%
6. Ancient Box - 10%
7. Charizard ex/Noctowl - 10%
8. Miraidon ex - 11.67%
9. Dragapult ex/Charizard - 11.67%
10. Gardevoir ex - 13.33%
11. Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex - 13.33%
12. Gholdengo ex - 13.33%
13. Terapagos ex/Dusknoir - 13.33%
14. Dusknoir/Charizard ex - 13.33%
15. Roaring Moon ex - 18.33%
16. Gouging Fire ex - 20%
17. Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur - 21.67%
18. Iron Thorns ex - 21.67%
19. Terapagos ex/Klawf - 25%
20. Pidgeot ex Control - 26.67%

Thanks for reading!

Singapore 2024-2025 Season - Ultra Ball League Season 1 Recap + My 24/25 Season So far

Season 1 of the 2024-2025 season (yeah I'm still getting used to the whole season in a season thing) is done and we've just finished the 3 Ultra Ball events that happened in late December and early January, aka my favourite time of the year because it's my birthday week haha! 

For those who are curious about what happened in GBL Season 1 and how everything works, you can check it out here (some of the results are a bit outdated because of the points changes). I'll do a quick re-cap of the 3 Ultra Ball League events that happened here, these are our versions of a League Cup that TPCi circuits have.

One big note I do need to share before I continue, we currently do not know what the points kicker are for literally ANY event, what is said on the official website is not what the officials are following from what we've seen on the results page. So the previous GBL recap page is a bit useless now because I had to re-do points for 6 of the 9 events and some of them, even though they had the same amount of people playing, had different people scoring points.

ULTRA BALL LEAGUE SEASON 1 RECAP

Ultra Ball League 1 - Kreta Ayer CC - 113 Players - 21st December 2024

Winning Decklist: Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex - Aiman Roslan

(no decklist)

Points Scorers:

Walk In Players - 25 out of 78 Players (32.05% chance of getting in)

Notes:

• THERE IS A TOP CUT! For this event which featured 113 players, we had a top 8 cut. It was still bo1 but with extra 10 minutes, 7 Swiss rounds
• Speaking of which, two top 8 matches did not even play out. One player did not show up as he had left in Round 7, and another was given a game loss for incorrect decklist
• Fun little note, the recorded games are not up yet but I got to choose every game that went on stream after Round 2. Having that power was fun, hopefully the games were fun to watch too. I'll post a link here when it does go live.

Ultra Ball League 2 - KouritenSG - 64 Players - 4th January 2025

Winning Decklist: Gholdengo ex - Terry Tai

Points Scorers:

Walk In Players - 12 out of 103 Players (11.65% chance of getting in)

Notes:

• Top 4 cut here because of just 64 players but still was 7 Swiss rounds
• Once again one top cut game wasn't played out due to a game loss for decklist error
• The streak is broken! Terry is the first person to win two different local official TPC events since Isogai, we had this streak going since the first season

Ultra Ball League 3 - Rowell Video - 64 Players - 5th January 2025

Winning Decklist: Gholdengo ex - Toh You Jie

Points Scorers:

Walk In Players - 13 out of 70 Players (18.57% chance of getting in)

Notes:

• Top 4 cut here again (64 players), was 7 Swiss rounds
• Alester backed up his Premier Ball League win with this UBL win, and re-taking the top spot in the standings

So now for the fun stats and the first one is for wins since there's only 3 events, I'll just write it down here

Wins:

Gholdengo - 2 (66.7%)

Raging Bolt/Teal Mask Ogerpon - 1 (33.3%)

Here's the chart for the Top Cut decks (top 8 for UBL 1, top 4 for UBL 2 and 3)

We sure like our Gholdengos don't we? Of the 5, two were by the top 2 players in the standings with two entries as well! 

And because I'm curious about the big picture, here's the chart for the decks that scored points (top 32 for UBL 1, top 16 for UBL 2 and 3)

Regidrago still was the most popular overall, followed by Charizard which has always been quite popular here. Gardevoir was actually the most played deck in all 3 events if I remember correctly so no surprises to see it right up there. 

Speaking of which, I did get all the decks down for my stats because of....well....I didn't get to play in any of the 3 Ultra Ball League events so I had plenty of time to get all the decks down for all 3 events so here you go! 241 total players throughout the 3 events:

For the others, it was too much to write down so I just copy pasted this from my excel:

So to nobody's surprise, Gardevoir was the most played deck in all 3 UBLs, just beating Charizard by 1. There are a lot of die-hard Gardevoir players but many top players also chose to play it so it shows how good it was, even though 2 top 4 finishes.

Regidrago was the 3rd best, which isn't a big surprise to me. It is still the best deck in the format but maybe it's just not the play in a bo1 setting, especially when there are still so many Raging Bolt players around, and it did win the first UBL! 

Here's my first prediction for the next season of GBLs. Gardevoir will likely stay in the top 2 spot with Dragapult about to join it right up there, it was the 5th most played. I did combine the Dusknoir version with the Iron Thorns build for this.

Now for the next stat, I wanted to show how many players got to play in these UBLs. But as you will see, it's a hard one to quanitfy.

We definitely know the number of players who played in 1 or 2 UBLs but it's so hard to know the actual number for those who didn't play. I used the number from those in the current standings but the thing is, how many actually did apply to play in these events and how many didn't? We don't know that.

I can have a rough idea to say who actually did try to walk in for those events and got rejected all 3 times (I was one of them), but as for applying straight up, I have no clue. The other issue is, as you may or may not have heard, there's this whole multiple-account nonsense going around where somebody is applying with 59 accounts and taking up spots from us players so that will make the number even harder to find. Firstly, screw you dude. Secondly, don't be a dumbass and buy accounts, you will get caught. And thirdly, clearly this shows this system is not working.

SEASON STANDINGS AFTER UBL SEASON 1

I wanted to showcase how the UBLs affected the standings so I made a new tab on my excel just for this. The first one is how many points the top 30 players in standings scored in these UBLs. The 2nd tab is showing the % of their total points that came from the UBLs (the green numbers are those who scored 50% or more of their points from UBLs, the red is a big fat zero %). And the third is showing how many of these UBLs the top 30 players in the standings played.

I think it's safe to say the top two guys, Alester and Terry, are pretty much set for their first Worlds invite with the big gap they've got to everyone else. Alester is 180 points ahead of the 5th place player (Ben) while Terry is 165 points ahead of 5th. Just as a reminder, it's the top 4 players in points that gets a Worlds invite.

So the top 2 are in their own little battle this season. What about the rest?

The two finalist from the first UBL, Jeremy and Aiman, now currently occupy the 3rd and 4th spots in the standings. Both of them had a huge jump in points from their finals finish, Aiman especially with 80% of his points coming from his UBL win. The difference 4th to 8th are just 40 points, a win and a top 8 finish at a GBL can change how the order looks like.

A fun little note, the other two players who finished as finalists in a UBL (Yi Quan and Liang Jun) hadn't even scored a point before their final finishes so they too had a huge jump up the order. So this just shows us how important the points are in these UBL events compared to the GBL events. Not much changed during the 9 GBL events but a lot sure changed from the 3 UBL events.

But you also need some luck to even play in these events. If you look at the top 30 standings, 4 players didn't play in any of them and they all dropped in the standings. As did the 6 players who did play in a UBL event but didn't score a point in them. So you need some luck to either win the elected lottery or the walk-in lottery to play and when you do, you have to make it count. 

GBL season 2 should start in February while UBL season 2 is slated for sometime mid-March to mid-April. 

MY ULTRA BALL LEAGUE SEASON 1 "RECAP"

So here's how my games went for this first Ultra Ball League season 1 went:

Ultra Ball League #1 - Kreta Ayer CC

• Date: 21st December 2024
• Status: Walk-In -> Lost Lottery
• Deck: -

Ultra Ball League #2 - KouritenSG

• Date: 4th January 2025
• Status: Walk-In -> Lost Lottery
• Deck: -

Ultra Ball League #3 - Rowell Video

• Date: 5th January 2025
• Status: Walk-In -> Lost Lottery
• Deck: -

Yup. I applied for all 3 Ultra Ball League events. Declined for all 3 events. Tried to walk in for all 3 events. Lost the lottery for all 3 of those events too. I didn't even get to play Pokemon on my birthday week, how sad is that? I just want to play!

Sure I'm not the only one who didn't get to play in any of the 3 UBLs, in fact a few of my friends are in the same boat. But I can't help but feel a bit frustrated to miss out. I had such a good run of results going including the 4 GBLs and I thought, I just need one good UBL run to put me back into the hunt for the invite race. And I didn't even get that chance. In fact I think I might be the highest placed active player in the standings who didn't play (didn't see Dominic Lo around at all so I don't think he's active).

Missing those 3 events puts me in a real awkward spot. I know what my planned schedule is like for the month of March so there is a chance that I might miss another 1 or 2 UBL, this time not by choice. So if that happens, I'm left with possibly just 1-2 UBLs to get in for the 2nd season and the other 3 for the 3rd season, and I already know how difficult it is just to get into one. At least we now know that GBL winners are guaranteed a spot in UBL so that's my aim now, win a GBL event.

That Worlds invite chase is looking less likely for me this time around sadly but this time it's out of my control. I can't score points if I can't play and it's not as if I'm choosing not to play. I'm the type that will play everywhere and anyway, I just need a chance and so far it hasn't happened when it matters most. I know I can finish in the top 4 in the standings, I've already done it once before in 2023 and I feel like I've improved a lot since then.

But with how the season has shaped up, the first two spots seemingly locked up, I'm now trying to chase for the 3rd/4th spot with 100+ others doing the same. Or at least I hope they are, because some don't seem to want the points but instead help their friends chances by giving them wins, I've seen it happen a few times already, even at these UBLs. It feels really difficult to compete fairly with all these in mind, let alone having people apply for these events just to get the promo and drop after going 0-3.

I still want to head back to Worlds and compete at that level, after coming so close to the Day 2 spot in 2023, I need to know if I can really compete with the best. But it doesn't look like it might happen this season. I still have the worry of wondering if I can play in our biggest event of the season, the Master Ball League, aka our Nationals event. Not just the worry of the lottery but also the fact that I'll be overseas for most of June and it's slated to be in June so I might not even get to play in it.

Which means I might only have one other way to earn my second Worlds invite this year...

2024: Nothing.

 Yeah 2024, what can I say about it...

We went from an awesome 2023, to this. Maybe it's just me but 2024 was just that, nothing. I might as well have skipped the whole year. Too much disappointments, be it the real life or in the game of Pokemon TCG, which is where you lot probably know me from. So I'll talk more about that.

Here is the cold heart truth. I felt like I played the best I ever had in 2024, even better than 2023 where I won a major event, top cut a nationals went to my first Worlds and missed Day 2 but just one win. But the results? 

Yup nothing. I don't have a top 32 at any of the major events to show for my efforts, I missed cut twice because I had horrible resistance meaning I never really stood a chance. A third I did have a chance but I lost that match to one of my worst misplays yet when I was being too safe trying to stop a TM Devo play that was never happening.

I'd like to think my recent run of results at the Great Ball league shows the improvements I made but at the end of the day, they're just League Challenges, it doesn't really show much. I need to do that at an Ultra Ball League, which is a League Cup essentially. 

The problem is, as of writing, I've been declined for all 3 and didn't get to walk in the first one and the next two are smaller events so my hopes aren't very high of making it in. The new changes made to this season, we all thought it was to give us more chances to play. It's sadly gone the other way where we've had less chances to play. Sure technically there are more events for us to apply for, but it's always up to the dreaded lottery system. It needs to be fixed.

Here's just a short recap of all the points paying events I played in 2024.

Feb 3 - SG Regional League Vol.2 

• 4/3/0
• 54th/308
• Deck: Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• Points Scored: 100 CSP

Mar 23 - Town League (Agora Hobby)

• 4/3/0
• 33rd/90
• Deck: Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone)
• Points Scored: 0 CSP

Mar 24 - Town League (Rowell Pte Ltd)

• 4/3/0
• 20th/73
• Deck: Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• Points Scored: 75 CSP

Apr 13 - SG Regional League Vol.3

• 6/2/0
• 35th/242
• Deck: Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• Points Scored: 100 CSP

May 1 - Town League (Agora Hobby)

• 4/3/0
• 26th/105
• Deck: Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• Points Scored: 75 CSP

May 18 - Singapore Championships 2023/24

• 5/3/0
• 49th/342
• Deck: Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• Points Scored: 200 CSP

Nov 2 - Singapore Premier Ball League 2024/25

• 5/2/0
• 70th/409
• Deck: Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• Points Scored: 5 LP

Nov 24 - Great Ball League (Brick's Play)

• 4/1/0
• 3rd/32
• Deck: Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• Points Scored: 12 LP

Nov 28 - Great Ball League (Card Collectibles)

• 5/1/0
• 2nd/44
• Deck: Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• Points Scored: 15 LP

Nov 30 - Great Ball League (Agora Hobby)

• 5/1/0
• 7th/64
• Deck: Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• Points Scored: 10 LP

Dec 1 - Great Ball League (Happyland Collectibles)

• 4/1/0
• 4th/32
• Deck: Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• 12 LP

Anything just underlined is a points paying local event, bold and underlined would be major events. Nothing for cup styled events, because I didn't play in one.

So I got to play in 4 "major" events and 7 "challenge" events. I had a combined score of 20/10 for major events, and 30/13 for the challenge events. Total would be 50/23, which would make it a 68% win rate, which is easily my highest so far for any year. 

And out of the 11 points paying events I played in the year 2024, I score points in 10 of them! The only one I didn't score points, just so happened to also be the only event I didn't play Charizard ex in 2024, that would be Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone). And I bubbled out of points at 33rd! Stupid deck ruined what could have been a 100% record for scoring points this season, but 91% is still alright. Too bad the points don't actually matter much for the smaller events.

So I'm consistent at scoring points but I didn't finish high up in the points. In fact, I didn't even finish in the top 30 of points despite being in the top 30 for most of the season. My bad run at the Championships, losing the win and in, also ended up hurting my entire season. Like sure, if we're not finishing in the top 4, everything else doesn't really matter but I can't help myself but feel disappointed that I didn't even break into the top 30 at the very least. I should be doing better than this.

And in this 2024/25 season so far, things didn't start of well. Didn't make top 32 cut at the Premier Ball League, heck I didn't even make top 64 when most 5-2s did make top 64, and a few of them did make top 32 cut. I'd like to think I did better than I hoped in my 4 Great Ball League so far, all of them with me getting and x-1 score, and all top 8 finishes too, so at least my hard work is starting to pay off a little bit.

But that's the thing that's troubling me this year. As I mentioned earlier, I felt I was playing better than I have previously, still not as well as I'd like to be but I'm still working on it. Baby steps right? I just have to keep trying to find a way. But the fact that I don't have much to show for it other than 4 straight top 8 runs at GBL events is quite disappointing in my view. 

Even though I may be playing better, I'm still not where I want to be. Maybe I'm being a bit too harsh on myself but I feel I have to be, I don't have anyone to tell me what I'm doing right or wrong like most others around me.

The one good thing about 2024 is that now my brother is finally playing Pokémon TCG again with me so now I've got someone at home to talk about the game and test with!

My hopes for 2025 is very simple. Do better.

I'm hopeful. 2025 will be better, I can feel it. Oasis is back so finally music is saved. WWE is now on Netflix, so that's cool. I'll be heading over to the US again to be there for the big day for someone very near and dear to me. And in March, I will don the green army uniform for the last time. It's almost over. 

Maybe it's also time I give up on the whole idea of playing Charizard ex from start to finish. So many of the guys have done well with it, and sure I've played it for a long time, but I still have nothing to show for my efforts, other than the Pidgeot ex promo from the GBL but does that really count? (I say that but I did just make $97 playing Zard the other day). Also, I seem to be able to help others with their Zard decks and help them figure things out with the deck, but yet I can't help myself to do the same.

Maybe I'm just not destined to do well it after all. I was hoping I can capture the magic of Centiskorch VMAX again (another Fire energy-acceleration deck), or go on a mighty run like I did with ReshiZard GX (yet another Fire energy-acceleration deck), but maybe I was just being too hopeful and too much of a dreamer and I should be more realistic and start to see, hey you're not doing much with this, try something else. Which is sad because as most of you may know, Charmander is my favourite Pokemon so any excuse to play a deck with Charmander in it, I will try to find a way to make it work.

I'm sure my friends will say "well you should play your comfort deck or the deck you know best", and that is Charizard ex, but if I'm not doing as well as I should with it, maybe the player is at fault. But I've also kinda locked myself into this, I don't have a lot of stuff for the other decks.

The other hope for 2025. Play.

That's really it. This new system still sucks. I don't get to choose when I get to play in official events, the lottery system chooses that for me. I was so psyched when I heard UBL had top cuts, something I've always enjoyed playing for. And there's a good chance I won't get to experience it until the last part of the season since I've been declined for the next two and I might have lesser chances of playing the next ones with my current plan.

This whole new system was supposed to give us more chances to play. I mean we've got more events to apply for but it seems like it's done the opposite, a lot of us aren't playing as much as we'd like to. In fact I know a few of my friends still have not played either a GBL or a UBL.

And with that in mind, I think I've waited too long. Maybe it's time I get back and try my luck at playing a TPCi event once again. First of all, at least I know I can play in that event, no need to worry about the lottery nonsense. Secondly, it's bo3. I don't care what the others have to say, as someone who's played in circuits featuring both bo1 and bo3, I'll take bo3 any day of the week.

And I'd like to think I can follow the footsteps of my friends Jeremy, Bjorn and the rest of them that have been doing well anytime they flew over to Australia to play in their regionals. I did get to play at a Win-A-Box event over at TableTop Village in Seattle in June, and I did get top 8 out of almost 30 players, and I've always heard the players in Seattle are a strong bunch so maybe I can hang with the TPCi folks? 

Only one way to find out I suppose. I just hope I have a chance to play in one of their events and if I do, I hope I can show I can compete at a higher level. I just need to do better. Thanks for reading, and I hope your 2025 goes the way you want it to.

Kash Top 24 List: Best Pokemon cards released in 2024 (stats based)

 It's the end of the year so once again, and as per tradition now, I'm hard at work trying to figure out the best way to showcase the best cards released in the year 2024. I've always enjoyed doing these types of list and I'm always looking for ways to make them look at least interesting for anyone who actually is interested to know what cards made the list and what didn't.

I made a shortlist of cards that I thought made an impact this year (it was as high as 60 cards) and started removing those that didn't really do much or had no top 8 finishes in either IRL or big online events. With the rest, I went ahead, found all the numbers and from there worked out what the best 24 cards for this list. 

But just doing points wasn't going to cut it. If I did that, cards released later on in the year wouldn't stand much of a chance of having an impact on the list so I based it off total points and also average points scored per sets released, so the cards that got released late, especially the last one, still had some chance to make it in. And two did!

Before I explain how I worked things out, I thought I should at the very least name the cards that didn't quite make the list but almost did:

• Iron Leaves ex (TEF)
• Counter Gain (SSP)
• Colress's Tenacity (SFA)
• Secret Box (TWM)
• Alolan Exeggutor ex (SSP)
• Roaring Moon (TEF)
• Cinccino (TEF)
• Terapagos ex (SCR)
• Noctowl (SCR)

And I still think Noctowl is one of the best cards printed this year yet it was the 25th card on my list! And let's not forget Terapagos ex, it's helped so many decks breathe new life, such as Palkia and Klawf, yet it too didn't make the cut here. So there's a lot of cards that were just as good, some clearly better.

The way I did the points was quite simple:

• 1st - 5 points
• 2nd - 3 points
• 3rd and 4th - 2 points
• 5th to 8th - 1 point

And if you see the average points and was wondering how I calculated it, quite simple:

• Points scored from each set (termed as S1 to S5)/Events in each set
• The total of the average/how many sets they were played in = Average Points Scored per Sets

The tournaments included in these are any event that is recorded on Limitless for this year that had cards released this year (so no Portland, Charlotte, Liverpool, Melbourne, Knoxville and Singapore Regional V2). Also included are any Play Limitless online tournament that hit 256+ players. If I had included 128 like I used to, there would be too many and it might dilute the information, and there were just enough to make everything look perfect as S3 was lacking in IRL tournaments, so online had the most S3 events to help make the numbers more event. If anyone was wondering:

• S1 (BST to PAF)
• 8 IRL events
• 1 Online events
• S2 (BRS to TEF)
• 26 IRL events
• 3 Online events
• S3 (BRS to TWM + SFA)
• 8 IRL events (2 from SFA)
• 12 Online events
• S4 (BRS to SCR)
• 11 IRL events
• 8 Online events
• S5 (BRS to SSP)
• 8 IRL events (Including the recent Osaka Champions League that will feature cards coming out in 2025)
• 6 Online events

For the results:

• Wins are wins, pretty easy
• Top 4 will be results from 2nd, 3rd or 4th, not including wins
• Top 8 will be results from 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th, and nothing from the above included

And with that, here are the best 24 cards released in 2024, not done by any sort of opinion or favoritism, just good old statistics and numbers, my favourite! And why just 24? 2024, that's why. We need to keep the gimmick going.

(Side note, I'm still trying to figure out a way to do a video version for this, but just haven't figured out how to do it properly)

#24 - Legacy Energy - Twilight Masquerade (TWM)

Type: Special Energy - ACE SPEC

Total Points: 91 (21st)

Average Points Scored per Sets: 1.62 (24th)

Points

• S1 - Not Released
• S2 - Not Released
• S3 - 42 / Avg - 2.10
• S4 - 36 / Avg - 1.89
• S5 - 13 / Avg - 0.87

Wins: 6

Top 4: 15

Top 8: 25

Saw play in:

• Lugia VSTAR/Archeops
• Iron Thorns ex
• Ceruledge ex

One of only two Ace Spec energy cards we've got in the current rotation but this one is by far the better one. It's a rainbow energy that helps disrupt the prize race in your favour since your opponent can only take 1 less prize from attacking a Pokemon with this on it. The natural partner for it is Lugia since it has the easiest access to it with Archeops but it's seen play in other decks too.

#23 - Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking - Temporal Forces (TEF)

Type: Supporter

Total Points: 86 (22nd)

Average Points Scored per Sets: 0.88 (Not Top 30)

Points

• S1 - Not Released
• S2 - 61 / Avg - 2.10
• S3 - 4 / Avg - 0.20
• S4 - 14 / Avg - 0.74
• S5 - 7 / Avg - 0.47

Wins: 3

Top 4: 21

Top 8: 26

Saw play in:

• Gholdengo ex
• Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur
• Gardevoir ex/Banette ex

One of the few Supporters to make the list this year, Ciphermaniac is pretty much Mallow from a few years ago, the effect in the same. And that card was very effective for a good reason and it's no surprise to see Ciphermaniac in decks that require a lot of combo pieces to work, as it did back then as well, such as Gholdengo, Chien-Pao and Banette.

#22 - Precious Trolley - Surging Sparks (SSP)

Type: Item - ACE SPEC

Total Points: 29 (Not in Top 30)

Average Points Scored per Sets: 1.93 (21st)

Points

• S1 - Not Released
• S2 - Not Released
• S3 - Not Released
• S4 - Not Released
• S5 - 29 / Avg - 1.93

Wins: 0

Top 4: 10

Top 8: 4

Saw play in:

• Klawf/Terapagos ex
• Dragapult ex/Iron Thorns ex
• Gardevoir ex

A 1-off buddy poffin that lets you fill the bench with not just less than 70 HP basic pokemon but any kind of basic Pokmeon? Yup I wasn't surprised to see Precious Trolley already making it's way into a number of decks. Decks like Klawf could even get a Terapagos ex down turn 1, play Area Zero and then fill up their bench to 8! Combo decks such as Dragapult, Gardevoir and Charizard are also happy to see this.

#21 - Area Zero Underdepths - Stellar Crown (SCR)

Type: Stadium

Total Points: 75 (23rd)

Average Points Scored per Sets: 2.20 (16th)

Points

• S1 - Not Released
• S2 - Not Released
• S3 - Not Released
• S4 - 43 / Avg - 2.26
• S5 - 32 / Avg - 2.13

Wins: 5

Top 4: 13

Top 8: 16

Saw play in:

• Terapagos ex/Dusknoir
• Miraidon ex
• Klawf/Terapagos ex

Speak of the devil, Area Zero has a similar ability to Sky Field from years ago. This time the catch is you need a Tera Pokemon in the field to increase your bench to 8. It's seen play mostly with any deck playing Terapagos ex, be it by itself, with Klawf or Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR or even Charizard ex, or decks like Miraidon ex that has Pikachu ex to be the bench sitting Tera mon. It works well for attackers like Terapagos ex, Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR and Raikou V as they both want bigger bench spaces, thus why they were mentioned earlier.

#20 - Hero's Cape - Temporal Forces (TEF)

Type: Tool - ACE SPEC

Total Points: 135 (14th)

Average Points Scored per Sets: 1.48 (25th)

Points

• S1 - Not Released
• S2 - 73 / Avg - 2.52
• S3 - 28 / Avg - 1.40
• S4 - 18 / Avg - 0.95
• S5 - 16 / Avg - 1.07

Wins: 8

Top 4: 27

Top 8: 34

Saw play in:

• Snorlax Stall
• Pidgeot ex Control
• Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex

It's like all the other HP boosting tool we've seen for a while now but this is easily the best one. There is no restrictions, you can play it on a Basic or Evolution pokemon, rule box or no rule box. Straight up you have +100 HP. And it's already been working, especially for controlling-style decks. Even attacking decks like Charizard ex have played it to make their biggest threat of Charizard ex be even bigger as it can be difficult to KO a 430HP pokemon!

#19 - Kyurem - Shrouded Fable (SFA)

Type: Basic Pokemon

Total Points: 106 (18th)

Average Points Scored per Sets: 2.02 (20th)

Points

• S1 - Not Released
• S2 - Not Released
• S3 - 26 / Avg - 1.30
• S4 - 40 / Avg - 2.11
• S5 - 40 / Avg - 2.67

Wins: 8

Top 4: 18

Top 8: 26

Saw play in:

• Regidrago VSTAR

What everyone initially thought would be the Lost Box killer has ended up becoming a set-up deck killer. And it's only really seen play in one deck, that being Regidrago. The threat of Kyurem hasn't stopped Lost Box from showing up but because it's in Regidrago (the current BDIF), there are less Lost Box players around. Kyurem has been wrecking benches as earlier as Turn 2, and decks without Manaphy continue to pay the price for omitting it. And it's not just targeting small basics, some players have used two Trifrost to take down 3 big basic mons to win the game in just 2 attacks.

#18 - Latias ex - Surging Sparks (SSP)

Type: Basic Pokemon ex

Total Points: 32 (Not in Top 30)

Average Points Scored per Sets: 2.13 (19th)

Points

• S1 - Not Released
• S2 - Not Released
• S3 - Not Released
• S4 - Not Released
• S5 - 32 / Avg - 2.13

Wins: 2

Top 4: 7

Top 8: 3

Saw play in:

• Miraidon ex
• Roaring Moon ex
• Klawf/Terapagos ex

Latias ex has just one job, a free retreat for any Basic Pokémon. That's it. And that's why it's already seen so much play despite being just released in the latest Surging Sparks set. As you know, these stats lists don't tend to favour cards that show up late in the year so when one does show up, you know how good it truly is. It's already helping decks like Miraidon and Klawf to move around freely and more will utilize it in the next few years.

#17 - Jamming Tower - Twilight Masquerade (TWM)

Type: Stadium

Total Points: 115 (17th)

Average Points Scored per Sets: 2.21 (15)

Points

• S1 - Not Released
• S2 - Not Released
• S3 - 26 / Avg - 1.30
• S4 - 43 / Avg - 2.26
• S5 - 46 / Avg - 3.07

Wins: 10

Top 4: 21

Top 8: 22

Saw play in:

• Regidrago VSTAR
• Lugia VSTAR/Archeops
• Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex

Jamming Tower is similar to Tool Jammer, aka tools don't work but instead of just the active's tool not working, now it's the entire board, and not just your opponent but yours too. For me it's much better than Tool Jammer and there's a good reason why the best decks in the format (Regidrago and Lugia) continue to keep using it. A number of decks are very reliant on tools and don't want to see even one Jamming Tower showing up.

#16 - Munkidori - Twilight Masquerade (TWM)

Type: Basic Pokemon

Total Points: 124 (16th)

Average Points Scored per Sets: 2.29 (14th)

Points

• S1 - Not Released
• S2 - Not Released
• S3 - 67 / Avg - 3.35
• S4 - 20 / Avg - 1.05
• S5 - 37 / Avg - 2.47

Wins: 10

Top 4: 22

Top 8: 20

Saw play in:

• Gardevoir ex
• Gouging Fire ex
• Lost Zone Box
• Arceus VSTAR/Armarouge

Munkidori breathe new life into decks like Gardevoir and Lost Box with one of the new interesting abilities in the game. It helps to counter spread decks but also helps decks like Gardevoir or Gouging Fire that naturally puts damage counters on itself to attach energies to do even more damage. There's a reason why some Gardevoir decks run two Munkidori to effectively do 60 more damage! It's got a very cheeky attack too, the confusion could help buy time against certain decks,

#15 - Charmeleon - Paldean Fates (PAF)

Type: Stage 1 Pokemon

Total Points: 214 (9th)

Average Points Scored per Sets: 2.14 (18th)

Points

• S1 - 19 / Avg - 2.11
• S2 - 111 / Avg - 3.83
• S3 - 27 / Avg - 1.35
• S4 - 29 / Avg - 1.53
• S5 - 28 / Avg - 1.87

Wins: 18

Top 4: 37

Top 8: 39

Saw play in:

• Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex

This was a cheeky choice to put onto this list but it was released this year so it counts. It's just a Charmeleon, but there's a very good reason why this is now the go-to Charmeleon to use. The ability helps to stop damage counter placement and effects like TM Devolution, meaning you're board is always guranteed a Charizard even after a TM Devo swing by your opponent. 

#14 - Unfair Stamp - Twilight Masquerade (TWM)

Type: Item - ACE SPEC

Total Points: 135 (14th)

Average Points Scored per Sets: 2.46 (13th)

Points

• S1 - Not Released
• S2 - Not Released
• S3 - 75 / Avg - 3.75
• S4 - 26 / Avg - 1.37
• S5 - 34 / Avg - 2.27

Wins: 10

Top 4: 27

Top 8: 22

Saw play in:

• Gardevoir ex
• Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• Dragapult ex
• Roaring Moon ex

This is the one that surprises me the most in this whole ranking. Everyone knows how strong Unfair Stamp is. Remember Reset Stamp? Yup it's back but now with a condition and a fixed number of cards to draw. A disruption item card should be good. It's seen play in a lot of decks, mostly in set-up decks like Gardevoir and Charizard that like to play from behind and Unfair Stamp is the perfect card to go with this gameplan.

But it's only down in 14th on this list? And I'm not being biased (anyone who knows me knows how much I dislike this card), but the fact that it had a mid-score rating with both systems I used shows it wasn't as good as I thought. Prime Catcher being the other viable Ace Spec doesn't help, neither did the introduction of Fezandipiti ex, decks can now easily draw out of a Stamp with Fezan so it just not as effective as it should be. It's still a very good card, but with Fezandipiti in the format and it being the one Ace Spec of choice, there might just be other better options for now.

#13 - Flutter Mane - Temporal Forces (TEF)

Type: Basic Pokemon

Total Points: 117 (10th)

Average Points Scored per Sets: 2.20 (16th)

Points

• S1 - Not Released
• S2 - 48 / Avg - 1.66
• S3 - 85 / Avg - 4.25
• S4 - 2 / Avg - 0.11
• S5 - 42 / Avg - 2.80

Wins: 11

Top 4: 37

Top 8: 32

Saw play in:

• Ancient Box
• Gardevoir ex
• Lugia VSTAR/Archeops
• Gouging Fire ex

Little ol' Flutter Mane has seen play in all sorts of decks mainly for it's Midnight Fluttering ability. The opponent's active pokemon has no ability. This can catch out a number of decks who won't want to have an ability mon in the active. Some decks have no choice like Iron Thorns where it's the only Pokemon and because of that, Flutter Mane let's you use your abilities before retreating.

It also has a useful attack. 3 colourless energy for 90 and you get to put 2 damage counters anywhere on their bench is quite handy. In decks like Gardevoir, you could even set up a 2-prize turn with Munkidori moving damage around. And because it's an Ancient Pokemon, you can use Sada to attach energy to it!

#12 - Briar - Stellar Crown (SCR)

Type: Supporter

Total Points: 106 (18th)

Average Points Scored per Sets: 3.10 (7th)

Points

• S1 - Not Released
• S2 - Not Released
• S3 - Not Released
• S4 - 62 / Avg - 3.26
• S5 - 44 / Avg - 2.93

Wins: 5

Top 4: 23

Top 8: 25

Saw play in:

• Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex
• Terapagos ex/Dusknoir
• Ceruledge ex

One of the strongest supporters in the game, you can take an extra prize! Cards with these type of effects do tend to see play but you'll need to meet the specific requirement to use it, which is your opponent having 2 prizes left. But there are ways to make your opponent have 2 prizes, one of the main ways being a Curse Bomb by either Dusclops or Dusknoir. 

And once you get it, Briar could swing the game to your favour or completely win you the game. There is one other condition. While you do take 1 extra prize card for a KO, it has to come from your Tera Pokemon doing the attack. It's been paired with the likes of Charizard ex, Terapagos ex, Teal Mask Ogerpon ex and Ceruledge ex, all capable of getting 3 prizes out of nowhere.

#11 - Dusknoir - Shrouded Fable (SFA)

Type: Stage 2 Pokemon

Total Points: 155 (13th)

Average Points Scored per Sets: 2.91 (9th)

Points

• S1 - Not Released
• S2 - Not Released
• S3 - 13 / Avg - 0.65
• S4 - 98 / Avg - 1.79
• S5 - 44 / Avg - 1.07

Wins: 11

Top 4: 30

Top 8: 32

Saw play in:

• Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• Dragapult ex/Dusknoir
• Terapagos ex/Dusknoir
• Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR/Dusknoir

Which brings us to Dusknoir. Briar helps complete one part of the puzzle but Dusknoir, and in some cases Dusclops, helps to start the puzzle. One of the best combo cards in the game right now, KOing itself to put 130 damage counters on your opponent is too good to be ignored which is why all sorts of decks have been playing it.

Some decks are even built with Dusknoir in mind. Palkia would play 4 PokeStop and 4 Rescue Stretcher to help turbo through the deck in the hopes of hitting the pieces you need (and Rare Candy too since it's an item after all). Can't use Radiant Greninja's attack because there is a Manaphy on board? Dusknoir fixes that problem. With Dragapult it helps set up numbers or just set up a 4 or 5 prize turn sometimes! And with the likes of Charizard and Terapagos, it's usually the pieces to help start a big combo turn to win games.

#10 - Teal Mask Ogerpon ex - Twilight Masquerade (TWM)

Type: Basic Pokemon ex

Total Points: 161 (12th)

Average Points Scored per Sets: 3.01 (8th)

Points

• S1 - Not Released
• S2 - Not Released
• S3 - 46 / Avg - 2.30
• S4 - 67 / Avg - 3.53
• S5 - 48 / Avg - 3.20

Wins: 11

Top 4: 24

Top 8: 53

Saw play in:

• Regidrago VSTAR
• Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex

The introduction of Teal Mask Ogerpon ex didn't just help to bring about one of the strongest turbo decks in the game in Raging Bolt ex, but also helped to make Regidrago VSTAR go from a rouge deck that had little to no engine previously, thus seeing no play at all, into the clear BDIF going into Worlds 2024 and still the BDIF going into 2025.

Attach one grass, draw one card. Simple but effective. In most cases, you need the energy to either move to Regidrago or to use as extra damage for Raging Bolt. And it being a Grass-type Pokemon, it does one-shot one of the best attacking Pokemon in the game in Tera Charizard ex, which does have Grass weakness! And in some interesting cases, it can also help Grass decks accelrate energies for their own gameplans, like the recent Tournament of Doom winning Sinistcha ex deck!

#9 - Eri - Temporal Forces (TEF)

Type: Supporter

Total Points: 229 (7th)

Average Points Scored per Sets: 2.47 (12th)

Points

• S1 - Not Released
• S2 - 136 / Avg - 4.69
• S3 - 38 / Avg - 1.90
• S4 - 27 / Avg - 1.42
• S5 - 28 / Avg - 1.87

Wins: 16

Top 4: 41

Top 8: 57

Saw play in:

• Pidgeot ex Control
• Snorlax Stall
• Iron Thorns ex
• Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR

The bane of any set-up decks. Eri discards two item cards. It's that good. Not only are you removing important resources from your opponent's hand, but the fact that you do get to see their hand gives you hand knowledge so you can then figure out what you should be doing for the next turns while having some idea of what your opponent can and cannot do, since you already know what is in hand!

Even though it looks like an obvious inclusion in stall and control decks, even some attacking decks have used it like Charizard/Pidgeot and Arceus/Giratina. Decks that rely heavily on items, such as Rare Candy, Super Rod, or any sort recovery card like Energy Retrieval or Rescue Stretcher, do tend to get punished by Eri. Biggest one being Lost Box that likes to play with a big hand as possible, meaning their Super Rods and Mirage Gates are always at risk.

#8 - Rescue Board - Temporal Forces (TEF)

Type: Tool

Total Points: 227 (8th)

Average Points Scored per Sets: 2.67 (11th)

Points

• S1 - Not Released
• S2 - 80 / Avg - 2.76
• S3 - 73 / Avg - 3.65
• S4 - 46 / Avg - 2.42
• S5 - 28 / Avg - 1.87

Wins: 16

Top 4: 39

Top 8: 54

Saw play in:

• Lost Zone Box
• Miraidon ex
• Dragapult ex
• Klawf
• Giratina VSTAR

It's not quite Escape Board but it's got a similar purpose. -1 retreat cost is always a good thing, and it becomes free it the Pokemon is down to 30HP or less. And there are a lot of bench sitting Pokemon who are there for their abilities, namely Comfey and Tatsugiri, and they pair well with Rescue Board. 

Decks that have ways to easily search out tool cards like Arven, Town Store or Oranguru V will have an easier time finding Rescue Board which is why you'll see Miraidon, Dragapult and Klawf decks all running at least one in their lists. Any sort of pivot to retreat is always a good thing.

#7 - Dragapult ex - Twilight Masquerade (TWM)

Type: Stage 2 Pokemon ex

Total Points: 164 (11th)

Average Points Scored per Sets: 3.11 (6th)

Points

• S1 - Not Released
• S2 - Not Released
• S3 - 42 / Avg - 2.10
• S4 - 64 / Avg - 3.37
• S5 - 58 / Avg - 3.87

Wins: 12

Top 4: 27

Top 8: 44

Saw play in:

• Regidrago VSTAR
• Dragapult ex/Pidgeot ex
• Dragapult ex/Dusknoir
• Dragapult ex (Lost Zone)
• Dragapult ex/Iron Thorns ex

The best attacking Pokémon to be released in 2024 is Dragapult ex! Yet it's seen most of it success with Regidrago VSTAR by simply copying it's Phantom Dive attack. The attack is almost identical to that of Dragapult VMAX, which then was 130 and 5 damage spread around the bench. 

Dragapult ex does 70 more damage and 1 more damage counter, but with Fire and Psychic energies needed, instead of two Psychic Energies. But there are ways around it! Well two of them were released in Stellar Crown. Crispin helps to attach one extra energy while finding the other. Sparkling Crystal lets you attack for one energy less. And with those in mind, Dragapult itself has seen play as it's own deck, be it with Pidgeot ex, Dusknoir, a Lost Box version or lately with Iron Thorns ex.

Not forgetting, it also has a very good Drakloak that it evolves into Dragapult ex. The ability is the old Air Mail last seen in Pidgeotto and everyone knows how strong that ability was, it was part of one of the strongest control decks. You get to see the top two cards in your deck, you take one, and the other goes to the bottom of the deck, similar to Comfey's Flower Selecting but you don't need to be in the active to use this one.

#6 - Mist Energy - Temporal Forces (TEF)

Type: Special Energy

Total Points: 237 (6th)

Average Points Scored per Sets: 2.82 (10th)

Points

• S1 - Not Released
• S2 - 83 / Avg - 2.86
• S3 - 49 / Avg - 2.45
• S4 - 74 / Avg - 3.89
• S5 - 31 / Avg - 2.07

Wins: 19

Top 4: 37

Top 8: 54

Saw play in:

• Lugia VSTAR/Archeops
• Pidgeot ex Control
• Snorlax Stall
• Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• Arceus VSTAR

Mist Energy is one of the better special energies we currently have in the game. It prevents all effects of attacks done to the Pokémon that has Mist energy on it. That is, no Sableye spread hitting you, no TM Devolution dropping you and no Frenzied Gouging KOing you in an instant.

Naturally it finds a home in decks that can easily find special energies, namely Lugia/Archeops and any deck with the Pidgeot ex engine. Control decks tend to use it as well to stop the likes of Roaring Moon ex or Sableye taking cheap KOs. Even Arceus VSTAR used it for a short while, it's just that good.

#5 - Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex - Twilight Masquerade (TWM)

Type: Basic Pokemon ex

Total Points: 259 (5th)

Average Points Scored per Sets: 4.70 (5th)

Points

• S1 - Not Released
• S2 - Not Released
• S3 - 89 / Avg - 4.45
• S4 - 120 / Avg - 6.32
• S5 - 50 / Avg - 3.33

Wins: 19

Top 4: 43

Top 8: 59

Saw play in:

• Lugia VSTAR/Archeops
• Klawf/Terapagos ex
• Pidgeot ex Control
• Lost Zone Box
• Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR/Dusknoir

The best attacking Pokémon released in 2024 outright is easily Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex. It's pretty much a colourless Radiant Charizard! The ability and the attack are honestly pretty much the same, just does 10 less damage but you can actually use it for free when your opponent is down to 1 prize card because, the attack cost is all colourless energies unlike Radiant Charizard.

A card that is splashable in pretty much any deck will be played in pretty much any deck, and that has been the case for BM Ursaluna since it's release. All sorts of decks have been using it for the late game KO out of nowhere. And you have ways to reduce your energy cost, using the Dusknoir line gives your opponent a prize but also by them taking a prize, you now need one less energy to use Blood Moon! The best closer in the game right now, and even Control decks are taking prizes with this thing.

#4 - Night Stretcher - Shrouded Fable (SFA)

Type: Item

Total Points: 388 (4th)

Average Points Scored per Sets: 7.46 (4th)

Points

• S1 - Not Released
• S2 - Not Released
• S3 - 47 / Avg - 2.35
• S4 - 192 / Avg - 10.11
• S5 - 149 / Avg - 9.93

Wins: 22

Top 4: 79

Top 8: 93

Saw play in:

• Pretty much every deck

Now normally for these lists, a card that is released mid-way through the year usually don't tend to do quite well. But this is just the first of two Shrouded Fable cards to feature in the top 4, which goes to show how impactful this mini set has been. Night Stretcher would be one of the best item cards to be released this year if not for two even better items cards!

The effect is quite simple, you either recover any Pokemon from your discard to your hand, or a Basic energy from your discard to your hand. Any recovery cards have always been good. Often times you will need to discard cards early with no ways to get them back, with the most common way being Super Rod and hope to draw it back. Now you can simply just take it right back.

And this card has been paired with PokeStop in many decks for a very good reason. You use PokeStop to run through your deck as quickly as possible and often times, you might discard your Rescue Stretcher, a Pokemon you need that turn and an item card you might need that turn as well, be it Rare Candy or whatever else. Almost every decks plays it and there's a good reason why. This card will continue to see play into 2025, even with the threat of Budew coming soon.

#3 - Prime Catcher - Temporal Forces (TEF)

Type: Item - ACE SPEC

Total Points: 664 (2nd)

Average Points Scored per Sets: 7.61 (3rd)

Points

• S1 - Not Released
• S2 - 283 / Avg - 9.76
• S3 - 134 / Avg - 6.70
• S4 - 178 / Avg - 9.37
• S5 - 69 / Avg - 4.60

Wins: 41

Top 4: 125

Top 8: 168

Saw play in:

• Pretty much every deck

This is the second of three straight entries where I just have too many decks to name that plays this card. The first Ace Spec card we got to see in this new era is still the best Ace Spec card so far. Prime Catcher is pretty much Guzma on a Item card, aka a gust and a switch. Ever wanted to use Counter Catcher but you are ahead on prizes? Well now you have Prime Catcher!

Gusting effects will always see play no matter how good or bad it is, even Custom Catcher eventually saw play because there was no other options around. If you can only use one Ace Spec in your deck, often times you might as well have the gusting option be that choice. There's really not much else I can say how about good Prime Catcher is. It's good to gust stuff around but also good to get someone stuck in your active out of there. Probably the most played Ace Spec so far and unlike Useless Stamp Unfair Stamp, it's actually successful.

#2 - Fezandipiti ex - Shrouded Fable (SFA)

Type: Basic Pokemon ex

Total Points: 475 (3rd)

Average Points Scored per Sets: 9.18 (1st)

Points

• S1 - Not Released
• S2 - Not Released
• S3 - 64 / Avg - 3.20
• S4 - 217 / Avg - 11.42
• S5 - 194 / Avg - 12.93

Wins: 32

Top 4: 86

Top 8: 113

Saw play in:

• Pretty much every deck

Fezandipiti ex is easily the best Pokémon card released this year. It's got Oricorio GX's ability, the exact same thing! But the difference is that wile Oricorio was released at a time when Arceus/Dialga/Palkia made it very unplayable to have bench sitting Pokémon anywhere around, there is no such thing that makes Fezandipiti unplayable. In fact, everyone is playing it!

Your Pokémon gets knocked out the previous turn, you draw 3 cards. And you can do that anytime during your turn so sometimes you could hold off on your draw, use another supporter or a disruption card like Iono or Unfair Stamp, and then from there continue to build up your board and increase your hand thanks to Fezandipiti. Many of the turbo decks are thankful for this and now they have ways to draw cards and not just rely on a specific supporter or solely on Radiant Greninja.

And it's searchable by Nest Ball so you can easily find it, especially after an Iono or Unfair Stamp. It's also got a decent attack, 100 to anything for 3 colorless could come up when you least expect it to. This card is too good, so good some might say not healthy for the game because every deck can now just recover from disruption, making the two disruption cards mentioned earlier a bit pointless.

#1 - Buddy-Buddy Poffin - Temporal Forces (TEF)

Type: Item

Total Points: 729 (1st)

Average Points Scored per Sets: 8.32 (2nd)

Points

• S1 - Not Released
• S2 - 326 / Avg - 11.24
• S3 - 154 / Avg - 7.70
• S4 - 160 / Avg - 8.42
• S5 - 89 / Avg - 5.93

Wins: 47

Top 4: 145

Top 8: 156

Saw play in:

• Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• Gardevoir ex
• Dragapult ex
• Terapagos ex/Dusknoir
• Lost Zone Box
• Gholdengo ex
• Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR/Dusknoir
• Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur

This is the best card to come out of 2024, Buddy-Buddy Poffin is a ball search card for set-up decks. You can search for up to 2 Basic Pokemon with 70 HP or less and put them straight onto the bench. This reminds me a lot of Brigette back in the deck. Zoroark GX decks would use it just to set up their Zoruas. But now it's an Item card so you don't have to waste a supporter for turn to search for stuff (but technically, in some cases, we are using Arven to find Buddy-Buddy Poffin, so we still are doing just that).

Set-up decks are the only ones using this, you won't see big basic Turbo decks playing Poffin unless they have Pidgeys or Bidoofs to find. All the decks named on top are all set-up decks, and even Palkia will use it to set up a Froakie and Duskull. A card like this will always be good. In Zard you can set up your Charmander, Pidgey, Duskull or Bidoof or any combination of those. Gardevoir usually wants Ralts right away. Same for Dragapult with Dreepy and maybe some Pidgey, Duskull or even Natu. Lost Zone Box wants to see it right away for the Comfey or Manaphy (the other decks might need that too). 

It's like Battle VIP Pass but you can continue using it, and only on these smaller guys. It was the best performing card in the first three sets, only beaten by Fezandipiti ex in the last two but that was enough for me to say it's the best card released in 2024. 

And I guess it's appropriate, it's the third Pokémon search card to top the list in a row, following on from Nest Ball in 2023 and Ultra Ball in 2022, and the first one in a while that is no a reprint (Escape Rope in 2021 was also a reprint). The last non-reprint card to top one of my lists was Quick Ball in 2020 (yes Quick Ball had an earlier print but it's a different effect). And that too was a Pokémon search card, goes to show how good these types of cards have always been. Thanks for reading and have a great 2025 ahead!