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New expansion, new format, new tier list! With interesting developments just in the first week of community tournaments, Extradimensional Crisis inevitably calls for a revision of the tier list to evaluate which decks are the best. We asked top players and content creators Nuggie, SantyMCGoob and Valden from the FrogEX team about their opinion on the 1st tier list for Extradimensional Crisis.
Panelists
Click on their name to go to their media!
Top tiers
Sylvally Rampardos has taken the early lead in the meta, with the most usage in tournament play thus far. On paper, it only has one bad matchup in Solgaleo ex. However, anything with at least 2 Red card/Mars matches up well too. Just look at the most recent Ursiday tournament winner: DarkTina going 4-1 against this deck with 2 red cards and 1 Mars.
-GOOB
Silvally is arguably the strongest Pokémon in this expansion. As proof, it alone enables three archetypes to reach top-tier deck status. It can pair with Rampardos to deal heavy damage quickly and overwhelm the opponent with speed. With Charizard, it brings tempo and aggression, buying time to fully charge Charizard and one-shot most opposing Pokémon. Finally, with Oricorio, you can counter all EX decks like Solgaleo, Charizard, or Buzzwole.
In the current meta, it's a smart move to pair Silvally with a Giovanni to one-shot an opposing Silvally. You can also add a cape to survive an attack from Solgaleo or Buzzwole.
-Valden
Silvally marks the first time that a non ex pokemon has shown complete dominance upon arrival. This colourless Energy Pokémon can be inserted into such a wide array of decks as an initiator and sweeper in the early game while you build your finisher on the bench. Having a 110 hp threshold and a unique skill where everytime you play a supporter increases its initial damage from 50 to 100 for just 2 Energy is terrifyingly strong. Recent community tournaments have shown the leaderboards being flooded with this pokemon.
-Nuggie
Buzzwole ex is the star Pokémon of the latest expansion and it ranks among the best decks to date, notably achieving a Top 2 and Top 3 finish at the first June Ursiiday tournament, which brought together over 900 players. This is a technical deck to pilot, as it offers many decision points thanks to cards like Celesteela that allow for quick switching between Pokémon. Decklists vary greatly depending on the meta and opposing decks. Lusamine is clearly a key card in the deck and should be played as a two-of, as she forms your win condition when paired with Buzzwole to crush your opponent. Beyond that, the deck can do it all: it can be aggressive in the early game with Kartana, pressure the backline with Pheromosa, and make Cyrus extremely impactful.
-Valden
As a fully basic deck, Buzzwole ex's consistency is where it shines. While it certainly has bad matchups, none are so extreme where buzzwole has no chance. With bench snipe and game changing supporters, this deck has more outplay potential than the rest of this tier.
-GOOB
The king is back! Previously overlooked due to a low win rate in tournaments during the last expansion, especially when paired with Skarmory, Solgaleo ex is now resurfacing thanks to a new Pokémon card: Shiinotic. This deck is brutal in how quickly it sets up. You can win games within the first few turns if your opponent doesn’t have the right answers. The core strategy is to get both of your Solgaleos out as fast as possible while keeping your key card, Shiinotic, safe. When your first Solgaleo gets knocked out, the second one follows up right away. It’s nearly unstoppable. The game plan is simple: optimize your turns to draw only what you need. For example, use Shiinotic’s effect before playing a Professor’s Research to maximize your chances of drawing a Rare Candy. The main counter to this deck is, of course, the one and only Oricorio, which can completely shut down your win condition. A possible tech option is Magearna, which can knock out Oricorio, but unfortunately, it slows the deck down in matchups like Buzzwole ex or Darkrai ex Giratina.
-Valden
Shiinotic makes Solgaleo ex the most consistent candy deck, by far. It’s also one of the easiest decks to play: just get Solgaleo ex and hit the go button. With positive win rates against the other two top tier decks, it really shines in high level ranked play
-GOOB
High tiers
The combination of Darkrai ex & Giratina ex has kept it's high tier position for 3 expansions now and it doesn't seem to be slowing down. Adding in Nihelego & Poison Barb to Darktina's aresenal means that it can further chip away at their opponents, taking care of pesky yellow chickens (Oricorio) and essentially leaving them feeling helpless.
-Nuggie
No introduction needed. Darkrai ex decks remain top-tier, recently taking first place at the latest Ursiiday, ahead of both Buzzwole ex decks. The pure version featuring two Giratina and two Darkrai is back, freeing up as much space as possible for Trainer cards. To counter opposing decks, some builds include two Red Cards and one Mars, creating massive card advantage and buying time to power up your Pokémon. Of course, its main weakness is still Oricorio, though adding a Komala is always a viable tech option.
-Valden
Charizard ex matchups well with ⅔ of the top tier decks, and can high roll into the early zard that sweeps almost anything. Only pair zard with one other partner, since zard is the card you want to play around as much as possible. I like 1 silvally line, but 1 incineroar is viable too.
-GOOB
While Charizard ex is consistent and still in the meta to do what it needs to do, I feel that it has dropped abit to mid tier as it does lose to fast aggressive attacks such as Sivally & Tapu into oricorio combos. Still a solid choice for climbing the ladder and being a good counter to some decks but with supporters like Lusamine running around to ramp up Energy, it means that Charizard ex is not gonna be able to withstand as many hits as it used to.
-Nuggie
Middle tiers
Guzzlord ex is probably one of the most interesting EX's as it has two attacks with one of them being quite unique. Essentially Grindcore is a built in Team Rocket Grunt supporter card for 2 cost energy, allowing you to have a chance at disrupting the active Pokemon and removing any Energy they may have. With a 120 dmg finisher & costing 4 Energy to build along with a whopping 4 Energy retreat cost, you would think that it would be difficult to accomplish anything but alas, we bring in Celesteela & Lusamine to provide those much needed supports for Guzzlord to shine. Pairing this Pokémon with poison barb & Nihelgo to the side or using Naganadel to apply poison sets up the Guzzlord to act as a finisher in this powerful deck.
-Nuggie
Guzzlord ex can be played with 6 basics and tons of supporters, or 10 pokemon and Naganadels. One of the higher skill ceiling decks of the meta, and can be deadly in the right hands.
-GOOB
Arceus ex's new version with two Giratina and two Dawn might be the most refined take on Arceus yet. It allows you to quickly power up Arceus, and if you’re lucky enough to have a Crobat on the board as well, the game can end very quickly.
-Valden
Arceus ex with Crobat, Darkrai ex and Giratina ex can hit for a whopping 180 damage in a turn without any supporter help. While it’s slower to set up than other stage 2 decks, you can buy time with a frontline Giratina ex. It matches up well with most decks, but Buzzwole ex takes it out back.
-GOOB
Decidueye ex will stay at mid tier because it does have its usefulness with the sniping ability & having its non ex version to do 70 dmg as well as having partners like Pheromosa to hit 2 targets at once. It struggles however to status ailments like Poison and doing more than 100 dmg as well as ramp like Sivally & Rampardos.
-Nuggie
Finally we have a Pokémon making its way back into the meta! Tapu Koko ex is quite unique in the sense that it can self ramp on 1 to attack for 90 the following turn, which means going second, is extremely potent to do up to 110 dmg by turn 4. Where it shines is its partnership with either Zeraora (which also self ramps as long as it is played on your first turn) & Oricorio (yellow chicken). Attach the new Electrical Cord tool on this pokemon or its partners allows it to disperse up to 2 energy attached to the bench. Having this kind of setup can bring consistent Energy attacks which means that it can be aggressive and not allow their opponents to finish building up their board.
-Nuggie
Promising decks
This dog can frustrate so much of the meta, and is slept on right now in my opinion. If you can find the perfect list around Stoutland, you can find success in this meta, even in higher ranks.
-GOOB
I think Stoutland is quite amazing for a non ex and having the ability to make the opponent needing an extra Energy to attack just for being in the active slot. You could attach Energy to it for a 2 cost 70 dmg or leave it to build your bench. Furthermore, this is a Pokemon so you can definitely play it in a variety of decks to make it work, so I'm very hopeful for this card in the future.
-Nuggie
Promising card
I think Shiinotic should be explored beyond Solgaleo ex. Solgaleo ex is definitely ideal, thanks to Rising Road. However, the ability to consistently get multiple stage 2 evos online can benefit a lot of decks. Try something like Shiinotic + baby garchomp, and you’ll see some potential
-GOOB
The free draw pokemon card has been featured in a number of decks and because of its ability to do so, it can fit into almost any deck regardless of typing. Still more to explore to see if it slows down or is useful for certain scenarios but it's definitely a Pokémon that needs to be further explored.
-Nuggie
Special thanks
To all of the panelists for their time and analysis! Don't miss their content:
- Nuggie, tournament organizer and content creator: https://www.twitch.tv/nuggie
- Valden, streamer, president of the FrogEX team which is organizing one of the biggest weekly TCG Pocket tournament series: https://discord.gg/p27SCDjdCe
- SantyMCGoob, competitive TCG Pocket streamer with among the most tournament wins in the game: https://www.twitch.tv/santymcgoob