Tournament Reports - Pokémon TCG Pocket Week 20

Three weeks into Triumphant Light, and the deities are facing more resistance. Counter-strategies are thriving and aggro decks have made unexpected breakthroughs. Here are the highlights from the three biggest tournaments of this last week.

FrogEX Weekly Cup #10

The routine Thursday FrogEX Cup kicked off the week with its 10th edition, drawing in 550 players to compete for a $50 prize pool.

The metagame breakdown of the tournament remained largely similar to last week’s, centered around Dialga Arceus and Fighting-type decks designed to counter it.

While Dialga Arceus was the most represented deck in the top cut, its conversion rate declined compared to the previous week. With the deck standing as the primary target to beat, counter-strategies became even more common. Lucario Rampardos was the biggest beneficiary, placing four decks in the top cut. But the tournament’s winner was an unexpected contender: Gyarados ex, piloted by himokyu, who went undefeated with a 14-0 record to claim victory.

As seen last week, Manaphy has gained relevance in the Dialga ex-dominated meta. With fewer decks deploying strong turn-one attackers, Oceanic Gift can often be used twice –sometimes even more– before Manaphy is knocked out, a huge boost in Energy acceleration for the bench. As a result, himokyu decided to drop the less consistent Misty entirely.

Gyarados ex has historically fit well across formats thanks to its 140-damage Rampaging Whirlpool, a perfect threshold for knocking out common threats like Darkrai ex, Yanmega ex, and Magnezone. The Triumphant Light metagame is now about Pokémon such ass Dialga ex, Palkia ex, and Rampardos (all with 150HP), and Giant Cape makes one-shotting harder for Gyarados ex. The winning list includes one Giovanni to secure knockouts, along with two Rocky Helmets, which not only push opposing Pokémon into KO range if they retaliate but also gain extra value due to Gyarados ex and Origin Forme Palkia’s high HP. With Irida’s support, Rocky Helmet can potentially trigger its damage effect an additional time.

This strategy paid off handsomely, as himokyu demolished 11 Dialga Arceus decks, including one in the finals, to claim victory.

An unexpected top 8 entry was “Darkzone”, a deck that once dominated the Space-Time Smackdown format. While still viable, it has struggled against big Basic strategies in recent metagames. HandsomeJack updated the list with Triumphant Light techs, replacing the Druddigon/Kangaskhan tank core with a bigger tank: Snorlax (Triumphant Light), and support from Barry.

Druddigon doesn't have an offensive presence and Kangaskhan is an unreliable attacker: Snorlax introduces a legitimate threat on top of its big bulk. With Barry, it can unleash 100 damage with Collapse as early as turn 2, and if the opponent underestimates it, it can naturally reach four Energy attachments for a consistent Collapse streak (except in the case of the unfortunate 25% chance to remain asleep after two Pokémon checkup). This is made possible thanks to Magnezone, which doesn't need Energy from the Energy Zone thanks to Magneton’s Volt Charge.

In the regular version of Darkzone, you typically attach a Energy to Darkrai ex every turn to trigger Nightmare Aura, but in this build, it's more of a secondary option. Darkrai ex is included as a one-of: the main focus shifts to Snorlax and Magnezone, two capable and strong offensive assets on their own. All of the Pokémon having a rather decent amount of HP makes Rocky Helmet and Giant Cape even more efficient. The deck's biggest flaw is its severe weakness in a metagame where these decks are popular picks, which proved fatal when HandsomeJack fell to a Lucario Rampardos deck in the top 8.

For both these decks, we notice a pattern: Druddigon from the historical lists has been replaced by a Pokémon that isn't only capable to tank (and emulate Rough Skin thanks to Rocky Helmet) but also to be a threat on its own thanks to some form of Energy acceleration.

Ursiiday's Pocket Weekly #20

The 20th edition of the largest Pokémon TCG Pocket tournament series saw 1,353 players competing for a $400 prize pool, thanks to XPCollect's sponsorship.

Although the metagame breakdown closely resembled that of FrogEX Weekly, two notable shifts stood out: Gyarados ex gained popularity, likely due to himokyu’s dominant performance, and Gallade ex emerged as a Dialga Arceus counter.

The trend continued: Dialga Arceus underperformed, while decks flourished. Despite none reaching the top 8, Gallade ex decks paired with the Fighting Tooblox had an impressive conversion rate to the top cut. However, the true standout of the tournament was the winning deck: a Weavile ex deck, piloted by Stis.

During Week 1 of Space-Time Smackdown, Weavile ex was a popular choice. It quickly fell out of favor, struggling against the ever-present Druddigon.

Now, three weeks into Triumphant Light, Weavile ex is experiencing a resurgence thanks to its aggressive strategy. The Darkrai ex + Weavile ex combo consistently delivers 90 damage per turn as early as turn 4, enough to two-shot Dialga ex and Arceus ex, even with Giant Cape and Shaymin support. It also instantly knocks out most basic Fighting Pokémon.

Stis opted out of Dawn, which enables the combo by turn 3 with lucky draws, and Rocky Helmet, which "auto proc" Scratching Nails, instead focusing on survivability by playing 2 Giant Cape and a Potion. A one-of Mars for hand disruption is also doing work, taking advantage of this mostly ex deck, threatening a one-card hand when Weavile ex or Darkrai ex get knocked out. This defensive choice of techs over a more common "all-out aggression" trainers lineup allowed Stis to take over a huge variety of matchups en route to victory; ironically, one of this two losses was at the hands of the other Weavile ex deck that made it to the top cut.

Among the top cut, which featured many Dialga Arceus and Lucario Rampardos decks, another standout was Onyx G's Arceus Link deck—the first high-profile top 8 finish for this archetype. This version featured Arceus with Carnivine.

This is another aggressive strategy, this time revolving around a Basic Pokémon, Carnivine, which can deal 50 damage starting on turn 2 if an Arceus is in play. On the draw, this translates to a three-turn KO against Palkia ex and Dialga ex. It also preys on Fighting-types weak to .

Arceus isn’t the most natural partner to these aggro shells due to its two-energy retreat cost and three-energy attack, but it shines as a late-game attacker when Carnivine's damage output begins to fall off. To fill up the bench, the deck plays seven Pokémon, including :

• Shaymin (Triumphant Light) to reduce retreat costs, also opening up strong Dawn plays after retreating.
• Rotom (Triumpant Light), a seemingly unremarkable Pokémon with a free retreat thanks to Speed Link and which attacks opens up Cyrus plays.
• Rotom (Space-Time Smackdown), a surprising yet powerful addition. With the rise of tools and Manaphy’s return to the meta, it's the third 50-damage attacker in the deck and pretty much ensures the biggest early game damage output given the current popularity of tools in the game.

#3 PGL

The third edition of the PGL, a growing tournament series hosted by Pocket Winds, attracted 588 players competing for a $200 prize pool.

The biggest surprise was the sudden rise of Gallade ex, which saw more than twice the representation of Lucario Rampardos, previously regarded as the top counter to Dialga Arceus.

And Gallade ex delivered on expectations. It was the second most-represented deck in the top cut and tied for first in the top 8 alongside Lucario Rampardos. The best-performing Gallade ex list was piloted by Vandyrivan, who made it to the top 8.

There are two main approaches to Fighting-type decks: the Lucario engine and the Fighting Toolbox.

• Lucario helps Rampardos hit crucial damage thresholds (140,150), while its low Basic count still allows it to include Marshadow and Sudowoodo for added flexibility.
• Gallade ex decks, on the other hand, can't afford too many extra Basic Pokémon: it would reduce the odds of getting Ralts with Poké Ball, making it harder to set up Gallade ex. Thanks to this, Gallade ex is generally more consistent to get into play than unsearchable Fossils. A contained Fighting Toolbox, which throws Hitmonlee in the mix, is more consistent than adding an extra Basic in Riolu and 2 Lucario. Running Hitmonlee helps Gallade ex in felling these big threats in a single attack, and also made more consistent and proactive thanks to 2 Cyrus.

Gallade ex in itself is a fair alternative to Rampardos: it has more HP and avoids pretty much all one-shots in this format (Charizard ex and Mewtwo ex are barely a sight these days); it can attack on curve as well; and its Energized Blade also one-shots a fully charged Arceus ex.

Vandyrivan came victorious over mirror matches, as well as Rampardos Lucario and Dialga Arceus decks, but ultimately fell in the top 8, losing to none other than himokyu, the FrogEX Cup champion and now, also the PGL winner in the same week!

Just hours after Stis took Weavile ex to victory at Ursiiday’s Pocket Weekly, himokyu did the same at PGL, making history in the TCG Pocket community as the first player to win two 500+ player tournaments in the same week—with two different decks. himokyu opted for a more aggressive approach by playing a copy of Dawn and a second Sabrina. He was playing the only Weavile ex deck in the top cut, and was one of just seven players to bring the deck at all.

As a Sunday event, PGL benefits from all the insights, counter-strategies, and lessons learned throughout the week, making it the most "up-to-date" snapshot of the metagame. It makes it more prone to be streamlined than the previous tournaments. Fortunately, there was a promising diversity in the top 8 featuring six different archetypes, including an unexpected breakout deck: IPFAD’s Infernape ex list.

Most recent Infernape ex decks have been built around Arceus & Heatran support, but IPFAD played it simple and brought a classic Space-Time Smackdown build. His version relied solely on the Chimchar evolution line, accompagnied by a lone Giratina (and Dawn for flexible Energy movement).

Flare Blitz is capable of one-shotting big threats of the metagame thus the relevance of Infernape ex, but the widespread use of Giant Cape makes it more difficult to achieve –even against Dialga ex, its primary target. To compensate, IPFAD included a Giovanni and two Rocky Helmet so to have better chances to confirm KOs in a single shot.

Where Is the Triumphant Light metagame at?

Three weeks into Triumphant Light, the format is showing more promising signs than when compared to the first three weeks of Space-Time Smackdown. While the first two weeks were dominated by big Basic Pokémon ex strategies, particularly the three Generation 4 deities, the metagame is now displaying a healthy diversity of decks.

Dialga Arceus remains the most played deck and the most represented in top cut, but it now struggles to get to the podium. Counter decks are not only growing in numbern, with Gallade ex joining Lucario Rampardos, but aggro decks like Weavile ex and Arceus Carnivine are also making an impact. This in turn creates a more open format which rewards experience with a deck, creative deckbuilding and pristine gameplay.

Predicting what could come next is difficult, and that’s a good thing. One possible trend could be the rise of decks, particularly Exeggutor ex, which matches up well against some of these new threats.

In the longer term, there’s always the risk that the counter-heavy meta eventually loops back to the more tried-and-tested decks, leading to another Dialga and Rampardos resurgence. But until (and if) that happens, the format remains excitingly diverse heading into this week’s major tournaments: just in time for the highly anticipated launch of ranked mode in Pokémon TCG Pocket!