Tournament Reports - Pokémon TCG Pocket Week 22

Last week marked the release of Shining Revelry (A2b), a surprise second mini-set for Space-Time Smackdown. A staggering nine Pokémon ex were introduced, one of each type except Dragon. While not all of them are equally powerful, the set offers far more deck-building options than previous mini-sets and the first week of competition is always the most exciting to watch which of them are hits.

With ranked mode launching just a day following the release, players rushed to find the best-performing decks, both to climb the ladder and claim the week’s top tournament prizes. We’ll look at three major events to see how the metagame has evolved since Triumphant Light.

FrogEX Weekly Cup #12

Held just hours after the set’s release, 463 players joined the tournament, testing both well-tuned Triumphant Light decks and brand-new archetypes from Shining Revelry. They competed for a $50 prize pool and a chance to qualify for the season finale in four weeks.

Players were super creative: over 36% of the field consisted of archetypes with 12 or fewer pilots!

The diversity carried over to the top cut as well, with six different archetypes making the top 8. One stood out with three representatives and the best top-cut conversion: the newcomer Giratina ex.

srgiw74144 led the charge with a 2nd-place finish, piloting Giratina ex alongside Darkrai ex and Druddigon. The deck plays similarly to the old Darkrai Magnezone strategy from the Space-Time Smackdown era: hide behind Druddigon to safely chip away with Darkrai ex’s Nightmare Aura, while accelerating Energy.

But unlike the Magnemite line that needs an evolution to charge up and another one to attack, Giratina ex accelerates itself during turns when you wouldn’t be attacking anyway, then come up as a full-fledged attacker on its own. It also only takes up two deck slots instead of six, boosting consistency and freeing space for powerful Trainers. One of these is the powerful new Red, which brings Chaotic Impact to 150 damage, a key threshold for knocking out big Basic ex Pokémon. Combined with Druddigon’s Rough Skin and Darkrai’s ability, it’s no surprise Dialga ex/Arceus has completely dropped off: why rely on Dialga to charge Arceus ex when Giratina ex can do it alone, just as quickly?

Two more Giratina/Darkrai decks reached the top 8, but the winner was an old favorite: Gyarados ex, piloted by Duo.

Although Gyarados ex with Manaphy and Origin Forme Palkia was already a common sight, the deck’s approach has shifted slightly in the new format. It embraced the coin flip again by reintroducing Misty, cutting Leaf in the process—made possible by reducing Origin Forme Palkia to a single copy, since it was the main reason to run Leaf in the first place. With that change, the deck leans into a more all-in strategy, aiming to outspeed the sluggish strategy of Darkrai Giratina.

It also swapped the one-of Giovanni for a one-of Red, a better answer to bulky Pokémon ex with Giant Cape. Since Giratina ex can't threaten a turn 1 Manaphy, the deck can safely set up with Oceanic Gift over multiple turns, charging both Palkia and Gyarados to unleash massive damage against the Gen 4 gods. Rocky Helmet is instrumental to confirm the knock out thresholds of 150HP and 160HP (with Giant Cape).

The success of Gyarados ex would ripple into future events...

Pocket Legends League #24

The longest-running series in Pokémon TCG Pocket kicked off its second season with 229 players competing for another $50 prize pool.

The FrogEX results were fresh in players' minds: Giratina ex became the most represented deck, followed closely by Gyarados ex, pushing Dialga ex out of the spotlight.

This trend accelerated: Giratina ex made up half the top 8, but Gyarados ex fought back, with lasomaster and VenXuenGL taking 1st and 3rd using the same list Duo ran at FrogEX. Not surprising: Gyarados was never a deck that left much room for innovation.

The finals featured a curveball: lasomaster defeated BigBoySnap’s Gallade ex, despite it being a bad matchup for Gyarados.

Decks running Hitmonlee are naturally favored against Gyarados, as Stretch Kick easily picks off Magikarp from the Bench. Gallade ex also handles Gyarados ex very well with the addition of Red.

With Hitmonlee and Cyrus denying safe Bench setups, and strong matchups against both Giratina and Gyarados, Gallade ex is still going strong post-Triumphant Light. This time, BigBoySnap may have just been unlucky, or maybe lasomaster was too lucky with Misty coin flips.

The last top 8 deck was Weavile ex, piloted by Kkgordillo—another holdover from the previous format.

With the rise of Giratina ex, a slow-to-charge Pokémon weak to ,it’s no surprise that Weavile ex found an opening to perform. Its usual damage sequence of Nightmare Aura + Scratching Nails hits for 90 each turn, but against Giratina ex, the weakness bumps it up to 110. That makes it nearly impossible for Giratina to heal enough to survive a two-turn knockout.

It wasn’t until later in the week that other decks started rising up to challenge the new menace... but also when the feared Giratina deck began evolving into new, possibly even stronger forms.

Ursiiday's Pocket Weekly #22

The new-format debut of Ursiiday’s Weekly drew a massive 967 players, thanks to a $400 prize pool sponsored by XP Collect.

By now, Giratina ex had firmly established itself as the deck to beat: over 25% of players brought it. But people had studied the earlier results, and Gallade ex showed up in force.

Unsurprisingly, Giratina ex led in both top cut numbers and top 8 presence. Gyarados and Gallade followed closely. But tied for 4th most represented deck, a new contender from Shining Revelry unseen before: Meowscarada, which even made top cut thanks to awa and his Meowscarada Beedrill list.

Meowscarada, a Stage 2 Pokémon, deals a whooping 130 damage to Pokémon ex with Fighting Claws for just two Energy. As a 1-point Pokémon, it trades extremely well and sets up even faster than Giratina. With Red, it can even one-shot most Basic ex Pokémon; it doesn’t even need it to KO Darkrai ex thanks to type advantage.

Beedrill ex from Shining Revelry also appears as a 1-1-1 line. While running two Stage 2s –especially at one-of each– is risky, Sprigatito’s Cry for Help gives more opportunity to get a piece of the Weedle line. Beedrill ex is either sent early on curve thanks to its cheap attack, with the potential to completely smother Giratina ex by discarding its energy with Crushing Spear; or late in the game after two Pokémon from the Sprigatito line have been knocked out, so the remaining Pokémon is a bulky bee with a 80 damage attack.

Ironically, awa only faced three Giratina decks and feasted mostly on decks, which are especially vulnerable to Energy denial unless they high-roll with Misty. He eventually fell in top 8 to his worst nightmare: Charizard ex.

Wait, Charizard ex?!

Flipsicle proved this veteran deck still has teeth, reaching top 4. The list only added the new Charmeleon as a one-of. Otherwise, it’s classic Charizard ex Moltres: open with Moltres, fuel the Charmander line with Inferno Dance, and drop a fully charged Charizard to start nuking threats.

The most notable addition is Shaymin from Triumphant Light, which helps retreat a Charmander opener or lets Moltres retreat by just discarding the "Inferno Dance Energy", allowing the Energy-for-turn from the Energy Zone to go straight to Charmander’s evolution line instead of being attached to Moltres ex for the sake of paying the retreat cost. While Flipsicle’s run was aided by facing 4 favorable matchups, the deck still held its own across a variety of opponents. Ironically, it lost to DialgaArceus in semis, a deck weak to Fire.

But the real spotlight goes to the winner: Mforcedcm2 and his Giratina Mewtwo "17 Trainers" list.

Giratina ex was successfully paired with Darkrai ex throughout the week, in a classic Druddigon + Darkrai combination. But what if Giratina ex could come online a turn earlier?

Running in the Energy Zone enables a splash Mewtwo ex, a Pokémon as bulky as Giratina with stronger late-game presence thanks to its more powerful Psydrive attack that comes with no recoil drawback. With Dawn and one Energy from Broken-Space Bellow, Mewtwo can fire off Psydrive earlier than Giratina can hit its stride. The deck also becomes more resilient to Energy discard from new cards like Team Rocket Grunts and Beedril ex as it can accelerate 2 Energy per turn with Giratina ex's ability and the Energy from the Energy zone.

The deck is very capable to tank hits for the first 2–3 turns while charging up, then swings big. With high consistency and interesting techs, it could challenge the traditional Darkrai/Giratina build moving forward as a contender for "best deck running Giratina ex".

Where Is the Shining Revelry metagame at?

NB: in this article, decks with both Giratina and Darkrai are classified as Giratina ex decks. Future articles will categorize them under Darkrai.

Giratina ex has entirely revitalized the Darkrai ex decks that have fallen in favor during the Triumphant Light metagame, overtaking the previously dominant Dialga Arceus deck.

Funnily enough, most of the previous high tier decks remain completely viable and hold up well against the new menace. This is highlighted by the strong showing of a more aggressive Gyarados ex build, better equipped to exploit the slower pace of Giratina ex and Darkrai ex. Gallade ex, paired with the Fighting Toolbox, shuts down stalling tactics and punishes decks that rely on heavy Energy investments. Meanwhile, Weavile ex brings its trademark aggression and benefits from a lucky type advantage.

Later in the week, it became clear that the miniset wasn’t just filler. Meowscarada and Giratina 17T showed that entirely new archetypes could emerge and compete at the top.

Moving on, we can expect more experimentation with Meowscarada. It’s currently the only Pokémon that can deal over 100 damage on curve. Sprigatito’s attack not only boosts the deck’s consistency, but also opens up space for tech Pokémon in a build that will almost certainly pair with a Pokémon ex as a finisher.

Given the early-game passivity of Darkrai Giratina, there’s also room for Manaphy decks to thrive. It’ll be worth watching whether Pikachu ex, alongside the new Pachirisu, can break into the metagame by leveraging the same strengths as these, or if the absence of a proper Energy accelerating Supporter relegates them to the lower tier.

Finally, the biggest question remains: which version of Giratina ex is stronger: the 17 Trainers build with Mewtwo ex, or the classic Giratina/Darkrai variant? This will probably be the hottest question of this week.