Tournament Reports - Pokémon TCG Pocket Week 41

While Espeon ex came out the strongest newer decks last week, Darktina's return to form bring us back to older metagames. Let's see if players found a way to counter the veteran metagame threat.

FrogEX Weekly Cup • 50 USD Prize [S3-2/12]

Prize pool: $50

Following last week's results, players have returned to the most tried-and-true competitive deck in Pokémon TCG Pocket: Darktina. It was the most represented deck overall and in the top cut. However, Wisdom of Sea and Sky had a noticeable impact on the metagame: Espeon ex (usually as part of a Psychic Eeveelutions Toolbox) became the second most played and best-performing deck. Behind it was Flareon ex, which unfortunately fell short going into day 2; Guzzlord ex and Buzzwole ex, which confirmed the viability of the Ultra Beasts strategy and solidified Extradimensional Crisis as one of the best packs for newcomers; and finally, the main no-ex reference deck, Silvally Lightning.

The metagame breakdown looked diverse, but the top cut was far less forgiving: Darkrai ex and Espeon ex combined for nearly half of the 69 decks in the top cut. While variety exists, the barrier to entry remains steep for decks outside the biggest players.

Ultimately, MW9 won the event with Darktina!

The list has barely changed since its debut in Shining Revelry: Silver isn’t even included. With the metagame dominated by 140–150 HP Pokémon, Darktina is well-positioned to thrive. Among top decks, its only relatively bad matchups are Silvally Lightning and Buzzwole ex. Still, with consistency being king, Darktina remains in a strong competitive spot.

MW9’s semifinal opponent brought a surprisingly straightforward take on Flareon ex: a pure Fire deck.

Usually seen alongside Leafeon ex and Sylveon ex in an Eevee Toolbox build (one such deck also reached top 8) Timo instead ran only Flareons: two regular and two ex versions. A Magby was added to power up Eevee with Energy, allowing evolutions to attack a turn earlier. Possibly anticipating heavy Buzzwole ex presence, Timo defeated two of them, as well as both Darktina decks they faced. The consistency of having four interchangeable Basics and Evolutions likely contributed to their success, while early-game damage pressure was a constant threat. Could it be a winning strategy against Darktina?

Magma $51 King of the Hill

Prize pool: $51

Magma shook up the usual Swiss format, running a faster "King of the Hill" single-elimination tournament: one loss and you’re out. This structure can favor high-roll decks that benefit from lucky runs, but deck choices stayed largely centered on the main six archetypes.

And indeed, the top cut featured two Charizard ex decks: a rare sight in standard events due to their tendency to brick, but capable of overwhelming power if they’re online by turn 3. In the end, it was consistency, not volatility, that won out: the Psychic Eevee Toolbox piloted by victoradiles.

In a single-elimination setting, there’s no room for a bad game. This archetype runs four Professor’s Research effects to ensure the game plan comes online no matter what. One each of non-ex Espeon and Sylveon not only enables clever point mapping but also simply gives answers to Pom Pom Oricorio, a fiend in this tournament format. In the finals match, victoradiles defeated AsturianVet’s Silvally Lightning deck.

One standout performance came from Danimaton’s Ho-Oh & Lugia deck:

Ho-Oh ex and Lugia ex work in tandem, with the former powering up the latter. Once set up, Ho-Oh ex provides unlimited Energy to all other Pokémon and can freely retreat into another Ho-Oh ex, a Lugia ex, or any attacker already prepared to strike. The main hurdle is powering up Ho-Oh ex’s Phoenix Turbo, as its steep 3 Energy cost makes it slow to get going. To address this, Danimaton included two Pokémon: Pichu, which uses Crackly Toss to attach an Energy to a Benched Pokémon as early as turn 1, and Zeraora, which gains a free Energy on turn 1 and, with Elemental Switch, can pass that Energy to Ho-Oh ex. If both pieces line up, a turn 3 Phoenix Turbo becomes possible.

Instead of doubling up on Lugia ex, Danimaton opted for a single Arceus ex. Unlike Lugia ex, Arceus ex doesn’t require specific Energy types and doesn’t discard them after attacking. It can also be ready by turn 3 and deal up to 130 damage. Although Danimaton fell to AsturianVet’s Silvally Lightning, Zeraora proves valuable against Pom Pom Oricorio, taking it down in two hits. While this deck hasn’t yet broken through in regular events, Danimaton used the single-elimination format to make a strong statement.

Danielcmini $50 USD TOURNAMENT

Prize pool: $50

The weekend’s largest tournament, hosted by Danielcmini with support from the Spanish Pokémon TCG Pocket community, didn’t drastically shift the metagame. However, the top cut conversion rates were notable: Silvally Lightning became the second most represented deck behind Darkrai ex, while Tapu Koko ex and Charizard ex also made waves.

Silvally Lightning completely dominated: over half the top cut ran the baby variant, with one regular Zeraora build. The final was a baby Silvally mirror match, won by MrBabyLemons.

Although the list looked standard, it included a one-of Ditto. Why is this little guy, irrelevant in competition since being printed in the very first set, suddenly appearing now? The key is that this tournament didn’t require players to declare their Energy type in advance. This allowed MrBabyLemons to adapt his Energy type to the matchup. Since Silvally needs no specific Energy and Pichu can cover Oricorio’s single Energy requirement, the strategy becomes fully viable. Ditto can then copy powerful Pokémon ex attacks while only giving up a single point, a strong trade in most matchups despite its fragile HP. And with Silvally Lightning’s low Energy needs for both attacking and retreating, Ditto also serves as an efficient Energy outlet. Finalist Hydra also used his Silvally build to make use of extra Energy:

He chose Darkrai ex to boost Silvally’s Brave Buddies damage, though this came at the cost of replacing two Supporters with Leaf, losing the one-of Giovanni that likely gave MrBabyLemons the edge in the mirror.

A total of six decks reached the top 8, a number unseen even in the Genetic Apex format when Pikachu ex was at its peak! And Pikachu ex made a comeback here, this time in an all- build featuring techs from every set:

With Pichu, Zeraora, and Elemental Switch for acceleration; Tapu Koko ex and Pikachu ex (Genetic Apex) for fast aggression; Pom Pom Oricorio as an anti-ex tool; and Pikachu ex (Shining Revelry) for heavy hits, Xocrona assembled the best the type offers, knocking out three Darktina decks along the way!

Where Is the Wisdom of Sea and Sky metagame at?

The metagame has largely settled around three main strategies: Darktina, still the most popular and as strong as ever; Psychic Eeveelution Toolbox, combining consistency with multiple gameplan options; Silvally Lightning, offering fast early damage and backed by its hard-counter, Pom Pom Oricorio. Ultra Beasts decks also remain solid contenders thanks to cards like Celesteela and Lusamine. Buzzwole ex is a strong choice against Darkrai ex, while Guzzlord ex offers more balanced matchups across the top tier.

While this might seem like a narrow field, Pokémon TCG Pocket actually offers healthy gameplay variety. Each of the top decks uses a distinct strategy with specific strengths and weaknesses. We may not see the same diversity as in the full Pokémon TCG, but that’s likely due to the nature of the game’s design rather than poor card design.

The main exception currently are Stage 2 strategies. Greninja finds a place in certain control builds, but decks like Charizard ex and Crobat ex struggle to compete. At the same time, few players want a metagame where getting Stage 2 Pokémon online by turn 3 is guaranteed. The challenge for designers is to create Stage 2 decks that are worth running despite the lack of consistent setup tools, without making them so strong that they entirely make the game uninteractive.