Tournament Reports - Pokémon TCG Pocket Week 45

Secluded Springs brought Greninja and Giratina ex to new heights with Suicune ex, and the latest tournament report showed a very strong performance, almost overwhelming, of the new deck. The 2nd week of Secluded Springs is crucial as to evaluate how powerful Suicune ex is, and if counters are possible. We'll analyse the three biggest tournaments of the week, which spread from Monday to Sunday.

FrogEX Secluded Springs • 50 USD Prize

Prize pool: $50

The Monday tournament had Suicune ex and Darkrai ex as the most represented decks, both confirmed in the top cut all the way up to top 8.

Hamza007, already a FrogEX tournament winner, claimed another victory with Suicune ex Greninja Giratina.

This is the standard list for the deck: Leaf improves the chances of opening with Suicune ex and generally allows safe retreats to the Bench, Giant Cape pushes its HP over the 140 damage threshold and boosts survivability alongside Irida, while Mars adds hand disruption. This deadly mix of strong aggression and efficient answers, including against Pom Pom Oricorio with Greninja, keeps the deck well above the rest.

Still, dominance doesn’t prevent less common strategies from breaking through. Kash proved this by finishing in top 4 with Darkrai ex Arceus Baby.

The combination of Arceus ex and Darkrai ex is fairly simple: Ultimate Force + Nightmare Aura is a total 150, which KOs most Pokémon in the metagame, including everything in the Suicune ex deck. The deck runs only Energy, a typing devoid of Energy acceleration that could make this combo online sooner. Babies come in the equation: powering up the cost of Ultimate Force, they also fill the bench for it to reach maximum damage. The one-of Komala provides a clean answer to Pom Pom Oricorio. With a Baby starter, it's possible to have it come on turn 2 in the Active spot without it suffering from its own ability Comatose.

The combination of Arceus ex and Darkrai ex is straightforward: Ultimate Force plus Nightmare Aura totals 150 damage, enough to KO most Pokémon in the format, most notably everything in Suicune ex decks. The build uses only Energy, a type without acceleration to speed up these Pokémon. That’s where Babies come in: they cover the cost of Ultimate Force while also filling the Bench to maximize damage. The one-of Komala cleanly answers Pom Pom Oricorio. With a Baby starter, it can even enter the Active Spot by turn 2 without being hindered by its Comatose ability.

The only deck of the top 8 to not to be a Suicune ex or Darkrai ex deck is Crups's Raikou ex deck.

The overrepresentation of Suicune ex indeed gives decks a chance to shine… at least in theory. Their low damage output in the face of Irida and their Pom Pom Oricorio being picked off by Greninja greatly hinder their potential. Still, Crups from FrogEX made top 8 with a Lightning list featuring Raikou ex, Suicune ex’s counterpart. Raikou ex provides both consistent draws and Cyrus setups, while Tapu Koko ex serves as another strong starter for early aggression. Both are strong individually, and when you open with both, you can choose depending on the coin flip: Raikou ex is stronger when going first, Tapu Koko ex when going second.

Energy management is central in Crups’s list. Elemental Switch and Electrical Cord makes sure Energy flow, with two Zeraora acting as batteries to enable a fully powered turn 3 Raikou ex—or a late-game Pikachu ex, the strongest Basic attacker, needed to take down bigger threats in one hit. An unconventional call was cutting Pom Pom Oricorio entirely, likely because of its weakness to Greninja. Instead, Crups leaned fully into an aggro plan, with no major attacker falling into Greninja’s Water Shuriken + Mist Slash one-shot range.

FrogEX Weekly Cup • 50 USD Prize [S3-6/12]

Prize pool: $50

Another big tournament from the FrogEX team! The metagame breakdown barely changed between Monday and Thursday, though Suicune ex looked even more dominant and Flareon ex gained more representation.

This time, however, an invader from a past meta claimed the trophy: Buzzwole ex, piloted by Nabugu.

Buzzwole ex never fully leaves the metagame because of its core strengths: consistency, a clear game plan, and the synergy with Lusamine, which compensates for its weaker draw, search, and Energy acceleration compared to the rest of the metagame. This classic 2-Pheromosa list includes some notable techs: the one-of Red is needed for Buzzwole ex to one-shot Suicune ex, while the two hand disruption cards act as a check against Suicune ex’s end-of-turn draws and make the playing field more fair. Nabugu’s run was unusual: they faced only two Suicune ex decks (a win and an intentional draw), scored wins against Darkrai ex, and most surprisingly, beat Flareon ex three times despite the bad matchup. Pheromosa + Cyrus plays helped steal games by targeting benched Pokémon like Sylveon ex, a crucial edge that can make Buzzwole ex turn a poor matchup into a winning record.

The polarized metagame also opened space for decks with solid edges against Suicune ex. Two other Ultra Beast decks made it to top 8, in the form of Guzzlord ex lists, with Pryer from Team IMP making it all the way to top 4.

In recent formats, Guzzlord ex has often been paired with Nihilego or Naganadel to boost early damage and counter Pom Pom Oricorio. Here, it found success as a “17 trainers” deck, leaning on its phenomenal bulk with a one-of Celesteela, another tanky option with a useful ability and the possibility of answering the otherwise impervious Pom Pom Oricorio.

The trainer lineup covers many roles: healing (Potion, Pokémon Center Lady), hand disruption (Red Card, Mars), board control (Cyrus, Repel), and other staples. The most innovative inclusion is two copies of Will from the previous expansion. Will ensures Guzzlord ex’s Grindcore always discards an Energy from the opponent’s Active Pokémon, a major tempo swing when going second against Energy-hungry decks with no acceleration. Against Pokémon with retreat costs above one, such as Suicune ex, this effect is even stronger: they specifically need Leaf to retreat after losing Energy. Will also pairs with Celesteela, guaranteeing Moombahton deals 100 damage.

The sheer bulk of Guzzlord ex and Celesteela makes them hard to manage. No meta deck can reliably one-shot Guzzlord ex, even with Water Shuriken. Meanwhile, constant pressure from Grindcore into the powerful Tyrannical Hole, also online soon for the second Guzzlord ex thanks to Lusamine, creates a slow but reliable snowball that most opponents can’t stop.

PocketMads - Pocket Tournament ($100)!!!

Prize pool: $100

The biggest tournament of the weekend came from YouTuber PocketMads, hosting their first-ever event for Pokémon TCG Pocket. Suicune ex still took the lion’s share of the metagame, but several other archetypes showed resilience, including “outliers” like Flareon ex and Rampardos. The organizer chose to add an extra Swiss round compared to the usual split, favoring more consistent decks and players, but decided on a large top cut regardless, open to all competitors with at least seven wins.

In this fierce competition, Nabugu emerged victorious with Guzzlord ex.

This list is almost identical to Pryer’s, swapping a Will for a second Pokémon Center Lady to prioritize Guzzlord ex’s survivability. Nabugu went 3-2 against Suicune ex (notably knocking out Bixie in Swiss), but completely dominated Darktina, defeating all four opponents he faced, three of them in top cut.

The tournament wasn’t only about the established top tiers, though. The top 8 saw non-Suicune ex decks perform well, and one standout may prove to be Suicune ex’s worst enemy: Dragonite ex.

JHove piloted Dragonite ex to top 4, running Sylveon ex and Pichu and showing a 6-1 record against Suicune ex, with wins over players like Jeudy and Babar. The deck runs only Energy, relying on Pichu to attach the needed Energy to a Benched Dratini. This setup is fragile: Dratini sits exposed until Pichu can enter the Active Spot, and Pichu itself risks being KO’d by any attack or by two Water Shurikens. Thankfully, Sylveon ex improves consistency by tutoring combo pieces with Find a Friend. But given the risky challenge, the payoff has to be big.

And indeed, Dragonite ex one-shots nearly everything in the format, notably every Pokémon in Suicune ex decks, while being impossible to one-shot in return. Although Giga Impact can’t be used back-to-back, Lyra helps reset it by promoting Pichu or Sylveon ex before retreating back into Dragonite ex. Two turns of Giga Impact, any of which KOing a Pokémon ex, and the game is over. The list is fully dedicated to this plan: outside of 2 Professor’s Research, 2 Lyra, and 1 Silver, it runs no other supporters. Why play Cyrus or Red when you’re already KO’ing everything in one hit? A noteworthy inclusion is a regular Dragonite, which, though slower, raises the chance of evolving Dratini early and offers Draco Meteor as a repeatable alternative to Giga Impact.

The top 8 also showed strong type diversity. Typhoon16 capitalized on ’s type advantage with Raikou ex.

This build revived an old Pocket classic: Magnezone, paired with the newer Raikou ex. Rare Candy had sidelined the Magnemite line, but its strengths remain: Magneton accelerates Energy, especially with Elemental Switch, fueling Active Raikou ex or Pom Pom Oricorio, and Magnezone is a heavy hitter on its own all for just a point. Raikou ex’s Legendary Pulse brings that extra consistency that it's lacking by drawing an extra card per turn. The deck mirrors Suicune ex’s structure: a Legendary Dog with Stage 2 support, although here, Magnezone is the finisher and Pom Pom Oricorio is the anti-ex tech. Ironically, the type advantage didn’t swing much: Typhoon16 only faced two Suicune ex decks, losing to Danimaton in top 8, but strong Swiss results overall confirmed the deck’s versatility.

On the flip side, mdean3 showed that type disadvantage isn’t an automatic loss, bringing Flareon ex to top 8.

Flareon ex had success in the previous metas, but in today’s Suicune-heavy environment, decks seemed doomed. Yet with a 4-1 record against Suicune ex, mdean3 proved otherwise. Using the draw power of two Sylveon ex and the Energy acceleration from Magby, the deck’s plan is to get Flareon ex attacking as quickly as possible. Eevee Bag secures exact one-shots on Suicune ex and many other Pokémon ex. Even Eevee ex’s Bite followed by regular Flareon’s Flamethrower hits exactly 140 damage. The list also includes two copies of Red alongside the Bags, letting it push through Giant Cape and healing cards, and giving it several intricate aggro lines to pressure opponents.

Where is the Secluded Springs metagame at?

Suicune ex remains the dominant force, but not to the point of shutting out every other option. The decks that can compete must bring a strong plan of their own, whether through card advantage or raw aggression. This makes the early game, and especially the opening draw, even more decisive, as matches often hinge less on interaction and more on how effectively each deck develops its strategy. The upside is that this environment leaves space for less common decks, like Dragonite ex, to break through. Overall, the metagame looks healthier than it did last week. Still, Suicune ex blends too many of the game’s strongest competitive aspects to be anywhere close to losing its top spot for the rest of the format.