Tournaments keep on breaking records in attendance a month after Pokémon TCG Pocket official release, and the metagame gets more diversified! A summary of what happened in the biggest TCG Pocket tournaments last week.
Pocket Legends League #8
The eighth edition of the Pocket Legends League set a new attendance record for this tournament series, with 634 players competing for a $50 prize pool. For this event, the second day introduced asymmetrical Swiss rounds for all players with a score of x-2-1 or better, leading to a top 32 cut after those rounds.
After Mewtwo ex‘s dominating performances last week, it became the deck of choice for many players in this edition. But their haters waited for them in the Corner: Arbok decks surged to fifth place in meta share, a new record for the archetype.
Mewtwo ex still claimed the most representation in top 32, but Pikachu decks performed just as well, matching Mewtwo’s numbers in the top 8. Charizard decks also had a strong presence in the top 32, but a series of teamkills and unlucky pairings knocked them out before they could reach the top 8.
Deck | Number in top 32 | Number in top 8 |
|---|---|---|
Mewtwo ex | 13 | 3 |
Pikachu ex | 9 | 3 |
Charizard ex | 6 | 0 |
Starmie ex | 2 | 1 |
Marowak ex | 1 | 1 |
Arbok | 1 | 0 |
The finals came down to a Pikachu mirror match: a Zebstrika build against a Raichu build. In the end, santymcgoob and their Raichu version took the trophy, likely due to Raichu’s edge in the mirror matchup.
Pikachu ex Raichu - santymcgoob
The top 8 surprise was Kricso’s Starmie Greninja deck. While Water decks with Starmie ex, Articuno ex, or both are doing well in matchmaking, they’ve historically struggled in best-of-three tournaments. With Pikachu ex slightly falling in popularity, the deck now has more opportunities to thrive.
Starmie ex Greninja - Kricso
The biggest surprise in Kricso’s list was skipping Misty, usually a staple in W decks for her ability to quickly accelerate energy and create oppressive situations even from turn 1 on the play. But with all the Pokémon in the deck having cheap attacks and needing to evolve, Kricso chose consistency and live cards over the high risk, high-reward strategies that rely on Articuno ex or other energy-hungry W Pokémon.
Ursiiday's Pocket Weekly #4
Another two-day event and another record for Ursiiday’s Pocket Weekly tournament, with 1691 players in the competition for a $400 prizepool, thanks to XPCollect sponsorship yet again! The attendance was so large that only a share of x-2 players made it to the top 32, making it one of the most ruthless tournament out there!
The deck breakdown of the top 32 is strikingly close to Pocket Legends League’s tournament, although the single elimination phase reshuffle the cards: Mewtwo ex went clearly victorious, and R decks suddenly made a big impression by claiming 3 spots in the top 8.
Deck | Number in top 32 | Number in top 8 |
|---|---|---|
Mewtwo ex | 13 | 4 |
Pikachu ex | 9 | 1 |
Charizard ex | 4 | 2 |
Arcanine ex | 2 | 1 |
Articuno ex | 2 | 0 |
Starmie ex | 1 | 0 |
Greninja | 1 | 0 |
MojoSueco went victorious with the same best performing Mewtwo ex decklist of the last 2 weeks. In fact, the other finalist Sigphale played the exact same list: did we reach an optimum?
But the biggest highlight of the tournament, and perhaps of the week, is the Charizard ex Arcanine ex decklist piloted by Hayato. It didn’t lose a single swiss round and only fell in the top 8 to another Charizard ex deck.
Charizard ex Arcanine ex - Hayato
Charizard ex naturally performs well against Mewtwo ex, and Arcanine ex has a strong matchup against Pikachu ex. Since both are powered by Moltres ex, why not combine them in the same deck? This strategy worked exceptionally well and is likely to grow in popularity as a counter to the two top-tier decks in the format.
Pikaverse Pocket Cup #3
The 3rd edition of the Pikaverse Pocket Cup marks another record in attendance as well with 810 players competing for a $100 prizepool. It retained a 8 swiss round formats followed by a top 32 cut.
With the Pikaverse Pocket Cup happening on Sunday, players looked at the previous tournament results to guide their deck choices. Charizard ex, boosted by its strong performances earlier in the week, saw its usage double in proportion compared to previous events. The pick paid off, with Charizard ex placing eight decks in the top 32—five of them being the Arcanine ex variant—and matching Pikachu ex in representation within the top 8.
Deck | Number in top 32 | Number in top 8 |
|---|---|---|
Mewtwo ex | 12 | 4 |
Pikachu ex | 9 | 2 |
Charizard ex | 8 | 2 |
Marowak | 1 | 0 |
Starmie ex | 1 | 0 |
Blastoise ex | 1 | 0 |
And ultimately, TonyZ3ro avenged his compatriot by winning the whole event with Charizard ex Arcanine, piloting the exact same decklist.
Charizard ex Arcanine ex - TonyZ3ro
Another deck that made quite the impression was spikexx95’s Blastoise ex deck, which went undefeated in the swiss rounds. Blastoise ex is one of the few Pokémon capable of one-shotting both Mewtwo ex and Charizard ex when fully powered. To compensate for its weakness against Pikachu ex decks and to protect the Squirtle line while on the bench, spikexx95 included two Mewtwo, Kangaskhan, and Articuno as tank options. Articuno even doubles as a standalone attacker when needed.
Blastoise ex Mewtwo - spikexx95
Where is the Genetic Apex metagame at?
The metagame has stabilized with the two top decks—Mewtwo ex and Pikachu ex—settling into their best-performing builds, and variants that now seem perfected. The latest innovation in the Charizard + Arcanine ex deck might be the strongest iteration of any R type deck yet, to the point of winning tournaments. Is the top tier opening up to a third deck after all these weeks?
This shift has also created more room for Water decks to thrive, as they match up well against Fire decks while still performing decently against Mewtwo ex. They just have to entirely avoid Pikachu ex decks in a competition!
The striking consistency in deck representation in the top 32 across these major tournaments suggests that, about a month after the game’s release, the metagame has largely been figured out. As Mewtwo ex is the deck to beat, it leaves more space for outlier strategies that Pikachu ex overwhelmed when it was the top deck itself. While rogue decks may find success in upcoming events, it’s unlikely we’ll see any meta-defining innovations until the next set drops. For instance, Arbok decks, despite their bigger representation, generally failed to show success in these long and hard tournaments.
