Hello everyone! This is Elena from Gaia Storm TCG and welcome to another article here at CCG. Now that the expansion is finally out it is time to start taking about the best new decks that the format will bring. It is no surprise that fire decks will perform well but… what about the rest? Will lightning be as powerful as it used to? Let’s take a look about the state of the metagame after Unbroken Bonds and see some of the expected top performers!

 

To begin with, Reshiram & Charizard seem to be the next powerhouse in Pokémon and it basically has all the support an archetype could hope for. Welder gives them energy acceleration as well as draw power, Fire Crystal ensures the deck will never run out of energy and with the splashable Pokégear 3.0 and Dedenne GX, Reshiram becomes as consistent as other top options. Being able to destroy anything in just one hit, this Tag Team is expected to be one of the most played decks once the expansion becomes legal. In addition, I can see baby Blacephalon getting popular as well. It is true that it only has one straightforward strategy and can’t do a lot more during a game but it has fuel enough to destroy GX -even some Tag Teams- in just one hit. In the right meta, it can be a deck worth keeping in mind.

 

In a second level I see Gardevoir & Sylveon. I believe the correct way to play this deck is with Mismagius and Charms following a control approach where you heal your attackers until you can wipe all the Pokemon from the field. Lucario & Melmetang also looks like they have some potential and if there is a stall deck that can shine in the format, it’s this. However, fire decks will be all over the place and the only opportunity I see for Lucario is to run multiple Hoopas and pray…

 

And what about the old decks? Zoroark seems to be out of the equation but as it always happens with Zoroark, I am sure it will end up adapting eventually. Some Japanese decklists have been running either Slowking or Dewong in order to counter Reshiram Charizard but most of the time it will be a one-time combo involving triple acceleration energy so its efficiency may not be always high. Zapdos Jirachi on the other hand gains some interesting new tools. Kartana is a great one prize attacker for the third turn onwards hitting for 130 dagame and Buzzwole & Pheromosa can be included as one last resort spicy tech, getting and unexpected extra prize from nowhere. Lastly we have Pikachu Zekrom decks, which have also gained the support of Electromagnetic Radar and Dedenne so they are supposed to get the t2 Full Blitz as often as possible. Theoretically, it should be able to fight with the metagame even if it appears that Reshiram Charizard is just more aggressive than them.

 

Anyways, I am sure that next tournaments will be full of diversity and creativity so I can’t wait to see the new decks that appear!