Hello everyone! This is Elena from Gaia Storm and welcome to another article here at CCG. Plenty of time has passed since the release of Unbroken Bonds and the metagame is now clearly shaped. Fire decks have configured as the strategy to beat thanks to all the support they received in the last expansion. Old and new contenders however are trying to fight for a place in the top positions so let’s jump into the most powerful decks of the format right now!
To start with, no one doubts that Reshiram Charizard is unarguably the most powerful deck in the format or, at least, the one that players are opting for. Due to the capacity to deal +200 damage in early game and all the energy acceleration support, Reshichard is the deck everyone is preparing for when going to a big tournament. Another fire contender, Blacephalon, seemed to briefly come back to life but has been displaced with the time.
Zoroark, as expected, is as popular as ever (as I have said several times before, the only way to stop Zoroark from winning will be a ban) now teching some water attackers like Slowking and Dewgong to completely get rid of Reshichard in one hit. There are some mixed versions that are still playing a small line of Lycanroc, not wanting to assume the auto-loss against PikaZek. The versatility of Zoroark and the triple acceleration energy means than players can choose from a pool of evolutions and make the combination they consider better: Persian, Lycanroc, Slowking, Muk and even Sylvally GX with multiple disc types. Very recently, there is a very special variant of Zoroark that relies in the GX movement of Naganadel in order to reverse a difficult situation against aggressive Tag Team Pokemon.
In a more secondary level we can find some other powerful contenders for the metagame like Zapdos Ultrabeast, PikachuZekrom and the despairing Weezing. Zapdos has all the consistency a deck can wish for and new attackers like Kartana and Buzzwole Pheromosa have joined the squad. It is only missing a good water figure in order to become one of the best. Now, PikachuZekrom seemed to be in the shadow of Reshichard given that the deck has more difficulties reaching the numbers Reshiram does, but the truth is that its power is still relevant. With the help of Dedenne GX it can now ensure the turn 1 Full Blitz and not many decks in the format can survive such a level of aggression. I have mixed feelings when it comes to analyzing Weezing since it has some undeniable potential and capacity to win certain matchups with ease while it loses heavily to others. Its selection will depend of how comfortable a player feels with spread.
Hopefully this short article has helped identifying the best options for competitive play! Make sure to get all the necessary cards for this format here at CCG and good luck for the next tournaments!