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Giratina ex Darkrai ex
Explanation
Darkrai ex Giratina ex is one of the most consistent decks in the A3 meta, using Darkrai ex for its Nightmare Aura to ping the opponent’s Active Pokemon for 20 damage every time you attach a Darkness Energy to your Darkrai ex. It can then become an attacker, pushing 80 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokémon with Dark Prism.
As you’re attaching Energy to Darkrai ex, you’ll be ramping Psychic Energy with Giratina ex’s Broken-Space Below, trying to get to 3 Psychic Energy before attaching a Darkness Energy and going for the attack. Giratina ex’s Chaotic Impact deals 130 damage, so it’s the heavy attacker in this list. On the downside, Giratina ex will deal 20 damage back to itself, putting it down to 130 HP, more vulnerable to the opponent’s upcoming turn.
Red can be a lifesaver in this list, allowing you to set up a one-shot turn to remove an opponent’s win condition or potentially win the game on the spot.
Arceus ex Crobat Carnivine
The Arceus ex Crobat Carnivine version was the best performer in the Ursii tournament! Arceus ex enables Crobat and Carnivine’s ability Links to get the most out of them.
Carnivine is an early attacker, dealing 20 damage with its Vine Whip, but becomes a 50 damage attack if Arceus ex is in play, thanks to the Power Link. You’ll also have Crobat’s Cunning Link to deal 30 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokémon, perfect to back up your attacker and knock out a higher HP Pokémon.
Arceus ex can’t be affected by special condition effects, which can be useful in the current meta. Ultimate Force is your strongest attack, dealing 70 damage and an additional 20 damage for each of your benched Pokémon, so at max, you can deal 130 damage.
With the popularity of Darkrai ex decks, Carnivine was a solid choice to two-shot with Vine Whip.
Tapu Lele Greninja Giratina ex
The Tapu Lele Greninja Giratina ex has multiple attack options to push damage and get knockouts. Greninja deals passive damage with its Water Shuriken, weakening the opponent’s Pokémon. As for Tapu Lele’s Energy Arrow, it can target any Pokémon on the opponent’s side, so Benched Pokémon are not safe! You can only damage Pokémon with Energy attached to them, dealing 20 damage for each Energy attached. So, if your opponent has a Pokémon with multiple Energy attached to it, the Tapu Lele damage stacks and can potentially get you a knock-out, especially with Water Shuriken’s backup damage.
Giratina ex is the late-game win condition, capable of dealing 130 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokémon to try and one-shot a 150 HP Pokémon with Water Shuriken, giving you the push to win the game.
Oricorio Greninja Giratina ex
This deck cuts out Snorlax ex for the Oricorio win condition, using it to stall the game while pushing 50 damage with its Zzzap attack. It has Greninja to deal back-up damage with Water Shuriken, pushing 20 damage to one of the opponent’s Pokémon, which can snipe damaged Pokémon on the Bench.
This deck is running Water Energy alongside Lightning Energy, so you can attack with Greninja’s Mist Slash if you need the 60 damage. As for Giratina ex, it can self-ramp, so we’re not too worried about the Psychic Energy attachment.
This list has Shaymin for its Fragran Flower Garden to heal all your Pokémon for 10 damage. This is a great ability to keep Oricorio in play for longer, since in most cases, your opponent won’t have a high damage output attack to one-shot.
Magnezone Oricorio
The Oricorio Magnezone deck uses Oricorio as a staller, but potentially a win condition with its Zzzap attack. You’re not too worried about slowing down your Magnezone turn by attaching Lightning Energy to Oricorio since Magneton can self-ramp with Volt Charge, speeding up the Energy attachment so Magnezone can join in and go for the heavy Thunder Blast attack.
This is one deck that opts not to include the Rare Candy play since Magneton’s Volt Charge is too important to pass! This list is also running 2 Guzma to punish Tool users, especially if they have two Tools played at once. However, it’s mainly used to protect your Oricorio from a Rocky Helmet or Poison Barb.
Incineroar ex Charizard ex
Incineroar ex Charizard ex is currently the strongest Fire-type deck out there. It uses Rare Candy to speed up the evolution of Incineroar ex and Charizard ex, and have a win condition online as early as possible. Incineroar ex deals 30 damage with its Fire Fang attack, but you can later go for a heavier swing with Scar-Charged Smash, dealing 80 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokémon. If Incineroar ex is damaged, Scar-Charged Smash will deal 140 damage instead.
Charizard ex is the power-house in this deck, using its Stoke to ramp Fire Energy and set up for Steam Artillery to deal 150 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokemon.
Garchomp ex Rampardos
This deck runs two Stage 2 Pokémon, so Rare Candy is a must for the strategy to work. Rampardos is your strongest attacker, dealing 130 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokémon with its Head Smash attack. However, the drawback is massive, as Rampardos will deal 50 damage to itself, falling to 100 HP, vulnerable to most attacks in the meta. Giant Cape will be crucial here to keep Rampardos from easily getting knocked out, and using Lillie to heal it for 60 damage and go for another attack.
Garchomp ex is another damage dealer, it’s a tankier Pokémon with an early Linear Attack to deal 50 damage to one of your opponent’s Pokémon. This means you can target the opponent’s Bench and snipe a low HP Pokémon. Dragon Claw has more of a punch, dealing 100 damage to secure a knockout on a higher HP Pokémon in the Active spot.
Solgaleo ex
This deck relies on Skarmory as an early attacker, dealing 50 damage with Metal Arms if you have a Took attached to Skarmory. In the meantime, you’ll be working on evolving into your Stage 2 Solgaleo ex to carry the game, and with Rare Candy in the list, you can skip the Stage 1 evolution to have Solgaleo ex in play a turn earlier.
Solgaleo ex needs two Metal Energy to activate its Sol Breaker attack, dealing 120 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokémon and 10 damage to itself. Being a 180 HP Pokémon means we’re not too worried about taking the 10 damage, but against the Charizard ex deck, things can be awkward since falling to 170 HP puts us in range of Charizard ex’s Steam Artillery (Solgaleo’s weakness is Fire decks).
Solgaleo ex’s Rising Road ability lets you move it from the Bench to the Active spot without having to discard any Energy from your Active Pokémon. It’s not too useful when swapping with a Skarmory, but in other versions like Solgaleo ex Snorlax, it can be more useful to avoid the 4 retreat cost on Snorlax.
Rampadros Lucario
Explanation
The Fighting-type deck uses Stage 1 Lucario’s Life Coach to increase the damage of your Fighting-type Pokémon, dealing 20 more damage with each attack. This is a single-point deck, so your opponent is forced to knock out 3 of your Pokémon to win the game.
Sudowoodo is an early attacker, potentially dealing 80 damage with its attack. Boosted by Lucario’s Life Coach, you could deal 100 damage for only 1 Fighting Energy.
Rampardos is the strongest Pokémon on this list, going for the Head Smash attack to deal 130 damage to the Active Pokémon. However, if you knock out a Pokémon with Head Smash, Rampardos will deal 50 damage to itself.
Snorlax Greninja Giratina ex
The Greninja Snorlax Giratina deck is performing well in the A3 meta, mainly thanks to the addition of Rare Candy. You’re able to skip the Stage 1 evolution and go from Froakie to Greninja in one turn and start making use of Water Shuriken to deal 20 damage to one of the opponent’s Pokémon. Usually, we use Greninja for its Water Shuriken ability only, however, this list runs Water Energy to also use Greninja as an attacker, dealing 60 damage with its Mist Slash.
Snorlax is a massive tank with its 140 HP, but we have Barry to reduce its attack cost by 2 Energy, meaning we’ll only need to attach 2 Energy to use Collapse and deal 100 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokémon.
Although most lists I’ve seen are running Water Energy only and relying solely on Giratina ex’s Broken-Space Bellow to ramp Psychic Energy, this list uses both Water and Psychic Energies, making sure it gets to attack with Giratina ex as early as possible. However, you might be punished if you need to attack with Greninja and you don’t have a Water Energy to activate Mist Slash.
Giratina’s Chaotic Impact deals 130 damage, so with Gerninja’s Water Shuriken, you’re one-shotting a 150 HP Pokémon. Some lists were running Ilima as an option to remove Snorlax from play and prevent the opposing player from KOing it.
Meowscarada Tsareena
Lycanroc Rampardos
Charizard ex
Beedrill ex Beedrill
Aerodactyl ex
This fighting-type deck uses Lycanroc as an early attacker, dealing 50 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokémon with a potential to double that amount if your opponent’s Active Pokémon has higher HP than Lycanroc. Rampardos is the heavy hitter, dealing 130 damage with head smash, but dealing 50 damage back to itself.
Aerodactyl is the strongest Pokémon in this deck, using its Primeval Law to shut down opponents from evolving, which in the current meta, can be a massive game disruption if you play Aerodactyl early into the game. You can then go for the Land Crush to deal 80 damage and slowly take your win.
Gyarados ex
Explanation
We want Manaphy in the Active spot as early as possible, attaching Water Energy to two of our Benched Pokémon. Palkia is on the list to tank early hits as you work on evolving your Gyarados ex, but can also push damage with its Zone Smash attack.
Gyarados ex has a high-cost attack, so we need to use Misty to potentially attach Water Energy on Gyarados ex. Rampaging Whirlpool deals 140 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokémon and will discard an Energy from a random Pokémon.
Luxray Oricorio
Mewtwo ex Banette
Darkrai ex Weavile ex
Explanation
The Darkness deck, Darkrai ex Weavile ex. Weavile ex’s Scratching Nails deals 30 damage, but it becomes a 70-damage attack if the opponent’s Active Pokemon is damaged. This is where Darkrai ex shines, damaging the opponent’s Active Pokemon for 20 using Nightmare Aura, which enables your Weavile ex’s Scratching Nails attack.
Darkrai Ex Greninja
Explanation
The Darkrai Ex Greninja deck is picking up steam in Pokémon Pocket meta, using abilities that deal damage to your opponent’s Pokémon. Druddigon joins the Active spot early into the game, acting as a tank as you evolve into Greninja and deal passive damage with Darkrai Ex’s Nightmare Aura. When Druddigon is attacked, it’ll deal 20 damage to the opponent’s Attacker with Rough Skin.
To activate Dakrai Ex’s Nightmare Aura, you have to attach Darkness-type Energy to it, so we’re only running Darkness Energy in this deck. Dakrai Ex’s Nightmare Aura deals 20 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokémon, and once you have 3 Energy on Dakrai Ex, it can start attacking, acting as your only attacker in this deck.
Finally, Greninja is another source of damage, dealing 20 damage with Water Shuriken to one of your opponent’s Pokémon. You can target Benched Pokémon, so nothing is safe on your opponent’s side of the board.
Arceus ex Carnivine
Exeggutor ex Celebi ex
Explanation
Exeggutor ex is great for the early game; they only need 1 Energy to start attacking and potentially deal 80 damage per attack. It’s also quite tanky so it can buy you time until your Celebi ex has enough Energy to attack. The list has Erika, Potion, and Giant Cape to help keep your Pokemon in play for as long as possible, getting more attacks from them.
Celebi ex’s Powerful Bloom flips a coin for each Energy attached to Celebi ex, and for each heads you get, Powerful Bloom will deal 50 damage. So the more Energy you have on Celebi ex, the more coins you flip, and the higher the odds you deal more damage.
Some lists include Mew ex as an alternative finisher.
Arceus ex Dialga ex
Explanation
Dialga ex is the ramp Pokemon in this deck, attaching 2 Metal Energy to one of your Benched Pokemon with its Metallic Turbo attack. You’ll attach the Metal Energy on Arceus ex or Mew ex, getting them ready to attack later in the game.
Arceus ex deals 130 damage if you have a full Bench. Not too bad of damage to secure knockouts. As for Mew ex, it also has Colorless Energy for an attack, so the Metal Energy will work in this scenario, letting you attack with Genome Hacking to copy your opponent’s Pokemon’s attack.
Palkia ex
Explanation
Palkia ex is the main damage dealer, pushing 150 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokemon and 20 damage to each of their Benched Pokemon with Dimensional Storm. Activating Dimensional Storm forces you to discard 3 Water Energy, so it’s Energy hungry, but this list is built to support Palkia ex.
The list has Manaphy and Misty as ramp cards, helping you get extra Water Energy to get your Palkia ex ready to attack.
