Pokemon TCG Meta Tier List (November 2024) – Top Competitive Decks

The Pokemon Meta page is your best place for competitive Pokemon! Tables are updated as the meta changes, you’ll find top decks in the Surging Sparks meta.



Meta Decks

Tier S
Tier A
Tier B
Tier C

Regidrago

Regidrago VSTAR lets you copy any Dragon Pokemon’s attacks from your discard pile. You’ll mainly copy Dragapult ex’s Phantom Dive attack to spread damage counters. However, this list also includes Giratina VSTAR’s Lost Impact to deal 280 damage. With the addition of Kyurem, you can copy Trifrost attack to hit three Pokemon, letting you get multiple knock outs and targeting the opponent’s Bench.

Terapagos ex

The Terapagos Dusknoir deck wants to go first to start an aggressive game plan with Terapagos ex, attacking immediately and threatening to knock out opponent’s Pokemon. Packing the Bench with Pokemon is essential to boost Terapagos ex’s damage. So we have Area Zero Underdepths to increase the number of Pokemon on the Bench to deal more damage with Unified Beatdown.

The list is packed with multiple draw options to find the key cards you need to get your strategy online. This deck doesn’t solely rely on Terapagos ex to win games, it has Dusknoir and Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex as alternate damage dealers to win games.

Gardevoir

This deck relies heavily on Gardevoir ex’s ability to attach Psychic Energy to your Pokémon, enabling their attacks and setting you up to win the game. Each time you attach Psychic Energy through Gardevoir ex, you place 2 damage counters on a Pokémon.

You can use this to your advantage by moving those damage counters to the opponent’s Pokémon using cards like Munkidori. This makes it easier for you to knock them out with your attacks or eventually have enough Counters to knock out a Pokemon on the Bench.

Gardevoir ex can still attack for 190 damage with Miracle Force, but you also have Drifloon and Scream Tail as high-damage dealers. Although Drifloon and Scream Tail are easy to knock out, they only give 1 Prize Card to opponents.

Charizard Pidgeot

Pidgeot ex sits in the back and starts searching for the cards you need to set up your win condition. Charmander + Charizard ex + Rare Candy is usually the go-to play to have a Charizard ex as soon as possible. From there, Charizard ex carries the game, capable of attaching Energy to himself through his Infernal Reign ability. Infernal Reign will look into your deck for three Basic Fire Energy and attach them.

Charizard ex‘s Burning Darkness deals 180 damage. However, that attack gains more damage the more Prize cards your opponent takes. With each card they take Burning Darkness gains 30 extra damage, so you can push up to 330 damage if your opponent took 5 Prize cards.

Lugia Archeops

The Lugia Archeops deck wants to discard Archeops as early as possible You have multiple cards in the list to do that and then you can Lugia VSTAR‘s Summoning Star to cheat out Archeops from the discard pile.

Once Archeops is on the bench, you can activate Primal Turbo to attach two Energies from your deck every turn. This helps us get our Lugia VStar and Cinccino attacks online. We rely on Lugia VSTAR as our main damage dealer, but we also have Cinccino to push damage depending on the number of Energy cards attached to it.

Raging Bolt Ogerpon

Raging Bolt ex works alongside Teal Mask Ogerpon ex to activate Bellowing Thunder and deal tons of damage to the opponent’s Pokemon.

Teal Mask Ogerpon ex can attach a Basic Grass Energy through Teal Dance ability and at the same time, it draws a card. So you’re not losing card value, and you’re attaching Basic Energy for Ranging Bolt ex to discard and power up Bellowing Thunder’s damage. Make sure to discard just enough Energy cards to knock out a Pokemon as you don’t want to push more damage than needed and burn resources.

Teal Mask Ogerpon ex can also act as a damage dealer with its Myriad Leef Shower. This attack relies on the number of Energy cards attached to both Active Pokemon to boost its damage output.

Lost Zone Box Pikachu ex

The Lost Zone Box deck in the Pokémon TCG is a strategy centered on quickly putting cards into the Lost Zone to unlock powerful effects. Cards like Comfey with its Flower Selecting ability and Colress’s Experiment help accelerate this process by sending cards to the Lost Zone while filtering your deck. Key cards such as Cramorant attack for free when there are at least four cards in the Lost Zone, and Sableye spreads damage counters once there are ten cards there. Support like Mirage Gate enables energy acceleration for versatile attackers, making Lost Zone decks highly adaptable and aggressive in gameplay.

Snorlax Stall

The Snorlax stall deck shuts down opponents from attacking, preventing them from getting knockouts and stalling out the game. The longer the game takes, the closer the opponent will get to running out of cards and automatically losing the game.

Dragapult ex

Dragapult ex plays aggressively, dealing 200 damage with Phantom Dive to the Active Pokemon and 60 damage to the Bench. This lets you get knockout on low-health Pokemon sitting on the Bench or helps you put things in range for your 200-damage Phantom Dive to knock out.

Rare Candy speeds up the game plan, letting you get Dragapult ex in play a turn earlier to start putting the pressure on the opponent. This is the Pidgeot ex list, which has more draw power with Pidgeot ex to find the cards you need for your strategy. Another version adds Dusknoir, focusing more on the aggression side with the added damage from Dusclop and Dusknoir‘s Cursed Blast.

Banette ex Gardevoir

Ceruledge ex

Iron Thorns

This is a meta call, which uses Iron Thorn’s Initialization to take advantage of decks that rely on their Pokemon’s abilities. By shutting opponents from activating their Pokemon’s Ability, you’re slowing them down immensely, giving you enough time to start Knocking Out their Pokemon with Iron Thorn’s Volt Cyclone.

Palkia Terapagos

Gholdingo

Gholdengo ex decks focus on its “Make It Rain” attack, which deals 50 damage per Basic Energy discarded from your hand, making Energy retrieval and draw power essential. Its “Coin Bonus” ability helps sustain resources, while cards like Superior Energy Retrieval and Earthen Vessel ensure Energy flow. Radiant Greninja and other draw engines accelerate setup, and the deck’s simplicity as a Stage 1 evolution offers consistency. Success relies on managing resources to maintain high-damage output.

Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR is the second damage dealer if Gholdengo ex is knocked out. You can Attach discarded Energy through its ability to activate Subspace Swell to knock out a Pokemon and win you the game.

Roaring Moon

Roaring Moon ex relies on Calamity Storm as a damage dealer, but it has to discard a Stadium in play for the Power boost. However, Frenzied Gouging can knock out Pokemon with more than 220 HP, but the drawback is that Roaring Moon will deal 200 damage to itself, putting you at risk of a knockout on the upcoming turn.

Miraidon

This is a meta-call deck, mostly because it has a great matchup against Lugia and Gardevoir.

Miraidon ex is the main damage dealer, threatening 220 damage with its Phantom Blaster. However, once activated, you can’t attack on the upcoming turn with Miraidon ex.

Chien-Pao Baxcalibur

This deck relies on Chien-Pao as its main damage dealer, presenting a threat early into the game. We’re trying to attach Water Energy on Chien-Pao and discarding a number of attached Energy depending on the damage we want to deal. The list runs cards to bring back the discarded Energy and to continue using them for more attacks. Baxcalibur is how we speed up the attachment process, capable of attaching as much Water Energy as we want from our hand.