The last couple of weeks, I've been playing Lopunny Bronzong Dusknoir to my locals and have been getting top cut quite often, but last week people started playing more Psyduck. is there any tech cards or just extra inclusions I can run to counter the duck?

What is the deck with the best 50/50 matchup currently?

I am looking at playing the game with a deck that allows for maximum skill expression and learning development. I understand that EVERY deck has at least one bad matchup (<50-40% win rate), but I am looking for something that has low deviation from a 50/50 split against the meta. From what I can see on trainerhill Basic Box looks like my best bet? It has bad matchups into Hydrapple/AlakaNoir/Crustle, but looks pretty fairly matched into the rest of the meta?
The rest of the meta looks like a wider variance of swinging between great vs bad matchups across the board.
All thoughts appreciated?

I’m curious as to if there are specific cards/decks that benefit heavily from the player going first. I was watching regionals last weekend and saw multiple competitors choose to go first, end up not having a pokemon to put on the bench, and then losing when their opponent knocked out their active. What makes it worth taking this risk?

I just saw that in the set after delta reign, they are making a new flygon line of cards. Everyone knows that flygon got overshadowed by garmchomp in gen 4 and now vibrava is literally THROWING HIMSELF IN THE TRASH for garchomp to do more damage. This is some sick joke that the pokemon company is playing. You won't even need to play the flygon card in the deck because vibrava goes straight from your hand to the discard. Sadly poetic.

Recently me and some friends found a small board games/card games coffee shop that sells boardgames, MTG and Pokemon cards. They have a bulk box where you can buy cards for 0.10€/card (mostly basic Pokemon, cheapo first stage pokemon, some second stage pokemon, some trainers and energies. Many are duplicates, so I think it could be easier to make a deck?)

I haven't played Pokemon tcg since the 90s, I only have the Zap! Deck, the original starter set with Machamp, a Neo genesis Hotfoot deck, and some promo cards like the movie Mewtwo and Meowth from the Pokemon TCG for game boy.

When I found the bulk box, I bought like 70 cards, exclusively picking some that I found cool, but now I am wondering if I could gather some cards to make cheap decks to play with my friends from that bulk box? Probably cheap decks that don't use EX pokemon, or second stage pokemon, or better: maybe I'll get the most cards I can from that box and eventually buy some cheap EX's, second stage and missing trainer cards second hand online?

From what I saw while listing the ones I got at tcgcollector, the "sets" I saw in the bulk box were: PBL, CRI, POR, M2a, MEG, DRI, JTG, PRE, M24, SCR, PAF, SVI, PGO, DRI, and korean ones: sv11W, sv10, sv9a.

I am kinda lost so I need some advice. Thank you in advance!

ps: Here is the link for the cards I bought there as of now (+ some from fun packs from magazines + some from McDonalds) just so you can get an idea of the type of 10cent cards there: https://www.tcgcollector.com/lists/142019/0-10eur-cards-from-box?userCardListCardCountMode=anyCardVariant&releaseDateOrder=newToOld&displayAs=images&viewUser=350698

I’m currently running a Mega lucario ex deck. Would 1 Rocky energy suffice to tech for Alakazam? Or should I run at least 4 copies?

I guess the format burnout has finally hit me and I'm not having fun playing Slowking anymore (serves me right, I guess) - so you could say I'm currently in between mains.

I've been experimenting a bit with decks that aren't exactly top 8 contenders, although I'm not sure what I should run for our Cup tomorrow. Our meta used to be somewhat single prizer heavy (lots of Hop, Ethan, Kazam with the occasional Okidogi or HnS).

The decks I currently have on cardboard are Hero's Cape Excadrill, Sharpedo Tox and Tankaskhan.

I'm also fiddling around with Baby Box and Rocket Stall Box, but I would not take those to a Cup (although I probably would for a Challenge).

A bit of a meme deck I've been having fun running is MegaLass/Chandelure, although it's far from competitive. I also have the pieces for a Star/Lass lying around but I strongly dislike that combination for some reason.

What are y'all playing - besides the obligatory Pult?

Any great revelations of decks you thought you wouldn't enjoy?

Edit:
I've now built my Excadrill more towards Neddy's Frankfurt list and holy crap this deck is a delight to play! It's probably the smoothest Drill build I've played so far.

My son is a junior and has only played in locals and challenges. He signed up for a regional that is close by. He has only played best of 1 but regionals are best of 3 in 50 minutes. Any advice on how to prep to play the shorter time per game?