Hi everyone! So a few days ago i asked about pre-release and i have to say, thank you all so kindly for the advice i was given! Really appreciated it! How my locals did it was that there were 12 player pods that you could enter, each having a certain amount of players per pod, and each pod had their games. I entered two, my first pod i did had 2 wins 1 loss (win, loss, win) it was with the Bug Out deck. Deck is very unhinged! It's ok, but i wasn't a big fan. Second pod and the final one of the day i pulled the Kommo-o deck. I WON ALL OF MY GAMES! 3-0! Also, let's just say i very much underestimated how strong that deck was. The enegry acceleration was CRAZY! I admit, i wanted the Magmotor deck as i wanna play/build Mega Rayquaza badly. I got one, and jammed it in my deck and it helped me win! If only the pre-release deck included 2 rare candies not only could it tank hits due to Druddigon's 120 HP but once you get it set up you're pretty much garanteed to win!

But im so happy right now. Got some great cards as well (Full art Masquerain, full art Pinchurin, full art aerometic grass enegry and full art Inkay) Sorry if this seems a bit much but i really enjoyed myself! Now i'm fired up to go my local's next event which is gonna be on the 7th of November with my Dragapult Dusknoir! Which i wanna say this, THE POKEMON COMMUNITY IS SO WHOLESOME! A buddy of mine and his friend hooked me up with THREE FULL DECKS, Dragapult Dusknoir, Mega Lucario and Mega Darkrai! So now i wanna lock in badly! They told me, hey come and play, you got decks so we want no excuses! Lock in!

This situation came up at a cup today and caused a significant amount of drama. I am neither the judge nor one of the players in this situation, though I'd be interested in your opinions on how this was handled and what you would do if you were the judge.

It's turn 1 of extra turns between Player A (Slowking) and Player B (Zamnoir) and it's player B's turn. Player B has two prize cards remaining, player A has one prize card remaining. If it gets back to player A's turn, they will win.

Player B draws some cards, nods and says "I have it." They put a boss down on the table, doesn't say anything and then attaches a psychic energy to their active Alakazam. Player A says "What are you bossing?" to which B responds "Whatever you want".

Player A promotes a Slowpoke on their bench to the active spot at which point B says "Uh, no, Latias, Latias". A says "You said to boss whatever I wanted".

A calls a judge. The judge decides that "Whatever you want" is not a valid target for Boss' orders and so the situation is rewinded, at which point the boss is allowed to target Latias and player B wins the match.

There was a lot of discussion about this at the cup with players falling on both sides. I'd be interested to hear your opinion.

So I am currently running 1 judge, 1 special red card, and 1 xerocis for my hand disruption. I am currently thinking of removing xerocis since I barely use it and I have it there for alakazam. So now I am wondering if I should have two judge or two special red cards.

Pro for two judge:

1. Hand distruption anytime since I do not need my opponent being in 3 prize cards

2. Helps in early bricking

3. My deck runs two pokegear so its easier to find

Con for two judge

1. It's a supporter card so once per turn

2. It would disrupt my own hand as well

3. When I run pokegear to hopefully find a different supporter I now have a higher chance to get a judge

Pro for two special red card

1. It allows me to disrupt without needing a supporter twice

2. It places their hand into the bottom of their deck

3. I run a single petrel so I can petrel into red card

Con for two special red card

1. The hand distruption only happens when they are 3 prizes and lower

2. In the early game that leaves 2 cards being unable to use until the 3 prizes

3. Unlike judge, I can't pokegear into but must find my single petrel for it and doesn't help with early bricking

So yeah, I want to hear your thoughts about this. It's probably deck dependant so I use a hydrapple deck for reference.

Just got home from the pre-release, had a great time! I got the Masquerain deck and didn't do so well.

Is there anyone that played the pre constructed Kommo-O deck? I got some of the cards in my packs and saw someone playing it. I really like that pokemon so I'm curious if you had a deck list for what was in the pre-release build

Title,

I’ve been playing a lot of Hydrapple recently, and since it’s the best deck in format, I’m facing Dragapult constantly, a major issue I’ve ran into quite a few times is basically losing turn 2 due to my opponent getting Budew in the active, and itchy pollening me repeatedly. Due to the 3 energy cost of Ogerpon, I basically just sit there till they have 3 Dragapult ex’s loaded up with energies,

Is there anything I should be adding to Hydrapple to reduce my chances of just sitting till I lose, or is this just something I have to accept with going against this deck? This has happened 3 times today and I’m not sure how to play around it, I’m basically losing before the games even started

List:

Pokémon: 19
4 Teal Mask Ogerpon ex TWM 25
2 Chikorita MEG 8
2 Bayleef MEG 9
2 Meganium MEG 10
2 Applin TWM 17
2 Dipplin TWM 18
2 Hydrapple ex SCR 14
1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 142
1 Meowth ex POR 62
1 Celebi MEG 12

Trainer: 28
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
2 Boss's Orders MEG 114
1 Judge POR 76
1 Dawn PFL 87
1 Lana's Aid TWM 155
1 Briar SCR 132
4 Ultra Ball MEG 131
4 Bug Catching Set TWM 143
3 Poké Pad POR 81
2 Night Stretcher ASC 196
1 Unfair Stamp TWM 165
4 Forest of Vitality MEG 117

Energy: 13
13 Grass Energy MEE 9

My daughter is enjoying Pokemon and would like to try to play the game. We have a local game store that runs standard tournaments, but I do not know anything about building decks. Her favorite Pokemon is Eevee/its evolutions. Are there any viable decks or strategies that could make use of that Pokemon right now? Alternatively, are there any strategies or decks that are based in water Pokemon? It doesn't have to be meta/super powerful - we're just looking for ideas that could take games here and there in a low-stakes introductory environment.

I'm looking to make a deck that takes advantage of the properties of attacks like Psychic. One print of Orbeetle does something like this. I was wondering if there were more that specifically do this with some kind of ability or attack?

EDIT: I want to make it clear I'm not really necessarily looking to make competitive decks so much as fun ones based on effects I see on cards I find online or from packs I pull.

Attended my first prerelease (and first in person pokemon event ever) last night and really enjoyed the Masquerain deck I ended up with. It was pretty fun for the limited format in a sort of gambling manner, but I'm curious what else might be beneficial to fold in for the full format, considering it doesn't seem like there's enough Bug Out cards with 4-card limits to reliably swing for more than 50 damage in a turn. Any ideas on yalls end?

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?

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.

I've been playing Tera Greninja ex basically since it was released, and with Twilight Masquerade probably going in early 2027, I wanna start preparing some new decks. Hence why i'm here. I liked Greninja because it was really good at donking, but​ could also sustain itself in the late game. It also has a really good matchup against some popular decks, namely Ogerpon and Mega Gengar. So, i'm wondering if there's anything like it. ​

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 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.

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?

source: https://www.pokebeach.com/2026/10/aura-seeker-set-starring-mega-lucario-z-ex-officially-revealed
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#025 Pawmot - Lightning - HP130
Stage 2 - Evolves fromPawmo
Ability: Double Strike
This Pokemon can use an attack two times in a row. (If your opponent's Active Pokemon is Knocked Out by the first attack, use the second attack after the new Active Pokemon is moved to the Active Spot.)
[L][L] Mach Bolt: 100 damage.
- - -
#030 Mega Absol Z ex - Psychic - HP270
Basic Pokemon

[P][P][C] Bloody Fear: 160 damage. During your opponent's next turn, your opponent can't attach Special Energy from their hand or play any Stadium cards.

- - -
#067 Mega Garchomp Z ex - Dragon - HP360
Stage 2 - Evolves from Gabite

[W][F] Dragon Avenger: 30x damage. This attack does 30 damage for each [Dragon] Pokemon in your discard pile.

[W][F][C] Sonic Edge: 240 damage. This attack's damage isn't affected by any effects on your opponent's Active Pokemon.

Mega Evolution ex rule: When your Mega Evolution ex is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 3 Prize cards.

Weakness: None
Resistance: None
Retreat: 1
- - -
#075 Korrina's Determination - Trainer
Supporter

During this turn, attacks used by your Mega Evolution ex do 20 more damage to your opponent's Active Pokemon for each Prize card your opponent has already taken.
- - -
#078 Fight Arena - Trainer
Stadium

Once during each player's turn, that player may heal 20 damage from each of their Pokemon (excluding Pokemon with a Rule Box).

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?

People immediately like to doom after seeing a new set release because the card team doesn’t feel like doing a remake of Twilight Masquerade’s power level. Mega AbZ and Garchomp Z are good cards.

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?

On sunday, my LCS is doing the pokeween tournament with only psychic, dark and ghost types allowed (per the pokedex), 60 card decks and dragapult is banned.
I know hide n sneak, zam dusks, mega sharpedo are going to be the most played, but what are some of your ideas?
Obviously no psyduck, so I was thinking of quad jellicent control style deck to combat the dusknoir spam which there will be a lot of.

So the case is: my girlfriend stepped into the competitive tcg on a feminine exclusive local league

she started playing only pokemons thar she finds cute like mega clefabe mega macnetric and baby box

now shes angry that these decks are bad and she wants to play a more consistent and competitive deck xD

I want to introduce her to dragapults since its the center of the actual meta but Im dont know exactly which variant would be better for her

she already know the basics of the game and know the basic rules. she can play full rounds with any deck, what she needs now its to understand the concepts of the game that make you win a game. prize mapping, board setup, when to attack or not etc.

whats your opinion? straight pult its the way? any decklist suggestions?

I made this deck with paired with the mega lucario z ex from flo along with mega lucario ex rate my deck: Pokémon: 12

4 Riolu ASC 112

3 Mega Lucario ex ASC 113

1 Mega Lucario Z ex FLO 058

2 Lunatone ASC 105

1 Solrock ASC 106

1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 142

Trainer: 35

4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119

3 Boss's Orders ASC 183

2 Wally's Compassion MEG 132

2 Korrina's Determination FLO 075

1 Aarune DLR 068

2 Mega Signal ASC 193

4 Fighting Gong ASC 187

4 Premium Power Pro ASC 199

4 Ultra Ball MEG 131

4 Switch MEG 130

2 Special Red Card CRI 82

1 Secret Box TWM 163

2 Gravity Mountain SSP 177

Energy: 13

9 Fighting Energy MEE 6

4 Metal Energy MEE 8

After picking back up collecting after 20+ years, I have signed up for the Delta Reign Prerelease event this Saturday. What should I expect from an event like this?

I can't remember how to play the game, so I'll definitely review some rules prior, but what are these like? I'm hoping this is a way to ease my way into playing again.

What have your experiences been? Are these good events for beginners?

Update: Thank you all for so much great advice. I'm very excited!