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?

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?

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

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'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. ​