The Grand Finale — A Last Look at the Meta Before Worlds

Hello PokeBeach readers! Isaiah here, and I am happy to be writing another article for you all. Last time, I talked a lot about how I believe [card name=”Ting-Lu ex” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”127″ c=”name”][/card] has a place in the current Standard format, and even now, I still believe that is the case.

Meta Overview

[cardimg name=”Ting-Lu ex” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”263″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

As it stands, [card name=”Arceus VSTAR” set=”Brilliant Stars” no=”123″ c=”name”][/card] is still one of the most hyped up decks for the 2023 World Championship, largely thanks to its versatility as a card that can be partnered with just about anything, and, as a result of this fact, Ting-Lu ex is potentially in a great spot to succeed in a format where its success seemed highly unlikely.

With a deck like Ting-Lu ex potentially having a chance because of the bizarre status of the meta and this following the success of [card name=”Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX” set=”Battle Styles” no=”88″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Inteleon VMAX” set=”Fusion Strike” no=”79″ c=”name”][/card] at the North America International Championship, it is quite evident that a good meta call is potentially more impactful now than it has been for most of the rest of the season. As such, if anyone were to want to succeed at the World Championship this year, it is imperative that they understand the metagame almost perfectly, and with so many decks in the format, having a perfect grasp on everything may prove to be quite difficult.

With that being said, the focus of this article is going to be on taking a deep dive into what decks I consider to be some of the best decks in the format and how one should consider addressing each possible deck for the World Championship. The aim of this article is to be universally useful as a guide to all players for the World Championship, whether they are competing or spectating, so, without further ado, how about we start off in Tier 1.

Tier 1

Gardevoir ex

I want to preface this by saying that these Tiers will not necessarily be ordered, largely because I do not feel fully confident in any order that I could give these decks, as all of them feel about equally good, and I feel like deliberately organizing the decks in a specific way would be doing the other decks a disservice by making them seem better or worse than they may actually be.

[card name=”Gardevoir ex” set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”86″ c=”name”][/card] is certainly the number one deck in the format when it comes to considering the hype around the deck. As a friend of mine put it recently, Gardevoir ex was certainly the most underrated deck in the Scarlet and Violet format, but in the Paldea Evolved format, the deck is the most overrated deck.

Now, this is not to say that the deck is not good or anything like that, far from it. If anything, the deck is deserving of the hype that it gets because, after all, the deck is genuinely absurd. With formidable attackers like [card name=”Zacian V” set=”Celebrations” no=”16″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Gardevoir” set=”Chilling Reign” no=”61″ c=”name”][/card], and even [card name=”Cresselia” set=”Lost Origin” no=”74″ c=”name”][/card], Gardevoir ex decks are able to completely take over any game that they play as long as they are able to get things going, as the deck is relatively high maintenance when it comes to getting everything set up.

As clunky as the deck may be in the early game, however, it is perfect at using [card name=”Iono” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”185″ c=”name”][/card] to swing the pendulum back in its favor to pull ahead against decks that easily can get ahead of it, such as Lost Zone decks. Unfortunately, this is also where the problems begin, as Gardevoir ex is by far the most heavily targeted deck in Standard, meaning that niche techs such as [card name=”Box of Disaster” set=”Lost Origin” no=”154″ c=”name”][/card] have started to pop up to beat this perceived best deck in the format.

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Lost Zone (Turbo and/or Kyogre)

[cardimg name=”Kyogre” set=”Celebrations” no=”3″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

In my opinion, this deck is probably one of the most overlooked decks in Standard right now. Perhaps it’s because of all of the new things that came with the release of Paldea Evolved, but the Lost Zone engine is still extremely strong in the current format and nobody seems to be talking about it.

The deck had a bit of an underwhelming showing at the North America International Championship, I guess, but the deck still did appear in Top 8! Many players believe that the release of [card name=”Iono” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”185″ c=”name”][/card] was a huge problem for the deck, but I am not sure that I agree. The deck is built in a way that its number one focus is thinning cards out of the deck, eventually reaching the point where the deck is almost exclusively good cards when played correctly. Cards like [card name=”PokéStop” set=”Pokemon GO” no=”68″ c=”name”][/card] and of course [card name=”Colress’s Experiment” set=”Lost Origin” no=”155″ c=”name”][/card] and [card name=”Comfey” set=”Lost Origin” no=”79″ c=”name”][/card] are able to get most of the bad stuff out of the deck quite quickly, stringing together some powerful turns with [card name=”Dragonite V” set=”Evolving Skies” no=”192″ c=”name”][/card] or [card name=”Radiant Greninja” set=”Astral Radiance” no=”46″ c=”name”][/card] when possible. The release of [card name=”Super Rod” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”188″ c=”name”][/card] was also a huge buff to the deck, as PokeStop now is able to be used without consequence, thanks to both [card name=”Pal Pad” set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”182″ c=”name”][/card] and Super Rod existing as ways to recover the deck’s non-Item cards.

The most interesting aspect of Lost Zone is what you do with the last ~5 cards. Most of the time, the Turbo Lost Zone and Kyogre Lost Zone decks are built pretty similarly, but [card name=”Kyogre” set=”Celebrations” no=”3″ c=”name”][/card] obviously demands some more specific techs and higher Energy counts in order to make the final Aqua Storm a more powerful play. In this current format, I would argue that one of the most unfair plays that is possible is a turn-one Dragon Gale from Dragonite V — dealing 250 damage on the first turn is often way too much for decks to handle, taking one-hit Knock Outs on most of the format’s evolving Pokemon V, even with [card name=”V Guard Energy” set=”Silver Tempest” no=”169″ c=”name”][/card]!

The thing that I would argue is the second most unfair is being able to use Aqua Storm for 250 on two different Pokemon, typically taking at least four Prize cards at once, sometimes more. Kyogre Lost Zone is in the unique position that the deck gets to do both of these things and in a format that seems to be growing increasingly heavy with Pokemon V, Kyogre is likely in a great place for the World Championship as a deck that is easily able to take advantage of the shift in the metagame following the North America International Championship.

Lost Zone Giratina VSTAR

[cardimg name=”Cross Switcher” set=”Fusion Strike” no=”230″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

When I wrote about Lost Zone [card name=”Giratina VSTAR” set=”Lost Origin” no=”131″ c=”name”][/card] right before the North America International Championship, I believed the deck was good, but I certainly did not expect to be talking about the deck as possibly being one of the best decks in the format a little over a month later. This deck, quite literally has it all; one-hit Knock Outs, [card name=”Sableye” set=”Lost Origin” no=”70″ c=”name”][/card], incredible Energy acceleration, access to Moonlight Shuriken, 280 HP, [card name=”Path to the Peak” set=”Chilling Reign” no=”148″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Roxanne” set=”Astral Radiance” no=”150″ c=”name”][/card], and even [card name=”Cross Switcher” set=”Fusion Strike” no=”230″ c=”name”][/card]! If there is a powerful combo that you can think of with the cards that I have listed here, I have probably pulled it off at least once. The fact that there is a deck in Standard that is able to set up multiple threats, drag up what it wants to Knock Out, use Roxanne on the opponent, and lock them down under Path to the Peak is one of the most absurd things that we have seen since the rotation in April.

When I get asked what this deck’s weaknesses are, I find myself troubled to come up with something, because there are none! The only inherent flaw with the deck is that it can be a bit inconsistent at times, but as long as you are not playing against [card name=”Lugia VSTAR” set=”Silver Tempest” no=”139″ c=”name”][/card] or [card name=”Chien-Pao ex” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”61″ c=”name”][/card], you generally have a few turns that you can use Abyss Seeking if necessary to get out of the gutter and start stringing together combos.

As much as I previously gassed the deck, I also do not think that this deck is truly the best deck, which is a pedestal that it has been put on by social media. The deck, while strong as I said, is a bit inconsistent at times. The deck is fairly similar to decks like Chien-Pao ex or even Arceus VSTAR / Giratina VSTAR (I mean, after all, it uses the same high-damage attacker), but these alternatives, while they generally have less good extremes on the positive end of things, the bad end of the spectrum is also much less bad for these decks, making them more reliable across a long tournament where you need to have a combined record of 12-3-1 across the two days in order to make it into Top 8.

Arceus VSTAR

The timeless [card name=”Arceus VSTAR” set=”Brilliant Stars” no=”123″ c=”name”][/card] is still one of the best decks in the current Standard format, largely thanks to how reliable of an attacker it is thanks to Starbirth. Between bulky HP, decent damage, and the reliable nature, this deck is easily one of Standard’s best options, checking all of the boxes for being a great deck.

The best part about Arceus VSTAR, though, is that the card is so versatile, being able to be paired with almost anything. In the last section, I briefly mentioned Arceus VSTAR / Giratina VSTAR as being a strong deck, and I think that is certainly the case. The combination of [card name=”Judge” set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”176″ c=”name”][/card] and [card name=”Path to the Peak” set=”Chilling Reign” no=”148″ c=”name”][/card] is as strong as ever, offering a way to beat even your worst matchups by sticking the opponent with a bad enough hand that they cannot even play the game. Even in the games that they can play, it is unlikely that the opponent is able to deal with the onslaught of high HP attackers, one-hit Knock Outs from Lost Impact, Path to the Peak, AND having their hand disrupted, and if they are able to do so, they have to do it one more time because you will always be finishing three games with this deck thanks to its games being extremely short.

The way this deck is able to absolutely brutalize most of the decks in the format and keeps many of the mediocre decks in check by nature of how it functions makes the deck a great option as a “safe” pick for the World Championship.

[cardimg name=”Hisuian Decidueye VSTAR” set=”Astral Radiance” no=”84″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

The beauty of Arceus VSTAR decks is that, while a deck like the Giratina VSTAR variant exists, Arceus VSTAR is also able to be a midrange two-hit Knock Out deck that takes advantage of the format’s Weaknesses. Last year at the World Championship, we saw Ondrej Skubal take advantage of this style of Arceus VSTAR deck building by using [card name=”Flying Pikachu VMAX” set=”Celebrations” no=”7″ c=”name”][/card] and [card name=”Hisuian Decidueye VSTAR” set=”Astral Radiance” no=”84″ c=”name”][/card] to hit the format for Weakness, which paid off extremely well as he hit seven [card name=”Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR” set=”Astral Radiance” no=”40″ c=”name”][/card] and three Arceus VSTAR decks in his eleven matches at the event last year. This past season we have seen the Arceus VSTAR / [card name=”Duraludon VMAX” set=”Evolving Skies” no=”123″ c=”name”][/card] go from being a bit of a joke deck when in-person events resumed in March 2022 to now being an International Championship finalist two separate times, winning one of them. Most recently, [card name=”Umbreon VMAX” set=”Evolving Skies” no=”95″ c=”name”][/card] has joined Arceus VSTAR and Duraludon VMAX to create a trinity of extremely powerful Pokemon that are able to take advantage of some of the format’s Weaknesses, while also having massive HP and solid damage output.

The inclusion of [card name=”Radiant Alakazam” set=”Silver Tempest” no=”59″ c=”name”][/card] in this deck also allows it to perfectly take advantage of the fact that the deck often does a little extra damage with each attack, meaning that over the course of a game, a deck that normally cannot take one-hit Knock Outs can slowly build up enough damage on the board over a few turns to be able to score a one-hit Knock Out to win the game. This deck also has the unique ability to take a one-hit Knock Out on Pokemon V on the second turn thanks to [card name=”Hawlucha” set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”118″ c=”name”][/card], which typically is something that Arceus VSTAR decks cannot do normally, making the deck uniquely threatening to other Arceus VSTAR decks when it goes first.

Tier 2

Tier 2 is such a weird place to be in the current format because, while Tier 2 is often a term associated with mediocre decks, I would say that all of the Tier 2 decks are likely to do well at the World Championship, but unlike the Tier 1 decks, I think their likelihood of being the World Champion deck is a bit lower.

Mew VMAX

The only deck in Standard that has consistently been around longer than Arceus VSTAR is [card name=”Mew VMAX” set=”Fusion Strike” no=”114″ c=”name”][/card]. No matter how hard the card design team tries to kill off this deck, whether it is with [card name=”Drapion V” set=”Lost Origin” no=”118″ c=”name”][/card] or [card name=”Spiritomb” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”89″ c=”name”][/card], they just cannot seem to get the deck to go away.

[cardimg name=”Fusion Strike Energy” set=”Fusion Strike” no=”244″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

While the [card name=”Double Turbo Energy” set=”Brilliant Stars” no=”151″ c=”name”][/card] variant of the deck is much less popular now that Spiritomb basically killed it off, the [card name=”Fusion Strike Energy” set=”Fusion Strike” no=”244″ c=”name”][/card] variant has found itself as one of the strongest decks in Standard again, largely thanks to Fusion Strike Energy making the Pokemon it is attached to immune to the effects of Abilities, so if you put it on a [card name=”Genesect V” set=”Fusion Strike” no=”185″ c=”name”][/card], it can still use Fusion Strike System.

This deck has an absurd amount of power right now, with the ability to take a one-hit Knock Out on everything in Standard while being able to find any Trainers that it could want to play every single turn. The deck is simply too good at doing exactly what it wants to do to ever realistically fall out of favor in this format. The only reason that this deck is not in Tier 1 is that it is a victim of a lot of collateral damage in this format, as it is highly vulnerable to [card name=”Path to the Peak” set=”Chilling Reign” no=”148″ c=”name”][/card] plus [card name=”Judge” set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”176″ c=”name”][/card] or [card name=”Iono” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”185″ c=”name”][/card] as well as sharing a Weakness with [card name=”Gardevoir ex” set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”86″ c=”name”][/card], meaning that attackers like [card name=”Umbreon VMAX” set=”Evolving Skies” no=”95″ c=”name”][/card] are able to kill two birds with one stone.

Lugia VSTAR

This deck is certainly one of my favorites in this format. The simplicity of a turn-two Summoning Star is still one of the best things that you can do in the Pokemon TCG, often leaving many decks unable to answer the incredible power of one-hit Knock Outs every single turn.

Between its astounding bulk of having effectively 310 HP thanks to [card name=”V Guard Energy” set=”Silver Tempest” no=”169″ c=”name”][/card], immunity to Iono thanks to [card name=”Gift Energy” set=”Lost Origin” no=”171″ c=”name”][/card], and good typing on [card name=”Tyranitar V” set=”Battle Styles” no=”97″ c=”name”][/card], the deck has answers for almost everything that you can throw at it. Unfortunately, this deck’s simplicity is also one of its biggest weaknesses — while I believe in the deck’s sheer power, it is incapable of keeping up a good fight against some decks if it ever falls behind, which is something that can easily happen from a bad early Judge paired with Spiritomb to shut off [card name=”Lumineon V” set=”Brilliant Stars” no=”40″ c=”name”][/card]. While I think that this deck is definitely Tier 1 when it sets up, the games that it does not set up are what keeps it in Tier 2.

Chien-Pao ex / Baxcalibur

[card name=”Baxcalibur” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”60″ c=”name”][/card] is such a fascinating deck in this format because I can never tell if it’s actually good or not because of its extreme polarity. Sometimes the deck draws only five Energy and is incapable of functioning, but in other games, you open with an incredible seven cards, hit seven Energy in play on turn two, and completely roll over the opponent. The duality of this deck is what makes it interesting in this format, being capable of running over all of the bulky decks in the format while also sometimes being terrible, especially when faced with single-Prize attackers.

This deck has an incredibly good matchup against most multi-Prize card attackers though, which is its main strength going into the World Championship, and that is why I think that there is a fairly high chance that I play the deck for the World Championship myself. If I do decide to play it, my deck list will look something like this:

[decklist name=”chien bax” amt=”60″ caption=”” cname=”Baxcalibur” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”60″][pokemon amt=”16″]3x [card name=”Chien-Pao ex” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”61″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]2x [card name=”Baxcalibur” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”60″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]3x [card name=”Frigibax” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”57″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]2x [card name=”Bibarel” set=”Brilliant Stars” no=”121″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]2x [card name=”Bidoof” set=”Crown Zenith” no=”111″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]1x [card name=”Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR” set=”Astral Radiance” no=”40″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Origin Forme Palkia V” set=”Astral Radiance” no=”39″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Radiant Greninja” set=”Astral Radiance” no=”46″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Lumineon V” set=”Brilliant Stars” no=”40″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card][/pokemon][trainers amt=”33″]4x [card name=”Irida” set=”Astral Radiance” no=”147″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]2x [card name=”Boss’s Orders (Ghetsis)” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”172″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]2x [card name=”Professor’s Research” set=”Shining Fates” no=”60″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]2x [card name=”Iono” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”185″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”2″][/card]4x [card name=”Battle VIP Pass” set=”Fusion Strike” no=”225″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Ultra Ball” set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”196″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Superior Energy Retrieval” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”189″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]3x [card name=”Nest Ball” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”123″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]3x [card name=”Rare Candy” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”129″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]1x [card name=”Super Rod” set=”BREAKthrough” no=”149″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Hisuian Heavy Ball” set=”Astral Radiance” no=”146″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Lost Vacuum” set=”Lost Origin” no=”162″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”1″][/card]2x [card name=”Skaters’ Park” set=”Fusion Strike” no=”242″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”2″][/card][/trainers][energy amt=”11″]11x [card name=”Water Energy” set=”HeartGold and SoulSilver” no=”117″ c=”deck2″ amt=”11″][/card][/energy][/decklist]

Other Options

There are a few more decks that I wanted to make a point to mention, but I do not think they are quite good enough to have their own sections:

[cardimg name=”Raichu V” set=”Brilliant Stars” no=”45″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

Rapid Strike — While this deck won the North America International Championship, the deck is inconsistent and cannot beat [card name=”Lugia VSTAR” set=”Silver Tempest” no=”139″ c=”name”][/card] or [card name=”Mew VMAX” set=”Fusion Strike” no=”114″ c=”name”][/card]. This event is not a great event for Rapid Strike.

Ting-Lu ex – Even though I talked highly of this deck, I think that the auto-loss to [card name=”Gardevoir ex” set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”86″ c=”name”][/card] may be too much of a problem for the deck to make it through Day 1. There is a chance that the deck could make a deep run through Day 2, though.

Miraidon ex – [card name=”Miraidon ex” set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”81″ c=”name”][/card] has been a constantly overlooked deck in Standard since it came out. In this format, [card name=”Raichu V” set=”Brilliant Stars” no=”45″ c=”name”][/card] offers a way to take one-hit Knock Outs, which is extremely powerful, but the deck suffers from being a slightly worse Chien-Pao ex deck, so I do not think it is a stellar play for the World Championship.

Conclusion

Now that the World Championship is finally here, the part where everyone is quickly narrowing down their play for the event is upon us, which is personally my favorite part of the season as a player. Seeing the hard work pay off for so many people is always a great experience, and getting to see international friends is an equally fun thing, but seeing people pull out all of the stops and play some weird stuff to try and become the World Championship is a truly special experience.

With that, this article comes to a close. I hope this article was able to help clear things up, whether you are a player or spectator so that the World Championship will be a bit less complicated.

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the Subscriber’s Hideout, on Twitter (@ICheville), or on Facebook (Zaya Lee).

Until next time!

– Isaiah

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