Table of Contents
Welcome to the Pokémon TCG Standard Meta Tier List for Twilight Masquerade! This page is tailored to help you understand the competitive meta of the Pokémon card game, the changes going on, and find the best deck that suits your playstyle.
I'll separate the archetypes into three tiers in order of their relevance, from top to bottom in each tier.
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Tier 1 | • Gardevoir ex • Lost Zone Box |
| Tier 2 | • Lugia • Raging Bolt Ogerpon • Dragapult • Charizard/Pidgeot • Miraidon |
| Tier 3 | • Chien-Pao • Snorlax Stall |
Tier Explanation
Tier 1: The top performers and most represented decks in the meta. They have good matchups in the current meta and can adapt to different game scenarios. Expect to encounter these decks frequently in tournaments, with players strategizing specifically to counter them.
Tier 2: Popular Meta decks that have solid matchup tables. Tier 2 decks can rival Tier 1 decks in performance, but may have weaknesses and less representation, holding them back from joining Tier 1.
Tier 3: Comprising less popular decks or those experiencing a decline in performance, Tier 3 includes options that may still yield respectable results in tournaments. However, they often struggle against certain prevalent matchups. Additionally, this tier encompasses decks with limited data, making it challenging to accurately assess their placement in higher tiers.
Tier 1
Gardevoir ex
Gardevoir ex is a dominant deck in the current meta and one of the most popular choices in tournaments.
This deck revolves around gardevoir-ex-sv4pt5-29, using Psychic Embrace to attach Psychic Energy in your discard onto your Psychic Pokemon. scream-tail-sv4-86 and drifloon-sv1-89 are the early attackers. They both take advantage of the damage counter from gardevoir-ex-sv4pt5-29's Psychic Embrace on your Pokemon. The list runs a couple of HP boosting tools for those basic attackers so you can attach more Energy off of Psychic Embrace and empower their attack to knock out stronger targets.
flutter-mane-sv5-78 can slow the pace of the game, buying you time until you set up your later plays. cresselia-swsh11-74 and munkidori-sv6-95 can move damage counters onto the opponent's Pokemon, further adding synergy with gardevoir-ex-sv4pt5-29's Psychic Embrace.
Lost Zone Box
This is a difficult deck to pilot but it is rewarding once mastered. The deck heavily relies on comfey-swsh11-79 to put cards in the Lost Zone, trying to get to a total of 10 cards in there. 10 cards can take a while, so the list runs cards that benefit from fewer cards in the Lost Zone.
cramorant-swsh11-50's Spit Innocently activates when we have 4 cards in the Lost Zone, allowing us to ignore all Energy in cramorant-swsh11-50's attack cost. Once we have 10 cards in the Lost Zone, sableye-swsh11-70 can activate his Lost Mine, strategically damaging Pokemon and knocking them out.
bloodmoon-ursaluna-ex-sv6-141 and iron-thorns-ex-sv6-77 are new additions to the list, acting as carries with their strong abilities.
The Lost Zone Box has been a meta deck for so long and it had a huge rise in the new meta, winning first place in NAIC.
Tier 2
Lugia Archeops
The Lugia deck relies on lugia-vstar-swsh12-139 as part of its win condition. The main reason this card shines is thanks to its Summoning Star effect, letting you play 2★ Pokemon with no Rule Box from your discard. So the list runs a lot of discard cards to set up the lugia-vstar-swsh12-139 ability.
archeops-swsh12-147 is a key card in this deck, letting you search and draw 2 Special Energy and attach them to Pokemons like lugia-vstar-swsh12-139 and cinccino-sv5-137 to deal a lot of damage. Or we can attach legacy-energy-sv6-167 to iron-hands-ex-sv4-70 and use Amp You Very Much.
Raging Bolt Ogerpon
The Raging Bolt deck has a good representation in the current meta, especially in Ranked play, it has a solid matchup against some of the popular decks, but players are quickly adapting to it, picking up other archetypes that hold their grounds against it.
teal-mask-ogerpon-ex-sv6-25's Teal Dance lets you attach a Green Energy and Draw a card, offering value while building up your Myriad Leaf Shower. However, teal-mask-ogerpon-ex-sv6-25 doesn't offer much of an aggression threat and we'll rely more on /raging-bolt-ex-sv5-123 for that.
/raging-bolt-ex-sv5-123's Bellowing Thunder is where the heavy hits are at. You can choose how much damage you want to deal by discarding Basic Energy from your Pokemon. For each discarded Energy, /raging-bolt-ex-sv5-123 can deal 70 more damage. energy-retrieval-sv1-171 is a must to get back the discarded energy.
Dragapult
There are a couple of different versions of Dragapult running around in the tournament scene. This version runs charizard-ex-sv4pt5-54 as an Energy searcher and a potential win condition with his high damage potential. However, all versions revolve around dragapult-ex-sv6-130 as the main focus of the deck.
Charizard/Pidgeot
The Charizard Pidgeot deck has fallen from its throne, but not from the meta. Although it's weaker than it used to be, it continues to show a solid performance in tournaments.. Using pidgeot-ex-sv3-164 as a search tool to find the right pieces, you're able to drop charizard-ex-sv4pt5-54 by using Rare Cady, and from there, Infernal Reign will find you the Basic Fire energy to start activating Burning Darkness. The more Prize Cards your opponent takes, the more damage Burning Darkness does.
Miraidon
miraidon-ex-sv1-81 can search and draw 2 basic Energy and can dish out good damage for 3 Energy attached. raikou-v-swsh9-48 is another powerful damage dealer that they damage relies on the number of benched Pokemon on both sides. As long as it's in the Active Spot, you'll get to draw a card every turn.
bloodmoon-ursaluna-ex-sv6-141 shines in the late game once the opponent has taken a Prize Cards, making it easier for you to set up an attack with him with less attached Energy.
