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Pokemon League Challenge - Top Meta Deck Breakdowns

Published Sep 9 2023 - 3:00pm Updated Mar 21 2024 0 Comments
6 min read
Pokemon News
by Matt Farmer
Total Cards Senior Editor
Pokemon League Challenge - Top Meta Deck Breakdowns

What Pokemon decks are making an impact in the current rotation!? This blog has the answers for you!!

At the end of August we hosted a League Challenge tournament in our very own Gaming Centre! If you're unsure, Pokémon League challenges are a way to earn yourself Points towards the World Championships! We thought that the decks on display are an excellent example of competitive decks and are breaking them down!

First place receives 15 points, Second gets 12 points and Third and Fourth each receive 10 points. To qualify for the World Championships you need to accumulate 500 points so building them at local events like this is a great way to do it!

There were 14 players for this month's Challenge with 11 Masters, 1 Senior and 2 Juniors all battling it out for those valuable points!

Meta Breakdown:

  • 3 Lost Box Giratina
  • 3 Miraidon ex
  • 3 Charizard ex
  • 2 Gardevoir ex
  • 1 Chien-Pao ex
  • 1 Lost Box Charizard
  • 1 Arceus Giratina

We are analysing the top 4 and combing through the decklists! Keep reading to learn more about what makes these decks competitive!

Lost Box Giratina - First Place Deck

It's no surprise that the top spot was filled by the incredibly popular Lost Box Giratina deck! This is arguably the best deck in the game right now and we had 3 decks out of 14 running.

The main setup of this build is to work on drawing resources and sending as many cards as you can to the Lost Zone with Comfey and Colress's Experiment. Once you have a good number of cards in the Lost Zone, you can then really take advantage of the fun abilities this deck has to offer.

Notable abilites that take advantage of the Lost Zone include Cramorant, that can attack for no energy if 4 or more cards are in the Lost Zone. Mirage Gate can get energy where you need it when you have more than 7 cards in the Lost Zone. Once you have 10 or more cards in the Lost Zone, Sableye and Giratina VSTAR come into play.

Essentially this deck functions as a toolbox deck, with a quick and effective way to deal with most others decks; Giratina VSTAR attacks for a lot of damage, Cramorant hits fast and Sableye spreads damage to finish things off. If you're looking to compete at the top level, then this is definitely a deck build to be looking at!

Deck Breakdown:

  • Pokemon: 7
    • 3 Giratina V LOR 130
    • 4 Comfey LOR 79
    • 3 Giratina VSTAR LOR 131
    • 2 Sableye LOR 70
    • 1 Manaphy BRS 41
    • 1 Radiant Greninja ASR 46
    • 1 Cramorant LOR 50
  • Trainer: 13
    • 2 Switch Cart ASR 154
    • 2 Escape Rope BST 125
    • 1 Switch CRZ 144
    • 1 Pokégear 3.0 SSH 174
    • 4 Battle VIP Pass FST 225
    • 1 Iono PAL 185
    • 3 Path to the Peak CRE 148
    • 2 Super Rod PAL 188
    • 2 Roxanne ASR 150
    • 4 Mirage Gate LOR 163
    • 3 Nest Ball SVI 181
    • 4 Colress's Experiment LOR 155
    • 2 Boss's Orders PAL 172
  • Energy: 4
    • 3 Basic {G} Energy Energy 1
    • 3 Basic {W} Energy Energy 3
    • 4 Basic {P} Energy Energy 5
    • 4 Jet Energy PAL 190

Charizard ex - Second Place Deck

In second place is Charizard, based around the Charizard ex from Obsidian Flames! The main strategy of this deck is to evolve your Charizards as quickly as possible to flood your board with energies and then swing with them for big damage. At it's core this is a very straightforward and effective plan of attack.

Charizard ex is also quite hard and unrewarding to kill, as it has so much hp (330!) and Charizard's attack gets stronger the more prizes the opponent has taken, which means the more they fight back the harder you can retaliate.

But it would be unfair to say that Charizard is the only thing going for this deck! To help things come together, Pidgeot can search for a missing combo piece every turn and Boss's Orders can be used defensively to knock out the most threatening part of an opponent's board!

Another thing to keep in mind is that Charizard is a Dark type due to it's tera type. This means that it is grass weak and not water weak. There aren't many good Grass attackers available in the game right now, which really gives this deck an edge!

Deck Breakdown:

  • Pokemon: 9
    • 4 Charmander OBF 26
    • 2 Arceus VSTAR BRS 123
    • 2 Arceus V BRS 122
    • 1 Manaphy BRS 41
    • 2 Pidgeot ex OBF 164
    • 2 Mew CEL 11
    • 2 Pidgey OBF 162
    • 1 Radiant Charizard PGO 11
    • 3 Charizard ex OBF 125
  • Trainer: 14
    • 4 Ultra Ball SVI 196
    • 1 Escape Rope BST 125
    • 4 Rare Candy SVI 191
    • 1 Lost Vacuum CRZ 135
    • 4 Battle VIP Pass FST 225
    • 3 Iono PAL 185
    • 3 Professor's Research SHF 60
    • 1 Super Rod PAL 188
    • 1 Choice Belt PAL 176
    • 2 Artazon PAL 171
    • 3 Boss's Orders PAL 172
    • 1 Path to the Peak CRE 148
    • 1 Mesagoza SVI 178
    • 1 Jacq SVI 175
  • Energy: 2
    • 10 Basic {R} Energy Energy 2
    • 1 Gift Energy LOR 171

Lost Box Giratina - Third Place Deck

In third place is once again Giratina Lost Box! This really just reiterates how strong this deck is in the current rotation. In the hands of any experienced player, this deck really shines!

Deck Breakdown:

  • Pokemon: 8
    • 3 Giratina V LOR 130
    • 4 Comfey LOR 79
    • 1 Medicham V EVS 83
    • 3 Giratina VSTAR LOR 131
    • 2 Sableye LOR 70
    • 1 Manaphy BRS 41
    • 1 Radiant Greninja ASR 46
    • 1 Cramorant LOR 50
  • Trainer: 13
    • 3 Switch Cart ASR 154
    • 2 Escape Rope BST 125
    • 1 Thorton LOR 167
    • 1 Pokégear 3.0 SSH 174
    • 4 Battle VIP Pass FST 225
    • 1 Iono PAL 185
    • 3 Path to the Peak CRE 148
    • 2 Super Rod PAL 188
    • 1 Roxanne ASR 150
    • 4 Mirage Gate LOR 163
    • 3 Nest Ball SVI 181
    • 4 Colress's Experiment LOR 155
    • 2 Boss's Orders PAL 172
  • Energy: 4
  • 3 Basic {G} Energy Energy 1
  • 3 Basic {W} Energy Energy 3
  • 4 Basic {P} Energy Energy 5
  • 3 Jet Energy PAL 190

Miraidon ex - Fourth Place Deck

Last but not least is the Miradion deck that took 4th place! This deck is notable as it can consistently swing on the first turn for solid damage with any of the lightning attackers!

The deck is designed to ramp energy onto your board over a few turns with the likes of Electric Generator and Flaaffy! Then once you have enough energies on board, you can swing with Raichu V for big damage!

Like a lot of decks in the Meta right now, this decklist includes Path to the Peak, which is great for shutting off abilities and slowing down your opponent!

Deck Breakdown:

  • Pokemon: 8
    • 3 Miraidon ex SVI 81
    • 2 Mareep EVS 54
    • 2 Flaaffy EVS 55
    • 2 Raikou V BRS 48
    • 2 Raichu V BRS 45
    • 1 Zeraora SIT 56
    • 1 Zapdos PGO 29
    • 1 Squawkabilly ex PAL 169
  • Trainer: 14
    • 4 Professor's Research SVI 189
    • 3 Boss's Orders PAL 172
    • 2 Iono PAL 185
    • 2 Judge SVI 176
    • 1 Arven SVI 166
    • 4 Electric Generator SVI 170
    • 4 Ultra Ball SVI 196
    • 2 Escape Rope BST 125
    • 1 Switch CRZ 144
    • 1 Nest Ball SVI 181
    • 2 Bravery Charm PAL 173
    • 2 Forest Seal Stone SIT 156
    • 3 Path to the Peak CRE 148
    • 1 Beach Court SVI 167
  • Energy: 1
    • 14 Basic {L} Energy Energy 12

We hope that this blog was useful to those local players out there! Credit to LimitlessTCG for the decklist images used!

Don't forget to check out the wide selection of single cards on our site if you're looking to try out any of these awesome decks! Alternatively, you can click the button below to browse our entire range of Pokemon products!