What to play? Top 5 Pokemon TCG Decks in the meta right now! (2024)

The Pokemon TCG has by far one of the most active communities of any TCG, with Regionals and Worlds bringing players together from everywhere. Each event is massive and guarantees players always have a great time. We know it can be a bit intimidating for newcomers trying to get into the competitive scene! With so many decks to choose from it can often be overwhelming! So how do you know what decks to learn and which ones are hot right now? We have compiled a list of the top 5 playable decks that are being played right now in Pokemon TCG.

Credit for the images and decklists for this blog goes to LimitlessTCG, a site that shows results from the latest Regionals, Internationals and even results from Worlds. Not only does it show you the winners and their results, but it also shows you their decks as well as breaking down what those decks consisted of!

Miraidon Flaaffy

First up, we have the Miraidon Flaaffy deck! This Electric deck will cause a shock to any opponent’s system; literally! It's said that it's better to build a deck around a gimmick instead of an energy, and Electric Generator is that gimmick.

Electric Generator allows you to look at the top 5 cards of your deck and attach up to 2 Electric Energy cards you find there to your Benched Electric Pokemon in any way you like. Being able to attach your energy cards like this means you can attack earlier, as you’re completely avoiding the usual issue of only attaching 1 energy per turn. Flaaffy helps power up your benched Pokemon with its Dynamotor ability, whilst Miraidon does a something similar with it's Tandem Unit ability.

Miraidon ex also hits hard with it's Photon Blaster attack that does a colossal 220 damage! This deck feels so good to play when you use the cards right and has so many powerful cards that you'll feel unbeatable! To get your key Pokemon out on the field , you'll need to use a combination of Ultra Ball, Nest Ball, and Miraidon ex’s ability to search your Electric types straight out of the deck! Overall we highly recommend checking out more about this deck and maybe giving it a go yourself in your next game!

Gardevoir

At number 4 on our list is a deck that is based around one Pokemon in particular! The Pokemon in question is none other than Gardevoir ex! This deck has to run the full evolution chain with Ralts, Kirlia and Gardevoir ex. Usually you'll skip straight to Stage 2 by using a Rare Candy, but don't be too hasty to rule out Kirlia, as this can be really strong too. The main concept of this deck is to get as many Kirlia and Gardevoirs out as possible.

Ralts is the foundation of this deck as it evolves into everything important. One cool point to mention about this card is you can switch it out for any benched Pokemon, but this is only really useful for keeping the Ralts itself alive. As mentioned before, Kirlias are vital to this deck and there are 2 types in this deck. There are 3 Kirlia cards with the Refinement ability; an ability that is an immediate catch as it discards 1 card to draw 2 more; very very strong in the TCG. The second Kirlia card has a very interesting move with Mirage Step. Mirage Step lets you search your deck for up to 3 Kirlia and put them onto your Bench. This being a Gardevoir deck means that this card is a little broken as it gives you guaranteed ways to fill up your bench (and with just 1 psychic energy as a cost, it would be silly not to include it in your decklist).

The Gardevoir ex card is mostly used for its Psychic Embrace ability. As often as you like during your turn, you may attach a Basic Psychic Energy card from your discard pile to 1 of your Psychic Pokemon. A small downside is that if you attached Energy to a Pokémon in this way, you then put 2 damage counters on that Pokemon. You can't use this Ability on a Pokemon that would be Knocked Out. Good thing we've got a load of Kirlia's benched that could help discard those psychic energies! The other Gardevoir card in this deck will use the Brainwave attack, dealing 60 damage as a base with an additional 30 more damage for each Psychic energy attached to it. Attack cards in this deck include the Zacian V with an attack identical to the Brainwave Gardevoir.

Roaring Moon

Considered one of the best decks to come out of Paradox Rift, it's no surprise that the Roaring Moon deck is ranked at number 3 on this list. Off the bat the main draw to this deck is the overwhelming Roaring Moon ex card. At a glance you'll quickly see why this card is breaking the game!

Frenzied Gouging lets players Knock Out your opponent's Active Pokemon, which we think is absolutely insane. Even more so that this can happen the first turn! The only downside to this is that if your opponent's Active Pokemon is Knocked Out in this way, Roaring Moon does 200 damage to itself. This can however be remedied by Ancient Booster Energy Capsule, giving any attached ancient Pokemon another 60 HP. Speaking of the Ancient Booster Energy Capsule, there's one card that isn't in this deck that we recommend you could add, the Brute Bonnet card, which poisons both active Pokemon, and only works when the Energy capsule is attached to it. It's Rampaging Hammer attack also does 120 damage so may be worth working into this deck if you decide to play it. Every card in this deck is there to support and help the Roaring Moon ex card, but as long as you take out your opponent's card in the first round you should find it pretty smooth sailing. It's fast and it's ferociously powerful but what deck has our number 2 spot?

Giratina Lost Zone

Missing out on the top spot is the Giratina Lost Zone deck. This deck is great for late game where you can play a slew of cards in a row and demolish your opponent. It brings everything together that other Lost Zone decks do and blows the other decks out of the water. Like other Lost Zone decks, this deck has Comfey at the forefront with its Flower Selecting ability. The main difference between this deck and the others is the inclusion of Giritatina VSTAR!

But why is Giratina VSTAR so powerful!? First off its Lost Impact attack does a staggering 280 damage, allowing players to put 2 energy attached to your Pokemon in the Lost Zones - utilizing the lost zone to get the most out of your other cards. Giratina V has a similar function to Abyss Seeking, letting players look at the top 4 cards of their deck and putting 2 of them in the Lost Zone. Building up the Lost Zone in this way is important to how you'll attack further down the line.

The basic strategy of the deck relies on a combination of several cards. The first of these is Path to the Peak, looking at this card you'll see that Pokemon with a Rule Box in play (both yours and your opponent's) have no Abilities. This is great as if your opponent does rely on these, which many decks do, they're now rendered useless. The next important card to play is Roxanne. You can use this card only if your opponent has 3 or fewer Prize cards remaining. Each player shuffles their hand into their deck. Then, you draw 6 cards, and your opponent draws 2 cards. you get more cards which is always amazing but more importantly your opponent only gets to draw 2 cards. This puts you in a position now where if you can attack them hard they'll be fairly powerless to retaliate.

After using Roxanne it's then up to you which hard-hitting Pokemon you'll want to use. Sableye has its Lost Mine attack, which you can only use if you have 10 cards in the Lost Zone. The attack lets you put 12 damage counters on your opponent's Pokemon in any way you like. Another great option would be the Cramorant and it's Lost Provisions ability, where as long as you have 4 cards in the Lost Zone, you ignore all Energy in the Pokemon's attack cost! With an attack damage of 110 this is a card we strongly recommend you use.

The star of this deck is definitely Giratina VSTAR and its awesome VSTAR Power! VSTAR Powers can only be used once per game. Star Requiem allows players to knock out their opponents' active Pokemon. This comes at a heavy price however, needing a whopping10 cards in the Lost Zone, but once again this should be easy with Comfey, Colress's Experiment and more Lost Zone cards, especially later in the game.

Charizard

Now it's time to dive into the best deck that is currently being played in the Pokemon TCG! The number 1 deck is of course the Charizard deck! This deck is a little anticlimactic in terms of play as the aim of this deck is simple: get Charizard onto the battlefield and destroy your opponent.

With the Charizard ex's whopping 330 HP and Burning Darkness attack, you literally have nothing to fear. Burning Darkness does 180 damage with an extra 30 damage for every prize card your opponent has taken. It only costs 2 fire energy and is easily one of the best cards to come from Pokemon in recent memory. You'll want to utilize Pidgeot's ability that lets you search your deck for 1 card every turn, giving you access you find that missing piece that you may need!

Staples

You may have noticed that some cards have appeared on several of these decklists. These are cards that are generally just so good that they tend to be included in every deck! We call these cards staples and definitely recommend picking up a playset (that's 4 for the uninitiated) so that you can use them to construct a number of epic decks!

The best staples to pickup are:

• Ultra Ball
• Vip Pass
• Professor's Research
• Iono
• Nest Ball
• Colress's Experiment
• Boss's Orders
• Super Rod

If you want to start building one of these epic decks for your next Pokemon tournament then make sure to check out our expansive range of single cards and sealed products by clicking the button below!