Looking Back at Ruler of the Skies
Ruler of the Skies has become one of my favorite sets since I began playing Pocket in March 2025, and I’m pretty confident that it’s the best set of B Series. An entire top cut was redefined with RotS: sleep decks took a backseat, Altaria wasn’t played as much as it used to, and there were several new stars making it to top cut every week.
Yet, slowly but surely, a meta was revealed of both new contenders and one, incredibly strong fighter reemerging from seasons past. Let’s take a look a each week of this amazing set to see where we have come from before heading into Team Rocket’s Ambition tonight!
Week 1 - Beginnings
The very first tournament with recorded deck lists on the night of Ruler’s release was won by qaz1018122 in a tournament of 87 players, playing Mega Sharpedo with Chien Pao and Suicune. Hydreigon was the most played deck in this tournament as it held on to its impressive dominance at the beginning of this season.
It did not take long, however, to show that there were strong opponents facing the good ol’ decks of last month. Vespiquen took its first victory that same night in a 221-player tournament, with a whopping 72% overall performance. Grass did well for itself with the likes of 
Mega Sceptile ex, however the new queen bee took many(read: me) by surprise as it showed both aggression and consistency in an easy-to-build boardstate.
One deck that was well represented during this first week that seemed to fall to the wayside is Heliolisk with Mega Manetric. Aggression was highly favored in this opening week, as people were still trying to figure out good combos and deck composition. 
Heliolisk setting up a strong finish for 
Mega Manectric ex became an easy-to-understand and fun archetype that, unfortunately, didn’t have the staying power it needed as the weeks continured. It was, however the most represented deck at PMPT #40, with a strong win rate to boot.
This was also the time we were all trying to figure out the best partner for 
Mega Rayquaza ex. I have admitted to underestimating the mega, and I’m so glad I was wrong; the meta improved by having good dragon support. This became evident in the next few big tournaments of the week, as Drampa helped bring home a gold in a 316-player tournament while Gouging Fire did the same against a field of 216 players.
Two major tournaments happened that weekend, with PMPT #40 housing 452 competitive gamers and the Dankest Cup holding 279. Jay’s monthly tournament was the very first in which a new powerhouse would rear its head - Hoopa Ex.
Week 2 - The Hoopa-ning
It wasn’t long until 
Hoopa ex began taking over the competitive scene. It became one of the most played decks during week two, winning multiple tournaments. This was even in spite of grass making a stand, as Hoopa’s bench sniping with minimal setup was both oppressive and controlling. It was so pervasive that a few different archetypes began shaping around the EX.
That’s not to say that other decks didn’t stand a chance. One thing I am thankful for in this set is that there wasn’t an over-dominance of a single deck archetype like in seasons past. Chandelure Oricorio was making a name for itself at the beginning of this second week, while old favorites like Miraidon and Mega Sceptile returned to the fray. RotS continued the trend of a diverse meta that we became comfortable with, while also introducing new, strong archetypes.
It is also in Week 2 that we began seeing the counter to Hoopa: Mega Lucario. The fighting icon took first place in PMPT 41 against a sea of dark decks in top 8. Lucario was already gaining steam before this weekend, however it proved itself to be one of the best in this meta in the longest-running tournament series that week, and was strongly represented in the largest community tournament happening at nearly the same time.
Week 3 - Consistency is King
Mega Lucario ex continued its upward rise in popularity by becoming the number one deck played in the meta. There was a clear shift this week from aggression to longevity as archetypes like Suicune with Baxcalibur saw an uptick in play. Butterfree and Mega Sceptile also was piloted more, as well as the ever-intimidating Mega Charizard.
That being said, there were clever cooks still around, such as Jacobjayyy’s Magnezone and Heliolisk aggro deck. A counter-meta that both maintained impressive performances in their own right and withstood Lucario began forming, which I detailed in this article last week.
The best snapshot of this week is from our very own PMPT #42, where we had all of our normal suspects filling up the metashare while also making room for archetypes like Korraidon with Great Tusk to place second.
Week 4 - Back to the Drawing Board
Sleep never left; it generously made space for other decks to shine. That couldn’t be more true with the second TCGP community tournament, where Sleep Altaria went undefeated. It did resurge as one of the top decks played this week, with two showing up in top eight of PMPT #43. It has won a handful of tournaments in this past week, as well, with the highest win rate in the past seven days. Sleep has always been a great answer to Mega Lucario, however it is impressive it stood against decks that run 
Teal Mask Ogerpon ex and still won.
Altaria began seeing play again outside of its bad dreams variant, pairing well with Greninja. Good ol’ Hydreigon also came back from the dead; though not truly gone it never had as much traction as it did this last week.
Golfermt, a decorated competitive player who has multiple PMPT victories under his belt as well as top 100 emblems in ranked, decided to upset the meta by creating the perfect counter - Oricorio, Indeedee, and Dedenne EX. He tried it out in the second TCGP community series, placing 6th, before bringing it to gold in the last PMPT of Ruler of the Skies. It’s inspired many others to pick up Oricorio again, and this deck proved that no meta is fully solved.
Final Thoughts
Once again, I absolutely loved what this set brought to the competitive scene of Pocket. Though Lucario stood out as one of the best decks of the meta, it shared the spotlight with dozens of viable decks made possible by RotS.
My hope is that tonight, as we crack open our red and black packs, we find a meta not too different from this one: one that encourages diversity in deck building and top cuts.
Let me know what you’ve pulled on Discord, and see you this Friday for some insights on Team Rocket’s Ambition!