Meta Recap - September 11th

Welcome to the third weekend of Team Rocket’s Ambition! We are four days away from Ranked, and only one day away from PMPT #46, which you should definitely sign up for. This is usually the point in a season where the top decks are locked in for the final half, which we normally see in the third PMPT of the set.

There is plenty of diversity in the top placements of the tournaments we will highlight today, however. Though there will always be a primary “good” deck or two in tier lists from your favorite creators, nothing is set in stone for this weekend. In this article we’re going to look at winners of standard tournaments since Maddy’s last Meta Report to today with 32+ players. Let’s get to it!

Altaria

1. ×2Happiny
2. ×2Mega Altaria ex
3. ×2Swablu
4. ×1Furfrou
5. ×1Oricorio
6. ×2Copycat
7. ×2Poké Ball
8. ×2Professor's Research
9. ×1Cyrus
10. ×1Field Blower
11. ×1Lisia
12. ×1Lucky Ice Pop
13. ×1Sabrina
14. ×1Training Area

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Variations of Mega Altaria ex won four of the qualifying tournaments in the past few days. The above list from Seedax won a 118-player tourney using Happiny over the usually Chingling. Though Altaria Box isn’t the most popular version of the deck, it has seen solid results since its win last weekend.

Sleep Altaria, however, still runs strong. It took both gold and silver at Block Dragon today, and still holds a 5.2% share of the meta in the past three days. It also holds the highest overall win rate with a 57% positive performance. Unsurprisingly, its worst matchup is against Vespiquen.

Lastly, Altaria Greninja is making a comeback. Chartrheu won the DR KELP’S CHUM BUCKET POP UP with an 8-1 finish. Algren has always been good, but this list opts into using a single Bonsly and discard Oricorio instead of the standard Chingling.

MagCorio / Miraidon

1. ×2Magnemite
2. ×2Magneton
3. ×2Magnezone
4. ×2Oricorio
5. ×1Miraidon ex
6. ×2Poké Ball
7. ×2Professor's Research
8. ×1Clemont
9. ×1Copycat
10. ×1Cyrus
11. ×1Lisia
12. ×1Lucky Ice Pop
13. ×1Pokémon Center Lady
14. ×1Professor Turo

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𝗙𝗚𝗥 || Sinorci200’s impressive 9-0-1 record to win the Sauna X Ev4de POG Tournament #27 displays the best variant of this archetype I’ve seen yet. Esdeath piloted and won with this same list at the IMPERIUM TOURNAMENT, and the same for FrogEX | Atomiix at the Umbreon99’s Team Rocket’s Bash.

Why play Magnezone with Oricorio or Magnezone with Miraidon, when you can just play it all? This efficient list has everything it needs and nothing more - the Professor Turo helps the bad starts with Miraidon ex while the Lisia and Clemont help you find your mag line. It’s tied with Sleep Altaria at 5.2% of the metashare, while maintain and overall win rate of 53% in the past three days.

Hydreigon

1. ×2Deino
2. ×2Hydreigon
3. ×1Bombirdier
4. ×1Mega Absol ex
5. ×2Copycat
6. ×2Lucky Ice Pop
7. ×2Poké Ball
8. ×2Professor's Research
9. ×2Rare Candy
10. ×2Rocky Helmet
11. ×1Cyrus
12. ×1Sabrina

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Do you see anything interesting about this Hydreigon list that won a tournament with 158 players? Murphy’s didn’t include Deceptive Needle, choosing the classic double Rocky Helmet instead!

If anything, the ten wins and two losses show that reading the meta and knowing which tech cards to include are more important than piloting the same 20 cards as everyone else. Its only losses were against Mega Lucario, however attaching the helmets to the Ice Pop connoisseurs helped in every other matchup where aggression became the opponent’s downfall.

Blaziken / Greninja

1. ×2Mega Blaziken ex
2. ×2Torchic
3. ×1Combusken
4. ×1Froakie
5. ×1Furfrou
6. ×1Greninja
7. ×1Heatmor
8. ×2Copycat
9. ×2Poké Ball
10. ×2Professor's Research
11. ×2Rare Candy
12. ×1Cyrus
13. ×1Flame Patch
14. ×1X Speed

See this deck on PocketMads

Highroll still has a place in the meta, and 𝗠𝗮𝗴𝗺𝗮 TheViice shows it with this victory against 118 other competitors.

TheViice opts out of using a stadium and Castform, replacing it with the double headbutt Furfrou and an X Speed. Though I will probably always call double stage 2 decks highroll, there’s no denying the results against a field of more consistent decks. Fire is a great choice amongst the 8% of grass decks overall seen in the past three days, and increasing your damage ceiling with a single Gren line makes your most favorable matchups near impossible to lose.

Mega Charizard

1. ×2Charmander
2. ×2Charmeleon
3. ×2Entei ex
4. ×1Mega Charizard Y ex
5. ×2Flame Patch
6. ×2Poké Ball
7. ×2Professor's Research
8. ×2Rainbow Cave
9. ×1Copycat
10. ×1Giant Cape
11. ×1Lucky Ice Pop
12. ×1Pokémon Center Lady
13. ×1Wally

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Speaking of fire decks, shu0802 overcame The Breakfast Club Nightly Labor Day Spec with a 9-2 record. I’ve spoken a lot recently about this perennial deck, however it is worth noting that shu802’s cook ran two Rainbow Cave instead of the usual one. That with double Flame Patch and a single Wally ensured the endgame was always achievable. This is the best Charizard has ever been, and I would highly recommend checking out this list if you’ve never piloted Char and Entei before.

Chien-Pao

1. ×2Eevee ex
2. ×2Feebas
3. ×2Milotic ex
4. ×1Chien-Pao ex
5. ×1Vaporeon
6. ×1Vaporeon ex
7. ×2Copycat
8. ×2Poké Ball
9. ×2Professor's Research
10. ×1Field Blower
11. ×1Giant Cape
12. ×1Soothing Shore
13. ×1Training Area
14. ×1Wallace

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There are two water decks that won this past week, both using Chien-Pao as their finisher. Team_humble piloted the classic Suicune Baxcalibur build to nine wins and one tie and won, while PGX | Semant1c got gold with a 9-1-1 record.

Maddy has highlighted the above deck already, but it’s worth showing off again. There are several ways to play water, but the end goal is 90% of the time firing off Chien-Pao ex. The Vaporeon cook above does so through powering up Milotic exs and moving energy around with Vaporeon. Vaporeon ex is there for disruption. Though it may seem like this deck has many moving parts, it comes together nicely and consistently.

Mega Manectric / Heliolisk

1. ×2Heliolisk
2. ×2Helioptile
3. ×2Mega Manectric ex
4. ×1Electrike
5. ×2Clemont
6. ×2Clemont's Backpack
7. ×2Poké Ball
8. ×2Professor's Research
9. ×1Copycat
10. ×1Cyrus
11. ×1Elegant Cape
12. ×1Field Blower
13. ×1Training Area

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Flipinton went undefeated at DR. KELP’S CHUM BUCKET POP UP! Don’t dismiss this because of the 59 player count - that’s still nine rounds of consistent wins.

There’s not much to say about this list that I haven’t already mentioned in previous articles. It’s still solid and it works! I plan on running this in Ranked this upcoming week for its potential quick wins and rapid setup.

Mega Lucario

1. ×2Mega Lucario ex
2. ×2Riolu
3. ×1Bonsly
4. ×1Hitmonlee
5. ×1Lucario
6. ×2Copycat
7. ×2Poké Ball
8. ×2Professor's Research
9. ×1Arena of Antiquity
10. ×1Cyrus
11. ×1Field Blower
12. ×1Korrina
13. ×1Pokémon Center Lady
14. ×1Protective Poncho
15. ×1X Speed

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Mega Lucario is still the top dog this season, with a whopping 9.1% representation these past three days, and an 8.3% representation this past week. In fact, 𝗠𝗢𝗡⭐| Suede placed first in Umbreon99’s Manic Monday, beating out three other MLucs in top 8. It also placed first, second, and fifth in The Breakfast Club Nightly #4, and won the The Breakfast Club Daily #5 literally the next day!

My original article still stands - build Lucario how you want to based on your preference and the metagame tab on PocketMads.com.

Conclusion

This was a great week for the competitive scene of Pocket! I love seeing as many tournaments as we’ve had as well as the long list of different victors. Good luck at PMPT #46!