Gardevoir Finally Loses — Meta Landscape and Updates for Portland
The new post-rotation format is well under way, with the Milwaukee Regional Championships just concluding. Notably, this was the first major event in this format in which Gardevoir ex did not win. Many were skeptical about Gardevoir after it lost access to the Refinement Kirlia, but this did not seem to matter. Gardevoir won the first three major tournaments of the post-rotation format, showing that it's still on top even without its trademark draw support. Gardevoir ex's Ability is just broken. Psychic Embrace is definitely one of the most powerful Abilities ever printed on a Pokemon card, and the designers saw fit to give the deck access to insanely powerful single-prize attackers that have perfect synergy with Psychic Embrace, not to mention Munkidori.
Henry Chao won Atlanta Regionals with a Gardevoir build that included N's Zoroark, which seemed to be an attempt to replicate Kirlia's Refinement. However, Brent Tonisson's straightforward list simply maxes out the draw Supporters and utilizes Cleffa for early-game stability. This build has become the more popular and successful one as of late. After winning Monterrey, Brent lost in Top 8 of Milwaukee, leaving the door open for something else to finally win a tournament.
Today I will be discussing the direction of the metagame and the implications of recent tournaments. Things have shaped up to be quite interesting, as the meta has significantly deviated from the early indicators that Japan provided. There are still a few major tournaments using the current format. Even after the new set comes out, things won't change as much as with a full rotation.
Dragapult ex
Throughout every single tournament of this format, Dragapult ex has remained the most popular archetype. The deck is split between Dusknoir and non-Dusknoir variants, with the non-Dusknoir build becoming more and more popular with each passing tournament. Dragapult started off strong with five of the Top 8 spots in Atlanta, and more or less held on to that dominance with half of the asymmetrical top cut spots in Milwaukee. It has multiple second places but no wins thus far. Nonetheless, it's fair to say that Dragapult is the frontrunner of the metagame, and you'll almost certainly play against multiple of them in any tournament run.
My thoughts on Dragapult ex can be summed up as the following: It's the best deck in a vacuum but has no good matchups. When thinking about Dragapult, I would very much like to avoid playing against Gardevoir, Gholdengo ex, Raging Bolt ex, and Joltik, as each of these matchups are rough.
This begs the question: what does Dragapult actually beat? It has bad matchups, but the deck is so fundamentally strong that it cobbles together wins on that merit alone. Personally, I would never play the deck in the current meta, unless I could find a way to counter at least half of the aforementioned matchups. Toedscruel is a tech that catches my eye, though it is a bit high-maintenance. It should theoretically counter Gholdengo and Gardevoir, but I don't know how reliable it is. Genesect is supposed to deal with Gholdengo, but in reality, it is more of an annoyance than a hard counter.
Dragapult lists became standardized very quickly, and frankly I'm surprised it hasn't been left in the dust yet. I suppose the deck is good and popular, as well as heavily represented by strong players. I would not expect Dragapult stocks to go up in the future, but it hasn't shown any signs of slowing down in terms of results, so I might be wrong.
Verdict: Don't play it because it loses to everything.
Gardevoir ex
Gardevoir ex has been steadily creeping upwards in popularity, which is no surprise because it has won every tournament besides Milwaukee. Gardevoir is a powerful, no-nonsense deck that is difficult to counter. Mediocre decks such as N's Zoroark ex and Joltik have emerged simply because they're the only things that can actually deal with Gardevoir. Gardevoir is the format's gatekeeper, stifling decks like Archaludon ex, Flareon ex, Terapagos ex, Froslass, and even Raging Bolt ex (though one did slip through and win Milwaukee).
Gardevoir ex has one defining trait that makes it one of the best decks in the format: its ability to play either a fast or a slow game. This is an exceedingly rare attribute, and I believe it sets Gardevoir apart as the best deck, in my opinion. Dragapult ex's slowness opens it up to getting run off the board. The standardized Brent list plays tons of explosive draw Supporters, along with Secret Box, Rare Candy, and plenty of Earthen Vessel. These parts of the list can make Gardevoir fast, allowing it to keep up with the likes of Iron Hands ex or Raging Bolt ex and eventually out-trade them. On the other hand, Budew, Scream Tail, and multiple Munkidori make Gardevoir the most threatening deck imaginable in a slower-paced game.
Finally, Gardevoir ex also has a great matchup spread. It is fully capable of handling Dragapult ex, goes about even or slightly worse into Gholdengo ex, and pretty much beats everything else that isn't designed to counter it. Gardevoir is a deck I would always highly consider playing. I think a Flutter Mane tech could be strong for the mirror match. Most lists only play one Professor Turo's Scenario, and they do not play Boss's Orders. If you are behind on Prizes, they cannot push your Flutter Mane out of the Active Spot. You can use it to spread damage or trap their Gardevoir ex. Flutter Mane could also be useful against Dragapult to spread damage or against Latias ex decks to trap their Latias.
Verdict: Play it with three copies of Rare Candy and (maybe) Flutter Mane.
This concludes the public portion of this article.
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