Sacramento, Stuttgart, and Surging Sparks Shape the Meta

Hello everyone! Recently we’ve seen two Regionals take place in the new Surging Sparks format, and there were certainly some interesting results. Today I want to take a look at all of the major decks in this format, and discuss their positions in the meta going forward, as well as share my personal opinions on various lists and potential card inclusions.

Sacramento kicked things off in this new format, and the Top 8 seemed to perfectly showcase the duality of the metagame. In finals was a mirror match between two Miraidon ex decks. I was not too surprised by this, as Miraidon got significantly powered up by the new set, utilizing the combination of Pikachu ex and Area Zero Underdepths to solve Miraidon’s Bench space issues while simultaneously powering up Raikou V. Miraidon also enjoys Latias ex and Magneton, both of which are new cards that greatly increase the output and efficiency of the deck. Gholdengo ex also made its way into the top cut, including not only the new Energy Search Pro for consistency but also Togekiss to improve Prize trades.

The rest of Top 8 was five Regidrago VSTAR decks, showing that the tried and true meta powerhouse still has fangs despite not improving much from Surging Sparks. However, not all is the same, as Alolan Exeggutor ex found itself in many lists, adding to the litany of Dragon-type Pokemon that Regidrago draws power from. I think this change is rather insignificant, and I’m not even sure that Alolan Exeggutor is worth playing, even though I did play it myself at the tournament. Unfortunately, I somehow choked a 7-0 start, getting three unfortunate ties after that. Regidrago filled the top tables throughout the tournament. Even though it did not make finals, it’s still fair to say that Regidrago dominated Sacramento securing so many Top 8 spots. Finally, Charizard ex lost in asymmetrical top cut. Although Charizard can play Precious Trolley from the new set, most people agree that Unfair Stamp is still the better ACE SPEC for Charizard in the current meta. As such, there aren’t any new cards that Charizard commonly plays.

The following week’s Stuttgart Regionals showed us completely different results. The finals was also a mirror match, but this time between Charizard decks. The rest of Top 8 looks like something straight from a random League Cup: Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR / Noctowl, Gardevoir ex, Dragapult ex / Iron Thorns ex, Klawf, and two Gholdengo ex decks, of all things. I am quite surprised at this spattering of decks, and most notably an absence of Regidrago! Klawf seems to be the newest fad, utilizing a neat engine around Precious Trolley and Area Zero Underdepths. Day 2 of Stuttgart was littered with Klawf everywhere, yet only one made Top 8. Palkia / Noctowl was seen a little bit at LAIC, but never seemed to be a hugely popular meta deck. The Stuttgart list doesn’t add any cards from Surging Sparks, though perhaps it could make use of a Latias ex.

The Gardevoir list is very interesting, aiming to go second with a combination of Call Bell, Arven, and Precious Trolley alongside four Ultra Ball and Lumineon V. When going second, this should be very consistent at filling the board and getting a turn 1 Technical Machine: Evolution. The Dragapult Thorns deck also includes Trolley as its ACE SPEC for some reason, and plays a copy of Tera Orb as well, which makes sense to me. This is a very unusual deck that hasn’t seen much play before now, and for good reason.

Regidrago VSTAR

There’s no sugarcoating it, Regidrago VSTAR is the best deck.This is reflected in its status as the most popular deck at both Sacramento and Stuttgart. I think this deck is oppressive due to its versatility and the fact that it’s basically impossible to counter.

Regidrago’s combination of attackers are able to shut out a wide variety of other decks. Almost every cool or interesting deck suffers a poor Regidrago matchup. Regidrago’s Achilles’ heel has always been Raging Bolt ex , which remains popular, but its results are declining. Top players basically never play Raging Bolt, and even among others, there are many new and more interesting decks.

Sacramento was the first tournament this season where Raging Bolt actually wasn’t the most popular deck, though it was still around 11 percent meta share. Raging Bolt has failed to make top cut in the Surging Sparks format, and tends to fall off as one goes deeper into a tournament. As such, a Regidrago player might have to deal with one or two average Raging Bolt players, but if they survive that (which is possible), the rest of its matchups are pretty good. With the likes of Charizard ex, Klawf, and Gholdengo ex increasing in popularity and results, Regidrago is poised for success.

I was shocked to see no Regidrago in top cut of Stuttgart, as the meta seemed to be quite favorable for it. Nonetheless, there were still plenty in Day 2, and the margins for making cut are extremely thin under the new tournament structure. Most people are under the impression that Regidrago is unfavored against Miraidon ex. While this is a close and volatile matchup, playing it a few times has led me to believe that Regidrago is slightly favored. Regidrago has some occasional issues with speed and consistency, which Miraidon will always punish. However, when Regidrago gets to play its game, it has several strong options against Miraidon, which always remains its linear self.

I was surprised that I was the only Regidrago who was able to beat Landen, who won Sacramento with Miraidon. Perhaps I will discuss the matchup more in-depth in a future article. After playing some more Regidrago in this format, I believe I’ve nailed the list down. I think this is unequivocally the best deck in the Surging Sparks format:

This concludes the public portion of this article.

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