The Pokémon Company is continuing to reveal new details regarding the 2025 Pokémon Championship Series. Read on below to learn more:
Find out what decks competitors are looking toward for the final Championship Series event of the season.
The upcoming North America International Championships are certainly going to be big, and there’s a whole new card set ready to shake up the meta. Classic powerhouses Gardevoir ex and Dragapult ex are expected to perform well, but newcomers like Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex and a variety of Team Rocket’s Pokémon cards are likely to make an impact. Our panel of experts, Christopher Schemanske, Tord Reklev, Natalie Millar, Stéphane Ivanoff, and Ellis Longhurst power rank the decks to beat and share their parting shots going into the final event of the 2025 Pokémon Championship Series.
The North America International Championships take place June 13–15, 2025, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Huge prizes are on the line as well as those all-important Championship Points—it’s the last chance for competitors to make up ground and earn an invitation to the World Championships in August. If you can’t attend in person, you can watch all three days of action from New Orleans on Twitch.tv/PokemonTCG!
If one deck has dominated the landscape of the 2025 Championship Series season, it’s Gardevoir ex. While the season has seen Gardevoir ex ebb and flow, it certainly has had more ups than downs. Brent Tonisson has been the face of Gardevoir ex’s late season triumph, picking up a pair of Regional Championship titles in the last few weeks, but he’s far from the only competitor to see meaningful success with it. It’s a popular choice for some of the game’s best competitors because it offers a lot of play options, and that versatility puts it in a stellar position to succeed at NAIC.
Heading into New Orleans, the deck would require attention even if only for the sheer level of success it’s seen late in the season—generally, momentum is a real thing in the metagame! The question arises: how will Scarlet & Violet—Destined Rivals impact Gardevoir ex? The range of options presented by Scream Tail, Drifloon, and Lillie’s Clefairy ex make it hard to see Gardevoir ex falling far; when you can throw a one-Prize Pokémon into the Active Spot to do 300 damage, you sometimes don’t care what your opponent is doing! Scarlet & Violet—Destined Rivals doesn’t introduce any clear enemies for Gardevoir ex, so the only change I’d be worried about as a competitor is poor matchups like Charizard ex becoming more popular. Even so, Gardevoir ex is a clear top option in my mind. Bonus: Shaymin is a nice boost out of Scarlet & Violet—Destined Rivals to keep a setup from taking too much damage on the Bench. — Christopher Schemanske
Ever since its debut at last year’s NAIC, Dragapult ex has been a huge part of the format. The card has been implemented in a lot of different decks over the past year, but it soared to new heights after the release of Budew. Itchy Pollen is great for slowing down the game, giving Dragapult ex time to evolve and attach enough Energy manually.
The biggest question these days concerns the pairing of Dragapult ex. Should it be played alone, or is partnering up with Dusknoir or even Charizard ex the best way to go?
Judging from the last couple of events, it seems like the straight variant of focusing solely on Dragapult ex is becoming the most successful way to play this deck. With that said, Gardevoir ex is a huge threat for Dragapult ex right now, with Lillie’s Clefairy ex giving an easy way to Knock Out the big beast. Gardevoir ex has been tearing apart the most recent events around the globe and is becoming more popular by the minute. Both Dusknoir and Charizard ex help greatly against Gardevoir ex, making a solid argument for their inclusion as a partner.
Sadly, everything comes at a cost, and these variants seem to struggle more when going up against other more streamlined Dragapult ex decks.
I don’t think there is much doubt that we will see Dragapult ex as a big contender to win NAIC, but I am very curious which direction competitors will go. — Tord Reklev
Raging Bolt ex has always been one of the most played decks, but this might be the strongest it has ever been. The Raging Bolt ex deck changed a ton with rotation, now including the Noctowl engine and non-Pokémon ex Raging Bolt from Scarlet & Violet—Stellar Crown for an extra attacking option. Raging Bolt gives this deck a completely different angle to play the game with, as you can put significant pressure on your opponent’s Benched Pokémon with Thunderburst Storm without having to discard Energy or play cards to bring up Benched Pokémon, allowing you to focus on setting up your board without having to put cards into getting your attack each turn.
Raging Bolt ex plays almost like two different decks in this format. With one approach, you can still use Raging Bolt ex’s Bellowing Thunder to just KO your opponent’s active Pokémon each turn, and you can aggressively begin the Prize trade by searching for Prime Catcher with Noctowl’s Jewel Seeker. Or with the other approach, you can use the single-Prize option with the non-Pokémon ex Raging Bolt if your opponent doesn’t have many Pokémon ex in play early. These options, along with the consistency provided by Noctowl, have made the Raging Bolt ex deck one of the most popular decks in Japan as of late, and I think this is likely to translate over to NAIC! — Natalie Millar
The only completely new deck on our list, Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex is reminiscent of Charizard ex: a powerful Darkness-type attacker that accelerates Energy onto itself. While its damage is capped at 180 plus 30 on a Benched Pokémon, that’s enough to KO Gardevoir ex—one of the best Pokémon in the game—due to its Weakness. And against decks that can easily withstand this amount of damage, like Dragapult ex, Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex can easily be played alongside Munkidori and Froslass to spread more damage and KO an opponent’s low-HP Pokémon, or you can set up for a Technical Machine: Devolution play to wipe out their whole board.
Another advantage that this deck has over other Stage-2 Pokémon is Spikemuth Gym Stadium card. This Stadium makes it easier to find Marnie’s Morgrem and Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex, even when under the effect of Budew’s Itchy Pollen.
This deck’s strength is that it has multiple ways to win games, depending on the matchup. It could simply attack for 180 damage every turn or it could accumulate damage, maybe while locking an opponent with Budew. This versatility makes it especially dangerous for anyone ill-prepared. It’s yet to be determined if competitors manage to adapt in time to this new threat—if they don’t, I believe Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex has the potential to win the whole event. — Stéphane Ivanoff
Gholdengo ex has always seemed like the comic relief of the competitive Pokémon TCG scene, with its wacky aesthetic and flash-in-the-pan style of attack. However, the inbuilt draw power, low set-up investment, and high damage ceiling of this Pokémon lays the foundation for a strong archetype, and competitors continue to find ways for Gholdengo ex to compete with the decks mentioned above.
Investing in a stronger draw engine is a popular method to achieve success, with particularly high interest in Drakloak and Ethan’s Quilava. Both Pokémon have once-per-turn Abilities that could put Energy cards into your hand, and both evolve into a powerful Stage 2 attacking option. Dragapult ex is the pick of those two because the damage counters from Phantom Dive enable more versatile gameplay and reduce the number of Energy cards that Gholdengo ex needs to discard to take a big Knock Out.
Gholdengo ex also has strategies to protect its assets from the top performing decks. Jamming Tower prevents Gardevoir ex from earning a Prize card advantage by Knocking Out Gholdengo ex with a Drifloon plus Bravery Charm combination, and Professor Turo’s Scenario clears accumulated damage from one Pokémon. In addition, Munkidori can deny Dragapult ex decks a four-Prize card turn by moving damage counters away from Gholdengo ex, making it easier to one-hit Knock Out a Pokémon ex with 280 Hit Points via Make It Rain.
Who will have the last laugh? If opponents do not time their hand disruption perfectly, then I think it will be Gholdengo ex. — Ellis Longhurst
Christopher Schemanske: As competitors around the world prepare to gather in New Orleans, Louisiana, for the largest International Championships event so far, a few hundred competitors will be eyeing their standing in a different competition as well—the race for invitations to the World Championship. With a shift this season to invitations being based on rating rather than Championship Point total, there are more competitors than ever watching the Championship Point standings closely. I’m really excited to see the extra edge this brings to competition at NAIC this year and for the different look of competition at this year’s World Championship.
This year’s Junior and Senior Championships are among the largest ever too. Especially for those competitors in their final year before aging up to the next age division, NAIC represents a legacy-defining opportunity. Across all pillars and ages, this NAIC promises to be one to remember.
If you told me 10 years ago that we would be in New Orleans looking at a Pokémon TCG tournament with nearly 5,000 competitors across the three age divisions, I never would’ve believed it. If you’re among those making the trip to New Orleans, whether as a spectator, competitor, staff member, or production team, it bears remembering just how awesome it is to be part of something this significant to so many. Best of luck to everyone at NAIC!
Tord Reklev: The highly anticipated Team Rocket–themed expansion Scarlet & Violet—Destined Rivals will have its debut at NAIC. A deck that didn’t make it into our top 5 but which still has a lot of potential is the Team Rocket’s deck, which is focused around Team Rocket’s Spidops and Team Rocket’s Mewtwo ex. Team Rocket’s Spidops being a Grass-type attacker is huge in the current format, as it can easily Knock Out Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex and Charizard ex thanks to Weakness. Cynthia’s Garchomp ex, another strong contender from Scarlet & Violet—Destined Rivals, also happens to have a Weakness to Grass types.
The Team Rocket’s deck also has some of the strongest Supporter cards in the game, specifically designed to work only with Team Rocket’s Pokémon. Team Rocket’s Ariana lets the deck draw a ton of cards, and Team Rocket’s Giovanni is in essence a reprint of Guzma, switching out both Active Pokémon for the preferred targets on both players’ Bench, by far the strongest snipe effect we ever had.
Team Rocket’s Articuno is also currently one of the only cards in the format that can stop Dragapult ex’s Phantom Dive from targeting the Bench. The Team Rocket cards have a lot going for them, and I think there is a slight chance we can see this deck “prepare for trouble” at NAIC.
Stéphane Ivanoff: The current Standard format is a very open one, and I think this will remain after the addition of Scarlet & Violet—Destined Rivals. Since the 2025 rotation, the most successful decks have been Gardevoir ex and Dragapult ex—which should remain very strong—but there are many other contenders beyond them and even beyond our top 5. For example, Joltik Box, which uses powerful attackers such as Iron Hands ex and Pikachu ex powered up by Joltik‘s Jolting Charge, has lost the element of surprise, but it’s still an aggressive deck that competitors have to respect. Flareon ex and Sylveon ex is a toolbox deck focused on Eevee’s Evolutions, and it has been surprisingly effective at times, so it will be interesting to see if someone can bring the deck to the top.
I want to highlight the Walls deck, which uses Pokémon such as Farigiraf ex, Milotic ex, and Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex to block the opponent’s attacks. These defensive Pokémon can make fearsome archetypes powerless thanks to their Abilities. For example, Raging Bolt ex has a lot of trouble dealing with Farigiraf ex, and Gholdengo ex struggles against Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex. This defensive archetype has proven effective in Japan, where it made top 16 or better at all three Champions Leagues held since rotation, but it has failed to establish itself in the West, possibly due to a bad Gardevoir ex matchup. Could the new metagame centered around Scarlet & Violet—Destined Rivals be the environment the deck needs to make a deep run?
Ellis Longhurst: Cautious excitement surrounds Team Rocket’s contribution to Scarlet & Violet—Destined Rivals. The package of Supporter cards is impressive, and the Pokémon have attacks and Abilities that facilitate a range of different strategies. Team Rocket’s Mimikyu and Team Rocket’s Watchtower will certainly have an immediate impact on the construction and popularity of decks that utilize Tera Pokémon and Noctowl.
But…forget Ethan and Team Rocket for a moment, because the truly destined rivals of NAIC 2025 are Henry Chao and Brent Tonisson. Both are currently challengers for first place on the global leaderboard for Championship Points, and both are masters of the Gardevoir ex archetype. Henry has won three Regional Championships with Gardevoir ex this season, while Brent has recorded two wins and a Top 8 with the deck in the past two months. These competitors placed 6th and 9th, respectively, with Gardevoir ex at NAIC last year and enter NAIC 2025 with the momentum of a post-rotation Regional Championships victory. Will they stay true to the archetype and repeat this success? And if so, who will walk away from this tournament as the best to declare Psychic Embrace? This is one of the many storylines of NAIC 2025 that you do not want to miss.
If Gardevoir ex becomes less popular due to being targeted, then I wonder how strong Dragapult ex will be. For most of this format Dragapult ex has been heavily played but has struggled to make deep runs against the Gardevoir ex competitors. If Gardevoir is targeted at NAIC, I wonder if Dragapult ex would be poised to make a bid for the title by dodging Gardevoir ex and focusing on being stronger against the other decks. Good luck if you’re playing in the event, and make sure you have games into Gardevoir!
Natalie Millar: While the Team Rocket deck hasn’t had much success in Japan, Scarlet & Violet—Destined Rivals does appear to shake up the metagame somewhat. The introduction of Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex has improved the Froslass deck significantly, and Team Rocket’s Watchtower is a very effective counter to the Noctowl engine. Shaymin is a big addition to the format and functions as an answer to both the non-Pokémon ex Raging Bolt and Scream Tail, as it protects your Benched non-Rule Box Pokémon from their sniping attacks.
Gardevoir ex is a deck that will be on everyone’s radar heading into NAIC due to the massive success it’s seeing at Regional Championships, however the deck is not infallible as Gholdengo ex and N’s Zoroark ex both have favorable matchups into the Psychic-type Pokémon. Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex also poses some issues for the deck, and with Shaymin reducing the effectiveness of Scream Tail, I wonder if many of its strongest soldiers will choose to pivot to other decks. Charizard ex and Dragapult ex also won the Aichi Champion’s League, which also appears to be built to counter Gardevoir ex due to Charizard being a Darkness type.
Christopher Schemanske
Christopher Schemanske is a contributing writer for Pokemon.com. He’s been playing the Pokémon TCG since 2010, with a streak of Worlds invitations between 2012–2018. Nowadays, he enjoys splitting his Pokémon time between playing and being part of the awesome Professor staff teams at major events.
Tord Reklev
Tord Reklev is a contributing writer for Pokemon.com. He is a longtime player from Norway, playing the game since he was 6 years old. In becoming Champion at the 2022 Latin America International Championships, Tord is the first player to win all four International Championships and complete the Grand Slam. Outside of the game, he is a student and enjoys playing tennis. You can find him at most big events and can follow him on X at @TordReklev.
Natalie Millar
Natalie has been playing Pokémon casually since late 2013 but started attending more competitive tournaments in late 2017. She won the first Regional Championships after the pandemic in her home city of Brisbane, Australia, and has been attending most major tournaments since. Outside of Pokémon, she studied psychology, but it doesn’t help with reading opponents as much as you would think. You can find her at most major tournaments and can follow her on X at @nataliem9999.
Stéphane Ivanoff
Stéphane Ivanoff is a contributing writer for Pokemon.com. A longtime Pokémon fan, he has played the Pokémon TCG competitively since 2010 and is a former National Champion, seven-time Worlds competitor, and the 2018 and 2019 North America International Champion in the Masters Division. He studied mathematics and has a degree in Probability and Statistics, but he says that doesn’t help his game as much as you’d think! You can follow him on X @lubyllule.
Ellis Longhurst
Ellis Longhurst is a contributing writer for Pokemon.com. She has been competing in high-level Pokémon TCG tournaments since 2006 and creating written content for the Pokémon community since 2011. Now she brings some Australian flavour to the Play! Pokémon commentary teams at the International and World Championships.
Source: Pokemon.com and The Pokémon Company
Source:Pokémon
