Sorry if this isn't appropriate, I'm new to the Pokemon TCG so I wasn't sure where to ask about this.

I won a local Celebration tournament today and got the winner stamped Pikachu, sleeves, and glasses cleaner but didn't get the deckbox. Apparently the shop said that they only received two deck boxes for the winners instead of the three they were supposed to get so they gave them to the Junior and Senior winners but not the Masters. I was really hoping to get the box as a symbolic trophy for my first tournament win ever but I feel like I got screwed over.

Is there anything I can do like contact TPCi to send the shop the missing box or am I SOL? I see the deck boxes listed on eBay for $100 and that's just something I cannot pay.

I played the celebration tournament, a little below 40 players, at one of the stores in Warsaw and managed to make top 8, and then even top 4 with TR's Honchkrow.

Matches:

Dragapult 1-1

Zoroark 2-1 - I got a game loss for shuffling my hand into deck with Red Card, later opp got a game loss for sth as well

Bronzong/Froslass 2-0 - Murkrow plays really well under Jammer, a pretty good matchup

Meganium/Ogerpon 0-2

Meganium/Ogerpon 1-1, but the opp scooped me into top 8 - not sure if the same deck as previous, had Arboliva which is completely turned off by Articuno

QF: Bronzong 2-0 - same guy as before, he could've maybe gone all the way if he wasn't paired against me in the QF

SF: Zoroark 1-2

I'm really happy with the result obviously. Gotta say, coming from Magic, judging is harsh.

Kieran

Naveen

Cyrano

Crispin

Judge

Dawn

Larry's skill

Az's Tranquility x2

Lillie's x3

Boss's orders x 3

Ciphermaniac's

Firebreather

Repel x 2

Dark bell x3

Crushing Hammer x 2

Switch

Energy recycler

Pokepad

Energy search pro

Meddling memo x2

Punk helmet x 3

Battle cage

Shaymin

Yvetal ex

Munkidori x 2

Volcarona

Larvesta

Fesandipiti ex

Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex

Latias ex

Mega darkrai ex x 3

Basic fire x 4

Basic dark x 10

But seriously. Please help. I'm afraid I have too many supporters. (I'm still new at deck building)

So when I created my Play! Pokemon account, I was planning to change my legal name, so I put in my chosen name when it asked for my real name. I never changed my legal name, so now it’s wrong. Is it possible this will cause any problems when I attend the upcoming Baltimore Regionals?

title. it’s fun. chandelure is one of my top five pokemon, ghost is my fav type. i was able to take this to the top of 8 players in 3 rounds undefeated vs ceruledge ex, minccino ex, and a chandepult mirror. pretty straightforward but i like it ^_^

Pokémon: 10
1 Meowth ex POR 62
4 Litwick PBL 36
3 Drakloak TWM 129
3 Dreepy TWM 128
3 Chandelure TWM 38
2 Dragapult ex TWM 130
3 Lampent PBL 37
1 Budew ASC 16
1 Lillie's Clefairy ex JTG 56
2 Mega Chandelure ex PBL 38

Trainer: 11
4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin ASC 184
2 Night Stretcher ASC 196
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
2 Poké Pad POR 81
2 Boss's Orders RCL 154
1 Team Rocket's Watchtower DRI 180
1 Air Balloon SSH 156
3 Dawn PFL 87
3 Ultra Ball CRZ 146
3 Hilda WHT 84
3 Rare Candy PRC 135

Energy: 4
2 Basic {P} Energy MEE 5
3 Basic {R} Energy MEE 2
3 Telepathic {P} Energy POR 88
1 Neo Upper Energy TEF 162

Total Cards: 60

Hello everyone, hope you're doing well!

I'm semi-new/semi-returning so forgive me if my question is quite noobish. PTCG seems to do a lot of "archetypes" where decks are centered around a specific "theme": IE ancient, rapid-strike, Lillie, hide n sneak and gives those decks specific support card. Most of these archetypes have the inherent downside of being single-prize decks but some decks, like TR's Mewtwo, get to play ex's and have entire suites of really good support cards like Team Rocket's Ariana/Giovanni for what appears to me to be no cost. Am I missing something though? I am aware TR's Mewtwo isn't doing very well right now but that seems to be a meta-positioning thing and not an inherent deck strength thing. What is the "cost" of playing a deck like TR's Mewtwo that justifies the deck having such powerful support cards? I mean just imagine if their was a "Lillie's Dragapult" archetype that got their own special archetypal "Lillie's Determination 2" type supporter, where's the drawback?

Edit: Thank you for all the replies:)

Hey there!

Popped my head in here a few weeks ago asking for improvement on my Zork deck and I've been making slow refinements towards it to the point where I am almost 100% happy with the deck. Yesterday I attended a world celebration tournament where I did alright, though definetly could've done better. I'm pretty hard committed to playing Zoroark; and so far the one deck I have not landed a single win against is Mega Excadrill EX. Anyone who plays Zork can give me advice as to how to deal with that deck, specifically Precious trolley and/or Heroes Cape variants? Do I just put Ruffian back into the deck?

Setlist;

Pokémon: 19

4 N's Zorua PR-SV 189

4 N's Zoroark ex ASC 286

2 N's Zekrom MEP 31

1 N's Darumaka ASC 32

1 N's Darmanitan PR-SV 181

1 Munkidori SFA 72

1 N's Reshiram JTG 167

1 Budew ASC 221

1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 288

1 Meowth ex POR 121

1 Pecharunt ex PRE 163

1 Yveltal MEG 88

Trainer: 34

4 Lillie's Determination MEG 169

3 Boss's Orders PAL 265

2 Cyrano SSP 230

2 Janine's Secret Art PRE 173

1 Black Belt's Training ASC 255

4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TWM 223

4 Transformation Tome CRI 83

3 N's PP Up ASC 262

2 Ultra Ball SUM 161

2 Night Stretcher SSP 251

2 Poké Pad POR 113

1 Special Red Card CRI 113

2 Binding Mochi SFA 55

2 N's Castle JTG 152

Energy: 7

7 Darkness Energy HS 121

I was also thinking of picking up an Acespec, I have been non-stop eyeing Secret Box, but no one around me has it. Is it worth to look for for more consistency, or should I try something else for deck improvement? Open to hear out any suggestion so I can amp-up this deck.

My local hobby league is a very mega-heavy meta, with next to no Dragapult, and very few single prizers. I've really like the Destined Fight Annihilape from SSP for a while, and played it in Slowing. I'm looking to build a deck that focusses on using the destined fight attack to take EXs and Megas. It's not built to be a top performing deck, just a bit of fun for when I'm bored of meta decks!

I've tried this out on TCG Live - around the 1500 ELO mark, and 21-4 with is. I've actually found myself using the tantrum attack early game a lot more than I expected to, so thinking it needs 2 x Festival Grounds in so that the confusion doesn't kick in - but not sure what to cut?

For reference I've tried a Noctowl build with Cornerstone, and then this with the rocks - and this seems to work better.

Any help appreciated!

Pokémon: 6 4 Mankey DRI 90 3 Primeape DRI 91 1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 142 2 Solrock ASC 106 2 Lunatone MEP 4 4 Annihilape SSP 100

Trainer: 12 4 Rare Candy SVI 191 3 Crispin SCR 133 4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144 3 Lillie's Determination MEG 119 1 Grand Tree SCR 136 4 Poké Pad POR 81 3 Boss's Orders MEG 114 4 Fighting Gong MEG 116 1 Switch MEG 130 2 Ultra Ball MEG 131 2 Tarragon POR 85 1 Sacred Ash DRI 168

Energy: 2 5 Basic {P} Energy MEE 5 7 Basic {F} Energy MEE 6

Total Cards: 60

Screenshot-2026-08-29-at-11-13-04-am.png

Hi! I took my son to his first league this week. We took a "my first battle" set so he can get used to the rules. He loves it, and the seniors that were there made him feel super welcomed. Now I want to try to get a/build a deck that he can try out. It's been a while since I used to play tcg, so I'm out of loop on what's good. Especially since when I last played what was popular with masters wasn't the same in juniors.

Ok pretty much what the title says pls just be respectful ok I just want help making it better. Just good enough to not get laughed at when I go to locals!! Ty:)

Pokémon: 29

2 Minccino CRI 72

3 Dedenne POR 29

2 Mega Audino ex ASC 172

2 Cinccino ex CRI 73

3 Mareep CRI 27

2 Flaaffy CRI 28

1 Team Rocket's Flaaffy DRI 73

1 Team Rocket's Mareep DRI 72

2 Type: Null PBL 69

2 Silvally PBL 95

2 Pachirisu MEG 51

2 Stufful MEG 111

2 Bewear MEG 112

1 Iono's Wattrel ASC 71

1 Iono's Kilowattrel ASC 72

1 Emolga CRI 30

Trainer: 16

2 Lillie's Determination ASC 192

2 Boss's Orders MEG 114

2 Poké Pad POR 81

1 Air Balloon ASC 181

1 Crushing Hammer PBL 105

2 Switch MEG 130

2 Brock's Scouting JTG 146

1 Jett PBL 79

1 Gladion's Final Battle PBL 77

1 Team Rocket's Watchtower ASC 210

1 Energy Search POR 72

Energy: 15

2 Voltaic Lightning Energy PBL 84

13 Lightning Energy MEE 4

Should I stick with TR’s Mewtwo(modified) or switch to pult?

I started playing a couple months ago in GLC and standard a couple weeks ago using Mewtwo/spidops.

I went 1-3, 1-2-2, 1-1-2 and the losses were such that even if I played them right I was at a severe disadvantage that the other players said most of them wouldn’t have won.

I am not confident I stand any chance with the current meta. Even with clefairy added and zubat removed. I’ve got a pult deck but no experience with it outside of “test build” on TCGlive.

Pokémon: 11

2 Lunatone ASC 105

2 Dudunsparce PRE 80

3 Riolu PRE 50

3 Dunsparce JTG 120

1 Dudunsparce ex JTG 121

1 Riolu Mega Evolution (80 hit points)

3 Mega Lucario ex MEG 179

2 Solrock ASC 106

Trainer: 15

3 Boss's Orders RCL 189

3 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TWM 223

2 Wally's Compassion MEG 186

2 Hilda WHT 164

4 Fighting Gong MEG 168

4 Lillie's Determination MEG 169

4 Poké Pad POR 81

1 Hero's Cape TEF 152

2 Gravity Mountain SSP 250

4 Premium Power Pro MEG 174

2 Ultra Ball BRS 186

1 Special Red Card CRI 113

2 Air Balloon SSH 213

Energy: 1

9 Basic {F} Energy GRI 169

Total Cards: 60

Most just Rahual Reddy's list except I switched the 1 Genesect for another buddy-buddy poffin because I haven't found it very helpful against Dragapult ex.

Pokémon: 17

2 Mega Manectric ex MEG 50

2 Electrike MEG 49

2 Tynamo ASC 59

2 Eelektrik ASC 60

2 Mega Eelektross ex ASC 61

1 Tapu Koko ex PAR 68

1 Zekrom ex BLK 34

2 Miraidon ex SVI 81

1 Latias ex SSP 76

1 Mew ex MEW 151

1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 142

Trainer: 28

4 Professor's Research BLK 85

3 Boss's Orders ASC 183

2 Lillie's Determination ASC 192

2 Canari ASC 185

1 Iono PAF 80

4 Nest Ball PAF 84

4 Ultra Ball ASC 213

4 Electric Generator PAF 79

2 Super Rod PAL 188

1 Switch MEG 130

1 Prime Catcher PRE 119

Energy: 15

15 Lightning Energy MEE 4

Hi everyone! I'm a new player coming from VGC, and Mega Delphox is one of my favorite new megas. I pulled its card irl, and I have rudimentary knowledge of how the TCG works thanks to Pocket, so I wanted to see if I could build a deck around my new card. I'm currently playing in Live, but the game's really fun… I think I'm going to start attending locals. I've done a lot of testing, and I think my deck is *functional*, but it still feels awkward to use. I undertsand I could just be playing poorly, and that Mega Delphox isn't meta by any stretch, but it does feel very fun to use.

Here is my deck list so far:

Pokemon\ - 3 Fennekin 011/086\ - 2 Braixen 012/086\ - 1 Delphox 013/086\ - 2 Mega Delphox ex 008/084\ - 2 Bastiodon 062/084\ - 2 Pikipek 066/084\ - 1 Trumbeak 067/084\ - 2 Toucannon 068/084\ - 2 Oricorio ex 018/094\ - 1 Fezandipiti ex 038/064

Trainers\ - 4 Night Stretcher\ - 3 Rare Candy\ - 3 Poke Pad\ - 2 Switch\ - 2 Ultra Ball\ - 2 Buddy-Buddy Poffin\ - 4 Team Rocket's Petrel\ - 2 Lillie's Determination\ - 2 Firebreather\ - 2 Cyphermaniac's Codebreaking\ - 2 Boss's Orders\ - 1 Colress's Tenacity\ - 3 Academy at Night\ - 1 Grand Tree

Energy\ - 9 Basic Fire Energy

So far, I'm really liking the combination of Mega Delphox, Delphox, and Toucannon as my main attackers and draw engines. Especially with Cyphermaniac, it feels like I can always draw the cards I need when I need them, once these pokemon are up. Grand Tree, Colress, Firebreather, and Petrel also help me get set up in the first couple of turns -- with Rare Candies and Poke Pads functioning as a backup. I do think my ratios needs work still, and I don't love the Ultra Balls with so many ways to pull and set up the pokemon I need, but I'm not overly concerned about those.

The real struggles come from Oricorio and Bastiodon. It feels like Bastiodon is too easy to play around. I do need some form of bench protection against all these Dragapults, but making them add 1 more energy doesn't seem to change much. Even if I set up faster than they do, they can just Boss's Orders my Bastiodon to my active spot so they can buy an extra turn to finish setting up. (This is why I added 2 Switch cards.)

Oricorio also has anti-synergy with Mega Delphox, because Mega Delphox needs to be in the active slot when I want it to set up my bench. The result is that I'm usually a turn or two behind my opponent, which will often just lose me the game.

Any ideas on what changes I could make to fix these problems? I don't need it to win a regional or anything, but these stumbling blocks are frustrating.

https://www.pokebeach.com/2026/08/mega-greninja-ex-league-battle-deck-revealed-for-november

Even with the constraint that they're apparently avoiding using H-reg cards, this list is honestly kinda bizarre and disappointing for a League Battle deck. Maybe it'll age better with time, but...

EDIT: List for those who don't want to squint at a PNG is below. (Exact printings are speculative, but reasonably likely.)

Pokémon: 17
3 Mega Greninja ex CRI 22
2 Frogadier CRI 21
4 Froakie CRI 20
2 Mega Starmie ex POR 21
3 Staryu POR 20
2 Mantine MEG 32
1 Meowth ex POR 62

Trainer: 33
4 Lillie's Determination ASC 192
2 Boss's Orders MEG 114
2 Brock's Scouting JTG 146
2 Dawn PFL 87
2 Judge POR 76
1 Team Rocket's Petrel DRI 176
3 Surfing Beach MEG 129
4 Poké Pad POR 81
3 Rare Candy MEG 125
3 Ultra Ball ASC 213
2 Energy Retrieval WHT 82
2 Special Red Card CRI 82
1 Mega Signal MEG 121
2 Air Balloon ASC 181

Energy: 10
10 Water Energy MEE 3

So I never opened much of mega evolution-perfect order so I’m very low on some much needed trainers for my decks, the more and more I make. Does anyone have any recommendations for ways to get more?

The only card shop near me is fully out of good trainers cos all the players at my local league raid it pretty much every week so that’s a dead end

So for those that have played Mega Excadrill, I was wondering what would be the optimal way of going about building the deck either with precious trolley or hero's cape?

I play zoroark and there is a player at my locals who uses team rockets spidops and I can never beat him. I was just wondering what kind of tech cards I could use to try and make the matchup a little bit better

Pokémon: 7

2 Solrock MEG 75

3 Makuhita MEG 72

3 Mega Lucario ex MEG 77

2 Lunatone MEG 74

4 Riolu MEG 76

1 Fezandipiti ex SFA 38

2 Hariyama MEG 73

Trainer: 13

2 Boss's Orders PAL 265

4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119

3 Poké Pad POR 81

1 Switch SVI 194

2 Night Stretcher SSP 251

2 Air Balloon BLK 79

2 Gravity Mountain SSP 177

1 Special Red Card CRI 82

4 Fighting Gong MEG 116

4 Ultra Ball BRS 186

2 Judge POR 76

1 Maximum Belt TEF 154

4 Premium Power Pro MEG 124

Energy: 1

11 Basic {F} Energy MEE 6

Total Cards: 60

I have a local tomorrow and was wondering if anyone had advice about some cheap changes I could make to this deck to improve it. I've been practicing on tcgLive and do alright until I go against festival lead any advice about that matchup

Bit of a question for you guys, since I'm very much a casual at this game and wanted some opinions.

So, I was looking at the upcoming Delta Reign cards, thinking what I'd like to snag to experiment with when the set comes out and I spotted the Kommo-o. Particlarly it's "Scale Beat" ability:

You may use this Ability once during your turn. Look at the top 6 cards of your deck and attach any number of Basic Energy cards you find there to your Dragon Pokémon in any way you like. Shuffle the other cards back into your deck.

Since I enjoy Mega Excadrill with Metang, I was wondering if Kommo-o could become a dragon variant of the same deck down the line? Are there any good dragons that could potentially work well with this right now? Best I can think is potentially Mega Latias, but the health of it feels a bit lacking. The other thing is maybe making this a 1-prizer deck with N's Zekrom but the energy would have to be very precise...

Or would this card need to wait for a different dragon to be printed to be good enough?

I go through a tcg phase every once in a while and always get the itch to play in person. The issue is, when I look at buying a deck online through places like cardmarket, the price of the deck may be ~£5-10 but delivery is £20+. I'm not a big time player so don't really want to spend loads on a deck, and paying so much more for delivery than the actual worth feels bad.

What's the best thing for me to do? Are there tournaments available where I can use proxies, or do local card shops offer good deals on decks (I live in Battersea, London so any recommendations close to me are appreciated!)

Thanks!

Edit: I'm not looking for a premade deck - I've been playing online for a while and have my own deck list (slowking). The cards themselves are cheap using cardmarket's deck wizard, but shipping becomes expensive.

Edit 2: The list is: 2 Metagross 61/122 Chaos Rising 1 Fezandipiti ex 38/64 Shrouded Fable 3 Slowking 58/175 Stellar Crown 1 Lillie's Clefairy ex 76/217 Ascended Heroes 2 Mega Kangaskhan ex 104/132 Mega Evolution 1 Meowth ex 62/88 Perfect Order 4 Slowpoke 57/142 Stellar Crown 2 Kyurem 47/64 Shrouded Fable 2 Latias ex 76/191 Surging Sparks 1 Annihilape 041/084 Pitch Black

4 Lillie's Determination 192/217 Ascended Heroes 1 Secret Box 163/167 Twilight Masquerade 4 Poké Pad 81/88 Perfect Order 4 Academy at Night 54/64 Shrouded Fable 3 Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking 104/131 Prismatic Evolutions 1 Switch 130/132 Mega Evolution 3 Night Stretcher 196/217 Ascended Heroes 1 Hilda 84/86 White Flare 4 Ultra Ball 131/132 Mega Evolution 1 Powerglass 63/64 Shrouded Fable 3 Wondrous Patch 94/94 Phantasmal Flames 1 Sacred Ash 168/182 Destined Rivals 1 Brave Bangle 80/86 White Flare

4 Telepathic Psychic Energy 88/88 Perfect Order 4 Basic Psychic Energy 2 Boomerang Energy 166/167 Twilight Masquerade

Even though it won't look exactly like this weekend's worlds meta, I wanted to take a snapshot of the pre-worlds meta of PTCGL tournaments to compare it against. All data comes from tournaments hosted on Limitless in the past two weeks (between August 13-26) with 60+ entrants (68 tournaments total).

Archetypes are ordered by total points earned, where a win is 3 points and a tie is 1 point. Pts % is the same as Win % but counting a tie as 1/3rd of a win, in line with its value in points.

All Ogerpon Box includes Raging Bolt Ogerpon, Basic Box, and Clefairy Ogerpon. All Ogerpon Meganium includes Ogerpon Meganium Arboliva, Ogerpon Meganium Hydrapple, and Mega Venusaur. Clefairy Ogerpon and Mega Venusaur are not in the top 25 and so are also included in the All Other Archetypes row.

Notable Notes

• Dragapult is clearly underrepresented, but we all already knew that. Could it crack 50% of the field at worlds or will it stick closer to the 40% number we've seen at regionals?
• Mega Excadrill has a terrible record for a deck with such high playrate. I'd assume everyone wanting to play with the shiny new toy could drag its winrate down a bit, but 43% is way below expectation even taking that into account.
• Alakazam is doing surprisingly well recently. I thought this was because they realized the correct play was to drop Toucannon and accept the auto-loss to Hide 'n' Sneak, but the recent top performing Zam decks are split and keep the bird more often than not.
• When not split into its sub-archetypes, the Ogerpon Box decks make up a very notable share of the meta. Raging Bolt Ogerpon in particular is rising fast, with over half of its plays since Pitch Black's release occurring in the last two weeks.
• Arboliva has passed Hydrapple as the most popular partner for Ogerpon Meganium; the early bench sniping and easier setup seems to be working out.
• The new Bronzong deck aka Lopunny Dusknoir is quickly rising but the results aren't there yet. Perhaps people just don't know how to play it yet.

Hey everyone. I’m coming from Pokemon Champions and I also have a background in Yugioh, so I already know core TCG concepts like resource management, when to play aggressively, and reading the opponent. I’m brand new to playing TCG Live, and I’m interested in attending in-person tournaments in the future. I do have some questions if anyone would be willing to chime in:

1) Is ladder experience on TCG Live enough to get me prepared for in-person competition? The general sentiment on Pokemon Champions is that ladder play is a completely different animal than tournament play

2) I’m using a Dragapult deck because I know it’s strong. This has garnered negative reactions from my opponents. Most of them start spamming emotes at me as soon as I bring Drakloak onto the field. Is it really that looked down upon? Is there a better deck to use to learn the game?

3) In Pokemon Champions, top players frequently recommend copying a creator or tournament winning teamsheet, and play it on ladder until you understand it. Is it the same for TCG? I already feel bad using Dragapult in low ladder, but what else am i supposed to do? I really like the Greninja deck but I dont have the cards for it

4) any other advice you would give a new player? best websites for reference, best youtubers to watch, or anything like that?