The past weekend saw 2 concurrent standard tournaments taking place, totalling almost 4000 players, or almost half of a Japanese Champions League, for scale. Despite Dragapult winning all of Prague, LA, and Aichi beforehand, new winners finally emerged in the post-rotation format. The other grand finalists were both Dragapults, of course, the deck is still BDIF, but neither could make it all the way.

Utrecht Winner: Miloslav Posledni’s Mega Lopunny Dudunsparce

An iteration of the deck that got 8th in LA, the big bunny took home the W. Gone are the 3 useless Spiky Energies, and in are 3 Fire Energies and a Moltres. This inclusion allows a better matchup into Slop playing Teal Masks and the occasional Grass Decks, since the Spikies were basically dead slots anyways. Notably this list runs only 3 Poffins and 3 Lillies, maxing out of the Pokegear instead to increase the chance to find Wally’s Compassion as high as possible. The meta call of ‘pretending fighting decks don’t exist’ continue to pay off here, as Miloslav faced literally 0 of them the entire way, and banked on the great pult matchup all the way to the championship. The success of this deck will inevitably results in higher Watchtower usage and perhaps the increase of Garchomp & Lucario, but only the future can tell if that’s significant.

Campinas Winner: Matias’ Matricardi’s Hydrapple Meganium

From a rogue deck to regional winner in about 2 weeks, the Hydrapple ex deck is taking the meta by storm. With many decks running Shaymin, the Arboliva build is ceding play rate to Hydrapple as the premier Grass deck (the Megas continue to be fake). Anyone who’s played with or against this deck knows that it hits for very big numbers, and the inclusion of Celebi & double Meowth for aggressive consistency paid dividends. The ability for Hydrapple to accelerate energy to another mon allows the usage of Tapu Bulu as an excellent single prizer with an attack just strong enough to kill all Ogrepons and 2-prize liabilities on bench. In general the lists are fairly similar, but both Unfair Stamp & Hero’s Cape prove viable ace spec options.

Utrecht’s Top 4: Joshua Vanoverschelde’s Rocket’s Honchkrow

The only single-prize deck to have made top-cut at Utrecht, Honchkrow bounced back from a terrible LA to getting top 4 on the back of Youtube’s very own ZapdosTCG as the pilot. His list remains unchanged from its 28th placement at Prague, and Joshua cites better practice as a reason for his greater success this tournament. The deck itself still boasts a terrible conversion rate into Dragapult as an archetype, but perhaps Joshua has shown all it really need is more ride-or-die.

Campinas’s Top 4: Bruno Barros’ Rocket’s Spidops Mewtwo

Another theme deck apperance, this Rocket Box fittingly ran Secret Box for maximum consistency similar to the list from LA. Gone are the Handheld Fans, as respect for Festival Lead has cratered. No Rocket’s Kangaskhan also means only 3 Giovanni, and the 1 Archer has found his way back into the deck. 2 Poke Pads + 1 Energy Search promises smooth turn-2 acceleration, minimising situations where you cannot find your Spidops / Energy. Importantly, a Counter Gain and a Brave Bangle are present to replace the Tool slots, allowing Mewtwo to attack with only 1 energy attachment for turn as well as turning Lillie’s Clefairy into a plan-C attacker now that the deck runs 1 Basic Psychic.

The Emergence of Predators:

With a smaller share of Pult preys like Alakazam and Festival Lead, Dragapult counters are on the rise. Raging Bolt sees the most obvious rise in usage, followed by Lopunny Dudunsparce, Slop Box, and even Clefairy Ogerpon. These decks all boasts great conversion rates, and promise to shave down the Dragapult numbers one meta shift at the time. However, these numbers should be self-correcting, as the single-prizer that feeds off them will likely see an increase in response.

How’s the good-against-Pult-but-loses-to-grass decks been doing? Garchomp made 13th at Utrecht with a Rare Candy list, while Zoroark earnt 2 top 16s. Oh, there’s Grimmsnarl too? Yeah. Grimmsnarl gang better hope Special Red Card carry them because it’s not been looking good. Mega Absol? …

The Post-Rotation MVP - Dudunsparce

Initially, only Akazam really ran a lot of Dudunsparce as a synergistic draw engine, but with the lack of reliable draw supporters in the format, as well as the legality of Poffin and Poke Pad, many other decks began to follow in its stead. Dragapult was of course the first to find great success, so much so that the Dunsparce variant has easily overtaken the much overhyped Blaziken in terms of success. Mega Lopunny was the next, seeing great synergy with Dudunsparce’s ability to get itself out of the active. But is that too pedestrian for your taste, still? How about Mega Starmie Froslass Dudunsparce, seeing good day 2 success in both Campinas and Utrecht. This combination isn’t new per se, and it has been seen circulating in Japan, but only now has gotten its big breakthrough in the TCG. Is that still too meta for you? How about Mega Lucario? This combo actually boasts a pretty good conversion rate at Utrecht, forgoing Hariyama’s clunky bench space demands for an extra draw engine on top of Luna Rock, not to mention allowing you to reset Mega Brave should the opportunity arises. We also see a few Archaludon lists running this to some small results at the lower tables, but expect that deck to make a bigger splash once Prism Tower arrives.

Misc. Fun Facts

• If Lopunny can win despite auto-conceding to Fighting Decks, is there another archetype that can do the same? Yes, sort of. Mega Kangaskhan Bouffalant sees 3/5 players making day 2 at Utrecht, with 1 breaching top 128.
• Slowking got its highest placement so far at Campinas, earning a 16th spot. This is another deck that will benefit grealy from the upcoming Chaos Rising set.
• Prime Catcher got its highest placing post-rotation in the 2nd place list from Campinas on Fracisco Osorio’s Dragapult list. Imo Prime Catcher is severely underrated.

Decks

Feels like there are no exciting deck having success? Well, there are some still, listed below. I'm only including top 64 of LA regional as my personal measurement of success, and what's 'interesting' is also subjective. If you think I should include something else, feel free to comment.

1. Hale Obernolte's 5th place Lopunny Dudunsparce: Unlike other variants of this deck you've seen before, this one doesn't run Mega Froslass at all, instead opting for more consistency with Pokegear. It also runs TWM Abra to cycle Lopunny from the active without having to commit to drawing with Dudunsparce, and going under Rocket's Watchtower. The Enriching Energy ace spec complements this excellently. The Spiky Energy might confuse you, but it's just the best colourless energy left in the format. It might help math against Raging Bolt and Zoroark sometimes but Hale himself admitted it never came up.
2. Xavier Phelan's 6th place Lucario Hariyama: Lucario's strongest soldier. This build opts for Secret Box to help consistency, Carmine to make sure you're never having a dead first turn, and Tarragon for recovery. It even features 1 Mega Signal to search off Petrel / Box to search Mega Luke without having to discard. This build is blazing fast and can OHKO Dragapult with either Black Belt or Grav. Mountain + PPP.
3. Patrick Raty's 9th place Rocket's Mewtwo Spidops: Features Team Rocket's Kangaskhan ex for an early attacker that hits Alakazam and while protected by Articuno and not weak to getting Enhanced Hammer, and also the Cornerstone answer in the rare case that does pop up. This builds aims to fix the most glaring issue with the archetype in consistency by running Secret Box, 4 Lillies, and 0 Archer. The 4 Giovanni allows it to pick and choose its KOs, and has great synergy with Kanga. The tool selection is interesting as well. 2 Handheld Fan counters Festival Lead, and Lucky Helmet act as an anti-Unfair Stamp tech since the deck doesn't have onboard draw. It even runs a Rocket's Wobuffet, helpful in matchups where the opponent cannot OHKO your Mewtwo, and also combos with the 4 Giovannis.
4. David Andrew's 13th place Raging Bolt Tera Box: This version was a lot more popular pre-rotation, and hasn't been seen much since Sada has gone. Like most Bolt decks it boasts good matchups into all Pult variants without having to commit a useless 2 prizer a.k.a Meowth to the bench and slotting Chien-Pao. The Terapagos gives it a leg up against sloppier Bolt opponents.
5. Brandon Salazar’s 37th Hydrapple Meganium: The first truly successful tournament for Hydrapple in the TCG, and this is the highest placing list. In hindsight, Brandon comments on how he’d like to run more Celebis and no Briar. The list is otherwise fairly similar to what we’ve seen out of Japan’s City Leagues.
6. Sammy Allens' 44th place Raging Bolt Okidogi: Yes you read that right. This deck features the LunaRock engine and Okidogi as single prize attackers in a Raging Bolt shell. The shared synergy in Fighting Energy and Prism Energy allows Crispin to bridge the gap between the two archetypes and Okidogi handles Crustle for the Bolt, as well as presenting a KO on fighting weaks like Mega Kanga, Mega Lop, and most importantly Dudunsparce ex, the latter meant to abuse more basic ex heavy versions of Raging Bolt. It even runs Prime Catcher.

Techs

Sometimes just a card or 2 gives the deck enough options without rehauling the entire gameplan. I will not be including things already known since Prague like Pecharunt in Raging Bolt. Here are some highlights (not including those mentioned above):

1. TWM Dedenne in Alakazam: allows you to recycle Enhanced Hammer for the Mist / Rocky Energy matchups or Sacred Ash in the odd really long game. Or anything, really, if the situation arises.
2. Hand Held Fan: anti-Festival Lead tech, especially good in single-prizer decks.
3. SSP Paldeon Tauros: anti-Crustle tech in Dragapult or slop box.
4. Neo-Upper Energy & Hilda in Dragapult: allows you to Candy + Hilda / Meowth and Phantom Dive on turn 2 more reliably.
5. Maractus in Dragapult: retreat locker and fixes some math especially against smaller exs.
6. Relicanth in Cynthia’s Garchomp: allows Roserade to become a single prize attacker using Spike Sting and various Cheery onto Glory.
7. Totodile in Starmie Froslass: dedicated retreat locker for decks with water energy. This thing will not be evolving.
8. Koraidon ex in Raging Bolt: Passimiam alternative without having to commit so many basics onto the board, also forces a 7-prize map after your Mega Kang dies.
9. Secret Box in Starmie Froslass: Ran by the 2nd highest placing deck of the archetype, the increased consistency especially in finding early Risky Ruins can come in clutch.
10. Crushing Hammer in Dragapult: As much as I’d like to write ‘no comment’ here, I can’t. This tech is helpful in breaking Mist / Rocky energy on the bench so you can phantom dive into it, or just strips basic energy off the board in various matchups where your opponent doesn’t play a lot of acceleration like in the mirror. The Garchomp matchup is the most obvious, since they often don’t play Neo-Upper. Your initial reaction might be that Blaziken helps against this, but ironically doesn't. If you see this card flipped against you, well-