The 2025 Pokémon World Championships are fast approaching, so it’s the perfect time to take a look at some of the Pokémon Trading Card Game cards that are shaping up to be contenders in this year’s competition. Big things are expected from Gardevoir ex and Dragapult ex, but don’t count out cards like Gholdengo ex, Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex, and Raging Bolt ex. Join our panel of experts, Tord Reklev, Natalie Millar, Christopher Schemanske, Stéphane Ivanoff, and Ellis Longhurst as they power rank the decks to beat and share their parting shots as we head into the culmination of the 2025 Championship Series season.
We’ll see how the battles shake out during the 2025 Pokémon World Championships, which are taking place August 15-17, 2025, in Anaheim, California. Which Trainers and decks will come out on top? Only time will tell! If you can’t attend the event in person, you can watch all three days of action on Twitch.tv/PokemonTCG.
Gardevoir ex has been on a tear this season, winning events left and right with showing no signs of slowing down heading into the World Championships. With the release of Black Bolt and White Flare, which will debut for play during Worlds, the deck gains even more terrifying options. Frillish and Jellicent ex, both capable of denying the opponent the option of playing Item cards, can now be added to the deck. Frillish acts as a slower, but more robust Budew, dealing more damage and having significantly more HP than Budew. Jellicent ex’s Oceanic Curse Ability blocks not only Item, but also Pokémon Tool cards, making it a struggle for the Stage 2 Pokémon to set up without Rare Candy, Ultra Ball. or Technical Machine: Evolution.
The high, three-Energy retreat cost for both Pokémon might seem like a major disadvantage at first, but for Gardevoir ex, this is another huge advantage. This lets Gardevoir ex accumulate additional damage on its own board by retreating, which can then be sent right over to the opponent’s side with multiple Adrena-Brain from Munkidori.
With its recent success and additional card options, I think Gardevoir ex will be the deck to beat at this year’s World Championships. — Tord Reklev
There are three main variants of Dragapult ex that all seem very strong heading into the World Championships this year. The Dusknoir version is favored by a lot of the top players including Andrew Hedrick, James Cox, and Jon Eng due to its power and flexibility. However, including the Dusknoir line is a significant commitment in your deck space, and in certain situations you can be unable to use Cursed Blast if your opponent takes too many prize cards. Tord Reklev recently made the semifinals of NAIC with a version of Dragapult ex that played multiple Munkidori, Maractus, and Professor Turo’s Scenario to enable a lot of tricky game plans.
The last version, and the one I think benefitted the most from Black Bolt and White Flare, is the Charizard ex version, as, if you include the Chi-Yu, you tend to have a favorable matchup into Gholdengo ex. All Dragapult ex decks are very similar at their core: set up a bunch of Dreepy, evolve them into Drakloak, and draw a bunch of cards with Recon Directive, then use Phantom Dive to set up multi-Prize turns throughout the game. All of them have Budew to slow your opponent down in the early game and buy you time to attach Energy, while the Charizard version also has Technical Machine: Evolution since you attach extra Energy with Infernal Reign.
Dragapult ex decks are all suited to making comebacks, and they are ready to take advantage of tons of comeback cards such as Counter Catcher, Fezandipiti ex, and Iono since they can use Phantom Dive without taking Knock Outs, being behind in Prize cards while making meaningful attacks. They may not all look the same, but be prepared to see a ton of Recon Directive at the World Championships! — Natalie Millar
Gholdengo ex debuted as something of a meme in many players’ minds, and over the first few months of its time in the Standard format, it has not done too much to correct that perception! Gholdengo ex is the type of deck that requires a lot to keep a game going, as it essentially negates its board state every turn by discarding tons of Energy cards to deal damage. That’s a genre that can often scare away top players—there’s only so much you can do to stay ahead when you need to spend resources rebuilding your attack every turn.
What’s changing heading into the World Championships? One major improvement comes from Air Balloon’s return to the Standard Format. It sounds like a relatively minor thing, but Gholdengo ex struggled in the past with navigating the Active Spot effectively. Negating opponents’ efforts to thwart progress with Counter Catcher stalling, status conditions, and other trouble is a big improvement. An added benefit: it’s much easier to Coin Bonus with the Active Spot bonus twice! The other major improvement comes from Genesect ex; this again sounds simple, but being able to search Gholdengo ex was a weird issue before too, and Genesect ex makes things much easier.
Overall, Gholdengo ex still has some inherent structural flaws (discarding to attack is never great), but the new tricks it picks up with the release of Black Bolt and White Flare position it to make a good run at the World Championships. It will take a bit of luck, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Gholdengo ex brought home a few trophies this year! — Christopher Schemanske
Black Bolt and White Flare haven’t provided Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex with any new cards, apart from Air Balloon, which is technically an improvement over Rescue Board. The deck remains the same it’s been since its release in Scarlet & Violet—Destined Rivals: a powerful threat able to spread damage thanks to Froslass, Munkidori, and Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex, in order to take multiple KOs. Its main appeal is a favorable matchup against Gardevoir ex, the #1 deck on our list and on most players’ minds (although it’s certainly a lot closer than you’d expect just by looking at the Pokémon’s typings). Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex can hold its own against most decks; its worst matchup is Joltik Box, but it’s unclear whether that archetype will see a lot of play at Worlds, which is a strong point in its favor.
The case against Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex is that it doesn’t have any outstanding matchups either, and its lack of draw power will turn some players away from it. At the World Championships, many players feel it’s best to either take a chance on a deck with lopsided matchups and hoping they run into favorable ones, or play a safe deck with which they feel like they can control the game, and Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex is neither. But make no mistake, it’s a strong deck and a contender for the title! — Stéphane Ivanoff
Raging Bolt ex is sometimes dismissed for being a one trick, beat stick deck, but to do so is perilous. Here be dragons. This deck accelerates Energy cards onto Raging Bolt ex and Raging Bolt to take one-hit Knock Outs on the opponent’s Active or Benched Pokémon as early as the first turn, and continues unrelentingly throughout the game. The gameplan is consistently executed, albeit predictable—a strength because it applies constant pressure to the opponent while being primed to take advantage of their mistakes or bad luck, and yet also a weakness in that the opponent may realize a counterstrategy. This means that Raging Bolt ex is a great choice for a high-stakes, multi-day event like the World Championships.
Unlike many of the other decks on this list, Raging Bolt ex roars into battle without any new resources from the latest expansion. However, players continue to find ways for the deck to maintain its relative power level. For example, Iron Leaves ex is now commonly included to efficiently Knock Out Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex, and the winner of the recent Japan Championships mitigated the impact of Jellicent ex’s Oceanic Curse by removing the Noctowl engine in favor of an increase in Supporter Cards and first turn draw power. Top players in Japan have also explored the use of Area Zero Underdepths in combination with Chien-Pao to deny the opponent Prize Cards by removing Pokémon with low remaining hit points from play. With all these tricks and more, do not be surprised if Raging Bolt ex steals the thunder of the other top decks. — Ellis Longhurst
Tord Reklev: Jellicent ex was the most successful Gardevoir ex variant in Japan at release, but the response outside of Japan has been more mixed, with many claiming the previous version being superior. I am curious how much respect the other decks will show Jellicent ex, and especially if Iron Bundle will be a more common tech to push it out of the Active Spot to regain Item and Pokémon Tool access.
Additionally, a deck that didn’t make it onto our Power Rankings this time around, but could still have a good chance of winning is good old Charizard ex. It is one of the few decks that can boost with a favored Gardevoir ex matchup while also, thanks to Chi-Yu, being a great pick against Gholdengo and Raging Bolt, two of our other top 5 most anticipated decks. Charizard ex has struggled against Dragapult ex and Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex lately, but I think if someone finds a way to deal with those matchups as well, then this deck could take the event with storm. Could this be the year we see a card like Picnic Basket in a World Champion winning deck?
Natalie Millar: Black Bolt and White Flare haven’t introduced any new dominant decks to the metagame, however the few good cards that have been introduced have provided a massive shake up. Air Balloon has established itself as a staple card for multiple decks, Hilda has seen play in many Dragapult ex decks, and Genesect ex gave a massive boost to Gholdengo ex, which has established itself as arguably the strongest deck in the format.
While Gholdengo ex is strong, there are many counters in the format such as Eri, Toedscruel, and decks with Charizard ex that can win the Prize trade against it. One of the biggest questions I have heading into Anaheim is how many players will choose to bring Gholdengo ex, the deck is very consistent and powerful but can easily lose to anyone who is prepared to beat it. Another deck that I’m interested in is Gardevoir ex, as it dominated the North America International Championships. However, it currently struggles into Gholdengo ex; I would expect the Psychic Embrace enjoyers to go back to a version with Drifloon and Bravery Charm to deal with the 260 HP on Gholdengo ex, but they’ll also have to deal with Charizard ex making a resurgence. Charizard ex has historically had a good time into Gardevoir ex thanks to its weakness to Darkness, however if there is one deck that is able to adapt to any metagame it has been Gardevoir ex. Good luck to all the competitors at the World Championships, I’m interested to see how it all shakes down!
Christopher Schemanske: This year’s World Championship is the first in more than 10 years where all players will begin on equal footing in Round 1, and it will feature more Swiss Rounds than Worlds has traditionally. Together, that combination is going to make for interesting fireworks, but I think especially will make the winning decks a bit more predictable. Needing to win 9 or 10 matches to make Top Cut is a much taller order than the old 2-stage World Championships, which will force players to play it a bit safer in their deck choice. That means players will be differentiated a bit more on their play at the table, which is always a good thing.
The format this year will certainly be impacted by the release of Black Bolt and White Flare, but overall, I think things will look somewhat similar to the North American International Championships. If you’re a fan of Gardevoir ex, that’s probably good news for you. As I wrote during our NAIC edition of Power Rankings, Gardevoir ex is a massive powerhouse, and its win at NAIC proved it is just that. Even in the history of the game, it’s hard to come up with many decks as powerful in the right hands as Gardevoir ex, and I expect we’ll see that on display in Anaheim once again.
Ellis Longhurst: Settling on a World Championships player power ranking would be challenging because the event often delivers a surprising result. Consider the last three World Champions—none earned a place in the top 32 at an International Championships or in the top 8 of a Regional Championships during the season of their historic win.
This year, the event is more exclusive than ever. Invitations to the World Championships are restricted to a set number of players from each rating zone based on the Championship Points leaderboard standings. The only other pathway for players outside of Japan, Korea, mainland China, and the Asia-Pacific region to earn a seat on the competition floor in Anaheim was to win a Regional or Special Championships or to place in the Top 4 at an International Championships. This means that there is slim chance of an underdog victory at the 2025 World Championships. Slim, but not none.
Throw your support behind this season’s unsung heroes of your region. Players like Jeremy Lim from Oceania, Hermanni Hietalahti from Europe, 2017 World Champion Diego Cassiraga from Latin America, and Michael Bio from North America were top performers locally, but did not earn a Regional Championships Top 8 or International Championships Top 32 this season. If history repeats, one of these players might end up with the title of 2025 World Champion.
Stéphane Ivanoff: Our top 5 list can be divided into two categories: Gardevoir ex, Dragapult ex, and Grimmsnarl ex are slow Stage 2 decks that spread damage and tend to play from behind, while Raging Bolt ex and Gholdengo ex are aggressive decks that aim to KO any Pokémon in one attack. N’s Zoroark ex is effective against the first category: against decks that can’t one-hit KO it, it can retaliate with N’s Reshiram‘s Powerful Rage attack, or bounce damage back with Munkidori. And of course, its Darkness typing makes it a good attacker against Gardevoir ex.
Its weakness, though, is that it struggles against the aggressive decks, who Knock Out N’s Zoroark ex without leaving any damage counters on its board. Given Gholdengo ex’s newfound popularity, this weakness is not to be taken lightly, but if a player manages to find a way to fix these matchups (be it with a secondary attacker, a support Pokémon, or a Trainer-based game plan, perhaps using Supporters like Eri to remove key Item cards), we could see N’s Zoroark ex shine. It did make top 8 at NAIC, which was a surprise to many, but under the right circumstances, I think it could repeat that performance, or even do better, at the World Championships. After all, it’s the spiritual successor to Zoroark-GX, one of the best cards in the history of the game!
Tune in to Twitch.tv/PokemonTCG on August 15 and 16, 2025, to see how well these and other decks perform during the 2025 Pokémon World Championships. Then, don’t miss the Finals on August 17 on Twitch.tv/Pokemon.
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 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.
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.
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 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.
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