[Update 21 Mar 2025] The Archaludon ex deck has gained more of a metagame presence following the most recent changes to the meta as can be seen by its recent strong results: fourth place at the Pokémon Europe International Championships (EUIC), 13th place at the Fortaleza Regionals, and seventh place at the Vancouver Regionals.

However, the deck’s strong run of form might soon come to an end because it’s also been found that the Gholdengo ex deck—another deck on the rise in the current meta—is one of the most effective counters to this deck.

[Update 6 Feb 2025] While the Dusknoir card from Night Wanderer [SV6a] has now become a key part of many decks, this hadn’t been the case with regard to the Archaludon ex deck—until very recently. While still not the most common build by any means, the new variant of the Archaludon ex deck which includes Dusknoir has been shown to at least have some degree of gameplay viability.

The Archaludon ex deck had never really been a deck ranking as one of the biggest Pokémon TCG metagame threats; heading into Champions League Osaka on 21-22 December 2024, the deck’s best tournament result had been 31st place at the Stuttgart Regionals where it was played by Frenchman Enzo Duval.

However, in a stunning upset, Yōta Wakai took the title in Osaka with a stunning comeback in the final, overturning a 5-0 deficit against Ancient Box deck player Asuka Kamikariya to win 6-5 and make history as the first Archaludon ex deck player to claim a major title.

Strategy

The deck’s titular card from Paradise Dragona [SV7a] has both attacking and setup capabilities. Metal Defender is an impressive attack in its own right, dealing 220 damage for three Steel Energy cards while also ensuring that the Alloy Pokémon would have its usual weakness to Fire-type attacks negated on the opponent’s upcoming turn.

However, it’s as a setup card where Archaludon ex truly stands out: Archaludon ex’s Ability of Assemble Alloy enables the player to attach two Steel Energy cards from the player’s discard pile to the player’s Steel-type Pokémon in any combination as soon as it evolves by being played from the player’s hand.

Archaludon ex is to be paired with Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR from Time Gazer [S10D]. Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR has arguably the strongest VSTAR Power of all time—Star Chronos not only dishes out 220 damage; it also forces the opponent to skip the next turn. However, its Energy requirement of five including four Steel Energy cards is understandably cumbersome.

This is where Archaludon ex comes in with its Assemble Alloy—it makes Star Chronos much easier to set up by loading up Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR with Steel Energy cards. In addition, Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR can use its Metal Blast attack once full of Energy cards; it deals 40 damage per Steel Energy card attached.

A pair of draw engine Pokémon are the deck’s main supporting pieces: Radiant Greninja from Battle Region [S9a] and Squawkabilly ex from Snow Hazard [SV2P]. Radiant Greninja puts the Steel Energy cards into the discard pile for Archaludon ex to retrieve while Squawkabilly ex has both hand-resetting and Energy-ramping capabilities.

Price

The total cost of all the cards in the Archaludon ex deck is at least 12,500 JPY (~US$80).

In other TCG-related news, check out the Energy Search Pro card from Paradise Dragona [SV7a]. Alternatively, you can also head over to the SNKRDUNK App via the banner below and find the top trending and latest single cards and boxes.

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