On 29 January 2025, a City League tournament in Kyoto was won by a player using a deck which was virtually non-existent in the Pokémon TCG metagame up to that point: a Feraligatr/Munkidori deck. This was a result that piqued the interest of many players and analysts not only in Japan, but abroad as well. The deck’s victory at this tournament came out of absolutely nowhere—but could it have been a fluke? After all, its main cards had already been around for quite some time.

That question was emphatically answered at Champions League Fukuoka 2025 when Hiromu Sasaki took this deck to victory, beating Ryoya Kurashima and his Gholdengo ex deck in the final. Not even a month after it even appeared on the radar, the Feraligatr/Munkidori deck had just stunned the Pokémon TCG to pick up a major tournament title.

Strategy

The deck’s primary attacker is the Feraligatr card from Wild Force [SV5K]. For just two Water Energy cards, the Big Jaw Pokémon’s Giant Wave attack dishes out a massive 280 damage with the assistance of its Ability of Torrential Heart—but at a cost: the player can’t use Giant Wave on the next turn. That, however, isn’t an issue with the assistance of another Wild Force [SV5K] card: Relicanth.

For as long as Relicanth is in play, its Ability of Memory Dive allows all of the player’s evolved Pokémon to use any attack belonging to their pre-evolutions. Memory Dive is thus how Feraligatr circumvents the “Hyper Beam effect” of Giant Wave. Not only that—the attacks of its pre-evolutions Totodile and Croconaw, both from Wild Force [SV5K] as well, have utility in their own right by retreat-locking the opponent and allowing for pivoting respectively.

Rounding things off is the Munkidori card from Mask of Change [SV6]. Its Ability of Adrena-Brain is a perfect fit alongside Feraligatr’s Torrential Heart. To activate Torrential Heart, the player must first place five damage counters on Feraligatr. This is where Adrena-Brain comes in. Through it, Munkidori takes three damage counters off Feraligatr and shifts them onto an opposing Pokémon. Since Feraligatr doesn’t activate Torrential Heart if it isn’t using Giant Wave on that turn, Munkidori would thus be able to heal Feraligatr of all of its self-inflicted damage over a two-turn span.

Price

The cumulative price of all the cards in the Feraligatr/Munkidori deck is at least 5,070 JPY (~US$33).

In other TCG-related news, check out the Gardevoir & Sylveon GX card from Unbroken Bonds. 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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