Canadian player Riley McKay won the 2025 Pokémon TCG World Championships after a dominant 2-0 victory over Justin Newdorf of the United States in the final. McKay is the second Canadian to become the Pokémon TCG world champion after Andrew Estrada, who won it all in 2014 with a Virizion EX/Genesect EX deck.

Swiss Rounds

A total of 861 players entered the Anaheim Convention Center on 15 August, the first day of the tournament, to chase the biggest Pokémon TCG title of them all. A total of 11 Swiss rounds were played—eight on the tournament’s first day and three more on the second—before an asymmetrical top cut began later on the second day. 11 players qualified for the asymmetrical top cut.

As ranked by seeding, the following are the players who advanced to top cut (all records are W-L-T):

1. 1. Öjvind Svinhufvud (Finland) 9-1-1 (Charizard ex)
2. 2. Justin Newdorf (USA) 9-1-1 (Dragapult ex)
3. 3. Mateusz Łaszkiewicz (Poland) 9-1-1 (N’s Zoroark ex)
4. 4. Piper Lepine (USA) 9-1-1 (Gholdengo ex)
5. 5. Shizuki Nakagawa (Japan) 9-1-1 (Raging Bolt ex)
6. 6. Junya Tanaka (Japan) 9-2-0 (Charizard ex)
7. 7. Landen Kaetler (Canada) 9-2-0 (Gholdengo ex)
8. 8. Daigo Yoshihara (Japan) 8-1-2 (Dragapult ex)
9. 9. Riley McKay (Canada) 8-1-2 (Gardevoir ex)
10. 10. Marco Cifuentes (Chile) 8-1-2 (N’s Zoroark ex)
11. 11. Ryota Tanaka (Japan) 8-1-2 (Gholdengo ex)

Three play-in games were needed to determine the quarterfinal line-up. McKay beat Yoshihara, Cifuentes beat Kaetler, and Junya Tanaka beat Ryota Tanaka to clinch the three remaining quarterfinal berths.

Quarterfinals

Three of the four quarterfinals were shown on the official Pokémon stream. The first of the three saw Lepine face off against Nakagawa. Nakagawa took advantage of Lepine leaving crucial cards in the Prize cards in Games 1 and 3 to clinch a 2-1 win and advance to the semifinals.

The second on-stream quarterfinal featured a match between Newdorf and Cifuentes. Newdorf dominated right from the jump, cruising to an easy 2-0 victory. In the third quarterfinal to be broadcast on-stream, Junya Tanaka bounced back from losing the first game to Łaszkiewicz, putting together two one-sided wins to punch his ticket to the final four.

Finally, in the only off-stream quarterfinal, McKay beat Svinhufvud 2-1.

Semifinals

The first semifinal pitted Nakagawa against McKay. Although in both Games 1 and 2 Nakagawa got off to a quick start, he wasn’t able to capitalize on either as McKay slowly but surely got his setups into play both times, advancing to the final with a 2-0 win.

In the second semifinal, Newdorf took on Junya Tanaka. This semifinal was very one-sided; in Game 1 Newdorf cleared Junya Tanaka’s board of all his Pokémon, then beat him 6-1 in Game 2 to secure a finals matchup against McKay.

Final

Held the next day, the final turned out to be an absolute blowout. McKay made the most of the matchup advantage provided by the Lillie’s Clefairy ex card and its Ability of Fairy Zone which causes opposing Dragon-type Pokémon—around which the Dragapult ex is built—to become weak to the attacks of Psychic-type Pokémon such as those which the Gardevoir ex deck is full of.

As a result, McKay won Game 1 over Newdorf by a 6-0 scoreline, then 6-1 in Game 2. By winning Worlds with the Gardevoir ex deck, McKay became the third player to win the world title with a deck built around a Gardevoir card after Jason Klaczynski in 2008 and Diego Cassiraga in 2017.

The result also provided the clearest evidence possible that the Gardevoir ex deck is indeed the Best Deck in Format (BDIF).

McKay scored himself the champion’s prize money of US$50,000 while as the runner-up, Newdorf picked up US$30,000. Semifinalists Nakagawa and Junya Tanaka earned themselves US$20,000 apiece.

In other TCG-related news, check out the Omanyte card from Pokémon Card 151 [SV2a]. 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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