For the third time, the Pokémon TCG World Championships will be held in Anaheim; the 2025 edition will be held from 15 to 17 August. Heading into the tournament, certain decks have clearly separated themselves from the pack as the decks to beat at the biggest tournament of them all.

For Pokémon TCG newcomers unsure about what decks to start with, fans of specific players trying to understand more about their respective tactics, or Pokémon TCG veterans studying the current metagame to take their gameplay to new heights, we’ve compiled this list of the decks which will be the leading contenders at Worlds.

Click on each heading for a link to our article on that deck.

Gardevoir ex

Notes: All the damage that Gardevoir ex sustains can be sent to the opponent’s side via Munkidori’s Ability of Adrena-Brain. Some players, mostly Japanese ones, also include Jellicent ex for the Item-locking capabilities which Oceanic Curse, Jellicent ex’s Ability, provides.

Dragapult ex

Notes: Before evolving Drakloak into Dragapult ex, multiple Drakloak cards can be set up for their Ability of Recon Directive to serve as a draw engine. Then, after they do evolve into Dragapult ex, Phantom Dive can be used to set up chances for multi-Prize turns. A deck well-suited to make comebacks from difficult situations, the variant of the Dragapult ex deck which has become most popular includes Charizard ex for its favorable matchup against the Gholdengo ex deck.

Gholdengo ex

Notes: This deck makes heavy use of card search engines to retrieve the titular Gholdengo ex card as well as cards related to it; it’s a deck which prioritizes resource management. Recently, some players have chosen to go with a variant that includes Air Balloon and Genesect ex to boost consistency and flexibility.

Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex

Notes: This deck is all about spread damage coming from the combination of Froslass, Munkidori, and Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex; it has a clear matchup advantage against the Gardevoir ex deck. Many players have recently opted to include Air Balloon instead of Rescue Board for greater switching flexibility.

Raging Bolt ex

Notes: This deck is built around Energy ramping via Teal Dance, Teal Mask Ogerpon ex’s Ability, as well as Professor Sada’s Vitality to power up Raging Bolt ex rapidly, allowing it to hit for enormous damage before the opponent is properly set up. Iron Leaves is a common inclusion for the advantage it supplies against the Gardevoir ex deck.

In other TCG-related news, check out the Yveltal card from Shiny Star V [S4a]. 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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