Top 5 Decks Heading into Worlds 2022

Yoooooo, what’s poppin’ Po Town readers? Are you getting hyped for the 2022 Pokemon World Championships? I know I am! After a few long years without official play in the real-life play, we are finally back to the pinnacle event of the year - Worlds! The goal of this article is to showcase some of my favourite decks heading into this event to help you prepare for this event. If you didn’t qualify for the World Championships, you can still read along to learn more about our ongoing metagame and explore these amazing decks. If you need any Pokemon TCG Online codes, the PoTown store is a great place to pick them up! That being said, let’s jump into these decks.

After Arceus VSTAR [Brilliant Stars] / Flying PikachuVMAX [Celebrations] won the 2022 North American Internationals, this deck has been relatively silent. Most players have switched to more vanilla Arceus VSTAR / Inteleon [Sword and Shield] builds due to their consistency, but this deck is still incredibly powerful - if you hit the right decks. The goal is simple! Use Arceus V [Brilliant Stars] or Arceus VSTAR to power up a Pokemon that is strong against your opponent’s deck! Crobat VMAX [Shining Fates] has a type advantage against Mewtwo V-UNION [Sword and Shield], Flying Pikachu VMAX is great against Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR [Astral Radiance], and Hisuian Decidueye VSTAR [Astral Radiance] is great against Arceus VSTAR. It can sometimes play a little clunky, but this deck has all of the answers necessary for the format. Check it out!

While most other major decks are coming from Brilliant Stars and Astral Radiance, Mew VMAX [Fusion Strike] has been kicking it since Fusion Strike. This deck was once considered the best deck in the game, but most other decks have found ways to beat it. Whether its Path to the Peak [Chilling Reign] paired with Roxanne [Astral Radiance] or Yveltal [Celebrations], many of the best decks are forcing Mew VMAX down the rankings as much as possible. Why play this deck? With its rich history of success and options to win against most decks due to its sheer speed, this deck still packs a punch! With the way the metagame is shifting away from countering Mew VMAX, it might be one of the better options heading into Worlds.

After seeing the most success at the 2022 North American International Championships, Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR has slid down the rankings by a few spots. Its falling placement is mainly due to Flying Pikachu VMAX being recognized as a real threat heading into Worlds and Mewtwo V-UNION having a positive matchup against it. Similarly to Mew VMAX, when you are at the very top of the metagame, most other decks will try and beat you. If you are ready to tough out some difficult matchups, this deck has an appealing matchup spread and is the most powerful deck in our format.

If you asked me if this card would see play a few months, let alone be on the best decks heading into Worlds, I would have easily laughed. After watching this deck make the top four at the North American International Championships, I made sure to get cards for this deck ASAP! It boasts a positive matchup spread against most decks, but it is painfully slow to play! The goal is to either use Miltank [Astral Radiance] to block damage from their Pokemon V or use Mewtwo V-UNION to heal forever. You won’t deck out with some help from Cyllene [Astral Radiance], Pal Pad [Sword and Shield], and Team Yell’s Cheer [Brilliant Stars]. If you wanna play a control deck, be sure to check this one out!

Here we are, the best deck heading into Worlds. It doesn’t have the best matchup spread in the world, but most matchups are very winnable. Arceus VSTAR / Inteleon kinda goes 50/50 against most top decks in the format, and not losing is great! Cheren’s Care [Brilliant Stars] and Pal Pad really break this deck… Attack with Trinity Nova, power up another Arceus VSTAR, Cheren’s Care, repeat. Some newer builds of this deck include Radiant Charizard [Pokemon GO], but they largely haven’t seen widespread success. This deck might be boring, but it is incredibly impactful. Let’s check it out!

Whether you’re playing or cheering on your favourite pro player, the 2022 Pokemon World Championships looks like it's shaping up to be an exciting event for everyone! I’m stoked to test these Pokemon TCG/online decks out with my teammates to determine which one is the best play for the event and try my chances at becoming the champ! If you need any PTCGO codes for your own testing or collection, the PoTown store is one of the best places to pick up code cards for PTCGO.

Zach Lesage is a contributing writer for PoTownStore.com. As a Toronto local, he has been playing the Pokemon Trading Card Game since 2005 and creates Pokemon content as his full time career. With multiple prestigious accomplishments in the game, such as 2020 Players Cup 2 Champion and 2020 Oceania International Championships Finalist, he has proven his success in the game. Outside of the game, he travels the world, enjoys the culture of designer streetwear, and is a professionally trained chef. You can catch him at most Pokemon events and follow him on Twitter @ZachLesagePTCG.