Top 5 Best Pokemon Decks April 2023

What’s poppin’ Po Town readers? Are you getting used to our new format? If you have, you’ll wanna check out this article for some of the best-performing decks from some massive Pokemon TCG events. If you aren’t used to this format, this article can also be used as a starting point to discovering our new E-block on / Scarlet and Violet Pokemon TCG format! We just had our rotation that saw cards from Sword and Shield to Shining Fates leave Standard, and that has really shaken up things! Lugia VSTAR SIT / Archeops SIT lost most of the Special Energy that it played, as did the Regis deck, and so much more! As we go through this article, I’ll share the strategy of each deck, a tournament-proven successful list, and more! If you need any cards to build these decks on PTCG Live, use code zlesage5 to save 5% at the PoTownStore. Even if you have all of the cards you need, I recommend picking up 400 codes per set to redeem in the game to have credits ready for your next deck masterpiece! Let’s take a look at my #5 pick!

Kicking off this list is a Miraidon ex SVI deck that Luffy87512 used to win the 100+ player Trainer Academy Event! Miraidon ex is all about using its Tandem Unit Ability to grab a few Lightning type Basic Pokemon from your deck and get them on your Bench. In a lot of cases, you’ll wanna grab Regieleki V SIT to eventually Evolve into Regieleki VMAX SIT to boost up your attack damage. How? Well, Transistor increases the damage of each of your Basic Lightning Pokemon in play by 30, and you can have multiple Regieleki VMAX out in play to do even more damage! You can quickly attack extra Lightning Energy after a successful Electric Generator SVI, which gives this deck an aggressive edge against the competition. When this deck works, it works, but it can sometimes fall a little flat if you miss a key Electric Generator! My personal take on this deck is that it has all of the makings of a successful tier 1 deck, but it might need to see a few revisions to have a shot at being the absolute best. Either way, it's a super fun deck and incredibly powerful. Be sure to check out this winning Pokemon list!

Gardevoir ex SVI has honestly been one of the most hyped cards from the set, and I think it's living up to the hype! Toco recently won the 150+ player Tournament of Doom Event with this archetype so lemme explain how it works. Gardevoir ex can attach as many Psychic Energy from your discard pile as you like during each turn with its Psychic Embrace Ability, and that allows you to power up some strong attackers. Some of those attackers are Gardevoir CRE that can OHKO anything with its Brainwave attack or Zacian V CEL which can OHKO anything with its Storm Slash attack. You do need to watch out for the damage you place on your Pokemon because Psychic Embrace adds 2 damage counters to the Pokemon you decide to attach to for each time you use its Ability. Since Gardevoir has to Evolve from somewhere, we use Kirlia SIT to pitch cards with Refinement to draw more cards each turn. We can discard Psychic Energy to use with Psychic Embrace or Mewtwo V-UNION pieces for a virtually free cost. Mewtwo V-UNION acts as a massive tank of an attacker that can either spread 16 damage counters or hits hard for 300 damage. Energy acceleration, draw power, and big attacks - what else can you ask for? Similar to Miraidon ex, I think this deck might be refined a bit more, but it seems like a great place to explore our metagame. Let’s check out Toco’s winning list!

Sometimes my list surprises me and that’s where I’m at with Hisuian Goodra VSTAR LOR being put on this list. On one hand, I’m not a personal fan of this deck, but I also can’t argue with massive results. Speaking about those results, GregularGuy won the massive 250+ player Deck Out Series Event with this archetype so lemme explain how it works. It uses the Lost Zone engine to get cards in the Lost Zone to utilize Mirage Gate LOR as quickly as possible. Both Comfey and Colress’s Experiment LOR allow you to draw cards and put cards into your Lost Zone. Cramorant activates at 4 cards in the Lost Zone to attack for free, and Mirage Gate activates at 7 cards in the Lost Zone to accelerate Energy from your deck. Once you can start powering up Hisuian Goodra VSTAR, you can start swinging with Rolling Iron for 200 damage while reducing incoming attacks by 80. Better yet, you can use its Moisture Star VSTAR Ability to heal all damage from it once during the game. In a format that sometimes has a damage cap, Hisuian Goodra VSTAR has an opportunity to shine. Let’s check out GregularGuy’s winning list!

Hey, we just went over how another Lost Zone variant was crushing it, and here we have another one! Caleb Rogerson recently won the 100+ player Hoarder’s Circuit Event with a “turbo” version of this deck that tries to do the Lost Zone strategy the quickest it can. It uses the Lost Zone engine to get cards in the Lost Zone to utilize Mirage Gate LOR as quickly as possible. Both Comfey and Colress’s Experiment allow you to draw cards and put cards into your Lost Zone. Cramorant activates at 4 cards in the Lost Zone to attack for free, Mirage Gate activates at 7 cards in the Lost Zone to accelerate Energy from your deck, and Sableye LOR allows you to snipe 10 damage counters when you have 10 cards in your Lost Zone. Forest Seal Stone SIT allows you to search out any cards you want, you can Lost Vacuum CRZ a card from your hand, remove Forest Seal Stone from play too, and really rush out some crazy attacks. There are many other variants of this deck, like Radiant Charizard or Kyogre, but this is my personal favourite. Let’s check out Caleb’s winning list!

So somehow, the best deck in format from the last format has survived the rotation and is flourishing. Recently Zac C. won the 250+ player Late Night Event and really put this deck back on the map. Lugia VSTAR SIT is used to summon two copies of Archeops SIT from the discard pile, and you can easily accelerate Energy to any of your Pokemon. Considering we did lose a bunch of key Special Energy to our recent Pokemon TCG Standard Rotation, we did have to change this archetype to the Single Strike version. Sure, you can only attach Single Strike Energy BST to your Single Strike Pokemon, like Stonjourner or Tyranitar V BST, but they are great attackers too! The reason why this deck is up at the top of the list is because it arguably has the best matchup spread out of all of the decks in this article! Let’s check out Zac’s winning list here!

Well, I hope these decks perform well for you for the rest of April and stay tuned for more metagame articles from me in the future! At the time of writing. I can’t wait to see what this new format has in store, and I’ll be sure to share all of that information with our community. If you’re missing any of the cards for any of the above decks, be sure to pick up some PTCGL codes while you are here! Use code zlesage5 to save 5% from the PoTown store and help support me on the site! I’ll catch up with you all really soon, but until then, happy testing!

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.