The 3 best Pokémon TCG Decks to look out for at NAIC 2024

With Pokémon NAIC upon us from June 7 to 9, three new Pokémon TCG decks have the potential to take the meta by storm and overthrow Charizard ex-decks once and for all.

For the past few months, Charizard ex has been the dominant force in the metagame. Still, with the recent release of Twilight Masquerade, older decks have been given a ton of support while new cards entirely have created robust, unstoppable decks.

So, what can we expect to see during this weekend’s action?

Gardevoir ex

Gardevoir is back on top thanks to a host of new cards like Tasugiri, Munkidori, and Unfair Stamp, which could make the 2023 powerhouse deck even more powerful.

There are different variants of the deck roaming around, but they still rely on Gardevoir ex’s ability to get energy cards onto the field. Could we see Gardevoir return to winning ways at NAIC? Or will our two other new decks take over the format?

Raging Bolt/Ogeron ex

Raging Bolt ex has been given new life thanks to the inclusion of Teal Mask Ogerpon ex. There are many ways to get the core to work, including other Ogerpon ex forms, but you mainly want to get your Pokémon stacked with energy cards to let Ogerpon deal tons of damage to your opposing Pokémon.

It has the potential to be a deck that goes far, but can it go far enough to win the whole event?

Dragapult ex

There are many ways to play Dragapult, whether combining it with Lost Zone cards or replacing Charizard ex from the Charizard/Pigeot ex core. In truth, Dragapult ex’s ability to place six damage counters on the opponent’s bench is a game changer and could be meta-defining as we head into worlds.

Dragapult has been winning many tournaments in Japan, but Western players are still skeptical about whether it can make a breakthrough this late into the season. I guess we need to wait for NAIC this weekend to find out if it’s overhyped or underappreciated.