The Pokémon TCG Meta Snapshot is an article that aims to encapsulate the state of the meta for a given 1 month period.
The Pokémon TCG Meta Snapshot also aims to rank decks in a somewhat lesser tier system. The tiers that we will use are as follows:
Tier 1: Highly Competitive Meta Decks. 10% or more of tops based on Limitless Online Tournament Platform deck spread and/or at least WIN a big official event once (Regionals, Internationals, or Special Event).
Tier 2: Semi-Competitive Meta Decks. Less than 10% of tops are based on the Limitless Online Tournament Platform deck spread.
Tier 3: Semi-Competitive non-Meta/Rogue decks. 1-2 tops. Specifically includes decks that only top small events or get lower rankings at medium events. Can also include decks that can potentially top but have not yet in a given format.
Tier 4: Casually Competitive non-Meta decks. Decks that can compete at the local level, but cannot top an event.
Tops = 1st - 8th place.
This article is written based on the Scarlet & Violet format.
Deck Overview
Miraidon ex has its ups and down in the current format. Its type can easily overpower Lugia VSTAR because of weakness and its damage can easily knock Pokemon such as Zacian V and Chien-Pao ex. It also has a great ability that can call out other Basic Lightning Pokemon such as Raikou V and Raichu V which can be very helpful in setting up the board. You also have Electric Generator which can easily accelerate energy from the deck although you may need some luck with it.
Table of Contents:
Miraidon ex
After its release, Miraidon ex is not in a very stable place in the format. Being hyped by some people because of its ability can set up the board pretty well while having a high-damage attack with 220 damage as its base can easily attract some people. But it turns out, Miraidon ex is not performing as it should be. So what happens? Let’s take a deeper look.
First off, its ability, Tandem Unit. It is a very great ability which can set up the board in a single turn because you can use this ability more than once if you have another Miraidon ex. This makes setting up the board pretty easy because most of the Pokemon in the Miraidon ex deck are Basic Pokemon so you can basically call anything to the board using Miraidon ex without the help of another searcher. However, because it is an ability, Path to the Peak will always be a problem so you may need to beware. But overall this ability is actually one of the strongest abilities in terms of Pokemon searching.
Then we have its attack, Photon Blaster which deals 220 damage. In terms of number, it is actually a great number to have because you can still knock some Pokemon V or Pokemon ex with low HP and deal an OHKO to any Pokemon that is weak to Lightning-type. But the drawback is quite severe where you can’t attack the next turn you use this attack. It may sound easy because you can just switch this Pokemon out and go with another Miraidon ex. But the big problem lies in its attack cost which is high where you need 2 Lightning Energy and a single Colorless Energy. We do have an acceleration card such as Electric Generator or Flaaffy, but because these cards need certain requirements to work properly, it falls off the equation pretty quickly.
First is Electric Generator which basically is a Max Elixir exclusive for Lightning-type Pokemon where you need to really bet the top 5 cards of your deck are somewhat filled with Lightning Energy. Even some people are already saying that Max Elixir is quite bad because you only look at the top 6 cards of your deck but Electric Generator is even less with 5 cards which makes the chance of hitting energy quite low. Next is Flaaffy, yes it is a very simple energy accelerator and it is already being released way back before the Scarlet & Violet era. But the big problem is if you see the Pokemon lineup in the Miraidon ex deck (you can also see it in the Winners’ Decklist part down below) they have something in common, they don’t have a draw engine besides a draw supporter. This makes the deck quite bricky and the hope to discard a Lightning Energy card while finding Flaaffy to evolve your Mareep into is quite hard. You can try using Radiant Greninja as your simple draw engine while discarding a Lightning Energy to fill up your discard pile. But because it is a Water-type Pokemon, you can’t call it to the bench using Miraidon ex and in my opinion, benching Radiant Greninja in this kind of deck is also a drawback because you cannot fully utilize your bench space for a surprise Pokemon or the second/third Flaaffy. But you are welcome to try that.
Overall, Miraidon ex is actually a very decent Pokemon ex because quite similar to Zacian V, it actually has great damage with a drawback while its ability is quite phenomenal in the current era. As for the regular Miraidon ex deck, people usually bring 3 copies of Miraidon ex because it is not your only main attacker as we have Raikou V which we will be talking about next.
Raikou V
Up next is the Legendary Beast, Raikou. It is our only draw engine with its ability even though we only get 1 card draw. But hey, sometimes you only need one card to win the game. Then, we also look at its attack where you can potentially deal 220 damage similar to Miraidon ex. However Raikou V’s attack is dependent on how many Pokemon both players had so if your opponent already knows you are playing Raikou V, the opponent may not fully fill their bench space to minimize the damage of Raikou V.
With that said, you may think that Raikou V is not a good companion for Miraidon ex. But here’s the thing, you may overlook its attack cost because it only cost 1 Lightning Energy and 1 Colorless which is a very cheap thing to have if you can hit Lightning Energy cards off your Electric Generator. You can also comfortably go second and just hit with all you got using Raikou V in your first turn because of its low attack cost. Setting up Raikou V is also simple because it is a Basic Lightning Pokemon so Miraidon ex can easily call it onto the bench and let Electric Generator do the job. However, Raikou has the same problem quite similar to almost any Lightning Pokemon nowadays which is its low HP compared to similar Pokemon such as Suicune V and Entei V. But still, its swiftness to attack at your first turn with the help of Electric Generator is incomparable to the other Pokemon.
You may think that with the card being this good, you may want to bring at least 3 copies of it to the deck. But actually, the answer is no because you still need to fill your deck with other Pokemon such as Raichu V, Flaaffy, or Regieleki VMAX and you still have Miraidon ex to attack so Raikou V is not the highest priority here. Bringing 2 copies or even only 1 copy of Raikou V is still beyond reasonable because its low HP and easily manipulate attack may cause your demise if you are not playing carefully.
Raichu V
Then, we have our not-so-little cute mouse, Raichu! Since its release, Raichu V hasn’t been able to perform quite well in the format because the format is filled with high-hitter Pokemon and some Fighting-type Pokemon. However, some decks manage to play Raichu V even though the result is not that great such as Boltund V/VMAX. But things started to go better since we enter the Scarlet & Violet era. With Miraidon ex help, Raichu V getting a great spotlight being in the deck as an attacker that can dish out astonishingly high damage.
Let’s see its first attack first. Its first attack, Fast Charge, is easily a great attack in the first turn because you can stack more Lighting Energy on the board so you can get higher damage. Another great thing is that you can use it in your first turn too! This means that you can easily get 2 energy attachments in your first turn. Yes, you still need the energy required to use this attack, but finding a Lightning Energy card in the Miraidon ex deck is easier as you have a higher count of energy than the normal deck does (except for Dialga VSTAR).
Then its second attack, Dynamic Spark, is where the fun things happen. It has a 60 damage multiplier for each Lightning Energy card attached to being discarded. With so many help from cards like Electric Generator and Flaaffy, this attack can easily hit big numbers pretty quickly. Also, with your first attack, you can easily stack up to 120 damage in your first turn hoping you won’t get knocked the following turn which is very unlikely in this format. With that in mind, this can be a very surprising attack in the second turn or even in the late game because you can hit for more than 240 in a single attack and just recycle the energy back using Flaaffy. It also only has 2 Lightning Energy as its attack cost which is cheap as you can easily call Raichu V using Miraidon ex, attach manually, and just use Flaaffy’s ability or Electric Generator to fill the rest. This is why Raichu V is a great pair in the Miraidon ex deck.
However, like the other Lightning-type Pokemon out there, its HP is a bit low at 200HP which makes it more vulnerable to more Pokemon. But hey, you can just knock them out before they can attack you right? Raichu V can be a surprise factor in the deck as you can easily call it out and charge it at the same time while attacking with high damage. As for how many copies you want to bring, 1 to 2 copies is the number here because not all the time you can maximize its potential and you can just use Miraidon ex which has more HP and less energy to attack with similar damage.
Flaaffy
Up next is the supporting Pokemon for the Miraidon ex deck which is Flaaffy. It has been a great supporting Pokemon in terms of energy acceleration since its release because you can practically search Mareep and Flaaffy using Level Ball because their HP is below 90HP. But with that in mind, 90HP is a very dangerous number as Radiant Greninja can easily snipe it off with Moonlight Shuriken and suddenly you don’t have any energy acceleration on the board. You may want to think again if you want to play Flaaffy if your area has a lot of Radiant Greninja being played.
However, if you insist on playing Flaaffy, this card is a very strong pair with Raichu V because you can easily recycle the discarded Lightning Energy while searching for more energy using Electric Generator. You can also try to evolve it to Ampharos ex which has more HP and a big attack. However, deck space may become a problem if you want to incorporate Ampharos ex or even high copies of the Flaaffy evolution line because you will be caught choosing between Basic Energy cards or more copies of Flaaffy. Therefore, many decks now tend to bring only a 2-2 line of Flaaffy or 3-3 line to make sure the deck can make more space for Energy cards and other cards such as Electric Generator or even more copies of Raikou V and Raichu V.
Regieleki VMAX
220 damage for a Basic Pokemon ex is already a great number to knock some of the Pokemon out there. But what if you want more damage to do an OHKO? Regieleki is here for you. Its ability can easily boost any Basic Lightning Pokemon damage by 30 and you can apply this ability more than once. So having multiple Regieleki on the bench can easily give you 60-90 extra damage. It also has a free retreat which is a very great thing in this kind of deck because you can use Regieleki VMAX as a pivot. However, as the name states, it is a Pokemon VMAX which will give the opponent 3 prizes if it’s knocked. You want to take certain risks and make sure that Regieleki VMAX survived unless you can make sure you can take a quick win. This drawback makes some people hesitant to play this card because we are still in the era of high-hitting Pokemon and it’s even worse because Chien-Pao ex can easily knock Regieleki VMAX out with a single attack.
Despite all that, Regieleki VMAX can easily ensure you a high chance of dealing on OHKO to your opponent, especially Pokemon VSTAR which may help you turn things around. As for how many copies you want to bring, in my testing group, we always had a principle that you cannot combine Flaaffy and Regieleki VMAX in a single deck so bringing a 3-3 line with more Trainer cards or energy cards is the way to go because you don’t want to be stuck between evolving your Regieleki VMAX first or Flaaffy first as it can be very frustrating.
Other Things to Consider
As always, there are many things that make the Miraidon ex decks a very strong deck. Here are the other things that you can consider adding to your deck.
Electric Generator
The first thing that comes up when talking about Trainer cards in the current Lightning-type deck may be Electric Generator. It can easily be a staple in the Lightning-type deck because its effect can easily accelerate Lightning Energy cards to the Benched Lightning Pokemon which can be very crucial to some Pokemon such as Raikou V or Raichu V. This card makes attacking in the first turn possible because Raikou V only has 2 energy as its attack cost. One more thing that makes Electric Generator a great card is that it is an Item card which you can use more than once. This makes filling up energy to your Pokemon on the board easier.
However, this card has its drawback which is its own effect. You can only see the top 5 cards of your deck which is smaller than using Max Elixir which can be very punishing if you don’t get any Energy cards from using it twice or even once because you can be late on your own setup. The deck may also be its own drawback because the deck usually play with more than 12 energy cards. If you somehow have more than 3 energy in your hand, you may have bad luck when using Electric Generator because you basically already have at least 25% of the energy cards in your hand and by only looking at the top 5 cards of your deck, you only look at 11% of your deck considering none of the energy are prized. But of course, with that many energy cards, one or two of them may be prized and the chance of hitting the energy card using an Electric Generator will be lower.
But still, with all that drawbacks, it is a great card introduced in the format because it can help Lightning-type decks in terms of energy acceleration. With that said, 4 copies of Electric Generator is the way to go in this kind of deck as you have limited energy acceleration options. It is a great card nonetheless.
Arven
Then we have another important card in this deck which is Arven. It is a very important card in this deck because you can search for an Item card and a Tool card. It may seem to be a bad card because you will have a limited choice by playing Arven. But because you can search for Electric Generator, Nest Ball, or Ultra Ball, you basically can easily set up the board with just the help of a single Item card. Then, Tool cards like Bravery Charm and Forest Seal Stone can easily be searched by playing Arven which can also help set up the board even further.
However, unlike Electric Generator above, Arven is a supporter card so you can only use it once per turn. You may want to think again when using it because you still have other supporter cards in your arsenal which can be more beneficial to you. So, many decks only bring 1 to 2 copies of Arven in their decks as it is not the main target of supporters of this deck. But when you get it and can use it, it may give you a very easy boost to your setup.
Forest Seal Stone
The last one on the list is Forest Seal Stone. This is a very amazing card since its release because of its ability which can easily search for any card from the deck. But since rotation, this card had a blow because Pokemon decided to differentiate Item cards and Tool cards which makes cards like Irida cannot search for Forest Seal Stone anymore. However, cards like Arven showed up and makes this card searchable. However, one thing that you want to note is that you can only use this card on a Basic Pokemon V which goes quite well in the Miraidon ex deck as you play Raikou V, Raichu V, or Regieleki V. You can easily call them out using Miraidon ex while search for Forest Seal Stone using Arven which is a very great combo. However, you still need to beware of Lost Vacuum as the card is still in the format and some decks still use this card frequently. One thing that you may want to do is when you already have the Forest Seal Stone, you want to use it right away so the attached Forest Seal Stone won’t get wiped out using Lost Vacuum. As for how many copies you want to bring, I think 1 copy is already enough as this card is not that vital to the deck but rather gives a supplementary boost to the deck's consistency. Once you have it in your hand, you better maximize its potential so you can win the game.
Winners’ Decklist
Now let’s see what people bring on their Miraidon ex deck and we will start with none other than the Korean League Final Season Champion, Se Jun Park.
First, we look at the Pokémon list. 3 copies of Miraidon ex followed by 2 copies of both Raikou V and Raichu V seems to be a standard number in the current format as you mostly want to start with Miraidon so you can set up the board easily. Then, a 2-2 line of Flaaffy is pretty reasonable because deck space is so precious in this kind of deck and bringing more copies may be a problem in terms of energy consistencies. Then, Park also brings Drapion V to face Mew VMAX which is quite popular in the Asian side by winning several championships. As for the supporting Pokemon, Park brings Squawkabilly ex as a draw engine while also helping to pile up Lightning Energy cards in the discard pile. Another one is Lumineon V which makes you easily search for a supporter card. Then, Zapdos is also present to increase the damage of all Basic Lightning Pokemon as sometimes you need the extra 10 damage to knock out Pokemon with 230HP, 310HP, or another. The deck also bring 1 copy of Manaphy which is pretty reasonable if you are facing Radiant Greninja or another spread deck as you may be prone to Sableye or another hitter if Radiant Greninja’s attack manages to go through. Last but not least is Flying Pikachu V which is a bit of a unique addition as you usually want to also bring Flying Pikachu VMAX. However, since deck space is quite limited and Flying Pikachu V can also provide a pivot, it is being added to the deck. You can also attack with Pikachu V if you are feeling lucky because it can be a surprise to the opponent’s side if you manage to hit heads.
As for Supporter cards, Park brings quite a few supporter cards starting from Professor's Research which can easily fresh your hand with 7 new cards while discarding cards from your hand which could be Lightning Energy cards, Boss's Orders which can easily gust your opponent, Arven which can easily help you to find Item cards and Tool cards simultaneously, Iono and Judge which can easily disrupt your opponent’s hand. I think people can agree that this list of supporter cards is the ‘sweet’ spot for the current Miraidon ex list because right now there’s not much that can be changed from the list. However, you may want to try to add Raihan as you can recycle a Basic Energy from your discard pile while searching for a card from your deck which can be quite useful to retaliate.
Then we move on to the searcher cards. With Miraidon ex’s ability in mind, there are not many searcher cards to be played because the goal is to find Miraidon ex in your opening hand. Hence, Park only plays 2 copies of Nest Ball and 4 copies of Ulltra Ball. Nest Ball is quite reasonable because most of the Pokemon cards are Basic Pokemon so you basically can call them anytime. But cards like Lumineon V and Flaaffy can’t be searched and played using Nest Ball. Hence, Ultra Ball is being played. Ultra Ball can also help thin your hand by discarding Lightning Energy cards so you can try to pile up Lightning Energy cards in the discard pile while searching for Flaaffy to evolve it onto Mareep and recycle the energy cards back to the field using its ability. Ultra Ball also can search for any card in the deck so bringing 4 copies is a big help.
As for the other Item cards, Park brings 4 copies of Electric Generator which is the go-to number unless you want to bet yourself on a lower number that you can hit the energy out all of them. Then, Park brings have 2 copies of Switch Cart which can easily switch out almost any of our Pokemon from the active spot while healing them for 30 damage. The healing part is very crucial because you can mess up the damage calculation from the Lost Box deck or other decks as you may get out from their knockout range. Last but not least, Park also brings a copy of Escape Rope which can easily help you to switch Pokemon but also disrupt the opponent’s momentum. Escape Rope can also help you in a pinch if you are facing decks that have low Benched Pokemon as the opponent has limited options to switch their Active Pokemon with.
We also have 2 Tool cards, Forest Seal Stone will be the VSTAR Power for this deck and an exact searcher for you. Then Bravery Charm which will be your survival card as you may face decks that cannot OHKO your Pokemon. You can prolong the game while setting up the board because you will be safe and sound as you have an HP boost from Bravery Charm. But beware of Lost Vacuum or other Tool removal cards!
Last but not least is the Stadium cards where Park plays 2 copies of Beach Court which will be very beneficial to this deck because you can easily retreat your Basic Pokemon for 1 less energy. This may make the deck more easy to switch out or pivot between Pokemon on the board.
Overall, I think this deck is very solid because even though a lot of people saying that the deck is not that consistent, the deck is still fairly strong and Park proves the deck by winning the Korean League. The addition of Squawkabilly ex and Lumineon V may become the decider here.
Up next, we will see quite a different build where Yoshiki Kitaie got Top 16 at the Japan Championship 2023.
Similar to Park, Yoshiki still brings the regular lineup of Miraidon ex, Raikou V, and Raichu V. However, Yoshiki reduces the number of Raichu V to accommodate another Pokemon. Yoshiki also brings the same number of Flaaffy evoline and Manaphy. The thing that is different here is the addition of 1-1 line of Magnezone VSTAR and Zeraora. Magnezone VSTAR is a great pair to Miraidon ex because its attack can easily search for Item cards and its VSTAR Power can easily knock small Pokemon because it does the same thing as Radiant Greninja. However, the bad thing here is that it needs to evolve and it gives the time for the opponent to react and bench Manaphy. You also in risk of getting Iono or Judge by the opponent after using Magnezone VSTAR’s attack. However, if you manage to pull off its VSTAR Power, you will be heavily rewarded because you can take an easy 2-prize card knockout if you are facing small Pokemon, or you can soften up the opponent for future attacks. As for Zeraora, it has a so-so first attack as you can soften up your opponent’s evolution Pokemon. However, the main thing here is that it has a free retreat and rather than using Flying Pikachu V as the pivot, Zeraora can be used as a pivot too and only gives the opponent 1 prize card rather than 2.
As for the supporter cards, Yoshiki brings quite the same lineup because, in terms of the card pool, there are not many changes in the format. Yoshiki brings the same supporter such as Professor’s Research, Boss’s Orders, Iono, and Judge. However, instead of Arven, Yoshiki decides to bring Avery which is a bit of a surprise. But I guess because people are playing Lost Box and Mew VMAX, Avery will be more impactful as most of the time, people who play that deck tend to fill up their bench quickly.
Next up is the Item cards where it turns out that Yoshiki plays the same amount for each card. I think it is because Yoshiki and Park play the same strategy overall hence there is not much room for changes in Item cards. However, there is an addition of Pokégear 3.0 which is quite unique but works in some way. It can be your winning card when you are in a pinch as the deck doesn’t have any Lumineon V so using Pokegear will be the answer. However, quite similar to Electric Generator, looking at the top cards from your deck may be a bit of a gamble and it may be a bad gamble if you don't find the card that you want. But I think it is still a great card nonetheless and it is an Item card which can be played anytime so there’s no harm bringing it to the deck.
As for the other cards, Yoshiki brings exactly the same Tool cards but what surprises me is that Yoshiki decides to bring 4 copies of Path to the Peak and only a single copy of Beach Court. Path to the Peak can be a very harmful stadium for Miraidon ex because it shuts down its ability. However, I think this can be a very disruptive Stadium card if you play the cards once you are set up.
Overall, the deck is actually strong as it is but once inconsistency strikes, the deck falls pretty quickly. But I think in the current format, the deck is already strong and can still be a great contender for Top Cut although it may not has a high chance like the other cards do.
Tier Conclusion
As we come to the final section of the article, we need to decide the deck’s tier. With Se Jun Park winning the Korean League and Yoshiki Kitae getting Top 16 in the Japan Championship, it shows that Miraidon ex is a strong deck from the start. However, consistency and damage cap may hinder the deck from going further up the format. With that in mind, we also can’t neglect the fact that the deck has one of the highest damage potential in the format with Raichu V being the attacker. But still, consistency in getting the energy is a big problem if you don’t hit it using Electric Generator.
Based on the achievement and the performance of the deck, the deck will be a Tier 1 deck. However, with that consistency problem, I think the deck is suitable on Tier 1,5 because if you still don’t solve the consistency problem, the deck won’t work as it should.
Afterword
What do you guys think of the Miraidon ex deck? I do enjoy playing this deck as you can easily set up the board pretty well and the damage potential with Raikou V and Raichu V is astonishingly great in this format. However, the consistency issue with Electric Generator and no consistent draw engine can take this deck down pretty easily. Have you guys won with your Miraidon ex deck? Comment down below!
This is an ongoing project on pokemoncard.io and I really appreciate all the feedback. I plan to do this on a monthly basis so you can at least grasp what is happening over the month and I think it is a very safe cycle time considering that our set is not released once a month so you guys can still see how the format goes.
Life is too short to be anything but happy! - Arelios
There may be some mistakes and missing points of review in this writing. Please kindly comment to share your correction and point of view too.
