ThePokemonRegional Championships in Orlando has come and gone, with Liam Halliburton taking down the event with Charizard. The 2024 Orlando Regionals were special in that it was the first major event after rotation hit Standard just a few weeks prior to the event. With a whole new format, many decks were competing to take home the gold.
The metagame had a pretty large variety of decks, though some saw more success than others when it came to making it to day two and the top cut. Some of the top decks used archetypes that came into being with the set release that came before the event Temporal Forces, while others relied on old classics.
4 Ralts (ASR #60)
4 Kirlia (SIT #68)
2 Gardevoir ex (PAF #29)
1 Drifloon (SVI #89)
1 Scream Tail (PAR #86)
1 Mimikyu (PAF #37)
1 Flutter Mane (TEF #78)
1 Klefki (SVI #96)
1 Radiant Greninja (ASR #46)
1 Manaphy (BRS #41)
1 Jirachi (PAR #126)
1 Collapsed Stadium
9 Pshcyic Energy
Gardevoir decks had about a 3.5 percent metagame share at the top tables, with nine decks in total making it toward the end. Joshua Frink piloted all the way to a third-place finish.Gardevoir is one of the decksmaking use of Buddy-Buddy Poffin, searching out for Ralts to start your evolution chains, as well as Manaphy and Drifloon for utility.
Gardevoir ex, the namesake of the deck, puts Psychic energy from the discard pile onto Pokemon and deals them two damage. This is beneficial on cards Scream Tail and Drifloon, which deal more damage for having more damage counters on them, without being ex, so your opponent won’t get extra prize cards if they get knocked out.
4 Roaring Moon (TEF #109)
4 Flutter Man (TEF #78)
3 Koaidon (TEF #119)
1 Great Tusk (TEF #97)
1 Radiant Grenjina (ASR #46)
4 Ancient Booster Energy Capsule
3 Pokestop
Ancient Box boasted about a five percent metagame share, though only one player on it went the distance, with Jake Ewart almost managing to take the whole event with the deck. Ancient Box utilizes almost exclusively Ancient Pokemon, allowing them to take advantage of built-in synergy for playing a ton of Ancient cards.
Ancient cards tend to discard a lot, with Roaring Moon one of the payoffs to deal burst damage with its Vengeance Fletching attack. Since Ancient Box doesn’t play any ex Pokemon, you won’t ever have to worry about your opponent getting double prizes for knocking out Pokemon.
3 Dunsparce (TEF #128)
3 Dudunsparce (TEF #129)
2 Roaring Moon ex (PAR # 124)
1 Radiant Geninija (ASR #46)
1 Temple Of Sinnoh
9 Darkness Energy
There were two different variants of Roaring Moon, traditional and a new flavor of it using theDuddunsparce engine to draw a ton of cards. Dudunsparce both makes it easier to get into more Ancient cards to play and get into the graveyard and prevents you from having to worry about deckout.
Both Roaring Moon and Roaring Moon ex are fantastic cards that the deck is built around. Roaring Moon can do large amounts of damage if you have a lot of Ancient cards in the discard pile while only being a single-prize Pokemon. Roaring Moon ex is a bit of a backup plan, able to trade off a Stadium card for extra damage and knock out an opponent’s Active Pokemon for an easy way to close out games.
4 Comfey (LOR #79)
1 Sableye (LOR #70)
1 Cramorant (LOR #50)
1 Groudon (PAR #93)
1 Raikou V (BRS #48)
1 Shaymin V (BRS #13)
2 Pokestop
1 Iron Hands ex
Lost Zone Box is one of the decks that were around pre-rotation and stuck around, having solid success at the 2024 Orlando Regionals, taking up about 7.25 percent of the metagame. Lost Zone Box, as the name implies, is all about loading up cards into your Lost Zone to power up abilities and attacks.
Sableye is one of the main payoffs once you have ten or more cards in the Lost Zone, letting you spread 12 damage counters however you want to your opponent’s Pokemon. While Sableye is fragile, it can snipe utility Pokemon on the bench, while the rest of your Pokemon can handle whatever is left behind.
4 Lugia V (SIT #138)
3 Lugia VSTAR (SIT #139)
4 Minccino (BRS #124)
3 Cinccino (TEF #137)
4 Archeops (SIT #147)
2 Lumineon V (BRS #40)
1 Snorlax (LOR #143)
1 Master Ball
Lugia Archeops is a deck that exclusively plays Special Energy cards. While there is no way to traditionally evolve into Archeops in the decklist, that’s a problemsolved by Lugia VSTAR’sability to put two Normal Pokemon without a rule box from the discard pile to the bench.
Once you have Archeops, you can keep attaching Special Energy to all of your Pokemon. All of this Special Energy is best put on Cinccino, which gets to do 70 damage for each Special Energy card attached to it, becoming a massive threat while only being a single-prize Pokemon.
2 Giratina V (LOR #130)
3 Giratine VSTAR (LOR #131)
1 Iron Leaves ex (TEF #25)
1 Spiritomb (PAL #89)
1 Rescue Board
Between regular Lost Box and Giratina Lost Box, the Giratina variant had more success and took up about 9.25 percent of the metagame share. As with all Lost Box-style decks, Giratina is focused on getting as many cards into the Lost Zone as possible. The main payoff is Giratina VSTAR, which can instantly knock out an active Pokemon with its VSTAR Power, and Sableye to spread damage counters.
Giratina V helps get cards into your hand and cards into the Lost Zone, helping you draw into Giratina VSTAR to evolve the base Giratina V. The deck requires a lot of different energy cards to be played, but it’s well worth the trade-off.
4 Iron Crown ex (TEF #81)
3 Iron Hands ex (PAR #70)
2 Miraidon (TEF #121)
1 Mew ex (MEW 151)
4 Future Booster Capsule
2 Heavy Baton
Future Pokemon stole the spotlight compared to Ancient Pokemon, being one of the most successful decks of the event. Future decks are about boosting the attacksof your Future Pokemonto knock out anything put into the active Pokemon zone. Both Future Booster Energy Capsule and Iron Crown ex give extra damage (though in Iron Crown ex’s case, to all Pokemon except any Iron Crown ex copies).
The main attacker for these effects is Iron Hands ex, which has the potential to net you an extra prize card if you knock out an opponent’s Pokemon with its attack. There’s a higher-than-average energy card count, as many cards in the deck attach basic energy for free.
4 Arceus V (BRS #122)
4 Arceus VSTAR (BRS#123)
2 Bidoof (CRZ #111)
2 Bibarel (BRS #121)
2 Giratina VSTAR (LOR #131)
1 Skwovet (SVI #151)
1 Radian Gardevoir (LOR #69)
1 Maximum Belt
1 Choice Belt
Arceus decks are a way to power up Pokemon Vwith energy cards with ease. As such, it’s paired with one of the best Pokemon V cards still available in Giratina V. Although Arceus decks don’t go all-in on the Lost Zone, once you have ten cards there, you can get an instant knockout.
Arceus decks are all about card advantage, getting your Pokemon loaded up with energy cards so they can use all of their attacks early in the game. One Double Turbo Energy on an Arceus V can get three basic energy cards to your Pokemon V directly from your deck.
3 Chien-Pao ex (PAL #61)
2 Frigibax (PAL #57)
1 Frigibax (PAF #17)
2 Baxalibur (PAL #60)
1 Radiant Grenjinja (ASR #46)
1 Iron Hands ex (PAR #70)
1 Iron Bundle (PAR #56)
1 Canceling Cologne
Chien-Pao Baxcalibur decks were one of the most represented decks in the event, with about an 11 percent metagame share, snagging two spots in the top eight in the process. The two namesake cards synergize very well with each other, Chien-Pao getting you Water energy while Baxcalibur lets you attach one of those to your Pokemon. This helps feed into Chien-Pao ex’s attack to always have energy to discard.
The one-of Iron Hands ex is a great source to dump energy onto, as a backup plan to use its four-energy attack. Since you are discarding so many energy cards, Item cards that get them back from the graveyard are plentiful, so you’re able to keep attacking with Chien-Pao.
3 Charmander (OBF #26)
1 Charmander (PAF #7)
2 Charmeleon (PAF #8)
3 Charizard ex (PAF #54)
2 Pidget (MEW #16)
2 Pidgeot ex (OBF #164)
1 Bidoof (CRZ #111)
1 Bibarel (BRS #121)
1 Radian Charizard (CRZ #20)
1 Cleffa (OBF #80)
1 Lumineon V (BRS #40)
1 Rotom V (CRZ #45)
Going into the 2024 Orlando Regionals, Charizard was the deck to beat, and no one could, with Liam Halliburton taking home the gold with their list. Charizard decks took up nearly 20 percent of the metagame, which is almost double that of the second most played deck, Chien-Pao Baxcalibur. The deck was very successful and cemented itself as the best deck from the event.
Charizard ex is a great card in the late-game, doing extra damage for prize cards your opponent has taken. Pidgeot ex is an excellent engine, letting you get any card you want from your deck each turn, so you always have cards that will impact the game in your hand. The only downside is relying on evolution, but Charizard decks can consistently evolve, so this downside hardly actually comes up.
