Tournament Meta Report: February 3, 2025 – Space-Time Smackdown (A2)

Hello everyone! The Pokémon Pocket community tournaments are thriving, with thousands of players joining from around the world! Participants bring their favorite decks—or the latest meta choices—for a chance to win it all.

This is our first tournament week of the new Space-time Smackdown meta, so players are still in the early stages of experimentation, figuring out the best meta decks out there. The expansion shook up the meta, bringing new playstyles and win conditions to push decks to the top of the meta. The real question is: Can the old decks keep up and adapt to the meta, or will they be left behind?

In this article, I'll break down the two largest tournaments held on February 1-2 (Ursiiday's Pocket Weekly #14 and Pocket Legends League #17), analyzing the meta distribution, the top performers, and the underdogs!

Deck Distribution

Ursiiday's Pocket Weekly #14 (1764 Players)

Pocket Legends League #17 (283 Players)

a2-49-palkia-ex a1a-19-vaporeon is the community's number one choice in the first week of Space-Time Smackdown.

Two versions of a2-110-darkrai-ex are among the top played decks, a2-110-darkrai-ex a2-99-weavile-ex and a2-110-darkrai-ex a2-53-magnezone. Although a2-110-darkrai-ex a2-99-weavile-ex has the initial hype around it, players have started favoring a2-110-darkrai-ex a2-53-magnezone version, and the results are showing that the a2-53-magnezone list is performing better so far.

There's also a a2-110-darkrai-ex a1-177-weezing variant that uses a1-177-weezing to tank hits and poison opponent's Active Pokemon. However, this version is less popular than the a2-53-magnezone and a2-99-weavile-ex versions.

a1-129-mewtwoex a1-132-gardevoir saw a huge drop in popularity, which could be due to players losing interest and trying new decks, or the archetype isn't performing as well as it was in the previous meta.

a1a-18-gyarados-ex a1-89-greninja remains a meta contender, but similar to a1-129-mewtwoex a1-132-gardevoir, it also fell in popularity compared to the previous meta.

Players have been choosing the a1-36-charizardex a1-47-moltresex over the a1-41-arcanineex a1-47-moltresex version, this is mostly because of a2-146-pokemon-communication making the evolution into a1-36-charizardex more consistent.

Another top deck that didn't see as much play this weekend is a1-96-pikachuex a1-106-zebstrika. The other versions of a1-96-pikachuex like a1-95-raichu did not make it into the top decks. Players have upgraded their lists to now add a2-61-pachirisu-ex as the secondary win condition.

a1a-3-celebi-ex a1a-6-serperior is one of the old decks that remained a popular choice among players., most of which have switched to the a1-23-exeggutorex version for an early damage dealer. The main difference among players is the number of a1-23-exeggutorex in their lists, with some preferring only 1 copy.

Two a2-119-dialga-ex versions are seeing the most play, a2-7-yanmega-ex and a1-182-melmetal.

Top 32

• a2-110-darkrai-ex a2-53-magnezone crushed the first week of the new expansion, taking first place in top 32 representation in both tournaments. With its success this week, we'll likely see more players drop the a2-99-weavile-ex version for this one.
• a1-36-charizardex a1-47-moltresex had a good tournament week, a more consistent game plan makes sure players are capable of using a1-36-charizardex's high damage attack.
• Although a2-49-palkia-ex a1a-19-vaporeon was the most brought deck, it didn't rival the success of a2-110-darkrai-ex a2-53-magnezone. It had the second highest top 32 representation in Pocket Legends, but only 3 a2-49-palkia-ex players managed to perform in the Ursiiday tournament.
  There was a a2-49-palkia-ex a1-89-greninja list that made top 32 in Pocket Legends.
• This is the worst tournament week for a1-129-mewtwoex a1-132-gardevoir since the game's release. None of the a1-129-mewtwoex a1-132-gardevoir players made top cut, this might be the end of the Psychic deck's reign on the Pokemon Pocket meta.
• Although a1a-18-gyarados-ex a1-89-greninja lost popularity like a1-129-mewtwoex a1-132-gardevoir, it did not lose on its performance, still managing to make top 32, but with less representation than what we're used to.
• a1-96-pikachuex a1-106-zebstrika had a good showing in Ursiiday's Pocket tourney, but underperformed in Pocket League Legends.
• Off-meta decks like a1-4-venusaurex a1-23-exeggutorex, a2-89-rampardos a2-92-lucario, and a2-29-infernape-ex a1-47-moltresex snuck into the top 32.

Top 4 Decks

Tournament	First Place	Second Place	Third Place	Fourth Place
Ursiiday's Pocket Weekly #14	Gyarados ex Greninja	Gyarados ex Greninja	Charizard ex Arcanine ex	Gyarados ex Greninja
Pocket Legends League #17	Dakrai ex Magnezone	Dakrai ex Magnezone	Palkia ex Vaporeon	Weavile ex Darkrai ex

• An insane run for a1a-18-gyarados-ex a1-89-greninja in the Ursiiday tournament, with only 3 players making top 32, they kept on winning and securing 1st, 3rd, and 4th place in the tournament.
• a1-36-charizardex a1-47-moltresex managed to steal second place.
• Although a2-110-darkrai-ex a2-53-magnezone had a huge representation in Ursiiday's top 32, none of them made top 4.
• None of the new decks made it into the top 4 in the Ursiiday tourney, but in Pocket Legends League, the top 4 consisted of new decks only.
• a2-110-darkrai-ex a2-53-magnezone made first and second in Pocket Legends Leader.
• We also had a2-49-palkia-ex a1a-19-vaporeon in third and a2-110-darkrai-ex a2-99-weavile-ex in fourth place.

Ursiiday's Pocket First Place

a1a-18-gyarados-ex a1-89-greninja had an amazing performance, with three lists making it into the top 4 in Ursiiday's tournament.

a1a-18-gyarados-ex is the main damage dealer, using a1-220-misty to ramp extra Water Energy and start attacking on earlier turns. Rampaging Whirlpool deals 140 damage, capable of knocking out most of the popular meta Pokemon. However, for higher health Pokemon, you have a1-89-greninja's Water Shuriken as backup damage to knock them out.

Rampaging Whirlpool can discard an Energy from one random Pokemon, and if it hits the opponent's Pokemon, you can slow them down and even prevent them from attacking.

No changes to the list other than adding a2-150-cyrus to switch in a damaged Benched Pokemon to the Active spot. You can easily activate it thanks to a1-89-greninja's Water Shuriken.

Pocket Legends League First Place

The first place a2-110-darkrai-ex a2-53-magnezone list! This deck uses a2-110-darkrai-ex's Nightmare Aura to deal 20 damage to the opponent's Active Pokemon whenever you attach a Darkness Energy to a2-110-darkrai-ex.

The heavy hitter is a2-53-magnezone, dealing 110 damage with Thunder Blast. To get Lightning Energy on it, we're using a1-98-magneton's Volt Charge to ramp up Lightning Energy since this deck can't manually attach Lightning-type Energy.

The a2-53-magnezone is currently a better performer a2-99-weavile-ex, and will likely see players switching to it in the upcoming week.

Ursiiday's Pocket Third Place

The a1-36-charizardex a1-47-moltresex makes third place in Ursiiday's Pocket tourney, adding a2-146-pokemon-communication for better consistency when searching for a1-34-charmeleon or a1-36-charizardex. This drops the chances of missing on evolving your Stage 2 Pokemon as early as possible.

This deck uses a1-47-moltresex's Inferno Dance to ramp Fire Energy, flipping a coin 3 times and giving a Fire Energy to your Benched Pokemon for each heads you get. This enables you to evolve into a1-36-charizardex in the early turns and have the Fire Energy on it, ready to attack when it joins the battle.

a1-36-charizardex's Crismon Storm deals 200 damage, knocking anything in its path. The downside is that activating this effect forces you to discard 2 Fire Energy from a1-36-charizardex, this means we need to have at least 5 Energy on a1-36-charizardex before moving it to the Active spot to make sure we activate Crimson Storm twice in a row.

Interestingly, this list a2-22-shaymin for its Fragrant Flower Garden ability, healing 10 damage from each of your Pokemon, which could prevent opponent from easily knocking out one of them.

Pocket Legends League Third Place

a2-49-palkia-ex a1a-19-vaporeon makes third place in Pocket Legends! This deck relies on a2-49-palkia-ex as the main damage dealer, going for 150 damage attacks with Dimensional Storm and dealing 20 damage to the opponent's Benched Pokemon. However, activating Dimensional Storm forces you to discard 3 Water Energy from a2-49-palkia-ex.

This is why we rely on ramp cards a2-50-manaphy and a1-220-misty to get Water Energy on a2-49-palkia-ex and speed our game plan. a1a-19-vaporeon's Wash Out allows us to move Water Energy from benched Pokemon to a2-49-palkia-ex, making sure we can attack a second time with it.

Pocket Legends League Fourth Place

This version uses a2-99-weavile-ex as the heavy hitter, dealing 30 damage with Scratching Nails. However, if the opponent's Pokemon is damaged, Scratching Nails becomes a 70-damage attack.

So combined with a2-110-darkrai-ex's passive damage, you can easily set up your 70 damage attacks with a2-99-weavile-ex.

Underdog Inclusions

6th Place Ursiiday's Pocket Lucario Rampardos

a2-92-lucario a2-89-rampardos was close to make it into the top 4! This is a Fighting-type deck, using a2-92-lucario's Fighting Coach ability to increase the damage of your Fighting-type Pokemon, dealing an extra 20 damage with each attack.

This list has a1-155-hitmonchan as an early attacker, buying us time as we evolve into our Stage 2 a2-89-rampardos. a2-89-rampardos is the heavy hitter in this deck, dealing 130 damage + 20 damage to one-shot a 150-health Pokemon with ease.

6th Pocket League Dialga ex Yanmega ex

a2-119-dialga-ex's Metalic Turbo can ramp up your Benched Pokemon a2-7-yanmega-ex, a1a-32-mew-ex, and a1a-60-tauros. They all need Colorless Energy to attack, so attaching Metal Energy through a2-119-dialga-ex will allow you to attack with them later in the game.

a1a-60-tauros is a great option to knock out an ex type Pokemon, dealing 120 damage with Fighting Tackle. As for a2-7-yanmega-ex, Air Slash deals 120 damage but will discard an Energy, so you're forced to attach another Energy if you want to attack with it again.

a1a-32-mew-ex is as strong as opponent's Active Pokemon, copying its attack with Genome Hacking and attacking your opponent's Pokemon with it.

20th Pocket League Venusaur ex

a1-4-venusaurex shows up in the top 32 after a long disappearance from the meta. This deck uses a1-4-venusaurex as a late-game win condition, and it can be tough for opponents to knock it out thanks to the self-healing from Giant Bloom and a1-219-erika.

Since it has a Stage 2 Pokemon, a2-146-pokemon-communication makes sense to add to the list, giving the deck better odds of evolving into a1-4-venusaurex.

24th Pocket League

a2-29-infernape-ex is an aggressive Pokemon, going for 140 damage attacks for only 2 Fire Energy. However, whenever you attack with Flare Blitz, you have to discard all energy on a2-29-infernape-ex. This means we should have only 2 Energy at a time, to avoid discarding more than 2 Fire Energy.

To attack a second time in a row with a2-29-infernape-ex, we'll use a2-154-dawn to move a Fire Energy from one of our Benched Pokémon and on to a2-29-infernape-ex.

Closing Words

We're still in the early stages of the Space-time Smackdown meta, and players continue to experiment with the new cards, trying to find the best decks out there. Although players initially had hopes that a2-110-darkrai-ex a2-99-weavile-ex would be the top new deck, a2-110-darkrai-ex a2-53-magnezone crushed it this week instead.

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