Hi there. In this Pokemon TCG post, I showcase some alternative decks in the Pokemon TCG. I write this up before the NAIC 2026 event. Deck ranking and popularity will change after NAIC 2026.
Note: This post is long.
Since the rotation in late March 2026 and early April 2026, the metagame has been infested with Dragapult ex decks. Moreover, these Dragapult ex decks have different builds. These are mainly:
These different Dragapult ex builds account for about 45% of the competitive metagame share (as of June 12, 2026). Kind of disgusting if you ask me.
Dragapult ex is pretty popular as it has a very good draw engine in Drakloak. See 2 cards and draw 1 is pretty good. It is much better than just draw 1 card.
Dragapult ex is fairly popular as the Drakloaks provide consistency, the damage spread attack of 60 to opponent's Benched Pokemon is good. It also has very few weaknesses. One big weakness is the existence of Lillie's Clefairy which is not in every deck but in certain counter decks.
In this post, I present some alternative decks. Decks that may not be popular but can do well with a lot of practice, lucky matchups, good gameplay and of course luck.
When it comes to N's Zoroark ex decks, there is actually nothing wrong with the deck. It has a good matchup against Dragapult ex and can win games against Raging Bolt ex decks.
With the rise of more grass decks like Hydrapple ex and Festival Lead decks, N's Zoroark does suffer with bad matchups against Grass decks.
Sample Decklist - Rank 12 Special Event Turin (June 6, 2026)
Note that some Zoroark deck list may or may not play N's Darmanitan or N's Reshiram.
Mega Lucario ex is a good attacker against Dragapult ex. Combine the Lucario with Premium Power Pro and/or ACE SPEC Maximum Belt to one hit knockout a 320 HP Dragapult ex.
The deck has a good draw engine in Solrock and Lunatone. A more updated version of Mega Lucario ex has Dudunsparce as an additional draw engine. Hariyama is sometimes included in the deck.
Mega Lucario ex decks have good firepower but can be predictable in its gameplay. One big weakness is Psychic attackers.
Sample Decklist - Rank 43 Special Event Turin
One surprise deck that has caught people's attention is Hop's Trevenant. It is not really a new deck as Japan has been playing around with it but never got mega results over there. It is in the spotlight as it did win the recent Turin Special Event with 2000 players.
The Hop's Trevenant deck is basically a Psychic deck that counters mostly Dragapult ex decks. It also happens to have good matchups against Mega Lucario ex and some other Big Basic Pokemon ex decks.
Hop's Phantump looks weak with the 10 damage but add Hop's Snorlax, Hop's Choice Band and Postwick to make it do 100 damage for no energy. If you get lucky then Hop's Phantump is protected by damage and effects from attacks.
Hop's Trevenant is a dangerous counterattacker when one of your Hop's Pokemon is Knocked Out by damage from an attack. The thing is that it deals big damage after you suffered a Hop's Pokemon Knockout.
There is no on board draw with this deck. The deck can brick and suffer from bad draws.
Hop's Trevenant Winning Decklist
A new deck archetype from the Chaos Rising set is Beedrill ex. The Rumbling Bees attack does 110 damage for each Beedrill or Beedrill ex in play. It is a minimum of 110 damage up to a maximum of 440 damage if you get all 4 Beedrill ex in play. Not bad for 1 Grass Energy.
With Forest of Vitality, it is quite easy to get Beedrill ex. This is provided you have the Weedle, Kakuna and Beedrill ex cards in hand.
The draw engine of choice is Dudunsparce.
Fire decks hurt Beedrill ex as well as prizing Beedrill ex. Prizing Beedrill ex does limit you maximum damage. 330 damage is needed one hit a Dragapult ex.
Rank 4 out of 169 Players Seniors Division (11 to 14 years old) - Special Event Turin
Beedrill ex does not seem like a top deck right now. I do predict a Beedrill ex deck to be a very dangerous deck next year once Hydrapple ex grass decks rotate out of standard play.
Ethan's Typhlosion is not a very popular deck. It was once a decent alternative deck with single prize attackers. This deck has a mini resurgence thanks to a rogue Ethan's Typhlosion specialist player.
With the increase of Grass decks like Hydrapple ex, Fire decks kind of make sense in this environment. Ethan's Typhlosion can hit 220 or 280 damage from 3 or 4 Ethan's Adventure (respectively) in the discard pile. Add Gravity Mountain, Brave Bangle, Victini and Kieran to deal more damage against Dragapult ex and other Stage 2 Pokemon.
This deck does take time for its setup. Once the deck gets going, it can hit some big numbers and has a good prize trade against many decks with 2 Prize Pokemon ex or even Mega Pokemon ex for 3 Prizes. Good resource management is needed to pilot this deck well.
Rank 27 out of 2033 Players Ethan's Typhlosion in Special Event Turin
Archaludon ex used to be popular along with Origin Form Dialga VSTAR. The popularity of Archaludon is not like it was but the modern Archaludon ex deck is workable. The deck is not expected to win tournaments but it can do some damage.
The hard part with Archaludon ex decks is getting Metal energy in the discard pile. That way you can power up Archaludon ex upon evolution from hand. Dudunsparce is the companion draw engine of choice. Prism Tower is there to discard Metal Energy or unwanted cards from hand to discard.
One big issue with Archaludon ex is that the lack of firepower against Stage 2 attackers. 220 damage is not enough sometimes.
Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex decks was a top 5 deck but then all of a sudden the deck sucks and its not popular in June 2026.
The Mewtwo is a beefy attacker and the TR Spidops is a good single prize attacker. You have a good collection of Supporters in Archer, Ariana, Giovanni and Proton.
This deck archetype does suffer from consistency issues. There is no on board draw engine and it is reliant on Lillie's Clefairy in order for the Mewtwo to one hit knockout a Dragapult ex.
Lucky Helmet kind of helps with drawing but is it enough? I would not know as I have not tested this myself.
Decklists for Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex
These are some alternative decks in the Pokemon TCG. Just because some of these are not popular, it does not mean they are not good. In a few cases, the deck that wins a tournament could be a not so popular deck but played really well.
Even though Dragapult ex is really popular, it actually does not have that many tournament wins since rotation.
For me personally, I don't play Dragapult ex. I tend to not play the most popular deck as I want to avoid mirror matchups. Mirror matchups for my liking tend to have too much luck involved when it comes to setup, who hits first and so on.
I hope this post provides some good insight and that you find it helpful.
Thank you for reading.
