With all the cards from Surging Sparks revealed, it’s safe to say Surging Sparks lives up to the hype. It’s filled to the brim with nostalgic chase cards, powerful attackers, and a wide number of cards both players and collectors should be excited about.

But which of these will have the biggest impact on the meta?

Below, let’s look at some of the top decks to watch for from Surging Sparks.

#1 Pikachu ex

Competitive viability: 100%

Pikachu ex is one of the most hotly anticipated decks to come out of Surging Sparks. Despite Pikachu being the most Iconic Pokemon of them all, we’ve not had a seriously competitive deck focused on the electric mouse Pokemon.

That being said, now that we have Charizard ex reigning for a while in the Pokemon TCG meta, maybe it’s time for Pikachu ex to rise to the top of the heap?

Pikachu ex has a lot going for it. Topaz Bolt hits very hard. Combine it with the new Gravity stadium card and it’s able to take out Charizard ex in a single attack.

Meanwhile, its Resolute Heart ability mean it stays alive when it would otherwise be taken out in a single hit.

As hard as it might be to believe, I think we’re about to have a top tier Pikachu deck. And that excites me. For more info on how to build and play this deck, checkout my own Pikachu ex custom build.

#2 Flygon ex

Competitive viability: 50%

On its own, Flygon’s damage spreading attack would be enough to turn heads. With Dusknoir at its side, however, Flyon becomes incredibly deadly, capable of taking six prizes in a single turn. Dusknoir may be breaking the metagame, but its Flygon’s best friend.

One thing I especially like about this deck list is how it leverages Grand Tree to quickly evolve Flygon. I’ve had a lot of luck using Grand Tree in my Hydrapple ex deck list. Colress’s Tenacity makes it possible to pull the Grand Tree wheneve ryou need it. This deck looks like a lot of fun, and could very well counter the meta if used correctly.

#3 Hydreigon ex

Competitive viability: 25%

Hydreigon ex is the deck I’m looking forward to playing the most. We’ve not had a deck this capable of damage spread since the days of Urshifu VMAX. Hydreigon has a relatively tough energy cost to get it to take off. However, given some of the powerful cards that support dark type Pokemon, I think it’s a reasonable attack to get off in general.

#4 Archaludon ex with Dialga VSTAR

Competitive viability: 50%

While there are plenty of ways to build the new Archaludon ex deck, I think pairing it with Dialga VSTAR is the wisest choice. Archaludon ex can be used as you primary attacker, letting you save your Dialga VSTAR for a late game powerplay that could easily win the game for you. This also avoids the complication of having to evolve a bunch of supporting Pokemon to accelerate energy – simply evolve your Archaludon ex and you’ll be able to easily accelerate energy from your discard.

The only card I would add to the above list that isn’t there already is Adaman. This card is strong in Metal decks. Playing Adaman lets you discard two metal energies and search your deck for any two cards. This achieves the need to get energies into the discard while also acting as a powerful card search engine.

#5 Alolan Exeggutor ex

Competitive viability: 25%

Alolan Exeggutor ex has an intriguing attack, even if it isn’t the most practical card in the world. To get this card’s attack off using this deck list, you’ll be leveraging Crispin to accelerate energy. Meanwhile, you have Teal Dance Ogerpon ex to help as a secondary attacker.

That being said, I doubt this deck will see much success competitively. You’ll probably run into it on the ladder on Pokemon TCG Live and get taken by surprise by it. However, it’s not got enough going for it to be a top tier deck, hence the low percentage of likely competitive viability.

#6 Sylveon ex

Competitive viability: 25%

Sylveon is a popular Pokemon largely thanks to it being an evolution of Eevee. And as cool as this Sylveon ex card is, I’m not seeing much of an actual use case for it competitively. I’m sure players will try (like in this example deck list that pairs Eevee with Terapagos ex. Ultimately, however, Sylveon’s attack will likely prove too niche to be impactful on the metagame.

#7 Ceruledge ex

Competitive viability: 75%

Last but not least we have Ceruledge ex. This deck actually looks pretty cool, especially when it’s paired with the new ACE SPEC that’s coming out in Surging Sparks. Basically the strategy here is to ramp up as many energies as you can into your discard so you can start taking mega-hits with Ceruledge’s Abyssal Flames attack.

Additionally, the inclusion of Carmine is a masterstroke, as she can easily help you get those important fire energies into the discard. The only weird thing in this example deck is the Rotom Fan. I don’t think that will work with your fire type so drop that. Otherwise, this deck list looks great!

Here’s how to build and play Ceruledge ex!

Surging Sparks is an epic set and brings with it a host of powerful new strategies to try. Some of these strategies will act as the backbone for entirely new strategies, while others will bolster decks we know and love!

New Decks from Surging Sparks