The Optimal Deck? — ADP / Zacian V and Other Preliminary Frontrunners

Hello everyone! This is Grant here with another article. I am a bit early in my testing with Sword & Shield, but I’ve been able to formulate some thoughts on most of the decks. I leave for Australia in a week and I’m excited to play this new format on the International scale. I think Arceus and Dialga and Palkia-GX / Zacian V is broken, as does everyone else. I’ve been working on a list and the deck has already undergone several revisions. I want to maximize speed and consistency. If the deck is able to set up perfectly every game, it is able to win the Prize trade against everything. For the most part, techs and any non-consistency cards aren’t needed.

I’ll be going over my list and offer some thoughts on the other decks that are shaping up. I’ve got some ideas on the winners and losers out of the currently hyped archetypes, but the format is brand new so there will inevitably be unexpected decks that pop up.

Arceus and Dialga and Palkia-GX / Zacian V


This concludes the public portion of this article.

If you'd like to continue reading, consider purchasing a PokeBeach premium membership! If you're not completely satisfied with your membership, you can request a full refund within 30 days.

Each week we post high-quality content from some of the game's top players. Our article program isn't a corporate operation, advertising front, or for-profit business. We set our prices so that we can pay the game's top players to write the best content for our subscribers. Each article topic is carefully selected, goes through multiple drafts, and is touched up by our editors. We take great pride in our program!