My Top Three Decks of the Paradox Rift Format

Hello to all PokeBeach readers! This is Gabriel Semedo again with another Pokémon TCG article, and this time I’m going to talk about my three favorite decks in the Paradox Rift format.

There were a lot of expectations about which decks would stand out in the Latin America International Championship (LAIC), but in the end, the finals were between two major Pokémon from Paradox Rift: Iron Hands ex in the Miraidon ex deck, and Iron Valiant ex in the Entei V deck. The LAIC results show that Paradox Rift has had a considerable impact on the metagame, improving existing decks, such as Gardevoir ex and Miraidon ex, and bringing new decks into the fray, such as Iron Valiant ex / Entei V and Roaring Moon ex. Still, a large part of the metagame is made up of decks that existed before Paradox Rift.

Now that LAIC and a host of Regionals have taken place with this new format, it’s time to identify the best decks in the format and find the best lists for each of them. In today’s article, I will share with you my three favorite decks in the format; that is, the ones that I would choose to play in any given tournament, and I will present in detail my lists for each of those three decks.

Charizard ex / Pidgeot ex

Charizard ex / Pidgeot ex is the deck I would currently choose to play for all the bigger tournaments, like International Championships, Regionals, and some best-of-three League Cups. I believe it has one of the best matchup spreads in the format, and the consistency is very good.

Two Arceus V, Two Arceus VSTAR

Basically, if you cut two Forest Seal Stone, Lumineon V, and either Entei V or Rotom V, depending on your choice of tech, and insert two copies of Arceus V and Arceus VSTAR, you have an Arceus / Zard list. What will change in the end is the Supporter line, and consequently the gameplay of the list.

The advantage of using Arceus VSTAR is having a very explosive second turn that allows you to be more aggressive and, at the same time, count on a very solid attacker. Another advantage is that you can more often evolve Charizard ex and Pidgeot ex in the same turn, which guarantees you greater stability for the following turns. I also like the fact that the Arceus version allows you to have greater freedom with your access to Supporters. Iono and Colress's Experiment allow you to find other Supporters, while Arven only does this with Forest Seal Stone.

Basically, Arven / Zard offers you a more consistent and safe start to the game, while Arceus / Zard offers you a riskier start to the game with stronger payoffs in the end game.

This concludes the public portion of this article.

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