🖉 Kashvinder Singh Mann | @kashmann27
It seems appropriate that the most winningest deck of 2025 took down the first TPCi Regional event of 2026. Giovanny Sasso, the 11th seed going into the Top 12 cut at a 11-2-1 score before cut, went a game down in finals and completed the comeback in true Gardevoir ex fashion to win the Toronto Regional, winning 2-1 against Andres Estefano Gajardo Lopehandia playing Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex in an all-Latin America finals in Toronto, Canada.
So what's changed? Gardevoir did not even feature in Top Cut in Stuttgart to now winning in Toronto and in a role reversal, Charizard ex/Noctowl, the winning deck of Stuttgart Regional and the first major event of 2026, the Korean League Season 2, was nowhere to be seen in Top Cut this time around in Toronto. What did not change was there being 2 Dragapult ex/Dusknoir in the Top 4, but not winning again. But it does say something when half of Top 8 were all Dragapult ex/Dusknoir players!
As for decks that made a good run, Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex probably sprung the biggest surprise with the finals run but not one but two Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex/Froslass also made top cut, both unfortunately falling in the asymmetrical top cut round (and strangely enough, both lost to the two finalists as well).
In the rest of Top 16, the highest placing deck not in top cut was Flareon ex/Noctowl, making an appearance thanks to joint-highest scoring player on Limitless with that very deck, Emma Hagen. Henry Chao was the highest placing non-Jellicent Gardevoir ex player, with another 3 Gardevoirs without Jellicent getting a top 16 finish.
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Shifts in the Metagame?
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| Stuttgart Regional Overall Meta - 2200 Masters |
Toronto Regional Overall Meta - 2270 Masters
The numbers won't be much of a difference as there were just 70 more Master players in the two recent TPCi events. What hasn't changed is Gholdengo ex and Dragapult ex being the top two most played decks, Gholdengo seeing an increase in play by 5% and Dragapult by 3%.
Charizard ex was again the third most played deck but this time it wasn't the Pidgeot ex build but instead the Dawn/Noctowl build that won in Stuttgart. The Pidgeot ex build still did feature as the 7th most played in Toronto.
Rounding up the top 5, both Gardevoir ex variants swapped around but not by much. In fact the number of players on the Jellicent build was only 6 less than it was in Stuttgart! And it would end up being the winning deck this time around. These percentage share numbers are likely to increase going into the next event for the Birmingham Regional, Merida Regional and Auckland Special all happening this weekend.
What about the best of the rest? Mega Absol ex Box and N's Zoroark ex did a complete swap, the latter now the best of the rest while the former was the 9th most played. The only other changes were Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex seeing less play (that also might change with it's results this weekend) and Ceruledge ex no longer featuring in the Top 10 due to Dawn Zard's emergence in the meta game after it's double win.
Changes in Decklists
Gardevoir is back!
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With the rise of Dawn Zard (Charizard ex/Noctowl) in recent weeks, it's no surprise to see cards like TM Devolution make its way back into GardeJelli, which makes the inclusion of Arven an obvious addition to give you another out to finding it, and also the inclusion of Team Rocket's Watchtower to stop cards like Noctowl, Dudunsparce, Mega Kangaskhan ex, Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex and Pidgeot ex.
But what about the other Gardevoir ex variant without Jellicent ex?
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Henry Chao is back at it as the highest finishing Jellicent-less Gardevoir player with some difference to that of Raz Wolpe's list from Stuttgart. Extra counts of Lillie, Counter Catcher, Artazon and TM Evolution to help with consistency over some tech options like the Mega Diancie ex, Drifloon, Mystery Garden and Prof Research. Henry did cut a 2nd Bravery Charm for a Luxurious Cape in his list to help Scream Tail reach higher numbers in the late game, or sometimes even early to mid game to get rid of stuff like Pidgeot ex.
Changes for the Top 2 Decks
Once again, there were two Dragapult ex decks in Top 4 of a TPCi regional event but yet another, it did not convert into a win, let alone a finals placement this time around. The biggest change introduced in Cerys Jones' list was Moltres (and for that, a Fire Energy in place of Luminous Energy). It can deal with stuff like Gholdengo ex and Teal Mask Ogerpon ex amongst other things, and it just generally a good single-prize attack into multi-prize attackers. Prof Research and Dawn have also been included in the list to help with consistency.
The deck doesn't mind that many one-off cards when you're seeing a lot of cards through Drakloak. The only changes made by the other Top 4 finisher Jack Wong was Dawn for Hilda (same as here) and also Maractus in place of Prof Turo's Scenario as a retreat-lock option.
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Although it was the most played deck yet again, this time there was only just one Gholdengo ex player making it into Top Cut, and it was a bigger top cut as well. The biggest difference between Uffe's list and Justin's list is the Ace Spec, Justin favoring the Secret Box build, which means an additional Boss in the list. Instead of the Munkidori + Metal, he's gone for straight consistency, Ciphermaniac and the 8th Metal Energy.
And with Secret Box, he has additional outs to find Bravery Charm. Mawile ex is the deck's answer to Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex or as a late game attacker if need be. There is just the 3 Gholdengo ex in this list, which has been a cut a few players have opted for lately.
New Additions for Dawn Zard
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Although the deck did not make top cut, there 5 Dawn Zard players who finished in the 17th-25th place range. The highest place list from Frank Luciano made just the one change, choosing to respect the item lock threat that Budew and Frillish offers with the Pidgeotto inclusion in place of the 4th Nest Ball, something I have also done for my local events for the past month or so to some success. But as there were 5 of them, I was curious to see how different the lists were and all 5 were quite different. I'll save the 19th place list for the last bit.
Anthony Romanello's 20th place list feature three changes, one of which is the same change as mentioned above. The second change is Prof Turo's Scenario in place of the 2nd Jet Energy, a straight swap of mobility cards but Turo does allow you to re-use Noctowls or just get rid of bench sitters like Fezandipiti ex or Terapagos ex. The 3rd change is the most interesting one, replacing Klefki for Black Belt's Training which is something I haven't seen in other Dawn Zard lists.
It allows Terapagos ex to hit for 280 which is good enough into N's Zoroark ex, Mega Absol ex without a Charm, Ceruledge ex and many more. It also allows Charizard ex to hit for more than it usually should, capping at 370 when the opponent is down to 1 prize (340 at 2, 310 at 3, 280 at 4 which is probably the most interesting one to keep note of).
Like the previous two mentioned before, James Lu's 24th place finishing list also has the Pidgeotto in it but also the 4th Hoothoot, with both Klefki and the 2nd Jet Energy being the choices to cut for those inclusions, which makes some sense as usually you want to use Jet Energy in tandem with Klefki.
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And we end off with Renaud Levain's 19th place list that has the Wellspring Ogerpon ex package (+ Water Energy + Sparkling Crystal + Crispin). The list is similar to the one that got Top 4 in the most recent Korea League Season 2 as they both chose not to play the Dusknoir line. Renaud's list has some interesting inclusions, one being the Munkidori + Dark Energy which does pair well with Psyduck in the list as you're not reliant on the Dusk line. Defiance Band is the choice to increase damage over Black Belt's Training but can only be activated while behind on prizes. Chi Yu is also in the list as a counter to Gholdengo ex or Teal Mask Ogerpon ex or just a generally good 1-prize attacker when needed. The 2nd Jet Energy replacing Air Balloon is a like-for-like replacement.
What's next?
This weekend we don't just have one event, not event two, but three events! First up we've got the Birmingham Regional (UK) in the EU region, then the Mérida Regional (Mexico) in the LA region and the Auckland Special Event (New Zealand) in the OC region.
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