Pokémon Worlds 2026: All hail the dragon king!

Hello everyone!

The celebration of the Pokémon Worlds Championship is not just another tournament in the calendar. It is, like in any other TCG, THE tournament to watch, the one where only the best players of the region participate and the one that generates the most hype if you are a spectator. Honestly, the feeling is akin to watching the Champion League Finals or the World Cup, if you are into football and it’s an experience that never disappoints.

The Pokémon Company International has been reinventing the meaning of Worlds over the last few years, up to the point that right now it is a colossal event where thousands of people gather to enjoy the franchise. So... what happened in terms of Pokémon TCG? Who and what won? Did we have any big surprises in the top cup? Well, don’t worry because if you missed the action, here you will find everything you need!

Arriving at the last Stop: San Francisco

This edition of the World Cup took place in San Francisco, EEUU, which is a place that had already hosted a previous Worlds in the past. Before talking about the metagame, just an important note on the participants. The classification system this year mirrored the one implemented in 2024, where only the top players of every Region received an invite, so, contrary to other years, the number of players was “somewhat” reduced.

Perhaps the biggest question everyone has when Worlds happen is what these top players are going to choose to fight for the crown, but this year such a debate did not really exist. Why? Because, as I’ve been saying for months now, we are all playing “Dragapult Trading Card Game”. Of course, it is an exaggeration and a bit of a joke for only a half-one. The thing is that Dragapult has been the most dominant deck we’ve had in ages, the one that has completely dictated what the metagame looks like since the rotation took place. In fact, it didn’t matter how many sets or new Pokémon were released, no deck (and I stress, no one), had come even close to matching Dragapult’s power level. So, as a matter of fact, when a TCG is living in this type of situation, there are normally two big options if you want to secure a good result: either you play the top deck or you play something that has a good chance of beating the best deck. This is what we were expecting… and what we got. 

Numbers don’t lie, and when Pokémon shared the official percentages we saw something kind of obvious but still worth analyzing. Almost a whopping 43% of the players decided to play a Dragapult variant (Either Straight, with Dusknoir or with Blaziken), which is a crazy number if you ask me. But perhaps, what is funnier is to see the next most-picked strategies. 
Lillie’s Cleffary Box came in second, a very linear deck that is very well known for its very favorable matchup against Dragapult. 
Zoroark is a much more consistency-based strategy and, while it struggles against some Grass-type decks, has a naturally favorable matchup against Dragapult. 
Alakazam and Slowking are probably the best one-prize decks of the format or at least the ones that cover the most ground. The Alakazam players were, of course, heavily teched against Dragapult. 
Finally, Mega Excadrill has a pretty strong matchup against Dragapult as long as they are not playing fire-attackers…

Wait, am I the only one that is seeing a pattern here? It looks like the meta was completely gravitating around Dragapult. Honestly speaking, I sometimes wish that Pokémon would make use of the banlist a bit more often; they have to balance the metagame a bit more because having a 42% of the tournament being the tier S and then the other 40% being counters is something that does not help for the variety of the game. But anyways, let’s move on!  

The best of the best

Day one finished and players with 16 points or more advanced to Day two, resulting in a bit of different metagame spread. 

Dragapult’s presence got a little bit down, from 40 to “only” 30% (a number that is still a crazy number, in my books, but again pretty much expected) while most of the other decks stayed more or less the same with the expectation of Crustle making an appearance. Crustle is a bit of an “all or nothing” kind of deck, in the sense that it is specifically designed to beat a very concrete set of strategies and really punishes the opponent for not running many alternatives to ex Pokémon.

After some fierce battles, we had the top cut ready and the distribution looked like that: 
3 Dragapult ex (2 Straight and one with Dusknoir)
2 Alakazam
1 Basic Box
2 Crustle

But before going into the lists themselves, I want to say that, for me, this is the perfect representation of what this metagame looked like. Dragapult dominated and so did its counters. Strategies revolving around some other “niche” strategies (in comparison to Dragapult, I mean) like Hide and Sneak or Excadrill didn’t do a great job getting close to the top positions, even if some players still decided to go with them. At the end of the day, if there is a deck that is clearly so above the rest, there is no reason to try to reinvent the wheel.

Familiar faces in the Finals

People say history is a circle and I think they are right. In 2017, Argentinian player Diego Cassiraga won the Worlds Championship with its Gardevoir GX list, in one of the most remembered tournament runs ever. Almost a decade later, Diego Cassiraga found himself playing for the crown with another psychic type deck, Alakazam this time. However, against him stood the final boss: Dragopult ex, piloted by American pro player Andrew Hedrick, one of the most recognized players in the entire globe and, perhaps, the best Dragapult player at the moment. 

Expectation was all over the place. It was clear that both players really knew how to perfectly pilot their decks and that each of them had beat the other strategies several times during the tournament. On paper, Dragapult against Alakazam (as long as Alakazam is built to deal with Dragapult) can be considered an even pairing. Alakazam needs to stop Dragapult from spreading Damage counters across all its fields at the same time that it needs to control its main two disruption cards, Unfair Stamp and Red Card.

If we look at Diego’s list, we can easily see that it was, in fact, very well built aorund the idea of having the right resources to stop Dragapult. Four full copies of Battle Cage could be ideal to stop Phantom Dive and double Genesect was there to prevent an early use of Unfair Stamp. We had actually seen Diego use that precise strategy throughout the tournament and beat a Dragapult ex in top 4. However, Andrew also had some interesting cards. Double Stadium (Risky Ruins, in this case) meant he could, at least, bump Battle Cage twice during each game. If he used Munkidori wisely, it could lead to Phantom Dive going through and getting multiple KOs in just one turn.

The entire world was holding its breath and then, the final began. Diego did all he could and played well (he is a really experienced player), but Andrew just didn’t concede any space. He played each card with absolute confidence and precision, always identifying what the situation required him to do and even taking advantage of Diego’s own cards to turn the tables in his favor. In fact,if someone had told me that Dragapult would be able to win by decking its opponent out of cards in the finals, I would have laughed. But yes, that is a valid win condition as any other and Andrew went for it. Incredible level by both players. I highly recommend you spare some time of your day to check the finals, which you can see in the following link.

At the end, there was no surprise. Dragapult, who was just about to win last year but lost against Gardevoir ex, proved what every competitive player has been saying for some time now: that it’s possibly the most powerful deck of its era.

Taking a look at the lists 

Let’s now get into one of my favorite parts, which is looking at the top lists and seeing if there were any crazy tech cards or last-minute surprises. And well, to be very honest with you, the lists were what everyone was kinda expecting, except from some players that decided to innovate a bit and reinvented certain archetypes. 

Dragapult ex

1st Place World Championships 2026 - Andrew Hedrick

This was Andrew Hedrick’s winning list. I’ve been looking at it for most of the day and what can I say… I think it is as perfect as a deck can get. It is completely built around the notion of consistency and the belief that if you pilot it well enough, the deck is never going to get you down. Straight Dragapult with hammers can compete against everything, counters included, such is its power. Two Risky Ruins, Munkidori and Dudunsparce make sure you can always reflect some damage counters early during the game, even if your opponent has not properly attacked you. Double Budew plays a pivotal role, making sure you slow the pace of the game so that you can set up 3 or 4 Drakloak. And finally, perhaps the most interesting change, three copies of Night Stretcher make sure you can always recycle your attackers or your support Pokémon. Again, this is consistency in 60 cards.

But of course, this was not the only Dragapult deck that made it to the top cut. Another very popular Dragapult variant was Dusknoir and this one here was piloted by Henry Chao to a very strong 4th place.  

4th Place World Championships 2026 - Henry Chao

Dusknoir is one of the most unfair cards in the game since it can deal a lot of damage by sacrificing itself. The tricky part is knowing when to do it, but once you’ve mastered this strategy, it just takes Dragapult to the next level. You, of course, are trading some spaces in your 60-card build and giving up just a bit of consistency, but you suddenly have a very favorable matchup against everything that is a Mega Pokémon and get a very strong comeback potential. Something interesting to note about this decklist is that it runs Moltres, which is an inclusion that not all Dusknoir players have typically afforded, but Excadrill was a real threat this Worlds and I think no one wanted to take the risk.

Alakazam

I expected Alakazam to have a strong performance during Worlds but perhaps not that strong. Two Alakazam reached the top 8. One is a more “traditional” Alakazam, so to speak, the one that Diego piloted to the finals. However, I have to say that I am absolutely in love with Mateusz’s Dusknoir Alakazam build. This was something that I am betting took a lot of players by surprise because no one expected such a weird combination but in reality, if you stop to think about it for a second, both Dusknoir and Alakazam have a lot of synergies: they are searchable by the same engine and one help the other. While it is true that you can’t leverage the drawing power of Dudunsparce, Dusknoir and its evolution friend help you reach numbers much more easily. It was a really funny deck to watch during the streamed games. 

2nd Place World Championships 2026 - Diego Cassiraga

7th Place World Championships 2026 - Mateusz Łaszkiewicz

Crustle

Like many players, I have a love/hate relationship with Crustle. The deck basically aims to power up a very annoying crab and leverage its ability to avoid being damaged from an ex Pokémon. This strategy alone is normally enough to destroy most decks in the format as long as they are unprepared. Crustle had been played since the rotation, getting different degrees of success. When the meta was not ready to face Crustle, it easily became a menace. However, if players included one or two tech cards against it, it really struggled to maintain a strong position. 
In this tournament, it was clear that not many decks were prepared to deal with Crustle because, remember, the deck to beat was Dragapult. So I actually really liked this pick. I know some players would have had a heart attack if a “walls” deck won Worlds, but this won’t be the first time something like that happens (yes, I am looking at you, Iron Thorns!). 

5th Place World Championships 2026 - Rune Heiremans

BASIC BOX

Last but not least, Basic Box made an appearance at worlds. Basic Box consists basically of a group of very strong Basic Pokémon (generally two-prizers) with different types that hit for weakness depending on the matchup.

Nathan Spry made it to the top 8 with a Toolbox deck that maximized this principle. Kangaskhan provides draw and the rest of the Pokémon play a role depending on the matchup: Water Ogerpon gets rid of basic Pokémon before they evolve, Raging Bolt reaches big Mega Evolution numbers and Lillie’s Clefairy is Dragapult’s worst nightmare.    

8th Place World Championships 2026 - Nathan Spry

If you want to take a look at all the lists in more detail, you have them available in the following website.

Next stop: Singapore

 
With the winners having received their trophies, it was time for the closing ceremony and the announcements. After some songs from Ed Sheeran (who has collaborated with Pokémon in the past), the next location for Worlds was revealed: Singapore. I was really hoping this time they would decide to bring the celebration to Europe but I think Singapore is going to be a lot of fun as well.

Apart from that, they teased a few interesting things. For example, a new anime-style Pokémon film is going to debut in 2027 centered on a card player and his Pokémon. I think this is huge because we are not talking about some short cartoon videos for the official Pokémon Youtube channel but a film. Hopefully this will help show everyone that cards can be played, not just collected and stored in albums! And last but not least, they also announced a new type of card coming to the game, the “ex star”, that will feature the legendary trio from Johto (Raikou, Entei and Suicune). Its actual effect remains unknown but people (myself included) are already theorizing that they can be like the VSTAR mechanic, a move that you could only use once per game. I will keep you posted as soon as more is announced.

While we wait for Storm Emerald to arrive, all I want to say is that this Worlds has been the culmination of a very intense season, dominated from beginning to end by Dragapult ex. Pokémon TCG has never felt stronger as a game and with the 30th anniversary collection on its way it seems that is not slowing down a bit.

Thanks for reading!