The North America International Championship is bringing together the most competitive Pokémon TCG from around the world as they duel in New Orleans for their last chance at getting points towards qualifying for Worlds. Are you competing on June 7 or looking to follow the action? Here are the top cards in the meta, according to top Pokémon TCG players in the scene.
Dragapult ex is the most promising card from the Twilight Masquerade expansion. Pros believe it'll shake up the meta going into NAIC thanks to Phantom Dive's high damage output to the bench for so little energy. Without Manaphy or Jirachi present to protect benches anymore, it will be quite difficult to avoid its attacks.
It's unclear which version of the deck will be the most powerful at NAIC but it's predicted that decks will probably focus on acceleration since Dragapult ex requires two different energy types to attack. Think Xatu or Charizard ex. It's even possible to see supporter card Mela in some Dragapult decks. Dragapult ex is looking very strong and consistent going into NAIC.
Lugia VSTAR continues to be a consistent threat going into NAIC after winning the first Temporal Forces format in Japan. The new ACE SPEC card Legacy Energy and Carmine are two new cards that will keep making Lugia VSTAR more of a threat going forward.
Pros believe the biggest boost to the deck is Legacy Energy, which can provide one of any type of energy and forces opponents to take one extra prize card when they KO the Pokémon its attached to. Expect Lugia VSTAR decks to welcome Iron Hands ex, Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex, and Lumineon V thanks to how easy it will be to power them up now. Lugia VSTAR may be set back by Enhanced Hammer however.
