Welcome back, Cut or Tap readers! The first major event of the Prismatic Evolutions format, Mérida Regionals, recently concluded with some very fascinating results. After a couple weeks of the format developing across online and local tournaments, Dragapult ex/Dusknoir, Gardevoir ex, and Lugia VSTAR/Archeops were anticipated as the top three performers of the metagame. Looking at the results of Mérida Regionals, a completely different story is told, with Miraidon ex taking the tournament by storm with a win and four additional Top Cut placements.
In addition to the five Miraidon decks that made the asymmetrical Top 14 cut, five Dragapult ex decks also made Top Cut (all with Dusknoir, one also including Charizard ex). This leaves only four remaining decks that made the cut: Gouging Fire ex, Klawf/Terapagos ex, Gardevoir ex, and Quad Iron Thorns ex. When comparing this to the expected top performers, Gardevoir ex and Lugia VSTAR/Archeops seemingly underperformed massively. One reason for this was likely the amount of high level players choosing to bring Miraidon ex. Lugia VSTAR doesn’t want to run into Miraidon decks (obviously) and oftentimes Gardevoir ex is too slow to deal with a Turn 1 Amp You Very Much.
I was one of the five Miraidon ex players in Top Cut, finishing in the Top 8 after losing the Miraidon mirror to Azul, who went on to win the tournament. In this article, I will cover how to play Miraidon, the deck’s matchup spread, changes moving forward, and how other decks can adapt to the deck’s success.
The List
For Mérida Regionals I decided to play a very straightforward Miraidon ex list, switching last minute from a more unique list with Prime Catcher and multiple Professor’s Research instead of the Area Zero Underdepths + Pikachu ex package. The notable differences from my list compared to other lists in the Top Cut are the inclusion of Zapdos from Pokémon Go and a second copy of Forest Seal Stone. I was also the only Miraidon player in Top Cut to exclude Hisuian Heavy Ball.
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