The second International Championships of the season is coming soon to London, United Kingdom, and there’s a ton to look out for as Pokémon TCG players across the world battle for prizes, Championship Points, and World Championships invitations. The new Standard format makes its debut at EUIC on April 5 alongside the competitive debut of the latest Pokémon TCG expansion, Scarlet & Violet—Temporal Forces. With the field so open, the possibilities for exciting new card combinations are endless.

But with these changes, which decks will come out on top? We don’t have a Fog Crystal to see into the future (sadly, that’s rotated out due to being regulation mark “E”), but we've brought together a panel of experts to examine the decks that are likely to dominate in London. They’ve favored the tried-and-true archetypes from the last Standard format, but each deck will have to adapt to a new card pool to compete at EUIC. Find out what you can expect to see when the battles begin on April 5 on Twitch.tv/PokemonTCG.

Charizard ex was already a good deck before rotation, but now it’s looking like the clear favorite going into EUIC! While many of its formerly tough matchups lose several of their key cards, the deck continues to exist relatively unchanged, and it even gets access to the new Buddy-Buddy Poffin as a better alternative to the rotating Battle VIP Pass.

Now that Charizard no longer needs to worry about being Knocked Out by a Gardevoir or getting locked out of the game by Path to the Peak, the deck got a lot more scary! However, there are still ways to stop it. For one, Snorlax Stall, a deck that’s almost as impossible to beat as Charizard ex, is also benefiting from rotation—if it ends up being popular at EUIC, it will certainly cause problems for Charizard ex players. There’s also the new Iron Leaves ex to watch out for: it’s a strong Grass-type attacker that is flexible enough to fit into various decks.

All in all, there aren’t many decks that can match the power level of the Charizard ex deck, so expect to see it a lot at EUIC! There are still some open questions, like the debate over which support Pokémon is best alongside it: Pidgeot ex, Bibarel, or even both in the same deck? Personally, I’m still a big fan of Pidgeot ex, but it does have some downsides, so it will be interesting to see which variant will be the most successful one at the tournament. — Robin Schulz

“It’s finally Giratina VSTAR’s time to shine!” is something that’s been said a lot since the release of Sword & Shield—Lost Origin last season. And with the looming Standard format rotation, it’s once again a popular refrain. It isn’t that Giratina VSTAR’s fans have been wrong in the past—they’ve just not been entirely right. Giratina VSTAR’s seen some success, even winning Regional Championships, but it’s been held back from overwhelmingly strong results by consistency issues. Sometimes, the hands with four Energy and three Pokémon just make life difficult!

Giratina VSTAR gets several helpful boosts from Scarlet & Violet—Temporal Forces. Iron Leaves ex is one card that players have taken notice of thanks to a nice Ability that allows it to switch into the Active Spot and collect Energy from other Pokémon to be immediately ready to attack. Its best role is simply giving Giratina VSTAR another attacker that has some bulk and doesn’t require evolving, but the type advantage over Roaring Moon ex is a nice bonus, too. Trainer cards are the other win from Scarlet & Violet—Temporal Forces, with minor boosts from cards like Rescue Board and Buddy-Buddy Poffin adding to Giratina VSTAR’s consistency in nice ways.

Can Giratina VSTAR take home an International Championship in London? I certainly wouldn’t bet against its combination of high damage, agile attackers, and the ace-in-the-hole provided by Star Requiem. It’s also a relatively safe play, with few obviously terrible matchups. Those are attributes that I find players often look for after a Standard format rotation, so I expect it should be well represented at EUIC. — Christopher Schemanske

For the first time, a strategy that does not involve taking Prize cards has made it all the way into the Power Rankings. Instead, the objective of decks built around Snorlax from the Pokémon GO set is to chip away at the opponent’s resources until they run out of ways to attack, eventually winning by depleting the opponent’s deck.

Snorlax’s Block Ability prevents the Active Pokémon from retreating normally, which can pose a major problem for many decks, as most support Pokémon don’t have efficient attacks. By continuously using Counter Catcher and Boss’s Orders to drag Pokémon with low damage output into the Active Spot, this deck aims to run the opponent out of ways to retreat.

Thanks to the new Eri card from Scarlet & Violet—Temporal Forces, this retreat-blocking strategy becomes much more efficient. With it, the opponent’s hand is no longer safe, and switching cards can be targeted directly. Pair this with the already popular Miss Fortune Sisters, and most decks will have a hard time attacking. This especially goes for the number one deck on our Power Rankings—Charizard ex—which has a hard time dealing with Snorlax, as most lists plays close to no switching options besides Energy cards.

I’m curious to see which deck will do the best at EUIC: the more teched-out Pidgeot ex variant or the most popular of the Snorlax variants. With the loss of Peony to rotation, playing into Pidgeot ex’s strength by having a lot of single copies of cards is a more fragile strategy. — Tord Reklev

Never count out the Lost Zone Box deck! For the last year and a half, the deck has stayed relevant throughout formats and metagames due to its incredible adaptability. The 2024 rotation is but another example of this: Raihan, Escape Rope, and Kyogre (among others) are gone, but in exchange, Lost Zone Box gets Rescue Board and Prime Catcher, giving it even better mobility.

Without Klara in the format, the Radiant Charizard build of Lost Zone Box is probably unviable, but Radiant Greninja builds are still a threat that any deck must respect. I assume that most players will choose to use the classic duo of Iron Hands ex and Roaring Moon ex, but Lost Box’s greatest strength is its unpredictability. Thanks to Mirage Gate, it’s possible to run varied attackers, such as Mew ex, Raikou V, and Hoopa ex, not to mention the option to run Technical Machine: Crisis Punch to give Cramorant a powerful free attack for the very late game.

Lost Zone Box has always been a popular pick in Europe, and I'm sure some of our best players will be running it. Can one of them give it a second International Championship win? — Stéphane Ivanoff

Chien-Pao ex has the hallmarks of a top deck: draw power, energy acceleration, and a range of powerful attacks. However, its almost total reliance on using the Abilities of multiple Basic Pokémon and Evolution Pokémon every turn to execute its strategy means that the deck has always been vulnerable to disruption.

The 2024 Pokémon Europe International Championships is the confluence of two changes to the Pokémon TCG that mitigate this problem for Chien-Pao ex, thereby putting it in a great position to win the event. Rotation of the card pool removed Path to the Peak from the Standard format. This Stadium card affected the Abilities of Chien-Pao ex and Greninja, and it was incorporated into loads of decks.

Scarlet & Violet—Temporal Forces introduces cards that boost Chien-Pao ex’s consistency and improve its resilience. Ciphermaniac’s Codebreaking guarantees that Bibarel’s Industrious Incisors, Radiant Greninja’s Concealed Cards, or PokéStop draw into two of the resources desired that turn. And Buddy-Buddy Poffin gives Chien-Pao ex more options to find Pokémon like Frigibax, Bidoof, and Manaphy on any turn of the game. The deck can even turn Irida into a pseudo Boss’s Orders by using the Supporter card to search for Prime Catcher. Chien-Pao ex’s chance to win an international title has reached peak snowball. — Ellis Longhurst

Stéphane Ivanoff — One of my favorite cards in the Standard format is Hisuian Goodra VSTAR, which got me a lot of Championship Points last season. It's been a while since this Pokémon shined, but could the new format return it to the spotlight?

Whether it's played alongside the Lost Zone engine (powered by Mirage Gate) or Arceus VSTAR, Hisuian Goodra VSTAR is a very defensive Pokémon that’s known to take many hits. Scarlet & Violet—Temporal Forces bestows upon it two gifts: Hero's Cape and Mist Energy. Hero’s Cape makes it almost impossible to one-hit Knock Out Hisuian Goodra VSTAR by bringing its HP up to 370, which in turn makes Rolling Iron's damage reduction even more effective. Mist Energy protects Hisuian Goodra VSTAR from one-hit Knock Out effects, like Roaring Moon ex's Frenzied Gouging and Giratina VSTAR's Star Requiem.

I am not expecting Hisuian Goodra VSTAR to steal the show. That said, it's a card that did very well in the past and could conceivably make a comeback if the right conditions are met. If a Hisuian Goodra VSTAR deck does manage to succeed, I predict that it will be one with a Lost Zone build, which allows easier access to its VSTAR Power than an Arceus VSTAR build. I don't expect it, but I'm hoping for it!

Ellis Longhurst — Introduction of the Scarlet & Violet—Temporal Forces expansion. Rotation of the card pool. The London Underground. There are many things that competitors need to successfully navigate if they want to be crowned Champion of the Pokémon TCG Europe International Championships in 2024. History favors Tord Reklev from Norway, who has placed in the Top 16 or better at all five of the previous iterations of this event. However, based on recent form, Owyn Kamerman from the Netherlands is the player to beat. Owyn won the Dortmund Regional Championships in February then the Utrecht Special Event in March. Prime your senses for updates on the results of these two players throughout the official broadcast.

One of the key considerations for competitors will be which of the new ACE SPEC cards to include in their deck. Some of these cards have powerful effects that are globally useful, so there may be intra-archetype variability in their inclusion. Both Charizard ex archetypes will benefit from Prime Catcher, Maximum Belt, or Hero’s Cape, each of which can greatly influence the direction of a competitor’s path to victory. Get the most out of your viewing experience by taking note of which ACE SPEC card the streamed competitors have chosen to bring to battle.

Christopher Schemanske — So far in the 2024 Championship Series, the primary theme of European Regionals has been how well Mew VMAX performed relative to its middling finishes in the rest of the world. Standard rotation has finally freed Europe from Mew VMAX’s reign though, and the stage is set for a new story to emerge at EUIC. I’m expecting the new Standard format to look a lot like what we’ve just left, with Charizard ex, Giratina VSTAR, and Roaring Moon ex being top contenders. However, there’s one bogeyman standing—or maybe sleeping—in everyone’s way: Snorlax!

While Scarlet & Violet—Temporal Forces doesn’t contribute any Pokémon that look like surefire shots to make waves, it does provide a Trainer that looks sure to cause many headaches. Eri, which allows a player to look at an opponent’s hand and discard two Item cards found within, is set to cause mass chaos. In our prior format, if you were playing against Snorlax or another “control” type deck, it was viable to stock up on Switch Cart and other ways around Block while you prepared Pokémon capable of taking Knock Outs. Now, those precious Items are at risk of being discarded at any time! This transforms the nature of these Control decks altogether, and with them, the dynamics of the format. Europe is home to some of the most clever deck builders on earth, and I fully expect one or more of them to unveil something wild, focused entirely on making their opponent run out of cards.

Tord Reklev — Some decks that eluded our Power Rankings this time but still have a ton of potential going into EUIC are the decks focused around the Future and Ancient Pokémon. With Iron Crown ex released in Scarlet & Violet—Temporal Forces, Iron Hands ex’s Amp You Very Much attack gets much better reach.

The new Ancient Pokémon Great Tusk is also very effective at decking out the opponent, but in a much more aggressive manner than the Snorlax variants. Rather than taking the defensive route to accomplish the goal of decking out the opponent, Great Tusk instead goes on the offensive to discard the cards instead. With Ancient Booster Energy Capsule paired with Counter Catcher, it can be quite troublesome to deal with the Great Tusk before it’s too late.

One of the natural issues that comes with this type of strategy is that it takes quite a bit of time to close out a game. This usually becomes a big disadvantage in the top cut of events, as games cannot end in a tie, and if there is a tie, whoever is ahead in Prize cards when the time runs out is declared the winner. For that reason, it’s hard for these strategies to go all the way to the top, and they often end up falling short.

Despite that, this could be the first time an EUIC Champion is crowned without taking any Prize cards, with nothing else blocking their way.

Robin Schulz — Even though Europe is the most successful region overall when it comes to wins at International Championships, the last time we won EUIC was all the way back in 2017. Could this be the year where the title finally stays in Europe again? Many eyes will be on Owyn and Brennan Kamerman, the two brothers who are currently #1 and #2 in the European rankings. Owyn already won the last two major events and could make it three in a row at EUIC, which would be an almost unprecedented achievement!

However, the competition will be very tough at what is predicted to be the biggest Pokémon event to date. Another player to watch is Brent Tonisson from Australia, who also has a recent series of great Regionals finishes and is currently #1 on the Global leaderboards, just ahead of Owyn by a few points.

We can expect each of these top players to give their all when preparing for EUIC, so I’m very excited to see what decks they come up with and how those decks perform at the tournament!