2027 Pokémon TCG LAIC Power Rankings

The 2027 Championship Series is already heating up, and the Pokémon TCG Latin America International Championships will be the hottest event so far. At LAIC, competitors can get a head start on the Championship Series season and their path toward a Worlds invitation.

The story this year continues to be the strength of Dragapult ex, but there are certainly other decks out there that could pose a serious challenge to the Stealth Pokémon.

For fans at home, our Power Rankings panel experts are here to give you insights on what to watch for when the exciting matches begin on November 20. Be sure to check out the battles, complete with expert commentary, on the LAIC broadcast page.

To nobody’s surprise, Dragapult ex takes the top spot in the Power Rankings. Dragapult ex variants have been completely dominant since the rotation, winning multiple Regionals and the World Championships.

Versions with Blaziken ex and Dusknoir have seen success, but the most popular way to play the deck is with Crushing Hammer . The game plan is to draw through your deck with Drakloak ’s Recon Directive and Dudunsparce ’s Run Away Draw, then disrupt the opponent with Unfair Stamp and Crushing Hammer and win the game using a few Phantom Dives. All the cards in the Dragapult ex deck are powerful in a variety of situations, giving it the most flexible game plans of any deck in the current format despite not including that many unique cards.

As a result of its dominance, many players have tried to counter Dragapult ex, but this has proven to be very difficult. This includes Lillie’s Clefairy ex in Alakazam decks, Basic Box, and Hide ’n’ Sneak. However, these decks have only managed to be slightly favored (at best) against Dragapult ex while having to significantly warp their whole strategy around countering it. This has led many strong players to conclude that the best answer to Dragapult ex is to play it yourself and rely on experience and a few Crushing Hammer heads to gain advantage. The result is one of the most intricate mirror matches we have seen in recent years.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Dragapult ex took the top spot once again in São Paulo, and I also wouldn’t be shocked if we have seen the exact 60-card list that has already won a tournament! — Natalie Millar

A bunch of unrelated Pokémon ex, five different types of Energy, and no draw Supporters: This could either be your eight-year-old cousin’s first attempt at deckbuilding or the recipe for the second-best deck in the format.

Basic Box doesn’t rely on subtle synergies, instead mostly starting the game by using Mega Kangaskhan ex , which can draw cards, KO a bunch of Pokémon, and take hits due to its high HP. Then, the deck can move on to other attackers: Lillie's Clefairy ex to counter Dragapult ex, Raging Bolt ex to KO high-HP Pokémon, or Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex to KO two Pokémon at once.

All these Pokémon are powered by Crispin , the deck’s main Supporter, which can find all the Energy needed to let them attack. The deck has some other tricks, such as using Chien-Pao to discard Area Zero Underdepths to discard damaged Pokémon and prevent the opponent from taking Prize cards.

Basic Box can play various ACE SPEC cards but it has a hard time drawing into them, as its only way to search for any card has been Ciphermaniac’s Codebreaking . This could change at LAIC with the release of Talonflame ex in the Mega Evolution—Delta Reign expansion. Despite being a Stage 2 Pokémon (with high HP to match), Talonflame ex can be played directly to the Bench if there’s a Mega Kangaskhan ex in play, and it can easily KO low-HP Pokémon while searching for up to two key cards. This could let Basic Box achieve more consistency, which could be what it needs to get a win at the first International Championships of the season. — Stéphane Ivanoff

Alakazam has a lot of things going for it: It’s a single-Prize Pokémon, it hits hard, and it’s inherently helpful in drawing a lot of cards. It’s a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy that when you draw a lot of cards, you’re able to keep attackers coming. I’m partial to the Dudunsparce from Scarlet & Violet—Temporal Forces as a featured Pokémon in the deck, as its Ability to recycle itself is very important in the draw cards/have a big hand archetype.

Like many of the other decks that depend on hand size, Alakazam is quite sensitive to any kind of hand disruption. The current format has relatively little opposing hand disruption compared to some past years, but Special Red Card and Unfair Stamp are still pretty depressing news for Alakazam in the late game. That makes me a bit hesitant, but Dudunsparce’s capability to sit on the Bench in preparation for such a disruption provides a decent backstop. If I were to play Alakazam, it would have Dudunsparce.

However, we are once again living in Dragapult ex’s world, and although I’m familiar with some top players who think they can win the matchup reasonably consistently, I find that trying to swim upstream is generally not a good idea at an IC. In community online tournaments, Alakazam vs. Dragapult ex is not a close competition, which is generally a good barometer for the average game played between two general players.

Beware, Alakazam players: Dragapult is coming. — Christopher Schemanske

Slowking and its trophy-winning toolbox of Pokémon are now impossible to ignore. Underpinned by a robust package of Trainer cards, Slowking can Seek Inspiration to use some of the most powerful attacks in the current format repeatedly and as quickly as Turn 2 of the game. Metagross ’s Metallic Hammer and Kyurem ’s Trifrost commonly form part of Slowking’s strategy to trade Prize cards favorably in every matchup. The former Knocks Out most Pokémon ex in one hit, and the latter deals with single-Prize attackers. An early Trifrost can also devastate any deck that needs to Bench low-HP, unevolved Basic Pokémon, four of which are featured in this edition of the Power Rankings.

The popularity of Shaymin in decks focused on using single-Prize attackers means Slowking needs to be flexible. Annihilape ’s Ghostly Blow, and Drapion ’s Hazardous Tail followed by Munkidori ’s Adrena-Brain, have been two of the proven ways to set up or take multiple Knock Outs in a single turn while Shaymin is in play.

The new Giratina may also find success in this deck because Chaos Crawler can do meaningful damage while protecting Slowking from being Knocked Out. This could potentially swing the tempo of the Prize race or buy a turn for an Energy attachment to Munkidori or a developing Slowking on the Bench. It’s worth noting that Seek Inspiration can target Chaos Crawler on consecutive turns, which creates an opportunity to safely set up damage on more than one of the opponent’s Pokémon before a turn of sweeping Knock Outs with Trifrost.

There are loads of other useful attacks that could be championed by this deck. However, given that a successful Seek Inspiration relies heavily on combination play, consistency is king if Slowking wants to take the crown at LAIC. This means players will have to carefully consider the value of each Pokémon they want to add to their toolbox. — Ellis Longhurst

N’s Zoroark ex has one of my favorite Abilities of all time: Trade. Being able to discard one card to draw two is really strong for consistency, as you can discard unwanted cards and avoid drawing into them after the eventual hand disruption.

I am still a huge fan of N’s Zoroark ex, but its position in the format is pretty complicated. It is one of the few decks that can claim a favored matchup into all the different Dragapult ex variants. With that fact out of the way, why does it still land so far down on our list?

The main reason is its difficulty with overcoming the rest of the diverse format. There are a lot of different Grass-type decks running around that hit it for Weakness, and some pesky single-Prize attackers like Alakazam trade favorably against it in the Prize race.

N’s Zoroark ex has the tools available in the format to deal with these decks, but the more you focus on them, the harder the Dragapult ex matchup becomes. This has been this Pokémon’s story since rotation, and the new Mega Evolution—Delta Reign expansion could potentially bring forth another issue in the new Legendary Pyroduct Stadium. Before this card, there was no good way of turning off Trade at all.

Time will tell, but personally, I’m cheering for N’s Zoroark ex to overcome the odds and go all the way at LAIC this year! — Tord Reklev

Parting Shots

Ellis Longhurst: Dragapult ex tops the Power Rankings (again), but the most talked-about card leading into the 2027 Latin America International Championships is Talonflame ex from the new Pokémon TCG: Mega Evolution—Delta Reign expansion. Thanks to its synergy with Mega Kangaskhan ex, Talonflame ex has the potential to boost the consistency of existing title contenders like Basic Box and facilitate the emergence of other powerful archetypes like Mega Rayquaza ex . Many may be hoping that the name of the expansion acts as foreshadowing for a change in dominance.

Decks with a Mega Kangaskhan ex and Talonflame ex core have already achieved promising results at tournaments in Japan, so I would not be surprised if they are a popular choice for LAIC. In anticipation of this, I would like to see players increase the count of hand disruption cards like Judge and Special Red Card in their decks and choose Unfair Stamp as their ACE SPEC when practical. Not only can these Trainer cards negate the effect of an opposing Talon Hunt, but they can also provide an edge over Alakazam and Slowking.

Stéphane Ivanoff: The Standard format has seen little change since rotation. Dragapult ex reigns supreme, and no deck seems to challenge it substantially. However, among the many archetypes that orbit around it, we’ve seen changes like the return of Hydrapple ex as a powerful archetype, emerging new variants such as Alakazam with Lillie’s Clefairy ex and Lillie’s Pearl , and in some cases, new archetypes altogether.

Hide ’n’ Sneak is notable for being an archetype that seems made to counter Dragapult ex, and while the matchup is not as favored as it might look on paper, the deck has recently risen in popularity, getting multiple top cuts at Regional Championships. In addition to being a deck that can one-shot Dragapult ex with a Basic, non-Rule Box Pokémon, Hide ’n’ Sneak also deals very well with other archetypes. For example, Alakazam has a hard time since Powerful Hand doesn’t do anything to Pokémon with the Hide ’n’ Sneak Ability.

Hide ’n’ Sneak can focus on fast attacks with Dhelmise to win Prize races against slower decks or it can spread damage with Sinistcha before using Spiritomb to KO two Pokémon in one move. It will be interesting to see which way of playing it is the most successful and how well it succeeds in an event that’s sure to be defined by Dragapult ex.

Christopher Schemanske: Dragapult ex has been an interesting “best” deck for the last few months. Clearly, consensus says it’s the best deck in the format, but it’s taken a few tournaments off its dominance in a way that past stalwarts haven’t. Of the seven Regional Championships so far this season as of our writing, Dragapult ex has taken home “only” three, which suggests there are other decks that can do this well! While this means there are more options at LAIC, it feels that a bad Dragapult ex matchup is still a recipe for a bad day in São Paulo.

For now, Mega Evolution—Delta Reign doesn’t have a lot to offer against Dragapult ex. While it would be really cool to see Mega Rayquaza ex have an amazing first Championships, I have a feeling it will take a few more expansions (and maybe the next Standard rotation) for this Pokémon to see the light of Championship Sunday. I would be excited to be surprised on this one—I think it’s always good for new things to be popping up on top, but in the case of LAIC this year, I’m expecting a similar story to the season’s Regional Championships so far.

Natalie Millar: The Latin America International Championships is the first tournament outside Asia to have the new cards from Mega Evolution—Delta Reign be legal. And while I don’t think they will dethrone Dragapult ex’s top spot, they definitely have potential. One of the most popular decks outside Dragapult ex right now is Basic Box, which the new Talonflame ex slots straight into, as well as Mega Rayquaza ex, which is looking like it will be a deck of its own. Legendary Pyroduct also shuts down all Evolution Pokémon’s Abilities, at the cost of being extremely difficult to get into play.

Dragapult ex isn’t overly favored into any deck in the format, but its power to adapt game plans makes it very difficult to hard counter. While the new cards do put more roadblocks in place, they don’t drive it away just yet. I imagine many of the top players will stick to Dragapult ex; however, they may consider including Dudunsparce ex to answer Mega Rayquaza ex or a third Stadium card to bump Legendary Pyroduct.

Another deck that benefits from Mega Evolution—Delta Reign is Crustle . This deck has been one of the strongest decks in the format for a while, but is a bit polarized with a few matchups that are essentially unwinnable. Tasty Rice Ball is another healing card to complement Jumbo Ice Cream , Aarune finds you Supporter cards for following turns, Azurill provides desperately needed Energy acceleration, and Legendary Trench doubles all your healing cards. Despite these additions, Crustle is still relatively fragile and weak against dedicated answers, but it is one of the strongest decks available when it is not dealt with.

Tord Reklev: The new Mega Evolution—Delta Reign expansion introduces a few cool contenders, with my favorite being Talonflame ex. Outside of Dragapult ex, Stage 2 decks have had a pretty difficult time lately, but I am hopeful that this new bird can provide a different engine for these Pokémon. A major downside with Stage 2 decks is finding Rare Candy , plus their slower nature. Talonflame ex paired with Mega Kangaskhan ex could potentially solve both issues by quickly pressuring the opponent while searching out the Rare Candy/Stage 2 combination from the deck.

I will be watching LAIC from home this year, and as a spectator, I am hopeful someone will figure out a new fun way to use these cards to allow other Stage 2 decks to shine again!

Don’t miss the action at the 2027 Pokémon TCG Latin America International Championships from November 20–22 on the LAIC broadcast page.

And for more Pokémon TCG strategy and analysis, visit Pokemon.com/Strategy.