YoMicLow

10 Days Until The World Championships! Hello Everyone! With Worlds ten days away, I am going to be making a post every day about meta-related topics for the World Championships, including meta-relevant topics and card inclusions/discussions, until the start of round 1 in San Francisco. Wishing everyone safe travels and an amazing experience at Worlds. Please feel free to ask questions and spark debate; I'm all for it! For Day 1, the post will be my current tier list for the Worlds Meta. Although there are a lot of decks in the side events and lower tiers, the bulk of the meta is within the first 3 tiers, which is what is going to dictate what wins the event. In my opinion, any deck with a Dragapult engine and Dragapult ex is going to be among the best decks in the format. The attack plus consistency makes the deck by far the best option in the game. When your biggest weakness is a 190 HP Pokémon (Lillies Clefairy) that you can respond to with on-board tempo, an attack that allows agency, and the most disruptive card in the format (Unfair Stamp), it makes Dragapult the best deck in the format. Although Zoroark has an arguably better draw engine, the lack of an answer for weakness-related matchups and heavy suffering from item lock pushes it out of bdif contention. The biggest contender is Mega Excadrill. The consistency of 1 Genesect EX, allowing the deck to function, having a real line to knock out Dragapult, and not allowing a real line to a follow-up knockout from Dragapult makes the deck a viable archetype. With a single prize option and real healing attributes, expect Drill to be a real deck from now on. The biggest issue the deck faces is if Blaziken rises in play rate; if Drill doesn't play Tool Scrapper and straight-pults over respects Drill by playing Hero's Cape, or simply having to go first and lowering your turn 2 percentages of Metang usage. Some of the following pointers/questions are things I've been forced to pay attention to, and they have dictated my deck's inclusions and non-inclusions. These kinda point to where the meta will lean depending on the choices the player base makes. 1. Does the player base opt for Hero's Cape or Unfair Stamp in Dragapult? 2. Do you blind first or second with any version of Dragapult? 3. Can Dawn make a standard inclusion in lists to allow for opting first in the Dragapult mirror? 4. Does retreat lock play a big factor against the top X percent of players in the world? 5. Can Crustle, Slowking, or a Control meta (Bronzor) deck actually make a run because no one techs for it? 6. Hammers are good, but are the slots better elsewhere? 7. Shaymin is just a bad card. 8. Should Zoroark play Reshi because it gives anywhere from 5-10 percent extra edge in the Dragapult matchup? 9. What is the correct tech inclusion for Excadrill? 10. What percent of online data can you actually trust?