Pokemon TCG League Battle Deck Buyer's Guide! Gardevoir ex, Miraidon ex, Palkia VSTAR - What to Buy

League Battle Decks are an amazing way to enter the competitive side of the Pokemon Trading Card Game with a preconstructed deck. But which one is right for you? I go into great detail outlining the pros and cons for the 3 Standard format legal decks available: Gardevoir ex, Miraidon ex, and Palkia VSTAR!
BUY THE MIRAIDON LEAGUE BATTLE DECK FROM AMAZON (affiliate link): amzn.to/41Deiex

[@3gnomes1bigcoat39]

I recently moved over from MTG to pokemon. I can't believe how accessible the game is for new players to get into a competitive level of play. It's such a nicer experience than I am used to.

[@InThirdPerson]

Welcome to the Pokemon TCG community! I know very little of Magic. My knowledge only goes as far as: 1. It plays a lot like Lorcana, a game that apparently took many cues from Magic. I started Lorcana casually and I enjoy it! 2. Magic can be orders of magnitude more expensive than Pokemon to keep up with. I’m all for people playing they want to enjoy, regardless of cost. But I’m glad you can find enjoyment with Pokemon too!

[@TheBaegislash]

It hasn't always been this easy to get in. It's been a lot cheaper in the last couple years, and I suspect it's because TPCi lost a lot of event participation to the pandemic and is trying to get the numbers back up

[@kewlroi2]

Thank's for your great videos. Unfortunately in my area in Germany most guys play Magic or Yugioh. That means most events in my local stores start at 14:00. That's a bit early for an adult with a job. I play Palkia with Chien Pao in online games. It's a really powerfull combination.

[@jeman3rd]

I'm glad that I bought the Palkia VSTAR League Battle Decks. I combined with Chien Pao EX Battle Deck and it was a great combo. Even though I focus on Chien Pao now but cards from Palkia are still competitive after the current rotation. I just need a few Temporal Forces cards to update my deck. I no longer use Palkia but I love the card artwork & it's worth the price.

[@yuniii1904]

what do u think of vulpix with palkia?

[@mazinrobox2546]

You put so much work into these videos, for new players coming up these are amazing sources of information, even though I know about the game now I still like watching this!

[@InThirdPerson]

Thank you as always for watching! 🙏

[@KirkpatrickSounds]

Great vid - thanks! Been playing a lot of Chien-Pao online so may consider the Palkia. Will deffo pick up Garde and give it a shot too.

[@ascendedkoi]

This video is a really big help for me and my girlfriend trying to get into competitive play. Thanks brother!

[@InThirdPerson]

Glad I could help! And welcome both to the Pokemon TCG community!

[@shinyocelot04archive]

Palkia is great if you're wanting to experiment. Chien Pao and Gholdengo are probably the best places for Palkia, but there's plenty of Palkia based builds going around in Japan seeing success. Miraidon is easy to grasp but really isn't as versatile as Palkia. That and with the most popular upgrade being Iron Hands, which has risen in price significantly, I wouldn't recommend it. Gardevoir is still a solid deck after our recent rotation, and the League Battle Deck comes with most of the cards used. All that's really missing from it are Scream Tail, Buddy Poffin, and Heroes' Cape. Great pre made deck overall and another solid recommendation.

[@lburwell99]

Has Iron Hands ex always been pricey, or did it only recently jump in price because of the increased popularity in play due to newer cards supporting it? We actually have one copy my son pulled a while ago we put into the Miraidon deck, and pulled one of those baton tool cards yesterday. I think that'd be a really cool deck for us to play, but getting a few more copies of Iron Hands is pricey, hope it drops soon. I've seen a few videos about taking the Palkia deck, and throwing in the Feraligatr evo line from Temporal Forces as a pretty strong single prize attacker. It doesn't require many other drastic changes or newer cards. I think we're going to try that. I've bought the Palkia and MIraidon decks in the past month for play with my 7yo. I wanted to get some more competitive stuff to play and that was the certainly the cheapest and most efficient way to do so. We've been into Pokemon together for about a year. We also got all the core singles from a local card shop and put together a pretty competent Charizard deck. Definitely interested in the upcoming Gardevoir deck. There's a small local card shop we really like compared to a few of the others around. They have a really great focus on being kid-friendly. They give 100% credit for trade-in cards to kids on Sundays, and my son has taken good advantage of that trading in a few good value cards he doesn't care so much about, to get stuff he wants. They're moving to a new location next month for more space and to host gameplay events. He's interested in doing that so that was part of my motivation to get us some more competitive stuff. Support your kid's interests and all that (plus now I'm into it lol). Before the league decks, we were basically just playing with level 1 decks we've upgraded ourselves (i.e. battle academy), and home brew decks from packs. My son and I have opened 2 Temporal Forces booster bundles so far (12 packs) and gotten pretty lucky, I think. We've got a hero's cape ace spec, neo upper energy ace spec, a Gouging Fire ex, several buddy poffins, and a at least a half dozen full arts. Put the cap, poffins, and Gouging Fire ex right into the Charizard deck. Got 2 each of the Feraligatr and Totodile; they're cheap so may just buy a couple more to try them out with Palkia.

[@shinyocelot04archive]

​@@lburwell99 It's only been because of the newer cards. It's $14 - 20 now but it was $7 when it first released.

[@lburwell99]

@@shinyocelot04archive okay that's good. I'm going to keep an eye on it. That future hands deck looks pretty fun and may have some potential. After getting a couple more of those, everything else on the list was pretty accessible I think. We pulled one of the Miraidon future cards already so that's nice.

[@UziOmega]

Really helped me with my decision, Melmetal ex battle deck will be 😂.......... Haha, and after I get the basics I'm going for the Gardevoir one then. 😄 Thanks!

[@dude75011]

Great review ! thanks ❤

[@michaelh.1484]

You really couldn't go wrong with any of the 3 decks. The Gardevoir ex deck is going to easily be the cheapest. Seeing the deck list, literally out of the box it's solid. Only a few tweaks you could do. The Miraidon one I'd argue would be the most expensive to upgrade given the Iron Hands ex, and Raiku V. The Palkia one, you can use Chien-Pao ex, Blastoise ex, or what I do which is a Palkia/Quaquaval ex deck. Palkia is a solid rogue deck, meta not so much like it was 2 years ago.

[@4ndroidG]

The Gardevoir EX looks interesting. I didn't know that these decks were so competitive.

[@InThirdPerson]

Power level will always vary from deck-to-deck and the meta they’re being released into, but yes League Battle Decks have always been intended as a foundation for competitive play. They’re a great entry point for new players!

[@poeskey]

So from the future here. I just switched over from YGO because it was way too expensive, it always has been but now im done, and I picked up the Gardevoir EX battle league deck. Its got a lot of good staples in it, radiant greninja for one, but combine it with a few cards from twilight masquerade, like tatsugiri, carmine, and munkidori, with 2 dark energy and an energy search adds a lot of versatility to the deck. Not to mention the other cards not in it like the capes, and buddy buddy poffins make it a lot better. Also tm evolution which i would definitely add one to the deck. Theres a lot of options now, and munkidori makes the decks lot better, allowing you to output a lot more than just 300 damage a turn, and gives you the ability to not need to stack drifloon all the way up with a cape. Also poffin got a reprint in masquerade, at least in the build and battle boxes.

[@goekay2005]

could you please post a deck list for nine tales and zapdos lvl 2 ex decks how to upgrade them like maskagato and quaquaval

[@tomrobertson1817]

If your looking to get your kids into playing these are amazing, they're slow enough for them to think about it and fast enough that they don't get boring!

[@RoyalTorrez]

Awesome video! Very informative. Just a few questions, so i am VERY new to Pokémon TCG never played it (very little on TCGL) and i really want to get into it. So I've been doing some research online about how to get started on acquiring cards. So Would it be cheaper to buy the singles for a certain deck like the Gardevoir deck or should i just the league battle deck for it? Also Ive also heard the trainers toolkit are worth it for new players because it has some staple cards. Again would it be cheaper to buy the singles from the toolkit or should i just buy it? Thanks!

[@InThirdPerson]

First off, welcome to the community! Also, great question! Depending on your circumstances, it might be cheaper to buy (and better) to buy all the singles rather than buy the League Battle Deck equivalent. By buying singles, you also have the flexibility to modify the deck however you want. League Battle Decks aren’t 100% full-potential builds out of the box and buying the singles can get you there immediately. If you’re going to buy singles, I’d skip following the League Battle Deck list card-for-card and follow one of the higher-placing builds from a Limitless tournament as a starting point. play.limitlesstcg.com/decks/gardevoir-ex-sv?format=standard&rotation=2023&set=TEF However, there are some factors to consider. - Are you willing to go through the effort of buying 60 single cards to build a deck? Versus simply going into a store a buying the box with all the cards already in it? For some people, sourcing 60 individual cards is easy, especially if you have access to an online marketplace like TCG Player. I don’t really have access to that from my country, so having to go to multiple physical card shops to get them is not worth my time. - The League Battle Deck also comes with a code to unlock the deck in Pokemon TCG Live. If you have any interest in playing online, this is a huge win, as using in-game credits to unlock those cards can be a nightmare. - You’ll also get other goodies in the box, such as a coin flip die, plastic status markers, damage dice, and a nice strategy sheet that explains how the deck works and some potential upgrades. I hope this helps!

[@InThirdPerson]

As for the toolkit, I would wait a bit. We should be due for a reveal of the 2024 kit soon and it’s probably best to just wait for the 2024 one to drop.

[@RoyalTorrez]

@@InThirdPerson Awesome Thanks!

[@musclecarmaniac6914]

If you have a job, that allows the extra money, but one of each. I did. Even if I can't use them all at tournaments, I can play them with family or friends. Its worth it. I'd even say maybe buy 2 of each.

[@Cra3ier]

Hi is there any status effects battle decks in the market? I’d like to get one for my little nephew at least not too difficult like the new Ex Gardevior deck released recently I bought one, if it’s competitive against the Ex Gardevior that’ll be perfect as I can play with him! 😂 thanks for your great video!

[@InThirdPerson]

Sadly, there are no pre-constructed decks based around status effects at the moment. It’s also worth noting that the Gardevoir deck is very strong and would mop the floor with arguably all of them. Only the Miraidon or Palkia ones could put up a decent fight, as both are also level 3 decks like Gardevoir.

[@HydroWave]

Gardevoir or buy all the singles i need for ancient box. My next tournament is 4 may, i have been to 2 before. I used mew vmax in both

[@InThirdPerson]

I have not played Ancient Box, so I can’t weigh in based on personal experience. Both got top 16 at EUIC recently. limitlesstcg.com/tournaments/405 Really feels like a matter of personal taste.

[@wiseman8728]

Has the whole league mew vmax been rotated? I don't understand rotation... Still planning to get into the hobby

[@shinyocelot04archive]

Every year the oldest remaining sets are phased out to make room for and promote new ones. The latest to leave were Battle Styles, Chilling Reign, Evolving Skies, and Fusion Strike. Since most of Mew's deck rotated that means you can only use it for casual expanded play.

[@lburwell99]

Great video! Can I ask why you prioritize max buddy-poffins over nest balls in your Gard upgrades lists? I understand having some of both to give more item cards to draw into your Pokemon cards, but why not 4 nest/2 poffin instead of 2 nest/4 poffins. Isn't a poffin just a less versatile version of nest ball, or am I missing something? There are some basics in the deck that have more than 70hp and a nest can pull either.

[@InThirdPerson]

Buddy Buddy Poffin gets you 2 Pokemon at once while Nest Ball only gets you 1. Most of the time, you want Kirlia over anything else, as they eventually evolve into your draw engine and energy acceleration. Poffin also gets you Drifloon, and when you upgrade the deck, Manaphy and Jirachi too. We keep a stock of Nest Balls and Ultra Balls for the others, but the importance of Kirlia makes Buddy Buddy Poffin a mandatory 4-of. Feel free to check all of the top Gardevoir lists from online tourneys so far and pretty much all of them run 4 Buddy Buddy Poffin. play.limitlesstcg.com/decks/gardevoir-ex-sv?format=standard&rotation=2023&set=TEF

[@lburwell99]

@@InThirdPerson good info thanks! I definitely overlooked that puffin also gets you 2 cards.

[@InThirdPerson]

No worries!

[@Anaximander-sj6sf]

@@InThirdPerson I think you mean you use the Buddy Buddy to get Ralts (as Kirlia is the stage 1)

[@DrNaumi]

I'm thinking of getting Palkia or Guardevoir (likely Palkia as Guardy lost some cards post rotation), would it be advisable to stack up the VSTAR count or to combine it with the Pao deck? I don't have the Pao deck but I pulled the normal and gold VSTAR and could put them in. I'm new to Palkia specifically because I main other decks online or irl

[@InThirdPerson]

Gardevoir lost cards to rotation (as did Palkia), but the Gardevoir League Battle Deck is post-rotation ready (unlike Palkia which has old cards you have to replace immediately), and Gardevoir is performing much better than anyone thought it would, including a top 3 finish at Orlando Regionals, which was literally the biggest regional of all-time with 2,500+ players. Palkia by itself is currently not a meta threat. And while it can have a home in Chien-Pao, most competitive Chien-Pao builds don’t use Palkia. If you really have your heart set on playing Palkia, especially since you already have a few Palkia VSTAR cards, I won’t stop you. But in a head-to-head, Gardevoir is a better pick in just about any way you slice it.

[@DrNaumi]

@@InThirdPerson I also already pulled 1 Guardevoir ex and 1 S/V SAR Guardevoir ex so I'm not entirely dependent on Palkia. Thanks for the recommendation, I think Guardevoir also has great supporter cards so I think I'll choose this Though I wish for Charizard ex, Roaring Moon ex or Gholdengo ex League Battle Decks

[@ozzypuff8957]

Alraedy pre ordered the gardevoir!!

[@InThirdPerson]

Congrats!

[@sufjams]

I'm new. I have the hardest time beating Charizard with Gardevoir. I think I need to get better at using Cresselia for bench sniping against it.

[@InThirdPerson]

If you don’t have it yet, Munkidori can help move damage from your Pokemon to Charizard to make it easier to one-hit KO. Also, take advantage of Turo’s Scenario to remove Gardevoir ex off the board and prevent your opponent from taking 2 prizes on their next turn. However, don’t do this unless you have at least 1 (but ideally 2) Kirlia in play.

[@sufjams]

@@InThirdPerson Cool, thanks for the advice man. I'll add Munkidori and the better HP buffs.

[@malanior22]

Miraidon!

[@djmaroo4404]

I would like two decks to play with my wife. Will Miraidon and Gardevoir be a good choice for fighting each other without any upgrades?

[@InThirdPerson]

I think so! Miraidon would have an early game edge thanks to being able to accelerate energy to big basic attackers as early as turn 1. But if Miraidon can’t set up fast enough, Gardevoir can eventually overpower it. If you do decide to upgrade both, that match actually gets even more interesting. Iron Hands can take extra prizes off of Gardevoir’s smaller Pokemon. Meanwhile, you can add HP modifiers to its attackers to make one-hit KOs on Miraidon’s big Pokemon even more consistent.

[@thomas_sebbag]

Did you buy these decks and did you try to play with ? I would like too to play these decks with my wife. :)

[@InThirdPerson]

​@@thomas_sebbag I do not own the Miraidon and Gardevoir League Battle Decks specifically because I actually built both before either were announced as pre-constructed decks. Here's the Miraidon deck I built and used at Toronto Regionals: instagram.com/p/Cy_nQf_xfoN/ Here's the Gardevoir deck I built and practiced against while training for Toronto Regionals: instagram.com/p/CzGyrUpuZ-w/ When I was training for Toronto regionals last year, the two decks I actually played the most were Miraidon and Gardevoir. I ultimately chose to take Miraidon to the tournament, where I ended up fighting against Gardevoir more than any other deck.

[@thomas_sebbag]

Oh sorry I asked it to @djmaroo… because he is in the same case of me : he wants to play easyly with his wife 😅

[@InThirdPerson]

@@thomas_sebbag Oops! Ignore me lol

[@Surge7-hs63k]

When will we be getting newer League Battle Decks!!????

[@InThirdPerson]

Gardevoir will be out this upcoming Friday. Based on past precedent, the next deck(s?) will be out in November.

[@Cra3ier]

@@InThirdPerson wow that's half a year later

[@ediedarck12]

Its pretty weird that actually, with the sniper dragon out there miraidon will be a so much better option than gardevoir

[@InThirdPerson]

As a fully-upgraded deck, maybe Miraidon does have the upper hand. But out-of-the-box, Miraidon is still quite far behind in how it plays without upgrades and how much money/effort will be required to convert it into a competitive deck. There’s certainly more of a case for Miraidon going forward, but I don’t necessarily see it as a clear frontrunner, either.

[@Dyal_Beats]

Up until now im waiting for the gardevoir ex league battle deck, my wallet is ready haha

[@InThirdPerson]

I’m still a bit miffed we got Gardevoir post-rotation. A pre-rotation Gardevoir would have been ideal. However, based on loose understanding of how League Battle Decks work, it wasn’t really possible. What has caught me by surprise is that Gardevoir seems to be more competitive post-rotation than most had thought. I assumed this deck was DOA and the early tournament results from Japan showed that. However, it looks like Gardevoir is gaining momentum now with some really good finishes in recent tournaments. Not sure if Gardevoir will ever reach its pre-rotation heights, but at the very least it’s digging its heels in as a competitive deck in the new meta and that’s awesome for those getting this League Battle Deck soon.

[@rebelfromva]

Chien pao palkia 🐐

[@EJsGameplay]

Honestly, the issue with these decks is none of them feel worth it. Between their cost and the little bit of extra to upgrade them, yes granted it's not a lot of money especially compared to other games and it's easy, PTCG is great because you could still just manually buy a full meta deck for $40-80 from scratch.

[@InThirdPerson]

While it might be cheaper in certain circumstances to buy the cards individually, you’re greatly undervaluing convenience, especially for new players, who are the primary audience for these types of pre-constructed decks. If you’re just starting out, you might have no idea what a good deck is, let alone where to buy individual cards. Or that buying individual cards is even a thing one can do. If your only experience with buying Pokemon cards is buying packs from a store like Walmart, how would you even know that you can just buy individual cards? These League Battle Decks provide people with a pre-constructed deck that’s pretty good out-of-the-box and it’s readily available at places non-enthusiast card players already shop at. Without any of the hassle of finding a good deck list, then going through the effort of sourcing 60 cards. Without a League Battle Deck option, these players may never even give the competitive side of Pokemon a try because honestly that’s a lot of work for someone to do u less you’re already knowledgable and passionate about the hobby. Furthermore, singles prices vary. In my country, buying from TCG Player doesn’t make sense, as I’m not from the US and I might have to pay customs on top of the US exchange rate for cards. Thus, I’m relegated to local stores for singles. As such, the League Battle Deck is actually a better deal specifically for me and others in similar circumstances. At 401 Games, one of the biggest TCG retailers in my general area and they have some of the most competitive prices. The Gardevoir League Battle Deck is $33 CAD there. store.401games.ca/products/pokemon-league-battle-deck-gardevoir-ex-pre-order Radiant Greninja by itself is $12 store.401games.ca/products/radiant-greninja-046-189-radiant-rare Mew ex is $8 store.401games.ca/products/mew-ex-151-165-double-rare That’s 2/3 of a League Battle Deck for 2 cards. At that point, why not get the full deck? I actually have a Gardevoir deck built from before that is now post-rotation ready, save for a Hero’s Cape. But even this deck is probably a better deal for me just to get these cards as spare parts for other decks based on where I live and what the prices for singles are in my area. Some people have it worse. I get comments from players in Brazil all the time that wish they could get ahold of League Battle Decks but can’t, because their release schedule is either way behind the rest of the world or they don’t get them at all. It’s not going to be worth it for everyone, and that’s fine. I personally have bought almost all of the League Battle Decks but passed on Miraidon because I had already built it for myself to play at Toronto Regionals which took place before the League Battle Deck dropped. But there absolutely is an audience for these products that find great value out of it. All of my videos regarding League Battle Decks generate thousands of views and receive tons of comments from people who love these decks for their value and convenience. If these truly weren’t worth it, they would have stopped making them just like how they discontinued Build & Battle Stadiums this year.

[@EJsGameplay]

@@InThirdPerson I tried to specify "aside from convince", but sorry for commenting I guess.