By Alex Schemanske, Contributing Writer
Gardevoir ex has been around for just over two years at this point. In that time, two set rotations have changed the deck in unexpected ways, and Gardevoir ex has been considered both the best deck in the format and an underdog. No matter what changes with how the deck is built, there seems to be one thing that remains constant: Gardevoir ex is capable of winning a tournament. I personally have seen the impact of Gardevoir ex throughout the years, both as the pilot of the deck and the opponent facing off against it in high-stakes matches. This time around, Gardevoir ex is reinvigorated by the inclusion of two cards from the Scarlet & Violet—Journey Together expansion: N’s Zoroark ex and Lillie’s Clefairy ex.
Throughout the history of the Pokémon Trading Card Game, there have been a few types of effects that are almost always good. The first is Energy acceleration, which Gardevoir ex makes easy with its powerful Psychic Embrace Ability. The second effect is the opportunity to draw additional cards from an Ability. Gardevoir ex’s Evolution chain can utilize both effects via Abilities with Kirlia’s Refinement and Gardevoir’s Shining Arcana. But what would happen if Gardevoir ex lost its built-in card draw to a rotation? And how have Gardevoir ex decks maintained their dominance when they annually lose crucial cards? Let’s explore these questions and how the 2025 rotation has affected Gardevoir ex.
Rotation Effects
As of April 2025, there are three major cards that Gardevoir ex decks no longer have access to. While that may not sound like many, each card was extremely impactful in its own way. First, we obviously have Kirlia, which both draws cards and gets precious Psychic Energy into the discard pile. Before Kirlia was rotated out, you couldn’t find a successful Gardevoir ex list without it. Many thought that the removal of the card would be the end of Gardevoir ex’s success.
Next is a card that saw a resurgence near the end of the 2024 rotation period: Cresselia. Cresselia’s Moonglow Reverse attack moves two damage counters from each of the player’s Pokémon to one of the opponent’s Pokémon. While there was obvious synergy between that and Psychic Embrace, Cresselia’s real purpose was to keep damage counters off the player’s Pokémon when faced with Dragapult ex and its Phantom Dive attack. Ironically, perhaps, its reliance upon having Kirlia in play means that Cresselia likely would have fallen out of favor even without the rotation.
Finally, the departure of the incredibly powerful Item card Hisuian Heavy Ball was a significant loss for Gardevoir ex. When you look at a typical Gardevoir ex deck list, many of its key attackers only have one spot each within the deck. This was in part because of strong recovery cards like Night Stretcher and Super Rod, but mostly because Hisuian Heavy Ball did the heavy lifting in protecting the player from disastrous Prize card situations. How will Gardevoir ex players adjust to these changes?
Embracing Change
Time and time again, we’ve witnessed the top talents of the Pokémon TCG adapt brilliantly when faced with rotations. Recently, at the Atlanta Regional Championship, we saw a group of players take Gardevoir ex to major success despite losing important cards in the rotation. Let’s take a look at how they managed to take one of the largest Regional Championships of all time.
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Gardevoir ex
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7Basic Psychic Energy
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2Basic Darkness Energy
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4Iono
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2Morty’s Conviction
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2Professor’s Research (Professor Sada)
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2Professor Turo’s Scenario
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1Jacq
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2Artazon
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3Buddy-Buddy Poffin
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2Bravery Charm
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2Counter Catcher
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2Earthen Vessel
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2Nest Ball
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2Night Stretcher
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2Rare Candy
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2Ultra Ball
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1Rescue Board
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1Secret Box
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1Super Rod
This deck list, created by Isaiah Bradner and piloted by three-time Regional Champion Henry Chao, won the Masters Division in Atlanta due in part to being well-positioned in the new meta.
For the first time ever, the Gardevoir ex line has been cut down from maximum counts of Ralts and Kirlia, with just three and two copies within the list respectively. The reasoning behind this is sound. The goal is not to flood the board with Ralts and Kirlia, but to set up a single Gardevoir ex, with a second Ralts or Kirlia as a backup in case it is Knocked Out. This decision frees up a somewhat significant amount of space within the deck and allows for more interesting inclusions.
Deck Breakdown
Let’s address the elephant in the room. Yes, that is N’s Zoroark ex in the deck. Many players thought that N’s Zoroark ex would become its own deck and see success that way, but many others have chosen to innovate preexisting decks and use it as a way to draw cards. That’s right—the classic “discard one and draw two cards” Ability is back, once again appearing on a Zoroark. When faced with the loss of Kirlia, N’s Zoroark ex appears to have been the solution reached by this group of players.
There’s something odd about the number of N’s Zorua and N’s Zoroark ex on this list. Why, you might ask, did the players choose to run only one of the Basic Pokémon and two of the Pokémon that evolve from it? In a vacuum, this indeed doesn’t make sense. However, this is an innovation that players have made many times over the years in response to factors within the format. When looking at this list, there are multiple ways to find N’s Zorua, even when faced with the dreaded Item lock from Budew. However, there’s only a single way to find N’s Zoroark ex that isn’t an Item card. This means that the player needs to be able to draw into N’s Zoroark ex from their deck more often. While a player might only ever be able to play down a single copy in a game, the second copy makes it possible for N’s Zoroark ex to enter play more often.
Budew. The card that everyone is talking about, and the card that is arguably the most impactful card within the format. Looking at the card, Budew looks quite innocuous thanks to its mere 30 HP and its attack that only does 10 damage. But what it does have is Itchy Pollen, which has the added effect of preventing the opponent from playing Item cards during their next turn. Combined with a Bravery Charm and Munkidori’s Adrena-Brain Ability, Gardevoir ex is able to make Budew into quite a nuisance.
Gardevoir ex still employs a variety of attackers. Scream Tail, with its attack able to hit an opponent’s Benched Pokémon for damage based on how many damage counters it has, is a card that has consistently appeared on deck lists since its release. Drifloon is similar to Scream Tail in that it hits based on its own taken damage. But Drifloon can do more damage per damage counter, and with the addition of Bravery Charm, it has up to 120 HP!
Lillie’s Clefairy ex is the other major addition that Gardevoir ex has gained from Scarlet & Violet—Journey Together. Dragon types are an incredibly impactful part of the game, and since they usually have no Weakness, Lillie’s Clefairy ex allowing Psychic-type Pokémon to hit for double damage is a powerful effect. But wait, there’s more: Lillie’s Clefairy ex’s Full Moon Rondo attack does damage based on the number of Benched Pokémon that both players have in play! If either you or your opponent makes use of Area Zero Underdepths, the damage Lillie’s Clefairy ex can do is massive.
Finally, we come to Mew ex, which is one of my personal favorite Pokémon. Mew ex provides value in a few different ways. With Kirlia gone, Gardevoir ex needs more ways to draw cards. And while Mew ex’s Restart Ability only draws up to three cards, that can be more than enough to find a Supporter that can help you draw even more. There are two major uses for Mew ex’s Genome Hacking attack: The first is to copy Charizard ex’s Burning Darkness in combination with Munkidori’s Adrena-Brain to reach damage as high as 330. The second (and much more common) use is to Knock Out an opponent’s Dragapult ex and a Drakloak by copying Phantom Dive and using it in conjunction with Lillie’s Clefairy ex and Munkidori.
When it comes to the Trainer cards of this Gardevoir ex list, there are a few important things to note. The first is a lack of Arven, which was the format-defining Supporter for months before the rotation. But with the rise of Budew and the fall in consistency Pokémon like Kirlia, Arven no longer is strong enough to consistently let Gardevoir ex play the game. These days, Supporters that draw lots of cards, like Morty’s Conviction and Professor’s Research, have ascended the ranks and become very important for Gardevoir ex.
The other major change in Trainer cards that Gardevoir ex decks have had to make is to a return to including Rare Candy. Early in the 2025 season, the Gardevoir ex / Rare Candy build was in a constant fight with the “slow” Gardevoir ex build that utilized Technical Machine: Evolution in order to set up. The slower build won that battle and remained popular until rotation happened. Now, however, with the only legal Kirlia cards not having a powerful Ability to make use of, the “fast” version of Gardevoir has come back, allowing players to set up a Gardevoir ex as early as their second turn without evolving to Kirlia first.
Making a Choice: ACE SPEC
Finally, it’s time to discuss one of the most important decisions a Gardevoir ex player (as well as players of other decks) can make: which ACE SPEC to play. This list has opted for Secret Box because it allows for a level of consistency that few other cards can even dream of providing. However, it would be remiss of me to ignore the other options that are available and that other Gardevoir ex lists are known to play.
First, we have Brilliant Blender. This was the go-to ACE SPEC for many players when they first started with Gardevoir ex for this format, so it makes sense that it would be included. While discarding five cards from your deck may seem counterproductive for many builds, Gardevoir ex absolutely needs to get those Psychic Energy into the discard pile in order to make use of Psychic Embrace. Brilliant Blender does that job marvelously, but when it comes to the list above, there are a few reasons why it’s less good. The first reason is simply that without Arven, it is harder to find Brilliant Blender when it will be impactful to the game. The second reason is that N’s Zoroark ex is often enough to get those Psychic Energy into the discard pile.
The other major consideration when it comes to ACE SPEC cards is Unfair Stamp, which allows the player to force their opponent into a two-card hand as early as their second turn! This is the strategy we saw most Dragapult ex players go with, but when it comes to Gardevoir ex, Unfair Stamp isn’t the favored choice. That’s mostly because Unfair Stamp doesn’t provide nearly as much consistency as Secret Box does.
Strategy Tips
When it comes to Gardevoir ex, there are a lot of things a player can do to increase their odds of winning. First and foremost is knowing when to make use of different attackers. Gardevoir ex players need to be able to identify threats and then make decisions on which Pokémon can best deal with that threat. An important thing to consider is that Gardevoir ex, despite mainly being the method of Energy acceleration in its decks, is also a very strong attacker.
Gardevoir ex players have also mastered the use of Munkidori. While the 30 damage from its Adrena-Brain might not seem significant for one turn, it can be the difference maker over the course of the game. Something that a skilled Gardevoir ex player will do is to use Psychic Embrace to their Active Pokémon and then retreat to their attacker to get the additional damage in play that’s needed for Adrena-Brain.
Is Gardevoir ex the deck for you? That will likely depend on how the format continues to change going forward. In my humble opinion, the deck is here to stay and won’t fall out of relevance until the day Gardevoir ex leaves the format. While its deck lists may continue to shift and adapt, Gardevoir ex has shown it has incredible amounts of staying power, seemingly defying the odds again and again. If I’ve learned anything over the last two years, it’s that Gardevoir ex will always be a deck to watch out for.
Alex Schemanske is a contributing writer for Pokemon.com. He has been playing since 2010, with experience across all three age divisions. Over that time, he has earned an invitation to every World Championships event since 2012. A many-time Regional finalist and a 2023 Europe International Championship Champion, Alex has had success at all levels and continues to enjoy playing the game. He has a degree in education and is currently studying accounting, but he still takes the time to attend many events with friends and family.
