Shintaro Ito’s Mega Audino-EX deck is the talk of the tournament, featuring a Mega Evolution Pokémon that has garnered very little attention until now. Mega Audino-EX’s Magical Symphony does 110 damage, enough to take out Shaymin-EX in one attack, and most other Pokémon in two attacks. Pokémon Center Lady is important to preventing the same thing from happening to Mega Audino-EX by forcing many Pokémon to attack a third time to take it out. Shintaro’s innovative deck and masterful play were on full display on his way to his first World Championship.

Originally intended as a card to thwart Night March decks, the Bursting Balloon Trainer card has become far more useful in variety of situations. Cody Walinski used four of them in his Greninja BREAK deck, hopefully causing enough damage to score Knock Outs with Giant Water Shuriken.

Samuel Hough’s deck is tough to define—a Vileplume and Trevenant deck? A Steelbox deck? But then what about Jolteon-EX and Yveltal-EX? And then there’s the Water-type Glaceon-EX, whose Crystal Ray attack is sort of the inverse of Jolteon-EX’s Flash Ray in stopping attacks by Evolution Pokémon. With all its locks, this deck has to be phenomenally challenging for his opponents. Samuel manages to keep them in perfect harmony partly through the use of Rainbow Energy.

Ross Cawthon is well-known for bringing decks that are slightly different than the norm, and this year is no different. His mix of Vespiquen and Yveltal, supported by Octillery, Druddigon, and Malamar-EX, is a rare combination. Time and again, Ross has shown he has the skill to guide a complex deck such as this to the top-8.

Gustava Wada won the 2011 Pokémon TCG World Championships in the Junior Division, and hasn’t slowed down much since. He returns to the top-8 in the Masters Division with a potent Metal-type deck. This deck relies a lot on the Abilities of Benched Pokémon; Gustavo uses the Sky Field Stadium card to make room for them in addition to having multiple attackers at the ready.

With a Night March deck such as Luca Schuster’s, stocking the discard pile with Pokémon is of utmost importance. But cards such as Ultra Ball and Professor Sycamore can sometimes result in other cards getting in the discard pile that you actually want. Puzzle of Time is handy in getting cards back in our hand, but you need two of them. If one is prized, you could be in trouble, but Luca keeps a Town Map in his deck for that exact situation.

Like many Night March players, Brad Curcio quickly found room for the Pokémon Ranger Trainer card in his deck. It gets around pesky attack effects that can be problematic, such as Jolteon-EX’s shutdown of attacks by Basic Pokémon. This might be the last hurrah for Night March, but a card as powerful as Pokémon Ranger will probably be popular for a long time.

Bert Wolters’ deck can get off to a really fast start with Talonflame in the lead, followed by a variety of Poké Balls to get the rest of his Pokémon into action. Bert is also prepared for the later stages of a match, including N and Delinquent for shortening his opponent’s hand, and Sacred Ash to retrieve Pokémon lost to the discard pile.