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In the 2025 Grand Finals, Riley McKay used his Gardevoir ex deck to become the Pokemon TCG World Champion.
Although Riley McKay narrowly missed out to Isaiah Bradner’s Gardevoir ex mirror match at NAIC 2025, he ended up taking the top spot at the 2025 Pokemon TCG Worlds Championships. By defeating Justin Newdorf, who was using a Dragapult ex Dusknoir deck, Riley finally ended up winning a major TCG tournament after coming close so many times before.
Pokemon TCG: What Cards Did Riley McKay Have in His Deck?
These were the cards in Riley’s World Championship-winning deck:
- Munkidori x4
- Ralts x3
- Kirlia x2
- Gardevoir ex x2
- Scream Tail x1
- Fezandipiti ex x1
- Flutter Mane x1
- Lillie’s Clefairy ex x1
- Mew ex x1
- Professor’s Research x4
- Iono x4
- Arven x2
- Ultra Ball x4
- Earthen Vessel x3
- Rare Candy x2
- Counter Catcher x2
- Night Stretcher x2
- Nest Ball x2
- Super Rod x1
- Secret Box x1
- Technical Machine: Evolution x2
- Technical Machine: Devolution x1
- Bravery Charm x1
- Artazon x2
- Basic Psychic Energy x7
- Basic Darkness Energy x4
Riley McKay’s 2025 Pokemon TCG Worlds Champion Strategy
One look at Riley’s deck shows that he learned from his NAIC Finals opponent, Isaiah. Isaiah was running four Munkidori with four Basic Darkness Energy so that he could maximize the chances of getting one on the Bench. Basically, Munkidori’s ability Adrena Brain synergizes amazingly well with Gardevoir ex’s ability Psychic Embrace. Gardevoir ex’s ability lets you attach Psychic Energy from the discard pile to a Pokemon, at the cost of adding a damage counter for each Energy added this way. Consequently, Munkidori can take three of those damage counters and attach them to the opponent’s Pokemon instead.
However, Riley also dropped Budew, Shaymin, and Drifloon for Flutter Mane and Mew ex instead. Flutter Mane can prevent abilities from being utilized if it is in the Active Spot. However, Mew ex is the more important card here. While it is useful as a draw engine, what won Riley his deciding game was its move Genome Hacking. On his last turn, Riley was prepared to copy Justin’s Dragapult ex’s move Phantom Dive with Genome Hacking.
Due to Riley having a Lillie’s Clefairy ex on his Bench, it would have KO’d Dragapult ex from full HP. Also, Phantom Dive’s secondary effect would take out a Duskull on Justin’s Bench. This all but guaranteed Riley the game, causing Justin to concede to him.
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