Original Post by By: Ciaran Farah for PokeBeach and can be found here

Hey PokeBeach readers! Hope you had a great summer and are looking forward to 2024-25 season! The World Championships just ended, but we have a plethora of Regionals and SPEs already starting up.

Let’s quickly start by talking about Worlds. I tested a ton of different decks, and none stuck out to me as a perfect play. Every deck has at least one or two bad matchups against a meta-relevant deck. The format feels wide in the sense that there are so many different archetypes and many of them see a metashare in that 5-10% range. The one thing I was confident about was that Regidrago VSTAR was going to be the most popular deck in the room. The deck does have the highest power level of any deck and it is hard to straight-up counter it. In the end, I decided to join the masses and played Regidrago VSTAR for the event. I had a couple of unfortunate matchups and untimely draws that ultimately held back a deeper run, but I was happy with my deck selection, the cards didn’t come my way this year.

An interesting thing we saw from Worlds was how the meta ended up revolving around Regidrago VSTAR and decks were built with it in mind. The Top 8 featured three aggressive decks in Miraidon ex, Raging Bolt ex , and Roaring Moon ex. They looked to use their speed to take the lead on Regidrago VSTAR and then never relinquish it. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the deck that ended up winning the tournament (Iron Thorns ex) looked to slow down Regidrago VSTAR. Any way you slice it, the decks that were successful at this year’s Worlds had an answer for Regidrago VSTAR!

I think most of these decks were all somewhat on peoples’ radars heading into the event, but seeing so many placing highly was definitely a surprise. I think the metagame, and Regidrago VSTAR in particular, was what allowed these decks to shine, particularly the aggressive beat stick decks. The biggest weakness of playing a deck that relies so heavily on two-Prize Pokemon is that they trade horribly into any deck that can effectively use single-Prize Pokemon such as Charizard ex or Gardevoir ex. Both those decks have a tough time up against Regidrago VSTAR which kept them away from the top tables. They also are more prone to tying due to their slower pace of play, pushing them into the tie bracket and even further away from the aggressive decks! I don’t predict Regidrago VSTAR to stop being the most popular deck in the format which makes it less appealing to sleeve up a deck revolving around Stage 2 Pokémon. For this reason, I foresee the aggressive decks having a sizeable place carved out for them in the meta.

Today I want to focus on one of those decks; Roaring Moon ex. Before rotation, this deck was the favourite of many players, and I predict a lot of people are excited to get to play the newest iteration of the deck!

Why Play Roaring Moon Over the Other Aggressive Decks?

I’ve grouped Roaring Moon ex into the “aggressive deck” category alongside Miraidon ex and Raging Bolt ex, so I want to talk quickly about what differentiates Roaring Moon ex from those decks. I think Roaring Moon ex is the most linear and consistent of the three; there aren’t many tricks or a large variety of attackers, but the deck can execute its core strategy at a staggeringly consistent rate. The deck has two ways to accelerate Energy through Professor Sada’s Vitality and Dark Patch, which makes getting that turn-one attack much easier. Dark Patch also means you aren’t limited to powering up one attacker a turn or relying on Professor Sada’s Vitality every turn. You can use your Dark Patch to get your next attackers ready or play a different Supporter such as Boss’s Orders or Judge.

Another luxury that Roaring Moon ex has is Pecharunt ex. Subjugating Chains is a fantastic Ability, allowing the deck to send any attacker it has on the Bench straight to the Active Spot. This lets the deck get away with playing no switching cards, which opens up deck slots for other impactful cards. Pecharunt ex also makes your Snorlax matchup almost unlosable — that is a matchup that gives a lot of players stress, so being able to rest easy in that matchup is a great plus.