The Stuttgart Surprise: Early Phantasmal Flames Metagame

Phantasmal Flames dropped, and Stuttgart Regionals delivered some unexpected results. Here's the full breakdown.

Introduction

Phantasmal Flames just released, throwing players into a brand-new format at the Stuttgart Regionals. With a brief break from major tournaments ahead, let's analyze what went down.

Phantasmal Flames isn't exactly format-warping, but it's still significant. The hierarchy of top decks remains mostly unchanged, with one notable exception: Charizard ex is creeping upward, gaining new tools and performing exceptionally well at Stuttgart.

This tournament delivered some interesting results. Let's start with the winning archetype.

Charizard ex / Noctowl: The Big Surprise

The biggest shock from Stuttgart was a unique Charizard build taking the whole thing. Charizard / Noctowl came out on top a deck that previously saw almost no play because the traditional version was always superior.

Dawn: The Key Addition

With Phantasmal Flames, this deck fully capitalizes on the new Dawn card. The winning list ran four copies.

It's exciting to see a deck win by fully utilizing a brand-new card immediately upon release. Most players at Stuttgart leaned toward familiar archetypes, and those who experimented often brought underdeveloped lists that failed to perform.

Winner Nicolai Stiborg seemed to know something nobody else did. Dawn elevates the deck to another level, enabling explosive power and consistency that wasn't previously possible.

The Glaring Issues

However, after testing this deck extensively, some major problems became apparent.

The Item Lock Problem

This deck was always gatekept by its weakness to Item lock. That hasn't changed.

Between Dragapult ex's Budew and Gardevoir ex's Frillish/Jellicent ex, Charizard / Noctowl's reliance on Rare Candy becomes a critical vulnerability.

Yes, the tournament winner navigated through several Item lock decks but let's be honest, there was some luck involved. We saw Dragapult brick in the finals on stream.

The theory is that efficient attackers like Charmander, Charmeleon, and Fan Rotom can fight through small Item lock Pokemon. This is true, but you won't stabilize your board while your opponent does. Worse, this deck can't even find Energy without Rare Candy access, forcing you to naturally draw into them.

The Pidgeotto Solution

Many players have instantly added Pidgeotto to the Stuttgart-winning list. With Fan Rotom and four Dawn, setting up Pidgeot ex under Item lock via Pidgeotto should be straightforward.

This is probably a good idea given Item lock's prevalence in the current meta, and Pidgeotto slots efficiently into this list. That said, I'm not sure it's enough.

Technical Machine: Devolution Weakness

This deck also has significant weakness to TM: Devolution, making the Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex and Jellicent matchups incredibly difficult.

Interesting tech tip: If Charizard is your only Tera Pokemon in play, you can deactivate Area Zero Underdepths mid-attack when your opponent uses Devolution. This discards the damaged Pokemon, denying your opponent Prize cards. At least, that's how it works on PTCG Live.

Of course, this only matters when you're actually able to Prize trade not when all your main Pokemon get wiped out.

Where This Deck Dominates

Outside of disruptive matchups, Charizard / Noctowl absolutely steamrolls anyone in a real Prize trade:

• Noctowl provides tempo and consistency
• Pidgeot offers stabilization and hand disruption resistance
• Dusknoir + Briar creates insurmountable Prize race advantages
• Klefki counters Psyduck

Decks like Gholdengo ex, Mega Absol ex, standard Gardevoir builds, and even other Charizard variants have no real chance against Charizard / Noctowl in a straight fight.

The Verdict

This is essentially a matchup roulette deck more polarized than traditional Charizard.

Personally, I think this deck's weaknesses are too severe for the current meta. The Stuttgart winner got extremely lucky navigating matchups that should have been difficult.

If Item lock decreases in popularity, Charizard / Noctowl could become a monster. Until then, it's a high-risk, high-reward choice.

Looking Ahead

The early Phantasmal Flames metagame is taking shape:

• Gardevoir ex remains dominant with Mega Diancie ex
• Gholdengo ex continues to rise with Solrock/Lunatone
• Charizard ex gains new tools but faces Item lock challenges
• Dragapult ex holds its position with the Budew/Dusknoir package

The format is centralized around these four decks, with Charizard / Noctowl emerging as a potential dark horse if you're willing to gamble on your pairings.

Conclusion

Stuttgart showed us that innovation can still be rewarded, even in a restrictive format. Nicolai Stiborg's Charizard / Noctowl victory proves that exploring new cards immediately upon release can pay off.

However, one tournament win doesn't make a deck the best choice. The Item lock problem is real, and until that changes, Charizard / Noctowl remains a risky pick despite its explosive potential.

The question is: are you feeling lucky?

Stay tuned for more metagame analysis as the Phantasmal Flames format develops!