Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Welcome to the 2026-27 format for the Pokémon Trading Card Game! The Standard format for this 12-month period allows only cards with regulation marks of H, I, and J, and here is the first deck I made for it. This features Tyrantrum, a Pokémon I’ve always been quite fond of, but the card designers tend to be pretty hesitant to release more fossil-based Pokémon due to the difficulty of playing them. This is because their base forms are the fossils themselves, and as Item cards, there are few ways to reliably get them into play. Sometimes, the fossils are released alongside Supporter cards that search out fossils specifically or put their evolved forms straight into play, but not this time. Due to such Supporters though, they have turned up in top-ranked decks in the past, such as Arctozolt from Darkness Ablaze or Majestic Dawn Omastar.
My goal, by the way, is to make at least one post-rotation deck of every type. This one is for the Fighting-type, and this was the deck I used to get to Master League in Ranked.
POKÉMON (16)
3x Tyrunt (Perfect Order)
3x Tyrantrum (Perfect Order)
2x Relicanth (Temporal Forces)
2x Solrock (Mega Evolution)
2x Lunatone (Mega Evolution)
1x Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex (Twilight Masquerade OR Prismatic Evolutions)
1x Meowth ex (Perfect Order)
1x Psyduck (SV Black Star Promo OR Ascended Heroes)
1x Shaymin (Destined Rivals)
TRAINERS (33)
4x Antique Jaw Fossil
2x Battle Cage
2x Boss’s Orders
3x Colress’s Tenacity
3x Fighting Gong
1x Grand Tree
1x Hilda
4x Lillie’s Determination
2x Night Stretcher
2x Poké Pad
3x Premium Power Pro
2x Switch
1x Tarragon
2x Team Rocket’s Petrel
1x Ultra Ball
ENERGY (11)
7x Fighting Energy
4x Rocky (F) Energy
Tyrantrum, of course, is the main attacker of the deck. I take full advantage of its Ability, “Tyranno-Guts,” which gives it +150 HP if it has any Special Energy attached, and for this one, I use Rocky (F) Energy, which gives Fighting Pokémon it’s attached to a Mist Energy effect. While it’s nice to have a 1-Prize Pokémon with 330 HP sitting there, it gets better: if the opponent damages Tyrantrum but cannot knock it out in one hit, I can then retaliate with Tyrunt’s Get Angry attack, which does 20 damage for each damage counter on it. I can enable this with Relicanth, whose Ability, “Memory Dive,” allows me to use the attacks from an evolved Pokémon’s prior stages. At that much HP, Get Angry can reach absurdly high numbers.
You’ll see the deck list here is on the long side, and this is to prepare it for various scenarios. Bench-hitting decks prefer to target Antique Jaw Fossil before it can evolve (bear in mind that it IS worth a Prize card if knocked out, and you cannot start with a fossil because it’s an Item card while in your hand, not a Basic Pokémon), so Shaymin is there to protect it. 330 HP is also exactly enough to get knocked out from Dusknoir’s “Cursed Blast” and a 200-damage attack, like Dragapult ex’s Phantom Dive, so Psyduck is in there. The placement of damage counters from that attack, or from Munkidori’s “Adrena-Brain,” can prevent me from evolving those Antique Jaw Fossils, so Battle Cage is there alongside Colress’s Tenacity.
Speaking of Stadium cards, I went with Grand Tree to get the Tyrantrum into play sooner. Due to the nature of this strategy, Tyrunt must be present underneath Tyrantrum to use Get Angry, and Grand Tree enables me to do that the turn after getting Antique Jaw Fossil into play. Otherwise, I’ll need at least two turns after Antique Jaw Fossil, and that single turn can make a big difference in keeping up with my opponents. I find this more important than other ACE SPEC cards like Neo Upper Energy, Legacy Energy, or Precious Trolley.
One more card worth explaining is Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex. This is to help fight Grass decks, which is its worst matchup: I count on the opponent not being able to defeat Tyrantrum due to the slowness in setting one up and needing 2 Energy to attack, but because it has a Grass weakness, Grass Pokémon can do so pretty easily. However, the top two Grass decks, Mega Venusaur ex and Festival Lead, have Abilities on all of their fully evolved Pokémon. This allows me to put Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex in the Active Spot with as few Benched Pokémon as possible and come from behind.
I have two matches here: the first one (00:00) was a quick one that showcases Grand Tree getting Tyrantrum out quickly, Tyrantrum’s “Tyranno-Guts” taking effect, the “Lunar Cycle” draw engine, Tarragon enabling further use of “Lunar Cycle,” and “Memory Dive” giving me the option to use Get Angry (though I never needed it). The second one (09:00) shows the colossal power of Get Angry under Tyrantrum, with power to knock out Mega Charizard X ex in one hit and only going up from there.
Welcome to the 2026-27 format for the Pokémon Trading Card Game! The Standard format for this 12-month period allows only cards with regulation marks of H, I, and J, and here is the first deck I made for it. This features Tyrantrum, a Pokémon I’ve always been quite fond of, but the card designers tend to be pretty hesitant to release more fossil-based Pokémon due to the difficulty of playing them. This is because their base forms are the fossils themselves, and as Item cards, there are few ways to reliably get them into play. Sometimes, the fossils are released alongside Supporter cards that search out fossils specifically or put their evolved forms straight into play, but not this time. Due to such Supporters though, they have turned up in top-ranked decks in the past, such as Arctozolt from Darkness Ablaze or Majestic Dawn Omastar.
My goal, by the way, is to make at least one post-rotation deck of every type. This one is for the Fighting-type, and this was the deck I used to get to Master League in Ranked.
POKÉMON (16)
3x Tyrunt (Perfect Order)
3x Tyrantrum (Perfect Order)
2x Relicanth (Temporal Forces)
2x Solrock (Mega Evolution)
2x Lunatone (Mega Evolution)
1x Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex (Twilight Masquerade OR Prismatic Evolutions)
1x Meowth ex (Perfect Order)
1x Psyduck (SV Black Star Promo OR Ascended Heroes)
1x Shaymin (Destined Rivals)
TRAINERS (33)
4x Antique Jaw Fossil
2x Battle Cage
2x Boss’s Orders
3x Colress’s Tenacity
3x Fighting Gong
1x Grand Tree
1x Hilda
4x Lillie’s Determination
2x Night Stretcher
2x Poké Pad
3x Premium Power Pro
2x Switch
1x Tarragon
2x Team Rocket’s Petrel
1x Ultra Ball
ENERGY (11)
7x Fighting Energy
4x Rocky (F) Energy
Tyrantrum, of course, is the main attacker of the deck. I take full advantage of its Ability, “Tyranno-Guts,” which gives it +150 HP if it has any Special Energy attached, and for this one, I use Rocky (F) Energy, which gives Fighting Pokémon it’s attached to a Mist Energy effect. While it’s nice to have a 1-Prize Pokémon with 330 HP sitting there, it gets better: if the opponent damages Tyrantrum but cannot knock it out in one hit, I can then retaliate with Tyrunt’s Get Angry attack, which does 20 damage for each damage counter on it. I can enable this with Relicanth, whose Ability, “Memory Dive,” allows me to use the attacks from an evolved Pokémon’s prior stages. At that much HP, Get Angry can reach absurdly high numbers.
You’ll see the deck list here is on the long side, and this is to prepare it for various scenarios. Bench-hitting decks prefer to target Antique Jaw Fossil before it can evolve (bear in mind that it IS worth a Prize card if knocked out, and you cannot start with a fossil because it’s an Item card while in your hand, not a Basic Pokémon), so Shaymin is there to protect it. 330 HP is also exactly enough to get knocked out from Dusknoir’s “Cursed Blast” and a 200-damage attack, like Dragapult ex’s Phantom Dive, so Psyduck is in there. The placement of damage counters from that attack, or from Munkidori’s “Adrena-Brain,” can prevent me from evolving those Antique Jaw Fossils, so Battle Cage is there alongside Colress’s Tenacity.
Speaking of Stadium cards, I went with Grand Tree to get the Tyrantrum into play sooner. Due to the nature of this strategy, Tyrunt must be present underneath Tyrantrum to use Get Angry, and Grand Tree enables me to do that the turn after getting Antique Jaw Fossil into play. Otherwise, I’ll need at least two turns after Antique Jaw Fossil, and that single turn can make a big difference in keeping up with my opponents. I find this more important than other ACE SPEC cards like Neo Upper Energy, Legacy Energy, or Precious Trolley.
One more card worth explaining is Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex. This is to help fight Grass decks, which is its worst matchup: I count on the opponent not being able to defeat Tyrantrum due to the slowness in setting one up and needing 2 Energy to attack, but because it has a Grass weakness, Grass Pokémon can do so pretty easily. However, the top two Grass decks, Mega Venusaur ex and Festival Lead, have Abilities on all of their fully evolved Pokémon. This allows me to put Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex in the Active Spot with as few Benched Pokémon as possible and come from behind.
I have two matches here: the first one (00:00) was a quick one that showcases Grand Tree getting Tyrantrum out quickly, Tyrantrum’s “Tyranno-Guts” taking effect, the “Lunar Cycle” draw engine, Tarragon enabling further use of “Lunar Cycle,” and “Memory Dive” giving me the option to use Get Angry (though I never needed it). The second one (09:00) shows the colossal power of Get Angry under Tyrantrum, with power to knock out Mega Charizard X ex in one hit and only going up from there.
