What do a withe rabbit, a teapot, a mad guy with a hat on and hare have in common? If your answer is that they are characters from Alice in Wonderland, you are absolutely right. But since last week, they are also part of one of the strongest decks in the metagame. Mad party is an archetype with many similarities to the old Night March (forever in my hearth!) that got released in Darkeness Ablaze. Focusing on discarding Pokémon to the discard pile to deal more damage, it was able to win games by attacking with Bunnelby and Polteageist over and over.

Truth be told, it was not very popular because the most played deck at the time was none other than Arceus Palkia Dialga and we all know how deadly this deck is against one prize attackers… But now everything has changed and Mad Party has the time to shine in Standard. It is also a very cheap option for players looking to start in the game and play tournaments right from the beginning. What is more, in the most recent online tournaments, several Mad Party decks have been to perform considerably well.

There are two main reasons that explain the sudden rise of popularity of Mad Party and its evolution from “not a serious contender” to “a solid pick”. The first reason is the new cards released in Battle Styles, our last TCG set. Level Ball is an item that got reprinted here and that allows to search any Pokémon with 90 HP or less. This has boosted the consistency of Mad Party in an incredible way because now almost the entire archetype is searchable: Polteageist, Sinistea, Bunnelby and Dennede.   With this newly acquired speed, the deck is now able to set up well in the first turns and deal tons of damage from turn 2 onwards. In fact, if the damage output is high enough, it can even win against ADP Zacian, which is one of its nightmares.

The second reason is that the metagame has changed with the arrival of Battle Styles. Some of the expected top tier decks revolve around big VMAX Pokémon like Urshifu or Victini and even Corviknight. Mad Party is an excellent pick against all these strategies precisely because its one-prize attackers can effectively destroy any VMAX Pokémon in just 2 single hits so the prize exchange is always going to be in Mad Party’s favor. There are a few decks, however, that Mad Party wants to avoid at all costs. I’ve already mentioned ADP Zacian but I think Dragapult VMAX is even a bigger problem. There is no way to counter the damage spread from Dragapult VMAX and the fact that all Mad Party members have so little HP means that your opponent is constantly taking several prizes per turn.

It is still a bit early to see how the metagame will develop and what decks will prevail. As it always happens here, it all goes in waves so, who knows. Maybe in everyone plays Dragapult, Eternatus will come back and Mad Party will be the strongest choice once again. All in all, if you are looking to build a cheap deck and compete in major tournaments (and were a big Night March fan!), then Mad Party is truly your choice. Thanks for reading!