Standard Deck Guide: Hydrapple ex + Meganium (City League - Aichi 2025)

This past November 2nd, a City League tournament was held in Aichi, Japan. It's a competition similar to what we in the West would call a "regional" championship.

In this article, we'll show you the deck that led player ざっき to 3rd place, a Hydrapple ex SCR 14 list. This card was relatively relevant when it first came out but was eventually forgotten because it needs lots of Basic Grass Energy sv2 278 to deal a significant amount of damage.

This problem was solved by Meganium MEG 10. Alongside Hydrapple ex SCR 14, this Pokémon led ざっき to 3rd place at this City League tournament!

Without further ado, let's see how it works.

Decklist

Deck Structure

Hydrapple ex: The Main Attacker

Its ability lets you attach one Basic Grass Energy sv2 278 from your hand to one of your Pokémon. If you do, you'll also heal that Pokémon by 30 HP.

Its main attack costs two energies (C)(C) and deals 30 damage for each Basic Grass Energy sv2 278 attached to your Pokémon. Yes, all of them.

Meganium Combo

To deal 270 damage with this Pokémon, for instance, our Pokémon would need to have a total of 9 energies attached. Attaching all of these energies and keeping them there is nearly impossible, so we had to attack more times with Hydrapple ex to knock out enemy Pokémon.

This problem was fixed with Meganium MEG 10's ability, which makes each Grass energy count twice as much!

So, if you play 8 Basic Grass Energy sv2 278, you'll actually have twice as much once you put this Pokémon in play, so 16 Basic Grass Energy sv2 278. This way, Hydrapple ex SCR 14 will be able to knock out Pokémon with a single strike.

This list in particular plays 11 Basic Grass Energy sv2 278, so you essentially have 22 energies. With all of them in play, Hydrapple ex would deal 660 damage.

Tapu Bulu: Single Prize Attacker

Its attack does cost a lot of energies (two Grass energies and two Colorless energies), but that won't be an issue because of Meganium MEG 10. Thanks to its ability, 2 Basic Grass Energy sv2 278 are actually four energies.

Its main attack also deals 30 recoil damage to it, but it deals 220 damage to enemy Pokémon. This amount is perfect for a basic single prize Pokémon.

Recursive Pokémon

"Baby" Pokémon

► Meganium MEG 10 is essential because of its ability.

► Dipplin TWM 18 is great with Festival Grounds TWM 149, which lets your Pokémon attack twice if you manage to knock out the enemy active Pokémon the first time it attacks.

► Toedscruel sv4 17's ability prevents the opponent from recycling cards from their discard pile, particularly with Pokémon abilities or Trainers.

"Rule Box" Pokémon

► Fezandipiti ex SFA 38's ability, Flip the Script, draws three cards if any of your Pokémon was knocked out by enemy attacks on the previous round.

► Teal Mask Ogerpon ex TWM 25's ability, Teal Dance, draws 2 cards when you attach 1 Basic Grass Energy sv2 278 from your hand to this Pokémon.

Supporters

Card Draw Supporters

► Lillie's Determination MEG 119 shuffles your hand back into your deck and draws 6 new cards. If you have exactly 6 Prize cards left, you'll draw 8 cards instead of 6.

► Professor's Research JTG 155 discards your entire hand and draws 7 new cards.

Supporter to Sabotage Hands

Supporter to Pull Pokémon

Items to Get Pokémon

Item to Recycle Cards

Stadiums

► Festival Grounds TWM 149 will protect your Pokémon from "bad status" like Asleep, Burned, Poisoned. It will also heal them if they are under these effects as long as they have any energy attached.

► Forest of Vitality MEG 117 will evolve your Grass Pokémon (not on the first turn, though).

ACE SPEC

This ACE SPEC item forces the opponent to swap their active Pokémon with one on their bench. Then, you'll swap your active Pokémon with one of your benched Pokémon. It's a great way to catch your opponent off guard!

Pros

This list does a lot of damage and can knock out stage 2 Pokémon ex with a lot of HP as well as many Mega Pokémon ex.

It is also simple to learn and easy to understand, draws a lot of cards, and is great against Charizard ex sv4pt5 54 and Cynthia's Garchomp ex DRI 104.

Cons

It does perform really well against Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex DRI 136 because of its weakness against Grass Pokémon, but be careful: that list usually plays Froslass TWM 53 to deal damage to Pokémon with abilities, and this list plays lots of them. Furthermore, they also play Munkidori PRE 44, which lets them move these damage counters.

It also relies a lot on evolutions, so it is quite slow. You'll need time to get to Hydrapple ex SCR 14 because you won't have Rare Candy PGO 69 and Technical Machine: Evolution sv4 178.

Forest of Vitality MEG 117, which you'll play precisely to evolve your Pokémon, can be easily countered with cards that remove stadiums, like Supporters, other stadiums, or even Megaton Blower SSP 182, for instance.

Because it only plays one type of Pokémon, this list will struggle against Fire Pokémon. If the opponent has any "single prize" attacker that can get energies faster than you and deal enough damage to knock out Hydrapple ex SCR 14, like Ceruledge and Moltres from Phantasmal Flames, there's not much you can do.

You'll also rely a lot on Teal Mask Ogerpon ex TWM 25, so if your opponent notices this is your main way to draw cards and decides to attack it, you could get behind in the Prize card race.

Basically, if you don't set up Meganium MEG 10 in play soon, or if your two copies of it are in your Prize card pile and you can't recycle them, you can consider the match lost.

This interesting list definitely breathed some new life into the Grass archetype. If Meganium MEG 10 was released before, maybe in the Scarlet & Violet block with Hydrapple ex, it would have dominated the meta for a lot longer.

However, because it only plays one type of Pokémon, it will struggle a lot against Fire Pokémon. The new set, Phantasmal Flames, focused more on this Pokémon type as well, so you probably won't be able to beat "single prize" Pokémon like Ceruledge, Moltres, and even Darmanitan in competitive settings. Soon we'll also have to worry about Mega Charizard X and Mega Charizard Y.

However, if you like this archetype, it's worth a try!

What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!