Festival Lead

What Festival Lead looks like when you open the box

Across the 87 lists we counted, this deck runs 18 to 22 Pokémon, 32 to 37 Trainers and 4 to 7 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Grass.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « festival-lead ». That is the name of an Ability: several Pokémon in this deck carry Festival Lead, and the whole game plan leans on it. So the deck is named after its Ability.

Look at the Energy: 4 to 7 out of 60, when half the 126 decks we track run 11 or more. This one is lean. It lives on cheap attacks and leans on Trainers to find the right Energy at the right moment rather than stockpiling it.

It sets up fast. Dipplin is a Stage 1 Pokémon: a Basic, one evolution on top, and you are attacking. Two cards instead of three. You lose fewer turns building, and you rebuild much more easily when an early knockout lands on you.

Look at the Trainers: 32 to 37 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 126 decks we track. Inside that, 8 to 11 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 14 to 20 Items you can play all of in the same turn. It also brings up to 5 Stadiums, and 23 of the 126 decks we track bring that many or more. Only one Stadium sits on the table at a time: the one you play sends the one already there to the discard pile.

What Tools and Stadiums do — the two Trainer families we skipped here — and why the Energy count says so much: how to read a deck list.

What the cards in this deck's name actually do

This deck is named after an Ability, Festival Lead, and 3 Pokémon in the list carry it. Its printed text is the game plan.

Dipplin is in all 87 lists, 3 copies of it. Its Ability is called Festival Lead, and here is what is printed on it, word for word: « If Festival Grounds is in play, this Pokémon may use an attack it has twice. If the first attack Knocks Out your opponent's Active Pokémon, you may attack again after your opponent chooses a new Active Pokémon. »

Goldeen is in 86 of the 87 lists, 99 % of players, 2 copies of it. It carries Festival Lead too, the Ability you just read.

Seaking is in 86 of the 87 lists, 99 % of players, 1 copy of it. It carries Festival Lead too, the Ability you just read.

How Festival Lead actually wins

Thwackey attacks with Beat for 50. It needs 2 Grass Energy attached, and it has 100 HP.

The cost of Beat decides your first few turns. You only get to attach one Energy a turn, and that attack asks for 2. On your own attachments alone, your first real swing lands on turn 2. We have not found anything in this list that attaches Energy faster than that, so plan on holding out for a turn before you swing. Those turns still get played: you fill your Bench, you build your lines, and you keep something back to rebuild with when your attacker falls.

Here is the detail that quietly loses games. To pull Thwackey back to the Bench you have to discard 2 Energy attached to it. Retreating does not cost you your turn, you can step back and still swing right after. What it costs you is the 2 Energy you spent 2 turns attaching, and you start that climb again from nothing. Pack a card that moves it for free, or send it up knowing it stays up.

Not one ex Pokémon in the core, and only 27 of the 126 decks we track are in that position. It is a hidden advantage: every knockout your opponent takes is worth a single Prize, so they need 6, where 3 would do against a deck stuffed with ex cards.

The attackers in the deck's core, with their best attack, its cost and their Weakness

Pokémon	HP	Attack	Damage	Cost	Weakness	Retreat
Close ThwackeyStage 1	100	Beat	50		Fire ×2	2
Close GrookeyBasic	70	Branch Poke	30		Fire ×2	1
Close DipplinStage 1	80	Do the Wave	20×		Fire ×2	2

The core: the 14 cards every list runs

These 14 cards appear in all 87 lists, without a single exception. That is 42 of the 60 slots. The other 18 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 42 slots break down: 27 Trainers, 11 Pokémon, 4 Energy. Trainers outweigh everything else put together, which is the mark of a deck that goes and fetches its cards rather than waiting to draw them.

13 of those 14 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Grookey (1 to 4), Thwackey (3 to 4) and Dipplin (2 to 4), plus 10 more. Add those spreads up and you get 25 copies the 87 lists do not agree on, inside the core itself.

What "3 to 4" means in the copies column, what the "TWM 130" code under each name is for, and why we count dozens of lists instead of one: how to read a deck list.

The cards present in every list counted, with the number of copies

Copies	Card	Printing	Kind	Rotation
1–4	Close Grookey	TWM 14	Pokémon	leaves
3–4	Close Thwackey	TWM 15	Pokémon	leaves
2–4	Close Dipplin	TWM 18	Pokémon	leaves
3–4	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	TEF 144	Trainer	leaves
3–4	Close Festival Grounds	TWM 149	Trainer	leaves
3–4	Close Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer	stays
3–4	Close Poké Pad	POR 81	Trainer	stays
1–3	Close Air Balloon	ASC 181	Trainer	stays
2–3	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
1–3	Close Brave Bangle	WHT 80	Trainer	stays
1–3	Close Gladion's Final Battle	PBL 77	Trainer	stays
1–4	Close Ultra Ball	MEG 131	Trainer	stays
1	Close Secret Box	TWM 163	Trainer	leaves
1–6	Grass Energy	MEE 1	Energy	stays

The 40 cards that change from list to list

40 cards fight over the 18 slots that are left: 9 above three lists in four, 24 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Goldeen at 99 %, Seaking at 99 % and Rabsca at 97 %, plus 6 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Applin, at 46 %: 40 of 87 players took it, 47 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 1 copy. Right at the bottom of the table, Psyduck (20 lists out of 87) and Forest of Vitality (19 lists out of 87).

Why a card at 45 % is not a bad card, and what order to buy all this in: how to read a deck list.

The cards some lists run and others don't, most common first

Lists running it	Card	Copies	Printing	Kind
99 %86/87	Close Goldeen	1–3	TWM 44	Pokémon
99 %86/87	Close Seaking	1–3	PRE 21	Pokémon
97 %84/87	Close Rabsca	1–2	TEF 24	Pokémon
95 %83/87	Close Night Stretcher	1–2	ASC 196	Trainer
94 %82/87	Close Rellor	1–2	TEF 23	Pokémon
91 %79/87	Close Kieran	1–2	TWM 154	Trainer
76 %66/87	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
76 %66/87	Close Bug Catching Set	1–4	TWM 143	Trainer
75 %65/87	Close Growing Grass Energy	1–4	POR 86	Energy
71 %62/87	Close Sacred Ash	1	DRI 168	Trainer
70 %61/87	Close Switch	1	MEG 130	Trainer
68 %59/87	Close Applin	1–4	TWM 17	Pokémon
67 %58/87	Close Tool Scrapper	1	ASC 212	Trainer
46 %40/87	Close Applin	1–4	TWM 126	Pokémon
29 %25/87	Close Lana's Aid	1	TWM 155	Trainer
28 %24/87	Close Applin	1–4	SCR 12	Pokémon
23 %20/87	Close Psyduck	1	ASC 39	Pokémon
22 %19/87	Close Forest of Vitality	1	MEG 117	Trainer
6 %5/87	Close Pokémon Catcher	1–2	POR 82	Trainer
6 %5/87	Close Black Belt's Training	1–2	JTG 143	Trainer
3 %3/87	Close Rillaboom	1	TWM 16	Pokémon
3 %3/87	Close Dawn	1–2	PFL 87	Trainer
3 %3/87	Close Redeemable Ticket	1	JTG 156	Trainer
3 %3/87	Close Special Red Card	1	CRI 82	Trainer
2 %2/87	Grookey	2–3	MEP 52	Pokémon
2 %2/87	Close Lilligant	1	JTG 7	Pokémon
2 %2/87	Close Petilil	1	BLK 6	Pokémon
2 %2/87	Close Rellor	1	DRI 24	Pokémon
2 %2/87	Close Enhanced Hammer	1	TWM 148	Trainer
2 %2/87	Close Hand Trimmer	1	TEF 150	Trainer
2 %2/87	Close Judge	1	POR 76	Trainer
1 %1/87	Close Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex	1	TWM 141	Pokémon
1 %1/87	Close Budew	1	ASC 16	Pokémon
1 %1/87	Close Moltres	1	PFL 14	Pokémon
1 %1/87	Close Patrat	1	CRI 70	Pokémon
1 %1/87	Close Pokégear 3.0	1	SVI 186	Trainer
1 %1/87	Close Surfer	1	SSP 187	Trainer
1 %1/87	Close Mist Energy	4	TEF 161	Energy
1 %1/87	Close Telepathic Psychic Energy	3	POR 88	Energy
1 %1/87	Fire Energy	1	MEE 2	Energy

The most common Festival Lead list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 42 slots come from the core, the cards all 87 lists run. The remaining 18 come from the table just above, working down it: the cards the most players chose, each at its most common copy count, until the total lands on 60.

This list is nobody's list in particular. It takes, slot by slot, what the most people played, under the guardrails a judge would hold you to: never more than four copies of a card, and one ACE SPEC. Behind the core it took 12 more cards to reach 60. The whole thing comes to 21 Pokémon, 34 Trainers and 5 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 87 lists we counted are all from players who came in the top twenty of their tournament. Nobody publishes the lists of the players who lost. So what you have in front of you is what the players finishing near the top bring most often.

The text under the table is the one the game expects: copy it, paste it into the deck manager, and the list builds itself.

Why we only read lists from players who came in the top twenty of their tournament, and what that changes about every percentage on this page: how to read a deck list.

Pokémon: 21
4 Grookey TWM 14
4 Thwackey TWM 15
3 Dipplin TWM 18
2 Goldeen TWM 44
1 Seaking PRE 21
1 Rabsca TEF 24
1 Rellor TEF 23
1 Shaymin DRI 10
4 Applin TWM 17

Trainer: 34
4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
4 Festival Grounds TWM 149
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
4 Poké Pad POR 81
2 Air Balloon ASC 181
2 Boss's Orders MEG 114
2 Brave Bangle WHT 80
2 Gladion's Final Battle PBL 77
2 Ultra Ball MEG 131
1 Secret Box TWM 163
1 Night Stretcher ASC 196
1 Kieran TWM 154
3 Bug Catching Set TWM 143
1 Sacred Ash DRI 168
1 Switch MEG 130

Energy: 5
4 Grass Energy MEE 1
1 Growing Grass Energy POR 86

Total Cards: 60

Which decks beat Festival Lead at tournaments

Here is how Festival Lead did against every other deck at tournaments. Real games, real players sitting across the table from each other, and the platform those tournaments run on counts them one by one. All of them were played after 30th Celebration became legal for tournaments, and we read the table on 24 October 2026.

The format matters more than people think. When the next set lands, decks get rebuilt around the new cards, and a matchup that leaned one way can swing the other. What you are reading holds for today's format.

We start with the opponent that gives you the most trouble, because that is where the work is before your next tournament. The further down the list you go, the better it goes for you.

Always look at the number of games next to the score. Six wins out of ten happens on its own, even with a middling deck: it is the same as flipping six heads in ten tries. Six hundred out of a thousand, and luck has nothing to do with it. Below 100 games we show nothing at all, because at that count half the matchups look like they lean one way when they lean nowhere.

Against Dragapult ex: over 382 games, 120 won and 255 lost. 7 ended with no winner.

Against Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex: over 100 games, 35 won and 62 lost. 3 ended with no winner.

Against Slowking: over 137 games, 56 won and 76 lost. 5 ended with no winner.

Against Latias ex / Mega Kangaskhan ex: over 159 games, 73 won and 84 lost. 2 ended with no winner.

Against Dragapult ex / Dusknoir: over 130 games, 59 won and 67 lost. 4 ended with no winner.

Against Mega Excadrill ex: over 112 games, 53 won and 56 lost. 3 ended with no winner.

Against Alakazam / Dudunsparce: over 123 games, 61 won and 60 lost. 2 ended with no winner.

Against Dhelmise: over 145 games, 78 won and 65 lost. 2 ended with no winner.

Against Teal Mask Ogerpon ex / Meganium / Hydrapple ex: over 104 games, 56 won and 44 lost. 4 ended with no winner.

Against N's Zoroark ex: over 153 games, 112 won and 41 lost.

How many different cards Festival Lead needs, and how long it will last

You need 54 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 14 of which nobody argues about. The rest is where lists differ from one another, and that is where you have room to choose.

Add Secret Box: all 87 players picked the same one. You are allowed ONE ACE SPEC card in your whole deck, so a single copy covers it whatever it costs.

Then there is time. 6 of the 14 core cards carry the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Grookey, Thwackey, Dipplin and Buddy-Buddy Poffin, plus 2 more. The core table marks every one of them. In copies, that is 20 of the 42 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Festival Lead struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Fire, so they take DOUBLE damage from that type. 13 of the 126 decks we track attack in exactly that type.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex, Ethan's Typhlosion and Ceruledge ex, plus 10 more decks. The table below takes them one at a time, and those are the lists you practise against first before an event.

This table counts one thing, Weakness, and that comes to 13 decks out of the 126 we track. The other 113 do not attack into yours, and this table says nothing about them. You will still run into them.

Going the other way, your attackers are Grass, and 24 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: N's Zoroark ex, Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama and Mega Sharpedo ex / Toxtricity, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.