Gardevoir ex Wins NAIC 2025: What the Meta Shift Means for Your Collection

Isaiah Bradner Crowns Himself NAIC Champion with a 100-Hour Gardevoir ex List

The 2025 North America International Championships (NAIC) wrapped up in New Orleans, Louisiana on June 15 — and it delivered one of the most technically interesting tournament stories of the Scarlet & Violet era. Isaiah Bradner won the Masters Division with a highly refined Gardevoir ex build, outlasting a field of 3,812 players across three grueling days of Swiss and single-elimination play. The event ran June 13–15 and served as the final International Championship of the 2024–25 season before Worlds, making its results carry extra weight for anyone trying to read where the meta is heading.

The format at the time of the event was Scarlet & Violet — Destined Rivals, and the top tables looked like a referendum on two archetypes: Gardevoir ex and Dragapult ex. Both strategies have been format pillars for months, but Bradner's specific list is what turned a known quantity into a championship deck.

Why Bradner's List Worked

The core engine of Gardevoir ex isn't new — Psychic Embrace lets you accelerate Psychic Energy from the discard directly onto your benched Pokémon, giving the deck explosive setup speed. What separated Bradner's build was running four copies of Munkidori alongside Technical Machine: Turbo Energize and Energy Switch, a combination almost no other pilot committed to at that level. Munkidori's Adrena-Brain Ability lets you move damage counters from your own Pokémon onto your opponent's, effectively redirecting incoming damage and disrupting your opponent's prize trade calculations.

The decision to lean fully into Munkidori wasn't arbitrary. Bradner and his team identified Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex as a major threat in the field — a spread-damage deck that builds up damage counters across your whole board over multiple turns. By running enough Munkidori to fire Adrena-Brain repeatedly, they could redirect Grimmsnarl's spread right back onto the opponent's Pokémon, a counter-strategy that reportedly stumped the team in early testing until the configuration clicked. They also dropped Drifblim — previously a tech against Shaymin — in favor of a cleaner four-Professor's Research, four-Munkidori, two-Arven configuration once they confirmed Munkidori was handling that role sufficiently on its own.

The Masters Final was a Gardevoir ex mirror match: Bradner vs. McKay. Both players knew the archetype deeply, which made Bradner's tech choices — not just his core cards — the deciding factor.

The Rest of the Top Tables

Dragapult ex was the other major story of the event. Tord Reklev made the top four with a build that leaned on Munkidori, Maractus, and Professor Turo's Scenario for flexible mid-game lines, cutting the Dusknoir line that many other Dragapult pilots run. The Dusknoir version — which uses Cursed Blast for bench sniping — remains popular with high-profile players like Andrew Hedrick, James Cox, and Jon Eng heading into Worlds prep, but Reklev's result proves there's more than one way to build the archetype competitively.

Charizard ex was present in the field as well. Gardevoir ex holds a type-advantage edge over Charizard ex thanks to Psychic weakness, making the matchup roughly even to slightly favorable for Gardevoir depending on the build. Charizard's most interesting angle for Worlds is the Chi-Yu hybrid variant of Dragapult/Charizard ex, which is gaining attention as a potential counter to Gholdengo ex — a matchup where pure Dragapult lists can struggle.

Which Singles Are Now in Demand

Bradner's win immediately puts a spotlight on specific singles:

Munkidori — Four copies in the champion list, and Reklev's Dragapult list ran it too. Demand for playsets is elevated across multiple archetypes simultaneously, which is rare and meaningful.
Fezandipiti ex — A key piece of the Gardevoir ex toolbox via its Naughty Tail Ability, which provides bench flexibility and attack options that the deck's engine depends on.
Technical Machine: Turbo Energize — An uncommon inclusion that supercharges Munkidori synergy; copies are moving faster than before the event.
Gardevoir ex and the full Ralts/Kirlia/Gardevoir line — Any confirmed spike in archetype popularity pulls the entire evolution chain with it. The Ralts and Kirlia playsets are easy to overlook and often the first to dry up at local game stores.

Top Mover Spotlight: Charizard ex (Obsidian Flames #125)

Charizard ex (Obsidian Flames 125)

Charizard ex from Obsidian Flames (set code OBF, card #125) is currently at $6 ungraded and $94.38 for a PSA 10 on Cardbrd. While Gardevoir ex dominates the NAIC conversation, Charizard ex is actively being discussed as a Worlds sleeper inside the Dragapult hybrid builds — and its collector floor stays firm regardless of competitive variance. With Worlds set for August 15–17 in Anaheim, any strong finish for a Charizard-inclusive list could move copies quickly. Track Charizard ex on Cardbrd and get alerted before the price moves.

What This Means Going Into Worlds

Because NAIC was the final International Championship of the 2024–25 season, its meta signal carries more weight than a Regional result. Top players including Tord Reklev have publicly named Gardevoir ex as "the deck to beat" at Worlds. That kind of consensus does two things at once: it drives demand for Gardevoir ex singles and it accelerates counter-brewing — which in this format means more Ability-lock strategies, more Iron Thorns ex, and more Path to the Peak in sideboards and tech slots.

For competitive players, the window to acquire Munkidori playsets and Gardevoir ex copies at current prices is narrow. Post-NAIC visibility always brings a wave of buyers, and Worlds proximity compresses that timeline further. For collectors watching their binder's value, the Gardevoir and Dragapult archetype cards represent the active, liquid part of the Standard market right now.

Value your collection on Cardbrd to see exactly where your Gardevoir, Charizard, and Dragapult singles stand before Worlds demand peaks.

Scan, track, and stay ahead of every meta shift — get started free on Cardbrd.

Sources

Cover photo: Photo by Thimo Pedersen on Unsplash.