Welcome to Dowsing Machine, a new resource in English for enjoyers of the Pokémon TCG's Expanded format!
New to Expanded? Start with the basics.
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About Dowsing Machine
For a long time, especially after Expanded was retired from the Western competitive circuit, it was almost impossible to find information about the format without going on Japanese sites and videos. When people asked me where to learn more about a deck, the only resource I could point to was my own threads on social media. So I thought that there should be a place, not hidden in social media or in private Discord servers, where people could learn more about Expanded. Dowsing Machine is that place.
All the code on Dowsing Machine was developed by the amazing Julien (sylf), and all the words on Dowsing Machine were written by me. My knowledge of the format is imperfect, so I want to thank the people who help me understand new decks or developments in the metagame, especially Ryuya from the Silent Lab Discord server for his many thorough explanations.
As much as I try to understand all there is to know about Expanded, I can't test every decklist, and my knowledge of the format remains imperfect. There may be some mistakes or incomplete explanations of cards or decks. If you notice something wrong, please let me know!
Note: in the deck catalogue, decks are arranged in tiers. The goal is not to make an exact ranking, but to give a rough idea of a deck's power level. I chose to make large tiers to reduce the subjectivity involved, but you may disagree with some choices. Remember that it is only a starting point! Also, decks may be untiered either because they are not very good, or because I don't have enough data to evaluate them yet.
About the author
Hello, I'm Stéphane Ivanoff. Depending on how long you've been playing the Pokémon TCG and how invested you are, you may know me as "a two-time International Champion", "that guy who went to Japan to play Expanded", or "who?". I've been playing the game since 2010 and I've been interested in Expanded more or less since it was created.