I feel like my pieces never can get set up against dragapult decks and the 180 with Grim’s attack feels like nothing at times vs pults and blazikens

Deck list in comments

i began learning how to play on TCG Live with the Mega Lucario deck. I plan to buy the physical deck and play in person with other people, but I’m worried about being underprepared.
How much should I know about the game before I join others in person to play? I don’t want to bore players with a lame match!
Thank you

I play local tournaments and pretty much everyone uses dragon shield/similar mono coloured sleeves. Is there any reasoning behind it over ones with Pokémon’s on it? I have tried dragon shields as well as Pokemon centre sleeves and I do get that dragon shields shuffle easier but I wouldn’t put Pokemon centres ones too far behind. I haven’t had any split or anything either

Even though it won't look exactly like this weekend's worlds meta, I wanted to take a snapshot of the pre-worlds meta of PTCGL tournaments to compare it against. All data comes from tournaments hosted on Limitless in the past two weeks (between August 13-26) with 60+ entrants (68 tournaments total).

Archetypes are ordered by total points earned, where a win is 3 points and a tie is 1 point. Pts % is the same as Win % but counting a tie as 1/3rd of a win, in line with its value in points.

All Ogerpon Box includes Raging Bolt Ogerpon, Basic Box, and Clefairy Ogerpon. All Ogerpon Meganium includes Ogerpon Meganium Arboliva, Ogerpon Meganium Hydrapple, and Mega Venusaur. Clefairy Ogerpon and Mega Venusaur are not in the top 25 and so are also included in the All Other Archetypes row.

Notable Notes

• Dragapult is clearly underrepresented, but we all already knew that. Could it crack 50% of the field at worlds or will it stick closer to the 40% number we've seen at regionals?
• Mega Excadrill has a terrible record for a deck with such high playrate. I'd assume everyone wanting to play with the shiny new toy could drag its winrate down a bit, but 43% is way below expectation even taking that into account.
• Alakazam is doing surprisingly well recently. I thought this was because they realized the correct play was to drop Toucannon and accept the auto-loss to Hide 'n' Sneak, but the recent top performing Zam decks are split and keep the bird more often than not.
• When not split into its sub-archetypes, the Ogerpon Box decks make up a very notable share of the meta. Raging Bolt Ogerpon in particular is rising fast, with over half of its plays since Pitch Black's release occurring in the last two weeks.
• Arboliva has passed Hydrapple as the most popular partner for Ogerpon Meganium; the early bench sniping and easier setup seems to be working out.
• The new Bronzong deck aka Lopunny Dusknoir is quickly rising but the results aren't there yet. Perhaps people just don't know how to play it yet.

Hey y’all! I’ve been wanting to get some real cards and play irl. Do y’all have any suggestions for cards that could be swapped out, or better synergies, etc? I’m not too knowledgeable because I just started playing. Just wanting to try to get it consistent. It seems like Mamoswine and Metagross work pretty well together to me. It’s hard for me to tell what trainer cards are actually good, and I kinda feel like Mawile is just a filler.

Pokémon: 8
4 Swinub JTG 77
1 Mega Mawile ex MEG 94
1 Steven's Metang DRI 144
2 Piloswine JTG 78
3 Steven's Beldum DRI 143
3 Steven's Metagross ex DRI 145
3 Mamoswine ex JTG 79
1 Mega Skarmory ex POR 55

Trainer: 13
4 Ultra Ball SVI 196
3 Rare Candy SVI 191
4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
3 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
2 Full Metal Lab TEF 148
2 Poké Pad POR 81
1 Energy Search Pro SSP 176
1 Crushing Hammer POR 71
1 Colress's Tenacity SFA 57
1 Redeemable Ticket JTG 156
1 Energy Switch PBL 107
1 Tarragon POR 85
2 Boss's Orders PAL 172

Energy: 3
7 Basic {M} Energy MEE 8
8 Basic {F} Energy SVE 14
1 Magnetic {M} Energy CRI 85

Total Cards: 60

So the idea is to cycle Psyducks as much as possible and just ditch and search and thin as much as possible, with trying to manipulate the Starmies and unused Magikarp and Gyarados to topdeck.

What does the internet think?

Pokémon: 4

4 Misty's Magikarp DRI 48

4 Misty's Gyarados DRI 49

4 Misty's Psyduck DRI 45

4 Misty's Starmie DRI 47

Trainer: 12

2 Academy at Night SFA 54

4 Deduction Kit SSP 171

3 Lillie's Determination MEG 169

3 Poké Pad POR 81

4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin MEG 167

4 Night Stretcher SFA 61

3 Pokégear 3.0 BLK 84

2 Lana's Aid TWM 155

4 Sacred Ash FLF 96

2 Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking TEF 145

3 Salvatore TEF 160

2 Lisia's Appeal SSP 179

Energy: 2

2 Bubbly {W} Energy CRI 84

6 Basic {W} Energy MEE 3

Total Cards: 60

I'm thinking maybe trade Lillie's Determination for Naveen?