Revisión De Regionales — Applying MX to NAIC

By: Caleb Gedemer · Posted Posted onJul 2, 2018 at 9:11 PM · 0 Comments

¡Hola PokeBeach! I just took the longest trip of my life to Mexico. I enjoyed myself and learned much about the state of the Standard metagame. As I’m sure you know, no more Expanded events remain this season and the new set, Celestial Storm, becomes legal for the World Championships. And while I look forward to dabbling into the Worlds format in upcoming months I’d advise focusing on the current Standard. I’m still zoned into our [card name=”Buzzwole” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”77″ c=”name”][/card]-dominated Standard for now and want this article to serve as a guide to the North American Internationals: the pinnacle of competition of the season and a breaking point for many invitations and leaderboard placements.

Buzzwole still dominates. The raw power of Fighting Pokemon demolishes [card name=”Zoroark-GX” set=”Shining Legends” no=”53″ c=”name”][/card] decks and gives Buzzwole a good chance of winning any matchup. Many Buzzwole decks returned to running two [card name=”Lycanroc-GX” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”74″ c=”name”][/card], resulting in a closer Malamar matchup. Buzzwole’s ability to win in spite of Weakness truly highlights its strength as a deck.

With the conclusion of the last Regional Championship of the 2017-2018 season, let’s look at the complete results. I’ve taken the liberty of listing each player and deck below:

Mexico Results

  • 1 — Eder Jarillo Soto with Zoroark-GX / [card name=”Golisopod-GX” set=”Burning Shadows” no=”17″ c=”name”][/card]
  • 2 — Christopher Schemanske with [card name=”Buzzwole-GX” set=”Crimson Invasion” no=”57″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Garbodor” set=”BREAKpoint” no=”57″ c=”name”][/card]
  • 3 — Alex Schemanske with [card name=”Zygarde-GX” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”73″ c=”name”][/card] / Lycanroc-GX
  • 4 — Fernando Castaneda Perez with [card name=”Malamar” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”51″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Hoopa” set=”XY Black Star Promos” no=”XY147″ c=”name”][/card]
  • 5 — Angel Loya with Buzzwole-GX / Garbodor
  • 6 — Michael Pramawat with Buzzwole / Lycanroc-GX
  • 7 — Aaron Rozbicki with Buzzwole / Lycanroc-GX
  • 8 — Jimmy Pendarvis with Buzzwole / Lycanroc-GX
  • 9 — Zach Lesage with Buzzwole / Lycanroc-GX
  • 10 — Jonathan Enrique Olguin Suarez with Buzzwole-GX / Garbodor
  • 11 — Daniel Altavilla with Buzzwole / Lycanroc-GX
  • 12 — Juan Espinola Ortega with Zoroark-GX / Lycanroc-GX
  • 13 — Pablo Meza with Zoroark-GX / Golisopod-GX
  • 14 — Angel De Jesus Gonzalez Ruiz with Buzzwole / Lycanroc-GX
  • 15 — Mario Lopez Cantu with Zoroark-GX / Lycanroc-GX
  • 16 — Igor Costa with Buzzwole / Lycanroc-GX
  • 17 — Ray Fernandez with Malamar / [card name=”Ultra Necrozma-GX” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”95″ c=”name”][/card]
  • 18 — Hanzell Ivan Caballero Gutierrez with Zoroark-GX / Golisopod-GX
  • 19 — Samuel Fontanez with [card name=”Magnezone” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”83″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Dusk Mane Necrozma-GX” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”90″ c=”name”][/card]
  • 20 — Azul Garcia Griego with Buzzwole / Lycanroc-GX
  • 21 — Hector Emmanuel Meza Garibay with Buzzwole / Lycanroc-GX
  • 22 — Miguel Segura with Buzzwole / Lycanroc-GX
  • 23 — Luis Alonso Corrales Salgado with Zoroark-GX / [card name=”Lucario-GX” set=”Sun and Moon Black Star Promos” no=”SM100″ c=”name”][/card]
  • 24 — Christian Cruz Esquivel with Buzzwole / Lycanroc-GX
  • 25 — Victor de Velasco with Malamar / Ultra Necrozma-GX
  • 26 — Marco Antonio Gomez Sanchez with Zoroark-GX / Lycanroc-GX
  • 27 — Drew Allen with [card name=”Dawn Wings Necrozma-GX” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”63″ c=”name”][/card] / Garbodor
  • 28 — Byron Isaiah Williams with Buzzwole / Lycanroc-GX
  • 29 — Jose Juarez Gonzalez with Zoroark-GX / Lycanroc-GX
  • 30 — David Rufino Arreguin with [card name=”Lapras-GX” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”35″ c=”name”][/card]
  • 31 — Lance Bradshaw with Buzzwole / Lycanroc-GX
  • 32 — Dante Moreno with Zoroark-GX / Lycanroc-GX

Breaking these results down to numbers and percents provides:

  • 13 Buzzwole / Lycanroc-GX @ 40.625%
  • 5 Zoroark-GX / Lycanroc-GX @ 15.625%
  • 3 Zoroark-GX / Golisopod-GX @ 9.375%
  • 3 Buzzwole-GX / Garbodor @ 9.375%
  • 2 Malamar / Ultra Necrozma-GX @ 6.25%
  • 1 Zygarde-GX / Lycanroc-GX @ 3.125%
  • 1 Zoroark-GX / Lucario-GX @ 3.125%
  • 1 Malamar / Hoopa @ 3.125%
  • 1 Magnezone / Dusk Mane Necrozma-GX @ 3.125%
  • 1 Lapras-GX @ 3.125%
  • 1 Dawn Wings Necrozma-GX / Garbodor @ 3.125%

Reflecting on Mexico

I played in this event and finished poorly, losing the last two rounds to end 4-4-1, making it one of my worst Regionals finishes of the season. The deck itself performed well and many of my testing partners made day two. The top cut numbers seem to indicate Buzzwole’s strength. In comparison, only three Malamar variants moved onto day two. Malamar is a bad deck by my estimation and the results show that. But even so, players don’t seem to learn and continue to play it. When large populations play a certain deck then it will yield results regardless of the deck. Malamar provides curb appeal to the masses, making it a popular choice for many players.

Where does this take us? Buzzwole-GX / Garbodor is on the rise. If Buzzwole is still the best deck and Malamar isn’t giving it as hard of a time as it “should”, what can we even do to stop this menace? How is Zoroark-GX winning events, still? What’s with these random decks topping tournaments? Let’s get it.

Format Commentary

[cardimg name=”Buzzwole” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”77″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

Buzzwole is unstoppable. It bricks sometimes and can lose those games, but tends to overpower the others. Single-Prize Malamar stands the best chance of beating it, so most lists moved back towards playing a 2-2 Lycanroc-GX line. This improves the deck in general and the Malamar matchup in particular since Malamar can whiff a Knock Out on Lycanroc, allowing it to take multiple Knock Outs. The deck beats Zoroark-GX easily with four Buzzwole; Zoroark-GX can barely deal with one or two, let alone four… But Zoroark can stall a Buzzwole player by taking down [card name=”Octillery” set=”BREAKthrough” no=”33″ c=”name”][/card] and hitting an opponent with [card name=”N” set=”Noble Victories” no=”101″ c=”name”][/card]. And while Buzzwole can struggle to draw what it needs, it doesn’t always need much to win games. Often times you can make due with just an Energy and a [card name=”Guzma” set=”Burning Shadows” no=”143″ c=”name”][/card].

Buzzwole is hands down the best deck going into the North American International Championship and likely my deck of choice. The “worst” thing about Buzzwole is its oppressive nature. No quick counter package exists for Buzzwole. Improving a Buzzwole matchup usually involves five or more deck slots that can seriously hurt your consistency and might not even win you the matchup consistently. It is the deck to play, plain and simple. I will brush up on some of the most recent changes to the deck in a little bit and talk about how I play the deck right now. Blatant foreshadowing: four baby Buzzwole is incredible.

Zoroark-GX won some recent events. “But how is this possible if Buzzwole is so dominant?” you may ask. I think the best, and only, answer is variance. Lists haven’t changed much all the way since the Latin American International Championship where Buzzwole-GX won the event without the baby Buzzwole. Zoroark-GX provides better consistency in the long run than a Buzzwole deck and for that reason it can come out on top more often than not in the last few rounds of tournaments. Zoroark-GX also takes a positive matchup against the ever popular Malamar archetype. If you can pilot yourself to beat up on those inferior decks and maybe go just 50-50 with Buzzwole decks then you’ve made day two and you’ll be in contention for Top 8. Consistency wins tournaments, and again, while Buzzwole possesses a high power ceiling, it can struggle getting to compete in games where it fails to execute its strategy.

At its core this format can be luck-based, where one player just runs hotter than the other. Obviously, it still takes a lot of skill to get to that point and when both players run well it can very much be an intellectual battle. As you can see just from this Mexico cut, even Magnezone made day two. That should almost never happen, but that player probably ran hot and put himself in a position where he could win games. I wouldn’t buy into that strategy; and pick from one of the best decks, Buzzwole, Malamar, or Zoroark-GX.

[card name=”Greninja BREAK” set=”BREAKpoint” no=”41″ c=”name”][/card] died in the past weeks because of the rise of [card name=”Giratina” set=”XY Black Star Promos” no=”XY184″ c=”name”][/card] in almost every Malamar deck — it’s become a staple — and because Buzzwole decks can beat it at least half of the time which defeats much of the reason to play the deck in the first place.

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Fixing Frustrations

The triangle is annoying, the randomness is annoying… You can mitigate it all by picking a deck and sticking with it. I’ve deviated from that strategy many times as of late, but the power level of Buzzwole saved me almost every time. [card name=”Buzzwole” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”77″ c=”name”][/card] is my choice for this tournament as of now and I plan to just grind it as much as possible to improve my chances of beating any and every matchup I faced simply because I can play my cards better than my opponent on average.

A great “call” might not exist in this metagame since I expect other players to make volatile deck choices. Malamar might have a ton of lovers one day and then get countered the next. I think deck popularity will rank Buzzwole, [card name=”Malamar” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”51″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Zoroark-GX” set=”Shining Legends” no=”53″ c=”name”][/card] in that order. Beyond that, stragglers follow, but in low numbers. We might see [card name=”Zygarde-GX” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”73″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Lycanroc-GX” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”74″ c=”name”][/card] pick up some steam after Alex Schemanske took it to a Top 4 finish in Mexico, but that seems unlikely since even Schemanske disliked the deck. Not to discredit his finish, but he did face, I believe, 10 Zoroark-GX decks…

But don’t get irritated if you practice with a deck one hundred times only to get a bad result. Pick one deck (hopefully Buzzwole), and grind it out against everything. Even if you face bad matchups, you’ll still have a leg up over the average Joe that picks up Malamar at the last second. I like to say that Pokemon can be a game of luck, but you need skill to “get to that point”. Bad players that don’t playtest just won’t make it to the point where luck matters.

Blah, Buzzwole Talk

Trash Flies

[cardimg name=”Garbodor” set=”BREAKpoint” no=”57″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

I find [card name=”Buzzwole-GX” set=”Crimson Invasion” no=”57″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Garbodor” set=”BREAKpoint” no=”57″ c=”name”][/card] interesting. In my eyes, the [card name=”Counter Catcher” set=”Crimson Invasion” no=”120″ c=”name”][/card] from Christopher Schemanske’s list breathed new life into the archetype, but not without some skepticism. The deck needs to hit [card name=”Beast Ring” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”141″ c=”name”][/card] on pivotal turns and provides little comeback potential when your opponent takes two Pokemon-EX/GX Knock Outs quickly. The deck also doesn’t pressure well on turns where you just manually attach Energy. The deck relies too heavily on Beast Ring, so you better hope you hit them when you need them! [card name=”Order Pad” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”131″ c=”name”][/card] simply provides more outs to Beast Ring; don’t think of it as a gimmick. Field Blower can ruin this deck against Malamar, making it more fragile than Buzzwole / Lycanroc-GX.

More… Baby Buzzwole

The four count is insane and you want to play it. The mirror matchup becomes lopsided one player runs four and the other does not. You can just poke and hit for one-hit Knock Outs.

I’ve recently dropped [card name=”Regirock-EX” set=”Fates Collide” no=”43″ c=”name”][/card] to make room for another, but I’ve missed it a bit. It’s nice to have lots of options and I considered Regirock-EX a nice one to have, particularly for Swing Around. In mirror matches where Swing Around is big, Regirock can hit an opposing Buzzwole for 130 exactly with [card name=”Diancie Prism Star” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”74″ c=”name”][/card] and Regirock-EX in play along with a [card name=”Strong Energy” set=”Fates Collide” no=”115″ c=”name”][/card] attached. Going to that 130 number matters in many situations, and you can even shore up your damage against a Buzzwole-GX with the following scenario: Swing Around, Diancie Prism Star, Regirock-EX, Choice Band, [card name=”Beast Energy Prism Star” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”117″ c=”name”][/card], and a Strong Energy for 190. Obviously things like the aforementioned combination can still happen with a single heads flip or another Strong Energy instead of the Beast Energy Prism Star.

Dos Lycanroc-GX

I already touched on this topic slightly, but a 2-2 line of Lycanroc-GX helps the Malamar matchup immensely. But even ignoring Malamar, Lycanroc-GX improves virtually every matchup and strengthens the deck in general. A well timed Bloodthirsty Eyes can cripple any strategy right now.

I currently favor Lycanroc-GX over [card name=”Octillery” set=”BREAKthrough” no=”33″ c=”name”][/card] since most decks try to knock it out immediately. Whereas the pressure you put on with Lycanroc-GX felt more valuable in my experience. You could opt to run two of both [card name=”Remoraid” set=”BREAKthrough” no=”31″ c=”name”][/card] and [card name=”Rockruff” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”75″ c=”name”][/card] along with just a single copy of both of the Stage 1 Pokemon, but I prefer the second Lycanroc-GX and just a bare-bones thin line of Octillery. Here’s my current list:

[decklist name=”Buzzwole / Lycanroc-GX” amt=”60″ caption=”The Four Fistketeers” cname=”Tapu Lele-GX” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”60″][pokemon amt=”14″]4x [card name=”Buzzwole” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”77″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]1x [card name=”Buzzwole-GX” set=”Crimson Invasion” no=”57″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]2x [card name=”Lycanroc-GX” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”74″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]2x [card name=”Rockruff” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”75″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]1x [card name=”Octillery” set=”BREAKthrough” no=”33″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Remoraid” set=”BREAKthrough” no=”32″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Diancie Prism Star” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”74″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Regirock-EX” set=”Fates Collide” no=”43″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Tapu Lele-GX” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”60″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card][/pokemon][trainers amt=”32″]4x [card name=”Professor Sycamore” set=”Steam Siege” no=”114″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Guzma” set=”Burning Shadows” no=”143″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]3x [card name=”N” set=”Noble Victories” no=”101″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]2x [card name=”Cynthia” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”148″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”2″][/card]4x [card name=”Ultra Ball” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”161″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]3x [card name=”Max Elixir” set=”BREAKpoint” no=”102″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]3x [card name=”Beast Ring” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”141″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]3x [card name=”Choice Band” set=”Burning Shadows” no=”162″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]2x [card name=”Float Stone” set=”BREAKthrough” no=”137″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]1x [card name=”Super Rod” set=”BREAKthrough” no=”149″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”1″][/card]3x [card name=”Brooklet Hill” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”120″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card][/trainers][energy amt=”14″]9x [card name=”Fighting Energy” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”169″ c=”deck2″ amt=”9″][/card]4x [card name=”Strong Energy” set=”Fates Collide” no=”115″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]1x [card name=”Beast Energy Prism Star” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”117″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card][/energy][/decklist]

Supporter Talk

[cardimg name=”Cynthia” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”148″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

Another draw Supporter, namely [card name=”Cynthia” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”148″ c=”name”][/card], improves your late game without Octillery if it gets Knocked Out. I don’t consider this necessary by any means but it improves the deck, plain and simple. Another copy of Cynthia also helps when you don’t want to [card name=”N” set=”Fates Collide” no=”105″ c=”name”][/card] your opponent (usually in the early game) and smooths things over immediately as well.

I also like to favor N these days to improve your worst matchup: Malamar. N to low numbers in the late game can always steal games but becomes particularly powerful when your deck can load up numerous attackers to threaten a checkmate scenario.

Skimping for Space

Two [card name=”Float Stone” set=”BREAKthrough” no=”137″ c=”name”][/card] performed acceptably in all the games I’ve played. It will occasionally hurt you in the early game but the deck aims to start with Buzzwole so often that it becomes less important. Guzma also happens often in the early game so a lower Float Stone count does not hurt you very often. Three Float Stone is a consistency measure but not a necessary one for this deck since you have so many good starters.

I also cut a fourth [card name=”Max Elixir” set=”BREAKpoint” no=”102″ c=”name”][/card] to make space, but I view this deck more as a Buzzwole and Lycanroc-GX deck now, and you’re really only going to “need” those Max Elixir drops for your Rockruff. After playing this four baby Buzzwole list I might even opt to go for four Beast Ring instead of a fourth Max Elixir going forward.

Energy Count

You no longer value optimizing your deck for maximum Max Elixir odds. Now you’re looking to poke for as much damage as possible with baby Buzzwole and then clean things up with Lycanroc-GX and use Buzzwole-GX as necessary in between or at the tail end. Having five damage-modifying Energy helps this process out a ton and becomes obviously optimal once you play this deck a little bit and realize how it works. You have four menacing non-EX/GX attackers that pack a punch and that’s about all you need.

Field Blower?

Randomly, I’d like to mention the viability of [card name=”Field Blower” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”125″ c=”name”][/card] in this deck. It’s something to consider now if you want to your Buzzwole-GX / Garbodor matchup. I could see skimping down to two [card name=”Brooklet Hill” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”120″ c=”name”][/card] to find space.

Picking from the Best

If you don’t like Buzzwole / Lycanroc-GX, I suggest you play Buzzwole-GX / Garbodor. It’s another strong pairing with a decent chance against Malamar. If you simply want to hard-counter the metagame, I’d suggest exploring Malamar with a high count of [card name=”Marshadow-GX” set=”Sun and Moon Black Star Promos” no=”SM59″ c=”name”][/card]. My friend Cory Koehler suggested this idea in passing and it’s something to test if you want to give yourself a decent Zoroark-GX matchup while retaining the allures to Malamar: beating Buzzwole (which now requires non-EX/GX Pokemon). Zoroark-GX seems like the worst of all the decks you could possibly play, so I would avoid it unless you’re obsessed with it like I have been from time to time this season.

Adiós

Alright all, I’m gonna head off. Buzzwole is broken, you should play it. This format is well defined overall, and there aren’t any secrets to crack anymore from what I’ve gathered. We may see some unsuccessful rogues pop up in Ohio, but I wouldn’t expect any to make a deep run. I’m serious though, I really think Buzzwole is the best deck and absolutely, positively the best play for this event even still. If you choose to hard-counter [card name=”Buzzwole” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”77″ c=”name”][/card] then you accept bad matchups to other popular decks ([card name=”Zoroark-GX” set=”Shining Legends” no=”53″ c=”name”][/card] in most cases). Beating the best deck isn’t always enough and since Buzzwole gives you the best chance to beat anything it just has that appeal I’m looking for in a play for a major tournament.

Take care and good luck!

~Caleb

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