A Land Down Thunder — Looking at My 1st Place Oceania Internationals Deck

By: Isaiah Williams · Posted Posted onFeb 19, 2019 at 2:56 PM · 0 Comments

Hey there PokeBeach readers! The Oceanic Internationals in Melbourne, Australia has come to a conclusion. If you did not happen to catch the stream, let me catch you up on the results: I won playing the new Team Up archetype [card name=”Zapdos” set=”Team Up” no=”40″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Jirachi” set=”Team Up” no=”99″ c=”name”][/card]! Today, I am going to give you guys a rundown of specifically how the matchups in my tournament went, talk about the general meta of the event, and share my predictions on what changes going into Collinsville Regionals. To start things off, here is the list:

[decklist name=”zapdos” amt=”60″ caption=”” cname=”Oranguru” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”113″][pokemon amt=”12″]4x [card name=”Zapdos” set=”Team Up” no=”40″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Jirachi” set=”Team Up” no=”99″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]1x [card name=”Tapu Koko-GX” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”47″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Tapu Koko Prism Star” set=”Team Up” no=”51″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Absol” set=”Team Up” no=”88″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Oranguru” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”113″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card][/pokemon][trainers amt=”40″]4x [card name=”Lillie” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”122″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Guzma” set=”Burning Shadows” no=”115″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]3x [card name=”Cynthia” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”119″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]3x [card name=”Professor Kukui” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”128″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”3″][/card]4x [card name=”Electropower” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”172″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Nest Ball” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”123″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]3x [card name=”Switch” set=”EX Ruby and Sapphire” no=”92″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]3x [card name=”Escape Rope” set=”Burning Shadows” no=”114″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]3x [card name=”Escape Board” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”122″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]2x [card name=”Choice Band” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”121″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]2x [card name=”Rescue Stretcher” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”130″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]1x [card name=”Ultra Ball” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”135″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Energy Loto” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”122″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”1″][/card]2x [card name=”Shrine of Punishment” set=”Celestial Storm” no=”143″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]1x [card name=”Thunder Mountain Prism Star” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”191″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card][/trainers][energy amt=”8″]8x [card name=”Lightning Energy” set=”Evolutions” no=”94″ c=”deck2″ amt=”8″][/card][/energy][/decklist][cardimg name=”Zapdos” set=”Team Up” no=”40″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

This was a powerful deck that had a few unique advantages going into the Oceania Internationals. Primarily, this was the deck’s first opportunity to be played in an official event. This means that the majority of players have minimal experience on how to properly maneuver against its game plan and recognize favorable board states for themselves. Secondly, the Oceania meta was full of favorable matchups for the deck.

Let’s take a detailed look at my matchups:

Tournament Overview

Day 1

  • Round 1 vs. Chuyao Zhou [AU] — [card name=”Pikachu and Zekrom-GX” set=”Team Up” no=”33″ c=”name”][/card] WW
  • Round 2 vs. Jason Chan [NZ] — Lost March WW
  • Round 3 vs. Pedro Eugenia Torres [ES] — Pikachu & Zekrom-GX WW
  • Round 4 vs. Hafizuddin Mohamad [MY] — Pikachu & Zekrom-GX WLW
  • Round 5 vs. Sam Chen [TW] — Pikachu & Zekrom-GX (on backup stream) WW
  • Round 6 vs. Jon Eng [US] — [card name=”Zoroark-GX” set=”Shining Legends” no=”53″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Lycanroc-GX” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”74″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Alolan Muk” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”58″ c=”name”][/card] (on stream) LWW
  • Round 7 vs. Preston Ellis [US] — Zoroark-GX / Lycanroc-GX / Alolan Muk LL
  • Round 8 vs. Daniel Altavilla [US] — Zapdos / Jirachi (60 card mirror) ID
  • Round 9 vs. Henry Brand [AU] — Zoroark-GX / Lycanroc-GX / Alolan Muk LL

Day 2

  • Round 10 vs. Bastian Silva [CL] — Pikachu & Zekrom-GX LWW
  • Round 11 vs. Joshua Sparks [AU] — Zapdos / [card name=”Buzzwole” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”77″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Nihilego” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”106″ c=”name”][/card] WW
  • Round 12 vs. Karl Peters [DE] — Zapdos / Buzzwole / Lycanroc-GX (on stream) WW
  • Round 13 vs. Darin O’Meara [US] — [card name=”Malamar” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”51″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Giratina” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”97″ c=”name”][/card] WW
  • Round 14 vs. Bert Wolters [NL] — Zapdos / Buzzwole / Nihilego L (Intentional Scoop)

Top Cut

  • Top 8 vs. Daniel Altavilla [US] — Zapdos / Jirachi (60 card mirror) WW
  • Top 4 vs. Jose Marrero [US] — Pikachu & Zekrom-GX WW
  • Finals Stephane Ivanoff [FR] — Zoroark-GX / Lycanroc-GX / [card name=”Lucario-GX” set=”Sun and Moon Black Star Promos” no=”SM100″ c=”name”][/card] WLW

Final record: 13-3-1

The Meta and the Deck

With the release of Team Up, two new archetypes — dare I say tier one archetypes — were born. Before the event, when the gang and I were attempting to predict the meta, we decided to put a strong emphasis on beating Zapdos and Pikachu & Zekrom-GX.

A look at my tournament matches reveals how popular and dominant these archetypes were. Over the course of the event, I played against six Pikachu & Zekrom-GX decks and five Zapdos-based decks. Naturally, my list has a very strong Pikachu & Zekrom-GX matchup and the consistency to give me the edge in the mirror match, allowing me to ultimately take the win.

On the Wednesday I arrived in Melbourne, I went to this great restaurant The Fish & Chippery with Azul Griego and Joey Ruettiger where we discussed the play. At this lunch, we concluded that because of the likely popularity of Pikachu & Zekrom-GX along with its favorable matchup against Zoroark-GX variants, we should expect a lot of Pikachu & Zekrom-GX but little Zoroark-GX. Therefore, our path to victory was to beat every deck in the meta except for Zoroark-GX. What deck can pull this off most effectively? Zapdos / Jirachi.

However, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. I was not-so pleasantly surprised to see the popularity of the Zoroark-GX / Lycanroc-GX variant at the tournament, of which I played against four! I have a lot of respect for Zoroark-GX players considering that normally I am one myself. It was cool to see the clever techs these guys included to better their shot against Pikachu & Zekrom-GX and round out their matchup spread. Most notably, fellow PokeBeach writer Stéphane Ivanoff rocked the matchup with his inclusion of Lucario-GX to OHKO the Pikachu & Zekrom-GX with Aura Strike due to its Fighting Weakness. I’m sure Stéphane will be releasing an article on it himself so I won’t go into too much detail — but I know I am excited to read through his thoughts and explanations on the deck.

The Matchups

For this section, I am going to go over the theory behind each of the five different matchups that I played against in the tournament, as well as draw on examples from my matches.

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Pikachu & Zekrom-GX 65-35

[cardimg name=”Pikachu and Zekrom-GX” set=”Team Up” no=”33″ align=”left” c=”none”][/cardimg]

[card name=”Tapu Koko-GX” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”47″ c=”name”][/card] is the star of this matchup. Pikachu & Zekrom-GX decks must get six Energy attached in order to use its Tag Bolt-GX. This GX attack is crucial for them to keep up in the Prize exchange against the single-Prize Zapdos deck. So the key to winning this matchup is to immediately begin building your hand with Jirachi’s Stellar Wish for the huge Tapu Koko-GX Aero Blitz, Tapu Thunder-GX on the opposing Pikachu & Zekrom-GX. This will give you three Prize cards and should essentially guarantee victory with one or two more turns of attacking with Zapdos. Tapu Koko Prism Star makes having enough Energy in play easy with its Ability, Dance of The Ancients. A play I often made in this matchup was to sit on a [card name=”Nest Ball” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”123″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Ultra Ball” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”135″ c=”name”][/card], and [card name=”Thunder Mountain Prism Star” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”191″ c=”name”][/card]. Once my opponent decided to get aggressive with his Pikachu & Zekrom- GX, I would simply put down Thunder Mountain, Nest Ball out the Tapu Koko Prism, and Ultra Ball 1-2 Lightning Energy away to get the Tapu Koko-GX and have the perfect board state.

[card name=”Shrine of Punishment” set=”Celestial Storm” no=”143″ c=”name”][/card] is a great card to quickly play down in this matchup due to the immense pressure it will put on your opponent’s Benched Pokemon-GX. If they let the Stadium sit for too long, it becomes easy for you to [card name=”Guzma” set=”Burning Shadows” no=”115″ c=”name”][/card] up some GX like Tapu Lele-GX and take a quick two Prize cards. This is especially bad for them since they already have to give up three Prize cards with the Pikachu & Zekrom-GX. If they decide to bump the Stadium, then in almost every case they are replacing it with either [card name=”Viridian Forest” set=”Team Up” no=”156″ c=”name”][/card] or Thunder Mountain. Both of these Stadiums help you just as much, if not more than it helps them, so it is a win-win.

Some opponents may attempt to play this matchup by mimicking you as a single-Prize attacker deck, and only using their Zapdos and Jirachi. If this happens, stay diligent in the exchange and don’t miss a KO. Your deck is much better equipped for repeatedly taking OHKOs with Zapdos with higher [card name=”Switch” set=”EX Ruby and Sapphire” no=”92″ c=”name”][/card], Guzma, [card name=”Escape Rope” set=”Burning Shadows” no=”114″ c=”name”][/card], and [card name=”Electropower” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”172″ c=”name”][/card] counts.

Zoroark-GX / Lycanroc-GX 45-55 (If [card name=”Alolan Grimer” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”57″ c=”name”][/card] and [card name=”Ditto Prism Star” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”154″ c=”name”][/card], then 20-80)

I’ll start off by explaining the game plan against the hard version of this deck in which they play both Ditto Prism and Grimer to evolve into Alolan Muk. The reason this poses as such a problem is due to your inability to kill both at the same time, meaning they will get at least one solid turn to find Muk and get it into play. Muk shuts off your Jirachi’s Stellar Wish, your [card name=”Tapu Koko Prism Star” set=”Team Up” no=”51″ c=”name”][/card]’s Dance of the Ancients, your [card name=”Oranguru” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”113″ c=”name”][/card]’s Instruct, your [card name=”Absol” set=”Team Up” no=”88″ c=”name”][/card]’s Dark Ambition, and your Tapu Koko-GX’s Aero Trail. Muk essentially removes half of the text from your deck’s Pokemon indefinitely making it almost impossible to have the cards and do the damage necessary to take six Prize cards.

The only way to combat your opponent having both Ditto and Grimer is to instead just OHKO the Muk. We can do this by ignoring everything else about the game state and doing whatever is necessary to find a hand of double Electropower and Guzma. From there, we Guzma up the Muk and kill it with the +60 damage. This makes it tremendously more difficult for our opponent to get Muk in play again especially if they do not prepare for it. Unfortunately, an opponent can counter this fairly easily by either leaving a non-evolved Ditto Prism or Grimer in play along with a Rescue Stretcher in hand. They can also [card name=”Judge” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”108″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Marshadow” set=”Shining Legends” no=”45″ c=”name”][/card]’s Let Loose your built hand away the turn they put Muk into play to make it almost impossible for you to pull of the immediate Guzma, double Electropower turn.

If your opponent does not play Grimer, then it’s a completely different story. In this situation, our goal is to immediately kill the Ditto Prism Star with a Guzma/Escape Rope at all cost. If we can pull that off, then I would even say we are favored in the matchup. In the finals against Stéphane, I was tremendously lucky to be able to open Jirachi all three games and find the immediate Guzma into Thunderous Assault on the Ditto every time. From there, the matchup is about finding cheap Prize cards wherever you can with the rest of your Electropowers, [card name=”Choice Band” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”121″ c=”name”][/card]s, Guzmas, Shrine of Punishment, and [card name=”Professor Kukui” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”128″ c=”name”][/card]. Keep in mind that Zoroark-GX variants often play two [card name=”Acerola” set=”Burning Shadows” no=”112″ c=”name”][/card] as well as a [card name=”Pal Pad” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”132″ c=”name”][/card] giving them the ability to Acerola four times in a game. So to play it safe, go for OHKOs on GXs with a lot of Shrine damage or things like [card name=”Zorua” set=”Shining Legends” no=”52″ c=”name”][/card] and [card name=”Rockruff” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”73″ c=”name”][/card] over the 2HKOs on the Active. Once you’ve done this a few times, you can end the game by using Tapu Koko-GX to OHKO their Zoroark-GX with a few of your damage modifiers or potentially take the easier route with a Tapu Thunder GX in the scenario that your opponent over-attached Energy.

Zapdos Mirror

This matchup generally goes to the player that is able to go second, which is quite peculiar in the modern era of Pokemon. The reason for this is because the deck is so well equipped to take back-to-back OHKOs on non-GX Pokemon that whoever starts the exchange first ends up taking all six Prize cards first as well.

Of course, there are a few clever tricks to giving yourself the advantage:

If you find that you are going first, make sure to get Absol down with its Dark Ambition to reduce the number of outs your opponent has to get their [card name=”Zapdos” set=”Team Up” no=”40″ c=”name”][/card] switched into the Active position.

[cardimg name=”Tapu Koko Prism Star” set=”Team Up” no=”51″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

Another neat trick is to promote either Tapu Koko Prism Star or Oranguru on your first turn given their 130 and 120 HP respectively. This means that your opponent either has to spend their turn-one Supporter using Guzma to take a Prize card, or they have to manage to find two Electropowers in their first turn. Even in situations where they do find both Electropowers on turn one, this means they only have two left, which can prove to be troublesome later on in the match after killing multiple Zapdos back to back. Your opponent may attempt to Escape Rope this higher HP Pokemon out of the Active position, but you can outplay that plan by putting both Tapu Koko Prism Star and Oranguru in play on turn one and promoting whichever one was not in the Active when they play Escape Rope. I did this in my Top 8 match against Daniel Altavilla to great effect.

If you find that you are playing against the Zapdos variants with [card name=”Buzzwole” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”77″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Nihilego” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”106″ c=”name”][/card], or sometimes even [card name=”Lycanroc-GX” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”74″ c=”name”][/card], then do not worry: these techs are for other matchups and only clunk up your opponent’s draws against you. Of course, keep in mind that they have these additional lines of play; however, they should rarely interfere with the flow of the mirror match. Keep up the KOs and make them brick against you with their clunkier list. In my round 11 match against Joshua Sparks, I realized that to fit his Buzzwole and Nihilego, he did not play any Rescue Stretcher. I took advantage of this by killing all four of his Zapdos. Even though he took the first Prize card against me, by the end of the game he was out of attackers and I won.

Lost March 70-30

The Lost March matchup plays out similarly to the Zapdos mirror match, except that it’s almost impossible for the Lost March player to take the first KO, and it is almost impossible for you to miss the first KO. If your opponent somehow manages to go second and take a KO on their first turn with a [card name=”Natu” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”87″ c=”name”][/card], then simply congratulate your opponent for drawing like an absolute god and scoop to game two because they will never pull that off again in their lifetime.

Absol can be strong in this matchup especially in the early game to deny them taking even a turn two KO against you.

The single most important thing to remember in this matchup is that Oranguru is, in fact, not [card name=”Jirachi” set=”Team Up” no=”99″ c=”name”][/card]. Round two against Jason Chan, I almost threw the game because when we were both at two Prize cards going into my turn, I accidentally promoted my Oranguru with an [card name=”Escape Board” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”122″ c=”name”][/card] attached to it, thinking it was a Jirachi the whole time. I then proceeded to attach a Lightning Energy to a Zapdos that I did not need that turn. I look at my Active to use Stellar Wish and realize that it is an Oranguru, not a Jirachi, and proceed to facepalm. I end up having to pass that turn giving my opponent the opportunity to have one Prize card left to my two. Luckily, this must have been my tournament to win because my opponent whiffed energy for KO, and I found a means of switching the following turn!

Malamar / Giratina 65-35

This matchup is similar to the Lost March matchup due to their inability to take a turn-one KO and your high capacity to do so. Malamar, however, has [card name=”Giratina” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”97″ c=”name”][/card] which is much more difficult to repeatedly OHKO than a Jumpluff.

Often, Malamar has many Pokemon on the Bench that are easy to KO — think Marshadow and [card name=”Malamar” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”51″ c=”name”][/card] — so our three [card name=”Escape Rope” set=”Burning Shadows” no=”114″ c=”name”][/card]s come in handy in this matchup. We also have three Kukui and four Electropower to brute force our way through a Giratina.

Keep in mind that your opponent can go into a [card name=”Dawn Wings Necrozma-GX” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”63″ c=”name”][/card] and use Moon’s Eclipse GX in an attempt to offset the Prize exchange. Our deck plays four Guzma and three Escape Rope so getting around this should not be a problem as long as you are keeping it in mind.

If your opponent plays [card name=”Spell Tag” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”190″ c=”name”][/card], then things can get a bit trickier since they threaten taking multi-Prize turns. Use your Guzmas and Escape Ropes effectively to avoid activating the Spell Tags for as long as possible, and, worst case scenario, take them to an easily winnable sudden death.

Edits

I’ll start off this section by telling you guys what changes I’d make to the deck as they are fairly simple:

  • -1 [card name=”Energy Loto” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”122″ c=”name”][/card]
  • -1 [card name=”Professor Kukui” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”128″ c=”name”][/card]
  • +1 [card name=”Ultra Ball” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”135″ c=”name”][/card]
  • +1 [card name=”Cynthia” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”119″ c=”name”][/card]

I feel like I played the tournament with a 59 card deck because I never played the Energy Loto to any effect. It’s not high enough in card count to reliably use Stellar Wish to acquire, so generally it just sits in the deck until its drawn and then failed so we cannot draw it again.

A second Ultra Ball, on the other hand, would have provided tremendous value and consistency. It would allow us to find Tapu Koko-GX much more easily, as well as allow us to thin our hand of useless cards on turns we want to use Oranguru’s Instruct.

The change from three Professor Kukui to four Cynthia is less obvious. It would make the deck run a bit smoother in finding the crucial Energy and Pokemon it needs in the first few turns while taking a minimal amount of damage output away from the deck. However, it may affect the Malamar or [card name=”Blacephalon-GX” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”52″ c=”name”][/card] matchup too much by preventing the normally reliable OHKOs on Giratina and [card name=”Naganadel” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”108″ c=”name”][/card].

Predicting Collinsville

[cardimg name=”Alolan Grimer” set=”Team Up” no=”83″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

I want to quickly give my thoughts about the meta going into Collinsville Regionals.

We should expect to see a lot of [card name=”Alolan Muk” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”58″ c=”name”][/card] and a lot of Zapdos. I also expect [card name=”Pikachu and Zekrom-GX” set=”Team Up” no=”33″ c=”name”][/card] variants to get even faster as the optimal list is figured out. This leads me to believe that some variation of Stéphane’s list with an [card name=”Alolan Grimer” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”57″ c=”name”][/card] included will perform well. If someone can figure out a consistent way for Zapdos to deal with Muk, then they will win the event guaranteed.

At the end of the day, make sure to have a deck that can keep up with Zapdos, does not get completely swept by a quick Tag Bolt GX, and can operate decently without basic Abilities.

Conclusion

That is all I have for you guys today!

I want to thank all of you so much for all the support you have given me throughout my Pokemon journey. I have worked really hard in this game and try every day to improve. It’s such a wonderful feeling to finally have evidence of all that hard work with this victory, and it is a feeling like no other to see all the support and love you guys are sending my way in celebration of that victory. This community is amazing and I love all of you. Thank you helping me be the best me I can be.

Also, I want to give a shoutout to gang for being the best testing group that’s ever existed. You guys are both my colleagues and my best friends, and Gertie loves each of you equally. Shout out to Carter Musgrove for being the best roommate and testing partner/world traveling partner I’ll ever have. Here’s to many more years of eating insanely good food all over the world. Shoutout to my mom, dad, and little sister Maria for not only supporting me in playing this game, but also push me to get better every day. Shoutout to Stéphane Ivanoff for playing me in such a great finals match — it is an honor to play against you at a high level. And, of course, shoutout to my Uncle Ben.

If you guys have any more questions/comments about the deck, please ask in the comments and I’ll be sure to discuss to the best of my ability.

Until next time PokeBeach readers, good luck at Collinsville Regionals!

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