Showdown in Sheffield — First Regionals Takeaway

The first European Regionals of the season (and biggest European regionals ever!), which also happened to be the first major event with Hidden Fates legal, took place last weekend in Sheffield, UK. This is a good time to reflect on the metagame, especially since players from all over the world are preparing for major events at the end of September: Regional Championships in Atlantic City, NJ, and Cologne, Germany, and a Special Event in Campinas, Brazil, will all take place on the 28th and 29th of September.

So what can we take away from Sheffield Regionals? For good or for bad, the metagame wasn’t particularly shaken up, either by Hidden Fates or by some new discovery. No secret deck was revealed that changes the way we look at the game. That doesn’t mean that there’s nothing to take note of, though. In this article, I’ll take a close look at the results in order to get a better picture of the metagame.

First, let’s look at some statistics. Unfortunately, we don’t know the repartition of decks in the general event, but we do know which decks made Day 2:

[cardimg name=”Reshiram and Charizard-GX” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”20″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

• 14 Ability [card name=”Reshiram and Charizard-GX” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”20″ c=”name”][/card]
• 8 [card name=”Pikachu and Zekrom-GX” set=”Team Up” no=”33″ c=”name”][/card]
• 8 [card name=”Mewtwo and Mew-GX” set=”Unified Minds” no=”71″ c=”name”][/card]
• 6 [card name=”Malamar” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”51″ c=”name”][/card] (most of them the Pure Psychic variant, but at least one was [card name=”Ultra Necrozma-GX” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”95″ c=”name”][/card])
• 4 [card name=”Blacephalon-GX” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”52″ c=”name”][/card] (4 with [card name=”Naganadel” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”108″ c=”name”][/card], 1 with [card name=”Green’s Exploration” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”175″ c=”name”][/card])
• 4 Green’s Reshiram & Charizard-GX
• 3 [card name=”Gardevoir and Sylveon-GX” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”130″ c=”name”][/card]
• 3 [card name=”Pidgeotto” set=”Team Up” no=”123″ c=”name”][/card] Control
• 1 [card name=”Keldeo-GX” set=”Unified Minds” no=”47″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Bronzong” set=”Team Up” no=”101″ c=”name”][/card] Stall
• 1 [card name=”Shedinja” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”95″ c=”name”][/card]
• 1 [card name=”Quagsire” set=”Dragon Majesty” no=”26″ c=”name”][/card] / Naganadel
• 1 Dark Box
• 1 [card name=”Blacephalon” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”32″ c=”name”][/card]

And the Top 8 was:

1. David Ferreira, Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX
2. Logan Madden, Pikachu & Zekrom-GX
3. Fabien Pujol, Pidgeotto Control
4. Martin Guilbert, Blacephalon-GX / Naganadel
5. Gustavo Wada, Ability Reshiram & Charizard-GX
6. Robin Schulz, Ability Reshiram & Charizard-GX
7. Jack Culkin, Green’s Reshiram & Charizard-GX
8. Bryan de Vries, Pikachu & Zekrom-GX

As you can see, there’s nothing in there that’s too out of the ordinary. All the decks in the Top 8 were already known to be good, and there was no outlandish tech. That said, you probably wouldn’t have predicted that Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX would win this event; I certainly didn’t! You might also be surprised by the lack of Mewtwo & Mew-GX or Malamar in the top cut. Let’s dig deeper.

Gardeon Wins

Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX was the surprise deck of Day 1 of Worlds, but it has been on a downward trend since then. It barely missed the Top 8 of Worlds, but it didn’t shine much in League Cups. The reason for it is simple: it has a terrible Reshiram & Charizard-GX matchup (mainly the Ability version, but the Green’s version is also unfavorable). ReshiZard has several ways to OHKO a Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX and none of the defensive cards Gardeon can use (except [card name=”Choice Helmet” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”169″ c=”name”][/card] and [card name=”Wondrous Labyrinth Prism Star” set=”Team Up” no=”158″ c=”name”][/card], which are the weakest) are of any help against it. Since Ability ReshiZard was the most expected deck, Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX was a risky play for the event. While we don’t know for sure, my impression as a player was that Ability ReshiZard was indeed the most played deck.

How did David Ferreira beat it? Simple: he did not! He ended the event with a 13-2-2 record, and all his ties and losses were to Ability ReshiZard (one of them an ID). He did manage to beat a Green’s Exploration variant, though. Steven Mao, who made Top 16 with Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX, has a similar story: he dodged Ability ReshiZard throughout Day 1, although he took a couple of losses to Pikachu & Zekrom-GX. In Day 2, however, he faced two Ability ReshiZard decks and went 0-1-1 against them, preventing him from reaching Top 8.

So why did these players perform so well with a deck that took a loss to the most popular deck in the format? I’m sure some would call that luck. Of course, luck is always a part of any successful run at a Pokemon tournament, but focusing on that element doesn’t teach us anything, and would give us a flawed understanding of what happened. Let’s look at David Ferreira’s list.

[decklist name=”Ferreira Gardeon” amt=”60″ caption=”” cname=”Gardevoir and Sylveon-GX” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”130″][pokemon amt=”5″]4x [card name=”Gardevoir and Sylveon-GX” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”130″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]1x [card name=”Xerneas-GX” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”90″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card][/pokemon][trainers amt=”46″]4x [card name=”Green’s Exploration” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”175″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Coach Trainer” set=”Unified Minds” no=”192″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]1x [card name=”Bill’s Analysis” set=”Team Up” no=”133″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”1″][/card]4x [card name=”Pokegear 3.0″ set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”182″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Custom Catcher” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”171″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Switch” set=”HeartGold and SoulSilver” no=”102″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]3x [card name=”Cherish Ball” set=”Unified Minds” no=”191″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]3x [card name=”Great Potion” set=”Unified Minds” no=”198″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]2x [card name=”Tag Switch” set=”Unified Minds” no=”209″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]2x [card name=”Reset Stamp” set=”Unified Minds” no=”206″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]2x [card name=”Energy Spinner” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”170″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]2x [card name=”Fairy Charm L” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”172″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]2x [card name=”Fairy Charm UB” set=”Team Up” no=”142″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]2x [card name=”Fairy Charm P” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”175″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]1x [card name=”Choice Helmet” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”169″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Adventure Bag” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”167″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”1″][/card]4x [card name=”Power Plant” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”183″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]1x [card name=”Wondrous Labyrinth Prism Star” set=”Team Up” no=”158″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”1″][/card][/trainers][energy amt=”9″]9x [card name=”Fairy Energy” set=”XY” no=”140″ c=”deck2″ amt=”9″][/card][/energy][/decklist] 

[cardimg name=”Fairy Charm L” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”172″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

What struck me when I saw it was that, although he took a loss to Ability Reshiram & Charizard-GX, he made up for that by improving his matchups elswhere. He decided to include two copies of each of [card name=”Fairy Charm L” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”172″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Fairy Charm P” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”175″ c=”name”][/card] and [card name=”Fairy Charm UB” set=”Team Up” no=”142″ c=”name”][/card], which meant that Pikachu & Zekrom-GX, Mewtwo & Mew-GX and Blacephalon-GX / Naganadel, respectively, were all pretty favorable matchups. An [card name=”Adventure Bag” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”167″ c=”name”][/card] also let him search for both copies of whatever Tool he needed in any matchup. To make space for that, David cut some Supporters and a [card name=”Cherish Ball” set=”Unified Minds” no=”191″ c=”name”][/card].

Due to a decklist error, David had to play rounds 12 and 13, as well as top cut, with his [card name=”Custom Catcher” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”171″ c=”name”][/card] replaced by Fairy Energy. It’s impressive that this didn’t stop him from winning! I believe that his opponents were not aware of that, though — I know at least that his Top 8 and Top 4 opponents didn’t know about the lack of Custom Catcher going into their matches — so they would still play as if he had them. Gardeon is also a deck that can win by sole virtue of locking the opponent out of the game thanks to Fairy Charms, so the lack of Custom Catcher wasn’t as devastating as it would have been in, say, PikaRom.

Steven Mao’s list was quite similar to the list I wrote about in my Gardeon article. Unlike David, he only played one copy of each Fairy Charm, but he also had [card name=”Wait and See Hammer” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”192″ c=”name”][/card], which allowed him to delay Double Blaze GX by one turn if he could get it out on turn 1. This addition can give a Gardeon player more time to outplay their opponent, although it’s still definitely an unfavorable matchup.

If Gardeon can win an event even when its worst matchup is the most played deck, does that make it a tier 1 deck? Yes and no. I think the deck might have been overlooked too much by players, myself included. However, we must also recognize that outside of ReshiZard, Gardeon had a pretty strong matchup spread and, most importantly, benefited from the way the meta was evolving. For example, after Kaiwen Cabbabe’s win at the Melbourne Open with a PikaRom list that included [card name=”Power Plant” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”183″ c=”name”][/card], many PikaRom players switched from Lysandre Labs to Power Plant. That change benefited Gardeon hugely, since the Power Plant lists had no way to deal with Fairy Charm L. Similarly, we also saw a rise in Malamar and Quagsire / Naganadel decks, which are both fine matchups for Gardeon. Following Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX’s win in Sheffield, I would assume that people will be getting ready to face it, with PikaRom players in particular keeping Lysandre Labs in their decks. Therefore, Gardeon will be a worse play for the coming weeks and I would not recommend playing it at your next League Cup, unless, for some reason, your local meta is devoid of Reshiram & Charizard-GX.

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Ability ReshiZard is Everywhere

As I mentioned, Ability Reshiram & Charizard-GX was the most popular deck in Day 2, and probably in Day 1 as well. While it did reach Top 8, it didn’t go further. In addition, its Day 2 results were pretty average. What happened there, and what does it mean for the deck?

It’s clear that if there was one deck that people expected, it was this one. This means that the average ReshiZard player, who picked it because it was strong and learned it without mastering it completely, would have to face opponents which were more prepared than expected, and who may have played techs that they didn’t plan for. This would leave them with an average record. To look at it another way, take a look at which players did the best with the deck: the two who reached Top 8 were Gustavo Wada and Robin Schulz, both legendary players who invest a lot of time in the game, and who made several modifications to the typical ReshiZard list. In addition, Tord Reklev made Top 16 with the same list as Robin. To me, this suggests that the deck has a higher skill cap than one might expect.

Robin’s list, also played by Tord Reklev and other members of Limitless and friends, was pretty different from the way the deck has been played since Worlds.

[decklist name=”Schulz AbilityZard” amt=”60″ caption=”” cname=”Reshiram and Charizard-GX” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”20″][pokemon amt=”18″]2x [card name=”Reshiram and Charizard-GX” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”20″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]4x [card name=”Jirachi” set=”Team Up” no=”99″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]2x [card name=”Ninetales” set=”Team Up” no=”16″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]3x [card name=”Vulpix” set=”Team Up” no=”15″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]3x [card name=”Dedenne-GX” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”57″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]1x [card name=”Heatran-GX” set=”Unified Minds” no=”25″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Victini Prism Star” set=”Dragon Majesty” no=”7″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Turtonator” set=”Dragon Majesty” no=”50″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Blacephalon” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”32″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card][/pokemon][trainers amt=”29″]4x [card name=”Welder” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”189″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Cherish Ball” set=”Unified Minds” no=”191″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Pokemon Communication” set=”Team Up” no=”152″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Switch” set=”HeartGold and SoulSilver” no=”102″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Fire Crystal” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”173″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]2x [card name=”Escape Board” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”122″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]1x [card name=”Fiery Flint” set=”Dragon Majesty” no=”60″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Reset Stamp” set=”Unified Minds” no=”206″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Pal Pad” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”132″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”1″][/card]3x [card name=”Giant Hearth” set=”Unified Minds” no=”197″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]1x [card name=”Heat Factory Prism Star” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”178″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”1″][/card][/trainers][energy amt=”13″]13x [card name=”Fire Energy” set=”Call of Legends” no=”89″ c=”deck2″ amt=”13″][/card][/energy][/decklist] 

Instead of playing 18 Fire Energy to use [card name=”Victini Prism Star” set=”Dragon Majesty” no=”7″ c=”name”][/card] as a late-game finisher, it played less Energy but also included 4 [card name=”Fire Crystal” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”173″ c=”name”][/card] and a Fiery Flint, and used baby Blacephalon to fill Victini’s role. (Victini Prism Star was still included, but it deals more with medium-sized Pokemon such as [card name=”Dedenne-GX” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”57″ c=”name”][/card] than Tag Team Pokemon.) I believe that this change was due to the growing popularity of [card name=”Wobbuffet” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”93″ c=”name”][/card] as a tech: Victini Prism Star wasn’t reliable anymore so, rather than tech in a [card name=”Stealthy Hood” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”186″ c=”name”][/card], Robin and his team decided to focus on another attacker instead.

Gustavo Wada hasn’t disclosed his own list, but from what I’ve heard and the few I’ve seen, it looked mostly like a classic list, with two notable additions: [card name=”Hoopa” set=”Unified Minds” no=”140″ c=”name”][/card] and [card name=”Mewtwo” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”75″ c=”name”][/card]. Hoopa is simply a strong card to KO Pokemon such as [card name=”Giratina” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”97″ c=”name”][/card], Malamar, [card name=”Jirachi” set=”Team Up” no=”99″ c=”name”][/card] and others, while also dealing good damage against Pikachu & Zekrom-GX, Mewtwo & Mew-GX or even Keldeo-GX decks. Mewtwo was included as a way to get [card name=”Welder” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”189″ c=”name”][/card] back. By putting it on top of the deck, you can then immediately find it with [card name=”Acro Bike” set=”Celestial Storm” no=”123″ c=”name”][/card] or Stellar Wish.

Robin ended up losing to Logan Madden’s Pikachu & Zekrom-GX deck that included 4 [card name=”Judge” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”108″ c=”name”][/card]. That matchup seems harder for the new list, as an early Judge has better odds of giving the ReshiZard player a dead hand if he’s playing Fire Crystal instead of Fire Energy. Gustavo Wada fell to Martin Guilbert’s Blacephalon-GX: without [card name=”Tapu Fini” set=”Unified Minds” no=”53″ c=”name”][/card], this matchup generally plays out in favor of the big clown.

In the weeks to come, I expect some players to try out the Fire Crystal list, especially since Wobbuffet should still be popular enough. That said, by the end of the month, it’s possible that Wobbuffet is no longer popular and the right call is to go back to a list with 18 Fire Energy, which has a stronger early game.

Prepare For Trouble?

[cardimg name=”Jessie and James” set=”Hidden Fates” no=”58″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

We knew that Hidden Fates wouldn’t change the metagame any more than Dragon Majesty did last season. That said, even with low expectations, the mini-set’s impact was still disappointing. [card name=”Jessie and James” set=”Hidden Fates” no=”58″ c=”name”][/card], the set’s most hyped card, fell flat. Stall decks did not have a significant resurgence: Alessandro Cremascoli, one of Europe’s Stall masters, did play Shedinja with Jessie & James, but couldn’t reach Top 32 with it. Pidgeotto Control was by far the most successful archetype among Stall decks, as Fabien Pujol used it to reach Top 4. However, he didn’t include Jessie & James. Instead, he even found space for a third [card name=”Mars” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”128″ c=”name”][/card]! This is a clear indication that he didn’t think the card was optimal in the deck.

Fabien’s list wasn’t otherwise particularly different from the one premiered at Worlds, so if you’re looking for more information about the deck, I recommend reading Caleb Gedemer’s article about it.

Apart from Jessie & James (and the [card name=”Pokémon Center Lady” set=”Hidden Fates” no=”64″ c=”name”][/card] reprint, which might still see play at some point), the most interesting card from Hidden Fates was [card name=”Charizard-GX” set=”Hidden Fates” no=”9″ c=”name”][/card]. Not interesting from a design perspective, of course, since it’s the most boring, vanilla card imaginable, but 300 damage for four Energy is still completely broken in Mewtwo & Mew-GX. Every Mewthree deck I’ve seen this weekend included it, for good reason. The deck didn’t make Top 8, but Sen Caubergh bubbled with it at 9th place, and the deck had a couple more appearances in Top 16. The lists that were made public are pretty close to the original Perfection list, so there’s not much to comment on. Mewtwo & Mew-GX is still a reliable deck!

The Malamar Experience

My own choice of deck at Sheffield regionals was Malamar. I felt like the deck would be a strong meta call for several reasons. First of all, it was rising in popularity in Cups, especially in the United States, but hadn’t made too much of an impact in Europe from what I could see. Therefore, players might not be as prepared for it as there were for the more popular Tag Team decks. Second, Malamar took decent to good matchups to many expected decks, including Ability Reshiram & Charizard-GX, Blacephalon-GX / Naganadel, and Mewtwo & Mew-GX, but was also a solid anti-anti-meta deck. Keldeo-GX was on the rise in order to counter GX-centric decks, and Malamar decks don’t care about it at all. I felt like I could sneak in some wins this way, and I did indeed face a Keldeo-GX / Bronzong Stall deck in Day 2, which was a very favorable matchup.

Here is the list I played:

[decklist name=”Malamar Sheffield” amt=”60″ caption=”” cname=”Espeon and Deoxys-GX” set=”Unified Minds” no=”72″][pokemon amt=”20″]4x [card name=”Malamar” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”51″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Inkay” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”50″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Jirachi” set=”Team Up” no=”99″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]2x [card name=”Giratina” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”97″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]1x [card name=”Ditto Prism Star” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”154″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Mimikyu” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”58″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Jynx” set=”Team Up” no=”68″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Espurr” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”79″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Mew” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”76″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Espeon and Deoxys-GX” set=”Unified Minds” no=”72″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card][/pokemon][trainers amt=”32″]4x [card name=”Lillie” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”125″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Cynthia” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”119″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Acro Bike” set=”Primal Clash” no=”122″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Mysterious Treasure” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”113″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Pokemon Communication” set=”Team Up” no=”152″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Spell Tag” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”190″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]2x [card name=”Switch” set=”HeartGold and SoulSilver” no=”102″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]2x [card name=”Escape Board” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”122″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”2″][/card]3x [card name=”Viridian Forest” set=”Team Up” no=”156″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]1x [card name=”Power Plant” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”183″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”1″][/card][/trainers][energy amt=”8″]7x [card name=”Psychic Energy” set=”EX Ruby and Sapphire” no=”107″ c=”deck2″ amt=”7″][/card]1x [card name=”Recycle Energy” set=”Unified Minds” no=”212″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card][/energy][/decklist] 

I don’t want to go too much in detail about this deck, since my list is almost a copy of Grant Manley’s, and he’s writing an article about the deck. The only change I made was adding [card name=”Jynx” set=”Team Up” no=”68″ c=”name”][/card]. This was mainly a way of improving the Ability ReshiZard matchup. Jynx can deal damage to the Bench which, in combination with Distortion Door (and potentially [card name=”Spell Tag” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”190″ c=”name”][/card]), could let me KO [card name=”Vulpix” set=”Team Up” no=”15″ c=”name”][/card] before it evolves. As long as you keep [card name=”Ninetales” set=”Team Up” no=”16″ c=”name”][/card] out of play, the matchup is favorable for Malamar.

I ended up making Top 32, which was decent, but not as good as I expected. Here is my take on what happened.

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

First of all, the [card name=”Pikachu and Zekrom-GX” set=”Team Up” no=”33″ c=”name”][/card] matchup is tougher than I thought. I was expecting players to switch to [card name=”Power Plant” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”183″ c=”name”][/card] following Kaiwen Cabbabe’s win at the Melbourne Open and, while some did, many PikaRom players stuck with [card name=”Lysandre Labs” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”111″ c=”name”][/card]. This Stadium makes the matchup much harder as you lose out on Spell Tag damage and Stellar Wish activations (since you can’t use [card name=”Escape Board” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”122″ c=”name”][/card] to retreat while Asleep). In addition, good Pikachu & Zekrom-GX will switch between attackers, making it harder for you to take Prizes. Ideally, your game plan in that matchup is to KO two Tag Team Pokemon. Even if they switch them out, you can 2HKO both Pikachu & Zekrom-GX and [card name=”Raichu and Alolan Raichu-GX” set=”Unified Minds” no=”54″ c=”name”][/card] on the Bench – one with [card name=”Espurr” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”79″ c=”name”][/card], and the other one with [card name=”Espeon and Deoxys-GX” set=”Unified Minds” no=”72″ c=”name”][/card]. However, things get harder if the opponent takes the opportunity to attack with [card name=”Zeraora-GX” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”86″ c=”name”][/card], since you now need to attack at least once into a non-Tag Team. I could see a second [card name=”Mimikyu” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”58″ c=”name”][/card] helping that matchup, so that you can copy Plasma Fists on Zeraora-GX (which is an OHKO with some residual damage) and Tandem Shock.

More importantly, the deck has trouble finishing games. I’m not naturally a fast player, and one game of [card name=”Malamar” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”51″ c=”name”][/card] usually takes 25 minutes. This makes it very hard to win best of threes. My final record was 7-1-6: one tie was an ID, but the rest were natural ties. What makes it frustrating is that, in most of these ties, I was going to win. Some games I just needed one more turn, others I was only in a favorable spot. I think that had I played faster, I could have achieved a much better result. Another important skill with this deck is knowing when to scoop. For example, I was paired round 1 against Jesper Eriksen, playing Ability ReshiZard. I won game 1 in about 25 minutes and we proceeded to game 2. He got two Vulpix very early and managed to evolve one of them in Ninetales the following turn (and the second one soon afterwards). This was a game I couldn’t win, as he proceeded to KO my Malamar on the Bench. I should have recognized that and scooped on turn 2, so that I could go first in game 3 and have a better shot at winning.

I don’t think Malamar is in the best spot right now. [card name=”Gardevoir and Sylveon-GX” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”130″ c=”name”][/card]’s win might mean that more players pick up the deck, which is an unfavorable matchup. In addition, as I said in the first section, I would assume that most PikaRom players will stick with Lysandre Labs now, and Malamar is collateral damage.

Judges and Stamps

Hand disruption has been underrated. Mewtwo & Mew-GX and Ability ReshiZard, the two most hyped decks coming out of Worlds, didn’t play any [card name=”Reset Stamp” set=”Unified Minds” no=”206″ c=”name”][/card] (or Judge), and many decks followed their leads. Recent decks such as pure Psychic Malamar and [card name=”Quagsire” set=”Dragon Majesty” no=”26″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Naganadel” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”108″ c=”name”][/card] scorned Reset Stamp, which was once thought to be one of the most influential cards from Unified Minds.

However, the results from Sheffield tell a different story. [card name=”Gardevoir and Sylveon-GX” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”130″ c=”name”][/card] includes two Reset Stamp, and also has access to Magical Miracle GX, the ultimate hand disruption attack. Of the two Pikachu & Zekrom-GX lists that made Top 8, one played four Judge (and a Reset Stamp!); and the other one, three Reset Stamp.

Robin Schulz even included a Stamp in his Ability ReshiZard deck. Only Gustavo Wada didn’t play any hand disruption, to my knowledge.
Without hand disruption in the format, decks that rely on combinations of cards, such as Welder + Energy, get stronger. However, hand disruption makes them not as good, which might be why we didn’t see any ReshiZard in Top 4. If players follow the lead and decide to include more Reset Stamp, we may see the best deck in format be taken down a peg. That change would most likely benefit Pikachu & Zekrom-GX and Malamar, decks that don’t care as much about hand disruption.

Conclusion

There is still time before Atlantic City, Cologne and Campinas for the meta to evolve, and it will be interesting to see if ReshiZard players stick with the heavy Fire Energy build or switch to [card name=”Fire Crystal” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”173″ c=”name”][/card], if Wobbuffet still sees play or if it dies down a bit, and if Reset Stamp makes more appearances in decks.

That said, if these tournaments were tomorrow, I think the safest play would still be Ability [card name=”Reshiram and Charizard-GX” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”20″ c=”name”][/card], most likely the heavy Fire build. It’s undoubtedly a very strong deck, even when people are countering it, and with other decks on the rise, we may see players trying a little less hard to prepare for it. The other deck I could see winning is Pikachu & Zekrom-GX. A list similar to Logan Madden’s, with 4 Jirachi and 4 Judge, looks the strongest right now: it has speed, hand disruption, and resilience to opponents’ hand disruption. In addition, I wouldn’t be surprised if [card name=”Absol” set=”Team Up” no=”88″ c=”name”][/card] made a comeback. It can fit into decks with [card name=”Pokémon Communication” set=”Team Up” no=”152″ c=”name”][/card] and is a very strong tech against [card name=”Jirachi” set=”Team Up” no=”99″ c=”name”][/card]-based decks, including the two decks above and Malamar. Think about it for your next League Cup!

And as always, best of luck!

Stéphane

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