Reflecting on EUIC and Moving Towards Rotation

Hello PokeBeach readers! Isaiah here, and I am happy to be writing another article for you all! Last time, I talked about [card name=”Regidrago VSTAR” set=”Silver Tempest” no=”136″ c=”name”][/card], one of my favorite decks from the last few months, and how I thought it could still succeed in a world dominated by Budew. The Europe International Championships happened not long after I wrote that article, and there was some good news and some bad news for Regidrago VSTAR fans.

The good news was that Regidrago VSTAR had a few strong finishes, with two in the Top 32. While it was only two people, a couple of finishes among over 3,000 players does show some promise for the deck in the future. However, the bad news is that the third-highest-placing Regidrago VSTAR player finished 203rd, a truly unbelievable drop off. In fact, that might be the biggest gap I have ever seen between two finishes of a deck that has ever been considered Tier 1.

This level of a drop-off certainly sends mixed signals. On one hand, multiple copies of a deck making deep runs clearly indicates that the deck has potential, and a lot of it. This would seem to imply that the Regidrago VSTAR decks that finished poorly were just unlucky or had poor runs, but the deck is actually good. This is somewhat refuted by the fact that FIVE Regidrago VSTAR players were clustered toward the bottom of Day 2, which seems to instead imply that the two that had deep runs were just a fluke. Regardless of which way you interpret these results, the conclusion is clear that Regidrago VSTAR is now a shell of what it was prior to the release of Budew, with its ~6 months at the top being one of the craziest runs for any deck in the history of the Pokemon TCG.

[cardimg name=”Gholdengo ex” set=”Paradox Rift” no=”252″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

Taking a step back to look at the bigger picture, the rest of the format is in an interesting place right now. The Europe International Championships just proved what we already knew in a lot of ways, with multiple [card name=”Dragapult ex” set=”Twilight Masquerade” no=”200″ c=”name”][/card] decks making deep runs, peaking at a second place finish in the hands of fellow writer Natalie Millar, but other than the three Dragapult ex in Top 8, I am not sure if I ever could have predicted the rest of the decks.

[card name=”Archaludon ex” set=”Surging Sparks” no=”130″ c=”name”][/card] has been the target of a lot of hype lately, likely due to its convincingly favored matchups against Dragapult ex and Miraidon ex, so it is not exactly a surprise that the deck was able to finish in the Top 4. With that said, the Top 4 finish was the deck’s only finish in the entirety of Top 64, with the second-highest finishing Archaludon ex player finishing 70th. Typically, I would say that this is a cause for concern, much like the disappointing finishes for Regidrago VSTAR, but I think there was one massive external surprise factor that caused Archaludon ex’s average finish to be so low, and that was [card name=”Gholdengo ex” set=”Paradox Rift” no=”139″ c=”name”][/card].

To put it lightly, Gholdengo ex is BY FAR Archaludon ex’s worst matchup. They are one of very few decks in the format that can threaten you with a one-hit Knock Out, which is bad enough, but you also struggle to ever respond with a one-hit Knock Out of your own, pretty much only being able to do so with Black Belt’s Training or [card name=”Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR” set=”Astral Radiance” no=”114″ c=”name”][/card]’s Metal Blast, both of which are fairly inefficient.

Normally, this would not be cause for concern, but at the Europe International Championships, things were a bit different. Completely out of left field, Gholdengo ex saw a massive surge in play rate among top players, with five in the Top 32, tying it for the second highest representation in Top 32. All of a sudden, Archaludon ex players were facing way more Gholdengo ex than they should have realistically expected, and against top players to boot, leading the deck’s average finishes to go down dramatically. Gholdengo ex, on the other hand, had a great weekend. Like I said, the deck was highly represented in Top 32, but the deck also had one representative in Top 4, Xander Pero.

Going forward, I think this deck is the biggest takeaway from the Europe International Championships. Block [card name=”Snorlax” set=”Pokemon GO” no=”55″ c=”name”][/card] also had a surprisingly good weekend at the Europe International Championships. To be frank, I had not really been considering this deck very much leading up to the event, mostly because a lot of people told me it was bad, but evidently those people were wrong. I would not count on the deck going forward because it does still have a few questionable matchups at the top, but the deck is much better than I thought.

Despite all of these, no story at the Europe International Championships could outshine Ryuki Okada and his Poison [card name=”Terapagos ex” set=”Stellar Crown” no=”128″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Klawf” set=”Paradox Rift” no=”105″ c=”name”][/card] deck. When Budew was released, I remember thinking that this deck could be pretty powerful. After all, Budew being able to do up to 80 damage after Poison is an insane amount of damage to have to overcome, especially under Item Lock. However, I did ultimately put the deck down just because it felt inexplicably too weak. Ryuki proved me and many others wrong, though, exhibiting a dominant performance two weeks ago showing everyone that Budew for 80 damage and Terapagos ex for 290 damage while not activating Flip the Script is, in fact, absurd.

One of the biggest grievances that I have about this deck, though, is that the deck is really bad against [card name=”Gardevoir ex” set=”Paldean Fates” no=”233″ c=”name”][/card] and also not great against Dragapult ex, at least historically. It does, however, have the classic trick up its sleeve of being able to win the game before they ever get to play with Pecharunt, as was shown in Game 3 of the finals. Other than these two matchups, though, the deck has an incredible matchup spread into the current format, and considering that these matchups, while bad, are certainly not unwinnable, the deck is very clearly one of the best decks in Standard right now; how about we discuss the top plays for the Stockholm Regional Championships later this month?

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What Is the Play for Upcoming Regionals?

[cardimg name=”Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR” set=”Astral Radiance” no=”114″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

As I said, I do think that Ryuki Okada’s deck from the Europe International Championships would probably be one of my top picks right now. I think that an extremely good matchup against [card name=”Gholdengo ex” set=”Paradox Rift” no=”252″ c=”name”][/card] in particular carries a lot of value right now, as the deck is traditionally a well-liked deck that is bound to see a massive surge in popularity — an effect that has been displayed in local metas across the United States. The inherent power of the deck is also extremely valuable, able to take one-hit Knock Outs on most of the format right now most of the decks that you cannot take a one-hit Knock Out against are much slower and often can fall victim to a Budew doing 80 damage to them per turn.

The final reason that I like this deck right now, and perhaps the most significant, is that it is a deck that stands to see a huge benefit from going first. In a format where everyone seems to want to choose to go second to either help their own set up or slow down their opponent’s, a deck that is content with going first when it has to is often going to be one of the best decks. Obviously, I am talking about the Pecharunt aspect of the deck again. There are simply so many decks right now that play frail low-HP Pokemon such as Budew, [card name=”Ralts” set=”Astral Radiance” no=”60″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Dreepy” set=”Twilight Masquerade” no=”128″ c=”name”][/card], or [card name=”Duskull” set=”Shrouded Fable” no=”18″ c=”name”][/card], and with that, there are a lot of hands where the opponent will only have one Pokemon to start with and will just be forced to start with a vulnerable Pokemon while they choose to go second and are immediately punished by losing on the first turn.

While the possibility of this is alarming, most people seem to dismiss it as being extremely unlikely, but in reality it is extremely likely. If you start with [card name=”Oranguru V” set=”Astral Radiance” no=”133″ c=”name”][/card], you automatically use its Back Order Ability for [card name=”Forest Seal Stone” set=”Silver Tempest” no=”156″ c=”name”][/card] and [card name=”Ancient Booster Energy Capsule” set=”Paradox Rift” no=”159″ c=”name”][/card], followed by a Star Alchemy for [card name=”Precious Trolley” set=”Surging Sparks” no=”185″ c=”name”][/card], bringing in [card name=”Latias ex” set=”Surging Sparks” no=”76″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Brute Bonnet” set=”Paradox Rift” no=”123″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Radiant Hisuian Sneasler” set=”Lost Origin” no=”123″ c=”name”][/card], and Pecharunt itself. This can be expanded further by saying that if you open with a [card name=”Nest Ball” set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”181″ c=”name”][/card] and a [card name=”Switch Cart” set=”Astral Radiance” no=”154″ c=”name”][/card], both of which you play four copies of, you also automatically have the Turn 1 80 damage. The truly scary aspect about this deck is the consistency that it is able to cheese wins like this, and this was no doubt a massive part of Ryuki’s success.

With that said, Poison [card name=”Terapagos ex” set=”Stellar Crown” no=”173″ c=”name”][/card] does have one other matchup that is critically terrible right now, one that is bad enough to make me a bit apprehensive about playing the deck. That matchup? [card name=”Archaludon ex” set=”Surging Sparks” no=”241″ c=”name”][/card]. While I said that Archaludon ex has a tough matchup into Gholdengo ex, which is cause for concern in the current format, the deck does currently have an unbelievable matchup spread, even in comparison to Poison Terapagos ex. Most matchups are simple — just swing swing swing for 220 over and over and eventually you will probably win the game, but even against other decks where that strategy may be less effective, such as Gholdengo ex, the ace in the hole of [card name=”Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR” set=”Crown Zenith GG” no=”GG68″ c=”name”][/card] is oftentimes insurmountable.

As it has been said time and time again, Star Chronos’ ability to give you an extra turn makes it one of the greatest attacks ever printed on a Pokemon card. The amount of unwinnable games that it can turn into auto-win games feels almost like it is cheating at times. Honestly, I am not really sure how people have been playing without the card lately, but as evidenced by the lack of success for the build without Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR, the deck does just seem awful. However, with the card, I think that this deck EASILY becomes one of the best plays in the Standard format right now. If you play Black Belt’s Training, so much math gets fixed, both by creating a one-hit Knock Out against Gholdengo ex but also because the pairing of Black Belt’s Training with a juiced up Raging Hammer copied from [card name=”Duraludon” set=”Stellar Crown” no=”106″ c=”name”][/card] thanks to [card name=”Relicanth ” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”84″ c=”name”][/card], we can now hit a Dragapult ex for 320 damage, threatening a one-hit Knock Out where it would otherwise be impossible.

I think that these two factors are just what the deck needs to be able to see success at the top level, and with so many people omitting Black Belt’s Training from their list lately, I think we have found a likely reason for the deck generally flopping at the Europe International Championships.

If I was attending a Regional during the month of March, I think that one of these two decks would, undoubtedly, be my play for the event. While I do not think either deck is the best deck in the format, as that title clearly has to be given to Dragapult ex, these two decks’ advantages relative to the rest of the format give them the right amount of power over everything else to propel them to the top. The ability to take turn 1 wins with Poison Terapagos ex and the ability to take extra turns with Archaludon ex are two of the most absurd and abusable aspects of the format right now, and I think that it would be a mistake to not take advantage of either. If I did have to lock in a definite 60 cards right now, I would likely lock in with Archaludon ex, using the following deck list.

My Archaludon ex Deck List

[decklist name=”arch 3 25″ amt=”60″ caption=”” cname=”Iron Bundle” set=”Paradox Rift” no=”56″][pokemon amt=”17″]4x [card name=”Archaludon ex” set=”Surging Sparks” no=”130″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Duraludon” set=”Stellar Crown” no=”106″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]2x [card name=”Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR” set=”Astral Radiance” no=”114″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]2x [card name=”Origin Forme Dialga V” set=”Astral Radiance” no=”113″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]1x [card name=”Fezandipiti ex” set=”Shrouded Fable” no=”38″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Lumineon V” set=”Brilliant Stars” no=”40″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Radiant Greninja” set=”Astral Radiance” no=”46″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Relicanth ” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”84″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Iron Bundle” set=”Paradox Rift” no=”56″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card][/pokemon][trainers amt=”34″]4x [card name=”Professor’s Research” set=”Shining Fates” no=”60″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]3x [card name=”Iono” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”185″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]2x [card name=”Boss’s Orders” set=”Rebel Clash” no=”154″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]1x [card name=”Thorton” set=”Lost Origin” no=”167″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x Black Belt’s Training (PRE #97)1x [card name=”Professor Turo’s Scenario” set=”Paradox Rift” no=”171″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”1″][/card]4x [card name=”Ultra Ball” set=”Roaring Skies” no=”93″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Nest Ball” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”123″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Night Stretcher” set=”Shrouded Fable” no=”61″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]3x [card name=”Earthen Vessel” set=”Shrouded Fable” no=”96″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]2x [card name=”Counter Catcher” set=”Crimson Invasion” no=”91″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]1x [card name=”Lost Vacuum” set=”Lost Origin” no=”162″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Pal Pad” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”132″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Scoop Up Cyclone” set=”Twilight Masquerade” no=”162″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”1″][/card]2x [card name=”PokéStop” set=”Pokemon GO” no=”68″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”2″][/card][/trainers][energy amt=”9″]9x [card name=”Metal Energy” set=”HeartGold and SoulSilver” no=”122″ c=”deck2″ amt=”9″][/card][/energy][/decklist]Overall, this deck list is not particularly crazy, focusing a lot on being super consistent and deep draw thanks to [card name=”PokéStop” set=”Pokemon GO” no=”68″ c=”name”][/card], which I chose to play over [card name=”Jamming Tower” set=”Twilight Masquerade” no=”153″ c=”name”][/card] simply because I think that Jamming Tower is kind of bad in this deck, and the occasional need to remove Pokemon Tool cards can instead be solved by a single well-timed [card name=”Lost Vacuum” set=”Lost Origin” no=”162″ c=”name”][/card].

A lot of deck lists have been slimming down on Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR if they even bother to play the card, but in my opinion the card is the only reason to ever play the deck in the first place. So, I chose to go up to two [card name=”Origin Forme Dialga V” set=”Astral Radiance” no=”113″ c=”name”][/card] and two of the VSTAR instead of just one of each in order to make sure they do not end up among my Prizes. Not just that, but I also want to make sure that I find my Origin Forme Dialga V and VSTAR when I need them while also having the ability to put two on my Bench at once if needed. Having a second copy of the VSTAR in particular is also nice because it dramatically reduces the amount that you will have to use [card name=”Night Stretcher” set=”Surging Sparks” no=”251″ c=”name”][/card] for it. In a deck like this, where Night Stretcher is far and away the most precious resource, this is extremely critical.

I generally find myself approaching this build in a slower manner for most of the game, where instead of taking Prize cards, I will swing for damage into a threatening Pokemon while using cards like [card name=”Fezandipiti ex” set=”Shrouded Fable” no=”38″ c=”name”][/card] and PokeStop to amass the cards for a massive Star Chronos turn. During this turn, I will often eliminate multiple threats at once while also either disrupting my opponent’s hand or lining things up so that I can easily close out the game with a Metal Defender on the following turn. This deck is extremely efficient at doing what it wants to do, largely because the build is so simple, and I think that this is certainly its biggest strength — both in the format and also relative to other Archaludon ex deck lists.

A Note on Post Rotation Archaludon ex

With rotation coming up so soon, I think that it is important to start talking about it sooner rather than later. In general, I think that [card name=”Archaludon ex” set=”Surging Sparks” no=”241″ c=”name”][/card] is in a weird spot post-rotation. While the core strategy of using Archaludon ex to have a lot of HP while hitting for decent amounts of damage is not really going anywhere, the departure of Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR is really difficult to handle. This is not just because of the departure of Star Chronos, which is disastrous, but also because the deck loses its [card name=”Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex” set=”Twilight Masquerade” no=”112″ c=”name”][/card] answer.

Unfortunately, the best card to solve this issue right now is Hop’s Zacian ex because the promo Zacian ex that Japan got is not coming out in English until May. Hop’s Zacian ex is also a super underwhelming attacker in general, largely due to its attack costing four Energy, but it might just be a necessary evil. One card that I do like the idea of in this deck, though, is Hop’s Dubwool, which gives the deck a much easier time using a gust effect, while also giving the ability to pair a gust with a [card name=”Professor Turo’s Scenario” set=”Paradox Rift” no=”257″ c=”name”][/card] or an [card name=”Iono” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”269″ c=”name”][/card] play. While I am confident that the deck will be much worse than it is right now, I think that this deck will certainly still be powerful after rotation.

Conclusion

As is usually the case for International Championships, the Europe International Championships brought a lot of surprises and the results have seemingly shaped the format for the foreseeable future. Decks like [card name=”Gholdengo ex” set=”Paradox Rift” no=”252″ c=”name”][/card] and Poison [card name=”Terapagos ex” set=”Stellar Crown” no=”173″ c=”name”][/card] are sure to become staples in the format where it seemed like a lot of people really were not thinking about the decks at all.

In the wake of these new developments, I think that [card name=”Archaludon ex” set=”Surging Sparks” no=”241″ c=”name”][/card], or more specifically [card name=”Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR” set=”Crown Zenith GG” no=”GG68″ c=”name”][/card], stands to be one of the biggest winners in the format with multiple new good matchups and the ability to cripple boards and win games from board states that seem insurmountable, a trait that no other deck in the format really possesses. Because of this, I think that the deck is bound to be one of the biggest hitters in Stockholm and beyond.

With that, this article comes to a close. As always, I hope you enjoyed giving this article a read. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to reach out in the comments or on social media.

Until next time!

– Isaiah

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