Some have taken this as a nice way to take a break from the game but a few others, myself included, have continued on with the grind, this time in the Online version with online tournaments happening every other week for us players to test ourselves against players from all around the world.
I've been taking these online tournaments seriously as a way to continuously improve myself as a player and hopefully when we're back to playing actual cards, I would have improved by a big margin and start to compete for top 8 at cups on a regular basis (if we still have cups).
That's why I've been grinding out as many tournament games as I can find for these online series, and it doesn't matter if I have to stay up late at night or get up early in the morning, I'll still join in for most of them (there is no tourney that has a timing that's friendly for me here in Singapore deep in Asia). But to do it in the best way possible, I needed to find a comfort deck for the new set.
Before Week 1 - The Preview - Looking Around
With Rebel Clash, I knew right away I had to start looking for a new deck to play. The old comfort deck of Fire Box/Turbo Reshiram & Charizard-GX just won't cut it with the new Dragapult VMAX having such a strong matchup against it while PikaRom and ADP, both match-ups that used to be awkward, are now even worse. So Fire Box is out. What else can I play?
- Pikachu & Zekrom-GX was the first though. Boltund V was one of my new favourite cards from the new set and while I tried to make a Turbo Boltund deck work, it felt much better in PikaRom instead for the big late KOs.
- Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX with Zacian V was another choice, a deck I was considering to play for the Oceania Internationals before switching back to Fire Box. The deck hadn't change much but I wasn't sure if it could keep up with the early pressure from PikaRom or Dragapult.
- Mewtwo & Mew-GX entered the scene and left quickly. I've never had good results with it and testing it out, I still didn't like it honestly. Plus Dragapult just felt like a horrible match-up.
- Blacephalon is that one deck that I just don't trust. It's great but it's bricks a lot too. I looked through the set to find anything that might fancy me and nothing did apart from Dragapult.
Week 1 (4th May to 10th May) - The Test - Testing Everything for Limitless 3
The first tournament I entered with Rebel Clash implication was Team Epoch Cup 3 and with a weird built of Dragapult VMAX and Malamar. It felt like a Malamar deck, just with a 2-2 line of Dragapult. I just wanted to see how good it could be even with a not-so-optimal list.
I did better than I expected. 4/2/0 and my losses were to Blowns (it was Stephane Ivanoff so he'd know to play around it) and some weird Galarian Weezing deck that totally shut me down in two games. I gave Blacephalon a try for Zach Lesage's last chance invitational qualifying and came one win short of making it, the last game decided by the deck bricking, a sign of things to come.
The next day I went and gave PikaRom a try in my first time playing a PokeX event, Tag Bolt 5, having see how well it had done in the previous few tournaments, and it did really well for me, going 5-0 with this! With Limitless 3 just a week away, I thought I had finally found my comfort deck for this format. I made top cut of the Sunday Open with ADPZ as well just to see if it was an option, and I did give it a thought after making top cut for the Sunday Open.
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| PokeX Tag Bolt 5 |
Results:
Fire Box - 1/4/0 - Sunday Open - 67th/76
Dragapult VMAX - 4/2/0 - Team Epoch Cup - 12th/50
Blacephalon UNB - 4/2/0 - Lesage Invitational Last Chance Quali - 6th/46
Pikachu & Zekrom-GX - 5/0/0 - PokeX Tag Bolt 5 - 1st/17
ADP-GX/Zacian V - 5/3/0 - Sunday Open - 14th/92
Week 2 (11th to 17th May) - The False Hope - Limitless 3 with PikaRom
I was now set on PikaRom for the 3rd Limitless qualifier with Fire Box as a backup choice. I gave it a test run for the Tag Bolt tourney and it went horribly, so I knew for sure PikaRom was the right call. The deck ran alright but I came one win short of making day two which really hurt, having tested a lot for that event and staying up all night just to miss it by one win. 8/5/0 is still a decent record, it's just not 9/4/0.
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| Limitless Qualifier 3 |
Fire Box - 1/3/0 - PokeX Tag Bolt 6 - 9th/12
Pikachu & Zekrom-GX - 8/5/0 - Limitless Qualifier 3 - 270th/1298
ADP-GX/Zacian V - 1/4/0 - JGB Mini RCL 2 - 14th/18
Dragapult VMAX - 5/3/0 - Sunday Open - 13th/102
Weeks 3 &4 (18th to 31st May) - The Wrong Decision - PikaRom or Dragapult for Limitless 4
I was still debating if I should stick with PikaRom or trying something else for the 4th and last Limitless qualifier. In between the two Limitless events, I played in 8 other events. I tried out ADPZ in a JGB Mini RCL 2 event, and that didn't work well. I tried Dragapult out for Sunday Open and made top cut for the second week running (the previous week I had done so with ADP). I even made top 8 for the JGB Monthly 1 with Fire Box but I knew that wasn't the play going forward.
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| Sunday Open May 17th |
I tried Dragapult again for Tag Bolt 7 but it didn't go as planned. Blowns was a mistake to even attempt playing it. For the next big event before the qualification, which was the PokeX Perfection event, I thought I should give PikaRom another run to see if that was the deck for me. I ended that tourney with a 5/3/0 score, 43rd out of 203 players which I thought was alright.
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| PokeX Perfection |
I gave Dragapult another try in another event, a JGB Mini RCL 6, and made Top 4 with it. I then played PikaRom in one last event and didn't even make it out the first stage. The signs were there and I decided against it, going with PikaRom. That was a mistake. Limitless Qualifier 4 was one horror show that kept on going. I either had some terrible draws or I kept being matched up with the worst possible matchups for my deck. I played against 3 Goons and 3 Blowns, near auto-losses for PikaRom. Now had that been Dragapult, I wou;d have had a much better time at it.
Results:
Fire Box - 4/1/2 - JGB Monthly 1 - 8th/58
Dragapult VMAX - 3/2/0 - PokeX Tag Bolt 7 - 10th/20
Pikachu & Zekrom-GX - 5/3/0 - PokeX Perfection - 43rd/203
Blacephalon UNB - 2/3/0 - Sunday Open - 73rd/136
Pikachu & Zekrom-GX - 5/5/0 - Limitless Qualifier 4 - 923rd/1303
Zacian V/Jirachi Prism Combo - 4/2/0 - Sunday Open - 29th/117
Weeks 5 & 6 (1st to 14th June) - The Outsider - Going rouge with Spiritomb
After that run, I was done with PikaRom and the search for the comfort deck continued. My friend Luke Morsa had suggested I give Spiritomb a try as it was the best rogue option available and he had been killing it at events with it. And I'll never question his judgement so I went with it. During this time I joined Altered Creation for the first time and thought I'd go with PikaRom, I knew the deck and even though it wasn't my best choice, it felt like the right one at the moment. But I was still set on Spiritomb for the next few events.
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| Queztal Conquest |
I did enjoy playing the deck in testing, it felt really good but when it came to those events, I just flopped. I just did not do the deck justice, I didn't do a good job with it. The deck was very skill-based and after those events, it did leave me wondering, am I even good enough to compete at this level?
It's still one of the better choices out there and I did get a 6th place finish with it for Tag Bolt, just not the choice for me apparently. And with Perfection 2 coming the next week, I still needed to find something I was comfortable with. I also messed around with a Flareon-GX/Victini Prism/Shuckle deck as a fun rogue option.
Results:
Pikachu & Zekrom-GX - 5/3/0 - PokeX Altered Creation - 16th/61
Blacephalon UNB - 2/3/0 - JGB RCL Mini 9 - 16th/26
Spiritomb - 4/3/0 - PokeX Tag Bolt 9 - 15th/37
Spiritomb - 3/3/0 - Queztal Conquest - 19th/34
Spiritomb - 2/4/0 - Sunday Open - 91st/146
Spiritomb - 4/2/0 - PokeX Tag Bolt 10 - 6th/32
Flareon-GX/Victini Prism - 4/2/0 - Sunday Open - 36th/131
Week 7 & 8 (15th to 28st June) - The Experiments - Still searching
One day before Perfection 2, I thought I'd give Dragapult a test run, using Tord Reklev's exact 60 card deck from the Players Cup just to see how good it really was and if I should consider it. It went really well. 5/2/0 score and 6th out of 42 players, I had't done this well in a tournament since my 5/3/0 record with Pikachu & Zekrom-GX in both Altered Creation and Perfection. I should have decided right there and then, I would play Dragapult for Perfection 2 but as I hadn't played the deck enough as I had for Spiritomb, I went with that. And I flopped big time. 1/3/0 and drop.
After that event, I turned to Zacian V/Jirachi Prism Combo, it was the new shiny toy others were speaking of and I had to try it out. I did really well with it in my first two events with it, 4/2/0 both times, one being the Epoch Cup 4, before I flopped again.
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| Epoch Cup 4 |
During this time I had (somehow) made it in for the PokeX Invitational. I wasn't feeling too confident going into it, I was still very lost on which deck to play, I hadn't found my comfort deck. So for that event, I went and played the same 60 as my friend Tate Whitesell. The deck felt good but I didn't do well with it. During that event, something sparked in me and got me thinking, maybe I should give this a run.
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| PokeX Invitational |
Dragapult VMAX - 5/2/0 - PokeX Tag Bolt 11 - 6th/42
Spiritomb - 1/3/0 Drop - PokeX Perfection 2 - 60th/77
Pikachu & Zekrom-GX - 3/3/0 - JGB RCL Monthly 2 - 23rd/53
Zacian V/Jirachi Prism Combo - 4/2/0 - Team Epoch Cup 4 - 14th/47
Dragapult VMAX - 2/3/0 - PokeX Invitational - 26th/32
Zacian V/Jirachi Prism Combo - 4/2/0 - Sunday Open - 29th/112
Week 9 (29th June to 5th July) - The Chose One - Finally found it! 2 big results after weeks of waiting
After the PokeX Invitational, all my focus shifted to Dragapult VMAX, hoping that this would be the comfort deck I had been searching for. PikaRom wasn't it, ADP Zacian wasn't it, Spiritomb wasn't it, Blacephalon will never be it, Combo Zacian wasn't it. It did feel like my last proper shot and if it wasn't it, I would just spend the next month or so playing everything while waiting for the next set to come.
First thing I did was to use the list Tate had given me and started making my own changes:
- First to go was Power Plant, I didn't like it at all and switched them to Shrine of Punishment thing it'd be better against PikaRom and ADPZ.
- Dedenne was next to go, replaced by Oranguru as I felt I had to keep throwing way too many important stuff early on and I didn't want the 2-prize bench sitter as an option for my opponent.
- We never found the need for Ordinary Rod or Tool Scrapper for that matter, Acro Bike might have been better
- I wanted Cynthia in as a choice to save cards in my deck for later turns rather than throwing stuff away mindlessly with Research
- I still wasn't sold on just have 7 outs of to switch (3 Board/4 Net) so I decided to change things around and move it up to 9 outs (1 Board/4 Net/4 Switch)
- The biggest inclusion was Nihilego. I just thought, with no Dedenne-GX, opponents might just play right into the 2-prize turn for me to use it.
The first event I'd join in was the Hegster Top Deck 10. I had been following it and wanted to give it a try so I went with my own weird build of Dragapult with Spell Tags, just to see if it could work. And it did! I made top cut with a score of 4/1/1. The Spell Tag tech came in hand in my Top 4 match against Gabe who played Spiritomb and it was a really close set (apart from the last game). I lost to Mew3/Ultimate toolbox in top 4 (I wasn't playing Dimension Breach Giratina sadly) but I was pretty happy with that effort.
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| Hegster Top Deck 10 |
Then came the Sunday Open on July 5th. I decided I would play Dragapult and stick with the Spell Tag gimmick just to see if my run in the Hegster 8 was a fluke or not. Other changes were:
- Mimikyu didn't help so I cut it from the list
- Wanted to see if Hoopa could be a better one-prize attacking alternative over Nihilego
- Mew added for the PikaRom match-up
It wasn't. I had my best run in the Sunday Open so far, the only 4/2/0 to sneak into the 2nd phase, and I barely made it to top cut after beating one of the best players in the world in Azul GG and in he mirror match too.
I somehow beat a Blowns in Top 4 when I hadn't even played a supporter for the first 4 turns! I made the finals of an online tournament for the 4th time but keeping with tradition, I lost in the final for a 4th time. My opponent played ADP/Zacian with Crushing Hammer and just my luck, he hit all 4 hammers.
Even when he hit 3 heads, I had put myself in with a chance to comeback from behind and win it. And he hit the 4th heads and that was game over for me. I was still so happy with a 2nd place finish in a field of 154 players! After 8 weeks of searching, I found my comfort deck for Rebel Clash! Dragapult it shall be.
Results:
Dragapult VMAX - 5/2/1 - Hegster Top Deck 10 - 3rd/33
Dragapult VMAX - 2/3/0 - JGB RCL Mini 17 - 16th/26
Zacian V/Jirachi Prism Combo - 1/4/0 - Hegster Top Deck 12 - 18th/26
Dragapult VMAX - 8/4/0 - Sunday Open - 2nd/154
Week 10 to 12th (6th to 26th July) - The Grind - Perfecting it and first online tournament win
After that 2nd place finish in the Sunday Open, I was dead set on sticking with Dragapult until the new set arrives and hopefully, get my first proper win in an online tournament. I did give others decks a try in a few other tournaments just as a break from Dragapult but nothing felt more fun to play than that.
I made Top 4 of the Prof Oak's Paradise tourney with the idea of the deck to guarantee turn 1 attachment with 12 outs and it did in almost every game. Went 3/1/1 in Swiss before losing to an ADPZ because Zamazenta was still a horrible card to deal with. The changes from the previous list were:
- Dimension Breach Giratina for the mirror and other decks who relied on Special Energies
- Two Goons over the 1/1 split of Tina and Goon just so I can hit the active
- 4 Jirachis too boost consistency and the odds of starting it
- Nihilego was the better alternative
- Scrapper just to rid those goggles
- 3 Spinner for the idea mentioned above, 12 outs to a turn 1 energy attachment
- Mewtwo felt unnecessary so I cut it
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| Prof Oak Paradise |
Next event was Hegster Top Deck 15 and I started that event 0-2 and feeling pretty down. I didn't make many changes, (-1 Mew for +1 Phione, -1 Cytnhia for +1 Marnie and -1 Scrapper for +1 Stamp) but somehow it didn't work in the first two games. I did end up with a 4/2/0 score so the deck was capable of coming back.
The new PokeX season started with Tag Bolt 1 and I finished with a 4/3/0 score and that's having started with a 0/2/0 score as well so that was another nice comeback. I tried to make the deck as consistent as possible, with almost all card except 4 either a 3-of or 4-of in the deck and it still didn't get the job done. I did end up missing Marnie to prevent them from getting certain cards they needed. 3 Stamps never helped honestly.
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| PokeX Tag Bolt 1 |
Next up was the Yoshi Cup, a Japanese tournament so for once I got to play in a tournament at a very nice timing for me. It was a lot of fun playing against Japanese players for once, all of them having creative ideas to what I've seen before. I went with the Spell Tag version and ended up 4/1/0, only losing to a GreenZard deck that played one Torkoal that did it's job against Dragapult. Hegster Top Deck 21 was a bad one for me, luck played a big factor 3 games in a row, all against my favour. I tried a 1-1 Malamar line in that to see if it'd help. It didn't.
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| Yoshi Cup |
The next big result came in the 2nd Tag Bolt of the new season. I went for a built similar to that popularised by Tord Reklev with Arco Bikes and Dedenne-GX. The only thing I changed from his list that won the Player's Cup invitational was a Nihilego in place of the 4th Dragapult VMAX and it worked like a charm!
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| PokeX Tag Bolt 2 |
I played against four PikaRoms in that tournament, traditionally a bad match-up for Dragapult and won all 4! Nihilego proved it's worth in one of them. Giratina helped me beat a matchup I thought was unwinnable in Mew3/Ultimate Toolbox. Once they had Tyranitar and Mega Sableye out, that was usually it. It took me until that match to realise how good Giratina was against it and made his TTar useless with the constant removal of special energies. My only loss was to a Blacephalon, need I say more.
And then came Hegster Top Deck 26. That week also happened to be exam finals week so I had decided that I wouldn't make many changes, I would simply play the same list for the Altered Creation, the Epoch July Contest and this one. Before this, I had played PikaRom and Blowns as a one-off and both went horribly. The changes I made:
- Oranguru in place of Dedenne to prevent them jumping the prize trade
- Great Catcher in place of 3rd Boss's Orders just so I have a way to catch GXes without the need of using a Supporter
- 2-2 split of Marnie/Cynthia instead of the 3-1 split. There were times Cynthia felt better to use over Marnie and I didn't want to keep dead-drawing from my own Marnie which happened a few times in the previous tournaments
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| Hegster Top Deck 26 |
The first three games went to plan, which allowed me to ID my next two games to make it into top cut safely. Top 8 was a match against GreenZard. Thankfully no Torkoal so that made things easier for me. Top 4 was a Dragapult mirror match, and I won both games again. And then the finals, up against a PikaRom that played no Jirachi so I wasn't feeling too confident going into that one.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/689146301
And I somehow won both matches too! In the first game I was able to pressure him straight away, knocking out Dedenne after it was stuck in the active and then his damaged PikaRom before he dead drew from my stamp. The second game was much closer, he went for the paralyze but I had my escape board saved up just in case. I managed to take out his PikaRom thanks to Great Catcher. He went for the paralyze again and I managed to draw into my last board from Research and with one ping from Shrine, I took the series and the tournament!
I finally won an online tournament (with top cut involved). Best part of it all, I didn't even drop a game in that entire tournament. All that hard work of testing and playing and searching for the deck I was most comfortable with in this format paid off. Sure it wasn't a big event but a win is still a win. A step in the right direction for a player like myself who still has a long way to go to achieve anything big in this game of ours.
Results:
Dragapult VMAX - 3/2/1 - Prof Oak's Paradise - 3rd/9
Dragapult VMAX - 4/2/0 - Hegster Top Deck 15 - 10th/33
ADP-GX/Zacian V - 3/2/1 - Hegster Top Deck 16 - 7th/26
Dragapult VMAX - 4/3/0 - PokeX Tag Bolt 1 - 26th/67
Dragapult VMAX - 4/1/0 - Yoshi Cup - 3rd/28
Dragapult VMAX - 2/3/0 - Hegster Top Deck 21
Dragapult VMAX - 6/1/0 - PokeX Tag Bolt 2 - 4th/72
Dragapult VMAX - 2/2/0 - JGB RCL Mini 22 - 7th/16
Dragapult VMAX - 4/4/0 - PokeX Altered Creation -
Dragapult VMAX - 5/0/0 - Team Epoch July Contest -
Dragapult VMAX - 6/0/2 - Hegster Top Deck 26 - 1st/26
The Deck - Dragapult VMAX
From now until the new set is released and ready to be played in tournaments, I'll likely just play Dragapult VMAX just to enjoy the last few weeks of playing a deck that has been kind to me. Sometimes it doesn't always work. Right after my win in Hegster 26, I would end up dropping midway from the next 3 tournaments at a miserable 1/2/0, 0/3/0 and 1/2/0 scores. I might once in a while play something else to spice things up but Dragapult will be the main choice for any big tourneys left.
So here's the deck I'll most likely run from now till the end of the format:
Pokemon Counts: (16)
- 4 Dragapult V
- 3 Dragapult V-Max
The main attackers of the deck. I never felt the need of a 4-4 line and I've been tempted to drop it to 3-3 at times but the main strategy Turn 1 EVERYTIME for a Dragapult deck is to get one Dragapult and one energy attachment down just so you can swing for a Turn 2 Max Phantom.
- 1 Nihilego
The surprise tech. Nihilego has been amazing for me many times. My main idea for including it was mainly to hit PikaRoms by surprise by using their own Tag Bolt or Tandem Shock against them. It's also a great attacker against Zacian decks. If you play according to plan for certain games, your opponent will try to take down one of your Jirachi, then a VMAX and that's when you surprise them.
- 1 Giratina (Dimension Breach)
Mainly for the mirror match to slow down your opponent's Dragapult VMAX. It's also amazing against Mewtwo & Mew, especially when they've got a Tyrantiar & Mega Sableye loaded up and ready to go.
- 1 Oranguru or Dedenne-GX
For this spot, it's down to personal preference. Dedenne-GX would be ideal but I don't like having a 2-prize bench sitter in my deck especially in games where Nihilego could be useful. And I play Shrines myself. Oranguru's main purpose is to help me save cards from being discarded and also the ultimate Marnie-proof saver.
- 2 Galarian Zigzagoon (or 1 Galarian Zigzagoon and 1 Giratina [Distortion Door])
- 4 Jirachi
Trainer Counts: (34)
Item (22)
- 4 Quick Ball
- 4 Mysterious Treasure
8 ball searches to make sure we get that turn 1 Dragapult down onto the bench with an energy attachment and speaking of which
- 2 Energy Spinner
This gives us 11 outs of getting a turn 1 energy attachment and it's even better if you're going second since you can get 3 out. But you'd most of the time want to go first with this deck
- 3 Acro Bike
Consistnecy booster and does help to search out for the energies or the Dragapults or maybe even a late game Boss's Orders for the win
- 4 Scoop Up Net
Mainly used to get more damage down with Zigzagoon or to switch into a Jirachi, find whatever you may need and scoop it back out. Also useful with either Giratina.
- 2 Reset Stamp
Main hope is to slow your opponent down once they've got 1 or 2 prizes remaining or if you know they're building up to something big with their hand. I'd like to say this works but most of the time Stamp has instead helped my opponent and given them either a better hand or the winning hand. So not my favourite card in this deck as it doesn't do the one thing it's supposed to do!
- 3 Escape Board
Jirachi isn't the only one who likes this! Gives Dragapult a free retreat and especially helpful against Raichu & Alolan Raichu-GX to get out of their paralysis trick. Gives us 7 switching outs along with Scoop Up Net in the deck.
- 1 Great Catcher
This could easily be a 3rd Boss's Orders but I do like having Catcher. If you're really in a pinch, you could go Research and draw into it at times, saving you one Boss's Orders for later on. Dedenne is the sorry victim of this most of the time.
Stadium (2)
- 2 Shrine of Punishment
Others might play Power Plant in it's place but that as never helped me much so I'd rather go all out on the offensive side of things and go with Shrine of Punishment. Great for the decks like PikaRom and ADP.
Supporter (10)
- 4 Professor's Research
Consistency Booster. Need I say more.
- 2 Marnie
- 2 Cynthia
Now this exact count has been changing alot. I've tried 4 Marnies and was never a fan of it. Cynthia lets me draw one extra card which sometimes I feel I need and more importantly, also saves you from discarding important pieces unlike Research. So 2-2 feels alright to me.
- 2 Boss's Orders
Gusting options, we need them. Could be a 3-of but I liked having Great Catcher as a second option.
Energy (9)
- 5 Psychic Energy
- 4 Horror Psychic Energy
You don't really need a lot of energies to make this deck work so this feels like the perfect number. You could go down to 8 to add another important piece in the deck but with many energy denial stuff going around, 9 feels right.
And that's the deck. My only regret was not testing it early enough to play it in a big tournament like Limitless Qualifier or Perfection. I will still be playing this list for the last few remaining tournaments I've got in this Rebel Clash. Now excuse me while I re-start the search for a new comfort deck since Dragapult VMAX will cease to exist in the next format. Damn you Dark types. Thanks for reading and hope you'll have a great day ahead!
