Darkness Ablaze time and this time I'll do this a bit differently, it'll be more of just a recap of things that happened with stuff I tried, things I did, what worked and what didn't. It may or may not turn out that way since I tend to add more stuff after finding ideas for it. Most of the focus will be on Centiskorch VMAX since it was my most successful deck during this format. I will share what I did with the other decks as well.
- 1. 2020-2021 Rotation
- 2. The Journey
- 3. The List
- 4. Matchups and stats
- 5. Next format thoughts
- 6. The other decks I played and stats
2020-2021 Rotation
Early impression from looking at the set was that obviously, Eternatus VMAX would be insane so I completely ignored it right away (it also meant I had to put Dragapult away) since I always try to work on a deck that's no considered the best. We were also in the middle of the 2020-2021 rotation so I had a few things factored in my mind:
- Goodbye Malamar
- Electropower/Thunder Mountain gone so PikaRom is worse now?
- Escape Board gone, is Jirachi still good enough to help with consistency?
- Heat Factory, Blacephalon GX and Victini Prism all gone. Any like-for-like replacements?
- Does ADPZ even lose anything?
- Shrine/Doom Count Yveltal gone, some rogue ideas are gone
- Magcargo-GX and Solgaleo-GX gone, can Mew3 Welder survive without these two?
- Energy Recycler gone. RIP the Charizard TEU dream.
- Ditto Prism and Zebstrika gone, less tech options
- Oranguru gone, is Control finally dead? Haha, problably not
So early impressions for me was that ADPZ was still the thing to beat but I had plenty of reasons to continue working on decks like Centiskorch, Mew3 Welder, Blacephalon (yes, I'm a Welder fan), Inteleon VMAX now that PikaRom was gone and maybe even try out this Eternatus thing if I was bored of the rest.
Before the new rotation came into works, I had already given Centiskorch a trial run and it was working really nicely. I made top 16 cut in the Epoch DAA Contest, 10th in Tag Bolt and even won the Yoshi Cup with it, which I think started giving many people the idea that the deck was actually good. I really should have played it for the POG World Championships, that was my one big regret out of that format.
Right away, I knew I had to find replacements for Escape Board, Blacephalon-GX and Heat Factory Prism but the deck wasn't going to lose much thankfully. I was toying around the idea of two Eldegoss in the deck even before the rotation and really liked it. Same for two Fire Crystal which stayed in the deck for the most part of this rotation. Bird Keeper was lost in the shuffle initially but has found it's way back very late on.
Week 1 & 2 - Testing
I had already sent my mind to playing ADPZ for the JGB Annual Championships, it was the safe pic in a field full of amazing players so I didn't want to bring something not fully tested, which was the case for Centiskorch. First run with it was Hegster S2 Top Deck 4, a decent 5-3 score but bubbling out of points at 33rd out of 126 people which is always frustrating. The first version I went with was the PokeGear version, thinking it'd be the most consistent way to get things done.
Straight away I wasn't a fan of Marnie. 5 support Pokemon also felt a bit much. I was missing Fire Crystal but I wanted to see how the deck could do without it.
For Tag Bolt S2 #8, I wanted to see how a tankier build of Centiskorch would work so I went with this:
It didn't work as well as I wanted it to. Heat Energy felt unnecessary and Big Charm always showed up at the wrong time so I was already turned off by the tankier built. I went 4-3 in the event. Most of my losses at this stage was to Mew3 Welder and Eternatus so the Heat, Charm, Mallow Lana combo was not working at all.
Week 3 - Sunday Open Win
While watching top cut of said Atlas Mini 1, the one deck that caught my interest was the genius himself, Alex Schemanske with his Scoop Up Net build of Centiskorch. It looked great as it finally fixed some of the matchups I thought I was having trouble with so right away, I abandoned ship on my other build to give this one a test run.
I played his exact 60 in the D52 Bombers Cup, finishing 1st in swiss rounds at 4/0/2 before losing to ADPZ in top cut due to bad hands at the start. I fell in love with the deck right away, it was fun to play and it felt like the abosoulte best way to play Centiskorch. The nets with Goons made things like Blowns, Eternatus and Deci Goon even better and Giratina just gave me outs to beating LucMet and Deci Goon.
I had planned to give that version a try for the Sunday Open but before that, I went in with a fun version of Centiskorch with Oranguru/Mewtwo in place of Eldegoss/Crobat in an effort to stop giving ADPZ free prize for the very first Limitless tourney on their brand new site, which is where all the events are now using to run these tourneys. I ended up winning it somehow, my first win of the format, I'll take it!
Then came the return of the Sunday Open. 10 swiss rounds which was really tiring and somehow I ended up 1st in swiss at 9-1, only losing to Greens PikaRom due to brick hands. I was able to beat the decks that had troubled me in the past, that being Mew3 Welder and Eternatus thanks to the new changes. I beat Deci Goon 2-0 in Top 8, Greens PikaRom 2-1 in Top 4 and finally the mirror match 2-1 in finals to get my first Sunday Open win and my first online tournament win featuring 100+ players!
Also, it was two tournament wins on the same day, that's quite a rare feat I'd say!
The changes I made from Alex's list was having 2nd Eldegoss in place of 2nd Dedenne. The 2nd Eldegoss was a gimmick I managed to make work in the previous format, giving me a win in the Yoshi Cup and it worked really nicely here too. 3rd boss was another change I made which felt necessary and made the deck even better. 2 stamps worked like a charm. The only thing I felt that was missing was a straight answer to Zamazenta.
The week proper started off with a 5-3 score in Hegster S2 Top Deck 10 but only good enough for 46th out of 173 people (it should have been Top 32 but my opponent was being an arsehole and decided to go into action for himself and of course he sacked me), the only change was cutting Mallow & Lana for second Dedenne. Even with the added draw power I still lost two games due to slow starts.
Ended the week off with PokeX's Last Chance Qualifier, I needed just a top 32 finish to get me into the Invitational and I ended up finishing 6th with a score of 4/0/2 in swiss, missing a straight auto-qualification into day 2 by 5 points. The only change I made from previous list was to cut the 2nd Eldegoss for Heatran-GX as the counter for Zamazenta and it worked beautifully even in other games. This was where I was convinced Heatran was an auto-include, it would end up being my go-to person in matches against ADPZ.
Week 4 - Hegster Win
I started to play around with different counts, wanting to see how PokeGear would help with consistency and so I brought it along for Hegster S2 Top Deck 12 along with the new addition of one Marnie in place of 2nd Stamp just to see how it'd work.
And it worked really well, I ended up winning the whole event! I went 6/1/1 in Swiss, beating ADPZ and Eternatus in Top 8 and 4 respectively, two of my more trickier matchups before beating Deci Goon, one of my easier matchups but I made it harder for myself with some misplays. I left Heatran and Giratina out to test the new changes out and even though I liked it, I still felt as though I was missing both of those options.
And that was as good as it got for me honestly! Thanks for reading!
All kidding aside, it's sad to know that those three tourney wins (Limitless Test, Sunday Open and Hegster) with Centiskroch would be 3 of only 4 tourney wins for me throughout this format (the other being with Eternatus). I really thought I hit the jackpot finding my comfort deck early and I could finally call something for my own but it just wasn't to be. Sure I did get more good results later on but just never got a 5th tourney win with Centiskorch.
Went from a 1-2 start to a 5-2 finish at Chill a few days later and this is where I knew I had to get Giratina back in as one of my lost were to LucMet and I had no outs of getting around the Weakness Guard energy and no, Radiating Heat is not the best idea in that match. At least Heatran came in handy vs Zamazenta here. Having Tina and Heatran did help me get a top 16 finish at the very next Hegster event, so I was right to have them back in.
Later on in the week I came close to making it a 5th win but I lost in the finals of a Japanese tourney called the Jal Cup. I tested Ordinary Rod out in place of 2nd Crystal to see the interaction with it and stuff like Heatran, Eldegoss or Dedenne and it worked nicely, I managed to beat a LucMet relying just on Zamazenta because of it. Sadly I dead drew in the finals vs ADPZ.
Week 5 - Hegster Top 4 Finish
Started the week off with my 3rd straight top cut appearance at the Hegster Top Deck series, finishing 3rd out of 115 players. I made some changes, going back to two Dedenne, cutting Gears, adding Marnie, going back to two Crystals and testing out 4 Comms to see if it helps to solve the issue of whiffing the VMAX evolution that cost me a coupe of wins days prior. It did it's job but I wasn't too convinced by it.
Also during this tourney I was convinced 2nd Stamp is far better than a 1-1 split of Stamp/Marnie as I had to rely on it just to ruin my opponent's hand while I was stuck as well. Ended up 6/1/1 in swiss, beating LucMet in Top 8 before losing to PikaRom in Top 4 who never missed flipping heads on Crushing Hammers, even knocking all 3 of my energies out at one points after a Flare Starter.
Later on in the week for Chill Series, I started testing Reshiram & Charizard-GX in place of Heatran-GX just to see how much better or worse it would do and in it's first match, it took all six prizes vs PikaRom so that went well. Only finished 4-3 in that tourney sadly. I also tested Zangoose in another tourney to see if it would help vs Eternatus and sadly never had the chance to find out.
It was also during this time where a few others started taking my list to try out for themselves and the first big winner was my guy
Edward Valencia, he won the first Limitless Online Series Weekly with 59 cards of what I used in Chill, with Heatran in place of ReshiZard. So that made me really happy!
A day later, I would bubble out of a top 8 finish in the first event of the 3rd season of PokeX. I gave Mallow and Lana another try in the hopes that it'd help get around Raichu's paralysis trick that kept making me lose and well....it just never did that for me.
Week 6 - Two Top 4 Finish in Three Days (Hegster and Sunday Open)
At some point during the week, I gave Tord Reklev's version of Centiskorch a try with Greens and Magneton and I just wasn't a big fan of it, 5-7 in two tourneys.
Went back to the normal list for Hegster S2 Top Deck 17, finish swiss with a 6-1 record (might have been 1st in swiss too), beating ADPZ in Top 8 before misplaying to the legend himself Azul Garcia Griego in top 4. I was satisfied with this list but something felt missing. I wasn't sure if 4th comm wasn't needed.
Played the same list for Jonno Cup but had no luck in that and that was also the first event where after 11 mirror matches, I finally lost to one but that was more due to me having a dead hand.
For the Sunday Open, I kept the same list from Hegster with the only change being ReshiZard coming in place of Heatran to see how it'd deal with the ADPZ/PikaRom matchups and it seemed to do alright too, got me the win over ADPZ twice but I did feel that Heatran was probably better for other matchups plus it only gave up one prize. Ended swiss 5/0/1, beating ADPZ in Top 8 then losing to Mew3 Welder in top 4, I was put in a no win situation.
Week 7 & 8 - Top 16 Limitless Weekly two weeks in a Row (Perfecting the list)
The Hegster invitational didn't go so well, winning the first round against ADPZ was the only good thing for me. I ended up losing the next two rounds but I liked how the deck was working with the newest addition of Great Catcher. The whole idea of it was me always finding myself in the middle of either needing Welder to power up or Boss to gust someone up in the PikaRom matchup. And then it hit me, why not Great Catcher so I can use both of them?
I kept messing around with ReshiZard for the Limitless WOS #3 and the deck worked really well, got me a 6/2/0 score, 16th out of 178 players which is not bad. Of course I knew right away ReshiZard should be Heatran, Marnie should be 2nd Stamp and one less Energy taken out so Giratina would be back in. That list for me would probably be the ideal Centiskorch list going forward and sure enough, it was!
Augusto Beringuer won the PokeX Challenge the next day with those changes so my thinking was on the right path, except he went with one Fire Crystal and 12 energies.
Now with the list set, it was time to give it a run at Sunday Open, I ended up 5/2/0, 14th out of 80 players, both losses were down to just bad luck, missing two important cards out of a 9 card deck from Dede draw and getting donked but the deck was working perfectly.
The core idea of the list almost won 3 tourneys in a row, Liam won Sunday Open with it and Vini came 2nd for E & D's qualifier. So we were on the right path now.
While I was happy with the list, I still couldn't shake off the Lum Berry idea off my mind so I gave it a try for Chrollo #7 and got all the way to the finals with it before losing to Poison Eternatus. The Lum Berry did help me win the second game of the series but only having 2 of them in deck, they just never showed up at the right time and it was only useful against those two decks.
Just for the heck of it, I thought "why not let's run Lum Berry again" for the next Limitless WOS. And it didn't hinder me at all, going 6/2/0 for the second week in a row! 15th out of 143 people with a suboptimal version of Centiskorch sure was funny but also nice. But I knew the Lum Berry idea just wasn't cutting it. I'd rather just take the loss to Poison Eternatus and improve my matches agaisnt everything else. Lum Berry did scare the PikaRom players enough for them to make sub-optimal plays so that was nice.
I went back to the ideal list for Perfection 1 of the 3rd season of PokeX, losing my last round to Eternatus to miss out on a top 16 finish. This was also the tourney I missed Lum Berry the most as I got paired with the combination of Poison Eternatus and PikaRom in 5 of my 8 rounds. Ended up 5-3 in the event which was nice as it was a best of 3 series in swiss but I stayed up till 6.30am so that wasn't good.
Week 9 - PokeGear Version
Went on a bit of a mixed run after that, losing win and in games in 6 tournaments in a row before bombing out of Hegster Top Deck 2 of the 3rd season. I started playing around with the PokeGear version of the list my friend Thomas Brophy had been doing alright with, wanting to see if it was any better but I just wasn't convinced as it made my LucMet matchup way worse.
I started playing around the idea of Ordinary Rod and Marshadow to see if that would help to beat out the decks using two Chaotic Swell and sure enough, I never played against a deck using just that so I never got to see how it'd work. More testing followed with that combo but I ended up using Ordinary Rod more to get Eldegoss/Heatran/Dedenne back and I still prefered having two Fire Crystal in hand in case of Swell.
Week 10 - Still messing around
I started the week off playing in my first E & D event for their LCQ, going 5/0/2 after swiss rounds before messing up against Blowns in top 8. Had I played well, I had a real shot of winning it as all the matchups were in my favour so that was a real big missed opportunity. I did try out Ninetales V in the Net version just to see how it'd do vs ADPZ and things like Zamazenta and ChuChu, and it worked nicely to be fair. Shame I don't have the space to have two Fire tech attackers in the list.
Week 11 - Finals of Gazerbeam's Tourney of Dreams
And here we go, the last time I'll get to play Centiskorch in this TEU-DAA format and it was Gazerbeam's Tourney of Dreams, a double elimination tourney best of 1 format. I went with the Gear version thinking it'll be better suited for best of 3 not realizing it was actually best of 1! Deck ran smoothly but of course I lost to LDF and his Mad Party deck in winner's finals and grand finals.
The main new addition (or re-inclusion) was getting Bird Keeper back into the deck for an easier way to get out of Paralysis and getting Heatran into action. So it's funny how I started the format off with Bird Keeper, didn't play it until the last week of the format itself but I always did like the card.
So that's how the journey with Centiskorch went, just 3 tournament wins out of the 49 I took part in (yes I play too much). 9 Top 4 finishes, 11 Top 8 finishes, 25 Top 16 finishes. So half of my tourneys ended with me inside top 16 so I'm quite happy with that, shows that I'm making some improvements to keep putting myself in a good spot at these events when say a year ago, I'd be struggling to make top 16.
The List
Going into the next format, my Centiskorch list will be based off this. I don't really see many changes needed since the deck doesn't really gain anything new from the set. So let's start with the 100% for sure must haves:
- Must Have (49) -
x3 Centiskorch V
x3 Centiskorch VMAX
x3 Volcanion
x2 Dedenne-GX
x1 Eldegoss V
x1 Crobat V
x1 Giratina
x4 Welder
x11 Fire Energy
x1 Fire Crystal
x3 Giant Hearth
x2 Boss's Orders
x1 Great Catcher
x4 Quick Ball
x3 Pokemon Communication
x1 Professor's Research
x1 Reset Stamp
x4 Switch
All these are self explanatory. 3-3 line of Centiskorch is usually enough to get the job done. Those 4 support Pokemon I feel will be a must going into the next format, especially Giratina.
11 Fire Energy feels just enough to get everything you need. 3 Gust options is the best way to go about it. 7 ball search may not sound like enough but it's been doing alright for me, if you can find a space for a 4th comm that would be even more helpful. The lone Research can come in very handy in very niche situations. So that's 46 cards sorted, all you need to do is figure the rest of the 11 cards and that usuall depends on which version of Turbo Skorch you prefer and also for some card counts.
- Scoop Net Options -
x4 Scoop Up Net
x2 Jirachi
x1 Zigzagoon
If you're going for the Scoop Up Net version, these are the additional must haves. Goon only helps in small situations but when you need it, it tends to be a game changer. Jirachi is a nice pivot to have at times and because of it, sometimes I like having a Bird Keeper in the deck to make full use of it. So that's 56 cards and the last three are up to personal preference:
- Tech Options -
- Either 2nd Fire Crystal or 12 Fire Energy
- Either 2 Stamps or 1 Marnie
- Either Cramorant or Dubwool as your non-Fire attacker
- Either Heatran-GX, Reshiram & Charizard-GX, Ninetales V or 4th Centiskorch V
I personally prefer having 11 Fire and 2 Crystal as it helps me have an out to Swell. As for hand disruption, I've grown to prefer 2 stamps as using a supporter to do that doesn't really suit this deck in particular. As for the colourless option, I'd rather go with Cramorant as the snipe option can come in handy in many situations, even in the mirror match or against unfavoured matchups like Inteleon VMAX.
And the last backup attacking choice, I've come to the conclusion that Heatran just offers so much more over the other 3 choices.
- Heatran can help you get donk wins out of nowhere. Heatran is also extremely useful in the ADPZ matchup and dealing with Zamazenta. Also can hit 350 for 7 energies, more than Centiskorch funnily enough who only does 320 with the same amount.
- ReshiZard can tank a hit and the thing going for it is that it does deal with support Pokemon easier than the rest, but so does Centiskorch VMAX. Giving up 3 prizes for lesser HP than Skorch doesn't feel that good.
- Ninetales I've found to be extremly useful in the ADPZ matchup and also the LucMetZ matchup. It can also copy Tandem Shock to give your opponent's ChuChu a piece of their own medicine.
- 4th Centiskorch just to make sure you start with it.
However, if you prefer the Gears version
- Gear Options -
x4 PokeGear
x1 Crobat V or Eldegoss V
x1 Marshadow
x1 Ordinary Rod or Volcanion
PokeGear is self explanatory. Crobat gives you extra draw power but Eldegoss gives you another option for a 5th/6th Welder or 3rd/4th Boss and I've always liked having two Eldegoss in Centiskorch anyway. Marshadow is there just to deal with Choatic Swell. And for the last spot, personal choice, either go for the 4th Volcanion to maximise your Flare Starter odds or the recovery choice of Ordinary Rod.
Matchups and stats
So here's some fun stats part, I'll share how I did against the main decks of the format and instead of giving a guess on how the matchup would go, I'll give actual facts on how it went for me in those matchups.
vs Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX/Zacian V (55 games played, won 33 = 60% win rate)
I did always think Centiskorch was always slight favored vs ADPZ. You had so many options to take all six prizes. If you're able to knock out their ADPZ Turn 2, you're winning 90% of the time. And you have various options to get there. Turn 1 Flare Starter + Welder onto Centiskorch or a Turn 1 Welder onto Heatran to hit the ADP twice. Sometimes you might even get lucky to knock out their Zacians right away. This is also the one matchup that Ninetales V truly shines, if you decide to play it.
But it's not always a give that you'll win. You are quite reliant on Dedenne/Crobat if you have a bad start and one awfully timed Mawile can lose you the game. Sometimes they can even win just from you bricking which probably controubled to 20% of my losses.
vs Eternatus non Poison variant (33 games played, won 19 = 57% win rate)
This one is a close matchup as you need the perfect set-up to firstly take down their first Eternatus VMAX and then be able to tank a hit from the next one to take it down as well. This is one of the matchups where Goon/Nets shines the most. Cramorant tends to be very helpful here too.
vs Pikachu & Zekrom-GX (27 games played, won 12 = 44% win rate)
This matchup, if anything, is slightly favoured to the Peeks as they have various options to lose you the game, either through stupid hammer luck, or the usual stamp to 1-2 and paralyze you out of the game. I never did get a lot of luck in this matchup. Also you need to go 2nd to really stand a chance of winning.
vs Centiskorch VMAX (27 games played, won 21 = 78% win rate)
Now this one is probably the most surprising of the whole lot. It's a mirror match, so it should be 50-50 but I've been able to get the best out of the mirror match many times, especially when I'm forced to go first. In fact I started the format of with an 11 match winning streak in the mirror matches. Unlike ADPZ mirror matches, this one tends to be more interesting. You won't try to aimlessly attack into them until the right time shows up.
vs Lucario & Melmetal-GX/Zacian V (22 games played, won 19 = 86% win rate)
One of your better matchups and the win rate shows. I'm not saying it's a 100% for sure win as weird things can happen as evident from my 3 losses. My losses to this deck was mainly down to losing a Skorch to a Turn 2 fully powered Zacian V + Boss or not having a way to get around Weakness Guard. Heatran-GX made this matchup even better for our side. I've even won 2 games against this with the combination of Heatran-GX and Ordinary Rod. This is also the only match where if possible, I'd choose to go first.
vs Mewtwo & Mew-GX/Welder Toolbox (24 games played, won 15 = 62.5% win rate)
This one is a tricky one as it should be 50-50, Mew3 has various of ways to beat Centiskorch but they always do seem to miss some tricks to get there which is probably why I won more times than I lost. You do need to be mindful of Indeedee V showing up out of nowhere or the usual Nasty Goo-GX trick so not spamming Switches is vital.
vs Blacephalon UNB (15 games played, won 10 = 67% win rate)
This one is a little surprising as I honestly believe Blacephalon UNB is favoured in this matchup as it can easily get those huge KOs. Them depending a lot on their support Pokemon does help give us free targets and that's how I kept beating them I suppose. If it was a 33% win rate, I wouldn't be surprised.
vs Poison Eternatus (9 games played, won 2 = 22% win rate)
Yup, this one is just terrible. There's really not much you can do but hope and pray. Your only realistic hope is knocking our their Eternatus VMAX on your 2nd turn with 8 energies on your VMAX and try to survive the next attack. The problem is their Poison trick is a bit too much to handle.
vs Decidueye/Obstagoon (8 games played, won 8 = 100% win rate)
Normally, I don't like to say a match-up is an auto-win since anything can happen, you could have the worst start possible and lose. But yeah this is an auto-win. Their tricks won't affect you if you play correctly, using your Volcanions and Centiskorch at the right time.
vs Green's Reshiram & Charizard (8 games played, won 4 = 50% win rate)
50-50 matchup and the score proves it. For this, whoever goes 2nd pretty much wins. If you can get your VMAX running quickly, you just run over them. If not, they just run over you easily.
Next Format
Right now, I still don't have a clue on what will do well in the next format or not but one thing is for sure, I will still be doing my best to keep making Centiskorch as good as it can be. With LucMet/Zacian projected to jump into Tier 1, that gives us one really good matchup. ADPZ will still be around, so make it two. Jury is still out on the Coalossal matchup but I do hope it scares away the PikaRoms and Eternatus, two of our worst matchups.
As for new additions, I'll be testing out the new Talonflame V out for sure just to see if it's worth having the new hand after Turn 1. Typically, if I have to go first, I'd rather have my first energy on my Centiskorch V to build up a possibly 200 hit for turn 2 so that is already conflicting with some of my game plans. Ninetales V is an interesting choice with many new interesting attacks to take advantage of.
No new cards really catches my eye as things needed to add into the deck but 100%, Giratina will be good. I might even want to test two of them. I'll likely stick to the Scoop Up Net version since it's working well for me.
Other Decks I Played
I didn't just play Centiskorch the whole way though. I knew that if I wanted to really improve, I needed to get used to playing all sorts of decks and try to get decent results with most of them. The ones I refused to play were decks with Crushing Hammer as I'm not a fan of that card and I don't want to rely on luck to win games and also Control decks, it's just not for me.
