Saturday, July 5, 2025

Singapore Master Ball League 2025 - Made Top 32 Cut! + Season Review

  It's the final event of the 2024/25 season for us, the Singapore Master Ball League, aka the Championships from the past 2 years or generally, Nationals from years ago. This is the event where the winner earns a World Championship invite and it pays out the biggest points so doing well helps anyone's cause to make it there as well (just a reminder, Top 8 in standings + 2 Finalists from this event). 


My season hasn't been great. Sure the first month was amazing, I skyrocketed up to 8th with not much points from the Premier Ball League. Missing all 3 UBLs in the first part of the season is where my season took a big turn for the worse and I never recovered from there. So long story short, my only hopes to make it to Anaheim was to make finals of this event.


The problem was, I hadn't played much Pokémon TCG since the UBLs. My last event was a win-a-box event at some card show 3 weeks prior to the MBL and the very next day I headed off to Sacramento Francisco, California for my cousin's wedding. So when I landed back in Singapore, I had touched cards in two whole weeks with only 4 days to play test and decide my deck.


Deck Choices

I only had two decks in mind, either Dragapult ex/Charizard ex or Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex. I knew the top decks were not for me, aka Gardevoir or Raging Bolt. And I didn't enjoy playing Dragapult with the other partners.


As far back as the Thursday during the week of NAIC, I had made my mind up initially on Dragapult ex/Charizard ex after seeing both Rowan Stavenow and Jesper Eriksen play the deck flawlessly against a number of different matchups during the Masters Cup event that was livestreamed by Limitless. 


So I went I got back to our AirBnB spot, I took apart my Dragapult ex/Dusknoir deck and build this exact 60 with the hopes to try it out at a California locals if I had the free time. Sadly I didn't but it would have been funny as the only other time I played in the US, my deck also had Dragapult and Charizard in it!

Then NAIC happened. Nothing really caught my eye until the Seniors finals, my guy Gabriel Fernandez won the thing with Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex with Munkidori! And that deck looked really smooth. So I started testing it on Live as well and put the pieces I needed to build that deck with my Pult Zard deck so I can test them both.



Got back to Singapore, played locals for 3 days straight (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday). I ended up testing the 3 lists I was considering. The first was given to me by my friend Vignesh, it was the standard Zard with a few cool techs that I liked. 

I went 2-1, all I played were Gardevoirs haha! But the deck worked as well as I hoped. Tried Gabriel's list on Wednesday, went 2-1 as well, only loss was the last round to a Pult Dusk player. 



Then I tried the Pult Zard list that Rowan's group played at NAIC, and I went 3-0! And it's not as if I had an easy run that day, I played against Hannah first (spoiler alert, she made Top 8 with this same deck) with her Raging Bolt no Noctowl deck, then I played Ernest, who is still in the chase for the Worlds spot, and he played his usual Roaring Moon Poison deck. 

And finally Yi Quan (spoiler alert again, he made Top 16 with this deck too) and he played Grimmsnarl. That felt like my worst matchup and I somehow got the win there! So my confidence was up after that locals and I was ready to lock in Pult Zard, it felt the better choice after studying both deck's matchups against the expected meta.


The List

Yup I just took the same list as the guys that did well in NAIC did. The only thing I was considering changing was Chi Yu in the Hawlucha spot but didn't make that switch in the end. Deck felt great so I had no reason to change it.

4-4-2 Dragapult
  • Main attacker and draw engine of the deck, 2 Pults were fine but you'll see how that became a problem in one match
2-1-2 Charizard
  • The back-up attacker but mostly for the late game, also helps to accelerate energies to the Pult lines
1 Fezandipiti ex
1 Munkidori
1 Hawlucha 
1 Budew
  • Fez is too good not to include, great draw engine after a KO which is often but it is an easy target for opponents to boss up
  • Munkidori works well with the 4 Luminous energy, helps to fix some maths against certain decks
  • Hawlucha helps to take out 70 HP or 210 HP mons
  • Budew is there to help stall out the first few turns or in some rare cases, late game as well

4 Arven
  • Great starting supporter
  • Rescue Board + Poffin is always a good first start to the game
  • Having an out to use TM Evolution is helpful for this deck, especially under Budew lock
  • Can find Unfair Stamp for the turn you need it
4 Iono
  • Great disruption card, especially late game
  • But also a great draw card too, don't forget that
3 Boss's Orders
  • Need I say more? We can be a bit of a combo deck and playing against another one, the best way to stop theirs is to Boss up the thing they're building up to
  • Many easy targets to pick off
2 Professor's Research
  • Discard + draw 7 is always good, don't always need it but it comes in handy

4 Ultra Ball
  • I don't really need to explain this one right?
4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin
  • Helps sets up Dreepys, Charmanders and Budew
2 Counter Catcher
  • We tend to start off slow and we don't mind giving up a few prizes early so this is a powerful weapon when we need to pick apart their board, or win the game outright
2 Rare Candy
  • It's mostly for Charizard ex but sometimes you really need to get a Dragapult ex up and running in no time so it's a good fall back plan
1 Unfair Stamp
  • An item disruption card is scary, just ask anyone who played when Reset Stamp was around
  • Putting them to 2 cards and can kill off any hopes of a comeback or just stall enough time to make our comeback into the game
  • Drawing 5 is not bad too
1 Nest Ball
  • We don't really need a Nest Ball but it's a good out to both Fezandipiti ex and Munkidori, two very useful cards at that
1 Super Rod
1 Night Stretcher
  • Great recovery options, don't really need more
  • They will come in handy when you least expect it

1 Jamming Tower
  • We're not that reliant on Tools but many decks, namely Gardevoir, Grimmsnarl, decks with Bravery Charm are heavily dependent on these tools so it's good to shut those down, and take a cheeky KO sometimes

1 Rescue Board
  • Great tool for retreating
  • Many tend to forget the mon that has it with 30 HP left has free retreat, it usually never comes up but be mindful of that
1 TM Evolution
  • We want our Drakloaks to be up and running right away and we don't really need Budew to start us off every match so TM Evo is super helpful to build our board up too
  • Can help threaten a Charizard by getting our Charmeleon up as well


5 Fire Energy
4 Luminous Energy

  • This energy count seems right to me, it helps to fulfill Dragapult's energy for Phantom Dive and for Munkidori to use Adrena-Brain


Day 1 - Singapore Master Ball League 2025 - Swiss Rounds

We didn't know how many rounds there were or how many people there were. I had to calculate the players myself and saw it was 524 by Round 2 with all the Round 1 byes, so I guessed it was 9 rounds. We got the info before Round 3 it was 8 rounds. Plan was still to go x-1 at least but about 12 people at x-2 should make it in.


Round 1
vs Allen Lim (SG) - (0/3 Drop)
Deck: Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex
W
I went 2nd

First round and it's Grimmsnarl. I was a bit worried since I knew how tricky this matchup is. Luckily my opponent misplayed by hitting me early so I had a chance to pull off some cheeky KOs on their Munkidori. Starting off with a win in any major event is always nice!

Round 2
vs Ernest Kang (SG) - (6/2)
Deck: Toedscruel ex
W
I went 2nd

I got worried when I saw just Budew in my hand and knowing Ernest, he loves his Poison decks. And then he flipped over Toedscool and I got confused. I've never seen him play this before! I had to go full in on Zard at one point and pray he didn't have an answer. He's playing a grass deck, of course he did.

His one misplay was moving his energy off his damage Toedscruel ex that already had 200 damage. I needed a lot to take my last 4 prizes and then came the Iono of all Ionos! I drew into Counter Catcher and Hawlucha for the game! Woohoo! Still alive!

I did kinda wished I had Chi-Yu for this game though.

Round 3
vs Clement Loy (SG) - (4/3 Drop)
Deck: Gholdengo ex
W
I went 1st

The funny story here is, Clement already told me he was playing Gholdengo before the event started and I completely forgot when we sat down! Once again, I wished I had Chi-Yu here.

And once again, I caught one misplay. I hit his active Gimmy for 10 with Budew, a few others had damage, he healed from the wrong person so I was able to take a double KO to keep the 2 prize trade going. That's how I won!

Round 4
vs Phoon Yong Sing (SG) - (5/3)
Deck: Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex
W
I went 1st

I don't remember much from this game apart from the obvious. He took the first prize, I did counter catcher + Hawlucha and just stayed on 2 prizes from there on. Quite a straight forward game thankfully.



Round 5
vs Brendan Chua (SG) - (5/3)
Deck: Dragapult ex/Dusknoir
W
I went 2nd

Oh this was a fun one. My last bad misplay was also against Brendan and I was a bit worried when I saw him. And then I did my deck check. And I checked it again.

And again. Where are my Dragapults? I prized both of them! How am I supposed to play a Dragapult mirror match....with no Dragapults? So I guess I'm now a Charizard deck with a Drakloak engine haha. I had to make that switch quickly.

And somehow it worked! He was a bit stuck and my Zards carried me that whole game! He couldn't pull of the Dusk bomb combos. I still have no idea how I managed to win that one with no Pults, I didn't see them after taking my next 2 prizes!

Round 6
vs Kaizer Sim (SG) - (7/1)
Deck: Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex
L
I went 2nd

5-0, the first time I start this well in a major event and I hit Kaizer. I've never beaten him before so I was a bit worried. And I got more worried when I saw my starting hand, it was not good. Kaizer was up 3 prizes before I could do anything much.

But the comeback was working well! He had to pass one turn which gave me the turn to do what I needed. Take out a two prizer. Then he missed again. Now I was back, all I needed was an out to Counter Catcher, Arven or Boss. And I missed them all. So I had no way to win after that. Back down to x-1 but it was nice while it lasted.

Round 7
vs Jeremy Soh (SG) - (6/2)
Deck: Dragapult ex
W
I went 2nd

We go from one top player to another. I wasn't sure which version Jeremy was playing so that was scary, as I know he can play any of the Pult variants. He had a super slow start which really helped me. 

He did make the comeback and it was getting close, a late game Iono almost got me. The funny thing is, I forgot I had game already in hand. All I needed was some way to get energy on board. I was so focused on Zard + Munki taking the KO on his Pult, I completely forgot Boss + Munki also got me game. Oh well at least we got the win and we're still in the running for top cut!

Round 8
vs Low Wei Hao (SG) - (7/1)
Deck: Dragapult ex/Dusknoir
L
I went 2nd

I had a bad feeling when I saw the pairing. I saw the name Low Wei Hao and thought....wait this sounds familiar and then I saw Ricky right in front of me, oh yup. He's another one who I've got a poor record against. 

We did have to wait almost 30 minutes before we go to play because of an issue in the last round. And then we played, well one of us did. I had one of my worst starting hands and just never got going because he got to use his dusk bomb 3 times! There's no coming back after that.

I was a bit sad after that because I know being in x-2 is not a good spot, you don't know if you're in or not. At least I got the good news that I finished 20th in the standings so I was safely in thanks to Kaizer and Ricky being my losses.



Woohoo I made top cut! My second top cut at a Nationals event in 3 years, my 4th top cut at a major event too. So far my record is one win and the rest has been losing in the first round (Top 8 and Top 16) so it follows my gameplan I suppose, win or bust. I have to win tomorrow or I'm busted.


Day 2 - Singapore Master Ball League 2025 - Top Cut Rounds

Top 32
vs Poh Jia Hui Daniel (SG) - (7/1)
Deck: Dragapult ex/Charizard ex
LL

I went 1st then 2nd


It's a mirror match up first and I was prepared for it, having read some notes and getting advice from all my friends. I knew what the gameplan was for this match. But it being a mirror match, I was worried about the variance, these type of matches usually comes down to that.


And sadly in this case, it did. Both times I could not set-up while my opponent did. He did keep focusing on setting up a Dreepy and Charmander both times though and that seemed a bit weird to me as I know we should be focusing on Dreepys first. The first game he went first and I didn't have anything much going on when he Iono-ed me and hit me with Budew, I had nothing in my hand to get Drakloaks or TM Evo. I scooped after 11 minutes, I played a bit more just to see if it was really a same 60 mirror or not, I did see him discarding watchtower so it wasn't the same 60.


Game 2, I went second and I was feeling confident....that was until I did my prize check. Two Dreepys in the prizes! That's a big no-no in any Dragapult mirror matches, you need at least 3 on board and ideally 4 to keep the deck running. So only have 2 and likely one to get KOed because he too had Munkidori is a scary feeling. The problem was I didn't have much going in this game either. I got the TM Evo turn 1. He got a Pult up Turn 2 with both energies on it to hit my Fez (yes, I started freaking Fez in this important game) and 30 on both Drakloaks. 


Yup it was bad. I did drag the game out as much as I could, ending up with a Zard and a damaged Pult in the end, Iono to 2 to help me with the comeback. And of course he had Boss from it. My heart sank because I was ready to go Game 3 and I knew what to do because I had read the rules about the timing stuff and I knew I had to be as aggressive as possible.


For those who might not know the rulings, I don't blame you because it's confusing but here you go, they gave us this sheet to read up on:


I was devasted. My hopes for going back to Worlds is over for this season. I thought I could make a deep run especially with all the top Grimmsnarl players being on the other side of the bracket so I liked my odds to get to finals but I failed in the first hurdle. 


Nothing else hurts than to lose in two games where I couldn't even play while my opponent could do everything and anything they wanted. That's just how it goes sometimes. 


But on the flip side I was still happy to make top cut, especially with how bad my season has been since the start of January. The only real high spots has been the Day 2 finish in Melbourne and now this! I haven't had much to smile about lately. Another Limitless entry is always nice!



2024/25 Season Re-cap

Well another year, and another failed season in all honesty. I had set a minimal target for myself to finish inside the top 30 in the standings and for the second year in a row, I missed out by not much, I finished 32nd again!

2025 standings

2024 standings


At least I kept my run of scoring points in most of my events going. 90% last season out of just 10 events, 85% this season from 26 events. 

What does annoy me is that I was 1 point off from my target of a Top 30 finish. Why does that matter? The 2nd last GBL I played, I was in a good spot to get a Top 4 finish and I finished 4-1, but because I lost to Noel, I ended up 5th since he was placed 2nd in the standings after the DGL with Eugene. But somehow, on the website, he's placed as first, yet I was still 5th. So those two missing points did really matter for me.

Season 1
  • PBL S1 - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex - 6/2 - 70th (5 LP)
  • GBL S1 #01 - Declined & Lost Lottery
  • GBL S1 #03 - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex - 4/1 - 3rd (12 LP)
  • GBL S1 #05 - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex - 5/1 - 2nd (15 LP)
  • GBL S1 #06 - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex - 5/1 - 7th (10 LP)Declined but Won Lottery
  • GBL S1 #08 - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex - 4/1 - 4th (12 LP)
  • UBL S2#01 - Declined & Lost Lottery
  • UBL S2#02 - Declined & Lost Lottery
  • UBL S3#03 - Declined & Lost Lottery

Season 2 
  • GBL S2 #01 - Lugia VSTAR/Archeops - 4/1 - 5th (10 LP)
  • GBL S2 #04 - Miraidon ex - 4/2 - 9th (8 LP)
  • GBL S2 #05 - Declined & Lost Lottery
  • GBL S2 #07 - Dragapult ex/Dusknoir - 2/4 - 34th
  • GBL S2 #11 - Declined & Lost Lottery
  • GBL S2 #12 - Gouging Fire ex - 5/0 - 1st (30 LP)
  • GBL S2 #13 - Declined & Lost Lottery
  • GBL S2 #14 - Dragapult ex/Charizard ex - 4/3 - 20th (6 LP)
  • GBL S2 #20 - Archaludon ex - 4/2 - 8th (10 LP)
  • GBL S2 #22 - Declined & Lost Lottery
  • GBL S2 #24 - Declined & Lost Lottery
  • UBL S2 #01 - Gholdengo ex - 6/2 - 32nd/220 (15 LP)
  • UBL S2 #02 - Gardevoir ex - 4/4 - 72nd/260 (8 LP)
  • UBL S2 #03 - Lugia VSTAR/Archeops - 5/3- 43rd/300 (10 LP)

Season 3
  • GBL S3 #01 - Terapagos ex/Noctowl - 6/2 - 18th (6 LP)
  • GBL S3 #04 - Gholdengo ex/Dudunsparce - 3/2 - 7th (8 LP) - Declined but Won Lottery
  • GBL S3 #08 - Gholdengo ex/N's Zoroark ex - 3/2 - 12th
  • GBL S3 #09 - Declined & Lost Lottery
  • GBL S3 #10 - Declined & Lost Lottery
  • GBL S3 #11 - Dragapult ex/Dusknoir - 2/4 - 36th
  • GBL S3 #13 - Declined & Lost Lottery
  • GBL S3 #14 - Declined & Lost Lottery
  • GBL S3 #15 - Dragapult ex - 3/2 - 11th (8 LP) - Declined but Won Lottery
  • GBL S3 #16 - Dragapult ex - 4/2 - 15th (8 LP)
  • GBL S3 #23 - Gholdengo ex/Dragapult ex - 3/3 - 12th (8 LP)
  • GBL S3 #29 - Miraidon ex/Joltik Box - 4/1 - 5th (10 LP)
  • GBL S3 #30 - Declined & Lost Lottery
  • GBL S3 #31 - Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex - 2/3 - 16th (8 LP)
  • Melbourne Regional 2025 - Dragapult ex/Dusknoir - 6/3/2 - 67th/563 (80 CP)
  • UBL S3 #2 - Miraidon ex/Joltik Box - 6/3 - 34th/300 (10 LP)
  • UBL S3 #3 - Tera Box - 3/5 - 119th/253
  • MBL S3 - Dragapult ex/Charizard ex - 6/3 - 26th/524 (25 LP)

Some stats for the season:

Decks played:

Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
Events: 5
Combined Scores: 24-6 (80% win rate)
Points Scored: 54 LP
Wins: 
Top 4s: 3
Top 8s: 4

Lugia VSTAR/Archeops
Events: 2
Combined Scores: 9-4 (69% win rate)
Points Scored: 20 LP
Wins: 
Top 4s: 
Top 8s: 1

Miraidon ex
Events: 3
Combined Scores: 14-6 (70% win rate)
Points Scored: 28 LP
Wins: 
Top 4s: 
Top 8s: 1

Dragapult ex/Dusknoir
Events: 3
Combined Scores: 10-11-2 (43% win rate)
Points Scored:  LP
Wins: 
Top 4s: 
Top 8s: 

Gouging Fire ex
Events: 1
Combined Scores: 5-0 (100% win rate)
Points Scored: 30 LP
Wins: 1
Top 4s: 1
Top 8s: 1

Dragapult ex/Charizard ex
Events: 2
Combined Scores: 10-6 (63% win rate)
Points Scored: 31 LP
Wins: 
Top 4s: 
Top 8s: 

Archaludon ex
Events: 1
Combined Scores: 4-2 (67% win rate)
Points Scored: 10 LP
Wins: 
Top 4s: 
Top 8s: 1

Gholdengo ex
Events: 4
Combined Scores: 15-9 (63% win rate)
Points Scored: 31 LP
Wins: 
Top 4s: 
Top 8s: 1

Gardevoir ex
Events: 1
Combined Scores: 4-4 (50% win rate)
Points Scored: 8 LP
Wins: 
Top 4s: 
Top 8s: 

Terapagos ex/Noctowl
Events: 1
Combined Scores: 6-2 (75% win rate)
Points Scored: 8 LP
Wins: 
Top 4s: 
Top 8s: 

Dragapult ex
Events: 2
Combined Scores: 7-4 (64% win rate)
Points Scored: 16 LP
Wins: 
Top 4s: 
Top 8s: 

Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex
Events: 1
Combined Scores: 2-3 (40% win rate)
Points Scored: 8 LP
Wins: 
Top 4s: 
Top 8s: 

Tera Box
Events: 1
Combined Scores: 3-5 (38% win rate)
Points Scored:  LP
Wins: 
Top 4s: 
Top 8s: 

Charizard/Pidgeot was my go-to deck, I played it for all but one event last season and I was planning to do the same this season. And then Budew showed up. Who knows what would have happened had I been abled to just run with Zard the whole way again.

Pult/Zard and Gholdengo were the other two decks that got me some good scores. Gouging Fire was the only one that got me a win, and it was the one and only time I played it!

I still feel I could have done a lot better. 3 Top 4 in my first 4 GBLs of the season and I never reached anywhere close to that after that, so that's something I need to work on, and topping or close to topping these smaller events if I want to do well. But I also need to do well at these UBLs too, of the 5 I got to play, my best result was just 32nd. That's not good enough, simple as that.

Hopes for 2025/26 Season


Well, I'm going to do the same as before, I've got a few targets I want to hit but also just own personal achievements I want to get done:
  • Play Better
    • Anyone who knows me knows I'm still not very good, I'm still not satisfied at where I am. I'm still playing silly little misplays here and there. Jeremy once told me my macro-decision making is great, but micro-decision is still not quite there and I know that's one of my main weaknesses. And with that...
  • Make Better Decisions
    • Yeah I know, it's one of my biggest weakness. Be it game wise, deck wise or just anything in general. I've made sloppy plays, made bad meta calls, I need to eliminate them
  • Do Better
    • The one thing I've been able to show the last two season was my consistency, always scoring points which felt good. The problem is, it's usually just barely inside the points, never fighting for Top 4s or the wins, that's what I need to do to show I can make it make to the Worlds stage
  • Win a GBL (Minimal Target)
    • This falls under the minimal target for a simple reason
      • Winning a GBL means I don't have to worry about not getting to play in a UBL, if anyone should know about this, it would be me
  • Top 4 in a UBL (Big Target)
    • This will be part of my main target for the season
    • Plus I haven't done well in a UBL yet, I need to change that soon
    • Top 4 in UBL means you get a bye for the MBL, and that usually helps with the event itself
  • Earn my Worlds invite for 2026 World Championships in San Francisco (Main Target)
    • Well I'd like to make it to the big time for a 2nd time at least, just to prove I'm not a one hit wonder
    • And it's in San Francisco! I was just there. North Cali feels like my 2nd home as I have family there and I'd love to play there and also visit them at the same time.
    • And I always wanted to play in a big event in the US. I haven't had the chance to do so yet and I'd like to do that
    • And meet up with more of my friends too! Most of them couldn't make it to Yokohama so why not!
  • Get Sponsored
    • Get paid or have people helping me to do something I enjoy! Who doesn't want that right?  (I'm just joking around, this will probably never happen)
  • Enjoy the game (Always the target)
    • I mean, am I not wrong? We love playing this game for a reason, so let's keep enjoying it and make it fun for everyone!

Thanks for reading! To those going to Anaheim next month, all the best to you and for the rest, let's have a great 2025-26 season! I plan on going to San Francisco for Worlds 2026 anyway, just not sure if I'll go as a spectator or as a player.

Saturday, May 24, 2025

Melbourne Regional 2025 - My first TPCi Day 2 finish but 1 win short off Top 32


 So I didn't attend the first Ultra Ball League of Season 3 of the 2024-25 season for a good reason, I traded in the boring bo1 event for a way more fun bo3 event that was the 2025 Melbourne Regional. It was my second TPCi Regional event, the first being Kuala Lumpur Regional back in 2019, but it was my first properly over-seas regional event. So my first regional event outside of Asia.


I've always said that I'd love to, eventually, go around to many different places to play Pokémon, be it in the United States, Canada, Europe, wherever it may be. I want to know what it's like to play with people from different places because in Singapore, I can only play against my own locals. It's nice but it can get a bit repetitive. Plus I learnt to play Pokémon through Bo3, I will always prefer playing Bo3 than Bo1 and I can't get Bo3 here in Asia.


Before Flying Off


The biggest question was....what deck do I play? Anyone who has followed my season so far knows the story, since January I've been in a bit of a rut, not finding a new comfort deck or any deck that I enjoy playing. I've just been jumping from one deck to another every other event. 


So I didn't just pack one deck to bring to Melbourne, I brought at least 5 just in case. Dragapult, Charizard, Gholdengo, Joltik, and pieces to any deck playing the Noctowl engine not named Flareon.


I even made a list of what I think I would end up playing:


The irony here of Dragapult/Dusknoir being my first choice being that...well...my two worst results of this season so far came from the last two times I played Dragapult/Dusknoir, both times being a 2-4 score. But I always knew it was more of a bo3 deck so that's why it was high up on my considerations plus it had a better Gardevoir matchup over the solo Pult variant.


Gholdengo was initially my 2nd pick but I didn't feel too good about it as the week went on and somehow, good ol' Charizard with Dusknoir became my 2nd choice for the biggest event I would have played in a long while, having not played much of it in the first place! But I felt like I knew how to play it as well as I could. Then of course, we have the "in case of emergency, break glass" deck, Joltik Box. And trust me, I came very close to doing it.


What about the homies? There were a bunch of us all staying together in our apartment and some knew what to play, some not so as well: 


  • Jeremy - Dead set on Gardevoir for a month now
  • Bjorn - Raging Bolt but with some spice in true Bjorn fashion
  • Jason - Same 60 as Bjorn 
  • My brother Ash - Initally on Pult but switched to Gholdengo solo then a last second switch to Gholdengo Dragapult for more draw options 
  • Keith - Standard Tera Box
  • Ryan - Standard Tera Box with some spice
  • Noel - Initially on Pult Dusk then made the last second switch to Pult Zard 


So no same 60ing as anyone but also because the Pult/Dusk list I chose was a bit different to anything anyone else was trying out. I locked in the deck at about 10:30pm on Friday night, making one single change to the list at 5.30am! I gotta thank my buddy Luke Morsa for getting me hooked onto this list, he told me about it after Milwaukee and I tested it more than the other lists.


The Deck


POKEMON

  • 4-4-2 Dragapult Line
    • The usual, just one less Dragapult ex to make up space for other stuff but I felt the 3rd one wasn't needed
  • 2-2-1 Dusknoir Line
    • 1 Dusknoir was more than enough, I'm usually using Dusclops more anyway
  • 2 Budew
    • Itchy Pollen to not just slow your opponent down but help you build your board up
  • 1 Fezandipiti ex
    • We all need it, don't we?
  • 1 Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex
    • I like it for the late game attack, especially in combination with Dusclops
  • 1 Hawlucha
    • Good to take out 70 HP mons or KO 210 HP mons
  • 1 Munkidori
    • Gives more options to take out stuff like Drakloak, Kirlia and other big basic mons

SUPPORTERS
  • 4 Iono
    • Best supporter in this deck
  • 2 Arven
    • Probably the best thing to use Turn 1
  • 2 Jacq
    • Probably the best thing to use Turn 2
  • 2 Professor's Research
    • Hand refresh is good, especially now in this Budew meta, more supporters is good
  • 2 Boss's Orders
    • Having 4 gust options with this deck can be really good and there'll be times you can't use Counter Catcher so 2 Boss helps with that
ITEMS
  • 4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin
    • Good ball search for the little guys
  • 3 Ultra Ball
    • Good ball search for the bigger guys
  • 1 Nest Ball
    • More so for Fezandipiti ex or Munkidori most of the time
  • 2 Night Stretcher
    • I did try a Super Rod in this spot but 2 Stretcher just felt right, more often you're using this to get back an energy right away or a Dusclops
    • Also more outs to get energy cards along with Vessel
  • 2 Counter Catcher
    • Works well with how this deck works, and 4 gusting options is nice
  • 1 Earthen Vessel
    • Another out to get energy in the deck since we only play 7
  • 1 Switch
    • Retreat lock is a thing now so we need the option
  • 1 Unfair Stamp
    • Probably the best Ace Spec card for this deck, I'm still not too sure about it because I'm not a fan but it's the one that generally works best for this list. I'm still exploring other options
  • 1 Rare Candy
    • This was the last minute swap. Initially it was an Exp Share but I didn't see I was getting much use of it and I was worried about how quickly decks like Tera Box, Joltik Box and Raging Bolt could run my board off so I wanted this as a "just in case" option if I'm really far behind
TOOLS
  • 1 Rescue Board
    • Great tool to help move into Budew
  • 1 Luxurious Cape
    • Great to put on Budew to help with Budew wars
    • Can help to save Drakloak from sniping options
STADIUMS
  • 1 Artazon
    • Help to put little mons on the board under Budew lock
  • 1 Pokémon League Headquarters
    • Very good into decks like Joltik Box
    • Can be a cheeky option late on to stop their Bloodmoon Ursaluna or other basic mons to attack
ENERGY
  • 3 Luminous Energy
    • Best energy to use in this deck, helps to save the issue Dragapult usually has of trying to get the two different energies
    • Allows us to use Munkidori as well
  • 2 Fire Energy
  • 2 Psychic Energy

That's the 60! It felt fine honestly.


2025 Melbourne Regional

Day 1 - Saturday

Round 1
vs Brendan Prewett (AUS) - (2/4/0)
Deck: Charizard ex/Noctowl
LWW
I went 2nd/2nd/2nd

First round in and my opponent reveals a Charmander and Fan Rotom so I already knew what I needed to do. I did my first deck search and sure enough, both Budews were prized so I was in trouble already for the first game. I played out a few more turns just to learn more about his deck, I managed to see a Dusknoir piece so after that I scooped and went to Game 2.

Game 2 and 3 went perfectly for me, Budew lock did it's job. So much so, my two Budews got knocked out in back to back turns in Game 3 and I had to go Stretcher to get it back because my set-up was still quite bad and that one turn did enough for me to set up a 4-prize turn after that. A comeback win in Round 1, I was feeling good...

Round 2
vs Kaiwen Cabbabe (AUS) - (7/2/2)
Deck: Gardevoir ex
LL
I went 2nd/2nd

...and then I saw my pairing for Round 2. "Oh shit, it's Kaiwen"! I was excited at first. Then as I was walking to my table it hit me "Oh shit it's Kaiwen, he probably knows this matchup way more than I do". I did say I picked this deck quite late on. I did have some games vs Garde but probably not as much as he has with his testing group vs my testing group.....aka just myself and ladder opponents on PTCGL.

I had a super slow start Game 1 and I knew I couldn't come back from it. What I didn't realise was he prized all 3 Munkidoris. But he still had a strong enough board state to wipe anything I did.

Game 2 was a lot closer even with the Munkis involved. This is where I fucked up. At one point, he had no energy in discard, two Gardevoirs. One with energies, one without. I had Counter Catcher, Stamp and a fully charged Dragapult ready to go. But I was debating on who I should gust up. That's where I messed up.

I went for the Gardevoir which was wrong, I should have gone for the Fezandipiti. That way, I can put all sorts of damage onto it, THEN gust the Gardevoir, spread more damage and go for the 5-prize game, as he only had one Munkidori with Dark energies to return the damage and I still had my 3 gusts to help with that. So because I gusted the wrong thing, I gave him the bench spot to comeback and I threw the game because of that. He was nice enough to let me know what I should have done, which was what I was initially thinking of so it was nice to get that clarity from a player of his caliber. I should have followed my first instinct. 

And now we're down to 1-1.


Round 3
vs Raymond Siswara Wong (IND) - (4/4/0)
Deck: Dragapult ex/Dusknoir
LWW
I went 2nd/1st/2nd

Round 3 and I hit one of my fellow South-East Asian players, Raymond from Indonesia and for sure his name is one I knew from following their events so I knew he's good. And it was a mirror match too.

First game he rolled me, I was too slow to set up. Second game I had the better set-up and got the checkmate. Game 3 was super close, it came down to the Dusk boys doing the work and I just barely squeaked that one. Yet another game that I lost Game 1 but this time, like Round 1, came from behind to win.

Round 4
vs Tom Bourke (AUS) - (4/3/1)
Deck: Gardevoir ex
WW
I went 2nd/1st

Yup, another Gardevoir, another brixty. This time I had a much easier time, he was a bit slow to set up and gave me enough time to do the Dusknoir plays + Pult to wipe out the board. Game 2 was a bit the same, he just had a slower start even after going 2nd. 

Round 5
vs Jer-Shyan Hwa (AUS) - (3/5/0)
Deck: Joltik Box
LWW
I went 1st/2nd/1st

Somehow the only Joltik Box I hit all weekend and it was the 3rd most played deck! I didn't even hit the 2nd most played deck which was Raging Bolt either. I had a slow start to Game 1, he took 4 prizes in 3 turns and even with my Pult up, I knew it was only a matter of time until he showed boss for game, and he did. I also did a silly, I thought by having Cape on my Budew it'd stop the Amp play but he attached another lighting energy to use the first KO, still giving him two prizes. Whoops.

Game 2 was much better for me because finally I showed him my tech for this matchup, the HQ. It slowed him down enough for me to do the whole 4 prize turn to make the comeback for Game 3.

Game 3, I saw my starting hand and I was excited, I had HQ in hand! I started Budew, played down HQ, bench my Dreepy and passed. That HQ bought me a lot of time because he couldn't set up the Joltik attack until Turn 2, by that point I had two Drakloaks with energies on them and a Dusk ready to do the biz. He did make it close in the end shoving up an Ursaluna after I had used my Dusk bomb which meant I had to draw a Boss to win the game. Thankfully my 2nd Recon Directive got me there, if not I would have thrown a good position and tied that game.

Round 6
vs Daichi Shimada (JAP) - (11/3/0)
Deck: Tera Box
LWL
I went 2nd/1st/1st

After Round 5 was done, I met up with my brother and he was talking to Daichi Shimada who had just played him and I finally got to meet him and spoke to him. He even gave me one of his keychains which was nice. 3 minutes later, we checked the pairings....and I'm up against him hahaha! We had a good laugh about that.

Game 1 was terrible. I dead drew and he got the KO on my lone Duskull with Fezandipiti! Game 2 was probably the only real game we had, he got the Torrential Pump off but I did manage to get another Budew down, Catcher his Noctowl, Stamp and build my board back up again after that. He passed for like 5 turns to the point I managed to build enough of a board to take the win. 

Then Game 3 happens. I remember what happened in Game 1 and chose to go 1st. Bad call. I had HQ in my hand and started Budew, got Poffin to get two Dreepys down. Pass. Daichi attaches Sparkling Crystal on his benched Wellspring Mask Ogerpon + Crispin and I knew I was in trouble. I showed him the HQ in my hand and we both got a laugh out of that. I should have known better, just bench it down and make him have it at the cost of using Itchy Pollen. That was a terrible way to throw a matchup I thought was pretty decent for me.

4-2 now, next one is the win and possibly in to Day 2.


Round 7
vs Jan Timothy Yang (AUS) - (4/4/0)
Deck: Tera Box
WW
I went 2nd/2nd

Another Tera Box again but this time it went much smoother for me. I went behind initially Game 1 but did the same thing as I did vs Daichi and came back from that. Game 2 Jan had a slower start if I remember correctly and couldn't recover from it. HQ was helping me a lot in this matchup as well. 

So now we're 5-2! One ID is enough to lock myself into Day 2. But this is where my lack of experience got the better of me. I didn't know if I should just ID or play it out. Most of my friends were saying just to ID while the top Aussie players and guys like Jack and Aidan said I should play it out. 

Round 8
vs Ashton Grant (AUS) - (5/3/1)
Deck: Roaring Moon/Dudunsparce
T
I went back to the hotel after that

I was feeling nervous and my opponent seemed keen on the ID so we took it. I had no clue what deck he was on, I hadn't seen him much and my notes, or my friends notes, didn't have his name on it. After we signed the slip, we spoke for a bit then he asked me what deck I was on, I told him Pult Dusk. Then he told me he was on Moon Duns.

My heart sank. That's one of my better matchups! Now I was feeling a bit stupid. Sure 5-2-1 is enough to give me my first Day 2 in a TPCi event, but at least 6-2 gives me a chance to fight for a potential top cut finish, or at the very least top 32. I still wasn't feeling so confident with my deck so Top 64 was what I was aiming for, which is why I was ok with the ID. I knew I couldn't win this event, but I wanted to be in the fight at least and not take the risk and lose and not be in the fight.

Mistakes were made, I should have backed myself as Kaiwen told me and fight it out. Well now we know better for next time.

End of Day 1


Day 2 - Sunday

Round 9
vs Peter Colosimo (AUS) - (7/2/2)
Deck: Dragapult ex
LWT
I went 2nd/2nd/1st

This one hurt. I was happy to see the straight Pult build because I knew it was a decent matchup for me but I had a slow start and scooped after 11 minutes when I saw the writing was on the wall, I wanted to give myself enough time to win the next two games.

Game 2 went a bit long, I was in a pretty good spot and my opponent still played it out, not sure why, I would think he could have scooped sooner as I had checkmate for a few turns, I just didn't want to make a silly mistake with my Dusk bombs. 

Game 3 was going well for me and then I messed up. I KOed his first Pult. He did some stuff, then I bossed his other Pult, and this is where I messed up. I didn't realize it had no energies on it. I had a Duskull in my hand was worried to put it down. I didn't know if he played Crispin or not and if he did, he'd be down to 1 prize and I was still at 5. The thing was, looking at his board state, I saw my 5 prizes and it needed the Dusknoir to get me there. The issue was, I had already used both Stretcher and Rare Candy so the best I could do was manually evolved it two turns to get the Dusknoir for the 5 prize turn. 

I should have examined my opponent's board more thoroughly there, that's what cost me the win. And because we were on time, I didn't have enough time to pull off that 5 prize game combo. I felt really down about that game, I knew that one was my fault, I should have been more alert to the situation.

Round 10
vs Deacan Page (AUS) - (5/4/2)
Deck: Gardevoir ex
LWW
I went 2nd/2nd/1st

My 3rd of 4 Gardevoirs in this event, at least I'm seeing them. The more I played, the more I was figuring out how to win the matchup. First game was just bad for me, I went in with a Pult with no backup attacker, it got cleaned up by a Gardevoir with Clefairy on the bench, I knew so I scooped.

Game 2 went much better, same thing happened on their side but this time I had the backup attacker to clear their board. 

Game 3 was super close, we went to time and on my last turn, I needed to hit a combination of gust (Catcher or Boss) and ball search for Ursaluna to gust up their Clefairy and bomb the damaged Scream Tail (I think that's the damage one) for game. I had Research but I knew 1 Catcher was prized and the odds of me hitting the other Catcher wasn't high. I had Unfair Stamp as my backup but also had one more Recon Directive to help. Got nothing out of it, stamp and I saw Boss and Ultra Ball for the Luna for game! For once stamp actually helped!

At this point I was 6-2-2, with the next win possibly putting me into Top 32, aka prize money!!! My flight would be repaid, and I hadn't won money before from an official Pokémon TCG event so far in my 10 years of playing since I got back into it. 

Round 11
vs Jake Cruwys (AUS) - (7/2/2)
Deck: Gardevoir ex
LL
I went 1st/2nd

I saw Jake's name and I was a bit excited, because it's another Gardevoir which is what I wanted. Also shoutout to Jake for being the most chilliest opponent I had the whole tournament! 

Unfortunately, the games were just terrible from my side because of double brick hands. This was the win and in to earn some money and a booster box as well, maybe even two (aka more money, we all love that don't we) and what did I start? Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex. I knew I was in trouble. And to make things worse, they started Budew, but I was fine with it, all I had to do was Dusk bomb it.

That's where the problem shows up, I check my prizes and errr....both Dusclops are prized. I was never going to use Rare Candy in that game since they were locking me out of Items and Boss wasn't going to help as they had no easy targets to trap. So after 5 minutes of trying to figure out if there's anything different about his list, I knew I had to scoop to give myself plenty of time to comeback and win Games 2 and 3.

Then Game 2 happened. I start 2nd, I was feeling good, I had a decent start, I check my prizes.....a Dusclops is prized, while the other one is in my hand. No bigge, one is good enough to help me KO either Munki or Tail. It's the Dusknoir I need....and that sadly was prized. Dusknoir just helps to swing the Garde matchup a lot and not having that option just makes it really tough, especially as he KOed my first Duskull. I just could not set up this game either, no Iono, no Jacq, no Research, pretty much a carbon copy of the first game. So even without those prizes, I probably was doomed. So I had to extend the hand after just 12 minutes, I was too far behind at that point and he had two Gardevoirs ready to go.


Final Placing: 67th/583

End of Day 2


As if I wasn’t already feeling down about how the last round went, I got the real kick to the gut news. I finished 67th, 3 places off Top 64, which was my target at the start of the day. The difference was just 18 packs but still, a top 64 finish at a TPCi regional sounds way better than a Top 128 finish, especially since I played in Day 2 and some of them didn’t. 

But I can’t be mad, I did way better than I expected. I walked into the event Saturday morning just wanting to better my OCIC 2020 score (3/5/1), mainly because I was not familiar with my deck at all. After every round I kept looking at my list to familiarise myself with my own deck, that’s how bad it was. 

I’m still happy to at least make Day 2 at a TPCi event, something I’ve always wanted to do and doing it in my first TPCi event since the pandemic felt great, but I know personally I can do better. A lot better. I just hope I can have another opportunity to try in one of these bo3 events.

Takeaways

Bo3 > Bo1

I will die on this hill. I've always said Bo3 is better and now more Singaporean players know it too. My Bo3 propaganda will not stop. I just do not enjoy playing Bo1 which is maybe why I haven't done well in any event the last few years yet one of my better results came here in Melbourne, a bo3 event.

And if we look at how my Game 1 went in the ten rounds I played, I lost 8 out of 10 of them! I would have been so screwed had that been a Bo1 event. 

Timing

That was one of my biggest fears going to the event. I mean 25 minute bo1 is scary enough, Bo3 50 minutes +3 turns could be just as scary playing a slow deck like what I was on (Dragapult/Dusknoir). But it never really mattered in all but two of my games. The first one, I did squeak out the win whereases the other, I screwed up and lost the chance to win the game by being one turn behind.

Knowing when to scoop is a big thing for Bo3. I knew I was in a bad spot in a number of those games and scooped right away to give myself a chance to make the comeback and it worked most of the time.

Note-Writing

Yes, I did bring a notepad because we're allowed to do that in a TPCi event, unlike in Singapore where it's considered cheating.

No, I didn't actually use it all that much haha!

I think I'm just so used to not using a notepad that it felt a bit weird for me to even use it in the first place. I did try to use it in the first few games but as the day went on, I just didn't use it as much. There were a few times where I would prize something important and write it down but that was honestly it. Didn't really help me much. 

My pen ink also died so that also didn't help. I had to use my Green pen which was a bit harder to see.

Match Slips

I can’t lie but seeing a paper match slip again after a few years was a bit weird. Here in Singapore and the rest of Asia, we’re so used to reporting our scores online these days. 

I wonder if TPCi will slowly move to an online reporting system. The paper slip does seem to work a bit better in a Bo3 environment but come on guys, get with the times!

To ID Round 9 or not to ID

Well I learnt the hard way on this one, didn't I? All the top players were saying to back myself and fight it out. As it turns out, the guys on x-2-1, none made cut so taking the risk and playing it out, and winning, meant I had a chance to make top cut. 

In my defense, it was my chance to get my first Day 2 finish and I was super nervous and I just wanted it to be done and over with, but still I shouldn't have done that. The only time I should ID is if it's a bad matchup for me. 

Deck Choice

Was Dragapult Dusknoir the best choice for me? Honestly I'm still not sure but it worked out pretty well for me. Would I have done any better had I gone with Gardevoir instead? Honestly no because I hadn't played it much, I don't know how to maneuver the mirror match as I showed in one of the older UBLs and I'm not too confident playing it. 

My other choices was a Joltik Box. It's an aggro deck, which I like and it can win games before anything happens but later on, the better players will know how to play around it which is why I didn't want to play that. Same for Gholdengo. 

As for my rouge choices, I didn't put in much time with either Charizard/Dusknoir or Hydreigon/Pidgeot, both I think are quite decent but I just wasn't sure if they were the right thing to play. I do like playing these rough choices but I need to be sure that they work before I actually bring them to a tourney, I made that mistake once before (Kuala Lumpur Regional 2019).

The best deck choice is honestly still the one you feel the most comfortable which, which is something I haven't found ever since Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex because unplayable at the start of the year. I haven't found a deck that just clicks with me and I've been struggling with all sorts of events simply because of that. My next event is the back-to-back UBLs in the next two weekends and I still honestly do not know what I will play for those events. I know you're going to say, why not stick with Dragapult Dusknoir? That deck is better suited for a Bo3 event, not Bo1.

The Standard of Singapore Players

Yes we know the joke that started from Jeremy but hey, 22 (it says 21 + Ryan who is under UK flag) of us showed up, all but 2 scored 10 or more points, 11 of the 22 made Top 128. 6 made Day 2! And to think that number of players from our tiny island travelling to Australia to not even fight for points could have gone up to 25 had the UBL not clashed!

It was so cool to see Jeremy make a legendary run to make it to finals but alas the curse continues, poor ol' Liaobi still doesn't have his big win yet. Anselm and Keenan, two of my older friends I made in this game, both made Top 64 which is great to see. It still annoys me a bit when I see all these videos from these Youtubers all talking about the Japanese players showing up in Australia and saying how cool it is to see them play, yet completely ignore all of us! I hope we can change that someday, and have one of our players win a TPCi regional. The last was Joey, also in Melbourne! 

Melbourne

Give it a visit wherever you may be from. Lovely place, it was my 5th visit, hopefully there will be more to come. The CBD area is easy to get around, you can walk anywhere honestly. There are even free tram zones which I forgot about, I could have done that to get to the venue, whoops! 

Be mindful though, some stuff are a little bit expensive in Australia, and not just the Pokémon stuff, even the food! I didn't buy any packs or any of that stuff, there were all just too expensive.

Also here's my short little tier list of the fast food in Australia
  1. Subway
  2. McDonald's
  3. Hungry Jack's
  4. KFC

The SG crew!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I really enjoyed the chance to travel to Australia to play Pokémon TCG and to see my overseas friends too, be it from Australia or US or Canada! It was cool to see a few people come up to me to say hello, even signed a Centiskorch VSTAR card for my buddy Stefan haha! 

I did a short "vlog" style video for the event if you wanna check it out here.

Rooming with the SG homies was cool too, thanks to my brother Ash, Jeremy, Bjorn, Jason, Keith, Ryan and Noel for a fun stay. Also thanks to my buddy Aidan for hanging out the Monday after the event. Hopefully this will be the first of many TPCi events I can go to, would love to do an European event and of course, a North American event. That's the one I'd really love to go to, more so to test myself against the best from each different regions, wherever it may be. Thanks for reading!

Wednesday, May 14, 2025

Singapore 2024-2025 Season - My Season 3 Recap (Just GBL) - No Points Scored

 Here's a summary of how my 3rd part of the season went, just the GBL reviews as the UBLs haven't started. It will start this weekend, and there's 3 of them so things can still shake up in the chase for the Worlds invite. But err spoiler alert, if I thought my 2nd part of this season was bad, wait till you see how everything went down this time around.


Spoiler alert, I will miss the first UBL of Season 3 this weekend in Novena. I have errr....another event to attend to...


Points Standings after UBL S2/before start of GBL S3


I had gone from 11th at one point to now down to 18th and I needed to set up my game. The issue is I had already hit my BFL, and they were mostly good ones too so I had to score Top 4s to score additional points so the aim for this part of the season was to score more Top 4 finishes, maybe a Top 2 somewhere but obviously the biggest aim is to win a GBL.

Winning a GBL = getting an invite to play in the UBL. As someone who missed all 3 UBLs the first season, I know how hugely important it is to get one of these, especially since I might have to miss a UBL event this time around either due to Melbourne trip or San Fran trip either side of the UBL period. I mean sure winning a Pidgeot ex is nice and all but points and the invite means more to me.

I was doing ok-ish. I was happy that at least my consistency has improved from all the previous years. That was always one of my biggest issues and to have just one non-points finish in 14 events is quite a good achievement for what I want to do. The problem is the finishes haven't been good enough, it's usually just the Top 8 or Top 16 area, not higher. That's where I needed to improve. 

This final part of the season was an interesting one too as we start with the new 2025 rotation, aka Scarlet & Violet to Journey Together format! We're now back to the owner's cards from years ago (think the Gym Heroes that era).


Apr 19th - Great Ball League S3 #1 - Rowell Video

Elected: Yes

Deck: Terapagos ex/Noctowl

Score: 6-2 (18th/206) +8 LP (+0 due to BFL)

  • L Tera Box
  • W Hop's Zacian ex
  • W Dragapult ex
  • W Miraidon ex
  • L Dragapult ex
  • W Dragapult ex/Dusknoir
  • W Tera Box
  • W Gholdengo ex/Dragapult ex
TankPagos was my comfort deck at this point, I won a big online tournament with it so I knew I had to run it. Deck was still good even with some new changes but being a Noctowl deck, it's bound to have some bad hands and that ended up costing me my games in R1 and R5 (against my own brother too).

Apr 20th - Great Ball League S3 #4 - Deckard Gaming

Elected: Declined but Walk-In Succesful

Deck: Gholdengo ex/Dudunsparce

Score: 3-2 (7th/32) +10 LP (+0 due to BFL)

  • W Hop's Zacian ex
  • W Gholdengo ex
  • W Feraligatr
  • L Dragapult ex/Dusknoir
  • L N's Zoroark ex
I had a good run with Gholdengo in the previous UBL and wanted to continue running it. Was trying out the Dudunsparce package and it was ok, wasn't that amazing. A couple of dumb misplays saw me go from a 3-0 start to finishing 3-2 and whiffing the top 4 finish I needed to score more points.

Apr 23rd - Great Ball League S3 #8 - ZoomiesGaming

Elected: Yes

Deck: Gholdengo ex/N's Zoroark ex

Score: 3-2 (12th/32)

  • W Dragapult ex/Dusknoir
  • W Okidogi ex/N's Zoroark ex
  • L Dragapult ex/Froslass
  • L Flareon ex/Noctowl
  • W Dragapult ex/Dusknoir
I swapped out the Dudunsparce for Zoroark to see how that would work, and to be fair, the N's Zoroark ex did pull it's weight in the deck, I really liked it. You're always bound to draw into dead cards so now you can just throw them away instead of possibly drawing into more of them from Dudunsparce. Both losses were to my two worst matchups in the whole room, Froslass and Flareon. Both seemed winnable but a slow start cost me any hopes of doing much.

Apr 26th - Great Ball League S3 #9 - Card Connect

Elected: Declined & Failed Walk-In

Deck: Would have played Dragapult ex/Dusknoir


Apr 26th - Great Ball League S3 #10 - Dimension Gaming

Elected: Declined & Failed Walk-In

Deck: Would have played Dragapult ex/Dusknoir



Apr 27th - Great Ball League S3 #11 - Utopia Games

Elected: Yes

Deck: Dragapult ex/Dusknoir

Score: 2-4 (36th/64)

  • W Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex
  • W Gardevoir ex
  • L Dragapult ex/Dusknoir
  • L Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
  • L Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex
  • L Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex
Two missed attempts at playing Pult Dusk, I finally played it and well....it did not go well. R3 was a weird mirror match where we both were stuck forever but I misplayed going for a risky play when I didn't need to. Didn't recover from that loss, lost to Zard then hit two Rag Bolts which can be a horrible matchup when they start the baby bolt twice. Also prizing 2 Dreepys or 2 Drakloaks every other game does not help!

Apr 28th - Great Ball League S3 #13 - 1 of 1 Collectibles 

Elected: Declined & Failed Walk-In

Deck: Would have played Tera Box


May 1st - Great Ball League S3 #14 - Deckard Gaming

Elected: Declined & Failed Walk-In

Deck: Would have played Dragapult ex


May 1st - Great Ball League S3 #15 - Concept City

Elected: Declined but Walk-In Successful

Deck: Dragapult ex

Score: 3-2 (11th/32) +8 LP (+0 due to BFL)

  • L Terapagos ex/Noctowl
  • L Dragapult ex/Dusknoir
  • W Dragapult ex/Dusknoir
  • W Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex
  • W Roaring Moon ex/Brute Bonnet
Tried the solo version, it felt fine honestly. I still am not sure which one is better. The first two rounds the deck just didn't want to work. It worked the next 3 rounds. It seems more consistent. I do like having Luminous Energy to attach to the Pult line instead of having to find the two different energies for the energy attachment. The Genesect also pulled it's weight in most of the games.

May 3rd - Great Ball League S3 #16 - Agora Hobby

Elected: Yes

Deck: Dragapult ex

Score: 4-2 (15th/56) +8 LP (+0 LP due to BFL)

  • W Feraligatr
  • L Tera Box
  • W Joltik Box
  • L Joltik Box
  • W Dragapult ex
  • W Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex
I saw the list that got 2nd in Seville and I liked it so I had to try it out. 17 supporters in a Budew meta does seem good so you're not so reliant on items. The 4 boss was perfect for this list and honestly the 4 Brocks were fine, it helped me set up quicker than my opponents. Well except R2 and R4, two slow starts there go me. 

May 4th - Great Ball League S3 #23 - Utopia Games

Elected: Yes

Deck: Gholdengo ex/Dragapult ex

Score: 3-3 (12th/40) +8 LP (+0 LP due to BFL)

  • L Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex
  • W Gholdengo ex
  • W Archaludon ex
  • L Joltik Box
  • W Gardevoir ex
  • L Dragapult ex
Gholdengo and Dragapult? I had to try it out and see what the fuss was all about. The deck has had a lot of good results recently. My games with it....well I didn't get to see how good it really was. 3 of my losses were just down the slow set-up so it was a bit concerning that it happened in half my games. I did go 1st most of the time which is not good for this deck. Bo1 stuff ain't it?

May 6th - Great Ball League S3 #29 - Cardboard Collectible

Elected: Yes

Deck: Joltik Box

Score: 4-1 (5th/32) +10 LP (+0 LP due to BFL)

  • W Joltik Box
  • W Mamoswine ex/Pidgeot ex
  • W Joltik Box
  • L Dragapult ex/Dusknoir
  • W Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex
I just had no idea what to play after so many bad results and thought I should give the Joltik Box a try. In the morning of the day, I played the deck in two online tourneys and it went well so I had to try it out after that but still having never played the deck IRL, I was still a bit nervous playing it.

The event was almost perfect, my only loss was to Noel on Pult Dusk, his endless hand distruption just meant I couldn't set up the ideal board state for the late game to do much. Still, I thought I had done enough to make top 4 after winning my last round but imagine my sadness to hear I was 5th in standings, I kinda guessed that was it for my chances to score any points this season.

May 7th - Great Ball League S3 #30 - Happyland Collectibles

Elected: Declined & Failed Walk-In

Deck: Would have played Charizard ex/Dusknoir


May 9th - Great Ball League S3 #31 - Concept City

Elected: Yes

Deck: Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex

Score: 2-3 (16th/32) +8 LP (+0 LP due to BFL)

  • L Dragapult ex
  • L Dragapult ex/Charizard ex
  • L Tera Box
  • W Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex
  • W Feraligatr
Not sure why I ended up playing this actually. It seemed like a good play, especially with the baby bolt. But the deck did not impress me. It just couldn't do what I wanted it to do, always slow to do much too, could never set up the board for what I wanted it to be. I just didn't feel good with it. I will say it's not as easy to play as people claimed it to be previously.

So that's my re-cap of how my GBLs went for Season 3 went, aka no good. No points added to my account sadly. Still no new comfort deck found either which is a bit scary as I'm playing in the Melbourne Regional this weekend. 

So here's what the standings look like after the 31 GBL events for this season with just the 3 UBLs and the MBL left to go!


Points Standings before UBL S3


It's a tight race going on for the Top 8 spots. Alester, Terry and Jeremy are quite safe I think, since they're all in the 300+ points range. From 5th downards it's a close fight down to 10th. Even those below 10th honestly still have a chance if they win the Ultra Ball League, which is how some of these guys are in the fight to begin with!

And yep there's me, down in 26th. At this point in S2 before the UBLs, I was 11th! I've dropped 15 spots because I didn't score any points since the 3rd UBL from S2. 

Just a small recap of how my Season 3 went, before the UBLs:

  • GBL S3#01 - Terapagos ex/Noctowl - 6/2 - 18th (6 LP)
  • GBL S3#04 - Gholdengo ex/Dudunsparce - 3/2 - 7th (8 LP)Declined but Won Lottery
  • GBL S3#08 - Gholdengo ex/N's Zoroark ex - 3/2 - 12th
  • GBL S3#09 - Declined & Lost Lottery
  • GBL S3#10 - Declined & Lost Lottery
  • GBL S3#11 - Dragapult ex/Dusknoir - 2/4 - 36th
  • GBL S3#13 - Declined & Lost Lottery
  • GBL S3#14 - Declined & Lost Lottery
  • GBL S3#15 - Dragapult ex - 3/2 - 11th (8 LP)Declined but Won Lottery
  • GBL S3#16 - Dragapult ex - 4/2 - 15th (8 LP)
  • GBL S3#23 - Gholdengo ex/Dragapult ex - 3/3 - 12th (8 LP)
  • GBL S3#29 - Joltik Box - 4/1 - 5th (10 LP)
  • GBL S3#30 - Declined & Lost Lottery
  • GBL S3#31 - Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex - 2/3 - 16th (8 LP)

Yes I technically scored points in 7 of the 9 events I played in but since none of them were a Top 4 finish, I didn't score any points since I didn't better my previous results (10 LP aka Top 8 finishes in GBLs), so I went the whole of Season 3 GBLs without adding more points to my account, thus the reason why I dropped all the way down to 26th. 

And as you can notice, I've been jumping around decks. I haven't felt comfortable with any deck in this format which doesn't feel good. But it's quite funny to see that Joltik Box got me my best result when I hadn't even played the deck before that GBL, I was learning it on the fly.

Went to 14 GBL venues this time (11 last time) , I was elected in 7 of them, not elected for the other 5 so I tried to walk in for those. 40% sucess rate when it comes to walking in this time, 2 out of 5 is better than 0 out of 5 last season haha. So now a 64% success rate at getting to play in a GBL, more GBLs meant more chances to play, especially with two of them having 4 or more evens held on the same day so anyone who wanted to play was bound to play! Didn't do the play in 2 GBL strategy again, but this time I actually had a chance to and I didn't take it. Whoops.

Declined rate was 22 out of 31 events, that's a lot of declines man. 70% decline (last time out it was 75%). Which meant I was elected into two other evens that I didn't go to because of time clashes with other GBLs.

Of the 9 events I played in, played 8 different decks for those events, the only repeat being the solo Dragapult deck in back to back GBL events. Scored points technically with all but two deck. Last time out it was just one. Dragapult/Dusknoir made the list again but this time joined by Gholdengo with Zoroark.

Not much stats to share this time sadly because well.....there were so many events happening at the same time, I never got much info for the places I didn't go to. But here's a quick roundown of what the winners are:

  • GB1 - Jasper Ang - Dragapult ex/Dusknoir (206 players)
  • GB2 - Edmund Khoo - N's Zoroark ex (17 players)
  • GB3 - Adrian Lim - Dragapult ex
  • GB4 - Bjorn Soh - Tera Box (32 players)
  • GB5 - Winston Cheong - Archaludon ex (25 players)
  • GB6 - Eugene Ling - N's Zoroark (39 players)
  • GB7 - Noel Lim
  • GB8 - Ricky Low - Ancient Box (32 players)
  • GB9 - Keenan Jacob Victor - Joltik Box (40 players)
  • GB10 - Ricky Low - Joltik Box (32 players)
  • GB11 - Bryan Wong - Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex (64 players)
  • GB12 - Jeremy Leong - Gardevoir ex (48 players)
  • GB13 - Bjorn Soh - Terapagos ex/Noctowl (32 players)
  • GB14 - Bryan Quah - Dragapult ex/Dusknoir (32 players)
  • GB15 - Jimmy Mok - Archaludon ex/Brute Bonnet (32 players)
  • GB16 - Kelvin Ching - Gardevoir ex (56 players)
  • GB17 - Tan Yong Siang
  • GB18 - Edmund Khoo
  • GB19 - Matthew Yap - Joltik Box 
  • GB20 - Ricky Low (30 players)
  • GB21 - Keenan Jacob Victor
  • GB22 - Edmund Khoo
  • GB23 - Kelvin Ching - Gardevoir ex (40 players)
  • GB24 - Raymond Huynh (29 players)
  • GB25 - Ricky Low (32 players)
  • GB26 - Wayne Tan Wei Peng - Flareon ex/Noctowl (18 players)
  • GB27 - Yap Jun Lin
  • GB28 - Edmund Khoo
  • GB29 - Eugene Ling - N's Zoroark ex (32 players)
  • GB30 - Marcus Tan - Dragapult ex/Charizard ex (32 players)
  • GB31 - Marcus Tan - Dragapult ex/Charizard ex (32 players)

Thanks for reading and all the best to everyone playing in the upcoming 3 Ultra Ball events!