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.

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!

Singapore 2024-2025 Season - My Season 2 Recap (GBL + UBL) - Trying every other deck

 Season 2 for the 2024-2025 Season here in Singapore is done and so is the F-Block rotation, we're heading into a new era in one week's time. There was a few changes from this past season, well namely one. Prismatic Evolutions brought Budew into the format and as you will see, that tiny little grass mon completely flipped my season around.

I had planned to play Charizard ex from start to finish of the season as I did last season too. But now that Budew is a thing, it's made Charizard somewhat unplayable, along with that the fact that Dragapult is now the BDIF and even stuff like Regigigas makes matchup vs Lugia a bit tougher too. So what do I play now?

The Red Box is showing the period for Season 2, aka Feb to March

Points Standings before the start of Season 2

This is before we knew that the Worlds invite had been bumped up to 10, we were still thinking we'd be fighting for 4 spots. So as you can see, I've got a lot of catching up to do. I was 8th in the standings before the first rounds of Ultra Ball Leagues, and I dropped all the way down to 16th after the first 3 UBLs of this season? Why? 

I didn't get to play in any of them. I got declined and then lost the lottery to join all 3 UBLs which was quite frustrating as I was feeling confident with my Charizard/Pidgeot deck but I never had the chance to show what I could do with it at a bigger event like the UBL (aka our League Cups). And as fate would have it, I would never get that chance to show it again. So with the first few GBLs starting for Season 2, I was left searching for new decks to play.

Feb 8th - Great Ball League S2 #1 - Newtro Gaming Studios

Elected: Yes

Deck: Lugia VSTAR/Archeops

Score: 4-1 (5th/32) +10 LP

• L Terapagos ex/Dusknoir
• W Lugia VSTAR/Archeops
• W Hydrapple ex
• W Pikachu ex/Regigigas
• W Gardevoir ex

Good start to the season, picked up Lugia because I felt I could play it decently. First loss was a stinker because I couldn't set up properly, and he ended up winning the whole event. Bubbled out on Top 4 due to my resistance from losing the first round.

Feb 9th - Great Ball League S2 #4 - Pikku Play

Elected: Yes

Deck: Miraidon ex

Score: 4-2 (9th/48) +8 LP (Gone due to BFL)

• W Dragapult ex/Dusknoir
• L Lugia VSTAR/Archeops
• W Dragapult ex/Dusknoir
• W Lugia VSTAR/Archeops
• L Charizard ex/Noctowl
• W Archaludon ex

Switched it up to Miraidon for this one, for the same reason as I picked up Lugia, it had great matchups against the decks I was targeting. And I did hit those decks, but I did lose to a Lugia because of his Turn 1 Klefki. My other loss was to a Charizard at R5, I mean how did I meet my worst matchup at that round? And I bubbled out again, this time out of Top 8 even though I had the same points and resistance as Nicholas (who played the same 60 as me) who got 8th.

Feb 15th - Great Ball League S2 #5 - Goodness Gracious Games

Elected: Declined and Lost Lottery

Deck: (Would have played Gouging Fire ex)

Feb 16th - Great Ball League S2 #7 - ManaPro

Elected: Yes

Deck: 

Score: 2-4 (34th/64)

• W Gholdengo ex
• L Miraidon ex
• W Charizard ex/Dudunsparce
• L Milotic ex Control
• L Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• L Dragapult ex/Dusknoir

This was my worst ever run in a local tournament since we switched over to TPC back in 2021. Yes I've had bad runs back in the TPCi days but I wasn't a good player at that point, I hadn't really learned as much as I have now but nothing could have prepared me for this.

I picked up Dragapult Dusknoir because it was apparently the "BDIF" and I wanted the best chance to win the tournament. Well, the deck felt more like the WDIF (worst deck) because all I did was draw pass in half my games. And the one loss where I could set up, it was against a Milotic deck so I had to go with just Drakloak and it still wasn't enough. This was a soul crushing event, I was initially thinking of going to another event to try to walk in after this one but I decided not to after this god awful run.

Feb 19th - Great Ball League S2 #11 - Inferno Gaming

Elected: Declined and Lost Lottery

Deck: (Would have played Archaludon ex)

Feb 20th - Great Ball League S2 #12 - Concept City

Elected: Yes

Deck: Gouging Fire ex

Score: 5-0 (1st/32) +30 LP and Pidgeot ex Promo!

• W Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex
• W Gardevoir ex
• W Dragapult ex/Dusknoir
• W Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex
• W Roaring Moon ex

We go from my worst run in a TPC event for locals to my best run in a TPC event for locals. I hadn't won a Town League before so it was nice to finally win one of these Great Ball League events, and with a rouge deck too nonetheless! I was initially going to play Gardevoir but it felt like Dragapult Dusknoir, aka very bricky.

I hadn't gone x-0 in swiss in any points paying event before so this was a nice new first for me. And I earnt my 2nd Pidgeot ex promo card! But the best part is, for winning the GBL, I'm guaranteed to play in an Ultra Ball League so I won't be denied this time!

Feb 21st - Great Ball League S2 #13 - JRW Hobby Station

Elected: Declined and Lost Lottery

Deck: (Would have played Gardevoir ex)

Feb 22nd - Great Ball League S2 #14 - Agora Hobby

Elected: Yes

Deck: Dragapult ex/Charizard ex

Score: 4-3 (20th/98) +6 LP (Gone due to BFL)

• W Klawf/Terapagos ex
• W Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex
• W Gholdengo ex
• L Dragapult ex/Dusknoir
• W Klawf/Terapagos ex
• L Lugia VSTAR/Archeops
• L Roaring Moon ex

I saw this deck do well in a few online events and it had the highest win rate so I thought I should give it a try and pick it up. Plus any excuse to play Charmander in a deck is good enough for me. The deck felt ok, didn't feel any different to the Dusknoir version. And once again I had some unplayable hands again which ruined my 3-0 start.

Feb 23rd - Great Ball League S2 #20 - Brick's Play

Elected: Yes

Deck: Archaludon ex

Score: 4-2 (8th/40) +10 LP

• L Gholdengo ex
• W Miraidon ex
• W Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex
• W Gardevoir ex
• L Gardevoir ex
• W Ancient Box

I had never actually play Archaludon to any event before this, not even locals so this was a new experience for me, trying to learn how to play a deck as best as I can during the event itself. Deck was working fine to be fair. My two losses were to matchups I felt were not very good anyway. I did get to pull off the Star Chronos VSTAR 3 times at least!

Feb 26th - Great Ball League S2 #22 - Happyland Collectibles

Elected: Declined and Lost Lottery

Deck: (Would have played Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex)

Feb 28th - Great Ball League S2 #24 - Concept City

Elected: Declined and Lost Lottery

Deck: (Would have played Gholdengo ex)

After all was said and done, this was the standings going into the next 3 Ultra Ball League events:

Points Standings after GBL S2

I managed to climb my way back up the standings, 16th to 11th! And this is the point where we had heard the news of Top 8 in standings being the Worlds invite spot, so I'm just a few points away from the promise land, I just need a few big results in the big UBL events. 

I did have one handicap, I had already reached my BFL (best finish limit) so I needed to score big points to make those results count. So even a Top 64 finish isn't really enough for me, heck maybe Top 32 might not be enough! And I went into these UBLs still not sure of what deck to play, I hadn't found another comfort deck since my Charizard/Pidgeot deck become unplayable. 

Mar 16th - Ultra Ball League S2 #1 - Kreta Ayer CC

Elected: Yes

Deck: Gholdengo ex

Score: 5-2 (32nd/220) +15 LP

• W Bye
• L Regidrago VSTAR
• W Dragapult ex/Charizard ex
• W Lugia VSTAR/Archeops
• W Miraidon ex
• L Dragapult ex
• W Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex

Finally got to play Gholdengo in an official event and it worked really well for me. The two losses were just super unfortunate, the first was to a Regidrago player who got the Kyurem attack Turn 2 when I had only 3 Pokemon on board that were all less than 70 HP. 

The other lost was to Jun Lin (he got 3 straight Top 4 finishes with Dragapult in 3 UBLs, well done sir), I was in a really good spot with my set-up, went to do my first deck search with Ciphermaniac, and then I saw I prized my E-Switch Pro which was crucial in that matchup so there was no way I could have won that. Did enough to end up 32nd at least but still nowhere close to where I want to be, aka Top 16 at the very least.

Mar 22nd - Ultra Ball League S2 #1 - Aloft Novena

Elected: Yes

Deck: Gardevoir ex

Score:4-4 (72nd/260) +8 LP (0 LP Due to BFL)

• W Lugia VSTAR/Archeops
• W Gardevoir ex
• W Lost Zone Box
• W Archaludon ex
• L Regidrago VSTAR
• L Gardevoir ex
• L Gardevoir ex
• L Dragapult ex/Dusknoir

Well this was a disaster. To start things off, I had no real time to practice due to my Army reservist going on that week so I played the only deck I got any practice in with, aka Gardevoir. I felt I could play it but as the tournament went on, I realised I didn't know all my lines with the deck, I was just not very familar with the deck. 

And also I kept losing either my lone or two Kirlias in one shot, which all happened from Rounds 5 to 8. One of my worst runs ever, 4-0 start to not even finishing in the top 64. Well off my target which is always a top 16 in these Ultra Ball Leagues. Another bad day at the office.

Mar 30th - Ultra Ball League S2 #1 - One Punggol

Elected: Yes

Deck: Lugia VSTAR/Archeops

Score: 5-3 (43rd/300) +10 LP (0 LP Due to BFL)

• W Roaring Moon ex
• W Dragapult ex
• W Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex
• L Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex
• L Lost Zone Box
• W Dragapult ex/Dusknoir
• L Dragapult ex
• W Dragapult ex/Dusknoir

We started this season with Lugia and I ended up this season with Lugia. So I didn't quite end up playing different decks in every event for this season, before this event I did end up playing different decks every time. But Lugia felt like the right play so I wanted to go with it. Who won the event? Lugia so I think I was right to say Lugia was a great choice.

The problem was, it just didn't treat me well. Lost to Raging Bolt due to a bad starting hand, then misplayed vs Lost Box and lost that one too and finally lost to Dragapult due to a slow start, couldn't get the double Archeops up till Turn 4 which was two turns too late. 

Another bad run. 43rd out of 300 players might sound good to many others but for me, that's not what I was hoping for. And I don't score points for a top 64 finish due to me hitting my BFL already, I needed more than that. So my Worlds invite hope is starting to slip away. It was looking good at the start before the UBLs, I was 11th, a few spots behind. Now I'm 18th, with no Top 16 finish in any of the 6 UBL events so far and I'm likely to miss 1, maybe even 2, UBLs next season due to my Melbourne Regional trip and possibly also my California trip.

Points Standings after UBL S2

11th to 18th, yikes. Yes I technically did score points in all 3 UBL events but two of them didn’t count as I have hit my BFL and any event where I score less than 12 points will not count. So that’s why I kept mentioning Top 16 finish at the very least, sadly it never happened. 

I do feel a bit annoyed. I didn’t get to play in the first 3 UBLs this season because I was declined and lost the walk-in lottery. At that time, I had my comfort deck, Charizard/Pidgeot and I felt confident with it, I knew I could get a good run out of it but I never got the opportunity to do so. 

And now in this format, I don’t have a comfort deck, I was swapping decks every other event and never really felt good with most of them. Yet somehow this was the one I got into all 3 UBL. Luck hasn’t been on my side this season.

I will say, being forced to play different decks this time around, I did manage to score points with all but one deck, which was strangely Dragapult/Dusknoir. Yes I did technically score points with that poor Gardevoir run too even though it doesn’t count. So hopefully that proves that I’m not a one trick phony haha!

Just a small recap of how my Season 2 went:

• GBL S2#01 - Lugia VSTAR/Archeops - 5th (10 LP)
• GBL S2#04 - Miraidon ex - 9th (8 LP)
• GBL S2#05 - Declined & Lost Lottery
• GBL S2#07 - Dragapult ex/Dusknoir - 34th
• GBL S2#11 - Declined & Lost Lottery
• GBL S2#12 - Gouging Fire ex - 1st (30 LP)
• GBL S2#13 - Declined & Lost Lottery
• GBL S2#14 - Dragapult ex/Charizard ex - 20th (6 LP)
• GBL S2#20 - Archaludon ex - 8th (10 LP)
• GBL S2#22 - Declined & Lost Lottery
• GBL S2#24 - Declined & Lost Lottery
• UBL S2#01 - Gholdengo ex - 32nd (15 LP)
• UBL S2#02 - Gardevoir ex - 72nd (8 LP)
• UBL S3#03 - Lugia VSTAR/Archeops - 43rd (10 LP)

Went to 11 GBL venues, I was elected in 6 of them, not elected for the other 5 so I tried to walk in for those. 0% sucess rate when it comes to walking in this time, I got rejected for all 5. So 54% success rate at getting to play in a GBL (only 11 days of GBLs being hosted), that's always a good thing. I wished I could have converted better at least. I also never did the whole play-in-2-GBL attempt, just never worked out.

Declined rate was 18 out of 24 events, that's a lot of declines man. 75% decline. Yikes.

I played in 9 events (6 GBL, 3 UBL), played 8 different decks for those events, the only repeat being Lugia in the first GBL event and the last UBL event. Scored points technically with all but one deck, Dragapult/Dusknoir. But due to BFL, only 3 of those 8 points scoring finish actually counted.

So you can tell that next season (aka next month), it's pretty much win or bust for me. I can only gain points in GBLs by finishing in the Top 4, so I won't be using them as practice this time around since I need to make every single event count to have any hopes of making it into the top 8 of the points standings. I hope I can do better next time out, and it'll be in a new rotation starting this week! This one will be a bit more important for me as I'll also be heading to Melbourne for the regional so every event is an important test session for me from now till middle of May.

I can't end this without some stats. GBLs have been messy this time around so I couldn't get much info on them so I'll just have the UBL ones here.

No surprise to see Dragapult and Gardevoir dominating here, it's always been these two for pretty much this entire format. And it's backed up by the next one too.

Dragapult got the most points scorers in all 3 UBLs, which is no surprises really. Garde, Lugia, Gholdengo and Klawf make up the top 5 here.

But wait I got more for you, here's the top 10 points scoring decks from these UBLs, wanna guess who was first? I think you already know.

1. Dragapult ex - 932 LP
2. Gardevoir ex - 478 LP
3. Klawf/Terapagos ex - 430 LP
4. Lugia VSTAR/Archeops - 397 LP
5. Gholdengo ex - 333 LP
6. Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex - 211 LP
7. Archaludon ex - 204 LP
8. Lost Zone Box - 198 LP
9. Ceruledge ex - 163 LP
10. Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex - 122 LP

Regidrago just missed out on this by one point to Charizard so....well....suck it Regidrago haha. Never liked that deck to be honest.

But I wanted to do more fun stats so I even did an average points version, and it looks different for sure, and only decks with 5 or more players were included for this one:

1. Klawf/Terapagos ex - 22.63 LP (19 players)
2. Ancient Box - 18 LP (5 players)
3. Gholdengo ex - 15.86 LP (21 players)
4. Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR/Noctowl - 15.83 LP (6 players)
5. Lugia VSTAR/Archeops - 15.27 LP (26 players)
6. Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex - 15.25 LP (8 players)
7. Gardevoir ex - 14.48 LP (33 players)
8. Dragapult ex - 13.91 LP (67 players)
9. Regidrago VSTAR - 13.44 LP (9 players)
10. Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex - 11.72 LP (18 players)

We've got one more season in this season left to go, and it starts this weekend with 3 GBLs on Saturday (including one with 256 players!) and 3 on Sunday. I'll be at one of those six venues for sure, just not sure which one at the moment. Good luck to everyone for this upcoming season and thanks for reading!