The Return of the Charmander deck! (Battle Styles to Obsidian Flames format recap)

 A long time ago in a galaxy not so far away, a 10 year old kid named Kash picked up his first GameBoy Colour, booted up Pokemon Red, chose Charmander as his started and they set off on a journey. And they....oh wait wrong story but there are some similarities! 

Everyone knows the story, Charmander is and will always be my favourite Pokemon, from the beginning of Pokemon during the Gen 1 days back in 1999 until now! It's still Charmander for me. And now that I play the card game, of course anytime there is a chance to play Charmander in a deck, I will jump at it. The Charizard has to be playable though. 

For a while it never happened until Team Up Charizard showed up. It had the amazing Roaring Resolve ability (charge 2 energies but put 2 damage counters on yourself for it) and Continuous Blaze Ball could hit for all sorts of damage, starting with just the 2 for 130! I played that deck the moment it came out, won $162 with it at our local invitational with it, actually scored CP with it at a league challenge and used it at my first TPCi regional. Great memories playing that deck.

So imagine my excitement when I saw Tera Charizard ex. My first thought was "hey I can play Charmander in a deck again!". And then I read the card. And my next thought was "this is giving me TEU Charizard vibes". Self energy attachment, hit for big amounts of damage and is a Stage 2? Check, check and check! I've always said TEU Charizard was my favourite card to play so you know I have to give this one a good go. I was ready to give up ride with ArcTina and drop every other deck just to play Charizard ex.

Two months and flown by and I sure have played loads of Charizard ex and now with the new set released, I initially thought it might not stand a chance but I have thankfully been proven wrong so the Char-family is here to stay! And big brother Charmeleon will have a part to play soon. Before that I wanted to re-cap my journey of the BST-OBS (and 151) format whenever I chose to play Charizard ex because of course I did play other stuff. The fun thing here is, I played at least 4 different versions of Charizard ex so I'll run through all of them.

The first basic version: ChariZard Arceus Pidgeot (ZAP)

I'm not sure where or how I got this list, I probably stumbled upon it from one of Japan's City League results. The set was out on August 11th and if you remember, it was Worlds week and I was in Yokohama getting ready to compete in my first Worlds so no Obsidian Flames stuff for me yet. I would have to wait 15 days for my first chance to play Charizard ex anywhere and the first was in an online tourney.

This was the most hyped variant initially. The idea was to get a turn 2 setup with Arceus VSTAR getting either Rare Candy or Pidgeot ex and Jacq to give you the ideal Turn 2 Board State of Arceus VSTAR, Charizard ex and Pidgeot ex. Arceus is the ideal first attacker before going into Zard. 

I actually managed to win an online tourney in my first attempt playing the list and I was a fan of it right away. I wasn’t much of a fan of Jacq or Magma Basin. 

It was also during one of these events playing this first list where I chose to stream it and decided to make some comments on the whole Charizard ex archetype, basically I felt this version wasn’t right and felt there is and should be a better way to play Charizard ex. Some of my comments from that stream where as follows:  

• “Jacq feels unnecessary, there must be better Supporters than this”
• “Why doesn’t Zard decks play Arven, that has to be the perfect Supporter for it”
• “Why not 2 Arven? No, 3 Arven! Yeah 3 Arven sounds really good. I can get Rare Candy and say Choice Belt for KO? Sign me up!”
• “Do I really need Arceus just for Starbirth? It feels like a waste. It’s just sitting there waiting to be the final 2 prizes.”
• “How I wish I was playing Arven right now in the game”
• “Ok I got it! We play Charizard but with Bibarel! I mean come on it has to work. I get to draw cards under Path unlike Pidgeot”
• “Where’s the fucking Manaphy in this deck???”
• “Bibarel and Arven sounds kinda cool actually”
• “Wait I can use Arven to get Forest Seal Stone and Rare Candy. Imagine putting that Stone on a Pidgeot V to get a Pidgeot ex! Haha the birds flies in pairs! And then we yeet the other one back.” 
• “I think we can fit more Tools here. Vitality Band sounds good for Chien Pao and Miraidon. Heck even Vengeful Punch could work! Maybe not”

As it was, some of these things did come true! I was calling out my shots on how Charizard could be played and not to toot my own horn, but I did get some of these spot on with how Zard ended up being played this format, be it the Arvens, the Forest Stone, and even now Bibarel for the new format! 

Results:

• Tournament: Obsidian Flames Standard (Aug 26) - 6/0/0 - 1st/30
• List as above
• Changes in List:
• -1 Charmander, -1 Charmeleon, -1 Jacq, -1 Fire Energy
• + 1 Manaphy, +1 Raihan, +1 Nest Ball, +1 Vitality Band
• Tournament:
• Xaria's Testing Tourney #7 (Aug 31) - 4/0/1 - 2nd/28
• Changes in List:
• -1 Charmeleon, -1 Radiant Charizard, -1 Jacq, -2 Magma Basin, -2 Double Turbo Energy
• +1 Charizard ex, +1 Radiant Greninja, +1 Manaphy, +1 Colress, +1 Nest Ball, +1 Artazon, +1 V Guard Energy
• Tournament: 
• Tournament of Doom (Sep 2) - 4/3/0 - 31st/139
• Changes in List:
• -1 Jacq, -1 Magma Basin, -2 Double Turbo Energy
• +1 Manaphy, +1 Raihan, +1 Switch, +1 V Guard Energy
• Tournaments:
• Locals (Sep 5) - 3/0/0 - 3rd/34
• Changes in List
• -1 Charmeleon, -1 Radiant Charizard, -1 Jacq, -1 Lost Vacuum, -2 Magma Basin, -1 Fire Energy, -1 Double Turbo Energy, 
• +1 Radiant Greninja, +1 Manaphy, +1 Arven, +1 Nest Ball, +1 Super Rod, +1 VitalityBand, +2 Pokemon League HQ,
• Tournaments: 
• Xaria's Testing Tournys #10 (Sep 6) - 3/1/1 - 5th/28
• Changes in List
• -1 Jacq, -1 Magma Basin, -1 Fire Energy
• +1 Colress, +1 Super Rod, +1 Vitality Band, 
• Tournaments:
• Xaria's Weekly #3 (Sep 9) - 5/1/2 - 4th/38
• Changes in List
• -1 Radiant Charizard, -1 Jacq, -1 Lost Vacuum, -2 Magma Basin, -1 Fire Energy, -1 Double Turbo Energy
• +1 Manaphy, +1 Colress, +2 Nest Ball, +1 Vitality Band, +2 Pokemon League HQ
• Tournaments:
• Obsidian Flames Standard (Sep 9) - 1/1/1 - 24th/38
• Changes in List
• -1 Charmander, -1 Radiant Charizard, -1 Jacq, -2 Magma Basin, -1 Fire Energy, -1 Double Turbo Energy
• +1 Manaphy, +1 Radiant Tsareena, +1 Arven, +1 Super Rod, +1 Switch, +1 Vitality Band, +1 Collapsed Stadium, 
• Tournaments:
• Local (Sep 12) - 1/2/0 - 18th/26
• Changes in List
• -4 Charmander (OBF), -1 Pidgeot ex, -1 Colress, -1 Jacq, -1 Lost Vacuum, -2 Artazon, -1 Magma Basin, -2 Double Turbo Energy
• +4 Charmander (MEW), +1 Charizard ex (MEW), +1 Manaphy, +1 Entei (OBF), +1 Iono, +1 Worker, +1 Super Rod, +2 Lost City, +1 Fire Energy
• Tournaments:
• Deck Out Mondays (Oct 10) - 5/3/0 - 15th/148
• Changes in List
• -4 Charmander (OBF), -1 Charmeleon, -1 Mew, -1 Radiant Charizard, -1 Iono, -1 Escape Rope, -2 Magma Basin, -1 Fire Energy, -3 Corless
• +4 Charmander (MEW), +1 Manaphy, +1 Bidoof, +1 Bibarel, +1 Jacq, +1 Professor's Research, +1 Echoing Horn, +1 Defiance Band, +2 Artazon, +2 Jet Energy
• Tournaments:
• The Lost League 2024 Series - Challenge #2 (Oct 14) - 1/2/0 - 60th/76
• Matchups:
• Ting Lu ex W
• Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone) WWWWTLW
• Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur WWLWLL
• Arceus VSTAR/Flying Pikachu VMAX W
• Charizard ex/Arceus VSTAR/Pidgeot ex W
• Inteleon VMAX/Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX WLLL
• Mew VMAX (Fusion) WWWW
• Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR WT
• Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX W
• Charizard ex (Lost Zone) LWL
• Miraidon ex LW
• Trurbo Lost Zone Box WTW
• Meowscarada ex W
• Lugia VSTAR/Archeops (Single Strike) W
• Lugia VSTAR/Archeops (Snorlax) WL
• Snorlax Control T
• Mew VMAX (DTE) WWWW
• Hisuian Goodra VSTAR (Lost Zone) T
• Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR W
• Tinkaton ex W
• Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex L
• Gardevoir ex WW
• Arceus VSTAR/Duraludon VMAX L
• Results with deck:
• Tournaments Played: 10
• Wins: 1
• Top 4s: 4
• Top 8s: 5
• Total Record: 33-13-5 (64.71% Win Rate)

Rapid Strike Charizard ex

Well this was a fun idea I wanted to try to see if it had any legs. I did only play it once but it wasn’t that bad, it just didn’t feel that good either. 

The Octillery package does mean we have more outs to Path. I did like Horn though, possibly KOing Lumineon or some Basic V for the last two prizes. Fun idea, shame it didn’t last long.

Results:

• Larger Scale Test Tournament (Sep 3) - 5/2/0 - 6th/63
• List as above
• Matchups:
• Mew VMAX (Fusion) W
• Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone) LWWL
• Arceus VSTAR/Hisuian Goodra VSTAR W
• Turbo Lost Zone Box W
• Results with deck:
• Tournaments Played: 1
• Wins: 0
• Top 4s: 0
• Top 8s: 1
• Total Record: 5-2-0 (71.43% win rate)

First version of Arven Zard aka Arc-less Zard

One of my friends from my discord testing group showed me this list and I was hooked right away:

So of course, me being me, I wanted to give it a try. Played a few ladder games, gave the guys my feedback and the first list we came up was this:

The main addition was Arven, and with it we thought we could set up even quicker than the usual ZAP (ZardArcPidgeot) lists. We also had Lumineon and Entei as targets to use Forest and I thought Entei was the best addition. Not only is it another way to draw cards but we could VIP for it Turn 1, possibly use Arven Turn 2 to get Forest to set up Pidgeot and Charizard!

And it’s also a pretty good attacker too, and a tanky one at that being 230 HP, out of range for many stuff in the format that could hit for 220, namely Miraidon. Vitality Band did come in clutch as I expected, helping to get a return KO on Chien Pao especially! Raihan was my own addition, I thought it could be another way to get Zard to set up under Path. Didn’t work as well as I hoped. I did like Town Store in the list but we kept wondering if we really needed it if we were already playing Arven. 

I played this in the Pokemon Battle Park event (4th Sep) and somehow got it into a top 4 finish, 3rd out of 149 players. This deck was for real and hopefully it proves to people that Charizard doesn't need Arceus as I initially thought. We’ll come back to this variant soon.

Results:

• Tournament: Pokemon Battle Park (Sep 4) - 7/2/1 - 3rd/149
• List as above
• Changes in List:
• -1 Charmander, -1 Radiant Charizard, -1 Vitality Band
• +1 Charmeleon,  +1 Radiant Greninja, +1 Vengeful Punch
• Tournaments:
• Full Heal Obsidian #4 (Sep 6) - 6/2/1 - 5th/152
• Changes in List:
• -1 Professor's Research, -1 Escape Rope, -1 Super Rod, -1 Vitality Band, -1 Town Store, -1 Fire Energy
• +1 Charmeleon, +1 Cheryl, +1 Vengeful Punch, +1 Magma Basin, +2 Jet Energy
• Tournaments:
• Pokemon Battle Park (Sep 9) - 2/2/0 - 40th/84
• Matchups:
• Miraidon WWW
• Mew VMAX (Fusion) WW
• Gardevoir LWLWTW
• Toedscruel ex W 
• Turbo Lost Zone Box WLL
• Charizard ex/Arceus VSTAR/Bidoof T
• Lost Zone Box (Kyogre) W
• Mew VMAX (DTE) WL
• Lugia VSTAR/Archeops (Single Strike) WW
• Charizard ex/Arceus VSTAR/Pidgeot ex LW
• Results with deck:
• Tournaments Played: 3
• Wins: 0
• Top 4s: 1
• Top 8s: 2
• Total Record: 15-6-1 (68.18% win rate)

Charizard ex with Buddy Catch Gallade

A small part of me did think while building my first few Charizard ex lists, “what if I paired it with Refinement Kirlia?” I didn’t think much of it, then had this idea to test it with Shining Arcana Gardevoir. “Hey this gives me another out to attach energies!”

I was still playing around the idea of it, mainly Gardevoir but with 1 Gallade to fetch out supporters. The biggest idea I wanted to do was to use Cheryl (found by Gallade) on a damaged Zard, heal it, manual attach and then hopefully attach another through Gardevoir’s Shining Arcana ability. And then Yokohama Champions League happened and the deck that caught my eye was the Zard with Gallade that made top 8. 

The additions they had that I liked in the list was 4 Jet Energies. Which means I can use Mew even more times over a game! The 1 Reversal energy was a cool idea I didn’t think about, giving you a way to hit for 160 and move it to another Gallade. That combo helped me win a game I shouldn’t have won against Miraidon. The support line was a bit thin for my liking but I did get why 4 Iono was played since you had access to it with Gallade.

Results:

• Tournament: Pokemon Battle Park (Sep 4) - 7/2/1 - 3rd/149
• List as above
• Changes in List:
• -1 Charmeleon, -1 Jet Energy
• +1 Hisuian Heavy Ball, +1 Reversal Energy
• Tournaments:
• Deck Out Thursdays (Sep 14) - 6/0/1 - 1st/76
• Changes in List: 
• -1 Charmeleon, -1 Kirlia, -1 Professor’s Research, -1 Jet Energy
• +1 Worker, +1 Arven, +1 Vitality Band, +1 Reversal Energy
• Tournaments: 
• Pokémon Battle Park (Sep 17) - 7/2/1 - 2nd/103
• Locals (Sep 19) - 2/1/0 - 15th/30
• Matchups: 
• Charizard ex (Lost Zone) W 
• Charizard ex/Gallade LWW
• Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone) WWWLW
• Snorlax Control W
• Lost Box (Radiant Charizard) W 
• Wishcash/Claydol W
• Miraidon ex WWT
• Blaziken VMAX/Zeraora V W
• Gardevoir ex WT
• Mew VMAX (DTE) WW
• Entei V/Moltres W
• Mew VMAX (Meloetta) W
• Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur LW
• Turbo Lost Zone Box L
• Results with deck:
• Tournaments Played: 4
• Wins: 1
• Top 4s: 3
• Top 8s: 3
• Total Record: 22-5-1 (78.57% win rate)

Lost Zone Charizard ex

The other way people were hyping up on how Zard could be played was with the Lost Zone package. My good friend Gazerbem2k was one of the first to jump on it, we played each other in an online tournament and he utterly destroyed me to the point where I sent a simple message back to our discord testing group. “Guys I think Lost Zard might just be better.”

I took his list, changed a few stuff around, played one tourney with it and stopped. 9 days later, Barcelona SPE happened and we had our first top 4 finish at a big TPCi event for Charizard ex. 

Results:

• Tournament: Pokemon Battle Park (Sep 8) - 4/2/0 - 18th/97
• List as above
• Matchups: 
• Miraidon ex W
• Mew VMAX (DTE) W
• Gardevoir ex L
• Mew VMAX (Fusion) W
• Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur W
• Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone) L
• Results with deck:
• Tournaments Played: 1
• Wins: 0
• Top 4s: 0
• Top 8s: 0
• Total Record: 4-2-0 (66.67% win rate) 

Me being the Charmander guy that I am, I jumped onto that list to try it out right away to see how it was compared to the other versions.

They added in Water energies to have Greninja be an additional attacker, mainly for Gardevoir and other set up decks. I liked the two Jet energies in the list which meant getting a Turn 1 attack with Cormorant even higher. That combined with Zard should take our anything.

The best part about the deck is having multiple different ways to win games. You don’t always have to solely rely on Zard when you have 2 Cramorant and 2 Sableye that can get you there. In fact Sableye’s Lost mine can easily set up the perfect number for Charizard ex to take some big KOs your opponents might not be expecting to. I wasn’t a fan of ink having 3 Charmanders but this is more of a toolbox so it’s fine most of the time. 

Results:

• Tournament: Xaria's Testing Tournys #14 (Sep 14) - 3/2/0 - 4th/12
• List as above
• Changes in List:
• +1 Boss's Orders, +1 Raihan, +1 Ultra Ball, +1 Nest Ball
• -1 Roxanne, -1 Mirage Gate, -1 Hisuian Heavy Ball, -1 Water Energy
• Tournament: 
• Xaria's Testing Tournys #15 (Sep 18) - 3/1/1 - 2nd/18
• PokéDeck Torneio Semanal #23 (Sep 21) - 3/2/0 - 12th/53
• Pokemon Battle Park (151 Legal) (Sep 22) - 8/0/2 - 1st/89
• Changes in List:
• +1 Pidgeot V, +1 Boss's Orders +2 Nest Ball, +2 Lost Vacuum, +1 Forest Seal Stone, +1 Vitality Band, +1 Town Store, +2 PokeStop, +1 Jet Energy, +1 Psychic Energy
• -1 Escape Rope, -2 Miragate Gate, -1 Hisuian Heavy Ball, -2 Artazon, -1 Beach Court, -2 Fire Energy, -3 Water Energy, -1 Cramorant
• Tournament:
• Moujii's Dojo Season 2 #9 (Sep 23) - 0/2/0 - 68th/75
• Changes in List:
• +1 Boss's Orders, +1 Klara, +1 Raihan, +1 Nest Ball
• -1 Roxanne, -1 Mirage Gate, -1 Fire Energy, -1 Jet Energy
• Tournaments:
• Pokemon Battle Park (Sep 24) - 6/2/1 - 3rd/96
• Locals (Sep 24) - 1/2/0 - 12th/20
• Deck Out Mondays (Sep 25) - 0/2/0 - 143rd/164
• Locals (Sep 26) - 3/0/0 - 3rd/33
• Changes in List:
• +1 Boss's Orders, +3 Raihan, +1 Ultra Ball, +1 Nest Ball, +1 Lost Vacuum, +1 PokeGear, +1 Path to the Peak, 
• -1 Roxanne, -3 Mirage Gate, -1 Hisuian Heavy Ball, -1 Beach Court, -3 Water Energy
• Tournaments:
• Locals (Nov 7) - 2/1/0 - 8th/30
• Matchups:
• Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur WLWW
• Gardevoir ex LWWWWWWWL
• Mew VMAX (Meloetta) W
• Miraidon ex WWW
• Inteleon VMAX/Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX W
• Alakazam ex W
• Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR W
• Lugia VSTAR/Archeops (Snorlax) WT
• Arceus VSTAR/Togekiss L
• Lost Zone Box (Kyogre) WW
• Charizard ex (Lost Zone) WLW
• Turbo Lost Zone Box LWLL
• Arceus VSTAR/Duraludon VMAX WChien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur WLWW
• Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone) WLWLWLW
• Charizard ex/Arceus VSTAR/Pidgeot ex L
• Results with deck:
• Tournaments Played: 10
• Wins: 1
• Top 4s: 5
• Top 8s: 6
• Total Record: 29-14-4 (61.7% win rate)

4 Arven in Charizard ex (the new most popular way to play Zard)

Did I or did I not say Arven was perfect for Charizard. Imagine my happiness seeing William Azevedo win the Curitiba Regional in Brazil with the now termed Arven Zard (I still liked our name of Arcless Zard). And we weren’t that far off from the list they ended up with compared to our last list we had worked on.

The stuff they added in that we didn’t have were a few but still impactful enough. The biggest being Penny. You could attack with Entei V first, let it take a hit and then scoop it up, denying easy prizes for your opponent while advancing your game. Lost City was the other big thing they added which seemed alright to me. It does help Vs Gardevoir when you can easily take out the Shining Arcana Gardevoirs and they are sent to the Lost Zone, denying them an attacker. The other target being Sableye or lost zone stuff in general like Dragonite V, Radiant Charizard or even Cramorant at times.

This was pretty much my go-to deck for most of the format, and it was the one I chose to play for the one local event with points on the line (aka Town League) that I knew I was going to get to play in. If I was playing in the Singapore Regional this weekend, I would have played a version of this too. Unfortunately I'm not in Singapore so I guess I won't get to show what I can do with a Charizard ex deck when the stakes are high. It sucks but since I'm stuck here in Asia Pacific region, there's not really much I can do about it when it comes to events.

Results:

• Tournament: Locals (Oct 1) - 2/1/0 - 10th/27
• List as above
• Changes in List:
• +1 Mew ex
• -1 Mawile
• Tournaments:
• Locals (Oct 2) - 1/2/0 - 15th/26
• Deck Out Mondays (Oct 3) - 1/2/0 - 96th/167
• Changes in List:
• +1 Vengeful Punch
• -1 Mawile
• Tournaments:
• Kitchen Showdown #5 (Oct 5) - 4/3/0 - 27th/106
• Singapore Town League #2 (Oct 8) - 4/2/0 - 13th/64 (+100 CSP)
• Locals (Oct 31) - 1/2/0 - 13th/14
• Late Night 147 (Nov 1) - 2/2/0 - 62nd/125
• Changes in List: 
• -1 Mawile, -1 Professor's Research, -1 Forest Seal Stone, -1 Fire Energy
• +1 Super Rod, +1 Pal Pad, +1 Vitality Band, +1 Vengeful Punch
• Tournaments: 
• Tournament of Doom (Oct 7) - 4/2/0 - 20th/110
• Changes in List:
• +1 Echoing Horn, +1 Vitality Band, +1 Vengeful Punch, +1 Super Rod
• -1 Mawile, 1 Professor's Research, -1 Forest Seal Stone, -1 Fire Energy
• Tournaments:
• Locals (Oct 7) - 1/2/0 - 10th/11
• Changes in List:
• +1 Pidgeot V, +1 Iono, +1 Vengeful Punch, +1 Path to the Peak, +1 Collapsed Stadium
• -1 Mawile, -1 Entei V, -1 Professor's Research, -1 Penny, -1 Lost Vacuum 
• Tournaments: 
• Locals (Oct 12) - 2/1/0 - 7th/17
• Pokemon Battle Park (Oct 13) - 2/2/0 - 42nd/72
• Changes in List: 
• +1 Vitality Band, +1 Vengeful Punch,
• -1 Mawile, -1 Forest Seal Stone
• Tournaments:
• Pokemon Battle Park (Oct 14) - 0/2/0 - 43rd/56
• Changes in List:
• +1 Pidgeot V, +1 Iono, +1 Nest Ball, +1 Collapsed Stadium, +1 Artazon
• -1 Mawile, -1 Entei V, -1 Professor's Research, -1 Penny, -1 Ultra Ball
• Tournaments:
• Hobbyists United Weekly Tourney #7 (Oct 18) - 1/2/0 - 9th/12
• Changes in List:
• +1 Bidoof, +1 Bibarel, +1 Pidgeot V, +1 Iono, +1 Nest Ball, +1 Vengeful Punch, +1 Collapsed Stadium
• -1 Pidgeot ex, -1 Entei V, -1 Mawile, -1 Professor's Research, -1 Penny, -1 Ultra Ball, -1 Forest Seal Stone
• Tournament:
• Morning TCG Weekly #26 (Oct 19) - 6/0/0 - 1st/45

• Changes in List:
• +1 Iono, +1 Lost City
• -1 Mawile, -1 Professor's Research
• Tournament: 
• Pokemon Battle Park (Oct 29) - 3/2/0 - 19th/71
• Changes in List:
• +1 Iono
• -1 Mawile 
• Tournament:
• Grandslam Invitational #5 (Local Event) (Nov 4) - 4/1/0 - 2nd/19 (+$225)
• Matchups:
• Gardevoir ex WLLLWWWLLWW
• Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone) LLWLLWW
• Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur WLWL
• Turbo Lost Zone Box WLWWLLWW
• Lugia VSTAR/Archeops (Snorlax) LWWL
• Lugia VSTAR/Archeops (Single Strike) LW
• Lugia VSTAR/Archeops (Charizard ex) L
• Inteleon VMAX/Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX WLWLL
• Miraidon ex LWLLWL
• Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR W
• Gengar VMAX W
• Arceus VSTAR/Alolan Vulpix L
• Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex LWWW
• Mew VMAX (DTE) WW
• Hisuian Goodra VSTAR (Lost Zone) LW
• Lost Zone Box (Radiant Charizard) W
• Regigigas W
• Arceus VSTAR/Leafeon VSTAR W
• Darkrai VSTAR W
• Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR L
• Results with deck:
• Tournaments Played: 15
• Wins: 1
• Top 4s: 2
• Top 8s: 3
• Total Record: 38-28-0 (57.57%)

Charizard ex with Arceus VSTAR and Bibarel

I did try to make one work early on, it was working alright. I just don’t know why I didn’t keep trying it out. I did have stuff like Arven, Skwovet and even Victini ex in there. 

I did go 3-1 with it but maybe deep down inside I felt it wasn’t right. A month later and we’re back to playing a version of ZardArcBibarel, but this one has a result to show for with Juan Cardenas getting the highest placement for a Zard player in Sacramento. 

The biggest thing that popped up was the two Panic Masks in the list and the more I thought about it, it made some sense. You could hit Chien Pao or Miraidon or whoever and leave them at 40 HP or less and with Panic Mask attached, they can’t attack. The only way around is well, getting around Charizard or using Lost Vaccum which most of them don’t usually have. Didn’t help much in mirror match though. The 4 Lost City was interesting. Them not having a Super Rod was my biggest gripe with the list.

Results:

• Xaria's Testing Tourny #8 (Sep 4) - 1/2/0 - 23rd/35
• List as above (1st picture)
• Changes in List: (2nd picture)
• Tournament: 
• Battleground TCG Grand Opening (Oct 18) - 2/2/0 - 24th/49
• Changes in List: (compared to 2nd picture)
• +1 Radiant Charizard, +1 Super Rod, 
• -1 Panic Mask, -1 Fire Energy
• Tournament:
• Discard Pile Weekly #33 (Oct 19) - 2/1/0 - 17th/30
• Matchups:
• Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone) LL
• Charizard ex/Arceus VSTAR/Pidgeot ex WW
• Arceus VSTAR/Slaking V W
• Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur WL
• Turbo Lost Zone Box L
• Gardevoir ex W
• Spidos ex L
• Results with deck:
• Tournaments Played: 3
• Wins: 0
• Top 4s: 0
• Top 8s: 0
• Total Record: 5-5-0 (50%)

Charizard ex with just Bibarel

I wanted this to be a thing for the longest time, even at the start of the format. I tried a few times and failed. And then Oscar Madsen showed up at Lille Regional and got a good finish with his list. It took me 5 seconds and I was won over with his list. 

It’s just Zard and Bibarel, but with a few interesting techs. I liked the Cramorant in there as you can easily get your Lost Zone counter go up to 4 with Lost Vacuum and Colress. It’s a good way to set up some numbers for Zard. Hawlucha is a cool inclusion that can help fix some awkward numbers for Zard, namely stuff with 210 or 270 HP. 

The biggest thing I liked in the deck was the 3 Path to the Peak and 3 Lost Vacuums. Just like how Mew DTE works, you use your ability then use Path so your opponent can’t use theirs. And then you can get rid of it on your turn to use another one then hit the Path back again. I always had this feeling Zard could utilise Path and this proves it is possible. This isn’t the only time I will talk about Charizard with Bibarel, I’ll save one at the end for a list in the new format.

Results:

• Morning TCG Weekly #21 (Sep 7) - 3/1/0 - 43rd/95
• List as above
• Changes in List:
• +1 Charizard ex, +1 Cramorant, +1 Hawlucha, +4 Colress, +1 Level Ball, +2 Lost Vacuum, +1 Switch, +3 Path to the Peak
• -1 Skwovet, -1 Radiant Greninja, -1 Victini ex, -3 Arven, -2 Nest Ball, -1 Super Rod, -1 Choice Belt, -1 Vitality Band, -2 Artazon, -1 Magma Basin
• Tournament:
• Pokemon Battle Park (Oct 22) - 5/2/0 - 7th/63
• Changes in List:
• +1 Cramorant, +1 Hawlucha, +4 Colress, +1 Level Ball, +2 Lost Vacuum, +1 Switch, +3 Path to the Peak
• -1 Skwovet, -1 Radiant Greninja, -1 Victini ex, -3 Arven, -2 Nest Ball, -1 Choice Belt, -1 Vitality Band, -2 Artazon, -1 Magma Basin
• Tournaments:
• Locals (Oct 24) - 2/1/0 - 12th/28
• Torneio semanal Pokedeck #28 (Oct 26) - 4/1/0 - 9th/52
• Tournament of Doom! (Oct 28) - 2/2/0 - 44th/104
• Locals (Oct 29) - 1/2/0 - 12th/16
• Matchups:
• Turbo Lost Zone Box LW
• Noivern ex W
• Chien-Pao ex WWWWL
• Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone) L
• Charizard ex/Arceus VSTAR/Pidgeot ex W
• Miraidob ex WWW
• Mew VMAX (DTE) W
• Snorlax Control LL
• Ting-Lu ex W
• Mew VMAX (Fusion) W
• Alakazam ex W
• Lugia VSTAR/Archeops (Snorlax) L
• Gardevoir ex WLL
• Darkrai VSTAR L
• Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex W
• Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR W
• Results with deck:
• Tournaments Played: 6
• Wins: 0
• Top 4s: 0
• Top 8s: 1
• Total Record: 17-8-0 (68% win rate)

Recap of Charizard ex's Timeline so far

• WEEK 1 (release date) Aug 11 – 13 (I'm in Japan)
• WEEK 2 Aug 14 – 20 (I'm still in Japan)
• WEEK 3 Aug 21 – 27 (Back home but yet to test)
• WEEK 4 Aug 28 – Sep 3 (Start testing)
• WEEK 5 Sep 4 – 10 (Yokohama CL – Zard Gallade appearance + Pittsburgh Regional)
• WEEK 6 Sep 11 – 17 (Barcelona SPE – Lost Zard arrives)
• WEEK 7 Sep 18 – 24 (Sep 22 – 151 release date) (Arven Zard wins) list copied
• WEEK 8 Sep 25 – Oct 1 (copied best LZ Zard, practicing Town League with Arven Zard)
• WEEK 9 Oct 2 – Oct 8 (Town League! Lost win & in for Top 4, still got Top 16 for +100CP)
• WEEK 10 Oct 9 – 15 (Sacramento Regional, ArcBibZard is top Zard)
• WEEK 11 Oct 16 – 22 (Lille Regional, ZardBib is here)
• WEEK 12 Oct 23 – 29 (Azul top 4 with Arven Zard)
• WEEK 13 Oct 30 – Nov 5 (GSP #5 Invitational, using Azul's list to win $225)

Win Rates for each variants of Charizard ex

1. with Gallade (78.57% - 28 Games)
2. with Arceus VSTAR/Pidgeot ex/Octillery (71.43% - 7 Games)
3. with Pidgeot ex v1 (2 Arven) (68.18% - 22 Games)
4. with Bibarel (68% - 25 Games)
5. with Lost Zone v1 (No Jet Energy) (66.67% - 6 Games)
6. with Arceus VSTAR/Pidgeot ex (64.71% - 51 Games)
7. with Lost Zone v2 (with Jet Energy) (61.7% - 47 Games)
8. with Pidgeot ex v2 (4 Arven) (57.57% - 66 Games)
9. with Arceus VSTAR/Bibarel (50% - 10 Games)

I wished I played the Gallade version more, that seemed to be my most succesful Zard list, the 3 times I played it online, I got 3 top 4 results with it. I wished I did better with both the second versions of Lost Zard and Arven Zard, I put in a lot of games with them with not much to show for it. 

And here's a sneak peek of the next Zard deck with the new Paradox Rift format.

I've already played it in an online tournament to a 5-3 score. As you can see the deck is a bit different and for once, we aren't relying on Pidgeot ex or Arceus VSTAR. We're back to my old friend Bibarel because of Technical Machine: Evolution. With it, I can get my Charmander and Bidoof evolved by using it as an attack into a Charmeleon and Bibarel by the end of my first turn! 

And with Town Store and Arven, there are plenty of outs to make it happen. And the TM works on anyone, you can easily put a Jet Energy on Mew, use Mysterious Tail to grab a VIP Pass, Ultra Ball or Rare Candy, and then use TM Evolution on Mew to get two of the benched evolved. It is also the reason we're now playing 3 Charmeleons. The deck is already so much fun, I've always enjoyed playing Zard with Bibarel even though I've not had any results to show for it. I'm hoping to change that soon.

Hope you enjoyed reading my stories with my Charmander deck and how I tried every possible version of it and I'm still going to try it out as long as it's possible. Thank you for reading!

My Road to Worlds 2023 - How I Survived the Toughest System (Season Recap)

This is a recap of how my 2022-2023 season went, the first full one I've had since the 2018-2019 season since those of us in Asia never got to finish the 2019-2020/2022 season due to the TPCi/Asia split. And as you may have heard (or seen from the title), I am one of the lucky ones to qualify for the Pokemon World Championships in Singapore's circuit. 

I am just one of 5 of us making the trip to Yokohama because our invites are now limited (4 from finishing top 4 in the standings and the championship winner who hadn't even scored a point going into the event). Confused? Don't worry I'll try my best to explain it and give a re-cap of how my season went, it was truly and a roller coaster of a ride, lots of ups early on, then downs in the middle and the biggest of ups at the end. This is our first full season under TPC Japan's jurisdiction so going into it, we still had no idea how our new system worked or what we were aiming for.

• The System
• The First Quarter - Starting Strong (Sword & Shield - Lost Origin)
• The Second Quarter - Sliding Away (Sword & Shield - Silver Tempest)
• The Third Quarter - The Comeback (Battle Styles - Scarlet & Violet)

• +Singapore Championships 2023 Recap
• The Fourth Quarter - On to Worlds! (Battle Styles - Paldea Evolved)
• The Results

The System

Our system is a little different to what most of you are used to under the TPCi system. For the rest of the world, the route to Worlds is quite simple:

• Score a certain amount of points to qualify
• In the case of Masters:
• US/Canada - 350 CP
• Europe - 250 CP
• Latin America - 200 CP
• Oceania - 200 CP
• Middle East & South Africa - 200 CP
• If you were to finish in the top X spots, you would earn a Day 2 invite to Worlds
• US/Canada - Top 16 players
• Europe - Top 22 players
• Latin America - Top 12 players
• Oceania - Top 4 players
• Middle East & South Africa - Top 2 players

That's how to qualify in the TPCi format. In the TPC format however, things are a little different and it also depends on where you are. 

• Japan:
• Champions League Top 4 Finishers - Day 1 Invite
• Top 40 in CSP Standings - Day 1 Invite
• Championships Top 16 Finishers - Day 2 Invite
• South Korea
• 4 Masters earn Day 2 Invite
• 17 other Masters earn Day 1 Invite
• All based on CSP earned in 5 events, likely Korean Leagues
• Hong Kong (Traditional Chinese circuit)
• Top 16 in CSP Standings - Day 1 Invite
• Championships Winner - Day 2 Invite
• Top 2 in CSP Standings - Day 2 Invite
• Taiwan
• Top 2 in CSP Standings - Day 2 Invite
• Championships Top 4 - Day 2 Invite
• Top 24 after the first two - Day 1 Invite
• Hong Kong (English circuit)
• Top 2 in CSP Standings - Day 1 Invite
• Championships Winner - Day 2 Invite
• Indonesia
• Top 4 in CSP Standings - Day 1 Invite
• Championships Winner - Day 2 Invite
• Thailand
• Top 4 in CSP Standings - Day 1 Invite
• Championships Winner - Day 2 Invite
• Singapore
• Top 4 in CSP Standings - Day 1 Invite
• Championships Winner - Day 2 Invite
• Malaysia
• Top 4 in CSP Standings - Day 1 Invite
• Championships Winner - Day 2 Invite
• The Philippines
• Top 4 in CSP Standings - Day 1 Invite
• Championships Winner - Day 2 Invite

Complicated isn't it? So while the rest of the world have their "chase for Day 2 invites", the rest of us here in Asia are chasing and fighting like crazy the whole year, just for a Day 1 invite and with limited invites available to us, which is why I firmly believe we have the hardest/most difficult qualifying system in all of Pokémon TCG. 

And for those wondering, how do we score CSP points in these events? Using the system we use in Singapore (which is the same for the rest of South East Asia - The Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand), we can score points in 3 events, Town Leagues (similar to League Challenges), Regional League (more like League Cups than Regionals), and the Championships (similar to the old Nationals):

• For Town Leagues
• 1st - 250 CSP (1 to 3 players)
• 2nd - 200 CSP (4 to 8 players)
• 3rd to 4th - 160 CSP (9 to 16 players)
• 5th to 8th - 130 CSP (17 to 32 players)
• 9th to 16th - 100 CSP (33 to 64 players)
• 17th to 32nd - 75 CSP (65 to 100 players)
• 33rd to 64th - 50 CSP (101+ players)
• For Regional Leagues
• 1st - 1000 CSP (1 player)
• 2nd - 800 CSP (2 players)
• 3rd to 4th - 600 CSP (3 to 4 players)
• 5th to 8th - 400 CSP (5 to 32 players)
• 9th to 16th - 200 CSP (33 to 64 players)
• 17th to 32nd - 150 CSP (65 to 128 players)
• 33rd to 64th - 100 CSP (129 to 250 players)
• 65th to 128th - 75 CSP (251 to 500 players)
• 129th to 256th - 50 CSP (501 to 800 players)
• For Championships
• 1st - 1500 CSP (1 player)
• 2nd - 1200 CSP (2 players)
• 3rd to 4th - 1000 CSP (3 to 4 players)
• 5th to 8th - 800 CSP (5 to 32 players)
• 9th to 16th - 600 CSP (33 to 64 players)
• 17th to 32nd - 400 CSP (65 to 128 players)
• 33rd to 64th - 200 CSP (129 to 250 players)
• 65th to 128th - 150 CSP (251 to 500 players)
• 129th to 256th - 100 CSP (501 to 800 players)
• 257th to 512th - 50 CSP (801+ players)

From looking at the points pay out, my friends and I figured out that anyone with two top cut placements in 2 of the 3 major events this year would likely end up in the top 4 of the standings. And as you'll see later, that was indeed the case for us this year!

Also I won't do a recap for many events apart from the major events, especially the Singapore Championship as I meant to write about that event separately but thought I might as well just combine it with this.

The First Quarter - Starting Strong (Sword & Shield - Lost Origin)

We started our season in September but unlike the others, we didn't play in the Sword & Shield to Astral Radiance format, we were the first outside of Japan to play Sword & Shield to Lost Origin format in official events. I actually hadn't tested that format much myself and I had already settled of playing an Arceus/Flying Pikachu/Bibarel deck for the first Regional event because I knew I would have a hard time getting any of the new cards in time for the event (and that was proven right).

Singapore Regional League (1)

• Deck: Arceus VSTAR/Flying Pikachu VMAX/Bibarel
• Record: 5-3
• Finish: 29th/131 -> 150 CSP
• Total CSP after event: 150 CSP
• List:

This was part meta-call on my part and part-not having the new Lost Origin cards to play since it was a week after the set release. The Zamazenta idea came from my good friend Luke Morsa (Celio's Network) and it was meant to help out vs Kyurem but it helped in other cases. 5-3, top 32, good start to the year thanks to trusty old Arceus!

Town League September (1)

• Deck: Arceus VSTAR/Aggron VMAX
• Record: 4-2
• Finish: 8th/45 -> 130 CSP
• Total CSP after event: 280 CSP
• List:

I just wanted to have some fun after the Regional so I brought my "fun deck" Arceus/Aggron which had been doing well in a few events, Worlds included. And it was really decent, only loses were to an auto-loss (back to back Regis) and it smashed everything else thanks to Aggron.

Town League October (1)

• Deck: Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR
• Record: 6-1
• Finish: 2nd/32 -> 200 CSP
• Total CSP after event: 480 CSP
• List:

I had been playing ArcTina a lot during the run up to this event and it felt right. Even my one loss could have been a win had I not been stupid and took the wrong cards out of Starbirth thinking I had some other stuff in hand. First real good result of the season with a deck I really liked! Too bad I didn't get to play it much since I didn't win the lottery for the next event.

Town League October (2)

• Deck: -
• Record: Not Elected
• Finish: Not Elected
• Total CSP after event: 480 CSP

So the first thing you may notice is the last event, yes all of our events now are lottery based so if you win the lottery, you get to play in the event. The sad part is the event I missed was the closest venue to me, it was literally 5 minutes away from my house yet that's the one I didn't get to play in!

The season started off really well. Top 32 finish in the Regional event gave me confidence that yes, I'm still decent at the game after 2 years of not playing it. And to back that up with a Top 8 finish with a rouge deck (Arceus/Aggron) and then finishing 2nd with Arceus/Giratina, that gave me hope that maybe, this could be the year I get my invite. 

I had a 100% points conversion rate after the first four events of the year and was sitting sixth in the standings, behind the 4 guys who finished top 4 in the Regional and Jit Min who won the first Town League. All 3 event I scored points at where with Arceus VSTAR decks too which was cool, I had only really been playing that up till that point of the season. 

The Second Quarter - Sliding Away (Sword & Shield - Silver Tempest)

Well this is the point where my season took a downhill dive. I was hopeful after the first three events of the season but this part of the season almost broke me. Nothing I tried worked. 

Town League November (1)

• Deck: Giratina VSTAR
• Record: 2-4
• Finish: 34th/46
• Total CSP after event: 480 CSP
• List:

First event playing Lost Zone decks and I had been playing Tina at locals quite a lot. Too bad the result was just piss poor. Started off 2-0, lost to a first time player using Kyogre because my last gusting option was prized while they top drew their boss for game, that was in Table 1 too so the curse is real. Lost the next 3 games as well due to bad draws or going 2nd in the mirror.

Town League November (2)

• Deck: -
• Record: Not Elected
• Finish: Not Elected
• Total CSP after event: 480 CSP

Town League November (3)

• Deck: Giratina VSTAR
• Record: 4-3
• Finish: 20th/72 -> 75 CSP
• Total CSP after event: 555 CSP
• List:

Tried again with Tina and this time I did score some CSP points but it was still an annoying deck as I was one win away from a top 8 finish. My last round was against Lugia (a really bad matchup and my two previous losses were to two other Lugias) but this game went way better for me and I managed to get a Roxanne on him to put myself just one prize away from winning and thinking he'd have no chance of winning since he'd already use 2 gust. 

But of course my Roxanne gave him the last gust to put him into top 8 and me down to 20th. Roxanne is a lie. The Unown V was my own funny tech to combat Duraludon and did win me two games to be fair! Looking back, I probably should have just stuck with ArcTina and not try Tina especially after the first failed attempt. I knew how to play ArcTina well, Tina was just completely different and didn't work well for me. 

Asia Open Singapore (No CSP awarded in this event, we were fighting to win an automatic top cut spot in our Championship event)

• Deck: Arceus VSTAR/Duraludon VMAX
• Record: 2-3 Drop
• Finish: Drop/193
• Total CSP after event: 555 CSP
• List:

I hated this one. Just had too many bad hands early on for me to do the ol 2-3 drop since there was no points at stake and I wasn't enjoying myself.

Town League February (1)

• Deck: Lost Zone Toolbox/Radiant Greninja
• Record: 3-4
• Finish: 59th/87
• Total CSP after event: 555 CSP
• List:

My first and only official event playing Lost Box and there's a good reason why. God this deck sucks. The outcomes are truly dependent on whether you go first or second or if you prize Colress. I played 5 mirrors, went first in one, and out of 7 games, I prized Colress twice in 5 of them. Unplayable games.

Town League February (2)

• Deck: Lugia VSTAR/Archeops
• Record: 3-4
• Finish: 47th/68
• Total CSP after event: 555 CSP
• List:

I finally caved in and decided to play the BDIF for a tourney for the first time (and last time) of this season. I generally don't play a deck that is considered the BDIF, I tend to prefer playing the stuff that can counter all the good decks or my comfort choices, which are never the BDIF either. For this past few years it's been Arceus for me and before that in the online days, it was Centiskorch. Lugia didn't treat me well, so many losses were to bad first hand, getting donked by Raikou or drawing into 6 energies after a research.

Town League February (3) - Didn't even apply to join, I was in California during that time

Town League March

• Deck: Mew VMAX/Meloetta
• Record: 3-4
• Finish: 51st/96
• Total CSP after event: 555 CSP
• List:

Decided to play Mew Meloetta for the first Scarlet and Violet event for a simple reason, I didn't have any of the new cards. If not I would have played Arceus/Giratina easily so I had to go for Mew. Once again it didn't treat me well. 3 games I started a lone Mew and passed. It was not fun.

Out of the six points scoring events we had, I only scored points in one of them. I went 5 months without scoring any CSP! I went from being one of the guys who had the best shot of overtaking the initial top 4 guys to....nothing. I just wasn't comfortable with any deck in this format which is why I kept jumping from one deck to the next, just looking for anything that worked for me and nothing did. I couldn't play my trusty old Arceus decks because of the new Lugia deck so I had to look elsewhere. 

I was down to 16th in the standings, being overtaken by guys who hadn't scored much during the first three events and it made me question myself, especially after a 3rd straight event of having a 3-4 score and no points to show for my efforts. Am I actually ready to push for a Worlds invite? Am I really as good as people say I am? I was having doubts after this format and I knew I had to work doubly hard to get back into the fight.

The Third Quarter - The Comeback (Battle Styles - Scarlet & Violet)

After a painful 5 months of playing in a format I really did not like, I was looking forward to the release of the new Scarlet & Violet set, which also meant the new rotation would come into effect. Hopefully new cards meant a renewed chance to keep the hopes up of making it to Worlds but the road was tricky now that I had dropped down to 20th in the standings and needing a big result in the last two major events.

Singapore Regional League (2)

• Deck: Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR
• Record: 9-2
• Finish: 1st/189 -> 1000 CSP
• Total CSP after event: 1555 CSP
• List:

Singapore Championships 2023

• Deck: Mew VMAX
• Record: 7-2
• Finish: 12th/212 -> 600 CSP
• Total CSP after event: 2155 CSP
• List:

If you'd like to read what happened at the Singapore Regional League, you can read it here. Still couldn't believe I won a Regional, my first big win in Pokémon TCG! That win jumped me up from 20th to 2nd in the CSP standings. The job wasn't done though, I knew I still had to do well in the Championship to get that Day 1 invite by finishing in the top 4 of the standings. The guys behind me in the standings could still jump me but from what I heard from many friends my situation was clearer than most, a top 16 finish would get me over 2000 CSP and that should be enough to keep me in the top 4 of the standings.

My preparation for the Championships was more or less the same as the Regional, but with more playing time IRL and my own self testing than online on PTCGL due to the release of Paldea Evolved so I couldn't really play online to practice for the event. 

But my approach was different, I wasn't planning to go all out to win the event like I did for the Regional. I knew I just needed to play it safe to get the 8-0, 7-1 or 6-2 score I needed to get into the top 15 cut. So I had decided quite early on I would play Mew DTE because it was the most consistent deck. 

Yup I even named my deck “Path to Japan because of Path to the Peak, the most important card in my last two decks. Sure testing didn't go so well and I did keep thinking if I should go with another deck or go back to my comfort deck with Arceus VSTAR but chose to play it safe just to get the safe score I needed for top 16, since that should get me that Worlds Day 1 spot. My job got made easier since I started with a 2 round bye thanks to my Regional win.

• Round 1 - W Bye
• Round 2 - W Bye
• Round 3 - W Gardevoir
• Round 4 - L Mew DTE (59 card mirror vs Anselm who helped me the most with the list)
• Round 5 - W ArcTina
• Round 6 - W ArcTina
• Round 7 - W Mew Meloetta (Round was repaired, initially got Gerrard with SableZard, a horrid matchup. Ended up beating the new Singapore Championship winner Dion in this round)
• Round 8 - W Mew DTE (Same opponent from my Top 16 game at the Regional)
• Top 16 - WLL Lost Zone Toolbox/Radiant Greninja (Lost City went...lost in Games 2 and 3 and cost me a shot to make it to Top 8)

Making the top 15 cut with a 7-1 score was just amazing, finishing up 6th before Top 16 cut, the dream of making Worlds was very alive. And I did that with Mew VMAX, a deck I hadn't really played much of so it made it even more sweeter because now I had proved that I could do well with different deck. Making back to back top cut appearances with two different decks showed I was no one trick pony like some people might have thought. 

Me being the stats and numbers guy that I was, I calculated every possible scenario that could happen in Top Cut to see what could stop me from getting the Worlds invite and as it turns out, only one specific scenario had to happen. Kwok Hoe had to win the whole thing with Yu Xian making Top 4 and Jit Min advancing into Top 8 meant I would miss out. 

During Game 3, I was getting a bit nervous, looked around and saw Kwok Hoe winning his match. 5 minutes later, I looked back at the top cut standings and saw Yu Xian lost which meant that I had clinched my first World Championship invite!!! I was getting a bit too excited but I still had a game to play so I had to re-focus. Game 1 went perfectly but Games 2 and 3 were decided by the fact that my Lost City just never showed up. I was disappointed to make it through, of course I'd like to go on and win the whole event but after sitting by myself trying to avoid everyone after my loss, it hit me. I am going to Worlds! I finally made it after 7 years of trying. Dream come true!

The Fourth Quarter - On to Worlds! (Battle Styles - Paldea Evolved)

Now that the hard part is done, time to look forward to my first World Championships event in Yokohama! But before getting there I still had two events to look forward to in the lead up to Worlds 2023 and the first one had already finished.

I played in the GSP Invitational #3, a local circuit made by the legend Jeremy Leong to give us something to look forward to when playing at local events. This was only my third event in the PAL format, the first two being locals days before and even though I had played in PAL events online, I never took them seriously since I was focused on the Championship event. 

I had been testing Gardevoir a lot going into that event but didn't feel fully confident with the deck so went back to ArcTina for this event and just bubbled out of top cut in 9th:

• R1 L Lost Box Ninja (match was recorded, my Iono + Judge still weren't enough)
• R2 W ArcTina (I had the slow start, decided to use my Arc V to power up two Tinas and it worked)
• R3 W Giratina
• R4 W Gardevoir
• R5 L Chein-Pao (terrible setup and I prized 5 energies)

And now all there's left are the last two big events of this season. Firstly the Summer Asia Open in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and I'll be there! I mean it's the same format as Worlds so it sounds like the perfect practice for those of us going so I had to go plus it'll be my first time travelling for a Pokémon event since OCIC in Melbourne back in 2020. 

And after that, a second travel but this time to Japan for the World Championships! I'm truly looking forward to it as it'll be my first Worlds and also the first event since previously mentioned OCIC event that I will get to play against players from outside of Asia since all of our events are country locked and region locked for Asia Open. 

I've missed having the chance to play against the peeps from North America, Latin America, Europe, Oceania and elsewhere because we simply don't have any opportunities to do so. There's no incentive for us to go to an IC now anyway since we wouldn't score points from it. But I did enjoy going to OCIC for that reason, because I got to play against so many different players from many different regions, including the defending World Champion (2019) himself! 

This was from the league challenge the Sunday of that OCIC. I looked around all those names and thought, "oh wow, these are all great players, what the heck am I doing here?". We had:

• the reigning World Champion himself Henry, 
• former OCIC winner Pedro, 
• the Kamerman brothers (Owyn and Brennan) who both have been killing it this year, 
• Isaiah, one of the best in the game right now and he's had many big results since the return of regionals/ICs, 
• Yoshiyuki, one of Japan's best and he won the most recent Champions League event after a 0-2 start,
• Francesco, I actually played him in the OCIC event itself on Friday and he's had many top finished, even a 5th place finish at a Players Cup
• Kaiwen, top 8 Worlds finisher in 2019 and 2022, need I say more,
• and so many more, lots of well known Australian players in there too like Ying, Michael and Jake 

At least now if I see my name mixed in with great players, I know I have earned the right to be there. I did finish 9th in that league challenge, one place off from points in Australia so that would have been cool. That's probably the thing I looking forward to the most, having the opportunity to test myself against the best around the World. The even sweeter part? I can finally meet my overseas friends in Japan as well, that's the bonus of making it to Worlds!

I always wondered if I'd ever add another good result to go with my Singapore SPE top 8 finish back in 2019 and in the space of 2 months, there's two more entries on here, with 3 different decks as well!

What's the play? I truly do not know yet. There's still a month to practice and that is what I'll be doing, also for the Asia Open! I plan to take that seriously to get me into the mindset of Worlds. Got no real expectation going into Worlds, it's my first one and honestly, I don't care what the result will be, to me it's already a huge privilege that I get to play in it since only 4 or 5 of us get to do so due to how the system works. I just want to enjoy the whole atmosphere since I may never get to do so again (it's difficult trying to make it to Worlds when you have to beat 300+ others with only 4-5 spots available anyway) so I might as well take it all in. I'm just excited that after 7 years of trying, I finally made it!

See you in Yokohama! 横浜でお会いしましょう!

The Results

Standings after the 2023 Singapore Championships:

So the five of us going to Worlds are:

•  Yong Siang (grinded through Day 1 last year to make Day 2 in his first Worlds event), 
• Jit Min (multi-time Worlds competitor, you all know him), 
• Yu Xian (first time Worlds invitee, one of our best players in the last few years, finished 5th in last year's Championship event so he bubbled out of an invite), 
• myself (first time Worlds invitee) 
• and Dionsius (won the championship event in only his second ever PTCG event). Dion is the one with the Day 2 invite.

Sure I'm happy I got my first big win in Pokémon TCG and made the World Championships but as you can see, there is still room for improvement. I'm the guy with the worst Win % record of anyone in the top 12 not named Dion so clearly I need to work on that. I just had one too many bad results, including that run of 3 straight 3-4 results which did not help. The win sure helped, it catapulted me from down in 20th to straight up in 2nd in the standings!

Decks I used:

Arceus VSTAR/Flying Pikachu VMAX -> 5-3 (1 event, 150 CSP) 6.96% of points

Arceus VSTAR/Aggron VMAX -> 4-2 (1 event, 130 CSP) 6.03% of points

Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR -> 15-3 (2 event, 1200 CSP) 55.68% of points

Giratina VSTAR -> 6-7 (2 events, 75 CSP) 3.49% of points

Arceus VSTAR/Duraludon VMAX -> 2-3 (1 event, 0 CSP)

Lost Zone Toolbox/Radiant Greninja -> 3-4 (1 event, 0 CSP)

Lugia VSTAR -> 3-4 (1 event, 0 CSP)

Mew VMAX -> 10-6 (2 events, 600 CSP) 27.84% of points

This was my other problem, that is 8 different decks used in 11 events on record here. Clearly the deck I was most comfortable with was Arceus decks and I probably should have just stuck with that. I just didn't find a deck I liked in the middle part of the season when Lugia showed up and made Arceus near unplayable. I need to find something that's just comfortable for me to play the whole way, like how I played ReshiZard for almost a year and how I would only play Centiskorch online for a good full year.

The moment I started trying out other stuff was when my season started to take a downfall. Mew was the only other deck that did well for me this season but my best deck was clearly Arceus/Giratina, I only played it twice, got 2nd at a Town League and 1st at a Regional League, the 2nd biggest event in Singapore so far, and both were played in two very different formats (and rotation) too! Now it's time to start training for the World Championships, never thought I'd say that!

Thanks for reading and to everyone who's helped me through this journey, thank you for your friendship, your support and your help, you lot have helped me become a player good enough to make it to the World Championship and I am eternally grateful for it, be it playing the game or just hanging out at the events. All of it!

Kash Top 15 List: Best Decks from BST to SVI and how much they cost

Well the new Battle Styles to Scarlet & Violet rotation is fully underway, we've now been playing the new 2023 Pokemon TCG standard rotation for a month now, so we should have enough information to figure out what are the best decks going forward and what to look out for the next month or so.

With that in mind, I wanted to showcase the best 15 deck currently in the game, but not just show the list, I also wanted to showcase how much these decks are worth. There are still many new players entering the game or current players looking for something new to try out. Even I am always on the lookout for newer ideas to test out. I'll also add a little new thing to these lists where I showcase the deck's 3 best matchups and 3 worst matchups so you know what to look out for and maybe knowing what decks your deck is bad against, perhaps find something to help improve those matchups.

Prices for the decks/cards are based off prices on TCGPlayer as of 18th May 2023, and based off USD. Lists are all on Limitless. Best and worst matchups are taken from Trainer Hill. For matchups, Lost Zone Box with Kyogre will be lumped together with Lost Zone Box with Radiant Greninja as the later. The order of the decks you see here are from the lowest performing to the highest performing on Play Limitless. 

Results from here, especially the ones making up the Limitless Points, are based off events from EUIC up till now, including Aichi Champions League, Surabaya Regional League and Thailand Regional League, all of which were played in the same format as this.

15) Miraidon ex/Flaaffy - 7th Place Portland Regional - Anthony Perez

Wins: 

Top 4s: 

Top 8s: 2

Total Limitless Points: 44

Deck Cost: $44.57

Best Matchups:

• Gardevoir ex/Mewtwo V-Union - 73.7%
• Arceus VSTAR/Duraludon VMAX - 66.7%
• Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR/Magnezone - 57.1%

Worst Matchups:

• Hisuian Goodra VSTAR - 32.6%
• Inteleon VMAX/Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX - 33.3%
• Lost Zone Toolbox/Radiant Greninja - 37.7%

This deck is starting to gain some traction having scored two Top 8 finishes at major events as of late. While it lacks the higher out-put of Regieleki VMAX, it does gain a constant energy attacher in the form of Flaaffy. It can also get big KOs thanks to Raichu V. Miraidon ex and Raikou V are the two most expensive pieces in the deck, going for $2.39 and $6.62 each.

14) Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR/Magnezone - 10th Place Philippines Championships 2023 - Mickel Paul Kinomes

Wins: 

Top 4s: 

Top 8s: 

Total Limitless Points: 12

Deck Cost: $43.87

Best Matchups:

• Hisuian Goodra VSTAR - 66.1%
• Arceus VSTAR/Duraludon VMAX - 60%
• Gardevoir ex - 50%

Worst Matchups:

• Lost Zone Toolbox/Radiant Charizard - 31.4%
• Mew VMAX - 35.5%
• Gardevoir ex/Mewtwo V-Union - 37.5%

One of the fun/budget decks on this list that have seen some success so far this season, which is better than the other Origin Forme VSTAR deck (Palkia). The deck's whole plan is to set-up the ideal board state to start taking KOs, especially with Dialga's Star Chronos. 

The most expensive pieces of the decks are the 3-3 Dialga (cost a total $18 at least) and of course Radiant Greninja, which is the same story for many other decks.

13) Arceus VSTAR/Duraludon VMAX - 1st Place EUIC - Alex Schemanske

Wins: 1

Top 4s: 

Top 8s: 2

Total Limitless Points: 130

Deck Cost: $86.35

Best Matchups:

• Lost Zone Toolbox/Radiant Charizard - 73.6%
• Lugia VSTAR/Archeops - 58.2%
• Lost Zone Toolbox/Radiant Greninja - 56.5%

Worst Matchups:

• Miraidon ex/Flaaffy - 33.3%
• Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR - 39.4%
• Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR/Magnezone - 40%

Arceus/Duraludon is still alive but instead of being a tank deck, now it's formed into a toolbox style deck. It's already seen success with the likes of Alolan Vulpix VSTAR back in EUIC and most recently with Umbreon VMAX in Portland. 

Still, the deck has proven results and with Arceus being back into the limelight, it's price has gone up. The 4-3 Arceus line itself will cost $56.76 but everything else is affordable. 

12) Inteleon VMAX/Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX - 12th Singapore Regional League - Keenan Jacob Victor

Wins: 

Top 4s: 

Top 8s: 

Total Limitless Points: 37

Deck Cost: $56.58

Best Matchups:

• Lost Zone Toolbox/Radiant Charizard - 70.5%
• Miraidon ex/Flaaffy - 66.7%
• Lost Zone Toolbox/Radiant Greninja - 62.5%

Worst Matchups:

• Lugia VSTAR/Archeops - 26.5%
• Gardevoir ex/Mewtwo V-Union - 40%
• Gardevoir ex - 45.8%

Another fun deck on this list that isn't really a budget deck for a good reason, it plays two different VMAXes! Like Dialga, this deck hasn't seen much success but more than Dialga so far, on two occasions almost hitting Top 8. 

It's not the easiest deck to play as you have a lot of lines to take for a variety of matchups, and you have to keep track of the numbers on the board. Even though Rapid Strike Urshifu is quite affordable because of the theme deck, the same cannot be said about Inteleon VMAX, the 3-3 line almost costing $22.

11) Gardevoir ex/Mewtwo V-Union - 25th Place Portland Regional - Grant Shen

Wins: 

Top 4s: 

Top 8s: 1

Total Limitless Points: 124

Deck Cost: $68.15

Best Matchups:

• Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR/Magnezone - 62.5%
• Lost Zone Toolbox/Radiant Charizard - 61.2%
• Inteleon VMAX/Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX - 60%

Worst Matchups:

• Miraidon ex/Flaaffy - 26.3%
• Mew VMAX - 42.7%
• Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR - 43%

It's the other Gardevoir deck! This one is twice the amount of the usual Gardevoir ex decks and there are 4 culprits for it, Mewtwo V-Union, all 4 pieces costing a total of $33.93. It plays differently to the normal Gardevoir as you can also go for the disruption route with Klefki and set up a board state to have Mewtwo V-Union clean house at the end.

10) Lost Zone Toolbox/Radiant Charizard - 16th Place Portland Regional - Kian Amini

Wins: 

Top 4s: 1

Top 8s: 2

Total Limitless Points: 191

Deck Cost: $45.02

Best Matchups:

• Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR/Magnezone - 68.6%
• Miraidon ex/Regieleki VMAX - 62.7%
• Gardevoir ex - 62.5%

Worst Matchups:

• Arceus VSTAR/Duraludon VMAX - 26.4%
• Inteleon VMAX/Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX - 29.5%
• Gardevoir ex/Mewtwo V-Union - 38.8%

SableZard is back but so far it hasn't had the big results that either the Greninja/V Mons variants or the Kyogre variants of Lost Box has had so far (apart from EUIC). The deck, unlike other Lost Box decks, has a linear gameplan in mind but it works most of the time, if it hits the right matchups. 

The deck isn't that difficult to build either, just Radiant Charizard, Sableye and Battle VIP Pass being the slightly costlier cards in the list and it's probably stuff you already own if you have other decks so just change a few stuff and you have a pretty good deck ready to go!

9) Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR - 1st Portland Regional - Landen Kaetler

Wins: 2

Top 4s: 1

Top 8s: 4

Total Limitless Points: 235

Deck Cost: $86.17

Best Matchups:

• Arceus VSTAR/Duraludon VMAX - 60.6%
• Gardevoir ex - 59.7%
• Hisuian Goodra VSTAR - 58.3%

Worst Matchups:

• Inteleon VMAX/Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX - 38.1%
• Miraidon ex/Flaaffy - 44.9%
• Lugia VSTAR/Archeops - 46.2%

Now here's a deck that near and dear to me, it gave me my first ever Regional event win just two weeks ago! ArcTina is one of the best decks to utilise the Path + Judge strategy and it's quite simple. The gameplan is EA Sports as I call it. 

If you have Energy (E) and Arceus (A), you're in the game (Sports). Then you try to disrupt with Path and Judge and finish games off with Giratina VSTAR. It is one of the more costlier decks with the Arceus line going for about $57 and the Giratina line about $15. Don't forget to pick up that 6 cents card called Skwovet, it might just win you games!

8) Hisuian Goodra VSTAR - 5th Place London Cup - Öjvind Svinhufvud

Wins: 

Top 4s: 2

Top 8s: 2

Total Limitless Points: 372

Deck Cost: $41.31

Best Matchups:

• Miraidon ex/Flaaffy - 67.4%
• Lugia VSTAR/Archeops - 62.2%
• Miraidon ex/Regieleki VMAX - 60.9%

Worst Matchups:

• Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR/Magnezone - 33.9%
• Giratina VSTAR - 41.7%
• Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR - 41.7%

Goodra is still sticking around and still Rolling Ironing everyone in it's path! It didn't lose much in the rotation so it's almost the same old trusted Goodra. Rolling Iron is an annoying attack to deal with as it makes Goodra takes less damage. Goodra isn't the most expensive attacker too, the 3-3 line only costing $15 so it's an affordable choice and in fact, one of the cheapest decks on this list.

7) Miraidon ex/Regieleki VSTAR - 8th Place EUIC - Robert Kinbrum

Wins: 

Top 4s: 

Top 8s: 1

Total Limitless Points: 76

Deck Cost: $71.12

Best Matchups:

• Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR/Magnezone - 56.6%
• Arceus VSTAR/Duraludon VMAX - 55.6%
• Giratina VSTAR - 53.8%

Worst Matchups:

• Mew VMAX - 35.4%
• Lost Zone Toolbox/Radiant Charizard - 37.3%
• Lugia VSTAR/Archeops - 38.6%

Miraidon is the new aggro deck of the format, and it's gameplan is quite simple, set up the lighting guys, hit your energies and start attacking and often times you can start hitting for 220 by Turn 1 itself, which is knocking out a number of V Pokémons. 

And the deck is very consistent thanks to Miraidon's ability to search out two Lighting type Pokémon to be put onto the bench. The Regieleki line will be the hardest ones to get as they cost at least $26 and even the 2 Raikou Vs are costing a total of $12! Everything else apart from Forest Seal Stone shouldn't be too difficult to get.

6) Giratina VSTAR - 2nd Place Bogotá SPE - Jonathan Torres

Wins: 

Top 4s: 2

Top 8s: 

Total Limitless Points: 151

Deck Cost: $56.91

Best Matchups:

• Arceus VSTAR/Duraludon VMAX - 59.0%
• Hisuian Goodra VSTAR - 58.3%
• Gardevoir ex - 52.8%

Worst Matchups:

• Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR - 41.8%
• Lost Zone Toolbox/Radiant Charizard - 43.2%
• Lost Zone Toolbox/Radiant Greninja - 43.7%

Technically you could say Giratina is also a lost box deck, it just has a 3-3 VSTAR line to go with it. The gameplan is similar but you do have a heavy hitter to take down opposing Vs and ex Pokemons thanks to Giratina VSTAR, including it's ridiculously good Star Requiem VSTAR move. 

The Giratinas themselves will cost you around $22 to get, and the likes of Sableye and Radiant Greninja are the cheapest cards to get either. And the deck does play 4 Battle VIP Pass, not the cheapest items to get but it certainty gets the job done.

5) Mew VMAX - 1st Place Philippines Championships - Joshua Doctolero

Wins: 1

Top 4s: 5

Top 8s: 6

Total Limitless Points: 422

Deck Cost: $50.53

Best Matchups:

• Miraidon ex/Regieleki VMAX - 64.6%
• Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR/Magnezone - 64.5%
• Miraidon ex/Flaaffy - 58.8%

Worst Matchups:

• Lost Zone Toolbox/Radiant Charizard - 43.2%
• Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR - 46.6%
• Lost Zone Toolbox/Radiant Greninja - 46.7%

Mew VMAX is still a big favourite for many in the game despite the vast amount of counters it has to face in the game. Even then, Mew VMAX is so consistent it can usually beat those tricky matchups too. 

Wins in Philippines Championship and Indonesia Championship (technically not in this format but one set ahead of us) proves that Mew VMAX is still a very good choice. It's not hard to build too thanks to have a league battle deck released last year (even though the Mew line does still cost around $22 altogether).

4) Lugia VSTAR/Archeops - 3rd Place Bogotá SPE - Gabriel Smart

Wins: 2

Top 4s: 7

Top 8s: 6

Total Limitless Points: 756

Deck Cost: $80.40

Best Matchups:

• Inteleon VMAX/Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX - 73.5%
• Miraidon ex/Regieleki VMAX - 61.4%
• Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR/Magnezone - 58.7%

Worst Matchups:

• Hisuian Goodra VSTAR - 37.8%
• Arceus VSTAR/Duraludon VMAX - 41.8%
• Gardevoir ex - 47.1%

Easily the BDIF last time out and while some thought Lugia might not be as good in this new rotation, early results are suggesting otherwise. It's got the most Limitless Points in this format so far so that is saying something! 

The gameplan is simple, get Lugia VSTAR to set up the two Archeops and start to attack with a variety of attackers for all sorts of decks. It does come with a heavy price, the Lugia line will cost you at least $60, the most of any lines mentioned on this list so far. Everything else however is quite affordable so still a decent deck to pick up.

3) Gardevoir ex - 2nd Place EUIC - Tord Reklev

Wins: 1

Top 4s: 6

Top 8s: 8

Total Limitless Points: 448

Deck Cost: $38.54

Best Matchups:

• Arceus VSTAR/Duraludon VMAX - 56.4%
• Miraidon ex/Regieleki VMAX - 55.3%
• Inteleon VMAX/Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX - 54.2%

Worst Matchups:

• Lost Zone Toolbox/Radiant Charizard - 37.5%
• Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR - 40.3%
• Lost Zone Toolbox/Radiant Greninja - 43.1%

Gardevoir is back and of course we've got yet another decent Gardevoir ex in the game. Gardevoir decks want to play the long game, they will have to take a while to set-up but once it does, it can start to clean house. 

Kirlia helps a lot with that thanks to it's Refinement ability, one of the best abilities in the game (just look at what Zoroark GX did all those years ago). And surprisingly enough, it's the second cheapest deck on this list! The Gardevoir ex isn't even the most expensive Pokémon in the deck, that goes to Radiant Greninja, Cresselia and the other Gardevoir.

2) Lost Zone Toolbox/Kyogre - 5th Place Portland Regional - Alex Schemanske

Wins: 

Top 4s: 2

Top 8s: 3

Total Limitless Points: 180

Deck Cost: $33.33

Best Matchups:

• Miraidon ex/Flaaffy - 62.3%
• Miraidon ex/Regieleki VMAX - 59.7%
• Lost Zone Toolbox/Radiant Charizard - 57.8%

Worst Matchups:

• Inteleon VMAX/Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX - 37.5%
• Hisuian Goodra VSTAR - 43.2%
• Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR - 43.4%

We go from the second cheapest deck to build on this list to the cheapest deck to build on this list and some might say one of the best decks going so far. It's the standard Lost Box Ninja deck but with Kyogre to finish up games and often times these lists don't play Vs to make it even more difficult for people to win the prize race. 

Lately more Kyogre variants are starting to add the usual Vs see in the Ninja built but they all work towards the same game plan. Win the Lost Zone race, get to 7 first, hit the mirage gates, get to 10 first and be the first to attack with Sableye, which is the second most expensive Pokémon in this deck after Radiant Greninja. If you're looking for a cheap option, this might be the one but this is also one of the hardest decks to master.

1st) Lost Zone Toolbox/Radiant Greninja - 2nd Place London Cup - Brent Tonisson

Wins: 4

Top 4s: 6

Top 8s: 5

Total Limitless Points: 589

Deck Cost: $66.41

Best Matchups:

• Miraidon ex/Flaaffy - 62.3%
• Miraidon ex/Regieleki VMAX - 59.7%
• Lost Zone Toolbox/Radiant Charizard - 57.8%

Worst Matchups:

• Inteleon VMAX/Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX - 37.5%
• Hisuian Goodra VSTAR - 43.2%
• Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR - 43.4%

And finally to the typical version of Lost Box Ninja decks we tend to see lately that some are calling the Turbo build. It's gameplan is the same as before, try to hit 7 into the lost box but this version can easily get that done by Turn 2 thanks to stuff like Lost Vacuum and Forest Seal Stone. Raikou, Dragonite and Drapion have proven to be the best choice of attackers for these types of decks to deal with the current meta and just to deal with V mons. 

The Dragonite itself is going for around $14 as it is a promo card and the Raikou isn't the cheapest card to get either. Even stuff like Forest Seal Stone, Battle VIP Pass and Nest Ball will cost more than the usual item cards. Still, it's worth the investment as it has a proven track record so far.

So here's a short review of the decks:

Deck prices (as of 18th May 2023) from cheapest to most expensive:

1. Lost Zone Toolbox/Kyogre - $33.33
2. Gardevoir ex - $38.54
3. Hisuian Goodra VSTAR - $41.31
4. Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR/Magnezone - $43.87
5. Miraidon ex/Flaaffy - $44.57
6. Lost Zone Toolbox/Radiant Charizard - $45.02
7. Mew VMAX - $50.53
8. Inteleon VMAX/Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX - $56.58
9. Giratina VSTAR - $56.91
10. Lost Zone Toolbox/Radiant Greninja - $66.41
11. Gardevoir ex/Mewtwo V-Union - $68.15
12. Miraidon ex/Regieleki VMAX - $71.12
13. Lugia VSTAR/Archeops - $80.40
14. Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR - $86.17
15. Arceus VSTAR/Duraludon VMAX - $86.35

The first thing you might notice right away is the fact that not a single deck costs over $100! This might be the first time in a while I've seen that where by every top deck doesn't go above the $100 mark. That is only a good news for Pokemon TCG, it just shows how viable the game is and players wanting to get into a new deck won't have to spend on much!

The deck that could have won EUIC is the 2nd cheapest deck on this list! This really makes me happy to see, as someone who is still struggling with money, that the game is very affordable for all of us to play and enjoy it!

Highest scoring decks from Limitless points in BST-SVI format:

1. Lugia VSTAR/Archeops - 756
2. Lost Zone Toolbox/Radiant Greninja - 589
3. Gardevoir ex - 448
4. Mew VMAX - 422
5. Hisuian Goodra VSTAR - 372
6. Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR - 235
7. Lost Zone Toolbox/Radiant Charizard - 191
8. Lost Zone Toolbox/Kyogre - 180
9. Giratina VSTAR - 151
10. Arceus VSTAR/Duraludon VMAX - 130
11. Gardevoir ex/Mewtwo V-Union - 124
12. Miraidon ex/Regieleki VMAX - 76
13. Miraidon ex/Flaaffy - 44
14. Inteleon VMAX/Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX - 37
15. Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR/Magnezone - 12

Seeing Lugia on top was a bit surprising to me, but the main reason for this was it's strong showing throughout EUIC. Even though it may only have 2 top 8 finishers, it had the most representation in Day 2, along with it's two wins in Malaysia and Indonesia Regional Leagues. After that no surprises to see Lost Box Ninja, Gardevoir and Mew make up the rest of top 5, along with the other deck that did really well in EUIC, that being Goodra.

There is still a lot to play for in this format! Especially for all of us here in Asia as Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore Championships will all be played in this format. Probably the most important tournament for me this year so I will continue to keep an eye out for how this format evolves in time for June 17th. Thanks for reading!