Kash Top 20 List: Decks from BRS to PRE and how rotation will affect them (Rotation Day in Japan)

 

Picture from @hororopokeca

It's January 24th (in Japan) and while it may not mean much to us everywhere around the World, it's release day for the new Battle Partners set in Japan. But even bigger than that, it's Rotation day in Japan! Which means cards from the F-Block are no longer legal for Standard play. For the rest of us, it will be April 11th.

Let's have a reminder of what cards are rotating, there a whole load of them so I will only focus on the ones that are playable and have seen play in many decks.

Want an easier way to figure out what cards are rotating? Literally anything with a yellow border (unless they have been reprinted with the silver border). So this isn't just any normal rotating, we are also rotating the yellow board cards era which stretches back to Base Set back in 1999 (and yes I still have some of my old Base Set cards still with me)! This is the new era!

First things first, every and ALL Pokémon Vs are gone. If it has the big V, it's gone. That also means the VSTAR mechanic is rotating. Which means were are now no longer able to:

• Starbirth (Arceus)
• Find any 2 cards and put into hand
• Star Portal (Palkia)
• Attach up to 3 Water energies to any of your Water Pokémon
• Star Chronos (Dialga)
• Do 220 and take an extra turn
• Star Abyss (Darkrai)
• Take 2 Item cards from discard and put into hand
• Ancient Star (Aerodactyl)
• Gains ability to stop V and VSTAR mons from using their abilities
• Moisture Star (Goodra)
• Heal all damage from this Pokémon
• Star Requiem (Giratina)
• KO opponent's active Pokémon if you have 10 or more cards in Lost Zone
• Legacy Star (Regidrago)
• Discard top 7 cards from your deck, then take 2 cards from discard into your hand
• Summoing Star (Lugia)
• Put 2 Archeops  Colourless Pokémon from discard onto your bench
• Star Alchemy (Forest Seal Stone)
• Yes it's a Tool card but it still works as a VSTAR on any V Pokémon. Find 1 card and put into hand.

Yes they were all called Star if you never noticed it. As for Giratina, there's another big loss, that is the Lost Zone mechanic. Which means we lose:

• Comfey, the main draw mechanic for Lost Zone (LZ)
• Cramorant, hits for free when LZ is 4
• Miragate Gate activates when LZ is 7
• Sableye spreads 12 to anything when LZ is 10
• Giratina VSTAR KOes active when LZ is 10
• Colress adds 2 more cards to LZ while adding 3 cards to your hand
• Lost Vacuum sends one Stadium or Tool from either side to the LZ including one card needed to use this card

There's one cool mechanic we are also losing, which is the Radiant Pokémon! You can only have one of these in your deck but they can be game changing.

• Radiant Greninja, draw engine
• Radiant Charizard, late game attacker as a single prizer
• Radiant Hisuian Sneasler, adds poison damage
• Radiant Alakazam, moves 2 damage counters around your opponent's side 

But in reality, there are some big cards rotating from this block that will change the game, especially because some of them are the engine for successful decks we all know and love:

• Lumineon V, takes any supporter
• Rotom V, draw 3 card then ends turn
• Manaphy, bench protection
• Bibarel, draw engine
• Radiant Greninja, draw engine
• Kirlia, draw engine
• Comfey, draw engine using the LZ
• Snorlax, blocks retreat
• Archeops, engine accelerator
• Regigigas, engine accelerator

It will take some time to get used to not seeing some of these staples for sure. I especially will miss having Arceus, Giratina and Bibarel legal as these three were instrumental in my Regional win and also my Worlds run in 2023. But we're not just losing Pokémon cards obviously, we will have to say goodbye to some big Trainer and Energy cards as well!

It's not a big list of cards but I felt these were the more important ones to point out and I included some old favorites just in case. 

When it comes to Supporters, we'll miss some really helpful cards:

• Irida, finds a Water Pokémon and item
• Cyllene for the gambling people
• Roxanne, disruption when your opponent is down to 3 or less prizes
• Colress, draw power
• Worker, stadium bump and draw power
• Thorton, currently a favourite with many decks to help switch Basic Pokémon from discard with bench

But the biggest hit I feel might come from the Items because we do lose some really important stuff here:

• Cancelling Cologne, I mean need I say more? Cancels opponent's active effects
• Feather Ball, great for searching out Pidgeot ex especially
• Hisuian Heavy Ball, a card I personally like because you can look at your prizes then take a Basic Pokémon. Helps with prize checking!
• Switch Cart, another switching option
• Trekking Shoes, helps to thin the deck out a bit
• Lost Vacuum, stadium or tool disruptor
• Capturing Aroma, ball search on a coin flip

There aren't any real big Tools we will lose but the obvious big one is Forest Seal Stone, it's too good as mentioned on my VSTAR bit. For Energy we're only losing two big ones. Gift Energy is mainly for Lugia decks but losing Double Turbo Energy will hurt a lot of decks and now decks have to find another way to power up attackers needing two colourless energy to attack. 

And finally Stadiums, there are some big ones here:

• Magma Basin, helps to attach energy from discard for Fire attackers
• Collapsed Stadium, limits bench to 4, often used to get rid of a bench sitter
• Temple of Sinnoh, stops Special Energy from having their effects
• Lost City, sends a Pokémon that was KOed into the Lost Zone
• PokeStop, discard top 3, any Item card discarded goes into hand. 

Losing PokeStop will hurt a lot of decks and it was one of the main draw engine for many decks. That could also be changing as playing a lot of Item cards now may not be the best of ideas with the introduction of Budew into the format. Still a good way to thin the deck out!

And with that, I wanted to share 20 decks from the current format and show how rotation will effect these decks. There are some notable exclusions but these are for the obvious reason that the main attacker is rotating, be it Regidrago, Palkia or Lugia.

#20 Iron Thorns ex

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 21.67%

Iron Thorns may not look like it will lose much from rotation but losing Double Turbo Energy hurts the deck way more than losing the other 3 cards not named Cancelling Cologne I feel. 

Yes losing Cologne is a big deal for the deck as now it will have no answers to stuff like Mimikyu. But without DTE, the deck might just seize to exist. I feel like if anyone still wants to play Iron Thorns, they should switch over to the Dragapult built.

#19 Dusknoir/Charizard ex

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 13.33%

This might be the only rouge deck that won a City League in Japan and it's a really cool way to play Charizard with Dusknoir and of course Budew. It's quite a turbo build with Radiant Greninja, PokeStop and Trekking Shoes in this list which you don't usually see in Zard decks.

And guess what? Those cards, along with Lumineon V, are the only ones rotating so this build might not even last as there aren't many good replacements for these specific cards. So if you want to try this version of Zard, you got a few months to make it work!

#18 Hydreigon ex

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 6.67%

This build of Hydreigon is only going to lose 4 cards, one of the lesser affected decks but three of them are major losses for many decks! This is just the first of many decks on this list will feel the pain of losing the Forest Seal Stone combo package (Stone + Lumineon and/or Rotom). 

Losing Dark Patch does mean you lose a way to power up your benched Dark mons but that shouldn't be a big issue. In fact, I feel Hydreigon gains one big thing from the rotation, that being the loss of Manaphy from many decks. 

And you might notice one yellow border card wasn't cancelled off because you can easily swap this Duskull to the one introduced in Shrouded Fable. 

#17 Charizard ex/Noctowl

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 10%

Ok let's address the elephant in the room. Yes that's a Brandon in the list. I don't even know what it does. I just took the first decent list for Charizard/Noctowl I could find and this looked the most decent of the others so yeah, it is rotating, but let's act as if it's a Cancelling Cologne or something else.

This build of Charizard won't be missing the Stone package, in fact it won't lose much. Sure losing DTE means Terapagos can't attack out of nowhere now and has to rely on either two attachments in 2 turns or Zard ex powering it up. For this, I can see either Mela or Crispin making it's way to the deck to solve this issue. Losing Manaphy does suck, but Rabsca is still a thing just in case. Other than that, Zard Noctowl doesn't really lose much. But like any other good Zard deck, losing Thorton will hurt, and we will have to play more of our basic mons now.

#16 Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 21.67%

Yes Chien-Pao is still a thing. Yes Baxcalibur is still around and while the two of them are staying, the deck is losing a number of key pieces. Thorton is a new inclusion so it won't miss that more than others. But we are losing Irida, the key piece to establish Baxcalibur on board!

But if it's not Baxcalibur we are getting out of Iridia, often times it's Radiant Greninja as it is one of the draw engine of the deck, and well that is rotating. But here comes the bad news, the other draw engine in the deck, Bibarel, is also rotating. The deck could turn to Revaroom as a psudeo replacement for both Greninja and Bibarel. But wait it gets worse, PokeStop is also gone. The deck will need a complete makeover to get back into contention but I do think it can adapt. These raindance-type abilities have always been good anyway.

#15 Dragapult ex/Charizard

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 11.67%

Dragapult and Charizard had a big showing this weekend in Birmingham and it's not as if it's a new idea that just showed up, Pult and Zard have had some results over in Japan as well and I do expect it to still be a thing going into rotation. Sure, you will miss the Stone package and Manaphy, but other decks will also have to adapt to it.

The one thing the deck might miss greatly, like any other Dragapult deck, is Radiant Alakazam. It helps to move damage counters around, especially to help you get KOs on 70 HP Pokemon when you can only spread 6 damage counters from Phantom Dive. Alakazam helps to set up some big KOs and sure Hawlucha can help as a replacement to it but while Hawlucha's effect only comes in once, Alakazam effect comes every turn so that's a huge change. 

#14 Pidgeot ex Control

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 26.67%

Pidgeot Control is one of the more affected decks by rotation. It loses a tone of stuff. You can't discard cards from your opponent's hand from Luxray anymore or retreat lock with both Snorlax and Mawile. It also loses Miss Fortune Sisters, one of the best ways to run your opponents out of important item resources. 

But the big loss surely has to be Rotom, Lumineon and Forest Seal Stone. These decks tend to rely on Rotom early on to draw them enough cards to start setting up the perfect board state to either lock opponents or slowly disrupt their setup or hand. Without the Stone Package, it will be much harder to set up Pidgeot ex by Turn 2, which is what the deck needs to get everything going. Losing DTE also means Wellspring Ogerpon now has to do 20 damage with Sob instead of no damage, which is not ideal.

#13 Gouging Fire ex

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 20%

Gouging Fire actually loses a few important stuff to make the deck running the way it does currently. Not having Radiant Greninja will make the deck significantly slower and not having Magma Basin means you can't just establish an attacker with 3 energy attack cost out of nowhere now. It loses a few attackers as well, Entei V is now gone and even though it's not in this decklist, Delphox V is another big loss as it can help take two prizes on someone not prepared for it. 

The other main loss is Switch Cart. Gouging Fire ex needs to retreat to use it's Blaze Blitz attack again and without Switch Cart, now you are just relying on either hard retreat (or Latias ex), Jet Energy or the new Surfer supporter card. It's still a decent rogue choice all things considered, and can easily adapt to the new format. Let's not forget Hop's Zacian ex is weak to Fire type so there's some food for thought. 

#12 Terapagos ex/Dusknoir

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 13.33%

Technically, this deck only loses 5 cards. One of them is enough to competely change the way this deck looks into the new rotation. Without DTE, Terapagos will now need to find another way to attack, and that might require the use of Glass Trumpet or Supporter cards like Mela or Crispin. 

Losing Thorton means the deck can't get a surprise Cursed Blast out of nowhere anymore as well. The other cards rotating aren't as big but losing Feather Ball does mean that you now just can't use Noctowl to search out a Feather Ball and Rare Candy to get a Pidgeot ex up and running so we're back to old faithful Ultra Ball for the time being. The new Brock supporter card from the next set might also help with that.

#11 Gholdengo ex

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 13.33%

As you might notice, I'm not sharing the Palkia build for a very good reason, Palkia is gone so Gholdengo players will switch over to the Energy Search Pro build. But either side of Gholdengo will miss 3 main cards. Radiant Greninja is one of the deck's draw engine along with Gholdengo itself and also PokeStop, another card also rotating. You could replace Greninja with Revaroom as a new sub-draw engine alongside Gholdengo.

Losing Irida is also big as now you can't directly look for an Item card, likely Super Energy Retrieval or Energy Search Pro, to use right away. The deck will now have to rely on the likes of Ciphermaniac and the combo of either Gholdengo or Fezandipiti to find those specific combos. Ignoring all that, it's still the same deck that just wants to see lot of energies to Make It Rain.

#10 Roaring Moon ex

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 18.33%

Turbo decks in general will take a big hit in this next rotation as a number of them will lose the combination of Trekking Shoes, PokeStop and Radiant Greninja. Roaring Moon ex is no different but it also loses Dark Patch so like Gouging Fire before it, now it can't power up an attacker that needs 3 energy to attack out of nowhere.

Everything else is still the same, Sada is still the best way to get energies onto your attacker but the deck might start to morph more into a toolbox type deck where it starts off attacking with Roaring Moon and Koraidon first while trying to get Roaring Moon ex ready to attack later on.

 

#9 Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 13.33%

Speaking of Turbo Decks, I present to you the king of Turbo Decks! And unlike Gouging Fire and Roaring Moon, Raging Bolt only needs two energy cost to attack so it's attack is not affected by rotation. The deck's draw power however, is the one that takes the hit. 

Without Radiant Greninja and PokeStop, the deck now has to rely solely on Teal Mask Ogerpon ex, Prof Sada's Vitality and Fezandipiti ex. The big question going into rotation is the more intruging one, does the deck still partner up with Teal Mask Ogerpon ex or the incoming Iono's Bellibolt ex, which charges up Lighting Energies. Ogerpon attaches energy once but you get to draw a card. Bellibolt attaches energy as often as you like, but it has to be on an Iono Pokémon. 

#8 Ancient Box

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 10%

It might look as if not much is rotating from Ancient Box but the cards rotating is enough to affect the deck, just ask any Ancient Box players. The deck is another one that is heavily reliant on the Radiant Greninja and PokeStop to run through the deck as quickly as possible. Greninja could be replaced by a Revaroom line which might mean more energies in the deck.

Hisuian Heavy Ball is also helpful to get, usually, Radiant Greninja out of the prizes. The deck still has plenty to survive the rotation, it will just have to get used to finding new ways to thin through the deck as there aren't any good replacements for PokeStop.

#7 Terapagos ex/Klawf

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 25%

This Poison build of Terapagos is one of the decks most affected by rotation. A few of the cards work in tandem so if one were to leave, naturally the other would too. 3 Switch Cart was usually the best way to get Oranguru into or out of the active to get a Forest Seal Stone, and yes those 3 are gone. 

Radiant Hisuian Sneasler is a big loss as it was one of the ways to put more damage counters on Poisoned Pokemon in between turns to help you get KO at the perfect timing, be it before their turn so they can't use Fezandipiti ex or going into your turn so you can get another KO. The other big issue is the loss of DTE. Terapagos and Klawf will now need to find another way to attack, and relying on double energy attachments in two turns isn't always the best way. This poison build will need a complete makeover to be viable going into the next format, or perhaps find another partner.

#6 Archaludon ex

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 3.33%

We go from one of the most affected decks by rotation to probably the least affected deck by rotation. Yes, there is a Dialga build but since that is rotating, I will showcase the other build that is just based on Archaludon. It's only losing 2 cards! 

Lumineon V isn't even a big loss for the deck as it has ways to find the supporter it needs with PokeGear and these supporters are mostly 2-offs or more. Radiant Greninja however is the big loss, the deck was quite reliant on it to not just draw cards, but to help discard energies for Archaludon ex to make use for it's ability. Thankfully there is a natural replacement in the form of Revaroom, and this is probably the one deck that can easily get Revaroom out of the active thanks to Archaludon, Turo and Scoop Up Cyclone. 

#5 Ceruledge ex

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 10%

While I chose not to showcase the loss of Dialga VSTAR in Archaludon, I felt I had to do so for Ceruledge with Palkia VSTAR. Ceruledge has often relied on it not just as a back-up attacker but also to threaten Moonlight Shuriken with Radiant Greninja. 

There is a replacement for Greninja thankfully for the deck in Revaroom and even PokeStop isn't as big as a loss for the deck as it can just replace it with Cycling Road, which helps to discard energy which is what the deck wants anyway. With all that in mind, the deck actually doesn't lose much from rotation and might just be in a better spot for it.

#4 Miraidon ex

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 11.67%

Miraidon is one of the few decks, perhaps the only one, on this list where it actually loses attackers more than Trainer cards. Losing Raikou V and Raichu V means the deck now no longer has an attacker with 2 or less energy cost for attacks. Both are important for the deck, Raikou for extra draw and Raichu to hit big numbers for a one-hit KO. 

Even Zapdos will be missed as it helped to fix numbers, especially against stuff like Iron Thorns ex with it's 230 HP. And even though Iron Hands isn't rotating, losing DTE means the deck now has to either rely on hitting energies off Electric Generator or from Magneton. And with Budew lurking, you might not even get to use Generator. But there is some hope in the form of Iono and her Bellibolt, that card might completely unlock new combos for this deck to exploit. 

#3 Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 8.33%

And now we come to my personal favourite deck. Charizard actually loses just 5 cards, but they're all quite important to the deck. We've got the trio from the Stone package which helps to unlock the deck's combo pieces so it will greatly miss that. Rotom has a natural replacement in Cleffa but there aren't any replacements for Lumineon or Forest Seal Stone.

Another card that helps with getting the perfect combos is Thorton, you now can't surprise your opponents out of nowhere after they had taken a KO on your Pidgey or Charmander or the occasional surprise Cursed Blast out of nowhere. 

Maybe the biggest loss for the deck is Radiant Charizard, it's the only true single-prized attacker in the deck and it help with the late game prize trade. So yes, Zard is one of the least affected, but the cards rotating will leave some big gaps in the deck. That said, it will still be one of the strongest decks going into rotation however as you still have the holy trio of Charizard, Pidgeot and Dusknoir.

#2 Dragapult ex/Dusknoir

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 10%

With the introduction of Budew, Dragapult might replace it's dragon brethren Regidrago as the best deck in the format. And going into rotation, well Regidrago VSTAR is gone so Dragapult goes back into being it's own deck and it's already doing so in the Prismatic Evolution format. 

But it does lose some big cards from rotation. Lumineon and Forest Seal Stone helps to enable some key combo pieces for the deck as it does rely on getting the perfect board state. Radiant Alakazam, as mentioned previously, is another big loss as it loses another key piece for it's combo to take multiple prizes. Manaphy is another dangerous loss as the deck might now be open to early game snipes. 

Losing Lance is quite a shame as Lance as finally found it's home in this new build of Dragapult. There are some natural replacements in the form of Jacq or Perrin but for a Dragapult deck, Lance will always be the best choice to help set up your Dragon line. Like Zard before, the deck is still in a fantastic spot going into the next rotation. It still has it's draw engine in Drakloak. The same cannot be said about our final deck on this list.

#1 Gardevoir ex

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 13.33%

8 cards rotated. It may not sound like much but half of them will be the reason the deck changes completely. The current Ralts we all play can be easily replaced with another 70 HP Ralts. Kirlia however is irreplaceable. Refinement, or Trade, has always been one of the best abilities in the game and this helped Gardevoir to become one of the best decks since the introduction of Gardevoir ex. 

And we're not just losing this draw power, the other draw power of Radiant Greninja is also gone so the deck might to rely on something like Revaroom, since you do want to discard Psychic energies anyway. Losing Manaphy might not be as big of a deal if the board isn't filled with Kirlias now. 

I'm very curious to see a Gardevoir ex deck will look like post rotation without Refinement Kirlia. Those are all the decks I've got for you and if you're wondering how they all fare for rotation, here's a quick little recap:

Decks affected by rotation from least to most

1. Archaludon ex - 3.33%
2. Hydreigon ex - 6.67%
3. Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex - 8.33%
4. Dragapult ex/Dusknoir - 10%
5. Ceruledge ex - 10%
6. Ancient Box - 10%
7. Charizard ex/Noctowl - 10%
8. Miraidon ex - 11.67%
9. Dragapult ex/Charizard - 11.67%
10. Gardevoir ex - 13.33%
11. Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex - 13.33%
12. Gholdengo ex - 13.33%
13. Terapagos ex/Dusknoir - 13.33%
14. Dusknoir/Charizard ex - 13.33%
15. Roaring Moon ex - 18.33%
16. Gouging Fire ex - 20%
17. Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur - 21.67%
18. Iron Thorns ex - 21.67%
19. Terapagos ex/Klawf - 25%
20. Pidgeot ex Control - 26.67%

Thanks for reading!

2023-24 Season Review + 2024 Singapore Championships - 49th/343 - Consistently mediocre

 I'll be honest, I wasn't sure if I wanted to finish this. I had been working on this for a few months, in preparation for the Championships this past weekend to look back at the season but it also reminded me of how this season went. But as much as I hate talking about my bad results, it's good to reflect on them and see what went wrong and try to do better and be better next time out. I'll re-cap the Championships event on here as well, which pretty much summed up my season in all fairness.

Season Recap

• Town League 1
• Town League 2 
• Town League 4
• Town League 5
• Regional League 2
• Town League 7
• Town League 8
• Regional League 3
• Town League 10

Championships Deck List

Championships 2024

Thoughts on the events

2024-2025 Hopes

Season Recap

If I was playing in a TPCi circuit, maybe I could have gotten another Worlds invite because I kept scoring points (see here for my friend Jake Gearhart's topic on something similar). He felt as if he got his Worlds invite with mediocre results. That can work there. The problem is, that just doesn't cut it in our system. Even if you're consistently scoring points, that just won't do.

I honestly do feel a bit down on how my season went. I felt like my results, as consistent as they may be, have been quite rubbish. Very mediocre. Nothing to be happy about. I've only got one top 8 result this season and even then, that was because I was the lucky bugger that bubbled in. And the worst part is, I feel like I've played my best this season, even better than last season when I did get my Worlds invite so it's really confusing. 

One thing you will notice is, for the most part of the season, I just played Charizard ex decks apart from two events, both with reasons for the change. 

Town League 1 (23rd September 2023)

Deck: Lost Zone Box

Result: 23rd/105 (+75 CSP - not counted after hitting BFL)

Score: 5-2

• R1 (W) vs Matthew Lee [3/4/0] - Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone)
• R2 (L) vs Lee Jia Sheng Farrell [3/4/0] - Gardevoir ex
• Dead drew this game, too slow to comeback into it
• R3 (W) vs Nuttawat Pipithsuksunt [1/6/0] - Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR
• R4 (L) vs Benjamin Isa Roberts [4/3/0] - Lost Zone Box
• I whiffed a switch out that cost me the game
• R5 (W) vs JohnKRIA [3/4/0] - Lugia VSTAR (Single Strike)
• R6 (W) vs Brandon Yap [3/4/0] - Mew VMAX (DTE)
• R7 (W) vs Edmund Khoo [4/3/0] - Gardevoir ex

Main reason why I played Lost box in this event was because I was on the waitlist, and at #61, I wasn't expecting to get in to play so I just brought whatever deck I had with me just in case. If I had known I had a chance to play, I would have asked my friends to lend me the pieces to play Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex easily. 

Town League 2 (8th October 2023)

Deck: Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex

Result: 13th/64 (+100 CSP)

Score: 4-2

• R1 (W) vs Hizaruddin Bin Zainal Abidin [2/4/0] - Gengar VMAX
• R2 (W) vs Desmond Ong Shi Jie [3/3/0] - Miraidon ex
• R3 (W) vs Alvin Lim [2/4/0] - Gardevoir ex
• R4 (L) vs Dionsius Lee [5/1/0] - Arceus VSTAR/Alolan Vulpix VSTAR
• Horrible matchup for me since Vulpix walls everything out and having a Charmander prized hurt my plan for that matchup
• R5 (W) vs Bryan Quah [4/2/0] - Lugia VSTAR/Archeops
• I didn't even realise this, I got a win against Singapore's #1 player this season haha!
• R6 (L) vs Kai Wen Ronald Seet [5/1/0] - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• Prizing two Charmanders killed the game for me, I had no real outs since I had a slow start and the first Charmander got KO after Turn 2. Could have still made a comeback if I had taken any of the Charmanders out of the prizes (2 Rods is the way to avoid this)

Town League 3

(Wasn't elected to play in this event)

Deck: -

Regional League 1 

(Wasn't elected to play in this event but also because this was the one weekend the whole season I was overseas and it had to happen during this weekend. And I live 10 minutes away from the venue.)

Deck: -

Town League 4 (25th November 2023)

Deck: Charizard ex/Bibarel

Result: 8th/64 (+130 CSP)

Score: 4-2

• R1 (W) vs Chan Yu Yang [3/3/0] - Gholdengo ex
• R2 (W) vs ? - Gardevoir ex
• R3 (W) vs ? - Miraidon ex
• R4 (W) vs Jin Xuan [5/1/0] - Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur
• R5 (L) vs Koh Wee Siang [6/0/0] - Lost Zone Box
• Dead draw
• R6 (L) vs Jason Let [5/1/0] - Lost Zone Box
• Another dead draw, had to do a risky play which didn't work

Town League 5 (9th December 2023)

Deck: Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex

Result: 14th/64 (+100 CSP)

Score: 4-2

• R1 (W) vs Cui Hongjian [3/3/0] - Gardevoir ex
• R2 (W) vs Zhou Jingsong [2/4/0] - Entei V/Moltres
• R3 (W) vs Lok Wei Ye [2/4/0] - Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone)
• R4 (L) vs Fayyadh Salleh [6/0/0] - Lost Zone Box
• Big misplay, didn't bench my Manaphy down early and got punished
• R5 (L) vs Kang Yu Xian [4/2/0] - Lost Zone Box (Radiant Charizard)
• Whiffed a Rare Candy to take the win
• R6 (W) vs Jason Song [3/3/0] - Gardevoir ex

Town League 6

(Wasn't elected to play in this event)

Deck: -

Regional League 2 (3rd February 2024)

Deck: Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex

Result: 54th/308 (+100 CSP)

Score: 5-3

• R1 (W) vs Jen [1/7/0] - Wugtrio Mill
• R2 (W) vs Goh Wee Siang Zachary [4/4/0] - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• R3 (W) vs Jin Xuan [4/4/0] - Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur
• R4 (W) vs Jordan Lau [5/3/0] - Lost Zone Box (Radiant Charizard)
• R5 (L) vs Jason Song [6/2/0] - Gardevoir ex
• Game went to time, I was convinced I could win first, he said the same, we couldn't figure out who would win and I didn't want to risk a DGL so I just scooped to him on board state
• R6 (L) vs Jefferson Lim [6/2/0] - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• Had a much slower start, TM Devo was my route to comeback but it was still prized when I needed it
• R7 (L) vs Ikuma Ueno [6/2/0] - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• Similar story to last game, couldn't set-up properly. We went to time, he was leading on board state so I gave him the win
• R8 (W) vs Jason Let [4/4/0] - Lost Zone Box (Radiant Charizard)
• Also went to time, I was sure I had win, he showed me he also had the win but he gave me the win instead

Town League 7 (23rd March 2024)

Deck: Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone)

Result: 33rd/90

Score: 4-3

• R1 (L) vs Jason Song [5/2/0] - Gardevoir ex
• Another slow start vs another Garde at Agora haha
• R2 (W) vs Gan Kwok Chuan [3/4/0] - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• R3 (W) vs Ong Wen Hui [1/4/0 Drop] - Miraidon ex
• R4 (L) vs Troy Lam [2/2/0 Drop] - Gholdengo ex
• Slow start again
• R5 (W) vs Keith Ting [3/4/0] - Lost Zone Box (Radiant Charizard)
• R6 (W) vs Terry Tai [3/4/0] - Gholdengo ex
• R7 (L) vs Kelvin Ching Kay Feng [5/2/0] - Gardevoir ex
• Could not set-up at all

Let's be honest, I should have just played Zard. This event ended my 100% points scoring run for the season, and I did have a Zard list with me which would have probably done better but at this weekend, Zard felt like the worst possible play and I wanted to see if I could do well with Tina for once. That failed. This was the Zard list I had prepared:

Also why did 3 of my opponent drop in this event? Especially my R4 opponent, he beat me and dropped. All of that was the difference between scoring points and not. And yes this was the only event I didn't score points in the whole season and it was only because I bubbled out. What a horrid way to lose a 100% record streak.

Town League 8 (24th March 2024)

Deck: Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex

Result: 20th/66 (+75 CSP)

Score: 4-3

• R1 (W) vs Lok Wei Ye [3/4/0] - Lost Zone Box
• Pretty much a donk, evolved into Zard, KOed his lone Sableye
• R2 (W) vs Tang Jia Tat [4/3/0] - Mew VMAX (DTE)
• R3 (L) vs Samuel Tong [5/2/0] - Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone)
• His Roxanne late on got me good, drew into nothing when I was in a winning position, we went to time and I ran out of time to recover the pieces I needed to win
• R4 (W) vs Ng Cheng Wee [3/4/0] - Roaring Moon ex
• R5 (W) vs Ao Yichen [3/4/0] - Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone)
• R6 (L) vs Raymond Huynh [6/1/0] - Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone)
• Same story as my R3 loss, Roxanne cost me game. All I needed was to find Super Rod to get my energies into the deck to retreat for game but it never showed up
• R7 (L) vs Haruki Okunishi [5/2/0] - Roaring Moon ex
• Dead drew, had both my Charmanders sniped by his Radiant Greninja even with a Manaphy on board, no coming back from that especially after a slow start

Town League 9

(Wasn't elected to play in this event)

Deck: -

Regional League 3 (14th April 2024)

Deck: Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex

Result: 35th/342 (+100 CSP)

Score: 6-2

• R1 (W) vs Chole Tan [2/6/0] - Hisuian Goodra VSTAR (Lost Zone)
• R2 (W) vs Keith Ting [6/2/0] - Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone)
• R3 (L) vs Edmund Khoo [6/2/0] - Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone)
• Dead drew, had to set Pidgeot up just to stay in the game and he KOed it in the next turn
• R4 (L) vs Dave Wong Wei Jie [5/3/0] - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• Dead hand at the start, only had Rad Zard and Zard ex to work with
• R5 (W) vs Tan Yuan Jun Darwin [2/3/0 Drop] - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• R6 (W) vs Charmaine Han Huiyi [3/5/0] - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• R7 (W) vs Norman Chan Yu Da [5/3/0] - Lost Zone Box
• R8 (W) vs Jackson Tham [5/3/0] - Gholdengo ex
• Somehow cameback from only having Lumineon V and Rotom V on board and having both Charmanders sniped T3 with Manaphy on board!

Town League 10 (1st May 2024)

Deck: Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex

Result: 26th/105 (+75 CSP)

Score: 4-3

• R1 (W) vs Samuel Tong [4/3/0] - Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone)
• We went to time again but this time I had the pieces to win the game so he scooped to me
• R2 (W) vs Wayne Tan Wei Peng [4/3/0] - Ancient Box
• R3 (L) vs Daniel Nazri [5/2/0] - Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR/Metang
• Slight misplay but I thought I got the comeback, Iono to 1. He draws Nest Ball to get Mew to get Research to draw more with Ninja to get Prime Catcher for game.
• R4 (W) vs Foo Ming Wei [4/3/0] - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• R5 (L) vs Low Wei Hao [5/2/0] - Lost Zone Box
• Dead drew. Had pieces to get Zard ex up Turn 2 but kept whiffing my Arven/Rare Candy/Iono just to get anything going, even after 3 uses of Rotom V!
• R6 (W) vs Lok Wei Ye [4/3/0] - Charizard ex/Bibarel
• R7 (L) vs Edgardo Phee [5/2/0] - Roaring Moon ex/Dudunsparce
• Same story as R3, was choosing over Roxanne or Iono. Iono failed me the first time so went with Roxanne. I whiffed my Collapsed Stadium to get rid of my Lumineon V that was stuck the whole game. He draws into Boss + Energy for game the next turn.

So really apart from 2 to 3 games, most of my losses were just down to bad variance or bad luck. I felt like I cut my amount of misplays a lot this season, rarely lost a game to it (I still do it from time to time) so it feels frustrating to lose to reasons out of your control a lot of time. Bo1 games am I right?

So just a recap on my season so far:

• Town League 1 - 23rd/105 - 5/2/0 - 75 CSP (not counted)
• Town League 2 - 13th/64 - 4/2/0 - 100 CSP
• Town League 4 - 8th/64 - 4/2/0 - 130 CSP
• Town League 5 - 14th/64 - 4/2/0 - 100 CSP
• Regional League 2 - 54th/308 - 5/3/0 - 100 CSP
• Town League 7 - 33rd/90 - 4/3/0
• Town League 8 - 20th/66 - 4/3/0 - 75 CSP
• Regional League 3 - 35th/342 - 6/2/0 - 100 CSP
• Town League 10 - 26th/105 - 4/3/0 - 75 CSP

My results were consistent, but consistency sadly isn't the key in our circuit. You need to be doing well in the events that actually matter, aka the Regional Leagues and Championships and spoiler alert, I didn't get a top 32 finish in any of the 3 of 4 major events I played in. I was always either 1 win short or bubbled out of top 32 despite having the results to get there. Close is not enough.

Sure, missing the first regional league put me at a real disadvantage against everyone else but still I needed to do well to give myself any shot of getting top 4 but it wasn't to be. So now I had to hope to get 1st or 2nd in the Championships.

Championship Deck List

I did a lot of prep for this one and ended up testing 20 different lists for Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex. I had already settled on the deck during the 3rd Regional and since I had played it pretty much the whole season, why change? My other considerations were Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR, Lost Box with Rad Zard and Arceus VSTAR/Armarouge.

From my own research, these 54 cards were always going to be in my list no matter what happened. The core 54 if you will:

POKEMON: (21)

• 3 Charmander OBF + (Last one is either 4th Charmander OBF or 1 Charmander PR)
• 2 Charmeleon PAF (Counter to devo stuff)
• 3 Charizard ex
• 2 Pidgey 
• 2 Pidgeot ex
• 1 Bidoof
• 1 Bibarel
• 1 Lumineon V
• 1 Rotom V
• 1 Cleffa
• 1 Manaphy
• 1 Radiant Charizard
• 1 Jirachi (Added for Lost Box)

SUPPORTER: (8) -> Should be 10 or 11

• 3 Arven
• 2 Iono
• 2 Boss
• 1 Prof Turo Scenario

ITEMS: (17) -> + Ace Spec Option + another utility card

• 4 Rare Candy
• 4 Ultra Ball
• 4 Buddy Buddy Poffin
• 2 Super Rod
• 1 Lost Vacuum
• 1 Nest Ball
• 1 Counter Catcher

TOOLS (1) -> Ace Spec Option + Extra Tool

• 1 Forest Seal Stone

STADIUM (1)

• 1 Collapsed Stadium

ENERGY (6)

• 6 Fire Energy

TOTAL (54)

As for the remaining 6, I had a few options:

ACE SPEC Options: (2)

• If Prime Catcher, + Defiance Band
• If Max Belt, + 2nd Counter Catcher

Extra Supporters (1-2)

• 3rd Iono -> More draws + helps consistency
• Eri -> Helps adds % into Chien Pao, Lost Zone and possibly Mirror
• Judge -> Extra disruption, possible replacement for the 3rd Iono spot
• Roxanne -> Late game disruption + gives you more draws but early game useless
• 2nd Turo -> More recovery options and also switching options for stuff getting gusted up
• 3rd Boss -> More gusts but with one less Pal Pad typically

Extra Items (1-2)

• Pal Pad -> Extra options of Boss, Iono, Arven, Eri, Turo mostly
• Hisuian Heavy Ball -> Helps gets stuff like Rotom, Bidoof, Lumineon out of prizes

Tool (1)

• Choice Belt (+30 to Vs)
• Can put on Rad Zard to KO Tina, Arceus and Lugia VSTAR
• Helpful to reach numbers vs mentioned above, Rotom, Dialga, Giratina VSTAR
• Vitality Band (+10 in general)
• +10 good into Chien Pao, helps KO Tina but only with Zard
• +10 to KO Greninja with Pidgeot. And also help Charmander take cheeky KOs or set numbers up

So with those options in mind, I turned to the numbers to decide my final 6 cards:

Extra Supporters:

• 3rd Iono
• Used in 16/20 Lists -> 80% (Tord says 3 is the staple, should just follow right?)
• Eri
• Used in 5/20 Lists -> 25% (Well I wasn’t convinced, seems like most aren’t either)
• Judge
• Used in 0/20 Lists -> 0% (Would be a spicy replacement for the norm of 3 Ionos)
• Roxanne
• Used in 14/20 Lists -> 70% (Comeback potential still popular with many others)
• 2nd Turo
• Used in 6/20 Lists -> 30% (Likely the way to go if you cut Pal Pad from the list)
• 3rd Boss
• Used in 3/20 Lists -> 15% (Seems like Pal Pad is the way to go)

ACE SPEC Options:

• Prime Catcher (65%) vs Max Belt (30%) vs Hero’s Cape (5%)
• Prime Catcher is paired with Defiance Band
• Max Belt is paired with 2nd Counter Catcher

Extra Items:

• Pal Pad
• Used in 15/20 Lists -> 75% (A popular choice amongst people)
• Hisuian Heavy Ball
• Used in 1/20 Lists -> 5% (Only 1 but he did well in Stockhlom, the latest event)

Tool:

• Choice Belt
• Used in 15/20 Lists -> 75% (The numbers don’t lie)
• Vitality Band
• Used in 2/20 Lists -> 10% (If only 2, probably not the best option)

So with that in mind, the remaining 6 slots were filled from the numbers above:

• 3rd Iono
• Roxanne
• Prime Catcher
• Defiance Band
• Pal Pad
• Choice Belt

This is also the first time I tried to make my deck look a bit fancy than usual. I've got the 3 Gym promos in there from the first two sets I pulled (Radiant Charizard from #2, Forest Seal Stone and Nest Ball from #1). I also used the Iono Promo and the Boss's Orders Promo for once. There's also a cheeky Rare Candy promo from League Cups we used to get back in the day. And also for once, yes, there is a gold card in there. I dug up my old Counter Catcher I pulled back in 2017 and used it for the first time. I had the idea that since Prime Catcher is already in Pink, it would make sense to have my other gust card also be a different colour to make prize checking easier.

Fun but sad fact, I never once used Counter Catcher the whole event.

Singapore Championships 2024

And now for the main event. Nationals! Or Championships, whatever you wanna call it. The big one!

Deck: Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex

Result: 49th/343 (+150 CSP)

Score: 5-3

• R1 (W) vs Jackson Lee [0/3/0 Drop] - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• Jackson had told me he was just here for the promo and intended to drop and my heart sank hearing that. Sure I got technically a free win but that means my resistance will go down no matter what I do the whole event so in my head I already knew I had to go for a 7-1 score.
• We did play it out and I did win the set
• R2 (W) vs Jaron Wong [5/3/0] - Miraidon ex
• He had a mulligan and all I saw was lighting energies so I got excited, whether it's Hands or Miraidon, it's a good matchup either way
• I did win but he made it a lot closer than it should have been. His generators hit 2 energies everytime. He told me had had win had he drawn a Cobalion or 5th energy on his Raichu V.
• R3 (W) vs Hannah Koh Shu En [4/4/0] - Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR/Metang
• I was a bit worried about this matchup, in my testing I kept losing to Dialga even though I knew what I needed to do against it
• She did get the Chornos turn but all I had were Charmanders, so I was able to set-up for the comeback win, another close game
• R4 (L) vs Bjorn Soh Cai Wei [11/1/0] - Lugia VSTAR/Archeops
• I knew I was in trouble when I saw Bjorn's name as my next opponent
• And I damn sure knew it when I saw my starting hand, completely nothing
• To make matters worse, I had 2 Arven and 2 Candy prized so I was forced into attacking right away which wasn't ideal but I felt that was my only way to stay in the game but he had his board built up perfectly so I couldn't do much
• R5 (L) vs Loh Ziyin [5/2/0 Drop] - Lost Zone Box (Radiant Charizard)
• Another bad starting hand
• This time I really couldn't do anything, drew pass for 2-3 turns.
• Got a Zard up at one point but it was just too late to do any sort of comeback
• R6 (W) vs peekachun [3/5/0] - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• I kinda misplayed trying to be greedy but luckily I built my board to a state that my opponent couldn't come back in time to win the game
• R7 (W) vs Poh Wei Jie [5/3/0] - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• Opponent had a dead hand, T2 I got my Zard ex + Choice Band to KO his Rotom
• R8 (L) vs Choy Kwok Hoe [6/2/0] - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• I messed up this game. I should have evolved into a second Pidgeot ex to keep my board as safe as possible. My heart was saying that is the right play.
• Then my head was saying...he could be playing TM Devo so I chose not to go for that and got punished. Even if I had evolved and he did Devo, I still would have had my board turn into a single prize board state which was great for me. So me overthinking cost me there as well. I should have taken some time to reasses everything to realise I was in a good spot either way.

5-3 was just not good enough. Even with a 6-2 score, I might not have bubbled into cut. Sure Bjorn would be pushing my resistance up as the first seed but with two opponents dropping, they would have undone the positives so the only real option to make cut was to finish 7-1, which I didn't do.

Simply put, I just wasn't good enough this season. Sure my results were always only 1 or 2 wins short shy of getting what I needed but that just won't do it. I cannot always be 1 or 2 wins short, I need to convert those results so I need to have a real relook into what I'm doing wrong and why I keep putting myself just 1 or 2 wins short. Sure, at least I've improved my game to the point where I can put myself in contention at any event, but that still isn't enough. Only big results matter in our region, nobody cares if you are consistently scoring points. People only care if you are consistently doing well in the big events, that's what gives you a chance to make it to Worlds.

Thoughts on the events

I do have some thoughts I want to share about the Championship event last weekend because a lot of stuff happened that many people might not know about:

• "Deals"
• Really? This is still a thing? I've heard of deals being done even during the last swiss round where people were trying to buy their way into top cut. Me and Kwok Hoe were listening to all of it, looked at each other "we just playing it out". Like I mentioned previously, I could have done the smart thing and done the same but that's not how I play the game. Even if my resistance is better, if I didn't earn it, I shouldn't be there.
• Top cut was full of it. I should know, because one of the guys asked me if I had $800 with me to help settle a deal. Do I look like someone who has that kind of money just lying around there? 
• Last season, we had none of this. Everyone was there fighting for the win, fighting to earn their Worlds invite. This year? It was full of it. It was disappointing to see. I wanted to leave at one point, I couldn't take what I was seeing. 
• Judges
• I've seen a few really bad judge calls this past weekend which the top people really need to review. The biggest one being OG's game where he asked if his Pokemon was benched, and neither his opponent nor the judges gave him the correct answer and that's why there was that delay during their streamed game. Surely the judges should be keeping track of these things?
• Also, surely they shouldn't be interfering in the matches when they weren't asked to. I saw two such occasions of people playing out their turn, they knew what they were doing, their opponent did too but the judge interfered. Let them play it out first?
• It is just me or are the judges too insistent on Double Game Losses (DGLs)? Every chance they get, they seem to want to implement DGLs to the players. Sometimes I do wonder if they actually know if DGLs hurt both players and nobody wants it. We are all trying out best to avoid it, stop forcing us to take it.
• Rules
• Speaking of DGLs, this has to be easily THE WORST ruling I have ever seen in Pokemon. In these games, there is a winner, or a loser, and if neither wins, neither are technically losers, that means a tie. Everyone else does it. We used to do it. Why are we still doing DGLs when we score 3 points for a win. I still cannot understand why we are using it. As I said, it hurts both players, why not have ties? We could avoid the huge bubbles we see at EVERY MAJOR EVENT. I wasn't a fan of it when I first heard about it, two years later, I still think this rule sucks ass. It's god awful and nobody likes it. You know that rule must be so bad when there is not a single player who likes it, everyone I've spoken to hates it. Get rid of it.
• There's a new rule that caught many people off this past weekend. Apparently we can't concede now when the last turn is played. This just makes things even more confusing to a ruling everyone is trying to avoid. This rule just means we have lesser time to decide a winner since we now cannot play out the last turn. My friend Bryan was the main one hit by it and when I heard what was happening, even I got angry because it's just a silly way to decide who wins and loses
• Again, this is just stupid. So stupid that I completely ignored this ruling to play out one of my final turns in one of my games because I knew I could win and I did. If we had to follow it, me and my opponent would have looked at our hand and had to play a guessing game of who would win or not. That one game proved to me why a +3 turn rule is far superior to settling the result of games over the incredibly stupid Asian ruling of whoever goes 2nd gets the final turn + now you cannot play out the final turn if someone is to scoop. FIX YOUR DAMN RULES.
• For all the bad, the positive is that they now have a counter to show who went 2nd. But again, with the rules as such, the player going 2nd has too much advantage in Asia especially with the time rules.
• That also reminds me, why is top cut games now 55 minutes and not 75 minutes like we had last year? 55 minute doesn't work for top cut, we've seen people get robbed of wins time and time again. CHANGE IT.
• Invites
• Quite simple, can we have more invites? 4-6 is quite small for the amount of great players we have here that should be allowed the chance to prove themselves against the best in the world. There are so many guys I can name of the top of my head who deserves that chance but can't because well bo1 is too luck based. I still think our top SG players can give anyone a run for their money if given the chance to do so.
• Structure of event
• Since we're doing bo1, surely we can change the structure to make things more fair? If timing is the reason we're doing bo1, why can't we just start early and go back to doing bo3 like we used to do. I've gone to events when it started at 9 or 10, it was no issue. 
• Also, why not do a top 32 for cut? There's too many bubbles in top 16 at 6-2 for a 300+ person event. We easily have time to top 32 bo3 games, I don't see why we can't do that. Or a better idea:
• Everyone at 6-2 or better goes to Day 2
• 3 to 4 more Swiss Rounds and then we cut to Top 8, 
• this seems like a better idea to me, this way we shouldn't have the usual giant bubble we keep getting at our events

I just had to get that all out of my chest. I love this game, I just want to see the game grow and see our players get featured more. I want to keep sharing the love of the game, be it my stats or helping to share my friend's results whatever it may be, but lately the rules and the way things are ran here makes it hard to enjoy the game I love. It hurts. I just want to see things be better for us. It's looks amazing for everyone else, why not us?

But yeah, I'm still hoping we can see some rule changes because some of it just makes no sense and it makes playing the game here even less enjoyable. I mean we're already playing Bo1, it's already so luck based, why make it even worse with all these DGL nonsense?

2024-2025 Hopes

Quite simple, I have to do better. My results this season were unacceptable. No top 32 finishes in any of the 3 major events to me is a failure, no matter if it's two 5-3s and one 6-2 finishes, none of them being at least a top 32 finish is not good enough for me. I have to do better next time out. Thanks for reading!

Singapore Regional League Vol 3 - 37th/342 - Good but not good enough

 I wasn't sure if I wanted to do this but I thought maybe I should continue on with it. I had been writing on why I would choose to play certain decks in the lead-up to the regional on here and it became a bit too much so I made a shorter version. And of course this will also be a review of the 3rd Regional League event of the season which didn't go as I hoped it would but there is nothing I can do about it.

• Deck Choices
• Choosing between top choices
• Deck List
• Singapore Regional League Vol. 3
• What's Next?

Deck Choices

I tried a bunch of decks in the lead up to the event to see which one I should go with and had some comments for them so why not share it:

Decks I was strongly considering:

1) Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex (Testing Win Rate: 52.77%)

• Comfort choice, been playing Zard/Pidgeot for the longest time
• Felt like the strongest deck and had answers to pretty much anything
• Won EUIC thanks to Tord so it's proven to be the best deck
• - Can struggle a bit to set-up so that's one worry

2) Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR (Testing Win Rate: 62.22%)

• Quite possibly the most consistent deck I tested
• Has answers to most decks even against unfavoured matchup
• A lot of decks will struggle to Judge/Iono pressure
• Won 4 of my 7 self-testing tourney, thus the high win rate and proves it can win in bo1 and bo3
• - Not having EA Sports (Energy + Arceus) in Turn 1 is a big killer and it has happened a few times

3) Lost Zone Box (Radiant Charizard) (Testing Win Rate: 80.00%)

• This deck surprised me the most, didn't think it would be good with Klara gone
• Has answers to most things! A lot of people will say Iron Hands will destroy it but Radiant Charizard + Mirage Gate should fix that
• The Lighting package gives the decks all sorts of options to surprise people and Hands can turn the prize race around
• - I just didn't test it enough sadly
• - It's still a lost zone deck so it can struggle at times, as it did during GSP #7

4) Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone) (Testing Win Rate: 53.85%)

• Early impression from testing is that it's still good!
• A lot of decks cannot deal with Giratina swinging for 280 or the instant KO
• The new Singapore variant gave the deck a lot more options with Raikou and Hands, it impressed me when I played it for Doom's tourney and went 6-0 to win the event
• - It's still a lost zone deck, it can have one of those bad hands and you just struggle to survive
• - New Mist energy could be a problem (Sinnoh to fix it?)

5) Arceus VSTAR/Armarouge (Testing Win Rate: 66.67%)

• Maybe the best rouge deck in the game right now
• Lots of attacking options to choose from unlike ArcTina, spread with Delphox, big hit with Gouging Fire, copy attacks with Mew
• Endgame with Armarouge ex with loads of energy on it can be scary for most decks to deal with
• - Not very consistent sadly, main sources of draws are draw supporters and the 1-1 Bibarel line
• - Can struggle if the Armarouge keeps getting picked off or Arceus gets taken out quickly

6) Charizard ex/Bibarel (Testing Win Rate: 57.89%)

• Initially I thought this would be the BDIF with Poffin making it more consistent than the other builds
• Skowvet and Bibarel to help keep drawing cards is never a bad thing
• - But missing key pieces can and will happen, which is why Pidgeot did end up feeling better as the weeks went on

My choices

Decks I tested, but didn't bother with much after testing:

7) Lugia VSTAR/Archeops (Testing Win Rate: 49.02%)

• It's a very strong deck IF it sets up
• Big IF because it doesn't always happen
• Won 2 of my 7 self test tourney, yet has less wins than losses, that is quite telling of the deck's inconsistency

8) Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur (Testing Win Rate: 47.62%)

• Probably the best one-hit KO deck out there
• Should be more consistent thanks to Poffin, so it has easier time to set up compared to many other decks
• Still is a deck heavily reliant on Stage 2s, one missing piece is enough to bring the deck down, along with a well timed Eri/Devo

9) Lost Zone Box (Testing Win Rate: 40.00%)

• Lot more options than the other two Lost Zone decks
• Ninja makes it more consistent than Rad Zard
• Maybe it's just me but I've struggled more with this build than the other two, lots more chances to get a bad start too with all the one-off attackers

10) Gholdengo ex (Testing Win Rate: 35.71%)

• Decent deck that can knock things out very easily
• But surely Chien-Pao is just better

11) Ancient Box (Testing Win Rate: 33.33%)

• Single prize deck with potential to up trade with any deck, and lots of options to attack or even disrupt with Mane and Tusk
• But very inconsistent so far, if you struggle to set-up, you will be in trouble
• Loses to a badly timed Iono/Roxanne

12) Gardevoir ex (Testing Win Rate: 27.27%)

• Garde can still be good?
• Not as consistent as before, deck is now heavily reliant on going 2nd with TM Evo to get Kirlias up
• Also very reliant on Tools so Lost Vacuum kills the deck, often giving opponents 2 prizes in one turn

13) Raging Bolt ex/Sandy Shocks ex (Testing Win Rate: 23.07%)

• Decent deck that can knock things out very easily
• But surely Chien-Pao and Gholdengo are just better
• Horrible win rate told me all I needed to know about this deck, it was super inconsistent

Didn't test these decks, wasn't considering it at at all:

0) Roaring Moon ex/Dudunsparce

• I can build this deck, I am now testing for it for Nats, but I was just a bit too late to try it out so I couldn't consider it

0) Gouging Fire ex

• I only found out about the deck very late on for me to even consider trying it

0) Iron Hands ex/Iron Crown ex

• Pieces of the deck were going to be expensive for me to get so not considering

0) Future Box

• Same as above

0) Snorlax Control

• I can't afford to play very slow games in a bo1 Regional and no ties

0) Pidgeot ex Control

• Same as above

0) Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR/Metang

• Don't actually own Dialga and it got stupidly expensive after the Thailand result so didn't bother with it

0) Great Tusk Mill

• Didn't get to test it out and was worried at how slow the games might end up going

0) Espathra ex

• Don't own Espathras so wasn't considering it, deck didn't appeal to me whatsoever

Choosing between top choices

Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex was always my number one choice and going into the week, it still was and I locked it in on Wednesday after testing with my friend Bryan, Ray and Nicholas even thought I had just went 6-0 with Lost Tina, it still didn't feel comfortable enough for me as I would say playing Zard or even ArcTina. I even tested Arceus/Armarouge a lot at one point as a backup choice but gave up on it after some bad test games.

I was in the lucky spot that two of my all time favourite decks were really good right now, Charizard/Pidgeot decks and Arceus decks! I've been an Arceus main since it first showed up and only dropped it to play Zard when it showed up. 

ArcTina was on my radar up till the previous Friday when I went to a local event and in all 3 games, I didn't get an Arceus with Energy on board, resulting in 1 win and 2 losses. That was not a good sign for the next weekend so I jumped ship back into Zard/Pidgeot. I did feel as though ArcTina could beat anything, but since it's bo1, I can't afford a missed EA to ruin my chances. 

My other option, maybe the one no-one was expecting, was the SableZard lost zone deck with the lighting stuff. It felt very strong and after looking at the win rates of all my decks, I decided to give it a trail run at the GSP #7 Invitational event (one week before Regionals) just to see if it is as good as I've been testing it, IRL and online. 

Funniest moment in self testing

I lost my first two games due to it doing lost zone things so that was probably the moment I decided on Zard/Pidgeot for my deck for the regional. I did win the next 2 rounds thanks to the element of surprise but I bubbled out of top cut at 9th, meaning I bubbled out of a chance to earn some money which always hurts, especially since this is the 2nd time in 4 GSP events that has happened. 

Deck List

Thursday was the day to submit deck lists and on Thursday morning, I had a rough idea of what I wanted my deck to be and I had just finished up my research on 7 different Zard/Pidgeot decks to see what worked for them and what didn't and the first thing I wanted to do was to find the common cards they all used because that had to be a sign that those inclusions were a must. From my research, I found that all 7 lists I had highlighted used the same 40 cards so those were my first inclusions and things I wouldn't cut: 

Pokemon

x4 Charmander (Mostly 4 OBF, some have 3-1)

x1 Charmeleon (PAF)

x3 Charizard ex (PAF)

x2 Pidgey (MEW)

x2 Pidgeot ex (OBF)

x1 Radiant Charizard (CRZ)

x1 Rotom V (CRZ)

x1 Manaphy (BRS)

Supporters

x3 Iono

x2 Boss's Orders

x1 Professor Turo's Scenario

Items

x4 Rare Candy

x4 Ultra Ball

x2 Super Rod

x1 Lost Vacuum

Tools

x1 Forest Seal Stone

Stadium

x1 Collapsed Stadium

Energy

x6 Fire Energy

That's the 40 template, which means I had 20 more spots to fill:

The first one was probably the difficult choice, which Ace Spec do I go with. I had two choices:

• Max Package: Maximum Belt + Counter Catcher (aka 2 catchers in the list)
• Prime Package: Prime Catcher + Defiance Band

Tord and my friend Joshua both went for the Prime package and I was tempted to go with that as well, but I made a last minute switch to go with Max package in the hopes that Belt can help me get some surprise KOs in the mirror and vs Chien-Pao and maybe Espathra and Gholdengo. (SPOILER ALERT: It was the wrong choice so that was my biggest regret in the list). 

For Pokemon, these were my options:

• Lumineon V (I mean why would you not play this, helps with consistency)
• Cleffa (Was meant to be a counter to Spiritomb last format, I was hoping that was my secret tech last format but friends told me stick with Rotom. It's now known thanks to Tord)
• 1-1 Bibarel (I was testing it last format too, always felt Zard Pidgeot was lacking draws and was testing it out. Again Tord revealed it in his crazy Zard list. We seem to have similar ideas somehow. It would take over the spots of 2 Nest Ball which I didn't care much for.)
• 2nd Charmeleon (This was my answer to the mirror match and potential threat of TM Devo)
• Gouging Fire ex (Helps to get big KOs on unsuspecting Tina, Lugia and Chien Pao players).
• Jirachi (I'm putting this in my deck, Singaporeans love their Lost Zone decks)

For Supporters: 

• 3-4 Arven (Helps with the set-up, 3 probably more than enough)
• 1 Roxanne (Only good late game)
• 1 Eri and if so also +1 TM Devolution (Disruption, should help vs CP, Mirror and LZ)
• 1 Thorton (Cheap way to get rid of bench sitting Vs or if you start Manaphy/Jirachi in a matchup they're not needed)
• 1 Research (drawing cards is fun)

For Items:

• 1 Pal Pad (Or Team Yell's Cheer but that takes a supporter slot) to recover Turo and Boss mainly
• 1-3 Nest Ball (Likely just 1, only really needed for Rotom or Rad Zard)
• 1-2 Counter Catcher (2 if Max Belt is being played)
• 3-4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin (The better VIP, helps to set basic mons up even after Turn 1)
• 1 Switch (likely to be used if Prime Catcher isn't being used but Turo might take that spot)

Tools:

• 1 Choice Belt (very useful is certain matchups, mostly used for Rad Zard)
• 1 TM Devo (if Eri is being used)
• 1 Panic Mask (was a idea to help vs Tina and Mirror, just didn't try it enough)

Energy: 

• 1 Mist Energy (To counter Devo plays or protect Zard from Tina and Moon instant KOs)

Card list choices

After all of that, I had the next 10 cards in:

x1 Lumineon V

x3 Arven

x3 Buddy-Buddy Poffin

x1 Counter Catcher

x1 Nest Ball

x1 Choice Belt

And after much thinking, I went with these for the remaining 10 spots to fill were these:

• x1 Maximum Belt + x1 Counter Catcher (I went against what my friend and Tord played, thought the risk was worth it, didn't pay off sadly, so it should have been Prime Catcher + Defiance Band)
• x1 Bidoof and x1 Bibarel (I wanted the draw power) over 2 more Nest Ball
• x1 Roxanne over Research
• x1 Pal Pad over Yell's Cheer
• x1 Mist Energy (meta call)
• x1 Jirachi (meta call)
• x1 Buddy-Buddy Poffin over the 2nd Nest Ball
• 2nd Charmeleon over the Cleffa, which was the hardest cut but felt the most necessary for this weekend's meta

Final list

Singapore Regional League Vol. 3

Now onto the event! I've got my Charizard/Pidgeot deck ready in my brand new Pink Diamond sleeves from Dragon Shield that was voted by the Twitter folks, and I must say, these sleeves are awesome. I might get more.

Round 1 [W] vs Axel - Hisuian Goodra VSTAR (Lost Zone) - Table 114 - 0/0

First game of the tournament. It was my opponent's first time at a big tourney so I was trying to let her know not to be nervous and just enjoy the moment and enjoy the event. Pokémon should be fun to play right!

I didn't realise they were playing Goodra until late on but they were struggling to set it up so a I took advantage. Match went almost to time so that was a bit scary but we got there! The Goodra just never got going.

Round 2 [W] vs  Keith Ting - Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone) - Table 38 - 1/0

And we hit our first friendly fire of the tournament in just round 2! I had a feeling Keith was playing a Lost Zone deck so I went first, and I was glad to see Comfey. I had been testing against Giratina for the last 3 days with Bryan so I knew exactly how the matchup would go and luckily for me it went as I hoped.

Keith had a play where he could have taken KO with his Giratina but went with Raikou V instead, which meant by Radiant Charizard didn't need to use Choice Belt to take KO. Apart from that, close game!

Round 3 [L] vs Edmund Khoo - Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone) - Table 32 - 2/0

Another friendly fire, another Tina player but this time I was in trouble. I had no set-up going vs Edmund and after looking through my deck, I noticed some things were missing. 

2 Iono and Bidoof being prized was quite painful against this deck so I went for KO and got punished right away when he got a KO on my Pidgeot. Nothing I can do after that. 

Round 4 [L] vs Dave Wong - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex - Table 83 - 2/1

This game sucked. My opponent made me go first, I attach energy to Charmander, pass. He gets the perfect set-up, passes over to me. All I can do here is Rare Candy to get Zard up, bench Radiant Charizard, put 3 energies onto it, one more to Zard ex, attack, take the first prize, it was Super Rod.

Opponent straight away goes to Eri me, and my Rod is gone. I have nothing else in hand. Takes KO on my Zard after a few exchanges and I'm still left with only Rad Zard and that was it. Such an annoying way to lose the mirror when I just couldn't play or set anything up while the other side had everything.

Round 5 [W] vs Darwin Tan - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex - Table 77 - 2/2

Complete role reversal of the last game. I went to Iono him after his Rotom draw and apparently he drew into a dead hand and I got Candy Zard to start attacking, and he just drew nothing. It happened to me so I knew the feeling. Finally I had some good luck in the mirror at a Regional!

Round 6 [W] vs Charmaine Han - Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur - Table 75 - 3/2

Yet another friendly fire. Charmaine is one of the few people who I would keep talking to after each round so of course imagine our sadness seeing each other at the table. Even 3 of our judges went to our tables just to say "whoops friendly fire". Yes, we know haha!

This was a bit of a tricky matchup since I know what Chien-Pao is capable of. I got a bit lucky when she missed a turn to KO my Zard and it turned the game to my favour. Was a long match too, we finished with like 2 minutes to go.

Round 7 [W] vs Norman Chan - Lost Zone Box - Table 30 - 4/2

I knew Norman so I had a feeling it was a Lost Box deck with Moon ex likely in it. Things were going ok, I took KO, he set up KO, rinse and repeat. He got the Moon KO on my Zard, I got the Charmander KO on it but the biggest issue was, I still hadn't gotten my Jirachi out of the prizes so I'm in trouble.

And then some good fortune for me, he forgot to Super Rod his 1 psychic energy back into the deck! He used Mirage Gate and then realised something was up. I thought the 2nd one was prized. That pretty much sealed the game for me as he missed the attack and gave me a 2 prize lead again with no possible way a Moon can show up. We take those!

Round 8 [W] vs Jackson Tham - Gholdengo ex - Table 33 - 5/2

Final round and I had seen Jackson playing Gholdengo the previous round. I had a good feeling about this matchup but not so when I saw my opening hand. I had to start Lumineon V and with nothing else in my hand, used Ultra Ball to get Rotom V just to draw cards. I got two Charmanders and Manaphy down the next turn but he got the Cologne + Gust onto Manaphy on my 2 Charmanders, game over surely right?

I still fought on, hoping there might be some way and it actually happened. I got one Zard up to KO his first Gholdengo with Max Belt. He then whiffs KO on my Zard, which meant I had the KO again! Some really good fortune for me in these last 3 games! I benched Radiant Charizard down and attach energy to it to have it ready for the last KO as there was one more Gholdengo on board. He then plays his last turn, and I kept looking at the clock. It went from 8 minutes down to 2 minutes, that took a long while! I was getting a little nervous that we might run out of time, I just needed one last turn. Luckily he did give me the last turn to take that last KO.

Final Result: 6/2 - 37th/342

I did get to 6-2, but bubbled out of not just Top 16 cut but also out of Top 32! Whoops. It was a huge bubble too. The highest placing 6-2 was 13th and the lowest was 45th. There's nothing you can do about resistance. But hey, going 6-2 meant I got the Boss promo!

Promo cards!

My opponents went 2-6, 6-2, 6-2, 5-3, 2-4 Drop, 3-5, 5-3 and 5-3. Losing in Rounds 3 and 4 hurts my resistance quite badly despite both of them going 6-2 or 5-3. And having someone dropping and having a low score also hurts my resistance so there was nothing I can do about it. Other than not lose twice I suppose, but when you brick both games, what can you really do about it? It's just the way it is.

Zard felt like the right call, I did everything I could but sometimes when you can't play the game, you just have to take it. Only thing I regret from the list was the Ace Spec choice, I only used Max Belt effectively in my last game. ArcTina could have been a good call but I didn't want to take the risk having not played in in a while.

Major congrats to my friend Bryan for winning the whole thing! He has been killing it this season and I’m so glad he will get to go to Worlds as a competitor this time. He also asked me to help test out the Tina-Zard matchup and a few others for 3 days it was a good testing session! Ray also joined us and he got top 16 as well so I’m happy to see my friends do well even if I can’t join them up there!

My friend Mickey made a vlog about the event, give it a watch. I might have shown up once or twice. 

What's Next?

This season has been painful but it's almost ending. Last season I had three top 32 finishes in 3 major events. This season? Not the same, not even a top 32 at any of the 3 major events so far. It's been a non-finish (I didn't get to play the first regional), 54th and 37th. I went 5-3 last time out, did better this time with 6-2 but still got the same amount of points. That feels bad.

All there's left is the Singapore Championships. Or Nationals as some of us call it. The winner AND finalists earns a spot at the World Championships in August. The other way is to finish top 4 in standings which is what I did last year. How's the situations this time around?

Yeah nah, I've only got 680 points. The one good improvement this season is that I have been scoring points regularly. Just not big finishes. I only have one top 8 finish out of those 7 finishes. I have no real hope of finishing in the top 4, I'm a thousand points behind the 4th placed fella. The only aim is simple, make it to finals. 

I've got a month left to go and yes I'm already back to self-testing and playing online and whenever I get the chance, playing locals too. As for what deck will I be playing? Safe bet is Charizard/Pidgeot, it's the best deck but that's not why I play it, it's my comfort deck. But I also have to be ready to make changes, we know there might be more Zards on the way. I hate playing the mirror because I know I my luck in it. I could go with an Arceus deck, it's what got me to Worlds anyway! Or I could surprise everyone and play something different. 

Still plenty of time to figure out the play, whatever that may be. Whatever you guys decide to do in May, just please don't play the Charizard mirror with me. The idea of having to KO Charmanders makes me really sad because it's my favourite Pokémon. Please don't make me do that. PLEASEEEEE!

Please don't hurt me!