SEASON 1
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| I called my shot 2 years ago |
As I've been saying for the past year or so, the plan was also to push for my Worlds invite in 2026, not 2025 because I didn't really care to go to Anaheim, or Hawai'i before that. I really wanted to go to San Francisco instead. And the last time I said that, I did make it in for Yokohama in 2023!
For the first season in the 2025-26 season, we had just 24 Great Ball Leagues to go along with the 4 Ultra Ball Leagues, which is an upgrade from last season as it used to be just 3 Ultra Ball events. The trade off? There are less points on offer to score in these Ultra Ball Leagues.
So now with the new points payout, I started working out on how to get my Worlds invite, and what is the likely points threshold to get there. The early signs from my calculations were about 210 LP, which would mean that if I could win 7 Great Ball League (7 x 30 LP = 210 LP), I might be quite safe to get my Worlds invite so that was my plan for the season, go for 7 wins! Which is quite a tall task for someone like me as I had only gotten 1 Great Ball League win all of last season. But then again, I wasn't really pushing for the invite last season, much different story this time.
I actually didn't get to play much for season 1 as you might notice the big gap between GBL 7 and GBL 20, I went to Japan for 2 weeks for holiday and before that, I only managed to get into 2 GBLs so I had to pretty much write off this first season and hope I can do well in the UBLs.
I did manage to get my first GBL win in the last day of the GBL period at Brick's Play with Dragapult ex/Dusknoir, it was a meta call choice that worked perfectly for me as I played against two Zards in Rounds 4 and 5! I played four different decks for UBL, trying to find which deck would be the perfect choice for the Premier Ball League. Ended up going with my comfort choice of Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex, and I did make Day 2 before losing straight away in Top 128 Cut, I did write about it here.
SEASON 2
On to Season 2 and I also did write about the entire season here. Long story short, I had a Dawn Zard deck ready for PBL, never played it, waited for the new season to play it, learnt from Oscar Madsen who helped me a lot with the deck and got 3 GBL wins in one week with it that re-started my hopes to make it to Worlds! And I got my best UBL result with it, 7-1 to finish 10th, still no Top 8 though.
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And yes, except for one event where I was already tired, I pretty much played only Dawn Zard for Season 2. |
SEASON 3
And now onto this latest season, and while Season 2 put me into the picture for the Worlds invite, Season 3 pretty much got me that Worlds invite, and once again, it was really only because of my results in the Great Ball Leagues.
I started off playing Dawn Zard but with how the meta was shaping up, it wasn't the best choice anymore so I went back to the traditional Zard Pidgeot and got T4 at Rowell. I did then end up playing some meta call decks, Gholdengo for a T4 finish at Brints and Raging Bolt with Joltik to almost a T4 finish.
Then came the crazy day on March 8th. I got declined for all 3 events, and at this point, I had been declined for pretty much every event in March and I need to play in these events to get my last 3 GBL wins. So I got declined at KouritenSG at Chinatown, took the 30 minute train ride to Tai Seng to go to Deckard, got declined there as well and then I had to make this crazy bus ride all the way to Chua Chu Kang, all the way in the West! And I only had 1 hour to make it before registration for walk-ins were closed. I had to rush and ran after two busses to get there, dashing across traffic twice, and made it to ManaPro with 5 minutes to spare! And sure enough, I somehow won that event, with Charizard Pidgeot too, the one with 3 Battle Cages in it!
But the pivotal moment that I think got me my Worlds invite was the final weekend of the GBL events, on March 27th, 28th and 29th. I managed to walk in for Inferno Gaming, taking the risk of going to a smaller event over the bigger event where I might not even get to walk in for hopefully an easier chance to win the event. I did get in and got 2nd with Pult Dusk, losing to Crustle because of some awful prizes but +15 is still something good for me!
For March 28th, once again I went to the smaller event to give myself the best shot of winning, but only because that's the one I was elected in, still played Pult Dusk and I won that event, getting my 6th GBL win of the season. One more to go and I had two shots at getting that on the last day. And as it was, I did get the last win, on my last event playing my favourite deck of all time, Charizard ex, this time with Dawn, beating an interesting Mega Abosl/Teal Mask Ogerpon deck in Round 5 to get my 7th GBL win, putting me up to 225 points, well past the target of 210 I had set for myself so I was pretty happy to not just reach my target but also hit my goal of 7 GBL wins of the season.
And why did I focus on scoring well at Great Ball Leagues over Ultra Ball Leagues? Lesser rounds for half the points seems much better to me and I seem to have some really torrid luck for these UBLs, I still haven't gotten a Top 8 finish in them.
For the UBLs, the first three I played a Raging Bolt list that wasn't the one people knew about, especially with our 4 Meowths ex in the list that Clifton came up with. I didn't have the best of run but I had been planning to play Bolt for MBL anyways so these games were all a learning experience for me. I played Turbo Ogerpon for the last UBL just to have some fun, didn't expect to get a 6-3 score with it!
MASTER BALL LEAGUE 2026
Why Raging Bolt/Teal Mask Ogerpon?
A good question, why did I go with Bolt. I wasn't really a Bolt player before that, hardly played the deck much to be honest. But I tested a lot for the MBL and everytime, Bolt came up with a good record in these test results which made me think it was the way to go. Yes sure Pult was always the best choice but I wasn't too keen on having my fate decided by mirrors again.
Every time I tested it, it had one of the better scores of any decks I played. And the deck didn't seem to mind whether it was going first or second, both worked well for the deck which was a big plus for me so I had kinda locked not just my Ultra Ball League choices from these test results but also my Master Ball League choice back in April!
And let's not forget it is best-of-1 format for these UBLs and also Day 1 of Master Ball League, so I had to make sure I had a deck that worked well going first or second. So for anyone who had asked me what the play was and me with my usual answer of "I don't know", I'm sorry I had to lie a bit but I did know it all along.
The List
I know what you're thinking....wait this isn't the usual Ian Robb Bolt list. Yes I was testing that too but I just never gelled with it. So I went back to playing Clifton's list instead, as it had lines to help me beat the single prize matchup which I was expecting to see a number of for the MBL.
The one less Mega Kangaskhan ex does mean we start it lesser of the time but it felt fine, as did the 1 Latias ex. Sure prizing it hurts, as it did a few times for me. The Baby Bolt and Koraidon were huge for the deck, giving me outs to deal with single-prize stuff like Alakazam, Festival Lead and Honchkrow. And Baby Bolt is a decent sniper too, especially against Crustle.
Briar is another card to help with the single prize matchup since we're usually attaching all these energies on Teal Mask Ogerpon anyway! Other than that, it's the usual list. I did play 3 Area Zero Underdephts for Day 1, and switched one out for Jamming Tower for Day 2 as a small meta call which sadly didn't work.
The worst card in the list? If you know me, you know the answer already and it's also why the card is almost hidden in this picture. Unfair Stamp. From testing, I never really got a lot of use out of it, and so many times I kept thinking to myself, would Prime Catcher be better here? Or Hero's Cape? Or Scramble Switch. I did test all 3, and I liked all 3 a lot and if I had the choice, I would have probably gone for Prime Catcher since it works well with Briar and a 3rd gust is great. I accepted defeat, took Unfair Stamp and well it really did nothing for me. The two times I used it in Day 1, it lost me both games.
And now for the fun part of the list, the art choices because I do make an effort for it!
- Both Lillie's Clefairy ex and Iron Leaves ex were given the Full Art treatment as my alternate attackers, and mainly because I didn't want to get Clefairy and Latias confused again
- Crispin were all in the old reverse-holo art to make it easier to tell them apart, since they're the most important supporter in the deck
- Judge with the new reverse holo, it'll be important in my games, as is Briar, thus the Full Art treatment
- Yellow Border treatment for both Ultra Ball and E-Switch, probably the two most important cards in the deck
- Both Glass Trumpet and Area Zero got the Gym stamp, both interact with Tera on the field
- New XY energies only because I couldn't find my Evolution Grass energies, if not I would have played that instead!
The Run
DAY 1
R1 W vs Max Lim Kwok Yeow
I went: 1st
Deck: Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex
Their final Score: 1-3 Drop
First match of the day and already this fella has pissed me off. Even before we set up for game he says "I'll give you the win, you give me the promo". Sorry but I'm not into that shit, I know I can win. And sure enough I did win because he played really badly. Hey I got my win and I get to keep the promo, sounds like a good deal to me.
Also I don't know how I won from this starting hand!
R2 W vs Ethan Toh Yi Hang
I went: 1st
Deck: Mega Starmie ex/Froslass
Their final Score: 3-3 Drop
We both started Meowth ex but I managed to draw out of it and start swinging into his Mega Starmie for the KO and he didn't have a good response back since I had another Raging Bolt ready to KO his Mega Froslass ex.
R3 W vs Collin Tan Wei Zhi
I went: 1st
Deck: Dragapult ex/Dusknoir
Their final Score: 4-3 (189th)
How do I keep hitting Collin in all these events haha! I knew it was probably a Pult Dusk waiting for me and sadly once again, he had a slow start so I was able to clean up his board from there.
R4 W vs Tristan Tan Yong Cheun
I went: 1st
Deck: N's Zoroark ex
Their final Score: 3-3 Drop
Another game where my awkward starting hand got saved by a really slow start for my opponent so got the dub here.
R5 W vs Gary
I went: 2nd
Deck: N's Zoroark ex
Their final Score: 6-5 (106th)
Sitting at Table 1 for this one so I was abit nervous, especially as this was the win and in for the Day 2 spot, and that was my sole aim for today. I had a normal start for once and got to do my usual gameplan vs Zoroark, so we got the 5-0 start to gurantee my spot into Day 2. Now it's just trying to add as much points as possible for Day 2. That plan didn't go so well...
R6 L vs Saksham Arora
I went: 1st
Deck: Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex
Their final Score: 9-2 (15th)
...because I had a really awkward start here and I had no choice but to put a Khan up front to draw cards. My opponent had 2 energies on board already, managed to get 4 more energies on board from Crispin + Double Teal Mask and got the Iron Leaves ex to get his Khan out of the way (his Latias was prized) to take the 3 prize KO, so I never win from there since I was always on the back foot. I had a chance to come back with Stamp but he drew exactly what he needed to get out of it.
R7 L vs Vincent Quek
I went: 1st
Deck: Okidogi/Barbarcle
Their final Score: 7-4 (76th)
Probably my worst matchup and I still almost got back into the game. I was up 3 prizes but I couldn't close out because my last Boss was prized and he had a Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon on the field for my last two prizes. I had to bank on my Unfair Stamp to help me buy one turn but sure enough, he drew into exactly what he needed to take the win. I thought my Clefairy was safe and then he showed me Power Pro for the KO.
I was happy to make Day 2 but the job still wasn't done and it got tougher for me to make top cut since I will have to start at 5-2. The points standing situation was still looking weird for me, I just needed to make sure, excluding the winner, not more than 4 people would overtake me in the standings.
I would miss my invite if these were to happen:
- Ricky gets Top 16
- Jasper gets Top 8
- Jeremy gets Top 8
- Anders gets Top 8
- Ryan gets Top 8
- Jon, Kaizer, Shauna, Norman and Evan gets Top 4
After Day 1, a few were eliminated because they didn't make Day 2, aka they are not scoring points (Ricky, Jeremy and Norman). So there was still a small possiblity of me missing cut as 6 people could still overtake me but I had to focus on my own games, 1 round at a time.
DAY 2
R8 LWL vs Syed Farhan
I went: 2nd/2nd/1st
Deck: Dragapult ex/Blaziken ex
Their final Score: 8-3 (42nd)
I had yet another bizzare starting hand in the first round of the day and scooped Game 1 within 2 minutes. My opponent was so confused, "why not play it out?" He was clearly very new to the Bo3 format and I explained to him I had to scoop early to give myself the best chance to get 2 wins from the next 2 games.
Game 2 went perfectly.
Game 3....did not. Another awkward start, I had to get rid of some useful resources just to play the game with Raging Bolt's first attack to discard my hand and draw 6 cards. I took out his Fez thinking his board was weak, and it was. He just so happened to have stamp from no draws in his hand and that stamp lost me the game as I drew into nothing from there.
R9 WW vs Lim Kim Loong Melvin
I went: 2nd/2nd
Deck: Dragapult ex/Mega Starmie ex
Their final Score: 6-5 (98th)
Both games were actually very close, could have gone either way honestly. His Starmie and Pult made things really awkward for me but managed to get the win both times and both times it came down to like 2-2 prizes or something like that.
R10 LWW vs Li Guoxiong Jasper
I went: 2nd/1st/2nd
Deck: Team Rocket's Honchkrow
Their final Score: 6-5 (90th)
I saw the pairing and I knew I was in trouble, Honchkrow. One of my worse matchups but I had already practiced this matchup a lot in the lead up to the weekend. I knew my list would give me a decent chance to win if draws were favourable.
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| Jasper's Macs setup was funny! |
Game 1 was the usual game, he just steamrolled me with his set-up. Game 2 he had a much slower set-up and my tech choices came in handy here, both Baby Bolt and Koraidon did their job and I managed to pull off the Briar with Ogerpon for game in Game 2.
Game 3 was much closer, my disruption did buy me some time this time as did attacking with 1 prizers. We did go to time just as he KOed my Koraidon to go down to 2-2 in prizes. Now here's where reading the rules paid off for me, I knew that if we were tied with 2 prizes left at time, the next KO is game, so I called over the judge just to confirm that I just needed to take 1 KO to win and they agreed and I got the KO with Mega Kangaskhan, even though I could have gone for the Briar play again which is what I was lining up for.
R11 LWL vs Hannah Koh Shu En
I went: 2nd/1st/2nd
Deck: Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex
Their final Score: 8-3 (36th)
And we round things off with the Bolt Queen herself. Game 1 I was slow off the block, she took the lead and won from there, I think I scooped with 2 prizes to go. Game 2 was the other way round, I got the first big KO and she scooped. Game 3 was a really weird game, we both were bricking and had to go into Mega Kangaskhan ex even thought we both knew that wasn't ideal in this match.
She got the first hit in with Passmian and I KOed it. Now I had my prize race sorted, I take either a 2 prizes KO next into a 3 prize KO on her Khan or the other way round. The problem was, she managed to get Stretcher and Fighting to get Passimian back on board and that honestly lost me the game, because I couldn't set up to take a 2 prizer out from that spot because of my rubbish draws.
I played it out as best as I can, and we did hit time but again, I read the rules and this time it wasn't in my favour as she had lesser prizes than me and on her turn so I knew that was game. Didn't even need the judges to tell us what was happening, I kinda explained it.
Ended the day 7-4, not the result I was hoping for, I wanted to get a Top 32 finish to add a few more points to help my cause to get the Worlds invite. But that cause was already helped for me by Round 2. Jasper A lost which meant he couldn't make Top 8 and in the next round, Anders lost which meant now only 3 people can overtake me in the standings which meant I was guaranteed the Worlds invite.
The funny part was, Anders lost to Anselm, the same guy I had been play testing with for the last 2-3 weeks, and he's the one that punched my ticket to San Francisco. I owe him a nice chicken rice meal at the very least!
Worlds Invite #2/Season Recap
The Second World Championships Invite is now Guaranteed!
And there we have it. The long nine month grind was over.
- 33 Great Ball Leagues played
- A further 14 Great Ball Leagues I was declined and failed walk in
- Played in all 12 Ultra Ball Leagues, where I was declined for 8 of them!
- Going to a total of 47 Great Ball League events + 12 Ultra Ball Leagues for the 9 month period
- Spending a total of $810 in event entries (34 x 15 for GBLs and 25 x 12 for UBLs), which is quite painful for me as I'm not making good money at the moment
- All that for a chance to fight for my Worlds invite, and now I've gotten my 2nd World Championships invite, the pain and the grind was worth it!
Now for a bit of a summary of the whole season, these are the decks I played through the 47 events I was in:
And for the decks I scored points with. I scored points with all but one deck, that being Gholdengo ex with Energy Search Pro, everything else scored me some points:
But of course, not all these points are counted for the points standings as we do have a Best Finish Limit of 8, so with the BFL in mind, these are the decks that got me my 225 LP to get me the invite to play at the 2026 Pokémon World Championships in San Francisco, California, USA!
Yup Charizard carried me this season and it's kinda sad that I don't get to play it for the World Championships. It's also kinda funny, the deck was released during the week of my first World Championships in Yokohama, Japan....and of course I picked up a few to use for playtesting purposes because I knew I was going to play it and it rotated in March. I did at least send it off with a win, and the 7th GBL win of the season too! And if you're wondering, I got 4 GBL wins with Dawn Zard, 2 with Pult Dusknoir and 1 with Zard Pidgeot.
And finally, the final standings of the season!
So these are the 24 players who will be representing Singapore at the 2026 Pokemon World Championships in the Masters, Seniors and Juniors categories from the TCG side of things! We'll do our best to make everyone home in SG proud! Thanks for following along with my crazy season and see you all in San Francisco!
