Forbidden Light Top 10 cards: The Light Consuming Meta

Introduction

Welcome back to ThePelipperPost, within this article I will talk about, what I believe are to be the best cards coming out from Forbidden Light. Although unlike most set reviews we will be looking to count down not only the best cards in the set but I will show you my personal developed deck list involving each card. Each deck will try to be entirely different although some card will help other cards within the set such as Malamar and Ultra Necrozma. Enjoy the Top 10 and let me know what your favourite cards are and deck ideas you have to develop from the lists below.

No. 10: Diancie Prism

This card is one of the most hyped up cards of the set allowing decks such as Passimian to reach higher numbers that they might not be able to reach otherwise. The Ability Princess Veil, adds 20 more damage to your fighting Pokémon's attacks which is amazing. Personally in my experience with Passimian decks, if you run a 1-3 split of team play, you will be hitting 190 damage against most evolution Pokémon, having the Diancie Prism allows the deck to reach 210 without the need for a choice band. In different decks, such as Buzzwole Gx and Lucario Gx it will allow these Pokémon to hit bigger numbers early on, Buzzwole GX with a Beast Energy Prism, choice band and Diancie Prism will allow you to knockout a Zoroark Gx with a Jet Punch and still do 30 damage to a benched Pokémon. This Diancie allows an already dangerous rouge idea to become more of a deadly machine allowing you to hit big numbers and constantly keep combining to with Rescue Stretcher and Energy Loto to not give your opponent a moments rest.

Diancie Prism

No. 9: Mysterious Treasure

Mysterious Treasure

Mysterious Treasure has to be one of the most broken Pokémon search engines in the history of the TCG. Although it only searches out Psychic and Dragon-Type Pokémon, this card is really what these decks needed to become quicker than its other meta counter-parts. With a similar effect of an Ultra Ball you discard only one card and then you may search for the Psychic or Dragon Pokémon you desire. With Tapu Lele Gx being such a widely played card in every deck for the ability Wonder Tag, allowing you to search for any supporter, Mysterious Treasure can find its way into many decks to come. Although only really suited to Psychic type decks due to Dragon Pokémon requiring exhausting energy requirements, I could see this card forming around a Turbo styled Psychic deck which involves the Lunala Prism and is quite similar to the format of how Turbo Metals is played. This can help really activate the raw power of Necrozma Gx including multiple tech cards, to help gain advantage by discarding energy as well as finding those key tech Pokémon.

No. 8: Zygarde Gx

Zygarde Gx helps to support the already strong, pardon the pun, typing of Fighting. This is one of the most played typing at the moment due to the weakness of Zoroark Gx allowing to get the upper hand on decks within the top tier of the the Pokémon TCG. I personally believe that Zygarde is very similar to the Gardevoir Gx card, in terms of its own energy acceleration with its first attack, Cell Connector. This allows for a next turn attack which only needs two fighting and a double colourless energy for the secondary attack and finally the Gx attack. The Gx attack is the most interesting part of this card, for 2 fighthing energy and a DCE it allows you to do a flat 150 damage to which the math can quickly add up. With choice band 180, Diancie Prism in play 200, regirock 210 and you can see how this can quickly add up. This including the effect of the attack, make this card want you to start teching Pokémon Ranger into your deck if it becomes popular. The broken effect is that it cannot be damaged by Gx or Ex Pokémon on your opponents next turn by their attacks, THIS IS CRAZY! Especially with the inclusion of Bonnie being in the set allowing Zygarde's Gx move to be reset when playing Bonnie in the same turn. So the archetype around this card is really trying to stream Bonnies when you can find them. With Zygarde already being such a large Pokémon with 200hp and its capabilities to knockout a Buzzwole Gx with ease I personally think this card has a future ahead of it.

Zygarde Gx

No. 7: Beast Energy

This card is one of the most mainstreamed hype cards of the set and it will show to be a incredibly good card with time and the right deck. It can only be attached to Ultra Beast Pokémon and it provides any typing with 30 extra damage onto your Ultra Beast's attacks. Straight away you might be thinking Buzzwole Gx and Jet Punching for combinations that lead to knocking out a Zoroark Gx for a single energy. Although you have to look through the already established cards to see what it makes better, an example would be Kartana Gx. Kartana's ability is an amazing one being able to discard special energy in play, which also discards the beast energy! But if you run a Beast energy with Kartana and get a DCE onto there you can hit up to a base of 130 damage, knock out a Gardevoir Gx and shuffle the beast energy back into your deck with the Kartana. There is so many combinations for this card. Although it is a great card, with the amount of special energy denial in enhanced hammers, Kartana itself or even Aerodactyl that could see play, it has a massive floor in this regard which is why it is placed as No. 7.

Beast Energy Prism

No. 6: Noibat

Noibat

Yes. You have heard correctly. Noibat. This card is going to be absolutely insane if it is built in the right way. The issue for the current use of the card is that there is that it does not have any ideal partners at the moment and I can only see it being a one of tech in future formats to come. It is incredibly powerful, being able to discard any items found in your opponents hand from the game is wicked. It is Ghetsis on Steroids. Yes it uses your attack, but this discards rather than shuffles. This could really work well with Garbodor with the attack Trashalanche that is 20 more damage for each item in the discard pile. The other good part of this card is the resistance to fighting, meaning it survives a jet punch. Lets look at an archetype which could see it become a really interesting tech, especially denying set up in mirror matches.

No. 5: Malamar

Malamar

Did someone say Eels? This card brings back an old favourite ability made popular in the Black and White Format of old, Dynamotor. But this time its back with a new Pokémon and some new tricks. The Malamar card itself will not be used as an attacker, it will be more of a bench warmer type card where if you are attacking with it, there is something wrong. 60 damage is not really capable of doing much damage as a whole. But the Psycho Recharge ability is where this card really shines. One thing that Psychic-type decks has been missing is an energy accelerator. This is what we have been waiting for as Shining Mew has not seen alot of play, mainly due to the low HP and Buzzwole Gx's high success as it knocks out a Mew with a Jet Punch. The challenge of maintaining the psychic energy in your discard is the issue with the ability as battle compressor is not around anymore. This effects the usefulness of Malamar as it cant run as optimal as it could possibly do. The main partners for this card is looking more like Ultra Necrozma from the same set or even Dawn Wings Necrozma. 

No. 4: Greninja Gx

Greninja is always getting good cards. This Gx card is not much different. The hp of the card is quite low for a stage 2 being 230hp, although I feel if the hp was any bigger it would be too overwhelming in the meta. This is being looked at being paired with a number of the best cards in the current format, such as Buzzwole Gx , Zoroark Gx and Golisopod Gx. The card with its ability Wind Shuriken allowing you to put 3 damage counters on any of your opponents Pokémon, takes us back to a time of Crobat which had a similar ability. Greninja's attacks are also very good and helps the card cycle well in a deck to make the most out of the ability. Haze Slash allows you to do 110 damage and then shuffle your Greninja Gx and all cards attached into your deck, allowing you to skip being hit and rotate your active Pokémon into something your opponent preferably does not want to hit into. The Gx move Shadow Assassin Gx allows you to snipe 130 anywhere on your opponents board, meaning you can pick something off like a Tapu Lele Gx if it has been retreated onto the bench. This also allows you to hit some amazing numbers onto an active Pokémon. 130 + Choice band + Wind Shuriken + Kukui = 210 damage which is a number that is key in the current meta to hit. No other Zoroark/Varient has the option to hit that amount without a condition which can be controlled by your opponent (Lycanroc Gx is opponents benched Pokémon, Lucario Gx how much damage on itself and Golisopod GX can only hit 180 Max). This makes Greninja Gx a very exciting prospect for the coming format.

Greninja Gx

No. 3: Buzzwole

I think the TPCi have a new favourite Pokémon. Every Buzzwole card since the announcement of Ultra Beasts has been absolutely mind blowing, this card is no different. Its a non-Gx attacker which means Hoopa is less of a issue for this card, it also has 130hp which denies Zoroark Gx a return knockout on this Pokémon, not only that but it hits 120 for a single fighting energy. Sledgehammer is the main attack of this card which allows you to do 30+ if your opponent has 4 prize cards remaining you do 90 more damage. It can take a Knockout on a Mew Ex, it can be charged by Beast Ring the exact same turn as doing all this damage and it ONLY take a single fighting energy. If your Opponent has an odd prize size then you will be looking to use Buzzwole's second attack which is a base of 80, 2 heads means 40 more damage and if you have a strong energy or two on the Pokémon it does catastrophic numbers. It hits weakness on the best card in format, Zoroark Gx, meaning this card will go and break the meta with its big brother, Buzzwole Gx.
 

Buzzwole

No. 2: Ultra Necrozma

The best Pokémon coming out of the set is hands down Ultra Necrozma. This card has the ability to destroy everything and anything on its way to be one of the best attackers in the standard format. With the outrageous Photon Geyser, I think that we are really looking at one of the strongest Pokémon printed in the TCG. With the ability to attack for 20+ 80 for each psychic energy discarded off of it, this can reach destructive levels with just two energy attachments. If you are able to get three psychic attachments to this card, it hits a grand total of 260 which is knocking out every card ever printed in this Sun and Moon format. Interestingly though it is the only attack on the card other than its own Gx move, which is a first to do so without an ability or other attack. The Gx move is a little underwhelming considering the extent of the regular attack although if Ultra Necrozma is only able to soften up Pokemon without taking knockouts there is an opportunity for it to strive forward and effectively clear 6 prize cards in a single turn. Destructive Light Gx requires there to be less than 6 prize cards in play before you are able to use this adding to how likely you are to be able to pull this off late game with a lot of damaged Pokémon on the field. This has been already considered a natural partner to Malamar in the same set with the two Pokémon reminding us of when Rayquaza ruled with his Eelektrik buddies.

Ultra Necrozma

No. 1: Beast Ring

Beast Ring

Finally the No.1 of the set is Beast Ring, this is the first item card since I started playing again to become a rare item in a pack. This is backed up by the Pre-release prices on this card as a single with the secret rare card nearly reaching £65 before it has even been released. This card makes Ultra Beast cards, INCREDIBLE. In terms of support that all the UB cards have coming from this set, makes them even more dangerous than they originally were. Cards like Guzzlord Gx, Xurkitree Gx and of course Buzzwole Gx become so much more playable than previously in the format. The card allows you to attach two energies from your deck to your Ultra Beast Pokémon as long as your opponent has 4 or 3 prize cards. WOW. This can mean you are going from having no energy on board, playing three beast rings in a turn and then having 6 energies storming your board and having an instant impact on the board state. Especially with Buzzwole Gx this will be a must inclusion in that deck being able to charge up 3 fighting energies will be absolutely insane. Your Buzzwole can start hitting 210 in one turn with Diancie and a choice band, without any strong energies attached to the active. The same can be done with Ultra Necrozma, two Psychic energies and a choice band, 210 straight away. We are now entering a format where these big basic Pokémon are roaming around with aggressive energy attachment. This is going to effect Mill decks so much due to how aggressive players can be with their set ups, a single 1-1 line of Naganadel Gx can remove how many prizes that you have allowing them to follow up in the next turn with multiple Beast Rings.


Thank you very much for reading my Top 10 cards of Ultra Prism, I believe that there is a few cards which were unlucky to be skipped over like Lysandre Labs, Bonnie, Judge, Pyroar, Naganadel and Alolan Exeguttor. This Top 10 are not just as single cards are good but where they also fit in the current standard format, has changed my mind on many of the cards in this Top 10.
Although the Top 10 are really meta breaking cards which I think will cause an impact on the format as a whole and not just a rogue deck or maybe find a little bit of play. I hope that some of my deck lists have given you some ideas about what you can build with cards coming from the new set and do let me know any of your ideas by messaging me on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. 
There is some very exciting news to come in the next few months heading up to and around Sheffield Regionals with new cards to be released and the meta to change from week to week with these new powerful archetypes entering the standard format, as I enter the back end of my current first season competetively.


I look forward to producing some more articles and hopefully catching many of you at Challenges, Cups and of course Sheffield Regionals.

Charlie

@ThePelipperPost
67/250 Championship Points

IllusionBox: Ghosts and The Dark arts!

Introduction

In my last Blog post I spoke about taking part in the Marquee Models Pokémon League Cup, today I will talk you through the deck I have used for the last month in probably my most successful spell in the competitive Pokémon Trading Card game scene I have had in my years worth of experience.
This deck has taken me to Prague Special Event and back to numerous events in the United Kingdom which I have shared with friends and teammates. I have not enjoyed a deck really since Lycanroc/Raichu with sky field was a deck, so this deck for me suited my playstyle. This deck is IllusionBox.

The Origin

The deck originally started off as an attempt to pursue the use of Zoroark Gx's Trickster GX attack to increase the dynamic nature of the card, which has already seen a lot of play in many top tier decks, such as Zoroark/Golisopod GX and Zoroark/Lycanroc GX. After pondering the idea with Timur Yusuf, who had the original idea to develop the deck and seeing it have some success at a local League Challenge with Andy King using dark energy for Trickster GX. I decided to go about making my changes. This meant that the deck tried to use Dark energy but this was not very forthcoming due to the lack of Dark-type Pokémon in the standard format with any form of impact on the meta, without being weak to Buzzwole GX.

The next focus was a partner for Zoroark, it would have to be a card working off Double Colourless Energy (DCE). Instead of the usual Golisopod/Lycanroc Pairings, I wanted to use something that helped counter the incredibly poor match up with Buzzwole GX. With the psychic weakness, the obvious paring for me was Silvally GX with the Memories, which developed into a 3-3 line of Silvally GX to add consistency so it was not totally built around Zoroark which had a 3-2 line. The Type: Null of choice was the Crimson Invasion one with Armour Press, which meant it stuck around for longer even if it was hit by a Buzzwole or a Golisopod GX early in the game which is why I prefer Silvally as Zoroark's partner over any other pokemon, despite sharing the same weakness.

The next point of call was the support Pokémon for the Deck. With Buzzwole and Fighting-types being an issue I wanted to try Mew EX and a Mewtwo (EVO) to act as pivot points in the deck which allowed for easy KO's using Mew EX's ability to copy Riotous Beating or Mewtwo's Psychic. This turned out to be good as it hit for the psychic weakness although starting them in a match could be awkward and also if you had to attack with a Silvally or Zoroark then the free retreat was not there. This was when I decided to use Dawn Wings Necrozma (DWN) to use its invasion ability. This proved to be critical in how the games went as when you attacked with Silvally you were able to retreat out a damaged Silvally GX and put forward a dawn wings, then further rotate your board state by using the Gyro Unit ability to retreat into a fresh attacker.

The Dawn wings became a crucial part of the game plan with this deck so I upped the count to two with the idea that it has fighting resistance and can stay around again Buzzwole and Lycanroc. With these DWN inserted into the deck there was no real room for the Mew or Mewtwo which meant that there was no psychic weakness hit apart from the Psychic Memories.  

This was when it hit me that I could use the Dawn Wings Necrozma as an attacker if I put psychic energies into the deck and then it allowed other memories to be used other than only psychic and fighting. Which then helped develop further adjustments for other match ups.

The Core

These are the cards that are a MUST to have in your deck list, without Tech cards for match ups.

Pokémon (16)

3 Zorua (SLG)

3 Zoroark GX(SLG)

3 Type: Null (CIN)

3 Silvally GX (CIN)

2 Dawn Wings Necrozma GX (ULP)

2 Tapu Lele

Trainers (29)

3 Cynthia

3 Guzma

2 Brigette

2 N

1 Mallow

1 Sycamore

4 Ultra Ball

4 Puzzle of Time

4 Max Elixirs

3 Memories of meta choice (2 Fighting, 1 fire).

2 Field Blower

Energy (12)
8 Psychic Energy
4 Double Colourless Energy

This Core is very consistent due to the use of Zoroark GX's Trade ability and the way to find supporters is made easier with this and if you need to you may use Tapu Lele GX's Wonder Tag to pull one from your deck. If you are two-three trades in and you have not found a way to produce the card you want then you've been incredibly unlucky.
Mallow is also a key card in this core due to the need of picking up specific item cards when you need them, such as Silvally's Memories. The amount of times where I have been able to Mallow for a field blower and a fire memory to take off my own fighting memory and attach a fire memory to knock out a Golisopod is incredible. Usually 4 prizes in two turns with a deck thats maximum damage output it 120 unless you GX is unheard of.
In this list you can take out the Psychic energy for any other energy you would like to play although you will not be getting full use of your Dawn Wings Necrozma. This is key for what the deck tries to achieve with Buzzwole GX being so popular and one of the best decks in format.
Finally the Guzma count in the deck is extremely high considering the free rotation of the deck, although this allows a lot more freedom to rotate the deck's board state especially once you have included techs into the list with the free spaces that you do have. You could play 2 but I like heavy supporter lines where they seem key e.g. Guzma and Cynthia.

Match-Ups

Buzzwole/Lycanroc 70-30

Hitting Buzzwole for weakness is an incredible thing in this match up, although three of the Pokémon you will look to bench will be fighting weak, I believe this is a favourable matchup as long as you play around the rockruff's and be clever with your plays. If you can T2 take prizes with Dawn Wings Necrozma to KO a Buzzwole already powered up ready to hit, normally the acceleration of energy will slow down due to the odds of Max Elixir's hitting. If they over-bench you can come in with Rebel GX to take two easy prizes or if your down then DWN can use Moon's Eclipse GX to take a knock out and have to be Guzma'd around the next turn.

Zoroark/Golisopod 60-40

This match up come down to how well you both set up. The ZoroPod deck is know to be one of the most consistent decks currently in format. As I know quite well when playing the deck, it has the possibility of a late set up but this is where you hit everything for weakness. The only awkward part of the match up is using Dawn Wings Necrozma due to its Dark-type weakness but this is why we play three Guzma to help when DWN is not in play. Golisopod gets one shot even if Armour Press is used with the fire memory, fighting memory does the same for Zoroark. Just watch out for the Sudowoodo Counter Energy Tech!

Volcanion/Ho-oh/Varients 60-40

The deck does well against any kind of bench warming decks such as Volcanion or Ho-oh due to the amount of Pokémon they have to bench. This brings in Rebel GX to play and if you are able to keep up a good trade with Ho-oh's you can stream your Type: Null's to slowly take two prizes while the opponent has to constantly take one prize to retreat and attack again due to the nature of both Ho-oh and Volcanion's attacks. Another card which would be interesting in this match up would be the Lunala Prism Star as it does 20x the amount of energy in play and with Full Moon Star allowing you to attach psychic energies from your discard pile meaning the more they load their bench with energy only increases your own damage output.

Zoroark/Lycanroc 50-50

The match up is extremely down to who ever starts first and takes the first knockout. Both decks hit for weakness against at least one of the Pokémon in play it will end up becoming a mess most times with Dangerous rouge GX and Rebel GX taking important KO's on both sets of Pokémon. ZoroRoc is more consistent than this list but with Type: Null coming in clutch with its own Armour Press, this makes it more of a 50/50.

Garbador/Variants 40-60

The only awkward issue with this match up is the ability lock, if you can hit your field blowers at the right time the fact you take KO's on Espeon GX, with Psychic attachers without getting returned KO's because you are weak to Dark-type Pokémon is one of the happiest things about playing the Dawn Wings Necrozma. Be cautious with your resources as double puzzle of time will be needed to have an impact against a already Tool attached Garbotoxin.

Zoroark/Gardevoir 30-70

Gardevoir is an awkward match up for this deck as most of the cards require quite a lot of energy to enable them to use their attacks, against a Silvally GX they will only need to grab 4 energies from their deck which can easily achieved. As well with the two Gallade's which are being played in the majority of lists currently, does not help out the match up what so ever with this being the second most horrible match up for the deck.

Greninja 20-80

When it is not doing 'Frog things' this deck is incredibly nasty to play against when the deck is set up. 130 hp Greninja with shadow stitching basically is unplayable due to your heavy ability reliance. If it evolves to the Break then you have less chance due to the nature of how much damage Water Shuriken does to your Pokémon. Giratina Promo is very much recommended if you enter any tournament where there will be at least 1 Greninja player. 

The Final Deck - IllusionBox

So after a lot of testing I was finally able to conclude that bellow is the best deck list for IllusionBox, this has been developed carefully over a month and a half of playing online and testing IRL. When it has come to tournaments the deck has held its own and has always finished with a positive record, it was my personal playing skills which had let it down in previous competitions. 

Prague Special Event it ran really hot to start of with giving me a record of 2-0-1 meaning I was rubbing shoulders with some of the best players in Europe for a round and then slowly it took a dive and the deck bricked incredibly hard. I was away with my amazing girlfriend who was lovely enough to take time from the holiday to let me play so once I thought T32 hopes were done we left to enjoy our holiday (Looking at results two wins in the last two rounds would have guaranteed T32). Then at the last two cups which I played in (both reports are on my blog), I have used slightly tweeked lists adding different cards when expecting different match ups. 

At Marquee Models in Harlow I came 6th missing out my win and in and missing my first chance at a Top 4 cut. Finally I played the deck at Athena Games in Norwich in which I was able to Top 4 breaking the curse of the bubble allowing me to get 32 Championship Points and play some of the best Pokémon I have played since I started. The deck list is the one I used to get T4:

IllusionBox

Lunala Prism 62 ULP

Pokémon 18

3 Zorua 52 SLG

3 Zoroark GX 53 SLG

3 Type: Null 89 CIN

3 Silvally GX 90 CIN

2 Dawn Wings Necrozma GX 63 ULP

2 Tapu Lele GX 60 GRI

1 Lunala Prism 62 ULP

1 Giratina XY184 PR

Trainers 30

3 Cynthia

3 Guzma

2 N

2 Brigette

Multi Switch

1 Mallow

1 Acerola

1 Professor Sycamore

4 Ultra Ball

4 Puzzle of Time

3 Max Elixir

2 Field Blower

2 Fighting Memory

1 Fire Memory

1 Multi Switch

Energy

8 Psychic Energy

4 Double Colorless Energy

Evaluation

Giratina

Giratina is over powered in this deck. Not only does it stop Greninja Break in its tracks, the card also one shots Buzzwole GX, while discarding a random card from your opponents hand. This was a late addition into the deck list knowing that there was going to be quite a few Greninja lists at Athena. Bruce Kelf told me to add it in as he knew a few players would be playing the deck today so not only did I add it in and not face a Greninja deck all day, but I was able to take 13 Prizes with the Giratina Promo due to manual attachments and KO's against the two Buzzwole GX decks I played against that day in a best of three (BO3) format it took the majority of my prizes that day. 

Lunala Prism

Probably the least used card in my deck that day due to the lack of fire that turned up, although it could've provided a lot of use against Dusk Mane Necrozma GX which even while being resistant to Psychic-type Pokémon it allows me to still do huge damage. It helped become a rather useful pivot point for most of the day when not in use.

3 Max Elixir, 1 Multi Switch

Running only 8 energy means that the likelihood of hitting an elixir every time is pretty slim, hence why I decided to play 3 instead of 4 in my deck. This was down to the need of having energies to accelerate in my discard but as well allowed me to have a secret addition which won me one of the games in my Top 4 clash against Seb, Multi Switch. It came in clutch so many times allowing me to move a DCE around the board as much as I liked and even with the Puzzles, able to retrieve it when I wanted Similarly with the Memory cards. This was a solid addition and was able to get that extra Psychic energy onto the active if it needed it. Giratina was amazing for holding a DCE and then using Multi Switch to change it onto an active Zoroark or Silvally to take a KO. 

2 Fighting Memory 1 Fire Memory

This was simply down to playing against the best deck in format, Zoroark/Golisopod. It hits both cards for weakness and allows a usually 2 hit game into a OHKO. It also provides use against the mirror match and against metal decks as I was able to pull out a draw against Scott Symonds playing Dusk Mane Necrozma. I do not think any of the other memories deserve a place just due to the current meta. 

Conclusion

Overall, if I was to take this deck to a regionals I would expect it to do extremely well as when its played well, it is a force that is not giving your opponent time to rest at all in the game and due to the flexibility of the deck allows for an interchangeable core that helps in any meta in the foreseeable future. I think I will try and play this deck out for the rest of the quarter, after I have got through my forfeit deck for actually getting into a Top-cut.

Thank you for reading, please support the Blog and Youtube Channel for more content and do not hesitate to drop me a line on my social medias.

Signing off,

Charlie

Athena Games Spring League Cup Report

Welcome back to The Pelipper Post

This article is going to include my own report for the tournament, plus the final standings and results from the finished Top 4 and Final. The cup was Best of Three (BO3) 50 minute rounds, with a total of five rounds swiss. Overall there were 15 Masters with only 9 Juniors and Seniors. This was going to be a very good test for myself as there is a very talented pool of players up at Athena in Norwich, near the nice chip shop that does battered gherkins (Sadly was not open).

The League Cup was not my first at Athena, myself, Timur, James and Mitchell had previously played in the Autumn Cup when Burning Shadows was first released. I would like to say a quick thank you to everyone who organised the tournament as it was extremely enjoyable. This was a lot smaller compared to the last few tournaments that we had been to including our local shop down at Marquee Models. Although the size of the event was lower there was a lot of people that we knew from playing previously on the Friday or have played against before. With another 50 Championship Points up for grabs I was hoping to at least make the Top 4 this time round having bubbled my previous Cups by a couple of points, losing my win and in or missing out on the slightest resistance difference.

This tournament though I was feeling quite relaxed about generally because I knew the deck I was playing and I had a little insight into what other decks were going to be in the field. I played my Silvally/Zoroark deck list, which I will be doing a profile and breakdown on both my Youtube Channel and on my Blog. The only match up I was not very keen on seeing today was the Zoroark/Lucario deck which had been quite popular over the last few weeks since it has hit legality in standard. Ideally I was hoping for lots of Buzzwole GX to hit weakness against and it so happened to be the case, my first and third round were against some of my friends who both were playing Buzzwole GX/Lycanroc GX.

First Round: Tied, WL. VS Bruce Kelf - Buzzwole/Lycanroc

To give a bit of appropriate back story, Bruce before handing deck lists in, told us that there was at least two Greninja decks appearing at the League Cup. So he had managed to convince me to look past the possible bluffs of players and tech in a Giratina Promo into my deck. This was probably the best decision I had made. First game I draw my starting hand and guess what was my only basic Pokémon... Giratina. I was able to manually attach to my Giratina and knock out two Buzzwole GX while setting up my bench for the remainder of the game before my Giratina went down. So far it had taken 5 prizes. I then got mauled T2 by Bruce who was able to have an amazing start and completely ruin my board state in a close but intense battle in game two. We were not able to pull out a game three quick enough so we took a tie and progressed into the next round both hoping to gain a Top 4 finish. Bruce had finished previously in the Top 4 at Marquee Models which had earned him his worlds invite gaining over 250 Championship points with the 32 he picked up from Friday. 

Second Round: Won, WW. VS Neil Miller - Aerodactyl (AGAIN!)

For the second time in three days I had faced Neil, as we settled down for game one we reflected on the round at Marquee and shared a good laugh about it and he was an incredibly nice opponent to play against. He started a lone Hoopa which was only 1/5 chance of him starting this due to his 4 talonflame and he was unlucky enough to draw the hoopa. Game one went pretty quickly due to the Hoopa being taken out by a Type: Null, even though Crushing Hammers and Assault Vest's could not quite save the Hoopa. Game two was much more of an open game as Neil had the perfect start and was really racking through his deck finding multiple Aerodactyl and his set up was overall quite scary at one stage. The first priority was to get rid of all of his Aerodactyl as they were going to be causing the majority of the damage to my Pokémon especially with discarding my DCE. I was able to power up a Dawn Wings Necrozma to start KOing his Pokémon. Which only had 120 HP which is the magic number in my deck. After having some quite unfortunate luck with his Old Amber's failing 5 in a row after having 2 fossil excavation in his hand, I soon overwhelmed his side of the board and was able to scrape out the win against Neil. This time it was a much more enjoyable game rather than the turn one donk of previous!

Third Round: Won, WW. VS Matt Wheat - Buzzwole/Lycanroc

Looking at the player match ups for the next round having only 15 Masters. it was already written amongst the stars that I would be playing one of our own, Matt Wheat. He had just come off getting his first Top 4 at a cup earning himself his best finish this season, since he has only been playing the last 5/6 months. Starting the first game I completely overwhelmed Matt with, the best card in the deck, Giratina. It took 8 prizes in both games which meant that surely it had to be an inclusion after this tournament is done. I say about me hitting all my Max Elixirs but Matt hit every single one he played against me and still it was not enough to stop Giratina. In the second game Matt was unable to get going with his slow set up costing him the game and meant that I was able to take the W. Although it was a incredibly fun round, I believe we both learnt a lot and was able to take away some good points away to help our gameplay better, as we ran it more like a testing match. Sorry Wheaty! But do check out his Youtube channel as he posts stuff about Pokémon and some other unimportant games (MAGIC): https://www.youtube.com/user/WheatyMTG

Fourth Round: Tied, WL. VS Scot Symonds - Turbo Metal (Dusk Mane Necrozma)

Heading into this match I was slightly nervous generally because I was going up against Scot Symonds, who I have a lot of respect for and it was going to be a challenge to make a match of this game. It did not help when I could have had the Turn 1 KO on a Mew (FCO) but discarded the wrong card when looking to Guzma KO. Instead I carried on my board state as I would do being able to grab Brigette to set up my field. This was when I was lucky enough to draw the Fire Memory at the right time without using a mallow, allowing me to stream KO's onto Scots Dusk Mane Necrozma's (DMN) to take game one. Game two was when I was not able to keep up with Scot's deck, it is called 'Turbo' Metals for a reason! He took 4 Prizes relatively easy and from there it was an uphill struggle for myself. We were able to start game three but although I had a very fast and good start, time was called on the round to which if I was to face Scot again in the Top cut I would be able to turn the game in my own favour. Well played to Scot though as it was a really calm game as we sat and spoke for a bit while setting up. I do not know why I was as nervous looking back at the game because it was a great learning experience playing against a great player.

Fifth Round: Loss, LL VS Seb Symonds - Zoroark/Golisopod

Having faced one Symonds, it lead straight to the other. I think possibly one of the shortest games I have played with this deck, due to how much it bricked against Seb. In exactly the same situation against Scott, I wanted to try and see how I faired against one of, if not the best, player in the UK currently. Personally I was pretty calm in the game against Seb only due to the fact that I had played Scot in the previous round and was able to steady my nerves a little bit. Once I saw the two starts I did have in both the games against Seb, I could not really do much in a way to turn the tide. Both times Seb had access to T1 Brigette and I played Cynthia I believe on my first turns of both games, struggling to find a basic to advance my own state. Silvally is the important key in this match up, needing to hit both Zoroark and Golisopod for weakness and any time I was able to get one down, kudos to Seb he backhanded it into my discard with either a First Impression or a Riotous beating. From the point of the game it was long gone so personally this allowed me to relax some more and was able to enjoy a bit of a laugh and a joke with Seb, especially when finding out he did not prize any of his Golisopod's sadly in our games, unlike the final at Marquee! It was a very good experience and I was hoping to still sneak into Top Cut with resistance if results worked out my way. I really enjoyed playing Seb in this round as it highlights to myself why I play the game at all, to have fun and to improve my knowledge of the game.

The Final Standings of Swiss at Athena Games

Top 4: Loss, LWL. VS Seb Symonds - Zoroark/Golisopod

So I managed to squeeze into the Top 4 for the first time, finally breaking the curse and the nickname, Bubble. But once again it was against Seb, which I was hoping to find a bit more luck heading into the round rather than the previous match up we had. Game one I started poorly, I started Giratina, Lunala Prism and it did not really get better from there. Seb was ruthless, every time I tried to set up a Type: Null or Zorua, it was knocked out that turn. So ideally not the best of starts especially when you get paralleled down to three cards on your bench leaving you with Dark-weak Pokémon. Seb took game one convincingly.

Game two went a lot better as I was able to get a T1 Brigette which allowed me to develop my own board state and start taking key KO's onto Seb's Wimpods. Looking back at is I was so nervous during this game because we had everyone staring at the match up as Scott and Bruce finished their game and it was us to decide who was heading into the final game. I can not remember the entire ins and outs of what I played and how I played it due to the adrenaline kicking in once Seb took a prize to go down to two prizes and I was also on two prizes. This was when I had to figure out how I was going to win the game, checking my own discard and thinning my deck down with ultra balls in search of an energy and some puzzles of time. I was able to grab the psychic energy and Silvally GX I needed off of a single trade and it was down to try and find a puzzle of time to use a multi switch and to find a fighting memory. I pulled both with my final act of the game by pulling double puzzle and the fighting memory from my incredibly thin deck to take game 2. 

After that I was not really thinking properly as I do not know still how I managed to pull that game out, it must have just been genuine skill or luck. You can make your mind up! Game 3 started well again but I misplayed pretty much straight away not developing two Type Nulls on my side of the field choosing to Brigette for 3 Zoruas. This showed me once again why Seb is one of the best as he was critically KO'd the only Type: Null on my field and started to strip his way through my Pokémon. He took Game 3 even when it went to time and still had enough turns to take all of his prize cards. Kudos to him as he is a quality player and he showed me at where I want to be come next season.

Final Thoughts

Making my first Top cut was amazing and I would like to thank all of the boys who ventured up with me, they allowed me to feel confidence within my deck and kept me from playing a different deck. Especially with Bruce's bonus tech of the Giratina, personally my MVP of the day. 

I would like to also make a special note to Scot and Seb for three fantastic rounds of Pokémon and I will take a lot away from the experience and develop my game for the next time we cross paths, plus making the day extremely enjoyable from the start right till the end. 

Finally I would not change anything in my deck list at all as everything was perfectly useful today and I was able to be creative with my ideas. This has allowed me to create a deck which possibly could have a place in the current meta, not Top Tier, but definitely an underdog deck. Thank you all of those who have helped me test the list, mainly Timur Yusuf for testing the list at a challenge. I will be writing up a deck profile on the workings of the deck.

Thank you very much for reading and I look forward to seeing you at the next Event!

Charlie

Championship Points
67/250

Marquee Models LC R1 - Seb Symonds Vs Curtis Ayres (Zoroark/Golisopod V ...

Here's Round One of the Marquee Model League Cup:



We travel to Marquee Models, Harlow to record an standard League Cup! The first of the shops history, thank you very much to all the staff who organised such a fantastic event!
This is round 1, featuring a creative idea on an Empoleon deck from Curtis Ayres. It has been paired with Alolan Ninetales to use the Alolan Vulpix's consistency using the attack Beacon and to form a barrier to Ex/Gx Pokémon. Heading up against the Zoroark/Golisopod deck that has taken wins in multiple regionals and cups piloted by the talented Seb Symonds, who is looking to pursue maxing out his Championship Points for the quarter. The standard format allows cards all the way from Breakthrough up to the most recent set, Ultra Prism, to be used for play allowing players to test their skills against some of the already meta formed decks. ROUND 1 - https://youtu.be/G322WoCmbUY ROUND 2 - ROUND 3 - ROUND 4 - ROUND 5 - WAYS TO SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: Twitch - https://www.twitch.tv/thepelipperpost Twitter - https://twitter.com/thepelipperpost?l...
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Marquee Models League Cup Report

Welcome back to The Pelipper Post,

This article is going to include my own report for the tournament, plus the final standings and results from the finished Top 4 and Final. The cup was Best of One (BO1) 30 minute rounds, with a total of five rounds swiss. Overall there were 19 Masters with only 5 Juniors and Seniors, this meant that any of the Jnr/Snr players could play any of the Masters. This was going to be a rather interesting League Cup!

The League Cup was the first one of Marquee Models history, with the shop owing a great thanks to Timur Yusuf and Tom Pead for organising the event as such short notice with the sanctioning of the Cup was very late on in the quarter. It was sold out within two weeks of going on sale, with the competition attracting players from the local league and players from further afield. As a local to the shop it was a fantastic opportunity for us as a collective to show the quality we have within the community that has developed while I first started playing Pokémon. This provided a very good learning curve for many including myself allowing me to improve my knowledge of the game and playing against some good players.

For the cup I decided to take the list I took to Prague with a few additions to the deck that I and Timur Yusuf made to hopefully help add consistency to the list mainly and include one or two techs for the shop meta. The deck was Silvally GX/ Zoroark GX which included psychic type Pokémon that was to help hit for weakness against many of the meta decks and insure there was ideally no bad match ups. Although it has its own weaknesses to fighting-type and dark-type Pokémon, the positives of playing the deck outweighed the negative. The deck was incredibly fun to play and personally was one of the best decks I have played including Lycanroc GX/ Raichu Deck I took to Liverpool Regionals.

First Round: Win Vs Jack Charles - Alolan Exeggutor/Venusaur

This was a game which sadly my opponent dead drew quite frequently off of his top decks and was slow to develop his board state although developing an early Leafeon GX. My set up was quick and effective as I was able to T1 Brigette to start developing a Type: Null with an elixir and an psychic energy attachment to another Null spreading my energy effectively. By T2 I had developed a Zoroark GX and with a mallow in hand I was able to trade into a DCE and a Fire Memory to KO the Leafeon GX stranded in the active position. It was much of the same as my opponent was not able to develop a suitable attacker for the rest of the game and any type of developments in the game they tried to make I was able to Guzma up threats and get out of Sleep due to the hypnosis effect of Eggsecute. Later I found out there was not a single Field Blower in his deck which hindered his development of the game.

Second Round: L Vs Rees Thompson - Zoroark GX/ Lucario GX

This was always going to be a 50/50 game with both players hitting for weakness and was down to see who could set up quickest and take the first KO. Rees was a player who I played against at Sneak Attack Games League Cup when I bubbled below Top Cut with Passimian losing my win and in game. We have spoken quite a lot since then and he was unlucky in that cup to face me when he played Zoroark/Weavile and was unable to get set up Game 1 and 2. This time was different as he had opening hand Brigette to develop his board state and took a T1 KO on a Type Null. I was able to develop a Dawn Wings Necrozma (DWN) but I misplayed not using the GX attack to reduce the chance of a return KO against myself in the later stages of the match up. This allowed Rees to get rolling and completely run through me, meaning i was at a record of 1-1. I was incredibly happy with the game itself as I did not mind losing to Rees and we had a good chat over lunch about the decks themselves. Looking forward to our next match up against each other!

Third Round: W Vs Dominic Brown - Zoroark GX/ Golisopod GX

Similar to the first match up, my opponent although running one of the most consistent decks in the format currently was only able to develop a few bench Pokémon T1. While I started hot and continued into the later rounds drawing every card I needed to dispatch any form of start from my opponents side of play. Any attempt of a Wimpod trying to be set up was guzma'd up and dispatched of by my Silvally's. Very quickly my board state was too far out of the control of my opponent and soon escalated to being able to retrieve the Fire Memory usinig mallow and taking two prizes against a Golisopod GX even though it used Armour Press to reduce the damage it still was enough to take out the fire week attacker. This left me on a 2-1 record, still able to Top Cut if I won my next 2 games.

Fourth Round: W Vs Neil Miller - Aerodactyl

This was a match up I was not looking forward to facing against due the the special energy denial and the 130 hp of a Talonflame allowing the Pokémon to be two shot rather than 1 shot. Due to the heavy Ho-oh Gx meta at the shop on the day, I had teched in an Electric Memory to deal with the hooh players. When Neil turned over his first card it was the Ultra Prism Oranguru it meant I had a very good chance of winning if he was not able to establish another basic due to the need of the set up with Talonflame. After he finished his T1 I developed my board previously as I had gone first and I was able to pull a field blower to knock off the assault vest on the active Oranguru, trade into the Silvally GX and DCE to be able to win the game with a T2 donk. I felt incredibly bad for Neil at this point due to a mix up with results from Round Two meaning he was registered with a loss rather than the win. But thankfully this was not the last time I would be seeing him in tournament play in the next few days!

Fifth Round: L Vs Graeme Miller - Ho-oh GX/ Kiawe

The Ho-oh match up of this deck is not the greatest as if they are able to get a T1 Kiawe off then my deck will struggle to develop much of a board state which is what happened due to the opening Kiawe. Although I was able to take 1 KO with a Silvally GX using Rebel GX, it wasn't enough to stop the quick start of the Ho-oh GX leaving me with no hope of finishing in the T4 that the win would have given me. Although in the prizes I had my Electric memory and 2 of my DCE so it was not looking good for a BO1 game. Kudos to my opponent who played extremely well making the correct decisions due to a Tapu Lele GX start from myself which could have caused a few issues for the Ho-oh with all the fire energy on the card.

This left me with a 3-2 record for the day and missing out on Top Cut by two points and finishing 6th in an unlucky match up at the end. I was extremely happy for the chance to play against some very good players and learn more about the deck I have pursued to develop over the last month. The day was then concluded when Bruce Kelf was able to ensure his place in the final beating Matt Wheat in a Buzzwole GX mirror match. While Seb Symonds was able to dispatch Adam Hawkins in a very close 2-1 game with Seb pulling out a fantastic play to stop Adam gaining his final prize card of the match by KOing the benched Lycanroc GX. In the final, Seb Symonds won with a 2-1 scored against Bruce Kelf in a very exciting few exchanges from the players as Seb ran extremely hot game one with Bruce failing to get a great set up unable to stop the most consistent deck in format. Game two Seb prized both of his Golisopod GX and struggled to take prizes against Bruce. Finally Bruce's set up was not ideal missing many elixirs onto his Buzzwole GX which allowed Seb to actively take the game by taking his six prizes effectively.

Final Standing after Swiss Rounds. 

Overall the success for the tournament for my local shop was fantastic as effectively it provided a great environment to play and develop every players game understanding and with the shop attracting some high profile names, hopefully the only way is up from here for the future of Marquee Models League Cups!

The next League Cup I will be attending is the Athena League Cup in Norwich. There will be a report of the results later in the week.

Thank you for reading and hopefully see you soon at an event nearby!

Charlie