This weekend on February 10th Gamers Grove held its first ever Pokémon Cup! As newcomers to the Pokémon tournament scene, we at Gamers Grove were extremely excited to be able to host this event. We express great gratitude to the twenty-three players who played with us and hope to see you all at our next League Challenge!
Winning List
In first place we have Giratina Lost Box! A staple of the competitive scene, the Lost Box archetype is all about getting your own cards into the Lost Zone so that you can activate Cramorant, Sableye, and Giratina’s special abilities and attacks. These abilities are way stronger than they should be but you must meet a threshold of Lost cards to use them.
Giratina Lost Box - 1st Place
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Pokémon 4 Comfey (LOR) 3 Giratina V (LOR) 3 Giratina VSTAR (LOR) 2 Sableye (LOR) 1 Cramorant (LOR) 1 Manaphy (GG) 1 Spiritomb (PAL) 1 Radiant Greninja (ASR) |
Trainer Cards 4 Colress's Experiment 4 Mirage Gate 4 Path to the Peak 4 Switch 3 Battle VIP Pass 2 Lost Vacuum 2 Nest Ball 2 Super Rod 2 Pokegear 3.0 1 Boss's Orders 1 Counter Catcher 1 Roxanne
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Energy 5 Grass Energy 5 Psychic Energy 2 Water Energy 2 Jet Energy |
The winning list breaks from the norm and runs 4 Path to the Peak instead of the typical 2-3. It’s safe to say that the pilot expected to see a lot of Charizard and it appears they made the right call! Charizard EX was in 26% of the lists at our event so the extra Path to the Peaks was a great investment.
Importantly, Giratina is not run in every version of Lost Box. A month or two ago lists were more about being single-prize and less involved with running 2-prize Pokémon. However, with the increase in popularity of Charizard and Roaring Moon, Giratina’s one-shot KO ability is more valuable than ever.
Runner-Up
In second place we had the great fire-lizard himself, Charizard EX! One of the more popular decks, competing with Lost Box, is the Charizard deck that was birthed with Obsidian Flames last year. The game-plan is simple: power out a Charizard EX as fast as possible and use his highly efficient attacks and massive health pool to close out a game. Charizard grabs 3 energy to put on the field for free (unless your opponent has a Path to the Peak in play…) but only requires 2 to attack so you can use that 1 leftover to power up a good secondary attacker on your bench!
Charizard - 2nd Place
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Pokemon 3 Charizard EX (OBF) 2 Pidgey (MEW) 2 Pidgeot EX (OBF) 2 Charmander (OBF) 2 Charmander (PAF) 2 Charmeleon (PAF) 1 Lumineon V (CRZ) 1 Manaphy (BRS) 1 Radiant Charizard (CRZ) 1 Entei V (BRS) 1 Jirachi (PAR)
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Trainer Cards 4 Battle VIP Pass 4 Rare Candy 4 Ultra Ball 3 Iono 3 Boss's Orders 3 Arven 2 Super Rod 2 Switch 2 Nest Ball 2 Lost Vacuum 2 Artazon 1 Counter Catcher 1 TM: Devolution 1 Forest Seal Stone 1 Choice Belt 1 Professor's Research |
Energy 6 Fire Energy |
This Charizard player came prepared for the mirror match with a single copy of TM: Devolution in their deck. One copy of a card may not seem like a lot but remember, Arven can fetch it out of the deck! TM: Devolution is one of the best tech cards against Charizard so it’s very interesting to see a ‘Zard deck running it for the mirror. As mentioned above, Charizard was by far the most popular list in the room so this was a fantastic meta call from our runner-up.
Another ‘Cool’ List
In 9th place we have a super sweet deck built around Tsareena EX, Vanilluxe, and Panic Mask. With that combination of cards, you can make sure your opponent’s best attackers can’t damage your Pokémon! This works because Tsareena can set opposing Pokémon to 30hp and then Mask and Vanilluxe prevent damage from Pokémon with less than 40hp. The deck can be super tricky to set up but that didn’t stop this player from carving through the tournament and landing just outside the top 8.
Tsareena - Vanilluxe Combo - 9th Place
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Pokemon 3 Tsareena EX (PAR) 3 Bouncesweet (PAR) 2 Vanillite (PAR) 2 Vanilluxe (PAR) 2 Bidoof (CRZ) 2 Bibarel (BRS) 1 Manaphy (BRS) 1 Steenee (PAR) 1 Rufflet (ASR) 1 Hisuian Braviary (SIT) 1 Jirachi (PAR) 1 Elekid (PAR) |
Trainer Cards 4 Ultra Ball 4 Rare Candy 4 Irida 3 Level Ball 2 Panic Mask 2 Iono 2 Artazon 2 Arven 1 Switch 1 Lost Vacuum 1 Pokegear 3.0 1 Boss's Orders 1 Energy Search 1 Cheryl 1 Hisuian Heavy Ball 1 Super Rod |
Energy 9 Grass Energy |
On top of the cool lock-you-out-of-the-game plan, this deck was also a great choice into a field of Charizard. Tsareena’s attacks are grass type, one of the only types good at taking down big dark Pokémon like Charizard EX.
Wrapping Up
That’s it for this Cup! Thanks again to all the players and our judge Ace who absolutely killed it. Remember to keep a lookout on our calendar for upcoming Challenges and Cups! Thanks for reading and, until next time, we’ll see you at the Grove.
