3 Different Events, 3 Different Winning Decks, 3 First-Time Winners!

🖉 Kashvinder Singh Mann | @kashmann27

We had 3 events this past weekend, in three different regions and saw 3 different decks taking the win. And all three winners this weekend were all first time major event winners too!

In the Oceania region, Peter Lo won the Auckland Special Event with Gholdengo ex/Lunatone, beating Keito Arai and his Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex/Froslass deck. 

Over in the European region, Ethan Wilde won the Birmingham Regional with Dragapult ex/Dusknoir, beating the Flareon ex/Noctowl master herself Emma Hagen. 

And finally in the Latin American region, Rajveer Singh gave Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex/Froslass it's first major event win at the Mérida Regional, beating Jesper Eriksen and denying Dragapult ex/Charizard ex a clean sweep in Mérida.

So what ended up doing well this past weekend? Over the course of 3 events, 35 players made Top Cut:

Dragapult and Gardevoir both had the best showing over the weekend, both with 7 players making top cut, followed closely by Gholdengo with 6. Of these Gardevoir players, only one was the Jellicent ex build. After that was 4 Charizard players but that too is mixed, 2 of them being the traditional Pidgeot build with Secret Box as the ace spec and the other 2 being the Dawn Noctowl build. It was a good weekend for Grimmsnarl too, 3 making cut and 2 finals appearances too.

And while we don't have results for Seniors and Junior divisions over in Auckland, it was all Charizard decks winning in the younger division in Birmingham and Mérida. All but one being a Dragapult ex/Charizard win with, the other being Dawn Zard in Juniors over in Birmingham.

On a fun little side note, all of our 2nd place finishers this weekend were the 10th seed going into Top Cut.

Shifts in the Metagame?

Comparing the two Regionals metagame to that of last weekend's Toronto Regional:

Birmingham Metagame compared to Toronto

Merida Metagame compared to Toronto

Gholdengo's number were bound to drop after it's poor performances in Toronto but it was still the most played deck in Birmingham while Dragapult Dusknoir was the most played over in Merida. These two decks are the only variants with a meta-share of two digit number percentage. And as in Toronto, Dawn Zard was the 3rd most played deck.

Both Gardevoir variants were the top 6 most played, and if grouped together, Gardevoir would once again be just the 3rd most played deck. After it's finals placing, Raging Bolt saw a surge in play, going from a 2.21% metashare in Toronto to a 3.38% metashare in Birmingham and 6.01% metashare in Merida, and the 5th most played deck!

Another deck that saw a rise in play was Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex/Froslass, it was the 12th most played in Birmingham at 3.08% from 2.34% in Toronto. It was the 8th most played in Merida at 3.15% metashare, the biggest it's been for a while. 

As for decks with the best win rate with at least 2% metashare, Dragapult/Charizard had a 54.28% win rate in Birmingham and it was Gardevoir for Merida at 52.01%.

Changes in Decklists

The Three Winners

Peter's winning list in Auckland is a much different build to the one Justin played to a Top 8 finish in Toronto, with Peter going for a Prime Catcher build over the Secret Box build. The other big change is the alternate attacker, with Peter choosing to go with the 1-1 Mega Lopunny ex build and also Hop's Cramorant over Mega Mawile ex, Vitality Band and Premium Power Pro in Justin's build. 

Also since he was playing Prime Catcher, he didn't need to play the 4th boss, choosing to play Picnic Basket as his tech choice for decks like Marnie's Grimmsnarl, Gardevoir or Dragapult. He also has the TM Evolution option in case there isn't a good option to take a KO Turn 1 and choosing to instead set up Gholdengo or Mega Lopunny. Peter also has one 50 HP Gimmighoul to grab a Basic and put it straight onto the bench, and that would usually be another Gimmighoul or Genesect ex to get more Gholdengo ex on board.

Ethan's winning list in Birmingham is not that much different to that of Cerys' Top 4 list in Toronto, just 3 cards off each other. Instead of the 3rd Dragapult ex, Dawn and Professor's Research, Ethan went for more consistency cards in the form of 2 Nest Balls and the 3rd Night Stretcher. One thing that does stand out to me is that both lists are still choosing to play Moltres as a strong 1-prize attacking option, as opposed to having Munkidori in that spot.

Rajveer's winning list in Merida is quite different to that of Jordan's 9th place list from Toronto. Instead of the 3rd line of Froslass, he chose to go with a 1-1 Toedscruel line for the Gholdengo matchup which can be tricky for Grimmsnarl. The Psyduck addition helps out with the Dragapult and Charizard matchup. There's also a straight swap of recovery card, with Super Rod preferred over the 3rd Night Stretcher. There are more gusting option with the 3rd Boss's Orders and also the 2nd Counter Catcher with cards like Tatsugiri and Budew not in the list for it.

Rajveer also made Day 2 at Toronto and changed 4 cards from his previous list. The 3rd Boss's Order in place of Iron Bundle as a better gust option. There's also a 4th Munkidori and a Energy Switch over tech cards like Shaymin and Yveltal and the final change being the 3rd Spikemuth Gym in place of the 2nd Nest Ball.

Best of the Rest

First up we have Öjvind's 3rd place list from Birmingham and for starters, the only difference between his and Hermanni's list is a Pidgey and Pal Pad for 2nd Counter Catcher which are two changes reflected here compared to Lucas Xing's 41st place list from Toronto. The 100 HP Charmeleon is preferred by the two Finns over the 2nd 110 HP Charmeleon as is the 80 HP Charmander over the 3rd 70 HP Charmander.

Both Öjvind and Hermanni played the Secret Box build which meant Mesagoza and Defiance Band were automatic inclusions in these lists over stuff like Max Belt and Town Store which go together in the Max Belt build. Some tech choices were cut, that being Shaymin and Moltres in place for Professor Turo's Scenario and Pal Pad, one of the cards that are different from the two Top 4 Birmingham lists as mentioned above.

As for Dawn Zard, not much differences between the highest placing list from this weekend compared to that of Toronto. Stuttgart Regional winner Nicolai's Top 8 list in Birmingham compared to his winning list in Stuttgart was replacing a Pidgey for the Pidgeotto. And compared to Frank's 17th place list from Toronto, it's just a different Pidgeotto and the 4th Nest Ball over the 60 HP Pidgey.

Now onto Gardevoir and comparing Ted's list to Henry's list, there isn't much of a change, with Ted choosing to go for 2 Professor's Research in place of the 4th Lillie's Determination and 2nd Arven. Henry himself ran the same 60 as he did last week and got yet another Top 16 finish over at Merida.

While there weren't much changes to the best placing Gardevoir ex lists, the same can't be said for the top placing Gardevoir ex/Jellicent ex lists. 7 changes in fact! Joseph's build is more focused on consistency over tech choices, choosing to go with a 3rd Ralts, a 2nd Kirlia, a TM Evolution and 2 extra Arven to get his board set up quicker, while forgoing tech choices like the Prof Turo's Scenario, Lillie's Clefairy ex (probably the most interesting cut), Mega Diancie ex, the 3rd Rare Candy and the 4th Lillie's Determination.

There are still some tech choices, Air Balloon is preferred as the retreat option over Latias ex which makes sense for a build with 3 Arvens. Psyduck is also included in the list to deal with stuff like Dragapult ex and Charizard ex, giving up the 3rd Nest Ball for it. Both lists are still playing TM Devolution and Team Rocket's Watchtower as a counter to decks that rely on Pidgeot ex/Noctowl or evolving decks in general.

Top Results for the lesser played decks

First up is yet another deck playing Charizard ex, but with Dragapult ex! Had Jesper won, Pult Zard would have swept the entire Merida weekend. His list is only 3 cards off the best performing Pult Zard list from Toronto that finished 37th but the changes were clearly better. In place of the 2nd Charmeleon and the two Watchtower were Hawlucha, 3rd Boss's Orders and the 4th Ultra Ball. Neddy Kosek was the highest placing Pult Zard in Birmingham and he played the same 60 as Jesper and also made top cut.

Next up we have Mega Box. David’s list has the 2-1 line of Toedscruel to help with the Gholdengo matchup in place of Genesect and the 3rd Munkidori. David also chose to go for 2 Ultra Ball instead of 2 Nest Ball and by far the most interesting inclusion, the 2 Judge for extra disruption and to aid Mega Absol ex’s Claw of Darkness attack. 

But there wasn't just 1 Top 8 finishing Mega Box player, there were 2 and both lists had some standout inclusions. Both players chose to go with the 2-1 Toedscruel line, Town Store and the 4th Boss’s Orders. 2024 World Champion Fernando chose to keep the 3rd Munkidori but also add the 2nd Toedscruel. 

While David went for TM Devolution with Pidgeot decks likely in mind, Fernando went a different direction with Team Rocket’s Watchtower, an interesting choice as his deck does have Mega Kangaskhan ex and Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex. The rest are just consistency booster over techs choices. 

And finally onto Raging Bolt and the list with the most changes of any on here. In fact Justin’s list is one of the more unique builds of Raging Bolt ex, with the inclusion of 4 Lillie’s Determination. It also has 2 Water Energy, 2 Wellspring Ogerpon ex and 4 Energy Switch to pull off Torrential Pump more easily. 

There’s also the inclusion of an old favourite in Squawkabilly ex for early draws and Budew to help buy yourself a turn in the early game or potentially in the late game. Iron Leaves ex is another addition to the list to help out against Charizard ex, N’s Zoroark ex or s way to get out of retreat lock.

What's next?

There is a break in terms of major events for this weekend but the following weekend there will be two regionals. Santiago Regional in Chile for the LA region and Sydney Regional in Australia for the OC region. And the week after that will be the European International that will feature cards from the new Ascended Heroes set.