League Cup Statistics: January 18-19, 2020

✎ Tate Whitesell (@twhitesell42) 

Click to view rankings + statistics Google doc 
(You can always view the current week's rankings and statistics at the Weekly Cup Data tab, and can check back on previous weeks with the archive.)

Notes

• Mewtwo & Mew-GX Toolbox is back on top, after dominating the rankings earlier on in this format before briefly surrending the #1 spot to Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX and then Malamar. Mewtwo & Mew-GX's consistency, flexibility, and fairly high skill level have ensured that it's remained a top-three deck in the rankings for basically this entire format, as well as the previous one. It's worth noting that MewMew gained 172 CP (38.83% of its total in this sample) from a single Cup in Australia, where players such as Matthew Burris, Jack Millar, and Brent Tonisson--some of the best-known MewMew players in the world--all took it into Top 8.
• Malamar dropped a spot to #2 but was still a very strong play. This weekend's Cup attendees no doubt took into account the explosion of Blacephalon UNB variants at the recent Bochum Regionals, and made their deck choice accordingly. Malamar is known as having perhaps the strongest matchup of any meta deck against both Blacephalon UNB variants, while also having a good chance against Mewtwo & Mew-GX. 
• Interestingly, after dropping seven spots in the previous week's rankings and apparently surrendering the title of "best ADP variant" to the Bird Trio build, ADP/Keldeo-GX has shot back up to the #3 spot this week. Perhaps the novelty of ADP/Bird Trio has worn off a bit and some players have decided the older variant is better; perhaps Keldeo-GX was a specific meta call that paid off at a variety of Cups this weekend; or perhaps it is just random variance, as there was only a 43-CP difference between the Keldeo-GX and Bird Trio builds in the rankings.
• Coming off that surprisingly dominant Bochum performance (Stéphane Ivanoff's Green's Exploration build defeated Brennan Kamerman's Pidgeotto build in the finals), both variants of Blacephalon UNB moved up several spots from the previous week's rankings. The Green's Exploration build was technically ahead of the Pidgeotto build--but only by a tiny 3-CP difference! While the Green's build does offer slightly improved matchups against Mewtwo & Mew-GX, Malamar, and ADP/Bird Trio (decks that could pick off Pidgeotto with spread damage), I think it is a bit harder to play optimally (due to the need to constantly think several turns ahead and build one's hand with Green's), so perhaps some players simply fell back on what they were comfortable with and still succeeded with the Pidgeotto version. 
• Garchomp & Giratina-GX/Roxie saw a bit less success than it had in the previous couple of weeks. This is one trend that could explain the revival of ADP/Keldeo-GX, since Keldeo-GX plus Chaotic Swell is pretty difficult for the TinaChomp deck to handle. 
• This is the first time in several weeks that control/stall archetypes did not perform particularly well. Oranguru/Pidgeotto Control fell out of the top ten for the first time in nearly a month, while Doll Stall had only a single placement in the sample. While I don't necessarily think people hard-countered control/stall this week, Mewtwo & Mew-GX, Malamar, and Blacephalon UNB/Pidgeotto can all be rough matchups, so that is likely a big part of why those archetypes didn't succeed. 
• There was only one Expanded Cup in this week's sample, so that's not really worth talking about. Nothing unexpected: two Archie's Blastoise, a Zoroark-GX/Garbodor, and an Ultra Necrozma/Octillery. 

BLW-CEC League Cup Results Entering Dallas Regionals

✎ Tate Whitesell (@twhitesell42) / Luke Morsa (@Celios_Network) / Kiernan Wagner (@KiernanWagner)

Click to view rankings + statistics Google doc 
(You can always view the current week's rankings and statistics at the Weekly Cup Data tab, and can check back on previous weeks with the archive.)

This data sample covers every BLW-CEC League Cup in our database so far. This should be considered the definitive statistical content source for preparing for this weekend's Dallas Regional Championships.

Our metagame analysts Luke Morsa and Kiernan Wagner have compiled some notes on the top-ranked decks in the sample.

Turbo Dark
Dark amassed a whopping 865 CP at these Cups, putting it almost 300 points ahead of the second-ranked deck. This should come as no surprise, given the multitude of factors surrounding this deck's success; its low skill ceiling and inexpensiveness to build, combined with its immaculate matchup spread--concerning the more popular decks--make for a serious contender. I think the deck's only truly bad matchups are Fighting decks, Shock Lock, and a good Mewtwo & Mew-GX player--and considering the under-representation of the former two, along with the difficulty of playing MewMew, Turbo Dark is likely the “safest” pick for Dallas. -Kiernan

Mewtwo & Mew-GX 
“KiernyBox” showed up in high numbers at the start of many of the cup marathons, only to falter when Turbo Dark established dominance. But a little retooling quickly shifted the Turbo Dark matchup back to favorable, at least for a skilled MewMew player. The deck remains extremely under-respected, despite taking a slightly favored Turbo Dark matchup, overwhelmingly positive matchups against Zoroark-GX/Garbodor and Ultra Necrozma variants, while also being one of the few decks to naturally take a favorable matchup versus both Rowlet & Alolan Exeggutor-GX and Shock Lock, without including specific techs. Much of the CP that MewMew earned (586 in total) was attributed to a relatively small number of players. The deck is very difficult to play properly, and the lack of respect for it often comes from players under-utilizing the plethora of options it offers, but those who played it and took time to learn it were rewarded fruitfully. If you’re willing to put the time in to learn this complicated beast, I think it currently sits as one of the best possible plays for Dallas. -Kiernan

Zoroark-GX/Garbodor
ZoroGarb is still alive and kicking, garnering a number 3 spot in these CP rankings. It is still a strong option because of comfort, consistency, and tech options. Players may stick with ZoroGarb due to the consistency of Zoroark-GX and the power of shutting your opponents’ Abilities down with Garbotoxin. ZoroGarb is notorious for not having many autowin or autoloss matchups; rather, it will usually be able to adapt to the meta and have many close matchups that come down to tech cards and player skill. This is appealing to players of higher skill who are comfortable with the deck. ZoroGarb will undoubtedly have a presence at Dallas, and if it follows the Cup data trend, it should be fairly successful. -Luke

Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX
Gardeon saw some play in Expanded in the BLW-UNB format, which was played at Cups during the Origins SPE week in the summer of 2019. It then became cemented as a top-tier Expanded archetype when Drew Cate took it to Top 4 at Richmond Regionals. and the deck earned two more Top 8 placements at the following Portland Regionals. Since then, the deck has gained Mega Lopunny & Jigglypuff-GX, which is a huge asset for dealing with aggressive GX decks like Turbo Dark and Pikachu & Zekrom-GX. Gardeon is typically paired with Aromatisse and healing cards to constantly move Energy around and heal, which allows the deck to tank attacks over and over again. Magical Miracle GX is one of the easiest ways to completely strip an opponent's hand, which is another strong attribute of this archetype. Gardeon is a unique deck in Expanded and it has a strong matchup versus any single-Prize-attacker deck that struggles to one-shot Gardeon. -Luke

Ultra Necrozma/Garbodor
Ultra Necrozma has been one of the most hyped cards for the new format, and it does have some solid Cup performances to back up that hype. The biggest question when it comes to this deck has been: is Garbodor the correct partner for Ultra Necrozma? Garbotoxin is obviously a very powerful Ability, but playing a build of the deck with Octillery and Alolan Muk allows the Ultra Necrozma player to have on-board draw support to increase consistency and avoid bricking off N. We expect this archetype to be popular in Dallas; its success will likely depend on whether players develop an optimized list. -Luke

Lucario-GX
Lucario was a deck brought back seemingly from the dead by our team, Gentlemen & Scholars, following Turbo Dark’s re-establishment as the BDIF. Despite being built as a hard counter to Turbo Dark, the deck also takes favorable matchups to many other top-tier decks, including Zoroark-GX/Garbodor, Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX, Shock Lock, Rowlet & Alolan Exeggutor-GX, and Night March, while taking approximately a 50-50 against Ultra Necrozma. Almost every matchup you will see except for Mewtwo & Mew-GX is workable, and while the deck is somewhat of a gutsy call if you expect MewMew to be highly played, the neutral-to-favorable matchups it enjoys otherwise make it a potential bombshell and title contender in the hands of a decent player. -Kiernan

Shock Lock
Shock Lock is a constant threat at any Expanded event, though in limited numbers due to the restrictive nature of any deck that requires four Tropical Beach. Few decks are capable of beating Shock Lock without hard-teching for it, and the worth of teching for a deck that will be represented by only a small handful of players is usually not worth it for most competitors. This archetype primarily fears Zoroark-GX/Garbodor, although Lucario-GX and Mewtwo & Mew-GX can also be sketchy matchups, and even some Turbo Dark lists can beat it via a combination of Weavile-GX, Mega Sableye & Tyranitar-GX, and possibly an Escape Rope. I believe if you want to win Dallas Regionals, you should have some kind of game plan for Shock Lock. -Kiernan

Rowlet & Alolan Exeggutor-GX
EggRow sits in a funny place in the format. On its own, it isn’t really a great deck. Its slow setup, clunkiness, and low damage output make the deck much worse on paper than most of the others in the format, it becomes a very serious threat--this is what happened when JW Kriewall took it to first place at Richmond Regionals. The deck's main selling points are Item lock, Faba, and Vileplume BUS for shutting down Basic decks that do not play a counter. Currently, almost all Turbo Dark lists are playing Weavile-GX, so Turbo Dark should still be favored against EggRow, and Mewtwo & Mew-GX, Zoroark-GX/Garbodor, Ultra Necrozma/Garbodor, Lucario-GX, and Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX all have ways to beat it as well, often with ease. The deck feels like a very poor play for Dallas just given its matchup spread, but the church of EggRow tends to have devout followers, so the deck deserves some amount of respect going into the weekend. -Kiernan

Pikachu & Zekrom-GX
Pikachu & Zekrom-GX is a very solid deck but was almost forgotten about for this format. It did not see much play or success in this Cup sample, but we believe it is probably the most under-the-radar play for Dallas. -Luke

Night March
Night March is another deck that has fallen off somewhat due to new archetypes or improvements to old archetypes, but it still had some decent Cup performances, including a Top 4 finish under Michael Pramawat. While it can trade favorably against most GX-based decks, the archetype is susceptible to Item lock, Special Energy lock, and even Ability lock on turn one or after a late-game N. -Luke

League Cup Statistics: January 11-12, 2020

✎ Tate Whitesell (@twhitesell42) 

Click to view rankings + statistics Google doc 
(You can always view the current week's rankings and statistics at the Weekly Cup Data tab, and can check back on previous weeks with the archive.)

Notes

• If you're wondering why we haven't been publishing Expanded results for the past few weeks, it's on its way soon. Tomorrow or early Wednesday we will be publishing our complete BLW-CEC Expanded League Cup statistics, just in time for Dallas Regionals. 
• Malamar is back on top! After Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX was the #1 deck last weekend, it was interesting to see it take a backseat to two archetypes with historically subpar Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX matchups--Malamar and Mewtwo & Mew-GX Toolbox. Malamar probably succeeded because of the sizable increase in both Blacephalon-GX/Naganadel and Blacephalon UNB decks this weekend, as well as having other favorable matchups such as Mewtwo & Mew-GX still prominent in the metagame.
• Those Blacephalon decks were really out in full force this weekend, and last weekend's meta of Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX and Mewtwo & Mew-GX is to blame for that. We saw Stéphane Ivanoff win Bochum Regionals with the Green's Exploration build of Blacephalon UNB, which is stronger in the Mewtwo & Mew-GX and Malamar matchups since damage spread is not a reliable way to beat it. Other players at Cups still succeeded with the Pidgeotto version. "Big Blacephalon" was also a top deck this weekend, in fact the most notable climber in the rankings (up from #12 to #5). 
• The #2 and #3 decks held strong from the previous week. Last week's #1 dropped down to #4. 
• Another notable drop was ADP/Keldeo-GX down four spots to #10 as even more players opted for the Bird Trio variant of ADP instead of the Keldeo-GX build. We also saw a decrease in "rogue" ADP variants (such as with Buzzwole & Pheromosa-GX or Quagsire) from the previous weekend. 
• In fact, rogue decks in general didn't have as strong a showing as in the previous week. Quagsire, Excadrill, Whimsicott-GX, Raichu, and others all made up 0% of this sample after earning at least a few CP in the previous one. 
• We're continuing to distinguish between the Roxie/Weezing and no-Roxie variants of Giratina & Garchomp-GX/Mismagius, in keeping with our previous decisions to separate variants of decks like Blacephalon UNB or Reshiram & Charizard-GX. With that in mind, it now seems clear the Roxie build is the one preferred by most players, as it stayed in basically the same position in the meta as last week while the no-Roxie build dropped eight spots in the rankings. 
• Control is still proving it can win Cups if it isn't respected. This is the third straight week Oranguru/Pidgeotto Control has ranked in the top seven; Doll Stall actually hopped up another spot from the previous week; and we even saw some rogue control archetypes such as a Trevenant & Dusknoir-GX/Pidgeotto deck. 

League Cup Statistics: January 1-5, 2020

✎ Tate Whitesell (@twhitesell42) / Alec Geissler (@geisslertcg)

Click to view rankings + statistics Google doc 
(You can always view the current week's rankings and statistics at the Weekly Cup Data tab, and can check back on previous weeks with the archive.)

Tate's notes

Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX feasted on all
the ADP being played this week and
returned to #1 in the rankings.

• Expanded results for this weekend have not been tallied yet, but Luke Morsa and I will have an article coming out a few days before Dallas Regionals using data from every BLW-CEC cup we have.
• Pretty diverse metagame in this sample! 30 different decks earned CP. 
• The most notable jump was ADP/Bird Trio, up 7 spots from 10th to 3rd. 
• The most notable drop was Charizard & Braixen-GX, down 6 spots from 7th to 13th. 
• ADP/Bird Trio outperformed ADP/Keldeo-GX for the first time. I am not yet sure if this is just because people wanted to play something new and shiny, or if ADP/Bird Trio is actually a better deck. Regardless, the high frequency of ADP was probably one reason Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX was #1 this week, especially if a lot of ADP players neglected to tech Lucario & Melmetal-GX.
• ...speaking of Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX, this is the first time it has been the #1 deck in the weekly rankings since October 12-13 of last year.
• The Roxie variant of Garchomp & Giratina-GX/Mismagius leapfrogged its Roxie-less counterpart since the previous sample, and it appears to be the superior build of the deck.
• 14 different archetypes won Cups in this sample. The deck with the most wins in this sample was Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX, with 7. Next up were ADP/Bird Trio and Mewtwo & Mew-GX Toolbox with 4 wins apiece.
• It might be wise to prepare for stall/control decks next weekend. Doll Stall made a noticeable return this weekend, and Pidgeotto Control has been a top-7 deck for two weeks straight. 

Thanks to everyone who submitted results for the first weekend of our Event Results Reporting Facebook group. Almost everything was done properly, and it made compiling the stats pretty painless for me and the team. Glad to see the group has been a success so far.

Next up: myself, Kashvinder Singh Mann, and Erik Arts will be working to fill in the gaps on our Cup statistics since we missed a few weeks towards the end of last year; Luke and I will have that Dallas article out soon; and expect to see some news from myself and Erin Palmer on some really cool new plans we have for PokéStats this year. Happy 2020 everyone!


Alec's notes
Hey guys! My name is Alec Geissler, I’ve been working with PokéStats since Tate reached out for help with the site, and today I am bringing you guys a short writeup of how the Cup data looked the past week and why some of the decks succeeded over others. Let’s just jump right in! 

• Gardevoir and Sylveon-GX, otherwise known as Gardeon, came in at the number 1 spot netting 1060 CP in total. I was very shocked that Gardeon earned as much as it did, to be honest. With some areas seeing an increase in Pidgeotto Control, Gardeon would naturally see a decline in success. Despite this, Gardeon players apparently decided it was fine to just take a loss to Pidgeotto this weekend. Notably, we saw Riley Hulbert pilot Gardeon to a first place out of 64 masters in a field that was about 10% Pidgeotto players (myself included). Gardeon has a good matchup spread, but it can be shaky versus Mewtwo & Mew-GX if MewMew runs out to it. 
• Speaking of MewMew, I am still sold on it being the best deck in the format and I would consider it the best play for any event unless I expect to run into three or more Malamar. The deck's power, consistency, and flexibility is why it came in at 2nd place in these rankings, netting 790 CP. (That’s still a very big jump from Gardeon's 1060 CP, which quite frankly shocked me.) 
• I don’t fully see the appeal of the new ADP/Bird Trio deck. This deck’s engine is based off Victini from Unified Minds, which serves as a quick way to power up the deck's big Tag Team attackers. The option to use Sky Legends GX instead of Altered Creation GX gives this deck some alternative routes to winning compared to the older Keldeo-GX variant, but I am not sure it is the stronger variant. This deck came in at 3rd netting 661 CP, which again surprised me, but people were probably excited to test-drive a new archetype in this fairly stale format. 
• Psychic Recharge: two of my favorite words in the Standard format. Malamar has been a go-to deck for me when I've been lost on what to play, since the deck has a lot of options due to the variety of attackers you can build around. Malamar is the best non-GX deck in the format just because Giratina is such an excellent card. Netting 555 CP this weekend, Malamar should continue to see play going into Bochum Regionals. 
• There was some debate as to whether we should separate the Roxie variant of the TinaChomp archetype from the Roxie-less variant, and I vouched for it being separate so we could compare the the CP count of each. This is one of the strongest decks in the format but also one of the hardest to play. Both TinaChomp builds combined for over 800 CP this weekend, which, as Stéphane Ivanoff pointed out, would put it in 2nd place if we hadn't listed the two separately. 

One Week Til Worlds: Analyzing BKT-CST Tournaments

🖉 Tate Whitesell | @twhitesell42

We are now well into exploring the penultimate format of the 2017-18 season: BREAKthrough-Celestial Storm. With the 2018 World Championships just days away in sunny Nashville, Tennessee, players are hard at work trying to define the format and find that "broken" deck.

We've now had three major tournaments or groups of tournaments in this format: the 2018 ARG Invitational; a Team Win and In PTCGO tournament; and the August 18-19 weekend of League Cups. In this article, I'm going to break down the results of each of those.

Disclaimer: I'm not going to attempt to make concrete predictions about the Worlds metagame. That is best left to players with more experience and skill than myself. Rather, this article (and the links herein) is a resource that compiles results and statistics from recent tournaments, so that you can do your own research and come to a conclusion on what's "the play" for Worlds. 

ARG Invitational
Winning deck: Zoroark-GX Control
Top 16 deck breakdown:

• 5 Zoroark-GX/Garbodor
• 3 Rayquaza-GX
• 2 Buzzwole/Lycanroc-GX
• 2 Zoroark-GX Control
• 1 Buzzwole FLI/Garbodor/Shrine of Memories
• 1 Gardevoir-GX
• 1 Naganadel-GX/Stakataka-GX
• 1 Zoroark-GX/Counters/Magcargo

Coming off its win at the 2018 NAIC, Zoroark-GX/Garbodor continued to see success at the Invitational. All of the ARG lists cut the Kartana-GX that NAIC champion Stéphane Ivanoff used, and three of the five included an Oranguru UPR.

Speaking of Oranguru, Zoroark-GX Control, the Zoroark-GX/Oranguru/disruption deck used by Tord Reklev to reach the NAIC finals, took an early position as the "deck to beat" in this format, with the ARG finals featuring a Zoroark-GX Control mirror match. New lists for this archetype are including Magcargo CST, and some include multiple Crushing Hammer and/or a second Oranguru. However, as we will see in the rest of this article, the deck did not stay atop the format for long.

We saw three Rayquaza-GX decks in Top 16, each constructed slightly differently - mainly regarding the Tool cards used. One played Wishful Baton; one played Fighting Fury Belt; and one played a split of Wishful Baton and Choice Band. None of the Rayquaza-GX decks advanced to Top 8.

ARG also introduced us to the Buzzwole FLI/Garbodor/Shrine of Punishment/Rainbow Energy archtype. The deck plays no EX or GX Pokémon and relies on building up damage with Buzzwole and Shrine, forcing the opponent to devote resources to taking six Prizes while "on the clock" due to Shrine damage, and cleaning up with Trashalanche. As we will see, this deck took off somewhat at last weekend's Cups and could play a key role in the format during Worlds.

Both Buzzwole/Lycanroc-GX decks in Top 16 advanced to Top 4, where both lost to Zoroark-GX Control.


Team Win and In
Total attendance: 232 players

Team Win and In asked me to crunch the numbers on the metagame of their latest tournament. Here's the link to the complete metagame analysis, but below I'll show the most-played archetypes:

While many players took note of Zoroark-GX Control's Invitational performance and brought the deck to the Win and In tournament, we now see that a new deck has arisen to counter it: Buzzwole/Lycanroc-GX. Zoroark-GX/Garbodor is also considered by at least some players to have a favorable Control matchup. The meta evolved rapidly in the span of a single week to the point where Control was no longer the "top deck."

Malamar decks were nonexistent in ARG's Top 16 but saw a fair amount of play in this event.

Rayquaza-GX decks were highly played, with the straight "turbo" version being the most common, followed by the version including Garbodor BPT.

Zoroark-GX/Lycanroc-GX is another deck that can go head-to-head with the Control variant, especially with new lists playing few or zero Strong Energy to avoid being disrupted by Enhanced Hammer.

As of the time of this event, Gardevoir-GX and Greninja BREAK also appear to remain as lower-tier but still viable contenders for Worlds.


August 18-19 League Cups
Cups in sample: Ten, 9 with a Top 8 cut and 1 with a Top 4 cut, from five countries. This is on the small end for our Cup samples, but enough CP were tallied that the results are statistically significant.

Click here to view the complete rankings from this Cup sample.

This meta looks similar to the one from the Win & In tournament, with one change: Zoroark-GX Control is even further down the list -- in fact, outside the top 10 CP-earning archetypes.

Buzzwole/Lycanroc-GX and Zoroark-GX/Garbodor are the two best decks in this sample and it isn't particularly close. However, we see the rise of a couple of new or resurgent archetypes in the aforementioned Buzzwole FLI/Garbodor/Shrine as well as Zoroark-GX/Gardevoir-GX. North America Top 16 players Azul Garcia Griego and Rahul Reddy both brought the latter deck to Cups.


I hope that the information provided in this post and all the resources I linked to are helpful to anyone still choosing a deck for Worlds or the Nashville Open. Please contact me on Twitter @twhitesell42, @PokeStats_TCG, or on Facebook if you have questions about the data I've collected or just want to hear more of my thoughts on the metagame.  

League Cup List Roundup: Feb 3-4, 2018

In our most recent League Cup sample, covering February 3-4, VikaBulu took 20.43% of the sample's CP to become the #1 deck in the rankings. While it won only 2 of the 14 Standard Cups in the sample, it took many 2nd-place and Top 4 finishes, making it appear to be a strong contender as we head towards the end of Quarter 2 and the last weekend of Cups before Ultra Prism is legal.

VikaBulu lists from a few weeks ago, modeled after KicaBulu, took a bad matchup to Gardevoir-GX, which at that time was not heavily played. Now, Gardevoir is seeing more play: it was the #3 deck in last weekend's sample, with 13.26% of the total CP. For this reason, many of the newest VikaBulu lists are reverting to the older, techier concepts that are able to beat Gardevoir.

Another deck to watch would be Buzzwole-GX/Garbodor. Several good players chose to play it at their Cups and Marc Lutz took 3rd place at Leipzig Regionals with a version that played Carbink BREAK.

Regardless of your deck choice, you'll probably need to know how to handle matchups against those decks, Buzzwole-GX/Lycanroc (#2 in the sample) and, of course, Zoroark-GX decks if you're playing a Cup this coming weekend. Here are some of the most interesting lists we've compiled from last weekend to give you a few ideas of potential plays, or just to scout the potential competition:

Nathaniel Lamar, 1st place Dublin, OH - VikaBulu

Note the Charjabug and unusual 8-4 Energy split. The list also plays Brigette (KicaBulu does not), and the 3 Field Blower should also be a good choice for next weekend as Garbodor decks continue to maintain presence in the format.

Ryan Ferry, Top 4 Dublin, OH - Buzzwole-GX/Garbodor

R1: W Vikabulu 1-0 - Garbotoxin is good. Early pressure with Buzzwole was nice too. Vikabulu's spike in usage at cups is one of the reasons I wanted to play Buzzwole Garb.

R2: L ZoroPod 0-1 - Laid bricks the whole game, highlight of this game was using Sudowoodo to armor press and get more than 1 turn of usage out of Sudowoodo.

R3: W Greninja Zoroark 1-0 - Garbotoxin once again saves this matchup for me. He only got out one break and not being able to trade for a majority of the game hurt him a lot.

R4: L Gardy 0-1 - He got out 2 Gardys turn 2 and I couldn't hit float stones to lock abilities until too late. Was so upset about this one, because Gardy can be an amazing matchup if you don't brick, I almost dropped thinking I was mathematically eliminated, but I decided to play it out because Josh and Nate were doing so well and figured I'd have nothing else to do lol.

R5: W Sylveon/Zoroark (Owen Rob) 1-0 - Very interesting deck, being able to lock trade all game was great. Buzzwole and Trashalanche swept through. Enhanced Hammer is great.

R6: W Honchkrow Tapu Koko Counter Energy Spread (Steve Guthrie Jr.) - Garbotoxin early and Trashalanche late kept Steve from setting up too quickly. Single prize exchanges late game made this game significantly easier. Forced me to think a LOT about when to KO things and letting Steve KO a buzzwole first to slow down his counter energy usage helped me a lot, along with him not drawing so great.

Squeaked into Top 8 by a little over 1%!!!

T8: W Gardy 2-1 - Austin Ellis has been consistently doing very well at regionals this season and is a very, very good player. I knew I'd have to play well and get kind of lucky to get out of top 8 against him with the win. Trashalanche took the game with a choice band he N'ed me into, because he didn't twilight in game 3 and had exactly 10 items in discard. He got off to kind of a slow start, letting Buzzwole apply pressure early as well.

T4: L VikaBulu - Game 1 was a disaster for me. Deck basically imploded. Not much noteworthy here. Game 2 was a lot closer. I got down 6-2, and got the trashalanche Garbotoxin combo out, making life a lot harder for Nathaniel Lamar. Tied the game up at 2-2, and Special charged 2 rainbows back in before sycamoring, needing a choice band and a rainbow to take the win with 2nd trashalanche. Hit the band, didn't hit the energy. Nate advances and goes on to win!

I now understand when certain players after they do well at an event say they "Will never play that deck again." Playing this deck when all cylinders are firing, it's amazing and not much can beat it. When it bricks, you just kind of sit there doing nothing, and that's a really really bad feeling. This deck had it's ups and downs and if not for barely squeaking into top 8, I'd have a completely different attitude about the day on an individual level. Garbodor decks have now gotten me over half my CP and I'm not sure how I feel about that lol. If you have any questions, don't be afraid to hit me up!

Joshua Sutherland, Top 8 Dublin, OH - Greninja BREAK

Enrique Ochoa, 2nd place Spokane, WA - Silvally-GX/Metal

"Mewtwo was for Buzzwole (which I never played), Kartana was eh, Cobalion was MVP, and never had to use the Memory cards. I would have liked more metal energy and maybe an Oranguru"

Charlie Lockyer, 1st place Lancaster, PA - VikaBulu

Jeremy Sussman, Top 8 Lancaster, PA - VikaBulu

League Cup Decklist Roundup: December 9-10, 2017

Here are the decklists PokéStats has collected from League Cups over the past weekend.

Buzzwole-GX/Lycanroc-GX

Brandon Mesimer - Top 4

Notable aspects: Mew FCO

Player notes:

• "Mew is good for the mirror, the list definitely needs an Acerola though. Mewtwo EVO takes a DCE to get powered up; I like Mew because it can use Buzzwole's and Zygarde's attacks." 
• Matchups:
• "R1 Gardy W 
  R2 Buzzwole L
  R3 Volcanion L 
  R4 Silvally/Metal W 
  R5 DeciZoro W 
  T8 Bulu WLW 
  T4 Volc LL"
• "I like the deck but volcanion is definitely a tough matchup"
• On Zygarde-EX: "I used it maybe one to two times throughout the day, after playing it today I would add another Regirock-EX, 4th Guzma, or an Acerola over the Zygarde"
• "Sudowoodo was clutch, good in the Gardy matchup and can be used against Bulu and other decks"

Decidueye-GX/Zoroark

Evan Campbell - Top 8

Notable aspects: 3 Evosoda, 2 Grass Energy

Ryan Ferry - Top 8

Notable aspects: Mewtwo EVO, 2 Max Potion

Player notes:

• "List is pretty tight, so not much room to get too techy, but, Buzzwole is hard because it puts on so much early pressure. Lost in top 8 to SHADOWSTITCHSHADOWSTITCHSHADOWSTITCHSHADOWSTITCH"
• On Evosoda: "it serves a lot of utility in that you have many targets for it, and resources are valuable, so you don’t want to always use ultra ball to grab the Evolutions when you have some pop in your hand"
• "I’ve found space is a huge issue with the deck because of the number of moving pieces involved. Would highly recommend Special charge because Enhanced Hammer exists. CB is amazing in certain matchups, but, we have Hollow Hunt as an option as well, so we can get one of those back if need be, so I didn’t feel the need for 3."
• "I like baby Zoroark because it can give you an option to get heavy things out of the Active along with an efficient attack that even if it doesn't take KOs, can put on good chip damage for future KOs, and help force the 7 prize game. Mewtwo was not used for anything other than Buzzwole, but Buzzwole is a very hard matchup, so I will take what I can get in terms of what can help me out in that one."
• "Buzzwole has to overextend to one shot [Mewtwo], or you're forcing them to use the Guzma on other stuff. 70 [Mr. Mime's HP] is super easy for Buzzwole to hit with just 1-2 Energies"

Gardevoir-GX/Sylveon-GX

Nolan Randall - Top 4

Empty sleeves? Second Parallel City and second Psychic-type Ralts
Notable aspects: 2/2 Ralts split, 2 Parallel City

Player notes:

• "My teammate Draydon Davis who helped me with the list got 5th place, the only difference between our lists being a Zoroark GX line instead of an Octillery line. The blank sleeves are a 2nd Parallel, as well as 2 Psychic Ralts. The reasoning behind playing Sylveon instead of Max Potions was because we expected a decent amount of DeciZoro as well as Lycanroc/Buzzwole, and it also helps make Metagross much more winnable."
• Matchups:
• "R1: Zoroark/Lycanroc Win 1-0
• R2: Drampa/Espeon/Garb Loss 1-1
• R3: Decidueye/Zoroark Win 2-1
• R4: Brokenvoir Win 3-1 
• R5: Vikavolt/Bulu Loss 3-2 
• R6: Golisopod/Zoroark Win 4-2 
• Top Cut:
• R1: Metagross/Zoroark 2/1/0 Win
• R2: Golisopod/Zoroark 0/2/0 Loss"

Gourgeist

Gibson Archer-Tang - Top 8

What's the glare over? 2 Zoroark-GX and a second Zorua SHL
Notable aspects: 1-1 Octillery and 2-2 Zoroark-GX, 1-1 Garbotoxin, Counter Catcher, Nest Ball, 4-3 Gourgeist, "only" 13 Tools

Player notes:

• On the 1-1 Garbotoxin: "It’s terrible, I literally only played it because I couldn’t find a fourth Klefki. Maybe with more refinement the Garb could work due to Klefki's Ability but I'd have to test it a lot"
• "I wanted to play Giratina [promo] and 4 Klefki but couldn't find the fourth"
• "I just ended up throwing stuff in there"

Metagross-GX

Ryne Morgan - Top 4 on Saturday and Top 8 on Sunday

Notable aspects: 2 Necrozma-GX, 2 Alolan Vulpix, no Solgaleo-GX, 2 Rescue Stretcher, only 1 Field Blower and 1 Brigette, heavy Psychic Energy count

Player notes: 

• On the single Field Blower: "It's not a matter of greed, it's simply a matter of deciding what is necessary for the deck to function properly in the meta. It was not a choice I made lightly, but it's a choice that has continued to not do me harm throughout current play. Should things shift into a position in which tools/stadiums because more troublesome such as a re-surge in garbotoxin, I would certainly be adjusting accordingly."
• On the 4-2-4 Metagross line: "It's not terrible but I'm thinking I'll up it [to 3 Metang]"
• "I tried Mimikyu but never used it. Double Necrozma was much better"
• "I've hit two Top 8s and three Top 4s in the last three weeks [with this list]... the same [list] also finished 1st at 2 Cups within the past 2 weeks"

Silvally-GX/Metal

Armando Lopez - Top 4

Notable aspects: Mewtwo EVO, 2 Guzma, no Psychic Memory

Player notes:

• "Overall the deck ran very well all day, the only change I would make is to find some room for a 3rd Fighting Memory in this Zoroark heavy meta. It has good matchups and a lot of versatility. I chose to play Mewtwo over a psychic memory since it's easier to get in play and can deter opponents from loading up a really big Buzzwole."
• "Matchups:
• Round 1 - Espeon Mismagius Gardodor W
• Round 2 - Volcanion L
• Round 3 - Buzzwole Lycanroc W
• Round 4 - Zoroark Golisopod L
• Round 5 - Greninja W
• Top Cut:
• Top 8 - Zoroark Decidueye WW
• Top 4 - Zoroark Golisopod WLL"

• "Kartana is very valuable against Buzzwole, Slice Off on a Strong Energy can set them back quite a bit. And Celesteela's resistance allows it to soften the blow of Jet Punch."
• "Against Volcanion I was struggling to set up, by the time I got rolling he was too far ahead."

Student Loans - Standard version

Alex Hill - Top 8

Notable aspects: 2-2 Espeon-GX, 1 Drampa-GX, 1-1 Alolan Muk, 2-1 Meowstic GEN, 3 Max Elixir

Toad/Tina (Expanded)

Jeff Stratford - Top 8
Carly Clements and Zak Andrews played similar lists to a Top 4 and Top 8 finish, respectively, at the same Cup.

Notable aspects: 1 Trainer's Mail, Gladion

Trevenant BREAK (Expanded)

Jackson Paulson - 2nd place

Notable aspects: Limitless's new list concepts: Espeon-EX, 4 Enhanced Hammer, 4 Rescue Scarf

Player notes:

• "My list is only 1 card off of the Limitless list (I cut a Tapu Lele for Shaymin). Xerosic, Delinquent and either another Shaymin or another Lele are cards I want to try and add in the future. Especially Xerosic"

VikaBulu

David Miller Jr. - Top 4

Notable aspects: Mew FCO, Xurkitree-GX, Puzzle of Time, Float Stone, 3 Lele

Player notes:

• On Xurkitree: "I feel like it would be helpful against Zoroark decks but unfortunately I ran into a lot of Volcanion and it wasn't useful. It seems like a nice surprise but the deck is already looking to do so much without adding another wrinkle." 

Zoroark (Expanded)

Dylan Fritts - 1st place

Notable aspects: very similar to the consistency-based lists from San Jose Regionals 

Player notes: 

• Matchups:
• "R1: Zygarde/Landorus/Scramble Switch W
• R2: Gyarados W
• R3: Vespiquen W
• R4: Seismitoad/Zoroark W"

ZoroPod

Eric Perez -  1st place

Erratum: a couple dice were placed incorrectly - there should be -1 Wimpod +1 Mallow.
Notable aspects: 1-1 Machoke line

Player notes: 

• "The Machoke was very worth it. I used it against Greninja, Weavile/Noivern spread, and Decidueye/Zoroark. I would have not won finals without it."

Noah Bujak - Top 8

Notable aspects: Giratina XY184, 3 Lele, 4 Grass Energy

Player notes: 

• Matchups:
• Round 1: Greninja W (1-0) - I whiffed Energy the first few turns, but once I got attacking with a Giratina on the bench, he couldn’t deal with the 'Pods.
• Round 2: Gardevoir W (2-0) - He never attacked with Gallade so my Enhanced Hammers and Acerolas overwhelmed him.
• Round 3: Mirror L (2-1)- I’ve never played this deck before this tournament, so I knew any mirrors today would be an autoloss. Looking back, I think that what I did wrong was that I was too scared of Enhanced Hammer, so I was attacking with pod. However, since I had to dedicate resources to attacking with Pod, I couldn’t trade as well, so I wasn’t able to Acerola as efficiently, so my Pods went down and I lost.
• Round 4: Bulu W (3-1) - I picked off his Grubbins before they evolved, so he never got set up.
• ID into Top 8 (3-1-1)
• Top 8: Mirror LWL - Pretty much the same thing that happened in game 3. I got a lucky Crossing Cut play to win game 2 though.
• "Overall, I’m not too disappointed with my result, but I wish I had practiced the mirror earlier in the week so I knew how to play it better. If I were to play it again, I’d definitely try to put in another Acerola. I think one Grass Energy would probably be the best cut."

"Legends Await": Preparing for BRT-SHL Cups With Pro Predictions

It's no Secret: Gardevoir-GX showed
almost Infinite potential during BRT-BSH,
and its Twilight doesn't appear to be near

Welcome back to PokéStats's weekly(ish) recap of Cup results, stats, and predictions! This past weekend saw two Regionals (Vancouver and Belo Horizonte) but also a slew of Cups with a variety of Standard and Expanded events taking place. In Standard, Gardevoir-GX is still the standard-bearer (pun fully intended), with over 40% of the Vancouver Day 2 metagame and nearly a quarter of the Cup metagame for the fourth straight weekend. The deck is extremely powerful and should remain strong until that new Solgaleo-GX comes along...

In Expanded, the format is a little more open. Garbodor Toolbox is the dominant deck there, but there are decks that can beat it, and rumors abound of a potential Dimension Valley ban that would nerf the deck (we'll know for sure on October 20th with TPCI's quarterly ban list announcement). The "Student Loans" deck (Tapu Koko/Necrozma-GX/Dusknoir") is proving it's more than just a gimmick, with strong results including a win at the Daytona Regionals League Cup.

In this article I'll first analyze the Cup results observed in the past weekend's sample. I'll then share some insights on this weekend's new (kind of) format courtesy of PokéStats's Deck Power Rankings Panel. Finally, I'll link to some articles published by other sites that have discussion of the new Shining Legends cards. (Be warned that most of these articles are behind paywalls.)

October 14-15 Cups (last weekend of BRT-BSH)
As BRT-BSH drew to close with a Top 4 containing 3 Gardevoir-GX (which Pablo Meza took to 1st place) Sunday night in Vancouver, it was clear that not only was Gardevoir the top deck, but there were only a handful of other viable decks. If you exclude Gardy and the two "pet decks" (Alex Koch's Zoroark BREAK/Bisharp and Aaron Tarbell's Golisopod-GX/Zoroark) from Vancouver's Top 32, only 4 other decks managed to crack Day 2: Drampa-GX/Garbodor, Volcanion, Golisopod-GX/Garbodor, and Greninja BREAK.

An interesting situation arises when you compare these results with the sample of Cups from the same weekend. Let's look at the 7 decks that made Day 2 of Vancouver versus the top 7 decks from PokéStats's League Cup sample:

Pretty similar, right? And then there's this guy:

We might never truly understand the mystery of VikaBulu. Clearly, it's not that bad of a deck. It had two Cup wins and several more Top 4s and Top 8s in the sample. Yet it failed to even make Top 32 of a 331-player Regional. Lists for the deck range from a build with 4 Sycamore to a build with 0 Sycamore and 4 Puzzle of Time. (The latter is from "Bulu Jesus" John Roberts II, and you can read his "Bulu Bible" explaining the deck in-depth at The Charizard Lounge here.) 

https://twitter.com/PokeStats_TCG/status/913057807867502597

Last month I tweeted the infographic above detailing the Bulu debate and including some quotes from top players regarding the deck. The most logical explanation for the Bulu phenomenon is that the deck is fundamentally strong and has the ability to win small tournaments like League Cups, but lacks the consistency to succeed at larger tournaments. However, it's highly possible Roberts's list, which emphasizes consistency to an almost ridiculous extent, could change this narrative. Only time will tell. 

Let's move past Bulu for now and discuss the other top decks. Volcanion and Drampa-GX/Garbodor are still very strong, and each managed to win at least one Cup. Golisopod-GX/Garbodor fell in the Cup rankings and didn't perform incredibly in Vancouver, but remains a respectable play. The biggest movers in the Top 10: Greninja BREAK (+4), Espeon-GX/Garbodor (+5), and Solgaleo-GX/Rayquaza (+5). 

The rest of the list doesn't feature anything we haven't seen before, really. Yehoshua Tate brought back Drampa-GX/Zoroark BREAK for a 1st place finish, and a WaterBox list featuring some unorthodox techs like White Kyurem FAC and Wishiwashi GRI took 3rd at another Cup. Ho-Oh-GX/Salazzle-GX dropped massively from 5th (7.17% of the sample meta) to 11th (2.78%). (Alex Hill did give faint praise to VikaBulu by claiming in our Rankings Panel chat that it is, in fact, better than Ho-Oh/Salazzle.)

As always, the Cup Sample deck rankings are under the "Cup Statistics" tab at the top of the site.

Rankings panel predictions

Normally I don't ask the Panel about Cup predictions - they have better things to do - but given that this weekend will showcase a new format, I didn't have any statistical data to make predictions with, so I had nowhere else to turn. The general consensus is that, as Rahul Reddy summed it up, "Nothing changes tbh." Here's Mike Fouchet on the top 10 plays: "1. Gardy 2. Drampa, everything else is irrelevant." Jon Eng amended that list to put Greninja in first place, but concurred with the rest.

Zoroark-GX was the only new card really seeing hype. "There'll be a good Zoroark deck, not sure exactly what it'll look like," said Kevin Baxter. "It may also just get put in anything [that already contains] DCE." 

Here are two full Top 10 lists (for best Cup plays) for this weekend courtesy of two of the Panel members. I'll keep their names secret to avoid associating a player with a deck and possibly spoiling a surprise play. 

1. 
1. Metagross GX/ Solgaleo GX 2. Gardevoir GX 3. Golisopod Garbodor 4. Zoroark GX/ Drampa GX 5. Drampa GX/Garbodor 6. Golisopod GX/ Zoroark GX 7. Decidueye GX/ Latios 8. Greninja Break 9. Umbreon GX/ Hoopa 10. Turbo Darkrai EX

2. 
1. Golisopod-GX/Zoroark-GX 2. Gardevoir-GX 3. Zoroark-GX/Zoroark BREAK/Drampa-GX 4. Volcanion 5. Drampa-GX/Garbodor 6. Golisopod-GX/Garbodor 7. Greninja BREAK 8. Vikavolt/Tapu Bulu-GX 9. Metagross-GX/Solgaleo-GX 10. Decidueye-GX

Interestingly, neither of these players chose to put Gardevoir-GX in first place, opting for counter decks instead. I was pretty surprised to see Volcanion completely absent from the first list, too.

Zoroark-GX is seeing a fair amount of inclusions in these decks, but only two other SHL Pokemon are mentioned: Latios and Hoopa. Umbreon-GX/Hoopa is an interesting concept that seems like it could be annoying. I had to look up what the Latios did: for a DCE, 30 to the Defending Pokemon and 30 to 1 of your opponent's Benched Pokemon. It makes sense to pair that with Decidueye-GX: it's a slightly different Alolan Ninetales-GX that is a Basic worth only one Prize.

LINKS: SHL theory articles
Rising to the Above [SixPrizes] - Xander Pero discusses several "strong cards" included in Shining Legends. He notes that "Zoroark-GX is problematic for Garbodor, but won't eliminate Garbodor completely." A 6P Underground membership is required to read the article.

A Closer Look at the Daytona Regional Finalist Decks and My Top 5 Favorites from Shining Legends [60cards] - Jose Marrero gives his favorite new cards from SHL. A 60cards premium membership is required to read this part of the article.

Get Your Shine On! [60cards] - Caleb Gedemer discusses the "Pretenders, Averages, and Ballers" from the new set, gives a rundown of the new Standard format, and even shares some lists. A 60cards premium membership is required to read past the "Pretenders."

Lull Before London, Part I [PokéBeach] - John Kettler reviews SHL alongside the upcoming Crimson Invasion and says "it's been a very long time since I've seen so many good cards released so close together." I'm not sure where John was during the three-month span that tied together Espeon-GX, Decidueye-GX, Tapu Lele-GX, Drampa-GX, Garbodor, Choice Band, Field Blower, and Rescue Stretcher (just kidding John), but this article is worth a read (if you have a PokéBeach premium membership). 

"Into the Wilderness": League Cup sample analysis for September 16-17, 2017; views on VikaBulu; and predictions for this weekend

Our second weekend of our new League Cup sampling and analysis process has been a success. Last weekend we analyzed 22 Cups to create an accurate picture of the metagame at the time; this weekend our sample size climbed to 27 Cups. In this article I'll discuss the top decks of the weekend, some "big movers," and some statistically-supported predictions for next weekend.

First, here's a tier list based on the September 16-17 results (which can be seen in full here):

S Tier

Gardevoir-GX

Tier 1

VikaBulu

Golisopod-GX/Garbodor

Volcanion

Tier 2

Ho-Oh-GX/Salazzle-GX

Drampa-GX/Garbodor

Metagross-GX

Alolan Ninetales-GX

Tier 3 and below

Rainbow Road

Golisopod-GX/Spread

Espeon-GX/Garbodor

Greninja BREAK

Xerneas BREAK

Solgaleo-GX/Rayquaza

DeciTales

other/rogues

Trends this weekend

Gardevoir-GX retains its top spot from the previous weekend, falling only slightly from about 20% of the meta to about 18%.

No contest: Gardy is the BDIF for two
weekends running.

More surprising is the sudden rise of VikaBulu. The deck shot from 7th place (7.61% of the meta) to 2nd (12.14) in just a week, and barely any top cuts in our sample fail to feature at least one Bulu player. Some big names playing the deck into Top 8 or higher include Zak Krekeler, Jac Carter, Tristan Macek, and of course John Roberts II, who is known as perhaps the biggest fan and best player of the deck (he has topped multiple Cups with it and both of his Top 32s at 2016-17 major events were with it; he has also developed an Expanded version with Virizion-EX and Scoop Up Cyclone). Later in this article I'll look at four VikaBulu lists and discuss what works about them and how they are adapted to local or expected metagames. 

Also unchanging from the previous weekend is Golisopod-GX/Garbodor in third place. 

Rounding out the top five we have the two big fire decks, Volcanion and Ho-Oh-GX/Salazzle-GX. Both are on the rise from the last weekend: Volcanion up two spots and Ho-Oh up five. The SixPrizes squad has been working on the Ho-Oh/Salazzle deck and Xander Pero took home a 1st place with it while the entire Schemanske family made Top 8 with it at another Cup. 

Some big droppers this week: Metagross-GX from 2nd to 7th, and Alolan Ninetales-GX from T-4th to 8th. With not just one but two fire decks seeing top-five success, it's unsurprising Metagross hasn't been doing well. Ninetales, for its part, just sometimes lacks consistency and doesn't have a terrific Gardevoir-GX matchup. 

Greninja BREAK took a huge drop from T-4th to 12th and also failed to make Day 2 at Bremen Regionals on the same weekend. 

Moving further down the list we see that Decidueye-GX is still not entirely gone, with a trifecta of Top 4 Cup finishes for DeciTales. 

Solgaleo-GX/Rayquaza has been seeing a bit of hype with Tyler Ninomura taking it to Top 8 and Athavan Balendran making multiple Top 8s over the past two weekends with the deck. 

Some wild and wacky decks that managed to make top cut include Kingdra, M Mewtwo/Turtonator, Salazzle-GX/Lurantis, and Turtonator-GX/spread attackers, among others. 

Lastly, the following decks had at least one top cut the weekend of September 9-10 but failed to repeat the feat in our sample for 16-17: Crabominable, Garbodor/spread attackers, Gardevoir-GX with Alolan Ninetales-GX, Pikachu-EX/Magnezone, Salazzle-GX/spread attackers, and Turbo Darkrai. 

As always, full top cut standings and a handful of decklists for our League Cup results reporting are available under the League Cup Results tab right here on PokeStats. For detailed statistics and rankings, click the Cup Statistics tab. 

Bulu Nation

This past weekend, we saw VikaBulu take two Top 32 spots at Bremen Regionals: 7th place under Patrik Bartosovic and 13th place under Stephane Elias Benabdeslam. Benabdeslam's list is not currently available, but we can take a look at Bartosovic's list and use it to analyze why VikaBulu is seeing so much success:

Patrik Bartosovic - 7th place Bremen

(via Limitless)

What's here:

• 2 Mew FAC
• 3rd Field Blower
• 2nd Heavy Ball
• 1 Max Potion
• 1 Nest Ball
• 2nd Energy Recycler

What's not: 

• Tapu Koko SM30/31
• Brock's Grit
• 5th Lightning Energy
• Oranguru

Analysis: I've seen Mew in VikaBulu once before (a Top 64 list from Liverpool Regionals) and found it interesting enough to tweet about. It's an excellent way to conserve an attacker and force a 7-Prize game. Bartosovic took that a step further and included two Mew, making the tiny little Psychic Pokemon effectively one of the deck's main attackers. If the opponent can't Guzma around it, it can set them back very quickly and I'm positive that's one of the main reasons Bartosovic took this list into Top 8. 

One bad Bulu.

Max Potion is not particularly common in Bulu lists but makes a lot of sense to me since Bulu typically discards its Energy after attacking; a copy of Max Potion essentially gives you a second Tapu Wilderness GX each game. 

Some consistency options like Nest Ball and a second Heavy Ball appear to take the place of a consistency draw card like Oranguru; a third Field Blower was a good meta call with Garbotoxin being very prominent in Liverpool (all of the Top 4 decks played Garbodor). 

This list has foregone Brock's Grit in favor of a second Energy Recycler, and I expect this to be the standard for VikaBulu going forward. Too often, Brock's Grit cannot be found when needed or, more commonly, would need to be used in tandem with another Supporter (like Sycamore) to have much success. Energy Recycler allows for combinations like Recycler > Strong Charge > Sycamore > attach to power up a Bulu out of nowhere, so Brock's Grit is just inherently a slower and less consistent card. The two Recycler also explains the lack of a 5th Lightning Energy which so many other lists play. 

There is no Tapu Koko-GX or Professor Kukui which would seem to make the Metagross-GX and Gardevoir-GX matchups more difficult, but Mew undoubtedly helps with those.

Four other VikaBulu lists are available via our League Cup Results page; take a look at those and compare them to Bartosovic's list to get a look at other ways to build Bulu, whether you want to play the deck at your next event or be prepared to play against it. 

What to watch

This Phoenix is primed for success
this weekend.

There's no reason to expect Gardevoir-GX to not be the BDIF for a third straight weekend, but it wouldn't be surprising to see it fall slightly as people pick up techs like Jirachi XY67 or Enhanced Hammer. As we saw last weekend, the success of Fire-types is pushing Metagross out of the top tier of decks, so Gardevoir is essentially losing its only hard-counter. 

Speaking of Fire, during the making of this post I saw Kian Amini's Tweet about taking 2nd at a Cup with Ho-Oh/Salazzle. That's yet another big name (in addition to Xander Pero and the Schemanskes) choosing to play this deck, and it should be high on your list of decks to look out for heading into this next round of Cups.

A couple rogues that are projected to see slight increases in play include Kingdra and Solgaleo-GX/Rayquaza.

I was somewhat late publishing this recap and the next weekend is already nearly upon us, so it won't be long before we see what this round of Cups has to offer. You can always visit the League Cup Results and Statistics pages right here on PokeStats to find metagame information and decklists. Stay tuned for further coverage, including Hartford Regionals coming up in just a few days...