Winners of January’s TCG Cup Crowned! Deck Lists and Interview!
PokeBeach’s January TCG Cup is over and the winners have been crowned!
The tournament was played in the Standard format at the time — Primal Clash through Evolutions.
Interview with the Champion
Coming in first place is John Mostowy from southwestern Ohio! You may remember one of the articles he wrote for PokeBeach. He will walk away with 18 booster packs from TCGplayer.com.
Here’s our interview with him:
How well are you performing in Play! Pokemon tournaments this season?
Poorly! Well, just not competing all that much with school. I don’t get the opportunity to travel to Regionals. I did compete in a League Cup the other week and went 3-2. I don’t wanna talk about that.
Why did you decide to participate in this tournament?
I’ve been on the site for so long and it’s amazing to see the community still standing and pushing fresh and new content and ideas, and I wanna support that. So of course I’m gonna enter a free tournament haha.
What deck did you play for the January TCG Cup?
I went with the good ol’ Yveltal-EX / Garbodor. It’s the deck I had the most experience with from the last few tournaments and the deck I’ve been playing with the most this season. It’s a good deck. Well, was.
What kind of decks give yours trouble? Which are good matchups?
I personally hate Greninja BREAK because of the way you trade Prizes and because the Greninja player can put pressure on how quickly you set up Garb. Anything with Jolteon-EX triggers me (because of Flash Ray) but that’s about it. I don’t mind Mega decks because I play a copy of the Fright Night Yveltal and I can spread damage pretty conveniently with Pitch-Black Spear. I also like the Volcanion-EX matchup because Garbodor prevents them from OHKOing my Yveltal-EX with Steam Up on lock.
What kind of decks did you play against?
Geez, it’s been a while. Can’t say I remember all that much to be honest. I know I had a rough time with BugTrainer’s Yanmega build because I wasn’t expecting it. But other than the last round, much of it is a blur. I should make note of this. Sorry. :|
What was your most exciting game or match?
In game three against Trixss to decide who would go 6-0, I needed a couple things. Lemme describe my board real quick: I’ve got a damaged Yveltal-EX with a Fighting Fury Belt in the Active slot with a basic Dark, a damaged Yveltal-EX on my Bench with a Double Colorless and no Tool, an Oblivion Wing Yveltal with a Dark and a Float Stone, a Garb, and a Shaymin-EX that I Parallel City‘d away. There are no more Darkness Energy in my deck and I have only a DCE left in-hand. He’s playing M Scizor-EX and both Scizor on-board are out of OHKO range — but he has a Shaymin Benched. His hand is pretty big but I notice he’s burnt all of his VS Seeker, so I pray that if I can Oblivion Wing to the FFB’d EX, I can retreat to that, attach the last DCE, Lysandre the Shaymin, and X-Ball for 120 and the game. However, if he has a Lysandre or an N, I’m cooked. I risk it for the biscuit, and I win the game. It was crazy.
What was your favorite card in your list?
After that sixth round against Mega Scizor, definitely the Oblivion Wing Yveltal. That thing put in work when all of my DCE were getting discarded left and right. I could make sure I was pumping out 110 Evil Ball attacks (with FFB) to put those at 2HKO range, and it was pretty helpful in other rounds when I had to Ultra Ball or Professor Sycamore a couple of Energy away.
Would you make any changes to your deck or list?
Nope. Honestly not. I think this was the best way to play it.
How does Sun & Moon and affect your deck? Is it still viable?
Umbreon-GX might see an appearance and slide on into the list some shape or form, but I dunno how that’s gonna pan out with Garbodor also being in the list (if you even include the trash) but…yeah. Sun & Moon is gonna change the game and it’s gonna be great for the format.
Congratulations, John!
Here is the deck list he used to win the tournament:
Other Top Finishers
Coming in 2nd, 3rd and 4th places were Fernando Santacruz (Trixss), Ben Pechota (theprp30) and Aaron Roffman (My Little Keldeo). All three won a bunch of booster packs from the latest expansions, but Fernando and Aaron both got double the prizes because they are premium subscribers. Their deck lists can be seen below:
Fernando Santacruz
Ben Pechota
Aaron Roffman
The top finishers also earned Prize Wall points on TCGplayer.com, which allows them to exchange their points for even more products like booster packs and promo boxes.
Everyone in the Top 32 of PokeBeach’s monthly tournaments will also receive Prize Wall points via e-mail. Be sure to check your inboxes!
Creative Deck Winners
As part of every tournament, PokeBeach’s article writers voted for the five premium members whom they felt used the most creative deck lists, and each of them earned some additional booster packs or a promo product.
Standard208, Coolpilot, Kyoushiro44, Nobodyshero2727 and Tangelatwist each walked away with several booster packs or a specially-selected Pokemon promo product from TCGplayer.com. These players used decks such as Houndoom-EX / Raticate, Excadrill / Eeveelutions, Wailord-EX / Slowking, Rainbow Road, and Xerneas BREAK / Snorlax-GX / Blaziken-EX respectively.
Want to Become a Premium Member?
March’s tournament will be posted on March 1st, and February’s tournament is currently underway. Each tournament awards up to five booster boxes of product to top finishers plus promo products and additional booster packs to premium members. The prizes for premium members just receive a huge increase too, so don’t miss your chance to play in the next tournament!
If you’re interested in becoming a premium member, be sure to check out this link. All premium members get reserved slots in the tournaments, double the amount of booster packs, double the amount of Prize Wall points, a chance to win even more product for using creative decks, and of course all the other benefits that go along with having a premium membership, including weekly articles from the game’s top players and deck help from said players. A premium membership is extremely diverse!
Thanks, TCGplayer!
All of these prizes are brought to you by TCGplayer.com. Their online store offers the cheapest Pokemon cards on the Internet from thousands of different sellers — you will find no better deals! So be sure to check them out any time you want to purchase or sell Pokemon cards!
You can always check the “Sets” tab at the top of our website to access their store.
(Note: The Pokémon Company International is not a sponsor or endorser of PokeBeach’s tournaments, contests, or prizes, nor does the company or its affiliates have any formal association with PokeBeach. Our activities are by fans, for fans, and are not sanctioned or approved by TPCi.)