Winners of PokeBeach’s June 2018 PTCGO Tournament!

PokeBeach’s June 2018 PTCGO Tournament is over and the winners have been crowned!

Ninety-six players competed for the title in this exciting monthly event, with the top eight players facing off in a top cut. The tournament was played in the Standard format at the time the tournament began — BREAKthrough through Ultra Prism.

Interview with the Champion

This month’s victory went to Liebad! Since he is a regular member, he will be shipped 18 booster packs, courtesy of TCGplayer.com!

Here’s our interview with him:

What is your real name, and where do you live?

My name is “Егор” or Egor, but you can call me George! I live in Saint-Petersburg, one of the most beautiful cities in Russia.

How are you doing this season in Play! Pokemon tournaments?

We don’t really have Play! Pokemon events here in Russia. There were attempts to make them, but they didn’t leaded to anything, so instead we have our own unique system (like with everything else here, I guess), which changes every year. This year we have some sort of national tournament. I had my worst match in the top-8 and placed 5th in the end.

Why did you decide to participate in this tournament?

Because it is fun! It’s cool and free, people from all around the world can play in a real tournament, test their skill, improve their skills, and meet new people.

Decks such as yours have been popping up a lot around the world lately. Do you believe that Pokemon such as  Buzzwole-GX will have have staying power in the upcoming format?

I believe in Buzz, despite losing some important cards, either crucial ones like Strong Energy, or just good ones like Octillery  and Professor Sycamore, he will find his way to the top. Maybe I am wrong, but I think that the metagame will be good for the buffed mosquito. With all Zoroark-GX decks and upcoming Zeraora-GX he will have a lot of good match ups. I think Buzzwole-GX  decks will run some more Tapu Lele-GX to find Lisia and set up Beast Energy Prism Star and Diancie Prism Star on the first turn. Maybe new Zebstrika will be of good assistance to him. But you know, in the end only time would truly answer this question.

What was your most exciting game or set?

This months tournament was cool, but most of my games were against variants of Necrozma and Malamar decks. I fought against Ultra Necrozma-GX, Necrozma-GX, Dawn Wings Necrozma-GX — you name it. So it all kinda blurred together in my eyes. Although I can point out my top-4 game against @lukkul. It was a mirror, and very tough one. I especially remembered a moment in first game (I think it was first), in which I was forced to wait two turns to play two Strong Energy, needed to take 3 prizes at once, and hoping that my opponent would’t draw any card allowing him to retreat. Of course, I played N and he was left with only one card, but it was an intense moment!

Would you make any other changes to your list?

For the metagame as it is now I wouldn’t say it needs more changes. Maybe if I had a slot I would have swapped field blower in, because I could’ve used that card in some of my games.

Congratulations, Erop (George)!

Here is the deck list he used to win the tournament:

Other Top Finishers

Below are the top eight players and the decks they used:

• 1st: Egor Nesterov (Liebad) — Buzzwole-GX  / Lycanroc-GX
• 2nd: Tiago Cruz Rezende (tiagorezende) — Ultra Necrozma-GX  / Malamar
• 3rd: Lukul — Buzzwole-GX  / Lycanroc-GX
• 4th: Jing Zhang (Stevexue) — Ultra Necrozma-GX  / Malamar
• 5th: Ilya Kornilov (Fou-Link) — Zoroark-GX  / Lucario-GX
• 6th: Greg Minklei (Gengar Master) — Zoroark-GX  / Lycanroc-GX
• 7th: Adrian Fjell (Vaskemaskinen) — Espeon-GX  / Garbodor
• 8th: Austin Fernando (Woahaustin) — Greninja BREAK

Tiago, Jing, Greg, Adrian, and Austin will all be seeing a huge increase in prizes because they are premium subscribers. You can see how many packs each of them earned at the top of this page. The deck lists of second, third, and fourth place can be seen below:

Tiago Cruz Rezende, Second Place

Lukul, Third Place

Jing Zhang, Fourth Place

In addition to all 8 top finishers above, everyone in the Top 32 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. Points are received via e-mail. If you won points, be sure to check your inboxes!

Please also note that your PokeBeach account email address must match your TCGplayer account email address. If they don’t, you won’t receive your points!

Creative Deck Winners

As part of every tournament, PokeBeach’s article writers voted for the five premium members that didn’t make Top 16 whom they felt used the most creative deck lists. Each of them earned 5 booster packs or a promo product.

Jacob Marshall, JumpluffTCG, Kent Freeze, Serprior, and Shadyyeezy each walked away with five booster packs or a recent Pokemon promo product from TCGplayer.com. The decks they played were Ho-Oh-GX, Ho-Oh-GX, Drampa-GX, Espeon-GX , and Lapras-GX respectively.

You can find each of their deck lists in the forum thread below.

Want to Become a Premium Member?

July’s tournament is currently underway. Each tournament awards up to 7 booster boxes of product to top finishers plus promo products and additional booster packs to premium members. The prizes for premium members are bigger than ever before, so don’t miss your chance to play in the next tournament! Signups for July are currently scheduled to be posted Saturday, July 28th. Mark your calendars!

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, a huge increase in prizes, 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! 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.)