Winners of PokeBeach’s July 2018 PTCGO Tournament!

PokeBeach’s July 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 Forbidden Light.

Interview with the Champion

This month’s tournament was won by F4H_Jay! He will be shipped two booster boxes because he is a premium subscriber, courtesy of TCGplayer.com!

Here’s our interview with him:

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

Hello PokeBeachers, my real name is Jay Bocanegra and I live in the Monterey County in California.

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

With the season just having started I have not been able to attend any tournaments yet, but have some League Cups I’m planning to attend with some friends this upcoming month of September.

Looking over your list, I see that you ran even counts of Buzzwole-GX and baby Buzzwole. Which felt more powerful throughout the tournament?

They are both great cards that are hard to deal with because of all the support that Buzzwole has in general, but if I had to choose I think the baby Buzzwole was the MVP of this deck. Being 130 HP pokemon makes it hard for cards like Zoroark-GX and Golisopod-GX to one shot it and it can swing for massive damage with sledgehammer under the correct circumstances.

You chose to play a Buzzwole deck with no Lycanroc support. Did you ever miss Lycanroc GX?

Lycanroc-GX is a wonderful card, but I don’t think there was ever a time I was regretting not playing a version that included it. With four beast ring, I really invited having my opponent knockout a Buzzwole-GX, because more times then not I was able to power up two Buzzwole GX’s next turn on top of having baby buzz swinging for 120+. It really put my opponents at a disadvantage in my eyes and left the option of me going up in the prize game while having two Buzzwoles ready to go next turn to end the game.

How do you feel about Buzzwole looking into post-rotation format?

I haven’t tested anything post rotation with Buzzwole yet, because I believe it loses so much with rotation. Losing cards like Strong Energy, Max Elixir, Super Rod, and Octillery really takes a lot of steam out of Buzzwole. I don’t see it being a tier one deck, but I think it will still be fun and something that we will still see.

What was your most exciting game or set?

This is tough, because the top 4 match against against John Creagh came down to a game three. I would have to say the final against Anselm Sim was the most exciting and stressful. Playing against Malamar / Necrozma-GX / Dawn Wings Necrozma-GX and going to a game three in a intense match really had me sweating and I felt we both played extremely well.

Looking back now, would you make any changes to your list?

I wouldn’t change this list, it did everything I was expecting and my play style is aggressive which I feel Buzzwole fits perfect.

Would you like to mention anything else?

I would like to give a small shout out to my friends, David, Edgar, Jose and Eddie who I practice and hang out with at league with every week. Practice definitely helps when your playing in close games and deciding on the optimal play.

Congratulations, Jay!

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: Jay Bocanegra (F4H_Jay) — Buzzwole
• 2nd: Anselm Sim — Psychic Malamar
• 3rd: Jeremy Owings (FralPal) — Malamar Box
• 4th: John Creagh — Zoroark / Golisopod
• 5th: Felipe Reichert Godoy (Darighan) — Buzzwole / Lycanroc
• 6th: Dillon — Buzzwole / Lycanroc
• 7th: Nikolas Hales (Plaquesanta) — Greninja BREAK
• 8th: Steve Zhang (stevexue) — Zoroark / Lycanroc

Jay, Anselm, John, Nikolas, and Steve 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:

Anselm Sim, Second Place

Jeremy Owings, Third Place

John Creagh, 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.

Kavross, RisingRaichuu, woahaustin, Arneboy11, and Serperior each walked away with five booster packs or a recent Pokemon promo product from TCGplayer.com. The decks they played were Hoopa / Mesprit, Shining Genesect / Venusaur, Zoroark-GX / Greninja-GX, Zoroark-GX / Decidueye-GX, and Mewtwo-GX / Garbodor / Garbodor, respectively.

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

Want to Become a Premium Member?

August’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 September are currently scheduled to be posted Thursday, August 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.)