Winners of PokeBeach’s November 2018 PTCGO Tournament!

PokeBeach’s November 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 nine players facing off in a single-elimination top cut. The tournament was our final tournament that used the Standard format of Sun and Moon through Dragon’s Majesty.

Interview with the Champion

This month’s victory went to Panzerolas! He receives 18 packs for his victory, courtesy of TCGplayer.com! But, if he had been a premium member, he would have been shipped 72 booster packs.

Here’s our interview with him:

What is your name and where are you from?

Hello! My name is Leonardo and I’m from Portugal.

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

I started playing Live Pokemon this year, during the pre-release of Ultra Prism. Portugal has taken a hit in terms of Organized Play! tournaments so I only played in 2 league cups in Portugal and 2 league cups in Spain. Got 2 top 8’s but no points.

I played my first regional in Frankfurt, it was an awesome experience, although I ended up 1 point away from making top 128 (started with 1 defeat and 3 draws, then I made 4 wins in a row, and took only one more defeat). I made my first points ever (10) in the Challenge of the Frankfurt Regional, where I placed in 3rd place. I was super happy with that result.

We are now trying to get 2 leagues up in the city of Lisbon, so shoutouts to all of my Portuguese friends who are making a big effort to come almost every weekend to play (Amadora and Coxinhas crew). Hopefully, next year, I will be able to play more tournaments and maybe even chase that World’s Invitation more seriously.

I see that you were playing the a variation of the Psychic Malamar (aka GasKan) deck made popular by our own Rukan Shao and his teammates. What were the most important changes you made? Were there any cards that you wished you could have swapped in by the end of the tournament?

I was so impressed with this deck from the beginning, and from when I saw the two decks that made the Memphis regional finals (both Malamar of different kinds, respectively from [Rukan’s team] and Gustavo Wada). Due to this I decided to make my own idea, by mashing both decks ideas into my own ‘creation’.

I think Choice Band is the most important change that I made to hit higher numbers from the Wada deck, while Chimecho was the addition from [Rukan’s team’s] deck (this card was my MVP, it’s crazy good). The only card that I wished to have was the Lunala Prism Star, since I faced so many Rayquaza-GX during this tournament and that card makes the matchup a bit more inclined my way.

Looking over your list, I see that you played one Marshadow-GX and two Dawn Wings Necrozma-GX. Many builds flip this count. Was Marshadow-GX more of a tech card than a primary attacker in your matchups?

The secret to this ‘crazy’ decision was that I didn’t have the second Marshadow-GX in my online account at the beginning of the tournament. Reducing the Escape Board and having no Rope meant that I had to have more mobility, so I decided to use two Dawn Wings Necrozma-GX for that. Marshadow ended up being one of my main attackers and was my primary target for the 2 Rescue Stretchers in my deck. I have now picked up the second one.

What was your most exciting game or set?

Although the final was quite close and super exciting, since we got down to our last prizes in the third game, I think that game 2 of my top 4 match was totally bonkers.

During that match, I noticed that 2 of the Energy Recycler were down in the discard pile. He had 12 energies in the discard/in play, and I had 4 prizes left versus 1 prize. He also had all Guzma in the discard. So I used a Guzma and the Moons Eclipse GX attack to take 2 prizes on the only Rayquaza in play. Then I got a bit lucky that he was not able to power up the last Rayquaza due to 1 last energy missing. I was totally ecstatic that I was able to turn that game around.

What are your plans now that we’re settling in to the new format? Are you adjusting this list, or going with a completely different archetype?

I’m still a bit undecided between Malamar Spread, Ultra Necrozma-GX / Malamar or an update of Gaskan (now with 2 Marshadow GX and one Giratina). I think you can see from here that I love the Malamar decks. I have tried some different decks, like Buzzwole-GX / Lycanroc-GX and Gardevoir-GX / Alolan Ninetales-GX / Solgaleo-GX, but I always end up with Malamar.

What card(s) from Lost Thunder have you found to be the most interesting?

Giratina, Giratina, and Giratina!!!! Ninetales is a game changer, making decks with several stage 2’s viable is crazy. I am also sold on the power of Blacephalon-GX , but I feel that the deck needs to have a bunch of one-of’s to adapt to the meta.

Congratulations, Leonardo!

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: Leonardo (Panzerolas) with Marshadow-GX / Malamar (aka GasKan)
• 2nd: lukkul with Rayquaza-GX
• 3rd: FlixFlex with Zoroark-GX Control
• 4th: Matt (thembert) with Rayquaza-GX
• 5th: Audiofreak19 with Buzzwole/ Lycanroc-GX
• 6th: birdboy2000 with Hoopa / Articuno-GX Control
• 7th: Jarid (Jswoop22) with Zoroark-GX / Lycanroc-GX
• 8th: Kazuki Kanehira (JumpluffTCG) with Buzzwole / Lycanroc-GX

FlixFlex, Jarid, and Kazuki 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:

lukkul, Second Place

FlixFlex, Third Place

thembert, 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 e-mail address must match your TCGplayer account e-mail 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.

dmode15, Christopher Shehan, Serperior, SquirtleRules, and Seng Vang each walked away with five booster packs or a recent Pokemon promo product from TCGplayer.com. The decks they played were Beast Box (Naganadel-GX / Stakataka-GX), Scizor-GX / Garbodor, Zygarde-GX / Lycanroc-GX and Zoroark-GX / Banette-GX / Solgaleo-GX respectively.

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

Want to Become a Premium Member?

December’s tournament is currently wrapping up. 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 January are currently scheduled to be posted Friday, December 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.)