Reflecting on the Last Two Majors and the Rise of Gholdengo

Hello PokeBeach readers! Isaiah here and I am happy to be writing another article for you all! Last time, I discussed Ceruledge ex and how I thought the deck was extremely underrated in the current format, especially with its, quite frankly, pathetic results at the Sacramento Regional Championship and the Stuttgart Regional Championship, and I do still think the deck is underrated, but that’s not the point of this article. The last few Regional Championships have had some pretty unexpected results, so how about we start with a full recap?

Regional Recap

The Sacramento Regional Championship did not have the most surprising results, especially when compared to Stuttgart, but with that being said, there were still some things that could be considered unexpected. As one probably could expect, the most played deck in top cut was Regidrago VSTAR, which had all but solidified its position as the best deck in the Standard format following three consecutive wins at major tournaments, however, surprisingly, Regidrago VSTAR had a pretty poor record in cut, only winning two of the six total games it played, one of which was a mirror match. Instead, the star of the show in the top cut part of the tournament was certainly Miraidon ex.

When Stellar Crown came out, I think that most people expected the deck to have a pretty strong showing with the addition of Area Zero Underdepths, but it never materialized in the way a lot of people hoped it would. That would change with the release of Surging Sparks, though. As one could easily assume from the name of the set, there was support for Lightning-type Pokemon, but admittedly less than I would have expected. The main support that the deck got was Magneton giving the deck a little more longevity, something that it has desperately needed since the rotation of Flaaffy earlier this year. The sudden burst of Energy from Magneton also, importantly, turned Raichu V into a viable attacker again where it had generally fallen out of favor previously. Now you only need two Energy in play at the start of the turn so that you can attach from hand and then pop Magneton for three more, ramping up to 360 damage fairly seamlessly.

Pikachu ex is also quite relevant, despite the fact that you cannot attack with it. Area Zero Underdepths decks can sometimes struggle if their Tera Pokemon is Knocked Out, especially decks like Miraidon ex which typically do not play any ways to recover Pokemon, but Pikachu ex helps mitigate this issue by being extremely difficult to Knock Out, essentially requiring the opponent to either commit two attacks to it or they have to play exactly Canceling Cologne to shut off Resolute Heart. Not only that, but in matchups against other aggressive decks like Raging Bolt ex , being forced to go first can be a loss condition, but Pikachu ex is the perfect card to shove into the Active Spot in this situation since it is extremely difficult for the opponent to take a Knock Out on it, and if they have Iron Bundle to push it to the Bench, it is pretty easy to have Magnemite on your Bench as well to deny the two-Prize turn for your opponent.

The final important card for this deck, though, is Latias ex. If you ask me, in a few years, Latias ex will likely be hailed as one of the best cards of the entire Scarlet and Violet era of sets. Its Skyliner Ability essentially gives all of your Basic Pokemon a Float Stone, which is itself a card highly regarded for being one of the best cards ever printed. In Miraidon ex, this card is particularly impactful, though, as cards like Iron Hands ex can often turn into liabilities because of the resource commitment it would take to pay its Retreat Cost, or it would force a Switch Cart, but now with the help of Latias ex, nothing is a liability. It is so easy to turn anything in the game into a pivot, which also makes one want to take another look at Pokemon that have Abilities that require them to be in the Active Spot. With the help of these three cards, Miraidon ex was able work its way up to the finals on both sides of the bracket, with Landen Kaetler taking the win, securing his second Regional Championship title. Despite this massive storyline for Landen and his Miraidon ex deck, as well as the surprise high finishes from Ancient box, Roaring Moon ex, and even Chien-Pao ex, there was no storyline as big as the appearance of Klawf in the Top 32 of the event.

While I did not play in the Sacramento Regional Championship, I was at the venue on Sunday, and one story seemed to be floating around frequently, that of a mysterious new Klawf deck that was taking names. At first, I did not think too much of it, but then when standings for the event were posted online and I saw two of this Klawf deck with Terapagos ex in Top 32, I was astonished. The idea itself made a fair amount of sense to me, but the part that surprised me was that I had this idea almost two months ago now and I dismissed it pretty quickly with little testing, which I guess is a reminder that there’s no such thing as a stupid idea. Their approach was much different than mine, as I included cards like Noctowl, seeing my deck as more of a Terapagos ex deck with Klawf as a secondary attacker and Brute Bonnet as a means to reaching for higher numbers, and they instead were playing a decklist focused on the typical strengths of Klawf with many Basic Pokemon and built to hit the turn-one attack with Klawf itself or sometimes Terapagos ex if needed.

This concludes the public portion of this article.

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