Winners of June TCG Cup Crowned! Deck Lists and Interview!
PokeBeach’s June TCG Cup is over and the winners have been crowned!
The tournament was played in the Standard format — XY through Fates Collide.
Interview with the Champion
Coming in first place is Grant Manley from North Carolina! 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?
I have not done very well this season but my high point was getting Top 4 at NC States to clinch my Worlds invite.
Why did you decide to participate in this tournament?
I love that these are free tournaments. They are great opportunities to test and win free prizes. I try to enter as many of them as I can.
What deck did you play for the May TCG Cup?
I played Darkrai-EX / Giratina-EX / Garbodor. It wasn’t a well-known deck at the time so I was hoping to catch people by surprise with its deceptively favorable matchups spread. It’s a really strong deck that was working quite well so I wanted to try it out here. The tournament was also used as Nationals testing even though I didn’t end up playing Dark.
What kind of decks did you play against?
I played against M Manectric-EX, Night March, Greninja, and Trevenant.
What was your favorite card in your list?
My favorite card was probably Malamar-EX. I didn’t use it much during the tournament but it can create some hilarious situations. It’s a good tech against Jolteon-EX and Regice.
What was your most exciting game or match?
My most exciting match was against M Manectric-EX with Ho-Oh-EX. This is a bad matchup for me, but I somehow pulled out a close game one. I offered my opponent an Intentional Draw when I went up a game, but he politely declined because he knew it was a good matchup for him. I got destroyed in game two. I narrowly won game three by killing two Shaymin-EX with Lysandre and something else along the way. Normally I have a hard time killing Manectric and Ho-Oh because they heal themselves, but I got lucky when my opponent had to bench two Shaymin.
Would you make any changes to your deck or list?
I think the deck was ideal for this tournament so I wouldn’t change anything.
What kind of decks give your deck trouble? Which are good matchups?
M Manectric-EX is a bad matchup, and so is Night March if they run a lot of anti-Giratina-EX cards. I think Water Box could be a bad matchup but it’s pretty close. Good matchups are Trevenant, Greninja, M Rayquaza-EX, and Night March if they don’t run anti-Giratina cards like Jirachi and Enhanced Hammer.
How do Steam Siege and the rotation affect your deck? Is it still viable?
I think this deck will have to be turned into straight Dark. Pokemon Ranger is released which ruins Giratina-EX. I don’t think Giratina is good anymore. Garbodor could stay but I think Greninja is a lot less popular now so you don’t really need him. A focused and speedy straight Dark deck is probably the way to go now.
Congratulations, Grant!
It seems like Grant is calling out his competition. Are you gonna let him talk about PokeBeach’s tournaments that way? Join the next tournament and defend your honor as well as your website’s!
Putting that aside, here is the deck list Grant used to win the tournament:
Other Top Finishers
Coming in 2nd, 3rd and 4th places were Elliot Sayles (elbow), Derek Babine (D-Babs) and Logan Davis (Danglesmcjangles). All three won a bunch of booster packs from the newest sets, including Logan who earned double the normal amount of packs thanks to his premium membership. Their deck lists can be seen here:
Elliot Sayles
Derek Babine
Logan Davis
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.
jbcheshire, Yog, dmiller58, gracebond and Wil Yates each walked away with several booster packs or a specially-selected Pokemon promo product from TCGplayer.com. The decks we saw these players use include M Mewtwo-EX / Wobbuffet, Bronzong / Genesect-EX, M Manectric-EX / Raikou, M Scizor-EX / Bronzong and Giratina-EX / Reshiram.
For every tournament, the five premium members who come up with the most creative decks will win booster packs and promo products.
Want to Become a Premium Member?
August’s tournament will be posted on August 1st, and July’s tournament is currently underway. Each tournament awards up to four booster boxes of product to top finishers plus promo products and additional booster packs to premium members.
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 pack wins, 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!
In the future, you can always use our navigation menu 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.)