Winners of September TCG Cup Crowned! Deck Lists and Interview!

PokeBeach’s September TCG Cup is over and the winners have been crowned!

The tournament was played in the Standard format at the time — XY through Steam Siege.

Interview with the Champion

Coming in first place is Carl “Eddie” Sitavi from Richmond, VA! 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?

So far 30 points from two Summer League Challenges.

Why did you decide to participate in this tournament?

These tourneys are always a nice online option for testing and as a chance to earn some packs! Have your friends join these tourneys, it’s fun to compare how they do with how you do!

What deck did you play for the August TCG Cup?

I chose to play Rainbow Road, the EX version. The EX version is just MUCH more consistent than the Stage 1 dual types version and its sheer power allows you to take early leads that other decks just can’t deal with for the most part. I chose to ran a two Exp. Share and one Fighting Fury Belt split, something I would recommend if a player chooses to run Genesect-EX since you can rotate your tools fairly easily off of a simple Hoopa-EX.

What kind of decks give yours trouble? Which are good matchups?

M Scizor-EX is easily the decks toughest matchup — that isn’t to say you can’t win, but it is difficult. Mega Scizor forces you to try and take an early KO on an EX and late game hold a Xerneas in your hand until you think you can safely Max Elixir + Double Colorless Energy to grab a KO vs. a M Scizor. This deck has favorable matchups against Volcanion-EX, M Rayquaza-EX, M Gardevoir-EX, and M Mewtwo-EX. Oddly enough this deck actually has a favorable matchup vs. the Stage 1 Rainbow Road variant (in my opinion), simply because consistency allows you to outlast their variant despite their running of cards like Bisharp.

What kind of decks did you play against?

I played against three Rainbow Roads (All of these were the Stage 1 dual type versions, which in my humble opinion is the weaker variant of RR), a M Scizor-EX, a Xerneas BREAK deck and a 6th deck I no longer remember. [Editor’s note: the sixth deck was Lucario.]

What was your most exciting game or match?

I drew poorly vs. one of my Rainbow Road matchups, drawing multiple Double Colorless Energy in two games and the games were close. Thanks to the combination of Max Elixirs + Exp. Shares I was able to get back in the game and take wins and keep up, despite bad starts.

What was your favorite card in your list?

Flygon-EX. Who doesn’t love the lovable sand dragon? Flygon-EX is actually a really threatening card, although it doesn’t look like it. If you consistently use Flygon’s Ability before attaching an Energy in a turn you can use Flygon to bait your opponent to bring up a high retreat Pokemon to get KOed — giving you the option to attach/play cards and retreat into a wall/Celebi and pass the turn. Alternatively it can act as a pseudo Lysandre and give you the option to play another Supporter in the same turn — a great card that I would recommend any RR player check out!

Would you make any changes to your deck or list?

Some people believe Karen is a good inclusion in the deck in a Parallel City meta. I disagree. It’s not really needed as a) The only three decks that play Parallel City consistently (Mew / Yveltal, Mega Mewtwo, and Mega Scizor) include two decks you beat with smart play anyhow (Mew / Yveltal and Mega Mewtwo) and the third deck (Mega Scizor) you lose to regardless without luck + smart play. Karen doesn’t help you with your pace in that matchup, and b) It’s a Supporter for the turn — Super Rod gives you the option to shuffle resources back into your deck and STILL Professor Sycamore / N to dig for resources in the same turn — which matters much more. Basically my advice is the same advice as playing Weakness Policy in something like Serperior, don’t do it — it doesn’t really matter in the end.

One card I would definitely try and add is another Trainers' Mail though — in the end, three things matter: consistency, consistency, and consistent luck — adding consistency rarely hurts.

How does Evolutions and affect your deck? Is it still viable?

Evolutions doesn’t really change the meta much. Brock’s Guts is a better option than Karen, but still not needed. Dragonite-EX is a better inclusion in the deck — precisely because it can be gotten from the deck with Ultra Ball and Hoopa-EX.

Congratulations, Eddie!

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

Other Top Finishers

Coming in 2nd, 3rd and 4th places were Diego Venegas (DooPeDee), Fernando Santacruz (Trixss) and Grant Manley (grantm1999). All three won a bunch of booster packs from the latest expansions. Diego’s and Fernando’s deck lists can be seen below:

Diego Venegas

Fernando Santacruz

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.

Coolpilot, Frosstoise, Gengar master, jbcheshire, 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 Lucario, M Scizor-EX / Garbodor, Zoroark / Yveltal, Carbink BREAK / Marowak BREAK, and Darkrai-EX / Giratina-EX / Zoroark respectively.

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?

November’s tournament will be posted on November 1st, and October’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 packs, 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!

You can always check the “TCG” 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.)