Hello everyone! It was a really exciting weekend to be a Pokemon TCG player, and a really fun weekend at that. I met some really cool people and had a blast seeing all sorts of decks compete in the main tournament.
Before I go on with the top 8, here is a link of the deck lists and players that piloted them in the master's division. Most of the decks that made it were very typical, but I was sincerely surprised that Greninja never made it into the top 8 for any division!
Sadly, Greninja really didn't make a splash this weekend, yet it went into the event as one of the top decks to play. So why wasn't the deck performing? There are some possibilities as to why, and here are my ideas. First of all, you'll notice there were many lock decks and grass decks present in the tournament. Greninja is a deck that plays slow and needs time to set up. Aggressive decks like Trevenant seem to get their item lock on their first or second turn, which Greninja usually can't handle very well. Sure, there is no deck that works well under item lock, but at least decks such as Night March can use their items very fast before they are locked. Also, Vileplume and Toad can do the same. On top of this Vespiquen/Night March, Vespiquen/Vileplume, and the occasional Serperior, (as if haha), can all hit Greninja for double damage. These two reasons are why Greninja just didn't go all the way. But Greninja didn't completely flop, it did do somewhat well, and I am pretty sure at least one was in the Top 16 for Masters.
With that upset out of the way, let's talk about the winner of the tournament; and the runner-up. I just want to say before going forward, I played Vespiquen/Night March, and thought it was the best meta call. I guess I was right! With that boasting out of the way, it should also be noted I dropped on round seven finishing with a 4-3-0, which wasn't going to cut it for top 64.
This little 30HP Pokemon is honestly one of the scariest Pokemon in format! Nick Robinson, the winner of US Nationals 2016, used the deck to take the coveted title of US National Champion! Everyone can use a deck, but you need skill, experience, and a little luck to get as far as he did. His skill aside, the deck itself is very solid and the Vespiquen tech is an amazing card that can improve your match ups by a tremendous amount. Before even talking about strategy, let's talk about type coverage. You have the ability to hit with grass, lightning, and psychic, which gives you the ability to hit weakness on several of the top decks. Including but not limited to, everything in Fighting/Regi Variants, Wailord, Most of Water box (Exception of Articuno and Regice), and toad in the several decks it shows up in. On top of this, it makes the Jolteon match up very easy since you just use a Vespiquen. I'm not really going to go over how the deck wins, because it is simple. You can fly through your deck to get Pokemon in the discard which increases your damage for the rest of the match allowing you to constantly get one shot KO's for a simple DCE. What a mouthful! The concept is easy, but executing it is another topic entirely. That about wraps up what I have to say about the deck, the point was if you maybe weren't aware of the Vespi/Night March combo that has been somewhat under the radar. People just thought Mew was the only version they would see in the tournament, so the Vespiquen was a small surprise.
Now for the runner up, Marcos Garcia, and his interesting Seismitoad/Giratina deck. This deck was not a generic list, and was unique enough to get him to the finals. Cards not typically used in that deck like the Team Aqua Base and Puzzle of Time were very cool. On top of this, the Silent Lab proved to be great for dealing with decks like Night March and Trevenant which rely on Shaymin as a draw engine. On top of it all, he went into the match clearly having the upper hand against Night March from its ability to literally stop the deck from working. (Locks him out of his DCE's, Fighting Belts, and Dimension Valley). But it just didn't work out for Marcos, between bad prizes, inability to hit crucial coin flips, and some bad decisions, he ended up losing the series. But don't forget that if you make it to the finals out of over 1100 people, there are no losers. On that note, despite his loss, the deck is very interesting and works very well. I personally have not used the deck before, so I can't give you the full synopsis like I could for the Night March. I do know, however, that it's very good at shutting down strategies and decks while slowly chipping away to get the game. So congrats to both players, but let's discuss where this leaves us and what will Standard look like in the near future.
The rotation of a lifetime, where does it leave us?
It's no secret that this is going to be a very crazy rotation. Pokemon has already put out a link to some key cards leaving the format which you can click here to read. It's crazy to believe that we're losing top decks such as Night March, Seismitoad variants, and even Trevenant. Not to mention all the important trainers like Muscle Band. Standard is going to look very weird, and so far all I can see that will survive the rotation is possibly Greninja. I'm very excited for this, it means we are getting a fresh start in standard and new strategies and decks to look forward to. But what to look for in the new standard format and upcoming worlds is an article for a separate time.
Thank you very much for reading, this is my first article/forum post, and I went all out for it. Even larger thank you to the people who created the Images I used in the post. Tell me what you guys think, what can we expect for next season, and what do you think about the results from this year's US national tournament? Have a great day, and take care!
Before I go on with the top 8, here is a link of the deck lists and players that piloted them in the master's division. Most of the decks that made it were very typical, but I was sincerely surprised that Greninja never made it into the top 8 for any division!
With that upset out of the way, let's talk about the winner of the tournament; and the runner-up. I just want to say before going forward, I played Vespiquen/Night March, and thought it was the best meta call. I guess I was right! With that boasting out of the way, it should also be noted I dropped on round seven finishing with a 4-3-0, which wasn't going to cut it for top 64.
The rotation of a lifetime, where does it leave us?
It's no secret that this is going to be a very crazy rotation. Pokemon has already put out a link to some key cards leaving the format which you can click here to read. It's crazy to believe that we're losing top decks such as Night March, Seismitoad variants, and even Trevenant. Not to mention all the important trainers like Muscle Band. Standard is going to look very weird, and so far all I can see that will survive the rotation is possibly Greninja. I'm very excited for this, it means we are getting a fresh start in standard and new strategies and decks to look forward to. But what to look for in the new standard format and upcoming worlds is an article for a separate time.
Thank you very much for reading, this is my first article/forum post, and I went all out for it. Even larger thank you to the people who created the Images I used in the post. Tell me what you guys think, what can we expect for next season, and what do you think about the results from this year's US national tournament? Have a great day, and take care!
