‘Skill Based’ Rohan’s Report On Deckbuilding Worlds 2024 Part 1

Hi guys! I’m back after a crazy few weeks in Honolulu where amongst other things I competed in the 2024 world championships which, was a great event in general, but especially because I finally got a good finish at the world championships (4th time the charm lol). My report on the World Championships 2024 is going to be split into 2 parts, as I had quite a lot to say on it, at the moment you are reading the article where I go over my deck choice and some of the decisions behind the 60, but if you aren’t interested in that kind of stuff, then definitely go check out my tournament report, where I go over my run in detail. finished 28th in the end, which means I got top 32 prizing (+$5000, +top 32 bag, hat and promo) which is nice, but I must admit it feels bad to be only 3 match points off of top 8, it feels bad because, looking back I feel like I picked the perfect deck for the event.

The Deck Choice

In the few weeks leading up to the event, I was ping ponging between decks (nothing new there) here is a representation of what was going around in my head : “Regidrago. No, Garde. No, Regidrago. How about Great Tusk? NO definitely not!”

But then, the Sunday before the event, I woke up with a ‘brainwave’ (I have one of these before almost every event, they usually end with me going 0-3 💀) this idea I woke up with was that i should play the deck that I have trash talked and called bad since it released: Mid Rider (Miraidon). The thought behind this idea was, in this format the only decks which Miraidon has bad matchups into were Charizard and block Snorlax, both decks which I assumed would not have a very high play rate as I thought Charizard was not well placed/built correctly for this event, and in the case of Blocklax, surely not many people will come all the way to Hawaii just to play block Snorlax right? (Ah, the art of foreshadowing, truly beautiful🥹)

But anyway, Miraidon should beat a most decks just purely because it is very consistent at getting a turn one 220+prime catcher or an amp  you very much, then from there take a second prize on one of the many 1 prize bench sitters in this format, then take the last 2 with a blood moon ursaluna+boss. There is only one caveat to this turbo 2-2-2 strategy, and that is you HAVE to hit your electricity generators, but you play fifteen energies, so you should hit them pretty consistently right?!? (Once again, I have truly showcased my skills as a master of foreshadowing). And after running all of these ideas past Lou, who agreed with me (I chose to politely decline his previous idea of me playing Charizard🤢) I felt the idea was good enough to at least try

And luckily my dad had booked me us in for a challenge in a local card shop for the same day, and even if it was still in the previous format (NAIC format) it would still be a good opportunity to try out the deck in a competitive environment…

The list at the time

I went 0-3 drop (hope you didn’t forget that I foreshadowed that earlier). But unlike what usually happens when I go 0-3 (I burn the deck and bleach my eyes), I remained faithful, as I now knew what was missing from the deck: a way to take a big one shot for those second 2 prizes in our 2-2-2 gameplan from earlier, and also that I NEED to hit my electricity generators If I want this deck to even slightly function which is a difficult problem to solve since e-gens are completely skill-based (this is another skill I have picked up over the years that I like to call sarcasm, as e-gens are actually entirely luck-based).

But, back to our first, more solvable issue which was my damage call was currently 230 (photon blaster boosted by Zapdos). Which is a nice number, but cards like Regidrago Vstar, Raging Bolt ex and Charizard ex have a bit more than that , which meant that often the deck was amazing at taking the initial 2 prizes, but struggled after that. However, enter Raichu V who has 3 very important roles.

No.1 Kill the big guys, one time per game I need to hit either 240 (bolt), 300 (Drago), or 360 (Zard). Discarding the energy shouldn’t matter as blood moon Ursaluna will usually be used for the last 2 prizes.

No.2 A second forest seal stone holder, seal stone is extremely important to finding key cards: prime catcher, e-gens and boss’s orders are the main targets, but it can grab anything so… And yea I know I already have Raikou V, but it can be prized or be killed early game as it is usually the first attacked used.

No.3 EXPLODE THAT DAMN CORNERSTONE, now I know I have iron hands, but my only real win con Vs these stall/wall decks is enough early pressure to run them off the board and cornerstone takes too long to kill without Raichu.

Cool, now that I’ve got that out the way, we come to my other issue, my skill issue I’m particular (I can’t seem to find any energies off of my generators). Luckily there is a solution…

It’s called stacking…

WAIT WAIT WAIT don’t ban me! In the newest set, shrouded fable, Pokémon released a new card, academy at night, which allows you to (once during your turn) put one card from your hand on the top of your deck. So we can turn a high risk, high reward, power spike card (e-gen) into a consistent no risk, but still high reward card by simply taking one of the many energy cards which always seem to find their way into my hand, and put them on to of my deck for e-gen to accelerate.

List at the time

Alright, now it’s Tuesday, and when my deck works, it feels really good, but that is the issue. It doesn’t work enough of the time to be a deck capable of competing in the world championships, so I cut 3 cards that are strong, but not necessary (2nd iron hands, 2nd bravery charm and3rd ultra ball) for 2 research and one Iono. This is because, whilst Arven is really strong in the deck, these other supporters allow me to refresh my hand when it’s bad, but arguably more importantly, it allowed me to get rid of cards in my deck (at least in research’s case) which meant that I had a higher chance of hitting 2 energies off of my generators. Also Iono obviously gives me a way to comeback in losing games, it combos very well with an Ursaluna with bravery charm attached, as most decks struggle to hit 310)find boss in the late game when a lot of their resources are already expended.

Alright, it’s now Thursday night, and my deck has been running insane in testing, but I really want a little more draw power, just to help find one more piece after I get iono’d and I think 3rd switch cart is slightly unnecessary so I add in a mew ex.

(The final list)

Make sure to check out the 2nd part of this report, where I talk about my tournament run.

Cya

Rohan