Winners of PokeBeach’s October 2017 PTCGO Tournament! Deck Lists and Interview!
PokeBeach’s October 2017 PTCGO Tournament is (long) over and the winners have been crowned!
Ninety-six players competed for the title in this exciting monthly event, with the top eight players facing off in a top cut. The tournament was played in the Standard format at the time — BREAKthrough through Burning Shadows.
As a result of a promotion during this month, subscribers who placed in the Top 16 received ten extra booster packs!
Interview with the Champion
This month’s tournament was won by John Creagh! As a subscriber, he walked away with 82 booster packs (more than two booster boxes!), courtesy of TCGplayer.com!
Here’s our interview with him:
What is your real name, and where do you live?
John Creagh and I live in Baltimore, MD.
How are you doing this season in Play! Pokemon tournaments?
This season I have 12 CP points as I can’t make it to many events.
Why did you decide to participate in this tournament?
I think PokeBeach tournaments are a great testing ground for meta decks and the level of competition is impressive. I use my experience with the monthly tournament as a bridge to real life competitive play.
Greninja is notorious for being its own worst enemy. How many times throughout the tournament did you brick? Were there any times that you were able to come back from it?
I bricked a few times during the tournament. I bricked heavily during Round 5 against Decidueye-GX / Alolan Ninetales-GX causing me to lose 2-0. Ironically, I played against the same deck in top 4 and won 2-1 where all three games ended with me having only two cards in deck! Knowing when to play Tapu Lele-GX and when to use Tapu Fini-GX‘s Tapu Storm GX was critical to getting out of bad situations and breaking my dead draws.
Excluding Tapu Lele-GX, did either of your two-Prize techs pull their weight?
Tapu Fini-GX was THE hero of my deck. Tapu Storm GX reset many stacked Gardevoir-GX and Volcanion-EX which gave me the breathing room to set up my Greninja BREAK for game. Additionally, Espeon-GX was the win condition for several matchups against most Stage 2 decks and my two stressful Decidueye-GX / Ninetales-GX matches.
What decks did you play against? Did any interesting techs stand out to you?
I think the majority of decks where the top three meta decks – Gardevoir variants, Volcanion, and Drampa-GX / Garbodor variants. I don’t really recall any surprising techs that caught me off guard.
What was your most exciting game or set?
Top 4 match against Decidueye / Ninetales. Going into the match, I was nervous because Round 5 was a sweep in the favor of my opponent. I knew that I had to play the devolution game and try to halt Decidueye’s ability to attack. The two Enhanced Hammer were clutch in the matchup as well as Tapu Storm GX to reset late game Decidueye that were Rare Candy evolved.
Why didn’t you run Wally for the turn one Water Duplicates play?
I didn’t think that running Wally would help me get my Greninja out in a safe and fast way. I usually would use Skyla or Lillie as my turn one Supporter to find a Brooklet Hill in order to streamline my Froakie and Staryu for my eventual Frogadier plays. Additionally I played 10 Water Energy so I often found myself without a Water Energy for turn requiring me to use a draw Supporter to obtain my first Frogadier and my Water Energy.
Would you make any other changes to your list?
I would not change my list at all. I think it ran pretty consistently and the flexibility of the deck allowed for a favorable outcome in most matchups.
How do you think Crimson Invasion affects Greninja decks as a whole?
I don’t think Crimson Invasion will affect Greninja much. Buzzwole-GX / Garbodor has some pretty decent poking potential but it takes too long to power up Buzzwole-GX to take a big Knock Out on a Greninja BREAK and by that time it would be very costly / difficult to have another Buzzwole-GX ready on the Bench to OHKO a Greninja BREAK. Silvally-GX is another deck that probably won’t affect Greninja much as Shadow Stitching will shut down Gyro Unit and Silvally-GX has no way to hit big enough numbers for a OHKO on Greninja BREAK. As for Items, I’m thinking of running Counter Catcher in my deck as I usually am trailing behind my opponent in Prizes and it could set up some nice plays where you can trap a high Retreat Cost card and then snipe the bench for a Espeon-EX clean up at the end of the game.
Congratulations, John!
Here is the deck list he used to win the tournament:
Other Top Finishers
Below are the top eight players and the decks they used:
- 1st: John Creagh — Greninja BREAK
- 2nd: Greg Minklei (Gengar master) — Drampa-GX / Garbodor
- 3rd: Huy Nguyen (TgHuy) — Decidueye-GX / Alolan Ninetales-GX
- 4th: Jake Black (dweebyartpunker) — Gardevoir-GX
- 5th: Blair Zwarich (killrnite) — Tapu Koko / Alolan Ninetales-GX / Jirachi
- 6th: Sean Radwanski (Coolpilot) — Tapu Koko / Alolan Ninetales-GX
- 7th: Ole Stognief (politoed12) — Gardevoir-GX
- 8th: Dario Bocanegra (F4H_Jay) — Gardevoir-GX
Most of the players here made out like bandits thanks to the huge increase in prizes they are offered because they are premium subscribers. You can see how many packs each of them earned at the top of this page. The deck lists of second, third, and fourth place can be seen below:
Greg Minklei
Huy Nguyen
Jake Black
In addition to all 8 top finishers above, everyone in the Top 32 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. Points are received via e-mail. If you won points, 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, and each of them earned some additional booster packs or a promo product.
Triforce19, jpkemperor, Coolpilot, TgHuy, and BKRapper each walked away with several booster packs or a specially selected Pokemon promo product from TCGplayer.com. The decks they played were Alolan Raticate, Xerneas BREAK / Necrozma-GX, Tapu Koko / Alolan Ninetales-GX, Decidueye-GX / Alolan Ninetales-GX, and Golisopod-GX, respectively.
You can find each of their deck lists in the forum thread below.
Want to Become a Premium Member?
November’s tournament concluded earlier this week, and December’s tournament is currently underway. Each tournament awards up to 7 booster boxes of product to top finishers plus promo products and additional booster packs to premium members. The prizes for premium members are bigger than ever before, so don’t miss your chance to play in the next tournament!
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, a huge increase in prizes, 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 “Sets” 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.)