Winners of PokeBeach’s December 2017 PTCGO Tournament!
PokeBeach’s December 2017 PTCGO Tournament is 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 Crimson Invasion.
Interview with the Champion
This month’s tournament was won by Fou-Link! He will be shipped eighteen booster packs free of charge, courtesy of TCGplayer.com!
Here’s our interview with him:
What is your real name, and where do you live?
My name is Ilya Kornilov, and I live in Saint-Petersburg, Russia.
How are you doing this season in Play! Pokemon tournaments?
In Russia, the Play! Pokemon season haven’t started yet. But I traveled twice to Finland and played 2 big League Cups, and recently got 4th place.
Why did you decide to participate in this tournament?
First of all, it’s free, and I really wanted to try my best in it.
Why did you play Gardevoir-GX? Were you considering any other decks?
Since the release of Zoroark-GX, I played more than 1000 games in PTCGO using this Gardevoir-GX variant, I just really like Gardevoir-GX / Zoroark-GX duo, more than Octillery. Also a lot of people don’t consider Gardy as a good deck anymore and I do not agree. I love playing the deck and I’m trying to be good at playing it. About other decks – I really like Lycanroc-GX decks and if I would play a deck other than Gardevoir, I would play Lycanroc-GX / Buzzwole-GX.
What decks did you play against? Did any interesting techs stand out to you?
I played against Zoroark-GX / Golisopod-GX, Zoroark-GX / Lycanroc-GX, Zoroark-GX / Decidueye-GX, Greninja BREAK and Gardevoir. In Top 4 I played against a really interesting Buzzwole-GX / Zoroark-GX deck with Regirock from Crimson Invasion in it.
What was your most exciting game or set?
Almost every match was super intense, but probably the most exciting and hard game was the finals against Gardevoir.
Would you make any other changes to your list?
List is pretty much perfect, I decided to not include any tech cards (that’s why I lost to Greninja in round 4). If I would take this deck to a tournament, I might tech Mew-EX against Buzzwole and Giratina against Greninja. Would cut 1 Skyla and 1 Professor Sycamore.
How do you think Ultra Prism affects Gardevoir decks in general?
Ultra Prism introduces some Metal support (not very crucial against Gardevoir, because new Solgaleo-GX would be legal in April), but the most dangerous card for Gardy is Glaceon-GX. It shuts down the whole deck with its Freezing Gaze Ability. Maybe Gardevoir will be viable, but it has to adapt to Glaceon-GX matchup (maybe playing Octillery instead of Zoroark and running 3 to 4 Brigette).
Congratulations, Ilya!
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: Ilya Kornilov (Fou-Link) — Gardevoir-GX / Zoroark-GX
- 2nd: Shane Guan (ShinyZard) — Gardevoir-GX / Giratina
- 3rd: Austin Fernando (woahaustin) — Gardevoir-GX
- 4th: Steve Murphy (semurphy444) — Buzzwole-GX / Zoroark-GX
- 5th: Kevin Kim (fungusbrain) — Greninja BREAK
- 6th: Arne Van Braeckel (Arneboy11) — Decidueye-GX / Zoroark-GX
- 7th: Ilir Nikqi — Metal Silvally-GX
- 8th: Lukas Coenraats (lukas2aces) — Decidueye-GX / Zoroark-GX
Both Austin and Steve are making their second consecutive appearance in Top 8! Will they be able to get the threepeat in January?
Austin, Arne, and Ilir will all be seeing a huge increase in prizes 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:
Shane Guan, Second Place
Austin Fernando, Third Place
Steve Murphy, Fourth Place
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 that didn’t make Top 16 whom they felt used the most creative deck lists. Each of them earned some additional booster packs or a promo product.
Julio Penaloza, faris alwawi, Jaypenny777, TgHuy, and AngelBeast each walked away with five booster packs or a specially selected Pokemon promo product from TCGplayer.com. The decks they played were Greninja BREAK, Raichu-GX, Tapu Bulu-GX, Decidueye-GX / Zoroark-GX, and Tapu Bulu-GX, respectively.
You can find each of their deck lists in the forum thread below.
Want to Become a Premium Member?
January’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! Signups for February are currently scheduled to be posted Monday, January 29th. Mark your calendars!
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.)1