Last-Minute Picks for EUIC
Hello everyone! As I’m writing this, it’s a few days before the first International Championship in two years! I could not be more excited to be headed off to Germany for the event. This format could be better, but it could also certainly be worse. Arceus VSTAR and Mew VMAX have solidified themselves as the top decks, but there’s a slew of other choices seeing fringe play. Arceus can be paired with just about anything, so it can be a bit difficult to pick a deck in this format, especially for a tournament as important as the European International Championship. You also can’t forget about Malamar, which seems to be perpetually between Tiers 1 and 2, and can be a wild card in terms of its representation in a given metagame.
Today I’m going to discuss two decks that are well positioned going into EUIC. These are the two decks that I played at back-to-back 1K tournaments, and they may look a little weird if it’s your first time seeing them. Let’s get into it!
Arceus / Bibarel
Bibarel is an incredible deck that is designed to supplement and take advantage of Arceus VSTAR and Arceus VSTAR alone, as it is an inherently busted card. This deck aims for a consistent turn-two Trinity Nova and packs the necessary Trainer cards to make Arceus VSTAR all you need when it comes to attackers. The idea is simple, the execution a little less so, but the deck is at least significantly less complicated than most others in this format. The deck isn’t crazy or flashy; it’s just good.
The deck does have a notable weakness to Fighting-types. I think Dunsparce is a reasonable inclusion, but I didn’t play it in my list for the 1K (and ended up splitting Top 8). Dunsparce is just a meta call, so I don’t think it is ever objectively correct or incorrect without the benefit of hindsight. In general, I don’t think Fighting has a big enough presence in the meta to warrant it, and Galarian Zapdos V can sometimes be beaten with Path to the Peak anyway.
Most of the card counts are chosen to supplement the main goal of getting Arceus as consistently as possible. Bibarel is preferred over the Inteleon line for a few reasons. First, the whole Inteleon package takes up way more space, and it’s not even close. Inteleon is also high-maintenance, requiring a setup of several Sobble and Drizzile, as well as the occasional Scoop Up Net. You can’t ignore the Inteleon package’s benefits, but between Professor's Research, Crobat V, and Bibarel, you can usually go through the deck rather quickly, finding the cards you want without the need for Shady Dealings.
This concludes the public portion of this article.
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