Hey Trainers! I posted this a little earlier today in Brisbane’s Play! Pokemon group and now here is the list I used for Brisbane’s City Championships this past weekend.

4 Phantump XY
3 Trevenant XY
3 Shelmet DEX
3 Accelgor DEX
2 Mew EX DRX
1 Duskull BCR
1 Dusclops BCR
1 Dusknoir BCR
1 Munna BCR
1 Musharna NXD

4 Professor Juniper
4 N
3 Colress
2 Skyla
4 Ultra Ball
3 Level Ball
2 EvoSoda
4 Float Stone
3 Pokemon Catcher
1 Silver Bangle
1 Super Rod
1 Town Map
1 Tool Scrapper
1 Dowsing Machine

2 Tropical Beach

4 Double Colorless Energy

My thanks go to Christian Delloiaco for all of our conversations about the deck for the last few weeks. Bodhi Cutler and Marcus Peck too. I took a risk not playing a Virizion EX counter. I took some time to think about the meta game shifting and it paid off.

I spent a lot of time practising Gothitelle/Accelgor for worlds. I literally spent a week before hand where I tested the deck for hours on stream each day, so I’m quite comfortable with the idea of only doing 50 damage and shuffling it away. There are plenty of small nuances to playing it, but you shouldn’t let them scare you off.

My matchups were:

R1. Thundurus EX/Deoxys EX/Plasma Kyurem – Win
R2. Lugia EX/Thundurus EX/Deoxys EX – Loss (My opponent played Keldeo EX/Genesect EX/Snorlax)
R3. Garbodor/Darkrai EX/Yveltal EX – Win
R4. Lugia EX/Thundurus EX/Deoxys EX – Win
R5. Garbodor/Darkrai EX/Yveltal EX – Win
Top 8. Mega Venusaur/Virizion EX/Carnivine/Sigilyph – Win
Top 4. Blastoise – Win
Finals. Trevenant w/Flareon – Win

Winning with the deck often results in the same story, so I’ll talk about my single loss and a few of my interesting games.

In the round I lost, my opponent’s use of Yeti’s tech options in Keldeo EX and Genesect EX, as well as having access to Snorlax meant that I had to overcome multiple threats which dismantled my setup eventually in the first game – for a few turns I ran out of steam, and that was sufficient enough chance for my opponent to turn the tables. I established a strong lock in game 2, but I ran out of time. When playing against Trevenant always remember: Never Give Up

The game I played against my Top 8 match against was one of the most bizzare games I’ve played. The seriousness of top cut and the seemingly odd deck choice my opponent had me really uneasy. Game 1, I pummelled the Virizion EX with Bangle on Accelgor. Game 2 he didn’t see Virizion EX hit the field all game, but I was trying to keep options ready for its appearance). Otherwise I had to alternate attackers depending on whether he put up Sigilyph or not.

In the top 4 match I played against Blastoise, Silver Bangle is what gave me the edge in the matchup. Being able to threaten a one-hit KO on Keldeo EX, combined with lower energy counts in stage 2 decks due to Professor’s Letter and the ease at which you can re-establish Trevenant throughout the game means that Blastoise has a very difficult time even with the ability to break Paralysis locks with “Rush In”.

We recorded the finals match, so I’ll post that soon. For now, the notes I can make about the mirror are:

1. Many/all of the Pokemon involved tend to create scenarios where you can create Poison KO’s which come back into your turn.
2. Getting a Float Stone onto a Trevenant is super important
3. Remember that you can use your opponent’s Accelgor for Mew EX’s “Versatile” ability.
4. When your opponent has the Item lock, it’s not super important for you to Item lock them back. If you carry a Rainbow Energy in your list, then it may be worth putting your own Trevenant active, but be wary as without Float Stone, your opponent does not have to do anything until you reveal the energy as you cannot retreat.

There are more nuances to the mirror match, but I think it’s best if I wait for the finals footage to commentate.

Well that will just about wrap things up! Thank you very much for reading.

~ Anthony