Eye on Japan: Worlds' Qualifiers 2013 results and analysis

Hello everyone!

It was fun to see how the Gothitelle/Accelgor article started great discussions all over the web (and

Genesect EX is nothing without the support
cast

especially on my blog), but as Gothitelle/Accelgor has already established itself as a truly competitive deck (it even did well in the first weekend of the U.S. Battle Roads!) there really is no reason anymore to debate whether it’s competitive deck or not. It sure is.

Today, I’m discussing – as the title suggests – a lot easier and less controversial topic - Japan World Championships Qualifiers of this year. They all have finally been played and now it’s time to break down the results. RestlessBob has already made a huge work when combining the results of Worlds Qualifier tournaments in Japan on the Pokegym with the help of Papa Seedot’s blog, which is probably the most known Japanese blog there is and I suggest you check it out if you for some reason haven’t checked it out before.

Time sure flies. It feels like it was yesterday when I did Eye on Japan: Worlds’ Qualifier-entry a year ago (which is one of the most popular articles ever in my blog) and now I'm already on the second one!

First, I’m going to break down all the results from the 4 Qualifiers (excluding the one played in the Palace Format) and after that I’m going to look at some of the speculated and real winning decklists of the most common decks and best decks in the tournaments as well as revealing for example how some of the famous Japanese players did in the tournament series.

 
Note: All the tournaments discussed in this article were played in a Black & White – Megalo Cannon format, so some of the cards played there are not available in the west until after World Championships . And all the translations are provided via Pokebeach.com or Bulbapedia.

The tournament Locations and dates

May 4, 2013 - Fukuoka
May 12, 2013 - Nagoya
May 18 and 19, 2013 – Chiba (18^th the Palace format, which will not be included in the analysis of this entry)
May 26, 2013 - Osaka



The tournaments are played in two age groups as you very well know. The age groups are as follows:

A-League: Born 2002 and later
B-League: Born 2001 and before

The way of getting an invite from Japan is very rough. Only the winners of the tournaments get a invite and a trip to Worlds, when rest of players don’t even get an invite. As there are already 2 invites for the Japanese Junior players to World Championships from the previous World Championships, it seems that there are 6 Japanese Juniors (unless one or more of the Juniors aged up to the Senior division) going to Worlds for sure, whereas there are only 4 Masters. Even players like Yuta Komatsuda and Tsuguyoshi Yamato missed the invite and trip and they will have to use the Grinder to get to Worlds Championships just like Japanese players often do. Pretty tough to be a Japanese player, huh?


Week 1

A-League

1. Team Plasma w/ Keldeo EX
2. Blastoise/Keldeo EX/Moltres /Kecleon
3. Team Plasma w/ Cobalion EX
4. Team Plasma w/ Mewtwo EX and Zekrom

B-League

1. Virizion EX /Genesect EX
2. Hydreigon /Darkrai EX /Virizion EX/Absol
3. Plasma Klinklang w/ Keldeo EX
4. Team Plasma

Top 8
Team Plasma w/ Keldeo EX
Team Plasma
Weavile/Exeggcute
Blastoise /Keldeo EX/Black Kyurem EX (PLS)


First weekend analysis

First weekend pretty much showed the way for the following weeks. B-league was won with Virizion EX/Genesect EX that would become very popular in the upcoming weeks and take a title and two in the upcoming weeks. Due to its superior performance, it’s one of the decks; I’ll take a quick glimpse on. However, there is also something else worth noting in the results.

Team Plasma is the dominant force in the A-league and you don’t have to guess two times after these results what will the Japanese Juniors play in the World Championships – it’s Plasma all the way. So, if you happen to be a Pokédad of the Worlds Junior competitor or happen to know some Junior playing the Worlds, make sure he won’t have a bad match-up against Plasma, it will probably be the most popular deck in the Juniors age division.

Team Plasma had also the most top8 spots in the B-league even though it didn’t win the whole thing. I’m not surprised by the popularity of Team Plasma decks in the B-league, because as you know when I visited Japan, all I faced was Team Plasma decks! What I think IS surprising in the results is the top8 spot of Weavile/Exeggcute. The deck is insanely difficult to make into tier1 contender, but someone obviously succeeded in it. I would very much love to see his/her list.

Now, let’s take a look at the results of the rest of the weekends.

Week 2


A-League

1. Team Plasma /w Keldeo EX and Absol
2. Team Plasma /w Keldeo EX
3. Team Plasma /w Keldeo EX
4. Team Plasma /w Keldeo EX

B-League

1. Suicune/Terrakion (NVI)
2. Team Plasma /w Keldeo EX
3. RayEels/Victini/Zebstrika (NXD)/Mr. Mime
4. Darkrai EX/Absol

Top 8
Quad Snorlax
Team Plasma 
Virizion EX/Genesect EX
Darkrai EX /Absol

Week 3

A-League

1. Trubbish (PLS 65)/Sigilyph (Megalo Cannon)/ Sawk (Megalo Cannon) /Masqurain
2. Team Plasma w/ Keldeo EX and Cobalion
3. Team Plasma
4. Team Plasma w/ Keldeo EX and Absol

B-League

1. Virizion EX/Genesect EX/Driflbim (DRX)/Drifblim (Megalo Cannon) /Mr. Mime
2. Blastoise/Keldeo EX/Black Kyurem EX /Victini (NVI 15)
3. Darkrai EX /Absol
4. Gothitelle/Accelgor

Top 8
Blastoise/Keldeo EX /Black Kyurem EX (PLS)
Virizion EX/Genesect EX/Drifblim
Hydreigon/Darkrai EX/Mr. Mime(PLF)/Virizion EX
Garbodor /Terrakion (NVI)/Mewtwo EX /Virizion EX


Week 4


A-League

1. Plasma Klinklang

B-League

1. Virizion/Virizion EX/ Mewtwo EX/Bouffalant
2. Thundurus EX /Deoxys EX/Kyurem
3. Virizion EX /Genesect EX/Drifiblim
4. Darkrai EX/Absol/Keldeo EX

Top 8
Darkrai EX/Mewtwo EX/Absol
Virizion EX/ Genesect EX
Darkrai EX / Absol
Landorus EX/Sawk /Mewtwo EX /Bouffalant

Metagame development analysis and interesting facts



When it comes to A-league, Plasma reigned in all of the tournaments. There was always some random deck that surprised the Plasma dominance (like the cool Trubbish/Sigilyph), but in the end, it’s pretty obvious, which deck is the most suitable for younger players in Japanese players’ opinion. All of the weeks pretty much just made the argument I said earlier even more valid – all the Juniors should heavily playtest especially against Plasma if attending Nationals / Worlds.

What I like about all the weeks in B-league is that the results are very different. Suicune/Terrakion was a very hard counter against the dominating EX-decks of the format and that’s why it’s the other deck I’ll take a quick look at in this entry.

Soon after Suicune/Terrakion won the tournament, Genesect EX decks were prepared against them and teched some non-EX attackers to their decks. This brought immediate results as Virizion EX/Genesect EX rose to the top spot of the week 3’s tournament. The deck kept strong even though morphed a little for the week 4 as Virizion EX/Mewtwo EX/Bouffalant/Virizion won the tournament. In the end, no matter how we look at these results – Virizion EX will be one of the best cards in the current format. And in the end it’s no surprise, it can energy accelerate your attackers and it gets you rid of Special Conditions thus countering very popular things like Hypnotoxic Laser and Accelgor.

Also, the questions which often pops up when talking about Worlds’ qualifiers is did the most legendary Pokémon TCG player  Tsuguyoshi Yamato get in to Worlds Championships via these tournaments? No he didn’t! Once again he was just two games away from getting the invite and travel award to Worlds as he placed third in the week 3’s tournament with Absol/Darkrai EX. Also, Amu-san who helped me around in the Japanese shop tournament got 2^nd in the very same tournament with Blastoise/Keldeo EX/Black Kyurem EX /Victini (NVI 15)! It must have been one heck of a tournament. According to my information Yuta Komatsuda didn’t get the invite either and as he was “only” in top8 in the Worlds last year, we’ll probably see both Yamato and Komatsuda trying to Grind themselves into Worlds once again. 

Next, let’s take a look at the winning decklist of the interesting Suicune/Terrakion rogue.




The winning Suicune/Terrakion decklist


Pokemon:

4x Suicune(Blastoise + Kyurem EX Combo Deck)
3x Terrakion(NVI)
=7

Trainer:

4x Professor Juniper
4x N
4x Skyla
2x Bianca
4x Pokemon Catcher
4x Switch
4x Silver Mirror
4x Eviolite
2x Ultra Ball
2x Energy Search
1x Revive
1x Tool Scrapper
1x Dowsing Machine
2x Tropical Beach
=39

Energy:

5x Water Energy
5x Fighting Energy
4x Double Colorless Energy
=14


Suicune – Water – HP100
Basic Pokemon

Ability: Safeguard
Prevent all effects of attacks, including damage, done to this Pokemon by Pokemon-EX.

[W][C][C] Aurora Beam: 70 damage.

Weakness: Grass (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 2


Silver Mirror – Trainer
Item

Pokemon Tool: Attach a Pokemon Tool to 1 of your Pokemon that doesn’t already have a Pokemon Tool attached to it.

If the Pokemon this Tool is attached to is not a Pokemon-EX, it is unaffected by damage and effects from Team Plasma Pokemon.

You may play as many Item cards as you like during your turn (before your attack).


Strategy


In short, this deck is a combination of Quad Terrakion and Quad Sigilyph on steroids. The deck plays Suicune and Terrakion, because Suicune prevents all the attacks from EX-Pokémon while Terrakion is just the best non-EX attacker there is. When you combine these two with Silver mirror, which gives the Pokémon a “Plasma Safeguard” you have an autowin against all the Plasma decks that aren’t prepared against them.

The magic in this deck is very similar to Quad Terrakion and Quad Sigilyph, it counters directly to the core of the metagame and getting 6 prizes against it is a complete pain in the butt. Even though G-Booster Genesect EX is able to OHKO Suicune, because it hits through the Safeguard, it still burns a lot of resources. Straight Genesect EX/Virizion EX doesn’t have a straight answer against this deck and they will always run out of resources against this deck. This deck is the only deck in the whole format, which doesn’t play ANY EX-Pokémon in it.

I’m sure the deck will see play in the west as well, because sometimes people just forget about counter decks and concentrate mainly on countering the most popular decks (i.e. EX decks). This deck and variants of this deck will pop up from time to time whenever people let their guard down, but the deck can’t really become a tier1 variant, because countering it is way too easy. The deck doesn’t run energy acceleration and no Pokémon in it hits with 1 energy, so in theory the deck is horrible. In fact on paper I wouldn’t have thought the deck would be able to win anything, but after all it’s a rogue, not a metagame deck and that’s what makes it so interesting, but also explains at the same time its lack of success in the next weeks.

One time wonder? Nope. A tier1 contender? Nope. A very good deck at the right place at the right time? Damn right.




Virizion/Genesect concept list


This list is not directly from anywhere, but just a concept list, which I gathered after looking at several Japanese lists and combined them to my whopping 5 test games. Still, the deck is simple but deadly.


Pokemon:

4x Virizion EX
3x Genosect EX
=7

Trainer:

4x Professor Juniper
4x N
3x Skyla
2x Bianca
1x Cheren
4x Ultra Ball
3x Shadow Triad
4x Pokemon Catcher
4x Eviolite
3x Energy Switch
2x Switch
2x Skyarrow Bridge
1x Tool Scrapper
1x G Booster (ACE Spec)
1x Super Rod
1x Max Potion
1x Town Map
=41

Energy:

11x Grass Energy
1x Plasma Energy
=12





Virizion-EX – Grass – HP170
Basic Pokemon

Ability: Spring Breeze

Pokemon with [G] Energy attached to them cannot be affected by Special Conditions. (Remove all Special Conditions from your Pokemon with [G] Energy attached to them.)

[G][C] Emerald Slash: 50 damage. You can attach 2 [G] Energy from your deck to one of your Benched Pokemon. If you do, shuffle your deck afterwards.

When Pokemon-EX has been Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.

Weakness: Fire (x2)
Resistance: Water (-20)
Retreat: 1


Genesect-EX – Grass – HP170
Basic Pokemon (Team Plasma)

Ability: Red Signal

When you attach a Plasma Energy to this Pokemon from your hand, you may switch your opponent’s Active Pokemon with 1 of his or her Benched Pokemon.

[G][G][C] Megalo-Cannon: 100 damage. Does 20 damage to one of your opponent’s Benched Pokemon. (Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance when damaging the Bench.)

When Pokemon-EX has been Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.

Weakness: Fire (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 1


G-Booster – Trainer
Item (Team Plasma)

Pokemon Tool: Each Pokemon can have only 1 Pokemon Tool attached to it at any time.

If this card is attached to Genesect-EX, it gains the following attack:

[G][G][C] G-Booster: 200 damage. Discard 2 Energy cards attached to this Pokemon. This attack is not affected by effects on the Defending Pokemon.

ACE SPEC: You can’t have more than 1 ACE SPEC card in your deck.

You can use any number of Item cards during your turn.


Simple yet (too?) good


My first impression of this deck wasn’t exactly a good one. I think the deck in general is step into wrong direction when it comes to the general game play. The deck is super strong. It’s straightforward. It wins all the EX-decks hands down when correctly played. And to make matters worse, prizing or not prizing the one precious G Booster decides pretty much how the game goes. Especially in mirror matches. If the other player has G-Booster in prizes and the other doesn’t the game is over as soon as you lay down the prizes. 

The problem with G-Booster is that even though it’s an ACE Spec it can be taken back from the discard pile with Shadow Triad. An Ace Spec that can be recycled without Recycle or Junk Hunt? Not fun at all. I don’t want to hype the deck too much before it’s way too early, but I think everyone looking at G-Booster and the list of this deck knows that printing G-Booster isn’t the best decision ever. Virizion EX naturally counters all the Special Condition decks and G-Booster counters all the EX AND Plasma counters, because it hits through everything from Sigilyph, to Silver Mirror and Plasma Klinklang’s Ability. It’s obviously good, because a variant of the deck won 3/4 of the tournaments and a counter deck was made against it, but just how good it is – that we’ll see when the cards are released in August.

Thankfully there are lot of time for the rotation to do its tricks for this deck and since there are a lot more important tournaments upcoming this season that have nothing to do with this deck, I’ll leave my small rant to this.






Conclusion

Despite my little rant, I still see a bright future for the future metagame. Suicune/Terrakion is a very good example how nothing is set in stone in Pokémon TCG and counters can be made even for the best decks out there (yes, even Gardevoir/Gallade was counterable, been there done that). These result show a very strong dominance of a few decks that are very EX-based (especially in the Juniors division), but counter are always cheaper, so I believe that the creative players will have the advantage in the next season, which is only a good thing.

I hope you enjoyed this sneak peek to the future and that it got you excited about the upcoming season. Now that Worlds’ qualifiers are once again over in Japan, it’s time to look ahead to National Championships and World Championships. It’s only under 2 weeks for my Nationals and I’m super pumped up and nervous since I haven’t had that much success this season!

Anyways, as always, feel free to question or comment on anything regarding this article. I’ll try to dig up any information you may be interested in.

Thanks for reading!