Metagaming the ECC

Did the U.S. players get the most out
of Garbodor?

Hello everyone!

Tomorrow morning I’ll leave for the Netherlands, to my 3rd most important tournament of the year – the European Challenge Cup (ECC). For those who don’t know what ECC, it’s practically European Championships for the Pokémon TCG. It gathers over 300 players all around the Europe for the title. Last two years, I have attended the tournament, and reached top16 both times. I hope, I’ll continue that streak once again!

Anyways, I know there are some European readers on my blog, so I decided to do a quick metagame analysis of what I expect the ECC metagame to be like. This is also to clear my head before the tournament, because I like writing my thoughts on paper. If you want to follow my ECC run in real-time, remember to follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

This will be quick, but interesting, so let’s get going.

Cities w/ Landorus EX/Mewtwo EX

And the award of the most useless card
of the tournament goes to....

Hello everyone!


After a lot of Eye on Japan articles, it’ back to basics as I played in my second CC this year last weekend! I’ll attend the European Challenge Cup in the Netherlands, which will be held this Saturday-Sunday, so this was my last chance to test any deck for the tournament. If you want to be up-to-date on for my ECC-run, remember to follow me on

Facebook and
Twitter

And you’ll be up-to-date!

I already know that I had tested Hammertime enough for ECC, so I was left with 2 tier1 decks – Landorus EX/Mewtwo Ex and Blastoise/Keldeo EX. On the day before the tournament, I decided to give a try for Landorus EX/Mewtwo EX as I saw a lot of Eelektriks in our last City Championships. So, how it went? We shall see. But let’s start with the list.

Eye on Japan: East meets West

What in the World has Misty's Duel to do with
this article? Read out to find out!

THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE!

Thedeckout.com reached today 1,000,000 page views - something I could've never imagined when I first started my small blog as a Finnish unknown player!

As a thanks to all of you, it’s time for another Eye on Japan entry and today I’ll discuss the things, which are more interesting in my opinion than just the metagame and decks – the differences in tournaments and game play between Japan and the western countries. I was fairly unconfident doing this kind of entry before I went to Japan, but as I’ve now been there, it’s easier for me to write about these things as I have experienced them.

There were some things in Japanese tournament play that I found VERY surprising, so I’m sure you’ll find this entry highly fascinating as well. I think the game would be an ever better experience if we could combine the best things of Japan and west into a one – official – way of doing things. Also, in the end of this article, I’ll discuss some things that some of my blog’s readers have asked me about Japan. Special thanks to Sydney for asking so many good questions!

No time to waste, so let’s get going.

Eye on Japan: All about Thundurus EX / Deoxys EX

Deoxys EX ends the era of Mewtwo EX.

Hello everyone!


As I made my trip to Japan, I had the privilege to take a close look on the Japanese tournament playing and metagame. I asked from you in my Facebook and Twitter, which  article would you like to have first: an article on the most played deck of the current format in Japan (Thundurus EX/Deoxys EX) or an article about the differences between Japanese and western tournaments. You were very active in the social media (thanks for that!) and it was a close race which Thundurus EX/Deoxys EX ended up winning with a small margin.

As you know, I faced this deck 4 times in the tournament I played in Tokyo and all of them had small differences, so I’m pretty comfortable talking about the deck and how it works. I’ll start by giving the list, I think is the best and then explain the strategy and cards of the deck one-by-one.

I know this is very early as the BW8, which this deck mostly consists of, will be released in May. Anyways, let’s roll!

Quad Sigilyph discovers an unscouted metagame

Did Sigilyph's journey end well?

Hello everyone!


It’s been a while since I’ve played in a tournament in FINLAND. However, just after coming back from Japan, I decided go to a City Championships of my home town. I had two deck choices – Blastoise/Keldeo EX and Quad Sigilyph. As you can see, I ended up playing Quad Sigilyph – was it a good or bad decision – that you’ll know when you read the report!

This season we have the same Bye system in Finland as last year and since I haven’t played that much, I’m not that close to any Byes for Nationals. I hoped that I could get at least some points from this tournament and the CC that will be held in two weeks and even top8 placement would be enough since I have played zero Cities this season.

Anyways, I’ll show you the current bye-ranking of the moment after the tournament report. Now, let’s get to the report.

Eye on Japan: Tournament report from Tokyo!

Thundurus EX became familiar for me!

Hello everyone!

As I'm writing this blog -entry I'm on an airplane from Tokyo back to Finland. The trip to Tokyo was awesome and since my blog concentrates only on Pokémon TCG, I won't get to any details about the trip but the details, which matter for you – the tournament experience and discussion about Japanese metagame.

So far, I've had the privilege to play Pokémon TCG in 4 different countries, all kind of tournaments in Finland, Cities and Regionals in Sweden, ECC in the Netherlands and Worlds in the U.S. Thanks to the tournament I played in Tokyo, I've already played in 5 countries! I know there are some players that have experience from even more countries than I do, but I think I'm very blessed by the opportunities to play in such many countries and meet great people.

In the end, Pokémon TCG is all about internationality for me as the player base in Finland is getting smaller and smaller all the time and without my international contacts, the game would turn out to be very dull very quickly.

I would like to dedicate this entry to every single one international Pokémon player, who I have a privilege of knowing. I hope I'm able to describe the awesomeness of the experience in a way that does justice for it. Let's get going!

The Decklist Out makeover + off to Japan!

Hello everyone!

Hammertime will rock the Japan!

Tomorrow is a big day for me as I’ll leave to Japan tomorrow! I’ll visit Tokyo and hopefully attend 1 or 2 Gym Challenges there with my hilariously outdated Hammertime and hope to learn more about Japanese metagame and tournament atmosphere in general. That way I can finally continue my Eye on Japan entries with my own experiences. These things will of course be in my blog only as I don’t like writing about SixPrizes Underground about Japanese stuff – that info should be available for everyone.

Since tomorrow will be a big day for me, I wanted to give you something equally big – and updated list of all the metagame decks! My last update of The Decklist Out was a lackluster as the Cities season was in the beginning, but now all the lists are highly developed and very competitive. Also, the hottest decks now list has been updated and new decks like Klinklang/EX and Quad Sigilyph has made into the list of metagame decks.

I’ll try to keep you updated on my tournaments in Japan in my Facebook and Twitter, so if you aren’t following me yet, now it’s the time!

If there is anything you would like to know about Japanese meta or something else, let me know in the comments, I’ll be checking them regularly while I’m in Japan! Now, to the decklists!