Dissecting Pokemon Worlds

This year’s World Championship saw the best players from around the world compete with the new cards, setting the stage for the next year of format. While they played with an extra 3 sets that will now rotate, the decks are still a good indication of what to expect in the coming months. You can find the Top 8 decklists here. 

Results

1. Gardevoir GX
2. Golisopod GX / Garbodor
3. Espeon GX / Garbodor
4. Golisopod GX / Garbodor
5. Garbodor / Techs
6. Espeon GX / Garbodor
7. Gardevoir GX
8. Drampa GX / Garbodor

Gardevoir GX

The winner this year was Gardevoir, which is unsurprising. Gardevoir is a popular GX, and has no bad matchups. Out of the Top 8, two players were using Gardevoir, and they had to play each other in the first round of Top Cut. The decks played slightly different Supporters, but were nearly identical. The winning deck has only 6 cards that rotate, and the other Gardevoir player had 7. Considering four of these are VS Seeker, the deck doesn’t lose a lot more than any other deck. Gardevoir will hold its power even after rotation, and be a large player in future events.

Garbodor

While Garbodor didn’t win, it took every Top 8 spot that Gardevoir didn’t. 6 out of the 8 played Garbodor, but most of them were very different decks. Golisopod was the most successful variant, being played into both second and fourth. The reliable damage of Golisopod is a constant threat, forcing its opponents into playing Trainers to deal with it. Garbodor solves the problem of high damage output by scaling up quite massively in the late game. This deck also survives the rotation only losing 5 cards, and will survive for a while as well.

The other popular Garbodor deck was with Espeon. Espeon has been a common pair with Garbodor since Guardians Rising, and this tournament was no different. Espeon is a powerful answer to Gardevoir, and gives the deck a much better chance against it. Even with this edge, the last Espeon deck was eliminated in Top 4 after falling to Gardevoir. Espeon also isn’t going to weather the rotation as well. It loses access to the same cards the other decks do, but it also loses the Eeveelutions that gave access to alternate types. Without them, the deck struggles against certain matchups, such as Metagross.

Conclusion

The rotation will have likely have little impact on the strongest decks. While a few get culled by the rotation, both Garbodor and Gardevoir decks will stay strong. They will be the decks to beat, and determine which other decks rise to the top.