NAIC 2024 - GLC Switch Series Recap
A huge event took place in the GLC world last weekend at the North American International Championships last week! The Switch Series was the first TPCi-sponsored GLC event with a large prize pool, a top cut and an official winner. Saturday’s event had 168 players with 7 rounds of swiss, followed by a top 16 cut. Top 8 played the next day to determine the winner of the largest official GLC event of all time!
I reached out to as many participants as I could to gather a complete picture of this momentous event in GLC history. Let’s get into the top 8, top 4, top 2 and winner’s lists and feedback! Where I couldn’t get in contact with a competitor, I have filled in some of my own thoughts on the list.
Top 8 Meta
| Type | Count |
| Water | 1 |
| Lightning | 1 |
| Grass | 1 |
| Psychic | 2 |
| Dragon | 3 |
The Top 8 meta is fairly surprising to me. The absence of Colorless is extremely surprising given the powerful nature of the type and the support and tools it has. In addition, I’m quite surprised that 3 Dragon decks reached the top cut. The Dragon lists were all fairly similar, so this could mean that Dragon has some serious consistency now, with the powerful options it gained from Twilight Masquerade.
Top 8
Morgan - Dragon
Morgan played a classic Dragon list with the inclusion of Flapple and Drakloak, new Twilight Masquerade releases. Overall, this is a very conventional list, but it was clearly played very well and was quite powerful with the newfound attacker and extra draw power that Dragon now has at its disposal. According to Morgan, this event was “the ‘sweatiest’ they've ever been playing GLC”, but they found the overall experience to be highly enjoyable, with lots of “friendly people (including staff) and good vibes”. They hope that the success of this event will lead TPCi and other tournament organizers to host more in the future.
“I've participated in several regional GLC events and while doing well is cool, it doesn't really compare to having actual placements and an actual cut and actual stakes.”
Swiss
W R1 Water (Spread)
W R2 Dark (Poison Banquet)
W R3 Colorless (Turbo Lax)
W R4 Water (Special Whales)
W R5 Psychic (Screamo)
L R6 Metal W
R7 ID
Top 16
Colorless (Turbo Lax) W
Top 8
Drop
Kellex - Dragon
This is another very standard Dragon list with all the usual suspects. The main difference here is the lack of Drakloak - Kellex opted to use Tatsugiri as the secondary support Pokémon instead. Parallel City is a great include in Dragon and can help shut down strong setup decks like Psychic, Water and Grass.
“I’m glad to have made a day 2 in GLC which is unbelievable to hear.”
johnnymucho - Water
Johnny played a fairly standard Hydro Pump list with the spicy inclusion of White Kyurem, which hits for 160 damage for three Energy, if it has any Fire energy attached. Starmie can also retrieve the basic Fire energy from the discard pile which makes the White Kyurem easier to recycle, in order to swing multiple times with this powerful basic attacker.
Solomon Shurge - Psychic
Solomon’s list is a comeback style Psychic list that seems to rely on Mimikyu, Counter Catcher, Blacephalon and Lost City to disrupt their opponent’s game plan.
Top 4
Vasshyy
Vasshyy’s list is a standard linear grass list maxed out on consistency cards. Reversal energy is not commonly seen in grass lists, but is a nice combo with Torterra or Brambleghast if things aren’t going your way. With Buddy-Buddy Poffin, Artazon, Turffield Stadium, Brigette, Gloria and Ball Guy, Vasshyy was sure to set up almost every game.
Tyler Ashlock - Psychic
This Psychic list is a variation of ProfessorJaime’s Screamo Psychic list. By using Giratina early game to put damage on the benched Scream Tail, it can hit for big numbers to snipe opposing support Pokémon and upset the opponent’s game plan. As with most Psychic lists, Marshadow, Mimikyu and Gallade are an incredible supporting cast. The real spice in this deck comes from the Natu. This Pokémon’s Delta Plus Ancient Trait means that it takes an extra Prize card each time it takes a knockout, and Devolution Spray allows this attack to come from nowhere, even if the Natu was already evolved earlier in the game. Combined with Technical Machine: Blindside, this little guy can be a force to be reckoned with when it comes to closing out the game.
According to Tyler, all their opponents except for one made it into the Top 16, making their own placement in the Top 4 all the more hard-fought. They were confident in their deck choice, calling it the “perfect 60” in the format currently, even singling out Lt. Surge’s Strategy, Marshadow, and Hex Maniac as being on their personal radar as “pretty degenerate” cards that might even be worthy of a ban in the future. For any up-and-coming players looking to emulate this list, Tyler notes Pal Pad as a strong replacement card for those who might not want to track down a copy of the expensive stadium Tropical Beach.
“I played this deck because I believe it has the most bannable cards and that’s a pretty good argument to playing a deck in my book.”
Swiss
W Psychic
W Colorless
W Dark
W Metal
W Dragon
L Colorless
ID Dragon
Top 16
W Psychic
Top 8
W Water
Top 4
L Lightning
Top 2
Beemeg - Dragon
Another mostly standard Dragon list as Dragon has the smallest pool of available cards by type in GLC (except for Fairy). Beemeg opted for Tatsugiri in addition to Drakloak and Flapple which may have added some additional consistency in the early game, or in the event that Dragonite was gusted and KO’d. A very solid list all round, and congratulations on second place!
Champion
Deino - Lightning
Deino won with an Electivire and Raichu Lightning spread list. Electivire and Raichu hit the board for 50 which can add up quickly. Morpeko, Regieleki, Tapu Koko and Morpeko are the clean up crew. With both dynamotors (Flaaffy and Eelektrik) online, this deck can cycle attackers efficiently and apply a lot of pressure to the opponent.
“...it still felt like a lot of people were there less for prizing and more because they love Gym Leader Challenge…”
Deino had an amazing time at the event, and enjoyed the tough competition against a wide variety of decks, each of which “had its own flavor and unique cards to make them stand out”. For them, the pet inclusion was Morpeko, a relatively new addition to the Lightning roster from Twilight Masquerade. Their reasoning for choosing this Pokémon came from past experience of the extra consistency boost Sableye (a card with an identical Ability) can add to Darkness decks, helping to keep the quality of draws high in the mid-to-late game, earning its spot on the Bench.
During their tournament run, Deino notes that they only encountered two opponents with a “Bench Barrier” Ability, which allowed them to “keep [their] foot on the gas all game”, rather than having to spend too much extra time on finding their counterplay options in Hex Maniac and Silent Lab.
“Every attacker besides Zapdos in the list uses at least one colorless, so Recycle just always improves your odds of getting a response”
They also “cannot understate” the importance of a last-minute list adjustment to their success in this event, with the adaptable U-Turn Board and Recycle Energy, “almost always guaranteeing” that they could attach their Energy efficiently all game long through a combination of consistent manual attachments and the Dynamotor Ability.
Swiss
W Lightning Raikou
L Hitmonbros
W no show
W Dragon
W Special whales
W Darkness
ID Psychic Tinkaton
Top 16
W Colorless Archeops
Top 8
W no show
W Psychic Screamo
W Dragon
Thank you to all the players who submitted feedback and matchup spreads! From all player feedback, the Switch Series seemed like a great success. It had the GLC Discord-world on fire for several days, and has us all looking forward to more in the future. TPCi, please make more of these wonderful events for the Gym Leader Challenge format!