2025 EUIC Switch Series Recap
The Switch Series continued at EUIC this year and the top cut was shocking! With 109 players, this is the second largest GLC tournament on record. Unfortunately we weren’t able to acquire the count of each type played, but we have 6 out of 8 lists from top cut and the match history. The most surprising part of the top cut meta is the complete lack of Psychic and Water. With over 25% of the field playing Psychic and Water, seeing none in the top cut is baffling.
I'd like to give a huge thanks to Andre Castela, long-time Cardboard Warrior and Hall of Fame member, for all his work compiling this information. This article wouldn't have happened without him!
Tournament Meta
Bracket Runout
The top 8 bracket appears as follows. Unfortunately, Fighting had a mirror in top 8 because otherwise it had all-around great matchups.
Top 8
Hitmonbros
The Top 8 Hitmonbros list is very similar to the Top 4 list with the addition of Ting-Lu. This player opted for the additional 30 spread attacker and stadium remover leaning more heavily into spread which played well into the meta. Fighting was a great meta call with so much Lightning and Colorless everywhere!
Lightning Spread
As far as Lighting Spread lists go, this one is well structured outside of the damage reduction tools. The Pot Helmet and Aether Paradise Conversation Area are unique choices. Putting Counter Gain in one of those spots would be a big boost to the list. This spread list wants to attack with Electivire and Raichu until an attack from Regieleki can clean the board of important threats and support Pokemon. If the opponent is not playing healing and not staggering its bench, there’s almost no way for this deck to lose.
Dragon
The Top 8 Dragon list is standard-fare for Dragon with the recently released Haxorus line. This deck poses a huge threat to anything tanky or with Special Energy. Garchomp is the comeback mechanic and this list opted for Tatsugiri + Drakloak over Fast Call Dragonite. It’s become common-place to play lower maintenance support Pokemon lines because of how prevalent early gusts are from Colorless and Dragon.
We have an unorthodox list here with no way to handle bench barriers in a semi-spread/semi-beatstick list. I would like to see both Silent Lab and Hex Maniac in this deck to provide an answer to Manaphy, Mr. Mime and Mew. That said, it’s cool to see the Ampharos inclusion and Rotom making a difference.
Top 4
Turbo Colorless
Top 4 Colorless includes Fairy Energy, Mina and Fire Energy and Crispin as additional ways to dump multiple energy per turn. The Dunsparce is very interesting as a way to deal with powerful Okidogis and Fighting decks. Personally, I think that’s a great tech to handle a meta where there is a heavy expectation of Colorless players. In addition, the Dudunsparce gives a way to peel the Dunsparce off the bench in non-weakness matchups and turn it into a draw engine.
Hitmonbros
The Top 4 Hitmonbros deck has answers to everything in the meta. As long as prizing isn’t too bad, and the opponent isn’t playing a ton of healing, this deck can beat everything. The Hitmonbro combo can board-wipe smaller decks while Okidogi, Lucario and Machamp are big hitters into everything else. This was a great meta call in the Colorless heavy field.
Top 2
Tanky Metal
Second place is a very interesting Tanky Metal list! Crystal Cave is the only healing option with no efficient way to recover it. This deck opted to have super tanky Pokemon that can survive an attack and keep going. Very cool to see Metal take the number 2 spot in a field of 109 players!
Champion
Turbo Colorless
Congrats to the tournament champion, Turbo Colorless! A rarely seen Dodrio in this archetype provides a low-cost big hitter to help reload the next attacker faster which can be one of Colorless’ main downfalls. In addition to the extra low cost attacker, Dodrio gives two additional finds off of Fan Rotom's Fan Call ability for quickly setting up the draw engine. Other than Dodrio, this archetype of Colorless has remained incredibly powerful since its origination a couple of years ago. Lost City provides a direct answer to a weakness matchup in Hitmonbros and also deals with problematic loop Pokemon in other archetypes. Colorless has been top dog for a long time and I don’t see that changing any time soon.
Conclusion
Thank you to Pokemon for running the GLC Switch Series at International Championships, and congrats to all the competitors who made it to the Top 8! These events are a great way to pool GLC players and see what types come out on top with real prizing on the line and a big player pool.