FGG Destined Rivals $3K Results
We're back again after a 2 month layoff since the last Full Grip Games release weekend event. After the DCE and Twin Energy bans, the BDIF is up in the air and the meta is wide open. This weekend provided a great opportunity to determine the top decks.
Hydro Pump Water was a force to be reckoned with this go 'round, and Psychic dominated the metashare with 1/3rd of the field playing Psychic. Andrew and Riley did a great job casting as always, Natalie ran a great tournament, and we had three players top cut again, Trevor, Spence and Brooke!
Meta
Top 8
Brooke English
Munkidori Psychic
Brooke sailed undefeated through Swiss to another top cut at Full Grip! With a few changes, namely swapping to Iron Boulder from Latios to apply more early pressure, Brooke proved yet again that Munkidori Psychic is a top deck to contend with. Credit to her and Zman for pushing this archetype forward through the last few sets!
Austin Charles
Lightning Spread
Austin played Full Grip’s famous favorite spread list, originated by Alex Carpenter. Despite 1/3rd of the field playing Psychic, historically a bad matchup for Lightning Spread, Austin reached top cut meaning he played and piloted very well. This variant is Lightning's strongest list and is tons of fun to play - I highly recommend it.
Otto Shaw
Special Whales
Otto ran the older big whale, Special Waves Wailord, in a powerful special energy Water list. Pairing Wailord with Cetitan as attackers, Inteleon and Articuno for setup, once online, this list is very difficult to deal with.
Spencer Batton
DragoBox
Spence ran it back with DragoBox, hitting his second top cut in a row with the basics-only Dragon list. Many thought Dragon was the favorite to win the event, but only one Dragon reached top 8. Spence went undefeated through Swiss and proved, as always, that he is a strong pilot with a great list.
Top 4
Trevor Redding
Hydro Pump Water
Trevo lost the mirror to Chuckie in top 4 in a very, very close matchup. Trevor opted for tons of energy search and recursion for more consitent energy retrieval (from deck or discard). He is the king of running consistent and powerful decks and piloting them very well.
Ashton Waite
Psychic Box
Ashton ran the all the powerful Psychic cards including Gallade, Dusknoir, Xatu, and Malamar, with a suite of strong attackers to boot. Dusknoir is a great addition to any Psychic deck and allows for explosive board clearing plays. Props to Ashton for great piloting and a solid deck choice!
Finalist
Lion Chen
Turbo Ursaluna Control
Lion successfully revived Ursaluna control with the ultra turbo version. Trekking Shoes, Acro Bike, Battle Compressor, Hapu, Clay and Explorer's Guidance all let him race to the bottom of his deck as fast as possible, then loop mill cards and healing with Ursaluna's Peat Hunt attack. Previous iterations of this deck were supporter heavy and heavily susceptible to hand-disruption, but Lion's creativeness truly solved this problem. I, for one, will be stealing his list - kudos for his creativity and prowess!
Champion
Chuckie Davis
Hydro Pump Water
Chuckie brought a very straightforward and powerful Hydro Pump list and really crushed with great piloting and fantastic fundamentals. The recent addition of 240 HP Wailord really brought this Water deck to another level, and Chuckie won an exciting finals against a difficult matchup. Congratulations to Chuckie!
Conclusion
We were blessed with another fun and exciting Super Bowl weekend for Full Grip Games and the GLC universe! After the DCE and Twin Energy ban, it was great to see how the meta shaped up and what players thought would be the top decks. With an overwhelming amount of Psychic players in the field, will players adjust for the next event, or will Psychic prove to be the continual favorite? Find out next time!