2024 Summer Championship Recap

Thanks to our Sponsor, Heavily Played, the CardBoard Warriors were able to host the GLC Summer Championship with $100 in cash prizes! There were 32 players with 5 rounds of Swiss and a Top 4 best of 1 cut.

The tournament meta was heavily stacked with Psychic, Fighting (!), and Water players. To this date in my GLC career, I have never seen such a heavy meta-share of Fighting players! Going into Round 3, we had 3 2-0 fighting players! Notably absent after the successful performance at the NAIC Switch Series was Dragon and Lightning with no meta-share at all. Also missing from this tournament was Grass representation.

Meta

Type	Count
Psychic	8
Fighting	7
Water	7
Colorless	4
Metal	2
Fairy	2
Fire	1
Darkness	1

Top Cut

Type	Count
Psychic	2
Fighting	1
Water	1

Top 4

Brunno Neves

Brunno plays a somewhat unique brew of water combining two separate archetypes into one. Using Special Waves wailord with both Baxcalibur and Frosmoth is uncommon, but Brunno played very well and showed the strength of his deck. Recycle energy made sure there was always a special energy available to attach to Wailord and even follow up with Inteleon or Kyogre attacks. The sheer power of Water Pokemon shows through in this build.

Matchups

R1: W Water R2: W Water R3: W Fighting R4: L Psychic R5: W Fighting

T4: L Fighting

Bolt

Bolt's Psyhic list, Clairvoyant Mirage, uses a trio of powerful support Pokemon in Xatu, Gardevoir (doubles basic Psychic energy), and Malamar to always have an attack ready every turn without slowing down. The build can hit hard with Latios or snipe with Galarian Articuno and Blacephalon. TM Evolution is a great include to ensure the support Pokemon are evolved into play quickly. What a great build by Bolt!

Matchups

R1: W Psychic R2: W Colorless R3: W Colorless R4: W Water R5: ID Fighting

T4: L Psychic

Top 2

Stakatattack

Stakatattack is back with this unique version of Lost Zone Psychic. This deck is teched to the max for and had some previously unseen inclusions. Enhanced hammer handles Mist Energy and Wash Energy which can solo Lost Zone decks otherwise. While Impersonation Mimikyu is a strong support Pokemon that lets you play two supporters for turn. Use Meowstic to grab Colress's Experiment and Hex Maniac from the deck and play both on the same turn! Unown makes the deck smaller to get to the power cards, while Nihilego is a special out to handling Snorlax and other giant walls.

R1: W Metal R2: L Fighting R3: W Fighting R4: W Colorless R5: W Fighting

T4: W Psychic Finals: L Fighting

Champion

André Castela

Castela should have an article soon forthcoming, so I will let him speak about his deck then. But what I can say is that André has been on an absolute tear with his Hitmonbros deck for the last few months. He has won many tournaments, entered the Hall of Fame, taken second in the Async League and now won a major tournament with Fighting, a previously disrespected type. Okidogi gives Hitmonbros that extra power it needs to really deal with the meta. Congrats to André on the win!

Matchups

R1: W Water R2: W Colorless R3: W Fighting R4: W Water R5: ID Psychic

T4: W Water Finals: W Psychic

Recap

Fighting has really changed with the release of Okdidogi. We saw at least 4 different Fighting archetypes in this tournament be at least reasonably successful in a field with 1/4 players playing Psychic. It is great to see Fighting rise the ranks in strength. How will the meta adapt to Fighting's new strength?

Psychic having two players in the top 4 is no surprise due the power level of the type. Water also showing in top 4 should be no surprise either. What might be the most surprising is the lack of Colorless. With 4 players of Colorless representation, including Geffery Van der Veken himself, it is baffling not to see one in the top 4. Will Fighting gatekeep Snorlax and Colorless going forward? Will Colorless tech Dunsparce or Weakness Guard Energy? We'll have to wait to see!

If you'd like to watch the tournament, you can rewatch the VOD in full on AllAboutThatBaisch's twitch channel!