Preparing for the FGG GLC 1k

Full Grip Games is starting up their release weekend tournament events again beginning with the Journey Together set release! The GLC event will be held Sunday, March 30th, at the new Full Grip tournament hall. Past events were a blast to watch, the biggest full-length GLC tournaments you could find, and the casts were always legendary for the GLC scene.\

The Journey Together release brings several important new cards to the format and will most certainly shake up the meta in a big way! If you’re traveling to Full Grip to participate in the tournament, you will need answers to the biggest meta threats. Let’s dive in!

Hop’s Colorless

The new (but same) meta Colorless deck will most certainly involve many of the new Hop’s cards released in Journey Together. We all loved Snorlax before, but now there are two!

Hop’s deck includes three new Pokemon lines for Colorless, as well as the most ridiculously overpowered tool to exist in Pokemon TCG history, Hop’s Choice Band, and the new all game Battle VIP Pass, Hop’s Bag. 

Pokemon

Hop’s Snorlax boosts the damage of all Hop’s Pokemon’s (including its own) attacks to the active by 30. While it hits for 170 with its ability active, it does have the downside of inflicting 80 damage to itself. In a vacuum, this card is balanced enough, but when you pair it with Cramorant, things start getting a bit out of hand. Cramorant can only attack when the opponent has 3 or 4 Prize cards remaining, but it solves the only real issue Colorless had before; chaining attackers turn after turn. Hitting for 120 damage for 1 energy, 150 with Snorlax in play and 180 with Hop’s Choice Band (for free - more on that later) will make Hop’s Colorless a force to be reckoned with.

If Snorlax and Cramorant didn’t do it for you, perhaps Dubwool’s gust on evolution will. This card isn’t likely to see as much play as the basics, but it is a built-in answer to cards like Eiscue or Nidoqueen that completely wall Basic-only decks. During testing, Zman and Waffles found Dubwool to be a huge boon to the Turbo Colorless archetype.

Trainers

Hop’s engine includes two of the wildest cards to be printed in recent memory. Starting with Hop’s VIP Pass - sorry, Hop’s Bag - you can grab two basic Hop’s Pokemon and put them on your bench, at any point in the game.

Hop’s Choice Band is a combination of Defiance Band and Counter Gain, making Hop’s Pokemon deal an extra 30 damage to the active and reducing their attack costs by 1 Colorless without a behind-in-prizes restriction.

Postwick is a new stadium that says all Hop’s Pokemon deal an additional 30 damage to the opponent’s active.

A first-turn Guzma & Hala has Hop’s Snorlax swinging for 230 damage turn 1, and if you searched for Guzma & Hala with Tag Call, you can also get yourself a Mallow & Lana to heal it up for round 2! The pressure Hop’s engine applies will be extremely hard for setup decks to deal with. Players will need to creatively deal with this new monstrosity.

Potential Answers to Hop

Parallel City offers an interesting solution to the Hop’s dilemma. Parallel will limit Hop’s bench to force more recovery and potentially lose some of the engine. Colorless players usually like to have some combination of Skwovet, Oranguru, Bibarel and Cinccino on the bench for draw power. With Parallel in play, they have to choose carefully whether they want to maintain a full draw engine or keep an attacker online. Colorless is lacking without its draw engine, so any time it’s possible to limit that is a huge win. In addition to being a huge plus in the Colorless matchup, Parallel City is an all-around amazing Stadium against many other types too.

Silent Lab hits several strong meta decks pretty hard, and it will often come in clutch against Colorless. If your opponent is playing the basic draw engine with Oranguru and Skwovet, shutting those off can stall them out for a turn or two. Silent Lab has the added benefit of turning off both Snorlaxes’ abilities.

Ability lock is nearly universally good in GLC (sorry Fighting), and it’s no different against Colorless. Turning off Colorless abilities for even a short period of time can mean the difference between winning and losing. Any player looking to make a meta call should heavily consider whether ability lock fits into their gameplan. Taking a mid-game knockout with Wobbuffet, turn 1 Ascension into Weezing, or a Garbotoxin full game ability lock down is powerful against most meta decks in Gym Leader Challenge.

Spread is surprisingly effective against Colorless! Colorless loves having its bench full for most of the game, churning through its deck at will. Use this to your advantage and spread early and often. Lightning spread can take 2-4 prize turns consistently against Colorless, if it gets set up with early Electivire and Regieleki attacks. Hitmonbros has the weakness advantage against Colorless and Hitmontop KOs Skwovet with a single Finishing Combo. Raging Bolt can stall Colorless early by sniping the Skwovet on turn 1 or 2 with ease. Consider if a spread game plan works for you!

Overall, Hop’s Colorless is sure to be a powerful and high usage deck come Journey Together. If you’re not traveling to Ohio with a plan for it, you better hope they give out participation packs!

There’s a New Wail in Town

Because 230 effective HP wasn’t enough before, TPC decided that 240 base HP with no ability was necessary. This new Wailord is a cut and replace version of the Vivid Voltage Wailord. In comparison to the old model though, this one has +40 HP and deals an extra 10 damage per attached Water Energy.

Copycatters no longer have the easy answer to Wailord, and all competitors at the release event will need a solution for this new behemoth. If Water can chain heals, opponents will be in for a bad time against this Wailord. Even without healing at all, the new whale on the block is nearly a guaranteed 2 for 1 in the prize trade.

The GLC card pool does have some built-in answers for Wailord, but they are few and far between:

• Tapu Bulu with a Muscle Band
• Zarude with 5 energy + Venusaur
• Entei with 5 energy + Charizard
• Melmetal
• Camerupt
• Arcanine
• Feraligatr
• Poliwrath
• Most lightning attackers
• 3 heads Brambleghast
• Copperajah with a damage counter on it
• Crisis Punch
• Some further niche options

There is less to discuss with the new Wailord because it doesn’t come with an entire built-in package of cards, but it is going to be a problem to deal with. Against hydro pump decks using Wailord, be sure to spam Hex Maniac when possible to stall out your opponent, play Parallel City to limit their bench support and hit them faster than they can hit you.

I Bid You Budew

Grass decks are going to be asking you all weekend, can you deal with Budew? How does your list respond to being item locked on turn 1 or turn 2 going first? Budew has given Grass lists a new option for stalling early game while they set up their board. If you can take a fast KO on Budew, you get the advantage. Should you swap from Scrap Pickup Tinkatink to Boundless Power (40 damage for 1 Psychic Energy)? Maybe you should’ve already swapped away from your 60 HP Pokemon anyways due to Raging Bolt. You must seriously consider the effect that item lock has on your list and how you can handle it because it is certain there will be at least several Budews in the tournament.

High-Speed Meta

Perhaps completely deserving of its own article, something that has an ever-increasing impact on GLC is the speed at which decks take their first KOs. In the past, we were all aware of the donk potential of Zapdos or Hoopa, but as TPC prints more and more aggro Pokemon like Fan Rotom and Raging Bolt, the total number of turns in GLC games is decreasing rapidly.

Fan Rotom is nearly Winona + Zapdos in a single card. Raging Bolt has copious routes to take a KO on 60 HP bench sitter turn 1 or turn 2 going first. If you haven’t made the swap to 70 HP basics, you should definitely consider doing so. As for Fan Rotom, there is no counter-play except for Silent Lab. Even so, you are giving your opponent a stadium out to KO your active turn 1.

Maybe the real problem, however, is the Tag Call engine. Guzma & Hala gets stronger and stronger as more tools, special energy and stadiums are printed. Entire decks are built around the Tag Call engine these days, whether that means an aggro attacking strategy, or setting up as fast as possible using Artazon, Capture Energy and Technical Machine: Evolution. Guzma & Hala, in my opinion, has become a problem for GLC and should be put on a watch list for a potential ban. Doing so would increase the total number of turns of GLC games and bring more strategy and routing back to the format. I digress.

Seeing that we are now fully in a big basic meta, it would be smart to ensure your deck can hang with decks like Turbo Colorless and Turbo Dragons that have heavy hitters attacking every turn with big HP values.

Bonus Considerations

Big tournaments with a best of 1 format are prime for rogue decks, or even less common very powerful decks. Be sure to have answers for the following scenarios.

Control

There will, without a doubt, be many control players at the release event. A recent revelation in the control world, Egg Mill, a powerful item and supporter lock deck with a Torterra sweeper could make an appearance. Wailord Control, AKA Leviathan, with easy Lost City tutoring and a big sweeper in Special Waves Wailord is tough to deal with, and Galaxy Brains control which rips your hand, locks down your attackers and sweeps with Luxray can also make an appearance.

Playing against decks like these requires recognizing your opponent’s game plan before it’s fully in motion and playing accordingly. Keep a careful eye on what Pokemon your opponent is putting into play early for signs of any of these or other control decks. Don’t over bench against control, and know when you need to go aggro or when to slow things down. If you can, get some practice in the CardBoard Warriors discord before the event. There are certainly many control players that would be happy to help you get some reps in there!

Spread

In Gym Leader Challenge, spread variants are far more popular than Standard. Spread is a very strong archetype, but is very beatable if you play carefully. Overbenching against spread is dangerous and as such, it is important to stagger your attackers taking as little damage per turn as possible.

If you play Water, Fighting, Grass or Psychic, consider whether you’d be wise to play a bench barrier or not. Some decks can play without one, but it might be smart to add Manaphy, Mew, Mr. Mime, etc. to your list!

Comeback Mechanics

No deck can win every coin flip and start out in the lead. It’s imperative that a strong deck includes a comeback mechanic, or a way to take multiple prizes in a turn (or deny prizes) to make up the prize trade. If a Snorlax starts hitting you from turn 1, how can you turn the tides and win the game?

Wailords of all kinds take easy 2 for 1s in most cases simply by being incredibly difficult to KO. Psychic decks can deny prizing by spamming Hex Maniac or taking knockouts with Wobbuffet making it difficult for their opponent to respond with another attacker. Raging Bolt can demolish its opponent’s support Pokemon by repeatedly bench sniping. Guzzlord takes two prizes just by attacking.

If you are planning to make top cut at FGG, make sure your deck can respond while it’s behind, and you have a map to swing the prize trade when necessary.

Decks That Can Win it All

Considering the current meta and the expected impact of Journey Together, I selected three decks (besides Colorless) that I think have a great shot at winning the tournament along with one dark horse candidate. This is not an exhaustive list, but we should definitely see these at or near the top alongside Hop if these lists are played.

Mahone Psychic

Andrew Mahone, father of Gym Leader Challenge, still has the premier Psychic deck list. A player piloting this style of list at peak skill level can beat any deck and can win any tournament. I expect to see this archetype fare well during the Journey Together release event.

Dragon

These days Dragon has many looks. There is the typical Fast Call and Sonic Slip list as seen below which can play very similar to a beatstick Psychic list. The controls Fast Call gives the pilot over the game state is second to none. That said, Dragon can be inconsistent due to its signature mixed energy costs and the inherent delay and increased variance of relying on Stage 2 Pokémon to round out a board state.

Here to solve the problems that standard Dragon has, Turbo Dragon, or DragoBox as it is known online, runs only Basic Pokémon and a “turbo” item engine meant to draw through the deck as fast as possible while playing power cards every turn. Early Raging Bolt (as early as turn 1) is devastating for setup decks, and Reshiram, Crispin, DDE, Wishful Baton and more mean you’re attacking almost every turn once you get going. DragoBox can go far if piloted well. Credit to LeeHoffman and Ghouls for this list!

Dark

Having already won an FGG release event, Dark almost hasn’t changed, but that doesn’t keep it from being a top tier deck. Any deck that can take multiple prizes from nowhere has a great shot to win any game. Early Weezing stall into Guzzlord with low maintenance attackers carrying the rest of the way is going to carry players far. It’s amazing Dark is still as powerful as it is given the relatively low number of impactful cards recently released for it.

Dark Horse - Lightning Spread

My special pick for dark horse of the tournament is Lightning Spread. The list below is credited to Plopal from Full Grip’s locals and wins tournaments frequently. Many players are dropping bench barriers from their lists after the axing of Amazing Rare Raikou, and they will be punished if they run up against a good spread player. Electivire and Regieleki make a dangerous core of spread attackers, while Zapdos can end games before they begin. Look for a spread list to make a deep run like it did at NAIC, where it won the whole thing!

In Closing

Good luck to all the trainers competing at Full Grip. I hope you draw VIP Pass turn 1, win every coin flip and have a great time playing the best format in the Pokemon TCG!