My Player’s Cup 3 Deck!

My Player’s Cup 3 Deck! 

With the Player’s Cup 3 happening right on PTCGO, many discussions are going around for what the “play” for the tournament is. It is important to choose your deck and sometimes stick with it for the Player’s Cup if you are trying to qualify! The big decks right now going around are Pikachu & Zekrom GX, ADPZ, LucMetal, Blacephalon & Centiskorch VMAX! The deck that I have chosen to use to play out all 50 of my keys to qualify for the event is Centiskorch VMAX! Here’s my list & here’s why!

 

The List:

Pokemon: 21

• 3 Centiskorch V  (DAA)
• 3 Centiskorch VMAX (DAA)
• 1 Reshiram & Charizard GX (UNB)
• 2 Volcanion (UNB)
• 4 Jirachi (TEU)
• 1 Giratina (UNI)
• 1 Phione (CEC)
• 1 Galarian Zigzagoon (SWSH)
• 2 Dedenne GX (UNB)
• 2 Crobat V (DAA)
• 1 Eldegoss V (DAA)

Trainers: 28

• 2 Fire Crystal (UNI)
• 1 Great Catcher (CEC)
• 4 Pokemon Communication (TEU)
• 4 Quick Ball (SWSH)
• 4 Scoop Up Net (        RCL)
• 4 Switch (SWSH)
• 3 Giant Hearth (UNI)
• 2 Boss’s Orders (RCL)
• 4 Welder (UNB)

Energy: 11

• 11 Basic Fire Energy

This is my current list that I was inspired by from Ian Robb’s GGtoor winning list! This list feels perfect, and there is not much I can say I would want to change about it. The idea with Centiskorch VMAX, if you don’t already know, is to power up a Centiskorch VMAX with at least 6-7 energy to be able to one-hit KO most VMAXs and Tag Team cards! This is easily accomplished through Volcaion’s Flare Starter attack and, of course, with Welder! With this deck, you mostly want to go second. This way, you can use Both Welder and get full value out of Volcanion’s Flare Starter, which states that when you are going second, you can put 3 energy on your Pokemon in any way you like! This means it is possible to get 5 energy on a Centiskorch V in one turn!

There are 2 different ways that Centiskorch VMAX is seeing play right now; The Scoop Up Net/Jirachi build here, and the Silvally GX build! The Silvally GX build does not use Jirachi or Scoop Up Net but instead uses Silvally GX as a draw engine. (Silvally’s ability allows you to draw cards until you have 5 in hand) This build can be great vs. Marnie & Reset Stamp! The reason why I prefer the Jirachi/Scoop Up Net build is because of Giratina! Giratina is the best way for this deck to beat Lucario & Melmetal GX! The Giratina allows you to play it down and lets you remove a Special Energy on your opponent’s active. This means we can remove the Coating Metal Energy on our opponent’s Metal Pokemon, letting us hit them for Weakness again! With Scoop Up Net, we can reuse Giratina over and over to remove those pesky Coating Metal Energies!

The Jirachi build is also good for digging for your Welders! Jirachi’s ability Stellar Wish states that when it is in your active spot, you may look at the top 5 cards of your deck and grab a Trainer card you find there! This lets you get your Welders, Quick Balls, Giant Hearths, and Switching cards a lot easier! Of course, Jirachi can’t retreat after using this ability because it goes to sleep, so we want to use one of our 4 Switch or Scoop Up Nets to move it! The Scoop Up Net can also synergize with the Galarian Zigzagoon, which helps our math a ton vs. decks like Eternatus VMAX or Pikachu & Zekrom GX! For example, 10 damage from Zigzagoon lets you KO a Pikachu & Zekrom GX with Reshiram & Charizard’s GX Flare Strike! And against Eternatus, since it is tough to get 8 energy on a Centiskorch VMAX quickly to one-shot the Eternatus VMAX, we can instead use 7 energy and a Zigzagoon drop along with a Scoop Up Net to reuse the Zigzagoon! The Phione is in the deck for matchups like Decidueye & Control decks and can sometimes act as a free gust card!

 

The only other attacker in the deck is the Reshiram & Charizard GX. This card is here for matchups like Blacephalon & Pikachu & Zekrom GX. The Reshiram & Charizard can go through your opponent’s Boltund V very easily with an early Double Blaze and has Flare Strike for the Pikachu & Zekrom GXs. Since Pikachu & Zekrom GX can struggle to deal with Reshiram & Charizard in one hit, it can usually take 5-4 prizes before it goes down! Don’t forget you also have outrage for 2 energy to have a powerful swinging attack also! Since Welder is our draw engine, having the high count of Dedenne GX & Crobat V lets you have some draw in your turn since Welder only draws you 3 cards, but they also help you dig for your Welders when you need one!

This deck’s best matchups are ADP, LucMetal, Decidueye & niche decks like Orbeetle VMAX! Most of the time, you take a 50/50 to Pikachu & Zekrom GX because of the paralysis from Raichu & Alolan Raichu GX! The reason why I chose this deck to attempt to qualify for the Player’s Cup 3 is because of its solid ADP matchup; since vs. ADP, you can get 6 energy on a Centiskorch VMAX to knock out the ADP, but also because as a fire deck, you easily KO the Zacians too! ADP is a very popular and powerful deck, and due to the Battle Arena ADP deck, it’s also easily accessible for newer players, which increases its popularity!

If you’re looking for a powerful deck that has good matchups against all those Zacian decks but also has decent matchups across the board, then Centiskorch VMAX is a great deck to bring to the cup!