Hi there. In this Pokemon TCG post, I share a small tournament report. This tournament is a celebration event of the Pokemon World Championships from August 15, to August 17, 2025. The World Championships is an annual event for peak Pokemon gaming in the Video game (VGC), Pokemon GO, Pokemon UNITE and the Trading Card Game (TCG). There are also special merchandise for people to purchase and scalp. Yes, scalp as in buy and sell high.
Note: There is no World Championships for the Pocket game yet.
A lot of card stores are holding local tournaments to celebrate the Pokemon World Championships. There are special prizes and giveways at these events.
This post is long, read what you want.
Tournament Format & Prizing
I make the trip to Toronto for a day event of shopping, pick up stuff and play at this tournament. (Not much card stores in my area so I make the trip.)
At this place, the tournament cost is free. For every win you get one Prize Pack. Every particpating player gets a Pikachu Promo card. Winners in their age division receive a Play Stamp Pikachu promo card (Same card but a stamp on it).
Decklist: Ethan's Ho-Oh ex & Armarouge
I was not getting great results online with Archaludon ex. This time around I wanted to try out Ethan's Ho-Oh ex with Armarouge.
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Here is the decklist (or something close to it):
Pokémon: 14
1 Latias ex SSP 76
1 Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex PRE 27
1 Charcadet PAR 26
1 Munkidori TWM 95
1 Terapagos ex SCR 128
2 Charcadet SSP 32
1 Iron Hands ex PAR 70
1 Durant ex SSP 4
1 Fezandipiti ex SFA 38
1 Mew ex MEW 151
3 Armarouge PAF 15
2 Ethan's Ho-Oh ex DRI 39
1 Lillie's Clefairy ex JTG 56
1 Reshiram ex WHT 20
Trainer: 13
1 Counter Catcher PAR 160
1 Switch CRZ 144
1 Pokégear 3.0 SVI 186
3 Night Stretcher SFA 61
1 Pal Pad SVI 182
4 Nest Ball SVI 181
1 Boss's Orders PAL 172
4 Iono PAL 185
1 Super Rod PAL 188
4 Professor's Research JTG 155
2 Earthen Vessel PRE 106
3 Area Zero Underdepths SCR 131
4 Ultra Ball SVI 196
Energy: 3
7 Basic {R} Energy SVE 10
1 Legacy Energy TWM 167
4 Prism Energy BLK 86
Total Cards: 60
This deck has a mix of fire attackers to deal with popular Gholdengo ex decks. It also has other type of attackers to exploit weaknesses of other popular decks.
Ethan's Ho-Oh ex accelerates Fire energy to itself on the bench. The Armarouge's Fire Off ability can transfer and cycle Fire Energy, Legacy Energy and Prism Energy from the Bench to your attacker of choice.
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Round One Vs Dragapult ex
My opening hand was not really workable. It was something like Terapagos ex, one Charadet, Boss's Orders, 3 Fire Energy and one other not useful card. I had no Nest Ball, or draw Supporter. My opening Active Spot Pokemon was Terapagos ex.
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The opponent opened with a Dreepy. It was a Dragapult ex deck that I was facing. Because I have Lillie's Clefairy in my deck, I am somewhat favoured in theory. With a bad opening hand, this advantage is not really there. I go from a 70% favoured winrate (estimated) to a 30% chance to win.
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His first turn going second had 3 Buddy Buddy Poffins which gave him a good and maybe near perfect first turn setup. The opponent's setup was something like 2 Dreepy, 2 Duskull and one Budew.
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I did get an opening lead with 2 Single prize knockouts. First one was combining Boss's Orders on his Dreepy with a Psychic Energy. The next Knockout was on a Budew.
Around turn 5, he attacks me with Dragapult ex with Phantom Dive. My Charadet with 60 HP is Knocked out on the Bench. In this next turn of me, I wanted to get a one hit Knockout on his Dragapult ex with Lillie's Clefairy and Armarouge. A Knockout would set my opponent back really far behind and it would be likely that I would win. I needed to get an Armarouge from my deck.
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My outs were something like 3 or 4 Ultra Balls, 2 or 3 Armarouge in the deck. I ended up not getting any. I missed the 25% chance as it was something like 7 outs out of a 28 card deck. The opponent's next turn was a 5 prize turn that involved Counter Catcher, Dusknoir sacrifice and Dragapult ex attack with spread damage to a 10 HP Reshiram ex I had. It was not the opponent's 5 prize turn win that was annoying, it was more of me missing the Armarouge.
Round Two - Brutal Loss To Super Lucky Rogue Tatsugiri ex Deck
I did notice on the matchup sheet that this opponent had 1 win and 0 loss. My pairing was weird as I am 0 loss 1 win with a guy with 1 win and 0 loss. The matchmaking system does that sometimes with an odd amount of players.
The guys opening Pokemon is a Tatsugiri ex.
From online games, I have played against a few Tatsugiri ex decks. I might have won against one and loss against 2. The losses consisted on the opponent getting a super lucky turn 2 with Crispin + Sparkling Crystal. With that combo the Tatsugiri ex can use Cinnibar Lure to Bench evolved Pokemon from the top 10 cards of the deck. Benching evolved Pokemon from Tatsugiri ex's attack bypasses the usual wait for next turn to evolve procedure. This real life opponent got this same combo and the perfect setup turn 1. The Pokemon were, Charmeleon, Dusknoir, Pidgeot ex and this Annihilape.
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The opponent getting the Tatsugiri ex Cinnibar Lure attack is one thing, but getting those Pokemon onto the Bench was something else. Some maximum luck bullshit going on. It was going to be super difficult to beat this. Not impossible but very difficult to beat. Early Pidgeot ex is hard to stop as he can use Quick Search to get any card he wants.
After his crazy turn 1, I needed a Knockout on his Tatsugiri ex to get a lead. I miss it and then it snowballs out of control. He gets Charizard ex on turn 2 and starts swinging. I lose the setup race and Prize race in the end. Not much I can do. Very annoying. This is similar to losing to a zergling rush in Starcraft.
In a best of one 3 rounds local tourney, there are times when rogue decks overperform and win. This was one of those times. I did not get that bad luck this time around but the opponent had plot armour or something. I may have made a few minor mistakes here. Overall, the guy was super lucky. One of the worst losses I've had in person.
The guy on my right was someone I see often at this place. We have mutual respect of each other when it comes to this game. He ended up losing to Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex as a Charizard ex + Dragapult ex player. He was also 0 wins and 2 losses. The guy saw my deck and told me that he would actually forfeit if he faces me in round 3.
Round Three Versus Youngster
My third round opponent was also 0 wins and 2 losses. It was a young boy (age 9) playing Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex. This matchup could go either way as in good for me or bad for me. It depends on my opening hand, board state and his board state in the opening turns.
My opening knockout around turn 3 was using Wellspring Ogerpon ex to attack his active Snorunt and Munkidori with a Dark Energy on the Bench. (He had no Shaymin.)
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The opponent responded with a Counter Catcher and used Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex to Knockout my Mew ex. (or was it Latias ex? I forgot)
This kid can play really aggressive. Even before the start of this game, I don't underestimate kids in this game. I have seen some good plays from kids in person and from Youtube videos.
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My next move and knockout was using Armarouge and Fezandipiti ex to attack his lone Marnie's Impidimp on his Bench. It was an okay turn by me.
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The opponent's next turn was using something like Boss's Orders to get my Latias ex for another 2 Prize Knockout. He is ahead with 2 Prize cards left versus me at 3.
For my next turn, I was planning for a one hit Knockout. If I got the knockout then my opponent had no Backup Pokemon to replace with and then I win. In this turn, I miss the knockout after cards sequencing and drawing cards. I actually got nervous during his next turn as he was close to winning.
In my opponent's next turn, he just knocks out my Tatsugiri in the Active Spot. He is now 1 Prize Card away from winning while I have 3 Prize cards left. The opponent has only Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex in the Active Spot with no Bench.
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In this next turn of mine, I have another chance to try to one hit Knockout his Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex. The plan was to Reshiram ex for the late game win. I use Iono + Fezandipti ex to get the cards I need for this knockout win. This was a close game in the end.
Post Tournament + Prizes
In the end I conclude with 1 win and 2 losses. I ended up as rank 16 out of 21. Aside from possible minor mistakes, I don't think I played poorly given the cards I had. Round one was unlucky at the start and near the end. My opponent in round two had a perfect turn one and setup which was too much to overcome. (Either it was super lucky or possibly cheating??!!) The round 3 youngster almost beat me too. Winning this 21 person local tournament was not going to be easy but it was kinda rough for me.
The tournament organizer was generous in terms of prizing. Even though it was one Prize pack per win, all participants got extra Prize packs. I got 3 extra packs (1 per round). Here were the cards I got from the Prize Pack Series 6 packs.
One of the free packs I got was the latest Prize Pack Series 7. I was super thrilled to get a Play Stamped Fezandipiti ex. Although I did not need an extra Fezandipiti ex, it was super nice to pull one. I think the market value of this is at least 40 CAD. There are (degen) players who are seeking Play Stamp cards to make their decks look more legit and/or expensive.
My round 2 opponent ended up going 3 wins and 0 losses but he did not get first. There was a different guy with 3 wins and 0 losses as well. This different guy has a better resistance where the opponent's win record is higher as the tiebreaker.
The youngster round 3 opponent went 0 wins and 3 losses. However he was the only kid in his age group so he "won" the Play Stamped Pikachu promo card. He got the ultimate participation prize.
In terms of deck choice, I did not think Ethan's Ho-Oh + Armarouge was bad. I expected a lot of Gholdengo ex decks and Dragapult ex decks. The deck underperformed in some ways. Either I try again with an updated list of this deck or choose something else.
Even though my playing tournament was not great, it was great to get some swag. There were free stickers and a Lost Origin poster that the store did not want anymore.
Here were the pulls from the 3 free Prize packs and the 1 Pack from the 1 win.
Getting the Night Stretcher, Crispin and Fezandipiti ex were really nice. The Fezandipiti ex pull was super good. Fezandipiti ex market value is something like 20 CAD at least. Hard to find and highly playable.
Despite the 1 win and 2 loss, getting the free stuff and pulls was nice. It kind of made up for losing round 1 and 2.