Hello everyone! This is Elena from Gaia Storm TCG and welcome to a very special article. Just yesterday, Pokémon Worlds Championship came to an end. This huge and anticipated event has been the last chapter of a thrilling season where so many epic things have taken place. As it has happened in other international tournaments, it was none other than Zoroark GX the deck that took the win home. The German player Robin Schulz proved his skill with the Zoroak Garbodor strategy that had become so popular in the last months. What decks performed well in this Worlds edition and why was Zoroark the ultimate winner?

First of all, let’s point out that Worlds is an environment like no other given the recent legality of Celestial Storm. With this micro format still untested, it was the opportunity to explore new concepts and try out surprising strategies. That being said, there were some decks that were expected more than others. This was the case of Buzzwole Lycanroc, Zoroark variants and the recently released Rayquaza GX. With those decks in mind, it was very interesting to see how many players opted to run strategies that countered the Worlds Metagame like Shrine of Punishment oriented decks. In addition and mainly because of the huge fighting presence, we saw a lot of psychic attackers in different decks. Garbodor seemed to make a return, Banette GX proved that it is a capable Pokémon competing at high level and even Malamar took its chance to shine.

In this interesting setting there was also room for some surprising performances. Greninja Break made a splash for the last time, almost getting into the top 8 and the massive Zygarde GX earned an spot among the best decks in the world. At the end of the second day of the competition, the Top 8 was configured by a diverse number of decks: Turbo and ultra-turbo Rayquaza, Zoroark variants, Malamar, Zygarde and Buzzwole. Zoroark Garbodor was the one that stood victorious after defeating Malamar in the finals 2-0, culminating a fantastic year for Zoroark in the TCG.

At this point it is difficult to argue that Zoroark GX is one of the most powerful cards in the recent history of the game. The consistency it has and its amazing draw capacity is combined here with the power of Garbodor. The deck has many different routes available apart from the usual Zoroark plays, exerting control with Garbotoxin, threatening late game sweeps with Trashlance and even pulling off a Kartana GX move to get the last remaining prize. With psychic attackers, it can face Buzzwole easily and punish decks like Rayquaza for relying too much on items. After seeing the results of the last tournaments, Zoroark Garbodor was clearly a strong contender.

With Worlds 2018, a chapter closes and now the rotation will come into play changing the game as we know it. Season 2017-18 has been amazing, full of surprising decks and memorable moments. Let’s gets ready for the following adventure!