Hello everyone! This is Elena from Gaia Storm TCG and welcome to another article here at CCG Castle. There is a lot going on right now in the game: Darkness Ablaze has taken the metagme by storm, the rotation is now legal, the fact that ADP is more absurd than ever… but for this occasion, I’d love to take a look backwards and focus on the very last moments of the UPR-DAA format . Yes, you know, the brief format that would have been played at Worlds this year if the global circumstances had been different… One can’t help but think: What if the season had continued? What if Worlds had actually happened? What deck would have won the championship?

Let me do a quick summary of what the situation was. Worlds Championship are the culmination of an entire year of competitive play (Internationals, League Cups, Regionals and much more) that bring together players from all over the globe. With the exception of last year, the format that is played at Worlds is a very special and fleeting one because it combines everything that is in the standard format with the last-minute addition of the August set. This creates a very special and never-seen before metagame that differs widely from the past months. If Worlds 2020 had been celebrated, classified players would have been able to build their strategies using every card comprised from Ultra Prism to Darkness Ablaze. The possibilities were almost endless.

But of course, we all know that Worlds 2020 -as most of the things this year- were just skipped until we have a more stable situation. While there is not one certain way of guessing what the tournament could have looked like, we can theorize however with accuracy, especially with the results of the Pokémon Online Global Championships. This competition was a non-official fan-driven initiative that brought together the best players of the world through the digital platform. The tournament mirrored the structure and format of Worlds and was a very interesting to follow, one of the main reasons being the variety of decks. 

Among the most powerful picks were, of course, the always solid ADP Zacian with the consistency boost of Crobat V and the new energy acceleration of Turbo Patch; Blacephalon and its capacity to deal 300 damage in one turn; Eternatus VMAX and control strategies featuring Cinccino and Oranguru. But the deck that ended up wining the event was no other than Pikachu Zekrom Tag Team, reaffirming that it is one of the most powerful decks we have seen in the recent years.

It was not a surprise. Pikachu Zekrom Tag Team is a deck that can virtually win against any other strategy in the game thanks to its aggression (Turn 1 Full Blitz), energy acceleration, scalable damage and flexibility of attackers. With the release of Darkness Ablaze, Pikachu Zekrom got yet another weapon to their arsenal in Vikavolt V. This annoying Pokémon gave Pikakrom the possibility to activate item lock at any point in the game with a very small energy cost. If you think about this, the deck basically received the only thing it was lacking: a way to play control. This meant that Pikachu Zekrom could deal much better with any different situation on the field, reducing the options of its opponents. To me, this format was the perfect environment for Pikakrom to shine and there were very few other decks that had its adaptability. Now, however, the deck is facing terrible loses with the rotation and these are so big (Thunder Mountain, Electropower, Zeraora…) that it is going to be a challenge finding a way to stay relevant. 

So, all in all, Darkness Ablaze and Pikachu Zekrom would have truly had an incredible impact in Worlds and, while it would have been great to witness the competition as usual, it is time to keep moving on. Let us be responsible, help in any way we can and be prepared for the next time we can all play a tournament together. Thanks for reading!