Ello bruvs! Hunter here, back from the European International Championships held in London! “Exhausted” is an understatement from the past few weeks of testing and travel.
I wanna get right into the content, starting with my deck choice for the tournament. After almost 130 games with decks ranging from Lugia Vstar Single Strike to Gardevoir ex, I ended up on Giratina Lost Zone Box, or what I call “ChrisTINA Aguilera.” I never, and I mean never, thought that a Lost Zone deck would be in my hands for a major tournament.
Late into the night Thursday, Phinn and I had spent almost 11 hours testing various meta counters such as Goodra Vstar, but none of our testing brought us towards a choice. Midnight rolls around and we decide to see which deck’s worst matchup could be teched for. Questions being asked in the room were “How can Turbo LZ beat Lugia,” “Does Tropius in Giratina fix the Lugia Matchup,” and “Can Mew even have a shot against Lugia?” These questions should reflect how concerned we were with high-level players piloting Lugia to a good success. After the final hour of testing – Eureka! Tropius EVS was the missing piece to Giratina having a favorable matchup (more about this later). For the first time ever, I entered a tournament with less than five games with the deck. This is the list I played:
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