Crikey, Subs, I think there’s an elephant over there – lemme go touch it!
I hope all of you have been enjoying this lovely Charizard-centric format. This past weekend, Pedro Pertusi, a friend of mine and one of the most prolific players of the modern era, became a three-time Regional Champion. Pedro played an extremely resource-intensive Charizard list, focused on the mirror and multi-card disruption combo turns. Pedro also opted to play a non-traditional AceSpec in the form of Hero’s Cape. This would allow Pedro to survive Iron Leaves ex, Burning Darkness at one prize left, and Chien-Pao with seven energy discarded. Pidgeot ex can also be protected by this card, giving insurance from common threats like Giratina VStar and Radiant Charizard with Defiance Band. I think his list is very innovative and has some awesome comeback plays. Drawbacks from this list are limited resources like gusts and hand disruption, so you must be careful what you decide to discard with Ultra Ball, or what you keep in your hand while fearing opposing Eri.
Now that I’ve gone over what happened in São Paulo, lets address the “elephant in the room.” Great Tusk mill has been a deck I’ve tested and considered since the beginning of this format. Takeru Yamano started the Great Tusk hype by placing in the Top 16 of Fukuoka Champions League with his Comfey build. Followed by a Top 8 in a Thailand Regional League, Great Tusk finally had some hope of becoming a solid archetype. However, when EUIC came and went, the only placement that was recorded was a 200th place. Incredibly underwhelming results from EUIC gave me Grass-type Durant vibes, where I thought this deck would become a meme.
…Until a longstanding friend of mine came up with a new engine that benefits the lack of onboard draw in most lists. Before going into his list, I want to go over the deck in general, and the math behind decking out your opponent.
After upgrading to Stage 2 you will see the rest of Hunter Butler’s article and an audio recording of this article by Andy Hyun: 
You must have a Stage 2 Membership or greater to see the rest of this post. If you don't have a Stage 2 account, you can Sign Up for one here.
You must have a Stage 2 Membership or greater to see the rest of this post. If you don't have a Stage 2 account, you can Sign Up for one here.
Great article! Always good to his Butler’s articles