Pokemon TCG League Cup: Madison, WI

Daniel Martinez

The following is an interview with Daniel Martinez, one of the top four finishers in the Masters Division at a recent League Cup event in Madison, WI, who used a Lycanroc deck for the tournament.

Where are you from, and how did you get into the Pokémon TCG?

I was born and raised in Stevens Point, WI. I started collecting Pokémon cards as a child when the very first set was released, however I didn’t actually learn how to play until August 2015, around the time the Ancient Origins set came out. I got into playing the TCG from a friend who invited me to a league event one night, and from there I was hooked.

What’s the basic strategy of the deck, and why did you end up using it for this tournament?

So, funny story-my friend and I were talking about this deck and I told him it could be a good deck and he disagreed, so I actually made this deck just to try and prove him wrong. The strategy of the deck is to get the Carbink out so EXes can’t hurt you, then get the Carbink BREAK out and use the attack “Diamond Gift” to start powering up Rockruff/Lycanroc on the bench. I also ran Hammers to make it harder for my opponent to get themselves powered up.

What are some other important cards in the deck?

Definitely the Silent Lab Stadium card as it can shut off Volcanion’s “Steam Up”, as well as taking care of Shaymin EX and Hoopa EX, which makes it harder for the opponent to set up as fast as they would like. Also, the Strong Energy turned out to be the one of the most important cards, especially for Shaymin and Yveltal as they have Fighting resistance, which makes it hard to one-hit KO them. Another important card to mention would be Assault Vest. It reduces damage from defending Pokémon who have special energy attached to them by 40, so it really saved me against Mega Mewtwo decks.

What worked well?

Overall, the deck flowed pretty much how I wanted it to. The energy removal from Crushing and Enhanced Hammers allowed me to get a jump on opponents, especially ones with high energy cost attacks.

What didn’t work so well, and what might you change if you used this deck again?

I never accounted for the fact that I had no way to get my Rockruff back from the discard pile. This cost me a game against a Mega Mewtwo, where my opponent just kept switching out my Rockruff and knocking them out in one shot (they have only 60 HP). I had no way to get them back so my deck was essentially shut down. I’d definitely want to run Super Rod in the future.