The 2023 Pokémon World Championships delivered plenty of high-level play throughout its runtime, but it is going to be hard to match the absolute masterclass put on during the grand finals of the Pokémon TCG Masters Division.
Not only were the players fantastic, but the decks they were using represent very similar ideologies—consistency and feel.
For eventual world champion Vance Kelley, he was one of three players piloting Mew VMAX heading into the top eight, continuing to represent the same deck he has run competitively since March 2022 at the Salt Lake City regional.
The reasoning? Consistency and the ability to dig deep for answers.
“I think [Mew VMAX] is a good fit because it has a lot of options and it draws a lot of cards,” Kelley told Dot Esports. “I think that means you usually set up pretty well and you have a gameplan for everything. Those are two good qualities for any deck.”
He was joined by perennial top TCG performer Azul Garcia Griego and Singapore Champion Dionsius Lee, who would go on to place fourth and fifth respectively, in using the long-standing strategy that wasn’t even in the top five decks when it came to representation.
That said, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Mew VMAX was able to perform at this level. The deck has been represented in the top eight of a Regional 58 times, winning six, and also took top prize at the Japan Championships 2023 in June—showing that one of the deck’s specialties is pure consistency even as the meta shifts and more decks make it into top cut.
Gardevoir ex and Giratina VSTAR both had two players pilot them into the top eight, but multi-time Regional and International champion Tord Reklev saw the most success, bringing Gardevoir to the pinnacle of yet another major event as it continues to stand out as a powerhouse deck.
And, after falling just one card short of finally taking the coveted Worlds title, he also said his game plan was consistency rather than strictly power plays.
“Instead of trying to find a crazy deck to surprise everyone, I decided to go back to the basics,” Tord said to Dot.
“I tried to find the most consistent deck and settled on the [Gardevoir] deck I’ve been playing for a while because there are clear reasons I like it. It’s so consistent and has a ton of options, and a lot of different lines to play so I feel like I could really express myself as a player and with my style of play. It is a lot of fun.”
Kelley even called Reklev’s specific build of Gardevoir his hardest matchup because both players had tech cards for each other, like Lost Vaccum for Mew VMAX’s Box of Disaster, which led to them playing around each other to try and maximize their own strategies without leaving counter opportunities.
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Reklev went on to say he tried playing with the deck as much as possible in the lead-up to Worlds in order to work on his own “core mechanics and sequencing” so he could bring the deck’s consistency in providing multiple lines for every scenario to its full potential.
The pivot away from his Lugia Archeops strategy may be a surprise, but Reklev not only believed in the ability for Gardevoir to put up consistent boards, but he also views it as a powerhouse with “throwback mechanics” he enjoys playing.
“It is kind of a snowball, because you get a great start so frequently and have all of these high power options since it is easy to train your attackers with endless Energy exploration that makes it hard to run out of resources,” Reklev said. “It feels like the best of all worlds, but if you have a bit of a shaky start it can be hard to come back because you don’t have many tanky attackers. That is where cards like Iono make the deck a bit of a throwback.”
Good combat tricks like Iono and Reversal Energy are spiritual successors to cards like Rocket’s Admin that were more prominent when Reklev first started competing, and make a deck like Gardevoir even more fun because he can find new ways to make them work.
But, they weren’t enough to keep those risky Pokémon options from costing Reklev the championship on turn three of time when the clock expired in the finals.
At the end of the event, 43.75 percent of the top 16 decks were made up of Mew or Gardevoir, and it is reflected in how the community is viewing the post-Worlds meta.
Both Reklev and Kelley were reluctant to talk about specifics for future events or decks, with the latter noting his Worlds win auto-qualifying him for Worlds 2024 could result in competing at fewer events and focusing on playing old decks with friends.
The runner-up has put a bit more thought into his approach, stating he is always going to keep experimenting with new things, but that Gardevoir is currently his main focus.
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“I felt like I kind of had to prove [Gardevoir] was the best deck, and now I feel like we got pretty close. Close enough to prove it,” Reklev laughed. “As long as we don’t get any new cards to reduce anything, I will most likely stick with Gardevoir. It is a good deck and should always have a fighting chance.”
