December GLC

No players remained undefeated in this heated 9-person Gym Leader Challenge tournament—each Top Four finisher had a final record of 3-1! In a Swiss tournament with no single-elimination top cut, that means standings are determined through a series of tiebreaker metrics, approximating a “strength of schedule” to determine a finishing order. (Essentially, did the players you beat win their other games? And did the people they beat win their other games‽)

In fourth place, Avery M. presented the latest version of his Item Lock Tyranitar build of Darkness, a seriously disruptive list that uses Switching Cups and Grimsley’s Move to put Tyranitar into play as quickly as possible. Most decks in Gym Leader Challenge rely on Items to find their single instance of Pokémon pieces, and unlike most other Item lockers in the format, Tyranitar has massive HP and a high-octane attack combining KO potential with resource milling. Hoopa and Spiritomb are also energy efficient attackers that can score KOs while trying to find the opportunity to develop the Tyranitar, and the new Toxtricity helps power up the menacing Guzzlord all the while to threaten multi-prize turns.

In third place, Chaimy B. piloted Turbo Wo-Chien featuring the Cherrim/Eldegoss core of support Pokémon. It’s no secret the format has accelerated in speed over the past several sets and Stage 2 Pokémon are increasingly becoming liabilities between how slow they are to set up and how fragile the lines can be through Prizing in a singleton format. Cherrim and Eldegoss are Stage 1 Pokémon that function similarly to the Venusaur/Rillaboom core of “Boomer Grass”, quickly powering up lower-to-the-ground attackers like Zarude, Torterra, and the namesake Wo-Chien. Hapu, Explorer’s Guidance, and PokéStop aggressively comb through the deck in anticipation of Wo-Chien’s devastating finisher, Hazardous Greed, that can take two or even three prizes with a single attack.

Zack E. has added Psychic to his GLC repertoire after finding success with Dragon, finishing second! Here, Zack played the Munkidori variant of Big Basic Psychic without Crispin, feeling secure in the on-board Energy acceleration options Psychic provides in its Stage 1 supports to permit manual attaches of Darkness Energy to Munkidori (not dissimilar to Gardevoir ex in Standard!) Once this deck has the Xatu/Malamar core established, guided by Gallade’s abilities to Catch the perfect Supporter and preserve Energy attachments, very little can stand in the way of the onslaught of powerful, easily recurred Basic attackers.

And, earning its third badge of the season, brooke e. exhibited a recent development in Colorless technology: Ancient Trait Swellow in its Bloomfield Pokémon League debut. This variant of Big Basic Colorless keeps the pair of Snorlax, enhances the Hop’s package with Dubwool for on-board gust, and is still supported by the unparalleled setup engine of Fan Rotom, Skwovet, and Bibarel. Developing and threatening Swellow (with its Ancient Trait “Δ Plus”) permits the pilot to find opportunities to target evolving Pokémon or high-HP Pokémon that have been smacked by another attacker netting an additional prize. As the primary evolving attacker, this build takes a page out of Colorless Control’s employment of Transform Ditto, which makes it difficult to keep Swellow off the board for even a turn! And while Swellow’s damage output may seem too paltry to be effective, the list packs several means of amping it up via Muscle Band, Powerful {C} Energy, Martial Arts Dojo, and even Technical Machine: Crisis Punch.

Metagame

Type	Record	Win Rate
2 Grass	(4-4-0)	50%
2 Psychic	(5-3-0)	62.5%
2 Darkness	(4-4-0)	50%
1 Water	(2-2-0)	50%
1 Metal	(2-2-0)	50%
1 Colorless	(3-1-0)	75%

Δ Swellow

Top Four	Record	Deck
brooke english 🏅	(3-1-0)	Δ Swellow
Zack Elledge	(3-1-0)	Big Basic Psychic
Chaimy Bradford	(3-1-0)	Turbo Wo-Chien
Avery Murphy	(3-1-0)	Item Lock Tyranitar