This weekend the 2023 Pokémon World Champions wrapped up determining who is the best across several games. For the trading card game (TCG) the winning deck should look familiar featuring several fan favourites: Bidoof’s evolution Bibarel, Pikachu and the Pokémon “god” Arceus.
The World Championships, plural, covers TCG, Pokémon Video Game Championships (VGC, the term given to the most recent mainline games which are Sword and Shield), Pokkén Tournament DX, Pokémon Go and Pokémon Unite.
It also covers several age groups, but today we’re talking about the winner of the Masters division in the TCG, which is the oldest division and arguably the most competitive.
That winner is Ondřej Škubal, a player from the Czech Republic. The archetype of the deck used to win has been relatively popular since it won the North America International Championships in June.
Not only that, but second and third place in the tournament also used the same kind of deck. While these decks had some key differences, it shows how strong the archetype is.
For those who are unfamiliar with the TCG here’s a short explanation of why this deck was so powerful.
Bidoof evolves into Bibarel, a card that allows a player to draw extra cards every turn. Having access to more cards is strictly beneficial in this game.
Flying Pikachu VMAX has several things going for it that made it so strong. Firstly it is Electric type, which damages Palkia VSTAR for double damage. Palkia VSTAR was a heavy favourite going into the World Championships so the ability to easily damage it was of vital importance.
After it uses its attack, Flying Pikachu VMAX takes no damage itself from a type of card called Basic Pokémon. Several decks using Basics were also set to make an appearance at the tournament so Pikachu shutting them down is a massive reason to play it too.
Finally there’s Arceus VSTAR. This card hits for a lot of damage, also gets extra cards into the hand like Bibarel and it pulls Energy cards out of a player’s deck and puts them into play. In the TCG, Energy cards are needed for several vitally important gameplay mechanics, including attacking.
This is of course just the high level basics of why this deck was a good pick for the tournament and there’s a lot more nuisance we’re leaving out.
If you want to know more about how to play the TCG and how you can maybe participate in the next World Champions – held in 2023 in Japan – call up your local hobby store and ask them what Pokémon events they are hosting soon.
In the short video below you can see Škubal using Bibarel to get the last card needed to win the game and ultimately walk away as the champion.
The power of Bidoof prevails!
A perfectly timed draw of Boss’s Orders sets Ondrej up to earn his first ever World Championship title! #PokemonWorlds #PokemonTCG pic.twitter.com/9aZEKy4Kwr
— Pokémon TCG (@PokemonTCG) August 21, 2022
