I may not have covered it in a blog for over two months, but the 2025 season of GLC just closed out (Pokemon TCG
Gym Leader Challenge-- referenced in blogs
Lucas: 4 and
Lucas: 5). For a quick TL;DR:
- Your Pokemon must all be the same type (Water, Grass, etc.)
- You are only allowed to play one of each card (rather than the standard limit of 4)
- No Pokemon EX allowed
Another unique aspect of GLC is that winning tournaments earn you a Badge for that type. This pushes most players to stop using a type after they win and earn that Badge.
Up until recently, I thought Badge accumulation was just a fun little side quest I could chase while terrorizing the local Melbourne Pokemon community. There was a greater purpose this entire time..
That's right, chat. I am tied for 2nd place in this season's standings despite only playing in 4/11 of the GLC tournaments. Even more important, I am only one win away from tying the lead with one GLC left to play. So far, I have won with Dragon and Colorless. These are my favorite available GLC decks by far due to their heavy reliance on Basic Pokemon (guys that don't evolve). My most recent GLC experience was playing an Electric deck that was a total flop, so I'm going to have to make a new deck for this final tournament.
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| 2025 GLC Season Results |
Ever since using my Electric deck for the first time, I had been trying to figure out what Colorless's successor would be.. fruitless. My primary focus for that month was just the Standard format. I had partial Psychic and Water lists built, Lightning and Fighting aren't positioned very well after Colorless was weakened with the card bans mentioned in
Lucas: 5. Dark heavily relied on the aforementioned banned cards and caught a crazy stray, so I couldn't figure out anything there. Grass was reasonable, but relied on Evolution Pokemon. Steel, Fire, and Fairy are all just not very good right now for one reason or another. That only leaves me with Water or Psychic. I have a lot of Water Pokemon and trainers, so I decide to focus my efforts there.
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| Final Water Deck List |
With this list, I try to limit Water's reliance on Evolution Pokemon as much as humanly possible. Despite my efforts, my primary attacker is a hefty
Wailord. This behemoth has 240 HP, unbelievable for a Pokemon that isn't an EX or even a Stage 2. Why is this balanced? Look at that attack. The 4-energy cost is expensive, forcing this deck to run a Stage 1 support Pokemon --
Frosmoth -- to accelerate energies. Most Water decks also run a
Baxcalibur for redundancy, but that's too many Evolution Pokemon for me to handle. Oh, Lucas, why are you running
Octillery and
Intelleon then?? Click those links and find out. These guys are wicked useful for helping me set up consistently. The
Drizzile's broken ability is just sweetener on top. The rest of the deck is built with Basic attackers like
Wishiwashi and
Veluza. For my active readers, why don't you go ahead and read
Wishiwashi's ability and think of how it could be very very bad for me. We'll see if you get it right.
06-18-25 GLC
Over the month of June, there are no Pokemon sanctioned Challenges or Cups in anticipation of the 2025 World Championships. Instead, Pokemon advises stores hold casual tournaments. My main store decided to double-book GLC Wednesdays with Standard tournaments. This move sapped a good amount of GLC players, but I didn't anticipate how many until it started. Standard tournament? 15 players. Pretty good. GLC tournament? 2 players. Myself and the current badge leader. Due to the low turnout, we agree to play a Best-of-3 for this week's Badge.
Game 1
Game 1 starts and my opponent flips over...
Hisuian Basculin. Ah. Water mirror. Even more interesting, most water decks use
Alolan Vulpix as a Pokemon searching set-up attacker. I personally don't like how the
Vulpix is easily punished by hand disruption cards. I am going first and start
Wishiwashi. I have no cards to search out extra Pokemon, attach an energy and pass. Now's an interesting time to return to
Wishiwashi's ability,
Scatter. I relinked the picture for those of you at home. Thankfully, my opponent does not try to attack my
Wishiwashi and instead uses
Gather the Crew to search for two Basic Pokemon. Phew. Donk averted.
I draw my top deck. Attach an energy to Wishiwashi. And pass. At this point, my opponent has caught on and uses Basculin's Tackle attack to deal 10 damage to Wishiwashi. I am forced to flip a coin for the game (if Wishiwashi shuffles himself back into the deck as my lone Pokemon, I lose on the spot for having no Pokemon in play). Heads. I reread the ability.. okay. I don't shuffle in. I draw for turn, attach another Energy to Wishiwashi, and use Hydro Splash to KO the Basculin. I still find no more Pokemon. My opponent spends the turn setting up further and passes it over to me. Wishiwashi still has 10 damage on him, so I flip again and get Tails. Dang. Series is 0-1.
Game 2
I hate this deck already. Any sports knowers understand how bad it is to be behind in a series. And to start behind so quickly is frustrating. The second game, I choose to go second and am able to start much better. On my second turn,
Frosmoth and
Octillery are both set up. I quickly establish a
Raid Boss Wailord with the help of
Luxurious Cape (340 HP total) and KO my opponent's
Frosmoth. The prizes are
5-6. He is able to remove my
Cape and KO my
Wailord with his own
Wailord. Prizes are tied at
5-5 and I slowly chip away at his
Wailord's HP as he takes a flurry of KOs. By the time I am able to KO his
Wailord, the Prize cards are at
4-3. My support Pokemon are in much better shape and I'm able to set up my next few attackers as I even the prizes at
3-3. The rest of the game is a bit fuzzy, but I close it out to stay alive.
Series is 1-1.
Game 3
This game was fairly unremarkable. In Game 1, there was a funny (not to me) turn 4 donk. Game 2 was a well matched battle where we both jockeyed for the best board state. Game 3.. he just draws poorly. Not as bad as I did in Game 1, but I set up a full board of support Pokemon and he gets nothing. I knock out his Remoraid, preventing Octillery from coming online, and he isn't able to recover meaningfully. We trade a few KOs, but he isn't able to keep up with me. I win the series 2-1 and earn my Water Badge.
Conclusion?
I win the day and collect my Water Badge along with a Gold GLC-relevant trainer card,
Rescue Stretcher. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, but you get to pick out a blingy GLC card after winning. So far I've accumulated the
Rescue Stretcher,
Field Blower, and
Counter Catcher. Just more fun stuff for a cheap $5 buy-in.
I've tied for first in this season's GLC Badges, but we aren't that kind of community. No ties. We decide to meet on the following Wednesday to play another Best-of-3 for the crown of 2025 GLC Champion. We can use any of the types that we earned a badge with.
2025 GLC Championship
I already know what needs to be done. Time to dust off the Dragon deck I've yet to lose a game with. Colorless was the dominant deck when this deck was originally constructed, so I decide it needs some updates to match the current meta game. I'll throw these changes here, but they generally boil down to trading Special Energy removal cards for some consistency cards. This makes sense if you recall that two Special Energy bans are what reduced Colorless's strength.
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| Deck Adjustments |
I construct my updated deck on Friday and spend most of my free time over the next week playing Solitaire with the deck. In other words, I just go through the motions of playing a game alone and assume that the worst case scenario happens to me every turn. This lets me get a good feel for how to play a close game, respond to threats, and string together attackers. It also helps me plan through my Pokemon recovery cards and get a feel for how much I can discard important cards without throwing away too much.
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| Final Dragon Deck List |
The first time I wrote about GLC in
Lucas: 4 I didn't bother with explaining any aspects of the deck, but I was trying to keep readers back then. IDGAF now. The deck contains only 6 Basic Pokemon. Depending on which one you start the game with, your game plan can change drastically. Starting with
Druddigon or
Drampa are your worst options, with
Druddigon being the absolute worst starter. That said, they are both crazy powerful.
Druddigon's Revenge attack allows you to deal huge damage and can often be set up on the same turn this Pokemon is played to the bench with the help of any of the following:
- Double Dragon Energy -- Gives you both energies you need to attack
- Guzma and Hala -- Finds Double Dragon Energy
- Tag Call -- Finds Guzma and Hala
- Colress's Tenacity -- Finds Double Dragon Energy
- Crispin -- Accelerates two energies
- Mela + Water Energy -- Mela accelerates a Fire Energy from your discard, then draws to help you find a Water Energy to attach for turn
- Raihan -- A much stronger Mela, you can just search out what you need to attack
- Max Elixir -- Just hit the energy you need, 4Head
- Reshiram -- Good ability
There are even more options to help you find cards to set up a
Druddigon in one turn. Cycling
Druddigon's is vital to this deck working.
Drampa is just a solid card. He is a good attacker because we have a bunch of different basic energy types.
Wishful Baton pairs best to either conserve energies on a
Drampa being KOd, or to immediately power up a
Drampa after a different attacker is KOd.
Now let's move onto the next pure attacker,
Raging Bolt. What makes this guy so special is his
Thunderburst Storm attack is able to bench snipe your opponent's Evolution Pokemon before they have time to get going. This card combined with
Crispin singlehandedly forced the entire GLC metagame to switch all of their Basic Evolution Pokemon to variants with 70 HP, so they can survive that combo.
Next up, we'll talk about
Reshiram. I gave him a short shout in the "Druddigon Powerup List", and that's his job in the deck. Power up Pokemon with
Turboblaze. That's it. If you use his
Bright Wing attack, you're getting desperate.
This next card is probably the most important to this deck. None other than the Dragon King himself,
Regidrago. His
Dragon's Hoard ability saves this deck from the fate suffered by many types like Fighting, Fire, and Steel in GLC: a bunch of good attackers and no way to find them. Being able to have a Pokemon in play that can draw you cards is critical in every stage of the game. His
Giant Fangs attack is also the hardest hitting move on our roster. A 3-Energy cost with two specific types is pretty pricey, so we don't use it too often.
Last but not least, we have
Tatsugiri. I love this card. He is only in here to help you find supporters, but I love the actual physical card. The Pokemon is fine. He can be clutch at times. Like I said before, on-board draw support is really good.
The last card that I will mention is
Technical Machine: Turbo Energize. Our absolute dream with this deck is to use this attack on our first turn going second to set up an impenetrable wall of potential attacking options that will carry us through the rest of the game. Now let's get into the games.
Game 1
I win the coin flip and choose to go second, chasing that TM: Turbo Energize jump-start. My opponent flips over his starting Pokemon and I see an
Iron Boulder. Dang. This man is by no means a meta deck spammer, but Psychic is the chalk best GLC deck right now. I've got a GLC-specific content creator's tier list to prove it:
Oh, Lucas, why didn't YOU play Psychic then? I already told you, I didn't make a list. I don't own any of the cards. It happens. That said, I think I still have the advantage here. I have a really good idea what my opponent's entire 60 are because I was just looking at Psychic deck lists the night before and
Iron Boulder is a rare inclusion. Even rarer yet is the
Battle Compressor he uses right after to discard some useless tech cards in his deck along with a
Giratina. I'm pretty sure I know his exact list.
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| At least 58 cards of my Opponent's list |
I end my first turn with a
TM: Turbo Energize from my active
Regidrago to power up a
Drampa on the bench. I was able to get there with an
Arven from hand, finding me a
Nest Ball for
Drampa and the
TM: Turbo Energize. While checking for what cards are prized during this deck search, I make a critical error. I didn't think enough about what I should have gotten from
Arven.
Battle VIP Pass should have been taken instead of
Nest Ball to allow me to bench an extra Pokemon from the deck.
My opponent's next turn is spent setting up support Pokemon, and on my next turn I take the first KO with
Regidrago after attaching my
Double Dragon Energy from my hand.
Prizes are 5-6. I put a
Luxurious Cape on
Regidrago to try to protect him and force my opponent to play his tool removal card,
Field Blower. My deck loves to extract value from tools, so getting that card out the game early would be awesome. And if he doesn't use it?
Regidrago lives. Even better. He sets up an attacker, uses
Field Blower, and KOs my
Regidrago.
5-5. I promote my
Drampa, attach a
Wishful Baton to it (can no longer be removed with
Field Blower used), and bench a
Raging Bolt. I take a KO.
4-5. My opponent is able to return KO, and
Wishful Baton immediately energizes my
Raging Bolt on the bench.
4-4.
I use
Hex Maniac to prevent my opponent's abilities on his next turn, because that's the only reason he is able to chain attackers so easily. I recover
Drampa from the discard pile, attach an Energy to him on the bench, and take a KO with
Raging Bolt.
3-4. My opponent is unable to set up an attacker without abilities and passes. I attach energy to
Drampa again and take another KO.
2-4.
He is able to take a KO on my
Raging Bolt.
2-3. Having drawn into no supporters that can draw me cards or accelerate energies, this is where I start to worry. I have a
Drampa ready to attack in the active spot, but if he KOs it, I'll only be left with a lone
Raging Bolt I just recovered from the discard pile. I take a KO and go down to one prize card remaining.
1-3. He is able to take the KO and I promote my
Raging Bolt.
1-2. I am unable to attack or bench any extra Pokemon this turn. I
Guzma up a Pokemon on the bench with 2-retreat cost and no energies attached, hoping he won't be able to move it.
He is able to move it and KOs my Raging Bolt. Prizes are tied at 1-1, but I have no more Pokemon on my side of the field. This is where I could have used that Battle VIP Pass on my first turn. Like last week, I fall behind at 0-1 in the series.
Game 2
I lost Game 1, so I'm able to choose to go second again in Game 2. I haven't lost hope. I have already forgotten my misplays last game. We move on.
I draw my starting hand and instantly start moving like Neo from The Matrix. I'll put the hand after I drew for turn here to illustrate how much I'm able to get done in one short turn. I'd ask anyone to solve it like a puzzle, but nobody would have a dang clue.
I use Quick Ball and Mysterious Treasure to discard both Luxurious Cape and VS Seeker. With them, I search for Raging Bolt and Regidrago. I use Turboblaze to accelerate the Fire Energy to Regidrago, and use Volkner to search for Adventure Bag and a Lightning Energy. I use Adventure Bag to search out TM: Turbo Energize and Air Balloon. I attach Air Balloon to Reshiram, retreat to Regidrago, attach Lightning Energy to Raging Bolt, attach TM: Turbo Energize to Regidrago, draw 3 with Regidrago's Dragon Hoard, and use TM: Turbo Energize to accelerate 2 more energies to Raging Bolt. All of this while holding onto the Float Stone I need to retreat Regidrago next turn. I'm firing on all cylinders and here's what my board looks like leaving my first turn. I've never set up this well in my life.
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| The Unbreakable Board |
Or so I thought. My opponent is able to set up his
Giratina to attack and uses
Guzma to gust my
Raging Bolt to the active, switch his
Giratina to the active, and KO
Raging Bolt, taking the first KO.
6-5. This feels like Aces Full getting busted in Poker. You hit the absolute nuts and the other guy just hit it nuttier. We go on. I attach
Double Dragon Energy to
Regidrago, play
Hex Maniac to prevent him from using abilities next turn, and return KO his Giratina.
5-5. Thankfully, his empty board with no abilities isn't able to get a return KO. I use
Escape Rope to move his active
Mew to KO a more useful support Pokemon. He can choose to promote either
Gallade or
Malamar. One lets him search for a supporter while the other lets him accelerate energies every turn for free. Both are broken. He promotes the
Gallade, which is the Wrong choice. I KO
Gallade.
4-5.
As soon as I take this KO, my opponent is tilting. He knows he promoted the wrong Pokemon. I've played against this guy a lot, I've played next to this guy a lot, I've never seen him tilt before. And folks, he's on death tilt. He's more pissed than I've seen someone at this game in a Long time. His next turn he isn't able to set up any attackers, but tries to get his board going again. My next turn, I bench a Druddigon, attach energies, and KO Mew. 3-5.
He is able to KO my Regidrago-- 3-4-- but I already have a Druddigon set up with two energies. I recover Regidrago, attach an energy to him, and return the KO. 2-4. He recovers Guzma and chases my Regidrago for another KO. 2-3. I attach a Wishful Baton to my Druddigon, use Mela to attach an energy to my benched Drampa, attach to Drampa for turn (two total energies on Drampa now), and return the KO. 1-3. My opponent flips around his cards for a second and concedes, as I have game on board.
The series is 1-1.
Game 3
For every good game, there is a bad game. Maybe not 1:1, but these games of luck eb and flow. My opponent chooses to go second, forcing me to go first. My turn is dangerously weak, as I start with
Druddigon active (recall, he's the worst possible guy there), attach an energy, and pass. My opponent benches a
Munkidori from hand and passes. Cool. I play
Guzma and Hala from my hand to search out
Double Dragon Energy and
Luxurious Cape. I attach
Luxurious Cape to
Druddigon to make my little man Big. He now has 220 HP. I attach
Double Dragon Energy and use
Druddigon's second attack,
Dragon Claw to KO.
5-6.
He promotes
Munkidori, attaches to him, and attacks with
Mind Bend. For those of you who don't know what Confusion does in the TCG, it is very annoying and doesn't matter here. I search for a switch cart, clear the confusion, retreat back to
Druddigon, and
Dragon Claw for Game, Set, Match.
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| All I Do Is Win Win Win -- feat. my 2025 GLC Champion Trophy Meowth |
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| Obligatory Deck List Pic |
