Welcome back, Cut or Tap readers! I just wrapped up playing at Monterrey Regionals, where I finished 5th place with Tera Box! While Tera Box has seen off-and-on success, the deck has never seen the level of dominance that it had this past weekend at Monterrey and Frankfurt. Both tournaments saw two Tera Box in the Top 8, with even more making it into Top 32.
How Tera Box can see so much success now comes down to multiple reasons. First of all, Grimmsnarl is at an all-time low since the card’s release. Since Grimmsnarl lists typically include Shaymin, the matchup is tough for Tera Box. Even though grass-type Pokemon can one-hit KO Grimmsnarl ex, the deck can still out-trade Tera Box in most games since Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex is unable to take two KOs on Turn 2 when Shaymin is in play. In addition to a lack of Grimmsnarl, other meta decks do not play Shaymin. When Shaymin was released, it was commonly seen in Gardevoir lists and occasionally in Dragapult and Charizard as well. As the meta has developed, these decks have mostly cut Shaymin, allowing Tera Box to easily remove two low-HP evolving Pokemon in all of these matchups. Lastly, the World Championships showed the strength of Gholdengo, leading to its popularity this past weekend. Gholdengo is a very good matchup for Tera Box, with Pikachu ex being able to take four prizes before getting KOed in most games.
The List
At Monterrey Regionals, myself, Carter Malnaik, Rahul Reddy, and Justin Templer all piloted this Tera Box decklist. Carter and I both made Top Cut, with Rahul barely missing out due to a series of events leading to no Asymmetrical Cut. Additionally, our friend Nathan Osterkatz won the Seniors division with a very similar list. While most of our list was standard, we made a few unique deck decisions that other lists did not.
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Awesome content! Thanks for that!