With real life tournaments ground to a halt, the competitive scene has moved online. While the usual faces in our region have gone silent, Kashvinder Singh from Singapore has slowly risen through the ranks as one of the top online Pokemon TCG players in the world.
A mainstay name on the online Limitless tournament results page, Kashvinder won the recent Hegster Season 3 – #16 tournament and has many Top 4 and Top 8 spots to his name. He also joined Team Japan in a battle against Team Europe.
A good friend of The Southern Islands, Kashvinder speaks to us about his preferred deck, Centiskorch VMAX and how to use “Centiskash” to its fullest potential.
What made you decide to use Centiskorch VMAX?
I’ve always been comfortable using Welder decks and have been using Welder decks the day it was released. Turbo Reshiram & Charizard-GX was my most successful deck and it took me a while to find a new deck to fill the void it left and thankfully Centiskorch VMAX was that deck.
I’ve stuck with the deck ever since, picking up a few online tournaments wins along the way. It’s the deck I feel most comfortable using right now even if it may not be best placed in the meta. Also the deck is a lot harder to play than what many thinks. I like playing decks where I have full control of what happens in my games instead of relying on flips or hoping my opponent has no answers to me.
After testing a few games out with it, I was pretty much convinced this was the deck for me and won the Japanese Jal Cup tourney, which I think got everyone to realise that the deck was good just before the POG Championships. I’ve stuck with the deck ever since, picking up a few online tournaments wins along the way. It’s the deck I feel most comfortable using right now even if it may not be best placed in the meta.
What is Centiskorch VMAX’s deck objective?
The core objective is to hit hard and hit fast, leave your opponent with not enough time to respond to an attacker who is only going to keep hitting harder. The best way to achieve that would be to go 2nd, hit Volcanion’s Flare Starter for 3 Fire Energy cards onto your Centiskorch or any other attacker and keep the pressure up with multiple Welder and Boss’s Orders.
But you cannot always just stick to Centiskorch VMAX, which is why I like the deck. Certain Pokemon VMAX decks are limited to only their main attacker like Eternatus VMAX or Coalossal VMAX. Since they are attackers who can wall it out, you do have to be mindful of that. This deck has various options to attack with something else. There will be games where setting up the backup attackers could swing the match in your favour, namely Reshiram & Charizard-GX / Heatran-GX / Centiskorch V / Talonflame V against Zamazenta V, Volcanion for Decidueye / Altaria or Cramorant V / Dubwool V / Eldegoss V for Bronzong.
Not wasting your resources is quite important as well. Being a Welder deck, you are bound to get hit by an opponent’s Marnie or Reset Stamp to keep your hand size down.
Also people seem to have this idea that making Centiskorch go first is bad for them when in fact I’m more than happy to go first as it often means I’ll get the first attack and lead the Prize race in certain match-ups.
Comparing the different Centiskorch VMAX decks, I’d like to ask your opinion on the following tech choices.
- Heatran-GX vs Reshiram & Charizard-GX
While Heatran-GX is really good for that one big KO late game, that’s really all there is to it, apart from being an ADP killer. My testing partner Thomas and I found that Reshiram & Charizard-GX was actually more helpful in matches like ADP or Pikachu & Zekrom-GX and even Eternatus VMAX since the 200 damage from Double Blaze GX into the 230 damage from Flare Strike can be a bit too much for some decks to handle. For now, we’re sticking with Reshiram & Charizard-GX as our back-up attacker of choice.
- Talonflame V
Great new tech attack for the deck, the first attack does come in handy in the late game strangely enough from my games with it. Free Retreat is incredibly helpful especially against Lighting-type decks. And Talonflame V not having Water-type Weakness is great vs Inteleon VMAX.
- Dubwool V
Not my preferred choice for a non-Fire attacker as I seem to find Cramorant V to be more useful in many different scenarios. Would be a great tech choice in a PikaRom or Mew3 heavy format for the last KO.
- Galarian Zigzagoon
I personally like Galarian Zigzagoon in the deck, it has come in handy many times before. It works well with Cramorant V to snipe the likes of Crobat V or Eldegoss V and helps make some KOs a bit easier. The numerous of options to take KOs with anyone is just very appealing for me. Galarian Zigzagoon also pairs well with Reshiram & Charizard-GX to help take down Pikachu & Zekrom-GX when they’re least expecting it
- Giratina
A must include even if you are playing the PokeGear 3.0 version of Centiskorch VMAX. It is in there mainly to counter Coating Metal or Weakness Guard but it extremely helpful vs the likes of Eternatus VMAX and Coalossal VMAX as well.
- Jirachi TEU or Amazing Rare Jirachi?
100% Jirachi. My testing partner Thomas Brophy and I tried the Amazing Rare Jirachi out and we both found it to be rather useless for the deck so that was an easy decision to make. We would rather dig out with Jirachi TEU as having the option of 5 different cards over your next two cards is still better.
Could you give us a quick rundown of how the deck is played?
- vs Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX
One of your easier matchups. If you can set up, you always win. If you dead draw, you lose. You will need to go 2nd to increase your odds of winning this. You can either go aggressive with Heatran-GX to two-shot their ADP or get six Energy cards on Centiskorch VMAX by turn 2 with the help of Volcanion.
- vs Pikachu & Zekrom-GX
One of the trickier matchups and one where many others playing Centiskorch VMAX play it wrong. There’s two routes to win and both involve you going 2nd if possible as the PikaRom player also wants to go 2nd to optimise their strategy. You can either KO their Boltund V, then go after their Dedenne-GX or any other two Prize Pokemon just so you avoid falling into their Reset Stamp to one card trick. Taking down two Tag Teams is much more difficult but not impossible. Also you have to refrain from using Switch all that much. Thomas and I have been playing Bird Keeper specifically for this matchup.
Gameplan #2 – Hit Boltund V with Reshiram & Charizard-GX for 200 damage with Double Blaze GX, then KO a Pikachu & Zekrom-GX with 230 damage from Flare Strike + Galarian Zigzagoon. By that point, we should have a Centiskorch VMAX ready to take down any two Prize Pokemon they still have around.
- vs Eternatus VMAX
Of this lot, probably your worst matchup. If it is the Poison variant, that is as good as an auto-loss as they can easily hit your Centiskorch VMAX for 320 damage. Giratina and Radiating Heat will come in handy to slow them down. Centiskorch VMAX with seven Energy cards plus two drops of Galarian Zigzagoon snipes will take their Eterntus VMAX down.
Against Poison Eternatus VMAX you should be wary of what they’re building on their Bench. Sometimes it may be better to take down a Slowbro V or Toxicroak, then the Eternatus VMAX
- vs Lucario & Melmetal-GX
Not as easy as people think. They can slow you down with constant Marnie plays so you’ll need to keep pressuring them. Be mindful of their Full Metal Wall-GX and Zamazenta V. If everything goes well you should still win this match with ease.
- vs (baby) Blacephalon
Might look unfavoured but very winnable. Volcanion and Galarian Zigzagoon will help get you at least two KOs on their Blowns. Wait for the right time to get the Centiskorch VMAX up, don’t give them an easy 3-prize target. Reset Stamp will come in handy as will Cramorant V / Heatran-GX / Boss’s Orders.
- vs Mewtwo & Mew-GX Fire
A decent matchup on our side but never over-commit onto Skorch as their Vicitini and Indeedee will punish you.
- vs Mewtwo & Mew-GX Lightning
Pretty much the same as PikaRom except they have a few more tricks like Horror House-GX and Dark Mist-GX that can slow you down.
The Southern Islands 