It was amazing to see a Southeast Asian representative among the Top 8 at the POG Championships 2021 (our pseudo-Worlds for the year) – Kok Wy Keen from Malaysia finished 3rd among the 1000+ players who competed in that tournament. An awesome achievement!
He’s no stranger to online tournaments either, with several online tournament wins on the Play.Limitless platform and countless top cuts.
The Southern Islands reached out to Wy Keen to find out how he started playing Pokemon TCG Online, and his POG 2021 journey.
1. Tell us a little bit more about yourself.
I am based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Locally, I play at Gaia Card Game Sanctuary.
2. How did you start playing Pokemon TCG?
I first started playing Pokemon TCG Online (PTCGO) during the Darkness Ablaze era. I used the beginner deck given to me at the start of the game, Gyarados / Articuno. Using that deck, I managed to win some online packs. I realised later I had no chance in the Standard format – the eye-opener for me was when I faced Eternatus VMAX.
My brother, who played the Pokemon TCG IRL suggested to me a budget deck – baby Blacephalon, which he found on Instagram. I managed to do well in the Standard format with Blacephalon.
3. When did you start playing Pokemon TCG competitively? And how were you introduced to the Limitless online Pokemon TCG tournaments?
At first, I only played on the PTCGO ladder. One day, my brother sent me a picture of the Hegster tournament, complete with the players’ names, deck played, and results. That’s when I realised that there must be an online public platform for players to play online tournaments. That’s how I eventually found the Play.Limitless website.
Thanks to my first competitive deck – baby Blacephalon, I got a Top 4 spot at Limitless weekly. But I still felt that my skill level was far behind those top players. With the codes I won as prizes from tournaments, I managed to build a Pikachu & Zekrom-GX deck.
4. How do you manage to consistently place well in the tournaments you play in?
There were several milestones to my Pokemon TCG “levelling” progress.
I watched a lot of Pokemon TCG YouTube videos, which inspired me a lot. Through those videos, I gained further insight regarding game plans, Prize checking, and conservative play. Thanks to using the BDIF and improving my skills through watching YouTube videos of top Pokemon TCG players, I managed to achieve consistent top cut in multiple online events until today.
To consistently place well, focusing on a deck is not a bad idea. With sufficient practice for a single deck, I can mitigate misplays and figure out the optimal play for my deck, with a rough estimate of my opponent’s possible plays for the next few turns.
I occasionally play different decks to gain insights into a deck’s weakness, so I can generally come into a tournament with a game plan and exploit my opponent’s flaws, especially when I lag behind the opponent in the match. Another good strategy is to be conservative and estimate the entire Prize trade before the game begins.
If you have trouble, finding the right person to ask doesn’t hurt. Thanks to the Limitless platform, we can basically build a connection / network with top players. For instance, I have tried consulting occasionally with Kashvinder Singh Mann about Centiskorch VMAX and he was kind to respond. Watching YouTube videos / livestreams of major tournaments also helps in learning the mindset of different players. Since I am not actually playing, I have more flexibility to think of the players’ suboptimal or aggressive plays, and compare their sequencing with mine.
5. Let’s talk about the POG Championships. Why did you decide to go with Lucario & Melmetal-GX on Day 1?
My deck choice was based partially on meta share. Right after Evolving Skies was released, the most played decks in the current meta were Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX, Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX, Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX, Lucario & Melmetal-GX, Eternatus VMAX, Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX (ADP-GX) / Galarian Moltres V and Dark Box.
However, the meta share for minor tournaments such as the SEA Open (hosted by The Southern Islands) were Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX, Dark Box and Lucario & Melmetal-GX unsurprisingly, because these 3 decks in my opinion are the BDIF in the TEU-EVS format. I realised one of my main decks, ADP-GX / Galarian Moltres V was not a wise choice because it has 2 auto-loss matchups against the 3 BDIF, so I went with Lucario & Melmetal-GX.
Lucario & Melmetal-GX is also unfavorable against Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX and Dark Box, but I included tech cards – 3 Power Plant and 1 Big Parasol to turn those matches towards my favour, so my deck could work consistently when piloted wisely. Adding Rusted Sword or Tool Scrapper could somehow further help the matchup but the tech is luck-dependent and inconsistent.
6. What made you choose to go with Leafeon VMAX on Day 2?
I was frustrated regarding the deck choice on Day 2. My SMC team (an international team formed to prepare for POG) came to an agreement to play Zoroark control on Day 2 but most of us realised piloting the deck is hard with little preparation. I also believed that Lucario & Melmetal-GX might struggle on Day 2.
The Day 1 players pool basically comes from a combination of competitive players and casual players. But all Day 2 players who play competitively are likely to remove Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX and Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX from their deck choice, and play of the 3 BDIF instead. Lucario & Melmetal-GX will lose the good matchups it had and likely to face more bad matchups.
What I need to do was to come up with a deck that can beat the 3 BDIF in a Bo3 format. I tried both Decidueye and Eternatus VMAX. I gave up on both decks due to the high RNG nature of Eternatus VMAX and the fact people might respect (and tech against) Decidueye (to be fair I was wrong about this 😅).
I didn’t have a deck choice until my teammate brought up Leafeon VMAX and how to make the deck list more refined. Leafeon VMAX is a cool deck in this format with no significant bad matchups. I managed to play a few games with it on the ladder and those matches strengthened my belief on Leafeon VMAX.
7. What were your most memorable matches in POG Day 2?
The quarter-final against Dark Box. Dark Box is inevitably one of the greatest decks of the TEU-EVS format and if the opponent manages to get 6 Darkness Energy cards on the field for Umbreon & Darkrai-GX’s Dark Moon GX, I will basically lose that match. The matchup is tricky, and I was tense in every move I made – also because it was my first time playing Leafeon VMAX against Dark Box. What came into my mind was to stop my opponent from setting up Dark Moon GX and trying to lock the opponent’s Active Spot Pokemon so they can’t retreat. After re-watching this match again, I realised that both my opponent and I did make some misplays.
8. You decided to go with a lower count of Grass Energy compared to most other Leafeon VMAX builds. Was that intentional?
The Leafeon VMAX deck list is pretty similar to Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX, but the inclusion of Galar Mine, Phoebe, and Mewtwo has made the list more compact. Cutting Energy cards doesn’t hurt, since you basically only need 2-3 basic Energy cards for a game. With Leafeon V’s Ability Greening Cells, you guarantee a basic Energy attachment from turn 1. This means Energy attachment is a relatively minor concern, so there is space for other tech or consistency cards.
9. What are the easiest and hardest matchups for Leafeon VMAX?
The easiest matchup is ADP-GX / Galarian Moltres V, since Leafeon VMAX guarantees an OHKO against any Pokemon in that deck, while they can’t take a OHKO on Leafeon VMAX in return.
The hardest matchup might be Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX (meta) or Rapid Strike Malamar, Bronzong Box, or any Fire-type deck (non meta), but I feel that it’s still 45/55 overall.
10. What do you think of Leafeon VMAX as a deck in the post-rotation format?What changes will you make to your existing deck for post-rotation?
I think Leafeon VMAX is still relevant in post-rotation and might be positioned at Tier 2. More copies of Sobble, Drizzle, Inteleon CRE, search cards, Tool Scrapper (to remove Cape of Toughness), Raihan, and possibly healing cards for the Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX matchup. Since it loses the advantage of being able to OHKO Tag Team Pokemon-GX for 3 Prizes, the Quick Shooting Inteleon becomes more relevant.
11. In your opinion, what are the top decks for post-rotation?
Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX / Alcremie VMAX. It has a huge damage cap, plus the generally slower post-rotation format gives an advantage to Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX / Alcremie VMAX to setup an OHKO against any Pokemon VMAX.
The Southern Islands 