Team CGC Cards Secures Two More Invites to the 2024 Pokémon World Championships

Over the weekend of November 17-19, Team CGC Cards braved a brand new metagame at the Expo Center Norte - Pavilhão Amarelo for the 2024 Pokémon Latin America International Championships in São Paulo, Brazil.

Three team members – Azul Garcia Griego, Caleb Gedemer, and Grant Manley – arrived a few days prior to the event to playtest for 40 total hours. This last-minute testing was instrumental in helping the team make a final decision for which strategy to use during the event.

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Although they were tempted to play with Charizard ex once again, the team opted to play Chien-Pao ex with Baxcalibur for the first time this season. The Iron Hands ex version of this deck “dominated most of our testing,” states Caleb, positioned well against other top contenders of the meta like builds of Gardevoir ex and the newcomer Roaring Moon ex.

One inclusion of the build that has spurred some conversation is the inclusion of a third copy of the item card Super Rod. “Is it the perfect 60th card? Who knows, but it’s one of those things [where] we all got some wins,” said Azul, by catching their opponents off guard with an unexpected extra copy.

Team CGC Cards' 2024 LAIC Decklist

With a shaky run after his Round 3 feature match on the official livestream, Azul dropped from the event on Day 1 with a 4/2/2 record. However, teammates Caleb and Grant went into Day 2 at 6/2/1 and climbed to reach Top 64 of the 1,263-person Masters Division event, securing 2024 World Championships invites and a solid chunk of prize money.

With their invites locked down, Azul, Caleb, and Grant now have their sights set on glory, prizes and travel stipends for the remainder of the season. The team will next compete in San Antonio in December, at the final domestic Regional Championships of 2023. In the meantime, the current metagame will continue to develop with regional events in Gdańsk, Poland and Stuttgart, Germany.

Azul Garcia Griego (left), Caleb Gedemer (middle), and Grant Manley (right).

Team CGC Cards was assembled by Danny Oesterreich in 2022, and is comprised of seasoned players Azul Garcia Griego, Caleb Gedemer, Grant Manley, Kidd Starck and Remi Lorenz. The team will compete next at the 2024 San Antonio Regional Championships, at the Henry B. González Convention Center, in San Antonio, Texas on December 15-17, 2023.

Please join us in wishing the team the best of luck throughout the upcoming season and keep an eye out for new updates on the team’s performance by following them on Instagram and Twitter, @teamCGCcards, and the CGC Cards social channels, @CGCcards. You can also watch the players do battle by checking out the events live on the official Pokémon YouTube and Twitch channels.