See The Massive Pokemon Deck Used In A Professional Tournament
It's huge!
The annual Pokemon North America International Championship attracts numerous fans and card game players from all over the world to battle among themselves and see just who is the Pokemon champion. The three-day event holds competitions for a few Pokemon games, including the original Pokemon Trading Card Game, whose Charizard card is worth hundreds of thousands, if not millions of USD. Well, the TCG competition had one player who brought 60 giant novelty cards.
According to IGN, Matthew Verive has competed in the NA International Championship with a deck made of only novelty jumbo cards, which not only caught the attention of the judges but has also caused a massive debate about whether he could participate in the tournament with a jumbo deck. Luckily for Verive, the judges ruled that his deck was legal because card size isn’t specified in the rules and allowed him to compete.
Unfortunately for Verive, though, bigger isn’t always better when it comes to gaming — though some fans might argue otherwise — and he dropped out of the competition after losing two games. This was entirely understandable, considering that Pokemon never printed any jumbo Trainer or Energy cards, so Verive could only play the Pokemon but not attack his opponents. Admittedly, this is the most hilarious Pokemon stunt the community has ever seen, and it was clearly never about winning — as Verive himself confirmed.
In his Twitter post, Verive stated that he dropped out, just as he “has intended to do no matter what,” but has also added that he would probably get disqualified if he didn’t — marked cards being the reason for disqualification. He stated that certain cards have identifiable markings, which Pokemon TCG tournaments have been banning for over a decade. As per his own accord, the oversized cards aren’t cut to as high a standard as a regular card, so some of them can be easily identified by the deck’s owner.
Of course, the Pokemon TCG player has looked into card sleeves, which would make his cards into a uniform collection, but those are typically made for standard-sized decks and not jumbo packs. Sure, custom-built sleeves are always an option, but those tend to be exorbitantly expensive, and Verive wasn’t looking to spend hundreds of dollars for a custom set. Ultimately, he didn’t need a sleeve to gain his 15 minutes of recognition on the internet.
For those looking to follow in Verive’s footsteps and build a tournament-worthy jumbo pack, Verive has stated that it’s perfectly understandable for The Pokemon Company to modify tournament rules and clarify the size of usable cards, which is likely going to ban jumbo packs, as they’re not originally intended for tournament play anyway. With that said, Verive’s stunt really amused the fans and tournament attendees, despite not being able to put up much of a fight.
The Pokemon Company’s most recent TCG championship was seeking to expand its scope with the reveal of Pokemon TCG Live — an online app for the game — and featured crossovers with Pokemon Go-themed cards that have been brought into physical play. And while Verive’s own unusual pack didn’t win battles, it surely left a memorable mark on the tournament.
