How 60 Random Cards Almost Won Worlds 

How many times did I say "Damage"?

Finals at a world championship being timed is mind blowing to me

It would be interesting to release a video about the mega-audino deck that won in 2016. Nobody was really expecting it and it ended up being a cool deck

Not gonna lie, the finale of worlds coming down to time with a Sudden Death match is kind of uncool. Feels like that shouldn't be possible, since it's the final match of the entire championship.

Man sudden death just so happening to hard counter the strategy is so tragic. Still some really next level deck building going on under such unique circumstances. To my mind it feels akin to some of the more demented MTG stuff that has happened at times with seemingly nonsensical cards all crafting a beautifully synergistic situational concept.

Worth noting how the deck also ran the promo card for worlds, Tropical Beach. It was a new card that had only come out as a promo, and as such had not been tested or considered much. I remember the vibe being that it didn't seem very good to many players, but Ross Cawthon saw how powerful it was in slow decks and ran a copy. Shows how he was able to put together and refine this list very much at the last minute.

It's very interesting seeing base-fossil or base-rocket strategies in 2011! Damage swap is Alakazam's ability, Zekrom with rage is Dodrio and and Blissy is the Pokemon Center trainer card. I love it!

The biggest thing you missed about the deck was the one of copy of Tropical Beach, which players only received a copy of and saw for the first time THE NIGHT BEFORE WORLDS. Ross got the promo, thought "hey this would help set up" and asked a judge if it was legal for play that weekend. This was a catalyst for Tropical Beach being a main stay in decks for years to come and frustratingly hard for players to get a hold of because of it's exclusivity.

Enjoying these a lot, surprised no mention of reshiphlosion and also plume was setup in most matchups not just Vs zone because of plus power junk arm etc etc

This was also the first time Tropical Beach was given as a Worlds promo and Ross managed to fit it into his insane deck

I don't know the rules for tournaments (or all to much about the pccg in general), but one thing made me perk up: you said they played sudden death because "time in the round had concluded". If that means what it sounds like that's an absolutely terrible rule. If one deck has a clear advantage in sudden death he could just wait out the timer to essentially force the tiebreaker to be a completely different game. I'm not accusing anyone here, but "We don't have time to play the tiebreaker of the world championship finale, just play the silly sudden death gimmick mode" still sounds like the worst reason to lose a champion title.

I would go as far as saying that it was the only interesting deck from the 2011 worlds. The meta, as it was made up by only so few sets, was thought to be figured out. Every attacker and every setup pokemon was well discussed. And even if there was only one big tournament before the worlds, the community was somewhat unified in the meta being stale. In hindsight, the truth was such a big thing to happen because it wasn't thought as viable. I remember having discussions about Reuniclus and Blissey but in no right mind I had the idea it could work. Even adding Vileplume with it sounds crazy. Thank you for making this video and bringing the story of the truth for more public!

Banger Video! 🔥These pre-EX era decks always look like fun toolboxes.

would love to see our current meta develop into one staging combinations of strong stage 2 like what we see here

This was my only time going to worlds and spectating the event so it makes it all the more special watching a crazy rogue deck make it that far. I was so disappointed Ross didn't win but it was still an incredible deck to pilot to a 2nd place finish at the most prestigious pokemon event of the year!

I was playing sceptile and dragons(zekrom/reshiram) back then. The truth is an iteration above another similar archetype Donphan and dragons. Adding in vileplume and reuniclus. Within that meta many players were getting closer and closer to what Ross put together.

This format about old metas is great!! Enjoying pretty much the content

I remember playing The Truth in 2011 when I was still a kid, and I fell in love with the deck. Thanks for the amazing content Luke!

So nostalgic. I remember being in middle school when this happened, that following cities season was so much fun and so competitive

I’ve never taken a good look at the card game, as I’ve always been playing the video games, but this video honestly makes me very interested in the cards. Great video!

I remember trying to use that Reuniclus with the Serperior that could heal your whole team each turn It didn't work out great, but it was a fun gimmick

I decided to build this deck after I saw the list Ross used at World's. The deck was really good to play with and was surprisingly consistent with the 2nd stage evolutions. People hated playing against it at the place I used to go (I mean, I can see how damage swapping with item lock was pretty annoying tbh 😅)

Great videos keep it up I started playing competitively in heartgold era and was around there holon series so it’s great looking at this videos

Awesome video. I absolutely love this type of unique content. As someone who has played off and on since the Pokémon TCG was released, I really appreciate these dives into its history. Please keep it up.

I love history videos like this, reminds me of MegaCapitalG over in the Yugioh community and should be taken as high praise. Keep it up bud.

I always love talking about this deck. It was the only WC deck I’ve ever bought and I was 11 when I got it. Still have all the cards (including that Tropical Beach👀) and I wish the game was in a state where I could pilot a similar build in standard right now. HGSS/BW standard is my all time favorite.

Great video! As someone that was SUPER into the competitive TCG in this era, I can verify all this. I loved my Donphan and Dragons deck! One thing I’ll say though (as someone who lost a game this way) is that Seeker doesn’t “allow” you to pick up a Pokémon from your bench. It FORCES you to. So if your opponent only has one benched poke before you k.o. The active…. You’re in business!

I got the world's promo deck of The Truth. Sparked my interest in playing the TCG all those years back. Extremely fun deck to play.

I remember just how weird and crazy this was when it happened. Was really funny as that right at the start of the format, I wanted to build something with Serperior and ended up trying to build a Serperior/Reuniclus/Vileplume list... which was incredibly clunky because I couldn't (and still can't) deck build for my life. But it was really cool to someone make that idea work, I thought it wasn't possible and ended up rolling with Donphan for that format. One lil thing I sorta noticed with some of these decks is how cool these pairings were. Yanmega and Zone imo weren't designed to be paired but their synergy was great. Same for Emboar and Zone and of course all the stuff in The Truth. Deck building back then really felt like real unique combos with cards rather than just today that's obviously meant to be played together, Mew and Genesect, Lugia and Archeops. I dunno, maybe its just me being a lil nostalgic, but stuff in this format (and for sure the old ex formats I didn't play in) seem like genuinely creative combos. Arceus is kinda cool and Mirage Gate is also quite creative but outside of that stuff feels like it's printed with clear combos and that. I know it doesn't really affect the actual game but it's so fun seeing how "toolbox-y" the format felt (to me at least) back then.

Loved this video. This is one of the first decks I net-decked when I started playing competitively. Very nostalgic!

Loving these vids on older cards/decks!

Absolutely phenomenal video, loving these a lot Luke!

I have that reuniclus card and I paired it with a meganium card that removes 1 damage counter from each member at end of every turn (yours and your opponents) seeing a similar idea used makes me feel smart

Time rules for the FINALS of a WORLD tournament is criminal.

Loving these videos about Pokemon tcg history!

Very nostalgic and great breakdown. Thanks & GOD bless you

This is when I re started playing and was just absolutely wowed! Great history Celio!

I used to think that expanded only going back to black and white was fine, because all the best cards came out after that anyways, but after seeing how good many of these setup/utility cards are (complete trainerlock and the baby pokemon letting you search out cards for no energy while being invincible?) honestly insane

Great video! Very digestible and easy to follow for casual viewers like myself

lol i remember going through this list when i was little and just going "woaah, how is this even remotely competitive" just off the pokemon alone

Good to hear Pooka's voice again ☺️

Apparently I played Ross last year in Peoria. He was very studious and exact in his turns

Man I enjoyed the old Pokémon days. I hope you cover the Luxchomp stuff

Great video dude!!

i remember this. the year i got back into the tcg. so epic

I remember this, guy is a legend. I played reshiphlosion at US nationals and got 4th in juniors. Ross was a sick player to a study

Okay analysis video! Thanks for uploading!

Reminds me of the deck "archetype" MtG X cards I own, where X is the colors of the deck. Like UBG(blue, black, and green) cards I own.

never been into the TCG but wow your videos are super entertaining

This period of the card game was what got me into playing it

When you said Suicune/Entei had high hp with 160 makes me wish I coulda played years ago. Started in Sun & Moon for tcg and man 300hp stage 1 mons is kinda wack.

Wow it is so intresting looking at the prespektiv from other games, I was going crazsy that the top 8 in wolrds was timed

So this dude made an entire deck with tech and it worked lmao that's amazing

Sudden death has been terrible in this game for ages based on the number of cards that are specifically designed to be played when behind on prizes 🤦🏻‍♂️

I didn’t even realize this video came out 1 hour ago it was made so well

This reminds me of the time in Yugioh when Matteo Bertulezzi got 2nd place at YCS Utrecht February 2020 who was piloting a 60 card pile main decking hunter dragon.

A customer that bought this Worlds Deck angrily complained to Pokemon that there was no way this was a real deck that had done well at Worlds and demanded his money back.

great video, love stuff like that

I'm very surprised that tiebreaker games start with a single prize. That invalidates the drawback of every major strong card (ex, vmax, LV.X, mega, gx...) and rewards early aggressive decks.

Could you cover Mega Audino EX next? Like I believe it was a relatively obscure deck until in won world.

I need to see one of these about John Roberts winning Nationals with Klinklang

Nostalgic format

Damn these videos are awesome love the stories man thanks

I remember that day that Ross would have won had he gone first in the third game. He had the donphan in his hand and the rainbow.

so awesome. great video

Great stuff

Sudden death rules always sap the skill out of these kinds of games. It's just which ever deck gets luckier and setups up first wins.

Love all Ross C decks as a fan of rogue he is a genius

Yeah the sudden death due to timeout in these finals matchups plagues both the tcg and the video game

Another interesting part of the deck was the card given to participants of that year he threw in last minute

I didn't know about the sudden death rules, that seems very punishing on slow decks, as those slow decks would be more likely to go to a time limit in the first place.

I don't follow the competitive pokemon tcg but this video was entertaining, do you plan on making more?

Hearing how this desk lost was so sad.

Forgot the part where he only ran this deck because of the Tropical Beach promo

Bro is just yami yugi

HGSS had the most fun format. Also, the finals should have had a longer time limit. As weird as it sounds, it's to the advantage of the quick setup to slow play. As long as you win one of your matches, it makes it extremely difficult for a deck like the truth to get a setup for game 3. Especially if time was called before the start of the match. Honestly a world's finals championship shouldn't be timed at all but I can see the argument for it.

Is this Ross from ptcgradio? Because I remember him almost winning something with Donphan

How well would this deck do against Durant Mill?

this channel is fire

Kind of sad to see how weak modern abilities and supporter/trainer cards are now compared to back then. It feels like a whole different game

Why is the World Championship Final a timed round?

You said Ross' deck needed to fall behind to utilize Twins, but Twins' text implies that you're in the lead (more prize cards left). I'm relatively new to Pokemon so maybe I understand you wrong!?

i bought these back in 2012!

Why would finals be timed? It just rewards high risk One turn decks

I hate that the finals has a time limit at Worlds

Why are there time rules for the final match?

Am I the only one who feels like a deck like this, with the way cards are designed these days, not possible?

great and informational video!

The sudden death rule seems bizarre

Why did they sudden death the world finals 😢 Do that for literally any other match, but the finals should take as long as it needs imo

I cannot imagine why the organizers would make the deciding round a sudden death. It's the last game of the tournament for fucks sake just play a full game

The classic.

pokémon tcg always looks like a feaver dream to a mtg player.

Dope video, bout to go watch the match now

The same year where rayquaza and deoxys legend won! I think I heard lots of stories about that format, there was a couple with how US nationals translated over to Worlds I think. I remember vividly playing in that format where primes were actually something powerful to worry about before the inevitable mewtwo ex format completely destroyed the format. Grabbed the world championships decks from that era since they were so good at snapshotting the best decks there were.

Cool video. I think '60 random cards' is a terrible name for 'carefully constructed antimeta deck'

I miss pookas vids

they couldnt just have one winner-take-all regular round for the game 3 of the finals?

It's a shame his last game was a sudden death. If it was a normal match it would be much more even, I would put my money on Ross though

So they weren't random at all