Hey all! Xander Pero here with another article. As the short-lived BKT-SHG format draws to a close, I’m ready to accept the end of the format as Crimson Invasion comes in. All of my ideas and testing leading up to now have involved Crimson Invasion because the set is legal for European Internationals, which I will be attending.

As noted by Travis in his article last week, all of the tournament results have been without CRI to this point. This has led to Alolan Ninetales-GX/Zoroark-GX and Golisopod-GX/Zoroark being overhyped, although they are competitively viable Decks. I think many players are hyping these decks, but ultimately believe Gardevoir-GX/Sylveon-GX or Drampa-GX/Garbodor will win London Internationals. A recent poll in Heyfonte reflects the idea: 85 votes for Gardevoir-GX/Sylveon-GX, 80 for Drampa-GX/Garbodor, and then 20 votes for Alolan Ninetales-GX/Zoroark. Greninja and other decks follow with lesser votes. Even though the poll shows overwhelming support for the previous BDIFs, don’t be surprised to see many other decks perform well at London. I predict Gardevoir-GX to be the most played deck, but that won’t stop others from choosing otherwise and succeeding.

As a part of the SixPrizes team, I try my best to write insightful commentary that helps you, the reader, do better. We understand it’s boring to re-read the same decks over and over again, so we try and deviate from each other in order to provide interesting content. This is balanced by us covering the decks we truly believe are the best, but that can foster repetitiveness! This is one example of what goes into planning articles that I find frustrating, but ultimately is for good reason. With that aside, let’s jump into my final thoughts before London!

This article — “The Purple Crown” – Jumping into an Analysis of Espeon-GX/Garbodor and Gourgeist CRI for European Internationals — was originally published on SixPrizes.