Sometimes the best deck change is no change at all. Luc Gantner of Switzerland won the Nice Regional with Basic Box, in a field of 2,336 players. He brought the exact same 60 cards he had taken to 77th place at Frankfurt, and this time they took the whole event. Nobody rebuilt anything. Nobody chased the new hot list. A player who knew his deck better than anyone else in the room just kept playing it until the room caught up.
The list that did not change
Mega Kangaskhan ex, the engine of Gantner's Basic Box. Card image via Limitless.
Basic Box is a toolbox, not a one-trick deck, and Gantner's list shows why it rewards familiarity. Four Mega Kangaskhan ex and three Meowth ex lead a lineup that also runs two each of Teal Mask Ogerpon ex, Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex, Latias ex, and Lillie's Clefairy ex. The Trainers are the steady hands underneath. Four Crispin and four Energy Switch move energy where it needs to go. Four Ultra Ball and three Area Zero Underdepths round out the engine. Limitless groups identical lists together, and this exact 60 is the one from Frankfurt, now with a Regional win attached to it.
Limitless priced the winning list near $65, which is the other half of this story. Basic Box was the opposite of the format's most-played deck in Nice: it put four players in the Top 16. That came from just 42 Day 2 players. Knowing a deck cold beat owning the most popular one, and the price tag means a league player can actually build the thing that just won.
The twenty-two dollar finalist
Dhelmise, the anchor of the finalist deck. Sprite via Limitless.
Second place belonged to Maxime Launay of France, and his deck is the budget headline of the weekend. Launay's Dhelmise list is priced near $22 on Limitless, about a third of the winner's price. It plays lines of four: Shuppet and Banette, Poltchageist and Sinistcha, and four Dhelmise, backed by two Lillie's Clefairy ex and a Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex. A finalist built from ghost-type lines and smart counts is the kind of list a newer player can actually sleeve up after reading about it, and that is worth more than any single expensive staple.
What Nice says about the format
Dragapult filled more than a third of Day 2. Its 153 players took only two Top 8 spots, and the same story keeps repeating: the deck everyone prepares for is very beatable once the event starts. N's Zoroark had 31 players and no Top 16 finish. That is its second straight Regional missing the cut. Hydrapple turned 16 Day 2 players into two Top 8 finishes, the most efficient deck of the weekend by conversion.
The lesson for league night is a hopeful one. Play the deck you know, learn its awkward matchups instead of swapping lists every week, and trust that a proven sixty can still win a big room. Gantner proved it twice over: once by sticking with the list, and once by lifting the trophy with it.
Full standings and lists live at Limitless, Regional Nice.
Hear more on today's Trade Post, where Car talks EB-05's sliding box price and the lottery wall with Zero.
