While exploring the Pokémon Europe International Championship this year, I spoke with two-time Pokémon Trading Card Game international champion Stéphane Ivanoff to learn more about his experiences in the competitive scene and thoughts on potentially seeing Pokémon TCG Pocket join the line-up at officially-backed events.
Stéphane played Gardevoir ex for this tournament, explaining how he’d played the deck for three international championships in a row and that he’d always done well with it. It was a popular pick for EUIC 2025.
“I felt like the deck was very good with the addition of Budew from Prismatic Evolutions,” he shared. Budew appeared in various top-usage decks during EUIC, notably Dragapult ex, thanks to its Itchy Pollen attack that allows the user to block Item cards for the opponent’s next turn, providing a lot of disruption when played at the right time.
He wasn’t especially surprised by any of the top usage decks for EUIC 2025, sharing how he’d called most of the most popular options but singling out Gholdengo ex as a surprising appearance and praising it as a “logical choice.”
Stéphane shared that he’d been exploring Pokémon TCG Pocket alongside the standard game, offering up his insights as an experienced TCG player. The mobile game offers a simpler spin on the typical TCG format, and it’s been developing a dedicated following over the past months since its release, with many players wondering if it’ll ever be seen alongside the other mainline games.
He praised it as a fun casual game but noted how he didn’t find it a competitive experience due to the emphasis on coinflips and lack of depth in the cards. While he did enjoy the concept behind it, he was unsure if Pocket would ever debut in the championship scene, questioning whether it could pull in viewers and keep people engaged.
“I actually like, for example, having… shorter games with a simpler version,” he continued, “Something that looks more like the kind of games you can have at pre-releases.”
The current playstyle in Pocket is a “bit too simple,” though, and the player said he’d love to see fewer cards with just one attack or “vanilla damage” to help make playing a match more interesting. The game fulfills the purpose of being a casual game, but it could be even better with some changes.
When asked whether he thought a ranked mode could help Pocket feel punchier, he agreed that it might be good, adding that he’d be even happier to see a better ladder and ranked mode in Pokémon TCG Live to help with testing and preparing for events like EUIC 2025.
The idea of Pocket making an appearance on the championship scene has been a popular topic in the community as of late—I even got to speak with popular Pocket tournament organizer Ursiiday at EUIC about this and Chris Brown was asked about it in a panel interview on the same day—but Stéphane wasn’t sold on the idea.
He shared that he didn’t think it’d appear at events like EUIC, but that if it ever did, he was slightly afraid of The Pokémon Company potentially replacing the standard TCG with Pocket.
While it doesn’t seem to be joining the official championship line-up anytime soon, events like EUIC continue to grow and expand as the years roll on. For now, fans will have the main four Pokémon games to enjoy at championship events, but it’s always possible that this could change down the line.
