Stéphane Ivanoff
@lubyllule
🇫🇷 Pokémon TCG player, 2x International Champion. Expanded format believer.
2nd/8 at my last Lumiose Tour event at Extra Life Café, Paris. I don't know if this deck is good, I built it this morning and didn't test it ever. But no one was playing Regidrago so it worked out. R1 Tsareena LWT R2 Absol Garb WW R3 Roxie Dusknoir WW
I won another event in the Lumiose Tour, at PlayIn BNF in Paris! We only had 7 players today, it's unfortunately hard to gather everyone when people are away on holiday or prefer to play in mid season celebration tournaments or whatever they're called. But it was a fun time with Expanded fans!
2nd/10 at the Lumiose Tour event in Loufoque (Paris) today with my Ceruledge list. The deck was fine but I lost the finals to Ilhan (who also won yesterday) since Tsareena is an extremely difficult matchup.
Got top 4 in today's Lumiose Tour event with Quad Thorns. A good metacall after Absol and Regidrago did well on Tuesday, but unfortunately I lost a close match to ADP Bolt in top 4, who ended up winning the tournament.
What's up with all the bots lately? Am I the only one getting this? If I wanted to be followed by fake accounts shilling for AI giveaways (scams?), I could have stayed on Twitter
5th win in the Lumiose Tour! We had 14 players at PlayIn Rivoli (Paris) today, on Bastille Day. I started 0-1-1 but managed to climb back, and ended up winning with Absol Garb. This is the classic Yano Wataru version that is gaining in popularity due to the consistency of its turn 1 setup.
Fourth win in the Lumiose Tour, at Le Deck in Orsay! Only nine players today, including some newcomers with mostly Standard decks, but also multiple Regidrago and Lugia. I used Dusknoir Spread, I took a list that won a 30 player tournament in Japan recently and changed two cards.
Lumiose Tour, event number 7 for me (8 overall)! I decided to play ADP Bolt even though I've never played it. Its game plan is pretty solid when people cut Ranger, but it can be clunky (I lost in top 4 by discarding too many resources early). List is from the top 8 of a recent Torecacamp event.
I won a third Lumiose Tour event today, at Tofopolis (Poissy)! Brought Tsareena because I love the deck, and thankfully no one was running Sudowoodo. We had 12 players.
Second win in the Lumiose Tour! (Atmos Arena, Paris, 17 players) I wasn't very confident, but I decided to bring Gardevoir in this event, and after some very close matches vs Regidrago in top cut, I managed to take it all.
I won a small online Expanded event tonight with Tsareena. Wanted to try Pheromosa & Buzzwole-GX in the deck since I saw it in some Japanese decklists, but I didn't use it once. Absol was pretty great though! R1 Shadow Rider W R2 Ceruledge W R3 Evo Vileplume / Lopunny W R4 Dusknoir Spread W
I invented Expanded Slowking Spread! I brought it to today's Lumiose Tour event at Studio Riddle in Reims, and went 4-0-1 but unfortunately lost in top 8. R1 Dragon Lugia WLW R2 Evo Slaking WLW R3 Regidrago LWT R4 Regidrago WW R5 Electro Rain WW T8 Absol Garbodor LL
I won the fourth event of the Lumiose Tour (at Les Trois Commandements, in Reims, 15 players) with Evo Vileplume / Lopunny! Very happy with the decklist. R1 Mew Path WW R2 Evo Slaking WW R3 Regidrago WLW R4 Absol Garb WW R5 ID T4 Rainbow Lugia WLW T2 Regidrago WW (The glared card is Acerola)
2nd place at today's Lumiose Tour event with Regidrago! We had 11 players in my small local shop (10 minutes away from home), thanks to everyone who joined! R1 Mew3 Box WW R2 ADP Latias LWW R3 Regidrago LL R4 Dragon Lugia WW Top 4 Regidrago LWW Top 2 Regidrago WLL
While I kind of miss NAIC, I played my first event of the 2026 Lumiose Tour today! I brought Snorlax Stall (almost roi's top 4 Aichi list) and went 3-1-1, bubbling out of cut. R1 Absol Garb LWT R2 Mew3 Box W R3 Dragon Lugia LL R4 Welder Box W R5 Regidrago W
Have a good NAIC, everyone! I spent the week in Rome visiting a friend, so no regrets about skipping it this year.
Went 3-0 with this Ceruledge list at the first Expanded side event in Turin! I've spent some time improving the decklist and I really like where is that, even though the Regidrago matchup remains challenging. R1 Regidrago Dusknoir WW R2 Absol Garbodor WW R3 Tsareena WW
2nd place out of 11 players at the online "Wild Area" Expanded event held over twinleaf.gg! Playing an online Expanded tournament again was so fun, hopefully more (non-French) people join next time!
Top 128 at Utrecht regionals with Zoroark. Some unfortunate matchups made it hard to do better, I think I made a few misplays but I'm overall happy with myself. I really think Zoroark is underrated right now and I hope to prove it in Turin! +20 CP, 960/1000
Thanks! I thought it would be nice if newer players could be like "alright, I'd like to play an aggro deck, what are my options" or the like. Also some combinations are pretty funny.
If you like this kind of breakdown of the Expanded metagame and you'll like to learn about all the various strategies available, but without having to dig though old social media posts or learn Japanese, then I ask for just a little bit more of your patience... 👀
Lugia is not in the best spot right now, due to a difficult matchup against Megaton Regidrago. Some people do try unique game plans, such as trying to take the first KO on turn 2 without using Summoning Star to put pressure on the Regidrago player, and then hurt them with GG End GX.
Ceruledge seems to have mostly shifted to the Unown build, that uses Items such as Fiery Torch to draw cards without benching liabilities like Dedenne-GX. This gives it a decent Regidrago matchup, by making its Prize map awkward.
Evo Vileplume decks, using Bunnelby + TM Evolution to set up Vileplume and Pidgeot ex on turn 1, have changed recently. Mega Lopunny ex is now the most popular attacker (though others like Mega Froslass ex and Slaking ex are still options), and Budew is often used as a back up plan.
Quad Thorns (pictured here with Tropical Beach, but Japanese lists use the JP-exclusive promos Palace Book and Players' Ceremony) used to be a great counter to Regidrago, removing all its Energy to prevent it from taking Prizes.