How I Climbed to Arceus League in One Week | Pokemon TCG Live
The Pokemon TCG is a massive game with many, many ways to play. From local league nights, all the way to thousands of player tournaments, there’s just about every way imaginable to partake in the game. Perhaps the very most accessible way, however, it to try to climb the ladder on the Pokemon TCG Live app.
I recently climbed to the Arceus League and it took me only about one week of focused play. Here’s what my takeaways were from the experience.
What is the the Pokemon TCG Live Ladder?
The Pokemon TCG Live online game offers two ways of playing: casual and ranked. In ranked, you are playing for rewards that you can only get from reaching certain tier’s (called leagues).
Recently, Pokemon made some changes to how the ranked ladder works, making it more feasible to actually climb the ladder, assuming you win more than you lose. That being said, it’s still far from easy to make it to the very top of the ladder.
To be honest, I didn’t really know there was a ladder feature on Pokemon TCG Live as I mostly use the game for testing out decks. Without even being aware of the different leagues etc, I realized I had made it all the way up to the higher echelons of the Great League pretty quickly just from testing out one of my favorite decks.
Once I realized that there was an actual ranked system, I was like: “heck, why not try to climb it?”
A week later, I was in the Arceus League – the very highest league in the ranked ladder.
Here’s how I did it and what climbing the ladder looked like every step of the way.
Climbing the Great League requires focus
I’m not 100% sure where I started the climb as I wasn’t really paying attention, but by the time I was paying attention of my rank after doing some testing for a deck I wanted to play, I was in the Umbreon Rank in the Great League.
I’m not sure how long it would’ve taken me to clear the Great League if I had continued simply testing. As it was, with focused play I was out of the Great League and into the Ultra League very quickly.
The Ultra League presents a challenge
The Ultra League is not easy by any means to climb through. It presents its own challenges and certainly requires focus. Climbing through this league was much more difficult than the great league, but within two days of playing the game just when I had time, I was through it. It was not particularly difficult and for the most part it was a reliably linear ride.
For me, the Ultra League was of medium difficulty, and was the first real challenge I experienced on my climb to the top.
The Master League is very difficult
Now we’re at the master league. The Master League, unlike previous leagues, was not just a steady progression to the top. Somewhere in-between the Victini and Shaymin rank I did get seriously stuck for a few days (not playing for days straight but again just following the same “playing when I had time” pattern as always). Making it through these ranks requires a ton of focus, and you need to go above and beyond to win. Of course, getting good matchups helps but that isn’t enough: you need to be able to win against your bad matchups as well, and you need to look for outside opportunities and take risks to climb the ladder. Just playing a good game isn’t enough to make it through this league.
After a two day hiccup where I couldn’t really move up, I finally breezed through Shaymin and made it to the Mew rank. After that, I took a purposeful day off and didn’t start my attempt on the Mew rank climb until the evening.
Luckily, I actually managed to make it through the final rank of the Master’s League in one sitting. I won every single battle on my way except for one, making Mew the easiest rank of the Master League to clear.
Tips to make it to the Arceus League
Climbing the ladder on Pokemon TCG Live is a bit different than what you will experience during in-card play at tournaments. Depending on the tournament that you attend, you may be in store for a best of three format. Of course, ranked play on Pokemon TCG Live isn’t best of three but more like a constant best of one. This means that decks that play consistently will be more effective than decks with answers to lots of situations but lower consistency.
Additionally, unique decks can do particularly well, as your opponent won’t have a second game to respond.
That being said, as I moved higher and higher up the ladder, the pool of players who were actually at that level as well thinned and I ended up playing against the same player two times or more in a row. In this scenario, it becomes more like a more traditional Pokemon TCG situation.
Should you try to climb to Arceus?
As it stands now, climbing the Pokemon TCG Live is a fun, challenging but rewarding experience that really pushes you to the limits of your Pokemon TCG skill. I would highly recommend attempting the climb to anyone who loves the Pokemon TCG, as it will only help make you a better player.
What deck did I use and what decks did I face?
While this article is meant to be more of high level overview of what to expect from climbing the Pokemon TCG Live ladder, for a more in depth guide into the deck I used and the matchups I faced and I how I handled them, you can see my Gouging Fire ex deck list and strategy deep dive guide.
