Christian is the mind behind TCG Dexter. He first explored Kanto shortly after inserting a Blastoise Blue cartridge into a GameBoy Color back in 1998. He lost his childhood collection the shuffle of a move, and began collecting again as a response to the nostalgia-induced explosiveness of the Scarlet & Violet 151 set. In 2025, Christian began playing TCG Live to learn the game, and would quickly go on to competing in local tournaments. He's building TCG Dexter as a means to improve his own skills and strategy, and share his learns along the way.
Featured Decks
Q&A
- TDTCG Dexter@tcgdexter
What's your go-to archetype in the current meta?
CLChristian Lavelle@dexterRight now I'm reaching for N's Zoroark. I love the flexibility, and with the right hand, it can punch above its weight class. Having just started playing at local tournaments at the end of last year, I put a lot of focus on one deck at a time, making small iterations after each batch of matchups. My NZv9 deck list is getting pretty consistent results, and provides the mechanics to further study my gameplay. I love improving strategy over time, which is why I built the Deck Collection feature on TCG Dexter. It makes it simple to track my performance, whether on TCG Live or in person, and enhance my skills over time.
- TDTCG Dexter@tcgdexter
How do you test, and when do you lock your list?
CLChristian Lavelle@dexterI generally compete in Friday night tournaments, and luckily I'm off on Thursdays. Throughout the week, I'll test small variations of the deck list that I want to compete with. On Thursday, I'll lock in for a few hours to get a bunch of reps in, and I share my decided deck list on TikTok. The PTCG community has been very welcoming, and I'm getting lots of great feedback, as well as some requests to help from new players.
- TDTCG Dexter@tcgdexter
What's the next deck you're working on?
CLChristian Lavelle@dexterPerfect Order and Chaos Rising have me hyped on Water energy. I really want to build a Greninja deck, and I've been following @inks_tcg on X to see their explorations. I love to play a dynamic, interactive deck, and can't wait to start dishing out Mortal Shuriken. I've seen a few decks that combine Mega Greninja and Mega Starmie, and so we'll see what sort of splash I end up making.