Here are the lists that I have played to some success at tournaments throughout my career. I will try to include some insights as well. It will be sorted from most recent.
- 2024-2025 Season
- 2023-2024 Season
- San Antonio Regionals – Dec. 16, 2023: The Avengers
- Portland Regionals – Jan. 06, 2024: The Avengers – Infinity War
- Vancouver Regionals – Mar. 23, 2024: Kec
- EUIC – Apr. 5, 2024: Prime Lost Box
- LA Regionals – May 24, 2024: Jurassic Park >:)
- NAIC – June 7, 2024: CHORIZORD
- Worlds – August 16, 2024: Mountain Eater
- 2022 – 2023 Season
- 2019-2020(2) Season
- 2018-2019 Season
- 2017-2018 Season
- 2016-2017 Season
- 2015-2016 Season
- 2014-2015 Season
- 2013-2014 Season
- 2012-2013 Season (Seniors)
- 2011-2012 Season (Seniors)
- 2010-2011 Season (Seniors)
- 2009-2010 Season (Seniors)
- 2008-2009 Season (Juniors)
- 2007-2008 Season (Juniors)
2024-2025 Season
This season they changed the invite structure to only award invites to the top 125 players in North America as opposed to the set point bar as in previous years. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to commit as much time as most of the top players despite the fact that I finished in 113th in the NA rankings last year. I decided that this year I would just pick a single archetype and run with it all season.
Looking at results from players in the previous season, I deemed the best archetype for this to be Pidgeot Control, thus my control era begins.
Kentucky Regionals – Oct 12, 2024
This is the first Pidgeot Control list that I came up with. I started with a list from iCaterpie (Alessandro) that I saw online. I liked the triple Mimikyu + triple Mist Energy idea as you just gain an auto-win against Iron Thorns. Farigiraf ex also helps heaps against Raging Bolt, Gardevoir, and Terapagos. I added a Luxray + Reversal energy for combo potential to KO opposing Pidgeot, Palkia, and Lugia VStar. This usually let me take 6 prizes in those matchups, it made Palkia somewhat favorable especially since you force them to pop Dusknoir to get around Mimikyu + Cornerstone Ogerpon.
I felt confident about my list despite the lack of practice, but in the end it was my lack of practice that cost me. I started off 2-0 beating two Regidrago decks. Then in the Terapagos matchup, it came down to the wire in game 3 after I missed an energy off of my opponent’s Iono to win with Blood Moon Ursaluna.
The following round I hit a Banette ex deck and took too long to figure out how to play the matchup. It turns out that Farigiraf is just uncontested and can easily take all my prizes, unfortunately I was just one turn short of winning in game 3 so I had to take a tie.
I proceeded to lose another round to Regidrago after getting overwhelmed in game 2 and prizing both my Pidgeot ex in game 3.
From here I lost focus since I could not qualify for the second day so I lost to a Raging Bolt and threw against a Lugia. I finished a disappointing 3-4-1.
Sacramento Regionals – Nov 23, 2024
With the release of Surging Sparks, the meta did not shift very much. For this tournament, I still felt that Farigiraf was a solid choice. I expected Gardy to still be prevalent as well as Raging Bolt and even Banette was rising in popularity. The biggest change was hype around Lost Box, which is already a good matchup for control. There are some notable changes:
- Black Kyurem ex for both Regidrago and Dragapult decks
- Diancie as my Lugia tech
- Regieleki to solidify the Charizard, Lost Box, and Snorlax matchups
- Comfey 🙂 This card just lets you mill 3 which can catch opponents off guard
This list worked out great! I started off with a quick 3-0 beating Gholdengo, Gardevoir, and Lost Box. I then tied against caster Hegyi – I won a long game 1 but prized both Pidgeot, Black Kyurem ex, and Rotom in game 2. He was able to just pull out a win on turn 3 of time.
I then tied again versus Charizard because I wasn’t super familiar with the matchup. And I tied AGAIN versus Hydreigon after getting decked out in the first game.
I managed to pull out another Regidrago win and then in my final round I got paired against a Raging Bolt. I got donked in game 1, got the Farigiraf lock in game 2, then decided to take the tie and hope to go further in day 2. I qualified for the second day with a record of 4-0-4. I definitely could have played out the third game but I figured that I guarantee more points with the potential of playing for up to 100 more in the second day. Whereas if I just got donked again then I would lock myself out of the potential of more points. Since my goal for this tournament is to finish around top 64, taking the tie was higher expected value.
In the second day, I beat another Lost box but this time with Iron Thorns. This made the matchup more difficult than expected but I was able to cycle Eri with a Regieleki and run him out of resources. Then I ran into a Dragapult but I completely misplayed and threw away a guaranteed win because I didn’t expect the Unfair Stamp Ace Spec. In my final two rounds I pulled out a tie against a Raging Bolt and then beat another Lost Box to finish 6-1-5 for 130th place.
From this tournament I learned a lot. I realized where I was lacking knowledge in matchups and preparation for these tournaments. I’ve been to many regionals but I haven’t played Control to many regionals and it really does take a toll on your brain having to think much more in every matchup and getting less breaks due to going to time in many rounds.
Toronto Regionals – Dec 14, 2024
For this list, I was prepared for a meta of mainly Regidrago, Ancient Box/Roaring Moon, Gholdengo, and Charizard. Both Klawf and Gardevoir gained some hype going into this tournament and my matchups to those seemed rough.
This time around I came up with solid game plans for all my matchups and did a lot of research into list counts of Switch and Professor Turo’s Scenario to determine when it would be safe to Sob Lock in any matchup.
I won a cup with this exact list a week before the event so I was feeling pretty confident about my play and how it would perform against the field.
In the first round I beat a Dragapult/Iron Thorns deck. This matchup is not good at all but I was able to very luckily pull out a 2-0 victory since he started Klefki in round 1 which I could Sob Lock and in game 2 I started Mimikyu Psychic energy and got a Giant Cape to start applying pressure.
I followed it up with a win against Regidrago and Gholdengo in clean sets. I then hit a roadblock in Klawf which swept me very easily. My theory is that I should be able to wall with Noivern and lock him out of energy but I prized all three Penny and he was able to pre-attach his energy forcing me to spam Covert Flight until he got the Iron Bundle + Boss’s Orders play.
I was able to bounce back after hitting a Snorlax matchup which is an auto-win. Then I got paired against an Ancient Box which is usually a very easy matchup but he played a Roaring Moon ex which made me have to set up my Noivern with a Mist Energy to ensure its safety. Since this is slightly slower, he had enough time to set up an Iron Bundle + Boss play before I could scoop up my entire bench. Despite getting the Noivern lock out in 2 out of the 3 games, we didn’t have enough time to finish and thus tied. I then hit the most insane matchup roulette by getting paired against Palafin ex in round 7, Gouging Fire ex in round 8, and Gholdengo (with no Switch) in round 9. All of these matchups are very good and I was able to win each match cleanly, advancing to the next day with a record of 7-1-1.
In day 2 I knew that I had a chance to make a good run. However, I quickly faced a tough matchup when I saw that I was paired against Stephan Ivanoff, one of the best players in Europe. Even worse, he was playing Palkia – a matchup that I was not prepared for and was almost certainly unfavored. I figured my only out was to Sob Lock and hope to discard his Prime Catcher and Switch with Eri. This didn’t work out and I lost game 1 then got donked in game 2.
I still had to lock in and play out the rest of my rounds for value. I got paired against a Charizard in round 11 and was able to run him out of resources with a combination of TM Devolution and Eri to discard two Rare Candy. I got paired against another Charizard in round 12 but this guy played very very slowly so I knew that I would have to win game 1 or the best that I could hope for was a tie. Unfortunately, I prized both Eri and TM Devolution in game 1 so I knew that it was an uphill battle. I would have to hope to draw it after my opponent pops Dusknoir but I never got there and lost a long game 1. I was quite annoyed at his pace of play at this point so I called over a judge to watch. I don’t believe that it is malicious at all but the point is that his pace of play is obviously slow enough to warrant a time extension and, after watching for ~5 minutes, the judge agrees and grants us a short two minute extension. I ended up winning game 2 very convincingly but we don’t have time for game 3 despite the extension so we agree to a tie.
In the final round I get paired against my friend, Simon Feng, on blocklax. It is an autowin so he just scoops after I show him that I didn’t prize my Xerosic.
My final record is 9-2-2 which is just barely good enough for 32nd place – one of only two players with my record to make it into the top 32. Luckily, all of my opponents performed very well and that boosted my resistance just enough. This is my best performance in a while and I’m excited to see that my preparation is starting to pay off.
2023-2024 Season
This is the “run it back” season. I was determined to get an invite and play once more at the Worlds Championships. They made the point threshold the highest it has ever been at 600CP but I have been working for the past year so I have both the vacation time and the budget to travel a lot this year.
My plan was to hit up 6 regionals and both EUIC and NAIC. This made the invite seem very achievable as long as I could get points at all of them and hopefully have a break out run at least once.
San Antonio Regionals – Dec. 16, 2023: The Avengers
This is the list that I piloted to a day 2, top 256 finish (145th) in San Antonio Regionals 2024. I call it the Avengers. It is based on a list that I saw from some European regional. I like the idea of being able to power up strong attackers and scrap for 6 prizes in creative ways. I did zero testing and just theorized lines for mapping prizes against each matchup. The engine was super consistent with having 4 extra outs to an early Colress with Forest Seal Stone and Town Store. I put in one jet energy because it functions as both a switch and an attachment at the same time, making it slightly easier to attack with Mew ex or Galarian Moltres V. I didn’t realize how bad of a matchup turbo Miraidon ex was, even with Minior. There just isn’t a way to properly deal with the second Iron Hands ex without a second copy of Supereffective Glasses.
In the end, I played pretty poorly in Day 2 and didn’t do the deck the justice it deserved. Still, it was good to end a cold streak of poor runs and prove to myself that I can put together a competent pile of 60 cards.
Portland Regionals – Jan. 06, 2024: The Avengers – Infinity War
This is the list that I piloted in Portland to a day 2, top 128 finish (81st). This is just a small adaptation of the Avengers deck that I played in San Antonio. I cut a switch cart for a bravery charm with the idea that a charmed Iron Hands will survive a Charizard hit and makes it more difficult for a Gardy return KO so you can cheese 4 prizes. I also swapped Galarian Moltres for Dragonite V since it is really good against Miraidon, they cannot easily return KO a charmed Dragonite V. It seemed that all the weaknesses of the deck were solved and I was expecting good matchups across the board based on results from previous regionals but I was surprised by the Arceus VStar matchup and also the Gholdengo matchup. The one benefit is that the deck is insanely consistent so I can usually just stomp on any opponent if they have a slow start.
I knew as soon as I faced an Arceus deck in round 7 that I wasn’t going to win this tournament, the rest of the rounds were just played out for value.
Vancouver Regionals – Mar. 23, 2024: Kec
This is the list that I piloted to day 2 in Vancouver Regionals 2024 (96th). Fun fact: this is the only time that both Kecleon CRE and Rapid Strike Scroll of the Skies (Gravdrop) have ever (and will ever) made day 2 at a Regionals. Sadly, both of those cards rotate right after this tournament :c. The deck might look kinda weird but I assure you that the lines you hit with Kecleon are incredible. I’m pretty sure all of my opponents had to read either Kecleon or the scroll and were very surprised when it ends up one-shotting their big attacker.
For just two energy (Lightning + Colorless) Gravdrop does 10 + 50 for each energy attached to your opponent’s active Pokemon. If they have 3 energy attached, you hit for 160! The tool can only be attached to Rapid Strike Pokemon though, which makes Kecleon the main attraction. Kecleon takes the typing of whichever energy is attached so you can hit weakness on basically anything. For this tournament, I decided on Grass, Dark, and Fighting. Grass was to hit 220 on Charizard after a 110 with Cramorant, opening a 2 for 2 trade on a Zard which will usually help the prize trade in the long run since you can usually take the first KO. Tropius + Glasses and Mew ex also finish off the other Zards that manage to set up. Fighting lets you one-shot Iron Hands ex and Arceus VStar if they are fully powered up. This is usually enough to swing the matchup in your favor. Finally, Dark is for Gardy ex in case they try to wall you off. It also does 120 to Cresselia with one energy attached which sometimes proves useful.
The deck is very versatile and can pull off plays out of nowhere which is very cool. Unfortunately, I couldn’t give it the send off it deserved since I drew some of the worst hands I’ve ever had with lost box in Day 2, starting with Drapion V in at least 4 of my games. I also won every Game 1 in Day 2 which is a disappointing stat given I only won a single match. Still, this was one of the most fun lost box variants that I have played to a tournament and I’m glad that I at least got some points with it.
EUIC – Apr. 5, 2024: Prime Lost Box
This is the list that I piloted to a day 2 finish (104th) at EUIC in 2024. I went 9-4-2 where if I had won either of my last two rounds I would’ve cashed out but I lost to a bad matchup then bad prizing. The idea behind the deck was to have good outs to the decks that I thought would be the most popular: Charizard, Chien-Pao, Future Hands, Arceus/Giratina, and Control.
Gouging Fire ex solved my main concern of Iron Hands ex while also being good into Arceus with a single Choice Band tech. Dealing 260 was good in general and it was bulky enough to not be easily return KO’d.
Spiritomb was easily the best card in the deck, it was great against control, Zard, and Lugia. It usually let you cheese a few early prizes with Cramorant since most Charizard lists weren’t getting consistent openings.
Raikou is also great against any deck that runs Pidgeot ex. Being able to take an easy KO with just two energy and having the ability to Forest Seal Stone for a Prime Catcher made it an auto-include.
Iron Leaves was added because otherwise Zard is still a bad matchup. Iron Hands is to help against other lost box decks and also is good in niche scenarios where you need to take a two prize turn easily.
Mew ex is great into any deck with Giratina VStar and lets you draw to hit outs after a late game Iono.
Finally, Zamazenta was cornerstone to try and make Chien-Pao a good matchup. The idea was that it cannot be KO’d by Iron Hands ex while it can one-shot a Pao as a single-prize attacker. It was also really good into Zard as a follow up after a Cram hit for 110. In practice this didn’t really pan out well, you just get countered by Iron Bundle in the Pao matchup letting them take a two prize turn most of the time. In the Zard matchup it is usually better to just outspeed them so something that could one-shot would just be better here.
While this deck was good in theory, I think had I practiced more I would’ve settled on a very different list. Theory only gets you so far into a blind meta.
LA Regionals – May 24, 2024: Jurassic Park >:)
At this point I had secured my invite after winning a League Challenge. I was just playing for value and so I went with the list that my good friend Dominic had been testing lots and we agreed that it had a very good spot in the LA Regionals metagame.
You take good matchups into almost everything except for Charizard so we added 2 Cobalion to give the deck one-shot potential in the late game which is all that was missing.
In the end I finished with a 5-2-2 record for 319th after losing my win-and-in to a Baxcalibur player honoring a gentleman’s agreement in game 3.
NAIC – June 7, 2024: CHORIZORD
For NAIC I knew that I wanted to play Charizard. After all, reset stamp is broken and Charizard makes the best use of it. I also felt that Lugia was in a very good position for this tournament so I wanted to build a list that could comfortably beat Lugia. That is the purpose of Delphox. It can take out two Cincinno/Mincinno at once to keep you in the prize race and ensure that there are no threats to your Charizard.
One major oversight was the exclusion of Manaphy. I thought that Lost Box would not be very prevalent so I cut it. I was wrong as Lost Box with a Pokestop engine ended up winning the event. I finished with a 4-3-2 record for 807th which still netted me 50 points.
Worlds – August 16, 2024: Mountain Eater
For Worlds I always call my decks “Mountain Eater” as an inside joke since fellow BC player Jack Pitcher got top 4 with a single copy of Larvitar UL in his deck.
This is a Regidrago list that I built to catch the mirror off guard. Radiant Alakazam allows you to get multiple KOs after your Rolling Iron turn and Lost City was for the Gardevoir matchup. The deck is very well positioned in the meta, I only take a tough matchup against Lugia (by not playing Sinnoh) but I felt that it would be an unpopular play for this tournament.
I ended up going 5-2-1, just one win shy of advancing to day 2, for 177th place.
Regardless, playing at Worlds is an achievement in itself and I had a great time meeting people from around the world.
2022 – 2023 Season
This season I really wanted to play again. I was graduating from school and started working so I had more time on weekends to travel to tournaments. But then they shut down locals so I had to travel more. However, the CP threshold much lower, just 350CP needed for an invite. Unfortunately, I didn’t do as well as I hoped. I only managed to get points at Portland Regionals after losing my win-and-in. I knew that the season was washed but I traveled to Japan with my girlfriend for Worlds anyways and had a great time, determined to make it back the following year.
My favorite deck from this era was Mewtwo V-Union/Reversal Gardy. I played it to NAIC but unfortunately didn’t do great.
2019-2020(2) Season
The season started and I was in Germany. I decided to try and hit up a couple of European Regionals since I was getting the itch to start playing again. I hit up my good ol’ pal Ricky Gao and got some lists for a broken PikaRom deck which I had to entirely order off of CardMarket since I didn’t bring anything with me to Germany. I think I spent around $300 on cards, which was just about how much I won back with winnings.
I played in both Sheffield and Cologne (Koln) Regionals. In Sheffield I started 5-0 but then lost a close game to Gustavo Wada where I needed one more Electropower to win and I could draw my entire deck except for one card. You can guess how that ends. I proceeded to lose 3 in a row and finish with a 6-3 record.
I ran it back in Cologne which you can see below. I think the list was either the same 59 or 60.
It was a fun ride with Pikarom and I managed to get a few points so that when I returned to Canada I could try for an invite. However, the season was cancelled due to a global pandemic and I decided to just focus on finishing school instead.
Koln Regionals – Sept. 28, 2019: PikaRom
This is the deck that I piloted to a top 32 (22nd) place finish at Cologne Regionals.
This list just aims to get t1 big attack and win quickly. I figured that this was the easiest deck to learn without any testing.
In Cologne, I started off 0-2 but then just kept on winning all the way until my top 8 win-and-in on round 13 where I just bricked two games in a row in the mirror. I proceeded to lose the final round as well to a control player since I didn’t know the matchup.
2018-2019 Season
Okay this time I actually quit for real. I got accepted into a research internship in Germany which would put me there all summer meaning I would miss out on Portland Regionals and Worlds. I wanted to go to EUIC since it was around the time my internship started but I had a final scheduled for the day before. Being a student and playing Pokemon is hard sometimes.
2017-2018 Season
This season I really wanted to try for an invite again since they lowered the threshold back to 400CP and school was going relatively chill. I had 40 points from the Anaheim Open and managed to get top 64 at both Vancouver and Portland regionals, just missing day 2 in both events by 1 win. Then I was able to just finish up the rest of my invite of locals.
I don’t remembered what I played for a lot of the year, probably Glaceon. But for Worlds I played BuzzRoc.
Worlds 2018: BuzzRoc
This is the list I played to Worlds in 2018. I made day 2 but then finished 80th after a disappointing 3-4 record. I played this deck because I didn’t test at all and this was the most consistent and powerful archetype. This summer in 2018 was one of my busiest with school where I was building robots basically 24/7 basically until August. I had felt super confident after Day 1 sacking my way into 6-2 but then Day 2 hit hard and made me regret my deck choice. I think it was the most popular archetype that year and I don’t really have much to add. Playing in Worlds is fun.
2016-2017 Season
Okay this time I actually quit. I was a first year Engineering student at Uni so I didn’t have much time to travel and needed to do well to get into my specialization of choice. They also raised the CP bar to 500 and didn’t have a Vancouver Regionals this year so I was cooked.
I did manage to make day 2 in Seattle with Drampa/Espeon/Garb and got 20th. This was around when Limitless started so this is technically the start of my “Limitless page”.
I also went to Worlds this year anyways since it was close by (Anaheim) and I wanted to go to Disneyland with some friends. I played in the Anaheim open and managed to get 90th place (I think x-2) playing Drampa/Garb.
Seattle Regionals – May 27, 2017: Espeon/Drampa/Garb
This is the list that I used to get 20th at Seattle Regionals in 2017, I made it myself. This was about when I started using just theory for deckbuilding so this deck has like zero testing games before the actual event. Trashalanche was just a broken attack and carried me for a lot of wins.
I really like the turn 1 Espeon GX confuse ray because it felt very strong to have a big tank in the active right away and force your opponent to play items to get out of confusion. I’m not sure why Jolteon/Vaporeon/Flareon are in there. I think maybe for Mega Ray/Mega Groudon/Mega Grass thing?? I do know that over 50% of that tournament was playing Garbodor so I probably just could’ve cut those cards for better ones. Also Bunnelby is broken.
2015-2016 Season
This season I thought for sure I would quit – I was in my final year of high school and wanted to focus on applying for Universities and keeping my GPA up as well as doing all my extra-curriculars. I reached out about staffing Vancouver Regionals but my dad convinced me to just play anyways. I asked my friend, Ricky Gao, for a list then lo and behold I got top 4 (again).
The threshold for Worlds was 300CP that year and I already found myself at 120 – almost halfway there, just a couple of good performances at locals from an invite! So I took it pretty easy right up into Worlds where I played Night March to crack into day 2 and then crash hard :))
Vancouver Regionals – Oct. 17, 2015: BEE REVENGE
This is the list of 60 cards I was told to play. I put it together during registration and my first game with the deck was in round 1. Luckily it wasn’t that hard to pick up. I remember using Battle Compressor to discard Juniper so I could VS Seeker for it and thinking “this deck is broken”. I would eventually lose in top 4 to Bronzong/Tyrantrum EX.
I don’t know any of the reasoning behind the card choices but I think Jolteon was for Yveltal, Audino was for lasers, Hex was for Archeops and Blacksmith was also so you could energy evolution + attack under Archeops.
Worlds 2016: Night March
I played night march. I hope I can find a list, this was one of my favorite decks. One spicy tech that I included was the 1-of Galvantula + Lightning Energy and Unown + Muscle Band. This was mainly for the mirror where missing an attack is pretty much how you lose. Playing the Galvantula can catch your opponent off guard and let you hit the two-prize turn if they bench two Joltik. You can also just set up the two prize turn by hitting into Mew/Pumpkaboo twice. The Unown + Muscle Band was so that you can hit for 30 for no energy (with Dimension Valley in play) which KOs Joltik and Mew. They were also just decent cards that didn’t hurt the decks insane consistency.
I ended up getting 86th overall after bombing in day 2.
2014-2015 Season
This season was the first one where I thought I was going to quit. Worlds was 500CP which was a 500CP threshold which is high for someone who doesn’t travel to more than three Regionals per year. I only got 464 points (outside of the 500 from worlds) last year which I felt was a strong year for me so I wasn’t really expecting much. Then of course I went and top 4’d Vancouver Regionals right off the bat. That still only put me at 155/500 (with 50 from top 64 at Worlds last year) so I needed another good performance. I decided to travel to a few more events than usual that year and it paid off: I got 2nd at Washington States with my off-meta Virizion/Genesect/Illumise/Seismitoad deck and then got top 8 at Alberta Regionals with Mega Manetric EX before swapping to Toad/Puff right into the auto-loss od Primal Groudon in top 8.
Vancouver Regionals – Oct. 18, 2014: Donphan Walls
I put together a Donphan deck (considered somewhat rogue at the time) which just tried to wall off opponents while whittling them down 60-90 damage at a time. This is not the list, I made this based on a picture of a lot of the cards that I had to borrow for this event and just filled in the missing spaces with 4-of staples. I remember Latias being very clutch in a lot of games, as well as Suicune. I think I also ran Hawlucha or Sigilyph but I can’t remember.
Unfortunately, this was also the Regionals ruleset where you play in the Expanded format for Top 8. I switched over to Pyroar and lost in top 4 to the mirror. Had I just stuck with Donphan I would’ve had smooth sailing to 1st since everyone seemed to just swap to Pyroar.
Washington States – Mar. 28, 2015: Illumise Genesect
This is the list that I used to get 2nd at Washington States. It is a bit unconventional but it tries to be a Virizion Genesect deck (because Toad was op and is weak to Grass) but also has some Seismitoad cards splashed in (because Toad was op). The Illumise was added because it is a one energy attacker that can leave a Seismitoad confused, they usually have poor mobility so you have a good chance of being freed to use items. It was also used to accelerate energy going second, having only one single-prizer means it makes no difference in the prize trade if it gets KOd.
Some other card choices were put in simply because Toad was there. I had Xerosic so that I could remove Float Stone under Toad lock while hitting with a Confuse Ray or just to remove Head Ringers from Virizion or Genesect. I had a laser so that I could hit for 210 with G Booster into Mega Manetric or Mega Gardevoir but it is also insanely good in a deck with Toad.
I had a good chance to win the whole event but I ended up whiffing the Plasma energy I needed for gust to win off a Colress. After getting the trophy I put out a photo of just the Illumise with Genesect EX which spawned a bunch of hype and the price of Illumise skyrocketed. I even sold one at the next Regionals for $1USD 😉
Alberta Regionals – May 30, 2015: MegaMan
I played Mega Manetric EX expecting a lot of Mega Rayquaza EX and I was right and I rolled them. The deck is super consistent and has great mobility and flexibility. I swapped to ToadPuff for top 8 which was a super big mistake since I queued right into an autoloss.
Worlds 2015: MegaMan Keldeo
For Worlds this year I decided to stick with Mega Manetric EX. The deck felt very strong and was good into a majority of the field. This was the first time that Worlds would have two days split up for swiss rounds and it was the only time that I did not make it to the second day of competition. It was a tough beat for sure but I learned a lot from it and I got to see Blastoise win the whole thing which was cool.
2013-2014 Season
I already had my invite from getting 4th last year so I literally played Blastoise for this ENTIRE season. I wish I recorded the lists from each event that I went to but I will say that I went on a HOT streak with Blastoise fresh off a Worlds top 4. I didn’t miss a single top cut for 6 months:
- Vancouver Regionals: 2nd
- Oregon Regionals: 5th
- BC Provincals: 8th
- 3x City Championships that I went to 2nd, 3rd, top 8
The streak ended in the end of March at Washington States. It was a pretty good run for my first year in Masters, I was top of the leaderboards for most of the season and by the end I managed to get 964CP putting me in 5th overall in NA.
Worlds 2014: Virizion/Genesect Toxicroak
My deck for Worlds this year was an interesting one. After literally playing Blastoise for every tournament (yes, even Nationals) I had decided it wasn’t the deck that would help me win Worlds. I settled on a playing Virizion Genesect with a twist!
Note: this is a recreation, I don’t actually have the 60 that I played written down anywhere but this is probably within 3 cards.
Here I took the standard Virizion/Genesect archetype and adapted it to give a fighting chance against Pyroar and have a favorable matchup against plasma box. Being able to KO Deoxys EX with a single prize attacker on a single energy is very strong. It usually requires energy switch with the plasma energy attachment as your gust for the turn but it is surprisingly easy to pull off. I ended up finishing in the top 64.
2012-2013 Season (Seniors)
This season had saw some good success for me – it was my final year in the Seniors division so I wanted to leave my mark. I got 2nd at Oregon Regionals with Landorus/Mewtwo/Bouffalant and I got top 8 at Vancouver Regionals, 2nd at Canadian Nationals and finally 4th place finish at Worlds with Blastoise.
Worlds 2013 & Canada Nationals 2013: Blastoise (Mountain Eater)
This is the deck that I used to get 4th place at Worlds in Vancouver.
This is a list that I honed and perfected after playing it for Vancouver Regionals (6th), a bunch of Battle Roads (four 1sts) and Canadian Nationals (2nd). All of the counts were carefully considered and tested extensively. Some interesting choices are the 2 counts of Max Potion and the 1 Wartortle.
Max Potion proved to be invaluable in many matchups, allowing you to drastically swing the prize trade in your favor by keeping your strongest attackers alive. The Wartortle was a last minute inclusion since Gothitelle was becoming more popular and being able to evolve a benched Squirtle put less pressure on the opponent KOing Blastiose since you no longer need the Rare Candy combo.
My Worlds run this year was very lucky to say the least. I started off with a strong 4-0 then found myself at 5-3. Luckily, I had good tiebreakers so I bubbled into top 32 where I faced Garbodor/Terrakion, then Klinklang in top 16, and Garbodor/Darkrai in top 8, before finally losing to Plasma in Top 4 (the eventual winner). It was crazy to overcome all of my poor matchups just to lose to bad draws against what I think is a fairly good matchup. I can’t complain too much, it was a great tournament finish to cap off my time in the Senior division.
2011-2012 Season (Seniors)
This is my most infamous season – the one where I missed invite three ways. I did decently throughout the whole season, the standouts were the Chandelure/Vileplume deck that got me a 3rd place finish at BC Provincals even despite me forgetting to write “Rare Candy” on my decklist forcing me to remove them from my deck before top 8. I also played a really cool Klinklang/Vileplume list for Canadian Nationals netting me another top 8 finish. Sadly, top 8 at Nationals is one win short of an invite and I bubbled in rankings at 42nd when top 40 gets an invite. I decided to go to Worlds anyways and played quad Terrakion in the Grinders where there were just three rounds. I got a bye round 1, I won round 2, then I lost round 3 to the very same Washington player who beat me in many finals and top 4s throughout the many cups I went to – Liam Williams 😡
If I find a list I will add it here.
2010-2011 Season (Seniors)
This season I actually managed to do decently again but also attendance was at an all-time low. The one event I did win was BC Provincals (again). I played Gyarados and beat the other 11 people registered in Seniors (lol). I still remember playing in the final and my opponent was blatantly cheating but we did not have a table judge.
I managed to top 8 Canadian Nationals again playing a deck that included three copies of POTION. To be fair this was right after a mid-season rotation and they had just buffed Potion from healing 20 up to 30. I was playing Yanmega/Donphan/Kingdra Prime. The list was from a friend at league. I had a round 1 bye from winning BC Provincals so my resistance was like 80% or something crazy. I went 5-1 in swiss then lost in top 8. However, during a top 4 match someone offered a bribe then got DQd on the spot thus bumping me up to 4th and giving me an invite to Worlds. So technically, Potion got me 4th at Nationals.
For Worlds I ended up playing ReshiBoar. It felt very strong but also wasn’t great. I had been testing ReshiPhlosion leading up to the event but for some reason felt that Emboar would get me there. I ended up going 3-4 for 72nd. I could’ve done better but I misplayed and had some close games in the last two rounds.
2009-2010 Season (Seniors)
This season was pretty much a wash. I quickly got humbled by the tougher competition and had to improve my game massively. I had no stand-out accomplishments so no decklists to post. I do remember playing a lot of Gyarados.
2008-2009 Season (Juniors)
I did much worse this year since I started playing a wider variety of decks. My biggest accomplishments were 3rd at Vancouver Regionals with Dusknoir and top 8 at Canadian Nationals with Kingdra. I missed an invite by quite a bit (lost a lot of games playing random decks and invite was by ELO back then) so I played the grinders and made it in with Kingdra. However, I decided to switch to Gengar for Worlds and did very badly.
I definitely grew a lot from taking losses and trying out a bunch of different strategies, but I also could’ve done a lot better for my final year in the Junior division.
2007-2008 Season (Juniors)
In my rookie year in Juniors I only really played one deck: Gardevoir Gallade with BANETTE.
Full Season: GG with Banette
Props to pokemoncard.io/deckbuilder for letting me make this image
I will start by saying that this deck is not good. BUT, it was great for Juniors. I found this in an old notebook with the title “Joey’s original (G+G with B-ette) deck” in my 8-year old handwriting. This is probably the first iteration of the list that I used that season just after Secret Wonders came out (November 2007).
There are 19 energy and no justifications for any counts at all really, but the amount of times that I started Shuppet, Rare Candy, Banette against my opponent’s lone basic starter made up for it. This was a format where you could attack and use “Trainers” going first and also use Rare Candy on the first turn something came into play.
Banette was also good since almost everyone in Juniors was also playing Gardevoir/Gallade and 80 damage + weakness was enough to one-shot Gardevoir and Gardevoir LV.X. One of my most memorable plays was in the finals of Canadian Nationals in the mirror match. With one-prize left I was running low on resources and my opponent walled me off with a Gallade that I could not KO while they were about to win in the following turn. It seemed like I was checkmated but that’s when I realized that all of their benched Pokemon had 80HP or less remaining. I was able to Warp Point and use Banette’s Spiteful Pain for the win and since then Warp Point has been my favorite Pokemon card of all time, simply for teaching me to always look for an out in seemingly unwinnable situations.
Here are my accomplishments with the deck archetype (the list changed a lot throughout the season but always had 4-4 Banette)
BC Provincals (2008): 1st
Alberta Regionals (2008): 2nd
Canadian Nationals (2008): 1st
Worlds (2008): 9th
Overall W/L ratio: 61-7
I managed to go undefeated in swiss rounds at every major that I played, including Worlds. If I find the list that I ran with at Worlds I’ll add that here too.
joey gaffney 
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