2023-2024 Pokémon Season Review

In the 2022-2023 season, I bombed in Toronto, Vancouver, Portland, and NAIC. I didn’t make day 2 in any of those events and definitely felt like my play was sloppy. I still traveled to Worlds because it has always been a dream of mine to attend Worlds in Japan. However, while at the venue I couldn’t help but feel like I was missing out just sitting on the sidelines. I decided then and there that next season I would make a serious effort to do better and make it to Worlds.

Part 1: IF IT AIN’T BROKE

My season starts with Sacramento Regionals, the only West Coast regionals in the early season. I have no idea what to play since I’m washed so I decide to just run with the 60 that won the previous Regionals. The rationale is that this list is already proven to be consistent over many rounds of best-of-3 (bo3) and if I just play it well then I will do well.

The downsides are that people will know your list. Thanks to Limitless publishing all decklists that do well, everyone has access to decklist data and the easiest way to filter through all this data is to just look at the top performing list of each archetype. When people know your 60 cards, you lose a slight edge. When people test matchups, this is the 60 that they test against. This is why I decided to tech a 1-of Hawlucha into the most recent winning Lost Kyogre list.

This starts of great for me, I get a run going and find myself at 5-1-1, giving me two win-and-ins to day 2. However, I choke it and lose both. My final round was lost due to literally just not knowing the Gardy matchup because I didn’t playtest the deck at all. There was a clear path to improve.

There were some highlights in Sacramento. One was beating a 59 card mirror after bench-locking myself because he didn’t play around my Hawlucha >:)

The other was seeing my friend Dominic make it to top 4 with Lugia. It was inspiring to see people I travel and room with doing well.

Sacramento: 5-2-2 +30 (t256) with Lost Zone Kyogre

Toronto Regionals was just two weeks after and I was busy with both work and a big move in those two weeks so I decided to just run it back with Kyogre, same 60.

I now have 9 bo3s of games under my belt so I was feeling more confident with the deck. It did not work in my favor. I started 0-0-2 putting me in the most miserable bracket of all time – full of Gardy and slow players. I was already out after 6 rounds at 2-2-2 but managed to salvage some points at the end.

What went wrong? My notes for the tournament say bad starts and bricks but it was obvious that the format had just evolved to a point where my list was no longer good. I was changing one or two cards to try and improve it but it required more drastic measures. I had to turn things around, with the release of Paradox Rift, it was ample time I started cooking my own lists.

Toronto: 4-2-3 +20 (t512) with Lost Zone Kyogre

PART TWO: SELECTING FLOWERS

With the release of Paradox Rift, I knew that lost box could become much stronger. I was looking at results overseas and found some interesting lists for lost box. There were many different attacking options so I chose the ones that I felt would be strongest into the meta I expected. I assembled a team of strong Pokémon which I dubbed “the Avengers”. I theorized the matchups and ran some calculations to optimize my good starts. Didn’t have much time to test so I just guessed how the matchups would play out and simulated different lines in my head. I wasn’t actually planning on attending any events until Portland Regionals but the scheduling aligned and I had time to attend San Antonio Regionals with some friends.

The tournament started off rough but I climbed back from 3-1-2 to make day 2, but unfortunately, my lack of testing started to show in day 2, and my play was worsening. I started off 0-3 against matchups that I thought were very winnable. Still, I was grateful that I made it to my first day 2 this season and I was excited to finally have some momentum.

San Antonio: 8-5-2 +30 (t256) with the Avengers

(see the full list here in my deck list hall of fame: https://joeyg.ca/2024/04/18/deck-list-hof/#san-antonio-regionals-dec-16-2023-the-avengers)

A month later was Portland Regionals. This is one of the only drivable ones for the PNW so it’s always a fun time with a lot of locals coming out to play. I decide to swap out the Avengers roster to adjust to the meta shift. I realized Dragonite V is insane into a few matchups, notably Miraidon, and by attaching bravery charm at crucial moments I can cheese an extra few prizes in some matchups. The core of the deck remained largely the same since the engine was so good at charging up attacks early and unexpectedly.

I start day 1 going 7-2 and after over 20 games with this archetype I was beginning to understand the matchups more deeply. I realized that Arceus is a rough matchup, Gholdengo is rough if you don’t stomp them early, and Gardy+Zard gets difficult if you don’t draw well after Iono.

I ended up with a mediocre 2-2-1 performance in day 2, netting me more points but still leaving me unsatisfied. I did believe that my list was much better than before, the matchups were not what I expected.

Portland: 9-4-1 +40 (t128, 81st) with Avengers Infinity War

Deck list can be found here: https://joeyg.ca/2024/04/18/deck-list-hof/#portland-regionals-jan-06-2024-the-avengers-infinity-war

Part 3: Innovations

After Portland came a long 3 month break before Vancouver Regionals. The hometown Regionals is always the one I look forward to the most. I have a solid track record in Vancouver, getting 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in three consecutive years. But that was when Regionals were much smaller and had just one day of Swiss rounds. I come back every year hoping to finish the trophy collection, and this year I was bringing something off the radar.

I still wanted to play the lost box engine because it was very strong and I haven’t really tested anything else. But I wanted to improve the bad matchups somehow. Coming up with something unexpected for a tournament is always a great time. In 2015 I brought a homebrewed Donphan deck before it was well-known and cruised to top 8. In 2023 (last year) I brought a friend’s 60 – Rapid Strike box. The deck was insanely fun to play and all of my opponents complimented me on the creativity (I had to redirect the credit to Drew Allen) but it had an autoloss to Mew and Ice Rider – both decks that I played against early on. In 2024, I decided I would be playing Kecleon into lost box.

Kecleon was powerful for two reasons:

1. It had an ability that let it become the same type as any energy attached to it.

2. It’s a Rapid Strike Pokemon

The second point matters most because of a little-known tool card called Scroll of the Skies.  It gave your Rapid Strike Pokemon the attack Gravdrop which does 10+50 for each energy attached to your opponents active Pokemon. The attack only costs 1 Lightning and 1 Colorless energy so you could charge up a Kecleon with just one Mirage Gate and hit any deck for weakness.

The main things that I wanted Kecleon for were Arceus VStar, Iron Hands, and Gardevoir ex. These are all Pokémon that, when attacking with 3 energy, get return KOd by the Kec. It was only a three card combo as well: Mirage Gate, Kec/Nest Ball, and Scroll/Town Store. The deck felt good into most matchups, and for good measure, I threw in Tropius, Grass, and Supereffective Glasses to make the Zard matchup much better.

I started off 1-1-1 but ran it back to 6-1-2 to make it to Day 2. I think some of my opponents knew what Kecleon did, but all of them had to read Gravdrop as soon as it hit the board.

Unfortunately in Day 2 things didn’t quite go my way. I had great matchups but my deck just ran out of gas. I won every game 1 in the set only to have very poor starts or straight up dead draws in games 2+3 for 3 rounds in a row.

I finished with a terrible 1-4-1 in day 2 but still had a lot of fun with Kecleon.

Vancouver: 7-5-3 +40 (t128, 96th) with kec

With Vancouver out of the way I now only had 2 weeks to prepare for EUIC. I spent so much time cooking up Kecleon that I didn’t really try to prep for this tournament. So, I spent all my mental energy throughout the two weeks trying to theorize an optimal lost box deck for post rotation.

Temporal Forces had some strong options for the deck – Iron Leaves ex could easily deal with a Charizard and Gouging Fire ex seemed like a powerful hitter for little downside. We lost Dragonite V (and Kecleon) to rotation so the solid damage was nice to have. The downside is that the energy line becomes all out of whack.

I settled on Fire, Grass, Lightning, Metal. I preferred the 260 from Gouging Fire to the glass cannon Roaring Moon. I thought Grass was too good to pass up when Zard was a heavy favorite. And finally I thought the best way to make Chien-Pao a decent matchup is to throw in Zamazenta (spoilers: it’s not). But with no testing and only theory, you have to rely on your instincts. Not having water energy was tough but Radiant Greninja is the best choice for the deck and I figured most people would just play Manaphy down the instant they see one. Since I don’t run Sableye (to KO Manaphy easily) there wasn’t much point in going for the Water Shiruken play most of the time.

The tournament started off great – I was 6-1-1 with the tie being two close games and the loss being to Chien-Pao which I now realized was a bad matchup. Then I got bodied by a better lost box list. The mirror comes down to who hits hands early and often and I thought I had the best response in Gouging Fire but it turns out that Hoopa ex also kinda cooks.

With a 6-2-1 record I knew I needed to lock in to make top 8 so I just hoped for good matchups.

I beat a Zard in r10 but then got paired into Pao next. Somehow, I was able to beat it thanks to him dead drawing and I felt like I was in prime position to get a good finish. Unfortunately, in the next match my opponent started Zubat and I panic benched Manaphy t1. It turns out he’s running Pidgeot control and my Manaphy gets locked while I don’t get quite enough switches in time to win. In game 2 I play the match properly and win but by then it is too late. I could’ve scooped early in game 1 but the matchup is really good even with Manaphy down so I thought I could 1-0. This is where theory breaks down.

I’m still in contention to outright get my invite with a top 64 finish so I lock in once again and beat another Zard r13. With just 1 win needed and two shots at it I felt very confident.

R14 paired me against the same lost box as round 9, and I got cooked for the second time.

R15 I got paired against Zard, but he plays Regieleki. I was no longer locked in after losing to the same lost box twice, so I made a bunch of misplays. The matchup isn’t super great if he gets the Regi/Eri loop going, but killing Pidgeot ex early is good value. I win game 1 despite the misplays because he dead drew a lot, but then I get destroyed by Eri in game 2 and have a poor start game 3. My opponent was feinding for a cash out so I didn’t feel too bad about losing, I still had locked enough points to get the rest of my invite off locals.

EUIC: 9-4-2 +100 (t128, 105th) with prime lost box

My list was far from optimal but I hit good matchups to make up for it. There were a lot of control players and my deck ended up having a great control matchup. I believe had I not searched out Manaphy in round 13 I could’ve had a great run.

The list can be found here: https://joeyg.ca/2024/04/18/deck-list-hof/#euic-apr-5-2024-prime-lost-box

Part 4: Return to complacency

I ended up needing to make finals in a total of 5 cups/challenges to finish off my invite. I basically hadn’t been to Challenges at all throughout the year thinking they wouldn’t matter and my Cups performances could be improved upon. I played mostly Charizard since it was consistent and I managed to get a cup 1st/2nd and two challenge 1sts and one 2nd.

It took about a month of locals to get there, but it was a lot of fun going to these tournaments on weekends and hanging out with friends. I was glad to finally get my invite, and was excited that I would finally get to play at Worlds again for the first time in 6 years.

With the invite secured, I still had plans to go to LA Regionals and NAIC, so I needed a deck for those. Of course, I had no time for testing, so I trusted the deck choice of my friend Dominic – the same friend that got top 4 at Sacramento at the start of the season. He saw that Ancient Box was a really good meta call with the only rough matchups being Zard (which was starting to fall off) and Dialga. We decided to tech 2 Cobalion to make Zard a decent matchup and run with it.

I think it was a great meta call, but the deck is also super susceptible to ties. Being a single-prize deck, if you don’t win game 1, you are hoping for a tie at best. This is what ended up happening to me as I tied a Zard early, lost to a Dialga, tied a very winnable Moon/Dunsparce matchup and then lost the win and in to Pao after a drawn out game 1 and then a gentleman’s on prizes game 3.

I definitely could’ve played better or scooped earlier in some games, but that’s just how it goes sometimes. I was looking forward to checking out Universal Studios now that I was out of the tournament.

LA: 5-2-2 +20 (t512) with Ancient Box

Finally, Twilight Masquerade released, and NAIC came up quickly. I actually wanted to do well this time around, so I tested a bit with some friends.

My top deck choices were Dragapult, Gardevoir, and Festival Lead Dipplin. The last one was more for the funny attack and ability names, but I soon realized that the deck had a really bad Gardevoir matchup, so I dropped it.

I wanted to play Dragapult because in testing, I always had these strong turns of Unfair Stamp + insane damage on board. But it wasn’t super consistent at getting there. Then I realized that I just wanted to play Zard/Pidgeot – the deck that can do this most consistently. So I pivoted last minute and ran with Zard and added a Delphox to make the Lugia matchup good.

The Delphox paid off since I faced two Lugia right in the first two rounds and 2-0d both. I attacked with Delphox in every game. In round three I played against a very good Zard player with a list ~3 cards off mine. We ended up with a tie with me just barely winning game 2. Then things took a left turn. See, I decided that I could cut Manaphy since Baxcalibur would be much less popular, and thus, the amount of t2 Greninjas I would see was going to be very little. I didn’t expect so many people to bring lost box variants.

All three of my losses were to Lost box decks. Water Shiruken double Charmander TWICE is very hard to stop. If I had just put Manaphy in my deck, I probably could’ve made a deep run because I think it was a pretty good meta call.

Regardless, I finished off the tournament just to hang out and get some pity points. I ended 4-3-2 also getting a tie versus Gardy due to a misplay on my end.

NAIC: 4-3-2 +50 (t1024, 808) with Charizard

Part 5: Reflections

Now that the season is in the books and Worlds is on the horizon, I have some time to reflect.

I’ve been playing this game for 16 years. I’ve gotten a lot out of it, some great friends, amazing memories, and a bit of cash. But I’ve also put a lot into it, so much time and effort spent trying to improve and keep up with the evolving meta every year. And now, I’m reaching a point in life where I have other priorities that are becoming more important. It’s becoming more difficult to justify spending entire weekends traveling across the country to compete.

I’ve reached a point where I’m starting to question: Is it worth it? And if not, what will make it worthwhile? Is it winning cash at events or seeing old friends? Maybe it’s just a competitive drive, trying to achieve recognition for something you work so hard towards.

My season was pretty lackluster. I’ve had some solid runs but nothing to really write home about. Despite that, I’ve had some of the most fun I’ve ever had from traveling around the world with friends new and old. And, I get another opportunity to play in the World Championships.

This is my 9th time earning an invitation to Worlds. I’m as excited for this one as I was the first. Having the opportunity to compete with the best of the best is a thrill like no other. And becoming the world champion is the ultimate dream. I’ve gotten close, making it within the top 10 twice, but I won’t be satisfied until I reach the very top and become the very best, like no one ever was.

So, is it worth it? Honestly, I think I’ll be playing the game as long as I’m enjoying it.