For the third year in a row, I decided (or rather, was forcibly convinced) that going to EUIC was a good idea. I like playing in International tournaments. They really go all out in creating an exciting atmosphere. The major downside is, of course, traveling 10 hours by plane.
This year, unlike previously, I’d be traveling solo. I would meet up with some friends who I am staying with once I get to London, but we all ended up on different flights. I happened to be swamped with work deadlines, so I didn’t realize I was supposed to check in for my flight until I was about to head to bed. By that time, the only seats available were middle seats. Dreadful. EXCEPT, there was a single aisle available in the emergency exit row priced at $110. Considering I paid just $260 for a one-way (and ~$500 for the return) I figured that it was worth it if it meant that I could try and get comfortable sleeping asymmetrically while sitting upright. I have absolutely no regrets, the exit row is insane tech and gives you infinite leg room. Aisle is a bit annoying since you get bumped by people walking by to go to the bathroom, but I managed to get a bit of sleep.
I landed in London around 1pm on Thursday with probably 3 hours of sleep and three Bollywood movies watched. I headed straight to the London Excel Convention Center which I could navigate to without any maps at this point. While it does get less exciting every time, the one upside of having a tournament in the same location every year is that you get to know the city quite well.
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With all that preamble out of the way, here is the deck that I decided to play to EUIC.
There is nothing special about this list. It feels like every Gardevoir list is within 50 cards of each other and the remaining 10 cards are flex spots that could either be consistency focused or item lock focused. I did not do any testing at all for this event so I just asked my friend, Jack, for a list.
He submitted it for me but I woke up at 4am and decided that I do actually want to play Drifloon this weekend so I added it in. From the original list, I cut one Arven and one Counter Catcher in favor of one Drifloon and one Bravery Charm.
My reasoning is that Arven is not that great of a Supporter and a second Counter Catcher has diminishing returns when you can always one-shot whatever is active. Drifloon just makes a lot of sense in a metagame where people aren’t prepared for it. Being able to one-shot Mega Absol with not much effort is very effective. Also, being able to trade favorably into decks that no longer run Jamming Tower (i.e. Gholdengo) is also a huge plus.
Now, let’s get into my matchups.
For phase 1, I started off with a nice and easy 4-0-1 record with my sole tie being from taking an incorrect line against Gholdengo in a game one scenario. I then easily won game two and we ran out of time for a third game. The choice for me was to either hope that item lock sticks long enough for me to make a 4-2 comeback, or go for the Iono + KO play forcing them to hit double retrieval and Boss on Garde to win with only one Gholdengo left in play. I went for Iono but in hindsight just sticking Item Lock should win every time.
Round 6 was a very close one against a deck I haven’t played against with Gardevoir before – Froslass/Munkidori. I started Clefairy and was able to take some early prizes but a well-timed Counter Catcher stalled me out for a bit. I was trying to be mindful of a potential Maractus retreat lock as well. What ultimately won me the game was that my opponent accidentally forgot to use one of their Munkidori on a crucial turn. They had four set up but only moved 90 damage total while tapping all four. When turn passed over, they said that Clefairy should be knocked out by now but when I pointed out that he had only moved 90 total off of his Pokemon he knew that he made a huge mistake. I was able to Turo my Clefairy to prevent the KO and clean up the game very narrowly. With 20 minutes left there wasn’t time for a game three but I ended up in a favorable position in game two anyways and took the set to advance to phase two.
I tied the very next round against another Gholdengo where I made another mistake. I had established item to prevent any attacks but I was once again in a 2-4 prize card scenario. At this point, they were going for a deck out on me. With two well-timed Turo, I was getting scared that I would run out of cards before I could take four prize cards. After I play my final Iono I see an opportunity where I can take a KO on their only Gholdengo and they only have Solrock + Lunatone in play with a ~25 card deck. I outright lose to a Fighting energy but they have just one card in hand plus their top deck. I decide that these are the best odds that I will get and go for the KO. Of course, this gets punished once again. I definitely should have played around the deck out angle better and would have a guaranteed win, even then I didn’t end up counting my deck to see how much damage I could get down on his field, this would’ve been helpful to determine the best strategy to use going forward, especially since they were out of Turo. I think this failure is just from a lack of testing.
I got paired up against a Crustle in my very next round which made me feel a lot better about my Gholdengo ties. This was short-lived, however, as another Gholdengo enters my path and I just completely brick for two games in a row.
The second day started off with two quick (and close) wins against Dragapult/Dusknoir. I completely sacked off Iono draws and got set up quickly under Itchy Pollen item lock.
In Round 12 I played against a Raging Bolt, another matchup that I haven’t really played in this format. I figure that Drifloon can make the prize trade alright but lacking the second Counter Catcher hurt a bit. I end up winning game one and feel that the matchup is alright. In game two it comes down to the wire and their hail mary play is to Counter Catcher Gardevoir and snipe a single prizer to go down to two and hope I don’t have enough energy to discard in order to snipe a two-prizer. It works as I am unable to find Turo to get the few more energy that I need. Game three starts with about 8 minutes left and I think that I am able to get in a situation where I can take all my prize cards in ~4 turns but all my hopes are shut down when a Bravery Charm goes down on Fan Rotom. He is now in the driver’s seat but with 4 prizes left and my board being all single-prizers and Gardevoir ex, there is no way for him to win if I just draw pass twice. We tie.
That was a tough way to get eliminated from the tournament. I definitely played well in those games but all of my Gholdengo ties are coming back to bite.
The next round I faced off against Grimmsnarl and this is one matchup where I am very glad to have Drifloon in my deck. Being able to click the one-shot button is very good, even when the opponent has a three prize turn follow up. Because after that you win with just Iono + Mind Bend (or follow up KO).
The final round was against my first mirror match. The list is actually quite close, also opting for Drifloon. In Game one, it came down to my opponent needing to hit off Iono to 1 with no Fez on board. I was swinging with Gardevoir ex so the only real way to take prizes was to find Drifloon Charm or Stretcher for Scream Tail. They top decked Stretcher.
Game two I was able to win cleanly with Drifloon Cape to KO Gardevoir then a follow up Counter Catcher on Mew ex for game once that got KOd. After those two games we had 5 minutes left and we knew that a tie wouldn’t do either of us much good so we agreed to decide the game based on whoever is up on prize cards. I got quite lucky under their item lock start and was able to establish a Gardevoir ex first. They have Mew ex on bench and two Kirlia in play but are also unable to play cards much under my item lock as well. On my turn (turn 1 of time), the board looks like this:
On my opponent’s previous turn they did nothing but move 20 and Oceanic Gloom. I know they do not have a Supporter and they do not have a Gardevoir in hand. For my own field I have just one Psychic Energy in my discard and a bunch of items. The best play is probably to just go for the KO on active Frillish with Gardevoir. I go up 5-6 and my opponent gets one additional turn where the most they could do is take 2 prize cards. with Scream Tail + Munki on my Frillish. That would mean I just need to KO Mew on the final turn to win. There is a scenario where they get the Drifloon KO on my Gardevoir and the Munki KO on my Frillish, in which case I am just dead. Because of this, I got paranoid and decided my best odds would be to just hope I can get the Mew ex KO on my next turn and keep them Item Locked for one more turn. However, I completely neglected that they could KO me with Frillish and I would still be Item Locked so it would require an insane top deck to stay in the game. To top it off, they have Turo on their Mew to completely deny any hope of me going up in prizes on my final turn. I have completely thrown my best odds play and scooped the match as they would have a pretty much guaranteed prize on their next turn.
While the loss is quite deflating, there is much to look back and improve upon. I need to go for much more calculated lines against Gholdengo. I need to stay calm under pressure and take my time to find the best line in a close game during time. I need to stop believing Iono will get me there BECAUSE IT NEVER DOES.
So, in the end I finish 104th. Coincidentally, this is the exact same placement that I got in 2024 with my crazy Lost Box concoction. My score this time around was 9-2-3 (30 points), a full point higher than in 2024 at 9-4-2 (29 points). But the tournament was also close to double in size (from 2605 to 4011 this year).
While it would’ve been nice to make enough money to pay back my entire season this far, I am still grateful for the progress that I am seeing and I am finding a lot more enjoyment with my approach and attitude towards tournaments this season in general.
I am excited for the next few tournaments I have scheduled for this season and I am especially excited for the broken Groudon card that was foreshadowed at this event. The next tournament will be Seattle Regionals and this time I feel very close to that first place finish.
joey gaffney 