Hola! I didn’t plan on going to Mexico for Regionals but when my friend Drew hit me up asking if I would be going to Orlando Regionals I responded, “I’d sooner go to Mexico for Regionals” and that was that. It is simply geographically closer and has the added bonus of not having to enter America.

My season thus far has been a top 512, 256, 128, and 64 in that order so the prophecy states that I will get a top 32 for sure.

The List

Once again, the list has not changed since EUIC. I do not play test at all. The one time I booted up Live in the past three months was to build a cheesy Mega Gardevoir ex deck. It was not good. I played one game then gave up.

If you want an explanation on the cards I think I went over it in my EUIC report. 2 Bravery Charm + 1 Luxurious Cape is very good and fun.

The Tournament

R1 vs Mega Gengar + Grimmsnarl (LWW)

G1 He sets up triple Grimmsnarl but just never hits a gust effect so I’m up very much on the prizes trade. They don’t play Froslass or Munkidori so my Drifloon just carried.

G2 I start Frillish and opt to not put Bravery Charm against my opponents active Gastly. I thought surely this thing doesn’t do 40 for 1 energy… Anyways, he gets up by 3 prizes before I get a Gardevoir (gex) out but their board is fully developed so I just lose.

G3 With not too much time left, this 1000% should’ve been a tie. However, I was able to set up quickly and take early prizes but there just isn’t enough ex Pokemon on their field for me to win and I had to burn through all my HP modifiers so Drifloon couldn’t take a one-shot. I go down to 2 prizes as turn one of time. My opponent could simply pass and secure a tie. Instead they evolved into Charizard ex and took a KO to go down to 2 prize cards. I have mew ex and Munkidori on board…

Glad to start with a win, definitely not deserved but sometimes lucky.

R2 vs Dragapult Dusknoir (WW)

G1 I lose the flip and go first. I get Ralts down and I get Kirlia + turn two TM:evo into gex and find enough energy in discard to scream tail ghosts off the board.

G2 I start Scream Tail going first. My hand is poor but I have a Ralts. I KO Budew on turn two and he missed Candy and he didn’t bench a second budew. I have Rare Candy + gex and win.

R3 vs Dragapult Dusknoir (WW)

G1 I lose flip and go first. On t2 I have TM:evo double Kirlia. On t3 I find gex but no attack. I commit energy to board and frillish. He boss gex and pop clops to KO Kirlia and put 200 on gex. I have mew clef in hand and turo on frillish to get energy in discard and take 4 prizes going to 1. Checkmate on board.

G2 Going first I find two Ralts with Mew active. On t2 I find kirlia and evo into gex but no psychic in discard. He iono me into 2 p + research. Still, I whiff any attacker so I mew copy itchy w clef on bench. He commits dusk to ko mew and itchy on munki. I lillie into tail to ko a dreepy. He Boss clef take 3 popping clops. I have box for munki Stretcher clef ko budew + pult for game.

R4 vs Dragapult Dusknoir (WW)

Blessed by the matchup Gods, I have hit yet another Pult.

G1 Double Ralts into t2 evo into kirlia + gex, t3 get double gex and start steamrolling.

G2 Ralts start plus one on bench, t2 kirlia for peeps. No iono but they hit Candy pult ko kirlia. They miss clops tho so I’m not ded. I lillie into Candy, munki 30 to budew and hit ultra ball off prize for gex and get a ko. They boss fez to stall. I hit energy off iono, take 2 more prizes on budew + cloak snipe to go to 1. They boss gex and hit with bear. I whiff energy and move 30 off to clops then pass. They pass back. I top deck Stretcher for 2nd Dark to ko clops

R5 vs gex (WW)

G1 I lose flip, go first and get t2 candy gex tail snipe kirlia. He gets candy gex snipes munki. I KO his tail with my tail keeping it simple. He Mew ex snipe another munki. I ko mew go to 2. No iono, he ko scream tail with gex. I drifloon charm for game.

G2 I go first get kirlia + item lock. Get t3 gex into snipe kirlia, he prized one. Misses Candy gex, I continue to snipe out ralts and win. Lethal with triple munki snipe fez.

R6 vs Grimmsnarl (LWL)

G1 ded draw, attach twice to munki, they also dd but evolve into fros which gives me ko on imp. Doesn’t matter since I draw no supporter for the next 6 turns.

G2 munki confusion into frillish assuming only 1 boss in discard so I can set up 2nd gex. Take cheeky prizes with double munki and win with mew ex for 3 prizes

G3 no ralts t1, he gets t2 Grimm finding Candy off lillie and I get steamrolled never being able to keep a ralts in play.

R7 vs Raging Bolt (LWT)

He offered ID before sitting down. I said I would rather play. He might be scared of the matchup.

G1 I lose prize race, he gets too much energy on board and attacks with kanga

G2 I mew for 3 into turo to win game. I don’t remember the full details, that’s just what is in my notes.

G3 I offer draw with 10 mins left. I just witnessed two Grimmsnarls win and go into the 6-1 bracket so I thought I could avoid donk and also move into a bracket with better matchups with a tie here. He accepts immediately.

R8 vs Joltik Box (LWW)

G1 I get donked

G2 I get t2 gex and win

G3 I don’t draw supporter all game. I start clef attach twice ko joltik. They boss munki charm arm press for 1. I hit for 120. They hit into clef. I retreat into munki and put them to 210. They KO munki for 2. I get another munki to KO hands and find ralts evo into kirlia taking out most of his energy, just left with pika. They boss KO clef with pika leaving their board with just 2 energy on iron hands. I get gex, move 30 to mew, hit pika for 190. They pass, I win. Yes, I didn’t play a single supporter this entire game except for one turn where I used Arven for Secret Box… I didn’t even play the Secret Box.

R9 vs Crustle (WW)

THE STRATEGIC ID PAYS OFF MY BRACKET IS INSANE FOR MATCHUPS IM HAVING THE GREATEST TIME

G1 I set up double gex, double munki, mew ex. He cannot win.

G2 I get a similar set up to game one, albeit this time much slower. I go for a big scream Tail KO and Iono combo to seal the game with back-to-back Crustle Cape KOs.

R10 vs Dragapult (WW)

G1 he doesn’t have poffin, starts budew latias pass. I start frillish and get ralts+munki on board and item lock slows him down enough for me to set up gex and kirlia

G2 I start tail and have t2 evo into gex but iono+item lock stumps me and they have the t3 pult + dusk ko on gex. I attack with munki and bait with double ralts. They take ko on double ralts. I use iono and confuse again, they just need heads to win. Miss twice, I set up gg

R11 vs Grimmsnarl (LWL)

I forgot to take notes on this game but I believe it went like this

G1 I just couldn’t set up. 

G2 was looking bad as well but he prized double Grimm so I was able to set up and he scooped after I KO Morgrem with energy.

G3 came down to me hitting dark energy off Iono to 6 and Fez draw but I MISS and its still fine if they whiff TM devo off Iono to 1 BUT THEY HIT.

R12 vs Alakazam (WW)

THE MATCHUP GODS ARE SMILING UPON ME ON THIS DAY

G1 I set up double gex and start getting energy on Munki. Drifloon is an easy way to trade 1 for 1 and Iono into KO with gex makes it impossible for them to get KO most of the time.

G2 I have a slower start so prize trade is about even and his battle cages stuck around. He KOs Drifloon with cape and takes two prizes. I told him before he gusted it that he needs 8 cards and he gets 1 prize card for it. I think it got lost in translation though. The DPL secured the win for me but I still had an out either way with stadium bump+iono.

R13 vs Festival Lead (LWW)

IS THIS RUN SCRIPTED???

G1 I start a dead hand and lose quickly

G2 I start secret box and pop off. I don’t actually know the matchup but I found out just setting up double munki is essentially winning after a couple of turns.

G3 I have a slower start and have to resort to CC on Thwackey hope for no switch out and it works. I buy two whole turns and set up my two Munki and win just before time is called.

Asymm Cut vs Pult (WW)

For top cut I was put on stream. It’s my first time on stream so I was pretty pumped. The whole time I was really just trying to make sure my posture was good.

Top cut is open decklist and the thing I immediately notice is a lack of Rare Candy. This is definitely something to play around.

G1 I get t2 evo double Kirlia and his Iono nets me gex and I can snipe out only Kloak. I know I’m safe for a turn so I keep my hand that has energy instead of playing Lillie so I can guarantee a follow up attack if he tries to gust stall. He gets double Kloak now and just passes so that my Scream Tail stays at 40. I don’t have many items to use anyways though so I just attach to gex and embrace a psychic from discard to it in order to snipe out clops. He gets gust KO clef and spreads damage. He evolved both kloak so a Mew play won’t work. I dig for Stretcher and find it off Iono for 4. I get the KO with gex putting me to 2 prizes to his 4. He just hits into my gex with bear as it is the only thing I cannot KO immediately. I just retreat into Tail and move 30 to fez and hit into it. He doesn’t have the option to attack with bear again so his only out is to boss KO clef with Pult. Luckily he missed and just scoops. In hindsight my best players would’ve been to heal off Scream Tail and hit Bear with gex. This would’ve guaranteed a win with snipe on bear no matter what. I think I might have just been short an energy to feel confident on it or something.

G2 My opener is Drifloon, a bunch of energy, and Charm. I see this hand and think, “I’m cooked unless I topdeck Secret Box here.” To make matters worse they have to pause the stream match to fix the camera so we go back to the break room and I have to stew on my dumpster fire of a hand for 5 minutes. We get back to the game and I topdeck… Arven. I at least have a play. I attach energy to Loon and pass. This does threaten Budew KO so I thought maybe he won’t go for it. To my surprise he whiffed completely and I could Arven for Secret Box and set up TM:evo double Kirlia. My second TM:evo is prized so I have to rely on just drawing the gex naturally. His board looks well positioned to take a double KO on both Kirlia so I need to hit here or be in for a rough time. I Lillie for 8 and draw… BOTH GEX! I was baffled, you can see me shake my head on stream in disbelief. With double gex in play and 5 energy in discard the game is pretty much locked. I go into Frillish and put 30 on Duskull with munki to apply pressure. They get clops and just itchy pollen again. I decide that with only 1 energy committed to a single Kloak that the value of the Tail KO is very high so I instantly go for Artazon. I definitely should have used Lillie first but I was also considering keeping the hand or playing Turo. In the end I decide that finding a Psychic of Lillie to 8 is high enough value so I play it. I hit Turo and Charm so that was also quite good. I snipe out Kloak. He has Hilda for neo upper and pult and decides to KO Drifloon. He knows that he will never be able to set up another Pult (no Rare candy) and that is the only thing on board that can KO it at the moment. If he went for the cc on gex to keep me board locked and have no clef, I have KO on board going to 3 prizes and he just has no attacks so its fair to just hope that clef is prized. Unfortunately for him, it is not. I KO pult and also double munki on clops for 3. I didn’t have access to a second Dark so I had to Turo my munki and Stretcher the dark back to use it twice. With Scream Tail Charm on board I have game unless he hits exactly Jamming Tower off Iono and he misses. GG

Top 8 vs Grimmsnarl (WLL)

G1 I set up and took advantage of no boss to win, double froslass built up too much damage in a way that was good for me

G2 I started a rough hand, he got t2 Candy ko drif but I had secret box for gex getting lots of energy in discard. Whiff Stretcher for ko so have to munki mind bend. He just retreats and passes. I still don’t have a great play, I prized a munki and thus whiffed getting another one down. I try to set up an angle where I can take 4 prizes off two Grimmsnarl but I misplay benching Mew instead of Loon thinking that I needed the extra 30 ping and that the benched grimm had lots of damage on it. I miss the cc anyways so it didn’t matter.

G3 another mid start, they have t2 Candy again but this time correctly retreat into budew to set up more. I slowly advance board state and get Dark on munkis. I go for a 2 prize turn on budew plus munki promote. They cc gex ko. I mind bend and set up another ralts with charm.  They air balloon retreat into 2nd Grimm and attack. I get gex, cc fros, iono, and frillish needing 2 turns to set up the 4 prize turn. They hit lillie off iono, miss Dark. I need turo to prevent 2 prize turn on frillish and bench munki but whiff. They hit Dark off research. GG.

With that I finish in 7th place.

Closing Thoughts

Firstly I would say that if you are looking for new Regionals to attend, I would highly recommend going to Mexico Regionals. The community is amazing, everyone is very friendly, and the food is very tasty and cheap.

I’m glad that I could finally reach top 8 of a Regional again for the first time in 10 years. I’m a tad disappointed that my run was cut short to Grimmsnarl. I swear the matchup is fine but I guess lack of any testing at all hurt me in the end. My only losses in the tournament were all to Grimmsnarl in 3 games. I definitely got uber blessed with matchups though and I was able to keep my play sharp enough to capitalize on the opportunity. I’m really excited to go to Worlds this year with invite #10. I’m very grateful for all my friends who make up for my lack of testing by answering my questions and giving me insights. I may not be going to any more major events until Worlds this year so I can do more prep for my wedding in July.

PROPS

• The Mexican TCG community for being very welcoming and awesome. All of my opponents were very friendly and continued to check up on me throughout the tournament 🙂
• Las Alidas Steak Fajitas :))
• Getting a Worlds invite without any cup wins :))
• Winning on stream 🙂
• 3 Canada in top 8 🇨🇦 🙂
• Gex 🙂
• Insanely good matchup variance :))
• Mexico uber prices being very cheap

SLOPS

• Jack Pitcher missing reg :((
• Gex rotating 😦
• Mexico Uber Drivers missing the turn 😦