Hello everyone! As some of you might know I, along with multiple players from the Bristol and Bath area, attended the Gdansk regional championship this weekend in Poland. Expectations going into the event were quite low, as I unfortunately have been unable to spend as much time dedicating myself to playing this game as I might have hoped (subtle foreshadowing) but I was ready to enjoy my time abroad no matter the end result.

Deck Selection 

While the deck’s shell is a very standard turbo LZB build, there were a handful of cards that made their way into the 60 that are not seen in every single LZB deck. These include;

4 Pokestop… always.
The fact that most LZB decks aren’t playing 4 of this card is mind-boggling to me personally. The fact that you are able to put every single card back into the deck multiple times even while playing 4 of this card shows how strong it is in my opinion. There were multiple instances of drawing 3 items (and 1 instance of milling 3 Colress) which made the deck feel incredibly consistent across the entire 2 days.

Cyllene > Roxanne
With the prevalence of Fezindipiti and Mew ex in the current standard format (as well as the absence of any way to shut these abilities off) meant that Roxanne lost a large amount of its power and was no longer a necessary card in the deck. After seeing Le Bui’s online tournament run, we tested Cyllene and found it to be a very useful card in multiple games. Across the 2 days, double tails was only rolled once and there were multiple instances of me winning the game directly off flipping double heads, in order to stack a combination of Prime Catcher, gate and recovery cards.

Double Stretcher
This was the final slot to be decided on upon reaching Gdansk and there were several incredibly unhinged choices (Mawile LOR being my personal favourite but veto’d rapidly by Rohan) however we decided to play the 60 just accepting the loss to Regidrago and hopefully dodging it in Day 1. If there was any card which you personally wanted to add (such as Roxanne, Rescue Board or Counter Catcher) this is probably the slot you can instantly swap out and not feel too different.

Day 1

Round 1 – Lugia – Win
What a great way to start the day, after the space issues of the tables forced us to re-allocate seating, my opponent proceeded to flip over a Lugia V and double brick. Multiple suggestions from Rohan were to cut the Iron Hands package but when it took 9 prizes across 2 games, I knew it was the correct decision to not take it out of the 60. My opponent was incredibly nice to play against and made that anxious first game jitters much more enjoyable.

Round 2 – Gardevoir – Tie
From a high point to crashing lows of being Flutter locked for multiple turns, Iron Hands, Cramorant and Sableye once again put in a huge shift in Game 2 for a come from behind tie game vs again a very enjoyable opponent. This was a matchup we did not expect to see and was something we did not test at all heading into the event.

Round 3 – Palkia Dusknoir – Tie
Again, not a great matchup for R3 considering the board wiping potential of the deck but a lucky game 2 with a T1 Greninja on double Duskull got us to a boardstate where it was technically possible for me to win on the final turn of time, but an Iono to 1 followed by KO on Greninja left me with too little too late and the game ended up as a tie.

Round 4 – Raging Bolt – Win
Finally, the matchup I was waiting for. A very easy matchup already for the deck, made even easier by Groudon which acts as a single prize Bloodmoon Ursaluna. Convincing 2-0.

Round 5 – Raging Bolt – Win
Once again, very easy matchup. Never felt any doubt about the final result of the matchup after Turn 3.

Round 6 – Raging Bolt – Win
…

Round 7 – Ragaing Bolt – Tie
Alright alright, I didn’t win this one, but that was due to egregious prizing in game 1 (Groudon, Heavy Ball and Double Gate), as well as punting the game by thinking I had double gate in hand for the 3 prize Amp. Opponent offered the tie with 5 minutes left while setting up for game 3. This meant it was the 4-0-3 record heading into Round 8 and yet another win and in situation at a tournament.

R8 – Dragapult Dusknoir – Win
Now, in addition to this being a win and in, a matchup I had not tested more than a few times, tiredness and hunger starting to kick in and concentration at a major low, my opponent was thankfully very understanding to some slow decision making. Greninja taking 4 prizes in each of games 1 and 3 meant I had officially got to 18 points and reached day 2 at the Gdansk regional championships!

Day 2

First of all, I entirely viewed anything past Day 1 a complete win, considering this is technically my first regional (other than attending EUIC last season) so while morale was high, expectations were pretty low and I simply wanted to win 1 game to not completely crash out of Day 2. Winning all 4 games was needed to have a chance at T8, but let’s go game by game and not run before we can walk.

R9 – Terapagos by Raz Shamir
Very good start to the day. Groudon absolutely carried this set taking 8 prizes across 2 games against a very skilled player. Greninja and Sabeleye also posed constant threats against Hoothoot’s and Duskull’s, moving me onto a 6-0-3 record

R10 – Snorlax by Alex Scopini
Unfortunately, I was unable to dodge bad matchups all day, bringing the T8 dreams crashing down was the single most enjoyable control opponent I have ever played against. I did get unlucky on some Miss Fortune Sisters (1 which milled 2 gates, 2 rod and a vacuum) but the matchup was a difficult one. Now we have to win out for T32…

R11 – Iron Thorns by Alp Ehliz
Everything’s coming up Milhouse. Once again, another brilliant matchup from the TOM gods. Game 1 was very convincing win, game 2 was a T2 judge followed by KO’ing my only Comfey and game 3 was Groudon taking 4 prizes with my opponents other 2 Iron Thorns ex’s being prized.

R12 – Raging Bolt by Tobias Gervin
Once again, the TOM gods absolutely grace me with a superb matchup for the win and in for T32. Felt very in control across the games, never any doubt to the final result once I knew what my opponent was playing. A quick 2-0 set ends my final record at 8-1-3 with strong likelihood of T32.

The results are in…

By the skin of our teeth, we made it! I don’t think the realization set in for a while but to have finished 32nd out of nearly 1400 players was one of the best achievements of my life so far. The entire event was perfect in my opinion, other than some seating issues in R1, and was an incredible experience that I’ll never forget.

Did I get lucky to not hit a Regidrago? Yes, but that’s part of the game. Did I get even more lucky to hit 5 Raging Bolts across the 2 days? Well, yes but still I had to beat them. And did I get lucky to flip Cyllene heads for game multiple times across the tournament? Nah that’s totally skill based 😉

Thank you messages and lessons learned

The biggest learning I took from this regional is DO NOT TAKE A COAT YOU DO NOT NEED ONE. Seriously, it just annoyed me the entire weekend because I had to carry it everywhere. A warm jumper or hoodie is more than enough, I promise you.

To end this tournament report off I do need to say some major thank you’s to Cian; for dealing with me at the event and having to share a bed with me over the weekend, Rohan; for his always valuable insight (even if he is a Senior), Ralph; for the ever present humour and sometimes (not often) valuable list insight, James, Drew and Jacko; for running the Bristol scene and finally Ben; for his continued support and willingness to make me a Bath TCG Ambassador. I have no doubt forgotten someone off this list but if you even had a 2-minute conversation with me over this weekend, thank you. And as always, broken player + broken deck = deck is NUTS.

Until next time,
Lou