Hi guys, this is actually the 2nd part of my articles going over my recent top 32 finish at the world championships, and this is the article where I go over what actually happened in the event and during my games. If you haven’t read it yet, then you can go check out part 1 where I go over my deck choice. Anyway, sorry for all the yap, let’s get into it.

R1-BYE WW

The R1 bye was a nice reward for finishing top 22 in EU this season.

R2-REGIDRAGO VSTAR WW

I was pretty confident going into this MU, my deck was actually working, and both games I always hit at least one energy off of my gens (usually 2), so I was able to very easily take a T1 KO on squawk with Raikou V+Prime catcher, then KO a Drago VSTAR with Raichu V, then take my last two prizes with a blood moon Ursaluna attack paired with a boss’s orders. Then was able to do the exact same thing in game 2.

R3-BlockLax😴 WW

When I saw my opponents name, I was relatively sure that they were playing Blocklax because they had already piloted it to many good finishes this season, and I was not confident going in, as I knew that if they set up then I’d probably lose… Luckily for me, in game one they had a slow start, and were only able to bench a Snorlax, and then pass with a cornerstone in the active. Knowing that to have any chance in this matchup, I had to take KOs as fast as I could to try and run them off the board, which is where Raichu came in handy, as after a T1 fast charge (I was forced to go 1st), then on the next turn I used a generator (and hit 2 energies), meaning I had enough energy on board to one hit kill his cornerstone, and next turn I hit 2 off a generator again, and killed his Snorlax with Miraidon . Usually, after winning game one Vs Blocklax, you should just be able to not draw through your deck too fast, and just win the game 1-0, especially because it’s hard for them to actively mill your deck without promoting Chi-yu (it will die if it gets promoted), but again luckily for me almost the exact same thing happened in G2 as what happened in G1, and I was able to run him off the board.

R4-BlockLax😴-L

R4 I played against Felix, definitely one of the best EU seniors at the moment, and I had already lost to him in two finals of regionals this season, and game one he set up really well, so I wasn’t expecting a good result, I was close to taking 6 prizes, but he hit a good misfortune sisters on switch cart, super rod and e-gen to basically win the game, I was almost able to cheese him and get a draw by lost vacuuming away one of his stadiums (so he couldn’t get it back with Cyllene) then, a few turns later after he played another stadium, playing a night academy (to keep putting a card back on top of the deck), then when he Cylenne’d it back, playing my other night academy, so I forced him to hit a few heads, but in the end it didn’t work, and I lost a very long game one (game 2 I also would’ve lost if we had more time).

R5-Lugia LL

Yeah, that’s not a typo, I did lose to a free matchup, and yes I did get a turn one amp you very much so, “how did you lose?” I hear you ask, well after I amped 1 of his 2 Lugia V, then he responded with double Archeops + Ultra ball, to attack with a blood moon Ursaluna into my iron hands, whilst also putting a legacy energy onto his Lugia to make it a one prize.

Then after that for the rest of that game one, and most of game 2 I never saw a generator until it was too late. But I guess my luck in that game, was repayment for how unlucky the Blocklax player in round 3 was, so surely now I would have better luck.

And I would need it, as I would need to win my next 3 rounds in a row if I wanted to stay in the tournament, and get to day 2.

R6-Regidrago LWW

Game 1 started well as I was hitting my generators, and I took the first 2 prizes, but to get to this good position I had to discard all of my switch cards, and I started Bloodmoon Ursaluna, so even though I was ahead, My opponent was able to gust in my Ursaluna and phantom dive it whilst weakening my bench, and although I did have escape board and DTE in my deck, I wasn’t able to find it, and after another boss plus phantom dive the next turn, he has a six prize Kyurem turn set up, so I just scooped.

The next game, he only got 1 Drago down, which I swiftly prime catcher + photon blasted, so he scooped, and we went to game 3, with the loser going out of the tournament..

In game 3 I quickly got a kill on squawk with Raikou V, he got a respond KO with Drago, which I then Raichu’d (5 energies for 300), which he responded to with Radiant Charizard + Iono, but I had mew ex, Radiant Greninja and Fezandipiti on board, and I had thinned my deck sufficiently before hand, so I had good odds to find blood moon, energy, boss’s orders. And so I did.

Right I’m 4-2 now, and I need to finish 6-2 to make it to the next day, so let’s see how these last 2 games go…

R7-Gardevoir WLW

Game one I went second, and was able to T1 amp even though he had Klefki in the active (I had DTE in my hand from the start so I could just Arven for a generator and an escape board) after that, I amped again for a 2-6 prize lead, but it’s Gardevoir, so they aren’t ever truly out of a game. He responded with Drifloon with bravery charm, I would’ve been able to win the game on the spot if my Lost Vacuum wasn’t in the discard from earlier, but it was fine, as I was able to kill Drifloon with Raikou, he then responded with Garde ex with Munkidori but then I used Ursaluna+Boss to take my last 2 prizes.

In game 2 he went second and had a broken T1 (double Poffin + TM Evo) so even though I got T2 amp, he was able to easily respond with Drifloon, and even though I was able to take another 2 prize turn with Lost vacuum, Raikou and Iron Bundle, on the next turn he KO’d Raikou with a combination of Garde ex and Munkidori, and it was impossible for me to get enough energy on board to kill his Gardevoir ex with Raichu, as I didn’t have enough generators left, so I scooped.
Another game 3, if I lose this, then I’m out, once again I got t1 hands, and because I went second, he didn’t have the option of Gardevoir until I had already taken 4 prizes, once he did respond to my hands with Drifloon (although I had Lost vacuum in my top 2 prizes AGAIN lmao), I was able to pick up the last KO with Raichu on his Garde ex.

R8-Regidrago WW

Win and in time, game one started as most win and ins do, both players whiffing horribly, I whiffed T1 attack, because I didn’t find an energy attachment from squawk, but then he whiffed Drago VSTAR but, from there I was able to take the first 2 prizes, and was able to once again use Raichu V, and then Ursaluna to win the game.

Game 2 was very similar, I had a good start, and the only play of note, was I was able to guarantee 2 energies off a generator by using my academy at night to stack an energy, then Lost Vacuuming it away, then playing another academy at night to stack another energy to generator for 2 to guarantee a Raichu KO.

Me winning that game meant that I had the chance to play day 2, in day 2 if I won 1 game I would have a good chance of top 32, but if I won 2, I would get the chance to play in the top 8…

R9 Raging Bolt LL

I had tested this matchup a lot, and was relatively comfortable in it, as my deck was a lot better at getting a T1 2 prize KO, and in this matchup, neither deck has many special plays it can make, and it is mainly just who takes the first 2 prize KO.

My opponent won the coin flip, which isn’t good for me, but they still need to hit the nuts (4 energy on board plus prime catcher) to go ahead. Luckily they didn’t, so I had the opening to take the 1st 2 prize KO and essentially win the game from there, however off of 2 generators I needed 2 energies and I only found one, so I lost all the momentum, and subsequently lost the game, especially as I had to get rid of my Iono earlier, so I didn’t even have the option of Ursaluna + Bravery Charm + Iono to attempt to mount a comeback.

In game 2, I was able to go second, however once again I didn’t hit any energies from my generators, and since once again I had to throw away my Iono early, I lost the game…

Welp that was not very good, but if I win this last game I get top 32 prizing, but if I lose or draw, then I came all this way just to get as much reward as last place. So, let’s hope that the generators are kind…

R10- Thorns/cornerstone/Mimikyu

The Iron Thorns matchup was pretty free luckily, Zapdos boosted photon blaster kills Iron Thorns, and Zapdos + Bravery Charm (so cornerstone can’t kill it) is pretty strong.

In both games I killed whatever he put energy on and won very quickly, also worth to note that they weren’t drawing amazingly also, I’m not sure if they were playing/how many crushing hammers they had which definitely helped.
In game 2 it was pretty similar, I got an early kill on his Iron Thorns, then had to force my way through 2 Cornerstone Ogre pons to win the game

So after a quick 2-0, my tournament was over, I ended with a 7-3 record, which was good enough to earn me 28th place at the world championships, a result that I am pleased with, don’t get me wrong, but I know that if a few more small things had went my way, this could be a very different story…

But either way thank you for reading and getting all the way through this article, if you’re wondering why it’s so long, the answer is I was waiting in LA airport for quite a while.

Well if I don’t write again before, I will definitely make another post after Dortmund. 

Cya

Rohan