[Josh] Hey y’all! I finally get to come to you all with a tournament report for my best finish ever. I’m still grappling a bit with the fact that I had such an insane run this past weekend and as such I might not have perfect memory of each match I played. But without further ado, lets get into it.
So after EUIC Alex and I were a bit disappointed with how our runs went, we both did perfectly okay finishing 6-3 and 5-2-2 respectively, but we were both run-killed by Pidgeot ex Control (our worst matchup for the Moon/Moon deck that we played). After seeing EUIC’s results our first instinct was to try out the new Moon/Moon Dudunsparce deck which was similar enough in style to our list but with added consistency instead of a higher damage cap. Ultimately we decided this deck was too inconsistent and continued searching for something else to play. We went from Chien Pao to Giratina VSTAR to Charizard ex to simply running back our same 60 from EUIC. Ultimately on Thursday before Orlando I was looking at the EUIC results and saw a plethora of very strong players putting up numbers with Gardevoir ex. I looked at the lists and decided to DM Piper Lepine and ask her opinions on the deck and on matchups. Piper was an incredible help, she sent me a plethora of information in regard to how the deck functions, it’s matchup spreads and different routes you can take into each individual archetype. I say this with full confidence, without Piper’s advice I almost certainly would not have done as well as I did, if I even played Gardevoir in the first place.
After receiving the run down I messaged Alex and told him I was playing Gardevoir this weekend. At first he was opposed to the idea as his worst Regional finish ever was with Gardevoir ex/Klefki a few months prior, but after very little convincing he gave in and we were locked on Gardevoir. I was also able to convince Calvin Connor to play our 60 after 7-0ing him at the Airbnb the night prior to Orlando.
Here was our 60
As you can tell the list was heavily inspired by Fabien Pujol and Stephane Ivanhoff’s lists from EUIC which garnered them a 9th place and 23rd place respectively. We ended up mixing and matching counts a little bit, opting for Fabiens ball counts (3 Ultra and 2 Nest) while putting in Stephane’s Ralts and Stadium (4 T-Burst and 1 Collapsed). These choices felt like the most optimal for what we were hoping to do in any given game. The decision to play this version as opposed to the one Piper piloted with Mew ex, Gallade and Rare Candy mostly came down to our desire to take “free matchups” essentially knowing if our opponent ever flipped over Snorlax or Comfey we were in a very likely position to take the win thanks to Flutter Mane and Klefki.
After a failed attempt to get my teammates Dre and Jem to switch to Gardevoir, I was locked in and feeling fairly confident in my choice especially because I really only needed to get any points at all to stay on track for my invite. Going into the event I was at 509/600 having only been to a single IC and 3 Regionals. If I got 20 points I would be at 529 and could technically finish the invite by maxing out local finishes.
Round 1: Danny Thach (Chien Pao ex/Baxcalibur) In the opening round I was paired against a Chien Pao player, I hadn’t actually played any games against the matchup thus far but essentially I knew my best route was to use Scream Tail/Hero’s Cape Gardy to knock out their support Pokemon as aggressively as possible. Most lists at this point had not been playing Canceling Cologne so as long as I set up with Manaphy in play I was feeling pretty safe. My opponent had a very hard time establishing their board game 1 and I was able to KO his only out to Baxcalibur multiple times throughout the game, locking this first game up quite quickly. In Game 2 I opened Mimikyu and was able to set up relatively normally. He set up much more effectively but was only able to establish a single Bibarel into the mid game. At some point my opponent opted to take their hand down to 0 and use Amp You Very Much. I had Mimikyu in the active spot so I was assuming his last card in hand was Prime Catcher. It was not. He attacked into the Mimikyu completely forgetting what it’s ability did and I simply used Boss’s Orders to KO his only Bibarel locking up the game WW 1-0
Round 2: Peter Torres (Lost Box) When my opponent flipped over Comfey with me going first I knew he was in for a bit of a doozy, I was able to immediately establish Flutter Mane game 1 and honestly he did nothing the entire game before scooping after I took my third prize. Game 2 was a bit closer, I was still able to establish both Flutter Mane and Klefki on my second turn, but he was able to get to 7 in the Lost Zone relatively quickly as a result of a couple of Comfey, a Colress and a Lost Vaccuum + Prime Catcher play. He unfortunately didn’t have a stadium in hand to OHKO my Gardevoir ex with his Roaring Moon, forcing him to use Frenzied Gouging this allowed me to take a very easy ko with Flutter Mane knocking out both Moon and the Cram that I had hit earlier with my Flutter Mane locking up the game. WW 2-0
Round 3: Jason Milano (Arceus VSTAR/Alolan Vulpix VSTAR/Noivern ex) This matchup in theory could be a bit scary, my opponent played multiple copies of Lost City in their deck and due to the Shred effect of Alolan Vulpix I don’t have the option to hide behind Mimikyu like you do in other Arceus matchups. Game 1 I was able to establish a strong board and ko his Vulpix V turn 3 with my Gardevoir ex. From that point I just took 2 one shots with Drifloon/Scream Tail and finished out the game. Game 2 was a little bit closer, unfortunately for Jason he had to take a turn off due to prizing his switch and starting with Alolan Vulpix V in the active. This bought me enough time to fully set up my board and make it near impossible for him to win. WW 3-0
Round 4: Steven Hamula (Turbo Iron Hands ex) This was a matchup I was very nervous to face. I understood the theory behind the matchup but had never faced it in practice and had been told by multiple people that it was one of, if not just your worst matchup. Game 1 I went first and started with a lone Scream Tail in the active. I simply attached a Bravery Charm to it, benched a Ralts, attached an energy and passed. My opponent wasn’t able to find the resources to KO my Tail and so instead was forced to hit into it for 80 damage, setting it up to take ko’s much easier and with fewer resources on my side of the board. The next turn I evolved my bench Ralts into Kirlia, used Refinement and was able to Arven for EVO ™ and a Buddy Poffin, retreat into the recently evolved Kirlia and use Evolution. Steven took a ko the next turn, but as I only needed 2 Psychic energy to KO an Iron Hands with Scream Tail at this point it was relatively easy for me to gust an Iron Crown to get around the Heavy Baton, Iono and take the KO leaving him with energy exclusively on Miraidon. He was unable to re-establish a board and I won the first game. Game 2 I once again opened with Scream Tail, this time however I had to commit my Hero’s Cape to it instead of the Bravery Charm. This game my opponent chose to play more conservatively with his benching, not putting down Iron Crown ex’s so that I wouldn’t have an easy target to gust when I go for Scream Tail. This ended up working against him as in the mid game when I Iono’d his deck was much thicker and he couldn’t really do all that much damage to my Pokemon. He ended up with dead handed with a weak board and eventually just bled out. WW 4-0
Round 5: William Byer (Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR) I struggle to remember a lot of specifics about this matchup. My opponent was super cool and we checked in with each other quite a bit throughout the rest of the event. I know in game 1 I was able to target down multiple Bibarel for ko’s to avoid getting my Drifloon Lost City’d and I’m fairly confident I won this game strongly. Game 2 was a bit weirder, William got off to a stronger lead than I did and I struggled to hit for meaningful damage in the first few turns of the game, being forced to use Mimikyu as a wall for a bit. Eventually I gust ko’d his only Tina V on the board, hoping this would stop him from being able to deal with Mimikyu. Game 2 was close but I did end up taking it as well. WW 5-0
Round 6: Alberto Revilla (Turbo Iron Hands) like my previous Iron Hands opponent, in game 1 I was able to win by gusting Iron Crowns and using Scream Tail on the Heavy Baton while my opponent struggled to re-establish a board. I know Alberto had some very unlucky generators in our first game, but I don’t think establishing a 2nd Iron Hands would have allowed him to close this one out as I was already ahead in the prize trade. Game 2 he also decided his best course of action was to fore-go Iron Crown ex once again making his early game much more difficult, missing the ko on a Ralts that I had started with in the active. Eventually his hand and board were both depleted and I was able to finish the game. WW 6-0
Round 7: Joseph Perez (Turbo Iron Hands) At some point I thought I was being pranked by how many of this deck I was facing off against. Joseph was actually my round 1 opponent from EUIC where we tied in the Moon/Moon vs Charizard matchup. I was really hoping he had chosen to run back Zard as this was a matchup I desperately wanted to see in Day 1. Unfortunately this was not the case. Game 1 I was able to win essentially playing the same route that I had in my other games against the archetype. Set up Scream Tail, gust around Heavy Baton, KO. In game 2 however, my deck decided it was time for me to stop running hot. I had no early supporters and was unable to mount a single attack until turn 4 as a result of Joseph using Iron Bundle to ko my only Ralts. When I had to ko his active Iron Hands instead of going around Baton, he was able to stream attackers effectively until I ended up taking the loss. Game 3 was similar to game 2 in that I struggled aggressively to establish a board, by the end of the game I had 6 prizes remaining and Joseph had 2, he only had 1 Iron Hands ex on Board that I was about to kill with Mimikyu to get around Heavy Baton, he had a 2 card hand off Iono and Mimikyu’s attack does not activate Baton. Time was called at this point and as I knew I could no longer win the set I simply played for a tie by gusting and passing with Mimikyu active. I feel I was favored to win this game and Joseph told me I had Iono’d his Lost Vacuum to the bottom of the deck. WLT 6-0-1
Round 8: Christopher Venier (Lugia VSTAR) At this point I was locked for Day 2 and feeling pretty good since that meant I was guaranteed points no matter what. When my opponent flipped over Lugia V I knew I had a good shot of going into Day 2 with a strong record. In game 1 I took the standard route against the matchup, targeting down Archeops with Scream Tail and committing Hero’s Cape to my Gardevoir ex making it incredibly difficult for him to KO. He didn’t stumble but unless I do the matchup is incredibly favored so I was able to win. In Game 2 he got to go first, unfortunately he had to Read the Wind on his turn 2 after I had gotten the turn 1 Arven/Evo play off. This meant I was able to use a Drifloon with 4 energy to ko his only Lugia V. He took a response KO with Cinccino but I was simply able to KO his only other Lugia V with my Scream Tail, resulting in a swift victory for me. WW 7-0-1
Round 9: Ryan Harris (Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex) I struggle a bit to remember the specifics of Game 1, basically I know the game took a pretty standard route with me using Mimikyu to force him to commit Boss’s Orders on my benched Kirlia’s. This allows me to use Counter Catcher on his unevolved Pokemon in order to keep up with the prize race. When Ryan was at 3 prizes and I was at 4 I simply Counter Catchered Pidgeot ex, Iono’d and used Drifloon to take the KO. This forces him to find both Lost Vacuum and Boss’s Orders in the same turn to win the game. Because he had to commit his Boss’s Orders early to get around Mimikyu, this was extremely difficult for him to do and I win the first game cleanly. Game 2 looks like it is going similarly until midway through the game he puts down Delphox V, and gust ko’s my only 2 Kirlia in play. Luckily I still had access to a Ralts on my bench and as my opponent had to aggressively commit resources to make this play I simply sat behind Mimikyu while I re-established my board, eventually taking the set. WW 8-0-1
Going into Day 2 I was the 2nd seed in the tournament overall, I didn’t want to get over confident as I had botched starts like this before, but I was feeling very confident in my deck. I knew it was impossible for me to hit Regan in Round 10 as we were the only 2 players at 8-0-1 so one of us had to be paired up to Liam who was 9-0 with Tord Zard.
Round 10: Liam Halliburton (Tord Zard) I wish these games had been more exciting, unfortunately they were not. Game 1 I used Eri turn 2 going first and completely bricked him, he scooped on turn 4 after dead drawing a couple of turns. Game 2, Liam used Ultra Ball on his Team Yell’s Cheer turn 1, this is the most impactful card in the matchup as Liam can use both Prime Catcher and Yell’s Cheer to gust and re-shuffle Boss’s Orders in the same turn, smoothing out his mid game and forcing me to have everything i need a turn early. Since it was gone I simply his behind Mimikyu until I was ready to kill Pidgeot and eventually won WW 9-0-1
Round 11: Caleb Gedemer (Lost Zone Giratina VSTAR) Game 1 I opened with Flutter Mane to his Giratina V, I was able to establish a good early board with 2 Ralts and a Manaphy. He had the Colress + Abyss Seeking combo turn 1 that is the best thing for him to do in the matchup. On the next turn I was able to get another Ralts out and use ™ EVO to fully set up my board, Caleb once again used Abyss Seeking + Colress getting him to 8 in the Lost Zone. I was able to attack with Flutter Mane, setting up his active to be ko’d by a Gardevoir ex and putting 20 on his benched Giratina V. Eventually he set up a board and was able to Roxanne me and go down to 2 prizes. The end game came down to me Iono Spamming and using Slap to put his Giratina V at 50 damage (Due to the 20 earlier from Flutter Mane) and eventually stall long enough to just Scream Tail his active Tina for my last prize. He told me after that match that he had game in each hand before I was able to Iono. Game 2 I started Klefki and he was only able to Colress + Abyss once, as such he was behind a full turn letting me spread way more damage with my Flutter Mane, at some point I Eri’d away his Prime and Counter Catcher after Abyss Seeking and the game became functionally impossible for him to win from there. WW 10-0-1
Round 12: Regan Retzloff (Chien Pao ex/Baxcalibur) This was one of my favorite matches of the tournament. The game was incredibly back and forth, I opened with Klefki shutting off a lot of his early abilities and was able to relatively quickly establish a board. The Klefki did not do too much to stop Regan from setting up a board and he was able to take a quick first prize. I responded by using Mimikyu to counter catcher ko a Frigibax making it awkward for him to navigate how to ko my puppet monster. This forced Regan to use his Canceling Cologne to simply KO Mimikyu with his active Chien Pao. I responded by using Heros Cape Gardevoir ex on his Baxcalibur, hoping this would stall him for a turn. Regan then set up his board with a ton of energy on Chien Pao and Iron Hands, taking a big swing on my Gardevoir ex and knocking it out. The next turn I was then forced to find a new Gardevoir ex. My hand was all cards I could not afford to discard off Ultra Ball and us such I was forced to use Pokestop to find an item. I did find one, but also discarded my Bravery Charm. I was able to use Scream Tail with Luxurious Cape and a gust to KO his Iron Hands which was loaded on the bench. At this point Regan was completely out of SER and had committed the rest of his energy to the board with only a Prime Catcher left to move Pokemon, he ko’d Scream Tail, went down to 1 and on my turn I had a Greninja, 2 Kirlia and a 7 card deck. All I needed to do was find Eri to get rid of Prime Catcher and I could gust a Bibarel to guarantee win. Unfortunately, Eri was the last card in my deck. I was forced to Iono gust Bibarel with no energy and KO the other Bibarel, but alas he drew Irida off the Iono sealing the game for him. Game 2 Regan got turn 2 Prime Catcher Canceling Cologne. I Eri’d 2 SER from his hand and attacked with Gardevoir ex with a Hero’s Cape, which he promptly killed and I scooped immediately. LL 10-1-1
Round 13: Luke Morsa (Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex/Bibarel) This round was very sad for me. After looking at the lists post-facto Luke’s list should have been by far the easiest iteration for me to beat. He played no supporter recycle, meaning once his 2 Boss’s Orders and single Prime Catcher were gone, he no longer had a way to get around Miimkyu. Unfortunately both games my deck decided no to function and I was forced to not attack until very late or commit damage and tools to my Mimikyu in order to do anything in the match. Obviously these things are bad and while I thought I may be able to get a tie out of game 2, I was unable to find a 5th energy (on turn like 7) in order to KO his Pidgeot ex with Drifloon. Heartbreaker. LL 10-2-1
At this point I fully believed I was going to choke the event. After starting 10-0-1 I could still technically walk away with 0 prizing and only 40 points total. This article is not where I am going to get into how awful Pokemon’s prize structure feels given the number of participants we have in our events, but expect that to come eventually.
Round 14: William Azevedo (Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex) At this point I was hoping the universe would give me a break from all the insane players I was hitting, but instead after 2 losses straight it handed me William Azevedo and said “Good luck!” This set was very cool ultimately. Both of us had a single very rough game in the set. Game 1 I was forced to aggressively chase his Rotom with my Gardevoir ex (a terrible play because it allows them to take 2 prizes without gust and Iono you to 4 and removes a Kirlia from your board without them even needing to gust one) which is almost always impossible to come back from. Game 2, he simply didn’t set up very well and an early Eri locked him out of the game. Game 3 was much weirder. I struggled to set up early and William was able to smooth out his mid game with the Pal Pad + Prime Catcher play to remove any leeway from my prize mapping. Towards the end of the game we were at 6 prizes for me to 2 for William. I had 70 damage on a Charizard ex from my Mimikyu and his board was Rotom/Lumineon a Charmeleon with 1 Energy, Pidgeot ex and that Charizard ex. On my turn I Iono’d him to 2, established Drifloon Counter Catcher and ko’d his Pidgeot ex. He found the lost Vacuum and ko’d my Drifloon but I simply pushed up my Mimikyu and he was forced to pass. I then used Scream Tail and Luxurious Cape to KO his only Charizard and Iono him to 1. If he drew a 2nd Fire energy for his Charmeleon or an out to Charizard ex, he won on that turn. He missed and I was guaranteed to find Boss’s Order’s after the previous turns Iono and my Refinements, finishing the set. LWW 11-2-1
Now I was guaranteed at least Top 32, meaning I would get cash no matter what and at least 60 points meaning I could finish my invite with League Challenges in the worst case Scenario, but I was feeling very motivated to win.
Round 15 Vaughn O’Brien (Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex/Hero’s Cape) In Game 1 Vaughn and I both had pretty solid early games setting up our boards and he was able to start gusting my Kirlia by turn 3 (standard). Vaughn did make a slight mistake in the early game however by committing his Hero’s Cape to a Charizard ex early. This allowed me to hit into the Zard with Mimikyu on my turn of Leeway (the turn where he cannot quick search for gust because he does not play prime catcher and needs to use Pal Pad to put Boss’s Orders back in his deck), which essentially mitigates his Ace Spec for the rest of the matchup (330 hp and 360 hp require the same number of energy to KO with Drifloon). The rest of the game went pretty much according to the mapping. Because he used Pal Pad last turn, I don’t use Iono the turn I want to KO Pidgeot as I know all of his Boss are in the deck, so I simply gust ko’d the Pidgeot and then finished off Charizard on the following turn. Game 2 my deck went absolutely crazy, we both took a single early prize as I had gone first and started MImikyu, but by my turn 3 I had 7 Psychic in the discard pile and was able to use Scream Tail to KO his PIdgeot ex, knowing he had a 2 card hand and had used Quick Search to get Boss’s Orders the previous turn. This game was basically impossible for me to lose from this spot, but unfortunately Vaughn was issued a game loss as, somehow, his Hero’s Cape ended up on the floor behind him. It sucks for him to lose his win and in like this, but I do firmly believe it was functionally impossible for him to win from the spot he was in. WW 12-2-1
I don’t want to get too heavily into how my Top 8 match went as the stream exists for you all to go and check out. I will take the time to address two major questions I got a lot of after the stream match though. The first of which is in game 3 when my opponent uses Thorton to establish Tina VSTAR and attacks me with Sableye. I had the option of either using a Counter Catcher to ko his Tina VSTAR or using Flutter Mane to simply KO my opponents active Sableye and their benched Cramorant. The reason I knocked out the Tina VSTAR is relatively simple in my mind. The easiest way I lose that game is if my opponent is able to use a gust and Star Requiem my Gardevoir ex. If Gardevoir ex is knocked out and my opponent Roxanne’s me I have exactly 1 turn to find both a new Gardevoir ex as well as an attacker to KO the Giratina VSTAR or else I lose the set anyways. If I force my opponent to take the route he did (a cool route for sure) I get far more turns to find the pieces I need to finish the game (Turo, Collapsed, Boss, Extra Energy, etc.). The second and most frequent question I have gotten was “WHY DIDN’T YOU PROMOTE DRIFLOON AT THE END” the answer is because it didn’t matter. My 2 card hand was Ralts and Collapsed stadium. I went into the turn assuming I was going to use Collapsed Stadium on my Kirlia and knock out his Cramorant with Drifloon. This removes his only win con from the board (Sableye for 2 Prizes on Drifloon and Kirlia) as he was completely out of Gust. in my mind my best option was to remove the energy from Flutter Mane so I have more access to energy in my discard just in case he goes for a weird play or has something in his deck I don’t expect. I did draw into the Boss’s Orders which makes not promoting Drifloon look silly, but ultimately the play didn’t matter at all. WLW 13-2-1
Top 4 was tough. I prized a Ralts all 3 of our games making it much harder to establish a strong draw engine in each of them. I managed to win game 1, but in game 2 because my 2nd super rod was prized I was never able to reshuffle in Ralts/Kirlia and eventually Liam simply killed all of my Kirlia leaving me with a lone Mimikyu which he eventually killed with Radiant Charizard. Game 3 was similarly rough, I was once again forced to KO Rotom on turn 3 with my Gardevoir ex, and my board was nowhere near established enough to chain the ko’s I needed to win from that point. Liam played insanely well and I was happy he took down the tournament after beating me.
Overall I was obviously extremely pleased with my performance this weekend. From playing basically no games with my deck to going on an insanely hot run and finally getting my first Top 8 I am over the moon. This placement also locks up my worlds invite putting me at a clean 639/600 CP after only playing in 4 Regionals and 1 IC. This season has been very up and down but I am glad to finally have proven that I have what it takes to go deep in a tournament (After the 11th place top 8 bubble back in Toronto even I wasn’t sure if it would ever happen).
I think Gardevoir is still strong going forward, but it’s important to be wary of list adaptations that make the deck worse. Both Zard and Chien Pao are leaning towards lists that make the field difficult for Gardevoir as Tord Zard and Cologne Pao are going to make your days a little worse.
Thank you all for all of your support this weekend and I can’t wait to see you all in Indy!
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Josh Frink
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