LOUISVILLE TOURNAMENT REPORT

 

Hello, everyone! I unfortunately got sick with pneumonia directly after Louisville Regionals and have been sick for the most part since, but I’m finally feeling better and can write this up! I wanted to put my experience at Louisville on paper, and the matchups compared to the list that I posted before the tournament. I will be deep diving each matchup that I went through, key turning points or highlights, and my final record. Let’s start with the list that I ended up playing and discuss the changes I made to the list.

Pokémon:   3 Terapagos ex (SCR-128) 4 Hoothoot (TEF-126) 3 Noctowl (SCR-115) 1 Noctowl (SVP-141) 1 Duskull (SFA-68) 2 Duskull (SFA-18) 2 Dusknoir (SFA-20) 1 Pidgey (OBF-207) 1 Pidgeot ex (OBF-225) 1 Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex (TWM-216) 1 Fezandipiti ex (SFA-92) 2 Fan Rotom (SCR-118) 1 Spiritomb (PAF-158)

Trainers:   2 Iono 2 Professor's Research 1 Boss's Orders 1 Briar 4 Nest Ball 4 Rare Candy 4 Ultra Ball 3 Buddy-Buddy Poffin 3 Night Stretcher 1 Counter Catcher 1 Energy Loto 1 Feather Ball 1 Prime Catcher - ACESPEC 1 Switch 1 Vitality Band 3 Area Zero Underdepths

Energy:   4 Double Turbo Energy

 

The only changes I made from the list I posted were based on the metashare of the two most popular decks I thought would be at this regional. We came to this conclusion by looking at online tournament results, what we faced on PTCG Live ladder the most in the preceding days, and what I felt like the most reasonable cuts from the list. I really fell in love with the Jet Energy, however, after playing a few more sets, I found I was still winning games without it, so felt it was a fine cut from the list. I made room for Vitality Band in its place, which helps with the same thing Jet can help with, but sooner in the game. Jet was mainly used so Bloodmoon Ursaluna could do the max 240 damage when your opponent was at 2 prizes remaining, which is relevant for opposing Terapagos ex, but Vitality Band can accomplish the same thing at those intervals but also allows for more aggressive KOs on things like mirror, Iron Hands, and Roaring Moon ex. I also changed the Manaphy out for a Spiritomb, as I thought the Lugia matchups would’ve been much more prevalent. I also found Spiritomb was much more effective into any decks playing Lumineon V and Rotom V. It slows their setup enough where it can either A) let you get ahead just fast enough, or B) completely brick their setup.

Round 1 – vs. Lugia VSTAR (0-1-0)

                This was the matchup I was most sketched out about. It is not favoured in anyway, even if you go first. Most matchups can be shored up simply from going first and applying a ton of pressure, but Lugia can resist the pressure by being able to constantly discard our stadium, use 1-prize attackers to take knockouts faster than we can setup Dusknoir, and use Legacy Energy to offset the prize trade. I took a swift 2 losses in this match and really soured my outlook on the day. I played Giratina VSTAR to Stockholm regional in the 2023-2024 season and got paired to 2 Lugia VSTAR in my first and second round, so I feared this was history repeating itself. This match was abysmal, I lost the coin flip, he Iono’d my turn 1 hand, which was very solid, and gave me absolutely nothing. I managed to take game 2, however, as I was able to knockout his only Lugia V on turn 2, and then wash-rinse-repeat for turn 3. Game 3 was much closer, however, but going second is just so detrimental, there’s almost no chance of winning unless they brick their turn 1. I was also never able to get Spiritomb down at all, but he always had the Boss, the Ultra Ball+2 Archeops every game.

 

Round 2 – vs. Roaring Moon ex (1-1-0)

                I tested this matchup with Anastazja with one game before the tournament. My other testing partners told me it was a free matchup but wasn’t sure. The matchup is extremely favoured, potentially an 80-20. Their inability to one-shot you without using Frenzied Gouging means their Roaring Moon will never accrue enough value in relation to the amount of resources they have to use to set it up. Vitality Band is going to pull a lot of weight in this matchup: it allows you to one-shot them without being one-shot in return. If they ever use Frenzied Gouging, you will be in a very great position, as this opens up the ability for you to leverage a small one-prizer such as Fan Rotom to clean up the Roaring Moon, then they will knock it out, going to 3 prizes. You will return with a one-hit knockout to go to 2 prizes, and then you can easily use Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex to clean up the last knockout. This was another wash-rinse-repeat situation, where the prize mapping is obvious and honestly, I turned off my brain during the match. This matchup was a much-needed reprieve from the previous round, where I was certain my luck ran out before the tournament began.

 

Round 3 – vs. Klawf (2-1-0)

                Admittedly, I never tested this matchup as it wasn’t anything I expected to run into. However, I actually managed to figure out that the matchup is quite easy. For this matchup, my game plan was to set up Pidgeot ex and take my first knockout with Terapagos, leaving any Lumineon or Squawkabilly alone on the bench. They don’t have any way to remove them from play. From there, they will use Klawf to take a one-hit knockout on it, and from there, the math works out that Pidgeot ex actually comes in and uses Blustery Wind, leaving the poison damage to knock it out. The poison damage works in our favour as this knocks out Klawf between turns, rendering their Fezandipiti ex useless. Some inexperienced players will attempt to use Fezandipiti’s Flip the Script after this, but it is important to remind them and catch them before they draw. This works to your advantage however, because now they have benched two 2-prizers. Keep in mind, they play 1 Boss’s Orders at most, and to use it to take 2 prizes on anything else in play is a tall order. I found it was imperative to get Spiritomb down to disrupt their setup as they rely on Lumineon V to have a smooth turn 1. At this point they will swing into Pidgeot ex and attempt to at least apply what pressure they can. From here, they will usually be at 3 prizes, having taken a knockout on a 1-prizer early on. You can use Dusknoir in combination with Briar and a gust effect to end the game when you’re at 4 prizes from here on. Pidgeot really pulls a lot of weight and is the undisputed MVP in this matchup. I lost game 1, in this match, actually because I forgot I had Bloodmoon Ursaluna in my deck! Games 2 and 3 were easy cleanups.

 

Round 4 – vs. Klawf (3-1-0)

                I was not expecting that when my opponent won the coin flip and decided to go second that I would be facing a 2^nd Klawf! I was pretty ecstatic to have a pretty good run of matchups thus far and felt pretty lucky. This matchup was a quick 2-0 in about 15 minutes. My opponent had actually commented that I played the matchup super well and asked if I had practiced this matchup, and I said that he’s the second Klawf I hit in a row and figured it out the round before. He was jovial to hear that and in hilarious disbelief. He mentioned he had played against Terapagos a lot beforehand and considered it to be a very favoured matchup but had his confidence shaken by our match. That was a pretty big confidence booster for the day!

 

Round 5 – vs. Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex/Dusknoir (4-1-0)

                Charizard ex is notoriously one of Terapagos’ harder matchups, since their HP can just be too much to overcome and using Dusknoir to give them extra prizes almost never ends up in our favour. The matchup quickly swings in Terapagos’ favour if they go first and can get a single Duskull down. I did just that and knocked out both of his Charmanders turn 2, and he was unable to respond to my turn 3 KO on his Rotom coupled with resetting his hand and benching Spiritomb to lock his Lumineon outs. Unfortunately, after our first game, we got deck checked. After about 15 minutes, I made a comment that the deck check is taking a while as they’re usually over within by now. My opponent commented that it’s might be because one of us has a decklist error. I responded with something along the lines of being sure my list was correct. He then said that he was playing a pretty unorthodox list and they may be asking for clarification, which can definitely happen.  The judges ended up pulling him away for the next 20 minutes or so and came back with the news that my opponent was being disqualified for having an illegal deck. I was absolutely shocked! As sad as it was that I would not be able to complete the match, I was albeit a little thankful I didn’t have to risk losing two games in a row to a bad matchup. I was certainly lucky to have taken game 1 so commandingly, but I was not confident 2 more games could be won. I later found out my opponent was missing 2 cards from his decklist and had included 5 copies of Nest Ball in his deck. I can’t be sure what happened with his deck the night before as mistakes do happen, but the judges certainly made the right call as that kind of discrepancy is unacceptable.

 

Round 6 – vs. Pidgeot ex Control (5-1-0)

                After lots of testing versus all kinds of control decks, one thing constantly rang true: Dusknoir makes these matchups swing heavily in my favour. In a way, it seemed like Dusknoir was almost unfair in a lot of these games. I won the coin flip and chose to go first which is always step 1 to having a favourable position, and when he flipped over Mimikyu, my eyes lit up with excitement, because these matchups are straightforward. They usually cannot bench enough threats that can stall out against a slew of Dusknoir and Terapagos swinging into them. And at some point, you will have forced them to take 3 prizes or even up to 4, and you can then hand reset them to just two cards, which control decks cannot effectively recover from. Spiritomb also pulls a lot of weight in these matchups being able to prevent Rotom from letting your opponent accrue answers. I won with a quick 2-0 match—my opponent was not very happy about this, I have to say.

 

Round 7 – vs. Banette ex/Gardevoir ex (5-2-0), On Stream

                I had never played into this matchup before as it was not on my radar to be a threat. Unfortunately, as we were preparing to setup to go on stream, I thought about it and realized that I play 6 Supporters and I cut Jet Energy, a non-Item card method to switch out of the Active spot. It also didn’t help that in both games, I prized my Pidgeot ex, nor the fact that she flipped heads on Shuppet to Item Lock me going into my turn 2…. All around, a very unfavoured matchup.

 

Round 8 – vs. Roaring Moon ex (6-2-0), Made Day 2

                I had been in a little bit of a slump after some unfortunate luck in Baltimore the regional prior. My win-and-ins had been challenging and I would lose due to this or they were auto-losses. I was delighted to see that I was handed the layup as my opponent flipped over a Roaring Moon ex! I won’t go into too much detail, but it was a quick 2-0 victory, and I was grateful to be essentially spoon-fed a day 2 placement.

 

Round 9 – vs. Gholdengo ex (6-3-0), Day 2

                During day one, one of my testing partners, Eric, had whiffed day 2 by getting paired to Gholdengo and told me how bad a matchup it is, and after some thoughts, I came to the same conclusion. I was not very stoked to have been paired to it my first match of day 2, but variance is like that sometimes and it’s important to remember it could’ve just as easily been a Roaring Moon ex. My opponent won the coin flip and chose to go first, already doubling down on a poor matchup. I lost game 1 pretty quickly, however, I won a grindy game 2 that came down to a whiff on an Iono to 2. Game 3 wasn’t very close as I whiffed and bricked. I will say that the only matches I lost due to bricking were against bad matchups anyway, which is something that helped cope with the bad matchups. This matchup is difficult because the multiple Stage 1 Pokémon they get up easily just have too much HP. You cannot effectively 2-hit their Pokémon because you will be 1-shot in return for trying, effectively forcing you to trade 4 prizes for 2 in return. To make matters worse, they also have access to Palkia VSTAR which can setup a Radiant Greninja to knockout two of your little guys, which is way too efficient for Terapagos to deal with well enough. In total, this is a very unfavoured matchup, but not one you’ll run into very often, unless you’re in Europe!

 

Round 10 – vs. Iron Thorns ex (7-3-0)

                Iron Thorns ex is one of the easier matchups along with Roaring Moon. It’s rare for Terapagos decks to brick due to Noctowl. Iron Thorns preys on shutting off Lumineon, Rotom, Fezandipiti, Pidgeot, etc. to brick your opponent’s setup, but the fact Terapagos gets access to Noctowl to find all of the answers ensures you will have a smooth route to victory. Vitality Band was included in case of this matchup as well. The inclusion turns this matchup from a 60-40 to an 80-20 in my opinion. It’s very hard for them to deal with a Terapagos who’s just taken the first 2 prizes on their Thorns. This forces them to find Lost Vacuum, often having to use Arven for it when they wanted to use that Arven for something else, slowing their setup. This Iron Thorns actually used Bravery Charm which would be bad for us, but Dusknoir really comes in and puts in the work to deal with it. Even if Iron Thorns gets ahead on the prize trade, using an Iono to put them to 2 or 3 cards can really dry up their resources.

 

Round 11 – vs. Mimikyu/Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex (8-3-0)

                As stated before, these control matchups are basically free. Control has no way to prevent Dusknoir in this format, so you are free to go crazy and knockout everything very easily. As well as this, Cornerstone does absolutely nothing to Terapagos, as it doesn’t hit for weakness and gets 1-hit by the Terapagos in return. They played a Rock Chestplate, but they never managed to get it down, as they needed to use their Arven to grab other things to remain in the game.

 

Round 12 – vs. Terapagos ex (8-4-0)

                I knew my luck had to run out at some point. I lost the coin flip, and my opponent chose to go first. My heart sank as I had been incredibly lucky up until this point. I thought my luck turned around again, when my opponent opened lone Duskull and passed the turn. This is very good for me as it means the likelihood of my opponent getting to take any prizes on their next turn was effectively 0. My setup was perfect, I had a Noctowl ready to go, all of my Pidgeot pieces were in the deck, and I had everything ready to take a big knockout the next turn with Dusknoir+Terapagos. My opponent’s next turn saw them immediately play an Iono, which I’m pretty ok with, as I still had 4 Ultra Ball in deck and 3 other Noctowl to draw into or even other Pidgeot pieces naturally. My heart sank yet again as the hand I drew was flat out unplayable. I couldn’t play a single card out of my hand. I simply passed back after drawing my card for turn which eliminated my opponent’s bricked turn 1 and turned the tide of the game immediately back into their favour which was pretty heartbreaking. Having won that first game would mean it’s implied I would win the match, since I will get at least one more game in that set where I am allowed to go first. I took game 2, since I was allowed to go first, and game 3 I bricked pretty bad again, but I was unfavoured going second anyway, so I wasn’t too upset. The third game ended with about 32 minutes on the clock and plenty of time to decompress until I catch up with friends to go find dinner.

               

                Overall, I placed 107^th out of 1938 players, which is not terrible, all things considered. I was a little disappointed to place lower than my target of at least top 32, however I am still grateful and proud of another day 2 accomplishment. I also felt like the deck never bricked as often as many of the other decks I’ve played in this format and it happened to only have bricked when I was unfavoured to win anyway which softens the blow. I’m very happy with the list, and I’m still rocking local tournaments here in the GTA with it and it’s still performing very well! If you’d like to learn how to play this deck effectively with a little more detail, consider booking a coaching time with me! You can reach out to our email darkfoxtcg@gmail.com or DM me on X (formerly Twitter) @prcngnpkmn to inquire! I love helping people learn how to get to the next level and improve on their gameplay and anything else you need assistance with! Thanks for reading! (If you’ve made it to the end of this article, use code ARTICLE5 to get 5% off your next order with Dark Fox TCG!)

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