Hey, everyone. It's Wallysson here, and in this article I want to tell you how my Campinas Regional went.
I finished 210th out of 1725 players, playing , at the Campinas Regional on May 16. For me it was a good result, it's where the deck and I were able to land. I didn't write sooner because I got sick at the tournament and it took me a few days to recover. I'll show the decklist further down and you'll understand why I picked this deck, how we prepared, the moments that decided the tournament, and what I think this tournament says about the format.
There are a few stories along the way worth telling carefully when they come up. Some nice, others not so much. But let's start from the beginning, from the prep.
Why I picked Garchomp to fight
I locked in as soon as the rotation was announced. To me it was a machine. 400 HP, comes out of easy because with one energy I was already attacking, refilling my hand to keep the play going. On top of that, the setup only asked for one in play to put the board together calmly. That was the idea, a grandpa deck.
There was another piece of the decision. I don't like to play with the best deck of the format. was the obvious and responsible pick. But I didn't want to play with it, I wanted to play against it. And I felt Day 2 was going to reward whoever did that.
I studied the Los Angeles and Prague Regionals (we already have reports on both here on the site, worth a read if you missed them). I played a ton against and trained with the boys at home the week before. I had an absurd win rate against it. I got to Campinas on Thursday, rested, helped the guys. The day before, Carlos Reis switched to at the last minute. André Porto and I were already 100% on the choice. So my bet was to beat .
The decklist
I won't go card by card. I'll talk about the choices I made and why. Full list at the end of the block.
The Roserade line I went with was 3 and 3 , plus 2 . The initial version was 4-4. I cut a Roserade first, then a Roselia, because I needed space in the list. The two Premium Power Pros fill that gap. The tool replaces the role of Roserade when it gets knocked out. Instead of building another Roserade to add +30 on Garchomp, I play Petrel to use or search for the Premium Power Pro, and I keep the pace without giving up an easy prize to Dragapult.
On the supporter line I went with 4 , 4 and 1 . I picked Petrel because it doesn't discard your hand, unlike , which was booming in lists. Losing cards that could matter at the end of the game was too rough for me. Petrel just gets the piece I want, or leaves it for the next turn. I played a lot of Petrel to make the opponent think I was about to play Judge right after. When they prepared for that, I already had in hand to swing the game the other way. The Judge is there exactly to sell that threat and to keep the opponent from comboing everything in hand.
The was one of the central pieces of my deck. I don't know how the Garchomp crowd played without it. To me it was huge. Every game where one of my Pokémon got knocked out early and had a copy in the prizes, it brought the body back to play. It also combos with Petrel: I play Petrel, grab the Stretcher, and use it to get the energy or Pokémon I was missing to keep the flow going.
The was a blast to use in this deck. When I managed to put a Garchomp out by T2, the game changed shape: the match was over before the opponent could set up. When I pulled it off, I didn't lose a single time. It's broken to drop a high-HP Pokémon hitting 100 or 130 and refilling your hand right at the start of the game. On top of that, if you ran into a faster deck and lost some Gibles, you still had a way back into the game.
The was the turning card in the win-and-in. I'll cover the whole play later. I put in the slot where used to be because it fit better with Petrel. I wanted to use the switch effect that same turn, not the next.
Last, the specials. They shined against and against the bench damage from Dragapult. I played two matches against Alakazam in the tournament and the energy saved both.
Full list:
