Hi there. This is a Pokemon TCG tournament blog by me. It has been a while since I have been at a league challenge competitive Pokemon TCG event.
This post is long. Read what you want.
Tournament Event
I was planning to do a Toronto visit to play some Pokemon TCG and do some shopping too. It made sense for me to play a local tournament.
There are tiers in competition with the Pokemon TCG. From lowest stakes to higher stakes it is:
- Local Casual Tournaments With Best of One Matches
- League Challenge Tournaments (Best of One, Usually Less Than 30 Players)
- League Cup Local Tournaments (Best of One Swiss Rounds Stage 1 with Best of 3 Matches in Elimination Bracket/Top Cut, Less Than 100 Players Usually)
- Regional Tournaments With Best of Three Formats At 1000+ Players
- World Championships (Invite Only After Accumulating A Threshold Amount of Championship Points)
The number of rounds is determined by the number of players I think. If there are 4 to 8 players then you have 3 rounds. This is from 2 to the power of 3 which is 2 x 2 x 2 = 8. This tournament had 13 players so we had 4 best of one rounds. As there was an odd number someone each round gets a free win (a bye).
For the League Challenge, the Tournament fee was 15 CAD which is on the higher side. I think 10 CAD is common for a League Challenge tournament. If you make top 8 then you get a Prize Pack Series 7 pack and a portion of the pooled money. As each player paid 15 CAD towards the pool, winning 5% for rank 5 to 8 is just under 10 CAD. (15 x 13 is 195 so 5% is nearly 10 CAD)
Decklist
I am going with an off build of Raging Bolt ex. The typical Raging Bolt ex builds have Fan Rotom, Hoothoot, Noctowl and a single Ditto.
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I have cut the Noctowl line of 9 cards and put 2 Solrock and 2 Lunatone. This way I have 5 spots to include other cards for consistency like Fighting Gong, a second Iono and a second Boss's Orders. This Solrock + Lunatone combo with Raging Bolt ex is very niche at the moment and is from Japan decklists. Many people like to look at Limitless TCG for copying decklists but I like Pokecabook for ideas and seeing what cards they play ahead of North America.
With this Raging Bolt ex build, I am aware of what the opponent is playing but the opponents are likely playing in the dark against me. This is the key advantage of playing off builds. The risk is that you don't know how good this deck can be. I was willing to take this risk. My practice offline at home and online was good overall in the last 2 weeks.
Decklist
Pokémon: 10
1 Latias ex SSP 76
3 Raging Bolt ex TEF 123
2 Lunatone MEG 74
1 Slither Wing PAR 107
3 Teal Mask Ogerpon ex PRE 12
1 Iron Leaves ex TEF 25
1 Fezandipiti ex SFA 38
2 Solrock MEG 75
1 Sandy Shocks ex PAR 108
1 Squawkabilly ex PAF 75
Trainer: 15
3 Fighting Gong MEG 116
1 Energy Retrieval SVI 171
1 Prime Catcher TEF 157
1 Night Stretcher SFA 61
1 Pal Pad SVI 182
1 Penny SVI 183
4 Nest Ball SVI 181
2 Boss's Orders SHF 58
2 Iono PAL 185
4 Professor Sada's Vitality PAR 170
1 Super Rod PAL 188
3 Area Zero Underdepths PRE 94
1 Crispin SCR 133
3 Ultra Ball SVI 196
3 Earthen Vessel PAR 163
Energy: 3
3 Basic {L} Energy SVE 4
5 Basic {G} Energy SVE 9
5 Basic {F} Energy SVE 6
Image below.
As this League Challenge is an official Pokemon TCG event, you do have to send in a paper decklist. This is to make sure that what deck you are playing matches the list you have sent in. This is for player integrity.
Round One Vs Gholdengo
My round one opponent was someone I never faced before. He was friends with one of the people I talk to when I visit this store. As the guy mulliganed his hand with no Basic Pokemon, I found out quickly that it was Gholdengo ex with Solrock + Lunatone.
This matchup can go either way. Gholdengo ex with Solrock + Lunatone is a very popular deck in the Mega Evolutions format as it has good draw power and one hit knockout potential. Whoever gets the first two prize Knockout usually wins in the end assuming no whiffed turns.
My opponent pretty much bricked. No Gimmighouls found, one Riolu on the Bench that I was able to target with Solrock + Boss's Orders.
His board was not very good. He conceded the game with the lone Genesect + Professor Turo's Scenario. This combination is a fancy way of surrendering.
I kind of don't feel good for this win. A win against a dangerous matchup helps though.
Round Two Vs Joltik Box + Iron Hands + Miraidon ex
I am at 1 win and 0 losses. My second round opponent is someone I have faced maybe 5 times now. We are both playing different decks and we know each others deck. He was sitting on my left in round one lol. We have mutual respect for each other and our gameplay. He is a good regular player there.
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My opening hand was not the greatest. I had one Nest Ball to work with. Initally, I wanted Teal Mask Ogerpon ex but I went with Squawkabilly ex.
Squawk & Seize ability was kind of needed as I could use a fresh 6 card hand in my first turn going first.
The opponent went with the typical turn 2 Joltik Box type of turn. Set up Miraidon ex, get Pikachu ex and Iron Hands ex. Then use Joltik's attack to power up the Iron Hands ex with 2 Grass and 2 Lightning Energy. His setup is pretty strong and very threatening. I am used to this and the Joltik deck does lose steam when it exhausts energy. Winning from here is still tough.
I will fast forward near the end. It is my turn with 3 Prize Cards left and he has 1 left. I need two Knockouts to win while he needs 1. I use Sandy Shocks ex, Professor Sada's Vitality and Prime Catcher to knockout his Benched Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex. I was hoping for no Night Stretcher for the opponent to recycle the Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex.
The game is at 1 Prize card each. A sudden death type of scenario. My opponent was kind of rushing and ended up whiffing his attack. His plan was to use Mega Mawile ex and Crispin to attach 2 Metal Energy. The problem was that he did not have it in deck! My opponent threw the game away. Even I was shocked by this. I should have lost here. His turn ended with no attack.
During my next turn, I have an attack ready with Boss's Orders to deliver the final knockout. A close win where I got nervous near the end.
I found out that my opponent did not play Night Stretcher in the deck. Glad I played it out.
Round Three Versus Bloodmoon Ursaluna + Munkidori
My round 3 opponent was someone I faced before. It is my third meeting with him. The round 2 guy's friend was asking me what deck I play. I told me a different build of Raging Bolt. I was told that my opponent has a secret deck of sorts. This round 3 opponent is friends with my round 2 and 1 opponents.
What I saw from my opponent on turn 1 was Solrock & Lunatone with a Munkidori. It could be a Gholdengo ex deck with a Munkidori but this is not likely. I had a good feeling it was Bloodmoon Ursaluna + Solrock + Lunatone + Munkidori with the Calamatious Snowy Mountain stadium.
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This is a deck that has been gaining some attention as of late. It is a combo heavy deck that tries to abuse Munkidori to move damage counters. The Fighting Bloodmoon Ursaluna does 100 damage plus 30 damage for each damage counter on the opponent's Active Pokemon. In theory, this can hit big key numbers like 160 damage, 220 damage or even 310 damage. I have seen some gameplay of this deck along with me seeing some decklists. I am somewhat familiar with how the deck functions and what cards are used here. I am not too thrown off by this.
This matchup was rogue deck versus my off build of Raging Bolt ex. The thing was I knew more of his deck than he did of mine. I kind of win the information war.
Knockout 1 was Slither Wing against Munkidori. Knockout 2 was against a Solrock with a Vengeful Punch resulting in a double knockout.
Knockout 3 was using Iron Leaves ex against a Munkidori I think.
With Knockout 4, I was getting in the zone here. I was feeling it. Prime Catcher + Professor Sada's Vitality to use Raging Bolt ex to Knockout his Fezandipiti ex.
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At this point, I was one prize card versus his 4 or 5 left. My last turn was Boss's Orders for the final Knockout.
This was a comfortable and maybe lucky win against a deck that can be very dangerous. I had a few spectators watching this game. There was intrigue lol.
Round Four Against Cynthia's Garchomp ex
Before round 4 started, I find out I am the only 3 wins 0 losses player here. Top 8 + prizing was for sure here. At this point, why not go for the 4 wins. Aim for first place out of 13 players.
My round 4 opponent was someone I've seen before but never played. She spectated my game against Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex when I played Ethan's Ho-Oh + Armarouge a while back.
The opponent was 2 wins and 1 loss. I found out quickly that she is playing Cynthia's Garchomp ex. It is a not a top tier deck but it does have some good matchups and can cause upsets.
This matchup overall was not too bad. My early mistake was not trying to Knockout a Cynthia's Gible with a Hero's Cape ACE SPEC on it. The next opponent's turn had Rare Candy into Cynthia's Garchomp ex. 330HP turned into 430 HP.
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I did take me a few turns to get this Knockout on the Cynthia's Garchomp. Once I got it, the opponent did not have any attackers left so I win. That was the revised gameplan. Most Cynthia Garchomp players do the setup route and have multiple Cynthia's Gabite. This opponent went the turbo route which threw me off at first.
Post-Tournament
So ya boy did it. Four wins and 0 losses. I did it with an off build of Raging Bolt ex. No one really plays Raging Bolt ex there so I went with it. This was my second League Challenge win and maybe third time getting first place in locals outside of prereleases. Maybe I should not have taken a long break from competitive. I could get into it but I have to watch my budget.
My round 2 opponent ended up second with a 3 wins 1 loss record. My round 1 opponent ended up fifth, my round 3 opponent ended up sixth I think. And my round 4 opponent was 2 wins and 2 losses ending up in 7th or 8th and got prizing. A lot of people got 2 wins and 2 losses but the opponent's winrate was the tiebreaker. All 4 of my opponents got top 8 which meant I ended up with tough opponents on this day.
The matchups I had were kind of lucky. I did not run into Gardevoir ex, Dragapult ex, Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex or Mega Absol + Mega Kangaskhan ex decks. The difficulty of decks were not that high. I was actually losing more in practice before this event.
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My prizing was 40% of the prize pool. The prize pool was 13 players times 15 which is 195 CAD. Fourty percent of 195 is 78 CAD in store credit. Very good. I had no expectation of winning. Just wanted to play well and see how this deck performs.
I also won 5 Prize Pack Series 7 packs. I got a fair bit of repeats and not many pulls unfortunately except for the Espeon ex.
There was also a calendar and card holder.
After the tournament I went to a different card store to do some card shopping. They had some illustration rares at 4 or 5 CAD each. A booster pack these days is like 11 CAD. An art rare card with a 5-10% pull rate at 5 CAD is very good. I went with the Rotom, Togedemaru, Hydrapple and Helioptile art cards. Miniture art pieces.
Closing Thoughts
This tournament was great. I did not expect to win but it happened. After the tournament I did go for Chinese dimsum in the Toronto Chinatown area. This dimsum dinner was planned anyways.
For a League Challenge, it did not seem cutthroat at that card store. The vibes were still chill and relaxed overall. At some other card stores, the competition can be more fierce as people are really chasing championship points for their World Championships invite. For me, I don't care too much about that as there are significant travel costs required for travelling to regional championships and chasing points. I'd use that money on crypto/stock investing and being an occasional foodie. Pokemon TCG is fun and all but there are other things I like too.