The King of the Playground
First Place Vancouver Regional Tournament Report
Introduction
Hello readers, it’s Ian coming back from a regional win in Vancouver. This event felt very similar to the last one that I wrote about. Like in Knoxville, I had Regigigas sleeved up and submitted on rk9 labs Thursday night. However, come Friday morning, I ended up changing my mind. With the metagame being the exact same one as Knoxville, there was no major reason against playing Lugia VSTAR once more. With your worst matchups being 40-60, running it back with Lugia VSTAR made the most sense. By the time I landed in Vancouver and got to Jake Santiago’s house on Thursday, I knew that I was playing Lugia VSTAR. After getting ready for the day on Friday, I sleeved up Lugia and submitted the list.
Decklist
With there being zero changes in the metagame from Knoxville to Vancouver, I saw no real reason to change the deck list at all. Going forward, unless things change dramatically at Utrecht (or any of the other regionals in the format), this should be the perfect 60. The only real change that I can get behind is cutting the Escape Rope for a 3rd Lugia VSTAR.
Day 1 Report
R1 Lugia VSTAR LWW
R2 Regigigas WW
R3 Lugia VSTAR WLW
R4 Mew VMAX WW
R5 Lugia VSTAR WLT
R6 Lugia VSTAR WW
R7 Lugia VSTAR WW
R8 Lugia VSTAR WW
R9 Mew Vmax Aerodactyl VSTAR LWT
7-0-2 3rd Seed
Day 1 went about as well as I could have expected. Having faced 6 Lugia VSTAR mirror matches and going 5-0-1 in them, I felt incredibly lucky to secure one of the highest seeds going into day 2. Additionally, I was also given the opportunity to face Grant Hays, a good friend of mine who I had never played in a tournament before, during round 9 at table 1, which was really cool. He might be the first person to ever complain about Spanish homework at table 1 of a regional! With this great start, I knew I would only need to go 3-2 the next day, which gave me some flexibility. After day 1, everyone that was staying at my friend’s house got together and got A&W for dinner, which was criminally mediocre. Once we finished eating, we took the train back to Santiago’s house. I finished the day by playing one game of 2019 format with Grant Hays (I won, L Grant) and went to bed.
Day 2 Report
R10 Lugia VSTAR LWL
R11 Arceus VSTAR Duralduon VMAX LWW
R12 Lugia WW
R13 Lugia WW
R14 ID
T8 Lugia VSTAR WLW
T4 Lugia VSTAR WW
Finals Goodra VSTAR LWW
Conclusion
I did it. After two long days of competition, I was able to both get the monkey off my back, by getting my first top 8 of the season, while also getting my 5th regional win. Having faced 11 Lugia VSTAR mirror matches, it was incredibly scary every single time that I lost the coin flip. However, with a few well-placed Marnies, followed by some suboptimal draws for my opponents, it ended up working out for me in the end. The match against Arceus Duraludon was the scariest one of the tournament. In the current format, Arceus VSTAR Duraludon VMAX is my least favorite deck to face. The entire matchup comes down to the Duraludon VMAX setting up and drawing Boss’s Orders at an opportune time. In my set, they ended up missing the Boss in g3 and I was able to secure a win. The other notable set that I played was in finals. Even having drawn poorly and not doing anything until turn 3, I still feel that I should have won game 1, but I did not dig for my second Lugia VSTAR early enough and it costed me. After winning the tournament, I took pictures with my friends and went to get hotpot for dinner. Heisenberg has returned.
Props
Jake Santiago letting me stay at his house
Facing Grant Hays at Table 1 Round 9 of Day 1
Winning G2 vs Grant after he used Aerodactyl Vstar before I could use Lugia VSTAR
Winning the Regional
Meeting Lost Zone Burke
Denny’s
Slops
Duraludon VMAX
NAV
Playing 11 Lugia VSTAR mirrors
Not having time to get really good food
Spanish HW
Pokémon (19)
3 Lugia V SIT 138
2 Lugia VSTAR SIT 139
4 Archeops SIT 147
2 Lumineon V BRS 40
1 Stoutland V CRZ 116
1 Radiant Charizard CRZ 20
1 Yveltal SHF 46
1 Raikou VIV 50
1 Oranguru SSH 148
1 Pumpkaboo EVS 76
1 Manaphy BRS 41
1 Dunsparce FST 207
Trainer (25)
3 Professor's Research BRS 147
3 Marnie CPA 56
3 Boss's Orders BRS 132
1 Irida ASR 147
4 Quick Ball FST 237
4 Ultra Ball CRZ 146
4 Evolution Incense SSH 163
1 Escape Rope BST 125
1 Lost Vacuum CRZ 135
1 Choice Belt BRS 135
Energy (16)
4 Powerful Colorless Energy DAA 176
4 Aurora Energy SSH 186
3 Capture Energy RCL 171
2 Double Turbo Energy BRS 151
1 Heat Fire Energy DAA 174
1 Speed Lightning Energy RCL 173
1 V Guard Energy SIT 169