The Big Fat 2023-2024 Season Recap Post

My goal for the 2023-2024 season was to make a legit effort to qualify for the 2024 World Championships. This didn't happen. In all honesty it wasn't really in the cards (lol) to make a push for an invite considering most regionals within driving distance were at poor timing (Toronto on Halloween, Indy at graduation), and the performance I did have at a regional (Peoria) was a bomb. Nonetheless I performed well at locals and snagged a few cup finishes.

After NAIC 2023 concluded and the 23-24 season began, I wanted to try the Mewtwo V-Union/Reversal Energy build of Gardevoir because I didn't have a lot of time to practice due to work, but I wanted to experiment with its comeback potential and unique playstyle. I played around with it online and took it to a challenge but struggled with it because of how exhausting it was to play given a time limit. For the rest of August I went back to original Gardevoir and still came back with mid challenge finishes. Around this time my friend John met Austin Charles, who also lived in the Mount Pleasant area. I met up with him and Hezekiah Rich at a challenge in Saginaw, and started going to events each other regularly. After a dry spell of finishes I made my first cup finals with Gardevoir at Twin Knights, losing to Austin's Fusion Mew. September ended up being a big month for me, since I top 8'd the cup at The Arena in Jackson and finally took my first cup win vs Mustafa Tobah's Fusion Mew at The Stadium in Bay City, a store I would regularly frequent for the rest of the season.

Peoria Regionals was approaching, and even though school was ramping up, I registered for the tournament on a whim. The week of the regional, I started getting sick and barely practiced at all. Austin and I drove the 6 hours to the venue Friday afternoon and not much had changed, I was completely congested and my eyes were bloodshot. Hezekiah was there too, and I roomed with him for the weekend. Ridiculously enough, we actually hit each other round 1. After going to game 3 and being tied on prizes after turns, we flipped for the winner. I lost. After that the combination of sequencing misplays and horrible opening hands (a lot of lone Zacian) led me to a 1-4 start. Not wanting to quit there, I rallied it back to 4-4 and ended up naturally tying a Lost Tina in round 9, to the disappointment of both of us.

Dejected, I signed up for the cup the next day and decided to run Charizard/Pidgeot, the Charizard variant that was popularized by Curitiba Regionals a few weeks before. I ended up going 5-2, making top 16 and winning half a box of packs, so I didn't go home empty-handed. Nonetheless, I finally decided to take a break from Gardy.

Chien-Pao started becoming more and more appealing to me after hearing John and Kyle hype it up and learning about its interesting sequencing puzzles. The Grant Shen 60 was popularized at this point so I started grinding it on the ladder. After a few misfires at challenges, (one of which I forgot Battle VIP Passes entirely) Austin hit me up and asked if I wanted to ride with him to a cup in Frankenmuth the week before Paradox Rift came out. So I came down and managed to draw the absolute stones all day, hitting 3 Charizards and dodging the mirror (probably half the room) until the finals against Alex Schemanske, where he prizes double bax game 1, I prize double frigi game 2, and then game 3...

Paradox Rift came around, and with this being a 5-month format, I ended up playing a wide variety of decks. TM Evolution was initially my most hyped card from the set and tried it out in Charizard/Bibarel, but bubbled out of a cup T4. I tried Miraidon to experience a high-roll consistency machine, and after a challenge win and a few flops, switched to Lost Zone. First Kyogre, then V-less Turbo Box (bad), then regular Turbo Box (good). February rolled around and John, Kyle, and I's schedules finally lined up to where we were able to attend the same cup at Upkeep Games. 2 days before the cup, my car got rear-ended and so Hez offered to take me along with him since he was already planning on going. We get to the cup with John, Kyle and I all playing the same Charizard/Pidgeot 60 with Lost City as a tech for Gardevoir and Sablezard. John made top 8 but Kyle and I crashed and burned, with me starting 3-0 but losing my next game to Lost Tina and my next two both to Gardy.

Frustrated, I kept running games of Charizard into Gardevoir via the Limitless simulator and Gardevoir won every time. With another cup in Muskegon coming up, I decided to bring out Gardy for a revival tour. Austin and Hez were also planning on attending, and with me in the backseat with a nasty hangover from the night before, we made the 2 hour drive to the Griffin's Rest. I matched up with Hez's Sablezard and minus a flub with confusing Refinement and Shining Arcana, it was smooth sailing until finals where I lost a 75-minute bo3 to Chien-Pao. Definitely still needed to work on my speed. That cup lit a fire under my ass and with 3 cups in March I could attend, I was determined to win one of them before Gardy's E block cards rotated. Top 4s at Time Travelers and Evolution Games followed, so my last chance was at the store I won my first cup, The Stadium.

Didn't drop a game. (It was the drip)

At long last, rotation hit and Temporal Forces shook up the meta. John, Kyle, and I were playing the ladder feverishly the first week of post-rotation and got acquainted with Ancient Box, Roaring Moon/Dudunsparce, Lugia/Cincinno, and of course New Gardevoir. After bombing a challenge horribly with Lugia, I retreated back to Gardevoir and started grinding for Evolution Games' last cup. In what was possibly the most ridiculous set of matchups leading into top cut (4 Turbo Hands, all won, 1 Ancient Box, lost), I faced off against 2 Charizards. If I hadn't added Mimikyu the night before, I would've lost horribly. Instead, Mimikyu walled in both sets and completely controlled the pace of the game. MVP of the day easily. Finals was a rematch against the Ancient Box I lost to in swiss, and if the rest of the day wasn't ridiculous enough, this takes the cake. Game 1 I donk him t2 because of Rare Candy, and game 2 he winds up with all four Professor Sada's Vitality in hand with no way to find or discard energy, so once again he can't get an attack off. Most inane bullshit I've seen in my life.

The rest of Temporal Forces was pretty ordinary. Snagged my first Gardy challenge win and had pretty mid finishes for the rest of the events. With NAIC fast approaching, shit was gonna get weird. Me, John, and Kyle tested Gardevoir, the new face Dragapult, Lost Zone, and Lugia extensively to settle our choices before we joined Hez and Austin with members of the Lost Zone Kitchen for our Airbnb in New Orleans. However, just like Peoria, I flubbed hard in the main event with a 4-4-1 record. Going back to NAIC 2023, I recognize now that I still don't have enough experience piloting this deck in the 50 minute Bo3 structure that requires playing with the clock in most cases. Bo1 Cups and challenges with more generous Bo3 time limits are one thing, but I hate the feeling of having to scoop a suboptimal first game just to have a chance of playing a proper third game in the set. It's not a problem I ever had with Regis, and how Gardevoir is meant to be optimally played in a regional structure might influence my deck choice for larger events going forward.

Peoria and NAIC were flops but I'm glad I had some good moments at locals throughout the season. I tried to make it to as many events as I could while balancing school and personal life, and I'm proud of my results. The best thing about this season was getting to meet so many cool people, and it made events that much more fun. If the timing is right I'll push for an invite in the 2024-2025 season, let's make it happen 💪