2025-2026 Season Recap

 

    My 2025-2026 season was very brief, although somehow I acquired more points than I did in the 2024-2025 season. There were two major events I prepared for this season, Pittsburgh Regionals in September in the SVI-BLK/WHT format, and Indianapolis Regionals in May in the TEF-POR format.

    In the beginning of the season I fooled around with Gholdengo and Grimmsnarl, the latter of which was especially appealing because of its spread factor and ability to spam Munkidori’s Adrena-Brain, which I’d revisit later on in the season. At the time I wasn’t confident in my ability to pilot the deck in a 50 min Bo3 setting. I started playing vigorously once I registered for Pittsburgh Regionals, and landed on Raging Bolt/Ogerpon as the deck that clicked most with me. It had great searching ability with Noctowl and of course the ability to take massive OHKOs. Kyle was leaning toward Raging Bolt as well so we began sharing our lists and strategies, and on the drive to the hotel we agreed on the same 60. It was ridiculous how much we managed to fit in the list, so I’d chalk up most of the games I lost as a piloting issue.

- Beach Court functioned as an Area Zero bump to knock off unwanted Pokemon and take damage off the board, and gave extra mobility to basics.
- 80 HP Hoothoot was a Dragapult tech, even though starting it was a risk. There were so many basics in the list we figured we wouldn’t get punished.
- Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon walled Gholdengo and Charizard.
- Slither Wing was a great answer to Pikachu ex, while also being an efficient single-prize attacker into Fezandipiti ex, Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex, and basically anything in Joltik Box.
- The Counter Catcher/Bloodmoon/Iono package was the ideal lineup for comeback potential.

Some egregious errors and lack of MU knowledge into important decks contributed to my downfall. I played a Gholdengo/Joltik Box deck round 2 which should have been cut and dry, but I made a crucial misplay game 1 where I instinctively went to Nest Ball for a Fezandipiti, only realizing mid-sequence that I had to put an Ogerpon in play instead so I could reactivate Area Zero. So I had to fail the Nest Ball and bench Teal Mask Ogerpon instead. I ended up falling behind that turn and losing the prize trade. I lost game 2 straight up.

    In round 6 I played a Tera Box, a finicky MU because of Wellspring Mask Ogerpon taking multiple KOs on my Hoothoots and Noctowls and Lillie’s Clefairy hitting Raging Bolt for weakness. I was in a tough endgame situation game 1 where I had to choose the right KO to take and with the right Pokemon to maximize the odds of my opponent not taking 2 prizes the next turn, and I chose wrong. It was a long game 1 and I took more time than necessary, so it ended up becoming a tie after I won game 2 and barely started game 3. I was officially out of contention in rounds 7 and 8 so my play got sloppier, something I had to work on improving before the next regional. 

    I lost winnable games and sets and didn’t practice properly into meta threats like Dragapult, so I ended the weekend happy with the list (Kyle took it to a T128 finish in day 2) but disappointed with myself. Seriously the list felt like it was 70 cards.

L-R: Me, Hez, Kyle, Noah

    After that I hardly played cards at all for the next three months. In fact I don’t think I played a single game of the Mega Evolution format, which shook the game up a lot. I returned to Grimmsnarl/Froslass for lower stakes events like challenges and cups just to stay in the loop. I really loved the Munkidori/Froslass combo and how you set up multiple different pieces on your board, each with its own unique importance that made the opponent weigh the pros and cons of taking out one piece versus another. It lacked onboard draw but was supplemented by the incredible Arven/TM Evo/Buddy Poffin setup engine, and Secret Box basically set up the entire board for the rest of the game on one turn. I wanted to get at least one cup win with it before G block rotated, so in late March I drove to the old stomping grounds of Saginaw and met up with Hez, who was playing a version of Munkilass himself. I ended up winning the cup, beating Hez in the finals.

    The deck ran beautifully and was a blast to play all day. I promised Hez that if I got points to make Ace Trainer at the cup I would run it back at the next day’s cup in Midland with Munkilass, so we actually swapped decks the next day. I got 2nd at the Midland cup, and it revitalized my motivation to compete for after rotation.

The Mount Pleasant Mons

    

    Kyle, John, and I managed to register for the Indianapolis Regional Championships, and we were laser focused on practicing hard for the event, wanting to collaborate on a 60 together for the first time.

Basement Gaming

Did not make the cut

    I played nearly everything under the sun during April, trying not to leave any stone unturned. Okidogi, Starmie/Froslass, Grimmsnarl, Festival Lead, and Alakazam were all decks that were in serious consideration for the tournament, but in the end we landed on something none of us could have expected: Lucario/Dudunsparce. Lucario was a straightforward, tanky hitter subsidized by the powerful draw engine of Solrock/Lunatone combined with Dudunsparce/Dudunsparce ex to deal with Clefairy. The deck absolutely chugged and had a fine Dragapult matchup to boot, so we locked it in as our pick. Anything besides Dragapult had about 15-20% of the room it didn’t want to hit, so we were banking on dodging Slowking, Rocket’s Mewtwo, and Festival Lead among others. 

    

    We were making the final changes up until the last hour, thinking about what we could add to gain the edge. I was a big proponent of Jamming Tower to make Handheld Fan and Hero's Cape from Alakazam and Crustle easier to handle, but it ended up getting cut.

- Black Belt's Training provided a helpful extra damage mod into Dragapult.

- Judge added some minor comeback potential while also being strong earlygame while the opponent has to face down a 340 HP Lucario.

   The day of the tournament had its ups and downs, and we ended up with a 12-9-3 record. Against Dragapult, we went 5-4-2. My record of 4-3-1 was marginally better than Pittsburgh, and I always knew how I wanted to route the more popular matchups. I ran into some strange decks that threw me off guard, as well as the expected bad hand once in a while.
    I was 3-2 going into round 6, where my opponent was playing a Starmie/Dusknoir/Rocket’s Crobat deck. I had forgotten what Rocket’s Golbat and Crobat did, so I didn’t prepare my board adequately against the sniping of my 70 HP basics. I lost a long game 1, won game 2, and lost game 3 on the final turn of time after a timely Rocket’s Watchtower prevented me from drawing cards with Dudunsparce and my opponent whittled away at my poor setup. Losing was discouraging, but I ran into a familiar matchup in Dragapult/Dusknoir in round 7 which steadied me. Round 8 my opponent was playing a Munkidori/Froslass/Azelf/Uxie/Sheninja spread deck, which surprised me and also made me fearful of how easily my Psychic-weak Lucario could be taken down. I was slow to realize how strong Rocky Fighting energy really was in the MU, so if I had played them down faster and took quicker turns I could have turned the tie into a win. There were some surprises that day. I ran into a Festival Lead round 4 and beat it thanks to attacking with Dudunsparce’s Land Crush and shuffling it away once it had taken damage. It evened the scales of a normally bad matchup. I don’t regret playing the deck to Indy, it was very fun when it worked and I liked its matchup spread into the room. Plus it was fun to play the same 60 with friends that we worked hard on perfecting.

L-R: Me, Kyle, Noah, Andy. Cristian, and John

        Grimmsnarl was my comfort deck for most of the season. I didn't want to bring it to a regional because I wasn't in the mood to dedicate time to prepare for a tournament of that size and would rather have attended the occasional cup or challenge instead. I don't regret my deck choice for either regional. The Bolt list was great and it came down to a piloting issue. The Lucario list was great and I hit fine matchups, but a handful of mistakes and rough draws brought me down.

    This season wasn’t the most eventful one, but I did qualify for Ace Trainer for the second year in a row and started picking up my regional records again. Playing in person was definitely the most fun part of playing the game, and I’m looking forward to what next season has in store.