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Final options for Toronto

This article talks about several decks in less detail than one would normally expect from a Cut or Tap piece. If this article comes off a bit scattered, that’s because my options are still very open and many decks seem to have merit. The power of Lugia is unparalleled and finding the proper counter is not easy. In this piece you will see info on Regis, Giratina, a rogue Cut or Tap Lost Box variant, and the Senior’s LAIC 1st place Lost Box list. Before we get into the decks, we should establish exactly what a deck needs to do going into Toronto to be successful

What is needed going into Toronto

Almost everyone attending Toronto would likely agree that Lugia is the number one deck to beat, but what is not exactly clear is the match up percentage needed against Lugia. Some will say that taking a 50/50 to Lugia is solid and that a consistent deck that beats Lugia half the time is a good option. I believe you need a better match up; more like 60/40. It is very fair to estimate 30 to 40 percent of the meta at Toronto will be Lugia, which means the most likely scenario is that you face three or four Lugia in Day 1. If you face four and win two of those rounds, but lose the other two, you cannot take another loss if you want to make Day 2. Past that, being able to Top 8 or better usually means 6-2-1 is not a good enough record in Day 1. The point I am trying to make is that you need a solid favorable into Lugia to do well in Toronto; 50/50 is not good enough.

After Lugia, your next goal should be to beat Lost Box decks. Grant Manley made it to top 4 at LAIC with a Lost Box Kyogre deck, and anyone out there who likes Lost Zone decks will likely be considering that deck. It has not circulated as much as Kyogre has, but the list that won Seniors at LAIC was a unique Sableye Charizard list playing Snorlax and Choice Belt. We may see players gravitate toward that deck as well. With Lost Box decks getting 3rd in Masters and 1st in Seniors, we should see Lost Box variants (combined) as the second most popular archetype. You will definitely need to beat Lugia far more than any other archetype, but beating Lost Box decks is a big plus as well.

Lastly, Mew VMax is also a fairly popular archetype. When the Mew VMax box came out at a very reasonable price, it opened the door for many newer players to pilot Mew, simply because it is powerful, consistent, and inexpensive.

Beat all three of these archetypes and you have a very strong deck going into Toronto.

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Let’s begin with the deck I have been most interested in over the last month.

Regis

I attended a local event where first place earned $500. Regis seemed like the only deck that I felt could give Type A Lugia (Yveltal & Charizard) a hard time. It also felt like the deck simply did not have a bad match up, beating even the decks that are teching against it. This is the list I played.

Local event list

Pokémon – 13 Trainers – 35 Energy – 12
1 Regieleki (ASR) 3 Path to the Peak 3 Trekking Shoes 4 Aurora
2 Regielki (EVS) 1 Stormy Mountains 4 Quick Ball 2 Speed Lightning
2 Regidrago 2 Ultra Ball 2 Twin
2 Regigigas 4 Professor’s Research 3 Scoop Up Net 2 Capture
2 Regice 3 Marnie 3 Choice Belt 2 Gift
2 Regirock 2 Serena 3 Ordinary Rod
2 Registeel 1 Boss’s Orders 1 Air Balloon
1 Hisuian Heavy Ball
1 Yell Horn

This list is far more teched out than the list I posted in my recent article, because I knew what part of the meta would consist of. There was one player who I knew would bring Duraludon, two players who would bring Kyurem with Empoleon and Eiscue, and one player would would bring Lugia with Dunsparce and Manaphy. For Regis to beat Duraludon you need at least two Paths to win. Paths were also needed against the Kyurems playing Empoleon. Yell Horn and Boss were both techs for dealing with the Eiscues. Boss was also there to bring up Dunsparce against Lugia, because Manaphy would stop me from sniping Dunsparce off the bench.

I did face Kyurem and won because I played four stadiums instead of the three I was running before. I did face Mew with triple Lost City and earned a tie against it because of the three Paths. I also faced a Rayquaza Lost Box deck playing Manaphy and Eiscue, which I tied. Game 1 I prized two Registeel and Heavy Ball, so I scooped on turn one. Game 2 I won, but it took about 40 minutes to complete. I definitely would not have won that second game if not for Boss, giving me the ability to drag up Manaphy and knock it out; Yell Horn also played an important role. In short, the techs were very useful and they made a big difference against the heavily anti-Regis meta I was trying to deal with. However, fitting those techs cause me to struggle against decks that are otherwise favorable match ups. I lost to a Lugia deck because of inconsistency problems, which likely would not have happened if I played a more consistent list like the one I posted in my article about countering the meta.

My conclusion after playing this event and missing top cut is that you should not try to force Regis to work in a meta that is trying to beat Regis. Regis can be built in a way that will allow you to beat the counters, but the consistency hit that the deck takes to fit the techs will end up making the deck not strong enough to be the best option. I should have played a different deck for this event once I understood that there will be several counters floating around. It is not that I couldn’t beat those decks; the problem is that the teched version of the deck starts to slip up against decks that a very consistent list would beat.

Regis: Potential Toronto list

Pokémon – 14 Trainers – 34 Energy – 12
1 Regieleki (ASR) 2 Path to the Peak 3 Trekking Shoes 4 Aurora
2 Regielki (EVS) 2 Stormy Mountains 4 Quick Ball 2 Speed Lightning
2 Regidrago 2 Ultra Ball 2 Twin
3 Regigigas 4 Professor’s Research 3 Scoop Up Net 2 Capture
2 Regice 3 Marnie 3 Choice Belt 2 Gift
2 Regirock 2 Serena 3 Ordinary Rod
2 Registeel 1 Boss’s Orders 1 Air Balloon
1 Hisuian Heavy Ball

This list makes a compromise between the uber-consistent version I prefer to play and the teched out version I played at my local event. Boss was great for me at the event and even if I never run into a deck with Eiscue, I very likely will run into Lugia players with Dunsparce and Manaphy, making the Boss important. Two Path to the Peak is probably not enough to beat Duraludon consistently, but I believe it should be enough to win at least one game and potentially lead to a tie in the match up. Stormy Mountains is an incredible Stadium in Regis and is very underplayed currently. I still like Regieleki (ASR) because both attacks are useful in different situations and in several different match ups; just conceptually, it is a good idea to play a snipe option if it fits easily into a deck.

Regis is my comfort deck going into Toronto. It doesn’t take any seriously bad match ups; the worst it sees is about a 40/60.

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