Salutations, weirdos! The first North American Regional in the Scarlet & Violet meta has concluded, breathing continued new life to the game. Included in my piece will be discussion on the first meta shift of this format, a shockingly effective brand-new archetype, and my personal take on this pile o’ cards.
First, I want to include a quick shout-out to Andrew Hedrick, my teammate, for taking home the Bogota SPE for his third major win this season. Incredibly proud of his achievements and hard work this season, hopefully landing him a Day 2 spot at the World Championship.
Now with props out of the way, lets get this content!
Diving into the meta begins with pre-tournament inquiries. Phinn and I were mostly in agreement on meta percentages, but we disagreed on the most popular deck. I believed the highest meta share would be held by Gardevoir variants while Phinn believed that Lost Box variants would be the highest (not including Radiant Zard builds). According to RK9, I win the friendly wager by a whopping 1.2%, though to be fair, we both wanted Gardevoir to be the most popular deck. The other predictions made were that Arceus/Duraludon would be played lightly, Turbo would be the most popular LZB variant, and Lugia variants would have a strong performance.
These factors landed us on our Kyogre LZB variant that I placed 13th with – which would’ve been Top 8 if my Round 14 opponent held his Gentleman’s Agreement. I won’t dive too much into it because I have zero respect for this player’s tactics of communication, but I do feel it’s important to summarize this action. My opponent offered this agreement before setting up for Game 1, stated that he didn’t care about points, didn’t want to tie at any cost. This was the most adamant a player has been to me about not drawing in my sixteen years of competitive play, and because of this I felt quite confident he would hold his word.
Between games he asked me about my college degree, aspirations in life, commented on my Regional win and topped it off by complimenting how well I played against him, going as far to say “You’re the best Lost Box player I’ve ever played against.” At the time I was flattered and felt relieved to have a comfortable match with someone where conversation is normal. Ultimately, this was all deception to keep me relaxed while trying to rush me in Game 2, rescinding his agreement after the short start to Game 3, and creating the awkward conversation of his dishonesty amongst judges.
I include this information because I want to pose a thought for newer players inexperienced to making these deals. ONLY, and I mean ONLY, take an agreement with someone you know or have history with; there is no benefit to leaving your tournament in the balance to a stranger who can easily manipulate you. Take the safer route and scoop if you feel it’s in your best interest for your empathy/sportsmanship. Of course it wouldn’t be Portland without a splash of drama (sorry, Portland, the city isn’t the best anymore).
Stranger than the political climate in Portland was Nathan Stratford and Camden Freeze’s Arceus VSTAR deck partnered with Umbreon VMAX and Duraludon VMAX. Totally unaware that this deck even placed in the Top 8, I was hawking over Camden piloting the deck after witnessing what I can only describe as a “Turn 2 winning play” vs a Lost Zone player. Arceus/Dura is far from a new concept, considering Alex Schemanke’s EUIC win with a variant, but we have never seen the likes of Arceus paired with Umbreon VMAX. This home-brew Arceus deck created some new combos while adding a super strong gust effect from Umbreon for early aggression. Before discussing further, lets take a look at this whacky list:
After upgrading to Stage 2 you will have access to the rest of the article: 
You must have a Stage 2 Membership or greater to see the rest of this post. If you don't have a Stage 2 account, you can Sign Up for one here.
You must have a Stage 2 Membership or greater to see the rest of this post. If you don't have a Stage 2 account, you can Sign Up for one here.