2018 Charlotte Regionals

Dates: March 17-18
Location: The Park Expo & Conference Center, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
Attendance:
Format: Standard BRT-UPR

Day 2 metagame analysis

Day 2 final standings
  1. Ryan Sabelhaus, Buzzwole-GX/Lycanroc-GX with Mew FAC
  2. Alex Schemanske, Buzzwole-GX/Lycanroc-GX with Oricorio GRI 56
  3. Joe Ruettiger, Greninja BREAK
  4. Igor Costa, Buzzwole-GX/Lycanroc-GX with Mew FAC
  5. Kyle Sabelhaus, Zoroark-GX/Gardevoir-GX
  6. Athavan Balendran, Glaceon-GX/Zoroark-GX
  7. Kyle Lesniewicz, Sylveon-GX
  8. Edwin Lopez, Buzzwole-GX/Lycanroc-GX
  9. Alex Hill, Zoroark-GX/Lycanroc-GX
  10. Ian Robb, Zoroark-GX/Golisopod-GX with Lurantis SM25
  11. Peter Kica, VikaBulu
  12. Josh Marking, Zoroark-GX/Lycanroc-GX
  13. Greg Minklei, Quad Hoopa
  14. Natalie Shampay, Fighting/Garbodor
  15. Justin Kulas, Zoroark-GX/Golisopod-GX
  16. Kanghyn Seo, Zoroark/Weavile
  17. Bob Zhang, Zoroark-GX/Golisopod-GX/Sudowoodo BPT
  18. Anthony Alvarez, Buzzwole-GX/Lycanroc-GX
  19. Samuel Fontanez, Magnezone/Dusk Mane Necrozma-GX
  20. Charlie Lockyer, Zoroark-GX/Garbodor/Tauros-GX
  21. Chris Siakala, Zoroark-GX/Lycanroc-GX
  22. Gibson Archer-Tang, Gardevoir-GX/Sylveon-GX/Octillery
  23. Makenzie Gilly, Quad Hoopa
  24. Chip Richey, Zoroark-GX/Counters
  25. Zack Taylor, Zoroark-GX/Counters
  26. Ryan Allred, Buzzwole-GX/Lycanroc-GX
  27. Carl Sitavi, Zoroark-GX/Gardevoir-GX/Clefairy
  28. Alex Smetana, Zoroark-GX/Golisopod-GX
  29. Patrick Robinson, Glaceon-GX/Octillery
  30. Zack Martin, Turbo Buzzwole-GX
  31. Zack Patterson, Sylveon-GX
  32. Eddie North, Magnezone/Dusk Mane Necrozma-GX
  33. Deon Lunsford, Zoroark-GX/Gallade
  34. Riley Hulbert, Zoroark-GX/Lycanroc-GX

Stream matches
Battle Factory streamed this event. Casters were Michael Canaves, Adam Dorricott, Zach Elliott, and Connor Finton

Round 1: Kyle Sabelhaus (Zoroark-GX/Gardevoir-GX) def. Tristan Macek (VikaBulu) WW watch

Round 2:
Andrew Mahone (Fighting/Garbodor) def. Jonathan Crespo (1-0-0, Hoopa/Wobbuffet/Wishiwashi-GX/Xurkitree-GX) WW watch

Round 3: Alex Hill (Zoroark-GX/Lycanroc-GX) def. Grafton Roll (Passimian) WLW watch

Round 4: Jose Marrero (Silvally-GX/Dusk Mane Necrozma-GX/Zoroark-GX) def. Alex Schemanske (Buzzwole-GX/Lycanroc-GX with Oricorio GRI 56) WW watch

Round 5: Josh Marking (Zoroark-GX/Lycanroc-GX) def. Jamie DePamphilis (Greninja BREAK) LWW watch

Round 6: Alex Bunker (Zoroark-GX/Lycanroc-GX) def. Natalie Shampay (Fighting/Garbodor) WW watch

Round 7: Eddie North (Magnezone/Dusk Mane Necrozma-GX) def. Bob Zhang (Zoroark-GX/Golisopod-GX with Sudowoodo BPT/Counter Energy) WW watch

Round 8: Natalie Shampay (Fighting/Garbodor) def. Rahul Reddy (Zoroark-GX/Gardevoir-GX) WLW watch

Round 9: Igor Costa (Buzzwole-GX/Lycanroc-GX) def. Jalen Jones (Zoroark-GX/Golisopod-GX) LWW watch

Round 10: Kyle Sabelhaus (Zoroark-GX/Gardevoir-GX) def. Chip Richey (Zoroark-GX/Counters) WLW watch

Round 11: Kyle Lesniewicz (Sylveon-GX) def. Riley Hulbert (Zoroark-GX/Lycanroc-GX)

Round 12: Ryan Sabelhaus (Buzzwole-GX/Lycanroc-GX) def. Alex Schemanske (Buzzwole-GX/Lycanroc-GX) watch

Round 13: Peter Kica (VikaBulu) def. Bob Zhang (Zoroark-GX/Golisopod-GX with Sudowoodo BPT/Counter Energy) WW watch

Round 14: Natalie Shampay (Fighting/Garbodor) def. Gibson Archer-Tang (Gardevoir-GX) WW watch

Round 15: Kyle Sabelhaus (Zoroark-GX/Gardevoir-GX) def. Peter Kica (VikaBulu) WLW watch

Top 8: 1-Joe Ruettiger (Greninja BREAK) def. 8-Edwin Lopez (Buzzwole-GX/Lycanroc-GX) WW

Top 4: 3-Ryan Sabelhaus (Buzzwole-GX/Lycanroc-GX with Mew FAC) def. Igor Costa (Buzzwole-GX/Lycanroc-GX with Mew FAC) WW (60-card mirror) watch

Finals: 3-Ryan Sabelhaus (Buzzwole-GX/Lycanroc-GX with Mew FAC) def. 4-Alex Schemanske (Buzzwole-GX/Lycanroc-GX with Oricorio GRI 56) watch


Notes
  • Joe Ruettiger made his third consecutive Regional Top 8. Had Alex Hill not bubbled and been the 8-seed, it would have been the third consecutive Regional Top 8 featuring Ruettiger and Hill facing off in the 1-vs-8 matchup! 
    • Ruettiger's Top 8 streak was preceded by a finals appearance at the Oceania International Championship, an incredible run for a first-year Master.
    • Ruettiger also achieved the rare feat of a perfect 9-0-0 record after Day 1. Ironically, Round 9 was the only time the Greninja BREAK player faced a deck with Giratina XY184 during the entire weekend -- Greg Minklei's Quad Hoopa -- yet Minklei Prized it and Ruettiger was able to win the series with a single game.
  • According to Stéphane Ivanoff, this was the first North American Regionals since the release of Guardians Rising to not feature a Garbodor deck (BPT or GRI) in Top 8. (It was not the first such Regional worldwide; that honor goes to Malmö, as well as the EUIC.)
  • While Zoroark-GX decks (especially Zoroark-GX/Golisopod-GX, largely considered the BDIF) were the most-hyped decks entering this tournament, only two made Top 8, and neither of them were the Golisopod-GX version, or even the similarly hyped Lycanroc-GX version. In fact, the number of Zoroark-GX decks in this Top 8 was equivalent to the number of Sabelhaus brothers in Top 8...

Decklists and analysis

Alex Schemanske, 2nd - Buzzwole-GX/Lycanroc-GX
Player notes:
  • On the Oricorio: "Second attack does 30 with a Stadium in play. That plus choice is 120 on Mew-EX."

Joe Ruettiger, 3rd - Greninja BREAK
Player notes:
  • "Espeon was very good against the one Golisopod I played against and it is very good in niche scenarios like I had in T8"
  • "[Tapu Fini-GX] seems like it would help against BuzzRoc quite a ton, so yea I think it would've been good, but that's the only MU where I think it's worth it"

Kyle Sabelhaus, 5th - Zoroark-GX/Gardevoir-GX

Athavan Balendran, 6th - Glaceon-GX/Zoroark-GX
Player notes:
  • "2 Energy Loto... is busted in here."
  • "Trade + Aqua Patch was useful."
  • "[Lapras was] very useful against Buzzwole. Collect was fine if I was dead drawing... Blizzard Burn is the only big-damage attack to clean stuff up." 

Kyle Lesniewicz, 7th - Sylveon-GX
Player notes:
  • "I’m of the opinion that 12 is the best Energy count, but you’ll never need all of those attachments. Professor's Letter is a turn one out, a deck-thinner, and grabs a '4th' card with ribbon." 
  • "[Muscle Dumbbells is] great post-Absorption GX, in combo with Parallel, and against Bulu/Gardy."
  • "Two Parallel would have felt comfortable, but one was manageable. I felt like I needed the third Crushing Hammer more for Buzzwole specifically."

Edwin Lopez, 8th - Buzzwole-GX/Lycanroc-GX

Alex Hill, 9th - Zoroark-GX/Lycanroc-GX

Peter Kica, 11th - VikaBulu
Player notes:

  • "Didn't miss [Super Rod] at all."


Greg Minklei, 13th - Quad Hoopa

Natalie Shampay, 14th - Fighting/Garbodor - played the same 60 as her 2nd-place Collinsville list

Justin Kulas, 15th - ZoroPod
Player notes:
  • "The deck ran really well, the third Acerola won four or five games due to [the opponent] not expecting it."
  • "There was a few times when the third Wimpod would have been useful but I don't think it's necessary." 
  • "3 N is definitely needed to help make sure you can disrupt late game." 
  • "I scooped both games [against Quad Hoopa in Round 10] pretty quickly. Oranguru would have been really good multiple times throughout both days." 

Charlie Lockyer, 20th - Zoroark-GX/Garbodor
Player notes:
  • "Overall, I really liked the list and I think that it was the correct deck for the event. Tauros was really strong against Zoroark decks and the 2 Volcanion decks I played against. If I were to do the tournament over again, I’d probably cut 1 of the 3 Enhanced Hammers for another Field Blower or a Parallel City."
  • "[Klefki] was good but we thought other cards were better. There weren't many times I missed it."

Gibson Archer-Tang, 22nd - Gardevoir-GX

Chip Richey, 24th - Zoroark-GX/Counters
Player notes:
  • "[Kartana was] way better than expected. I used it a decent amount... It’s just randomly good. Anytime you’re on an odd prize it’s useful and you can use it to set up your prize count for a counter attacker for the following turn. Anytime I started it I almost always went turn 2 Blade GX as well."
  • "I won several games where I never used a counter attacker. And having access to Rainbow Energy meant I could use my counter attacks even when I was ahead on Prizes. The games I lost today weren’t because of my opponent playing around counter energy, it was for other reasons"

Carl Sitavi, 27th - Zoroark-GX/Gardevoir-GX
Player notes:
  • "The deck has its issues, but overall it's just fun to Mallow and then Trade to set up Stage 2s which is the main reason I went with the deck despite what I think was only 'ok' MUs meta wise." 
  • "Clefairy is there to give you an easier avenue vs Bulu and Dusk Mane on Day 1. I ended up using Clefairy several times throughout the weekend primarily vs those two MUs (with one game vs a Dusk Mane where I used Clefairy to take all 6 Prizes thanks to Puzzles + Trade)." 
  • "Oranguru is something you can sit behind for a turn or two and recover puzzles/pieces while you may want to avoid having your Gardy GX hit for a turn as without damage on it, it's fairly hard to OHKO. Through a combination of KO pressure + Max Potion + Parallel + E Hammer I also effectively ran 2 Zoro/counter decks out of resources thanks to resource management and avoiding the threat of its counter resources. Oranguru allowed me to spend occasional turns where appropriate attaching energies to a threatening Gardy on the bench without having a GX vulnerable in the active."
  • "I only hit one ZoroPod both days which did kind of stink and while this deck has a harder time against BuzzRoc than it may look I still took a decent amount of games off them."

Zack Martin, 30th - Turbo Buzzwole-GX

Steve Guthrie, 42nd - Glaceon-GX/Zoroark-GX
Player notes:
  • "I wouldn’t add another Basic [Pokemon]. [Zoroark BRT] could def work, though. 3 Blowers is for FFB and the red side of Parallel."
  • "BuzzRoc is usually handled by Glaceon shutting down Bloodthirsty Eyes, although if they run hot on Elixirs it can be rough. BuzzGarb is similar but you can use Lapras to take OHKOs as well."

Eric Smith, 49th - Zoroark-GX/Lycanroc-GX

Xander Pero, finished 6-2-1 - Zoroark-GX/Golisopod-GX/Missing Clover


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