Mexico City Regionals took place on the 2nd of April with over 66 Masters players!
After my first Regionals and an ok but somewhat disappointing Top 8 loss to Night March, I really wanted to make up for that in what is sure to be one of the biggest and most prestigious Regionals in Mexico for this season.
Unfortunately for us, we are at a huge disadvantage in terms of tournaments available when compared to other LATAM countries, and we only get 5 Regionals TOTAL, where as other countries get 2 whole months of Regionals, with them being treated almost like City Championships…
This means either you perform well at all of them, or you’re pretty much out of contention for a Day 2 invite. With this in mind, I figured my metagame would be pretty ideal for Greninja to do well, as there is very little Item lock AND Vespiquen, both great counters to Greninja decks.
Here’s the list I settled on for the tournament:
Pokémon – 20
2 Jirachi PR-XY XY67
2 Greninja BREAK BKP 41
4 Froakie BKP 38
1 Frogadier BKP 39
3 Frogadier BKP 39
2 Greninja XY 41
2 Greninja BKP 40
2 Remoraid BKT 32
2 Octillery BKT 33
Trainer Cards – 32
4 Trainers’ Mail ROS 92
2 Wally ROS 94
1 Lysandre FLF 90
1 Super Rod BKT 149
1 Startling Megaphone FLF 97
1 Fisherman BKT 136
1 Sacred Ash FLF 96
4 Professor Sycamore PHF 101
1 AZ PHF 91
2 Ace Trainer AOR 69
4 Dive Ball PRC 125
3 Ultra Ball ROS 93
1 Muscle Band XY 121
4 VS Seeker PHF 109
1 Level Ball NXD 89
1 Energy Retrieval BLW 92
Energy – 8
8 Water Energy BLWEnergy 9
Total Cards – 60
Literally every card in the deck came in clutch at one point or another. Deck ran swimmingly for the most part, although I did draw dead a few times over the course of the day, I was able to bring back games thanks to Ace Trainer and Froakie’s BUBBLE!
Round 1 vs Crobat/Feraligatr/Miltank WW 1-0-0
This is her first tournament ever so I feel a bit bad. I never saw past Totodile and she would place Golbat’s and Crobat’s damage counters on a Pokemon she was going to KO anyways. I was able to easily deal with Totodiles Fury Swipes.
Round 2 vs Night March w/Bronzong WLT 1-1-0
Same guy who beat me in Top 8 at Regionals 2 weeks ago where I used Yveltal. I knew it would be a very difficult match but for game 1, I got behind as you’d expect, but eventually through Ace Trainer and well placed Giant Water Shurikens I was able to narrowly win 1-0 as I was able to take multiple prize cards at a time. Game 2 was going the same except he started off slower, which mean he hadn’t drawn as many prizes. Unfortunately though, I make the mistake of playing Ace Trainer before checking prizes and we were tied 4-4. We had already shuffled our hands into the deck and so I got a game loss which tied up the series. We didn’t have enough time for a Game 3 to decide the winner so we tied.
Round 3 vs Garchomp/Giratina WW 2-1-0
These games went by pretty fast, we were done within 10 minutes of the game. I got my Water Duplicates going on turn 2 and Greninja was simply able to overwhelm him as he had no way to OHKO and I was able to manipulate damage and attacks in order to trade more effectively than him.
Round 4 vs Yveltal/Zoroark/Gallade LWT 2-2-0
Game 1 was one of the most increidlbe games I’ve played, but not because it was good, but because every little thing that could go wrong did go wrong, and after FOUR consecutive Ace Trainers against my opponent, he was able to get a Lysandre/VS Seeker off of each in order to KO something and beat me. Game 2 played out more normally and I was able to overwhelm him with the extra damage output plus preventing Shaymin EX and Gallade’s ability. Game 3 I was completely dominating and I would’ve been able to win even after time was called if he had not been able to chain Hex Maniac two turns towards the end, the most crucial one being the final turn of time for him.
Round 5 vs Yveltal/Zoroark/Gallade WW 3-2-0
These games were a lot more ‘normal’ and my opponent told me he really had no idea how to play the 
matchup. Game 1 my hand was pretty awful at the beginning, but he started out quite passively and opted not to KO my active Froakie on turn 2, which allowed me to set up. We exchanged blows but once again the damage off of the abilities was too much for him. He also prized both of Gallades which definitely helped my case. Game 2 went pretty much the same although he was less ‘passive’ but eventually the trade off between Yveltal EX and Greninja is not good for him, and keeping my bench at a decently low amount meant Zoroark was not a problem at all.
Round 6 vs Lucario/Crobat WW 4-2-0
Crobats are definitely annoying to deal with in the beginning, but once Greninjas are up and running they really don’t become a factor and all you have to do is focus on KOing the Lucarios. The 2 for 1 trade off an your extra damage counters when compared to Crobat’s is too much and I won both games quite comfortably, specially with Shadow Stitching preventing any damage off of Golabts and Crobats mid-late game.
Round 7 vs Night March W 5-2-0
We both know we have to win to get in, but a tie could also get me in due to the amount of people we were and that 1 person with an undefeated record got disqualified. Game 1 was incredibly close and I had to discard TWO Shadow Stitching Greninjas on turn 1 from my Sycamore, otherwise I would not have been able to get into the game and set up. I narrowly pulled a 1-0 victory here and he was down to 1 card in his deck. The scenario at the end was his Pumpkaboo with 2 Metal energy and 1 Joltik with a DCE. If he KO’d with Joltik then I would’ve been able to buy myself a turn with Jirachi and deck him out for the win since all 4 VS Seeker and both Lysandre and single Escape Rope had already been used. If he attacked with Pumpkaboo I would’ve been able to get a double KO with Greninja BREAK to win so I think I had the game either way but it was definitely a very very narrow win. Game 2 I drew HORRIBLY and despite there being very little time left, I drew passed for almost every turn after he Judge’d me turn 1 AND I had to use Bubble three times! I missed the first 2 bubbles but the third one came in clutch as got heads after I topdecked an Ace Trainer so he had no way to get out of the paralysis. Time was called and he wasn’t able to get his 6th prize in time all thanks to that Bubble heads flip. Even if I had missed the flip, he would’ve taken the game and tied the series, but 15 points would’ve been enough to make top cut although the bracket would’ve been different.
Top 8 vs Mega Manectric/Jolteon/Raikou WW
I was feeling fairly confident going into this game as the 2 for 1 prize trade off is very favorable for me. Game 1 I’m able to set up pretty strongly but I think I misplay a ton of my Giant Water Shurikens, trying to KO Shaymin’s but he always had an AZ or a VS Seeker to heal it up in time. This made the match a lot closer than it should’ve been as I had a huge advantage at one point but I let him get back into it. A Raikou towards the end was very scary and Rough Seas could’ve sealed it for him, but I was able to Lysandre up his Shaymin EX, seeing how he had no more VS Seekers left and there were 10 total basic energy either in play or in his discard pile, so I figured he would have no way to retreat it. That was exactly the case and he ended up conceding before I got my last prize.
Game 2 was more of the same except I focused my Giant Water Shurikens on whatever had energy instead of Shaymin’s, and this made the game a lot easier as if he AZ’d he would run out of attackers, but if he didn’t I would take prizes, so eventually both were fair trades for me and the fact that I don’t have EX’s at all allowed me to sweep the game.
Top 4 vs Aromatisse/Mega Mewtwo/Seismitoad WW
Very dominating games from my part. We’re both ‘set up’ decks so any time you get off free Water Duplicates without your active Frogadier getting KO’ed you’re in for a good time with this. Unfortunately I have to discard both Greninja BREAKS in the beginning and I don’t find my Super Rod until later in the game but even with that, Shadow Stitiching was just too much for him. Game 2 plays out even better for me as he dead draws for quite a while and he only manages to get 1 prize off of Lysandreing up my Octillery.
Top 2 vs Night March
My opponent was not feeling too well by this point and he wanted to go home so he conceded. Would’ve been a fairly even match for sure as it always is against Night March but I still feel this deck can really make good comebacks with the dual Ace Trainer and extra damage counters capabilities.
And thus I became the undefeated 2016 Mexico City Regional Champion! Bringing my CP total to 385, with still 2 more Regionals available to me to do well at, along with a potential 6 League Challenges and Nationals.
Thank you for taking the time to read through this! Feel free to leave any feedback or comments down below.