I recently attended the 2025 Milwaukee Regional Championship for the Pokémon trading card game. Going into this tournament, I had one goal: to day 2. Large Pokémon tournaments (regional or international) are organized such that the first day of play consists of 8 or 9 rounds of swiss bracket: players with the same win record play each other in best-of-3 matches. At the end of the first day, the top players (typically the top 10% or so) are invited to day 2, where the tournament is concluded via additional rounds of swiss and a final top cut.
In wanting to day 2, I am wanting to place in the top 10% of a group of serious players who all have traveled from large distances to be at this regional tournament—not an easy task. Still, I think it’s achievable. I had only played in one prior regional, but I was one win away from day 2-ing—and I am a much more experienced player now than I was at the previous event.
Deck choice & meta calls
The first step to doing well at a big tournament like this is selecting a deck that you believe will give you the best chance of success. For a few reasons which I will outline later, I chose Gholdengo Dragapult as the deck for the regional.
The strategy behind this deck is to run 1 of every type of basic energy card, search them out with Energy Search Pro, and swing for huge damage numbers using Gholdengo ex’s Make It Rain attack. This deck mainly attacks with Gholdengo, but also runs a thin line of Dragapult ex for draw power and as an additional attacker. Pokémon like Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon are a huge issue for Gholdengo, and having the option to attack with an additional Pokémon can make a huge difference in some matchups. Dragapult only needs 1 psychic and 1 fire to attack—both of which are already being run in the deck.
To me, this deck felt like a good meta call for the following reasons: I could finish out games quickly, and the new up-and-coming deck Joltik Box has a pretty bad matchup into it. The other deck I was considering for the event was pure Dragapult: a deck which slowly locks out your opponent and tries to make a comeback by disrupting them and swinging with the huge health attacker of Dragapult. Joltik box was a deck created in response to this strategy. It aims to power up an Iron Hands ex and start KO’ing your small Pokémon for 2 prizes each. I didn’t want to face down these hyper-turbo aggressive decks with Dragapult. In addition, Dragapult games can take a long time, and in a tournament where you only get 50 minutes to play 3 games in a match, I wanted the ability to close out games quickly. Thus, I landed on Gholdengo.
Gholdengo had a good matchup against Dragapult (one of the most popular decks) but didn’t have the best matchup against some of the decks in the format like Raging Bolt. I figured I wouldn’t see many of them. Spoiler: this was not the case…
Round 1: Tie against Charizard
Let’s walk through each round of the tournament and see how I did! The first round was against a pretty new player on Charizard—one of the worst matchups for my deck. Not a good start. This deck aims to utilize cards like Dusknoir and Briar to manipulate prizes and win faster than your opponent is able to. Now, the guy playing this deck was obviously fairly new, so I wasn’t too worried, but I still had to be careful.
The first game was an easy win: he got off to a slow start and I was able to run him off the board. The second game was not. I prized Energy Search Pro. Remember how Gholdengo needs a lot of energy to discard in order to be able to swing for big damage? Without the energy search pro, there’s no way to aggressively search those energy out of the deck. So, I was in a predicament. Should I just scoop (forfeit) the second game of the match and try and win the third one? Or should I stick it out and attempt to mount a comeback? I opted for the latter—I didn’t want to scoop against a new player like this and I figured leaving the match to the last game was a scary risk. Unfortunately, I was unable to win, and we moved on to the third game. This was a heartbreaker—time was called during our game, and I was 1 turn away from winning when the tie was officially announced. In tournaments like these, if time is called during a game, each player gets an additional two turns, and if neither player has won at the end of the turns then it is officially a tie.
I was quite frustrated with the tie: I knew that it would hurt my resistance later (the guy went 1-5 drop) and it certainly wasn’t the start I had been looking for. Still, it easily could have been a loss against Charizard, so I guess I have to count my blessings. On to the next.
Round 2: Win against Dragapult
Round 2 I faced a really good player: we both sat down and immediately talked about how disappointed we were with the first round tie. Luckily, he was on Dragapult, which was one of the decks that my list was designed to beat. In the first game, I was able to quickly take aggro and start taking KO’s before he was set up. Dragapult, as a deck, relies on a lot of hand disruption with cards like Iono and Unfair Stamp. To combat this, I run a Genesect:
This card allows me to quickly take aggressive KO’s against Dragapult without fearing an early unfair stamp, which makes a huge difference in how the matchup goes. It works like a charm, and I take quick 2-0. The second game was incredibly close, but a clutch Professor Turo’s Scenario allows me the turn I need to win the game. 1-0-1.
Round 3: Loss against Gholdengo
This round absolutely destroyed my confidence. The player I was facing was great: I actually ran into him the next day and we had a nice conversation about our matches. I won the first game in convincing fashion, but bricked (had a horrible hand) the second game. In the third game I was again off to a good start. Remember the Genesect from earlier which shuts down ACE SPECs? In the mirror match, you’re normally good to evolve and start swinging if you have a Genesect down. I did, so I evolve to Gholdengo and KO a gimmi. However, he reveals an insane tech: Klefki.
When this is in the active, basic Pokémon don’t have abilities. This means that with Klefki in the active, he is able to get around Genesect and play his Energy Search Pro. So, he takes the return KO on my Gholdengo, and the first two prizes. This means that I’m almost completely unable to win. I try to mount a comeback with Dragapult + Iono, but it doesn’t work. 1-1-1.
Klefki completely took me by surprise. I hadn’t seen this card being run in any Gholdengo list previously, so I really started to wonder if I was behind the meta for this tournament. A little worried, I headed into round 4.
Round 4: Win against Blissey
I was in the pits this game. I wasn’t feeling good about the tournament, and starting off the day at 1-1-1 was not putting me on track to day 2. So, I needed an easy win. Luckily, this is exactly what I hit.
I was facing a deck which used Blissey ex alongside cards like Munkidori to outlive and take KO’s on the opponent. Gholdengo doesn’t leave any damage on the board for Munkidori to manipulate, so theoretically I have a good matchup into this list. The one problem was Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon:
Gholdengo is unable to hit this Pokémon. So, if they leave this guy in the active and don’t play any Blissey, I am pretty screwed. However, this is where the Dragapult part of my deck comes into play: It can hit Cornerstone. However (again), I prized my Dragapult on the first game. However (again again), my opponent misplayed and benched two Blissey. This allowed me to gust and KO both for 4 prizes, and take snipe KO’s on Munkidoris with Fezandipiti ex for the last 2. Dragapult was the last prize…
Game 2 was a stomp. I didn’t prize any of the pieces for Dragapult, so he was unable to do anything with Cornerstone and I won handily. 2-1-1.
Round 5: Win against Dragapult
This round was scary for 1 main reason: The clock. Remember how I mentioned that each round is 50 minutes for a best-of-3? Well, in this round my opponent was playing incredibly slowly on Dragapult Dusknoir. I won the first game, but we only had 20 minutes for the last 2 games after this.
We start the 2nd game, and I notice that my Energy Search Pro is prized, along with 4 energy. This is a huge problem. Beating Dragapult often requires being able to piece together a KO against the first Dragapult they swing with, after they disrupt you. No Energy Search Pro means that accomplishing this is much, much harder. I was in another predicament: Do I scoop now and try to take a quick win in game 3? Or do I stick it out and try to win an unlikely comeback? I opted for the latter, which was probably a mistake. I was able to win, but only because my opponent missed a turn of attaching energy. I had to swing into a Dragapult for 150 with Gholdengo, which is never something you want to do. However, they were unable to find another energy to attach to a benched Drakloak, so after I KO’d the Dragapult the next turn, they were unable to piece together an attack. All I needed was this 1 turn of leeway, and I was able to roll the advantage to a victory. 3-1-1.
Round 6: Win against Joltik Box
I’m finally seeing the benefits from my deck choice. He opened Joltik, and I knew I was favored. My list runs a Vengeful Punch to get around Pikachu ex, and so I can normally take advantage in the prize race.
Game 1 he bricked—not much to say. However, the second game was very interesting. My opponent started with a Mew ex, and benched Miriadon to find Joltik and Pikachu ex. He then benched Fez and another Pikachu. This means that he is in a board state where he has Mew, Fez, Joltik, Miriadon, and 2 Pikachu—and no room to bench any other Pokémon. This is normally OK; you don’t want to bench more 2-prize liabilities than you have to against Gholdengo, but it’s unlikely that I will be able to gust up something 3 turns in a row, so it’s not the end of the world. However—he was bench locked. He was obviously anticipating me evolving into a Gholdengo, but while planning for this he did not set up an Iron Hands, just two Pikachu. This means that I am free to never evolve into a 2-prizer until he swings into my active Gimmighoul with a Pikachu: Something you never want to do. Thanks to this, I was able to successfully stall him for turns while he pointlessly waited for me to evolve into Gholdengo. Eventually, he reluctantly took aggro and swung into me, taking 1 prize in the process and enabling my Counter Catcher. Perfect. I was able to gust as needed to win the 2-2-2 prize race. I was really proud of this game because it was a great punish of my opponents misplay of board-locking themselves. 4-1-1.
Round 7: WIN again Poison Arch
This round was horrifying. One reason is that the deck my opponent was playing, Poison Archaludon, has the ability to win before you can even play a card. With a combo involving poison damage-modifying cards and Pecharunt, the deck can take a KO on your only Pokémon in play if they have 80 health or less: winning the game on turn 1. As my Gimmighouls have 70 health, I am a prime target for this donk strategy. Luckily, I was able to start Genesect in game 1, which is unable to be donked. I took a win when he missed a gust effect on his second turn to take a 2-prize kill.
The other reason this round was horrifying is that if I win, I officially qualify for day 2. I had clawed my win record back from the poor 1-1-1 at the start to the quite decent 4-1-1 I currently had. 5 wins and a tie makes day 2, so if I won this round I would achieve my goal.
Heading into game 2, I know that all I need to do is bring this one home. He goes first—but I start Munkidori this time. No donk potential. He goes ahead in the prize race, taking the first 2 poison KO’s before I can piece together a Gholdengo + gust response. I’m in trouble. On the turn he goes down to 2 prizes, he Iono’s the both of us to 4 cards—disrupting the large hand I had amassed via Coin Bonus, but also disrupting himself in the process. He takes the KO, and I know that I am in trouble.
I promote Gholdengo. He has an Archaludon ex in the active with a Binding Mochi. I bench Genesect, attaching a Vengeful Punch. No ACE SPECs for him. I then take a KO on his active Archaludon—but I do something smart. He is currently poisoned, and taking 30 each turn from the Perilous Jungle in play. This means that if I do 250 damage, the poison will knock him out, preventing him from using Fezandipiti’s ability on the next turn. I perform this play, leaving him with 4 cards. He needs to piece together an Arch, a Binding Mochi, and an attach for turn.
He immediately plays arch and attaches an energy for turn. All he needs is the Mochi. However: He stops to pick up my Genesect and asks “No pink cards, right?” I confirm. He sighs, and plays a Carmine discarding a Secret Box. This is huge: If I hadn’t played the Genesect on the previous turn, he would have won. He draws his 5 cards—no Binding Mochi. He promotes a 1-prizer, poisons, and passes. I now have 1 goal: Find a Boss’s Orders. I have about 15 cards in deck, a Superior Energy Retrieval in hand, and 4 draw abilities enabled. In addition, time has been called. If I don’t find this win, it’s all over. Here we go.
Recon directive 1: nothing. Recon directive 2: nothing. Coin bonus 1: nothing. At this point, I have seen 6 cards from my deck, and no Boss’s Orders. It’s down to the final Coin Bonus from the active Gholdengo. I slowly flip over the first card… nothing. I look at my opponent and flip the last card onto the table—not even bothering to hide it. Boss’s Orders. I immediately Boss the Fez and take a KO to take my last two prizes.
I have officially made day 2, and in the most cinematic way possible. Digging with Coin Bonus to find the 1 card I needed at the last possible instance: I can’t imagine anything more perfect.
Round 8: Tie against Tera Box
I’m facing Alex Schemanske this round: a professional player. He is absolutely amazing at the game, and I’m so frazzled from the adrenaline of the previous round that I immediately misplay game 1 and lose as a result. However, in game 2 I lock in: I perfectly manage the prize-state of my board and take a close game 2 after a long back-and-forth. In game 3, we’re both playing incredibly quickly. Time is almost up, and we’re both screaming through our decks. Unfortunately for him, time is called, and on his final turn he is 1 prize away from winning. I can’t take it either, and so we tie. Pretty happy to take a game off of one of the pros.
Round 9: Win against N’s Box
This round was the first of day 2. I am pretty nervous—the players who qualify for day 2 are some of the best in the world, and I don’t know how well I’m prepared to hang with them. In addition, this deck has an absolutely brutal matchup against mine: Darmanitan can hit Gholdengo for weakness, spreading massive damage across the board and one-shotting if I discard too many energy.
Game 1 goes well; he doesn’t get a quick start and I run him over. Game 2 is extremely close. We both play it very well—but he makes a major misplay on his final turn. The board state is such that if he is able to Boss and use flamebody cannon, I lose. So, I swing into a Zoroark for 250: leaving it susceptible to a Munkidori play the next turn, and turning off his Counter Catchers. I also attach a Vengeful Punch to the active Gholdengo, and he forgets about it. He swings back into me, KO’ing himself in the process, and letting me boss a 2-prizer for game. I believe he would have lost anyway to the Munki play, but his gaffe made the win easier. 6-1-2.
Round 10: Loss against Raging Bolt
No! I hit the deck I was scared of. Not only do a lot of things have to go right in order for me to win this matchup, but I only have a few turns to piece together the cards I need. I absolutely brick both games: no supporters or even ball search. I get donked the first game and run off the board the second. Unfortunate, but it happens. 6-2-2.
Round 11: Win against Tera Box
Game 1 he bricks. Game 2 was interesting: He started Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon, which is fortunate for him against Gholdengo. Hoewver, I am able to start building up Drakloaks, and after he Boss’s one of them he is unable to piece together a KO on the second, leaving me with a powered up Dragapult. By now, he is down to 3 prizes, so I Iono the both of us and swing into his Cornerstone, damaging a Pikachu ex on the bench, a fan rotom, and a hoothoot. He whiffs a Noctowl from the 3 cards he drew, and is forced to swing back into my Dragapult with the Cornerstone. I am able to gust Pikachu, move damage with Munkidori, and Phantom Dive for a 6-prize turn with Gholdengo. How often does that happen?
7-2-2.
Round 12: Loss against Raging Bolt
This was an anticlimactic ending to the tournament. Before the match, my opponent asked if I wanted to just tie to guarantee a spot in the top 100. I declined, because this was my first day 2 and I wanted to see how well I could do. This ended up being a mistake, as I megabricked the first game and got blown off the board. In the second game I actually had a chance to take the lead on the prize race with a well-timed Ciphermaniac’s Codebreaking, but my 1 Counter Catcher was prized. What a heartbreaker. I ended the tournament with a record of 7-3-2, placing 136th.
Concluding thoughts
I was very happy with my performance this tournament. I didn’t make too many major misplays: the one that stands out is not playing around Klefki in game 3 of round 3. I was fairly happy with my deck and list—I wish that I had realized how much of the meta is decks that were not Dragapult. A large portion of my 60 was dedicated to giving me great odds against Pult, but this left me weaker against hyperaggressive decks like Raging Bolt.
Still, I am proud of myself for making day 2. I think I’ll pick up a different deck for NAIC, so we’ll have to get to testing.