Aaaand we’re back! I am proud to announce that I recently competed at the 2025 Pokémon North America International Championships (NAIC), placing 136th out of 3,812 competitors. This tournament took place in New Orleans, LA, and the whole trip was a delight. I traveled down with a few friends and my partner, and we got to see Bourbon Street and the French Quarter. However, that’s not really what we’re concerned with. Time to run back the tournament and see how I did.
Deck Choice and Meta Calls
For this tournament, I chose to run a new deck: Grimmsnarl Froslass. NAIC was a tournament with some relatively special circumstances surrounding it: a new set of Pokémon cards released the same day as the tournament. This meant that there was an influx of potential new decks and strategies, and I wanted to bring one of the new decks in the hope that my opponents wouldn’t be extremely prepared for the matchup. Unfortunately, I made this decision about three weeks prior to the tournament, and in the days leading up to NAIC the popularity of Grimmsnarl exploded. The whole community was talking about it as a top meta contender, and everyone was preparing/teching for it. Still, just because a deck is well-known doesn’t mean it’s a bad choice, and I certainly believed in the power of the deck. Here’s the list I cooked up:
Notice the Tatsugiri
Grimmsnarl is a slow deck: a stark contrast to the Gholdengo deck I brought to Milwaukee. At my last regionals, I wanted a quick deck to be able to finish all 3 games in a 50-minute match. Why did I make the switch? Well, one of the big things that annoyed me about Gholdengo was the matchup into 2-2-2 decks like Raging Bolt. Aggressive decks like these want to KO big 2-prize Pokémon each turn as fast as possible to close the game out in just 3 attacks. If two decks like these are facing each other, falling behind in the prize race is a death sentence that is almost impossible to comeback from. (Side note: the Gholdengo-Bolt matchup is indeed a lot more nuanced, with Gholdengo having the opportunity to present a single-prize board state, but Bolt being able to counter that by only playing down one 2-prizer to enable noctowls and setting up a baby bolt to even the trade with a single-prize board state of their own. The prize map overall favors Bolt when both sides are playing optimally. Still, the point stands that falling behind in the map means you lose). Slow, set-up decks like Grimmsnarl have many more comeback mechanics, and as a result provide you many more opportunities to outplay your opponent. As I was gaining confidence as a player going into this tournament, I wanted to bring a deck that would allow me to consistently outplay my opponent.
Also, I was a big believer in Grimmsnarl’s matchup spread. I believed that it was favored into both Dragapult and Gardevoir: the two decks that had defined the meta in the months leading up to this tournament. I also believed that it had an OK-ish Bolt matchup, which was projected to be a popular deck as well. The only matchup I was worried about was Joltik Box, but I didn’t think I’d see too many of them. Spoiler alert: I did.
The overall strategy of the deck is to utilize Grimmsnarl ex alongside Froslass and Munkidori to spread massive amounts of damage on your opponent’s board. Alongside cards like TM: Devo, you can take huge swing turns with multiple KO’s to win games.
Let’s take a look at my matches and see how I did.
Round 1: Win against Poison Roaring Moon
My first round went swimmingly. My opponent was running a deck centered around Roaring Moon ex with a poison package intended to “donk” the other player. In the Pokémon TCG, if your active Pokémon is knocked out and you don’t have any other benched Pokémon to replace it with, you lose. With the help of cards like baby Pecharunt and Perilous Jungle, the deck aims to take out the opponent’s starting Pokémon before they can even play a single card.
The deck’s main attacker if the donk doesn’t work
Fortunately, my Impidimps are immune to the effect of Perilous Jungle, and as a result are unable to be donked. Unfortunately, I cold-started Snorunt on my first game. All I could do was sit and watch as my opponent attempted to piece together the donk combo. He missed it by a single nest ball, and I was luckily able to take down the 1st game after he whiffed a supporter on the next turn. The second game went well - I started an Impidimp in the active and a Snorunt on the bench. He punished my misplay of benching Snorunt when he immediately whipped out the donk combo + an Iron Bundle to KO my Snorunt. However, using a Defiance Band and some residual poison damage on Impidimps, I was able to target down his Roaring Moon ex’s with energy attached and prevent him from ever pulling off a Frenzied Gouging. 1-0-0.
Round 2: Win against Raging Bolt
This round went well too. I was a bit nervous to see my opponent flip over a Teal Mask Ogerpon; Bolt is one of the worse matchups for Grimmsnarl. They can always oneshot a Grimmsnarl with the Ogerpon and threaten huge amounts of pressure with the baby Raging Bolt. However, this is the match that made me incredibly thankful I had chosen to run Maractus:
Leading up to the tournament, there was a huge meta discussion surrounding Maractus. Its attack prevents the opposing Pokémon from retreating, which is an incredibly powerful effect against decks that don’t run some sort of switching tech. A few weeks ago, a Dragapult list running Maractus won a big regional, so people started preparing for Maractus by putting switch cards in their decks. Due to this, many people chose to cut Maractus, as they felt that it was now redundant. I viewed the card a bit differently: not as a “lock one Pokémon and you win” card but rather as a tool to slowly run your opponent out of resources. Even though my opponent ran 2 switch effects, I still was able to force my opponent to use his resources suboptimally and buy enough time for my Froslass + Munkidoris to build up massive damage on his board. 2-0-0.
Round 3: Win against Dragapult Dusknoir
My opponent for this round was a really cool guy—very friendly and we had a nice chat before the match started. He was on Dragapult Dusknoir, one of the top decks in the format. I felt confident in this matchup, and I took game 1 after a long back-and-forth. He played it very well, but he prized what I believe was his only Dusknoir, which really hurt his gameplan. I had a cool play where I swung into his Budew with an Impidimp for 10 to set up a 20 damage Munkidori KO the following turn, but other than that the game was uneventful. Our first game took a long time, and so we only had around 20 minutes left in the round. We ended up not finishing our second game after I Iono’ed him low and he was unable to escape Maractus on one pivotal turn. 3-0-0.
Round 4: Loss against Grimmsnarl Froslass
This was one of the best matches of the tournament. My opponent was a very skilled player who placed in the top 64 of multiple regionals this season. He was on the same deck I was playing: Grimmsnarl Froslass. Our first game was an absolute slugfest that took around 45 minutes. At the very beginning of the game, I was tactically forced to Professor’s Research away my only Super Rod, which I knew would come back to bite me. The other thing that hurt is that he was playing four Munkidori as opposed to my three.
In the mirror match, whoever establishes the most Munkidoris will usually win. The ability to reflect huge amounts of damage back over to your opponent is incredibly powerful in this matchup, and the best strategy is normally to try and kill your opponents Munkidoris instead of their Grimmsnarls. I was able to maneuver him into a position where he had to retreat two energy off of his only Grimmsnarl in play, leaving him a few turns later with a board of only a no-energy Grimmsnarl and four Munkidoris. Unfortunately, I had only one Munkidori in play myself, and I was unable to use Super Rod to get any back. This left me in a position where if I were to swing into his Grimmsnarl, he would be able to move 120 damage back onto my Grimmsnarl, making it so that I couldn’t even KO his Grimmsnarl next turn and setting me up for a loss 2 turns later (prizes were 2-2). This put us in a situation where both of us were passing back-and-forth because swinging for any damage would be a suboptimal play.
What my opponent eventually realized is that he was going to deck out before I was, so he had to take the risk of putting a Snorunt down to try and establish Froslass. I was able to Iono, Counter Catcher up a Munkidori, and swing into it putting 30 on the Snorunt, with the logic that if he whiffed establishing the Froslass next turn I would immediately be able to do 30 more to the Snorunt and win the game. Unfortunately, he drew into the only Froslass he had left in deck, which was around a 3/15 chance. Because of this, I unfortunately lost the game on the following turn when he drew into an energy as well to attack with Grimmsnarl and win.
With only 4 minutes left in the match, there’s no way I can manage a win in game 2: a loss for me. Even though I lost, I thought this was an incredibly strategic match, and I was happy with how I played. 3-1-0.
Round 5: Loss against Gardevoir
In contrast to the previous round, this was one of the most frustrating moments of the tournament. My opponent was on Gardevoir: a matchup that was theoretically favored for me. Because of this, I was a bit overconfident and complacent during our match, and a few suboptimal plays in game 1 put me in a losing position. I tried my absolute hardest to squeak out a win, but my opponent was victorious. There was only 25 minutes left in the round, and I didn’t want to settle for a draw in a favored matchup. So, I tried to turbo through the next game and take a strategically weaker line for the sake of trying to end the game early, and was punished with an 0-2 for the round. 3-2-0.
Before my next round, I go into Zen Mode. I sit in a bathroom stall for a few minutes and listen to dubstep while hyping myself up. I have to lock in—if I approach my games with the misguided and foolhardy confidence I entered this round with, I will certainly lose. My next rounds will have to be played to perfection. I check my phone: pairings are up.
Round 6: SPOLER BLOCKER against Joltik Box
Well, this is horrifying. Round 6 of 9 and I’m already super close to elimination. Any record below 6-2-1 (6 wins, 2 losses, 1 tie) means you can’t make day 2, so I was in a position where I had to win rounds 6, 7, and 8 (and potentially 9 if my opponent didn’t want to intentionally tie) to make day 2. I’m riding the lightning.
My next opponent is quite good: I checked his Limitless page before the round and he has multiple Top 32’s at major regional tournaments. To my absolute horror, he chooses second and starts Miriadon. Looks like we’ve got a Joltik Box.
As I previously mentioned, this matchup is atrocious for Grimmsnarl. They run Iron Hands to take 2 prizes on your small Pokémon if you play it slow, and run Iron Leaves to get around Maractus, pivot energy off the Iron Hands, and oneshot your Grimmsnarl.
I quickly lose the first game, and my dreams of making day 2 are flashing before my eyes. Game 2 goes more in my favor: I am able to choose to go 2nd, which severely hinders Joltik Box’s ability to turbo out an Iron Hands. Due to some solid disruption and a quickly established Froslass, my opponent scoops up the game fairly quickly. Game 3 gets off to a horrible start: I have Munkidori in the active and no way to search out any other Pokémon. I attach an energy and pass. My opponent immediately starts turboing out cards, playing Miriadon, Lillie’s Clefairy, and two Iron Hands. He benches a Mew ex, and then Crispin’s to the Lillie’s Clefairy on the bench. He retreats the Joltik in the active, promotes the Lillie’s Clefairy, and announces Full Moon Rondo for 120 damage, KOing my Munkidori and donking me to win the game. It’s over: I’m out of the tournament.
But wait—something’s wrong. How did he retreat the Joltik? It has a retreat cost of 1. I ask him to clarify how he retreated the Joltik, and he looks at his board for a few seconds, looks back up and me, and goes “You know, that’s a really good point.” Apparently he missed something, or didn’t consider the retreat cost, or was mentally operating as if he already had a Latias ex in play. Whatever the case, this is an absolutely egregious misplay against Grimmsnarl. Because he was trying to max out the damage of Full Moon Rondo (which does more damage the more Pokémon you have in play), he had bench-locked himself with two Iron Hands and no Latias ex. This is a death sentence. I am able to prevent him from ever attacking with Joltik by stalling on one Iron Hands and switching to stall on the other once the first one was almost powered up. I don’t ever attack until I have a fully set-up board, and he quickly loses the 3rd game.
I had mixed emotions about this match. My opponent was a cool guy: he was certainly not trying to pull a quick one on me and seeing such a bad misplay occur is unfortunate. On the other hand, I played perfectly to take advantage of the misplay, and avoiding mental lapses is a crucial part of competing in tournaments of these stakes. At the end of the day, a win is a win. Onto the next round 4-2-0.
Round 7: Win against Joltik Box
This round, I feel good. My opponent again starts Miriadon and chooses to go second, but this time I am filled with the confidence of just having beaten a Joltik Box. If I did it once, I can do it again.
I quickly take game 1 after my opponent gets off to a slow start. I am able to rare candy Grimmsnarl on turn 2 and prevent him from ever swinging with a Joltik. Game 2 is going my way again, when my opponent’s nerves get the better of him and he makes a massive mistake: he accidentally shuffles his hand back into his deck when performing some other action like a Nest Ball. I was already on pace to win that game, but that mistake was the final nail in the coffin. My opponent scoops it up, and I take the victory. Despite such a big error, my opponent seems very happy with how he did in the tournament, and wishes me luck.
5-2-0.
Round 8: Win against Dragapult Dusknoir
I’m in shock heading into the next round. My previous two rounds (both of which I had to win) were against my worst matchup, and somehow I’m surviving. Both of the wins felt like gifts: they were due to some huge, avoidable error made by my opponents. Nervously, I check my pairing for round 8. I’m against the guy who got 10th at the Mérida Regional Championships and 5th at the Special Event Bogotá. No more free wins against this guy.
He’s playing Dragapult Dusknoir, much like my round 3 opponent. Our first game is a doozy: I am able to take a little bit of a lead by KO’ing his Budew while he’s still under itemlock from me. Unfortunately, he is later able to piece together the perfect Dragapult turn and wipe out all of my Impidimps while establishing a Dragapult. I try and slow him down by TM: Devo’ing his rare candy’d pult (the only one with energy on it), but he top decks a second rare candy to get right back in the game (he even showed me and we chuckled about it). Eventually, he gets down to 2 prizes with two powered-up Dragapults on the board. I am down to 4 prizes thanks to his Dusknoirs, but I’m in bad shape. My only play is to Counter Catcher up his Fezandipiti ex and stall on it with Maractus. I do this for two turns, and somehow it seems as it he has no way of escaping it. He uses Arven but doesn’t grab a switch, and even benches a Duskull. Once I see that he’s trying to build up a Dusknoir to KO my Maractus and escape the lock, I know I am still very much in this game. I start building back up my board, and eventually establish a Froslass. I piece together a four-turn plan which should hopefully end with me KO’ing his Fez and a benched Drakloak on the same turn, and he’s attempting to build up a Dusknoir to escape the lock. The pinnacle of my strategy occurs when he KO’s my Maractus, freeing his Fez the next turn, but he goes down to 1 prize card. I iono him, Counter Catcher up the only Pokémon (Drakloak) he has in play with no energy, and hope that he whiffs an energy to retreat. He digs with his recon directive, but fails to get an energy, and passes it back over to me. I’m able to perfectly move damage onto his Fez and swing into his Drakloak with Budew to take my last 3 prizes.
Our second game, my deck runs very well, and I’m able to spike Secret Box off of my prize cards at the perfect moment to secure a win. 6-2-0.
Round 9: Tie against Dragapult Dusknoir
If I tie this round, I go 6-2-1 and make day 2. The issue with offering a draw (mutually confirming a spot in day 2) is that a tie in this round means that my opponent and I are likely out of the running for top cut. Still, I don’t mind. My goal was to day 2, and I will be super happy with a tie.
As I walk to the table, I see my opponent already has his hand extended, and I know I’ve done it. We shake hands, sign the match slip as a tie, and congratulate each other on making day 2 at the hardest and largest Pokémon tournament of the entire year. It has been DONE.
Round 10: Tie against Joltik Box
Honestly, there’s not much to say about my Day 2 matches. I’m on a victory lap and feeling good. Not even the fact that I’m going first against a Joltik Box can dampen my spirits. I actually manage to take game 1, but lose game 2 due to some minor misplays I could have avoided. We don’t have enough time to complete game 3, so I start the day off with a tie. 6-2-2.
Round 11: Tie against Raging Bolt
Another tie. My opponent gets an extremely powerful start during our first game, and blows me off the board. I manage to fend off the aggression during our second game, and take it as time is called. 6-2-3.
Round 12: Win against Raging Bolt
At this point, I’m getting a bit disappointed. Games against Joltik Box and Raging Bolt are not only unfavorable matchups, but they’re also not very fun. Both decks are designed to simply apply maximum pressure as quickly as possible, so a lot of strategic maneuvering (like of the kind I would get against other slow decks) isn’t present. My opponent is also playing a list absolutely tech’d to the max against Grimmsnarl: He has Switch, Professor Turo’s Scenario, and Picnic Basket.
Still, he makes a few minor overbenches and I am able to capitalize on his mistakes and take down both of our games.
Round 13: Win against Eevee Box
Round 13 was an absolutely fantastic round to finish the tournament on. My opponent was a great guy, and we were chit-chatting back and forth throughout the game. I totally put my foot in my mouth by asking him to speed up his actions and then immediately taking a 5-minute turn myself, but he just poked fun at me and we laughed it off. I was able to win the first game thanks to Budew, taking down all of his Eevees on one pivotal turn.
The final moments
Our second game was a close one, and it ended up going to time. It came down to a situation where he had no Hoothoots in play, and I was able to stall his Latias ex with Maractus and Iono him to 1. He told me that he had a switch in deck, and was able to dig 2 cards with Mew ex. Multiple judges were watching, so we went into full theatric mode and flipped both of the cards on the table: no switch. I take down a fun albeit slightly undeserved final round. GGs Donny.
Conclusion
Overall, I placed 136th / 3,812 participants. Damn, I kinda crushed it. I was super, super happy with how I did, and felt very confident about my deck choice and preparation. There were a few minor details in the Grimmsnarl list that the top players changed for NAIC, but I was happy with my overall list and tech choices. I believe wholeheartedly that Maractus was the correct play, alongside the Tatsugiri that I was so confident in. I was also very proud of my play. I was able to recognize minor errors (such as those in rounds 5 and 10), and I believe that recognizing the error is the important thing. The big thing, for me, is that I made day 2: something that many professional players failed to do at this tournament.
What will happen to my Pokémon hobby once I start grad school? I’m not completely sure. NAIC was, for me, the culmination of all the play and preparation that has been occurring since I picked up the hobby back in October. I wanted to achieve a high placement at this tournament, and I was successful. I’m sure I’ll keep playing, but I probably won’t be able to commit as much time as I have been these past few months. Still, as long as I’m a part of the Pokémon community, I will be able to brag about the time I placed in the top 3% at NAIC.