Pokémon League Locals - February 20th, 2025

A normal, 4-round League Night, playing my Festival Lead Dipplin deck. 

Round 1 vs. Maushold ex - Loss

So it turns out that Maushold ex, while not a particularly "good" deck from a competitive standpoint, is effectively a hard counter to Festival Lead Dipplin.

My only attackers having incredibly low HP counts coupled with the damage that Maushold ex deals in retaliation meant that I could not reliably deal any significant damage, let alone take knock outs and prizes. My Festival Lead "double strikes" would be cut short by the fact that, with two Tandemaus on the bench and a Rocky Helmet for additional insult to injury, each attack would mean 110 retaliatory damage, which would instantly knock out my Dipplins and prevent me from being able to attack further.

And then the Maushold ex itself attacked for 120 damage, ensuring another knock out while also drawing my opponent two more cards. And while my deck does run a single copy of Canceling Cologne for this sort of matchup, that does me precious little good when that Cologne is locked away in my Prizes.

Round 2 vs. Charizard ex - Loss

My opponent had an incredibly fast start, and I had a comparatively slow one. Hilariously, this was the same opponent a few weeks ago who was playing Lugia VSTAR and had the nearly ideal start against me then, too.

Despite the difference in starts, it was a fairly close game thanks to my being a Single Prize deck. With my opponent being ahead by about two prizes, I got set up to take a knock-out against their Charizard. They then took my Dipplin down, and I was unable to find another Dipplin to get set back up before they got a Dusclops turn set up to take their last two prizes.

Round 3 vs Festival Lead Dipplin - Loss

I won the flip to choose who would get to play first. Knowing it was a mirror match because they were at the table beside me during my previous game, I went first with the knowledge that, basically, this game would boil down to whoever could evolve their Applin and attack first. At the end of the first turn, I was set that I would be able to evolve an Applin and a Grookey and be in a fantastic position. 

Then my opponent played an Iono during their turn, and I failed to draw a replacement for either Dipplin or Thwackey, let alone both. My next turn did not help with that. They, on the other hand, got set up wonderfully. The game quickly went in their favor after that. I was only able to get one Dipplin set up after that and did take some knock outs, but they had more Dipplins set up and were able to retaliate.

I made an attempt to stall by using Counter Catcher to trap their Thwackey in the active, but a Rescue Board and a Bug-Catching Set picking up a Grass Energy saw their Thwackey successfully retreating back into their Dipplin, at which point that was the end.

Round 4 vs Terapagos ex - Win

I set up pretty quickly with a full bench and a Vitality Band on a Dipplin by the end of my second turn.

Along with a Kieran in hand and a second Dipplin set up with a Maximum Belt, this spelled an incredibly rapid end to the game as I took three two-prize knock outs over the course of about four turns. I was delayed only by not having sufficient damage to immediately knock out a Terapagos ex after my setup - with the Vitality Band, I could only hit for 220, versus the Tera Turtle's 230 HP.

So my conclusion after tonight's 1-3 finish?

I still deeply love the Festival Lead deck, it is tremendous fun to play, and I will be trying to figure out how to modify it post-rotation so that I can continue to play it despite losing cards like Manaphy and Bibarel. But, after the past few weeks having been a bit underwhelming in terms of wins, I think I'm going to set it aside for a little while and bring my Ancient Box deck back out.

My list hasn't been updated in a while, so it still operates with both Primordial Beatdown Koraidon for earlier turns alongside Vengeance Fletching Roaring Moon to end the game with. That said, the list was always a little tight for space, so there hasn't been much that would have altered it regardless. I was also already tempted to have played it tonight because I've missed it, so a short break from the candied apple dragon will hopefully serve me well.