How long has it been since I've shuffled up to play the Pokémon TCG? Flipping back through my archives, the last time I wrote up a blog post about playing the TCG was late last June, after not one but two GLC Events in a row had left me feeling tilted and realizing that I wasn't having as much fun with the TCG as I would have liked.
Tonight, after well over a year since the last time I really dedicated a night to playing the Pokémon TCG, I decided to give it another go, on the condition that we would've otherwise had an odd number of players, as that meant I could eliminate a bye round for our players.
Given that I'm writing this post up, I'm sure you can figure out whether or not we had an odd number of players other than me.
As I haven't gotten around to gathering all of the pieces I would need to build the new "Hide 'n' Sneak" deck that Pitch Black put to print, I pulled out my faithful Festival Lead, a deck I've been playing (give or take my more-than-a-year off) since it first came out during Twilight Masquerade. Despite my hiatus, I've been making sure to keep it upgraded in a few places as new sets and new tools have come out, such as running Lillie's Determinations and a suite of "protective" support pieces like Psyduck and Patrat to keep my board safer from being sniped.
We had a total of 16 players tonight, myself included, so we had a 4-round event of standard Pokémon TCG play.
Round 1 vs Toucannon - Loss
Did you know that Cornerstone Ogerpon ex is immune to damage from any Pokémon with an Ability, needlessly making it impervious to many of the already fairly weak single prize attackers in the format?
Because I plain forgot that until my opponent dropped one in front of me, and with only one Boss's Orders available I couldn't get around it. I tried to get a Grookey set up so I could maybe poke it with enough damage to one-shot it through Weakness, but I couldn't find any of my precious few energies and wasn't able to get the monkey set up in time.
Round 2 vs Mega Abomasnow ex - Win
I forgot how ridiculous Mega Pokémon ex can be in terms of HP counts. Under optimal conditions, my Dipplins are able to strike for a lot of damage per attack - 100 for a full bench, an extra 20 from Lilligant's Sunny Day Ability, another 50 from Maximum Belt, and if I can empty my hand enough to play Gladion's Final Battle a whopping 80 additional damage brings me to a total of 250 per attack - but optimal conditions don't come by very often. Instead I was smacking the trees for around 120 or 130 per Do the Wave, meaning that they were successfully surviving to crack back even after the double-attacks granted by the Festival Lead ability.
Despite that, the absurd amount of damage that Abomasnow can output, and that the single prize Kyogre that serves as its backup can likewise dish out, is wasted on a deck where the most HP any of my Pokémon are printed with is a paltry 110 on Lilligant and Seaking. Fortunately despite the absurd HP count, it only took one and a half rounds of attacks to take out each Abomasnow, and the Kyogres and Snovers fared significantly worse. I was able to get an early lead, and then each Mega Abomasnow being worth three prizes meant it didn't take long for me to clear out my Prizes.
Round 3 vs Mega Excadrill ex - Win
When my opponent revealed Genesect ex as their starting Pokémon and I saw the Grass Resistance, I audibly groaned. The one match where Resistance was going to matter, and it was going to matter a lot considering the nature of how Festival Lead works as a deck, relying on multiple attacks per turn for the damage, is countered pretty nicely by each of those attacks being weakened by opposing Resistance.
However, fortunately enough, my opponent bricked. I was able to get set up well and start putting out a lot of damage even through their Resistance thanks to a bevy of my buffs, and while they did get established eventually, they were at the point where they were relying on the Genesects themselves to be their primary offense. All in all, not a bad idea, considering the combination of Resistane and the Genesect's attack giving them even more damage prevention, but I was able to figure out a workaround, mostly by way of having two Boom-Boom Grooves available to find whatever buffs would work out best for me.
Round 4 vs Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex/Frosslass - Win
During the time in between us finishing our third-round games and the start of the fourth round, several of us, including the Marnie's player, were discussing Festival Lead and a few of its matchups. The Grimmsnarl matchup into Festival Lead is quite favorable despite Grimmsnarl's weakness to Grass, because the deck decides to instead play as a Frosslass/Munkidori deck to take out the bench full of low HP 'Mons that are rife with Abilities that Festival Lead employs.
Unfortunately for my opponent, and fortunately for me, they met the same fate as my Round 3 opponent: They bricked hard, and I swiftly took the game thanks to my getting set up before they could get me locked down at all. This even in spite of all three copies of Thwackey that I run being locked away in my Prize Cards, meaning I didn't have my free search effect each turn.
Conclusion
After over a year of not playing the Pokémon TCG I... genuinely forgot that it really can be a lot of fun.
I won't lie, I think a large part of that is that shifts in the meta mean that a lot of the control-oriented lock decks aren't big parts of the metagame right now, and while Dragapult remains the king of the format, there was a lot of variety in what was being played at League.
If I intend to keep playing even semi-regularly again, I will need to consider running some sort of an out for dealing with Cornerstone Ogerpon, just in case I run into the Toucannon deck again. Being unable to do anything due to the legendary ogre's damage prevention ability was the most deflated that I felt during the night. That or get around to collecting what I need to play Hide 'n' Sneak instead.
One or the other.
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