The headlines
- Aarni Karjala (FI) wins the Gdańsk Regional: with Slowking, picked the night before, he beats Finn Lasse Fries (DE) and his Team Rocket's Honchkrow 2-0 in the final. It is his second Regional after Stuttgart.
- Vincenzo Cipolla is the best-placed Italian: ten straight win-or-go-home victories, Rutowicz and Barszezak knocked out, then the semifinal lost to Karjala. It is the first Top 4 of his career.
- No Dragapult in the final: four Dragapult in Top 8, only one in Top 4. The "comfort picks" win, played by the people who know them best.
- Cho Tsun Leung (UK) ends the Swiss as the only unbeaten player, 10-0-3, but goes out right away in Top 16.
Phase 2: rounds 10 to 13
When the broadcast starts, at 11:22, rounds 10-12 have already been played. After round 12 Leung is the only one without a loss, at 10-0-2; at 10-1-1 are Nathan Bonavia Zammit, Tord Reklev, Léo Michonneau, Aarni Karjala and Aleksander Rutowicz. Mees Brenninkmeijer, the only 8-0 of phase 1 with the Mew ex Box, loses rounds 11 and 12 and slides out.
Round 13 is the last of the Swiss. At the top tables players take intentional draws, while on the showcase table Nino Brodar (HR, Hide 'n' Sneak) beats Michał Popielak (PL, Okidogi) 2-0 in a win-and-in match: a 170-damage Vengeful Anchor on the first turn in Game 1, the Okidogi without Prism Energy in Game 2. In the last deciding match a Crustle loses to Fries's Honchkrow, and so eighth place drops to 31 points: 18 players at 31 or more for 16 spots. Tomasz Chałupka (PL) and Riccardo Corino miss out on tiebreakers.
The Top Cut
- Top 16: Miloslav Posledni (CZ) beats Leung; Maciej Chojnacki (PL) beats Brennan Kamerman; Fries beats Michonneau; Bonavia Zammit beats Rune Heiremans in a razor-thin Game 3; Reklev beats Dmitrijs Astrošaps; Karjala beats Alp Ehliz; Yoann Barszezak beats Brodar; Cipolla beats Rutowicz.
- Top 8: Posledni (Crustle) beats Chojnacki (Dragapult with Froslass); Fries beats Bonavia Zammit; Karjala comes back from 0-1 against Reklev and wins 2-1; Cipolla beats Barszezak 2-0 in a Dragapult mirror with the same 60 cards.
- Semifinals: Fries beats Posledni 2-0, because Crustle can't stop the Honchkrow's attacks. Karjala beats Cipolla 2-0: Mew ex with Lucky Helmet in Game 1, a Tackle from Lillie's Clefairy on the last Dreepy in Game 2.
- Final: Karjala beats Fries 2-0. Tri Frost, copied from Kyurem with Seek Inspiration, hits three Pokémon at a time; in Game 2 Fries runs out of Energy and concedes at 19:33.
The champion
Karjala wasn't convinced by the deck he had prepared: the night before he tries Slowking, likes it and picks it. "With Dragapult I'm a good player, but with Slowking I think I'm among the best in the world," he says; he had already brought it to Worlds, finishing top 32. His Slowking copies attacks from the top of the deck with Academy at Night and Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking, and uses Mega Kangaskhan, Mew ex and Lillie's Clefairy as backup attackers. He knocked out two Dragapult in a row, Reklev's and Cipolla's.
The Italians
Vincenzo Cipolla has played only Dragapult for two years, today in the version with Andrew Hedrick's Crushing Hammer, "the best one because it holds up in every matchup". After an uphill start on Day 1 he wins ten win-or-go-home games in a row: he ends the Swiss at 10-2-1, then beats Rutowicz and Barszezak. Against Barszezak two Crushing Hammer landing in the same turn decide Game 1. His secret: "staying calm in every situation". Corino, also on 31 points, misses the Top Cut on tiebreakers; Tommaso Visani ends the Swiss at 9-1-3, Alberto Conti at 9-3-1.
The protagonists
- Finn Lasse Fries: "a Team Rocket man from day one". Before Gdańsk his best result was a 98th place. In the whole tournament he didn't face a single Dragapult, and in his view that matchup favors the Honchkrow.
- Tord Reklev: plays Dragapult without Crushing Hammer so as not to depend on coin flips. He beats Astrošaps 2-0, then falls to Karjala.
- Nino Brodar: Hide 'n' Sneak picked up two weeks earlier "because it beats Dragapult"; he makes the Top Cut in his first time on stream.
- Miloslav Posledni: Utrecht champion last season, he takes a Crustle with Mega Kangaskhan to Top 4.
- Nathan Bonavia Zammit: his Greninja ex with Mega Starmie and Dusknoir reaches Top 8 and wins over the booth.
The meta
Dragapult goes from 29% in phase 1 to 33% in phase 2, almost always in the version with Dunsparce; the version with Blaziken is on the rise. Hide 'n' Sneak, third in phase 1, vanishes from phase 2, but Brodar still takes it to the Top Cut. Slowking enters phase 2 in fifth place and wins the tournament. In Top 8 there are four Dragapult, Slowking, Honchkrow, Crustle and Greninja; the surprises of the weekend, for the booth, are the Honchkrow, the return of Crustle and Bonavia Zammit's Greninja.
The studio: Delta Reign
The new set comes out next week and will be legal at the São Paulo International. The analyst presents it in two parts.
- Talonflame ex: can be played right away if a Colorless Mega ex is in play; its attack searches for any two cards.
- Mega Rayquaza ex: does 50 damage for each Fire and Lightning Energy on your own Pokémon; the deck is built with Mega Kangaskhan, Talonflame and Ethan's Ho-Oh.
- The three legendary Stadiums: they are played in two halves in the same turn. The strongest is Legendary Pyroduct, which shuts off the Abilities of Evolution Pokémon.
- Giratina: copied by Slowking, it can protect itself every turn.
- Raikou ex: 220 damage with every hit from the second turn.
The youth finals
In Seniors Kacper wins, in a final between two Basic Box decided in Game 3 with Lillie's Clefairy. In Juniors the final is between Dragapult Blaziken and Slowking, the deck that dominates phase 1 of the division.
Quick hits
- Championship stories on air: Sander Wojcik's Mewtwo V-UNION at NAIC 2022 and Michael Pramawat's seventh Regional in Memphis 2017.
- Next stops: the São Paulo International at the end of November, the first of the season, and in Europe the Stuttgart Regional.
Sources. summary and data processing from the official live broadcast of Day 2 (11:22–19:50, Italian time); results of rounds 10-13 and of the Top 16 from Limitless Labs (labs.limitlesstcg.com/0079), Top 8, semifinals and final from the broadcast.