Headlines
- Nearly 3,000 Masters at the Kentucky International Convention Center: it is the second North American Regional of the season.
- About one in six makes Day 2: on Sunday there are 266 tables in round 13, that is about 530 players.
- Riley McKay never loses: he will finish Swiss at 11-0-3, so on Saturday he never knew defeat.
- The Box is everywhere: on the path of the future finalists, the most-encountered deck is Mega Kangaskhan ex.
Saturday's sources
Welcome, trainers. We tell Louisville's Saturday through the public trackers, the "Player Run" cards shown live on Sunday and the commentators' accounts. Swiss is 14 rounds: on Sunday five are played, so on Saturday nine.
The paths of the key players
- Austin Charles (Dragapult/Blaziken) starts 2-1. In the third round he loses to Hunter Smith's Mega Sharpedo, then never loses again: he finishes Saturday 7-1-1, with a tie against Trevor Goad's Mega Kangaskhan.
- Jeremy Chestnutt (Hydrapple) rolls over two Mega Lucario, three Dragapult and two Mega Kangaskhan, with two ties along the way. His Hydrapple is the avalanche nobody can stop.
- Leo Orozco (Dragapult) opens with a tie and closes Saturday by beating Keva Bui's N's Zoroark. For the Top Cut he will start again from there.
- Dylan Higgins reaches Sunday with an X-1-2 record, and from there goes on to post the only 5-0 of Day 2.
- Evan Campbell and his Mega Sharpedo show up on the live broadcast several times over the weekend: his only loss on the broadcast comes against Ryan Matson's Mega Lucario.
Saturday's meta
On the path of Charles, Chestnutt and Orozco, seventeen rounds in all, the most-encountered deck is Mega Kangaskhan ex, the family of the Basic Box that won in Baltimore. Dragapult and Mega Lucario follow. The dragon remains the deck to beat, but Louisville's Saturday is a mosaic: Mega Lopunny, Alakazam, N's Zoroark and even another Mega Sharpedo, Hunter Smith's.
Sources. results from labs.limitlesstcg.com, pokedata.ovh and rk9.gg; Player Run cards and commentary: summary and data processing from the Day 2 official live broadcast. The Day 2 numbers are estimates.