In brief
- Riley McKay (CAN) wins the Louisville Regional with Dragapult ex, Dudunsparce and Crushing Hammer: in the final he beats Austin Charles (Dragapult/Blaziken) 2-0. He does not lose a single match in the whole tournament: he finishes Swiss at 11-0-3 and then wins the entire Top Cut.
- The résumé is now complete: 2025 world champion in Anaheim, NAIC finalist and now a first Regional won among the Masters. The title brings a direct invitation to the Singapore World Championships.
- The Top Cut is nine strong and five spots belong to Dragapult. The semifinals, though, also include Evan Campbell's Mega Sharpedo ex and Rahul Reddy's Hide 'n' Sneak.
- Austin Charles, from the play-in to the final: he wins the asymmetric match against Dylan Higgins, then eliminates Henry Chao, first after Swiss, and Reddy.
- 2,927 Masters at the start, with 13.3% of matches ending in a tie. There are no Italians in the standings.
The final standings
- 1. Riley McKay (CA), 15-0-3: Dragapult ex with Crushing Hammer.
- 2. Austin Charles (US), 14-2-2: Dragapult/Blaziken ex.
- 3. Evan Campbell (US), 14-3-0: Mega Sharpedo ex/Toxtricity.
- 4. Rahul Reddy (US), 13-2-2: Hide 'n' Sneak with Dhelmise and Banette.
- 5. Henry Chao (US), 13-2-1: Dragapult ex with Dudunsparce, first after Swiss.
- 6-8. Leo Orozco (US), 12-2-2: Dragapult ex.
- 6-8. Jeremy Chestnutt (US), 12-2-2: Ogerpon/Meganium/Hydrapple.
- 6-8. Sawyer Melban (US), 12-2-2: Mew Box, a deck of nothing but Basic Pokémon.
- 9. Dylan Higgins (US), 11-2-2: Dragapult ex with Crushing Hammer.
Limitless records count the Top Cut bye as a win. The first player left out is Jack Kolbert (Dragapult), 10th at 34 points, one point short of the cut.
How you get into the Top Cut
On Sunday Swiss rounds 10 to 14 are played. In round 13 Higgins beats Daniel Sopko's Toucannon 2-0. In the last round he wins the “win and in” against Julian Gort-Barry in the mirror between Dragapult with Hammer and Dragapult with Blaziken. Also in round 14, Campbell beats Liam Halliburton, already a Regional champion at Pittsburgh and Orlando, 2-1, while Reddy finishes with an intentional draw. The cut comes at 35 points. Because too many players finish with the same record, the Top Cut is nine: the eighth and the ninth, Higgins and Charles, play for a spot in the quarterfinals against the number one seed. Under the new rules decklists are open, and the higher seed chooses whether to go first.
The bracket
- Asymmetric: Charles beats Higgins.
- Quarterfinals: Charles eliminates Chao, Reddy beats Orozco 2-0, Campbell gets past Melban, McKay gets past Chestnutt.
- Semifinals: McKay beats Campbell 2-1, Charles beats Reddy 2-1.
- Final: McKay beats Charles 2-0.
The meta: the dragon wins, but not alone
Across 2,918 lists, the base version of Dragapult ex is the most played deck at 18.6%, followed by Basic Box (7.6%) and Slowking (7.0%). With the Blaziken and Dusknoir versions the dragon reaches 26% of the room and about a third of the 548 players in Day 2. In the top 32 there are 17 Dragapult. Nobody has found the definitive answer yet, they say in the studio: Sharpedo gets Knocked Out in a single hit, Hide 'n' Sneak and Hydrapple are scary, but the dragon always finds a way back in. Blaziken is the natural counter to Crushing Hammer, because it puts discarded Energy back into play, but it adds a whole line to the deck and consistency suffers. Sharpedo/Toxtricity, Dhelmise and Mew Box make their first Top Cut of the season; in the room they were between 2.6% and 3.9%. Disappointing, on the other hand, are Alakazam with Dusknoir, which had won at Frankfurt, N's Zoroark and Mega Excadrill, which with 5% of the room has the lowest win rate among the most played decks (43.6%).
The decks of the day, in brief
- Dragapult with Crushing Hammer (McKay, Higgins): Drakloak draws, Munkidori moves damage and heals, Phantom Dive fires the counters onto the Bench. Budew with Itchy Pollen blocks Items, while Unfair Stamp and four Crushing Hammer disrupt. Fezandipiti ex draws with Flip the Script and hits with Cruel Arrow. McKay's list differs by only two cards from the one Andrew Hedrick won the 2026 World Championships with, including the two Budew.
- Dragapult/Blaziken (Charles, Gort-Barry): Blaziken ex's Seething Spirit puts Fire Energy back every turn, as insurance against Hammers. And Blaziken, being Fire type, does not become Weak to Psychic with Lillie's Clefairy ex: for Dhelmise it is the toughest target.
- Mega Sharpedo ex (Campbell): Greedy Fang looks at lots of cards and Hungry Jaws does 120 damage, plus 150 if Sharpedo has damage counters. Toxtricity recharges Energy with Sinister Surge, three Pecharunt ex poison, Tatsugiri draws Supporters. It fears only Grass type.
- Hide 'n' Sneak (Reddy): the Dhelmise hide in the discard pile and come back when needed. With Lillie's Clefairy ex, which makes dragons Weak to Psychic type, Vengeful Anchor reaches 340 damage on Dragapult. Explorer's Guidance digs through the deck, Latias ex gives a free retreat, Legacy Energy buys a turn.
- Hydrapple (Chestnutt): Ogerpon and Meganium with an avalanche that heals, hits hard and has one-Prize attackers.
- Mew Box (Melban): Basic Pokémon only, with a list seen at Frankfurt.
- Toucannon (Sopko, 32nd): built against Dragapult, with Battle Cage protecting the Bench and Patrat blocking heals. It loses to a Dragapult, of all things.
The featured matches
- Round 13: Higgins beats Sopko 2-0. In Game 1 Itchy Pollen keeps Sopko without Rare Candy. In Game 2 Sopko goes ahead on Prizes, then Unfair Stamp, the Crushing Hammers and three Dragapult ex taking turns stop him at four Prizes.
- Round 14: Campbell beats Halliburton 2-1. In Game 3 the KO is ten damage short (310 against Dragapult ex's 320 HP), but Campbell draws the right Energy and closes with Judge.
- Round 14: Higgins beats Gort-Barry 2-1. Game 3 is played off the broadcast.
- Quarterfinals: Reddy beats Orozco 2-0. A Phantom Dive takes out both Dhelmise, but the anchors come back from the discard pile; in Game 2 Orozco makes a mistake at the key moment.
- Semifinal: McKay beats Campbell 2-1. In Game 3 Flip the Script has to find a Darkness Energy and Gravity Mountain among three cards: the Energy doesn't show up and McKay already has a four-Prize turn ready.
- Semifinal: Charles beats Reddy 2-1. Knowing from the open list that Reddy has no disruption, in Game 3 Charles lines up two Blaziken ex, and Reddy's last Explorer's Guidance finds no way out.
- Final: McKay beats Charles 2-0. In Game 1 he waits, then makes a five-Prize turn with Boss's Orders, a double Adrena-Brain and Phantom Dive. In Game 2 Cruel Arrow hits Charles's only Dreepy, Crushing Hammer comes up heads and Charles never gets back in.
The voices of the day
- Higgins: “With Dragapult I have no automatic losses. I don't love coin flips, but if you don't play them and you suffer them, you're at a disadvantage.” He is the only 5-0 of Sunday.
- Campbell: he has been playing Sharpedo for about a month and bet on a Louisville with few Grass decks. Against Dragapult, he says, you have to be aggressive.
- Reddy: “Everyone practices against Dragapult and the decks they know, nobody against me.” He has about fifteen Regional Top Cuts and no title: “I've stopped thinking about winning: I play one game at a time.” His is also a collector's deck, with a Special Illustration Rare Latias ex and Energy from the Call of Legends era.
- Chao: “Remind people it's still me.” Before the dragon he played Gardevoir and Alakazam.
- Melban: he learned the deck on Saturday morning, with two practice games.
Sources. final standings, records, decks and room statistics from Limitless Labs (labs.limitlesstcg.com/0076), with list analysis by Mythras (gamertagmythras.com); summary and data processing from the Day 2 official live broadcast for matches, bracket, interviews and analysis; official bracket on rk9.gg. Decks as shown on the broadcast or recorded on Limitless.