In brief
- Cristian Sarnataro finishes Day 1 at 10-0, the only player without a loss or a tie out of 2,329.
- Italy is the most represented country: 658 players at the start, 113 in the second phase out of 429.
- Dragapult is the most-played deck and makes the cut comfortably, but the top spots are split among many decks: Festival Lead, Alakazam, Ogerpon/Meganium, Basic Box.
- The day's surprises: Mega Sharpedo ex, a Slowking with Special Red Card and an Electric deck with Manectric and Mega Eelektross ex.
- Some expected names miss the second phase too, such as Neddy Kosek and Fabien Pujol.
The standings at the end of Day 1
- 1. Cristian Sarnataro (IT), 10-0-0: deck not shown.
- 2-7. Daniel Magda (CZ), 9-1-0: Dragapult with Crushing Hammer.
- 2-7. Tord Reklev (NO), 9-1-0: Dragapult without Hammer.
- 2-7. Michelangelo Meulli (IT), 9-1-0: Festival Lead.
- 2-7. Oscar Rivas (ES), 9-1-0: Festival Lead.
- 2-7. Yuya Kogai (JP), 9-1-0: Dragapult/Dudunsparce.
- 2-7. Michael Hessing (NL), 9-1-0: Alakazam.
- 8-11. Paulo Mimoso (PT), 8-0-2: Ogerpon/Meganium.
- 8-11. Luke Sullivan (US), 8-0-2: Alakazam/Dudunsparce.
- 8-11. Emma Hagen (NO), 8-0-2: Basic Box.
- 8-11. Luc Gantner (CH), 8-0-2: deck not shown.
Right behind, at 8-1-1, are Owyn Kamerman (Dragapult), Sander Wojcik (N's Zoroark ex) and the Italian Alberto Benvenga (Hide 'n' Sneak). Among the nine known decks of the top eleven, Dragapult has three. The rest is split among five different archetypes.
Who advances and who is out
Day 1 consists of eight rounds of the first phase and two of the second phase. To advance you need 16 points, for example 5-2-1. 429 players advance, split like this:
- Italy: 113
- France: 75
- United Kingdom: 72
- Germany: 24
- Spain: 17
- Netherlands: 15
At the start there were 658 Italians and 622 French players: the Italians made the cut far better. Ties fall round after round: from 16.7% of tables in the first round to 11.5% in the seventh, because those near the top have to win.
The meta
In the first phase, according to the data shown in the studio:
- Dragapult: 29%, all versions together;
- Alakazam, Slowking, Basic Box: about 7% each;
- Festival Lead, Hide 'n' Sneak: 6% each.
Among the 429 of the second phase, Dragapult rises to 36%: it is the deck that makes the cut best. Slowking and Basic Box rise too, while Alakazam drops, hit by the many disruption cards in circulation (Judge, Special Red Card, Team Rocket's Watchtower). More than half of the Dragapult players run Dudunsparce to draw. The strongest add control: Crushing Hammer with Budew, Watchtower, Unfair Stamp.
The decks of the day, in brief
- Dragapult ex: Phantom Dive does 200 damage and puts six damage counters wherever you want, so it takes more Prizes in a single turn. Versions: Dudunsparce (Kogai, Tonisson), control with Hammer and Watchtower (Magda, Kamerman, Roberts), Dusknoir (Alberto Conti), Blaziken (Bioux), and Reklev's "good" one without Hammer.
- Festival Lead: Thwackey searches for any card, Dipplin and Seaking attack twice with Festival Grounds, Rabsca protects the bench. It struggles against Dragapult (25% win rate in Nice), but in the hands of Meulli, Rivas and Schemanske (8-1) it went far.
- Alakazam: Powerful Hand deals damage based on the cards in hand. The version with Dusknoir won Frankfurt, the one with Dudunsparce is Sullivan's. Heiremans adds Bronzong with Evolution Jammer.
- Slowking: copies the attack of the card on top of the deck (Academy at Night): Kyurem's Trifrost on three targets, Metagross on the Pokémon worth the most Prizes. Malaca (8-2) adds a surprise Special Red Card.
- Hide 'n' Sneak: Pokémon immune to Phantom Dive's damage counters, with Dhelmise hitting for 170. Benvenga plays it.
- Mega Sharpedo ex: Toxtricity accelerates Energy, Munkidori and Binding Mochi are enough to KO a Dragapult in one hit. Seva finishes 7-2-1.
- The surprises: N's Zoroark ex with Gravity Mountain (Wojcik) and Yasin Balela's Manectric with Mega Eelektross ex (7-3), which blocks attacks from evolved Pokémon.
The featured results
- Round 3: Konsta Kallama (Dragapult) beats Drew Stephenson (Alakazam/Dusknoir) 2-1.
- Round 4: Alex Schemanske (Festival Lead) beats Cristian Grosu (Dragapult) 2-1.
- Round 5: Max Roberts (Dragapult) beats Rune Heiremans (Alakazam/Bronzong) 2-1.
- Round 6: Brent Tonisson (Dragapult) and Sander Wojcik (N's Zoroark ex) draw.
- Round 7: Vincenzo Seva (Mega Sharpedo ex) beats John Bioux (Dragapult/Blaziken) 2-1.
- Round 8: Tomás Malaca (Slowking) beats Juho Kallama (Team Rocket) 2-0, Yasin Balela beats Nicklas Rosu (Festival Lead) 2-0.
- Round 9: Daniel Magda beats Tord Reklev 2-0 in the Dragapult mirror. Sarnataro wins the derby against Meulli.
The Italians
- Sarnataro (10-0) is first in the standings.
- Meulli (9-1) is the best Festival Lead.
- Benvenga finishes 8-1-1.
- At 8-2: Matteo Fellico, Francesco Pasquale Caterino and Alessio Di Pofi.
- At 7-1-2: Matteo Lasi and Kim Pobega.
- At 7-2-1: Seva, Simone Fiorito, Riccardo Coviello and Emanuele Conti.
- Alberto Conti is 6-2-1 with the Dragapult/Dusknoir that Mike analyzed live as a model against single-Prize decks.
What to watch on Day 2
Four Swiss rounds and then the asymmetric Top Cut, that is, the top eight plus anyone with the same points as eighth place. The higher seed chooses whether to go first. We start with Sarnataro in the lead and six players one step behind, with the weekend's question: will single-Prize decks manage to stop the dragon in the Top Cut too?
Sources. results and standings for rounds 1-10 from Limitless Labs (labs.limitlesstcg.com/0077); meta, decks and featured matches: summary and data processing from the Day 1 official live broadcast. The decks listed are those shown or mentioned on air; where they weren't shown, it says so.