Hey everyone! Glad to be back so soon after my last Article. The new structure of articles should allow me to write a bit more frequently – getting a short article out is much easier than a longer one! Though I have been friends with Adam since the beginning of time, I am excited for Christopher and Alex to take the reins for this new era of SixPrizes. We have been discussing some awesome stuff and I look forward to the future working with the staff.

VA Regionals Report

Before I dive into the meat of my article, I want to comment on a few things from this past weekend in Virginia. I just wanted to play something consistent, as I felt like this format was just about executing your strategy faster and more often than your opponent. Turbo Darkrai seemed to fit the bill nicely, so after seeing Philip Schulz do well in Brazil, I played a bunch of games with his list, made a single change, and went to town. My one change was -1 Dark Energy +1 Parallel City, as I thought the extra copy would do well in the mirror and against Mega Rayquaza (sometimes useful in other matchups as well, but primarily played because of those two decks). Here were my matches on the day:

R1 Decidueye/Vileplume – WW
R2 Lurantis-GX/Solgaleo-GX – WW
R3 M Mewtwo (Ryan Sabelhaus) (Stream link) – WLT
R4 M Mewtwo/Garbodor – WW
R5 Decidueye/Vileplume (Jimmy Pendarvis) – LL
R6 Darkrai/Dragons – WLT
R7 Yveltal/Garbodor – WW
R8 M Mewtwo (Alex Wilson) – LWT
R9 M Mewtwo/Garbodor – LWW

5-1-3, 64^th place

I was happy to make Top 64 and I thank my strong opponents (three Regional champions!) to help carry my resistance. Top 64 got me just enough points to qualify for the World Championships! Overall a great weekend and a well-run tournament, especially compared to past Virginia Regionals.

This article — “Blooming to New Heights” – Lurantis/Vileplume and Other Options for Toronto — was originally published on SixPrizes.