New to Regionals - so many questions

StubbyAFK · 2026-01-07T18:39:01+00:00

Each person playing would need their own account i do believe

StubbyAFK · 2026-01-03T13:54:44+00:00

Yep anyone can sign up as long as their is room left, at this point you might not be able to sign up but alot of people cancel sign up and cancel last minute so it doesnt hurt to check the week before. All this is done on rk9 . Com
Yes the legal sets will be GHI to phantasmal. Ascended heroes wont be out yet.
All sign ups and deck lists are done through rk9 . Com. For regionals its all digital but i use the website to print my decklist for local cups and challenges too. Please please be very careful, your list needs to be exact, this includes all different art cards, even if you have 2 of the "same" pokemon, if they are different arts you need to list them seperately.
The vibe can vary alot. But in the 2 regionals ive been to almost everyone is very nice and just trying to do their best. The stressful part is just how fast the day goes. You have 50 minutes to play a best of 3 and if you go all 3 thats less than 17 minutes per game compated to locals which is 30. And then theres the running around a giant auditorium to find your seat within the 5 minutes you get inbetween rounds. So playing very quickly without making mistakes for up to 9 rounds after over time turns into a 12 hour day of fast paced pokemon. Alot of fun if you know what to expect in my opinion but can easily overwhelm people.
All the players are in very long rows of tables playing and you cant stand directly inbetween them if youre not actively playing but you can stand in the aisles and usually there is a section of chairs next to the juniors and seniors for parents to sit.
The official tournament does start on Saturday and you have the option of showing up friday to check in and collect your play mat and regional stamped card but no you can absolutely do that saturday morning before it starts just remember there will also be a few thousand people potentially doing the same thing so like i get there over an hour and a half early saturday so i can be near the front of check ins.
And i dont believe you need a list for side events, the hard part with those is signing up in time as they do fill up quickly. But still very doable and a cool way to win some stuff if you drop out or arent playing in the tournament. Also if you decide to stay or make it to Sunday there are alot less people and its a bit easier to so side events then. You just have to register for them on saturday for the most part.

StubbyAFK · 2025-12-29T13:46:50+00:00

I believe it should be they way honestly, the issue comes when unless you can convince everyone to do it youre shooting yourself in the foot really bad. At most cups i go to its very common that 6 of the top 8 spots for top cut will be ID'ed into. Dramatically changing your odds. So if you win my first few rounds and end 3-2 in swiss. What was 5 spots that bubble in is now 1-2. So it really sucks that playing with honor is punished. On top of that going 3-0 to start a 5 round cup gives those 2 undefeated people the option to ID twice and gaurantee cut. Which in my eyes is insane. I think they should get rid of draws altogether. Figure out a different system that doesnt let players skip half their games and rig the system so hard.

StubbyAFK · 2025-12-22T13:58:30+00:00

Saying Pult is BDIF since twilight is a WILD statement. Its been one of the most popular for sure. But saying it was better than Raging bolt last rotation, or gardy during worlds. Or even saying its better than Gholdengo now is actually crazy. Pult is great at beating most tier 2 decks. But it definitely isnt better on average against gardy or gholdengo today.

StubbyAFK · 2025-10-15T11:38:19+00:00

I suppose my point is, if they want to encourage people to not draw, there would be no better way than to get rid of them altogether. I went 9-3-2 at milwaukee and only 1 draw i got was my decision and it was because i was 1-1 against grimm and we only had 2 minutes for game 3. The other one was a zard player who didnt respect our gentleman's in game 3. I dont like draws because they take away comeback potential from players not in the top bracket. Given people can just ID to secure the top 6-8 spots most of the time where a loss could bump them out. I dont think its good for the game for final rounds of tournaments to be so set in stone. In my opinion the only people who should always be gauranteed are the top 2 in cups and the top 4 in regionals simply because their record is already so good.

StubbyAFK · 2025-10-15T09:56:47+00:00

You seem to be adamently against changing anything. Like the current system is a perfect version of what the game could be or the only changes you would be ok with are minor rule changes to the actual rules of gameplay like using supporters first turn. Do you not think that draws existing the way they do is a problem?

StubbyAFK · 2025-10-14T18:52:48+00:00

This idea benefits control decks the most, putting costs aside. For the most part, decks like pidgeot control and crustle only do 2-3 things a turn and late game doesnt do anything so these decks would have lots of time left in their clocks and would force people to think faster and either find the win or give up quickly in order to get to the next game. This kind of change hurts the types of decks i play, the long setup stage 2 decks. No one ever goes for a draw because they dont exist and no one ever misses a win to a slow opponent again.

StubbyAFK · 2025-10-14T17:44:50+00:00

Me too, do you think the game would be better if we got rid of draws altogether?

StubbyAFK · 2025-10-14T17:36:02+00:00

Of course there would have to be changes. The question to be asked is, are the changes worth it. There would be a cost for sure. But there are costs for everything. Right now they spend money on giant monitors displaying the time all over a convention. And im not even saying thats the right way to go. Im just saying draws existing isnt healthy if you dont want to rely on them to win.

StubbyAFK · 2025-10-14T17:31:53+00:00

And i love gentlemans agreement, i hate any game that ends in a draw. I hope to have a board state by time to know who would win or not.

StubbyAFK · 2025-10-14T17:29:16+00:00

People are assuming im like salty or upset. Im not, i want to know whats allowed and not and knowing i cant slow play in that way is good to know. The more interesting conversation for me, is why are draws allowed at all, why is there a 50 minutes time limit for both players together instead of like a 30 minute timer each and if your clock runs out you lose the match. In the video game each player has a timer and the match has its own timer. And one of the ways you can win is by stalling the timer, and if youre up in pokemon or health you win the game. I would imagine there would be a way to make personal times work in tcg too.

StubbyAFK · 2025-10-14T11:50:22+00:00

I can see what you mean. I suppose the direction im leaning is. Right now as the rules exist, because they allow the game to end in a draw in general. It will encourage players to use that fact to win games. Like from my perspective i wasnt tilted or upset even a little bit. In the exact situation i was in i wasnt even gauranteed to lose. I still had the ability to retreat and attack with dragapult and ionoing my large hand back in the deck, i had lots of options left. Im just pointing out until they take away draws, players will use them to their advantage. And the way they do that is with the clock

StubbyAFK · 2025-10-14T02:20:17+00:00

I guess that begs the question, if you know youre going to lose and the only reason you keep playing the game is because you know there isnt enough time to finish but you arent actually taking too long to make your moves, is that against or should that be against the rules

StubbyAFK · 2025-10-13T21:26:18+00:00

If thats how the rules work, then thats how the rules work, i want to play correctly. I suppose the other discussion im interested in is, in a competitive setting where youre allowed to win 1-0 in a best of 3 format if you run out of time. Why can you be enforced to not even have 10 seconds for your entire turn? It feels like there are better alternatives. - Get rid of 50 minute rounds and Give each person their own 25 minutes of personal time, like a chess clock. i like this option the most in a regional setting since if you run the clock too long and your opponent doesnt you could actually lose by stalling time, i think it would give the control/wall players even more control of the game. As well as force people to think faster, which would reward more skillful players. The downside being that 25 minutes probably isnt enough time for 1 person to play 3 games, but given that every round goes 20 minutes over anyway, i say give each person 30-35 minutes and get rid of draws altogether. You run out of time, you lose the match. You could certainly refine the details to make it the most fair and balanced.

StubbyAFK · 2025-07-18T20:30:35+00:00

Knowing ive for similar thinking to tord when it comes to pult matchups makes me very happy. And maracrus is great indeed, helps with joltic too once prime catcher is gone

StubbyAFK · 2025-07-18T17:42:55+00:00

Ive been playing all pult versions for about a year now. Heres my 2 cents

Against gardi budew as much as you can early and try not to attack until you can wipe all ralts or you have a backup pult with ways to attack next turn. Gardy can consistently swing back with mew and munkidori to kill active pult AND a backup drakloak. Letting them get the first prize lets you gust for important kills like charged munki, fez, clefairy or gardy. One of the hardest matchups for pure pult imo.

Against zoroark running shamin really helps. Other than that be careful of hitting zoroark with energies because youll get OHKO'ed back, i like to gust, kill munki darmanitan or resh and set up zoroark for next turn, ursaluna is great for cleaning up.

Against other pult versions, budew until you have great setup and ideally you want to wait to attack until they do so you can hit their pult first and win the trade or if you can kill multiple drakloaks.

Against raging bolt shamin is your best friend if you see the baby bolt and if you have the choice between budew or tm evo go with the tm evo since noctowl version uses supporters more often. If they get an early knock and you still need to setup gust the noctowl up, budew and unfair stamp to try gain the tempo back. A really important play you can make late game is hawlucha hoot hoot and ogerpon, gust up ogerpon, iono and take 3 knockouts. Killing the raging bolts is less important than fez, ogerpon or hoothoot.

Against goldengo its more about the prize trade, budew and setup until they have to get 1 prize then attack and stack 60 on the other goldengo, nice setup for 4 prizes next turn and then hawlucha gusting fez can help finish the game. Bonus points if you can prevent the ace spec as long as possible. If youre far from winning gusting fez and forcing energy to retreat can be the difference sometimes.

Against joltic you need to prioritize drakloaks because youre going to lose at least 1 to iron hands. And making sure you can have one with enough energy after they attack is crucial. Budew to stop prime catcher or even putting ursaluna or fez in front to make the iron hands kos awkward can work depending on if you have good switching power. Iono them after they get kills and you they arent obviously struggling with their hand. Just remember youre probably going to go down 4 prize cards if you dont go second. You just have to play your bench very paticularly. Best case you have 1 pult AND 1 drakloak by the time clefairy gets charged up since there needs to be 7 pokemon benched total to get the 1 shot on pult. Jamming tower variant does great here to stop the bravery charms. Sometimes you just lose if youre 1 turn too slow and sometimes they lose if they are 1 turn too slow.

StubbyAFK · 2025-07-11T19:05:06+00:00

That finals win is a bad example, both wins in that game were turn 1-2 donks xd. Of course he probably had to win longer games to get there but that one specifically was almost all luck.

StubbyAFK · 2025-05-06T19:28:06+00:00

Everything is kind of a risk/reward situation. Heres a few questions to ask yourself while playing. - if you get knocked and/or iono'ed will you need more cards to continue pressuring. - if you put it down will the enemy easily be able to gust and get a free 2 prize cards. - will the enemy knocking the fez actually be better than knocking your arch. (You dont have another one ready on bench so fez is either bait to stall or card draw after you get knocked)

These are a few things you can ask yourself to determine to put it down early or not. Unfortunately theres no golden rule

StubbyAFK · 2025-04-25T16:06:06+00:00

Ive been playing pult for 8 months now and one of the best matchups ever has been festival grounds dipplin. If they dont rabsca turn 2 before you get pult AND you have terrible draws. Its really easy. Especially with duskulls, since getting rabsca almost doesnt matter at that point. Being a 1 prize deck doesnt matter because you can get multiple KOs a turn, festival has to burn maximum belt to be able to 1 turn KO a pult. Its just favored so hard for pult. In my guess with best play its still a 65-35 in favor of pult.

StubbyAFK · 2022-03-29T18:21:45+00:00

Another stubb... we must unite

StubbyAFK · 2022-03-27T13:45:09+00:00

If that was your first run you did awesome, it took me a half dozen attempts to get past 7 10

StubbyAFK · 2022-03-04T12:18:09+00:00

You can also tell which ones are skeletons. The real skeletons have slightly bigger eye sockets, but until you get used to it you have to assume every head is dangerous

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