Pokemon TCG Local Tournament Report - Journey Together Set 1st Tourney
Hi there. I share a local tournament report. This is the first Pokemon TCG tournament in the Journey Together format. Cards from Journey Together are legal 2 weeks after its March 28, 2025 release. It is also a new format where F regulation cards are no longer in the format. The allowed cards have the letters G, H and I.
Deck Choice
In the First Journey Together post-rotation tournament I play Archaludon ex again with Scizor and 1-1 line of Hop's Wooloo and Dubwool.
The decklist looks something like this.
Pokémon: 9
4 Duraludon SCR 106
1 Fezandipiti ex SFA 38
2 Scyther MEW 123
2 Scizor OBF 141
1 Relicanth TEF 84
4 Archaludon ex SSP 130
1 Hop's Dubwool 136
1 Hop's Wooloo JTG 135
1 Iron Bundle PAR 056
1 Squawkabilly ex PAL 169
Trainer: 14
4 Ultra Ball SVI 196
3 Night Stretcher SFA 61
2 Professor Turo's Scenario PAR 171
1 Scoop Up Cyclone TWM 162
4 Professor's Research JTG 155
3 Earthen Vessel PAR 163
2 Pokégear 3.0 SVI 186
1 Super Rod PAL 188
3 Iono PAF 80
2 Jamming Tower TWM 153
1 Pal Pad SVI 182
1 Black Belt's Training PRE 96
2 Boss's Orders PAL 172
4 Nest Ball SVI 181
Energy: 1
9 Basic {M} Energy SVE 16
Total Cards: 60
The tournament was at A & C Games in Toronto. It is in the north part of Chinatown Toronto, near the University of Toronto campus.
Three rounds best of one. Free entry but signup online and early. Earn 1 Prize Pack per win.
Round One Versus Hop's Zacian ex + Iron Valiant ex
My first round opponent played Hop's Zacian ex with Iron Valiant ex. I think I know the decklist for this deck. I say this because I have played this online and against it before. It uses 4 copies of Hop's Bag, 4 copies of Switch, 4 copies of Surfer, 2 or 3 Iron Valiant ex, 2 or 3 Hop's Zacian ex with Hop's Cramorant and Hop's Snorlax.
This matchup is something I am very familiar with because of a lot of playtesting of Hop's Pokemon online and with my brother.
This deck from my opponent aims to try to get early wins with switching Iron Valiants to knockout 70 HP Pokemon. If the deck is lucky it can beat Dragapult ex and other evolution Pokemon that rely on 70 HP Basic Pokemon.
Because I play Archaludon ex, this matchup is not too difficult. I still have to play carefully.
As the opponent's deck lacks firepower in its damage spread strategy, knocking out his Iron Valiant ex and Hop's Zacian ex is not too difficult. I did manage to get a lucky Black Belt's Training Support from a Pokegear to knock out his Hop's Zacian ex in the one turn. My prize mapping was 2-2-2. Knock out 1 Iron Valiant ex then 1 Hop's Zacian ex and the final knockout is Boss's Orders or a Mew ex or something. Three attacks for 6 prizes and the win. He took maybe around 3 Prize cards of 6.
We did have 15 minutes left in the round. I asked for a regame. My opponent agreed. The second game was similar to the first. Archaludon ex's 300 HP is too much for his Basic Pokemon. My final knockout was using Relicanth, Duraludon's Raging Hammer attack for Archaludon ex.
Round Two Versus Dragapult ex
My second round opponent also had 1 win and 0 losses. He was someone I have played before 4 times I think. I was not sure what he was playing before we started. He had an idea of what I was going to play (he told me after the game).
Both our starts were slow. My hand was not great.
I don't want to get into too much details in this game. I miss a Supporter from 2 Pokegears and then his early game Unfair Stamp from Arven put me down to a worse hand. My topdecking draws were poor and could not do much. I could not believe I could not find any Professor's Research or Iono in this game.
The losing blow was his Hawlucha to place damage counters and he hits with Dragapult ex's Phantom Dive to hit 200 in the active Fezandipiti and spread 60 damage to a 60 HP Scyther. Three prize knockout turn for him to get his final 3 Prize cards.
Very bad luck in this loss. I have to modify some decks for defense against potential Unfair Stamp Dragapult ex decks. (Some Dragapult ex decks use Sparkling Crystal.)
Round Three Versus Tera Box
I am 1 win and 1 loss going into round 3. Because I got at least 1 win I win something at this point.
My third round opponent is someone I have not played before. I have no read other than her friend got a bye (free win) and she was spectating.
I think she won the coin flip. She chose to start first. In my setup I only had a Relicanth as my lone Basic Pokemon to start. Because she went first I was nervous as she could have played a Poison deck. Thankfully it was not a Poison deck. It was Tera Box. This deck features Teal Mask Ogerpon ex, Wellspring Ogerpon ex, Crispin and Sparkling Crystal. This deck aims to put early pressure on evolution decks like Charizard ex, Gholdengo ex and Dragpult ex. There is no bench barrier Pokemon in the format until Destined Rivals.
My first turn was pretty good. I managed to get a good setup with Professor's Research + Squawkabilly ex. This allowed me to find pieces for setup and go through my deck fairly fast. As my opponent had a good first turn, I did expect an attack in her next turn with the Wellspring Ogerpon ex (from Ditto). She had a Noctowl in hand. I am okay in letting her take an early lead and concede my active Relicanth.
In her second turn she manages to get the Crispin + Sparkling Crystal combo for her Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex. I lose my Relicanth and take 120 damage on a 1 Metal Energy attached Duraludon.
For my second turn I had to take a knockout on her Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex. If not then she can get (in theory) 2 Knockouts and would fall a bit too far behind. Because she used her second Noctowl early and kept some important cards in hand I used Iono first for hand disruption. Her spectating friend let out a gasp in disbelief. This confirmed I made a good play (even though I planned to use Iono anyways.)
I get the pieces needed to evolve the active Duraludon into Archaludon ex. Then I can attack for 220 damage and knock out her Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex. She has 5 Prize cards left while I get the lead being at 4 Prize cards left.
Her next turn involved using Teal Mask Ogerpon ex and knocking out my Archlaudon ex. She goes from 5 Prize Cards left to 3 Prize Cards left.
In the following turn I use Scizor to knockout her Teal Mask Ogerpon ex. She had 6 Pokemon with abilities so Scizor did 310 damage for 1 Metal Energy. Very good here. I have 2 Prize cards left.
Her next turn involved a Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex. I think she might used an Iono also to disrupt my hand and bring it down to 2 cards. Shen then knocks out my Scizor. We are both at 2 Prize cards left. It is kind of close.
For my next turn, I use Fezandipiti ex on the Bench to draw 3 cards. I don't remember the full details but I find two ways to win here. It was either from a Hop's Dubwool or a Boss's Orders. I use Pokegear and find a Boss's Orders. I use Archaludon ex and Boss's Orders to target her Latias ex and attack for the win.
This win was a comfortable win in the end. If I missed some attacks then she could have won. She revealed to me that she has playing for one month. This girl does have dangerous plays which is something to be respected. You don't want to let your guard down. She did make mistakes in trying to Bench more than 5 Pokemon without Area Zero Underdepths in play.
Post-Tournament, Prizing + Shopping Around & Free Cards
I end the 3 round at 2 wins and 1 loss. I think I got 5th place out of around 20 people. I think there may have been 3 or 4 people with 3 wins and 0 losses. Pretty good.
The wins were comfortable and were not a crazy grind compared to past outings. The one loss was from mostly bad randomness. The guy I lost to is a good player so it's not too bad. He actually got 3 wins and 0 losses lol.
For 2 wins I get 2 Prize Packs Vol. 6. Here is what I got.
I got a Sylveon Pokemon Day promo card too. Maybe everyone who played here (regardless of record) got 1 promo card. Nice.
Shopping Around & Free Cards
After the tournament I was shopping around for cards, doing pickups for online orders and get some free swags. (Some card stores have free cards that they give out.)
I visit Chinatown and then go to the other busy side of Toronto.
At the one place I buy two cards and get some free cards. There were some free cards that were actually playable. I was kind of surprised that some of these frees and they usually cost 50 cents CAD each for a non-holo card.
After picking my order from Banana Games below the downtown Toronto IKEA store, I did find some free cards. They were willing to give away some Heat Wave Arena Japanese cards. That trainer on that one card is Ethan's Adventure.
Thank you for reading.