My favorite game of 2025

     From the beginning, I could see the castle's daunting silhouette looming on the horizon, but I didn't know yet how hard it would be to uncover all its secrets. Or how much I'd enjoy the quest.

    I started at the front gate. Progression was easy at first, and I soon made my way to the courtyard. I learned how to navigate through its pathways, but soon found myself head to head with some kind of plant monstruosity -- the first boss battle of the game. Besting it was not easy, but it allowed me to progress further on to the servants' quarters, then to the factory. At some point, progress become impossible, but by then, I'd learned how to advance through the vines scattered throughout the deserted castle. I backtracked to the front gate and found a path upwards, that led me to the battlements. There were more obstacles and more enemies, and more powers for me to gain. By the end of my journey, I'd fallen into traps and climbed my way back, found countless secrets hidden in the castle's walls, and even travelled through a portal to a strange, dreamlike realm where reality seemed more malleable. All in my quest for the secret of Sudoku.

    Oh, yeah, I forgot. All this happened in a giant sudoku. This is a sudoku game. 
    Sorry, I guess that wasn't obvious.

    Sudokuvania: Digits of Despair, by Skeptic Mario, is my favorite game from this year, and for my first non-Pokémon article, I'd like to review it. By which I mean gush about it.

 

Sudokuvania is a map made of multiple overlapping Sudoku grids.
Colors have been added here to make it clearer (credit to wirewitchviolet on Tumblr).

Hold on, what do you mean, this is a sudoku?

    As you probably know, a sudoku is a 9 by 9 grid where your goal is to fill the grid so that the numbers 1 to 9 all appear exactly once in each row, column, and 3x3 box (also called a region). At least, these are the basics. Throughout the years, logic games aficionados have come up with many ways to expand from the sudoku template to make many more types of puzzles. I first become aware of this niche hobby in 2020, through a video in which, to quote a Youtube comment, "a man very politely loses his mind over Sudoku for 25 minutes". The Miracle Sudoku shown in this video is a beautiful puzzle, with rules that are simple yet so restrictive that, even with only two given digits in the grid, there is one unique solution. Being a strong believer in the beauty of mathematics, I could definitely see the appeal, so I tried solving it myself. From there, I was hooked. I subscribed to the Cracking the Cryptic channel and spent quite a bit of time during the initial covid lockdown becoming better at these sorts of logic puzzles. I learned about all sorts of additions to the basic sudoku ruleset : thermometer lines along which digits can only increase, Kropki dots which, placed between adjacent cells, indicate that they contain consecutive digits (if the dot is white) or that one of the digits is double the other (if the dot is black), negative constraints such as anti-knight where cells that are separated by a knight's move (in chess) cannot contain the same digit, and so on. Creators innovate all the time, popular ideas inspire other puzzle makers and become recurring themes, and so on.

    Fog of war sudoku is a variant in which most of the grid starts out greyed out, and only lights up progressively as the player fills in some cells, thus revealing clues that allow for further progress. It was invented in 2023, making it a very recent innovation. Its very existence is extremely interesting: it changes sudoku, a traditional logic puzzle, into a video game. You can't play a fog of war sudoku on paper like a classic sudoku, or any of the other variants I alluded to above. The rules of which cells get revealed, and when, must be programmed, which means that fog of war sudoku only playable on a computer or similar device.
    From a game design perspective, it also makes the experience of filling a sudoku grid into a more linear game. Since only a few cells are lit up at the beginning, the player has a clear start point. Then, as they manage to fill out some cells, other clues are revealed and they can work on these. The player is guided throughout the grid, not unlike, say, exploring a level in a 3D platformer. There is some freedom of movement, but there are still points that you're expected to go through.

    What I, as a puzzle solver, call linearity, a puzzle creator might instead call control. They can guide the player through a path with a start and an end point. And thus it becomes possible, with some ingeniosity, to tell stories, or at least narratives.
    Marty Sears is a brilliant puzzle maker, whose Rat Run series was incredibly well received by sudoku aficionados. It's a series of sudoku grids which are also labyrinths, and as you fill the grid with digits (according to the sudoku ruleset), you also construct a path (also subject to specific constraints) that a rat (named Finkz), starting on a given cell, takes throughout the labyrinth to get to the cupcake on another cell. The Rat Run puzzles are constructed in such a way that you have to work towards these two objectives (filling the grid and finding the path) in parallel: progress on one objective helps you on the other one.
    On December 27, 2024, he released the 20th puzzle in the series, the finale to the second season of Rat Run (yes, sudoku has seasons, apparently). It is a fog of war sudoku, but even as the grid gets filled out, a few cells remain in the dark until the very end. Then, as the digit on the last grey cell on Finkz's path is entered (it's a teleporter cell, because there are also teleporters in the labyrinth), the cell lights up, revealing a second rat.

     The post-puzzle message explains that the teleporter malfunctioned, and Finkz was inadvertently cloned⁽¹⁾, hinting at a new mechanic for season 3. As another Youtube commenter put it: "Sudoku has foreshadowing now. I can't believe how far this has come in the last 5 years".<sup>(2)

(1)</sup> The message ends with the sentence: "If Finkz wanted a friend, the universe appears to have gifted her one." This is a callback to the previous Rat Run puzzle, in which Finkz was going through a grid filled with letters instead of numbers, and highlighted some letters on her path, ultimately revealing the word "Friend". So there was actually a narrative arc across multiple grids, something which I only realized while writing this article.

⁽²⁾ Also, you may have noticed that I just spoiled the reveal. That's right, Sudoku also has spoilers now. 

The first ten minutes of Sudokuvania

    With sudoku puzzles taking more inspiration from other types of media, and especially video games, it's not surprising that someone would get ambitious and try to create a bigger game. Sudokuvania: Digits of Despair is that game. It would be generous to say it has a story: it's still closer to a puzzle grid than to an actual video game, even an old one. And yet, I'm fascinating by how well it replicates the feeling of exploring a dungeon, of getting new powers allowing you to get new obstacles. Let me show you.

    The game starts at the front gate, a 6 by 6 grid (I've added the contour and regions of the grid in green to make it easier to follow) with no special rules. A couple of digits are given, and the bottom left region is lit up, the rest being hidden in fog. You might notice that one of the 6 has a sort of vine going up from it. We can't use this yet because we don't know the rule for this type of clue, but we'll be going back to it later.

    I can only fill in one digit at first, a 6 in the bottom left region. This reveals a bit more of the grid, including a new digit, a 4. Now, thanks to this new digit, I can place the 4 in the bottom middle region of the grid.

    Filling in the 4 reveals a couple new digits, and I can now fill in...

    ... a 6 in the bottom right part of the grid. At this point, we've made our way to a second, bigger grid (which the newly added 6 overlaps), the courtyard. It has a different background color to identify it more easily.
The 6 is on a new type of line. The "Unlocked Guide THERMO!" message appears, and the rules of the games, in the top left of the game (not visible on this screenshot), are updated to explain this new type of clue. Along a thermometer line, digits increase, strictly, starting from the bulb. We can't see the whole thermometer line since it ends up in the fog, but we know it spans through at least three cells in addition to the bulb, and since digits must increase along this line, these cells must contain the digits 7, 8 and 9 in that order.
    Thermometer lines are our first power-up. They're like the grappling hook in a Zelda game, allowing us to progress further into the dungeon.

    Adding the 9 reveals a bit more of the courtyard, and I've taken the opportunity to color its lines in blue. (I could also go back to the front gate and deduce some digits, but it is currently impossible to finish the grid.)
    Now there are two more thermometer lines, except this time, we only see their ends, and not their bulbs. At first glance, it seems that there's not enough information to go on. However, it's actually possible to deduce all the numbers on the thermometer lines shown. (Try it if you want! A hint: where can the digit 1 be in the middle left 3x3 box? And the 2?)

    Doing this reveals the boss cell. You can now click a link bringing you to the first boss battle. It's a stand-alone grid filled with thermometer lines, kind of a test of how well you master this ruleset. It's not a tutorial boss by any definition, though: it's actually pretty hard even if you're not new to thermo sudoku. You'll need some tricks (which come more naturally to experienced puzzle solvers) to fill out the entire grid.

    Beating the boss reveals a digit that you can add in the original Sudokuvania map on the boss cell. This allows you to continue on your path. Just like the front gate, it's impossible to fill the courtyard grid entirely for now, but we're not far from the next grid, where we'll get a new power-up, and so on.

A new type of video game

    If you've followed the previous section, hopefully my point about linearity and its roles is clearer. Even though I don't control a physical character that moves up, left, down or right, I'm still, in spirit, travelling in an environment, forging a path that was designed by the game's creator. There are mini-puzzles, like filling out the thermometer lines, that need to be solved in order to advance. 
    Boss battles are an even more obvious type of obstacle. You're thrown into a grid with a boss. There's no wondering whether you're on the right track or if you need to come back once you've got another power-up: you've reached a boss, you're stuck with it, you have all the clues you need to beat it, now prove your mastery over the ruleset to carry on.

    While each individual rule in Sudokuvania is something that has been seen before plenty of times, and even multi-grid puzzles have existed, the way Sudokuvania combines these elements is unique. You don't fill the various grids that make up the game in succession. Instead, you fill part of the initial grid (the front gate), then part of the courtyard, and so on. Then, later, you can deduce more digits thanks to the new rules that you've learned in other grids. This replicates perfectly the Metroidvania theme of coming back to an area you've already visited once you've gained a power-up.

    The similarities to video games don't stop there. (There are some minor spoilers coming up; if you care about these spoilers, then skip this paragraph. Also, again, there are spoilers in sudoku now.) 
    There's one specific grid that plays a key role in the game. You reach it twice through two different paths, but both times you can only deduce one or two digits on the outside, and its core remains shrouded in fog. It's only when you come back later through a third, hidden route, that its secret, the key to solving it, is revealed. To me, this is the kingdom of Zeal from Chrono Trigger. You get small glimpses of it that pique your curiosity, long before you can get back to it and actually understand what's going on.
    There's a point where, by filling a cell with the correct digit, a long vertical corridor beneath that cell is revealed, leading to a new grid, like you fell into a trap and now have to climb back from the the castle's basement. Obviously this is just a narrative trick, nothing forces you to go into that new grid, but it really feels like something that would happen in an exploration game.
    At some point, a portal takes you to a mysterious realm. This is a new grid in which regions are not 3x3 boxes, but irregular shapes. Since all you've seen so far are regular sudokus, this new variant evokes powerfully the idea that you're in some sort of alien environment where reality has changed, like the Distorsion World in Pokémon Platinum.

    Basically, Sudokuvania calls upon classic video game tropes and transcribes them in the language of sudoku. And I think that's genius.

 

Should you play Sudokuvania?

    As much as I love Sudokuvania: Digits of Despair, I can't in good conscience recommend it to everyone. Well, I can. It's just that most people will probably not enjoy it. It's complicated, it has no visual appeal, and it doesn't have the best user interface, being programmed in an app that wasn't made for a game of this size.

    Personally, I've never given a lot of importance to graphics in video games. I still play Pokémon Red and Blue without being in any way put off by the Game Boy graphics and sometimes weird sprites. Conversely, I also enjoyed the more recent entries to the series, regardless of whether the 3D environments were well rendered or not. The more brainpower I devote to a game, the less I notice the visual aspects. I used to play Hearthstone, and it is the only TCG other than Pokémon to which I devoted a significant amount of time. Some legendary minions would have unique animations when entering the field, and I would see streamers or Youtubers comment on them, but unless I focused on them, I would literally not see them at all. Since they were completely extraneous to the actual strategic part of the game, they would simply not register in my mind.

    On the other hand, I love when games have mysteries which you solve progressively. I am a big fan of the Ace Attorney series, for example. Sudoku doesn't scratch exactly the same itch as Ace Attorney does: it lacks a gallery of unique and funny characters, for example. But I think someone who lists Ace Attorney as their favorite series is more likely to enjoy the type of challenge that Sudokuvania offers than someone who favors Call of Duty, for example.

    What I'm getting at is that Sudokuvania is basically on my exact wavelength. It is made with the type of creativity that appeals to me, and it features the kind of difficulty I love, while its weaknesses are things I don't care about. It would be absurd to claim that it's the best game ever, but it's a game that's perfect for me. Statistically speaking, though, you are most likely not me, so you probably won't enjoy it as much as I did.
    But if you enjoy cryptic crosswords, escape rooms, Pokémon difficulty romhacks, and/or Øyvind Thorsby's comics, then maybe Sudokuvania could be your cup of tea! Also, it's free, so why not give a try.

    One word of warning, though: this game is hard. It will take dozens of hours to beat, and that's even if you have experience with logic games. If you're new to sudoku variants, maybe there are better ways to get started! Skeptic Mario, Sudokuvania's creator, has stated that he was working on another, beginner-friendly Sudokuvania. If you're intrigued by this type of game, maybe you should wait until that's released.⁽³⁾

    As for me, I can't wait to find out what other variant will be invented next! I need something to do with my evenings instead of playing Pokémon TCG Live, after all.

⁽³⁾ Although he said it would be released by the end of spring, and we're in September. So I don't know if that simpler game will ever be released.

When attacking is wrong: a Pokémon TCG design analysis

 One of the best plays in a game of Pokémon TCG I've ever seen live happened two weeks ago at the North American International Championships (NAIC) in New Orleans. Many of you already know what I'm talking about, since a certain portion of the community has discussed it at length already, but for anyone whose social media timeline has even slightly different obsessions than mine, here's a quick recap.

It's the second semi-finals. On one side of the stream table is Tord Reklev, a five-time International Champion, playing Dragapult ex, a deck with a built-in Pokémon-based draw engine, the kind of deck that Tord favors. His opponent is Riley McKay, a player with a good amount of Regional day 2 finishes in the last few years, but still looking for a breakout performance. It's anyone guess who will come out on top. On the one hand, Riley is playing Gardevoir ex, which has a favorable matchup against Tord's Dragapult. On the other hand, Tord is the best player of all time.⁽¹⁾

The match goes to game 3, and time is called during Riley's turn, with both players having taken one Prize card at this point. If you're unfamiliar with the rules, this means that Riley will play out his turn, then players will get three additional turns: turn 1 is Tord's, turn 2 is Riley's, and turn 3 is Tord's again. At this point, if one player has taken more Prizes than his opponent, he wins the game; otherwise, the game continues until someone takes a Prize.⁽²⁾

Riley takes two Prizes on his initial turn, and Tord retaliates by taking a KO on Riley's only Gardevoir ex on turn 1. (Riley didn't bench an extra Ralts, as it would likely be KO'd by Phantom Dive with the help of Hawlucha's Flying Entry.) It's now turn 2, and players are tied at three Prizes remaining each. With no Energy acceleration left, Riley can't power up a new attacker, but he still has his Active Lillie's Clefairy ex that can KO Tord's Dragapult ex, taking two of his three remaining Prizes. With Bravery Charm, even if Tord gets another Dragapult ex in play, the 200 damage from Phantom Dive won't be enough to take the KO, and if Tord can't take a KO on the next turn (turn 3), Riley wins the game.
So Riley plays Iono to put Tord at three cards in hand. Then... he passes his turn.

The pass that confused a thousand Twitch chatters.

To reiterate: instead of taking a two Prize lead, removing Tord's main attacker, and forcing him to answer with a two-Prize KO of his own, Riley simply passes. It's now turn 3, and if Tor
d can take a KO here, he gets the Prize lead, which wins the game on the spot. Was this the throw of the century?
Of course not. Riley recognized that even if he took a KO this turn, if his Clefairy was KO'd on the next turn, he would lose anyway. Both players would have one Prize remaining but, with no Gardevoir ex to power up a new attacker, and no Counter Catcher to try to take a KO on Drakloak with Munkidori, Riley would simply have no way to take that last Prize, and Tord would win the next turn. On the other hand, if his Clefairy survived just one more turn, both players would still be tied in Prizes after the three extra turns. Then, Riley could simply take a KO with Clefairy, giving him the lead and, by the rules, the win.
While he could have KO'd Dragapult ex to force Tord to find another attacker, that would have had two major downsides. First, Tord could have used Fezandipiti ex's Flip the Script to draw more cards. Second, if Riley took a KO, Tord could now attack with Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex, which would KO Clefairy through Bravery Charm.
"Was this the right choice?" Riley asked Tord as the latter was thinking through his turn. It was. Tord could now win with a simple Boss's Orders, but he had already played one earlier, and discarded two more the previous turn. With only two Recon Directive as draw power, and the only other card that could give him the win (Jamming Tower) on the bottom of his deck due to Riley's Iono, he was unable to find the last Boss's Orders or his single copy of Jamming Tower. On the next turn, Riley took a KO, sealing the game.

What made this play so good? Mostly, the circumstances. If you've never played on stream, you might not realize it, but the white noise that's played in the headset to prevent players from hearing the crowd and casters can be distracting. The pressure of playing in front of an audience of thousands, the fatigue from playing seven rounds before this one on the same day (and nine the day before), and the potential intimidation from playing against the best player in the world also make it harder to find the optimal play.
But also, and I think this is crucial: passing the turn instead of attacking is a cool play, for the same reason that, say, sacrificing a piece in chess is cool: it's counter-intuitive. TCGs are not the most exciting games to watch, but I'm convinced that any spectator, even one who knows nothing beyond the basics of the game, would be intrigued by someone passing their turn at such a crucial turn. You win by taking Prizes, right? So choosing to not take a Prize instead of taking one, when there's only one turn remaining, seems absurd at first glance. So there must be something more going on, so you dig into it, and when you understand the subtleties at play, you come away with a better appreciation for the game. There's no better way to get someone with only passing knowledge of the game to want to learn more about it.
I believe this, because I have only passing knowledge of VGC, but I also find it exciting when a player uses a side attack (when a Pokémon attacks their partner instead of the opponent). It's the exact same logic: it's counter-intuitive, so I want to understand why a player would choose to do so, which usually reveals a chain of thought I didn't consider.

But while Riley's pass was a great move and a highlight of this tournament, it's also a direct result of the way the game has been designed ever since the start of the Scarlet & Violet era. The designers at Creatures have, slowly but surely, and (in my opinion) very deliberately, engineered a format in which these kinds of plays can happen, and they deserve credit for it.

⁽¹⁾ Part of the community disagrees and still ranks Jason Klaczynski above him, I know, but this is my blog, so I can write my own opinion.

⁽²⁾ It's technically a bit more complicated, but for the purpose of this game, it's all that matters.

How to make a game good

For long portions of the game's history, especially since Black & White, there were few downsides to taking Prizes. This meant most games were races. At first glance, this is fine. After all, if the goal of the game is to take six Prize cards, then it's only logical that taking Prize cards should be a good thing. That makes it simple for new players, which is usually better.
And yet, if you make a game too simple, then it becomes boring. A good TCG must give players ways to outplay each other, so that the better player (usually) wins. And in order for players to outplay each other, there must be decisions that the players have to make. Some of these decisions are made during the deckbuilding process (from "what deck should I play" to "should I play the fourth copy of card X for more consistency, or include card Y to tech against deck Z"), others happen during gameplay ("what should I search with my Ultra Ball", "where should I attach this Energy card", "do I KO my opponent's Active Pokémon or play a Boss's Orders"). It stands to reason that when games last more turns, players have more decisions to make, and therefore good players are more likely to win by making better plays than their opponents. I think there's a plateau to this: clearly, we don't want games taking ages either, and the equation is more complicated than "more turns = better games". Nevertheless, it's important that games don't end too fast.

Older players may remember the Mewtwo-EX wars of 2012, in which players would usually use Mewtwo-EX to KO their opponent's Mewtwo-EX, which would then use another Mewtwo-EX to KO it back, and so on. This era of the game gained a particularly bad reputation because simply using a two-Prizer to OHKO the opponent's two-Prizer, rince and repeat until one players has taken all their Prizes, gets stale very fast. 

Conversely, when Pokémon don't OHKO each other (or at least not easily), there are more decisions to make. You get to decide whether to keep your damaged Pokémon Active, or retreat to protect it, or play something like Professor Turo's Scenario to heal it. Or, on the other side of the board, you get to choose whether you should finish off a damaged Pokémon or attack something else. Games also last longer since players don't draw Prize cards every turn, so in general, there are more decisions, and the game is more fun.
Riley passing his turn, rather than attacking, at a critical moment in a critical game, is an extension of this idea. The decision becomes not only which Pokémon to attack with, or which opposing Pokémon to attack with (both questions that any Gardevoir player must regularly ponder), but also whether or not to attack at all; a meta-decision, if you will. This kind of decision is becoming more common in the Scarlet & Violet era, and I strongly believe that this is an excellent thing for the game. It pushes the skill ceiling higher, which means that players have more to learn, so we want to play more to become better. And, as we've seen, it leads to iconic plays that enrich the game.

Game design in the Scarlet & Violet era

When the first cards for Scarlet & Violet got announced at Worlds 2022, there was an explanation that the block would focus on comeback mechanics. I didn't think much of it at the time: sure, this was great in theory, but they also talked about "evolution" being an important part of the Sword & Shield block in 2019, and that didn't amount to anything. However, over the past two years, we've seen many cards be released that do help the losing player make a comeback. Cards like Defiance Band and Reversal Energy, which only do something if you are behind in the Prize race, are an obvious way to make this happen, of course, but a card can be designed to do something and still not have a noticeable impact on the game. It wasn't until I stopped and thought about Riley's pass that I realized how much the game rewards players for thinking twice before taking a Prize card, and how deliberate this was on the game designers' part.

As I described earlier, the best play for Riley was passing his turn, because he was playing around Fezandipiti ex and Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex. Fezandipiti ex wasn't always seen as a card that would encourage comebacks. In fact, it's often played in aggressive decks like Raging Bolt ex or (before rotation) Regidrago VSTAR, because it helps the player who's ahead keep their advantage by making them more resilient against Iono. However, many slower decks, like Gardevoir ex, Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex and Dragapult ex can actually play around Fezandipiti ex by not taking direct KOs, but setting up for a multi-Prize turn using Munkidori⁽³⁾ or Phantom Dive. In an aggro vs stage 2 matchup, the stage 2 deck's Fezandipiti ex will draw cards and help them stabilize, while the aggro deck's Fezandipiti ex will be much less useful because the stage 2 decks will not be trading KOs the same way. So, all in all, Fezandipiti ex ends up favoring the slower player, facilitating comebacks.

Some spectators have suggested that Tord could have won that game against Riley if, on his first extra turn, he had taken the KO, not on Riley's Gardevoir ex, but on his Munkidori (also putting six damage counters on Tord's Gardevoir ex, putting it range of Phantom Dive on the next turn). He would have taken one fewer Prize on that turn, but that would actually have been a benefit. This is because he would have been able to play Counter Catcher on the third extra turn. So even if Riley had taken two more Prizes afterwards, putting a one-Prize Pokémon Active, Tord would have more easily been able to get a four-Prize turn afterwards, taking back the lead and giving him the win. It's not the same as passing, but taking fewer Prizes and staying behind on Prizes, in this scenario, would be an advantage. Ever since Counter Catcher's release, similar situations have occurred. In the Gardevoir mirror match, for example, there's always been this strange notion that you want to be slightly behind for most of the game, so that you can use Counter Catcher, but not your opponent. Having to find the right equilibrium of where to be relative to your opponent, and when to take back the lead, is so much more interesting than simply trying to take more Prizes, faster, all the time.

I could mention other cards that make players think twice before taking Prizes. Charizard ex is an excellent example, emblematic of the Scarlet & Violet era: its attack becomes stronger the more the opponent has taken Prizes, so an excellent way to limit its effectiveness is to not take Prizes, or at least, not too fast. Back when Charizard ex was first released, one of the best decks around was Giratina VSTAR, and that deck would deliberately choose to 2HKO Charizard ex rather than OHKO it in the early game, saving Giratina's VSTAR Power, Star Requiem, for the late game, when Charizard was a bigger threat.
But making a good metagame isn't achieved simply by printing cards that are better the more remaining Prize cards you have (or the fewer the opponent has). Many other cards were necessary to reach this goal, including a unique, iconic Pokémon. Generational, as the kids say.⁽⁴⁾

 ⁽³⁾ Munkidori is a fascinating card. It seems that every couple of months, players discover it's even better than previously thought. It's a card that helps to not take Prizes and to play from behind, but outside of a Gardevoir deck, it's only used to help against other Munkidori decks. I'm sure someone could write a whole essay about Munkidori's role in the metagame, but not me, or at least, not today.

⁽⁴⁾ I had the pleasure of playing against Ray Chen at NAIC who, at some point, said something was "generational, as the kids say". I asked if the kids really say that. They said yes. Since then, I've started to notice this adjective being used a lot more than I thought. The moral of the story is that I'm old and out of touch (and also French).

Praise for Budew

2021 may have been one of the worst years ever for the Pokémon TCG. The formats, especially after rotation, when every deck was a VMAX deck trying to 2HKO other Pokémon VMAX and OHKO non-VMAX Pokémon, were boring, and I'm almost thankful that we were still in lockdown, so I didn't have to travel to play this bad of a format in a competitive environment. Online tournaments on Play Limitless were the community's lifeblood at the time, and carried the game for two years. Still, the format was so boring to me that for months, I almost completely stopped playing in online Standard tournaments. Instead, I focused on Expanded. While Standard was simply huge Pokémon trading blows all the time, Expanded had more variety, and more cool plays. I've written at length about how playing this format, at that time, saved my enjoyment of the TCG, because the games I was playing were simply more skillful. One strong aspect of this was how important non-offensive attacks were. I would often play Shadow Rider VMAX against Regidrago VSTAR, and this matchup couldn't be won by just hitting hard. Instead, the path to victory required using utility attacks like Shadow Rider Calyrex V's Shadow Mist and Girafarig's Get Lost. Using a non-damaging attack in the middle of the game (and not just for setting up), to me, is a close relative to passing the turn instead of attacking. It might not be as shocking, but the game is still so much richer when there are plays to consider, at any point in the game, beyond simply dealing as much damage as possible.

In the current format, the main utility attack is Budew's Itchy Pollen. Some people have complained about this card ever since it was announced, comparing it to Seismitoad-EX's Quaking Punch. I think that betrays a misunderstanding of the two cards's different roles. Seismitoad-EX, backed by the plethora of strong Item cards of the XY era, could maintain its Item lock throughout the game, while preventing the opponent from attacking, by discarding their Energy and putting their Pokémon to sleep. Budew has 30 HP and the damage it deals is negligible: it only matters in the context of Budew vs Budew wars, and it's even often a downside, as its damage can be bounced back to it by an opponent's Munkidori. One does not play Budew to maintain Item lock throughout the game, but to buy time. Preventing the opponent from using Rare Candy on turn 2 is very strong and can let a slower deck survive while it sets up; on the other hand, that comes at the cost of an easy Prize, especially against Munkidori decks that will be able to take a KO without wasting an attack on it.
Using Budew might look easy, but it's more subtle than you'd expect. You're using a very vulnerable Pokémon to buy time, or in other words, sacrificing a Prize card for an advantage that might not be as simple to describe: it might be "making sure that my opponent can't Rare Candy into Dusknoir next turn", or "increasing the odds that my Benched Drakloak survives the next turn". And that trade is not always worth it, as evidenced by the fact that, ever since Prismatic Evolutions' release, Gardevoir players have been divided on whether or not to include Budew in their list.
Earlier this year, at EUIC, I misplayed on stream against Natalie Millar. Her set up was weak, so I tried to take advantage of it by attacking quickly with Gardevoir ex. This led to me having damage counters on my board that she managed to take advantage of. If I had waited one more turn to set up, using Budew to buy one more turn, I would have healed the damage that remained on my board because of Gardevoir's Psychic Embrace, and resisted Natalie's subsequent attacks better. That was back when Budew had just been released; I think that nowadays, most players are familiar with this kind of situation. If you break the lock too early, even if it's to take a KO, you might expose yourself to comeback cards, such as Fezandipiti ex and Unfair Stamp. In Dragapult mirror matches, when two players are using Budew to set up, it's usually incorrect to take the first KO, unless you can play Boss's Orders to KO a Drakloak or some other important target. This might seem obvious now, but the Pokémon TCG hasn't always favored this kind of thinking: in many metagames, players would have been right to take a KO as soon as they can.

Budew is emblematic of how the game is now designed to make games longer and require more decisions from players, including the decision of whether or not to attack. Yes, Budew vs Budew situations are boring to watch, but they're always temporary (I believe that the designers made Budew deal damage, in addition to its Item lock effect, for precisely this reason). They're the calm before the storm, and I think it's cool that (in many matchups) players get a few turns to set up and prepare for the Prize trade before it happens. I can't overstate how much I think that Budew helps the format. If I had to pick a single card to represent the Scarlet & Violet design philosophy, I'd probably pick it! But there's one last comparison I'd like to make to hammer my point home.

A Tale of two Zoroark

Zoroark-GX is one of the most important cards in the history of the Pokémon TCG. The perfect example of the "universal attack + consistency Ability" combination that can make a Pokémon so dominant (think Arceus VSTAR), Zoroark-GX dominated the game from the moment it was released. The card wasn't so broken that nothing else was playable; in fact, Zoroark-GX couldn't OHKO any important target in the format, and many other decks tried to take advantage of this weakness by using Pokémon with stronger attacks, that would get favorable Prize trades. Nevertheless, good players gravitated towards Zoroark, because thanks to Trade, they could draw plenty of cards, allowing them to achieve their game plan. And Zoroark-GX could beat anything if it got to achieve its game plan. Counters existed, but even when a Basic Pokémon appeared that could OHKO Zoroark-GX for one Basic Energy while being out of range of Riotous Beating damage⁽⁵⁾, Zoroark still found ways to triumph over it. It's notable that Zoroark-GX was not alone: throughout its run in Standard, it was played with a variety of partners (Golisopod-GX, Lycanroc-GX, Garbodor, Lucario-GX, Weavile, Decidueye-GX...) which could shore up its bad matchups. Riotous Beating only required a Double Colorless Energy, so the deck could run other types of Energy for Zoroark's partners. While there were players that complained about Zoroark-GX, I think the player base, in general, recognises it as a benefit to the game, a symbol of a time when pure damage was not as important as drawing cards so you could play utility Supporters like Acerola.

When N's Zoroark ex got announced at the closing ceremony of Worlds 2024, the player base was overhyped. A Zoroark with Trade? The parallels were obvious. N's Zoroark ex might not have Riotous Beating for a Double Colorless Energy, but it could copy attacks from any of N's Pokémon! At the time, we didn't know what these Pokémon would do (besides N's Reshiram), but the possibilities were endless. Of course, it turned out that most of N's Pokémon are not very good. Joltik is too situational, Sigilyph even more so, Purrloin is interesting in theory but its disruption is not strong enough, and Klinklang is a joke. Only Darmanitan has found success, but now that Shaymin has been released, that success is threatened. All in all, if N's Zoroark ex was supposed to be a toolbox deck, it failed.

However, and I'm ashamed to say that it's taken me months to understand this, I don't think that N's Zoroark ex was supposed to be a toolbox deck. The only partner that Zoroark needs is the first one that was revealed, Reshiram. With a N's Reshiram in play, N's Zoroark ex is a bulky Pokémon that can copy Virtuous Flame to 2HKO (almost) everything in the format. This is exactly the same as Zoroark-GX using Righteous Beating to 2HKO (almost) everything in the Sun & Moon era, just with the numbers adjusted for power creep. Darmanitan is an expansion pack that doesn't suit the meta anymore. In fact, all other N's Pokémon (except Klinklang, which is terrible) are techs, which could be included if you want to cover a specific situation, but which you probably shouldn't. The only partner that Zoroark *needs* is Reshiram, the one that turns it into Zoroark-GX.

And so I can't help but compare these two very similar cards from a design perspective. Zoroark-GX was easier to use alongside other Pokémon, because its attack required only a Double Colorless Energy, which would leave space for other Energy cards. The secondary attackers it would partner with, such as Lycanroc-GX, could be used to patch Zoroark-ex's weakness, notably by being able to OHKO key opponents.
N's Zoroark ex can also be powered up in one turn, thanks to N's PP Up, but that's not as easy: you need to find an Item card, in addition to an Energy. Also, it requires Dark Energy, so its partners are more limited. N's Zoroark ex is commonly seen with Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex, which has a higher damage cap and can KO targets that Zoroark can't, but it does so only in the late game, when the opponent has taken four or five Prize cards. What Zoroark does have, on the other hand, is Reshiram's other attack, Powerful Rage. Since N's Reshiram is always in play, Zoroark always has access to this attack.

Because of Powerful Rage and Ursaluna, N's Zoroark ex, on the other hand is more defensively minded than its predecessor. It's less aggressive by itself, but it has stronger tools in theory, that the opponent must play around. When facing N's Zoroark ex, you might realise that sometimes, it's better not to attack, because if you were to deal damage, you would get punished by Powerful Rage (and/or Munkidori). This might lead you to take a longer route to victory, to consider carefully your Prize map, maybe looking to first use Boss's Orders to get KOs on other targets. This, to me, is what makes a card's design truly great: when it forces the opponent to think twice about doing what they want to be doing, promoting thoughtful play from both players.
Zoroark-GX and N's Zoroark ex have similar designs, and Trade is a skill-testing Ability that rewards players for thinking ahead (to succeed with Zoroark, you need to think about your long-term plan, or you might a discard a card then realise three turns later that you can't win without it). But N's Zoroark ex forces not only its own player to think ahead, but also the opponent. The card designers took a legendary card that made the Sun & Moon era great, and adapted it for the current format by making it even more skill-testing. And they did so in a way that perfectly fits the "Owner's Pokémon" mechanic from Journey Together. Reshiram's Powerful Rage is even evocative of the Outrage attack that already featured on the Pokémon's two most iconic cards (the original Reshiram from Black & White, and the format-defining Reshiram & Charizard-GX)!

This, to me, is a shining example of the good design choices of the Scarlet & Violet era. It's why I think it will be remembered as a golden age of the Pokémon TCG.

⁽⁵⁾ Buzzwole FLI, for anyone wondering.

A balanced game

You might be afraid that with all of this complexity at play, the game would be more interesting at the highest level of play, but too complicated for newcomers. But that's not the case! I didn't mention them because that's not my focus, but aggressive decks are still around. Raging Bolt ex is one of the best decks in the game, and it's an aggressive deck that OHKOs its opponents and takes the Prize lead in most situations. It's not easy to master, but it's easy enough to play that a kid can pick it up and win games with it, without having to commit to the complicated mind games of, say, a Gardevoir vs Dragapult matchup.

That's perhaps the ultimate success of this era of the TCG: creating a game simple enough that anyone can play, but that also, more than ever, rewards dedicated players that take time to learn every strategy, to understand when to play from behind and when to push an advantage, and sometimes, when to not attack, and simply pass.

I would be lying if I claimed that the return of three-Prize Pokémon in a couple of months doesn't worry me. However, the game's designers have earned my trust with most of their work in the Scarlet & Violet era, so for now, I remain optimistic. As long as they keep being guided by the same principles, I think the Pokémon TCG is in good hands.

Champions League Aichi 2025 Tournament Report

 

The Pokémon TCG used to have two competitive formats: Standard and Expanded. Standard, like many similarly-named formats from other card games, only allows cards that are recent enough (released in the previous two or three years, approximatively). Expanded allows all the cards released since Black & White (in 2011), with the exception of a couple dozens of cards that were banned to avoid degenerate combos that would allow the player going first to win the game, or stop their opponent from playing, on the first turn of the game, before their opponent could do anything about it.
The Standard metagame changes rapidly, as new cards can have a strong impact upon release, and the yearly rotation culls the card pool, forcing players to adapt and build new decks. It's a fantastic invention for the purpose of selling cards, yes, but it also lets new players join the game at any time without having to worry about having to get their hands on cards from ten years ago, and it prevents the game from getting stale.
The Expanded metagame, on the other hand, evolves slowly. New cards have to compete against fourteen years, not two, of previous sets, so they're less likely to matter. The format is ruled by powerful combinations of cards that never appeared in Standard together. It's a great environment for deck builders, as their creativity can shine with such a wide card pool at their disposal. On the flip side, the best Expanded decks are much stronger than the best Standard decks, so finding ideas that are strong as well as original is not that easy.
(If you're a Pokémon TCG player, you likely knew all that already. But I don't plan for this blog to be only read by experienced TCG players, so I think an introduction was necessary.)


In my opinion, not only is one format not better than the other in principle, but they're actually complementary. Having both formats playable means that players are incentivised to get new cards, but also get to use their old ones. If I had to choose, though, I have to say that I have a soft spot for Expanded. It's by far the less popular of the two, but it's a very intricate format where you have to plan ahead while thinking of all that your opponent could reasonably do. I personally enjoy formats with higher power levels, and love to see combination of cards that were never designed to be played together. There was also a time in 2021 when the Standard format was extremely boring, and I might have become disenchanted with the TCG if I hadn't been able to play online Expanded tournaments instead, where I was having legitimately complex and skillful games with Shadow Rider Calyrex, my favorite deck at the time.

Unfortunately, when the competitive circuit came back in 2022 after a two-year covid-imposed break, it did so without Expanded. The format had been played sporadically before that: about 40% of North American Regional Championships were Expanded, but the format was virtually absent in Europe and other regions, apart from local events which could be played in either format, at the discretion of the organizer. Nowadays, though, even League Challenges, the lowest tier of competitive events, have to be played in Standard. The format has been abandoned worldwide. With one exception: Japan!
The Japanese Pokémon circuit is administrated by The Pokémon Company (Japan) and not by The Pokémon Company International, and it is very different in many aspects: type of events, tournament structures, prizes, ways to qualify for the World Championships... But for the purposes of this article, the important thing is that Japan still has Expanded events. Mostly local ones (where players can earn reprints of old Expanded cards that are still played to this day), but there's also one major event: Champions League Aichi has, in addition to the three Standard tournaments (one for each age category), an Open League held in the Expanded format. Japanese Champions Leagues, their equivalent of our Regionals, are so popular that there's a lottery to decide who can get in. Even though the process is not designed for non-Japanese players, some high-profile international players have been participating in these prestigious events this season, and for the most part, the Japanese player base seems to be happy about it, so I decided to apply.

I don't want to give the impression that this was a spur-of-the-moment decision. For the last year, I've been the self-appointed herald of the Expanded format. I've written threads on more than forty decks to get people interested. I've bought cards to build these decks so that I could show the format to anyone curious, at local events or even Regionals. The casters at the Toronto regionals interviewed me to give me a platform to talk about Expanded. I made a Discord server for the format. I even started learning Japanese last year, and that was mostly in preparation for the day I'd go there to play in the only Expanded Champions League of the season.

And this is how, a month later, I was in Nagoya, eating misokatsu and playing Regidrago mirror matches. The short version is that I got 50th out of 800 players. The long version is the rest of this article. If you're curious about the Expanded format, or about what it's like to play in Japan, keep on reading!

The Expanded format

There's a misconception that the Expanded format is full of broken decks and that the format is a mess because you can draw your whole deck on turn 1 and do whatever you want. As someone who's been very attentive to the format in the last year, I want to be clear: yes, it's true, you can draw your whole deck on turn 1! However, to do so, you need to dedicate a lot of space in your deck to your draw engine, and between that and the combo that you're aiming to draw (no point in drawing your whole deck if you're not doing something with it), you end up with no space left for counters to other strategies, so you end up with an all-in deck that struggles against any disruption. This can work sometimes (Alolan Raichu, a deck that aims to take six Prizes in one turn by Knocking Out a bunch of Pokémon with Alolan Raichu's Electric Rain, powered by Reversal Energy and Counter Energy thanks to Electrode-GX, did end up taking second place at the 2024 Champions League), but disruption cards are common in Expanded, and you don't want to autolose to an opponent's Wobbuffet or Silent Lab, so it's usually better to have a more balanced deck. In fact, looking at the history of the format, the best decks, from Yveltal-EX / Maxie's to Shadow Rider, have almost always been balanced decks, able to play aggressively but also to disrupt their opponent's plans in various ways in order to achieve comebacks. Yes, there have been overpowered, degenerate decks in the history of the game that prevent the opponent from playing, but these are usually hit fast by bans. What remains is an assortment of decks that use the best of Expanded's immense card pool, but still play fair, in that you can have full games where both players try to execute their strategy while preventing the opponent from doing the same.

Whenever I've brought my decks to local events and played with people unfamiliar with Expanded, they've usually had fun discovering the powerful interactions that are possible with a fifteen-year card pool. Unfortunately, it's pretty difficult to play Expanded these days, due to the lack of official tournaments. I'm happy that there have been Expanded side events at almost all major European events this season, but they're usually scarcely attended, because few people have Expanded decks. It's also notable that Pokémon TCG Live doesn't support the Expanded format. During the lockdown, there used to be frequent online events held on Pokémon TCG Online, but its successor doesn't have cards before Sun & Moon, so while there is an "Expanded Beta" Sun & Moon-on format, you can't play real Expanded. (You also can't even play fake Expanded in ranked matches or in friend battles!) This means that there are far fewer opportunities to try out various deck ideas and explore the format's possibilities, which I think really hurts Expanded's growth.

Here, I want to thank Parisian players Yoann and Nofoume for taking the time to play some Expanded games with me for fun before I left for Japan. Despite that, at the time I took my flight, I felt woefully underprepared for the event. Thankfully, I had some local help!

 

Playtesting in Japan

Maeda Tadashi, also known as TDS, is a Japanese Youtuber specialized in the Expanded format, who made top 4 in Champions League Aichi in 2023. We've exchanged a few DMs in the past year, as on several occasions, he wanted to showcase one of my decks on his Youtube channel. We met at EUIC in February and played a couple of Expanded games, where he destroyed me, but he was very nice. So when I got selected to compete at CL Aichi, I messaged him to ask if we could talk about decks. I ended up in a group discussion with him and nine other Japanese Expanded players, exchanging ideas and decklists.

Without this group, I don't think I would have enjoyed my trip to Nagoya nearly as much. TDS invited me to lunch, introduced me to his friends, showed me card shops where we could play a few games. We had a big group dinner on the evening before the tournament and it was absolutely lovely. Most of them don't speak very good English at all, and my Japanese is too rudimentary for me to even try (I said I started to learn the language, but I haven't been very diligent lately...), so we spoke in very simple sentences and used Google Translate when we needed to share slightly more complex ideas. Despite that, we still managed to have fun and even joke around. I felt very privileged to have a group willing to include me and try to speak English for my sake.

Even with the language barrier, we were able to analyse our games by pointing to cards and attacks. "Marshadow mistake?", "If Dragapult, then Dialga and Noivern", "KO Shadow Rider better, only two Energy next turn", etc. (These all make sense in context.) Playing some games with even this rudimentary analysis helped me improve more than I expected. I was able to quickly learn some important plays in the Regidrago mirror match, traps to avoid against Shadow Rider, how to deal with Stall, and so on. My only regret was that we had so little time to play (while I arrived on Wednesday in Japan, most of my testing partners only got in Nagoya on Saturday, the day before the tournament, so we didn't have a lot of time to play games). One of the games I lost in the tournament was against Ceruledge, and I think I could have played better had I got a bit more preparation in that matchup. Still, I'm very happy to see that my comprehension and mastery of the Expanded format have improved in my short time in Japan.

Regarding the content of the preparation, we expected that Regidrago VSTAR would be, by far, the most played deck of the format, with about 30 to 40% of the meta share. It was winning most local events going into the tournament, and felt generally uncounterable; you could make a deck that beat it, sure, but Regidrago could tech for it; its only weakness is that it couldn't tech for everything at the same time, and given its popularity, most players were focused on teching for the mirror match.
We considered other decks that could beat Regidrago, starting with Ceruledge ex, but in the end, we couldn't make the matchup really favorable. Plus, Ceruledge ex was getting more popular as days went on, so we didn't even have the element of surprise going for us.
Apart from Regidrago, the other decks we expected to see were mostly Ceruledge ex, Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX, and Evocon, which is the Japanese name for Vileplume / Bunnelby Control decks, usually with an attacker that can help deal with threats and finish the game faster. Lugia VSTAR, Iron Thorns ex variants, and Mew VMAX, among others, would also likely see play, but in lower quantities.

In the end, the whole group (minus the token Stall player) settled on Regidrago. We didn't all play the same decklist, but we were confident it was the best choice. I plan on writing a detailed guide on the deck, so I won't go into too much detail here, but here was my decklist this tournament:

Pokémon: 19
4 Regidrago V SIT 135
3 Regidrago VSTAR SIT 136
1 Koraidon ex TEF 120
1 Dragapult ex TWM 130
1 Noivern-GX BUS 99
1 Noivern ex PAF 69
1 Dialga-GX UPR 100
1 Kyurem SFA 47
1 Budew PRE 4
1 Marshadow UNB 81
1 Latias ex SSP 76
1 Tapu Lele-GX GRI 60
1 Dedenne-GX UNB 57
1 Crobat V SHF 44

Trainer: 32
2 Professor's Research SHF 60
2 Guzma BUS 115
1 Carmine PRE 103
1 N NVI 92
1 Raihan EVS 152
1 Crispin SCR 133
1 Pokémon Ranger STS 104
1 Karen XYP 177
3 VS Seeker PHF 109
4 Quick Ball SSH 179
4 Mysterious Treasure FLI 113
1 Ultra Ball PAF 91
1 Hisuian Heavy Ball ASR 146
2 Battle Compressor PHF 92
1 Field Blower GRI 125
1 Super Rod DRV 20
1 Megaton Blower SSP 182
2 Muscle Band XY 121
1 Float Stone BKT 137
1 Parallel City BKT 145

Energy: 9
4 Double Dragon Energy ROS 97
3 Grass Energy SVE 1
2 Fire Energy SVE 2

 
This is a fairly typical modern Regidrago list. My teammates convinced me to play four copies of Regidrago V, for added consistency, and I think it makes the deck significatively better. You want two Regidrago V in play as soon as possible and you're never sad to open with it (in fact, it decreases the odds of starting with a bad Pokémon, like Dedenne-GX or Dialga-GX), so it makes sense to max out on Regidrago V. I also adopted a second copy of Professor's Research after looking at my teammates's decklists. Again, the purpose is simply to increase consistency, and it also gives the deck a slightly better chance against Evocon, which uses the Karen + Item lock combination to prevent the Regidrago player from attacking. Against this strategy, you need more ways to discard Pokémon, so a second Research (in addition to Carmine and Dedenne-GX) is helpful.
Speaking of Karen, it's an unusual choice in a Regidrago deck, but I was looking for a way to get an edge in the mirror match, so I decided to try it. It instantly paid dividends, as I was able to come back in my first practice game against my teammate Seagull (who ended up 24th in the tournament with a 7-1 record) by using Karen and Noivern-GX's Distorsion to prevent him from ending the game, and buying time for a comeback. Given the effectiveness of the strategy, especially when opponents aren't prepared, I decided to keep it in my list.

The only card I wasn't sure of was the Field Blower. It was often useless in the mirror match, and I thought maybe it would be better to run Counter Catcher or some other card instead. On the other hand, it would be good to have if I faced any Garbodor, and the card did help against Shadow Rider to get rid of Temple of Sinnoh. In the end, I kept it, but it wasn't particularly useful, and I could definitely see switching it for Counter Catcher, a fourth Grass Energy, or even a Path to the Peak.

 

The event

Champions League Aichi's most proeminent event in held in the Standard format, over a weekend. The Open League, the Expanded part of the event, is only on Sunday, and it only has 800 players compared to the 5000 of the Standard event. So while it's not treated as a side event at all, it does have some similar vibes.

I arrived at the venue on Sunday early in the morning. The tournament venue was smaller than what I'm used to, and I think it's because, unlike at our Regionals and Internationals, the tournament is only TCG: there's no VGC or Pokémon Go event. Also, since I was there only on Sunday, the only people still playing Standard are those who qualified for day 2, a small portion of all players. It's worth noting though that even on day 1, Standard players are separated into groups who don't all play at the same time, so there's never a point where 5000 people are playing simultaneously. I don't know if this structure is chosen because the venue is smaller, or if a smaller venue is enough because this is the structure, though.

Speaking of structure, all matches in Japan are played in best of one (bo1), with a 25 minute time limit, a stark difference from the 50 minutes bo3 matches international players are used to. This has some advantages: time management is not a concern, so while you still need to play at a decent pace to finish your game, you don't have to worry about whether you should scoop a game in order to have time for the next one. However, overall, I'm not a fan. Dead hands happen, and it really sucks that your only option in that case is to take the loss and wait for the next match.
I think it's even worse in Expanded, where the card pool is so huge that you have to be ready for many possibilities. Here's an example: you're playing Lugia VSTAR and going first, and you have a Battle Compressor in hand. The natural play is to discard two Archeops with it, in preparation for a turn 2 Summoning Star. However, if you do so, and your opponent plays Girafarig, they can Lost Zone your two Archeops; since Expanded Lugia only plays three Archeops, you only have your last one available for the rest of the game, which is a huge disadvantage (game-losing, even, depending on the opponent's deck). But if you keep your Battle Compressor for turn 2, you might get Item locked by something like Budew, and be unable to actually discard Archeops for Summoning Star, which is also devastating.

If you know what deck you're facing, and you're knowledgeable about the format, you can make an educated guess about what your opponent might do. Regidrago plays Budew but not Girafarig, and Shadow Rider plays Girafarig but not Budew, so if you can identify one of these decks, you know what to do. But what if the opponent opens with, say, Tapu Lele-GX, which is in both these decks (and plenty of others)? Then you have to simply take a guess. Or maybe go with a middle-of-the-road approach, in which you only discard one Archeops and hope to have a way to discard a second one on turn 2 if you get Item locked. Still, it feels pretty bad. And that doesn't account for situations where you Prize an Archeops, or where your opponent plays something unexpected like Girafarig in Regidrago. In a bo3 match, you can gather information during the first game, and use it to make more enlightened choices during the next two, but in bo1, the wrong choice spells the end of the match, and I think that's pretty bad for the health of the game. Similar situations happen in Standard too, but they're more common in Expanded, because the wider card pool means there are more tech cards that, like Girafarig, are devastating in a specific situation.

In addition to having best of one matches, the Open League has a very disappointing number of rounds: 8, followed by a cut to top 16. Even with bo3 matches, this would be a ridiculously low number of rounds for a 800 player tournament. Here's all the evidence you need: after eight rounds, three players had an 8-0 record, and twenty-four had a 7-1 record. This means that eleven of these players, almost half, sat outside of top 16 and missed their chance at top cut due to one loss. One loss which could come from a single dead hand. This is just not a serious way of running a competitive tournament. Even if Japanese events don't have cash prizes, they still have a lot of prestige attached to them, but having a tournament structure where variance is so high just ruins that. The only explanation I see is that the organizers decided that this structure worked well last year, when there were only 700 players instead of 800, and kept it without adapting it. This doesn't excuse anything, though, as it was easy to ancitipate what would happen by simply doing the math.
The best way to fix this issue would be to have a bigger tournament with more rounds, possibly held over two days, which would be a fairer way to establish a worthy winner. But at the very least, there should be an asymmetrical top cut that includes every 7-1 player. That's an easy fix that shouldn't be hard to implement. Get rid of the lunch break if needed!

Apart from these issues, which I assume come from people high up in the hierarchy, the event itself was very well ran. Lines were handled very efficiently, everything was clearly indicated (in Japanese, of course). There were even diagrams to help find your table easily, something which would have been very nice at some Regionals I've been to. There were multiple, clearly-visible timers, indicating time remaining and the approximative start of the next round.

One thing that surprised me is that rounds do not start until everyone is present and ready. If someone mulligans five times, no one starts their game before they're ready. We even waited about ten minutes on round 1 for a couple players who were late! This makes the tournament more friendly, as it feels more like a gathering of fans united in their love of a game, than a cutthroat competition, and I do appreciate it. That being said, I'd sacrifice this for one more round of play in a heartbeat. Is that sad?

The last notable difference is that at Champions Leagues, you get dropped from the tournament when you get three losses. This reduces the number of players still playing as the tournament goes on, which reduces delays due to waiting for mulligans to resolve and such. This create a strange effect where the number of tables remaining gets lower and lower as you near the end of the tournament, like you're in a battle royale game. It felt strange to have a 5-2 record and still be in the last row of tables, but, well, it makes sense since the 4-3 players and lower are not there anymore.

Tournament report

Round 1: vs Regidrago VSTAR

Round 1 is announced. I see my pairing, my opponent is a Japanese player with a name I don't recognize. Well, I mean, obviously. It turns out that I did know him a little, though, as he played in some online Expanded tournaments I also attended back in 2021.
In Japan, people don't flip a coin or roll a die to decide who goes first, but plays Rock-Paper-Scissors instead. Thankfully, I had a lot of practice, and I made sure to learn the rhythm of "Saisho wa gu, jan ken PON" (think "one two three, rock paper SCISSORS") to not make a fool of myself. Thanks to my immense skill at this game of luck, I won and chose to go first. I'd debated whether it was still optimal for Regidrago to play first, as there are ways to make going second less of a downside even in the mirror match, and against some matchups like Alolan Raichu, going first can be a death sentence. However, since going first was better against the two decks we expected the most, I decided to choose going first.

This was a good choice, because my opponent was also running Regidrago. This game was pretty one-sided. I take a Prize on turn 2, then on his second turn, he doesn't get a VSTAR, and he just passes with Marshadow Active. I use Timeless GX, then take two more Prizes afterwards, leaving me with a full board, a four Prize advantage, and my VSTAR Power still available. He does his best to survive, using Path to the Peak to stop me from using my VSTAR, but I have Marshadow in hand so I can remove the Path and use VSTAR to get what I need for game.

(1-0)

 

Round 2: vs Iron Thorns ex / Archeops

This matchup is scary, because I don't have a lot of experience. My opponent starts with Iron Thorns ex, and since I don't play Wobbuffet, I can't shut its Ability down in order to use Legacy Star or Tapu Lele-GX. Thankfully, my opponent's set up is pretty weak, with no Pokémon Research Lab on turn 1 (which is needed to get Archen into play), and my hand is playable even with no access to Abilities. Thanks, second Professor's Resarch!

I set up a second Regidrago V with a Basic Energy. On his second turn, my opponent can only Capture Energy for Vikavolt V, but can't even attack with it. Then, I use Dominating Echo, preventing my opponent both from attaching any more Special Energy and from playing Pokémon Research Lab. This pretty much seals the deal. I think my opponent tries a Guzma play to stick my non-attacking Regidrago Active, I Guzma back and end the game with Timeless GX into a KO.

(2-0)

 

Round 3: vs Shadow Rider VMAX

My opponent wins the rock-paper-scissors and chooses to go first. He sets up well and manages his board in a way that prevents me from getting an easy Prize map. I take the first two Prizes, and he gets two back with Lillie's Clefairy ex, but there's no easy way for me to get the remaining four. If I simply take two Prizes, I could very easily lose if my opponent recovers Clefairy on the next turn, plays N or Iono, and takes the KO with Trevenant & Dusknoir-GX's Night Watch, leaving me with a zero card hand. This is a trap I've learned during practice games, so I don't want to fall into it.
Instead, I consider using Timeless GX on Clefairy and following it up with Noivern ex's Covert Flight. This would make my Regidrago immune to Night Watch. However, my opponent could instead get the KO with Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX instead, and with no way to oneshot it, I would be in a dangerous situation. They could also use Trevenant & Dusknoir-GX's Pale Moon GX.
Instead, I choose to keep my GX attack a bit longer. I simply hit Clefairy for 140 with Dominating Echo, threatening Timeless GX into a KO on another Pokémon for the remaining four Prizes. My opponent uses Tapu Lele-GX to search for Acerola, heals Clefairy, then Benches it back and takes the KO with Night Watch. However, this leaves me in a position to end the game: thanks to Legacy Star, I'm able to use Guzma on the newly benched Tapu Lele-GX and take it out with Timeless GX + Muscle Band. Then, on the next turn, I can simply take another KO.
One interesting thing about this game is that time was called towards the end. In Japan, instead of having three additional turns after time is called, the player currently playing finishes their turn, then if they were the one who went first, the second player gets to take their last turn as well, and then the game's over. Time was called during my opponent's last turn, and since I went second, I got an additional turn. However, a judge confirmed that if I used Timeless GX during that last turn, I would be allowed to play out my extra turn. This is not how it would be played in the rest of the world, under TPCI's rules, but it worked out in my favor!

(3-0)

Round 4: vs Ceruledge ex

I go first, open Regidrago V, and my hand is basically unplayable. I do have a Regidrago VSTAR for the second turn, but nothing to do on the first, except Crobat for one, which is useless. So I just attach an Energy and pass. My opponent started Charcadet, so I know they could donk me, but I also know from experience that it's not that easy for Ceruledge to play Wally and still get ten Energy in the discard in order to reach the 230 damage threshold. Indeed, my opponent ends up only attacking for 140. Legacy Star gives me a Professor's Research and I can play the game. I end up taking the Prize lead by copying Koraidon ex's Kaiser Tackle.
My opponent takes the KO back and I have to use Raihan to power up a new Regidrago VSTAR. Since I've discarded Dialga-GX at this point, I'm wary of Lysandre Prism Star, so I use Timeless GX now to get an extra turn, which also lets me an extra Energy to by benched Regidrago in preparation for the next turn. My Dragapult ex is Prized, so I can't use Phantom Dive to soften my opponent's benched Pokémon. Instead, I copy Dominating Echo, which isn't very useful especially since my opponent was only running Basic Energy.

Then my opponent uses Lysandre Prism Star to Lost Zone my Koraidon ex, and takes the KO. This leaves me with no way to KO the Ceruledge ex. Thankfully, he had to bench Tapu Lele-GX to do so, so there's a two-Prize target on the Bench, but while I do have VS Seeker for Guzma in hand, I don't have a Double Dragon Energy in hand to take the KO. There are two left in my four-card deck. My opponent has discarded their Guzma, so if I use Budew, I can buy a turn where they can't take their last two Prizes... unless they play Briar, which is sometimes ran in Ceruledge. So I decide to get N with Tapu Lele-GX and play it. However, I can't find VS Seeker and Double Dragon Energy on the next turn, so I lose. In hindsight, I probably should have grabbed N with Lele and not played it, hoped that my opponent didn't play Briar (or at least didn't have it in hand), and had a 67% chance of drawing into Double Dragon Energy on the next turn.
After the tournament concluded, this opponent asked me why I didn't bench Koraidon ex instead of discarding it. In this matchup, there's no downside to attacking with Koraidon itself if you're in the lead: the opponent has to deal with it, or it will simply keep taking Prizes. Looking back on it, I don't remember if I could use it. I definitely had to discard it on turn 2, because Regidrago already had an Energy on it so I had to use it to attack, and couldn't power up Koraidon afterwards. However, it's possible that on the next turn, instead of powering up a backup Regidrago, I could have recovered Koraidon and attached to it instead. I don't remember when I used my Super Rod and what I got back, so I can't be sure, but it's something I should have thought about.

(3-1)

 

Round 5: vs Palafin ex / Wobbuffet

One of the things I love about Expanded is that sometimes, cards that never got a chance to shine in Standard, even recent cards, can find a new life in Expanded. Palafin ex is one such card: due to its Ability, it's very difficult to put into play. However, in Expanded, you can use Wobbuffet or Garbodor to shut down its Ability even in hand, allowing you to evolve it from Finizen normally.
While I'm familiar with the deck's concept, I've never played against it. There's no consensus on the deck, with every list playing a different draw engine and techs. However, I do have some experience with it, as I've tried various combinations of Supporters and Items to make the deck work. This comes into play very quickly.
My opponent goes first, and ends their first turn with Wobbuffet Active, as well as Finizen, Marshadow, and Sudowoodo on the Bench. On the next turn, they can easily KO my active Regidrago V with Palafin ex. I grab Tapu Lele-GX with Hisuian Heavy Ball and, while I'm using Wonder Tag, I find my best play: I get Crispin to attach a Grass Energy to Regidrago, then play Double Dragon Energy from my hand to KO Wobbuffet with Dragon Laser. With their only Wobbuffet gone, I know from experience that it's much more difficult for my opponent to get the KO, as they need to play another one, bring it Active, evolve Finizen, and then retreat Wobbuffet again. They end up getting another Wobbuffet in play and using Budew to buy some time, and I take a second Prize off it with Dragon Laser, evolving my benched Regidrago VSTAR instead so that if my Active Pokémon is KO, I have a VSTAR ready. Then they get Palafin ex in play, bring my Regidrago VSTAR Active with Prime Catcher, and take the KO with the help of Choice Belt, playing a Sky Field as well and a couple more Basic Pokémon. However, I'm able to evolve my Regidrago V into a VSTAR, and end the game with the right combination of cards: Guzma on Mr. Mime, Timeless GX, and then Trifrost double Finizen and Sudowoodo for the last three Prizes.

(4-1)

Round 6: vs Gardevoir ex

I go first, and my opponent starts with Team Rocket's Mimikyu. I don't know what to expect, but since this can be used in Shadow Rider as a way to KO Ceruledge ex (by copying its second attack, which deals 280 damage), I'm assuming that it's something like this. It turns out to be Gardevoir, but the first turn plays out similarly, with my opponent getting Chimecho into play and using Bell of Silence to buy time. My hand is poor, so that works well for them: I'm unable to play Dedenne-GX or Regidrago VSTAR, and pass for a couple turns drawing useless cards like VS Seeker, while they evolve two Ralts into Kirlia and draw cards. A Gardevoir ex hits the board soon after, but Chimecho keeps attacking. After a couple turns, I end up drawing into Battle Compressor. I choose to discard Crispin, get it back with VS Seeker, power up my Regidrago V, and take the KO with Dragon Laser. This turns out to be a huge mistake.
My opponent plays Trevenant & Dusknoir-GX and Lillie's Clefairy ex. Then they play Arven for Unfair Stamp, bring me to two cards in hand, and shuffle these two cards back in my deck with Night Watch while Knocking Out my only Pokémon with Energy. My board is two Regidrago V and a Crobat V. I promote Crobat, hoping to at least buy some time to top deck a good card. But my opponent evolves their remaining Kirlia into Gallade and use Buddy Catch to search for Guzma, bringing up one of my Regidrago V and taking it out with Night Watch. I draw a blank again and concede the game.
Looking back, instead of Crispin, I should have played Pokémon Ranger. This would have let me evolve into Regidrago VSTAR and build a better board, and I could have used Crispin on the next turn. I don't know if it would have changed much in the grand scheme of things, but it would have given me better odds. That said, finding a better play is easy in hindsight, but at the time, I had no idea what my opponent played, and while I obviously expected a Psychic deck to run Lillie's Clefairy ex, Trevenant & Dusknoir-GX is not a staple in Gardevoir, so I don't blame myself too much. This is one of these situations where I think best of three would have been cool. I would have enjoyed playing one more game with some knowledge of my opponent's deck.

(4-2)

Round 7: vs Regidrago VSTAR

At this point, losing means elimination from the tournament, even though I know I'm not making top cut anyway. So far, I hit six different decks in six rounds, but I finally get my first repeat matchup as I face another Regidrago mirror match. I win the toss and go first, and my opening hand is pretty good. My opponent uses Budew on turn 1, but they have only one Regidrago V in play, so I use Guzma to bring it Active, and then Legacy Star to get the Energy I needed in order to take the KO by copying Kaiser Tackle. From there on, I stay in control of the game, as it's pretty hard to come back with no Regidrago in play.

(5-2)

Round 8: vs Regidrago VSTAR

I'll be honest, I forgot to take notes for this game, because when my round finished, a player next to me asked me to sign a card, and then someone else wanted to take a selfie, and I ended up signing a bunch of cards and playmats and taking pictures with Expanded players. This is honestly pretty cool! I'm very glad that I have some notoriety in Japan, especially among the Expanded community due to my series of Expanded Deck of the Week threads on Twitter and now Bluesky.
The only thing I remember is that, once again, I was pretty much in control of the game. I wish I could tell you about how I made an insane comeback thanks to Karen, but honestly, I never needed it.

(6-2)

The tournament ends and I start playing a game with some player who wanted to face me. While we're talking, he asks me if I'm in top 64. I haven't looked at the rankings yet, so I check, and yeah, I'm 50th. He tells me that I need to hurry to get my Prizes, so I leave our game in a rush. It turns out that, unlike at Regionals, you can't pick up your prizes (well, it's just a promo card, there's no booster packs or anything) at any time. Instead, sixty-four seats (thirty-two tables) are labeled with numbers 1 to 64, and you have to sit at the spot corresponding to your number. Then a staff member goes from number 1 to 64 to give you a promo card (Enhanced Hammer with a special stamp), and you have to sign a sheet of paper to show you got the card. This all happens before top cut is played, which is why I had to rush, because I didn't want to delay the process. Honestly, I found this system to be pretty slow, and I would have preferred to just stand in a line whenever I had time. It would also have saved time by letting top cut start earlier.

The metagame

In the end, Regidrago VSTAR won the event. It also got 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and nine more spots in top 16. Yeah, the deck dominates. I think saying "Regidrago got 13 out of the top 16 spots" is a little bit misleading, because there were plenty of other decks with a 7-1 record that bubbled out of top 16, and the fact that among the 7-1 decks, Regidrago disproportionately got into top 16 is a bit random, but still, it's impossible to escape the fact that yes, it dominated the Open League. It takes up about half of top 64 (results here) and is undeniably the best Expanded deck, with other decks like Evocon, Lugia, Shadow Rider and Ceruledge clearly one tier below.

How much of an issue is it? In my opinion, less than you'd expect. It does paint a poor picture of Expanded that one deck is so much ahead of the rest, and yeah, I'd like more decks to be viable, but honestly, as far as BDIFs go, Regidrago is a pretty cool one! It has many options, and it plays very differently from matchup to matchup: against Ceruledge, you can spam Kaiser Tackle, while against Stall, you want to use Distort to spread damage on the opponent's board to set up for a Timeless GX into Trifrost combo.
And the mirror match is intricate. Bench management is important. Resource management is important. You have to think about Budew and Item lock, about Energy lock, about when to use your VSTAR Power. Sometimes you can just chain OHKOs, but that is very rarely the correct play, and if you're too aggressive, you can often get punished hard for it. Instead, you need to make the best out of Noivern ex's Dominating Echo, and use Timeless GX at the right time. Many techs can impact the matchup, including Karen, Plumeria, and Path to the Peak.
In the game that I mentioned above that got interrupted by me having to get my prizes, my opponent played a Regidrago variant that played more Items (including Battle VIP Pass and Trainers' Mail) and spammed Team Yell Grunt. He kept removing my Energy from play and using Dominating Echo to keep me from attaching Double Dragon Energy, so at no point could I use Crispin or Raihan + DDE to start attacking. I noticed that he still had his VSTAR Power available, so he could use Team Yell Grunt at least twice more, preventing me from attacking for two more turns. I needed to do something, so I used Budew's Itchy Pollen (I think I had to use my VSTAR for that) to force him to make a decision: use the VSTAR Power to recover Team Yell Grunt (since VS Seeker was unavailable) or break the lock. He ended up with the second choice, I was able to start attacking, and eventually won the game after using Megaton Blower to remove his Energy from play and Timeless GX into Dominating Echo to prevent him from attacking. There are plenty of similar situations in mirror matches where the player who's behind is able to mount a comeback by managing their resources carefully and making the right choices are the right time.

Because Regidrago mirror matches are so complex, I don't think that it's a huge issue that the format is dominated by one deck. It's not even like other archetypes are unplayable: plenty of decks have a very playable Regidrago matchup, it's just that their overall matchup spread is worse, or that Regidrago can tech against them if needed.

I do admit, though, that if Expanded events were common, seeing so much Regidrago all the time would get tiring. 

The boring solution to that is to ban Dialga-GX. This card is why Regidrago is able to beat so much stuff, and without it, the deck would play much more fair against the rest of the field. That said, I think people are too fast to call for a ban. In my opinion, bans should be kept for cards that keep people from playing the game, not for simple power level reasons.

 There are two reasons for this. First, if you ban cards whenever they seem too strong, then you discourage players from trying to solve the metagame. Instead of trying to find new ways to beat top tier decks, players who don't like whichever deck is the current best become incentivized to simply complain and wait until it gets banned. Conversely, it deters people from playing good decks: who wants to invest in cards knowing that if they ever do well, they'll get banned? So we end up in a situation where the metagame progresses not due to tournament results, but repeated outside influence, which can kill people's motivation to play.
The second reason is that those who call for bans rarely think about the consequences of these bans. If you ban the best deck, then the second best becomes the new best deck, and if you ban this one, then another one will take its place. Banning the best card will usually not balance a format, and might not even be a step in the right direction. A ban is only worth it if the format without the banned card is much better than the one with it. Would Expanded be better without Dialga-GX? I don't know. It's possible, but it's certainly not guaranteed (at the very least, I think Regidrago mirror matches would be more snowbally), and I wish that people would advocate for a testing process instead of just calling for bans.

Rather than simply banning Dialga-GX (or anything else), the ideal solution would be for the game designers to, instead, print new cards that can help other decks beat Regidrago. Look:

Tapu Lele - 120 HP - Psychic
Basic Pokémon
{C}{C} Purge Beam
Choose an attack from a {N} Pokémon in your opponent's discard pile and use it as the effect of this attack.
Weakness: {M} - Resistance : / - Retreat : {C}

With this, any deck that can put two Energy on a Pokémon can copy Timeless GX and other powerful attacks. Lugia, Iron Thorns, Shadow Rider, and more all improve their Regidrago matchup. Maybe that wouldn't work great in practice, maybe Regidrago would easily shuffle back Dialga-GX in their deck after using Timeless GX, I don't know, but I made this in ten minutes. I assume that professional game designers could find a way to nerf Regidrago without resorting to a ban, if they wanted to. Honestly, I'm somewhat expecting an anti-Regidrago tech to come out at some point before next year. While Expanded is not the designers' focus, I think it's still something that they keep in mind, so after seeing the results of this Champions League, there's probably some pressure to suppress Regidrago's power level.

There's another option that I'd like to suggest: playing best of three. See, it's incorrect to say that Regidrago has no bad matchup. Evocon is strong against Regidrago, thanks to the combination of Item lock and Karen. When it sets up, it wins most of the time. The issue is that Evocon needs to set up on turn 1 (or turn 2 going first), or they usually get destroyed, not only against Regidrago, but against any aggressive deck. And while the deck does get turn 1 Vileplume and Pidgeot ex probably around 80% of the time, that's still 20% of lost games. In a bo1 tournament, that makes the deck risky to run, as you'll probably lose at least one game due to Prizing both copies of one of your many two-ofs, or not finding Guzma & Hala. In bo3, that would be much more manageable, and I think we would see Evocon be a bigger part of the metagame. That would of course have ripple effects; Regidrago might focus more on Evocon techs like Goomy, but that would mean it would fare worse against other archetypes. A deck like Shadow Rider, which is slightly unfavored against Regidrago but favored against Evocon, would become a stronger choice. Overall, I think it would shake up the metagame a little.
Maybe I'm wrong, but even if I am, I think bo3 is a better choice than bo1 anyway, as I already explained. The possible decrease of the Regidrago share of the meta is just a bonus!

Final words

This trip to Japan was fantastic, and after spending so much time talking about Expanded, it was an honor to, essentially, represent the Western world in the CL Aichi Open League, even though the Western world mostly didn't care and was busy repeating that Expanded sucks because of ADP⁽¹⁾ or whatever. In addition to TDS and the rest of the testing group, and the broader Japanese community, I also want to thank Heddi and Fabien (who also went to Nagoya to play in the Champions League, but in Standard, which is why I didn't mention them until now) for being cool people to hang out with, and Antoine for their help lending me a bunch of cards and teaching me how Japanese tournaments work, and of course everyone who supported me from afar.
I hope I can go back to Japan next year. If the tournament is still 8 rounds and top 16, it will be a disappointment, but I would still want to participate in the biggest Expanded event of the season!

⁽¹⁾ Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX, also known as ADP, is a card that made Standard atrocious in the 2021 season that was cancelled due to covid. Some people are still terrified of it years later, even though in the current Expanded metagame ADP sees absolutely zero play and has plenty of counters.

PS: If you have any interest in the Expanded format, you can join the Silent Lab Discord server to learn more about the format, get recent decklists, and coordonate with other players to play online or IRL!