So I didn't attend the first Ultra Ball League of Season 3 of the 2024-25 season for a good reason, I traded in the boring bo1 event for a way more fun bo3 event that was the 2025 Melbourne Regional. It was my second TPCi Regional event, the first being Kuala Lumpur Regional back in 2019, but it was my first properly over-seas regional event. So my first regional event outside of Asia.
I've always said that I'd love to, eventually, go around to many different places to play Pokémon, be it in the United States, Canada, Europe, wherever it may be. I want to know what it's like to play with people from different places because in Singapore, I can only play against my own locals. It's nice but it can get a bit repetitive. Plus I learnt to play Pokémon through Bo3, I will always prefer playing Bo3 than Bo1 and I can't get Bo3 here in Asia.
Before Flying Off
The biggest question was....what deck do I play? Anyone who has followed my season so far knows the story, since January I've been in a bit of a rut, not finding a new comfort deck or any deck that I enjoy playing. I've just been jumping from one deck to another every other event.
So I didn't just pack one deck to bring to Melbourne, I brought at least 5 just in case. Dragapult, Charizard, Gholdengo, Joltik, and pieces to any deck playing the Noctowl engine not named Flareon.
I even made a list of what I think I would end up playing:
The irony here of Dragapult/Dusknoir being my first choice being that...well...my two worst results of this season so far came from the last two times I played Dragapult/Dusknoir, both times being a 2-4 score. But I always knew it was more of a bo3 deck so that's why it was high up on my considerations plus it had a better Gardevoir matchup over the solo Pult variant.
Gholdengo was initially my 2nd pick but I didn't feel too good about it as the week went on and somehow, good ol' Charizard with Dusknoir became my 2nd choice for the biggest event I would have played in a long while, having not played much of it in the first place! But I felt like I knew how to play it as well as I could. Then of course, we have the "in case of emergency, break glass" deck, Joltik Box. And trust me, I came very close to doing it.
What about the homies? There were a bunch of us all staying together in our apartment and some knew what to play, some not so as well:
- Jeremy - Dead set on Gardevoir for a month now
- Bjorn - Raging Bolt but with some spice in true Bjorn fashion
- Jason - Same 60 as Bjorn
- My brother Ash - Initally on Pult but switched to Gholdengo solo then a last second switch to Gholdengo Dragapult for more draw options
- Keith - Standard Tera Box
- Ryan - Standard Tera Box with some spice
- Noel - Initially on Pult Dusk then made the last second switch to Pult Zard
So no same 60ing as anyone but also because the Pult/Dusk list I chose was a bit different to anything anyone else was trying out. I locked in the deck at about 10:30pm on Friday night, making one single change to the list at 5.30am! I gotta thank my buddy Luke Morsa for getting me hooked onto this list, he told me about it after Milwaukee and I tested it more than the other lists.
The Deck
POKEMON
- 4-4-2 Dragapult Line
- The usual, just one less Dragapult ex to make up space for other stuff but I felt the 3rd one wasn't needed
- 2-2-1 Dusknoir Line
- 1 Dusknoir was more than enough, I'm usually using Dusclops more anyway
- 2 Budew
- Itchy Pollen to not just slow your opponent down but help you build your board up
- 1 Fezandipiti ex
- We all need it, don't we?
- 1 Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex
- I like it for the late game attack, especially in combination with Dusclops
- 1 Hawlucha
- Good to take out 70 HP mons or KO 210 HP mons
- 1 Munkidori
- Gives more options to take out stuff like Drakloak, Kirlia and other big basic mons
SUPPORTERS
- 4 Iono
- Best supporter in this deck
- 2 Arven
- Probably the best thing to use Turn 1
- 2 Jacq
- Probably the best thing to use Turn 2
- 2 Professor's Research
- Hand refresh is good, especially now in this Budew meta, more supporters is good
- 2 Boss's Orders
- Having 4 gust options with this deck can be really good and there'll be times you can't use Counter Catcher so 2 Boss helps with that
ITEMS
- 4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin
- Good ball search for the little guys
- 3 Ultra Ball
- Good ball search for the bigger guys
- 1 Nest Ball
- More so for Fezandipiti ex or Munkidori most of the time
- 2 Night Stretcher
- I did try a Super Rod in this spot but 2 Stretcher just felt right, more often you're using this to get back an energy right away or a Dusclops
- Also more outs to get energy cards along with Vessel
- 2 Counter Catcher
- Works well with how this deck works, and 4 gusting options is nice
- 1 Earthen Vessel
- Another out to get energy in the deck since we only play 7
- 1 Switch
- Retreat lock is a thing now so we need the option
- 1 Unfair Stamp
- Probably the best Ace Spec card for this deck, I'm still not too sure about it because I'm not a fan but it's the one that generally works best for this list. I'm still exploring other options
- 1 Rare Candy
- This was the last minute swap. Initially it was an Exp Share but I didn't see I was getting much use of it and I was worried about how quickly decks like Tera Box, Joltik Box and Raging Bolt could run my board off so I wanted this as a "just in case" option if I'm really far behind
TOOLS
- 1 Rescue Board
- Great tool to help move into Budew
- 1 Luxurious Cape
- Great to put on Budew to help with Budew wars
- Can help to save Drakloak from sniping options
STADIUMS
- 1 Artazon
- Help to put little mons on the board under Budew lock
- 1 Pokémon League Headquarters
- Very good into decks like Joltik Box
- Can be a cheeky option late on to stop their Bloodmoon Ursaluna or other basic mons to attack
ENERGY
- 3 Luminous Energy
- Best energy to use in this deck, helps to save the issue Dragapult usually has of trying to get the two different energies
- Allows us to use Munkidori as well
- 2 Fire Energy
- 2 Psychic Energy
That's the 60! It felt fine honestly.
2025 Melbourne Regional
Day 1 - Saturday
Round 1
vs Brendan Prewett (AUS) - (2/4/0)
Deck: Charizard ex/Noctowl
LWW
I went 2nd/2nd/2nd
First round in and my opponent reveals a Charmander and Fan Rotom so I already knew what I needed to do. I did my first deck search and sure enough, both Budews were prized so I was in trouble already for the first game. I played out a few more turns just to learn more about his deck, I managed to see a Dusknoir piece so after that I scooped and went to Game 2.
Game 2 and 3 went perfectly for me, Budew lock did it's job. So much so, my two Budews got knocked out in back to back turns in Game 3 and I had to go Stretcher to get it back because my set-up was still quite bad and that one turn did enough for me to set up a 4-prize turn after that. A comeback win in Round 1, I was feeling good...
Round 2
vs Kaiwen Cabbabe (AUS) - (7/2/2)
Deck: Gardevoir ex
LL
I went 2nd/2nd
...and then I saw my pairing for Round 2. "Oh shit, it's Kaiwen"! I was excited at first. Then as I was walking to my table it hit me "Oh shit it's Kaiwen, he probably knows this matchup way more than I do". I did say I picked this deck quite late on. I did have some games vs Garde but probably not as much as he has with his testing group vs my testing group.....aka just myself and ladder opponents on PTCGL.
I had a super slow start Game 1 and I knew I couldn't come back from it. What I didn't realise was he prized all 3 Munkidoris. But he still had a strong enough board state to wipe anything I did.
Game 2 was a lot closer even with the Munkis involved. This is where I fucked up. At one point, he had no energy in discard, two Gardevoirs. One with energies, one without. I had Counter Catcher, Stamp and a fully charged Dragapult ready to go. But I was debating on who I should gust up. That's where I messed up.
I went for the Gardevoir which was wrong, I should have gone for the Fezandipiti. That way, I can put all sorts of damage onto it, THEN gust the Gardevoir, spread more damage and go for the 5-prize game, as he only had one Munkidori with Dark energies to return the damage and I still had my 3 gusts to help with that. So because I gusted the wrong thing, I gave him the bench spot to comeback and I threw the game because of that. He was nice enough to let me know what I should have done, which was what I was initially thinking of so it was nice to get that clarity from a player of his caliber. I should have followed my first instinct.
And now we're down to 1-1.
Round 3 and I hit one of my fellow South-East Asian players, Raymond from Indonesia and for sure his name is one I knew from following their events so I knew he's good. And it was a mirror match too.
First game he rolled me, I was too slow to set up. Second game I had the better set-up and got the checkmate. Game 3 was super close, it came down to the Dusk boys doing the work and I just barely squeaked that one. Yet another game that I lost Game 1 but this time, like Round 1, came from behind to win.
Yup, another Gardevoir, another brixty. This time I had a much easier time, he was a bit slow to set up and gave me enough time to do the Dusknoir plays + Pult to wipe out the board. Game 2 was a bit the same, he just had a slower start even after going 2nd.
Somehow the only Joltik Box I hit all weekend and it was the 3rd most played deck! I didn't even hit the 2nd most played deck which was Raging Bolt either. I had a slow start to Game 1, he took 4 prizes in 3 turns and even with my Pult up, I knew it was only a matter of time until he showed boss for game, and he did. I also did a silly, I thought by having Cape on my Budew it'd stop the Amp play but he attached another lighting energy to use the first KO, still giving him two prizes. Whoops.
Game 2 was much better for me because finally I showed him my tech for this matchup, the HQ. It slowed him down enough for me to do the whole 4 prize turn to make the comeback for Game 3.
Game 3, I saw my starting hand and I was excited, I had HQ in hand! I started Budew, played down HQ, bench my Dreepy and passed. That HQ bought me a lot of time because he couldn't set up the Joltik attack until Turn 2, by that point I had two Drakloaks with energies on them and a Dusk ready to do the biz. He did make it close in the end shoving up an Ursaluna after I had used my Dusk bomb which meant I had to draw a Boss to win the game. Thankfully my 2nd Recon Directive got me there, if not I would have thrown a good position and tied that game.
After Round 5 was done, I met up with my brother and he was talking to Daichi Shimada who had just played him and I finally got to meet him and spoke to him. He even gave me one of his keychains which was nice. 3 minutes later, we checked the pairings....and I'm up against him hahaha! We had a good laugh about that.
Game 1 was terrible. I dead drew and he got the KO on my lone Duskull with Fezandipiti! Game 2 was probably the only real game we had, he got the Torrential Pump off but I did manage to get another Budew down, Catcher his Noctowl, Stamp and build my board back up again after that. He passed for like 5 turns to the point I managed to build enough of a board to take the win.
Then Game 3 happens. I remember what happened in Game 1 and chose to go 1st. Bad call. I had HQ in my hand and started Budew, got Poffin to get two Dreepys down. Pass. Daichi attaches Sparkling Crystal on his benched Wellspring Mask Ogerpon + Crispin and I knew I was in trouble. I showed him the HQ in my hand and we both got a laugh out of that. I should have known better, just bench it down and make him have it at the cost of using Itchy Pollen. That was a terrible way to throw a matchup I thought was pretty decent for me.
4-2 now, next one is the win and possibly in to Day 2.
Another Tera Box again but this time it went much smoother for me. I went behind initially Game 1 but did the same thing as I did vs Daichi and came back from that. Game 2 Jan had a slower start if I remember correctly and couldn't recover from it. HQ was helping me a lot in this matchup as well.
So now we're 5-2! One ID is enough to lock myself into Day 2. But this is where my lack of experience got the better of me. I didn't know if I should just ID or play it out. Most of my friends were saying just to ID while the top Aussie players and guys like Jack and Aidan said I should play it out.
Round 8
vs Ashton Grant (AUS) - (5/3/1)
Deck: Roaring Moon/Dudunsparce
T
I went back to the hotel after that
I was feeling nervous and my opponent seemed keen on the ID so we took it. I had no clue what deck he was on, I hadn't seen him much and my notes, or my friends notes, didn't have his name on it. After we signed the slip, we spoke for a bit then he asked me what deck I was on, I told him Pult Dusk. Then he told me he was on Moon Duns.
My heart sank. That's one of my better matchups! Now I was feeling a bit stupid. Sure 5-2-1 is enough to give me my first Day 2 in a TPCi event, but at least 6-2 gives me a chance to fight for a potential top cut finish, or at the very least top 32. I still wasn't feeling so confident with my deck so Top 64 was what I was aiming for, which is why I was ok with the ID. I knew I couldn't win this event, but I wanted to be in the fight at least and not take the risk and lose and not be in the fight.
Mistakes were made, I should have backed myself as Kaiwen told me and fight it out. Well now we know better for next time.
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| End of Day 1 |
Day 2 - Sunday
This one hurt. I was happy to see the straight Pult build because I knew it was a decent matchup for me but I had a slow start and scooped after 11 minutes when I saw the writing was on the wall, I wanted to give myself enough time to win the next two games.
Game 2 went a bit long, I was in a pretty good spot and my opponent still played it out, not sure why, I would think he could have scooped sooner as I had checkmate for a few turns, I just didn't want to make a silly mistake with my Dusk bombs.
Game 3 was going well for me and then I messed up. I KOed his first Pult. He did some stuff, then I bossed his other Pult, and this is where I messed up. I didn't realize it had no energies on it. I had a Duskull in my hand was worried to put it down. I didn't know if he played Crispin or not and if he did, he'd be down to 1 prize and I was still at 5. The thing was, looking at his board state, I saw my 5 prizes and it needed the Dusknoir to get me there. The issue was, I had already used both Stretcher and Rare Candy so the best I could do was manually evolved it two turns to get the Dusknoir for the 5 prize turn.
I should have examined my opponent's board more thoroughly there, that's what cost me the win. And because we were on time, I didn't have enough time to pull off that 5 prize game combo. I felt really down about that game, I knew that one was my fault, I should have been more alert to the situation.
My 3rd of 4 Gardevoirs in this event, at least I'm seeing them. The more I played, the more I was figuring out how to win the matchup. First game was just bad for me, I went in with a Pult with no backup attacker, it got cleaned up by a Gardevoir with Clefairy on the bench, I knew so I scooped.
Game 2 went much better, same thing happened on their side but this time I had the backup attacker to clear their board.
Game 3 was super close, we went to time and on my last turn, I needed to hit a combination of gust (Catcher or Boss) and ball search for Ursaluna to gust up their Clefairy and bomb the damaged Scream Tail (I think that's the damage one) for game. I had Research but I knew 1 Catcher was prized and the odds of me hitting the other Catcher wasn't high. I had Unfair Stamp as my backup but also had one more Recon Directive to help. Got nothing out of it, stamp and I saw Boss and Ultra Ball for the Luna for game! For once stamp actually helped!
At this point I was 6-2-2, with the next win possibly putting me into Top 32, aka prize money!!! My flight would be repaid, and I hadn't won money before from an official Pokémon TCG event so far in my 10 years of playing since I got back into it.
I saw Jake's name and I was a bit excited, because it's another Gardevoir which is what I wanted. Also shoutout to Jake for being the most chilliest opponent I had the whole tournament!
Unfortunately, the games were just terrible from my side because of double brick hands. This was the win and in to earn some money and a booster box as well, maybe even two (aka more money, we all love that don't we) and what did I start? Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex. I knew I was in trouble. And to make things worse, they started Budew, but I was fine with it, all I had to do was Dusk bomb it.
That's where the problem shows up, I check my prizes and errr....both Dusclops are prized. I was never going to use Rare Candy in that game since they were locking me out of Items and Boss wasn't going to help as they had no easy targets to trap. So after 5 minutes of trying to figure out if there's anything different about his list, I knew I had to scoop to give myself plenty of time to comeback and win Games 2 and 3.
Then Game 2 happened. I start 2nd, I was feeling good, I had a decent start, I check my prizes.....a Dusclops is prized, while the other one is in my hand. No bigge, one is good enough to help me KO either Munki or Tail. It's the Dusknoir I need....and that sadly was prized. Dusknoir just helps to swing the Garde matchup a lot and not having that option just makes it really tough, especially as he KOed my first Duskull. I just could not set up this game either, no Iono, no Jacq, no Research, pretty much a carbon copy of the first game. So even without those prizes, I probably was doomed. So I had to extend the hand after just 12 minutes, I was too far behind at that point and he had two Gardevoirs ready to go.
Final Score: 6-3-2
Final Placing: 67th/583
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| End of Day 2 |
As if I wasn’t already feeling down about how the last round went, I got the real kick to the gut news. I finished 67th, 3 places off Top 64, which was my target at the start of the day. The difference was just 18 packs but still, a top 64 finish at a TPCi regional sounds way better than a Top 128 finish, especially since I played in Day 2 and some of them didn’t.
But I can’t be mad, I did way better than I expected. I walked into the event Saturday morning just wanting to better my OCIC 2020 score (3/5/1), mainly because I was not familiar with my deck at all. After every round I kept looking at my list to familiarise myself with my own deck, that’s how bad it was.
I’m still happy to at least make Day 2 at a TPCi event, something I’ve always wanted to do and doing it in my first TPCi event since the pandemic felt great, but I know personally I can do better. A lot better. I just hope I can have another opportunity to try in one of these bo3 events.
Takeaways
Bo3 > Bo1
I will die on this hill. I've always said Bo3 is better and now more Singaporean players know it too. My Bo3 propaganda will not stop. I just do not enjoy playing Bo1 which is maybe why I haven't done well in any event the last few years yet one of my better results came here in Melbourne, a bo3 event.
And if we look at how my Game 1 went in the ten rounds I played, I lost 8 out of 10 of them! I would have been so screwed had that been a Bo1 event.
Timing
That was one of my biggest fears going to the event. I mean 25 minute bo1 is scary enough, Bo3 50 minutes +3 turns could be just as scary playing a slow deck like what I was on (Dragapult/Dusknoir). But it never really mattered in all but two of my games. The first one, I did squeak out the win whereases the other, I screwed up and lost the chance to win the game by being one turn behind.
Knowing when to scoop is a big thing for Bo3. I knew I was in a bad spot in a number of those games and scooped right away to give myself a chance to make the comeback and it worked most of the time.
Note-Writing
Yes, I did bring a notepad because we're allowed to do that in a TPCi event, unlike in Singapore where it's considered cheating.
No, I didn't actually use it all that much haha!
I think I'm just so used to not using a notepad that it felt a bit weird for me to even use it in the first place. I did try to use it in the first few games but as the day went on, I just didn't use it as much. There were a few times where I would prize something important and write it down but that was honestly it. Didn't really help me much.
My pen ink also died so that also didn't help. I had to use my Green pen which was a bit harder to see.
Match Slips
I can’t lie but seeing a paper match slip again after a few years was a bit weird. Here in Singapore and the rest of Asia, we’re so used to reporting our scores online these days.
I wonder if TPCi will slowly move to an online reporting system. The paper slip does seem to work a bit better in a Bo3 environment but come on guys, get with the times!
To ID Round 9 or not to ID
Well I learnt the hard way on this one, didn't I? All the top players were saying to back myself and fight it out. As it turns out, the guys on x-2-1, none made cut so taking the risk and playing it out, and winning, meant I had a chance to make top cut.
In my defense, it was my chance to get my first Day 2 finish and I was super nervous and I just wanted it to be done and over with, but still I shouldn't have done that. The only time I should ID is if it's a bad matchup for me.
Deck Choice
Was Dragapult Dusknoir the best choice for me? Honestly I'm still not sure but it worked out pretty well for me. Would I have done any better had I gone with Gardevoir instead? Honestly no because I hadn't played it much, I don't know how to maneuver the mirror match as I showed in one of the older UBLs and I'm not too confident playing it.
My other choices was a Joltik Box. It's an aggro deck, which I like and it can win games before anything happens but later on, the better players will know how to play around it which is why I didn't want to play that. Same for Gholdengo.
As for my rouge choices, I didn't put in much time with either Charizard/Dusknoir or Hydreigon/Pidgeot, both I think are quite decent but I just wasn't sure if they were the right thing to play. I do like playing these rough choices but I need to be sure that they work before I actually bring them to a tourney, I made that mistake once before (Kuala Lumpur Regional 2019).
The best deck choice is honestly still the one you feel the most comfortable which, which is something I haven't found ever since Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex because unplayable at the start of the year. I haven't found a deck that just clicks with me and I've been struggling with all sorts of events simply because of that. My next event is the back-to-back UBLs in the next two weekends and I still honestly do not know what I will play for those events. I know you're going to say, why not stick with Dragapult Dusknoir? That deck is better suited for a Bo3 event, not Bo1.
The Standard of Singapore Players
Yes we know the joke that started from Jeremy but hey, 22 (it says 21 + Ryan who is under UK flag) of us showed up, all but 2 scored 10 or more points, 11 of the 22 made Top 128. 6 made Day 2! And to think that number of players from our tiny island travelling to Australia to not even fight for points could have gone up to 25 had the UBL not clashed!
It was so cool to see Jeremy make a legendary run to make it to finals but alas the curse continues, poor ol' Liaobi still doesn't have his big win yet. Anselm and Keenan, two of my older friends I made in this game, both made Top 64 which is great to see. It still annoys me a bit when I see all these videos from these Youtubers all talking about the Japanese players showing up in Australia and saying how cool it is to see them play, yet completely ignore all of us! I hope we can change that someday, and have one of our players win a TPCi regional. The last was Joey, also in Melbourne!
Melbourne
Give it a visit wherever you may be from. Lovely place, it was my 5th visit, hopefully there will be more to come. The CBD area is easy to get around, you can walk anywhere honestly. There are even free tram zones which I forgot about, I could have done that to get to the venue, whoops!
Be mindful though, some stuff are a little bit expensive in Australia, and not just the Pokémon stuff, even the food! I didn't buy any packs or any of that stuff, there were all just too expensive.
Also here's my short little tier list of the fast food in Australia
- Subway
- McDonald's
- Hungry Jack's
- KFC
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| The SG crew! |
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I really enjoyed the chance to travel to Australia to play Pokémon TCG and to see my overseas friends too, be it from Australia or US or Canada! It was cool to see a few people come up to me to say hello, even signed a Centiskorch VSTAR card for my buddy Stefan haha!
I did a short "vlog" style video for the event if you wanna check it out here.
Rooming with the SG homies was cool too, thanks to my brother Ash, Jeremy, Bjorn, Jason, Keith, Ryan and Noel for a fun stay. Also thanks to my buddy Aidan for hanging out the Monday after the event. Hopefully this will be the first of many TPCi events I can go to, would love to do an European event and of course, a North American event. That's the one I'd really love to go to, more so to test myself against the best from each different regions, wherever it may be. Thanks for reading!
