Toucannon/drakloak run in Frankfurt 2027

Round 1: Cem Kara with Dragapult Hammers (WW)

Dragapult was the deck I expected to see the most. It still seemed scary even with 4 Battle Cage, but my opponent had fairly bad starts both times, which allowed me to pull ahead too far. He ended up making phase 2 in the end, which is always nice to see.

Round 2: Antoine Fichefet with Slowking (LL)

I added the Shaymin the day before the tournament for this matchup, but it didn't matter here. I hard bricked round one, and round two they had prime catcher to KO my Shaymin on turn two. I didn't find Sacred Ash to recover shaymin, but then again, I only play two so that's fair. I lost the game pretty quickly after that.

Fun fact: in game 2, my opponent started a Mew ex from the new 30th Celebration set. He immediately moved it to the bench, where it remained all game. That was the only card from 30th Celebration that I saw all tournament. Great set.

Round 3: Christian Böhler with Toxtricity Box (WW)

I remember getting really lucky here, because I made a critical blunder and went unpunished. My opponent benches Fezandipiti ex and two toxels on turn one, and on turn two, my only draw comes from a single Drakloak. I have Toucannons but my opponent has Team Rocket's Watchtower in play. I have Shaymin in hand and I don't even think about benching it, until I pass the turn. Then, I realize my mistake and my opponent capitalizes: he snipes the drakloak with his Fezandipiti ex. I stayed in the game because I topdecked energy twice in a row, and won the game from there. Remember, kids: Fezandipiti ex has an attack.

Game 2 I draw well and my opponent opened Mega Absol ex, so I win the prize trade easily.

Round 4: Irene Lopez Gomez with Festival Lead (LL)

It's Festival Lead with Dipplins and two Gladion's Final Battle. This is the one autoloss of the deck. I can't win this unless they have a very bad start.

Round 5: Christian Franz with Slowking (LWW)

I don't remember the loss, it must have been a very short game. Probably a brick. Game 2 I bench Shaymin immediately, feeling pretty good about myself, and then his first attack is with the Spectrier that places 12 damage counters to KO the Shaymin. This time I have Sacred Ash to recover it, and then I outtrade for long enough to win. Game 3 I put Mist Energy on Shaymin and he couldn't do anything.

Round 6: Emma Hagen with Hydrapple ex (WLW)

I've played for long enough at this point to not get intimated by world-class players anymore, so I didn't panic. The games were very cool, the opponent kept the bench very small so I could never oneshot Ogerpon ex without a damage modifier. She also plays Briar, which means I have to go first and I cannot miss a turn in order to keep up with the prize trade. I won the coin flip, and both game 1 and game 3 I draw well enough to keep up. After the match, we both agree that the coin flip decided the whole match.

Round 7: Bjarne Van Puijenbroeck with Crustle (WLW)

I thought this matchup would be interesting, and it was, if they go solo Kangaskhan ex. The Kangaskhan is very difficult to knock out and takes oneshots the whole time, so it really is a race to KO it and remove all energies before I run out of Toucannons. Game 1 my opponent thinks I play Dragapult and starts to attack with Crustle, so I win easily. Game 2 I have to go second, and by the time I get through the first Kangaskhan, the second one is ready to go, so I lost. Game 3 I accidentally played right into Bianca's Devotion by leaving his Kangaskhan with 10HP, but the opponent whiffs. Then, later in the match, the opponent forgets their own Hero's Cape and passes to play around Spiky Energy. This loses them the entire game.

Round 9: Tom Rath with Dhelmise (LL)

OK, so I guess this deck has two autolosses. My opponent played Legacy Energy and enough ways to attack with 6 Dhelmise, so I lose both games pretty quickly. At some point I brought up his Poltchageist with 30HP and attack with Trumbeak to try to steal a turn, but I flip tails and immediately scoop. Great opponent, we were laughing the whole time.

Round 10: Norman Markowski with Mega Excadrill ex (LWW)

I say this was Mega Excadrill, but against me, it just turned into a Genesect ex + 4 metang deck. Genesect's attack KOs a Toucannon and makes it take 30 less damage, which just puts it out of range if you limit your bench. Then they have a lot of healing. The opponent realizes that immediately, and each of the 3 games became very cool.

Round 11: Valerio Grassi with Festival Lead (WLW)

Hey, so remember when I said that I can only win against Festival Lead when they have a really bad start? That's what happened game 1 and 3. Game 1 he also discarded a stadium before he realized that I have 4 counterstadiums, which lost him the game. Game 2 was over after about 2 turns.

Round 12: Brennan Kamerman with Slowking (LWL)

Once again, I was not intimidated by having to go up against a big name. We even played before at a Belgian cup and he still remembered me. Game 1 was a hard brick, and the only time I announced Pikipek's attack. Fortunately, both other games were very cool and close. Game 2 my Shaymin gets prime catchered and KOd immediately, but I find the Sacred Ash and search to bring it back immediately. Still, the game went down to one turn. Game 3 I do have a very good start but no recovery for the Shaymin, so Kyurem took out my entire board and I lost.

Round 13: Alvaro Bueno Blanco with Crustle (WW)

Almost a repeat of the previous Crustle matchup. In the first game he starts to attack with Crustle and loses immediately. In the second game he attacks with solo Kangaskhan and I have two Pikipeks prized, so my board is miserable, but somehow I just manage to deal enough damage to put his Kangaskhan in range of a Fan Rotom attack before my final Toucannon goes down. Then, he doesn't bench anything else and runs straight into the loss. He had Dwebble in hand, and if he would have benched that, he would have won easily.

Round 14: Marvin Dühring with Dragapult Blaziken (LL)

Oh, I guess I've been dodging Dragapult the whole time. But here we are in the final round, a win gets me into top 256 or possibly even top 128, so we are playing for something. My opponent misses a turn in both games, but so do I, mostly by whiffing energy. Both games end after there is too much mid-game hand disruption for me to deal with. Game 2 I didn't see a Battle Cage before turn 4, which also meant Dragapult got a full snipe attack which lost me the game. But I can't say I'm unlucky, when I saw my opponent's board.