u/BlazeKnight7

The results of LA regionals feel imo a lot less exciting than those of Prague so I wanted to kind of get a discussion going about a couple of questions I had.

1. Dragapult in general: We knew going into Prague Pult was the best deck, so what made the level of Pult play go up so much from Prague to LA?

Just American players wanting to play the best deck, people adjusting enough to the format to realise how much better Pult is or some unrelated factor?

1b. Speaking of Pult, What made the Blaziken variant fall off so much? Prague it seemed pretty popular but seemed much less popular at LA with Azul and others mentioning going in that it doesn't seem as well positioned as straight pult yet I don’t see any clear reasons why? Imo if Crushing hammer stays popular Blaziken builds might come back up again.

2. Wtf happened to Mega Starmie? Second most played in day 1 only to fall off a cliff in day 2 with 52nd being it's highest placing. Shaymin seemed to see very little play so surely that would be beneficial for Starmie yet saw very little success. Did everyone who played it just brick/missplay/get bad match ups?

3. A lot of decks seemed to not bother with anti-crustle tech and the deck saw very little play which seems really suprising? Did people just decide they'd rather not take the match up roulette or adapt the deck to overcome some weaknesses?

Overall I'm definitely curious to know what caused a lot of the shift between Prague and LA in these areas, how much came down to regional differences and what the meta is likely to do heading into the next two weeks of regionals.

All the current Meta viabile Megas are basics and stage 1. Mega Greninja sees some play in Japan but didn't see much success at the first champion's league where Ninja spinner was legal.

So I'm wondering what does a Stage 2 Mega need to actually be viable? Built in Energy Acceleration? Easy spread damage?

Or do we just need to wait till the current 2 Prize exs like Dragapult leave the game to give stage 2 megas a chance to shine?

Last format Bolt basically always played Owls, but none of the builds from Prague used the Owl package and rarely do builds from Japan seem to.

I woulda thought being able to grab any trainers you want with the higher reliance on teal mask would be even more crucial given you can't afford to miss a turn of KOs.

Is it just the lack of reliable way to get hoot-hoot out with no nest ball given that Bolt doesn't really want to run Pokepad?

Been very curious about Mega Starmie for a bit but watching it's performance at Prague pushed me to actually build the deck.

Atm I'm playing the Dusk build that got 4th place and while it's fun, it feels very reliant on a good opening and struggles to make comebacks especially if they bench the duck. (god forbid they have Psyduck AND Shaymin down, you might as well scoop then and there)

Curious if people feel the Frosslass build is more consistent or if there's an alternative build others have found is more well rounded?