Birthday Brackets and Homebrew Decks: A Fun Weekend of Pokémon TCG

What a massive weekend of competitive Pokémon TCG! This wasn't just any regular tournament run; it was actually John’s birthday weekend. When asked how he wanted to celebrate, his answer was simple: hit up two back-to-back Pokémon tournaments and see how far we could take it.

​We weren't out here sweating over Championship Points; we just wanted to hang out, play some fun games, and see where the weekend would take us. We threw down with everything from established meta threats to our own spicy homebrews, and honestly, the results exceeded all expectations.

​🏆 The Crew at a Glance

​Our testing group brought three distinct decks to the tables this weekend:

​Mega Lucario (Me): Focused on tanking hits, utilising healing techs like Wally, and hitting hard counters.

​Doublade (John): The birthday boy's deck! A complete homebrew project we’ve been tinkering with together.

Raging Bolt (Dad): Pure, aggressive energy acceleration.

🥊 Event 1: The League Cup at Mad for Miniatures

The main event of Saturday was a grueling League Cup. John and I both suited up for this one.

John put on an absolute clinic with his birthday Doublade homebrew, piloting it to a fantastic 3-2-0 record. He secured 2nd place in the Seniors division and walked away with some beautiful Pokémon Center sleeves as a birthday prize. The deck is officially viable!

​Meanwhile, my Mega Lucario run in the Masters division felt incredibly smooth through the Swiss rounds, locking me in as the 2nd seed going into Top Cut with a 3-1-1 record.

The Swiss Rounds

​Round 1 vs. Hobie (Dragapult) | Won 2-0: A clean, textbook start to the day.

Round 2 vs. Callum (Froslass/Lopunny) | Won 2-0: This was an awkward, untested matchup for me. Handing Callum his only loss of the entire day felt massive.

​Round 3 vs. Joe (Arboliva) | Lost 1-2: Game 1 was a blitz victory for me. Game 2 was a total brick. Game 3 came down to the wire, but I just couldn't find the resources to close it out.

Round 4 vs. Ruben (Lucario Mirror) | Won 2-0: A classic mirror match where the healing power of Wally allowed me to completely out-sustain his damage output.

​Round 5 vs. Brett (Honchkrow) | Intentional Draw (ID): With Brett sitting as top seed and tables 2 and 3 also opting to ID, we shook hands to safely lock myself into the 2nd seed for Top Cut.

​Top Cut: The Heartbreaker

​My Top Cut run was cut short in the Quarterfinals against Paddy, piloting Greninja/Starmie/Froslass.

The Punt: Mental fatigue is real. I made a devastating playmistake by completely forgetting that my Rocky Energy negated the sleep status from his Froslass. That blunder cost me the game and knocked me out in the Top 8.

​Kudos to Callum, who bounced back from his Round 2 loss against me to take down the entire tournament with his Froslass/Lopunny deck!

🥇 Event 2: The League Challenge at Happy Piranha

Determined to shake off Saturday's Top Cut misplay, we ran it back for day two of the birthday celebrations. This time, my dad joined the fray with Raging Bolt.

​John ran into some rough variance on Sunday, finishing 10th (1-2-1) with Doublade, while Dad steered Raging Bolt to a respectable 6th place (2-2-0).

​For me? Redemption. I piloted Mega Lucario to an undefeated 3-0-1 record to take 1st Place overall!

​The Road to 1st Place

​Round 1 vs. Charlie (Alakazam) | Draw: We went straight to time. On Turn 3 of time, I had a winning board state if I could just find a Boss's Orders, but it eluded me. We settled for the tie.

​Round 2 vs. Chris (Garchomp) | Won 2-0: Chris had a rough, slow start and Lucario doesn't show mercy. I closed this one out incredibly fast.

​Round 3 vs. Andrew (Lucario Mirror) | Won 2-0: Another mirror match, but a highly competitive back-and-forth. I managed to dodge his damage modifiers and hit my counters perfectly.

Round 4 vs. Olly (Honchkrow) | Won 2-1: The championship match. We were tied 1-1 going into a nail-biting Game 3. Olly played brilliantly but just couldn't dig out the final piece of damage he needed for his last KO, allowing me to take the game and the tournament.

🗣️ Community Shout-Outs

​Events like these are nothing without the incredible community around them, and I have to give credit where credit is due:

​To Callum: Massive shout-out to you for supporting my "awful techs" that actually put in work this weekend, and for the constant encouragement. Appreciate you!

To Vini & MFM: Thanks for hosting the League Cup at Mad for Miniatures. It's always a fun, top-tier event.

To Sam & Happy Piranha: Thanks for a brilliant League Challenge on Sunday. It was an awesome day of Pokémon. I'll take photos next time!

​To Judges Ryan and Simon: A huge thank you for your hard work keeping both events running smoothly all weekend long!

​🧠 Final Thoughts & Next Stops

Overall, it was a phenomenal weekend of Pokémon and the perfect way to celebrate John's birthday. Our homebrew Doublade deck proved it has teeth, my dad got some great tournament reps in, and my Lucario list proved it has the legs to go all the way, provided its pilot actually reads the Energy cards!

​We have a bit of testing and tweaking to do this week, but the fun doesn't stop here. Next weekend, we are heading over to Darkstar Gaming for another League Cup. Let's see where the cards take us next!

​Thanks for reading! What are your thoughts on the current meta matchups? Let me know in discord!