Team CGC Trading Cards Advanced to Day Two of the Peoria Regionals!

Team CGC Trading Cards continues to strive for greatness in the 2023 competitive season by advancing to day two of the Peoria Regional Championships, at the Peoria Civic Center in Peoria, Illinois, on September 30-October 2. This was the first North American competition where the Lost Origin booster set cards were tournament legal, with 1,082 Master level competitors.

Representing Team CGC Trading Cards, Kidd Starck placed 9^th (11-3-1), Azul Garcia Griego placed 21^st (10-3-2) and Caleb Gedemer placed 191^st (5-2-2) overall. Daniel Altavilla was unable to compete due to Hurricane Ian. Together, the team built a deck focusing on the power of Regigigas from the Astral Radiance set.

When asked about their strategy of using Regigigas the team described: "For those unfamiliar with the deck, the six different Regi-cards come together just like we did Friday night to make each other stronger. Regigigas's Ability accelerates Energy, while the other members of the squad hit for type advantage against their respective matchups (Palkia VSTAR {Regieleki, Lightning} and Arceus VSTAR {Regirock, Fighting} to name two). Our favorite part about the deck heading into the tournament was its favorable matchup against the super hyped (and ultimately popular) Lost Box deck."

In describing their teamwork going into Peoria, the team shared: "Despite the rigorous testing, the impact of Lost Origin brought a ton of uncertainty causing concerns on the best option to play. During those uncertain times, we always audible to the numbers. Thursday night, Caleb and Azul determined Regis had the best effective win rate weighted against what we predicted the rest of the field to be. Friday night, we determined that the list, however, was not consistent enough. We mashed our brains together to fix the inconsistencies and when in doubt, defaulted to adding four Trekking Shoes. After a couple of hours discussing the best place to make space in our decks, we had our final 60. We pride ourselves on coming to a consensus when it comes to deck recipes: it's the ultimate test of trust amongst comrades."

Team CGC Trading Cards was assembled by Danny Oesterreich in 2022, and is comprised of seasoned players Daniel Altavilla, Azul Garcia Griego, Caleb Gedemer and Kidd Starck. The team will compete next at the Salt Lake City Regional Championships, at the Salt Palace Convention Center, in Salt Lake City, Utah, on October 14-16.

Please join us in wishing the team the best of luck throughout the new season and keep an eye out for new updates on the team’s performance by following CGC Trading Cards social channels, @CGCcards. You can also watch the events live on the Pokémon YouTube and Twitch channels to see players do battle.

To learn more about Team CGC Trading Cards, click here.