Team CGC Trading Cards Placed Top 4 in the Pokémon Toronto Regional Championships!

Team CGC Trading Cards has hit a new personal best in the 2023 competitive season, by having all four team members advance to day two! Competition was fierce against 1,061 Master level competitors, at the Pokémon Toronto Regional Championships which took place at the Enercare Centre in Toronto, Canada, on December 2-4, but the team proved to be up for the challenge.

Representing Team CGC Trading Cards, Caleb Gedemer placed 3^rd (12/3/2), Azul Garcia Griego placed 16^th (10/3/2), Daniel Altavilla placed 17^th (9/1/5) and Kidd Starck placed 113^th (6/5/4). For the Toronto Regional Championships, the team continued to use their modified Lost Box deck that they introduced into their strategy at the Latin America International Championships in November 2022.

Like at the Latin America International Championships, the new Silver Tempest Lugia VSTAR continued to be a consistently tough opponent in battle. Believing in their strategy for the Lost Box deck formula, they further modified their selections. Some changes included exchanging the Raikou V for a Vivid Voltage Zekrom, and exchanging trainer and energy cards, while keeping core cards like the Celebrations Kyogre. These changes were to establish further consistency against the Lugia VSTAR and to compensate for potential mirror matches.

Throughout the competition the team had excellent matchups, having some difficulties against the powerful Mewtwo V-Union deck. Unfortunately, Azul and Caleb ended up paired together in a match, as well as Daniel with a team testing partner. These last round pairings prevented more team members from having the opportunity to be in the Top 8. In the Top 8 round, Caleb went against a Palkia VSTAR deck, which he defeated, but then lost in the Top 4 matchup to the previously mentioned Mewtwo V-Union deck, which would go on to win the entire event.

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 Arlington Regional Championships, at the Arlington Convention Center, in Arlington, Texas on December 16-18.

Please join us in wishing the team the best of luck throughout the 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.