I make my way up to Evanston on the purple line to obtain a burrito from Tomate Fresh Kitchen and play a funny deck at a Thursday night league challenge. I get off the train at Noyes, pick up two burritos - Carnitas for me, Carne Asada for him - and get in my friend's car for a quick drive down to the shop.
Many cards were picked up and read tonight, including but not limited to Acerola, Forretress, Pokevital, Crisis Punch, and Therapeutic Energy.
Round 1
Dengo L
I instantly pair into my friend I got dinner with, who knows what I'm up to tonight. He starts Solrock and I know I'm not allowed to bench a Pineco until I can find Forest to instantly evolve + pop it, so I don't get to attack until he's gotten through my first Kang. Luckily my hand that was slow to set up Forretress is full of Acerolas so I play it 4 turns in a row to stop him from finishing the game. Unfortunately for me I am not flipping heads on Rapid Fire Combo AND I've prized my Crisis Punch in the last 2 so I can't actually win the game without double heads on this next turn. I Iono to 1, CC a Dengo without energy, and flip 1 heads for 250. He draws 500 cards and finds the knockout because of course he does.
Round 2
Dengo W
I pair into another Dengo and manage to get into a quick Forretress with an early Cipher for Forest. She drops a Watchtower and knocks out my first Kang, but when I play Acerola on my turn and punch her Dengo, I can tell she doesn't know what the card does, as she's digging for cards and playing superiors to line up a knockout. Out of the goodness of my heart I stop her from discarding energy before she declares an attack, explaining what's going on. The end of this game is kind of awkward because I'm not drawing into a stadium and can't play any supporter except Acerola. On my last turn my multiple pokegears are unable to find an Acerola to continue my loop or a Cipher to get to crisis punch so I Iono to 1 + CC her Fez and flip heads.
R3 
Flareon L
I feel like I must have messed this game up because I don't think this matchup is as unwinnable as this game felt. Classic Eevee start on the other side, Fan Rotom for Pidgey, Eevee, Noctowl, no attachment. I think from this board I'm allowed to bench a Pineco because I don't know how likely Boss + attack or Wellspring are from a board with no energy or Tera, but I am a tiny little baby and decide I'm going to wait for the Forest combo instead. On the next turn my active Kang gets punched for 130 and I still don't have the combo but with a Pidgeot and a live Flareon I'm definitely not allowed to bench the Pineco so I have to wait another turn. They commit to Carnelian to knockout my active. I finally have the combo but I have to Cipher for it so I can't Acerola or Iono. I do make a mistake where I Cipher for a Watchtower to drop on the next turn since I only need one combo piece, but if I get Bravery Charm to attach active I can't lose to Jet Black Belt which of course is exactly what's in his hand. I feel like this matchup has to be insanely free if I get to go first, but maybe I should work on utilizing that second braincell instead.
Edit: Realized I can probably just crisis punch the Flareon and they should never be able to break my Kang lol.
Next to me I watch Sky put a frustrated Eevees player in the chamber with Pidgeot. Nice!
R4 
Slaking W
My opponent flips over a Fan Rotom but his grabs off Fan Call are Slakoth Slakoth Farfetch'd which is definitely not what I was expecting. He uses Colress to get Triple Accel (which I think is weird) and Watchtower then TM:evos into double Vigoroth. On my side I'm holding a stadium bump and immediately pop my Forretress to thin energy out of the deck onto my board then Kang draw 2 into a Boss to knockout one of his Vigoroths. He evolves his remaining Vigoroth into Slaking but doesn't find a useful energy this turn (might have been expecting to use Reversal) so is only able to hit my Kang for 20 with Reversal Energy Farfetch'd, which I heal off with Ice Cream to stay out of Slaking range. I boss his Slaking and smack it for 200, he runs away to hit me with Jet Fan Rotom and Ionos me + drops another Watchtower. I bump this with a Forest, then CC his Slaking back and Iono him before taking the knockout. He recovers a Slakoth, which I boss and knockout again. This whole time he's been developing a Dusknoir on his bench - he pops into my active and hits for 70 with Fan Rotom. I dig for my last boss with triple gear but whiff so I cipher both Pokevital A and Ice Cream into my hand and negate his entire turn, then flip heads on his active Fez anyway.
This deck is kind of fun for an obvious meme, I played it kind of poorly but I could definitely see myself playing this to another challenge this format with some changes. I don't think Pokevital A is correct, Miracle Headset seems broken in the absence of a Pal Pad to prolong the Acerola chain. I also am not really sure what this bravery charm is for, a second Crisis Punch or a Petrel/Town Store could be nice to naturally draw into the TM without Cipher or play it multiple times to not have to flip against Dengo or other 2 prize beatsticks. If you made it this far, thanks for reading! Don't play this deck to anything you care about!
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