Hello dear reader, I played in Orlando this weekend and obtained another Top 256 finish to add to my growing collection of mediocre finishes. Before I start whining I want to acknowledge that making it to Phase 2 multiple times this season is an achievement and a sign of growth, but I have been consistently disappointed with my level of play. Anyway, despite my unhappiness I think this is a deserved result.
I locked in Flapixty 5.0 very early in the week (Tuesday?) because it felt good at the cup I played and Flap sent a decklist submitted screenshot. Ladder had rotated, I don't really like playing on tcgmasters and I'd also played a major worth of games on a worse version of the deck. I asked him about some changes (Bundle, eswitch) but he seemed uninterested so I just submitted the list too. On Friday night after reading the Hedrick report we talked briefly about Shaymin since that was the third "allowed" change but decided against it after some deckslot and win% math. We get dinner across the street from our hotel at something like a Panda Express with more options then resleeve and go to bed.
We wake up early on Saturday morning, walk to the venue, beat the line for wristbands, then play Go Fish while eating breakfast for a clean R0 W.
Round 1
Dengo WLW
I set up 2 Froslass 2 Munkdori and a Grimm line behind Itchy Pollen and am delighted when my Budew is KO'd and a Picnic basket is played early. A Lopunny comes in the active so I hit it for 180 and then take a million prizes the next turn.
Game 2 I open Snorunt pass and my opponent Secret Boxes for Solrock donk.
There's a decent amount of time left so I'm not too worried, and they return the favor from game 2 to me by opening Lunatone pass. On my turn I learn all 3 Imps are prized, but they actually have no playable cards in their hand under item lock so I just play Froslass Munkidori and KO Lunatone before another Pokemon hits the board.
Round 2
Alakazam WW
I set up cleanly behind a charmed Budew and am able to use my Spikemuths reactively to bump Battle Cage. His board quickly crumbles to Froslass Munkidori pressure and I win game 1.
Game 2 is less smooth for me and I have to use my Spikemuths proactively to play the game. I get stalled a bit by Battle Cage and his Budew, but I decline to initiate so this Budew stays on his board until I decide its time to go. His board is horrible because of Budew + Fan Rotom so hes not able to KO my Grimmsnarl after Iono and I close the game with my last Spikemuth and a second Grimmsnarl.
Round 3 
Zoroark WLW
I sit there Budewing my opponent for a while while setting up MunkiLass before he decides to go in and KO my Budew. I respond by Shadow Bulleting into his Zoroark since I have candy in my hand so I don't mind if this Grimm is knocked out. He plays a bunch of cards but eventually drops a nest ball for Fez. I'm trying to figure out why it isn't Pecharunt or if he can Janine Eswitch to use Cruel Arrow when he tries to draw 3. I try and stop him but he's seen at least 1 card, maybe a second. We call for a judge and can't get the attention of one for a solid two minutes. We finally flag one down who takes 10 minutes to give the obvious DPL even after we explain the situation super clearly, then we get a 5 minute extension which is not quite the same as 12+ minutes of the clock. He scoops the game basically instantly anyway after he can't knock out my Grimmsnarl.
In Game 2 I'm a bit slow and can only make one Grimm line at a time since I'm playing heavy MunkiLass. This line gets boss KO'd twice but I'm still piling damage on his side so it's most likely fine. When I finally get to a Grimmsnarl I play the turn pretty poorly. First I almost deck myself out with Lillie since I only have 8 cards left, but I'm able to avoid this by taking some prizes with Munkidoris (I also could have played this Lillie and rodded back some energies) but I don't find the Devo in my prizes I would like to use to wipe the Zoroarks out. Thinking about this game after the round, I realize that I could have used all my Munkidori triggers on the benched Zoroark and knocked out both at once with a single Shadow Bullet. The benched Zoroark is promoted and KOs me with a modifier for game. Oops!
I get a strong start again in game 3, and my opponent is quickly bleeding out. I go down a bunch of prizes but manage to Devo all 3 of his Zoroarks. He's bossed my Morgrem 2 times this game too, and I neglect to rod or stretcher a copy back even though I have an Imp on my bench ready to close the game. I get almost punished by Budew and some rebenched Zoruas, but I'm able to convert the Pecharunt and Budew into my last 3 prizes because he's not able to find Turo to force a tie. I got away with one here, kind of, which is not the last time.
Round 4
Absol LL
I said I kind of got away with one last round, but I get the deserved punish by pairing into Absol and drawing a horrendous hand. I lock him out of Trolley but I'm sitting there drawing dead cards and announcing Itchy Pollen while he uses Run Errand every turn and eventually he has a board and I have nothing. I decide that forcing him to take all 6 prizes is correct in this matchup so I let him claw me 6 times instead of scooping.
I go second, play a draw supporter and miss Budew and a followup supporter! I watch the Trolley Energize go off and then sit there and get clawed 6 more times. I use his Town Store to get TM Devo out of my deck and offer it to him every time but he never takes it. Fun opponent, bad games.
Round 5
I set up a decently strong Munkilass board even though I lose 2 Budews to Frillish + Munkidori and take out Frillish + Monkey Dark with Shadow Bullet. His Fez finds him a draw supporter but doesn't find Candy Gardy or Kirlia so he Mind Bends the Grimmsnarl. I establish a 3rd Munkidori and evolve my benched Impidimp into Morgrem. I think for a bit then decide I think I'm winning the slow game, use my Monkeys and pass. With no Fez draw he can't really do anything except evolve to Kirlia and mind bend again so I make a second Grimmsnarl and he concedes before I decide how to attack his board. I ask him about the pass, he isn't super sure but thinks I should have flipped for confusion.
I again feed a Budew to the Frillish while whiffing Froslass. He sets up a Gardevoir and a Munkidori, but on my turn I draw 2 Froslass off my draw supporter so I'm able to delete his Munkidori out of nowhere with only one Adrena-Brain + Shadow Bullet 30 since he left damage on it. I quickly get up to 2, then 3 Munkidoris and he can't keep up even with Diancie. My active Grimm goes down to Garland Ray so I push my other one and take my last 4 prizes with CC on Gardevoir Kirlia Munkidori.
Round 6
My opponent plays a Research early in the game and is slow making monkey darks so I decide not to respect Boss and go into a Bravery Charm Budew to slow him down more. I get to 3-1 Monkey advantage and steamroll him with CC Munkidori + 4th Monkey Dark after he finally KO's my Budew.
In game 2 I go into Budew again after he misses Monkey Dark. I manage to force him to initiate down 2-0 Monkeys so I establish a 3rd and Shadow Bullet into his Grimm. The game ends quickly as I overwhelm him with Adrena Brain triggers.
Round 7
I get double Froslass going against his board and chain Grimmsnarls. At one point he decides not to or forgets to use his Munkdori so I take it out with the Shadow Bullet ping and continue working on his Zoroarks. He takes a long combo turn to KO my first Grimmsnarl but his Fez and Pech have been on the board so long that I can just Munkidori both of them to finish the game.
My start is bad, he gets a lot of energy on board even through Budew and I see him lining up a Boss with Darmanitan so I concede to leave lots of time for Game 3.
I again create double Froslass but my Devo is Prized, so I take 2 on a Zoroark with Shadow Bullet. He responds with Boss + Night Joker Flamebody Cannon, but I've absorbed enough damage at this point that it doesn't really matter. I use Munkidoris + Shadow Bullet to KO the active Zoroark and the Darmanitan to go down to 1 which is good, but the rest of this turn is poor. I rebench Snorunt to create a Froslass threat which is okay, but I use my last bench slot on an Impidimp in case my Grimmsnarl is KO'd, which is pure fanfiction given the obvious incoming Iono to 1. My hand that turn also contained Bloodmoon Air Balloon Dark Energy which would create an on board checkmate. He Ionos me to 1, KO's my Grimmsnarl, and I bailout topdeck Nest Ball for the Bear.
Round 8 
Crustle LL
Pretty typical Grimm vs Crustle game, I whiff CC or Bravery Charm deep in the game and have to suicide my Budew on the double spike Crustle to maintain item lock. I might have been able to win if I had one more turn to spread but not sure.
I brick and play no supporters for like 7 turns in a row (~2 energy attaches + 4-5 Crustle attacks). On one of my last turns I flip my topdeck over so we can both see if it's Iono. It's Iono! I whiff the Bear to tank a hit so I pass and ask my opponent nicely not to attack, but he declines and announces Superb Scissors for game instead.
I will again chalk this one up to delayed justice after I attempted to throw the previous round. Deserved!
Round 9
I win a lopsided game 1 with heavy Munkidori advantage, then we sit in a long game 2 with a really weird stalemate. Both of our opening hands are terrible but contain Budew Bravery charm so we sit there with our single Munkdoris poking each other. He's moving the damage to my Munkdori so I decide to hoard the damage for myself. Eventually my Budew goes down so I push my Snorunt in the active since I know he doesn't have Boss and eat 6 more Itchy Pollens. At this point I have to do something and we both have Grimmsnarls and 3 Munkidoris. I decide to use 80 out of my 110 available damage to KO one of his Munkidoris off the bench with Shadow Bullet, but this activates CC and he's able to Iono check me multiple times into missing recovery so I slowly lose the battle. Reflection and discussion after the round makes me think I was supposed to move 80 onto the Budew to go to 5-5 instead of 4-5, evolve a Froslass and pass with my Grimmsnarl or the Froslass in the active. In this hypothetical line because I'm the one evolving the Froslass I will have 20s on my turn while he only has 10s and I can gain an advantage this way and avoid losing a Munkidori to Counter Catcher. This mirror is very cringe because of Budew Charm and no Boss. Devo should give me an advantage but it never came up.
We start Game 3 with less than 10 minutes (maybe my fault for staying too long in g2) and we decide a conclusion won't happen without a scam so we tie.
After some deliberation, I go to hotpot with Yihao KK and Roger. We also manage to coax Flap out of the hotel room to join us for an excellent meal and "cultural exchange" even if I personally have to do a lot of plate cleanup work because no one else except Yihao eats adult portions. We Uber home and go to bed.
We wake up kind of late and I have to do some hotel checkout not checkout nonsense since I'm staying an extra night but my reservations aren't linked which is kind of an L for the group entirely on me. Flap then attempts to give us a R0 L by Ubering us to the wrong address, but we get another driver who is highkey speeding and understands the convention center area and make it to our tables on time.
Round 10
I check Limitless and am slightly unhappy to find several Raging Bolt entries. I greet my opponent and we set up for our game but a judge comes by and tells us we're being deck checked so we surrender our cards and make small talk while waiting. My first hand was kind of bad! The decks come back and we start setting up again but more judges come by and want to deck check us too. We inform them we just got checked so they huddle up and use their collective power to decide we dont have to do it again.
My opponent grumbles and opens Iron Leaves, and cant get an attachment down so I know im safe behind my Budew for a turn. I have to research a CC and a stretcher but get Snorunts and an Imp down as well as a Monkey Dark. My Budew is KO'd by Crispin baby Bolt, and I have a gut check Research: Super Rod Double Grimmsnarl but I evolve double Froslass and a Morgrem and Itchy Pollen again. Baby Bolt KOs something off my bench (I think Munkidori?) but I find my other CC and last Night Stretcher to get a Grimmsnarl out of my discard pile so I can KO Ogerpon off the bench + a Hoothoot to go down to 3. My opponent uses Raging Bolt ex to take out my Grimmsnarl but I convert the Fan Rotom with MunkiLass and have Bloodmoon + Energy in my hand for the Bolt.
He thinks about first or second for a bit and I'm honestly not sure, second is probably better for him to donk check + play Crispin? He goes first though and opens Iron Leaves again (lol). His board is pretty bad but I miss Budew off my draw supporter so he's able to find an Ogerpon to play the game. I respond to his fan Rotom KO with Candy Grimmsnarl CC Ogerpon, but I whiff Froslass so it's just 180. He gets through the Grimmsnarl with Crispin + Teal Dance + attach but it costs him 2 Noctowls. On my turn I'm finally able to find double Froslass so I use Budew to KO his Teal Mask which leaves him with an unplayable board besides Fan Rotom KO Budew. I misplayed a bit here, I ultra balled away my charm instead of a dark for the next turn since my hand was dead but there were 2 darks and an Iono (Ogerpon prizes were Dark + Iono) in my prizes and charm Budew was extremely broken in this spot. On his side he can't really do anything besides bleed to death though so it's fine, I convert the rest of my prizes with MunkiLass.
Round 11
My hand is super dead so I topdeck a few times then flip over my prizes after his board is set up to reveal 4 supporters. No wonder.
I prized double Grimmsnarl in a game I think was super winnable if I got to announce Shadow Bullet. He has Turbo Energize and double Munkidori, but I have Double Froslass going so I'm working on a Devo wipe. I manage to CC Reshiram Iono + Devo 2 Zoroarks but there's a clean Zorua on the board and since I use a Munkidori to do this I lose to Adrena Brain Budew + Air Balloon PP Up Scratch. If I attached to Morgrem and used that to Devo instead, I would have demanded one more energy out of him to finish the game, but maybe that was enough cards to go for win since I don't know if I could have converted the board without 2 Munkidoris the next turn. I was planning on Bloodmoon CC Fez but maybe Shadow Bullet was enough? Not sure, and I didn't unprize a Grimm anyway.
We can potentially add this to the list of delayed justice, maybe all throwing must be punished.
Round 12
I get 2 Grimmsnarls and 4 Munkidoris after my Froslass is Scream Tailed and my opponent scoops it up.
Game 2 is going less well, but I have a Grimmsnarl and Froslass Munkidori stuff. I ended up with 2 Lass 2 Munki but my Budew is still alive so my board is kind of weak. I get Iono CC'd here which is really bad because he gets both my Munkidoris, but whats even worse is that I say 4-6, my opponent says yes and then I draw 6 cards. The judges take forever to resolve the gamestate since I don't remember how many cards were in my hand and I hand shuffled my drawn cards. Eventually I get my obvious and deserved DPL but my hand is bad anyway so I check my topdeck then concede.
We play with urgency in g3, he mind bends 2 Budews so I CC Shadow Bullet his only Kirlia, then get mind bent. I put 2 Froslass into play this game again which is definitely not right because I dont have the Munkidori infrastructure to support this. On my last turn I thought I had a decent check given that my second Morgrem and my second Grimmsnarl are prized. I rod 3 darks back into my deck, leaving 1 in the discard pile, then Iono. I miss dark and stretcher which is super cringe, but I flip heads and take out the Munkidori which should demand a rare candy play from him. His hand (with 3 ultra balls down btw) supports Mew + Fez and he gets Box + candy which lets him candy gardy + stretcher dark and Mew copy Shadow Bullet me to close the game.
Round 13
My opponent gets ahead on energy attachments so is able to sneak through an early Munkidori and I get my Morgrem + Imp dive wiped. I attach Devo and look for a CC but miss off Iono so I concede.
Even though my opponent rudely Blazing Destructions my Spikemuth and Ionos my Morgrem and Froslass to the bottom, I set up double Froslass double Munkidori behind my Budew and wipe his Pult and both Drakloaks with Shadow Bullet while establishing a 3rd monkey.. He return KO's me with Charizard to go to 3. On my turn I check his Artazon for my 4th Munkidori which will give me game, but it's one of my last two prizes, so I take a prize with my first Munkidori on his Budew and let him pick which one. I flip it over and it's Munkidori, so I attach a dark and triple ping his Munkidori for game.
My hand is research candy Spikemuth and I think I just got too excited here. I retreat my Monkey after his slow start and Candy Grimm knokcout his active, but holding a Grimm behind a Budew probably would have been better. He responds with a Charizard hit for 210, and I punch into that and spread a ton of damage on his Drakloaks, but am super unhappy when they both evolve into Dragapult on his turn. A Munkidori goes up on his side and my Grimm is KO'd, so I KO his Charizard and go to 3. He KOs me with another Zard. I've had Double Froslass going the entire way so I thought I should have KO but I think I messed up my counter tracking, I don't understand how I ended up with only 20s on my last turn because my Munkidoris should have taken 20 after my turn and then 20 after his, but I miss dark energy for the Bloodmoon anyway. Maybe if I had 40s like I thought I should have I could have unprized a Dark energy for Bear (not sure) or Devo (definitely in there, 50% hit) with triple Munkdori on his Munkidori which also would have won the game by devolving his Pults down to Drakloaks which would then be in range of Froslass. With the gamestate as is though I can't take 3 and he has game on board so I concede. Weird.
Round 14
I uppair from 22 to 23 and my opponent and I discuss how we need to have a winner since the tie is useless for me and extra useless for him. The delay for the repair happens but we don't know what's going on so we play a dice spinning game where he guesses the result of my spin, I win 4-2. Then we get one of the repaired tables and he shows me Gardy and I show him Grimm. He's happy to not play me so I assume he wasn't comfortable in the matchup, which is a bummer for me, but I repair into Froslass Munkidori which I think is a way better matchup assuming they aren't playing stupid stuff like Xerosic.
We have the same conversation and agree to have a winner. I think he does a little sneaky manuever on me trying to get me to agree to boardstate saying he "likes to let comeback decks have a chance" but he's playing a boardstate deck and I would probably prefer prizes in this matchup! I agree to boardstate anyway because that's what I think is right.
My opponent draws really bad and I hit him with a Grimmsnarl that was evolved through Morgrem over and over and over to finish the set in about 10 minutes with 2 quick concessions. In game 1 I maturely retreat a dark off a Munkidori to play around Sudowoodo even though I've seen a few Rainbow Energy committed. I'm pretty sure I would have gotten impounded if I didn't since he instantly jams a Pad on his turn. Both games I get triple Munkidori and 2 Grimm lines with a Snorunt on the bench in case he tries to retreat lock me.
I bubble up into 256, hooray. The list was obviously good (shoutout air balloon) as one of my friends was on a win and in, and another lost a game for cash. I drew very poorly in some of these losses but I still feel like my play was extremely lacking. I was able to make several Phase 2s with Froslass decks during this part of the season, and I really enjoyed playing these decks. I can't help but wonder if I'm just not a good enough player to perform better (yet?)
The post rotation format looks horrible, I've jokingly(?) said I'm downloading Hinge.
