Intro
“What? No subtitles or tarot gimmicks today? WHAT GIVES, KETTLER?!”
Nope – none at all! On this day after Independence Day, I just want to talk about the most American subject possible: Canadian Nationals!
(Well, maybe it’s not “that” American…)
Anyways, the main discussion will be divided into three parts: analysis of the winning Juniors deck; observations about top-performing Seniors decks; and a fairly thorough review of just about everything Masters, down to every “new” deck in the top cut. Throughout each section, I will give some opinions about how this event will ultimately impact U.S. Nationals, Worlds, and beyond.
Juniors
Unfortunately, the one division I worked hardest to find solid information on I came up driest for: I didn’t really hear much about the field’s metagame at large, and even solidly-based data on the top cut was scarce. However, thanks to some early information, we do know what made it to the finals:
1st: Ethan P. (Kingdra Prime/Yanmega Prime/Donphan Prime)
2nd: Esteban R. (Donphan Prime/Machamp Prime)
From this information, I’m going to make some bold extrapolations. First, I believe that the field was probably loaded with Donphan: it’s a great card in this format, an easy play for Juniors, and isn’t that expensive to buy and trade for, so it would make a lot of sense that players used it.
Furthermore, that would also help explain why a Kingdra/Mega/Phan rose to the top in the fashion that it did, as the player likely had several great matchups. While there is some risk in making this assumption, since I really don’t know for a _fact_ what else was there, I do feel that this is spot-on.
Discussing the specific decks that made the finals, we’re already well-familiar with Donchamp: I’ve talked about it some, and other writers have gone into full-blown detail about it themselves. For those reasons, as well as the fact that I really don’t know if he played any inspired techs or not, we will be skipping any thorough analysis of this deck.
Kingdra/Yanmega/Donphan
The winner’s deck, on the other hand, is a totally separate matter. My challenge in communicating the accurateness of this deck is entirely in the lines: between Kingdra, Yanmega, and Donphan, any one of them could be the primary focus. So instead of trying to figure this out, I’ll just show you my at-first-glance take on the deck:
