Shelby's Spot

Rants

  • 2026 Houston Regional

    I was lucky enough to get picked to staff my second ever Pokemon Regional, and this one was based in Houston. I spent the weekend as a sides floor judge and got a lot of great experience. The best part: getting to captain (administer/run) a build and battle pre-release event with 130 players! Right up my alley of course since we have been running our pre-release events at Chaotic Good with 70+ players for the last 3 sets now.

    It was busy but fun weekend, the major inconvenience was the return trip. IAH airport has been especially hard hit by the government shutdown of DHS/TSA. I joined a carpool of 5 and we decided to arrive by 3am to get in line, which was already hundreds of people long by the time we got to the back. 1 hour and 45 minutes later we were behind the security checkpoint. Glad we did, because had we arrived just 15 minutes later our wait would have been tripled and likely would have missed flights.

  • CG GLC Locals 3-10-26

    The Lighting deck makes a return appearance, but my first game is just a nightmare. Managed to play 6 turns without an energy attachment and that was painful.

    Manage to close out the night with 2 wins for a 2-1 night, but game 3 was an intense back and forth with an Okidogi/Ursaluna fighting deck that took every single tech in the deck plus some insane topdeck luck to pull off. Playing Lt. Surge twice in a game is broken!

    Making some changes for the next week. Pokemon Ranger would allow me to use Electivire’s attack two turns in a row (or just attack in general) and I think that would be a nice way to ensure closing out games. Lusamine to help recycle the silent lab or other supporter that would be crucial for a win – think a Lt. Surge, Lusamine + trainer pulled from discard as a winning play. Another basic energy to help get some cards out, and trying out the Raikou as another big swing attacker. I have not found myself needing to use the Regielecki but I understand how good it is. If I find it’s use is needed, it will go back in the deck!

  • Chaos Cup spoils the meta

    I built some pretty diabolical rule changes to mess with the players in our league Pokemon Day Chaos Cup night. Some devastating results that completely changed the field!

  • CG GLC Locals – March 2, 2026

    Finally running the electric “big swing” deck. I have been putting off building an electric type GLC deck for months it seems, and I finally found a list to base my build off of.

    Most GLC electric decks rely on the huge amount of spread attackers that have been printed in that type. I wanted to run a more conventional big damage dealer much like the haymaker combo in the original base set format. Funny enough, thanks to the XY Evolutions printing of the TCG you can use a lot of the base set cards in GLC decks, so the electabuzz gets another go and now can evolve into electivire!

    Initial results – promising! 2-0 tonight the combo wombo with Electrode + Magneton is wild. Lt. Surge’s Strategy + Raihan + Teammates is a crazy game breaker.

  • The site lives again

    After a year of hiatus, my personal domain is back in action. I want to use this place to build a definitive profile of who I am and what I stand for, as I plan to become a much more involved and public figure in my local community.

    There is so much wrong in the world today, and I can no longer stand by idly waiting on others to do the right thing. I must act as well. Be the change you want to see in the world and all that jazz.