Reigning World Champion Andrew Hedrick won the Puebla Regional Championships in Mexico on 25 October, beating fellow American Caleb Rogerson in a Dragapult ex mirror match. According to the official results, 2,233 players entered the Masters division at the Puebla Centro Expositor.
Hedrick finished the 14 Swiss rounds at 11-2-1 and then won three straight top-cut matches: against Eder Jarillo in the quarterfinal, Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi in the semifinal and Rogerson in the final. It is his first Regional title since he took the World Championship in August with Dragapult ex.
Two finalists, one list
The deck lists published by RK9 show that the final was more than an archetype mirror. Hedrick's list and Rogerson's are identical card for card: three Dragapult ex with Munkidori and Dudunsparce, four Crushing Hammer, two Risky Ruins, an Unfair Stamp as the ACE SPEC and three each of Fire, Psychic and Darkness Energy. Crushing Hammer was already the signature of Hedrick's Worlds run, and two months later the same disruption plan carried him again.
Dragapult dominated the rest of the cut as well. The top-eight breakdown shows six Dragapult decks, most of them paired with Dudunsparce and one with Dusknoir. Only Nathan Ginsburg, who finished third with Alakazam and Dudunsparce, and Eduardo Dueñas, in eighth with Mega Lopunny ex and Dusknoir, broke the pattern.