Memory Capsule - A Pokemon TCG Podcast

We have a special episode for our listeners! Kyle Sabelhaus, Ciaran Farah, and Mo Ideis joined Rafal to help diagnose the issues with the Pokemon TCG's tournament structure, how it could be improved, and why we all want the best for the game we love.

Today’s guest is JW Kriewall. While many of you may know him as a member of the Pokemon Trading Card Game's premier podcasting trio, JW is also a three-time Regional Champion, having taken the gold at Fort Wayne 2013, Richmond 2019, and most recently Toronto 2023, where he achieved an automatic worlds invite with Miraidon. JW is also a Youtuber, Twitch streamer, and a prominent figure in the P...

Today’s guest is Cyrus Davis. Cyrus is an incredibly talented player, who is perhaps best known for winning NAIC 2023 with Urshifu Inteleon. They also have several other incredible achievements, including a Regional top 16 and top 4, as well as a 9th place finish at the 2023 World Championships. Cyrus is also known for playing several unorthodox deck archetypes to great success, and has also writt...

Today’s guest is Rahul Reddy. Rahul is a player and content creator who has been playing the Pokemon TCG for over 10 years. Rahul has several incredible achievements as a player, including multiple International top cuts, almost a dozen Regional top cuts, and many strong finishes at Worlds, including a top 16 finish in 2018 and top 32 in 2019. Rahul has had success with multiple deck archetypes, p...

Today’s guest is Kyle Sabelhaus. Kyle is a veteran player who has seen success in the Pokemon TCG for two decades. Today he is best known as one of the incredibly talented members of the Pokemon TCG commentary team. Over the years Kyle has had great success across all levels of the Pokemon TCG, winning regionals, placing high at Nationals, and finishing as high as Top 16 at the World Championship....

Today’s guest is Lucas Xing. Lucas most recently won the Los Angeles Regional Championship, the final NA regional of the season. But Lucas has also been tearing up the Pokemon scene across the world over the past three seasons, having some of the most consistent regional placements we have ever seen. With a regional win, 2 regional top 4s, 3 top 16s, and 6 top 32s in three years, Lucas is a force...

Today’s guest is Toine Lay. While Toine may be best known in the Pokemon TCG community as the first Twitter that players go to check for translations of cards coming out in Japan, they are also a very talented player with incredible achievements. Toine splits their time between France and Japan, and placed top 4 in two Champions Leagues, as well as top 16 in the 2021 Japan National Championship. T...

Today’s guest is Aneil Saini. Aneil has played the game on and off for over a decade, returning in the past few years without missing a step. Placing top 16 at two regionals with Mew Vmax as well as top 16 at LAIC 2023 with an innovating Turbo Miraidon list, Aneil has shown that he is among the best players from the competitive Toronto area. Aneil is also one of the hosts of the Shift Gear Podcast...

Today’s guest is Alex Schemanske. While he is perhaps best known for winning EUIC 2023, Alex has a litany of achievements dating back over a decade. He is a consistent day 2 competitor, with over a dozen Regional top 8s. Alex is known for innovating in the Pokemon TCG, having success with unexpected decks and pushing the metagame to its creative limits. Alex is now also the owner of his very own P...

Today’s guest is Kevin Clemente, also known in the Pokemon community as Mellow_Magikarp. Kevin is an incredibly talented player, achieving a Worlds invite in 2019 - just his first season playing competitively - as well as 2022. He has had multiple strong finishes at major events, including 2 Regional top 16s. He is also the host of the Lake of Rage podcast, where he’s interviewed Regional, Interna...

Today’s guest is Mike Fouchet. Mike has two decades of experience in the Pokemon TCG, having seen consistent success over the years on a variety of decks. Some of his biggest finishes include 2nd place at Philadelpha Regionals, Top 4 at US nationals in 2008, multiple top 32 Worlds finishes, as well as countless other Regional top cuts and top finishes. He is also one of the hosts of the Trashalanc...

Today’s guest is Steffen Eriksen. Steffen is a player from Denmark with almost 2 decades of Pokemon TCG experience, and he will be joining us for the next two episodes. He has multiple Regionals finishes, Nationals finishes, and has 11 Worlds invites. He is also the host of the Youtube channel Steffen's Classroom, where he makes videos diving into the statistics and math behind the Pokemon TCG...

Today’s guest is Steffen Eriksen. Steffen is a player from Denmark with almost 2 decades of Pokemon TCG experience, and he will be joining us for the next two episodes. He has multiple Regionals finishes, Nationals finishes, and has 11 Worlds invites. He is also the host of the Youtube channel Steffen's Classroom, where he makes videos diving into the statistics and math behind the Pokemon TCG...

Mateusz Laszkiewicz is a player from Poland who recently won the Stuttgart Regional Championship with an incredible innovative Palkia/Vikavolt deck. He has also had strong finishes throughout the past year, getting 9th place in Bremen and Top 4 at the Turin SPE. In this episode we discuss how Mateusz went from a player who mostly played Expanded online to one of Europe's top players. We talk a...

Alessandro Cremascoli is a player from Italy who has has success in the Pokemon TCG for over 20 years. He is a multiple-time Regional Champion, Italian National Champion, and World's competitor. He has also started making Pokemon TCG content on Youtube for the Italian community. In this episode we go over his storied history as a player, from learning the game as a small child to taking his so...

Today’s guest is Mo Ideis. Mo is a player from the Chicagoland area who is a member of the Nerd Rage Gaming Pokemon TCG team and is well on his way to his first Worlds invite. Mo achieved his first big finish at Salt Lake City last year, finishing top 16 in the first Regional since the pandemic. Since then, Mo has finished top 64 at Peoria and Ft Wayne, and Top 128 at EUIC last month. This episode...

Harrison is a worlds invitee who has recently become known as an expert on deck involving Arceus Vstar. Harrison has half a dozen day 2 finishes, playing both meta and innovative deck archetypes. He has recently gotten into the streaming game, and credits Pokemon for being one of the most important factors for why he overcame great obstacles in his life, which is a subject we will discuss in our e...

Today’s guest is Zander Bennett. Zander recently got top 4 at Ft Wayne Regionals and is on the cusp of locking up his Worlds invite for the year. Zander has over half a decade of success in the Pokemon TCG, making day 2 at multiple Regionals, including top 4 at Phoenix Regionals in 2015. He is also an expert in the Cube format, a fun and alternative way of playing the Pokemon TCG that has been gro...

Today’s guest is Christian Fontenot. Christian is a self-described Regi expert, a deck whose loss we will be mourning during our talk today. After getting top 64 at Indianapolis with Rapid Strike Malamar, Christian picked up Regis and never looked back. He’s made 6 day 2s with the deck, including a top 8 placement at Arlington Regionals. Outside of his Regis knowledge, Christian brings a unique pe...

Today’s guest is Drew Allen. Drew is a player, streamer, Youtuber, and overall expert on the history of the Pokemon TCG. He is the host of the Snowpoint Cast, a Youtube channel dedicated to showcasing old formats and decks, and one of the hosts of the Drew Too Many Podcast. Drew is also an incredibly talented player in his own right, having made top 32 and top 16 at multiple regionals through the...

Today’s guest is Sable Creech. Sable is a player, judge, and historian of the Pokemon TCG. They are the manager and admin of Snowpoint Temple, a Facebook group of over 2000 members dedicated to discussing and older Pokemon TCG formats. Sable is also an active Magic the Gathering player, and can help teach us ignorant Pokemon players about the similarities and differences between our beloved TCGs....

Today’s guest is Andrew Hedrick! Andrew has been on an absolute tear in the past year. In 2022 he placed Top 32 at Indianapolis Regionals, Top 64 at NAIC, and Top 8 at Peoria Regionals. And most recently, Andrew has won not just one, but TWO back to back Regional championships, at Orlando and Knoxville. In this episode, Andrew reflects on his recent success, explains how he got involved in the Pok...

Today’s guest is Phinn Lynch. Phinn has been a prolific player for the better part of a decade, with a Regionals win, two Regionals finals placements, a top 32 finish at the 2015 World Championship, and dozens of day twos and other top finishes. Phinn is also the owner of Cut or Tap, one of the best resources for articles on deckbuilding and tournament results. This episode Phinn gives us backgrou...

Today’s guest is Greg Smith. Greg is a judge, Poke-Dad, and player. Greg got involved with the Pokemon TCG more than a decade ago, and has judged Regionals, organized Cups, and helped introduce new players to the game throughout the Midwest. He is the father of multiple competitive players, and has personally seen competitive success at events he is not judging. This episode we speak to Greg about...

Today’s guest is Kevin Krueger! Kevin is the Limitless Invitational champion, which they won after playing through multiple online qualifiers when in-person play shut down in 2020. Kevin also qualified for the Players Cup 3 Global Finals, and helped create the Arceus Corviknight deck that saw success during the Sword & Shield to Brilliant Stars format. Kevin ALSO happens to be a doctor when th...