RJ and I just booked our hotel for Nationals! 
We’re very excited as this will be our first large Pokemon event.
Anyone else making the trip to Nationals? I’d love to meet some more of you guys!
I am determined to be at Nationals. It is too close for me to not go.
Even if I end up sleeping on the floor of a local players room. Haha.
ALSO!
Bring cash. It’s an AMAZING place to pick up modern cards that people are dumping pre-rotation if they announce a rotation by then (rumors of no rotation this year floating around, but I doubt it). It’s also a great place to get merchandise! I’ve been using it as a chance to get all the binders I want at $10 a piece. Usually grab 5+ of those. And wait until the very end of the TCG championship and hit up TnT. They will sell things much cheaper to not have to pack it up and take it back with them.
And, though you have to be careful not to get caught, you can scout out things getting bulked in to TnT and Collector’s Cache and pick them up at slightly above bulk rate, which tends to be ridiculous. Someone was trading in about 100 emerald/holon phantoms holo energies once for 10 cents each and I got them for $1 more than they were going to pay. Needless to say, I made well over $100 off of that lot. Haha.
I will definitely have cash on hand! Thanks for the tip!
I would love to have some hidden gems there! 
Surely Bluey and I aren’t the only ones going?
Consider this the “It’s getting close to that time” bump. We are planning a dinner to get together and do strictly collecting stuff, so now is your chance to get in on the action!
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So, how did you both do? What decks did you use?
I went 3-4 then dropped to do collecting things. I was playing Landorus EX/Mewtwo EX/Garbodor. I had really good matchups but was energy droughting really bad.
BUT, I more than made up for it in collecting deals.
Whaddya Get?!
Secrets. 
At least until I get a good camera one day.
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Oh man energy droughts are so painful. What made you decide to drop out though? Was there a group of trade-only people or something?
No no weird is not the word to describe that deck. No not at all. Gothitelle/Accelgor is such a painful deck to play against once it’s set up and sometimes you can literally do NOTHING for the rest of the game except delay your loss. Oh man have I suffered against that deck many times in real life and on TCGO. As much as I dislike it, I’m so glad it won as opposed to the other popular decks.
I dropped because, with no chance of top cut, I preferred having the time to spend with friends and look for deals.
Gothitelle got extremely popular right before Nats. I saw a ton of GothLock decks. As many as I saw Blastoise/Keldeo even. But not as many as Darkrai. I prefer good builds of unpopular decks to win, but with such a good plasma match-up, this makes sense.
I would also regret not mentioning the amazing time I had sharing collections with Sammy. Obviously neither of us could bring a whole lot, but we thoroughly enjoyed sharing some personal gems with each other. It was amazing to finally get to meet someone that collects at the caliber that I do.
Not to mention she was just an all around great friend to me on top of it all. She gave me the opportunity to share a huge table of Italian foods with her and almost 20 of the Michigan league players/family she knows. She let me sleep on her floor when my hotel plans A, B and C all ditched last minute. And she even helped me get a card I needed. My experience would not have been the same without Sammy’s help.
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Love hearing things like this!! 
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Gothitelle was “revealed” in some exclusive communities a month or so prior to Nationals occurring. It was heavily tested and deemed completely viable.
It has essentially 50/50 matchups across the board, so many of the best players opted to play different decks. The odds turned in favor of the deck.
Having won Nationals, nobody is calling this the best deck and the person that won would probably be best advised to look into better options for Worlds.
Oh so you didn’t see many Gothitelle/Accelgor decks at Canadian Nats? What a shame, maybe I should have been there and maybe I’d have a chance! 
The Battle Roads I went to had abbout 3 or 4 people running Gothitlle and I just so happened to be paired against 2 of those players lost against both of them. 
I managed to take 5 prizes in one game but then they finally got the lock going and I was doomed.
HeyFonte.
It’s not like “OMG so exclusive.”
It just includes a huge portion of the US’s best players and is invitation only. But any existing member can invite you to join.
It exists on FaceBook and is an amazing tool, if you can dig through all of the inside jokes and various trolling/humor.
More good than bad. Don’t let me description scare you away. Just take it as a light warning should you partake.
I’ll share it all one day. Maybe I’ll post some pics with my iPod or something soon. I don’t know. There were gems here and there though. Especially some of the prices I managed to get things for. Like, to share just one small deal. A NM/M Rayquaza* is a cool purchase. But when I got it for $150, it became an even better deal. And when I got it in a lot with some other incredible deals, it became even cheaper.
And the meta game changes slightly. Even if the same concepts reappear, knowing how to play them against existing decks and being prepared for all of the nuances of the meta is not easy.