Regionals Are Here! — Final Preparation and Testing for Atlantic City and Köln

Hello everyone! As I’ve been finalizing my testing for the Atlantic City Regional Championships, it has struck me how ridiculously long we’ve had to test for these upcoming events. This time last year, we were preparing for the Philadelphia Regional Championships, a mere three weeks after 2018 Worlds. This year, we’re already well into the 2020 Regionals season! Between the World Championships, the two DC Open tournaments, Sheffield Regionals and SPE Melbourne, we’ve actually had five major events already—very different compared to the usual start to the season. In fact, after next week we’ll have had the Unified Minds setlist for three months now. Given the change to the World Championship format, that means we’ve had a whole three months of testing for the Unified Minds meta—and much more to go! 

Meta Expectations

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[cardimg name=”Mewtwo and Mew-GX” set=”Unified Minds” no=”71″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

Prior to the World Championships, there were six decks: [card name=”Reshiram and Charizard-GX” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”20″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Pikachu and Zekrom-GX” set=”Team Up” no=”33″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Malamar” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”51″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Blacephalon-GX” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”52″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Weavile-GX” set=”Unified Minds” no=”132″ c=”name”][/card] Dark Box, and [card name=”Mewtwo and Mew-GX” set=”Unified Minds” no=”71″ c=”name”][/card] were the archetypes that I considered the “decks to beat”. Even without fully refined decklists, these seemed to be the ones that had the most potential going into the post-rotation format.

At the World Championships, these decks made up seven of the Top 8 (87.5%), 12 of the Top 16 (75%), and 25 of the Top 32 (78.125%), all above the 67.8% meta share those decks had going into the biggest event of the season. Even with knowledge before-hand that those would be the decks to beat, these five decks outperformed their meta expectations. It’s a performance that looks more dominant if you remove the underperforming Malamar from those results. Since then, players have had the advantage of referencing the top-performing decklists from Worlds as a starting point, resulting in more refined versions of those top decks and tournament finishes to match.

One month after Worlds, five of those decks have maintained their top-tier status as the ones to beat, while Dark Box has dropped in popularity. Despite the initial hype and my best efforts, Dark Box has fallen out of favor among most players (though I would argue that it remains a strong play). The other five, however, have remained both strong and popular. At Sheffield Regionals and SPE Melbourne, 72 out of 87 Day 2 / Top 32 decks were one of those five decks. While we don’t have the total meta data from either of those events, the idea that nearly 80% of successful players were using one of those decks illustrates the dominance those archetypes have over our format. League Cup placements appear to be similar, though with a bit more variety.

Going forward into Atlantic City and Köln, I would expect to see all five of these decks in large numbers—though one does stand out above the rest.

Ability Reshiram and Charizard-GX: The Best Deck in Format?

Thus far, the data seems to suggest that Ability Reshiram and Charizard-GX has clearly staked out a role as the dominant deck this format. Of those 72 Day Two / Top 32 placements from Sheffield and SPE Melbourne, Reshiram and Charizard-GX had 32 (26 Ability variants, six [card name=”Green’s Exploration” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”175″ c=”name”][/card]’s variants), whereas Pikachu and Zekrom-GX had 15, Mewtwo and Mew-GX Box had 10, Blacephalon-GX had eight, and Malamar had seven. If there’s one deck to focus on defeating, it is Ability Reshiram and Charizard-GX.

Every once in a while, it seems that Pokemon decides that one of its types should be better than others. Last year, it was Lightning thanks to great cards such as [card name=”Thunder Mountain Prism Star” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”191″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Tapu Koko Prism Star” set=”Team Up” no=”51″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Electropower” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”172″ c=”name”][/card], and [card name=”Volkner” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”135″ c=”name”][/card]. In the past, Pokemon has smiled favorably on Fighting ([card name=”Diancie Prism Star” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”74″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Strong Energy” set=”Fates Collide” no=”115″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Brooklet Hill” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”120″ c=”name”][/card], pretty much every [card name=”Buzzwole” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”77″ c=”name”][/card]), Darkness ([card name=”Dark Patch” set=”Dark Explorers” no=”93″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Darkrai-EX” set=”Dark Explorers” no=”107″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Yveltal-EX” set=”XY” no=”144″ c=”name”][/card]), and more as you go farther back. Nowadays, Fire has become the dominant type thanks to a combination of strong attackers, excellent Energy finding cards in [card name=”Giant Hearth” set=”Unified Minds” no=”197″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Fiery Flint” set=”Dragon Majesty” no=”60″ c=”name”][/card], and [card name=”Fire Crystal” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”173″ c=”name”][/card], and the incredible Energy acceleration of [card name=”Welder” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”189″ c=”name”][/card]. Even though it’s only been out for two sets, Welder has already proven itself to be one of the strongest Supporter cards of the Sun & Moon era, if not of all time. It isn’t a coincidence that three of those five decks I’ve mentioned earlier focus on Fire! Both Mewtwo and Mew-GX Box and Reshiram and Charizard-GX are the best decks in the format as take full advantage of the Welder engine. One trend to watch for will be whether or not Fire decks continue their dominance or if players adapt to counter them. Water was weakened by the rotation when it lost [card name=”Aqua Patch” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”119″ c=”name”][/card] and [card name=”Brooklet Hill” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”120″ c=”name”][/card], but there are some strong Water-types that can make a splash going forward. Cards like: [card name=”Quagsire” set=”Dragon Majesty” no=”26″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Keldeo-GX” set=”Unified Minds” no=”47″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Slowpoke and Psyduck-GX” set=”Unified Minds” no=”35″ c=”name”][/card], and [card name=”Blastoise” set=”Team Up” no=”25″ c=”name”][/card] are among the strongest. Quagsire / [card name=”Naganadel” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”108″ c=”name”][/card] in particular, has become a popular choice at League Cups, and it snagged a Top 8 spot at Melbourne in the hands of Jay Tyrell. Neither Keldeo-GX nor Blastoise has managed to do much since Worlds, but the potential is there.

Malamar: Gone for Now, or Ready to Return?

[cardimg name=”Malamar” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”51″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

After the World Championships, Malamar was subject to mockery. The deck didn’t perform well at Worlds itself; despite being the second-most played deck (meta share of 18.6%), the deck only made two Top 32 spots, and no Malamar player finished higher than 24th. Frankly, the deck hasn’t performed spectacularly since then. While it does have the fifth-most Day 2 finishes, Malamar has yet to finish a major event higher than 16th place. Yet after all that, Malamar has made somewhat of a resurgence in public opinion, to the point that it is now considered to be one of the more popular options to play in Unified Minds Standard. Malamar decks haven’t changed too much since Worlds—so why the change in opinion? One big reason is that the deck appears to have a positive matchup into the two big new additions to the format: Ability Reshiram and Charizard-GX and refined Mewtwo and Mew-GX Box. In both cases, Malamar can take advantage of its non-Pokemon-GX attackers to win. Malamar may be able to benefit from further refinement, changing previously negative matchups to positive ones as a consequence of its increased consistency. Overall, enough players appear to be coming around to the potential of Malamar to keep it in the conversation as a Tier 1 deck—and to justify preparing and teching for it if needed.

New Stuff

While the predicted decks did and continue to do well, there were a few non-meta decks to come out of the World Championships. Among the best included [card name=”Oranguru” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”114″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Pidgeotto” set=”Team Up” no=”123″ c=”name”][/card], a noxious hand control deck that made Top 8 at Worlds, and [card name=”Gardevoir and Sylveon-GX” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”130″ c=”name”][/card], which saw a surprisingly high amount of play (meta share of 9.3%) and finished with three Top 16 spots, including 9th and 10th place. Neither made much of an impact at SPE Melbourne (none of them made the Top 32), but both had strong performances in Europe. Pidgeotto finished Sheffield Regionals in 3rd place, while Gardevoir and Sylveon-GX finished in 1st! Both of those decks have the potential to be included in the Tier 1 conversation; the only thing holding them back right now is their popularity. If the decks continue to do well however, I have to imagine that their meta share will increase as a result.

As far as other new decks, there aren’t any individual ones that appear to be popular enough to warrant focusing your testing on. That isn’t to say that the aforementioned decks are the only things that you’ll encounter, or the only things with potential. This format has proven to be incredibly diverse after all, but I wouldn’t expect to run into any particular non-meta deck.

More Matchup Strategies

While many of the strategies that I went over pre-Worlds remain roughly the same, I do want to go over how to deal with the new decks that have popped up since then. The four decks that I’ll focus on are: Pidgeotto, Gardevoir and Sylveon-GX, Quagsire / Naganadel, as well as another look at Ability [card name=”Reshiram and Charizard-GX” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”20″ c=”name”][/card]. I would expect to see these four decks the most going forward, and the ones that warrant the most testing against.

Pidgeotto

[cardimg name=”Pidgeotto” set=”Team Up” no=”123″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

By far, Oranguru / Pidgeotto is one of the most unpleasant decks in the format. The deck will grind you down, slowly and methodically, ripping away your hand and discarding all your Energy until you can effectively no longer play the game. It’s slow going—you’ll rarely finish more than one game of the best of three against Pidgeotto. But that’s what happens when you face a deck whose goal is to run you out of cards!

Pidgeotto is beatable, but there are a few pitfalls that you can fall into, the smallest of which can mean the difference between winning and losing. The biggest thing to avoid is playing down Pokemon with a Retreat Cost greater than one, or an attack greater than one Energy. A common strategy for Pidgeotto will be to bring a Pokemon to the Active via [card name=”Custom Catcher” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”171″ c=”name”][/card], then use either [card name=”Crushing Hammer” set=”Emerging Powers” no=”92″ c=”name”][/card] or [card name=”Articuno-GX” set=”Celestial Storm” no=”31″ c=”name”][/card]’s Cold Crush GX to remove all of the Energy from that Pokemon, leaving it both unable to attack and retreat. If that happens at a point where you have no hand and they’re controlling your top deck using [card name=”Chip-Chip Ice Axe” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”165″ c=”name”][/card], then you’re trapped in the lock! This scenario can occur with a low Retreat Cost Pokemon such as a [card name=”Dedenne-GX” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”57″ c=”name”][/card], but it will be much more difficult for the Pidgeotto player to keep it constantly Active than it would be for one that requires more Energy to do anything.

The key to this matchup is to allow yourself as many outs to the lock as possible. For Fire decks, that means not benching Pokemon like Reshiram and Charizard-GX. For Lightning decks, it means leaving yourself as many outs to a counter Stadium as you possibly can. In general, you’ll want to save your [card name=”Switch” set=”Celestial Storm” no=”147″ c=”name”][/card], your counter-Stadiums (if your deck is weak to [card name=”Power Plant” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”183″ c=”name”][/card]), and your [card name=”Reset Stamp” set=”Unified Minds” no=”206″ c=”name”][/card] (to possibly disrupt their loop). As tempting as it might be to play slowly to get around Reset Stamp, the reality is that you’ll have to take Prizes eventually. The more time you give the Pidgeotto player to establish their hand, the higher their chances will be of establishing a hand-lock once you do take Prizes—and the lower your chances will be of defeating them. In most cases, you’ll want to get those Prizes faster, not slower. If you can, you’ll want to KO their Pidgeotto; their odds of achieving the hand-lock loop will be lower if you can disrupt their setup, and KOing their Pidgeotto is the way to do so. After all, the best way to get out of their lock is to never fall into it in the first place!

As awful as it is to play against, I do recommend getting in some practice against Pidgeotto before going to any major event. The deck likely won’t see a high amount of play due to its playstyle, but it will have its share of devout players. You don’t want to find yourself unprepared when you run into it. One of the trickier things in this matchup is figuring out when to concede; you want to be able to give yourself enough time to potentially win a game and force a tie, but you don’t want to give up too early and miss out on an opportunity to win the game. After the Pidgeotto player gets the lock up, they likely will be able to control it until the end of the game when your deck reaches a point in which you don’t have many (if any) “bad” cards left to draw. This point is a bit different for every deck, so you’ll want to figure it out for your deck of choice. Likewise, knowing how Pidgeotto approaches the endgame against you will go far in informing your decisions earlier in the matchup, such as what cards to use early and which ones to try to conserve until the end game. As far as conceding goes, a good rule of thumb is to not concede in the first game until you are completely out of “outs” to getting out of the lock—and immediately concede once you are locked. Most of the time, you will get “locked” at some point in the match, but that doesn’t mean that you’ve lost! If you have time, I recommend piloting Pidgeotto yourself so that you know what strategies to look out for. A huge part of defeating Pidgeotto is knowing what their strategy is, and then altering your own strategy to counter your opponent.

Gardevoir and Sylveon-GX

[cardimg name=”Gardevoir and Sylveon-GX” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”130″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

After it won the Sheffield Regional Championships, I would not at all be surprised to see this deck in decent numbers at Atlantic City and at the Köln Regional Championships. 

There are three main factors that [card name=”Gardevoir and Sylveon-GX” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”130″ c=”name”][/card] decks use to obtain victory. First, it is difficult to KO. As a [card name=”Green’s Exploration” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”175″ c=”name”][/card] deck, Gardevoir and Sylveon-GX is naturally going to have zero issues finding any healing cards they might need to shrug off attacks. Most variants don’t play an overwhelming amount of healing cards, but you will encounter [card name=”Great Potion” set=”Unified Minds” no=”198″ c=”name”][/card] rather frequently. Their [card name=”Xerneas-GX” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”90″ c=”name”][/card] is also dangerous, and it will quickly punish you if you try and spread around too much damage.

Second, they’ve got a variety of Fairy Charm cards. It’s one thing for a Pokemon to be tanky, but it’s another for that Pokemon to be invincible! There aren’t many good ways to remove Tool cards, and most decks don’t play the few cards available to remove Tools. Between [card name=”Fairy Charm L” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”172″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Fairy Charm P” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”175″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Fairy Charm UB” set=”Team Up” no=”142″ c=”name”][/card], and [card name=”Fairy Charm Ability” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”171″ c=”name”][/card], Gardevoir and Sylveon-GX is capable of walling a large percentage of the format. These Fairy Charms don’t protect against non-Pokemon-GX, but aside from Ability Reshiram and Charizard-GX (an already poor matchup for Gardevoir and Sylveon-GX), most decks don’t have non-Pokemon-GX that can deal enough damage to be threatening.

Finally, Gardevoir and Sylveon-GX has an ace in the hole in the form of hand disruption and [card name=”Power Plant” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”183″ c=”name”][/card]. If they can get it off, a boosted Magical Miracle GX is one of the most devastating attacks in the format, especially if they can reduce your options to draw out of it by shutting down Dedenne-GX. Even without the GX attack, Reset Stamp can be incredibly difficult to get around, particularly if the Gardevoir and Sylveon-GX player forces you to go to one Prize by mixing things up with a non-Tag Team Pokemon-GX (such as Xerneas-GX). For [card name=”Pikachu and Zekrom-GX” set=”Team Up” no=”33″ c=”name”][/card] and [card name=”Mewtwo and Mew-GX” set=”Sun and Moon Black Star Promos” no=”SM191″ c=”name”][/card] decks in particular, the Power Plant and hand disruption combo can be devastating, since those decks often struggle to attack with Power Plant in play. The inclusion of Power Plant also means that you won’t be able to wall them with [card name=”Keldeo-GX” set=”Unified Minds” no=”47″ c=”name”][/card], though they don’t actually have any outs if you happen to use [card name=”Alolan Ninetales” set=”Team Up” no=”111″ c=”name”][/card]. 

So, how do you beat them? There isn’t a ton of strategy to use regarding their healing. You have to keep attacking them until the damage sticks. You will want to play around Xerneas-GX’s Sanctuary GX—I recommend avoiding doing damage to the point that they’ll be able to retaliate with a Sanctuary GX KO, if you’re attacking them with a Pokemon-GX. As for the Fairy Charms, most decks will have a variety of attackers to not be completely stopped by them. You’ll want to establish different attackers that you can transition to, so that you’ll be prepared for whichever Fairy Charm that they attach. It’s even better if you can surprise them with an alternate attacker—though be wary of the possibility of Reset Stamp disrupting that play.

As for Power Plant, your best strategy will be the same as that against [card name=”Pidgeotto” set=”Team Up” no=”123″ c=”name”][/card]—conserve your counter-Stadiums until you absolutely need them. Because of the danger of hand disruption, you’ll want to be conservative with how you use your Supporters and aggressive with regards to thinning out the less helpful parts of your deck such as Pokemon search cards. Like most Green’s Exploration decks, Gardevoir and Sylveon-GX is going to try and build up their hand. Reset Stamp is a natural counter to this. While in most cases you’ll want to wait until your opponent is at a low Prize count to use it, you’ll often want to use Reset Stamp a bit sooner against Gardevoir and Sylveon-GX. Once they’ve used more than one Green’s Exploration, that’s generally a good time to disrupt their hand.

Quagsire / Naganadel

It’s seen play before, but [card name=”Quagsire” set=”Dragon Majesty” no=”26″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Naganadel” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”108″ c=”name”][/card] / Keldeo-GX has quickly become one of the more common anti-meta decks this format. The deck has great theoretical matchups against many of the top decks in the format and has a robust strategy to match up against the non-meta decks as well. Where Quagsire struggles most is in terms of its consistency—losing [card name=”Brooklet Hill” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”120″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Ultra Ball” set=”Dark Explorers” no=”102″ c=”name”][/card], and [card name=”Nest Ball” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”123″ c=”name”][/card] have not been good for the deck. But it isn’t so inconsistent as to be unreliable. For comparisons, this deck tends to feel a bit like [card name=”Malamar” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”51″ c=”name”][/card]; it requires a bit of setup and will struggle if it fails to do so, but is dangerously good once it gets its board established.

Quagsire’s biggest exploitable weakness is its constant need to replenish its Pokemon. Since Quagsire tends to function both as necessary utility and as a principal attacker, it will be in danger more often and when it does get Knocked Out, the Quagsire player will be in more trouble than usual if they can’t get another one into play. Keldeo-GX and [card name=”Volcanion Prism Star” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”31″ c=”name”][/card] might give it strong alternate attackers, but you only have to deal with Volcanion Prism Star once and Keldeo-GX is a rather poor attacker if you have enough ways around it. 

As you can continually KO their attackers, you can control Quagsire’s maximum damage output as well. With a board of two Naganadel, they can only get three Water Energy into play per turn. That’s only enough for 120 damage outside of their GX attack. Make sure to play around Keldeo-GX’s Resolute Blade, as that is their only other high-damage option. 

Finally, you can occasionally take advantage of their Pokemon requirements, by using [card name=”Custom Catcher” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”171″ c=”name”][/card] (or a similar gust effect) to KO either Naganadel or Quagsire if they’ve failed to get enough into play. In scenarios where your opponent is forced to play down [card name=”Mew” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”76″ c=”name”][/card] and [card name=”Dedenne-GX” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”57″ c=”name”][/card], they’ll likely only be able to get out one of either Naganadel or Quagsire. If you remove either of those pieces, that can drastically reduce your opponent’s functionality for the next few turns, giving you a sizeable advantage for the remainder of that game. That scenario won’t always happen, but it is worth looking out for.

Ability Reshiram and Charizard-GX

[cardimg name=”Reshiram and Charizard-GX” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”20″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

It may not be a new concept but the emergence of Ability [card name=”Reshiram and Charizard-GX” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”20″ c=”name”][/card] has changed how people approach the archetype. I talked about how to beat Reshiram and Charizard-GX before but that was [card name=”Green’s Exploration” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”175″ c=”name”][/card] Reshiram and Charizard-GX. The Ability version is a completely different beast. This deck is brutal to play against if it draws well. There are a lot of games where Reshiram and Charizard-GX will win regardless of how well you play against it. The deck has a variety of non-Pokemon-GX attackers, one of the only reliable gust effects in [card name=”Ninetales” set=”Team Up” no=”16″ c=”name”][/card] and few weaknesses. It’s a daunting deck, for sure, but it isn’t unbeatable! 

In this matchup, you’ll somehow have to find a way to attack with Pokemon that give up fewer Prize cards than your opponent. Not exactly Reshiram and Charizard-GX, while it does have a few non-Pokemon-GX attackers, will nonetheless be forced to put others into play. For non-Pokemon-GX decks such as [card name=”Malamar” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”51″ c=”name”][/card] or Quagsire, victory will come if you can maintain that Prize advantage. For Pokemon-GX decks, you’ll have to be able to match their speed, step for step. To win, you’ll want to play more aggressively whenever possible, even if doing so is a gamble. This particular Reshiram and Charizard-GX deck has a bit of a reliance on Dedenne-GX so an early [card name=”Power Plant” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”183″ c=”name”][/card] can hurt them, as well as a well timed Power Plant and [card name=”Reset Stamp” set=”Unified Minds” no=”206″ c=”name”][/card]. Anything you can do to slow them down is worth doing, even if only slightly.

Reshiram and Charizard-GX is unique among the top decks in that it is almost impossible to “wall” against. There aren’t any Fairy Charms that can stop it, and the deck has enough non-Pokemon-GX attackers between [card name=”Blacephalon” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”32″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Turtonator” set=”Dragon Majesty” no=”50″ c=”name”][/card], and [card name=”Victini Prism Star” set=”Dragon Majesty” no=”7″ c=”name”][/card] that Keldeo-GX isn’t enough of an effective wall. On top of that, Double Blaze GX gives Reshiram and Charizard-GX yet another out regardless of opposing effects. As a result, even targeted techs like [card name=”Bronzong” set=”Team Up” no=”101″ c=”name”][/card] or [card name=”Araquanid” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”17″ c=”name”][/card] can’t stop them. Even for decks that do have preventing damage as a main plan, they’ll typically have to engage in the Prize-race anyway.

I do wish I had more to recommend against this particular matchup, but unfortunately, there isn’t too much more to add! This deck is the meta share leader for a reason, and it is likely deserving of the BDIF mantle. My best advice against it is to make sure that whatever you play has a strategy that can maintain at least a 50/50 result against it. If your current deck can’t do that, I recommend testing until you can figure out how to beat Reshiram and Charizard-GX, or switching decks before Knoxville if not before. 

Conclusion

Overall, if you’ve been prepared before, you’ll probably continue to be prepared for the Unified Minds Standard format. This format is diverse, so you thankfully won’t run out of stuff to test against! For those of you who will be playing this weekend, best of luck! If you aren’t, be sure to keep an eye on what’s doing well—that will be useful knowledge to have going forward! And as always, if you’ve got any last-minute questions before Atlantic City or Köln, don’t hesitate to ask!

Thanks for reading!

–Zak

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