The Premiere Tournament Organizer for the Regional Tournament in Houston has announced that the Expanded format will be used for the whole tournament. That means that players will be able to use cards from the Black and White base set all the way up to Ancient Origins in the upcoming Regional tournament event in the Swiss and Top Cut rounds.
Below is the Facebook message that the Houston area TO posted to announce the use of the Expanded format for Houston Regionals.
What does this means for the rest of the nation? It could mean that the other Regional competitions may follow suit in order to remain consistent. The Houston Regional is one of the biggest Regional events in the nation and many players have made plans to attend. So it would be weird if one Regional tournament decided to go Expanded format while the others simply did Standard.
Why would the decision for an all Expanded format Regional? There could be a few reasons why. The main reason for this decision would be to give players more time to adjust to the new Standard format. A lot of strategies will be leaving once Rotation finally hit on September 1st and not many players may know how to adjust to the new Standard format with so little time before Regionals. Players would be expected to create a new deck and test it in less then two months. Something that Pokemon may not think is good for less experienced players who started playing during the BW-era of the TCG.
Will we see more Expanded Format style tournaments or is this just a one time thing. We will just have to wait and find out.
