Well, this was it. After 4 Battle Roads, including two 3rd place finishes, I was finally at the end of the road (get it?). I didn’t know if I could make this one but luckily it was right next to where my girlfriend goes to university and, as I was visiting her this weekend, it made sense to pop on over. I’ve been here a few times before, most recently taking 3rd at Cities in January, and there are a lot of good people so I’m feeling pretty good. I’m also hot off a 4-1 run which got me a 3rd place Victory Cup, missing out on 1st on resistance, with my only loss coming from a misplay in sudden death.

As this is the UK we’re playing best-of-3 in Swiss with 45 minute time limits. We’re playing 4 rounds with a top 2 which, as is generally the case, ended up with 2 people going 3-0 and playing each other in the final round of swiss…. and then playing again the final. Was I one of them? Let’s see……

Round 1: Alexandra (Reshiphlosion) (Finished 1-3)

Alexandra is a girl I’ve played on previous visits to Blackpool who always played special condition decks before which caused me no end of trouble. This time it seems she’s playing Reshiphlosion which I’m happy about as, in theory, this should be a nice start to the tournament.

Game 1

I go first and start off by mulliganing. Three times!! This gave her a huge advantage in terms of having a starting hand (effectively) of 11. I do manage to get a T3 Magnezone though and am able to Catcher her only Typhlosion and KO it. I was then able to kill a Reshiram and, even though she had a starting hand of 11, she still drew very badly and T5 I was able to kill her third and final Pokémon (a Vulpix if I remember) to win the game.

Game 2

This game I start with absolutely nothing. I am forced to communicate for a Cleffa and burn an energy to retreat my lone Tepig and Eeeeeeek. T2 I was able to get a Magnemite down and T3 he becomes a Magnezone, though without enough energy to really do anything of note. Because of my slow start I had been burning Junk Arms too fast and started to really run low on energy. I was ahead by 4 prizes to 2 but I was then stuck without enough energy to attack.

I needed either one more Lightning Energy or one more Junk Arm (to reuse my Energy Retrieval and get the 2 energy from my discard pile) in order to take any more prizes but a check of my deck (from a Collector if I remember correctly) showed me that these were the last 2 prizes.

I, in theory, had enough energy to win this game, but I needed the Lightning Energy or my Junk Arm and with both of these being my last 2 prizes, I had no way to take any more prizes, I was forced to scoop. This was especially annoying as I was ahead in prizes and had a MUCH better set-up. Still, without the requisite energy there was nothing I could do.

Game 3

In this game I was able to go first and a T1 Collector meant I finished my opening turn with 2 Magnemites, 2 Tepigs and a Cleffa (who was Eeeeeeking). On T2 I found myself with a Magneton and a Magnezone followed on T3 but my Cleffa stayed asleep at the wrong time and, without a Switch I was unable to start attacking.

While I was doing this she had started lone Cyndaquil, and then got a T2 Quilava and a T3 Typhlosion but on my fourth turn I was able to get my Magnezone active and get the KO on her Typhlosion. With no other Pokémon for her, the match was mine.

(1-0)

Well, that was tense. I was a little disappointed in myself (kinda like Charlie Sheen should be but never really seems to be, maybe one day he’ll learn) for not keeping track of my energy properly in Game 2 but there we have it. I could bemoan my needing one of 2 cards to win the game and both of them being my last prizes but I could have kept better track of my resources. Still, a win’s a win and it should be plain sailing from here on in…

Round 2: Darren (Magneboar) (Finished 2-2)

Darren is a lovely bloke I’ve played before, including at the cities in Blackpool where my Donphan / Machamp just edged out his Vileplume / Machamp. That was the closest I had even gotten to a competitive mirror match. Until right now. Yep, this was my first ever competitive mirror-match, having been to 18 sanctioned tournaments since I started making proper decks.

Game 1

In this game I lose the flip and start lone Magnemite with NOTHING of value. I had a Magnezone in hand so I would have been ok had I drawn one of my: Rare Candy (4), PONT (4), Collector (4), Pokegear 3.0 (1), or other Basics (10). Yep, any of 23 cards would have been fine. Needless to say I got nothing! For 3 turns!

He actually got the 3HKO on my Magnemite with a Tepig! He’d drawn as badly as me, but as he went first and started Tepig, he won. Nevermind.

Game 2

This game I started 2 basics and, although my Cleffa was prized, I started well and got myself a T3 Magnezone. By this point he only had a Tepig and Magnezone ended him!

Game 3

I thought that as his deck had been inconsistent for the last 2 games I could now get another decent start and win the match overall. Well he started Pichu and filled his bench and, as I was going second, it meant I could not evolve them straight away.

I got a good start again in this game and took out his Magneton, then his Magnemite, then his Emboar, ensuring that his deck was never able to actually get going properly while I Catchered up some nice prizes.

While I was doing all this he was stuck getting 2HKOs with his Reshirams (which I was ignoring to make sure his oppressive Stage 2s were kept in check). I was winning by 5 prizes to 3, with a considerably better board, and Darren had told me himself that he did not see any way he could win this game. Then it happened.

I knew that I needed 3 more energy to get the final KO for the victory and I knew that, although I was out of Catchers and Junk Arms for easy KOs, I had exactly 3 energy left with which to get my final KO. At this point I ran through my entire deck. I needed one more energy to win. I had one prize remaining. No prizes for guessing what my final prize was…

(1-1)

Gutted doesn’t cover it. The second match in a row where I lose a game because my final prize was the one thing I needed. The slow start in game 1 also cost me. I believe my list was slightly more consistent and I feel I should have won that game but, this is what happens when you get complacent. This bad prizes / not tracking resources was starting to become an uncomfortable theme!     

Round 3: Charles (Mewbox) (Finished 3-1 – 2nd)

Now if anyone’s been following my progress throughout my reports you’ll know that I like Mewbox about as much as Kiera Knightly likes cake and it accounted for 50% of my losses in the first 3 Battle Roads this season. This time, as well as being against Mewbox, I was also playing Charles. A man I have played 4 times competitively and never beaten. Not a good combination methinks. I had also been paired up here, as Charles was 2-0. Yep, paired up against the one deck I couldn’t beat. Cheers for that!

Game 1

I went 1st in this game and I was able to get a T2 Magnezone (using Rare Candy, meaning there was still a second to get gotten using Magneton, under Trainer lock). Unfortunately he got as T2 Vileplume, piling on the pressure pretty darn quickly.

I decided to rush this as much as I could and stick to my rule of only using 1 Emboar and ensuring that it always 4 energy on it, allowing it to retreat or attack when “Sludge Dragged,” which it clearly will be. This went very, very well. I was able to take a number of early prizes using Magnezone and Reshiram (using “Outrage”), getting lucky on confusion flips but also playing very well and judging nicely when to burn energy retreating and when to risk it on a confusion flip.

During this time he starting building a Jirachi on the bench and it became obvious that he was planning on sniping with Yanmega until such a time as he could Devolve all my Stage 2s. I could see this coming but under trainer-lock, using the deck I was, there was nothing I could do about it.

Through good play I was able to take 5 prizes in the time he was able to take only a single prize. At this time he pulled a rather nice play (which again I saw coming but when trainer-locked it is far easier to bring these things out unopposed) by which he got his Smoochum and, two turns in a row, was able to use “Energy Antics” to move the Lightning Energy from my Magnezone, only for me to hit tails on confusion and not be able to attack. Annoying as one heads would have been a win for me!

I knew there was then only one Lightning Energy left in my deck and, as I was not able to find it, I had to draw and pass for several turns, giving him the time he needed to get his Jirachi all fired up. He used Jirachi to devolve (and KO) both my Magnezone and my Emboar, bringing him up to 5-4 in prizes. At this point the only real attacking threat I had was a Reshiram but he did not have the requisite energy to attack and I knew I could not win.

Annoying as his Smoochum thwarted my 6th prize, especially as two turns in a row I missed a vital flip but then again, he did play very well and it was a good play! It’s just annoying to take it so close in a game which should have been an auto-loss.

Game 2

Having said that, I was always prepared (nay, expecting) to lose the first game. My best chance against Mewbox is to lose a long first game, get ahead in prizes (having taken 4 or more) in game 2 and then win sudden death. Not a fool-proof plan but it’s the best I have!

As I lost I was going first and was able to get a T2 Magnezone which led to 2 quick prizes. He was then able to Twins for Vileplume, but not before I had 2 Magnezones and an Emboar on the board. He then, as I knew he would, used “Sludge Drag” to get Emboar active.

I had 4 Energy on Emboar and two benched Magnezones with an Lightning Energy on each so this put me in a fairly good position.  I could have retreated the Emboar and gotten a prize but the inevitable second Sludge Drag on Emboar may have left me unable to get another 4 energy in time (there was enough in my deck but I would need to find it the next turn to take 4 prizes and this was unlikely).

So it came down to a flip. Emboar was confused. Heads and I got my 3rd prize with no way of not getting my 4th prize the following turn. If he attacks the Emboar I retreat and attack with Magnezone, if he Sludge Drags Magnezone I can retreat him and he will have a Mew active that can be KOed by Emboar. Tails.

(1-2)

So, I needed to take 4 prizes and while I was ahead in prizes 3-1 this didn’t matter as, with not having more than 50% of my prizes taken the game didn’t count and, as the winner of the first game, Charles won the match. I had a decent shot in Sudden Death but, alas, this was a moot point.

This was actually very encouraging though. Mewbox is supposed to be an auto loss and not only did I take the second game down to a coin flip but I got down to 1 prize in the first game, losing to an exceptional Jirachi play. If you’ve ever played Magneboar against a good Mewbox player with a good list, you’ll understand.

Round 4: Alec (Gothitelle) (Finished 1-3)

Alec was a guy I’d never met before but he was a lovely chap; friendly, funny and honest and we had a really enjoyable game. I needed to win this to ensure that I didn’t end up with a negative record and, knowing he was playing Gothitelle, I had hope.

Game 1

I went second but I was able to Rare Candy into a T2 Magnezone. I was short on energy at this point so I had to wait a little but within a few turns I had 2 Magnezones and an Emboar and could get to work. I took out 2 Gothitelles and then started using Catcher to pick up some easy prizes from Solosis and Cleffa, ensuring that I was not going to run out of energy to Lost Burn.

At this point I was 5-1 ahead in prizes and the lock was broken as he was out of Gothitelles. I had also been conservative with my energy, ensuring that there was plenty left to finish the game with. Then something very bad happened. He Catchered my Emboar. This is fine, this happens every game. Unfortunately my last prize was my second Switch. With my deck about to run out and no way to get Emboar out of the active or get a kill, I was forced to concede, even though I was 5-1 up in prizes!

I don’t like to moan about luck (heck, I wrote an article that basically said stop crying about bad luck!) but this was the third game today where I had lost due to my last prize being the one thing I need to win. Oddly it had also never happened before with this deck. Saying that though, you could make a good argument here that I should have kept better track of my resources.

Game 2

This game was beautiful. I went first, got myself a turn 2 Magnezone and was able to completely rip his setup apart before he could get going. He got two Gothitelles using Twins but both of them lasted only one turn before being taken down. For the rest of the game I ensured that I conserved my resources, took easy prizes, kept Switches in hand and ran through his deck in about 10 minutes. He did seem to use a LOT of Twins though. He used 4 in a row starting when I took my prize. This is a theme that would continue.

I would also like to mention that half-way through one particularly long turn I had forgotten whether I had attached an energy. As I was musing he very honestly pointed out that I had not, which led to a game-changing KO. I would have been able to follow the game back and discover that I hadn’t attached (as I then did in my head) but the honestly was really heartening J

Game 3

Although I went 2nd, for the third time this match I was able to find a T2 Magnezone and, as I was able to get set up quickly, I took out his first Gothitelle using Catcher before he had enough energy on it. I was then able to take out a Gothita, drastically reducing the chances he could get anything going. He was again using Twins EVERY turn, but I was reducing his setup to the point that it didn’t matter.

He used Catcher to drag a Tepig up and I let him get the 3HKO with Zekrom as time was being called before using Catcher to kill on more Solosis to be ahead 3-1 on prizes when time was called.

(2-2)(6th)

Respect.

Well, that was nerve-wracking! I almost went 1-3 but I pulled it back to a respectable 2-2. Well, a more respectable 2-2. This was disappointing, given my 4-1 in Cardiff, but it could have been a lot worse.

At the end of the tournament Charles was beaten in the 3-0 playoff by a gentleman with Zekrom, who then went on to win the tournament, highlighting the pointlessness of the top cut. Nevermind. At 2-2 I had a chance to sneak into 4th place and get 2 boosters, but 2 of the other 2-2s had a bye so there was no chance.

I DID get a Full Art Tornadus in my only booster though, so I don’t think I can complain. My girlfriend and I stayed behind to watch the final and to help clear up and I can confidently say that a thoroughly enjoyable day was had by all.

I did seem to have a lot of bad luck with prizes (3 games and 1 match being thrown away) but then again, each of them could probably have been prevented through proper resource management. I was tired and this was my 5th Battle Road and blah blah blah but it really feels like I didn’t play well this day.

Having said that, my two losses were my auto loss (which I took to a coin flip) and a game I threw away because of poor resource management. This was very encouraging for my deck. Very encouraging indeed. Unfortunately, it didn’t do me much good at 2-2!

Part 2: Magneboar 2: The Rise of Floink

I wasn’t supposed to go to this Battle Road. I had been greatly looking forward to Ripley, Beeston, Sutton Coldfield and Cardiff. I was hoping I could make Blackpool and was chuffed when I could. I only found out about Sheffield the previous Sunday and, to be honest, I was a little tired of playing a mentally exhausting deck week after week in proper tournaments. I was having fun, I just needed a little break.

Then my girlfriend suggested we go down as she wanted to do some trading and was friends with all the people in Sheffield (well, at the shop, not literally everyone in Sheffield) so I figured, why not? It’s not like we had anything else to do that day.

With it being late in the season and with the European Cup in Prague the following weekend attendance was a little down but we had 10 Masters and were playing 4 rounds of best of 3 (40 minutes) with no top cut. Sweet, all I need to do is go 4-0 then…

Round 1: Clayton (Zekrom / Tornadus / Thunderus / Magnezone) (Finished 2-2)

Clayton is a guy I hadn’t met before but he was a lovely guy who was a joy to play. He didn’t get to many tournaments, living far from any leagues, but he made the trip down and was excited to be playing. He was playing a deck that seemed a little random but he played it well and knew what he was doing.

Game 1

Well, he’s playing a Zekrom variant so I lose the flip and, seeing a Zekrom, I start worrying just a little. I don’t mind playing Zekrom… when I get going! They can often rip the setup of a slower deck like mine apart before I even get going.

Luckily I get a pretty good start and, with a few basics out, I have everything needed for a T3 Magnezone, which should then allow me to sweep through his lower HP Pokémon while he 2HKOs me. But nope, he drops a judge. I draw pretty badly.

At this point he had Zekrom and Tornadus rolling and a LOT of Catcher. He was struggling to get energy out but by dropping the Judge and disrupting my setup he bought himself a few turns to get energy on the field and really get going.

Luckily, when 3 prizes down, I am able to use Pokegear to grab my Twins which gets me a Magnezone, an Emboar and a Catcher, which I use to take out his Zekrom with the majority of his energy on, putting me 2 prizes down but with a much better setup. I continue to use Catcher to take easy prizes, focussing on his Magneton and everything with energy attached and am able to win by 2 prizes as he is unable to OHKO me or KO much of anything without a Magnezone for draw-power or any significant energy on the field.

Game 2

This game has kind of the opposite start to the first. Instead of opening with a great hand I open with a rubbish hand! Then he drops a Judge (his start apparently being just as good as mine) and gives me everything needed for a T3 Magnezone. I was low on energy, but so was he and after letting him take the first prize to activate my Twins I was able to grab a Lightning Energy and a Catcher and run through his deck quite nicely using Catcher and Magnezone, ensuring that he never got a Magnezone out or any energy.

(1-0)

Well that a nice start. A very enjoyable game against a lovely chap and both a good comeback in Game 1 and a reminder of how devastating this deck can be when it sets up in Game 2. At this point I’m hoping to avoid Mike (Zekrom) and Dan (Reshiboar) until at least round 3.

Round 2: Mike (Zekrom) (Finished 3-1: 4th)

Mike is a guy I have been getting to know a little this Battle Road season. He was at Beeston, though I did not meet him there, then I met him at Cardiff before hanging out with him at Blackpool. He was the only person here today I really knew too well so we were hanging around between rounds and before the tournament. I didn’t want to play him, especially so early, especially as I don’t like Zekrom.

Game 1

Well, it’s a Zekrom variant so I go second. This is the fifth time this Battle Road season I have a faced a Zekrom deck and the fifth time I have lost the flip. Ironically against the one deck in the format where you really don’t want to lose the flip!

So I do have to go second but I open GOD. I have both a collector and a Twins in my hand while opening with a Cleffa and a Reshiram. Hoping to go first I put the Cleffa active (due to Reshiram’s CC retreat cost) but alas I lose the flip and a DCE and a Plus Power on his active Zekrom means I go behind as early as T1.

On my turn I Collector for the usual 2 Magnemites and a Tepig with Reshiram active and pass, hoping that he doesn’t have a Catcher. He doesn’t and isn’t able to get a KO on his turn. On my turns I Twins for the Rare Candy and Magnezone and get pretty much completely setup whilst being only a single prize down.

I’m able to take out his Zekrom (with all his energy on it) and when he tried to stall with Cleffa he hit heads of sleep, waking up and giving me an easy prize. I Catchered and killed another Zekrom and, with no way back, Mike conceded the first game.

Game 2

Well, this was bad. I start lone Tepig and am forced to go second. On his turn he has a DCE and PlusPower to do 30 to my Tepig, leaving it on 30 HP as me only Pokémon out. On my turn I cannot get another basic out so I pass, hoping he doesn’t have the Plus Power (or Junk Arm) needed to “Outrage” for the win. He does.

Game 3

Well, at least I get to go first this time! My start was ok, not too stellar but I managed to stall with Reshiram, losing only one prize to a Catcher before I was able to get a Magnezone online and even the score with a KO on Zekrom. My Reshiram has previously been hit for 20 by Zekrom and though I was not able to attack with Magnezone (only one energy on him) I had previously put 2 energy on my Reshiram (just in case) so I was able to Switch to Reshiram and Catcher a Shaymin for an easy “Outrage” prize.

He stalled with Cleffa at this point but hit heads on sleep, gifting another easy Reshiram prize. I was then able to use “Blue Flare” to take out a Tornadus, officially making this the most useful Reshiram had ever been for me in this deck, ironically during the tournament in which I had cut from 2 down to just the 1.

Time was called when I was 4-2 up in prizes and seeing no way to win Mike conceded the match.

(2-0)

I felt a little mean about this because Mike is quickly becoming one of my favourite people to play due to how fun and relaxed our games are. I felt good pulling off a difficult win and knew that he was likely to put my resistance up but I did feel a bit mean because I don’t like beating people I like! At the end of the day though, any win against Zekrom is always welcome.

Round 3: Tom (Gothitelle) (Finished 3-1: 2nd)

Tom is another guy I hadn’t met before but he was again a very lovely, friendly and relaxed guy. He said he hadn’t been a tournament for about 2 years (again, due to the distance he lived from any leagues) but he certainly knew what he was doing. When I saw he was playing Gothitelle I was happy. I thought this might be easy. Yeah, try again!

Game 1

Now, as detailed in my last (double) report, my tactics with Gothitelle have changed and now I just sit and wait, get set up and then sweep. It works. Here though it wasn’t needed. I won the flip and on T2 I had a Magnezone rolling and was able to get a kill on a Gothita. The next turn I took out a Gothitelle and after 3 turns there was clearly no way back for Tom and he scooped.

This left it open for me to either win Game 2 or just play out a long game and then take game 3, either in sudden death or by taking quick prizes and then just waiting for time to be called while I was ahead.

Game 2

This game I go second and I stick to my game plan. I take it nice and easy and get both a Magnezone and Emboar going. I take out a couple Gothitelle and 2 other prizes with Magnezone and am coasting along nicely.

He then gets out his final Gothitelle, out it active to block my trainers and uses Catcher to drag my Emboar active. At this point he then proceeds to draw pass, while forcing me to do the same as my Emboar is stuck active. I see what he’s doing here but I am fully prepared for this and just draw while I wait for the right things to come out of my deck, having used a Collector to check my deck and ensure that everything I needed was in my deck. It was.

He seemed to be getting happier and happier as I was drawing more and more cards then, right as I drew the final card in my deck, I attached 3 Fire and 1 Lightning Energy to Emboar, retreated for Magnezone (knowing I had a Fisherman to get all the energy back), used a PONT to put a LOT of cards back in my deck and took out his final Gothitelle.

I was then down to one prize and had full use of my Trainers again. Then something bad happened. He used Catcher to bring my Emboar active and stuck out a high HP Zekrom as his active. My second Switch was prized. It was my last prize. Just like my game the previous day in Blackpool.

I had no way to take any more prizes as retreating Emboar again would give me too little energy and he put a Zekrom active, meaning it couldn’t be killed before he got the KO and then I would be unable to recover the energy from the dead Emboar, still giving me no way to attack.

I had to concede at this point. I knew what he was doing (it’s what people do against Magneboar) and I was fully prepared but unfortunately with my Switch being prized and me, one could say foolishly, using all of my Junk Arms previously, I had no way back. Annoying, but we had very little time for game 3. And I was playing the better short-game deck AND was going first.

Game 3

In this game I went first and got a T2 Magnezone. I starting putting energy out but, knowing he was clearly going to try and stall Emboar active, I didn’t bother evolving my Tepigs (though I had 3 out as insurance). On T4 I had energy sufficient to take down Gothitelle, knowing that I would be able to get a KO the following turn, seeing what was on his bench.

He did catch a Tepig and KO it but this still left me ahead 2-1. He then tried to buy time with Catcher while using Gothitelle, hoping to get the final KOs right on time to win with me unable to get any beforehand. What I did here was put one Lightning Energy on each Magnezone. I then put a third energy on Tepig and kept energy in hand. This meant that there was absolutely no permutation in which he could stall me out.

It took a few turns to get the requisite energy down but then he was stuck in a position whereby he was unable to take a prize more substantial than a Tepig and whatever he did his Gothitelle would be KOed by Magnezone the following turn.

I killed the Gothitelle as planned at which point he was out of options and behind by 2 prizes after time had been called and I was able to eke out a rather difficult victory.

(3-0)

Well, that was tense. That was the 4th Gothitelle match-up I’d faced this BR season and my 4th victory, but this was (though my good friend Tommy Roberts almost decked me out with a Snivy in Cardiff!) the most difficult as his deck clearly was designed to stall far better than most. Luckily I am well tested against Gothitelle and was able to keep my cool and make sure I could get the W.

This put me in the top 2, as there were only 2 of us who were 3-0 and my resistance at this point was crazy good. Seeing the standing before game 3 I knew I would be getting a Championship Point and a shiny piece of cardboard I didn’t already have (being that I have two 3rd place ones) but the question was, could I win it…….?

Round 4: Dan (Reshiboar) (Finished 3-1: 3rd)

Dan is a guy I’d met before. He broke my heart. When I first made my Stage 1 deck right after rotation (before everyone jumped on the bandwagon!) I won about 30 games in a row, against all the top decks and many good players. Then I played Dan. He beat me. Then my Stage 1 deck went all downhill. He was playing Reshiboar then and he was still playing it now.

What was awesome is that for the 4th time today I was playing a really nice guy and had a really relaxed game. At this point it occurred to me that everyone I played today was nice, relaxed and up for a laugh. This made it one of my favourite tournaments for a while.

Game 1

Well, it’s looking like I can’t! I start lone Magnemite with no Supporters and no Pokegear. I ended up lasting 7 turns because I drew into a few basics, but he got Reshirams from the start and a quick Emboar and just ran through my deck. It wasn’t even close. I didn’t even evolve!

I never did see a Supporter either.

Game 2

Well, this was little better! I start Magnemite and Tepig but again I draw no Supporters. Nothing. In this game I draw 8 of my 15 energy and 3 of my 4 Rare Candy before I see any of my 11 Supporters! At one point my hand is literally just 2 Rare Candy, then I top-deck a Junk Arm, then another Rare Candy.

Luckily he also gets a very slow start and I sacrifice 2 basics while I attach energy to the rest and desperately try and get setup. I finally got a Magnezone going at this point but as the Magnemite had previously been hit by “Outrage” it was quickly KOed with “Blue Flare” the following turn.

Having the Magnezone for 2 turns had been enough though and at that point I was able to build 2 more Magnezones and an Emboar in one turn and it became a race against time; could I take 6 prizes before he took another 3? Luckily this had been helped as all I had drawn previously was energy, meaning I had a LOT of energy in play to help me on my way.

At this point I thought back to what I seen so far in this game and previous game and it struck me that he didn’t seem to using either Catcher or Plus Power (a fact I confirmed after the game). This, if true, would mean that if I could take OHKOs for the rest of the game while denying him at least one 2HKO, I could sneak out with a win.

To the end I made sure that I got a KO every turn, including Catchering babies and taking out his Emboar as soon as it hit the field (he had struggled to get one going in this game). I made sure to Switch out any Magnezones before they were in range of a “Blue Flare” and popped my Reshiram up to absorb a hit without dying and was able to take the game 6-2 with very little time left.

This was good. I had been working tirelessly on the consistency of my deck and, after having two bad starts in a row, he couldn’t possibly stall again.

Game 3

Oh yes he can! I start with 2 Tepigs and I literally have nothing useful; no Supporters or Communication or anything. One again I was forced to sacrifice basics to help me get set up but after a few turns I was at least able to get a Twins and, having previously benched a Magnemite, I was at least able to get a Magnezone going but with the poorness of my start I didn’t have enough energy to attack and had to sacrifice another Magnemite to buy enough time to start.

Once again I was 3 prizes down before I got anything going and with time running out it was going to be a real challenge to take 4 prizes AND not allow him to take one before time is called. Luckily I know he doesn’t run Catcher or Plus Power and I have big HP Pokémon so if I play smart and, more importantly, fast, I can do it.

In this game he was again slow to get an Emboar out and as soon as he did I was in a position to Catcher and kill it. He used Cleffa to try and stall but it woke up and gifted me a free prize. I managed to take 3 prizes but on the final turn of time, with us tied 3-3, his Elekid stayed asleep and, using a Pokémon Collector to look through my deck, I found out that I was out of Catchers and Junk Arms.

This Elekid had put 20 damage on my Magnezone and he may not have had an Emboar but he did have a Reshiram with 3 energy on it ready to Blue Flare. I used Switch to swap my Magnezones around and ensure that he could not get a KO next turn.

As time had expired and there was no winner we kept going until someone got a KO and won. Yep, next KO wins the Battle Road. On his turn he again used Elekid, this time to do 20 damage to my other Magnezone and fell asleep. This was dodgy here! Both my Magnezones were in Blue Flare range now and, although my Emboar wasn’t, he had a huge retreat cost that I could pay with neither energy nor Switch. Basically, if Elekid woke up, I won. If not, he won. He flipped for sleep. Heads.

(4-0) (1st)

Here’s how I felt:

Well, I finally did it. It took me 6 tries but I finally won a Battle Road. It kept up my record of getting a Victory Cup in 50% of my tournaments and got me 2 Championship Points for good measure. I was probably more chuffed that I got a Victory Cup that wasn’t another third place!

Now I don’t think the Championship Points will make a huge difference come the end of the season because, well, it’s two! I’m not vain enough to think I’m actually gonna qualify for Worlds and if I do, I imagine these 2 points won’t break it. None of this matters though, I’m just chuffed to bits to have some Championship Points.

Battle Roads Wrap Up 

Ok, I know I’ve said this before but I really am not going to any more Battle Roads. There aren’t any more in the UK though so you can believe me this time. I started with a decent 3rd place showing with Stage 1s before switching to Magneboar, failing horribly at my first try with the deck but then bringing it back to nab a 3rd place and a win.

I would advise anyone reading this think about the deck you use and how successful you are really likely to be with it. I could have had a decent BR showing with Stage 1s. I wouldn’t have done as well. It was a hard choice to leave it alone and change after the first BR but I am so glad that I did. I gave up a deck I love  but it was worth it in the end. Plus, it’s not given up, it’s still sleeved and ready to go at a moment’s notice.

Controversially, I am also going to advocate here changing your deck before a tournament and using it as a testing ground. Not for something like Regional’s or States, this would be silly. But for a Battle Road, sure. It sucked going 2-3 BUT I learned a LOT about my deck that game. I made a lot of changes since and it was doing so poorly and being forced into playing my games out (what with it being a tournament) that really showed me how to play the deck.

So, let’s do some stats shall we:

• Battle Roads attended: 6
• Total games played: 26
• Wins: 17 (65%) (~2/3)
• Losses: 9 (35%) (~1/3)
• Best finish: 4-0 (1st)
• Worst finish: 2-3 (15th)
• Championship Points: 2
• UK Ranking: 8^th (Cardiff BR (4-1, 3rd) not yet added)

Cheers for anyone that’s been reading my reports. Hopefully they’ve been enjoyable and if you want to read them all just click on my name at the top of this article and you’ll find links to the lot of them. I’m officially not going to the Prague Cup now but we have our first State Championship in the UK on Saturday 19th November. It’s at my local league and all my mates are going. Luckily, I’ve been booked in for weeks! Hopefully I’ll see ya there but if not, I’ll let ya know how I do.

Wish me luck.

Edit: Snuck a look at the list for States on Saturday. 6 of the 7 UK Worlds players from last year plus about every good UK player. Gulp.

Holding out for a Cleffa (til the end of the night) is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

October 15th @ Crawley: Four Best Of Three Rounds With No Top Cut

This was my first tournament of the season, so I was pretty anxious, and to add to my nerves I was playing a rogue (Cinncino/Tornadus) that was very under-tested with some potential match ups… Anyway, there was an extremely small turnout at the event, with only 4 Seniors (which is my division), a few Masters and no Juniors. Because of the poor turnout, Seniors and Masters were pulled together.

The List:

Round 1 VS. Luke w/ Stage 1s (Cinncino/Donphan/Yanmega)

Game 1:

In game one I got a ton of Cinccino and Tornadus set up to capitalize on his rather weak start and proceeded to steamroll everything he threw at me, eventually clearing his field of Pokemon. The game only lasted a few turns.

Game 2:

I drew an awful opening hand to his fantastic one and was t2 donked by a Donphan (or Yanmega, can’t quite remember). Disappointing, but these things happen I guess.

Game 3:

In game three we actually got to have a good match, with both of us setting up very quickly and  exchanging cheap prizes throughout most of the game. He eventually ran dry on resources fell behind on the prize trade, unable to catch up while I finished the game off with Cinccino. Huzzah!

1-0

Round 2 VS. Christopher w/ TyRam

Game 1:

Not much to say here, He got set up, I didn’t. I took a couple of prizes but ultimately ran out of resources and scooped. (Or got swept, my memory is kinda foggy here, but I know I lost.)

Game 2:

Game two went pretty much the same as before, but this time my sleeves decided to disintegrate mid-game so I had to buy new ones, however when I reached into my bag to pay for them (the game had been paused while I re-sleeved), there was no money… Luckily my dad gave me a loan so I could actually pay for the sleeves.

Long story short, I lost £10, had to re-sleeve mid-game and got completely destroyed. Not exactly the highlight of my Pokemon career… (I did eventually find the money though =)).

1-1

Round 3 VS. Coren w/ MagneBoar

Game 1:

I get a pretty good start to his abysmal one, and quickly take down his two Reshiram and drag up Magnemite and Magneton with catcher before they can evolve. I win pretty easily by KOing all the Pokemon he had in play by Doing The Wave.

Game 2:

Basically the opposite of what happened in game one happened here, with me getting an absolutely horrible start and Coren getting two Magnezone and an Emboar by turn two, KOing anything that posed a threat with Lost Burn…

Game 3:

Ugh… I don’t really want to talk about this game. So let’s just say I had the donk on his Pichu, but when I looked through my deck with Collector for Tyrogue it was prized… After that it was pretty much a repeat of game two… Sucks, but a meteor could have hurtled through the earths atmosphere, crushing me into a squishy mess on the floor, so it could have been worse I guess.

1-2

Round 4 VS. ??? (He was a Master) w/ Zekrom/Tonadus/Other stuff

Game 1:

Let me start off by saying this deck was NOT ZPST, I belive it contained Zekrom, Tornadus and Ampharos HS (non-Prime). Anyway, I took a few cheap prizes with Catcher and never let him get an Ampharos set up. He took a few prizes with Zekrom and Tornadus but ultimately is was me who came out on top.

Game 2:

Game two went very similar to game one, only all three of my Tornadus were prized… I was still able to pull of a win though.

2-2

So in the end I got 3rd, meaning I missed out on my first opportunity to get Championship Points, but I still got a Victory Cup =).

The top four went like this:

1. Christopher w/ TyRam
2. Luke w/ Stage 1s
3. Sam w/ CinnAdus
4. Coren w/ MagneBoar

After my rather disappointing 2-2 record, I realised CinAdus didn’t have a very good match up against Zekrom or Reshiram variants, so I decided to ignore all general Pokemon advice and switched to a deck I had never played before the night before the tournament: ReshiBoar. So, here’s how it went!

October 16th @ Rainham: Three Rounds Best Of Three Rounds With No Top Cut

I was rather nervous going into a tournament with a deck I had never actually played before, but I decided that it was my best shot at winning, so I made a list as soon as I got home and by morning, I was ready.

The List:

In hindsight, my list was pretty bad, so I’ll just say I ran a 1-1 Ninetales (which I only got to use once throughout the tournament) and a single Bad Boar (which I didn’t even get to use once…).  If you want a better deck list, look at the next two.

Round 1 VS. ??? w/ ???

Game 1:

I’m really sorry, but I don’t remember a thing that happened this round, apart from the fact I won…

Game 2:

Basically the same as before. Again, I’m really sorry…

1-0

Round 2 VS. Vlad w/ MegaJudge

Game 1:

In this game we both got set up relatively quickly but a mixture of Pokemon Catcher KOs on Tepigs and Pignites and me dead drawing for a few turns meant he managed to break my momentum and take too many key KOs for me to recover. He takes win pretty easily.

Game 2:

I got to go first and set up extremely fast, sweeping with Reshiram for an easy win second game. Or that’s what might of happened if had drawn more than 2 energy the entire game…

1-1

Round 3 VS. Tommy (a Junior) w/ The Truth

Game 1:

Having never played (with or against) The Truth, I didn’t really know what to expect from this match up, however it turned out to be quite easy. I managed to pull off a good set up, getting an Emboar and numerous Reshiram out by turn three, while he struggled to get a Vileplume set up the whole game. Eventually I managed to one or two hit KO everything he had with Blue Flare for game.

Game 2:

He went first and managed to get a turn three Vileplume, but was unable to get any charged up attackers going… I’m able to take advantage of this by setting up a quick Emboar and swarming with Reshiram, so whenever he KO’d one I could respond with another, fully charged dragon.

This continues throughout the most of game, and I take the win by simply overpowering all his Zekrom and Donphan. I can’t help but think however that It would have been a very different game if he ran ESL as Ross did.

2-1

I ended up getting second, just beating Vlad on resistance to earn a Championship Point and a second place Victory Cup.

Top four was as follows:

1. Luke w/ MegaJudge
2. Sam w/ ReshiBoar
3. Vlad w/ MegaJudge
4. Really sorry but I don’t remember who got 4th…

October 20th @ Crayford: Three Best Of Three Rounds With No Top Cut

Having only used “Roast Reveal” once in the previous tournament, I decided to drop Ninetales altogether, instead opting for more raw draw cards. This was a gamble that most certainly paid off, as they turned out to be far more useful than Ninetales had been previously.

The List:

Round 1 VS. Reece w/ Umm… Stuff

Game 1:

There really isn’t much to say about either of these games… I’m not even sure what the dude was running, I just saw seeming random basics go to the discard pile as I Blue Flared turn after turn…

Game 2:

This goes pretty much the same way as game one, with him getting nothing set up and the game ending before I could see what he was playing.

1-0

Round 2 VS. Vlad w/ MegaJudge

Game 1:

Having badly lost to Vlad the last time I played him, I was determined to win this round so I could prove that R3$H1B0AR IZ TEH B£$T DEK EVAR!!11!!!1 (well, maybe not that extreme, but I still had a point to prove). Anyway, I managed to get a nice set up using Twins to get Emboar out pretty quickly, and manage to overpower his Yanmega and two shot his Magnezone with the sheer damage output and HP of my Reshiram.

Game 2:

I get set up rather well, managing to pull off an early lead with Reshiram while he struggled to get any attackers out. Time was called before Vlad had even taken a prize…

2-0

Round 3 VS. Kurtis w/ Emboar Dragons

Game 1:

Kurtis gets Zekrom out very quickly while I struggle for energy and resources in general, although I am able to Twins for an Emboar and Rare Candy once he had taken a few prizes. Once I had Emboar out it was all to easy to catch up by Pokemon Catchering up things for some cheap KOs with Reshiram and before long I had taken all six prizes.

Game 2:

Game two goes much the same way as before, although he is able to maintain a more steady stream of attackers and get an Emboar out rather quickly, He simply can’t keep up with me hitting for a solid 120 damage each turn. Between my steady damage output and him having a rather unfortunate energy drought mid-game, I am able to take the win by Flare Blitzing a Zekrom (the only time I got to use Badboar btw) for my last prize.

3-0

In the end, it turned out that I had won the tournament! Very happy with the result, I headed home with my 1st place Victory cup in hand.

The top four went something like this:

1. Sam w/ Reshiboar
2. Luke (not the guy I had played before) w/ MegaJudge
3. Vlad w/ MegaJudge
4. Kurtis maybe? Not sure though, sorry.

October 22nd @ Bexley Heath: Three Best Of Three Rounds With No Top Cut 

Delighted with Thursdays result, I decided to make minimal changes to my list: only swapping Badboar for Plus Power and taking a DCE out in exchange for a regular Fire Energy.

The List:

Round 1 VS. ??? w/ Bellossom/Ampharos

Game 1:

We both set up quite slowly, allowing me to get a good look at his deck, and from what I could tell it relied on Bellossom UD for healing a variety of different attackers including Ampharos Prime and others which I have forgotten. Anyway, after I set up Emboar it was rather plain sailing for me, taking all six prizes in (close to) six turns.

Game 2:

To be honest, this was nearly the exact same thing as game one, so I won’t go into much detail.

I did 120 damage to take five prizes, and only then did he get Ampharos (the only thing in his deck I couldn’t one shot) set up. He didn’t promote it.

1-0

Round 2 VS. Luke (my first round opponent at Crawley) w/ Stage 1s (Donphan/Yanmega/Cinccino)

Game 1:

He gets a Yanmega out very quickly and takes a few prizes before I can respond with my Reshiram. By doing this however allowed me to Twins for an Emboar which completely changed the game in my favor, with him unable to OHKO my Reshiram and my Reshiram VERY able to OHKO him. Six prizes, six turns.

Game 2:

This game goes similarly to the last one, expect for the fact that I get a much faster set up while he gets a far slower one… I win pretty quickly.

2-0

Round 3 VS. Nathaniel w/ Stage 1s (Lanturn/Cinccino/Donphan/Yanmega)

Game 1:

This game was pretty ridiculous, as he got a T2 fully charged Lanturn hitting for 140 damage to anything (apart from Cleffa) I could throw at him thanks to Lanturn’s Power: “Underwater Dive”…. Three Lanturn prizes later he had drawn nothing but Fighting Energy, meaning he could only get his Lanturn and Yanmega out, with nothing else.

Eventually I top-decked a Twins which finally allowed me to get Emboar AND enough energy out to start Blue Flaring each turn with Reshiram. This combined with Nathaniel drawing only fighting energy for four turns allowed me to take the win pretty fast. And to think I was considering scooping…

Game 2:

Game two went a lot smoother for both of us, as we both got set up at decent speeds and started trading prizes, but he seemed to have the same problem as every other stage ones player I’ve played with this deck: Once I was set up, he simply couldn’t counter the sheer HP or damage output of my Reshiram once I had an Emboar set up… I take my 6th prize while he is still on his fourth (or third).

3-0

W00t! I win again! For those keeping score at home that’s five Championship Points that I have collected so far =D.

Top four went like this:

1. Sam w/ Reshiboar
2. Luke (2nd round opp) w/ Stage 1s
3. Nathaniel w/ Stage 1s
4. ???

October 26th @ Sutton: Three Best Of Three Rounds With No Top Cut

Whether or not I should come here was a last minute decision, but I decided I could use the extra Championship Points, so off I headed…

The List: (was the same as last time)

Round 1 VS. Luke (yes, the same Luke) w/ Stage 1s (Donphan/Yanmega/Cinccino)

Game 1:

This game went how the rest of my games with Stage 1s usually go actually,with him getting an early lead, me using Twins to get Emboar and then catching up and eventually overtaking him in the prize race. Seriously, its weird how similarly my games against stage 1s…

Game 2:

Basically the EXACT SAME as game one… He gets an early lead, I Twins (or get Emboar out by other means) then catch up, overtake, and eventually win on prizes.

1-0

Round 2 VS. Vlad w/ TyRam

Game 1:

We both start Reshiram, then I start to lose… As he was setting up multiple Typhlosion, I was struggling to muster an Emboar, as He was attaching two or three energy each turn, I was having an awful drought of energy and draw cards in general and when he was steamrolling me, I… Wasn’t.

Game 2:

Ugh, the less said about this game the better, so I’ll keep it quick: A complete lack of Twins, hand refresh, raw draw, Pokemon Communication and well, Emboar itself, I did not get an Emboar set up until he had just one or two prizes left…

1-1

Round 3 VS. ??? w/ Many Things

Game 1:

This was horrible, so horrible in fact, that I’ll keep it even quicker than my last game. I dead drew for the entire game. He set up Zekrom. I Blue Flared said Zekrom. Unable to do any more damage, I was outrage swept. This was made even worse when I later found out that he ran 28 Pokemon, 10 Trainers and 22 energy…

Game 2:

I went first and quickly got an Emboar set up, and well, you know what happens from here really. He collapsed under a constant stream of Reshiram hitting for 120 damage each turn, then recovering the energy they discarded with Fisherman and Energy Retrieval.

Game 3:

Game three went much the same way as game two (and thankfully not game one…) and as I expected, I won with a constant flurry of Blue Flares, Outrages and Pokemon Catchers.

2-1

Unfortunately I ended up coming 3rd on resistance, but at least I got a Pokeball Victory Cup.

Top four was as follows:

1. Vlad (I think…) w/ TyRam
2. ??? (sorry) w/ ???
3. Sam w/ ReshiBoar
4. Luke (My many time opponent) w/ Stage 1s

In case you didn’t like my article for whatever reason, maybe this will make you feel better. =)

Highest rated senior in the UK…

Awwwww Yea!!!

Burn, Baby Burn – A UK Quintuple Battle Roads Report is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

At last year’s fall Battle Roads, I did not lose a game, and I won two tournaments. But due to a low number of seniors in my area, there was no top cut.

At Cities I whiffed at 3rd at both local tournaments.

At States, I played an SP tool box and got donked twice, going 4-2. I whiffed the cut. The second States I made the mistake of playing VileLostGar and I lost to DialgaChomp and… whiffed cut.

At Regionals, I changed my SP toolbox from consistent to techy, which screwed me over. 3-3.

Nationals, I went 5-4, playing Magneboar losing to Michael Diaz, Magneboar, and Reshiboar. Last round, I am sitting at 5-3 with amazing resistance. I just need the last win to cut. But my opponent is playing SpeedPhan and I take a single prize to his six. But Nationals was still an amazing experience for me and I was delighted with the rotation. For Battle roads I was pumped.

So with my dream of top cut being repeatedly crushed last year, I am determined that this will not be a year of whiffing. I call up five of my hipster friends. Even though they constantly tease me for being so mainstream, I build them decks. Two of them ditch at the last minute, one out of sheer lameness and one because he had a soccer game. I get to the library an hour before registration to fill out six deck lists and build a deck for Adina.

This is one of the lists I had all filled out for someone to play:

I have a Basculin-Cinccino deck thrown together for my mom, Donphan-Dragons for a friend who wanted to be good, Reshiphlosion for me, and lastly a Sigilyph-Jirachi deck for Patrick. I only have enough cards for that many decks, so Lucas, a Master, and I throw together Cinccino-Weavile-Jirachi for Adina.

No one came in Seniors except me and my friends. Dammit.

Now I was playing Reshiphlosion. Some things I played were…

4 Reshiram

Surprise! I run Reshiram. The only reason one would have to not run all four is if one was running a couple Rescues and a Revive (I don’t run Rescue). The dragons are powerful because of the 120 damage attack, and Outrage is also amazing because it means that to be effective stuff has to OHKO Reshiram. There’s not a lot of Water around (for now) so Water is a pretty good weakness.

4-2-4 Typhlosion

Nowadays, 4 Cyndaquil is much needed because Catcher is out there stranding and killing your Typhlosions and murdering Cyndaquils in their infancy. Also having more Cyndaquils and Typhlosions gives more options for discarding with Sage’s Training.

1 Cleffa

This is a crutch really, to help you in times of horrible hands. It is also very searchable. I would take it out but having basics to not mulligan is nice.

1 Zekrom

This was supposed to help me with my Entei-Suicune LEGEND and Yanmega matchups, but I didn’t see any. So I’ll be taking this out.

11 Fire Energy

These are in here for Reshiram to attack with (duh).

I chose Fire Energy of all types because it has synergy with Typhlosion’s Poke-Power. And because Reshiram’s attacks need Fire Energy. Like this article if you think I should have run Water Energy instead.

But seriously, I tested with DCE and loved it, and I found Rescue to be Eh. But I needed space, so I stuck with a low amount of Fire.

Why no Ninetales? Space. And I don’t like Ninetales. This way I saved four spots and made them Sage’s Training instead. Those let me draw cards, dig deep into my deck, and they synenergized with Junk Arm, Revive, and even Afterburner. Also I don’t want to waste my set up on Ninetales; I’d rather pump my resources into Typhlosions. Also I’d rather not be discarding energies with Ninetales when I could be getting ahead on attachments.

Next Battle Roads, I was planning on cutting Zekrom because I never used it.

Round 1 vs. Bye

Yay! I rushed to the pairings to see that I was playing against Bye. So I sit around for half an hour watching my friends. Patrick has the Sigilyph deck, and he has an intense battle with the Krookodile theme deck. Kai and Adina (who happen to be dating) play each other. Every card in Adina’s deck (except for babies and stuff) is weak to Fighting, and Kai is playing Donphan-Dragons.

But I forgot to teach them about weakness. Whoops. Also apparently they didn’t apply Exoskeleton either? But it ends up not mattering because Kai clobbers her. I make the judges laugh with my Tyrogue deck.

Me: 1-0
Patrick: 1-0 – He devolved the Krookodile with Jirachi and sniped the Boldores like a boss.
Kai: 1-0
Adina: 0-1

Good start!

Round 2 vs. Absol/Weavile

So we are playing with age-modified. Adina and the lone Junior are paired up against Masters, much to her excitement. Kai and Patrick play each other.

He gets an Absol start, but I still set up and sweep. Not much to say here. This is the guy who beat my mom first round.

Kai loses to Patrick.  Patrick Reflect stalls and manually kills both Zekroms when Kai is not very smart with them. He devolves a Donphan and once he’s ahead on pries, he Reflect stalls to win it in the 30 + 3.

Round 3 vs. William with Stage 1s

William is a good player, but luck drove him to a bad record at Nationals. I have never lost in this matchup at league though. I end up making a horrible misplay (three times). I benched two Cyndaquils, Candied one up, and he Catchered up the other and killed it.

I Revived it; he Catchered it up and killed it. I Revived it. He Catchered it up and killed it. I Revived it. He Catchered it up and killed it. So now I’m down about three prizes. He takes the last two with Zoroark. I shouldn’t have benched those Cyndaquils because they were easy prizes for him.

Me: 2-1
Adina: 0-3
Kai: 1-2
Patrick: 3-0

Yes, Patrick is 3-0 with Sigilyph.

Round 4 vs. Patrick with Sigilyph-Jirachi

This is one of the hardest games that I’ve ever played. Not because it was a bad matchup (Sigilyph’s only good matchup is Fighting-Type theme decks), but because if I scooped, I could say that Sigilyph won a Battle Roads. The prizes are exactly the same, and I likely won’t be able to go to Worlds this year because my family wants to go to Ecuador instead.

But I am a horrible person and I play to the best of my abilities. He actually took 3 prizes. He sniped a Cleffa, fought manually against a Reshiram, and devolved a Typhlosion for the KO with Jirachi. I had to kill five Sigilyphs and Jirachi for the win.

Prizes are handed out and my friends surprise me and give me all of their prizes! It was so nice of them and to make it up to them; I’m selling their Victory Cups online as they didn’t know how much they would sell for.

Lucas and William are the Top 2 in Masters. Colin Peterik, J-Wittz, Patrick, and I search the entire library looking for it only to find that it was just down the hall. So I watch the top cut until Josh and Carver notice the Pokémon books.

They proceeded to read “Totodile In Love”. I must say it was quite entertaining. It even had a twist at the end.

Carver and I play a game (of Pokémon) on a checkerboard, and he creams me with Gothitelle. I realized I needed Black Belt for my next tournament, as I would run out of Typhlosions when I tried to Flare Destroy my way to victory. During the game, Josh stole all of my energy in my discard pile and 3 of Carver’s prizes. Real mature :P

William wins against Lucas’s Reshiboar and we all go home.

Some things I learned:

1. I need Black Belt
2. Sigilyph is fun :D
3. Sigilyph sucks

In between this and the next Battle Road, I had a brilliant idea: Turn Kingdra-Cinccino-Yanmega into the much cheaper Kingdra-Cinccino-Sigilyph-Jirachi. I tested it and it sucks.

So I decide to stick with Reshiphlosion for Des Plaines.

I started off my Des Plaines adventure with a three-hour car ride. I tweaked my Reshiphlosion by taking out the fourth Typhlosion for Black Belt and built the Truth to see how it works. I also threw together Esa’s Donphan-Max Potion deck for my mom.

I get to the elementary school where the event is being held and filled out the necessary deck lists. I play a couple of games with The Truth and then pairings are announced! There are 9 people in Seniors, so we’ll have a top 2.

Round 1 vs. Cinccino-Zoroark

I start with Reshiram and bench Cyndaquil. He goes first and starts with Cleffa and a benched Zorua. He attaches a Special Darkness to Zorua and Eeeeeeeks. My hand is terrible (all energy and Junk Arms), so I PONT to draw more energies and Junk Arms.

I manage to bench a Reshiram, which I attach to. He brings up Zorua, attaches Rescue, and Catcher/kills the benched Reshiram. I topdeck a Cyndaquil and bench it. He kills a Reshiram, I Beat him. He kills my Cyndaquils with Cinccino.

0-1

Round 2 vs. Ambipom-Weavile-Cinccino-Slowking

I sweep. It was really easy. I was worried, but he missed two Sharpedo flips, which gave me the game as he had no more real options. At this point, I am worried about my resistance, as even if I win out, he is probably going to lose his third round and get the bye fourth, which would not be good for me at all.

I wish I could have that first round. My mom is 0-2, but she’s not upset as she’s not very competitive and is just playing to pass the time.

1-1

Round 3 vs. Ben M. with Gothitelle

I have never beat Ben before, so this was really scaring me. Especially since if I lost this game I had no chance of cutting. He is 2-0 and he was downpaired.

I get an amazingly good setup and he never gets a Gothitelle out. I Catcher snipe 3 Gothitas when they’re still benched, as he never has the opportunity to bench more than one at a time. If I were him, I wouldn’t have played the matchup that way, but each to his own.

2-1

Round 4 vs. Lostbox

He was playing Mewgar with some more techs to See Off. The game stayed close on prizes the whole way, but I definitely had the game.. He Saw Off a Zoroark, but it wasn’t enough. I manage to pull out the win.

3-1

At the end of the tournament, there are 4 3-1s, and I end at 3rd. So I get my 2nd Victory Cup and a couple of packs.

Next week is Rantoul, and I’m playing Reshiphlosion again. Before the tournament, I tweak my deck (take out Black Belt for the fourth Typhlosion) and turn in my list. Lucas is playing Kingdra-Cinccino, and I built Sam-Phan for my mom.

Round 1 vs. Nidoran Swarm

I believe he did a total of 30 damage to me.

One of my friends, Richard, plays J-Wittz in the first round. He is playing Sharpedo-Slowking-Weavile. He loses because J-Wittz manages to top-deck an energy for the win after a close game that goes down to a prize. I guess it goes to show you how much luck and top-decking impacts games these days.

1-0

Round 2 vs. Krookodile Theme Deck

Close game. I think he took one prize. My mom wins this round, and that makes her really happy.

2-0

Round 3 vs. Servine-Lilligant 

GG.

3-0

Round 4 vs. Yanmega-Magnezone-Zoroark

I finally got to play a good game. He takes four prizes to my six, and I manage to Catcher/kill his Zoruas before they became Zoroarks.

Lucas and someone playing Blastgatr make Top 2, much to everyone’s amusement, as he doesn’t actually play the game competitively. Lucas comes out on top though, so Kingdra-Cinccino wins in Masters.

Kingdra-Cinccino really needs a better name, as Cindra is a horrible name in my opinion.

For Regionals, I will be going to St. Louis and I don’t plan on playing Reshiphlosion, just because everyone knows how to play against it. I also tried to build Gothitelle, but I can’t play it to its full potential without Tropical Beach.

So what do you guys think Cinccino-Kingdra should be called?

Red’s Season Summary and Battle Roads Reports is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

(Sutton Coldfield, 15^th October) 

So where we? That’s right; I had been to 2 Battle Roads. The first was a local one held on a Friday evening (eliminating the possibility of people travelling) where I recovered from a round 1 loss with my Stage 1s to finish 3-1 and sneak into third place, claiming a Victory Cup, but not quite getting any Championship Points.

The second Battle Road was 3 weeks later in Beeston with a much larger field, including 2 Worlds competitors and several other notable players. I finished 2-3 with my under-tested Magneboar list, with my only wins coming against a Pokedad and a bye. Bad times.

One week later I end up in Sutton Coldfield for my third Battle Road. I have my Stage 1s re-built, re-sleeved and re-decklisted, but decide to stick with Magneboar because although it was a riskier play it also gave me a chance to really clean up, as long as all went according to plan. Stage 1s would, I was confident, avoid a negative record, but with ratings meaning very little I thought a risky chance of winning was better than a safe bet of doing alright.

We had only 14 Masters, but it was a VERY competitive tournament with at least 7 of the top 20 players in the UK last season as well as several other very good players. As it was the UK we were again playing best of 3 in Swiss and we would have 4 rounds with a top 2 cut.

Round 1: Tamao (Zekrom) (Finished 2:2)

Yep, Tamao or, as some of you may know him, Tamoo. He’s the guy that won the Battle Road the previous week in Beeston. He also won multiple tournaments last season (Battle Roads, Cities and a States) as well as getting top 8 at Nationals. He’s good. He’s also getting a reputation as “The Zekrom Guy” due to his love for and proficiency playing said deck. He’s playing Zekrom today. Rats. Oh yeah, though it’s early in the season, he starts the day as the number 1 ranked player in the UK. Nice easy start then.

Game 1

So we flip and he wins as I start to dread my lone Tepig start. Luckily he is unable to get the T1 “Hurricane” from his Tornadus, though I later learn this is due to both his Pachirisu being prized! He does attach a DCE to Tornadus though and, having seen how fast and consistent his list was last week, I know he’s going to be hitting 80 next turn.

Luckily I buck the trend from last week and start with a Collector. I get 2 Magnemites and a Tepig and by T3 I am going with Magnezones and an Emboar. By this time I am only one prize down and this means that he has not built up enough of a lead to make it easy.

I played this game very well and, as well as playing well to get a fast set-up, I also ensure that I Catcher and kill his Zekrom as soon as possible. I learnt from my game against Jak last week that Zekrom can kill Magnezones with double PlusPower (and they will!) and obviously they can take down Reshirams without much difficulty. Tamao later informed me that he was holding a double PlusPower for quite some time and was pretty annoyed that I never gave him a chance to get a Zekrom going.

I took the lead in this game and Tamao starting stalling with Magby and Smoochum (more on him next game), but baby flips weren’t working and they both gave up easy prizes. Humorously I was trying to save energy here so was using Reshiram to get some kills while I recovered the discarded energy from “Blue Flare.” Yes, that’s right, with no damage on Reshiram I was forced to use Blue Flare TWICE on babies, doing 120 damage to the poor 30HP basics.

With me winning 5 prizes to 3 and no real way out Tamao scooped to save time for game 2. It is worth noting here that he had a horrible drought of Pokémon Catchers in this game using a grand total of… none! This may have helped me a little.

Game 2

Once again I go second and he whiffs the T1 attack, though I have a Tepig and a Reshiram start this time. He gets the T2 Zekrom kill on my Reshiram using a PlusPower and this is a bad place to be in as with Catcher he can hit anything on my bench for 60 (that includes Tepigs and Magnemites). Luckily I started with a Collector and a Communication and was able to get a full bench on T1. Unluckily my Cleffa was prized so I was forced to rely on PONT.

This game I got going more slowly and was 3 prizes down before I got the Magnezone / Emboar combo going nicely. Now this is a match-up where being behind doesn’t matter too much as OHKOs are very difficult for the Zekrom player and very easy for the Magneboar player, but being down by 3 prizes makes it very possible to win, especially with Catcher allowing them to choose their prizes.

Once again here I focus on the Zekroms, ensuring I deny him the OHKOs and I also make sure not to leave anything vulnerable on my bench, eventually being down to a Magnezone, an Emboar and a Reshiram, denying him any OHKOs as he was not using any Zekroms (due to them being dead).

Using these tactics I started to make a comeback when he stalled with Smoochum HS. Now this is not a commonly used card. For those who don’t know, Smoochum has an attack called “Energy Antics,” similar to Ambipom G last format. It allows you to move one energy card from one of your opponent’s Pokémon to any of their other Pokémon. This then puts Smoochum to sleep and the usual “Sweet Sleeping Face” Poke-Body leaves him invulnerable while he sleeps.

This was a GENIUS move. Especially as my Magnezones need Lightning Energy to attack and I was only running 4. Every time Smoochum came out it left me without the requisite energy to attack with Magnezone!

Luckily I had 2 Twins in hand so 2 turns in a row I was able to use Twins to grab an Lightning Energy (so that Magnezone could attack) and a Catcher (or Junk Arm for a Catcher) to get around the sleeping Smoochum. Yep, he may have been unlucky with baby flips last game, but he more than made up for them here!

After 2 turns of this we were down to one prize each and, due to Smoochum’s Energy Antics, Magnezone was officially benched. His Smoochum was sitting on the bench looking oh so fragile, but it was useless as I was out of Catchers and Junk Arms and had no way to bring him active.

Luckily I saw the win here. I left my Magnezone active knowing that his Tornadus could only do 80. I had a Reshiram on the bench with 2 Energy attached and one more in hand. I also had a Switch to get him active. So I let him do 80 damage to my Magnezone. Right after he dropped a Defender!!

This left my Reshiram unable to kill his Tornadus as I could only do 100 and it game him one more turn to win. If he could find a Pokémon Catcher or Junk Arm he could drag my Magnezone active and win, forcing us into a game 3 after time has already been called. Yep, sudden death. I would not win in sudden death.

He drops a Juniper and looks at the last 2 cards in his deck. No Catcher. He scoops and then realises I might not have had the means with which to power up my Reshiram again, but I show him the Fisherman I had been saving for such an occasion to put his mind at ease (as it happens, after winning game 1, had game 2 been drawn I would have won the match anyway).

(1-0)

Well, I can honestly say that was the second most nerve-wracking game of Pokémon I had ever played, right after my match with Tom Hall at nationals. He played superbly and pulled more tricks than I thought Zekrom had, but I played just as well and managed to sneak out with an improbable win. This was good. I felt my decision to stick with Magneboar vindicated slightly as I now had a win more impressive than a Bye or against a Pokedad to hang on the deck.

Round 2: “My Good Friend” Tommy Roberts (Gothitelle w/ Serperior) (Finished 3:1 – 3rd)

I play Tommy every Tuesday at league. He’s good. Really good. He was ranked number 1 in the UK last year and went to Worlds. He won the Battle Roads I went to in week 1. What a way to start a tournament; not only was I playing 2 of the best players in the country, but I was also playing the winners of the 2 Battle Roads I had previously attended this Autumn.

He was playing Gothitelle with Serperior, a match-up we had acted out only 4 days before. He had won the first game and though I had won the second he took great pleasure in pointing out how we would have gone to time and he’d have won the best of 3. This game was also interesting as we were 1-1 in competitive play, my Cities win counter-balanced with his States win, both times with my Donchamp against his Gengar / Garchomp. If nothing else, I knew that would be a fun, relaxed, banter-filled game. This I like.

Game 1 

This game was not very eventful at all. I win the flip and on T2 I have a Magnezone, getting the KO on his Solosis. On T3 I killed a Gothita (again with the Magnezone) and by T4 I have an Emboar as well, killing his Gothitelle to leave him without Pokémon. He showed me his hand at the end of the game and he really had drawn absolutely nothing of value. Sorry T-dawg.

Game 2

This game my deck goes off like a rocket. Within a few turns I have 2 Magnezones and an Emboar and I start peppering the field with energy ready for truly epic “Lost Burn” action if he dares to bring a Gothitelle active. As it is I kill a Gothita and take a 1 prize lead. What happens next leaves me truly baffled.

He dragged up my Emboar using Pokémon Catcher and then passed. With no energy I was also forced to draw-pass. We both then proceeded to draw / pass for over a dozen turns each. During this time he is able to use FOUR Twins and with me unable to draw enough energy to retreat Emboar and being locked out of Trainers with his active Gothitelle there was nothing I could do.

The longer this went on, the more confused I got. He had used 4 Twins and had a hand of over 20 cards (as did I), but still he just drew and passed. Eventually he got down to about 4 cards in his deck and was actually unable to take enough prizes….

At this point I thought he may be trying to get me to draw through my deck and then drop a PONT, forcing me to deck out, but I knew I had a PONT and, as long as this was not prized, he could not do this. Turns out it was the very last card in my deck as it happens. So I sit there confused while we both just draw and pass.

Eventually I am able to get enough energy on my Emboar to retreat to Magnezone and kill his Gothitelle, but he just Catchers my Emboar again and we’re back where we started. He kills my Emboar, but by this point Emboar is useless as I have more than enough energy on the field to finish out the game and I return the KO with a Magnezone.

At this point he has one Gothitelle left and I kill this to leave him out of options and me only needing one prize left so he scoops. It turns out I had gotten more set-up than he wanted before he locked me and he was just drawing looking for options. Unfortunately my set-up left me in too good a position. I should point out though that in the same way I built speed Donphan due to my hatred for Luxchomp, my hate for Gothitelle went a long way to enticing me to build Magneboar. Also, I got to use FLOINK!

(2-0)

Ok, this is good. My deck is working, I’m playing well and my decision is looking like a good one. Not only have I beaten two ridiculously good players, but I can safely say that my resistance will be benefitting nicely. Now, lunch. I only mention this because in the last two games I was fuelled purely on Diet Pepsi and Kinder Schloko-Bons. Which, for the record, I think was a good thing!

Round 3: Charles (Zekrom) (Finished: 3-1 – 2nd)

Well, if I was going to win this tournament it was not going to be made easy for me. Charles again is an exceptional player who won multiple Battle Roads and Cities last year as well as top-cutting States and Nationals. On the upside, he isn’t a winner of a Battle Road I went to earlier this season (though he won 2 I went to last season, as well a Cities), so that’s something. He IS however using an almost identical Zekrom list to Tamao. This is NOT good.

Game 1

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. My deck COMPLETELY mucked-out on me. For the second time against Zekrom today I lose the flip and I start without a Collector or… anything really. He gets the T2 Tornadus and starts ripping apart my setup.

I eventually get a Twins to set up a Magnezone, but it’s too little too late and, basically, I get steamrolled. I am conscious of time and the fact that I can’t win a quick game 3 here so I scoop, though maybe not as soon as I should have.

Game 2

I get another slow start in this game, which is something that cannot be afforded against Zekrom. I play well to get setup at all, though I have to burn a LOT of resources to do so (all my Junk Arms, my only Fisherman etc were all gone in the first 3 turns). I do get set up and I have a chance to completely turn the tide of the game.

I have a Magnezone out and he has a Zekrom with 40 damage from “Bolt Strike” which can be killed with only 2 energy from Magnezone, who already has a Lightning Energy attached. Crucially, the Zekrom has all of Charles’ energy in play, meaning a kill leaves his field looking poor and makes a comeback very likely. I play a PONT…. and whiff on the energy.

Not only does this mean I can’t kill his Zekrom AND deny him energy, but it also means that same Zekrom can use a double PlusPower next turn to kill my Magnezone and cut off my resources. From here it’s all downhill.

He uses Catcher to take more prizes and then, as I’m about to deck out and need a kill every turn to stand a chance, he stalls with Smoochum. I was expecting this, but unfortunately I had to burn so many resources early on to get setup that though I knew what I needed to do I just didn’t have the Catcher / Junk Arm etc to do it.

(2-1)

What I should have done:

There is nothing I really could have done here. My deck is good enough and I played well, but my lacklustre draw in game 1 combined with unlucky PONT in game 2, not to mention his fantastic consistency led to my inevitable downfall. There is no way to make Magneboar as fast and consistent as Zekrom and I proved in Round 1 I can beat it. Zekrom, contrary to my earlier article, does bring the luck factor a little more to the fore, but I don’t think I can blame that completely or have any hard feelings about this match.

My deck did fail me a little, especially in the first game, but the fact of the matter is that Charles had a very good, fast and consistent deck. Not only that, but he played it impeccably. He lost the surprise factor of Defenders, Smoochum etc by using a list very similar to Tamao’s, but that was irrelevant as there was nothing I could do.

However a sneaky peek at the standings showed me that my resistance was good. Very good. So good in fact that although there were 2 people who were 3-0 and only a top 2, I stood a very good chance of getting into top 2 with a win in my last game, ahead of the loser of the 3-0 showdown!!

Round 4: Ben (MewBox) (Finished: 3-1 – 4th)

Well, there goes that plan. Anybody else. I could have beaten anybody else. Just not Ben. He’s playing Mewbox and I have tested this match-up a lot. We also play every Tuesday and I’ve never won. I knew it would be a good-natured, friendly, banter-filled match, but I will admit to being a little heart-broken to knowing that I had a genuine shot at Top 2 which I would lose being paired against the one guy to whom I had an auto-loss.

For those keeping score: (i) Yes I played him in both of my previous Battle Roads this season (ii) Yes I lost both times.

Game 1

Well I won the flip, so that was good. I also got a T3 Magnezone and T3 Emboar. Unfortunately neither was with Rare Candy and, as I was running one each of the Stage 1s, this left me without a second chance at either when the lock was put on.

My good start here led to me taking the lead, but as soon as he got the lock on he started to peg me back as he had started by “Seeing Off” both a Muk and a Crobat Prime, taking full advantage of my high retreat Stage 2s.

I managed to Catcher and kill an Oddish early on, but he got the Vileplume going before too long and set about using “Sludge Drag” to wreck not only my deck, but my chances of top cut. I got lucky with my confusion flips here (I hit about 75% over both games) and I also got some kills on Mew with Reshiram and Emboar, but he was able to pick easy prizes with Yanmega while I was left with no trainers or “Magnetic Draw” and I lost by 2 prizes.

Game 2

Looking back I could have won this game. It would have involved being a tool. To a friend. No thanks. We both played this game at a good pace and we both played completely fair, as we well should.

I go first again and get a slower start while Ben starts using “Sludge Drag” to take away my options. I tried using a Twins early, before he had even taken a prize, so he delayed as long as possible taking the lead, making sure he had a Vileplume up, energy on his Mews, Yanmegas evolved and all my Pokémon with damage before taking the first prize and activating the Twins that he knew he had.

Now, I’m going to be vain here and say I played this game exceptionally well. I only used one Ability Emboar and I even used it to take a couple prizes off of Mews (yay for good Confusion flips). I left my Reshirams just long enough to get 40 damage on them from Poison and then used Outrage to kill a Mew or two.

Eventually time is called and we go down to one prize each. Having lost the first game I NEED to win and there was nothing I could do. Part of how I played this game well was ensuring that I had no extraneous Pokémon on my bench and limited his easy prizes. Unfortunately it meant that I used everything to take 5 prizes and he had an easy Yanmega kill for the win.

(2-2)

What I should have done:

Firstly, this is a very difficult match. Saying that, I have tested it a lot and here, in a nutshell, are my tips for winning:

- Use Catcher and Junk Arm to take out Oddish / Gloom, ignoring everything else. If you can stop the lock it becomes a very favourable match-up

- Only use one Emboar! Get him out, use him to get as much energy on the field as possible and let him die. Leave 4 energy on him so he can attack and, if you flip right, take down the Mew that “Sludge Drags” him up

- Get as many Magnezones as possible, but make sure they have Lightning Energy on them so that (Confusion flips permitting) then can take a prize or two

- Use Fisherman effectively to ensure that you get as much energy as possible onto the field

- Use Reshiram! With 40 damage (which he quickly gets from poison) he can take down a Mew

- Do not leave easy prizes on the bench

- Do not leave anything on the bench as a “Sludge Drag” target (ensure everything has the requisite energy to attack or retreat) 

I can have no complaints about this game. Mewbox is a hard (nearly impossible) match for Magneboar and I did well taking both games as close as I did. Ben is also a fantastic player who plays the deck exceptionally well. Humorously he now accounts for exactly half (3/6) of my Battle Roads losses in the first 3 tournaments.

The only real sour note here was discovering firstly that I WOULD have crept into top 2 with a win and also discovering that I would have been facing a Reshiphlosion, a very favourable match-up for Magneboar. Far from a certainty, but a good shot at my first win of the season. Still, all moot as I was stopped by Mewbox.

Looking at who I played though this was a very encouraging tournament. I beat two of the best players in the country and my losses came to a fast Zekrom and my only Auto loss. I think that gives cause for celebration. Certainly better than the previous week. For those interested I should also give “mad props” to George Boon for taking the tournament with his Reshiphlosion deck. He played a good deck extremely well and thoroughly deserved the victory.

Part 2 – The English are Coming

(Cardiff 23^rd October) 

So, let’s have a quick recap shall we (though reports have been posted on this site for all of these):

Battle Road 1: Ripley (Derbyshire)

- I went 3-1 with Stage 1s, losing to Mewbox (!) then beating 3 people in a less than impressive field

Battle Road 2: Beeston (Nottinghamshire)

- I went 2-3 with Magneboar, beating a Pokedad and getting a Bye before panicking against a Reshiphlosion and throwing the game away and losing to the same Mewbox (along with a close loss to a Worlds competitor)

Battle Road 3: Sutton Coldfield (West Midlands)

- I went 2-2 with Magneboar beating 2 of the best players in the country before being stopped by a fast Zekrom and the same Mewbox.

BUT Ben (Mr. Mewbox) was not going to Cardiff. Battle Road number 4 was mine for the taking. Now Cardiff was supposed to be my own little Battle Road. I have nice memories from last year’s Battle Road and I was driving up the M5 right past Cardiff on the day it was happening. This was such a coincidence that I couldn’t resist dropping in this year.

Then my good friend Tommy Roberts heard what I was doing and organised a trip with Tamao and George Boon from the midlands down to Cardiff. It effectively turned into the 4 of us invading Cardiff and having a tournament to find the best player in the midlands…. in Cardiff. For the record, I am still mad at Tommy for gate-crashing my lovely private Battle Road.

For those that don’t know, Cardiff is in Wales, which is a different country. For purposes of the EU etc the United Kingdom is the country, but really the UK is made up of 4 distinct countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. So we crossed the border (£5.70 toll!!) ready to ruin the Welsh folks’ day.

After last week’s close run I decided to stick with Magneboar and as it’s the UK we were playing best of 3 in Swiss with 50-minute rounds (though the time was rarely kept to without someone reminding them). We had 5 rounds with no top cut and there were 17 players in masters.

Round 1: Rhys (Reshiram / Terrakion / Roggenrola / Vulpix) (Finished 1-4) 

Brilliant! My first game and I get an incredibly Welsh person with an incredibly Welsh name! Unfortunately he’s not very good and has a random deck based around Reshiram (he didn’t even play with sleeves). He gets my approval though as he explained that Dialga was his favourite Pokémon as it was first one on the game to give him maximum friendship. How awesome is that?

Game 1

There really is very little to say about this game. BY T3 I had both a Magnezone and an Emboar. All I saw from him was 2 Reshirams and a Terrakion, which had me a little worried as I was conscious of not wanting to “Lost Burn” too much energy, but he didn’t even search his deck this game (or play any trainers for that matter) and after killing those 3 he was out of Pokémon.

Game 2

This game did not fill me with confidence. Here was a game I should be sweeping yet on TURN 8 (!) I have a Tepig, a Magneton and 8 energy on the field. I kept a Reshiram in hand in case I drew into Communication, but nothing (no Collector, Communication, PONT, Magnezone….). Eventually he got the treble “Outrage” KO on my Tepig to active a Twins that I had top-decked and I was able to get a Magnezone and from that an Emboar (having benched a second Tepig shortly before the first one died).

After this he did not take another prize. I used Reshiram to 2HKO one of his Reshirams to conserve energy and then swept with Magnezone.

(1-0)

It was nice to start with a win and Rhys was a lovely guy, but I was worried about resistance, seeing as there were 5 rounds with 17 masters, almost guaranteeing some resistance based shenanigans! Still, just win the next 4 and resistance doesn’t matter.

Round 2: Mike (Zekrom) (Finished 2-3) 

Mike is a guy I had met at the beginning of the tournament and was a fantastic chap. He was apparently at Beeston too (though I didn’t meet him). His son was playing in Juniors so he was playing as well to keep himself occupied. He was playing Zekrom. I don’t like Zekrom.

Game 1

My third competitive game against Zekrom this season and the third time I had lost the flip! He got a DCE on his Zekrom T1 and though I had everything needed for a T2 Magnezone, but with only a single Tepig (active) and a single Magnemite (benched) I was wary on my turn about how risky to play it (having not started Collector and fearing for my Magnemite). Luckily he was unable to KO my Magnemite and I got a T2 Magnezone.

At this point I had no Lightning energy so I left a Tepig out as a sacrificial lamb while building up my bench. After 3 “Outrages” in a row he had KOed my Tepig and I used my Pokegear to grab a twins. I missed. Luckily next turn I was able to top-deck a Twins and got an Emboar and everything I needed to go full aggro Magnezone.

He Catchered my Emboar a few times, but I always had a Switch in hand and I made sure to Catcher and kill his Zekroms as soon as they came out, leaving him with only fragile Tornadus who would never OHKO a Magnezone or Emboar. When I was ahead 4-2 he conceded.

Game 2

As I won the first game I’m once again going second. I start with Tepig and Magnemite, so no donk here, but also no Collector. I was looking at having to use a PONT turn one just to keep in it, but I also started PokeGear and using this got me the T1 Collector, allowing me 5 basics on the field on my first turn.

I get the T2 Magnezone, but with no energy I’m forced to buy some more time. I have to burn my Junk Arms early to get going, but this does give me a decent setup while only being one prize behind. From here the energy started flowing and I was able to setup for a stream of kills.

Early on in this game I discovered that two of my three Magnezones were prized and had to play with the mindset of not letting him get killed, else I would risk being unable to get back into the game.

He had gotten a slow start (he HAD had to use a PONT turn one) and though he was winning he had all of his energy on a single Zekrom, which I was able to Catcher and kill. He stalled with Elekid TM, but I was able to Catcher a benched Tornadus for an easy prize. He again tried to stall with Elekid, but he woke up and it gave me an easy prize. After another Tornadus kill I was 5-1 ahead and, with no options to win, he conceded.

(2-0)

I was very glad to get through this game. Zekrom is never a good match-up and losing the flip could have gone badly. I also enjoyed the game massively as Mike was a very fun opponent who didn’t take things too seriously. Wonderful!

Round 3: Calvin (Reshiboar) (Finished 3-2)

Calvin was another local Welsh boy who had not played in a year, but has clearly retained all of his skills. We had a good game only slightly marred by his slow play and my insistence that he not slow play. I doubt it was deliberate though and we had some banter after the game so I think he forgave me. I hope I wasn’t too mean! (for the record, I was justified in what I requested).

Game 1

I actually went 1st in this game and had a pretty good start, even finding a T2 Magnezone, but I was unable to find enough energy early on. I got a bit of a lead going and was able to deny him an Emboar for quite some time, but this allowed him to get a Ninetales out and manually attach several energies to Reshirams, especially while I was having an energy drought.

At one point he Catchered my Emboar and without a Switch and having a hand full of non-burnable cards I was unable to use Magnezone to find one and he was stuck active for far too long. He was able to use a double PlusPower to KO my Magnezone and without being able get them out fast enough I fell behind and eventually lose by a single card. I should have scooped earlier.

Game 2

I was very wary of time here as Magneboar has a pretty bad Game 3 so I needed a nice quick win to give me time to get ahead in Game 3 before time was called. This game I went off very well, getting an early Magnezone and Emboar (playing a little more loosely due to needing to be quick) and also hitting early catchers to take out first a Vulpix, then a Pignite and a Tepig, leaving him without an Emboar for a very long time.

He eventually got an Emboar, but without a Ninetales he was unable to get enough energy in play so he took a turn to use Cleffa to refresh his hand and hopefully get back into it. Unfortunately his Cleffa woke up, gifting me an easy one-energy kill with Magnezone and before long I had taken 6 prizes to his 2.

Game 3

Now although game 2 was not very long, game 1 was a very long game. This was partly due to the slow play of my opponent, but it must also be noted that I could have mitigated this by conceding earlier in game 1.

Time had been kept track of poorly in this tournament so when we finished game 2 I checked to see if time had expired. As I suspected, time HAD expired (though had not been called) which was awesome because it meant that we went to a flip to start rather than my opponent immediately getting to go first.

As it was he won the flip and I made a VERY big mistake. I opened with Magnemite and 2 Tepigs so put a Tepig active and then benched both the Magnemite and the other Tepig. Now this is uncalled for. Benching 2 basics is fine in sudden death (in case you wish to Switch to a undamaged Pokémon to save a KO), but benching 3 is not needed. I then realised I had a Pokémon communication in hand, but no Pokémon to use.

He went first and used a PlusPower to do 20 to my Tepig with his, but I was able to switch to Magnemite and attach a Lightning. On his turn he benched a Reshiram and attached an energy, also using an Interviewer’s Questions, showing that he DID have enough energy to Blue Flare in 2 turns time for the win, before doing 20 to my Magnemite.

On my turn I top-decked a Pokémon, used Communication to get Magneton, and attached a second energy. He then attached a second energy to Reshiram, ensuring that I WOULD be KOed next turn, unless I could top-deck something good (I did get to use Magneton’s “Tri Attack” which would have given me the win with a triple heads, but alas I managed only 1).

It was a communication. Had I saved one of my 3 basics for my hand I would have been able to communicate for a Magnezone, attach a third energy and win. As it was I could do nothing, but minimal damage and lose the following turn.

(2-1)

What I should have done:

Sudden death is about probabilities. I need to maximise my chances of getting a KO whilst minimising my opponent’s. By keeping a Pokémon in hand it would have increased the number of “good” top-decks by ensuring that Communications would be awesome. By benching then, I decreased the probability of drawing well. This is why I lost.

I could point out that had I won the flip I would have had one more turn to try and win. This is irrelevant. Had I not benched the second Tepig I would have won. No ifs or buts. But this was my own fault. Please learn from this! (Unless you play me, in which case I hope you make this mistake and lose!!).

So, I had greatly dented my chances of top 2. As it happened, I destroyed my chances. Turns out, had I won this game I would have played a Reshiphlosion (very good match-up for me!) followed by a Gothitelle (near auto-win, see next game) giving me a fantastic chance of winning the whole thing. Nevermind. 

Round 4: “My Good Friend” Tommy Roberts (Gothitelle) (Finished 4-1 – 1^st)

Well, I got paired up. Tommy was 3-0 at this point. He was happy as he didn’t fancy playing me and my Magneboar. He thought that him being 3-0 and me being 2-1 meant it wouldn’t happen. He was wrong!

I played Tommy last week so, as this is a double report, see above for who he is. He’s good. I also play him a LOT. I greatly enjoy my games against Tommy and always have a good chuckle. It also helps when he’s playing what is probably my best match-up.

Game 1

I get to go first in this game and manage to get a T2 Magnezone with a Rare Candy (important as it allows a second under trainer-lock with my Magneton), but from there my setup slows down a little.

Crucially though the way I play this game is very good. Last week I played fast and loose and managed to get a nice victory, but in the past week I considered the flaw in this, that being that if he gets an early Twins, followed by an early Gothitelle, he can catcher and kills my evolutions before they get going, while blocking my trainers. Not this game!

I make sure that I have 2 Magnezones before I start attacking and take the first prize only when he gets a Gothitelle out. It had the nice advantage too that not attacking allowed me to abuse his Tropical Beach to enhance my setup. Sweeeeet.

After I took out his first Gothitelle he gets the Twins going and starts using a LOT of status conditions. Mostly this involved using Gothorita to confuse me with “Psybeam” making me flip to attack and, crucially, stopping “Magnetic Draw” and cutting off my draw power. Luckily I was prepared for this and was able to use Switch (and Junk Arm), as well as abusing having more than one Magnezone to attack every turn.

At one point I put my setup back by 2 turns by attempting to draw a single card with Magnetic Draw, only to see the card and then be reminded that Magnezone was confused. This allowed Tommy to shuffle my deck and although I was able to Switch and Magnetic Draw anyway, the card that I was not allowed to take was an Emboar, the ONE card that I needed to complete my setup. This left me without enough energy to attack for a couple turns.

I get the Emboar 2 turns later though and abuse Pokémon Catcher to ensure that he can’t get another Gothitelle going. At this point I need only one more prize and it’s looking like a guaranteed win. Then Tommy does something that I am NOT expecting.

He bring out his promo Snivy (the blister promo, not the tin promo) and used “Paralyzing Gaze” to paralyse me. He hits heads. The next turn he does it again. Then he does it for a third time. At this point I have to draw the last card in my deck and am unable to attack as I have used all my Switches and Junk Arms in avoiding the confusion etc early on.

Luckily I had 2 Pokémon Communication in hand and use one of these to put a Magnemite into my deck and buy myself one more turn. I am prepared to do this again the next turn, but he hits tails on Paralysis and I can take an easy prize for the win.

Game 2

The first game took around 40mins so I know he only has 10 minutes and it will be very hard to take 4 prizes in this time, especially with Gothitelle, so I can take this game easy and just make sure not to make any horrific mistakes.

I get 2 Magnezones and an Emboar out early this game and keep Switches in hand to make sure he can’t do anything with special conditions. I manage to take 2 prizes to his 0 before time is called and with no way to take 4 prizes in 2 turns, he concedes.

(3-1)

Tommy was a tad dismayed at this point because mine was the only deck he was worried about and, having been paired down to face it, was now concerned I had ruined his chances of winning. I was happy because one more win in the last round would give me a good chance of getting a trophy card!

Round 5: Ciaran (Yanmega / Zoroark / Cinccino / Noctowl) (Finished 2-3)

Ciaran is a guy I’d never met, another local Welsh boy, but he was a lovely guy and a joy to play. I had seen his deck and had though that with his fragile Pokémon this would be a nice game for me. I didn’t reckon on the speed of his deck mind….

I was actually paired down this round (he was at 2-2) and I thought this would be good as I did not fancy the fast Zekrom or Donphan-heavy Ross.Dec that were also 3-1, but I was also aware that this might not be great for my rating, especially as it wasn’t the best so far.

Game 1

I go second in this game and it really hurt me! I take my first turn, lay down some basics and try to resist rubbing my hands in glee at the guaranteed T2 Magnezone and the fact that I would then have an empty hand to be able to draw for 6. Then he Judged me!

Had I gone first he would not have been able to judge me before I got a Magnezone, but this is a moot point because I didn’t and he did. He also got a T2 Yanmega and that Judge allowed him to attack! He took a couple prizes with Yanmega, but then I was able to get a Magnezone.

At this point he pulled off a very ballsy move and Lost-Zoned THREE special dark energies to copy my “Lost Burn” and KO my Magnezone. At this point I have a Pokémon Communication and a Rare Candy with a Tepig and Magnemite on my bench giving me a choice of what to evolve. BUT I also had a Reshiram benched and 2 Fire energies and an Energy Retrieval in hand.

I got an Emboar and went aggro-Reshiram to KO 2 of his Pokémon, but then my Reshiram was killed and with no Magnezone I couldn’t get anything too good going again. I should have gone for Magnezone.

We were then at the business end of the game with both of us needing 2 prizes to win, but he only had a Yanmega and some basics so KOing the Yanmega would give me a good chance of getting the final KO. I had a Twins in hand so after he got the KO with Yanmega I could get myself a Magnezone, KO the Yanmega and (hopefully) then get the win. And then he plays a Judge!

With my Twins gone I can do nothing on my turn and he takes he sixth and final prize for the game. God I hate Judge!

Game 2

This game was awesome! I went off like a rocket (strangely it seems that whenever I am short on time and play a little recklessly I get an awesome set-up. Go figure) and had 2 Magnezones out early so when he dropped an inevitable Judge it didn’t matter as I had 2 Magnezones to build my hand and continue to keep a good board.

I used Catcher to pick off his Zorua with DCE before he could evolve and attack with it and I took out his Noctowl to shut off his source of draw and make it much harder to hand match (a trick he used continually in game 1). I had a steady stream of Magnezones in this game so although he managed to pick a couple off, I always had one in reserve and he was taking 2HKOs, making it impossible to keep up with the prize race.

He managed to KO my final Magnezone, but by this time I could just use a Fisherman to get 4 energy onto my Emboar and Catcher a Minccino for the win 6-3.

Game 3

Time had not been called here so he got to go first, but I had learned my lesson from the Reshiboar game and played a lot better. He got a T2 Yanmega and KOed a Tepig, but I was then able to set up 2 Magnezones and an Emboar before he could get another prize. This meant that he was unable to get any OHKOs and allowed me to get ahead in prizes in the short time we had left.

As I couldn’t get completely set-up in the one turn I Catchered his Hoot Hoot, forcing him to waste a turn, then an energy, retreating his Hoothoot. In this time I recklessly burned all my Junk Arms to reuse Trainers and empty my hand to allow bigger Magnetic Draws and though this would cause problems in a longer game, it allowed me to get a very good, very quick setup.

Time was called on his turn with him one prize ahead, but he was unable to take a second. On my turn I used a Magnezone to KO his Cinccino, levelling the prizes, leaving him with a Zoroark and Yanmega with which to attack and me with only 2 Magnezones and an Emboar. He attempted to “Lost Burn” a DCE for 100 (before being reminded he could only do 50 – not that it mattered as it was his last turn and wouldn’t lead to a KO).

This left me with the last turn of the game with the two of us drawing on prizes. Unfortunately I had to Lost-Zone my only Lightning Energy in play to KO the Cinccino the previous turn and would need to find another to get the KO and the win. I have a PONT and 2 Magnezones to use though so I’m confident. I have a large hand so I play a PONT before using either Magnetic Draw and grab an Lightning Energy right away. Yay.

(4-1) (3^rd)

So, I finish 4-1 and immediately start wondering about my resistance. As it turns out Tommy, George, Tamao and I are all at 4-1 (the only ones who are) and so it comes down to resistance as to who will get which place. The top 4 ends up like this:

1: Tommy Roberts (Gothitelle)

2: George Boon (Reshiphlosion)

3: Ross Gilbert (Magneboar)

4. Tamao (Ross.Dec w/ KGL)

Yes. We went in, took all of their prizes and literally turned around and immediately fled the country. Does that make us bad people?

All in all this made me feel pretty good (the result, not invading and taking prizes). My Magneboar had gone from a 2-3 disaster 2 weeks ago to a 4-1 success with one misplay preventing what could otherwise be a 5-0 sweep. All in all, this is good! I’m still not 100% sure I have a perfect list and I’m still not playing it perfectly, but it’s exciting to think what could happen if I could perfect this deck (both in terms of list and playing).

I may have one Battle Road left this weekend (we’ll see how it pans out), but States is coming up on November 19th! I need to test 2 new decks and really play around with Stage 1s again before then so I have no idea whether I will play Magneboar. It autowins Gothitelle and has an awesome Reshiphlosion match-up, BUT it folds (hard!) to Mewbox and Zekrom can really destroy it if they don’t get too slow a setup. We’ll see.

As it was I was feeling good. Over 2 weekends I’d been to 2 tournaments and gotten one cup. I also had a LOT of fun. What more could you ask for?

I will be writing reports for myself like I always do so if you don’t wanna read them, let me know and I’ll keep them for my eyes only. If you do wanna read them, wish me luck!!

P.S. Follow me on Twitter: thewossy

P.P.S. I still refuse to give a uniform name to all of my articles. I think it’s just toooo cheesy. My articles will be individually named. Hopefully my writing style itself will be enough of a marker. Especially my horrendously detailed tournament reports!

Two Tourneys, One Cup is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Big props to Matt Nawal here for helping me make the list better and somehow making sure I didn’t screw with it, even though it ran the bare minimum on draw cards.

Round One v. Jacob Rebschesher w/ YMCA

I know this is a really good match up for me, and we both have okay starts, but I am able to constantly Judge him. He dead-draws a fair amount and never is able to mount a good offensive. I beat him badly, mainly due to his poor drawing, but I’m using his deck’s worst matchup, and that is the main reason why I chose MegaJudge for today.

1-0

Round Two v. (why can’t I remember his name) w/ MegaJudge

My opponent goes first, but luckily after I Judge him I have a much better start and I end up with a board of two Yanmega Primes, one Kingdra Prime, and two Magnezone Primes. I beat him pretty badly.

2-0

Round Three v. Joey Gannon w/ Gothitelle

I spent the bulk of my Friday playtesting, but I couldn’t beat this deck. Luckily, Matt Nawal literally gave me the “dummy’s guide to beating Goth” and I did just that. I didn’t take any prizes until I had two Magnezone and seven energy on board, I then KO’d a Solosis and a Pichu. Then I KO’d back-to-back Goths and broke the Trainer lock. I ended up 6-0ing. GG.

3-0

Round Four v. Matt Nawal w/ ReshiBoar (paired down)

I wasn’t really excited to face this deck. I basically lost due to a horrible misplay, but Matt let me take it back. He drew dead the whole game, which is literally the only way I won this matchup, so I go and get the W.

4-0

Round Five v. Andrew Spencer w/ MegaJudge w/ Kingdra Prime (my list)

Before the tournament we talked and he ended up playing a list one card off of mine, but like at Nats we had to play each other. He gets a much better opening, and I get no Magnezone Primes going. I do get Kingdra Primes and Yanmega Primes, and morph into a KYJ, without Jirachi. I have the math worked out to the point where I win, but he gets very opportune Pokemon Catchers and Judges at the end to seal the win. GG.

4-1

So, I knew I needed to win to get into top cut, and I was ready.

Round Six v. Lallathin Jr. w/ Stage One Rush (Y/Z/C)

So I figure out what he’s playing pretty quick, but I couldn’t get anything for a while. Eventually I top-deck into a Copycat, which gets me into a Cleffa and that really got me started. He kept a strong game, but I was able to “leap” him on prizes by getting a KO on Cleffa with Kingdra Prime, and that really was what gave me a win in this game.

I ended up abusing Max Potion and Pokemon Catchers to seal the deal, at the end my board was full of Kingdra, Yanmegas, and Magnezones.

I was pretty sure I was in the top cut; my one loss was to Andrew who ended up going undefeated, and I got in as the number three seed.

Top Four

1. Andrew Spencer w/ MegaJudge w/ Kingdra Prime (6-0)
2. Allan Ezzidane w/ TyRam w/ Kingdra Prime (5-1)
3. Carl Scheu w/ MegaJudge w/ Kingdra Prime (5-1)
4. Kim Allen w/ YMCA (5-1)

So, I get in. However, I get the worst matchup out of the three for my deck, in my opinion.

Game One

Against Andrew, I go first and have a sub par start. I get Yanmegas going, but never really see energies for Magnezone Primes. I ended up scooping once he started Spray Splashing my Cleffa.

0-1

Game Two

A lot like the first game. I get out one Magnezone Prime which lasts all of one turn before it’s KO’d thanks to his Kingdras. Also, every time I Judged him he hit a Pokemon Catcher. I lose pretty badly. Another unspectacular game.

0-2

So I got swept. Andrew beat Kim. He then lost to the TyRam in top 2, but in three games. Overall, I was satisfied with how the deck ran; it basically went 11-2 between Andrew and I. So, now onto props and slops:

Props

• 3rd Place Victory Cup
• 1 Championship Point (whoop)
• Kingdra Jokes :)
• Great trades
• David going Angry Birds w/ Fearow in booster draft
• Matt literally giving me two wins (v. Goth and against him, I made a Terri-bad misplay)

Slops

• TyRam
• Bad starts at the end
• Andrew not winning

Again, this metagame showed it to be cyclical. The day before Kim Allen had won with YMCA, over the second place TyRam player. Because YMCA won the day prior, MegaJudge, among other bad matchups for it, showed up in greater numbers to this tournament.

With YMCA being metagamed against, (I’m pretty sure Andrew beat two and I knocked one out) it allowed a deck with a poor matchup against YMCA to win (aka Tyram). In conclusion, even on a two-day stretch, the metagame shifted enough to show that it is indeed cyclical.

Now, the question on everyone minds…

What is the play for Regionals?

My answer: Your best deck.

As of right now there isn’t a deck that can, and will, beat everything. Last year you could tech ANYTHING into LuxChomp and still keep consistency and speed. If you made the right calls on tech cards you could still beat your worst matchups. In this format, there isn’t anything quite like that. ZPST, TyRam, MegaJudge, and Gothitelle won the most BRs, but they all have notable weaknesses.

ZPST

Strengths: It is the fastest deck in format and has solved its Donphan problem with Tornadus. It can also mess with your opponents using multiple Defenders, and, with Pokemon Catcher, can stop evolutions from hitting the field. It also has seven good starters and doesn’t burn through energy like it used to.

Weakness: Still fades late game and has a damage cap problem, which can be solved using PlusPowers. Unfortunately, it isn’t easily solved against Gothitelle. It can also have games where it just misses the energies or draws dead. Without an early prize lead it has a ton of issues.

Ways to fix Problem: Outspeed Gothitelle and kill three Solosis; that’s probably the best “solution.” I have also heard of people trying to fool around with Black Belt and a solution is found in the next section.

TyRam

Strengths: The most consistent deck in format right now. It is also, in my opinion, the easiest deck to pilot. Relatively cheap to build.

Weaknesses: Losing Typhlosions. The damage cap against Gothitelle. It can also have problems getting OHKOs on Magnezone Primes or other high HP pokemon. Can be disrupted by Judge. Lastly, it can be outplayed in most games. It also has a horrible matchup against Reshiboar.

How to Fix the Problems: Kingdra Prime worked fantastically for the player at our Battle Road and helps a lot against everything. The deck remained consistent and had improved matchups across the board. Kingdra could also potentially work in Zekrom, but I have no clue how you would make that consistent.

MegaJudge

Strengths: Combines great consistency, disruption, and speed, giving it a chance in a lot of games. It can OHKO a lot of things with Magnezone Prime, but still get the easy KOs with Yanmega Prime. Judge can also help to solve its issues.

Weaknesses: An extremely tight list and can have games where it just misses things. It also, in general, has bad games against TyRam, ZPST, and Reshiboar because those decks are more consistent and only have issues against you if you can get Pokemon Catcher KOs before they get setup.

How to Fix Weaknesses: Jirachi can help against TyRam and Reshiboar, but does nothing against ZPST. Zoroark could also help in those spots too, but they could mess with your consistency. I really don’t know; I am obviously trying to address these issues as I love this deck.

Gothitelle

Strengths: Once set up there aren’t many decks that stop it. One-sided Trainer lock can be annoying to play against. It also has a wide range of options that it can use in the deck; some of them are just not popularized…yet.

Weaknesses: Any deck that deals 130 damage under Trainer lock pretty much should beat this; we are also seeing TyRam tech in Kingdra, hurting the deck’s overall playability. Time can also be issue and early-game Judges (say on turn one) hurt it a lot. Tyrogue can be annoying, especially if it stays sleepy and can get free KOs on Pichu, Cleffas, and Solosis. Also, running five 30 HP basics has always been bad. Most builds need Tropical Beach.

How to Fix the Problems: I honestly love the Electrode build of this. It has been discussed in the Underground, but just hasn’t been taken note of yet, so I’d watch out for that variant.

So those, in a nutshell, are the tier one decks. I’d include Stage Ones, but really there are so many different builds that you would need to have a full article dedicated to the deck to go over it. I also don’t have as much experience with the deck as I’d like.

Now, for those trying to figure out what to expect at Regionals, my general guess would be 1-2 of each of the “tier one” decks, 1-2 Stage Ones, and then 1-2 other decks, that would add up to about 8 or 9 Swiss rounds, depending on what decks you face.

But, now onto the fun part…

FlipTini and Why this Metagame (once again) Goes from Skill to Perhaps, Luck, Again.

As most of us know the meta game for Nationals and Worlds was widely regarded as coming to down to coin flips; even in my mediocre top 64 report you can get that sentiment. I lost two games because I went second, a third because Tyrogue turned into Rip Van Winkle, and I also won some games due to flips. It’s a trend that, in general, is repeated throughout most of the Nationals Reports and Worlds Reports.

Pokemon Catcher coming out has somewhat solved the problem by eliminating two flips from being overwhelmingly important; Reversal flips don’t exist anymore, and, because Pokemon Catcher is guaranteed, baby Pokemon flips are less important.

Yes, going first is still key to winning, but it isn’t the end all. In my BRs I went first in three of my games, and ironically I lost two of them (the two games against TyRam). So, the game has become less luck based.

In the next set, as most of us already know, FlipTini is coming out. it looks like he already has a perfect partner, perhaps, in Sharpedo TM.

Sharpedo is not a well known card; Justin Williams got it on the radar when he piloted a Sharpedo/Cinccino deck to the top 128 of USA Nationals. That was without FlipTini! With FlipTini you have a much better chance of hitting Strip Bare, and hopefully crippling their hand.

Also note that with a Special Dark, Strip Bare does just enough damage to OHKO a baby Pokemon. The main problem is that it doesn’t have a true way to do damage, and yes, I would consider using Cinccino again.

Here is a potential skeleton of the deck:

As of right now my lists for it are a bit sketchy as the concept for the deck just simply isn’t in full swing with Regionals right around the corner, limiting my wanting to test the deck, but I am going to just go out and say the deck’s main weaknesses.

Donphan Prime: As of right now the deck has no great way of dealing with the card; Tornadus should probably squeeze into the build, and most likely will be. I have also considered using the card.

Magnezone Prime: If my opponent goes first and gets a turn two Magnezone Prime, I lose. Period. This why Donphan Prime is being considered, however the four retreat cost was never too appealing to me.

Tropical Beach: Yes, my opponent drawing seven cards would be bad, so I will need to counter Gothitelle and Ross decks. That is why you use Mew Prime in here, along with Cinccino.

Draw Supporters: Simply put, if they draw out of my Strip Bare, I probably have big time issues, and Slowking can help solve that problem.

Cleffa: This card just became a two-of in most decks, instead of the one-of it currently is. This is because of Sharpedo, if you have more draw on the field you have to be Strip Bared twice.

I definitely like FlipTini, and I feel that it’s presence will shape the metagame more than the above deck will. However, we won’t know until Cities, so it might not be a bad idea to try to get some of these little guys at the prereleases.

Carl’s Cache: It’s PRIMETIME Now (nope, still MegaJudge) is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

This site has also been a teency bit quiet recently so I thought it might be good to post these. Regardless of how well I do I have been told that my reports are fairly entertaining and I know they’re quite detailed so hopefully they will entertain or at least give some information regarding playing and unleash some tips or ideas as you read through the important plays of my games.

I write these reports for myself anyway (love reading ones from a year ago, imagine how fun it will be to read in 10 years!!) so I’m not losing anything by submitting them. Let me know if you wanna keep reading or whether they belong solely for the eyes of my illustrious self! 

This Battle Road was in Beeston in Nottinghamshire (UK) and as this is the UK we’re playing 45mins best of 3 in Swiss with (I believe) 22 masters giving 5 rounds of Swiss and a top 4. I was playing Magneboar, marking the first tournament in over a year that I had taken a deck that did not include Donphan!

Round 1: Jak Stewart-Armstead (Yanmega / Lanturn / Zekrom)

Jak is a guy I met at Nationals where he made my day by referring to me as a “Deck Builder.” I hope that I didn’t disappoint him by playing Magneboar (though I should point out it was my, entirely original, list and not taken from anyone else). It was however a tough start to the day as he has been to Worlds the last 4 years. Ok 3 of them were as a Senior but even so…..

This was, thankfully, one of the best games of Pokémon I have ever played. Not only were they well-played competitive games, but large amounts of talking, laughter and good old-fashioned banter could be heard throughout, though I did have to restrain myself when he intimated that Happiny could “take” Mamoswine. I will put in public here that this is not true! Oh, and for people that don’t know, Jak is Baby Mario on here and the gym.

Game 1

I mulligan at the beginning of this game and know that I need a decent start to make up for giving him an extra card. So I win the flip and, with no than a little trepidation etched on his face, he flips over…. lone Cleffa. I let him stew for a minute before telling him it’s ok, I can’t donk him.

I get a good bench going and make an alright start, able to Twins for 3 turns in a row after he gets the early kill on my Cleffa. I get a Magnezone set up and we start trading kills. After around 3 kills each I have an excellent setup and his, by comparison, is not nearly as good.

At this point he uses Eeeeeek with Cleffa, who proceeds to stay asleep for 4 turns (for each of us!) but then wake up on his turn. During this time he was able to rescue his setup while I couldn’t find my lone Catcher and by the time he wakes up Jak is able is to get a KO and smile at his rather magnificent setup.

From this point on I am always one prize behind (I lost my chance to jump in front of the prize race when he stalled with Cleffa) and am unable to get a Bad Boar or Reshiram rolling, leaving me seriously worried about the amount of energy in the lost zone, even though the majority of kills I can get for 2 energy (including a lovely kill on a Chinchou with Catcher before he can cause me a problem).

Late game, with 2 prizes left each, he uses a Catcher to grab my Emboar active and, realising I have used my only Switch and both my Junk Arms and cannot get enough energy to retreat him I start worrying. Then I realise I will deck out first and decide to scoop if he starts using Yanmega’s “Linear Attack.” He starts using Sonic Boom though and, after the 3HKO, I see a way to win.

I can get KOs for 2 turns in a row with Magnezone quite nicely, having an Emboar on my bench (with enough energy attached to retreat). The only other Pokémon I have in play is a Magnezone with enough energy to attack so there will be no Pokémon Catcher / stalling shenanigans here.

Unfortunately, I take my prize (leaving it at 1-1) and he is able to drop a double PlusPower on Zekrom to KO my Magnezone for the win. I would bemoan the luck but, to be honest, that was clearly planned and a hell of a play.

Unfortunately I was so set on the win I started playing out my next turn until I was reminded that I had already lost. It occurs to me writing this now that I REALLY should have scooped earlier in this game (when Emboar was Catchered). You’ll see why in a minute.

Game 2

At this point I am very aware that I need to take 4 prizes and be in the lead in order to win the game and force sudden death so I decide to go full aggro Magnezone. I mulligan twice (!) and start lone Magnemite to his double Zekrom start, use a Collector and the Eeeeeek with Cleffa to get a new hand. On his turn he plays a PlusPower and DCE on his Zekrom and KOs my Cleffa, just after he drops a Judge! This puts me with a useless 4 card hand (no Supporters and no way to get a Magnezone) and no Cleffa to get a new one.

On my turn I do the only thing I can and use Pokémon Catcher to grab his energy-less Zekrom in the hope of slowing him down. It worked! For the next 4 turns we both just draw and pass while I desperately wait for something to use and he waits for a way to get Zekrom powered up or out of the active. During this time I realise Bad Boar (my plan for quick aggressive prizes with no thought of the late game) is prized and so it’s me and Magnezone against the world.

I take 2 quick prizes to his one (the Cleffa) with Magnezone, at which point he uses Catcher to bring my Emboar active and kill it with Lanturn. I respond with another Emboar though as time is called on his turn with us 2-2 at prizes. I have everything needed to take 2 prizes in the next 2 turns and as he has only one turn left to take a prize I think I’m home and dry.

And then he Eeeeeeks! Cleffa doesn’t wake up. With my Catcher gone and no Junk Arm to re-use it I am unable to get around Cleffa and though I take a prize on my final turn to put me 3-2 up it’s irrelevant as I haven’t taken 4 prizes.

I am well aware that his Yanmegas and Zekroms would’ve given him a HUGE advantage in sudden death and almost certainly led to his victory anyway but this was still a sad way to go down.

(0-1)

What I should have done? Nothing I really could have done here I’m afraid. I played fast and I played well I just didn’t have enough time to take enough prizes. I can’t moan about Jak’s playing because not only did he play quite fast but he also encouraged me, telling me he had faith I could take 4 prizes in time! I should have scooped earlier and I should have had more outs for baby stalling but this is how we learn.

Still, losing round 1 in a very close fashion to someone who has been to Worlds for the past 4 years isn’t exactly the worst thing in the world. If nothing else it should do my resistance the world of good.

Round 2: Bye

For the record, I was not in favour of this. Now I got conflicting reports about whether a bye gives you perfect or 0 resistance but either way, I wanted to play! I had to sit for an hour and do….. nothing.

On the upside I went to get a newspaper and got a free Lego Star Destroyer so, you know, could be worse!

(1-1)

Round 3: Paul (Yanmega / Cinccino / Zoroark / Zekrom)

Paul is a Pokedad I had never met before who is new the game but was a friendly chap and (with one exception, as will become clear) we had a really nice game that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Game 1 

I start with a lone Magnemite, just as soon as I mulligan to give him an extra card. I go first and bench some basics before getting a T3 Magnezone. His start is ok but not as fast as mine and I am further buoyed when I am able to Catcher up a Lanturn and KO it before it can be a threat to my Emboars. When I’m up by 2 prizes to 1 he uses Yanmega to hit my Magnezone for 70. I then retreat to Emboar and we encounter what I have now come to call: “The Rotom Debacle”

The Rotom Debacle

Have a look at Rotom UD (hopefully there’s a pic been inserted right here). Look at the exact wording of it. It says you pick a Pokémon on the bench and it does 20 damage for every energy attached to that Pokémon. I.e. if you have 2 energy attached to the Pokémon you pick then it does 40 damage. As it does not say who the damage is done to it therefore implies that damage is done to the active.

Now I do not dispute that Rotom was always intended to do snipe and do damage to the Pokémon you pick BUT this is not what it says on the card (assuming you take a literal translation). My good friend Tommy Roberts looked up the Japanese card with translation for me and we found that the Japanese card DOES snipe.

The reason I believed it did not snipe is because when the online programme first launched I put a Rotom in a silly electric deck I made as a sniper. I then got more confused than an old person at a death metal gig when it kept doing damage to the active. But why is this even important? Let’s go back to the game to find out!

Back to Game 1

He brings up a Rotom to snipe my Magnezone (my only Magnezone at the time) for 40 (due to the 2 energy on him) putting him at 30 Health; within range to be sniped by either Rotom or by Yanmega. At this point I call the judge to appeal and argue that the damage should be done to my active Reshiram. She disagreed with me so I called the head judge who, after some “persuasion” by myself saw my point and agreed with me.

This puts my Reshiram at 40 damage and I am then able to “Outrage” for a KO on the Reshiram and then a Yanma while my Magnezone sat on the bench, safely out of Linear Attack range. From here I clean up with Magnezone and win the game 6-2.

As a slightly sour note to end this game I later find out on the Pokegym Compendium that in fact Rotom DOES snipe and my interpretation was wrong. I am still unsure about this and will see if there’s a way to challenge the Compendium or if it was errata’d etc. I apologised profusely at the time, but if you’re reading this Paul, sorry!

Game 2

This was a disaster. In this game I had the chance to use Cleffa, but decided to wait as I had Twins in hand. He then proceeded to wait a few turns and setup before taking a prize. I got an Emboar up but he had Lanturn and quickly took care of him.

At this point I was down by 2 prizes but was finally able to get a Magnezone when Paul pulled off a very ballsy and, frankly, genius move. He used his Zoroark to copy Magnezone’s “Lost Burn,” lost-zoning 2 Special Dark and a DCE in the process. Usually a really bad idea but in this instance he immediately destroyed any hope I had of a comeback and he swept 6-0.

What I should have done: I should have Eeeeeeked! Waiting for Twins can be a genius move, but I still need to learn the subtleties of when to Eeeeeek and when to wait for the kill and Twins to be activated. It’s a difficult choice sometimes and I have got it right and wrong both ways but in this instance it could have allowed me to get more setup before he killed my Magnezone, stopping him rolling through me when he did so.

Game 3

In this game I started with Magnemite and it occurred to me that this was the 5th game I had played today and yet I had not yet started with a Collector. Running 4 should give me a 40-50% chance of starting Collector and here I am without one 5 games in a row. Still, I could’ve played Pokegear 3.0 (for the record, of 9 games today I start with Collector in 1).

I had a slow start and got Twins going later than I’d like, but I got my Magnezone up and used Switch to protect him from Zekrom (though it transpired that he didn’t have the last energy to “Bolt Strike”) and was then able to kill the Zekrom and Catcher and kill a Lanturn.

Time was called here and I was able to get a KO on a Defendered-up Yanmega and when he was unable to return the KO I won on prizes.

(2-1)

This was more like it. A proper win, a positive record and, due to the Bye and Jak’s awesome performance, I was sitting in 4th with 2 games to go, essentially meaning that my fate was in my own hands and all I needed was 2 wins and it’s top cut here I come!!

Round 4: Ayden (Reshiphlosion)

Ayden is a guy I didn’t really know before. He brought my girlfriend a rather elaborate birthday present at the beginning of the day so I figured that this would justify any decision I made to dislike him. Turned out this wasn’t necessary. This game was a genuine joy to play. We talked throughout, laughed a lot and (except for my abysmal playing) I thoroughly enjoyed this game.

Game 1

I lose the flip and he gets an awesome set-up, getting 2 Quilavas on T2 and 2 Typhlosions on T3. Luckily I also get an awesome setup here and get a T2 Magnezone and an Emboar follows on fairly quickly. I was however dismayed to see that he didnd’t play Ninetails and (though I later found out that he did play it) he didn’t bench a Cleffa.

I took the lead early here using “Lost Burn” with Catcher to take out a Typhlosion and a Reshiram while he picks an easy prize from the bench. I am then able to Junk Arm for a second Catcher and take out a second Typhlosion and then…. Panic!

I was winning and had a better board than him but then I panicked. I realised that to take those 3 prizes I had Lost-Zoned 9 energy. This left only 5 in my deck, with which I had to take 3 prizes. Now this (realistically) gave 2 win conditions. (i) I take out his third Typhlosion at which point there is a high chance of him conceding to save time for games 2 and 3 (ii) I take out his Typhlosion and eventually he decks out, unable to take enough prizes in time (so although I can’t take 6, neither can he). I later checked and he WOULD have decked out sooner.

At this point though I panicked and used Cleffa to “Eeeeeek”. I stalled for a few turns, unsure of what to do and then decided to go behind in prizes so that I could use Twins to get my Bad Boar and a Fisherman and take my last few prizes that way. Bad move! Not only did I give away my lead but in losing prizes I lose my setup and instead of using Twins to get my Bad Boar I had to use it to replenish my setup.

After a few turns (and feeling thoroughly stupid) I ask to count my opponent’s deck. I am told this is not allowed. I am allowed to count the discard, hand sized, prizes and play area but NOT the deck. So I waste a couple minutes counting the deck, his hand size, his remaining prizes and his play area, subtract from 60 and realise that he has 5 cards left in his deck.

Why does this rule exist!? It just gives people an excuse to waste time getting information that is easily obtainable! (I would like to point out that my opponent here was incredibly helpful in helping me out when counting his prizes, hand etc – cheers for that!).

So it turns out that he has 5 cards left in his deck and I have a good look at the board, go through the sums in my head and realise it will take him 5 turns to win, leaving him one turn short of decking out. Darn. At this point I conceded and went to game 2.

Game 2 

I got a decent start here and got a Magnezone up nice and early while filling my bench nicely. I don’t need to go into detail about what Ayden did here because he played his deck well and I threw away the match. Here’s how:

I had a Magnezone on the bench with 2 Tepigs, one of which I evolved into Pignite. I then Used Sage’s training and grabbed an Emboar and something else, discarding a Sage’s training in the process. I had in my head that I had a Rare Candy in my hand. I didn’t. I was therefore unable to evolve the Tepig to Emboar and start ripping through his deck and instead was left without enough energy in play to do any damage. I had a bunch in my hand but without Emboar they were useless.

To add insult to this I had discarded another Sage and was left with no draw power whatsoever when he then proceeded to KO my Magnezone with the fully-powered Reshiram that I had planned to kill when I evolved into Emboar and laid down a bunch of energy. I was left to draw-pass for several turns while he ran through my deck.

(2-2)

What I should have done: In game 1 I should have just played the game out and killed his third Typhlosion. He may well have conceded at that point, unaware of my energy woes, or he may well have decked out before winning had we carried on. I’ll never know. I have described how I lost game 2 in quite some detail. I don’t want to go through it again. I can’t go back. Don’t make me go back!!

At this point it was clear that I could not make cut but had nobody to blame but myself because the first game was winnable with a bit more hindsight and the second game was thrown away with stupidity. 

Round 5: Ben (Mewbox)

Ben is a guy from my league who I play on a weekly basis. He’s a great guy and someone I enjoy playing very much, except that in my first Battle Road I proved myself unable to beat his Mewbox with my Stage 1s. I didn’t fancy my chances with Magneboar. Still, it’s always nice to play someone from your league.

Game 1

I lose the flip and go second but he has a slow start with a Mew and Sunkern and all he can do is “See Off” a Jumpluff. On my turn I set about benching basics, attach a Lightning Energy to Magnemite and pass with a Tepig active (the most expendable of my basics). On his second turn he manages to get a Yanma and Oddish (though only 1) and is able to KO my Tepig.

This is good for me however as I get a T2 Twins, setting up a T2 Magnezone and Emboar and using a Catcher (that I grabbed via the Twins) to KO his benched Oddish. On his T3 he benches another Oddish, evolves to Yanmega and manages to hit my Magnezone for some damage.

On my T3 I am able to Junk Arm for a Catcher and kill his second Oddish, meaning one more Oddish kill will stop the lock completely and move this from a near-impossible match-up to a near auto-win!

As predicted on his T4 he gets his third Oddish out and kills my first Magnezone but I have a second one ready and on my T4 I set about using Sage’s Training and burning cards to “Magnetic Draw” for 6 and…. no Junk Arm. T5 he gets a Vileplume and it’s all downhill from here.

I start with a 3-1 Prize lead and this becomes 6-4 in his favour as, without trainers, I am unable to get much of anything going and as soon as the Magnezone dies I’m unable to get another one. Emboar makes a stand but he can’t OHKO Yanmega so Ben is able to take a hit with Yanmega before getting the kill with Mew (using Jumpluff’s “Mass Attack”) and denying my a prize in the process.

So, that game almost showed me I can do it. Can I do it in Game 2……?

Game 2

No!

I go first to his lone Oddish but with no way to do 40 T1 I start getting set-up and pass. I have a decent set-up in this game, again getting a T2 Magnezone and some early kill but he gets a T2 Sunflora leading to a T3 Vileplume and he uses Mew to “See Off” a Muk and starts “Sludge Dragging” my heavy Pokémon left right and centre.

I play it fairly well, ensuring that Pignite and Magneton sit on the bench, ready to be evolved if they get Sludge Dragged, but my hand soon gets clogged up with Trainer-items (effectively shutting off Magnetic Draw) and by this point I have lost the will to play! (Wow, dramatic much!?)

(2-3)

Still, I have nothing to complain about. Well actually, after this game I went to both Subway and KFC to get my girlfriend food and end up waiting in KFC for 20mins while some man swore about the service and gave me dodgy looks, but I don’t think I can blame Pokémon for that!

The Mewbox game was almost unwinnable (I literally cannot think of a worse match-up for Magneboar) but I should never have even faced Ben in the first place! I should have beaten Ayden’s Reshiphlosion and faced someone else in a play-off for top-cut so I only have myself to blame.

I have detailed above why I lost the matches I did but really it just comes down to not being familiar enough with the deck and finding some issues which did not come up in my testing. I did learn a lot about the deck though and have since made a number a changes. So…

Is Magneboar still viable?

In my last report I stated that I did not think that Stage 1s was particularly good anymore, and I stand by that. I know that some players are having some success with some lists but generally I think that deck will not lead to ultimate success. So what about Magneboar?

I think this one has a chance. I know I went 2-3 here (which, incidentally, is my first negative record in over a year! Curiously, in the first tournament in over a year in which I did not play a deck containing Donphan…) but I saw a lot of good things in this deck, though I also saw some problems.

I think it’s a very difficult deck to play with (at the risk of being controversial) more of a need for really keeping track of exactly what resources you have and have used in a game than any other deck of the moment. It’s very difficult to play and is REALLY punishing if you make mistakes.

On the other hand it is AMAZING when it works well and has an answer for anything in the format (except for Mewbox). It really is a deck that can do wonders if you play it well. I didn’t. I have another Battle Road in a week and I don’t know if I want to take Magneboar. I’ve made a number of fairly large changes to my list, to the point where the focus of the deck has shifted somewhat, and my testing in the next week will determine whether I feel confident playing it next weekend.

As for the question of whether I would recommend the deck, my answer is simple: I wouldn’t. It’s soooo hard to make a list with everything you need what with needing 2 Stage 2s AND a lot of energy and it’s slow and clunky and it’s difficult to play. These are the reasons people are shying away from it.

It IS potentially amazing, but you need to be dedicated. If you want decks that are very good and will give good results you need: Zekrom, Reshiphlosion, Ross.Dec, Gothitelle, Megazone and maybe, just maybe Stage 1s.

I like a challenge and I like using lesser-played decks, partly due to my distaste of mirror matches, so I’m going to keep going with it for a while, though maybe only at league, not tournaments as I am beginning to see why it fell off the map a little.

Sorry, was that a slightly depressing end to the report? Here’s a picture of a cute widdle kitty to cheer you up:

Leaving (Donphan) is one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

ZPST

The first deck that I had built was ZPST. This deck appeared to be the BDIF going into last weekend (although now tyRam has 26 first and ZPST only has 24 first according to the ‘Gym, I am also running a spreadsheet tracking total top four appearances and tyRam has a solid lead there so far. I will do a post-BR wrap up article, so, you will get to see those numbers later). You always want to play the best deck right?

Well, I ended up passing on this deck just because I was having a terrible time with it. I could not find a consistent list. I ended up playing against ZPST five games last weekend, and I think that those matches showed me much better ways to run the deck. I would not take this list to a tournament after seeing my opponents’ builds (but I promise this is what I had on the deck list sheet before I chose to play another deck).

Quick Explanation

The things that stick out are Cleffa, Lost Remover, Energy Retrieval, and Sage’s Training. This form of the deck is based around attacking for 80 turn two and then running strong until the end of the game. Cleffa is there for an extra crutch.

Lost Remover has become a fun tool with so many decks running DCE. Energy Retrieval helps to sustain pressure into the late game. Finally, Sage’s Training (Matt7’s idea) is very good here. It really helps you complete your hand instead of ditching it.

The Mite(y) MashUp

This is a deck revolving around Electrode Prime and having multiple attacking options. I will admit that the core idea is from The Deck Out. However, I took the list he ran to a 4-1 finish and changed some stuff around. I went to Yeti Gaming on Saturday for a bit and got some testing in against Vince and the boys over there (all the regular players were not there and it was full of Yu-Gi-Oh because Saturday is tourney day for them).

I took a couple matches against Stage 1s and Gothitelle before I left. In the end, I also had a deck list made out for this deck. Yet, I was too big of a chicken (because I really wanted to Top Cut) to run this rogue that I had not tested with enough. Well here is the list:

The basic strategy of this deck is to blow up Electrode with Energymite and attach energy en masse to your field. This works really well because it can literally pull new attackers out of nowhere. This is also nice because you can dictate the Twins usage of other decks that heavily rely on Twins to set up (looking at you Ross.dec, MagneBoar, and Gothitelle).

Electrode: This card is the energy acceleration and Twins manipulation in the deck.

Shaymin/Pachirisu: This pairing gives you the mini-ZPST engine that is so powerful.

Jirachi: This little guy is tons of fun in this deck. With Rainbow Energy, you can drop this, blow up Electrode Prime, and then devolve their entire field in one fell swoop.

Tornadus/Zekrom: These are your main attackers in the deck. You can swing for 80 or 120 all day long with these two.

Alomomola: This is one of the biggest differences from other versions of this deck that I have seen. This card serves as a counter for Donphan, Zoroark, Reshiram, Typhlosions, Emboar, etc. Against Zoroark you limit their damage output to 40. With three Water/Rainbow Energy, you are OHKOing Donphan and Typhlosion while being 2HKO back. With four Water/Rainbow Energy, you get to OHKO Emboar. This little buddy can secure a lot of core OHKOs against some very good decks.

Research Record: This card allows you to organize the top of your deck in anticipation of Energymite. It is also a very versatile card to keep you clear of dead draws.

Rainbow Energy: I opted to go with a full count of Rainbow Energy. Yes, I understand that when you play if from your hand it does 10 damage with is really bad on Zekrom and Tornadus, but it offers you so much flexibility. Also, if you attach these little babies through Energymite the 10 damage does not apply.

tyRam

So, in the end I went with the deck that I have the most experience with and knew like the back of my hand. In case you all do not know, I absolutely love tyRam. I honestly think that it is one of the Co-BDIF (ZPST being the other) in the format right now.

I have not taken this deck out of its sleeves since Nationals (although I have made changes to a few slots) and always take it with me when I am going to be playing Pokémon. So, at the last moment I pulled out a new deck list form and filled it out with the following:

There really is not a lot to explain here because this deck has been covered by a lot of people recently. However, there are a couple of things I want to point out.

Ninetales & Vulpix: Many people are saying that Ninetales should be taken out of the deck. I am not going to say that is wrong. However, I do want to say that the two approaches are equals. Great players tend to leave Ninetales alone early because they are focused on taking out Typhlosion.

Also, if you play Ninetales, Vulpix from Unleashed is the Vulpix to play. It has 60 HP (taking it out of Spray Splash & Linear Attack Range). It also can attack for 20 damage for one Fire Energy allowing you to possibly donk babies with a PlusPower.

Sage’s Training: Most people also say that if you play Ninetales, Cheren is superior to Sage’s Training. I will disagree with those people. Sage’s Training is too versatile to pass up. Also, if for some reason you cannot get Ninetales out, you can use Sage’s to get the engine running in a pinch.

3-3-3: I decided to go with three Pokémon Catcher, Junk Arm, and PlusPower. Four Catcher is really not needed at all in tyRam. Three is more than sufficient and you might be able to get away with two. Also, PlusPower is still important to get those extra 10 plus damage on your attacks.

So now that I have bored you with lists and mini-explanations, I will try to not bore you with a mini-report.

BAM! Tournament Report

As I said earlier, this is likely my only BR of the season. I wanted to do very well.

I got to the location and found some friend to test with. A buddy of mine pulled out his ZPST deck and proceeded to beat all three of my decks in three straight games. Not exactly the start I was going for. So, we turn in our deck lists and wait for the pairing.

Round 1: Jeremy (my friend from practice) w/ ZPST

Well, man talk about being worried the very first round. He is obviously going to be a tough out in the first round. Well, the game gets started and he races out to an early lead. However, the keys to this matchup are (1) attacking their energy, (2) waiting for Sage situations to drop basics, and (3) forcing a missed prize.

So, that was what I did. I was down early, but I just kept returning the OHKOs. Eventually, ZPST can run out of bench space and the ability to drop more energy en masse. I stage a late comeback and win by taking my six prizes to his four or five (sorry, I do not really remember).

1-0

Round 2: ??? w/ tyRam

So, I move onto the second round to play a very nice girl that was there with her boyfriend. Basically, this match up goes like every other mirror match up (which is why I think Ninetales is so important because it is more reliable than pure Supporter draw). I set up very quickly and took out her Cyndaquils before they become Typhlosions.

2-0

Round 3: Tim w/ tyRam

I do not really know Tim, but I’ve seen him around at several places. He is a local player and is very solid. This is really just a repeat of Round 2. I set up early. If I remember correctly, I took four prizes before he got off his first attack.

3-0

Round 4: Collin w/ ZPST

Collin is a very, very good player. He is likely one of the (if not the) best in the area. He has played ZPST at almost every event this season, so, I knew what was up. He plays ZPST with Defender and Pokegear 3.0. This game is the only one that I felt luck played a huge part of the match. We both started pretty well. I opened with Collector and pulled out a couple Cyndaquil and a Vulpix. He takes out a Cyndaquil.

Then I Rare Candy into Typhlosion and search for more Cyndaquil. I only had one in the deck. I knew that this was going to be the key to the game. I absolutely had to get this Cyndaquil into play safely and evolve it to Typhlosion to win. So, because I had been building energy manually, I got a couple Blue Flares off in a row to clear his field of energy.

This is where the luck came in. I knew that Collin had a dead hand because he had not played a Supporter for a few turns and whiffed on a Pokegear 3.0. I seized the opportunity and played Cyndaquil and he was not able to KO it. So, on my next turn I evolved into Typhlosion and sealed the game. This was a very good game. Again, I had to come back from being down multiple prizes against ZPST.

4-0

Round 5: John (???) w/ Yanmega/Zoroark/Weavile

Both of us were 4-0 and we were fairly certain we were both going to make the Cut. Just as the last game was where I felt I was really lucky, this game was there only one where I felt I was very unlucky. He hit a turn two Zoroark with a Special Darkness Energy and Rescue Energy and Yanmega Prime. He OHKO’d two Reshiram and Vulpix before I took a prize.

He also had set up a Typhlosion for a Linear Attack KO. This was very frustrating. I got all four Typhlosions into play, but I could not come back enough. I could not get a stinking Pokémon Catcher to save my life either. He also hit head on consecutive Super Scoop-ups to prevent me from taking prizes earlier. Oh well. Bad games happen.

4-1

I made the top cut as the second seed out of four.

Top 4: Collin w/ ZPST

So great, I had to play Collin again. I was the second seed so, I need to win to guarantee myself a Victory Cup.

Game 1: This game I just got off to a ridiculous start. I opened with Collector and got multiple Typhlosions in play by turn three. Collin ended up scooping to save time. 1-0

Game 2: This game was a very good game. He took an early lead but was unable to take out all my Cyndaquils before I got multiple Typhlosions up. The game came down to 1-1 in prizes. I had PlusPowers and Catchers in hand. I knew that I could OHKO anything on his field. I also knew that he did not have any energy on his field going into his turn. He had a Tornadus active and played down a DCE.

I know that he had already exhausted all his options to use Shaymin. His only hope was to his Pachirisu and two Lighting Energy and Catcher to take a prize off my Cleffa. He did hit the Pachirisu and Catcher, but did not got the two Lightning Energy. He could not take the prize and I finished the game on my turn. 2-0

5-1

Top 2: Mason w/ LostMewGar

That’s right, he made Top 2 with LostMewGar. Here we go.

Game 1: This game was pretty uneventful. I opened and attached an energy to Reshiram. He has a lone Ghastly and does 10 damage to Cleffa. I get a Ninetales set up, Roast Reveal for three, and hit a Rare Candy. I evolve into Typhlosion, manually attach an energy to Reshiram, attach through Afterburner, and OHKO Ghastly for the turn two win. 1-0

Game 2: This game demonstrated why LostMewGar struggles in this format. I simply evolved through Quilavas and kept Pokémon out of my hand. Twice this game I had a one- or two-card hand (with a Pokémon in it) and he Spooky Whirlpool’ed me into hands with no Pokémon.

He ended up getting four Pokémon into the Lost Zone, but I won on prizes. The only nerve-wrecking part was where I need a PlusPower to OHKO Gengar and rid his field of energy, and I top decked the PlusPower. 2-0

6-1

So, I ended up taking home four packs (I pulled a Pokémon Catcher, but that was it) and a 1st place Victory Cup.

Thanks for reading. I hope that you enjoyed the article. I plan on being back later to recap the Battle Roads season.

The Hawk’s BR Report is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

While talking with some of the guys at league regarding my recent outing at this past weekend’s Battle Roads in Mansfield, Ohio this song came up. Enjoy.

Anyway, on to the report:

If you haven’t guessed by now, I played Reshiram/Emboar. I’ve been testing with it on PTCGO for a couple of weeks and really like how it matches up to what’s being played in the format currently. I’ll post the list I’m currently using below the report as well.

Annoying little bug

Rd 1 vs. Chance N. playing Stage 1′s

Stage 1′s is an interesting deck to deal with. It typically gets an early lead, then starts to struggle against Reshiram/Emboar once their Zoroark’s are dealt with. The game got down to 1 prize on each side, but all he was left with were multiple Yanmega to my Reshirams and Ability Emboar. I finished the game by attacking with “Good Boar” that was pulled active with Catcher.

1-0

Rd 2 vs. Michael “Hoolon” Collins playing ZPST w/ Yanmega

This wasn’t much of a game as Michael struggled to get anything out, while I got a fairly good start. He failed to find a supporter with Pokegear on 3 separate occasions and scooped once I was set up and taking prizes off of anything he could send up.

2-0

Rd 3 vs Jackson I. playing Yanmega/Mew/Cincinno and friends (YMCA)

This was my turn to draw dead. I set up quickly with an ability Emboar and Reshiram T2. Unfortunately, my Cleffa was prized and after a PONT gave me nothing to work with I ended up in draw/pass mode. Jackson started the game by using Mew Prime to See Off Zoroark, and was able to 1 or 2HKO everything I was able to set up (without energy). The exception to this was his Bouffalant using Revenge for 20 three turns in a row to KO my Vulpix. Next card? Ninetales, of course.

2-1

Rd 4 vs AJ Schumacher playing Yanmega/Mew/Cincinno and different friends

This was one of the rare occasions AJ was actually able to play, since he’s a PTO now. It’s always enjoyable playing against him. He starts the game off a little slower, but manages to See Off Muk fairly early. My deck manages to set up quickly and pick off prize after prize while he tries to stall with Muk and Catcher.

Each time I was able to respond with either a Switch or enough energy to retreat and also attack. I even used a Max Potion in the middle to completely heal up my ability Boar that he kept trying to KO or stall in the active spot.

3-1

Rd 5 vs ? playing Typholoshion/Reshiram with Kingdra?

My memory is really foggy about this. I’m not even sure what I played against this round, but I remember my next round’s opponent saying they were glad I won because the deck I faced off against was a bad match up for him.

4-1

Rd 6 vs Jake H. playing Gothitelle/Mew

I knew Jake has been playing Gothitelle for that last couple of weeks, so I prepared myself for Trainer lock. Both of us set up slowly, I made sure I didn’t take a prize to activate his Twins until I was ready for it. He started the game by Seeing Off Jumpluff with Mew, but lacked the Rainbow to use the attacks. Once I had set up well enough, I used Catcher on his only Gothirita that sat on his bench for a few turns and KO’d it.

He managed to set up Reuniclus and got a Zekrom or two out, but I was able to OHKO them with “Bad Boar.” My ability Boar was pulled active a couple times this game, but without the Trainer lock I was able to return it to the bench easily with Switch. After the game I found out 2 of his 3 Gothita along with 2 of his Twins were in his prizes.

5-1

I finished Swiss in 2nd place. The rest of the Top 4 were Zekrom (6-0), YMCA (5-1), and what I would later find out to be TyRam (5-1).

The big bad wolf

Top 4 vs Jacob R. playing YMCA (same list from Rd 3)

Game one starts with Jacob using Mew to See Off Zoroark. I’m able to set up this time, but I have to be careful of his Mew’s that can OHKO my Bad Boars. I think the list they were using was lacking PlusPower as he struggled with my Reshirams and my 150 HP ability Boars. I made a couple of mistakes during this match, but neither ended up costing me. The game came down to 2 prizes each when I was able to take a lead and not have a return KO follow. My last prize followed a turn or two later.

Game two starts with Jacob using Mew to See Off again. Unfortunately for him his Zoroark is either prized or in his hand from the Copycat he used on his first turn. He chose Cleffa instead. Without Zoroark, the deck lacks the big hitter the trade with my huge HP piggies. Jacob is a very good player, though, and manages to take four prizes to my two when time is called. I manage another prize on the +2 turn, but it’s not enough.

Sudden Death is not in a Mew based deck’s favor. Having to waste a turn to See Off just doesn’t cut it. I win the flip to see who goes first. I also have effectively a perfect hand and Blue Flare on my turn 2 with an ability Emboar out and enough energy. 6-1

This game was fun and laid back; with lots of pig, bacon, and pork jokes tossed about.

Top 2 vs Jon Rice playing Typhlosion/Reshiram

We both start off with mulligans and I’m thinking this might be a mirror match based on what I saw. Lucky for me I was wrong. TyRam is a really good deck. It’s very consistent, hard hitting, and sets up pretty quickly. Emboar is a horrible match up for it, though. TyRam has a general damage cap of about 130 with PlusPower, which just doesn’t cut it against either Emboar.

Having to hold PlusPower for Emboar also hand-cuffs TyRam in the Reshiram exchange since theirs are damaged via Afterburner while mine are at max HP going in. Game one was one sided. I got everything out by turn 4, while he managed a bench full of basics and a Ninetales. He scooped to save time.

Game 2 was more of a game, but still lopsided in my favor. He managed to get up Ninetales early and then two Typhlosion while we traded Reshirams. I then started using Cather to bring up and OHKO Typhlosions with Bad Boar one after another. He did manage to attack with the second Typhlosion (getting rid of my DCE), but I had another already in hand along with Max Potion to further seal his fate. 7-1!

I get a super shiny Poke Ball!

My son, Joey, also managed a win with a silly Krookodile deck that he pretty much built himself. It murders the Senior.dek around here (ZPST), but it does also have its weak spots. My daughter, Megan, ended up 2nd in Juniors with Reshiboar as well. She went 3-1, only losing to a Senior since both lower age groups were mixed together.

Here’s my deck, which I don’t mind releasing since I won’t be able to attend Regionals due to work. Have fun with it!

Reshiram/Emboar

I belee… I belee… I belee… That’s all folks!

Pulled Pork – My 1st Place Battle Roads Report for Mansfield, Ohio is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Hello and welcome to Carl’s Cache, and my first ever Autumn Battle Roads report for the site (Yay! random cheers in the background).

It was the third week of BRs, and I still hadn’t gone to any; luckily my cross-country meet was early so I was able to go to this weekend. I just had to make sure to fill out my deck list early and have all my stuff ready. I wasn’t sure what to play as our metagame was mostly Gothitelle, Stage One decks (some with Mew), ZPST, and a sprinkling of TyRam. I was deciding between MegaJudge, the deck that I believe to be BDIF despite the BR results (but I’ll get to that later), and MagneBoar.

They both had relatively good matchups against what I needed to beat. Magneboar is favored aginst some of those decks by a lot, but also has one really bad matchup. MegaJudge is just solid against all of them. I hadn’t played much, so on Friday night I read about seven UG articles on the decks. Since I hadn’t tested or played enough I decided that good ol’ MagneBoar was the best choice for me.

I was still torn, but I just felt I could play it better and that I wouldn’t lose a game because I didn’t know the matchup well enough. It would more than likely be the other way around, actually, since people were discounting the deck now. The MegaJudge build I was considering will be talked about at the end.

Goth was doing exceedingly well in our area for the first three weeks. I felt that those people would either stop playing it, or that they would be countered a lot by Mew decks. Which, in my opinion, really isn’t that bad of matchup for me.

I ended up using Ability Boar as a semi-attacker, which is comical. Plus, Mew isn’t paired with Sludge Drag a lot currently; it’s mainly used to OHKO Gothitelle. So, it’s like facing Yanmega/Cinccino, which isn’t bad for me at all.

ZPST was seeing a rise in popularity due to Austin Hanna’s success with the deck with four straight BR wins in seniors. I knew that as long as I wasn’t donked I had a good matchup.

Those factors, plus most people discounting MagneBoar, led to me making my final decision.

So, we get going from Medina and then…

Round One v. Car/Medina/Yahoo Maps being mean

Basically we were in the middle of nowhere, and we got turned around because Yahoo Maps had us going on a bunch of side streets that we didn’t really need to go on. We end up asking a local for directions and we get there late. On the way there we discover that the radiator isn’t working properly and that causes the car ride to be just pure joy.

We get there, but unfortunately I’m late so I get a round one loss. I still wanted to get some good games in and I felt I could so, now onto round two.

0-1

Round Two v. Stephen McGaffney w/ Ross.Dec + Steelix Prime

I get paired up against a really good player with a deck that I really didn’t want to play against. Luckily though, he admits to not knowing how to play it fully, possibly giving me a chance. He ends up mulliganning, but we both end up with okay starts. I was able to get out a Magnezone before he got the Vileplume out, which gave me a huge edge. This allows me to apply some pressure and take a comfortable lead.

However, due to my general lack of draw power and having too many Trainers in hand, I have some issues hitting energies which lets him come back in the game. I was relying on Burned Tower flips to keep the stream going.

Towards the end of the game we both are just setting up, and he uses Outrage seven times to KO a Magnezone Prime. Later on, I respond by using Lost Burn to KO his Donphan Prime – he retreated into it at some point – for four energies. Followed by the next turn using Lost Burn for three energies to get my last prize on his Steelix Prime. GG.

So, I was 1-1 and happy to win that game.

Round Three v. Malachi Bailey w/ Stage One Rush

He gets a good start, while my start is draw-pass. He gets a couple of KOs with Pokemon Catcher and KOs a Magnemite and a Tepig. He is steamrolling me, but I top deck a Pokemon Catcher and stall up his Zekrom. This lets me get set up, and I even manage to get a prize on it using Singe and burning him.

I then finally set up and we get into a prize exchange, until he starts whiffing on energies and I am able to Lost Burn four energy to KO his Donphan Prime, and then I cap it off by then Lost Burning to KO a Yanmega Prime.

It was a really intense game, and I was now 2 for 2 on my lone Cleffa being prized.

2-1

Round Four v. Michael Zele w/ Gothitelle w/ Xatu Tech

My first match against my friend who just moved up into Masters was really dumb. He starts lone Jirachi UL, and draws nothing; I end up Lost Burning for the game. Sorry Zele.

But my Cleffa was prized again…

3-1

Round Five v. Mike Allen w/ ZPST

I was pumped for this matchup knowing that unless he donks me I pretty much win. He gets a mulligan followed up by drawing into a zero-energy hand. Luckyily for him, my start was just as horrid. We draw-pass for a long time, but I ended up getting set up first and take the initiative.

Sadly, he never really had a great chance of winning because his deck continually was giving him just the wrong cards; I end up winning this game with a Catcher on a Pachi and then a Junk Arm on the next turn to Catcher up Shaymin.

4-1

So, I end up coming in 7th as the last 4-1 in a 35-man tourney, and I was pleased with my finish. For giggles my resistance was better than seeds 3 and 4 (57.5 to 57.0 to 56.0), but I was late. Oh well.

The top cut ended up being a TyRam and 3 Yanmega/Mew/Cinccino decks. TyRam ended up winning.

Props

• 4-0 w/ MagneBoar
• Good resistance
• The venue was really nice
• Got to see friends

Slops

• Being late
• Cleffa was prized every single game

Sunday

Now onto Sunday…

I considered switching to MegaJudge because I just felt like there would be more of my bad matchups. After somehow miraculously getting there I just opt to play MagneBoar again with the same list as the day before. What followed was a tournament that I will never forget (as much as I’ll want to…).

Game One v. Kevin Estep w/ Baby.dec

Yes, you heard that right, it was a deck full of babies. I take a lead, but my Pokemon Catcher was prized and he pretty much flipped perfectly. Catcher ended up being my last prize, and with him hitting me for 80 three turns in a row with Tyrogue + Black Belt + PlusPower to KO my two Ability Emboars (he used Catcher), it was just sad.

Top that off with the fact that I got to attack four times, I lost. He won by using Sleepy Lost with perfect flips five turns in a row to deck me out, after I use Flower Shop Lady.

0-1

So, I almost dropped and I had my first rage quit moment in a while, especially when my next round was against:

Round Two v. David Davies w/ Mime Jr. Lost Zone deck w/ Gengar Prime tech

Are you kidding me? I just about scooped the game at the start, but I knew the guy and it ended up being a fun game. My Catcher wasn’t prized, so I got around his good-but-not-insane flips. It came down to him being one turn short of decking me out and one turn short of getting six in the Lost Zone, since I kept Junk Arming and discarding my Pokemon. GG.

1-1

At this point, I am praying my days with babies are done (oh and my Cleffa was prized both of those game too; I hate babies…). At least baby.dec was 2-0.

Round Three v. A.J. Schumacher w/ Yanmega/Mew/Cinccino/Muk

So, my first round against this deck and to be honest it wasn’t much of a game. I draw into nothing, but I manage to set up an Abilty Boar, which he Sludge Drags and KOs. I do my first deck search and my second Ability Boar is prized, but at least my Cleffa isn’t. :)

So I end up Eeeeeeeking a lot, and just drawing into either a bunch of unplayable Trainers or six energies, I lost this game hard.

1-2

I decide to keep playing. I wasn’t sure if you got the Play Point if you dropped midway through an event, and I wanted to help AJ’s resistance.

Round Four v. Michael Collins w/ ZPST + Yanmega Prime

This was the one game that went how it’s supposed to. We both have iffy starts, but we end up recovering. He takes the lead, but I hit some key cards with Twins and end up using Catcher and Switch to win by a prize. I can’t remember too much, but I think we hit a combined 1 for 20 on Burned Tower flips.

2-2

Round Five v. Malachi Bailey w/ Stage One Rush

Same guy I played yesterday. This game was another game where I suffered from SCD (Severe Clumping Disorder) and I didn’t take a prize. I swear every turn was Catcher or Junk Arm and Judge. So I got nothing going.

2-3

Round 6 v. Bryan Le w/ Gothitelle

I had watched some of his games earlier, and he was having the same issues I was: having the wrong things prized or just dead draws. We both draw-pass for a long time. Finally, I break through with a Zone, but my Switch is prized and I have a Reshiram active.

I still draw into nothing off of my Magnetic Draw and next turn he gets a Gothitelle set up, and I then do my first deck search to see the rest of my Stage Ones are prized. -.-

I end up getting steamrolled.

2-4

Top Cut goes like this:

Reshiboar beats Yanmega/Mew/Cinccino

TyRam beats ZPST (strange list, will talk about later)

Top 2

Reshiboar beats TyRam

So, my friend and SixPrizes editor, Matt Nawal wins, and makes a perfect metagame call. :)

Props

• Matt winning
• Trading for a Pachirisu CL
• Joey winning seniors w/ KROOKODILE
• Not being the only person to lose to baby.dec; it went 3-3 and almost beat a Beartic deck (god coin flips).

Slops

• Too many… just not my day.
• Bad prizes/SCD every game.

So after some horrible tournament reports, it is time for the fun stuff.

This Metagame of Ours

The metagame, as I have noted, as well as Chris and many others, is still very cyclical. Each deck has one very bad matchup. This causes the metagame, especially over a four to five week period, to shift drastically. The same was true about the progression from Canada’s Nationals, to US Nationals, to Worlds. For Battle Roads, at least in my area, we are seeing the same major swings.

Early on, the metagame was chiefly TyRam, Stage One, and Goth decks. There was also an influx of anti-Goth decks; mainly because Chris, even in his “retirement” home, said Goth was tier one. So, that bit of hype caused those decks to be played. MegaJudge also won Angola, IN, but that’s a stretch to say its part of OH’s metagame.

Goth was generally the most successful, getting all the Victory Cups in Masters at one event.

This then led to a rise in anti-Goth decks, mainly Yanmega/Mew/Cinccino. This actually allowed ZPST to win a BR because if the deck has bad prizes, ZPST becomes a much tougher matchup. With Goth held in check, Reshiboar and TyRam took center stage, both of which don’t have “great” Goth matchups and play off in top two, with Reshiboar winning.

What I find funny though is that, in a sense, the best attackers for both of those decks against Yanmega/Mew/Cinccino are the energy accelerators because Zoroark can’t OHKO them.

So, as you see this BR format is truly all about metagaming; there aren’t a lot of forgiving matchups. Unlike last year, where LuxChomp was always the play because it was the fastest, most versatile, most consistent, etc. deck in format and could compensate for bad matchups by using the space in the deck to add techs; now, true tech options are limited and so is deck space. Thus, making meta-gaming the most important aspect right now.

The question remains, how much will this affect Regionals? Making the right metagame choice will help you a lot, but with Regionals being much more spread out this year, it might be less important. 250+ masters won’t all be playing the same deck. So, I’ll probably just play the deck I’m most comfortable with.

Also, is anyone else noticing all the weird decks out there right now? It really seems like this format isn’t as “narrow-minded” as we first thought. It’s pretty cool, but also annoying; there are so many decks out there right now it’s not even funny. The format is a lot better than the Nationals format; it was so one track, but it’s annoying trying to keep up with all the decks. But I’ll start with my favorites:

MagneBoar

Even though it failed me on Sunday – I just had bad prizes, bad flips, SCD, and wasn’t in a great mood to start – I still love this deck. The list I’ve been using is like this:

Basically, the deck is still based around the same concept of once it gets set up, it wins in six turns. The problem is that with Pokemon Catcher, Yanmega, Muk, and Trainer Lock in the format, it has to take a “longer” route to get there. Fall behind early, then use the Twins and get your initial set up. The deck has also had to cut RDL because it really just doesn’t fit there anymore. I love the card to death, but when I tried to cram it in I ended up having consistency issues with the deck.

On the other hand, no RDL allows you to use Bad Boar more along with DCE.  DCE is chiefly used so you don’t have to discard as many energies with Flare Blitz, but it can help with the high retreat costs in the deck. The Reshiram serve as great walls, and good main attackers. Overall, there really isn’t too much you can actually do with the list. I still love the deck, but I probably won’t be playing it for a little bit to be honest.

MegaJudge

My “secondary” deck right now, is one that really has seen about zero play in our area: MegaJudge / Primetime / Yanzone / MegaZone / YanmegaZone / whatever you want to call it.

Pretty much the same list I had a while ago, except I cut some of the techs for more consistency cards. I also put Max Potion over Black Belt, because the Black Belt was there for me to “catch up a turn” against other Yanmega Prime decks, but Max Potion does basically the same thing, except it’s reusable.

I’ve also considered running Weavile UD; it is an extremely strong card right now, but the problem is that it can be easily Pokemon Catchered and KO’d, and the bottom line is that it becomes a bench sitter.

I would also then want to add a Seeker or Super Scoop Up so I could loop the Weavile, and maybe make the line 2-1, but at that point I’m cutting four cards, and the list is already really tight for me.

I still really like the deck, but it just seems to have lost popularity. It probably will get better when N comes out, but we’ll see. The deck also doesn’t seem to have too many horrible matchups, but it definitely has issues against “big HP” decks. Reshiram-based decks, MagneBoar, and ZPS can all give it problems.

Donphan can also pose a problem because you can’t hide behind a swarm of Yanmega due to Catcher. It seems like it has gotten weaker, but I still love the deck.

Surprising (and Randomly Good) BR Decks

These are just decks that have randomly done well in our area. The first I’ll address is the odd Zekrom list that has top cut at two BR’s.

(Note these are my best guesses at both lists. They are both probably a couple of cards off, but not by much.)

I know that the energy lines and, for the most part, the Pokemon lines are right; I’m not 100% sure on Trainers, though. Yes, this list ran 19 energy. I like the idea of running such a high count, but I feel it would make more sense to switch some over to Energy Search. However, In a Gothitelle-filled environment the higher count might be more viable.

The high energy count allows you to get a turn one Zekrom/Tornadus in most games; you also don’t care as much about losing energy during the game. The Rotom is also cool. With many decks running Twins now for the guaranteed search, Zekrom is almost always winning early on. Rotom helps to fill that void, by giving you access to the cards in your prizes. So, it makes a lot of logical sense to me to use Rotom in this deck. Definitely a unique approach to the deck, and it’s clearly been working for him.

EVERYBODY DO THE YMCA

This is, in my opinion, the coolest deck out there right now; it relies on using See Off to shore up all of Yanmega’s bad matchups. Here’s the skeleton list that I was able to come up with:

*You could also run Revive in place of Rescue Energy.

What the deck does is start with Mew (ideally) and then tries to See Off a Zoroark. Having access to Foul Play the rest of the game allows you to OHKO most of Yanmega’s problems: huge Pokemon, such as Reshiram, Zekrom, RDL, Goth, Magnezone Prime, and Bad Boar. The Mew Primes are also basics, so they are easy to swarm, as are Yanmegas and Cinccinos. You set up quickly, and then just start using Catcher to help in taking prizes.

You also have a lot of options as to what you can run in order to See Off: Crobat Prime is great for mirror matches, Muk is great at being annoying even without Trainer lock, and Zoroark lets you KO your bulky enemies. For the most part this deck doesn’t seem to have too many bad matchups. Zekrom is definitely annoying since it can keep pace with the Prize exchange and the matchup (as I found out) gets even worse if your Zekrom counters are prized.

Another key thing is that with Tornadus, Zekrom doesn’t truly whiff anymore; however, Lost Remover can definitely be used to help fix that problem. The deck’s biggest issue might be when it faces decks that have big attackers whose attacks deal significantly less damage than their hit points.

Right now there are two of those that are legitimate (maybe three). Typhlosion and Ability Boar both fit that bill very well, with Tornadus being the third. However, Cinccino has easy OHKOs on Tornadus with a PlusPower. I definitely think this deck could contend for Regionals; it is consistent and can swarm. We’ll just have to wait and see.

The next one is one that I’m not surprised did well and suffers the underplayed factor. After seeing it just steamroll a tournament with a lot of really good players, I think it shows that the deck is for real. (Not the winning list, but my take on it.)

Reshiboar

Now while this list probably isn’t as good as the one that won, the core of the deck is relatively the same. You can use Bad Boar as well as Reshiram, and the Switch really isn’t as important for this deck as you can also simply attack with Ability Emboar. Retreating is also an option when you have that energy and energy recovery to use. I’m running two Cleffa in this; I had the extra spot and I wanted to see how running two would influence my hands.

Really, other than random Samurott decks it has pretty solid matchups. Although, with the decline of Magnezone being used in our area Samurott/something might be a good play this weekend; it beats YMCA, Reshiboar (somewhat, PlusPowers can really hurt Samurott), TyRam, Stage Ones (usually). Depending on what it’s paired with it can also beat Gothitelle.

Now, the last deck I want to talk about I have no list for. It’s just the funniest thing.

Our seniors metagame was literally two decks – Zekrom and Gothitelle. Joey Nawal, the junior who got fourth at Worlds last year, came up with a deck to beat both of them, but it literally only beats two decks. Krookodile EP. The whole concept is that it stops Zekrom and Tornadus from really hurting him. It also runs high counts of Crushing Hammer and Lost Remover to remove their energies, and since most aren’t running high recovery it stomps Zekrom.

It beats Goth the same way, using Black Eyes to remove energies and stop them from using Mad Kinesis with Torment, which is pretty funny. I’ll end the article with my updated tier list (the predictions I made earlier has really held up well for my metagame, but not necessarily the metagame as a whole.)

Tier One

• ZPST
• Reshiram (lumping TyRam and Reshiboar together; Reshiboar IS better, trust me) moved up
• MegaJudge
• Gothitelle

Tier One and a Half

• Stage One Rush
• Mew Box decks (very broad term to be honest) moves up

Tier Two

• Magneboar
• Kingdra/Yanmega
• Ross.Dec (not being played…)
• Donphan/Dragons

Hopefully I’ll have a good report for you guys next week. I’m also hoping my next article will be a Regionals Preview and a BR’s overview (if school continues to go well).

Cya everybody :)

Carl’s Cache – Don’t Stop Believin’ is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

At my first Autumn BR in Vancouver, BC, I had a 3-2 record, making 15th place. Next was Tukwila, WA…it was the worst I have done. I made a 2-4 record, putting me to 30th place overall. Redmond, WA was a great experience. I made 9th place with a 3-2 record. I know it was tough and the game just got even grittier. I went to Redmond to test a ZPTS deck against other players I do not know.

Not only that, these guys and gals were very competitive, and I was amazed on how these guys play the game. I got some great experience because of this. With great success, I decided to go with the deck I have. With a few changes, I was confident that I could do better on my third Autumn BR. If you want to read my first BR report, you can check it out here.

Saturday, October 8, 2011. 12:00HRS. I could not sleep at all. I was quite pumped up and excited about what would happen in the morning. With great confidence, I was ready to take on everyone at BR; of course, in a friendly sort of way.

That night, I looked at my ZPTS deck. I made a few changes here and there. It was nothing major, but my play style is quite unorthodox, some people might say (everyone has their own preferences, of course). My gut instinct tells me that I will not see a lot of Stage 1 Decks (Yanmega Prime, Donphan Prime, etc.).

I also knew that ZPTS is not quite popular with Pokemon players in my area. The fact that the cards that are in it, like Pachirisu CL and Shaymin UL, are so hard to find, hardly anyone owns them. I also knew that Vileplume UD and Gothitelle EP 47 would see a lot of plays that day. I knew I had to be prepared for anything.

07:00HRS. It was early for me to get up. I had breakfast, took a shower, and got dressed. I did not sleep well last night, and my nervous meter went up the scale.

10:30HRS. I got to the parking lot, and tried to get to the entrance to Craving for a Game via elevator. All the doors going inside the mall were locked; therefore, I had to go around the mall and make a long detour.

I had a lot of stuff with me: my heavy trade binder, my decks, and my play mat (my good-luck mat signed by Mr. Wisdom). I saw a few people there sitting outside the unopened store. They were not competitive players, so I just sat down and just relaxed. I knew that the matches would not start for two more hours. I had to wait that long, so I tried not to speak to anyone. I do not want to break my concentration, and that’s how competitive I am in this game.

12:30HRS. Let the games begin! I handed in my deck list right away. Many people asked my what I am running. I just told them it is a secret deck. Of course, I was scouting myself, but I did not bother to ask any details about their decks. I was close to my predictions. I did, however, see a few Magneboar decks and Reshiboar decks. I was almost scared, over the fact that I can get creamed by Emboar BW 20 and Magnezone Prime.

The tournament consisted of five Swiss rounds. There were almost 32-36 Masters (I was not quite sure). Top Four would qualify to play in the top cut. I had that feeling of butterflies in my stomach. But I had to remember the reason why I am here: to have fun and play the best I can. Now, onto the first round.

Swiss Rounds

Round 1 vs. Johnathan G. (Reshiboar Deck)

I met Johnathan when I started playing Pokemon cards in my area. He is quite knowledgeable when it comes to the game. His son Joey is quite a player as well, since he always makes 2nd or 3rd place at BRs. I knew he was playing Reshiboar, and I also knew that if the games continued on, I would be in so much trouble. Emboar BW 20 can do Inferno Fandango, which can put as many Fire Energy to any Pokemon in play. Reshiram BW can hit 150. That’s quite a punch.

I did not see all that action. I rolled, and ended up going first. I started with a Zekrom BW and he had a Tepig BW. I had three Dual Ball in my hand; one of them I flipped all tails, and the other I got two heads. I got Shaymin UL and Pachirisu CL; by doing so, I attached one Lightning Energy using Self-Generation, and then I used Celebration Wind to move the energy to Zekrom.

I used Professor Oak’s New Theory, and then attached an energy to Zekrom. I used Outraged, and that’s all. He was stuck at that moment, with no Pokemon Collector to use. All he did was attach an energy, and passed. On my next turn, I used PONT.

I managed to pull out a Double Colorless Energy, and the game was over. He was quite amazed of what just happened. The game was over, and I was glad to win a first match.

1-0

Round 2 vs. Kevin S. (Yanmega/Mew/Vileplume)

I knew Kevin from YouTube. He has his own channel, and he does a good job with it. I told him a while back that watching his videos helped me a lot with deck building. It was my first time playing against him. I felt a bit intimidated, but what matters is that it would be a great honor playing him. I started first, but I was not able to completely set up properly. I only had one Lightning Energy, which is not enough for a donk.

He had a lone Oddish UD in the active position, while I had Tornadus EP. While he was trying to set up for the Trainer lock, I was two prizes ahead. I was using Hurricane, and by doing that I was able to power up my Zekrom from the bench. It was a tense game for me. He managed to use Mew Prime, and See Off Jumpluff HS. Yes! It was big trouble.

Although he managed to Trainer lock both of us during late game, I was just knocking out all his Mew Prime and his Yanmega Prime. Thanks to Cheren, I was able to utilize all the energies that I needed. It was a great game, and I had a lot of fun playing him. I hope that someday I can play again, and this time, without being so competitive.

2-0

Round 3 vs. Mark P. (Magneboar Deck)

Like Johnathan, I knew Mark at the place I play Pokemon with on Sundays. He is a great player, with potential of course. I knew that he can be tough to beat. I was betting that he might use his LostGar/MewGar Deck, but he did not. He played David Cohen’s Magneboar Deck, which won 2011 Worlds.

I was scared to go second, so I flipped. Guess what? I went first. I got a lone Tornadus EP, and he had a Tepig. I have a Shaymin, one Lightning Energy, a Double Colorless Energy, and Pokemon Collector. I was able to pull out Pachirisu, Self-Gen one energy, used Celebration Wind, and then attached the DCE. It was game over.

He knew that once I go first it was over. We played another game for fun, and this time I made him go first. Of course, he completely killed me on the second matched. I knew his deck will surely beat it, but luck was just on my side.

3-0

Round 4 vs. Trevore (Beartic/Vileplume/Reuniclus)

This was an excruciating and painful game. Beartic EP 30 can hit 50 with Sheer Cold, and in addition, the opponent cannot attack. Icicle Crash can do 80, and the damage isn’t affected by resistance. OUCH! that’s cold, with no pun intended. All I can say is that around three to four turns, we were Trainer locked. I thought the deck was good compared to Ross’ Deck.

It was a tank because it just damages the opponent, and then the damage done to Beartic was just being removed using Damage Swap, care of Reuniclus BW. All that plus Zekrom to keep some of the high damage counters. I knew I could not beat his deck. I was able to get at least two or three prizes, but that was it for me.

The most annoying part was I was not able to use Pokegear 3.0 to get my Black Belt. I knew it was over as soon as the game started. Playing against this deck makes me want to play it someday. It was just fun to play.

3-1

Found 5 vs. Sam P. (Magneboar Deck)

I have never played Sam before. By the looks of it, he is very competitive. He was playing Magneboar Deck, just like Mark. I knew that can be my 3-2 record here. Like I mentioned before, Magneboar is a championship deck. Magnezone Prime can hit as much as 300 or more, which I have seen before. It would be a tough battle for me to play. As we were setting up, we both had a mulligan. The next couple of times, he mulligans again.

I did remember, he mulliganed at least three times, including the time we both did. While I was drawing cards, I was able to get all the cards that I need. I got some Pokemon Catchers, PlusPowers, and some energies. we both knew that it was game over.

I managed to KO his Tepigs early. I was lucky again with a great record of 4-1. I knew there might be other people who had the record of 4-1. All I needed to do was hope for the best, and make at least 4th place for Top Cut.

Top Cut

Top 4 vs. Ricky G. (Stage One Deck w/ Yanmega/Cinccino/Simisear)

I think I have never played him before; I might have, but I cannot remember. He has this crazy deck, with so many techs. He uses Lost Remover to get rid of all the special energies, like DCE, Rainbow Energy, and Rescue Energy. Cinccino BW was also a tank, hitting a whopping 100 with full bench of course. Yanmega Prime, along with cards like Copycat and Judge, can ruin your best hand and reduce it to four cards.

I knew it was going to be a tough game. I made it all the way to Top Four, and I am already glad. Game one, he goes first. The luck was already on his side. I was not able to donk him. Overall, the match was unbearable. It was a rogue deck, which meant that I did not know how to beat it. I was able to get prizes here and there, but Do the Wave attack was just too much. Even Yanmega Prime was able to withstand Zekrom.

First round was his, so we were on to the second round. I chose to go first. To protect Ricky’s deck, I will not say much to what he did. It was a great second match for him. He was getting all the cards he needed, plus he was able to disrupt with Judge. I knew it was over as soon as it began.

4-2

I was not mad that I lost. I was actually impressed. The fact that I have been playing for a short time, I managed to make Top Four. Along with that, I got my first Championship Points. It was a great day. I knew that I can do well next time. Playing games like this makes me want to be the best. I hope to make Top Four again on October 15, 2011. This will be the last Autumn BR in our area. I wish myself the best, and everyone I am playing with.

Props:

• Making a 4-2 record

• Getting my first Championship Points

Slops:

• No slops! I made this event a positive one

Zekrom’s Outrage: Surrey, BC Battle Roads & My First Top Cut is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.