Exeter Cities – Sat 14th Jan 2012

I got the feeling I had become a tad boring being a teacher and all, so while my girlfriend and many of my friends popped down the road to Sutton Coldfield for Cities, I decided on what I would coin as my “epic Cities journey,” taking in Exeter on the Saturday and Cardiff on the Sunday.

This involved leaving my house at 4 AM on Saturday to get the 4:20 bus, then waiting in Leicester for an hour before the 5:49 train. Not ideal, but I needed some fun! The night before I got a message from Tom Hall (he of Underground fame, well, he hasn’t written in a while, let’s hope he comes back soon!) offering to pick me up from station and give me a lift to the card shop to save me walking. No agenda, just a good, old-fashioned good deed. Very nice too.

So we arrived in plenty of time to find a field of……seven! Knowing that four would get Championship Points and one was a very new player who wouldn’t be getting any, it basically meant two people missing out. I did not want to be one of them.

After the failure of Chandelure in Nottingham (I may include this report later, I may not – let me know if you’re desperate to read it) I went back to a deck I had been working on since Noble Victories came out. It was CoKE but with Kyurem, Cobalion, Terrakion, and Virizion. I called it “Pokémon the 15th Movie, the Official Deck”. You can guess why. Also, it’s not really official.

Round 1: Alex (Chandelure)

Alex is a lovely local guy who doesn’t travel much. I played him one time before at Nationals where I felt horrible for donking his lone Sableye SF with my Donphan Prime when his Gyarados SF should have destroyed my Speed Donphan. Still feel guilty for that one. Saying that, I did not want to lose to a Chandelure, especially right after abandoning the deck.

Game 1

So I lose the flip and then turn over my cards to see possibly the worst opening hand I have ever seen. So bad in fact that I committed it to memory: Virizion NVI, Electrode Prime, Rainbow Energy, Rainbow Energy, Junk Arm, Junk Arm, Junk Arm. Now you might be thinking that this is ok because I can use Virizion to “Dual Draw” for a bunch of cards and get started okay. I do this for three turns and eventually on T4 I am able to get an Electrode. I then “Energymite” for…zero Energy.

Alex’s start had been ok and he’d gotten a quick Chandelure NVI/Vileplume UD/Dodrio UD combo and even had Energy on the Chandy, but he only had the one Chandy so I knew that taking this down could give me a way back into the game. With this in mind, I used my second Energymite. I hit zero Energy. From here he can sweep pretty easily.

Game 2

On the upside, I get to go first this game and it can’t go any worse than the last one!

I start lone Terrakion with four Energy, no Supporters, and two Pokegear. I figured this would at least give me the Collector I needed. I used the first Pokegear and found…nothing. I used the second and found…Cheren. I got a T4 Electrode and was able to Glaciate once before he was really set up. Then he used “Luring Light” to bring my Terrakion active. You know, the one that has a CCCC retreat cost. I didn’t want a Terrakion in this game (for this exact reason) but starting with him alone gave me little choice!

From here my absurd bad luck continues as I fail to find the Catcher for his only Oddish (the other two were prized) and he then proceeds to top-deck a Twins (my earlier Glaciate having killed a Cleffa) to get the Vileplume. I finally get some attackers out, but I run zero for four on Confusion flips and I can’t win.

(0-1)

So, let just remind ourselves of the things that happened over the two games:

- No Supporter T1 either game
- Two Energymites in one game for zero Energy (I run 16)
- Two Pokegear used for just a Cheren
- Failing four out of four Confusion flips
- Opponent top-decking Twins when he only had one Oddish
- Starting lone Terrakion Game 2

Let’s face it, I was never going to win that game!

So, a bad start and I was starting to worry about getting points. Especially as both Tom Hall and Alex Holdway had turned up with Durant, a match which is near unwinnable for me!

Round 2: Phil (Ampharos/Beartic/Vileplume)

I’m embarrassed to say that, for the first time in a long time, I cannot remember the name of the guy I played this round. I don’t know that his name wasn’t Phil so we’ll go with that. He was here with his younger brother and was a newer played with a thrown-together deck. He also swore when it didn’t go according to plan. He swore a lot this game.

Game 1

I go first and start lone Cobalion to his lone Mareep. I attach, do a few more funky things and pass. He attaches to Mareep and then uses “Static Electricity” to attach a second Energy. This meant that Cobalion’s two-Energy attack would do 60 damage, less 40 for Resistance, and grant me the first KO. I got a third Energy on Cobalion on T3 and as he only had two Cubchoos the game did not last long.

Game 2

I start Virizion and use Collector to grab, amongst other things, Terrakion (couldn’t start with him this game could I!?). From here I used a combination of Terrakion, Cobalion, and Switch and, as I had finally had a successful Energymite in this game, I had enough Energy and resources to win comfortably in a very short amount of time.

(1-1)

So I got my win but my deck was not filling me with confidence. Add to this the fact that my resistance was not great now and that with seven people, one per round was getting a (perfect resistance) bye. I knew now that I would not get one.

Still, it’s three rounds so if I win the next one I get points. Wish me luck!

Round 3: Mike (Eelzone)

Mike is a guy I play at most tournaments. He’s a lovely man but, even though I’m a more serious player who needs the points more, he never lets me win! I often come out on top but he ruined my day in Nottingham so I’m wary. In theory my double-Terrakion should allow to win this game quite easily. Yeah!

Game 1

I went first this game and immediately started building a Kyurem, thinking I could wipe out the Tynamos and Magnemites before they became particularly bothersome. Unfortunately he got an early kill on a Voltorb and then I had to use Energymite, putting him two prizes up very early and cutting off my emergency second Electrode that I like to keep for emergencies.

Luckily the Energymite was all I needed to charge my Cobalion fully and with Twins activated I was able to grab a Catcher and KO his only Magnezone. He was able to cycle Magnezones fairly quickly but I was able to take them down while he was forced to get easier two-Energy KOs from my bench due to only having a single Eelektrik out.

Late game it became apparent that my second Terrakion was prized and I was starting to run low on Energy while his side of the field seemed involved in some kind of fancy Energy party. Luckily I was able to get rid of his Magnezones and, knowing he could not keep up the prize exchange with Zekrom or Tornadus, he scooped.

This doesn’t really do justice to how close this was. It really did come down to him running out of attackers just before I ran out of Energy. Tense isn’t the half of it.

Game 2

Seeing as how close the last game was I was very keen to try and make it a bit easier for myself this time. I start with Cobalion and, seeing his slower start, I decide to hold off on Electrode until I’m desperate. This denies him the free prize, as well as an easy Voltorb KO and should make the prize race a bit easier.

I am able to get a quick Terrakion this game (god bless Switch and Shaymin) and as my second isn’t prized I get him primed and ready for a revenge KO. As soon as the first Terrakion died the second one came up for the Revenge KO and then was off rolling, getting a OHKO on anything he had.

The big thing I did differently this game was to target the Eels. In the previous game I stopped him getting a Magnezone but he got a T2 Eel and was peppering Energy around all game. In this game I stopped him having one all game (for more than 1 turn) and, though he did sometimes have a Magnezone and was able to get some KOs, he was starved of Energy and was unable to KO the high HP Pokémon regularly enough. Maybe had I given him the easy prizes with Voltorb/Energymite it would have been a whole different story.

I also played my Energy extremely tight this game, keeping just enough on each Pokémon so I had attack options and could Switch into a better attacker when needed, as well as not seeing myself screwed when my attacker got taken down along with all my Energy.

The two Terrakions, along with the lack of Energymite and taking down his Eels, made this game slightly more comfortable than the last, but that’s like saying being hit in the face is slightly more comfortable than being hit in the Poke Balls. Ouch! Fun games……

(2-1)

So I take the win and end up fourth, winning four Championship Points and four packs for my trouble. I’m not sure how much I really deserved it though. My deck didn’t feel all that great throughout the day and I was very lucky that I missed the two Durants. Still, I won’t say no.

As it happened it was good that I lost the first round as, had that happened, I would have played Tom Hall’s Durant, then lost, then played Alex’s Durant, and lost again. Worked out ok in the end I guess.

In the end Tom Hall took this tournament 3-0 beating a Typhlosion in the final round, after a particularly tense disagreement after his opponent knocked his own damage counters off and, as far as anyone could tell, put them back wrong. Alas he was always going to lose the disagreement. Luckily everyone was smiling in the end.

We all played a few games after and then I was planning on sitting in a pub for a couple hours getting happily drunk. As it happened Tom invited me back for tea with his parents. Which went further beyond the call of duty but was absolutely gorgeous and better than sitting alone in a pub for a few hours. I couldn’t tell you the motivation behind the kindness but I would love to implore everyone reading this: Show the love to your fellow Pokefans! One of the many things that make this game great!

Cardiff Cities – Sun 15^th Feb 2012

So, with Exeter in the bag I ended up in Bristol with my friend Tom (neither Hall nor Roberts) where curry was eaten, beer was drunk, and I caught about six hours sleep on a sofa. Then I got up early and caught another train to Cardiff.

Tom Hall (need to use second names with so many Toms!) met me at the station, but this time it was me doing the favour as Cardiff is almost impossible to find as a venue. It’s in the back room of a house accessible from an alley between two terraced houses and isn’t really signposted. So he came and got me and we found the venue.

I should give big props to Cardiff here (and not just because they told me they’d be reading this) because it’s a lovely venue run by friendly people and you can even buy cheap burgers and chips and such that they make there and then. Lovely.

There were 16 people so we had four rounds and, though it wasn’t initially planned, we added a top four at the end. Though I had Zekrom, Chandelure, and Magneboar with me, I kept the deck from yesterday because it felt like we had unfinished business.

Round 1: “My Good Friend” Tommy Roberts (Reshiphlosion)

We play at League every Tuesday so we know each other well and it’s always destined to be a rather nice match-up. He is ranked number one in the world when we start though so it’s not going to be easy. Before we start I tweet how I’m getting ready to beat Tommy and he tweets a picture of my face claiming this is the face of a man about to lose. One of us is going to look stupid at the end of this game.

Game 1

I win the flip and Collector for a Kyurem and a couple Voltorbs. T2 I get myself an Electrode and, although it only netted me a single Energy, that was enough to get Kyurem going with Glaciate. I use a Twins to grab a Catcher to get a OHKO on Cyndaquil and a benched Cleffa as well as doing 30 to another Cyndaquil, a Vulpix and a Reshiram. On Tommy’s turn he is unable to get any evolutions (the first turn he would be able to evolve) and so on my T3 I use Catcher to get a OHKO on a freshly bench Cyndaquil as well as the half-dead Cyndaquil and Vulpix.

For those people keeping score, that’s 5 KOs in two turns. Finding himself five prizes down by his third turn, Tommy carried on like a trooper, but he was forced to bench a Vulpix and Cyndaquil just to try and get something going. Unfortunately for him I had used my earlier Twins to ensure that I had enough Catchers to finish out the game.

Game 2

Tommy went first this game and got himself a T2 Ninetails as well as a Quilava and a Typhlosion. This meant we had a game on our hands! Again, as is customary, I used Kyurem early and often this game to put a lot of pressure on his side of the board. I was unable to spam the OHKOs of the previous game but I grabbed a couple where I could and, as he did not play Eviolite, I was able to spread a fair amount of damage to his Reshirams and Typhlosions.

As he set up properly this game I had to use two Electrodes to keep enough Energy in play and make sure that I did not run out of viable attackers, but as I had the inherent advantage with Kyurem it seemed like a viable strategy. In the end we came down to one prize each and everything on Tommy’s side of the board has a fair amount of damage.

I had a Terrakion benched with the intention of using “Revenge” for my last prize but without enough Energy Tommy was able to Catcher it, causing me problems as I had no Switch or Junk Arms left this late in the game  and Terrakion had a monumental CCCC retreat cost.

Tommy was then able to get his final KO on Shaymin. Unfortunately, even though Tommy is my good friend, I had to call a judge and, to be blunt, I told on him. The reason was: after we had a warning that we had 10 minutes left he took a six-minute turn and won the game with one minute left, ensuring that time would be called before we set up and we’d go to sudden death.

Crucially, it would mean flipping to see who went first rather than it being me automatically. Now I don’t blame him for this and there was no intentional slow play, he was just thinking things through very thoroughly. There’s a reason he’s ranked number one in the world. Even so I told on him and the judge granted us a five-minute extension and we got ready for a short Game 3. I got to go first.

Game 3

Thankfully I started Kyurem and started setting up with Collector and attaching Energy. T2 I was able to attach a Rainbow Energy and Catcher his only Vulpix, cutting off his draw supply and gifting me an early KO with Outrage. Seeing as we had five minutes to play the whole third game I couldn’t afford to give away a prize with Electrode so I had to play like a traditional 6 Corners build, being very careful with my Energy attachments and spreading them out so that I couldn’t be left without any Energy on the field.

He got a KO on my Kyurem with Reshiram but this took two turns, allowing me to set up another Kyurem as well as getting a decent hit on Reshiram with Outrage (I couldn’t spare the Energy for a Glaciate). I then got the KO on the Reshiram with an Outrage from the second Kyurem and he was unable to get the revenge KO as he played his last turn of the game.

He had only managed to get one Typhlosion out and on his penultimate turn he had forgotten to use Afterburner. When I got the final KO on his Reshiram (who had a DCE attached) I emptied his field of Energy and with no Cyndaquils or Quilavas he was unable to get more than two Energy onto the field in his final turn. This was only enough for an Outrage and meant he could not get the KO needed to tie the game.

(1-0)

So I win and I tweet my victory and Tommy ends up looking a little silly. It was a terribly close match though and there’s a pretty good chance that had he not forgotten to Afterburner on his penultimate turn that it could have all be different. End of the day though, I felt good about my win and moved onto round 2.

Round 2: Mike (Zekrom)

Mike is a lovely guy who I play at every tournament (see above!!). It’s getting a little silly. I have the wins on my side so far, including the previous day in Exeter but he ruined my day in Nottingham at States when he destroyed me (so easily it wasn’t even funny) so I know not to take him lightly.

Game 1

I get to go first in this game, which is huge. I figure if I can avoid the early loss I have a good chance of lasting out and seeing a win. I use a Collector to grab two Voltorbs and a Cobalion, to add to my starting Terrakion and hope he doesn’t get any KOs too early. Unfortunately he does as he’s able to get the T1 Tornadus and take out one of my Voltorbs. On my second turn I am able to get the Energymite but I’m then two prizes down and not only am I playing Zekrom, king of the donk decks, he hasn’t even had to burn too many resources to get his two prizes….

Luckily I had my T2 Cobalion ready to go and using “Iron Breaker” to stop his Tornadus. He is unable to do anything other than pass on his turn and I take out his first Tornadus. My Shaymin was prized this game so I had to make sure I played carefully, placing Energy on other Pokémon and ensuring he was focussing on my Cobalion as I used many Catchers to grab his attackers with Energy and stop them attacking.

A couple prizes later I had my Shaymin and used this to set up double Cobalion. During this time he had been taking some easy prizes but I was almost keeping up now and was down to my last two prizes while he had only one to get. Luckily I had only my two Cobalions and both of them had Eviolites/Special Metal, making it especially hard for him to KO anything. From here I used Catchers to take easy prizes and win the game by a single prize while he was able to OHKO neither Cobalion.

Game 2

Well, I started lone Shaymin this game and, after he was prized last game and I play no Seeker or Super Scoop, it was clear that Shaymin was not destined to feature heavily in this match.

Luckily, although Mike went first, he had a lone Zekrom and was forced to pass without doing, well, much of anything really. I had a T3 Energymite for three Energy and got going nicely, ensuring that Cobalions were up and running to take out his Tornadus that he got going with his T2 Collector (the threat of Terrakion being enough to stop any serious Zekrom presence).

As is customary, I went behind by two prizes but I was able to get a Cobalion to take out his Tornadus. I then stopped him attacking much by constantly hitting the Tornadus with Energy and forcing him to waste Switches, Junk Arms and Energy to get another up to attack.

As with the previous game I managed to get a Cobalion tanking nicely, this time with an Eviolite and three Special Metals, meaning he could not even be 3HKO by Tornadus. I had a second Cobalion and a Terrakion lying in wait on the bench and although he tried to use a Catcher to slow me down, I had enough Switches to avoid being caused problems and I was able to use Shaymin (after he dies and was Super Roded into the deck) to recycle Energy and stop KOs by putting a fresh Cobalion up.

By the late stage of the game I ensured that I had three prizes left and he had two half-dead Tornadus and a Shaymin on the bench. I had used Twins to stock up on Catchers and took my last three prizes, losing only one in the process.

He did make two misplays in the late game which might have changed things though. Firstly he used Junk Arm to grab a Catcher when he should have gotten a Switch, which would have allowed him to attack that turn whereas he then had to pass. Secondly he used Seeker to grab his Shaymin when he meant to get his half-dead Tornadus. I don’t think they would have stopped me winning but having lost too many games to being nice when I started playing I denied him the opportunity to take them back. He understood. Which is nice.

(2-0)

So I’m 2-0 and I know that one more win is likely to put me in top 4 and give me some Championship points. I’m 2-0 though which means facing another 2-0 and there’s a few good people in attendance today.

Round 3: Tom Hall (Thunderdome)

Yep, he who has shown such hospitality this weekend. My only previous game against him was at Nationals where I pulled out a win in the best game I ever played. Today I was worried because I can beat Thunderdome, but I didn’t know if I could beat this Thunderdome.

Game 1

Right, appears that the last report got a bit long so I’ll try and keep this one a little shorter.

He went first in this game. On my first turn I didn’t have a Collector. I did however have two Pokegear. I still didn’t have a Collector! He got a T2 Magnezone and then a second Magnezone on T3. I managed to get off an Energymite but I hit only one Energy and that was that quite frankly. It wasn’t even close.

Game 2

I started Terrakion in this game and managed a T2 Energymite for three Energy! This got me going pretty darn quickly and, along with a nice little Twins, I was able to start picking off his key Pokémon from the Bench using a couple Catchers.

Unfortunately for me, Tom played Terrakion. In Thunderdome! Against a regular Thunderdome (in fact, any other list I’d seen!) I would have swept nicely with Terrakion as I had a second in reserve. Unfortunately, as mentioned, Tom played Terrakion. This meant I could choose between taking out his regular setup (Eelektrik/Magnezone) or take out his Terrakion (which would need to be a 2HKO). I chose to disrupt his setup and I did, taking three early prizes, but this gave him the opportunity to take out my Terrakion with his.

When I promoted my second Terrakion, Tom had managed to build up a Magnezone and got rid of all his remaining Energy to KO my Terrakion. From here I was low on Energy and I ended up losing by two prizes. I could have maybe focused on Kyurem more for some cheap prizes but it would have taken a second Shaymin and, at the end of the day, the techs he had were too good.

Tom did play another very inventive tech in this deck but, as it didn’t factor into our game, I’m not going to tell you that it is. Tom, if you’re reading this, you’re welcome!

(2-1)

Disappointing but at the end of the day I was undone by a better deck. Thunderdome is a winnable match-up but with his silly-good start in Game 1 and the Terrakion tech there was nothing I could do. Still, I didn’t need to win this game. I just needed one more win and I was in the points baby! There was a straight Thunderdome at 2-1 as well as a Chandelure so I wanted one of them. Will I be lucky?

Round 4: Stefan Rou (Reshiphlosion)

Well, Reshiphlosion is a winnable match (as proven in Round 1) but it depends on their start. The consistency of the deck is unrivalled and that’s the problem here. I should also point out here that Stefan went to Worlds last year (don’t ask me how a French Worlds competitor ended up in Wales). Yes, that’s right, I went to a Cities in Cardiff with 16 people. In 4 rounds I played three Worlds Competitors. Balls.

Game 1

Well, this was eerily familiar. Once again I’m playing a World’s competitor. Once again I go second. Once again I can’t get a Collector for love nor money. Once again they get effectively completely set-up on T2. On T2 he’s got his first Typhlosion and from then on he’s rocking constant Reshirams and there’s nothing I can do.

Game 2

This game however I get to go first and I get the T2 Electrode and the T2 Glaciate. I also had the Twins in hand so I could get a constant stream of Twins, Catchers and anything else I needed. He actually has a pretty decent hand but he can’t find a Collector so every turn he benched a Cyndaquil and every turn I Catchered it, got the OHKO and spread damage to his Reshiram. I played this game very well and got the win one turn earlier by playing around with Shaymin to get a Terrakion to finish the game, rather than risk him getting any other Benched Pokémon.

Game 3

He started slowly this game and I got another quick Glaciate. On T3 I took two prizes from a Cyndaquil and a Cleffa but he was able to bust out a PlusPower and get the OHKO on my Kyurem as I was unable to find either a Twins when I used Electrode or an Eviolite since. I set up a second Kyurem with a second Energymite but he ran two Eviolites and for the second game he got both of them out in the first few turns.

I got out a Terrakion as well and was able to kill his last Typhlosion, leaving him with only his two Eviolited Reshirams. When time was called I ahead on prizes with one remaining to his two and had just benched a Victini, as well as having Terrakion out and a couple attackers left in my deck. He Catchered and killed my Victini and, because of the Eviolite, I was just short of a revenge KO with Terrakion.

I was then guaranteed to win as long as he could not get the OHKO on my Terrakion on his final turn. So I put an Eviolite on Terrakion. At which point he used Juniper to draw his entire deck and then Junk Armed away his entire hand to triple-PlusPower for the OHKO.

(2-2)

I am not going to lie, I was gutted. This is one of the worst losses I can remember. Now don’t get me wrong, Stefan played a hell of a game but the way I played I think deserved a win. Maybe I got unlucky with my horrendous start in Game 1. Maybe he got lucky with his start and his Eviolites. Maybe I didn’t play as well as I could. Who knows?

What I do know is that a win would have comfortably gotten me into Top 4. As it was, I got sixth, behind the four people who went 3-1 and the 4-0. Well, four more Championship Points I could’ve gotten. But didn’t.

In the end Tom Hall went 4-0 with Thunderdome before losing out to George Boon’s Typhlosion/Magnezone in the final when we ran a top 4. Michael Richie went 3-1 but missed the top 4, which was pretty harsh on him.

So, what to think about this tournament? Well, I went 2-2, played well and my deck worked. One of my losses was to a fantastically teched-out deck and one was to a very close game that I feel I should have pipped. I also ended up playing three of my four rounds against people who played at Worlds last year! Then again, at the end of the day, it was another tournament from which I went away empty-handed.

Actually, that’s not strictly true as the lovely people who run the Cardiff tournaments (about whom I cannot speak highly enough!) make sure nobody goes away empty-handed when they give everyone a booster just for playing. Still, no Championship Points for me.

Conclusion

So, to conclude, I am almost good enough. At States I was one win away from cut where all three of my losses were kinda flukey. At Nottingham Cities I was one win away from cut. Now in that tournament I didn’t play that well and my deck was not as good as it could be but I still had two very bad, unlucky games. Then I went to Exeter and (somewhat undeservedly) pipped four (out of seven people!) before losing in the harshest and closest of circumstances in Cardiff.

Basically, at every tournament, I was almost good enough. I genuinely believe I should be on 14 Championship points right now. This is irrelevant however as I am on six. This makes Worlds qualification from CPs almost out of the question. Not that I expected to qualify from CPs mind, just would have been nice.

So, what can I do? Here’s a couple small ideas:

1. Play better

I think I’m playing ok in tournaments but little mistakes creep in. In my final game of Nottingham cities I used Communication to grab an Oddish rather than a Pichu. It wouldn’t have made much difference I think but still, it may have helped.

2. Build more consistent decks

Classic one this but a good one. It’s very hard nowadays to make a truly consistent deck in this format but there are things we can do to up our chances. Maybe I’m not doing enough of this. Usually my decks work fine but every so often (see Nottingham States!) it fails. Then it’s bad news bears.

3. Funky Techs

I refer you to Round 3 of Cardiff Cities and Tom Hall’s Thunderdome deck. If it wasn’t for his Terrakion tech I would have won Game 2. But I didn’t. There’s a reason players like Tom go to Worlds every year.

4. Play proper decks

My good friend Tommy Roberts plays proper meta-decks. He has so far played a lot of Gothitelle, Zekrom and Reshiphlosion. He is currently ranked number 1 in the world with 45 Championship Points. Now he’s a good player who uses them well but he takes what works and learns how to use it. This is how good players qualify for Worlds. I have so far played: Stage 1s, Magneboar, Chandeleur and a weird 6 Corners / CoKE variant. Partly this is due to my distaste of mirror matches. Maybe I need to get over this.

5. Test more

I go to league every week. I play online. I test with my girlfriend. Shall we say my regime is not as robust as some good players? This could be a factor.

So, there we have it, some reasons I may not quite be good enough. I’m not saying they’re all true (if they were all true I would not be doing well at all!!) but they’re things to be thinking about. Maybe one day I’ll know the answer.

When it comes to it, you just need to think: Are you really good enough?

P.S. Follow me on Twitter for Pokémon related thoughts and UK News: @thewossy

It’s Good, But It’s Not Quite Right is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Hey, SixPrizes!

Before I begin, I must address my obligatory “first article” commitments and give a small introduction. My name is Jacob Willinger — I’m a Masters player from the Fort Wayne, Indiana area. I have been playing competitively for almost a year now and have grown to love this game and community more than I ever thought I would. You may  also see me floating around the 6P forums often as your newest moderator, Mr_Rumpleteezer.

I’ll call it quits on the introduction there, though I will further address some earlier aspects of my Pokemon experiences in the latter half of this article. But first, I have three City Championship reports for you. I want to do my best to not make these completely boring or run-of-the-mill, though I may unfortunately fail on the principle that these are still just CC reports that you have all probably read several times before.

However, my hope is that the section of the article after the reports will give you a shot of nostalgia, something to think about, something to laugh about, or at least start some fun discussion. Its intentions are purely lighthearted and I hope you will enjoy it. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it though — so without further delay here are the reports. I’ll cover my deck choice first.

Back to my Roots: Machamp

Machamp will always hold a special place in my heart, both Prime and Stormfront. In fact, the first semi-competitive deck that I ever used was DonChamp. Though my build wasn’t great, I still played it from States in March to Nationals in July, ending the season with a horrible record, a lucky Battle Roads win, and lots of great experiences. R.I.P “Take Out.”

However, I decided to drop Machamp at the beginning of this season to play Donphan and Dragons instead. I had lots of fun with it through Battle Roads and Regionals, but I really felt an urge to play something a little different for City Championships. After doing some research and spending time looking at decks I had the capability to build, I finally decided to give Machamp another chance and settled with Donphan/Machamp/Vileplume the day before the Angola CC on 1/7.

I built it that night and worked on it until six in the morning on the day of the tournament. My deck list is listed below. Much thanks to Dakota Streck and Jay Hornung for their respective articles on the deck, as well as a big thanks to my friends on HeyTrainer that gave me help and advice. I’ll give some notes and explanations on the deck after the list.

A few notes:

The 'champ himself

- For those of you unfamiliar with the deck, the basic strategy is as follows: As with every lock deck, you want to prioritize Vileplume in order to slow down your opponent’s set up and protect your own. Donphan provides a fantastic “wall” Pokemon for your set up by putting some early damage on the board and being difficult to KO. He also serves to charge Machamp’s “Champ Buster” attack and will ultimately provide your chance for the token “Fighting Tag”, which allows you to switch out your Active Pokemon with Machamp by moving all Fighting Energy to him.

At this point, you want at least one more Machamp set up on your bench so you can string the Fighting Tags and hit consistently for 100-150 damage.

Maybe this description is a little confusing, but if you get a chance to look at the cards you will see the obvious synergy.

- I broke a significant rule (see David G.’s Top 10 Reasons You’re Going to Lose) by not playtesting with this deck enough. In fact, the only playtesting I had was two matches against my roommate’s Typhlosion/Magnezone deck in the early hours of the morning on the day of the tournament. While these two matches did help me make minor tweaks, I didn’t get to test against anything else in the metagame, thereby forcing me to theorymon about most of my matchups.

In light of this, I must admit that I was originally freaking out a lot about the Durant matchup and had little idea how I could possibly beat it. I knew Machamp could OHKO Durant, but it still just didn’t seem plausible.

- Special conditions aren’t really that big of an issue. Once you have at least two Machamps set up and ready you can just Fighting Tag out of any special condition you may encounter. This saved me countless times against everyone’s favorite two scoops of sweet, dairy deliciousness, Vanilluxe. I’ll elaborate a little more on this later.

- Another neat aspect of the deck is that it is a rare occasion for any of your Pokemon to get “stuck” in the Active position simply because you can Fighting Tag off of them (providing you have an Energy). Chandelure players would sometimes Luring Light my Vileplume in hopes of getting it caught, but in typical Honey Badger fashion, “Machamp don’t care” and tagged off of it anyway.

Machamp's way of life

- After playing with variations of this list, I still think both the T/S/S lines and Energy need some fine tuning. I would’ve liked to have at least one Professor Elm’s Training Method in there as well as some Rescue Energy, maybe. However, I was too afraid that the deck was going to get even clunkier. Shame on me for not testing more :/

- I had never used Pichu in any deck before and I’ll admit that I was absolutely terrified to have to use Playground. However, when it came time, I put on my big boy pants and did it anyway. Fortunately I never regretted it once and it was always more helpful than harmful.

- Pulling Twins with Twins is brilliance. I know this is not a novel idea, but I finally got to utilize this during a match and it was beautiful.

- Rainbow Energies were so clutch. The extra 10 damage for Champ Buster was often essential if Donphan didn’t get out or if you didn’t have Pokemon to damage during your early game. I think three was the perfect number, though I honestly did consider running a full four.

- I found that the mechanics of Fighting Tag and Energy attachment were a bit more complicated than I had anticipated. Learning where to attach Energy and when to Tag was the biggest learning curve I had while playing with the deck. If you’re not careful, you can end up with four or five Fighting Energy attached to a Machamp instead of the desired DCE and two fighting. Energy efficiency is always key.

Now it’s time for the actual reports. Keep in mind that some of the match reports might be a bit cursory; I can’t recall all the specifics.

Angola, Indiana: 1/7

I woke up at 9:00 and headed out with my roommate, Tim, and another one of my best friends, Mikey. After gassing up and hitting up McDonald’s, we finally left at 10:00 and made it to Angola a little after 11:00.

The first thing I noticed when I arrived is that there weren’t too many players in attendance. I think that Masters ended up having a little over 20 players, while Juniors and Seniors had about 10 total between both groups. Fortunately, a few friends from league were there, so it was at least nice to be with them.  It was announced that we would have 5 rounds.

At this point, I’m freaking out about my deck choice and desperately wishing that I was running Donphan and Dragons instead. My friends kept telling me to stop worrying, but I was still really nervous going into the first round.

Round 1: Clinton Kirkwood w/ Eels/Magnezone/Zekrom

I had never met Clinton before, but I was fairly sure I had seen him around at other tournaments. We talked a lot before and during the match, ended up doing some trading afterwards, and then hung out for the rest of the tournament. Clinton is a good guy and a friend of mine now and I’m really thankful to have met him.

I believe I started with either a Cleffa and an Oddish, or maybe two Oddish—I can’t recall exactly. I noticed right away by his set up that he was playing EelZone. He didn’t know what I was playing until I Collector-ed for Phanpy and Machop. The first KO didn’t happen until late in the round when he was forced to Lost Burn four Energy against my Donphan. I used that opportunity to use Twins, and for the rest of the game the deck worked as planned and I am able to take my first victory.

1-0

Round 2: Evan Baker w/ Donphan/Dragons

The mighty stone elephant

Evan is a member of Team Warp Point, an outstandingly skilled team of great guys from Michigan. I love every time I get to hang with Warp Pointers, so it was great that both Evan and Andrew (another member) were there.

However, playing against them is another story. Evan is a great player and I was nervous to have to play him. Still, I thought maybe if I could just get up the Vileplume early….

He crushed me.

1-1

Round 3: Jimmy Pennetta w/ Mew/Chandelure

Jimmy is a friend and member of the league I attend. I knew he was playing Mew and Chandelure and was concerned about the Weakness. However, I was able to Twins for Vileplume after he killed my Machop and was able to pull off the victory due to his Supporter drought (and also despite his incessant attempts to Luring Light my Vileplume).

2-1

Round 4: Keaton Gill w/ Durant

I was really nervous about this one. Keaton is a great player and I knew that he had won Fort Wayne Cities a few weeks earlier. He was also playing Durant. So here it was, time to figure out if the deck had the strength to hang with the dangerous, devilish, dynamic, devouring Durant.

I don’t remember who went first, but I do remember that I somehow got both a Vileplume and Machamp set up with Champ Buster ready in mid to late game. Since Vileplume nullifies Lost Remover, Crushing Hammer, and Revive and since Champ Buster is an OHKO on Durant, I was able to roll off four or five straight KOs without losing any Energy and without a Durant coming back in to play.

It was definitely close though. At one point I had three cards left in my deck but was fortunate enough to have an N in hand. He told me afterwards that when I “N’d” it took away his Flower Shop Lady, which was his last chance to get back in the game.

*sigh of relief*

3-1

Round 5: Mikey w/ Durant

Mikey and I have never played each other in a tournament before, so this matchup felt a little odd to both of us. He was the only one in Swiss who was undefeated, and I knew I had to beat him in order to get to Top 4.

And somehow I did it. I “N’d” once again late game, this time with no cards in my deck. This stalled long enough for me to KO his last Durant as well as his Cobalion.

At this point, Machamp had KO’d eight Durants in a row without a Revive (which felt great), and I wondered how much longer my luck could last.

4-1

Top 4

I finally did it. My first real Top Cut. I know it might be a common event for some, but I was so excited. This is how the Top 4 looked:

1. Evan Baker: 4-1 w/ Donphan/Dragons

2. Jacob Willinger: 4-1 w/ Donphan/Machamp/Vileplume

3. Jimmy Nichols: 4-1 w/ Chandelure/Vileplume

4. Mike Ayers: 4-1 w/ Durant

Jimmy Nichols was my matchup. Once again, I knew Chandelure would not be easy.

Game 1

I can barely remember this for some reason, but I’m fairly sure we traded prizes until we each had about three remaining. At this point, he had at least one Chandy ready with Energy and the weakness absolutely decimated my poor Machamp.

0-1

Game 2

I go first on this one. This game was very, very long, but fortunately I was able to pull off the victory. At this point I’m wondering when time would be called because I knew I had a shot in game 3 if I could just get the early prize.

1-1

Game 3

Jimmy goes first and has a stellar set up. Time is called, and all I have is a lone Donphan. Jimmy is able to kill it in three turns, and that’s all she wrote for Machamp and company on that day.

1-2

The best part about the day was that Mikey was able to beat Evan and Jimmy to win the whole thing! I was and still am really happy for him. But considering that I was the only person to beat him all day, I like to think by some kind of weird transitive property that I actually won.

(I’m just kidding about that, to be clear.)

Plus, I pulled a reverse holo Kyurem in my packs. Zing!

Muncie, Indiana: 1/8

We left at 10 the next morning to go one hour in the opposite direction to Muncie, IN. I was expecting this CC to have much higher attendance and be much more challenging. I knew there were some great players who attend Ball State University (Team Sugarbush, I think?) and also knew that it was Team Hovercat territory. Sure enough, both teams were there, as well as my new friend Clinton and the fellow I had played in top cut the previous day, Jimmy. I knew it would be a tougher field, but I looked forward to the challenge.

When we finally arrived, we were informed that the tournament was postponed for two hours because the library wasn’t even open yet. So after a trip to McDonalds and the local mall, we finally got into the library for registration. But then things went from bad to worse. The organizer’s printer wasn’t working, so all deck sheets had to be written out manually, there were no Win/Loss slips for the games, and the matchups after each round had to be shown on the organizer’s computer screen.

It was definitely a strenuous tournament day for everyone. Still, the one light in the darkness was that my dear friend Mike Newman was judging the tournament that day. Loved it.

Round 1: Victoria Vichek w/ Theme Deck?

During setup I had the chance to look at her hand after she didn’t draw a Basic. I saw a Marowak and a Badchamp in her hand, so I knew she was probably a new player with some sort of modified theme deck. After some small talk and finally getting set up, the game started. I went first with a lone Phanpy and she started lone Terrakion. However, I was able to get Donphan out on turn 2 and Earthquake three times before she could pull another Basic. It was a disappointing loss for her, but we wished each other good luck and moved on.

1-0

Round 2: Tyler Harnish w/ Vanilluxe/Vileplume/Victini

Tyler was a really nice guy and relatively new player to the game. When I mentioned to him that I might be doing a write-up on my CCs, he asked me to mention that he was the best looking player I have ever played. And so he was.

I can’t remember who went first, but I do remember that the game stalled out a little bit because we were both looking for Twins support. On one turn I was finally able to Rare Candy to both a Machamp and a Vileplume and got things rolling. I Fighting Tagged out of Paralysis several times during the game and he eventually ran out of gas.

2-0

Round 3: Jackie Wheeler w/ Eels/Zekrom/Tornadus

Jackie is probably the nicest player I have ever met — and I really don’t say that lightly. Her son Ty is one of the best players in the Senior division, but she really is an outstanding player herself. As a matter of fact, she was the only player to go undefeated in Swiss on this tournament day.

Once again, I forget who went first, but as soon as she saw my Fighting Pokemon come out she Collector-ed for her Tornadus. She eventually Catchered one of my Oddish and KO’d it, allowing me to have Twins access for Vileplume. The rest of the game was long and a prize exchange all the way down to one prize each.

On my last turn I remember everything on my side being in KO range and knew I couldn’t prevent her from taking a prize on the next turn, so I ended my turn and congratulated her on her victory. I couldn’t be upset though — it was a great game and you just can’t get mad losing to Jackie!

2-1

Round 4: Jake Kart w/ Typhlosion/Reshiram

Jake is another member of the league I attend and also a good friend of mine. We test as often as we get the chance to and I always ask him for advice on my decks because he always has good and original input. In fact, he doesn’t run Pokemon Collector in his deck and still has some of the most consistent games I’ve seen.

I actually got steam rolled in this game. I didn’t quite understand it though — I got Vileplume out on turn 2 and he was still able to evolve to two Typhlosions without Rare Candy and Pokemon Communication. I even “N’d” him on turn 2 as well. Oh well–I can’t complain about the loss and was very happy to see Jake doing well.

2-2

Round 5: Zach Dalton w/ Lanturn/Eels

This was by far the quickest match of the day. He started a lone Chinchou and I started a lone Phanpy with Donphan in hand. I attached a Fighting Energy and ended my turn. He attached a DCE and ended his turn. I evolved to Donphan and EQ’d for the game. He was really disappointed but was still in good spirits. I ended up giving him some cards for his deck and we chatted a little bit while we waited for the round to end.

3-2

What happened next is still the most disappointing thing to happen to me at a tournament. The organizer and judges accidentally recorded my match wrong, so I was listed as 2-3 after round five instead of 3-2. I pointed this out to them only to have them inform me that there was nothing they could do about it. I did my very best to not get upset about it, but it was really hard considering I lost all chances of top cutting. At this point I just decided to stick it out and try to finish 3-3.

Round 6: Bill Hunt w/ Vanilluxe/Vileplume/Victini/Audino

This is what I felt like

I started a lone Pichu and he started a lone Audino. He went first. I started to get a little flustered because I knew I could possibly end the day 2-4 off of a judge mistake and Audino donk. Gross. He attached Water Energy to Audino and then Communicated for a Victini.

And then he flipped two tails.

I was ecstatic. He was definitely disappointed and told me it was the second time that it happened to him during the day. After that start I can’t really remember the specifics, but I know I powered up two Machamps and ran the rest of the game. Phew.

3-3

So, I missed topping, but I was still satisfied with my deck’s performance. The Top 8 were as follows:

1. Jackie Wheeler: 6-0 w/ Eels/Zekrom/Tornadus

2. Sam Haywood: 5-1 w/ Typhlosion/Reshiram  (< — I think)

3. Alex Leachman: 5-1 w/ Durant

4. Andy Marsh: 4-2 w/ Chandelure/Vileplume

5. Jacob Kart: 4-2 w/ Typhlosion/Reshiram

6. Kyle Lesniewicz: 4-2 w/ Vanilluxe/Vileplume/Victini

7. Shaun Kauffman: 4-2 w/ Lanturn/Eels

8. Kyle Epperson: 4-2 w/ Donphan/Dragons

I was really excited for Jake to get Top 8 and stuck around to watch him. He beat Andy Marsh to get to Top 4 and then handed Jackie her first loss of the day to make Top 2. Amazing! “The Collector-less Wonder” himself made it all the way to the top.

Unfortunately, he lost to Kyle in Top 2. It was an outstanding series of games but Kyle ultimately pulled it off. Congrats to Jake for topping and to Kyle for winning!

LaGrange, Indiana: 1/14

I used the week in between the Muncie and LaGrange tournaments to make a few consistency changes to the deck. I finally arrived at a build that I was happy with (this is the list posted above) and felt very prepared for this tournament. I knew LaGrange was a very small city and wondered if there would even be 20 Masters at this one, let alone any of the big names from around the area.

I was very wrong. Pikkdogs, Team Warp Point, Jackson Iler, Tracy Key, Keaton Gill, Matthew Kish, and the number one ranked player in Illinois Vincent Blasko were all in attendance in addition to several other good players. My mind was blown. I was really happy that all these great players from the Midwest showed up to little ol’ LaGrange for one last hurrah at a City Championship. I believe there were about 35 Masters in all.

Round 1: Bruce B. w/ Magnezone/Emboar/RDL???

Bruce is a judge in our area and a really fun guy. He would have normally judged this tournament but my friend James volunteered to judge so that Bruce could play.

Unfortunately, he had a lone Cleffa start. He Eeeeeked and stayed asleep. I attached an Energy to my Phanpy and played N. The next turn he Eeeeeked again and woke up. I had a Donphan in hand and EQ’d for the game.

1-0

Round 2: Josiah Kemp w/ Zekrom/Pachirisu/Shaymin/Tornadus

Why you hatin', Tornadus?

Josiah is a member of my league and a friend of mine. This was actually his first CC all season and he was really excited to play. We both knew what the other was playing, and once again I was a little concerned about Tornadus.

Fortunately for me, he had some bad hands and was unable to bring out Tornadus. Both of us actually had Energy drought for a significant portion of the game as well. Eventually I was able to set up a Vileplume and swarm Donphans to get the necessary KO’s. Josiah remained in good spirits though, noting that he still had a really good feeling about the rest of the tournament.

2-0

Round 3: John Horn w/ Vanilluxe/Vileplume/Victini

I was a bit confused by John’s list. I knew he was running VVV so I was surprised when I saw Catchers and Junk Arms. But I decided to not worry about it and knew they wouldn’t be an issue.

I also got really lucky on this one. At one point he needed to Paralyze my Machamp, but he didn’t flip double heads on a Double Freeze and didn’t have Victini out. Eventually I was able to get everything set up and once again Fighting Tagged out of Paralysis multiple times to get the string of KO’s going.

3-0

At this point, I’m really excited to be 3-0 but worried I’m going to scrub out the rest of the day. I just didn’t have a good feeling about it. Shame on me for my incessant worrying.

Round 4: Bohdan Pelekh w/ Donphan/Dragons

Bohdan is a Warp Pointer and a friend of mine. When I was still running Donphan/Dragons myself he gave me some good advice on my list. At any rate, Bohdan’s a fantastic (Phantastic?) player and I knew it would be a tough match.

I at least lasted longer than I did against Evan’s Donphan/Dragons. I believe I was down 6 to 2 on prizes before I worked it down to 3-1. Unfortunately, I used the wrong attack at the end of the match and it cost me the game. Curses.

I love my Warp Pointers, but just once I would like to beat one!

3-1

Round 5: Jack Iler w/ Durant

Jack is a great player from Ohio. I knew he was running Durant and consequently knew it was not going to be an easy match. I just tried to focus on my plan: one Vileplume, one Machamp, and one bench Pokemon for any Seeker antics…

I can’t even remember if I took a prize at all.

3-2

Round 6: Jacob Konter w/ Six Corners

This was by far the most exciting match of my day. I knew top cut was in my grasp if I could win this one, but I really didn’t know how to handle the proverbial Big Basics.

I’m fairly sure I went down 6-2 on prizes again—in the least it was 6-3. I think I must have just had one tremendous turn of set up before I started to Tag and take prizes left and right. Eventually the game went down to one prize to one. I remember on his last turn he was a mere 10 damage away from the revenge kill with Terrakion but he just couldn’t get the KO. When the turn came back to me I had enough damage on the bench for one final Champ Buster and the win. I couldn’t believe it.

4-2

Top 8

I knew there were a lot of 4-2’s at this point and had no idea if I would make it. But I did! The Top 8:

1. Vincent Blasko: 6-0 w/ Durant

2. Jackson Iler: 5-1 w/ Durant

3. Bohdan Pelekh: 5-1 w/ Donphan/Dragons

4. Josiah Kemp: 5-1 w/ ZPST

5. Keaton Gill: 5-1 w/ Durant

6. Nikolas Campbell: 4-2 w/ Eels/Magnezone

7. Jacob Willinger: 4-2 w/ Donphpan/Machamp/Vileplume

8. Tracy Key: 4-2 w/ Terrakion/Electrode

I was really happy to see that Josiah had done so well after his loss to me. We both agreed that it felt really good to be sitting at the top tables with players like Vince, Bohdan, Tracy, and Jack. Still, I had to play Jack again and was really nervous. Fortunately, Jack is a good guy and told me to just have fun and take my time.

Game 1

Jack gets to go first on this one. He gets set up first turn and starts the relentless Devour. I remember having a decent set up but was forced to use a Sage’s Training or two. On the next turn he nails a Crushing Hammer flip that ended up being significant; I finished the game with a Vileplume and Machamp — but the Machamp was one Energy short of Champ Buster.

0-1

I chose to go first in this one. I had a fantastic start and everything worked as planned. I busted his Durants to the discard and my sweet Vileplume wouldn’t allow the Revives. All tied up.

1-1

Jack chose to go first in this final match. I think it took him two turns to start the four-Durant Devour, but I still felt relatively confident with my hand. I had an active Oddish with a Rare Candy in hand and just needed a Communication for Vileplume. But then he discarded two of them. And then it kept going, and going, and going, and I never saw a Communication once. I used almost my entire shuffle Supporters and still never saw it. Where was Vileplume?

Both of them were prized. It was sick. But it didn’t matter anyway — my deck was too far gone.

1-2

This pretty much nails it

The Top 4 looked like this then:

- Vincent Blasko: Durant

- Keaton Gill: Durant

- Jack Iler: Durant

- Bohdan Pelekh: Donphan/Dragons

That’s right, three Durant decks in the Top 4. I was pulling for Bohdan, but unfortunately he barely missed it.  Vincent B. ended winning in the Top 2 against Jack to win it all. Congrats, Vince!

And that’s it for my CC reports. I had a great time and was very happy with how my deck performed. Thanks again to everyone who helped with it. Now let’s shift the discussion a little bit here:

Why I Miss Being Really Bad at Pokemon

I know this seems like a complete digression, and to a point it is, but I’ll try to tie it up at the end.

After leaving the LaGrange CC, my friends and I were sitting in McDonald’s drinking shakes and discussing when we first started the game. We all decided that we really miss when we were all really bad at Pokemon. I know a simple answer to this is, “Jacob, you’re still really bad.” Ok, well, in the context of the larger competitive scene, yes I am. But I’m not talking about that kind of “bad.” I’m talking about the very, very early days of playing.

It was a little over a year ago when my friend Kendall came into my room and started telling me about something called the “Pokemon Professor Exam.” He noted that people who understand the card game really well can take this exam and be granted the title “Pokemon Professor.” He was really excited about it, but I just kind of shrugged it off at the time: “That’s cool I guess.”

But then we found a league. While I still wasn’t that interested, I still tagged along the first time just because it was something to do. We met two guys there, Jake and James (both mentioned above), who ended up being good friends and teammates. I watched James destroy Kendall with VileGar and Jake demolish Mikey with RDL. However, it was still really fun for all of us and we had a great time.

Sometime over the next few days I gave in and bought the Royal Guard theme deck. You know…the one with the Nidoking, the Marowak, and the Grumpig. I thought it was awesome. Soon everyone got a theme deck and some random boosters and we started playing all the time. We even had a Win/Loss board for a short while; I believe I was 0-10 at one point, much to my chagrin.

Soon, the power cards emerged in our decks: Espeon UD, Lickilicky TM, Arcanine HS, and Togekiss UD.

Accordingly, the frustration and intensity increased the more we played against each other.

So overpowered

- Espeon became “so cheap”: Solar Suggestion isn’t even fair! It’s like you aren’t even damaging him!

- Lickilicky became “just stupid”: It shouldn’t be able to hit any Pokemon like that!

- Arcanine became “overpowered”: 90 damage is way too powerful!

- Togekiss became “annoying”: I spend so much time damaging you and then it just goes away!

We didn’t tech against the metagame, we teched against each other. We didn’t understand effective Energy attachment and our Supporter lines were atrocious (usually two Cheerleader’s Cheers and about three Emcee’s Chatter). We thought “Seeker”, “Sage’s Training”, and “Junk Arm” were stupid cards: Why would I want to discard anything just to get a trainer back? We concurrently thought that “Poke Ball”, “Interviewer’s Questions”, and “Life Herb” were the greatest cards ever.

We went online every so often to look at cards and deck lists, but we still didn’t really pay attention to the “good decks” or “good cards.” In fact, I distinctly remember looking at Stormfront Gyarados for the first time and thinking “Wow, I don’t even see how this card could be good at all.” I also thought Crobat G was completely pointless.

That’s what I mean by “bad.” I mean — we were really horrible! But it didn’t matter because all we were doing was having fun — lots of fun. We would play day after day with our decks and didn’t really comprehend how horribly inconsistent they were. There weren’t any ratings or Championship Points to worry about and we were completely fine with running a Candy-less 3-3-3 line of our Pokemon. Ignorance truly is bliss, I suppose.

I really do miss all of it. For lack of a better term, I think there was a real “innocence” to the game back then that we don’t have any more. It was purely a fun hobby with no strings attached and it was a fun time spent with fun people.

But still, as with a lot of hobbies and interests you have, you want to know more about it and become more invested in it. You also want to become better — it’s just part of being human. Take for example competitive video games, sports, and even one’s career. Everyone wants to enjoy what they play or do but everyone also wants to get better at it and be more competitive. It brings a different kind of experience and “fun” to the scene, which is entirely appropriate.

Pokemon was no different for us. We all eventually got our first Primes and started building more competitive decks with these Primes as the focus. We started to gain interest in going to tournaments and consequently wanted to know what decks people were playing. Eventually we heard about some deck called “LuxChomp” and how crazy good it was. When all was said and done we knew what the metagame was, understood that Gyarados was indeed a force to be reckoned with, and had played in our first Regional tournament.

Now here we are today; we’re finally making top cut and I’m somehow a moderator on one of the most popular Pokemon TCG sites — and I must admit that I wouldn’t trade it for anything, even for those early days. The intimacy of the community is something to cherish and the mechanics of deck building and gameplay are too exciting and fun not to love. I love making daily visits to Pokebeach, The Top Cut, HeyTrainer, and SixPrizes. I love reading about new deck ideas and synergy behind cards. I love hearing about what deck won tournaments and I love all the excitement for new sets. I love helping out beginners to the game. I love this game and I love the people who play it with me.

Ultimately, I guess what I miss is something to the effects of missing one’s childhood. Everyone misses when the only worry you had was what to play on during recess. In the same way, I miss that feeling of not really caring too much about anything in the game or having too much responsibility.

Maybe it’s just me, and more so maybe it’s just a little stupid of me to miss that, but I’d be willing to bet some of you too miss your early days of playing Pokemon in some form or another. In the least, thinking about your early days of playing is just a way to be nostalgic and reminisce about a different time in your life. Again, it’s not that I don’t love having to be more responsible with respects to the game, because I do. It’s just one of those things that’s hard to put exact words to.

Maybe some of you don’t miss how bad you used to be or were never bad at all. I definitely understand this, especially if you were thrown into the competitive scene right away. But that’s still ok — I’m sure everyone still has at least one favorite memory of the game, whether it be the first time playing, the first trip to Nationals, or just the time spent with your friends.

And that’s it. I do miss being bad at Pokemon. But I also love being “better” and a part of this community. There are feelings and reasons that radically differentiate these two experiences from one another but both still have their own distinct virtues, and to me that’s what makes them really neat.

I’d love to hear what you guys think of my notions. I’d also love to hear some favorite memories and experiences that you’ve had, so go ahead and share in the comments below or on the forums.

Conclusion and Thanks

Here he comes

As we move into February, City Championships are over, Prereleases are among us, and State Championships are glowing in the distance. I can probably go ahead and put Machamp away for a while considering the rapid approach of the one and only legendary creature himself, Mewtwo EX.

At any rate, I hope you all enjoyed the reports and personal piece. I’m at over 6,000 words now and it is definitely time for me to go, but before I do I’d like to throw out a few thanks:

- To Adam and SixPrizes, thanks for being a good leader and community.

- To all of my friends at HeyTrainer, thanks for helping me understand the game a lot better.

- To all of my league friends, thanks for playing the game with me, having fun with me, and being great friends in general.

- To Team Warp Point, for being the chillest bunch of dudes to play the game.

-  And to my close friends, thanks for putting up with me and my obsession with this game.

Sincerely,

rumplez

A Tale of (Three) Cities and Why I Miss Being Bad at Pokemon is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

The main idea is get out an Emboar BLW 20 and Reshiram BLW, and keep a steady stream of energy going on to Reshiram with Emboar’s “Inferno Fandango” using cards like Energy Retrieval and Fisherman to keep the Energy you need in your hand. It also uses Rayquaza & Deoxys LEGEND as a backup attacker and sometimes Badboar, but I wouldn’t recommend Badboar because it is a Stage 2 and it is hard to set up two Stage 2s.

That is the basic strategy, and it is a lot of fun. Here is my personal list:

Now, let’s go into detail about each card in this deck.

Reshiram BLW

Your main attacker. You want to be hitting for 120 damage every turn with “Blue Flare.”  He should be sticking around for a while because of his 130 HP and Eviolite. He is also great against Mewtwo EX because after a Blue Flare, you should only have one energy attached, meaning Mewtwo will need seven energy to be able to OHKO it if Reshiram has Eviolite, six without.

Emboar BLW 20

Your only form of Energy acceleration. He is used to power up RDL and Reshiram’s attacks, Blue Flare and Ozone Buster turn after turn with “Inferno Fandango.” He has four retreat cost, and an attack that does 80 for four Energy, so he should never purposely put active unless you are up against Durant.

Tepig BLW Promo BW07

This is the preferred Tepig out of the four available. His attack, Singe, allows you to flip a coin, and if it is heads, the defending Pokemon is Burned. It is the best attack on any Tepig, and its retreat cost is one so it has the lowest retreat cost of any Tepig. If you have them, use them.

Cleffa CL

This Pokemon makes a great starter, and is like a searchable PONT at the cost of your attack for the turn. It helps to get set up because it allows you to get six new cards with “Eeeeeeek”. That is mainly what it is used for, but if you draw it in the late game, you could use it to Junk Arm away or Pokemon Communication it away for something else you may need.

RDL

This guy is the EX killer. Three prizes when you knock one out? Yes please! Just by knocking out one EX with him, you win half a game. That is crazy. With “Ozone Buster”, you can do 150 damage every turn if things go your way, and he can OHKO Mewtwo EX, and can be used after Reshiram uses Blue Flare on an EX to finish them off. I love this card, and would recommend stocking up on it because it should see a rise in popularity.

Mewtwo EX

This guy is a beast. 170 HP on a Basic Pokemon? Unheard of! His first attack, “X Ball” does 20 damage for each energy attached to it and the Defending Pokemon, and with Energy acceleration like Emboar, you would be crazy not to use him. He is helpful against RDL, Gothitelle and just about everything that gives Reshiram trouble.

Most of the T/S/S are self-explanatory, but here are a few that aren’t.

Rocky Helmet

Very helpful against Thunderdome. Attach it to Reshiram, Blue Flare Magnezone. This will put them in a really bad spot, because they won’t be able to attack your Reshiram without KOing themselves. Same holds true for Zekrom. This is better than Badboar in my testing because it is easier to get out because it is not a Stage 2 Pokemon, it is simply attached to a Pokemon.

Twins

This is helpful if you do not get set up fast. It will allow you to set up better if your opponent outspeeds you. That is all it is useful for. This card has made for some epic comebacks, and I love it in this deck.

Cilan

This is a new Supporter card coming out in Next Destinies that allows you to search your deck for 3 Basic energy and put them in your hand. This is great because you can then attach all of them immediately with Inferno Fandango.

Only 3 Energy Recovery Cards

You can generally Junk Arm for 2 Energy Retrieval per game, so that is 2 each time, 8 total plus 4 from Fisherman plus 12 from the energy already included, that’s up to 24 Energy per game.

Matchups

Thunderdome – Favorable

You can OHKO all their Pokemon with RDL. If Reshiram has a Rocky Helmet attached and uses Blue Flare on a Magnezone, they will not be able to attack the Reshiram without KOing their Magnezone. The only threat is them Catchering your Emboar and KOing it. Other than that, this should be a mess for them. Like I said before, when they revenge KO you, you activate a Reshiram with Rocky Helmet or RDL and KO them.

Mewtwo EX/Celebi Prime – Favorable

RDL will wreck Mewtwo. If they include Shaymin EX, that is OHKOed by RDL and Reshiram. You should be able to win the game with two or three attacks from RDL. This should go your way very quickly. Even if they do manage to Catcher up Emboar, they still need eight energy on a Mewtwo to OHKO it. You only have to KO 2 Mewtwo-EX with RDL to win a game. This deck defeats Mewtwo in every way.

The Truth-EX – 50/50

You cannot OHKO their EX, but if you set up faster and repeatedly Catcher up anything they try to set up, you could win this one. This is most definitely a tricky matchup, but it is winnable through not letting them get set up. If they do get set up, game over for you. RDL is weak to Regigigas-EX, so this is going to be hard to win, but you can still pull it off if you can Catcher up everything before they can set up. It is very hard to win, and I cannot stress enough that you have to think over every move before you make it, and think about how it will affect the game in the long run.

CaKE – Favorable

Kyurem, say hello to RDL. What’s that? Cobalion NVI you say? Reshiram will have fun Blue Flaring you! Oh? You have teched in Mewtwo-EX? RDL will demolish you too! Pretty much anything they throw at you should be taken down by RDL or Reshiram with no problem whatsoever. This is their worst nightmare. All those energy for only two attacks, the most they should be able to get off. Only problem? Getting Glaciate off fast and KOing your Tepig before they can evolve. Kyurem may have type advantage over Reshiram, so you never want to attack it unless you can OHKO it with RDL.

6 Corners – Favorable

Low damage output to high HP Pokemon? Not working. You can OHKO anything they have except EXs with RDL. Reshiram or Zekrom EX? Blue Flare followed up with an Ozone Buster or another Blue Flare should take care of this problem. You should be able to win easily unless they play Tornadus against your RDL. Be sure to bench multiple Tepig in case they KO one with Catcher then Leaf Wallop. The pure versatility of this deck could cause problems, but in my testing, not that much.

Durant – 50/50

You need to set up an Abilityboar T2 or 3 and start squashing these ants, or you are going to have lots of problems. If you can set up fast enough, you should be able to win. If not, you are probably going to lose.

ZPST – Unfavorable

This is your worst matchup. They start killing your Tepig off turn 1 or 2, so unless you get T2 Candy Emboar, you are probably going to lose. Their sheer speed will be what does you in. if they don’t get swinging T2 or 3 at the latest, you could win, but that’s about the only way.

Tyram- Favorable

Afterburner damage is ultimately what does them in. You can OHKO a Reshiram BW with a Reshiram BW because of Afterburner damage. You can OHKO a Reshiram EX that has 30 Afterburner damage. Your Reshiram will not have Afterburner damage; it should be able to take two normal Reshiram down.

I have tested all these matchups, just so you know. As you can see, it has a lot of good matchups in post Next Destinies. Mewtwo is going to be huge, and you have a good matchup against that, Magnezone is going to be great, you have a good matchup against that, CaKE should see a lot of play, and you have a good matchup against that. I didn’t put Chandelure or Gothitelle because I think they will disappear from the meta almost completely.

I think it will be a solid choice and hopefully a more popular choice in the years until it gets rotated out, and I hope others feel the same way. Now, for those of you who want to know how I did at City Championships, here is my tournament report (I know it is long overdue) for the one I was able to go to.

I was playing a Reshiboar list similar to the one listed above, obviously without the Next Destinies cards. I was also running a 1-1-1 Magnezone Prime and a Badboar in place of RDL, just something I was trying out, and PlusPower in place of Rocky Helmet. I was also still running Lightning energy.

Tournament Report

I get there just in time to register, on account of waking up late. I get registered, have a DS battle with my White version, and do some trading until round 1 starts.

Round 1 Vs. Magnezone/Yanmega/Zoroark

We both start off strong, getting early attackers. It was a really difficult game, and was ultimately what made me decide to use Rocky Helmet in my build. I got an early Emboar, but he took the prize lead early on by sniping my Cleffa with his Yanmega. I proceeded to KO his Yanmega with Reshiram, and he Catchers up Emboar and KOs it with Magnezone. I Blue Flare him, he Lost Burns for 100. I KO him with Outrage, and he revenge KOs me with Yanmega.

I then promote Magneton, and Tri Attack. One heads, Two heads, come on third heads… Yes! Triple heads. From there, I take the rest of my prizes with Reshiram, and he couldn’t get much else set up.

1-0

Round 2 Vs. Beartic/Samurott/Zoroark aka the nightmare matchup

This game was pretty one sided. He got Beartic out. I Blue Flare it, and he attacks me. I then play Switch into Cleffa, retreat and Outrage. He only took one Prize, and I got all six.
2-0

Round 3 Vs. Chandelure/Crustle

This was a really random deck. He had like a 1-1-1 Chandelure NVI, 2 Crustle NVI, a Meowth NVI, Garbodor NVI, just random stuff. This was my down pairing, but he managed to win because I had a very long energy drought.  Four Energy were prized, five were towards the bottom ¼ of my deck, and I managed to Blue Flare once. He got my Emboar active and KO’d that, and he just kept KOing everything until I ran out of Pokemon on my field.

2-1

Round 4 Vs. Donphan/Yanmega/Zoroark

I flail!

This was brutal. I mean it. Really nice kid, though. Funny, and a great player. He gets out his guys relatively fast, and so do I. We ended up running each other out of attackers, and he had a Phanpy HS with 30 Earthquake damage on it, and he ended up killing a Cleffa and a Tepig with Flail.

That’s right, he Flailed for two Prizes. That was a Flailure. What’s a good article without a pun? Well, I ended getting another Reshiram set up and Catchered his Zorua before the became Zoroark, and pretty much swept him with one Reshiram from there.

3-1

Round 5 Vs. CaKE

This is an up pairing. He is 4-0. I get a T2 Magnezone and a T3 Emboar, and all three of his Electrodes are prized. He gets off one Glaciate for one prize because I benched Cleffa, worst misplay of the day. It was Electrode. He gets it out, blows it up and gets a couple of Energy. I pretty much swept his whole field with Magnezone. Awesome game.

4-1

I make top cut at the 2nd seed, and am matched up against the guy from round 1.

Top Cut

Game 1

I get off to a bad start, and his was near perfect. He swept my whole field with Magnezones and Yanmegas.

Game 2

This game was really close. I get a great setup, and so does he. We trade prizes until time is called. At this point, it is tied 2-2, and he is turn zero. He has no way of taking prizes unless he can get his zero-Energy Magnezone out of the way, and most of his Energy were Lost Burned. I could take prizes, and waited until Turn 3 to take one. Good game!

Sudden Death

He gets a T2 Zoroark using Foul Play on Reshiram’s Blue Flare, and I only managed to get one Energy out. It was a shame, because I could have Outraged for the game. Oh well. At least I made top cut with Reshiboar! I placed 3rd. It was a lot of fun. I hope you have enjoyed this article! Maybe Reshiboar will make a comeback. I hope it will. Until next time, happy testing!

Reshiboar: Dead or Just Getting Started? is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Actual photo of Jay completing the Chicago Marathon. (Not really.)

It was touch and go there for a while, but I survived the Chicago Marathon and had a great time seeing old friends and making a lot of new ones. It’s all the amazing people in this game which keeps me playing. After a tournament it’s not a crazy close game that I won or anything like that I remember, it’s all the stupid stuff and good times with friends.

Marathons are certainly no exception to this, and anyone who travels to one of these and doesn’t go with a group of friends is denying themselves one of the most fun aspects of a marathon, not to mention the extra money they are spending. Going along with this, I owe a huge thank you to Carl who was amazing and let me stay with him the whole week of the marathon. I have so many amazing friends in and out of this game that make me who I am.

Now getting into the actual article, I’m going to spend a good portion of it talking about the Chicago Marathon, what I played, what I learned, as well as some surprises that popped up over the course of the event. States is also right around the corner so I’ll also be giving some first impressions and lists heading in. The format is really starting to take shape and even with EXs, I expect a very open meta at States.

Each week I get really interested in what the other writers are thinking about the new set and what they’re testing, so hopefully my article fit right into this category as well.

Marathons

I always loved the idea of marathons; a week of hanging out with friends, playing cards, and the random shenanigans that accompany the first two. But I always hated the huge advantage it gave to a small handful of players.

Up until this year, the only major marathon has been in Georgia and the number of points a few players received coming out of that marathon was ridiculous. Last year there was a small group of players who nearly had Worlds invites coming out of Cities, in large part due to that marathon.

I think it’s crazy that a player can have an invite to Worlds by playing in nothing larger than a City Championship. I also felt it was simply unreasonable that a player had to make a very long and expensive car ride to Georgia if they want to stay in the running for an invite.

Marathons after all are very exclusive and realistically a good portion of people are unable to attend them. First, they occur during the normal workweek which makes it near impossible for anybody with a “real” job to get the time off. Even many college and high school students can struggle with getting that much time off from work as well.

Secondly, they can be very expensive even if you do it “cheaply,” and while doing things like carpooling, splitting hotel rooms, and heading to the grocery store instead of the drive-through can cut down on costs, the costs still add up.

This was the first year that we really saw an increase in the number of marathons: Chicago, New Jersey, Florida, and California all had marathons this year. More marathons means they are becoming far more widely accessible for people, but I still feel they offer too much of an advantage. While I love the Championship Point system (despite a few flaws), it actually gives a great deal more advantage to marathon players than the old Elo system did, since they never risk anything when they play.

With the old system, whenever you played you were risking points and one bad performance could throw away the hard work of quite a few previous tournaments. While I certainly didn’t like this system because of how much pressure it put on players, I also don’t like a system where a player who has the time/money to play in 20+ Cities can do so with no downside.

We really need to find a happy medium between the two systems. Don’t take my previous statement to mean that marathons are a cakewalk; the competition level in Chicago was really high, which often times made these tournaments feel more like States than Cities. A player could win one day and then pilot the same deck the next day to a 3-3 record.

Also please don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the idea of marathons, I just wish they would do a bit more to balance the system. I don’t think any system should ever reward somebody for dropping/sitting out, nor do I believe a player should ever be punished for playing.

I’m sure I’m going to get a lot of disagreement over this, but I would love to see a limit to how many tournaments a player can play in that will count towards their Championship Points. Perhaps still keep the same best finishes such as 5 for Cities, but have it where a player can only earn Championship Points at their first 8-10 Cities.

If they want to play in more than 10 Cities to try and earn prizes or block points then let them, but only the first 10 will go towards earning Championship Points. This would not take away the advantage of marathons (being able to play in a string of Cities over a short time period), but at the same it won’t put people out of the running who are unable to attend marathons.

My last suggestion would be to retool the point system a bit. I got most of these point values from Ryan A and then made a few more changes I would like, but I like his point system a lot more than the one we have now. I especially like the idea of adding kickers to all places based on the tournament size. Winning an 80 person Cities and winning an 8 person Cities should not be worth the same number of Championship Points.

This would also cut down on players traveling to smaller and easier events in an attempt to get a lot of cheap points or at the very least not reward them as heavily for doing so. This is what I would like to see for our point system. I’m sure a lot of you have opinions on this as well and I would love to hear them on the message board.

BRs:

1st: 2 CP
2nd: 1 CP

Cities:

1st: 4 CP
2nd: 2 CP
3/4th: 1 CP

States:

1st: 8 CP
2nd: 4 CP
3/4th: 2 CP
5-8th: 1 CP

Regionals:

1st: 12 CP
2nd: 6 CP
3/4th: 3 CP
5-8th: 1 CP

Nationals:

1st: 16 CP
2nd: 12 CP
3rd/4th: 8 CP
5-8th: 4 CP
9-16th: 2 CP

Kickers (per age group):

At 32: +1 to 1-8th
At 64: +1 to 1-16th
At 128: +1 to 1-32nd
At 256: +1 to 1-64th
At 512: +1 to 1-128th

The last thing I would like to see done is to not limit the size of the top cuts based on the level of tournament. Battle Roads were limited to a Top 4, Cities to a Top 8, and I believe States is a Top 16. Multiple days of the marathon we had enough player turn out for a Top 16, but were denied doing so by the Top Cut cap.

Having a larger top cut changes nothing else about the event (such as Championship Points). In fact it adds a great deal of legitimacy to the tournament, having an 80+ person tournament capped at a Top 8 makes absolutely no sense to me.

My Chicago Marathon Experience

Chandelure

In our testing I found spreading alone with Chandelures was simply not enough to win games. In most games I was already down 2 or more Prizes by the time I got rolling, and even if I was able to start “looping” Chandelures, spreading 60 a turn was not enough to come back in many games. It was simply too hard to match hand sizes under Trainer lock for both Yanmega and Vileplume to be in the same deck.

As much Zekrom and Magnezone/Eels as I was expecting, I felt the Vileplume version was the stronger choice for the event, so I wanted to keep to that version. Bouffalant solved a big issue I had with the deck, which was putting a lot of damage on the table when I needed it, and also with Chandelure it made it very easy to set up 1HKOs. Between Twins and Pokémon Collector it was very easy to find both Bouffalant and a DCE when I needed it.

3-1 Litwick: I played 3-1 for 2 of the tournaments and I played 4 Promos for the last one. I actually didn’t own any of the Promos, so Andrew from Wisconsin really helped me out and let me borrow them all week. The reason I ran 1 copy of the Teleportation Blast Litwick is because it was situationally useful if I needed to get 10 damage on the board to set up a later KO.

Between 4 Pokémon Collector, 3 Tropical Beach, and 3 Litwick Promos I never found myself in a situation where playing 1 copy of the other Litwick to get me in trouble. I felt like I was cutting a minuscule amount of consistency for another option over the course of the game.

But I switched to all 4 Promo Litwicks because of course I had one game where I started with that lone Litwick and a rare dead hand. Thankfully, I topped a Collector on my opening draw and went off perfectly, but it was enough to scare me into sticking with the 4 Promos.

...

Jay’s Gym: I did it! – A Detailed Perspective on Playing Marathons is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Preparation

In the week or so leading up to the January 7th Cities, I knew that I needed to take some sort of action. I hadn’t gained any Championship Points during Cities (although I did have a single point from Regionals), and I knew that if I didn’t start earning them I wouldn’t be able to qualify for Worlds, and my entire season would be a no-go. I knew that I needed to get focused, test more, and switch decks.

As I wrote about in my latest Underground article, I was pretty sure I was going to play Gothitelle. ZPST had been dominating my local metagame for the past few weeks and I was certain that half of the players would try to hate ZPST out of the meta, while the other half would stick to playing ZPST. This puts Gothitelle in a pretty good position, as it has fantastic match-ups across the board, particularly ZPST.

Unfortunately, I soon learned that players were switching primarily to CaKE and Chandelure, both match-ups that I could just never quite break with Gothitelle. I won’t repost my entire list here as it’s available in the Underground article from a few weeks ago, but I ran Dodrio UD and V-Create Victini, and other than that had a pretty standard list.

With Gothitelle off the table I decided it was time to try the one deck in the format that I hadn’t played…Durant. If you read my article from last week you’ll see that I thought Durant was less than tier one, but was still a threat to watch out for. After sleeving it up and testing it versus the decks that I predicted would be big for the weekend (Chandelure, ZPST, Cake) I saw that it was a very solid play, and made the decision to run it on Friday night.

Here’s the list I used for the tournament.

A few explanations…

- The Pokemon are pretty standard, with the exception of the Smoochum, which is an idea I stole from Tyler Ninomura. The basic idea is that it acts as a stall mechanic, as it can move energy around the board, preventing your opponent from attacking while at the same time protecting itself from being KO’d. Overall I love the card and wouldn’t take it out under any circumstances. One is definitely enough, though.

- I put in the Cobalion just to have an out in case I couldn’t mill my opponent fast enough. I found it to be absolutely useless and wouldn’t play it again. Because your deck is so bad it just wastes a slot and if you open with it you want to kill yourself. I’ve seen Durant lists in my area run 3 copies and become semi-successful, but I couldn’t imagine what kind of sick person wants to do that.

- I considered a Weavile UD tech for a while and it’s perfectly fine, but ultimately takes up a lot of room, and I just found myself wanting so many Trainers over it. It’s still something I’d like to test given more time (I did build the deck the night before after all), but something I probably wouldn’t include overall.

- The Supporter suite is okay, but I think there’s definitely room for improvement. N pretty much never helped me at all, for one. I understand why it’s played, and I’ll still probably keep a few copies in, but the number of times that N hurt me greatly outnumbered the times that it was effective.

- 4 copies of Juniper is undoubtedly where it’s at, and along with 4 Revive and 4 Durant is something that I would never change in the list. You need to hit all your ridiculous trainers at the right times, and nothing helps you do that more efficiently than my favorite Professor.

- Twins was very nice, but I’m not sure if I want all 3 copies next time. You have so much draw power with all of your other Supporters that I’m just not sure you need more than 2. It is a pretty clutch play though, and definitely won me some games. It’s something that you certainly couldn’t omit, but I would personally never play more than 3.

- 2 Oak isn’t the best thing ever, but it’s all I could fit at the time. If I were to play it in the future I might switch things up to 4 Oak and 1 N or something along those lines. I might even try to fit Cheren in its place, especially if I decide to keep the Ns, as straight draw is so much better than shuffle draw in this deck.

- The single copy of Black Belt is a pretty fantastic play, and something that I wish I had more of. I used it several times in combination with Rotom to KO Zekroms, which ultimately won me several games. Even though I want more of them, I’m not certain where I would find the room. Oh, Black Belt also helps with Cobalion, but I literally never used that card once, soooooo.

- I always wanted more Lost Remover, and it’s one of the first trainers I would add more of given the chance. An automatic Crushing Hammer for DCES, Rainbows, Special Metals, and Rescues? Yes please.

- The Super Rod was amazing for the times when I couldn’t get a Revive for my Durants/Rotoms, and is also pretty clutch in mirror.

- From what I’ve seen my energy count is lower than most, but it worked out fine for me. Obviously you need the 4 Special Metals and the Rainbow, but I’ve seen other lists that run 5-7 basic Metals. If your meta is entirely dominated by Durant than I would try to cut all the fluff and go to 8 basic metal, but if not I think 4 is pretty fine. If you’re a worry wort go to 6, I suppose.

Other than that I think the list is pretty standard. As always, if you have any additional questions please feel free to ask in the comments.

With that out of the way, let’s get to the actual report…

Day One: Uncle’s Games in Redmond, WA

Not much to report as far as pre-tournament shenanigans. Tyler Ninomura reveals that he was my Secret Santa and gives me my belated X-Mas gift (this incredible 3D Shinx, which you can see here). We get our decklists turned in, and it’s announced that we’ll have six rounds and a top 8.

Unfortunately we also learn that the top 8 matches will be 45 minutes long, meaning that Durant is at an immediate disadvantage. Still, at this point in the season I’d be happy with just making the top 8, so I try not to worry about it too much.

Round 1: MegaZorD (Yanmega/Zoroark/Donphan)

I don’t recognize my opponent, which I typically find to be a good sign. When he flips over a Yanma as his starter, I am taken back a bit as I haven’t seen any Stage Ones anywhere since Worlds. I consider my options a bit and realize that there’s actually very few ways he beats me. Donphan can’t OHKO a Durant, and can’t even 2HKO one that’s equipped with Eviolite and a Special Metal. Additionally, Yanmega can only one-shot Durants that are void of Special Metals/Eviolites as well. And obviously Zoroark just does nothing.

With this in mind, I realize my game plan is to never play Cobalion or Smoochum, as he could drag up the Cobalion and snipe the Smoochum with Yanmega. I also know that I need to find Eviolites and Special Metals early. If I stick to both of these gameplans, I don’t think I can lose the game.

I manage to go first and the aforementioned happens. No Durants are prized, I hit a Special Metal on turn one, etc., etc. The game is pretty uneventful, and I end up taking the win.

1-0

Round 2: Andrew Chard w/ EelZone

Andrew Chard is my roommate, and only came to this event to see a few friends and give someone their Christmas present. He has no plans to play Pokemon heavily during this season, much less qualify for Worlds. With all this in mind and it being lunch time, he concedes the game to me.

2-0

Round 3: Grant McClellan w/ ZPST

Not much to report on here, the match-up goes as it usually does and he beats me very easily.

2-1

Round 4: Tyler Ninomura w/ Chandelure

Even though the match-up is in my favor, I’m still nervous having to play Tyler. He’s an incredibly good player and I know that if there’s a way he can win this match, he will.

Luckily, I get pretty lucky, manage to go first and get everything I need. Once again, no Durants are prized, and my mills are particularly great, as I believe I milled 3 of his Chandelure and 4 of his Lampent very early. He manages to get a Cobalion out and start taking prizes, but by that point it’s too late in the game, and I manage to mill his list card while he has a few prizes left.

3-1

Round 5: EelZone

This match went pretty much exactly like it should’ve. I got all 4 of my Durants up on turn one, and was able to cut off his set-up pretty well. I think my first Devour was something like Eelektrik, Magnezone, Sage, Sage, which is pretty great. I also ran really hot with Crushing Hammers and was able to keep him off of energy almost the entire game.

4-1

Round 6: Jeff Anderson w/ Durant

Jeff has been playing Durant exclusively for the entire Cities season, so I know that he has more experience than me in all things Durant related. However, his list is also quite a bit different than mine, playing a heavy Cobalion line, no Smoochum, a Drifblim UD line, so I think that I can beat him on milling, since there are so many more cards in his deck that don’t help him with the mill.

He also realizes this, and almost immediately begins attacking with Cobalion. I’ve seen a lot of players talk about how the attack strategy is the best one to use in the mirror, but I’m not quite sure if I agree with that. In all the times I’ve seen it play out, it ends up that the attacking player can’t get enough energy on Cobalion consistently because of milling and Energy removal effects, and therefore can’t take all of their prizes before they’re milled out.

Also, Cobalion completely cuts you off of any other options, at least when you start out using Durant it’s possible to switch to a Cobalion or slowly build one-up on the bench and try to go aggro attacking, whereas if you start attacking with Cobalion you’ll be infinitely behind in the mill race and will never be able to switch it up.

Anyway, things play out as I expect and I’m able to mill after he takes 3-4 prizes.

5-1

Feels pretty good to make my first cut of the season, but soon after I learn that I’m getting paired against Kyle Nelsen, a teammate who’s running Lake, one of the worst match-ups for Durant. Combine that with the fact that I’ve never played the match-up out, and I’m pretty nervous.

Top 8: Kyle Nelsen w/ Lake

Game 1: There’s not a lot to talk about in this game. We both get extremely good starts as I mill almost nothing of importance from him. The turning point in the game comes when he miscalculates damage and attempts to KO me, but because of Eviolite leaves me with 10 left. After that I get several free turns of mill that he wasn’t anticipating, and he concedes the game.

1-0

Game 2: From what I can remember, he rolls me very easily.

1-1

Game 3:  I don’t quite remember all of the details of games 2 and 3, so forgive me. They’ll be video up soon, and I’ll be sure to link to that either in a future article or in the comments section of this post. Anyway, I do what I’m supposed to do and win, can’t remember much outside of that.

2-1

Now that I got past my first awful match-up, it’s time to play Durant mirror. Yeahhhhhh.

Top 4: Charlie Nguyen w/ Durant

Game 1: Again, by this time it was pretty late and I’m not certain that I remember all of the details. I believe that he went first and things were pretty even until he started hitting Crushing Hammers and Lost Removers more consistently than I did. At that point the game was pretty much over.

0-1

Game 2: I went first and had no Durants prized and things went as they were supposed to. I believe this is the game where he got all of his Durants set-up on turn one but had an unfortunate energy drought. Anyway, things go as they’re supposed to and I milled him out. Sorry, Durant matches in general, and especially Durant mirrors aren’t the most exciting things to talk about.

1-1

Game 3: He takes the initiative to start attacking with Cobalion, a strategy that we’ve outlined a few rounds down in this article. Unfortunately for him, I run insanely hot on Crushing Hammers, and eventually get a Devour for 4 that’s literally all Metal Energy. He manages to make it a pretty close game from what I can remember, but I get my mill off pretty quickly.

2-1

Again, there will be videos for all of these matches in the next few weeks, and I’ll be sure to share all of them with you guys then.

Finals: Albert Du w/ ZPST

Bad match-up? Obviously not a problem! QQ

Game 1: He goes first in this game and over-extends for the donk. I think he plays something like 2 Dual Ball and gets four tails, and then plays a Junk Arm for a Dual Ball again, and maybe a draw Supporter as well? Anyway, he doesn’t get the donk but it is a pretty decent game wherein I get lucky with my Crush Hammers and he can never really seem to get anything up.

1-0

Game 2: This game is pretty much exactly the opposite of Game 1, where he gets stuff up just like he would in a normal ZPST match, but a few turns slower. Luckily those few turns are exactly what I need to buy me the game, but it was extremely close and Albert played extremely well. I’m still not sure how I can 2-0 ZPST with such a do-nothng deck.

2-0

So I win my first Cities of the season and it feels pretty good. I honestly didn’t know what I was going to do if I didn’t start acquiring points. Obviously I’m still at a very low total, but I at least feel like I can start earning more now and at least have a shot at Worlds. I also want to talk about Championship Point totals and how I think that people are way overestimating the amount it’ll take to qualify for Worlds, but that’s another topic for another article.

Day Two: Blue Highway Games in Seattle, WA

So this day starts out pretty awful. We have to leave the house by 8:30 to make it comfortably for the 10:00 AM registration. Unfortunately my alarm decides not to go off and Chad Bosquez’s — who was sleeping over, pkmnmasterchad on SixPrizes — phone decides to die. We all wake up around 9:15, and around 9:30 are out the door, stressing the entire time about making it. Luckily the staff of Blue Highway along with judges Trevor Whiton and Mary Holocher stall a bit for us and we’re able to get registered no problem. Good thing I took those lessons in light speed driving from Tyler Ninomura!

I play the same exact list from the day before, and it’s announced we’ll have five rounds and a top 4.

Round 1: Chris Ball w/ ReshiPhlosion

I’ve never played the ReshiPhlosion match before, but I can imagine it’s pretty horrible. Durant isn’t big on fire types, even if they’re not as bad as Heatmor.

Luckily, he fails to set-up as he should and my mills are extremely strong. I mill several Typhlosions and Reshirams in the opening turns, and by the time he mounts a comeback it’s too late.

1-0

Round 2: David Cohen w/ ZPST

David scoops to me because he is a good person.

We play it out, as he’s never played the match-up before and he absolutely destroys me, as usual.

2-0

Round 3: Paul Ninomura w/ ZPST

Another ZPST, I run so welllllllllll.

Anyway, this game goes as it usually does when I play against this deck, and he fails to get anything set-up. Whenever he does get somewhat of an advantage I have Lost Removers and Crushing Hammers at the ready to cut him off. Paul’s a great player and I wish it would’ve been a better game.

3-0

Round 4: Isaiah Middleton w/ ZPST

As a boy they told me it was impossible to hit four bad match-ups in a row. Now I know that was a lie.

This game is not fun. He has the donk but I go first, and am unfortunately stuck on 2 Durant! I’m pretty tilted at this point thinking that there’s no way I can beat this bad of a match-up on 2 Durants, but obviously it’s way too early to scoop or anything of that sort. He goes and is unable to KO my Durant due to Eviolite, and then it gets fun…

I N us both down to 6, and in my six are Crushing Hammer, Crushing Hammer, Crushing Hammer, and Lost Remover. I play all of the Crushing Hammer and get three heads in a row, blowing up all of his Energy on board. From then on I’m able to run extremely well with Crushing Hammer flips, even without having more than two Durants for 80% of the game.

Eventually I get my third and fourth Durant and it’s over.

4-0

Round 5: Tyler Ninomura w/ Chandelure

I realize that, as the only 4-0, if I scoop to Tyler, we’ll both be in. So I do so, and we play Pack Wars (the best Pokemon format, in case you didn’t know).

4-1

The top 4 is announced and unfortunately I’m playing Isaiah. I’m pretty sure that if I hadn’t scooped to Tyler I would be playing either Chandelure or Six Corners, both of which would’ve been better match-ups for me, but I would much rather my friends succeed with me when at all possible.

Top 4: Isaiah Middleton w/ ZPST

Not even going to really both writing reports for this. He absolutely destroys me both games. The only interesting play comes in Game 2 where I’m one turn away from milling and he has to Catcher to take his last prize. He looks at his discard pile and then Oak’s for all six of the cards left in his deck, hitting the Junk Arm for the game.

Not the games I would’ve liked, but my luck had to run out somewhere.

Tyler ends up beating Chad’s Six Corners in the top 4 and Isaiah’s ZPST in the finals for yet another Cities win.

Conclusion

I still have another weekend of Cities on the horizon, so I’m hoping to earn more points there. I’d really like to get 8 more to crack the 20 point threshold, but I’m not sure how likely that is.

Thanks for reading!

xo
kw

Kenny’s Wisdom: “They Said You Were Washed Up!” is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

My deck list for the tournament was as follows:

Who couldn't love these cute guys?

The main premise of this deck is of course to deck out the opponent. The Rainbow Energy mainly are for Rotom’s Plasma Arrow to take out things like a Double Bolt Strike’d Zekrom. Cobalion is in for crushing things like Victini NVI 15 who pose a threat to Durant and to get quick prizes if I ever need them.

I also have an Energy Switch in there which helps on the mirror match to keep the energy on Active Durants if/when Catchers are used and I get bad Energy draws. It can also be used to help get a Cobalion set up a turn quicker and for a final reason (that was unknown to me at the time of putting it in the deck) will be listed near the end of this article.

In the days before the tournament I stayed up in Brisbane, about 45 minutes from my home on the Gold Coast just to hang out and get some practice games in. I’ve found it’s hard to play with a Durant deck as people don’t really wanna get milled for more than a few games at a time before you get bored with it.

I had varying luck on the day before the tournament. Going from milling out the whole engine of the Mag/Eel deck to effectively win in two turns to proceeding to prize all 4 Durants a few games later. One thing stayed constant though; I couldn’t roll heads on a Crushing Hammer to save my life.

Going into the tournament I didn’t have any real expectations as to how I was going to go, I though going 50% throughout the day would be a good result for someone who has only been playing for about a week. I was going at about that during practice games at Vyse’s place so it was a reasonable target to aim for.

Arriving at the tournament, I was glad to find how nice the shop was. Usually when you think a card shop, you think of some dank, gloomy, dark place, but this place was bright and clean, an obviously well looked after shop and a great place to hold events. I can’t wait to go again.

Anyway we register, I hand in my deck list I prepared the night before, hoping I have done every correctly and I get my POP ID (1088488 for any that are interested) and I had to buy some dice. The plan was to take some from Anthony’s place before coming here but I forgot so now he has some extra dice to use.

After 45 minutes of chit-chat with other players (everyone are super friendly) the judges came out introduced themselves, explained the rules (45 minutes per round best of 3) announced the first match-ups and we were underway.

No threat to the swarm.

Match 1 against Kyurem/Feraligatr Prime

Nothing like getting a favourable matchup for your first tournament match. This is a matchup I have had some good practice and there is nothing really to fear; as long as you get Eviolites and Special Metals out early, by the time you start losing prizes their deck has been severely milled out.

Both games go well in my favour with me getting 3 Durants up first turn and getting the final one out of prizes quickly in game one, and getting all 4 out turn 1 in game two, leaving just too large a mountain to climb for Kyurem and it’s a fairly easy two straight win confidence builder for me.

1-0

Match 2 against Terrakion/Vileplume

(There’s probably a name for this deck… those were the two Pokemon that I remember.)

Trainer lock. This was first time experiencing it, and must say I don’t care for it too much. Being able to only get Durants back once in a game through the use of Flower Shop Lady and Collector makes this matchup very hard, and also having never played against it before, I had no strategies for facing this type of opponent.

Game One

I, for one, am not keen on this.

I pick the coin flip correctly and get to go first. I set up turn one and begin the mill. I manage to mill his needed cards long enough that by the time he sets up, I am able to hold out until he decks out to go up 1-0.

Game Two

Much better start for him this time around and although I get set up quickly as well, there’s not a lot one can do if you can’t use Revive or disrupt his Pokemon. I lose this game in less than 10 turns. 1-1.

Game Three

Similar starts from both of us. Again he just sets up too quickly for me to be able to disrupt again. I make a big mistake of waiting an extra turn to use Flower Shop Lady to get three Durants back instead of two, and end up getting myself benched. Sad way to end a set that started well.

At this point now I am 1-1.

Match 3 against Kyurem/Feraligatr (but this time with a Victini NVI 15 twist)

This match was again Natalie, Anthony’s girlfriend who I have had all my practice with this deck against. My record is quite good against this deck although I had never played it with Victini included. I feel I had very good decision-making and made some very good plays in this match.

This version of Victini is very strong against Durant; for 1 Fire and another Energy it KO’s Durants. The only downside is that must have a full bench or the attack fails. This can be countered by the Durant player having a Ditto TM and reducing the opponents bench to 4, rendering Victini useless, but I wasn’t using one.

Fire is hot.

Game 1

Good start for myself and I get to milling four cards straight away. Everything is going according to plan until Victini comes to play and starts blowing up all my ants and while I get them back, I have terrible luck with Crushing Hammers and couldn’t manage to keep that Victini out of play long enough and lose the first game. 0-1.

Game 2 - The start of the Cobalion wrecking machine.

I realise I’ve used about half of the 45 minutes for the set so I need to win this game quick or I’ll lose the match. This time I get to go first and manage two draw Durants, a Collector, Eviolite, and Special Metal to start the match. On my frist turn I use the Collector to get out the other Durants and Cobalion. I figure she will try to set up the Victinis again, so I want to be ready to squash the threat.

Both Victinis come into play at the same time and by the time she has a Victini ready to go, I have Cobalion waiting on the bench to kill it. My next turn I Catcher up the other, kill it, and then proceed to destroying Kyurems. A scoop happens soon after that and we are off to game three with about 10 minutes left in the round.

Game 3

Wrecking your sh..stuff.

I’m pretty sure this one will be going to time so I spend the game thinking about how to make sure I don’t have a prize deficit when time is called. I fall two prizes behind two Victinis again, but manage to pull it back to 5-4 by killing a Victinis and being very very lucky. She stalled with Cleffa went through 20 cards in a turn looking for a Fire Energy for the other Victini which would have won the game for her.

Luckily for me, it was card number 21 and I managed to kill the second Victini to even the game at 4-4. There was a possible misplay on her behalf by filling her bench completely before using Super Rod + Collector to get the two Victini’s back to her hand. I retreat back to Durant as there’s no real threat to them dying and she concedes when it reaches extra time as I could have just retreated back to Cobalion and took a prize for the win.

Now I’m 2-1 and feeling good.

4th and Final Match against Thundurus/Zekrom/Eel

We were put at the 2nd table for this match right next to the undefeated pair. This in my opinion was the best match of the whole tournament; the back and forth battle and funny moments made this day really really fun. It was also a learning experience, that slow playing Durant for a time out win doesn’t always work (explanation later) and that I love Cobalion.

Game 1

I lose the coin flip and have to go second, bad for Durant. I start with a Durant and he has a Zekrom BLW and a Thundurus EPO. Everything goes bad in this game; he sets up quick and starts killing everything. I go 1/6 on Crushing Hammers and it’s over in about 15 minutes.

Game 2

This was a fun game. I get to go first and I set up turn 1. The luck from the first match has flipped and I mill everything important for him, the problem is I need to win this game or at least take 4 prizes to push it further with time approaching and we both know it. He takes maximum time for all of his actions.

I commented I’d love what you are doing if it was someone else, but right now I hate it. I mill away and he can’t take prizes. Before being milled on his second last turn, he ends up shuffling his 0 card deck which I proceed to cut and forget to put back into one pile.

He doesn’t do anything until I realise and we have a laugh, I put it back in one pile, he passes, I mill then win the game.

Game 3

He chooses to go first for game three, and by his words gets a terrible start even after I mulligan twice. He does what he can for starters and I Dual Ball + Collector to get all Durants and Cobalion out. I know this one is going to time like my 3rd match and I’m going to have to take prizes to stand a chance. So while milling I’m setting up Cobalion as best I can. This would turn out to be really good for me.

When time is called his bench looks like this: Active is Zekrom which has Bolt Striked once to kill one Durant and on the bench he has a Tynamo which he never managed to evolve, a Thundurus with no Energy, and another Zekrom with 1 Lightning attached. I had a Durant active, a Cobalion set up on the bench, and two more Durants. We didn’t have much time left and I manage to disrupt enough to leave myself only 1 prize behind. I had pulled it back with Cobalion in extra time before so I had confidence I could do it again.

On turn zero of extra time he kills the Durant which made it 6-4 prizes. I promote Cobalion, draw, attach Eviolite,  and proceed to kill his Zekrom, 5-4. On his turn he attached and passes. My turn again and I have a Catcher to bring up his Tynamo and get the kill to even it out at 4-4 at the end of regulation.

Ants are not fazed by silly looking helmets.

A judge is called by myself as I’m not to aware of the rules at this point and it’s decided that we play until someone has prize a lead. His turn again, attaches, and Bolt Strikes my Cobalion leaving it at 20 HP remaining. My turn again and I use Iron Breaker leaving him at 10 HP and unable to attack. His turn and all he can do is attach a Rocky Helmet to Zekrom as if I attacked we would both get KO’d and play would continue and he would still have a Thundurus to kill a Durant.

What he didn’t count on was my next turn. I draw, don’t get anything, so I use Juniper and get what I need; Energy Switch and an Energy. I retreat my Cobalion, attach to Durant, Energy Switch the final Energy attached to Cobalion to Durant, and score the first possible game 3 Vice Grip kill with a Durant in extra time ever.

We shook hands and he sat there stunned. Anthony chose not to record the match, saving the camera for a top cut which didn’t eventuate, which is a shame. We had a good crowd at the end too as we were the last match to finish in the whole tournament.

To the awards ceremony… There was only one Junior at the event so he got 20 boosters for showing up, a good effort. Seniors was dominated by I think a brother/sister pair from out-of-state. Masters was won by Arrow who I had been practicing with in the days prior. I got 5th with a record of 3-1 which is a good effort and above my expectations. I missed out on extra boosters and Championship Points (I think that’s what they are called) by like 1% on Opp Opp Win rate.

Later on, we got to talking and he said it was a good play, but jokingly questioned who runs Energy Switch in  Durant, and we had another good laugh. I also alluded to the fact that if he hadn’t played as slow in game two he would have had more turns before extra time and would have won game 3.

All in all I really enjoyed my first Pokemon tournament and would recommend anyone who is thinking about going to one to do so. Everyone was nice and I can’t wait to go to another one. I will probably run some Cobalion fun next time after he did so much work for me in this tournament, probably more than Durant did.

My First Pokemon Tournament – Brisbane Cities, Australia is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Going into this tournament I was confident in my deck’s locking ability, but not sure if the matches would take too long and I would lose on time. Turns out I was scared of the clock for no reason. Time was amazingly not called in any of my matches! Alright, brace yourselves for this extremely crazy deck…

Now, before you exit this page thinking that this deck is garbage, I want to let you know that everyone who saw it also didn’t think it would work and were proven wrong.

The strategy with this is to get the Slowking and Mime Jr. combo out and lock your opponent to either deck them out or place six Pokémon in the Lost Zone. Weavile, Spiritomb, and the various disruptive T/S/S are great for helping control your opponent’s field.

The Pokémon

Mime Jr. is your main (and hopefully only) attacker. It is a baby and therefore has the same stats as one. Of course, it also has the amazing Sweet Sleeping Face Poke-Body which makes it that much more awesome. Its attack, Sleepy Lost, requires no Energy (Yay for no energy decks!) and it sends the top card of your opponent’s deck to the Lost Zone.

Mr. Mime has a boss Poke-Power, Trick Reveal, which makes each player show each other their hand. The downside of your opponent seeing your hand isn’t really a downside because they shouldn’t be able to do anything about it. This Poke-Power is great for letting me know if I should Claw Snag (Weavile’s Poke-Power, more on that later.), or use something like Judge or N to change their hand.

It’s just useful in general for letting me know what they have which greatly affects how I play that game. Its attack, Juggling, doesn’t matter because the deck doesn’t run any Energy, but I’ll say what it does anyway. For PC it lets you flip four coins and for each heads you do 10 damage.

It’s very bad, but one time I used it with my Lostgar deck and got four heads! I had already basically lost, but I attacked with Mr. Mime anyway for fun. It has a retreat (cost) of one Energy. The good thing about that is that it doesn’t matter in this deck if a Pokémon has one retreat or ten because it has no Energy.

The downside is that the deck has no Energy so you have to rely on Switch to get it out of the active spot. Its weakness to Psychic and absent resistance don’t really matter. Its 70 HP isn’t great nowadays for a Basic, but it’s better than Mime Jr.

Slowking is the key tech to this game. Without Slowking, you lose, period. It has a Poke-Power called Second Sight. It lets you look at the top three cards of either player’s deck and rearrange them as you like. This is obviously the key to locking because you partially control your opponent’s top decks and partially control what you lost zone with Mime Jr. which is extremely helpful.

I will go over the attacks of most of the Pokémon in this deck even though it runs no Energy. Slowking’s attack, Psyshock, does 30 damage for PC and has a 50% chance of Paralyzing the Defending Pokémon.

The attack can be decent for stalling but again, it doesn’t matter because this deck runs no Energy. It has basically the same Weakness, lack of Resistance, and Retreat as Mr. Mime except for having two retreat which doesn’t make a difference. So, you have to rely on Switch if you start with Slowpoke or if a poke/king gets Catchered up. Also, it has 10 more HP than Mr. Mime.

Slowpoke evolves into Slowking and makes a horrible starter; nothing more.

Weavile is another very neat tech that has 80 HP, FREE retreat (which is so sweet), Psychic Resistance (also sweet), and a Weakness to the more rare than ever Donphan Prime. Its attack called Feint Attack snipes anything for 30 for DC. Rather weak, but could be useful in decks that also happen to have Energy. (I know decks with energy are so hard to find!)

Its Poke-Power, Claw Snag, is a really good and disruptive Drop-Power. When you play Weavile from your hand to evolve Sneasel, you can look at your opponent’s hand and discard a card there. As mentioned before, it is good with Mr. Mime because with Trick Reveal you can see if there is anything worth Claw Snagging.

Sneasel evolves into Weavile (as if you don’t already know that) and makes a great starter other than the babies because of its free retreat. I’m surprised that Pokémon made this card an exact reprint of the Sneasel from Neo Genesis that got banned due to being broken. (Like Sabldonk!) The only difference between the one from Undaunted and the one from Neo Genesis is that the Sneasel from Undaunted has a Fighting weakness.

Spiritomb makes a nice tech and a horrible starter. It’s a 60 HP basic with a nice absent Weakness, Resistance to Colorless, and one Retreat. It has a Drop-Power called Spooky Whirlpool which makes your opponent shuffle their hand into their deck and draw six cards; no more, no less. This is only good extremely early game or extremely late game.

It can be used on T1 (turn 1) when your opponent has a good hand or late game when your opponent has 7 cards in his/her hand and deck combined. Your opponent has to draw six and you can get rid of the last with Mime Jr. It just helps with disruption. Its attack called Color Tag lets you put one damage counter on each of your opponent’s Pokémon of the type of your choice.

Now for another Lostgar (Mewgar) story; I was battling a Durant deck and I used Spiritomb’s Color Tag seven times to knock out all four Durant! My opponent recovered all four anyway and I lost that game only because my sole Gastly was prized. When I got the prized Gastly with Spiritomb it was already too late. Back to the analysis!

Cleffa, the most commonly used baby. In this deck it is solely to be used to get you out of an absolute garbage hand. It can also be used as a sacrifice to activate Twins.

Tyrogue is only to be used to get donks on lone babies. Otherwise it can be used as Junk Arm fodder.

The Trainers, Supporters and Stadium

Lost World is the only stadium in this deck. It is not your primary way of winning but can be used to win against heavy Pokémon decks and things like Mewbox. It is nice for giving your opponent the illusion that you’re only way to win is through this card.

Lost Remover and Crushing Hammer are great and extremely useful tools (Not really, they’re items. Whatever, you get my point.) for not letting your opponent benefit from the few energy they get to attach. Lost Remover automatically sends one of your opponents Special Energy to the Lost Zone, and Crushing Hammer lets you flip a coin and if it’s heads, then you can discard one of your opponent’s Energy cards.

Revive is for keeping up the Mime Jr. Hopefully and logically you should not have to resort to this, but it is also nice for Catchered and killed Slowpokes.

Professor Elm’s Training Method may seem weird in a deck like this, but it is useful for getting Slowkings and Weaviles.

Switch is an extremely (I cannot stress that enough) good card in this deck. It can be used if you start with a Pokémon with a retreat cost or if a Pokémon with a retreat cost is Catchered up because you have no other way to get those Pokémon back to the bench. It can also be used to wake up a Mime Jr.

Pokémon Catcher is the most expensive staple that is also the most expensive card in this deck! Most decks don’t rely on this card for the decks strategy, but just use it to stall or claim easy prizes. This deck, however, sort of revolves around Catcher. This is another key card to keep up the lock.

It’s great for this deck that Eelektrik NVI is in the BDIF now as well as many other rogue-ish decks because of that glaring two retreat. Typhlosion Prime is another great target for this because it also has two retreat and the Reshiphlosion player should not be able to get any Fire Energy in the discard for them to Afterburner.

Pokémon Communication is another way to get Slowking, Weavile, and even Mime Jr. if you have to! As mentioned before, Slowking is crucial so you need to get it out fast. Communication helps to just that. Not to mention, It can also give you an extra turn against Durant decks by failing it and giving you more time to play.

Judge is yet another very key card in this deck. It provides early disruption and can really screw people up, unfortunately, that also means it can screw you up. I don’t care though, otherwise I wouldn’t run three! (And you can usually work with any four given cards)

Junk Arm is a very situational card. Ah, what am I saying, this card is EXCEPTIONAL! To be able to re-use any of your Item cards four times is amazing! I usually find myself re-using the energy removers or Switch, but also commonly re-using Catcher. Rarely will you have to re-use Communication or Revive.

N is in the same boat as Judge except to more extremes and is usually better. Judge is for early-game and N is for late-game. It always acts as a PONT for you (Unless you’re battling an Electrode Prime deck) and can really screw your opponent up if they have taken a few prizes. Unfortunately, it can sometimes slow down your decking-out process if your opponent had more cards in hand than prizes so you have to use it carefully.

Seeker is nice for re-using Drop-Powers and for making your opponent picking up a Pokémon that you possibly would want to Claw Snag. Especially if you go first and your opponent can only get out two Pokémon; let’s just say a Litwik and an Oddish. Then, you would definitely want to use the Seeker + Claw Snag combo to get rid of that Oddish.

Seeker is also great against decks that run Kingdra Prime which try to kill your Mime Jr. with Spray Splash. Once they get two damage counters on a Mime Jr., just retreat for another one and use Seeker to heal. Rinse and repeat. This is why the seemingly dangerous Kingdra Prime is not much of a threat. Once you run out of Seekers, so what, they still have six prizes to take!

Pokémon Collector is probably the most common staple. Get three basics. Typically, depending on what you start with in your starting seven, you would want to get a Sneasel/Mime Jr., a Mr. Mime, and a Slowpoke.

Twins is last, but certainly not least! This card is usually what gives you game changing cards when your opponent takes a prize card. The best part is, you want your opponent to take a prize, and they don’t have a choice if they want to win!

This come-from-behind Supporter really puts a spark in your step and can really turn a game around. In fact, when I only need one card at any given time; I usually get the card I need with Twins, and get another Twins!

Major Pros

~ Rarely has to rely on Sleep flips. If Mime Jr. stays asleep too long then you can use Switch which can easily be fished out with Twins or Junk Arm. You usually want to wake up immediately because your opponent should never be in a position where they can attack.

~ Can usually always get a complete lock by T2 or T3. The only reason you wouldn’t be able to do this is if you get ridiculously unlucky and draw absolute garbage.

~ Annoys opponent.

Major Cons

~Annoys opponent.

~ Whatever is prized, stays prized.

Testing Results

I brought this deck to league the week before the tournament. Here is how it did:

• 2 losses to VVV (Vanilluxe/Vileplume/Victini) because I got nothing and he got Vileplume UD out which screws this deck over 354 times.
• 2 losses to Durant NVI which is (should be) an auto-win. The Durant deck that I battled ran an unusually high energy count and ran Switch and Cheerleader’s Cheer which surprised me and more than once I was forced to give him what he wanted.
• 1 win against Jumpluff HS; successful lock.
• 1 win against CoKE; successful lock.
• 1 win against EelZone; successful lock.

Uh-Oh, 3-4, that’s no good.

I brought it to the tournament anyway.

The really good players in Seniors in my area who make top 4 frequently are: Tad Miller, Ben Alexander, Tristan Lackey, and myself. The other good Seniors in my area who don’t top cut as frequently, but are still a challenge are: Wesley Collier, Brandon Stewart, Allison Hamilton, Samantha Shaw, David Shaw, and Ethan Wilson, so you know when I reference them when I battle them.

And now, without further delay, I present to you my City Championship report!

Seniors had 15 players so we had four rounds and were one person shy of a top 4 cut… sigh.

Round 1 vs. Krookodile Emerging Powers Theme Deck

When I realized what he was playing, I just envisioned my plummeting resistance in my head. He started with no Energy which is a huge shock for a theme deck even though I shuffled it well. I got a turn two lock and maintained it. He complained a little how he couldn’t get any Energy and I’m like; notice how I’m controlling what you draw and there are like 15 Energy in your Lost Zone!

I won off the Lost World when he had three cards left in his deck. A nice way of saying how bad I beat him is to say that I wasn’t able to utilize my Twins that game.

To my opponent of that round: I don’t remember your name, but if you’re reading this, please don’t take that the wrong way.

Record: 1-0

Round 2 vs. Brandon Stewart w/ Jumpluff

This was the same deck that I battled at league. His deck ran a couple Pichu HS, Virizion NVI, and 2-2 Sunflora HS. It was kind of annoying that he had no Pokémon with 2 retreat or higher. I got the lock out, but I don’t remember what turn. Probably T2. He played N one turn and later that turn he played Professor Juniper and attacked with Virizion to claim a prize.

I realized a split-second after he took his prize that he played 2 Supporters. I called the judge over and he tried his best to undo everything involving Professor Juniper. I am pretty sure that everything was done correctly as I trusted in Brandon’s honesty as to what was his prize card and what he drew with Juniper.

The judge was going to give him a prize loss penalty but I asked the judge to only give him a warning because if he gave a prize loss then I wouldn’t be able to use my Twins. I believe I used Twins to get Catcher and Weavile, but I’m not sure. I claw Snagged his Juniper and Catchered up his Sunkern. (Or was it Sunflora?) I then locked him for the rest of the game.

Record: 2-0

Round 3 vs. Tad Miller w/ Raichu Prime/Eelektrik

I’m like; great!, auto-win! Hold up, before I go any further, I would like to say that nothing is auto-win if you draw absolute crap (sorry for using Durant’s name in vain) the entire game. Alright, I will resume. He got a decent start and I didn’t get anything besides a Weavile and a Mime Jr. I got garbage with the two Judges I got, but got no form of draw-power the whole game other than the Judges. Even a Collector for a Cleffa would’ve been nice!

He got down to six cards in his deck though! At about mid-game he started attacking with Eelektrik! He is a smart player and always adapts to my rogue decks despite not having seen them before. He covered his benched Tynamo and Raichu so nothing would be Catcher-bait.

Record: 2-1 (sadness)

Round 4 vs. Allison Hamilton w/ EelZone

This is the same deck I versed at league. (Glad I got my practice in!) I got out the lock relatively late and she Catchered up my first Slowpoke and KO’ed it by flipping three heads with Magneton’s Tri Attack! I revived Slowpoke and she Catchered it and killed it with Tri Attack again!

I finally got my other Slowpoke out and proceeded to lock. I believe that she got 3 prizes, but I’m not sure. When I got the lock out it was over.

Record: 3-1

I was pretty bummed about that loss against Raichu, but things happen… sigh.

Recap

• Ben played ZPST and got second.
• Tad won with his Raichu deck (How it beat ZPST, I do not know).
• I think Tristan placed fifth or sixth with his Chandelure deck; which is funny because I just said in my last article that no plays Chandelure in Seniors!
• David went 2-2 with a Hydreigon/Dragons build. Don’t ask me how it works because I have no idea.
• Samantha placed 3rd with ZPST.
• Ethan went 1-3 with his neat Donphan/Terrakion/Dragons build.
• I think Wesley placed 5th with Kyugatr.
• Brandon and Allison went 2-2.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this article enough to try out the deck yourself and all comments, questions and constructive criticism will be appreciated.

Three cheers for rogue!

My City Championship Report + Deck Analysis: Mime Jr. Lock is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Pizza pie.

Normally when I hear the word “marathon,” I think of a long-distance foot race, and normally when I hear the word “pie,” I think of dessert. Well, in New Jersey there were five City Championships in a row; this was called a marathon. Over the course of the week, I found myself having pizza for lunch on more than one occasion. In New Jersey, multiple “pizzas” are referred to as “pies.”

The New Jersey Marathon this year was an extremely competitive series of events. I competed in all five City Championships from December 27-31. My record for each of the five days looked like this: 7-1, 5-2, 4-3, 3-3, 4-2. There were enough Masters Division players to hold at least six Swiss rounds with a top 8 cut every day and some days seven rounds. I played Reshiram/Typhlosion for all five events. The list that I used is posted below for reference.

The list may have fluctuated by two cards or so over the course of the week, but this list was undoubtedly the most solid. I played twenty-four tournament matches during the marathon, so I’m not going to go into detail over every single match. I am, however, going to highlight some of the things that I learned about Reshiram/Typhlosion, the format, and the marathon in general.

Tier 1 Decks

Yes, I'm still good!

The way that I see it, these are the top decks in the format right now, or tier one:

* Reshiram/Typhlosion

* Magnezone/Eelektrik

* Chandelure/Vileplume

* Kyurem/Cobalion/Electrode

Tier 2 Decks

I would consider the following decks viable, but not necessarily the best. These decks are tier two:

* ”The Truth”

* Durant

* Zekrom/Pachirisu/Shaymin/Tornadus

* Kyurem/Cobalion/Verizion/Zekrom/Terrakion/Victini

* Donphan/Kyurem/Zekrom/Reshiram

* Gothitelle/Reuiniclus

Marathon Recap

Reshiram/Typhlosion's worst enemy.

Of the twenty-four tournament matches that I played in New Jersey, all but one of the games was against an opponent using one of the decks listed above. I played against some big name players such as Frank Diaz (3rd Place Worlds), Michael Diaz (1st Place Nationals), Curran Hill (1st Place Worlds), Dylan Lefavour (1st Place Worlds), Mikey Fouchet, Dylan Bryan, and Jimmy O’Brien.

All of these players played exceptionally well, and the games against them were close. I also played against some parents that seemed as competitive as anyone else, which really came as a surprise. There were no rounds where one might gain an easy win.

The majority of my losses over the course of the week were to one card: Kyurem. Some decks were centered around Kyurem, and others may have only played two copies. Either way, the spread damage from “Glaciate” really adds up, and the fact that every Pokemon in my deck other than Cleffa is weak to Water-Type Pokemon was not helping at all.

I made top cut the first day at 6-0 after Swiss. I ended up getting 3rd place that day to Frank Diaz (Kyurem/Cobalion/Electrode). I didn’t make top cut again all week; my resistance was subpar each day that I went X-2.

What Won

A different deck won in the Masters division every day:

I'll have a "Vice Grip" on the scene until that new Heatmor comes out. hahah

12/27 – Durant

12/28 – Kyurem/Landorus/Electrode

12/29 – Kyurem/Cobalion/Electrode

12/30 – Typhlosion/Reshiram/Kingdra

12/31 – Chandelure/Vileplume

Magnezone/Eelectrik decks and Typhlosion/Reshiram decks each had incredibly strong showings. Magnezone/Typhlosion made top cut quite a few days. Durant was played, but there were not that many at the top tables.

In my opinion, Typhlosion/Reshiram is a very safe play. I believe that one should be able to play it and coast into top cut, but I do not think that it is a deck that can win events. The deck is very consistent, and it does not have any ridiculously bad matchups. Chandelure and Kyurem are both unfavorable matchups, but Zekrom, Durant, and Magnezone are all winnable matchups.

Magnezone/Eelektrik is also a very safe play. It is quite similar to Reshiram/Typhlosion in many aspects, but Magnezone does not have a damage cap and Eelectrik is a Stage 1 whereas Typhlosion is a Stage 2.

Now, the deck that I believe has the most potential to win tournaments is Chandelure/Vileplume. The deck is not the easiest to set up or to play, but once it sets up it is very good and can make some ridiculous comebacks. Tropical Beach is difficult to acquire, as is Litwick BLW Promo, but once assembled, the deck has serious potential.

There is my brief recap of the New Jersey Marathon. I had a great time, and enjoyed the competitive environment. I met some great people, and played some good games. Thank you for reading and good luck to you all during the last weekend of City Championships!

One Marathon, Multiple Pies is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Focus, young grasshopper.

Hey errybody, Kenny Wisdom back again with another Underground article. Firstly, thanks to everyone for the massive amount of support you’ve shown me. Without you, I wouldn’t even be given the chance to write Underground articles in the first place, so never forget how important you are to the vitality of the writers, and SixPrizes in general.

Getting into my actual article, I don’t really have a super-focused topic for today. I’ve been racking my brain over what to write about as I really wanted to give you guys a solid few thousand words on a specific topic, but at the end of the day I just couldn’t pin point it. I think it’s because we’re at a weird stage right now — Cities are almost over, but still relevant enough that they need to be written about, and on the other hands, States and Regionals seem so close, but are actually several months away.

Because of this, I’m going to be touching on a lot of different topics today. I’ll do my best to go in-depth into each of them to give the level of quality that Underground articles are known for.

Cities Overview

As I said up top, even though a lot of us are thinking ahead to the release of Next Destinies and to the eventual States and Regional tournaments that will take place in an HS-ND format, it’s important to remember that there are still two weekends of Cities left. For most players this means that there are four events to attend and that’s a whole lot of points to be earned, so you absolutely have to stay on focus during these times.

For those who have been following my non-Underground articles, you’ll know that I haven’t had too much success during Cities. I’ve yet to make a single top cut or earn a single Championship Point from the event series, even though I’ve attended multiple (I do have one point from Regionals for making the top 64 though, so yay for me). I’ve delved into why this is in past articles so I’m not going to rehash it here, but I thought it would be important to look back at the events I’ve entered, how I did, and what ended up winning.

(As a sidenote, I find it pretty awesome that the Pokemon website now has the complete standings for each tournament listed on your player profile. The site certainly has more than it’s share of problems, but laying out a table like this is something I never would’ve been able to do before the upgrade. Big ups to TPCI!)

CC #1
Place: 22nd/36
Deck: EelZone
Winning deck: David Cohen’s Zekrom

I can’t exactly remember all that happened in this tournament, but I do know that I played a decent but unrefined list, and went 2-3 losing to Tyler Ninomura’s Chandelure, Jerin Head’s Stage Ones, and Jeffrey Barasona’s Truth.

The Chandelure loss was to be expected as the match-up is pretty awful, and the Stage Ones match was very close, but my ultimate downfall was very quick Donphans out of my opponent. The Truth match was kind of silly, as the game got to a point where I believe I could’ve won on time, but my Cleffa just wouldn’t wake up in time. Again, I don’t remember all of the events of this tournament, so I apologize if I got any of the details wrong.

As an aside, the finals of this tournament were the most hilarious in recent memory. It was a match between David Cohen vs. Tyler Ninomura, and between misregistered lists, missed donks, missed Tropical Beaches, and dreamcrushes, it was quite the sight to be seen.

Aaaand it can be seen here, thanks to Green Star Gaming on YouTube:

(That’s me in the red jacket :D)

CC #2
Place: 13th/44 (4-2)
Deck: EelZone
Winning deck: Tyler Ninomura’s Chandelure

This tournament, like many of the others on this list, ended with me wiffing the cut with a cut-worthy record. I don’t remember all of the details, except one…

I was playing against a local player named Dario in what I thought was my win-and-in (apparently I calculated wrong. Math is hard). He’s playing Tyranitar Prime, and the match goes pretty well for me, mainly because he runs cold throughout. He manages to bring the game down to 2-1 prizes in my favor. My board is an active Magnezone with another Magnezone and a Thundurus on the bench. His is a lone Darkrai & Cresellia LEGEND without enough energy to attack.

I have 2 Energy on Zone with another in hand, so I’m pretty certain no matter what he does it’s game over for him. Until that is, he attaches an Eviolite, bringing his DCL to 170 HP. Long story short, I draw and pass until I hit the fourth Energy to KO his DCL for game, and then realize one thing…

Eviolite doesn’t work on LEGENDS!

I had just been jedi mind tricked, and even though I walked away with the win, it felt pretty terrible. I’m a Professor and sort of pride myself on having a fairly deep understanding of the rules, so I’ve no idea why that one slipped by. Ugh.

Anyway, I separate my deck, excited to play in a cut that I believe contained mostly favorable match-ups, until it’s announced that my calculations were way off, and I was at the end of the bubble at 13th. Feels bad man.

CC #3
Place: 25th/27
Deck: Chandelure
Winning deck: David Cohen’s Zekrom

All apologies, but I really can’t remember anything from this tournament. I know that I didn’t do well, but unfortunately all of the rounds are escaping me. I’ve even done a little digging around on various sites that might have this information and I still can’t bring up anything, all apologies.

I decided to play Chandelure after seeing Tyler win with it last week and deciding that it was well-positioned in our meta. I can’t remember the exact list I played for that event, but if I played Chandelure today it would look something like this…

...

Kenny’s Wisdom – Cold Cities and Hot Cards is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Tournament #4: Huntley, IL — 61 Masters

Finally back into tournament swing after my break for tournament #3, I decided to (once again) take my card-for-card build of Zone/Eel from my last tournament into the fray. At this point, my only losses had been to Durant. Because this is a matchup that I already see as pretty poor for me, I felt like keeping my same successful build vs. the rest of the field intact.

...

At the start of the tournament, I met with some friends who were there the day before, and heard the pleasant news that a higher count of Fire decks happened to push Durant out of the top 4 that day. This left me crossing my fingers that Durant would be kept out of ALL future top cut appearances, but even hearing that less would turn up was good news.

Having hit 3 in a row to drop from my 4-0 record to 5-2 and miss top cut by one spot in my last effort hurt, even with the collection of 2 kicker points. With the same deck and same list in place, I geared up for another marathon tournament!

Rounds 1 and 2

Unfortunately, I can’t remember these games at all. Having played 20 games of Pokémon over the past 3 days, I’m really struggling at the back end of my tournament run to figure out who I played! There is a very strong chance that each of these games were vs. Eel/Lanturn and Eel/Zekrom lists, I just can’t remember the details enough to go in-depth.

I remember the Eel/Zekrom being a close game, where I fell behind early to their heavier Catcher count, but I bounced back with N dropping their hand down to 2 cards before rolling my last few prizes out with Magnezone.

The Lanturn/Eel player (who I’m 90% sure was named Nik) just had a terrible start. He didn’t take a single prize the entire game, and if I recall correctly I think I was able to deck him out late game by playing an N to bring his 1 card hand up to 6, leaving him out of cards to draw. I know most of the time this strategy will never work because the late game will likely not have your opponent with a high prize count, but it was cool to see N have yet another (if obscure) use. 2-0.

Round 3 vs. Durant NVI

Ugh, not again! After ending my last tournament on a high note against Durant by beating Jason out, I decide to just hope for the best.

This game I decide to do my ideal setup, which has me leading with Tynamo’s Thunder Wave for a few turns as I build a benched Zekrom (sometimes with Eel if I have access to at least a Switch or two). I luck out and hit 4 out of 5 attempts on Thunder Wave, saving me a whopping 16 milled cards from my deck. I also start this game with an N in hand, giving me access to more cards back into the deck late game once I’ve taken 4+ prizes.

There isn’t too much to say about this game, other than the time I got from those Thunder Wave flips allowed me to take 6 prizes in 6 turns with Zekrom pretty comfortably without coming close to being milled. I emerge with an unbelievable 2-game winning streak against Durant, and move to 3-0.

Round 4 vs. Zekrom BLW/Tornadus EPO/Eelektrik NVI

Over the next few tournaments I would play a LOT of Zekrom/Tornadus/Eel, so a few of the games would start to blend together. This game, however, sits pretty vividly in my mind because I did something I hadn’t really done up until this point — misplay.

I started up faster than him and secured a prize lead. I took my first 4 prizes with Magnezone on his attackers, and he took his first 2 prizes by Catchering and eliminating Eels. With my third Eel prized, I was actually in a pretty bad spot, but felt I had a chance securing the game if I could take low-Energy cost prizes. One such opportunity arose when he was forced to promote a Tynamo and hit me with a Thunder Wave. I’m Paralyzed, but feel confident because I have a Junk Arm for a Switch in my hand.

On my turn, I start overthinking things and get on a completely different line of thought as I try and picture the late game and turns beyond this one. This is normally a good practice, but for some reason it threw me far off the right mindset for the turn, which would be to Junk Arm for Switch and take the guaranteed easy 1-Energy Lost Burn prize on Tynamo.

For some reason I use that Junk Arm to grab Communication instead to turn a benched Magneton into a second Magnezone. Maybe it was that he had only taken 2 prizes, maybe I was just tired, or maybe I was just simply overconfident — but immediately I recognized my mistake and was pretty frustrated. Off my 2 Magnetic Draws I do not hit the Switch, and I end up losing my easy prize while also falling a turn behind.

This misplay allows the game to collapse, giving him the 2nd Eel he needs to power up Zekrom and double PlusPower/Bolt Strike my Zone to cut his 2 prize deficit to 1. With no third Eel in my deck I’d end up having to attach manually for prizes, considerably slower than my opponent’s double Eel.

Time’s called when we’re tied 2-2, and my only option for closing the game out this late was keeping a sleeping Cleffa while I build the next Zone manually. Unfortuately, just like my final loss on time at Worlds last year, Cleffa wakes up and offers my opponent the easy prize. 3-1

I was frustrated to make such a dumb mistake to let my opponent back into the game, but it happens and at least I can say I learned from the mistake and recognized not to make the same one again.

Round 5 vs. Jordan w/ Kyurem NVI/Vileplume UD/Feraligatr Prime

Round 5 pairs me against my friend Jordan, who is playing a version of Kyurem that most people have tended to ignore in favor of the Electrode variant. Already I can see the flaws with his deck on paper (getting two Stage 2s out and a handful of Water seems inconsistent), but I know better than to chalk a game up to a win before it’s even been played out. (I’ll get back to this later!)

Jordan starts slow, giving me 2-3 early prizes with Magnezone and Catcher. He eventually gets the full Vileplume/Gatr/Kyurem set up and spreads a few turns before losing the Kyurem as well. In a last ditch attempt, he uses his V-Create Victini (the one that does 100 for 2) to fry my Zone, actually leaving me in a weird spot for a few turns. I’m low on Energy, and drop to 0 Energy after Lost Burning two Energy to take care of Victini.

He uses his Feraligatr to attack for a prize or two, and after I attach my 2nd Energy on a benched Magnezone he offers his hand to concede. Knowing that I didn’t have the Energy in my hand, and being friends with Jordan, I tell him that I don’t have the guaranteed win in hand and that he should play it out.

As a competitor, I know taking the win whenever it is offered is the “correct play,” but Jordan being one of my friends from early on in the game really took off my competitive edge here. If he was able to get Energy on Kyurem and retreat to it, he’d have the potential to take multiple spread prizes before I even found a way to get Magnezone active.

Unfortunately I do find the Energy within 2 turns, but I thought it was worth it to give him the greatest fighting chance he had in a game that was suddenly getting a lot closer. I close this one out to reach 4-1.

Round 6 vs. Yoshi w/ Chandelure NVI/Yanmega Prime/Dodrio UD

Like I’ve said before, having a larger attendance for City Championships at a marathon is actually a bad thing when it comes down to points, and being just 3 people shy of top 16 kicker points meant that the winner would leave with a top cut, and the loser would likely miss.

Luckily, all this stress is severely diminished for the fact that Yehoshua Tate (aka Yoshi) is likely one of the funniest and friendly players that exist in the game. I’ve mentioned him a few times before in the past as one of the founders of Sablock, but beyond that he’s one of my favorite players to play in the entire scope of this game. He’s playing another unusual concoction — Yanmega/Chandelure/Dodrio.

The aim of his deck is to stack the 30 damage applied with Chandelure’s Ability with the ability to do 70 damage with Yanmega Prime — all for 0 energy. He does give up any access to the advantages of the Trainer lock build, but the added speed seems like it keeps this build of chandelure as at least semi-competitive.

Unfortunately, this was my first game of the tournament where the whole build just crapped out. I’m forced to use his Tropical Beach multiple turns to set up (I desperately wanted to drop Cleffa, but didn’t want to give him the free prize), and I’m back 2 prizes by the middle of the game. I finally get the breathing room I need to get Eelektriks in play before he snipes me out once I apply Magnezone Prime pressure, and things get pretty close as I get closer and closer to thinning my deck.

Time is called when it’s tied 2-2 in prizes, with him taking a prize on turn 1 of time. On my turn, I devise the only plan that made sense to me — Magnetic Draw for as many cards as I can get a Magnezone, a Catcher, and a Switch (all these cards were in my very thin deck). I needed a second Magnezone because my deck was out of Energy, but I could attach two Energy to it on the bench as a Magnemite with Dynamotor.

...

Battle of Wittz: Chicago Marathon – Part 2 (plus Durant Analysis!) is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.