Regionals has come and gone. I made the top 32 with lostremover.dec (aka the B-Side Dialga deck). For those interested in the list…
| Pokemon – 16
2 Dialga G PL |
Trainers – 31
4 Pokemon Collector |
Energy – 12
4 Double Colorless |
Before I say anything about it, the list was 100% Amelia Bottemiller’s idea. She approached me about it and we worked on it in the weeks leading up to the event. Ryan Merryfield also came up with a similar concept, and from the week before Regionals we all worked on it together. Zane Nelson also chipped in with help, as did Tyler Ninomura and Isaiah Middleton. Amelia and Ryan definitely deserve the most credit, though.
Trevor Whiton also came up with the idea of playing Lost Remover in DC w/ his son Ian’s (#1 ranked player in the world) DialgaChomp deck for SPTs. I think it was Amelia who came up with the idea of 3 Lost Remover, but I can’t be sure as that was a last minute decision.
In the end, Myself, Amelia, Ryan, Trevor, and Zane all played the same 60 cards. I made the top 32, Amelia and Ryan made the top 16 (getting defeated by other B-Side members), and Zane made the top 8. Trevor finished decently, but not well enough to cut.
This is why we’re the best team ever.
Some thoughts on the list…
- We considered 2-2 Dialga for a long time but ultimately decided that we couldn’t find the space. After playing with it, I don’t think 2-2 Dialga is necessary at all. I could see moving to a 3-1 Dialga for the ability to get the turn one Deafen off even faster, but space is an issue as always.
- We also all played 2-2 Garchomp until the night before. Our metagame is filled with SP and 3-1 is undoubtedly the right play in mirror. In the end, I never missed the 2nd X.
- We didn’t run the Stadium suite just because we thought it was too clunky. I know that most of the prominent lists winning are those rocking stadiums, Staraptor, and a Toxitank line, but I don’t think that would’ve been a very good metagame call for our area. Ultimately, our consistency and ability to perform well in mirror was what led us to doing so well in the event.
- Lost Remover was the sickest play of all time. By the 2nd round I was hearing players talk about “those Bieber kids and their Lost Remover in SP.”, it was quite amazing. I would even like to fit 4, honestly. It’s such an underrated card, particularly when it’s unexpected (which I guess it isn’t anymore, sorry!).
- I fought no Call for a long time, but there simply wasn’t space. I think 3-1 Garchomp and 4 Collector made up for it, but I’d still like to fit it in down the line.
If you have any questions about the list, please leave them in the comments or e-mail me directly. I’d love to chat about it with anyone who’s interested. Not sure how relevant it is for Nationals with the Sableye degenerate garbage going around, but that’s another article for another day.
Friday:
I wake up to a text from Isaiah saying that the bus is shut down and he can’t go. After scrambling for bus schedules, we work it out and he is able go come down with us. I run to Olympia to pick up Amelia and then go a bit further into Tacoma (ugh) to pick up Isaiah, and we’re off. Everyone made a mix CD for the 3.5 hour car ride, which meant that at any given time the playlist would be…
Justin Bieber
Kanye West
A Bullet for my Valentine
fun.
Earl Sweatshirt
Rinse and repeat for infinite hours. Yeah, we’re kinda sick.
We hit the Oregon border, and, as usual, Oregon proves it’s inferiority to Washington within minutes. We hit exit 300 at approximately 4:00 PM, and reach Exit 290 around 5:30. Luckily it’s smooth sailing from there and we’re able to hit up the Olive Garden with the homies and get some late night testing/hustling in before going to bed around 2:00 AM, as usual.
Saturday:
I get to the tournament center pretty early, get my deck registered and chill with the crew. I try and get some trades in, but end up mostly selling and buying. In the end I made around $200 on the weekend through cards and merch, so I guess I can’t complain.
Before too long round 1 pairings are up…
Round 1: Mike Payne w/ LuxChomp
So, I felt pretty comfortable going into the mirror. We both get pretty average set-ups, but before long I realize that I have all 4 DCE prized. I shuffled my deck before the round began, and then pile shuffled twice and over-hand shuffled a few times as well, before handing my deck to my opponent to cut. I’m still not really certain what the odds of prizing all 4 of my DCEs are, but this was not a good start to the day.
I get a good lead going, but ultimately he’s able to get colorless KOs and due to the DCEs being prized I have trouble responding. Time is called when we’re even on prizes at 3 each, and unfortunately I’m unable to seal the deal.
I’m kinda on tilt after the loss, but I figure that it was a fluke, and I think back to my good buddy Andrew Foley’s (FREE FOLEY) first round of WA States ’10, in which he lost to Feraligatr/Pelipper before X-0ing the entire event and taking home the 1st place glass.
0-1
Round 2: ??? w/ DialgaChomp
I can’t remember her name for the life of me, but I’ve seen this girl around and she seems super nice. During shuffling I see that she’s playing Dialga as well and immediately become confident.
Unfortunately, she has a Supporter drought and I’m able to take control of the game fairly quickly and maintain my lead until I take all six prizes. In the end I think she took 1 or 2. I was really hoping for a stronger game, but after taking a round one loss I’ll accept whatever I can get.
1-1
Round 3: ??? w/ Legend.dec
I’ve never met this woman before, but she’s really talkative and quite nice. She compliments my Green Lantern Corp playmat, and tells me that she’s playing a deck that includes one of every legend (at least I think thats’ what she said, I couldn’t quite hear her over the announcements).
She mulligans 7 or 8 times, leading to me having an absolutely godly hand. After about 5 minutes into the round she manages to hit a basic, and she wins the flip, going first. She opens Electivire FB to my Crobat G, Garchomp C, and Dragonite FB. I left the Crobat active just to keep my retreating options open. She passes the turn with no action.
Because of her mulligans, I have the nuts and am able to Poke Turn Crobat G, promote Dragonite FB, attach a DCE and an Energy Gain to the Dragonite, and then Flash Bite + Mach Blow for the win. Again, another game that was super one-sided, but sitting at 2-1 felt pretty nice.
2-1
Round 4: ??? w/ BlastGatr
I apologize for not remembering anyones names. I definitely enjoyed playing against all of my opponents and I hope none of them take it as a personal slight whatsoever. I just have a lot of information and stress running through my head and my brain pushes out the names. If you’re reading this and we played, please feel free to remind me.
I’ve got to say this was probably the sickest BlastGatr deck I’ve ever seen. I’ve never liked the deck as a concept, but this guy proved to me that it can at least stand up to the tier 1 decks. We both get pretty decent starts, I take the first prize through Dragon Rush and am met with a Twins, gaining him a Feraligatr and a Blastoise, giving him all that he needs to go off on turn 3 or 4.
Realizing that he’s going to be swinging for infinite damage soon, I realize that my only play is to tank Dialga and Lost Remover DCEs as much as I can. I premier Ball for the Dialga G LV.X, level up a Dialga that I had waiting on the bench with a few energy on it, and drop Uxie for 4 cards, Lost Remover, Garchomp C LV.X, Lost Remover, and Expert Belt. David Cohen topdeck skills activate!
From there I’m able to take control of the game by Lost Removing DCEs three turns in a row, forcing him to attack with Feraligatr, which is nearly useless as Feraligatr feeds off of damage on your opponent’s active, and I’m able to successfully heal every turn via Garchomp shenanigans.
Not as close of a game as I would’ve liked, but my opponent was super friendly and had a really solid list that I commend him on.
3-1
Round 5: Eleki Romans w/ Abomasnow
My brain flips and flops once I find out I’m playing Eleki. First I’m scared because he’s a phenomenal player, and then I’m relieved because I remember he’s playing Abomasnow. And then I’m scared again because I remember he’s playing a Blaziken line to counter Dialga.
We start out, and I hit absolutely nothing. He take the first few prizes and I’m forced to Twins for largely irrelevant cards. I eventually get a Dialga set up and I think I take a prize or two, but his Blaziken is able to one-shot it with relative ease. I’m consider scooping just out of ragetilt, until I topdeck a VS Seeker which can get me a Twins which can get me…
Lost Removers.
Lost Remover was definitely the MVP of this game. I used it in round 3 as well, but to much less of an effect. I was able to get 3 successful Lost Removers off, 2 targeting DCEs and 1 targeting Rescue, and it helped majorly. Eventually I’m able to mount a comeback and am a prize up going into time. I don’t remember how the +3 turns went exactly as I was pretty stressed out at this point, but I remember that my last kill was using a belted Uxie to KO his Blaziken FB.
Great game.
4-1
Round 6: ??? w/ Scizor
This game was a fairly unexciting one. He opens Scyther and Shaymin to my Garchomp and Dialga, and is able to evolve to Scizor fairly quickly. After that he doesn’t see another Pokemon for the entire game. I Dragon Rush his Shaymin early and then try to start tanking a Dialga vs. his Scizor.
Besides him being dead on board if I KO’d his Scizor, it was actually a fairly even match until he miscalculated damage, forgetting that I had an Expert Belt attached to my Dialga. I KO’d his Scizor the next turn and won the game.
I think this game would’ve been severely harder if he had ever seen his Spiritombs. I don’t know what his deck looked like, but I assume it was just terrible, terrible luck. He used 1 or 2 Sage’s Training through the course of a game and didn’t see any Pokemon or anything that could fetch a Pokemon throughout that and probably 10 draw steps.
5-1
At this point I learn that my round one opponent is doing pretty well, which is a huge relief. Knowing this combined with the fact that I was at table 4 for my last match, I’m pretty confident that I can get in on an X-2 record, meaning that I only have to win one of my next two matches.
Round 7: ??? w/ Scizor
During round 6 I played a Scizor, and to my right was a Scizor mirror-match, and to the right of that was one Scizor deck, and two tables to my left there was a Scizor deck, so I assumed that I’d have to get pretty lucky not to hit some kind if Scizor. Scizor Scizor Scizor.
Even though the Scizor deck had won OR States and we had been testing it for weeks leading up to the event, I honestly didn’t expect there to be as much as there was. I’m not sure how many (if any) made the top cut, but the place was crawling with Scizors. Luckily we had tested against it a bunch when we were considering playing it, otherwise my day could’ve turned out a lot different.
We start the game and he gets the nuts with Spiritomb and 2 benched Scythers. We trade prizes a bit, with me leading with a built up Dialga and him having to sac resources in order to build up his Scizor. Eventually I’m in up prizes by 2 and he has two Scizors on board — One fully built up and one with no energy.
The turning point in the game comes after I KO a Spiritomb and he chooses to promote Giratina Let Loose instead of his powered-up Scizor. His idea was that he still needed to rip one energy to KO my Dialga and that he would just wait until he got that energy and then Warp Point out of Giratina, since he was holding a few.
Or, worst case scenario he could just do some tricks with Celebration Wind Shaymin and delay his set-up a little bit.
Unfortunately, he didn’t realize that, being 2 prizes up and with only about 10 minutes left in the game, my best move was to Deafen. He saw it and started kicking himself immediately after my turn started, so I can’t put too much blame on him.
From here on out the game is pretty boring. I attach a DCE to my Garchomp C in case he can somehow get Giratina out of the active position, and just Deafen for infinite turns. I’ve never been a fan of Giratina for that very reason, especially since Judge was printed.
Eventually he’s able to get the Giratina out of the active position by manually attaching energy, but not before time is called. I’m still 2 prizes up, and I think this is how the turns play out…
Turn 0: I Deafen (I’m up by 2 prizes)
Turn 1: He retreats Giratina and kills my Dialga with Scizor (I’m up by 1 prize)
Turn 2: I promote Garchomp and Dragon Rush something on the bench (I’m up by 2 prizes)
Turn 3: Realizing he can’t take 2 prizes in a single turn, he scoops.
This was probably the best match I had all day. My opponent was a skilled player (despite that Giratina misplay) and was a nice guy. He made the top cut, but I don’t quite remember where he ended up. Hopefully I’ll see him around at future events.
6-1
Six straight wins and an almost guaranteed slot in the top 32 make me feel pretty good about the day, until I realize I’m paired against David “sowhatifirun8dcesnotevenabigdealguys” Cohen
Round 8: David Cohen w/ LuxChomp
He does his normal stuff and hits the cards he needs off the top of his deck at all times, trololol Cohen luck etc. Also at some point during the game he gets a nosebleed and has to get a time extension (can somebody say staller?), which was totally gross.
6-2
Amelia’s Mom brings us Subway, we turn in our decklists and generally just fool around like hooligans until the top 32 seedings go up. I can’t remember the exact decks everyone was playing, but I think it broke down something like this:
Jacob Von Wagner w/ LuxChomp
Dejohne Umbuch w/ ???
Robert Rowan w/ Gyarados
David Cohen w/ LuxChomp
Marvin Quashnick w/ Abomasnow
Matthew Dias / LuxChomp/Sableye
Tyler Ninomura w/ VileChamp (Biebz)
Isaiah Monroe w/ DialgaChomp
Kenny Wisdom w/ DialgaChomp (Biebz)
Amelia Bottemiller w/ DialgaChomp (Biebz)
Michael Payne w/ LuxChomp
Jaron Deacon w/ Regigigas
Glesty Waters w/ ???
Zane Nelson w/ DialgaChomp (Biebz)
Adrian Sutherland w/ ???
Eleki Romans w/ Abomasnow
Scott Pyritz w/ ???
Alex McNeil w/ LuxChomp
Trevor Holland w/ Gyarados
Ryan Merryfield w/ DialgaChomp (Biebz)
Stephen Lowe w/ ???
Jack Flowers w/ Scizor
Mary Christian w/ ???
Andrew Jackson w/ Gengar/Magnezone
Josh Norem w/ ???
Theron Blodgett w/ ???
Kevin McKernan w/ ???
Michael Chin w/ DialgaChomp
Jason Schelin w/ ???
Chris Brown w/ Gyarados
Kristian Pearlman w/ ???
Jerin Head w/ Scizor
Apologies for blanking out on some of those decks, or for getting any of the decks wrong. If you have any corrections to this list, please leave ‘em in the comments!
I’m playing Andrew Jackson w/ Gengar/Magnezone, a deck that I have no idea how to play against. I can’t say that I’m too confident as I know Andrew is a solid player, his deck is an unknown to me, and I’m ridiculously tired after about 13 hours of straight Pokemon, but I try and go into it with as much confidence as possible.
Top 32: Andrew Jackson w/ Gengar/Magnezone
Game 1: I take a decent lead this game as I hit the absolute nuts and he gets a clunky set-up. I’m able to Dragon Rush a benched Haunter early before setting up a Dialga and tanking. I’m a prize or two up when I make a terrible misplay by running my Dialga into a Fainting Spell.
Call it sleepiness, call it greediness, call it a miscalculation of damage, but either way, it happened and it was stupid. From there on he takes advantage and wins the game with ease.
0-1
Game 2: I don’t start with much this game and he basically streamrolls through me. I’ll admit that I was on tilt after my misplay in game one, but I can’t make any excuses, he outplayed me, fair and square. Not a terrible exciting game, I’m afraid.
0-2
6-3
I meet up with everyone else to learn that our team had won the team competition, which essentially just means that we did better than everyone else in the swiss rounds, which is quite awesome. The Dialga deck is something that we all worked on together and we all ran the exact same 60, so it was really nice to see see that come to fruition and to watch it succeed.
I also learn that everyone else on the team has won their top cut matches, but that Tyler and Amelia and David and Ryan are paired against each other in the top 16, which is a bittersweet turn of events.
I go and watch Ian Whiton play his top cut games, which are even more nerve racking than my own, if I’m being honest. He won both Washington and Oregon States undefeated, and is able to pull off the win at Regionals as well, only dropping a single game in the swiss rounds.
After some congratulatory pictures and hugging, I settle into see what’s going on with the Masters, who are just starting their top four.
The top four looks like this…
Tyler Ninomura w/ VileChamp vs. Mike Payne w/ LuxChomp
Jaron Deacon w/ Regigigas vs. Andrew Jackson w/ Magnezone/Gengar
I think it over a little bit, and I assume that there’s a few different ways this thing can go..
- Tyler is undoubtedly going to win his game, as VileChamp is a terrible match-up for SP, especially LuxChomp. Mike played well all day and this isn’t a slight to him at all, the deck is just built to counter what he was running.
- Jaron beat Andrew in swiss, but was still nervous about the game. This one could really go either way, although I am biased and had my money on Jaron, the Washington player.
- If Jaron and Tyler win, Tyler is probably going to win just because Machamp has such a sick match-up vs Regigigas. However, if Andrew and Tyler win, Andrew may have it, seeing as how Gengar and Magnezone can both one-shot Machamp. Mike is the real wildcard here, but I think if he was able to make it past Tyler that he would lose in the finals, as neither of those decks are particularly friendly for SP.
We decide that we’ve been playing and watching Pokemon for entirely too long and hit up a Denny’s. Texts keep me updated on what’s going on, and we figure out we’ve got a Tyler vs. Jaron finals, that Tyler eventually pulls off on game 3. We are proud and full of pancakes, and decide to retire to the hotel.
All in all, it was a great weekend. We all did well, I made a lot of money, and good times were had by all. Definitely one of the most successful Regionals in recent memory. It’s too bad that our Dialga deck didn’t go farther, but two copies in the top 8 is still pretty legit.
For those wondering, here’s Tyler’s VileChamp list:
| Pokemon – 26
4 Machop SF |
Trainers – 21
4 Bebe’s Search |
Energy – 13
2 Double Colorless |
This article is running a little long so I’ll skip the random thoughts segment, but here is a little bit of upcoming news:
- I won’t be attending U.S. Nationals (unless one of you gracious readers wants to ship me a plane ticket!), so I should have a lot more time in my hands to write articles. Look for a consistent output of 1 article per week on my end from now on.
- I’m also working with Amelia Bottemiller to create a Pokemon webshow. Mostly testing videos and things like that, which will hopefully launch in the next few weeks. If you’ve got any suggestions about that please let us know!
Lastly, if you have any comments or concerns please feel free to voice them in the comments, or e-mail me directly at kenny@sixprizes.com. Thanks!
Now, how did YOU do at Regionals?
