Okemos Battle Road + News About Lost World!

I played Gengarplume last tournament. I went 4-2, and it was decent, but I knew that it lost too often to Dialgachomp (both of my losses) so I didn’t want to play it. I had to play something that had a chance against the whole field, but an especially good matchup against SP because there’s a lot of SP in my metagame.

I was looking at Kingdra/Machamp lists and I wanted to play something like it, but I knew if I played against something like a Gengarplume with a Blaziken FB tech, I’d be screwed. So, I put together a cool little Kingdra/Donphan deck with tons of disruption and tested a little. Just a tweak here and there and I was ready to go.

Okemos BR
5 Rounds
Top 4 Cut

Round 1 – Brandon R. w/ Dialgachomp
Brandon is responsible for both of my swiss losses the past two BRs I’ve been to that kept me out of the top cut. Basically, I wanted revenge. I started decently and got out a Donphan with 3 energy and an Expert Belt, plus a Kingdra on the bench. I easily ran though all of his Pokemon, and Judged away all of his supporters. He had bad luck, and I got everything I needed when I needed it.

1-0

Round 2 – Aaron S. w/ Gengarplume
I knew this was a hard matchup for me because I used a fair amount of trainers and I couldn’t easily get around Fainting Spell. That rarely came into play however, because I set up fast and, well, Gengarplume almost never sets up fast. I kept my trainers in hand low with the use of Judge and ran through him for a while. However, my use of Earthquake caught up with me as he was able to Shadow Room my benched Smeargle and Uxies for easy prizes. Eventually, it came down to a Fainting Spell flip after I had drawn my last prize and he had none. He whiffs and I win.

2-0

Round 3 – Nick K. w/ Luxchomp
Nick is a good friend and a well respected player, so I knew this would be a tough match. I had a good start with Smeargle, even though I went first. I used Portrait on his Cyrus to get the T1 energy for my benched Phanpy and a Collector to use next turn. I also saw a Bebe’s in his hand that would give me the Donphan for an easy knockout. However, he got a Garchomp, DCE, Gain, Crobat, and Turn to kill my Smeargle. I brought up Phanpy, and used Collector for Uxie and 2 Unown R. I attached Expert Belt to Phanpy knowing that I could get the knockout if I got a Donphan.

I also stupidly attached a Rainbow Energy giving my Phanpy 80 HP left, just in range of a Garchomp snipe. I whiffed on the Donphan and could only do 30 with Flail. He got the Garchomp snipe for 2 prizes, and I was down 3-6. I made it close, taking 4 prizes, but eventually lost.

2-1

I knew that I had to win out to top cut, and I thought I had a fairly good chance of doing so

Round 4 – Ryan R. w/ Tyranitar
I really have a bad recollection of this match, but it wasn’t the best. It took me too long to get a Donphan out against his Spiritomb so I couldn’t get set up while he did. Donphan’s main strategy against Tyranitar is to Expert Belt and do 80×2 to OHKO them. I had this all planned out, but he played an Expert Belt of his own both times I wanted to do this, and that really screwed me up. Eventually, it came down to us being tied, 1-1. Time was called, but it wasn’t a factor.

He used a cool trick play with Manectric to Power Wave and KO my Uxie that I had placed 40 damage on with Earthquake and put my Smeargle 10 damage away from being KOed. I had a Donphan active, and a Seadra on the bench. I had around 15 cards in my deck, and had to get one of two Expert Belts in the deck, or a Kingdra Prime to win. I Judge for four, draw garbage until the last card, Super Scoop Up. I hit the heads, and Uxie for four more. I whiff and lose. Great game, probably one of the best I’ve played in a while.

2-2

I know now that there’s no chance of Top Cut for me, but I know that my opponent has a chance since I’m paired up.

Round 5 – Corey Gonoll w/ Scizor
I had seen Corey play earlier this tournament and I knew that his deck was good. I play 4 Rainbow Energy, and I knew it would be a problem. I go second with Phanpy start, attach Rainbow, Collector for Uxie and 2 Unown R, but whiff the BTS and Expert Belt, and just do 10 to his Uxie. He has no other basics, and eventually passes, to which I play a Donphan and KO his only Pokemon. However, since I couldn’t make top cut, I decided to let him have the win and the chance at cutting because it’s just a Battle Road and 2 points is 2 points.

2-3 (or 3-2, however you want to look at it)

When all was said and done, Corey didn’t Top Cut. Do I regret my decision? Absolutely not. He definitely needed the win more than I did and probably would have won if we had been able to play out a game.

Nick top cutted at 5-0, and I’m not sure if he won, but he was playing against a Machamp :/ At least he had a counter.

Props:
Kingdra/Donphan for performing exceptionally well
Good trades
Having fun with friends (because that’s the most important thing, right?)
Matthew S. beating Alex S. for first place in Juniors (Matthew is 3 years younger than Alex and won because he got a bye and an easy win, Alex was angry xD)

Slops:
Bad luck whiffing on cards. But hey, I took the risk and it didn’t end up working out. No one’s fault but mine.

Here’s my list in case you wanted to see it:

It’s a little unconventional. The Smeargle is an awesome tech that is slowly gaining in popularity, really nice starter and good to bring up after your opponent knocks out one of your Pokemon. Then, if they have a good hand, you often have a Judge to use. Judge is just a much needed disruption tech that this deck needs.

And now for the moment I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for.. it’s probably the only reason most of you guys are even reading this post. I purposely kept this until the end of the report just to make you read at least some of it instead of just giving you the Lost World news outright. Now I’m just rambling on and I’m sure you’re about to bash your head against the keyboard because you just want to know about Lost World, so I’ll finally tell you.

One of the judges at my tournament that I trust told me that he heard “from a guy that ought to know” that Lost World will be in the next set and will not be one of the dozen or so cards that are cut. However, take that news with a grain of salt because that’s no guarantee, but I’d say the scales are tipped a bit more in the favor if Lost World being in the set.

That’s all folks, thanks for reading!