Adam’s Delaware States Report 2010

This report may be a little hasty…I’ve got a lot of things going on this week, but I wanted to make sure I got this up while everything was fresh in my head.

I played in the Delaware State Championship yesterday (Saturday). There were 64 entrants in the Masters Division and 101 people total. Quaziko and I made the 50 minute drive down to America’s smallest state together and met up with Ian and Josh F. to pick up cards we needed. Ian hooked me up with Luxchomp because he thought it would be solid against most decks out there. I honestly wasn’t very comfortable using an SP deck because it was the one type of deck I tried to avoid testing myself…I just didn’t feel like learning how to play it. I only knew how to play against it.

Either I played SP or I played nothing, so I went with it. This was the list I ended up going with, if I can remember correctly:

I think that’s the list…originally there was a Chatot G in the list instead of Department Store Girl, but I didn’t like the Chatot idea. It would have been there just to grab Expert Belt.

I met some really cool people during the day…Lamar, Zack, Ryan Vergel and also got to see some people who I hadn’t seen in a while…Josh F, Josef B, Brian B, Kyle M, Brandon M, Drew G, Doug M, the Sauks, and anyone else…sorry if I forgot to mention you!

Anyway here’s how things went:

Round 1 vs Zack (Straight Machamp)

If my inexperience with SP wasn’t enough, I was lucky enough to be paired against a straight Machamp deck round 1. Sweet.

I was able to Unown G my Garchomp early on, but by turn 3 Zack had 2 Claydol and a Machamp out. I hit the Machamp for 80, but then he dropped a Double Colorless and did “Rage” for a ton of damage. There went my sole Unown G and I had no way of getting it back. Zack won very handily.

0-1

Ok…not too good of a start, but at least I was able to kinda figure out how the deck worked.

Round 2 vs Eeveelutions with Spiritomb

I felt kind of bad when I played this match because it made me realize how annoying SP can be. I Power Sprayed her Azelf turn 1 or 2, then Bright Looked her Claydol after she got it out with Spritomb and dropped a Crobat G and Poke Turn to OHKO the Claydol with Flash Impact.

She was able to get a Glaceon LV.X out which was somewhat troublesome, but even with my sure misplays throughout the match, I was able to win.

1-1

Round 3 vs Garchomp SV / Gengar SF

I for sure misplayed this match. I went for my Dialga G LV.X with Expert Belt which would be really good against Garchomps if I could just load some Energy onto it. My opponent however got a really fast start thanks to starting with Sableye SF and was set up only a few turns in.

He had both Gengar LV.X and Garchomp LV.X out. I tried to just do Deafen for a few turns, but eventually let it up and tried to KO his Gengar LV.X. For some reason I thought it was crucial that I kept Dialga G LV.X in play and I didn’t want him to devolve me. He flipped heads on “Feinting Spell” and that was pretty much game.

If I was smarter I would have been more patient and tried to KO his Gengar with Uxie or a Crobat drop. The problem was that he used Garchomp LV.X’s Poke-Power and hit 1 of 3 heads, so all my benched Pokemon had damage on them. I had a full bench and his Gengar was sniping stuff. If I were to just Deafen the whole time, he might have been able to snipe everything and “Compound Pain” before I could win.

1-2

Round 4 vs Donphan Prime / Nidoqueen RR

I started with a lone Bronzong G. He started with a lone Phanpy. “This should be quick,” I thought. I won the toss, attached a basic metal from my hand to Bronzong and passed. He attached an Expert Belt to Phanpy and passed. Seeing weakness in his hand, I attached a Double Colorless to Bronzong, dropped a Crobat G, played Uxie to get some cards, and did “Psychic Pulse” for 40 (yes, Bronzong has an attack).

Next turn my opponent passed again and I won…I guess it was a quick game. ;)

2-2

Round 5 vs Luxray GL / Infernape 4

I was not looking forward to this match because I had no clue how to play against SP using SP. Luckily for me, my opponent did not draw a Cyrus until like turn 10, so I was able to get ahead in prizes. I did have some trouble because I had a couple Energy prized, and was forced to Aaron’s a couple turns in a row to get Energy of out my discard.

I think I misplayed at one point by KOing his Baltoy on the bench with my Garchomp C LV.X when it was midgame and it wouldn’t have really mattered if he got Claydol out. I probably should have just tried to KO an Infernape 4 or Infernape 4 LV.X which he swarmed with early to mid game. Either way I came out on top. It really helped that he only played 2 Power Spray and never got one to use against me.

3-2

Round 6 vs Donphan Prime / Nidoqueen

This game was pretty bad…I couldn’t draw a Cyrus for a dozen turns or so, but my opponent had even worse luck. He couldn’t draw a Fighting Energy the WHOLE GAME. He had turn 2 Donphan, but no Energy for it. I slowly took 6 prizes with a Garchomp C LV.X. I Power Sprayed away any chances my opponent had of drawing into Energy with Uxie or Claydol.

I was hoping to Toxic his Donphan with my Crobat early on, but my inability to draw into Roseanne or Cyrus quashed that hope. It would have been nice to be able to do that, I just couldn’t pull it off. I still won though.

4-2

I ended up finishing 22nd, last out of all the 4-2′s. Overall I had a great day as I became somewhat comfortable using Luxchomp and my friends all did really well. Quaziko got 2nd, Brian B and Kyle M made top 4, Ryan V and Josh F made top 8, and Ian made top 16. Hopefully quaziko will write about his 2nd place finish (hint hint).

Thanks for reading and be sure to send in your States reports this week! I will get them posted, but may only be able to include 1 or 2 pictures max.