Fall Battle Road Report
Greenwood, Indiana
9/19/09
Master’s Division
Graham “Poteet24″ Poteet
Well after playing half a season last year, I was obviously excited as soon as I saw the Battle Roads Schedule. The only problem is, I had NO idea what I was going to play even up to a couple days before…
The metagame is so diverse right now with all sorts of decks that can compete depending on what shows up… Flygon, LuxApe, BlazeRay, Gengar, Beedrill, Palkia G, any SP deck can be good enough with its engine.
I finally pick back up the Beedrill
So I drive down solo to Greenwood, and see Dustin Z. there, obviously was expecting this. Also see Kyle L, and a couple other guys I saw at the end of last year.
I believe before any drops or anything the final count for masters was right around 23. 5 Rounds Swiss. Top Cut of 4.
Here’s my list:
| Pokemon-19 4 Weedle GE 4 Kakuna RR 2 Beedrill GE 2 Beedrill RR 2 Baltoy GE 2 Claydol GE 2 Uxie LA 1 Azelf LA |
T/S/S-35 4 Broken Time Space 4 Roseanne’s Research 4 Bebe’s Search 4 Super Scoop Up 4 Dusk Ball 4 PlusPower 4 Night Maintenance 3 Rare Candy 3 Warp Point 1 Luxury Ball |
Energy-6 6 Grass Energy |
One thing you may notice is the absence of Unown G. I didn’t think Gengar would be played much, if at all, so the two I did have in it, got cut out for more important cards.
So here goes the first event of the 09-10 season!
Round One
Tim [Mothim/Shaymin]
I’ve played Tim before and he’s a real nice guy. I go first and I draw two basics…Baltoy and Azelf. Not really what I was looking for. I pass. He starts with a Roserade GL, and uses that first attack that poisons and prevents retreat. I evolve into Claydol to ditch the poison and start the swarm. I warp out Claydol and I think I got two drills up, because I know next turn he used the same attack on my active Drill. I get that out of the way and he gets out a Shaymin Lv X, the one with “Revenge Seed”. He gets a KO on my Bee, but I get four up again and return the KO, he blocks with a Burmy next turn, and powers up another Shaymin. After the Burmy is gone he sends up Shaymin and gets another KO on a Beedrill. But I do have the NM, so I get the fourth back up, and sweep his bench from this turn.
Win [1-0]
Round Two
Holly [Charizard G]
I was obviously a little scared when a fire Pokemon was flipped over. She starts Cyndaquil active and with a benched Charizard. I don’t remember too much of this game. Obviously the deck calls for Typhlosions to pass energies to a Charizard G Lv X. Unfortunately, Beedrill was too fast. After getting a stutter start on Turn two. I was all up and running on three, and swept from there.
Win [2-0]
Round Three
Penny [Electivire FB/Raichu]
A very similar strategy to the Charizard deck. Requiring a setup of energies in the discard to get going. Using the Raichu to discard them for 30 a piece mid/late game. Again Beedrill was too fast, and I was up and running turn three again for the sweep.
Win [3-0]
Round Four
Dustin Z. [Dialga G/Garchomp C]
Excellent, I play the guy who finished number one in Indiana last season. I’ve talked to him just a tad. But he’s been super awesome to me since then. I knew regardless of what he would be playing it would be tough.
I start Weedle and some other exciting things and I go first. Ending my turn with an active Weedle, a benched one from Call for Family and a Baltoy. He KOs my active Weedle with Crobat stuff and Claw Swipe. I top deck Claydol, and evolve. Seeing the benched Dialga, I knew I had to get running before any kind of attempt to Deafen me in to submission. So I decide I’m going to get as many Drills out now as I can, no matter how many Super Scoop Ups I have to burn, Plus Powers I waste, and anything else I can do. I do pretty well and when all is said and done I’m sitting on Three Beedrills and a Kakuna. I KO his Garchomp. He struggles from here to find some Pokemon to lean on and I hold on and get far enough ahead for the win.
Win [4-0]
Round Five
Mike [Porygon Z]
This game was kind of a dud on both our ends. His prizes are pretty bad, and I had to get Azelf down three times to get my Bee-parts out of my prizes before being able to do anything. After a very slow start we trade a couple prizes, but I finally get ahead, as seeing my prizes were a huge help.
Win [5-0]
Awesome, I’m going to be top seed of top cut, being the only undefeated player in Swiss. Our top 4 were
1. Graham P.
2. Dustin Z.
3. Holly (Forgot your last name. Sorry)
4. Kyle L.
So I see that I get to play Kyle L. in the first round of top cut. We get a lunch break before, so I go to Taco Bell and grab some food and come back.
Round Six
Top Four
Kyle L. [Palkia G/Luxray/Pixes]
Well this is sort of bittersweet. Kyle is one of the people I contribute my ability to learn the game fairly quickly to. I don’t have many people to play in my area, so I have talked to him quite a bit and he’s done more than I could ever ask for in helping me come along, understanding how the Pokemon meta shifts and much more. And of course, our first time actually playing would be in a top cut.
Well, I knew this was going to be another tough one. So we start. I pull off a decent trick Turn two, involving a dumping of my hand, while locked, retreating an active Azelf, and promoting a Baltoy. I attach the Baltoy and then Psychic Balance from zero to five. Unfortunately, I can’t find anything. He effectively Mes-locks me for the first three turns or so, and gets a good lead on me and I couldn’t find a supporter when I could use powers (ie Uxie) so I scoop when he’s up like 5-3 on me about 15 minutes in.
0-1
Game two goes a little better. I get through the first few turns of Mes-lock. Quickly getting set up after the lock breaks. I get three Beedrills up as soon as lock breaks. He gets a Palkia G out and keeps Splashing Turning to the bench, but I’m KO’ing whatever he sends active, and he scoops when I’m up like 4-2.
1-1
Rough start for him. Two Unown Gs. I get setup much easier though this game as I never see a Mesprit until around Turn 5. He also seems to be struggling to get to supporters, and I also misplay by looking for a Claydol instead of an Azelf to get my fourth Beedrill that’s in my prizes. I Super Scoop Up to make room, and go and get my fourth Beedrill. I take the lead and hold it and he scoops down a few prizes.
2-1
Win [6-0]
Well Dustin wins his match and its down to us in the Top Two…
Dustin Z. [Dialga G/Garchomp C]
After beating himself up for not Deafening turn one our first game, I knew this game was going to be super difficult. Sure enough first game he deafens for a good 5-10 turns. I don’t remember how long, but it was forever. That of course slows me down a ton. Unable to use my Dusk Balls, I’m only effectively searching with Bebe’s Search. I go after Claydol and he Power Sprays it a couple of turns in a row. I scoop after misplaying an energy attachment when I’m down like 5-3.
0-1
Game two was almost exactly like one. We get to time and he’s up on two prizes on me. Deafening whenever he gets a KO making Night Maintenance worthless. He played it all brilliantly. Not a surprise.
0-2
Loss [6-1]
Well, second isn’t too bad to begin the year, and losing to Dustin isn’t exactly anything to be ashamed of, so I get my four packs and head on out, looking forward to week two up in Angola.
