Jason Chen’s Pasadena Cities Report

Why should you care about a 3-2 City Championships report?! Well three reasons, 1) the SECRET TECH and DECK LIST, 2) there’s nothing better to do yet, and 3) it’s written by me!

So anyway, after getting fat on “deconstructed Thanksgiving turkey” and some amazing pumpkin pie, I decided to stop by Pasadena City Championships. Gengar/Vileplume was my choice after limited testing; I had thought about this deck before the set was released and I guess it was too obvious to keep secret for long.

My friends have come up with a lot stronger and more interesting deck ideas, but I didn’t have the cards to play them and wanted to keep it simple for Cities. Since I hadn’t tested much since Nationals, I ended up going with the same list I originally designed. I also lacked Triumphant cards, but ended up putting a Triumphant Haunter in my list for fun.

I walked 30 minutes to the tournament venue, but ended up getting there too early and playing in the library instead. I started to study some stuff as well, but due to the slowness of my deck that did not go too well. This cool guy named Java gives me a Haunter Triumphant to finish my deck as well!!! Eventually I am registered but the tournament is delayed 3 hours for lack of space. After meeting up with some cool people named Jason and Brandon at a Subway, we return and my opponent round one is:

Jason vs. Chad Harris (Gyarados)
I knew he was playing Gyarados because I saw a Combee on the bottom of his deck. I tried to call my friends to get some key tips on the matchup but they ignored me. I knew that Gyarados’s strategy against me was to just use Regice to get rid of their cards, so that was what I was thinking pre-game.

He started off with Smeargle, copying my Collector for a Regice and 2 Magikarps and going with that. I whiff on the Psychic Energy to Shadow Room his benched Magikarp with 30 HP and just start to set up instead. He gets his stuff out, and my attempt to stall him by dragging up his Regice with Froslass GL is foiled by Warp Energy (which I think he topdecked, because I don’t remember seeing with Looker’s). He laughs at me for playing Froslass, but I am not one to care about other’s opinions.

He does the annoying Regice discard 2 Trainers every turn, but I am able to kill his Gyarados with Crobat to circumvent his Rescue Energy. From then I thought I had control, he had 4 Pokemon on his Bench and had to rely on Combee to get out his Gyarados. I knew this and I had tried to just spread as much damage with Compound Pain as possible without killing his Bench, so I set up with a lot of Shadow Rooms.

Eventually, however, Chad pulls a pro move on me by Impersonating for Seeker and pulling some stuff back up, giving him room for the Combee. With Gyarados staring me in the face, I start finishing off his Bench with Shadow Room. Time is called sometime in there, Chad kills my Gengar, I whiff the Fainting Spell flip for the win. I promote Vileplume, knowing it is the one thing he can’t kill, giving me an extra turn (I can get out with Warp Energy). My next draw, and whiff on a Haunter so I can win (at this point, we are playing Sudden Death). Nothing in play can survive another Tail Revenge, so I lose.

0-1

Now I was 0-1 at a Battle Roads and won the next 6 games to go 6-1 and whiff cut, so I was upset that the same thing may have happened here. And though I whiffed a lot of stuff, props to Chad because I had the matchup advantage (I think). If I had hit the flips or the topdecks, I’d just be lucky and he would be the one who whiffed, so it’s all good. Now just gotta win 4 more games, starting with:

Jason vs. Jason (Garchomp SV/Crobat Prime/Blaze FB)
I played my friend who I ate with at Subway named Jason. He was playing some Garchomp SV/Crobat Prime/Blaze FB stuff. I thought it was pretty cool, I remember he decided to try to save his Crobat and risk Fainting Spell with his Garchomp, which I hit, and it kind of went downhill from there. He made a mini-comeback using Blaze FB stall, since I can’t hit Energies, but I win.

1-1

I’m feeling okay, even though I beat my friend. That’s just how the cookie crumbles. I’m confident that my resistance will be alright, so I head into the next match knowing it’s win or go home.

Jason vs. Simon Adams (Weavile/Blaziken/Garchomp)
My opening hand is Oddish, 5 Psychic (I play 6 total), and a Looker’s. Luckily, I get to go second and use Looker’s to rescue my terrible hand. I get down on prizes early 6-3, but once I lock his Trainers (and he can’t draw into Supporters), I am able to come back to 1-3 on Prizes when time+3 is called.

2-1

Everything’s going as I had planned, and I continue my streak of close-ish wins! I also notice a strange guy that looks JUST like Hurley from Lost.

Jason vs. Saul Avilla
He had a Bronzong start vs. my Spiritomb, so I decided to take my merry time to set up. I get out everything while he is stuck there, until he comes up with a strategy to start attacking me with Bronzong (I had to bench Froslass so he saw it *sadface*). Eventually he uses Cyrus for Bebe’s to get Dialga G LV.X, I run out of Looker’s, and he almost comes back! I topdeck a Gengar LV.X, but he gets Dialga back again, and empties all of the trainers from his hand again and again. He kills my card as time is called, and draws his prize clearly after.

I just kill some random Uxie on the first turn, and I’m up 1-3 on Prizes. He does Remove Lost and Lost Zones both my Energies on Gengar LV.X, but I tell him that time is up since it ended on his turn. He had thought that the time was called after but accepted my explanation. I don’t like to win on time, but I need this W and was afraid he would topdeck Dialga again and set up Garchomp for the tie and possible win. I needed this one and I got it.

3-1

One more game to top cut. Can I do it?!

Jason vs. Curtis Fu (Garchomp SV/Luxray GL)
I run into this newfangled bastard version of Luxchomp and I think it should be pretty easy. I get terrible starting cards despite using Mimic and a Professor Oak’s New Theory, and end up not getting a Turn 1 (or even Turn 2) Trainer Lock. Finally I get out Vileplume, but he retreats, uses Bright Look, Warp Energy, and KOs it. My remaining Oddish, Gloom, and Vileplume are all prized, and I am forced to play the game without trainer lock.

Eventually I get it down to 2-3 on Prizes, hitting the Fainting Spell flip, but my hand starts to suck as time is called. I try to use Froslass to pull out the win, but he uses Rare Candy to Garchomp to retreat his sleeping Gible and kill my Froslass, basically for the game. Killing my Vileplume is really what ended me. 3-2

So I’m 3-2, it’s late, I whiffed cut again and I head home. I learned a couple things from the tournament: 1) You need to test at least a little bit or else your playing skills may deteriorate, 2) you shouldn’t just assume because you’re Jason Chen you can walk out of a tournament with 100 rating points and 18 packs like in the old days, and 3) Gengar/Vileplume is a really bad deck in the 30+3 format. It is too slow, and vulnerable to killing of the Vileplume and Regice and all manner of annoying techs.

I was actually really impressed with my opponents, every game I played was interesting and close, but it really wore me out by the end. Props to everyone, Java, Brandon, Jason. Slops to the tournament group for delaying the event for 3 hours, telling me I can’t write obnoxious notes every time I Looker’s or Time Walk (which I ignored), and for printer failures which caused more delay (which, credit to them, they fixed).

Overall I had a good time but upset that I whiffed cut at a Cities.

Anyway in case you haven’t figured it out, the secret tech is Froslass GL. He’s just like Blaziken FB except he can use Psychic Energies, his Sleep status condition gives you a 50% chance of stall, and he’s a random Water Pokemon in your deck. My list (I haven’t seen anyone else’s list, so I don’t know if this is standard or not, also not updated with TM cards):