I'm too lazy to make multiple threads for all my different events so I'm just going to update the prefix + links in OP. huehue.
Season cp: 90/300
ANYWAYS, onto my 2014-2015 season thusfar. A tl;dr version of what I've done so far:
~Played like 0 league challenges
~5-4 at fall Regionals with Yveltal/Garbodor
~2-3 at first cities with Donphan
~Top 8'd the next 3 in a row with Yveltal/Garb
I'll be doing a report on the Cities where I got 2nd place (spoiler alert) because it's the only one I remember in the present moment, and I'll update with any other cities I go to as well as league challenges, regionals, states, and nationals. n_n Anyways, onto the actual report!
Pregame:
Shoutout to my ride, Michael, to this event. I actually wasn't planning on attending, but he was kind enough to take me despite extremely short notice. Anyways, a bunch of us up at our card store in Green Bay before hand - Me, Michael, my friends Alex and Yoshi (who you'll hear about in later reports, I'm sure), as well as about 5 others from my store. We all carpooled down to Schofield together; took 2 vehicles. It wasn't a bad drive, only like an hour and a half.
After my first cities went poorly with Donphan, I immediately knew I wasn't going to play it. The entire Wisconsin meta was revolving around beating donphan - Seismitoad/Crobat, Yveltal, and Fairybox were the new "big 3" in my area, while the scrubs played a plethora of Donphan and Virizion/Genesect. After talking to my good friend Jeffery Cheng on Skype (some scrub who top 8'd worlds?) I decided I would be playing Yveltal/Garbodor. Jeffery made a few suggestions to my list, and literally all of them came in handy throughout the cities marathon. Jeffery suggested my 3rd VS Seeker, my lone bicycle, the Flare Grunt, and the 2nd Seismitoad.
The deck had 2 stellar performances in a row at the Green Bay and Ashwaubenon cities, top 8ing both times. Unfortunately, some out of staters rolled in with Mega Manectric/Fighting, and I happened to play against it both times immediately in Top 8. Oh well. Fast-Forwarding once again to Schofield, the MegaMan/fighting players weren't there, so I would have a clean shot at the metagame I predicted I'd be facing in my other cities. Upon arrival, I turned in my decklist, purchased some fairy cards of my own (3 Aromatisse and 2 baby Xerneas), and then the tournament began! 30 Masters, just missing the 32 mark, where top 8 would get CP. As I said earlier, I'm playing Yveltal/Garbodor, and this would be my list:
Format: 45 minutes (lol?) Best of 3, +3 turns
Round 1: vs ???, Gourgeist/Meowstic
Game 1:
When we initially flipped our basics over to start the game, I got SOOOO scared. Partially because I'm always nervous before round 1 of every tournament, but also because he started Sigilyph/Pumpkaboo to my Yveltal EX, and I immediately assumed he was playing Night March. Fortunately, this wasn't the case. He never really got anything going this game, and I kept Oblivion Winging his Dark-weak Pumpkaboo and his Sigilyph for easy prizes. He conceded pretty early on to go right to game 2.
Game 2:
He had a much better start this time, and got multiple Gourgeists out, but I didn't understand why he kept using Eerie Voice for the 20 spread. Twice I would have assumed that he would have liked to use the 2nd attack, which puts my Active down to 10 HP, but I assumed at the time he just didn't have any lasers to play. I started Seismitoad, but got Garbodor out immediately, so I wouldn't be stalled out by Sigilyph. Baby Yveltal and the EX followed suit. I had a full bench by turn 3ish, and my opponent kept spreading 20.
It was about turn 5 when my opponent played Espurr down on the field for the first time, and I kind of went "uhh... aight." Didn't think about it too much. Then he evolved into Meowstic on his next turn, and I asked to read it. "Move as many damage counters as you like on your opponent's pokemon to any of your opponent's other pokemon in any way you like." I looked down at my field, and realized I had 330 damage sitting in play. Needless to say, I immediately Lysandre'd that fool up and KO'd it. When the 2nd Espurr hit the field, I immediately VS Seeker + Lysandre'd that one up and KO'd it too. My opponent conceded pretty quickly after that.
1-0
Round 2: vs Claire Cheng, Metal
Game 1:
Claire started a Bronzor against my active Seismitoad. She got an Aegislash out on turn 1, but was unable to retreat her active Bronzor. I was fortunate enought o hit LaserBank + DCE, so I got a turn 1 Quaking Punch KO on the Bronzor. (And a baby Yveltal in play.) Turn 2 she got another Bronzor out and an attachment to Aegislash, but not much more. My 2nd turn, I flubbed up. I could have Escape Roped, and put Muscle Band onto my benched Baby Yveltal, getting a turn 2 Oblivion Wing kill on her 2nd Bronzor, but I stupidly put it on my active Seismitoad instead. Quaking Punch for 50 wasn't bad, though. I kept the lock on for as long as I could, and it appeared to delay her setup quite a bit. I benched a couple Yveltal EX and a Trubbish, and started piling up energy. She eventually got Bronzong out and was able to Metal Links to a Dialga, and came out with Chrono Wind which prevented me from using Quaking Punch any more.
I was able to get a Darkrai in play and retreat to Yeltal EX, Y-Cycloned to conserve energy. Claire Brought Seismitoad back up with Lysandre, and Chrono Winded for KO. Responded with a Y-Cyclone KO. Which was respnded to with a Full Metal Impact KO. Which was responded to with an Evil Ball ko. At this point, it's a struggle to see who can get the next attacker up to take their last prize cards. She stalls with an Aegislash for a bit, but I Y-cyclone my DCE off of Yveltal so that it's free to attack the Aegislash. A few turns later, I draw into Lysandre to bring up a Bronzong and knock it out for my last prize.
Game 2:
Game 1 took like 45 minutes, so we didn't get too far. Even with the +3, both of us still had like 4 or 5 prize cards left, so I took the match.
2-0
Round 3: vs Troy Lesky, Seismitoad/Slurpuff
Game 1:
He opens a lone Swirlix and doesn't get very much going. The game only lasted 3 or 4 turns before I KO'd his last pokemon in play.
Game 2:
Troy opens much stronger this game, but my Garbodor prevents his Slurpuff from drawing cards, so it's basically just Yveltal vs Quad Seismitoad. Yveltal eventually just out-trades him, and I'm able to get all 6 prizes. Evil Ball > Quaking Punch.
3-0
Round 4: vs Mike Lesky, Straight Yveltal
Game 1:
I'm a bit annoyed that I FINALLY go 3-0, and put myself in a position where an ID guarantees me top cut, but there's no other 3-0 to ID with. lol. Mike's 2-0-1. Anyways, we both start baby Yveltal, but I can see right from the get-go that this is unfavorable for me. Garbodor doesn't do anything in this matchup, so between the 2-2 line and the Float Stones, I've got 6 dead spots in my deck while Mike has 6 slots to do whatever he wants. One of those spots is probably a 4th Muscle band, because he had one on baby Yveltal like turn 2 every game we played.
His baby Yveltal out-trades mine because he can 2HKO me with Muscle Band + LaserBank, while mine is a pitiful 5HKO. (I can laser him, but he can free retreat into his other Baby Yveltal thanks to Darkrai EX.) His setup includes 2 Yveltal EX, a 2nd Baby, and a Darkrai on his bench, which is rather impressive compared to my singular Yveltal EX and Darkrai EX. It Seem's Mike is always one step ahead of me in this matchup. Every Time I'm ready to come swinging with an Yveltal EX, he's got a backup on his bench to Y-Cyclone to, while I never do. I'm forced to go for the super YOLO Evil Ball KO option a lot, because I've got nobody to Y-Cyclone to. This results in him being able to remove all my energy from play. He's able to maintain the lead and seal game 1, which is another game that takes ~35 minutes.
Game 2:
We both get full set ups, but Mike's able to stall for time with Head Ringers + Prize Denial via retreating. Time runs out and I'm unable to take all of my prize cards.
3-1
Round 5: vs Emily Cheng, Donphan
Seniors are looped with masters, so I'm paired up against Emily this round. (Which of course means I still can't ID lol!) Fortunately, it's against one of my best matchups, in Donphan.
Game 1:
I started Seismitoad and Quaking Punch the bejeebus out of her. I'm able to Lysandre up multiple Phanpy and OHKO them. She plays until I take 6 prizes, so quite a bit of time runs off the clock in this game, since I have to take my prizes 1 at a time.
Game 2:
I have an absolutely appalling start. Lone Trubbish is my active. I have no supporters, but I do have Ultra Ball!!! ...only to find out that my Jirachi EX is prized. Despite my terrible start, I do play the entire game out. I know that I can scoop and have a high chance of winning game 3, but I only need a draw to guarantee myself top cut, so I force Emily to take all 6 prizes this game. I do eventually draw into a supporter, and get stuff like Seismitoad and Baby Yveltal out, but it's not enough to win the game. Emily eventually takes all her prizes and we go on to game 3.
Game 3:
I have a relatively normal setup, with Baby Yveltal active and some Dark energy in the discard, Oblivion Winging stuff onto my Yveltal EX. Max Potion comes in handy this game, as she spinning turns until there's 120 on my active Baby Yveltal, and I'm able to just heal it and stack some more energy. Time is called, and when turn 3 is over, I've only got 1 prize card left. We tie, which is all I needed for my 3rd consecutive top cut.
3-1-1, 4th seed in Top 8
Before top 8 begins, my group goes to Taco Bell. Alex and Yoshi both made cut alongside me. Alex making cut is the most hilarious thing, becuase his deck is literally just a binder drop deck. It's got Manectric, Pyroar, both the EX and the baby Landorus, Hawlucha, Terrakion, Mewtwo, Seismitoad... I think there might have even been a 1-1 Garbodor in it. And of course he's paired against Claire who's playing Metal, so it's basically a free win. I don't know how he does it.
Top 8: vs Timothy Eberhardt, Flareon/Cofagrigus
Game 1:
At first, I was questioning how this deck got into top cut, but it's apparent from the get-go that he's running pretty hot. Even during his "less-than-ideal" setup, he's got enough pokemon in his discard pile to be hitting for 160 on like turn 3. I spent the first 2 turns going ham with Baby Yveltal + Muscle Band + LaserBank on the little basics he had out, and got 2 early prizes. I knew I wanted to be ahead on prizes as much as I could. He takes out my baby Yveltal with a Leafeon, becuase he just couldn't draw into any Flareons. Fortunately, as I said earlier, his Flareon (which he takes off of his prizes) can only hit for 160, which is 10 damage short of a KO, so he's unable to immediately respond to my active Yveltal EX, which takes out his Leafeon, as well as the Flareon that hits for 160. At this point, I can take trades willy-nilly, so I just KO anything he has active, and take the response KOs he can bring. I win the game 2 prizes to 0.
Game 2:
He opts to go first, and starts Emolga, immediately Calls for Family and gets out 2 Eevee. I get baby Yveltal @Muscle Band once again, and start using Lysandre to bring up Eevees and KO them. Baby Yveltal takes out 2 before it goes down. Because I'm able to bring up 2 Eevees, he's only got 2 Flareons for this game to take all of his prize cards, and he's just unable. I win this game 1 prize to 0. I was very impressed how close he was able to make these games despite playing a deck considered to be terrible.
Yoshi (Seismitoad/Crobat) lost to a guy named Caleb (Fairybox) in top 8, and Alex somehow managed to defeat himself and lose to Claire Cheng in top 8. I guess Pyroar isn't actually an autowin against Metal. This means I'm the only person from Green Bay left in top cut. Gotta rep.
Top 4: vs Mike Lesky (Straight Yveltal)
Game 1:
This goes very similarly to our swiss game. He gets a baby Yveltal up early and is able to out-trade my baby Yveltals again. Once again, he gets multiple Yveltal EX out, and is able to Y-cyclone between them, while I'm forced to go for the super YOLO Evil Ball KOs once again, which allows him to remove all of my energy from play. I scoop to save time and go into game 2.
Game 2:
This time we both start Yveltal @Muscle Band, and start trading Oblivion Wing for 50s. I'm fortunate enough this time to also be able to get multiple Yveltal EX out at the same pace as he does. This works in my favor because my list runs Max Potion while his doesn't, so after I Y-Cyclone to my bench (just like he does!), I'm able to free retreat + heal all the damage off. Mike Junipers and draws into double head ringer, which puts a bit of a hole into my plan. Time is eventually called when I've got 4 prizes left. Mike had just Lysandred a Seismitoad active to trap it. I remember Ultra Balling and thinking about what I needed to win: An energy (which there was only 1 of in my deck), an Escape Rope (which there is also only one of) to get Toad out of the active spot, a Lysandre, for the last 2 prizes, and a Laser to get an OHKO on whatever he has active after I Escape Rope. I juniper and hit everything, score the KO to take 2 of my last prizes. Mike pushes up Seismitoad because it's got the most HP of anything left on his board, and I VS Seeker a Lysandre to get the win.
Sudden Death match:
We both start (surprise, lol!) baby Yveltal. Unfortunately for Mike, the only supporter he has in his hand is Colress, so while I set up normally, he has to Colress for 3, and just doesn't hit what he needs. I'm able to get energy on an Yveltal EX and just repeatedly Evil Ball until he's out of ways to retreat.
Caleb defeats Claire in top 4, so my opponent will be playing Fairybox against my Yveltal/Garbodor for the championship match.
Finals: vs Caleb Gedemer, Fairybox
Game 1:
This was a great game. We both get set up pretty normally. Caleb gets Manectric out, so I avoid attaching tools to any of my Yveltals. I Lysandre up his Manectric EX and Evil Ball it for like 100. He's forced to Assault Laser for 160, which is 10 short of an OHKO, but he's able to Max Potion the damage off, so his Manectric gets 2 prizes, and before it goes down, he's able to Lysandre something else for 2 more prizes. This play was game-brekaing for me. Caleb Knows Garb can come out, so he puts 4 energy onto an Yveltal EX via Fairy Trans. My current, active, Yveltal EX has 3 energy and a Muscle Band that I just attached, so I have an OHKO on his Yveltal EX while he is 10 short. I N'd Caleb to 2, so the odds that he has an Energy or a Muscle Band are very Low, but if he does, he'll be able to OHKO me in response. Instead of going for the super YOLO Evil Ball play, I decide to be safe and Y-Cyclone a DCE to a benched Yveltal. It turns out Caleb doesn't have the energy, just another N. He gets a Juniper off of his N, and plays it on his next turn, and is able to Megaphone the Float Stone off of my Garbodor. After this, he's safely able to move his energy in any way he wants, and I'm unable to OHKO anything. Game 1 takes ~35 minutes, so i concede immediately to try and get a full game 2 in.
Game 2:
We both get pretty full setups once again, but I'm unable to take all 6 of my prizes before time is called. Thanks to Dark resistance and Max Potion, Caleb is able to play into time pretty easily, and he becomes the City Champ. Huge congrats to Caleb, who played very well.
Final Record: 3-1-1 Swiss, 5-2-1 after Top Cut, 2nd out of 30 masters.
40 CP earned, now at 80/300
Closing Thoughts:
This tournament was very well run, and the venue was sweet. I'm happy I don't live in Schofield, or I'd probably be broke. I was unable to repeat my 2nd place finish, so I ended my cities run the next day going 2-2-1 (booooo hammer + laser heads), but this cities will be the one I remember the most. It's the best I've done at a tournament in a long time, and I made very few misplays, so I'm hoping this can carry over to Regionals + stuff. n_n
Props:
~Michael for giving me a ride last-minute
~The venue was AWESOME
~Yoshi for being Yoshi
~Bunker and his BinderDrop.dec
~Getting 2nd
~Free breakfast the next morning
~The entire Cheng family that showed up from Cali were all really cool people
~Jeffery for helping with my decklist. Flare Grunt won me like 5 games over the entire marathon lol
Slops:
~We let Caleb win a tournament
~All the heads I flipped against Mike in top 4 came back and bit me the next day
~My pulls in my 20 packs for 2nd were worse than my pulls from my 4 packs for top 8 the day before
~Could have won if I went for the super YOLO Evil Ball in finals
~Bunker losing to Claire in top 8 (lol Metal beating Pyroar)
~45 minutes is dumb. That 5 minutes is actually pretty huge.
Season cp: 90/300
ANYWAYS, onto my 2014-2015 season thusfar. A tl;dr version of what I've done so far:
~Played like 0 league challenges
~5-4 at fall Regionals with Yveltal/Garbodor
~2-3 at first cities with Donphan
~Top 8'd the next 3 in a row with Yveltal/Garb
I'll be doing a report on the Cities where I got 2nd place (spoiler alert) because it's the only one I remember in the present moment, and I'll update with any other cities I go to as well as league challenges, regionals, states, and nationals. n_n Anyways, onto the actual report!
City Championships: Johnny Cee Cards, Schofield, WI
Pregame:
Shoutout to my ride, Michael, to this event. I actually wasn't planning on attending, but he was kind enough to take me despite extremely short notice. Anyways, a bunch of us up at our card store in Green Bay before hand - Me, Michael, my friends Alex and Yoshi (who you'll hear about in later reports, I'm sure), as well as about 5 others from my store. We all carpooled down to Schofield together; took 2 vehicles. It wasn't a bad drive, only like an hour and a half.
After my first cities went poorly with Donphan, I immediately knew I wasn't going to play it. The entire Wisconsin meta was revolving around beating donphan - Seismitoad/Crobat, Yveltal, and Fairybox were the new "big 3" in my area, while the scrubs played a plethora of Donphan and Virizion/Genesect. After talking to my good friend Jeffery Cheng on Skype (some scrub who top 8'd worlds?) I decided I would be playing Yveltal/Garbodor. Jeffery made a few suggestions to my list, and literally all of them came in handy throughout the cities marathon. Jeffery suggested my 3rd VS Seeker, my lone bicycle, the Flare Grunt, and the 2nd Seismitoad.
The deck had 2 stellar performances in a row at the Green Bay and Ashwaubenon cities, top 8ing both times. Unfortunately, some out of staters rolled in with Mega Manectric/Fighting, and I happened to play against it both times immediately in Top 8. Oh well. Fast-Forwarding once again to Schofield, the MegaMan/fighting players weren't there, so I would have a clean shot at the metagame I predicted I'd be facing in my other cities. Upon arrival, I turned in my decklist, purchased some fairy cards of my own (3 Aromatisse and 2 baby Xerneas), and then the tournament began! 30 Masters, just missing the 32 mark, where top 8 would get CP. As I said earlier, I'm playing Yveltal/Garbodor, and this would be my list:
3 Yveltal EX
2 Baby Yveltal
2 Seismitoad EX
2-2 Garbodor
1 Darkrai EX
1 Jirachi EX
4 Professor Juniper
4 N
2 Colress
2 Lysandre
1 Team Flare Grunt
3 Ultra Ball
3 VS Seeker
1 Bicycle
1 Computer Search
4 Hypnotoxic Laser
2 Virbank City Gym
3 Muscle Band
2 Float Stone
1 Professor's Letter
1 Escape Rope
1 Max Potion
8 Dark Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy
2 Baby Yveltal
2 Seismitoad EX
2-2 Garbodor
1 Darkrai EX
1 Jirachi EX
4 Professor Juniper
4 N
2 Colress
2 Lysandre
1 Team Flare Grunt
3 Ultra Ball
3 VS Seeker
1 Bicycle
1 Computer Search
4 Hypnotoxic Laser
2 Virbank City Gym
3 Muscle Band
2 Float Stone
1 Professor's Letter
1 Escape Rope
1 Max Potion
8 Dark Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy
Format: 45 minutes (lol?) Best of 3, +3 turns
Round 1: vs ???, Gourgeist/Meowstic
Game 1:
When we initially flipped our basics over to start the game, I got SOOOO scared. Partially because I'm always nervous before round 1 of every tournament, but also because he started Sigilyph/Pumpkaboo to my Yveltal EX, and I immediately assumed he was playing Night March. Fortunately, this wasn't the case. He never really got anything going this game, and I kept Oblivion Winging his Dark-weak Pumpkaboo and his Sigilyph for easy prizes. He conceded pretty early on to go right to game 2.
Game 2:
He had a much better start this time, and got multiple Gourgeists out, but I didn't understand why he kept using Eerie Voice for the 20 spread. Twice I would have assumed that he would have liked to use the 2nd attack, which puts my Active down to 10 HP, but I assumed at the time he just didn't have any lasers to play. I started Seismitoad, but got Garbodor out immediately, so I wouldn't be stalled out by Sigilyph. Baby Yveltal and the EX followed suit. I had a full bench by turn 3ish, and my opponent kept spreading 20.
It was about turn 5 when my opponent played Espurr down on the field for the first time, and I kind of went "uhh... aight." Didn't think about it too much. Then he evolved into Meowstic on his next turn, and I asked to read it. "Move as many damage counters as you like on your opponent's pokemon to any of your opponent's other pokemon in any way you like." I looked down at my field, and realized I had 330 damage sitting in play. Needless to say, I immediately Lysandre'd that fool up and KO'd it. When the 2nd Espurr hit the field, I immediately VS Seeker + Lysandre'd that one up and KO'd it too. My opponent conceded pretty quickly after that.
1-0
Round 2: vs Claire Cheng, Metal
Game 1:
Claire started a Bronzor against my active Seismitoad. She got an Aegislash out on turn 1, but was unable to retreat her active Bronzor. I was fortunate enought o hit LaserBank + DCE, so I got a turn 1 Quaking Punch KO on the Bronzor. (And a baby Yveltal in play.) Turn 2 she got another Bronzor out and an attachment to Aegislash, but not much more. My 2nd turn, I flubbed up. I could have Escape Roped, and put Muscle Band onto my benched Baby Yveltal, getting a turn 2 Oblivion Wing kill on her 2nd Bronzor, but I stupidly put it on my active Seismitoad instead. Quaking Punch for 50 wasn't bad, though. I kept the lock on for as long as I could, and it appeared to delay her setup quite a bit. I benched a couple Yveltal EX and a Trubbish, and started piling up energy. She eventually got Bronzong out and was able to Metal Links to a Dialga, and came out with Chrono Wind which prevented me from using Quaking Punch any more.
I was able to get a Darkrai in play and retreat to Yeltal EX, Y-Cycloned to conserve energy. Claire Brought Seismitoad back up with Lysandre, and Chrono Winded for KO. Responded with a Y-Cyclone KO. Which was respnded to with a Full Metal Impact KO. Which was responded to with an Evil Ball ko. At this point, it's a struggle to see who can get the next attacker up to take their last prize cards. She stalls with an Aegislash for a bit, but I Y-cyclone my DCE off of Yveltal so that it's free to attack the Aegislash. A few turns later, I draw into Lysandre to bring up a Bronzong and knock it out for my last prize.
Game 2:
Game 1 took like 45 minutes, so we didn't get too far. Even with the +3, both of us still had like 4 or 5 prize cards left, so I took the match.
2-0
Round 3: vs Troy Lesky, Seismitoad/Slurpuff
Game 1:
He opens a lone Swirlix and doesn't get very much going. The game only lasted 3 or 4 turns before I KO'd his last pokemon in play.
Game 2:
Troy opens much stronger this game, but my Garbodor prevents his Slurpuff from drawing cards, so it's basically just Yveltal vs Quad Seismitoad. Yveltal eventually just out-trades him, and I'm able to get all 6 prizes. Evil Ball > Quaking Punch.
3-0
Round 4: vs Mike Lesky, Straight Yveltal
Game 1:
I'm a bit annoyed that I FINALLY go 3-0, and put myself in a position where an ID guarantees me top cut, but there's no other 3-0 to ID with. lol. Mike's 2-0-1. Anyways, we both start baby Yveltal, but I can see right from the get-go that this is unfavorable for me. Garbodor doesn't do anything in this matchup, so between the 2-2 line and the Float Stones, I've got 6 dead spots in my deck while Mike has 6 slots to do whatever he wants. One of those spots is probably a 4th Muscle band, because he had one on baby Yveltal like turn 2 every game we played.
His baby Yveltal out-trades mine because he can 2HKO me with Muscle Band + LaserBank, while mine is a pitiful 5HKO. (I can laser him, but he can free retreat into his other Baby Yveltal thanks to Darkrai EX.) His setup includes 2 Yveltal EX, a 2nd Baby, and a Darkrai on his bench, which is rather impressive compared to my singular Yveltal EX and Darkrai EX. It Seem's Mike is always one step ahead of me in this matchup. Every Time I'm ready to come swinging with an Yveltal EX, he's got a backup on his bench to Y-Cyclone to, while I never do. I'm forced to go for the super YOLO Evil Ball KO option a lot, because I've got nobody to Y-Cyclone to. This results in him being able to remove all my energy from play. He's able to maintain the lead and seal game 1, which is another game that takes ~35 minutes.
Game 2:
We both get full set ups, but Mike's able to stall for time with Head Ringers + Prize Denial via retreating. Time runs out and I'm unable to take all of my prize cards.
3-1
Round 5: vs Emily Cheng, Donphan
Seniors are looped with masters, so I'm paired up against Emily this round. (Which of course means I still can't ID lol!) Fortunately, it's against one of my best matchups, in Donphan.
Game 1:
I started Seismitoad and Quaking Punch the bejeebus out of her. I'm able to Lysandre up multiple Phanpy and OHKO them. She plays until I take 6 prizes, so quite a bit of time runs off the clock in this game, since I have to take my prizes 1 at a time.
Game 2:
I have an absolutely appalling start. Lone Trubbish is my active. I have no supporters, but I do have Ultra Ball!!! ...only to find out that my Jirachi EX is prized. Despite my terrible start, I do play the entire game out. I know that I can scoop and have a high chance of winning game 3, but I only need a draw to guarantee myself top cut, so I force Emily to take all 6 prizes this game. I do eventually draw into a supporter, and get stuff like Seismitoad and Baby Yveltal out, but it's not enough to win the game. Emily eventually takes all her prizes and we go on to game 3.
Game 3:
I have a relatively normal setup, with Baby Yveltal active and some Dark energy in the discard, Oblivion Winging stuff onto my Yveltal EX. Max Potion comes in handy this game, as she spinning turns until there's 120 on my active Baby Yveltal, and I'm able to just heal it and stack some more energy. Time is called, and when turn 3 is over, I've only got 1 prize card left. We tie, which is all I needed for my 3rd consecutive top cut.
3-1-1, 4th seed in Top 8
Before top 8 begins, my group goes to Taco Bell. Alex and Yoshi both made cut alongside me. Alex making cut is the most hilarious thing, becuase his deck is literally just a binder drop deck. It's got Manectric, Pyroar, both the EX and the baby Landorus, Hawlucha, Terrakion, Mewtwo, Seismitoad... I think there might have even been a 1-1 Garbodor in it. And of course he's paired against Claire who's playing Metal, so it's basically a free win. I don't know how he does it.
Top 8: vs Timothy Eberhardt, Flareon/Cofagrigus
Game 1:
At first, I was questioning how this deck got into top cut, but it's apparent from the get-go that he's running pretty hot. Even during his "less-than-ideal" setup, he's got enough pokemon in his discard pile to be hitting for 160 on like turn 3. I spent the first 2 turns going ham with Baby Yveltal + Muscle Band + LaserBank on the little basics he had out, and got 2 early prizes. I knew I wanted to be ahead on prizes as much as I could. He takes out my baby Yveltal with a Leafeon, becuase he just couldn't draw into any Flareons. Fortunately, as I said earlier, his Flareon (which he takes off of his prizes) can only hit for 160, which is 10 damage short of a KO, so he's unable to immediately respond to my active Yveltal EX, which takes out his Leafeon, as well as the Flareon that hits for 160. At this point, I can take trades willy-nilly, so I just KO anything he has active, and take the response KOs he can bring. I win the game 2 prizes to 0.
Game 2:
He opts to go first, and starts Emolga, immediately Calls for Family and gets out 2 Eevee. I get baby Yveltal @Muscle Band once again, and start using Lysandre to bring up Eevees and KO them. Baby Yveltal takes out 2 before it goes down. Because I'm able to bring up 2 Eevees, he's only got 2 Flareons for this game to take all of his prize cards, and he's just unable. I win this game 1 prize to 0. I was very impressed how close he was able to make these games despite playing a deck considered to be terrible.
Yoshi (Seismitoad/Crobat) lost to a guy named Caleb (Fairybox) in top 8, and Alex somehow managed to defeat himself and lose to Claire Cheng in top 8. I guess Pyroar isn't actually an autowin against Metal. This means I'm the only person from Green Bay left in top cut. Gotta rep.
Top 4: vs Mike Lesky (Straight Yveltal)
Game 1:
This goes very similarly to our swiss game. He gets a baby Yveltal up early and is able to out-trade my baby Yveltals again. Once again, he gets multiple Yveltal EX out, and is able to Y-cyclone between them, while I'm forced to go for the super YOLO Evil Ball KOs once again, which allows him to remove all of my energy from play. I scoop to save time and go into game 2.
Game 2:
This time we both start Yveltal @Muscle Band, and start trading Oblivion Wing for 50s. I'm fortunate enough this time to also be able to get multiple Yveltal EX out at the same pace as he does. This works in my favor because my list runs Max Potion while his doesn't, so after I Y-Cyclone to my bench (just like he does!), I'm able to free retreat + heal all the damage off. Mike Junipers and draws into double head ringer, which puts a bit of a hole into my plan. Time is eventually called when I've got 4 prizes left. Mike had just Lysandred a Seismitoad active to trap it. I remember Ultra Balling and thinking about what I needed to win: An energy (which there was only 1 of in my deck), an Escape Rope (which there is also only one of) to get Toad out of the active spot, a Lysandre, for the last 2 prizes, and a Laser to get an OHKO on whatever he has active after I Escape Rope. I juniper and hit everything, score the KO to take 2 of my last prizes. Mike pushes up Seismitoad because it's got the most HP of anything left on his board, and I VS Seeker a Lysandre to get the win.
Sudden Death match:
We both start (surprise, lol!) baby Yveltal. Unfortunately for Mike, the only supporter he has in his hand is Colress, so while I set up normally, he has to Colress for 3, and just doesn't hit what he needs. I'm able to get energy on an Yveltal EX and just repeatedly Evil Ball until he's out of ways to retreat.
Caleb defeats Claire in top 4, so my opponent will be playing Fairybox against my Yveltal/Garbodor for the championship match.
Finals: vs Caleb Gedemer, Fairybox
Game 1:
This was a great game. We both get set up pretty normally. Caleb gets Manectric out, so I avoid attaching tools to any of my Yveltals. I Lysandre up his Manectric EX and Evil Ball it for like 100. He's forced to Assault Laser for 160, which is 10 short of an OHKO, but he's able to Max Potion the damage off, so his Manectric gets 2 prizes, and before it goes down, he's able to Lysandre something else for 2 more prizes. This play was game-brekaing for me. Caleb Knows Garb can come out, so he puts 4 energy onto an Yveltal EX via Fairy Trans. My current, active, Yveltal EX has 3 energy and a Muscle Band that I just attached, so I have an OHKO on his Yveltal EX while he is 10 short. I N'd Caleb to 2, so the odds that he has an Energy or a Muscle Band are very Low, but if he does, he'll be able to OHKO me in response. Instead of going for the super YOLO Evil Ball play, I decide to be safe and Y-Cyclone a DCE to a benched Yveltal. It turns out Caleb doesn't have the energy, just another N. He gets a Juniper off of his N, and plays it on his next turn, and is able to Megaphone the Float Stone off of my Garbodor. After this, he's safely able to move his energy in any way he wants, and I'm unable to OHKO anything. Game 1 takes ~35 minutes, so i concede immediately to try and get a full game 2 in.
Game 2:
We both get pretty full setups once again, but I'm unable to take all 6 of my prizes before time is called. Thanks to Dark resistance and Max Potion, Caleb is able to play into time pretty easily, and he becomes the City Champ. Huge congrats to Caleb, who played very well.
Final Record: 3-1-1 Swiss, 5-2-1 after Top Cut, 2nd out of 30 masters.
40 CP earned, now at 80/300
Closing Thoughts:
This tournament was very well run, and the venue was sweet. I'm happy I don't live in Schofield, or I'd probably be broke. I was unable to repeat my 2nd place finish, so I ended my cities run the next day going 2-2-1 (booooo hammer + laser heads), but this cities will be the one I remember the most. It's the best I've done at a tournament in a long time, and I made very few misplays, so I'm hoping this can carry over to Regionals + stuff. n_n
Props:
~Michael for giving me a ride last-minute
~The venue was AWESOME
~Yoshi for being Yoshi
~Bunker and his BinderDrop.dec
~Getting 2nd
~Free breakfast the next morning
~The entire Cheng family that showed up from Cali were all really cool people
~Jeffery for helping with my decklist. Flare Grunt won me like 5 games over the entire marathon lol
Slops:
~We let Caleb win a tournament
~All the heads I flipped against Mike in top 4 came back and bit me the next day
~My pulls in my 20 packs for 2nd were worse than my pulls from my 4 packs for top 8 the day before
~Could have won if I went for the super YOLO Evil Ball in finals
~Bunker losing to Claire in top 8 (lol Metal beating Pyroar)
~45 minutes is dumb. That 5 minutes is actually pretty huge.
