Anybody who reads my posts on these forums can tell you that I am a very big fan of Vileplume and Gothitelle. I really wanted to play Vileplume just because it's the deck I'm most comfortable with and it's borderline BDIF. Unfortunately, I'm really reluctant to put down so much money for the deck in an un-tested format. So I still haven't ordered the cards. Basically the only deck I can make with my limited collection (around 100 cards lol) is the Stage 1 rush deck. I bought the cards for that for LCQ so I had everything I wanted. However, I was pretty convinced that Reshiram was a bad play and so I wanted to drop Zoroark for a Weavile line. But I didn't have that either and couldn't find any last-minute. So I basically got stuck with this list:
Pokemon (18):
3 Yanmega Prime
4 Yanma
2 Donphan Prime
2 Phanpy HS
1 Phanpy CoL (couldn't find a 3rd HS one)
2 Zoroark
3 Zorua BW
1 Bouffalant
Trainers (32):
4 Pokemon Collector
4 Judge
3 Professor Oak's New Theory
2 Copycat
2 Professor Juniper
1 Twins
1 Pokegear
4 Pokemon Communication
4 Pokemon Catcher
3 Junk Arm
2 Switch
2 PlusPower
Energy (10):
4 Double Colorless Energy
6 Fighting Energy
This was my first tournament as a master, first in a new state and first ranked one getting back into the game so I was a little disappointed I ended up throwing something together like this for it. I'd done plenty of testing with it in a HS-BW format though. Anyway, I'll skip over all the random stuff and get to the rounds.
Round 1 vs Stage 1's
He opens Phanpy going 2nd. He uses Professor Oak, attaches to Phanpy and passes. I get out 2 Yanma and a Phanpy, attach to Phanpy and pass. I'm pretty sure he Judges me into a Juniper but doesn't evolve or bench anything. So I play out PlusPower - Junk Arm, PlusPower then Juniper, hit the Donphan and take game. These kinds of games always suck though
Round 2 vs DonChamp
We both open okay - he starts setting up Machamp and I start taking fast prizes with Donphan and Yanmega, setting up Zoroark to Foul Play Champ Buster for the OHKO. At some point, he Communicates for a Machoke instead of Donphan Prime and then shuffles and puts his deck down and then wants to change it. I don't let him - I felt a little bad but I ended up winning by 5 prizes anyway so I doubt it would have mattered. Basically I just get too much damage on his Machamps before he can get enough energy on them and he never sets anything else up.
Round 3 vs Yanmega/Magnezone/Kingdra/Jirachi
I get a much faster start than him, but still whiff on the T2 Yanmega or Donphan. He starts trying to Catcher stall me and does so to some amount of success. I still get up 2 or 3 prizes though. The issue is that I never seem to see the Catchers I need so he manages to get some Magnezones really well-charged on the bench. He also sets up his 1-0-1 Kingdra with a water - personally I don't like it in the deck, so I always forget that people play the Water/Rainbow. It takes me totally by surprise and he Catcher KOs both my Donphans with the Kingdra eventually. There wasn't anything I could do about it that point anyway though. So he starts mounting a comeback with Magnezone's Lost Burn because I no longer have Donphan to retaliate with and it gets down to 1-1 in prizes. His field is a Magnezone with 70 on it and an energy (he later tells me he has the second energy in hand) and then he has a benched Magnezone with nothing on it. My field is 2 Yanmas with like 10 or 20 Earthquake damage on them and then a Zoroark with a DCE on it. I have a Juniper in hand and like 10 cards in my deck. One of them is an energy and one is a Yanmega. If I can get either the energy to foul play Lost Burn for 100 or Yanmega and the hand match, I win. I Juniper and hit the Yanmega plus hand match. Really good game!
Round 4 vs Kingdra/Sigilyph/Jirachi
This was a pretty cool take on Kingdra/Jirachi - I'm not sure if it's better or worse than the Yanmega version, but it definitely works. The only issue with it is that Bouffalant completely ruins their strategy. Basically he starts out faster but we're neck in neck as far as prizes. The one issue I found with his deck is that Bouffalant ruins the entire strategy, but he eventually gets the snipe KO on Bouffalant. I still manage to use it to kill his first Sigilyph though. Eventually, he just can't keep up the double attachments on them and his Kingdras aren't enough to maintain the prize race. I think I win by 3 prizes.
Round 5 vs Yanmega/Mew/Cinccino
I'm now the only undefeated, so I know I get a Poke Ball reprint no matter what. Anyway, he opens with lone Mew and gets the T1 See Off but he can't get a bench and I take the T2 KO with Yanmega for game. We play again for fun and he donks me, but the next game I run through him.
Top 4 vs Zekrom/Tornadus/Pachirisu/Shaymin
Both games really went the same - he gets bad starts and can't set anything up. So I basically just run through whatever he sets up with Donphan and Zoroark and occasionally using Yanmega. I don't remember a lot of details about these, but I remember that we finished in like 10 minutes.
Top 2 vs Yanmega/Magnezone
This one doesn't have Kingdra in it, so it's a really favorable matchup. Unfortunately, I can't draw into anything the first game and open with Bouffalant. I scoop pretty early in when he's up 2 prizes and I realize I can't Catcher stall forever.
Game 2 I don't draw much but still get a T2 Yanmega and Judge him T1 so he doesn't draw anything good either. I'm able to take a few prizes with Yanmega before he scoops.
Finally, we get to have a good game and with plenty of time left for it. He opts to go first and gets a T2 Yanmega but can't match my hand of 2. I have a really bad hand again but he Judges me a little later. He gets setup really well, but I'm not too worried about it because I have an okay setup too. He still gets the prize lead but I don't think he's running more than 2 Catcher and he doesn't hit them until late-game so I get to choose what he kills. We exchange prizes for awhile until it gets down to my 3 prizes to his 2. He's got a Magnezone active with nothing on it and like 8 energy in the Lost Zone. I have a couple Yanmega and a Zoroark. I start sniping around, because I see that he's already used a Switch and 3 Junk Arms. I set up some KOs on the bench but don't take any prizes yet. Eventually, I have a bunch of energy on Zoroark and I Catcher up the Magnezone he's building the bench for fear he Catchers my Zoroark. I Foul Play Lost Burn for the KO and he brings up his Yanmega with 40 on it. My Zoroark has 20 on it and he can't take the KO so he hits it for 70. I Foul Play the KO and I have the Catcher+Judge in my hand for a prize off of his benched Pachi. He scoops.
So that was a pretty cool way to start off my career as a Master. I'm pretty sure I'm 1st in my state and probably like top 10 in NA. Obviously that's a really temporary position, but it's a cool one to be in. For the record, I'm still convinced the deck is a bad play - there was just so much Magnezone and Mew the lock decks didn't make it far enough to stop me. Only 1 or 2 people were playing the lock decks anyway, and I got lucky and avoided them in swiss. I might change it up a bit and add Mew or something, but I'll probably just switch to Vileplume for next week (I can't go tomorrow).
Pros:
Pretty much everything, especially the new invite system though
Cons:
Being too cheap to buy a better deck
TPCI being late sending out the prizes so now they're mailing them to me
Thanks for reading, and feel free to comment!
Pokemon (18):
3 Yanmega Prime
4 Yanma
2 Donphan Prime
2 Phanpy HS
1 Phanpy CoL (couldn't find a 3rd HS one)
2 Zoroark
3 Zorua BW
1 Bouffalant
Trainers (32):
4 Pokemon Collector
4 Judge
3 Professor Oak's New Theory
2 Copycat
2 Professor Juniper
1 Twins
1 Pokegear
4 Pokemon Communication
4 Pokemon Catcher
3 Junk Arm
2 Switch
2 PlusPower
Energy (10):
4 Double Colorless Energy
6 Fighting Energy
This was my first tournament as a master, first in a new state and first ranked one getting back into the game so I was a little disappointed I ended up throwing something together like this for it. I'd done plenty of testing with it in a HS-BW format though. Anyway, I'll skip over all the random stuff and get to the rounds.
Round 1 vs Stage 1's
He opens Phanpy going 2nd. He uses Professor Oak, attaches to Phanpy and passes. I get out 2 Yanma and a Phanpy, attach to Phanpy and pass. I'm pretty sure he Judges me into a Juniper but doesn't evolve or bench anything. So I play out PlusPower - Junk Arm, PlusPower then Juniper, hit the Donphan and take game. These kinds of games always suck though
Round 2 vs DonChamp
We both open okay - he starts setting up Machamp and I start taking fast prizes with Donphan and Yanmega, setting up Zoroark to Foul Play Champ Buster for the OHKO. At some point, he Communicates for a Machoke instead of Donphan Prime and then shuffles and puts his deck down and then wants to change it. I don't let him - I felt a little bad but I ended up winning by 5 prizes anyway so I doubt it would have mattered. Basically I just get too much damage on his Machamps before he can get enough energy on them and he never sets anything else up.
Round 3 vs Yanmega/Magnezone/Kingdra/Jirachi
I get a much faster start than him, but still whiff on the T2 Yanmega or Donphan. He starts trying to Catcher stall me and does so to some amount of success. I still get up 2 or 3 prizes though. The issue is that I never seem to see the Catchers I need so he manages to get some Magnezones really well-charged on the bench. He also sets up his 1-0-1 Kingdra with a water - personally I don't like it in the deck, so I always forget that people play the Water/Rainbow. It takes me totally by surprise and he Catcher KOs both my Donphans with the Kingdra eventually. There wasn't anything I could do about it that point anyway though. So he starts mounting a comeback with Magnezone's Lost Burn because I no longer have Donphan to retaliate with and it gets down to 1-1 in prizes. His field is a Magnezone with 70 on it and an energy (he later tells me he has the second energy in hand) and then he has a benched Magnezone with nothing on it. My field is 2 Yanmas with like 10 or 20 Earthquake damage on them and then a Zoroark with a DCE on it. I have a Juniper in hand and like 10 cards in my deck. One of them is an energy and one is a Yanmega. If I can get either the energy to foul play Lost Burn for 100 or Yanmega and the hand match, I win. I Juniper and hit the Yanmega plus hand match. Really good game!
Round 4 vs Kingdra/Sigilyph/Jirachi
This was a pretty cool take on Kingdra/Jirachi - I'm not sure if it's better or worse than the Yanmega version, but it definitely works. The only issue with it is that Bouffalant completely ruins their strategy. Basically he starts out faster but we're neck in neck as far as prizes. The one issue I found with his deck is that Bouffalant ruins the entire strategy, but he eventually gets the snipe KO on Bouffalant. I still manage to use it to kill his first Sigilyph though. Eventually, he just can't keep up the double attachments on them and his Kingdras aren't enough to maintain the prize race. I think I win by 3 prizes.
Round 5 vs Yanmega/Mew/Cinccino
I'm now the only undefeated, so I know I get a Poke Ball reprint no matter what. Anyway, he opens with lone Mew and gets the T1 See Off but he can't get a bench and I take the T2 KO with Yanmega for game. We play again for fun and he donks me, but the next game I run through him.
Top 4 vs Zekrom/Tornadus/Pachirisu/Shaymin
Both games really went the same - he gets bad starts and can't set anything up. So I basically just run through whatever he sets up with Donphan and Zoroark and occasionally using Yanmega. I don't remember a lot of details about these, but I remember that we finished in like 10 minutes.
Top 2 vs Yanmega/Magnezone
This one doesn't have Kingdra in it, so it's a really favorable matchup. Unfortunately, I can't draw into anything the first game and open with Bouffalant. I scoop pretty early in when he's up 2 prizes and I realize I can't Catcher stall forever.
Game 2 I don't draw much but still get a T2 Yanmega and Judge him T1 so he doesn't draw anything good either. I'm able to take a few prizes with Yanmega before he scoops.
Finally, we get to have a good game and with plenty of time left for it. He opts to go first and gets a T2 Yanmega but can't match my hand of 2. I have a really bad hand again but he Judges me a little later. He gets setup really well, but I'm not too worried about it because I have an okay setup too. He still gets the prize lead but I don't think he's running more than 2 Catcher and he doesn't hit them until late-game so I get to choose what he kills. We exchange prizes for awhile until it gets down to my 3 prizes to his 2. He's got a Magnezone active with nothing on it and like 8 energy in the Lost Zone. I have a couple Yanmega and a Zoroark. I start sniping around, because I see that he's already used a Switch and 3 Junk Arms. I set up some KOs on the bench but don't take any prizes yet. Eventually, I have a bunch of energy on Zoroark and I Catcher up the Magnezone he's building the bench for fear he Catchers my Zoroark. I Foul Play Lost Burn for the KO and he brings up his Yanmega with 40 on it. My Zoroark has 20 on it and he can't take the KO so he hits it for 70. I Foul Play the KO and I have the Catcher+Judge in my hand for a prize off of his benched Pachi. He scoops.
So that was a pretty cool way to start off my career as a Master. I'm pretty sure I'm 1st in my state and probably like top 10 in NA. Obviously that's a really temporary position, but it's a cool one to be in. For the record, I'm still convinced the deck is a bad play - there was just so much Magnezone and Mew the lock decks didn't make it far enough to stop me. Only 1 or 2 people were playing the lock decks anyway, and I got lucky and avoided them in swiss. I might change it up a bit and add Mew or something, but I'll probably just switch to Vileplume for next week (I can't go tomorrow).
Pros:
Pretty much everything, especially the new invite system though
Cons:
Being too cheap to buy a better deck
TPCI being late sending out the prizes so now they're mailing them to me
Thanks for reading, and feel free to comment!
