Haven't really done any tournament reports this season due to being extremely busy as of late, and I haven't done too well at some of the bigger events. Managed to get top 64 at Regionals, but other than that, nothing much to write home about.
It took me a while to find a deck I was comfortable with that was good. Week one, I had intended to play Yveltal, but sat down at a table of all Manectric players and so changed my deck 30 minutes before the tournament and played Mega Manectric with a lot of Battle Compressors and VS Seekers... and got slaughtered by Toad decks, just missing top 16 for some points and packs. Week two, I tried to join the Toad crowd, but after horrible testing results, the only variant that really seemed to speak to me was Seismitoad / Dralage / Dusknoir. Laugh if you want, but I had some really interesting games with it in the tournament with it and got 9th place, bubbling top cut. Week three, I couldn't figure out what to play.
I played a few games with Virizion Mewtwo with Raichu, but something just wasn't quite right about it. The night before the tournament, my friend tells me about Manectric Crobat. I actually already had the idea for that. After week one of States, I was talking with one of my swiss opponents, and he said that I inspired him to play Mega Manectric with Crobat. I stood over him and passively helped out with the list, but it was 66 cards, and I noted the only thing that really could be cut was the 2-2-2 Crobat line. I remember later I felt stupid for not thinking to cut the Mega Manectric stuff and excess Energy, but I never went back and tested the idea. So continuing with my theme of changing decks the night before the tournament and finding myself wanting to play Manectric again, I built the deck and destroyed a Flareon and VirGen deck my friends were going to play for tomorrow. I fell in love. And so thus for week three of States, I decided to play Manectric Crobat with Seismitoad.
Round 1: Yveltal
Game 1, he starts baby Yveltal against my Manectric, and I can tell from his reaction that he doesn't play Shadow Circle. It's a pretty bad match up for him, and he tries to rely on Mewtwo and Darkrai, not even benching his Yveltals, but I still win fairly easily.
1-0-0
Round 2: Manectric / Water
His deck was sort of weird because it played Leafeon, lasers, and a few other weird cards I can't remember at the moment. In Game 1, I started with Jirachi and no Supporters, but my opponent was drawing and passing as well. I eventually top deck an Ultra Ball, get out a Manectric, and play the Super Scoop Up I had considered playing if my opponent actually was able to set up. Coin flip result: Heads. I pick up Jirachi and use it get Juniper out of the deck to get rolling. He Lysandre's the Jirachi back out, but I top deck AZ for the win. Game 2, I used Assault Laser on his Manectric, but I didn't realize it wasn't a Knock Out because it didn't have a tool on it, and that almost cost me the game, but I still won. I think I KO'd his Jirachi with bats for the last prize.
2-0-0
Round 3: Manectric / Water
I win a good Game 1, but after that, he formulates a new plan of attack. Basically, he walls me to no end with Suicune. Normally Safeguarders aren't a problem for my deck because I have bats to knock it out, but he played 4 Rough Seas, and all of a sudden, I couldn't do enough damage to KO Suicune, and if I tried to Lysandre around it, he would retreat it to the Bench and slowly erase the damage. I loss Game 2, and time was called in Game 3, so it resulted in a tie.
2-0-1
Round 4: M Gardevoir / Xerneas / Aromatisse
I'm scared of this deck, mainly because once it sets up, if I can't OHKO Gardevoir's, I can lose pretty quickly. I'm fortunate enough to start with Zubat and an Ultra Ball, so after my opponent attaches an Energy, plays an Ultra Ball, and passes, I immediately get a Toad out and start Quaking Punching turn one. He gets a Supporter, but after that, my Head Ringers come out on all of his Gardevoirs in play. He starts to get Energy on the field, but by turn three, thanks to bats, I've KO'd his Xerneas, and have put some damage on his Aromatisse, which he can't Max Potion off thanks to Quaking Punch. He finally gets a M Gardevoir out and powered up, but I get to Quaking Punch it first. After he uses Brilliant Arrow for 270 damage, I return KO with Assault Laser, Muscle Band, and a Surprise Bite, taking four of his Energy off of the board. Game 1 lasted almost 40 minutes, and Game 2 is looking a lot like Game 1, only slightly better for him, but due to time, he concedes the match.
3-0-1
Round 5: Exeggutor
Game 1: I start with a dead hand, and he gets the Supporter lock turn two, not that it really matters since I don't have any Supporters to begin with. I'm thinking maybe I could still be in an alright position if I top deck an Energy, but in order to conserve time for the other games, I scoop.
Game 2: I actually have a Supporter in the opening hand--like 5 of them. I play Juniper to get rid of them since I likely won't be able to play them next turn any ways. It's not long after I get a few bats in play that I realize how fine my Exeggutor match up really is. His Active is Exeggutor, and he has one Exeggcute on the Bench ready to evolve next turn, but with the 20 I had put on it earlier with overrun, I could OHKO Exeggutor, and with Surprise Bite, I could KO his only other Exeggcute in play, which gave me a turn of Supporters, and I capitalized on it by playing the AZ in my hand so that I could do it again next turn. I don't think he gets to use Blockade for the rest of the game.
Game 3: He goes first and quickly Ultra Balls for Mr. Mime--he's not going to let me get in any extra damage with Overrun. I've figured what I'm supposed to do against Exeggutor by this point, and try to get as many Zubats in play as I can. I'm able to OHKO most of his Exeggutors with the help of bats, and at one point, when he's struggling to keep Exeggcutes in play, I switch into Toad shortly after but at one point late in the game, my Manectric stays asleep, and he's ditched an Energy off of it with Flare Grunt so that even if I do wake up, I can't KO Exeggutor. I top deck a Super Scoop Up. Coin flip result: Heads. Pick up Crobat, Sneaky Bite a Slurpuff that had taken an Assualt Laser earlier in the game, and Suprise Bite the Mr. Mime for the last two prizes.
4-0-1
Round 6: Virizion / Genesect
I can't remember most of the details of this game, but I think I made a very obscure misplay that let him get an Emerald Slash off, and wreck my field with a Genesect with G Booster and five Energy. In Game 2, I don't exactly dead draw, but I'm not hitting the juice either, and I loose that game too.
4-1-1
Round 7: Virizion / Manectric / Dragonite
I was so nervous going into this round as I know that I have to win to make cut, but my nerves are soon settled after we start playing. He doesn't seem to draw that great either games, and I get pretty good draws slapping Head Ringers on all of his Manectrics, hitting Energy and bats. Early game, I use Overrun and Golbat so that both his Virizion and Manectric have 60 on them so that I can then OHKO them without Muscle Band. I don't remember any of the other details though.
5-1-1
So that's that. I made top cut. 3rd seed in fact. I'm feeling confident about my deck list and choice, but the head judge calls me over. He informs me that I apparently didn't write down Jirachi on my list and that it would be replaced with a basic Energy (of my choice) and that I would be going into my top 8 match with a Game 1 loss. Of course as soon as I make it into top cut, something happens to offset the victory. That's usually my luck with tournaments--bad. But at least that mistake didn't keep me out of top cut, which means at the very least, I'll walk away with 50 CP and packs. Anyways, top 8.
Mid-tournament deck changes:
-1 Jirachi EX
+1 Lightning Energy
Solid.
Top 8: Seismitoad / Slurpuff
Game 1: I absolutely hate this deck, so it's nice to finally play against it with something that is supposed to have a better match up than my deck choices for the last two weeks of States. Despite getting a game loss, we still have to flip to see who goes first, but I win it anyways, so I get to go first, and guess what my opening hand is. 2 Super Scoop Ups, 2 Ultra Balls, a Colress, a VS Seeker, and a Manectric. That's an okay hand right? Just play Ultra Ball and get Jirachi. Lol nope. I don't hit anything good off of the 4 mulligan cards I get. I know that Seismitoad does a lot of work against this match up, but I don't have a DCE in hand, and I'm afraid to play it down with no guarantee of seeing it anytime soon, so I just Ultra Ball for some Zubats and pass. I think he just gets out another Seismitoad and passes, so I finally play the Colress I had been holding and got a Juniper for next turn. He gets the Item lock and Quaking Punches with Poison, but I always seem to have Rough Seas at the right time, and when Manectric gets about 90 damage or so on it, I retreat into a fresh one, sometimes even a Crobat. It's difficult to get Assault Laser off due to the combination of Head Ringers and Hammers, so we stay at 6 prizes for a while. My strategy for this game is to pick off the Slurpuffs and Jirachi with Crobats and Overrun since my opponent can take advantage of Rough Seas to erase my Overrun damage off of Seismitoads. I slowly start to get a lead and manage to get enough traction to Assault Laser his Seismitoads and win the game.
Game 2: I start double Zubat, and Ultra Ball for Seismitoad since I have DCE in hand. I hit a Muscle Band off of the N, and beat him to the Quaking Punch for 50, and put a Head Ringer on his Benched Seismitoad since his Active already has Muscle Band. We exchange Quaking Punches for a few turns, but I play Rough Seas to mess up his math and take the KO in the same turn with Quaking Punch and Surprise Bite. At one point, I Lysandre a Suicune and Quaking Punch it so that maybe I can get at least a turn of Items and worse case, he'll have to discard a DCE to retreat. It works, and I get a good turn of Items before he finally is able to retreat it. Later on in the match, he gets a Grenade Hammer powered up, and he could Knock Out my Seismitoad, but he just decides to scoop since it's in time, and he can't get ahead on prizes. I think I was ahead on prizes 3 to 6, but I'm not entirely sure. If he had used Grenade Hammer, he theoretically could have caught up to me, but I would have taken advantage of the Grenade Hammer damage on his bench and a Slurpuff I had been targeting with bats when Rough Seas was in play to stay ahead on prizes.
Top 4: Manectric / Water
This was my Round 3 opponent, and I already knew I was in trouble. I had a cool start in Game 1 where turn two, I got two Golbats down, and then the next turn, I evolved a Crobat and used Skill Dive to take out his Active Suicune, but unfortunately, he played two, and it was already in play. Other than that, I lost a very one-sided set of games. Not much I could have done against that match up. If I had swapped out a Rough Seas for a Silent Lab like I had considered the night before the tournament, I might have actually had an answer for his Suicunes. But other than that, I can't really think of any good non EX attacker for the deck. Crobat supposedly handles Safeguarders, so I didn't really think about how much trouble Suicune plus Rough Seas could potentially give me. I still had fun with that match somehow.
So somehow, I miraculously manage to survive top 8 without access to Jirachi. I honestly don't think having the Jirachi would have changed the outcome of my top 4 match, given how our match in Swiss went after he figured out how to play against my deck. It's whatever. I walk out of there with a box, a trophy, a few hand shakes from the judges, and no regrets. And all of my stuff. And it was good. The End. 3rd Place. 160 CP.
It took me a while to find a deck I was comfortable with that was good. Week one, I had intended to play Yveltal, but sat down at a table of all Manectric players and so changed my deck 30 minutes before the tournament and played Mega Manectric with a lot of Battle Compressors and VS Seekers... and got slaughtered by Toad decks, just missing top 16 for some points and packs. Week two, I tried to join the Toad crowd, but after horrible testing results, the only variant that really seemed to speak to me was Seismitoad / Dralage / Dusknoir. Laugh if you want, but I had some really interesting games with it in the tournament with it and got 9th place, bubbling top cut. Week three, I couldn't figure out what to play.
I played a few games with Virizion Mewtwo with Raichu, but something just wasn't quite right about it. The night before the tournament, my friend tells me about Manectric Crobat. I actually already had the idea for that. After week one of States, I was talking with one of my swiss opponents, and he said that I inspired him to play Mega Manectric with Crobat. I stood over him and passively helped out with the list, but it was 66 cards, and I noted the only thing that really could be cut was the 2-2-2 Crobat line. I remember later I felt stupid for not thinking to cut the Mega Manectric stuff and excess Energy, but I never went back and tested the idea. So continuing with my theme of changing decks the night before the tournament and finding myself wanting to play Manectric again, I built the deck and destroyed a Flareon and VirGen deck my friends were going to play for tomorrow. I fell in love. And so thus for week three of States, I decided to play Manectric Crobat with Seismitoad.
Round 1: Yveltal
Game 1, he starts baby Yveltal against my Manectric, and I can tell from his reaction that he doesn't play Shadow Circle. It's a pretty bad match up for him, and he tries to rely on Mewtwo and Darkrai, not even benching his Yveltals, but I still win fairly easily.
1-0-0
Round 2: Manectric / Water
His deck was sort of weird because it played Leafeon, lasers, and a few other weird cards I can't remember at the moment. In Game 1, I started with Jirachi and no Supporters, but my opponent was drawing and passing as well. I eventually top deck an Ultra Ball, get out a Manectric, and play the Super Scoop Up I had considered playing if my opponent actually was able to set up. Coin flip result: Heads. I pick up Jirachi and use it get Juniper out of the deck to get rolling. He Lysandre's the Jirachi back out, but I top deck AZ for the win. Game 2, I used Assault Laser on his Manectric, but I didn't realize it wasn't a Knock Out because it didn't have a tool on it, and that almost cost me the game, but I still won. I think I KO'd his Jirachi with bats for the last prize.
2-0-0
Round 3: Manectric / Water
I win a good Game 1, but after that, he formulates a new plan of attack. Basically, he walls me to no end with Suicune. Normally Safeguarders aren't a problem for my deck because I have bats to knock it out, but he played 4 Rough Seas, and all of a sudden, I couldn't do enough damage to KO Suicune, and if I tried to Lysandre around it, he would retreat it to the Bench and slowly erase the damage. I loss Game 2, and time was called in Game 3, so it resulted in a tie.
2-0-1
Round 4: M Gardevoir / Xerneas / Aromatisse
I'm scared of this deck, mainly because once it sets up, if I can't OHKO Gardevoir's, I can lose pretty quickly. I'm fortunate enough to start with Zubat and an Ultra Ball, so after my opponent attaches an Energy, plays an Ultra Ball, and passes, I immediately get a Toad out and start Quaking Punching turn one. He gets a Supporter, but after that, my Head Ringers come out on all of his Gardevoirs in play. He starts to get Energy on the field, but by turn three, thanks to bats, I've KO'd his Xerneas, and have put some damage on his Aromatisse, which he can't Max Potion off thanks to Quaking Punch. He finally gets a M Gardevoir out and powered up, but I get to Quaking Punch it first. After he uses Brilliant Arrow for 270 damage, I return KO with Assault Laser, Muscle Band, and a Surprise Bite, taking four of his Energy off of the board. Game 1 lasted almost 40 minutes, and Game 2 is looking a lot like Game 1, only slightly better for him, but due to time, he concedes the match.
3-0-1
Round 5: Exeggutor
Game 1: I start with a dead hand, and he gets the Supporter lock turn two, not that it really matters since I don't have any Supporters to begin with. I'm thinking maybe I could still be in an alright position if I top deck an Energy, but in order to conserve time for the other games, I scoop.
Game 2: I actually have a Supporter in the opening hand--like 5 of them. I play Juniper to get rid of them since I likely won't be able to play them next turn any ways. It's not long after I get a few bats in play that I realize how fine my Exeggutor match up really is. His Active is Exeggutor, and he has one Exeggcute on the Bench ready to evolve next turn, but with the 20 I had put on it earlier with overrun, I could OHKO Exeggutor, and with Surprise Bite, I could KO his only other Exeggcute in play, which gave me a turn of Supporters, and I capitalized on it by playing the AZ in my hand so that I could do it again next turn. I don't think he gets to use Blockade for the rest of the game.
Game 3: He goes first and quickly Ultra Balls for Mr. Mime--he's not going to let me get in any extra damage with Overrun. I've figured what I'm supposed to do against Exeggutor by this point, and try to get as many Zubats in play as I can. I'm able to OHKO most of his Exeggutors with the help of bats, and at one point, when he's struggling to keep Exeggcutes in play, I switch into Toad shortly after but at one point late in the game, my Manectric stays asleep, and he's ditched an Energy off of it with Flare Grunt so that even if I do wake up, I can't KO Exeggutor. I top deck a Super Scoop Up. Coin flip result: Heads. Pick up Crobat, Sneaky Bite a Slurpuff that had taken an Assualt Laser earlier in the game, and Suprise Bite the Mr. Mime for the last two prizes.
4-0-1
Round 6: Virizion / Genesect
I can't remember most of the details of this game, but I think I made a very obscure misplay that let him get an Emerald Slash off, and wreck my field with a Genesect with G Booster and five Energy. In Game 2, I don't exactly dead draw, but I'm not hitting the juice either, and I loose that game too.
4-1-1
Round 7: Virizion / Manectric / Dragonite
I was so nervous going into this round as I know that I have to win to make cut, but my nerves are soon settled after we start playing. He doesn't seem to draw that great either games, and I get pretty good draws slapping Head Ringers on all of his Manectrics, hitting Energy and bats. Early game, I use Overrun and Golbat so that both his Virizion and Manectric have 60 on them so that I can then OHKO them without Muscle Band. I don't remember any of the other details though.
5-1-1
So that's that. I made top cut. 3rd seed in fact. I'm feeling confident about my deck list and choice, but the head judge calls me over. He informs me that I apparently didn't write down Jirachi on my list and that it would be replaced with a basic Energy (of my choice) and that I would be going into my top 8 match with a Game 1 loss. Of course as soon as I make it into top cut, something happens to offset the victory. That's usually my luck with tournaments--bad. But at least that mistake didn't keep me out of top cut, which means at the very least, I'll walk away with 50 CP and packs. Anyways, top 8.
Mid-tournament deck changes:
-1 Jirachi EX
+1 Lightning Energy
Solid.
Top 8: Seismitoad / Slurpuff
Game 1: I absolutely hate this deck, so it's nice to finally play against it with something that is supposed to have a better match up than my deck choices for the last two weeks of States. Despite getting a game loss, we still have to flip to see who goes first, but I win it anyways, so I get to go first, and guess what my opening hand is. 2 Super Scoop Ups, 2 Ultra Balls, a Colress, a VS Seeker, and a Manectric. That's an okay hand right? Just play Ultra Ball and get Jirachi. Lol nope. I don't hit anything good off of the 4 mulligan cards I get. I know that Seismitoad does a lot of work against this match up, but I don't have a DCE in hand, and I'm afraid to play it down with no guarantee of seeing it anytime soon, so I just Ultra Ball for some Zubats and pass. I think he just gets out another Seismitoad and passes, so I finally play the Colress I had been holding and got a Juniper for next turn. He gets the Item lock and Quaking Punches with Poison, but I always seem to have Rough Seas at the right time, and when Manectric gets about 90 damage or so on it, I retreat into a fresh one, sometimes even a Crobat. It's difficult to get Assault Laser off due to the combination of Head Ringers and Hammers, so we stay at 6 prizes for a while. My strategy for this game is to pick off the Slurpuffs and Jirachi with Crobats and Overrun since my opponent can take advantage of Rough Seas to erase my Overrun damage off of Seismitoads. I slowly start to get a lead and manage to get enough traction to Assault Laser his Seismitoads and win the game.
Game 2: I start double Zubat, and Ultra Ball for Seismitoad since I have DCE in hand. I hit a Muscle Band off of the N, and beat him to the Quaking Punch for 50, and put a Head Ringer on his Benched Seismitoad since his Active already has Muscle Band. We exchange Quaking Punches for a few turns, but I play Rough Seas to mess up his math and take the KO in the same turn with Quaking Punch and Surprise Bite. At one point, I Lysandre a Suicune and Quaking Punch it so that maybe I can get at least a turn of Items and worse case, he'll have to discard a DCE to retreat. It works, and I get a good turn of Items before he finally is able to retreat it. Later on in the match, he gets a Grenade Hammer powered up, and he could Knock Out my Seismitoad, but he just decides to scoop since it's in time, and he can't get ahead on prizes. I think I was ahead on prizes 3 to 6, but I'm not entirely sure. If he had used Grenade Hammer, he theoretically could have caught up to me, but I would have taken advantage of the Grenade Hammer damage on his bench and a Slurpuff I had been targeting with bats when Rough Seas was in play to stay ahead on prizes.
Top 4: Manectric / Water
This was my Round 3 opponent, and I already knew I was in trouble. I had a cool start in Game 1 where turn two, I got two Golbats down, and then the next turn, I evolved a Crobat and used Skill Dive to take out his Active Suicune, but unfortunately, he played two, and it was already in play. Other than that, I lost a very one-sided set of games. Not much I could have done against that match up. If I had swapped out a Rough Seas for a Silent Lab like I had considered the night before the tournament, I might have actually had an answer for his Suicunes. But other than that, I can't really think of any good non EX attacker for the deck. Crobat supposedly handles Safeguarders, so I didn't really think about how much trouble Suicune plus Rough Seas could potentially give me. I still had fun with that match somehow.
So somehow, I miraculously manage to survive top 8 without access to Jirachi. I honestly don't think having the Jirachi would have changed the outcome of my top 4 match, given how our match in Swiss went after he figured out how to play against my deck. It's whatever. I walk out of there with a box, a trophy, a few hand shakes from the judges, and no regrets. And all of my stuff. And it was good. The End. 3rd Place. 160 CP.
