Hey guys, I wasn't planning to post a report, but I thought it would be a good start for returning to Pokebeach. So at worlds I played a strange deck that Arjun Khadse (Roguechomp), David Shoyket, and myself invented. Now it was us three that invented the actual idea but I tested with and was supported by numerous people. I tested a significant amount of games with the Weidemanns who also played at worlds, however with different decks. Alex Hedge (Glace) also supported the deck and helped me make the choice to use this deck. He would also end playing the deck at worlds, but I'll get to that later. Now these were only a few of the people who supported the deck, but I can't exactly list everybody.
The Deck
Now, what was this deck? Well it all started at Nationals. The night before Nats, I wasn't one-hundred percent confident in my deck. I had originally planned to play a Darkrai/Garbodor deck. Now that may sound similar to Senior Devision Runner Up Orrin Wilson, but my version was actually very different. I ran very heavy counts of both hammers. I liked the deck, but it only had a slightly favorable Plasma matchup, and a pretty lousy Darkrai matchup. In open testing, Darkrai seemed like the most played deck, so I dropped the Darkrai/Garbodor, and began to develop a secret deck. My friend, David Shoyket, was playing a Landorus/Mewtwo/Garbodor deck we had worked on for a while. It was a really good deck and list, but it had the tendency to lose close games vs Plasma. I was thinking about how that deck was good, but had a low damage output and had lousy math against exs. So I was thinking about all the other cards that could be paired with Garbodor. Eventually, I stumbled upon an old friend of mine. Terrakion EX. I realized that eviolite had practically fallen out of rotation, making Terrakion a monster for KOing EXs in 2 turns. It also had the excellent 180 HP, and could OHKO Absols with Rock Tumble. While pondering about this idea, I realized it had serious problems with Deoxys EX. After discussing the deck with Arjun and David, we figured out a strategy to disarm the dreaded Deoxys. This strategy was playing under the assumption that they would have an active, attacking Deoxys, and a benched one they were charging up. So the plan was to KO the active and cripple the benched one. So the turn I was about to KO the active, I would make sure to Enhanced Hammer most, if not all, of their remaining energy in play. I'm not going to go in depth into my Nationals experience, but I ended up going 7-2 in Swiss, losing only to a donk and a dead draw. And I had a rather embarrassing loss in Top 64 vs a Darkrai deck, my autowin.
So, after Nationals, I realized the problems with the deck. It got hit hard by lasers. So to counter the Laserbank combo, I put 3 tropical beaches into the deck. The deck was working really well and lost very few games vs the big 3 (Plasma, Darkrai, Keldeo). Then, Gothitelle won nationals. This was a major setback because the Terrakion deck pretty much auto losed to that deck. So shortly after Nationals, we dropped the deck.
Then worlds came along. I was planning to play either Darkrai, Lugia Plasma, or Rayeels. As we scoped the metagame there, we realized a lack of Gothitelle. This was a total green light for us to play Terrakion/Garbodor. I began discussing the choice with Arjun and he was on board. Then we went to Alex Hedge. He had actually been thinking about the deck too. I began to really side toward playing the deck. I hung out with Orrin and we made a near perfect list for it. Here's the list we came up with:
4 Terrakion EX
1 Landorus EX
2/1 (70HP/60HP)-2 Garbodor EX
10
4 Professor Juniper
4 N
2 Skyla
1 Colress
4 Pokémon Catcher
4 Float Stone
3 Energy Switch
3 Enhanced Hammer
3 Ultra Ball
2 Switch
2 Max Potion
1 Heavy Ball
1 Energy Search
1 Super Rod
1 Eviolite
1 Dowsing Machine
3 Tropical Beach
40
10 Fighting
10
Eventually, I would make a small edit. I would cut a 70HP trubbish for my secret tech. The deck ironically had a shaky Keldeo matchup, so I thought of a strategy to beat it. I put in a Pinsir NXD. For 2 energy, it allows you to flip 2 coins, and discard an energy attached to the defending pokemon for each heads. So I would catcher up a Blastoise (with Garbo in play) and discard energy until the either scooped, decked out, or I won on time. So that was the deck I would use for worlds. Now on with the report.
The Tournament
I was 100% confident in my deck as I sat at the player meeting. The pairings went up and I was ready.
Round 1 vs Nicholas Kupferman w/ Plasma
I was against a very standard Plasma deck. I had a generally good start and just set up everything quickly. He set up a few Kyurems and made a good fighting effort, but in this matchup it wasn't enough for him to take down my Terrakions. I was able to enhanced hammer a good amount of Prisms and shut him down. At some point he did play a scrapper, which I didn't expect to see in a Plasma deck, but it wasn't enough to pick apart my strong setup.
1-0
Round 2/3 vs Trent Orndorff and Daniel Sargent w/Plasma or Keldeo
I'm not too sure what I played this round. It was either a plasma or a Keldeo deck. Either way, I don't remember too much about each round. I just got set up normally and sweeped the Plasma, and I pinsir locked the Keldeo which was pretty fun. If either of you guys see this report, feel free to add some stuff in the comments.
3-0
Round 4 vs Jordan Palm w/ Plasma
I remember my game with Jordan pretty well. We both got decent set ups. We traded with Kyurems and Terrakions. Eventually, it came into a very tough situation. I had to make the choice to Enhanced Hammer a Prism or a Plasma. He had 2 of each in the discard. I decided to toss the Prism because many Plasma players run one of the Psychic blend energy. So I made the call and prayed for the best. He drew, thought for what seemed like forever, then dropped a Juniper to draw his entire deck. I thought he had me locked up, but he sighed and I knew I was back in the game. After carefully checking his remaining options, he extended his hand and conceded. The last Plasma was prized. I thanked Jordan for the great game. He was a really cool guy and I was happy to find out that he would make cut later on.
4-0
Round 5 vs Tomas Blei w/ Plasma
Tomas Blei was another great guy. He played Plasma too. It was a pretty one sided game from what I remember. He put up a good fight, but he just didn't draw the cards he needed to make the game really close. Good Game Tomas.
5-0
Round 6 vs Jacob Carrasco w/ Plasma
This was the round the I started to think I could really preform well at worlds. My opponent was playing a weird version of Plasma. I believe he had a Darkrai in there, but that never hit the field because of its weakness. He was a great playing and it was really close, but Terrakion had the upper hand in the end and I would win the game by a decent margin.
6-0
Round 7 vs Kaiwen Cabbabe w/ Plasma
You guys all probably know Kaiwen. He was a really nice guy and I'm happy he would win worlds. This game, I got a slow start but topdecked into a supporter pretty quick. It was a good game, but he had the edge most of the game and just kind of won. No real major events in that game, I just couldn't keep up with his very consistent Plasma. GG
6-1
I was a little disappointed I had finally lost, but I was determined to get my loss back.
Round 8 vs Alexandre Braga w/ Darkrai
I finally got to play against a Darkrai deck. This was my easiest match of the day. He just dead drew and I just sweeped him. At least he was 6-2 so he would still make cut.
7-1
I was 3rd seed when the standings went up. I was super excited because this was my first worlds top cut and I went in at such a high place. Also a few of my friends made cut too. Alex Hedge made cut at 6th seed, and Arjun snuck in at 32nd. Round one I found out that I was against a Keldeo deck without scrapper. I was confident and walked into the play area with my head high.
Top 32 vs Christopher Schemanske w/Keldeo
Game 1
I set up a quick Garbodor and Terrakion, and he just scooped after I took out a Keldeo or two. 1-0
Game 2
Once again, I set up like lightning and I set up 2 Terrakions, a Garbodor, and a Pinsir. I caught up a Blasoise and discarded energies until I had enough Terrakions to just sweep him. 2-0
Congratulations Chris on Top 32
I was happy to win my game in Top 32. Next round I found out I was against Ian Whiton. This was my nightmare matchup, Gothitelle.
Top 16 vs Ian Whiton
Game 1
I got out a quick Landorus and began to spread damage and attach energies to set up Land's Judgement. He got out a Gothitelle before I could get a tool on a trubbish. It was really close, but he won in the end. 0-1
Game 2
I set up a Landorus and a Garbo quick. He was able to scrapper my Garbo eventually, but I was able to know out things to quick for him to keep up. Another really close game. 1-1
Game 3
I was pretty sure that he was just going to sweep me both games so I was happy to even extend it to game 3. I couldn't get a Landorus or Trubbish before he got goth out, so I just started attaching to Terrakion out of desperacy. He beat me pretty bad. But i got my last attachment to be to my Pinsir, so I smiled and conceded. 1-2
Congrats on Top 4 Ian!
Well I finished in Top 16. I felt I could have gone a lot deeper if I didn't have to play against the 1 Gothitelle in cut, but I was happy with my performance over all. Good Worlds. And I'm psyched to see all these guys in DC next year!
Props:
Top 16
Swag stuff
Amazing Prize packs
All my friends being there
Deflated Pikachu drama
Terrakion
Alex Hedge making Top 8
Kaiwen winning
Rob grinding in
Just a great worlds in General
Klaczynski attaching twice (What a scene lol)
And Vancouver!
Slops:
Robby for not making cut
Robby in General
Arjun losing in Top 32
Alex getting paired against Ian
Not having time to go to the Retail Store
NO WIFI!!!!
Hope you enjoyed the report guys! Feel free to comment![/size]
The Deck
Now, what was this deck? Well it all started at Nationals. The night before Nats, I wasn't one-hundred percent confident in my deck. I had originally planned to play a Darkrai/Garbodor deck. Now that may sound similar to Senior Devision Runner Up Orrin Wilson, but my version was actually very different. I ran very heavy counts of both hammers. I liked the deck, but it only had a slightly favorable Plasma matchup, and a pretty lousy Darkrai matchup. In open testing, Darkrai seemed like the most played deck, so I dropped the Darkrai/Garbodor, and began to develop a secret deck. My friend, David Shoyket, was playing a Landorus/Mewtwo/Garbodor deck we had worked on for a while. It was a really good deck and list, but it had the tendency to lose close games vs Plasma. I was thinking about how that deck was good, but had a low damage output and had lousy math against exs. So I was thinking about all the other cards that could be paired with Garbodor. Eventually, I stumbled upon an old friend of mine. Terrakion EX. I realized that eviolite had practically fallen out of rotation, making Terrakion a monster for KOing EXs in 2 turns. It also had the excellent 180 HP, and could OHKO Absols with Rock Tumble. While pondering about this idea, I realized it had serious problems with Deoxys EX. After discussing the deck with Arjun and David, we figured out a strategy to disarm the dreaded Deoxys. This strategy was playing under the assumption that they would have an active, attacking Deoxys, and a benched one they were charging up. So the plan was to KO the active and cripple the benched one. So the turn I was about to KO the active, I would make sure to Enhanced Hammer most, if not all, of their remaining energy in play. I'm not going to go in depth into my Nationals experience, but I ended up going 7-2 in Swiss, losing only to a donk and a dead draw. And I had a rather embarrassing loss in Top 64 vs a Darkrai deck, my autowin.
So, after Nationals, I realized the problems with the deck. It got hit hard by lasers. So to counter the Laserbank combo, I put 3 tropical beaches into the deck. The deck was working really well and lost very few games vs the big 3 (Plasma, Darkrai, Keldeo). Then, Gothitelle won nationals. This was a major setback because the Terrakion deck pretty much auto losed to that deck. So shortly after Nationals, we dropped the deck.
Then worlds came along. I was planning to play either Darkrai, Lugia Plasma, or Rayeels. As we scoped the metagame there, we realized a lack of Gothitelle. This was a total green light for us to play Terrakion/Garbodor. I began discussing the choice with Arjun and he was on board. Then we went to Alex Hedge. He had actually been thinking about the deck too. I began to really side toward playing the deck. I hung out with Orrin and we made a near perfect list for it. Here's the list we came up with:
4 Terrakion EX
1 Landorus EX
2/1 (70HP/60HP)-2 Garbodor EX
10
4 Professor Juniper
4 N
2 Skyla
1 Colress
4 Pokémon Catcher
4 Float Stone
3 Energy Switch
3 Enhanced Hammer
3 Ultra Ball
2 Switch
2 Max Potion
1 Heavy Ball
1 Energy Search
1 Super Rod
1 Eviolite
1 Dowsing Machine
3 Tropical Beach
40
10 Fighting
10
Eventually, I would make a small edit. I would cut a 70HP trubbish for my secret tech. The deck ironically had a shaky Keldeo matchup, so I thought of a strategy to beat it. I put in a Pinsir NXD. For 2 energy, it allows you to flip 2 coins, and discard an energy attached to the defending pokemon for each heads. So I would catcher up a Blastoise (with Garbo in play) and discard energy until the either scooped, decked out, or I won on time. So that was the deck I would use for worlds. Now on with the report.
The Tournament
I was 100% confident in my deck as I sat at the player meeting. The pairings went up and I was ready.
Round 1 vs Nicholas Kupferman w/ Plasma
I was against a very standard Plasma deck. I had a generally good start and just set up everything quickly. He set up a few Kyurems and made a good fighting effort, but in this matchup it wasn't enough for him to take down my Terrakions. I was able to enhanced hammer a good amount of Prisms and shut him down. At some point he did play a scrapper, which I didn't expect to see in a Plasma deck, but it wasn't enough to pick apart my strong setup.
1-0
Round 2/3 vs Trent Orndorff and Daniel Sargent w/Plasma or Keldeo
I'm not too sure what I played this round. It was either a plasma or a Keldeo deck. Either way, I don't remember too much about each round. I just got set up normally and sweeped the Plasma, and I pinsir locked the Keldeo which was pretty fun. If either of you guys see this report, feel free to add some stuff in the comments.
3-0
Round 4 vs Jordan Palm w/ Plasma
I remember my game with Jordan pretty well. We both got decent set ups. We traded with Kyurems and Terrakions. Eventually, it came into a very tough situation. I had to make the choice to Enhanced Hammer a Prism or a Plasma. He had 2 of each in the discard. I decided to toss the Prism because many Plasma players run one of the Psychic blend energy. So I made the call and prayed for the best. He drew, thought for what seemed like forever, then dropped a Juniper to draw his entire deck. I thought he had me locked up, but he sighed and I knew I was back in the game. After carefully checking his remaining options, he extended his hand and conceded. The last Plasma was prized. I thanked Jordan for the great game. He was a really cool guy and I was happy to find out that he would make cut later on.
4-0
Round 5 vs Tomas Blei w/ Plasma
Tomas Blei was another great guy. He played Plasma too. It was a pretty one sided game from what I remember. He put up a good fight, but he just didn't draw the cards he needed to make the game really close. Good Game Tomas.
5-0
Round 6 vs Jacob Carrasco w/ Plasma
This was the round the I started to think I could really preform well at worlds. My opponent was playing a weird version of Plasma. I believe he had a Darkrai in there, but that never hit the field because of its weakness. He was a great playing and it was really close, but Terrakion had the upper hand in the end and I would win the game by a decent margin.
6-0
Round 7 vs Kaiwen Cabbabe w/ Plasma
You guys all probably know Kaiwen. He was a really nice guy and I'm happy he would win worlds. This game, I got a slow start but topdecked into a supporter pretty quick. It was a good game, but he had the edge most of the game and just kind of won. No real major events in that game, I just couldn't keep up with his very consistent Plasma. GG
6-1
I was a little disappointed I had finally lost, but I was determined to get my loss back.
Round 8 vs Alexandre Braga w/ Darkrai
I finally got to play against a Darkrai deck. This was my easiest match of the day. He just dead drew and I just sweeped him. At least he was 6-2 so he would still make cut.
7-1
I was 3rd seed when the standings went up. I was super excited because this was my first worlds top cut and I went in at such a high place. Also a few of my friends made cut too. Alex Hedge made cut at 6th seed, and Arjun snuck in at 32nd. Round one I found out that I was against a Keldeo deck without scrapper. I was confident and walked into the play area with my head high.
Top 32 vs Christopher Schemanske w/Keldeo
Game 1
I set up a quick Garbodor and Terrakion, and he just scooped after I took out a Keldeo or two. 1-0
Game 2
Once again, I set up like lightning and I set up 2 Terrakions, a Garbodor, and a Pinsir. I caught up a Blasoise and discarded energies until I had enough Terrakions to just sweep him. 2-0
Congratulations Chris on Top 32
I was happy to win my game in Top 32. Next round I found out I was against Ian Whiton. This was my nightmare matchup, Gothitelle.
Top 16 vs Ian Whiton
Game 1
I got out a quick Landorus and began to spread damage and attach energies to set up Land's Judgement. He got out a Gothitelle before I could get a tool on a trubbish. It was really close, but he won in the end. 0-1
Game 2
I set up a Landorus and a Garbo quick. He was able to scrapper my Garbo eventually, but I was able to know out things to quick for him to keep up. Another really close game. 1-1
Game 3
I was pretty sure that he was just going to sweep me both games so I was happy to even extend it to game 3. I couldn't get a Landorus or Trubbish before he got goth out, so I just started attaching to Terrakion out of desperacy. He beat me pretty bad. But i got my last attachment to be to my Pinsir, so I smiled and conceded. 1-2
Congrats on Top 4 Ian!
Well I finished in Top 16. I felt I could have gone a lot deeper if I didn't have to play against the 1 Gothitelle in cut, but I was happy with my performance over all. Good Worlds. And I'm psyched to see all these guys in DC next year!
Props:
Top 16
Swag stuff
Amazing Prize packs
All my friends being there
Deflated Pikachu drama
Terrakion
Alex Hedge making Top 8
Kaiwen winning
Rob grinding in
Just a great worlds in General
Klaczynski attaching twice (What a scene lol)
And Vancouver!
Slops:
Robby for not making cut
Robby in General
Arjun losing in Top 32
Alex getting paired against Ian
Not having time to go to the Retail Store
NO WIFI!!!!
Hope you enjoyed the report guys! Feel free to comment![/size]
