Battle Roads (not League Challenge because that's just stupid):
This is the first competitive tcg tournament I've played in since Nationals, but I've spent the past month testing Garchomp, and that's what I had decided to play today. It has really good match ups despite people's confusion when they see Gible and a complete lack of Altaria.
Round 1: Tim with Darkrai/Garbodor
I win the coin flip and get multiple Garchomps set up before he gets Garbodor out. I start attacking first, hitting his Darkrai for 90, but he retreats into a fresh Darkrai Nightspears. I Max Potion and keep hitting his Darkrais until he is forced to give me two prizes. He sends up Sableye to Junk Hunt for some stuff to set up a third Darkrai, but I flip heads on a Catcher to take the KO on his benched Darkrai and N the cards he Junk Hunted for away. The game gets really close, but I run him out of options at the end.
1-0
Round 2: Brent with Virizion/Mewtwo
Niether of us seem to get what we need, but get set up around turn four. I spread the damage around because he keeps retreating/Scramble Switching into a new Mewtwo. Two turns in a row, he attaches DCE and plays a Laser for the OHKO on a Garchomp. We get down to 2-2 on prizes with my last Garchomp in play, and he begins to build up a Mewtwo on the bench and lets me Mach Cut into his Bouffalant, I Skyla for a Catcher for game, but I flip tails. My last Catcher is prized, and in a few turns, he sends up Mewtwo for game.
1-1
Round 3: Joel with Flareon
He goes first, and I'm not sure exactly what happened, but he gets Jirachi with Level Ball and uses it to search for a Supporter that he chooses not to play, but instead plays another Supporter he had in his hand. I get set up and Catcher his Jirachi and OHKO it for just a Silver Bangle and an energy. He starts to get set up and put Pokemon in the discard, but I retreat into a Garchomp with Silver Mirror, and I basically wall him until I win 6-0.
2-1
Round 4: PokeMom with Gothitelle/Accelgor
Thankfully I go first, get a turn two Garchomp, and start KO'ing her 60 HP Basics. I'm about to bench her when she plays a Juniper and hits two more Basics. I get down to 6-2 before she gets out a Gothitelle, but her Mew is stuck Active, so I Juniper to hit my last Blend, retreat into a Garchomp with a Bangle, and Dragonblade for the win.
3-1
Round 5: MMAmonchan with Victini/Terrakion/Garbodor
I don't get a Supporter until turn four (but I do get Level Ball and try to set up my field with Dragon Call faster than he can KO it) because my opponent plays N apparently fishing for something to cement his win. I then explode into action getting a Garchomp with an energy and bangle and start attacking. At one point I OHKO a Victini EX with Dragonblade. It gets to the point where a Garchomp is about to go down and take my last bangle and blend with it, so I Dragonblade into his fresh Terrakion EX for 130, making the math work out so that I can KO it with Mach Cut next turn, but I discard BOTH Super Rods, which is very bad because next turn, I'll be down to my last Garchomp. He retreats into Victini to take the KO, making us 2-2 on prizes. I put 60 on his Victini, and now all of his attackers have enough damage on them so that I can knock them out, and he can't hit 140 with any of his. He fishes for another Terrakion EX, but is eventually forced to send it up prematurely to avoid me taking my last prize card, and I win the game from there.
4-1
So with that, I get third place. My round 2 opponent to whom I suffered my only loss comes in first place. My step-half-cousin-person gets second; Mikey gets fourth. Rogue decks for the win!
+10 CP
Pearl Battle Roads:
Someone thought it would be good idea to do impromptu best two out of three, even though there were five rounds and it was five o clock. I hate the new rules. You'll see why in a second.
Round 1: Virizion/Genesect
I just smash him with Quad Garchomp. I think he dead drew game two. Not much to say.
1-0
Round 2: Joe with Virizion/Genesect
I dead draw game one, and he basically draws and passes on his first turn on game two, so I think I can at least tie things up. I explode into action with turn two Garchomp and start hitting things on his field for 90. Time is called at 6-2 on prizes. Going into my turn one, I have Mime active, a Garchomp with an energy on the Bench, two Catchers, an energy and a Skyla. His active has 90 damage on it, but I can't retreat Mr. Mime to take the KO. I Skyla for Silver Bangle because that's all I can do. (I had already attached that turn.) He retreats, and next turn I am able to retreat and attach Bangle. Play Catcher; flip tails. Play Catcher; flip tails. Damn you rule changes!
1-1
Round 3: Anna with Landorus/Lugia
She wins the coin flip, but decides to let me go first. I do stuff, keep Plasma Energies off the field, and she doesn't have strong enough hands to win the first game. I believe I 6-0 her. Next game she gets a turn one Lugia, but I follow up with Silver Mirror'd Garchomp and get rid of her DCE. She just drops another one from her hand, Catchers a Gabite, and is already up four prizes. I can't deny her any more prizes, and she wins game two. All of this happened really quickly, so I figure I have enough time to play a third game. They call time right as I'm all set up with Garchomp. I have to take six prizes in two turns. I take four. Again, I lose (or rather tie) because of the stupid rule change.
1-1-1
Round 4: Joey with Plasma
I drop a Silver Mirror, and he picks up and looks at it for a few seconds; then his jaw drops in horror. Priceless. Apparently, despite being a decent player, he had no idea this card even existed. Needless to say, he didn't even bother running a single Tool Scrapper. He scooped shortly thereafter.
2-1-1
Round 5: Josh with Sableye/Aggron
A terrible match up, and the deck was surprisingly consistent. I knew early on what to do. I started lone Gible, and didn't play anything else from my hand unless it was a Garchomp or an energy or an N (which he discarded all four of them). The first game was very close with me being at two prizes before I deck. The second game, he prizes two Aron, and some other important stuff and doesn't get going until very late in the game, but I hit an energy drought and end up having to play Junipers if I want to take prizes. It doesn't help that he is consistently hammering energies away. I lose miserably.
2-2-1
Bleh, hopefully tomorrow will be better.
Round 1: Macko with Plasma
He plays both Tool Scrappers in the first three turns to get rid of two of my Silver Mirrors. I draw into the third one, KO his Kyurem, and he scoops.
1-0
Round 2: Mrs. Kathy with Landorus/Lugia
Right after I set up my field, I dead draw. (This is happening more often than it should, and it needs to stop!) I finally get Beach in play, but by this point, she has a Lugia ready to Plasma Gale, and a Landorus with three energies to get around my Silver Mirrors. It's game.
1-1
Round 3: Brian with Victini/Terrakion/Garbodor
Turn two, I start pressuring his field. I put 90 on his Victini. Next two turns, I two shot his Mewtwo while denying a prize with Max Potion. He successfully walls me for a turn by attacking with Retaliate Terrakion, but after that, he is forced to use his EX's again. I take down a Tornadus, and sends up Terrakion again, but I have two Catchers in my hand, and I pick off his damaged Victini.
2-1
Round 4: Andy with Keldeo/Blastoise
He starts off with Keldeo and Squirtle. I go first, benching two Gibles. All he can do is play Beach and draw two. I flip heads on a Catcher, play a Bangle, and Juniper into Gabite and Rare Candy, a flawless turn two. I take out the Squirtle. Next turn, he benches Black Kyurem. Why? I don't know. Maybe he was concerned I could OHKO his Keldeo and win right there; maybe he thought it was safe from Catcher. Anyway, he benches it with a Squirtle. and beaches again. I flip heads on Catcher again, and now I have to decide whether to take the Kyurem or the Squirtle. Two easy prizes or prevent him setting up? I take Kyurem with the knowledge that his hand is pretty bad, and I may draw Escape Rope off my prizes to force him to give me the Squirtle next turn if he doesn't evolve it. I don't hit the Escape Rope, and he doesn't evolve the Squirtle, so I flip my third heads in a row on Catchers and take another Squirtle putting us at 6-2 on prizes. He benches another Squirtle; I put 90 on his Keldeo. He benches his another Keldeo, finally gets Blastoise, and OHKO's Garchomp. I put another 90 on his fresh Keldeo. He Max Potions his Benched Keldeo, and can pull off a maneuver to get four energies on his benched Keldeo, but he's short for the KO, and it require him manually retreating his Avtive Keldeo, so he just decides to N me down to two, and knock out my Garchomp so that I have to get an energy to Dragonblade for the game. I draw for my N and it's the top card.
3-1
The Landorus/Lugia I lost to got first, I get second and some packs. Even with the ridiculous pull rates, I have yet to pull an "Ultra Rare".
+12 CP
This is the first competitive tcg tournament I've played in since Nationals, but I've spent the past month testing Garchomp, and that's what I had decided to play today. It has really good match ups despite people's confusion when they see Gible and a complete lack of Altaria.
Round 1: Tim with Darkrai/Garbodor
I win the coin flip and get multiple Garchomps set up before he gets Garbodor out. I start attacking first, hitting his Darkrai for 90, but he retreats into a fresh Darkrai Nightspears. I Max Potion and keep hitting his Darkrais until he is forced to give me two prizes. He sends up Sableye to Junk Hunt for some stuff to set up a third Darkrai, but I flip heads on a Catcher to take the KO on his benched Darkrai and N the cards he Junk Hunted for away. The game gets really close, but I run him out of options at the end.
1-0
Round 2: Brent with Virizion/Mewtwo
Niether of us seem to get what we need, but get set up around turn four. I spread the damage around because he keeps retreating/Scramble Switching into a new Mewtwo. Two turns in a row, he attaches DCE and plays a Laser for the OHKO on a Garchomp. We get down to 2-2 on prizes with my last Garchomp in play, and he begins to build up a Mewtwo on the bench and lets me Mach Cut into his Bouffalant, I Skyla for a Catcher for game, but I flip tails. My last Catcher is prized, and in a few turns, he sends up Mewtwo for game.
1-1
Round 3: Joel with Flareon
He goes first, and I'm not sure exactly what happened, but he gets Jirachi with Level Ball and uses it to search for a Supporter that he chooses not to play, but instead plays another Supporter he had in his hand. I get set up and Catcher his Jirachi and OHKO it for just a Silver Bangle and an energy. He starts to get set up and put Pokemon in the discard, but I retreat into a Garchomp with Silver Mirror, and I basically wall him until I win 6-0.
2-1
Round 4: PokeMom with Gothitelle/Accelgor
Thankfully I go first, get a turn two Garchomp, and start KO'ing her 60 HP Basics. I'm about to bench her when she plays a Juniper and hits two more Basics. I get down to 6-2 before she gets out a Gothitelle, but her Mew is stuck Active, so I Juniper to hit my last Blend, retreat into a Garchomp with a Bangle, and Dragonblade for the win.
3-1
Round 5: MMAmonchan with Victini/Terrakion/Garbodor
I don't get a Supporter until turn four (but I do get Level Ball and try to set up my field with Dragon Call faster than he can KO it) because my opponent plays N apparently fishing for something to cement his win. I then explode into action getting a Garchomp with an energy and bangle and start attacking. At one point I OHKO a Victini EX with Dragonblade. It gets to the point where a Garchomp is about to go down and take my last bangle and blend with it, so I Dragonblade into his fresh Terrakion EX for 130, making the math work out so that I can KO it with Mach Cut next turn, but I discard BOTH Super Rods, which is very bad because next turn, I'll be down to my last Garchomp. He retreats into Victini to take the KO, making us 2-2 on prizes. I put 60 on his Victini, and now all of his attackers have enough damage on them so that I can knock them out, and he can't hit 140 with any of his. He fishes for another Terrakion EX, but is eventually forced to send it up prematurely to avoid me taking my last prize card, and I win the game from there.
4-1
So with that, I get third place. My round 2 opponent to whom I suffered my only loss comes in first place. My step-half-cousin-person gets second; Mikey gets fourth. Rogue decks for the win!
+10 CP
Pearl Battle Roads:
Someone thought it would be good idea to do impromptu best two out of three, even though there were five rounds and it was five o clock. I hate the new rules. You'll see why in a second.
Round 1: Virizion/Genesect
I just smash him with Quad Garchomp. I think he dead drew game two. Not much to say.
1-0
Round 2: Joe with Virizion/Genesect
I dead draw game one, and he basically draws and passes on his first turn on game two, so I think I can at least tie things up. I explode into action with turn two Garchomp and start hitting things on his field for 90. Time is called at 6-2 on prizes. Going into my turn one, I have Mime active, a Garchomp with an energy on the Bench, two Catchers, an energy and a Skyla. His active has 90 damage on it, but I can't retreat Mr. Mime to take the KO. I Skyla for Silver Bangle because that's all I can do. (I had already attached that turn.) He retreats, and next turn I am able to retreat and attach Bangle. Play Catcher; flip tails. Play Catcher; flip tails. Damn you rule changes!
1-1
Round 3: Anna with Landorus/Lugia
She wins the coin flip, but decides to let me go first. I do stuff, keep Plasma Energies off the field, and she doesn't have strong enough hands to win the first game. I believe I 6-0 her. Next game she gets a turn one Lugia, but I follow up with Silver Mirror'd Garchomp and get rid of her DCE. She just drops another one from her hand, Catchers a Gabite, and is already up four prizes. I can't deny her any more prizes, and she wins game two. All of this happened really quickly, so I figure I have enough time to play a third game. They call time right as I'm all set up with Garchomp. I have to take six prizes in two turns. I take four. Again, I lose (or rather tie) because of the stupid rule change.
1-1-1
Round 4: Joey with Plasma
I drop a Silver Mirror, and he picks up and looks at it for a few seconds; then his jaw drops in horror. Priceless. Apparently, despite being a decent player, he had no idea this card even existed. Needless to say, he didn't even bother running a single Tool Scrapper. He scooped shortly thereafter.
2-1-1
Round 5: Josh with Sableye/Aggron
A terrible match up, and the deck was surprisingly consistent. I knew early on what to do. I started lone Gible, and didn't play anything else from my hand unless it was a Garchomp or an energy or an N (which he discarded all four of them). The first game was very close with me being at two prizes before I deck. The second game, he prizes two Aron, and some other important stuff and doesn't get going until very late in the game, but I hit an energy drought and end up having to play Junipers if I want to take prizes. It doesn't help that he is consistently hammering energies away. I lose miserably.
2-2-1
Bleh, hopefully tomorrow will be better.
Round 1: Macko with Plasma
He plays both Tool Scrappers in the first three turns to get rid of two of my Silver Mirrors. I draw into the third one, KO his Kyurem, and he scoops.
1-0
Round 2: Mrs. Kathy with Landorus/Lugia
Right after I set up my field, I dead draw. (This is happening more often than it should, and it needs to stop!) I finally get Beach in play, but by this point, she has a Lugia ready to Plasma Gale, and a Landorus with three energies to get around my Silver Mirrors. It's game.
1-1
Round 3: Brian with Victini/Terrakion/Garbodor
Turn two, I start pressuring his field. I put 90 on his Victini. Next two turns, I two shot his Mewtwo while denying a prize with Max Potion. He successfully walls me for a turn by attacking with Retaliate Terrakion, but after that, he is forced to use his EX's again. I take down a Tornadus, and sends up Terrakion again, but I have two Catchers in my hand, and I pick off his damaged Victini.
2-1
Round 4: Andy with Keldeo/Blastoise
He starts off with Keldeo and Squirtle. I go first, benching two Gibles. All he can do is play Beach and draw two. I flip heads on a Catcher, play a Bangle, and Juniper into Gabite and Rare Candy, a flawless turn two. I take out the Squirtle. Next turn, he benches Black Kyurem. Why? I don't know. Maybe he was concerned I could OHKO his Keldeo and win right there; maybe he thought it was safe from Catcher. Anyway, he benches it with a Squirtle. and beaches again. I flip heads on Catcher again, and now I have to decide whether to take the Kyurem or the Squirtle. Two easy prizes or prevent him setting up? I take Kyurem with the knowledge that his hand is pretty bad, and I may draw Escape Rope off my prizes to force him to give me the Squirtle next turn if he doesn't evolve it. I don't hit the Escape Rope, and he doesn't evolve the Squirtle, so I flip my third heads in a row on Catchers and take another Squirtle putting us at 6-2 on prizes. He benches another Squirtle; I put 90 on his Keldeo. He benches his another Keldeo, finally gets Blastoise, and OHKO's Garchomp. I put another 90 on his fresh Keldeo. He Max Potions his Benched Keldeo, and can pull off a maneuver to get four energies on his benched Keldeo, but he's short for the KO, and it require him manually retreating his Avtive Keldeo, so he just decides to N me down to two, and knock out my Garchomp so that I have to get an energy to Dragonblade for the game. I draw for my N and it's the top card.
3-1
The Landorus/Lugia I lost to got first, I get second and some packs. Even with the ridiculous pull rates, I have yet to pull an "Ultra Rare".
+12 CP
Pearl Cities
I'm going to keep this very brief. (I'm still playing Garchomp.)
Round 1: Virizion/Genesect
1-0
Round 2: Mikey with Darkrai
2-0
Round 3: Witcher with Victini/stuff
3-0
Round 4: Macko with Darkrai
4-0
Top 4: Mikey with Darkrai
0-2
3rd Place;52 CP
Brandon Cities
Round 1: MMAmonchan with Rayboar
What can I say; it's an autowin.
1-0-0
Round 2: Joey with Plasma
I go first. We both start pretty slow, but he can only attach and pass while I start Dragon Calling all my Garchomps into play and begin doing damage and discarding his special energies. He finally gets a Supporter, and gets set up, but I've already taken out a Deoxys. He gets a Lugia set up and Scraps my Mirror, but I have another one waiting in my hand. He takes a few turns to power up a Keldeo while letting me hit each of his Pokemon for 90. I get Catcher for game, but he calls the judge for it being "out of play", so I have to flip it again. Tails. I have another one in my hand. Flp again; tails. I have no way to get at his Bench, and time is called, so this counts as a draw, even though there's no way he could have won.
1-0-1
Round 3: Joe with Virizion/Genesect
He goes through his deck really fast some how, and decks out. We're were both tied at 2-2 on prizes at the very end.
2-0-1
Round 4: Andrew with Darkrai
I start with Stunfisk, but he lasers it, and knocks it out next turn with Nightspear. I don't hit anything I need to trade prizes evenly, and whenever I get close to knocking out Darkrai, he Junk Hunts for Max Potions. There's not much I could do with the hands I was given.
2-1-1
Round 5: Daniel with Darkrai
Once again I start Stunfisk, and once again my opponent lasers it and knocks it out. I do get set up and get Energy and Bangle this game, and he misses one opportunity to retreat to the Bench and Junk Hunt for Max Potion (because I guess he didn't realize I could get what I needed to knock his Darkrai out), so I get two prizes that way. Other than that, I flip just enough heads on Catchers to win the game.
3-1-1
Top Four: Andrew with Darkrai
He gets everything he needs to keep streaming Darkrais, healing them, and repowering them up, and it gets very annoying. I don't hit any heads off of Catchers, and I eventually scoop when I miss that Stunfisk is weak to Keldeo, and that he can power it up quickly and attack with it.
That game took up most of our hour, so I tell him to speed things up. I go first with a decent start, and he misses a Supporter drop on the first turn. After that, he's pressed to get everything he needs to both take prizes and keep me from getting prizes. Time is called on his turn. I have three prizes left to his four, and I need to take at least one more for this game to count. He scraps my third Bangle, which he thought I only played three, and he sees that I have all four Blends in the discard, so he believes he is safe to NIghtspear with his only Darkrai that has 100 damage on it. It goes to my turn one. I play Ultra Ball to look through my deck of eight cards to see that I have my last Bangle in there, play Juniper to hit the Bangle, and have just enough cards left in deck to survive my turn three draw. He knocks out the Garchomp with a laser and passes, and I pass for game.
So now, we go into Sudden Death. The way this works is that you only lay out one prize card; this will be crucial to my strategy of outspeeding Darkrai's set up. I start Mr. Mime to his Sableye and Darkrai. He gets an Energy on Sableye and Darkrai, lasers Mr. Mime and passes. I Level Ball for Gible, and realize that my only shot at this game is to N both of us down to one, and see who can get a Supporter first. It's apparent that he's going to get turn two Nightspear. I N myself to one, and that one card is my FA Juniper. The only thing he can really do is use Confuse Ray. I Juniper, and hit all of my Gibles and Max Potion to stay alive. Next turn I would have Garchomp and could hopefully start doing some damage, but he gets an N and plays it. We each draw one card. His one card is apparently an Energy because he attaches it. My one card. Juniper. For the second time in a row. I play it and get a single Gabite, Dragon Call for all the other Gabites in my deck plus a Garchomp. He attacks with Sableye again. I get all my Garchomps into play and pay the first energy I've seen this game to retreat Mr. Mime with 60 damage from Poison and Confuse Ray. Next turn, he gets an Energy and starts Nightspearing with Darkrai. I keep having to pay my attachment for turn to retreat so that he can't draw his one prize card. Finally, I hit Max Potion, attach for turn, and gain the initiative with Mach Cut. He is forced to retreat into Sableye and use Confuse Ray, but flips tails. I play a Blend from hand and Dragonblade for the win. Insert expletive here; that was intense!
Top Two: Mikey with Darkrai
It's basically a repeat of what happened last round, but in the Sudden Death Round, I go first and double Bench Gibles with Mr. Mime. I have a Rare Candy, a Level Ball, and an N in hand, so I'm hoping he doesn't play N because all I need is an Energy, and I can Dragonblade his Sableye to win. He burns his hand down just enough to play Bicycle for one and N's. When he Junk Hunts, he gets back the Bicycle. And I don't top deck my third Juniper in a row after being N'd down to one. He wins the game easily form here with Virbank and Lasers.
2nd Place; 92 CP
Madison Cities
I swapped over to Victini, but the turn out was really low, and it was a really bad meta call.
Round 1: Empoleon
My only hope is that he has an inconsistent start and that I can abuse Pokecenter to make him 3HKO my EX's, but he has Dusknoir, and I just lose.
0-1
Round 2: Plasma
I'm pretty confident about this match up until I see the only Supporter in my hand is Colress. I still manage to Turbo Energize to Cobalion after he starts with Kyurem, but I play my Colress for two and get another Colress! My opponent isn't doing much either; he barely benches Lugia in time. I knock out his Kyurem, but attaches a DCE and Colress Machine, and I don't get another Supporter for the rest of the game.
0-2
Round 3: Bye
1-2
Round 4: Quad Garchomp
It's my exact list that I had been playing, and it's one of my worst match ups. I lose.
1-3
The very next day, I changed my list up a bit, and teched for Empoleon. Now I think I pretty much destroy it. The meta isn't as crazy as it was the day before, so I think I'll do fine.
Round 1: Mikey with Darkrai
This deck finally does what it's supposed to do. I run through him both Terrakions and a Latias. I can tell he's pissed (mostly because he's under the impression that I built this deck just humuliate him or something), but I don't let it bother me.
1-0
Round 2: Chistopher with Darkrai
He starts with Darkai, so I prepare for an easy match up, but when he sees my Terrakion, he starts benching everything not Darkrai. He has a Bouffalant, Tornadus, two Mewtwos, and a Keldeo. After powering up Terrakion, I draw into my Victory Piece and start using it to weaken his EX's. After it goes down, I send up Terrakion EX and take down a Mewtwo. I take a hit with Terrakion from a fresh Mewtwo, and then I Red Signal his benched Darkrai for another two prizes. He N's me down to two, but I'm able to hit another Plasma Energy and Megalo Cannon his Keldeo for the game.
2-0
Round 3: Joey with Blastoise
I get an early Genesect, but he follows up with Black Kyurem fully powered up, and I struggle to even keep Energy on the field. This is the match up I haven't figured out yet; I don't think just one Genesect is this deck's silver bullet.
2-1
Round 4: Virizion/Genesect
My favorite match up ever... of all time... but I don't see a Supporter until the turn before I lose. Expletive.
2-2
I bubble in at fifth.
I'm going to keep this very brief. (I'm still playing Garchomp.)
Round 1: Virizion/Genesect
1-0
Round 2: Mikey with Darkrai
2-0
Round 3: Witcher with Victini/stuff
3-0
Round 4: Macko with Darkrai
4-0
Top 4: Mikey with Darkrai
0-2
3rd Place;52 CP
Brandon Cities
Round 1: MMAmonchan with Rayboar
What can I say; it's an autowin.
1-0-0
Round 2: Joey with Plasma
I go first. We both start pretty slow, but he can only attach and pass while I start Dragon Calling all my Garchomps into play and begin doing damage and discarding his special energies. He finally gets a Supporter, and gets set up, but I've already taken out a Deoxys. He gets a Lugia set up and Scraps my Mirror, but I have another one waiting in my hand. He takes a few turns to power up a Keldeo while letting me hit each of his Pokemon for 90. I get Catcher for game, but he calls the judge for it being "out of play", so I have to flip it again. Tails. I have another one in my hand. Flp again; tails. I have no way to get at his Bench, and time is called, so this counts as a draw, even though there's no way he could have won.
1-0-1
Round 3: Joe with Virizion/Genesect
He goes through his deck really fast some how, and decks out. We're were both tied at 2-2 on prizes at the very end.
2-0-1
Round 4: Andrew with Darkrai
I start with Stunfisk, but he lasers it, and knocks it out next turn with Nightspear. I don't hit anything I need to trade prizes evenly, and whenever I get close to knocking out Darkrai, he Junk Hunts for Max Potions. There's not much I could do with the hands I was given.
2-1-1
Round 5: Daniel with Darkrai
Once again I start Stunfisk, and once again my opponent lasers it and knocks it out. I do get set up and get Energy and Bangle this game, and he misses one opportunity to retreat to the Bench and Junk Hunt for Max Potion (because I guess he didn't realize I could get what I needed to knock his Darkrai out), so I get two prizes that way. Other than that, I flip just enough heads on Catchers to win the game.
3-1-1
Top Four: Andrew with Darkrai
He gets everything he needs to keep streaming Darkrais, healing them, and repowering them up, and it gets very annoying. I don't hit any heads off of Catchers, and I eventually scoop when I miss that Stunfisk is weak to Keldeo, and that he can power it up quickly and attack with it.
That game took up most of our hour, so I tell him to speed things up. I go first with a decent start, and he misses a Supporter drop on the first turn. After that, he's pressed to get everything he needs to both take prizes and keep me from getting prizes. Time is called on his turn. I have three prizes left to his four, and I need to take at least one more for this game to count. He scraps my third Bangle, which he thought I only played three, and he sees that I have all four Blends in the discard, so he believes he is safe to NIghtspear with his only Darkrai that has 100 damage on it. It goes to my turn one. I play Ultra Ball to look through my deck of eight cards to see that I have my last Bangle in there, play Juniper to hit the Bangle, and have just enough cards left in deck to survive my turn three draw. He knocks out the Garchomp with a laser and passes, and I pass for game.
So now, we go into Sudden Death. The way this works is that you only lay out one prize card; this will be crucial to my strategy of outspeeding Darkrai's set up. I start Mr. Mime to his Sableye and Darkrai. He gets an Energy on Sableye and Darkrai, lasers Mr. Mime and passes. I Level Ball for Gible, and realize that my only shot at this game is to N both of us down to one, and see who can get a Supporter first. It's apparent that he's going to get turn two Nightspear. I N myself to one, and that one card is my FA Juniper. The only thing he can really do is use Confuse Ray. I Juniper, and hit all of my Gibles and Max Potion to stay alive. Next turn I would have Garchomp and could hopefully start doing some damage, but he gets an N and plays it. We each draw one card. His one card is apparently an Energy because he attaches it. My one card. Juniper. For the second time in a row. I play it and get a single Gabite, Dragon Call for all the other Gabites in my deck plus a Garchomp. He attacks with Sableye again. I get all my Garchomps into play and pay the first energy I've seen this game to retreat Mr. Mime with 60 damage from Poison and Confuse Ray. Next turn, he gets an Energy and starts Nightspearing with Darkrai. I keep having to pay my attachment for turn to retreat so that he can't draw his one prize card. Finally, I hit Max Potion, attach for turn, and gain the initiative with Mach Cut. He is forced to retreat into Sableye and use Confuse Ray, but flips tails. I play a Blend from hand and Dragonblade for the win. Insert expletive here; that was intense!
Top Two: Mikey with Darkrai
It's basically a repeat of what happened last round, but in the Sudden Death Round, I go first and double Bench Gibles with Mr. Mime. I have a Rare Candy, a Level Ball, and an N in hand, so I'm hoping he doesn't play N because all I need is an Energy, and I can Dragonblade his Sableye to win. He burns his hand down just enough to play Bicycle for one and N's. When he Junk Hunts, he gets back the Bicycle. And I don't top deck my third Juniper in a row after being N'd down to one. He wins the game easily form here with Virbank and Lasers.
2nd Place; 92 CP
Madison Cities
I swapped over to Victini, but the turn out was really low, and it was a really bad meta call.
Round 1: Empoleon
My only hope is that he has an inconsistent start and that I can abuse Pokecenter to make him 3HKO my EX's, but he has Dusknoir, and I just lose.
0-1
Round 2: Plasma
I'm pretty confident about this match up until I see the only Supporter in my hand is Colress. I still manage to Turbo Energize to Cobalion after he starts with Kyurem, but I play my Colress for two and get another Colress! My opponent isn't doing much either; he barely benches Lugia in time. I knock out his Kyurem, but attaches a DCE and Colress Machine, and I don't get another Supporter for the rest of the game.
0-2
Round 3: Bye
1-2
Round 4: Quad Garchomp
It's my exact list that I had been playing, and it's one of my worst match ups. I lose.
1-3
The very next day, I changed my list up a bit, and teched for Empoleon. Now I think I pretty much destroy it. The meta isn't as crazy as it was the day before, so I think I'll do fine.
Round 1: Mikey with Darkrai
This deck finally does what it's supposed to do. I run through him both Terrakions and a Latias. I can tell he's pissed (mostly because he's under the impression that I built this deck just humuliate him or something), but I don't let it bother me.
1-0
Round 2: Chistopher with Darkrai
He starts with Darkai, so I prepare for an easy match up, but when he sees my Terrakion, he starts benching everything not Darkrai. He has a Bouffalant, Tornadus, two Mewtwos, and a Keldeo. After powering up Terrakion, I draw into my Victory Piece and start using it to weaken his EX's. After it goes down, I send up Terrakion EX and take down a Mewtwo. I take a hit with Terrakion from a fresh Mewtwo, and then I Red Signal his benched Darkrai for another two prizes. He N's me down to two, but I'm able to hit another Plasma Energy and Megalo Cannon his Keldeo for the game.
2-0
Round 3: Joey with Blastoise
I get an early Genesect, but he follows up with Black Kyurem fully powered up, and I struggle to even keep Energy on the field. This is the match up I haven't figured out yet; I don't think just one Genesect is this deck's silver bullet.
2-1
Round 4: Virizion/Genesect
My favorite match up ever... of all time... but I don't see a Supporter until the turn before I lose. Expletive.
2-2
I bubble in at fifth.
Some other Cities (Wow, there really are a lot of these.)
Round 1: Mikey with Plasma
I notice he doesn't have any Kyruems and his main attacker is Lugia, so I wall him for most of the game with Latias until he plays Absol and Mind Jacks for a significant amount of damage. I attach and Energy Switch to Terrakion, but I Retaliate instead of Land Crush out of force of habit which costs me the game. He retreats into Lugia and knocks it out with Plasma Gale, but I'm able to Red Signal his Absol, knock it out, and continue to wall him with Latias. Unfortunately, that was my last Plasma Energy, and he's able to hide of the Bench until we go into time and tie.
0-0-1
Round 2: Chris with Plasma
I sort of feel bad for him; he gets set up and Supporters and everything, but doesn't see an Energy until after I've already knocked out 2 Kyurems and a Deoxys. He then N's me into a dead hand and starts powering up a Lugia. I don't draw anything useful until he knocks out my Active Cobalion for two prizes. Then I top deck Juniper with a hand of Genesect and Plasma Energy. I play it down and Red Signal his benched Thundurus, and hit an Energy Switch to Retaliate for my last two prizes.
1-0-1
Round 3: Ricardo with Virizion/Genesect
I go second and Skyla for Victory Piece. From there I believe I 6-0 him
2-0-1
Round 4: Adam with Plasma
His list looked a lot like Mikey's, but he actually got Lugia attacking very early and Plasma Galed Victini right after I turbo energized to Latias. I rack up damage on his Lugias and prepare to Megalo Cannon for four prizes, but he runs Genesect too and Red Signals a damaged EX for three more prizes.
2-1-1
Top 4: Adam with Plasma
Game 1: I can't remember exactly what happened, but I know I got a really strong start. I had taken four prize and he had taken three off of a Victini and two off of a Cobalion. Right after he knocked out the Coablion, I Ultra Ball for Terrakion, bench it with double Energy Switch via Skyla, and Red Signal Thundurus for game.
Game 2: is a repeat of our match in Swiss.
Game 3: gets to his Turn 3 as I'm walling him with Latias and fishing for my last Plasma Energy to win the game when he top decks Scramble Switch into Thundurus and uses Thunderous Noise for game.
4th Place; 122 CP
