Nigel's Terribald Decklist said:
Upon first looking at the list I played, you can see that it doesn't look very consistent. Not a lot of draw supporters or anything. However, the point of this list is to get Empoleon out quickly, which is one thing that it does extremely well. Once you get Empoleons out, you can keep using Diving Draw and rely less on draw supporters. Sounds stupid, but it works.
Once we got to Lawrenceville (which is 2 hours north of where I live), I decided to buy a pack while waiting for people to show up/registration to start. I pulled a Registeel-EX and a foil Bidoof. Such a good pack.
After registration started and we turned in our lists, I walked around the store and talked with one of my many friends, Justin Whitaker, about what he thought would be good this format. He told me that he was positive that Darkrai/Mewtwo and Darkrai/Mewtwo/Terrakion lists would be the play, and I respected his opinion (while honestly thinking that he was nuts lol).
One of my friends in Juniors was playing an Eels list I built her, and I thought it would be pretty cool if she won Juniors and I won Seniors.
Round 1 - vs. Durant/Aggron
I go first. I get an Emolga start, attach a Water Energy, Ultra Ball for a Piplup, Juniper, drop another Piplup, and use Call for Family to get out 2 more Piplups. They got a Durant start and T1 got out 2 Arons and 3 Durants. They then devoured for 3 cards, of which I believe were a Blend Energy, a Rayquaza, and a Juniper. Next turn, I topdeck an Empoleon and Rare Candy + attach to a benched Piplup, and play N. I get a Prinplup and an Ultra Ball, which I used to get another Prinplup, and evolved 2 more Piplups. From there on, I kept sweeping their Durants with Empoleon for the rest of the game. They managed to get my deck very low, and kept Devolution Spraying + dropping Aggrons. However, once I had only 2 cards in my deck, I played an N, and shuffled my huge hand into my deck and drew one card.
1-0
In between rounds, I bought a Cooled Chocolate Milkshake. It was delicious and chocolaty, and I drank the entire thing in one sip. Afterwards, I tried to impress some masters my ripping the can that it came in in two, and when I did that, the can was sharp and it cut my hand. >_<
I went over and talked to my Junior friend. He won round 1, and played against a Garchomp/Altaria list.
Round 2 - vs. Darkrai/Hydreigon
He starts Sableye, Level Balls twice for 2 Deinos, drops a Darkrai, attaches to Sableye, and Junk Hunts. I start Terrakion, Ultra Ball for an Emolga, attach to Emolga, and play N. I get a Switch, and switch into Emolga. I then drop a Piplup and Call for family for 2 more Piplups. He then goes and gets out TWO Hydreigons, Dark Patches + Attaches to Darkrai, retreats to Darkrai, moves the energy on Sableye to Darkrai, and KO's my Emolga and does 30 to Terrakion. Next turn, I draw into a Rare Candy, Evolve a Piplup into Empoleon, attach to Empoleon, and Juniper. I Rare Candy ANOTHER Piplup into an Empoleon, double diving draw, drop another Piplup, Evolve my one benched Piplup into a Prinplup and get out another Terrakion. I then Catcher + KO his Sableye and draw my first prize. Next turn, he Catchers my Prinplup, KO's it, and does 30 to my Terrakion with 30 on it already. Next turn I Max Potion Terrakion, attach a Blend Energy to it, Super Rod the Piplup, Prinplup, and a Water Energy I Diving Draw'd back into my deck, Diving Draw again into the Piplup (which I proceed to place on my bench) and do 70 on his Darkrai (because it had Eviolite attached to it). Next turn he Max Potions, Catchers Piplup, KO's it and does 30 to Terrakion. I then bring up Terrakion, attach a Water Energy to it, N him into terrible cards, play Tool Scrapper to get rid of the Eviolite on his Darkrai, and KO it with my Empoleon. Right then we were 3-3 on the prize trade, and he only had 2 Hydreigons with 0 energies left on the field. Next turn guess what? He topdecks a Darkrai. He drops it on his bench with a Darkness Energy attached to it and passes. On my turn, I Diving Draw twice into a Random Receiver, another Blend Energy, and use the Catcher in my hand to bring up his Darkrai. I random Receiver into an N at that moment, but since he couldn't do anything then, I decided it wouldn't be wise to play it. Instead, I attach a Blend to Terrakion and KO his Darkrai. I now have 1 prize left and he has 3. He draws, passes, and I do 90 to his Hydreigon. Next turn, he attaches a Darkness Energy to his benched Hydreigon, plays Max Potion, and passes. I then attack him again with Terrakion, and he couldn't do anything on his turn.
After the match, he stormed off with his cards, put his head in his shirt, and I believe he cried.
2-0
After this match, I went to buy another Cooled Chocolate Milkshake. Seriously, that building was even warmer than it was outside, and it was 90-something degrees out there. For the rest of this tournament, I felt like my eyeballs were melting in the extreme heat.
Talking to my Junior friend, he also is going 2-0. He won against a Rayquaza/Eels during his last round by 2HKO'ing the Rayquaza-EX's and getting ahead in the prize trade.
Justin was also going 2-0. I thought it would be interesting if we got paired against each other for Round 3.
Round 3 - vs. Justin Whitaker w/ Darkrai/Hydreigon
He starts Darkrai, and I start Emolga. I go first and bench a Terra. The reason I didn't bench the Terrakion before was because I didn't want him to Catcher + Stall with it active if he went first. That would really cripple my set up. Anyways, I attach a Water Energy to Emolga, and Juniper. I draw an Ultra Ball, and I play it to get another Piplup. After that, I used Call for Family to get out 2 more Piplups. On his turn, he topdecks a Sableye, plays it, and Junipers his hand. He Dark Patches to Sableye, and attaches to Darkrai. He brings up Sableye, and Level Balls for a Deino. After that, he Junk Hunts for the Level Ball and Dark Patch. On my turn, I attach to Piplup, Rare Candy into Empoleon, and N to try and get a Catcher (and to get the Level Ball and Dark Patch out of his hand). Whiffed it. I try to Diving Draw into a Catcher. Whiffed it again. So I KO his Sableye and guess what the prize card was? A Pokemon Catcher. On his turn, he bring up Darkrai, attaches to Darkrai, Dark Patches to Deino, drops another Deino, and Junipers. He Rare Candies into Hydra, Catchers up Terrakion, and does 30 to it and 30 to a piplup. I draw, Diving Draw, get another Rare Candy, and get out Empoleon #2 on the non-damaged Piplup (instead of the damaged one so I can retaliate). I Diving Draw #2 and drop another Terrakion and I attach a Blend Energy to it. I then use Max Potion on my active Terrakion and pass. This next turn of his was crazy. He gets out another Hydreigon, attaches a Blend to it, drops another Darkrai, Dark Patches to it, brings up Hydreigon and OHKO's my active Terrakion. I think that was a good play because with Terrakion, I can't OHKO Hydreigon and I can only get a KO on Hydreigon if I have a Catcher. On my turn, I bring up Terrakion, attach a Water Energy to it, and double Diving Draw to try and get a Catcher. I got 2. I Tool Scrapper'd Eviolites of of his Darkrais and Catchered to the one with a Blend and Dark Attached to it and KO'd it. He brings up another benched Darkrai and drops a Sableye. He then Junk Hunts for 2 Dark Patches. On my turn, I draw and Diving Draw to get a Blend. I attached it to Terrakion and Catchered up his other Darkrai. and KO'd it. He then brought up Hydreigon and KO'd my Terrakion. I brought up Empoleon, drew, and attached a Water to it. I did 80 damage to it. He then Max Potion'd the damage away, Dark Patch'd a bit, and OHKO'd it. I brought up another Empoleon and attached to it. Searching through my discard, I saw that I had one more Catcher either Prized or Decked. I Random Receiver'd my 3 card deck just to see if I had the Catcher. I did. I played Cheren to get it and Catcher'd his Sableye for game. He then showed me his hand and the rest of his deck and said that I would have won either way because he had no more energies, Dark Patches, or Max Potions.
3-0
My Junior buddy also won. He played against a Darkrai/Hydra and beat it with his Eels.
I then proceeded to buy another Cooled Chocolate Milkshake. They were the most delicious thing in the store because my eyes honestly felt like they were melting.
I then go to look at the Pairings for Round 4 and...what the heck...?
Round 4 - vs. Lando/Terrakion
I didn't really know what to say at this game. Seriously. This kid was playing... Lando/Terrakion? Apparently he had somehow beat a Garchomp/Altaria, a Darkrai/Hydreigon, and a Darkrai/Mewtwo in the other swiss rounds.
I go first, I start Emolga to his Landorus. Thanks to Ultra Balls and Call of Family, I got 4 Piplups out T1. He goes, Double Heavy Balls for 2 Terrakions, attaches EXP Share to one and a Fighting Energy to the active Landorus. He then Junipers for another Terrakion and another EXP Share, playing them both down and passing. I got out ANOTHER T2 EMPOLEON (It happened every game!) and KO'd his Landorus. He brought up Terrakion, dropped an EXP Share to a benched Terrakion, and Retaliate'd for 90. I then played Max Potion, attached again, and attacked his Terrakion. The game pretty much went like this. I was ahead in the prize lead the entire game, and it wasn't too exciting.
4-0
Wow. I won. And so did my Junior friend using my Eels list. To celebrate, I went and bought 2 more Cooled Chocolate Milkshakes because I felt like I was dying in the heat. In my age division, the top 4 decks looked like this:
1) Empoleon/Terrakion
2) Landorus/Terrakion
3) Darkrai/Hydreigon
4) Garchomp/Altaria
After my round, I went around masters tables and counted what they were playing. The overall breakup of their decks looked something like:
50% Garchomp/Altaria
10% Darkrai/Mewtwo
5% Garbodor/Terrakion varients
10% Zekrom/Eelektrik
25% Darkrai/Hydreigon
I don't have the results, but from looking around at match slips, most of the Garchomp/Altaria lists were not doing as well as people would have imagined.
To Celebrate my Victory, I ate Ice Cream. Yay for me.
Oh, and pulled my 5th Giratina-EX from the winning packs. Traded it for a Japanese FA Cheren.
Props:
- Winning my first tournament of this format
- Garchomp/Altaria for doing bad
- Empoleon for doing good
- Ice Cream
- Cooled Chocolate Milkshakes
- My Floatzel plush sat by my playmat during each round. Good Luck Charm. :>
- Lotsa Packs
- FA Cheren
- Making a kid cry
Slops:
- MN Players Y U NO BE THAR
- Matryoshka Y U NO BE THAR
- Victory Cups looks the same as the spring ones.
- Lando/Terrakion for doing well
