PMJ
Silhouette Gloom of the Sundown Lands
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This states was going to be the states to beat all states because I was gonna finally pop my pb member cherry and meet one of you lucky dudes. Teapot and I were determined to go balls out and kill everyone, him with Yveltal/Seismijerk, me with the man himself, Lord of the God damn Earth...
**** YEAH
I had done a few battles with a personal build of mine early last week and decided that since my brother, who doesn't really know the intricacies of the game, disgraced the might of Primal Groudon last week, I'd give him a try - especially since he tells Seismibutt to bend over, and that was pretty much the deck to beat. I also considered playing Kyogre, because I've always been a Kyogre fan, but it's slow and extremely vulnerable to item lock. Night March was out of the question since I was disappointed with my performance last week, and I'm too afraid of Fighting to play Manectric and Friends, so that left Groudon. I'm fairly used to playing it, since I had tested it previously, so I decided pretty early to play it for WI states.
Blah told me about a nifty thing called Silver Mirror, which would shit on Flareon, who would otherwise maul this deck, and Terrakion NVI, who makes a handy mirror holder because Empoleon--Flareon's only non-Plasma attacker--can't OHKO because not weak to Water. I'm down for auto-wins, so I added a 1-1 FA Terrakion@Mirror (FA because that art is top tier).
Friday afternoon, I decided to do some testing, and I had like six bad games in a row. A few were from Seismignoramus, a couple were from scrub decks with shit like no-Ability Samurott in it, and even VirGen, who I lose to anyway so it's not _that_ depressing. Still, all these bad matches in a row so close to the tournament messed with my head something fierce. I questioned playing Groudon, or even going anyway, because Seisminerd is super ducking fumb. My roommate, who played Gengar/Trevenant last week, told me that many an opponent was frustrated with Trevenant's item lock, and suggested I play it with something like Donphan.
I had a goofy idea of Trevenant/Crobat, and so I built it and tested it. It actually worked. It sounds goofy as hell on paper, but those two have amazing synergy together. I won like half a dozen games and I'm like... do I really want to take this shit to states? I fought exactly one deck with dark pokes in it and none of them were Yveltal (I still lost because dropping a Dark-type makes this deck fold faster than two-seven off-suit). I hadn't sleeved Groudon yet, I was winning with Trevenant/Crobat, and I had to be up and ready in four hours (I drove to the event Saturday morning).
In the end, I decided to man up and stick with Groudon. I'm glad I did. Funnily enough, google Cawthon played Gengar/Trevenant ft. Raichu + Electrode, but I can't help but think he was just trolling since the dude probably already has an invite. My build is an eccentric one, if Camoclone's proposed fixes were any indication. One of my absolute favorite cards in this deck is Battle Compressor. It's mostly used for throwing away a couple Fighting so I can Shout them onto Groudon, but if I don't get them until the mid/late game I can use them to throw away shit I don't need anymore just to maximize my chances of hitting something not dumb from an N to one or two. Pokemon-wise, I'm using three Hawlucha, four baby Lando, a 3-3 Groudon (with only two links, which was an oversight and not a choice), and the one Terrakion.
So I get there and the internet is dog shit. I end up spending all day resetting my phone's connection to the hotel's internet because it must be powered by monkeys on a treadmill. Teapot messages me saying that he's wearing a jersey of some scrub from the GB Packers or whatever. I don't see him.
I buy a pink playmat because it looks nice with my purple sleeves, and it was only seven dollars. It was covered in hair and dirt by the end of the event, which is why you need to have a tube at all times.
They announce that Masters will have eight rounds instead of seven. It's... it's gonna be a long day. This time I didn't go to the table they put next to my name, like a pleb, and find my way to the correct table. I sit down across from my round one opponent and get ready to stomp. I'm hoping for Seismigarbage/Garbodor, which is p much an auto win for me. Night March and VirGen are both disastrous matchups for me and I am hoping I don't run into either of them.
ROUND 1: vs. Briana K. w/Night March
God damn it.
I saw her wandering around before the event started. She was wearing a short skirt and it made me feel comfortable knowing she was in Masters. Still, she could have been fifteen, so I kept quiet.
Game 1: I win the flip and choose to go first. As soon as she flipped her basics over, I realize what a huge mistake that was. She gets a turn and that's pretty much all she needs to run me down.
Game 2: I go second (natch) and I start slowly picking off her Night Marchers, leaving all her Mew as sitting ducks. Hard Charm is clutch as I whiff the Strong and Joltik survives Shout of Power. She gets down to her last seven or so cards in her deck, quickly uses her items to burn through them, Bicycles for the last few, and plays Lysandre, targeting Primal Groudon for the Night March KO and her last two prizes. I cringe at the loss BUT WAIT, I realize, YOU CAN'T DO THAT TO HIM HAHAHAHAHAHA I point this out to her and she's like "well damn, I lost" and I'm like "yep, you sure did." Since she had more than 1 prize left, killing anyone else wouldn't get her the game, so she scooped.
Game 3: Lone Hawlucha start, went first, you can guess how violently this ended for me
0-1-0
ROUND 2: vs. Dave M. w/Victini-EX's Burning Metal Fun Time
Random PokeDad who was here with his kids. The guy was super new to the game and didn't know what most of the cards did. I had to explain a lot of them, including the relationship between Escape Rope, Lysandre, and Omega Barrier. Anyway, he was a nice guy, and his deck had a decent enough plan, but he went about it all wrong. His strategy was to use Victini-EX's Turbo Energize to power up his big basics. His Pokemon of choice: Dialga-EX, Camerupt-EX, and Delphox-EX. Yeeeeeeah.
Looking over my results from round 7, he actually won a match at some point in the day, which just blows my mind. Well, maybe it doesn't; his deck idea was solid if not poorly planned, and if he kept losing, eventually he would have fought someone just as bad as he is. Oh well.
Due to problems with match slips, some people in Masters got repaired. Teapot was a lucky victim and wound up next to PokeDad, so that was when I decided to break the ice and call Teapot a nerd.
Game 1: He opens with Delphox-EX, and he gets the Float Stone t1 to switch to Victini and I think something might happen here, but this guy barely has a clue what he's doing so
Game 2: He misplayed Blacksmith, trying to attach them to Dialga-EX. Towards the end I saw him bust out Plasma Leafeon and I thought I was in trouble but then I realized that four energy means I don't get KOed and I was confident this guy didn't even know what Silver Bangle was so I ignored it and kept Lysandreing his dudes.
1-1-0
om nom nom lunch
ROUND 3: vs. Jeremy P. w/Mega Aggron ft. Seismitoad-EX
Game 1: He either wins the flip and goes first or I win and go second, either way at this point I'm going second for the rest of the day which I am 100% cool with. He opens with Aggron and drops Aegislash early, warning me about playing recklessly with my Strongs (I have Silent Lab, but still). I have a fabled Perfect Start and I'm using Gaia Volcano on turn three. He tries to catch up, even dropping Seismitoad late game to try to stall, but once Groudon gets going, He cannot be stopped.
Game 2: He opened with Seismitoad. Normally, Seismitoad is (or should be) cake, but when he's used in combination with one of the only cards in the format that can OHKO Primal Groudon, it's a problem. I got the primal out quickly enough, but I couldn't draw into the Energy and I was locked out of my letters. By the time I got going, he already had two Mega Aggron out and fully charged, and I didn't even have the two Strongs I needed to OHKO the first one.
Game 3: He opened with Seismitoad again, but my belief in the Heart of the Cards pays off and I start putting it to him. Terrakion was clutch here, surviving a whiffed Victory Star reflip on Heavy Slam. The twenty damage to his field came into play later on when I was able to follow a Shout of Power up with a 2HKO from Hawlucha@Strong. I actually haven't said much about Terrakion because I don't remember the details about every single match, but there were a lot of times that Terrakion helped save the match over the course of the day with a clutch Retaliate or just being a beast and bulldozing through shit with 130-damage Land Crashes. If Groudon is unavailable, Terrakion also makes a great Scramble Switch recipient. He's a great addition and I'm glad I added him (thanks again Blah). At any rate, after a kill I was down to Primal Groudon on his own, with three fighting and a strong on, against a full health Mega Aggron. I have the Stadium in play but if I can't get the second strong I won't OHKO and I will probably die. Fortunately for me, I topdeck the strong, and swing for 240 and the game.
2-1-0
ROUND 4: vs. Danny O. w/Medicham ft. Landorus-EX & Lucario-EX
This guy sounds familiar, but I can't remember where I have seen or heard his name. Oh well.
Game 1: I started with a lone Groudon and got no supporters to help me out. Two turns in, I was done.
Game 2. Much better start for me, but I realized that in this matchup, I should not try for the Groudon when Medicham has 90 HP and both Landorus and Terrakion can hit that number easily (another match that Terrakion was immeasurably helpful in). It's late game and he's got no Energy. I give him a taste of his own medicine by gusting up his lone benched Lucario-EX and using Hawlucha to hit him for 100. When he doesn't play the Energy to simply KO me outright and take his last prize, I think I have this match won since I can take my last two prizes off him, but he hits the heads on Super Scoop Up, preventing me from killing him before he kills me. Damn.
2-2-0
ROUND 5: vs. Matt C. w/Landorus-EX + Crobat
So I head over to my table and I see this junior sit in the seat across from me. I figure he's there to get a card from his big brother but no, this is my opponent and he can't be more than four foot nothing. I guess there has to be one weirdo at every tournament. Who will my Round 5 Weirdo at Regionals be? No one knooooooooows
This kid kept slapping the cards in his hands together like you cool kids do. You know, how you keep shuffling the same two or three cards together in your hand, like doing it over and over will suddenly transform your shit card into one you need? Except he did it really loud and obnoxiously. It's hard to describe, but I wanted to hit him in the face. Also, he kept putting his filthy, disgusting, non-sexy dice on my Pokemon. Like, is that a thing people do? I have my own dice. You can clearly see them; I have plenty. I know how to play this game, I know how damage works, just say your attack and the damage and I will add the damage myself. Keep your shitty non-matching dice to yourself. Ugh.
Game 1: I believe that the Landbats matchup is probably 55-45 or 60-40 in Groudon's favor, maybe even as high as 70-30 if you run Mr. Mime (which I didn't). Let them blow through their bites to try and kill Groudon as you continue to power him up. Then Scramble up a new one, OHKO Landorus-EX, and watch them fold as they're left with a weak Lucario (maybe) and a field full of bats who swing for 30. This game... did not go that way. It did not go anywhere near that way. I got nothing and Landorus ate me for breakfast.
Game 2: I was a little slow to start in this game. At the pivotal moment, I had a Landorus with 100 damage on him and a single Energy. I have a Primal Groudon with 3 on him, and a clean Hawlucha. He tries to gust up Primal Groudon (I can't make this up). I tell him he can't and he tries to take it back, and I'm like no, you played it, you have to pick Hawlucha. So I send up Hawlucha and he does Hammerhead. Instead of killing Landorus, he chooses to put 30 on Groudon. Next turn I retreat into Lando, scramble into Groudon, and stomp his stupid flying dog ass into oblivion. [x] REKT [ ] NOT REKT
Game 3: I play three Switch in this deck, which allows me to play very conservatively with Groudon, bullshit item lock notwithstanding. If you can't KO the target you want, get out and send up a foot soldier. What's your opponent gonna do, Lysandre your Groudon back out? So it's during this fight that I start a hit-and-run strategy with Groudon. If I can't get the Stadium, I simply switch out and try again later. Because of this, he struggles to get any KOs. I'm confident that with maybe five or six more turns, I can wipe his board, but time is called and neither of us can eliminate the other in the time allotted.
2-2-1
ROUND 6: vs. Joe B. w/Yveltal-EX + Seismitoad-EX[/B]
His deck box is a custom one with some guy screaming about stuff being janky, pure jank, etc probably some dumb meme shit that I would find hilarious if I knew at all what the joke was. He was sick and coughed a lot during our fight. To his credit, he tried to play with his shirt covering his nose, but it didn't help. Full disclosure: I went despite being on the ass end of a cold, popping extra strength menthol cough drops like they were my lifeline, but I wasn't as bad as this guy was.
Game 1: No sign of Groudon. I've got the Scramble in hand, waiting for a way to get Groudon so I can power it up, but on the turn after I attach the third energy, he Lysandres the Landorus I was parking the energy on and kills him, removing all energy from my field. At this point he's got two birds@Muscle Bands each with like 3 energy and there's nothing I can do to stop them.
Game 2: Return of the King. I get Primal Groudon out immediately and start stockpiling Energy. I sac a turn so I can attach Yveltal Insurance aka Focus Sash to Groudon. He plays super conservatively, trying to buff his big birds with baby bird, but I do a one-two knockout on his two Yveltal-EX and he scoops.
Game 3:
3-2-1
ROUND 7: vs. Yakira T. w/Fairy Toolbox (Mega Gardevoir, Combustion Blast Charizard, Manectric-EX, Landorus-EX, Suicune)[/B]
I saw her play previously so I know she's playing fairies. She was cheerful at first. I mulligan at the start and reveal a strong, and she guesses I'm running Landbats. She mentions that she hates Groudon variants, and it's like her worst matchup.
Game 1: Since I know she's running fairies, I force her to go first and she gets an explosive first turn. We're both building up our boards. She quickly gets Suicune out, like Safeguard actually means something Groudon decks. She was cool until she started sullying my Pokemon with her stupid, tiny, unmatching dice. She also didn't speak above a whisper and rarely announced her attack, instead preferring to announce the damage, and sometimes even forgoing that and just stuffing her disgusting damage markers all over my Pokemon cards. I think I heard her heart sink when I dropped the Groudon because she knew it was the beginning of the end. By this point in the day, I'm in complete control of my deck and I'm biding my time until I get Silent Lab because okay I guess Safeguard means a little bit to Groudon decks. She searches out Landorus-EX and I'm completely confused until she transfers two Rainbow to it, and it's then I realize that she's not playing straight fairies, but a toolbox, a lesson I learned much too late as I am blasted to hell by Land's Judgment. I send up a Landorus and Shout one to a waiting Groudon. She does 50 to Lando, putting him in KO range, and 30 to a benched Hawlucha. I attach and Shout two more energy to my Groudon, but on the next turn she LysandresPrimal Groudon Hawlucha and gets the twofer for the game.
Game 2: She has a much rougher start than the first game despite still going first. She gets Mega Gardevoir going pretty quickly, but after I kill her, Xerneas, and Aromatisse, her deck falls apart and she can't catch up.
Game 3: Same situation, but time is called during our match. This is unfortunate because I would have won with a few more turns. She wasn't kidding when she said Groudon was one of her worst matchups.
3-2-2
ROUND 8: vs. Joseph G. w/Landorus-EX + Crobat ft. Lucario-EX[/B]
I was sort of rushed after this battle and never got to write down the key parts of this battle. As such, I don't remember exactly what happened.
Game 1: My opening hand is Groudon-EX, two Battle Compressor, two Primal Groudon-EX, VS Seeker, and Groudon Spirit Link. This is by far the worst hand I had all day.
Game 2: I start lone Groudon. He goes first and plays Strong, Band, and Fighting Stadium for that extra 20. On my turn, I Korrina for Switch and Hawlucha, swoop swoop swoop, attach a strong and hit his Luke for 100. He flips tails on SSU (first one all day!) and can't secure the second strong for the KO, allowing me to get the KO. Fighting Stadium lets Hawlucha run rampant and I don't even bother focusing on Groudon past evolving him.
Game 3: We know time is imminent so we question playing out the third game. In the end, we decide to just play it, and if time gets called and there won't be a winner, we'll scoop it up. He manages to get a big-ass Lucario up and running, while I've got Primal Groudon ready to stall. Time is called, and I'm on turn 2. I panic and realize that my dino has 190 HP left, a number which is easily hittable thanks to Fighting Stadium, Muscle Band, and 2 Strong already on Lucario, combined with a bench full of Zubat. I do the safe option and play Sycamore, hoping for more basics. I hit two of them, preventing him from taking all his prizes and confirming the match as a tie. This battle is one that I might have lost, so I'll take the tie.
3-2-3
Final standing: 3-2-3, 48th place out of 75 Masters
Props
+ MDIF (Manliest Deck In Format)
+ Switch
+ Terrakion
+ Scramble Switching from a dino with 230 damage on it to a clean one
+ Scramble Switching from anything to anything else, actually, the card is great
+ not paired with Donphan which I guess also gives this deck a hard time
+ Met Teapot, probably made him feel weird in front of his real life friends
+++ if I did
+ not paired with VirGen
+ had fun
Slops
- tying battles I would have won more than the ones I would have lost
- not paired with Flareon so I could test the mirror's true power
- Quaking Punch for [C][C] is [C]ancer
- Seismitoad is dumb and is worth mentioning here again
- Teapot did better but he used Seismitoad so it's okay
Since I'm not gunning for a worlds invite and regionals should get me the CP I need to get into nationals (if I go), I'll probably skip MN and IA states since I don't know about driving five hours for either of those. Regionals is only about half an hour away so hopefully I can meet more of you then.
PRIMAL ****ING GROUDON
**** YEAH
I had done a few battles with a personal build of mine early last week and decided that since my brother, who doesn't really know the intricacies of the game, disgraced the might of Primal Groudon last week, I'd give him a try - especially since he tells Seismibutt to bend over, and that was pretty much the deck to beat. I also considered playing Kyogre, because I've always been a Kyogre fan, but it's slow and extremely vulnerable to item lock. Night March was out of the question since I was disappointed with my performance last week, and I'm too afraid of Fighting to play Manectric and Friends, so that left Groudon. I'm fairly used to playing it, since I had tested it previously, so I decided pretty early to play it for WI states.
Blah told me about a nifty thing called Silver Mirror, which would shit on Flareon, who would otherwise maul this deck, and Terrakion NVI, who makes a handy mirror holder because Empoleon--Flareon's only non-Plasma attacker--can't OHKO because not weak to Water. I'm down for auto-wins, so I added a 1-1 FA Terrakion@Mirror (FA because that art is top tier).
Friday afternoon, I decided to do some testing, and I had like six bad games in a row. A few were from Seismignoramus, a couple were from scrub decks with shit like no-Ability Samurott in it, and even VirGen, who I lose to anyway so it's not _that_ depressing. Still, all these bad matches in a row so close to the tournament messed with my head something fierce. I questioned playing Groudon, or even going anyway, because Seisminerd is super ducking fumb. My roommate, who played Gengar/Trevenant last week, told me that many an opponent was frustrated with Trevenant's item lock, and suggested I play it with something like Donphan.
I had a goofy idea of Trevenant/Crobat, and so I built it and tested it. It actually worked. It sounds goofy as hell on paper, but those two have amazing synergy together. I won like half a dozen games and I'm like... do I really want to take this shit to states? I fought exactly one deck with dark pokes in it and none of them were Yveltal (I still lost because dropping a Dark-type makes this deck fold faster than two-seven off-suit). I hadn't sleeved Groudon yet, I was winning with Trevenant/Crobat, and I had to be up and ready in four hours (I drove to the event Saturday morning).
In the end, I decided to man up and stick with Groudon. I'm glad I did. Funnily enough, google Cawthon played Gengar/Trevenant ft. Raichu + Electrode, but I can't help but think he was just trolling since the dude probably already has an invite. My build is an eccentric one, if Camoclone's proposed fixes were any indication. One of my absolute favorite cards in this deck is Battle Compressor. It's mostly used for throwing away a couple Fighting so I can Shout them onto Groudon, but if I don't get them until the mid/late game I can use them to throw away shit I don't need anymore just to maximize my chances of hitting something not dumb from an N to one or two. Pokemon-wise, I'm using three Hawlucha, four baby Lando, a 3-3 Groudon (with only two links, which was an oversight and not a choice), and the one Terrakion.
So I get there and the internet is dog shit. I end up spending all day resetting my phone's connection to the hotel's internet because it must be powered by monkeys on a treadmill. Teapot messages me saying that he's wearing a jersey of some scrub from the GB Packers or whatever. I don't see him.
I buy a pink playmat because it looks nice with my purple sleeves, and it was only seven dollars. It was covered in hair and dirt by the end of the event, which is why you need to have a tube at all times.
They announce that Masters will have eight rounds instead of seven. It's... it's gonna be a long day. This time I didn't go to the table they put next to my name, like a pleb, and find my way to the correct table. I sit down across from my round one opponent and get ready to stomp. I'm hoping for Seismigarbage/Garbodor, which is p much an auto win for me. Night March and VirGen are both disastrous matchups for me and I am hoping I don't run into either of them.
ROUND 1: vs. Briana K. w/Night March
God damn it.
I saw her wandering around before the event started. She was wearing a short skirt and it made me feel comfortable knowing she was in Masters. Still, she could have been fifteen, so I kept quiet.
Game 1: I win the flip and choose to go first. As soon as she flipped her basics over, I realize what a huge mistake that was. She gets a turn and that's pretty much all she needs to run me down.
Game 2: I go second (natch) and I start slowly picking off her Night Marchers, leaving all her Mew as sitting ducks. Hard Charm is clutch as I whiff the Strong and Joltik survives Shout of Power. She gets down to her last seven or so cards in her deck, quickly uses her items to burn through them, Bicycles for the last few, and plays Lysandre, targeting Primal Groudon for the Night March KO and her last two prizes. I cringe at the loss BUT WAIT, I realize, YOU CAN'T DO THAT TO HIM HAHAHAHAHAHA I point this out to her and she's like "well damn, I lost" and I'm like "yep, you sure did." Since she had more than 1 prize left, killing anyone else wouldn't get her the game, so she scooped.
Game 3: Lone Hawlucha start, went first, you can guess how violently this ended for me
0-1-0
ROUND 2: vs. Dave M. w/Victini-EX's Burning Metal Fun Time
Random PokeDad who was here with his kids. The guy was super new to the game and didn't know what most of the cards did. I had to explain a lot of them, including the relationship between Escape Rope, Lysandre, and Omega Barrier. Anyway, he was a nice guy, and his deck had a decent enough plan, but he went about it all wrong. His strategy was to use Victini-EX's Turbo Energize to power up his big basics. His Pokemon of choice: Dialga-EX, Camerupt-EX, and Delphox-EX. Yeeeeeeah.
Looking over my results from round 7, he actually won a match at some point in the day, which just blows my mind. Well, maybe it doesn't; his deck idea was solid if not poorly planned, and if he kept losing, eventually he would have fought someone just as bad as he is. Oh well.
Due to problems with match slips, some people in Masters got repaired. Teapot was a lucky victim and wound up next to PokeDad, so that was when I decided to break the ice and call Teapot a nerd.
Game 1: He opens with Delphox-EX, and he gets the Float Stone t1 to switch to Victini and I think something might happen here, but this guy barely has a clue what he's doing so
Game 2: He misplayed Blacksmith, trying to attach them to Dialga-EX. Towards the end I saw him bust out Plasma Leafeon and I thought I was in trouble but then I realized that four energy means I don't get KOed and I was confident this guy didn't even know what Silver Bangle was so I ignored it and kept Lysandreing his dudes.
1-1-0
om nom nom lunch
ROUND 3: vs. Jeremy P. w/Mega Aggron ft. Seismitoad-EX
Game 1: He either wins the flip and goes first or I win and go second, either way at this point I'm going second for the rest of the day which I am 100% cool with. He opens with Aggron and drops Aegislash early, warning me about playing recklessly with my Strongs (I have Silent Lab, but still). I have a fabled Perfect Start and I'm using Gaia Volcano on turn three. He tries to catch up, even dropping Seismitoad late game to try to stall, but once Groudon gets going, He cannot be stopped.
Game 2: He opened with Seismitoad. Normally, Seismitoad is (or should be) cake, but when he's used in combination with one of the only cards in the format that can OHKO Primal Groudon, it's a problem. I got the primal out quickly enough, but I couldn't draw into the Energy and I was locked out of my letters. By the time I got going, he already had two Mega Aggron out and fully charged, and I didn't even have the two Strongs I needed to OHKO the first one.
Game 3: He opened with Seismitoad again, but my belief in the Heart of the Cards pays off and I start putting it to him. Terrakion was clutch here, surviving a whiffed Victory Star reflip on Heavy Slam. The twenty damage to his field came into play later on when I was able to follow a Shout of Power up with a 2HKO from Hawlucha@Strong. I actually haven't said much about Terrakion because I don't remember the details about every single match, but there were a lot of times that Terrakion helped save the match over the course of the day with a clutch Retaliate or just being a beast and bulldozing through shit with 130-damage Land Crashes. If Groudon is unavailable, Terrakion also makes a great Scramble Switch recipient. He's a great addition and I'm glad I added him (thanks again Blah). At any rate, after a kill I was down to Primal Groudon on his own, with three fighting and a strong on, against a full health Mega Aggron. I have the Stadium in play but if I can't get the second strong I won't OHKO and I will probably die. Fortunately for me, I topdeck the strong, and swing for 240 and the game.
2-1-0
ROUND 4: vs. Danny O. w/Medicham ft. Landorus-EX & Lucario-EX
This guy sounds familiar, but I can't remember where I have seen or heard his name. Oh well.
Game 1: I started with a lone Groudon and got no supporters to help me out. Two turns in, I was done.
Game 2. Much better start for me, but I realized that in this matchup, I should not try for the Groudon when Medicham has 90 HP and both Landorus and Terrakion can hit that number easily (another match that Terrakion was immeasurably helpful in). It's late game and he's got no Energy. I give him a taste of his own medicine by gusting up his lone benched Lucario-EX and using Hawlucha to hit him for 100. When he doesn't play the Energy to simply KO me outright and take his last prize, I think I have this match won since I can take my last two prizes off him, but he hits the heads on Super Scoop Up, preventing me from killing him before he kills me. Damn.
2-2-0
ROUND 5: vs. Matt C. w/Landorus-EX + Crobat
So I head over to my table and I see this junior sit in the seat across from me. I figure he's there to get a card from his big brother but no, this is my opponent and he can't be more than four foot nothing. I guess there has to be one weirdo at every tournament. Who will my Round 5 Weirdo at Regionals be? No one knooooooooows
This kid kept slapping the cards in his hands together like you cool kids do. You know, how you keep shuffling the same two or three cards together in your hand, like doing it over and over will suddenly transform your shit card into one you need? Except he did it really loud and obnoxiously. It's hard to describe, but I wanted to hit him in the face. Also, he kept putting his filthy, disgusting, non-sexy dice on my Pokemon. Like, is that a thing people do? I have my own dice. You can clearly see them; I have plenty. I know how to play this game, I know how damage works, just say your attack and the damage and I will add the damage myself. Keep your shitty non-matching dice to yourself. Ugh.
Game 1: I believe that the Landbats matchup is probably 55-45 or 60-40 in Groudon's favor, maybe even as high as 70-30 if you run Mr. Mime (which I didn't). Let them blow through their bites to try and kill Groudon as you continue to power him up. Then Scramble up a new one, OHKO Landorus-EX, and watch them fold as they're left with a weak Lucario (maybe) and a field full of bats who swing for 30. This game... did not go that way. It did not go anywhere near that way. I got nothing and Landorus ate me for breakfast.
Game 2: I was a little slow to start in this game. At the pivotal moment, I had a Landorus with 100 damage on him and a single Energy. I have a Primal Groudon with 3 on him, and a clean Hawlucha. He tries to gust up Primal Groudon (I can't make this up). I tell him he can't and he tries to take it back, and I'm like no, you played it, you have to pick Hawlucha. So I send up Hawlucha and he does Hammerhead. Instead of killing Landorus, he chooses to put 30 on Groudon. Next turn I retreat into Lando, scramble into Groudon, and stomp his stupid flying dog ass into oblivion. [x] REKT [ ] NOT REKT
Game 3: I play three Switch in this deck, which allows me to play very conservatively with Groudon, bullshit item lock notwithstanding. If you can't KO the target you want, get out and send up a foot soldier. What's your opponent gonna do, Lysandre your Groudon back out? So it's during this fight that I start a hit-and-run strategy with Groudon. If I can't get the Stadium, I simply switch out and try again later. Because of this, he struggles to get any KOs. I'm confident that with maybe five or six more turns, I can wipe his board, but time is called and neither of us can eliminate the other in the time allotted.
2-2-1
ROUND 6: vs. Joe B. w/Yveltal-EX + Seismitoad-EX[/B]
His deck box is a custom one with some guy screaming about stuff being janky, pure jank, etc probably some dumb meme shit that I would find hilarious if I knew at all what the joke was. He was sick and coughed a lot during our fight. To his credit, he tried to play with his shirt covering his nose, but it didn't help. Full disclosure: I went despite being on the ass end of a cold, popping extra strength menthol cough drops like they were my lifeline, but I wasn't as bad as this guy was.
Game 1: No sign of Groudon. I've got the Scramble in hand, waiting for a way to get Groudon so I can power it up, but on the turn after I attach the third energy, he Lysandres the Landorus I was parking the energy on and kills him, removing all energy from my field. At this point he's got two birds@Muscle Bands each with like 3 energy and there's nothing I can do to stop them.
Game 2: Return of the King. I get Primal Groudon out immediately and start stockpiling Energy. I sac a turn so I can attach Yveltal Insurance aka Focus Sash to Groudon. He plays super conservatively, trying to buff his big birds with baby bird, but I do a one-two knockout on his two Yveltal-EX and he scoops.
Game 3:
3-2-1
ROUND 7: vs. Yakira T. w/Fairy Toolbox (Mega Gardevoir, Combustion Blast Charizard, Manectric-EX, Landorus-EX, Suicune)[/B]
I saw her play previously so I know she's playing fairies. She was cheerful at first. I mulligan at the start and reveal a strong, and she guesses I'm running Landbats. She mentions that she hates Groudon variants, and it's like her worst matchup.
Game 1: Since I know she's running fairies, I force her to go first and she gets an explosive first turn. We're both building up our boards. She quickly gets Suicune out, like Safeguard actually means something Groudon decks. She was cool until she started sullying my Pokemon with her stupid, tiny, unmatching dice. She also didn't speak above a whisper and rarely announced her attack, instead preferring to announce the damage, and sometimes even forgoing that and just stuffing her disgusting damage markers all over my Pokemon cards. I think I heard her heart sink when I dropped the Groudon because she knew it was the beginning of the end. By this point in the day, I'm in complete control of my deck and I'm biding my time until I get Silent Lab because okay I guess Safeguard means a little bit to Groudon decks. She searches out Landorus-EX and I'm completely confused until she transfers two Rainbow to it, and it's then I realize that she's not playing straight fairies, but a toolbox, a lesson I learned much too late as I am blasted to hell by Land's Judgment. I send up a Landorus and Shout one to a waiting Groudon. She does 50 to Lando, putting him in KO range, and 30 to a benched Hawlucha. I attach and Shout two more energy to my Groudon, but on the next turn she Lysandres
Game 2: She has a much rougher start than the first game despite still going first. She gets Mega Gardevoir going pretty quickly, but after I kill her, Xerneas, and Aromatisse, her deck falls apart and she can't catch up.
Game 3: Same situation, but time is called during our match. This is unfortunate because I would have won with a few more turns. She wasn't kidding when she said Groudon was one of her worst matchups.
3-2-2
ROUND 8: vs. Joseph G. w/Landorus-EX + Crobat ft. Lucario-EX[/B]
I was sort of rushed after this battle and never got to write down the key parts of this battle. As such, I don't remember exactly what happened.
Game 1: My opening hand is Groudon-EX, two Battle Compressor, two Primal Groudon-EX, VS Seeker, and Groudon Spirit Link. This is by far the worst hand I had all day.
Game 2: I start lone Groudon. He goes first and plays Strong, Band, and Fighting Stadium for that extra 20. On my turn, I Korrina for Switch and Hawlucha, swoop swoop swoop, attach a strong and hit his Luke for 100. He flips tails on SSU (first one all day!) and can't secure the second strong for the KO, allowing me to get the KO. Fighting Stadium lets Hawlucha run rampant and I don't even bother focusing on Groudon past evolving him.
Game 3: We know time is imminent so we question playing out the third game. In the end, we decide to just play it, and if time gets called and there won't be a winner, we'll scoop it up. He manages to get a big-ass Lucario up and running, while I've got Primal Groudon ready to stall. Time is called, and I'm on turn 2. I panic and realize that my dino has 190 HP left, a number which is easily hittable thanks to Fighting Stadium, Muscle Band, and 2 Strong already on Lucario, combined with a bench full of Zubat. I do the safe option and play Sycamore, hoping for more basics. I hit two of them, preventing him from taking all his prizes and confirming the match as a tie. This battle is one that I might have lost, so I'll take the tie.
3-2-3
Final standing: 3-2-3, 48th place out of 75 Masters
Props
+ MDIF (Manliest Deck In Format)
+ Switch
+ Terrakion
+ Scramble Switching from a dino with 230 damage on it to a clean one
+ Scramble Switching from anything to anything else, actually, the card is great
+ not paired with Donphan which I guess also gives this deck a hard time
+ Met Teapot, probably made him feel weird in front of his real life friends
+++ if I did
+ not paired with VirGen
+ had fun
Slops
- tying battles I would have won more than the ones I would have lost
- not paired with Flareon so I could test the mirror's true power
- Quaking Punch for [C][C] is [C]ancer
- Seismitoad is dumb and is worth mentioning here again
- Teapot did better but he used Seismitoad so it's okay
Since I'm not gunning for a worlds invite and regionals should get me the CP I need to get into nationals (if I go), I'll probably skip MN and IA states since I don't know about driving five hours for either of those. Regionals is only about half an hour away so hopefully I can meet more of you then.
All right it's time to regale you with another tournament tale! I haven't been able to attend very many (read as: any) tournaments this season but there was a cities in my hometown so I couldn't say no!
I wasn't really sure what deck to play. I heard Night March was still a thing, and so I spent about a week or so testing against
Unfortunately, that was about the only cool thing there was about this tournament because I did awful. Read on and you'll see what happened.
The only tournaments that I've been attended recently have been States and Regionals, so it was kind of a shock to show up and find not even close to that number of people. We had only 42 masters so it was six rounds with top 8. Also it's single elimination!!!! What the hell is this sorcery. I'm questioning going first in any match because with only one game, I need to start murdering from turn one. Let's get to it.
ROUND 1: vs. Entei/Charizard/Pyroar PHF
First round is against an older guy, probably in his fifties. Don't know if he was a 'dad but either way here he was. I lose the flip and he opts to go first, which is cool with me - except my opening hand is garbage. I start with a lone Shaymin, a DCE, and a hand full of crap I can't use. At least I have the DCE for the Sky Return. He starts a lone Entei and manages to drop down a second Entei before attaching and passing. I draw--another Shaymin--and cry at my hand. I play down the DCE, Set Up for one or two, and hit him for 30. His next turn he draws and passes!!! We never really get going until like turn three or four but at that point there's nothing he can do to stop me. 1-0
ROUND 2: vs. Mega Manectric/Raikou
I lose the flip and he chooses to go first. For the second game in a row I start with a lone Shaymin. I have the DCE at least. He opens with Raikou, drops two Manectric, plays some stuff, and passes. My first turn went better than my previous round - I was actually able to get a Joltik out so I'd have something real to Sky Return to. I note, with some dismay, that I've prized two Lampent. Neat. I Sky Return and promote Joltik. He wisely sacrifices his turn to Mega Evolve and I'm able to knock out his Raikou on my next turn. He chooses to save the mega for later and brings up Manectric-EX in order to get the revenge KO. I'm forced to discard two more attackers in order to seal the revenge KO. Fortunately I hit Town Map so as soon as I KO Manectric I pick up the two Lampent; however, I have no way to get them into my discard pile and I'm running out of cards in my deck. Milotic was clutch here, getting me a DCE back as well as an Ultra Ball to discard the two Lampent but at that point it was too late. I got the OHKO but his Raikou he'd been powering up killed me back and there was no way I could prevent him from taking his last prize the next turn. 1-1
lunch
ROUND 3: vs. Raichu/Crobat/Bronzong
I lose the flip, he chooses to go first. I hit no basics three times; the first time I reveal both Milotic and Lampent which is just dumb. Finally start with Joltik and Pumpkaboo, while he opens with a lone Pikachu. He plays a Level Ball for Zubat and I know I'm in huge trouble. This deck is pretty much my worst nightmare and requires judicious use of Hex Maniac to stop his bats from running me over. Unfortunately none of that happened because my opening hand was 100% unusable and drew completely dead the entire game. I even hit him with the Enhanced Hammer twice but he had the replacement DCE each time. And just as I expected, his bats tore me to ribbons while Raichu steadily knocked out anything I sent active. I didn't attack once the entire time and he took all six prizes in a matter of three or four turns. 1-2
ROUND 4: vs. Houndoom-EX ft. Bunnelby
I win the flip!!!
I opt to go second, just to see how it goes. Right, so you know how I run into a weirdo for round 5 in every tournament? This kid was definitely it. By the time I get to the table after pairings have been announced he's already sitting there with his deck presented for cut. I thought it was kind of suspicious but since he was asking me to cut I figured it was legit. I start shuffling; he draws his 7 and waits. I draw my hand and reveal no basics. He plays his hand down, showing the same. I put my cards on top of my deck and he just about has a heart attack. He starts giving me attitude about it and I'm like whatever kid. I reshuffle and once again I get no basics. I show him my hand and he takes my cards, inspects each of them, and then hands them back to me. I'm like what the hell kid, this isn't base set and no, none of these are Mysterious Fossil. Geez. I start with Joltik and he starts lone Houndoom. He ends up discarding one of my DCE with Melting Horn and quickly removes any Energy I put down. Fortunately Milotic is here to save the day, getting my DCEs back. Three Houndooms later and it's over. I'm glad I beat this kid, I would have felt lame af if I'da lost. He also didn't wish me luck in the beginning and had a weak-ass limpy handshake at the end so you know he a little biatch. 2-2ROUND 5: vs. Seismitoad ft. Empoleon
Night March has always suffered from item lock. You get one turn of items, though, and the matchup is still very winnable if you can set up. The guy playing me probably thought that there would be plenty of Night March so maybe he did this as a meta call? Must not have been working out very well for him cause he was 2-2 just like me. Anyway, I went back to losing the flip and he opts to go second, saying that his deck performs better when he does. I'm like yeah man, probably does, mine does too. He flips over a lone Seismitoad and I'm like well I might as well quit now because my hand isn't great. I opened with Pumpkaboo and had the Shaymin in hand. I got nothing to play off of, so I was forced to drop the DCE and attach a Float Stone to Pumpkaboo just to get a few cards from Set Up. Everything I picked up was unplayable. I passed, got hammered, and then Quaking Punch made sure I could never play anything again. After he had killed Pumpkaboo and hit Shaymin once I just put myself out of my misery with AZ. Completely disappointing. 2-3
There was one round left but my buddy who was also with me and went 2-3 said we should just bail so we did. He played Lucario hammers and made some pretty crucial misplays in a couple of his matches that cost him. He did throttle Night March which was the one deck he was most scared of, so that was cool
Final standings: 2-3(4), who cares out of 42 Masters
Props
+ it was cool to not have to drive an hour for a tournament
+ Milotic clutched it out
+ I beat that stupid Houndoom nerd ultra badly though I will say it looks like a really fun deck that I'm gonna look into
+ only ten bucks to get in
+ lots of deck variety! some guy played Mega Heracross which only made me want to play Chesnaught BREAK even more
Slops
- worst period starts period ever period
- fighting what was probably the only Seismitoad deck there that day
- wasn't really feeling it
At any rate, I still had fun. It was a nice way to spend an afternoon even though I did just terrible. I took Night March cause I was mostly comfortable with it, but I didn't have as much fun as I did the first time I played it, and definitely not as much fun as I did when I played Groudon. Maybe next time I'll take either Gourgeist (let me work on getting Judge banned first) or Houndoom even though it is probably the worst competitive deck out there lol
See you all next time :>
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