Round 3 Scores!

[Vegeta ss4]

Welcome to the end of Round 3, the scores.

I will just be giving you guys your scores for this round, standby for the overall standings with top 32 and what bracket will face what. This was REALLY hard to grade, I pretty much built every deck to get rid of theorymon because I felt this round would consist of a lot of that. It was fun, yet I found myself dissapointed to see a few of the TOP players not send in their lists. It was sad, there will be some major mixup in some pods at the official standings. Without further waiting, here are your scores for round 3.





Pod 1
1. Cyrus 8/10 4/5 5/5=17
2. Rainbowgym 9/10 4/5 5/5=18
3. conical 10/10 5/5 5/5=20
4. bullados 7/10 5/5 5/5=17
5. ShadowGuard 8/10 5/5 4/5=17
6. Articjedi 9/10 5/5 5/5=19
7. sKizor 7/10 4/5 4/5=15
8. pkmn202 6/10 4/5 4/5=14
9. Cardkeeper 7/10 5/5 4/5=16
10. yuki potsd 7/10 5/5 5/5=17
11. Cardszmaster2004 7/10 4/5 4/5=15
12. The King -No Entry
13. Dialga Master -No Entry
14. Pooka -No Entry
15. Redados1 -No Entry

conical
Round 3 Submission
Pod 1: Celebi Metagame Challenge

Pokemon: 17
4 Celebi Prime
3 Misdreavus UD
3 Mismagius UL
2 Jirachi UL
2 Stantler UL
1 Cubone TM
1 Marowak TM
1 Shuckle Promo

T/S/S: 29
4 Collector
4 Communication
4 Cheren
4 Sage's
3 Junk Arm
2 Seeker
2 Pluspower
2 Switch
2 Oak's New Theory
1 Tropical Beach
1 Flower Shop Lady

Energy: 14
9 Grass
5 Psychic

Celebi is a pretty good answer to this particular format anyway, given that it's filled with evolution-heavy decks. The fact that it's the ingredient for this challenge makes the goal for my deck pretty simple: To build up 3 energy on Celebi as fast as possible, ideally turn 2, to lock the opponent out of using any of his or her evolution's attacks. Given that Celebi has built-in Grass acceleration, I decided to focus the rest of my Pokemon on meeting the Psychic requirement for Time Circle, hence the Jirachi/Mismagius. From there, I looked at what I could reasonably expect my opponent to counter with during a Time Circle lock. From there I noticed that a majority of what all 4 decks could counter with were basics that were either Fighting weak(Absol, Zekrom, etc.) or had 60 HP or less(Mew, Slugma, etc.) From there, I looked at Fighting types that had colorless energy requirements and could generally OHKO most of these threats. Eventually, I remembered Marowak, a card that requires coin flips, but still takes care of all the threats Celebi can't deal with when it does work, which is most of the time.

With that, I guess I'll go to the matchups, from easiest to hardest:

vs Wailord/Reuniclus/Porygon-Z: I'm sure Cyrus wasn't designing this deck to deal with Celebi , but the deck is really lacking in counters once Celebi begins the Time Circle lock. Porygon and Solosis have very poor attacking options, and Wailmer needs to build up 4 energy just to two-shot a Celebi. The only real option is Zekrom, who can be dealt with effectively with Marowak and a Pluspower. Also, because there's no Switch or anything comparable in the deck, an active Wailord or Wailmer can mean an instant loss, as you try to hard retreat to something that can break the Celebi lock. To me, the Wailord player needs to play extremely smart, manipulating damage, Koing Marowak before he becomes a problem, and using Max Potions at the most critical times, and even then you run the risk of Mismagius using Psychic Pulse to rack up some nice spread damage in the late game.

vs. Mew/Sharpedo/Vileplume: Since Time Circle only prevents damage, Strip Bare is still a problem, however unlikely it is that it works. Mew is pretty useful here, especially if it Sees Off the Jumpluff to start taking KOs on all my low HP Pokemon. Still, Marowak one-shots it, and keeping up the KO trade with Mew requires drawing into one of the four Rainbow Energy in the deck, which is hard to sustain. Meanwhile, Vileplume is a pain, but not back-breaking, especially the Time Circle lock is already up.

vs. Victreebel/Weavile: Between the Sneasels and the Absol, this deck has the most anti-Celebi options of any of the decks. However, Sneasel and Absol both need 2 energy to do optimal damage, and their only options for the Darkness requirement are 4 Rainbow Energy and 1 Special Dark. On the other hand, Victreebel is also a pain, since Time Circle does not prevent the status effects or the healing done by Acidic Drain. Also, given that this is the only one of the decks that run Catcher, this can be a tricky matchup, but I feel that Celebi ultimately wins this, especially if the opponent overcommits to breaking the Time Circle lock with Absol/Sneasel.

vs. Magnezone/Slugma/Slowking: Against Celebi, this deck doesn't really need to attack with Magnezone, and instead can use him as draw support for Slugma. A pair of fully powered Slugmas in the early game can be serious trouble for Celebi, as it hits for weakness and forces Marowak to rely on Bonemerang hitting more than once in a row. Even if Marowak gets out, the Magnezone player can just evolve to Magcargo, and take out Marowak right then. I feel like Celebi is capable of winning this matchup if it takes a while to set up a Slugma, or if they flood the bench early with the Shaymin/Pachirisu they can't scoop up, but barring that, it can be tough.

Pod 2
1. Magnechu 9/10 4/5 4/5=17
2. Gowk 9/10 3/5 4/5=16
3. theunhipster 7/10 4/5 4/5=15
4. sdrawkcab NO ENTRY
5. goldedda 8/10 5/5 5/5=18
6. chase4787 8/10 4/5 4/5=16
7. Ryuzaki Lawliet 9/10 3/5 4/5=16
8. machampion12 7/10 4/5 4/5=15
9. DragonClyne725 7/10 4/5 5/5=16
10. headsrcool NO ENTRY
11. richkid50000 7/10 3/5 4/5=14
12. tinox6 NO ENTRY
13. Jariel NO ENTRY
14. Zard1111 NO ENTRY

goldedda

Pokemon 18
4 Rayquaza Col
1-1 slowking Col
2 slugma UD
1 Macargo UD
2 pachirisu Col
2 shaymin UL
2-2 Entei raikou legend
1 Cleffa HS

Energy 14
7 lighting energy
7 fire energy

Supporters + Co. 28
4 Pokemon Collector
4 Dual Ball
2 Seeker
4 Bianca
4 Pokemon Communication
1 Flower shop Lady
4 Super Scoop Up
4 Professor Oaks New Theory
1 Burned Tower

Overall Strategy: Well ur main attacker is rayquaza which requires + energys. To speed up the process so u can attack faster i included cars such as shaymin, pachirisu and slugma. Pachirisu allows early drops and slugma accelerates getting fire energys in play, and with the use of shaymin one can attack several turns in a row. One might also notice the high count of Seeker/SSu, their purpose is to constantly keep abusing shaymin and pachirisu so that one can attack constantly. Techs included are slowking which not only helps draw the good and right cards with bianca it also gives one a higher chance getting the needed with slugma. ERL is used to not only hit hard but also quick and it will be key winning a few matchups as later explained.

Matchups:

vs Mew/sharpedo/plume
well the plume does hurt this deck a little bit but seeing as how most of the deck is either basics or stage 1/legend u won't be having to many difficulties setting up ur main attacker. Also seeing as how sharpedo and mew get ohkoed by rayquaza means if are able to set up 1-2 rayquaza that should be enough to obliterate their field


VsMagnezone/macargo
ERl is key. as one notices tthe magnezone deck relies on havy power as u do but u have teh resources to put the pokemon with powers back in ur hand, meaning one thunderfall can take a lot of prizes. and if u are able to get the 2nd thunder fall out will destroy all of their magnezones leaving them with none to few attackers.

VS Wailord
again ERL IS key. seeing as how wailord is x2 weak to erl one can consistantly ohko wailord leaving them with very few attackers such as zekrom which can hurt but because of the heavy 2-2 erl line one should be able to completly obliterate the deck

Overall: the deck with the rright techs has a strong and crucial advantage over this Metagame

Pod 3
1. BrightRush 9/10 3/5 4/5=16
2. Hatter 8/10 3/5 4/5=17
3. waynegg 8/10 3/5 4/5=17
4. KingPiplup 8/10 5/5 5/5=18
5. PkB 10/10 4/5 5/5=19
6. WinkWinkNudgeNudge 8/10 5/5 4/5=17
7. L the Great 8/10 4/5 4/5=16
8. gallade
9. Darkwalker 8/10 4/5 5/5=17
10. Blitzer NO ENTRY
11. AzUK 8/10 4/5 4/5=16
12. Volt NO ENTRY
13. Ace 6/10 3/5 4/5=13
14. hampuse1 8/10 4/5 4/5=16
15. shinygyrados 7/10 5/5 4/5=16
16. Barkjon NO ENTRY

PkB

Pokémon (16):
4 Electrode (Prime) [TM]
4 Voltorb [TM]
3 Reshiram [BW]
2 Entei & Raikou LEGEND (Top) [UL]
2 Entei & Raikou LEGEND (Bottom) [UL]
1 Smeargle [UD]

Trainers (27):
4 Pokémon Collector
4 Professor Oak's New Theory
3 Cheren
4 Twins
2 Black Belt
1 Flower Shop Lady
4 Pokémon Communication
4 Research Records
1 Pokegear

Energy (17):
13 Fire Energy
4 Lightning Energy

This is my entry for pod 3 which card was reshiram.

The thinking behind this deck is actually pretty simple. Since I needed to use reshiram I really needed a way to keep more energy in play. Typhlosion was banned and I honestly didn’t like emboar. Electrode helps to get energy in play, but the other thing that I liked the most about it was that it was fast, but at the same time still allowed me to abuse twins and BlackBelt. Reshiram is really your main attacker. However I saw a weakness in the format that ERL could really abuse. Electrode helps to charge up ERL too. ERL doesn’t hit any powers that I would have in play because the Electrodes would have already knocked themselves out. I included a thicker ERL line to avoid discarding pieces. Smeargle is simply for consistency. I chose him over cleffa to avoid Sharpedo, which is a huge threat in the format from trashing my hand and knocking out my only chance of getting a new hand. It is also a lot better when it sits active while I prepare my bomb onslaught. The one energy retreat isn’t that huge of an issue and its benefits far outweigh the fact that it has one retreat.
The trainer line is pretty straight forward. Collector/PONT/Cheren for draw and finding basics. Twins is really the backbone of this deck. After I blow up an Electrode I can twins for whatever I need, like 2 ERL pieces if that’s what the matchup called for. Blackbelt for doing more damage, which is epically important if I need to knockout a Magnezone. FSL is for getting back any Pokémon that could get discarded and getting energy back into the deck. Comm. is obvious for finding Pokémon. Research record for making sure you discard less important things that could be on the top of your deck when you go to use Electrode. Basically it allows you to search the top 11 cards of your deck for energy instead of 7. Pokegear for finding twins or any other needed supporter.
The energy is just the lightnings for ERL and the Fires for reshiram. Not much more to say other than there’s a good bit to make sure I hit more with Electrode.


So now onto the matchups.

For the first match against Sharpedo/Mew/Vileplume.
In this match I plan on getting a smeragle benched ASAP on top of my normal reshiram’s and Voltorbs. Slowly setup and get energy in play. Speed isn’t as important in this matchup. You can sacrifice speed if it means that you are able to get several Reshirams charged and hopefully an ERL on the bench. Since your bench shouldn’t be large after you explode your Electrode’s and smeargle has likely been knocked out Jumpluff will not do much damage. There isn’t anything to slug drag. You one shot everything they have while they can’t one shot you. Outrage is a powerful attack when they can’t one shot you. ERL is able to 1 shot everything in their deck while only discarding one energy instead of the normal 2 for reshiram.

For the 2nd match against magnezone.
Honestly this is probably one of your easiest matchup. Just get your normal quick setup. Twins for ERL charge stuff up with your bomb. ERL takes a TON of prizes against all of magnezone’s bench sitters. Blackbelted reshiram OHKO’s a Magnezone. Basically they will never be able to get much energy in play because of their techs getting killed off early by ERL.

For the 3rd match against victreebel.
This matchup get a Smeargle benched so your hand doesn’t get trashed by weavile. Reshiram easily OHKOs his attackers. Outrage is still a very powerful attack due to them not being able to one shot. I don’t own anything that can be dragged by the bellsprout because I won’t leave an Electrode benched for him to drag. ERL can easily take out his weavile’s if he benches them and can take care of Victreebels for 1 energy instead of the 2 for reshiram.

For the 4th match against Waillord.
Speed is really your friend in this matchup. Wailord is SLOW. You can get ahead by several prizes by simply being able to get setup by t3. If they ever get a tanked wailord out a simple detonation spin one shots the wailord. They probably wouldn’t have another 5 energy attacker so your ERL is probably safe. From there you could take more prizes as they attempt to setup another wailord. Reshiram can be used but ERL does a bulk of the work if they are able to get a Wailord out.

Pod 4
1. cabd 8/10 5/5 5/5=18
2. untitled NO ENTRY
3. eriknance 9/10 5/5 5/5=19
4. Son of Apollo NO ENTRY
5. GoldenSwablu 9/10 4/5 4/5=17
6. Shino Bug Master 7/10 5/5 4/5=16
7. Magneboar -DROP
8. sunchris -DROP
9. Redwater 8/10 3/5 3/5=15
10. Sceptile King 7/10 4/5 4/5=15
11. Victory Bell NO ENTRY
12. jumpluff82 NO ENTRY
13. pokemonrocks777 NO ENTRY

eriknance

PKMN (21)

4 mew prime (tm)
4 absol prime (tm)
2-2 donphan prime (hs)
2-2 entei/raikou legend (ul)
3 simisear (bw)
1 cleffa (hs)
1 shaymin (ud)
1 jirachi (ud)

TSS (22)

4 pkmn collector
4 cheren
3 professor juniper
1 flower shop lady
4 pkmn communication
2 energy exchanger
2 pokegear 3.0
2 switch

NRG (16)

4 rainbow energy
3 special dark energy
3 fire
3 psychic
2 lightning
1 fighting


Core Strategy and Deck List

The core idea behind this deck is a speed/spread strategy that utilizes both Absol Prime and Simisear's attack through Mew Prime to spread damage and setup KO's for either Entei/Raikou Legend (ERL) or Donphan in the mid to late game. Absol's ability to spread damage through its Poke-Body is compounded by Mew's ability to copy Simisear's attack once it hits the Lost Zone.

With regard to deck construction, I'll make a few comments. I chose to max out the Mew and Absol count in order to get Absol active as quickly and painlessly as possible. This is also a reason for running 2 Switch and a Cleffa: a first-turn Absol is very powerful given what I'm trying to do. The 2-2 lines of both Donphan and ERL are there for consistency -- they're both very powerful attackers that I want to show up in the mid to late game. 3 Simisears are used instead of 2 for one main reason: Absol can't search for a Pokemon like Mew can, so I want to increase the chances that I'll end up with one in hand. It's also a nice throwaway card for the purpose of attacking multiple times with Absol. The Cleffa adds to consistency and gets me out of bad opening hands while the Shaymin is there to manipulate energy as needed (specifically for late game single-turn ERL drops, which I'll go over later). Shaymin can also work well with Jirachi, though Jirachi is mainly there for late-game prizes by means of devolution.

Moving onto the TSS, the list is consistent with 4 Collector, 4 Cheren, 4 Communication, and 3 Juniper. Not only this, even more consistency is added with 2 Pokegear 3.0. Having multiple ways to get to a first-turn Collector is extremely valuable in this deck since -- as I mentioned before -- a quick Absol is the way to go. A Flower Shop Lady is there for late-game recovery. In regards to the Energy Exchanger, I quickly found the numerous types of energy in this deck a bit daunting. Not wanting to sacrifice the core concept of the deck, I found Energy Exchanger a valuable asset in terms of grabbing the right energy when needed.

Finally, the Energy. As you can see, there are numerous types of energy in this list. Given that you'll probably be dropping an energy every turn, Shaymin can help sort things out a little late game while Energy Exchanger is there to smooth out these energy drops. 4 Rainbow Energy are here to aid in this as well, and the energy counts are suitable for their various purposes (4 Rainbow, for example, helps in all cases while only 1 Fighting is there for a late-game Donphan).

When I first saw our challenge, I noticed a couple of things. First, there's a noticable focus on disruption with both Sharpedo and Weavile thrown in the mix. Second, there's a surprising weakness in the form of Poke-Powers. Slugmas and Weaviles are both hanging around on the bench, as are Porygon Z and Magnezone. Naturally, I built my deck to be speedy and require few resources while hitting Poke-Powers hard and offering great counters to the four decks listed. Speaking of those decks, here they are with a game plan against each:

Mew Spread vs. Weavile/Victreebel --

Since this deck runs Super Scoop Up, spread damage might not be extremely effective. What will be effective, however, is speed. So hit hard and fast with Absol while focusing on getting an ERL or two in play. ERL effectively one-shots anything in their deck while having no weakness. Switch can help buffer Weavile's disruption (if they discard a Switch they might overlook a Supporter; if they discard the Supporter they let you get out of Victreebel's trap). Low retreat costs help this deck in case you need to retreat. The prize trade-off here will be to your advantage, while a late-game ERL can secure some prizes by one-shotting Weaviles.

Mew Spread vs. Sharpedo/Plume --

Sharpedo can be tough to get around at times. That's kind of how it goes with that card. If you're able to, setup an Absol with two Special Dark and one-shot every Sharpedo they bring up. Of course, if they hit two heads you're in trouble, but it's a huge risk they run to do that. Avoid any Mew locks by not dropping Phanpy or Donphan and you should be fine. Even a quick See Off with Mew followed by numerous Flame Bursts can wreck their deck. This requires little for you to setup while forcing them to deviate from Sharpedo's attack. Mew/Jumpluff can be overcome by bench management while hitting with Absol (psychic resistance here is nice). Their Vileplume doesn't really hurt you too much since you're not overly dependent on Trainers.

Mew Spread vs. Magnezone/Slugma --

Get Simisear in the Lost Zone and setup KO's against Magnezones by getting 20 damage on their evolution chain by using Absol's Poke-Body or Flame Burst with Mew. The focus here is all about being able to KO Magnezones with Donphan (20 + 120 = 140) while dropping a late-game ERL to KO the Slugmas. Early-game prizes (through Absol) plus Magnezone KO's plus a late-game ERL should secure the game. A late-game Jirachi might help to pick off another prize here or there on damaged Magnezones. And if all else fails, just remember that two Thunder Falls essentially clears their board of everything they have.

Mew Spread vs. Wailord/Porygon Z/Reuniclus --

I don't want to oversimplify this matchup, but the main thing Wailord has going for it is the fact that it's a tank. The opponent sets up slow, buying you time to get ERL in play. If they try to play "smart" and attack with Porygon Z, KO with Donphan. If they attack with Wailord, KO it with ERL's Detonation Spin. If they have trouble getting things in play, speed/spread with Mew/Absol. Their deck falls apart to the OHKO on Wailord with ERL, so they're forced to deviate to extremely sub-par strategies, all of which this deck handles easily. The one card in their deck that can give you trouble is a single Zekrom. Meant as a counter to Yanmega, this card relies on being able to Outrage. Just a single damage counter on Zekrom means that Donphan gets the KO, so it's really not a big problem.

This concludes round 3, I will be finalizing the complete scores and announcing the top 32, top 8 from each bracket.

I hope everyone had fun, and standby for top 32 officially.

 

[cabd]

Thanks dude. Can't wait to see the overall swiss standings. I know I made T32, can't wait for bigger and brighter challenges now.

Anyone that was curious about my list, I posted it in the round 3 instructions thread.

http://pokegym.net/forums/showthread.php?p=2120052#post2120052

 

[shinygyarados]

Bummer, I missed top 8. Oh well. Also there are a few mistakes with components scores not adding to total scores.

 

[BrightRush]

Standings?
1717171717

 

[Vegeta ss4]

Standings will be up tomorrow.

 

[pkmn202]

Man, I got a terrible score, I would really like a PM with feedback as I would like to know where I went wrong. I wasn't really expecting to score really high but I was expecting a 15 or 16, I was quite dissapointed when I saw a 14 . By my calculations, I'm outside the top 8 in my pod by a few points.

 

[cabd]

Man, I got a terrible score, I would really like a PM with feedback as I would like to know where I went wrong. I wasn't really expecting to score really high but I was expecting a 15 or 16, I was quite dissapointed when I saw a 14 . By my calculations, I'm outside the top 8 in my pod by a few points.

You should post your list here, dude, if you feel like it, so we can see what you're talking about.

 

[Vegeta ss4]

Feel free to post your list, every list was built and tested.
Posted with Mobile style...

 

[cabd]

42 Redwater
44 pkmn202
45 Shino Bug Master
46 Skizor
47 chase4767
47 Golden Swablu
47 L the great
48 Son Of Apollo
48 theunhipster
48 WinkWinkNudgeNudge
49 goldedda
49 Gowk
49 Kingpiplup
49 ShadowGuard
49 Waynegg
50 Brightrush
50 Bullados
50 eriknance
50 PkB
51 Articjedi
51 Cabd
51 Hatter
51 Magnechu
54 Conical
54 Rainbowgym
55 Cyrus

If I was any of the 26 names listed here, i'd not be (too) worried about making cut. You might be below 8th in your pod still, but this is just comparing ignoring pods. Was gonna grab top 32, but meh, i'll let Vegeta do that. I was just curious where I ranked on the leaderboard. The answer is "tied for 4th"

 

[bullados]

This was an odd round for me. I somehow got 5s in both Creativity and Card Use, but whiffed completely on the Consistency part. That's just so completely out of character for how I build decks, it's very strange. Here's the list and the explanation, I'm kinda not sold on that Consistency score, but 17 is pretty durn good...

RoseBud

Pokemon (16):
4 Celebi Prime
3-3 Roserade
1-1 Metapod
2-2 Sunflora

Trainers (29):

4 Dual Ball
1 Collector
4 Communication
4 Switch
4 PONT
2 Black Belt
3 Juniper
2 Energy Retrieval
1 Flower Shop Lady
4 Junk Arm

Energy (15):
11 Grass
4 Psychic

This is a basic Energy Acceleration plus Status and Disruption deck. Celebi is the nominal Starter in here. You use him to get as many Energy as possible onto your Pokemon as quickly as possible. You also use your Switches, Junk Arms, and Collectors to both fill your bench with Celebis and use their powers as often as possible. For the most part, take what your opponent is giving you. If he/she only has Basic Pokemon in play, then load up on a Roserade and go to town. You shouldn’t need more than 3-4 energy on one Roserade to keep the one-shots going. If your opponent is attacking with any sort of Evolution, then Celebi is your attacker of choice, at least until they get into Roserade OHKO territory. Sunflora is simply to thin your deck of Pokemon so that your draws can be reasonable. Metapod is your Anti-Fire TecH. Every game against evolutions is going to become a long, drawn-out affair. You will max at 30 damage, and without adequate sniping or bench hitting tactics, your opponent will generally be unable to do anything to you in return. You will get KO’d. But you will also force your opponent into a misplay at one point or another, and that’s when you will win. Black Belt is useful against high-HP Basic Pokemon such as the R@ms.

Dual Ball is more useful than Collector because you want to be using Juniper or PONT on every single turn. Plus, your main attacker is a Basic Pokemon, and your Evolutions are easy enough to pull between the combination of Dual Ball, Communication, and Sunflora. Generally, your early Evolution pull will be the Sunflora, but don’t force your deck into bad situations. Just take what it gives you.

When playing against the Mew/Sharpedo deck, rely upon your Roserade ONLY to pop the Mews. Everything else is easy Celebi bait. Don’t get hasty and take your KOs too early. Metapod becomes your Junk Arm bait to fish out Energy Retrievals. Vileplume generally won’t matter too much once you start getting Energy on the field. Just keep attaching twice per turn with Celebi and your natural energy attachment, and you’ll keep ahead. This will generally be your fastest match. Don’t load up Roserade with more than 3 energy, the most you’ll need to pop a Mew. Otherwise, just keep using Celebi until your KOs start creeping in. Also, Confusion is incredibly helpful against constant Mew spam. Mew makes this a very difficult matchup, but it’s still winnable because the energy cost necessary to KO the Mews is reasonably low, your retreats are relatively low, you have Energy acceleration, and you have Switch. You should be able to keep up with whatever your opponent is trying to do.

Against Victrebel, be careful of Bellsprout’s ability to switch your Active at will. This is the only deck where you’ll see Catcher and reliable sniping available to your opponent. Stick to your strategy. Absol will be an annoyance. Just let it take a KO, and then revenge KO with a Roserade and your Black Belt. Keep your hand clear of useful stuff for Weavile to pick off, though Metapod material could be a useful distraction for them. Use everything once you get it. If your opponent is discarding Energy, you’re doing this correctly. Again, attack their Evolutions with Celebi and their Basics with Roserade. You will take KOs, don’t worry about that. Just keep the strategy rolling, and you’ll eventually run them out of usable material. Conserve your Switches for as long as possible to pull yourself out of a Catcher lock. Don’t worry about KOing stuff. Worry more about ensuring that you can’t get KO’d in response.

Magnezone has Weakness over you, but that shouldn’t worry you in the least. Just get your Metapod into play, and watch them writhe in agony. Be careful of Pachirisu. But remember that it only has 60 HP, and can only attack twice before it runs out of juice. Slugma might become a problem, but if you have Metapod in play, it can’t OHKO you and you can OHKO it back with only 3 energy in play using Roserade. Or you can try to keep up a Confusion lock. Either way, they don’t pose much of a threat to you. Magnemite could Paralyze a Celebi in a pinch, but you run tons of Switch and Junk Arm for many other reasons. Just keep up your Celebii to the Evos and Roserade to the Basics, and you’ll eventually KO everything that you need to.

Zekrom is a thorn in your side. It has 130 HP, bases at 20 damage, has easily payable attack costs, and gets more powerful as you damage it. Basically, kill the thing before it can kill you. You have myriad ways to get Energy onto your Roserades, plus you Confuse the Zek every time you attach a Grass. Poisoning it with a Psychic wouldn’t be a bad idea either. This is where those Black Belts will really help you out. They might get their Rescues out early enough to make a difference, but your strategy is the same. 5 Energy on a Roserade, a Black Belt, and Zek is gone without doing much damage to you. Plus, if they don’t start either with the Zek or one of their 5 low-retreating Basics, they’ll have a tough time getting it out quickly enough to do anything against you. The good news is that, once the Zek is gone, there is really nothing else that threatens you in any significant way. Wailord is annoying as heck to take down. But it can’t attack you. And it has no way of Retreating or Switching you out. Wailmer can be annoying, but it takes 4 turns to power up and goes down either in 3 turns to Celebi or with 5 energy on a Roserade. Plus, Confusion. This is easily your hardest matchup. Don’t get impatient. Your opponent will remove over 1000 damage throughout the course of this battle, whether through Max Potion or Wailord’s first attack. The good news is that they LOVE taking their time to get all of their Energy and Evolutions into place, which is just fine for Rosebud. Just let the deck work its magic. You only need to be one prize ahead of your opponent at the end of the battle. Expend every possible resource to take out the Zekrom, then sit back and Celebi stall while your opponent has only Evolutions Active. He will be unable to Retreat throughout the entire game. Just let the magic work, build up a single Roserade to deal 200+ damage, leave your attacking until the very end, and you should be fine.

 

[King Piplup]

42 Redwater
44 pkmn202
45 Shino Bug Master
46 Skizor
47 chase4767
47 Golden Swablu
47 L the great
48 Son Of Apollo
48 theunhipster
48 WinkWinkNudgeNudge
49 goldedda
49 Gowk
49 Kingpiplup
49 ShadowGuard
49 Waynegg
50 Brightrush
50 Bullados
50 eriknance
50 PkB
51 Articjedi
51 Cabd
51 Hatter
51 Magnechu
54 Conical
54 Rainbowgym
55 Cyrus

If I was any of the 26 names listed here, i'd not be (too) worried about making cut. You might be below 8th in your pod still, but this is just comparing ignoring pods. Was gonna grab top 32, but meh, i'll let Vegeta do that. I was just curious where I ranked on the leaderboard. The answer is "tied for 4th"

I agree with this, those 26 should not have to worry. I for one feel safe, since I did get 2nd High in the Pod. Out of curiosity, the numbers you have next to the names are their final scores, correct?

 

[Darkwalker]

It looks like I squeaked in at 7th or 8th in my pod. Here's my entry for the last round as well:

Iron Chef Rd 3 Pod 3 Reshiram (Part 1)
I'll start with the list and a little explanation about individual card choices. After that I'll go into the strategy behind dominating each of the "metagame" decks you provided.

Pokemon (21)

3 Reshiram (BW113)
1 Zekrom (BW114)
3 Tepig (BW15)
2 Pignite (BW18)
1 Emboar (BW19)
2 Emboar (BW20)
2 Doduo (UD45)
2 Dodrio (UD11)
1 Cleffa (HS17)
1 Vulpix (UL68)
1 Ninetales (HS7)
1/1 Entei & Raikou Legend (UL90/UL91)

Trainers/Supporters (26)

4 Pokemon Collector
4 Engineer's Adjustment
3 Fisherman
2 Prof Oak's New Theory
1 Flower Shop Lady
3 Junk Arm
3 Pokemon Communication
2 Rare Candy
2 Energy Retrieval
1 Switch

Energy (14)

9 Fire
3 Lightning
2 DCE

Since the deck is based upon Reshiram, there isn't a whole lot creative that hasn't been tried already. With no Typhlosion available the next obvious choice is Emboar. While not "creative" I consider Emboar a base consistency card, akin to Pokemon Collector, to make the deck run as it should. The creative aspects of the deck involve what I chose outside of the Reshiram/Emboar core for the deck. Zekrom gives me a Lighting based attacker to counterbalance Reshiram and Emboar's Water weakness. Zekrom's Outrage attack is typically what will be used, but there is enough Lighting in the deck to use Bolt Strike. Those Lighting energy are also used to power up Entei/Raikou Legend's Thunder Fall attack, which can cripple any Power-based decks without harming much of anything in the list as there are no Pokemon with Powers except for Ninetales. Cleffa is a basic consistency card that is easily searchable, it will often be used early in the game while the deck sets up. Cleffa (along with PONT) also gives the deck a bit of protection from decking out if it has a very large hand and little left in the deck. Ninetales is used for supplementary draw throughout the game. I only included a 1-1 line as it's not absolutely necessary to have it out, but it does help the deck keep up it's momentum. 1-1 is also used here because of bench space. The last pokemon I chose to use, Dodrio, helps the deck as a whole with one of it's major weaknesses, high retreat costs. I went with a 2-2 line because it not only helps with prize issues, but the Poke-Body Retreat Aid also stacks. With two Dodrio on the bench even Emboar has free retreat, which lessens the need for trainers like Switch. This is especially true when facing the first of the four decks you supplied to us (Mew/Vileplume). The trainer line is built for consistent setup and then lots of energy recovery, which the deck needs. The main draw card for the deck is Engineer's Adjustment, which also plays into the energy recovery aspect that the deck already uses. The energy line plays into the strengths of the deck, while being plentiful enough to get everything going. DCE plays an important role for Emboar, Reshiram, and Zekrom in speeding up their attacks. It also helps for retreating throughout the game.

Iron Chef Rd 3 Pod 3 Reshiram (Part 2)
In part 2 I will go through the strategies to be used against the 4 decks you provided.

Deck 1 (Mew/Vileplume/Sharpeedo):

This is one of the more challenging decks for Reshiram. Mew with Vileplume is a major issue because of Muk's attack Sludge Drag. The main strategy for this is to get a Dodrio set up early to nullify Muk's attack while also sticking with Pokemon with 2 or lower retreat costs. Without Sludge Drag slowing you down the Mew deck's low HP attackers will fall quickly to Outrage from the Reshirams and Zekrom. Bench space should also be monitored to keep Jumpluff's Mass Attack in check. The Sharpeedo could be annoying if you lose your hand very early on, but there are multiple ways to draw cards in the deck, both through Pokemon and Trainers. If you are able to get both Dodrio out, then Emboar can be used to help charge up the attackers in the deck to quickly OHKO everything in the Mew deck, while it will struggle to 2HKO the attackers here.

Deck 2 (Magnezone/Magcargo):

Magnezone decks are very powerful, but struggle with lots of high HP attackers. Since the Magnezone deck has no Catcher or snipers in the deck it will have to rely on Magnezone to take most, if not all, of the prizes in this matchup. In this matchup the main cards to focus on are keeping Reshiram, Zekrom, or the non-ability Emboar active and attacking while forcing them to Lost Zone their energy away. With only 15 energy available they will have to get at least one or two cheap prizes or get off a big attack with Magcargo. The big "bomb" card to counter this deck is Entei/Raikou Legend. The Magnezone deck relies on lots of Poke Powers sitting on the bench in Slugma, Slowking, and possibly even Pachirisu and Shaymin (not to mention all the Magnezones). A well timed Thunder Fall can end this game very abruptly, while two in a row can KO multiple Magnezones if they get stuck where they cannot OHKO the ERL on their turn. Dodrio is not as important here, but having one on the bench to cycle your attackers if they are not OHKO'd by Lost Burn can work to deplete their resources even further.

Deck 3 (Victreebel/Weavile):

As opposed to how difficult the first two decks are for Reshiram, this one is more or less a cakewalk. Reshiram hits their main attackers for weakness (as does Emboar and ERL) while nothing in this deck has OHKO ability. Weavile can get annoying, but there is enough draw support in this deck to nullify it effectively. Dodrio helps to cycle your attackers and removing the multiple conditions that Victreebel can apply if it gets to attack. ERL can also KO multiple Weaviles and or Jirachi if need be to finish off this game. I just don't see anything in this deck being able to withstand the amount of damage that Reshiram can supply here.

Deck 4 (Wailord/Porygon Z/Reuniclus)

Finally we have a deck that can really cause problems for basic Reshiram tactics. Assuming the Wailord deck can get set up it has virtually no early offensive capabilities outside of a Outrage fueled Zekrom. The Max Potion/Reuniclus combo can get annoying, but only if you cannot OHKO the Waillord that will inevitably end up in the active spot. This deck is the main reason for the inclusion of both Zekrom and Entei/Raikou Legend. With the Lightning energy available both of these attackers can one shot Wailords all day. With the lack of energy in the Wailord deck, they will simply not be able to keep up and, theoretically, you should sweep through the deck once either of these cards are set up. Should they abandon using Wailord as a wall, Reshiram and non-ability Emboar can OHKO everything else in the deck. I had thought to include Pokemon Reversal in my list to deal with Reuniclus, but if played correctly it becomes irrelevant and can be ignored entirely. Dodrio does help in this match a bit as well in preserving some of your energy while swapping out attackers based on what the opponent does.

Hopefully, I described well enough how I envision the Reshiram deck I built would simply dominate all four decks you presented. While Reshiram paired with Emboar is far from a new idea, I'm hoping the other cards I chose to include not only show some creative ideas while building a deck with a concept in mind, but also one designed to crush the metagame you proposed.

 

[waynegg]

42 Redwater
44 pkmn202
45 Shino Bug Master
46 Skizor
47 chase4767
47 Golden Swablu
47 L the great
48 Son Of Apollo
48 theunhipster
48 WinkWinkNudgeNudge
49 goldedda
49 Gowk
49 Kingpiplup
49 ShadowGuard
49 Waynegg
50 Brightrush
50 Bullados
50 eriknance
50 PkB
51 Articjedi
51 Cabd
51 Hatter
51 Magnechu
54 Conical
54 Rainbowgym
55 Cyrus

If I was any of the 26 names listed here, i'd not be (too) worried about making cut. You might be below 8th in your pod still, but this is just comparing ignoring pods. Was gonna grab top 32, but meh, i'll let Vegeta do that. I was just curious where I ranked on the leaderboard. The answer is "tied for 4th"

Actually, I have 51 points. Round 1 16, Round 2 18, Round 3 17.

 

[PkB_]

This should be the final standings for pod 3. For ties I gave the place according to thier last round score like Vegta has been doing for the last rounds. (ie. if there was a tie, who ever scored higher r3 got the tie break. This is at least what he did r2.

1. Hatter-51
2. PkB_-50
3. BrightRush-50
4. King Piplup- 49
5. WayneGG-49
6. WinkWinkNudgeNudge-48
7. Dark Walker- 47
8. L The great- 47

 

[Vegeta ss4]

I will not be tie breaking the final standings that way. It wil come to down to consistancy, who ever had the most X/10 moves on, if that's still tied then I will move onto creativity. If its a tie there then we may have a problem.
Posted with Mobile style...

 

[redwater]

4 mew prime
2 Umbreon 10/90
1 eevee 48/90
2 Muk
2 Crobat prime
2 Tornadus FA
1 Bouffalant 91/114
(14/60)

4 Cheren
4 PONT
4 Revive
3 twins
3 copycat
2 fishermen
4 switch
4 judge
2 black belt
4 pluspower

(34/60)

8 Psychic
2 sp dark
2 basic dark
(12/60)

 

[cabd]

4 mew prime
2 Umbreon 10/90
1 eevee 48/90
2 Muk
2 Crobat prime
2 Tornadus FA
1 Bouffalant 91/114
(14/60)

4 Cheren
4 PONT
4 Revive
3 twins
3 copycat
2 fishermen
4 switch
4 judge
2 black belt
4 pluspower

(34/60)

8 Psychic
2 sp dark
2 basic dark
(12/60)

Can you also post your write-up?

 

[Shino Bug Master]

4 Mew Prime
3 Aipom UL
2 Octillery UL
4 Manaphy UL
1 Relicanth CL
3 Riolu UL
3 Lucario CL
1 Bellsprout TM
1 Yanma TM
Pokemon = 22

4 Rainbow
5 Psychic
1 Rescue
1 Water
Energy = 11

4 Sage’s
4 Collector
3 Cheren
2 Juniper
1 Revive
3 Research Record
4 Communication
3 Pokegear 3.0
2 Dual Ball
1 Burned Tower
T/S/S = 27

Wailord deck plays no switch, Bellsprout + Aipom = autowin <3

 

[redwater]

Can you also post your write-up?

Vegeta ss4 Challenge touny
round 1 redwater vs Magnechu

this match up will be fun

his higheramount of basic in is deck would more often set up my mew turn 1 more often then his.
vileplume would be a easy ko bring it up with muk then attack with crobat with a low energy count and no switches he be forcus to let it be ko
if sharpedo got lucky (25%) and flip 2 heads i do have alot of draw card in my deck so i would not be stuck with no hand for long
My Umbreon would 1hk his mew and forcus him to attck with sharpedo

match would be 80-20 for me and in sudden death i would have the upper hand.
1-0

round 2 redwater vs Hatter

this match would be very easy because my deck would set up faster then his so i can take the 1st prize
Umbreon is the star in this game because the only pokemon that has a strong attack with out a power or body is magcargo
which can be 1hk with a Bouffalant and a plus power or crobat which would forus him to retreat or muk to bring him up before he his charge.

match would be 85-15 for me and in sudden death i would have the upper hand
2-0

round 3 redwater vs Cyrus

this match would be the hardest out of the 4

i would need to lose the 1st prize because i can used twin and black belt to return these 1hk with anything he has intill he can not set up another
1hk will i would take the lead bouffalant would help me alot this game and umbreon can help me stall victreebel. His deck is slow to set up turn after
turn of being 1hk with black belt. weavile would be a bit annoying but with a high deck it not that bad.
for a sudden death I would have the upper hand because his deck is slower then my deck

match would be 65-45 for me with a upper hand in sudden death
3-0

round 4 redwater vs Cyrus's clone

This would be a fun one to play out

with my deck being faster then his i can take a prize lead

muk and crobat will help this match up the most to bring up waillord that still not fully charge and slowly kills them and with no switch and heaviy retreat
he forus to stay up their. after i have about a 2 card prize lead the game switch to taking turn taking prizes from me bring up reuniclus when he get him out.
zekrom would need to be brount up my muk so he be not be as great as a threat.

match would be 90-10 and a upper hand in sudden death.
4-0

 

[theunhipster]

^^^ the sharpedo deck was mine, fyi
here's my list...it's pretty solid, i think -

3-3 electrode
2-2 rdl
3 rayquaza col
1-1 erl
1 zekrom bw
1 pachi col
2 shaymin ul
1 cleffa
20

8 fire
8 lightning
2 rainbow
18

3 collector
4 communication
2 great ball
2 research record
4 professor oak
3 twins
2 flower shop lady
2 reversal
22

the strategy is just to get the t2 trode go boom boom and have enough basics/legends out to which i can give the energy. i have the obvious twins engine..so nothing can really get behind me in the first stages of the game. now for the matchups:

against wailord/porygon/reuniclus-
my erl one-shots a wailord with detonation spin..and with their lack of energy accel..it takes a while for them to build up another wailord. i can also one-shot everything in the deck with a bolt strike.

against sharpedo/mew/muk/plume - there's nothing in my deck that they can truly drag up with muk since i run 2 shaymin - i can just move the energy to the active pokemon and attack with it..and shay/pachi only have 1 retreat. after one bolt strike...my zekrom can ohko any of their attackers with outrage...and rayquaza col ohko's sharpedo and mew. trainer lock isn't too crippling either - i run twins to search out anything i might need.

against victreebel/weavile - they also have my weakness - fire. erl ohko's them with detonation spin, and thunder fall kills any weaviles they have in play. rayquaza deoxys is another great asset - they have nothing that return the ko and i could be able to potentially sweep with it if i can keep the energy accel going.

aganist magnezone/slugma - i can utilize thunder fall very well in this matchup - everything on his field has a power and thunderfall ohko's all slugmas and slowkings. rayquaza deoxys can also kill magnezones..but there is always the threat of being revenged y magnezone...so it's usually used for the last 2 prizes.

that's my deck