Considering that my AMU deck had gone 4-1 in each of the last three CCs i felt completely comfortable playing it today without even any minor tweaks. i wouldn't say that i am tired of playing it but i do feel a weird responsibility to represent AMU locally since i think that while it is a very complicated deck to play or face, it is also rather underrated.
round one
matt with frosslass/bronzong/cresselia
neither of us knew what to expect from this matchup but the way it worked out i simply outsped him. he got bronzong up twice, for one turn each time, before i annihilated them with supreme blast. healing wish kept the spread damage relatively low so that only once did he take two prizes the cresselia.
1-0
round two
janet with scizor/cherrim
another new matchup for me. the game was a long feeling out process with each of us making at least one substantial misplay. unfortunately i gave up too many cheap prizes early and could not take the relentless pressure from scizor.
1-1
round three
some random new guy
i kinda felt bad for this guy. he had a noob stuffed turkey deck like mewtwo, machamp and regigigas. i got a much better than average start and shredded him. i think i only gave up a single prize all game.
2-1
round four
steve with magmortar/heatran
steve set up with magmar active and rayquaza and heatran on the bench -- and then simply got absolutely nothing else for the rest of the match. he did eventually get heatran charged but by that time i had mewtwo level x out and charged. again AMU was working the way one would want AMU to work.
3-1
round five
stephen lowe with kingdra
it seems like stephen and i battle every single tournament and i think i have been fortunate to win every matchup recently. we went in knowing that whoever won would make the top 8 cut while the loser would have to sit on the 3-2 bubble. this was an epic matchup, by far the best i had in the round robin pairings. i had multiple basics on the setup so i was able to avoid the t2 kingdra donk. it was a real back and forth slugfest, the only thing that kept me in it midgame was the fact that twice i hit the flip for energy pickup so i was able to supreme blast three kingdras on three consecutive turns. but even with that i could have very easily lost (i only flipped one heads out of six on two TSDs). late game his deck finally started to run out of steam. he'd had to do some partial water upstreams to keep himself from decking himself so he never could get a OHKO on any of my faeries. in the end i won 6 prizes to 4 but the game was much MUCH closer than that.
4-1
so i make top 8 as either the 4th or 5th seed. i get paired with a familiar face from washington (sorry but i've forgotten his name already).
quaterfinals vs dusknoir/bronzong
fortunately i had had some practice against similar builds so i knew what i had to do defensively to even have a chance. we both had decent starts, i got unown g attached to uxie lvl x early. i made sure i had a counter stadium in hand before KOing dusknoir level x. it was a very long gritty game that i would not have won without the extra firepower of mewtwo lvl x. he kept a dark palm dusknoir in play for most of the game but i managed to work around it. so i won and i knew that this game had eaten up well over half of our allotted hour to battle.
i certainly wasn't going to stall to run the game clock out but i did deliberately play more defensively in the second matchup to avoid giving up cheap prizes. again mespirit lvl'x healing wish was a godsend for keeping the spread damage from bronzong low. when they called time we were tied with 4 prizes each remaining but it was his turn. he attacked and took the lead, and it was only then i that i learned that three prizes wasn't enough to make a game officially count. what a cheap way to win. yuck.
5-1
semifinals vs cory with tyranitar/dusknoir/alakazam
i didn't recognize this guy at all, i think he was visiting from out of state and decided to take in some pokemon, whatever the case he was undefeated on the day and he had gone undefeated in another tournament with the same deck so i knew i had to take him seriously. i tried to swarm as many powers early before he could get tyranitar set up. i learned the hard way that he had teched a dark palm dusknoir into his deck. because i had taken out his only claydol early i managed to hold on and eventually beat him down using azelf lvl x to snipe for big damage because of all of the energy he had in play on tyranitar. i don't think he'd had any experience with the nastiness that is the palkia lvl x tech. he wound up discarding a lot of cards with alakazam to block my power that he missed dearly in the endgame.
in the second game i had a horrible start while he had another good one i never got more than azelf and mewtwo into play before he KOed them both.
going into the third match i knew that time was probably going to run out before we finished so i resolved to rush him, taking as many early cheap prizes as possible. i had a very good setup and the strategy worked better than i ever could have hoped, even with keeping my bench small and out of clutches of dark palm. i finally managed to land consecutive supreme blasts on tyranitars and i was up 5 prizes to one on my turn where i was probably going to take the last prize when time was called. a very good match against a very gracious competitor.
6-1
finals vs peter with dusknoir/starmie
deja vu all over again. all three matches i have to work around dark palm. at least by this point i have plenty of practice at it. i get a really good setup and tear into him before he is quite ready, about six turns into it he folds in order to preserve the clock and frankly i don't blame him.
in the second game we both have more cautious setups but i can tell that i am about to lose the initiative unless i do something about his fully charged dusknoir lvl x. i let loose with every power, trainer and dirty trick my deck is capable of and then -- I make an unbelievably awful misplay. i fold next turn because i know there's no coming back.
third game i get another great start while is his mediocre/bad. i shred him in very short order for what turns out to be a relatively anti-climactic finals (three pretty lopsided games).
7-1
so that's how it went. i am immensely proud that i could navigate a field loaded with dark palm dusknoirs and power damaging bronzongs and still come out on top. the level of competition was terrific and only surpassed by the good sportsmanship of the participants. i look forward to doing it all over again two more times (yikes!) this week.
round one
matt with frosslass/bronzong/cresselia
neither of us knew what to expect from this matchup but the way it worked out i simply outsped him. he got bronzong up twice, for one turn each time, before i annihilated them with supreme blast. healing wish kept the spread damage relatively low so that only once did he take two prizes the cresselia.
1-0
round two
janet with scizor/cherrim
another new matchup for me. the game was a long feeling out process with each of us making at least one substantial misplay. unfortunately i gave up too many cheap prizes early and could not take the relentless pressure from scizor.
1-1
round three
some random new guy
i kinda felt bad for this guy. he had a noob stuffed turkey deck like mewtwo, machamp and regigigas. i got a much better than average start and shredded him. i think i only gave up a single prize all game.
2-1
round four
steve with magmortar/heatran
steve set up with magmar active and rayquaza and heatran on the bench -- and then simply got absolutely nothing else for the rest of the match. he did eventually get heatran charged but by that time i had mewtwo level x out and charged. again AMU was working the way one would want AMU to work.
3-1
round five
stephen lowe with kingdra
it seems like stephen and i battle every single tournament and i think i have been fortunate to win every matchup recently. we went in knowing that whoever won would make the top 8 cut while the loser would have to sit on the 3-2 bubble. this was an epic matchup, by far the best i had in the round robin pairings. i had multiple basics on the setup so i was able to avoid the t2 kingdra donk. it was a real back and forth slugfest, the only thing that kept me in it midgame was the fact that twice i hit the flip for energy pickup so i was able to supreme blast three kingdras on three consecutive turns. but even with that i could have very easily lost (i only flipped one heads out of six on two TSDs). late game his deck finally started to run out of steam. he'd had to do some partial water upstreams to keep himself from decking himself so he never could get a OHKO on any of my faeries. in the end i won 6 prizes to 4 but the game was much MUCH closer than that.
4-1
so i make top 8 as either the 4th or 5th seed. i get paired with a familiar face from washington (sorry but i've forgotten his name already).
quaterfinals vs dusknoir/bronzong
fortunately i had had some practice against similar builds so i knew what i had to do defensively to even have a chance. we both had decent starts, i got unown g attached to uxie lvl x early. i made sure i had a counter stadium in hand before KOing dusknoir level x. it was a very long gritty game that i would not have won without the extra firepower of mewtwo lvl x. he kept a dark palm dusknoir in play for most of the game but i managed to work around it. so i won and i knew that this game had eaten up well over half of our allotted hour to battle.
i certainly wasn't going to stall to run the game clock out but i did deliberately play more defensively in the second matchup to avoid giving up cheap prizes. again mespirit lvl'x healing wish was a godsend for keeping the spread damage from bronzong low. when they called time we were tied with 4 prizes each remaining but it was his turn. he attacked and took the lead, and it was only then i that i learned that three prizes wasn't enough to make a game officially count. what a cheap way to win. yuck.
5-1
semifinals vs cory with tyranitar/dusknoir/alakazam
i didn't recognize this guy at all, i think he was visiting from out of state and decided to take in some pokemon, whatever the case he was undefeated on the day and he had gone undefeated in another tournament with the same deck so i knew i had to take him seriously. i tried to swarm as many powers early before he could get tyranitar set up. i learned the hard way that he had teched a dark palm dusknoir into his deck. because i had taken out his only claydol early i managed to hold on and eventually beat him down using azelf lvl x to snipe for big damage because of all of the energy he had in play on tyranitar. i don't think he'd had any experience with the nastiness that is the palkia lvl x tech. he wound up discarding a lot of cards with alakazam to block my power that he missed dearly in the endgame.
in the second game i had a horrible start while he had another good one i never got more than azelf and mewtwo into play before he KOed them both.
going into the third match i knew that time was probably going to run out before we finished so i resolved to rush him, taking as many early cheap prizes as possible. i had a very good setup and the strategy worked better than i ever could have hoped, even with keeping my bench small and out of clutches of dark palm. i finally managed to land consecutive supreme blasts on tyranitars and i was up 5 prizes to one on my turn where i was probably going to take the last prize when time was called. a very good match against a very gracious competitor.
6-1
finals vs peter with dusknoir/starmie
deja vu all over again. all three matches i have to work around dark palm. at least by this point i have plenty of practice at it. i get a really good setup and tear into him before he is quite ready, about six turns into it he folds in order to preserve the clock and frankly i don't blame him.
in the second game we both have more cautious setups but i can tell that i am about to lose the initiative unless i do something about his fully charged dusknoir lvl x. i let loose with every power, trainer and dirty trick my deck is capable of and then -- I make an unbelievably awful misplay. i fold next turn because i know there's no coming back.
third game i get another great start while is his mediocre/bad. i shred him in very short order for what turns out to be a relatively anti-climactic finals (three pretty lopsided games).
7-1
so that's how it went. i am immensely proud that i could navigate a field loaded with dark palm dusknoirs and power damaging bronzongs and still come out on top. the level of competition was terrific and only surpassed by the good sportsmanship of the participants. i look forward to doing it all over again two more times (yikes!) this week.
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