Phazon Elite
New Member
9/19: Portland
SO I get there, chill with the people that came with me, chat, fill out decklist, borrow Kirlias from Breon, and we start playing. Oh and I used Flygon/Gardevoir/techs
R1 vs. AmphyTric
Wasn't expecting to see THIS. lol.
Anyway, he ironically got a slow start to my fast one. His active Damage Bind Amphy did some crap damage to my Flygon while I got all set up, then I killed it and he brought up Manectric, played another DBA, and spread to my one Claydol. So, all game, I basically only evolved my Ralts and Baltoys when I needed to do something, and that kept me ahead throughout the game.
1 - 0
R2 vs. Toxitank/Mightyena
Not even fair. I let him take two prizes, which lets me take control with uppers on Flygon and Garde.
2 - 0
R3 vs. Ozzy w/ Luxray/Blaziken/Garchomp
He ran no Mewtwo counter, and wasn't able to snipe it before I leveled it up. So he tried to pick off benched stuff. I won even though he took three prizes before I took one, iirc.
3 - 0
R4 vs. DJ w/ Luxray/Blaziken/Garchomp/Absol
His one chance to do anything, since he also had no Mewtwo counter, was to hit it with Absol's power, so as soon as he put Absol G down, I immediately Psychic Locked until I knew I had Mewtwo X secured. He had a bad start, but I doubt that made too much of a difference. Without a Mewtwo counter, it just dies.
4 - 0
R5 vs. Daniel R. w/Gechamp
This game was awesome. We both got bad bad starts, and I had no idea what deck he was playing until like six turns into the game. He Dark Palmed my Claydol early game, but he still couldn't get anything. I got Claydol back a turn or two later, kept my bench low, and grabbed a prize with Flygon, then I switched to Garde and grabbed one with Psychic Lock. Then he candied a Gengar out, and I was all "oh crap I lose" . . . but he had already attached, he had something stuck active, and he had four benched. So I telepassed for Bebe for Dusknoir, put Claydol back, and Psychic Locked. That game me match control.
Good to see him back in the game. Awesome guy.
5 - 0
R6 vs Steven W. w/ Flygon
This game was crazy. I went first and attached to a benched Ralts and used my active ralts' Future Sight. He went and took five minutes for his turn, getting himself Three Claydols, two Vibravas, and an Active Machamp with a fighting, but he couldn't Take Out because I used Unown G on my active Ralts, so he used Hurricane Punch next turn and got a prize. Then I countered this with RC -> Garde -> Upper -> Psychic Lock. He flipped like three heads with Hurricane Punch, so I killed him with PLock on my turn. This gave me control for the rest of the game, as he had no energy for either of his Flygons, and he couldn't Cosmic unless I didn't mind if he did.
6 - 0
Yay undefeated.
T4 vs. Glesty w/ Luxray/Blaziken/Garchomp/Dialga
Game one: It was close for a while, but I established board control when I Palmed his Dialga back into the deck and started grabbing a prize with Mewtwo every other turn. Win.
Game two: Again, very close thanks to a Garchomp C sitting on the bench, scaring my Flygon X. The big play that gave me the game was when he Flash Impacted something and did the 30 damage to his Garchomp C, which let me kill it with Bring Down. Autopilot with Flygon or Garde from then on. Win.
T2 vs Steven W w/Flygon
Game one: I get donked by his 1-0-1 machamp Line. I even used Future Sight to give him crap. Loss
Game two: He locks my Claydol active due to me forgetting to leave a bench spot open so I can actually play Unown G. lol. Loss.
2nd place, and both losses were to shenanigans. Not bad. That last game inspired me to remove Uxie from the deck, which I did.
9/20 UNDEFEATED Eugene BR!
So i used the same deck as yesterday, except I removed the Uxie for a second Luxury Ball. Such a smart move. Also, Daniel Z copied my list, card for card. lol. Go team!
R1 vs Guy w/Shaymin/Yanmega/Leafeon
Not even close. He filled his bench early, which let me Palm his Claydol. Plus Flygon X sniped his Shaymin X and got rid of good cards with Wind Erosion.
1 - 0
R2 vs Ozzy w/Flygon/Machamp
I see the day before inspired him to change decks. lol
This was a typical match against Flygon for my deck. I Unown G'd my Claydol, used Telepass + Cosmic Power to get a superior setup, let him take a bit of a lead, then Dark Palmed his benched Flygon and killed his active with Psychic Lock w/Upper. The game was mine from then on, as I had like three times as many energy in play as he did, and I could move some of them around with Gardevoir PL. I also had another key kill, in which I loaded Garde PL with energies in order to KO his Nidoqueen that had all of his in-play energies.
2 - 0
R3 vs Andrew Jackson w/Gardevoir/Manectric/Cresselia
His deck was so weird. T1, he had a crap hand, so he was forced to Wager, but I won and drew beautifully. he got an Uxie next turn I think, and I wasn't able to get Garde out in time, so it was a short-lived advantage. He didn't run claydol, so he had to run more supporters, which made life easy for me all game. I knew that the Manectrics would be the death of me, so I seized every opportunity to OHKO them, and I did my best to keep RC + Gardy or Claydol in hand and only use them when needed. He went through my deck before the tourney and knew I ran Dusknoir, so I don't think I was able to Dark Palm anything, iirc. In spite of my ability to see through his deck, the match was still close, and my victory was assured when he whiffed on four cards he needed with Cynthia's Feelings (Telepassed) followed by Rowan.
3 - 0
R4 vs Drew w/Kingdra
This was pretty even throughout I wanted him to attack Claydol, so I mindlessly attached Unown G toit to make it look like I was really concerned with it surviving, while I actually cared about my Flygon and gardevoirs. he kept targeting Claydol with the extra 20, and when I finally got Psychic Lock going, he had nothing to do.
4 - 0
R5 vs Steve w/Flygon/Palkia
I was able to get Unown G T1, so my Claydol was never trapped active. The one time he was able to bring it up, he misplayed and had no way to get HIS Claydol out of the active apot, so he was forced to pass. Then I Dark Palmed his Flygon back into his deck. SO next turn, he got another Flygon out, attached an energy, THEN used Restructure. This was a mistake, as everything else on my bench had free retreat, and since he attached BEFORE Restructuring, I could simply choose whatever Pokemon had the most inconvenient typing. Then next turn, I palmed the new Flygon, started P-locking, and autopiloted to a 6 - 0 win.
5 - 0
Wow, undefeated in swiss BOTH DAYS!! I'M ON A ROLL!!
T4 vs Clint w/Gyrados WITHOUT LUXRAY!!!!????
So pre-game, I crippled his hand with an atomic high-five. Judge, my opponent is incapacitated!
We laughed all game, mainly because he knew there was no way he could possibly win. He 2HKOs me, I 2HKO him. He needs a BTS to get his attacker back, my attackers doesn't need one AND can gain invincibility by discarding his BTS while simultaneously discarding from the top of his deck. Both games were even on prizes for the first twenty minutes, because my deck works best against rush decks if you lag behind a bit, but I had complete control during both games.
Finals vs. Glesty w/ Luxray/Blaziken/Garchomp/Dialga
So, this guy in insanely good for someone who just started this year. He's seriously better than most other people in masters around here. He really knows how to play his deck really well, and he posed the greatest challenge of the weekend for me. I'll risk sounding like a jerk (for lack of a more fitting term on this PG site) for saying this, but I knew he would get mad himself very easily. This is because when I played him yesterday, he overlooked the possibility of Bring Down killing the only thing he had that could kill Flygon X, and he got VERY upset with himself. So I knew that if I could get him to waste cards early, it would not only diminish his resources, but it would anger him into making misplays, or at least mess with his focus. If it only ruined his concentration, that would still be good. Like I said, he is a good player, and good players think through situations. As such, annoying, low-risk plays (using Inviting Trap on Dialga, thus making him waste a Poketurn; benching Mewtwo when I had no plans on using it, making him bring up garshomp C to snipe it, leaving my Flygon able to OHKO him back and regain board control; using Palmer's to get Mewtwo back later, making him think that I intended to play it when I actually never even needed it, etc) would make him take extra time to double check the validity of every play he made. This helped me run out the clock on him.
Honestly, the fact that I had to do all that shows what a good match this was, and what a good opponent he is. It literally turned the game into a chess match, and that made it one of the most enjoyable battles I have ever had. It wasn't just about what we had in play, it was about what we were thinking, and it was fantastic.
Anyway, He had the lead for most of the game (as my deck wanted), but I still had board control thanks to Uppers and well-timed KOs. My Trapinch shenanigans made him waste a Poketurn or two, and allowed me to fall further behind so I could get more mileage out of my uppers. Whenever he wouldn't have a Garchomp out, I would send Flygon X up and get GODLY mills.
Anyway, late game, he sends up Dialga cuz he has crap out, and passes. I know he's used all four Poketuirns already, he had 18 cards left in his deck, and I doubt he runs Switch or Warp Energy, so I make the mean play and send up Flygon X . . . and just pass for a while and get godly mills: a critical VS Seeker that he apparently needed really badly, Dialga X, Power Spray, and other stuff. Eventually, he decides that it's better to just level up Dialga so I can't mill him, so he uses Premiere Ball and levels it up. Now, I could have killed his Dialga right there, but I would have lost. He had two Prizes left, I had three. I run the simulation in my head a few times, and I can see his plan: I kill his Dialga, he brings up Luxray, Bright Looks my Duskull and kills it, I kill his Luxray X, he brings up Garchomp and kills Claydol for game. I can't let that happen. So, I utilize my only option: I Psychic Lock Dialga X for three turns to KO it. This let me run out the clock for an extra couple of turns AND prevent the Bright Look.
We're now tied on prizes, and it's his turn. and he has a choice of sending up Luxray GL or Garchomp C. The Garchomp has two energies and an energy gain. I have garde X active and fully powered, a Flygon X fully powered, and crap else. So, he makes the smart play: He sends up Luxray and passes. Now, part of me wanted to Psychic Lock once more, but I was afraid time would be called on his turn. If that heppened, he could just level up Luxray, retreat for free, level up Garchomp, pick off Duskull and win on time. SO I did the only thing I COULD do, and that was power Swinging his Luxray for the KO, putting me at one prize. He follows up by putting abother energy on Garchomp and killing Flygon X. Everyone thought he had the game at that point, but the only reason I let him kill Flygon X was because I had BTS out, and Trapinch + Vibrava in hand. So I draw, trainch + Vibrava, attach Call to Vibrave, retreat Garde, and energy Typhoon for around 400-500 damage for game!
Now because of my deck's ability to run out the clock, we only had six minutes left to play game two, so he conceded as he didn't really feel very good anyway. He mentioned that he won't be able to make any more of the BRs this season, which sucks, as I was looking forward to another insanely difficult game with him.
So yeah, I so earned that win. : )
Oh Daniel went 3-2 like a bad little netdecker noob. lol.
HILSBORO 10/3!!!
I use the same thing, with no Modifications. Gave Skyler a ride, decides he wants to use Luxray-Honchkrow, all tricked out for every matchup. I also noticed that like three or four other people were using Flygon/Garde, too. Yay, it begins!
R1 vs Jamie w/FlygonDeckout
This kid goes to my league. Not really much to say about the match . . . Unown G on Claydol, Telepass + Cosmic for superior setup, Power Lock once Palkia Hit the field, Dark Palm to seal the match, etc.
1 - 0
R2 vs Keanu w/FLYGON/GARDE!!!!
GAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
. . . anyway, i open with Ralts, two Kirlias, Garde, and Call in hand, and I go first! Call for two more Ralts and pass. He does whatever.
I evolve both Ralts, attach to Kirlia and use Future Sight, he does stuff, I drop Garde and start Telepassing for Claydol materials, and . . . . yeah. A few turns later, I kill one attacker with Psychic Lock while Palming the other, which effectively left him with Draw-pass as his option for the rest of the game.
2 - 0
Lunch. I go to Subway, flirt with cute little thing who works there (hey, I can look and flirt all I want and it's not cheating!), eat half of a footlong (giggity), and go back.
R3 vs Matt w/Eevee/Electivire FB
I had never seen him before (AFAIK), and he opened with Crobat and I saw an Electivire FB when he was shuffling, so I assumed he was using some random, dumb SP deck. Sadly, I didn't know he's in Ozzy's little group of people or whatever, so he's actually good. lol
So, me thinking he's using SP, I go for a fast Mewtwo with a Garde, and I kill something with Gigablast or whatever the attack is, discarding all my in-play energy. I saw the eevee on the bench, but I really didn't think I had anything to fear. I mean, it's eeveeloutions. It's a bad deck . . . . right?
. . . so He evolves eevee to Glaceon, flips a heads on Level Max, plays Glaceon X, and I realize how boned I am now. I had energyless Mewtwo, Energyless Garde, and a Claydol. Had I had one more energy, I could have attached and used Energy Absorption, giving me permanent match control by forcing him to retreat Glaceon or let me kill it with Mewtwo. Instead, I am trying to bait him into doing stuff, and he's like so not falling for it. The rest of the game turns into me stumbling around finding just enough stuff to keep me in it, and I make a lot of skilled plays, but assuming I knew what deck he had made me lose.
2 - 1 (My first loss in Swiss this year. lol)
R4 vs AmphyTric
Oh God, this guy again. lol. Now I have to totally alter my playstyle: I have to rush him . . . with THIS slow deck!
I won because of two things:
1. Flygon has resistance to his entire deck AND discards Sunyshore, and
2. I can control how much damage he can do with Manectric by only playing Claydol/Garde on the turns I intend to use their powers.
That pretty much counters his entire deck.
3 - 1
R5 vs. Robert R. w/Raybees
We exchanged nice, fluffy compliments all game It was very inspiring. : )
Now, I've always had a great deal of respect for Robert and his son, Daniel, but that aside, Robert made perhaps the nicest gesture I have ever seen in this game. It was late game, and I was down 4 - 0 in prizes taken, and I knew at least 20-25 minutes have already been taken up. I started to take control of the game, but I was worried that I would lose on time, so I asked him to increase his rate of play (felt like a jerk asking, but I did my best so be extra polite). He responded by telling me that if he won on time, he would just forfeit to me. That to me, is just amazing, and it shows that he's in the game because he loves the people who play it. I mean, he could have instead been offended, angered, or any number of things, but he did exactly the opposite. I honestly wish my dad was more of a role model like this guy is. It's impossible to not respect the guy. Afterwards, we had a nice conversation about decks and my life and his son's stuff and a bunch of other things.
Anyway, as far as the game goes, this is the first time I've ever run into the deck Flygon/Garde was MADE to counter,in a tourney. lol. So I let him take a massive lead (with him haveing a full bench and ALL FOUR BEES!!), so I could get superior Upper mileage. When he had three prizes left, I finally got Dusknoir in hand, so I played it, Palmed a Flutter Wings Beedrill, and sent Mewtwo up to die*. He killed it, and was unable to get his other FW Bee out. So I sent up Garde, Palmed his other GE Bee, and Locked him for the rest of the game. He drew another prize later on, but I was immediately able to get a P-Lock going the very next turn
4 - 1
* This is gonna sound really egotistical (and I DO have an ego), but here's insight to an informed play. When I sent Mewtwo up to die, I used Energy Absorption. I had an Energy AND Mewtwo X in hand. The rest of my bench was pretty valuable, so I was kinda expecting a Warp Point. Had he done that, I could have sent up whatever I wanted him to damage, then retreat for Mewtwo and do 120 to a Bee after Palming his OTHER FW Bee. Sending up Mewtwo to sit there served the dual purpose of filling another slot in the slaughterhouse AND presenting another possible threat. Of course, he was unable to get his fourth Bee out that turn, and he had no Warp in hand, but even if he did both, match control would have been mine: next turn, I would just Dark Palm his Benched GE Bee, and Gigaburn the active one. That would leave him with no Energy in play, an active with a retreat cost, and an inability to bench anything (Dark Palm would just put it back). That never happened, but all that was going through my mind before I made the play of benching Mewtwo. This deck is that complicated. lol
R6 vs. Cory Cox! w/Gyrados
yay Cory!
Gyrados is an easy match for Flygon/Garde. It plays Felicity and Cynthia's Feelings, so Garde is a MONSTER drawer all game. Plus, as said about that game against Clint in Eugene, the standard Gyrados cannot consistently beat Flygon:
It was scary at first, though, cuz he opened with Sableye to my lone, 50 HP Ralts, but he lacked the Crobat G needed to donk me. Once his turn was out of the way, there was really nothing much he could do.
5 - 1
T4 vs. Andrew w/Flygon/Machamp/Nidoqueen/Dusknoir (yes all of them)
This should have been an easy win. Nothing in that deck scares me. what does scare me, however, is being unable to find a third benched Evolution so I can OHKO his ONE attacker (he had two Claydols and a Nido benched, and he would NOT put another guy down). I was too scared to send up Flygon at all, cuz if I did he'd OKHO it and get rid of all my Energy.
Anyway, as is typical of Flygon/garde, a late-game comeback ensued. He had one prize left, and my victory now relied on me keeping a wall of Psychic Locks in his face (I had to fill my bench by this point, just to keep everything going, so I had to P-Lock or he'd just dark Palm me to death and OHKO something). He sends up a fresh Flygon and hits my Garde. I space out and think that there's no way he can get out of the lock, so I PLock for 60, leaving him with 60 left. He levels up, and I realize that I lose, cuz now I can't Plock him without running out of attackers he can't kill. SO I bring up my undamaged Flygon, kill his Flygon, and hope he can't find a third Benched Evolution for the counter attack. He does, and I immediately scoop and give him the match, as there''s no way I could possibly beat him in two minutes with Flygon/garde. lol.
Oh well, gained just under six points, got a Blaziken FB X from my packs, and somehow got lost in Portland on the way back. lol. Oh and Skyler went 4 - 2.
SALEM BR!!!!!
So Skyler (Cat O Ninetales) finally turned to the DARK SIDE and used Flygon/Garde along with me, except he used Pokeradars, cuz he hacks and always gets amazing stuff with them (I hate you!). He's legit, so he picked up on the deck super quickly and went with the same basic list as me. ON the other hand, I decided to remove BTS and Premiere Ball for a 1-0-1 Exploud, which failed miserably and never saw play EVEN ONCE!! Also, I built Stephano a random machamp deck for his first tourney since the days of Flariados, and he dropped after round two. : (
Six people were using FGD! Muhahahaha!
R1 vs Gardevoir/Dusknoir
I have a god setup, and have the option to get two Claydols AND Garde T2! Sadly, He gets Garde X T2, but forgets to use Bring Down and instead just kills my Chatot with Energy Burst. Cue me getting mad setup with Uppers and total board control. He had two gardes and two Dusknoirs, but constant Psychic Lock FROZE him!
1 - 0
R2 vs Gyrados
I swear to God, every game against Gyrados plays out the exact same way. They can't Karp -> BTS -> Gyra, as then I'll just Sand Wall -> Power Swing, killing Gyra and discarding 3-4 Cards while being generally immune to a counterattack. And if they Warp/Cyclone, I bring up Azelf/Chatot and let them free my bench for me.
This kid was very respectable, though.
2 - 0
LUNCH!
I wanted to go shopping, as I only have one emo/goth studded bracelet thing. So I went to Spencer's and Hot Topic, got me a sweet necklace, two boss hats, and sick nasty spiked bracelet thing. Then I went to sBarro and had a pizza thing and two big meatballs (no, seriously: gargantuan meatballs dripping with sauce).
R3 vs. Andrew L. w/Flygon/Machamp/Nidoqueen/Dusknoir.
YAY REMATCH!!
Here, running so much tech became an issue. A piece of ALL THREE 1-1/1-0-1 techs were prized, and since I know he runs Warp and Dusknoir, I couldn't Azelf for them. Having Mewtwo X, Dusknoir, or Exploud out would have won me the game easily (especially Dusknoir, as I was able to force him into playing a fourth Benched guy or risk letting me get an unbeatable setup). Wah.
2 - 1
R4 vs. Matt M. w/Kingdra
This sucked. He got a really fast setup and hit some key warps and took like four prizes really fast, but I was able to do just enough to keep myself in the game. I finally took control Late game: He had a full bench and two Kingdras out, so I dark Palmed the benched one and Plocked the active, putting him at 60. He kills the garde, and I no longer have Telepass. SO, on my next turn, I immediately Telepass for something, play a bunch of stuff, Cosmic Power, get a SW Garde out, and then I realize that the Gardevoir underneath my Garde X was from PL, now SW. D'oh. Just picked up my cards and scooped without even calling a judge, as that would have been a Game Loss penalty right there. Even worse is the fact that this is literally the first time this guy has ever beat me, so I gave him a confidence boost without him deserving it. Cue much cursing at self.
2 - 2
R5 vs. Honchkrow/Shiftry
We both got eh starts, but he was able to bring his Honchkrow out and start slugging away at stuff. He kinda sorta had control, but he played down a Moonlight Stadium while I had nothing but Psychic Pokemon in play. he target attacks my benched baltoy and kills it, and I respond with Psyburn on Mewtwo X to kill his Murkrow. He brings up another one snipes again, so I retreat, move all my energy to Garde Sw, and Plock. He is forced to bring up Honchkrow X, so I retreat again, Level Up Mewtwo, move my energy to Mewtwo, and Gigaburn for the KO. he does whatever, I Energy Absorption and attach, he does whatever, I retreat and Plock for KO, he does whatever, I Plock for another KO, and he scoops.
3 - 2
R6 vs. ANDREW JACKSON!!! w/Raybees
So Andrew hates Raybees. He doesn't understand how it could possibly set up, ever. Honestly, I kinda agree. I built the exact same list that won worlds and I must be the unluckiest player alive, cuz I got so many terrible starts . . . ugh . . .
Anyway, FGD deck usually destroys Raybees even if they DO get a good start (like what happened yesterday against Robert): FGD can manipulate the scenario too easily. So if raybees gets a BAD start . . . lol ya . . . We stopped paying attention halfway through, as my lock on the game was THAT secure.
4 - 2
I don't make finals. Sad face. But 4-2 is my WORST record this season, and that's still a net gain of like 3.6-3.8 points, so yay! I probably gained around 9.4 Points for the weekend, which MIGHT be enough to keep me in top 10 I hope (was #2 worldwide before this weekend). Oh and Skyler also went 4-2, losing to Andrew L because he made a MAJOR misplay after time was called (forgetting to attach Unown G to his 100 damage Dusknoir when he knew that Andrew's benched Dusknoir had a Devolutor).
LAST BR!! Guardian Games, 10/10.
We run late thanks to me getting up late and waiting forever for crappy service at BK. I play FGD again, but i make some last minute changes with Skyler's advice (removing a Kirlia and Cynthia's for a Devoluter and another Unown G). Also I was packing a Gallade this time. Won me four games.
R1 vs. Pokedad w/ Blazeray
Fun guy. He joked around before the game that people were telling him my name was "Autoloss." LOL.
Anyway, I had removed the Mewtwo from my deck, but in testing i discovered that i didn't really need it at all to beat SP. Gallade covers that cuz it can get two - three OHKOS in quick succession.
I have a strong start to his meh start. He gets Dialga out fast and blocks my Flygon Bodies, but he has to manually retreat it, thus making him fall behind on Energy Drops. It took him a while to grab the first prize, so I was able to get my crap set up at a fairly leisurely pace, and when he finally grabbed a second prize, my Game Lock was assured thanks to Gallade killing his Garchomp C after he went out of his way to kill my Flygon. Gallade drew like two or three prizes, then I switched to jumping between Gardevoir and Flygon for the rest of the game. Great guy, though.
1 - 0
R2 vs. Alex w/ Toxitank
They were out of tables, so we played on the sofa the store has. So soft! My butt appreciated not being in a hard plastic chair for a while.
Anyway, Gardevoir owns Toxitank. especially when they play a BTS for you. However, when you go all game without seeing Bebe, Gardevoir, Luxury Ball, Flygon, or Claydol, that BTS doesn't matter much. he got two Mightyenas, Skuntank, Toxicroak, and BTS all out T2, and I never drew any of the crapload of cards I had to counter him. lol
1 - 1
LUNCH!!!
I rope everyone up and we go to Burger King to experience terribad customer service together. Tthe cashier didn't speak good English (I said CHICKEN FRIES, not CHEESY TOTS), the manager was a Pillsbury Dough Boy (seriously, he was pudgy and his voice was REALLY REALLY UP THERE), and the food was ghetto.
R3 vs. Cory Cox w/ Gyrados
Yay Cory!
Just a standard match against Gyra. Sand Wall -> Power Swing, or a well-timed Bring Down
2 - 1
R4 vs. Andrew L. w/Flygon and three S2 techs
I always get Andrew and Stephen mixed up. lol.
He accelerates into the lead early game, so I retaliate by killing his active Flygon with two Uppered Psychic Locks. Then he Candies out a Nidoqueen and another Flygon, leaving him with one Candy left. So I make the risky play and attach Devoluter to something he can't OHKO with his current Energy spread, and devo-ed his Flygon after Palming his Nidoqueen. My reasoning for this was sound: He had a Duskull benched. So by undoing all the Candies he played, he was forced to decide between having Flygon or Dusknoir. He doesn't have the Candy, so he evolves to Vibrave and wants to Energy Cyclone the Flygon he Warped up, but I only have two Energy in the discard. I switch to Psychic Lock mode, and he has NOTHING to do for the rest of the game.
3 - 1
R5 vs. Stephen L. w/ Flygon/ and three S2 techs
Yay another rematch.
When I have played him in the past, he has always kept his bench low. This time, his start was less than par, so he kinda had to fill 'er up or risk being outpaced. A few turns down the road his field looks like this: Active Flygon, benched Claydol, Nidoqueen, and other incidentals. I make the decision to Chatter his Flygon for 50, forcing im to KO it, putting him ahead by two. I bring up Flygon, Level it up, Candy out a Dusknoir, shuffle his Claydol in, and KO his Flygon with Sand Wall. He brings up Nidoqueen, evolves a trapinch and Mega Punches. I can't OHKO Queen, and I fear a Ruthless Tail OHKO next turn, so I make the smart play and attach Devoluter to Dusknoir, retreat and Devo his Queen. This visibly rattles him. he makes a last-ditch effort and plays a BTS (!!!), Baltoy - > Claydol, tries for a big Cosmic, whiffs on whatever he needed (Rare Candy I guess), and scoops. Next turn, I would have brought out Garde and started OHKOing stuff left and right with Psychic Lock.
4 - 1
R6 vs. Janet w/ Machamp
Yay Janet!
I open with Chatot. She goes first and passes. I Rosy for Unown G and stuff, then attach Call and get more stuff. She Warps and kills a Ralts. I play more stuff. She gets another kill I think., and I do something annoying I guess. She uses Warp to bring her Uxie up (to level it up, and can't find an Energy, so is forced to pass. I use Kirlia's Telekinesis to put 40 on Machamp (now I can do 90 with Plock for the kill). She retreats, Levels up and uses Take Out for 100 on my Kirlia. I kill Machamp with PL garde. More stuff happens. She benches a Ditto after getting another Machamp out, so I know I HAVE to avoid putting Flygon out there. To avoid that, I bust out Gallade and use Sonic Blade to put 80 on Machamp and make her bring up Ditto. She retreats, attaches to Machamp, levels up, and tries for the Hurricane punch KO . . . but falls 10 damage short. SO I bring up Gardevoir and Psychic Lock for the KO. She scoops at this point, as she can't get what she needs. Next turn, I would have Psychic Locked her active ditto, then Warped the next turn for the last prize.
GG Janet. : )
5 - 1
I find out that the top cut is as follows:
Steven W/ Gyrados
Ben w/ Gyrados
Robert R. w/ Porygon Z
Me w/ Five God Dragon
I am seriously scared to play Robert, as I have never tested against Porygon Z uckily, I play Steven's Gyrados.
T4 vs Steven W. w/ Gyrados
Game 1:
He starts with two Sableyes and a Special Dark, and mills through four basics of mine. I finally get me something up, and I start nabbing kills with Flygon. He eventually brings up a Gyrados, which I find some way to dance around with two Flygons. He gets it back, but I do my typical thing against Gyrados and just outpace him for the rest of the game. Sadly, the first four turns left me at too huge of a prize deficit, so he was able to Flash Bite twice on me damage-soaking Gallade for game.
Game 2: I figured I was out, cuz this deck is SLOW and his deck is apt to get mad donks. We both get good starts, and I am able to get out Gallade and OHKO his first Gyrados while allowing me to see all my prizes. After this, he kinda HAD to do the whole BTS thing, which puts the game back into the gutter for him. He scooped a few minutes later.
Game 3: K so now I KNEW I was toast. There's no way I can establish a lead on this guy now. Luckily, this game plays out JUST like the last one: quick OHKO on Gyrados with Gallade, forcing him to fall back into the BTS trap. he does that like once or twice, then can't for one turn, which lets me get caught up on prizes thanks to Bring Down. That was the turning point of the game. We play a few more turns of standard, boring Gyrados vs. FGD, then I win on time.
Steve deserves major respect, though. he had an easy opportunity to stall me out in games 2 & 3, but he didn't. He played just as fast as I did, and is clearly a SotG role model based on that alone. Just about anyone else would have taken the opportunity to slow play, but not him.
T2 vs. Ben w/ Gyrados.
Game 1: I score a fast OHKO with Gallade, flipping everything over to I can cherry-pick my prizes. He plays it smart adn attaches an Unown G to his Magikarp and passes, so I kill a Sableye. I bring up Flygon X and Power Swing. He does stuff then does 90. I retreat and kill Gyrados. He uses BTS to get it back and does 90. I retreat and Sand Wall. He does whatever. I kill Gyrados, . . . And it gets pretty repetitive from there.
Game 2: Exactly like Game 1. I really wish I had some exciting story about how hard this game was . . . Ben's a smart player, he knows what he's doing, but standard Gyrados CANNOT beat my deck under normal conditions. The only game I've ever lost to Gyrados was against Steven in T4, and that was because he got really lucky with a Special Dark in his opening hand.
So YAY, another win!!!! That brings my tally for this season so far to:
2 Wins (14 - 1)
1 2nd (7 - 1)
1 3rd (5 - 2)
1 13th (4 - 2)
For a season record of: (30 - 6)!
Final Props:
Ozzly, Glesty, and DJ
Mr. Raichu for excellent tourney hosting
Team Hatter forums for being a superior place to discuss deck ideas
Daniel, Clint, Andrew, and the rest of them
Skyler for no reason at all.
FLYGON/GARDEVOIR FOR BEING BOSS!!!
Slops:
Burger king for being terrible.
NOTHING!!!!
See yall at CCs!!!
(Also ya there's an article on the way, and I'll post the list then. Make you wait. lol)
SO I get there, chill with the people that came with me, chat, fill out decklist, borrow Kirlias from Breon, and we start playing. Oh and I used Flygon/Gardevoir/techs
R1 vs. AmphyTric
Wasn't expecting to see THIS. lol.
Anyway, he ironically got a slow start to my fast one. His active Damage Bind Amphy did some crap damage to my Flygon while I got all set up, then I killed it and he brought up Manectric, played another DBA, and spread to my one Claydol. So, all game, I basically only evolved my Ralts and Baltoys when I needed to do something, and that kept me ahead throughout the game.
1 - 0
R2 vs. Toxitank/Mightyena
Not even fair. I let him take two prizes, which lets me take control with uppers on Flygon and Garde.
2 - 0
R3 vs. Ozzy w/ Luxray/Blaziken/Garchomp
He ran no Mewtwo counter, and wasn't able to snipe it before I leveled it up. So he tried to pick off benched stuff. I won even though he took three prizes before I took one, iirc.
3 - 0
R4 vs. DJ w/ Luxray/Blaziken/Garchomp/Absol
His one chance to do anything, since he also had no Mewtwo counter, was to hit it with Absol's power, so as soon as he put Absol G down, I immediately Psychic Locked until I knew I had Mewtwo X secured. He had a bad start, but I doubt that made too much of a difference. Without a Mewtwo counter, it just dies.
4 - 0
R5 vs. Daniel R. w/Gechamp
This game was awesome. We both got bad bad starts, and I had no idea what deck he was playing until like six turns into the game. He Dark Palmed my Claydol early game, but he still couldn't get anything. I got Claydol back a turn or two later, kept my bench low, and grabbed a prize with Flygon, then I switched to Garde and grabbed one with Psychic Lock. Then he candied a Gengar out, and I was all "oh crap I lose" . . . but he had already attached, he had something stuck active, and he had four benched. So I telepassed for Bebe for Dusknoir, put Claydol back, and Psychic Locked. That game me match control.
Good to see him back in the game. Awesome guy.
5 - 0
R6 vs Steven W. w/ Flygon
This game was crazy. I went first and attached to a benched Ralts and used my active ralts' Future Sight. He went and took five minutes for his turn, getting himself Three Claydols, two Vibravas, and an Active Machamp with a fighting, but he couldn't Take Out because I used Unown G on my active Ralts, so he used Hurricane Punch next turn and got a prize. Then I countered this with RC -> Garde -> Upper -> Psychic Lock. He flipped like three heads with Hurricane Punch, so I killed him with PLock on my turn. This gave me control for the rest of the game, as he had no energy for either of his Flygons, and he couldn't Cosmic unless I didn't mind if he did.
6 - 0
Yay undefeated.
T4 vs. Glesty w/ Luxray/Blaziken/Garchomp/Dialga
Game one: It was close for a while, but I established board control when I Palmed his Dialga back into the deck and started grabbing a prize with Mewtwo every other turn. Win.
Game two: Again, very close thanks to a Garchomp C sitting on the bench, scaring my Flygon X. The big play that gave me the game was when he Flash Impacted something and did the 30 damage to his Garchomp C, which let me kill it with Bring Down. Autopilot with Flygon or Garde from then on. Win.
T2 vs Steven W w/Flygon
Game one: I get donked by his 1-0-1 machamp Line. I even used Future Sight to give him crap. Loss
Game two: He locks my Claydol active due to me forgetting to leave a bench spot open so I can actually play Unown G. lol. Loss.
2nd place, and both losses were to shenanigans. Not bad. That last game inspired me to remove Uxie from the deck, which I did.
9/20 UNDEFEATED Eugene BR!
So i used the same deck as yesterday, except I removed the Uxie for a second Luxury Ball. Such a smart move. Also, Daniel Z copied my list, card for card. lol. Go team!
R1 vs Guy w/Shaymin/Yanmega/Leafeon
Not even close. He filled his bench early, which let me Palm his Claydol. Plus Flygon X sniped his Shaymin X and got rid of good cards with Wind Erosion.
1 - 0
R2 vs Ozzy w/Flygon/Machamp
I see the day before inspired him to change decks. lol
This was a typical match against Flygon for my deck. I Unown G'd my Claydol, used Telepass + Cosmic Power to get a superior setup, let him take a bit of a lead, then Dark Palmed his benched Flygon and killed his active with Psychic Lock w/Upper. The game was mine from then on, as I had like three times as many energy in play as he did, and I could move some of them around with Gardevoir PL. I also had another key kill, in which I loaded Garde PL with energies in order to KO his Nidoqueen that had all of his in-play energies.
2 - 0
R3 vs Andrew Jackson w/Gardevoir/Manectric/Cresselia
His deck was so weird. T1, he had a crap hand, so he was forced to Wager, but I won and drew beautifully. he got an Uxie next turn I think, and I wasn't able to get Garde out in time, so it was a short-lived advantage. He didn't run claydol, so he had to run more supporters, which made life easy for me all game. I knew that the Manectrics would be the death of me, so I seized every opportunity to OHKO them, and I did my best to keep RC + Gardy or Claydol in hand and only use them when needed. He went through my deck before the tourney and knew I ran Dusknoir, so I don't think I was able to Dark Palm anything, iirc. In spite of my ability to see through his deck, the match was still close, and my victory was assured when he whiffed on four cards he needed with Cynthia's Feelings (Telepassed) followed by Rowan.
3 - 0
R4 vs Drew w/Kingdra
This was pretty even throughout I wanted him to attack Claydol, so I mindlessly attached Unown G toit to make it look like I was really concerned with it surviving, while I actually cared about my Flygon and gardevoirs. he kept targeting Claydol with the extra 20, and when I finally got Psychic Lock going, he had nothing to do.
4 - 0
R5 vs Steve w/Flygon/Palkia
I was able to get Unown G T1, so my Claydol was never trapped active. The one time he was able to bring it up, he misplayed and had no way to get HIS Claydol out of the active apot, so he was forced to pass. Then I Dark Palmed his Flygon back into his deck. SO next turn, he got another Flygon out, attached an energy, THEN used Restructure. This was a mistake, as everything else on my bench had free retreat, and since he attached BEFORE Restructuring, I could simply choose whatever Pokemon had the most inconvenient typing. Then next turn, I palmed the new Flygon, started P-locking, and autopiloted to a 6 - 0 win.
5 - 0
Wow, undefeated in swiss BOTH DAYS!! I'M ON A ROLL!!
T4 vs Clint w/Gyrados WITHOUT LUXRAY!!!!????
So pre-game, I crippled his hand with an atomic high-five. Judge, my opponent is incapacitated!
We laughed all game, mainly because he knew there was no way he could possibly win. He 2HKOs me, I 2HKO him. He needs a BTS to get his attacker back, my attackers doesn't need one AND can gain invincibility by discarding his BTS while simultaneously discarding from the top of his deck. Both games were even on prizes for the first twenty minutes, because my deck works best against rush decks if you lag behind a bit, but I had complete control during both games.
Finals vs. Glesty w/ Luxray/Blaziken/Garchomp/Dialga
So, this guy in insanely good for someone who just started this year. He's seriously better than most other people in masters around here. He really knows how to play his deck really well, and he posed the greatest challenge of the weekend for me. I'll risk sounding like a jerk (for lack of a more fitting term on this PG site) for saying this, but I knew he would get mad himself very easily. This is because when I played him yesterday, he overlooked the possibility of Bring Down killing the only thing he had that could kill Flygon X, and he got VERY upset with himself. So I knew that if I could get him to waste cards early, it would not only diminish his resources, but it would anger him into making misplays, or at least mess with his focus. If it only ruined his concentration, that would still be good. Like I said, he is a good player, and good players think through situations. As such, annoying, low-risk plays (using Inviting Trap on Dialga, thus making him waste a Poketurn; benching Mewtwo when I had no plans on using it, making him bring up garshomp C to snipe it, leaving my Flygon able to OHKO him back and regain board control; using Palmer's to get Mewtwo back later, making him think that I intended to play it when I actually never even needed it, etc) would make him take extra time to double check the validity of every play he made. This helped me run out the clock on him.
Honestly, the fact that I had to do all that shows what a good match this was, and what a good opponent he is. It literally turned the game into a chess match, and that made it one of the most enjoyable battles I have ever had. It wasn't just about what we had in play, it was about what we were thinking, and it was fantastic.
Anyway, He had the lead for most of the game (as my deck wanted), but I still had board control thanks to Uppers and well-timed KOs. My Trapinch shenanigans made him waste a Poketurn or two, and allowed me to fall further behind so I could get more mileage out of my uppers. Whenever he wouldn't have a Garchomp out, I would send Flygon X up and get GODLY mills.
Anyway, late game, he sends up Dialga cuz he has crap out, and passes. I know he's used all four Poketuirns already, he had 18 cards left in his deck, and I doubt he runs Switch or Warp Energy, so I make the mean play and send up Flygon X . . . and just pass for a while and get godly mills: a critical VS Seeker that he apparently needed really badly, Dialga X, Power Spray, and other stuff. Eventually, he decides that it's better to just level up Dialga so I can't mill him, so he uses Premiere Ball and levels it up. Now, I could have killed his Dialga right there, but I would have lost. He had two Prizes left, I had three. I run the simulation in my head a few times, and I can see his plan: I kill his Dialga, he brings up Luxray, Bright Looks my Duskull and kills it, I kill his Luxray X, he brings up Garchomp and kills Claydol for game. I can't let that happen. So, I utilize my only option: I Psychic Lock Dialga X for three turns to KO it. This let me run out the clock for an extra couple of turns AND prevent the Bright Look.
We're now tied on prizes, and it's his turn. and he has a choice of sending up Luxray GL or Garchomp C. The Garchomp has two energies and an energy gain. I have garde X active and fully powered, a Flygon X fully powered, and crap else. So, he makes the smart play: He sends up Luxray and passes. Now, part of me wanted to Psychic Lock once more, but I was afraid time would be called on his turn. If that heppened, he could just level up Luxray, retreat for free, level up Garchomp, pick off Duskull and win on time. SO I did the only thing I COULD do, and that was power Swinging his Luxray for the KO, putting me at one prize. He follows up by putting abother energy on Garchomp and killing Flygon X. Everyone thought he had the game at that point, but the only reason I let him kill Flygon X was because I had BTS out, and Trapinch + Vibrava in hand. So I draw, trainch + Vibrava, attach Call to Vibrave, retreat Garde, and energy Typhoon for around 400-500 damage for game!
Now because of my deck's ability to run out the clock, we only had six minutes left to play game two, so he conceded as he didn't really feel very good anyway. He mentioned that he won't be able to make any more of the BRs this season, which sucks, as I was looking forward to another insanely difficult game with him.
So yeah, I so earned that win. : )
Oh Daniel went 3-2 like a bad little netdecker noob. lol.
HILSBORO 10/3!!!
I use the same thing, with no Modifications. Gave Skyler a ride, decides he wants to use Luxray-Honchkrow, all tricked out for every matchup. I also noticed that like three or four other people were using Flygon/Garde, too. Yay, it begins!
R1 vs Jamie w/FlygonDeckout
This kid goes to my league. Not really much to say about the match . . . Unown G on Claydol, Telepass + Cosmic for superior setup, Power Lock once Palkia Hit the field, Dark Palm to seal the match, etc.
1 - 0
R2 vs Keanu w/FLYGON/GARDE!!!!
GAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
. . . anyway, i open with Ralts, two Kirlias, Garde, and Call in hand, and I go first! Call for two more Ralts and pass. He does whatever.
I evolve both Ralts, attach to Kirlia and use Future Sight, he does stuff, I drop Garde and start Telepassing for Claydol materials, and . . . . yeah. A few turns later, I kill one attacker with Psychic Lock while Palming the other, which effectively left him with Draw-pass as his option for the rest of the game.
2 - 0
Lunch. I go to Subway, flirt with cute little thing who works there (hey, I can look and flirt all I want and it's not cheating!), eat half of a footlong (giggity), and go back.
R3 vs Matt w/Eevee/Electivire FB
I had never seen him before (AFAIK), and he opened with Crobat and I saw an Electivire FB when he was shuffling, so I assumed he was using some random, dumb SP deck. Sadly, I didn't know he's in Ozzy's little group of people or whatever, so he's actually good. lol
So, me thinking he's using SP, I go for a fast Mewtwo with a Garde, and I kill something with Gigablast or whatever the attack is, discarding all my in-play energy. I saw the eevee on the bench, but I really didn't think I had anything to fear. I mean, it's eeveeloutions. It's a bad deck . . . . right?
. . . so He evolves eevee to Glaceon, flips a heads on Level Max, plays Glaceon X, and I realize how boned I am now. I had energyless Mewtwo, Energyless Garde, and a Claydol. Had I had one more energy, I could have attached and used Energy Absorption, giving me permanent match control by forcing him to retreat Glaceon or let me kill it with Mewtwo. Instead, I am trying to bait him into doing stuff, and he's like so not falling for it. The rest of the game turns into me stumbling around finding just enough stuff to keep me in it, and I make a lot of skilled plays, but assuming I knew what deck he had made me lose.
2 - 1 (My first loss in Swiss this year. lol)
R4 vs AmphyTric
Oh God, this guy again. lol. Now I have to totally alter my playstyle: I have to rush him . . . with THIS slow deck!
I won because of two things:
1. Flygon has resistance to his entire deck AND discards Sunyshore, and
2. I can control how much damage he can do with Manectric by only playing Claydol/Garde on the turns I intend to use their powers.
That pretty much counters his entire deck.
3 - 1
R5 vs. Robert R. w/Raybees
We exchanged nice, fluffy compliments all game It was very inspiring. : )
Now, I've always had a great deal of respect for Robert and his son, Daniel, but that aside, Robert made perhaps the nicest gesture I have ever seen in this game. It was late game, and I was down 4 - 0 in prizes taken, and I knew at least 20-25 minutes have already been taken up. I started to take control of the game, but I was worried that I would lose on time, so I asked him to increase his rate of play (felt like a jerk asking, but I did my best so be extra polite). He responded by telling me that if he won on time, he would just forfeit to me. That to me, is just amazing, and it shows that he's in the game because he loves the people who play it. I mean, he could have instead been offended, angered, or any number of things, but he did exactly the opposite. I honestly wish my dad was more of a role model like this guy is. It's impossible to not respect the guy. Afterwards, we had a nice conversation about decks and my life and his son's stuff and a bunch of other things.
Anyway, as far as the game goes, this is the first time I've ever run into the deck Flygon/Garde was MADE to counter,in a tourney. lol. So I let him take a massive lead (with him haveing a full bench and ALL FOUR BEES!!), so I could get superior Upper mileage. When he had three prizes left, I finally got Dusknoir in hand, so I played it, Palmed a Flutter Wings Beedrill, and sent Mewtwo up to die*. He killed it, and was unable to get his other FW Bee out. So I sent up Garde, Palmed his other GE Bee, and Locked him for the rest of the game. He drew another prize later on, but I was immediately able to get a P-Lock going the very next turn
4 - 1
* This is gonna sound really egotistical (and I DO have an ego), but here's insight to an informed play. When I sent Mewtwo up to die, I used Energy Absorption. I had an Energy AND Mewtwo X in hand. The rest of my bench was pretty valuable, so I was kinda expecting a Warp Point. Had he done that, I could have sent up whatever I wanted him to damage, then retreat for Mewtwo and do 120 to a Bee after Palming his OTHER FW Bee. Sending up Mewtwo to sit there served the dual purpose of filling another slot in the slaughterhouse AND presenting another possible threat. Of course, he was unable to get his fourth Bee out that turn, and he had no Warp in hand, but even if he did both, match control would have been mine: next turn, I would just Dark Palm his Benched GE Bee, and Gigaburn the active one. That would leave him with no Energy in play, an active with a retreat cost, and an inability to bench anything (Dark Palm would just put it back). That never happened, but all that was going through my mind before I made the play of benching Mewtwo. This deck is that complicated. lol
R6 vs. Cory Cox! w/Gyrados
yay Cory!
Gyrados is an easy match for Flygon/Garde. It plays Felicity and Cynthia's Feelings, so Garde is a MONSTER drawer all game. Plus, as said about that game against Clint in Eugene, the standard Gyrados cannot consistently beat Flygon:
My Eugene T4 Game said:
It was scary at first, though, cuz he opened with Sableye to my lone, 50 HP Ralts, but he lacked the Crobat G needed to donk me. Once his turn was out of the way, there was really nothing much he could do.
5 - 1
T4 vs. Andrew w/Flygon/Machamp/Nidoqueen/Dusknoir (yes all of them)
This should have been an easy win. Nothing in that deck scares me. what does scare me, however, is being unable to find a third benched Evolution so I can OHKO his ONE attacker (he had two Claydols and a Nido benched, and he would NOT put another guy down). I was too scared to send up Flygon at all, cuz if I did he'd OKHO it and get rid of all my Energy.
Anyway, as is typical of Flygon/garde, a late-game comeback ensued. He had one prize left, and my victory now relied on me keeping a wall of Psychic Locks in his face (I had to fill my bench by this point, just to keep everything going, so I had to P-Lock or he'd just dark Palm me to death and OHKO something). He sends up a fresh Flygon and hits my Garde. I space out and think that there's no way he can get out of the lock, so I PLock for 60, leaving him with 60 left. He levels up, and I realize that I lose, cuz now I can't Plock him without running out of attackers he can't kill. SO I bring up my undamaged Flygon, kill his Flygon, and hope he can't find a third Benched Evolution for the counter attack. He does, and I immediately scoop and give him the match, as there''s no way I could possibly beat him in two minutes with Flygon/garde. lol.
Oh well, gained just under six points, got a Blaziken FB X from my packs, and somehow got lost in Portland on the way back. lol. Oh and Skyler went 4 - 2.
SALEM BR!!!!!
So Skyler (Cat O Ninetales) finally turned to the DARK SIDE and used Flygon/Garde along with me, except he used Pokeradars, cuz he hacks and always gets amazing stuff with them (I hate you!). He's legit, so he picked up on the deck super quickly and went with the same basic list as me. ON the other hand, I decided to remove BTS and Premiere Ball for a 1-0-1 Exploud, which failed miserably and never saw play EVEN ONCE!! Also, I built Stephano a random machamp deck for his first tourney since the days of Flariados, and he dropped after round two. : (
Six people were using FGD! Muhahahaha!
R1 vs Gardevoir/Dusknoir
I have a god setup, and have the option to get two Claydols AND Garde T2! Sadly, He gets Garde X T2, but forgets to use Bring Down and instead just kills my Chatot with Energy Burst. Cue me getting mad setup with Uppers and total board control. He had two gardes and two Dusknoirs, but constant Psychic Lock FROZE him!
1 - 0
R2 vs Gyrados
I swear to God, every game against Gyrados plays out the exact same way. They can't Karp -> BTS -> Gyra, as then I'll just Sand Wall -> Power Swing, killing Gyra and discarding 3-4 Cards while being generally immune to a counterattack. And if they Warp/Cyclone, I bring up Azelf/Chatot and let them free my bench for me.
This kid was very respectable, though.
2 - 0
LUNCH!
I wanted to go shopping, as I only have one emo/goth studded bracelet thing. So I went to Spencer's and Hot Topic, got me a sweet necklace, two boss hats, and sick nasty spiked bracelet thing. Then I went to sBarro and had a pizza thing and two big meatballs (no, seriously: gargantuan meatballs dripping with sauce).
R3 vs. Andrew L. w/Flygon/Machamp/Nidoqueen/Dusknoir.
YAY REMATCH!!
Here, running so much tech became an issue. A piece of ALL THREE 1-1/1-0-1 techs were prized, and since I know he runs Warp and Dusknoir, I couldn't Azelf for them. Having Mewtwo X, Dusknoir, or Exploud out would have won me the game easily (especially Dusknoir, as I was able to force him into playing a fourth Benched guy or risk letting me get an unbeatable setup). Wah.
2 - 1
R4 vs. Matt M. w/Kingdra
This sucked. He got a really fast setup and hit some key warps and took like four prizes really fast, but I was able to do just enough to keep myself in the game. I finally took control Late game: He had a full bench and two Kingdras out, so I dark Palmed the benched one and Plocked the active, putting him at 60. He kills the garde, and I no longer have Telepass. SO, on my next turn, I immediately Telepass for something, play a bunch of stuff, Cosmic Power, get a SW Garde out, and then I realize that the Gardevoir underneath my Garde X was from PL, now SW. D'oh. Just picked up my cards and scooped without even calling a judge, as that would have been a Game Loss penalty right there. Even worse is the fact that this is literally the first time this guy has ever beat me, so I gave him a confidence boost without him deserving it. Cue much cursing at self.
2 - 2
R5 vs. Honchkrow/Shiftry
We both got eh starts, but he was able to bring his Honchkrow out and start slugging away at stuff. He kinda sorta had control, but he played down a Moonlight Stadium while I had nothing but Psychic Pokemon in play. he target attacks my benched baltoy and kills it, and I respond with Psyburn on Mewtwo X to kill his Murkrow. He brings up another one snipes again, so I retreat, move all my energy to Garde Sw, and Plock. He is forced to bring up Honchkrow X, so I retreat again, Level Up Mewtwo, move my energy to Mewtwo, and Gigaburn for the KO. he does whatever, I Energy Absorption and attach, he does whatever, I retreat and Plock for KO, he does whatever, I Plock for another KO, and he scoops.
3 - 2
R6 vs. ANDREW JACKSON!!! w/Raybees
So Andrew hates Raybees. He doesn't understand how it could possibly set up, ever. Honestly, I kinda agree. I built the exact same list that won worlds and I must be the unluckiest player alive, cuz I got so many terrible starts . . . ugh . . .
Anyway, FGD deck usually destroys Raybees even if they DO get a good start (like what happened yesterday against Robert): FGD can manipulate the scenario too easily. So if raybees gets a BAD start . . . lol ya . . . We stopped paying attention halfway through, as my lock on the game was THAT secure.
4 - 2
I don't make finals. Sad face. But 4-2 is my WORST record this season, and that's still a net gain of like 3.6-3.8 points, so yay! I probably gained around 9.4 Points for the weekend, which MIGHT be enough to keep me in top 10 I hope (was #2 worldwide before this weekend). Oh and Skyler also went 4-2, losing to Andrew L because he made a MAJOR misplay after time was called (forgetting to attach Unown G to his 100 damage Dusknoir when he knew that Andrew's benched Dusknoir had a Devolutor).
LAST BR!! Guardian Games, 10/10.
We run late thanks to me getting up late and waiting forever for crappy service at BK. I play FGD again, but i make some last minute changes with Skyler's advice (removing a Kirlia and Cynthia's for a Devoluter and another Unown G). Also I was packing a Gallade this time. Won me four games.
R1 vs. Pokedad w/ Blazeray
Fun guy. He joked around before the game that people were telling him my name was "Autoloss." LOL.
Anyway, I had removed the Mewtwo from my deck, but in testing i discovered that i didn't really need it at all to beat SP. Gallade covers that cuz it can get two - three OHKOS in quick succession.
I have a strong start to his meh start. He gets Dialga out fast and blocks my Flygon Bodies, but he has to manually retreat it, thus making him fall behind on Energy Drops. It took him a while to grab the first prize, so I was able to get my crap set up at a fairly leisurely pace, and when he finally grabbed a second prize, my Game Lock was assured thanks to Gallade killing his Garchomp C after he went out of his way to kill my Flygon. Gallade drew like two or three prizes, then I switched to jumping between Gardevoir and Flygon for the rest of the game. Great guy, though.
1 - 0
R2 vs. Alex w/ Toxitank
They were out of tables, so we played on the sofa the store has. So soft! My butt appreciated not being in a hard plastic chair for a while.
Anyway, Gardevoir owns Toxitank. especially when they play a BTS for you. However, when you go all game without seeing Bebe, Gardevoir, Luxury Ball, Flygon, or Claydol, that BTS doesn't matter much. he got two Mightyenas, Skuntank, Toxicroak, and BTS all out T2, and I never drew any of the crapload of cards I had to counter him. lol
1 - 1
LUNCH!!!
I rope everyone up and we go to Burger King to experience terribad customer service together. Tthe cashier didn't speak good English (I said CHICKEN FRIES, not CHEESY TOTS), the manager was a Pillsbury Dough Boy (seriously, he was pudgy and his voice was REALLY REALLY UP THERE), and the food was ghetto.
R3 vs. Cory Cox w/ Gyrados
Yay Cory!
Just a standard match against Gyra. Sand Wall -> Power Swing, or a well-timed Bring Down
2 - 1
R4 vs. Andrew L. w/Flygon and three S2 techs
I always get Andrew and Stephen mixed up. lol.
He accelerates into the lead early game, so I retaliate by killing his active Flygon with two Uppered Psychic Locks. Then he Candies out a Nidoqueen and another Flygon, leaving him with one Candy left. So I make the risky play and attach Devoluter to something he can't OHKO with his current Energy spread, and devo-ed his Flygon after Palming his Nidoqueen. My reasoning for this was sound: He had a Duskull benched. So by undoing all the Candies he played, he was forced to decide between having Flygon or Dusknoir. He doesn't have the Candy, so he evolves to Vibrave and wants to Energy Cyclone the Flygon he Warped up, but I only have two Energy in the discard. I switch to Psychic Lock mode, and he has NOTHING to do for the rest of the game.
3 - 1
R5 vs. Stephen L. w/ Flygon/ and three S2 techs
Yay another rematch.
When I have played him in the past, he has always kept his bench low. This time, his start was less than par, so he kinda had to fill 'er up or risk being outpaced. A few turns down the road his field looks like this: Active Flygon, benched Claydol, Nidoqueen, and other incidentals. I make the decision to Chatter his Flygon for 50, forcing im to KO it, putting him ahead by two. I bring up Flygon, Level it up, Candy out a Dusknoir, shuffle his Claydol in, and KO his Flygon with Sand Wall. He brings up Nidoqueen, evolves a trapinch and Mega Punches. I can't OHKO Queen, and I fear a Ruthless Tail OHKO next turn, so I make the smart play and attach Devoluter to Dusknoir, retreat and Devo his Queen. This visibly rattles him. he makes a last-ditch effort and plays a BTS (!!!), Baltoy - > Claydol, tries for a big Cosmic, whiffs on whatever he needed (Rare Candy I guess), and scoops. Next turn, I would have brought out Garde and started OHKOing stuff left and right with Psychic Lock.
4 - 1
R6 vs. Janet w/ Machamp
Yay Janet!
I open with Chatot. She goes first and passes. I Rosy for Unown G and stuff, then attach Call and get more stuff. She Warps and kills a Ralts. I play more stuff. She gets another kill I think., and I do something annoying I guess. She uses Warp to bring her Uxie up (to level it up, and can't find an Energy, so is forced to pass. I use Kirlia's Telekinesis to put 40 on Machamp (now I can do 90 with Plock for the kill). She retreats, Levels up and uses Take Out for 100 on my Kirlia. I kill Machamp with PL garde. More stuff happens. She benches a Ditto after getting another Machamp out, so I know I HAVE to avoid putting Flygon out there. To avoid that, I bust out Gallade and use Sonic Blade to put 80 on Machamp and make her bring up Ditto. She retreats, attaches to Machamp, levels up, and tries for the Hurricane punch KO . . . but falls 10 damage short. SO I bring up Gardevoir and Psychic Lock for the KO. She scoops at this point, as she can't get what she needs. Next turn, I would have Psychic Locked her active ditto, then Warped the next turn for the last prize.
GG Janet. : )
5 - 1
I find out that the top cut is as follows:
Steven W/ Gyrados
Ben w/ Gyrados
Robert R. w/ Porygon Z
Me w/ Five God Dragon
I am seriously scared to play Robert, as I have never tested against Porygon Z uckily, I play Steven's Gyrados.
T4 vs Steven W. w/ Gyrados
Game 1:
He starts with two Sableyes and a Special Dark, and mills through four basics of mine. I finally get me something up, and I start nabbing kills with Flygon. He eventually brings up a Gyrados, which I find some way to dance around with two Flygons. He gets it back, but I do my typical thing against Gyrados and just outpace him for the rest of the game. Sadly, the first four turns left me at too huge of a prize deficit, so he was able to Flash Bite twice on me damage-soaking Gallade for game.
Game 2: I figured I was out, cuz this deck is SLOW and his deck is apt to get mad donks. We both get good starts, and I am able to get out Gallade and OHKO his first Gyrados while allowing me to see all my prizes. After this, he kinda HAD to do the whole BTS thing, which puts the game back into the gutter for him. He scooped a few minutes later.
Game 3: K so now I KNEW I was toast. There's no way I can establish a lead on this guy now. Luckily, this game plays out JUST like the last one: quick OHKO on Gyrados with Gallade, forcing him to fall back into the BTS trap. he does that like once or twice, then can't for one turn, which lets me get caught up on prizes thanks to Bring Down. That was the turning point of the game. We play a few more turns of standard, boring Gyrados vs. FGD, then I win on time.
Steve deserves major respect, though. he had an easy opportunity to stall me out in games 2 & 3, but he didn't. He played just as fast as I did, and is clearly a SotG role model based on that alone. Just about anyone else would have taken the opportunity to slow play, but not him.
T2 vs. Ben w/ Gyrados.
Game 1: I score a fast OHKO with Gallade, flipping everything over to I can cherry-pick my prizes. He plays it smart adn attaches an Unown G to his Magikarp and passes, so I kill a Sableye. I bring up Flygon X and Power Swing. He does stuff then does 90. I retreat and kill Gyrados. He uses BTS to get it back and does 90. I retreat and Sand Wall. He does whatever. I kill Gyrados, . . . And it gets pretty repetitive from there.
Game 2: Exactly like Game 1. I really wish I had some exciting story about how hard this game was . . . Ben's a smart player, he knows what he's doing, but standard Gyrados CANNOT beat my deck under normal conditions. The only game I've ever lost to Gyrados was against Steven in T4, and that was because he got really lucky with a Special Dark in his opening hand.
So YAY, another win!!!! That brings my tally for this season so far to:
2 Wins (14 - 1)
1 2nd (7 - 1)
1 3rd (5 - 2)
1 13th (4 - 2)
For a season record of: (30 - 6)!
Final Props:
Ozzly, Glesty, and DJ
Mr. Raichu for excellent tourney hosting
Team Hatter forums for being a superior place to discuss deck ideas
Daniel, Clint, Andrew, and the rest of them
Skyler for no reason at all.
FLYGON/GARDEVOIR FOR BEING BOSS!!!
Slops:
Burger king for being terrible.
NOTHING!!!!
See yall at CCs!!!
(Also ya there's an article on the way, and I'll post the list then. Make you wait. lol)
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