Well I decided to write up a report of my Regionals experience, as I thought it might be interesting and I’m quite bored. So some background on myself, I started playing almost exactly a year ago, I got into the game through Dan Richard so I pretty much immediately had a great testing partner and deckbuilder to help me out. I went to a Cities, 2 States, Regionals, Nationals, and the Grinder last year, and I only missed Top Cut at MI states where I bubbled at 17th. I made it to Top 64 at Nationals with Donphan/Yanmega/Zoroark and lost in the last round before the cutoff of the Grinder. So going into this season I was determined to get some good tournament results, instead of making cut then losing 1 or 2 rounds in. I started off the season with a Battle Roads win with Donphan/Tornadus/Zoroark/Zekrom then got 2nd with MegaZone and bubbled with ZPST. Going into Regionals I was torn on what deck to play. ZPST was a contender, but I just didn’t like the occasional dead starts and midgames, despite having an excellent build. It just wasn’t really my style. MegaZone was a top choice, but I ended up going with Donphan/Tornadus/Zoroark/Zekrom because I had a favorable matchup against everything except for The Truth and Gothitelle. I won’t post the list, but I ran a 4-3 Donphan, 2-2 Zoroark, 3 Tornadus, and 1 Zekrom, so I had pretty much everything covered while still maxing out on speed and consistency.
But anyway, on to the tournament. We drive down Friday with my brothers and Dave Richard, then get to the convention center early Saturday, register, meet up with some friends, then pairings go up and the tournament is underway.
Note: I’m hazy on some of the details, names, and order of matchups through Swiss, so I’ll do the best I can to remember everything.
Round 1: Eric Richard w/ Yanmega/Terrakion/Tornadus
Great, so out of 200+ Masters, I get paired up against Dan and Dave’s dad after never playing him throughout Battle Roads. Oh well, it happens. So this matchup is actually pretty tough for me due to his constant Judging (first 3 turns, I believe) and the fact that I can’t OHKO anything he plays, which hurts me quite a bit. Fighting resistance on his attackers hurts, and my Zekrom can only do so much before it gets one shot by Terrakion. The game goes down to the wire, 2-1 prizes with him in the lead. On my last turn, I Potion off 20 damage from my Zoroark, catcher his Terrakion, double PlusPower, and copy its attack for the KO. I’ve got an undamaged Tornadus and undamaged Zoroark out, and he’s only got a Yanmega to attack, with 8-9 cards in hand to my 1, with 3 left in the deck. His turn he triple PlusPowers and Judges to match hands and OHKOs my Zoroark for game. It was a great game, it just sucked that it had to be Round 1 against someone I know, but oh well.
0-1
Round 2: ??? w/ The Truth
Great, so it looks like I’ll be starting off 0-2, which is very bad news, meaning I’ll have to win out to go 6-2 to make cut. I start off great, but so does he. I get my Donphan up and Heavy Impacting and take a 2 prize lead, but at this point he gets out his lock and his own Donphan. The turning point was when he had a Donphan active with 70 damage against my undamaged Donphan, and he has the space to move the damage off the Donphan with Reuniclus. He says “Heavy Impact” but then immediately says “Wait, Damage Swap first”, to which I instantly say that he’s announced the attack. He looks at me in shock, and I have to make a decision. It’s an autoloss for me, and I know that after this turn it’s only a matter of time before he takes all 6 prizes. I didn’t have enough time to make the game go to time, and my prize lead wasn’t enough to win in that way. I knew it wasn’t a misplay on his part, but rather just misspeaking and going too fast. But it was Regionals, a big tournament, and I needed to take a win any way I could. I’m not sure if it was the right call, but I let him move the damage off, and sure enough I scooped a few turns later when I saw that I had no chance. Everyone told me that I shouldn’t have let him take it back, but there was nothing I could do at that point, even though I was kicking myself because I put myself at 0-2 and if I lost one more I’d be done. Oh well, looks like I have to win out.
0-2
Round 3: ??? w/ Gothitelle
Alright, well it was fun while it lasted. Another autoloss. Except he has a completely dead hand, and
although he’s able to get a Gothitelle out, he doesn’t have the Reuniclus to back it up and so it dies quickly. He’s only got a Gothita left in play, and he draws, doesn’t get anything he can use, and concedes. So I dodged a bullet and made it through my worst matchup.
1-2
Round 4: ??? w/ ReshiBoar
He doesn’t get a good start, and I’m able to chain Catchers to kill off Tepigs and Pignites to take a big lead. He never really gets anything going, and I win Round 4, putting me 4 games away from making cut.
2-2
Round 5: Kyle Epperson (I think) w/ReshiPhlosion
I’m hazy on the order of the next few games, so bear with me. Basically, he sees like 1 or 2 Fire energy the whole game, so things are pretty rough for him, despite getting out a few Typhlosions. I’m able to take prizes relatively uncontested all game, and I take the win.
3-2
Round 6: Tyson? w/ ZPST
I’ve tested this matchup a ton, and I know that I have a favorable matchup if I survive the first turn and can get multiple Donphan into play. All goes according to plan, and I take prizes on Zekroms and Pachirisus without even really bothering with Tornadus until I can OHKO them with Zekrom, at which point Donphan gets the revenge KO on Zekroms used to KO my Zekrom. I think the game is pretty close, but I’m confident that I can win the prize exchange, which I eventually do.
4-2, 2 wins away from top cut
Round 7: BT w/ ReshiBoar
BT’s a buddy of mine, and before the game he tells me that he’s going to give me the win because he wants to go home that night, which was awesome for me to be able to catch a break that day.
5-2, one more to go
At this point, I’m pretty excited and nervous to have come from an 0-2 start to one game away from making cut. I would have been severely disappointed if I had missed cut at any point, but now, with it so close, I was more determined than ever to make it in.
Round 8: ??? w/ Mew/Yanmega/Zoroark
He gets a T1 See Off to send a Muk to the Lost Zone, and I’m able to respond with a turn 2 Donphan KO on the Mew. He drags up another one to make me flip for Confusion and stall to try and get set up, and I can’t find my Switch. Fortunately, the flips go my way and I get two heads on Confusion flips before dying on the third, but by that point I’m up a few prizes and have another Donphan ready to go, as well as a Tornadus, so I’m able to win the game.
6-2
So I make cut as the 29th seed, and I’m paired up against the number 4 seed in top 4. I find out he’s playing MegaZone, which makes me really happy as I know I have a great matchup against it.
Top 32: Greg Simon w/MegaZone
Game 1: I can’t seem to get anything going, which is very unusual for this deck, whereas he gets a turn 2 Megazone and Yanmega and KOs a Phanpy. I’m in a bad situation, but I play a few more turns to see if anything goes my way. It doesn’t, so I scoop a few turns later and hope for a better start in Game 2.
Game 2: I get that better start I was looking for, and I mow through anything starting with Magne in his deck with Donphan. I go up on prizes and deny him consistent Magnezones for draw, so I win Game 2 without too many problems.
Game 3: I start off great again, and KO 2 Magnemites right off the bat. He got a Yanmega and a Magnezone up, Judged away a great hand, and KOd a Phanpy. Off the Judge, I drew Juniper, Junk Arm, Catcher, and Fighting Energy, and I draw a Communication. I Junk Arm away the Fighting and Comm for a PlusPower, Catcher up the Magnezone, and Juniper up to 7, at which point he scooped as he had nothing after that. He seemed amazed and kept saying that I ran so good, but honestly, that’s how the deck runs almost every single time, so it didn’t surprise me at all.
So top 16 plays Sunday morning, and I go back to the hotel to get some sleep. We cram another 5 players from Michigan in our room so they wouldn’t have to sleep in the car, putting us at 9 people in the room. Surprisingly, it wasn’t even that cramped, and we could have easily fit another 2 people in the room before space got tight. We get there early, get our decks checked, then start Top 16.
Top 16: Joey Horth w/ ReshiPhlosion
Joey’s one of the guys who stayed in our room, and he’s a friend, so it sucked having to play him in top cut, but that’s the way it goes sometimes.
Game 1: He can’t get anything going, I get a good setup and just keep killing Cyndaquils until he scoops.
Game 2: See Game 1.
It sucked that our games went that way, and I really wasn’t happy with those kinds of wins, but unfortunately that’s just this game sometimes, which sucks, but there you have it.
Top 8: Austin Reed w/ MegaZone
I know Austin’s a great player, but I also love my matchup against his deck, so I feel pretty confident going in.
Game 1: This goes a lot like my 2nd and 3rd games of Top 32; I kill Magnemites and Magnezones to hurt his setup and go up on prizes. He spreads a lot of damage with Linear Attack and my own Earthquakes, and I know he’s going to try to take multiple prizes with Jirachi, but Potion is a gamechanger, as it allows me to prevent multiple KOs and keep a Donphan alive. My setup is too much, and I win Game 1.
Game 2: Much of the same as Game 1, but his start isn’t as good as Game 1 and I start great, so I end up winning.
Top 4: Karl Nowak w/ZPST
This match and the Finals match were recorded by The Top Cut, so they should be up on their website to watch if anyone’s interested.
Game 1: This game is a lot like my Round 6 game; I get a few Donphans in play, KO Zekroms when they’re dropped, and then take the last few prizes either with Zekrom on Tornadus or Tornadus on Shaymins and Pachis. One of the misconceptions about playing ZPST is that you have to kill all their big attackers, when in reality you really only need to KO one or 2, all the rest of your prizes can come from Shaymins, Pachis, and Cleffas (if they play them).
Game 2: He goes first and gets the Turn 1 on my lone Phanpy.
Game 3: I go first and start Phanpy and Collector for I believe either 3 Phanpy or 2 Phanpy and a Zekrom, so I’m sitting pretty. Similar to Game 1, I get multiple Donphans out and take prizes, eventually having enough damage where my Zekrom is also a threat. Potion was also huge in this matchup as it forces Tornadus to 3-shot Donphan when you heal 30 after it takes 60, which for Donphan is essentially giving it an extra turn to take a prize. Towards the end of the game, I have my field set up so that he can’t one-shot anything for cheap prizes, and I Catcher a Pachi and KO it to put the prizes at 1-2 my favor. Now this was a slight misplay, as he would KO my Donphan next turn, and I would need to kill his benced Pachi with my Tornadus for the game, which he could have SSUd up to deny me a prize, potentially giving him the option to win, even though I had the energy to two-shot his Tornadus or Zekrom while I doubted he could one-shot me. I should have Catchered the Zekrom to kill that so that I had two prizes sitting on the bench for my last turn. In the end, it didn’t matter, as he didn’t get the Shaymin up, so I promote Tornadus, catcher the Shaymin, and KO it for the game.
So I’m in the finals, after starting 0-2, which in my opinion is a pretty great run. I would love to take home the win, but at this point I’m more than satisfied with how I’ve done so far, so getting 2nd would still be a great success.
Top 2: Carl Scheu w/ ReshiPhlosion/Kingdra
This is bad for me, as his Spray Splashes allow him to be able to essentially OHKO my Donphans with proper damage placement and Blue Flare, and a huge part of my favorable matchup in this matchup is the fact that they have so much trouble killing Donphans. So my hope was that he would be unable to get everything set up due to running a heavy Kingdra line and no Ninetales.
Game 1: Well, he gets his setup, and there’s really nothing I can do. I kill a Cyndaquil or two I think, and he’s always able to retreat or Switch out his Typhlosions when I Catcher them up. Not really much that I can do, and I lose Game 1.
Game 2: See Game 1. He gets his setup again, and I’m left with no real options for a long-term win. I may have made a slight misplay in hitting his Reshiram with Tornadus to let him get an Outrage KO on me, but I really don’t think it made a difference in the end. I keep the prize count relatively close, but I know it’s really only a matter of time.
So I got 2nd place, which is certainly nothing to sneeze at. I’m really pleased with how well I did, and I still can’t believe that I came back from an 0-2 start to make it all the way to the finals. Congrats are definitely in order for Carl, who played a deck that had all the options and still kept some mad consistency.
Props:
Getting 2nd place after starting 0-2
Dan Richard for being a bro
Dave Richard for being a bro
Sean and Danny for doing great at their first major tournament
BT’s outfit
Eric for making Top 16
Kyle Sabelhaus for getting 3rd at VA Regionals and being a bro
Ryan Sabelhaus for giving me my nickname and helping give birth to Team Bertolli, and for being a bro
Team Bertolli
Derek for running an awesome tournament, as per usual
All the judges for doing a great job
All the amazing friends I've made playing this game, you all know who you are. You guys make it worth playing, thanks.
Slops:
Dan, Dave, and Sean missing cut
Having to play Eric Round 1
Bohdan missing cut
Having to play Joey in Top 16
Not getting to have a Regionals Top Cut rematch with Jack Iler (great job on Top 4 though)
Being tired
But anyway, on to the tournament. We drive down Friday with my brothers and Dave Richard, then get to the convention center early Saturday, register, meet up with some friends, then pairings go up and the tournament is underway.
Note: I’m hazy on some of the details, names, and order of matchups through Swiss, so I’ll do the best I can to remember everything.
Round 1: Eric Richard w/ Yanmega/Terrakion/Tornadus
Great, so out of 200+ Masters, I get paired up against Dan and Dave’s dad after never playing him throughout Battle Roads. Oh well, it happens. So this matchup is actually pretty tough for me due to his constant Judging (first 3 turns, I believe) and the fact that I can’t OHKO anything he plays, which hurts me quite a bit. Fighting resistance on his attackers hurts, and my Zekrom can only do so much before it gets one shot by Terrakion. The game goes down to the wire, 2-1 prizes with him in the lead. On my last turn, I Potion off 20 damage from my Zoroark, catcher his Terrakion, double PlusPower, and copy its attack for the KO. I’ve got an undamaged Tornadus and undamaged Zoroark out, and he’s only got a Yanmega to attack, with 8-9 cards in hand to my 1, with 3 left in the deck. His turn he triple PlusPowers and Judges to match hands and OHKOs my Zoroark for game. It was a great game, it just sucked that it had to be Round 1 against someone I know, but oh well.
0-1
Round 2: ??? w/ The Truth
Great, so it looks like I’ll be starting off 0-2, which is very bad news, meaning I’ll have to win out to go 6-2 to make cut. I start off great, but so does he. I get my Donphan up and Heavy Impacting and take a 2 prize lead, but at this point he gets out his lock and his own Donphan. The turning point was when he had a Donphan active with 70 damage against my undamaged Donphan, and he has the space to move the damage off the Donphan with Reuniclus. He says “Heavy Impact” but then immediately says “Wait, Damage Swap first”, to which I instantly say that he’s announced the attack. He looks at me in shock, and I have to make a decision. It’s an autoloss for me, and I know that after this turn it’s only a matter of time before he takes all 6 prizes. I didn’t have enough time to make the game go to time, and my prize lead wasn’t enough to win in that way. I knew it wasn’t a misplay on his part, but rather just misspeaking and going too fast. But it was Regionals, a big tournament, and I needed to take a win any way I could. I’m not sure if it was the right call, but I let him move the damage off, and sure enough I scooped a few turns later when I saw that I had no chance. Everyone told me that I shouldn’t have let him take it back, but there was nothing I could do at that point, even though I was kicking myself because I put myself at 0-2 and if I lost one more I’d be done. Oh well, looks like I have to win out.
0-2
Round 3: ??? w/ Gothitelle
Alright, well it was fun while it lasted. Another autoloss. Except he has a completely dead hand, and
although he’s able to get a Gothitelle out, he doesn’t have the Reuniclus to back it up and so it dies quickly. He’s only got a Gothita left in play, and he draws, doesn’t get anything he can use, and concedes. So I dodged a bullet and made it through my worst matchup.
1-2
Round 4: ??? w/ ReshiBoar
He doesn’t get a good start, and I’m able to chain Catchers to kill off Tepigs and Pignites to take a big lead. He never really gets anything going, and I win Round 4, putting me 4 games away from making cut.
2-2
Round 5: Kyle Epperson (I think) w/ReshiPhlosion
I’m hazy on the order of the next few games, so bear with me. Basically, he sees like 1 or 2 Fire energy the whole game, so things are pretty rough for him, despite getting out a few Typhlosions. I’m able to take prizes relatively uncontested all game, and I take the win.
3-2
Round 6: Tyson? w/ ZPST
I’ve tested this matchup a ton, and I know that I have a favorable matchup if I survive the first turn and can get multiple Donphan into play. All goes according to plan, and I take prizes on Zekroms and Pachirisus without even really bothering with Tornadus until I can OHKO them with Zekrom, at which point Donphan gets the revenge KO on Zekroms used to KO my Zekrom. I think the game is pretty close, but I’m confident that I can win the prize exchange, which I eventually do.
4-2, 2 wins away from top cut
Round 7: BT w/ ReshiBoar
BT’s a buddy of mine, and before the game he tells me that he’s going to give me the win because he wants to go home that night, which was awesome for me to be able to catch a break that day.
5-2, one more to go
At this point, I’m pretty excited and nervous to have come from an 0-2 start to one game away from making cut. I would have been severely disappointed if I had missed cut at any point, but now, with it so close, I was more determined than ever to make it in.
Round 8: ??? w/ Mew/Yanmega/Zoroark
He gets a T1 See Off to send a Muk to the Lost Zone, and I’m able to respond with a turn 2 Donphan KO on the Mew. He drags up another one to make me flip for Confusion and stall to try and get set up, and I can’t find my Switch. Fortunately, the flips go my way and I get two heads on Confusion flips before dying on the third, but by that point I’m up a few prizes and have another Donphan ready to go, as well as a Tornadus, so I’m able to win the game.
6-2
So I make cut as the 29th seed, and I’m paired up against the number 4 seed in top 4. I find out he’s playing MegaZone, which makes me really happy as I know I have a great matchup against it.
Top 32: Greg Simon w/MegaZone
Game 1: I can’t seem to get anything going, which is very unusual for this deck, whereas he gets a turn 2 Megazone and Yanmega and KOs a Phanpy. I’m in a bad situation, but I play a few more turns to see if anything goes my way. It doesn’t, so I scoop a few turns later and hope for a better start in Game 2.
Game 2: I get that better start I was looking for, and I mow through anything starting with Magne in his deck with Donphan. I go up on prizes and deny him consistent Magnezones for draw, so I win Game 2 without too many problems.
Game 3: I start off great again, and KO 2 Magnemites right off the bat. He got a Yanmega and a Magnezone up, Judged away a great hand, and KOd a Phanpy. Off the Judge, I drew Juniper, Junk Arm, Catcher, and Fighting Energy, and I draw a Communication. I Junk Arm away the Fighting and Comm for a PlusPower, Catcher up the Magnezone, and Juniper up to 7, at which point he scooped as he had nothing after that. He seemed amazed and kept saying that I ran so good, but honestly, that’s how the deck runs almost every single time, so it didn’t surprise me at all.
So top 16 plays Sunday morning, and I go back to the hotel to get some sleep. We cram another 5 players from Michigan in our room so they wouldn’t have to sleep in the car, putting us at 9 people in the room. Surprisingly, it wasn’t even that cramped, and we could have easily fit another 2 people in the room before space got tight. We get there early, get our decks checked, then start Top 16.
Top 16: Joey Horth w/ ReshiPhlosion
Joey’s one of the guys who stayed in our room, and he’s a friend, so it sucked having to play him in top cut, but that’s the way it goes sometimes.
Game 1: He can’t get anything going, I get a good setup and just keep killing Cyndaquils until he scoops.
Game 2: See Game 1.
It sucked that our games went that way, and I really wasn’t happy with those kinds of wins, but unfortunately that’s just this game sometimes, which sucks, but there you have it.
Top 8: Austin Reed w/ MegaZone
I know Austin’s a great player, but I also love my matchup against his deck, so I feel pretty confident going in.
Game 1: This goes a lot like my 2nd and 3rd games of Top 32; I kill Magnemites and Magnezones to hurt his setup and go up on prizes. He spreads a lot of damage with Linear Attack and my own Earthquakes, and I know he’s going to try to take multiple prizes with Jirachi, but Potion is a gamechanger, as it allows me to prevent multiple KOs and keep a Donphan alive. My setup is too much, and I win Game 1.
Game 2: Much of the same as Game 1, but his start isn’t as good as Game 1 and I start great, so I end up winning.
Top 4: Karl Nowak w/ZPST
This match and the Finals match were recorded by The Top Cut, so they should be up on their website to watch if anyone’s interested.
Game 1: This game is a lot like my Round 6 game; I get a few Donphans in play, KO Zekroms when they’re dropped, and then take the last few prizes either with Zekrom on Tornadus or Tornadus on Shaymins and Pachis. One of the misconceptions about playing ZPST is that you have to kill all their big attackers, when in reality you really only need to KO one or 2, all the rest of your prizes can come from Shaymins, Pachis, and Cleffas (if they play them).
Game 2: He goes first and gets the Turn 1 on my lone Phanpy.
Game 3: I go first and start Phanpy and Collector for I believe either 3 Phanpy or 2 Phanpy and a Zekrom, so I’m sitting pretty. Similar to Game 1, I get multiple Donphans out and take prizes, eventually having enough damage where my Zekrom is also a threat. Potion was also huge in this matchup as it forces Tornadus to 3-shot Donphan when you heal 30 after it takes 60, which for Donphan is essentially giving it an extra turn to take a prize. Towards the end of the game, I have my field set up so that he can’t one-shot anything for cheap prizes, and I Catcher a Pachi and KO it to put the prizes at 1-2 my favor. Now this was a slight misplay, as he would KO my Donphan next turn, and I would need to kill his benced Pachi with my Tornadus for the game, which he could have SSUd up to deny me a prize, potentially giving him the option to win, even though I had the energy to two-shot his Tornadus or Zekrom while I doubted he could one-shot me. I should have Catchered the Zekrom to kill that so that I had two prizes sitting on the bench for my last turn. In the end, it didn’t matter, as he didn’t get the Shaymin up, so I promote Tornadus, catcher the Shaymin, and KO it for the game.
So I’m in the finals, after starting 0-2, which in my opinion is a pretty great run. I would love to take home the win, but at this point I’m more than satisfied with how I’ve done so far, so getting 2nd would still be a great success.
Top 2: Carl Scheu w/ ReshiPhlosion/Kingdra
This is bad for me, as his Spray Splashes allow him to be able to essentially OHKO my Donphans with proper damage placement and Blue Flare, and a huge part of my favorable matchup in this matchup is the fact that they have so much trouble killing Donphans. So my hope was that he would be unable to get everything set up due to running a heavy Kingdra line and no Ninetales.
Game 1: Well, he gets his setup, and there’s really nothing I can do. I kill a Cyndaquil or two I think, and he’s always able to retreat or Switch out his Typhlosions when I Catcher them up. Not really much that I can do, and I lose Game 1.
Game 2: See Game 1. He gets his setup again, and I’m left with no real options for a long-term win. I may have made a slight misplay in hitting his Reshiram with Tornadus to let him get an Outrage KO on me, but I really don’t think it made a difference in the end. I keep the prize count relatively close, but I know it’s really only a matter of time.
So I got 2nd place, which is certainly nothing to sneeze at. I’m really pleased with how well I did, and I still can’t believe that I came back from an 0-2 start to make it all the way to the finals. Congrats are definitely in order for Carl, who played a deck that had all the options and still kept some mad consistency.
Props:
Getting 2nd place after starting 0-2
Dan Richard for being a bro
Dave Richard for being a bro
Sean and Danny for doing great at their first major tournament
BT’s outfit
Eric for making Top 16
Kyle Sabelhaus for getting 3rd at VA Regionals and being a bro
Ryan Sabelhaus for giving me my nickname and helping give birth to Team Bertolli, and for being a bro
Team Bertolli
Derek for running an awesome tournament, as per usual
All the judges for doing a great job
All the amazing friends I've made playing this game, you all know who you are. You guys make it worth playing, thanks.
Slops:
Dan, Dave, and Sean missing cut
Having to play Eric Round 1
Bohdan missing cut
Having to play Joey in Top 16
Not getting to have a Regionals Top Cut rematch with Jack Iler (great job on Top 4 though)
Being tired
