Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

BR Donk Report Thread

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Okay, I'm leaving home for the weekend to judge Battle Donks, I mean Battle Roads. Entertain me with your donk abilities players of Northern California.

Oh, and I am surprised that there aren't a ton of requests in the deck help forum for ways to improve sabledonk decks, and that a great sabledonk decklist article hasn't been written, and then featured on the front page, before being moved to the archetype deck folder. Based on the sheer volume of posts written about it, it must be the greatest deck in the history of the game.
 
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PokeDad said:
Oh, and I am surprised that there aren't a ton of requests in the deck help forum for ways to improve sabledonk decks, and that a great sabledonk decklist article hasn't been written, and then featured on the front page, before being moved to the archetype deck folder. Based on the sheer volume of posts written about it, it must be the greatest deck in the history of the game.
Click to expand...

My sarcasm detector is... confused.
Part of the reason why there is no FP article on SableDonk is because the list is self explanatory to veteran players, only relevant for a few more weeks, and is dangerous when net-decked by newer players. It would consist of a deck list, and then MAYBE 100 words describing the strategy. That isn't up to front page standards.
 
Sabledonk won our BR's in both Masters and Senior divisions today. Top 4 Masters all had to run either 4 Tomb, 4 Sableye, or both to make it at 3-1. Lots of T1 donks - every round, out of all divisions, there would be about 2-4 games that went past 5 minutes (out of 10 I believe).

We played a bunch of HGSS-on games afterwards, and I have to say - it's going to be a fun format!
 
I was playing Serperior and I start with a Unown Q.... He starts with Phanpy and plays Buck's Training then draws Uxie and BTS. Evolves Donphan game....No turn.
 
I played SableDonk. 3 Rounds. 1st and 3rd round I start Sableye. 1st round: KO Oshowatt on bench and Overconfident for KO, WIN. 2nd Round. Drew into Sableye with Unown R active and Q on bench. Attach, retreat, Sableye, collector, Unown dark, two crobats, good game. Game three, 3 flashbites on an Onyx then Overconfident for KO. Won tourney.
 
BR REPORT:

Attendance:
13 Masters
6 Seniors
9 Juniors

(Slightly down from normal, but the numbers are misleading... 7 people who'd never played showed up, so pretty much all our regulars weren't there.)

Decks containing Sableye:
Masters: 3
Seniors: 2
Juniors: NONE

(I have to say this amazed me. 9 Juniors and not one of them ran a single Sableye? Wow.)

ROUND 1:
Matches finished in less than 10 minutes: 1 Master, 1 Senior, 1 Junior
Matches finished in less than 20 minutes: 2 Master, 2 Senior, 3 Junior
(2 Masters drop between rounds, dropping us to 11)

ROUND 2:
Matches finished in less than 10 minutes: 1 Master, 2 Senior
Matches finished in less than 20 minutes: 4 Master, 3 Senior, 3 Junior

ROUND 3:
Matches finished in less than 10 minutes: 1 Senior, 2 Junior
Matches finished in less than 20 minutes: 3 Master, 2 Senior, 2 Junior
(End of Seniors play - LuxChomp took first.)

ROUND 4:
Matches finished in less than 10 minutes: 2 Master, 1 Junior
Matches finished in less than 20 minutes: 4 Master, 3 Junior
(End of Swiss Rounds)
(It's important to note that all three divisions had a grand total of 4 matches in Swiss done in less than ten minutes... but the Seniors had more per round, and they had the highest concentration of Sableyes.)

TOP CUTS:
Masters: LuxChomp w/Dialga (RUNNING 4 SABLEYE) vs. Emboar/Forretress (RUNNING 4 SABLEYE)
Game 1: LCD player flips Luxray, EF Player flips lone Pineco.
LCD goes first. Luxury Ball Crobat G, Flash Bite, drop 3 Poketurns for 4 more Flash Bites. Attach DCE, Bite for the win.
Game 2: EF decides to go first, but LCD starts Sableye so that overrides. Benches Dialga G, Impersonates Collector.
EF attempts to get set up, but doesn't get much done in one turn due to lack of Supporters. LCD plays Bebe's to get DGX. Quicks Sableye, retreats, brings up Dialga G. Level up. At this point, there's nothing the EF player can do, since his entire deck revolves around Forretress's PokeBody. He scoops.

....Grand total? Less than 5 minutes, including shuffling. It's worth noting that although we only had 3 of 13 Master running Sableye, 2 of them were the top cut. :/

Juniors: ReshiBoar w/Rayquaza Deoxys vs. Yanmega Prime
I'm not going to go through a play by play. These matches took forever compared to the Masters. :)
Game 1: Yanmega player struggles to set up, and is outsped. ReshiBoar wins. G1 took about 20 minutes.
Game 2: Yanmega manages to set up slightly better this time, getting out both Sunflora & Shaymin Lv. X. ReshiBoar has an energy crisis for quite some time, but manages to stall it out long enough to get the energies he needs. Game finishes on T3 after time is called with Rayquaza Deoxys pulled up to attack. Ozone Buster nets the ReshiBoar player his last two prizes. G2 took about 40 minutes.

We had a lot of variance in this tournament. Last week half the players played ReshiBoar, but today there were only 2. We saw Reuniclus/Serperior, Kyogre Groudon Legend, 3 Samurott decks, Umbreon/Scizor, and Flygon/Typhlosion in Masters. Seniors had one very notable deck - all Legends, with only a single Sableye. Also, Machamp SF and Machamp Prime made a decent showing. Juniors had a lot of hodgepodge decks, most patched together from theme decks.

Overall I was relatively happy with this BR. It's sad that a lot of our high-caliber players didn't come or didn't play, but I understand not wanting their rankings to drop. Even with every round going to time and Juniors taking their full time in Top Cuts, we were out of the building by 3pm. o_O That doesn't happen very often... although it did happen last week as well.

TL;DR: Other people may have Sableye problems, but here in Utah we don't seem to have that much of a problem.
 
Played SableDonk today. At my tournament, there were 2 Juniors, 7 Seniors, and 13 masters (I think).

This is how the tournament went for me:

Round 1 against some Psychic Mewtwo/ etc. deck: Opponent started off with Uxie, I started with Sableye, and donked before my opponent could take their first turn.

Round 2 against Donphan: I started with Sableye, and my opponent started off with Sableye active and a benched Phanphy. I won the roll, played a ton of cards until my discard pile stood higher than my deck when I finally drew into Seeker for the donk. Once again, my opponent didn't even get to play a single turn.

Round 3 against Donphan: This game, I got two mulligans followed by a pretty bad start for a Sabledonk deck. However, I did manage to, at one point, do a Psychic Restore to a Donphan with an E-belted Uxie, followed by 7 flash bites and an E-belted Sableye for the knock out to his Expert-Belted super-charged Donphan. Later on, I managed to get him in such a position that he only had a Donphan active and a Sableye with 10 damage on his bench. I warp pointed him, seekered him, and finally used overconfident on his Sableye for the game.

So you see, SableyeDonk doesn't even have to donk to win. I donked two games and then won another game- much longer this time- against a deck that was supposed to beat SableDonk. I ended up standing around for about an hour in between the three games that I played, and none of those games were all that fun anyways. :(
 
Well, today, I myself experienced a Sableye donk.:nonono:

So today was the IL Battle Road in Joliet. I was running Luxchomp for the tournament. Yeah, pretty simple donk. I was against Kyle B. for the final round (he was running Loxchomp) , and that round determined who won the tournament. I started with a lone Drifloon to his Sableye. He starts and plays the Collector to grab a Crobat G, and then he attaches the special dark to donk me to win the tournament, giving me second place.

Funny enough, despite the Sableye donk, I happened to go against a Sabledonk the previous round and won, due to the fact I was able to get the Lv.Xs to which he couldn't KO. Yeah, it is safe to say Sableye with trainers is really the problem, not necessarily Sabledonk, and for Sabledonk to win, it has to be sure to win either by T1 or T2.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this. Kyle also made another donk with Sableye the previous round before he faced me. He was against my friend Tommy for round 2, and similarly, Tommy got donked turn 1 by Kyle's Sableye as well (although I don't recall how it happened).
 
How many people who played Sabledonk played it to win and game the system it works on? You know -to really be 'that guy' and ruin someones day. Where are all these 'no skill scrubs' that are supposed to be coming out of the woodwork, going around donking truly skilled players who have stress nightmares over the thought of getting their red face powder'd netdeck donked. I see and hear a lot of people playing the deck only for plowing the road hoping for the mythical format change that might happen. If it's just getting played, even mostly, for some strange form of Pokemon Justice, then it wasn't a huge problem and this is all silly.

When the smoke clears from all this we can finally start talking about the real problems that are on their way: Zekrom, Reshiram, and Gust of Wind 2: The Vengeance Resurrection; this time it's personal (This Autumn)
 
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My last game today was against a lone Zorua. She mulliganed once during set-up. I drew a Sableye and placed it on the bench. My only starter was a Vullaby. I win the coin flip, collector for my two Crobat G's for 2 damage counters, play the 2 Poke Blower + Trainers from my hand and hit heads on each coin flip, then attach a special dark to the Vullaby and flip heads for 30 damage and the win. She never drew a card.

This format makes donk decks out of anything that can place damage counters and hit for 30-50 on the first attack. Worst format ever.
 
got donked by a machamp while playing zekrom. he starts sableye and drops collector to set up with uxie for 2. gets double drawers off that and bts machamp attach q retreat and donk my yanma.

this format is a joke
 
I played Gengar/Vileplume with 4 Gastly, 4 Spiritomb and 4 Sableye today. 19 basic Pokemon total. Almost one third of my deck.

Round two I opened with lone Crobat G, and a Collector in hand (also one of 4). My opponent opens Luxray GL, wins the flip, and Gain+Nrg/Bat/Turns, all from the opening 7.

Sigh. What more was I supposed to do to get a turn?
 
I played my normal VileGar without sableye today and went 3-1, coming in fourth and losing to a emboar/reshiram because of 2 prized gengars.

Of the 12 masters, there were only 2 sabledonk and they both did alright, missing a few donks including 2 in the topcut giving one second.
 
12 Masters 1 senior and 1 junior in Calgary AB's BR

Of the 12 Masters there were 2 sabledonk and a gara-donk.....I had the intention of playing sabledonk aswell but for some reason couldn't find my crobats ;p

The only other deck i had with me was ReshiBoar so i took out pluspower for uxie, vulpix for shiny vulpix and that was it. I supose i should have taken out revive for pokemon rescue but i wasnt cool enough to think of that =)

Out of 32 games 10 or 11 of them were done before the opponent drew a card.

Round 1
I play vs vilegar and depsite him having a t2 vileplume and t3 gengar he has energy drout issues and i manage to win 6-1

Round 2
I play vs Typhlosion Prime/ Lanturn Prime / Amphy prime
I have an awesome start t2 ninetails & emboar and manage to sweep 6-0

Round 3 vs Sabledonk

Altho he gets to go fist, I managed to start with two reshiram and a uxie.
He manages to flashbite/blower the uxie. Seeker the benched reshiram and do 90 to the active reshiram after overconfdent.
I have collectors and dual ball in hand and he scoops with the 5 cards he has in his deck.

Round 4 vs LockChomp

We both start uxie altho i manage to set up quickly with t2 ninetails and t3 or 4 emboar, and after two shoting his uxie and blue flaring his luxray he stuggles to set up and i take my last 4 prizes with RDL.

TOP 2 vs Sabledonk from Rd 3

Game one, I'm luckily enough to go first with a vuplix start to his unown r. (he played 4 for some reason) I play collectors and a pokemon communication for a couple reshiram and he scoops while im still looking through my deck.

Game Two, he starts ovbiouslys and I am left with a lone tepig. For a moment or he is left energyless and I might have a chance at winning but sure enough he manages to ko it without the energy after 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

Game Three I choose to start and he again starts with unown r. I start vulipix and collectors for 2 reshiram and and uxie. uxie for three, uxie for one and drop another vulpix on my bench.

Despite my full bench he plays it out and after some fancy trainer work manages to flip 6 tails on dual ball so doesnt get a single ko.

And that concludes my story of managing to win with a hgss-on deck + 2 uxie without sableye despite intending to play a donk deck =D

Sabledonk editing up finishing 2nd, 5th and 6th.
 
Okay, all kidding aside. I judged a Battle Road in Santa Rosa, CA and we only had 13 people who showed up to play at a place we normally see over 40. That's like going to Nationals where you see over 1,500 people one year, then seeing fewer than 500 the next time. 2 Junior, 5 Senior, 6 Master. No one here played Sabledonk, but the deck's potential for making a tourney suck was felt in the attendance numbers.

I saw some great decks, and people were even sharing their new decks just waiting for the format change.

We had no donks, but with only three rounds, no top cut, it was a freakishly short day.

Today, I will be judging a BR in Petaluma, CA and I don't expect much for the numbers, but I hope I am surprised by a flood of players.

Someone from yesterday said they may play sabledonk today, and someone else is playing a wickedly cool rogue deck. Bad format, good format, early rotation, regular rotation, huge numbers, terrible numbers, it is still Pokemon, and everyone had a good time playing in the more relaxed tournament environment of a Battle Road. No one with a world's invite on the line, no point needing players, just fun...that was a nice, refreshing, positive change borne of this format.
 
When someone tells you "I only play to win" and then they donk you once in swiss and then Round 1 in top cut, that is what makes me want an early rotation. I won't be attending Nationals nor Worlds, but I feel sorry for those people who will be going against people like the guy I played.
No offense to him, but his mentality honestly makes me HATE the game currently.
 
Not BR but hopefully also relevant.

At our Nats (around 80-90 players IIRC) only two players played Sabledonk. The one in Masters went 6-0 and then proceeded to lose to Vilegar in Top8, the one in Seniors went 4-1 and missed Top 4 by a few percent. Take from that what you will - its definitely a deck to be reckoned with.
 
Played a Yanmega deck for fun today. A girl who decided to play Sabledonk today in seniors had her Battle Roads turn out like this:

Game 1 against me: I drew some terrible cards, managed to avoid getting donked but my draws were so bad that I lost to the girl anyways.

Game 2 against Luxchomp: Donked her opponent's Ambipom G before she could play a single turn.

Game 3 against SableDonk/ Gdos: Donked his Uxie (at least I think it was an Uxie) before he could even play his first turn.

The shocking thing is that all four of us Seniors were running 4 Sableye. However, in each of this girl's three games, she started off with a Sableye while her opponenet started off with something other than Sableye. The chance of that happening is 1.4% or so.

In this format, where the player going first usually wins, things seem completely based on luck. If they don't rotate during this season, then the person who wins nationals and worlds will be the one who happens to get the best luck out of everybody in the tournament.
 
My results...

Madison, WI Battle Road
Round 1 - Failed to donk. Decked self out.
Round 2 - Failed to donk. Scooped.
Round 3 - Went first but had to settle for the turn 2 donk.

La Crosse, WI Battle Road
Round 1 - Failed to donk. Scooped.
Round 2 - Failed to donk. Played to time and won on prizes.
Round 3 - Went second and donked.
Round 4 - Went first and donked.

At Madison there were tons of donks. Most games were finished within 5 minutes each round at La Crosse.
 
played sableye/luxchomp

madison brs - judged

la crosse brs -
round 1 - 1 card off from donking his lone phanpy, drag out game with me taking all 6 prizes.
round 2 - went first and set up a whole bench with 2 power sprays in hand vs sabledonk.
round 3 - mirror match, we both had bad hands but his was worse, got up 2 prizes and he scoops.
round 4- bad start, close game vs reshiram/typhlosion/ninetails but took all 6 close to time.

top 2- vs mirror again

game 1- was able to out resource him after he misplays, took 4 and he scooped
game 2- game 1, but opposite
game 3- 2 heads on initiative did him in.

won with no donks, suprisingly.
 
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