GrandmaJoner
Active Member
Tourney report for Canadian nats, I used Yanmega/Magnezone
Round 1 vs Charles (Donphan/Yanmega/Weavile)
Open lone Yanma, lose dice roll and get Tyrogued for 50 t1
0-1
With only top 16 and 116 players I knew I would have to win out to make it.
Round 2 vs Jason (Roselia/Serperior/Shuckle/Yanma)
Wasn't a very powerful deck unfortunately, tough for it to keep up when he had no draw acceleration for the energies on Shuckle. 6-0 here
1-1
Round 3 vs Serperior/Stantler/Ursaring/Celebi
I open lone baby and lose dice roll but fortunately my opponent is a new player who mentioned he does not know what Tyrogue is, he opens Stantler and he cannot KO me first turn. He eventually gets 3 Serperiors healing but I just reversal for cheap prizes with Mega while I build up Magnezones for OHKOs. Goes to time and I'm ahead by one, had 3 cards left in deck lol Ursaring's Hammer Arm was getting scary. Had the game under control the whole time.
2-1
Round 4 vs Tom (Reshiram/Emboar/Ninetales)
Get a good start with Magnemite and Collector going first. Go 0/3 on Reversal in one turn to try to KO tepig but just get everything going anyways and roll to an easy win here.
3-1
Round 5 vs Reshiram/Emboar/Ninetales
Open lone baby and no basic Pokemon/supporters/communication in hand. Win the dice roll I later asked my opponent if he won the roll would he have won and he of course said yes. Miraculously topdeck collector and setup and win fairly easily, having 7 energy in play for my last two prizes.
4-1
Round 6 vs Gordon Coates (Yanmega/Magnezone)
Open Yanma to his Yanma and Cleffa and win the dice roll and decide to gamble and go for reversal, get HEADS and I collector for Tyrogue to KO his Cleffa even though I am sacrificing a bit of setup as my hand is not great. He just dead draws, plays 2 basics the whole game and I sweep with Yanmega. If I go second and he Eeeeks we will have a normal game probably. Yikes.
5-1
Round 7 vs Curtis Lyon (Plume/Mew/Muk/Jumpluff)
He opens lone baby and I win the dice roll, communication but Tyrogue and Pachirisu are both prized for the win lol, so I just have to setup instead and get t2 Yanmega and Magnezone and snipe Oddish in back to back turns and just roll to a 6-0 win. If he goes first he told me he had god hand and would have got t2 plume. Going first just huge even without the donk.
Top 16 vs Matt Koo (Plume/Muk/Jumpluff)
Game 1:
Out of 14 basics he opens lone Cleffa and I win the dice roll and Tyrogue him to win. He mentions to me that if he went first, he had t2 plume and god hand.
Game 2:
He goes first and gets setup, and I can only get one Magnezone, switch is prized and he takes a large lead and gets quick plume and I can't recover.
Game 3:
I go first and get t2 everything I think, just start Yanmegaing stuff. If I go first its tough for him to get Plume into play and without it I just rolled. If he wins the roll for game 1 I would have been in trouble here,
Top 8 vs Charles (Donphan/Yanmega/Weavile) (same guy who donked me round 1)
Game 1
I have t2 Yanmega and Magnezone if I go first and essentially win for sure. He wins the dice roll and gets t2 donphan and although he doesnt kill anything, Im not drawing much and can never match hand size because his hand is one forever. Can't really copycat into one in case he topdecks and kills my lone Magnezone with reversal. I have to EEek with both cleffas about 5 turns and I'm just too far behind. I make a comeback with Yanmegas killing Phanpys to make it 3-1. His only attacker left in his deck is one yanmega and he puts it into play so I just judge hoping he can't match hands and I can roll 3 prizes with Magnezone. He plays his own judge and snipes ftw.
Game 2
I go first with t2 yanmega killing anything and get ahead to a huge 5-1 lead. I have this match in the bag the whole time but at 5-1 I check and there are 10 minutes left in the round. I figure if I take the win now my opponent will definitely have a huge advantage going first in game 3 with so few minutes remaining, so I basically decide my goal is to let the match go to time. He has a cleffa on bench I can kill at any time as I have 2 Yanmega in play but a Magnezone active with 0 energies and 10 energy in the lost zone. I basically keep shaking my head in disbelief, playing 0-1 cards per turn pretending like I can't match his small hand size even though I had like 3 reversals, Judge, basics, 2 Magnetic draws to match his hand get the win lol, it got to a point where it was 3-1 for me and time wasn't called yet and it was getting sketchy, in case he judged me or something I may not have the win for sure but I still had 2 Magnezones in play so it was fairly safe. Then time got called on his turn, he killed my active Magnezone and I immediately KOd his Cleffa to win. I expected him to scoop but he said he was not aware of the coin flip rule for sudden death.
Game 3
We both open Yanma. I can t1 him with Pachirisu and 2 L as I have collector in hand He wins the dice roll and ends my tournament the same way it started by doing 50 with Tyrogue t1 to my Yanma. If I win the roll I t1 him and win. Top 8 gets nothing while t4 gets invite. Exclamation point invite decided on a dice roll lol
Not really sour grapes as in top 16 I won the crucial roll to donk, so overall going first/second was pretty even for me throughout the tournament, but I'm just saying its so poor how so much relies on that roll. Not only can you donk but the fact that there is no disadvantage to going first and it just allows you to setup one turn ahead of your opponent, its extremely unfair.
I doubt they will do anything, but in this current format for Worlds it will be incredibly brutal if going first isnt reduced in power by a bit at least. Winning the dice roll is still so huge even in 2/3, you'd think that it would be OK but it really just makes whoever wins game one so much likelier to win. With so few comeback cards in this format, this is the worst format ever in terms of the winner of the dice roll having the biggest advantage, and I've been playing for 9-10 years now and I've never seen it this bad.
I would not have changed a single thing about my deck, it was great and setup and played well.
Perhaps Zekrom though is the best choice, it ended up winning, but ZPS really doesnt care about the roll as it will almost certainly not get donked and be able to put up a consistent 120 t1, so good for the winning player.
6 out of my 9 rounds were essentially decided by who won the dice roll to go first. Basically never had a real game here, either got t1, blown out, or blew my opponent out, and most of these the dice roll played a factor.
Not healthy if you ask me. For the players going to Worlds I would hope that P!P takes a look at this and does something about the advantage going first. I'll try to think of suggestions, but I understand it's difficult. Something like no trainers first turn or optional Mulligan or something would be nice. I realize I took a risk by playing 3 baby Pokemon in my deck or w/e but even without donking going first just decides so many games, except for example with a deck like Zekrom so maybe those are the types of decks to run now.
It was good to see everyone, and good luck to everyone representing Canada at worlds!!!
Round 1 vs Charles (Donphan/Yanmega/Weavile)
Open lone Yanma, lose dice roll and get Tyrogued for 50 t1
0-1
With only top 16 and 116 players I knew I would have to win out to make it.
Round 2 vs Jason (Roselia/Serperior/Shuckle/Yanma)
Wasn't a very powerful deck unfortunately, tough for it to keep up when he had no draw acceleration for the energies on Shuckle. 6-0 here
1-1
Round 3 vs Serperior/Stantler/Ursaring/Celebi
I open lone baby and lose dice roll but fortunately my opponent is a new player who mentioned he does not know what Tyrogue is, he opens Stantler and he cannot KO me first turn. He eventually gets 3 Serperiors healing but I just reversal for cheap prizes with Mega while I build up Magnezones for OHKOs. Goes to time and I'm ahead by one, had 3 cards left in deck lol Ursaring's Hammer Arm was getting scary. Had the game under control the whole time.
2-1
Round 4 vs Tom (Reshiram/Emboar/Ninetales)
Get a good start with Magnemite and Collector going first. Go 0/3 on Reversal in one turn to try to KO tepig but just get everything going anyways and roll to an easy win here.
3-1
Round 5 vs Reshiram/Emboar/Ninetales
Open lone baby and no basic Pokemon/supporters/communication in hand. Win the dice roll I later asked my opponent if he won the roll would he have won and he of course said yes. Miraculously topdeck collector and setup and win fairly easily, having 7 energy in play for my last two prizes.
4-1
Round 6 vs Gordon Coates (Yanmega/Magnezone)
Open Yanma to his Yanma and Cleffa and win the dice roll and decide to gamble and go for reversal, get HEADS and I collector for Tyrogue to KO his Cleffa even though I am sacrificing a bit of setup as my hand is not great. He just dead draws, plays 2 basics the whole game and I sweep with Yanmega. If I go second and he Eeeeks we will have a normal game probably. Yikes.
5-1
Round 7 vs Curtis Lyon (Plume/Mew/Muk/Jumpluff)
He opens lone baby and I win the dice roll, communication but Tyrogue and Pachirisu are both prized for the win lol, so I just have to setup instead and get t2 Yanmega and Magnezone and snipe Oddish in back to back turns and just roll to a 6-0 win. If he goes first he told me he had god hand and would have got t2 plume. Going first just huge even without the donk.
Top 16 vs Matt Koo (Plume/Muk/Jumpluff)
Game 1:
Out of 14 basics he opens lone Cleffa and I win the dice roll and Tyrogue him to win. He mentions to me that if he went first, he had t2 plume and god hand.
Game 2:
He goes first and gets setup, and I can only get one Magnezone, switch is prized and he takes a large lead and gets quick plume and I can't recover.
Game 3:
I go first and get t2 everything I think, just start Yanmegaing stuff. If I go first its tough for him to get Plume into play and without it I just rolled. If he wins the roll for game 1 I would have been in trouble here,
Top 8 vs Charles (Donphan/Yanmega/Weavile) (same guy who donked me round 1)
Game 1
I have t2 Yanmega and Magnezone if I go first and essentially win for sure. He wins the dice roll and gets t2 donphan and although he doesnt kill anything, Im not drawing much and can never match hand size because his hand is one forever. Can't really copycat into one in case he topdecks and kills my lone Magnezone with reversal. I have to EEek with both cleffas about 5 turns and I'm just too far behind. I make a comeback with Yanmegas killing Phanpys to make it 3-1. His only attacker left in his deck is one yanmega and he puts it into play so I just judge hoping he can't match hands and I can roll 3 prizes with Magnezone. He plays his own judge and snipes ftw.
Game 2
I go first with t2 yanmega killing anything and get ahead to a huge 5-1 lead. I have this match in the bag the whole time but at 5-1 I check and there are 10 minutes left in the round. I figure if I take the win now my opponent will definitely have a huge advantage going first in game 3 with so few minutes remaining, so I basically decide my goal is to let the match go to time. He has a cleffa on bench I can kill at any time as I have 2 Yanmega in play but a Magnezone active with 0 energies and 10 energy in the lost zone. I basically keep shaking my head in disbelief, playing 0-1 cards per turn pretending like I can't match his small hand size even though I had like 3 reversals, Judge, basics, 2 Magnetic draws to match his hand get the win lol, it got to a point where it was 3-1 for me and time wasn't called yet and it was getting sketchy, in case he judged me or something I may not have the win for sure but I still had 2 Magnezones in play so it was fairly safe. Then time got called on his turn, he killed my active Magnezone and I immediately KOd his Cleffa to win. I expected him to scoop but he said he was not aware of the coin flip rule for sudden death.
Game 3
We both open Yanma. I can t1 him with Pachirisu and 2 L as I have collector in hand He wins the dice roll and ends my tournament the same way it started by doing 50 with Tyrogue t1 to my Yanma. If I win the roll I t1 him and win. Top 8 gets nothing while t4 gets invite. Exclamation point invite decided on a dice roll lol
Not really sour grapes as in top 16 I won the crucial roll to donk, so overall going first/second was pretty even for me throughout the tournament, but I'm just saying its so poor how so much relies on that roll. Not only can you donk but the fact that there is no disadvantage to going first and it just allows you to setup one turn ahead of your opponent, its extremely unfair.
I doubt they will do anything, but in this current format for Worlds it will be incredibly brutal if going first isnt reduced in power by a bit at least. Winning the dice roll is still so huge even in 2/3, you'd think that it would be OK but it really just makes whoever wins game one so much likelier to win. With so few comeback cards in this format, this is the worst format ever in terms of the winner of the dice roll having the biggest advantage, and I've been playing for 9-10 years now and I've never seen it this bad.
I would not have changed a single thing about my deck, it was great and setup and played well.
Perhaps Zekrom though is the best choice, it ended up winning, but ZPS really doesnt care about the roll as it will almost certainly not get donked and be able to put up a consistent 120 t1, so good for the winning player.
6 out of my 9 rounds were essentially decided by who won the dice roll to go first. Basically never had a real game here, either got t1, blown out, or blew my opponent out, and most of these the dice roll played a factor.
Not healthy if you ask me. For the players going to Worlds I would hope that P!P takes a look at this and does something about the advantage going first. I'll try to think of suggestions, but I understand it's difficult. Something like no trainers first turn or optional Mulligan or something would be nice. I realize I took a risk by playing 3 baby Pokemon in my deck or w/e but even without donking going first just decides so many games, except for example with a deck like Zekrom so maybe those are the types of decks to run now.
It was good to see everyone, and good luck to everyone representing Canada at worlds!!!
at least you still got a shot at the ranking invite right ?