Hello. My name is Eric Ha. I'm in the Masters division, and I'm 20 years old. I'm pretty sure that some of the people that I play at leagues and at tournaments also frequent PokeGym, but this is my first post ever on this forum site. The only reason that I'm writing this thread is not only the reason above, but also the conditions that I had while getting the second place.
Okay, here's pretty much what happened. I ran Luxchomp for the event because I had played with SPs ever since it came out, and Luxchomp is still the most consistent and fastest deck prior to the B & W cards/rules changes, so I thought it was a good play. I ran a pretty simple list, one that plays 1-1 Dialga G LV. X as a mewtwo/vileplume counter. Here it is.
Pokemon:
2-2 Luxray GL
3-1 Garchomp C
1-1 Dialga G
1 Ambipom G
1 Promocroak
1 Bronzong G
1 Crobat G
1 Lucario GL
3-1 Uxie
1 Azelf
1 Unown Q
S/S/T
4 Cyrus's Conspiracy
3 Pokemon Collector
2 Bebe's Search
1 Aaron's Collection
3 Power Spray
4 Poke Turn
3 SP-Radar
3 Energy Gain
1 VS Seeker
1 Junk Arm
1 Premier Ball
Energies
4 DCE
3 Call
1 Warp
3 Lightning
1 Metal
1 Psychic
Now, I don't remember all of the games I played from the first rounds of swiss to the Top 2 games, but the only reason why I'm writing this is the fact that I won with a bizarre list. Now, you might say that after looking at the list above, it isn't that bizarre of a list, but this is what happened. After the fifth round of swiss, I was x-2. I just lost to a friend of mine, Westley, in a mirror match. He pretty much went first and got the dragon rushes flowing, which made up the fact that he had a pretty bad hand. Anyways, after that game, the both of us got a random deck check. Around 20 minutes later, the judges call me up and tell me that I forgot to write power sprays down in my decklist, so they tell me that I have to replace them with basic energy cards. I was so mortified at the time. How could I forget to write down sprays at a regionals of all tournaments?! Well, my initial reaction was that I wanted to drop as soon as possible, so I asked him if I could drop before the sixth round started. It turned out that it was too late and that the pairings were already being printed out, so they told me that I would have to wait until the round is over. So I stuck with it and played one more game. After consulting with my friends, they told me that I should just continue playing the rest of the tournament since my rating was only around 1750 anyways, so I was just going with it and kept playing. Long story short, I won the last three rounds of swiss, made it into top 32 as the 19th. After that, I beat 4 Luxchomps in a row from top 32 to top 4. And I lost to a Sablelock deck in top 2 because of bad hands (no supporters), and having the inability to spray the opponent's Disrupting Spy.
The weird thing is that my messed up list with no sprays actually helped me in my mirror matches because of the fact that I never missed an energy attachment due to running 8 basic energy cards and 3 Garchomp Cs, and was able to save the DCEs for return KOs. This is my list after the forced deck change after the fifth round.
Pokemon:
2-2 Luxray GL
3-1 Garchomp C
1-1 Dialga G
1 Ambipom G
1 Promocroak
1 Bronzong G
1 Crobat G
1 Lucario GL
3-1 Uxie
1 Azelf
1 Unown Q
S/S/T
4 Cyrus's Conspiracy
3 Pokemon Collector
2 Bebe's Search
1 Aaron's Collection
4 Poke Turn
3 SP-Radar
3 Energy Gain
1 VS Seeker
1 Junk Arm
1 Premier Ball
Energies
4 DCE
3 Call
1 Warp
4 Lightning
2 Metal
2 Psychic
So yeah, I was stoked for winning the $1000 and getting second place without sprays. The thing that helped me was the fact that I played against nothing but Luxchomps in topcut until top 2, which had me with the advantage considering my build. It really didn't hurt me to not have sprays in the mirror match, since it was always that the winner of the garchomp war wins the game. I implore you guys to try this list against a standard luxchomp with sprays to see for yourselves. Well, that's pretty much it. After going 10-3, I'm around 1813 in the ratings, so there is a chance that I'll go to Nats this year. If I do, I hope to see some of you people there. Thanks for reading.
Okay, here's pretty much what happened. I ran Luxchomp for the event because I had played with SPs ever since it came out, and Luxchomp is still the most consistent and fastest deck prior to the B & W cards/rules changes, so I thought it was a good play. I ran a pretty simple list, one that plays 1-1 Dialga G LV. X as a mewtwo/vileplume counter. Here it is.
Pokemon:
2-2 Luxray GL
3-1 Garchomp C
1-1 Dialga G
1 Ambipom G
1 Promocroak
1 Bronzong G
1 Crobat G
1 Lucario GL
3-1 Uxie
1 Azelf
1 Unown Q
S/S/T
4 Cyrus's Conspiracy
3 Pokemon Collector
2 Bebe's Search
1 Aaron's Collection
3 Power Spray
4 Poke Turn
3 SP-Radar
3 Energy Gain
1 VS Seeker
1 Junk Arm
1 Premier Ball
Energies
4 DCE
3 Call
1 Warp
3 Lightning
1 Metal
1 Psychic
Now, I don't remember all of the games I played from the first rounds of swiss to the Top 2 games, but the only reason why I'm writing this is the fact that I won with a bizarre list. Now, you might say that after looking at the list above, it isn't that bizarre of a list, but this is what happened. After the fifth round of swiss, I was x-2. I just lost to a friend of mine, Westley, in a mirror match. He pretty much went first and got the dragon rushes flowing, which made up the fact that he had a pretty bad hand. Anyways, after that game, the both of us got a random deck check. Around 20 minutes later, the judges call me up and tell me that I forgot to write power sprays down in my decklist, so they tell me that I have to replace them with basic energy cards. I was so mortified at the time. How could I forget to write down sprays at a regionals of all tournaments?! Well, my initial reaction was that I wanted to drop as soon as possible, so I asked him if I could drop before the sixth round started. It turned out that it was too late and that the pairings were already being printed out, so they told me that I would have to wait until the round is over. So I stuck with it and played one more game. After consulting with my friends, they told me that I should just continue playing the rest of the tournament since my rating was only around 1750 anyways, so I was just going with it and kept playing. Long story short, I won the last three rounds of swiss, made it into top 32 as the 19th. After that, I beat 4 Luxchomps in a row from top 32 to top 4. And I lost to a Sablelock deck in top 2 because of bad hands (no supporters), and having the inability to spray the opponent's Disrupting Spy.
The weird thing is that my messed up list with no sprays actually helped me in my mirror matches because of the fact that I never missed an energy attachment due to running 8 basic energy cards and 3 Garchomp Cs, and was able to save the DCEs for return KOs. This is my list after the forced deck change after the fifth round.
Pokemon:
2-2 Luxray GL
3-1 Garchomp C
1-1 Dialga G
1 Ambipom G
1 Promocroak
1 Bronzong G
1 Crobat G
1 Lucario GL
3-1 Uxie
1 Azelf
1 Unown Q
S/S/T
4 Cyrus's Conspiracy
3 Pokemon Collector
2 Bebe's Search
1 Aaron's Collection
4 Poke Turn
3 SP-Radar
3 Energy Gain
1 VS Seeker
1 Junk Arm
1 Premier Ball
Energies
4 DCE
3 Call
1 Warp
4 Lightning
2 Metal
2 Psychic
So yeah, I was stoked for winning the $1000 and getting second place without sprays. The thing that helped me was the fact that I played against nothing but Luxchomps in topcut until top 2, which had me with the advantage considering my build. It really didn't hurt me to not have sprays in the mirror match, since it was always that the winner of the garchomp war wins the game. I implore you guys to try this list against a standard luxchomp with sprays to see for yourselves. Well, that's pretty much it. After going 10-3, I'm around 1813 in the ratings, so there is a chance that I'll go to Nats this year. If I do, I hope to see some of you people there. Thanks for reading.
