Simon8rice
New Member
After seeing all the reports of people I played against, I decided to make my own report so I won't forget this event.
So this was my first full season of Pokemon. Last year i played at a couple of battle roads and nationals but didn't do that well. My personal goal for this season was just self-improvement and try to put up a fight against the top players in Canada. Despite not winning any events, I think i accomplished my goal as I top cut at a couple of events losing to some of the best Canada has to offer.
Leading up to nationals, I had absolutely no idea what to play and with an unknown format, I didn't want to be original so I bought into the Magnezone/Emboar hype and it was good. I expected a lot of Donphans and Reshiboars so I switched it up to Magnezone/Feraligatr but it just wasn't as smooth as the other so I quickly switched back. Here is the list I eventually played with:
3-1-3 Magnezone
2-1-2 Emboar
2 Cleffa
1 Tyrogue
1 Reshiram
1-1 Rayquaza Deoxys Legend
4 Pokemon Collector
3 Judge
2 Professor Oaks New Theory
1 Twins
3 Pokemon Communication
3 Junk Arm
2 Pokemon Reversal
1 Energy Retrieval
4 Rare Candy
2 Switch
1 Revive
10 Fire
4 Lightning
2 Rescue
Nothing special just wanted to make it as consistent as possible. It took 4 turns on average to set up both Magnezone and Emboar, 3 on a good day.
Round 1: Greg Lee - Blastoise/Feraligatr/Magnezone
We start and I see magnemite and totodile and i assume its some magnegatr deck so the winner would be whoever sets up first. Fortunately, after a couple of judges and some of his PONTs, he drew completely dead. I get lucky with reversal flips to bring out his magnezone before it kills me. After that it went all downhill as he couldn't set up blastoise and feraligatr at the same time and i take this one
1-0
Round 2: Curtis Lyon - Mew/yanmega/muk/vileplume
I see my opponent is Curtis and I know it'll be a tough match knowing he's one of the best. He starts first after i mulligan 4 times and he drops mew yanma oddish and cleffa to my lone cleffa. He comments about how he should've put in a tyrogue but oh wells i'm safe sorta but I still have no idea what he's playing. He retreats to mew and see offs a muk. I realize its some kind of muk trainer lock and I know magneboar dies to trainer lock so i'm able to reversal up the oddishes before a vileplume comes out. He starts dragging out my emboars with his mew but i luckily have a bunch of switches and am able to get the win.
2-0
Round 3: David John Ensor - Magneboar
I've played against David before and have seen him around quite frequently and know he's a good player so I hope luck is on my side. I take early prizes with tyrogue/reshiram but he sets up emboar and magnezone before i do. I'm able to reversal up his ability emboar and stall a bit so I can set up as well. After a good 3-4 turns I finally knock out the emboar and it's a gonna be a close game to finish because he's a couple prizes away from winning but has a benched RDL with 3 fire energies attached. I reversal it out and knock it out to take the lead in the prize race and eventually win.
3-0
Round 4: Sean - Feraligatr/Blastoise
I have really bad memory of the next couple of rounds but what I do remember is pretty short and vague soo.. I get set up and he sets up much slower and by the time he sets up, I am rolling through his pokes in 1 turn while he takes atleast 2 turns to knock out a Magnezone
4-0
Round 5 : Troy Nayler - ?
I see I'm up against Troy Nayler who I've never faced before but recognize the name from past tournaments. Before the match starts, he notices my sleeves are pretty shiny and even reflective so we call a judge over and so I have to resleeve. I run out to the concession table and buy a pack of black&white sleeves and quickly resleeve. After i come back the judge gives me us a 3 minute time extension. As for the match, I have absolutely no memory of what happened for some reason but I do remember yanmega.. and possibly magnezone.. sorry!
5-0
Round 6: Alaric M - Ambipom/Weavile/Slowking
Alaric is a really cool guy and it's always fun playing against him. At a practice tournament a week before, he warns me about losing to alomomola and ironically i donk him with alomomola. Fast forward a week to round 6 of Canadian Nationals, i start lone cleffa to his ambipom.. i call tails but its heads so he starts and communicates for a tyrogue and then junipers into an energy, retreats and mischievous punches me for 30 where I soon put 30 damage counters on my cleffa and realize it is knocked out only to realize I have no bench pokemon to promote, therefore losing the game. All of this happening in a span of 30 seconds so I have 29 mins to go get a lunch.
5-1
Round 7: ? - Donphan/Serperior Tank
At this point everybody is telling me I'm assured a spot in top cut so I'm pretty relaxed. I see phanpy and a bunch of grass pokemon. I don't want to burn 4 energies lost burning a donphan so I set up a reshiram and attach a rescue energy and attack with that. I'm able to kill a couple of donphans like that and afterwards I start sending out my magnezone when he ran out of donphans. In the end I'm able to take the win.
6-1
I finish swiss in 5th place and see that I'm facing Curtis but turns out he drops because he wanted to preserve his rankings invite so turns out my opponent is Colman Fung, a player who goes to the same league as me.
I go home with my cousins and just hang out for some nice quality time. I didn't get a chance to playtest with my deck since the judges kept it overnight so I'm left lonely and sad without my precious deck that I've had for years ):
Top 16: Colman Fung - Cinccino/Donphan/Yanmega/Zoroark/Noctowl
Game 1: I know he knows what I'm playing. So he knows I play Magneboar. So I know he'd be setting up donphans. So he knows I wouldn't attack with Magnezone. So I know I have to attack with Reshiram. So he knows he has to set up a Zoroark for the revenge kill. So I know I have to reversal up his zoroark before it causes trouble, and I do. After that the game was mine since my reshiram was sweeping the floor and Magnezone was too big for him to revenge kill.
Game 2: He goes first and plays pokemon collector for yanma phanpy and zorua with a cleffa active but does not eek. Obviously that meant he was scared of rolling double tails and remaining asleep so I judged his hand away while setting up. This was considered the turning point of the game since all he did for the next long while was draw and pass. I was able to set up and sweep through his field. GG
7-1
Top 8: Alaric M - Ambipom/Weavile/Slowking
Game 1: Revenge is on my mind and I don't get donked so that's a start. He somehow locks me up with an active emboar while controlling my top decks. So at this point i realized i'm screwed but then all of a sudden I draw a judge. With absolute garbage, I obviously have to judge and I was curious to see what my other 2 cards were and turns out it was pokemon communication and a cleffa. I guess he really didn't want to search for a cleffa and eeking. After I'm able to set up and take game 1.
Game 2: I pokemon collector for double cleffa since I know he'll be looking to lock me down. I'm able to set up relatively easily and trade prizes with him for a bit. Eventually he loses steam and is unable to trade prizes and eventually I take the game. Very well played and a very creative deck!
8-1
Top 4: Reed M - Yanmega/Kingdra
Reed is an amazing player from the Toronto Area and is having an incredible season including winning Ohio States/2nd at Eastern Canadian Regionals and eventually 2nd at Canadian Nationals. Very amazing and I know for sure that this is going to be a tough match-up.
Game 1: I start Tepig to his lone Cleffa. I go first and play communication and search for a tyrogue. Retreat tepig and donk for game 1...
^
is what I would say if tyrogue wasn't prized X___X
instead I have to get a cleffa and start setting up slowly. Surviving the lone cleffa start, Reed quickly turned that frown, upside down. I believe i even heard a YES!!!!! somewhere in there but I'm not too sure. He is able to get double kingdra and yanmega to snipe off my benched tepigs before i can evolve them so I never really get set up until it's too late. 1-0 Reed
Game 2: I get set up with double tepig and double magnemite so he's unable to pull off the snipes. After I set up I'm able to take a comfortable lead while he draws dead for a while. He realizes he can't make a comeback so on to game 3 we go 1-1
Game 3: We both start with 3 basics, my tyrogue tepig cleffa to his 3 horseas. I can't remember the details much of this game, even though it was a very intense game. In the end he pokemon reversals a reshiram and I'm unable to retreat it since I was out of energies and switches and he knocks out my last pokemon for game. 2-1
8-2
Overall, I'm very happy with how I performed this year at nationals. My goal at the beginning of the tournament was to just make it to Day 2. I never imagined I'd make it to top 4 and get an invite to worlds so I'm very pleased. The tournament was perfectly run and I have no complaints at all. Judging staff was awesome and I absolutely love the pokemon community. Never have I seen such a respectful and polite community who's there to help you and everything.
Shout outs to my fellow league members at Card Masters who I play with every week and cheered me on the whole time.
PS: Magneboar is BDIF! Only pure counters can beat it -trollface-
So this was my first full season of Pokemon. Last year i played at a couple of battle roads and nationals but didn't do that well. My personal goal for this season was just self-improvement and try to put up a fight against the top players in Canada. Despite not winning any events, I think i accomplished my goal as I top cut at a couple of events losing to some of the best Canada has to offer.
Leading up to nationals, I had absolutely no idea what to play and with an unknown format, I didn't want to be original so I bought into the Magnezone/Emboar hype and it was good. I expected a lot of Donphans and Reshiboars so I switched it up to Magnezone/Feraligatr but it just wasn't as smooth as the other so I quickly switched back. Here is the list I eventually played with:
3-1-3 Magnezone
2-1-2 Emboar
2 Cleffa
1 Tyrogue
1 Reshiram
1-1 Rayquaza Deoxys Legend
4 Pokemon Collector
3 Judge
2 Professor Oaks New Theory
1 Twins
3 Pokemon Communication
3 Junk Arm
2 Pokemon Reversal
1 Energy Retrieval
4 Rare Candy
2 Switch
1 Revive
10 Fire
4 Lightning
2 Rescue
Nothing special just wanted to make it as consistent as possible. It took 4 turns on average to set up both Magnezone and Emboar, 3 on a good day.
Round 1: Greg Lee - Blastoise/Feraligatr/Magnezone
We start and I see magnemite and totodile and i assume its some magnegatr deck so the winner would be whoever sets up first. Fortunately, after a couple of judges and some of his PONTs, he drew completely dead. I get lucky with reversal flips to bring out his magnezone before it kills me. After that it went all downhill as he couldn't set up blastoise and feraligatr at the same time and i take this one
1-0
Round 2: Curtis Lyon - Mew/yanmega/muk/vileplume
I see my opponent is Curtis and I know it'll be a tough match knowing he's one of the best. He starts first after i mulligan 4 times and he drops mew yanma oddish and cleffa to my lone cleffa. He comments about how he should've put in a tyrogue but oh wells i'm safe sorta but I still have no idea what he's playing. He retreats to mew and see offs a muk. I realize its some kind of muk trainer lock and I know magneboar dies to trainer lock so i'm able to reversal up the oddishes before a vileplume comes out. He starts dragging out my emboars with his mew but i luckily have a bunch of switches and am able to get the win.
2-0
Round 3: David John Ensor - Magneboar
I've played against David before and have seen him around quite frequently and know he's a good player so I hope luck is on my side. I take early prizes with tyrogue/reshiram but he sets up emboar and magnezone before i do. I'm able to reversal up his ability emboar and stall a bit so I can set up as well. After a good 3-4 turns I finally knock out the emboar and it's a gonna be a close game to finish because he's a couple prizes away from winning but has a benched RDL with 3 fire energies attached. I reversal it out and knock it out to take the lead in the prize race and eventually win.
3-0
Round 4: Sean - Feraligatr/Blastoise
I have really bad memory of the next couple of rounds but what I do remember is pretty short and vague soo.. I get set up and he sets up much slower and by the time he sets up, I am rolling through his pokes in 1 turn while he takes atleast 2 turns to knock out a Magnezone
4-0
Round 5 : Troy Nayler - ?
I see I'm up against Troy Nayler who I've never faced before but recognize the name from past tournaments. Before the match starts, he notices my sleeves are pretty shiny and even reflective so we call a judge over and so I have to resleeve. I run out to the concession table and buy a pack of black&white sleeves and quickly resleeve. After i come back the judge gives me us a 3 minute time extension. As for the match, I have absolutely no memory of what happened for some reason but I do remember yanmega.. and possibly magnezone.. sorry!
5-0
Round 6: Alaric M - Ambipom/Weavile/Slowking
Alaric is a really cool guy and it's always fun playing against him. At a practice tournament a week before, he warns me about losing to alomomola and ironically i donk him with alomomola. Fast forward a week to round 6 of Canadian Nationals, i start lone cleffa to his ambipom.. i call tails but its heads so he starts and communicates for a tyrogue and then junipers into an energy, retreats and mischievous punches me for 30 where I soon put 30 damage counters on my cleffa and realize it is knocked out only to realize I have no bench pokemon to promote, therefore losing the game. All of this happening in a span of 30 seconds so I have 29 mins to go get a lunch.
5-1
Round 7: ? - Donphan/Serperior Tank
At this point everybody is telling me I'm assured a spot in top cut so I'm pretty relaxed. I see phanpy and a bunch of grass pokemon. I don't want to burn 4 energies lost burning a donphan so I set up a reshiram and attach a rescue energy and attack with that. I'm able to kill a couple of donphans like that and afterwards I start sending out my magnezone when he ran out of donphans. In the end I'm able to take the win.
6-1
I finish swiss in 5th place and see that I'm facing Curtis but turns out he drops because he wanted to preserve his rankings invite so turns out my opponent is Colman Fung, a player who goes to the same league as me.
I go home with my cousins and just hang out for some nice quality time. I didn't get a chance to playtest with my deck since the judges kept it overnight so I'm left lonely and sad without my precious deck that I've had for years ):
Top 16: Colman Fung - Cinccino/Donphan/Yanmega/Zoroark/Noctowl
Game 1: I know he knows what I'm playing. So he knows I play Magneboar. So I know he'd be setting up donphans. So he knows I wouldn't attack with Magnezone. So I know I have to attack with Reshiram. So he knows he has to set up a Zoroark for the revenge kill. So I know I have to reversal up his zoroark before it causes trouble, and I do. After that the game was mine since my reshiram was sweeping the floor and Magnezone was too big for him to revenge kill.
Game 2: He goes first and plays pokemon collector for yanma phanpy and zorua with a cleffa active but does not eek. Obviously that meant he was scared of rolling double tails and remaining asleep so I judged his hand away while setting up. This was considered the turning point of the game since all he did for the next long while was draw and pass. I was able to set up and sweep through his field. GG
7-1
Top 8: Alaric M - Ambipom/Weavile/Slowking
Game 1: Revenge is on my mind and I don't get donked so that's a start. He somehow locks me up with an active emboar while controlling my top decks. So at this point i realized i'm screwed but then all of a sudden I draw a judge. With absolute garbage, I obviously have to judge and I was curious to see what my other 2 cards were and turns out it was pokemon communication and a cleffa. I guess he really didn't want to search for a cleffa and eeking. After I'm able to set up and take game 1.
Game 2: I pokemon collector for double cleffa since I know he'll be looking to lock me down. I'm able to set up relatively easily and trade prizes with him for a bit. Eventually he loses steam and is unable to trade prizes and eventually I take the game. Very well played and a very creative deck!
8-1
Top 4: Reed M - Yanmega/Kingdra
Reed is an amazing player from the Toronto Area and is having an incredible season including winning Ohio States/2nd at Eastern Canadian Regionals and eventually 2nd at Canadian Nationals. Very amazing and I know for sure that this is going to be a tough match-up.
Game 1: I start Tepig to his lone Cleffa. I go first and play communication and search for a tyrogue. Retreat tepig and donk for game 1...
^
is what I would say if tyrogue wasn't prized X___X
instead I have to get a cleffa and start setting up slowly. Surviving the lone cleffa start, Reed quickly turned that frown, upside down. I believe i even heard a YES!!!!! somewhere in there but I'm not too sure. He is able to get double kingdra and yanmega to snipe off my benched tepigs before i can evolve them so I never really get set up until it's too late. 1-0 Reed
Game 2: I get set up with double tepig and double magnemite so he's unable to pull off the snipes. After I set up I'm able to take a comfortable lead while he draws dead for a while. He realizes he can't make a comeback so on to game 3 we go 1-1
Game 3: We both start with 3 basics, my tyrogue tepig cleffa to his 3 horseas. I can't remember the details much of this game, even though it was a very intense game. In the end he pokemon reversals a reshiram and I'm unable to retreat it since I was out of energies and switches and he knocks out my last pokemon for game. 2-1
8-2
Overall, I'm very happy with how I performed this year at nationals. My goal at the beginning of the tournament was to just make it to Day 2. I never imagined I'd make it to top 4 and get an invite to worlds so I'm very pleased. The tournament was perfectly run and I have no complaints at all. Judging staff was awesome and I absolutely love the pokemon community. Never have I seen such a respectful and polite community who's there to help you and everything.
Shout outs to my fellow league members at Card Masters who I play with every week and cheered me on the whole time.
PS: Magneboar is BDIF! Only pure counters can beat it -trollface-
