My first victory metal, in a field of 36 masters no less!
My deck. modified from last week's 4-2 finish:
3-1 Azelf lvl X (1 MT, 2 LA)
2-2 Mespirit lvl X (1 MT, 1 LA)
2-2 Uxie lvl X (2 LA)
1-1 Palkia lvl X
1-1-1 Dusknoir (reaper cloth duskull)
1 Rotom
1 Unown Q
4 Roseanne's Research
4 Professor Oak's Visit
4 Pokeradar
4 Premier Ball
4 Switch
4 Energy Pickup
2 Snowpoint Temple
2 Moonlight Stadium
2 Time-Space Distortion
1 Energy Switch
9 Psychic Energy
1 Multi Energy
Game One: Peter with Frosslass/Starmie
Nothing much to report, he got a mediocre start I set up really fast and ran him off the table.
1-0
Game Two: Josh with Tangrowth/Sceptile
I get Azelf MT vs his undesirable Treeko to start and I go second. Pokeradar nets me no basics, POV nets me zero basics. Uh oh, I know a disaster when I see one. Turn two he rare candies to Sceptile and it's GG. Another frustrating T2 donk loss for me this season.
1-1
Game Three: Daniel Z. with AMU/Meganium/Dusknoir
Daniel is an excellent player and this is the closest thing to a mirror match I have seen. I get a couple of cheap prizes early before he can get Azelf lvl X in play but he gets Dusknoir set up and Dark Palm's my Uxie lvl X. He cannot finish setting up AMU because his bench is full and he doesn't have a Mespirit in play so the middle part of the game is a strange cat and mouse game. I finally lure his Dusknoir to the front and kill it and immediately drop duskull-dusclops on my third bench spot. I burn 3 energy pickups to get one energy out of the discard pile and attached to dusknoir, and then attach a second from my hand. He knocks out my active, it's one prize to one prize - evolve to Dusknoir, attach the third energy and hit his fairy for 110. VGG.
2-1
Game Four: Seth with Ampharos/Kyogre/Spiritomb
It's a lively start to the game, he gets Ampharos out T2-T3 and I have to eat the damage as I play supporters. I supreme blast his Kyogre before Ampharos is ready to attack so I can afford to burn a turn healing my bench with Mespirit (goodbye 120 points of damage!). A turn or two later I Supreme Blast Ampharos and he's down to Spiritomb. GG.
3-1
Game Five: Stephen L. with Kingdra
We both know the winner of this has a good chance of making top cut, the loser goes home. This game was a textbook of how AMU can take Kingdra apart.. We both had excellent starts until I top deck Dusknoir, and start dark palming his bench while Mespirit starts blasting Kingdras up front. I do a really good job of spreading the damage around and get up about 4 prizes to none before he starts to KO a few pokemon. In the end he decks himself rather than let me knock out his last guy. Despite kingdra being a beast and Stephen being an excellent player it was never even close after the 3rd turn or so.
4-1
There is one 5-0 player and out of the legion of 4-1s my strength of schedule says I am 4th. Whatever, in is in. I am extremely happy to make the cut in my own gym but now I want it all. Amazingly no Kingdra make top 4 (though I think they finished 5th-8th), which I consider to my advantage since two of the decks to make it were primarily anti-kingdra. hopefully they will find themselves out of their element.
Game Six: Keegan C. with Torterra/Sceptile/Dusknoir.
Keegan is a great young player in his first year in masters (he finished t16 at worlds last year in seniors) so I know not to take him lightly but I really think AMU has Torterra/Sceptile's number. He gets Dusknor set up first which really limits my options but I get Palkia lvl X out which gives him an endless amount of grief. He wriggles loose a couple of times with warp point but in the mean time Azelf lvl X has sniped his first sceptile and other such annoying tactics. It takes a long time but I largely control the game and win comfortably.
5-1
Game Seven: The same.
This is a much closer game but the details are fuzzy in my mind. This time I get dusknoir out early which really hampers him but that's about the only thing which goes right. Keegan has learned from his experience in the fist match and knows that between Dark Palm and Restructure it would be futile to try to get his own dusknoir in play so instead he concentrates on clobbering me with torterra. i cannot find snowpoint temple for love or money so those 100 point hits are OHKOing my poor faeries but I am scoring some KOs of my own. This too was a long game and time is called on my turn, us tied 3-3 on prizes. since I had won the first match it was academic as to who would win this game but I am allowed to finish my turn. I hit the energy pickup, play Roseanne's for the last energy in my deck and KO his last torterra. Now I have taken 4 prizes and I have won straight up, not on time.
6-1
Game Eight: Mike with Glisgor/Uxie/Azelf
I don't know Mike but he was a very polite, congenial player which made this final matchup great. He clearly has cracked the Glisgor hit and run code. His deck was nothing but Glisgors and draw power. Uxie/Azelf were only there for their draw powers too. This first game I was lost. I had a good set up (T3 Dusknoir!) but I found there was no heavy retreat guy to pull to the front to stall (I mean, who runs a fighting deck with zero claydols!?!?!). I hang in there but I know I am in trouble. It all really goes south when he gets my Palkia lvl X active and burns it. Now I can't Restructure and for 3 turns it just sits there and burns. Shortly thereafter I can read the writing on the wall and concede, somewhat to my opponents surprise since I am only behind 3 prizes to 4. But I know I need time.
6-2
Game Nine: Same
I know that I cannot go after Glisgor like any other deck I have faced. So I alter my tactics to exploit his use of the cheap attacks of uxie and gligar. I get the set of fairies out early with a Azelf MT. Downer material makes a mess of his tactic of softening me up while recycling his uxies. I get to Azelf lvl X asap and exploit the weakness matchup between my faeries and his own. I ignore trying to set up palkia and dusknoir entirely. this gets slows him down just enough and gets me into position to actually use supreme blast a few times (once even on a gligar because it was my only attack available). this tactic works well for the game, i just get ahead of him and he can't ever catch up.
7-2
Game Ten
As we are washing our decks for the final match the judges call time. this changes everything. now it's a game of 'first one to take a prize wins the whole enchilada'. all previous strategy learned for both of us has to be thrown right out the window. i start with azelf mt and he starts with azelf. i hit him for 30 and keep him from being able to play special energy (he was running call). he manages to get a gligar and uxie on the bench and he attaches a stinking bubble coat to azelf! GRR, i had him (i would have played roseanne's for unown q and an energy and for the first time anywhere gone unown q's hidden power ftw!). so instead i take uxie and an energy and console myself with only hitting azelf for 10. he warps azelf to the bench and evolves to glisgor and pulls out all the stops to get a quick KO against me but he comes up one stark mountain stadium short of the win. my next turn i play another roseanne's and i clearly see the path to victory. i drop the pokepower blocking mespirit and hit glisgor for 60. he knows he's in trouble. he had glisgor lvl x in hand but for this one critical turn its' power is turned off. he has to level it up just to keep it alive and hits me for a mere 40. that's game, i retreat uxie for azelf, level up and snipe his badly wounded azelf for the first, last and only prize of the game. VGG.
8-2!!!!!
slops to t2 donk losses, washington players trying to steal our victory metals and all those ppl who think kingdra is the bdif. it isn't. but neither is AMU the next GG (i dont think AMU will survive the next set in three weeks).
props to guardian games, chris, june and cory for judging and to myself for hitting a reasonable number of coinflips with energy pickup and tsd throughout the tourney. extra props to palkia lvl x in AMU. i would never even consider playing this deck without it.
My deck. modified from last week's 4-2 finish:
3-1 Azelf lvl X (1 MT, 2 LA)
2-2 Mespirit lvl X (1 MT, 1 LA)
2-2 Uxie lvl X (2 LA)
1-1 Palkia lvl X
1-1-1 Dusknoir (reaper cloth duskull)
1 Rotom
1 Unown Q
4 Roseanne's Research
4 Professor Oak's Visit
4 Pokeradar
4 Premier Ball
4 Switch
4 Energy Pickup
2 Snowpoint Temple
2 Moonlight Stadium
2 Time-Space Distortion
1 Energy Switch
9 Psychic Energy
1 Multi Energy
Game One: Peter with Frosslass/Starmie
Nothing much to report, he got a mediocre start I set up really fast and ran him off the table.
1-0
Game Two: Josh with Tangrowth/Sceptile
I get Azelf MT vs his undesirable Treeko to start and I go second. Pokeradar nets me no basics, POV nets me zero basics. Uh oh, I know a disaster when I see one. Turn two he rare candies to Sceptile and it's GG. Another frustrating T2 donk loss for me this season.
1-1
Game Three: Daniel Z. with AMU/Meganium/Dusknoir
Daniel is an excellent player and this is the closest thing to a mirror match I have seen. I get a couple of cheap prizes early before he can get Azelf lvl X in play but he gets Dusknoir set up and Dark Palm's my Uxie lvl X. He cannot finish setting up AMU because his bench is full and he doesn't have a Mespirit in play so the middle part of the game is a strange cat and mouse game. I finally lure his Dusknoir to the front and kill it and immediately drop duskull-dusclops on my third bench spot. I burn 3 energy pickups to get one energy out of the discard pile and attached to dusknoir, and then attach a second from my hand. He knocks out my active, it's one prize to one prize - evolve to Dusknoir, attach the third energy and hit his fairy for 110. VGG.
2-1
Game Four: Seth with Ampharos/Kyogre/Spiritomb
It's a lively start to the game, he gets Ampharos out T2-T3 and I have to eat the damage as I play supporters. I supreme blast his Kyogre before Ampharos is ready to attack so I can afford to burn a turn healing my bench with Mespirit (goodbye 120 points of damage!). A turn or two later I Supreme Blast Ampharos and he's down to Spiritomb. GG.
3-1
Game Five: Stephen L. with Kingdra
We both know the winner of this has a good chance of making top cut, the loser goes home. This game was a textbook of how AMU can take Kingdra apart.. We both had excellent starts until I top deck Dusknoir, and start dark palming his bench while Mespirit starts blasting Kingdras up front. I do a really good job of spreading the damage around and get up about 4 prizes to none before he starts to KO a few pokemon. In the end he decks himself rather than let me knock out his last guy. Despite kingdra being a beast and Stephen being an excellent player it was never even close after the 3rd turn or so.
4-1
There is one 5-0 player and out of the legion of 4-1s my strength of schedule says I am 4th. Whatever, in is in. I am extremely happy to make the cut in my own gym but now I want it all. Amazingly no Kingdra make top 4 (though I think they finished 5th-8th), which I consider to my advantage since two of the decks to make it were primarily anti-kingdra. hopefully they will find themselves out of their element.
Game Six: Keegan C. with Torterra/Sceptile/Dusknoir.
Keegan is a great young player in his first year in masters (he finished t16 at worlds last year in seniors) so I know not to take him lightly but I really think AMU has Torterra/Sceptile's number. He gets Dusknor set up first which really limits my options but I get Palkia lvl X out which gives him an endless amount of grief. He wriggles loose a couple of times with warp point but in the mean time Azelf lvl X has sniped his first sceptile and other such annoying tactics. It takes a long time but I largely control the game and win comfortably.
5-1
Game Seven: The same.
This is a much closer game but the details are fuzzy in my mind. This time I get dusknoir out early which really hampers him but that's about the only thing which goes right. Keegan has learned from his experience in the fist match and knows that between Dark Palm and Restructure it would be futile to try to get his own dusknoir in play so instead he concentrates on clobbering me with torterra. i cannot find snowpoint temple for love or money so those 100 point hits are OHKOing my poor faeries but I am scoring some KOs of my own. This too was a long game and time is called on my turn, us tied 3-3 on prizes. since I had won the first match it was academic as to who would win this game but I am allowed to finish my turn. I hit the energy pickup, play Roseanne's for the last energy in my deck and KO his last torterra. Now I have taken 4 prizes and I have won straight up, not on time.
6-1
Game Eight: Mike with Glisgor/Uxie/Azelf
I don't know Mike but he was a very polite, congenial player which made this final matchup great. He clearly has cracked the Glisgor hit and run code. His deck was nothing but Glisgors and draw power. Uxie/Azelf were only there for their draw powers too. This first game I was lost. I had a good set up (T3 Dusknoir!) but I found there was no heavy retreat guy to pull to the front to stall (I mean, who runs a fighting deck with zero claydols!?!?!). I hang in there but I know I am in trouble. It all really goes south when he gets my Palkia lvl X active and burns it. Now I can't Restructure and for 3 turns it just sits there and burns. Shortly thereafter I can read the writing on the wall and concede, somewhat to my opponents surprise since I am only behind 3 prizes to 4. But I know I need time.
6-2
Game Nine: Same
I know that I cannot go after Glisgor like any other deck I have faced. So I alter my tactics to exploit his use of the cheap attacks of uxie and gligar. I get the set of fairies out early with a Azelf MT. Downer material makes a mess of his tactic of softening me up while recycling his uxies. I get to Azelf lvl X asap and exploit the weakness matchup between my faeries and his own. I ignore trying to set up palkia and dusknoir entirely. this gets slows him down just enough and gets me into position to actually use supreme blast a few times (once even on a gligar because it was my only attack available). this tactic works well for the game, i just get ahead of him and he can't ever catch up.
7-2
Game Ten
As we are washing our decks for the final match the judges call time. this changes everything. now it's a game of 'first one to take a prize wins the whole enchilada'. all previous strategy learned for both of us has to be thrown right out the window. i start with azelf mt and he starts with azelf. i hit him for 30 and keep him from being able to play special energy (he was running call). he manages to get a gligar and uxie on the bench and he attaches a stinking bubble coat to azelf! GRR, i had him (i would have played roseanne's for unown q and an energy and for the first time anywhere gone unown q's hidden power ftw!). so instead i take uxie and an energy and console myself with only hitting azelf for 10. he warps azelf to the bench and evolves to glisgor and pulls out all the stops to get a quick KO against me but he comes up one stark mountain stadium short of the win. my next turn i play another roseanne's and i clearly see the path to victory. i drop the pokepower blocking mespirit and hit glisgor for 60. he knows he's in trouble. he had glisgor lvl x in hand but for this one critical turn its' power is turned off. he has to level it up just to keep it alive and hits me for a mere 40. that's game, i retreat uxie for azelf, level up and snipe his badly wounded azelf for the first, last and only prize of the game. VGG.
8-2!!!!!
slops to t2 donk losses, washington players trying to steal our victory metals and all those ppl who think kingdra is the bdif. it isn't. but neither is AMU the next GG (i dont think AMU will survive the next set in three weeks).
props to guardian games, chris, june and cory for judging and to myself for hitting a reasonable number of coinflips with energy pickup and tsd throughout the tourney. extra props to palkia lvl x in AMU. i would never even consider playing this deck without it.
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