deckmaster
Active Member
A tournament report, a whole tournament report, and nothing but a tournament report—enjoy.
I attended the Providence, Rhode Island Fall Regional Championship hosted by Tom Shea's TJ Collectables. The event had a fantastic showing with lots, and lots of players from all over the tri-state area, and with some players coming as far as Tennessee to play in this important event! The tournament ran very smoothly with no problems at all. In fact, day one of the event promptly started at 9: AM and concluded by 6: PM! As far as I am concerned, this was the most well managed Pokémon tournament in the history of Pokémon trading card game (TCG)—and it even surpassed Worlds!
Going into Regionals, I was ranked (13) thirteen in the world of Pokémon TCG. My goal was simple: to win as much as I could to increase my ranking and Championship Points. I had thoroughly play-tested for several months, and I knew every match-up and technical card (tech) people would use. My top three deck choices to use were Goth-Lock, ReshiPhlosion, or Yanmega & Magnezone as they proved to have the best testing results.
Before I begin, I want to point out that I purposely did not mention the names of my opponents with the decks they used. I wanted to protect their identity, as I was not given permission from them to use their names in my tournament report.
Now without further ado, my tournament report.
I was using Goth-lock.
I was using Goth-lock.
Round 1 VS: Gothelle with Tornadus.
I win the opening game coin flip, and quickly get set-up. I play Tropical beach on turn-one, and because of that I am able to get a turn two Gotheitelle. Because of my early Trainer lock, he is not able to effectively retaliate and respond in time with his Gotheitelle. Win (1-0)
Round 2 VS: ReshiPhlosion.
I lose the opening game coin flip, but I have a fine start with Tropical Beach in my hand and a Rare Candy with a Pokémon Collector. I get an early trainer lock but no Reuniclus, so he eventually makes the first knock out and allows me to quickly use Twins. I make several key sacrifices to prevent him from using Black Belt, and there was nothing he was able to do to knock out my Gotheitelle. Win (2-0)
Round 3 VS: Stage-1's variant.
My opponent was using Donphan, Yanmega, Zoroark as her stage-1 choices. I open with a lone Pichu with Twins in my opening hand and win the opening game coin flip. I set-up with Pichu, and I am able to Trainer lock her in very quickly. I suspect that my opponent was playing a tech for my deck--and I was right. Her choice of tech was Darkrai Cresselia Legend. I play around her tech by sacrificing Pokémon and removing Pokémon in play with a lot of damage counters. Win (3-0)
Round 4 VS: Stage-1's concoction with Kingdra Prime.
Another female player of Pokémon with high amounts of attacking stage-one Pokémon, however, her tech of choice was Kingdra Prime. I win the opening game coin flip but I have a less than desirable start. I “top-deck” into a Pokémon Communication, and search for a Cleffa to Eeeek my troubles away. Low and behold, it worked out okay; I was able to stay asleep with my baby Pokémon and established a Trainer lock. Win (4-0)
Round 5 VS: Yanmega & Magnezone.
I lose the opening game coin flip and start with Zekrom. My opening hand is terrible and has nothing I can use to search my deck. And to make things worse, I am going against a deck that can knock out my most valuable Pokémon, Gotheitelle, in one attack. I can’t Trainer lock early in the game to rush his Magnemite, so I lose easily. Lose (4-1)
Round 6 VS: Stage-1's with Mew Prime and Bouffalant.
I open with Jirachi and Shaymin—my two worst Pokémon to start with—and to add insult to injury, no search cards. I “top-deck” into a Tropical Beach, and get things speeding-up a bit. In the long run, my bad start really set me back way too much in order to make a significant comeback. Lose (4-2)
Round 7 VS: Beartic and Vileplume.
I have a great start and quickly get a turn-two Trainer lock on my opponent. However, he responds by manually evolving into Vileplume and Trainer locks my deck. Nonetheless, this is going to be a battle of resources, and in order for me to win I would have had to have been able to knock out his Beartics with my Zekrom with at least(110) damage on them, Gothelle with (5) five Psychic Energy attached(which is not easy to perform at all), or deck him out. I am able to get down to one prize a piece, and I try to deck my opponent because he did play several Sage's Training in his deck.Unfortunately, I get his deck down to zero cards; however, I lose the battle on that last turn because I ran out of useful Pokemon to shift damage counters on . Lose (4-3)
Round 8 VS: ZPST (Zekrom, Pachisu, Shaymin, Tornadus) with Laturn Prime.
I had an excellent start with Pichu and a Gothia plus draw and evolution acceleration cards in my opening hand. I win the coin flip and proceed to get set-up. By turn three, Gotheitelle and Reuniclus were in play, and my Pokémon had taken much damage. Because of all the extra damage, I spread then to baby Pokémon to give him free prizes to avoid Black belt or Darkrai Cresslia Legend techs and to allow me to use Twins. Win (5-3)
After much anticipation, the top-32 pairing are finally are posted, and I realize that I am the 20th seed! My opponents that I had defeated had done their part and kept winning their matches and (4) four of my opponents that I played made the top-cut! My other opponents that were not as fortunate did not drop which helped my resistance. If you guys or girls are reading this, thank you very much!
Top-32 VS: ZPST
I open to a very desirable opening hand, but lose the opening game coin flip. I dodge the “donk”, and proceed to set-up. My opponent ran Carnivine tech for Goth-lock, however, I was able to use Switch when he brought Reuniclus to the active position and draw into good cards when he played Judge. Win (1-0)
Top-32 game 2
I have a fair start and I think can’t be “donked” because I had two Pokémon in my opening hand. My opponent once again missed the crucial quick first turn knock out. Yet, when I searched my deck with Pokémon Communication for Pichu, I sadly realized my Pichu were prized, and to add to the problem, my current hand no other way to fill my bench. I make the decision to try and defend with Cleffa, but I flip heads and Cleffa was easily knocked out. I had no Twins in my hand, and Tropical Beach was not drawing me into any useful card for the situation. After my third Gothita was knocked out and I had no Gothita in play, I concede the match because I was concerned that time would run out in our final game. Lose (1-1)
Top-32 game 3
I open to the worst hand I ever had with this deck—worse than my Jirachi and Shaymin start! I have Jirachi, Twins, Twins, Tropical Beach, Pokémon Communication, Pokémon Communication, and wait for it…another Pokémon Communication! I draw into a Psychic Energy, attach it and Use Tropical Beach to draw (1) one card and draw into my last Pokémon Communication! I dodge the “donk”, but I draw into another Psychic Energy. Next turn was my last. Lost (1-2)
Special thanks to:
Jesus Christ
Lex
Andrea Family
Tom Shea
TJ Collectables
Steve Arena
NYC Pokémon League
NJ Pokémon Players
“The battle may be over but the war has just begun”. I will continue to train hard for the upcoming tournaments. With each defeat comes knowledge to improve. If anyone would like to play-test, you can find me at my local league located every Sunday at Rockefeller Center.
Thanks for reading.
Your Pal,
Frankie Durso
Last edited:
