Going into the second week of Battle Roads here in British Columbia, I had been testing Reshiboar extensively since I believed that it can come back from behind with RDL and recover from the slow starts it usually has. Not going to lie, I saw Pooka streaming this deck and I thought it would be a good play. Well, the deck in reality just crumbles to the barrage of catchers and judges you'll face in yanmega variants so I shut off that idea completely.
3 days before the event I came with the most random deck ever: a deck consisting of ninetales, yanmega, cincinno, simisear, amongst other things. Now before you click away from this thread, hear me out; One of the flaws I found in yanmega variants not running magnezone in general are left to top decking supporters after they judge or copycat. So my solution to this is using ninetales to draw into my catchers in addition to my hand matching supporters so as to never dead draw in a game. Meanwhile, simisear was my goth/ross counter. The attack "flame burst" does 20 to the active and 20 to 2 other benched pokemon. Since most goth/ross decks are slow to setup I can just catcher DEM 30 hp basics and take 3 prizes in 2 turns leaving them with no way to evolve into reuniculus which is key in their strategy.
Anyways enough babbling and onto the report:
There was 37 Masters with 5 swiss rounds and TOP 4 with kicker.
Game 1 ??? (Beartic/Relicanth/Samurott)
Going into this game I was really worried about my deck choice because in theory it has outs vs everything but that was purely based on theory. However my opponent was playing a theme deck so those worries soon went away lol. I go FIRST and I judge him T2 making him never able to recover so I eventually bench him with cincinno i think.
1-0
Game 2 ??? sorry I'm bad with names (Vileplume/Reuniculus/Machamp/Zekrom)
I start lone mincinno and was worried that he was playing a zekrom deck. Turns out he in fact worried that I was running a zekrom deck lol. I go FIRST again and I go for last resort but hit tails. However I still manage to set up simisear and take 3 prizes leaving him not able to recover.
2-0
Game 3 Lourence (Typhlosion/Reshiram/Ninetales)
I go FIRST yet again and the deck does what it's meant to do. I set up ninetales judge him into garbage and from T2 on i manage to take 5 prizes in a row with catchers. I linear attack and do the wave his reshiram for the final prize
3-0
Game 4 Phil (Yanmega/Zoroark/Tornadus)
I got paired down this round making me feel bad about my top cut chances but I go FIRST for the fourth game in the row. The game was extremely close midgame but he dead drew mid-late game when I lost removed his dce on zoroark. I'm able to pull away and win the catcher battle
4-0
Game 5 Murray (Goth/Reuniculus)
Murray and I both go to the same league so we were both happy to be doing well at 4-0. I go SECOND in an otherwise flawless day. (4 straight games going first is ridiculous) The game was fairly carefree due to me being able to get a T2 simisear and taking 3 prizes with it to ensure that a reuniculus never hits the field. I think I take 5-6 prizes with simisear this game
.
5-0
So my weird deck ends up going X-0 in swiss and I was quite happy to see my little idea doing so well.
TBH I still don't know how good the deck is considering I went first 4/5 games and with the format being so bad. The same deck that X-0s one tourney can go 1-4 or something in another just based on what deck you play against. Every deck this format has at least one BAD BAD match-up and the only thing you can do is not play those match-ups. Although I never played a "tight" game per say I also managed to dodge what my worst matchup to be in Zekrom. Well, turns out I'm playing against Zekrom in Top 4 so we'll see how this goes XP.
Top 4 Christian (Zekrom/Pachi/Shaymin/Tornadus)
Game 1
I feel like I have to go first in order to get my basics in play and prevent myself from getting donked and such. The thing about zekrom being such a good play isn't that the deck is head and above the rest of the format but more because of its top cut game. Zekrom can donk T1 giving the Zekrom player 1 free win in best of 3 in addition to a sick sudden death game. The game starts and I go FIRST getting basics into play. I manage to win the prize trade 0-1 by drawing into catcher after using roast reveal.
Game 2
He of course chooses to go 1st but I manage to start with 3 basics in hand. He gets off to a slow start with me judging him away from resources in addition to removing his dces twice with LOST REMOVER. With him unable to get energy into play I catcher shaymins and pachirisu gaining a 2-3 prize lead over him. He manages to come back but misplays allowing me to linear attack a tornadus with 70 damage on it to head into Top 2.
I am now X-0ed through the 5 swiss rounds and Top 4 but I honestly did not feel good going into Top 2.
Murray also won his top 4 match and would now be facing me in Top 2. He had already seen my techs and would no doubt formulate a strategy around it.
Top 2 Murray (Goth/Reuniculus)
Game 1
He flips the coin to start and I go FIRST again (big surprise). I set up normally search through my deck looking for my simisear line as that was my best way of denying a reuniculus from getting on to the field.
Obviously it would be prized when I needed it the most :nonono:. Being that it was Murray's and I's first ever finals in a tournament I think we were both pretty nervous which led us to making plenty of slight misplays. He made some bad reads and I was able to take a commanding early lead with cincinnos and yanmegas. The game was at 1-2 prizes with me in the lead. He had a loaded gothitelle active with zekrom shaymin jirachi on the bench. I had two yanmegas in play so I knew that if I linear attack twice on shaymin or jirachi I will win or I can sonic boom twice on the gothitelle to win. I iniatially thought about going for a linear attack on the bench but quickly thought against it since he could seeker them up. I think this through in my head and announce my attack on gothitelle since it would force him to discard his energy if he were to max potion but I STUPIDLY announced linear attack over sonic boom. I place my hat over my face in disgust of that misplay and just can't believe what a brain fart I made. After some discussion with the judges they decided Murray could allow me to take back that misplay but he chose not to. I don't blame him for his decision at all though because it was just a dumb move on my part and I would probably do the same in his situation. That misplay proved fatal and he was able to take the last two prizes.
Game 2
I am fuming over this gigantic misplay because I honestly gave away a win I should have had. Didn't help that simisear was prized. Anyways, we start game 2 with me going first again. This time simisear was NOT prized and I won the game easily in 10-15 minutes. There was still 20 minutes or so left in the hour so we proceeded to game 3.
Game 3
We set up and simisear is prized yet again. 2/3 games the MVP of the matchup was prized. If I had known that I would play goth this much in the tournament I would have definitely made the line thicker so as to prevent this from happening but oh well :biggrin:. My only shot is to prevent reuniculus from hitting the field but it just couldn't be done. My memory is foggy at the moment but I think I judged him and proceeded to take a KO but he got the twins to goth reuniculus in the same turn. I was running out of options so I used the card I hadn't used all day aka Bellsprout to work some magic for me. I Judge him again and drag up the reuniculus but he gets switch and cheren off the judge . With the game at 2-2 prizes I had no way to take or prevent him from taking the final prizes so I scoop and end at the day at 6-1.
I was honestly quite disappointed with myself afterwards after the game because I didn't play at my best in finals when I had played relatively mistake free in all games beforehand. Had I not misplayed that Game 1 and had Game 2 played out the same way I would have been undefeated on the day but I guess it was not meant to be. Most of the people still remaining in the store congratulated me on my day and I thank each and everyone of you for doing so. Congrats on Murray on his first Battle Roads win and I hope we both play better in the next event!
Props:
-Cor and Kevin for sticking with me through finals
-Kabir for being Kabir I guess
-Jonathan (Joey's Dad) for being such a pleasure to talk to
-Joey for winning Seniors again and power spraying people
-Bidier, Sandy for running a great event
-Jasmine for helping Bidier and Sandy
-All my opponents for the games (no donks)
-Jack for believing in Lucky Charms
-Going first all day err day (this rule is just broken)
-CJ, and Vincent just because
-April I guess =.=
Slops:
-Kevin and Cor whiffing cut
-One of the worst misplays I've done playing this game
-Lending someone 2 typhlosion primes and forgetting to get them back at the end of the day
-Pokeball trophy card
-CJ for not going to BRs because of family stuff
-Annoying little netdeckers who distract people playing in Top Cut
PS for those interested in seeing the list I played for Battle Roads the youtube channel theTeamBTCG will have a video of it sometime within the next week. The channel is run by my friends and it provides solid deck advice as well as pre-tournament analysis of the major decks that you'll see in the future. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheTeamBTCG
3 days before the event I came with the most random deck ever: a deck consisting of ninetales, yanmega, cincinno, simisear, amongst other things. Now before you click away from this thread, hear me out; One of the flaws I found in yanmega variants not running magnezone in general are left to top decking supporters after they judge or copycat. So my solution to this is using ninetales to draw into my catchers in addition to my hand matching supporters so as to never dead draw in a game. Meanwhile, simisear was my goth/ross counter. The attack "flame burst" does 20 to the active and 20 to 2 other benched pokemon. Since most goth/ross decks are slow to setup I can just catcher DEM 30 hp basics and take 3 prizes in 2 turns leaving them with no way to evolve into reuniculus which is key in their strategy.
Anyways enough babbling and onto the report:
There was 37 Masters with 5 swiss rounds and TOP 4 with kicker.
Game 1 ??? (Beartic/Relicanth/Samurott)
Going into this game I was really worried about my deck choice because in theory it has outs vs everything but that was purely based on theory. However my opponent was playing a theme deck so those worries soon went away lol. I go FIRST and I judge him T2 making him never able to recover so I eventually bench him with cincinno i think.
1-0
Game 2 ??? sorry I'm bad with names (Vileplume/Reuniculus/Machamp/Zekrom)
I start lone mincinno and was worried that he was playing a zekrom deck. Turns out he in fact worried that I was running a zekrom deck lol. I go FIRST again and I go for last resort but hit tails. However I still manage to set up simisear and take 3 prizes leaving him not able to recover.
2-0
Game 3 Lourence (Typhlosion/Reshiram/Ninetales)
I go FIRST yet again and the deck does what it's meant to do. I set up ninetales judge him into garbage and from T2 on i manage to take 5 prizes in a row with catchers. I linear attack and do the wave his reshiram for the final prize
3-0
Game 4 Phil (Yanmega/Zoroark/Tornadus)
I got paired down this round making me feel bad about my top cut chances but I go FIRST for the fourth game in the row. The game was extremely close midgame but he dead drew mid-late game when I lost removed his dce on zoroark. I'm able to pull away and win the catcher battle
4-0
Game 5 Murray (Goth/Reuniculus)
Murray and I both go to the same league so we were both happy to be doing well at 4-0. I go SECOND in an otherwise flawless day. (4 straight games going first is ridiculous) The game was fairly carefree due to me being able to get a T2 simisear and taking 3 prizes with it to ensure that a reuniculus never hits the field. I think I take 5-6 prizes with simisear this game
. 5-0
So my weird deck ends up going X-0 in swiss and I was quite happy to see my little idea doing so well.
TBH I still don't know how good the deck is considering I went first 4/5 games and with the format being so bad. The same deck that X-0s one tourney can go 1-4 or something in another just based on what deck you play against. Every deck this format has at least one BAD BAD match-up and the only thing you can do is not play those match-ups. Although I never played a "tight" game per say I also managed to dodge what my worst matchup to be in Zekrom. Well, turns out I'm playing against Zekrom in Top 4 so we'll see how this goes XP.
Top 4 Christian (Zekrom/Pachi/Shaymin/Tornadus)
Game 1
I feel like I have to go first in order to get my basics in play and prevent myself from getting donked and such. The thing about zekrom being such a good play isn't that the deck is head and above the rest of the format but more because of its top cut game. Zekrom can donk T1 giving the Zekrom player 1 free win in best of 3 in addition to a sick sudden death game. The game starts and I go FIRST getting basics into play. I manage to win the prize trade 0-1 by drawing into catcher after using roast reveal.
Game 2
He of course chooses to go 1st but I manage to start with 3 basics in hand. He gets off to a slow start with me judging him away from resources in addition to removing his dces twice with LOST REMOVER. With him unable to get energy into play I catcher shaymins and pachirisu gaining a 2-3 prize lead over him. He manages to come back but misplays allowing me to linear attack a tornadus with 70 damage on it to head into Top 2.
I am now X-0ed through the 5 swiss rounds and Top 4 but I honestly did not feel good going into Top 2.
Murray also won his top 4 match and would now be facing me in Top 2. He had already seen my techs and would no doubt formulate a strategy around it.
Top 2 Murray (Goth/Reuniculus)
Game 1
He flips the coin to start and I go FIRST again (big surprise). I set up normally search through my deck looking for my simisear line as that was my best way of denying a reuniculus from getting on to the field.
Obviously it would be prized when I needed it the most :nonono:. Being that it was Murray's and I's first ever finals in a tournament I think we were both pretty nervous which led us to making plenty of slight misplays. He made some bad reads and I was able to take a commanding early lead with cincinnos and yanmegas. The game was at 1-2 prizes with me in the lead. He had a loaded gothitelle active with zekrom shaymin jirachi on the bench. I had two yanmegas in play so I knew that if I linear attack twice on shaymin or jirachi I will win or I can sonic boom twice on the gothitelle to win. I iniatially thought about going for a linear attack on the bench but quickly thought against it since he could seeker them up. I think this through in my head and announce my attack on gothitelle since it would force him to discard his energy if he were to max potion but I STUPIDLY announced linear attack over sonic boom. I place my hat over my face in disgust of that misplay and just can't believe what a brain fart I made. After some discussion with the judges they decided Murray could allow me to take back that misplay but he chose not to. I don't blame him for his decision at all though because it was just a dumb move on my part and I would probably do the same in his situation. That misplay proved fatal and he was able to take the last two prizes.
Game 2
I am fuming over this gigantic misplay because I honestly gave away a win I should have had. Didn't help that simisear was prized
. Anyways, we start game 2 with me going first again. This time simisear was NOT prized and I won the game easily in 10-15 minutes. There was still 20 minutes or so left in the hour so we proceeded to game 3.Game 3
We set up and simisear is prized yet again. 2/3 games the MVP of the matchup was prized. If I had known that I would play goth this much in the tournament I would have definitely made the line thicker so as to prevent this from happening but oh well :biggrin:. My only shot is to prevent reuniculus from hitting the field but it just couldn't be done
. My memory is foggy at the moment but I think I judged him and proceeded to take a KO but he got the twins to goth reuniculus in the same turn. I was running out of options so I used the card I hadn't used all day aka Bellsprout to work some magic for me. I Judge him again and drag up the reuniculus but he gets switch and cheren off the judge . With the game at 2-2 prizes I had no way to take or prevent him from taking the final prizes so I scoop and end at the day at 6-1. I was honestly quite disappointed with myself afterwards after the game because I didn't play at my best in finals when I had played relatively mistake free in all games beforehand. Had I not misplayed that Game 1 and had Game 2 played out the same way I would have been undefeated on the day but I guess it was not meant to be. Most of the people still remaining in the store congratulated me on my day and I thank each and everyone of you for doing so. Congrats on Murray on his first Battle Roads win and I hope we both play better in the next event!
Props:
-Cor and Kevin for sticking with me through finals
-Kabir for being Kabir I guess
-Jonathan (Joey's Dad) for being such a pleasure to talk to
-Joey for winning Seniors again and power spraying people
-Bidier, Sandy for running a great event
-Jasmine for helping Bidier and Sandy
-All my opponents for the games (no donks
)-Jack for believing in Lucky Charms
-Going first all day err day (this rule is just broken)
-CJ, and Vincent just because
-April I guess =.=
Slops:
-Kevin and Cor whiffing cut
-One of the worst misplays I've done playing this game
-Lending someone 2 typhlosion primes and forgetting to get them back at the end of the day
-Pokeball trophy card
-CJ for not going to BRs because of family stuff
-Annoying little netdeckers who distract people playing in Top Cut
PS for those interested in seeing the list I played for Battle Roads the youtube channel theTeamBTCG will have a video of it sometime within the next week. The channel is run by my friends and it provides solid deck advice as well as pre-tournament analysis of the major decks that you'll see in the future. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheTeamBTCG
Last edited:
