The Saddest Bubble - Top 65 Collinsville Report

[Ninjask88]

Hello everyone, and thank you for reading or at least attempting to read my tournament report! I would like to start off by introducing myself. My name is Cole Bernhardt, and I am from the central Illinois area. 2011 is when I started going to tournaments. If you happen to see me at one, I am most likely wearing a twenty one pilots shirt or TSM jacket. With that out of the way, on to the report!
One last thing, this is probably going to be formatted terribly. Mostly, it’s because I don’t remember how to make it look nice on the ‘Gym or how to insert pictures and don’t feel like learning. And editing, no money for an editor here. ​

The Ride Down
I arrive at my friend Allen’s house as usual to start this trip. For this tournament it’s only us two, but it’ll still be a fun trip! The time is a little after six in the evening on friday night and none of us have eaten so we stop by the local Casey’s for some food. Little did I know that it would take roughly fifteen minutes for them to make me a sub. Probably won’t get another one there soon… Once we start on the road we both discuss about the meta and whatnot while I still decide what deck to play.

The two decks I have been testing are Yveltal Maxie’s with Ninja Boy or Carbink. With Carbink, I have been trying Russel’s list from some1’spc and also a variant of my own with Lycanroc GX in it. Both have shown promise but not sure how it will stack up in the meta. GXs in general could be a problem for it. Yveltal being the other option is the tried and true pick that has generally even matchups across the board.

We make it to hotel in about two hours (praise the Lord), check into the hotel, and go downstairs to test a little bit. I notice some familiar people there. One of them happens to be my TSM brother from Colorado who was gracious enough to talk to me about Shurima one Nats and the rest is baylife.

Allen starts off with a Gold Potion, Puzzle of Time, and Fairy Drop Primal Groudon list that we have been testing. The decks either wins hard or bricks and gets steamrolled. Yveltal is my choice, and it is running smooth for me. He then switches to his pick for the event of Volcanion, and I still am piloting Yveltal. Everything goes well, I decide I’ll play Yveltal tomorrow, we get food, unpack the Switch, settle in our room, and I get ready for bed as Allen plays Zelda.

The List:
2 Yveltal EX
2 Darkrai EX DEX
2 Yveltal BKT
1 Gallade BKT
1 Archeops DEX
1 Shaymin ROS
1 Zekrom BW
1 Jirachi EX
1 Sableye DEX
1 Tauros GX

7 Dark
4 Double Colorless

3 Professor Juniper
2 N
2 Lysandre
1 Ghetsis
1 AZ
1 Ninja Boy
1 Professor Kukui
1 Maxie's Hidden Ball Trick
4 Dark Patch
4 VS Seeker
4 Ultra Ball
3 Battle Compressor
2 Trainers' Mail
1 Float Stone
2 Fighting Fury Belt
1 Computer Search
2 Silent Lab
1 Parallel City

Pre Tournament
Thankfully, the hotel is a 2 minute drive from our hotel, so we don’t have to wake up too early! I wake up, go for a two mile run at the gym, print out some blank decklists, shower, and we get some breakfast then head proceed to the venue.

We arrive, and I don’t have my list filled out. Allen and I fight through the crowd of people and find a spot to sit next to Brandon, Jay, Owen, and the like. They are testing as I am filling out my decklist, and I casually take note of what they are playing. I still feel confident with my deck, especially with my tech Ninja Boy into Zekrom for the mirror that is expected to make a big showing. I guess I should talk about that a little bit.

The idea behind Zekrom is simple. Ninja Boy into Tauros for a KO is good, but being able to do it in the mirror or any deck into a single prize attacker is good too. I just couldn’t resist not playing it since I am already playing Ninja Boy. After an opponents Pitch Black Spear or Y Cyclone, Zekrom then becomes lethal against Yveltal EX. Plus being able just to do decent damage against other decks for a single prize is nice too.

I finish my decklist and am ready to get in line. However, we try to find Paul so he can borrow some Tropical Beaches for his Accelgor deck. We are not successful, and the reception for Verizon was terrible for me. Calling him wasn’t going to work. Anywho, we get in line, see Vince, and turn in our lists. Later on, we meet up with Paul and Emily who have a nice table out of the play area to sit. Allen plays Zelda and the roster goes up. I glance at it and see I am there. Later on in pairings I find out that my name was misspelled as Barnhardt and not Bernhardt. Oh well. Not a big deal to me.

Round One: Bye

I get a bye! Wow this is the biggest Regional ever with 705 masters, and I get the bye! I wasn’t really sure how I felt about that. OK, free win. But, I also really wanted to play. So, I then use this time to walk around and scope the field.

There are lot of different decks out there! I didn’t really see much Trev or Dark. Really, I didn’t see much of any one deck. There did seem to be a little bit more of grass decks I guess. Namely Vileplume, and I did not look forward to having to face those.
After walking around perusing the vendors, I sit back down with Emily who isn’t feeling too well, and wait for Paul and Allen to finish their games. They come back and tell us how there matches went. We all find it funny how I got the bye. Someone had to get it. Bye 1-0

Round Two: John Robertson (Flareon/Vespiuen)

Pairings are up, and I actually get to play now! As he sits down, he is familiar looking. He was in the lobby of our hotel testing last night. That’s where I remembered him from. I didn’t get a chance to see what deck he was playing then, so just gotta wait for the game to start. We talk before, and I mention I got the bye first and he says I am lucky to get the bye and then to play a PokeDad round two. I was quite convinced, because some PokeDads are actually pretty good opponents!

I win the flip and start Darkrai to his Combee and Eevee. Okay, so get out Archeops and play around Wob and hope for a no Hex. I got this. Turn one I don’t have the Maxie’s, actually I don’t have much. However, I do get a Silent Lab down before I pass my turn. He attaches a fire to his Eevee and passes. The Silent Lab really neutered his set up. He had Jirachi EX in hand, and Lab was in play all game. He tried to stall with Lysandre a few turns, but it never amounted to anything. Game one I win.

For game two he goes first, but I do get the turn one Archeops this time! We both had the same starting Pokemon this game too, Combee/Eevee to Darkrai. He was able to get an Eevee evolved thanks to it’s ability, but is never able to take a prize with it. I KO it, and he is left Sky Returning to no avail for damage. His Hex Maniac was prized, and I clean up for the win. WW 2-0

Round Three: Jeffrey Surran (Turbo Dark)

We played last at this Regional last year in round two I do believe. I was playing Yveltal Maxie’s and he was playing Raikou. He rolled me both games last time… This match fortunately was not the same for me.

He wins the flip with me starting Sableye to his BKP Darkrai EX. He attaches and passes. I have a possible Maxie’s this turn, however, it is prized. Not much happens then this game. I play a Silent Lab down and then just Pitch Black Spear for game. His Hoopa EX was prized anyways.

With him going first for the second game he has a better start and is able to get more energy on the field this time. I do notice that when he Ultra
Balled he only got a Darkrai with it. Turns out Hoopa was prized again. On my turn, I get the turn one Gallade. I actually got side tracked while I was looking through my deck and ended up getting a BKT Yveltal instead of Jirachi EX so I could get the Maxie’s and guarantee an attack this turn. So, I have to burn my Computer Search to finish the Maxie’s combo instead of getting the Float Stone to retreat my active. I didn’t matter though, since I got the Float off of Maxie’s.

Both of us end up not attacking the first two turns because I still whiffed the energy. Turn three he attacks into my Tauros for 170 with a Fighting Fury Belted Darkrai. Mad Bull GX got the KO the next turn with him following suit with another Dark Pulse on my Tauros. With us even on prizes, I bring up Gallade to get another two prizes. I take a prize off of an XY Yveltal the next turn. He has another Yveltal with 3 energy on this one that takes out my Gallade with him Ning me to one. I draw the energy to use my Yveltal EX to win the match. WW 3-0

Lunch Break
Good guy Vince giving us a lunch break. Paul, Emily, Allen, and I head out to Qdoba for some food. On the way, Paul sees a Penn Station so we eat there instead. Kind of pricey and not as good as Jimbo’s Jumbo. 6.5/10 We take the food back to the venue, eat in the car, then check pairings. I am playing my friend Jay Young!
​

Round Four: Jay Young (Trevenant)

Jay and I have only played once before at a league challenge which I won. Not looking to lose now. I assume he is either playing Trevenant or Yveltal. I am hoping for the latter because I want to bust Zekrom out. As I am making my way to the table, Bryan told me he was playing Trees. Dang playing against Jay with Trevenant, at least he’s a cool guy. Even though they are weak to dark, it is still just dependant on if I can draw energy under lock. Zekrom will have to wait another round.

He wins the flip and as per the strat, gets the turn one item lock. Luckily, that is all he had though. I start with Darkrai EX, and just attach energy till I sweep and he scoops. He was also 0 for 3 on Crushing Hammers this game.

Game two he gets the lock first turn against my lone Jirachi EX. To add insult to my start, he Head Ringers my poor Jirachi. All I can do is attach to it hoping to draw into another pokemon and pass. Jay evolves to the Break and Silent Fears. I simply attach and pass. Turn three is the same just another Silent Fear. My hand has been actually pretty good if it wasn’t for item lock: Double Dark Patch, Trainers’ Mail, Computer Search, and Battle Compressor. So, this is my last turn to do something. I top deck Ninja Boy! My Jirachi has Dark, Dark, and a Double Colorless right now with a Head Ringer on it.

I Ninja Boy into Darkrai EX. Tauros GX was definitely an option since I can GX attack for the KO and it’s not affected by Head Ringer. I choose Darkrai, because I can Night Spear this turn and also with resistance it will take more attacks to kill. Now Darkrai is on a rampage through his deck provided I can keep energy attached. I kill two Trees before he gets any energy denial. He flips heads on a Crushing Hammer and takes away a dark on Darkrai…

Now, I am thinking he also has the Enhanced Hammer in hand to really cripple me since I have no other Pokemon in play. He doesn’t though. Next turn I attach a dark and Night Spear for till I win. WW 4-0

Jay and I talk afterwards, see how he’s doing and whatnot. He says that he just derped on the Crushing Hammer flip. Totally forgot that Darkrai had a Head Ringer on it, hence why he took the dark off instead of the DCE. Oh well. I’ll take it.

Round 5: Steven Carnley (Seismitoad/Decidueye)

Alright, so Steven you were a pretty cool and chill guy! Thanks for the match and also he was from Texas. (Not that that part really matters, but it was in my notes…)

Game one I mulligan twice before I can find a basic and he won the flip. On his first turn he is able to get one Decidueye GX out with a Seismitoad EX active with a Float Stone on it. I started Sableye active with BKT Yveltal on the bench so I can try for the turn one attack with it. Archeops finds its way to the bench, but that’s about it. My Sableye dies to a Quaking Punch and the ‘Eye drops from last turn and this turn.

From this point on, it is a slow game. Eventually I play Kukui and Evil Ball for 120 on Toad. Next turn he Ninja Boys the Toad into Tauros and says Rage to knock out my Yveltal EX that had 30 damage from a previous Punch. I say that he will have to Mad Bull GX to get the KO on me because for some reason I thought that it only had 100 damage on it. So, he actually agrees and then flips his GX marker over. For some reason we both couldn’t math for a moment.

On my turn I just bring up a BKT Yveltal to sacrifice and pass. During his turn, I realise that Rage would have killed me, point it out, and tell him he still has his GX attack and then we resume play as normal. Sorry for the mix up! I guess I thought that Evil against a Toad is always 100 damage, even though I played Kukui to boost the damage. At this point he has taken 4 prizes now to my 0.

Eventually, I kill the Tauros and the game is at the point that he can kill my Shaymin on the Bench with a Feather Arrow and attack from Decidueye with a Lysandre and a Forest of Giant Plants to bump the Parallel I have reducing his damage. He whiffs it though and just uses Hollow Hunt GX for Computer Search and two Double Colorless Energies.

I am at the point now where I have to decide whether to N him to 2 or use Ghetsis to get strip his hand. I go for the Ghetsis because I figure he probably has a VS Seeker in hand and Comp Search is too strong for him to have. Ghetsis takes 4 cards total one of which was a VS Seeker. This leaves him with just the energy and AZ in hand. I am able to finally Evil Ball his Decidueye to death and win game one!

Game two starts off with us having a gentlemen’s mulligan and then him mulliganing two more times. I have an Yveltal EX active, and he just is dead drawing so he passes. This turn I have a possible Maxie’s for Archeops but alas, the Maxie’s is prized. I then settle for Ninja Boy the Yveltal EX into Tauros and just using Horn Attack. I do have a Darkrai EX on bench as well with an energy from a Dark Patch attached to it. Which is important.

He does have energy for the Quaking Punch, but knows Punching a Bull is a bad idea. Lysandreing my Darkrai is the only way it will work for him. So, he does that a few times, but Dark Cloak pulls it weigh or rather gets rid of it and I just retreat out till I knock out his Pokemon with Tauros. WW 5-0

At this point I really like how the tournament is going 5 and 0. Awesome! Paul ended up dropping, and Emily was feeling worse so they left. Allen and I now had to hold down the table for ourselves now.

Round 6: Alex Wilson (Mega Rayquaza)

Table numbah 3, alright get hyped! Kind of was hoping to be streamed, but wasn’t. :/ Oh well.

The flip is tails, and I get to go first. Sableye is the starter that I have and my hand is junk, not even the Junk Hunt kind. He started Shaymin EX, so I have no idea what he is playing. My turn consists of me playing Ninja Boy into BKT Yveltal, because I figure that it will be the least likely to be KO’d since he will have to most likely use his attachment to retreat his Shaymin. I pass and hope not to get donked.

Turns out that he is playing Mega Rayquaza EX and choosing that Yveltal for it’s Fright Night Ability was the right play instead of going into Tauros. He goes off on and I actually have to point out that the Rayquaza he just evolved ends his turn because of Fright Night. I think his plan was to donk me, because he went on playing out his turn till I mentioned that. Oh well, no big deal. My next turn didn’t net me anything making me lose anyways.

Alex says he was sorry and feels bad about still winning the game despite forgetting about Fright Night. I say that he can just give me the win if he feels that bad. He didn’t feel that bad though…

Game two I start BKT Yveltal to his Hoopa and Ghesis him for 5 cards leaving him with a Double Colorless in hand. The game should have been won for me right there. I attach to my active, and pass. He draws Rayquaza EX and benches that with DCE and passes. So I have some basic darks in hand and other cards, but I want the DCE to start attacking this turn. I play Juniper and dig for it with Shaymin afterwards. I whiff. Okay, so if I would have just attached a basic still no attack so not a huge deal yet. I pass, he draws, passes, and my turn.

This turn I get the Archeops out now, so it will be harder for him to even get a decent attacker now, but still no DCE to be found! In getting the Maxie’s I did have to bench Zekrom though. :/ I am powering up an Yveltal EX on the bench, but that won’t work for now. Eventually, I find the DCE and start spreading damage. However, he is able to start drawing cards to set up. It gets to the point where I can bring up my only other good attacker, Yveltal EX, to get a KO but it would most certainly die in return because I can’t find my stadiums to limit his bench.

So before I can get rid of his Mega Rays that he was able to get out with Hex Maniacs, he Lysandres my Yveltal EX. Now, I made a misplay here. My
previous turn, I could have KO’d a Mega Ray that was active by using Ninja Boy on my active BKT Yveltal into my other Yveltal EX and KO with Evil Ball. Sadly, I didn’t do that, because I didn’t remember if my second one was prized or not. So, I played N or something to further my board. This was the foley. I should have risked it because that most likely would have won me the game. In doing so, I would have knocked out his Mega Ray, and if he was going to get the return KO I had my other EX on the bench to KO his other Mega Ray which would have left him with no attacker. Dang, the throws on my part.

With him taking the KO on my formerly benched Yveltal EX, I do bring up Zekrom to KO the Mega Ray with 180 damage out it by using outrage for 40 with weakness. Zekrom dies and his active Mega Ray has 60 damage on it. I then attack with Darkrai EX putting it at 150. He N’s me to 2 and KOs my Darkrai. I promote my Tauros on the bench that has a Fighting Fury Belt on it. If I can draw the DCE I win because I knocked out the Mega Ray and Hoopa. Whiffed the DCE and that was the story of that game. Whiffing DCEs. LL 5-1

I actually don’t feel to bad at this point. First loss comes at round 6. I’ll take. Just gotta win two games out of three. I’ll take those odds.

Good job winning the tournament! Congrats!

Round Seven: Bradley Curcio (Volcanion)

Eh, for game one I go second and have on okay start. For his first turn, he ultra balls for something and discarded an N and Juniper. I think it was a Volcanion EX he got, because a fire also made it’s way to the discard. He started with a baby Volcanion active and got a Fury Belt and energy attached to it. Now, before passing his turn, I see him looking through his discard which is two supporters, an energy, and an ultra ball. After doing so, he passes.

I am thinking three things right now. He didn’t play a supporter, he has a VS seeker in hand, and wanted to hold onto to something for next turn. With this read, I go ahead and play Ghetsis. I have a Fright Night active that I attached to and wouldn’t be able to attack with it this turn regardless of what supporter I played. So, that’s why I Ghetsis. I was right, he did have a VS seeker in hand. Much to my dismay, he also had a Colress and another energy in hand, so my strategy of taking him out of the game didn’t work. Dang. It was a bold play that didn’t work. Had I played Juniper I would have been in a much better position for the late game. Since I didn’t do that, I slowly lost the game. Colress saved him because I had Jirachi EX, Shaymin EX, and Yveltal EX all on my bench before I played Ghetsis.

In my games, I hardly think about scooping. The reason being is because I can play fast when need be, and that Yveltal can just pull wins out. That is why I let the game go on.

For the next game, he starts lone Exeggcute. I proceed to Ghetsis him and get a BKT Yveltal going and he scoops.

Alright, game three. Aaaaaand I start Jirachi EX. Not a good way to start this game. My hand is not good. I do have an N to try and get something going though. Curcio did have to ditch his Tool Scrapper and Dowsing Machine on his first turn from a Juniper which did give me some hope. I manage to get Jirachi out of the active spot, and before I can bounce it with Parallel or Ninja Boy it away, it was added as fuel to his fire.

Over the course of the game, I do manage to take one measly prize and resort to trying to Lysandre stall a Hoopa EX. Time is called and he has a VS Seeker for AZ to be able to attack and win the match. He set up the final prize fairly well with him using Steam Up twice and attacking with a Volcanion to put my Yveltal EX at 80 with a Fury Belt meaning it gets killed with a regular Volcanic Heat since I put a Silent Lab in play. Furthermore, he attached an energy to Volcanion EX to attack next turn and another one without any energy so he could Blacksmith to the now single energy one to retreat. While looking through his discard I didn’t notice the AZ which made it moot and it made me feel a little better, because he didn’t notice it at first either.

One funny thing about the game is at one point I played down a stadium to replace his Skyfield and we both just kind of stared at each other. I was waiting for him to remove Pokemon from his bench, while he was waiting for me to play out my turn. Oops. After a couple moments, I told him what I was waiting for then we continued the regularly scheduled match. LWL 5-2

Shoot boys, gotta win out from here. Let’s do this.

Round 8: Andrew Wambolt (Yveltal Maxie’s)

Finally! I get to play against the mirror. What I have been waiting for all day. Andrew goes first and I start BKT Yveltal to his Yveltal EX I do believe. He uses Ghetsis on me for 3 (FFB, Float, T-Mail). No big deal, because I have both Ns and Lysandre in hand too. My turn, I play N, get some things, and attach to my active and pass.

Gallade number one comes out for him, and he is able to do more things till it is my turn . I am able to get a Pitch Black Spear off this turn but not much else. Turns out that both my Gallade the the Dark Knight Zekrom are prized. Not I how I want this mirror to go. His next turn another Gallade hits the field. Not looking good for me. I try to slow him down with Silent Lab as to make his retreats hurt. Nothing comes from that, and I only take like three prizes to his six.

Game two and my start isn’t terrible. Silent Lab and Ghetsis are both out turn one for me. Float Stone and Fighting Fury Belt are discarded for me to get a Shaymin to Set Up. Which that doesn’t yield me much. Fortunately, we simultaneously are not drawing well. Oh yeah, Zekrom and Gallade are both prized AGAIN! Slowly, I lose to getting Kukuied, Pitch Black Speared, and Sky Return looped. There goes top cutting. LL 5-3

I am a little perturbed now after blowing that 5-0 start. Will I ever be able to top a Regional? Going into the next round, I know I have amazing resistance and gotta try for that win to get top 64 for more points and some of that money.

Round 9: Nolan Randall (Turbo Dark)

I don’t remember who went first this game. I do recall me just getting Gallade out and taking control of the game. He did take the first two prizes off of my Shaymin EX though. Actually he did take four prizes, but I felt in control the entire game. BKT Yveltal and Gallade make this match up fairly simply.

For the next round, I am not able to get Gallade out and don’t have a great start. I just lose. Nothing special about it.

Going into game three I realize that we could very easily go into a tie. I ask Nolan if he would want to have a way to determine a winner if it does go to time. He thinks for a moment and decides what would work best. This didn’t matter.

His start is not very strong compared to my early Gallade that starts bopping Darkrai EXs. Gallade does go down but by that point I think I just Lysandre a Shaymin and KO it with Yveltal EX. WLW 6-3

Another 6-3 Regional for me which makes 3 now. This is not a habit that I like. Allen dropped after round 6 or so, and I call him outside to come back with the car and we wait for results. Once they are posted, there is the normal huge mass of people crowding the way. All I can see is the top of the second row of papers which shows 86th place or around there which are all 6-3s. I make my way to where I can see the bottom of the first row and look for my name. I find Cole Barnhardt, not Bernhardt remember, and look at the place. 65th. I was right about my resistance. The highest among the 6-3s, but still 65th.

Ya know what 65th gets? 12 points. That’s it. No money. I essentially just got second at a League Challenge. Dang. This really sucks.

I am bummed out about that and am really tired at this point. Also, my hands are really cracked and are bleeding. Allen and I are both hungry so we get pizza. Jay and Owen and friends show up there later as we wait 40 minutes for our ‘za, because we were never told it was done. It probably sat in the warmer for 30 minutes. Zzz…

Before the Regional, Allen and I made deal that if I didn’t make day 2 I would go disc golfing with him. Personally, I am not a fan of it, but Allen really enjoys it. I end up getting beat by one throw/stroke after the 18 holes are played. Not too bad for me! On the way back, I thought that I was going to be able to pick up a copy of Mario Kart: Double Dash from a person from Craigslist. The person has yet to respond back to me. That may be the biggest bummer of the whole weekend right there. Honestly, the only things I would have done differently would be not playing Ninja Boy on my BKT Yveltal into Yveltal EX game two against Alex, and playing Ghetsis game one against Brad. Gotta learn from these mistakes though.

Thank you to all the people who I met over the weekend who made it an enjoyable experience for me! I appreciate the time we had together. Thank you to my opponents for putting up with me and for our matches we had together. Although I didn’t do as well as I wanted, I know that I am not defined by results from an event but what I do for God. Thank you for reading this!

Props:
Paul
Seeing Friends I don’t normally get to be with
Allen dropping his breakfast
Free breakfast
Not getting destroyed in disc golf
Full strips of bacon on pizza
65th place
Spending quality time with friends
Going 5-0

Slops:
Getting 65th place
Zekrom being prized both mirror games
Jay dropping his pizza
Not being on stream
Emily being sick
Losing one of Allen’s discs