Hi, I’m Michael. I live in New York City and usually play in the tri-state area, meaning Rhode Island was certainly not familiar territory. I chose to play The Truth because it is a skill-oriented deck with incredible comeback potential and room to outplay your opponents. It has very few bad match-ups and I had the most experience with it, playing in 6 Battle Roads and earning 3 Championship Points. I used Kyogre/Groudon for the first 4 and for the most part it didn’t go well. Suicune/Entei is far superior, hence my decision to go with it.
If I you played me and I don’t remember your name, LMK. I’ve never seen half the people I played in this tournament.
Round 1: Kyle M. (Donphan/Yanmega/Cinccino/Zoroark)
I go second with Zekrom to his Minccino. He sets up some basics and gets heads on Last Resort for 30. I bench Phanpy and pass, anticipating a Cinccino KO to activate Twins. He just uses Last Resort for another 30. I pass. He KO’s Zekrom with Donphan. I Twins for Pichu and Twins, retreat Phanpy with a DCE and Playground for 2 Oddish and 2 Solosis. Pichu stays asleep and he passes. I Twins to get Vileplume and Tropical Beach in play and end my turn with Tropical Beach. Pichu wakes up and Donphan KO’s it. He picks off 2 more basics with Yanmega before I have Donphan and Reuniclus set up, too. I take 3 prizes with Heavy Impact before my field accumulates enough damage to necessitate the use of Blissey. I do, and also Seeker it up, allowing him to pick up a damaged Yanmega. Time is called and I hit a fresh Yanmega for 70 I think. Prizes are 3-2 him. He can win if Cleffa stays asleep going into my turn, then wakes up going into his turn to retreat into a fresh Yanmega and stall for the last turn of +3. It stays asleep into my turn. I pass. It stays asleep going into his turn, too. The game comes down to a flip. He rolls heads, allowing me to Heavy Impact Cleffa for the KO and tie the prize count. There is no way for him to take a prize and I Heavy Impact twice to win. GG 1-0
Round 2: Patrick R. (MegaZone)
I start Cleffa to his Yanma. My slow start is coupled with his refusal to take prizes. He attempts to Linear attack a benched Donphan 6 times, but I get Reuniclus out after the fifth to foil that plan. I KO my Cleffa with Damage Swap to activate Twins, then Outrage for 80. He Linear Attack’s something on the bench for a KO. I get Bellossom in play and have no more Linear Attack Targets. Outrage KO’s Yanmega. He’s forced to KO it with Magnezone. I Earthquake it twice. Here we come to a stalemate. He can’t get another Magnezone and energy into play and I only have 1 Rainbow on Donphan against his 2 Yanmega. I have a Rainbow and DCE in hand and for some reason I decide to attach the Rainbow to a benched Zekrom with a DCE on it, perhaps anticipating a Bolt Strike on Magnezone so Yanmega couldn’t revenge KO if I used Outrage instead. However, time is called at 4-4 prizes. Neither of us can take one and it degenerates into who can draw an energy first to win. I need one more to retreat Donphan and Outrage. He needs one more to OHKO Donphan with Lost Burn. Both of us use one of our +3 turns to Tropical Beach, but neither get it. A suspenseful 2 turns later I topdeck Seeker to pick up Zekrom, so I can attach the DCE to it this turn, then retreat Donphan with the Rainbow next turn. However, he topdecks a Lightning and Lost Burns 4 energy to win. GG 1-1
Round 3: ??? (Gothitelle/Tornadus/Zoroark)
He goes first with Gothita to my Solosis and puts it to sleep. I Collector for 2 Oddish and Solosis. He evolves to Gothorita, attaches a Psychic and passes. I Collector for 2 Zekrom and Phanpy. He evolves to Gothitelle, attaches a third Psychic and KO’s Solosis. I Twins for Donphan and Duosion and Earthquake. He uses Potion and Madkinesis for 70. I Twins for Reuniclus and Gloom, move the damage to Zekrom and Earthquake. He Catchers Reuniclus and KO’s it. I promote Zekrom and Outrage for the KO. He puts Zekrom to sleep with Hypnotic Gaze while setting up a Tornadus and Zorua on the bench. It stays asleep and I set up Vileplume. My second Duosion and Reuniclus are prized, so I get Rotom out, too. Zekrom is KO’d by Tornadus. I Earthquake it with a Donphan with 60 on it while building a second one on the bench. Several sacrifices and Mischievous Tricks later, I have another Donphan and Reuniclus in play, and it is only a matter of time before Heavy Impact rolls through the rest of his Pokemon. GG 2-1
Round 4: ??? (Donphan/Samurott/Zekrom/Vileplume)
I remember playing against this deck before nationals and how brutally it exploits weakness. Well, almost everything in The Truth is weak to water and the rest is weak to fighting, so this was going to be a challenge. I go second with Oddish to his Phanpy. Both our starts are slow, but he gets a turn 3 Vileplume and begins evolving the 2 Oshawott on the bench. I get Reuniclus, but know it won’t be doing much if he can OHKO my Pokemon. He Earthquakes Oddish on turn 4 or 5 and I promote Bellossom. I notice he only has one fighting on the active Donphan, so it won’t be retreating anytime soon. Suicune/Entei can snipe around it and with Indigo Plateau Samurott would need 3 Rainbow attached to OHKO it, since he doesn’t play any water energy. The plan works and Suicune/Entei picks of his Samurott with 2 Torrent Blades and Bursting Inferno when Donphan can eventually retreat. Bellossom heals 60 damage every turn, so even the constant Hydro Pumps for 160 aren’t having any effect. I win this game by four prizes after the +3 turns are over. GG 3-1
Round 5: ??? (The Truth)
He goes first with an active Solosis and Phanpy on the bench, attaches a fighting to the Phanpy and uses Copycat for 5. I open with 2 Oddish, Collector for Zekrom, Solosis, and Cleffa and Eeeeeeek. Over the next few turns he can’t get anything else in play besides a Donphan with 3 energy despite having used 4 or 5 Copycat and Oak. He takes the first prize on Cleffa, allowing me to completely set up with Twins. Once Reuniclus and Suicune/Entei hit the field, I roll through his inferior set up with 3 Torrent Blades and 3 Bursting Infernos. GG 5-1
Round 6: David S. (ZPST)
We’re friends and each know what the other is playing and he is not happy about it. I get Vileplume on turn 2 or 3, followed by Twins for Reuniclus and Donphan. He does 60 with Hurricane to Donphan and Bellossom heals 60 every turn. He points out the stupidity of the situation and I agree. Donphan takes all 6 prizes. Sorry. GG 6-1
Round 7: Andrew K. (Typhlosion/Reshiram)
I have an atrocious Chansey start and can’t get anything set up and pretty soon I’m staring down 3 Typhlosion and prizes are 6-2 in his favor. The only thing I had going was a Vileplume. I finally topdeck Twins, but have to sacrifice another prize to conserve energy. The turn before he is about to win I can Twins for Reuniclus to stall with an active Zekrom while I Twins for Suicune/Entei the next turn and power it up. Four turns later, I retreat Zekrom and Bursting Inferno Reshiram for my first prize. He responds with another Reshiram, and that gets OHKO’d, too. Then, he benches Bellsprout and Inviting Scents Reuniclus, hoping I don’t have a DCE to retreat (I have a DCE on Vileplume in anticipation of Bellsprout). I use the last DCE in my deck to retreat and Bursting Inferno Bellsprout. He promotes Reshiram and Blue Flares for 120 IIRC. I Damage Swap and Bursting Inferno. Now, prizes are 2-1 in his favor. Suicune/Entei has 3 Rainbow and a DCE on it and there are no energy left in my deck. He Flare Destroys the DCE. I Bursting Inferno to tie prizes at 1-1. He Flare Destroys a Rainbow with a second Typhlosion. There are 5 cards left in my deck. The only way I can win is to draw Seeker to pick up Vileplume with the DCE and bursting Inferno for the last prize. I draw and whiff. He Flare Destroys, leaving 1 Rainbow on Suicune/Entei. I draw, get the Seeker to pick up Vileplume, attach the DCE and Bursting Inferno for the win. GG 6-1
Round 8: Frank D. (ZPST)
I start with Zekrom and he can’t get a turn 1 KO. I get 2 Oddish, Solosis and Cleffa in play with Pichu. He makes the correct play and Catchers my Cleffa to KO with Hurricane, leaving me with a bad hand. I Playground to get a 3rd Oddish in play, hoping to buy an extra turn to get Vileplume. He Catchers Solosis and hits it for 80. I draw nothing for the next 2 turns while he proceeds to Catcher 2 Oddish. Finally, I topdeck either Rare Candy or Vileplume to get it into play and also bench a Phanpy. I promote Zekrom to stall for a turn. I evolve to Donphan and Duosion and pass. Zekrom is KO’d, leaving prizes at 6-1. I topdeck Copycat to match his 18 card hand and get everything I need to complete the lock and roll through the rest of his deck. After I take 4 prizes, he has either 0 or 1 cards left in his deck. He benches his secret tech, then plays Judge, followed by my Reuniclus being lured up by saliva. I draw Twins out of the 4 cards to get the DCE to retreat and KO his tech with Heavy Impact, leaving him with no way to take the last prize. GG 7-1
Standings go up and I’m the lowest seeded 7-1 at 6th. There is no 8-0. A total of 9 players from NYC made top cut. I look to see who is 27th and to my disappointment it is Darrell Moreno with MegaZone. That night I try to formulate a game plan at my hotel. Get Vileplume and Reuniclus out without giving up more than 3 prizes to Yanmega, then force Magnezone active by attacking with Zekrom. Then, run the deck out of energy with 2 Donphan. A lot has to go right for that to work. Darrell is an accomplished player and will play the match-up correctly, meaning he won’t take a prize until there are at least 2 Magnezone and 6 energy in play, in combination with Judge on the same turn. I tried to remain optimistic, but knew the inevitable.
Top 32: Darrell M. (MegaZone)
Game 1: I have a decent start and can get all of my basics in play, but he won’t KO anything until fully set up. I wait with 3 Twins in my hand while he continues to set up. 5 or 6 turns into the game, he plays Judge and Linear Attacks an Oddish. I don’t draw well besides Tropical Beach, and with only 1 Oddish in play, I know this won’t end well. I use Tropical Beach, he’s able to match my hand size, and I scoop a few turns later, knowing he can Lost Burn for his last 2 prizes. GG 0-1
Game 2: Similar to game 1, except I was able to get Vileplume and 2 Reuniclus in play by turn 10 or so with him at 2 prizes left. I take a pity prize with Zekrom and his 3 Magnezone can take the rest easily. GG 0-2 (7-2)
I watched the rest of the tournament unfold. Had I won that game, I would’ve faced ZPST, MegaZone, MegaZone, and MegaZone, in that order. That was definitely the worst possible bracket to be in with The Truth, containing all 4 MegaZone decks in top 32 IIRC. Congratulations to Alex Frezza for taking 1st place. Thanks to my friends in California and at my league for corroborating on the deck with me. Here is the list I used. It’s quite obsolete with the release of Noble Victories.
3-1-1/2 Bellossom/Vileplume
2-2 Donphan
1-1 Suicune/Entei
1-1 Blissey
1 Pichu
1 Cleffa
1 Rotom
3-2-2 Reuniclus
2 Zekrom
4 Pokemon Collector
4 Twins
4 Rare Candy
4 Cheren
2 Professor Elm’s Training Method
1 Copycat
1 Judge
1 Seeker
1 Indigo Plateau
1 Tropical Beach
4 Double Colorless Energy
4 Rainbow Energy
2 Fighting Energy
Thanks for reading and best of luck at City Championships!
If I you played me and I don’t remember your name, LMK. I’ve never seen half the people I played in this tournament.
Round 1: Kyle M. (Donphan/Yanmega/Cinccino/Zoroark)
I go second with Zekrom to his Minccino. He sets up some basics and gets heads on Last Resort for 30. I bench Phanpy and pass, anticipating a Cinccino KO to activate Twins. He just uses Last Resort for another 30. I pass. He KO’s Zekrom with Donphan. I Twins for Pichu and Twins, retreat Phanpy with a DCE and Playground for 2 Oddish and 2 Solosis. Pichu stays asleep and he passes. I Twins to get Vileplume and Tropical Beach in play and end my turn with Tropical Beach. Pichu wakes up and Donphan KO’s it. He picks off 2 more basics with Yanmega before I have Donphan and Reuniclus set up, too. I take 3 prizes with Heavy Impact before my field accumulates enough damage to necessitate the use of Blissey. I do, and also Seeker it up, allowing him to pick up a damaged Yanmega. Time is called and I hit a fresh Yanmega for 70 I think. Prizes are 3-2 him. He can win if Cleffa stays asleep going into my turn, then wakes up going into his turn to retreat into a fresh Yanmega and stall for the last turn of +3. It stays asleep into my turn. I pass. It stays asleep going into his turn, too. The game comes down to a flip. He rolls heads, allowing me to Heavy Impact Cleffa for the KO and tie the prize count. There is no way for him to take a prize and I Heavy Impact twice to win. GG 1-0
Round 2: Patrick R. (MegaZone)
I start Cleffa to his Yanma. My slow start is coupled with his refusal to take prizes. He attempts to Linear attack a benched Donphan 6 times, but I get Reuniclus out after the fifth to foil that plan. I KO my Cleffa with Damage Swap to activate Twins, then Outrage for 80. He Linear Attack’s something on the bench for a KO. I get Bellossom in play and have no more Linear Attack Targets. Outrage KO’s Yanmega. He’s forced to KO it with Magnezone. I Earthquake it twice. Here we come to a stalemate. He can’t get another Magnezone and energy into play and I only have 1 Rainbow on Donphan against his 2 Yanmega. I have a Rainbow and DCE in hand and for some reason I decide to attach the Rainbow to a benched Zekrom with a DCE on it, perhaps anticipating a Bolt Strike on Magnezone so Yanmega couldn’t revenge KO if I used Outrage instead. However, time is called at 4-4 prizes. Neither of us can take one and it degenerates into who can draw an energy first to win. I need one more to retreat Donphan and Outrage. He needs one more to OHKO Donphan with Lost Burn. Both of us use one of our +3 turns to Tropical Beach, but neither get it. A suspenseful 2 turns later I topdeck Seeker to pick up Zekrom, so I can attach the DCE to it this turn, then retreat Donphan with the Rainbow next turn. However, he topdecks a Lightning and Lost Burns 4 energy to win. GG 1-1
Round 3: ??? (Gothitelle/Tornadus/Zoroark)
He goes first with Gothita to my Solosis and puts it to sleep. I Collector for 2 Oddish and Solosis. He evolves to Gothorita, attaches a Psychic and passes. I Collector for 2 Zekrom and Phanpy. He evolves to Gothitelle, attaches a third Psychic and KO’s Solosis. I Twins for Donphan and Duosion and Earthquake. He uses Potion and Madkinesis for 70. I Twins for Reuniclus and Gloom, move the damage to Zekrom and Earthquake. He Catchers Reuniclus and KO’s it. I promote Zekrom and Outrage for the KO. He puts Zekrom to sleep with Hypnotic Gaze while setting up a Tornadus and Zorua on the bench. It stays asleep and I set up Vileplume. My second Duosion and Reuniclus are prized, so I get Rotom out, too. Zekrom is KO’d by Tornadus. I Earthquake it with a Donphan with 60 on it while building a second one on the bench. Several sacrifices and Mischievous Tricks later, I have another Donphan and Reuniclus in play, and it is only a matter of time before Heavy Impact rolls through the rest of his Pokemon. GG 2-1
Round 4: ??? (Donphan/Samurott/Zekrom/Vileplume)
I remember playing against this deck before nationals and how brutally it exploits weakness. Well, almost everything in The Truth is weak to water and the rest is weak to fighting, so this was going to be a challenge. I go second with Oddish to his Phanpy. Both our starts are slow, but he gets a turn 3 Vileplume and begins evolving the 2 Oshawott on the bench. I get Reuniclus, but know it won’t be doing much if he can OHKO my Pokemon. He Earthquakes Oddish on turn 4 or 5 and I promote Bellossom. I notice he only has one fighting on the active Donphan, so it won’t be retreating anytime soon. Suicune/Entei can snipe around it and with Indigo Plateau Samurott would need 3 Rainbow attached to OHKO it, since he doesn’t play any water energy. The plan works and Suicune/Entei picks of his Samurott with 2 Torrent Blades and Bursting Inferno when Donphan can eventually retreat. Bellossom heals 60 damage every turn, so even the constant Hydro Pumps for 160 aren’t having any effect. I win this game by four prizes after the +3 turns are over. GG 3-1
Round 5: ??? (The Truth)
He goes first with an active Solosis and Phanpy on the bench, attaches a fighting to the Phanpy and uses Copycat for 5. I open with 2 Oddish, Collector for Zekrom, Solosis, and Cleffa and Eeeeeeek. Over the next few turns he can’t get anything else in play besides a Donphan with 3 energy despite having used 4 or 5 Copycat and Oak. He takes the first prize on Cleffa, allowing me to completely set up with Twins. Once Reuniclus and Suicune/Entei hit the field, I roll through his inferior set up with 3 Torrent Blades and 3 Bursting Infernos. GG 5-1
Round 6: David S. (ZPST)
We’re friends and each know what the other is playing and he is not happy about it. I get Vileplume on turn 2 or 3, followed by Twins for Reuniclus and Donphan. He does 60 with Hurricane to Donphan and Bellossom heals 60 every turn. He points out the stupidity of the situation and I agree. Donphan takes all 6 prizes. Sorry. GG 6-1
Round 7: Andrew K. (Typhlosion/Reshiram)
I have an atrocious Chansey start and can’t get anything set up and pretty soon I’m staring down 3 Typhlosion and prizes are 6-2 in his favor. The only thing I had going was a Vileplume. I finally topdeck Twins, but have to sacrifice another prize to conserve energy. The turn before he is about to win I can Twins for Reuniclus to stall with an active Zekrom while I Twins for Suicune/Entei the next turn and power it up. Four turns later, I retreat Zekrom and Bursting Inferno Reshiram for my first prize. He responds with another Reshiram, and that gets OHKO’d, too. Then, he benches Bellsprout and Inviting Scents Reuniclus, hoping I don’t have a DCE to retreat (I have a DCE on Vileplume in anticipation of Bellsprout). I use the last DCE in my deck to retreat and Bursting Inferno Bellsprout. He promotes Reshiram and Blue Flares for 120 IIRC. I Damage Swap and Bursting Inferno. Now, prizes are 2-1 in his favor. Suicune/Entei has 3 Rainbow and a DCE on it and there are no energy left in my deck. He Flare Destroys the DCE. I Bursting Inferno to tie prizes at 1-1. He Flare Destroys a Rainbow with a second Typhlosion. There are 5 cards left in my deck. The only way I can win is to draw Seeker to pick up Vileplume with the DCE and bursting Inferno for the last prize. I draw and whiff. He Flare Destroys, leaving 1 Rainbow on Suicune/Entei. I draw, get the Seeker to pick up Vileplume, attach the DCE and Bursting Inferno for the win. GG 6-1
Round 8: Frank D. (ZPST)
I start with Zekrom and he can’t get a turn 1 KO. I get 2 Oddish, Solosis and Cleffa in play with Pichu. He makes the correct play and Catchers my Cleffa to KO with Hurricane, leaving me with a bad hand. I Playground to get a 3rd Oddish in play, hoping to buy an extra turn to get Vileplume. He Catchers Solosis and hits it for 80. I draw nothing for the next 2 turns while he proceeds to Catcher 2 Oddish. Finally, I topdeck either Rare Candy or Vileplume to get it into play and also bench a Phanpy. I promote Zekrom to stall for a turn. I evolve to Donphan and Duosion and pass. Zekrom is KO’d, leaving prizes at 6-1. I topdeck Copycat to match his 18 card hand and get everything I need to complete the lock and roll through the rest of his deck. After I take 4 prizes, he has either 0 or 1 cards left in his deck. He benches his secret tech, then plays Judge, followed by my Reuniclus being lured up by saliva. I draw Twins out of the 4 cards to get the DCE to retreat and KO his tech with Heavy Impact, leaving him with no way to take the last prize. GG 7-1
Standings go up and I’m the lowest seeded 7-1 at 6th. There is no 8-0. A total of 9 players from NYC made top cut. I look to see who is 27th and to my disappointment it is Darrell Moreno with MegaZone. That night I try to formulate a game plan at my hotel. Get Vileplume and Reuniclus out without giving up more than 3 prizes to Yanmega, then force Magnezone active by attacking with Zekrom. Then, run the deck out of energy with 2 Donphan. A lot has to go right for that to work. Darrell is an accomplished player and will play the match-up correctly, meaning he won’t take a prize until there are at least 2 Magnezone and 6 energy in play, in combination with Judge on the same turn. I tried to remain optimistic, but knew the inevitable.
Top 32: Darrell M. (MegaZone)
Game 1: I have a decent start and can get all of my basics in play, but he won’t KO anything until fully set up. I wait with 3 Twins in my hand while he continues to set up. 5 or 6 turns into the game, he plays Judge and Linear Attacks an Oddish. I don’t draw well besides Tropical Beach, and with only 1 Oddish in play, I know this won’t end well. I use Tropical Beach, he’s able to match my hand size, and I scoop a few turns later, knowing he can Lost Burn for his last 2 prizes. GG 0-1
Game 2: Similar to game 1, except I was able to get Vileplume and 2 Reuniclus in play by turn 10 or so with him at 2 prizes left. I take a pity prize with Zekrom and his 3 Magnezone can take the rest easily. GG 0-2 (7-2)
I watched the rest of the tournament unfold. Had I won that game, I would’ve faced ZPST, MegaZone, MegaZone, and MegaZone, in that order. That was definitely the worst possible bracket to be in with The Truth, containing all 4 MegaZone decks in top 32 IIRC. Congratulations to Alex Frezza for taking 1st place. Thanks to my friends in California and at my league for corroborating on the deck with me. Here is the list I used. It’s quite obsolete with the release of Noble Victories.
3-1-1/2 Bellossom/Vileplume
2-2 Donphan
1-1 Suicune/Entei
1-1 Blissey
1 Pichu
1 Cleffa
1 Rotom
3-2-2 Reuniclus
2 Zekrom
4 Pokemon Collector
4 Twins
4 Rare Candy
4 Cheren
2 Professor Elm’s Training Method
1 Copycat
1 Judge
1 Seeker
1 Indigo Plateau
1 Tropical Beach
4 Double Colorless Energy
4 Rainbow Energy
2 Fighting Energy
Thanks for reading and best of luck at City Championships!
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