Hey Pokemoners! My name is Grady and I attended two city championships in Spokane, WA this weekend. On Saturday I played Chandelure/Vileplume and went 4-2 missing top cut by two spots. I lost in a mirror match and to a CAKE deck. The top cut was a little ridiculous with three out of the four top four spots being occupied by Zekrom variants. I wasn’t unhappy with the way Chandelure/Vileplume played, but for the second day I wanted to play something a little more “rogueish” and try to surprise some people. Little did I know that my random deck would unexpectedly perform better then Chandelure, an established meta deck.
Looking through my cards I was a little stumped as to what to play. I didn’t want to play anything to “mainstream” (insert obligatory hipster diss) but I also didn’t just want to play something that wouldn’t have any chance. I thought about trying Smoochum/Electivire for a fifty damage spread to everything, but after some testing I realized it ended up just being a much harder to set up version of Kyurem, without the added benefit of an outrage attack. Also, Shaymin completely kills the strategy. I then saw Haxorus and thought that pairing that with Dodrio might be a good combo. The Haxorus/Dodrio strategy worked very well, but it needed a second attacker. I tested many things, including Reshiram/Zekrom/Shaymin/Rainbow Energies, Jirachi/Psychic energies and even Scizor Prime, but in the end I realized that adding a 2-2 Yanmega line and four copycats allows you to run a low energy count while still having a great second attacker.
Well without farther ado, here’s the list I used!
Pokemon – 21
4 Axew NV
3 Fraxure NV
4 Haxorus NV
2 Yanma TM
2 Yanmega TM
2 Doduo UD
2 Dodrio UD
1 Cleffa HS
1 Unown (cure) TM
Trainers – 31
4 Pokemon Collector
3 Pokemon Catcher
3 Rare Candy
2 Sage’s Training
2 Rocky Helmet
3 Pokemon Communication
4 Junk Arm
2 Professor Juniper
2 Pluspower
4 Copycat
1 N
1 Judge
Energy – 8
4 Double Colorless
4 Rescue
So let me explain some of the cards in the deck. The 4-3-4 Haxorus worked out best for me in testing, and I wouldn’t cut any of the line. My meta has a large amount of trainer lock, so you definitely need 3 Fraxures in case you have to evolve without the use of rare candy. It also allows you to discard some of the line with either Sage’s/Juniper without worrying about it to much. The Axew itself isn’t really notable, with a basic 1 for 10 style attack. It sports an average one retreat cost, 60 hp and a very handy no weakness. The Fraxure has a one colorless for 20 attack that won me a game and is actually incredibly useful in one particular matchup, but I’ll get into that later. The Haxorus has amazing stats, with 140 hp, two retreat, and again a fantastic no weakness. I cannot say enough about how good no weakness is, as it’s almost impossible to one shot without RDL, Magnezone or double plus power drops. Its first attack takes two colorless energies and has you flip two coins and deal 50 damage for each heads. Not bad, but it should only be used if you have to. The second attack (Giga Impact) requires three colorless energies and hits for 120 damage, but Haxorus cannot attack next turn. This is (hopefully) rendered unproblematic by Dodrio and retreating to a second Haxorus.
Haxorus is supported by a 2-2 Yanmega line with plenty of hand matching supporters like Copycat, Judge, and N. Generally you want to try to start attacking with Yanmega first to disrupt your opponents setup, and gradually power up Haxorus’s (Haxorai? Haxoruses?) to sweep with.
Now on to the non-attackers. The 2-2 Dodrio line is pretty self-explanatory, as it gives Haxorus free retreat and allows you to circumvent Giga Impact’s negative effect. The Cleffa should also be fairly obvious, as it is helps with bad starts and can also be used to stall if necessary. The Unown Cure has a power which allows you to remove any special conditions from your active when played from your hand. This greatly helps in the Vileplume/Vanilluxe matchup, and it also comes in handy against Chandelure if they burn and confuse you.
The trainers and supporters are pretty standard in a stage 2 list, with Pokemon Communication, Pokemon Collector, Sage’s Training, Rare Candy, Junk Arm and Copycat all played in high numbers to assure an expedient setup. The absence of any recovery cards like Super Rod or Flower Shop Lady is due to the high number of rescue energy played. The only thing I real need to elaborate farther on is the inclusion of two Rocky Helmets. This card is absolutely AMAZING in this deck. It helps a ton against Pokemon with 130 hp such as Reshiram, Zekrom, Kyreum, Chandelure, Vanilluxe and other random things. After you have used Giga Impact for 120, your opponent is then faced with the choice of attacking and having the effect of Rocky Helmet knock them out, or trying to do something else. It’s also important to note that if you do this you negate the effects of rescue energy.
The energy line may seem a little unusual, but it is perfectly suited for this deck. Since neither of your main attackers require colored energy, you are free to run whatever special energy you want. Max counts of both Double Colorless and Rescue allow fast charging and recovery of Haxorus, and the Rescue Energies can also be used to recover Yanmegas if needed.
Well there’s the list, now on to the actual tournament! It was held at the downtown Uncle’s in Spokane, WA on Sunday. There were 39 masters with a top 8 cut. It was a very well ran tournament, major props to Terry and Julie for their judging and organizational skills. I also need to give a shout out to Uncle’s, as they were extremely accommodating. Zekrom variants were extremely popular, but other then that there was a ton of random decks with an extremely diverse top 8.
Match 1 against Zero Z. with Blastoise/Feraligatr Prime
The first match I got a fairly easy pairing against Zero with Blastgatr. I started lone Yanma and he started two Totodiles. I go first; play a collector and bench a Doduo, a Cleffa, and an Axew. He plays Interviewer’s Questions and amazingly whiffs and hits no energy. He then attaches to Totodile and Gnaws for 10. I then communicate for a Yanmega, play copycat and knock out his active Totodile. He promotes his Totodile and evolves into Croconaw, but there isn’t anything else he can do so next turn I Linear Attack it for the knockout because of weakness.
1-0
Match 2 against Kyle T. (my brother) with Chandelure/Vileplume
The next match I was extremely unlucky to be paired up against my brother Kyle, who was using the same Chandelure list I had used the previous day. This was highly irritating, as it meant that one of us would have to be 1-1. I thought that I had a decent chance as I knew his decklist inside and out and my Unown cure tech provided some help in this matchup, but ironically the Unown cure is what screwed me over. I had possibly the worst start possible, as I started lone Unown cure with no collector. I was eventually able to build up a Yanmega and a Haxorus, but his start was good enough that there was no chance I was going to come back. He also managed a very early Vileplume, which greatly crippled my attempts to setup. The two Jirachis he ran also allowed him to devolve my Haxorus and Yanmega after Cursed Shadowing damage onto them. I made it somewhat of a respectable game as I believe I managed to take 3 prizes, but I never really had a chance in this game. It always sucks losing to your younger brother…
1-1
Match 3 against Dakota S. with Zekrom/Thundurus/Eelektrik
I was really worried going into this match, because the 5 rounds of swiss meant that I basically had to win out the rest of the day to have a chance at top cutting. Dakota is a good friend of mine, and I had helped him put his list together the night before. This matchup is tough for me as my Yanmegas are weak to him, but it’s fairly even if I get a decent start. I don’t remember exactly how we started, but I’m pretty sure I started Yanma/Axew to his Zekrom/Thundurus/Tynamo. He goes first and attaches and charges with Thundurus. I think I then collector for a Doduo, a Cleffa and another Yanma and then eek, as my hand was sub par. He is forced to charge again as he has no energies. I then catcher up his Zekrom, communicate for a Yanmega, and manage to Linear Attack his Tynamo. He then tries to search out another Tynamo, but reveals that his other one is prized. This hurts him a ton as he has to play the rest of the game with no Eelektriks. The rest of this game is a little fuzzy, but I remember that he has energy problems all game, and through smart catcher and pluspower usage I am able to knockout everything he attempts to charge up with Haxorus before they can do much damage. Good game.
2-1
Match 4 against ??? with Roserade/Accelgor/Virizon
I didn’t recognize the person I was paired up against, so I had no idea what he was playing going into the game. I lucked out a bit, as this matchup was fairly easy. Honestly I’m not quite sure how he managed to make it to 2-1. He opened Virizon with two Karrablasts on the bench. However it’s not the good Double Draw Virizon, but the mediocre Sacred Sword one. He goes firsts and manually attaches an energy and passes. I open Axew and attach a rocky helmet and double colorless to it. Next turn I believe he benches a Roselia and again attaches to his active and Giga Drains me for 30. Next turn I Juniper into an absolute god hand, with a Rare Candy, Haxorus and Rescue Energy. Even though I don’t have a Dodrio set up, I decide that Giga Impacting his Virizon for knockout will completely kill his setup. He doesn’t get much out the rest of the game, besides one Roserade and an Accelgor. He manages to attach a rainbow and a couple of other energy to Roserade, but I drop an Unown cure and catcher it up to knock it out. He never really recovered from the early loss of his Virizon, so I manage to sweep the rest of the game without too much trouble.
3-1
Match 5 against Bruce L. with Vileplume/Vanilluxe/Victini/Bellossom
The next match was by far the best match of the day, and literally had me shaking from nerves due to how intense it was. Bruce was extremely cool, as he was an older retired guy who traveled around playing Pokemon. Not in a creepy vaguely pedophileish way, but in a genuinely awesome way. He had traveled all the way up from Phoenix, AZ to attend the two cities this weekend. I believe the day before he had went to top 8 with Durant but then lost to a ZPST. Today he was running Vileplume/Vanilluxe/Victini, also known as VVV. I don’t remember the exact opening but we both got fairly good starts with him achieving a fairly early Vileplume while I managed to setup a Dodrio and some Fraxures with energy. He also setup a Bellossom, which allowed him to heal one damage counter from each of his Pokemon during his turn. However, both of my Yanmas were prized so I had to play almost the entire game without them and Yanmega. He had some awful Sage’s Trainings though, and ended up having to discard a lot of his Vanilluxe line before it even got into play. Now going into this match I had no idea how I was supposed to beat it, but looking at Fraxure I had a revelation. I knew that since I couldn’t one hit his Vanilluxes under trainer lock I would have to figure something else out or else die a slow paralyze death while he healed with Bellosom. The best way to combat his auto-paralyze was to send out Fraxure and use its 1 for 20 attack on his Vanilluxes. The next turn he would heal 1 off of it to leave it with 120 health left, the perfect amount for me to KO with Giga Impact. He then would Double Freeze my Fraxure, but since Fraxure has 90 hp there was no chance that it would get knocked out. Then when it came back to my turn I would simply evolve into Haxorus to cure paralysis, and then Giga Impact him for knockout. I took out probably 3 or 4 of his Vanilluxes that way, as my rescue energies allowed for recovery of my Haxorus. I also managed to drop a surprise Unown cure, which took him off guard and allowed me to take out a Vanilluxe that he had expected to keep. Towards the end of the game he sent up Pichu and used playground to stall, and I believe he flipped a ridiculous 5 tails in a row to stay alive. By that point we both were almost completely exhausted of resources and attackers, so there wasn’t much either of us could do. I had managed to finally draw into a Yanma on my fifth prize, but by that point I couldn’t match his hand size under trainer lock. Eventually time was called with me having one prize left and him having three, so I barely managed to pull out a win. Simply a great game.
4-1
At this point I was sitting very comfortably as all 4-1s would top cut. Surprisingly, the top rated 3-2 also would top cut, and it ended up being Bruce, the guy I had just beat. My brother ended up going 3-2 and missing top cut by 3 spots. Sucker! This is what the top 8 looked like:
1st seed Brad P. with Vileplume/Reuniclus/Machamp Prime/Dragons 5-0
2nd seed James L. with Chandelure/Vileplume 5-0
3rd seed Carissa S. with Chandelure/Vileplume 4-1
4th seed Brandon L. with Magenzone/Eelektrik 4-1
5th seed Colton T. with Six Corners 4-1
6th seed Eric P. with Thunderus/Zekrom/Eelektrik 4-1
7th seed Me with Haxorus/Yanmega 4-1
8th seed Bruce L. with Vileplume/Vanilluxe/Victini/Bellossom 3-2
Top 8 match against James L. with Chandelure/Vileplume
Game 1:
The first match I was unlucky enough to be paired up against James with Chandelure, which is one of my worst matchups. Trainer lock and Jirachi really cripple my ability to setup and recover. I start strong the first game and manage to take out a couple of Oddishes and Doduos with Yanmega. However this doesn’t really end up helping me very much, as he is able to use a couple of Twins to setup an early Vileplume and some Chandelures. I manage to take out a couple of Chandelures with Haxorus, but in the end a combination of Chandelures Cursed Shadow and Jirachi’s Time Hollow wipe out all of my resources and attackers. I think the final count was me having 3 prizes left when he took his last. However, I did manage to worry him towards the end, as both of his Chandelures had high amounts of damage, I just couldn’t finish either of them off.
0-1
Game 2:
The second game I get a very bad start with a lone Doduo active, and I can never really recover from it. He gets his Vileplume up very early, and I believe I only managed to setup one Haxorus the entire game. He gets his Chandelures going very quickly as well, and I get absolutely creamed.
0-2
James ends up going to the championship match against Bruce with Vanilluxe. I wasn’t there for it, but I heard later that he won two straight matches to finish undefeated on the day. Congrats to him! I’m just glad I made top cut and that I beat the eventual runner-up.
So what are my final thoughts on Haxorus/Yanmega? Well I feel like it can deal with dragon based decks fairly well, but struggles if it hits an early trainer lock. However, it’s all kind of a moot point as it will get absolutely destroyed by Mewtwo EX once that comes out. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
Props: Making top cut
Losing to my brother… but then making top cut over him
Terry, Julie and Uncles putting on a great tournament
James going undefeated
Fraxure proving to be my mvp versus Vanilluxe
Slops: Lone Doduo/Unown starts
Not giving James a good top 8 match
29 dollar parking ticket >_<
Playing my brother in round two… and then my good friend in round three
Looking through my cards I was a little stumped as to what to play. I didn’t want to play anything to “mainstream” (insert obligatory hipster diss) but I also didn’t just want to play something that wouldn’t have any chance. I thought about trying Smoochum/Electivire for a fifty damage spread to everything, but after some testing I realized it ended up just being a much harder to set up version of Kyurem, without the added benefit of an outrage attack. Also, Shaymin completely kills the strategy. I then saw Haxorus and thought that pairing that with Dodrio might be a good combo. The Haxorus/Dodrio strategy worked very well, but it needed a second attacker. I tested many things, including Reshiram/Zekrom/Shaymin/Rainbow Energies, Jirachi/Psychic energies and even Scizor Prime, but in the end I realized that adding a 2-2 Yanmega line and four copycats allows you to run a low energy count while still having a great second attacker.
Well without farther ado, here’s the list I used!
Pokemon – 21
4 Axew NV
3 Fraxure NV
4 Haxorus NV
2 Yanma TM
2 Yanmega TM
2 Doduo UD
2 Dodrio UD
1 Cleffa HS
1 Unown (cure) TM
Trainers – 31
4 Pokemon Collector
3 Pokemon Catcher
3 Rare Candy
2 Sage’s Training
2 Rocky Helmet
3 Pokemon Communication
4 Junk Arm
2 Professor Juniper
2 Pluspower
4 Copycat
1 N
1 Judge
Energy – 8
4 Double Colorless
4 Rescue
So let me explain some of the cards in the deck. The 4-3-4 Haxorus worked out best for me in testing, and I wouldn’t cut any of the line. My meta has a large amount of trainer lock, so you definitely need 3 Fraxures in case you have to evolve without the use of rare candy. It also allows you to discard some of the line with either Sage’s/Juniper without worrying about it to much. The Axew itself isn’t really notable, with a basic 1 for 10 style attack. It sports an average one retreat cost, 60 hp and a very handy no weakness. The Fraxure has a one colorless for 20 attack that won me a game and is actually incredibly useful in one particular matchup, but I’ll get into that later. The Haxorus has amazing stats, with 140 hp, two retreat, and again a fantastic no weakness. I cannot say enough about how good no weakness is, as it’s almost impossible to one shot without RDL, Magnezone or double plus power drops. Its first attack takes two colorless energies and has you flip two coins and deal 50 damage for each heads. Not bad, but it should only be used if you have to. The second attack (Giga Impact) requires three colorless energies and hits for 120 damage, but Haxorus cannot attack next turn. This is (hopefully) rendered unproblematic by Dodrio and retreating to a second Haxorus.
Haxorus is supported by a 2-2 Yanmega line with plenty of hand matching supporters like Copycat, Judge, and N. Generally you want to try to start attacking with Yanmega first to disrupt your opponents setup, and gradually power up Haxorus’s (Haxorai? Haxoruses?) to sweep with.
Now on to the non-attackers. The 2-2 Dodrio line is pretty self-explanatory, as it gives Haxorus free retreat and allows you to circumvent Giga Impact’s negative effect. The Cleffa should also be fairly obvious, as it is helps with bad starts and can also be used to stall if necessary. The Unown Cure has a power which allows you to remove any special conditions from your active when played from your hand. This greatly helps in the Vileplume/Vanilluxe matchup, and it also comes in handy against Chandelure if they burn and confuse you.
The trainers and supporters are pretty standard in a stage 2 list, with Pokemon Communication, Pokemon Collector, Sage’s Training, Rare Candy, Junk Arm and Copycat all played in high numbers to assure an expedient setup. The absence of any recovery cards like Super Rod or Flower Shop Lady is due to the high number of rescue energy played. The only thing I real need to elaborate farther on is the inclusion of two Rocky Helmets. This card is absolutely AMAZING in this deck. It helps a ton against Pokemon with 130 hp such as Reshiram, Zekrom, Kyreum, Chandelure, Vanilluxe and other random things. After you have used Giga Impact for 120, your opponent is then faced with the choice of attacking and having the effect of Rocky Helmet knock them out, or trying to do something else. It’s also important to note that if you do this you negate the effects of rescue energy.
The energy line may seem a little unusual, but it is perfectly suited for this deck. Since neither of your main attackers require colored energy, you are free to run whatever special energy you want. Max counts of both Double Colorless and Rescue allow fast charging and recovery of Haxorus, and the Rescue Energies can also be used to recover Yanmegas if needed.
Well there’s the list, now on to the actual tournament! It was held at the downtown Uncle’s in Spokane, WA on Sunday. There were 39 masters with a top 8 cut. It was a very well ran tournament, major props to Terry and Julie for their judging and organizational skills. I also need to give a shout out to Uncle’s, as they were extremely accommodating. Zekrom variants were extremely popular, but other then that there was a ton of random decks with an extremely diverse top 8.
Match 1 against Zero Z. with Blastoise/Feraligatr Prime
The first match I got a fairly easy pairing against Zero with Blastgatr. I started lone Yanma and he started two Totodiles. I go first; play a collector and bench a Doduo, a Cleffa, and an Axew. He plays Interviewer’s Questions and amazingly whiffs and hits no energy. He then attaches to Totodile and Gnaws for 10. I then communicate for a Yanmega, play copycat and knock out his active Totodile. He promotes his Totodile and evolves into Croconaw, but there isn’t anything else he can do so next turn I Linear Attack it for the knockout because of weakness.
1-0
Match 2 against Kyle T. (my brother) with Chandelure/Vileplume
The next match I was extremely unlucky to be paired up against my brother Kyle, who was using the same Chandelure list I had used the previous day. This was highly irritating, as it meant that one of us would have to be 1-1. I thought that I had a decent chance as I knew his decklist inside and out and my Unown cure tech provided some help in this matchup, but ironically the Unown cure is what screwed me over. I had possibly the worst start possible, as I started lone Unown cure with no collector. I was eventually able to build up a Yanmega and a Haxorus, but his start was good enough that there was no chance I was going to come back. He also managed a very early Vileplume, which greatly crippled my attempts to setup. The two Jirachis he ran also allowed him to devolve my Haxorus and Yanmega after Cursed Shadowing damage onto them. I made it somewhat of a respectable game as I believe I managed to take 3 prizes, but I never really had a chance in this game. It always sucks losing to your younger brother…
1-1
Match 3 against Dakota S. with Zekrom/Thundurus/Eelektrik
I was really worried going into this match, because the 5 rounds of swiss meant that I basically had to win out the rest of the day to have a chance at top cutting. Dakota is a good friend of mine, and I had helped him put his list together the night before. This matchup is tough for me as my Yanmegas are weak to him, but it’s fairly even if I get a decent start. I don’t remember exactly how we started, but I’m pretty sure I started Yanma/Axew to his Zekrom/Thundurus/Tynamo. He goes first and attaches and charges with Thundurus. I think I then collector for a Doduo, a Cleffa and another Yanma and then eek, as my hand was sub par. He is forced to charge again as he has no energies. I then catcher up his Zekrom, communicate for a Yanmega, and manage to Linear Attack his Tynamo. He then tries to search out another Tynamo, but reveals that his other one is prized. This hurts him a ton as he has to play the rest of the game with no Eelektriks. The rest of this game is a little fuzzy, but I remember that he has energy problems all game, and through smart catcher and pluspower usage I am able to knockout everything he attempts to charge up with Haxorus before they can do much damage. Good game.
2-1
Match 4 against ??? with Roserade/Accelgor/Virizon
I didn’t recognize the person I was paired up against, so I had no idea what he was playing going into the game. I lucked out a bit, as this matchup was fairly easy. Honestly I’m not quite sure how he managed to make it to 2-1. He opened Virizon with two Karrablasts on the bench. However it’s not the good Double Draw Virizon, but the mediocre Sacred Sword one. He goes firsts and manually attaches an energy and passes. I open Axew and attach a rocky helmet and double colorless to it. Next turn I believe he benches a Roselia and again attaches to his active and Giga Drains me for 30. Next turn I Juniper into an absolute god hand, with a Rare Candy, Haxorus and Rescue Energy. Even though I don’t have a Dodrio set up, I decide that Giga Impacting his Virizon for knockout will completely kill his setup. He doesn’t get much out the rest of the game, besides one Roserade and an Accelgor. He manages to attach a rainbow and a couple of other energy to Roserade, but I drop an Unown cure and catcher it up to knock it out. He never really recovered from the early loss of his Virizon, so I manage to sweep the rest of the game without too much trouble.
3-1
Match 5 against Bruce L. with Vileplume/Vanilluxe/Victini/Bellossom
The next match was by far the best match of the day, and literally had me shaking from nerves due to how intense it was. Bruce was extremely cool, as he was an older retired guy who traveled around playing Pokemon. Not in a creepy vaguely pedophileish way, but in a genuinely awesome way. He had traveled all the way up from Phoenix, AZ to attend the two cities this weekend. I believe the day before he had went to top 8 with Durant but then lost to a ZPST. Today he was running Vileplume/Vanilluxe/Victini, also known as VVV. I don’t remember the exact opening but we both got fairly good starts with him achieving a fairly early Vileplume while I managed to setup a Dodrio and some Fraxures with energy. He also setup a Bellossom, which allowed him to heal one damage counter from each of his Pokemon during his turn. However, both of my Yanmas were prized so I had to play almost the entire game without them and Yanmega. He had some awful Sage’s Trainings though, and ended up having to discard a lot of his Vanilluxe line before it even got into play. Now going into this match I had no idea how I was supposed to beat it, but looking at Fraxure I had a revelation. I knew that since I couldn’t one hit his Vanilluxes under trainer lock I would have to figure something else out or else die a slow paralyze death while he healed with Bellosom. The best way to combat his auto-paralyze was to send out Fraxure and use its 1 for 20 attack on his Vanilluxes. The next turn he would heal 1 off of it to leave it with 120 health left, the perfect amount for me to KO with Giga Impact. He then would Double Freeze my Fraxure, but since Fraxure has 90 hp there was no chance that it would get knocked out. Then when it came back to my turn I would simply evolve into Haxorus to cure paralysis, and then Giga Impact him for knockout. I took out probably 3 or 4 of his Vanilluxes that way, as my rescue energies allowed for recovery of my Haxorus. I also managed to drop a surprise Unown cure, which took him off guard and allowed me to take out a Vanilluxe that he had expected to keep. Towards the end of the game he sent up Pichu and used playground to stall, and I believe he flipped a ridiculous 5 tails in a row to stay alive. By that point we both were almost completely exhausted of resources and attackers, so there wasn’t much either of us could do. I had managed to finally draw into a Yanma on my fifth prize, but by that point I couldn’t match his hand size under trainer lock. Eventually time was called with me having one prize left and him having three, so I barely managed to pull out a win. Simply a great game.
4-1
At this point I was sitting very comfortably as all 4-1s would top cut. Surprisingly, the top rated 3-2 also would top cut, and it ended up being Bruce, the guy I had just beat. My brother ended up going 3-2 and missing top cut by 3 spots. Sucker! This is what the top 8 looked like:
1st seed Brad P. with Vileplume/Reuniclus/Machamp Prime/Dragons 5-0
2nd seed James L. with Chandelure/Vileplume 5-0
3rd seed Carissa S. with Chandelure/Vileplume 4-1
4th seed Brandon L. with Magenzone/Eelektrik 4-1
5th seed Colton T. with Six Corners 4-1
6th seed Eric P. with Thunderus/Zekrom/Eelektrik 4-1
7th seed Me with Haxorus/Yanmega 4-1
8th seed Bruce L. with Vileplume/Vanilluxe/Victini/Bellossom 3-2
Top 8 match against James L. with Chandelure/Vileplume
Game 1:
The first match I was unlucky enough to be paired up against James with Chandelure, which is one of my worst matchups. Trainer lock and Jirachi really cripple my ability to setup and recover. I start strong the first game and manage to take out a couple of Oddishes and Doduos with Yanmega. However this doesn’t really end up helping me very much, as he is able to use a couple of Twins to setup an early Vileplume and some Chandelures. I manage to take out a couple of Chandelures with Haxorus, but in the end a combination of Chandelures Cursed Shadow and Jirachi’s Time Hollow wipe out all of my resources and attackers. I think the final count was me having 3 prizes left when he took his last. However, I did manage to worry him towards the end, as both of his Chandelures had high amounts of damage, I just couldn’t finish either of them off.
0-1
Game 2:
The second game I get a very bad start with a lone Doduo active, and I can never really recover from it. He gets his Vileplume up very early, and I believe I only managed to setup one Haxorus the entire game. He gets his Chandelures going very quickly as well, and I get absolutely creamed.
0-2
James ends up going to the championship match against Bruce with Vanilluxe. I wasn’t there for it, but I heard later that he won two straight matches to finish undefeated on the day. Congrats to him! I’m just glad I made top cut and that I beat the eventual runner-up.
So what are my final thoughts on Haxorus/Yanmega? Well I feel like it can deal with dragon based decks fairly well, but struggles if it hits an early trainer lock. However, it’s all kind of a moot point as it will get absolutely destroyed by Mewtwo EX once that comes out. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
Props: Making top cut
Losing to my brother… but then making top cut over him
Terry, Julie and Uncles putting on a great tournament
James going undefeated
Fraxure proving to be my mvp versus Vanilluxe
Slops: Lone Doduo/Unown starts
Not giving James a good top 8 match
29 dollar parking ticket >_<
Playing my brother in round two… and then my good friend in round three
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In the past I've written a few tournament reports, and if I had gotten 1st on Sunday I probably would have written one, since VVV winning a City is not too common. So blame James, :wink: who knocked us both out with his Chandelure-Vileplume. (I'm lucky I didn't have to face him until the Top 2.) 