European Professor Cup 1st place report

[ShadowGuard]

OK, as I promised, here my report. English isn't my first language so there may be some grammatical errors.

Once again Richard and I attended the annual Professor Cup, this time in our own country. We arrived at the location early cause Richard's children judged the event, but there weren't that many players this year. The Danes didn't show up at all, and only five players (besides the AMIGO staff) from host country Germany attended. Fortunately we got more than 33 players for six swiss rounds and top eight. I really hoped to get a backpack this year, after missing it by one win each at the previous two Professor Cups.

During the week, I playtested with Richard and we built decks of Zoroark, Round and Zebstrika/Cinccino/Eelektrik for that. My favorite choice changed between these three, but at the end I concluded that Eelektrik was the most versatile and techable one. Richard came up with the idea to play Excadrill, which did 50 damage to OHKO many Pokémon in the predicted metagame by weakness and also take a card back from the discard pile. The deck ran decent, but due to the low damage output Excadrill couldn't be the only hitter, and I didn't like the energy line when combining it with other cards like Cinccino. However, I liked the idea to play a heavy fighting Pokémon and added Hippowdon to my Eel deck, after a few tests against Richard who stayed with Excadrill I also added Beartic (NEX) to have an answer to it. I took out Zoroark (BLW) cause I didn't see any real use for it, and cutted the Zebstrika line which was very situational.

3 Cinccino (BLW)
3 Eelektrik (NVI)
2 Zebstrika (NEX)
1 Accelgor (DEX)
1 Tangrowth (CL)
1 Hippowdon (NEX)
1 Beartic (NEX)
1 Musharna (NEX)
1 Archeops (NVI)
-14-

4 Professor Juniper
4 Professor Oak's New Theory
4 N
4 Ultra Ball
3 Level Ball
4 Pokémon Catcher
3 Switch
2 PlusPower
2 Eviolite
1 Super Rod
1 Revive
-32-

7 Lightning Energy
3 Prism Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy
-14-

Round 1 vs Dan B. (TPCi) - Zoroark
He goes first but passes immediately, he has almost no energy at the beginning so I can prevent him from attacking and set up even with a modest starting hand. When I start taking prizes, he still doesn't draw that well and I win.
1-0

Round 2 vs Doris D. - Cinccino/Ninetales
She starts and has everything, I've almost nothing. Although she misses the donk due to a small misplay, she gets a clear lead. Thanks to some heavy Pokémon she can't OHKO I can almost catch up, but later she plays N and I whiff an energy to attack, while she gets all the PlusPowers and Catcher she needs to win the prize race.
1-1

Round 3 vs Alain P. - Zoroark
Once again I go second, but my opponent has a really bad start so I can get the lead. Hippowdon is very useful, although it triggers Houndoom's attack. He is able to attack at full power later but I've already taken too many prizes at that time.
2-1

Round 4 vs Robert L. - Excadrill+Stuff
Finally I win a starting coinflip. However, my starting hand isn't that good and I have to play PONT immediately. I set up Beartic and Hippowdon to have an advantage over his hitters. After some trouble with Lost Remover I attack with them and then take my last few prizes with Cinccino.
3-1

Round 5 vs Herve M. - Zoroark
Again I can start and this time I even manage to attack with Disconnect T1 which slows him down a lot. But he still can get enough Pokémon for big hits and I have to switch to other attackers. He catchers Musharna and paralyzes it three turns in a row with Scrafty. I don't get a switch and it's knocked out by burn at the end of my turn which almost negates my lead. I still have at least a small edge over him and Hippowdon also helps to take the last prize first.
4-1

Round 6 vs Matijs M. - Blissey Tank
My opponent goes first but that doesn't matter in this matchup. I stall Blissey and his other heavy tank Pokémon that have high retreat with Catcher and Disconnect while I build up Tangrowth with lots of energy. Then, I catcher his Carracosta and OHKO it thanks to weakness. After that he attacks with Blissey which I can also OHKO. Once Tangrowth is down, I start the whole procedure again, since Zebstrika is still there and my Eels help to power up Tangrowth again quickly.
5-1

With five wins, I was in top cut for sure and also earned a Professor bagpack. =) The next match would decide about a trophy and a kindle, and I was lucky to face Matjis once again, who's deck I could handle very well (and it also couldn't donk me).

Top 8 vs Matijs M. - Blissey Tank
a) He has only Archeops and I go first, so I search for Accelgor and try to donk, but I don't get the PlusPower. After that, the game goes similar to the one before, but I switch to Hippowdon after Tangrowth is down, since he fights a lot with Blissey this time. Hitting all his tanks for weakness makes me win in the end once again.
b) In this game I have to start with Tangrowth and also don't get a good starting hand. I have to fight with a manually set up Hippowdon, which can take out two Blissey, and cause the do self-damage I'm also able to use Cinccino here. After a while he doesn't get to continue the Blissey swarm and I can win the game.

Semifinals vs Robert L. - Excadrill+Stuff
a) I go first and get a T1 Disconnect. When he starts fighting with Excadrill, Beartic can deal with them easily.
b) He tries to donk my solo Eelektrik with Weezing, but doesn't get the DCE. I get a very good T1 and can take my first prize with Cinccino. When he attacks with eviolited Weezing, I respond with a Disconnect finish from a Zebstrika that has Eviolite as well, so he has no option to get a prize next turn. I power up Tangrowth and Beartic which once again have to deal with Lost Remover, but I still get to attack early enough. However, I don't have a PlusPower for Beartic against Excadrill with Eviolite and flip tails, but luckily I can afford that 'miss' and still win the game.

Finals vs Richard C. - Excadrill/Hippowdon/Cinccino
a) We've tested this matchup before with pretty even results, but this one was a really exciting game at all. He goes first and takes prizes T1 and T2, establishing a clear lead. I attack with Beartic to take his Excadrill, but then don't have another attacker ready and flip tails against his upcoming Cinccino. At least, I can use that damage to have a Eviolite-Zebstrika Disconnect after that. Later, I have to stall him with Catcher Musharna and Disconnect and try to N him in order to catch up, and at the end I can even use that 40 damage to snipe Musharna for my last prize.
b) None of us can draw a prize T1. My start isn't very good so I have to stall with Catcher and attack Archeops with Tangrowth to keep up with him. He still is in a close lead by one prize, and suddenly they call timeout. No chance to catch up within the extra turns, so my only way to avoid a Sudden Death is to deny his fourth prize by using my eviolited Zebstrika and do a random Disconnect.

With the end of this game, I was the winner of this year's European Professor Cup, and my friend Richard got second, which was probably the best I could hope for. We got our prizes and they took a few photos, then we said goodbye and headed back home.

Tops:
+ 1st place =)
+ nice Trophy
+ Kindle
+ finally a Professor backpack ^^
+ my tech-deck :P
+ finals vs Richard
+ TPCi and Amigo for the great event
+ Richard for driving and playtesting with me
+ all my opponents for the good and fair games
+ interesting metagame
+ traded for a few cards
+ Amigo playmat xD
+ Musharna cause it boosts consistancy so much
+ every single tech in my deck made sense (except Archeops)

Flops:
- very few players from Germany
- some crappy opening hands in swiss rounds
- no Dark Explorers boosters
- low sleep

[MrScaryMuffin]

Nice work! Eel Tool box is as strong as I imagined, I built an Accelgor/Zeb variant myself. However, it's good to see that Cincinno/Ninetales and Excadrill/Exp. Share decks are viable too.

[chrisrocks]

Nice job at winning. I was super confused by your decklist until I noticed that it was the professor cup lol! Congrats though

[JohnnyBlaze]

Congrats real nice toolbox techs there that helped you win!!