Naki Feralkin
New Member
So I hate MD-on format. I really hate it. I think people are well aware that I'm livid about it, and it shows. However, I'm not going to let some silly format keep me from going to a BR event and hang out with some friends from the area I don't get to see very often. Cuyahoga Falls is always a fun event, and I (prior to working a few hours in the morning and working off of like.. 4 hours of sleep) decided to play my Sableye-Hate deck.
I go in, hang out with my friends, Andrew Mishik, and Jacob Rebescher, and get harassed by Mr. Fulop himself and his girlfriend while we wait for all of the good stuff to come up.
My deck? I guess now its just aptly called Mice. The name was given to it in Top Cut. It goes a little something like this:
4 Sableye
4 Minccino
4 Cinccino
2 Zekrom
2 Uxie
2 Mesprit
1 Azelf
1 Smeargle
1 Unown Q
4 DCE
4 Lightning
4 Call
3 Collector
4 Bebe's
2 Cyrus' Initiative
3 Seeker
2 Twins
2 Juniper
1 Palmers
3 SSU
3 Junk Arm
1 Luxury Ball
2 BTS
1 VS Seeker
1 BTS
I hate Sabledonk. A lot. I'd rather take my chances to win off a coin flip with a Sableye and Mesprit lock them into the next dimension. This deck allows me to do not only that, but it also has the capability to survive through the onslaught of damage with Zekrom's beefyness. Pretty much every game I've ever played with it, if I go first, I fill my bench up, no matter what, which = no donk for Sableye. Ever.
I really honestly just made the deck for fun, and it really worked. I had a blast running it and I'd do it again. It still shows the higher ups that Sableye is being played in pretty much everything, and I don't think this is a good thing. At all. Gyarados is without question the undisputed best deck in format due to it. It would be fine if there was a direct counter, but there honestly isn't. I tried to counter it with Zekrom, and even outrage countering did not do much of anything.
Anyways, I'll save my sour grapes about the format for later. ONWARD.
Round 1 Vs. Derek Coontz (Blastoise/Floatzel)
I flip over Sableye, he flips over Squirtle. I really don't have anything overly amazing to his start, however I am able to drop a call on an early Minccino while Cyrus'ing away a critical Pokecollector to pretty much destroy any chance of setup he may have had. He attempted to rush a Blastoise on me, but unfortunately, by the time its ready to go, I'm already up 3 prizes due to T2 Cinccino and a DCE'd Zekrom.
(1-0)
Round 2 Vs. ??? (Sabledonk feat. Cinccino)
I apologise that I don't know your name yet. I know you're a fresh face and you hang with Schacht/Cook/Etc. I'll learn it eventually, so pleeeease bear with me.
I know the guy is running Sableye, however he doesn't get the start with it. He's unable to get into it due to a Minc start, and by the time he's able to begin, I've already bound him and begun set up.
He's unable to match me in prizes and I sweep to win.
(2-0)
Round 3 Vs. David Cook (Gyarados)
I manage to start REALLY quick against him. Open a Sableye to his Sableye and win the toss. I'm able to get a quick Mesprit and bind him for a couple of turns, but as I learned from my old games against Gyarados back in the old fun days of Sablelock, you can only lock this tough fishy for so long. I take the early lead, but he gets Collector for Fish and I whiff a Cyrus' Initiative that I reaaaally needed. He then Impersonates for Juniper the following turn, dumping his fish right into the discard pile.
Once the fish set up, I could only attempt to fight back. He's able to wipe out pokemon left and right and I'm drawing whiffs on energy, unable to come up with my VS Seeker to pull back critical Seekers.
I get a few Zekrom in the way, but he's able to fight through it.
(2-1)
Round 4 Vs. Tyrone Williams (Vilegar)
This.. is not normally a good match for me as I run SO MANY TRAINERS. Junk Arm. SSU. Expert Belt. VS Seeker. Lux Ball.. ITS NEVER pretty to fight against Vilegar because they only need 3 trainers to wipe out a single Cinccino.
However, the fight wasn't completely in his favor, having to fend off a Cinccino on Turn 2. I drop an early Spiritomb and he matches me with a Poltergeist to the face the following turn. I then match him by walling with Zekrom, soaking his damage and matching it with Outrage. I knock out his Gengar eventually and he whiffs a fainting spell, putting him significantly behind. He then places a Slowking on the bench.. which becomes annoying as my top decks become really bad for about 4 turns, but he DOES give me a Cyrus' Initiative eventually (I don't think I'll actually know why) and I'm able to put a crucial card underneath his deck. In the end, I have too many prizes to his and he can't keep up.
(3-1)
Round 5 Vs. Carl Scheu (Gyarados)
This was.. A very silly game. I feel terrible he didn't get a legitimate game against me, as pretty much every one of his crucial cards was prized, he was whiffing on coin flips, and I was just out matching him due to the early game black out. My hand wasn't much better, but I was still capable of setting up quickly enough to take early prizes. He pretty much just scooped after watching a Juniper go to waste.
(4-1)
So, I didn't do quite as bad as I thought for a tournament I wasn't really taking seriously. I enjoy the deck and move on to the Top cut rounds. More Sabledonk fun wooooooo
Top 4 Vs. Matt Louden (Sabledonk)
Game 1: Sableye Vs. Sableye. I win the flip, I get a collector, I get a Mesprit.. The rest is pretty much history. He's able to get a typicaly Sabledonk 5 minute turn when I let the lock go, but the lock is really only needed for one turn as.. well. I had a full bench by this time, and Sableye's damage output is extremely limited by this time.
He is able to take two prizes to gain an early lead, but I match that early lead by dropping a Twins into a Cinccino/DCE to drop his Belted Sableye. He takes another prize (He played two SP Dark as opposed to the typical 1. Maybe more, but I didn't actually see any more to find out), but I am able to outlast the damage with another fully charged Cinccino and a charging Zekrom on the bench with damage already on it to boot. He scoops when he sees the next DCE.
Game 2: Silly. Just plain silly. He starts Unown Q, I start Mesprit. He chooses to go first (who wouldn't when you're playing Sabledonk?) and his luck starts to tank. He double tails' a Victory Medal, does a few other things he can do on his turn and passes.
However, my hand isn't looking too stellar either. I had Mesprit as my opener with an SSU, a Seeker, a DCE, a Junk arm, a Call, and a Cinccino. I top deck a Minccino, drop it on the bench and SSU the Mesprit. Fortunately for myself, this is capable of pulling 2-3 turns of Psychic Bind which would likely buy me enough time to draw into a Collector or something stupid. I flip double tails on my Minc's attack and let him go.
He then Junk Arms for Medal and then whiffs it again, then scooping the second game. I think he could have played it out, but his hand looked pretty horrendous prior to that. After the scoop I check my top 2-3 cards and definitely did not know if I could pull it out, as Cinccino would not be doing any serious damage any time soon.
Regardless, a wins a win.
Top 2 Vs. David Cook (Gyarados)
This shenanigan deck again? Wheeeee.
Game 1: I start lone Minccino. He starts Sableye. He opens collector, Unown Dark, Crobat G, some other pointless card. Guess who wins. Not me.
Game 2: This was a little more in my favor to begin, but I'm still not able to match his speed even with the started Smeargle. I have minccino benched, but I have no notable supporters, and the portraits that I got off of him were pretty useless too.
However, I am able to start a stint of aggression, having an opening hand of two Cinccinos, two DCE's, Smeargle, Minccino, and some other pointless aggression. On my second turn I'm able to Uxie into some ridiculous 3 Mice on bench which he eventually kills off. I'm able to trade off prizes, but I eventually lose the race having to give him a prize due to Gyarados' somewhat stupid amount of HP's, he pulls ahead of me in the race and wins.
Gyarados is ridiculously powerful right now. I probably should not have beaten Carl either, but his hand was one of those ridiculously stupid hands that should not happen ever. If you're still looking for other reasons to shift the format to a more fun and balanced format, take into consideration a few things:
1. Sableye was in 75% of Master's top cut decks. All decks played maximum of 4 (There was no reason for any of us not to)
2. Uxie or Crobat G were in 75% of Master's Top cut decks. Both of these cards are just as ridiculous as the Sableye, and are just as game breaking as the Sableye. Even in some of my games against MD-on format with HGSS-on format, I lost games simply because Crobat G was present. Playing against a Donphan and walling with reshiram, you can't two shot a Reshiram without Bat. Uxie's draw power is insane and with very little draw back and is played in pretty much every deck with little issues (SSU/Seeker/VS Seeker/Junk Arm)
3. Gyarados is unbelievably powerful. I was playing Zekrom not only for its beefyness, but to attempt to counter it, and I was unable to do even that. Its early game became only more powerful with the rules change and its late game ability to survive pretty much everything and dish out unbelievable damage in addition to SSUs/Junk Arms/Rescue Energys/Pokemon Rescues/All that other fun stuff.
I saw literally NO SP decks the entire day. When they were played, they actually got obliterated by the few Vilegars I saw, by the one Arceus I saw (that went 5-0 swiss), and Gyarados also made quick work of it as well. Arceus was fighting hard, but even it fell to Gyarados in the end.
I am opposed to MD-on format, and I hope that POP makes a move to switch it. HGSS on is going to be a blast to play with all the possible ideas. I admit, it will probably be just a few decks sitting around, but at least we know what power is capable and how to counter it, whereas Gyarados is ridiculously hard to counter.
As for Mr. David Cook. GRATS ON YOUR FIRST V MEDAL! You deserved it for playing the deck you knew would win! No sour grapes here, good job, man!
Now for the other part of my report:
Props:
- Mice! So random but so good!
- All the guys and girls that make going to these events in Ohio so fun despite this format being as stale as year old bread.
- The amazing PTO-Judging staff that the state of Ohio has. AJ Schumacher runs such a fantastic event, smoothly and powerfully, being done with rounds quickly.
- Cuyahoga Falls Arby's for supporting the Pokemon Scene up in the region. They picked up the league that was lost when the hobby shop in the area went out of business, and has always run smooth tourneys since.
- Team 330? Okay I was the only 330'er in top cut, but still gogo? (Because the other two 330'ers were weenies and didn't want to play so they just hung out. Losers.)
- I got a Dragonite EX I didn't have in my collection for trades today whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat
- David Cook winnin his first V Medal!
Slops:
- Some jerk off ran off with someones Snivy Tin. I don't know if there was anything in it, but I absolutely condone anyone stealing. I've had a bunch of the cards I give away to my league kids for playing games stolen in the past month by other tenants of the game store I run my league at and it made me absolutely livid. If you're stealing, know for a fact you will EVENTUALLY be caught, and you know that when you are, it would have just been so much easier for you to come forth and admit your faults than when you are reported to OP for being a complete jerk and are banned from the Pokemon Scene.
Not only that. It was a SNIVY tin. You stole something of SNIVY line. That is a sin. Snivy is the best starter ever and evolves into the best starter evolution line ever. You crossed the line by stealing something of such epic proportions that you should just be banned now without constraint.
Tl
R: Don't flipping steal. It makes me mad. Rant over.
- This format. It still sucks.
- Sableye. Go. Away. I loved you once when I was playing Sablelock for all those months, and thats when you weren't a ridiculously overpowered card. Now its time for you to return to binder fodder and be a card we probably should just forget.
- This random cough I have and the fact that I am currently still working on 4 hours of sleep.
Kay-o Kay-o. I'm done with this report and if I do well at Massillon, you might just see another one. If not, maybe not until Nationals (assuming I do well but I'm not a good player so probably not lulllllz)
NAKI. OUT.
I go in, hang out with my friends, Andrew Mishik, and Jacob Rebescher, and get harassed by Mr. Fulop himself and his girlfriend while we wait for all of the good stuff to come up.
My deck? I guess now its just aptly called Mice. The name was given to it in Top Cut. It goes a little something like this:
4 Sableye
4 Minccino
4 Cinccino
2 Zekrom
2 Uxie
2 Mesprit
1 Azelf
1 Smeargle
1 Unown Q
4 DCE
4 Lightning
4 Call
3 Collector
4 Bebe's
2 Cyrus' Initiative
3 Seeker
2 Twins
2 Juniper
1 Palmers
3 SSU
3 Junk Arm
1 Luxury Ball
2 BTS
1 VS Seeker
1 BTS
I hate Sabledonk. A lot. I'd rather take my chances to win off a coin flip with a Sableye and Mesprit lock them into the next dimension. This deck allows me to do not only that, but it also has the capability to survive through the onslaught of damage with Zekrom's beefyness. Pretty much every game I've ever played with it, if I go first, I fill my bench up, no matter what, which = no donk for Sableye. Ever.
I really honestly just made the deck for fun, and it really worked. I had a blast running it and I'd do it again. It still shows the higher ups that Sableye is being played in pretty much everything, and I don't think this is a good thing. At all. Gyarados is without question the undisputed best deck in format due to it. It would be fine if there was a direct counter, but there honestly isn't. I tried to counter it with Zekrom, and even outrage countering did not do much of anything.
Anyways, I'll save my sour grapes about the format for later. ONWARD.
Round 1 Vs. Derek Coontz (Blastoise/Floatzel)
I flip over Sableye, he flips over Squirtle. I really don't have anything overly amazing to his start, however I am able to drop a call on an early Minccino while Cyrus'ing away a critical Pokecollector to pretty much destroy any chance of setup he may have had. He attempted to rush a Blastoise on me, but unfortunately, by the time its ready to go, I'm already up 3 prizes due to T2 Cinccino and a DCE'd Zekrom.
(1-0)
Round 2 Vs. ??? (Sabledonk feat. Cinccino)
I apologise that I don't know your name yet. I know you're a fresh face and you hang with Schacht/Cook/Etc. I'll learn it eventually, so pleeeease bear with me.
I know the guy is running Sableye, however he doesn't get the start with it. He's unable to get into it due to a Minc start, and by the time he's able to begin, I've already bound him and begun set up.
He's unable to match me in prizes and I sweep to win.
(2-0)
Round 3 Vs. David Cook (Gyarados)
I manage to start REALLY quick against him. Open a Sableye to his Sableye and win the toss. I'm able to get a quick Mesprit and bind him for a couple of turns, but as I learned from my old games against Gyarados back in the old fun days of Sablelock, you can only lock this tough fishy for so long. I take the early lead, but he gets Collector for Fish and I whiff a Cyrus' Initiative that I reaaaally needed. He then Impersonates for Juniper the following turn, dumping his fish right into the discard pile.
Once the fish set up, I could only attempt to fight back. He's able to wipe out pokemon left and right and I'm drawing whiffs on energy, unable to come up with my VS Seeker to pull back critical Seekers.
I get a few Zekrom in the way, but he's able to fight through it.
(2-1)
Round 4 Vs. Tyrone Williams (Vilegar)
This.. is not normally a good match for me as I run SO MANY TRAINERS. Junk Arm. SSU. Expert Belt. VS Seeker. Lux Ball.. ITS NEVER pretty to fight against Vilegar because they only need 3 trainers to wipe out a single Cinccino.
However, the fight wasn't completely in his favor, having to fend off a Cinccino on Turn 2. I drop an early Spiritomb and he matches me with a Poltergeist to the face the following turn. I then match him by walling with Zekrom, soaking his damage and matching it with Outrage. I knock out his Gengar eventually and he whiffs a fainting spell, putting him significantly behind. He then places a Slowking on the bench.. which becomes annoying as my top decks become really bad for about 4 turns, but he DOES give me a Cyrus' Initiative eventually (I don't think I'll actually know why) and I'm able to put a crucial card underneath his deck. In the end, I have too many prizes to his and he can't keep up.
(3-1)
Round 5 Vs. Carl Scheu (Gyarados)
This was.. A very silly game. I feel terrible he didn't get a legitimate game against me, as pretty much every one of his crucial cards was prized, he was whiffing on coin flips, and I was just out matching him due to the early game black out. My hand wasn't much better, but I was still capable of setting up quickly enough to take early prizes. He pretty much just scooped after watching a Juniper go to waste.
(4-1)
So, I didn't do quite as bad as I thought for a tournament I wasn't really taking seriously. I enjoy the deck and move on to the Top cut rounds. More Sabledonk fun wooooooo
Top 4 Vs. Matt Louden (Sabledonk)
Game 1: Sableye Vs. Sableye. I win the flip, I get a collector, I get a Mesprit.. The rest is pretty much history. He's able to get a typicaly Sabledonk 5 minute turn when I let the lock go, but the lock is really only needed for one turn as.. well. I had a full bench by this time, and Sableye's damage output is extremely limited by this time.
He is able to take two prizes to gain an early lead, but I match that early lead by dropping a Twins into a Cinccino/DCE to drop his Belted Sableye. He takes another prize (He played two SP Dark as opposed to the typical 1. Maybe more, but I didn't actually see any more to find out), but I am able to outlast the damage with another fully charged Cinccino and a charging Zekrom on the bench with damage already on it to boot. He scoops when he sees the next DCE.
Game 2: Silly. Just plain silly. He starts Unown Q, I start Mesprit. He chooses to go first (who wouldn't when you're playing Sabledonk?) and his luck starts to tank. He double tails' a Victory Medal, does a few other things he can do on his turn and passes.
However, my hand isn't looking too stellar either. I had Mesprit as my opener with an SSU, a Seeker, a DCE, a Junk arm, a Call, and a Cinccino. I top deck a Minccino, drop it on the bench and SSU the Mesprit. Fortunately for myself, this is capable of pulling 2-3 turns of Psychic Bind which would likely buy me enough time to draw into a Collector or something stupid. I flip double tails on my Minc's attack and let him go.
He then Junk Arms for Medal and then whiffs it again, then scooping the second game. I think he could have played it out, but his hand looked pretty horrendous prior to that. After the scoop I check my top 2-3 cards and definitely did not know if I could pull it out, as Cinccino would not be doing any serious damage any time soon.
Regardless, a wins a win.
Top 2 Vs. David Cook (Gyarados)
This shenanigan deck again? Wheeeee.
Game 1: I start lone Minccino. He starts Sableye. He opens collector, Unown Dark, Crobat G, some other pointless card. Guess who wins. Not me.
Game 2: This was a little more in my favor to begin, but I'm still not able to match his speed even with the started Smeargle. I have minccino benched, but I have no notable supporters, and the portraits that I got off of him were pretty useless too.
However, I am able to start a stint of aggression, having an opening hand of two Cinccinos, two DCE's, Smeargle, Minccino, and some other pointless aggression. On my second turn I'm able to Uxie into some ridiculous 3 Mice on bench which he eventually kills off. I'm able to trade off prizes, but I eventually lose the race having to give him a prize due to Gyarados' somewhat stupid amount of HP's, he pulls ahead of me in the race and wins.
Gyarados is ridiculously powerful right now. I probably should not have beaten Carl either, but his hand was one of those ridiculously stupid hands that should not happen ever. If you're still looking for other reasons to shift the format to a more fun and balanced format, take into consideration a few things:
1. Sableye was in 75% of Master's top cut decks. All decks played maximum of 4 (There was no reason for any of us not to)
2. Uxie or Crobat G were in 75% of Master's Top cut decks. Both of these cards are just as ridiculous as the Sableye, and are just as game breaking as the Sableye. Even in some of my games against MD-on format with HGSS-on format, I lost games simply because Crobat G was present. Playing against a Donphan and walling with reshiram, you can't two shot a Reshiram without Bat. Uxie's draw power is insane and with very little draw back and is played in pretty much every deck with little issues (SSU/Seeker/VS Seeker/Junk Arm)
3. Gyarados is unbelievably powerful. I was playing Zekrom not only for its beefyness, but to attempt to counter it, and I was unable to do even that. Its early game became only more powerful with the rules change and its late game ability to survive pretty much everything and dish out unbelievable damage in addition to SSUs/Junk Arms/Rescue Energys/Pokemon Rescues/All that other fun stuff.
I saw literally NO SP decks the entire day. When they were played, they actually got obliterated by the few Vilegars I saw, by the one Arceus I saw (that went 5-0 swiss), and Gyarados also made quick work of it as well. Arceus was fighting hard, but even it fell to Gyarados in the end.
I am opposed to MD-on format, and I hope that POP makes a move to switch it. HGSS on is going to be a blast to play with all the possible ideas. I admit, it will probably be just a few decks sitting around, but at least we know what power is capable and how to counter it, whereas Gyarados is ridiculously hard to counter.
As for Mr. David Cook. GRATS ON YOUR FIRST V MEDAL! You deserved it for playing the deck you knew would win! No sour grapes here, good job, man!
Now for the other part of my report:
Props:
- Mice! So random but so good!
- All the guys and girls that make going to these events in Ohio so fun despite this format being as stale as year old bread.
- The amazing PTO-Judging staff that the state of Ohio has. AJ Schumacher runs such a fantastic event, smoothly and powerfully, being done with rounds quickly.
- Cuyahoga Falls Arby's for supporting the Pokemon Scene up in the region. They picked up the league that was lost when the hobby shop in the area went out of business, and has always run smooth tourneys since.
- Team 330? Okay I was the only 330'er in top cut, but still gogo? (Because the other two 330'ers were weenies and didn't want to play so they just hung out. Losers.)
- I got a Dragonite EX I didn't have in my collection for trades today whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat
- David Cook winnin his first V Medal!
Slops:
- Some jerk off ran off with someones Snivy Tin. I don't know if there was anything in it, but I absolutely condone anyone stealing. I've had a bunch of the cards I give away to my league kids for playing games stolen in the past month by other tenants of the game store I run my league at and it made me absolutely livid. If you're stealing, know for a fact you will EVENTUALLY be caught, and you know that when you are, it would have just been so much easier for you to come forth and admit your faults than when you are reported to OP for being a complete jerk and are banned from the Pokemon Scene.
Not only that. It was a SNIVY tin. You stole something of SNIVY line. That is a sin. Snivy is the best starter ever and evolves into the best starter evolution line ever. You crossed the line by stealing something of such epic proportions that you should just be banned now without constraint.
Tl
R: Don't flipping steal. It makes me mad. Rant over.- This format. It still sucks.
- Sableye. Go. Away. I loved you once when I was playing Sablelock for all those months, and thats when you weren't a ridiculously overpowered card. Now its time for you to return to binder fodder and be a card we probably should just forget.
- This random cough I have and the fact that I am currently still working on 4 hours of sleep.
Kay-o Kay-o. I'm done with this report and if I do well at Massillon, you might just see another one. If not, maybe not until Nationals (assuming I do well but I'm not a good player so probably not lulllllz)
NAKI. OUT.