vegitalian
New Member
After a week of testing, I decide that Blazelock, while cool, and sometimes very effective, is most certainly not the play. I also rule out about a million E/R variants I tried; barely considered Cursegar, play PLOX like a typical elderly person uses a computer. With Luxchomp in mind (I play it decently, but still make odd misplays) and Jumpluff (tried, tested, and true), I go for Pluff. On Wednesday, I do some testing with Alaric and we create POWERpluff, which is essentially a super consistent Jumpluff deck with Weavile G, Roserade GL, Blaziken FB, and 4 Power Spray. No Turns, no Crobats, no Luxray. It’s nice and disruptive (Blaziken FB is bomb), but bench space is the killer. It performs amazing in testing, particularly against Luxchomp and Jumpluff. I chicken out on Friday at 9pm when I decide to throw in Alakazam instead. The deciding factor was that Unown E didn’t fit in my POWERpluff variant, and Unown E is godly. It’s still POWERpluff, just a different kind of POWERpluff - a POWERpluff 2.0 if you will. I call Troy and he comes up to pick up an Alakazam for his Pluff to switch last minute too. We should have practiced; because Troy got the hang of how to run it halfway through Nats (otherwise he could’ve cut easily).
Without further ado, here’s the list. I had to sacrifice some stuff (4th Turn, 2nd Bat, 3rd Skiploom, 4th BTS), but I believe it paid off:
4-2-4 Pluff (SW-SW-GS)
1-0-1 Alakazam (MT-0-MT)
3-3 Claydol (GE-GE)
1-1 Luxray GL Lv. X (RR)
1 Uxie (LA)
1 Azelf (LA)
1 Chatot (MD)
1 Unown E (MT)
1 Unown Q (MD)
1 Crobat G (PT)
4 Pokemon Communication
4 Rare Candy
3 BTS
2 Luxury Ball
2 Bebe’s Search
2 Pokemon Collector
3 Roseanne’s Research
2 Judge
1 Palmer’s Contribution
3 Poke Turn
1 Switch (Because if they pull up your Claydol and snipe, Azelf doesn’t leave a satisfied taste in your mouth)
1 Expert Belt
5 Grass
1 Multi (Bad double-Multi Ambipom experience)
Round 1: BYE
I get into some serious Pokemom gossip (jk, but I chat with some of the Pokemoms until the round is over). Some of the other bye winners are swimming, eating, and chatting in the hall. Most of my crew loses first round (except Winston C, Alaric M-B and Paige N).
1-0
Round 2: BYE
Zach and I figure out the general make-up of top 32, and estimate it could be anywhere from 29-35 5-2s and up. This means that at most 3 4-3s will make it in. Dakota and Troy are both 0-2, while Paige and Winston are undefeated in their divisions.
2-0
Round 3: Juan-Carlos Lorenzo (PLOX)
Juan starts off with a Mesprit bind after T1-ing my Hoppip (Baltoy benched) start with a Shiny Duskull. This cripples me for a turn, although he didn’t get his T1 energy attachment down, so I respond with some Supporter-playing and Mimicry. T2 he can’t lock me, while he builds up a Gardy. I go nuts with my sick new hand and get an Alakazam, 2 Claydols, and a Pluff up. I Leaf Guard him. He gets a Claydol up, and I Power Cancel, stupidly discarding a Roseanne’s as one of the cards. He Telepasses for his energy (at this point he had exhausted his Uxies). 3 more turns of Power Cancelling his Cosmics and KO’ing stuff, and he brings up a Gardevoir with an E-Belt (and 3 damage from Flash Bites). He fails an SSU (3rd fail that game) after I cancelled his Dark Palm and allowing a Cosmic. I KO him, he scoops.
3-0
Round 4: Peter Bae (T-Tar/Flygon)
I T2 donk his Spiritomb (BTS/Hoppip Line). We then play a fun game and he wrecks me. Dakota (also playing Pluff) just faced his SECOND Charizard deck (and won!). These are shenanigans that the byes helped me avoid.
4-0
Round 5: Khen Luu (Kingdra/Gengar)
I T1 donk his Baltoy. We play a fun game and he wins by a prize. 2 donks against (in my opinion) a few of my terrible matchups. At this point, the T-Tar decks are all middle of the line (2-3, 3-2), while some Kingdras are doing a bit better (3-2, 4-1).
5-0
Round 6: Sebastian Crema (Dialgachomp)
Sebastian gets a nice bench setup going (although not nice enough for T1 Deafen), and Mimics for 5 into an awful hand. I double Flash Bite and Expert Belt+Uxie his Chatot (obv putting it under). From there, I get decent draws, while he gets sub-par draws. Having an Unown E’d Pluff active, he snipes my Claydol, and I lay one down the following turn. At this point, I have 1 prize left to his 5, and I Mass Attack for the game. He’s a solid player, but it seems like luck wasn’t really on his side in this game. The Power Cancel on the Uxie hurt him, too (even though he knew I was going to cancel it and held onto it until the very end).
6-0
Round 7: David-John Ensor (Luxchomp ER tech)
We both get really good setups. His hand starts off slightly better than mine, though I manage to get an Alakazam up mid game. He throws E/R down to avoid my Judging it back in his deck, and keeps it on the bench. I Unown E a Claydol, forcing him into a Flash Bite in order to bring it to Sudden Death. He tries to bait out my Power Cancel by moving energy, and I believe by using Uxie for 1-2 cards, but I save it for Crobat G. He tries to Flash Bite, I cancel, and he ends. I then KO his E/R Legend by using Luxray GL Lv. X + Switch for the last 2 prizes.
7-0
TOP 32
Vs. James Neumann (Luxchomp ER tech)
Game 1:
Pressure’s on – I draw 5 Pokemon (Abra, Hoppip, Unown Q, Jumpluff, Jumpluff), an Energy, and a Rare Candy. This game goes from bad to worse and I scoop when he’s taken 4 prizes and I can barely keep a Pluff on the field. No Supporters, Lux Balls, or Communications until T5-T6 against Luxchomp. GREAT.
0-1
Game 2:
The opposite situation happens this game. I get every Supporter under the sun, and nothing to go with them. I Roseanne’s some stuff down, to keep my draw flowing, while he KOs stuff. I take a chance with Judge, and draw 2 Energy, an Alakazam, and a Jumpluff. GREAT.
0-2
The draws were garbage, but James and I had a pretty good game in the lobby, and he was a nice enough guy with a good list that deserved to move forward.
UGLY CUP
This is an annual tournament put on by Terry, one of our local Professors, in which he donates a trip for two to Worlds. The format is simple – everyone brings two 40-card decks with a 5-card sideboard. Every game, you select one deck and 3 cards from your sideboard. The 6 extra cards from the sideboard must be removed from the decks before setup and placed aside. I had Healix (with BTS/Candy sideboarded) and the following, which is the only one I played anyways:
Deck:
3-3 Mightyena (LA-LA)
1-1 Lumineon (SF-SF)
2-2 Shedinja (SV-SV)
3 Sableye
4 Poke Drawer+
4 Pokedex
4 Poke Blower+
3 Looker’s Investigation
1 Pokemon Collector
1 Victory Medal (b/c I suck at BRs )
1 Luxury Ball
3 Basic Dark
4 Special Dark
Sideboard:
Poke Turn
Warp Point
Unown G
Round 1: Sean Robinson (Luxchomp)
He goes for Candy, BTS, and Judge on his sideboard, while I hit his Turns. Sean cycles through his deck like crazy seeing my Sableye and Poochyena (assuming I was playing Mightytank). After a snipe and a retreat into Crobat G, I corner him for the rest of the game. He has no Psychic Energy, and I have a bigger deck than him. GG Sean.
1-0
Round 2: Andrew Vincze (Shuppet Donk)
Andrew sideboards Judge, Mime, and Tomb I believe. I force 4 Turns and 3 Warps out of his deck. He wins the flip, but I start Sableye with a Special Dark in hand to his lone Shuppet.
2-0
Round 3: Kon (Blaziken FB/Houndoom/Shedinja)
Kon gets some KOs with Houndoom early game. I throw up Shedinja to stall so that I can draw something decent. He starts 10 sniping my benched guys, so that I can no longer bring up the Shedinja and win. I go agro, take out a Nincada and a Shedinja, but it’s too late. He gets another prize, and shortly after could potentially get the last prize (I Lookers’d him earlier and he had the game). The turn is taking forever, so I ask him if he could kindly attach the energy to Blaziken FB and win. With a blank stare at me, I explain it again. He looks at me, and ignores my suggestion. He then proceeds to attach energy to Houndoom and end. 2 turns later, he wins the game. This was the only loss all weekend I was upset about, because it was drawn out nearly to time, was poorly played, and at least 95% of the time was spent on his turn. Kon is a nice guy and it was a really cool deck, though.
2-1
Round 4: Amy (Infernape/Chomp/Claydol )
She sideboards Sableye, while I hit a bunch of Turns and Warp Points. Early on, Amy calls for a Claydol, which I absolutely should have sideboarded. I double Blower up the Claydol for an attempt at thinning her deck – for a few turns, it works as she plays Supporters/Energies/Trainers, but she understands my strategy and starts playing it smart. I KO the Claydol, hoping I can corner something else in and deck her, but she NMs her Claydol back in, and later on I see a 2nd NM, so it was pretty hopeless (at least the way I played it).
2-2
Round 5: Dexter P (Garchomp C/Quagsire/Tomb)
I go agro Mightyena with Bite On, and start KOing things like crazy. He gets a Mightyena with his Garchomp, and I get his Garchomp with another Mightyena. The match seems to be going my way, but I scoop. Unfortunately for him, he doesn’t make cut (5th in Top 4).
2-3
Props:
-Alakazam and Unown E for being obscure techs that win games
-Dakota, Sean, and Alaric for T16
-Paige, Winston, and Curtis for T4
-Adam for winning with Cursegar
-Juan, Bin, and Michael C for T8
-Blastoise/Forretress 140 damage all across the board in Ugly Cup!!!
-Québec crew for having a good showing
-Western Players for some great competition (Crema, Gordon, Julian, Khen, Andrew, Dexter, Karl, Bidier, etc.)
-Troy for the Mightyena idea (it could have made it far had I played a better variant)
-Troy’s, Kevin’s, and Terry’s wives for watching stuff and providing good conversation in the first two rounds
-Kevin Brandon for 4-3ing and almost making cut – watch out 2011, Kevin’s gonna sweep!
-Jake for winning seniors and Mike for coming 2nd in seniors – nice job guys
-Matt K, Curtis, Bidier, Juan, Geneses, and the 10 million other people that were playing exactly or almost exactly the same version of PLOX (Matt makes the format, which is hilarious)
-The kid that played Delta Species cards at Nats
-Crema for winning Ugly Cup – go represent us again
-The woman that worked at Harvey’s that kept smiling at me
-Nice to meet Dragonzong and Javier (I believe) from the Pokebeach
-Derek for doing a good job on his first big event (judging)
-Jen for making great brownies
-David-John for his first top cut ever (if you’re reading this, you’ve improved substantially as a player)
-Every single one of my opponents this past weekend for showing class
-Feraligatr/Lumineon WHOA
-Great judging staff (Jen, Terry, Paul, Nicole, Jeff, Derek, Marv, etc.)
-Terry for putting together the Ugly Cup (great event!)
Slops:
-Not seeing a Communication or Lux Ball in Top Cut
-Players that need to read the same card over 5-10 times. GMAB
-Pluff for being extremely fragile yet ridiculously tempting
-Dirty looking Happiny that keeps being shoved in my face
-Pre-emptive time call that forced Matt Koo and at least one more master a game that they had won otherwise
-Uri Gellar for screwing my 1-1-1 line
-47th in NA
If I forgot you in props, seriously call me out on it. I will edit this. Also, if my lists look terrible, I’m always up for a good debate/some respectable feedback.
Without further ado, here’s the list. I had to sacrifice some stuff (4th Turn, 2nd Bat, 3rd Skiploom, 4th BTS), but I believe it paid off:
4-2-4 Pluff (SW-SW-GS)
1-0-1 Alakazam (MT-0-MT)
3-3 Claydol (GE-GE)
1-1 Luxray GL Lv. X (RR)
1 Uxie (LA)
1 Azelf (LA)
1 Chatot (MD)
1 Unown E (MT)
1 Unown Q (MD)
1 Crobat G (PT)
4 Pokemon Communication
4 Rare Candy
3 BTS
2 Luxury Ball
2 Bebe’s Search
2 Pokemon Collector
3 Roseanne’s Research
2 Judge
1 Palmer’s Contribution
3 Poke Turn
1 Switch (Because if they pull up your Claydol and snipe, Azelf doesn’t leave a satisfied taste in your mouth)
1 Expert Belt
5 Grass
1 Multi (Bad double-Multi Ambipom experience)
Round 1: BYE
I get into some serious Pokemom gossip (jk, but I chat with some of the Pokemoms until the round is over). Some of the other bye winners are swimming, eating, and chatting in the hall. Most of my crew loses first round (except Winston C, Alaric M-B and Paige N).
1-0
Round 2: BYE
Zach and I figure out the general make-up of top 32, and estimate it could be anywhere from 29-35 5-2s and up. This means that at most 3 4-3s will make it in. Dakota and Troy are both 0-2, while Paige and Winston are undefeated in their divisions.
2-0
Round 3: Juan-Carlos Lorenzo (PLOX)
Juan starts off with a Mesprit bind after T1-ing my Hoppip (Baltoy benched) start with a Shiny Duskull. This cripples me for a turn, although he didn’t get his T1 energy attachment down, so I respond with some Supporter-playing and Mimicry. T2 he can’t lock me, while he builds up a Gardy. I go nuts with my sick new hand and get an Alakazam, 2 Claydols, and a Pluff up. I Leaf Guard him. He gets a Claydol up, and I Power Cancel, stupidly discarding a Roseanne’s as one of the cards. He Telepasses for his energy (at this point he had exhausted his Uxies). 3 more turns of Power Cancelling his Cosmics and KO’ing stuff, and he brings up a Gardevoir with an E-Belt (and 3 damage from Flash Bites). He fails an SSU (3rd fail that game) after I cancelled his Dark Palm and allowing a Cosmic. I KO him, he scoops.
3-0
Round 4: Peter Bae (T-Tar/Flygon)
I T2 donk his Spiritomb (BTS/Hoppip Line). We then play a fun game and he wrecks me. Dakota (also playing Pluff) just faced his SECOND Charizard deck (and won!). These are shenanigans that the byes helped me avoid.
4-0
Round 5: Khen Luu (Kingdra/Gengar)
I T1 donk his Baltoy. We play a fun game and he wins by a prize. 2 donks against (in my opinion) a few of my terrible matchups. At this point, the T-Tar decks are all middle of the line (2-3, 3-2), while some Kingdras are doing a bit better (3-2, 4-1).
5-0
Round 6: Sebastian Crema (Dialgachomp)
Sebastian gets a nice bench setup going (although not nice enough for T1 Deafen), and Mimics for 5 into an awful hand. I double Flash Bite and Expert Belt+Uxie his Chatot (obv putting it under). From there, I get decent draws, while he gets sub-par draws. Having an Unown E’d Pluff active, he snipes my Claydol, and I lay one down the following turn. At this point, I have 1 prize left to his 5, and I Mass Attack for the game. He’s a solid player, but it seems like luck wasn’t really on his side in this game. The Power Cancel on the Uxie hurt him, too (even though he knew I was going to cancel it and held onto it until the very end).
6-0
Round 7: David-John Ensor (Luxchomp ER tech)
We both get really good setups. His hand starts off slightly better than mine, though I manage to get an Alakazam up mid game. He throws E/R down to avoid my Judging it back in his deck, and keeps it on the bench. I Unown E a Claydol, forcing him into a Flash Bite in order to bring it to Sudden Death. He tries to bait out my Power Cancel by moving energy, and I believe by using Uxie for 1-2 cards, but I save it for Crobat G. He tries to Flash Bite, I cancel, and he ends. I then KO his E/R Legend by using Luxray GL Lv. X + Switch for the last 2 prizes.
7-0
TOP 32
Vs. James Neumann (Luxchomp ER tech)
Game 1:
Pressure’s on – I draw 5 Pokemon (Abra, Hoppip, Unown Q, Jumpluff, Jumpluff), an Energy, and a Rare Candy. This game goes from bad to worse and I scoop when he’s taken 4 prizes and I can barely keep a Pluff on the field. No Supporters, Lux Balls, or Communications until T5-T6 against Luxchomp. GREAT.
0-1
Game 2:
The opposite situation happens this game. I get every Supporter under the sun, and nothing to go with them. I Roseanne’s some stuff down, to keep my draw flowing, while he KOs stuff. I take a chance with Judge, and draw 2 Energy, an Alakazam, and a Jumpluff. GREAT.
0-2
The draws were garbage, but James and I had a pretty good game in the lobby, and he was a nice enough guy with a good list that deserved to move forward.
UGLY CUP
This is an annual tournament put on by Terry, one of our local Professors, in which he donates a trip for two to Worlds. The format is simple – everyone brings two 40-card decks with a 5-card sideboard. Every game, you select one deck and 3 cards from your sideboard. The 6 extra cards from the sideboard must be removed from the decks before setup and placed aside. I had Healix (with BTS/Candy sideboarded) and the following, which is the only one I played anyways:
Deck:
3-3 Mightyena (LA-LA)
1-1 Lumineon (SF-SF)
2-2 Shedinja (SV-SV)
3 Sableye
4 Poke Drawer+
4 Pokedex
4 Poke Blower+
3 Looker’s Investigation
1 Pokemon Collector
1 Victory Medal (b/c I suck at BRs )
1 Luxury Ball
3 Basic Dark
4 Special Dark
Sideboard:
Poke Turn
Warp Point
Unown G
Round 1: Sean Robinson (Luxchomp)
He goes for Candy, BTS, and Judge on his sideboard, while I hit his Turns. Sean cycles through his deck like crazy seeing my Sableye and Poochyena (assuming I was playing Mightytank). After a snipe and a retreat into Crobat G, I corner him for the rest of the game. He has no Psychic Energy, and I have a bigger deck than him. GG Sean.
1-0
Round 2: Andrew Vincze (Shuppet Donk)
Andrew sideboards Judge, Mime, and Tomb I believe. I force 4 Turns and 3 Warps out of his deck. He wins the flip, but I start Sableye with a Special Dark in hand to his lone Shuppet.
2-0
Round 3: Kon (Blaziken FB/Houndoom/Shedinja)
Kon gets some KOs with Houndoom early game. I throw up Shedinja to stall so that I can draw something decent. He starts 10 sniping my benched guys, so that I can no longer bring up the Shedinja and win. I go agro, take out a Nincada and a Shedinja, but it’s too late. He gets another prize, and shortly after could potentially get the last prize (I Lookers’d him earlier and he had the game). The turn is taking forever, so I ask him if he could kindly attach the energy to Blaziken FB and win. With a blank stare at me, I explain it again. He looks at me, and ignores my suggestion. He then proceeds to attach energy to Houndoom and end. 2 turns later, he wins the game. This was the only loss all weekend I was upset about, because it was drawn out nearly to time, was poorly played, and at least 95% of the time was spent on his turn. Kon is a nice guy and it was a really cool deck, though.
2-1
Round 4: Amy (Infernape/Chomp/Claydol )
She sideboards Sableye, while I hit a bunch of Turns and Warp Points. Early on, Amy calls for a Claydol, which I absolutely should have sideboarded. I double Blower up the Claydol for an attempt at thinning her deck – for a few turns, it works as she plays Supporters/Energies/Trainers, but she understands my strategy and starts playing it smart. I KO the Claydol, hoping I can corner something else in and deck her, but she NMs her Claydol back in, and later on I see a 2nd NM, so it was pretty hopeless (at least the way I played it).
2-2
Round 5: Dexter P (Garchomp C/Quagsire/Tomb)
I go agro Mightyena with Bite On, and start KOing things like crazy. He gets a Mightyena with his Garchomp, and I get his Garchomp with another Mightyena. The match seems to be going my way, but I scoop. Unfortunately for him, he doesn’t make cut (5th in Top 4).
2-3
Props:
-Alakazam and Unown E for being obscure techs that win games
-Dakota, Sean, and Alaric for T16
-Paige, Winston, and Curtis for T4
-Adam for winning with Cursegar
-Juan, Bin, and Michael C for T8
-Blastoise/Forretress 140 damage all across the board in Ugly Cup!!!
-Québec crew for having a good showing
-Western Players for some great competition (Crema, Gordon, Julian, Khen, Andrew, Dexter, Karl, Bidier, etc.)
-Troy for the Mightyena idea (it could have made it far had I played a better variant)
-Troy’s, Kevin’s, and Terry’s wives for watching stuff and providing good conversation in the first two rounds
-Kevin Brandon for 4-3ing and almost making cut – watch out 2011, Kevin’s gonna sweep!
-Jake for winning seniors and Mike for coming 2nd in seniors – nice job guys
-Matt K, Curtis, Bidier, Juan, Geneses, and the 10 million other people that were playing exactly or almost exactly the same version of PLOX (Matt makes the format, which is hilarious)
-The kid that played Delta Species cards at Nats
-Crema for winning Ugly Cup – go represent us again
-The woman that worked at Harvey’s that kept smiling at me
-Nice to meet Dragonzong and Javier (I believe) from the Pokebeach
-Derek for doing a good job on his first big event (judging)
-Jen for making great brownies
-David-John for his first top cut ever (if you’re reading this, you’ve improved substantially as a player)
-Every single one of my opponents this past weekend for showing class
-Feraligatr/Lumineon WHOA
-Great judging staff (Jen, Terry, Paul, Nicole, Jeff, Derek, Marv, etc.)
-Terry for putting together the Ugly Cup (great event!)
Slops:
-Not seeing a Communication or Lux Ball in Top Cut
-Players that need to read the same card over 5-10 times. GMAB
-Pluff for being extremely fragile yet ridiculously tempting
-Dirty looking Happiny that keeps being shoved in my face
-Pre-emptive time call that forced Matt Koo and at least one more master a game that they had won otherwise
-Uri Gellar for screwing my 1-1-1 line
-47th in NA
If I forgot you in props, seriously call me out on it. I will edit this. Also, if my lists look terrible, I’m always up for a good debate/some respectable feedback.
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