So, Friday night I’m playtesting with Bulbachar and Spookees, and I really have no idea what I’m going to play at the Nevada States. Bulbachar creams my Arcy deck with his super-secret-awesome deck that I won’t reveal, and Spookees takes out Metagross with her Gengar. At the airport I’m still deciding, and in the taxi the next morning I’m debating between Queendom and Meganium. Queen is tournament tested and I know it’ll get me far, Meg is not, but it’s a surprise deck, which is also good. In the end I go with Meg, because of the favorable matchups against Gengar and Rock Lock.
I call my deck Aikido, because it takes the opponent’s strength and turns it against them! ER2s help me, because they put Energies in my discard pile, which I can then grab and use to heal myself. Huge hands help me too, and big, powerful Stage 2s are the friends of Latios* and Mew ex. In my local metagame I run the deck with a 2-2 line of Togetic, since Steelix ex is popular and it’s fun to Mudslide with no discard. But I don’t know what Nevada and Cali are playing, and for consistency I decide to just run my own Steelix ex.
When we get to the site, we meet up with the rest of Team Heat. There are 12 of us playing. I play a few practice matches against Josh’s Jynxed and Anthony’s Flygon deck, and then the pairings are posted so it’s time to begin!
Round 1 vs. Rock Lock (Mai)
I go first with a T1 Pidgeot; her start is just as good: she has a benched Amphy, and Sand Damage T-tar is Faint Attacking my Active Jirachi for 30 by the end of her first turn. I Candied a Bayleef T1, so T2 I have an unrockable Meganium ex. She KO’s Jirachi on her turn; I send up Latios*, heal off the Sand Damage, and Star her for 150. She sends up the Dark Amphy, but with the Sand Damage gone she has no way of killing Latios, and on my next turn I Star her again. She can’t get any more evolutions out after that, so I just Star all of her 50HP Basics for the win.
1-0
Round 2 vs. LudiCargoWak (Hot Carl)
This is an interesting match up, because our decks are equally fast, and all of the Pokemon in both of our decks have some kind of type advantage over one another. I start with Chikorita, which works out since he has a Lotad start. I KO his first Ludicolo with Meg, and he takes out my Meg with a Scrambled Magcargo. I send up Steelix and Mudslide a Benched Marowak with 2 energy on it, leaving him with no energy on the bench and a useless Scramble up front. After that, I Admin. away a Smooth Over and Mudslide the Cargo, and he has no way to recover. A prized Cargo really hurt him in this match.
2-0
Round 3 vs. Rock Lock (Stripes)
I get an amazing start with a Jirachi, Pidgeot, and Rare Candy in my hand. No Basics or Mentors though. I look at the top 5 cards and find Admin., Candy, Meg, Grass, Grass. Great…I grab the Candy and pass. Stripes gets out a Pidgeot T1 and he has delta Larvitar active, so he’s able to hit Jirachi for 20. I use Wishing Star again, and I still don’t find a Basic. I figure that’s game right there, since he just has to attach a Rainbow Energy to Larvitar and Lunge me for the kill. But he doesn’t have the energy, and I survive another Bite. I Wish a third time, and finally pull a Holon Mentor. Pidgeot comes out, and then I use the second Candy to play Meg, and I double attach to Latios*. Larvitar evolves into Pupitar and Explodes, knocking Jirachi out. I Star the Sand Damage T-tar, then he sends up Pidgeot and Rocks me. I evolve Chikorita and Pidgey into their stage 1s, and start rebuilding Latios. He Rocks me two more times, and then he runs out of Rocks, so I Candy everything back up, heal off the Amphy damage and start hitting with Meg. We time out, and he has no way of knocking out my Meganium, so I win.
3-0
Lunch. 'Char and I get stuck in line for half an hour and have to RUN to make it back to the tourney. We don’t get to eat anything, and I slide into my chair with maybe ten seconds to spare. AAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
Round 4 vs. Dustox ex (???)
My opponent muligans, so I know what he’s playing before the round begins. I start with Mew ex, which is terrible, and I’m hoping to at least get a couple of hits in before Wurmple evolves. No such luck, he goes first and Ascends, then flips heads on Emerge. He has a Seadra TRR on his bench, and I can attach energy and copy the Swift attack, but that’s just dumb. I leave Mew active and start building an Onix. He KOs Mew, and I send up Steelix ex to kill his Seadra. I have no bench worth speaking of, so for the next four turns I just leave Steelix active and let it soak up damage while I build Meganium and Pidgeot. When Steelix is at 120 damage I retreat, and send up Latios* to KO the Dustox. He only has Seel on his Bench, and I figure that’s the end of things, but he surprises me by playing down Lunatone, Solrock, and a Cursed Stone, playing Admin., and Reversaling my Steelix w/ no Energy. At this point, the match becomes a waiting game. Prizes are 3-2 (my favor) and his plan is to KO my benched Jirachi with Cursed Stone, then send up another Dustox to KO my Steelix before the clock runs out. I Nurture and Heal the Jirachi to keep it alive while trying to draw a counter gym. With Jirachi at 40 damage and my hand totally empty, I topdeck a Power Tree and literally shout as I throw it down. He uses Lunatone’s Moon Guidance to pull another Cursed Stone, but I’ve already bought myself a few more turns, and I know that with my deck as low as it is, I have a very good chance of drawing into a Warp Point. I do, and I Star the other Dustox for the win.
4-0
Round 5 vs. Mew & Friends (Kevin-)
Kevin’s playing a ZRE deck with Mew ex and some other goodies. I know I have to work fast if I want to win, so I candy up a Meganium and have Jirachi smack his Mew with Metallic Blow for 50. He kills the Jirachi with Trode ex, and I Razor Leaf the Trode with Meg. He Bombs the Trode and swoops in a Zapdos, hits for 70. I hit back for 100, then he retreats for another Trode and discards every energy he has to knock out Meg. I send up Jirachi, he Bombs, attaches to Magcargo, and plays Warp Point. I’m in a tight spot, because my bench consists of Meganium and Pidgeot, and I know he has a Rayquaza ex in his hand. I decide to sacrifice the Pidgeot. Meg has 3 energy on it, and the game is basically won at this point, since I can 2HKO Ray, and he can’t OHKO MEX. As it turns out I draw into a Holon Trode and I just Power Poison for the win.
5-0
Round 6 vs. Queendom (Victor)
He Looked For Friends, I Admined him. He did Fast Evolution, I Admined him. I Warped in a Pidgey and killed it with Latios, then when he brought his Nidoqueen up, I killed that too. His last resort was to put Nidorina active since I couldn’t OHKO it with Shining Star, but I sent in Mew ex and Clutched for the knock out. Tough break.
6-0
So, it’s cut to top 8, and I’m in, Victor, Kevin-, and Hot Carl are all in too. Justin is the only other Team Heat member in the top cut, and I’m sitting across from him. I know he’s playing ZRE, and I lost to his deck at our last City Championship…plus there’s the double curse of First and me ALWAYS having a bad draw right after a deck check (which they’re doing), so I’m really not looking forward to this match.
Top8 vs. ZRE (Justin)
I go first and use Wishing Star. I know the Pow!s are on their way, so I build up 2 Pidgeot, a Meganium, and a Steelix as quickly as possible. He Dumps and Draws, I fill my hand with Scientist, and Mudslide his benched Voltorb. He Pow!s my remaining energy away, and Dumps and Draws again. He eventually gets an Electrode out and Extra Energy Bombs. He Pow!s up Meganium, and attacks with Zapdos ex for 70, I hit back for 100. He swoops in another Zappy, and I hit that one for 100 too. He retreats for Rayquaza ex, and kills the Meg, but by then the prize count is 4-2 in my favor, and I Mudslide one of the Zappys for the win.
1-0
In the second round he opts to go second. I put out a Power Tree, which he uses to fuel his Dump and Draw. For 2 or 3 turns we go back and forth with him discarding the same energy card and me copying his hand with Scientist. He has a Rayquaza* sitting on his bench, and I’m in no hurry to evolve my Onix, so I hit the Magmar with Mud Slap a few times while I prepare to Mudslide. He ends up killing Onix with Rayquaza ex before I can evolve it, but I kill Rayquaza ex with Latios*. I get a second Steelix out, and start killing off Voltorbs, and he has no way to get energy back, so he conceeds.
2-0
Top4 vs. Mew & Friends (Kevin-)
I get my setup and he gets his. He discards 6 energy to OHKO my Meganium, but I get a second one going right away. He has no choice but to blow up the Trode. He can’t draw a Ray or Zappy though, and the energy just sits. I attack with Meg and Steelix for the win.
1-0
Round 2, and Kevin is having problems with his dice again. He can’t Reversal me or grab more than 1 Pokemon with a Dual Ball, and pretty soon Meg is up and swinging. At one point he attacks with Magcargo for 100, but Meg KOs the Cargo and then tears through the Mews and Voltorbs as well.
2-0
Top2 vs. LudiCargoWak (Hot Carl)
I’ve just played 5 ZRE matches, and I’m a little overzealous, so right away I start Candying stage 2s. I evolve 1 Meganium naturally, and kill a Plusle. There’s a Magcargo on the bench, and I know Hot Carl’s going to Scramble it, but I only have 20 damage on Meg, so even with Strength Charm the Cargo can’t kill it. Well, instead of Charm, Hot Carl attaches a Rage Crystal and attacks for 140. Ow ow ow. I’m totally floored. I send out Pidgeot to Clutch the Cargo, and he ATM Rocks me. Well…I’d discarded my Pidgeotto early on, so there’s no hope of getting Pidgeot back out without Rare Candy. I Elm for a Bayleef, which ends up being prized, so on my next turn I play Farmer to get the Bayleef and Pidgeotto out of my discard pile. I spend the rest of the match trying to draw a Candy, a Bayleef, a Pidgeotto or an Elm. No such luck. Hot Carl sends out a Marowak and thrashes my Pokemon one by one.
0-1
I opt to go first in the second game and get a decent start, I play conservatively and evolve all of my Pokemon without the use of Rare Candy. To avoid the Cargo/Crystal/Scramble combo, I make sure to heal off every damage counter that touches my Active. I do 50 to a Minun with Meganium, then finish it off with Jirachi, and when he brings up Magcargo to kill Jirachi, I KO that too. He can’t get another Magcargo going, and I keep hitting his hand with Admin., so he never gets fully set up. I swarm with Meganiums and win.
1-1
Third game, Hot Carl’s going first. I get a horrible start with only an Onix in my hand. But since I’m going second, at least I can Mentor. He does Call For Family a few times, and I Mud Slap him for 40. He retreats the Plusle, which has 50 damage on it because he attached a Rainbow. Then in a really smart move he Swoop!s it for a Lotad, knocks himself out, attaches a Rage Crystal to Ludicolo, and hits Onix for 100. This is bad for me, because I had Steelix ex and a Holon Trode in my hand, but on the plus side, now I can send up Jirachi and get my normal setup. I do, and pretty soon I have 3 Meganiums going. I get a nice Mudslide off against a benched Slugma, and keep throwing down Admins. I’m playing down 4 energy a turn and healing off all of Ludicolo’s damage, and with Cargo out of the picture there’s no way for him to keep up. He folds, and I get the match and the tourney. :clap:
Props:
Everyone from Team Heat for coming, we’re really getting a good sized traveling crew together, which rocks.
Paul and the other Travelers from Cali, it’s always great seeing you guys.
Hot Carl for 4 great matches.
(The other) Carl and PTE Games for another well-run tournament.
Spookees for arranging the trip.
'Char for sticking around and watching my final match, even though it meant possibly missing the plane.
Southwest for giving us free flights after we DID miss the plane. :wink:
Justin for making it to Top8 with Zappy.
Shdwchu for winning the booster draft.
Aikido for pulling through for me.
Slops:
Not eating.
Rage Crystal.
Shdwchu for forgetting his deck.
'Char for getting screwed on Resistance. >_<
See you guys in Mesa on the 19th, I won’t be playing, but I’ll definitely be there to cheer you all on. :thumb:
I call my deck Aikido, because it takes the opponent’s strength and turns it against them! ER2s help me, because they put Energies in my discard pile, which I can then grab and use to heal myself. Huge hands help me too, and big, powerful Stage 2s are the friends of Latios* and Mew ex. In my local metagame I run the deck with a 2-2 line of Togetic, since Steelix ex is popular and it’s fun to Mudslide with no discard. But I don’t know what Nevada and Cali are playing, and for consistency I decide to just run my own Steelix ex.
When we get to the site, we meet up with the rest of Team Heat. There are 12 of us playing. I play a few practice matches against Josh’s Jynxed and Anthony’s Flygon deck, and then the pairings are posted so it’s time to begin!
Round 1 vs. Rock Lock (Mai)
I go first with a T1 Pidgeot; her start is just as good: she has a benched Amphy, and Sand Damage T-tar is Faint Attacking my Active Jirachi for 30 by the end of her first turn. I Candied a Bayleef T1, so T2 I have an unrockable Meganium ex. She KO’s Jirachi on her turn; I send up Latios*, heal off the Sand Damage, and Star her for 150. She sends up the Dark Amphy, but with the Sand Damage gone she has no way of killing Latios, and on my next turn I Star her again. She can’t get any more evolutions out after that, so I just Star all of her 50HP Basics for the win.
1-0
Round 2 vs. LudiCargoWak (Hot Carl)
This is an interesting match up, because our decks are equally fast, and all of the Pokemon in both of our decks have some kind of type advantage over one another. I start with Chikorita, which works out since he has a Lotad start. I KO his first Ludicolo with Meg, and he takes out my Meg with a Scrambled Magcargo. I send up Steelix and Mudslide a Benched Marowak with 2 energy on it, leaving him with no energy on the bench and a useless Scramble up front. After that, I Admin. away a Smooth Over and Mudslide the Cargo, and he has no way to recover. A prized Cargo really hurt him in this match.
2-0
Round 3 vs. Rock Lock (Stripes)
I get an amazing start with a Jirachi, Pidgeot, and Rare Candy in my hand. No Basics or Mentors though. I look at the top 5 cards and find Admin., Candy, Meg, Grass, Grass. Great…I grab the Candy and pass. Stripes gets out a Pidgeot T1 and he has delta Larvitar active, so he’s able to hit Jirachi for 20. I use Wishing Star again, and I still don’t find a Basic. I figure that’s game right there, since he just has to attach a Rainbow Energy to Larvitar and Lunge me for the kill. But he doesn’t have the energy, and I survive another Bite. I Wish a third time, and finally pull a Holon Mentor. Pidgeot comes out, and then I use the second Candy to play Meg, and I double attach to Latios*. Larvitar evolves into Pupitar and Explodes, knocking Jirachi out. I Star the Sand Damage T-tar, then he sends up Pidgeot and Rocks me. I evolve Chikorita and Pidgey into their stage 1s, and start rebuilding Latios. He Rocks me two more times, and then he runs out of Rocks, so I Candy everything back up, heal off the Amphy damage and start hitting with Meg. We time out, and he has no way of knocking out my Meganium, so I win.
3-0
Lunch. 'Char and I get stuck in line for half an hour and have to RUN to make it back to the tourney. We don’t get to eat anything, and I slide into my chair with maybe ten seconds to spare. AAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
Round 4 vs. Dustox ex (???)
My opponent muligans, so I know what he’s playing before the round begins. I start with Mew ex, which is terrible, and I’m hoping to at least get a couple of hits in before Wurmple evolves. No such luck, he goes first and Ascends, then flips heads on Emerge. He has a Seadra TRR on his bench, and I can attach energy and copy the Swift attack, but that’s just dumb. I leave Mew active and start building an Onix. He KOs Mew, and I send up Steelix ex to kill his Seadra. I have no bench worth speaking of, so for the next four turns I just leave Steelix active and let it soak up damage while I build Meganium and Pidgeot. When Steelix is at 120 damage I retreat, and send up Latios* to KO the Dustox. He only has Seel on his Bench, and I figure that’s the end of things, but he surprises me by playing down Lunatone, Solrock, and a Cursed Stone, playing Admin., and Reversaling my Steelix w/ no Energy. At this point, the match becomes a waiting game. Prizes are 3-2 (my favor) and his plan is to KO my benched Jirachi with Cursed Stone, then send up another Dustox to KO my Steelix before the clock runs out. I Nurture and Heal the Jirachi to keep it alive while trying to draw a counter gym. With Jirachi at 40 damage and my hand totally empty, I topdeck a Power Tree and literally shout as I throw it down. He uses Lunatone’s Moon Guidance to pull another Cursed Stone, but I’ve already bought myself a few more turns, and I know that with my deck as low as it is, I have a very good chance of drawing into a Warp Point. I do, and I Star the other Dustox for the win.
4-0
Round 5 vs. Mew & Friends (Kevin-)
Kevin’s playing a ZRE deck with Mew ex and some other goodies. I know I have to work fast if I want to win, so I candy up a Meganium and have Jirachi smack his Mew with Metallic Blow for 50. He kills the Jirachi with Trode ex, and I Razor Leaf the Trode with Meg. He Bombs the Trode and swoops in a Zapdos, hits for 70. I hit back for 100, then he retreats for another Trode and discards every energy he has to knock out Meg. I send up Jirachi, he Bombs, attaches to Magcargo, and plays Warp Point. I’m in a tight spot, because my bench consists of Meganium and Pidgeot, and I know he has a Rayquaza ex in his hand. I decide to sacrifice the Pidgeot. Meg has 3 energy on it, and the game is basically won at this point, since I can 2HKO Ray, and he can’t OHKO MEX. As it turns out I draw into a Holon Trode and I just Power Poison for the win.
5-0
Round 6 vs. Queendom (Victor)
He Looked For Friends, I Admined him. He did Fast Evolution, I Admined him. I Warped in a Pidgey and killed it with Latios, then when he brought his Nidoqueen up, I killed that too. His last resort was to put Nidorina active since I couldn’t OHKO it with Shining Star, but I sent in Mew ex and Clutched for the knock out. Tough break.
6-0
So, it’s cut to top 8, and I’m in, Victor, Kevin-, and Hot Carl are all in too. Justin is the only other Team Heat member in the top cut, and I’m sitting across from him. I know he’s playing ZRE, and I lost to his deck at our last City Championship…plus there’s the double curse of First and me ALWAYS having a bad draw right after a deck check (which they’re doing), so I’m really not looking forward to this match.
Top8 vs. ZRE (Justin)
I go first and use Wishing Star. I know the Pow!s are on their way, so I build up 2 Pidgeot, a Meganium, and a Steelix as quickly as possible. He Dumps and Draws, I fill my hand with Scientist, and Mudslide his benched Voltorb. He Pow!s my remaining energy away, and Dumps and Draws again. He eventually gets an Electrode out and Extra Energy Bombs. He Pow!s up Meganium, and attacks with Zapdos ex for 70, I hit back for 100. He swoops in another Zappy, and I hit that one for 100 too. He retreats for Rayquaza ex, and kills the Meg, but by then the prize count is 4-2 in my favor, and I Mudslide one of the Zappys for the win.
1-0
In the second round he opts to go second. I put out a Power Tree, which he uses to fuel his Dump and Draw. For 2 or 3 turns we go back and forth with him discarding the same energy card and me copying his hand with Scientist. He has a Rayquaza* sitting on his bench, and I’m in no hurry to evolve my Onix, so I hit the Magmar with Mud Slap a few times while I prepare to Mudslide. He ends up killing Onix with Rayquaza ex before I can evolve it, but I kill Rayquaza ex with Latios*. I get a second Steelix out, and start killing off Voltorbs, and he has no way to get energy back, so he conceeds.
2-0
Top4 vs. Mew & Friends (Kevin-)
I get my setup and he gets his. He discards 6 energy to OHKO my Meganium, but I get a second one going right away. He has no choice but to blow up the Trode. He can’t draw a Ray or Zappy though, and the energy just sits. I attack with Meg and Steelix for the win.
1-0
Round 2, and Kevin is having problems with his dice again. He can’t Reversal me or grab more than 1 Pokemon with a Dual Ball, and pretty soon Meg is up and swinging. At one point he attacks with Magcargo for 100, but Meg KOs the Cargo and then tears through the Mews and Voltorbs as well.
2-0
Top2 vs. LudiCargoWak (Hot Carl)
I’ve just played 5 ZRE matches, and I’m a little overzealous, so right away I start Candying stage 2s. I evolve 1 Meganium naturally, and kill a Plusle. There’s a Magcargo on the bench, and I know Hot Carl’s going to Scramble it, but I only have 20 damage on Meg, so even with Strength Charm the Cargo can’t kill it. Well, instead of Charm, Hot Carl attaches a Rage Crystal and attacks for 140. Ow ow ow. I’m totally floored. I send out Pidgeot to Clutch the Cargo, and he ATM Rocks me. Well…I’d discarded my Pidgeotto early on, so there’s no hope of getting Pidgeot back out without Rare Candy. I Elm for a Bayleef, which ends up being prized, so on my next turn I play Farmer to get the Bayleef and Pidgeotto out of my discard pile. I spend the rest of the match trying to draw a Candy, a Bayleef, a Pidgeotto or an Elm. No such luck. Hot Carl sends out a Marowak and thrashes my Pokemon one by one.
0-1
I opt to go first in the second game and get a decent start, I play conservatively and evolve all of my Pokemon without the use of Rare Candy. To avoid the Cargo/Crystal/Scramble combo, I make sure to heal off every damage counter that touches my Active. I do 50 to a Minun with Meganium, then finish it off with Jirachi, and when he brings up Magcargo to kill Jirachi, I KO that too. He can’t get another Magcargo going, and I keep hitting his hand with Admin., so he never gets fully set up. I swarm with Meganiums and win.
1-1
Third game, Hot Carl’s going first. I get a horrible start with only an Onix in my hand. But since I’m going second, at least I can Mentor. He does Call For Family a few times, and I Mud Slap him for 40. He retreats the Plusle, which has 50 damage on it because he attached a Rainbow. Then in a really smart move he Swoop!s it for a Lotad, knocks himself out, attaches a Rage Crystal to Ludicolo, and hits Onix for 100. This is bad for me, because I had Steelix ex and a Holon Trode in my hand, but on the plus side, now I can send up Jirachi and get my normal setup. I do, and pretty soon I have 3 Meganiums going. I get a nice Mudslide off against a benched Slugma, and keep throwing down Admins. I’m playing down 4 energy a turn and healing off all of Ludicolo’s damage, and with Cargo out of the picture there’s no way for him to keep up. He folds, and I get the match and the tourney. :clap:
Props:
Everyone from Team Heat for coming, we’re really getting a good sized traveling crew together, which rocks.
Paul and the other Travelers from Cali, it’s always great seeing you guys.
Hot Carl for 4 great matches.
(The other) Carl and PTE Games for another well-run tournament.
Spookees for arranging the trip.
'Char for sticking around and watching my final match, even though it meant possibly missing the plane.
Southwest for giving us free flights after we DID miss the plane. :wink:
Justin for making it to Top8 with Zappy.
Shdwchu for winning the booster draft.
Aikido for pulling through for me.
Slops:
Not eating.
Rage Crystal.
Shdwchu for forgetting his deck.
'Char for getting screwed on Resistance. >_<
See you guys in Mesa on the 19th, I won’t be playing, but I’ll definitely be there to cheer you all on. :thumb:
