RogueListers
New Member
First, before I get into the report, let me preface by saying I'm not the MOST competitive Pokémon player. Sure, I try to win as much as I can, but I'm not going to be going to Nats nor Worlds, and I don't even go to any BRs/Cities that aren't within 20 minutes drive. So I don't get a chance to play against "soft" competition, only the best that Central Florida has to offer--which, actually, is very good. Just getting a winning record at a Battle Roads (which can, and have, reached over 70 players) is very tough for me, compounded by my disdain for "meta" decks. as such, I have never Top Cut, never finished better than 4-3, and definitely didn't go into this tournament chasing the Victory Cup.
I never actually planned on using this deck at BRs today, but boy am I glad I did. Smooth Coat Cinccino/Hypno/Vileplume is a thrilling deck to play, as almost your ENTIRE deck revolves around flips. Granted, you play to make sure the flips favor you, but at any time you could flip tails on a Smooth Coat and lose your last attacker. It's highest-risk, highest-reward, and luckily for me the risk paid off.
Last BRs, I played Meganium/Celebi/EX's, going 3-3 and honestly feeling pretty good about its chances to Top Cut at this Battle Roads. I changed out a couple cards, added some techs (Kyurem NVI + Groudon EX is an underrated combo) and had it built and ready to go for the BR the next weekend.
Fast-Forward to Friday, the day before the tournament, I hear a friend of ours that wasn't planning on going was, indeed, actually going. Our team didn't really have any spare competitive decks, so I let her use my Meganium Prime deck while I played a Vileplume deck as a send-off to one of, if not THE, best Lock cards printed since the WotC days. Unfortunately, our card pool was low, so I had to use my Girlfriend's League Vileplume deck. After reading up on the concept (inspirations here and here), I made a few changes and went to bed without testing it at all. The list I ended up running is here:
Pokémon:
4x Mincinno NXD
3x Cincinno NXD
2x Drowsee HS
2x Hypno HS
3x Oddish UD
2x Vileplume UD
1x Tyrogue CL
1x Cleffa HS
1x Shaymin EX
T/S/S:
2x Copycat
2x N
2x PONT
3x Cheren
3x Twins
4x Collector
1x Flower Shop Lady
1x Black Belt
1x Professor Elm's
4x Pokécom
4x Rare Candy
1x Pokégear 3.0
Energy:
5x Grass
4x DCE
4x Rescue
A few card explanations:
Tyrogue: EX Pokémon have 170-180 HP, Cinccino hits for 50, then 100, or 150. So T1 30, T2 50 and T3 100 can keep up the prize race while you're still setting up. Also, as a baby with Vileplume, it's a great stall mechanic.
Cleffa: Better than Smeargle in this deck simply because I don't mind giving up the prize and it can stall
Pokégear: a way to better guarantee the T1 Collector, as well as get a Twins for Vileplume
No Gloom: I wanted to best guarantee the T2 Plume, and felt the space for Gloom would better be used fitting in another Rare Candy
4-3 Cinccino: I run 4 Rescue, so the likelihood of losing enough Cinccino for it to be a problem is low. 4 Minccino because Call for Family is incredible in this deck
Black Belt: same as Tyrogue, helps close the gaps on EX kills. Should've run 2 looking back.
-----Report Below------
Okay, enough boring you. Here's the report:
(By the way, I didn't take notes, and the Zekeels decks played almost the exact same strategy, so I apologize if I mix them up. Also, I wrote this realllly late so spelling and grammar errors are sure to be found)
Round 1: ? with ZekEels/Terrakion
I hadn't tested this deck AT ALL before deciding to play it, and the guy I played against happened to be in the higher tier of players, so I wasn't very confident going into this match. Luckily, I open with a great start of Minccino active and 2 Oddish on the Bench. I call for family for another Minccino and the next turn I set up Vileplume, while my Active Minccino got KO'd by Thundurus. He took a 2-prize lead before I finally got a Cinccino and 3 Energy to stick, by which time he'd run through his resources. Funny thing about Thundurus vs Cinccino & Item Lock: Cinccino gets 2HKO'd, meaning it'll take on average 4 turns to KO 1 Cinccino. After losing his Thundurus (he was up 5-4 on prizes afterwards), he tries to Aggro Mewtwo (something I'd seen repeated throughout the day), and I flip tails on the Smooth Coat. I was able to get a Hypno up, so I sleep Pendulum, get a heads, Twins for Black Belt and DCE, and Echoed Voice for 50. Next turn, he flips tails on the sleep, and plays Terrakion with a Fighting while passing. I play Black Belt, and Echoed Voice for the 140 to KO Mewtwo. He attempts to retaliate Cinccino, I flip heads, sleep Pendulum, Echoed Voice Etc Etc Etc pretty much to the end of the game. I do remember as a last desparation attempt he brought out an Eelektrik, as I tore through his attackers. it was 3-2 in favor of me on prizes, and I played a Shaymin EX with a Grass on the bench before KOing his Eel. He realizes there wasn't anything else he could do and scoops.
1-0
Round 2: ? (I'm horrible at remembering names, but he was a Pokédad) (1-0)
During Round 1, this guy was playing right next to me, and all I had really noticed was that he was running Darkrai. I immediately realized this was where I would start heading to the bottom tables, as Darkrai would be able to knock out not only Vileplume, but every other non-Cinccino and take 6 Prizes regardless of how well Smooth Coat flips. Luckily, he starts lone Mewtwo, and I go first. Unluckily, my start is Oddish, Drowzee, Minccino, no Collector. So I attach to Minccino, and Call For Family for Oddish. He starts, attaches DCE, and I'm thinking "oh great, there goes my only Minccino" but then I get a sigh of relief when I see Pokémon Reversal. Then he flips heads, and KOs an Oddish. My setup was non-existant. My hand is even more dead than my board, so all I can do is Call for Family again, this time for a Cleffa. I'm thinking to myself "if he KOs ANYTHING but Drowzee, I can just scoop." His turn starts, he sees my board, and plays another Reversal. As I'm sweating Bullets, he flips heads, and chooses... Drowzee. It is then I find out he's not a pro player, but a Pokédad that plays so he can do something while his son is playing. He didn't know what Hypno nor Cinccino did, and saw the Psychic weakness and went for that. I wanted to correct him, but I didn't want to lose this fast, so I let him kill it. I eventually get setup, and find out it's not a Darkrai deck but Darkrai/Reshiram/Entei EX, and kind of sweep after going down 4-2 in prizes. He makes a tragic misplay, as I took out his Darkrai with Shaymin EX to tie it up at 2-2. He had an Entei on the bench with 1 Fire, and an empty Reshiram, while Shaymin only had 80 HP left. Had he brought up Entei and did 60+ Burn I could've lost right then and there, but he brought up Reshiram and attached DCE for 40. I was able to sweep after that. Whew, close call
2-0
Round 3: Daniela F (my Girlfriend!) (Raikou/Eels/Mewtwo/Hammers) (2-0)
My Girlfriend had been running the deck I tested rigorously and perfected, and ended up starting 2-0. I joked how it would be funny if we ended up playing, and, sure enough, we did. I honestly didn't think this deck had a shot of Top Cutting, but knew my Raikou build did, so I told her I had NO problem scooping. She said she would hate me forever if I did, and so went our game where I played her deck and she played mine. She was able to set up SUPER fast, and before I knew what hit me she seemed to be running away with it. She had Rescues on both Raikous, and 2 Eels. However, I get really lucky on flips and finally set up a Vileplume, grinding my way back to 2-1 (her favor) with only 70 HP on both Raikous. The only Pokémon left on my side are the Vileplume (Full HP) and 2 Cinccino. Like 2 or 3 other games, this one was decided on a coin flip. If I hit tails on the Smooth Coat flip, she wins, if I hit heads, I win. I flip the coin, it lands heads, and I do a stupid thing and jump up and shout "yesss!" She got really upset about that, and I apologized to her and hopefully there's no hard feelings. Anyways, as painful as it was to beat not only my deck, but my girlfriend, I do and go 3-0 (and I'm now single [just kidding about that last part--I hope :smile:])
3-0
Round 4: ? Lopez with Klinklang EX
Ooh, I was playing against my own deck (kind of)! I figured as long as he didn't get a Cobalion or Darkrai set up, I'd be fine. So we flip cards, and he has a Klink benched and a Cobalion active. Cobalion may not OHKO Cinccino, but it does force me to either retreat or rely on Drowzee to sleep it while I try to KO it, which really hurts my ability to stream Cinccinos. The only bright side was I got a Turn 2 Vileplume, and he lamented that he didn't play any Klangs because he didn't think anyone would be playing item lock (which I understand completely--My Meganium list didn't have any Bayleefs either), so I would be playing against pretty much 6 Corners from Cities. He loads his first Cobalion with 2 Special Metal and a Prism and is able to Iron Breaker my Cinccinos, forcing me to discard a ton of Energy retreating, but I always seemed to have more in hand. My saving grace was Black Belt, as it finally enabled me to KO his Cobalion after hopelessly doing 30 damage the previous 2 turns. Next, he promotes Mewtwo, and tries to Aggro me with him. I think he succeeds in KOing one of my Cinccinos with it, but I end up taking the KO. One Cobalion and finally Darkrai later, I have the win. He realizes only then that Darkrai could've been a killer for this deck, and comes away with that knowledge should he ever face it again (however unlikely that is).
4-0
Round 5: Jesus ? with ZekEels
This round ended pretty much the same way as Round 1--That is, I go behind by 3-4 prizes during setup before sweeping. Even though there were (at this point) only 3 X-0's remaining, my opponent decides to drop after the game, leaving Top Cut wide open.
5-0
Round 6: Jim R with Zekeels/Terrakion/Shaymin EX
Since only 3 X-0s were remaining, we were both Guaranteed to Top Cut, so this game didn't really matter much beyond seeding. Also, I look 2 tables down, and I see my teammate, Derrick G, sitting pretty needing only a win himself to make the Cut. So I was ecstatic, as both of us could easily Top Cut, which would be a first for both of us. Anyways, I originally was just going to scoop to Jim to get ready for Cut, but Derrick said I should play it out, and man am I lucky I listened to him. It was a tooth-and-nail affair throughout, and I could tell he was getting frustrated with the prize-denial aspect of the deck, Being the professional he is, he would never mention it, but you could see the facial expressions showing he was not having fun. Although I played a good game, he played better, and the game came down to a Smooth Coat coin flip. I win the flip, and go 6-0 through Swiss.
6-0
Of Course I'm ecstatic, But it gets better when I see Derrick did, indeed, Cut at 5-1. So 2 of our 5-man team Top Cut, my girlfriend going 3-3 and my other 2 friends dropping. However, 2 things I notice almost immediately:
First, I'm the top seed in Cut and Derrick is Bottom, meaning we play each other first. This was a bummer, as I wanted to face him in the Finals. But it's not nearly as big of a bummer compared to (and because of) the Second:
When I made this decklist the night before, I put it together with cards I had in my room. My girlfriend had all of our decks but our 2 league ones, and between them and our extras we only had 1 PONT. At like 4 in the morning, I decided I'd put in an N in place of a PONT and switch it out when my Girlfriend brought the extra deck over. Of course I forget and find myself with 1 too many Ns, and 1 too few PONTS. I wasn't sure what would be done about this, as I'd never top cut, but other players still hanging around said the worst they'd do is replace the N with a basic energy, and slap a warning on me. I'm thinking "okay, so my being dumb didn't actually cost me my only top cut ever," and wait for the judges to start the top 4. 5 minutes later, I see them STILL mulling over what to do about my situation, and I'm getting increasingly nervous. This isn't helped when they call me over and sit me down, explain the situation, and the severity of what I'd done. They let me know my for my next game I would receive a multi-prize penalty, up to 3 cards, depending on my opponent's choice. Now I knew I was facing my good friend and teammate, and he knew I ran 3 Twins, so I didn't think he would take any prizes. But if I were in his shows, I probably would have, so I was nervous.
Top 4: Derrick G w/ Empoleon/Terrakion
Game 1:
So Game 1 starts, and the judge explains to Derrick the situation and asks how many prizes he wanted to take. To my relief, he says none, and I visually thank him for giving us a fair playing ground. However, his Empoleon build only runs 1 Prinplup, which I'd warned him about multiple times. I get the T2 Vileplume, and he has a bench full of Piplups and 1 Prinplup. He does get 1 Empoleon and gets 1 or 2 kills, but by the time he gets up a Terrakion I'm already rolling and he scoops to keep from going over in game 3.
1-0, 7-0
Game 2:
Since I won round 1, he goes first this time. He's able to set up 2 Empoleons and a terrakion by turn 3, but that's when i get the Vileplume. So while he was rolling through my extra Oddish and Drowzee, I was able to set up and keep him from taking a prize. It comes down to me not having any energy but a DCE on a Cinccino and a Grass + Shaymin EX in hand, with him leading 3-2 on Prizes. I realize if I Synthesis onto Shaymin, he can't land crash for the KO, which will give me a chance to knock out his last attacker. So I synthesis onto Shaymin EX, he Land Crushes for 70, I Revenge Blast for 300, and he realizes there's nothing he can do but attack with a Piplup. 3 Tails later, and he scoops.
2-0, 8-0
Top 2: Jim R w/ Zekeels/Terrakion/Shaymin EX
Oh boy, all 3 of these games were insanely intense for both of us. I can't stress how reliant on flips this deck is enough when talking about this series. All 3 were decided on the last turn by a flip on my Smooth Coat, so honestly this could've easily gone either way.
Game 1: I get the perfect setup, and I mean perfect. I start first, get a T1 Collector, get a T2 Twins AND Candy Plume (I had the Candy Plume in hand). If I flipped heads on my first Smooth Coat, I would've swept. Of course, that would've been too easy, and I lose my Cinccino on his second turn. I proceed to throw up sacrificial lambs until he's down to 2 prizes and I finally get an attacker. I get on a roll and get 4 or 5 heads in a row, and win by way of him scooping before I could take the last prize.
1-0, 9-0
Game 2: I never really got setup at all this game. I didn't get the Vileplume until about turn 8 and somehow lost one of my Cinccinos--there was 1 in the discard and 1 prized, but I couldn't find my other one-- so from the get-go it was difficult. I end up literally going down by 5 prizes before I start mounting my comeback. I get hot rolling again (after flipping maybe 5 or 6 straight tails/heads when I needed the other) and I wittle his lead down to 1. His only attacker is Mewtwo EX, and if I flip heads I have a Shaymin EX waiting in the wings to OHKO it. I could have brought up shaymin the turn before to KO his previous attacker (Thundurus, I believe), but didn't know if he had an energy or Seeker in hand or not. Had he played either on his M2, Shaymin would've been KO'd, so I went with the "safer" route and kept out Cinccino until he promoted Mewtwo. So yea, He X-Balls.... I flip and..... Tails. Darn. Game 3.
1-1, 9-1
Game 3:
I actually had the lead the whole time this game, which was completely surprising and kind of difficult, actually. I flipped perfectly most of the time, hitting a Thundurus and Smeargle with Tyrogue before starting the Cinccinos. My only problem was getting attackers set up. I for some reason really wanted 2 Hypnos this game, and that combined with a baby and an Oddish and Vileplume, I only had 1 spot for an attacker. So while I started ahead 6-4 or so, he was able to quickly turn it into 4-4. It was at this juncture, though, that time was called. Jim was 0, so I just had to KO one of his Pokémon with Cinccino and I'd be able to win. For some reason, though, he kept attacking with Thundurus and Zekrom. Thundurus at best 2HKOs Cinccino while Zekrom at worst doesn't do anything but give me a free prize. And so it was, he promoted a Zekrom on Turn 0, and Bolt Strike'd. I flip heads with Smooth Coat, and return the KO on T1. For his turn, he Portraits my hand of 20 for a Twins to get a Mewtwo and DCE. Nada, they were both still prized. So he takes another Zekrom and sends it up for the KO on T2. I had a Shaymin with 0 Energy on the bench (and 3 or 4 in hand), and while I probably could have gotten the other energy on Shaymin before he drew another prize, it would have been really bad if I couldn't. So I flip for his life. Heads I win, Tails I might lose. It's a heads, he lets out a really exhausted sigh, and we tell each other good game and collect our prizes.
2-1, 10-1
So after never doing any better than 4-3, I finish first overall and get myself a gold Victory Cup. My friend Derrick ended up 4th, and I really wish I scooped game 2 after I won and he scoop game 3 so he could've gotten 3rd, but we didn't really think about that. (Honestly, I don't even know if that's allowed). He did pull a FA Groudon out of his packs, so it wasn't a total bummer for him.
As much as I would liked to say I loved this deck, I honestly didn't. It was entirely flippy and too many times flips on the last turn decided the game. I would be stressed out every round and it's completely unfun for my opponent. My regards to Jim, who had to play through 4 hellish games of it. He did a great job and I know he'll top cut with that list he had at the next BRs
Props
+Winning in my first Top Cut
+Derrick also Top Cutting
+My Tyranitar Coin. It mostly served me well. (actually a gift from Derrick)
+Good sportsmanship all around about an annoying deck like this one
+Running Shaymin EX
Slops
-Not remembering basically anyone's name
-putting in 3 N and 1 PONT when my decklist had 2 of each written down
-My friend that played the Meganium deck dropped after 3 rounds :nonono:
-Not running Mewtwo EX
-Writing waaay too many words.
EDIT: So just did some number crunching, and buying every card on T&T in this list will only cost you ~$60-70. so if you're willing to pay $7 a win this deck's for you
I never actually planned on using this deck at BRs today, but boy am I glad I did. Smooth Coat Cinccino/Hypno/Vileplume is a thrilling deck to play, as almost your ENTIRE deck revolves around flips. Granted, you play to make sure the flips favor you, but at any time you could flip tails on a Smooth Coat and lose your last attacker. It's highest-risk, highest-reward, and luckily for me the risk paid off.
Last BRs, I played Meganium/Celebi/EX's, going 3-3 and honestly feeling pretty good about its chances to Top Cut at this Battle Roads. I changed out a couple cards, added some techs (Kyurem NVI + Groudon EX is an underrated combo) and had it built and ready to go for the BR the next weekend.
Fast-Forward to Friday, the day before the tournament, I hear a friend of ours that wasn't planning on going was, indeed, actually going. Our team didn't really have any spare competitive decks, so I let her use my Meganium Prime deck while I played a Vileplume deck as a send-off to one of, if not THE, best Lock cards printed since the WotC days. Unfortunately, our card pool was low, so I had to use my Girlfriend's League Vileplume deck. After reading up on the concept (inspirations here and here), I made a few changes and went to bed without testing it at all. The list I ended up running is here:
Pokémon:
4x Mincinno NXD
3x Cincinno NXD
2x Drowsee HS
2x Hypno HS
3x Oddish UD
2x Vileplume UD
1x Tyrogue CL
1x Cleffa HS
1x Shaymin EX
T/S/S:
2x Copycat
2x N
2x PONT
3x Cheren
3x Twins
4x Collector
1x Flower Shop Lady
1x Black Belt
1x Professor Elm's
4x Pokécom
4x Rare Candy
1x Pokégear 3.0
Energy:
5x Grass
4x DCE
4x Rescue
A few card explanations:
Tyrogue: EX Pokémon have 170-180 HP, Cinccino hits for 50, then 100, or 150. So T1 30, T2 50 and T3 100 can keep up the prize race while you're still setting up. Also, as a baby with Vileplume, it's a great stall mechanic.
Cleffa: Better than Smeargle in this deck simply because I don't mind giving up the prize and it can stall
Pokégear: a way to better guarantee the T1 Collector, as well as get a Twins for Vileplume
No Gloom: I wanted to best guarantee the T2 Plume, and felt the space for Gloom would better be used fitting in another Rare Candy
4-3 Cinccino: I run 4 Rescue, so the likelihood of losing enough Cinccino for it to be a problem is low. 4 Minccino because Call for Family is incredible in this deck
Black Belt: same as Tyrogue, helps close the gaps on EX kills. Should've run 2 looking back.
-----Report Below------
Okay, enough boring you. Here's the report:
(By the way, I didn't take notes, and the Zekeels decks played almost the exact same strategy, so I apologize if I mix them up. Also, I wrote this realllly late so spelling and grammar errors are sure to be found)
Round 1: ? with ZekEels/Terrakion
I hadn't tested this deck AT ALL before deciding to play it, and the guy I played against happened to be in the higher tier of players, so I wasn't very confident going into this match. Luckily, I open with a great start of Minccino active and 2 Oddish on the Bench. I call for family for another Minccino and the next turn I set up Vileplume, while my Active Minccino got KO'd by Thundurus. He took a 2-prize lead before I finally got a Cinccino and 3 Energy to stick, by which time he'd run through his resources. Funny thing about Thundurus vs Cinccino & Item Lock: Cinccino gets 2HKO'd, meaning it'll take on average 4 turns to KO 1 Cinccino. After losing his Thundurus (he was up 5-4 on prizes afterwards), he tries to Aggro Mewtwo (something I'd seen repeated throughout the day), and I flip tails on the Smooth Coat. I was able to get a Hypno up, so I sleep Pendulum, get a heads, Twins for Black Belt and DCE, and Echoed Voice for 50. Next turn, he flips tails on the sleep, and plays Terrakion with a Fighting while passing. I play Black Belt, and Echoed Voice for the 140 to KO Mewtwo. He attempts to retaliate Cinccino, I flip heads, sleep Pendulum, Echoed Voice Etc Etc Etc pretty much to the end of the game. I do remember as a last desparation attempt he brought out an Eelektrik, as I tore through his attackers. it was 3-2 in favor of me on prizes, and I played a Shaymin EX with a Grass on the bench before KOing his Eel. He realizes there wasn't anything else he could do and scoops.
1-0
Round 2: ? (I'm horrible at remembering names, but he was a Pokédad) (1-0)
During Round 1, this guy was playing right next to me, and all I had really noticed was that he was running Darkrai. I immediately realized this was where I would start heading to the bottom tables, as Darkrai would be able to knock out not only Vileplume, but every other non-Cinccino and take 6 Prizes regardless of how well Smooth Coat flips. Luckily, he starts lone Mewtwo, and I go first. Unluckily, my start is Oddish, Drowzee, Minccino, no Collector. So I attach to Minccino, and Call For Family for Oddish. He starts, attaches DCE, and I'm thinking "oh great, there goes my only Minccino" but then I get a sigh of relief when I see Pokémon Reversal. Then he flips heads, and KOs an Oddish. My setup was non-existant. My hand is even more dead than my board, so all I can do is Call for Family again, this time for a Cleffa. I'm thinking to myself "if he KOs ANYTHING but Drowzee, I can just scoop." His turn starts, he sees my board, and plays another Reversal. As I'm sweating Bullets, he flips heads, and chooses... Drowzee. It is then I find out he's not a pro player, but a Pokédad that plays so he can do something while his son is playing. He didn't know what Hypno nor Cinccino did, and saw the Psychic weakness and went for that. I wanted to correct him, but I didn't want to lose this fast, so I let him kill it. I eventually get setup, and find out it's not a Darkrai deck but Darkrai/Reshiram/Entei EX, and kind of sweep after going down 4-2 in prizes. He makes a tragic misplay, as I took out his Darkrai with Shaymin EX to tie it up at 2-2. He had an Entei on the bench with 1 Fire, and an empty Reshiram, while Shaymin only had 80 HP left. Had he brought up Entei and did 60+ Burn I could've lost right then and there, but he brought up Reshiram and attached DCE for 40. I was able to sweep after that. Whew, close call
2-0
Round 3: Daniela F (my Girlfriend!) (Raikou/Eels/Mewtwo/Hammers) (2-0)
My Girlfriend had been running the deck I tested rigorously and perfected, and ended up starting 2-0. I joked how it would be funny if we ended up playing, and, sure enough, we did. I honestly didn't think this deck had a shot of Top Cutting, but knew my Raikou build did, so I told her I had NO problem scooping. She said she would hate me forever if I did, and so went our game where I played her deck and she played mine. She was able to set up SUPER fast, and before I knew what hit me she seemed to be running away with it. She had Rescues on both Raikous, and 2 Eels. However, I get really lucky on flips and finally set up a Vileplume, grinding my way back to 2-1 (her favor) with only 70 HP on both Raikous. The only Pokémon left on my side are the Vileplume (Full HP) and 2 Cinccino. Like 2 or 3 other games, this one was decided on a coin flip. If I hit tails on the Smooth Coat flip, she wins, if I hit heads, I win. I flip the coin, it lands heads, and I do a stupid thing and jump up and shout "yesss!" She got really upset about that, and I apologized to her and hopefully there's no hard feelings. Anyways, as painful as it was to beat not only my deck, but my girlfriend, I do and go 3-0 (and I'm now single [just kidding about that last part--I hope :smile:])
3-0
Round 4: ? Lopez with Klinklang EX
Ooh, I was playing against my own deck (kind of)! I figured as long as he didn't get a Cobalion or Darkrai set up, I'd be fine. So we flip cards, and he has a Klink benched and a Cobalion active. Cobalion may not OHKO Cinccino, but it does force me to either retreat or rely on Drowzee to sleep it while I try to KO it, which really hurts my ability to stream Cinccinos. The only bright side was I got a Turn 2 Vileplume, and he lamented that he didn't play any Klangs because he didn't think anyone would be playing item lock (which I understand completely--My Meganium list didn't have any Bayleefs either), so I would be playing against pretty much 6 Corners from Cities. He loads his first Cobalion with 2 Special Metal and a Prism and is able to Iron Breaker my Cinccinos, forcing me to discard a ton of Energy retreating, but I always seemed to have more in hand. My saving grace was Black Belt, as it finally enabled me to KO his Cobalion after hopelessly doing 30 damage the previous 2 turns. Next, he promotes Mewtwo, and tries to Aggro me with him. I think he succeeds in KOing one of my Cinccinos with it, but I end up taking the KO. One Cobalion and finally Darkrai later, I have the win. He realizes only then that Darkrai could've been a killer for this deck, and comes away with that knowledge should he ever face it again (however unlikely that is).
4-0
Round 5: Jesus ? with ZekEels
This round ended pretty much the same way as Round 1--That is, I go behind by 3-4 prizes during setup before sweeping. Even though there were (at this point) only 3 X-0's remaining, my opponent decides to drop after the game, leaving Top Cut wide open.
5-0
Round 6: Jim R with Zekeels/Terrakion/Shaymin EX
Since only 3 X-0s were remaining, we were both Guaranteed to Top Cut, so this game didn't really matter much beyond seeding. Also, I look 2 tables down, and I see my teammate, Derrick G, sitting pretty needing only a win himself to make the Cut. So I was ecstatic, as both of us could easily Top Cut, which would be a first for both of us. Anyways, I originally was just going to scoop to Jim to get ready for Cut, but Derrick said I should play it out, and man am I lucky I listened to him. It was a tooth-and-nail affair throughout, and I could tell he was getting frustrated with the prize-denial aspect of the deck, Being the professional he is, he would never mention it, but you could see the facial expressions showing he was not having fun. Although I played a good game, he played better, and the game came down to a Smooth Coat coin flip. I win the flip, and go 6-0 through Swiss.
6-0
Of Course I'm ecstatic, But it gets better when I see Derrick did, indeed, Cut at 5-1. So 2 of our 5-man team Top Cut, my girlfriend going 3-3 and my other 2 friends dropping. However, 2 things I notice almost immediately:
First, I'm the top seed in Cut and Derrick is Bottom, meaning we play each other first. This was a bummer, as I wanted to face him in the Finals. But it's not nearly as big of a bummer compared to (and because of) the Second:
When I made this decklist the night before, I put it together with cards I had in my room. My girlfriend had all of our decks but our 2 league ones, and between them and our extras we only had 1 PONT. At like 4 in the morning, I decided I'd put in an N in place of a PONT and switch it out when my Girlfriend brought the extra deck over. Of course I forget and find myself with 1 too many Ns, and 1 too few PONTS. I wasn't sure what would be done about this, as I'd never top cut, but other players still hanging around said the worst they'd do is replace the N with a basic energy, and slap a warning on me. I'm thinking "okay, so my being dumb didn't actually cost me my only top cut ever," and wait for the judges to start the top 4. 5 minutes later, I see them STILL mulling over what to do about my situation, and I'm getting increasingly nervous. This isn't helped when they call me over and sit me down, explain the situation, and the severity of what I'd done. They let me know my for my next game I would receive a multi-prize penalty, up to 3 cards, depending on my opponent's choice. Now I knew I was facing my good friend and teammate, and he knew I ran 3 Twins, so I didn't think he would take any prizes. But if I were in his shows, I probably would have, so I was nervous.
Top 4: Derrick G w/ Empoleon/Terrakion
Game 1:
So Game 1 starts, and the judge explains to Derrick the situation and asks how many prizes he wanted to take. To my relief, he says none, and I visually thank him for giving us a fair playing ground. However, his Empoleon build only runs 1 Prinplup, which I'd warned him about multiple times. I get the T2 Vileplume, and he has a bench full of Piplups and 1 Prinplup. He does get 1 Empoleon and gets 1 or 2 kills, but by the time he gets up a Terrakion I'm already rolling and he scoops to keep from going over in game 3.
1-0, 7-0
Game 2:
Since I won round 1, he goes first this time. He's able to set up 2 Empoleons and a terrakion by turn 3, but that's when i get the Vileplume. So while he was rolling through my extra Oddish and Drowzee, I was able to set up and keep him from taking a prize. It comes down to me not having any energy but a DCE on a Cinccino and a Grass + Shaymin EX in hand, with him leading 3-2 on Prizes. I realize if I Synthesis onto Shaymin, he can't land crash for the KO, which will give me a chance to knock out his last attacker. So I synthesis onto Shaymin EX, he Land Crushes for 70, I Revenge Blast for 300, and he realizes there's nothing he can do but attack with a Piplup. 3 Tails later, and he scoops.
2-0, 8-0
Top 2: Jim R w/ Zekeels/Terrakion/Shaymin EX
Oh boy, all 3 of these games were insanely intense for both of us. I can't stress how reliant on flips this deck is enough when talking about this series. All 3 were decided on the last turn by a flip on my Smooth Coat, so honestly this could've easily gone either way.
Game 1: I get the perfect setup, and I mean perfect. I start first, get a T1 Collector, get a T2 Twins AND Candy Plume (I had the Candy Plume in hand). If I flipped heads on my first Smooth Coat, I would've swept. Of course, that would've been too easy, and I lose my Cinccino on his second turn. I proceed to throw up sacrificial lambs until he's down to 2 prizes and I finally get an attacker. I get on a roll and get 4 or 5 heads in a row, and win by way of him scooping before I could take the last prize.
1-0, 9-0
Game 2: I never really got setup at all this game. I didn't get the Vileplume until about turn 8 and somehow lost one of my Cinccinos--there was 1 in the discard and 1 prized, but I couldn't find my other one-- so from the get-go it was difficult. I end up literally going down by 5 prizes before I start mounting my comeback. I get hot rolling again (after flipping maybe 5 or 6 straight tails/heads when I needed the other) and I wittle his lead down to 1. His only attacker is Mewtwo EX, and if I flip heads I have a Shaymin EX waiting in the wings to OHKO it. I could have brought up shaymin the turn before to KO his previous attacker (Thundurus, I believe), but didn't know if he had an energy or Seeker in hand or not. Had he played either on his M2, Shaymin would've been KO'd, so I went with the "safer" route and kept out Cinccino until he promoted Mewtwo. So yea, He X-Balls.... I flip and..... Tails. Darn. Game 3.
1-1, 9-1
Game 3:
I actually had the lead the whole time this game, which was completely surprising and kind of difficult, actually. I flipped perfectly most of the time, hitting a Thundurus and Smeargle with Tyrogue before starting the Cinccinos. My only problem was getting attackers set up. I for some reason really wanted 2 Hypnos this game, and that combined with a baby and an Oddish and Vileplume, I only had 1 spot for an attacker. So while I started ahead 6-4 or so, he was able to quickly turn it into 4-4. It was at this juncture, though, that time was called. Jim was 0, so I just had to KO one of his Pokémon with Cinccino and I'd be able to win. For some reason, though, he kept attacking with Thundurus and Zekrom. Thundurus at best 2HKOs Cinccino while Zekrom at worst doesn't do anything but give me a free prize. And so it was, he promoted a Zekrom on Turn 0, and Bolt Strike'd. I flip heads with Smooth Coat, and return the KO on T1. For his turn, he Portraits my hand of 20 for a Twins to get a Mewtwo and DCE. Nada, they were both still prized. So he takes another Zekrom and sends it up for the KO on T2. I had a Shaymin with 0 Energy on the bench (and 3 or 4 in hand), and while I probably could have gotten the other energy on Shaymin before he drew another prize, it would have been really bad if I couldn't. So I flip for his life. Heads I win, Tails I might lose. It's a heads, he lets out a really exhausted sigh, and we tell each other good game and collect our prizes.
2-1, 10-1
So after never doing any better than 4-3, I finish first overall and get myself a gold Victory Cup. My friend Derrick ended up 4th, and I really wish I scooped game 2 after I won and he scoop game 3 so he could've gotten 3rd, but we didn't really think about that. (Honestly, I don't even know if that's allowed). He did pull a FA Groudon out of his packs, so it wasn't a total bummer for him.
As much as I would liked to say I loved this deck, I honestly didn't. It was entirely flippy and too many times flips on the last turn decided the game. I would be stressed out every round and it's completely unfun for my opponent. My regards to Jim, who had to play through 4 hellish games of it. He did a great job and I know he'll top cut with that list he had at the next BRs
Props
+Winning in my first Top Cut
+Derrick also Top Cutting
+My Tyranitar Coin. It mostly served me well. (actually a gift from Derrick)
+Good sportsmanship all around about an annoying deck like this one
+Running Shaymin EX
Slops
-Not remembering basically anyone's name
-putting in 3 N and 1 PONT when my decklist had 2 of each written down
-My friend that played the Meganium deck dropped after 3 rounds :nonono:
-Not running Mewtwo EX
-Writing waaay too many words.
EDIT: So just did some number crunching, and buying every card on T&T in this list will only cost you ~$60-70. so if you're willing to pay $7 a win this deck's for you
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