Moss Factor
New Member
After getting some bad luck in my previous top 8's with Mew Lock, I decided to go with it again. Considering that it is a) the B D in the F, b) the most consistent deck, c) the deck with the most options that takes the most skill to play and play against, and d) the only deck I had 
While "d)" likely contributed the MOST to my deck choice, "a)" through "c)" certainly helped! I got extra sleep for this one considering it was in Michigan and thus the closest GC drive to date!
Round 1: BYE!!
I've never had a non-awarded bye in my LIFE!! (During the STS days, you were awarded byes at the STS based on your DCI rating, with 3 byes max). It's about time! *PUMPS FIST*
1-0
Round 2: Eddie with LBS
Eddie was 0-1 and so I got paired down. BLEH, there goes my resistence. I disrupt him early and deny him his setup. I take all six prizes to his NONE. A lock deck? Sorry buddy, but when you 6-0 an LBS that sounds like an AGGRO deck to me!
2-0
Round 3: Eric (Psychodad) with Bannette ex
This seems like a bad matchup for me on paper. They have a Psychic poke that isn't Psy-weak, they run switch cards like Warp point, I don't run many supporters, and they attacks for 2 energy; very fast in the setup. However after losing to Tracy in the top 4 of the Elyria, OH Gym Challenge, I learned a lot about how to approach the match. Furthermore, I added some tech to the deck that assisted me. After disrupting him with status and not letting him get at my Mew exs, I psudeo-locked him then changed gears and went aggro on him at just the right time. Identifying those inflection points is CRITICAL for playing Mew Lock, and is part of the reason I think people don't do well with it. I end up winning a very close game by drawing all my prizes.
3-0
Before this round begins, Derek does a drawing for the POP-engraved iPod he gives away at every one of his events. I see Dan look at the name he pulled out of "the hat" and he looks right at me He then announces my name and I WIN THE IPOD YES YES YES DOES IT!!! BELIEVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Round 4: Liz Reed with Ludicolo
I manage to use status to turn off her Magcargos and not allow her to power things up. She plays extremely slowly, which I think ends up hurting her. I was having a lot of difficulty keeping things locked, and she was slowly building an arsenal on her bench. Given no time limit, things could have been tough, but she just kept taking such LONG turns, even with short time left on the clock. I had built up a few prize lead, and managed to just keep gusting bench Pokes until time ran out. Perhaps if she had played quicker things could have been differently, but honestly if we had chess clocked that match it would have been like 20 minutes for her and 10 minutes for me. Good game, Liz!
4-0
Round 5: Brandon with LBS
I disrupt him early with status, hand disruption, and deck disruption. After I lock him like CRAZY when he has like no bench and me with a large prize lead, he wisely scoops.
5-0
Round 6: Toeniskoetter with Dragtrode
I have the most inconsistent start I've ever had with this deck. I believe my first energy drop was something like turn 5. Simply unreal. I couldn't find a frontier, either. It was just brutal. I actually think I had a slim chance, but he got a countergym off his Admin to 3 and that sealed things.
5-1
Due to my pair down to Eddie and him going 0-5 like a FREAK, my resistence is really low so I'm 3rd seed. T8 looks like this:
1st Seena Ghaziaskar with Mew Lock
2nd Justin Williams with Muk/Weezing
3rd Matthew Moss (me) with Mew Lock
4th Brandon Runyon with LBS
5th Matthew Toeniskoetter with Dragtrode
6th Matthew Gillespie with Bannette.dec
7th Scott Faust with MetaDrag
8th Paris Garavaglia with Dragtrode
T8 vs. Matt with Bannette ex
Matt employs a different strategy than Eric or Tracy did. He runs all four combos of Lunatone and Solrock and used them offensively to disrupt and damage me. The game came down very close but I managed to pull off a win in game 1.
Game two started with not much time left but Matt definately made a game of it. I believe I made a big, BIG mistake in sending up my Mew ex to knock something out with very short time left and Matt having 2 prizes. He plays a Scientist for four needing the ONE Swoop he runs in his deck that I didn't see all of game 1 and didn't think he ran; regardless, I shouldn't have even given him the option of getting 2 prizes by putting up an ex. He has a fairly large deck and as a result he whiffs on it and time ends on his turn. GG
Top 4:
Me vs. Scott
Brandon vs. Paris
T4 vs. Scott with MetaDrag
I know he runs a bunch of Warp Energy so I play cautious and avoid giving him a KO on my Mew ex by keeping other things active. Eventually he takes a prize by hitting a confusion flip and I begin the lock down removing his energy. Again, I find a key inflection point where I break the lock, KO his lone Dragonite d with a bunch of energy on it after Admining him. After that he doesn't really ever recover and eventually scoops.
Game two he tried going aggro, but I slowed the game down with disruption in the forms of status and trainer denial, as well as keeping a Frontier in play that turned off his powers and slowed him down more. With about 6-7 minutes left he realizes the game is far from over and scoops. I thought Scott's biggest mistake was how he approached scooping. If he was going to scoop game 1, I think he should have done it after I KOed his Dragonite d loaded with energy. If he WASN'T going to scoop then, he should have played it down to like 6-8 minutes left knowing that his only chance of winning game 2 was to rush me very quickly. If you were going to scoop if you didn't get a very quick start regardless, you should have given game 1 a little more time, Scott. Good games, however man. Well done.
FINALS vs. Brandon with LBS
I disrupt him a TON early in the match and he is forced to burn two Switch and counter his own Power Tree with an Island Cave. Unfortunantly for myself, I cannot find a Frontier to stick him with and am perhaps too aggressive with him. I take two TWO Blastoise ex and a Jirachi HL to drop down to 1 prize. After that he sticks me with a Stump that I am unable to counter. This hurts as, by having only 1 prize, I'm not able to use my Admins to draw and I'm not able to ever use my Pows. He still doesn't get much of anything going, and its far too easy for Mew Lock to take 1 random prize. I end up doing just that, KOing his confused Mew ex for the win.
Game 2 I disrupt him like crazy and am winning a very lopsided match in my favor. He scoops with a few minutes left. I likely would have won that game in an untimed match regardless.
DOES IT!!!! Mossy goes to WORLDS! I get news soon after that Chuck won his trip as well, so that makes four of the five E4 members with trips! Seena is yet to claim his trip, however Nats is coming up and we all know that Nats is GHAZ'S TOURNEY!
Props:
Seena, Fulop, David, Klaczynski, AJ, and EC for initial and ongoing work on the deck
Derek for the great tourney and the iPod!
Chuck for winning as well
Tennis for coming back
All the little kids who are 15 now
Erica <3
Slops:
Foisy
While "d)" likely contributed the MOST to my deck choice, "a)" through "c)" certainly helped! I got extra sleep for this one considering it was in Michigan and thus the closest GC drive to date!
Round 1: BYE!!
I've never had a non-awarded bye in my LIFE!! (During the STS days, you were awarded byes at the STS based on your DCI rating, with 3 byes max). It's about time! *PUMPS FIST*
1-0
Round 2: Eddie with LBS
Eddie was 0-1 and so I got paired down. BLEH, there goes my resistence. I disrupt him early and deny him his setup. I take all six prizes to his NONE. A lock deck? Sorry buddy, but when you 6-0 an LBS that sounds like an AGGRO deck to me!
2-0
Round 3: Eric (Psychodad) with Bannette ex
This seems like a bad matchup for me on paper. They have a Psychic poke that isn't Psy-weak, they run switch cards like Warp point, I don't run many supporters, and they attacks for 2 energy; very fast in the setup. However after losing to Tracy in the top 4 of the Elyria, OH Gym Challenge, I learned a lot about how to approach the match. Furthermore, I added some tech to the deck that assisted me. After disrupting him with status and not letting him get at my Mew exs, I psudeo-locked him then changed gears and went aggro on him at just the right time. Identifying those inflection points is CRITICAL for playing Mew Lock, and is part of the reason I think people don't do well with it. I end up winning a very close game by drawing all my prizes.
3-0
Before this round begins, Derek does a drawing for the POP-engraved iPod he gives away at every one of his events. I see Dan look at the name he pulled out of "the hat" and he looks right at me
He then announces my name and I WIN THE IPOD YES YES YES DOES IT!!! BELIEVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Round 4: Liz Reed with Ludicolo
I manage to use status to turn off her Magcargos and not allow her to power things up. She plays extremely slowly, which I think ends up hurting her. I was having a lot of difficulty keeping things locked, and she was slowly building an arsenal on her bench. Given no time limit, things could have been tough, but she just kept taking such LONG turns, even with short time left on the clock. I had built up a few prize lead, and managed to just keep gusting bench Pokes until time ran out. Perhaps if she had played quicker things could have been differently, but honestly if we had chess clocked that match it would have been like 20 minutes for her and 10 minutes for me. Good game, Liz!
4-0
Round 5: Brandon with LBS
I disrupt him early with status, hand disruption, and deck disruption. After I lock him like CRAZY when he has like no bench and me with a large prize lead, he wisely scoops.
5-0
Round 6: Toeniskoetter with Dragtrode
I have the most inconsistent start I've ever had with this deck. I believe my first energy drop was something like turn 5. Simply unreal. I couldn't find a frontier, either. It was just brutal. I actually think I had a slim chance, but he got a countergym off his Admin to 3 and that sealed things.
5-1
Due to my pair down to Eddie and him going 0-5 like a FREAK, my resistence is really low so I'm 3rd seed. T8 looks like this:
1st Seena Ghaziaskar with Mew Lock
2nd Justin Williams with Muk/Weezing
3rd Matthew Moss (me) with Mew Lock
4th Brandon Runyon with LBS
5th Matthew Toeniskoetter with Dragtrode
6th Matthew Gillespie with Bannette.dec
7th Scott Faust with MetaDrag
8th Paris Garavaglia with Dragtrode
T8 vs. Matt with Bannette ex
Matt employs a different strategy than Eric or Tracy did. He runs all four combos of Lunatone and Solrock and used them offensively to disrupt and damage me. The game came down very close but I managed to pull off a win in game 1.
Game two started with not much time left but Matt definately made a game of it. I believe I made a big, BIG mistake in sending up my Mew ex to knock something out with very short time left and Matt having 2 prizes. He plays a Scientist for four needing the ONE Swoop he runs in his deck that I didn't see all of game 1 and didn't think he ran; regardless, I shouldn't have even given him the option of getting 2 prizes by putting up an ex. He has a fairly large deck and as a result he whiffs on it and time ends on his turn. GG
Top 4:
Me vs. Scott
Brandon vs. Paris
T4 vs. Scott with MetaDrag
I know he runs a bunch of Warp Energy so I play cautious and avoid giving him a KO on my Mew ex by keeping other things active. Eventually he takes a prize by hitting a confusion flip and I begin the lock down removing his energy. Again, I find a key inflection point where I break the lock, KO his lone Dragonite d with a bunch of energy on it after Admining him. After that he doesn't really ever recover and eventually scoops.
Game two he tried going aggro, but I slowed the game down with disruption in the forms of status and trainer denial, as well as keeping a Frontier in play that turned off his powers and slowed him down more. With about 6-7 minutes left he realizes the game is far from over and scoops. I thought Scott's biggest mistake was how he approached scooping. If he was going to scoop game 1, I think he should have done it after I KOed his Dragonite d loaded with energy. If he WASN'T going to scoop then, he should have played it down to like 6-8 minutes left knowing that his only chance of winning game 2 was to rush me very quickly. If you were going to scoop if you didn't get a very quick start regardless, you should have given game 1 a little more time, Scott. Good games, however man. Well done.
FINALS vs. Brandon with LBS
I disrupt him a TON early in the match and he is forced to burn two Switch and counter his own Power Tree with an Island Cave. Unfortunantly for myself, I cannot find a Frontier to stick him with and am perhaps too aggressive with him. I take two TWO Blastoise ex and a Jirachi HL to drop down to 1 prize. After that he sticks me with a Stump that I am unable to counter. This hurts as, by having only 1 prize, I'm not able to use my Admins to draw and I'm not able to ever use my Pows. He still doesn't get much of anything going, and its far too easy for Mew Lock to take 1 random prize. I end up doing just that, KOing his confused Mew ex for the win.
Game 2 I disrupt him like crazy and am winning a very lopsided match in my favor. He scoops with a few minutes left. I likely would have won that game in an untimed match regardless.
DOES IT!!!! Mossy goes to WORLDS! I get news soon after that Chuck won his trip as well, so that makes four of the five E4 members with trips! Seena is yet to claim his trip, however Nats is coming up and we all know that Nats is GHAZ'S TOURNEY!
Props:
Seena, Fulop, David, Klaczynski, AJ, and EC for initial and ongoing work on the deck
Derek for the great tourney and the iPod!
Chuck for winning as well
Tennis for coming back
All the little kids who are 15 now
Erica <3
Slops:
Foisy
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