So… *spits in hand* lets translate this stuff!
First, I wanna write something about my deck choice. This idea is haunting me since about spring BR’s. The combination of Regigigas and Gyarados.
However, after some initial lists with things like Regigigas LA in it (the Promo one was completely unknown at this time) I kinda casted it away.
Still I liked the flexibility of this deck, so I almost considered playing “Gigyara” at Nationals instead of Gyarados only. But for some time being it stayed a fun deck which I only played at league and Redshark.
When I was playing a Regigigas similar to Tomi’s at my home Battle Roads, I realized how grave the weak points to Promocroak, Donphan and of course Machamp actually were – even despite Obama. Furthermore, I knew that the European Cup would be the last bigger tournament with a more or less free Metagame for a long time, thanks to the next set. So I started to test “GG”, and tadah, it did well against practically everything
To be honest, the deck often even surprised myself and saved some long-lost matches.
Eventually this list came out:
2 Regigigas Lv.X SF
2 Regigigas DP40
2 Gyarados SF
4 Magikarp SF
1 Uxie Lv.X LA
2 Uxie LA
2 Mesprit LA
1 Azelf LA
3 Sableye SF
1 Chatot MD
1 Regice LA
1 Crobat G PT
1 Unown Q MD
- 23 -
1 Cyrus
2 Bebe
3 Collector
2 Engineer
1 Volkner
1 Looker
1 BTS
4 Drawer
2 Rescue
1 Warp Point
1 VS Seeker
2 Belt
- 21 -
2 Warp Energy
4 Double Colorless
3 Fighting
3 Water
3 Metal Basic
1 Dark Basic
- 16 -
I tried to reduce the number of Trainers in order to get around things like Vileplume and Deafen. Also, the Darkness Energy was supposed to finish Gengar, and additionally I could Impersonate Cyrus for Darkness (and the Supporter I actually wanted) against Gastly starts. I cut SSU after seeing no real advantage in playing a card that could turn extremely against you. Chatot is always nice to have and bth attacks are great. The purpose of the rest of the list should be obvious^^
Ok, I should tell you about the tournament by now… <_<
I shared a room with Basti and Florian who arrived nearly 4 hours after me (and great, this was exactly when I was at Booster Draft xD). The first impression of the location was not bad, even though the number of players were pretty low on Friday. Fortunately, many players arrived on Saturday.
I met a whole bunch of Swiss, Austrian, Czech and German guys, so chaos was preprogrammed ;D
Then on Saturday morning… after some time… and after some waiting… the tournament started. It was organized quite well but actually waiting times were partially pretty nasty. When Swiss rounds started, I saw that I had an awkward Round 1 once again. I had to play against my teammate Filipp.
Round 1: vs. Filipp L. – Austria – Sablelock
Actually no bad matchup, according to my tests. I start unideal and Fil is faster than me. I try to get something by Collector, but he can spray Mesprit. Impersonate on whatever to get my field built up. Fil can snipe some Prizes and knocks out my Gyarados with BDK. The crucial action was his Double Bat and Rush on my benched Basic Gigas with 4 Energy. I didn’t see any Belt the whole game… so I couldn’t one-hit him and he got along with Turns and Healing Breathes. He won quite clearly.
0-1
Round 2: vs. Noemi R. – Italy – Chen Lock
My start is decent: Chatot, Gigas and DCE after one Mulligan (boosting Mimic, harhar). Noemi starts with Crobat, I think. I begin and attach DCE to Gigas, Mimic for 7. Meanwhile, after a “what can this card do?” to Promogigas, Noemi gets a Blaziken – she still hasn’t seen anything that indicated my Gyarados. She attaches something and ends her turn. With Mimic I had gotten Collector and the second DCE, so I powerlock her, put down Regice and Hammer on Crobat.
I succeed in enticing her: I knew I probably wouldn’t be able to get Gigas X on my next turn to heal away her Jet Shoot and revenge kill her, but of course she couldn’t know that. So she does Luring Flame on Regice. I play Warp Point, she actives Uxie. Hammer.
I draw my prize… Bebe. Yeah! Noemi puts Chomp on her bench and again tries to Luring Flame Regice. But I have everything: Warp Energy, Bebe for Gigas X, Sacrifice Regice, attach Belt, Drag Off Garchomp. From this moment on the game was quite one-way. I one-hit everything and she can’t do anything more than Dragon Rush Mesprit.
1-1
Round 3: vs. Dietmar W. - Germany - Blastigatr
He was sitting next to me in round 2, so we roughly know what each other would play. In the end though this didn't influence the game that much^^
Dietmar starts with Floatzel GL and I have Karp active and Regice benched, so I'm a bit relieved not to get T1'd. I start and attack with Sea Spray for 2 cards. Dietmar plays a Draw Supporter, benches Squirtle and ends his turn. This is excactly what I wanted: Collector on Regi Karp Karp, Regimove, evolve into Gdos and KO on Squirtle :tongue:
Dietmar levels up his Floatzel which now has 100 HP. But h doesn't seem to have something else useful at hand, so he judges. He draws no Basic but I get the VS Seeker. So he passes and I get back Collector for Karp #3 and Crobat, GG.
2-1
Round 4: vs. Stefan P. - Germany - Jumpluff
I start with Karp, Gigas and nothing, he has Smeargle and Hoppip. Stefan goes first, attaches Grass to Hoppip and watches my great hand. My turn and I topdeck my first Supporter. OF COURSE it's Cyrus. So I know that everything I try to do to get set up will be used against me. But I see that he has 7 cards in his hand while I would be able to get rid of some cards next turn, so I play Cyrus on Energy and Volkner. It was probably a mistake... first, he had his own Collector anyways and turns it into big advantage. Second, he plays Candy - Jumpluff - second Hoppip - Energy so he has only 3 cards left and he is able steal my Volkner. Also I get Leaf Guard on my Magikarp.
Ok, I gotta catch a breath at this moment... my situation just turned from mediocre to extremely bad. But at least I have a DCE to Drag Off his Hoppip. Didn't matter, he still has his second Jumpluff standing on his next turn. And the first one gives me 80 by the way. I draw nothing and can't level up, so the game is almost lost for me. I don't make a comeback and he overruns me from this point.
2-2
Meanwhile I started to seriously doubt about my deck choice. Topcut was miles away and I targetted going positive in win/loss. Most of our guys had done pretty well, but Rudolf (Masters 4th in Germany) and Miguel (Masters first in Switzerland and 4th Worlds) were standing 2-2. But it still was all up in the air.
Round 5: vs. Merlin S. - Germany - Luxchomp
Merlin from Berlin starts with Dialga and I don't remember what I had but it was something useful. Then there's a memory lapse...
When I had set up Gigas completely except Belt and knocked out something, he has Promocroak but scarcely can't one-hit me. So I retreat for 4, Sacrifice something benched to get 80 damage away and 2 of the energies back, Uxie levelup, DCE and Zen Blade. Oh, and btw I used Mesprit^^
After that, Merlin can't do more than keeping afloat defensively. The only thing that's really annoying is his ugly cat. It is really very ugly and guzzles about 6 cards from my hand. But anyways I already have almost everything I needed on my field and Gigas hammers his way through Merlin's SPs.
3-2
Round 6: vs. Alessandro C. - Italy - Steelix
Alessandro was one of the best and kindest players on this tournament and I was looking gladly forward to this match, for the matchup seemed to be very interesting. But I got disappointed after hoping for a good clash.
I start with Sableye and he has Onix. I attach Fighting to Sableye and do Impersonate for Cyrus: Metal and Collector. Alessandro attaches Special Metal, plays Judge and Harden. I play Collector on Mesprit, Gigas and Uxie, play all of them and Impersonate on Engineer. Alessandro can't do more than atttaching a second Energy and Belt, so he does Harden again. I can't bring Gigas X yet, so I continue setting up. My Magikarp seems to kinda amuse him. He gives Onix the third Energy and ends his turn... I retreat, Sacrifice something, play Crobat and attack with Gigablaster.
4-2
Round 7: vs. Andrea L. - Italy - Kingchamp
I don't remember much from this game. Anyway I fully concentrated on Gyarados and somehow managed to deal with his 3-2-3-1 line of Machamp.
He leveled up the first Machamp and attached Belt in order to be able to knock out an undamaged Gdos, but he has to draw the second Energy with Uxie and whiffs. I didn't hesitate and walked over it.
Then we changed prizes which ended in me drawing my 5th prize with Warp Point, we both sent Uxie and I Lv.X'd and DCE'd. It immediately was hit by Take Out, but I just belted Gigas and Dragoff'd Horsea.
5-2
Now I had to hope on a good Tiebreaker... and I made the Topcut being 16th :biggrin:
After this I was radiant with happiness for hours, my deck idea actually had prove successful! I got some congrats and it seemed that I was the only one in Masters Tops who didn't play SP or Machamp.
Bt bit by bit I realized whom I had to play next: Fabrizio Corrioni who walked over swiss with 7-0 playing Kingchamp.
Again this tough matchup... it was a hge problem for me because I have to get along with Gyarados for 90% of the match. Machamp can appear almost anytime. And my list didn't enable me to get Gyarados on the field more often than about 2 times.
So I just tried to ease into it. I helped some people building PT-on hald decks for the side event and helped some other people to find out about their matchups in Topcut. About late past tired I went to sleep =P
And then it was Sunday.
Top 16: vs. Fabrizio Cor. - Italy - Kingchamp
Game 1 belongs to the most epic matches I ever had at torunaments. We had a huge clash and drew about 10 or 11 prizes in total, and at the end I was ahead only by an inch.
I remember the closing scene: we both have left 2 prizes I think. Fabrizio takes out my Uxie X which just had zenbladed something for a prize. I send up Gigas X and play 3 Drawers. With the first pair I get Fighting and Drawer, the second pair gets 2 Rescues in order to bring back Gyarados. I attach Belt to Gigas and play Crobat, KO with Giga Blaster. He has a bench with 80 HP at most but belted Kingdra Prime active which brings my Gigas down to 60 HP. I play Seeker for Engineer and get my Warp Point. GG!
1-0
The second game also was very good. But this time I can't hold my Gyarados on the field long enough, so I don't have something else left and I have to attack with Gigas on Kingdra. He retreats and takes it out, having 1 prize left now and I have 2. His Machamp has 10 damage from Rainbow. I send up Uxie, attach Belt and DCE, Regimove to downsize my hand, Uxie for 3. I draw Volkner which gets me nothing but a single Drawer. Whiff.
I would have needed Uxie X and Crobat... I also would have had Collector at hand (hadn't used Crobat and Azelf yet) and after loosing I see that Uxie X had been prized xP
1-1
Game #3. Fabrizio has single Q, I have Sableye. I play Gigas benched... I play Karp benched... I play Mesprit banched and use Psychic Bind... I play Crobat benched and Flashbite Unown... Uxie for 5. I get Darkness Energy :smile:
2-1
Top 8 vs. Filipp L. - Austria - Sablelock
I didn't really care who would turn out as the winner here... we had a great time playing each other and one of us was in Top4 for sure^^
Long story made short. In both games I couldn't get fully set up, he draws prize by prize and I can't catch up. Oh, and btw in game 1 both Belts had been prized ;P
Good games, Fil!
0-2
In the end I think I can be really content with this result. I had lots of fun all over the weekend, the games were mainly good and Filipp actually made it to Top2. Too bad I had to catch my train and couldn't whoop him...
I hope this hadn't been the last European Cup =)
Props:
- great tourney
- GG!
- met lost of people again or for the first time
- good trades and pulls
- 4:0 me vs. Italy :biggrin:
- Marc was Top4
- Filipp was Top2
Flops:
- many cool players missed the Topcut
- forgot to play against Miguel
- couldn't see Top2
Thx to:
- my room mates for offering me accomodation and preventing me from sleeping xD
- everyone who was there for having been there
- my opponente for the good matches
- everyone who liked my deck... especially Team Noob and Miguel who encouraged me in playing it :smile:
- Daniel for lending me cards
- David for writing SMSes after midnight... anyways, all the best for birthday! ;D
:fighting::water::metal:
First, I wanna write something about my deck choice. This idea is haunting me since about spring BR’s. The combination of Regigigas and Gyarados.
However, after some initial lists with things like Regigigas LA in it (the Promo one was completely unknown at this time) I kinda casted it away.
Still I liked the flexibility of this deck, so I almost considered playing “Gigyara” at Nationals instead of Gyarados only. But for some time being it stayed a fun deck which I only played at league and Redshark.
When I was playing a Regigigas similar to Tomi’s at my home Battle Roads, I realized how grave the weak points to Promocroak, Donphan and of course Machamp actually were – even despite Obama. Furthermore, I knew that the European Cup would be the last bigger tournament with a more or less free Metagame for a long time, thanks to the next set. So I started to test “GG”, and tadah, it did well against practically everything
To be honest, the deck often even surprised myself and saved some long-lost matches.
Eventually this list came out:
2 Regigigas Lv.X SF
2 Regigigas DP40
2 Gyarados SF
4 Magikarp SF
1 Uxie Lv.X LA
2 Uxie LA
2 Mesprit LA
1 Azelf LA
3 Sableye SF
1 Chatot MD
1 Regice LA
1 Crobat G PT
1 Unown Q MD
- 23 -
1 Cyrus
2 Bebe
3 Collector
2 Engineer
1 Volkner
1 Looker
1 BTS
4 Drawer
2 Rescue
1 Warp Point
1 VS Seeker
2 Belt
- 21 -
2 Warp Energy
4 Double Colorless
3 Fighting
3 Water
3 Metal Basic
1 Dark Basic
- 16 -
I tried to reduce the number of Trainers in order to get around things like Vileplume and Deafen. Also, the Darkness Energy was supposed to finish Gengar, and additionally I could Impersonate Cyrus for Darkness (and the Supporter I actually wanted) against Gastly starts. I cut SSU after seeing no real advantage in playing a card that could turn extremely against you. Chatot is always nice to have and bth attacks are great. The purpose of the rest of the list should be obvious^^
Ok, I should tell you about the tournament by now… <_<
I shared a room with Basti and Florian who arrived nearly 4 hours after me (and great, this was exactly when I was at Booster Draft xD). The first impression of the location was not bad, even though the number of players were pretty low on Friday. Fortunately, many players arrived on Saturday.
I met a whole bunch of Swiss, Austrian, Czech and German guys, so chaos was preprogrammed ;D
Then on Saturday morning… after some time… and after some waiting… the tournament started. It was organized quite well but actually waiting times were partially pretty nasty. When Swiss rounds started, I saw that I had an awkward Round 1 once again. I had to play against my teammate Filipp.
Round 1: vs. Filipp L. – Austria – Sablelock
Actually no bad matchup, according to my tests. I start unideal and Fil is faster than me. I try to get something by Collector, but he can spray Mesprit. Impersonate on whatever to get my field built up. Fil can snipe some Prizes and knocks out my Gyarados with BDK. The crucial action was his Double Bat and Rush on my benched Basic Gigas with 4 Energy. I didn’t see any Belt the whole game… so I couldn’t one-hit him and he got along with Turns and Healing Breathes. He won quite clearly.
0-1
Round 2: vs. Noemi R. – Italy – Chen Lock
My start is decent: Chatot, Gigas and DCE after one Mulligan (boosting Mimic, harhar). Noemi starts with Crobat, I think. I begin and attach DCE to Gigas, Mimic for 7. Meanwhile, after a “what can this card do?” to Promogigas, Noemi gets a Blaziken – she still hasn’t seen anything that indicated my Gyarados. She attaches something and ends her turn. With Mimic I had gotten Collector and the second DCE, so I powerlock her, put down Regice and Hammer on Crobat.
I succeed in enticing her: I knew I probably wouldn’t be able to get Gigas X on my next turn to heal away her Jet Shoot and revenge kill her, but of course she couldn’t know that. So she does Luring Flame on Regice. I play Warp Point, she actives Uxie. Hammer.
I draw my prize… Bebe. Yeah! Noemi puts Chomp on her bench and again tries to Luring Flame Regice. But I have everything: Warp Energy, Bebe for Gigas X, Sacrifice Regice, attach Belt, Drag Off Garchomp. From this moment on the game was quite one-way. I one-hit everything and she can’t do anything more than Dragon Rush Mesprit.
1-1
Round 3: vs. Dietmar W. - Germany - Blastigatr
He was sitting next to me in round 2, so we roughly know what each other would play. In the end though this didn't influence the game that much^^
Dietmar starts with Floatzel GL and I have Karp active and Regice benched, so I'm a bit relieved not to get T1'd. I start and attack with Sea Spray for 2 cards. Dietmar plays a Draw Supporter, benches Squirtle and ends his turn. This is excactly what I wanted: Collector on Regi Karp Karp, Regimove, evolve into Gdos and KO on Squirtle :tongue:
Dietmar levels up his Floatzel which now has 100 HP. But h doesn't seem to have something else useful at hand, so he judges. He draws no Basic but I get the VS Seeker. So he passes and I get back Collector for Karp #3 and Crobat, GG.
2-1
Round 4: vs. Stefan P. - Germany - Jumpluff
I start with Karp, Gigas and nothing, he has Smeargle and Hoppip. Stefan goes first, attaches Grass to Hoppip and watches my great hand. My turn and I topdeck my first Supporter. OF COURSE it's Cyrus. So I know that everything I try to do to get set up will be used against me. But I see that he has 7 cards in his hand while I would be able to get rid of some cards next turn, so I play Cyrus on Energy and Volkner. It was probably a mistake... first, he had his own Collector anyways and turns it into big advantage. Second, he plays Candy - Jumpluff - second Hoppip - Energy so he has only 3 cards left and he is able steal my Volkner. Also I get Leaf Guard on my Magikarp.
Ok, I gotta catch a breath at this moment... my situation just turned from mediocre to extremely bad. But at least I have a DCE to Drag Off his Hoppip. Didn't matter, he still has his second Jumpluff standing on his next turn. And the first one gives me 80 by the way. I draw nothing and can't level up, so the game is almost lost for me. I don't make a comeback and he overruns me from this point.
2-2
Meanwhile I started to seriously doubt about my deck choice. Topcut was miles away and I targetted going positive in win/loss. Most of our guys had done pretty well, but Rudolf (Masters 4th in Germany) and Miguel (Masters first in Switzerland and 4th Worlds) were standing 2-2. But it still was all up in the air.
Round 5: vs. Merlin S. - Germany - Luxchomp
Merlin from Berlin starts with Dialga and I don't remember what I had but it was something useful. Then there's a memory lapse...
When I had set up Gigas completely except Belt and knocked out something, he has Promocroak but scarcely can't one-hit me. So I retreat for 4, Sacrifice something benched to get 80 damage away and 2 of the energies back, Uxie levelup, DCE and Zen Blade. Oh, and btw I used Mesprit^^
After that, Merlin can't do more than keeping afloat defensively. The only thing that's really annoying is his ugly cat. It is really very ugly and guzzles about 6 cards from my hand. But anyways I already have almost everything I needed on my field and Gigas hammers his way through Merlin's SPs.
3-2
Round 6: vs. Alessandro C. - Italy - Steelix
Alessandro was one of the best and kindest players on this tournament and I was looking gladly forward to this match, for the matchup seemed to be very interesting. But I got disappointed after hoping for a good clash.
I start with Sableye and he has Onix. I attach Fighting to Sableye and do Impersonate for Cyrus: Metal and Collector. Alessandro attaches Special Metal, plays Judge and Harden. I play Collector on Mesprit, Gigas and Uxie, play all of them and Impersonate on Engineer. Alessandro can't do more than atttaching a second Energy and Belt, so he does Harden again. I can't bring Gigas X yet, so I continue setting up. My Magikarp seems to kinda amuse him. He gives Onix the third Energy and ends his turn... I retreat, Sacrifice something, play Crobat and attack with Gigablaster.
4-2
Round 7: vs. Andrea L. - Italy - Kingchamp
I don't remember much from this game. Anyway I fully concentrated on Gyarados and somehow managed to deal with his 3-2-3-1 line of Machamp.
He leveled up the first Machamp and attached Belt in order to be able to knock out an undamaged Gdos, but he has to draw the second Energy with Uxie and whiffs. I didn't hesitate and walked over it.
Then we changed prizes which ended in me drawing my 5th prize with Warp Point, we both sent Uxie and I Lv.X'd and DCE'd. It immediately was hit by Take Out, but I just belted Gigas and Dragoff'd Horsea.
5-2
Now I had to hope on a good Tiebreaker... and I made the Topcut being 16th :biggrin:
After this I was radiant with happiness for hours, my deck idea actually had prove successful! I got some congrats and it seemed that I was the only one in Masters Tops who didn't play SP or Machamp.
Bt bit by bit I realized whom I had to play next: Fabrizio Corrioni who walked over swiss with 7-0 playing Kingchamp.
Again this tough matchup... it was a hge problem for me because I have to get along with Gyarados for 90% of the match. Machamp can appear almost anytime. And my list didn't enable me to get Gyarados on the field more often than about 2 times.
So I just tried to ease into it. I helped some people building PT-on hald decks for the side event and helped some other people to find out about their matchups in Topcut. About late past tired I went to sleep =P
And then it was Sunday.
Top 16: vs. Fabrizio Cor. - Italy - Kingchamp
Game 1 belongs to the most epic matches I ever had at torunaments. We had a huge clash and drew about 10 or 11 prizes in total, and at the end I was ahead only by an inch.
I remember the closing scene: we both have left 2 prizes I think. Fabrizio takes out my Uxie X which just had zenbladed something for a prize. I send up Gigas X and play 3 Drawers. With the first pair I get Fighting and Drawer, the second pair gets 2 Rescues in order to bring back Gyarados. I attach Belt to Gigas and play Crobat, KO with Giga Blaster. He has a bench with 80 HP at most but belted Kingdra Prime active which brings my Gigas down to 60 HP. I play Seeker for Engineer and get my Warp Point. GG!
1-0
The second game also was very good. But this time I can't hold my Gyarados on the field long enough, so I don't have something else left and I have to attack with Gigas on Kingdra. He retreats and takes it out, having 1 prize left now and I have 2. His Machamp has 10 damage from Rainbow. I send up Uxie, attach Belt and DCE, Regimove to downsize my hand, Uxie for 3. I draw Volkner which gets me nothing but a single Drawer. Whiff.
I would have needed Uxie X and Crobat... I also would have had Collector at hand (hadn't used Crobat and Azelf yet) and after loosing I see that Uxie X had been prized xP
1-1
Game #3. Fabrizio has single Q, I have Sableye. I play Gigas benched... I play Karp benched... I play Mesprit banched and use Psychic Bind... I play Crobat benched and Flashbite Unown... Uxie for 5. I get Darkness Energy :smile:
2-1
Top 8 vs. Filipp L. - Austria - Sablelock
I didn't really care who would turn out as the winner here... we had a great time playing each other and one of us was in Top4 for sure^^
Long story made short. In both games I couldn't get fully set up, he draws prize by prize and I can't catch up. Oh, and btw in game 1 both Belts had been prized ;P
Good games, Fil!
0-2
In the end I think I can be really content with this result. I had lots of fun all over the weekend, the games were mainly good and Filipp actually made it to Top2. Too bad I had to catch my train and couldn't whoop him...
I hope this hadn't been the last European Cup =)
Props:
- great tourney
- GG!
- met lost of people again or for the first time
- good trades and pulls
- 4:0 me vs. Italy :biggrin:
- Marc was Top4
- Filipp was Top2
Flops:
- many cool players missed the Topcut
- forgot to play against Miguel
- couldn't see Top2
Thx to:
- my room mates for offering me accomodation and preventing me from sleeping xD
- everyone who was there for having been there
- my opponente for the good matches
- everyone who liked my deck... especially Team Noob and Miguel who encouraged me in playing it :smile:
- Daniel for lending me cards
- David for writing SMSes after midnight... anyways, all the best for birthday! ;D
:fighting::water::metal:
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