Hey everyone, I want to give a quick report from my Regionals experience in Philadelphia. I decided to play Garbador/Terrakion/Mewtwo, which I have been playing all season and have had a lot of success with. I traveled to Philly with Erik Nance, John Orgel, and Philip Matthews, and met up with the other Team MissingNo. members Zach Bivens and Candace. I think we had 20 or so players from North and South Carolina show up, which I was very proud of and happy to see. Ryan Sablehaus represented the Carolina’s well by winning. Woo! A Carolina player has won the last 3 Regionals I have been at, with Kevin Nance winning Virginia fall regionals last year and Ryan winning Georgia and Philly this year.
People mostly played the decks that one would expect to see a majority of: Hydreigon, Darkrai Terrakion Mewtwo, RayEels, and Zekrom Eels. I was really impressed with the creativity of the techs in a few decks tho. I really really like Roserade in Darkrai Terrakion and in Terrakion Mewtwo, and the flip Victini in Eels decks, to try and keep Darkrai decks paralyzed in crucial moments, seems good as well. However, the best tech that I saw, in my opinion, was running 1 Ho-Oh in Terrakion/Darkrai/Mewtwo. I LOVE the idea of combining Dark Patch and Rebirth with Energy Switch to get T-1 and T-2 KO’s or critical energy accel. I only saw one deck that ran it, but I’ve heard of a few others running it with success at other Regionals.
I also noticed that most of the successful decks are centered around supporting Terrakion and Mewtwo in some way. Be it supported by Roserade, Pump-up Smash Terrakion, Garbodor, Ho-oh, Eels, and Dark Patch and Energy Switch, decks with all of these combos made top cut, and I think these combos will continue to be powerful into the next set. This list has a few exceptions of decks that don’t run both Terrakion and Mewtwo, but those decks run Sableye and Darkrai and are supported by Hammers or Hydreigon.
So here’s the breakdown of how the tournament with for me:
Swiss: 7-2 18th
1. Rayeels – W
2. Rayeels w/Victini – W
3. Darkrai Terrakion Mewtwo – L to Zach Bivens
4. Ninetails Amoongus – W against a really cool guy from SC named David who, with a group of friends, just started playing.
5. Ray Eels - W
6. Darkrai Terrakion Mewtwo w/ Ho-oh –W
7. Garbodor Terrakion EX Mewtwo - W
8. Eels with Boufalant and Tornadus EX – L Boufalant handled Mewtwo and Tornadus handled Terrakion
For some reason, there was a 30 min delay in between EVERY round and the 9 rounds lasted from 11ish to about 9pm…it was very very mentally taxing and exhausting. I don’t have much recollection of what happened in this game. I do know that I didn’t even take a prize.
9. Mewtwo Eels – W This game was vs Adam of 6prizes, and it was a pretty good game. Before the tournament I made a change to my deck by adding 2 Pluspower about 30 min before we turned in deck lists, and it proved very helpful in this match. Adam is a really chill guy, a great player, and I'm glad I got to meet and play him.
Top 32 – vs Christian Ortiz with Garbodor/Terrakion/Mewtwo
This was about as much of a mirror match as possible. I don’t think he ran PlusPower, he ran 1 less Switch, ran a Tropical Beach, and his tools may have been slightly different than mine, but the lists were very similar.
Game 1 – I go first and donk his Trubbish with Mewtwo… :| donks are sad even when you’re then one donking…
Game 2 – This was a close game, and he wins by a turn with a catcher. VERY good and close game.
Game 3 – I took a quick lead with a PlusPower’d Mewtwo on his Mewtwo, and I think I KO’d a Terrakion at some point. However, Christian was in TOTAL command of this game and tied the prizes at 3 as he was mounting a comeback and damaging all of my pokemon. I noticed that I needed to recover my side of the field and that he had used 3 Switch, so I decided to catcher his benched Terrakion with 1 energy and hope that he couldn’t retreat while I set up energies. He eventually placed enough energy on it to attack, so I was forced to catcher another Terrkaion with 1 energy and hope I could survive long enough to keep recovering. After I catchered and passed, he drew a card and time was called. I was honestly shocked by this, as I thought we had more time. He passed on turn 0. I sent my Trubbish active on turn 1, attached to it, and Garbage Collectioned my Catcher. He did not play 4 switch nor did he draw an N, so he had to pass turn 2. I drew Catcher, retreated to Terrakion, attached a fighting and catchered his Trubbish for the Land Crush KO and the win.
If we had 75 minute top cut, I probably would not have won that game. I felt bad for Christian. I, as well as about 5 or 6 of my friends, had emailed the TO and asked for a 75 minute top cut, as Philly was the only 60 min top cut. And although the 60 min helped me out in this situation, I still think we should have had a 75 minute top cut because it’s better for the game, and the player with the better game will actually win the match.
Tl:dr – I got lucky and won because we were the only regionals with a 60 min top cut… :\
Top 16 – Jason with Ray Eels
Jason seemed to draw dead after N’s in both games, so once I got Garbodor down the games were over fairly quickly.
Top 8 – Ryan Sablehaus with Darkrai Sableye Hammers
I have played this matchup with Ryan and it is just absolutely difficult to win. Probably a 30-70 matchup, so I knew I was in for an uphill battle. I did everything I could to win, including catcher stalling and trying to deck him which would have worked if his last N wasn’t his last card in his deck, haha. There was one spot where I could have KOd a Darkrai and had a chance to win a game, but he successfully confused my Terrakion the turn before and I flipped tails on the Land Crush and only damaged myself….haha.
So I lost in top 8 to a good friend and he won the tournament. I certainly can’t complain about that!! I’m really happy for him. Also, Team MissingNo.’s Erik started out 0-2, and came back to win the next 7 rounds and make top 32. I got to watch his final match where he came back from a 5-2 prize disadvantage to win, and watching him play is really inspirational, in a pokemon sense. Also Zach Bivens went 6-3 and finished in the top 64. Good job Team Missing No.!
I actually had a few issues with this tournament, which is really rare for me to say. It was INCREDIBLY draining, psychologically taxing, and physically exhausting to have to wait around for 30-40 minutes between the end of one round to the start of another. This was the case from round 1 through round 9. I’m not sure what the issue was. I was told it had something to do with people dropping, but I’ve played in 3 or 4 regionals before this, and some of them were in the ELO system (so I’m sure people were dropping then), and I’ve never experienced this sort of wait in between rounds. This is a big deal to me because it’s very difficult to stay mentally focused with such a long wait. After not being able to concentrate at all during round 8 (and 10 hours after registration ended…) I had enough time to leave the convention center, walk to McDonalds with Erik and Phil, take 15 min in McDonalds to get our food, and walk back and STILL make it back before round 9 started.
My other issue is with something a judge said to Ryan during game 2 of his top 4 match. Ryan had 2 prizes left, 2 Catchers in his discard pile, a Juniper in his hand, and 8 cards left in his deck. Ryan counted the cards in his deck, thought about the play for maybe 10-12 seconds, and then counted the cards in his deck one more time before Junipering himself to 1 card in the deck just so he could get the Catcher he needed to win and advance to the finals. But as he was counting his deck the 2nd time, the judge said in a very critical tone, “Really?! Counting the deck a SECOND time?? Come on, make a play.” As a judge, I understand that judges are supposed to keep an eye out for stalling, but I also believe judges are to understand context, and realize that a player is going to be careful when Junipering themselves to 1 card in the semi-finals of regionals. If the judge didn’t know what was going on, or why he was counting his deck a 2nd time, he should have leaned to his left like 1 foot and glanced at Ryan’s hand and seen the Juniper, realizing that he’s just double checking his decision and making sure he wouldn’t deck himself if something went wrong. Ryan won the match about 30 seconds later, with about 10 min to spare in the round at that, so I think the judge could have handled the situation with a little more tact. Even just saying, “I need you to make a play,” in a CALM tone would have been perfectly fine. But the angle taken really really bothered me, and I say all this just to hopefully plant a bug in the ears of any judges out there that may be reading this. Keep game context in mind, follow the players as if you yourself were playing, and you’ll be able to discern real stalling from a careful double check.
People mostly played the decks that one would expect to see a majority of: Hydreigon, Darkrai Terrakion Mewtwo, RayEels, and Zekrom Eels. I was really impressed with the creativity of the techs in a few decks tho. I really really like Roserade in Darkrai Terrakion and in Terrakion Mewtwo, and the flip Victini in Eels decks, to try and keep Darkrai decks paralyzed in crucial moments, seems good as well. However, the best tech that I saw, in my opinion, was running 1 Ho-Oh in Terrakion/Darkrai/Mewtwo. I LOVE the idea of combining Dark Patch and Rebirth with Energy Switch to get T-1 and T-2 KO’s or critical energy accel. I only saw one deck that ran it, but I’ve heard of a few others running it with success at other Regionals.
I also noticed that most of the successful decks are centered around supporting Terrakion and Mewtwo in some way. Be it supported by Roserade, Pump-up Smash Terrakion, Garbodor, Ho-oh, Eels, and Dark Patch and Energy Switch, decks with all of these combos made top cut, and I think these combos will continue to be powerful into the next set. This list has a few exceptions of decks that don’t run both Terrakion and Mewtwo, but those decks run Sableye and Darkrai and are supported by Hammers or Hydreigon.
So here’s the breakdown of how the tournament with for me:
Swiss: 7-2 18th
1. Rayeels – W
2. Rayeels w/Victini – W
3. Darkrai Terrakion Mewtwo – L to Zach Bivens
4. Ninetails Amoongus – W against a really cool guy from SC named David who, with a group of friends, just started playing.
5. Ray Eels - W
6. Darkrai Terrakion Mewtwo w/ Ho-oh –W
7. Garbodor Terrakion EX Mewtwo - W
8. Eels with Boufalant and Tornadus EX – L Boufalant handled Mewtwo and Tornadus handled Terrakion
For some reason, there was a 30 min delay in between EVERY round and the 9 rounds lasted from 11ish to about 9pm…it was very very mentally taxing and exhausting. I don’t have much recollection of what happened in this game. I do know that I didn’t even take a prize.9. Mewtwo Eels – W This game was vs Adam of 6prizes, and it was a pretty good game. Before the tournament I made a change to my deck by adding 2 Pluspower about 30 min before we turned in deck lists, and it proved very helpful in this match. Adam is a really chill guy, a great player, and I'm glad I got to meet and play him.
Top 32 – vs Christian Ortiz with Garbodor/Terrakion/Mewtwo
This was about as much of a mirror match as possible. I don’t think he ran PlusPower, he ran 1 less Switch, ran a Tropical Beach, and his tools may have been slightly different than mine, but the lists were very similar.
Game 1 – I go first and donk his Trubbish with Mewtwo… :| donks are sad even when you’re then one donking…
Game 2 – This was a close game, and he wins by a turn with a catcher. VERY good and close game.
Game 3 – I took a quick lead with a PlusPower’d Mewtwo on his Mewtwo, and I think I KO’d a Terrakion at some point. However, Christian was in TOTAL command of this game and tied the prizes at 3 as he was mounting a comeback and damaging all of my pokemon. I noticed that I needed to recover my side of the field and that he had used 3 Switch, so I decided to catcher his benched Terrakion with 1 energy and hope that he couldn’t retreat while I set up energies. He eventually placed enough energy on it to attack, so I was forced to catcher another Terrkaion with 1 energy and hope I could survive long enough to keep recovering. After I catchered and passed, he drew a card and time was called. I was honestly shocked by this, as I thought we had more time. He passed on turn 0. I sent my Trubbish active on turn 1, attached to it, and Garbage Collectioned my Catcher. He did not play 4 switch nor did he draw an N, so he had to pass turn 2. I drew Catcher, retreated to Terrakion, attached a fighting and catchered his Trubbish for the Land Crush KO and the win.
If we had 75 minute top cut, I probably would not have won that game. I felt bad for Christian. I, as well as about 5 or 6 of my friends, had emailed the TO and asked for a 75 minute top cut, as Philly was the only 60 min top cut. And although the 60 min helped me out in this situation, I still think we should have had a 75 minute top cut because it’s better for the game, and the player with the better game will actually win the match.
Tl:dr – I got lucky and won because we were the only regionals with a 60 min top cut… :\
Top 16 – Jason with Ray Eels
Jason seemed to draw dead after N’s in both games, so once I got Garbodor down the games were over fairly quickly.
Top 8 – Ryan Sablehaus with Darkrai Sableye Hammers
I have played this matchup with Ryan and it is just absolutely difficult to win. Probably a 30-70 matchup, so I knew I was in for an uphill battle. I did everything I could to win, including catcher stalling and trying to deck him which would have worked if his last N wasn’t his last card in his deck, haha. There was one spot where I could have KOd a Darkrai and had a chance to win a game, but he successfully confused my Terrakion the turn before and I flipped tails on the Land Crush and only damaged myself….haha.
So I lost in top 8 to a good friend and he won the tournament. I certainly can’t complain about that!! I’m really happy for him. Also, Team MissingNo.’s Erik started out 0-2, and came back to win the next 7 rounds and make top 32. I got to watch his final match where he came back from a 5-2 prize disadvantage to win, and watching him play is really inspirational, in a pokemon sense. Also Zach Bivens went 6-3 and finished in the top 64. Good job Team Missing No.!
I actually had a few issues with this tournament, which is really rare for me to say. It was INCREDIBLY draining, psychologically taxing, and physically exhausting to have to wait around for 30-40 minutes between the end of one round to the start of another. This was the case from round 1 through round 9. I’m not sure what the issue was. I was told it had something to do with people dropping, but I’ve played in 3 or 4 regionals before this, and some of them were in the ELO system (so I’m sure people were dropping then), and I’ve never experienced this sort of wait in between rounds. This is a big deal to me because it’s very difficult to stay mentally focused with such a long wait. After not being able to concentrate at all during round 8 (and 10 hours after registration ended…) I had enough time to leave the convention center, walk to McDonalds with Erik and Phil, take 15 min in McDonalds to get our food, and walk back and STILL make it back before round 9 started.
My other issue is with something a judge said to Ryan during game 2 of his top 4 match. Ryan had 2 prizes left, 2 Catchers in his discard pile, a Juniper in his hand, and 8 cards left in his deck. Ryan counted the cards in his deck, thought about the play for maybe 10-12 seconds, and then counted the cards in his deck one more time before Junipering himself to 1 card in the deck just so he could get the Catcher he needed to win and advance to the finals. But as he was counting his deck the 2nd time, the judge said in a very critical tone, “Really?! Counting the deck a SECOND time?? Come on, make a play.” As a judge, I understand that judges are supposed to keep an eye out for stalling, but I also believe judges are to understand context, and realize that a player is going to be careful when Junipering themselves to 1 card in the semi-finals of regionals. If the judge didn’t know what was going on, or why he was counting his deck a 2nd time, he should have leaned to his left like 1 foot and glanced at Ryan’s hand and seen the Juniper, realizing that he’s just double checking his decision and making sure he wouldn’t deck himself if something went wrong. Ryan won the match about 30 seconds later, with about 10 min to spare in the round at that, so I think the judge could have handled the situation with a little more tact. Even just saying, “I need you to make a play,” in a CALM tone would have been perfectly fine. But the angle taken really really bothered me, and I say all this just to hopefully plant a bug in the ears of any judges out there that may be reading this. Keep game context in mind, follow the players as if you yourself were playing, and you’ll be able to discern real stalling from a careful double check.
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