I had time today so finished this up, if some of the details are wrong let me know and I'll change things.
So we start play testing for Regional’s a few weeks before hand. My life’s been crazy with school and other personal things so I haven’t had much time to practice. So I start talking with people on what “the play” is, Drew was really pushing Gyarados his deck was amazing and the best Gyarados I’ve seen but I just wasn’t a big fan of the deck in general, but Tim loved the deck so he gets pretty set on that’s what he’s playing. But I’m still at a loss, both Fulop and Gino are pushing Jumpluff and when you have two National Champions telling you to play a deck you take it seriously. I loved Jumpluff as a deck but I hated how donkable it was but I seriously started testing it. I pretty much decided on the deck for a few different reasons, first it came down to which mirror I would rather play Jumpluff or Luxchomp. I preferred to play Luxchomp mirror simply from the fact I felt like its less luck based however out of 7 rounds I figured I would play 1 or 2 Jumpluff but most likely 3 or even 4 Luxchomp. My record with Luxchomp against Jumpluff was 6-10 and 4 of my wins came from FTK’s I just didn’t feel like Luxchomp could beat Jumpluff in a fair game consistently. The Gyarados match up I’m going to disagree with Fulop on, it isn’t favorable but it’s no more than 40-60. I keep testing Luxchomp but eventually decide to play Jumpluff.
Round 1:
So my sleeves are brand new and I spill a pile all over the table when I’m shuffling and he sees a Jumpluff (God I’m so Pro, lol) but I see a Gilscor X so it evens out. He goes first with Baltoy to my Baltoy, he attaches and passes. I go off hitting getting a Claydol and Jumpluff in play, I dropped the Unown Q before the tournament so I can’t donk him unless I hit a Warp Point. But after a Cosmic and a Set Up I whiff. I decide not to get greedy and I don’t evolve my active Baltoy and I just simply pass. His turn he retreat to a Spirtomb (really glad I didn’t evolve the Baltoy at this point) he drops a Gligar and than DG for a Claydol. I retreat Baltoy for Jumpluff and kill the Tomb after dropping a Luxray. Over the next few turns I play the Bright Look game and get a healthy prize lead so I can’t get locked and his deck can’t sit there and slam with me so eventually I win the prize war.
1-0
Round 2:
I flip over Crobat he flips over Mareep, I draw bench a Chatot and end. He attaches and miss the flip for paralyzes so I drop stuff happens and I get Jumpluff and bench him.
2-0
Round 3: Ivan with GG
Ivan is playing an unusual GG list without tomb and 4 Healers and thankfully I found out about a Dusknoir which I knew could be a problem. Any ways I open with 4 Energy, yes more than half that is in my deck. I throw down my bebe’s to search for my Chatot but its prized so I have to Azelf for it which I knew would cause be problems later (I love playing super consistent decks and have stuff like this happen). I do end up all right off Mimic and quickly set up 2 Jumpluff and 2 Claydol and burn through as much of my deck as possible so I can mitigate the damage of Wager and Dark Palm. I take a pretty comfortable prize lead which I know means nothing against GG. After playing the deck for 2 states I knew it pretty well. I eventually fight through the Psychic Locks and he sends up Gallade Belted which is a problem, I Bright Look Dusknoir hit it for 110 and hope he doesn’t have anything to switch it back (he burned through a lot of switch cards and didn’t have a Gardy or Claydol in play. He doesn’t, so next turns I take a Flash Bite kill and then kill the belted Gallade to take it. I think I won 0-2 or 0-3 on prizes. Good Game though.
3-0
Round 4:
Okay so I get paired down with I don’t recognize the name but I know it’s a girl, earlier in the day I hear a cute girl is playing Shuppet and when I sit down she’s a cute girl so I assume shes playing Shuppet (God I need to scout better, lol) This is more confirmed when Andy sits down next to me and says you don’t like this matchup do you? I’m like no but it’s when able. Some of her choices I found a little weird but they working very well for example she played like 4 counter stadiums which made it hard to keep a BTS in play. Anyways she gets an early Flash bite kill on a Hoppip but in the early stages she only gets 2 PP and 1 Expert Belt so the prize war stays pretty even in the end shes up 1-2 on prizes shes hitting me for 90 turn at this point. But she burned through 3 Poketurn and 1 Moonlight early she has probably a 15 cards deck and a 8-10 card hand however in that hand I know she has 1 Shuppet, 1 Psychic,4 PP, 1 Expert Belt, so I have to gamble she doesn’t have the KO, I bright look her Skuntank G attach an Expert Belt and kill the Skunktank, in case she has a another Gym. All my cards are on the table (figure of speech) if she has it, she has it. She draws thinks for about 30 seconds and offers me the hands shake and breathe a huge sigh of relief.
4-0
Round 5: Chuck with Jumpluff
I open 1 Basic he opens 2 and I breath a huge sigh of Relief when he wins the die roll. He hits for 10 and than switches to a Uxie. I get the triple flashbite KO on the Hoppip and stay up prizes the whole game and we keep playing the 1-1 game. The big deciding factor is when he belted a Jumpluff hoping I can’t get a cheap kill on it. But I manage to get the cheap kill anyways for the win.
5-0
Round 6: Tim Metro with Gengar/Chomp
My opening hand is weird I have no playable trainers or supporters but I somehow get 2 Jumpluffs out with having a Claydol or a Supporter. He thinks I’m hold a Communication and am going to explode on him when I get a turn with trainers. Which is true if I was holding one. So he Pitch Darks me for 4 turns to get set up but finally I top a Collector and get rolling. We both get set up good but I’m simply able to make better trade off and win the prize war. After I draw my last prize, he has two left and tells me he had game next turn with a Combination of Bats/Turns and another either Gengar or Garchomp snipe.
6-0
Round 7: Emmanual with Gengar/Chomp
So all the Minnisodia guys were playing this deck and they were all the top tables which I thought was pretty cool. I open Hoppip and Baltoy to his Chomp. He goes first and DCE’s and kills the Hoppip I promote Baltoy and get set up but I can’t get that Baltoy out of the active position. His turn he EGains and kills the Baltoy after leveling up. I’m not able to get the return kill so I smack him and he Rushes my Claydol. So he’s up 3 prizes before I take 1. I stay in the game and take 3 prizes but I just can’t keep up with his “cheap” prizes so he wins the war.
6-1
Standings go up and I’m like 5 or 6, I honestly don’t remember, but anyways Tim Metro catches me and says that his wonderful wife was getting a group together to go down and eat at the Ponderso about mile away, he asks me if I would like to come and I jump on the opportunity. It’s really cool because we have a majority of the top 16 here so we all get to hang out and eat some amazing food. Best quote of the day in my opinion is when Tim tells us we need to leave to make sure we get back in time and Emmanual yells “what are they going to do about it we practically have the whole top 16 right here” But we all make it back with about 5 mins to spare.
Top 16 Tim Metro with Gengar/Luxchomp
Game 1: I open well this game and take good cheap prizes with Bright look and he does the same, he had to go a majority of the game without a Claydol while I was able to keep one in play even though he was sniping with Garchomp it was far easier for my deck to set one up than his.
1-0
Game 2: Pretty much the same as Game 1, he has 3 prizes left to my 2, he tries to set up a big win with Gengar X to take 3 prizes and has it next turn but I draw into the Poketurn to rescue my Crobat and Flash Bite kill one Gengar and run straight into another for the win.
2-0
Top 8 Vincent Blasko with Luxchomp
Game 1: He catches me off guard with a pair of Expert Belts, but the thing that really did me in was the fact that I prized all 3 Baltoy, I pile shuffled and I riffled shuffled it was just one of those freak of nature things (if someone could actually tell me the odds of this I would really appreciate it), anyways this alone pretty much kills me since I’m down to 2 bench spaces both of which I really need Baltoys/Claydols, he has a 4 card hand, he got a decent set up off the first or second turn of the game but he had never searched for a Spray, considering he was playing 2 Expert Belt I expected only 2-3 Spray. I had two ways to play this either I could burn a majority of my hand and make it look like I was going for Uxie and simply bluffing the Azelf trying to draw out a Power Spray, or simply drop the Azelf and hope he didn’t have the spray. I figured with the first method I would burn through to many key cards, even if my clever ploy worked I would have most likely lost anyways. I went with the second plan, he had the spray, I kept playing the game, I had a chance to get a big knock out later in the game on an Expert Belted Pokémon (don’t know if this would have changed things or not, he had a nice lead at this point) but my fourth Hoppip is prized as well. So Vincent takes a very comfortable 0-5 or 0-4 prize win.
0-1
Game 2
Very back and forth, he burns 2 Sprays early trying to stop me from setting up but I get set up regardless, there was a key point where if he had a Spray it really good have changed things but like I said he burned through 2 earlier. We play the prize trade game and I’m just able to make better and easier tradeoffs. I win this one 0-1 or 0-2 on prizes
1-1
Game 3
I open Godly, like you could not have stacked it better, Turn 2 I would have had 2 Claydol and a Jumpluff before using any powers. But I flip over Chatot he flips over Luxray, I go first and pass (pretty much knowing what will happen) he goes DCE, Collector for the Lucario Gl. Not much I can do, I offer him the handshake.
1-2
Yea I was ticked I felt like I got luck sacked in what is one of my best match ups, but honestly not at Vince he did exactly what Luxchomp is best at taking advantage of weak and slow set ups, I opened game 1 slow without a Claydol and he capitalized on it, and I open 1 basic game 3 and he opens with the donk, it happens, he played his deck perfectly and deserved the win. It’s been a few weeks but I can’t think of anything I really misplayed or anything he misplayed just another one of those he got the hands and I didn’t.
Congrats to Pooka, and I really have to compliment the staff and Judges Troy always does an amazing job judging I can’t ask for anything better and he always has an amazing staff.
So we start play testing for Regional’s a few weeks before hand. My life’s been crazy with school and other personal things so I haven’t had much time to practice. So I start talking with people on what “the play” is, Drew was really pushing Gyarados his deck was amazing and the best Gyarados I’ve seen but I just wasn’t a big fan of the deck in general, but Tim loved the deck so he gets pretty set on that’s what he’s playing. But I’m still at a loss, both Fulop and Gino are pushing Jumpluff and when you have two National Champions telling you to play a deck you take it seriously. I loved Jumpluff as a deck but I hated how donkable it was but I seriously started testing it. I pretty much decided on the deck for a few different reasons, first it came down to which mirror I would rather play Jumpluff or Luxchomp. I preferred to play Luxchomp mirror simply from the fact I felt like its less luck based however out of 7 rounds I figured I would play 1 or 2 Jumpluff but most likely 3 or even 4 Luxchomp. My record with Luxchomp against Jumpluff was 6-10 and 4 of my wins came from FTK’s I just didn’t feel like Luxchomp could beat Jumpluff in a fair game consistently. The Gyarados match up I’m going to disagree with Fulop on, it isn’t favorable but it’s no more than 40-60. I keep testing Luxchomp but eventually decide to play Jumpluff.
Round 1:
So my sleeves are brand new and I spill a pile all over the table when I’m shuffling and he sees a Jumpluff (God I’m so Pro, lol) but I see a Gilscor X so it evens out. He goes first with Baltoy to my Baltoy, he attaches and passes. I go off hitting getting a Claydol and Jumpluff in play, I dropped the Unown Q before the tournament so I can’t donk him unless I hit a Warp Point. But after a Cosmic and a Set Up I whiff. I decide not to get greedy and I don’t evolve my active Baltoy and I just simply pass. His turn he retreat to a Spirtomb (really glad I didn’t evolve the Baltoy at this point) he drops a Gligar and than DG for a Claydol. I retreat Baltoy for Jumpluff and kill the Tomb after dropping a Luxray. Over the next few turns I play the Bright Look game and get a healthy prize lead so I can’t get locked and his deck can’t sit there and slam with me so eventually I win the prize war.
1-0
Round 2:
I flip over Crobat he flips over Mareep, I draw bench a Chatot and end. He attaches and miss the flip for paralyzes so I drop stuff happens and I get Jumpluff and bench him.
2-0
Round 3: Ivan with GG
Ivan is playing an unusual GG list without tomb and 4 Healers and thankfully I found out about a Dusknoir which I knew could be a problem. Any ways I open with 4 Energy, yes more than half that is in my deck. I throw down my bebe’s to search for my Chatot but its prized so I have to Azelf for it which I knew would cause be problems later (I love playing super consistent decks and have stuff like this happen). I do end up all right off Mimic and quickly set up 2 Jumpluff and 2 Claydol and burn through as much of my deck as possible so I can mitigate the damage of Wager and Dark Palm. I take a pretty comfortable prize lead which I know means nothing against GG. After playing the deck for 2 states I knew it pretty well. I eventually fight through the Psychic Locks and he sends up Gallade Belted which is a problem, I Bright Look Dusknoir hit it for 110 and hope he doesn’t have anything to switch it back (he burned through a lot of switch cards and didn’t have a Gardy or Claydol in play. He doesn’t, so next turns I take a Flash Bite kill and then kill the belted Gallade to take it. I think I won 0-2 or 0-3 on prizes. Good Game though.
3-0
Round 4:
Okay so I get paired down with I don’t recognize the name but I know it’s a girl, earlier in the day I hear a cute girl is playing Shuppet and when I sit down she’s a cute girl so I assume shes playing Shuppet (God I need to scout better, lol) This is more confirmed when Andy sits down next to me and says you don’t like this matchup do you? I’m like no but it’s when able. Some of her choices I found a little weird but they working very well for example she played like 4 counter stadiums which made it hard to keep a BTS in play. Anyways she gets an early Flash bite kill on a Hoppip but in the early stages she only gets 2 PP and 1 Expert Belt so the prize war stays pretty even in the end shes up 1-2 on prizes shes hitting me for 90 turn at this point. But she burned through 3 Poketurn and 1 Moonlight early she has probably a 15 cards deck and a 8-10 card hand however in that hand I know she has 1 Shuppet, 1 Psychic,4 PP, 1 Expert Belt, so I have to gamble she doesn’t have the KO, I bright look her Skuntank G attach an Expert Belt and kill the Skunktank, in case she has a another Gym. All my cards are on the table (figure of speech) if she has it, she has it. She draws thinks for about 30 seconds and offers me the hands shake and breathe a huge sigh of relief.
4-0
Round 5: Chuck with Jumpluff
I open 1 Basic he opens 2 and I breath a huge sigh of Relief when he wins the die roll. He hits for 10 and than switches to a Uxie. I get the triple flashbite KO on the Hoppip and stay up prizes the whole game and we keep playing the 1-1 game. The big deciding factor is when he belted a Jumpluff hoping I can’t get a cheap kill on it. But I manage to get the cheap kill anyways for the win.
5-0
Round 6: Tim Metro with Gengar/Chomp
My opening hand is weird I have no playable trainers or supporters but I somehow get 2 Jumpluffs out with having a Claydol or a Supporter. He thinks I’m hold a Communication and am going to explode on him when I get a turn with trainers. Which is true if I was holding one. So he Pitch Darks me for 4 turns to get set up but finally I top a Collector and get rolling. We both get set up good but I’m simply able to make better trade off and win the prize war. After I draw my last prize, he has two left and tells me he had game next turn with a Combination of Bats/Turns and another either Gengar or Garchomp snipe.
6-0
Round 7: Emmanual with Gengar/Chomp
So all the Minnisodia guys were playing this deck and they were all the top tables which I thought was pretty cool. I open Hoppip and Baltoy to his Chomp. He goes first and DCE’s and kills the Hoppip I promote Baltoy and get set up but I can’t get that Baltoy out of the active position. His turn he EGains and kills the Baltoy after leveling up. I’m not able to get the return kill so I smack him and he Rushes my Claydol. So he’s up 3 prizes before I take 1. I stay in the game and take 3 prizes but I just can’t keep up with his “cheap” prizes so he wins the war.
6-1
Standings go up and I’m like 5 or 6, I honestly don’t remember, but anyways Tim Metro catches me and says that his wonderful wife was getting a group together to go down and eat at the Ponderso about mile away, he asks me if I would like to come and I jump on the opportunity. It’s really cool because we have a majority of the top 16 here so we all get to hang out and eat some amazing food. Best quote of the day in my opinion is when Tim tells us we need to leave to make sure we get back in time and Emmanual yells “what are they going to do about it we practically have the whole top 16 right here” But we all make it back with about 5 mins to spare.
Top 16 Tim Metro with Gengar/Luxchomp
Game 1: I open well this game and take good cheap prizes with Bright look and he does the same, he had to go a majority of the game without a Claydol while I was able to keep one in play even though he was sniping with Garchomp it was far easier for my deck to set one up than his.
1-0
Game 2: Pretty much the same as Game 1, he has 3 prizes left to my 2, he tries to set up a big win with Gengar X to take 3 prizes and has it next turn but I draw into the Poketurn to rescue my Crobat and Flash Bite kill one Gengar and run straight into another for the win.
2-0
Top 8 Vincent Blasko with Luxchomp
Game 1: He catches me off guard with a pair of Expert Belts, but the thing that really did me in was the fact that I prized all 3 Baltoy, I pile shuffled and I riffled shuffled it was just one of those freak of nature things (if someone could actually tell me the odds of this I would really appreciate it), anyways this alone pretty much kills me since I’m down to 2 bench spaces both of which I really need Baltoys/Claydols, he has a 4 card hand, he got a decent set up off the first or second turn of the game but he had never searched for a Spray, considering he was playing 2 Expert Belt I expected only 2-3 Spray. I had two ways to play this either I could burn a majority of my hand and make it look like I was going for Uxie and simply bluffing the Azelf trying to draw out a Power Spray, or simply drop the Azelf and hope he didn’t have the spray. I figured with the first method I would burn through to many key cards, even if my clever ploy worked I would have most likely lost anyways. I went with the second plan, he had the spray, I kept playing the game, I had a chance to get a big knock out later in the game on an Expert Belted Pokémon (don’t know if this would have changed things or not, he had a nice lead at this point) but my fourth Hoppip is prized as well. So Vincent takes a very comfortable 0-5 or 0-4 prize win.
0-1
Game 2
Very back and forth, he burns 2 Sprays early trying to stop me from setting up but I get set up regardless, there was a key point where if he had a Spray it really good have changed things but like I said he burned through 2 earlier. We play the prize trade game and I’m just able to make better and easier tradeoffs. I win this one 0-1 or 0-2 on prizes
1-1
Game 3
I open Godly, like you could not have stacked it better, Turn 2 I would have had 2 Claydol and a Jumpluff before using any powers. But I flip over Chatot he flips over Luxray, I go first and pass (pretty much knowing what will happen) he goes DCE, Collector for the Lucario Gl. Not much I can do, I offer him the handshake.
1-2
Yea I was ticked I felt like I got luck sacked in what is one of my best match ups, but honestly not at Vince he did exactly what Luxchomp is best at taking advantage of weak and slow set ups, I opened game 1 slow without a Claydol and he capitalized on it, and I open 1 basic game 3 and he opens with the donk, it happens, he played his deck perfectly and deserved the win. It’s been a few weeks but I can’t think of anything I really misplayed or anything he misplayed just another one of those he got the hands and I didn’t.
Congrats to Pooka, and I really have to compliment the staff and Judges Troy always does an amazing job judging I can’t ask for anything better and he always has an amazing staff.
