butlerforhire
New Member
The deck
In a departure from the way I usually approach a season, I have been running Vilegar since the first weekend of States (and I also ran it for 2 of my last 4 Cities). I normally dislike running the same deck from event to event for a number of reasons, such as the increased odds of being teched against, the possibility of the metagame unexpectedly shifting and leaving me a bit behind, and the desire to test different top-tier decks under the intense pressure of a high-level event so that come National, I have experience with several options.
I have stuck with Vilegar because it has good matchups against most of the format and, like Dialgachomp, it has very few outright autolosses, especially when techs are factored in (and as you’ll see from the report, I do run some matchup-correcting or clinching techs). I am also very comfortable with the deck and I am addicted to the feeling of safety it gives me in a format with so many chances to get donked. With an abundance of Basics, 8 of which block trainers from the outset, and the ability to lock trainers for the remainder of the game, I don’t feel vulnerable going into many games. The amount of options available to the deck are also a huge draw for me; contrary to what some people mistakenly believe, Vilegar is not an autopilot deck that simply repeats the “draw, attach, Poltergeist, wait for the Fainting Spell flip, Rescue and BTS Gengar back down” pattern. My report contains proof of that.
I’ll end the intro with some background on the way the techs in my list have changed since States. For week one, I ran Mewtwo, Froslass GL and Gengar Prime. I didn’t use the Prime much that day so I dropped it for week 2 and experimented with a Cursegar instead, which was not a good choice as it did even less than the Prime had done the week prior. I just liked the idea of having a back-up attacker that could do reliable damage, spread, and hide behind things (good in matchups like Magnezone, potentially, which I had lost to in top 16). I still used Froslass GL and Mewtwo, both of which had won me games in OK and continued to do so in TX. Froslass in particular was an MVP, allowing me to lock several Bronzongs, Regices, and a Giratina over the course of both events.
For Regional, I kept Froslass and dropped Mewtwo, with the rationale being that I already had a positive SP matchup (barring Dialgachomp, which negated Mewtwo’s usefulness anyway unless I could lock in Level Down before it got KOed). I debated between running Blissey PL and Shedinja SV in its place. Blissey is great in any matchup that doesn’t involve the opponent consistently netting OHKOs (e.g. Mew, Magnezone) and especially useful in mirror. It also lets me discard extraneous Spiritombs, Vileplume line components, Pokemon Collectors, etc. so that whenever I use (or am hit by) shuffle draw, I’m not putting those unneeded cards back into the deck and redrawing them. However, as good as Blissey is, it doesn’t fix any bad or potentially difficult matchups aside from mirror; Shedinja, while a much more specialized card, does. Those matchups include, but are not limited to, Steelix, Magnezone, Mew, Donphan, Scizor, and Yanmega. Because I loved the idea of giving the aforementioned decks either a hard time or a straight autoloss all with a grand total of 2 cards, I ended up running Shedinja. Spike Wound’s synergy with Cursed Drop and Shadow Room was an additional draw.
The event
The number of Masters was somewhere around the 200 mark, giving us 8 rounds of swiss and a top cut of 32. We were playing the event out over 2 days, with day 1 devoted to swiss and the first two rounds of top cut. Of course John Kettler/********** was in attendance looking to defend his title, along with a number of other past Regional winners and/or esteemed players such as Martin Moreno and Brent Siebenkittel. A few Floridians—Ryan Vergel and Chris Bianchi that I know of, maybe more—and a New Yorker (?!), Christian Ortiz, surprisingly also showed up.
Round 1: Donphan/Machamp with Regirock—Nikkei F.
Right away I was up against a deck that Shedinja could almost singlehandedly shut down. Even though this is a good matchup anyway due to trainer lock, weakness and Earthquake’s self-damaging drawback, I decided to abandon the usual Poltergeist strategy and lock him with Shedinja. I got out Vileplume first, giving up a Spiritomb to a turn 2 Donphan in the process, and then brought out Shedinja to begin Spike Wounding his bench of 4 with Earthquake damage. I had the Shedinja Quicked so I could alternate between it and Gengar whenever I needed to place counters on fresh Pokemon that my opponent benched, such as Machop (which was of course going to become the Machoke/SF Machamp which could KO Shedinja). At one point I gave up Gengar Prime to a fully-powered Machamp Prime doing Champ Buster for something between 130-150. This Machamp was met by a Poltergeist OHKO. On the bright side for my opponent, he was now able to use Regirock to discard trainers for 4 turns. I didn’t care about his trainer count though with Shedinja back in the active spot, walling and Spike Wounding. Due to his inability to get a Machoke or SF Machamp out, Shedinja never died. My opponent helped me out by damaging his own bench a few more times with Earthquake against a Gengar lv. X I brought up to Shadow Room when there was no threat of a KO on it; on his last turn, he KOed his own Regirock and Uxie lv. X and set up another Pixie for the Shadow Room that would be my final prize.
1-0
Round 2: Steelix Prime/Metagross SV with Steelix SF
My opponent had clear penny sleeves and the demeanor of someone who did not play competitively (e.g. he did not know what a lot of my cards did—tried to play trainers under Vileplume, unfamiliar with Shadow Room—and he ran subpar Supporters like Professor Oak’s Visit, Team Rocket’s Trickery (?) and Interviewer’s Questions). I figured that as such, this would be a simple game. This impression was reinforced when I saw I was playing against another deck that runs off Bodies. I repeated my process from round 1 and got out Vileplume and Shedinja immediately. I thought I had the game for a while as my opponent kept evolving right through his stage 1s and draw-attach-passing to me due to Shedinja’s invincibility. Then during one game-shifting turn he unexpectedly benched an Onix, Bebe’sed for the SF Steelix and got it down immediately thanks to my own BTS. I knew I had lost my advantage right then. Once it had 2-3 energy on it, he retreated his active Steelix Prime and started spreading. My bench was a bit overextended and weak, with only one spot for Gengar, I believe, and due to Metagross lowering the HP of everything by 20, he was able to get several prizes with that Steelix, including a Shedinja that I fortunately had a Rescue attached to, before I could KO it. By the time Steelix finally went down, my opponent only had a few prizes left and was able to get that number down to 1 with Steelix Prime. I still had 3 and time was called, leaving me unable to tie the game up. If time wasn’t called, my opponent would have been locked permanently with Shedinja, barring a Palmer’s or a surprise drop of some other non-Body attacker, and decked out (he only had about 5 cards left in his deck). Disappointing end to a game I thought I had won from the outset.
1-1
Round 3: Leafeon/Arcanine HGSS/Tangrowth CoL
No disrespect intended to my opponent, but this basically appeared to be a theme deck with a few good cards in it such as Uxie and Pokemon Communication. I assume his strategy was to get Leafeon lv. X out and attach two energy per turn to Tangrowth to deal big damage with Grind, although I never actually saw any Leafeon. I am not sure how Arcanine factors in. Like my opponent from round 2, he did not know what a lot of cards did, including his own (ie. he thought Psychic Restore let you place Uxie on top of the deck. Haha—how broken that would be). I got out a quick Vileplume and Gengar and sniped off an Eevee that I thought may be the precursor to Umbreon and from there it was Poltergeisting for OHKOs until I could Seeker him into a bench out.
2-1
At this point I feel lame for losing to a random deck played by a beginner, beating a random deck played by a beginner, and getting a lucky round 1 matchup. I wanted some “hard wins.”
Round 4: Charizard-- Joey Mead
My opponent opened with Charmander and nothing else and used Call for Friends to get a Vulpix. I had Spiritomb and began developing Vileplume. On his next turn he Collectored for a 2nd Vulpix, Charmander and Uxie or Cyndaquil, I believe, and began setting up his bench. He ended with another Call for Friends. Vileplume eventually put him into a bad situation—huge hand due to Ninetales (which I Shadow Roomed away after a few turns), no chance to drop any of his trainers, no way to get more than one Charizard into play after I KOed one Charmeleon and one manually-evolved Charizard (I assume he ran 4-2-4), and two Pixies (Uxie and Azelf) clogging his bench. Typhlosion never came out. At the end of the game we were joking about how he could still “Beat” me with Cyndaquil. A desperate PONT on his last turn gave him nothing but a new hand of trainers and I took my last prize with Poltergeist.
3-1
Round 5: Luxchomp—Andy Meier
My opponent was Andy Meier, one of the best players in the state of Texas. He has been running/top cutting/winning with Luxchomp and nothing else since last season and I know that he knows the deck inside and out and plays a legitimate list. As confident as I am in the Luxchomp versus Vilegar matchup, I realize I am likely in for one of those hard games I had been craving.
I Darkness Graced into a Gloom on my 2nd turn, with a Haunter holding 2 Psychic energy sitting beside it on my bench. Andy was able to Bright Look the Gloom up, Premier Ball for an Uxie lv. X, and Zen Blade it for the KO. Before he attacked me, though, he took the opportunity to play trainers to get his only Garchomp C lv. X out of the deck with SP Radar and Poketurned his Luxray GL lv. X. On my turn, I promoted Haunter, evolved to the Prime, Seekered to force him to return a Garchomp C to his hand, attached a 3rd psychic, and Hurled away Luxray GL lv. X, Garchomp C lv. X and Garchomp C, eliciting a groan from Andy. That crippled him a great deal, especially since now he would be unable to Dragon Rush or Healing Breath all game. I forget how he responded on his turn, but I know I was able to Cursed Drop to 2 Uxies and an Azelf before I lost my Prime.
Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t get Vileplume out; I believe my 2nd Oddish was prized. Andy also fell on hard times, never drawing into a Cyrus. I was able to take advantage of his poor hand and eventually locked an Azelf active for several turns with Froslass GL. During this time, I was Shadow Rooming his bench, KOing a Luxray GL lv. X, I believe. I eventually used Compound Pain to leave Azelf with 10 HP and set the 2 Uxies I had Cursed Dropped earlier up for KOs on my next attack. I did that, and a bit later time was called with us both at 2 prizes, I believe. He promoted Luxray and leveled up (thanks to Aaron’s), Bright Looking a damaged Spiritomb that he thought he could KO with Snap Attack from a benched Ambipom G. However, he needed to Poketurn his Luxray to do that (it had an Energy Gain he needed to attach to the Ambipom), and of course he couldn’t Poketurn with Spiritomb active. Andy’s plan was to KO the Spiritomb via Snap Attack and then Bright Look again to bring up something else for the game on his next turn, but that lack of Poketurn ability which he overlooked let me take the win (I believe I just Poltergeisted twice in a row).
4-1
Round 6: Luxchomp—Miguel Escutia
My opponent top 4ed TX State with the same deck. I had played against his Gyarados list twice earlier in the season and knew he was a solid player. Before this event had even begun, Miguel had approached me with his Senior brother’s Vilegar list to get some advice since he knew I had a lot of experience with the deck. In our discussion, I ended up revealing a few of my deck’s secrets, such as Shedinja replacing Mewtwo, although I wasn’t really concerned at his extra knowledge since Shedinja doesn’t do much to SP anyway.
I don’t remember most of the specifics of this game. I do remember that I got set up without much issue and eventually used Froslass GL to bring up a Bronzong G, which allowed me to do enough damage to his bench with Shadow Room to put me ahead before he was able to free himself from the lock. Between that and several huge Poltergeists, I took all six prizes before time was called.
5-1
Round 7: Luxchomp—Travis Madaris
Travis is a player from my area. His list ran at least 2 Weavile G, one of which he was able to use to OHKO a Gengar lv. X many turns into the game. For most of the turns prior to this, he was forced to draw-pass due to a hand full of nothing but Pokemon and locked trainers. I got heads on Fainting Spell to take down that Weavile G (although I also had another Gengar waiting to Poltergeist it if I had gotten tails) and that left him without anything to hit me with. He tried to delay me from getting my sixth prize by Bright Looking an energyless, Q-less Vileplume, but I had the Warp energy for game.
6-1
Round 8: Sablelock with Blaziken FB—Aaron Harris/Nekizalb
This was my first time seeing Nekizalb in real life. I didn’t realize that he was a Master; I had read reports and posts from him on Pokegym/********** since he was a Senior and never noticed his graduation into the upper division.
He did not open with Sableye, giving me time to get set up before he could disrupt me. I got Vileplume out as well as Gengar and began Poltergeisting for OHKOs. He Luring Flamed Vileplume at one point only to be met with a Warp + Poltergeist KO. He had to repeatedly sacrifice things to me in order to try and get something going in his hand and on the bench. On the last turn of the game, he KOed my Gengar with Target Attack and I got heads on Fainting Spell to take my last prize (although as in the case with the previous round, I had another Poltergeist waiting if I had gotten tails).
7-1
I ended up as 5th seed going into the cut.
Top 32: Gyarados—Casey Burks
Casey is a player who, like me, played long ago and eventually came back; this was only his second event of the season. I had played him during the last round of swiss at TX State and he had been running the same deck. In that game, I got down 2 prizes in the beginning as he set up perfectly with Smeargle and then took over with a surprise Froslass GL, bringing his Regice active where it remained for the rest of the game as I methodically set up 4 Pokemon with Powers on his full bench to be KOed in one massive Compound Pain, followed by three more turns of Shadow Room x 2 and a final Compound Pain for my last two prizes. I say all that to let you know that he knew about my Froslass, which usually seals the win against Gyarados, so there would be no element of surprise there. However, even without Froslass, the matchup against a trainer-heavy Gyarados list like his (and most others out there) is already very positive, so I wasn’t concerned.
Game one: I donked his Magikarp with Hoodwink on my first turn via BTS.
Game two: Casey opened with Magikarp again but wasn’t donkable, so I took my time getting completely set up with double Spiritomb to prevent Regice from temporarily breaking the trainer lock. He set up a Gyarados on his bench with the initial Magikarp still active, not foreseeing the Prime’s Cursed Drop to put it in the Lost Zone. Following a Tail Revenge for 30, I brought out Regice with Froslass and proceeded to get prizes off of his bench while he failed to top deck Warp energy. Once the Gyarados (with Rescue, by the way) was within range for a Cursed Drop KO, I sent it and the Magikarp beneath it to the Lost Zone. He never got Regice out of the active spot and I took the remainder of my prizes from his bench.
8-1
Top 16: Luxchomp—Alec Noah
I had also played Alec during swiss at TX State, winning that game in spite of his Dialga G tech. I was glad to discover he wasn’t running it this time.
Game one: I don’t remember the specifics of the game. I do know I got set up fine and took a lead that led to Alec scooping after 15-20 minutes.
Game two: I believe I had to play catch-up here, either losing an Oddish/Gloom/Vileplume early and sacrificing Spiritombs to get the other out, or just not being able to get Vileplume out at all until later than usual. Eventually once I did get a Vileplume to stick, I took control of the board. I remember one two-turn sequence where I first hit a fresh Luxray GL lv. X for 90 with Poltergeist and then top-decked either a Bebe’s or the lv. X on my next turn, allowing me to Level Down for a prize and OHKO a 2nd Luxray GL lv. X with a Poltergeist for 120. At the end of the game, all of Alec’s level Xs were in the discard pile and he couldn’t do anything to stop the constant OHKOs which netted me 6 prizes.
9-1
Top 8: Luxchomp—Len Deuel
Len had beaten an obnoxious Uxie donk player who snuck into the cut in his top 16 game, which in my opinion catapults Len into the realm of heroes.
Game one: Speaking of Uxie donk, I opened with Spiritomb to Len’s lone Unown Q, going 2nd. He wasn’t able to get any other basics out via topdecking and I was able to get my own Q plus Uxie out to bench him immediately.
Game two: Here, I walked into a bizarre revenge donk. Len opened with Smeargle while I had Spiritomb and Oddish. I had no Supporters other than Seeker and Twins. On my turn, I dropped a BTS and evolved into Gloom and then Darkness Graced into Vileplume, knowing Len would Portrait my Seeker to put Vileplume in my hand but not being concerned about it because my Spiritomb had only 1 damage counter on it and I didn’t think he could deal 50 to me with anything in the absence of trainers. Unfortunately I overlooked the double Flash Bite that he was allowed to do with the aid of my own Seeker, which was followed up by a DCE-ed Luxray GL using Bite to supply the final 30 damage to donk Spiritomb.
Game three: This game started off badly for me. I lost an Oddish to a turn 2 or 3 Bright Look and had to spend time and Spiritombs getting my other Oddish into Vileplume. Meanwhile, Len had gotten set up well, with access to both of his essential lv. Xs and possibly an Uxie lv. X. When he had 2 prizes left, I was able to turn the game around with a Sleep Inducer on his Bronzong G, which allowed me to begin Shadow Rooming threats off his bench unopposed. He eventually KOed himself with Galactic Switch. Before he did, though, I used Looker’s on him to put back a Garchomp and a Luxray level X. He drew into the Garchomp and sniped my Froslass for his 5th prize. I responded with an OHKO via Poltergeist. I was very concerned that he would eventually draw into his Luxray GL lv. X and Bright Look a Spiritomb with 50 damage on it to win; he had a Luxray GL with 2 lightning on his bench. Fortunately for me, he had already burned both of his Bebe’s and only ran a single Luxray GL lv. X, rendering his odds of getting it back out slim.
He resorted to promoting a Smeargle in the hopes of Portraiting a Bebe’s of mine to retrieve it, but I had none. I did have Seeker, which he used, allowing me to pick up my damaged Spiritomb while he returned a Toxicroak G with a psychic energy on it. I still had 2 Uxies down (as well as Vileplume), so I wasn’t safe from the Bright Look threat yet. I made a misplay by not using the Seeker on one of my Uxies and then Restoring the other to clear my field of targets (Vileplume wasn’t a target; I had Warp energy and it couldn’t be KOed in one hit by anything on his field). I also neglected to go for the Poltergeist KO on the Smeargle because I wanted Len to waste an energy retreating it, disallowing the Trash Bolt option should he get lucky and top deck the Luxray GL lv. X following my KO. Because of my two misplays, Len got to use the Seeker again, this time picking up Crobat G. I was sure he had the Luxray and was about to win by retreating, Bright Looking my remaining Uxie, Flash Biting and then Flash Impacting, but he did not have the lv. X and I nearly collapsed in relief. On my turn I finally used my own Seeker to return my last Uxie and Poltergeisted the Smeargle, revealing enough trainers and supporters to get me an OHKO on anything Len brought up for my final prize.
10-1
Top 4: Luxchomp with Dialga G—Amalio O.
I had never played or spoken to Amalio before, but I did know him as the guy who gave a player from my area 21 prizes with DPL at my first City championship of the season. I think that qualifies as legendary.
Game one: He smartly got out a quick Dialga G lv. X, neutralizing Vileplume, and attacked me with it, eventually running headfirst into Fainting Spell. A heads would have put him in a bad position—no energy on board, trainer lock reinstated—but I got tails instead. After a while I was able to Poltergeist it for enough damage to net me a KO with Shadow Room once he benched it (he had held on to some trainers/supporters because if he had dropped them all down to negate Poltergeist, he would have had little to work with). Before I could take Dialga out, though, he made a nice play involving Warp energy, Bright Look and Zen Blade to KO Vileplume, freeing him of the need to have Dialga in play. Because the Vileplume wasn’t equipped with a Rescue energy, it left the field and the trainer lock was off. I was able to stay in the game due to his evaporation of resources and the sturdiness/disruption of Gengar lv. X. I believe I also used Froslass in this game to stall him out at his last prize while I tried to get my last 1-2. He was ultimately unable to get the lv. X he needed to pick something off my bench and I took a close game.
Game two: Game one took most of the time for the round—about 55 minutes—so my goal in game two was simply to prevent him from taking 4 prizes. This approach seemed like it was not going to work when, after a few turns, I had already given up 2 Spiritomb and he had once again gotten a quick Dialga G lv. X out. The Dialga G was all he had going for him though, with a supporter/energy drought hurting his board development. He took a chance with Fainting Spell for the 2nd time; on this occasion I got the heads I needed.
In the absence of Time Crystal, Vileplume took its toll. After KOing my Gengar, the prize count was 5-4. He had a Garchomp and Luxray benched as well as Ambipom, which he used to try and stall with Tail Code while he built up Garchomp. I got Gengar Prime into play and, assuming he had Garchomp C lv. X in his (large) hand, Hurled. He did have it, and my decision ended up saving me. Amalio then began setting up a Luxray, Cyrus’ed for a Bebe’s and moved the only energy on Gengar over to an Azelf. I Seekered a Spiritomb with an energy (Tail Coded earlier) to remove the only target on my field that could be killed solely by Flash Impact and reattached the energy to the Prime, Hurling again to take away the Crobat G which was his only shot at taking a 4th prize (Bright Look plus Flash Bite plus Flash Impact on a Pixie/Frolass GL). Time was called somewhere in this sequence of turns and he was unable to take the 4th prize that would have led to sudden death, giving me the game and the series.
11-1
Top 2: Luxchomp with Dialga G—Michael Weldon/rokman
Last year I was an unintentional accomplice in the creation of rokman’s HOUSTON NIGHTMARE, and this year I am tangled up with him in the HOUSTON DREAM. (Everyone should go read rokman’s Regional report from last year to understand what I am talking about when I reference the Houston Nightmare.) As rokman said in his own report from this year, both of us wanted this title a great deal. I didn’t care about the trip to National as I knew I had enough points to be invited to World—I just wanted to win Regional.
Game one: This was a strange game. I remember rokman burned his entire hand down at one point after getting Dialga G lv. X out to KO my Unown Q via Flash Bite (Junk Arm was involved). Somehow his hand got replenished—Uxie lv. X was part of it, and I may have used Seeker to let him pick up Uxie—but his board remained underdeveloped. I had a crucial (lucky) turn where I used Level Down on Dialga G, Judged, and then hit the level X I had just made him shuffle back in via Hurl into Darkness. Even if I hadn’t hit anything with the attack, I think I had him in a bad situation anyway with Level Down and the hand disruption. He scooped either right after the Dialga was Hurled or a few turns later.
Game two: I had a great opening—Gastly, Oddish, Uxie all on turn one—but I ran into an unexpected Chatter lock which forced me to start the process of KOing myself with Darkness Grace. Meanwhile, rokman was building his hand high with Cyrus, Sprays, etc. and energizing a Dialga on the bench. He had gotten a Bebe’s with one of the Cyrus and when my Spiritomb was left with 10 HP, he broke the Chatter lock, searched out Dialga G lv. X, and Deafened for the KO. I had been building up a huge hand of my own during the 5 turns of Darkness Gracing; because I had not been playing Supporters or energy, rokman assumed my hand was terrible, although in actuality I was holding on to a Looker’s and a Gengar lv. X for when Spiritomb was KOed. On my turn I promoted a SF Gengar, leveled up, used Looker’s to flush away his Sprays, and successfully Leveled Down. He got the level X back out a few turns later but then allowed me to Hurl it away for the 2nd game in a row after Poketurning it. He scooped shortly thereafter.
12-1
Although our games weren’t the greatest, rokman was a gracious sport and had a good attitude throughout the series. I can actually say the same about all of my opponents from Swiss through top cut; everyone was polite and friendly and I saw no hostility or rudeness. I appreciated the positive atmosphere that permeated the event and I’m already looking forward to next year.
I found out later that Vilegar won in Juniors and Seniors also.
In a departure from the way I usually approach a season, I have been running Vilegar since the first weekend of States (and I also ran it for 2 of my last 4 Cities). I normally dislike running the same deck from event to event for a number of reasons, such as the increased odds of being teched against, the possibility of the metagame unexpectedly shifting and leaving me a bit behind, and the desire to test different top-tier decks under the intense pressure of a high-level event so that come National, I have experience with several options.
I have stuck with Vilegar because it has good matchups against most of the format and, like Dialgachomp, it has very few outright autolosses, especially when techs are factored in (and as you’ll see from the report, I do run some matchup-correcting or clinching techs). I am also very comfortable with the deck and I am addicted to the feeling of safety it gives me in a format with so many chances to get donked. With an abundance of Basics, 8 of which block trainers from the outset, and the ability to lock trainers for the remainder of the game, I don’t feel vulnerable going into many games. The amount of options available to the deck are also a huge draw for me; contrary to what some people mistakenly believe, Vilegar is not an autopilot deck that simply repeats the “draw, attach, Poltergeist, wait for the Fainting Spell flip, Rescue and BTS Gengar back down” pattern. My report contains proof of that.
I’ll end the intro with some background on the way the techs in my list have changed since States. For week one, I ran Mewtwo, Froslass GL and Gengar Prime. I didn’t use the Prime much that day so I dropped it for week 2 and experimented with a Cursegar instead, which was not a good choice as it did even less than the Prime had done the week prior. I just liked the idea of having a back-up attacker that could do reliable damage, spread, and hide behind things (good in matchups like Magnezone, potentially, which I had lost to in top 16). I still used Froslass GL and Mewtwo, both of which had won me games in OK and continued to do so in TX. Froslass in particular was an MVP, allowing me to lock several Bronzongs, Regices, and a Giratina over the course of both events.
For Regional, I kept Froslass and dropped Mewtwo, with the rationale being that I already had a positive SP matchup (barring Dialgachomp, which negated Mewtwo’s usefulness anyway unless I could lock in Level Down before it got KOed). I debated between running Blissey PL and Shedinja SV in its place. Blissey is great in any matchup that doesn’t involve the opponent consistently netting OHKOs (e.g. Mew, Magnezone) and especially useful in mirror. It also lets me discard extraneous Spiritombs, Vileplume line components, Pokemon Collectors, etc. so that whenever I use (or am hit by) shuffle draw, I’m not putting those unneeded cards back into the deck and redrawing them. However, as good as Blissey is, it doesn’t fix any bad or potentially difficult matchups aside from mirror; Shedinja, while a much more specialized card, does. Those matchups include, but are not limited to, Steelix, Magnezone, Mew, Donphan, Scizor, and Yanmega. Because I loved the idea of giving the aforementioned decks either a hard time or a straight autoloss all with a grand total of 2 cards, I ended up running Shedinja. Spike Wound’s synergy with Cursed Drop and Shadow Room was an additional draw.
The event
The number of Masters was somewhere around the 200 mark, giving us 8 rounds of swiss and a top cut of 32. We were playing the event out over 2 days, with day 1 devoted to swiss and the first two rounds of top cut. Of course John Kettler/********** was in attendance looking to defend his title, along with a number of other past Regional winners and/or esteemed players such as Martin Moreno and Brent Siebenkittel. A few Floridians—Ryan Vergel and Chris Bianchi that I know of, maybe more—and a New Yorker (?!), Christian Ortiz, surprisingly also showed up.
Round 1: Donphan/Machamp with Regirock—Nikkei F.
Right away I was up against a deck that Shedinja could almost singlehandedly shut down. Even though this is a good matchup anyway due to trainer lock, weakness and Earthquake’s self-damaging drawback, I decided to abandon the usual Poltergeist strategy and lock him with Shedinja. I got out Vileplume first, giving up a Spiritomb to a turn 2 Donphan in the process, and then brought out Shedinja to begin Spike Wounding his bench of 4 with Earthquake damage. I had the Shedinja Quicked so I could alternate between it and Gengar whenever I needed to place counters on fresh Pokemon that my opponent benched, such as Machop (which was of course going to become the Machoke/SF Machamp which could KO Shedinja). At one point I gave up Gengar Prime to a fully-powered Machamp Prime doing Champ Buster for something between 130-150. This Machamp was met by a Poltergeist OHKO. On the bright side for my opponent, he was now able to use Regirock to discard trainers for 4 turns. I didn’t care about his trainer count though with Shedinja back in the active spot, walling and Spike Wounding. Due to his inability to get a Machoke or SF Machamp out, Shedinja never died. My opponent helped me out by damaging his own bench a few more times with Earthquake against a Gengar lv. X I brought up to Shadow Room when there was no threat of a KO on it; on his last turn, he KOed his own Regirock and Uxie lv. X and set up another Pixie for the Shadow Room that would be my final prize.
1-0
Round 2: Steelix Prime/Metagross SV with Steelix SF
My opponent had clear penny sleeves and the demeanor of someone who did not play competitively (e.g. he did not know what a lot of my cards did—tried to play trainers under Vileplume, unfamiliar with Shadow Room—and he ran subpar Supporters like Professor Oak’s Visit, Team Rocket’s Trickery (?) and Interviewer’s Questions). I figured that as such, this would be a simple game. This impression was reinforced when I saw I was playing against another deck that runs off Bodies. I repeated my process from round 1 and got out Vileplume and Shedinja immediately. I thought I had the game for a while as my opponent kept evolving right through his stage 1s and draw-attach-passing to me due to Shedinja’s invincibility. Then during one game-shifting turn he unexpectedly benched an Onix, Bebe’sed for the SF Steelix and got it down immediately thanks to my own BTS. I knew I had lost my advantage right then. Once it had 2-3 energy on it, he retreated his active Steelix Prime and started spreading. My bench was a bit overextended and weak, with only one spot for Gengar, I believe, and due to Metagross lowering the HP of everything by 20, he was able to get several prizes with that Steelix, including a Shedinja that I fortunately had a Rescue attached to, before I could KO it. By the time Steelix finally went down, my opponent only had a few prizes left and was able to get that number down to 1 with Steelix Prime. I still had 3 and time was called, leaving me unable to tie the game up. If time wasn’t called, my opponent would have been locked permanently with Shedinja, barring a Palmer’s or a surprise drop of some other non-Body attacker, and decked out (he only had about 5 cards left in his deck). Disappointing end to a game I thought I had won from the outset.
1-1
Round 3: Leafeon/Arcanine HGSS/Tangrowth CoL
No disrespect intended to my opponent, but this basically appeared to be a theme deck with a few good cards in it such as Uxie and Pokemon Communication. I assume his strategy was to get Leafeon lv. X out and attach two energy per turn to Tangrowth to deal big damage with Grind, although I never actually saw any Leafeon. I am not sure how Arcanine factors in. Like my opponent from round 2, he did not know what a lot of cards did, including his own (ie. he thought Psychic Restore let you place Uxie on top of the deck. Haha—how broken that would be). I got out a quick Vileplume and Gengar and sniped off an Eevee that I thought may be the precursor to Umbreon and from there it was Poltergeisting for OHKOs until I could Seeker him into a bench out.
2-1
At this point I feel lame for losing to a random deck played by a beginner, beating a random deck played by a beginner, and getting a lucky round 1 matchup. I wanted some “hard wins.”
Round 4: Charizard-- Joey Mead
My opponent opened with Charmander and nothing else and used Call for Friends to get a Vulpix. I had Spiritomb and began developing Vileplume. On his next turn he Collectored for a 2nd Vulpix, Charmander and Uxie or Cyndaquil, I believe, and began setting up his bench. He ended with another Call for Friends. Vileplume eventually put him into a bad situation—huge hand due to Ninetales (which I Shadow Roomed away after a few turns), no chance to drop any of his trainers, no way to get more than one Charizard into play after I KOed one Charmeleon and one manually-evolved Charizard (I assume he ran 4-2-4), and two Pixies (Uxie and Azelf) clogging his bench. Typhlosion never came out. At the end of the game we were joking about how he could still “Beat” me with Cyndaquil. A desperate PONT on his last turn gave him nothing but a new hand of trainers and I took my last prize with Poltergeist.
3-1
Round 5: Luxchomp—Andy Meier
My opponent was Andy Meier, one of the best players in the state of Texas. He has been running/top cutting/winning with Luxchomp and nothing else since last season and I know that he knows the deck inside and out and plays a legitimate list. As confident as I am in the Luxchomp versus Vilegar matchup, I realize I am likely in for one of those hard games I had been craving.
I Darkness Graced into a Gloom on my 2nd turn, with a Haunter holding 2 Psychic energy sitting beside it on my bench. Andy was able to Bright Look the Gloom up, Premier Ball for an Uxie lv. X, and Zen Blade it for the KO. Before he attacked me, though, he took the opportunity to play trainers to get his only Garchomp C lv. X out of the deck with SP Radar and Poketurned his Luxray GL lv. X. On my turn, I promoted Haunter, evolved to the Prime, Seekered to force him to return a Garchomp C to his hand, attached a 3rd psychic, and Hurled away Luxray GL lv. X, Garchomp C lv. X and Garchomp C, eliciting a groan from Andy. That crippled him a great deal, especially since now he would be unable to Dragon Rush or Healing Breath all game. I forget how he responded on his turn, but I know I was able to Cursed Drop to 2 Uxies and an Azelf before I lost my Prime.
Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t get Vileplume out; I believe my 2nd Oddish was prized. Andy also fell on hard times, never drawing into a Cyrus. I was able to take advantage of his poor hand and eventually locked an Azelf active for several turns with Froslass GL. During this time, I was Shadow Rooming his bench, KOing a Luxray GL lv. X, I believe. I eventually used Compound Pain to leave Azelf with 10 HP and set the 2 Uxies I had Cursed Dropped earlier up for KOs on my next attack. I did that, and a bit later time was called with us both at 2 prizes, I believe. He promoted Luxray and leveled up (thanks to Aaron’s), Bright Looking a damaged Spiritomb that he thought he could KO with Snap Attack from a benched Ambipom G. However, he needed to Poketurn his Luxray to do that (it had an Energy Gain he needed to attach to the Ambipom), and of course he couldn’t Poketurn with Spiritomb active. Andy’s plan was to KO the Spiritomb via Snap Attack and then Bright Look again to bring up something else for the game on his next turn, but that lack of Poketurn ability which he overlooked let me take the win (I believe I just Poltergeisted twice in a row).
4-1
Round 6: Luxchomp—Miguel Escutia
My opponent top 4ed TX State with the same deck. I had played against his Gyarados list twice earlier in the season and knew he was a solid player. Before this event had even begun, Miguel had approached me with his Senior brother’s Vilegar list to get some advice since he knew I had a lot of experience with the deck. In our discussion, I ended up revealing a few of my deck’s secrets, such as Shedinja replacing Mewtwo, although I wasn’t really concerned at his extra knowledge since Shedinja doesn’t do much to SP anyway.
I don’t remember most of the specifics of this game. I do remember that I got set up without much issue and eventually used Froslass GL to bring up a Bronzong G, which allowed me to do enough damage to his bench with Shadow Room to put me ahead before he was able to free himself from the lock. Between that and several huge Poltergeists, I took all six prizes before time was called.
5-1
Round 7: Luxchomp—Travis Madaris
Travis is a player from my area. His list ran at least 2 Weavile G, one of which he was able to use to OHKO a Gengar lv. X many turns into the game. For most of the turns prior to this, he was forced to draw-pass due to a hand full of nothing but Pokemon and locked trainers. I got heads on Fainting Spell to take down that Weavile G (although I also had another Gengar waiting to Poltergeist it if I had gotten tails) and that left him without anything to hit me with. He tried to delay me from getting my sixth prize by Bright Looking an energyless, Q-less Vileplume, but I had the Warp energy for game.
6-1
Round 8: Sablelock with Blaziken FB—Aaron Harris/Nekizalb
This was my first time seeing Nekizalb in real life. I didn’t realize that he was a Master; I had read reports and posts from him on Pokegym/********** since he was a Senior and never noticed his graduation into the upper division.
He did not open with Sableye, giving me time to get set up before he could disrupt me. I got Vileplume out as well as Gengar and began Poltergeisting for OHKOs. He Luring Flamed Vileplume at one point only to be met with a Warp + Poltergeist KO. He had to repeatedly sacrifice things to me in order to try and get something going in his hand and on the bench. On the last turn of the game, he KOed my Gengar with Target Attack and I got heads on Fainting Spell to take my last prize (although as in the case with the previous round, I had another Poltergeist waiting if I had gotten tails).
7-1
I ended up as 5th seed going into the cut.
Top 32: Gyarados—Casey Burks
Casey is a player who, like me, played long ago and eventually came back; this was only his second event of the season. I had played him during the last round of swiss at TX State and he had been running the same deck. In that game, I got down 2 prizes in the beginning as he set up perfectly with Smeargle and then took over with a surprise Froslass GL, bringing his Regice active where it remained for the rest of the game as I methodically set up 4 Pokemon with Powers on his full bench to be KOed in one massive Compound Pain, followed by three more turns of Shadow Room x 2 and a final Compound Pain for my last two prizes. I say all that to let you know that he knew about my Froslass, which usually seals the win against Gyarados, so there would be no element of surprise there. However, even without Froslass, the matchup against a trainer-heavy Gyarados list like his (and most others out there) is already very positive, so I wasn’t concerned.
Game one: I donked his Magikarp with Hoodwink on my first turn via BTS.
Game two: Casey opened with Magikarp again but wasn’t donkable, so I took my time getting completely set up with double Spiritomb to prevent Regice from temporarily breaking the trainer lock. He set up a Gyarados on his bench with the initial Magikarp still active, not foreseeing the Prime’s Cursed Drop to put it in the Lost Zone. Following a Tail Revenge for 30, I brought out Regice with Froslass and proceeded to get prizes off of his bench while he failed to top deck Warp energy. Once the Gyarados (with Rescue, by the way) was within range for a Cursed Drop KO, I sent it and the Magikarp beneath it to the Lost Zone. He never got Regice out of the active spot and I took the remainder of my prizes from his bench.
8-1
Top 16: Luxchomp—Alec Noah
I had also played Alec during swiss at TX State, winning that game in spite of his Dialga G tech. I was glad to discover he wasn’t running it this time.
Game one: I don’t remember the specifics of the game. I do know I got set up fine and took a lead that led to Alec scooping after 15-20 minutes.
Game two: I believe I had to play catch-up here, either losing an Oddish/Gloom/Vileplume early and sacrificing Spiritombs to get the other out, or just not being able to get Vileplume out at all until later than usual. Eventually once I did get a Vileplume to stick, I took control of the board. I remember one two-turn sequence where I first hit a fresh Luxray GL lv. X for 90 with Poltergeist and then top-decked either a Bebe’s or the lv. X on my next turn, allowing me to Level Down for a prize and OHKO a 2nd Luxray GL lv. X with a Poltergeist for 120. At the end of the game, all of Alec’s level Xs were in the discard pile and he couldn’t do anything to stop the constant OHKOs which netted me 6 prizes.
9-1
Top 8: Luxchomp—Len Deuel
Len had beaten an obnoxious Uxie donk player who snuck into the cut in his top 16 game, which in my opinion catapults Len into the realm of heroes.
Game one: Speaking of Uxie donk, I opened with Spiritomb to Len’s lone Unown Q, going 2nd. He wasn’t able to get any other basics out via topdecking and I was able to get my own Q plus Uxie out to bench him immediately.
Game two: Here, I walked into a bizarre revenge donk. Len opened with Smeargle while I had Spiritomb and Oddish. I had no Supporters other than Seeker and Twins. On my turn, I dropped a BTS and evolved into Gloom and then Darkness Graced into Vileplume, knowing Len would Portrait my Seeker to put Vileplume in my hand but not being concerned about it because my Spiritomb had only 1 damage counter on it and I didn’t think he could deal 50 to me with anything in the absence of trainers. Unfortunately I overlooked the double Flash Bite that he was allowed to do with the aid of my own Seeker, which was followed up by a DCE-ed Luxray GL using Bite to supply the final 30 damage to donk Spiritomb.
Game three: This game started off badly for me. I lost an Oddish to a turn 2 or 3 Bright Look and had to spend time and Spiritombs getting my other Oddish into Vileplume. Meanwhile, Len had gotten set up well, with access to both of his essential lv. Xs and possibly an Uxie lv. X. When he had 2 prizes left, I was able to turn the game around with a Sleep Inducer on his Bronzong G, which allowed me to begin Shadow Rooming threats off his bench unopposed. He eventually KOed himself with Galactic Switch. Before he did, though, I used Looker’s on him to put back a Garchomp and a Luxray level X. He drew into the Garchomp and sniped my Froslass for his 5th prize. I responded with an OHKO via Poltergeist. I was very concerned that he would eventually draw into his Luxray GL lv. X and Bright Look a Spiritomb with 50 damage on it to win; he had a Luxray GL with 2 lightning on his bench. Fortunately for me, he had already burned both of his Bebe’s and only ran a single Luxray GL lv. X, rendering his odds of getting it back out slim.
He resorted to promoting a Smeargle in the hopes of Portraiting a Bebe’s of mine to retrieve it, but I had none. I did have Seeker, which he used, allowing me to pick up my damaged Spiritomb while he returned a Toxicroak G with a psychic energy on it. I still had 2 Uxies down (as well as Vileplume), so I wasn’t safe from the Bright Look threat yet. I made a misplay by not using the Seeker on one of my Uxies and then Restoring the other to clear my field of targets (Vileplume wasn’t a target; I had Warp energy and it couldn’t be KOed in one hit by anything on his field). I also neglected to go for the Poltergeist KO on the Smeargle because I wanted Len to waste an energy retreating it, disallowing the Trash Bolt option should he get lucky and top deck the Luxray GL lv. X following my KO. Because of my two misplays, Len got to use the Seeker again, this time picking up Crobat G. I was sure he had the Luxray and was about to win by retreating, Bright Looking my remaining Uxie, Flash Biting and then Flash Impacting, but he did not have the lv. X and I nearly collapsed in relief. On my turn I finally used my own Seeker to return my last Uxie and Poltergeisted the Smeargle, revealing enough trainers and supporters to get me an OHKO on anything Len brought up for my final prize.
10-1
Top 4: Luxchomp with Dialga G—Amalio O.
I had never played or spoken to Amalio before, but I did know him as the guy who gave a player from my area 21 prizes with DPL at my first City championship of the season. I think that qualifies as legendary.
Game one: He smartly got out a quick Dialga G lv. X, neutralizing Vileplume, and attacked me with it, eventually running headfirst into Fainting Spell. A heads would have put him in a bad position—no energy on board, trainer lock reinstated—but I got tails instead. After a while I was able to Poltergeist it for enough damage to net me a KO with Shadow Room once he benched it (he had held on to some trainers/supporters because if he had dropped them all down to negate Poltergeist, he would have had little to work with). Before I could take Dialga out, though, he made a nice play involving Warp energy, Bright Look and Zen Blade to KO Vileplume, freeing him of the need to have Dialga in play. Because the Vileplume wasn’t equipped with a Rescue energy, it left the field and the trainer lock was off. I was able to stay in the game due to his evaporation of resources and the sturdiness/disruption of Gengar lv. X. I believe I also used Froslass in this game to stall him out at his last prize while I tried to get my last 1-2. He was ultimately unable to get the lv. X he needed to pick something off my bench and I took a close game.
Game two: Game one took most of the time for the round—about 55 minutes—so my goal in game two was simply to prevent him from taking 4 prizes. This approach seemed like it was not going to work when, after a few turns, I had already given up 2 Spiritomb and he had once again gotten a quick Dialga G lv. X out. The Dialga G was all he had going for him though, with a supporter/energy drought hurting his board development. He took a chance with Fainting Spell for the 2nd time; on this occasion I got the heads I needed.
In the absence of Time Crystal, Vileplume took its toll. After KOing my Gengar, the prize count was 5-4. He had a Garchomp and Luxray benched as well as Ambipom, which he used to try and stall with Tail Code while he built up Garchomp. I got Gengar Prime into play and, assuming he had Garchomp C lv. X in his (large) hand, Hurled. He did have it, and my decision ended up saving me. Amalio then began setting up a Luxray, Cyrus’ed for a Bebe’s and moved the only energy on Gengar over to an Azelf. I Seekered a Spiritomb with an energy (Tail Coded earlier) to remove the only target on my field that could be killed solely by Flash Impact and reattached the energy to the Prime, Hurling again to take away the Crobat G which was his only shot at taking a 4th prize (Bright Look plus Flash Bite plus Flash Impact on a Pixie/Frolass GL). Time was called somewhere in this sequence of turns and he was unable to take the 4th prize that would have led to sudden death, giving me the game and the series.
11-1
Top 2: Luxchomp with Dialga G—Michael Weldon/rokman
Last year I was an unintentional accomplice in the creation of rokman’s HOUSTON NIGHTMARE, and this year I am tangled up with him in the HOUSTON DREAM. (Everyone should go read rokman’s Regional report from last year to understand what I am talking about when I reference the Houston Nightmare.) As rokman said in his own report from this year, both of us wanted this title a great deal. I didn’t care about the trip to National as I knew I had enough points to be invited to World—I just wanted to win Regional.
Game one: This was a strange game. I remember rokman burned his entire hand down at one point after getting Dialga G lv. X out to KO my Unown Q via Flash Bite (Junk Arm was involved). Somehow his hand got replenished—Uxie lv. X was part of it, and I may have used Seeker to let him pick up Uxie—but his board remained underdeveloped. I had a crucial (lucky) turn where I used Level Down on Dialga G, Judged, and then hit the level X I had just made him shuffle back in via Hurl into Darkness. Even if I hadn’t hit anything with the attack, I think I had him in a bad situation anyway with Level Down and the hand disruption. He scooped either right after the Dialga was Hurled or a few turns later.
Game two: I had a great opening—Gastly, Oddish, Uxie all on turn one—but I ran into an unexpected Chatter lock which forced me to start the process of KOing myself with Darkness Grace. Meanwhile, rokman was building his hand high with Cyrus, Sprays, etc. and energizing a Dialga on the bench. He had gotten a Bebe’s with one of the Cyrus and when my Spiritomb was left with 10 HP, he broke the Chatter lock, searched out Dialga G lv. X, and Deafened for the KO. I had been building up a huge hand of my own during the 5 turns of Darkness Gracing; because I had not been playing Supporters or energy, rokman assumed my hand was terrible, although in actuality I was holding on to a Looker’s and a Gengar lv. X for when Spiritomb was KOed. On my turn I promoted a SF Gengar, leveled up, used Looker’s to flush away his Sprays, and successfully Leveled Down. He got the level X back out a few turns later but then allowed me to Hurl it away for the 2nd game in a row after Poketurning it. He scooped shortly thereafter.
12-1
Although our games weren’t the greatest, rokman was a gracious sport and had a good attitude throughout the series. I can actually say the same about all of my opponents from Swiss through top cut; everyone was polite and friendly and I saw no hostility or rudeness. I appreciated the positive atmosphere that permeated the event and I’m already looking forward to next year.
I found out later that Vilegar won in Juniors and Seniors also.
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