HurricaneWarty
New Member
I'm really bored right now, so I figured I write a tourney report from the Mountain West Regionals. I was definitely looking forward to this tournament for a long time. Between some great play testing sessions the 10 days before leaving that gave me a ton of confidence and wanting to get the extremely sour taste UT states left in my mouth out (T1'd by Groudon EX will leaves a long after taste, esp. because of the build up to that...but I digress). I screwed around with a couple of different decks with mostly my brothers, Andrew and MOTL leading up to Regionals, and found the 3 I liked best were garchomp, Infernape, and the GG build Andrew had.
I looked forward to the trip there because it is always like 75% of the fun. Unfortunately for us, Wyoming is a terrible place to drive through AND the weather stunk. I don't think I would have ever made it, but with our group we had traveling, it is impossible for it to be boring and not fun. The best part was around 9 PM when we rolled into the hotel, and all 15 of us were in the lobby getting checked in. One of the employees at the hotel looked at all of us as we were screwing around and had a look on his face like "I'm so glad these guys are here!" I have to tell you I loved being in the hotel that the tournament was in, it made things run a lot smoother in the morning. After all the play testing we did Friday night, I decided to stick with GG. My brothers took Ape and Garchomp into the Senior division. So I got there, got checked in, and we met up with the hot ties and basically screwed around until it came time to start.
R1 vs Aacen w/Magmortar
We both get our Pachi starts. Because I'm a donk though I decide to go for the t2 Wager instead of my Claydol with Celio's deciding to disrupt his hand since he obviously has a delcatty with both the skitty's on his bench. I lose the wager though and draw 3 useless cards and he still gets a T2 Delcatty and Magmortar. Awesome. I get a Kirlia and DRE finally and use my Wager a couple of times with Kirlia, and lose both. I get to where I HAVE to top deck a Celio's or a Gardy, and luckily it's a Gardy! I am able to start ploxing him for a few turns and have my Gallade ready to answer his Lvl. X with a OHKO. I win 3-0 when time is called.
1-0
R2 vs Logan w/T2 Doom
Logan really had the deck of the day in my opinion, having everything locked down perfectly in the metagame. His swiss record goes on to show that, and it's too bad he gets uber donked in T16, because I thought it was setup well for him to waltz into T4. Anyway, he gets a Doom going and I have almost nothing, plus his lock of Beach/Cess kills me when I can't find a Pachi to save my life. I do finally get a prize somehow, but I have my lone Gallade prized and my lone fighting energy prized that I needed when I went aggro Claydol. That basically shut out what little hope I had to win. I don't remember how bad it was but he wins like 6-1 on prizes.
1-1
R3 vs Izzy w/Magmortar
Awesome! My 2nd Mag of the day when I didn't think I'd see a ton. Not much to say here. I get lone Pachi with 0 energy for like 5 to 6 turns. He gets a perfect setup. By the time I get a Gallade up it is way too late and I have no chance. I can't remember if I drew a prize or if he swept me, but it was either 6-0 or 6-1.
i
1-2
So as we go to lunch, I'm pretty much getting that "here we go again" feeling that I had both states. My luck wasn't as horrible as it was those two tournaments, but my inconsistency made up for it. I was definitely cheered up by the fact that Utah had like 6 of the top 10 going into lunch, a trend that would continue for most of the day until we started knocking each other off. Ethan was 2-1 with Ape up to this point and his lone loss was in sudden death when time was called on the wrong turn for him, so that made me feel good as well. Steve had the math broke down for us when we got back to the venue, and worst case scenario less than half the 4-2's get left out, so I knew if I won out I'd give myself a chance.
R4 vs Forgot her name! w/Darkrai/Doom
I all but give up when I look at my hand. I start with my lone tech Castform. Lucky for me her hand is devoid of much energy. I am able to get going rather quickly for starting with a Castform and have gardy and gallade up within about 6 turns. She goes through a terrible energy drought after I knock out her first Darkrai and Houndoom, which allows me to take control with Gallade. I am able to 2 prize knock out 3 of her Houndoom thanks to some timely draws of Pluspower's with my Claydols, and go on to win pretty easiliy at 6-2.
2-2
R5 vs AZ guy w/GG
This is a mirror match, but my deck is much more Gardy heavy than his and it seems to give me the upper hand. A Wager on T4 or T5 that I win really sets the stage for me, as I finally get my first true setup of the day and start bring Gardy after Gardy up to lock him while I have my powers. He makes a bit of a comeback late when my own Lake Boundary bites me, but I end up winning 6-3 in the end. It was nice to finally have 2 mostly uneventful games in a row, something I hadn't seen in WAY too long.
3-2
R6 vs Simba w/GG
Great. I get to play one of my best friends and someone I traveled with from Utah in a game that determines which one of us is in most likely. This game was pretty much a mirror in setup. We both got and early Claydol going, the difference was I got my Gardevoir setup one turn earlier than his and was able to lock first. He made a comeback after my fast start thanks to Gallade and Cresselia to tie it up at 3 prizes, but my he brought up a Gardy when he didn't think I could one hit it with my Gallade when I only had 2 un-flipped prizes, but I had the Castform to bounce my DRE and the Pluspower in my hand. That really is what made the difference, him not knowing about my Castform I teched in. Time is called and I'm up 5-3 in prizes. It sucks knowing I just knocked him out, but I gave myself a chance to get in to T16 at least.
4-2
So I sit around while they announce the T16 and to my utter shock I actually made it! After starting 1-2 I really didn't think I had a chance because my breakers would be shot. But I ended up making it in like 13th or 14th. We were able to place 5 Utah Masters in the T16, which was almost 50% of us that came! That was really awesome as well. We all sorted our decks and sat around and BS'ed while we waited for our pairings. The breakdown escapes me but we had something like 9 GG varients, 1 Banette, 1 Honchkrow, 1 Blissey/Weavile, 1 Magmortar, 1 T2 Doom, and 1 DuskQueen. I'm forgetting something but oh well. I really thought Logan (T2 Doom) and Tom (Banette) were setup and it was their tourney to lose. But unfortunately for them they had either terrible luck (Logan) or a terrible matchup when Thomas had to play the Honchkrow deck T16. Lucky for me, I get to face Andrew in the first round!
T16 vs Andrew (master_of_puppets) w/DuskQueen
Game 1
Neither of us setup very well. I really wanted to go with an early Gallade to knock out his first Nidoqueen and then either the 2nd Queen he brought up or his first Dusknoir, but I kept drawing into my Gardy's so I decided to try and swarm with them. He drew the first couple prizes while I get setup, but I'm able to come back strong and tie it at like 3 prizes. We end up trading Wagers for a few turns, and he get's his one Gardy setup and kills me off with my own Lake Boundary in play. I just don't have the energy setup to be strong late game against something that can throw tons of HP at me like Dusknoir can, so I end up losing by one prize I believe it was.
Game 2
See Game 1 lol. It's pretty much the same, except I have the upper hand late game. Just when it looks like probably have it put away when we're down to 1 prize a piece, time is called! So it sucks that I get timed out, but I don't know how big of a chance I had in the 3rd game the way I was setting up. Andrew deserved it though and has had a great 3 tourney since his slow start at the beginning of the year. I'd take a T4/T8/T8 in states and regionals any year!
4-3
So, in the end I'm fairly happy due to the fact I was able to climb back in after starting 1-2. If nothing else I learned you really can't give up and just have to keep fighting. My brother went T8 in Seniors with his Ape list (5-1 in swiss with just that time loss to GG) and lost in sudden death of T8 when he made a big oops with his Premier Ball. I was hoping to ride his coat tails to Nats on a free trip dang it! Oh well he played really well and is continuing to have a great year! It was great to see my other brother come back and go 3-3 after starting out 0-2 on the day and just missing the cut with his Garchomp deck.
PROPS
the trip
seeing all the cool guys in CO - Mike, Brenton, Ian, Ryan, Adrian...I hope I'm not forgetting anyone! But it is always a good time when we get together for tournaments and you guys are awesome!
Utah for placing extremely well! We are really becoming quite deep here and it makes tournaments that much more fun!
The entire staff! Andrea did an awesome job as did the other judges, and Trish ran a clean and snag-free tournament from the computers! (Is there really any surprise?)
Top cutting Regs for the 2nd year in a row
SLOPS
Logan getting donked
Wyoming
The weather in Wyoming
The drive through Wyoming
I looked forward to the trip there because it is always like 75% of the fun. Unfortunately for us, Wyoming is a terrible place to drive through AND the weather stunk. I don't think I would have ever made it, but with our group we had traveling, it is impossible for it to be boring and not fun. The best part was around 9 PM when we rolled into the hotel, and all 15 of us were in the lobby getting checked in. One of the employees at the hotel looked at all of us as we were screwing around and had a look on his face like "I'm so glad these guys are here!" I have to tell you I loved being in the hotel that the tournament was in, it made things run a lot smoother in the morning. After all the play testing we did Friday night, I decided to stick with GG. My brothers took Ape and Garchomp into the Senior division. So I got there, got checked in, and we met up with the hot ties and basically screwed around until it came time to start.
R1 vs Aacen w/Magmortar
We both get our Pachi starts. Because I'm a donk though I decide to go for the t2 Wager instead of my Claydol with Celio's deciding to disrupt his hand since he obviously has a delcatty with both the skitty's on his bench. I lose the wager though and draw 3 useless cards and he still gets a T2 Delcatty and Magmortar. Awesome. I get a Kirlia and DRE finally and use my Wager a couple of times with Kirlia, and lose both. I get to where I HAVE to top deck a Celio's or a Gardy, and luckily it's a Gardy! I am able to start ploxing him for a few turns and have my Gallade ready to answer his Lvl. X with a OHKO. I win 3-0 when time is called.
1-0
R2 vs Logan w/T2 Doom
Logan really had the deck of the day in my opinion, having everything locked down perfectly in the metagame. His swiss record goes on to show that, and it's too bad he gets uber donked in T16, because I thought it was setup well for him to waltz into T4. Anyway, he gets a Doom going and I have almost nothing, plus his lock of Beach/Cess kills me when I can't find a Pachi to save my life. I do finally get a prize somehow, but I have my lone Gallade prized and my lone fighting energy prized that I needed when I went aggro Claydol. That basically shut out what little hope I had to win. I don't remember how bad it was but he wins like 6-1 on prizes.
1-1
R3 vs Izzy w/Magmortar
Awesome! My 2nd Mag of the day when I didn't think I'd see a ton. Not much to say here. I get lone Pachi with 0 energy for like 5 to 6 turns. He gets a perfect setup. By the time I get a Gallade up it is way too late and I have no chance. I can't remember if I drew a prize or if he swept me, but it was either 6-0 or 6-1.
i
1-2
So as we go to lunch, I'm pretty much getting that "here we go again" feeling that I had both states. My luck wasn't as horrible as it was those two tournaments, but my inconsistency made up for it. I was definitely cheered up by the fact that Utah had like 6 of the top 10 going into lunch, a trend that would continue for most of the day until we started knocking each other off. Ethan was 2-1 with Ape up to this point and his lone loss was in sudden death when time was called on the wrong turn for him, so that made me feel good as well. Steve had the math broke down for us when we got back to the venue, and worst case scenario less than half the 4-2's get left out, so I knew if I won out I'd give myself a chance.
R4 vs Forgot her name! w/Darkrai/Doom
I all but give up when I look at my hand. I start with my lone tech Castform. Lucky for me her hand is devoid of much energy. I am able to get going rather quickly for starting with a Castform and have gardy and gallade up within about 6 turns. She goes through a terrible energy drought after I knock out her first Darkrai and Houndoom, which allows me to take control with Gallade. I am able to 2 prize knock out 3 of her Houndoom thanks to some timely draws of Pluspower's with my Claydols, and go on to win pretty easiliy at 6-2.
2-2
R5 vs AZ guy w/GG
This is a mirror match, but my deck is much more Gardy heavy than his and it seems to give me the upper hand. A Wager on T4 or T5 that I win really sets the stage for me, as I finally get my first true setup of the day and start bring Gardy after Gardy up to lock him while I have my powers. He makes a bit of a comeback late when my own Lake Boundary bites me, but I end up winning 6-3 in the end. It was nice to finally have 2 mostly uneventful games in a row, something I hadn't seen in WAY too long.
3-2
R6 vs Simba w/GG
Great. I get to play one of my best friends and someone I traveled with from Utah in a game that determines which one of us is in most likely. This game was pretty much a mirror in setup. We both got and early Claydol going, the difference was I got my Gardevoir setup one turn earlier than his and was able to lock first. He made a comeback after my fast start thanks to Gallade and Cresselia to tie it up at 3 prizes, but my he brought up a Gardy when he didn't think I could one hit it with my Gallade when I only had 2 un-flipped prizes, but I had the Castform to bounce my DRE and the Pluspower in my hand. That really is what made the difference, him not knowing about my Castform I teched in. Time is called and I'm up 5-3 in prizes. It sucks knowing I just knocked him out, but I gave myself a chance to get in to T16 at least.
4-2
So I sit around while they announce the T16 and to my utter shock I actually made it! After starting 1-2 I really didn't think I had a chance because my breakers would be shot. But I ended up making it in like 13th or 14th. We were able to place 5 Utah Masters in the T16, which was almost 50% of us that came! That was really awesome as well. We all sorted our decks and sat around and BS'ed while we waited for our pairings. The breakdown escapes me but we had something like 9 GG varients, 1 Banette, 1 Honchkrow, 1 Blissey/Weavile, 1 Magmortar, 1 T2 Doom, and 1 DuskQueen. I'm forgetting something but oh well. I really thought Logan (T2 Doom) and Tom (Banette) were setup and it was their tourney to lose. But unfortunately for them they had either terrible luck (Logan) or a terrible matchup when Thomas had to play the Honchkrow deck T16. Lucky for me, I get to face Andrew in the first round!
T16 vs Andrew (master_of_puppets) w/DuskQueen
Game 1
Neither of us setup very well. I really wanted to go with an early Gallade to knock out his first Nidoqueen and then either the 2nd Queen he brought up or his first Dusknoir, but I kept drawing into my Gardy's so I decided to try and swarm with them. He drew the first couple prizes while I get setup, but I'm able to come back strong and tie it at like 3 prizes. We end up trading Wagers for a few turns, and he get's his one Gardy setup and kills me off with my own Lake Boundary in play. I just don't have the energy setup to be strong late game against something that can throw tons of HP at me like Dusknoir can, so I end up losing by one prize I believe it was.
Game 2
See Game 1 lol. It's pretty much the same, except I have the upper hand late game. Just when it looks like probably have it put away when we're down to 1 prize a piece, time is called! So it sucks that I get timed out, but I don't know how big of a chance I had in the 3rd game the way I was setting up. Andrew deserved it though and has had a great 3 tourney since his slow start at the beginning of the year. I'd take a T4/T8/T8 in states and regionals any year!
4-3
So, in the end I'm fairly happy due to the fact I was able to climb back in after starting 1-2. If nothing else I learned you really can't give up and just have to keep fighting. My brother went T8 in Seniors with his Ape list (5-1 in swiss with just that time loss to GG) and lost in sudden death of T8 when he made a big oops with his Premier Ball. I was hoping to ride his coat tails to Nats on a free trip dang it! Oh well he played really well and is continuing to have a great year! It was great to see my other brother come back and go 3-3 after starting out 0-2 on the day and just missing the cut with his Garchomp deck.
PROPS
the trip
seeing all the cool guys in CO - Mike, Brenton, Ian, Ryan, Adrian...I hope I'm not forgetting anyone! But it is always a good time when we get together for tournaments and you guys are awesome!
Utah for placing extremely well! We are really becoming quite deep here and it makes tournaments that much more fun!
The entire staff! Andrea did an awesome job as did the other judges, and Trish ran a clean and snag-free tournament from the computers! (Is there really any surprise?)
Top cutting Regs for the 2nd year in a row
SLOPS
Logan getting donked
Wyoming
The weather in Wyoming
The drive through Wyoming
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