kirwin3180
Member
If anyone bothered to read my worlds report you would know that I have won a bunch of cities and battle road wins, but when it comes to big events I always come up just a little short. Sixth place at worlds basically sums up my Pokémon career. Always coming in 2nd, 3rd or 4th. I play really consistently but the 1st place always seems to evade me…basically the opposite of Charlie Sheen 
Due to School and work, it’s hard for me to play in a lot of tournaments so I like to take advantage of the times I do get an opportunity to play. Things lined up perfectly for me to play in both Montreal and Ontario Provincials. Before the tournament me and Matthew Koo are testing heavily, he is set on either dialgachomp or Vilegar. I’m convinced luxchomp is the safest play (Hard part is finding out what techs to put in it).
My final list I decide on is 1-1 dialga tech...Everything else was pretty standard, nothing fancy, no dark techs. I decided on this safe list because I had no idea on the metagame.
Sorry in advance for the names I can’t seem to remember
MTL
Round 1 – magnazone regirock
He starts with magnamite, and I start with garchomp. He collectors for smeargle magnamite and spiritomb. Retreats for free with the magnet item and starts evolving into magnaton. My hand is set for constant garchomp snipes. He eventually gets a magnazone, but I have 3 sprays saved up. And he has no energy on the field.
1-0
Round 2 – Donphan + ursaring
I don’t remember the finer details in this game but I started bad and I had to play carefully since his Pokémon had both my weaknesses covered. I couldn’t play a counter attack game since I don’t have a promocroak. I decided to set up my dialga to shut off both his Pokémon’s bodies. He burns his hand and tries to uxie for 7 but I spray it, and with no cards in his hand, I bright look an ursaring with no energy and snipe around it, even when he would top deck warp points I would just repeat this cycle. By the time the ursaring had energy to attack I second strike for the game
2-0
Round 3 – Zach L – Dialgachomp
Unown Q donk
2-1
Round 4 – Machamp
Starts with machop to my garchomp and dialga, if I went second I could have deafen locked him all game, but I have to attach pass. He unown r’s, drawers, junk arms, etc. and gets a champ up with uxie and relicanth on bench. After he takes out, I collector and set up my uxies and lucario. He takes out my dialga. I Pokémon comm. for my uxie x and dce it. I lookers him and KO. I have premier ball in hand just incase another one comes up. He draws completely dead. And I begin setting up my field for the rest of the game, I Q my level x and preserve him on my bench. He plays the rest of the game with relicanth 30 snipes before I knock it out
3-1
Round 5 – Luxchomp + dialga + absol prime
I start with dialga and deafen him for the most part of the game, I decide to start the garchomp war and pick off his garchomps. He responds with his next garchomp. After I spray his bat he has to dragon rush my garchomp. I kill it with ambipom and he retaliates with dragonite. And I kill that with my second garchomp. He has no answer after I spray his bright looks. I end the game bright looking and bating pixies
4-1
Round 6 – Vilegar + azelf x
We both start off really well, I luxray constant threats, but his twins keep him in the game. When I finally get my dialga up and play all my egains and poketurn for more prizes, he virtually does no damage anymore. I end the game with dialga second strikes
5-1
I’m not sure what seed I finished but I’m disappointed Matt came in 9th in top 8 cut.
Top 8 Regigigas
Game 1
The most intense match of the tournament: I’ve never tested against this deck and I don’t play promo croak. So my only out is lucario gl (thank god for metal energies aha). He opens extremely well, due to a misplay on my part, he decides to sacrifice with no energies in his discard so at the back of my head I was thinking okay…free prize? So I decide not to spray it, but because he sacrificed he twins and gets everything nice and set up, I misplay again spraying the uxie on this turn. But he plays mesprit which cripples my entire hand and scoops up uxie and draws 5 anyways. At this point the regi x has a water energy + dce + belt so he is doing constant 80 – 100 plus 20 on my bench. Lucarios attack is 30 + 10 for every energy on the active, so right now I’m at 120 damage even with my belt I’m nowhere close to killing this thing. I decide to set up my hand so that I can attack him then get the lucario out and bronzong my energies , belt him and get a big two prizes. However he plays 3 mesprits so I waste my sprays and he just sacrifices and plays another one , seekers or scoops up. Once I’m binded he also drops giritina and shuffles my hand in….ugh this is bad news. He gives the regi a fighting energy which makes me think he hasn’t clued in on lucario after all. I’m scared that he will seeker or scoop up his giritina again so I have no choice but to collector for my lucario, crobat (expendable Pokémon) and uxie just incase his lock gets broken. I don’t want him to know I have steel energies so I just play the lucario and belt the bat instead. My logic behind this was all I really need is to draw into a Cyrus or poketurn (7 in the deck) and my plan works. With the belt on the bat he wont suspect the lucario attack and might get careless with his energies. I finish my turn with a garchomp snipe. My plan works and he attaches a metal energy and starts discarding cards in my hand and top deck. His regi is at 5 energy now so I just need to find a way to get a Cyrus. I uxie for 5 and draw dead…., the prizes are at 2-2 , so I know I need to collector and grab all the basics out of my deck and reveal my plan and give lucario a dce. I pass. He sees what I’m doing so he knows I need a bat + steel energy so he seekers and I have no sprays left so he psychic binds me and scoops up his girtina to give me 4 cards . he kos my active . I push up crobat. The 4 cards I drew were steel energy + 3 garbage cards. I top deck a poketurn (sort of , I hadn’t played a Cyrus all game and I used one poketurn prior to that) I poketurn the bat , give lucario a steel energy + belt … regi has 5 energy . so 50 + 50 + his belt and I get my last two prizes
This game must have been at least 40 minutes so I knew time was definitely on my side going into game 2 with the 4 prize card rule.
Game 2
This game I try not to make the same mistakes I made the first game, but I cant seem to draw a Cyrus if my life depended on it. He completely crushes me this game, gets a t2 gigas. I don’t even have luxrays out so my garchomps cant take hits. I try to stall and by myself some turns with dialga, but by that time he’s swinging for 120 and discarding cards. I finally get a Cyrus and he finally broke the psychic lock late, I see a big comeback coming but after I Cyrus all my sp radars are prized…
I cant bright look and forced to pass. At this point time is called and he wins game 2 bad.
Game 3 sudden death
I start with garchomp and he starts with smeargle. I give my garchomp a dce and claw swipe. The only supporter in my hand was lookers but my hand was set up for a garchomp snipe next turn for game. He portraits and lookers me cause he knows what I can do next turn. he explodes with uxies and mesprits and gets a regi, q’s the smeargle and retreats into a regi with a dce. I premier ball for garchomp and give him an energy for game
6-1
Top 4 Gyrados
Game 1
He started bad, and I set up my hand to have luxrays ready for him. by the time he finally gets a gyrados out t3 or 4, I’ve taken 2 prizes with garchomps. After he belts his gdos to counter attack, I belt my luxray and drop lucario. He recovers the gyrados but I spray bats and he cant do anything to counter attack.
Game 2
Same thing, he gets a better start , but I lookers him after a crucial impersonate to give myself a big turn advantage in this matchup. I set up a luxray with a belt and two garchomps on my bench so I can constantly heal it no matter what. I save my sprays in hand and when he starts hitting me and cant ko me he falls way behind on prizes. He finally kills the belted luxray, but I just bring up a basic luxray and trash bolt + bat for the game.
7-1
Top 2 luxchomp + absol prime
Game 1
I started really bad, I played this whole game never drawing a Cyrus. I kept drawing useless cards, but he started as best as he could but he could never win the garchomp battles with me, even with a bad hand. This game stretched out 40 minutes or so because of my inability to finish. I play cautiously because I haven’t seen a spray yet, so I begin making safer plays. I finally draw a supporter and it’s a lookers, I lookers myself and grab the tools I need to win the game. He gets this game to around 2-1 in prizes, but I seal the game with a late arons.
Game 2
I played him in Swiss and for around 40 minutes respectively and I haven’t seen him play one spray, so I decide to play super aggressive and it pays off. I don’t think he played any so I was able to pull off some risky moves. I spray a big healing breath and he cant recover after that.
8-1 :thumb:
ONT
For the Ontario provincials , I thought I knew the Ontario metagame really well. Only a certain amount of people decide to take big risks with their deck, so I wasn’t expecting too many surprises. I initially thought there would be a ton more vilegars. During cities that was the most used deck here. I decided since vilegar would be popular, I would go with a steelix build I had been working on, but I backed out last second since I felt luxchomp was safer. The morning of I decide dialgatech should stay. But I chose to make my deck a little bit riskier. I decide to finally add in promocroak seeing as the regigigas deck gave me so much trouble, the magnazone threat and just in general a good attack, I added in twins for its amazing ability to turn a sp matchup or gyrados matchup, or save bad starts. I change my trainer and supporter lines for better balance, lost remover, extra expert belt etc.
After the tournament was said and done I never played a single vilegar or decks dependent on bodies so the dialga was an utter waste. I think an ERL would have made a lot of my games easier. But the decision was valid at the time
Round 1 – Luxchomp
I start with a bronzong to his garchomp. I have an awful hand but I can set up for a big play next turn if his hand is also bad . so I sp radar for a garchomp and attach a dce to bronzong to set up for a big play next turn. He opens extremely well and gets the garchomp snipe off as well as building counters on his bench. I draw a lookers. So I lookers myself and draw really well = a collector + Cyrus + radar + spray. So I’m set if I can survive a turn. However he retreats attaches a dce, poketurns crobat and kills bronzong I lost my momentum from Montreal and take a major confidence hit seeing as I never tested the changes I made the morning of .
0-1
Round 2 – ttar + machamp + quen
Spiritomb to my azelf. I go first and lock up his tomb. He doesn’t know I’m playing sp yet so when he collectors he goes for the pupitar when evolving. I collector and set my field up with a promocroak garchomp and uxie. I lock up again. He sees what I’m playing so he sets up the machoke . I snipe it away with a crobat drop. I’m about 3 prizes ahead when he uses a big twins to get back in the game. I retaliate a belted lucario gl to ohko his ttar for 2 prizes. He has no answer after that
1-1
Round 3 – Matthew Koo – Lostgar + machamp
This was probably the first tournament we both entered where we had no contact or testing before hand. So both our decks were pretty much blind. I saw his deck after and I know him an bidier worked really hard on it. After seeing it and playing against it I was sure it was the best deck there that day. You really deserved to go farther in the tournament. He opens with machop to my garchomp and I can only claw swipe, I put a unown q on my bench just in case he donks. He burns his whole hand with drawers + junk arms + uxie and gets the champ out. At this point. He’s got one card in hand and it’s something he pokedrawered for. So that led me to believe it’s got to be a uxie or something to search for a uxie. I collector for lucario, garchomp and uxie. I sp radar for ambipom. I have 3 sp Pokémon in play and the uxie x in hand for next turn. I have 2 power sprays in hand cause I’m determined if I can spray whatever’s in his hand he’s in bad game position. It turns out the one card in his hand was seeker. So he picks up his uxie. I pick up lucario. Therefore I can’t spray … I completely forgot about it. He explodes and gets lostgar + other stuff out. He quicks his machamp and retreats. He sends my lucario to the lost zone. I’m in bad position here. I draw a lookers, even though my hands bad for the current situation, after seeing his hand there is no way I can’t shuffle his hand in. after a few turns he has 1 prize left to my 5 and 5 Pokémon in the lost world, I’m getting completely dismantled. I draw into twins and make a huge comeback. Time is called with him still in the same position but I brought it down to two prizes. Even though it’s not the play I would do at the time I need to take a prize to avoid losing on turn 3 of time. He brings up haunter and drops machop junk arms for a rare candy and takes me out for the last prize, ughhhh I never beat you in tournaments !
1-2 because of the volume of players I know I can’t afford to lose to anymore and I really need the people that beat me to do really well
Round 4 – charizard + erl
I had a decent opening and opt to snipe and bright look his basics. He gets a spiritomb to wall me for a bit and gets a ninetails. I lookers him and he draws into 5 non energy or energy retrieving cards. He scoops
2-2
Round 5 – sablelock + blaziken
He gets his lock off and running. But he underestimated the power of twins in this matchup and chose to send in something else instead of it. Mid way through the game I decide to finally use it and turn the game around. I started with bronzong which really hurt in respects to his luring flame (I’m really poketurn conservative) I decide to finally do it after my twins and start setting up unexpected ko’s. I have a feeling he burned a lot of resources early with all his Cyrus’ and power sprays used a lookers really sent him back. He brings it to 1-1 prizes with a honchcrow , but I finish it with a luxray.
3-2
Round 6 – magnazone + pachirsu(col)
He gets his magnazone + pachirsu + seeker chain going early. But eventually he burnt out quick and couldn’t keep it up all the way through, I power spray his last few pachirsus and he’s stuck with no energy on the field. I bright look and dragon rush all his pachis and magnamites for the remainder of the game.
4-2
Round 7 – arceus
I know this matchup can be tough at times, but when playing against arceus there’s always a prize on the field for you to bright look or snipe. So in essence you can take a prize every turn. I snipe his colorless arceus’ and bright look his water arceus. I bait him in to bring up his colorless arcues and I kill it with promocroak. I want him to bring up his psychic arceus so he thinks he can completely control the board. So he belts it and does 60 X2 for the kill. I bring up uxie + dce + level x, for the last two prizes.
5-2
I finish 12th seed , so I’m gaining some momentum back. To be honest I’m much more comfortable playing in top cut than I am in Swiss. In top cut you have a hour to play thorough games and can think through moves a lot more. One bad game also wont define a best of 3.
Top 16 – Regigigas
Game 1 - This is the same guy I played in Montreal , and he told me he built his deck to have a lot better luxchomp matchup. The addition of promocroak in my deck made me confident going in. when the game opens I see immediately what he means by increasing the luxchomp matchup, he’s now using the drag off regi and I understand its potential to ko my benched chomps. We trade prizes for majority of the game , I snipe and flash impact all around the regi up until the game is 2-1. He drops a snow point so that there is no way I can ohko his regi with one hit. However I flash bite + turn, then a belted poison revenge seals it for me.
Game 2 – he never gets his level x out for some reason and plays the game extremely risky, I poison revenge his regi early and he never recovers, I dragon rush pixies + smeargles for the rest of the game
6-2
Top 8 – Simon L Dialgachomp
Game 1 - Probably my worst start of the day, I start off with dialga and the only supporter in hand is twins. He poison binds me and sets up amazing. He makes one big mistake in playing Pokémon contest hall which gives me some hope to a awful hand. He uses 4 Cyrus’ + 4 poketurns in 4 turns so I know a lookers will completely ruin this for him. after the lookers I start looking to gain control back , since I know he doesn’t have anymore turns I try and get energy advantage on the field so I ambipom his energies to get control. He draws dead with lookers like expected and can’t seem to do much. He burned all his dce’s and Cyrus’ too early. He has a fully charged dialga and I know it’s ready to come up and ko whatever I have. The prizes are 2-1 so I bright look his bronzong and poison fang it. I know that it has to die on the transition phase to my turn so I can I bright look a bat for the game. He thinks it will die on my transition but I flash bite it and he has no out or dces to retreat it. It dies and on my turn I flash impact a crobat for game.
Game 2 – we switch sides in respect to the game and he starts with bronzong to my garchomp. I set my field up safely for a garchomp war if need be and decide not to go risky with a belted ambipom belt flash bite donk would have been epic if I chased that down. But he draws nothing, I still can’t have the donk but I put in position so that it can’t even switch energies. He plays a contest hall and gets a dialga. I flash bite his bronzong and hit his dialga, he draws dead again and scoops
7-2
Top 4 Zach L dialgachomp
Game 1 – I underestimate the power of dragonite in this match which costed me a lot. I played Zach last year in provincials so this was a rematch in retrospect. I’m the one to initiate the garchomp war but he plays 3 – 1 so I can’t keep up the war, even with the ambipom. I misplay huge towards the end and basically feed him the game, I know he has a promocroak in hand but I choose to kill a bat to bring me 2 prizes away. He plays it and I’m really disappointed in that mistake.
Game 2 – this time the garchomp war goes my way, and I’m baffled how I got away with such risky maneuvers in the garchomp war. This game drags out for a bit but he scoops with around 3 prizes left on my side. He flips his prizes and had 2 garchomps and 1 garchomp x prized… I sprayed a azelf , I didn’t realize how crucial it was.
Game 3 – we both set up our fields for a garchomp war, but neither of us pull the trigger so to speak until time Is called. He kills me with his first garchomp , and I want to lookers him and he has absolutely nothing for a counter attack so I lookers myself and belt my garchomp just in case. I get a prize too and he has no option for the counter attack
8-2
Top 2 Adam A – MewDos
Game 1 – I get a really good start compared to his mediocre start, and I lookers his hand full of magikarps and take a few prizes with lock up then garchomp snipes. He hits a crucial scoop up and I ran out of sprays. He sets up and makes a big comeback with judge, the prizes get to around 2-2 but I end the game luxray then counter that with arons.
Game 2 – he has a much better start this game, but I choose to lock up the sableye and make sure I take the first prize. He keeps the psychic bind going for awhile but once its let go I twins for a belt and luxray x . I set up two garchomps on the field with warp energies and 2 sprays in hand I know I can keep the heal on the luxray for 2 turns guaranteed. After the first two heals and 2 prizes later I have poketurns and another spray to seal me the game
9-2 :smile:
Not bad for someone played luxchomp for the first and second time
Thanks to Matt , Bidier, Reed, Julian and Geneses for deck and tech advice. I don’t read a lot of reports but the reports I do read never really shout out the tournament organizers or judges. I have nothing but good things to say about the judging / tournament staff in my area, Marvin, Paul, Jennifer, Mike, and Terry you guys did a fantastic job organizing / running the event. Much appreciated.
God Bless,
Curtis Lyon
Prestige World Wide
Due to School and work, it’s hard for me to play in a lot of tournaments so I like to take advantage of the times I do get an opportunity to play. Things lined up perfectly for me to play in both Montreal and Ontario Provincials. Before the tournament me and Matthew Koo are testing heavily, he is set on either dialgachomp or Vilegar. I’m convinced luxchomp is the safest play (Hard part is finding out what techs to put in it).
My final list I decide on is 1-1 dialga tech...Everything else was pretty standard, nothing fancy, no dark techs. I decided on this safe list because I had no idea on the metagame.
Sorry in advance for the names I can’t seem to remember
MTL
Round 1 – magnazone regirock
He starts with magnamite, and I start with garchomp. He collectors for smeargle magnamite and spiritomb. Retreats for free with the magnet item and starts evolving into magnaton. My hand is set for constant garchomp snipes. He eventually gets a magnazone, but I have 3 sprays saved up. And he has no energy on the field.
1-0
Round 2 – Donphan + ursaring
I don’t remember the finer details in this game but I started bad and I had to play carefully since his Pokémon had both my weaknesses covered. I couldn’t play a counter attack game since I don’t have a promocroak. I decided to set up my dialga to shut off both his Pokémon’s bodies. He burns his hand and tries to uxie for 7 but I spray it, and with no cards in his hand, I bright look an ursaring with no energy and snipe around it, even when he would top deck warp points I would just repeat this cycle. By the time the ursaring had energy to attack I second strike for the game
2-0
Round 3 – Zach L – Dialgachomp
Unown Q donk
2-1
Round 4 – Machamp
Starts with machop to my garchomp and dialga, if I went second I could have deafen locked him all game, but I have to attach pass. He unown r’s, drawers, junk arms, etc. and gets a champ up with uxie and relicanth on bench. After he takes out, I collector and set up my uxies and lucario. He takes out my dialga. I Pokémon comm. for my uxie x and dce it. I lookers him and KO. I have premier ball in hand just incase another one comes up. He draws completely dead. And I begin setting up my field for the rest of the game, I Q my level x and preserve him on my bench. He plays the rest of the game with relicanth 30 snipes before I knock it out
3-1
Round 5 – Luxchomp + dialga + absol prime
I start with dialga and deafen him for the most part of the game, I decide to start the garchomp war and pick off his garchomps. He responds with his next garchomp. After I spray his bat he has to dragon rush my garchomp. I kill it with ambipom and he retaliates with dragonite. And I kill that with my second garchomp. He has no answer after I spray his bright looks. I end the game bright looking and bating pixies
4-1
Round 6 – Vilegar + azelf x
We both start off really well, I luxray constant threats, but his twins keep him in the game. When I finally get my dialga up and play all my egains and poketurn for more prizes, he virtually does no damage anymore. I end the game with dialga second strikes
5-1
I’m not sure what seed I finished but I’m disappointed Matt came in 9th in top 8 cut.
Top 8 Regigigas
Game 1
The most intense match of the tournament: I’ve never tested against this deck and I don’t play promo croak. So my only out is lucario gl (thank god for metal energies aha). He opens extremely well, due to a misplay on my part, he decides to sacrifice with no energies in his discard so at the back of my head I was thinking okay…free prize? So I decide not to spray it, but because he sacrificed he twins and gets everything nice and set up, I misplay again spraying the uxie on this turn. But he plays mesprit which cripples my entire hand and scoops up uxie and draws 5 anyways. At this point the regi x has a water energy + dce + belt so he is doing constant 80 – 100 plus 20 on my bench. Lucarios attack is 30 + 10 for every energy on the active, so right now I’m at 120 damage even with my belt I’m nowhere close to killing this thing. I decide to set up my hand so that I can attack him then get the lucario out and bronzong my energies , belt him and get a big two prizes. However he plays 3 mesprits so I waste my sprays and he just sacrifices and plays another one , seekers or scoops up. Once I’m binded he also drops giritina and shuffles my hand in….ugh this is bad news. He gives the regi a fighting energy which makes me think he hasn’t clued in on lucario after all. I’m scared that he will seeker or scoop up his giritina again so I have no choice but to collector for my lucario, crobat (expendable Pokémon) and uxie just incase his lock gets broken. I don’t want him to know I have steel energies so I just play the lucario and belt the bat instead. My logic behind this was all I really need is to draw into a Cyrus or poketurn (7 in the deck) and my plan works. With the belt on the bat he wont suspect the lucario attack and might get careless with his energies. I finish my turn with a garchomp snipe. My plan works and he attaches a metal energy and starts discarding cards in my hand and top deck. His regi is at 5 energy now so I just need to find a way to get a Cyrus. I uxie for 5 and draw dead…., the prizes are at 2-2 , so I know I need to collector and grab all the basics out of my deck and reveal my plan and give lucario a dce. I pass. He sees what I’m doing so he knows I need a bat + steel energy so he seekers and I have no sprays left so he psychic binds me and scoops up his girtina to give me 4 cards . he kos my active . I push up crobat. The 4 cards I drew were steel energy + 3 garbage cards. I top deck a poketurn (sort of , I hadn’t played a Cyrus all game and I used one poketurn prior to that) I poketurn the bat , give lucario a steel energy + belt … regi has 5 energy . so 50 + 50 + his belt and I get my last two prizes
This game must have been at least 40 minutes so I knew time was definitely on my side going into game 2 with the 4 prize card rule.
Game 2
This game I try not to make the same mistakes I made the first game, but I cant seem to draw a Cyrus if my life depended on it. He completely crushes me this game, gets a t2 gigas. I don’t even have luxrays out so my garchomps cant take hits. I try to stall and by myself some turns with dialga, but by that time he’s swinging for 120 and discarding cards. I finally get a Cyrus and he finally broke the psychic lock late, I see a big comeback coming but after I Cyrus all my sp radars are prized…
I cant bright look and forced to pass. At this point time is called and he wins game 2 bad.
Game 3 sudden death
I start with garchomp and he starts with smeargle. I give my garchomp a dce and claw swipe. The only supporter in my hand was lookers but my hand was set up for a garchomp snipe next turn for game. He portraits and lookers me cause he knows what I can do next turn. he explodes with uxies and mesprits and gets a regi, q’s the smeargle and retreats into a regi with a dce. I premier ball for garchomp and give him an energy for game
6-1
Top 4 Gyrados
Game 1
He started bad, and I set up my hand to have luxrays ready for him. by the time he finally gets a gyrados out t3 or 4, I’ve taken 2 prizes with garchomps. After he belts his gdos to counter attack, I belt my luxray and drop lucario. He recovers the gyrados but I spray bats and he cant do anything to counter attack.
Game 2
Same thing, he gets a better start , but I lookers him after a crucial impersonate to give myself a big turn advantage in this matchup. I set up a luxray with a belt and two garchomps on my bench so I can constantly heal it no matter what. I save my sprays in hand and when he starts hitting me and cant ko me he falls way behind on prizes. He finally kills the belted luxray, but I just bring up a basic luxray and trash bolt + bat for the game.
7-1
Top 2 luxchomp + absol prime
Game 1
I started really bad, I played this whole game never drawing a Cyrus. I kept drawing useless cards, but he started as best as he could but he could never win the garchomp battles with me, even with a bad hand. This game stretched out 40 minutes or so because of my inability to finish. I play cautiously because I haven’t seen a spray yet, so I begin making safer plays. I finally draw a supporter and it’s a lookers, I lookers myself and grab the tools I need to win the game. He gets this game to around 2-1 in prizes, but I seal the game with a late arons.
Game 2
I played him in Swiss and for around 40 minutes respectively and I haven’t seen him play one spray, so I decide to play super aggressive and it pays off. I don’t think he played any so I was able to pull off some risky moves. I spray a big healing breath and he cant recover after that.
8-1 :thumb:
ONT
For the Ontario provincials , I thought I knew the Ontario metagame really well. Only a certain amount of people decide to take big risks with their deck, so I wasn’t expecting too many surprises. I initially thought there would be a ton more vilegars. During cities that was the most used deck here. I decided since vilegar would be popular, I would go with a steelix build I had been working on, but I backed out last second since I felt luxchomp was safer. The morning of I decide dialgatech should stay. But I chose to make my deck a little bit riskier. I decide to finally add in promocroak seeing as the regigigas deck gave me so much trouble, the magnazone threat and just in general a good attack, I added in twins for its amazing ability to turn a sp matchup or gyrados matchup, or save bad starts. I change my trainer and supporter lines for better balance, lost remover, extra expert belt etc.
After the tournament was said and done I never played a single vilegar or decks dependent on bodies so the dialga was an utter waste. I think an ERL would have made a lot of my games easier. But the decision was valid at the time
Round 1 – Luxchomp
I start with a bronzong to his garchomp. I have an awful hand but I can set up for a big play next turn if his hand is also bad . so I sp radar for a garchomp and attach a dce to bronzong to set up for a big play next turn. He opens extremely well and gets the garchomp snipe off as well as building counters on his bench. I draw a lookers. So I lookers myself and draw really well = a collector + Cyrus + radar + spray. So I’m set if I can survive a turn. However he retreats attaches a dce, poketurns crobat and kills bronzong I lost my momentum from Montreal and take a major confidence hit seeing as I never tested the changes I made the morning of .
0-1
Round 2 – ttar + machamp + quen
Spiritomb to my azelf. I go first and lock up his tomb. He doesn’t know I’m playing sp yet so when he collectors he goes for the pupitar when evolving. I collector and set my field up with a promocroak garchomp and uxie. I lock up again. He sees what I’m playing so he sets up the machoke . I snipe it away with a crobat drop. I’m about 3 prizes ahead when he uses a big twins to get back in the game. I retaliate a belted lucario gl to ohko his ttar for 2 prizes. He has no answer after that
1-1
Round 3 – Matthew Koo – Lostgar + machamp
This was probably the first tournament we both entered where we had no contact or testing before hand. So both our decks were pretty much blind. I saw his deck after and I know him an bidier worked really hard on it. After seeing it and playing against it I was sure it was the best deck there that day. You really deserved to go farther in the tournament. He opens with machop to my garchomp and I can only claw swipe, I put a unown q on my bench just in case he donks. He burns his whole hand with drawers + junk arms + uxie and gets the champ out. At this point. He’s got one card in hand and it’s something he pokedrawered for. So that led me to believe it’s got to be a uxie or something to search for a uxie. I collector for lucario, garchomp and uxie. I sp radar for ambipom. I have 3 sp Pokémon in play and the uxie x in hand for next turn. I have 2 power sprays in hand cause I’m determined if I can spray whatever’s in his hand he’s in bad game position. It turns out the one card in his hand was seeker. So he picks up his uxie. I pick up lucario. Therefore I can’t spray … I completely forgot about it. He explodes and gets lostgar + other stuff out. He quicks his machamp and retreats. He sends my lucario to the lost zone. I’m in bad position here. I draw a lookers, even though my hands bad for the current situation, after seeing his hand there is no way I can’t shuffle his hand in. after a few turns he has 1 prize left to my 5 and 5 Pokémon in the lost world, I’m getting completely dismantled. I draw into twins and make a huge comeback. Time is called with him still in the same position but I brought it down to two prizes. Even though it’s not the play I would do at the time I need to take a prize to avoid losing on turn 3 of time. He brings up haunter and drops machop junk arms for a rare candy and takes me out for the last prize, ughhhh I never beat you in tournaments !
1-2 because of the volume of players I know I can’t afford to lose to anymore and I really need the people that beat me to do really well
Round 4 – charizard + erl
I had a decent opening and opt to snipe and bright look his basics. He gets a spiritomb to wall me for a bit and gets a ninetails. I lookers him and he draws into 5 non energy or energy retrieving cards. He scoops
2-2
Round 5 – sablelock + blaziken
He gets his lock off and running. But he underestimated the power of twins in this matchup and chose to send in something else instead of it. Mid way through the game I decide to finally use it and turn the game around. I started with bronzong which really hurt in respects to his luring flame (I’m really poketurn conservative) I decide to finally do it after my twins and start setting up unexpected ko’s. I have a feeling he burned a lot of resources early with all his Cyrus’ and power sprays used a lookers really sent him back. He brings it to 1-1 prizes with a honchcrow , but I finish it with a luxray.
3-2
Round 6 – magnazone + pachirsu(col)
He gets his magnazone + pachirsu + seeker chain going early. But eventually he burnt out quick and couldn’t keep it up all the way through, I power spray his last few pachirsus and he’s stuck with no energy on the field. I bright look and dragon rush all his pachis and magnamites for the remainder of the game.
4-2
Round 7 – arceus
I know this matchup can be tough at times, but when playing against arceus there’s always a prize on the field for you to bright look or snipe. So in essence you can take a prize every turn. I snipe his colorless arceus’ and bright look his water arceus. I bait him in to bring up his colorless arcues and I kill it with promocroak. I want him to bring up his psychic arceus so he thinks he can completely control the board. So he belts it and does 60 X2 for the kill. I bring up uxie + dce + level x, for the last two prizes.
5-2
I finish 12th seed , so I’m gaining some momentum back. To be honest I’m much more comfortable playing in top cut than I am in Swiss. In top cut you have a hour to play thorough games and can think through moves a lot more. One bad game also wont define a best of 3.
Top 16 – Regigigas
Game 1 - This is the same guy I played in Montreal , and he told me he built his deck to have a lot better luxchomp matchup. The addition of promocroak in my deck made me confident going in. when the game opens I see immediately what he means by increasing the luxchomp matchup, he’s now using the drag off regi and I understand its potential to ko my benched chomps. We trade prizes for majority of the game , I snipe and flash impact all around the regi up until the game is 2-1. He drops a snow point so that there is no way I can ohko his regi with one hit. However I flash bite + turn, then a belted poison revenge seals it for me.
Game 2 – he never gets his level x out for some reason and plays the game extremely risky, I poison revenge his regi early and he never recovers, I dragon rush pixies + smeargles for the rest of the game
6-2
Top 8 – Simon L Dialgachomp
Game 1 - Probably my worst start of the day, I start off with dialga and the only supporter in hand is twins. He poison binds me and sets up amazing. He makes one big mistake in playing Pokémon contest hall which gives me some hope to a awful hand. He uses 4 Cyrus’ + 4 poketurns in 4 turns so I know a lookers will completely ruin this for him. after the lookers I start looking to gain control back , since I know he doesn’t have anymore turns I try and get energy advantage on the field so I ambipom his energies to get control. He draws dead with lookers like expected and can’t seem to do much. He burned all his dce’s and Cyrus’ too early. He has a fully charged dialga and I know it’s ready to come up and ko whatever I have. The prizes are 2-1 so I bright look his bronzong and poison fang it. I know that it has to die on the transition phase to my turn so I can I bright look a bat for the game. He thinks it will die on my transition but I flash bite it and he has no out or dces to retreat it. It dies and on my turn I flash impact a crobat for game.
Game 2 – we switch sides in respect to the game and he starts with bronzong to my garchomp. I set my field up safely for a garchomp war if need be and decide not to go risky with a belted ambipom belt flash bite donk
would have been epic if I chased that down. But he draws nothing, I still can’t have the donk but I put in position so that it can’t even switch energies. He plays a contest hall and gets a dialga. I flash bite his bronzong and hit his dialga, he draws dead again and scoops7-2
Top 4 Zach L dialgachomp
Game 1 – I underestimate the power of dragonite in this match which costed me a lot. I played Zach last year in provincials so this was a rematch in retrospect. I’m the one to initiate the garchomp war but he plays 3 – 1 so I can’t keep up the war, even with the ambipom. I misplay huge towards the end and basically feed him the game, I know he has a promocroak in hand but I choose to kill a bat to bring me 2 prizes away. He plays it and I’m really disappointed in that mistake.
Game 2 – this time the garchomp war goes my way, and I’m baffled how I got away with such risky maneuvers in the garchomp war. This game drags out for a bit but he scoops with around 3 prizes left on my side. He flips his prizes and had 2 garchomps and 1 garchomp x prized… I sprayed a azelf , I didn’t realize how crucial it was.
Game 3 – we both set up our fields for a garchomp war, but neither of us pull the trigger so to speak until time Is called. He kills me with his first garchomp , and I want to lookers him and he has absolutely nothing for a counter attack so I lookers myself and belt my garchomp just in case. I get a prize too and he has no option for the counter attack
8-2
Top 2 Adam A – MewDos
Game 1 – I get a really good start compared to his mediocre start, and I lookers his hand full of magikarps and take a few prizes with lock up then garchomp snipes. He hits a crucial scoop up and I ran out of sprays. He sets up and makes a big comeback with judge, the prizes get to around 2-2 but I end the game luxray then counter that with arons.
Game 2 – he has a much better start this game, but I choose to lock up the sableye and make sure I take the first prize. He keeps the psychic bind going for awhile but once its let go I twins for a belt and luxray x . I set up two garchomps on the field with warp energies and 2 sprays in hand I know I can keep the heal on the luxray for 2 turns guaranteed. After the first two heals and 2 prizes later I have poketurns and another spray to seal me the game
9-2 :smile:
Not bad for someone played luxchomp for the first and second time
Thanks to Matt , Bidier, Reed, Julian and Geneses for deck and tech advice. I don’t read a lot of reports but the reports I do read never really shout out the tournament organizers or judges. I have nothing but good things to say about the judging / tournament staff in my area, Marvin, Paul, Jennifer, Mike, and Terry you guys did a fantastic job organizing / running the event. Much appreciated.
God Bless,
Curtis Lyon
Prestige World Wide
