So I wasn't able to play in any of the Arizona City Championships --- they all happened during the weeks I was desperately working on final papers for graduate school, and while I sure do love Pokemon, I have my priorities straight. We had a City Championship right where I live on January 1st, but I was judging, so I wasn't able to play in it. I did hear there, though, that there would be tournaments in Albuquerque the next weekend, and our Arizona PTO would be running them, and I was very much tempted to go. I'd been playing with variants on Chandelure based on Esa's list from his amazing blog (The Deck Out), and managed to get my hands on --- permanently! --- enough Tropical Beaches to run it. I like the attacking list best, and I tried a variety of changes, including more Pichus, fewer Cleffas, a second Jirachi, PONT, one switch, more energy, a Gloom… and except for including a Flower Shop Lady, Esa's list was just better than anything I did, so I stuck with it. 
I didn't get that much testing in, so there is probably still room to improve, but I was very happy with this list, which is what I played for both tournaments:
4-4-4 Chandelure (with the promo litwicks)
3-0-2 Vileplume
2-2 Dodrio
2 Cleffa
1 Pichu
1 Jirachi
4 Collector
4 Sage's
4 Twins
2 N
1 Flower Shop Lady
3 Rare Candy
3 Pokemon Communication
2 Tropical Beach
8 Psychic Energy
4 Rescue Energy
I really want two Pichu and one Cleffa to be the play, but giving your opponent setup when they are stuck is way worse than setting up more slowly, and there are so many games where you don't want it at all that I don't think more than one Pichu is a good idea. If I had felt I _absolutely_ needed to work in something else, I would have taken out one of the Cleffas, but it's just such a lifesaver sometimes, and I'd rather a Cleffa start than a Jirachi start so much that I left two in.
I considered trading a Twins for another N, but there were so many games where I played all four Twins that I was nervous about taking one out. I also considered trading out a Sage's Training, since sometimes I had to discard things that really hurt, but given my results I am glad I left all four Sage's; sometimes you need to discard pieces that look crucial, and that's what the 4-4-4 line and the 12 energy are four. (Also the Flower Shop Lady. Also, N was less helpful than I expected; it was occasionally super disruptive and that was nice, but one of the things I worked hard on was reading my opponents to figure out when they were stuck or what they were keeping in hand, and often when I was tempted to N for the hand refresh I didn't because I was convinced my opponent had a bad hand. I think I was right most of the time, though obviously I don't know except when I was playing friends and they told me afterward.
I feel like Chandelure is both a very good deck and a deck that rewards the things I am good at while not penalizing the ones I am bad at so much. I'm not great at deckbuilding when there are lots of empty spaces in a skeleton, and this decklist basically has no empty spaces, so while I tried some changes, I only left one of them in. I'm not always very good at trainer-heavy engines, and, well, trainer lock! I am pretty good at telling when my opponent is stuck --- maybe it's a poker skill? --- and this deck rewards that. This deck also rewards being able to count many turns ahead in terms of things like damage counters and energy placements for your opponent, with lots of forks in the possibility space for things like confusion flips. Knowing what other people are playing by being versed in the metagame is also rewarded and helps a lot with the counting turns ahead. I may not get to test as much as I'd like, but I read a variety of blogs and forums and like to think I have a good idea of the overall metagame even though I didn't know the New Mexico area at all.
So given all that, my housemates Nicole, Zury and I headed to Albuquerque to see how we would fare, and I hoped that my limited testing and tweaking combined with a lot of theorymon would allow me to top cut once and feel like the trip was worth it. Spoiler: It was!
First came Albuquerque cities!
rd 1 vs Anson with Electrode/Corners
He was playing a Six Corners-style deck with Electrode Prime in it. I got trainer lock before he could communicate for Electrode, and so he wasn't able to explode for energy in this game, and so I took it pretty easily.
rd 2 vs Huy with Hydreigon/Eels
Aaaaa as soon as I saw Deino I knew I was going to lose, and then he had some sort of God hand and had a fully charged Hydreigon on turn two. Doomed. I candied into Chandelure first so I could put 60 on Hydreigon and Jirachi it away --- to discover that my other candies were prized. And no Gloom. So no Vileplume. That's the risk of not running Gloom, I guess. He played very well, got a good start, and there wasn't much I could do. It was fun trying to mount a comeback but ultimately it wasn't going to happen, particularly without trainer lock.
rd 3 vs ? with Zekrom/Eels
This fellow was playing a zekrom/eels build but without full trainer lines; trainer lock hurt it and he wasn't always sure what to do against confusion/burn from eerie glow. He was excited when his terrakion didn't take burn damage rather than wanting to get it out of the way so that he could attack, and wouldn't take the confusion flips because he was afraid of losing the prize. He said he was coming back to the game after a long hiatus, and his decisionmaking reflected that --- some of it very solid and clever, some of it not. I wonder if he forgot that you could retreat out of confusion safely now? Although attaching to Terrakion and manually retreating would still have been pretty awful, and maybe he was hoping to build up in the meantime, although all of the damage I was placing made that hard. In general this is a tough matchup against Chandelure and I don't think he ran many supporters at all.
rd 4 vs ? with Awesome Stage 1s
This fellow had a really interesting stage 1s with muk, zoroark, cinccino, and somebody else I forget --- lots of fun in this match!! There was a ton of sludge dragging until I could find Dodrio, and a lot of draw pass on my part because my hand was just stuck. Once I found Dodrio, though, I was able to come alive and spread onto the stage ones and de-evolove them. Jirachi was amazing here. So necessary. FSL for Jirachi kept me in the running for cut. Love FSL. Amazing 1-of; definitely glad I kept that change in. I'm not sure why Esa's list doesn't run it. (Although as far as I can tell he was right about everywhere else we disagreed.)
rd 5 vs Patrick with Rogue
Patrick was playing an interesting rogue with klingklang and victini; it gave me trouble early but a deck like this lives by flips and dies by flips and eventually died by flips, particularly when confusion and burn were added to the mix. Apparently he ran Samurott but did not get a chance to play it against me; makes sense, really, it was probably matchup-specific. (I heard about it from my friend Nicole, who played him in top 8.) Who knows, there might have been other techs in there too!
I'm 4-1 and cut at… third place, I think?
top 8 vs Anson with Electrode/Corners again
Won games 1 and 2 --- was difficult on round 2 but I was able to get by when he filled his bench for vcreate and dropped a Terrakion. I luring lighted it, and then sniped around it until I could take three prizes, all of which had energy on them, and his shaymin was not helpful because he couldn't find any room for it on the bench. I was worried he might run Seeker, but either he didn't or couldn't draw it. Maybe he ran SSU and couldn't play it because of lock?
top 4 vs Richard with Ross engine, Cobalion/Kyurem
Round one I took with thanks to Luring Light and just _speed_, I had a great start --- once I took out the first Reuniclus he couldn't get a second one and I had a pretty easy time. It didn't help him that he started with two Cobalions and nothing else; he was able to Eviolite them, which I found interesting, but they weren't fast enough to stop my setup. Round two I lost a really long and close game --- a two-reuniclus setup hurts me a lot, and being able to pound Chandelure with Kyurem will utlimately take the game. Round 3 was a Lampent turn 2 donk against Solosis; he was apparently just completely stuck. I felt a little bad about winning like this, but that's one of the risks of running a deck like that, and I'm glad I saw the opportunity and seized it. (I actually used both Lampent and Litwick's damage-doing attacks during the tournament; this pleased me.)
top 2 vs Nicole with Reshiphlosion
Nicole and I live together and are each the other's main testing partner; we work on each other's decklists and know the way the other plays very well. So this was kind of hilarious and there was a ton of time spent with each of us looking at the other's discard and saying "Well I know you've used the following cards, so you must have X left in your deck…" I won the first game very narrowly on Cleffa shenanigans and perfect play basically every turn as _well_ as flips going my way. Prized Jirachi auuuuugh, it makes this matchup really hard. I had to manually KO both Typhlosions with Cursed Shadow. AND STILL WON. That took 47 minutes. Second game didn't get to four prizes; I delayed with luring light which is probably what I would have done anyway while I was setting up. Nicole plays super slow and didn't speed up, so the fact that I wasn't slow-playing didn't matter; she got two prizes and I got none, I think, and that was fine.
VICTORY!
top 4 for Albuquerque cities:
1st Rachel with Chandelure/Dodrio/Vileplume
2nd Nicole with Reshiphlosion
3rd Richard with Ross variant (Cobalion/Kyurem)
4th Bruce with Durant
I was thrilled to win, and completely exhausted; it took me an hour, some tea, and a meal before I was really capable of rational conversation again. I opened my packs, sorted the good pulls into my trade binder, helped Zury tweak a deck she was considering playing the next day, and passed out. I figured the next day I would go something like 2-3 or 3-2, since people would now see it coming, and if not actually tech in Absols and so on, actually think about the matchup. Plus I was still tired. Nonetheless, I went in deciding to give it my best shot, and here is what happened!
BOSQUE FARMS
rd 1 vs Richard with Ross variant, Cobalion/Kyurem/Absol
My top 4 matchup from the previous day. Today he teched against Chandelure specifically in his Ross variant deck; it was only luck and a mistake on his part that allowed me to win. He had a Kyurem with three energy, an Absol with one energy and 60 damage, a Kyurem with no energy, and a Vileplume on his bench, and had to decide which to bring active after I knocked out his Reuniclus. The way I counted it out, if he brought out Absol and had the energy in hand, I was toast for sure; if he brought out Kyurem, I was likely toast, though might have survived if he failed confusion flips twice. He brought out Absol, drew his card for turn, and then said "Wait, I should have played Kyurem. Let me switch that." I confirmed that he had drawn his card for turn, and said "I'm sorry, but no." I felt a little bad but if he had drawn the energy, I bet he wouldn't have switched his Pokemon, and he would have taken the win. With the free turn because he was unable to attack, I was able to swing the game in my favor for the win.
rd 2 vs Joey with Ross variant
Joey is another Arizona player, and always fun to play against. He's always running something different, and it's usually very good. Today it was another Ross deck --- I got the fast start and this game was just grisly. His deck ran SEL, terrakion, donphan, and I think kyurem; he didn't set up Kyurem and the other Pokemon are easy for me with Chandelure. Luckily we got to have much more interesting games in top cut.
rd 3 vs Zury with Donchamp
Zury is another one of my housemates and testing partners. The previous day she'd made top 8 with Magnezone/Eels but wanted to try something different, so in the hotel she'd dusted off her Donchamp list and made some changes. She only runs one Machoke; knowing that, I took the opportunity for the turn 2 Vileplume even though it would slow down my setup (I had to Sage away something annoying). What I didn't know was that the one Machoke was prized, meaning that the two benched Machops were hopeless cannon fodder and between Earthquake hurting the benched Pokemon and Donphan's retreat cost being so high, this wasn't much of a game. :/
rd 4 vs ?? with Zekrom/Eels
Didn't get this fellow's name, but he was a nice dude. This game was tricky at first. He used up three of his DCE very quickly to get early prizes and the fourth one was prized. Luring Light, how I love you. There was a ridiculous Jirachi for three prizes at one point because I had the time to set it up.
rd 5 vs Pierre with Magnezone/Zekrom/eels
This was a bit harder because Magnezone can oneshot Chandelure, but once I got his hand stuck over 6 with trainers, I realized he _didn't run DCE_. Or, at the very least, didn't get one the entire game, or in the Top Cut matches I saw bits of. Oh Luring Light. <3
I'm 5-0.
Top 8 vs Joey with Ross deck
Yeah, we've seen this before. These were really fun games actually --- neither of us tried for the trainer lock and so periodically one of us would say something like "Um, I guess I will use this Pokemon Communication, because I can, even though I can never do that? That's legal, right? *doublecheck for Vileplumes* Yup, I will use Pokemon Communication! Awesome!" He set up Bellossom in the first game, and Bellossom/Reuniclus is a very hard combo to take down. Eventually I was able to with Luring Light, and he was forced to Dance 'Till Dawn, which actually got applause from the room. He also threatened attacks with Gloom, which if he had flipped heads more would have been quite effective. (Although the Bellossom/Gloom attacks did use up Rainbow Energies, which meant I didn't have to fear Kyurem or SEL; the SEL wasn't a great play against me, although maybe sniping Dodrio would have helped, and I suspect the Kyurem was prized? Or maybe I am misremembering that there was a Kyurem at all?) The second game went to time, and I had taken four prizes to his three, I think.
Top 4 vs Nicole with Reshiphlosion
Oh wow, I have never seen this deck before! In fact, I have never seen this deck, not even before! … oh wait Nicole is my main testing partner. This went much like top 2 the previous day did: She got ahead of me early, we played really slow and methodically, I ground out the win over time with confusion and luring light making it hard for her to take prizes, and when game two started we already had less than ten minutes. At first it seemed like she was going to play fast but then she got a slow start cardwise anyway and so we just played it out slowly. Game 2 didn't get enough prizes taken to count, so I moved on. Whichever of us won, we were all going to have to wait until the final match to start the drive back to Tucson, anyway.
Top 2 vs Jesse with Zekrom/Tornadus/Eels
Game one despite him going first was basically perfect setup for me and not a terribly close game; he said at the beginning that it was basically his worst matchup and, well, in that game he was right. In game two, though, I did a deck search on a call for family and flubbed not noticing that I had an Oddish prized --- I was fine with him catcher-killing one so that I could play two the next turn off of a Collector and Twins the following turn, except… there was only one, and he catcher-killed that too. Oops. It actually got down to 1-1 on prizes but he was able to take it; without lock, all of Zekrom's tricks and flexibility make Chandelure an easy matchup. We had very little time at that point, and started to set up; time was called on his turn with a Zekrom, a bellsprout, and a tynamo in play. He tried to bellsprout my Doduo, but I had an energy in hand and was able to retreat and luring light Zekrom with no energy; he tried shenanigans, catchering the Doduo again and hoping to get three energy onto an eel, but he couldn't make the third energy happen and so hoped I didn't have the energy on hand to finish Cursed Shadowing onto Bellsprout on turn 3 --- but I did. And then we immediately got in the car and started driving back home, which took seven hours.
VICTORY
Bosque Farms, NM, 1/8/2012:
1st Rachel with Chandelure/Dodrio/Vileplume
2nd Jesse with Zekrom/Eelektrik
3rd Pierre with Magnezone/Zekrom/Eelectrik
4th Nicole with Reshiphlosion
I have concluded that Chandelure is really, really good; I'm a reasonably good player and this wasn't a 500-player tournament full of former world champions, but people here played good games and I didn't do anything astonishingly clever. The deck is just really solid. Esa is a better decklist builder than me (this should be a surprise to exactly no one) and it was better to learn to play his list well than to make a worse list just to be different. Although I don't know why FSL doesn't show up in his list of techs --- it saved me in at least one game, maybe two. I will say that top cuts are fun but really stressful; these were my second and third times top cutting ever (the first was magenzone/floatzel/vileplume/tornadus at a Battle Roads, apparently I do well in trainer lock). This puts me at 13 Championship Points, which is not enough to get me anywhere serious, but at least I have this great feeling of accomplishment.
Thanks for reading!
Props:
New Mexico folks for being super friendly and welcoming
My partner Krinn for driving us all out there despite not caring about Pokémon at all, and even playing a round in the second tournament to make sure we'd hit Top 8
Zury and Nicole for successful testing all around --- all three of us top cut both days, hooray!
Tournament organizers and judges for smooth and fun events
Esa's blog for the excellent Chandelure analysis and list
Slops:
The seven-hour drive each way, for making me completely unproductive at work today
Basically nothing else, except one player who was wandering around complaining about losing to girls… although I can understand that it's challenging if you're not used to it, so I'm glad our Tucson crew was able to come in and provide some extra practice
I didn't get that much testing in, so there is probably still room to improve, but I was very happy with this list, which is what I played for both tournaments:4-4-4 Chandelure (with the promo litwicks)
3-0-2 Vileplume
2-2 Dodrio
2 Cleffa
1 Pichu
1 Jirachi
4 Collector
4 Sage's
4 Twins
2 N
1 Flower Shop Lady
3 Rare Candy
3 Pokemon Communication
2 Tropical Beach
8 Psychic Energy
4 Rescue Energy
I really want two Pichu and one Cleffa to be the play, but giving your opponent setup when they are stuck is way worse than setting up more slowly, and there are so many games where you don't want it at all that I don't think more than one Pichu is a good idea. If I had felt I _absolutely_ needed to work in something else, I would have taken out one of the Cleffas, but it's just such a lifesaver sometimes, and I'd rather a Cleffa start than a Jirachi start so much that I left two in.
I considered trading a Twins for another N, but there were so many games where I played all four Twins that I was nervous about taking one out. I also considered trading out a Sage's Training, since sometimes I had to discard things that really hurt, but given my results I am glad I left all four Sage's; sometimes you need to discard pieces that look crucial, and that's what the 4-4-4 line and the 12 energy are four. (Also the Flower Shop Lady.
Also, N was less helpful than I expected; it was occasionally super disruptive and that was nice, but one of the things I worked hard on was reading my opponents to figure out when they were stuck or what they were keeping in hand, and often when I was tempted to N for the hand refresh I didn't because I was convinced my opponent had a bad hand. I think I was right most of the time, though obviously I don't know except when I was playing friends and they told me afterward.I feel like Chandelure is both a very good deck and a deck that rewards the things I am good at while not penalizing the ones I am bad at so much. I'm not great at deckbuilding when there are lots of empty spaces in a skeleton, and this decklist basically has no empty spaces, so while I tried some changes, I only left one of them in. I'm not always very good at trainer-heavy engines, and, well, trainer lock! I am pretty good at telling when my opponent is stuck --- maybe it's a poker skill? --- and this deck rewards that. This deck also rewards being able to count many turns ahead in terms of things like damage counters and energy placements for your opponent, with lots of forks in the possibility space for things like confusion flips. Knowing what other people are playing by being versed in the metagame is also rewarded and helps a lot with the counting turns ahead. I may not get to test as much as I'd like, but I read a variety of blogs and forums and like to think I have a good idea of the overall metagame even though I didn't know the New Mexico area at all.
So given all that, my housemates Nicole, Zury and I headed to Albuquerque to see how we would fare, and I hoped that my limited testing and tweaking combined with a lot of theorymon would allow me to top cut once and feel like the trip was worth it. Spoiler: It was!
First came Albuquerque cities!
rd 1 vs Anson with Electrode/Corners
He was playing a Six Corners-style deck with Electrode Prime in it. I got trainer lock before he could communicate for Electrode, and so he wasn't able to explode for energy in this game, and so I took it pretty easily.
rd 2 vs Huy with Hydreigon/Eels
Aaaaa as soon as I saw Deino I knew I was going to lose, and then he had some sort of God hand and had a fully charged Hydreigon on turn two. Doomed.
I candied into Chandelure first so I could put 60 on Hydreigon and Jirachi it away --- to discover that my other candies were prized. And no Gloom. So no Vileplume. That's the risk of not running Gloom, I guess. He played very well, got a good start, and there wasn't much I could do. It was fun trying to mount a comeback but ultimately it wasn't going to happen, particularly without trainer lock.rd 3 vs ? with Zekrom/Eels
This fellow was playing a zekrom/eels build but without full trainer lines; trainer lock hurt it and he wasn't always sure what to do against confusion/burn from eerie glow. He was excited when his terrakion didn't take burn damage rather than wanting to get it out of the way so that he could attack, and wouldn't take the confusion flips because he was afraid of losing the prize. He said he was coming back to the game after a long hiatus, and his decisionmaking reflected that --- some of it very solid and clever, some of it not. I wonder if he forgot that you could retreat out of confusion safely now? Although attaching to Terrakion and manually retreating would still have been pretty awful, and maybe he was hoping to build up in the meantime, although all of the damage I was placing made that hard. In general this is a tough matchup against Chandelure and I don't think he ran many supporters at all.
rd 4 vs ? with Awesome Stage 1s
This fellow had a really interesting stage 1s with muk, zoroark, cinccino, and somebody else I forget --- lots of fun in this match!! There was a ton of sludge dragging until I could find Dodrio, and a lot of draw pass on my part because my hand was just stuck. Once I found Dodrio, though, I was able to come alive and spread onto the stage ones and de-evolove them. Jirachi was amazing here. So necessary. FSL for Jirachi kept me in the running for cut. Love FSL. Amazing 1-of; definitely glad I kept that change in. I'm not sure why Esa's list doesn't run it. (Although as far as I can tell he was right about everywhere else we disagreed.)
rd 5 vs Patrick with Rogue
Patrick was playing an interesting rogue with klingklang and victini; it gave me trouble early but a deck like this lives by flips and dies by flips and eventually died by flips, particularly when confusion and burn were added to the mix. Apparently he ran Samurott but did not get a chance to play it against me; makes sense, really, it was probably matchup-specific. (I heard about it from my friend Nicole, who played him in top 8.) Who knows, there might have been other techs in there too!
I'm 4-1 and cut at… third place, I think?
top 8 vs Anson with Electrode/Corners again
Won games 1 and 2 --- was difficult on round 2 but I was able to get by when he filled his bench for vcreate and dropped a Terrakion. I luring lighted it, and then sniped around it until I could take three prizes, all of which had energy on them, and his shaymin was not helpful because he couldn't find any room for it on the bench. I was worried he might run Seeker, but either he didn't or couldn't draw it. Maybe he ran SSU and couldn't play it because of lock?
top 4 vs Richard with Ross engine, Cobalion/Kyurem
Round one I took with thanks to Luring Light and just _speed_, I had a great start --- once I took out the first Reuniclus he couldn't get a second one and I had a pretty easy time. It didn't help him that he started with two Cobalions and nothing else; he was able to Eviolite them, which I found interesting, but they weren't fast enough to stop my setup. Round two I lost a really long and close game --- a two-reuniclus setup hurts me a lot, and being able to pound Chandelure with Kyurem will utlimately take the game. Round 3 was a Lampent turn 2 donk against Solosis; he was apparently just completely stuck. I felt a little bad about winning like this, but that's one of the risks of running a deck like that, and I'm glad I saw the opportunity and seized it. (I actually used both Lampent and Litwick's damage-doing attacks during the tournament; this pleased me.)
top 2 vs Nicole with Reshiphlosion
Nicole and I live together and are each the other's main testing partner; we work on each other's decklists and know the way the other plays very well. So this was kind of hilarious and there was a ton of time spent with each of us looking at the other's discard and saying "Well I know you've used the following cards, so you must have X left in your deck…" I won the first game very narrowly on Cleffa shenanigans and perfect play basically every turn as _well_ as flips going my way. Prized Jirachi auuuuugh, it makes this matchup really hard. I had to manually KO both Typhlosions with Cursed Shadow. AND STILL WON. That took 47 minutes. Second game didn't get to four prizes; I delayed with luring light which is probably what I would have done anyway while I was setting up. Nicole plays super slow and didn't speed up, so the fact that I wasn't slow-playing didn't matter; she got two prizes and I got none, I think, and that was fine.
VICTORY!
top 4 for Albuquerque cities:
1st Rachel with Chandelure/Dodrio/Vileplume
2nd Nicole with Reshiphlosion
3rd Richard with Ross variant (Cobalion/Kyurem)
4th Bruce with Durant
I was thrilled to win, and completely exhausted; it took me an hour, some tea, and a meal before I was really capable of rational conversation again. I opened my packs, sorted the good pulls into my trade binder, helped Zury tweak a deck she was considering playing the next day, and passed out. I figured the next day I would go something like 2-3 or 3-2, since people would now see it coming, and if not actually tech in Absols and so on, actually think about the matchup. Plus I was still tired.
Nonetheless, I went in deciding to give it my best shot, and here is what happened!BOSQUE FARMS
rd 1 vs Richard with Ross variant, Cobalion/Kyurem/Absol
My top 4 matchup from the previous day. Today he teched against Chandelure specifically in his Ross variant deck; it was only luck and a mistake on his part that allowed me to win. He had a Kyurem with three energy, an Absol with one energy and 60 damage, a Kyurem with no energy, and a Vileplume on his bench, and had to decide which to bring active after I knocked out his Reuniclus. The way I counted it out, if he brought out Absol and had the energy in hand, I was toast for sure; if he brought out Kyurem, I was likely toast, though might have survived if he failed confusion flips twice. He brought out Absol, drew his card for turn, and then said "Wait, I should have played Kyurem. Let me switch that." I confirmed that he had drawn his card for turn, and said "I'm sorry, but no." I felt a little bad but if he had drawn the energy, I bet he wouldn't have switched his Pokemon, and he would have taken the win. With the free turn because he was unable to attack, I was able to swing the game in my favor for the win.
rd 2 vs Joey with Ross variant
Joey is another Arizona player, and always fun to play against. He's always running something different, and it's usually very good. Today it was another Ross deck --- I got the fast start and this game was just grisly. His deck ran SEL, terrakion, donphan, and I think kyurem; he didn't set up Kyurem and the other Pokemon are easy for me with Chandelure. Luckily we got to have much more interesting games in top cut.
rd 3 vs Zury with Donchamp
Zury is another one of my housemates and testing partners. The previous day she'd made top 8 with Magnezone/Eels but wanted to try something different, so in the hotel she'd dusted off her Donchamp list and made some changes. She only runs one Machoke; knowing that, I took the opportunity for the turn 2 Vileplume even though it would slow down my setup (I had to Sage away something annoying). What I didn't know was that the one Machoke was prized, meaning that the two benched Machops were hopeless cannon fodder and between Earthquake hurting the benched Pokemon and Donphan's retreat cost being so high, this wasn't much of a game. :/
rd 4 vs ?? with Zekrom/Eels
Didn't get this fellow's name, but he was a nice dude. This game was tricky at first. He used up three of his DCE very quickly to get early prizes and the fourth one was prized. Luring Light, how I love you. There was a ridiculous Jirachi for three prizes at one point because I had the time to set it up.
rd 5 vs Pierre with Magnezone/Zekrom/eels
This was a bit harder because Magnezone can oneshot Chandelure, but once I got his hand stuck over 6 with trainers, I realized he _didn't run DCE_. Or, at the very least, didn't get one the entire game, or in the Top Cut matches I saw bits of. Oh Luring Light. <3
I'm 5-0.
Top 8 vs Joey with Ross deck
Yeah, we've seen this before.
These were really fun games actually --- neither of us tried for the trainer lock and so periodically one of us would say something like "Um, I guess I will use this Pokemon Communication, because I can, even though I can never do that? That's legal, right? *doublecheck for Vileplumes* Yup, I will use Pokemon Communication! Awesome!" He set up Bellossom in the first game, and Bellossom/Reuniclus is a very hard combo to take down. Eventually I was able to with Luring Light, and he was forced to Dance 'Till Dawn, which actually got applause from the room. He also threatened attacks with Gloom, which if he had flipped heads more would have been quite effective. (Although the Bellossom/Gloom attacks did use up Rainbow Energies, which meant I didn't have to fear Kyurem or SEL; the SEL wasn't a great play against me, although maybe sniping Dodrio would have helped, and I suspect the Kyurem was prized? Or maybe I am misremembering that there was a Kyurem at all?) The second game went to time, and I had taken four prizes to his three, I think.Top 4 vs Nicole with Reshiphlosion
Oh wow, I have never seen this deck before! In fact, I have never seen this deck, not even before! … oh wait Nicole is my main testing partner. This went much like top 2 the previous day did: She got ahead of me early, we played really slow and methodically, I ground out the win over time with confusion and luring light making it hard for her to take prizes, and when game two started we already had less than ten minutes. At first it seemed like she was going to play fast but then she got a slow start cardwise anyway and so we just played it out slowly. Game 2 didn't get enough prizes taken to count, so I moved on. Whichever of us won, we were all going to have to wait until the final match to start the drive back to Tucson, anyway.
Top 2 vs Jesse with Zekrom/Tornadus/Eels
Game one despite him going first was basically perfect setup for me and not a terribly close game; he said at the beginning that it was basically his worst matchup and, well, in that game he was right. In game two, though, I did a deck search on a call for family and flubbed not noticing that I had an Oddish prized --- I was fine with him catcher-killing one so that I could play two the next turn off of a Collector and Twins the following turn, except… there was only one, and he catcher-killed that too. Oops. It actually got down to 1-1 on prizes but he was able to take it; without lock, all of Zekrom's tricks and flexibility make Chandelure an easy matchup. We had very little time at that point, and started to set up; time was called on his turn with a Zekrom, a bellsprout, and a tynamo in play. He tried to bellsprout my Doduo, but I had an energy in hand and was able to retreat and luring light Zekrom with no energy; he tried shenanigans, catchering the Doduo again and hoping to get three energy onto an eel, but he couldn't make the third energy happen and so hoped I didn't have the energy on hand to finish Cursed Shadowing onto Bellsprout on turn 3 --- but I did. And then we immediately got in the car and started driving back home, which took seven hours.
VICTORY
Bosque Farms, NM, 1/8/2012:
1st Rachel with Chandelure/Dodrio/Vileplume
2nd Jesse with Zekrom/Eelektrik
3rd Pierre with Magnezone/Zekrom/Eelectrik
4th Nicole with Reshiphlosion
I have concluded that Chandelure is really, really good; I'm a reasonably good player and this wasn't a 500-player tournament full of former world champions, but people here played good games and I didn't do anything astonishingly clever. The deck is just really solid. Esa is a better decklist builder than me (this should be a surprise to exactly no one) and it was better to learn to play his list well than to make a worse list just to be different. Although I don't know why FSL doesn't show up in his list of techs --- it saved me in at least one game, maybe two. I will say that top cuts are fun but really stressful; these were my second and third times top cutting ever (the first was magenzone/floatzel/vileplume/tornadus at a Battle Roads, apparently I do well in trainer lock). This puts me at 13 Championship Points, which is not enough to get me anywhere serious, but at least I have this great feeling of accomplishment.
Thanks for reading!
Props:
New Mexico folks for being super friendly and welcoming
My partner Krinn for driving us all out there despite not caring about Pokémon at all, and even playing a round in the second tournament to make sure we'd hit Top 8
Zury and Nicole for successful testing all around --- all three of us top cut both days, hooray!
Tournament organizers and judges for smooth and fun events
Esa's blog for the excellent Chandelure analysis and list
Slops:
The seven-hour drive each way, for making me completely unproductive at work today
Basically nothing else, except one player who was wandering around complaining about losing to girls… although I can understand that it's challenging if you're not used to it, so I'm glad our Tucson crew was able to come in and provide some extra practice
