Going into nationals I had tested Sablelock a hell of a lot, as well as Luxchomp with a Dialga tech.
In the end I decided to just play what I was comfortable with and what I felt would give me the best matchups vs the top decks (vilegar and Luxchomp) and that was Sablelock.
A last minute cut was dropping my 2-1 Luxray X line down to 1-1 so I could fit in promocroak, in the end I do not regret this whatsoever.
Round 1: ?? (Magnezone)
I get a good start, starting sableye to his magnemite? I begin to setup but fail hard to disrupt him, getting 4 tails on Cyrus' initiative. However my solid start was enough to win me this, with me taking nearly all 6 prizes with Garchomp X
1-0
Round 2: Ben S-A (Sablelock)
I get a decent start to his mediocre start (my sableye to his chatot) with both begin disrupting each other, until I come across the fact that my only judge was prized! That was pretty much it, not being able to slow him down eventually meant he was able take a lead with his constant judging. Really nice guy so pleased to see Ben doing well anyway (congrats on 3rd
)
1-1
Round 3: Guy from Exeter (sorry forgot your name!, unless with names lol) Gyarados.
we both start sableye, with me winning the coin flip, this was enough for me to drop the collector from his hand and for me to be able to start setting up, once he started to get going, using sableyes impersonate I was able to judge and follow this up with an initiative and that was pretty much it, honchkrow and garchomp x did the rest from here.
Feeling pretty lucky about this matchup as Gyarados can be extremely hard, especially since I decided not to run lucario.
2-1
Round 4: Michael Fong (Vilegar)
I get a good start with a few cheap KO's on a spirtomb and a gastly, he struggles to get the trainer lock going which gives me a great lead and I eventually win on time, my 2 prizes left to his 5. Really nice guy.
3-1
Round 5: Dave ?? (Vilegar)
He starts Unown Q to my sableye. I don't have the energy so i disrupt, getting rid of his collector. I have 2 uxies in hand aswell as 2 other sableye. I bench the sableye and decide with all the stuff in my deck, I must be able to get the donk. Aftering using 2 uxies I draw into no energy =/ this makes it extremely hard for me to win as I now have a bench full of crap as I decided to be silly and go for the donk lol. I scoop once time is called, 2-2 prizes each but I know he has the game. Disappointed that I didnt just play this one out as I was sure I could have won, but thats just how it goes sometimes.
3-2
Round 6: ?? (Raichu)
I have played this deck before and almost lost to it, this guy had beaten 3 luxchomps on the day including nathan, a states winner. Luckily for me I had played this before so I knew what was coming. He pulls ahead after using the level X to claim 2 prizes but this sets me up into twins and I behind to come ahead. He didn't expect me to run luxray so this gave me advantage so I was able to get some bright looks going. My psychic energy being prized hurt, but I ended up using Azelf so I knew where it was in prizes so I began to hit for weakness, I win once I kill a crucial raichu. Also this guy got 9 heads in a row using Rayquaza which is insane!!!! but this meant it had 9 energys left on it, and allowed me to bright look it and then earthquake with garchomp for the KO. Nice guy and pleased to see him doing so well.
4-2
Round 7: Olly King (Magnezone/Machamp)
I was scared going into this as I knew that machamp could kill me. I start sableye and manage to drop the Machamp from his hand (he had everything he needed to donk me lol) this was soo helpful as from here I was able to set up Honchrkow and then 1/2 shot everything he could throw at me. Honchkrow was amazing here and eventually had 3 special darks attached to it. Got lucky here but I felt I played extremely well.
5-2
Top cut gets called and I'm in at 11th place (really happy about this as it's my first season playing and my first nationals)
Top 16: Nitish Doolub (DialgaChomp)
After play testing with Tommy Roberts a lot I knew what to expect and after talking with Tommy for a while before heading into this match I knew what I had to do.
Game 1: I start sableye and manage to drop the collector from his hand and manage to get a prize lead. Once he drops snowpoint down everything gets so much harder as my crobat was prized so I couldn't even get prizes of benched uxies and azelf. This is one of the most enjoyable, close and exciting games I have played in a while so it was great. Came down to 2 prizes each with Nitish having a active uxie x with an expert belt attached, I misplay and bebe's for something else instead of my own uxie X which would have won me the game, annoyed at myself but it seems the long day had gotten to me.
Game 2:
we had about 10 mins left on the clock so i knew this would be extremely hard but Nitish played very fast to give me a chance which was extremely nice of him. I manage to take around 3 prizes before time was called but I just couldn't do it.
Grats to Nitish as hes such a nice guy anyway so it was good to see him doing well.
So i end up getting top 16 in my first season and my first ever nats so I'm fairly pleased with this anyway
Props:
getting top 16!
Tamao getting top 8!
sablelock for being amazing
everyone i played, had no issues with anyone, everyone was friendly and all the games were enjoyable.
pulling a pikachu and full art zekrom from the packs I won.
Slops:
soo many tails on initiative lol (love and hate this card)
delays =/
thats about it!
The list:
4 sableye
3-1 Garchomp
1-1 Luxray
1-1 Honchkrow
2-1 Uxie
1 Ambipom
1 dragonite
1 promocroak
1 unown Q
1 Crobat
1 Bronzong
1 azelf
4 cyrus conspiracy
3 colletor
2 bebes
2 initiative
1 Judge
1 aarons
1 Twins
3 power spray
3 poketurn
3 energy gain
2 sp radar
1 premier ball
4 Dce
4 special dark
2 dark
1 lightening
1 psychic
I was was to change anything, the Luxray line would become Blaziken for sure, normally I feel Luxray is the better choice but Dialga was everywhere on the day and it would have been the better play (at least for this day lol). Also a few times only having 1 judge or my only judge prized really hurt so fitting in a second judge would have been great.
Thanks to everyone I played and everyone at nats I had a really great time.
Sorry for all the spelling and grammer mistakes etc but I hope you get the idea from this report lol.
In the end I decided to just play what I was comfortable with and what I felt would give me the best matchups vs the top decks (vilegar and Luxchomp) and that was Sablelock.
A last minute cut was dropping my 2-1 Luxray X line down to 1-1 so I could fit in promocroak, in the end I do not regret this whatsoever.
Round 1: ?? (Magnezone)
I get a good start, starting sableye to his magnemite? I begin to setup but fail hard to disrupt him, getting 4 tails on Cyrus' initiative. However my solid start was enough to win me this, with me taking nearly all 6 prizes with Garchomp X
1-0
Round 2: Ben S-A (Sablelock)
I get a decent start to his mediocre start (my sableye to his chatot) with both begin disrupting each other, until I come across the fact that my only judge was prized! That was pretty much it, not being able to slow him down eventually meant he was able take a lead with his constant judging. Really nice guy so pleased to see Ben doing well anyway (congrats on 3rd
)1-1
Round 3: Guy from Exeter (sorry forgot your name!, unless with names lol) Gyarados.
we both start sableye, with me winning the coin flip, this was enough for me to drop the collector from his hand and for me to be able to start setting up, once he started to get going, using sableyes impersonate I was able to judge and follow this up with an initiative and that was pretty much it, honchkrow and garchomp x did the rest from here.
Feeling pretty lucky about this matchup as Gyarados can be extremely hard, especially since I decided not to run lucario.
2-1
Round 4: Michael Fong (Vilegar)
I get a good start with a few cheap KO's on a spirtomb and a gastly, he struggles to get the trainer lock going which gives me a great lead and I eventually win on time, my 2 prizes left to his 5. Really nice guy.
3-1
Round 5: Dave ?? (Vilegar)
He starts Unown Q to my sableye. I don't have the energy
so i disrupt, getting rid of his collector. I have 2 uxies in hand aswell as 2 other sableye. I bench the sableye and decide with all the stuff in my deck, I must be able to get the donk. Aftering using 2 uxies I draw into no energy =/ this makes it extremely hard for me to win as I now have a bench full of crap as I decided to be silly and go for the donk lol. I scoop once time is called, 2-2 prizes each but I know he has the game. Disappointed that I didnt just play this one out as I was sure I could have won, but thats just how it goes sometimes.3-2
Round 6: ?? (Raichu)
I have played this deck before and almost lost to it, this guy had beaten 3 luxchomps on the day including nathan, a states winner. Luckily for me I had played this before so I knew what was coming. He pulls ahead after using the level X to claim 2 prizes but this sets me up into twins and I behind to come ahead. He didn't expect me to run luxray so this gave me advantage so I was able to get some bright looks going. My psychic energy being prized hurt, but I ended up using Azelf so I knew where it was in prizes so I began to hit for weakness, I win once I kill a crucial raichu. Also this guy got 9 heads in a row using Rayquaza which is insane!!!! but this meant it had 9 energys left on it, and allowed me to bright look it and then earthquake with garchomp for the KO. Nice guy and pleased to see him doing so well.
4-2
Round 7: Olly King (Magnezone/Machamp)
I was scared going into this as I knew that machamp could kill me. I start sableye and manage to drop the Machamp from his hand (he had everything he needed to donk me lol) this was soo helpful as from here I was able to set up Honchrkow and then 1/2 shot everything he could throw at me. Honchkrow was amazing here and eventually had 3 special darks attached to it. Got lucky here but I felt I played extremely well.
5-2
Top cut gets called and I'm in at 11th place (really happy about this as it's my first season playing and my first nationals)
Top 16: Nitish Doolub (DialgaChomp)
After play testing with Tommy Roberts a lot I knew what to expect and after talking with Tommy for a while before heading into this match I knew what I had to do.
Game 1: I start sableye and manage to drop the collector from his hand and manage to get a prize lead. Once he drops snowpoint down everything gets so much harder as my crobat was prized so I couldn't even get prizes of benched uxies and azelf. This is one of the most enjoyable, close and exciting games I have played in a while so it was great. Came down to 2 prizes each with Nitish having a active uxie x with an expert belt attached, I misplay and bebe's for something else instead of my own uxie X which would have won me the game, annoyed at myself but it seems the long day had gotten to me.
Game 2:
we had about 10 mins left on the clock so i knew this would be extremely hard but Nitish played very fast to give me a chance which was extremely nice of him. I manage to take around 3 prizes before time was called but I just couldn't do it.
Grats to Nitish as hes such a nice guy anyway so it was good to see him doing well.
So i end up getting top 16 in my first season and my first ever nats so I'm fairly pleased with this anyway
Props:
getting top 16!
Tamao getting top 8!
sablelock for being amazing
everyone i played, had no issues with anyone, everyone was friendly and all the games were enjoyable.
pulling a pikachu and full art zekrom from the packs I won.
Slops:
soo many tails on initiative lol (love and hate this card)
delays =/
thats about it!
The list:
4 sableye
3-1 Garchomp
1-1 Luxray
1-1 Honchkrow
2-1 Uxie
1 Ambipom
1 dragonite
1 promocroak
1 unown Q
1 Crobat
1 Bronzong
1 azelf
4 cyrus conspiracy
3 colletor
2 bebes
2 initiative
1 Judge
1 aarons
1 Twins
3 power spray
3 poketurn
3 energy gain
2 sp radar
1 premier ball
4 Dce
4 special dark
2 dark
1 lightening
1 psychic
I was was to change anything, the Luxray line would become Blaziken for sure, normally I feel Luxray is the better choice but Dialga was everywhere on the day and it would have been the better play (at least for this day lol). Also a few times only having 1 judge or my only judge prized really hurt so fitting in a second judge would have been great.
Thanks to everyone I played and everyone at nats I had a really great time.
Sorry for all the spelling and grammer mistakes etc but I hope you get the idea from this report lol.
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