ChicoBlanco
New Member
before nationals, Adrian (Pokemontoya) and I somewhat hopelessly/jokingly look thru his card binder... for something that could possibly be good vs the metagame..
we saw Toxicroak and laughed at the fact that it could essentially 2HKO Gallade by auto-poisen, with a chance of Paralysis for only one energy..
we joked around how it would be a tech in Yamato's G&G at worlds.
my friend Jesse(TeamPwnyJF) from Nationals asked if I had anything for worlds, and i told him that i'd been experimenting with Scizor..
we both knew the card had great potential.. the ability to do 80 damage for 1 NRG, more then 50% of the time is great.
on a whim, I remembered Toxicroak and I was like "woah...lol. heck i'll give it a shot"
Jesse made a Bannette/Scizor for me to try and sent me the list.. it did beat PLOX very well. Empoleon ended up being too good against Bannette though... :/ (sniping to get around Bannettes discard pile effect)
So I ended up putting the Toxicroak list together and trying it out.
I told Jesse about it, and he liked the idea.. especially since Toxicroak could buy you time and save your bench by preventing a couple Dual Splashes by Paralyzing Empoleon.
so expecting the deck to do horrible, i was surprised when it went 21-0 against plox (the PLOX had 2 Windstorm 2 Warp Point. no Boundries though)
I brought the deck to Pokemontoya's apartment and I was like "hey.. dude check this out lol..."
and we tested the crud outta it.
surprisingly, through playtesting we found out that Leafeon decks were its best matchup. Empoleon was still giving us a hard time though, as we were winning a little less then half our games.
so over the next few weeks Pokemontoya, me, Jesse, Bretkid and KrazyKevin worked on the deck..
Krazy Kevin put in the Electrode, which ended up turning the Empoleon matchup from a 40-60 to at least a 65-35..
and Bret added Sabyeye for late game Dusknoir disruption making it hard for PLOX to pull it's last prizes, if they indeed end up breaking the Cess/Beach lock.
so after all the modifying, it had favorable matchups vs most G&G, Empoleon, LeafMorter and Torterra..
(it could also hold it's own against most Speed-Bannetes, and Blissey variants. except for BanBliss... 4 warp points are brutal (*cough*autoloss*cough*..lol)
after all this testing.. I really wanted our buddy Tristan to use the deck in Juniors.
not only is Tristan an amazing player (could definitely hold his own in Masters)
but we knew that a disruption deck like this had huge potential for 10-under, especially in Tristan's hands.
He seemed a little down about the fact that his original deckchoice was starting to give him bad hands all of the sudden, not to mention Anders got really inconsistant hands with it in the grinder.
we were hoping more then anything that Tristan would like the deck..
and he was really cool and open minded about it.. and didn't push it off like a lot of players would do.
he tried it, and despite the noobness of the deck, and the uglyness of Toxicroak himself, Tristan loved it, and had tons of fun playing it.
so after eating a meal with the Robinsons,(they were so nice.. I tried to pay them for the Sub but they refused) Tristan ends up going 3-0 against Ander's PLOX list, 2-0 vs Empoleon, beating LeafMorter, and even barely out-manuevering BanBliss(GO TRISTAN)
we knew all he had to do now was learn about the small tricks in the deck, for complicated situations..
and of course being the highly intellectual little dude that he is, he picked those up fast.
i was stoked that Tristan had the coolness to risk everything and put his trust into a deck like Toxicroak(especially since us no-names put it together lol), and play against the big dogs like G&G, and EmpoZong, not to mention the top notch players of the world... "
dat desahhves mayjah propz" (as Gino or Chuck might say in their cool EastSide accent)
so we now had a Colorado player using Toxicroak/Scizor in every division.
so I enter the tournament, not knowing at all what would happen... but in my eyes i had a better shot with this deck (and was more comfortable playing it) then hoping to be a one in a million using G&G..
(these matches are as accurately as I remember them... some stuff may be a bit blurry, but i'll do my best..)
Round 1 vs Marcelo from the Netherlands (with PLOX)
he goes first and attaches a Call to Ralts and calls for Baltoy and Ralts.
I attach to 'Gunk, play Crystal Beach, and do 20 to his ralts cuz of Weakness.
he rare candies his bench ralts to a Gallade and attaches DRE.
I evolve to Toxicroak, play down a Scyther attach a metal to it, Castaway for Cess, and do 30 poisen to ralts cuz of Weakness, so ralts gets ko'd by poisen.
he sends up baltoy and wagers me.
(can't remember if i won or lost the wager?..)
I use Paralyze poisen on Baltoy. he Warps baltoy. i send up a Crogunk, he sends up Gallade and attaches an energy, but Beach prevents him from using Psychic cut to KO the Crogunk that I just sent up. I retreat the Gunk, and use Toxicroak's paralyze poisen against Gallade.. I flip tails. he evolves to Claydol, attaches another energy to Gallade, and OHKO's the Toxicroak.
I send up Scizor, attach a Cess and a 2nd energy to it, and Special Blow for the KO.
he is forced to send up his Claydol with 30 damage on it.
he passes... and asks if I have the energy to use X-Scissor.
I show him the psychic in my hand.. so he folds
1-0
Round 2 vs Ingo from Denmark (with PLOX):
Basically I start with Scyther... and get Scizor going relitively fast. he plays wager and wins... but once his Baltoy is KO'd, he can't get his hand going. I evntually recover from the wager (the deck has a lot of supporters in it) and in the end he puts my Scizor to sleep with Ralts(DF). I get lucky on the sleep roll and roll the heads to X Scissor the the Ralts(DF).
2-0
Round 3 vs Takae Suzuki from Japan(with BanBliss)
I shake hands and try to speak Japanese with her..
even though my Japanese is horrible.
I rack my mind for Japanese words...
but I'm pretty bad at communicating.
Ben Sauk is sitting next to me laughing at my stupidity lol..
we start the game.
she gets 5 mulligans.
(5???) wow.
anyway, I flip over Crogunk she flips over Shuppet.
I go first, attach energy to Gunk, and attack the Shuppet for 10.
she drops Chansey and Shuppet on the bench, attaches to Shuppet and plays Crystal Beach.
she ascensions to Banny. I attach another to Gunk and evolve to Toxicroak.
I have a big hand with 2 Scizors in it, but no other basics in my hand. once I get out my Scizor swarms, I should be good for awhile. so I Castaway for Rosanne's, and attach Cess to Toxicroak.
She only has a four card hand, so if I flip tails on Paralysis, she'll still need a TV Reporter to discard Bannete(if she has Lunatone, it won't work cuz of my Cess)
so I use Paralyze Poisen against the Bannete.. I flip tails on Paralysis.
she draws for her turn, plays Felicitiy's, discards a Bannete, attaches to active Bannette, and OHKO's my Toxicroak.
lol
noooooooo.....
GG (as in Good Game. not ******* gardy/gallade)
I shake hands and say "Anatawa Joezu" which means "you got skills"
she laughs. I probably said it with improper Japanese grammar..
o well.. she knows what I meant
2-1
Round 4 vs Drew Holton from U.S.A (with PLOX)
I go first and start with Sabyele. I attack Baltoy for 10 and disable.
Drew rare candies to Gallade and attaches DRE, but it's on the bench, so that gives me a little time.. he plays Wager, I end up losing the wager, and he proceeds to get a couple prizes with Gallade, and KO's random basic Pokemon (including a Sableye that I tried to stall with)
I end up getting Toxicroak and use Paralyze Poisen on Gallade, but fail on Parlysis.
he Psychic Cuts Toxicroak for the OHKO. I send up Scizor and KO him back.
he sends up a random basic pokemon. He Celio's for Gardy LV X and evolves his Kirlia into a Gardy LV X. and I was like "huh?" and he looks all depressed and stuff and is like "woah.. I thought that was Gallade... that's what I meant to get. i guess i'm stuck with this?" I was like, dude.. i'm not gonna win on a misplay, grab your Gallade."
so he got it, and we returned to our close game.
eventually, I start coming back in prizes, rotating out Scizors, and saving the Toxicroaks for the big threats.
Drew had a lot of counters to my Cess's and Beach (Windstorm, Stadiums, Warp Point)
so my power locking didn't effect him all too much.
at one point in the game, I have an active Toxicroak, and a Crougunk on the bench. I evolve the Gunk on the bench to a Toxicroak.
Drew's like "hmm.. wait a sec.. didn't you just play the Crougunk this turn?"
i was like "dang.... ya know I'm actually not sure if i did or not lol" and neither of us could really remember if I dropped it this turn, or last turn. (that's what 3 hours of sleep does to me)
so just to be on the safe side i was like "eh.. no worries dude. I'll save it till next turn.."
so I don't evolve the Toxicroak, and I attack with my active Toxicroak.
Drew starts his turn..
he ends up Wagering the Toxicroak that I had in my hand :/
I win this Wager..
the prizes are 2-1 in my favor.
he powers up Dusknoir and KO's my active Toxicroak with it, and now it's
1-1 on prizes. I sent up Scizor, attach a metal, Scott for the last Crystal Beach, drop the Beach, and hit Dusknoir for 80 with Special Blow. i'm like "ok so.. there's a good chance he doesen't have another counter for the Beach, since he's gone thru a quite few.. so I might have this game.."
but then he Windstormed it and smacks Scizor's face with Dusknoir FTW
crazy good game Drew..
Drew was like "hey man... sorry for the confusion about the Crougunk/Toxicroak evolving"
I was like, "nah its all good man. i think it's more of my fault for not remembering about MY own pokemon"
Drew's like, "actually...yeah I dunno if it woulda mattered if you got to evolve your Toxicroak on that turn anyway"
I was like "yeah..."
I wasn't gonna say anything, but at the same time, I knew that if I did have that Toxicroak, the game could've came down to a coin flip..(assuming he didn't run a 3rd Warp Point)
if I succesfully Paralyzed Dusknoir, he'd Windstorm the Beach, but would still be Paralyzed, putting Dusknoir within KO range of Scizor's Special Blow by my turn. but that's all still on a coin flip lol)
I shake hands with Drew and wish him luck in the rest of the Tourney..
(all you who are reading this: I really don't think Drew tried to cheap-win me with the whole Toxicroak thing... I don't know him personally, but
from what saw he was a very modest and cool guy, not to mention my friend ARMondak from Nats knows him personally, and says Drew's one of the coolest people he knows)
I walk away from the table, and some of my friends come up to me and are like "dude you were stupid. why did you let him take back the Gardy LV X search?.. you would've won."
I was like "look.. the game has enough jerks, stallers, and people trying to get every advantage they can get without winning by real skill.
I doubt Drew would've done the same in my shoes.. but I don't mind either way"
in my eyes, SOTG needs to come back into this game,
and i was ok with the fact that it may have cost me from top cutting...
2-2
Round 5 vs Andrea('Andceo' on The Gym) from Italy (with Bronzong major-spread deck)
basically he gets a speedy Bronzong with DRE and I also get a Speedy Toxicroak. but Toxicroak fails on paralysis, so Bronzong pwns his face.
he's owning me with bronzong, and I barely pull out another Toxicroak.
he has Baltoy on the bench so I play a Cessation to Croak
I'm struggling to get backup pokemon, so I'm hoping for a heads on paralysis to buy me some time, or else Bronzong will eventually PWN me. I Castaway for Rossane's, attach Cess, play Beach, and use Paralyze Poisen. I flip heads.
I end up KO'ing the 'Zong and get Scizors going on the bench.
after I play the Cess, he doesn't really draw into much.. (even though he runs 4 Steven's Advice) :/
so i end up taking my last prize cards with a powered up scizor..
GG
awesome to meet you Andrea..
great player, and cool guy
3-2
Round 5 vs John Kettler (USA) with PLOX
I start with Crogunk..
Kettlers a smart guy, and he doesn't automatically dismiss the deck, (like a lot of opponents did), but instead he's like
"hmm.. Toxicroak... interesting.."
and he's remembering what Toxicroak does, and is trying to figure out the decks strategy.
I do 10 to his Baltoy with Crogunk.
he attaches Call to Baltoy and Calls for Ralts and Chatot.
I attach to Crogunk, Scott for Beach/Rosanne's/Castaway, evolve to Toxicroak, and do Paralyze Poisen on Baltoy. If I flip heads, he's either KO'd at the end of his turn (giving me a free attack) or he'll have to waste a crucial Warp Point to get out of it.
I flip tails on Paralysis (*snap)
he attaches to benched ralts, retreats for Chatot and Mimics.
I evolve my benched Crogunk to a Toxicroak, and I want to Rosanne's for Scyther, but I know I need to Castaway for Cess to try to stop his setup. so I Cast for Cess, drop Cess and try to Paralyze his Chatot. I fail on paralysis again.
he gets a claydol, and a Kirlia, attaches a Scramble to Kirlia, and sends up Jirachi ex to buy time.
despite getting the 2 tails on paralyze against his first two basics, I end up getting 2 heads in a row against his Jirachi ex, and KO it for 2 prizes. woah.
he attaches Scramble to Kirlia, drops a Ralts. plays a Lake Boundry to cancel my Beach, and snipes my bench Toxicraok for 40.
I Rosanne's for Scyther and do Parlayze Poisen for 40+Poisen to his Kirlia but I don't have the Crystal Beach to Counter his Boundry.
He evolves to Gardy and OHKO's my Toxicroak cuz of Double Weakness.
I evolve to Scizor and KO his Gardy with Special Blow.
he draws for his turn and is thinking of what to do.
he plays Wager.
I'm like 'dang'
I end up winning the Wager, and get more swarms out.
eventually he gets a Gallade with basic energies on it so that I can't Special Blow for 80.
He OHKO's my Scizor.
I send up Toxicroak, use Parlayze Poisen and get heads on Paralysis.
to my surprise though, he didn't have the warp point, and I end up KO'ing his Gallade.
at the end of the game I win with Scizor, cuz Gardy can't really damage Scizor very well(cuz of resistance and special metal)
and eventually I end up taking my last prizes..
if I lost the early Wager, there's a good chance Kettler could've beaten me because he knew what he was doing, and did play smart against this deck.
we shake hands and Kettler's like "thats a cool deck"
i'm like "thanks man, and hey u gotta win ur next game cuz there's some
4-3's that are gonna get it"
Kettler's like "yeah i'm gonna try"
4-2
next, I look at the pairings.. I'm playing Ross.
Bret tells me that he played Ross in swiss, and Ross didn't get too great of a setup going, but he knew enough about the deck that it's surprise factor was gone.
this could be bad...
not to mention Ross is definitely one of the game's brain-iacs
and even if the deck did have surprise factor, he would still play outside the box to beat it..
Round 5 vs Ross C from USA (with PLOX)
we wait around while the judges are saying stuff in tons of different languages that I'm too dumb and american to understand it. (i swear, foreign people are so much smarter)
Ross and I talk a little bit before the game.. but not very much..
and eventually we start.
I don't remember too many of the early details, but I knew Ross got a somewhat good opening setup while I was struggling to get evolutions out for a couple turns.
he plays a Wager and I think it's game for sure.
I win the Wager though, and I get some stuff going.
Ross gets a speedy Gallade, and I am forced to drop my Sableye as an option to stop Psychic Cut (since I don't have a Toxicroak yet)
I end up getting a Toxicroak later, and I flip against his Gallade but fail on Paralysis. he OHKO's Croak.
I end up sending up other things to KO Gallade.
at one point in the game, he warp points out of Paralyze Poinsen, and I am forced to send up Sableye, (which means I can't use it late game to stop his Dusknoir)
he KO's it.
eventually Toxicroak takes some prizes, but he gets a Gardy out, plays lake Boundry and Wagers me.
I lose the Wager, he fills up his hand with Claydol and Telepass, and he OHKO's Toxicroak.
out of the Wager, I pull Copycat.
Ross is a bit annoyed when I play the Copycat to get back into the game...
eventually it's 3-3 on prizes, and his active Gardy LV X has 30 on it from Scizor doing Special Blow.
I know I can't let him get his Bring Down KO's, 'cause he'll easily pull his last prizes with a combined effort of Gardy's Bring Down and Dusknoir's Hard Feelings. so I send up Electrode and bomb it, doing 100 to myself and 100 to KO the Gardy LV X..
so we both draw a prize.
now the prize count is 2 vs 2.
he sends up Dusknoir and attaches DRE to OHKO my active Scizor.
I send up Toxicroak.
I have a Scizor on the bench. I know my only chance is to flip heads on Parlaysis and next turn hit the Dusknoir for 80 with Scizor's Special Blow to KO it.
but IF I flip the TAILS on Parlayze Poisen, game over.
I roll expecting the game to be over, but it ends up being a heads.
i'm thinking "Ross prolly has the Warp Point"
but he sits there thinking for a long time.
I knew Ross wasn't trying to stall, but the 10 minute time limit had been called a while ago, so I was concerned they might call time this turn, when Ross is one prize ahead. I kinda motion for him to pick up the pace a tiny bit.. so after a few seconds he passes and unparalyzes dusknoir.
so now (since I'm about to KO the Dusknoir) it'll be 1-1 on prizes, so this means we'll have a good game regardless of time.
I retreat Toxicroak for Scizor and Special Blow for 80 KO'ing the Dusknoir.
they end up calling time shortly after I did that..
Ross looks through my discard pile, and guesses the deck's 4-card staples like Castaway/Toxicroak/Celio and such, and he somehow guesses correctly the amount of energy I'm playing in the deck.
Wow.
the judges say Ross is taking too long on his turns, and Ross says "yes, but time has already been called, and we both have on prize left, so this doesn't alter the game state"
but the judges said it didn't matter, despite that even I was also okay with Ross taking his time.
Ross speeds up a tad bit, but still takes enough time to play smart.
he knows that he can't really do much to get his last prize, so he counts the number of cards in my deck, and it's running low.
he does a ton of retreating moves, with Jirachi ex, and Claydols and such, and I'm trying to get a Beach in play to prevent more DRE retreating... either that or an energy so that I can do 50-80 damage with X-Scissor, instead of just 30.
eventually I have 4 cards left in my deck.
I castaway to check what's in there (knowing that I have no basic energy, Cess or Supporters in my deck). Ross knows I need another energy to do some decent damage,
otherwise Scizor will only be hitting for 30 and I'll deck out FTL.
the four cards in my deck are: 2 Crystal Beach, 2 Multi Energy.
so I'm like.. dang. this is close.
I draw for my turn it's an energy, and get a Multi, and X-Scissor his Absol ex for 90.
eventually everything on his board has 30 hp left or less, except his Dugtrio which has 40. he retreats for Dugtrio.
I draw the last card in my deck, and pause for 3 seconds, just so that I don't declair the wrong attack and lose.
I say X-Scissor and we shake hands...
5-2
to my surpise, a lot of people are watching our match... and they all start clapping (including the 6 card inventors) (??)
I tell Ross that he played amazingly, and I hope that he's one of the 4-3's to advance to top cut..
(I found out later he got 33rd) :/
so I look at the pairings and find out that the next day I'm playing vs Argentina player Augustin P.
I know he's running PLOX, but I don't know how it's built.
PLOX isn't always an easy matchup... the more Stadiums/Windstorms/Warp Points G&G has, the worse of a matchup it becomes.
so I start trying to find out..
I ask Kettler and he says: "I'll take the liberty not to say anything about his deck, nor will I tell him anything about yours"
lol... yeah fair enough.
I find out from Jimmy that Augustin is not only an amazing player, but he has enough Cess/Beach counters to stop an automic bomb.
(including a Tauros tech and 3 warps)
so I know this will probably be the end of "INTIMIDATION" in masters division..
unless I somehow still have surprise factor on my side...
so that night I put together a PLOX with 3 Warps, and all the tech cards Jimmy mentioned. (I use Bret's Toxicroak deck to playtest with)
I play 3 games.. lol they didn't turn out well.
well, no stress... I already know how to play against G&G,
the more Warps they have the harder the match becomes.
playing more games deep into the night wouldn't disprove that.
I needed some sleeeeeep. so I put away "Intimidation", and take a Snooze.
the next morning, I go up to Pokemontoya, and he tells me that the night before, Omar, Ryan V, and the Florida crew put together a ScizorCroak for Augustin to play against.
and I'm like "yeeah...... well I guess we both have the same advantage then"
....as I'm walking to the Top 32 ballroom, Jimmy walks by and says "Pachirisu.
it's not Tauros.. it's Pachirisu"
hmm... I'm not sure if those are comforting words or not.
perhaps, with the lack of Tauros, I'll be able to lock in the fourth Beach...
but then again, Augustin may have enough Counters to stop that as well.
I guess we'll have to see.
Top 32: vs Augustin P from Argentina (with PLOX)
all the pressure I had before the match ends, cuz it turns out Augustin is one of the nicest and coolest people ever..
we shake hands, and Chuck is next to us making jokes and being hilariously obnoxious. he's like "hey Augustin, Aw-Guust-Teeen. is that how ya pronounce it? Aww-Guuuust-Teeen.
hey, you like Rap Augusteen?.. nah you don't like rap."
then he turns to Esa, his Finland opponent and he's like "how bout you, you like rap?... haah. wait a minute. you like techno don't you? ahhha yea, you like techno"
...Augustin and Esa are all laughing at Chuck's obnoxious american-ness
the judges say "you may setup"
so we start setting up...
I'm like "hahah..... i'm gonna lose"
Augustin's like "but why do you say that?"
I turn my eyes to the side and see Omar in the backround with a grin on his face
(I'm guessing they had favorable results)
i'm like "eh... I just know..."
so we begin...
Game 1:
I start with Sableye..
I look at my hand: I have no good way to get a Toxicroak or Scizor going.
I use Excavate, then disable Ralt's smack.
Augustin plays a supporter, attaches Call to Ralts and Calls for Baltoy and Ralts.
I play Scott to get Rosanne's/Castaway/Celio...
then drop a Crystal Beach.
Augustin rare candies to Gallade and attaches DRE to it, evolves to Claydol, and Wagers me.
I win the Wager.
he Calls again.
I play Rosanne's for Crogunk and Scyther, and play down a Scyther from my hand, use Excavate, discard the top card of my deck, and disable smack. he Rare Candies his active Ralts to Gardevoir.
at this point he has 2 Stage 2's and a Claydol, verses my army of Basic pokemon lol..
he attaches an energy, and uses Psylock for 50 on Sableye.
I retreat Sableye.. Celio for Scizor, attach a Cessation and a Special Metal to Scizor, and hit Gardevoir for 80.
he attaches to Gallade... then plays a Warp: I send up Scyther, he sends up Gallade.
he KO's Scyther with Psychic Cut (OMG Scyther makes Gallade flip another prize cause of resistance. WOAH.. lol)
I send up Toxicroak and use Parlayze poisen on Gallade. *rolls dice* no paralyze..
Gallade OHKO's Toxicroak.
Augustin's already 2 prizes ahead, and I have a Sableye with 50 on it, so I know this'll be bad.
I send up Scizor and KO Gallade with Special Blow.
the game goes on, and we trade a couple prizes...
he sends up Pachirisu, and smash shorts Scizor for 30. (I made sure to drop my extra Cessations on the bench)
I retreat for Toxicroak, and try to Paralyze Poisen Pachirisu, but fail on Paralyze.
shoot. that was a pretty important flip as he would either have to waste a crucial warp point, or let Pachi die...
so he ends up retreating the Pachi to save it for future Cess-removal.
later in the game he sends up Gardevoir with 3 Basic energy on it, plays Lake Boundry and Wagers me. I lose the Wager.
he OHKO's Toxicroak with Gardevoir (dang.. the matchup is a lot harder now with everyone using Lake Boundries. now GARDIES can OHKO Toxicroak?! lol)
I have a really small hand, no evolutions in play, and he's 1 Prize ahead(soon to be 2, after Sableye dies)... so it may be over for me.
I have a Crogunk on my bench with an energy on it.
but wait. *looks at hand: lightning energy, psychic energy, and Celio.
I send up Sableye with 50 damage on it.
I draw Castaway for my turn.
I have a Crogunk on my bench with an energy on it.
he has a Gardy with full 110 hp health active.
so i think to myself: "if I attach a 2nd energy to Crogunk this turn, then Disable psychic lock doing 10 damage, he's gonna be forced to either retreat, wasting his basic energies, or Level-Up to Gardy LV X. if he levels-up (which is obviously the better move) then he'll use Bring down on Sableye.
after Sableye dies, I can Celio for Toxicroak, attach a third energy, and Slash for 120 for the knock out"
so I pretend like my hand is junk, and "reluctantly" attach a lightning energy to Crogunk...
Augustin of course does the better of the two moves, and the levels-up the Gardevoir to bring down Sableye.
I attach a 3rd energy to Crogunk, Celio for Toxicroak, and Slash for 120.
with my small hand, Augustin didn't expect that move, and is like "ooh...." and discards his Gardy LX X.
hopefully this will be able to get me back into the game, if I can KO a couple basics while he sets up some more fighters.
at that point, he doesn't have to much in the way of fighters, except for a Gardevoir on the bench with a DRE and 80 damage on it so he sends up Chatot, attaches a Psychic to Duskull and is forced to use Mimic.
I Castaway for Cess/etc and slash the Chatot for the KO.
now it's 1-1 on prizes.
he sends up an unpowered Ralts, Windstorms my Cessation, uses Cosmic Power, Rare Candies active Ralts to Gallade. he has a Duskull on the bench with a Psychic attached to it. he Rare Candies to Dusknoir and attaches Call Energy.
I have no more Cessations left, so the only thing I can do is hope that he doesn't have another Warp Point to get his unpowered Gallade out of the active position.
I attack Gallade for 50+poisen with Paralyze Poisen, and flip the heads, Paralyzing it.
now if he doesn't have any warp points left (or doesn't have any in his hand) it's my game.
I'm expecting the game to be over, by him warp pointing..
and to save time for the next game,
I'm like "..you got warp point?"
to my surprise he's like "no. not yet."
he uses Cosmic Power... I see one of the Argentina guys in the backround get all excited..
Augustin shows me the Warp Point and Psychic Energy for the game
Great game Augustin!
0-1
Game 2:
Basically this game, we both get going pretty fast, so I know it's gonna be a good game.
I start with Scyther and get a speedy Scizor going.
at one point in the game, Augustin has a Chatot active, and he asks how many cards are in my hand. I say "7" and so he shuffles his hand into his deck and draws 7 cards. I draw for my turn, and he's like "no.. wait"
and he showed me that he was using Telepass on my Copycat, not Mimic.
I'm like "oh.. sorry man" I reveal the top card of my deck to him.
I'm like "I'll call a judge"
Augustin was veeery good sported about the situation and he's like "oh.. no.. it's okay. no worry, it's okay."
I have to give props to Augustin.
he was a very high class player,
and it was obvious we both had enough respect for each other that we wanted a real game, and wouldn't try to get penalties on each other to try and win.
I call a judge on myself..
the judge comes over, and he's like "what happened?"
I was like "alright, so I drew a card for my turn, thinking Augustin used Mimic, but he actually used Telepass on my Copycat.
I put the card back on top of my deck, but I still know what it is"
The judge is like "ok just show Augustin the card"
so I showed Augustin the card again.
the judge says "thanks for being honest" and walks away.
the game ends up getting really close on prizes.
Toxicroak ends up pwning a Gallade, then he sends up Gardy and Lake Boundries Toxicroak (I SWEAR.. those DANG LAKE BOUNDRIES lol)
then I send up Scizor and hit Gardy for 80.
He ends up Wagering me and I lose the Wager, hindering me from getting more Toxicroak swarms.
at the end of the game, we both have 2 prizes left.
I KO'd his last Gallade earlier with Scizor to get down to one prize, and then he KO'd Scizor right back with Dusknoir(with 3 basic energies attached to it)to get to down to his one prize.
so it's 1-1 on prizes.
I have a 5 card hand... I don't have a Beach in play which is bad... I Castaway for Cessation, and Scott(so I can get Beach later)
I drop Sableye, attach a lightning energy and my last Cessation to it, then retreat Scizor and Disable his Dusknoir for 40.
he knows that his Dusknoir can either sit there and eventually die, or he can retreat it for all 3 energies.
he has a Gardy on the bench with 30 damage on it and 1 Psychic energy. there's no way Gardy can take on Scizor himself, but if he gets the level X to bring down my Sableye, he'll win.
he HAS to retreat Dusknoir this turn, otherwise, I'll hit it for another 40 with Disable, and that way Gardevoir LV X couldn't win him the game, 'cause he would end up Bringing Down his own Dusknoir.
I know all he needs is a Psychic Energy with Gardy LV X this turn and he'll win.
He plays Windstorm to get rid of my Cessation, retreats Dusknoir, fills up his hand with Claydol, and plays Level X. I know it's pretty much game over cuz he'll just Telepass my Rosanne's or Castaway for a Psychic Energy for the win.
But WAIT.
he sits there and thinks for a while...
OMGOSH. He has NO more Psychics left in his deck..
so the only way for him to bring down is if he gets his last DRE..
he has a relitively small deck,
but I know I have a good chance, since he'll either have to play a Wager, Steven's for only 3 cards, or Telepass my Copycat for 5 cards.
if he doesn't pull the DRE this turn, I can play Scott to get Beach and pound on Gardy LV X with X-Scissor.
He asks how many cards are in my hand.
I, being a lame american who doesn't know any other languages, try to speak spanish and I'm like "cinco"
he laughs... and Telepasses my Copycat for 5...
I sit there, hoping he won't pull that DRE lol..
he draws five............... and.............. attaches............ the DRE to Gardy LV X and bring's down my Sableye FTW
GG!
0-2
ELIMINATED.
woah WHAT a close game..
I congratulate Agustin on his amazing plays, and I wish him luck in the rest of the tournament..
I showed him my Top 32 hat, and I'm like "dude see this?... this needs to be you. except it has to say: "1ST"..
he laughs and is like "i'll try"
so I really didn't expect the games vs Augustin to be as close as they ended up being...
when Jimmy told me about Augustin's deck, I thought he would break the Cess/Beach lock easily, and I would lose automatically..
but aparantly, I still had a little bit of surprise factor with Sableye, as none of my opponents really knew why he was in the deck until I played this game.
also I never saw him play a 3rd warp point against me.. (maybe Jimmy was wrong and he only had 2?)
If I had known that a lot of the G&G's were gonna overload on Windstorms/Boundries/Warps, I woulda kept in the Jirachi ex tech that was originally in the deck (and taken out a consistency-supporter for it)
But then again, at Nationals, Warps and Windstorm were about as popular as Mom's Kindness lol..
and the decks that did use Cess &/or Beach that made Top Cut (Sausages, Absol/Gallade) didn't get past top 16..
so I figured people wouldn't go past 2 windstorm 2 warp..
and the few G&G that did overload on them would prolly lose to mirror..
so I guess we(Pokemontoya, Bretkid, Me, and Jesse) still made a decent decision.
NO sour grapes...
Augustin was an honor to play against...(AND lose against)..
an amazing opponent
not to mention it made my whole trip, watching the deck("INTIMIDATION" aka "Blubbering Intimidation" lol) that I put such long SWEATY hours into making, WIN Worlds in Juniors, going 2-0 every round in Top Cut against all the G&G's he faced (GO TRISTAN!!)
PS:
i found it strange that(just like my game with Ross) the 6 card creators were watching Tristan's final match with intrigue...
and it made me wonder...
did the card creators themselves design Toxicroak as a possible 1-energy Gallade killer, or were they just Totally stunned at the fact that a horribly JANKY card like Toxicroak (that was meant to be a "theme-deck filler") was doing so well? :smile:
either way.. that's kinda hilarious.....
*sigh...... stupid toxicroak
-ian b
PROPS:
1. Meeting new and awesome people, including: Dennis, Augustin, Marcello, and the awesome Italians.
2. getting to use a totally JANK pokemon like Toxicroak in a professional setting lol
3. Everyone who helped with the deck: Pokemontoya, Bretkid, KrazyKevin, TeamPwnyJF.... yeah, you know who you are
4. The Robinsons and Anders for being awesome.
Thank you so much for the pizza and everything else. you guys are uber kind. we owe ya one.
5. everyone who took a Risk using the deck.. especially Tristan R, and Christian(who grinded in with BanBliss, and was cool enough to team up with noobs like us, and use "INTIMIDATION")
6. GINO. not only is he a funny and rad dude, but he'z gotz Gino skillz. enuffs 2 almost win worlds after taking Nats.
yo Gino, dat bandannaz u gavez me fo mah arm made me feel like a true Homeslice.
even dough i justa redneck from coloraadaah.. lol
7. Jay.. cuz Jays cool. and Torterra dude too.
8. Takae for being awesome and Japanese.. GO JAPAN
9. Ross for the amazing game. (and for beating me in the playtesting room)
10. Ness for 2-timing worlds & Chuck for going undefeated all that time.
11. Khanh Le for being uber cool and using such a sweet deck
12. Jimmy O'Brien.. even though I saw from a distance, this guy had great SOTG
13. all the cool Rogues people played. Glaceon, T2 Blissey/Beach/Cess, The Ring, and possibly Drew's Amphy/Bronzong deck.. if that even counts as a rogue (hahaha.. nah i'm just messin bro.. great job)
14. Adrian for being waaaay rad and carrying around the Croagunk doll to cheer on Tristan. "bllbbbrrlblblblblrrlb!"
15. Andrea C: "Toxicroak is soo ugly" haha...
16: Kevin B/Ashley B.. it was great seeing you guys
17: Forest and Andrew. you guys rock.
it was awesome hanging out with you guys the whole trip.
Utah people rule...
18: Tristan for winning... way to go bro.. you're an inspiration to all of us.
not to mention one of the most cool, modest, and skilled pokemon players i've seen.
you're a true legend, and thanks to you, the stupidest pokemon in history, aka TOXICROAK is now a legend. (jk...)
19. the intimidating blubbering noise we all had to make when Tristan won
SLOPS:
1. Kevin making 33rd... noooooooooo
2. not being able to make a worlds movie this year (cuz my camcorder wasn't working)
3. some people in the playtesting room making fun of us/our deck...
then they see Bret and i end up winning vs Moss & Chuck.. & they're like:
"yea.... when I first saw Toxicroak, I knew he was was a decent card. I was actually thinking about combining it with Scizor before, but I never ended up getting to try it"
lol ya...i believe it
4. Mikey(Magnechu): hey man, sorry I never got to play the deck against you in the playtesting room... :/
5. Florida humidity. Omar, Ryan V, and the gang: how can you guys stand it??
we saw Toxicroak and laughed at the fact that it could essentially 2HKO Gallade by auto-poisen, with a chance of Paralysis for only one energy..
we joked around how it would be a tech in Yamato's G&G at worlds.
my friend Jesse(TeamPwnyJF) from Nationals asked if I had anything for worlds, and i told him that i'd been experimenting with Scizor..
we both knew the card had great potential.. the ability to do 80 damage for 1 NRG, more then 50% of the time is great.
on a whim, I remembered Toxicroak and I was like "woah...lol. heck i'll give it a shot"
Jesse made a Bannette/Scizor for me to try and sent me the list.. it did beat PLOX very well. Empoleon ended up being too good against Bannette though... :/ (sniping to get around Bannettes discard pile effect)
So I ended up putting the Toxicroak list together and trying it out.
I told Jesse about it, and he liked the idea.. especially since Toxicroak could buy you time and save your bench by preventing a couple Dual Splashes by Paralyzing Empoleon.
so expecting the deck to do horrible, i was surprised when it went 21-0 against plox (the PLOX had 2 Windstorm 2 Warp Point. no Boundries though)
I brought the deck to Pokemontoya's apartment and I was like "hey.. dude check this out lol..."
and we tested the crud outta it.
surprisingly, through playtesting we found out that Leafeon decks were its best matchup. Empoleon was still giving us a hard time though, as we were winning a little less then half our games.
so over the next few weeks Pokemontoya, me, Jesse, Bretkid and KrazyKevin worked on the deck..
Krazy Kevin put in the Electrode, which ended up turning the Empoleon matchup from a 40-60 to at least a 65-35..
and Bret added Sabyeye for late game Dusknoir disruption making it hard for PLOX to pull it's last prizes, if they indeed end up breaking the Cess/Beach lock.
so after all the modifying, it had favorable matchups vs most G&G, Empoleon, LeafMorter and Torterra..
(it could also hold it's own against most Speed-Bannetes, and Blissey variants. except for BanBliss... 4 warp points are brutal (*cough*autoloss*cough*..lol)
after all this testing.. I really wanted our buddy Tristan to use the deck in Juniors.
not only is Tristan an amazing player (could definitely hold his own in Masters)
but we knew that a disruption deck like this had huge potential for 10-under, especially in Tristan's hands.
He seemed a little down about the fact that his original deckchoice was starting to give him bad hands all of the sudden, not to mention Anders got really inconsistant hands with it in the grinder.
we were hoping more then anything that Tristan would like the deck..
and he was really cool and open minded about it.. and didn't push it off like a lot of players would do.
he tried it, and despite the noobness of the deck, and the uglyness of Toxicroak himself, Tristan loved it, and had tons of fun playing it.
so after eating a meal with the Robinsons,(they were so nice.. I tried to pay them for the Sub but they refused) Tristan ends up going 3-0 against Ander's PLOX list, 2-0 vs Empoleon, beating LeafMorter, and even barely out-manuevering BanBliss(GO TRISTAN)
we knew all he had to do now was learn about the small tricks in the deck, for complicated situations..
and of course being the highly intellectual little dude that he is, he picked those up fast.
i was stoked that Tristan had the coolness to risk everything and put his trust into a deck like Toxicroak(especially since us no-names put it together lol), and play against the big dogs like G&G, and EmpoZong, not to mention the top notch players of the world... "
dat desahhves mayjah propz" (as Gino or Chuck might say in their cool EastSide accent)
so we now had a Colorado player using Toxicroak/Scizor in every division.
so I enter the tournament, not knowing at all what would happen... but in my eyes i had a better shot with this deck (and was more comfortable playing it) then hoping to be a one in a million using G&G..
(these matches are as accurately as I remember them... some stuff may be a bit blurry, but i'll do my best..)
Round 1 vs Marcelo from the Netherlands (with PLOX)
he goes first and attaches a Call to Ralts and calls for Baltoy and Ralts.
I attach to 'Gunk, play Crystal Beach, and do 20 to his ralts cuz of Weakness.
he rare candies his bench ralts to a Gallade and attaches DRE.
I evolve to Toxicroak, play down a Scyther attach a metal to it, Castaway for Cess, and do 30 poisen to ralts cuz of Weakness, so ralts gets ko'd by poisen.
he sends up baltoy and wagers me.
(can't remember if i won or lost the wager?..)
I use Paralyze poisen on Baltoy. he Warps baltoy. i send up a Crogunk, he sends up Gallade and attaches an energy, but Beach prevents him from using Psychic cut to KO the Crogunk that I just sent up. I retreat the Gunk, and use Toxicroak's paralyze poisen against Gallade.. I flip tails. he evolves to Claydol, attaches another energy to Gallade, and OHKO's the Toxicroak.
I send up Scizor, attach a Cess and a 2nd energy to it, and Special Blow for the KO.
he is forced to send up his Claydol with 30 damage on it.
he passes... and asks if I have the energy to use X-Scissor.
I show him the psychic in my hand.. so he folds
1-0
Round 2 vs Ingo from Denmark (with PLOX):
Basically I start with Scyther... and get Scizor going relitively fast. he plays wager and wins... but once his Baltoy is KO'd, he can't get his hand going. I evntually recover from the wager (the deck has a lot of supporters in it) and in the end he puts my Scizor to sleep with Ralts(DF). I get lucky on the sleep roll and roll the heads to X Scissor the the Ralts(DF).
2-0
Round 3 vs Takae Suzuki from Japan(with BanBliss)
I shake hands and try to speak Japanese with her..
even though my Japanese is horrible.
I rack my mind for Japanese words...
but I'm pretty bad at communicating.
Ben Sauk is sitting next to me laughing at my stupidity lol..
we start the game.
she gets 5 mulligans.
(5???) wow.
anyway, I flip over Crogunk she flips over Shuppet.
I go first, attach energy to Gunk, and attack the Shuppet for 10.
she drops Chansey and Shuppet on the bench, attaches to Shuppet and plays Crystal Beach.
she ascensions to Banny. I attach another to Gunk and evolve to Toxicroak.
I have a big hand with 2 Scizors in it, but no other basics in my hand. once I get out my Scizor swarms, I should be good for awhile. so I Castaway for Rosanne's, and attach Cess to Toxicroak.
She only has a four card hand, so if I flip tails on Paralysis, she'll still need a TV Reporter to discard Bannete(if she has Lunatone, it won't work cuz of my Cess)
so I use Paralyze Poisen against the Bannete.. I flip tails on Paralysis.
she draws for her turn, plays Felicitiy's, discards a Bannete, attaches to active Bannette, and OHKO's my Toxicroak.
lol
noooooooo.....
GG (as in Good Game. not ******* gardy/gallade)
I shake hands and say "Anatawa Joezu" which means "you got skills"
she laughs. I probably said it with improper Japanese grammar..
o well.. she knows what I meant
2-1
Round 4 vs Drew Holton from U.S.A (with PLOX)
I go first and start with Sabyele. I attack Baltoy for 10 and disable.
Drew rare candies to Gallade and attaches DRE, but it's on the bench, so that gives me a little time.. he plays Wager, I end up losing the wager, and he proceeds to get a couple prizes with Gallade, and KO's random basic Pokemon (including a Sableye that I tried to stall with)
I end up getting Toxicroak and use Paralyze Poisen on Gallade, but fail on Parlysis.
he Psychic Cuts Toxicroak for the OHKO. I send up Scizor and KO him back.
he sends up a random basic pokemon. He Celio's for Gardy LV X and evolves his Kirlia into a Gardy LV X. and I was like "huh?" and he looks all depressed and stuff and is like "woah.. I thought that was Gallade... that's what I meant to get. i guess i'm stuck with this?" I was like, dude.. i'm not gonna win on a misplay, grab your Gallade."
so he got it, and we returned to our close game.
eventually, I start coming back in prizes, rotating out Scizors, and saving the Toxicroaks for the big threats.
Drew had a lot of counters to my Cess's and Beach (Windstorm, Stadiums, Warp Point)
so my power locking didn't effect him all too much.
at one point in the game, I have an active Toxicroak, and a Crougunk on the bench. I evolve the Gunk on the bench to a Toxicroak.
Drew's like "hmm.. wait a sec.. didn't you just play the Crougunk this turn?"
i was like "dang.... ya know I'm actually not sure if i did or not lol" and neither of us could really remember if I dropped it this turn, or last turn. (that's what 3 hours of sleep does to me)
so just to be on the safe side i was like "eh.. no worries dude. I'll save it till next turn.."
so I don't evolve the Toxicroak, and I attack with my active Toxicroak.
Drew starts his turn..
he ends up Wagering the Toxicroak that I had in my hand :/
I win this Wager..
the prizes are 2-1 in my favor.
he powers up Dusknoir and KO's my active Toxicroak with it, and now it's
1-1 on prizes. I sent up Scizor, attach a metal, Scott for the last Crystal Beach, drop the Beach, and hit Dusknoir for 80 with Special Blow. i'm like "ok so.. there's a good chance he doesen't have another counter for the Beach, since he's gone thru a quite few.. so I might have this game.."
but then he Windstormed it and smacks Scizor's face with Dusknoir FTW
crazy good game Drew..
Drew was like "hey man... sorry for the confusion about the Crougunk/Toxicroak evolving"
I was like, "nah its all good man. i think it's more of my fault for not remembering about MY own pokemon"
Drew's like, "actually...yeah I dunno if it woulda mattered if you got to evolve your Toxicroak on that turn anyway"
I was like "yeah..."
I wasn't gonna say anything, but at the same time, I knew that if I did have that Toxicroak, the game could've came down to a coin flip..(assuming he didn't run a 3rd Warp Point)
if I succesfully Paralyzed Dusknoir, he'd Windstorm the Beach, but would still be Paralyzed, putting Dusknoir within KO range of Scizor's Special Blow by my turn. but that's all still on a coin flip lol)
I shake hands with Drew and wish him luck in the rest of the Tourney..
(all you who are reading this: I really don't think Drew tried to cheap-win me with the whole Toxicroak thing... I don't know him personally, but
from what saw he was a very modest and cool guy, not to mention my friend ARMondak from Nats knows him personally, and says Drew's one of the coolest people he knows)
I walk away from the table, and some of my friends come up to me and are like "dude you were stupid. why did you let him take back the Gardy LV X search?.. you would've won."
I was like "look.. the game has enough jerks, stallers, and people trying to get every advantage they can get without winning by real skill.
I doubt Drew would've done the same in my shoes.. but I don't mind either way"
in my eyes, SOTG needs to come back into this game,
and i was ok with the fact that it may have cost me from top cutting...
2-2
Round 5 vs Andrea('Andceo' on The Gym) from Italy (with Bronzong major-spread deck)
basically he gets a speedy Bronzong with DRE and I also get a Speedy Toxicroak. but Toxicroak fails on paralysis, so Bronzong pwns his face.
he's owning me with bronzong, and I barely pull out another Toxicroak.
he has Baltoy on the bench so I play a Cessation to Croak
I'm struggling to get backup pokemon, so I'm hoping for a heads on paralysis to buy me some time, or else Bronzong will eventually PWN me. I Castaway for Rossane's, attach Cess, play Beach, and use Paralyze Poisen. I flip heads.
I end up KO'ing the 'Zong and get Scizors going on the bench.
after I play the Cess, he doesn't really draw into much.. (even though he runs 4 Steven's Advice) :/
so i end up taking my last prize cards with a powered up scizor..
GG
awesome to meet you Andrea..
great player, and cool guy
3-2
Round 5 vs John Kettler (USA) with PLOX
I start with Crogunk..
Kettlers a smart guy, and he doesn't automatically dismiss the deck, (like a lot of opponents did), but instead he's like
"hmm.. Toxicroak... interesting.."
and he's remembering what Toxicroak does, and is trying to figure out the decks strategy.
I do 10 to his Baltoy with Crogunk.
he attaches Call to Baltoy and Calls for Ralts and Chatot.
I attach to Crogunk, Scott for Beach/Rosanne's/Castaway, evolve to Toxicroak, and do Paralyze Poisen on Baltoy. If I flip heads, he's either KO'd at the end of his turn (giving me a free attack) or he'll have to waste a crucial Warp Point to get out of it.
I flip tails on Paralysis (*snap)
he attaches to benched ralts, retreats for Chatot and Mimics.
I evolve my benched Crogunk to a Toxicroak, and I want to Rosanne's for Scyther, but I know I need to Castaway for Cess to try to stop his setup. so I Cast for Cess, drop Cess and try to Paralyze his Chatot. I fail on paralysis again.
he gets a claydol, and a Kirlia, attaches a Scramble to Kirlia, and sends up Jirachi ex to buy time.
despite getting the 2 tails on paralyze against his first two basics, I end up getting 2 heads in a row against his Jirachi ex, and KO it for 2 prizes. woah.
he attaches Scramble to Kirlia, drops a Ralts. plays a Lake Boundry to cancel my Beach, and snipes my bench Toxicraok for 40.
I Rosanne's for Scyther and do Parlayze Poisen for 40+Poisen to his Kirlia but I don't have the Crystal Beach to Counter his Boundry.
He evolves to Gardy and OHKO's my Toxicroak cuz of Double Weakness.
I evolve to Scizor and KO his Gardy with Special Blow.
he draws for his turn and is thinking of what to do.
he plays Wager.
I'm like 'dang'
I end up winning the Wager, and get more swarms out.
eventually he gets a Gallade with basic energies on it so that I can't Special Blow for 80.
He OHKO's my Scizor.
I send up Toxicroak, use Parlayze Poisen and get heads on Paralysis.
to my surprise though, he didn't have the warp point, and I end up KO'ing his Gallade.
at the end of the game I win with Scizor, cuz Gardy can't really damage Scizor very well(cuz of resistance and special metal)
and eventually I end up taking my last prizes..
if I lost the early Wager, there's a good chance Kettler could've beaten me because he knew what he was doing, and did play smart against this deck.
we shake hands and Kettler's like "thats a cool deck"
i'm like "thanks man, and hey u gotta win ur next game cuz there's some
4-3's that are gonna get it"
Kettler's like "yeah i'm gonna try"
4-2
next, I look at the pairings.. I'm playing Ross.
Bret tells me that he played Ross in swiss, and Ross didn't get too great of a setup going, but he knew enough about the deck that it's surprise factor was gone.
this could be bad...
not to mention Ross is definitely one of the game's brain-iacs
and even if the deck did have surprise factor, he would still play outside the box to beat it..
Round 5 vs Ross C from USA (with PLOX)
we wait around while the judges are saying stuff in tons of different languages that I'm too dumb and american to understand it. (i swear, foreign people are so much smarter)
Ross and I talk a little bit before the game.. but not very much..
and eventually we start.
I don't remember too many of the early details, but I knew Ross got a somewhat good opening setup while I was struggling to get evolutions out for a couple turns.
he plays a Wager and I think it's game for sure.
I win the Wager though, and I get some stuff going.
Ross gets a speedy Gallade, and I am forced to drop my Sableye as an option to stop Psychic Cut (since I don't have a Toxicroak yet)
I end up getting a Toxicroak later, and I flip against his Gallade but fail on Paralysis. he OHKO's Croak.
I end up sending up other things to KO Gallade.
at one point in the game, he warp points out of Paralyze Poinsen, and I am forced to send up Sableye, (which means I can't use it late game to stop his Dusknoir)
he KO's it.
eventually Toxicroak takes some prizes, but he gets a Gardy out, plays lake Boundry and Wagers me.
I lose the Wager, he fills up his hand with Claydol and Telepass, and he OHKO's Toxicroak.
out of the Wager, I pull Copycat.
Ross is a bit annoyed when I play the Copycat to get back into the game...
eventually it's 3-3 on prizes, and his active Gardy LV X has 30 on it from Scizor doing Special Blow.
I know I can't let him get his Bring Down KO's, 'cause he'll easily pull his last prizes with a combined effort of Gardy's Bring Down and Dusknoir's Hard Feelings. so I send up Electrode and bomb it, doing 100 to myself and 100 to KO the Gardy LV X..
so we both draw a prize.
now the prize count is 2 vs 2.
he sends up Dusknoir and attaches DRE to OHKO my active Scizor.
I send up Toxicroak.
I have a Scizor on the bench. I know my only chance is to flip heads on Parlaysis and next turn hit the Dusknoir for 80 with Scizor's Special Blow to KO it.
but IF I flip the TAILS on Parlayze Poisen, game over.
I roll expecting the game to be over, but it ends up being a heads.
i'm thinking "Ross prolly has the Warp Point"
but he sits there thinking for a long time.
I knew Ross wasn't trying to stall, but the 10 minute time limit had been called a while ago, so I was concerned they might call time this turn, when Ross is one prize ahead. I kinda motion for him to pick up the pace a tiny bit.. so after a few seconds he passes and unparalyzes dusknoir.
so now (since I'm about to KO the Dusknoir) it'll be 1-1 on prizes, so this means we'll have a good game regardless of time.
I retreat Toxicroak for Scizor and Special Blow for 80 KO'ing the Dusknoir.
they end up calling time shortly after I did that..
Ross looks through my discard pile, and guesses the deck's 4-card staples like Castaway/Toxicroak/Celio and such, and he somehow guesses correctly the amount of energy I'm playing in the deck.
Wow.
the judges say Ross is taking too long on his turns, and Ross says "yes, but time has already been called, and we both have on prize left, so this doesn't alter the game state"
but the judges said it didn't matter, despite that even I was also okay with Ross taking his time.
Ross speeds up a tad bit, but still takes enough time to play smart.
he knows that he can't really do much to get his last prize, so he counts the number of cards in my deck, and it's running low.
he does a ton of retreating moves, with Jirachi ex, and Claydols and such, and I'm trying to get a Beach in play to prevent more DRE retreating... either that or an energy so that I can do 50-80 damage with X-Scissor, instead of just 30.
eventually I have 4 cards left in my deck.
I castaway to check what's in there (knowing that I have no basic energy, Cess or Supporters in my deck). Ross knows I need another energy to do some decent damage,
otherwise Scizor will only be hitting for 30 and I'll deck out FTL.
the four cards in my deck are: 2 Crystal Beach, 2 Multi Energy.
so I'm like.. dang. this is close.
I draw for my turn it's an energy, and get a Multi, and X-Scissor his Absol ex for 90.
eventually everything on his board has 30 hp left or less, except his Dugtrio which has 40. he retreats for Dugtrio.
I draw the last card in my deck, and pause for 3 seconds, just so that I don't declair the wrong attack and lose.
I say X-Scissor and we shake hands...
5-2
to my surpise, a lot of people are watching our match... and they all start clapping (including the 6 card inventors) (??)
I tell Ross that he played amazingly, and I hope that he's one of the 4-3's to advance to top cut..
(I found out later he got 33rd) :/
so I look at the pairings and find out that the next day I'm playing vs Argentina player Augustin P.
I know he's running PLOX, but I don't know how it's built.
PLOX isn't always an easy matchup... the more Stadiums/Windstorms/Warp Points G&G has, the worse of a matchup it becomes.
so I start trying to find out..
I ask Kettler and he says: "I'll take the liberty not to say anything about his deck, nor will I tell him anything about yours"
lol... yeah fair enough.
I find out from Jimmy that Augustin is not only an amazing player, but he has enough Cess/Beach counters to stop an automic bomb.
(including a Tauros tech and 3 warps)
so I know this will probably be the end of "INTIMIDATION" in masters division..
unless I somehow still have surprise factor on my side...
so that night I put together a PLOX with 3 Warps, and all the tech cards Jimmy mentioned. (I use Bret's Toxicroak deck to playtest with)
I play 3 games.. lol they didn't turn out well.
well, no stress... I already know how to play against G&G,
the more Warps they have the harder the match becomes.
playing more games deep into the night wouldn't disprove that.
I needed some sleeeeeep. so I put away "Intimidation", and take a Snooze.
the next morning, I go up to Pokemontoya, and he tells me that the night before, Omar, Ryan V, and the Florida crew put together a ScizorCroak for Augustin to play against.
and I'm like "yeeah...... well I guess we both have the same advantage then"
....as I'm walking to the Top 32 ballroom, Jimmy walks by and says "Pachirisu.
it's not Tauros.. it's Pachirisu"
hmm... I'm not sure if those are comforting words or not.
perhaps, with the lack of Tauros, I'll be able to lock in the fourth Beach...
but then again, Augustin may have enough Counters to stop that as well.
I guess we'll have to see.
Top 32: vs Augustin P from Argentina (with PLOX)
all the pressure I had before the match ends, cuz it turns out Augustin is one of the nicest and coolest people ever..
we shake hands, and Chuck is next to us making jokes and being hilariously obnoxious. he's like "hey Augustin, Aw-Guust-Teeen. is that how ya pronounce it? Aww-Guuuust-Teeen.
hey, you like Rap Augusteen?.. nah you don't like rap."
then he turns to Esa, his Finland opponent and he's like "how bout you, you like rap?... haah. wait a minute. you like techno don't you? ahhha yea, you like techno"
...Augustin and Esa are all laughing at Chuck's obnoxious american-ness
the judges say "you may setup"
so we start setting up...
I'm like "hahah..... i'm gonna lose"
Augustin's like "but why do you say that?"
I turn my eyes to the side and see Omar in the backround with a grin on his face
(I'm guessing they had favorable results)
i'm like "eh... I just know..."
so we begin...
Game 1:
I start with Sableye..
I look at my hand: I have no good way to get a Toxicroak or Scizor going.
I use Excavate, then disable Ralt's smack.
Augustin plays a supporter, attaches Call to Ralts and Calls for Baltoy and Ralts.
I play Scott to get Rosanne's/Castaway/Celio...
then drop a Crystal Beach.
Augustin rare candies to Gallade and attaches DRE to it, evolves to Claydol, and Wagers me.
I win the Wager.
he Calls again.
I play Rosanne's for Crogunk and Scyther, and play down a Scyther from my hand, use Excavate, discard the top card of my deck, and disable smack. he Rare Candies his active Ralts to Gardevoir.
at this point he has 2 Stage 2's and a Claydol, verses my army of Basic pokemon lol..
he attaches an energy, and uses Psylock for 50 on Sableye.
I retreat Sableye.. Celio for Scizor, attach a Cessation and a Special Metal to Scizor, and hit Gardevoir for 80.
he attaches to Gallade... then plays a Warp: I send up Scyther, he sends up Gallade.
he KO's Scyther with Psychic Cut (OMG Scyther makes Gallade flip another prize cause of resistance. WOAH.. lol)
I send up Toxicroak and use Parlayze poisen on Gallade. *rolls dice* no paralyze..
Gallade OHKO's Toxicroak.
Augustin's already 2 prizes ahead, and I have a Sableye with 50 on it, so I know this'll be bad.
I send up Scizor and KO Gallade with Special Blow.
the game goes on, and we trade a couple prizes...
he sends up Pachirisu, and smash shorts Scizor for 30. (I made sure to drop my extra Cessations on the bench)
I retreat for Toxicroak, and try to Paralyze Poisen Pachirisu, but fail on Paralyze.
shoot. that was a pretty important flip as he would either have to waste a crucial warp point, or let Pachi die...
so he ends up retreating the Pachi to save it for future Cess-removal.
later in the game he sends up Gardevoir with 3 Basic energy on it, plays Lake Boundry and Wagers me. I lose the Wager.
he OHKO's Toxicroak with Gardevoir (dang.. the matchup is a lot harder now with everyone using Lake Boundries. now GARDIES can OHKO Toxicroak?! lol)
I have a really small hand, no evolutions in play, and he's 1 Prize ahead(soon to be 2, after Sableye dies)... so it may be over for me.
I have a Crogunk on my bench with an energy on it.
but wait. *looks at hand: lightning energy, psychic energy, and Celio.
I send up Sableye with 50 damage on it.
I draw Castaway for my turn.
I have a Crogunk on my bench with an energy on it.
he has a Gardy with full 110 hp health active.
so i think to myself: "if I attach a 2nd energy to Crogunk this turn, then Disable psychic lock doing 10 damage, he's gonna be forced to either retreat, wasting his basic energies, or Level-Up to Gardy LV X. if he levels-up (which is obviously the better move) then he'll use Bring down on Sableye.
after Sableye dies, I can Celio for Toxicroak, attach a third energy, and Slash for 120 for the knock out"
so I pretend like my hand is junk, and "reluctantly" attach a lightning energy to Crogunk...
Augustin of course does the better of the two moves, and the levels-up the Gardevoir to bring down Sableye.
I attach a 3rd energy to Crogunk, Celio for Toxicroak, and Slash for 120.
with my small hand, Augustin didn't expect that move, and is like "ooh...." and discards his Gardy LX X.
hopefully this will be able to get me back into the game, if I can KO a couple basics while he sets up some more fighters.
at that point, he doesn't have to much in the way of fighters, except for a Gardevoir on the bench with a DRE and 80 damage on it so he sends up Chatot, attaches a Psychic to Duskull and is forced to use Mimic.
I Castaway for Cess/etc and slash the Chatot for the KO.
now it's 1-1 on prizes.
he sends up an unpowered Ralts, Windstorms my Cessation, uses Cosmic Power, Rare Candies active Ralts to Gallade. he has a Duskull on the bench with a Psychic attached to it. he Rare Candies to Dusknoir and attaches Call Energy.
I have no more Cessations left, so the only thing I can do is hope that he doesn't have another Warp Point to get his unpowered Gallade out of the active position.
I attack Gallade for 50+poisen with Paralyze Poisen, and flip the heads, Paralyzing it.
now if he doesn't have any warp points left (or doesn't have any in his hand) it's my game.
I'm expecting the game to be over, by him warp pointing..
and to save time for the next game,
I'm like "..you got warp point?"
to my surprise he's like "no. not yet."
he uses Cosmic Power... I see one of the Argentina guys in the backround get all excited..
Augustin shows me the Warp Point and Psychic Energy for the game
Great game Augustin!
0-1
Game 2:
Basically this game, we both get going pretty fast, so I know it's gonna be a good game.
I start with Scyther and get a speedy Scizor going.
at one point in the game, Augustin has a Chatot active, and he asks how many cards are in my hand. I say "7" and so he shuffles his hand into his deck and draws 7 cards. I draw for my turn, and he's like "no.. wait"
and he showed me that he was using Telepass on my Copycat, not Mimic.
I'm like "oh.. sorry man" I reveal the top card of my deck to him.
I'm like "I'll call a judge"
Augustin was veeery good sported about the situation and he's like "oh.. no.. it's okay. no worry, it's okay."
I have to give props to Augustin.
he was a very high class player,
and it was obvious we both had enough respect for each other that we wanted a real game, and wouldn't try to get penalties on each other to try and win.
I call a judge on myself..
the judge comes over, and he's like "what happened?"
I was like "alright, so I drew a card for my turn, thinking Augustin used Mimic, but he actually used Telepass on my Copycat.
I put the card back on top of my deck, but I still know what it is"
The judge is like "ok just show Augustin the card"
so I showed Augustin the card again.
the judge says "thanks for being honest" and walks away.
the game ends up getting really close on prizes.
Toxicroak ends up pwning a Gallade, then he sends up Gardy and Lake Boundries Toxicroak (I SWEAR.. those DANG LAKE BOUNDRIES lol)
then I send up Scizor and hit Gardy for 80.
He ends up Wagering me and I lose the Wager, hindering me from getting more Toxicroak swarms.
at the end of the game, we both have 2 prizes left.
I KO'd his last Gallade earlier with Scizor to get down to one prize, and then he KO'd Scizor right back with Dusknoir(with 3 basic energies attached to it)to get to down to his one prize.
so it's 1-1 on prizes.
I have a 5 card hand... I don't have a Beach in play which is bad... I Castaway for Cessation, and Scott(so I can get Beach later)
I drop Sableye, attach a lightning energy and my last Cessation to it, then retreat Scizor and Disable his Dusknoir for 40.
he knows that his Dusknoir can either sit there and eventually die, or he can retreat it for all 3 energies.
he has a Gardy on the bench with 30 damage on it and 1 Psychic energy. there's no way Gardy can take on Scizor himself, but if he gets the level X to bring down my Sableye, he'll win.
he HAS to retreat Dusknoir this turn, otherwise, I'll hit it for another 40 with Disable, and that way Gardevoir LV X couldn't win him the game, 'cause he would end up Bringing Down his own Dusknoir.
I know all he needs is a Psychic Energy with Gardy LV X this turn and he'll win.
He plays Windstorm to get rid of my Cessation, retreats Dusknoir, fills up his hand with Claydol, and plays Level X. I know it's pretty much game over cuz he'll just Telepass my Rosanne's or Castaway for a Psychic Energy for the win.
But WAIT.
he sits there and thinks for a while...
OMGOSH. He has NO more Psychics left in his deck..
so the only way for him to bring down is if he gets his last DRE..
he has a relitively small deck,
but I know I have a good chance, since he'll either have to play a Wager, Steven's for only 3 cards, or Telepass my Copycat for 5 cards.
if he doesn't pull the DRE this turn, I can play Scott to get Beach and pound on Gardy LV X with X-Scissor.
He asks how many cards are in my hand.
I, being a lame american who doesn't know any other languages, try to speak spanish and I'm like "cinco"
he laughs... and Telepasses my Copycat for 5...
I sit there, hoping he won't pull that DRE lol..
he draws five............... and.............. attaches............ the DRE to Gardy LV X and bring's down my Sableye FTW
GG!
0-2
ELIMINATED.
woah WHAT a close game..
I congratulate Agustin on his amazing plays, and I wish him luck in the rest of the tournament..
I showed him my Top 32 hat, and I'm like "dude see this?... this needs to be you. except it has to say: "1ST"..
he laughs and is like "i'll try"
so I really didn't expect the games vs Augustin to be as close as they ended up being...
when Jimmy told me about Augustin's deck, I thought he would break the Cess/Beach lock easily, and I would lose automatically..
but aparantly, I still had a little bit of surprise factor with Sableye, as none of my opponents really knew why he was in the deck until I played this game.
also I never saw him play a 3rd warp point against me.. (maybe Jimmy was wrong and he only had 2?)
If I had known that a lot of the G&G's were gonna overload on Windstorms/Boundries/Warps, I woulda kept in the Jirachi ex tech that was originally in the deck (and taken out a consistency-supporter for it)
But then again, at Nationals, Warps and Windstorm were about as popular as Mom's Kindness lol..
and the decks that did use Cess &/or Beach that made Top Cut (Sausages, Absol/Gallade) didn't get past top 16..
so I figured people wouldn't go past 2 windstorm 2 warp..
and the few G&G that did overload on them would prolly lose to mirror..
so I guess we(Pokemontoya, Bretkid, Me, and Jesse) still made a decent decision.
NO sour grapes...
Augustin was an honor to play against...(AND lose against)..
an amazing opponent
not to mention it made my whole trip, watching the deck("INTIMIDATION" aka "Blubbering Intimidation" lol) that I put such long SWEATY hours into making, WIN Worlds in Juniors, going 2-0 every round in Top Cut against all the G&G's he faced (GO TRISTAN!!)
PS:
i found it strange that(just like my game with Ross) the 6 card creators were watching Tristan's final match with intrigue...
and it made me wonder...
did the card creators themselves design Toxicroak as a possible 1-energy Gallade killer, or were they just Totally stunned at the fact that a horribly JANKY card like Toxicroak (that was meant to be a "theme-deck filler") was doing so well? :smile:
either way.. that's kinda hilarious.....
*sigh...... stupid toxicroak
-ian b
PROPS:
1. Meeting new and awesome people, including: Dennis, Augustin, Marcello, and the awesome Italians.
2. getting to use a totally JANK pokemon like Toxicroak in a professional setting lol
3. Everyone who helped with the deck: Pokemontoya, Bretkid, KrazyKevin, TeamPwnyJF.... yeah, you know who you are
4. The Robinsons and Anders for being awesome.
Thank you so much for the pizza and everything else. you guys are uber kind. we owe ya one.
5. everyone who took a Risk using the deck.. especially Tristan R, and Christian(who grinded in with BanBliss, and was cool enough to team up with noobs like us, and use "INTIMIDATION")
6. GINO. not only is he a funny and rad dude, but he'z gotz Gino skillz. enuffs 2 almost win worlds after taking Nats.
yo Gino, dat bandannaz u gavez me fo mah arm made me feel like a true Homeslice.
even dough i justa redneck from coloraadaah.. lol
7. Jay.. cuz Jays cool. and Torterra dude too.
8. Takae for being awesome and Japanese.. GO JAPAN
9. Ross for the amazing game. (and for beating me in the playtesting room)
10. Ness for 2-timing worlds & Chuck for going undefeated all that time.
11. Khanh Le for being uber cool and using such a sweet deck
12. Jimmy O'Brien.. even though I saw from a distance, this guy had great SOTG
13. all the cool Rogues people played. Glaceon, T2 Blissey/Beach/Cess, The Ring, and possibly Drew's Amphy/Bronzong deck.. if that even counts as a rogue (hahaha.. nah i'm just messin bro.. great job)
14. Adrian for being waaaay rad and carrying around the Croagunk doll to cheer on Tristan. "bllbbbrrlblblblblrrlb!"
15. Andrea C: "Toxicroak is soo ugly" haha...
16: Kevin B/Ashley B.. it was great seeing you guys
17: Forest and Andrew. you guys rock.
it was awesome hanging out with you guys the whole trip.
Utah people rule...
18: Tristan for winning... way to go bro.. you're an inspiration to all of us.
not to mention one of the most cool, modest, and skilled pokemon players i've seen.
you're a true legend, and thanks to you, the stupidest pokemon in history, aka TOXICROAK is now a legend. (jk...)
19. the intimidating blubbering noise we all had to make when Tristan won
SLOPS:
1. Kevin making 33rd... noooooooooo
2. not being able to make a worlds movie this year (cuz my camcorder wasn't working)
3. some people in the playtesting room making fun of us/our deck...
then they see Bret and i end up winning vs Moss & Chuck.. & they're like:
"yea.... when I first saw Toxicroak, I knew he was was a decent card. I was actually thinking about combining it with Scizor before, but I never ended up getting to try it"
lol ya...i believe it
4. Mikey(Magnechu): hey man, sorry I never got to play the deck against you in the playtesting room... :/
5. Florida humidity. Omar, Ryan V, and the gang: how can you guys stand it??
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