Naki Feralkin
New Member
More at 11.
Just kidding. Name's Stephen McGaffney. I'm sure you've seen my reports around here before, and might have even played me at Nats/Regis/States last couple of years. After a rather harsh showing at Nationals (4-4) and my poor choice of techs, I decided it was time to step it up a little bit and try to use my ability at decent deckbuilding to try a couple new things. Last week almost killed my confidence as I went 2-3 with a deck I was certain was good. I was about ready to try a new deck yesterday, but decided to go with a coin flip on whether to go with old faithful, or to test this new deck.
Cue North Olmstead BR's. I had my previous weeks deck choice in my bag, as well as a new choice.
List numero uno:
Landshark (Go Phins!)
3X Gible (SV)
2X Gabite (SV)
3X Garchomp (SV)
1X Garchomp Level X (MD)
2X Baltoy (GE)
2X Claydol (GE)
1X Nidoran girl (RR)
1X Nidorina (RR)
1X Nidoqueen (RR)
2X Unown G (GE)
1X Uxie (LA)
1X Azelf (LA)
1X Relicanth (SV, Grand Swell)
1X Chatot (MD)
3X Roseanne's Research
4X Bebe's Search
1X Lucian's Assignment
4X Pokedrawer+
4X Pokehealer+
2X Broken Time Space
2X Warp Point
3X Rare Candy
2X Night Maintenance
1X Luxury Ball
6X Psychic
4X Call
2X Fighting
-------------------------------------------------------------
This is my baby right here. This list has been theorycrafted to death with a couple other people I knew. While everyone and their first born child was looking at Blaziken FB and Absol G, I was looking at Garchomp, but I was worried the hype of the other two decks would win many people over. I gained confidence when others shared my opinion on how this guy was and finally decided it was time to put a list together.
The first list ran Pachirisu's and a bunch of other messy things. The Pachi's worked for a while, but I felt that it was hindering my ideal set up (Gible with Call, or even better, Garchomp T1 with Call.), so I cut them for other things, eventually fitting in a playset of 4 Pokedrawers and 2 BTS's.
The deck prides itself on its EXTREMELY balanced playstyle. Its heavily reliant on its primary attack, Guard Claw. This nasty attack does a very small damage output (only 40), but reduces any damage done to Garchomp during your opponents next turn by 20. In a format dominated by quick pestering attacks, that 20 can be all the difference between a 2-shot, and a 3-shot, in addition to the fact that it forces that energy back in your opponents hand, increasing their hand size with unnecessary energies, lowering Cosmic Power's efficiency, and setting up for the potential 120 HP nuke (Speed Impact)
If you think the defensive purpose of Guard Claw was bad enough; enter Nidoqueen. As seen in many decks before at Nationals and many Spring BR's, this terror made Gengar decks extremely powerful. This girl packs a decent punch herself (Possible 100 for 3), and adds to the frustrating defenses of Nidoqueen, by reducing the damage done to Garchomp before your opponents next turn even begins by ANOTHER 20! So, all together, your potential Dragon pump from Kingdra, for one energy, was reduced to a grand total of 20 damage done to Garchomp, or that Shadow Room for 30 is now only 10. And it only gets worse.
4 Pokehealer+. You think you've gotten Garchomp to a high enough level of damage? Think again. You have an upper hand with 100 damage done straight to Garchomp and will wipe him next turn. Queen wipes 10, then Pokehealer for 80, then another 10 from Queen. 100 damage, blown in a matter of seconds.
This decks capability is unbelievable. It has fantastic matchups against almost everything in this format, barring SP Toolbox (The lockdown and early draw aggro kills it) and Bees. Flygon has a hard time getting it down due to Guard Claw alone, and has a hard time setting any further Gon's up due to Dragon Intimidation, though Exploud's prove problematic. Gengar can't touch the deck once it gets ahead through Rebirth's and unown G'd power guys, and Kingdra is a joke.
But I was unsure of it after last week.
Going 2-3 with losses to Mirror, one Gengar list, and Gardylade really punched me in the gut. Granted, nearly all of the games were very close.
List number 2:
KFC (Kentucky Frying Chicken. Note, this is list post-changes that were made by a friend of mine last night.)
2X Blaziken FB (SV)
1X Blaziken FB Level X (SV)
3X Torchic (PT)
2X Combusken (GE)
2X Blaziken (PT)
1X Blaziken (GE)
2X Baltoy (GE)
2X Claydol (GE)
2X Unown G (GE)
1X Uxie (LA)
1X Azelf (LA)
1X Rayquaza (LA)
1X Crobat G (PT)
4X Bebe's Search
4X Roseanne's Research
2X Stark Mountain
1X Luxury Ball
2X Poketurn
3X Rare Candy
2X Cyrus' Conspiracy
2X Energy Gain
2X Night Maintenance
2X Warp Point
2X Premier Ball
9X Fire Energy
4X Call Energy
----------------------------------
This was my second option, and the one I initially was going to run yesterday. I liked how quick and consistent it ran, but its matchups against some lists left much to be desired. Its synergy was really good (PT Blaze burn for increased damage from FB Blaze), and both attackers were pretty solid, and there really was no heavy Gyarados meta around here, but the Flygon matchup is what worried me.
So I flipped a coin. Heads for Garchomp, Tails for Blaze.
It came up heads, so I took the leftovers from my Blaze and threw them back into Garchomp. The driver for this event was going to play something involving Luxray, but asked me if he could try Blaziken instead, so both my decks were ran. I was worried for another 2-3 tournament, but I was dead wrong.
Round 1 Versus Billy Harshberger (Dusknoir)
This list was actually one I disliked most. One of our team was playing my exact same list this week and last week, and his first round opponent was Billy last week. This was either going to be a really hard game, or retribution. I had no real idea how the Dusknoir matchup panned out because he's not considered a high meta choice right now, as agonizing as it still was.
He goes first. Has reaper cloth Duskull out and manages to get to Dusclops T1, but no energies to my Azelf LA start. He passes. I have a Call in my hand, so it wasn't an agonizing opener, but I top deck a Roseanne's that really makes my bench fill quickly. I pull a Gible and a Uxie from my deck, drop Gible and setup for 3. I pull a Claydol out of those 3 cards, and I call for Baltoy and Nidofem.
Eventually he wipes the Azelf with the dark-one eye. He was unable to get a Dusknoir going immediatly, and I made sure an Unown G got onto my active Chomp and Claydol as soon as possible. I guard claw for a while, making the Dark Hide Dusknoir's life rocky, eventually warp pointing to force a free kill. He gets the Dark Hide one back out (unable to pull anything from my hand except a Chatot I kept there for good measure.) and levels it up. By this time, I have a Queen benched and ready to swing. I knock it out and the Dusknoir's stadium effect is negated by Queen. I then throw it back in his hand with a BTS, in which case he counters with moonlight so I can get Chomp back out and guarding again. I become too far ahead in prizes and he just scoops.
(1-0)
Round 2 Versus Marc Anthony Williams (Blastoisecat)
Wow, just a day full of surprises. I end up playing against another deck that the format forgot, and because I forgot about it so much, I even forgot Double Launcher did 60 to two and not 80. x.x
His start is fantastic. I can't get much anything going immediatly, and get my second wonderful Azelf start. Again, thank god for Call energy. He knocks off a Garchomp early with clever use of Delcatty's attack, then wipes two of my bench with double launcher. I did manage to be rid of that first cat which slowed him down significantly, and after this, my game sped up.
I got a fully powered Garchomp up, and I start Guard Clawing him nastily. One Blastoise goes down. He gets my Garchomp to 120, and I reprise with 2 Pokehealers. He's unable to get any Double Launchers off from this moment on, in addition to queen removing the spread, and is forced to Aqua Press, doing a lot, but not enough to get around the Claws. I bench nothing unless all evolutions are in my hand so as to not give him free kills, making use of his BTS, and Cosmic Powering my own away. He scoops just before time is called (in which sudden death would have occured), saving me the trouble of having to take my last prize. He did run out of outs during this last turn, so I could sort of see why he did it, but I think he may have been able to pull something off.
(2-0)
Round 3 Versus Stanley Reid (Speed Absol featuring the G-man)
I've never played Stan before, but I remember this deck very well from last season. This was a speed Absol priding itself on early game annihilation. Its whole goal is to utilize SSU's, rescues, and other such things to keep Raiding every turn, and that early game aggro to really put hurt on basic pokemon. Absol G was added to the list this season for the nasty Darkness Slugger attack. He was 2-0 as well going into this round, so it obviously was no joke.. however, the reduction from Guard Claw really puts a beating on Absol's heavy hits and really makes this deck have a hard time. He may be able to hit me hard in the early game, but Garchomp is able to endure the late and put a beating on the Absol's, especially with Dragon Intim putting the solitary energies back in his hand.
I get 2 pokemon, removing the donk potential, opening with a call energy and a Gible, but have a Roseanne's as well which really hurts him. I manage to get to a Garchomp early and just start knocking Absol's out left and right. He scoops once the Nidoqueen hits the field.
3-0
Lunch break. Taco Bell time, and a long walk to the food court from where we usually were in this mall. I'm feeling good going into Round 4, and with food in my stomach and some delicious Arizona Grapeade, I'm ready for anything thrown at me.
Round 4 Versus Sean Foisy (Flygon/Gliscor)
Don't laugh. Its nasty. The Gliscor make for extremely good stallers while the Flygon's get set up, and put some quick damage on pretty much any person. The problem he has with my list most likely isn't the Garchomp's themselves, its the fact that I can endure through the paralysis by blowing solitary Pokehealers just to remove the Paralysis and free retreat to get rid of the extra damage. Other than that, its a 50/50 matchup due to his Exploud.
Yes. Exploud. The anti-ditto, anti-garchomp, anti-mirror. This big mouthed doofus became the bane of my existence for 3 games.
At the beginning of the game, I had no idea what to expect when I saw Gligar, so I just set up my quick aggro, and tried to get to Pokehealer's because I knew what the Level X was capable of. I also picked up an Unown G as well to at least hinder the Burning Poison effects. I then saw Trapinch's and began to rethink my strategies a bit. I had a feeling stall was inevitable and he was going to want to hit with the Power Swing ASAP. I had to get rid of a Gliscor early, and I took a risk by Impacting one. I get response with a heavy hit, but he is unable to knock it out (Doing heavy damage with Burn active, puts me 10 away from KO), I respond with a dual Pokehealer and a Guard Claw to the dome.
It begins coming down to the wire when he stops leaving basic pokemon on the bench for replacement of evolved pokemon and a Level X wittling my deck to almost nothing with an Exploud present as well. I manage to night maintenance back a Garchomp Level X to remove one last status condition from my pokemon, completely forgetting about Dragon Pulse in my frantic need for an energy or extra damage (With his Flygon Level X benched mocking me with 10 HP's left), I instead free retreat to Azelf and Lock his pokemon in, killing it next turn instead.
Stupid me almost cost me a game.
(4-0)
Round 5 Versus Tracy Key (SP Toolbox)
This deck is agonizing and really tough to beat, in addition to myself knowing that Tracy and Sean are both incredibly good players. I knew I was in cut regardless, but I wanted to take this round to figure out how her deck ran and to figure out my outs against it should we play again in cut.
She wipes a Baltoy really early which hinders my draw. I then completely forget I'm playing against an SP deck and stupidly Roseanne's for a Uxie, which is flushed by Power Spray. By the time I have an out and can take more prizes (Relicanth), she's already at 2 remaining, when I've taken 2. She wipes my last out and I scoop.
I did realize however, the deck doesn't hit hard, its the hindering of the deck itself that really slows me down. My goal in the remaining games with her was going to become "Wade through the lock and Speed Impact to oblivion."
(4-1)
So I cut. First one on the year and it increased my confidence in a deck that shattered my hopes the week before. In additional consolation, AJ went 4-1 and 5th placed with my Blaziken, only commenting it needed 4 cards replaced. (2 SP Radars, another Cyrus, and another Poke Turn was recommended), so I felt really good that both of my decks did really good today.
So here's the cut:
1st Place: Tracy Key (SP Toolbox)
2nd Place: Me (Garchomp)
3rd Place: Sean Foisy (Flygon/Gliscor)
4th Place: Keith Williams (Gengar)
Tracy was going to be playing Keith, I had Sean again. No offense to Keith, but I knew SP Box was going to be the bane of Gengar's existence all over the place. I had to worry about a second round against a deck I almost lost to, and also him knowing how to work around it. Here we go again.
Top 4 Versus Sean Foisy (Gliscor/Flygon)
This match was just sloppy. I had a decent start, could get some things going, but he just blew up on me immediately. I think he did like 25 things this turn reminding me of my match versus one of the Poteet's at nationals, in which my opponent got like everything on Turn 1 and I felt like I had no way to respond. Unlike that game, I could not respond, watching as he dumped two Flygon's on T1 after an amazing Radar dump, an Exploud and many other such things. I took maybe 1-2 prizes this game and he steam rolled me. I know I made a valiant attempt to come back, but his Flygon eroding my deck wore me down to no cards, and instead of trying to find ways to put them back, I scoop instead for time.
This second game was heavily in my favor. He's unable to get any Flygon's going and had a Whismur prized, severely hurting his inability to stop weakness. My goal here was not to win, but to force sudden death, so my goal was to take 4 prizes, which I did in a timely manner. He ends up heavily far behind and time is called while I have one left to his 3.
Sudden Death I'm certain is in my favor. I have a couple ways to get early aggro going and I opt for Nidoqueen to not get weakness. He can't get a Flygon started but he keeps me Gliscor locked for a few turns, only allowing my Nidoqueen to do enough damage to leave him with 10 HP's remaining. In the midst of this lock though, I'm setting up a Garchomp and waiting for a Warp Point. I draw into it finally and end his Gliscor. GG.
So I win this round somehow, fighting through the annoyance of Exploud to fight into Top 2. Tracy as expected wipes Keith out of Tops and I get to attempt my retribution. Sean pulls Staraptor FB LX out of his packs for losing. XD
Top 2 Versus Tracy Key (SP Toolbox)
My goal here was simple. Don't make the same mistake as before and get Claydol's out ASAP. Force the Power Sprays and drain her deck of resources as quickly as possible. I use this philosophy to keep her sprays out, getting a Garchomp as quickly as possible, beginning a speed impact offensive, cooking dirty birds and froggies quick. She scoops for time in 9 minutes, ending the first game as quickly as it occured.
Game 2... didn't go as smoothly as I'd wanted. I get the most agonizing start in the deck (Unown G) and I know the capability of a Turn 1 Donk is there. I get off lucky as she whiffs on an attempt to get the basic dark, but I'm just not able to get anything going and I scoop after about 10 minutes.
Game 3 was a bit better, though it involved Nidorina aggro for like 20 turns. She's unable to pull the Crobat/Honchkrow combination to end me, but she sprays and turns and everything to keep me off her pokemon and to stall my draw. I knew I'd wasted her resources, but as time is called, the prize count is 2 to 4 in her favor. If I had a little more time, I think I might have been able to rally an offensive to pull ahead, regrettably, not going to happen, I finally fall in round 3 of Top 2.
Good day though. Crappy packs to the max, but a fun time was had and my good showing was rewarded with a nasty headache and nausea on my way home (I felt better about an hour later), and the confirmation to know that my Garchomp list isn't as bad as I'd imagined.
Props:
- GARCHOOOOOOOOOMP
- The taco bell in the mall didn't suck
- AJ doing exceedingly well with my other deck
- The Michigan players for making the trek
- I got myself my first AoA Charizard
- Arizona Grapeade
- Recess Games for holding the event
- John Lathem for running another great event
Slops:
- The unwanted Headache and Nausea that came afterward.
- Someones really annoying B.O smell in the store.
- Someone stole AJ's Level X binder...? Who would do such a thing?
- My girlfriend for not being able to make it for work (But hey, work comes first!)
- DIRTY BIRD
Stay tuned for next weeks (hopeful) appearance. The revenge of Garchomp!
This is Stephen McGaffney, signing off.
Just kidding. Name's Stephen McGaffney. I'm sure you've seen my reports around here before, and might have even played me at Nats/Regis/States last couple of years. After a rather harsh showing at Nationals (4-4) and my poor choice of techs, I decided it was time to step it up a little bit and try to use my ability at decent deckbuilding to try a couple new things. Last week almost killed my confidence as I went 2-3 with a deck I was certain was good. I was about ready to try a new deck yesterday, but decided to go with a coin flip on whether to go with old faithful, or to test this new deck.
Cue North Olmstead BR's. I had my previous weeks deck choice in my bag, as well as a new choice.
List numero uno:
Landshark (Go Phins!)
3X Gible (SV)
2X Gabite (SV)
3X Garchomp (SV)
1X Garchomp Level X (MD)
2X Baltoy (GE)
2X Claydol (GE)
1X Nidoran girl (RR)
1X Nidorina (RR)
1X Nidoqueen (RR)
2X Unown G (GE)
1X Uxie (LA)
1X Azelf (LA)
1X Relicanth (SV, Grand Swell)
1X Chatot (MD)
3X Roseanne's Research
4X Bebe's Search
1X Lucian's Assignment
4X Pokedrawer+
4X Pokehealer+
2X Broken Time Space
2X Warp Point
3X Rare Candy
2X Night Maintenance
1X Luxury Ball
6X Psychic
4X Call
2X Fighting
-------------------------------------------------------------
This is my baby right here. This list has been theorycrafted to death with a couple other people I knew. While everyone and their first born child was looking at Blaziken FB and Absol G, I was looking at Garchomp, but I was worried the hype of the other two decks would win many people over. I gained confidence when others shared my opinion on how this guy was and finally decided it was time to put a list together.
The first list ran Pachirisu's and a bunch of other messy things. The Pachi's worked for a while, but I felt that it was hindering my ideal set up (Gible with Call, or even better, Garchomp T1 with Call.), so I cut them for other things, eventually fitting in a playset of 4 Pokedrawers and 2 BTS's.
The deck prides itself on its EXTREMELY balanced playstyle. Its heavily reliant on its primary attack, Guard Claw. This nasty attack does a very small damage output (only 40), but reduces any damage done to Garchomp during your opponents next turn by 20. In a format dominated by quick pestering attacks, that 20 can be all the difference between a 2-shot, and a 3-shot, in addition to the fact that it forces that energy back in your opponents hand, increasing their hand size with unnecessary energies, lowering Cosmic Power's efficiency, and setting up for the potential 120 HP nuke (Speed Impact)
If you think the defensive purpose of Guard Claw was bad enough; enter Nidoqueen. As seen in many decks before at Nationals and many Spring BR's, this terror made Gengar decks extremely powerful. This girl packs a decent punch herself (Possible 100 for 3), and adds to the frustrating defenses of Nidoqueen, by reducing the damage done to Garchomp before your opponents next turn even begins by ANOTHER 20! So, all together, your potential Dragon pump from Kingdra, for one energy, was reduced to a grand total of 20 damage done to Garchomp, or that Shadow Room for 30 is now only 10. And it only gets worse.
4 Pokehealer+. You think you've gotten Garchomp to a high enough level of damage? Think again. You have an upper hand with 100 damage done straight to Garchomp and will wipe him next turn. Queen wipes 10, then Pokehealer for 80, then another 10 from Queen. 100 damage, blown in a matter of seconds.
This decks capability is unbelievable. It has fantastic matchups against almost everything in this format, barring SP Toolbox (The lockdown and early draw aggro kills it) and Bees. Flygon has a hard time getting it down due to Guard Claw alone, and has a hard time setting any further Gon's up due to Dragon Intimidation, though Exploud's prove problematic. Gengar can't touch the deck once it gets ahead through Rebirth's and unown G'd power guys, and Kingdra is a joke.
But I was unsure of it after last week.
Going 2-3 with losses to Mirror, one Gengar list, and Gardylade really punched me in the gut. Granted, nearly all of the games were very close.
List number 2:
KFC (Kentucky Frying Chicken. Note, this is list post-changes that were made by a friend of mine last night.)
2X Blaziken FB (SV)
1X Blaziken FB Level X (SV)
3X Torchic (PT)
2X Combusken (GE)
2X Blaziken (PT)
1X Blaziken (GE)
2X Baltoy (GE)
2X Claydol (GE)
2X Unown G (GE)
1X Uxie (LA)
1X Azelf (LA)
1X Rayquaza (LA)
1X Crobat G (PT)
4X Bebe's Search
4X Roseanne's Research
2X Stark Mountain
1X Luxury Ball
2X Poketurn
3X Rare Candy
2X Cyrus' Conspiracy
2X Energy Gain
2X Night Maintenance
2X Warp Point
2X Premier Ball
9X Fire Energy
4X Call Energy
----------------------------------
This was my second option, and the one I initially was going to run yesterday. I liked how quick and consistent it ran, but its matchups against some lists left much to be desired. Its synergy was really good (PT Blaze burn for increased damage from FB Blaze), and both attackers were pretty solid, and there really was no heavy Gyarados meta around here, but the Flygon matchup is what worried me.
So I flipped a coin. Heads for Garchomp, Tails for Blaze.
It came up heads, so I took the leftovers from my Blaze and threw them back into Garchomp. The driver for this event was going to play something involving Luxray, but asked me if he could try Blaziken instead, so both my decks were ran. I was worried for another 2-3 tournament, but I was dead wrong.
Round 1 Versus Billy Harshberger (Dusknoir)
This list was actually one I disliked most. One of our team was playing my exact same list this week and last week, and his first round opponent was Billy last week. This was either going to be a really hard game, or retribution. I had no real idea how the Dusknoir matchup panned out because he's not considered a high meta choice right now, as agonizing as it still was.
He goes first. Has reaper cloth Duskull out and manages to get to Dusclops T1, but no energies to my Azelf LA start. He passes. I have a Call in my hand, so it wasn't an agonizing opener, but I top deck a Roseanne's that really makes my bench fill quickly. I pull a Gible and a Uxie from my deck, drop Gible and setup for 3. I pull a Claydol out of those 3 cards, and I call for Baltoy and Nidofem.
Eventually he wipes the Azelf with the dark-one eye. He was unable to get a Dusknoir going immediatly, and I made sure an Unown G got onto my active Chomp and Claydol as soon as possible. I guard claw for a while, making the Dark Hide Dusknoir's life rocky, eventually warp pointing to force a free kill. He gets the Dark Hide one back out (unable to pull anything from my hand except a Chatot I kept there for good measure.) and levels it up. By this time, I have a Queen benched and ready to swing. I knock it out and the Dusknoir's stadium effect is negated by Queen. I then throw it back in his hand with a BTS, in which case he counters with moonlight so I can get Chomp back out and guarding again. I become too far ahead in prizes and he just scoops.
(1-0)
Round 2 Versus Marc Anthony Williams (Blastoisecat)
Wow, just a day full of surprises. I end up playing against another deck that the format forgot, and because I forgot about it so much, I even forgot Double Launcher did 60 to two and not 80. x.x
His start is fantastic. I can't get much anything going immediatly, and get my second wonderful Azelf start. Again, thank god for Call energy. He knocks off a Garchomp early with clever use of Delcatty's attack, then wipes two of my bench with double launcher. I did manage to be rid of that first cat which slowed him down significantly, and after this, my game sped up.
I got a fully powered Garchomp up, and I start Guard Clawing him nastily. One Blastoise goes down. He gets my Garchomp to 120, and I reprise with 2 Pokehealers. He's unable to get any Double Launchers off from this moment on, in addition to queen removing the spread, and is forced to Aqua Press, doing a lot, but not enough to get around the Claws. I bench nothing unless all evolutions are in my hand so as to not give him free kills, making use of his BTS, and Cosmic Powering my own away. He scoops just before time is called (in which sudden death would have occured), saving me the trouble of having to take my last prize. He did run out of outs during this last turn, so I could sort of see why he did it, but I think he may have been able to pull something off.
(2-0)
Round 3 Versus Stanley Reid (Speed Absol featuring the G-man)
I've never played Stan before, but I remember this deck very well from last season. This was a speed Absol priding itself on early game annihilation. Its whole goal is to utilize SSU's, rescues, and other such things to keep Raiding every turn, and that early game aggro to really put hurt on basic pokemon. Absol G was added to the list this season for the nasty Darkness Slugger attack. He was 2-0 as well going into this round, so it obviously was no joke.. however, the reduction from Guard Claw really puts a beating on Absol's heavy hits and really makes this deck have a hard time. He may be able to hit me hard in the early game, but Garchomp is able to endure the late and put a beating on the Absol's, especially with Dragon Intim putting the solitary energies back in his hand.
I get 2 pokemon, removing the donk potential, opening with a call energy and a Gible, but have a Roseanne's as well which really hurts him. I manage to get to a Garchomp early and just start knocking Absol's out left and right. He scoops once the Nidoqueen hits the field.
3-0
Lunch break. Taco Bell time, and a long walk to the food court from where we usually were in this mall. I'm feeling good going into Round 4, and with food in my stomach and some delicious Arizona Grapeade, I'm ready for anything thrown at me.
Round 4 Versus Sean Foisy (Flygon/Gliscor)
Don't laugh. Its nasty. The Gliscor make for extremely good stallers while the Flygon's get set up, and put some quick damage on pretty much any person. The problem he has with my list most likely isn't the Garchomp's themselves, its the fact that I can endure through the paralysis by blowing solitary Pokehealers just to remove the Paralysis and free retreat to get rid of the extra damage. Other than that, its a 50/50 matchup due to his Exploud.
Yes. Exploud. The anti-ditto, anti-garchomp, anti-mirror. This big mouthed doofus became the bane of my existence for 3 games.
At the beginning of the game, I had no idea what to expect when I saw Gligar, so I just set up my quick aggro, and tried to get to Pokehealer's because I knew what the Level X was capable of. I also picked up an Unown G as well to at least hinder the Burning Poison effects. I then saw Trapinch's and began to rethink my strategies a bit. I had a feeling stall was inevitable and he was going to want to hit with the Power Swing ASAP. I had to get rid of a Gliscor early, and I took a risk by Impacting one. I get response with a heavy hit, but he is unable to knock it out (Doing heavy damage with Burn active, puts me 10 away from KO), I respond with a dual Pokehealer and a Guard Claw to the dome.
It begins coming down to the wire when he stops leaving basic pokemon on the bench for replacement of evolved pokemon and a Level X wittling my deck to almost nothing with an Exploud present as well. I manage to night maintenance back a Garchomp Level X to remove one last status condition from my pokemon, completely forgetting about Dragon Pulse in my frantic need for an energy or extra damage (With his Flygon Level X benched mocking me with 10 HP's left), I instead free retreat to Azelf and Lock his pokemon in, killing it next turn instead.
Stupid me almost cost me a game.
(4-0)
Round 5 Versus Tracy Key (SP Toolbox)
This deck is agonizing and really tough to beat, in addition to myself knowing that Tracy and Sean are both incredibly good players. I knew I was in cut regardless, but I wanted to take this round to figure out how her deck ran and to figure out my outs against it should we play again in cut.
She wipes a Baltoy really early which hinders my draw. I then completely forget I'm playing against an SP deck and stupidly Roseanne's for a Uxie, which is flushed by Power Spray. By the time I have an out and can take more prizes (Relicanth), she's already at 2 remaining, when I've taken 2. She wipes my last out and I scoop.
I did realize however, the deck doesn't hit hard, its the hindering of the deck itself that really slows me down. My goal in the remaining games with her was going to become "Wade through the lock and Speed Impact to oblivion."
(4-1)
So I cut. First one on the year and it increased my confidence in a deck that shattered my hopes the week before. In additional consolation, AJ went 4-1 and 5th placed with my Blaziken, only commenting it needed 4 cards replaced. (2 SP Radars, another Cyrus, and another Poke Turn was recommended), so I felt really good that both of my decks did really good today.
So here's the cut:
1st Place: Tracy Key (SP Toolbox)
2nd Place: Me (Garchomp)
3rd Place: Sean Foisy (Flygon/Gliscor)
4th Place: Keith Williams (Gengar)
Tracy was going to be playing Keith, I had Sean again. No offense to Keith, but I knew SP Box was going to be the bane of Gengar's existence all over the place. I had to worry about a second round against a deck I almost lost to, and also him knowing how to work around it. Here we go again.
Top 4 Versus Sean Foisy (Gliscor/Flygon)
This match was just sloppy. I had a decent start, could get some things going, but he just blew up on me immediately. I think he did like 25 things this turn reminding me of my match versus one of the Poteet's at nationals, in which my opponent got like everything on Turn 1 and I felt like I had no way to respond. Unlike that game, I could not respond, watching as he dumped two Flygon's on T1 after an amazing Radar dump, an Exploud and many other such things. I took maybe 1-2 prizes this game and he steam rolled me. I know I made a valiant attempt to come back, but his Flygon eroding my deck wore me down to no cards, and instead of trying to find ways to put them back, I scoop instead for time.
This second game was heavily in my favor. He's unable to get any Flygon's going and had a Whismur prized, severely hurting his inability to stop weakness. My goal here was not to win, but to force sudden death, so my goal was to take 4 prizes, which I did in a timely manner. He ends up heavily far behind and time is called while I have one left to his 3.
Sudden Death I'm certain is in my favor. I have a couple ways to get early aggro going and I opt for Nidoqueen to not get weakness. He can't get a Flygon started but he keeps me Gliscor locked for a few turns, only allowing my Nidoqueen to do enough damage to leave him with 10 HP's remaining. In the midst of this lock though, I'm setting up a Garchomp and waiting for a Warp Point. I draw into it finally and end his Gliscor. GG.
So I win this round somehow, fighting through the annoyance of Exploud to fight into Top 2. Tracy as expected wipes Keith out of Tops and I get to attempt my retribution. Sean pulls Staraptor FB LX out of his packs for losing. XD
Top 2 Versus Tracy Key (SP Toolbox)
My goal here was simple. Don't make the same mistake as before and get Claydol's out ASAP. Force the Power Sprays and drain her deck of resources as quickly as possible. I use this philosophy to keep her sprays out, getting a Garchomp as quickly as possible, beginning a speed impact offensive, cooking dirty birds and froggies quick. She scoops for time in 9 minutes, ending the first game as quickly as it occured.
Game 2... didn't go as smoothly as I'd wanted. I get the most agonizing start in the deck (Unown G) and I know the capability of a Turn 1 Donk is there. I get off lucky as she whiffs on an attempt to get the basic dark, but I'm just not able to get anything going and I scoop after about 10 minutes.
Game 3 was a bit better, though it involved Nidorina aggro for like 20 turns. She's unable to pull the Crobat/Honchkrow combination to end me, but she sprays and turns and everything to keep me off her pokemon and to stall my draw. I knew I'd wasted her resources, but as time is called, the prize count is 2 to 4 in her favor. If I had a little more time, I think I might have been able to rally an offensive to pull ahead, regrettably, not going to happen, I finally fall in round 3 of Top 2.
Good day though. Crappy packs to the max, but a fun time was had and my good showing was rewarded with a nasty headache and nausea on my way home (I felt better about an hour later), and the confirmation to know that my Garchomp list isn't as bad as I'd imagined.
Props:
- GARCHOOOOOOOOOMP
- The taco bell in the mall didn't suck
- AJ doing exceedingly well with my other deck
- The Michigan players for making the trek
- I got myself my first AoA Charizard
- Arizona Grapeade
- Recess Games for holding the event
- John Lathem for running another great event
Slops:
- The unwanted Headache and Nausea that came afterward.
- Someones really annoying B.O smell in the store.
- Someone stole AJ's Level X binder...? Who would do such a thing?
- My girlfriend for not being able to make it for work (But hey, work comes first!)
- DIRTY BIRD
Stay tuned for next weeks (hopeful) appearance. The revenge of Garchomp!
This is Stephen McGaffney, signing off.
