Alright, having sat out Nationals due to sitting on my invite to Worlds, I was a bit rusty headed into the week of Worlds, yet feeling quite confident in Dialga Palkia Luxray. I played a bunch of games with it, and it was running 50-50 vs pretty much everything. Yet at the same time, was running above 50-50 vs very little. It also made my head spin pretty much every game. Knowing I was going to make very few changes to the list, and already knowing the ins and outs of the deck perfectly, I used the time to hop around a bit between decks I was a little less familiar with outside of playing against them. For reference, here is the DPL list I was working on, with a bit of reasoning.
2 Palkia g
1 Palkia G Lvl X
2 Dialga G
1 Dialga G Lvl X
2 Luxray GL
1 Luxray GL Lvl X
1 Baltoy
1 Claydol
2 Unown G
1 Bronzong G
1 Crobat G
1 Uxie
1 Azelf
1 Chatot
2 Mesprit
1 Toxicroak
4 Call Energy
2 Water Energy
2 Lightning Energy
1 Psychic Energy
1 Metal Energy
3 Metal ( Special )
1 SP Energy
3 Roseanne's Research
2 Bebe's Search
4 Cyrus's Conspiracy
1 Luxury Ball
2 SP Radar
4 Energy Gain
4 PokeTurn
3 Power Spray
1 Night Maintenance
1 Aaron's Collection
2 Unown G for Machamp and Gengar. Toxicroak for Luxrays and a nice clutch attacker. Dialga with Metal is actually really strong vs Kingdra and vs Flygon builds as well ( Since it becomes very difficult to one hit even not as an X and can be Bronzong cycled. ) The attackers are all 2-1 lines so you can do the cycle in their respective favorable matchups. Metal Dialga also is FANTASTIC in mirror match, and vs the Palkia lock decks. The deck was 50-50 vs LuxApe, with the option of an Azelf MT to tilt the matchup further if you wanted space for it. The 3rd Mesprit, theoretically simply "superior" to Power Spray was inverted for the latter because of it's added strength in SP matchups ( Can't be Sprayed, fantastic vs Luxray as they can't just sit the turn out, etc ) Chatot replaced the 4th Roseanne as it's also sick to open with, has free retreat, is great vs power lock, and can generally be used as a crutch against any sort of bad start. I really support the 1-1 Claydol in this deck because no other 2 cards in the game can possibly net you the game long card advantage it will. It forces out extra power sprays, and vs non SP matchups, is rarely getting killed if protected correctly. The deck doesn't need the claydol early, it is far more for midgame when your Cyrus supply dwindles and your barely chugging along.
ANYWAYS, it was going 50-50 vs Luxape, very high in mirror, very high vs Kingdra and Gengar, 50-50 vs Machamp, and 50-50 vs the Flygon builds. Well, maybe a little worse vs Machamp, but I felt more than confident in my ability to steal wins out of outplaying Machamp players.
I tested Martin's Flygon Weavile list quite a bit, and it ran extra hot the first night I used it, only to have a string of terrible performances to our Luxape build. I than try Luxape, and it runs like a God for me. Of course, it too hits a streak of bad games, and demoralization sets in. I'm leaning back to DPL simply because I knew it inside and out, and it has, beyond a shadow of a doubt, better intangibles than any other deck. ( Intangibles in this case being that it is fantastic in timed games, has the best "game 3" in match play of any deck, is one of the few decks capable of skill based "comebacks" due to proper mesprit locks, bench limiting and gusts, etc )
I decide that if it came down to the "top three", being DPL, Flygon and Luxape, that theres no way I'd possibly use the other two over DPL, so I'm back where I started: I know my deck, outside of a few easy to manage post-grinder metagame calls, so I can focus on testing something new. SOO I decide to throw together the Machamp Flygon Palkia list I wrote up on the plane ride over and give it some games.
I easily 2-0 a Luxape in the lobby, than play against Eric Craig's DPL ( very similiar to mine ) and I 4-1 it, the one loss being very unlucky, making me feel very confident in the SP matchup. I 1-1 vs Kingdra with both games being terrible ( Tested vs Jason K using Chuck's deck ) and knew Kingdra was favorable too.
The interesting part? Not once did I ever use Palkia. It also required I devote a number of clunky unncessary cards to the list just to potentially get it in play, so I cut it. The initial list looked something like this...
3 Trapinch ( 2 power, 1 gust )
2 Vibrava
3 Flygon
1 Flygon Lvl X
2 Machop
1 Machoke
2 Machamp
1 Machamp Lvl X
1 Nidoran
1 Nidoqueen
1 Chatot
1 Uxie
1 Azelf
1 Mewtwo
1 Mewtwo Lvl X
2 Unown G
2 Baltoy
2 Claydol
4 Call
2 Upper Energy
3 Psychic Energy
4 Fightning Energy
4 Bebe's Search
4 Roseanne's Research
3 Cynthia's Feelings
1 Lucian's ________ ( I just call it Lucian, deal with it )
1 Night Maintenance
1 Premier Ball
4 Rare Candy
1 Luxury Ball
This is after I cut the Palkia line, and the 3 switches I had in it at the time. Anyways, I end up testing this against Sami, and Jayson, and Yacine, and the rest of my testing crew for the weekend the night of the grinder after making some adjustments based on the grinder.
I felt very confident with Machamp Flygon because it had an inherent number of autowins against the sure to be popular SP decks. I felt that SP would be the most played deck, followed by a large influx of Flygon, especially post grinder.
With the Palkia and Memory Berry "trick" being out of the bag, so to speak, I felt that it lost most/all of it's potency. Good players wouldn't fall for it. I'm not being decked in a 40 minute game either. The second I get decked in a timed game, I drop. You can play at a perfectly legitimate pace without even coming close to risking getting decked. Admittedly, if prizes are tied or you are behind, it enables them to take the KO at time and win, but it isn't that hard to play around. Unown G disrupts the trick quite a bit, as does Warp Point or Switch. I can only imagine a playing "trapping" Claydol active aiming to take the timed prize, only to get blown out by a Warp Point held to the last minute because their opponent knew their plan. Toss in the fact the ploy was now "common knowledge " and people will likely A.) not walk into it and B.) tech for it, and Palkia seemed like a subpar play. It is also "awful" against SP decks, as it gets Luxray'd almost immediately.
Now backtracking to the point that the two decks to beat are Flygon and SP: Machamp + Flygon Lvl X should secure the SP matchup rather safely. Now all we need to do is beat Flygon.
Enter Dusknoir. I've always hated this card as it has effectively required your opponenet to misplay for it to be effective. Luckily, with Flygon mirror match, this isn't true at all By limiting my opponent to a 3 slot bench, they need all 3 of those Pokemon to be evolutions to reach the magic "90" damage to allow a Flygon OHKO past weakness. This means if any basic hits play ( INCLUDING the Palkia, fyi
) they cannot OHKO my Flygon while I can do so to them. It also gives me a much wider bench for powering up back up attackers. At the very least, Dusknoir cancels out Palkia. They can't bench Palkia or they lose, and they can play at 3 bench and be able to KO, and the slots cancel out. They wind up with many more extra dead slots in their deck to support it, and they often do not run enough raw power to compensate when they rely so heavily on the gusting/trapping gimmick which is no longer viable. Toss in the fact that Dusknoir can randomly "win games" if your opponent walks into it, and he made the cut. Palkia seemed unnecessary vs SP, and in flygon mirror ( seeing how once it hits play, and cannot enable a OHKO on Flygon, it will get Lvl X sniped ) and it seemed like it didn't "break" any matchup short of Gengar, that I'd rather not waste my time with that or Memory Berry.
To further secure mirror, we added the Ditto. Ditto is unstoppable in mirror, and I'll demonstrate once I get to the actual report in a little bit. It also has game against Gengar ( Also shown ) Anyways, here is the list I finally used for the tournament:
4 Trapinch ( 2/2 split )
2 Vibrava
3 Flygon
1 Flygon Lvl X
2 Machop
1 Machoke
2 Machamp
1 Machamp Lvl X
2 Baltoy
2 Claydol
1 Chatot
1 Azelf
1 Uxie
2 Unown G
1 Duskull
1 Dusknoir
1 Ditto
4 Call
2 Upper
4 Fightning
2 Psychic
4 Bebe's Search
4 Roseanne's Research
4 Rare Candy
2 Luxury Ball
1 Night Maintenance
1 Premier Ball
1 Lucian
3 Cynthia's Feelings
Don't quote me entirely on this, but I knew Drew Holton ( top 32 ) and Sami S ( 2nd! ) both used roughly this list. Sami opted to go with Nidoqueen over the Dusknoir ( helps vs Gengar and Kingdra, thus a legitimate preference call ) and 3/1 Trapinch split in favor of the GOW attack one ( I stand by this being strictly incorrect ) and well, I know he went 1 Luxury Ball...possibly in favor of I believe an additional Upper Energy. Otherwise I'm pretty sure the lists stayed fairly identical.
Round 1 vs Machamp
I played against a French player who opened Beldum. I had no idea what to make from this, and just kinda hoped he was running turbo Metagross so I didn't have to think too hard. Of course, this wasn't the case, as he ran Turbo Machamp with a 1-0-1 Metagross line for the GOW flip. I open with I believe an Unown G...I do know that whatever it was got retreated on the first turn when I topdecked my Duskull, and I placed 3 damage counters on it to take Beldum to 30, and as I began to get set up, took it down the next turn. He gets Machamp up and swining, and than hits a TSD to get Beldum back, and score a miss on his Metagross flip. His next few gust attempts are more successful, and hes in unfortunately good shape after he gets a necessary hurricane punch KO on me and I return for only 30 with my own Machamp's flips. He overextends by benching a 4th guy, and I try to get Dusknoir back out but keep wiffing on Rare Candy for 3 turns straight, and Duskull eventually gets Gusted and killed. Due to the other flips going pretty poorly against me, and the lack of Rare Candy, the game state is extremely poor, and time is running out. Prizes are tied at 2-2 and than 1-1 and a crowd has gathered. I even shake my head and give Drew the "thumbs down" as I expect the loss here. He makes a few questionable choices in how he is approaching the end game, which gives me the opening I need as he gets tails on his GOW flip to take out my Azelf for his last prize. He has Machamp Lvl X active and uses it's attack....I go, and have no choice but to put the game on a SECOND flip...he flips to stay alive..TAILS. The 25% win chance held up and I snuck out an unlikely win at the end. I'm sure I'm biased because I know my list, and my exact hand at any given time, but he should have won that end game state if played properly IMO. There was no reason it needed to be up to coin flips.
1-0
Round 2 vs Luxray
I get paired against another French opponent, this time with Luxray rush. His start is solid but not explosive, where mine is rather aggressive. I get the full array of evolutions out and it isn't really much of a game. He did his best to make a fight out of it to his credit, but it is such an uphill battle if my deck gets going that I don't think there is anything he could do.
2-0
Round 3 vs Machamp with Dusknoir Lumineon
Alright, I'll be the first to admit I forget the opening portion of this game, so let me summarize: He is beating me senseless. With 20 minutes gone, he is down to 2 prizes, and I still have 6, and have wiffed enough that I was effectively just sacrificing prizes. AND got Dark Palmed. SOMEHOW, and to this minute I have no idea how, I get my Dusknoir out, and get rid of his Claydol, and than a Machamp, and make the 6 prize comeback to win a game I again had no business winning. I actually feel bad here, as I asked him to play faster with about 15 minutes left in the game, knowing I had a large prize gap to overcome. I was polite about it, and he said it was no problem. The only thing is, I think I put him on tilt with that. He played a very tight, crisp game prior, and afterwards, some of his plays came off as really suspect. Not shady, just...incorrect. I think I was in good shape to win, but I felt as if some of his plays helped my cause out quite a bit, which I feel really bad about because his play really did seem to suffer once I asked him to speed up. His pace of play wasn't exceptionally slow, and I would not have tried to call a judge over for it, I was simply trying to obtain a quicker pace of play knowing otherwise I didn't think I could catch up in time.
3-0
Round 4 vs Yamato with Flygon Weavile ( FEATURE MATCH! )
Yamato and I have quite a history dating all the way back to Worlds 2004 when we faced off with the title of World Champion on the line in the finals of the tournament in Orlando. He beat me 2-0 with his Magma deck against my Blaziken deck. I unfortunately could offer little resistance in those games as my deck gave me little to work with, and having beaten similar variants of his deck in the top 8 and top 4 rounds of the same tournament, I knew the matchup was normally a nailbiter. With us both sitting at 3-0, they decided to seat the 2004 Worlds Finals rematch at the elusive Feature Match table up on stage at the front of the room. We got the matchup announced over the PA speakers, and I was glad to get another opportunity at a somewhat high profile rematch. I've made it a habit to always get a game in against Yamato each year since 04 ( he won the rematch in 05, I got one back in 06, he got me in 07, and I got him in 08 )
Backstory aside, I get a fairly good start, and get the advantage of having access to a quick Machamp, which I feel is a huge advantage. Not being pigeonholed into opening with Flygon as an attacker is crucial because you don't risk losing the first stage 2. Machamp can take a hit from Flygon, than Level Up and take out a Flygon with 2 heads on Hurricane Punch. Yamato gets a quick Weavile, and starts to dump a bunch of Dark Energy into play, but he seems to be drawing poor in terms of Rare Candy and stage 1s, as his bench consists of Trapinchs. We had sat next to each other the prior two rounds, so he was aware I ran Dusknoir, and I knew he ran an Absol, and a Pachirisu. I did not, on the other hand, know he ran a Dusknoir. He had kept his bench at 3 previously, but overextended to play Dusknoir to punish my larger bench. The only problem is, I was both up in prizes and board position by a decent margin, but I also retaliated with my own Dusknoir on him. I also had Ditto up and ready which is such a huge advantage and he did not seem to run any answer for it. Admittedly, very few players ran Ditto, so it isn't something you necessarily need to counter. His game state is in bad shape, and he doesn't have an attack, and also forgets to Dark Palm me. Admittedly, at this point I was up by 3 prizes, and my board could afford to take the Dark Palm and still be in good shape. I take the game in the next couple of turns due to my better set up. I'm curious what it would have been like had he seen Rare Candy's or Trapinch earlier...I think it would have been a bit closer, but Dusknoir, Machamp ( plus Lvl X ) and Ditto are such advantages in mirror.
4-0
Round 5 vs Jay Hourning with Flygon Machamp
This is actually really amusing to me at this point, as Jay was the player I beat in the finals of US Nationals in 07. Rounds 4 and 5 had been rematches of my two highest profile games. I open with something irrelevent, and he opens Trapinch. I go first, and have the turn 1 Machamp in hand, but he goes and Rare Candies into Flygon, attaches an Upper, and Roseannes for Baltoy and Chatot, free retreating to Mimic. I look at my hand, and outside of my Machamp, which walks into the Upper, my hand is really rather awful. I Take Out Chatot, and he Levels up, and gets out a Claydol, and a Nidoqueen. Lovely. I Level Up my Machamp, and go for the needed 3 heads to take out his Flygon...I do not succeed He ties prizes with the kill, and my hands still weak and I have no relevent follow up attacker. I'm forced to empty my hand, and fill my bench with basics to Uxie to try to draw into things, fail, and Mimic. He proceeds to Memory Berry lock me with Sand Tomb. I would have been fine had I not had to fill my bench to Uxie, as Unown G breaks the lock, but I had to play so aggressively just to try and stay in the "normal" game due to his start that I couldn't defend properly to the Memory Berry threat. On a side note, I would not have decked...I WOULD, on the other hand, have been Maron'd and gotten Chatot killed once time was called.
4-1
Round 6 vs Jayson Harry w Palkia Lock
Jayson decided to REBEL and stick with the deck he knew inside out and had gotten his invite with. I'd played him a few times the nights before in the matchup and was X-0 against him...unfortunately, this game didn't go quite as kindly for me. As a matter of fact, I got steamrolled. Despite getting Chatot up, and using multiple Cynthia, I never really "got there". I got a few swings in, and a couple of evolutions going but I never really was "in" the game because I hit extremely clunky. This is the last deck one can afford to hit clunky against as well, as it cuts off all of your powers and can snipe "protected" bench targets your trying to build up. He gets up 4 prizes and I scoop knowing he can Palkia or Luxray the last 2 prizes easily. On a side note, all is not lost as he enlightens me to the wonderful taste of vegetable juice.
4-2
Round 7 vs Matt L w Gengar Starmie
Oh lovely. I cut Nidoqueen and get paired with Gengar to "make or break" my top cut appearance. After making fun of Jason K for his bad deck choice ( I feel Gengar was NOT a good deck choice for the event ) I was SURE Karma had it in for me. I do my best to stay in this game, assuming I cannot win. He puts Unown G's on Claydol and one of his support Pokemon, anticipating the lock trick that was popular that day, which gave me a sick opening: Ditto was open to KO Gengars. Ditto pulled it off on one ditto, and I simply flung a Machamp into the other for a KO. I force him to rely on Starmie for attacking by restricting Powers in play. I can KO a Starmie one hit, and continually do so, and than get his deck extremely low with Flygon Lvl X, Hes at 1 prize to my 2, and I'm forced to swing a Flygon into his Gengar. I do, and if he gets Fainting Spell I lose. He wiffs. He goes, and hits my benched Flygon for 30. His Gengar has 60 on it...I have 11 cards left, one is a Night Maintenace. I have Roseanne's Research in hand, and a dead Ditto. I manage to Cosmic for 5....WIFF. No NM. I go into the tank, and I'm forced to flip for Sudden Death...he flips and gets tails! I win what has to be one of my worst possible matchups. Karma for losing to Palkia Lock the previous round perhaps.
5-2
I look at the standings and I am in 10th. I look at my tie breakers..had I lost, I would have still made top 32 in either 32nd or 31st seed depending on how much having Matt as 5-2 opposed to 4-3 would have upped my resistance. I had Jayson ( 6-1 ) and Jay ( 6-1 ) and Yamato ( 5-2 ) all as breaks and started 4-0, so I did feel pretty confident that even had I dropped 3 straight I would have snuck in, and my thoughts were correct.
We play Top 32 that night, and top 16 plays the next day, which I approve of. I get paired against a Japanese player, and assume he is using SP or Flygon, either which I am more than ok with. Drew started out 1-2, and came back to get in at 5-2, and Ross made the 0-2 to 5-2 comeback.
Top 32 vs Palkia Lock
Game 1
I get a complete re-enactment of my game vs Jayson in round 6. I get a mimic off, and than do a lot of draw passing. I never get a stage 2 Pokemon into play, and take 0 prizes.
0-1
Game 2
Well, pretty much the same thing happens. I never get a stage 2 into play. Multiple Cynthia and Mimics later, my board is still a bunch of basic Pokemon as I bleed prizes and get crushed. Having played 15+ Palkia Lock matchups in testing and having only lost one of them, only to go 0-3 vs it in the main event was quite frusterating, but my opponent was a great guy, he was extremely excited to even be in the top cut, yet alone make top 16 that even at my expense I still felt really happy for him. He did not speak english, but he conveyed the fact that he was aware that he got lucky to win that matchup. He also came up to me the next day, and had me sign a Flygon Lvl X for him, and I had him sign my Palkia Lvl X in exchange. Hopefully he'll make top 32, and even top 16 again in the next couple of years too
0-2
So I get eliminated in top 32 for the 3rd time at Worlds. Having made cut 4 times now, it is a bit aggrivating to know that I only got eliminated once while actually "playing pokemon" opposed to "draw pass lose " ( Yamato crushed my terrible starts in 04, Kyle S blew my dead draws away in 08, and now this in 09 )
None the less, Worlds was FANTASTIC yet again. I'll be the first to admit I have some complaints about the current state of the game, and I'll have a large post complaining about that in the near future, but this isn't the place for that. Plus, I simply want to voice them because I think most of them should be easily remedies. 99% of the things that are going on for the game right now are great. Overall, the game has never been in better shape than it is right now, in my eyes. Huge props to PUI for putting on such a great event, and for all of the players for making the event so memorable.
Props
-------
Chad- Picking me up, giving me a place to stay, and keeping me entertained for a few days when I got out to Cali so early, its really appreciated man Wish you had a bit better luck with the grinder, but not even being cynical, there really IS always next year. Your due.
Martin- I'm so glad to have you back in the game, your always a blast to hang out with. So many memories. Sorry the Roserade didn't work out. Best deck name ever?
Sami- Come on, you got 2nd place with the deck! Grats man. Plus, your not even that lame to hang out with either! Keep it up!
Yacine, Faris, Tom, Nitish, Scarlet, Ben, Associated English Folk- I spent a ton of time with all you guys this past week and loved every second of it. I can't wait to save up the money and come see all you guys overseas. Your all amazing.
The Craigs Minus Miranda- You guys are always a blast, even if Heidi is old She can dance though! Watching Eric shoulder check Yacine was one of the best visuals ever. Orion somehow survived the weekend with knees in tact too. I lost money on that.
Levi- The only person who had as little clue as to where he'd be sleeping each nigh a week before the event than me. I was joking about the "F" BFF. Your still prefix'less It was great to see you again especially since you didn't make it to Nats.
Jayson Harry-One heck of a season man! Plus awesome to hang out with. I'll have to make the trek down to KY sometime to see you!
Stephen Silvestro- Awesome job winning worlds We haven't always seen eye to eye, but you played a great deck and held it together all day long. You deserved the win. See you in Hawaii
Jason
Alex
Moss
Drew
Ajay
Mondak
Pooka
Ryan
Bianchi
Jimmy Singapore!
Khahn Le
Pram
Sammy
Kelley ( If you don't think she follows Sammy simply due to gender identification your wrong )
Omar
The Chins ( Couldn't put these guys next to Sammy for obv reasons )
Yamato- I want my trophy sir!
Ross- Great rebound!
Tia- Great job top 8ing
Alyson- Your not as cool as Jayson, but you still did great with Kingdra for your first time!
The rest of Lafonte
Neutral
--------------
Matt Alvis
Slops
--------------
He Who Won't Shut Up
Levi- YOU OWE ME 15 DOLLARS YOU DIRTY THIEF
Miranda Craig- I dunno, seems kind of standard being archenemies and all.
Seena- Should have come.
Foisy
2 Palkia g
1 Palkia G Lvl X
2 Dialga G
1 Dialga G Lvl X
2 Luxray GL
1 Luxray GL Lvl X
1 Baltoy
1 Claydol
2 Unown G
1 Bronzong G
1 Crobat G
1 Uxie
1 Azelf
1 Chatot
2 Mesprit
1 Toxicroak
4 Call Energy
2 Water Energy
2 Lightning Energy
1 Psychic Energy
1 Metal Energy
3 Metal ( Special )
1 SP Energy
3 Roseanne's Research
2 Bebe's Search
4 Cyrus's Conspiracy
1 Luxury Ball
2 SP Radar
4 Energy Gain
4 PokeTurn
3 Power Spray
1 Night Maintenance
1 Aaron's Collection
2 Unown G for Machamp and Gengar. Toxicroak for Luxrays and a nice clutch attacker. Dialga with Metal is actually really strong vs Kingdra and vs Flygon builds as well ( Since it becomes very difficult to one hit even not as an X and can be Bronzong cycled. ) The attackers are all 2-1 lines so you can do the cycle in their respective favorable matchups. Metal Dialga also is FANTASTIC in mirror match, and vs the Palkia lock decks. The deck was 50-50 vs LuxApe, with the option of an Azelf MT to tilt the matchup further if you wanted space for it. The 3rd Mesprit, theoretically simply "superior" to Power Spray was inverted for the latter because of it's added strength in SP matchups ( Can't be Sprayed, fantastic vs Luxray as they can't just sit the turn out, etc ) Chatot replaced the 4th Roseanne as it's also sick to open with, has free retreat, is great vs power lock, and can generally be used as a crutch against any sort of bad start. I really support the 1-1 Claydol in this deck because no other 2 cards in the game can possibly net you the game long card advantage it will. It forces out extra power sprays, and vs non SP matchups, is rarely getting killed if protected correctly. The deck doesn't need the claydol early, it is far more for midgame when your Cyrus supply dwindles and your barely chugging along.
ANYWAYS, it was going 50-50 vs Luxape, very high in mirror, very high vs Kingdra and Gengar, 50-50 vs Machamp, and 50-50 vs the Flygon builds. Well, maybe a little worse vs Machamp, but I felt more than confident in my ability to steal wins out of outplaying Machamp players.
I tested Martin's Flygon Weavile list quite a bit, and it ran extra hot the first night I used it, only to have a string of terrible performances to our Luxape build. I than try Luxape, and it runs like a God for me. Of course, it too hits a streak of bad games, and demoralization sets in. I'm leaning back to DPL simply because I knew it inside and out, and it has, beyond a shadow of a doubt, better intangibles than any other deck. ( Intangibles in this case being that it is fantastic in timed games, has the best "game 3" in match play of any deck, is one of the few decks capable of skill based "comebacks" due to proper mesprit locks, bench limiting and gusts, etc )
I decide that if it came down to the "top three", being DPL, Flygon and Luxape, that theres no way I'd possibly use the other two over DPL, so I'm back where I started: I know my deck, outside of a few easy to manage post-grinder metagame calls, so I can focus on testing something new. SOO I decide to throw together the Machamp Flygon Palkia list I wrote up on the plane ride over and give it some games.
I easily 2-0 a Luxape in the lobby, than play against Eric Craig's DPL ( very similiar to mine ) and I 4-1 it, the one loss being very unlucky, making me feel very confident in the SP matchup. I 1-1 vs Kingdra with both games being terrible ( Tested vs Jason K using Chuck's deck ) and knew Kingdra was favorable too.
The interesting part? Not once did I ever use Palkia. It also required I devote a number of clunky unncessary cards to the list just to potentially get it in play, so I cut it. The initial list looked something like this...
3 Trapinch ( 2 power, 1 gust )
2 Vibrava
3 Flygon
1 Flygon Lvl X
2 Machop
1 Machoke
2 Machamp
1 Machamp Lvl X
1 Nidoran
1 Nidoqueen
1 Chatot
1 Uxie
1 Azelf
1 Mewtwo
1 Mewtwo Lvl X
2 Unown G
2 Baltoy
2 Claydol
4 Call
2 Upper Energy
3 Psychic Energy
4 Fightning Energy
4 Bebe's Search
4 Roseanne's Research
3 Cynthia's Feelings
1 Lucian's ________ ( I just call it Lucian, deal with it )
1 Night Maintenance
1 Premier Ball
4 Rare Candy
1 Luxury Ball
This is after I cut the Palkia line, and the 3 switches I had in it at the time. Anyways, I end up testing this against Sami, and Jayson, and Yacine, and the rest of my testing crew for the weekend the night of the grinder after making some adjustments based on the grinder.
I felt very confident with Machamp Flygon because it had an inherent number of autowins against the sure to be popular SP decks. I felt that SP would be the most played deck, followed by a large influx of Flygon, especially post grinder.
With the Palkia and Memory Berry "trick" being out of the bag, so to speak, I felt that it lost most/all of it's potency. Good players wouldn't fall for it. I'm not being decked in a 40 minute game either. The second I get decked in a timed game, I drop. You can play at a perfectly legitimate pace without even coming close to risking getting decked. Admittedly, if prizes are tied or you are behind, it enables them to take the KO at time and win, but it isn't that hard to play around. Unown G disrupts the trick quite a bit, as does Warp Point or Switch. I can only imagine a playing "trapping" Claydol active aiming to take the timed prize, only to get blown out by a Warp Point held to the last minute because their opponent knew their plan. Toss in the fact the ploy was now "common knowledge " and people will likely A.) not walk into it and B.) tech for it, and Palkia seemed like a subpar play. It is also "awful" against SP decks, as it gets Luxray'd almost immediately.
Now backtracking to the point that the two decks to beat are Flygon and SP: Machamp + Flygon Lvl X should secure the SP matchup rather safely. Now all we need to do is beat Flygon.
Enter Dusknoir. I've always hated this card as it has effectively required your opponenet to misplay for it to be effective. Luckily, with Flygon mirror match, this isn't true at all By limiting my opponent to a 3 slot bench, they need all 3 of those Pokemon to be evolutions to reach the magic "90" damage to allow a Flygon OHKO past weakness. This means if any basic hits play ( INCLUDING the Palkia, fyi
) they cannot OHKO my Flygon while I can do so to them. It also gives me a much wider bench for powering up back up attackers. At the very least, Dusknoir cancels out Palkia. They can't bench Palkia or they lose, and they can play at 3 bench and be able to KO, and the slots cancel out. They wind up with many more extra dead slots in their deck to support it, and they often do not run enough raw power to compensate when they rely so heavily on the gusting/trapping gimmick which is no longer viable. Toss in the fact that Dusknoir can randomly "win games" if your opponent walks into it, and he made the cut. Palkia seemed unnecessary vs SP, and in flygon mirror ( seeing how once it hits play, and cannot enable a OHKO on Flygon, it will get Lvl X sniped ) and it seemed like it didn't "break" any matchup short of Gengar, that I'd rather not waste my time with that or Memory Berry. To further secure mirror, we added the Ditto. Ditto is unstoppable in mirror, and I'll demonstrate once I get to the actual report in a little bit. It also has game against Gengar ( Also shown ) Anyways, here is the list I finally used for the tournament:
4 Trapinch ( 2/2 split )
2 Vibrava
3 Flygon
1 Flygon Lvl X
2 Machop
1 Machoke
2 Machamp
1 Machamp Lvl X
2 Baltoy
2 Claydol
1 Chatot
1 Azelf
1 Uxie
2 Unown G
1 Duskull
1 Dusknoir
1 Ditto
4 Call
2 Upper
4 Fightning
2 Psychic
4 Bebe's Search
4 Roseanne's Research
4 Rare Candy
2 Luxury Ball
1 Night Maintenance
1 Premier Ball
1 Lucian
3 Cynthia's Feelings
Don't quote me entirely on this, but I knew Drew Holton ( top 32 ) and Sami S ( 2nd! ) both used roughly this list. Sami opted to go with Nidoqueen over the Dusknoir ( helps vs Gengar and Kingdra, thus a legitimate preference call ) and 3/1 Trapinch split in favor of the GOW attack one ( I stand by this being strictly incorrect ) and well, I know he went 1 Luxury Ball...possibly in favor of I believe an additional Upper Energy. Otherwise I'm pretty sure the lists stayed fairly identical.
Round 1 vs Machamp
I played against a French player who opened Beldum. I had no idea what to make from this, and just kinda hoped he was running turbo Metagross so I didn't have to think too hard. Of course, this wasn't the case, as he ran Turbo Machamp with a 1-0-1 Metagross line for the GOW flip. I open with I believe an Unown G...I do know that whatever it was got retreated on the first turn when I topdecked my Duskull, and I placed 3 damage counters on it to take Beldum to 30, and as I began to get set up, took it down the next turn. He gets Machamp up and swining, and than hits a TSD to get Beldum back, and score a miss on his Metagross flip. His next few gust attempts are more successful, and hes in unfortunately good shape after he gets a necessary hurricane punch KO on me and I return for only 30 with my own Machamp's flips. He overextends by benching a 4th guy, and I try to get Dusknoir back out but keep wiffing on Rare Candy for 3 turns straight, and Duskull eventually gets Gusted and killed. Due to the other flips going pretty poorly against me, and the lack of Rare Candy, the game state is extremely poor, and time is running out. Prizes are tied at 2-2 and than 1-1 and a crowd has gathered. I even shake my head and give Drew the "thumbs down" as I expect the loss here. He makes a few questionable choices in how he is approaching the end game, which gives me the opening I need as he gets tails on his GOW flip to take out my Azelf for his last prize. He has Machamp Lvl X active and uses it's attack....I go, and have no choice but to put the game on a SECOND flip...he flips to stay alive..TAILS. The 25% win chance held up and I snuck out an unlikely win at the end. I'm sure I'm biased because I know my list, and my exact hand at any given time, but he should have won that end game state if played properly IMO. There was no reason it needed to be up to coin flips.
1-0
Round 2 vs Luxray
I get paired against another French opponent, this time with Luxray rush. His start is solid but not explosive, where mine is rather aggressive. I get the full array of evolutions out and it isn't really much of a game. He did his best to make a fight out of it to his credit, but it is such an uphill battle if my deck gets going that I don't think there is anything he could do.
2-0
Round 3 vs Machamp with Dusknoir Lumineon
Alright, I'll be the first to admit I forget the opening portion of this game, so let me summarize: He is beating me senseless. With 20 minutes gone, he is down to 2 prizes, and I still have 6, and have wiffed enough that I was effectively just sacrificing prizes. AND got Dark Palmed. SOMEHOW, and to this minute I have no idea how, I get my Dusknoir out, and get rid of his Claydol, and than a Machamp, and make the 6 prize comeback to win a game I again had no business winning. I actually feel bad here, as I asked him to play faster with about 15 minutes left in the game, knowing I had a large prize gap to overcome. I was polite about it, and he said it was no problem. The only thing is, I think I put him on tilt with that. He played a very tight, crisp game prior, and afterwards, some of his plays came off as really suspect. Not shady, just...incorrect. I think I was in good shape to win, but I felt as if some of his plays helped my cause out quite a bit, which I feel really bad about because his play really did seem to suffer once I asked him to speed up. His pace of play wasn't exceptionally slow, and I would not have tried to call a judge over for it, I was simply trying to obtain a quicker pace of play knowing otherwise I didn't think I could catch up in time.
3-0
Round 4 vs Yamato with Flygon Weavile ( FEATURE MATCH! )
Yamato and I have quite a history dating all the way back to Worlds 2004 when we faced off with the title of World Champion on the line in the finals of the tournament in Orlando. He beat me 2-0 with his Magma deck against my Blaziken deck. I unfortunately could offer little resistance in those games as my deck gave me little to work with, and having beaten similar variants of his deck in the top 8 and top 4 rounds of the same tournament, I knew the matchup was normally a nailbiter. With us both sitting at 3-0, they decided to seat the 2004 Worlds Finals rematch at the elusive Feature Match table up on stage at the front of the room. We got the matchup announced over the PA speakers, and I was glad to get another opportunity at a somewhat high profile rematch. I've made it a habit to always get a game in against Yamato each year since 04 ( he won the rematch in 05, I got one back in 06, he got me in 07, and I got him in 08 )
Backstory aside, I get a fairly good start, and get the advantage of having access to a quick Machamp, which I feel is a huge advantage. Not being pigeonholed into opening with Flygon as an attacker is crucial because you don't risk losing the first stage 2. Machamp can take a hit from Flygon, than Level Up and take out a Flygon with 2 heads on Hurricane Punch. Yamato gets a quick Weavile, and starts to dump a bunch of Dark Energy into play, but he seems to be drawing poor in terms of Rare Candy and stage 1s, as his bench consists of Trapinchs. We had sat next to each other the prior two rounds, so he was aware I ran Dusknoir, and I knew he ran an Absol, and a Pachirisu. I did not, on the other hand, know he ran a Dusknoir. He had kept his bench at 3 previously, but overextended to play Dusknoir to punish my larger bench. The only problem is, I was both up in prizes and board position by a decent margin, but I also retaliated with my own Dusknoir on him. I also had Ditto up and ready which is such a huge advantage and he did not seem to run any answer for it. Admittedly, very few players ran Ditto, so it isn't something you necessarily need to counter. His game state is in bad shape, and he doesn't have an attack, and also forgets to Dark Palm me. Admittedly, at this point I was up by 3 prizes, and my board could afford to take the Dark Palm and still be in good shape. I take the game in the next couple of turns due to my better set up. I'm curious what it would have been like had he seen Rare Candy's or Trapinch earlier...I think it would have been a bit closer, but Dusknoir, Machamp ( plus Lvl X ) and Ditto are such advantages in mirror.
4-0
Round 5 vs Jay Hourning with Flygon Machamp
This is actually really amusing to me at this point, as Jay was the player I beat in the finals of US Nationals in 07. Rounds 4 and 5 had been rematches of my two highest profile games. I open with something irrelevent, and he opens Trapinch. I go first, and have the turn 1 Machamp in hand, but he goes and Rare Candies into Flygon, attaches an Upper, and Roseannes for Baltoy and Chatot, free retreating to Mimic. I look at my hand, and outside of my Machamp, which walks into the Upper, my hand is really rather awful. I Take Out Chatot, and he Levels up, and gets out a Claydol, and a Nidoqueen. Lovely. I Level Up my Machamp, and go for the needed 3 heads to take out his Flygon...I do not succeed
He ties prizes with the kill, and my hands still weak and I have no relevent follow up attacker. I'm forced to empty my hand, and fill my bench with basics to Uxie to try to draw into things, fail, and Mimic. He proceeds to Memory Berry lock me with Sand Tomb. I would have been fine had I not had to fill my bench to Uxie, as Unown G breaks the lock, but I had to play so aggressively just to try and stay in the "normal" game due to his start that I couldn't defend properly to the Memory Berry threat. On a side note, I would not have decked...I WOULD, on the other hand, have been Maron'd and gotten Chatot killed once time was called. 4-1
Round 6 vs Jayson Harry w Palkia Lock
Jayson decided to REBEL and stick with the deck he knew inside out and had gotten his invite with. I'd played him a few times the nights before in the matchup and was X-0 against him...unfortunately, this game didn't go quite as kindly for me. As a matter of fact, I got steamrolled. Despite getting Chatot up, and using multiple Cynthia, I never really "got there". I got a few swings in, and a couple of evolutions going but I never really was "in" the game because I hit extremely clunky. This is the last deck one can afford to hit clunky against as well, as it cuts off all of your powers and can snipe "protected" bench targets your trying to build up. He gets up 4 prizes and I scoop knowing he can Palkia or Luxray the last 2 prizes easily. On a side note, all is not lost as he enlightens me to the wonderful taste of vegetable juice.
4-2
Round 7 vs Matt L w Gengar Starmie
Oh lovely. I cut Nidoqueen and get paired with Gengar to "make or break" my top cut appearance. After making fun of Jason K for his bad deck choice ( I feel Gengar was NOT a good deck choice for the event ) I was SURE Karma had it in for me. I do my best to stay in this game, assuming I cannot win. He puts Unown G's on Claydol and one of his support Pokemon, anticipating the lock trick that was popular that day, which gave me a sick opening: Ditto was open to KO Gengars. Ditto pulled it off on one ditto, and I simply flung a Machamp into the other for a KO. I force him to rely on Starmie for attacking by restricting Powers in play. I can KO a Starmie one hit, and continually do so, and than get his deck extremely low with Flygon Lvl X, Hes at 1 prize to my 2, and I'm forced to swing a Flygon into his Gengar. I do, and if he gets Fainting Spell I lose. He wiffs. He goes, and hits my benched Flygon for 30. His Gengar has 60 on it...I have 11 cards left, one is a Night Maintenace. I have Roseanne's Research in hand, and a dead Ditto. I manage to Cosmic for 5....WIFF. No NM. I go into the tank, and I'm forced to flip for Sudden Death...he flips and gets tails! I win what has to be one of my worst possible matchups. Karma for losing to Palkia Lock the previous round perhaps.
5-2
I look at the standings and I am in 10th. I look at my tie breakers..had I lost, I would have still made top 32 in either 32nd or 31st seed depending on how much having Matt as 5-2 opposed to 4-3 would have upped my resistance. I had Jayson ( 6-1 ) and Jay ( 6-1 ) and Yamato ( 5-2 ) all as breaks and started 4-0, so I did feel pretty confident that even had I dropped 3 straight I would have snuck in, and my thoughts were correct.
We play Top 32 that night, and top 16 plays the next day, which I approve of. I get paired against a Japanese player, and assume he is using SP or Flygon, either which I am more than ok with. Drew started out 1-2, and came back to get in at 5-2, and Ross made the 0-2 to 5-2 comeback.
Top 32 vs Palkia Lock
Game 1
I get a complete re-enactment of my game vs Jayson in round 6. I get a mimic off, and than do a lot of draw passing. I never get a stage 2 Pokemon into play, and take 0 prizes.
0-1
Game 2
Well, pretty much the same thing happens. I never get a stage 2 into play. Multiple Cynthia and Mimics later, my board is still a bunch of basic Pokemon as I bleed prizes and get crushed. Having played 15+ Palkia Lock matchups in testing and having only lost one of them, only to go 0-3 vs it in the main event was quite frusterating, but my opponent was a great guy, he was extremely excited to even be in the top cut, yet alone make top 16 that even at my expense I still felt really happy for him. He did not speak english, but he conveyed the fact that he was aware that he got lucky to win that matchup. He also came up to me the next day, and had me sign a Flygon Lvl X for him, and I had him sign my Palkia Lvl X in exchange. Hopefully he'll make top 32, and even top 16 again in the next couple of years too
0-2
So I get eliminated in top 32 for the 3rd time at Worlds. Having made cut 4 times now, it is a bit aggrivating to know that I only got eliminated once while actually "playing pokemon" opposed to "draw pass lose " ( Yamato crushed my terrible starts in 04, Kyle S blew my dead draws away in 08, and now this in 09 )
None the less, Worlds was FANTASTIC yet again. I'll be the first to admit I have some complaints about the current state of the game, and I'll have a large post complaining about that in the near future, but this isn't the place for that. Plus, I simply want to voice them because I think most of them should be easily remedies. 99% of the things that are going on for the game right now are great. Overall, the game has never been in better shape than it is right now, in my eyes. Huge props to PUI for putting on such a great event, and for all of the players for making the event so memorable.
Props
-------
Chad- Picking me up, giving me a place to stay, and keeping me entertained for a few days when I got out to Cali so early, its really appreciated man
Wish you had a bit better luck with the grinder, but not even being cynical, there really IS always next year. Your due.Martin- I'm so glad to have you back in the game, your always a blast to hang out with. So many memories. Sorry the Roserade didn't work out.
Best deck name ever?Sami- Come on, you got 2nd place with the deck! Grats man. Plus, your not even that lame to hang out with either! Keep it up!
Yacine, Faris, Tom, Nitish, Scarlet, Ben, Associated English Folk- I spent a ton of time with all you guys this past week and loved every second of it. I can't wait to save up the money and come see all you guys overseas. Your all amazing.
The Craigs Minus Miranda- You guys are always a blast, even if Heidi is old
She can dance though! Watching Eric shoulder check Yacine was one of the best visuals ever. Orion somehow survived the weekend with knees in tact too. I lost money on that.Levi- The only person who had as little clue as to where he'd be sleeping each nigh a week before the event than me. I was joking about the "F" BFF. Your still prefix'less
It was great to see you again especially since you didn't make it to Nats.Jayson Harry-One heck of a season man! Plus awesome to hang out with. I'll have to make the trek down to KY sometime to see you!
Stephen Silvestro- Awesome job winning worlds
We haven't always seen eye to eye, but you played a great deck and held it together all day long. You deserved the win. See you in Hawaii Jason
Alex
Moss
Drew
Ajay
Mondak
Pooka
Ryan
Bianchi
Jimmy Singapore!
Khahn Le
Pram
Sammy
Kelley ( If you don't think she follows Sammy simply due to gender identification your wrong )
Omar
The Chins ( Couldn't put these guys next to Sammy for obv reasons )
Yamato- I want my trophy sir!
Ross- Great rebound!
Tia- Great job top 8ing
Alyson- Your not as cool as Jayson, but you still did great with Kingdra for your first time!
The rest of Lafonte
Neutral
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Matt Alvis
Slops
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He Who Won't Shut Up
Levi- YOU OWE ME 15 DOLLARS YOU DIRTY THIEF
Miranda Craig- I dunno, seems kind of standard being archenemies and all.
Seena- Should have come.
Foisy
