Quality over Quantity

Reflections on New England City Championships 2015-2016

Hello again SixPrizes readers, it’s been a few months since I last wrote for you all. The reason I’m returning today is to provide a recap of my City Championship experiences this season, and share the decklists that I was able to pilot to numerous successful finishes.

Between the last time that I wrote and the start of City Championships this season, I attended only three major events: Seattle Regionals at the end of last season, the Boston Open, and Lancaster, PA Regionals this past October. At the Boston Open, I finished with a record of 3-0-4 piloting Primal Groudon-EX/Wobbuffet PHF, thus placing me in the top 128 and adding the first 10 Championship Points to my total for this season. I ended up finishing very mediocre in Lancaster after a strong start to the day, and unfortunately went home empty-handed.

Due to the lack of significant finishes at these events early in the season, I headed into the City Championship segment of this season with full knowledge that it would make or break my run for an invitation to the World Championships this year.

Pre-Cities Testing

Before beginning to craft lists and extensively test matchups, my teammates and I created a preliminary list of decks that we believed to be strong contenders in the Standard format because none of us had much experience with the format outside of the occasional League Challenge. These are the decks we decided to test with and against:

After a couple of weeks of experimenting with all of the above, I elected to focus on testing Mega Manectric and Lucario/Crobat. Despite lacking some of the raw power provided by other decks on the list, these two seemed to be the most consistent and had the best spread of matchups.

Amid this testing I also had one under the radar deck that I was testing exclusively with one of my teammates and my brother: Primal Kyogre/Zoroark BKT with Assault Vest. I ultimately shelved this idea due to major consistency problems and a fear of Vespiquen, but it saw moderate success in other areas of the country, so I may have been on the right track with this one.

Since Lucario/Crobat seemed to have a fairly clear-cut strategy, I spent the majority of my time testing Mega Manectric variants to figure out what would be the best suite of accompanying attackers. The obvious pairings were Water-types such as Regice AOR and Articuno ROS 17, which proved to be a strong option that many of my teammates favored. I even tested some more unique partners like Xerneas XY and Regirock AOR to beat Tyrantrum and the mirror, respectively, but none of them “clicked” for me.

However, the advent of BREAKthrough had brought the partner I sought. A few weeks before Cities started, I messaged my friend James Horvath with something along the lines of “What if we ran Mega Manectric with the new Raikou, so we could run all L Energy and focus on more consistency cards and techs?” Shortly thereafter we discovered that our mutual friend Christopher Schemanske had been testing a Mega Manectric/Raikou variant with Assault Vest and Flash Energy to improve the Giratina-EX and Lucario/Crobat matchups, and at that point we were fully committed to the idea.

Event 1: Londonderry, NH — 11/28

The night before this event, I was hearing talk from friends in different areas of the country that Yveltal-EX/Zoroark BKT/Fighting-attacker-of-choice decks had seen unexpected success earlier that day. I scrambled to try and throw together a list for Yveltal/Zoroark/Gallade, but with roughly two hours to test, I wasn’t able to become comfortable enough with the deck to justify playing it, in addition to having a list that I was confident was subpar at the time. Therefore, I elected to play the teched-out Mega Manectric/Raikou list that I had spent the previous few weeks refining.

Pokémon – 11

4 Manectric-EX

3 M Manectric-EX

2 Raikou BKT

2 Shaymin-EX ROS

Trainers – 39

4 Professor Sycamore

2 Lysandre

1 Professor Birch’s Observations

1 Judge

1 Hex Maniac

1 AZ

1 Pokémon Center Lady

 

4 VS Seeker

4 Trainers’ Mail

4 Ultra Ball

3 Manectric Spirit Link

2 Assault Vest

2 Battle Compressor

2 Enhanced Hammer

1 Escape Rope

1 Tool Retriever

 

3 Rough Seas

2 Parallel City

Energy – 10

7 L

3 Flash

With this list, I aimed to strike the perfect balance of consistency and techs. My draw Supporter engine coupled with the playset of Trainers’ Mail seemed just right to me in testing, and I rarely found myself wanting more draw options. On the other hand, my inclusions of Parallel City, Enhanced Hammer, and Tool Retriever were all made with the goal of improving certain matchups. Parallel City and Enhanced Hammer were (and still are) all-around solid cards, but I often found that they made their greatest impacts against Tyrantrum and Vespiquen.

Tool Retriever was included for a myriad of small situations, including removing Tools from my Manectrics to avoid being punished by Assault Laser in the mirror, and giving me a way to easily stick an Assault Vest on a Mega Manectric against Vespiquen. Another, more niche, play I made against Tyrantrum was using Hex Maniac to shut off Despotic Fang, so that a Tyrantrum-EX with a Double Dragon Energy attached would not be able to Knock Out a Mega Manectric through Assault Vest.

Here’s a summary of how the day went for me:

Round 1 vs. Lugia-EX/Water Attackers — L
Round 2 vs. Gengar BKT/Crobat PHF — L
Round 3 vs. Tyrantrum-EX/Bronzong PHF — W
Round 4 vs. 60-card mirror (my younger brother) — L
Round 5 vs. Wobbuffet PHF/Crobat PHF — W
Round 6 vs. M Manectric-EX/Regice AOR — W

3-3, 30th out of 50

Evidently, the day did not go well for me. I tend to be very critical of myself and my own mistakes as a player, but this event was particularly frustrating in that I could not pinpoint any plays I made in my losses that caused me to lose games. Rounds 1 and 4 played out in identical fashion; my starter in both games was a lone Shaymin-EX that was promptly donked both times.

In Round 2, I was faced with a terrible situation in which I had to either discard all three of my Mega Manectrics with a Professor Sycamore, or lose the next turn. Manectric-EX’s Assault Laser did not provide enough damage to deal with my opponent’s army of Gengar BKT, and I eventually lost to Creep Show + Surprise Bite shenanigans after all of my Rough Seas had been knocked out of play by Dimension Valley.

The rest of my matches played out about as expected. Wobbufett/Crobat is a near auto-win for Mega Manectric, and I had prepared a strategy for navigating the Manectric mirror that I was able to utilize effectively in the final round. Lastly, in Round 3, my techs included for Tyrantrum proved to be useful, as I was able to severely limit my opponent’s options and take a fairly convincing victory.

Event 2: Woburn, MA — 12/6

This was only the third event in the New England area, so I didn’t feel that the meta was defined enough to make a meta call just yet. As a result, I elected to play Mega Manectric again, but this time I decided to swap out the 2 Raikou and 3 Flash Energy for a lineup of Water attackers.

Pokémon – 12

4 Manectric-EX

3 M Manectric-EX

2 Regice AOR

1 Articuno ROS 17

2 Shaymin-EX ROS

Trainers – 38

4 Professor Sycamore

2 Lysandre

1 Professor Birch’s Observations

1 Judge

1 AZ

1 Pokémon Center Lady

 

4 VS Seeker

4 Trainers’ Mail

4 Ultra Ball

3 Manectric Spirit Link

2 Assault Vest

2 Battle Compressor

2 Enhanced Hammer

1 Escape Rope

1 Tool Retriever

 

3 Rough Seas

2 Parallel City

Energy – 10

6 L

4 W

Besides the shift from Raikou to Regice and Articuno, this list is nearly identical to the one I used the previous week. My rationale behind adding in Regice was to improve the Lucario/Crobat matchup, because an Assault Vested Regice coupled with the healing from Rough Seas and Pokémon Center Lady could almost singlehandedly win games against Lucario. Articuno was added mostly as an alternate attacker that could use W Energy, as the option to take 2 Prizes against Night Marchers and other low-HP Pokémon was too good to pass up. With an Assault Vest attached, Articuno was also able to survive a fair amount of attacks, which could cause immense problems for my opponents’ Prize trades.

I felt as though the techs I had included in Londonderry performed their jobs well despite my subpar finish, so I elected to keep them in this deck as well. The only notable cut I made was Hex Maniac, which was made primarily due to space constraints, and did in fact come back to bite me.

Round 1 vs. Mamoswine BKT — W
Round 2 vs. Yveltal-EX/Zoroark BKT/Gallade BKT — W
Round 3 vs. Tyrantrum-EX/Bronzong PHF — W
Round 4 vs. Lugia-EX AOR/Bronzong PHF/Swellow ROS 72 — W
Round 5 vs. Trevenant XY/Gengar-EX — ID
Round 6 vs. Manectric-EX/Crobat PHF — ID

Top 8 vs. Tyrantrum-EX/Bronzong PHF — LT

4-1-2, 5th out of 48

My performance at this event was much more satisfying than that of last week. Round 1 I beat what I wouldn’t exactly call a competitive deck, but my deck ran well regardless. Rounds 2, 3, and 4 were not terribly close. In Rounds 2 and 4 I set up extremely well, and was able to severely hinder my opponents’ setups with a combination of Enhanced Hammer and Parallel City. In Round 3 my opponent drew very poorly, which was unfortunate, but I was happy to take the win regardless.

After Round 4 there were only two 4-0’s, so my opponent and I immediately ID’d. I was again safe to ID in Round 6, so my opponent (who happened to be my teammate, Kevin Drolet) ID’d our way into the Top 8, where we were joined by one more of our teammates, Nick Kupferman.

In Top 8 my opponent set up very well in Game 1, and I was unable to make a meaningful difference with my Parallel Cities and Enhanced Hammers. Game 1 ended up taking well over half of the time allotted for our match, so we were unable to finish the second game, thus eliminating me from the tournament. Nick ended up losing his Top 8 match to Kevin, who went on to win the entire event.

Event 3: Plainville, MA — 12/19

gelato plainville 3-2

I was unfortunately forced to miss Week 3-of City Championships due to academic commitments, but I was able to gain valuable information about the meta from my teammates who attended the events that weekend. My interpretation of this data led me to believe that M Mewtwo-EX BKT 64 coupled with Zoroark BKT and Yveltal XY would be the perfect play for the weekend, due to a noticeable absence of Night March the previous week.

The night before the event, I was discussing the list I was intending to play with Christopher Schemanske, who encouraged me to instead play a more consistent list that omitted Yveltal in exchange for more consistency cards. He ended up passing along his list, and I elected to play it. Our mutual reasoning was that if Night March was expected to be absent from the event, then I could afford to weaken my matchup against it in exchange for improving matchups like Mega Manectric and Mega Sceptile, and hope to avoid running into any Night March decks. Be sure to check out his article to see the list!

Round 1 vs. M Mewtwo-EX BKT 64/Yveltal XY/Zoroark BKT — W
Round 2 vs. Trevenant XY/Gengar-EX — W
Round 3 vs. Yveltal-EX/Zoroark BKT/Regirock AOR — W
Round 4 vs. M Manectric-EX/Raikou BKT — ID
Round 5 vs. Tyrantrum-EX/Bronzong PHF — L
Round 6 vs. M Manectric-EX/Raikou BKT — W

Top 8 vs. Lugia-EX/Bronzong/Swellow — WW
Top 4 vs. Yveltal-EX/Zoroark BKT/Gallade BKT — LWL

5-2-1, 4th out of 38

This week, I continued my trend of improvement over previous finishes. Rounds 1 and 2 were close games that ultimately fell in my favor. In Round 1, a mirror match, the game simply came down to the fact that my list included Zoroark BREAK while his did not. Being able to copy Psychic Infinity for just one D Energy to steal a knockout, and resist a likely return attack from an opposing Mega Mewtwo, is ridiculously strong. Round 2 was scary initially, but I was able to plow through his field of Gengar-EX and Trevenants with Zoroark as soon as he benched three Pokémon.

In Round 3 I played a rather short game against my teammate Christian Wybieracki that ended with me donking his lone Yveltal XY on turn two with a four-Energy Mega Mewtwo. In Round 4, my opponent offered me an ID, which I took. Against any other Mega Manectric deck I would have played it out, but I knew for a fact that his list ran three Enhanced Hammer, which would likely tilt the matchup very far in his favor.

Round 5 saw me facing yet another teammate, Michael Drolet. Michael destroyed me in this game; Tyrantrum is typically a very close matchup when playing Mega Mewtwo, but I was unable to set up my Zoroarks quickly enough to stand a chance against his strong opening turn. In the final round, I was matched up against Azul Garcia playing Mega Manectric/Raikou. Azul and I played an extremely close game, that I eventually was able to clinch by stacking five Energy onto a Mega Mewtwo in one turn and proceeding to sweep my last 4 Prizes with it.

In Top 8 I was matched up against the same Lugia-EX deck that I had played against in Woburn. The matchup was fairly easy to win; Psychic Infinity simply does more damage than Aero Ball. In Top 4 I played a great series against Yveltal/Zoroark/Gallade. Game 1 of the series came down to a crucial last turn of his; if he was able to draw into his last Double Colorless Energy, he won; if he missed it, I would win on my following turn. My opponent was able to find the Energy, and we then moved on to play a Game 2 that was still fairly close, but I was able to win with some room to spare. Game 3 started off very well for me, because I took the first knockout, which is very important in that matchup. However, on the following turn, I Professor Birch’s Observations’d myself into an unplayable hand while digging for an Energy to allow me to take another knockout, and was not able to draw out of it.

Although I lost in Top 4, the day was still a success for my team, as my teammate Michael, who had beaten me earlier in Swiss, ended up taking home the win with Tyrantrum.

Event 4: Tewksbury, MA — 1/3

Yet again, family and academic commitments forced me to miss a weekend of events. This event came just after the marathon week, so I was unsure what new decks players returning to New England from the New Jersey marathon would bring with them.

I spent the week prior to this event testing Mega Sceptile and Primal Kyogre, both of which I found to be solid decks. However, I felt like each deck brought with it a fair share of bad matchups that I did not want to risk running into during Swiss. As a result, I decided to “play it safe” and play Yveltal/Zoroark/Gallade because I felt like its few bad matchups would not be present. This is the list I used:

Pokémon – 15

3 Yveltal XY

2 Yveltal-EX

2 Zorua BKT 89

2 Zoroark BKT

1 Zoroark BREAK

2 Gallade BKT

1 Seismitoad-EX

2 Shaymin-EX ROS

Trainers – 34

2 Professor Sycamore

2 Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick

1 Judge

1 Lysandre

1 Giovanni’s Scheme

1 AZ

1 Xerosic

 

4 VS Seeker

4 Ultra Ball

4 Battle Compressor

3 Trainers’ Mail

3 Acro Bike

3 Muscle Band

2 Float Stone

1 Enhanced Hammer

1 Super Rod

Energy – 11

7 D

4 Double Colorless

Quite frankly, I don’t have much to say about this list, since I consider it to be a fairly standard list for a well-established archetype. I will, however, draw attention to one particular card, the Seismitoad-EX. I decided to add it in entirely because it has a similar effect to a T1 Judge in some games: it can end the game before the opponent has a chance to set up. Turn 1 Judge accompanied by Quaking Punch, while going second, can leave opponents dead-drawing for multiple turns after the fact. I felt it would be foolish to pass on playing a card that could sometimes provide me with free wins. My matches played out as follows:

Round 1 vs. M Mewtwo-EX BKT 64/Yveltal XY/Zoroark BKT — L
Round 2 vs. Gengar-EX/Trevenant XY — W
Round 3 vs. M Mewtwo-EX BKT 64/Aromatisse XY — W
Round 4 vs. M Manectric-EX/Zoroark BKT — W
Round 5 vs. M Sceptile-EX — L
Round 6 vs. Entei AOR 15/Charizard-EX FLF 12 — W
Round 7 vs. M Mewtwo-EX BKT 64/Aromatisse XY — W

4-3, 30th out of 70

It turned out that my “safe” call had an abundance of bad matchups in this event’s field. Mega Mewtwo is typically very difficult to beat, and when it is paired with Fairy-types, it is nearly impossible to deal meaningful damage. In Round 1, I played myself into a winning position, but made a major oversight on my final turn that cost me the game. Although it was painful to lose that way, it was a helpful reminder that avoiding tunnel vision is a key to success.

In Round 2, my opponent missed the T1 Trevenant via Wally, so I was free to Quaking Punch him for the first few turns of the game while setting up multiple Dark-type attackers on my Bench to deal with any Gengars that he set up. In Round 3 I was beaten by what I consider to be an atrocious matchup; my list had no reliable answer to Mega Mewtwo when coupled with Xerneas XY and Xerneas-EX. Round 4 could have been a close matchup, but my turn one Gallade took 4 Prizes before going down, putting me too far ahead for my opponent, my good friend Asher Schuderich, to catch up in the Prize trade.

In Round 5 I was matched up against another difficult deck for me to beat, in a similar fashion to Round 3 I had no easy answer to my opponent’s main attacker, and was handed yet another defeat. In Round 6, I beat an Entei deck by Quaking Punching my opponent on turn one, hindering his set up and giving me too much of a lead for him to come back from. In the final round I had to face yet another terrible matchup, but I was again able to gain a significant lead by keeping my opponent under Item lock, while using Xerosic to eliminate Double Colorless Energy from his Mewtwos.

Although I performed poorly, my teammate Kevin Drolet took home another win at this event, which was a nice consolation.

Event 5: West Bridgewater, MA — 1/9

In Tewksbury the previous week, Mega Mewtwo decks made up a clear majority of the field. As a result, my teammates and I spent the week discussing and testing decks that could beat Night March, because we expected it to show up in droves as a response to the success and presence of Mewtwo. We tested a fair amount of decks, including Raichu/Crobat, Vespiquen/Yveltal/Crobat, Manectric/Crobat, and even Vileplume/Vespiquen. However, nothing really felt “right” to me.

I woke up the morning of the event intending to play Mega Mewto/Yveltal/Zoroark because I was comfortable with playing Mega Mewtwo, and I figured that with careful play, using exclusively Yveltal and Zoroark would be enough to win the Night March matchup (spoiler alert: this is relevant at the next day’s event).

When I got to the event, I had a very serious conversation with my teammate Chris Wilkinson about what we expected to see, which caused me to have a rather abrupt realization: most players in New England probably spent the week testing like we did, trying to counter Night March. Therefore, it was reasonable to expect that no one would actually be playing Night March due to attempting to beat it. With that in mind, I decided to take a bit of a risk, and play Mega Rayquaza, which I thought would have good matchups against decks aiming to counter Night March. This is the list I used:

Pokémon – 18

2 Rayquaza-EX ROS 60

2 Rayquaza-EX ROS 75

3 M Rayquaza-EX ROS 76

4 Shaymin-EX ROS

2 Hoopa-EX AOR

2 Jirachi XY67

1 Swablu ROS

1 Altaria ROS 74

1 Mr. Mime BKT

Trainers – 35

2 Lysandre

1 Professor Sycamore

1 Judge

1 Winona

1 Hex Maniac

1 Xerosic

 

4 VS Seeker

4 Ultra Ball

3 Trainers’ Mail

3 Rayquaza Spirit Link

3 Mega Turbo

2 Acro Bike

2 Battle Compressor

2 Switch

1 Sacred Ash

 

4 Sky Field

Energy – 7

4 Double Colorless

3 P

Again, a fairly standard list. One count that probably stands out is the 2nd copy of Jirachi, which I included as an easy way to break Focus Sashes against Lucario/Crobat, and as a means if dealing with Giratina and Seismitoad. In addition, when combined with the copy of Xerosic, the pair of Jirachi provided me with an out to win the Night March and Vespiquen matchups, by running my opponent out of Double Colorless Energy. The lone copy of Mr. Mime was added to prevent Crobat decks from trying to use Skill Dive to easily pick off my Benched Shaymins, as well as preventing Overrun damage from opposing Manectric-EX. Here’s how the day unfolded:

Round 1 vs. Trevenant XY/Gengar-EX — W
Round 2 vs. M Mewtwo-EX BKT 64/Yveltal XY/Zoroark BKT — W
Round 3 vs. M Manectric-EX/Regice AOR — W
Round 4 vs. Lucario-EX/Crobat PHF — W
Round 5 vs. Lucario-EX/Crobat PHF — ID
Round 6 vs. Lucario-EX/Crobat PHF — ID

Top 8 vs. Tyrantrum-EX/Bronzong PHF — WW
Top 4 vs. Lucario-EX/Crobat PHF — WLW
Finals vs. Lucario-EX/Crobat PHF — LL

6-1-2, 2nd out of 64

The day started off with a very stressful coin flip in Round 1. My opponent and I knew what each other was playing prior to the start of the round, and we agreed that whoever won the coin flip would win the game. I was fortunate enough to call the flip correctly, and cruised to a 6-0 victory. I won Round 2 against Mega Mewtwo in similarly dominant fashion, only giving up 2 Prizes to a Mind Jack from Zoroark the turn before I had the win anyway. Round 3 and 4 were also 6-0 victories for me, as both times I was able to eliminate all of my opponents’ attackers before they became meaningful threats to my Rayquazas.

In Top 8, I was unfortunately forced to play my only teammate who joined me in Top 8, Michael Drolet, playing Tyrantrum as usual. Similar to my Swiss rounds this series was over quickly. I won Games 1 and 2 6-0, and the entire series took less than 15 minutes to complete.

In Top 4 I faced another Lucario/Crobat deck, and was able to win Games 1 and 3 fairly easily by using Xerosic to remove Focus Sashes from his Lucarios and Hawluchas. In Game 2, I discovered on turn one that I had prized two Shaymin and two Double Colorless Energy, and scooped a few turns in. In the finals, I was matched up against yet another Lucario/Crobat deck. In this series, however, I was not so lucky, as I had difficulty finding my Xerosic and Mega Turbos at multiple crucial times across both games.

Event 6: Salem, MA — 1/10

Because I made the finals the previous day, I got home very late that night and was extremely tired. Instead of testing more for the next day’s event, I decided to finish homework and get some sleep. As a result, I decided to use the other deck I had sleeved for West Bridgewater, Mega Mewtwo/Yveltal/Zoroark. As a nice bonus, I figured that it would be decent against any Night March decks that may show up due to my performance with Rayquaza the previous day. This is the list:

Pokémon – 16

3 Mewtwo-EX BKT 61

3 M Mewtwo-EX BKT 64

3 Yveltal XY

2 Zorua BKT 89

2 Zoroark BKT

1 Zoroark BREAK

2 Shaymin-EX ROS

Trainers – 34

4 Professor Sycamore

2 Lysandre

1 Professor Birch’s Observations

1 Judge

1 AZ

1 Hex Maniac

 

4 VS Seeker

4 Trainers’ Mail

4 Ultra Ball

3 Mega Turbo

3 Mewtwo Spirit Link

2 Battle Compressor

2 Float Stone

1 Super Rod

1 Startling Megaphone

Energy – 10

6 D

4 Double Colorless

This list was built with pure consistency in mind. The maximum count of Trainers’ Mail allowed me to dig for crucial Mega Turbos and Tool cards, along with grabbing VS Seekers and Supporters quite often. I opted for a 3-3 line of Mega Mewtwo due to space issues, a 4-3 line would have been optimal had I not wanted to include the 1-of Startling Megaphone. I added in the Megaphone on the car ride to the event, with two main purposes in mind:

  1. Remove Focus Sashes against Lucario/Crobat and Lucario/Hammers decks.
  2. Because most Night March lists only ran 1 Float Stone, I would use the Megaphone to discard it and remove the option to promote a Bench-sitter like Milotic PRC or Bronzong PHF after I take a knockout. This forces the opponent to either promote the Bench-sitter anyway and risk being unable to retreat, or take the risk of promoting a Night Marcher and hoping to find a Double Colorless Energy to attack. If the opponent did not find the Double Colorless, I would be able to Knock Out the Night Marcher with an Yveltal and gain a lead in the Prize trade.

As usual, here is a recap of the day’s matches:

Round 1 vs. Wobbuffet PHF/Crobat PHF — W
Round 2 vs. Yveltal-EX/Zoroark BKT — W
Round 3 vs. M Manectric-EX/Raikou BKT — L
Round 4 vs. Night March/Milotic PRC — W
Round 5 vs. Zoroark BREAK/Yveltal XY/Slurpuff PHF — W
Round 6 vs. Vespiquen AOR 10/Yveltal XY/Zoroark BKT — ID

Top 8 vs. Vespiquen AOR 10/Night March — WW
Top 4 vs. Night March/Milotic PRC — WLW
Finals vs. Manectric-EX/Crobat PHF — LL

6-2-1, 2nd out of 39

Surprisingly enough, I found myself making another finals appearance today. The day started off with an extremely close game against my teammate John Muldoon piloting Wobbuffet/Crobat, which I was eventually able to win by attacking primarily with Zoroark. In Round 2 I took a quick win by stacking six Energy onto a Mega Mewtwo that my opponent was never able to Knock Out.

In Round 3 I continued my trend of drawing terribly in games against my younger brother. I started off the game decently, and actually had an opportunity to steal the game with a turn three knockout on a Mega Manectric, but I whiffed the necessary Double Colorless off a Set Up for five cards, and proceeded to dead-draw for the rest of the game. In Round 4 I was able to execute my strategy of using exclusively Yveltal and Zoroark against Night March, which when coupled with my opponent’s poor start granted me another quick win.

In Round 5 both my opponent and I drew poorly to start off the match, but I was able to draw out of my bad hand first and Psychic Infinity my way to win. In Round 6 I was able to safely ID with my teammate Chris Wilkinson, securing myself a place in Top 8.

In Top 8 I perfectly executed my strategy of using Yveltal and Zoroark, and did not bench a Mewtwo or Shaymin the entire series. In addition, the Startling Megaphone came in very useful in Game 2 by removing a Float Stone from the Jirachi my opponent had been using as a pivot. In Games 1 and 3-of Top 4, I similarly used Yveltal and Zororak to keep the Prize trade even and eliminate all of my opponent’s Double Colorless Energy. My loss in Game 2 came when my lone Shaymin start was easily dealt with by a Joltik on turn two.

In my finals match against Manectric/Crobat, I drew poorly in both games, and any Mewtwos I was able to set up were promptly removed by my oppoonent’s Surprise Bites and Assault Lasers.

Event 7: New Bedford, MA — 1/16

For my final City Championship, I decided that I would allow myself to play a deck that I would have fun with, as long as it was competitively viable. Ultimately, I decided to play Primal Groudon, my favorite deck of the BCR–ROS format. This is the list I created:

Pokémon – 11

3 Groudon-EX PRC

3 Primal Groudon-EX PRC

2 Wobbuffet PHF

1 Bunnelby PRC 121

1 Jirachi XY67

1 Regirock XY49

Trainers – 38

4 Korrina

3 Professor Sycamore

2 Lysandre

2 Pokémon Center Lady

1 Steven

1 Professor Birch’s Observations

1 Judge

1 Xerosic

 

4 VS Seeker

3 Robo Substitute

2 Mega Turbo

2 Focus Sash

1 Hard Charm

1 Float Stone

1 Switch

1 Escape Rope

1 Ultra Ball

1 Battle Compressor

1 Professor’s Letter

1 Startling Megaphone

 

3 Silent Lab

1 Parallel City

Energy – 11

7 F

4 Strong

This list includes a whopping 16 1-of cards. I won’t go over every one since I feel that most are self-explanatory, but a few are worthy of discussion. First, the Regirock XY49. I intended to use Regirock in conjunction with Focus Sash to improve my Prize trade against non-EX decks, but it ended up never being useful, and was mostly dead weight throughout the day. I added in a single copy of Steven, simply because Groudon is a deck that can afford to play at the pace required to use Steven to its fullest potential. Although Steven seems like a useless card, guaranteeing an Energy drop and securing a Supporter for the following turn was always welcome especially on turns during which I Mega Evolved a Groudon.

I chose to run Hard Charm over Assault Vest to improve my matchup against Crobat decks, as most Crobats will attack with a basic Energy and therefore bypass damage reduction had I had an Assault Vest attached. Similarly, the second copy of Pokémon Center Lady was intended to allow me to consistently heal off Surprise Bite and snipe damage. Lastly, I added in a copy of Startling Megaphone to remove Focus Sashes against Lucario decks, on turns when I couldn’t afford to use Xerosic instead. Here’s a recap of my matches:

Round 1 vs. Lucario-EX/Crobat PHF — L
Round 2 vs. M Mewtwo-EX BKT 64/Yveltal XY/Zoroark BKT — W
Round 3 vs. Lucario-EX/Hammers — W
Round 4 vs. Trevenant XY/Gengar-EX — W
Round 5 vs. Entei AOR 15/Pyroar FLF — W
Round 6 vs. Entei AOR 15/Charizard-EX FLF 12 — ID

Top 8 vs. Tyrantrum-EX/Bronzong PHF — WLL

4-2-1, 8th out of 49

Fortunately, I was able to end my City Championship run with another Top 8 appearance. After having my lone Jirachi donked in Round 1, I had to win my next four rounds to put myself into Top 8. In Round 2, I was able to attach Focus Sashes to my Primal Groudons, and trade efficiently with my opponent’s Mega Mewtwos. In Round 3 I used my Xerosic and Startling Megaphone to remove Focus Sashes from my opponent’s Lucarios, and was able to Gaia Volcano to a win because my opponent was unable to use Crushing and Enhanced Hammers on Primal Groudon.

In Round 4 my opponent was forced to discard all four of his Trevenant within the first two turns, so I was able to Gaia Volcano three Gengars to take the win. In Round 5 I had an amazing start, and was able to quickly set up two Primal Groudons. My opponent was unable to take down even one of them, allowing me to easily sweep through his field of Entei and Pyroar. In Round 6 I decided to ID with another Entei deck, to ensure a place in Top 8 instead of risking a loss by playing out the match.

In Top 8 my teammate Michael Drolet was able to win against me with his signature Tyrantrum deck (he ended up using Tyrantrum for all 10 City Championships he attended) by winning 6-0 in Games 2 and 3. I was able to win Game 1 by systematically removing all of his Double Dragon Energy with Xerosic and Jirachi, which allowed me to place down my Silent Labs and Knock Out his Giratinas through their Renegade Pulse Abilities. Unfortunately, I did not gain any Championship Points from this event due to Best Finish Limit rules, but I was happy to end this tournament series on a positive note.

Conclusion

Despite the fact that I was only able to attend seven events, I made the most of City Championships, by making Top 8 at five of them. I was pleased with my overall performance, as a I gained a total of 130 Championship Points across the seven events. Going 0 for 2 in finals matches was slightly frustrating, but with the above total, I can’t complain much. I’m currently sitting at a little over halfway to my invite to the World Championships, and I’ll be relying primarily on State Championships to earn me the rest of my invite, due to my inability to attend a Winter Regional Championship.

Lastly, I’d like to thank my friends James Horvath and Christopher Schemanske for advising me on deck choices and general strategy throughout this season, along with my teammates for helping me to test and craft lists.

Until next time,

– John

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