Houston, TX Regionals April 17, 2010

This is my first article (like most others around this time of year) and I will be informing you about my day at the Regional championships in Houston, TX. I decided to run a Flychamp deck with various techs thrown in that really make the deck everything it is. These techs were Dusknoir DP, Lucian’s Assignment, Technical Machine Devoluter, and Cyclone Energy. Throughout my day I found these to be invaluable, so here is my story.

Round 1 vs Cursegar

First match of the day, he started with a Spiritomb and a Gastly and I had an Unown G and an Uxie. I then drew…into my second Unown G. After he continued to put energy on his Gastly and I drew crappy cards I eventually drew into a Roseanne’s Research turn 3 and then my deck was able to move. I used my Cyclone energy in my hand so that I could play trainers and Rare Candied and started to get my Pokémon out.

I eventually Extreme Attacked his Gengar LV.X and at a key moment “Inviting Trapped” his Claydol and he did not have anything to get it back to the bench. I proceeded to Knock it Out and then took the rest of the prizes in a decently close match.

1-0

Round 2 vs. Donphan Prime

Another not so good start for me and he proceeded to get a Donphan prime out turn 2. I then got a Flygon out and killed a Chansey and then Cycloned for another Chansey. The key points of this match were crazy, I was behind early thanks to his quick start but I was able to Devolute a Belted Donphan and took 2 Prizes for the Knocked Out Phanpy. Then late game we both had 2 Prizes remaining, but he had 2 Donphans, I was able to Dark Palm one of them so he only had a Belted one active. There was no way for me to Knock it Out so I used a fantastic tactic.

I retreated an active Flygon LV.X for a Machop hoping he would take the bait. He did, killed the machop and took a prize. I then brought out my Machamp which had 110 damage on it from an attack before, attached 1 Fighting energy to it, and then used Lucian’s Assignment to move all my energy from Flygon LV.X to Machamp for Rage attack for 170 and took 2 Prizes since it was Belted for the win. After this match I couldn’t breathe for a couple of minutes, it was so close and well played.

2-0

Round 3 vs. Plox

I started off with a pretty good hand and unfortunately my opponent had to re-draw twice which helped me get exactly what I needed. Turn 1 I decided to inviting trap his azelf instead of calling which was a terrific choice because the next turn he Broken Time Spaced straight into a Gardevior RR, then my next turn I rare candied to Machamp and Take Out for KO. Then I was hit for 110 by his attack but was able to get the Fighting energy I needed from Cosmic Power to Rage for 170, the rest of the match was Take Out from there were he could not recover.

3-0

Round 4 vs. LuxChomp

I started with 3-of 4 Call energies in my hand and he started with 2 Garchomps. I did everything I could to stall by Sand Tombing his Chatot with 2 Trapinch for about 7 turns and then began to Chatter him as we Chattered back and forth for about 4 turns. After my Chatot was gone and his was gone I had 2 Machamps out, but already was down 3 Prizes.

I got out a Dusknoir, but he Bright Looked it and majorly stopped me after getting rid of my Claydol with Dragon Rush. I simply could not get the search cards to get my Claydol out again and could not get the stuff I needed after he killed my Claydol.

3-1

Round 5 vs. Feraligatr

I had a pretty good start and he got a good start as well, but playing the Broken Time-Space really hurt him because I was able to use it and then discard it and prevent damage. Most of the game centered around me trying to figure out how to kill him and after Dark Palming his Feraligatr with 4 energy attached to it, it really destroyed the rest of his set up. An Expert Belt and Cyclone Energy were crucial for important knock outs resulting in a win.

4-1

Round 6 vs. Leafeon LV.X with Shaymin LV.X

A very unorthodox deck to see being played as high as it was, but I was able to Extreme Attack his Shaymin LV.X and get rid of his HP bonus. Then the rest of the game was pretty close with me having trouble getting DCE in order to do big damage. I had to use Hurricane Punch 4 times in the match and probably would have lost had any of them been all tails.

5-1

Round 7 vs. Jumpluff

His deck started quickly as expected, but I got everything out that I needed to with Dusknoir out on turn 3 or 4. The issue was that every time I got something out he would Knock it Out immediately and at a crucial point he was able to PlusPower, Expert Belt, and Rare Candy to a Jand do exactly 120 damage, so it really hurt me. If the Flygon were to survive it would have been a whole different game, but after that I could not get anything out.

5-2

Round 8 vs. Donphan Prime

I started out with a lone Unown G and went first without the Call Energy but rather 3 DCE. After attaching my, opponent did everything he could to get a Rare Candy to evolve to Nidoqueen and Megapunch for the victory, but after not getting it his deck severely suffered because he used 2-of his Pokémon Communication and Uxie. After that my deck began to work little by little each turn and eventually I had 2 Claydols and was pretty much prepared. Unfortunately a couple of key things really hurt me.

First, I was under the impression that I had used 3 Rare Candy, but had actually used 4 so I had a Duskull on my bench for the last half of the match which would have really helped if I had been able to Dark Palm. Then, because my opening hand was not very good I was forced to attach and retreat a Cyclone energy on my Unown g and then used my second Cyclone energy later in the game for a KO, but the last turn that is what I needed to win.

And lastly, my Lucian’s Assignment tech was prized and I could not pick it up out of 3 Prizes. Had I picked it up or had the ability to play it, I would have been able to Rage just enough to Knock Out his Belted Donphan and take 2 Prizes leaving me with 1 and him with 2 win time was called. Too bad but fun match.

5-3

Overall I was very happy with the day and had a lot of fun. After 8 Rounds I decided to drop (I don’t know if I topped but my tie breaks were 7-1, 7-1, and 6-2 so it is quite possible) because I had had all my fun and was not really willing to stay for another couple of hours for the top rounds. Regardless, I had a lot of fun which is what the card game is about right? Thanks for reading guys.

Reader Interactions

10 replies

  1. Zachary Slater

    Wow, I don't think I would be able to drop after making it that far through the day haha. You most likely did make it (if the top was 32).

    Congrats on a great day though and your deck seems to have ran smoothly. Lucian's Assignment FTW.

  2. Calchexas

    Congratulations on a nice run! I'm pretty sure that your round four loss was to Robert Weidman, who finished with a pretty legitimate set of tiebreaks as well (high-ranked 6-2). So yeah, you would have likely made top cut.

    Your list seemed to make quite a few smart plays: a Flychamp build similar to yours (plus a couple different techs) actually made top eight from a 5-3 position. Although I beat the guy in T8, he actually knocked out a former U.S. Nationals winner the round before in T16, showing that the deck is capable of beating Jumpluff.

    What's your name, Darklight? I'm wondering if I actually know who you are.

    Best,

    -John K.

  3. darklight1030

    Yes I probably would have topped because two of my tiebreakers were 7-1 and the other was 6-2. There was one thing I did not prepare for in this tournament though, stamina. My back really had done a number on me up to this point and I had had quite a bit of fun already playing lots of pokemon so I was satisfied at the moment and I definitely still support that decision at the time. But up to this point I definitely regretted making that choice. My name is Brant Gracia and I have only played in 3 tournaments (2 cities (won last years houston city) and 1 regionals). Im definitely not out there in the pokemon world so you probably wouldnt know me but always good to meet people. nice to meet you

  4. darklight1030

    Yes I probably would have topped because two of my tiebreakers were 7-1 and the other was 6-2. There was one thing I did not prepare for in this tournament though, stamina. My back really had done a number on me up to this point and I had had quite a bit of fun already playing lots of pokemon so I was satisfied at the moment and I definitely still support that decision at the time. But up to this point I definitely regretted making that choice.

  5. Michael Randolph

    Great job and excellent report, kinda nice to see this deck still holds it's own.

  6. Michael Randolph

    Great job and excellent report, kinda nice to see this deck still holds it's own.

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