I’m back for week 2-of Cities here on SixPrizes, and we have a lot more to go off this week, which is great! I also attended my first tournament of the year this weekend, so I have more hands-on experience as well to bring to you all. Here we go!
Coming in from last week, the Big 5 dominated the City Championships scene, winning nearly every single tournament across the nation. This week brings some variety to the medal winners – but the Big 5’s stranglehold on the format is still very much apparent. Not surprisingly, Luxchomp topped the charts again this week, garnering 15/33 wins and 23 other spots in the Top Four, both more than any other deck.
Close Second’s are Gyarados and Vilegar, taking seven Cities a piece, with Gyarados claiming 21 other Top Four spots, while Vilegar winning the next best, 12. Although 11 Machamp (and even more variants of it) were able to place in the Top Four, none were able to come out on top this week, according to our data. Dialga also remained a subtle but evident force in the format, netting itself two victories and eight 2nd-4th placings.
tl;dr:
Big 5 Winners Week 2:
15 Luxchomp
7 Gyarados
7 Vilegar
2 Dialga
0 Machamp
Download Excel Spreadsheet of Results
Now that we have the Big 5 somewhat covered, let’s take a look at what else has stepped up to the plate this week!
pokemon-paradijs.comWe have two decks that each won two tournaments last weekend: Sablelock and Uxie Donk. Both have been around for awhile and were prevalent during Battle Roads, but Week Two of Cities brings their debut to the stage this season. Sablelock obviously coming off a great season last year, winning US Nationals, is likely back on the podium for a couple reasons.
Namely, since the deck didn’t gain much (if anything) from Triumphant, some people might have shied away from it week one, wanting to play with some new cards for the first time they can in a tournament. More experienced players with Sablelock likely came back to playing their baby (ie: JWittz :P) and had success with it this weekend.
Similarly, Uxie Donk exploits a weakness in some metagames where there isn’t many Spiritomb-based decks and Dialga G decks. Losing one game a tournament to that auto-loss is acceptable when playing the deck, and as long as you can avoid the bad matchups in top cut, it is a very good deck and very potent, albeit not very fun to play against.
In three tournaments in the Utah/Colorado area, only 3/12 decks were Vilegar, and it’s unlikely any other deck that Top-Foured played Spiritomb or Dialga, giving Uxie Donk a relatively clear path to victory. In the Midwest region, clearly there were plenty of Vilegars in the cut, but there were so many other decks as well that Uxie Donk could simply avoid the bad matchups once in twelve tournaments to secure the gold medal.
And we have a bunch of one-hit-wonders this week as well. I’ll list them and give a short opinion on each:
Mewperior
One of my favorite rogue decks right now. If played right, it can really take down unprepared decks. Taking a prize every turn is common, and you recover faster and easier than them with Rescue Energy and Combee and Seeker. Add Delcatty and Judge and you have more recovery and disruption, and you have a very solid deck. Just fold to Dialga though. :(
Scizor
Taking its win in the Northwest, Scizor had to combat mostly Luxchomp as well as a bunch of random decks. With the right build and the leisure to not worry about every matchup in the format, Scizor can beat Luxchomp consistently and can take on a lot of random decks as well. If you’re not prepared for Scizor, it can run through things.
Drapion
To be honest, I have no real experience with Drapion and its matchups, so this took me for surprise, as did Frankie’s newest article on Drapion/Vileplume. Clearly it is underrated and has potential right now, so maybe give it a try!
Gengar/Kingdra
An old combination, this guy took a City where the other three decks in the Top Four were not on the charts, two Yanmegas and a Crobat Prime/Gengar Prime deck. Who knows how viable this would be in a metagame with more of the Big 5.
Regigigas
Going along with five other spots in the Top Four this week, Regigigas bursts onto the scene with a splash. I didn’t see any this weekend at my tournament, but I can imagine it performing well against a lot of decks (with the exception of Gengar), with the release of Junk Arm and Seeker (see Tom’s Regigigas article for more info).
Yanmega/Scizor
No idea how this guy works, except just swarming both and powering up Scizor while attacking for free with Yanmegas.
Okay so now that we’ve talked about what decks are doing well, we should probably explore briefly what decks aren’t doing so hot, and why…
Of the Big 5, all performed this weekend, but clearly Dialga and Machamp were lagging behind the other three. With only two wins and eight other Top Four finishes, Dialga still looks like a sleeper. Though it didn’t perform as well as other decks, Dialga is still a good choice. It’s a strong deck that has decent matchups across the board, it’s just very hard to play. The Gyarados matchup can get iffy if you’re not playing a lot of cards for it (Skuntank/Stadiums, namely) so this is why many people probably strayed from it. Warp Energy/Seeker also drastically made the matchup worse for Dialga.
pokemon-paradijs.comBesides the Gyarados matchup, Dialga has an inherent disadvantage to its SP counterpart, Luxchomp. With both these matchups being very close and likely coming down to coin-flips, many players strayed away from Dialga this week.
While Gyarados and Vilegar gained in popularity, Machamp inevitably lost a lot of ground this week. Converting eleven Top Four finishes to zero victories, clearly Machamp has suffered. Without significant tweaking, it simply cannot beat Gyarados and Vilegar, the two emerging dominant decks of the format. Also, if you start changing the list around to beat those guys, your SP match suffers and your “auto-win” can come back to bite you and beat you more often than not. Though it’s not dead by any means, I expect less Machamp to succeed in coming weeks, with some innovative lists to beat a bunch of stuff.
Ehhhhh enough talk; let’s go into region specific information so I can actually try to help you guys. This week, it’s going to be similarly broken down, with the addition of the regions that I didn’t have data on last week, as well as Canada as a region as a whole. Also, I will address my predictions from last week and see if I was right or not!
Northwest (WA/OR)
This week brings slightly more order to the Northwest than last week, with Luxchomp topping the charts significantly. With a total of seven Top Four spots, two of them taking home the gold, that’s about one-third of the top spots from this weekend. Following in Luxchomp’s wake comes a myriad of decks, more of the randomness and uncertainty of week one in the area. I guess my prediction was pretty on target: people stuck with what they were comfortable with and did well with it. Luxchomp came to be victorious because it beats a lot of random decks and is able to win a lot of random games.
Advice: Don’t play those metagame-counter decks just yet. Stick with the big guns, be it Luxchomp or Gyarados or one of the other Big 5 decks you’re comfortable with, and you’ll be successful. See what players are there and what they played last week – you’ll likely see them playing the same thing again. Some Luxchomp hate will probably be apparent, so be prepared for that. Luxchomp is the deck to beat this week.
California
California didn’t have much variety this week, with the Big 5 taking 4/5 tournaments, and only one other deck placing in the Top Four, Tyranitar. Dialga made no showing here, while Vilegar became the most successful deck in the region, winning two medals and five other top spots.
Nothing all too interesting here besides that here, and my predictions from last week were half-right I’d say: people were ready for Machamp and that led to it not winning a tournament. Vilegar either found a way to beat Dialga consistently, or the Dialga players didn’t come out this weekend; either way the deck found success here. Gyarados, my predicted best deck for this weekend in California, underperformed, but still took home one medal and placed two other times.
Advice: As you can probably guess, Vilegar is going to be the deck to beat this weekend. With Dialga flying very under the radar, I’d be inclined to play it in a room filled with Vilegars. If you’re comfortable with it and have some practice, I say go for it. Otherwise, play something that can beat Vilegar and still hold its own versus the rest of the format. Sablelock seems like a good play, and it did win one tournament this weekend in California, so it has proved itself to be a solid play as well.
UT/CO/AZ/etc
The only region to not have any Luxchomp in their Top Fours, the three reported tourneys were won by Gyarados, Vilegar, and Uxie Donk. The former two were the top performers from week one, and clearly were the most popular this week as well. Mewperior and Abomasnow both Top Foured twice each, throwing some variety into the mix for the region. So Luxchomp wasn’t the best play as I said last week, but at least I was right about Gyarados and Vilegar being the most popular decks again.
Advice: Again, I’m going to be suggesting Dialga for this environment. If you can get the Gyarados matchup down, you’ll have a ton of success here: beating up on Vilegars, not worrying about the pseudo-mirror in Luxchomp, and outright destroying other popular decks like Mewperior, Abomasnow, and Uxie Donk. Gyarados poses the only threat to this, so come prepared and ready to go and you could have a nice victory on your hands in week three.
South (TX/OK/etc)
With only two tournaments to go off of again this week, it makes predictions a bit screwy. I’ll try my best as always, but I can’t promise anything. Topped by Luxchomp and Gengar/Kingdra, I covered already what happened in the Gengar/Kingdra’s area. Where Kettler won with Luxchomp, two other Luxchomps and a Gyarados topped, solidifying Luxchomp as the deck to beat down there. My predictions from last week must have been over-thought, because everyone just stayed with their SP decks from last week, leading to its success again this week.
Advice: Don’t really know, but look at my advice from last week for this region. I think Vilegar would be a good play if someone strong piloted a good list of it. Otherwise, Luxchomp will continue to dominate the scene.
The Midwest (OH/IL/WI/MO/western PA/etc)
Again this week, we have the most data for this region, and that’s likely because it covers such a wide area (as well as the most densely Pokémon-player-populated area in the country). Again, Luxchomp positively dominated the scene here, winning 7/11 Cities, with 10 other placings to boast. Vilegar was the next most successful deck, with eight total tops, two of which were victories. Gyarados performed well, but not nearly as well the above decks.
I think a lot of the good players in the Midwest (and there are a lot of them) are sticking to their guns in Luxchomp, as they know the ins and outs of it the best, plus it has the most options and therefore the most chances to outplay the opponent. Again, my predictions were pretty spot on, with Vilegar making a significant jump in popularity and success, while Luxchomp still remains the winningest deck in the region.
Advice: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, that’s what they say, right? Ride the Luxchomp train until it doesn’t run no more. Be prepared for a lot of mirror and a lot of Vilegar. The Machamp techs can probably come out if you want to have a more successful day vs the aforementioned decks. Vilegar is still probably a strong choice and will likely close the gap a little bit more this week between itself and Luxchomp.
Southeast (FL/GA/etc)
Well we didn’t have any information about this region last week, so we’ll see what we can discern from this week’s data. All five of the tourneys reported were won by something different, and similarly, only one deck placed more than twice in the Top Four. This leads me to believe that the area is still very much up in the air and anything can do well right now.
There’s a lot to prepare for, so at some point you’re probably going to run into a bad matchup. Not surprisingly I guess, Dialga had the “most” success in this region, being the only deck to win a City as well as topping on two other occasions.
Advice: Luxchomp, Dialga, or Gyarados. All of these decks have solid matchups against a lot of different things and are the most outright powerful decks. Luxchomp and Gyarados will win a lot of games simply because they are good decks and more consistent than their opponents’. In a random metagame like this, I would suggest one of these decks.
Mid-Atlantic (NC/VA/MD/etc)
The other region with no data from last week, these guys are a bit more defined than the Southeast. Gyarados and SP decks (Luxchomp and Dialga) were the only decks of the Big 5 to even Top Four, with a number of other decks as well. Gyarados clearly dominated here, although it won one less City than Luxchomp did, it topped four other times, while Luxchomp didn’t Top Four unless it won the whole thing. Expect a similar metagame this weekend coming up, with Gyarados being very popular and Luxchomp/Dialga showing its presence as well.
Advice: Be prepared for a lot, but be mostly prepared for Gyarados and SP. Vilegar seems like a strong play if you don’t want to play one of those decks. I might play Gyarados with multiple Mesprits and SSUs to combat the mirror and SP decks, and not really having to worry about Vilegar all that much.
pokemon-paradijs.comNortheast (NY/NJ/New England/eastern PA)
I got to a tournament this weekend and I’ll post a brief report and my list at the end of the article here. I saw a TON of Gyarados, a decent amount of SP, and a high amount of random decks, namely Tyranitar. Vilegar was present but not in high numbers. The results mirror what I saw pretty accurately actually, with Luxchomp and Gyarados each taking home a victory, each taking another spot in the top, and Dialga and a Tyranitar variant rounding out the Top Four for the two reported tournaments.
Advice: Unfortunately I won’t be able to play this weekend, but if I was going I would probably be playing either Luxchomp again or Gyarados. Both performed very well this weekend and I expect more of both decks to be about this weekend, with Vilegar possibly gaining in some popularity after it underperformed this weekend compared to the week one. Any of these three decks would be a good play this weekend for sure.
Canada
I know Canada’s a big place, but I have to condense it into one section. I only have two tournaments reported anyway, so we’ll have to work with the cards dealt to us. Luxchomp and Dialga both took home a victory, while Gyarados topped three times but couldn’t bring it home.
Advice: Play a real good list of Luxchomp or Gyarados and I bet you come back with a win. Focus on beating the mirror and the other deck, and you’ll see success as well. Historically, Canadian players have generally weaker lists and so someone with a strong list can usually come in and take the tournament, using their tricks and their strong in-game play to take the tournament by storm. If you can do this, you will win.
Well that brings a close to my region-predictions, and I’m running out of new stuff to say anyway. I think most of my predictions next week were built into the region stuff above, so all I have to say is expect Luxchomp/Gyarados/Vilegar to continue to pull away from the pack. The Big 5 might turn into the Big 3 soon, leaving Machamp and Dialga in with the rest of the decks. Sablelock put itself back onto the stage this past weekend, and it will likely continue to gain back its popularity. Mewperior and Regigigas saw some surprising success this weekend as well, and will likely to continue to pose a threat to anyone not ready for these rogue decks.
pokemon-paradijs.comReal quick here’s my report (Copy/Pasted from the Cities thread) as well as the list I ran after it:
Played Jimmy O round 1 with Vilegar and I got an early lead but proceeded to stop drawing anything useful and he takes 6 Prizes in 7 turns once Vileplume hits the field, and me topdecking five SP tools.
Round 2 pairs me against a Gyarados with a slow start…too bad I don’t see a Supporter not named Aaron’s Collection until turn 11. By the time I can draw a prize, he’s drawn 3. I “mount the comeback” but he’s way too far ahead for me to come back.
0-2 ouchhhh. With my credibility about to be ruined, I play against Crobat Prime and wipe the floor with Luxray.
Facing another former T4 Nats performer, I play Darrel Moreno round 4. With Garchomp SV/Electrode Prime, the match is easy for me, waiting to attack with Garchomp until he promotes his, where I Lucario/Dragon Rush for 1HKOs.
2-2 brings me to good old Benny Richlin. Kingdra/Champ doesn’t explode on me so I’m able to 1HKO and 2HKO stuff while Spraying comeback Uxies.
Last round of the tournament I play Dawn Marie with Tyranitar. Spraying 2 important Uxie drops and playing Toxicroak gives me a pretty smooth matchup; TTar’s just too slow.
So 0-2 to 4-2 not too bad for my first tournament since Nationals :P
I’ll be playing again in 2 weeks, hopefully with better results!
And the list:
|
Pokémon – 17 2 Luxray GL |
Trainers – 31 4 Cyrus’s Conspiracy
4 Pokémon Collector
2 Junk Arm |
Energy – 12 4 Double Colorless |
I couldn’t find a Smeargle before the tournament; if I could have I would have played that over the 3rd Call or the 4th Collector. I’ve also since been toying with a Roserade GL, currently in place of the 2nd Junk Arm (which pains me to no end).
Lastly, be sure to check out the Gym for data as well (I trust my own data more than them, though, because I feel like they might count some tournaments twice – I do my research more thoroughly I think :P).
Good luck this weekend, and I’ll see you guys next week!
Mikey
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