In a desperate attempt to come up with a somewhat relevent topic to write about before the release of Call of Legends, I went deep into the tank. Unfortunately, I still came up empty. All of the big decks have been beaten into the ground, and any further attempt at “innovation” is wasted when it could be just as easily thrown out when we finally see what cards make the list of the next set (Call of Legends).
Even debating proper builds of a Lost World deck would be better suited for when the set is actually released and we know exactly what we have to work with.
So instead of trying to write a redundant article about an established archetype, or write some detailed informative guide about some tier 2 at best rogue deck that isn’t going to hold up against the established decks regardless of how much we want them to, I’m going to try something that we’ve discussed doing for awhile now, but I don’t believe anyone ever actually pulled the trigger on.
I’m going to write out a full play by play of a match I played, complete with move by move thought analysis of what was going through my head alongside every single move and debate I made.
Clearly I’m going to go with the same deck I’ve been preaching for awhile now, and that is LuxChomp. As much as I’d love to go in depth over how to play Turbo Shaymin, I figure it would be a much better investment for you as a reader to “see” or “read” or whatever the correct term would be, me playing the deck I both know best, and the deck I feel would be the best to field at any given event. First, I’ll start off with my current list:
LuxChomp (Pre-Call of Legends)
|
Pokémon – 20 3 Garchomp C |
Trainers – 28 4 Pokémon Collector |
Energy – 12 4 Call |
Alright, I guess I’ll do a quick rundown of what cards are included for each particular matchup.
SP
The 3-1 Garchomp is a huge edge here. The decent amount of Power Spray is important too, and the Junk Arm certainly helps. I have more cards to get me Uxie X than other decks do, and a semi reliable way to get multiple copies. Whoever has it out as a resource advantage is usually winning a given game, so I want to make sure I have access to it.
Chatot helps me get out of games, and is a no energy investment for early and midgame card advantage to make sure I keep up even if I fall behind. It is also a “second chance” to turn a Collector into a Power Spray in the early turns. Grab what it takes to fill your bench to 3 Pokémon SP, and Mimic to hope to snag it.
Twins is good here too as it gives you a “fall behind” plan and an extra way to get at your Double Colorless, which often dictates who wins a game. I just recently switched from Ambipom to Dragonite. I like Ambipom more, and it is better against non SP decks, but I really need the fallback plan for when I’m losing.
I realized that I am going to likely win any SP game I am ahead in, so I wanted to have a contigency plan for when I am losing, and couples with Twins, Dragonite does that better. I wanted a card I can safely store energy on while on the bench and not have to worry about Dragon Rush right off the bat.
I’ve seen too many games controlled by a player getting the first access to Garchomp C LV.X and just sniping the energy away from an opponent, so I want to make sure I have a defensive play to negate that.
Gyarados
The matchup was always somewhat favorable, if not close. Different approaches by them have “evened it up” a little bit. The more Mesprit they run the harder it becomes, and some have even tried teching a Bubble Coat, aiming to just Regi-Move around your Level X cards for cheap prizes to work around not having a belt.
As a result, I’ve added the Twins and Expert Belt. Twins is a good consistancy card in general, but it really mainly “makes the cut” to enable my near surefire Gyarados game plan. Expert Belt is very hard for them to deal with. Even with an Expert Belt, it forces them to do an additional 20 damage to Luxray to kill it, and it is killing them one hit regardless of Mesprit’s Psychic Bind. With a couple of Spray for back up, the matchup is almost unlosable.
Machamp
pokemon-paradijs.comJust as at the beginning of the season, the game plan here is to swarm Uxie LV.X while banking on your disruption being enough to prevent them from getting out the 4th or 5th Machamp needed to really take the match down. Twins helps in that regard, but the 3-1 Uxie, alongside Lucario GL, and the two Premier Ball plus Junk Arm, really make the matchup pretty simple.
Toss in the fact that most Machamp decks are dilluted with a supporting, less threatening line, and I really feel comfortable in this matchup.
Gengar Vileplume (VileGar)
Dialga makes its appearance here, alongside the otherwise unnecessary 2nd Bebe’s Search. Dialga is more than enough to win this matchup in timed swiss games, and also applies to matchplay. The matchup becomes a bit more difficult in an untimed game, which goes the distance, but it has been pretty much a coin flip there.
If they fail to open with a Trainer Lock, or I get a quick, aggressive start, then I’m pretty safe. Otherwise, it comes down to how Dialga bails me out in the long run. The best card I could add to “shore up” this matchup would be a 2nd Aaron’s Collection. I have some energy issues, and it is the only matchup the X-1 lines are a bit risky in, as I find myself needing to Aaron for them a lot. None the less, I feel safe with this matchup too.
So I was debating what matchup I wanted to play for this exhibit, and I narrowed it down to either a LuxChomp mirror match, or playing against Gengar Vileplume. Or Shaymin, but that will have to wait for another time!
(Saving the best for last of course.)
On a side note, my friend Alex, a local player, has pledged to run my Shaymin deck for States, so I want to announce that publically as another means of making sure he goes through with it. Anyway, I decided to go with a game against Gengar Vileplume here. I want to say up front that I had no prior knowledge of the list I was playing against, so as to be replicate an actual tournament scenario.
That way, while I could make speculations on what the list was like, I couldn’t safely say “they used both Warp Energy already” knowing they only ran two, either. I will post the list that they did use at the end of the article for your reference.
I draw my opening 7 cards, and see the following:
Opening Hand:
M Energy
Double Colorless Energy
Bronzong G
Cyrus’s Conspiracy
Poké Turn
Energy Gain
Premier Ball
pokemon-paradijs.comNow, this hand isn’t good, but it isn’t atrocious. I’d generally be underwhelmed, but content with it if I didn’t know going in what I was playing against. I’d usually wind up Cyrus’ing for an SP Radar and a Collector, and hoping to go from there.
If I am on the play (going first), I’m generally hard to one shot, and can Galactic Switch my energy drop away even. Unfortunately, I am against Gengar Vileplume, so I know the odds I get to use Trainers at all is very low, so I don’t have a reliable way to get a second Pokémon quickly, and even worse, I am stuck with a fat metal bell active until I pay it’s Retreat Cost.
Not only does it prevent me from being aggressive early, as I have to retreat it, but I can’t even rely on letting it get killed, as they have Shadow Room.
I place down my Bronzong, and lay out my prizes. My opponent has 2 basic Pokémon, which I assume is to make sure that they can’t be one hit killed if I go first. If they had a Spiritomb, then I don’t have any way of first turning it, as it is resistant to Ambipom (if they assumed I ran it) and even a Double Colorless, Ambipom, and Crobat G caps at 50 damage to them.
Gastly is somewhat hard to kill as well, but not totally unrealistic. If it was anything but those two, then I am in ok shape, although it still requires I get a decent topdeck, as I can’t Cyrus for Pokéturn unless I get something to put on the bench, so the odds that they topdeck a means of getting a trainer lock on the first turn they get trainers is so high that I still hate my odds.
Turn One
We roll, and I guess odds, as usual. It’s a 4, so they go first. And they open with a Gastly, and an Unown Q on the bench. They draw, and attach a Rescue Energy to Gastly, before using Pitch Dark.
Turn Two
I draw, and draw a L Energy. I go into the tank, realizing I am pretty much dead here anyway, as I can’t play Trainers, so even if I do get an extra turn, I am in really bad shape and don’t like my odds for the long game.
I debate attaching the Double Colorless Energy, but figure I would rather make my attachment decision after I see what is prized by using Cyrus. To make things easier in testing games, once a card is played which allows a player to view the contents of their deck, we simply look at the prizes, then shuffle them to regain randomization.
It simply saves time over requiring that we use the process of elimination method. My prizes turned out to be the following:
Pokémon Collector
Uxie
Garchomp C
Energy Gain
Crobat G
Call Energy
pokemon-paradijs.comNone of those were major issues, although Crobat G is a bit of a pain. I can use Azelf to get it later if need be, and because I am generally locked out of Poké Turns, the card isn’t that important in this matchup. I wind up taking a Pokémon Collector, and a L Energy.
I debate whether or not to take a trainer here, since I can use that to thin the deck out of cards I need to draw in this situation, and if I get access to a Dialga G LV.X, I can actually use it to help set myself up as I was in pretty bad shape.
I actually wind up taking an SP Radar for the odd chance I get Dialga G X or a Bebe on my next two turns. My hand was already cluttered so Set Up wasn’t the best plan, and I was likely going to try and retreat into Chatot on the following turn, after getting it, Unown Q (to reduce the retreat on Bronzong and retreat off the DCE) and an Pokémon SP, likely Dialga G. I end up attaching the Double Colorless Energy before passing the turn.
Turn Three
They draw, and go into the tank. They drop a Broken Time Space, and use a Bebe’s Search for a Haunter before benching a Spiritomb. They played Azelf, having seen what their prizes were, and grabbed an Uxie. They use Set Up, and of course, hit the P Energy, and a Gengar SF. I jokingly comment how ” I can’t believe how many energy I have in my hand! ” hoping they simply opt not to Poltergeist despite my Cyrus revealing 2 guaranteed trainers in my hand, but alas, a Poltergeist deals more than enough damage to end my Bronzong G and my game.
0-1
Alright, I lost, were moving on! See ya next article! Alright, that wasn’t much of a game, so I’m not about to leave it at that, so we decided that we would, in fact, have a rematch, hoping to have a better game this time.
GAME TWO
I draw my opening hand, and I see the following cards:
Luxray GL
Garchomp C
Pokémon Collector
PokéTurn
Energy Gain
Double Colorless Energy
Dragonite FB
pokemon-paradijs.comAlright, this hand is quite a bit better, but still doesn’t give me access to any of my LV.X cards, but I get to apply early pressure, and most importantly, it has more than a lone Bronzong. I debate between starting with Garchomp C or Luxray GL. I get to attack early with either one, but there are pros and cons to both.
Traditionally Luxray GL is the best opener for me here. I want an early Bright Look, and it is very aggressive. With the Double Colorless Energy, I have the ability to use Bite right off the bat, even if I go first. The problem is, my hand offers no means of getting a L Energy, and I only run 2, plus the Cyrus, so I may not have a great shot at attacking with it.
Garchomp C, on the other hand, can also attack with that Double Colorless, but doesn’t require any colored energy to get really going. Spiritomb and the Gengar line are resistant though, so that is pretty bad. I end up deciding to use Luxray because if I hit the LV.X even without the Lightning, I can hopefully Bright Look a non Spiritomb active before Vileplume hits play, and dump my hand of trainers to press the advantage.
I don’t want to have to Dragon Rush early, as if Garchomp dies off the bat, it puts me in a really awkward spot, so I really want to save him for mid to late game.
He has a lone basic, and we roll off. I again call odds, and it is a 1, so I go first.
Turn One
He flips over Unown Q. I flash the DCE, and again I get a very good exhibit match to write about!
1-1
So there we go, two awesome games, so I laugh really hard at the Unown Q kill, and we shuffle up for a third game, hoping this one is a bit more definitive and actually a worthwhile read.
GAME THREE
I draw my opening hand, and I have the following:
Chatot
Luxray GL
Bronzong G
M Energy
Bebe’s Search
Energy Gain
Uxie
pokemon-paradijs.comThis hand is pretty good! Clearly, I open with Chatot here, as it gives me a great free retreat play, and Vilegar isn’t really able to get a first turn kill. I bench the Luxray GL, as there isn’t any chance that I don’t bench it in this matchup.
I’d also like to point out that in testing, I like to analyze each spot regardless of knowing the matchup during set up, and if I didn’t know he ran Vilegar, then I’d want to bench a 2nd Pokémon anyway, and Luxray is a pretty safe choice here.
My opponent benched two Pokémon, again likely to avoid a potential donking. I have no idea how much of that I can read into being instinct to bench at least two, or whether it meant that both of the Pokémon are potentially killable if I go first.
We roll to see who goes first, and I call, you guessed it, odds. He rolls a 3, and I go first.
Turn One
He flips over a Spiritomb, and a benched Gastly, which I am not excited about at all. I’m pretty glad I go first here, as if he gets Haunter up right off the bat, I’m getting the pressure applied on me first, and I really don’t have a lot of ways to capitalize on what speed advantage I should have.
I draw for the turn, and I see another Luxray GL. Now, I get to go into the tank. I guess the most important decision I have to make here is whether or not I end up ending my turn using Mimic here. My hand is actually pretty good, and my opponent only has a 5 card hand.
I attach a M Energy to my Luxray GL, and realize theres no way I want to Mimic a turn two Bright Look away, so I hold the rest of my cards, and pass the turn back to my opponent.
My Prizes: 6
My Hand Size: 5
Their Prizes: 6
Their Hand Size: 5
Turn Two
My opponent draws, and attaches a P Energy to their benched Gastly, and used a Bebe’s Search to grab an Oddish, before taking a moment to think. I’m not sure what their plays are, but I assume they are debating whether they want to evolve into Gloom or Haunter here.
This is a pivotal point in the game, because they have to at least respect the threat that I have a Bright Look play next turn. Otherwise, the odds are, I Mimic. I don’t like telegraphing my hand strength, which passing with Chatot obviously does, but I really didn’t have much of a choice here.
pokemon-paradijs.comHe ends up using Azelf to Time Walk, and grabs an Unown Q, which he keeps in his hand. I assume he was looking for further help for what card to try and grab. Whatever he evolves into offers up two equally interesting game plans for me.
If my hand is not as strong as it could be, then I can’t kill a 70 or 80 hit point stage one, and I am left to pick off either Gastly or Oddish, whichever he doesn’t evolve, which is more of a concession to his evolution. In that situation, he ends up wanting to evolve whichever he wants to live.
If my hand is that strong, I wind up killing the stage 1, with Flash Bite, or Trash Bolt, or any number of kills. There is a bit of psychology, and reverse psychology involved here, trying to bait me into whatever kill he’d prefer, and it really depends on my hand strength which I can afford to do, which he has to assume is high.
The real key in situations like this is to try and guage exactly what level your opponent is thinking at. How deeply will they read into your plays, and try to play the next stage beyond that.
For example, against the average player, if you evolve into gloom, and they can kill gloom, they will do so. So if you really want Gastly to live, you evolve gloom as bait. If your opponent has any reason to suspect that, you do the opposite, etc.
He ends up evolving into Gloom, which I put on him more hedging his bets. If I kill Gloom, then I leave his energy attachment untouched. If I kill Gastly, and get rid of the energy, he gets to have Vileplume. So while losing either hurts, he didn’t put both eggs in the same basket.
My Prizes: 6
My Hand Size: 5
Their Prizes: 6
Their Hand Size: 3
Turn Three
I draw a card for the turn, and draw an SP Radar.
My Hand:
SP Radar
Bronzong G
Luxray GL
Energy Gain
Bebe’s Search
Uxie
pokegym.netThis matchup always provides the hardest turns. I know right off the bat that I am going to want to Bright Look something. Bebe’s Search is going to get played for a Luxray GL LV.X, and I’m going to end up using Uxie to Set Up and hopefully get access to a L Energy. Unfortunately, I didn’t like my odds of that at all, so I wasn’t entirely sure how to go about capitalizing on the play. I look over the plays which let me kill Gloom.
Uxie with an Expert Belt.
Uxie with 4 Flash Bites (Just kidding, that isn’t happening.)
Luxray GL LV.X with Trash Bolt and Flash Bite
Luxray GL LV.X with Flash Impact and two Flash Bites.
I could work out all of the probabilities there, but all of those plays required me to hit a really low chance of success. Belt is a one outter, and the others required me to get a two outter in L Energy, plus other cards.
Gloom, unfortunately, looked like it would live the turn. Bringing it active and hitting it for a set up kill isn’t unreasonable, but since it is a Gloom and not a Vileplume right now, that Unown Q can get it to the bench right away without wasting their energy drop, so it doesn’t even set them back enough to warrant wasting a key Bright Look.
If I bring up Gastly, I get a chance to hit either a L Energy, an Expert Belt, or a PokéTurn if I SP Radar for Crobat G to use Flash Bite. I use Bebe’s Search for Luxray GL Lvl X, shuffling in my Bronzong G.
My Prizes:
Call Energy
Double Colorless Energy
Cyrus’s Conspiracy
Energy Gain
Lucario GL
Dialga G LV.X
I’m not pleased about the Dialga, but the other cards are all pretty common to see prized since I run so many copies of them. Dialga can be snagged by Time Walk later when it’s necessary, and being prized is actually a slight advantage because it turns my Collectors into a means of getting Azelf therefore Dialga, making it harder to keep me off of outs to draw into it.
At this point, I SP Radar the Energy Gain into my deck for a Crobat G, and use Flash Bite on Gastly. I bench my second Luxray GL. I retreat for Luxray GL, and Level Up and use Bright Look. I bring up Gastly, and use Set Up, to fill my hand to the following 7:
Energy Gain
Garchomp C
Cyrus’s Conspiracy
Call Energy
Power Spray
Poké Turn
Premier Ball
The hand is fine, and it got me my Gastly kill. I Poké Turn Crobat G and Flash Bite Gastly. I bench Garchomp C, and attach a Call Energy to it. I drop the Energy Gain on Luxray to get it able to attack. I expect a Vileplume next turn, so I know I want to use Premier Ball this turn.
I either get Garchomp C LV.X, or Uxie LV.X. I really don’t like to use Garchomp early, and I think that Uxie gives me a good shot at killing Vileplume if it gets active, and it gives me a bit of draw, as Cyrus helps, but isn’t nearly as good in this matchup as in others. I Premier Ball for the Uxie X, and then use Bite to kill Gastly and take a prize.
I “rescue” a Cyrus’s Conspiracy from the Prizes.
My Prizes: 5
My Hand Size: 4
Their Prizes: 6
Their Hand Size: 3
Turn Four
My opponent draws, and evolves into Vileplume, attaching a Rescue Energy to it. He benches Unown Q, and attaches it to his Spiritomb. He then uses Looker’s Investigation, to see my hand, and then opts to shuffle his hand back into his deck and, of course, draw the full 5.
They drop a Smeargle and a Broken Time-Space, before passing the turn.
My Prizes: 5
My Hand Size: 4
Their Prizes: 6
Their Hand Size: 3
Turn Five
I draw for the turn and get a L Energy.
My Hand:
L Energy
Cyrus’s Conspiracy
Cyrus’s Conspiracy
Power Spray
Uxie LV.X
I attach the Lightning to Luxray, and use Cyrus’s Conspiracy for a second Lightning, and a Bebe’s Search, since I already have a continuation to the Cyrus Chain in hand. I don’t see any way to play Trainers in the near future, so I just get the Lightning and Bebe’s.
While Poltergeist isn’t an immediate threat in my future, I do expect it to become an issue well before I get my Dialga online. At this point I really need to debate using Psychic Restore to get a free bench slot to load with Dialga because if I wait to bench Dialga until after I get something of mine killed, it may be too late as they would be rather set up.
I end up using Flash Impact to kill Spiritomb, as I really needed to get ahead on prizes in order to squeek out the win in the long run, as there are only so many Gengars my deck can run through before I really run out of energy to attack with. I’m not sure how many Seekers they run, but I expect a few as I know they favor them, and that makes getting the last few prizes a real chore.
They promote Smeargle (obvious) and I draw my prize, which is the Double Colorles Energy, which was actually a really nice draw here.
My Prizes: 4
My Hand Size: 6
Their Prizes: 6
Their Hand Size: 3
Turn Six
My opponent draws, and plays a Pokémon Collector from their hand, which I made effort to look for. I watched where his card drawn went in his hand, and it was not the Collector he played.
It isn’t too relevent here, but knowing what cards are drawn for the turn certainly matters in trying to figure out what a player has access to, and how those cards may have influenced their past few plays. Judging the intent behind plays can definitely unviel cards they have access to, either in hand or in deck, and can keep you a step ahead of a player.
He grabs an Unown Q, a Gastly, and an Uxie. He benched the Unown Q, Gastly, and holds Uxie. He uses Portrait, and copies Bebe’s Search, to grab Haunter from his deck. He drops Uxie, uses Set Up, and attaches a P Energy to Haunter, and passes the turn.
My Prizes: 4
My Hand Size: 6
Their Prizes: 6
Their Hand Size: 6
Turn Seven
I draw for the turn, and it is another Garchomp C. I mean, I guess it isn’t a Trainer, but it really is still a blank, as it doesn’t do anything for me at all. I am extremely glad he didn’t hit a Gengar off of his set up, as I have the ability to get Garchomp C LV.X here, and can snipe that Haunter, which puts him in an atrocious situation.
My Hand:
Garchomp C
Double Colorless Energy
L Energy
Cyrus’s Conspiracy
Bebe’s Search
Uxie X
Power Spray
pokemon-paradijs.comI attach the DCE to my Garchomp, and I use Bebe’s Search to grab Garchomp C LV.X. I am in an interesting position here. My field is in fairly good shape, but he has a Smeargle active, so I don’t really want to give him Cyrus’s Conspiracy, as I’m concerned he will get Twins off of it, and be able to race back into the game.
I make a gambling play, and I choose to shuffle back in my Cyrus’s Conspiracy. It doesn’t really draw me that many great cards, as I have very few basic energy left in the deck, and it can grab me a Pokémon Collector, or an Aaron’s Collection, both of which are very fine plays, but beyond that, it is underwhelming.
I have no way to stop the Portrait, so my best bet is to play around it, as if he gets two Supporter uses, its going to be pretty tough for me. Having used both of my LV.X attackers so quickly, I may be ahead on prizes, and his field is bad, but I’ve exhausted a lot of my resources, and have to be careful that he doesn’t sneak back into the game.
I feel pretty confident about the game state here, but I know that I can definitely lose it once he runs out of “targets” for me to get cheap kills on. I’m in a good spot in that he can’t really use Seeker without me bouncing something of value, and also freeing a bunch spot, so Smeargle is stuck as a kill target for awhile.
I Dragon Rush the Haunter for the kill, and I get a Lucario from my prizes. Just what I always wanted!
My Prizes: 3
My Hand Size: 5
Their Prizes: 6
Their Hand Size: 6
Turn Eight
My opponent draws, and goes to use Portrait. It wiffs, as I have to let it through, and my opponent goes into the tank. He plays Twins from his hand, and grabs a Gastly, and a Gengar, and alongside the Haunter in his hand, benches Gengar. He attaches a P Energy to it, and retreats Smeargle to bring up Gengar. He takes a second to think, and then uses Shadow Room on my Garchomp, likely afraid that it can re-load and kill his Smeargle, or whatever else.
My Prizes: 3
My Hand Size: 5
Their Prizes: 6
Their Hand Size: 4
Turn Nine
pokemon-paradijs.comI draw for the turn another Power Spray. Eventually the deck thins out to nearly all Trainers and this happens, but it is never fun to draw a total blank during a game.
My Hand:
Power Spray
Lucario GL
Garchomp C
Power Spray
L Energy
Uxie LV.X
I attach the L Energy to the other Luxray, and I retreat Garchomp for Luxray GL LV.X. I use Flash Bite here, and place 30 damage on my Crobat G, as if he kills it, I can at least theoretically Aaron’s Collection it back. I didn’t want to place Chatot in kill range, nor any of the other Pokémon, so Crobat seemed like the best target.
My Prizes: 3
My Hand Size: 5
Their Prizes: 6
Their Hand Size: 4
Turn Ten
My opponent draws, and thinks for a second, before playing down a Warp Energy onto Gengar, and promoting Smeargle. He uses Portrait, again wiffing, before playing a Copycat to draw 5 off of me. He retreats the Smeargle, and brings Gengar back up, and benches a Gastly. He didn’t get the Gengar LV.X, and ends up Shadow Rooming my benched Garchomp C LV.X for the kill, and letting me throw Luxray into Fainting Spell.
My Prizes: 3
My Hand Size: 5
Their Prizes: 5
Their Hand Size: 5
Turn Eleven
pokemon-paradijs.comI draw for the turn… Cyrus’s Conspiracy! Alright, we get a draw that helps us this time. It isn’t the best draw, but I won’t complain either. I use Cyrus, and grab a P Energy, and an Aaron’s Collection.
I want the option of retrieving my LV.X cards, and Energy, plus it’s a Supporter which won’t help him much if he Portraits it. I attach the Psychic to the Uxie, hoping to Zen Blade Vileplume if Luxray dies to Fainting Spell, or just gets killed in the near future.
I bench the second Garchomp C that I’d been holding for a few turns now, and I use Flash Impact on Gengar for the kill, and put the 30 on Crobat since it is incrementally irrelevent.
My prize is Dialga G LV.X
He flips…HEADS, Luxray is Knocked Out.
My Prizes: 2
My Hand Size: 8
Their Prizes: 4
Their Hand Size: 6
Turn Twelve
He draws for the turn, and goes into the tank. He uses Portrait, after promoting Smeargle between turns, and uses Aaron’s Collection to grab two P Energy back. He then shrugs and plays a Copycat for 8, and after not drawing a Gastly to play down, concedes the game knowing that I’ll have to kill on Vileplume next turn, and that he didn’t have a way to get rid of his Smeargle on the bench to prevent me from eventually getting the last prize.
2-1
I hate ending it with a concession, but they were pretty much drawing dead at the end there. I got lucky in that they never were able to get multiple Gastly in play at any given time, so I was able to keep them off balance. I didn’t like overextending with my LV.X cards so early, but I had to because I had to press my advantage.
There are really two kinds of games that happen in this matchup. Games like this, where you overextend and try to keep them off their game long enough to just win, and other games where you are really trying to hold back and conserve resources and hope to narrowly pull out the win.
It really requires you to approach the game differently, but the strength of your hand, and their hand, really pigeonholes you into one or the other more often then you get to choose which game plan to try.
pokemon-paradijs.comI wasn’t able to get Dialga up and running, but that would have helped a lot. I think that, if the game would have progressed further, had they, say, drawn the Gengar LV.X the turn it would have saved them from the Flash Impact kill, then I would have lost a few Pokémon and freed up my bench, but eventually gotten Dialga up and had my second wind.
Chatot made sure I’d get a new hand there, as mine was getting pretty dry there, but the game was certainly a lot closer than it looked by that prize count. They were close to stabilizing the whole time, which would have sent the game into a nice quagmire, and I’d have had to work on freeing bench space for the Dialga game plan.
As you noticed, the opening few turns of the matchup are really tough, but by midgame, you reach a state where your hand is 80% do-nothings, so your plays are pretty restricted. You really want to try and keep them off of either Gengar or Vileplumes in any given game, and beyond that, just try to take cheap prizes.
With one Aaron’s Collection, and only 12 energy, I actually find myself running pretty low in a lot of games, which is one of the biggest issue I face in the matchup.
Anyway, I want everyone’s opinion on this style of article. I did my best to keep track of what I had in my hand, and the prize and hand size counts for the game to keep everyone filled in. I tried to do my best to make the game state as visible to you as possible, but it is a bit of a challenge.
Let me know if more articles like this are a good or a bad idea. I figured that the downtime we are experiencing now would be as good a time as any to experiment though.
And, in closing, here is the deck I played against:
|
Pokémon – 28 4 Spiritomb AR 1 Haunter SF |
Trainers – 17 4 Pokémon Collector |
Energy – 15 |
I expected Seekers, but without any, it made the concession make a lot more sense due to the hanging Smeargle. I’d still prefer the Vileplume Gengar list I had in my previous article, but that one isn’t bad either. I do like the Crobat G.
Anyway, by the time you hear from me next, Call of Legends will be out, and we’ll have a whole new format to look forward to heading into States! So get psyched up for that, and get ready for a whole load of cutting edge innovations heading into the unknown States format!
…and that will conclude this Unlocked Underground article.
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