1st Place Nevada States Report

Hello SixPrizes! I’m Ruben and this my Nevada State Championship report. My friends and I drove from California to Nevada Friday morning. I didn’t get to test much and instead helped my roommates fix and test their decks.

I decided to play LuxChomp since I knew the deck quite well. With 1 hour of sleep and no breakfast, I was ready to get the day over with. I had a good run last year at this tournament as I made Top 8. I might not be 100% accurate here as I only had 1 hour of sleep that day.

Round 1 vs ??? – Jumpluff

This wasn’t much of a game. He opens Hoppip and passes. I tried going for the donk but it was pretty difficult since I started with Murkrow. He had a hard time setting up and recovering once I got Luxray and Garchomp out. A 90 HP stage 2 Pokémon isn’t too hard to KO. Plus his Machamp tech hit the field kind of late.

1-0

Round 2 vs Alfred Han – MewDos

pokebeach.comI start with Murkrow again -_- I don’t remember much about this game. We both struggled to get anything set up. It was kinda hard KOing anything with Luxray since he ran Promocroak. I start setting Honchkrow up and he See Offs a Gengar SF. Next turn he Flash Bite my Honchkrow 3 times to Shadow Room it with Mew.

I needed one energy to return a KO. With about 8 cards left, I wasn’t able to draw into 1 of the 3 remaining DCEs or Expert Belt to stay around. So he got ahead on prizes and won.

1-1

Round 3 vs James Fontes – LuxChomp

I really dislike mirror. He was able to bench 2 Garchomps and a Luxray, but no energy. I was able to get the first Garchomp snipe and took over from there. We traded prizes for a bit but I was in the lead. He had attached a R Energy to Bronzong G so I figured he’d try to catch up with ERL.

So he brings it out with a Lighting Energy and tries to Galactic Switch. I Sprayed it about 2 times. By the time he got 2 energies on it, I had Poké Turned anything that would’ve gotten KO’d by Thunder Fall. Time gets called and he wasn’t able to catch up.

2-1

Round 4 vs ??? – Vilegar

He opens Azelf and I with Garchomp. He goes first and passes. I tried playing down all the trainers that I could: Sp Radar, Luxury Ball, E-Gains etc. I Claw Swiped and passed. He retreats to Spiritomb and Graces into a Gloom. I level up and Dragon Rush it. That’s pretty much how the rest of the game goes since he wasn’t able to start the trainer lock.

3-1

Round 5 vs ??? – MewPerior

pokebeach.comI probably would’ve lost this round had she taken the first prize. She flips over Saybleye and Mew to my Ambipom. She Impersonates for a Collector and grabs 3 Mews. I get my usual SPs and start attaching energy. She retreats and See Offs a Rhyperior LV.X.

I KO her Mew with Uxie, go under, and promote Crobat. She Hard Crushes for 200. I KO another Mew with Ambipom and again she hits for 200. By this time she started attaching Rescue Energy to her Mews. I Flash Impact for a KO and I get hit by another 200.

I used Flash Bite and Earthquake and get hit with 200. I Flash Impact again and, but this time she had to Impersonate for Palmers. So I’m able to take the last prize.

4-1

Round 6 vs Nicole P – Gengar

She opens Spiritomb and is able to get out Gengar rather quick but kinda clogged her bench with pixies and Tombs. By the time she attached 2 Energies to her Gengar, she had no way of retreating her active Tomb. So I Bright Look her Gengar, play all the trainers I can, Poké Turn Luxray, promote Weavile, and Lucario and other SPs and Team Attack for a KO. She flips tails on Fainting Spell.

She sets up another one and repeated the same steps from the previous turn, she flips tails again. This time she Graced into Haunter and I Dragon Rush it. Her remaining pixies and Tombs were KO’d by Weavile.

5-1

Round 7 vs Mark Garcia – SableLock

I got paired up to the only undefeated. He’s a friend of mine that said he wanted this round report more interesting. So I started with ERL and the head judge allowed me to attach 2 energy turn 1 and KO his Sableye.

To be honest I took the first 3 Prizes with Ambipom. He tried to disrupt with Judge and what not, but he drew into terrible hands. So Garchomp took over from there.

6-1

Top 16 vs Justin C – Gyarados

Game 1 – All I remember is taking prizes with Luxray and Garchomp LV.Xs without using any supporters. He got kinda annoyed when he used Portrait for about 4 turns and never saw a Supporter in my hand.

Game 2 – He sets up way faster this time and took prizes fast.

Game 3 – We both trade prizes for a while. When time was called I was ahead 2 Prizes with a Belted Luxray X active. He couldn’t KO it to make it sudden death.

7-1

Top 8 vs Gabriel A – LuxChomp

He’s a friend of mine and earlier that day we talked how it would’ve cool to face each other in Finals.

Game 1 – He goes first, flips over Weavile and attaches energy to his Garchomp and uses Call for Family. I too opened Weavile, attach to Garchomp, Call for Family. He gets the 1st Garchomp snipe.

He was in control the whole game as my prizes were important mirror cards: Garchomp, Garchomp X, Psychic, Crobat, Promo Croak, and Cyrus.

Game 2 – I think I had the better start this game. He tried to prevent me from taking 4 Prizes but once I did, he scooped to save time and wanted the option of going 1st Game 3.

Game 3 – This was a better game. He took the 1st prize Garchomp X, I returned with Ambipom. He Poison Revenged and I used Zen Blade. We’re tied on prizes. He Bright Looked my Bronzong to stall but I Poké Turned it, Trade off and drew DCE for the last prize.

After the match he informed me that he would’ve won had he grabbed the correct prize during the exchange.

8-1

Top 4 vs David – Machamp/Snorlax

I’m not lying when I say he drew every single card he needed to win Game 1.

Game 1 – He got the turn 1 Machamp and Took Out my Luxray. I Bright Looked his Blissey, attached DCE to Garchomp and passed. He drew Warp Point and used Take Out. I benched another Garchomp with a DCE and again he drew Warp Point and used Take Out.

I noticed that he really didn’t attach any other energy so I used Tail Code. He drew the F Energy right after. Needless to say I lost this game.

Game 2 – I was able to slow him down by Spraying his 2 Uxies and Snorlax LV.X. I was ahead on prizes by the time Machamp hit the field. He managed to use Take Out on 2 Pokémon but he couldn’t KO my Honchkrow.

Game 3 – He chose to go first and flipped over Uxie to my Lucario. Had he chosen to have gone 2nd, he would’ve had the donk. I Collector for Murkrow and Uxies to get ready to fight his Machamps. I Bright Looked whatever Machop and Machoke he tried to set up and just Used Riot for about 5 straight prizes.

9-1

Finals vs ZMan – ChenLock.

This game was pretty fun. We met each other during the Georgia marathon and ended up in Nevada finals.

Game 1 – He opened Sableye and Initiated for 1 card. It was a hard choice as I opened Ambipom and a hand of DCE, Lightning, Collector, Uxie, SP Radar, and Poké Turn. I jumped ahead on about 3 or 4 Prizes. He eventually used Judge and Luring Flamed my pixies.

Not drawing into a single thing that could help, he caught up on prizes. I was able to get down to my last prize while he had 2. I Tail Coded a DCE from his Dragonite to his Azelf. He then promoted Azelf and Locked Up my Ambipom. On my turn I chose not to Tail Code the Psychic energy and pass as he had already discarded some after retreating and Garchomp Snipes.

So I figured that I could bait him into Locking Up one more turn so I could Lock his Azelf. He does indeed Lock Up, I Poké Turned Ambipom and Locked his Azelf. He gave me the win as he stated he had nothing to get it out if there.

Game 2 – This game went by pretty fast. His Initiative didn’t really hurt and I got ahead on prizes. After a huge lead he kinda just gave up.

10-1

He took the loss fairly well, congratulated me, and was a good sport about it. He said he’s coming down to SoCal Regionals and going to Nationals. After the tournament got updated on the Site, it turns out that my rating went up to 1870.40. I feel that it might be safe to assume that it’s good for the Worlds invite.

Thank you for reading my report and good luck to everyone playing the rest of the season.

Props

Trip to Vegas
Possible Rating Invite
Winning on 1 hour of sleep
Nationals allowance
A lot of friends making Cut

Slops

Having to play friends in Cut while having the same goal
Waking up to a flat tire
Not being 21 yet