Yay! Another article by me! I have wanted to write one for a while; however, there was school, family, and other stuff so I have postponed it until now!
So, here is a mini report since I, once again, have not taken any notes at all during the tournament. So… it won’t be as detailed as others. Besides, this is only part of the article; the next part will be the real deal.
Mini Battle Roads Tournament Report
This time, the tournament was at a store that was closer to me than the other one that our organizer went to before. However, with that, I arrived three minutes before the registration ended. Fun. The good news was, I printed the lists my bro and I were to use last night so I was prepared. (Thanks PokéGym!)
I thought that the tournament was going to be larger but there were three Juniors (my bro got 2nd!) so the organizer added one more pack to each of the prizes for them. I don’t know how many Masters and Seniors there were but I do know that there were three rounds for Seniors and a top two cut. I have no idea for Masters. I pay attention a LOT.
There were so few people that I think every round there was a Master vs. a Senior, Senior vs. a Junior, and so on.
Once again, no names. Just decks. Sorry people!
Round 1: Gyarados
I was playing VileGar so I thought that this would be easy but I don’t start with Spiritomb. Crap. Instead I start with an Oddish and Unown Q but I do have Pokémon Collector in hand. And… he starts with Sableye. Crap. Now, this match I could have won this except I had an energy drought and I flipped three tails in a row with “Fainting Spell.” Fun.
0-1
Round 2: MagneRock w/ Machamp (SF and Prime)
I am against a Junior this round, and he is really good. So there.
This went to time but we had a Spiritomb stall war and my opponent took the first prize. After that, I get a Gengar SF with a Rescue Energy on it via Twins and keep on drawing Rescue Energy with Uxie LV.X (which comes up later in this round). Eventually, he gets a Machamp Prime out (I don’t know why, I think that in the long run the SF one would be better since Shadow Room would have done only 30 to it and he can discard Trainers with Regice and Regirock) and I send up Gengar to try and take it out with Fainting Spell.
Unfortunately, he uses “Crushing Punch” to discard my Rescue Energy so I set up another Gengar. I “Shadow Room” his Pokémon with Poké-Powers over and over until he KOs me with “Champ Buster”. I flip heads on Fainting Spell, which was crucial.
By this time, he has a Magnezone Prime out but I take out another Gengar and Shadow Room it to death. Eventually, he gets out another Machamp Prime out and KOs my other Gengar and I flip tails. However, I take it back with Rescue and do a really weird play.
I send out Vileplume since Machamp Prime can only do 110 to me, so Vileplume will be a wall for one turn. However, my opponent attaches a Rainbow Energy to a benched Magnemite and KOs me. This time, i send out Uxie LV.X with one energy on it and attach another to it and “Zen Blade” for the KO (Machamp already had damage on it).
By that time, it all goes downhill as I KO another Magnezone Prime and time is called. By that time, my opponent has a 1 Prize lead but can’t take any prizes. I take two to seal the game.
That game was intense so that is why it is long. Anyway, after this round, Eli M. (a really good player, he won States) go donked by SableDonk. His deck was made to beat it but he lost. He dropped, which probably made me have a better chance of Top Cutting. Thanks, I guess.
1-1
Round 3: Gyarados (again…)
Well, this time I start with Spiritomb and another thing. I have a Collector so I am set for a double ‘Tomb. My opponent went 1st (by this time, I had gone 2nd like every time) but just did some stuff and passed. I get a double ‘Tomb out and get a Vileplume and Gengar out Turn 2-3. By that time, I KO’ed his Regice and just “Poltergeist”ed to oblivion. He scooped.
2-1
Well, I make it to Top Cut. I guess I made it because:
- Eli dropped
- I won Regionals (I guess I got in because of rating points) aka Resistance
- I was at the top table (basically #2 again I guess, I’m not good at this rating stuff! D:)
Top Cut: Gyarados (I’m already getting sick of this.)
Hey, guess what? This was my Round 1 opponent! My only loss!
Match 1:
He gets Sableye first and has a god start. I start with two Gastlys and a Chansey. He does two Double Drawers and drops like three Uxies so after a few turns (I had Chansey left and he had a fully charged up Gyarados) I scooped.
Match 2:
I choose to go first. I start with Spiritomb and have a Collector in hand so I get another ‘Tomb and a Gastly and Oddish. I set up Gengar and Vileplume and Poltergeist with some resistance.
Match 3:
I start double ‘Tomb and Collector for Gastly, Oddish, and Uxie. This was basically the same as the last game.
I won!
So, I ended up winning my 1st ever BR and 2nd tournament overall. I traded the organizer for five packs and some other stuff and got a Full Art Reshiram and from my prize packs a reverse holo Samurott (the good one), some other amazing stuff, and a Full Art Zekrom. Just so you know, the packs with the Full Arts were opened by my bro. Funny.
So, now, onto the next part:
Why the Format Should Change
This format really needs to change. At first, my opinion was different, as I had won Regionals with VileGar and I was shocked that I probably couldn’t play it for Nationals. However, my experience with a HGSS-on deck vs. a present metagame deck as well as BR’s, my opinion changed dramatically.
1. The format just has a small pool of decks that are doing so well.
Let’s see, what are the top decks for MD-CL? In no particular order, there are:
- LuxChomp
- VileGar
- Gyarados
- SableLock variants
- SP variants (including DialgaChomp and stuff)
These are the decks that are mostly winning and are being played. Basically, only five decks are doing really well. I know that there are the occasional rogue winners as well, but that is not my point.
Now, the decks, in no particular order, after the B/W rules:
- Gyarados
- VileGar
- SableDonk (maybe)
In my opinion, SP is mostly out of the question as it is very weak to SableDonk and it can’t 1HKO a Zekrom or Reshiram. This is also my knowledge from Seniors; the Masters could be different.
Now, here are my predictions, in no particular order, for HGSS-on:
- Zekrom Donk (ZPS or Zektron)
- Reshiboar
- MagneBoar
- Emboar Variants
- Beartic/Vileplume
- Cinccino
- SamuGatr
- BlastZel
- LostGar
- Tyranitar
- Magnezone Variants
- Beartic Variants
- Yanmega
- DonChamp
- Donphan Variants
So… as you can see, there are a lot of decks out there. I don’t even know if I covered them all. This is a pretty diverse format that we are looking at then. There are also some combos that I don’t even know of yet. This format to my knowledge makes rogues better and more fun to run since you never know what will come up.
pokebeach.comNow, I have been testing Zektron (that’s what I’m going to call it) and I have been donking like crazy. Yea, it might be the next LuxChomp, but it has a huge weakness to Donphan or most Fighting Pokémon.
There will most likely be a bright future in a HGSS-on format so I will be looking forward to it!
2. Some cards are so broken that it isn’t even funny.
The most broken cards ever:
Yea… and paired with one another they are even more broken. These cards were in a particular order, but this is my opinion. You may disagree, I don’t care since it’s my opinion. I think Sableye is the most broken one because of the B/W rules. There is SableDonk, but I haven’t been seeing many of those things win lately. I have seen decks like Gyarados winning.
Gyarados is scary with the new B/W rules. With VileGar (now its worst match up since Zekrom, Reshiram, and SP are mostly gone in my division), VileGar even struggles to win if they don’t get a Spiritomb start. Even if they do, “Regi Move” from Regice says “bye bye” to Trainer Lock if there isn’t a double ‘Tomb start. Gyarados players usually run just about four Collector and two Bebe’s.
SP isn’t what it used to be but still, it has a broken engine and is broken so… yea… mostly LuxChomp…
3. Sableye…
Basically the #2 reason… Not really much to say… Getting a bit lazy.
4. We need a more diverse format.
pokebeach.comLook, even the really good players are getting tired of the format. They are good at LuxChomp and SableLock and other stuff but as JWittz said:
“This format is boring” and “I can’t really learn much more on [SableLock]. I have played it all season and when I play it, I just go on autopilot.” Okay, it maybe wasn’t exactly that but you need to get the point.
The format is stale, the same decks being played and winning, and no really other decks are emerging. Yeah, there was MagneRock and others but some just got outsped by other top decks.
Take LostGar, the deck that was supposed to “be the BDIF.” It got outsped by other decks and just got dropped.
The format needs to change and fast.
And since I didn’t do this at the end of the BR’s report and this is the end of the article, here are the props and slops.
Props and Slops
Props:
- Troy for hosting a smooth running tournament, being impartial, fair, and quick in rulings, being a great guy, and giving me an idea to what I will call Zekrom Donk.
- Me getting two full arts in my packs I got in BRs.
- My bro for getting 2nd.
- My bro for opening two packs and getting two full arts for me!
- Me WINNING!
- VileGar for not letting me down in the finals and being my winning decks in the tournaments I won.
- Eli for dropping (not really, just made me have a better chance of getting in top I guess).
- REVENGE ON MY ROUND 1 OPPONENT!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!!!!!
Slops:
- Gyarados decks
- Sableye/SableDonk (this is why Eil dropped)
- Other stuff
Thanks for reading! Now, do whatever you need to do!
Congrats on the win and the Victory Medal! A few notes:
1. Your Premier Rating has nothing to do with getting into top cut. A statistic called Opponent’s Win Percentage determines this when records are tied, and this only refers to your opponent’s win percentage in that particular tournament. Your Premier Rating is a separate figure entirely that never factors into tournament standings.
2. While I agree that the format should change, it isn’t because it’s “boring” or “stale.” You cite 5 decks that have done well in MD-on tournaments, and compare that to 15 decks that you *think* might be good in a new format. The truth is, we don’t know if half of those decks will even be competitive. I don’t think it’s fair to assume that the format will suddenly become so much more vast and varied when we only have 450 cards to work with and we haven’t played any HGSS-on events yet. In all likelihood, half of the decks you mentioned will not be top-tier, competitive decks.
Nice! Good to see someone else using a VileGar build, its sick in this format. I went to 2 and won both Battle Roads with a LostVileGar build. Including both top 2s, I won 7 Games with Lost World and 3 games by KOs.
Glad to hear that you have done well! I haven’t been to a single BR yet, bummer… haha.
How’s Kentucky?
Glad to hear that you have done well! I haven’t been to a single BR yet, bummer… haha.
How’s Kentucky?
I do agree that the format should be rotated to HGSS-on, simply because I think it would be exciting.
However, I’m not sure that the battle roads results will force P!P’s hand enough to do that. There have been 23 different decks win a Battle Roads tournament in the master’s division(according to the thread on the Gym) and not a single one of the reported winners was a straight VileGar build. There have been 16 Gyarados, 14 LuxChomp, 11 Sayble Donk, 3 MagneRock, four decks with 2 wins, and fourteen decks with 1 win.
Even though almost all of those decks run either Spiritomb or Sableye, that format is already more diverse than the MD-CL format. I will be (pleasantly) surprised if P!P rotates if the results do not become more disturbing in the coming weeks.
Oh and there have been more than those 23 decks make top cut. Yes, it could be because the fields have been smaller with lower turnout, but that is the players’ fault. Everyone was sick of LuxChomp’s dominance, Problem solved.
I only dropped cus i got Sabledonked twice and was extremely Poed your lucky lol
yea. that sux. xD too bad, eh? at least you won one! ;)
dont forget BTS is broken with BW rules. basically in this format they cut down stage 2s(resortng them to vileplume) and improved stage 1s.
Saying that Garchomp C X is a broken card is IMO wrong. You might say that the card-combos achievable with this fierce dragon are broken, but the card in itself is just slightly powerful. The only cards that in themself were just an error to print, are Sableye SF and Gengar SF. Fainting Spell is simply wrong, and Overeager makes no sense with the new rules… But apart from these two, I wouldn’t go as far as to make this long list of broken cards…
sigh
I really hate when Gengar players have the audacity to cite “flipping tails on Fainting Spell” as a reason of losing…I’ve never played a deck that required me to get lucky to win…and I’ve even won a few matches…
And, saying we need a “more diverse format” while urging that 7 sets be rotated out seems strange…
yea, because it really mattered. I had vileplume out. I didn’t have rescue energy on gar the 1st fainting spell. he had almost no way to get out gyarados again, he did tell me afterwards that the first flip did matter. Fainting spell flips are usually very crucial. I wonder why people use uxie’s psychic restore when gengar sf has two or less damage on it? I wonder why people try to get crobat drops on it when it has low hp?
You forgot to mention our secret deck… oh wait… it’s secret ;-) By the way, you SHOULD use Electric Energy because you know who (2-1-2) is a good backup not only for the body.