Hello SixPrizes! I know its been forever since I posted an article, but I thought I’d give it another shot! Personally I don’t really like long intros, and usually skip them or end up thinking something like this, so I’ll just tell you what you need to know and get on to the reports. I’m a Senior, I live in the UK, and I’m awesome =D. Now, on to what you came for!
October 15th @ Crawley: Four Best Of Three Rounds With No Top Cut
This was my first tournament of the season, so I was pretty anxious, and to add to my nerves I was playing a rogue (Cinncino/Tornadus) that was very under-tested with some potential match ups… Anyway, there was an extremely small turnout at the event, with only 4 Seniors (which is my division), a few Masters and no Juniors. Because of the poor turnout, Seniors and Masters were pulled together.
The List:
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Pokémon – 13 3 Minccino EP
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Trainers – 35 4 Pokémon Catcher
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Energy – 12 4 Double Colourless Energy
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Round 1 VS. Luke w/ Stage 1s (Cinncino/Donphan/Yanmega)
Game 1:
pokebeach.comIn game one I got a ton of Cinccino and Tornadus set up to capitalize on his rather weak start and proceeded to steamroll everything he threw at me, eventually clearing his field of Pokémon. The game only lasted a few turns.
Game 2:
I drew an awful opening hand to his fantastic one and was t2 donked by a Donphan (or Yanmega, can’t quite remember). Disappointing, but these things happen I guess.
Game 3:
In game three we actually got to have a good match, with both of us setting up very quickly and exchanging cheap prizes throughout most of the game. He eventually ran dry on resources fell behind on the Prize trade, unable to catch up while I finished the game off with Cinccino. Huzzah!
1-0
Round 2 VS. Christopher w/ TyRam
Game 1:
Not much to say here, He got set up, I didn’t. I took a couple of prizes but ultimately ran out of resources and scooped. (Or got swept, my memory is kinda foggy here, but I know I lost.)
Game 2:
Game two went pretty much the same as before, but this time my sleeves decided to disintegrate mid-game so I had to buy new ones, however when I reached into my bag to pay for them (the game had been paused while I re-sleeved), there was no money… Luckily my dad gave me a loan so I could actually pay for the sleeves.
Long story short, I lost £10, had to re-sleeve mid-game and got completely destroyed. Not exactly the highlight of my Pokémon career… (I did eventually find the money though =)).
1-1
Round 3 VS. Coren w/ MagneBoar
Game 1:
pokebeach.comI get a pretty good start to his abysmal one, and quickly take down his two Reshiram and drag up Magnemite and Magneton with catcher before they can evolve. I win pretty easily by KOing all the Pokémon he had in play by Doing The Wave.
Game 2:
Basically the opposite of what happened in game one happened here, with me getting an absolutely horrible start and Coren getting two Magnezone and an Emboar by turn two, KOing anything that posed a threat with Lost Burn…
Game 3:
Ugh… I don’t really want to talk about this game. So let’s just say I had the donk on his Pichu, but when I looked through my deck with Collector for Tyrogue it was prized… After that it was pretty much a repeat of game two… Sucks, but a meteor could have hurtled through the earths atmosphere, crushing me into a squishy mess on the floor, so it could have been worse I guess.
1-2
Round 4 VS. ??? (He was a Master) w/ Zekrom/Tonadus/Other stuff
Game 1:
Let me start off by saying this deck was NOT ZPST, I belive it contained Zekrom, Tornadus and Ampharos Prime (non-Prime). Anyway, I took a few cheap prizes with Catcher and never let him get an Ampharos set up. He took a few prizes with Zekrom and Tornadus but ultimately is was me who came out on top.
Game 2:
Game two went very similar to game one, only all three of my Tornadus were prized… I was still able to pull of a win though.
2-2
pokebeach.comSo in the end I got 3rd, meaning I missed out on my first opportunity to get Championship Points, but I still got a Victory Cup =).
The top four went like this:
- Christopher w/ TyRam
- Luke w/ Stage 1s
- Sam w/ CinnAdus
- Coren w/ MagneBoar
After my rather disappointing 2-2 record, I realised CinAdus didn’t have a very good match up against Zekrom or Reshiram variants, so I decided to ignore all general Pokémon advice and switched to a deck I had never played before the night before the tournament: ReshiBoar. So, here’s how it went!
October 16th @ Rainham: Three Rounds Best Of Three Rounds With No Top Cut
I was rather nervous going into a tournament with a deck I had never actually played before, but I decided that it was my best shot at winning, so I made a list as soon as I got home and by morning, I was ready.
The List:
In hindsight, my list was pretty bad, so I’ll just say I ran a 1-1 Ninetales (which I only got to use once throughout the tournament) and a single Bad Boar (which I didn’t even get to use once…). If you want a better decklist, look at the next two.
Round 1 VS. ??? w/ ???
Game 1:
pokebeach.comI’m really sorry, but I don’t remember a thing that happened this round, apart from the fact I won…
Game 2:
Basically the same as before. Again, I’m really sorry…
1-0
Round 2 VS. Vlad w/ MegaJudge
Game 1:
In this game we both got set up relatively quickly but a mixture of Pokémon Catcher KOs on Tepigs and Pignites and me dead-drawing for a few turns meant he managed to break my momentum and take too many key KOs for me to recover. He takes win pretty easily.
Game 2:
I got to go first and set up extremely fast, sweeping with Reshiram for an easy win second game. Or that’s what might of happened if had drawn more than 2 energy the entire game…
1-1
Round 3 VS. Tommy (a Junior) w/ The Truth
Game 1:
Having never played (with or against) The Truth, I didn’t really know what to expect from this match up, however it turned out to be quite easy. I managed to pull off a good set up, getting an Emboar and numerous Reshiram out by turn three, while he struggled to get a Vileplume set up the whole game. Eventually I managed to one or 2HKO everything he had with Blue Flare for game.
Game 2:
pokegym.netHe went first and managed to get a turn three Vileplume, but was unable to get any charged up attackers going… I’m able to take advantage of this by setting up a quick Emboar and swarming with Reshiram, so whenever he KO’d one I could respond with another, fully charged dragon.
This continues throughout the most of game, and I take the win by simply overpowering all his Zekrom and Donphan. I can’t help but think however that It would have been a very different game if he ran ESL as Ross did.
2-1
I ended up getting second, just beating Vlad on resistance to earn a Championship Point and a second place Victory Cup.
Top four was as follows:
- Luke w/ MegaJudge
- Sam w/ ReshiBoar
- Vlad w/ MegaJudge
- Really sorry but I don’t remember who got 4th…
October 20th @ Crayford: Three Best Of Three Rounds With No Top Cut
Having only used “Roast Reveal” once in the previous tournament, I decided to drop Ninetales altogether, instead opting for more raw draw cards. This was a gamble that most certainly paid off, as they turned out to be far more useful than Ninetales had been previously.
The List:
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Pokémon – 13 4 Reshiram BW 2 Pignite BW #17 2 Emboar BW #20 1 Emboar BW #19 |
Trainers – 34 3 Switch 3 Twins 3 Junk Arm 2 Cheren 1 Revive |
Energy – 13 11 R 2 Double Colourless |
Round 1 VS. Reece w/ Umm… Stuff
Game 1:
pokebeach.comThere really isn’t much to say about either of these games… I’m not even sure what the dude was running, I just saw seeming random basics go to the discard pile as I Blue Flared turn after turn…
Game 2:
This goes pretty much the same way as game one, with him getting nothing set up and the game ending before I could see what he was playing.
1-0
Round 2 VS. Vlad w/ MegaJudge
Game 1:
Having badly lost to Vlad the last time I played him, I was determined to win this round so I could prove that R3$H1B0AR IZ TEH B£$T DEK EVAR!!11!!!1 (well, maybe not that extreme, but I still had a point to prove). Anyway, I managed to get a nice set up using Twins to get Emboar out pretty quickly, and manage to overpower his Yanmega and two shot his Magnezone with the sheer damage output and HP of my Reshiram.
Game 2:
I get set up rather well, managing to pull off an early lead with Reshiram while he struggled to get any attackers out. Time was called before Vlad had even taken a prize…
2-0
Round 3 VS. Kurtis w/ Emboar Dragons
Game 1:
pokebeach.comKurtis gets Zekrom out very quickly while I struggle for energy and resources in general, although I am able to Twins for an Emboar and Rare Candy once he had taken a few prizes. Once I had Emboar out it was all to easy to catch up by Pokémon Catchering up things for some cheap KOs with Reshiram and before long I had taken all 6 Prizes.
Game 2:
Game two goes much the same way as before, although he is able to maintain a more steady stream of attackers and get an Emboar out rather quickly, He simply can’t keep up with me hitting for a solid 120 damage each turn. Between my steady damage output and him having a rather unfortunate energy drought mid-game, I am able to take the win by Flare Blitzing a Zekrom (the only time I got to use Badboar btw) for my last prize.
3-0
In the end, it turned out that I had won the tournament! Very happy with the result, I headed home with my 1st place Victory cup in hand.
The top four went something like this:
- Sam w/ Reshiboar
- Luke (not the guy I had played before) w/ MegaJudge
- Vlad w/ MegaJudge
- Kurtis maybe? Not sure though, sorry.
October 22nd @ Bexley Heath: Three Best Of Three Rounds With No Top Cut
Delighted with Thursdays result, I decided to make minimal changes to my list: only swapping Badboar for PlusPower and taking a DCE out in exchange for a regular R Energy.
The List:
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Pokémon – 12 4 Reshiram BW 2 Pignite BW #17 2 Emboar BW #20 |
Trainers – 35 3 Switch 3 Twins 3 Junk Arm 2 Cheren 1 Revive |
Energy – 13 12 R 1 Double Colourless |
Round 1 VS. ??? w/ Bellossom/Ampharos
Game 1:
pokebeach.comWe both set up quite slowly, allowing me to get a good look at his deck, and from what I could tell it relied on Bellossom UD for healing a variety of different attackers including Ampharos Prime and others which I have forgotten. Anyway, after I set up Emboar it was rather plain sailing for me, taking all 6 Prizes in (close to) six turns.
Game 2:
To be honest, this was nearly the exact same thing as game one, so I won’t go into much detail.
I did 120 damage to take 5 Prizes, and only then did he get Ampharos (the only thing in his deck I couldn’t one shot) set up. He didn’t promote it.
1-0
Round 2 VS. Luke (my first round opponent at Crawley) w/ Stage 1s (Donphan/Yanmega/Cinccino)
Game 1:
He gets a Yanmega out very quickly and takes a few prizes before I can respond with my Reshiram. By doing this however allowed me to Twins for an Emboar which completely changed the game in my favor, with him unable to 1HKO my Reshiram and my Reshiram VERY able to 1HKO him. 6 Prizes, six turns.
Game 2:
This game goes similarly to the last one, expect for the fact that I get a much faster set up while he gets a far slower one… I win pretty quickly.
2-0
Round 3 VS. Nathaniel w/ Stage 1s (Lanturn/Cinccino/Donphan/Yanmega)
Game 1:
pokebeach.comThis game was pretty ridiculous, as he got a T2 fully charged Lanturn hitting for 140 damage to anything (apart from Cleffa) I could throw at him thanks to Lanturn’s Power: “Underwater Dive”…. Three Lanturn prizes later he had drawn nothing but F Energy, meaning he could only get his Lanturn and Yanmega out, with nothing else.
Eventually I topdecked a Twins which finally allowed me to get Emboar AND enough energy out to start Blue Flaring each turn with Reshiram. This combined with Nathaniel drawing only fighting energy for four turns allowed me to take the win pretty fast. And to think I was considering scooping…
Game 2:
Game two went a lot smoother for both of us, as we both got set up at decent speeds and started trading prizes, but he seemed to have the same problem as every other stage ones player I’ve played with this deck: Once I was set up, he simply couldn’t counter the sheer HP or damage output of my Reshiram once I had an Emboar set up… I take my 6th prize while he is still on his fourth (or third).
3-0
W00t! I win again! For those keeping score at home that’s five Championship Points that I have collected so far =D.
Top four went like this:
- Sam w/ Reshiboar
- Luke (2nd round opp) w/ Stage 1s
- Nathaniel w/ Stage 1s
- ???
October 26th @ Sutton: Three Best Of Three Rounds With No Top Cut
Whether or not I should come here was a last minute decision, but I decided I could use the extra Championship Points, so off I headed…
The List: (was the same as last time)
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Pokémon – 12 4 Reshiram BW 2 Pignite BW #17 2 Emboar BW #20 |
Trainers – 35 3 Switch 3 Twins 3 Junk Arm 2 Cheren 1 Revive |
Energy – 13 12 R 1 Double Colourless |
Round 1 VS. Luke (yes, the same Luke) w/ Stage 1s (Donphan/Yanmega/Cinccino)
Game 1:
pokebeach.comThis game went how the rest of my games with Stage 1s usually go actually,with him getting an early lead, me using Twins to get Emboar and then catching up and eventually overtaking him in the prize race. Seriously, its weird how similarly my games against stage 1s…
Game 2:
Basically the EXACT SAME as game one… He gets an early lead, I Twins (or get Emboar out by other means) then catch up, overtake, and eventually win on prizes.
1-0
Round 2 VS. Vlad w/ TyRam
Game 1:
We both start Reshiram, then I start to lose… As he was setting up multiple Typhlosion, I was struggling to muster an Emboar, as He was attaching two or three energy each turn, I was having an awful drought of energy and draw cards in general and when he was steamrolling me, I… Wasn’t.
Game 2:
Ugh, the less said about this game the better, so I’ll keep it quick: A complete lack of Twins, hand refresh, raw draw, Pokémon Communication and well, Emboar itself, I did not get an Emboar set up until he had just one or 2 Prizes left…
1-1
Round 3 VS. ??? w/ Many Things
Game 1:
pokegym.netThis was horrible, so horrible in fact, that I’ll keep it even quicker than my last game. I dead-drew for the entire game. He set up Zekrom. I Blue Flared said Zekrom. Unable to do any more damage, I was outrage swept. This was made even worse when I later found out that he ran 28 Pokémon, 10 Trainers and 22 energy…
Game 2:
I went first and quickly got an Emboar set up, and well, you know what happens from here really. He collapsed under a constant stream of Reshiram hitting for 120 damage each turn, then recovering the energy they discarded with Fisherman and Energy Retrieval.
Game 3:
Game three went much the same way as game two (and thankfully not game one…) and as I expected, I won with a constant flurry of Blue Flares, Outrages and Pokémon Catchers.
2-1
Unfortunately I ended up coming 3rd on resistance, but at least I got a Pokéball Victory Cup.
Top four was as follows:
- Vlad (I think…) w/ TyRam
- ??? (sorry) w/ ???
- Sam w/ ReshiBoar
- Luke (My many time opponent) w/ Stage 1s
In case you didn’t like my article for whatever reason, maybe this will make you feel better. =)
Highest rated senior in the UK…
R3$H1B0AR IZ TEH B£$T DEK EVAR!!11!!!1trololol
so you are a senior? who cares then?
ಠ_ಠ
“Be cool. That’s all we ask. The writers and editors put a lot of time into bringing you these articles, so show some respect. It’s ok to be critical, but please be civil about it. Don’t embarrass yourself in front of everyone by making juvenile remarks because you may regret it later. If you have issue with someone, “Get a room.” Nobody wants to see your childish back-and-forth banter. Think twice before commenting, use proper grammar, HAVE FUN, and thanks for adding to the conversation!”
If you can’t read the clearly written rules, please to not comment with your ill thought out, “witty” remarks.
Thank You.
Didn’t you know that, in Pokemon TCG players, something magical happens to them when they turn 15? They get the power to write, like no ever has. This is why these people are given the title “Master”, and why only they get to write articles. An individual of lower class (called “Juniors” and “Seniors” according to the time they have left to becoming a Master) writing an article is seen as the ultimate crime.
I propose a 4 week ban to PokeGym and SixPrizes for Sam Marshall-Smith as penalty for his crime.
Sarcasm aside, congrats!
Thanks, and I honestly wouldn’t mind being banned from Pokegym =P I only go there to print out lists for tourneys anyway.
Lol, I thought about that when writing the name. :P Decided to put it anyway.
Seniors are awesome, and so are you Sam i believe i played you last season with DialgaChomp XD
Indeed they are! I think I remember you… Not sure though because I played HUGE amount of DialgaChomp last season.
ouch well hopefully this season you stay near the top :)
I care! I really enjoyed the article.
Thanks!
I was the guy who you went against last in the Crawley tourney. And yes, there were Ampharos Prime in there…just couldn’t get ’em set up.
Ah, sorry about that… I really need to start taking notes.
Nice job!
Thanks airhawk!
Great article! I was considering taking Reshiboar to my regionals, but ultimately decided against it. Your success has made me reconsider taking it! The list seems good, the tournament reports were good, and the whole article was just well written, A thumbs up from me!
Thanks dude! If you take ReshiBoar it to regionals, I suggest taking out a DCE, Fire, Victory Medal (fun bit to flippy) and a rare candy from my most recent list and adding a 1-1 RDL and 2 lighting. Works wonders.
Sarcasm aside, congrats!
hey sam its vlad, had a nice few games with you =)
hope to see you at regionals
Hey Vlad! You realize we don’t have regionals in this country right?
huh?! i swear there is, I konw its my first year playing but I swear there is regionals in UK
Nah there isn’t man, you might be thinking of scotland. (btw i was the guy you met up in bexleyheath)
nope.. cant remember you, did i play you or something?
you were watching my game vs Karl Blake and wanted a few things off me if that helps
Go UK players, and gotta love Nathaniel he’s such a nice guy. (well it helps i playtest with him alot)
Congrats and awesome job with Reshiboar! You give me hope on my most favourite deck for Regionals eventhough I’ve been considering ZPST instead. Hurrah! :D
Thanks Aaron! Like I said before:
“Thanks dude! If you take ReshiBoar it to regionals, I suggest taking out a DCE, Fire, Victory Medal (fun bit to flippy) and a rare candy from my most recent list and adding a 1-1 RDL and 2 lighting. Works wonders.”
Hope you do well!
Yeap looks good, although I will try testing with a 2-2 Ninetales and see if that works. RDL is a definite must I think, only Reshiboar and Magneboar can use it well and why pass off such an asset.
One thing to ponder on though, how is your Goth match up? I use a Bad Boar alongside RDL and will use either one to counter it, whichever I can get out faster. Also with Bad Boar on board I kinda cut my Catcher counts to only 1 since I run 3-4 Junk Arms and Flare Blitz KO’s pretty much anything anyway.
You do run a long list of Trainers-Items, how does Item-Lock fair for you? My meta is scattered with Vileplume and Goth, and looking at things Regionals might be the same trend.
Hmm… Yea, item lock can be problematic… It all depends on who sets up first, Emboar or the lock. Switching an Energy Retrieval for a Fisherman helps greatly, but if you expect a lot of Item lock its probably best to play something else, however if you expect a lot of Stage 1s, MegaJudge (RDL is HUGE in this matchup) and TyRam (despite my poor performance against it, its a good match up) ReshiBoar is a great play.
Hmm yeah, I already play 3 Fisherman though since I discard so often with Ninetales. Trainer-Lock seems like a real challenge and I’ve devoted much of the last month trying to find a consistent list to kill Goths and anything from The Truth. My Goth match-up with Bad Boar seems fine, now with RDL I have another option, with Ninetales to draw through my entire deck ASAP to get the pieces. TyRam seems relatively even, getting out the Bad Boar can really tighten the noose on the number of Typhlosions.
I run mainly Reshiboar, ZPST, and a form of BearPlume with Reuniclus, so if Trainer-Lock is big then my best bet seems anything but ZPST. I have a Stage 1’s list that hasn’t been tested yet though.
cincinno can work. but zoroark is a key player against the dragons. against reshiram, you start taking cheap prizes with catcher(2-3 hopefully). get foul play prizes(2-3 hoefully). and rap it up with more cheap prizes with catcher. against zekrom getting a cincinno up fast is crucial if they set tornadus up. if they set up zekrom then same thing(but i like to include a teched bouffalant BW for easier revenge kos on zekrom.) zoroark is great for catchering p benched zekroms with energy and foul plaing to kill them. i dont really see sages as good. there no piont is discarding. 4 PONT and 4 juniper is where its at.(where its at… where its at… where its at….