Ohio Top 16 Report: A CMT Experience

Mark A. HicksBefore I get to the report, let me tell you a bit about myself and my current less-than-wonderful health situation.

I have played Pokémon since Platinum came out, and since then my achievements include getting 2nd at a Indiana Regionals, top cutting at Nationals, and 2nd place at Ohio States. Please don’t take this as me being a braggart and inflating my ego, I’m just attempting to show I do have a successful history in the Pokémon TCG, and that I do know what I’m talking about (most of the time).

Now, I was happy to even be able to attend the Ohio State tournament. You see, I have a blood condition known as “Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Pura-Pura” (seriously), or ITP for short. Essentially it is an incredibly uncomfortable condition that affects many aspects of my life, but most importantly it’s made it so that attending Pokémon TCG events is a supreme challenge (as you can imagine). Now that you know a bit more about me, onto the report.

Well, the day didn’t get off to the greatest start. I managed to forget the bag of food that my mum had painstakingly packed for the event, so I was on a roll before I even played a single game. I waited around and talked to a lot of my friends that I hadn’t seen in a long time. Eventually the pairings went up, and Ohio States began. I almost forgot to mention, my deck for the day was an Eel variant similar to the one that took second place at the ECC.

Round 1

It was awesome; I have never had a more intense game. In other words, out of 220 Masters, I got a bye. -_-

1-0

Round 2 vs CMT

pokemon-paradijs.comFinally, an actual opponent! This guy was incredibly pleasant, and gave a great game despite his less than thrilling start. I go first, opening Tynamo NVI 38 to his double Tornados EPO. I fill up my bench with my Pokémon Collector, play Switch, and use Thundurus EPO’s Charge attack. After my great opening, he draws, stares at his hand, attaches an energy to a benched Tornados, and passes.

From here I take the prize lead, and I keep the edge and comfortably stay in the lead. The only mistake he made was toward the end of the game; he had a Mewtwo EX with 80 damage on it (from an earlier Disaster Volt from my Thundurus), and he sends up a healthier Mewtwo EX to attack, which I promptly return KO’d.

Had he sent up the damaged one to attack, I wouldn’t have been able to return the KO his other Mewtwo EX that had no damage on it, and he would have won the game. But that’s the name of the game (and most of the tournament for me), and I take the win after I KO his damaged Mewtwo EX.

2-0

Round 3 vs CMT

I wish I could tell you I duked it out with this guy and gave him a great game, but the fact is I just drew and passed for 3-4 turns before he killed my Pokémon. I didn’t see a single Supporter the through the entire, albeit brief, game.

2-1

Round 4 vs Gardevoir NDE/Leavanny NVI/Mewtwo EX

Yeah, I really had absolutely no clue as how to approach this match. Thankfully, he had a terrible set up throughout the game. Seriously, he didn’t even get a Gardevoir out. He takes an early prize with his Mewtwo EX, but it’s eventually KO’d and he still doesn’t have anything set up except for a 1 Leavanny. However, that Leavanny darn near cost me the game.

Despite a lack of set up on his part, he still has 2 Mewtwo EX in play, one with a DCE and a Psychic on it, and one with no energy on the bench to my Thundurus with 2 Energy on it (I had used Disaster Volt during my turn). I still can’t decide if he misplayed or not, but even though he could have KO’d my active Thundurus to put himself back in the Prize trade, he attaches an energy to his benched Mewtwo EX and only does 100 damage to my Thundurus, only 10 damage away from the KO.

I send up a fully charged Zekrom and KO his Mewtwo EX, to which he sends up his other Mewtwo EX and KOs my active, putting as at 1-1 Prizes. I send up my Thundurus, attach an energy, and play a Professor Juniper, hoping that I draw into a Catcher. My first 6 cards were useless, and at that point I thought I had lost and wasn’t going to be able to top cut, but the 7th was a Catcher, which gave me the game.

It was an incredibly intense game, and my opponent played very well despite a lousy set up, so I have to give him that.

3-1

Round 5 vs CMT (3rd one out of 4 opponents -_-)

I can’t remember much of this game, but I remember having a terrible start, and at one point in the game my opponent had 1 Prize to my 3 Prizes. All I remember is playing N, watching him draw a garbage hand, and taking my last 3 Prizes while he can’t take his last Prize. I wish I could tell you more about this match… it was incredible.

4-1

Round 6 vs CMT (#4 for those of you keeping track)

This match was against Dustin Zimmerman, a guy I had only previously known by reputation, and who went to win the tournament. After the game we played, it doesn’t shock me that he won. He takes the early prize lead, but I play N once again and watch him draw garbage for several turns. At one point he was stuck with only a Regigigas-EX with three G Energy attached to it while I had a Terrakion with 80 damage on it ready to return KO it.

I believe he eventually draws the Catcher, KOs the Terrakion, and I just can’t return KO the Regigigas, and he takes the win. It was an incredible match, and I can honestly say that he deserved the win for managing to pull it off.

4-2

Round 7 vs… hold your breath folks… CMT!

pokemon-paradijs.com5/6 of my opponents have played CMT… ridiculous isn’t even close to describing it.

Well, to put in perspective, he didn’t see a Supporter the entire game and only took 1 Prize before I took all 6-of mine… couldn’t really call that a good game.

5-2

Round 8 vs Mew Prime/Vanilluxe NVI/Unfezant BLW/Vileplume UD (NOT CMT, WOO!!!)

He managed to get a turn 2 Vileplume… and that was it. Seriously, I was attacked only three times in the entire game, and his Vileplume was stuck in the Active Spot with no Pokémon at the bench at a less than pleasant period of the game for him. He quickly scooped when he realized he couldn’t take the win. I have to give him props for the creative deck, not to mention the fact it wasn’t a CMT.

6-2

Top 16 vs CMT… gee, how do I play this match up?

Game 1

Not overly exciting, he takes an early lead and sets up while I struggle to set up at all. I scoop when I realize that I can’t recover and take the win, so he takes Game 1 with ease. My only regret with this game is that I didn’t scoop sooner, which would have given me more time for Game 3.

0-1

Game 2

I go first and take the early lead, but he still sets up very strongly. His Smeargle(s) proved to be the most annoying feature of his deck for me, and actually forced me to discard 2 PONT via Junk Arm so he couldn’t get a stronger set up. Despite putting up a strong fight, I manage to take the win when he couldn’t get the energy he needed during a key turn.

1-1

Game 3

pokemon-paradijs.comTime is called early in this match, which is what ended up costing me the whole tournament. His deck is all about taking the first prize, where as mine is more of a come-from-behind kind of deck. In the end, he has 4 Prizes left while I have 6 left during the +3 of the 60 Minutes +3 time limit, and I just can’t make a comeback. They were great games, and I played to the best of my ability, so I have no complaints.

1-2

At the end of the day, while coming in 14th may not be ground-breaking, nor is it anything close to what the best of the best have done, but to a guy who only 2 weeks previously wasn’t even going to play because of the shaky level of my health, it was akin to getting top 2 at Nationals for me. I hope this report will give you some insight into what to expect in the upcoming weeks of States, as well as a distinct realization that CMT is definitely one of the most commonly played decks in format.

A Parting Note to Everyone

If you intend to play CMT during one of the upcoming States tournaments, take my word for it: play at least one Smeargle UD in your list, as it adds a level of consistency that is currently unmatched in this format, because it is the only card currently in format that allows you to play two Supporters in one turn. Thank you all for reading this far, and good luck to you in all of your future tournaments.

Chance~

Reader Interactions

12 replies

  1. Eli Norris

    Nice article!

    In Virginia I faced a total of 6 Zekeels, and ended up 4th place with Durant.
    So I know how you feel :P.

  2. Grant Manley

    That quadTerrakion deck that Curran played in VA w/ all the zekeel there would’ve sucked at your tournament w/ all those CMT!
    Ya anyway good 1st article expect a decent score.
    I would say expect like +12 but after Reddy’s article got what it did I’d say expect like +16 or 17.
    I usually only rate up exceptional articles (I’m really picky so I don’t up-rate often) but I have sympathy for you vs.ing all those CMT and your Pura-Pura thing. And I know how I felt when my first article came out.
    As said it was a pretty decent article too. Congrats at Top 16.

  3. theo Seeds

    Hey, good job and congrats on Top 16. I really don’t know what my States meta will be like, but I’m looking foward to finding out! I’m expecting a lot of Durant and Zekeels with the occasional CMT or rogue, but I can’t say for sure.

  4. Johnny Y

    I was at Ohio too, I went 4-4 with Zektrik. I’m fifteen, so being in Masters is a bit of a challenge, but I did a lot better than I expected. I had a lot of variety in my matches.

  5. RJ Kucia

    I went 4-4 in Ohio with DarMAXitan/Gardevoir… unfortunately one of those losses was against the lowest ranked player in the world.

  6. Loren Miller

    Nice report and congrats on making the top cut.

    I had ITP at age 17 and can empathize greatly with situation. Your performance is all the more impressive because I know how some of the medicines you may be on affect your mind and your thinking (predisone made me loopy at times), plus the other difficulties with having ITP, so you did impressively well despite the challenges you face. Now I’m a pokedad with 3 kids who play. Best of luck with the ITP and keep up the fight.

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