Carl’s Cache: Ohio States Report and EXTC Swag

realisticdiplomas.comHello and welcome to my Ohio States report with, you guessed it, EXTC. I’ll be giving out my full report as well as a full round up of the week one metagame, and the plays for States for week two.

The day starts insanely early for me at 4:45 AM. We leave my place at 6 AM, and then pick up David for a fun car ride with myself, David Cook, Dan Polo, Brandon, Krissy, and two people in their first tournament. The car ride was pretty fun, except when I decided to talk and get quoted saying that Tony Stork was “that guy” in Iron man.

I was playing EXTC, Dan and David were Zek/Eels, Brandon was TyRam, and Krissy was Kyurem NVI/Crobat Prime.

There were two main contributing factors to me deciding on EXTC. First, it had a sick deck name. Second, I just couldn’t figure out how to play Zek/Eels and I wanted to avoid that mirror match. I was semi-confident going in, but you never know when your Masters turn out is just as big as Regionals with only a top 16 cut.

We get there, get the Accelgor promo and the States die (BIG props to Ryan for getting us these this year). With that said, let the tourney begin!

Round 1 v. Andrew Mahone w/ Zekrom/Eels

This was a guy I had helped a little bit the weekend before, so I really didn’t want to play him. Plus, my start was extremely dicey: a Tornadus EPO, 5 Energy, and a Dual Ball. Luckily, on turn two I hit a Supporter and the prize exchange began.

We stayed even, but at the end, he Ns into his second Eelektrik, which lets him KO my Mewtwo EX and take 2 Prizes to win. If he hadn’t hit the Eel, I would have had the game on my next turn. It was fine though; I always lose my first round.

I was the only guy in our group to lose round 1, and was extremely sad that I was losing my EXTC swag, but I was undeterred; I just had to win 7 games in a row to cut…

LOSS 0-1

Round 2 v. Krissy w/ Kyurem/Crobat Prime

pokemon-paradijs.comI had to face, in my opinion, one of the most annoying decks, in the format. Luckily, I had beat it once already. We both had pretty dicey starts, but my Shaymin EX saved me from a perpetual energy drought with Synthesis. She, on the other hand, had the issue of not getting any Pokémon, so I eventually win by benching her out.

WIN 1-1

Round 3 v. Nicholena Moon w/ EXTC

I was facing Andrew’s girlfriend, who I had literally taught how to play the deck… really. Anyway, I go first. Speaking of firsts, my deck decided to function, and I donk her lone Celebi.

WIN 2-1

Round 4 v. Mike Allen w/ EXTC

Another mirror match (which was defeating the purpose of my playing this deck), and it wasn’t a good game either. He just couldn’t get anything the whole game and my deck functioned again, so I won.

WIN 3-1

At this point I’m 3-1 and pretty confident, but I know I’m not even half way there yet…

Round 5 v. Michael Young w/ THE Truth

He was running an old-style Truth, and he went Supporter dry the whole game. I was able to KO most (maybe all) of his Oddishes and his Solosis. I felt bad though, because he thought both Reuniclus were prized, but in reality one of them was sticking to another sleeve.

WIN 4-1

Round 6 v. Evan Baker w/ Donphan/Tornadus/Zekrom/Mewtwo

This was a deck that I was incredibly nervous to face, and he showed me why. By turn three he had KO’d two Celebis and I NEVER got to use Forest Breath. Luckily, he whiffed on several key energy drops which kept me in the game.

pokemon-paradijs.com

That, in combination with Tornadus being an excellent attacker against Donphan and playing around Zekrom, allowed me to Catcher KO it and survive. On the last turn, I pulled off a Shaymin EX KO on his Tornadus and got the win. GG man.

WIN 5-1

At this point I knew I was close, but could I get 2 more wins?

Round 7 v. Kevin Forbes w/ EXTC

Another mirror match (I was surprised to see so much mirror). We both have solid starts, and we begin the standard prize exchange. I’ll be honest, the final turn I almost peed myself. He got the PlusPower and Catcher on my benched Mewtwo with two energies, and then he Junipered, needing just a Mewtwo EX and either 2 Grass or a DCE and he… MISSED!

The next turn I won with Tornadus KO on a Celebi, therefore staying alive and in the hunt for my first top cut berth in a States.

WIN 6-1

Round 8 v. Mike Heis w/ Zekrom/Eel

I had played against him a couple of the pre-States tournaments, and I was nervous. I always had problems with Zekrom/Eels. I knew this game was lost pretty quickly, but I kept it close, even though he got a turn three Zekrom-EX on me… and I had cut Terrakion. I was able to 2HKO it, but I didn’t get a big enough lead to win.

LOSS 6-2

After losing, I thought I was toast. But guess what? EVERY opponent of mine WON their last game, which meant my resistance looked like this:

One person was 3-5 (thank you SO much for not dropping and goo job on your first tourney), four were 5-3, two were 6-2, and one was 7-1. I didn’t figure it out, but I knew it was insane. I just had to hope enough 6-2’s made cut, and then I’d be chilling with Andrew and Nick, who were also on the bubble. We ALL got into top. Whew, was I excited for my first top cut in states!

So, of course, I got another mirror match. But this time, I lost…

Top 16 v. Dustin Zimmerman w/ EXTC

Game 1

pokemon-paradijs.comI started with Celebi and Tornadus, went 2nd, and he turn one’d my Celebi with a double PlusPower + DCE + Mewtwo EX. Not good for me.

LOSS 0-1

Game 2

I go first, start with Shaymin EX, got into a Celebi start, and he once again got a turn one KO on my Celebi. I also failed to hit Switches and I could never catch up. In the two games I played against him I saw one Switch and I just couldn’t do anything. He ended up winning the tournament, though, so at least I lost to the champion.

LOSS 0-2

Props

• Making top cut for my 3rd straight major event (despite starting each of them 0-1)
• Nick getting top 8
• Chance getting top cut
• Andrew getting top cut
• CAR RIDES
• Random rapper at Subway
• EXTC sweeping top 2
• 3-1 in mirror
• Pierces just destroying (swept Seniors and Juniors)
• Joey getting 2nd
• Gummybear swag
• Being obnoxious for days

Slops

• I probably have to go to Regionals now
• Top 16 and not top 12 (still think that’s stupid by the way)
• 217 Masters for a State is just not right
• Almost being killed (at least 3 times)
• No Mewtwo star… so close

Now onto my States wrap up…

Ohio Metagame

Our metagame was extremely polarized to the top 2 decks, EXTC and Zekrom/Eels, which is what I thought it would be. Durant also did well (I think 3 got into top cut), but only got into the top 8. Magnezone also had a solid showing, and Vanilluxe also made it to the top cut. I saw a fair amount of TyRam, but I don’t think any snuck into top cut. Lastly, there was Dan’s deck, which seemed like a turbo deck with answers to everything.

Based on that I would say the play for Indiana states is probably just your best deck, or something that does really well against EXTC.

States Results

three-stooges.comOverall the first week of States was incredibly polarized with the “big three” (EXTC, Zek/Eels, and Durant) winning all of the States except one (Virginia), which tells me that this metagame has a lot of good decks (there was some variety in terms of top 16 and top 8’s), but that there are 3 dominant decks.

I also think that some decks can do well. A deck I’m messing with now is TyRam w/ Terrakion, and even Electrode Prime variants are poised to move up if they can beat those three decks. Basically, a good play would be a deck that can run Fire, Fighting, Mewtwo EX, and something that dishes out 110 easily (to handle Tornadus) as that would actually counter all of the big three decks. Otherwise I would suggest just running your best deck that you know well for the second weekend.

Here are the numbers (from Pokégym/Top Cut)

Deck	1st	2nd	3rd/4th
Zekrom/Eels	9	8	13
EXTC	7	6	8
Durant	2	2	6
Terrakion	1	0	1
Landorus/Terrakion	0	1	1
Electrode/Reshiram/Terrakion/Mewtwo	0	1	0
Mew/Yanmega	0	1	0
TyRam	0	0	3
MagneEel	0	0	2
Donphan/Mewtwo	0	0	1
Thundurus/Eel/Terrakion	0	0	1
Chandelure	0	0	1

You’ll notice almost immediately that three decks comprised most of the field; EXTC, Zekrom/Eels, and Durant are the clear three best decks at the moment. However instead of MagneEel or TyRam battling for that 4th slot we have Terrakion variants (I could’ve combined Landorus/Terrakion and Terrakion as they both try to accomplish the same goal) have been a surprise. This is mainly because Lightning is so popular and they have near auto-wins against those decks.

Now onto my updated tier list…

Tier 1

• Zekrom/Eels
• EXTC

Tier 1.5

• Durant
• Terrakion Decks

Tier 2

• TyRam
• MagneEel

The other decks in the field I’m currently listing as “rogue” decks for now, but if they rise in popularity the deck that’s the backbone of my season could fall. Which brings me to my final section…

The MAGIC Number

For the remainder of my articles I will be now be doing a small section on the top 40 Masters in North America in terms of Championship Points, and what I project that number to me (these will be my best projections and it also gives me an excuse to figure out math for my own good as well).

Entering week one of States, the player sitting at number 40 had 29 Points, I had 27 and was sitting at 52nd. Which wasn’t too far behind, especially if I can do well at Battle Roads. Week one of States surprised as the point value only went up to 31 Championship Points (granted only one player with 31 is in the top 40), but that was great news to me as I actually gained a point on the top 40. I am currently sitting at 30 Points, and I also moved up to 50th.

Using that data, plus what I think it will take to stay on pace for Battle Roads and Nationals (which is the hardest to predict), I’ve come up with this:

• Week Two of States: 3 more points
• Week Three of States: 3 more points
• Spring Regionals: 2 or 3 points (depends on how many in the top 40 already have a best finish limit)
• Spring Battle Roads: 4 points (after Autumn BRs 4 points was in the top 40)
• Nationals: 4 points (top 32 finish at Nats, could probably get away with 3 here, depending on who gets into top 64)

Add those numbers to 31 and you get the magic number of 47 points. That’s my current projection, although I do think 46 or 45 points could make it as well. I’ll be updating this week to week during States, and hopefully I’ll get my math right.

Anyway I will see you guys next week for my Indiana States report. Good luck at States and hopefully I’ll see some of you at Ft. Wayne. (And hopefully I’ll have my Regionals trophy soon… I hope Pokémon is reading this.)