Darkrai / Sableye / Tropical Beach? 2nd Place Bentonville, AR Cities Report

Well, for those that don’t know me, my name is Kevin Murphy, and I’m from Bentonville, Arkansas. This Cities really meant a lot to me because the Bentonville City Championship was the first event that I ever participated in 3 years ago.

Leading up to the tournament I had done a lot of testing online with some of my really good friends. I had tested pretty much everything. Blastoise/Keldeo, Darkrai, RayEels, Flygon/Dusknoir, Raticate/Amoonguss, Garbodor variants, and most everything tested pretty well.

Let’s jump to the Friday before the tournament now. I had originally planned not to go because there was a local anime convention that I was going to go to with my girlfriend, but she got sick and told me to go ahead and play in the tournament instead. I called up my good friend Ty Smith, and told him the he could stay at my place that night so that we could test, and so that’s what we did.

Until around 4 in the morning we were testing all sorts of decks. Darkrai/Sableye, RayEels, Tornadus/Landorus, and Raticate/Amoonguss were what we mainly focused on that night. Neither of us had Computer Searches though, so the following day we were both going to have to see if we could get our hands on a copy of it.

We wake up at around 8 to start getting ready, and get to the venue around 9:30 to start our search for Computer Searches. Turns out everyone else had the same idea we did, so it ended up only 3 people at the tournament actually owned Computer Searches… Well this just made things pretty interesting.

After I learned that I wasn’t going to have access to Computer Search, which is a main card in all of the decks that I had been testing, I decided to walk around and scope out what people were playing. It seemed to mostly be Landorus variants and RayEels, so I decided that I wouldn’t be able to play Raticate and decided on Darkrai/Sableye instead.

As I was writing up my decklist I forgot that I didn’t have Computer Search, so I had to take out my old base set Computer Search due to the fact that we aren’t allowed to play them. As I’m sitting there thinking of what to add in its place, I look through some of my cards, and decide:

“What the heck, I’ll toss in a Tropical Beach.”

I turned in my list, and sat around waiting for round 1 pairings to get posted. This is what my list ended up looking like at the end of all it.

Pokémon – 8 4 Sableye DEX 3 Darkrai-EX DEX 1 Keldeo-EX

Trainers – 40 4 Professor Juniper 4 N 3 Bianca 3 Skyla 2 Random Receiver   4 Pokémon Catcher 4 Ultra Ball 4 Energy Switch 3 Dark Patch 2 Energy Search 2 Dark Claw 1 Eviolite 1 Tool Scrapper 1 Potion 1 Super Rod 1 Tropical Beach

Energy – 12 12 D – Basic

Edits I would make to the deck now would probably be -1 Energy Search +1 Dark Patch, -1 Random Receiver +1 Eviolite, and -1 Tropical Beach +1 Computer Search.

Onto the report!

Round 1 vs. Kyle Lane With Landorus/Tornadus/Roserade

pokemon-paradijs.comKyle is a friend of mine up from Springfield, Missouri. I had talked to him a few days before the tournament, and he had told me that this is what he was going to be playing. I felt pretty confident about the matchup because I had been testing it the night before with Ty.

We get set up, and I go first with a Sableye start. I start to get everything rolling together, and set up a T3 Night Spear with a Dark Claw to get through his Eviolites. As soon as he drops his Landorus-EX I know to target it, and start to drop damage everywhere on his field setting up future Night Spear knock outs.

It comes down to where we both have 3 Prizes left, and on his field he has a Tornadus EX with 40 HP left with an Eviolite attached, Aspertia City Gym, a Roserade, and an active Landorus with 2 F Energy attached.

I top deck a Skyla to grab out my Tropical Beach, use Tool Scrapper to get rid of his Eviolite, and Catcher up his Roserade to Knock Out both it and his Tornadus for game. GG.

1-0

Round 2 vs. Adam Biggot with Landorus/Mewtwo/Garbodor

I wasn’t too sure about how this one was going to go because I hadn’t tested the matchup as much as I probably should have. We both get very solid starts, but I’m able to take a huge lead. I end up making a major misplay though when I decided to Knock Out his last Garbodor instead of dropping damage on a Landorus-EX.

Had I damaged the Landorus instead, I would have been able to take my last prize, but instead Adam was able to make quite an impressive comeback to clench the victory.

1-1

Round 3 vs. Local Player with Blastoise/Kyurem EX/Keldeo

I’ve seen him at league a couple times before, and knew he’s not too serious of a player. We start, and I just have too good of a start compared to his.

I’m able to Catcher KO his Squirtles before they become Blastoises, and just continue to steamroll through his field. The game ended up with me taking 6 Prizes to his 0.

2-1

Round 4 vs. Ty Smith with RayEels

I’m just going to say that Ty is probably one of the best friends that I have made in this game, and one of the best players I know. We both joke around before the game starts saying that we each should scoop to each other and whatnot, but we get set up and I win the coin flip.

I start Sableye to his Stunfisk NVI. He had been trying it out the night before, and really liked how it can hit Darkrai for 100, and have the chance to Paralyze it. He doesn’t have the best set up, and on top of that I’m Catchering up all of his Eels to Knock them Out before he can really build up a chain of Rayquaza EXs.

pokemon-paradijs.comIt comes down to I have 1 Prize left to his 2, and he tries locking my Darkrai active, but I’m able to Ultra Ball for my Keldeo-EX to break out of the lock and Knock Out his Stunfisk for game. GG Ty, GG.

3-1

We wait around for everyone else to get finished up with their games, and when top cut is posted these were the results:

1st: Adam Biggot with Landorus/Mewtwo/Garbodor
2nd: Michael Kendle with Rayeels
3rd: Mark Oliver with Blastoise/Keldeo
4th: Me with Darkrai/Sableye

We are given a small lunch break, and I wait 30 minutes to get a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Adam and I then get on our game faces, and sit down to play our top 4 game.

Top 4 vs. Adam with Landorus/Mewtwo/Garbodor

Game 1

I win the coin flip, and just open with a god start. I’m able to get a T2 Night Spear putting 90 damage on his Mewtwo and 30 on his benched Trubbish. He draws for his turn, plays an N, and extends his hand because he didn’t draw another Pokémon.

Game 2

He gets a really solid setup, and gets the T2 Garbodor lock. This game ended up going on for a while, and I can’t really remember all of the details about it because of how tired I was. I actually forgot what game we were playing near the end of this one because I really couldn’t remember.

He ended up being able to charge up a Landorus-EX, and Knocks Out 2 Darkrai in a row to seal the game.

Game 3

Again we both get super solid starts, and it is another super close game that came down to the wire.

In the end I’m able to use Tool Scrapper to get rid of a key Eviolite and a Tool off of his Garbodor, to retreat to a fresh Darkrai to keep tanking. He isn’t able to keep up his Landorus, and I Knock it Out for game.

4-1

Top 2 vs. Michael Kendle with RayEels

pokemon-paradijs.comMichael and I always give each other crap about random things, so when I saw that I was going to be playing against him in the finals, I knew it was going to be fun.

Michael also won States a few years ago with the at the time a rogue deck consisting of Gengar SF/Garchomp C, so it’s always cool to play against someone who revolutionizes a deck archetype.

Game 1

I get a god start again with a T2 Night Spear, and just plow through his whole board.

Game 2

I start Sableye to his Rayquaza DRV, and on my turn I can’t draw into another Pokémon.

So after 2 very uneventful games I’m really hoping that Game 3 is a good close game. Also, in Game 2 I find out that he only plays 1 Skyarrow Bridge.

Game 3

Again I have an amazing start with the ability to get the T2 Night Spear, but he Ns that hand away into a less than great hand. He’s also able to drop Skyarrow on his first turn which in return I drop my Tropical Beach to get it off the field since I learned between games that he only plays one. I’m then able to get a Night Spear off on my T3.

This entire game was back and forth, then there is one turn that I really need to hit a Catcher to get a double KO on 2 Eelektriks, but I whiff my Pokémon Catcher so I settle on Knocking Out a Rayquaza DRV and an Eel instead.

With that extra Eel, he is able to get enough Energy on both Eels to Knock Out the rest of the Pokémon on my board. I contemplate trying to Catcher stall to deck him out, I checked his discard, and he still has access to all of his resources to get it out of the Active Spot.

I end up just hitting his Rayquaza EX hoping that he isn’t able to get 3 Lightning on his benched Rayquaza EX. He does, and is able to Dragon Burst for his last prize.

4-2, 2nd place

Well I get 2nd place again. It just seems to be a theme for me this season I guess. Michael and I both go collect our winnings, take some pictures, and then proceed to tear open the packs to see who would get a Computer Search.

I ended up pulling my 5th Black Kyurem EX, and a Crystal Edge while Michael on the other hand proceeded to pull a Full Art Landorus, White Kyurem EX, and a Computer Search.

So not only did I not win the tournament, but I also pulled terribly out of my winnings. Ah well. This tournament put me at the odd number of 99 Champion Points, and I’ll for sure be attending many more City Championships throughout this season to try to nab myself that Worlds invite.

Props

2nd place!
Seeing friends
Not using Computer Search
Beating Ty

Slops

2nd place…
Pulling bad in my packs
Michael pulling amazing in his
Having to beat Ty