Cities to the Max – Back to Back Victories

ho-oh pokemon colosseumHello again, SixPrizes! A lot has happened since my last Cities report, most notably the Tennessee Mini-marathon. This article isn’t about my experience there however, but it did shape what I’m playing, so it’s important for me to review it.

What was interesting about this marathon was that a different person with a different deck won each day. Ho-Oh, Empoleon, Klinklang, Landorus, and then Keldeo. The metagame didn’t evolve during the marathon. It drastically shifted each day.

Day one, I took home the trophy thanks to my Ho-Oh deck after a nine hour tournament, giving me my second win. The first game in top 2, a Ho-Oh mirror match, was an incredible game. I won the turn I drew the last card from my deck after coming from way behind. Every card in the deck was important that game.

Day two and three, I continued to play Ho-Oh and went 3-3 both days. Almost every loss was one card short of a win, and most wins were by coming from behind. I didn’t want to play Ho-Oh anymore. It was obviously good, but it just wasn’t reliable enough. I was looking for a Regionals deck, and Ho-Oh wasn’t it.

Day four I tried my brother’s Darkrai/Tornadus/Mewtwo deck, and didn’t like it at all, despite making top four. After having played Ho-Oh, I was to use to being able to attack on turn one and playing a deck that required setup was to slow for me. The Top 4 games were also a real let down, as I only drew one Supporter in the two games.

mewtwo fireDay five, I switched to a Mewtwo/Tornadus/Landorus I had been testing. I really liked the deck. It was powerful and fast. I made it to the top 8 and lost to Blastoise/Keldeo. Even so, I knew it was the deck I wanted to play, so I fixed the list up for the next weekend. This report is the story of that weekend.

Rather than waiting till the end of the article this time, I’m going to tell you now, no decklist. I’ve never been a fan of giving my decklist out without good reason, and unless a new set is coming out before the next round of tournaments, I won’t be giving my tournament decklists out.

That being said, I will list the Pokémon I used, because it will help with comprehension when reading the article. I was playing a Mewtwo/Tornadus/Landorus deck with 3 Mewtwo EX, 3 Tornadus EX, 2 Landorus-EX, and 1 Bouffalant DRX.

I’m writing this a few days after these tournaments, and it was two straight days, so the games aren’t as fresh in my memory as they could be. As such, the games aren’t going to be as detailed as my last report, but I will still do the best I can.

Day 1: Southaven, MS – 1/5/13

I had maxed my best finish limit with 170 points, so going into the weekend I was playing more to see if I could take my deck to Regionals comfortably than to win. With only two Cities left, I didn’t expect to max my Cities points, because it would mean winning both the Cities I was going to. This time, though, I was going in with a tested deck that I knew was good.

Day one was a relatively short 40 minute drive to the venue. We got to the restaurant early, registered quickly, and then talked with friends. The Tournament Organizer was paying for pizza for any group of five, so my brother, myself, and three other friends ordered a pizza. After chatting for quite a while, the first round went up. 19 players, 5 rounds, top 4.

Round 1: ??? w/ Bad Basics

terrakion ex dragons exalted drx 71pokemon-paradijs.comHis deck wasn’t all that well built. It focused on using Terrakion-EX’s Pump Up Smash to energize other Basics, such as Keldeo and Landorus, but it took too long to power up and didn’t have a good Trainer structure.

He leads Mewtwo EX to my Landorus-EX. I go first, attach and hit Mewtwo and a Terrakion-EX for 30. He attaches a DCE to Mewtwo and does 60. I play Super Scoop Up to get Landorus out of the active, send in my Mewtwo, attach my DCE and take his out.

He sends in a Terrakion and tries to power it up, but Mewtwo Takes it out before he can get an attack off. He then tries to stall with a Bouffalant while powering up a Keldeo-EX on the bench. He attaches a DCE and Water to a Keldeo, but doesn’t use Rush In.

The next turn, he attaches a DCE to his Bouffalant and retreats to Keldeo. Judging by his deck, and the way he’s playing it, he’s probably fairly new to this metagame. In the end, his deck isn’t well equipped to deal with Mewtwo and I bowl threw him.

1-0

Easy round ones are nice. I watch the rest of the games, and almost everyone I know wins, while most of the 0-1’s are people I don’t know. Everyone I would “expect” to win took their round one game.

The only upset was a friend playing Blastoise/Keldeo who had lost to a Darkrai/Hydreigon. He was the only one playing Blastoise that day. After the games are done the next round is up quickly.

Round 2: Sean F. w/ Eels/Tornadus/Mewtwo

I know him from League and know that this is his first tournament. I can’t remember a lot of this game, other than that it was really good, and it looked like I was finished early. This game teaches me that my deck has a Tornadus EX problem.

super-scoop-up-black-white-blw-103pokemon-paradijs.com

Late in the game, an N leaves him with nothing of use, as we both sit at 2 Prizes. I have a Tornadus active with 120 damage, and it looks like the end. I then play Super Scoop Up, hitting heads to swing the game. After that, though, the best I can do is use Blow Through for 60.

He has a DCE on his active Tornadus and two energy on his Mewtwo. My Aspertia City Gym is in play. He needs an energy in order to 2-shot me before I 3-shot him. Since he used Level Ball for Tynamo the previous turn, I guessed that the only card in his hand is an Eel.

My field consists of a Tornadus with DCE active and two benched Mewtwo. I know I can’t take the game in two turns, and if he hits an energy he can. He draws, evolves to Eelektrik, Dynamotors a third energy to his Mewtwo, retreats to Mewtwo and Catchers my Mewtwo, leaving no cards in his hand. He uses X Ball for 120.

I drop the DCE for the game. He handed the game to me early, but with his hand there wasn’t much he could do. He needed an energy in order to do anything threatening.

2-0

I wish I could recall that game in more detail. It was very hard to play the Prize trade against him. There are no Blastoise decks left in the running, so I feel I have a good shot at top cut. I’m one of the last games finished, so the next round is up shortly.

Round 3: Josh “Squeaky” M. w/ Hammertime

He knows the matchup is a bad one. I go first, leading Landorus to his lone Sableye. I attach an Eviolite and an energy, then play a PlusPower and Juniper. I bench my second Landorus and hit him for 40. On his turn, he uses Ultra Ball to get another Sableye, attaches a Dark Claw and desperately uses Confuse Ray. Tails.

landorus ex boundaries crossed 89

I attach another energy and use Hammerhead to KO and hit his benched Sableye. On his turn, he hits double tails with Crushing Hammers, Catchers my other Landorus and Junk Hunts his Hammers back.

I attach to my new active, play N to get rid of the Hammers, and swing again, putting 30 on his benched Darkrai. He gets one Hammer that turn and hits heads, taking the energy off my active.

I get my benched Landorus powered up for Land’s Judgment, play Switch and take out his Sableye. He sends in his last Sableye, hits two tails on Hammers and uses Junk Hunt. I KO his Sableye.

He hits two more Hammer tails, and leaves a full HP Darkrai EX active. I drop a PlusPower to KO it without discarding. I have 1 Prize left to his six, he’s out of Hammers and hasn’t gotten an attack off. I KO one more Darkrai to close out the game.

3-0

Even though I took that game definitively, he got really unlucky. He hit one heads out of about seven or eight Hammers. There are three remaining 3-0’s now, including my brother. I check pairings, and I’m paired up against my brother. Amazingly, we’ve only played each other at Cities once up till now.

Round 4: Jarrett A. w/ Eels/Tornadus/Mewtwo

I’m playing my brother. Now, as brothers, we have an agreement regarding Swiss rounds. We play the game to a point where either of us can win it, then watch our previous opponents to see how our resistance plays out. All his opponents win. Most of my opponents lose. Since his resistance is stronger, I take the win.

4-0

The other 3-0 was paired down and lost. I’m the only 4-0 left, so I get paired down for the last round. I check the standings, and if I win, there will be one 5-0, two 4-1’s, and one 3-2 in top cut. If I lose, there will be four 4-1’s in cut, so regardless of how this plays out I’ve made it in. To make any more Championship Points, however, I have to make top 2.

Round 5: Joseph B. w/ Mewtwo/Landorus/Terrakion/Bouffalant

bouffalant-dragons-exalted-drx-110pokemon-paradijs.comI lead Tornadus to Mewtwo. And hit nothing. At all. He powers up a Bouffalant and hits me for 120 after I pass for about 3 turns. I draw junk, Max Potion to stall, and pass. He hits me again. I get a Skyla and have no choice but to get an Ultra Ball.

I snag a Landorus-EX, and looking back, I realize I should have grabbed Bouffalant. It would have given me an extra turn. He takes out my Tornadus and I send in Landorus, continue to hit nothing of use and bench out.

4-1

That was a very frustrating loss. I don’t have a problem losing when my deck lets me play it. But when there’s nothing I can do, no card I can change in the list, no way to play it better, it’s annoying. I like to look at my losses and figure out how to play it better to win the next game. A loss like this isn’t even educational.

Regardless of the loss, I still make cut. The 3-2’s are annoyed at me, but it’s not like there as anything I could have done.

In the end, top cut looks like:

  1. Kenton A. with Mewtwo/Tornadus/Landorus (4-1)
  2. Jarrett A. with Eels/Tornadus/Mewtwo (4-1)
  3. Joseph B. with Mewtwo/Landorus/Terrakion/Bouffalant (4-1)
  4. Travis F. with Darkrai/Hydreigon (4-1)

I’ve played Travis before at other Cities, and I’m confident in my Hydreigon matchup. I shuffle sufficiently in the hope that I don’t have a repeat of the last round.

Top 4: Travis F. w/ Darkrai/Hydreigon

Game 1

tornadus ex dark explorers dex 108pokemon-paradijs.comI go first and lead Tornadus EX to his Sableye and two Deino. He mulligans once, giving me a Skyla. On my turn I draw my one Aspertia City Gym. I bench a Landorus, play Skyla for Computer Search and get DCE. I play my Stadium, attach DCE, play PlusPower and KO his Sableye right off the bat.

He Catchers my Landorus and passes. I attach to Landorus and take out his Deino, leaving him with one Deino. He hits nothing. Game.

Game 2

I lead Landorus to his Sableye, Darkrai and Deino. He goes first, plays a few things and uses Junk Hunt. I attach and Catcher KO his Deino, putting 30 on Darkrai. He benches another lone dark Deino that I Catcher and KO. He Level Balls for a dragon Deino, but now I have Land’s Judgment powered up. I KO that Deino also. A few Judgments later and it’s over.

5-1

Not much to see out of those two games. Landorus just takes Darkrai decks apart He takes his losses graciously and says he was happy to make top cut. With this top 2, I’ve gained at least 10 more points, which I’m happy with.

My game was done within minutes, but my brothers top 4 game goes for a very long time. He loses game one, then takes both game two and three, so it’s my brother and I for top 2. The judge says there were 16 seconds left till time. I sit down and we get started quickly.

Top 2: Jarrett A. w/ Eels/Mewtwo/Tornadus

Game 1

pokemon-catcher-dark-explorers-dex-111pokemon-paradijs.comThere really wasn’t a whole lot to this game, unfortunately. I lead Landorus to his Tornadus and go first. I Catcher KO a Tynamo on the first turn, and he doesn’t get a first turn attack off, giving me all the time in the world to power up Land’s Judgment.

He tries to stall by using Catcher on my only other bench, a Tornadus EX, but I always have the Switch I need. I use Land’s Judgment and Catchers to go through anything he tries to power up.

In the end, his Tornadus EX has 40 damage and an Eviolite on it. I play Skyla for the Tool Scrapper and use Land’s Judgment for 130 to take my last 2 Prizes.

Game 2

He leads Tynamo to my Landorus and shows me his hand. Energy, three Pokémon Catcher and two Eelektrik. He draws an energy. Thunderwave, tails. I attach Fighting and end the day with a donk.

6-1

While winning with a donk isn’t the most fun way to end a tournament, we were eager to head home. When we get home, I set trophy number three next to two others and prepare for tomorrow.

That makes win number three, putting me at 190 Cities points, far more than I was expecting to come away from Cities with. Even with only 10 points for me to gain, my brother is at 130, so we decide to go to the city deeper into Mississippi the next day.

Day 2: Flowood, MS – 1/6/13

blastoise squirtle jigglypuffI knew the metagame was going to consist of more Blastoise decks than yesterday, but I decided to stick with my deck. After all, I can’t change my deck at Regionals if I’m paired against Blastoise.

This tournament had the latest start time of any City that I know of, at 3:30 PM. Since we have a three hour drive, we know we’re going to be home late, but it’s nothing new. Thanks to it starting that late, I get to sleep in and wake up ready for the day.

We arrive early and eat at Wendy’s, then head to the event and meet with friends. I was right, there are a lot more Blastoise decks here today, so I’m not expecting an easy ride. Deck checks take a while, and the tournament doesn’t start until about 4:30. 20 Masters, 5 rounds, top 4.

Round 1: Mikey P. w/ Darkrai/Hydreigon

I lead Landorus and go first. I get a T1 Knock Out on a Deino and play N. He also plays an N on his turn, but doesn’t hit anything of use. I attach and attack again. He gets a Hydreigon set up, but only has one energy on the field. He also doesn’t hit a Supporter for the rest of the game. I get Land’s Judgment powered up and win in a few short turns.

1-0

He is verbally aggravated by this loss, but wishes me luck and we move on. I’m one of the first games done, so I take a look around. There are more Blastoise decks than I had expected. It’s going to be a hard day.

The rest of the games finally wrap up. My brother lost his first round to Blastoise. Ug. I check pairings, and know I’m up against a Blastoise already.

Round 2: Patrick G. w/ Blastoise/Keldeo

double-colorless-energy-next-destinies-nxd-92pokemon-paradijs.comAs you can tell, this was not a matchup I had been looking forward to. I lead Tornadus EX to his Mewtwo EX, attach a F Energy and pass. No Supporter, not a strong start. He draws, attaches a Water… and also passes. Works for me.

I top deck a DCE and swing for 100 with Power Blast. He then plays Gold Potion, leaving 10 damage on his Mewtwo, attaches again and hits me for 100. I top deck another DCE, bench the Mewtwo I was holding and win with a donk.

He shows me his hand. Two W Energy, 3 Rare Candy, and a Blastoise. His next card was a Juniper. Even if had gotten that next turn, discarding three Rare Candy would have made the game an uphill climb.

2-0

I’ll take it. Once again, I’m one of the first games done, so I wait as the rest of the games finish up. My brother lost again, so he’s more or less out of the running already. After waiting out the other games, the pairings go up. Once again, I know what I’m up against.

Round 3: Andrew O. w/ Darkrai/Hydreigon

This game goes a lot like round one, except he hits Supporters but not the Hydreigon. I get a Landorus-EX powered up quickly and start trucking through everything. He tries to power up a Darkrai manually, and when it has two energy I play Catcher and PlusPower to take it out. He scoops because he knows there’s nothing he can do.

3-0

I’m getting very lucky with the pairings. The 2-0’s had included myself, that Darkrai/Hydreigon, a RayEels and two Blastoise. There are only two 3-0’s left, myself and RayEels. Still no Blastoise (other than that donk).

Round 4: Tim P. w/ RayEels

eelektrik-noble-victories-nvi-40pokemon-paradijs.comHe goes first and leads Rayquaza EX and two Tynamo. He attaches an energy and Eviolite, plays N and gets four Tynamo down on the first turn. I miss the first turn Catcher or an Eviolite and have to settle for a 10/30 split.

He gets two Eels down the next turn and Dragon Blasts for 60. I hit a Catcher and take out an Eel, but even though it’s turn two it’s too late. I also miss the Eviolite again. He takes out my Landorus next turn. I send in the other one and KO another Eel while replacing his Skyarrow with my Aspertia, missing Eviolite once more.

He needs a Switch and a Lighting to KO my Landorus. He plays an N for four and hits the Skyarrow and Lightning. There’s really nothing I can do after this and he wins in short order.

3-1

Oof, didn’t expect to lose to RayEels, especially when starting with Landorus. At least it wasn’t a short game this time, and it taught me how important early Catchers and Eviolite are for this matchup.

I’ve still got a shot at cut, I just have to win my last game. I see who I’m paired against and know I’m in for a challenge. I’m against Sam, who I played in top 4 in my last report.

Round 5 Sam L. w/ Darkrai/Ho-Oh/Terrakion/Shaymin

He leads Sableye to my Landorus. I go first and hit him for 30. He gets a Ho-Oh and a Dark in the discard, attaches to Sableye, benches a Darkrai and uses Junk Hunt. I attach another energy to Landorus and swing again, putting 30 damage on his Darkrai. He gets a turn two Night Spear.

I attach again and KO his Darkrai with Land’s Judgment. He has no energy on the field and sends in Shaymin. He attaches a Grass, plays Computer Search and attempts rebirth. Tails. He then plays N, and admits he misplayed, he should have just gotten a Dark Patch with Computer Search, as he had the Energy Switch.

He hits the Dark Patch and Energy Switch, however, and KOs my Landorus with Revenge Blast. I send in Landorus… and pass. His N had royally messed with my hand. He attacks with Shaymin again. I bench the three Mewtwo in my hand, play Switch to empty my hand and await the end. He has the Catcher for the game.

3-2

miracle-berry-neo-genesis-94pokemon-paradijs.comWith that, I resign myself to missing cut. The only chance I have is if Tim wins his last game, and he’s down by 4 Prizes. If he loses, there will be four 4-1’s. If he wins, one 3-2 will make cut.

I watch as he plays N to ruin his opponents hand, knocks Tropical Beach out with his Skyarrow Bridge, and Dragon Bursts his opponents Keldeo with six energy. The Blastoise player hits nothing and Tim pulls the win.

I have a shot! My resistance is good, three 3-2’s, a 4-1 and the 5-0.

Standings are finally printed…

  1. Tim P. w/ RayEels (5-0)
  2. Sam L. w/ Darkrai/Ho-Oh/Terrakion/Shaymin (4-1)
  3. Adam J. w/ Darkrai/Hydreigon (4-1)
  4. Kenton A. w/ Tornadus/Mewtwo/Landorus (3-2)

Yes! I made cut! I check my resistance. 72%, 6 points ahead of fifth. I’m glad Tim won. Going into cut, I’m playing Tim again, so I have my shot at revenge for Swiss, haha.

Top 4: Tim P. w/ RayEels.

Game 1

He doesn’t get as stellar a start as in Swiss, and leads Rayquaza EX with Rayquaza DRX and a Tynamo on the bench. I lead Landorus and get the turn one KO on his Tynamo. He gets another Tynamo out and uses Dragon Pulse for 20 to make my Eviolite inconsequential. I take another KO on Tynamo while powering up a Bouffalant.

The two extra 30’s from Hammerhead had gone to Rayquaza EX, putting it in Gold Breaker range. He leaves his Rayquaza DRX active for a while, not attacking with it. He plays Juniper, and later tells me he hit 5 energy off it. “Well, at least you know not to use Celestial Roar.”

I soften up his bench and get 90 damage on his Rayquaza DRX before he Switches and Catcher-KOs my Bouffalant.

I send in a powered up Tornadus EX and KO Rayquaza EX, leaving me at 1 Prize. His Rayquaza DRX was still on the field with 90 damage, and I knew I had a Catcher and Landorus prized. I know that, no matter what prizes I took, if he didn’t play N it was over. I pulled the Catcher, he didn’t play N and I took game one.

Game 2

Energy-Switch-Stormfront-84pokemon-paradijs.com

He leads Rayquaza EX and three Tynamo to my Landorus-EX. He gets out a Mewtwo and attaches to it. I bench a Mewtwo, attach to Landorus an use Hammerhead. He attaches to Mewtwo again, sends it in and hits Landorus for 60.

I decide to make a risky move. I Switch to Mewtwo, attach DCE, and Energy Switch from Landorus to Mewtwo. The risk pays off, as he misses a return KO. The 2 Prizes I took from that Mewtwo also made taking 6 Prizes much easier than the other games.

He sits with an Eelektrik active. I send Landorus back in and hit Eelektrik for 60, bringing a benched Eel up to 60 at the same time. He continues to miss what he needs and I KO both Eels. He still misses stuff, and I can’t remember how, but I close out the game with a Catcher.

4-2

The winner of the other top 4 game is Sam, my round five opponent and a friend from League. We both have three wins and a second on our records, so this top two is for 10 points.

At the time, I was two Championship Points ahead of Sam. This isn’t just for 10 points. It’s for most points in Tennessee! It’s also the last city, so it’s the last chance to cap Cities points. It just seems like one of those legendary moments that the rest of Cities had been leading to. 11 Cities, dozens of games, all coming down to this moment. (Cue champion battle music.)

After my top 4 game, we have to leave the restaurant, because it closes in a few minutes, as it’s around nine. We head to a Wendy’s down the road. It’s the Wendy’s we ate at at the start of the day! There’s no one else there, so Sam claims the booth, haha. We get set up and start the final battle of Cities.

Top 2: Sam L. w/ Darkrai/Ho-Oh/Terrakion/Shaymin

Game 1

ho-oh ex dragons exalted drx 22pokemon-paradijs.comHe goes first for the first time that day, according to him. He opens Ho-Oh EX to my Tornadus EX, draws and passes. So much for his going first. I get a strong start with a DCE and Aspertia, and hit for 60. He gets an Ultra Ball and snags a Darkrai EX. I Catcher Darkrai and hit it for a preemptive 100 with Power Blast. I also didn’t want to KO Ho-Oh, because that would have given him a chance to use Rebirth.

He finally hits a Supporter and slowly starts to do things. I get a Landorus with 3 energy powered up and start to go to town. I pull ahead by 4 Prizes while he tries to mount a comeback. He then benches Shaymin EX, sends in Sableye, Catchers my Bouffalant and Junk Hunts for Catcher and Tool Scrapper.

My field now looks like: Active Bouffalant, benched Landorus with 3 energy, Eviolite and 30 damage, and Tornadus with DCE. I Switch to Landorus and use Hammerhead to put 30 on his Shaymin, discouraging him from attacking with it, in case of Power Blast. He benches another Shaymin, powers it up, Scrappers my Eviolite and KOs my Landorus. I send it Tornadus, and hit the Catcher to take out the Ho-Oh he led with for the game.

Game 2

He starts with Shaymin of all things. He goes first. He plays two Energy Search for two Darks, plays Ultra Ball, Discarding Ho-Oh and a Dark, gets a Darkrai, attaches a Grass to Shaymin, and uses Synthesis to attach a G Energy to Darkrai. Once again, I hit the DCE and Aspertia City Gym on turn one, and Catcher his Darkrai, hitting it for 60. Hitting that two games in a row is really lucky.

He benches another Darkrai, plays Dark Patch, Energy Switches the dark to his Active, attaches and pulls off the turn two Night Spear. He had also used Catcher on my Landorus-EX, putting 90 on it and 30 on the now benched Tornadus.

max-potion-emerging-powers-epo-94pokemon-paradijs.comI play Skyla for Max Potion, heal my Landorus, attach and hit him for 60, putting 30 on Shaymin. He hits me for 90 again. I attached an Eviolite to stop Shaymin from revenging me and KO his Darkrai, hitting Shaymin again.

He misses the Tool Scrapper, but gets another Night Spear off. I have two Landorus in play. Active with one energy, Eviolite and 160 damage, benched Landorus with energy and 30 damage, and Tornadus EX with DCE and 60 damage.

I have an Energy Switch and Energy in Hand. I could use Lands Judgment to KO his Darkrai, but it’s too dangerous. If he then Catchered my Tornadus and KO’d it with Shaymin, I would have no way to close the game. I hit for 60 and put 30 more on his Shaymin, bringing it to 90.

And then I forget how the rest went down. In the end, though, I take the game.

5-2

And with that, it’s 10:00 PM. With a three hour drive ahead of us. We get home after one, I place my trophy next to three others, and head to bed with a feeling of accomplishment.

garch 4 first place trophies
Apparently, this is the cool thing to do now.

I have now capped my Cities points at 200. It’s a really cool accomplishment.

Between my brother and I, the total Cities haul comes to 110 packs, four trophies and 200 and 130 Championship Points, respectively. I made top cut at seven of the 11 Cities I went to.

I’m now sitting on 297 Championship Points, 14th place in the U.S. I’m far past the goal I had set for myself, and really hope I can close out the remaining 103 points.

I don’t feel any of my games gave any special revelations, so I’d like to point something out here I’ve seen throughout my time playing. Never take any of your opponents moves for granted. Even if it doesn’t make sense to you, they have a reason for every play they make. Try to figure out what that reason is. If you don’t know what your opponent is up to, you’re at a disadvantage.

Regionals Predictions

With Regionals fast approaching, many great articles are being written on the big decks and the like, so I don’t feel I need to do any metagame recap here. I will say one thing though: I definitely think that Mewtwo/Landorus is better with Tornadus EX, that Blastoise/Keldeo’s best tech cards will be Pokémon Center and Sigilyph, and that Darkrai needs Dark Claw to survive.

I also think that Blastoise/Keldeo is the best deck in format, however, I don’t believe it has Regionals winning potential. Why not? As a Stage Two deck, it’s going to have more trouble setting up right every game compared to a Basic deck. At a a nine round tournament with a top 32, it’s going to falter at some point, and it’s going to falter more often than others.

In the end, I predict that Blastoise/Keldeo will not take home any Regionals. I could be wrong, though. It is a very good deck, after all. We shall see.

And now for something completely different…

monty python footI wanted to add something to my article to make it not just a tournament report, and since the Regionals metagame is being covered so well in other articles, I thought I’d add something fun. So here it is, a quick overview of Shiftry.

My friend Squeaky mentioned a friend playing Shiftry in his article, and multiple people expressed an interest in the deck. Now, that wasn’t me playing it, but it was my list. I had built the deck on PTCGO as a joke deck to make people mad, and ended up winning over 20 straight games with it.

I told my friend, and he thought it would be hilarious to play it for Cities. He ended up going 4-2 with it. The best play of the day was hitting 3 heads in one turn with Shiftry, putting away a Blastoise and two Keldeo with three energy apiece. Here’s the list:

Pokémon – 18

4 Seedot NXD

4 Nuzleaf NXD

3 Shiftry NXD
4 Sableye DEX

3 Emolga DRX

Trainers – 34

4 Professor Juniper
4 N

1 Cheren

3 Random Receiver

 

3 Level Ball

2 Pokémon Communication
1 Computer Search
3 Pokémon Catcher
4 Devolution Spray

3 Crushing Hammer
2 Super Rod

1 Switch
1 Enhanced Hammer
1 Tool Scrapper

 

1 Pokémon Center

Energy – 8

8 D – Basic

“But I thought you didn’t give away decklists?” Not tournament decklists, no, but this is a fun deck. I want to spread the fun. I don’t think this deck has any real tournament potential, but it is hilarious to play online.

shiftry next destinies nde 72pokemon-paradijs.comThe main strategy of the deck is to win by deck-in, AKA bench out. Shiftry’s (SHUFtry’s) ability lets you flip a coin when you play it, and if heads shuffle an opponent’s Pokémon back into their deck. By using Sableye’s Junk hunt and Devolution Spray, at full set up you use the Ability twice per turn.

A problem I found when first playing the deck was decking out. I fixed that problem with two Super Rod. In order to keep from decking out, you simply Junk Hunt for Super Rod while retreating between Sableyes. Then you Super Rod the Darks discarded to keep your deck afloat.

To start the game, you want to lead with Emolga. Switch helps get the turn one Emolga. Even with only one, it often works. The entire game hinges on how many Shiftry you can get out on turn three (and how good you are at flipping heads). Turn one hinges on getting out as many Seadot as possible. Using Emolga and Level Ball, getting three or four Seedot out on turn one is common.

Turn two hinges on getting Nuzleaf on the field. Level Ball and Pokémon Communication help a lot. With 18 Pokémon, Communication is the card of choice over Ultra Ball. If you still need Seedot or Sableye, use Call for Familly again. If not, start using Junk Hunt.

Turn three, start using Shiftry. With a lot of luck, you can get three out. Unfortunately, your opponent has likely been targeting Nuzleaf if they’ve been able to get an attack off already. Two Shiftry is more likely. However, even one heads on turn three can be enough to stop your opponent’s setup and let you start rolling. Once you have two or more Shiftry on the field, just keep Junk Hunting for Devolution Spray.

Pokémon Center is included because Tropical Beach is very good against this deck. It needed some way of dealing with it. Since this deck doesn’t deal damage, Pokémon Center was the ideal choice.

Thank you for reading my report! I want to wish everyone good luck at Regionals, and with Shiftry. See you in St. Louis!

Reader Interactions

3 replies

  1. Tyler Kittelson-Burke

    Great article and congrats on your 4 cities wins.
    Although I would have liked to see a decklist.

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