One Hit KO

Saturday saw Team Omar take 3 of the top 4 spots in MN’s second Battle Roads. Sunday brought us a new opportunity to claim a Victory Medal. This time it was at Dreamers. My daughter, Ava, had birthday parties to attend both days, so she couldn’t attend. Here’s how my day went down. This will be somewhat of a mini-report, because Omar is going to come along and give full coverage of the weekend’s events.

Round 1: Radu Ciocan – Sabledonk/SPionage/Sablelock
Radu starts Uxie. I donk him with my Sableye.
1-0

Round 2: Thomas Veazie – DialgaChomp
It wasn’t a super-quick battle, but Thomas never got anything set up for long. Most of the game was me bringing up his 110HP Pokemon and one-shotting them with Gyarados.
2-0

Round 3: Mark – BLG (Blaziken, Luxray, Garchomp)
This was a pretty good battle. I donked Mark the previous day when I played Shuppet and he played Jumpluff. Today was a tougher battle. Garchomp uses up a lot of energy, and if they can’t take prizes each turn, it’s tough once I get Gyarados set up. He got desperate near the end, and I recall having to use many Warp Energy and Super Scoop Up to get Regice and Claydol out of the way. In the end, it’s was all that Warping that won me the game.
3-0

Round 4: Sudi/Soari Phomma- BLGDU? (Blaziken, Luxray, Garchomp, Dialga, Uxie, maybe)
Sudi has topped each BR this season while running this deck. It has answers for almost everything. I remember this being rather close. Again, Garchomp uses a lot of energy, and a couple times, Sudi got pretty low. Timely KOs on Luxray and Garchomp helped seal the deal.
4-0

Round 5: Omar – Gengarchomp
Omar is a noob that lucksacks everything. We’re both 4-0, so both of us will make top cut. Even though we both made it in, I felt that I needed to teach this kid a lesson, so I let him think he had a chance against me. When he was at 3 prizes left to my 1, I allowed him to KO a belted ‘dos. I just set up another for the KO. Next please.
5-0

Top 4 are Omar, Michael (you know, the short one), Sudi, and myself. Top cuts are single games today, because the judge can’t stick around all day.

Top 4: Michael Slutsky – Gengarchomp
I start fairly strong with Sableye. I go first, attach special dark, and impersonate. I want to save my in-hand Uxie for my first trainer turn, so I leave an empty bench. I do, however, put an energy on just in case he can Ambipom G (plus Crobat or whatever due to resistance) or something which also gives me a future retreat option. It leaves me vulnerable, but I don’t think he can KO my Sableye. In fact he can’t, and I am able to Warp Point and Overconfident KO his Uxie on my next turn. Hindsight being 20/20, I should have probably gone for another Impersonate. In retro-retrospect, maybe that KO was the right move, because I may have been 6-0’d on prizes otherwise. So that foreshadowing should let you know that Michael proceeds to take 6 prizes without me taking another.

Gengar has this nice little attack called “Shadow Room.” The deck is pretty much built around that and Garchomp C’s “Dragon Rush.” Anyway, Shadow Room can put 3 damage counters on anyone. Magikarp has 30HP. Any way you do the math, it means that I need BTS to get Gyarados set up. One BTS is prized. That leaves 2 in the deck. I pretty much Impersonate every supporter in my deck thinning and drawing to get BTS. I get through about 2/3 of my deck, but BTS never comes. I recall one draw where I got like 3 Gyarados, but no BTS. Ick. Out of frustration I make a couple bad plays along the way, but there’s nothing other than BTS that can help me. In desperation, I try bringing up Baltoy a couple times just to see if I can keep a Karp in play for a turn. I can’t. You know it’s bad when I have to Rescue a Sableye just so I can impersonate more Felicity. There’s no hope. You knew where this was going all along. LOSS

Just like the previous day, I make top-4 and lose to Gengarchomp. This time, though, it’s a different pain. It’s not “Pitch-Dark” killing my draw/search. It’s my draw/search killing my chances of evolution. And now, in retrospect, after looking over my opponents, I think I faced SP all day.

Stay tuned for Omar’s double-header report covering Saturday’s stunning victory and the exciting conclusion to Sunday’s action.

Category: Tourney Report | Tags: Battle Roads, Gyarados, Tournament