Another Michigan State Championships Report!

by Joel ~ March 16th, 2011.

Hello everyone in Omar Nation! This is Joel here with a report on the Michigan State Championships that took place over the weekend in Lansing, Michigan.

Before I go on any further with my report, I’d like to thank Pikkdogs and the rest of the Team Omar staff for inviting me to write for you guys. Here is a little bit about myself, I have been playing since the Base Set, took a hiatus when the first e-reader set came out, then got back into the game around Diamond and Pearl. But enough about me, let’s go on with the article!

I decided to run Luxchomp for this event because that was the deck I felt most comfortable with. Luxchomp has an excellent track record and hasn’t really disappointed me. I’ll post my deck list at the end of the article. For this event, there were 76 Masters, with 7 rounds and a top 16 cut.

Round 1 vs Marvin P with Luxchomp

My first round match was a mirror. I have never met Marvin before but our pre-game talks give off the impression that he is a really nice guy. The game starts and I go first. I start with an Ambipom G and a Bronzong G on my bench, with a Double Colorless Energy, Energy Gain, and Cyrus in my hand. He has a Garchomp C active, Luxray GL and Dialga G on his bench. I go first and get a quick knockout first turn with Ambipom’s “Snap Attack”. He goes, benches a Crobat G, and uses Flash Bite to drop a damage counter on my Bronzong G, then passes. I draw, and get a Pokemon Collector. I get Uxie, Luxray GL and Crobat G. I drop Crobat, Flash bite his Crobat, attach a lightning energy to Luxray, then Snap Attack his active Luxray for 60. He goes, draws, and attaches to his active Luxray and passes. It seems he didn’t have anything playable in his hand, which is odd because there is usually something playable. I Poke-turn my Ambipom and Crobat, I flash bite his Bronzong, and promote Luxray to Bright Look his Crobat. I bite to get a 2 prize lead. It was after this turn that the game started to go downhill for me. He finally draws a Cyrus which allows him to catch up. I made my terrible misplay here as I played Professor Oak’s New Theory over Cyrus, and end up getting a terrible hand followed by terrible draws. He finally catches up and gets a prize lead over me. As soon as he gets his prize lead, time is called. After realizing that there isn’t much I can do in the next 3 turns, I scoop and get a terrible case of the first round jitters. It was a good game though.
0-1

Round 2 vs Alex H with Gyarados

I was a little nervous getting paired with Alex in the 2nd round. I’ve known him for a couple years now, he’s a good player and a good guy to talk with. The game starts, and I go first. I have a Luxray GL active and a Bronzong G on my bench. He has a Magikarp active and another Magikarp on his bench. I draw a DCE, attach to Luxray and Bite for the KO. He goes, draws a Sableye, warp points his Sableye to active and Impersonates a Pokemon Collector for 2 Magikarps and a Regice. I go, play a Pokemon Collector for a Garchomp C, Lucario GL and a Uxie. I bench Garchomp and Lucario, Poke-turn Bronzong and promote Luxray. I drop Uxie and set up for 4 more cards, and draw a lightning energy, Energy Gain, Cyrus, and Luxray GL LV.X. I bright look his Magikarp for a 2nd prize. He goes, and drops an Uxie which I spray. He the uses Seeker which we both pick up our Uxies and he drops again. I used my only spray in my hand before, therefore I couldn’t spray Uxie again. He uses Pokemon Rescue to get Magikarp back, uses Regi-move, and drops a Broken Time-Space to get Gyarados set up faster. Attaches Unown Q to Sableye, retreats and attacks my active Luxray for 90 damage. I go, attach a Call energy to Luxray, and then I use Trash Bolt to KO his Gyarados (he had x2 weakness since I had Lucario GL in play). Here I’m 3 prizes ahead and he hasn’t even drawn a single prize yet. He drops an Uxie to draw 4 cards, uses 2 Pokemon rescue to get Gyarados back, then benches him and attaches an Expert Belt. He KO’s Luxray and gets another prize while I’m getting my 2nd Luxray set up. A couple turns later I drop a Crobat G on his Gyarados, then Trash Bolt for 2 prizes since the Gyarados was belted. I get my last prize by getting a KO on his benched Sableye with my Garchomp C. It was a well played game.
1-1

After the 2nd round, we had a lunch break. Luckily the hotel that the tournament was held at had a snack bar so I got a couple hot dogs and chips plus a drink for under $5. During the break I chatted up with some other friends to see how their day was going, and I was also talking with the lady in the gift shop who was telling me that she was selling dice and notepads like crazy and didn’t know why. I get a pack of gum and a monster from the gift shop and head back to the tournament area to finish my day.

Round 3 vs Brandon B. with Gyarados

2nd Gyarados deck in a row. He gets the Sableye start and has a Regice on his bench. He impersonates for a collector, and gets 3 Magikarp. I start with Weavile G, use Pokemon Collector to get Luxray, Garchomp and Uxie. Bench all 3 of them and set up for 3 cards. I attach a lightning to Luxray and I use Call for Family to get Bronzong and Lucario on my bench. He goes, uses Regi-Move, I send up my Uxie. He drops Broken Time-Space to set Gyarados up, and drops an Azelf for Time Walk. He doesn’t take note on what his prizes are and he tells me that is his first misplay after the game. As a result of that he was taking the wrong prizes as I was taking more prizes. I KO  his belted Gyarados and I have 1 prize left. He gets another Gyarados set up and has the chance to KO my active Luxray, but doesn’t do it, which he admits is his second misplay of the game. I take out his benched Crobat with Garchomp for the game.
2-1

Round 4 vs Mike M. with Gyarados

This event was very Gyarados heavy, as this was the third Gyarados deck I played in a row. This game also didn’t go as well either. I didn’t draw a single Cyrus all game which really hurt me late game. I managed to get an early 3 prize lead as I had Luxray and Garchomp benched as well as their Level X counterparts in my hand, plus my lucky draws of Lightning, DCE, Energy Gain and Poke-Turns to get me my early lead. As soon as I was 3 prizes ahead, he managed to finally get set up and caught right back up knocking out my pokemon one-by-one. Not drawing a Cyrus really hurt as I wasn’t getting the cards I needed. He takes his remaining 3 prizes and I’m on tilt for the next round.
2-2

Round 5 vs Ryan A.K.A. Wookiee with Luxchomp

I’ve known Wookiee for a little over a year, not only is he a good player but he is a funny guy and a good person to be around. I knew this was going to be a difficult match as I always have the worst luck in mirror matches. This was a very close game. I don’t remember much of the details but from what I remember it was neck and neck until time was called. he gets a prize in Turn 1, and I realize I can’t tie the game up in Turn 2, so I scoop. The game was quite epic though.
2-3

Round 6 vs John H with Machamp

This was the matchup I was fearing all day. Machamp decks are an SP players worst nightmare. I managed to get my first KO by using Flash Bite+Dragon Rush on his benched Regirock, but then he got a Machamp set up. I managed to get some damage on it before he knocked out a couple of my pokemon. Putting Expert Belts on his Machops and Machamp hurt him as I knocked out his only Machamp in the game and caught back up in prizes. He couldn’t draw another Machamp throughout the rest of the game and I picked off his Pokemon for prizes. I got real lucky this game.
3-3

Round 7 vs Ryan D with UmbreTar

I’ve known Ryan for the past 4 years, he’s a pretty good player and he has been doing good with his Tyranitar build all season. Today however wasn’t his day, just as it wasn’t mine. I start the game with Ambipom against his Spiritomb. Spiritomb cripples me with trainer lock, plus resistance to colorless so I couldn’t get the donk. We both managed to get set up at the same pace. He KO’s my Ambipom with Tyranitar and I use Toxicroak G to get a revenge hit for 120 plus poison. He spreads damage with Tyranitar and ends his turn. I sucessfully Leap Away and promote Luxray to knock out Tyranitar. He promotes Spiritomb and tries to get another Tyranitar set up. He couldn’t do such a thing throughout the rest of the game as I was picking off prizes with Luxray and Garchomp. He scooped out of frustration before I got my last prize.
4-3

I ended up not doing as well as I hoped I would, but I had a good time. I went 4-3 and took 33rd place out of 76 masters.

As promised, here is my deck list.

Pokemon-21

2 Luxray GL
2 Luxray GL LV.X
2 Garchomp C
2 Garchomp C LV.X
1 Dialga G
1 Dialga G LV.X
2 Uxie
1 Uxie LV.X
1 Toxicroak G (promo)         
1 Weavile G
1 Bronzong G
1 Dragonite FB
1 Crobat G
1 Ambipom G
1 Lucario GL
1 Azelf

Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums- 26
4 Cyrus’s Conspiracy
2 SP Radar
4 Poke-Turn
3 Energy Gain
3 Power Spray
1 Aaron’s Collection
1 Luxury Ball
1 VS Seeker
1 Palmer’s Contribution
1 Professor Oak’s New Theory
2 Bebe’s Search
3 Pokemon Collector

Energy-13
1 Psychic Energy
1 Darkness Energy
3 Lightning Energy
2 Call Energy
2 Warp Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy

Category: State Championships, Tourney Report | Tags: , , ,