One Hit KO

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there, this is Pikkdogs here with a 2 pack of Battle Roads Reports.

As you probably all know this past weekend was the first weekend of fall Battle Roads, hence the first weekend of the new tournament season.  Unfortunately there were no tournaments in my home state of Michigan, so I had to travel to Indiana to hit them up.  There were 2, one in South Bend and one in Angola.  Fortunately. the Michigan player base is full of a lot of cool and nice people who were willing to do the traveling with me.  So Saturday morning I got up early and traveled to South Bend, In with friends Joe, Rob, and Frank.  We also met our  buddies Bohdan and Mark at the tournament, and we all stayed the night on Saturday so we would be at a good spot to hit the BR on the next day.

So our crew was able to make it to South Bend with no trouble, we were able to use back roads to sneak around the game day traffic (our tournament organizer likes to schedule our tournaments right next to large college football games).  I had never been to South Bend before so I was pleasantly surprised by the town.  I thought it would have been a bigger place, but it was fairly small.  We played the tournament at a card shop there, and that place was fairly cool as well.

I had decided to play my Mewlock deck this weekend.  I will not post the list because it is basically the same list that I posted in a previous article.  The only change was the inclusion of Basculin, and I also added a Spinorak from HGSS to the list for Sunday’s tournament.

Day 1

Round 1

My first matchup was against my friend Mark.  We had played a game a week ago with lists almost identical to the ones we were playing now, so we knew if that game was any indication the next game would be amazing.

I had a fairly good start.  I was able to “See Off” the Muk very early, and I got a turn 2 Vileplume.  I then was able to use “Sludge Drag” on Zekrom 3 times.  Unfortunately Mark was able to get 3 DCE’s in his hand in the first 4 turns, so he was able to retreat his Zekrom 3 times.  After the game I talked to Mark and we agreed that he got pretty lucky because he only ran 3 DCE’s in his entire deck.  It would have been a great game if those 3 DCE’s didn’t come out so early.

The game was not over after he retreated, but it basically was.  I was able to get a few prizes with Yanmega Prime and Jumpluff”s “Mass Attack” attack, but I was not able to overcome the early troubles.

0-1. Not very happy that I lost to Mark after beating him before, but the fact that Mark was able to do well that day was a good part for me.

Round 2 versus Ross’s Deck

The next game was against a Senior who played his version of Ross Cawthon’s Worlds Deck.  He did setup fast, but this matchup is not much of a test for me.  I was able to “Sludge Drag” Reuniclus up to the active spot.  And with Reuniclus having a special condition, he was unable to use Reuniclus’s Ability.  Poison eventually took care of Reuniclus, then I did the same thing to Vileplume. For all this time I was using Yanmega to snipe the bench, and was able to take the lead.  My opponent was actually able to use Twins 4 out of 6 turns and was able to get within 1 prize.  If he had an energy left in his deck, he would have been able to take it to sudden death, but he was all out of energy.

1-1. The hope of top cutting is still alive, though I know I have to win out.

Round 3 v.s. Joe (mirror)

Before today I didn’t know how to play the mirror.  It was lucky for me that Joe decided to play me before the game and teach me the mirror.   Now I know to not “See Off” anything and to never establish a Vileplume.  So this game was basically a Yanmega war.  The game was decided because Joe prized 1 Yanmega and I did not.  I actually was able to load up Basculin, and he was able to attack for 80 damage twice. I think he only took 2 prizes as I was able to knock out all Yanmegas that I saw.

2-1.  Thanks Joe for showing me how to beat you.

Round 4 Kingdra Yanmega

This would have been a great game if I did not prize 2 Sunkerns.  Without the Sunkerns I could not get Vileplume or Yanmega out fast.  So he was able to knock out a couple Pokemon with Yanmega.  I also needed to rely on the babies to keep me in the game, which were promptly knocked out by “Spray Splashes.”  So this game was over pretty quickly.

2-2. No top cut for me.

Round 5 Donchamp

This was against a guy I played at Nationals.  He was able to get a fast Donphan Prime, but nothing else.  I did get a fast Vileplume and a Basculin active.  So I had him trapped, if he attacked I would knock him out next turn with Basculin’s “Flail”, and if he passes I will just attach energies until I get enough to use Basculin’s second attack, called “Final Gamble”.  I was able to get all the energies on Basculin, and got the win.

3-2. Well anytime you get a winning record is good, but I wanted more.  I feel that Mark got a little lucky on me, and I got unlucky in prizing all my Sunkerns.

So we went to the motel after the first round of top cut.  Bohdan was able to take 1st in Swiss,  but got unlucky in the first round of top cut.  Mark actually got 2nd in Swiss, but lost to Dustin Zimmerman in the first round. That night we ordered in some Pizzas and spent the night play testing in the hotel room.  I was really tired from not sleeping much the night before and not napping during the day, so I fell asleep before 10.  My buddies followed me into dreamland an hour or two later, and we all woke up at 5:30, like a bunch of old people.  So we went down to grab some breakfast and after that we play tested some more.  Bohdan tore me apart a couple of times, then we went to Wal Mart to kill some time.  Rob and Joe ended up buying Bohdan a Pancho, I’m not sure why, then we all went to Angola for the 2nd tournament.

Day 2.

The venue for this tournament was great.  It was at a hotel on a lake, the view from just outside the tournament room was amazing.  It was at the same place that Regionals was held a couple years ago, but this time they had us in like an underground bunker.  Frank and Mark spotted a gift shop as they came in, and bought 2 large stuffed snakes.  I don’t know why, it might be a Freudian thing, perhaps they are compensating for something.  One cool thing was that Frank was able to use his snake like a jump rope.  I can’t even jump over a real jump rope, so ya gotta give props to a fat white kid who can jump like that.  

Round 1 Primetime.

I still am a little disappointed at this game.  I started with an Oddish, Sunkern, Elms, and Rare Candy; so I had to get the Vileplume early.  The problem here is that it left me with a Sunflora active for a couple turns, meaning I couldn’t “See Off” right away.  We traded Yanmega knock outs for a while, but I did not take advantage of the Magnezone on the bench.  I should have done a “See Off” and forced the Magnezone to become active, but I let him attache energies all around the field.  He then was able to use Magnezone to get a couple knock outs in a row to take the last couple prizes.

0-1.  Not a good start.

Round 2. Andrew with Scizor

The Scizor Prime play here was pretty good.  I expected more fire decks then there were, so Scizor Primes worked well against all the Cincinno’s and other Special Energy users out there.  Mark my words,  Lost Remover will soon be a great card with all of the DCE’s and Rainbows out there.

Andrew didn’t have a great start, he was only able to get 1 Scizor out.  His big mistake was when he had a damaged Scizor Prime, and he used Shaymin to move the energy to a benched Scizor.  I took this as a cue to Yanmega Snipe his entire bench and leave the damaged Scizor stuck active.  I ended the game fairly quickly.

1-1.  It is hard to beat a friend like that.

Round 3.  Stage 1 Rush.

This was the best matchup of the weekend.  Too bad I don’t remember specifics.  I do know that I had an okay start, and he got a 2 prize lead with Yanmega Prime.  I then “Sludge Draged” a benched Donphan Prime, and he was unable to find an energy.  I then started to Snipe around Donphan and finally got a prize lead.  His Donphan eventually got knocked out by Poison, and he got a knock out with Yanmega Prime.  Next turn I was able to damage his Yanmega Prime, and he was unable to get  a knockout.  On the next turn I was able to “Sonic Boom” for the knock out and win.

2-1.  Awesome game, very close.  Still have a chance for top cut, too bad that this was the time that the bottom fell out of my deck.

Round 4. Reshiphlosion

This was against the guy who won at South Bend the day before, and one of the Prime Time players that I beat at Nationals.  I knew that this matchup was about the early game.  If he got a few early Typhlosion Primesthe game would be over.  Conversely, if I get an early Vileplume, it will be very hard for the Reshiphlosions to get out.

I did get a turn 3 Vileplume, but he went first and got a Typhlosion out on turn 2.  I again had started with a Sunflora so I had to waste 1 energy to get Mew in the active spot.  The very bad part was that I had no more energy and no supporters except Flower Shop Lady.  Mew can’t “See Off” Muk without energy, so I had to concede.

2-2. I just had the worst draw I ever had with this deck. 

Round 5. Frank with Mew Lock without Mew and with Roserade.

Frank is lucky that he had arranged to ride home with Bohdan because I might have had to leave him in Indiana after this game.  I think he started first and was able to strike first in the Yanmega war.  I was able to “See Off” Jumpluff, but I didn’t have any Rainbow or Grass Energies.  He had a 2 prize lead for most of the game, and was able to handily beat me.

2-3. Terrible record in the second tournament.  After this game I concluded that it is too easy to start bad with this deck.  I think next weekend I will try something else, either Donphan/Dragons, Gothitelle, or Mew/Cincinno/Tornadus.  Mew Lock is still a great deck, but you need to be very lucky with it to win.

After I lost I was able to cheer Mark on in the top cut, but unfortunately he was unable to win in the first round again.  There was a very funny moment where he got a die stuck in his pants and had to do a dance to try to get it out.  After Mark lost we left for home, stopped at a Wendy’s and had a fairly average lunch.  I then drove home, dropped off Joe and Rob and then went home and collapsed in my bed for like 13 hours.

I did not do very well this weekend, but I did have a lot of fun.  A big thanks to all the Michigan players that made it there this weekend, it was a great time.  Also a shout out to the Fort Wayne guys who I talked to in Angola, nice seeing you guys again.

So long and thanks for all the fish!

Category: Tourney Report | Tags: Basculin, Mew lock, Smoochum