One Hit KO

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with a tournament report. This past Saturday I was able to go to my first Battle Roads.  This one was in Toledo, although it is not currently in Michigan,  Toledo is actually the closest venue for me, so I had to be there to defend my turf.  I wasn’t looking forward to this event because Toledo events are usually held in the smallest game room ever, so it gets really hot and really stinky in there.  Although it is not  a fun place to play in, I still had to come and defend my back yard.

I have been trying to find a deck in this format that I like for a long time.  I don’t really like Zekrom, its just too robot like for me.  I would like to play CMT, but I am very poor and can’t afford the deck right now.  And I am not convinced about the other decks in the format, so I went with a rogue deck.

For about a month now I have been thinking about a tanking deck with either Groudon EX or Kyurem EX.  Onehitko writer TAndrewT convinced me to actually make the deck when he wrote an article about two tanking decks featuring both Pokemon.  I made the deck and was pleasantly surprised that it seemed to hold its own fairly well.  It did not really have an autowin, but it didn’t really have an auto-loss either.  It seemed to give me a situation that was winable almost every time, though the situation was also very losable, it just depended on who had the most luck.

This deck idea is very simple, get Kyurem EX out there and have him attack.  When he gets damaged, use trainer cards to heal him.  Cards like Potion, MooMoo Milk, and Life Herb have been known as crap cards in the past couple years, but they actually worked in my testing.  I did try this deck with some of those trainers and then Blissy DX, but the deck was more consistent with a bunch of trainers.

Smeragle is also in this deck to speed things up.  He is actually a vital card in this deck, and he makes this deck fast and consistent enough to work.

Kyurem is a very under appreciated card.  He may not be the EX that hits the hardest, but he has a weakness that is very hard to exploit.  Plus, he can do things like discard Special Energies while still attacking.  The goal of this deck is not to discard energies, but if you can it is always a good thing.  Kyurem can hit for 120 damage, the downside is that he is unable to use the same attack the next turn.  But, this deck does run 4 Switches and Smeargles with Skyarrow Bridge, so doing 120 damage twice is not a huge problem.

Here is the list.  It is not a perfect list, it of course can be imporved.  But, I did play this deck to see if I like it enough to play it for Nationals, and if the deck could stand up to the format.  If you guys have any ideas on improvements, just let me know in the comment section.

Pokemon-7

• 4-Kyurem EX
• 3-Smeargle

Trainers-42

• 3-Potion
• 4- MooMoo Milk
• 4-Life Herb
• 4-Junk Arm
• 4-Switch
• 3-Pokemon Catcher
• 1-Super Rod
• 2- Skyarrow Bridge
• 2-Dual Ball
• 3-Eviolite
• 4-Professor Oak’s New Theory
• 4-Professor Juniper
• 2-N
• 2-Sage’s Training

 

Energy-11

• Double Colorless Energy-4
• Water Energy-7

The Tournament

I wake up at about quarter to 9, which is very early for me, but still a decent night’s sleep.  I make some oatmeal and sit down to watch a rerun of the Graham Norton show, man that gay Irish guy isn’t that bad in the funny department.  After waking up for a while I pack my car up and make the 40 minute drive to Toledo.

I get to the tournament early because I had to re-sleeve my deck, so I did that and turned my list in.  Then I noticed that I had somehow got some kind of dirt on the front side of my shorts, so I walk across the street to the Family Dollar and pick up a cheap pair of shorts.  Then I drive over to Little Caesars to get some lunch, and then head back to the venue to wait for the start of the tourney.

Round 1 vs John and Dark Deck

My first game is against a guy from Michigan named John.  I think I might have played him earlier in the year, but I don’t really know the guy too well.  I started the game with Kyurem EX and I have all the energies needed to get Kyurem going.  I think I might have the donk on the next turn because he started with a lone Zorua, but on his turn he plays a collector and does “Ascension.”  Once John started going with his attackers, he did well.  I flip 1/8 on my first flips with Moomoo Milk and Dual Ball, and lose a Kyurem because of the bad flipping.  But, my luck would soon turn around.  I get another Kyurem EX and start discarding his Special Energy and knocking out Zoroarks whenever I am allowed to use my big attack.  John pulls out all the stops once he loses his 4^th Zoroark, and starts to use Darkrai EX to attack.  This time however, luck was with me.  I start doing well on my flips with Moomoo Milk and Life Herb, and use Potion to fill in the gaps.  He ends up doing a lot of damage with Darkrai, but I am able to wipe away the energy.  The game ends one turn before I can take my last prize, when he decks out.

1-0   -  The day starts off well.  I didn’t think I could keep it going, but its always good to get a win right away.

Round 2 vs Mike with Zekrom (eels with Pachi/Shaymin)

Mike is a Pokedad from Cleveland who’s family I met during the Cities season.  They seem like a real nice family, they are a credit to the Pokemon Community.

I start with a Smeargle to his Tynamo.  I got first and bench another Smeargle,  I then use two N’s in a row thanks to Portrait, but I still can’t get a Kyurem.  On his next turn he uses collector to get 2 Tynamos and a Zekrom.  He then passes, and I use another Supporter, but I still can’t find a Kyurem.  I do attach a DCE to Smeargle and use his attack to knockout a Tynamo.  But, on his next turn he gets 3 energies on Mewtwo EX, uses a Pokegear 3.0 to get a Seeker, and then uses it to get the Seeker win,.

1-1  Not mad here.  I knew that my deck did not play a lot of Pokemon at the same time, so it was vulnerable to a Seeker win.  It just sucks that I am play the only guy who still plays Seeker.

Round 3 vs Frank S. with  Zekrom

Frank is a good buddy from Michigan, so it should be fun to play him.

I start double Smeargle, and he starts with  a Tynamo.  I use a Dual Ball, and two Switches to use 4 Supporters on the first turn, but am still on able to find a Kyurem again.  But, I have the chance at the donk, so I attach a DCE to Smeargle and miss both flips on his attack.  So Frank lives for another day.  He gets a lot of Pokemon in play, but runs into an energy drought.  I do end up getting the first knockout on a Tornadus after I finally find a Kyurem.  I then get another KO on something, I don’t know what, but here is where I make my misplay.  I see a Mewtwo EX on the bench with DCE, and instead of attacking it and getting rid of the DCE, I knock something else out.  I do get a 3 prize lead, but Frank loads up Mewtwo EX and is able to OHKO everything I have.  Misplays suck, I don’t know if that would really have made a difference, but it couldn’t have hurt.  ]

 1-2-  Any hope of doing good is just about gone, but I thought I must solider on and keep on playing to see what I can learn about the deck and the format.

Round 4 vs Eric Richard  with Zekrom/Terrakion

Another guy from Michigan, that’s three in a row.  Of course Papa Richard is playing a Terrakion variant, I think he did in every tournament this season.  This game goes weird, as our games normally do.

I start with Smeargle again, and he has a Terrakion.  I do find a Kyurem on the first turn, but I cannot find an energy.  I use a bunch of “Portraits”, but none of those help.  The only things I seemed able to draw were healing trainers.  Those helped delay the inevitable, but I need energy to attack.  It took me several turns, but I was able to get some energies.  The only thing was to keep Kyurem alive, I had to Junk Arm 2 Kyurems.  I later learned that my Super Rod was prized, so I was kinda screwed.

I finally start attacking and I make Eric work with how many attacks he had to do just to get one knock out.  I am able to heal off a lot of damage counters, but I eventually run out of healing trainers after using them as  a crutch for the first 6-7 turns.  Once he knocked out 2 Kyurems it was over because I had no Super Rod.

1-3-  I wonder what would have happened if I didn’t hit an energy drought.  Would have been a good match

Round 5 v.s. Lauren with Mew Lock (kind of)

Round 5 officially went in the books as a no show win for me since my opponent never showed up, but after I saw that my friend Lauren finished her game I asked her for a fun game.

I start with Smeargle and Kyurem and I get a good feel for the game going.  I start setting the pace with some good supporters and some early knockouts on Mews.  I take 4 prizes before she puts the lock on, but the lock eventually does come on.  There was nothing I could do to stop the lock, I just had to wait for her to roll bad.  She eventually knocks out a Kyurem with “Double Freeze” and decides to not use “Victory Star” to take the KO back.  This allows me to get my last prize, and just as pairings are put up, she misses a “Fly” flip, and I end the game with a W.

2-3-  Pretty easy match-up, I just gotta hope that eventually they roll bad, which they usually do.  Thanks for the game Lauren, I really appreciate it.  It made a deck report that would been horrible, to be just very bad.    

Round 6 vs James H. with C.M.T. –T

This was a very pivotal game for my deck.  If I win this game, I think this deck still has hope.  If I lose, it is a crappy deck.  And look who I am playing, my buddy and fellow OHKO writer James.

James and I play this game in a very laid back fashion since we all expected to do a little better.  I again start with a Smeargle and Kyurem, and get a few Supporters the first couple turns to get going.  I am able to get energies on Kyurem and am able to get a couple KOs on Mewtwos, but those things just kept on coming.  I might have had a chance to win, but I was forced to  burn some healing trainers on a Juniper early in the game, and then I didn’t have them when I needed them later.  I should have been able to outlast the Mewtwos, but those healing trainers eluded me and James got the W.

2-4-  The search for a Nationals deck continues as Kyurem EX kind of failed me this day.  It is not a bad deck, I did do well in almost all of my games, but it just didn’t have that one or two cards that can put it over the top. I really need something to put a little kick in the deck.  Maybe you guys have an idea, or maybe it is just a bad deck.  I still need to look for a Nats deck, and that really sucks.

About the Deck

I did not do great with this deck, so it is no longer a front runner to be my nationals deck, but it is still a cool deck.  It is also a deck that would be good for kids or people that are under a budget.  This is a deck that you should be able to build for about 40 bucks, which is almost unheard of in this format.  So I can recommend this to other players and hopefully they can do a better job with it then I did.  I might try  to run this deck with Groudon EX and see if that’s any better.  Though, it is not a great deck, so don’t get the wrong idea about this deck.  It won’t win Nationals, but its still pretty cool.

Well, that’s all I got.  Thanks to the judges and T.O. in Ohio.  And thanks to the Card Shop owner, I especially appreciated him when he took a big stick and hit the bar on the backdoor so we could open the door and get some air circulation in that sardine can.  Thanks to all my opponents, you guys were all professionals.  Have a good night, everybody.

Category: Deck Discussion, Tourney Report | Tags: Kyurem EX deck, Kyurem EX list