One Hit KO

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with a tournament report and a decklist for you.

If you read my last report you would have seen that I went to a BR a couple weeks ago with a Kyurem EX deck, and didn’t do very well.  I thought the deck held its own, it just needed a little more pop.  So, I thought I should change the deck up, and I decided that I should use the same basic concept but with Entei EX.

When I first did testing on this deck it was basically my other deck, but with fire energies and Entei EX.  Than, I started to talk to Ed and we made some good changes to the list.  After changing the list to make it more mainstream, I did some testing and came up with something that had some promise.  I knew that I wouldn’t have a great shot to win, but hopefully this deck would play well and I could keep polishing it until Nationals.

Instead of my last deck which was entirley based on healing, I changed it so that the healing is still there but the deck is more versatile.  I knew that I should have a decent match-up against most decks.  I just need to make sure that I don’t get a bad start and that I keep up with my opponent. 

The goal of this deck is simple.  Get 3 energies on an Entei quickly, and then get another Entei on the bench.  With the “Grand Flame” attack you can do 90 damage and attach a discarded fire energy to the bench.   Then you use healing trainers to keep your guys alive while doing damage and getting other attackers going. 

 Here is the list that I ran:

Pokemon-4

• Entei EX-4

Energy-13

• Fire-13

Trainers-43

• 4-Potion
• 3-Moomoo Milk
• 4-Life Herb
• 2-Max Potion
• 4-Junk Arm
• 4-Pokemon Catcher
• 4-Eviolite
• 2-Random Receiver
• 4-PONT
• 4-Professor Juniper
• 2-N
• 1-Sage’s Training
• 2-Ultra Ball
• 1-Heavy Ball
• 2-Switch

So there is the list.  No its not perfect, but its not quite Nationals, so I wasn’t too focused on actually winning this tourney.   It is actually a pretty cool deck.  I like the fact that it is kind of rogue, that is always cool.  It never seems to completely fall apart, unless it gets a really bad start or finds a water deck.  It also is fairly cheap, so if you want a decent nationals deck for a decent price, this could be a good deck for ya.

The Report

This tournament was i n Okemos, Mi, just outside of Lansing.  This venue, or one just next door, has held Pokemon tourneys for as long as I have been in the game, so it felt good to be in a familiar place.

Registration started at 11:00 AM, and its a little more than an hour and a half drive for me.  So I did get a decent sleep, but it could be better.  I woke up and watched an episode of Dr. Who before hitting the road.  The drive was not that bad even though there is road construction almost everywhere these days.  I got to the venue just after 11, and found a bunch of ladies scrap-booking.  While I am not against scrap-booking, I was kind of set on Pokemon.  I had thought that I must have read the schedule wrong, but then a Pokemon friend walked in the door and said that the tourney got moved next door for some reason.  So after finally finding the venue, I walked in and said hi to some friends and filled out a decklist.  There were not a lot of players there, but we at least had enough for 5 rounds.

Rd 1 JW with Some kind of Eelish thing

                I was not excited to see that I was playing JW in the first round.  Even though JW is a newcomer to Pokemon, he has sure hit the ground running.  He has Top Cut in all of his Spring Battle Roads so far, in fact he even ended up winning this tournament.  I have never met JW before, at least not formally, but he seemed like  a really nice guy, and I hope I found a new Poke-Buddy.  He sure has the stuff to challenge for the #1 spot in Michigan next year.  Anyway, enough of that stuff, let’s get down to the match. 

                The bad thing about this game is not only is JW a great player, he told me that he has had a lot of experience playing an Entei EX deck, so I knew that he would know how to beat me in an efficient way.  But, this is not my first time to the Rodeo either; I still have a good shot at beating him.  

                I get a good start and hit all the energy drops I need to get Entei loaded up fast and to get a second Entei going.  JW starts with an active Tynamo and a benched something, I can’t quite remember.  At first I thought I needed to focus on getting rid of the Eelektriks, but then when JW grabs a couple Mewtwo EX and my priorities change.   I know that if he gets a ton of energies on Mewtwo EX that it could ruin my day.  I begin to Catcher up the Mewtwo and start pounding it.  But, he is able to Eviolite both Mewtwo EXs and this makes my job tougher.  As soon as I get a Mewtwo in to knockout range, he uses a Max Potion to get rid of the damage counters.  This is a big turning point in the game.  Meanwhile, on my side of the field I am using a lot of my healing trainers to keep damage off Enteis.  There was a time when I forgot to use Moomoo Milk and that cost me 2 prizes, woops. 

                The game keeps on going for multiple turns until JW gets a ton of energy on both Mewtwo EXs and is able to OHKO Entei, at this point the game is over.  When you have a million energies on Mewtwo EX, there is not really anything that I can do. 

0 – 1 The game was very close until the end, and both I and JW thought that the momentum could swing the other way at anytime.  Congrats to JW on a good and close game, he really is one heck of a player. 

Round 2 Claire with Tyrantitar Prime/Darkrai EX/Dark Bisharp

                It’s nice to play a girl this round, complimenting JW so much made me feel quiet strange, hopefully all the man-love is over.  Claire is of course a long time Poke-Player, I have enjoyed chatting with Claire and her husband Ryan ever since I joined the game.    Clair was sitting right next to me during the first round, so I knew that she was playing a rogue dark deck. 

                She started with 2 Pupitars and a Pawniard, and I started first and gave us an N.  I thought that this may give Clair a big advantage since she had a lot of Pokemon in play and a brand new hand, but apparently she had some bad luck.  While I began to hit every energy drop and setup two Enteis, she was missing Supporters and energies.  She did end up getting 2 Tyranitars, but without the right energies she could only do 20 damage to me.  I do a steady 90 damage to whatever she can put out there, and she has trouble getting energies at the right time.  This ends up being a one-sided game and I end up sweeping this thing six prizes to zero. 

1 – 1 I am very glad to get a win with this deck, but I do know that Claire would have put up a better fight if she would have had better luck. 

Round 3 Preston with Durant

                I haven’t met Preston before today, he must be a new guy.  But I did kind of meet and trade with him before the pairings were posted and he seems like a good guy.  When I first found out that he was playing Durant I was very scared.  I knew that I haven’t really tested this match-up, and if he can pull out a bunch of Crushing Hammers he could easily win.  The problem for Preston was that he revealed to me that he only plays 1 Crushing Hammer. 

                The bad match-up that I thought I had just turned into an Auto-Win.  I start the game making all my energy drops and I took a prize on my 2^nd turn.  I went on to attach an energy each time he tried to remove it, and ended up taking 6 prizes in 7 turns.  I actually finished the game with a deck that was bigger than the deck that I usually finish with. 

2 – 1 Sorry Preston, you just ran into a bad match-up.  I am going into round 4 thinking my deck is running very soundly and consistently. 

Round 4 Darkrai EX/Tornadus EX

                I apologize to my opponent for this round, I just can’t seem to remember your name.  I usually take notes, but this game was so good that I forgot all about the notes.  I was excited for this game because this is the deck that everyone says has gone to Tier 1, and is possibly the BDIF.  I never played against this particular version so I was excited to see how it goes. 

                My opponent starts with Tornadus EX and attaches a DCE and hits me for 30.  I get a good start and am able to use a Potion to get rid of that damage.  In the next couple turns I am able to make all the energy drops I need to set-up.  I start to target Tornadus EX because he can do the most damage to me, but I come up 10 damage away from getting the KO before my opponent brings Darkrai EX in and hides Tornadus on the bench.  I get confused here because I don’t know if I should target the easy prize, or if I should target the thing that is trying to attack me.  My job gets harder because is it at this point where he begins to use a million Crushing Hammers.  I started off with one Entei with 3 energy and one with just 1.  I ended his turn with 1 energy on each of them.  I was able to recover (Thanks Ed for suggesting more energy) but losing energy did send me back a couple of turns.  He started the game hitting a lot of those Crushing Hammer flips, but he ends up getting a lot of tails at the end of the game. 

                As I start getting energy back on to the field, my opponent is chopping away at my HP with Darkrai EX.  I am able to get a lot of good flips with my healing cards and am able to keep a lot of the damage counters away from my field.  There was one point deep into the game when the game was still up for grabs where I had a damaged Entei active and a fully powered up Entei on the bench.  Even though I had no energy or supporter in my hand, I decided to retreat the active and use a Max Potion to clear damage counters from the field.  My opponent could not Catcher up the Entei with one energy and decided to scoop because he ran out of resources and cards in his deck. 

3 – 1  My first two wins were not that impressive, but this game seemed to be a legit win.  It was a really close game that could have gone either way right down to the end.  Good game man. 

Round 5 Bohdan with Kyurems and Mewtwo EX

                Who plays Kyurem?  This game is very bad for me because he can hit me for weakness, and my healing trainers don’t do any good to a knocked out Pokemon.  I knew that I had to be really lucky to win this game.

                Bohdan starts with the normal Kyurem and passes.  I again get a good set-up and start executing the crucial energy drops.  Bohdan plays a Pokemon Collector and gets 2 Kyurem EX and another regular Kyurem.  He seesm set-up, but he is missing some energy.  But, after a couple turns Bohdan does find a lot of energy off of an N and is able to use Kyurem EX to hit me for 240 damage and the win. 

3 – 2 I really was hoping to win this game and have a chance at getting Top Cut, but it wasn’t meant to be.  I just ran into a bad match-up, and that is never a good thing.  But, if I have to get slaughtered by someone, it isn’t a bad thing that it is to my favorite Ukrainian friend. 

                Overall I think my deck ran well.  I seemed to set-up well each time and got a lot of consistency early game.  I did have a couple of times when I wanted for supporters, but I’m sure that happens to everybody once in a while.  All things considered I am happy with this deck.  I do have to do a lot more polishing if I want to play it for Nationals, but I may be on my way.  I may or may not play this deck in Indy, but at least I did learn more about the format and what it takes to win. 

                A big thanks to all my opponents, you were all great.  Thanks also goes to the judges and Derek for being great.  I also want to thank Ed for helping me get my deck on the right track.  And also a thanks to Billie Piper, your hotness  make David Tennants Dr. Who watchable.

So Long and Thanks for all the fish.

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