Cities

Double Cities Report with Hydreigon plus Hydreigon Deck Analysis

Hey OneHitKO people, it’s getting to be time where you guys need to see another article, so I thought I may as well do a tournament report like Pikkdogs used to do (Except these will be somewhat successful reports) even though I usually don’t write reports (Although the purpose of the reports are more to show you more about playing the deck), and then so you have something interesting to read about I’ll do a deck analysis of the deck I believe is the BDIF of this format, Hydreigon/Darkrai. Anyway, I feel like getting this started, so here are the reports:

Saturday, November 17th: Cameron Park, CA

I wake up early, make my decklist, and wait for the people who I promised a ride to to show up. Once they both get here, we start the two hour drive to Cameron Park.

When we get there we are greeted by cabd from the SixPrizes forums, and I play some fun games with the people I came with. It turns out that 15 Seniors show up, 1 short of a Top 4. I wait a bit for pairings and I am already paired against someone I’d rather not play early.

Round 1 vs. Emily w/Blastoise

I start Sableye to her Kyurem and she goes first. I have a dead hand, and when she plays a Juniper my hopes sink, but then she plays her Tropical Beach and I’m happy. I play a few cards and Beach, drawing into a Supporter and a Dieno. The next turn I opt to Confuse Ray as I still don’t have Items that would be worth Junk Hunting for, and I get a heads. A Confusion Tails and a Candy to Hydreigon later I Night Spear to KO her Kyurem. I then proceed to take out her Blastoise, and although she manages to get a new one out I still steamroll.

1-0

Round 2 vs. Griffin w/Hydreigon

I start Ditto to his Dark Deino, and I see relief in his eyes when I Transform into a Sableye. I bench a couple Deino and a Darkrai and Junk Hunt for stuff that would net me a Hydreigon next turn. He Ns me, but I still manage to get the Candy-Hydreigon. When he manages to get his Hydreigon out I Dragonblast it. He makes a crucial misplay late game by Max Potioning his Darkrai before retreating, meaning that he no longer can KO my Hydreigon because he has a Darkrai stuck active, and I manage to win from there.

2-0

At this point everyone I had come with was 2-0, while five of the other good Seniors had taken a loss already (including Griffin and Emily). The only other 2-0 at this point is playing a Tornadus Donk deck and we all feel confident. We joke about how height is an advantage in Pokemon (The shortest of us is 5’10), and eat lunch. Lunch then proceeds to end and I get my Round 3 pairing.

Round 3 vs. Blake w/Hydreigon

Blake is the other guy I came with, and I’m 3-1 against him at Premier Events, so I know that at least I’m not facing a donk deck. However, I’m not confident here because I know that he’d been playing Hydreigon a lot longer than me, but I had also been playing it long enough that the Hydreigon mirror is usually determined by who set 2 Hydreigon up and who didn’t. Knowing that, I kind of felt afraid because I had been having some consistency issues recently, but I had cut my 1-0-1 Serperior tech recently as well, hoping that it would help.

However, I start Deino to his Sableye and he gets a T2 Night Spear to kill my only Dieno in play. I make a game out of it for a bit, but when time is called I have no way to take prizes without giving some up.

2-1.

At this point I know I need extremely good resistance to cut, but I feel like I should try to get points out of this at least.

Round 4 vs. Conner w/Mewtwo/Rayquaza/Eels

I start Sableye to his Rayquaza EX and he Celestial Roars, and I’m surprised when he flips over a Double Colorless Lol.Energy. I read the text on Celestial Roar and I laugh a bit when it says that you have to attach the energy, meaning the Rayquaza would have a useless energy attached until it was knocked out. He gets a couple Eels set up, but I Catcher-kill them and he has none left. He can’t power anything up, and I kill a Ray with Dragonblast and a Mewtwo with Cresselia for game.

3-1.

I think it’s the middle of that game when I hear chatter from the next game over about the Fliptini someone teched into their Hydreigon deck for Deino paralysis. Griffin says “Victini is strange. Like a three-legged donkey”. Honestly I don’t know what that has to do with the article, but I thought it was a funny thing for someone to say.

Blake lost against the other guy I came with, Paulo, but I find out that my tough games in the first two rounds paid off as both were 3-1. My tiebreakers consist of 3 3-1s and a 2-2, and Blake’s consist of a 4-0, 3-1, and 2 2-2s, meaning we’re both at 11-5, but because he doesn’t have the 4-0 in his Opponent’s Opponents I sneak into cut. This would have been so much simpler if another Senior had shown up.

Top 2 vs. Paulo w/Klinklang

Game One: We both start with dead hands, but my Sableye start plus Skyla topdeck nets me a Computer Search that I Junk Hunted for about 5 times to get a slow but certain setup. He is finally forced to Juniper 2 Rare Candy and 2 Klinklang away and he draws crap off of it. From there I put Eviolites on board and steamroll.

Game Two: He is unable to evolve his Klinks early game and I kill 3 in two turns. Afterwards I kill his EX’s with Night Spear, and when he Max Potions his active Darkrai when I have two prizes left I Catcher-Dragonblast the other for game.

So I end the day with a win, and while the only good thing I pull is a Ditto, I still get a cool-looking trophy and 50 points (or so I think). Turns out I made a mistake on my POP ID meaning that I don’t get the points from it. Oh well.

In the end, the results looked like this:
1st: Theo S w/Hydreigon
2nd: Paulo A w/Klinklang
3rd: Blake U w/Hydreigon
4th: Emily C w/Blastoise

Friday, November 23rd: Modesto, CA

After my win in Cameron Park I decide I like Hydreigon enough to play it again. I make no changes to my list except that I cut a Catcher for a Golden Catcher I had traded for at league two days before. I meet up with Benjamin, the Junior who I’m giving the ride to today, and we start the hour-and-a-half drive to Modesto.

I meet up with some of the guys from the Sacramento area including Griffin, Connor, and Zachary, and we see that once again only 15 Seniors had shown up. We complain about that until pairings are posted, and I’m paired against Griffin for the second Cities in a row.

Round 1 vs. Griffin w/Hydreigon

This game is fairly uneventful. I get a T2 Night Spear and his Deinos don’t survive very long. When he drops his Mewtwo I have Catcher-Cresselia for my final two prizes.

1-0.

Round 2 vs. Will w/Blastoise

This was one of the most nerve-wrecking games I’d ever played. I get a quick start but he manages to load up a Keldeo with enough energy to one-shot an Eviolited Darkrai. Thankfully I Juniper into the Blend I need to score a KO on the Keldeo as it had been hit with the 30 Night Spear damage, and after that I N him to one to lock his energy and Junk Hunt for the Catcher I need to win. He whiffs both the N and the Energies he needs and I Catcher out his Mewtwo and use Cresselia. It’s safe to say that if I don’t draw that Blend he takes the win.

2-0

Round 3 vs. I don’t remember w/Hydreigon

I get my second T2 Night Spear of the day and kill all his Deinos, and he scoops.

3-0

Round 4 vs. Zachary w/Darkrai/Landorus/Terrakion

I remember actually having an early lead (possibly thanks to another T2 Night Spear maybe), but when he uses Terrakion to take four prizes he’s down to one left to my three. However, I take a prize somewhere (I think on a Sableye), and then time is called. He attacks with Landorus during his turn, and his field consists of the following: A damaged Darkrai with two energy attached, a Keldeo with a Darkness, and an active Landorus with a Fighting. I N him to one and Junk Hunt for the Catcher he needs for the win, and he whiffs the Energy or Energy Switch.

I actually feel bad for him because he whiffs cut on resistance, but I guess it’s what you have to do to guarantee safety. Yay!

Top 2 vs. Will w/Blastoise

I’m surprised to see my Round 2 opponent, but I guess his deck worked against other decks. Anyway, we talk a bit, and then things start.

Game One: I get a quick Hydreigon and I start hitting Keldeos for 90 and 30, after hitting a clutch Tool Scrapper to get rid of both his Eviolites, and his early game pressure doesn’t work as well as 3 EX kills in four turns.

Game Two: This game goes pretty much the same as Game One except that I kill his Blastoise. Sorry man, but that’s the way things work out sometimes.

Hydreigon Deck Analysis

Remember in my Regionals article where I said I had tried and tried to get Hydreigon to work, but I never had? Well, I have. It’s won me two Cities so far, and it’s probably going to be my play for the next few.

My current Hydreigon list is:

3 Hydreigon
1 Zweilous (Draw In)
2 Dragon Deino (Deep Growl)
1 Darkness Deino
4 Sableye DEX
3 Darkrai EX
1 Cresselia EX
-15

4 Pokemon Catcher
4 Max Potion
3 Dark Patch
3 Rare Candy
2 Ultra Ball
2 Random Receiver
2 Eviolite
2 Tool Scrapper
1 Heavy Ball
1 Computer Search
-24

4 N
4 Professor Juniper
2 Skyla
1 Bianca
-11

7 Darkness Energy
3 Blend GRPD
-10

Some of the odd things about this list is the fourth Catcher, fourth Max Potion, and fourth Sableyeas well as the Heavy Ball instead of a third Ultra Ball and the second Tool Scrapper.

The four-of Catcher and Max Potion are mostly so that you have four to use over the course of the game. Getting the game-winning Catcher in a crucial spot where you’ve used 3 already is clutch, and Catchers are great against Eel decks and they are also necessary against Blastoise decks so that you can KO the damaged EX with Hydreigon. Catchers are also your most valuable tool in the mirror (I’ll explain below).

The fourth Sableye is there because Sableye is my ideal starter, and I want to increase the chance of that happening. With the fourth Sableye you have it in your opening hand 40% of the time and if you include mulligans you start Sableye a good amount (I’m bad at math, so I’m not even going to try). I like having it there because starting Sableye is the key to a quick Hydreigon and it also allows you to get back the clutch Catchers and Max Potions you discard with Ultra Ball and Juniper early game assuming you have extra space for Junk Hunting.

The Heavy Ball is so that I can pretty much Skyla for a Hydreigon as well as thinning my deck a bit. I’d prefer to do this without Ultra Ball as most of the time I don’t want to discard anything (I’ll get to this later in the article).

The second Tool Scrapper is there for the mirror. It forces your opponent to retreat their active Darkrai for a new one, and if you’re the player with Hydreigons remaining at the end of the game this can be really clutch. Even if you don’t, you’re a Catcher away from two prizes without having to Dragonblast, an action that can be risky in the mirror.

Matchups

The Mirror – 50/50

When I first started playing Hydreigon (Right after Regionals), I asked my friend who had been playing the deck for three months now “How do you play the mirror?”.

His response was simple: “You win the Hydreigon war”.

After that, I had to ask “What’s the Hydreigon war?”.

His response was “It’s like the Mewtwo war, but a lot more fun”.

Anyway, back to what makes sense: This matchup will come down to one of two things: Either who gets the first Night Spear or who gets the most Hydreigon out. If you can get an early Night Spear plus a clutch Catcher on the Deino or Zweilous your opponent is waiting to evolve, or if both players have Hydreigons out then it results in yes, a Hydreigon war (Which is, if you ask, more fun than a mindless Mewtwo war).

The Hydreigon war is, unlike the Mewtwo war, commonly won by the player who starts it. Why is this? Because the player who starts the Hydreigon war will have the first kill on a Hydreigon, and if both players get the same number of Hydreigon out either before or during the Hydreigon war the player who starts it will commonly win.

Another clutch factor during the Hydreigon war is energy. For each Hydreigon that goes down you lose 4 energy (with the exception of the first Hydreigon that dies, that one will commonly have none), so you need to have some extra energy on the field at your disposal or have enough Dark Patches to get another Dragonblast off next turn.

One thing I would advise during the Hydreigon war is taking a turn without using a Hydreigon to attack. While this can be a risky play, getting a Night Spear off while you get extra energy into play or Junk Hunting for two Dark Patches to get more energy in play (This will usually net you 1-2 energy unless you get N’d). Unless your opponent has a Catcher you will probably be able to buy a turn (Although it is important not to put ANY energy on your remaining Hydreigon, not necessarily just then but any time you aren’t attacking with it). Doing this buys you a turn to get extra energy on the field. Of course, if you have enough energy to Dragonblast already this is not necessary.

Another thing to note about the mirror is that it is about 70% luck. There is no skill involved in getting a T2 Night Spear and there is little in getting multiple Hydreigons out. The little skill in this matchup is probably the Night Spear damage, knowing whether to Max Potion Hydreigon or Darkrai (Almost always Hydreigon unless you have multiple out) and knowing when to Junk Hunt (Which is fine mid-game in my opinion).

I haven’t played a Hydreigon mirror in a while where both players had Hydreigons out at the end of the game, and I haven’t played in a Hydreigon mirror ever where a player won without Hydreigons (Not that it isn’t possible). The one thing I don’t like about Hydreigon is the luck-based and common mirrors.

Some cards you should include if Hydreigon is popular in your area are:

Zweilous DRX 95

I usually end with the weird techs, but I don’t feel like it today. Zweilous is good in the mirror because it can OHKO an opposing Hydreigon with its second attack for only three Energy and it’s also possible to discard important Blend Energies with a Crunch flip. While it isn’t the best tech, if Hydreigon is common in your area you might consider dropping the Draw In or NVI Zweilous for this.

A Fourth Dark Patch

Dark Patches are really good in the Hydreigon mirror because A: You’ll be discarding energy with Hydreigon’s attack that is incredibly important in the mirror, and because if you’re the player that loses your Hydreigons you still have a separate engine, although you’re still definitely not in a good position.

Blastoise – 75/25 in your favor (If no healing) or 50/50 (If healing)

Keldeo ain’t got nuthin on me.

Unlike the mirror, playing against Blastoise is more about leading Darkrai and finishing Hydreigon than leading Hydreigon and finishing Darkrai. Your best bet is to put Night Spear damage on Keldeos, Tool Scrap Eviolites, and knock out their Blastoise. I believe that in the report I discussed how early game pressure is no match for knockouts on EX’s.

If they manage to load up a Keldeo with enough energy to OHKO anything on your field, do two things: First, knock that Keldeo out as soon as possible, and N them to a low hand. Unless they hit a draw Supporter or a Cilan they will likely energy drought until they topdeck something useful. And since their energy acceleration is from hand and not from field or discard like Hydreigon or Eelektrik, they will likely not have enough energy to attack for the rest of the game, and you can continue to KO three EX’s to win the game.

If they play Super Scoop Up or Max Potions, things could get interesting, however. If they can heal the damage done by Night Spear to any of their Pokemon, you can no longer take three EX kills in four turns. However, most lists I’ve seen that use healing only play 3 Super Scoop Ups or 3 Max Potions, so your goal in the early game should be to do what you can to make them use up the healing. Your win will only be delayed a couple turns barring them hitting heads or Energy Retrievals a lot more frequently than you’d like. If they take a few early prizes, Ning them could be great.

Some players will try to go early game Kyurem against you. Have none of it, Dragonblast that Kyurem right away. If there’s an Eviolite attached, Tool Scrapper is your friend. Max Potion the Darkrais that got hit and then Junk Hunt the Max Potions back. While this does use up a turn and give up a prize, unless you somehow go down four prizes before you start your “3 EX kills in four turns” strategy you usually win from that alone.

Unlike some people, I see no need to tech for this matchup unless your area has a whole lot of it. Seeing as how in 10 matches I played against it 3 times (1 of which was the same player), and how I’ve won all four games I played against it, I see no need to tech a card that, in fun games with my friend, makes him instantly scoop when I start it (about 1 in 10 games, imagine starting Shaymin Round One), and it’s only really been the difference in the game (meaning he won because of it) a couple times. I see no need to tech for a matchup that is 60/40 in your favor at the worst.

I will admit Shaymin has other uses, but I really just don’t like it. If your area is 75% or more Blastoise (The only time I’d tech for it), I’d play Virizion EPO instead. It goes through Eviolite and doesn’t require the opponent to take prizes before you. This is just my opinion, I know some people love Shaymin, but I honestly don’t like it.

RayEels – 60/40 in your favor

RayEels is the BDIF from Cities results so far (although I still say Hydreigon is), so a decent matchup is in order. RayEels is usually based on whether you hit clutch Catchers and whether you set 2 Hydreigon up. Their strategy will to be to use the Shiny Ray to kill Hydreigons and go through Eviolite on Darkrai. Your best bet is to try to hit the Ray with Night Spear damage early game and Catcher-KO their Eels to prevent them from using Rayquaza EX to run through you.

If they drop a Ray EX, use Hydreigon to knock it out. Even if they do kill your Hydreigon, you will have taken two prizes to their one off of that, and you will be able to take more prizes with Darkrai in a turn or two. If you have enough of a prize lead from killing the Eels you should be able to win at the end if they drop a Ray. If you use 3+ Catcher killing Eels you should try to get a Junk Hunt off to get them back, as you will need a game winning Catcher in a lot of games with this deck.

If RayEels is popular enough in your area you could tech Giratina and Giant Cape (Although I wouldn’t recommend it). Giratina OHKOes any Dragon-weak Pokemon and the Giant Cape will prevent mini-Ray from OHKOing it right back.

I honestly don’t know much else about this matchup as RayEels isn’t too popular in my area. There are probably other articles that describe this matchup in more detail, so check those out if you have extra time.

Landorus Decks – 50/50

Dragon Deino is mainly there for the Landorus matchup. It could also be useful in combination with the three legged donkey (If you don’t get that go back and read the article), but I don’t think I would play that. Landorus applies a lot of early game pressure to you, although two Night Spears and a Dragonblast result in two Landorus kills for you if you manage to get a Hydreigon out. One thing to watch for is them using Land’s Judgement, but if you get enough energy in play this shouldn’t matter, and if they can for sure next turn you can always use Cresselia (Sure, you might lose a Darkrai, but you won’t lose the Energy).

If they use Garchomp as a secondary attacker, be sure not to keep Blends on your active as Mach Cut will be bad for you and your ability to Dragonblast.

There aren’t any techs against Landorus that I can think of, but playing more Dark Patch can certainly help because they will probably get a Land’s Judgement off on your Darkrai once or twice a game (Although if it’s twice you’re in trouble), and you need to keep your energy in play.

A Couple Tips and Tricks

A couple things I’ve found while playing Hydreigon are that if you start with Sableye and another Pokemon, it’s often best not to start that Pokemon on your bench. If you go second and your opponent has a Catcher, you will be less likely to have a T1 Junk Hunt, and it’s definitely better to T1 Junk Hunt for sure than a possibility that the Darkrai or Deino you’re holding will be your active Pokemon. Even if they do N, you will be likely to get a Deino playing 2 Ultra Ball, 1 Computer Search, 2 Skyla, 3 Deino, and 11 outs to Supporters that aren’t previously listed.

Another thing is that you don’t want to discard too much energy for Dark Patch early game. Remember that you only have 3 Dark Patch (if you go off of my list), and some of those you’ll want to use to recover from discarding energy because you used Dragonblast. You want to rely more on manual energy drops and less on Dark Patch with Hydreigon because Dark Patch isn’t all that critical to your strategy.

Sometimes leaving Energy on your active so that you can then Max Potion and discard the Darkness so that you can Dark Patch it back is good so that you can play a Dark Patch and make yourself less vulnerable to a late-game N or so that you can draw an extra card with Bianca. This is a pretty rare scenario, but it can be a good play at times. If you don’t have a Dark Patch, however, definitely don’t do that because it’s better to have the energy in play for sure.

One more thing I want to say is that a mid-game Junk Hunt is not always a bad thing. Of course if you need to kill something that turn it’s not the best play, but giving up a turn and a prize for two Trainers you need late game isn’t always the worst possible play. In the late game I oftenly find myself looking for that last Catcher to win the game, so I see no reason not to turn your 1-2 outs to a Catcher into 2-4. In the mirror this is a bit less viable because it gives your opponent another turn to look for the Max Potion, but if you time it right there won’t be damage for your opponent to remove.

What do you guys think about Hydreigon for Cities? I like it right now because it has access to Sableye and you have to OHKO to take prizes most of the time. I also like the favorable Blastoise matchup and favorable Eels matchup. If you guys have questions or comments, feel free to comment below, and I’ll try to get an article out about a deck I played against recently that I found to be fairly interesting. Thanks for reading, and I bid you farewell.

A Tale of Two Cities (winning LuxChomp Report)

Luxray GL Reverse HoloIt was the best of times! and then the next day it was the best of times again.  Ugh, what a start.  Sorry about that

Ed asked me to write a tournament report about my weekend at the Source and Dreamers.  I usually tweet updates as the tournaments go on (www.twitter.com/wiem0014) so those notes helped a lot in writing this report.  Sorry if I don’t remember names or all of the details.

The previous weekend Emmanuel, Lukas, Nick and I traveled to Madison and LaCrosse for the first weekend of Cities.  I performed extremely sub-par that weekend, mostly due to bad luck, but also due to a costly misplay on Saturday.  I ended up 2-3 Saturday (after starting 0-3) with Luxchomp  This was the deck I was most comfortable with, winning States with it last year, and testing it heavily for Regionals and Nats.  It was the right deck in a field of Gyarados, but I started against two Machamp decks and couldn’t recover.  I finished 3-2 on Sunday while playing a Machamp deck focused on the Prime more than most.  Jay Hornung (from IA) ended up winning both days with Luxchomp and going 13-1 on the weekend.

The week in between, I was able to test a bit with Ed and Abdi and had basically decided that Luxchomp would be my deck.  Machamp couldn’t beat Gyarados, and I was very confident in my basic Luxchomp list.  I had a few spots to tweak depending on what I though the metagame would look like, so Friday night I spoke with Mike Lesky and we determined that teching for Gyarados and the mirror would be the correct play.  This turned out to be very good advice.

Saturday – Source, St. Paul, MN – 25 Masters 5 Rounds Top 4

I always like playing at the Source because Radu is banned from there (haha) which makes the field a bit easier.  However, that Saturday at the Source was terrible due to some bad planning on the store’s part.  They crammed almost 50 players into a space fit for 30, while allowing weekly miniature players free use of many other tables. I showed up list in hand, and visited with the South Dakota boys that traveled in.  I saw a lot of Gyarados and not much Machamp and was very happy with my list.

Garchomp C Regionals RHRound 1) Rahim w/Dialgachomp
I know that Rahim has played this deck before.  I saw him play it during Battle Roads and doing fairly well.  He is a bit rushed, still filling out his decklist as the round is about to start.  We set up, and I “win” the die roll.  I start Garchomp with a Call Energy in hand.  I top a Luxray, bench it and then Call for two more Garchomps.  He starts relatively poorly but sacrifices a lot of resources to get a turn two Deafen.  He starts to build up a Dialga but doesn’t realize that Luxray is resistant to Metal which allows me to 2-Hit KO the Dialga.  This leaves him with not much on his field but an Ambipom and a Garchomp which I quickly snipe.  I end up taking 6 prizes fairly quickly.
1-0

Round 2) One of the Yule’s w/Magnezone/Vileplume
Once again I “win” the die roll and have a great setup, except for the fact that I open with Dragonite and he opens with Spiritomb.  I attach and pass.  He basically does nothing but drop an Elektrike and use Darkness Grace to get a Magnemite.  He missed his first two energy drops with killed his setup, as well as prizing Magnezone X.  I use these turns to get plenty of energy on the field and end up having one turn of trainers, after manually retreating Dragonite, and KO his Tomb.  He goes the agro Manetric route and uses the second attack to get some energy on a Magnezone.  At this point he has a Plume setup, so I have to expend a lot of energy to KO the Manetric, then the Plume.  Then I 2-Hit his Magnezone and it feels pretty secure up 4-2.  However, on his last turn he drops ERL, but would end up killing two of his own as well, and scoops.
2-0

Round 3) Abdi w/Gyarados
I know that Abdi plays Blissey, so I will have to pick up cheap prizes and OHKO his Gyarados’s to win.  He starts off with Sableye and Collectors for two Karps and a Regice.  I don’t have much to do although I do have a Cyrus, and I end up calling for two more SP.  This allows me to Spray his turn 2 and 3 Regimove, and then Looker’s his hand away with his three Karps.  I then snipe his Chancey, bait an Expert Belt to kill a Garchomp, and OHKO the Belted Gyarados for my 5th and 6th Prize.
3-0

Round 4) Danyelle Simon w/Gyarados
Danyelle is playing my Gyarados deck, so I feel like I have an advantage knowing every card in her deck.  The truth is though, it didn’t matter.  I spray some early stuff, including Uxie two turns in a row, and she never even gets a Gyarados setup before I bench her.
4-0

Round 5) Michael Slutsky w/Gyarados/Donphan
His use of Donphan tilts this matchup a bit, but he does sacrifice consistency which shows here.  We both start awful, but I rip a Cyrus to get started and setup way faster than he does.  He prized Azelf and Regice (although I had Sprays aplenty), and he cannot discard any Karps.  At one point he Tail Revenges’ me for zero.  I make a terrible play and Looker’s away his terrible hand to get rid of his 3 Karp.  He draws a great hand and goes off, but he is too far behind at this point to catch up.
5-0

I’m feeling pretty good going into top cut, until I get hit with two pieces of bad news.  First, I find out we are playing best of one in the top cut, which I think is absolutely and completely wrong.  Secondly, I find out I am playing against Machamp while the two Gyarados Decks slug it out.

Top 4) Emmanuel Divens w/Machamp
Once again, we both draw awful, but I am able to Call for two SP which allows me to Spray an early Uxie.  He ends up getting a SF Machamp setup quickly, which I am able to OHKO with Uxie Lvl X and Lucario.  He sets up another and KO’s my Uxie.  I proceed to 2-hit KO that Machamp with Garchomp and Luxray.  At this point he runs out of steam a bit before setting up a Machamp Prime.  I am able to knock that Machamp out without it taking a prize and coast from there.
6-0

The other game is done by this time and I find out that I am playing another playtesting partner for the second round in a row.

Top 2) Ed w/Gyarados
In this game I follow the same formula for Gyarados that I have found to be effective.  I spray a few early Regimove’s, which slows him down because he cannot play Junk Arm.  I begin sniping around his Sableye.  I find out later that he does not have energy to retreat Sableye, which I finally knock out for my fourth prize.  At this point I use Luxray X to KO the Sableye, which baits the Belt on the Gyarados, which allows me to take the last two prizes with a Trash Bolt.
7-0

So I end up winning my second CC (first was in Chicago last year) and go undefeated in the process.  I was overall very happy with my deck choice and knew that I would play the same deck the next day, since I expected a lot of SP.  I wake up in the morning and pick Michael up for the ride to Dreamers.  On the way I find out Radu will be playing Vilegar w/Mewtwo.  I debate teching further for that matchup, but decide to just change one trainer to a supporter to allow setup under lock a bit easier.  e

Sunday – Dreamer’s, St. Louis Park – 26 Players 5 Rounds Top 4

I walk in and socialize a bit, but for the most part I was just anxious to get started.

Round 1) Aubrey w/Kingdra
This is obviously a good matchup for me due to weakness, but it gets better when she mulligans twice, and starts with a lone Horsea.  She “wins” the die roll, attaches, Smokescreen’s and it’s my turn.  I start Luxray with Garchomp on the bench.  I Flashbite the Horsea, Poketurn the Luxray, lay it back down (to get rid of Smokescreen) attach a DCE and bite for the donk.
1-0

Round 2) Abdi w/Gyarados
I am expecting Abdi to badly want revenge for my beating him the day before.  He misplays turn one by using Time Walk to free a pokemon, but putting back a Sableye which stunts his setup.  He also cannot find a BTS, and I pick up two easy prizes Bright Looking two Karps and Biting them for the KO.  I then let through a few Regimoves which warp my Luxrays to the bench, and I am able to easily OHKO his Gyarados’s for the victory.
2-0

Round 3) Alex Hauser w/Mewperior
I know that I have almost no way to win this game if it goes longer than a turn or two.  He “wins” the die roll and puts a Ryperior X in the Lost Zone with no other Pokemon.  I start Smeargle, Portrait his hand and see a Collector.  This allows me to grab Uxie, Crobat and Unown Q.  I then Cyrus for an energy and Poketurn, Flash Bite his Mew twice, retreat Smeargle and KO the Mew with Uxie.
3-0

Two Donks in one day and I am feeling pretty good about my chances with plenty of SP at the top tables.  I am heavily teched for the mirror and want nothing but SP for the rest of the day please.

Round 4) Mike Lesky w/Luxchomp
Right idea, wrong player.  Mike has a lot of mirror experience, and I know this should be tough.  I spray an Azelf turn two, then I rip a Cyrus, and end up Cyrus’ing four times before he does once.  Midgame, I have won the Garchomp/Dragonite war and have four energy on the field, while he has one.  He put up a good fight, but is too far behind to recover.
4-0

Round 5) Emmanuel Divens w/Machamp
Emmanuel must be feeling great with nothing but SP at the top tables.  I also know that he tweaked his deck for the SP matchup, playing 3-1 Take Out/Prime split.  Turn one I drop a Pokemon and Call for two more SP to allow a Power Spray.  He ends up Portraiting twice, Setup once, and gets two Machamp in play turn one.  Needless to say he runs through me.
4-1

I am feeling pretty darn good about my tiebreakers, but my worry is the Machamp and possibly Mewtwo in the Top Cut.  Luckily, Radu ends up missing, taking 5th with Vilegar.  This means Emmanuel vs. Michael, and Me vs. Mike Lesky.  I also find out that we are playing best of one again in Top Cut (total BS IMO).

Dragonite FB RHTop 4) Mike Lesky w/Luxchomp
This is a very close game all the way through.  The following exchange takes place early on in the game:

Mike: Snipe KO Andy’s Garchomp (0-1)
Andy: Return KO with Dragonite (1-1)
Mike: Return KO with Dragonite (1-2)
Andy: Return KO with Garchomp (2-2)
Mike: KO Crobat with Luxray (2-3)
Andy: Return KO With Promocroak (3-3)
Mike: Return KO with Uxie X (3-4)
Andy: Return KO with Uxie X (4-4)

I am then able to keep my Uxie on the field long enough to find an Aarons, bring my Dragonite and Garchomps back and find the last two prizes.  Great Games Mike.
5-1

Top 2) Emmanuel Divens w/Machamp
Emmanuel opens horrible again w/Lucario and goes second.  He proclaims that he needs to draw a basic or he loses.  He rips a Machop, but uses it to Communicate for a Uxie.  I spray the Uxie.  He Seekers, and uses Uxie again.  I can’t stop this one and he draws a bunch.  I can tell from his expression that he drew horrible.  The game goes very poorly for him, with me killing three Machops over the course of the game.  I end up taking four prizes, then killing my first Machamp, before sniping for the last prize and the Medal.
6-1

So, I end up going back to back, and end up 13-1 on the weekend.  I know that I only beat Emmanuel both days due to sub par draws on his part, but I still feel pretty good about my weekend.  I comment to a friend that “When the deck that I am most comfortable playing also happens to be the BDIF, it might allow good results.”  Next weekend will bring another tourney, and I will most likely show up with another version of the same deck, due to not having testing time for my Vilegar deck.  See you guys there.

Props
Ed: For prompting me to write the LONG report
Abdi: For testing the week prior
Mike: Having a late night idea bouncing partner is VERY helpful
Radu: For being banned form the Source
All RH Decks: For being amazing
Emmanuel: For Drawing poorly when it counted

Slops
Emmanuel: For playing Machamp both days
Best-of-One Top Cuts: Despite the fact that this worked out well for me, I am totally against it and voiced my opinion to our PTO.  As far as I know, we are the only state to do this.
LONG Tourney Reports: For being too long

Second Best or First Loser? Gyarados vs. Luxray

Austino's GyaradosThis past Saturday (12-04-10), I went up to The Source to play in their city championships. 25 masters showed up, giving us 5 rounds of Swiss with a cut to top 4. I brought Gyarados with me, but I left my sick daughter, Ava, at home. Hopefully she can join me this weekend.

Fire ArceusRound 1) Justin K. with Lefeon/Flareon/Arceus
I don’t know why, but I’ve played Justin in just about every tourney we’ve both participated in. Heck, I even got matched against him at regionals. Well, at least he’s used to playing against me. He started with a fire Arceus on his bench. I think I Regimoved it active, and he ended up belting it. I used the 2X water weakness to my advantage and went up 2-0 in prizes. After that, he couldn’t recover.
1-0

Machamp PrimeRound 2) Emmanuel D. with Machamp SF/Prime and Kingdra Prime
I’ve played against this deck before. You might think it’s heavily weighted in my favor, but it’s not that bad for him. What is bad is prizing like all his primes and 2 Bebe’s. I am pretty sure he used Seeker to use Azelf’s Time Walk 3 times. In theory, he should be able to set up Machamp Prime and Kingdra Prime to get OHKOs on Gyarados (which is impressive, because Gyarados is resistant). In practice, it didn’t work out for him. He was on the ropes the entire game. I think this was his only loss in Swiss.
2-0
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Team Omar Makes T4 In CA

My cities was INSANE out here. So many good players, including one of my losses came from a guy in the top 10 in worlds atm. I was running GG.  Out here, everyone techs against Dialga. Everyone. Not one person likes it. haha. But there is what happened roughly.

Round 1: GG vs. Lady Gaga (luxray G & Garchomp G) with infernape 4 and blaziken FB

I locked up his ability to heal and his ability to bring up anyone he wanted active starting turn 2 and never looked back. He also didnt pull a supporter untill turn 4, and he didnt ever pull cyrus. Pretty much locked him up hard and then 1 hit KO his luxray with my gallade. He couldnt recover. GG :)
1-0

Round 2: GG vs. Salamance

I was really surprised at the amount of salamance decks out here. There are some pretty sick strategies with this deck. First, they run Kingdra, discard energies and do 60 and 20 to a bench. Then, they use delcatty and salamance AR to play multiple energies a turn, and the point is to injur someone on the bench to a point of being 20 hp away(usually claydol) and then they Lv. X their Salamance, and use shoot through, doing 50 up-front, most likely knocking him out, and then knocking out the benched guy. This gives them 4 prizes. Unfortunately for him, i had him in a lock starting turn 3 for the whole game, so no delcatty, no salamance AR energy acceleration, and no double fall(multiple prizes). He couldnt keep up, and lost.
2-0
Round 3: GG vs. Gengar, Nidoqueen, Blaziken FB????

Im not ever supposed to win this matchup. Period. I have too many pokepower people in my deck that are active at one point, and not enough unownG To cover everything up, making my only shot to get around Gengar is to use Gardevoir X and bring down, but unfortunately unownG their gengars, making that impossible to get around, and so they usually win the prize race and KO my dudes with fainting spell. And thats exactly what happened. i lost. I guess the blaziken is for Dialga, which is a good tech, i just never thought people would try it.
2-1

Round 4: GG vs. Blaziken FB, Blaziken PL?, and Gliscor(the one used in lock decks)

This was the slowest player ever. I guess the point they used was to burn me either with Blaziken PL? and gliscor, and then use the FB lvl X to do 40 more damage, whether it was blaziken using jet shoot, or gliscor using pester. Either way, they couldnt burn me, because i unownG my active gardevoir, and lock powers, so no way to burn. He also struggled getting cards since he got locked starting turn 2. unfortunately, i couldnt get KO’s because he would just use the gliscor’s attack and go back in his hand over and over, but after a while, since there was no BTS it caught up to him, and after time was called, i was winning 3-4 prize count. I swear i only attacked like 4 times, thats how long it took.
3-1

Round 5: GG vs. flygon nidoqueen dusknoir blazken FB gengar

IDK HOW HE DOES IT, but i guess he won cities last week with this redic amount of cards in his deck. He said he likes the variety and all the outs he has, but starting my second turn, he was power locked for the rest of the game. 3 turns later, he scooped, and i laughed thinking there is no way he won with that redic amount of cards in one deck. How he was 3-1 at this point was confusing.
4-1

So after this, turns out the top 8 are filled with some rediculously stacked decks not for my favor. turns out the guys i beat round 1 and 2 were also in the top.

1. Garchomp Dialga
2. Gengar
3. Flygon Varient
4. GG <– Me
5. Gengar
6. Lady gaga with infernape 4 and blaziken FB
7. Salamance
8. Garchomp Dialga

So i play 5th seed. Gengar. not to mention, this is a normal tourney where it is best 2 out of 3.

So, i get to play another Gengar deck, not the same one i played before, but one that ran Manectric, making it pretty much impossible for me to win, because of his spread ability, 30 dmg to anyone that has a pokepower for 1 energy, and then after two turns of that, he can compound pain for like 4 knock outs. So i sit down expecting to just lose. My lock saves me tho. He wasnt able to get enough energies, and missed many different drops, and because i started my lock turn 1 instead of 2, he wasnt ever able to unown G anything, making gengars killable without any fainting spell flips. So he scoops when he sees there is no way, and i am ecstatic. woohoo. i win round 1.

Now, the rounds are 45 min, to play best 2 out of 3. But, for game 2 to count, 4 prizes need to be taken. There was less then 20 min left after game 1. This game he was setting up at the normal pace, and i knew there was no way for me to win this game. He takes his 3rd prize when time is called. HAHAHAH yay!!!!.

So, as the top 4 are called, i laugh. The people i beat round 1 and 2 are playing each other, and then there was stefan Tobaco or sumthing like that. Hasnt lost yet today. ranked 11 in world before the tourney. Sweet jesus. He was playing Gachomp Dialga, So with the special metals, and resistence, i would usully do 20 and no pokepowers, so yeah i ended up losing this one. Couldnt get around 80 damage a turn when i can only do 20, and then he couldnt snipe claydols. Ish. So i end there, and salamance lost next to me. Since i beat salamance, i get 3rd, take 5 packs instead of 4, idk why, get a shiny omynite for my close to fully hollow water deck, and go 5-2, hopefully getting a positive rating on the day.

That was my day. lasted from 11-7:30. Sweet jesus.