Stage 1 Rush

Battle Roads Report/Adventure of Aurasphere87.

Aurasphere87 September 20, 2011 3 Comments

Hello fellow OHKOers, This is Mark back with my Battle Road report for the opening to our new 2011 – 2012 season!

Myself, accompanied by a group of friends went to the South Bend and Angola Battle Roads in Indiana. Initially I was gonna back out of going due to monetary issues. However, thanks to my great friends I was able to get things together! On the way there we got hit by traffic from the Michigan State Game and Notre Dame game. We actually got to the tournament 10 minutes late expecting game losses but we luckily got there just in time to register! PHEW!!

I played Stage One Rush, also known as “Mega Dragonzord”, which features Yanmega, Donphan, and Zoroark. I also played 2 Mew Primes as techs along with 4 Rainbow Energies for the Gothitelle match up. I had been playing this deck pretty much since Nationals and decided to stick with it due to its great coverage and excellent match ups.

As the tournament started we were informed about the new Championship Point structure and given news that Regional championships would take place twice during the season. For the record I’m very found of the championship point idea. So lets get into it!

SOUTH BEND, IN Battle Road

Round 1 vs “Pikkdogs” with Mew/Vileplume

I wasn’t to enthused about having to play Pikkdogs round 1, let alone at all. As you may have read in his tournament report, we had played the previous weej with the same deck lists, so i knew it would be a great game! Pikkdogs goes first and is able to “See Off” a Muk very early in the game while also getting a turn 2 Vileplume out. I didn’t have an excellent start. With Zekrom on my bench Pikkdogs opted to sludge drag up the Zekrom in order to slow me down. Unfortunately for him i was lucky enough to have 3 DCE in hand to retreat each turn and take early ko’s with Yanmega Prime. I only run 3 DCE and to have the all available so early was pretty amazing. We still had a decent game but i got in front in prizes pretty early and clinched the win.

1-0

Round 2 vs Tim Luce with Reshiplosion
Tim is a player i remember from last season, I know he is a good player so i was definitely on the ball in this game. He goes first with a pretty good start. I’m able to “See Off” Jumpluff turn 1, and have a Pokemon Collector which elts me set up. I just got ahead by Catchering up Cyndaquils for easy k.o.’s and “Mass Attacking” the Reshirams with Plus Powers in order to claim victory.

2-0

Round 3 vs Bohdan with Donphan/Dragons

I found myself playing against another friend this round. Ironically, this was the person i rode there with. Bohdan’s Deck was something a lot of people overlooked and i must say it is arguably one of the sturdiest decks in the format. His idea is to lead with Donphan Prime while accumulating damage on benched Zekrom/Reshiram so they can serve as huge HP support attackers and easily knock out the likes of Yanmega Prime and others. He goes 1st and judges my AMAZING hand. I draw pretty bad and was unable to setup early which is immensely important against his deck. To add insult to injury, my Cleffa was prized, so needless to say this game ended pretty quick. I lost a in a humiliating defeat LOL.

2-1

Round 4 vs Jeff Libersky with Don-champ with Reshiram

I go 1st FINALLY. We both open with lone Phanpy. I had the Donphan and fighting energy in my opening hand. He was able to get another Phanpy on the bench and avoid the donk. But, Me going first made the difference. I was able to Catcher up the Phanpy with energy and KO it with a Plus Power. He got a Donphan Prime out himself, but i had already set up the bench with Yanmegas. He drew extremely bad as well. So i win this one very easily.

3-1

Round 5 vs Wes Huener with Kingdra/Zoroark

I go first and knew that getting my Zekrom out early would greatly benefit me, especially if i handled Zoroark with Donphan early. Unfortunately for him i get the “GOD” start and am able to KO 5 or 6 Horsea pretty much back to back. He used Flower Shop Lady for the 5th and 6th Horsea in case you were wondering. He never got a Kingdra up and i took this game 6-0 prizes to place me 2nd overall. Time for top 4!

Top 4 consisted of Bohdan (Donphan/dragons) Myself, Dustin Zimmerman (Stage 1 rush) and Alex Leachman (Reshiphlosion)

Semi Finals vs Dustin Zimmerman With Stage 1 Mirror

Dustin Zimmerman is an extremely cool guy representing team hovercats. We chatted a bit on Facebook. Though we had never seen each other in person or played against each other.

In Game 1 he goes first and has what i would like to described as the “Ultimate God Start”. It was as though he chose his opening hand! He steam rolled through me and i scooped 3 prizes behind to go to game 2.

In game two i chose to go first but had a not so great start. I had to “eek”, and he was able to set up quickly again. The game was extremely close this time, but he pulled it out and advanced to the finals. I was relying on Bohdan to win so i could take the 3rd place victory cup, but, he went on to lose in sudden death of game 3 by whiffing on a fighting energy when he had game. So he gets 3rd, I take fourth and Alex Leachman wins the tournament. It was an amazing run and i had high hopes for day 2!

Intermission: Between days with the boys.

Bohdan and myself had planned to crash in his car over night but we asked Pikkdogs if we could just crash in the hotel and he gladly obliged. We followed them back to the room and just ordered out for pizzas and tested against each other. We all decided to make slight to drastic changes to our list. Mine being only the inclusion of Cheren which was inspired by Dustin Zimmerman. We joked and laughed until falling asleep relatively early around 11:00 pm. We woke up extra early like at 5 am and got breakfast from the hotel. We headed out to Walmart where i wasted 2 dollars in one of those grappling vending machines trying to get a toy Sneasal and Zubat. Joe and Rob (two other Michigna players) bought Bohdan a Poncho and we set off for Angola for Battle Road 2.

ANGOLA, IN Battle Road

We arrived to discover several fellow Team Warp Point members decided to come out. So i was pretty stoked. The venue was the Pokagon Park/Resort (couldn’t be a better place to have it this tournament). The place was beautiful. Myself and Frank visited the gift shop where we bought 2 plush snakes which were worn like scarfs throughout the entire day! We entered and right off the bat i knew this would be a tougher tournament because of the arrival of all excellent players and other familiar faces that are extremely good. So here we go.

Round 1 vs Derek Watson With Cinccino/Zoroark/Ninetales

This game almost made me lose my mind…. My opponent was just coming back into the game. However he was still a decent player. I was confident in this match up as well. He went 1st and was able to get a turn 2 Cinccino and Double Colorless Energy. I struggled to get a Phanpy turn 1, and finally did after playing through several cards. Here’s the ridiculous part of this game, My opponent didn’t own any Pokemon Catcher and was using reversal instead. He flipped 4-4 on reversals through out the game, 2 of which were for KO’s on my only Phanpys in the deck. I had got behind 3 prizes and was pretty steamed. However, I started to marched back with foul play KO’s on the Cinccino’s. He was stuck a few turns with Zoroark active as well not being able to foul play for my “Foul Play”. He could of “Foul Played” for “Nasty Plot” but i suppose it didn’t cross his mind. I was able to come back to win somehow in quite possibly the most nail biting match I’d ever had. wow…

1-o

Round 2 vs Kyle Brandon (TWP) with Kingdra/Yanmega/Magnezone

Kyle’s a good buddy and teammate so i wasn’t glad about the pairing. I had a great start and he drew dead the entire game… It was very unfortunate, at one point he had 4 Rare Candy, Kingdra and a water energy with no Horsea. I think the deciding play was his decision to allow me to choose what supporter he played turn 1 at random. I chose the left hand and got judge instead of copycat which ultimately was his downfall. He got Magnezone up eventually, but it was already far to late to make a comeback.

2-0

Round 3 vs Alex Leachman With Reshiphlosion

Alex had won the previous days tournament so i was very anxious to see how this turned out. I started first and got to “See Off” Jumpluff and used a Pokemon Collector to set up. I go early KO’s on Cyndaquils with “Mass Attack” and Yanmega Prime. He got 1 Reshiram set up the the whole game which was taken care of with Zoroark. The play that really disgusted him was he had 1 card in hand with an active reshiram that had 2 damage counters on it. I had 5 cards in hand with Yanmega active. I Junk Armed for a catcher and played Copycat to match him with 1 card in hand. With the luckiest top deck of the day i drew a DCE and was able to attach it to a benched Zoroark and then retreat, and blue flare for the KO. It was pretty sick and he couldn’t recover after that. I took the win and told him that i know i got very lucky with that situation and he was cool about it.

3-0

Round 4 vs James Hall with Speed Zekrom/Lanturn
As we sit down he tells me that he knows that I played his auto lose because he knew i had Donphan. I tried to encourage him that anything could happen but it turned brutal. I got Donphan early and just rolled through his deck. 6-0 in prizes. This one ended super fast.

4-0

Round 5 vs Dustin Zimmerman with Stage 1 Rush Mirror

After a Crushing defeat at Dustin’s hand the previous day i was determined to pay him back for it….. Long story short he goes first, I start with lone cleffa, he has the Zorua AND DCE and flips heads for the donk. I knew i was in top 4 for sure but was pretty mad about getting donked. To add insult to injury, he had donked Jack Iler the previous game in the exact same way. So i end the Swiss Rounds in 2nd place for the second day in a row. On to top cut.

Top cut consisted of myself and Dustin for two days in a row. Nikolas Campbell with Cinccino/Yanmega and Justin Young with Yanmega/Magnezone also joined us.

Semi Finals Vs Nikolas Campbell With Yanmega/Cinccino

Another long story short, I had a not so good start game 1. He goes first and had an amazing start, I had to “eek” and Cleffa stayed asleep for about 4 turns. He set up and we exchanged prizes, but his headstart was too big, so i lost. In game 2 I get an amazing start and chose to go first. He also sets up and we exchange prizes the entire game, but i just couldn’t get ahead in prizes and lose with 1 prize remaining.

I’m pretty bummed for taking 4th two days in a row and missing out on a victory cup(Poke ball), but I’m very proud for playing my heart out and top cutting both days!! I found myself relying on Dustin to win his game so i could place 3rd, but he ALSO whiffed for the win and lost in game 3 against Justin Young. Overall i had a blast and can’t wait to see how well I do in up coming events. I also want to give a shout out to my Broski and fellow team mate Evan Baker for winning a Battle Road that he attended elsewhere. I also commend my team for they’re hard work and effort both days. I don’t think i have ever typed this much haha but i hope you enjoyed this report and Good luck to everyone at upcoming events.

PEACE

Uncategorized

Deck Analysis: What a Rush! (Donphan Prime, Yanmega Prime, and Zoroark BW)

Pikkdogs August 24, 2011 4 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with a deck analysis for you guys. This deck has been called many things: Megazord, Stage 1 Rush, and others. I call my deck “what a rush” because it is an easier take off of Stage 1 Rush, and of course who doesn’t like the Legion of Doom? The deck was popularized at Nationals by Kyle “Pooka” Sucevich, a tournament at which he narrowly lost in the finals.

The three attackers featured in this deck make the deck versatile, and add a toolbox like quality to the deck. Here is a basic over view of the deck. Donphan Prime is a great primary attacker. It is tough to knock out, and can attack for just 1 energy. It also has a type advantage over Mangezone and Zekrom. Yanmega Prime is a versatile attacker that can snipe for 40 damage or attack for 70 damage. The best part of Yanmega Prime is that he can attack for free (if you and your opponent have the same hand size) because of his “Insight” Poke-Body. Yanmega is both disruptive and versaitle. Zoroark BW is a card that I don’t really like, but it does work because it is a great Reshiram/Zekrom counter. Zoroark is also fairly versatile and can do damage to most Pokemon, not including Mew Prime. The goal of this deck is to adapt to the deck that your opponent is playing, and be able to take advantage of your ………………. advantage.

This is the part where I usually talk about how to setup the deck. The problem is that this deck does not have a regular setup. It all depends on what you are playing against. If you are playing Zekrom, Mew, or a Mangezone based deck, I would lead with Donphan Prime. The early Donphan start will allow you to get type advantage on the main attacker, and will give you a good front-man on which to get some easy knock outs on basics with Pokemon Catcher. If you are playing a Reshiram based deck, I would instead try to setup a couple Zororarks because those will be your only answer to Reshiram. I would also setup a quick Yanmega Prime to take some easy prizes with Pokemon Catcher. Of course, no matter what Pokemon you lead with it is a good idea to get a couple Judges in to disrupt your opponent’s hand.

Matchups

Lets look at some of the matchups out there.

Zekrom– Favorable. Zekrom won’t be able to do much if you lead with Donphan and then finish it up with Zoroark. Of course things will change based on the list of the Zekrom play, but in theory this should be a favorable matchup.

Reshiphlosion or Reshiboar-Even to Slightly Unfavorable. Reshiphlosion is a really tough deck to beat, but I think that the Stage 1 Rush deck should be fairly even. The matchup should be decided early in the game based on how many knock outs this deck can do against the basics of the Reshiboar or Reshiphlosion player. Hopefully you should be able to cause some chaos early in the game, and it will be enough to get you an early lead that you can’t lose. The winner is decided based upon what the exact lists are.

Mew and Trainerlock–slightly favorable. Donphan is pretty tough for Mew to deal with. While Mew decks are very diverse, the list does not change the fact that Donphan is Mew’s worst nightmare. The mew player can do well by establishing an item lock, as long as they can get it done early. The matchup will probably be decided early, I don’t think that either deck will be able to come down from a large lead, unless the Mew deck is more lock based.

The List.

I know I say this almost every article, but I will provide a list that will not be perfect. It is just a list to start testing with. It is not a polished list that is ready for a tournament, but it will get you testing some new ideas.

Pokemon-15

2-2 Donphan Prime- You might wanna go to a 3-3 line depending on your metagame. If you expect Zekroms and Magnezones, make sure to go to 3-3. The Phanpy you run does not really matter, thought I think the HGSS might be the play, because of the extra 10 HP.
3-3 Yanmega Prime.
3-3 Zoroark- You can drop to 2-2 with 3 DCE’s if you don’t expect a lot of Reshirams.
1- Bellsprout-Your only hope if you do not have the game in hand by the time an item lock is put in place.

Trainers-35

4-Pokemon Collector
2-Professor Elms Training Method
4-Judge
4-Professor Juniper
4-Pokemon Communication
3-Junk Arm
3-Max Potion
2-Plus Power
1-Switch
1-Energy Retrieval
1-Flowershop Lady
1- Switch
4-Pokemon Catcher

Energy-10

Fighting-6-If you play 3-3 Donphan, I would play 7 fighting energies.
Double Colorless Energy-4

So there is my list. Of course don’t bash it too hard, I acknowledge that its not tournament ready I just wanted to provide a list so you can test this deck if you want to. I am not sure how good this deck is because it struggles a little against Reshiram. But it is one of the best contenders coming into the Battle Roads, so you better be familiar with this deck. Please share any thoughts you have about this list in the comment box.

So long and thanks for all the fish!

Deck Discussion

Jordan’s Rogue Way and a Worlds Decklist

Jordan August 14, 2011 14 Comments

Hey everybody, my name is Jordan Baker. I’m 22 years old, I live in Michigan, and I’m a founding member of Team Warp Point. I’ve been playing Pokemon for just about two years now and you’ve probably never heard of me. My biggest accomplishment is making it to the top 16 round two years in a row with stupid ridiculous decks. Stupid, funny, quirky, gimmicky decks are sort of my specialty. I don’t really like playing meta decks and I despised SP decks with a passion when they were in format. However, I won’t play a deck just because it’s rogue, I also want it to be good.

I’m going to give you a really quick recap of some of the decks I’ve played over the past two years and then discuss my current deck that I’ll be playing for Worlds this year.

My love affair with rogue decks started last year at Regional’s. Jumpluff had just come out and I decided that I wanted to play it. There were a lot of other people playing Jumpluff at regional’s, but most of these were JumpLux variants relying on Luxray G. Lv. X. My list played a heavy Sunflora line, and 3-2-3 Metagross LA, which has a built in Pokemon reversal in the form of a Poke-Power. For some reason the deck worked and I made it into the top cut, and past the round of 32 before being eliminated in the top 16 by JumpLux.

After regional’s we got Unleashed and my Nationals deck was born. I played Blastzel with 3-3 Floatzel and 3-3 Claydol. I started out 4-0 at Nationals before running into a Luxchomp list running Entei Raikou Legend. I had four Pokemon with 80 HP in play and my opponent took 4 prizes in one turn with Thunder Fall. I figured that ERL was going to be pretty rare and I went on with my day. Unfortunately my next opponent also played ERL and was able to pull of a quintuple KO. Needless to say, I wasn’t having a good day. I lost another game somewhere down the line and ended up dropping.

Probably my proudest rogue moment was playing Rampardos (PL) at this year’s regional championships. Nobody had a clue what Rampardos did or how to play against it. If I went second I was often hitting for 80 1^st turn for just one energy. It had a surprisingly good Luxchomp match-up and I ended up making top cut. I beat a DonChamp deck in top 32 before running into my work nightmare in the round of 16. Mesprit. Rampardos relied heavily on Uxie drops and Unown R’s to get rolling as well as my own Mesprit and Crobat drops. My opponent’s Mesprit drops destroyed that plan.

OK, enough talking about out of format rogue decks that nobody cares about, or ever cared about. Onto what everybody actually wants to see.

Below you will see a different take on Stage 1 Rush. This is a list that myself and my brother Evan Baker have been testing for the past month.

Decklist? Decklist.

Pokemon	T/S/S	Energy
4 Yanma 3 Yanmega Prime 3 Zorua 3 Zoroark 3 Chinchou 3 Lanturn Prime 1 Pachirisu Cl 1 Cleffa	4 PONT 3 Copycat 2 Juniper 4 Communication 4 Reversal 3 Junk Arm 1 Switch 1 Pokegear 1 SSU	8 Lightning 4 DCE

In our testing this deck has a favorable matchup against just about everything except Yanmega/Magnezone. which is probably 40/60 unless you can get a good start and consistent energy drops.

I know many of you are going to be looking at Lanturn Prime and wondering why it’s in there. In actuality, it’s an awesome card right now and definitely overlooked. For a DCE and 1 lightning Lanturn OHKO’s just about everything that is big right now. Donphan, Reshiram, Yanmega, Typhlosion, Kingdra, etc. That much versatility in a single Pokemon is pretty impressive. Sure it get’s OHKO’d by some of these Pokemon too, but only Donphan is quicker and a smart player with this list should easily be able to outplay the traditional Stage 1 rush list. Being able to hit for two different weaknesses is really nice.

Pachi is in here for the Magnezone matchup. A well-timed Pachi drop allows you to OHKO a Magnezone without your opponent ever seeing it coming. It is also useful in the rare occasion when you need to add a couple extra damage to Lanturn’s Powerful Spark attack. Super Scoop Up and Junk arm allow you to use this tactic multiple times if necessary.

The rest of the deck is pretty self-explanatory. It definitely takes some skill but the versatility of this deck allows you to outplay your opponents in a format that is basically luck based/attach and attack right now.

Who knows if this deck will still be viable when the new set comes out. It’s basically a Meta-counter right now so it really just depends on what the Meta is in a month’s time. Catcher will definitely help this deck. Everything retreats for cheap and reversal is already a huge aspect of the strategy.

Hopefully the deck works out at Worlds. I’ll be grinding in and Evan has an invite, so I guess we’ll see what happens.

This article is part of OneHitKO’s Guest Writer Week for August 2011. Please check out all the articles in the series, and please give the authors your feedback in the comment section below.

Michael’s article about upcoming Japanese cards.

Radu’s article about his Mew/Muk/Jumpluff/Vileplume deck and how it can be made better.

Pooka introduces Worlds 2011.

Alan’s article about how to run a Pokemon league.

Jay. H takes a look at past formats of the game.

Jordan’s article about running rogue decks and his worlds decklist.

That concludes our our first Guest Writer Week. Thanks to you authors and readers for making it a success! Hopefully we can do it again soon.

Stage 1 Rush

Battle Roads Report/Adventure of Aurasphere87.

Deck Analysis: What a Rush! (Donphan Prime, Yanmega Prime, and Zoroark BW)

Jordan’s Rogue Way and a Worlds Decklist

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