Hey readers! My name is Kiernan Wagner, and I’m back again today with my fourth article written for this wonderful website. After my return from Dallas just four days prior to writing this. I was looking forward to taking a short break from Pokemon, at least for my finals week – but alas, I just can’t stay away from this game for more than a couple days. For as much as I talk about my hatred toward the current state of the game and the repugnance of the format (citing friends as the reason I still played), I do slowly find myself become enthralled with the game all over again.
My tournament experience in Dallas was far from amazing. I went 2-3-2 drop with SammyBox, which was a risky choice that I thought had the potential to pay off in a great way. I started off at 2-0-0, ultimately hitting five bad rounds immediately afterward that sealed my fate. My day went as follows:
- Round One: M Gardevoir-WW
- Round Two: M Mewtwo/Garbodor-WW
- Round Three: Greninja-LL
- Round Four: Volcanion-WLT
- Round Five: Yveltal/Garbodor-WLT
- Round Six: Greninja-LWL
- Round Seven: Yveltal w/ 3 Team Flare Grunt-LL
DROP
Despite the fact that I finished poorly, I do believe that the only round that I wasn’t favored in was the Yveltal with three Team Flare Grunt, which caused me to miss critical Flash Rays with Jolteon-EX.
Against the first Greninja I played, I used two Supporters over both games, which explains the quick loss, and against the other, I flipped three-for-twelve with Beedrill-EX.
Volcanion is a matchup that we were a bit apprehensive to play against, but with Salamence-EX and two Bunnelby, the matchup becomes a lot more workable. The matchup does, however, become significantly harder when you prize both Bunnelby and Lysandre, as I did in Game 2 of Round Four. Salamence allowed me to have a strong shot at winning even in that instance, but unfortunately, I just couldn’t pull the pieces together in a timely enough manner to win Game 2. It was a weird circumstance in which I had a strong chance at winning the entire time, but it just didn’t work out for me, leaving little time to complete Game 3.
I have little explanation regarding my tie versus Yveltal/Garbodor, other than that it’s Yveltal, and that is what Yveltal does.
Although the tournament didn’t necessarily work out for me, I can’t honestly say that I regret my deck choice. I think if I had just gotten a bit more lucky that I could have done very well. At the very least, I got to play my favorite deck in Standard, which is always a plus. For reference, here is the list that Sam Hough and I dreamed up, which Tony Jimenez took to Top 64:
| Pokémon – 22 | Trainers – 28 | Energy – 10 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Oddish AOR | 4 | Professor Sycamore | 4 | Ultra Ball | 4 | Double Colorless | ||
| 3 | Gloom AOR | 4 | N | 3 | Trainers’ Mail | 4 | Rainbow | ||
| 3 | Vileplume AOR | 2 | Lysandre | 3 | Float Stone | 2 | Lightning | ||
| 2 | Jolteon EX | 2 | Ninja Boy | 2 | Level Ball | ||||
| 1 | Glaceon EX | ||||||||
| 3 | Shaymin EX ROS | ||||||||
| 2 | Bunnelby PRC | 4 | Forest of Giant Plants | ||||||
| 1 | Salamence EX | ||||||||
| 1 | Magearna EX | ||||||||
| 1 | Beedrill EX | ||||||||
| 1 | Manaphy EX | ||||||||
| 1 | Jirachi PR67 | ||||||||
This list took a far more streamlined approach than the one from Orlando, with the focus on hitting the second turn Flash Ray as much as possible. In addition to this, the two Bunnelby aimed to punish any deck that plays down a Pokemon with three retreat, by using a Lysandre on it, and to begin an onslaught of Burrows to win by deck-out, while occasionally utilizing Rototiller to recur any resources that may have been expended to get the Turn 1 Vileplume.
I can confidently say that this particular list boasts favorable matchups versus Yveltal, Volcanion, and Mega Gardevoir, along with very workable matchups versus Greninja and Mega Mewtwo, which were the major players of the weekend, going by my list above. For those unaware, my close friend Xander Pero took down the event with a unique and powerful Mega Gardevoir list. Despite the fact that we were all trying to convince him to not play the deck, citing it as a bad play, in retrospect, it makes a lot of sense that he did well. He played three Fairy Drop and more consistency cards which gave him the tools that he needed to beat Yveltal/Garbodor. Here is the list that he played:
| Pokémon – 16 | Trainers – 37 | Energy – 7 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Gardevoir EX STS | 3 | Professor Sycamore | 4 | Ultra Ball | 7 | Fairy | ||
| 3 | M Gardevoir EX STS | 2 | N | 4 | VS Seeker | ||||
| 4 | Shaymin EX ROS | 2 | Lysandre | 4 | Gardevoir Spirit Link | ||||
| 2 | Hoopa EX | 1 | Hex Maniac | 3 | Fairy Drop | ||||
| 2 | Dragonite EX | 1 | Brock’s Grit | 3 | Trainers’ Mail | ||||
| 1 | Rattata EVO | 3 | Mega Turbo | ||||||
| 1 | Hawlucha STS | 2 | Escape Rope | ||||||
| 1 | Switch | ||||||||
| 1 | Super Rod | ||||||||
| 3 | Sky Field | ||||||||
The only “big deck” that I can convincingly say that I would be uncomfortable with playing against with this deck is Greninja, due to the fact that once the Greninja player establishes two Greninja BREAK and begins a chain of Shadow Stitching, the matchup begins to spiral out of control. Xander found the matchup to be a lot closer, but I’m not quite sure I agree with him. However, he won and I didn’t, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
You must have a Stage 2 Membership or greater to see the rest of this post. If you don't have a Stage 2 account, you can Sign Up for one here.