With Oklahoma in the books, I was primed to do better than a 5-2 bubble; I had learned from my past miscalculations. Texas States is a title I haven’t held since 2008, so I was eager to reclaim it.
My deck? Luxchomp yet again.
The Report
Round 1: VS Rob M./Papa Mash (Mega Judge)
I began with a lone Lucario GL to his 70 HP Yanma Supreme Victors. His start wasn’t too stellar, as he was forced go first, and was stuck just drawing and passing with it. Sensing a prime opportunity for the donk, I used my Pokemon Collector…Only to find that the two most crucial elements to it, Ambipom G and Unown Q, were prized. However, I still made the attempt at it by including Azelf in my Collector. My logic behind doing this was two-fold: it made the turn one win possible if I actually did hit one of the three Poke Turns, and even if I didn’t, I would have extremely invaluable knowledge against a Judge-heavy matchup.
Although my subsequent Set Up for four whiffed the FTKO by a card, I did get the opportunity to Call into a Luxray GL and Garchomp C, thereby assuring that I had Power Spray available. This hurt him significantly the next turn, as I was able to Spray his Unown Q, thus preventing him from retreating for Spiritomb to Darkness Grace a recently-fetched Magnemite into Magneton. From here, I Bright Looked up the Mite, killed it, and gained a huge edge (he ran only two Magnemite, with the other being prized). From here on out, he made attempts on my Pokemon’s lives with Yanmega Prime, but healing and weakness kept me safe. (1-0)
Round 2: VS (Drapion/Honchkrow SV)
I was initially worried to see yet another Spiritomb staring me down, but was relieved to see it coupled with a variety sans Vileplume. Right away, Chatot was working its magic; as it drew me a glorious nine card hand by the second turn of the game, and I never looked back from there. (2-0)
Round 3: VS Robert O. (Gyarados)
Going first, I started with Chatot and Unown Q to his Magikarp. With a fairly weak hand, I opted to Mimic for seven (he had mulliganed once against me before the game started). After I did this, he…Used Sea Spray. Given this nice piece of luck, I promptly met this with a Luxray GL and DCE, Biting for the game. (3-0)
Round 4: VS Daryl T. (Donphan Prime)
Daryl’s one of the strongest “Poke Dads” in the Dallas area, and father to Jacob, who’s one of the best Seniors in the country. Both of them have an enormous level of intuition for the game, and it’s always a pleasure to talk and play against them. Last year, however, Daryl’s Gengar/Spiritomb did a number on me, and so I was seeking a little bit of vengeance. Once again, I was stuck against yet another poor matchup; however, since I’ve tested extensively against a list just like this one, I knew just about every trick it could pull off.
As for the game itself, Daryl started two Phanpies, attached to the active, and passed. My Chatot start, while a pleasant sight, gave me no comfort: I had no supporters, and only one other Pokemon. So, benching the Crobat G in my hand, I quickly bit the Phanpy, and mimicked for seven (I mulliganed a couple times). The next turn, he did several things, not the least of which being a Mesprit Psychic Bind and Earthquake. The next turn, which a still struggling hand, I: benched a Garchomp C; Cyrus’s Conspiracy’d for an SP Radar, Psychic, and Twins; fetched another Garchomp, attached the energy and an Gain to a newly-active Crobat G, and Toxic Fanged him, hoping to whittle down his Donphan. Through all this, I had an Uxie sitting in my hand, but unfortunately couldn’t use it because of the Psychic Bind. Likewise, my hand was clogged full of cards I couldn’t readily drop down.
His third turn, Daryl doube Flash Bit my Chatot, attached an Expert Belt to Donphan, attached a third consecutive fighting, and used Heavy Impact for a knock-out, putting him two prizes ahead. At this point, I made perhaps one of the biggest gambles I’ve ever made : rather than bench my Uxie and Set Up for zero, I decided to risk him having the Seeker for the bench game, and fetched Aaron’s/Garchomp C LV.X with my Twins (I had a steady supply of DCE in my hand). The situation had really gotten that desperate, and I knew that if I did not draw well off of the Uxie one or two turns down the line, then he would steamroll me anyways.
My gamble paid off, but not because he didn’t have the card; rather, he did¸ but laid down a Bebe’s instead, and about mid-way through his search, gave me one of those classic “d’oh!” looks. After dropping at third prize to him, I was able to Aaron’s for the Psychic and Crobat, triple Flash Bite his active thanks to two Poke Turn, and snipe a benched guy to instantly tie him up (via DCE/Junk Arm for Energy Gain), and leave him with a one energy Donphan. My memory might be failing me with that precise exchange, but I feel this was more or less the “gist” of how things went down.
From here, he tried to find ways to whittle me down, but I was able to repeat the Crobat G Toxic Fang trick, and once again wear down the elephant. Although he did get another shot at a Heavy Impact KO on the Bat via a singular Flash Bite, KO’ing the second Donphan was much easier. Thanks in part to a couple good draws, and thanks in part to a bit of an energy drought on his part, I scored two consecutive KO’s on two separate bench targets, and won this nailbiter of a game. (4-0)
Round 5: VS Mark A. (Luxchomp/Mewtwo)
He goes first, and is stuck Claw Swiping a Luxray GL for 30. This is met with an immediate colorless attacker exchange via an Energy Gained Earthquake, and he is immediately put into the high pressure zone. At this point, he Collectors into a scary set of cards: GarchompC, Dragonite FB, and…Mewtwo MD. The second turn, I chose my KO to be Mewtw, which opened the window for his Draggy to score a KO on me, but not without an immediate Garchomp response thereafter. With his two major mirror counters sacked, and his third unable to Snap Attack, I promptly rushed him three times in four turns to win the game. (5-0)
Round 6: VS Alex F. (Vilegar/Mewtwo)
My stomach began to turn inside of itself, as I was welcomed to a warm and fuzzy Bronzong G start to his Spiritomb. Luckily, I was going second, had a DCE to attach to my Bronzong, and was able to engineer a Cyrus/Collector chain. This let me get three crucial cards: Q for Quick; Luxray GL, to set up an inevitable Bright Look; and Chatot MD, which instantly reset my hand. Seeing as how my hand was clogged with six Trainers, I was further reassured about my tweak from the weekend before.
Meanwhile, things aren’t going so hot for Alex, as he was stuck with a draw-pass on the Tomb turn one, and with somewhat of an energy drought. When he finally got Vileplume setup, I answered it with a Bright Look/Zen Blade KO (I had promoted it active a turn prior, which explains why I was able to do this legally). Note that the reason why I chose not to go for the Mewtwo was because I felt that, unlike my prior match, I could eventually beat the Mewtwo LV.X with Bright Look/Seeker. Plus, if I let this opportunity slip past me, he likely would’ve pummeled me on the virtue of the Vilegar matchup anyways.
Either way, this held up, as I was able to KO the regular Mewtwo the next turn by retreating the Uxie LV.X for a second regular Luxray GL, Poke Turning the benched one, Bright Looking for Mewtwo, Junk Arm/Poke Turning my new Luxray GL LV.X back into the Uxie, and then Zen Blade for a KO. Unfortunately, he had a Rescue attached, so I had to get through it yet again. Eying my ten card hand, Alex was quick to Poltergeist me, but was distraught to find only one Supporter: my Seeker, which I now felt comfortable revealing. Prior to this, he attached yet another Rescue Energy to the revived Mewtwo, but I once again responded with a retreat/Bright Look/Poke Turn/Zen Blade, allowing my Uxie to finally die. For the third time, I killed his Mewtwo – this go-around with a Flash Bite/Dragon Rush, and with no hard counter or Vileplume left on the board, the game quickly concluded in my favor. (6-0)
While his setup may have been somewhat poor at the beginning, Alex is one of those great players who can go a good game of “I-know-that-you-know-that-I-know,” and keep you on edge the whole time.
Round 7: VS Miguel E. (Luxchomp/Honchkrow)
After a couple mulligans on my part, I was disappointed to see him going first with a Smeargle.
Basically this whole game was just a very tight duel of colorless attackers. Unfortunately, his stellar start over my less-than-stellar one gave him a couple extra windows of opportunity to not miss beats, and so he always had the response to whatever I did. Even the strength of Junk Arm wasn’t enough to salvage this match. (6-1)
Round 8: VS Michael S. (Jumpluff)
After a draw-and-pass sequence on his part, I knocked out his lone Unown Q on my first turn of the game with Claw Swipe. (7-1)
Yeah, it may not be glorious, but I’ll take the fortune of having two quick wins in a long, eight-round event like this. It would’ve been nice to see what his variant was like, though, as I’m always curious about how to revive the Pluffers.
After some time, I found out that Billy edged past 2006 Masters Nats winner Martin M. in a do-or-die eighth round, landing him a 6-2 record to join me in top cut. After a while, standings were posted, and we had the bracket look like this…
Seeing as how most of our NCAA brackets are busted by now, I’m not going to bore you guys with bracketology. However, I could tell almost immediately that whoever from my side of the bracket emerged victorious would be stuck playing against 16th Seed Rudy’s Dialgachomp. Since Dana has historically had poor luck against Vilegar, I had him pegged to not take out Shep, which would thus trigger a hypothetical scenario where Rudy plays against nothing but Vilegar until top two. While my prediction may have been a bit off (I had Billy losing in T8 and myself losing in T16), Rudy met my expectations.
This was a good sign for us on the other side of things, however, seeing as how Luxchomp has a decent matchup against Dialgachomp.
Oh well…Onto the cut!
Top 16: VS Jarvis L. (Jumpluff/Yanmega Prime/Magnezone Prime)
Game One – Six prizes in four turns…Ouch! I was shocked at how fast the game went, but it is certainly testament to how quickly Luxchomp can dismantle something if it just doesn’t get out, as well as testament to how brutally it can score KOs on low HP Pokemon.
Game Two – I started Garchomp, coupled with a benched Luxray. He made a fairly quick jump on me thanks to a turn two Yanmega Prime, as well as a somewhat nasty Judge to disrupt my setup. Luckily, though, he Judged me into my one Twins, so recovery after the initial prize draw on his part was a piece of cake. (Win, 8-1)
All in all, Jarvis was really cool throughout this fit of bad luck; he didn’t see a Jumpluff hit the board in either game, and as a former Jumpluff player myself, I know how frustrating that can be. Furthermore, I’d like to congratulate him for a very interesting Pluff variant
Top 8: VS Paul W. III (Luxchomp/Honchkrow)
Game one –He had a very bad hand, and so after three KO’s, scooped immediately.
Game two – This situation was more or less the reverse for me, the core difference being that my hand was somewhat more playable than his in game one (access to Garchomp C LV.X and Chatot). Regrettably, though, I couldn’t possibly go for the snipe, or else I would have walked into a probable benching two turns later. Therefore, I went for the massive Chatot Mimic…Which grabbed me nothing. My setup collapsed from there, and all hopes I had were dashed by his timely Spray on my Azelf, which – had it gone through – would’ve given me access to crucial mirror counters.
Game three – Early on, I was placed in the undesirable predicament of choosing between risking an Ambipom G response to my unprotected Garchomp C LV.X Dragon Rush; or to simply refrain from promoting the Garchomp, and permanently fall back on the Garchomp exchange without any Cyrus or Twins to bail me out (this time I had Collector, but nothing else). Since it was a could-win versus no-win scenario at play, I went with the former, and sure enough, he had the Ambipom response without having to fetch the pieces with Cyrus (Q’s Quick, the Ambipom itself, theEnergy Gain, and the Energy). My setup promptly collapsed, and due to him hitting critical Power Sprays at each juncture, this became another one of those mirror matches where one player’s board just overwhelms the other. (Loss, 8-2)
Aftermath
I felt somewhat upset with myself after this top eight loss; I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it seems like I could’ve played one of those last two games a shade better. Regardless, Paul is a great player, a great sportsman, and someone who was due for a big win like this. Plus, he’s one of the few players you can genuinely joke around with in a match – a rare trait.
He would later go on to fulfill my prediction, and beat Rudy in the finals (I originally had Miguel beating Rudy due to his swiss win over me, but they were running the same list more or less). As previously mentioned, my brother went on to earn a medal from this event, getting 4th in a competitive field of worlds qualifiers and nationals winners. However, we were really angling for the dual Kettler finals, and are thus headed back to the drawing board for Regionals.