Social Saturdays 4: This Season is Weird

Introduction

In today’s edition of Social Saturday, we’re going to talk a little bit about the drastic changes that have occurred between the 2016 and 2017 season of Play! Pokémon, the official tournament organizers of the Pokémon Trading Card Game.  Although there are lots of positive aspects of the new season, there is plenty of room for improvement. We’ll go over both sides, and ultimately offer some suggestions for how to improve organized play not only for next season, but for years to come.

Background

Before we get into the changes themselves, let’s set the stage first, because it’s important you know the history to understand the present…

I’m a lawyer, and rarely do I get to comment on how the law directly impacts my hobbies. However, thanks to a little case called Yale v. Wizards of the Coast (link < a href="http://icv2.com/articles/news/view/34293/are-magic-judges-employees">here, I can. For those who don’t know, Wizards of the Coast is the company that owns and produces Magic: The Gathering, and also once distributed Pokémon cards in markets outside of Japan. It’s also the leader in all aspects of not only card game mechanics and testing, but event organization. One key aspect of the way nearly all card tournaments have been organized is the volunteering judges and staff do at events. Most of the time this involves compensation in money or booster packs; other times it involves jack-squat.

The catch? Well, unless Pokémon decides to turn organized play into a non-profit, nothing about Play! Pokémon or tournaments is charity, turning the idea of “volunteer” judges in on its head.

So if these judges getting cash or packs aren’t volunteers, then what are they?

According to some, they’re employees.

I can think of arguments going both ways. On one hand, these people are paid money, have the equivalent of company handbooks they abide by, and more; on the other hand, tournament judges can just as easily be argued as being beneficiaries of the tournament as the players. While this is by no means a settled question, the Yale case could send shockwaves across all card games, including Pokémon. If judges are considered “employees,” then that means class members could potentially get back pay, unpaid overtime, and the company itself could be hit with a fine.

Where We are Now

Now, I’m not an attorney for Pokémon, but between my professional background in law and personal background in Pokémon, I can bet that the ultra-cautious, uber-smart lawyers associated with Play! Pokémon wanted to preempt as many legal risks as possible. That means immediate restructuring to the volunteer system of organized play, who is responsible for whom…and who Pokémon doesn’t want to touch with a ten-foot pole.

That’s my speculation, anyways. This might only be part of the equation, or none of the equation. At any rate, the system has changed, and there are potentially very good reasons for it having been changed!

This season, we’ve seen the following things done differently:

* City, State, and National Championships removed;

** League Cups, International Championships, and “Special Events” as a formal category;

** A drastic increase in Regional Championship prize payouts;

** More routine prizes for top-ranked players in each of the major ranking zones (North America, Latin America, Europe, Oceania)

What’s Good?

First and foremost, the prizes at Regionals are insane. It hasn’t been too long since the Nationals prize pool was once the size of the current Regionals payout, boxes and money and all! Better still, the prizes go pretty deep at huge-attendance events: For finishing in the top 64 of a Regional with over 500 attendees, you can get $250 – WOW!

Second, the season is now year-‘round. That means you could play Pokémon every single weekend, earn invites to play in both TCG and video game Worlds, and travel all over the World. Alternatively, since have lots of chances to run hot and set yourself up for an invite, you could do what I did and just choose a point to start playing major events.

What’s Not Good?

First, and more heavily related to our discussion of the “Pokémon-doesn’t-want-to-touch-employees-with-a-ten-foot-pole” point: Because League Cups are given to card shops to run as opposed to tournament organizers, the quality is extremely inconsistent. Out of the three I’ve attended this season, their structure, prize payout, and even basic things like time limits and format were presented in radically different ways. So while you can go to more League Cups in a year, the quality of the events is much, much worse at large.

The second problem is one that’s not new to any of us who have played Pokémon for a while, but communication is shaky. Despite the Championship Point minimum to qualify for Worlds being much higher this season, no League Cups were held at all in the first quarter of the season. Additionally, many of the cash payouts were not solidified until at least one Regional was already held, and those prizes were heavily delayed as a result.

Finally, there appear to be several peculiarities in the prizing structure, mostly related to the International Championships. Regionals need to meet a much larger attendance threshold to scale to – at most – half the prize pool of an International Championship. Perhaps Pokémon didn’t anticipate how much growth Regionals would experience, but these events at bare minimum rival the International Championships in competitiveness, and at most dwarf them in size and scope.

What Could be Changed?

So Pokémon’s a more decentralized, more year-‘round, and bigger-dollar game than ever before. Those are all good things, and should not be ignored despite my criticisms. But my criticisms are made with the goal of being constructive, so here are some ideas for ways to improve Organized Play for next season:

Quality Assurance for League Cups. Allow some opportunities for League Cups to be run at locations other than card shops, have rigid standards of review for card shops’ handling of League Cups, or both. Letting organizers pick locations other than card shops at least once a year allows for a few more options and a lot more breathing room, while at the same time keeping the card shop owners from monopolizing the power. As for said card shop owners, Play! Pokémon should treat any mismanagement of tournaments on their part very strictly. Contrary to popular belief, bad tournaments are worse than no tournaments at all, because bad tournament experiences can result in destroying someone’s interest in the game.

When Play! Pokémon is being non-responsive, send support tickets. Part of the Pokémon customer service support system involves “support tickets,” which alert Pokémon of issues:

1) Go to Pokemon.com
2) Scroll down to “Customer Service”
3) Select “Ask a Question”
4) Log into your Trainer Club Account
5) Click “Continue”
6) Click “Ask a Question” (kind of silly to have to click “Ask a Question” twice)
7) Select your appropriate categories and fire away!

Play! Pokémon hears legitimate and frivolous complaints from people all the time, from “Where’s my stipend?” to “I don’t like Pikachu, I think he’s ugly and stupid and for babies.” If you’ve ever worked a job in customer service, you should be aware of the type of garbage these people have to put up with. But if many reasonable, similar complaints about the same thing are flooding in, any customer service worth its salt needs to take notice!

–Make prize scaling more uniform and balanced. This is by far the hardest issue and most up for debate, but it’s confusing and a little strange why International Championships enjoy their biggest prize payout with just a couple hundred people, whereas a Regional has to get up to 500 for even half the same. That’s why I think the increased prize kickers should be uniform between the big events; that is, while let International Championships continue to pay out more, let the next level of Regionals prizes trigger at the exact same point those prizes would for Internationals. Additionally, since there’s a large chance that North American Internationals will be far larger than any other, allow for an increased prize threshold at the 1,000+ attendee range.

Granted, we could still see that since each event allows for increased prize support, but it would be very awkward if the winner of the 1,500 person behemoth that is North American internationals receives the exact same prize payout as the winner of the 250 person event recently held in Melbourne, Australia!

Conclusion

These aren't necessarily bad times we live in for the game, but there are issues with the way tournaments are organized that at least need to be identified, criticized, and debated. Although both the legal and marketing teams supporting Play!
Pokémon are very risk-averse and careful in the way they operate, they're also among the best when it comes to customer service. So if you have any issues with the way tournaments have operated this season, let them know, because they will listen!!!


(Other companies aren't as nice, however.)

City Championship Tournament Reflections (Part 7/7)

As promised from my last entry, I will conclude the City Championship report arc with a few seemingly miscellaneous, yet totally-relevant issues…

#1: Why Did I Drop Out of My Last City Championship?

    Reason #1: Ratings. For those who aren’t aware, one of the major battlegrounds to determine World Championship invites is the ELO ratings and rankings system. Essentially, the premise behind it is that if you win games, then your rating goes up; if you lose games, your rating goes down. The catch, however, is that the higher your rating gets, the harder it is to earn points: you are given less for playing low-rated players. While this system makes a great deal of sense in a game of pure skill, it is imperfect in a game such as Pokemon, where luck can and will be a huge factor. Many, such as Ian F. (“NoPoke”), have proposed a ‘Bayesian luck modifier’ to accommodate this luck variance, which has recently picked up some steam in the community.

    However, the true issue with ELO is not its direction application to a luck-based game; instead, it’s due to its consequences. Since it’s possible to lose very big points even when making top cut, players have been known to “drop” from events, either upon swiss’s conclusion, or even earlier. My drop, motivated by ratings, was based for all of the following sub-reasons…

*High-risk/low gain. Had I taken losses in the top eight or even top four, my gains on the day would have completely evaporated. This was not the case at any prior event I had played, where my rating had not achieved a high enough status to warrant such drops.

* The round one bye watered down my rating gain relative to my record on the day. Even at “5-1,” the reality was that all I had were five rated matches, which was a big reason why the “high-risk” point became an issue.

*I had to stop the bleeding. I felt throughout much of the day that my playing was not as sharp as it should have been, and – given the shaky side effects I had from my Ambien the night before – I was certain that I’d have trouble with a top cut. Furthermore, I’ve been constantly complaining about the issues in my list, which I felt would have ultimately caught up with me in top four or top two.

    Reason #2: I didn’t want to play anymore for that day. For many of us competitive players, it’s easy to get too wrapped up into things, but at the end of the day, you play the game for fun, and you don’t play it when you don’t see prospect of fun. I simply wasn’t thrilled with the idea of playing for what could’ve been at least three more hours, having to switch venues away from the library it was being held at, fighting the rat race for a title I definitely didn’t need, and – most importantly – losing the rest of my afternoon.
  

 Also, with Cameron and Alex F. in the top cut, I was eager to maybe see one of them take the title after our rivalries this season. While that didn’t happen, I would have been an immediate barrier to Alex’s shots of pulling off the win, as I was to be paired with him in top eight had I not dropped.

    Would it have been cool to pull off a fifth win in a row? Yes. Was it possible to do it? Most certainly, especially in hindsight…But did it really matter?

No, not really. Say what you will, but I think that between this and the ratings, I had some rock-solid reasons to not play anymore. These two, in addition to emergencies, constitute the main reasons why people ever really drop from events, or why they don’t attend them at all.
With just five tournaments, I stand at an extremely comfortable 1777 ELO. Unfortunately, Play! Pokemon’s rankings are unavailable, but by conservative estimates, that puts me in the top thirty-ranked North American players. Granted, that isn’t enough by itself to achieve a Worlds invite, but all it takes at this point is a solid showing at States, Regionals, Nationals, or a combination of the three.

#2: What was the Metagame like?

As I said in my previous post, I was able to find out the main contents of 34 of 37 decks from the event. They were:
Luxchomp x5
Vilegar x4
Gyarados x3
Tyranitar Prime x3
“Speed Gengar” x2
Scizor x2
Steelix x2
Donphan x2
Magnezone x2
Dialgachomp
Blazechomp
Charizard
Feraligatr/Kyogre
Vespiquen/Shaymin
Shuppet donk
Mamoswine
“Random dark deck”
“Random water deck”
 (Unaccounted for x3)


Think the metagame for this event looks really spread out? So do I.

Between the “big four” (Luxchomp, Dialgachomp, Vilegar, Gyarados), we saw somewhat-reasonable representation. However, one could easily make the claim that these four decks were underrepresented: considering that Dialgachomp was the darling of last week’s Cities all over the country, and considering that Luxchomp is the winningest deck of the whole season, it’s somewhat wild that they were only played in quantities of one and five, respectively. Most shocking to me this whole season is how unpopular the former is in the Dallas area…In a field of fifty (Plano), only two people used it, and in a field of forty (Dallas), only I did! But yeah, take it however you will that only a third of the field was the big four: do you think this was a good thing, or a bad thing?

Regarding the other duplicate decks, we see some surprises. The “speed Gengars” were basically more classic versions of Gengar, featuring Crobat G, Poke Turn, Mewtwos, and Nidoqueen to go for aggressive kills. Also represented were two Scizor decks, two Steelix decks (one of which directly inspired by the marathon), and…Three Tyranitar? I didn’t see that coming at all, but when you think about it, it makes some sense if players are wanting to go “rogue,” yet still want an easy Vilegar game. Assuming you can get your SP matchup down, this thing can be pretty nice to use. Last of all, we had some surprise amounts of Donphan and Magnezone, which I don’t feel I can really explain. Given all of the Gengar, the one Dialgachomp, the Steelix, the Scizor, and even some of those rogue decks I listed at the bottom, Donphan just didn’t seem like a good play at all.

Last of all, we have some of the zany rogue decks. I don’t think I need to explain the “random” decks too much – they’re just prolific among new players, are a step above theme decks, and barring the best events, always going to show up in some quantity. The Blazechomp seemed like it had certain advantages in a metagame like this, but didn’t look like too great of a choice compared to Luxchomp, Dialgachomp, or even some Sableye variant. Charizard, Vespiqueen, Shuppet donk, and Mamoswine…Have their own issues.

But that Kyogre deck? That was my brother, who deliberately wanted to use something rogue for this event. While it didn’t go so well for him, sometimes you do things not because it’s the optimal move; sometimes you do them because they’ll maximize your interest in the game. And while I did my best to discourage him from playing it, sometimes you just have to cede when a man’s just trying to have fun with his critters. That's what the game is about, after all.


Here were the top nine decks in the field, both before and after my drop…First, the “after” seeding:

Top Eight:

1st Seed: Cameron H. (Luxchomp/ERL) VS 8th: Chris (Blazechomp)
4th:  Ron (Vilegar) VS 5th: Michael (Tyranitar)
2nd Seed: Robert O. (Gyarados) VS 7th: Matt S. (Vilegar)
3rd: Desmond E. (Luxchomp) VS 6th: Alex F. (Steelix)

Top Four:

1st Seed: Cameron H. (Luxchomp/ERL) VS 5th Seed: Michael (Tyranitar)
2nd Seed: Robert O. (Gyarados) VS 3rd Seed: Desmond E. (Luxchomp)

Finals:

5th Michael (Tyranitar) VS 3rd Desmond (Luxchomp)

Some commentary:

*I’m obviously not surprised at all about Cameron and Alex doing well: they’ve succeeded all season, so it doesn’t surprise me a bit that their decks – no matter what they’d play – would make it into cut.

*Thanks to finally choosing a deck that works for him, Robert has gone from a low success season to two consecutive top cuts. By relinquishing rogue, and instead playing a very solid Gyarados list (feat. Black Belt and other slick plays), he was actually able to survive against his rough Vilegar matchup.

*While I predicted Luxchomp taking the event after I left, I was surprised to see that Desmond’s did instead of Cameron’s. What’s in his list, and what carried him to the end? That I can’t tell you: I haven’t  played against him yet this season.

*With better bracket placement, I feel like Ron’s 2-1 Mewtwo would have carried him to some very easy wins against any of the SP that cut. Could he have won the whole thing? Perhaps, but all I know is that getting Tyranitar Prime in the first round of cut is about the worst thing that could have happened to him.

*Perhaps the biggest thing that surprised me was Michael’s rebound after losing to me. If I recall correctly, he took a loss right after that game, and then won every game until the finals of the whole tournament…And with a Tyranitar Prime deck? WOW!

*Matt Shepherd, who’s been trying to get back into the game lately, saw his first top cot since he started back up at Tom Bean. His list is good, and he’s even taken down a well-known name in the process (Martin), but one thing or another has led him to just not quite getting there. Today changed things for him, though.


*And last up is Chris, whose unorthodox Blazechomp build would have bubbled had I not dropped. Perhaps due to his Looker’s and colorless techs, he was able to bring Cameron to a third game, but ultimately, he couldn’t get past Cam.


The ultimate upset for this event was Cameron losing to the Tyranitar, which ought to get steamrolled by Luxchomp in most games. However, Michael’s high draw and search counts helped him persevere and destroy.

Now, my decision to drop severely screwed up the natural order of things. Had I been a 4-2 with high resistance, it wouldn’t have been quite as bad…But because I was second seed, it shifted the whole bracket (sans Cameron) up a spot, thus radically changing the matchups. Here’s what would have been had I not dropped:

Universe B


1st Seed: Cameron H. (Luxchomp/ERL) VS 8th: Matt S. (Vilegar)

4th: Desmond E. (Luxchomp) VS 5th: Ron (Vilegar)

2nd Seed: John K. (Dialgachomp) VS 7th: Alex F. (Steelix)

3rd: Robert O. (Gyarados) VS 6th Michael (Tyranitar)


Alex and I both knew that I had the edge in our would-be matchup…But that definitely didn’t mean that I had a decisive edge for the next cut round after that. My prediction is that Robert would have beaten me in top four…Which, given his past tournaments, would have meant a rating nosebleed. From there, it would have been a toss-up; however, I get the vibe that Vilegar would have won the whole event, given the fact that it has several  natural advantages versus Gyarados (sans time), as well as the 2-1 Mewtwo factor. If Desmond did not run a counter, then I feel this is definitely what would have happened, and so – despite the time disadvantage Vilegar is constantly put at – he would have persevered for a legitimate win in the event.

#3: Ultimately, What Went Right (and Wrong) for Cities?

As previously stated, I went a 31-4 record: an absurd count to go by any means, and a number that could even defy variance.
So first, I’ll start with some of the things that went well:

*I used reliable decks. I had the urge to use some pretty far-out decks, but in the end, I “cratered,” going back to SP every time. At the moment, I’m not comfortable with how any other deck plays out, and so feel almost obliged to stick with SP. This opinion may very well change come States, what with the arrival of Lost World and all, but for this period of the season…Consistency was the way to go, and SP is what brought it.

*I made a successful deck switch halfway through cities in order to account for the changing metagame. While the end result of my two lists were far from anything that could be considered “perfect,” my  life became so much easier when it was Dialga doing the dirty work for some matchups in place of Luxray GL and Garchomp C.

*Simply put, I got lucky. Every tournament I used Luxchomp, I – without fail – had at least one game every event where I would go  up against the grass deck of the week, which tends to have a very, very rough game against Luxchomp (my opponent in Tom Bean admitted this quite openly). And even if my Dialga switch was a good metagame choice, the fact that I was pairing against Yanmega and Tyranitar so much prove just how much of a lucksack I can be. Some of my play-testing friends would be very quick to decry these matchups as “soft,” and they may be right on the mark.

*I definitely made some good plays across these five tournaments, and knew my SP mirror match very well by this point. Regardless of where you're playing, if you don't know your SP matchup, then you're going to sink fast.


However, I can’t possibly keep patting myself on the back…After all, I did lose four games, and let three potential wins slip away due to convincing myself to drop. Let’s consider where I could have improved upon:

*Regarding my swiss loss at College Station, TX, with Luxchomp (read Part 2): while Double Power Spray is a terrible situation to get stuck against, I admittedly could have made one or two tweaks to my list at this event that would have made it better. The extra Crobat G was entirely unnecessary, and could have easily been  a 4th Call Energy, a 3rd Power Spray, or something better that would have advanced my mirror hopes.

(Moral of the story: every space is crucial, so make them all count.)

*Regarding my swiss loss at Tom Bean…There’s nothing reasonable I could have done for that at all. When you run four Call Energy and fifteen basics, it is beyond absurd to get first-turned by an opposing Garchomp C.
(Moral of the story: don’t get worked up – you’re bound to lose some games for less-than-desirable reasons that are largely out of your control.)

 *Regarding my swiss loss at Plano, I should have been on plans within plans within plans in order to recover that match. (specifically, one of my decisions for Aaron’s Collection was very sub-par). Had I done that, I probably would have won even in spite of the horrid hand. A slightly different deck tweak would have been sufficient, as well.

(Moral of the story: even seemingly “minor” misplays can make a world’s difference. If you want to improve, then you need to consider where all you went wrong, and how much you can improve it. The tighter your playing is, the further you’ll advance/ There are MANY players I know who are too proud to admit that they make mistakes…And because they’re too proud to admit it, they’ll never get what they want done in this game. So please, don’t be this player, and start being open about your mistakes to people instead of saying “oh, I got unlucky.”)

*For the Dallas tournament, I should have just run Luxchomp with 1-1 Dialga…Seriously, that’s all I needed to do in order to win this event. While some fringe matchups (Donphan) would have become worse for me, it would have been at the gain of greater consistency, a probable win against Cameron H., and wins in every match of the top cut. I felt that good about Luxchomp in hindsight, but it was still valuable insight to see what a different take on Dialga could do.

(Moral of the story: if your purpose is to win, then play the deck that you know gives you the best shot at it; if you want to learn something new or have fun, then feel free to get outside of your comfort zone, even if it’s just a little – i.e., switching SP variants.)

 So while I did some things right, I also did some things wrong, too – it's natural, and it's human. However, in spite of this, at least one loss was outside of my control for the most part, so I was deliberately leading my more careful readers on when I suggested I could have turned 31-4 into a 38-0…Sorry! 

 

In Conclusion…

  I’d like to thank everyone for reading this entry, and I’d ESPECIALLY like to thank everyone who read this entire tournament report arc from the beginning. Next time, I intend to shift gears into less dense, more concise discussions, so If you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear about them on the boards. We have a busy month ahead of us…

‘Til next time,

-HeyTrainer

Dialgachomp Deck Examination City Championship Tournament Reports (Part 6/7)

Event Date: 01/08/2011

Location: Dallas, TX​

    Given how much luck it took to win the Plano tournament, and given how unhappy I was with the list, I knew that it was time to mix things up a bit. While the end product had many issues of its own to contend with, it was arguably more playable in several ways.

     While conversing with Chad H. (“Scizor”), he introduced to me a very unusual list for Dialgachomp, featuring five stadiums, no Call Energy, and only eight draw/search Supporter cards. I don’t know how seriously he and Worlds runner-up Mike Pram (“SHPanda) were taking this list due to its appalling prima facie – “at first glance” – consistency, but I decided to incorporate some of the more interesting elements into my own build.

Pokemon (19):

2 Dialga G
1 Dialga G LV.X
2 Uxie LA
1 Uxie LV.X
3 Garchomp C
1 Garchomp C LV.X
1 Toxicroak G Promo
1 Dragonite FB
1 Ambipom G
1 Unown Q
1 Crobat G
1 Bronzong G
1 Azelf LA
1 Skuntank G
1 Lucario GL

Trainers/Stadiums/Supporters (29):

4 Cyrus’s Conspiracy
4 Pokemon Collector
4 Poke Turn
3 Energy Gain
2 SP Radar
2 Bebe’s Search
2 Snowpoint Temple
1 Miasma Valley
1 Aaron's
1 Premier Ball
1 Pokemon Communication
1 Energy exchanger
1 Junk arm
1 Twins
1 Expert Belt


Energy (12):

4 Double Colorless
3 Metal (special)
2 Metal (basic)
2 Warp
1 Psychic

What Worked – Stadiums and Skuntank worked, that’s what! Having stadiums most certainly helped, but the question is…Which Stadium is the best? While I can’t answer that definitively, I’ll list off the reasons why I used the ones that I did, and some of the advantages to other Stadiums…

*Snowpoint Temple: since a major focus of the Dialgachomp deck is to “tank” Dialga G LV.X, giving it an extra 20 HP is extremely helpful. It also gives you the option to play the SP mirror entirely differently, giving Dragonite FB a new lease on life with proper timing (no Earthquake-responses are nice). I ran two because I figured that tanking Dialga would be my biggest asset on the day, so an extra 20 HP buffer seemed extremely useful.

*Miasma Valley: one of the more unusual options of Pram’s/Chad’s, this card functions as a way to spread counters in appropriate matchups. Nice to get out-of-range attackers such as Machamp and Gyarados prematurely within-range during the mid game! I decided to run one of these to round out my stadiums for this reason, but also because I knew I’d be needing to bump Snowpoint in case it stopped being useful.

As for the Stadium I didn’t play…

*Pokemon Contest Hall: the quintessential Stadium for SP, this card is a way to boost consistency and activate Skuntank, but also a mean by which to get out all of your major attackers with their tools. A lucky heads on Contest Hall is also useful because it’s an easy way to get Expert Belt on your dialga, as well as a way to get Energy Gain attackers in play through Vileplume trainer lock (assuming you can’t access your Dialga G LV.X Time Crystal for some reason).

In hindsight, I should have just bit the bullet and ran three of these, as is done in the typical build. While Snowpoint and Miasma have their uses, I’m beginning to consider the value of Contest Hall as the ultimate selling point for a list not flexible enough to include Call Energy.

Since my Pokemon felt just high enough to justify it even past bad hands, I decided to make the switch from Luxury Ball to Pokemon Communication. This worked wonders, and I feel content running it in any SP build with 19 or more Pokes.

Last of all, I fit in Lucario GL! While Machamp didn’t factor in at all during the day, this thing definitely would’ve tilted it for me on top of everything else. Plus, it stood to be a gross attacker in my Tyranitar Prime matchup in case my Dialga G and Toxicroak G both broke down.

What Didn’t – while it’s definitely not hard to play around, I’ve become addicted to running Call Energy in any list that it makes sense in. Since my build ran zero Power Spray, though, I felt less of a need to force them in. Although Yuta Komatsuda could win one of the toughest World Championships ever undefeated with a no Call Energy list, shaky starts just don’t vibe well!

Oh yeah, zero Power Spray was beyond lame in the mirror, as not having a say to what your opponent does with his or her Set Ups, Galactic Switches, and Bright Looks will most certainly put a nail in your coffin against a well-oiled build. Also, the exclusion of Staraptor FB LV.X was a pity, as it’s a truly amazing card in Stadium-Dialgachomp lists.

With that all in mind, let’s see how it faired on the day…

[Note: due to this post being fairly late, I’ll be brief – and therefore fairly anticlimactic – about the matches. Some dogs needed me to play with them, and for dogs, I gladly sacrifice my hopes and dreams for /blog. ]

Round 1: BYE

Thirty seven masters, and I get the bye? I never thought I’d say this, but as a player caught in the rat race of ratings and rankings, I was actually disappointed that I got a freebie.  Call me an arrogant kung-fu guy or whatever, but if a free win is causing “anyone” to feel anything less than ecstatic, then you know something is wrong with your (Play! Pokemon’s) system.

Win (1-0)

Round 2: VS Tyler (Tyranitar Prime/tech Houndoom)

Cool tech…Apparently he runs a 1-1/1 Houndoom/Prime line to do the following: against SP’s Toxicroak G Promos and Lucario GLs, use the regular Houndoom from Undaunted to score some amazing surprise-KOs; and for every other matchup, make knock-outs more accessible with the occasional lucky string of flips on burn. While I can’t say I’m a big fan of the latter, I very much like the idea of using the normal Houndoom, since SP is bound to use those cards against you.

Fortunately, I had heard about this tech the week before, and so I was able to adjust accordingly; that is, I held off on benching Lucario GL or Toxicroak G Promo prematurely, and just settled for tearing his setup apart with Dialga G and Skuntank G’s Poison Structure. I fortunately never had to whip out either of my fighting attackers, but they were there just in case…

Win (“2-0”)

Round 3: VS Michael (Tyranitar Prime/tech Honchkrow SV)

Wow…So at Plano, I got two Yanmega in a row, and in Dallas, I got two Tyranitar in a row? I can just imagine Robin saying, in as campy a voice as possible:

“Holy matchups, Batman – you’re one lucky SoB!”

Yes I am, Robin. Yes I am…

Admittedly, Tyler from the previously round had a somewhat sub-par start; however, with his ample supply of draw, Michael never really missed a beat with his Tyranitars, while I had to play some serious catch-up. But, by the glory of Toxicroak G Promo and Lucario, this was made into a fairly decisive win for me. As expected, his Honchkrow SV never once factored into the game, and even when he tried to start attacking with it, I was quick to Garchomp C LV.X snipe it.

Win (“3-0”)

Round 4: VS Ron (Vilegar)

Much like my sixth round game against Amalio the weekend before, I started absolutely horrid against Ron: 4 basics and no Supporters. Fortunately for me, though, he didn’t have a Spiritomb Arceus start, and so my setup wasn’t impeded too horribly. I was forced to aggressively Time Crystal a bit earlier than I would’ve liked, but it was all for the best.

The details are fuzzy, but long story short, I ended up securing a very safe timed win by replacing my Snowpoint Temple with Miasma Valley at the right time. Also, he ran a very interesting set of techs: 1 Froslass GL, which is very useful at disrupting the opponent while he/she is under Trainer lock; and 2-1 Mewtwo LV.X, which tends to be the ultimate “screw you, buddy!” to decks featuring SP without a counter.

Win (“4-0”)

Round 5: VS Cameron H. (Luxchomp/ERL)

More or less, he had the edge on me in our exchange the whole game due to some energy whiffs, as well as too many powers (read: all) being allowed to break through. This naturally gave him a decisive edge, and for the decisions I made in today’s list, it was well due for me to suffer. One thing that gave me some notable trouble, though, was that – despite some very thorough shuffling – I somehow began this game with two of my three Stadium cards. While Stadiums can do nice things to tilt matches when you need them to, when you’re in desperate need of a Set Up, they’re actually beyond horrid to have…Ugh.

After I fell behind enough, he saw the opportunity to Thunder Fall in the late game, and seized the win.

Loss (“4-1”)

Today was his day to shine against me though, especially since I had beaten Cameron out of the finals the past two weekends. I felt like many tweaks to his build (Twins/Dragonite FB) were smart plays that were well ahead of the national metagame, with the Twins having particularly nice synergy in orchestrating a game-winning Thunder Fall. However, his list made one very suspect move: three (3) Poke Turn instead of four (4), on account of the logic that it’s not needed. While this may sound very absurd to you guys, in the Junk Arm era, I find it totally acceptable for players to do this: you’re practically getting the use of four (or more) Turns a game, and so can therefore justify cutting one if it means more space. However, the issue about his list with me was that he ran zero Junk Arm, therefore nullifying that argument. Without Junk Arm, I ultimately felt like the decision was unjustified.
So if anyone tries this move, be sure to play Junk Arm in your list. I’ve found direct play-testing success with it, and Nats winner Chris F., who’s extensively tested it himself, thinks such a move is “fine” as long as it’s tempered by the Junk Arms.

Round 6: VS Chris (Blazechomp)


…And speaking of people named Chris, here’s another one. Long story short, I surprised the heck out of him by turning a useless Skuntank G start into an immediate edge-out in the mirror by the second turn, took firm control of it until he played a Looker’s, gave up some momentum, and then finally regained it in time for the last three turns on the clock. It was 2-4 by then, and I felt confident in my ability to take the last two, so it seemed pretty decisive. Thanks 3-1 Garchomp/Draggy/Ambipom!
Oh yeah…and I started with two stadiums. Again. My, what skilled cutters this state has, hah.

Win (“5-1”)

    Despite all of these games seeming like they went par for the course, the fact of the matter is that I was seeing my Dialga crashing and burning. And badly…Like, “worse than the Hindenburg”-badly. So what’s a guy to do?
He drops from the tournament. That’s what.

And on that note…I’ll leave today’s lengthy entry on a bit of a cliff-hanger. Tomorrow (technically today), I’ll discuss all of the following topics to close out my City Championship report series/arc:

*An examination of all of the reasons why I dropped from this event. When I do drop, I usually have many good reasons for doing so, seeing as how I’ve only dropped from three tournaments since I started playing competitively back in 2003.

*A detailed examination of this event’s metagame, which I was able to gather absurdly-accurate information on (34/37 of the decks are 100% verified and confirmed).

*An incisive, honest discussion of why I think I did so well during the 2010-2011 City Championship season, and what I could have done to turn 31-4 into 38-0.

*Some nice, cliché closing line that’ll make you cry out of sheer happiness.
Within the next few days, I also plan on writing a couple “gaiden” (Google it) reports on events that I didn’t attend.

Dialgachomp Deck Examination City Championship Tournament Reports (Part 5/7)


12/31/2010: Plano, TX​

With the two week interim between Tom Bean and Plano, I felt a metagame shift coming on.


“There’s no way people would let a Luxchomp without a Mewtwo counter go unchecked for that long, is there?” said I. Granted, that isn’t enough of a reason to switch to Dialgachomp, since you could just as easily play Luxchomp with a 1-1 Dialga and be just fine. But to thicken the plot, I had been hearing about several successful decks emerging from the Georgia marathon: Alex B’s unique take on Regigigas; Jim R’s zany Yanmega/Magnezone rogue; and Guy B’s Steelix Prime were all making a notable splash. While few players are as connected with up-to-date metagame info as I am, I felt that between the 50+ Masters who would be attending this event, at least a couple of them would play something inspired by the ‘thon.

Originally walking into this event, I was going to play a very typical Dialgachomp with Skuntank, Staraptor FB LV.X, and Pokemon Fan Clubs…But when I looked around at my metagame, I noticed that it was just SP, and lots of it. However, I was surprised to find that Vilegar had also picked up serious steam since my last tournament, and since any variation on Dialgachomp has a superb matchup against that deck, I felt set in my ways.
However, given the heavy showing of SP, and given how you ought to beat Vilegar regardless of running Skuntank G, I felt safe in cutting those half a dozen cards for a few mirror-savvy things, such as the Ambipom/Dragonite pair and the Looker’s.
Before we move on to my list, I’d like to give you a few fair warnings…Since I don’t like the idea of sending anyone off with a deck that may not (read: “probably won’t”) do well for you at a future event, it’s vital to give some disclaimers. I’ve seen countless articles try claim goodness in builds as terrible as tweaked theme decks, so for my sake and yours, let’s list a few things off…

[WARNING: THE FOLLOWING LIST MAY CONTAIN PURE, UNCENSORED SUCK.]
[WARNING: THE FOLLOWING LIST MAY CONTAIN UNLEADED, UNTESTED SHENANIGANS]
[WARNING: THE FOLLOWING LIST WAS MOST LIKELY USED BY A LUCKSACK]
[WARNING: THE FOLLOWING LIST DEFINITELY CONTAINS 21 SINGLE COPIES OF CARDS]

Pokemon (17):

2 Dialga G
1 Dialga G LV.X
2 Uxie LA
1 Uxie LV.X
3 Garchomp C
1 Garchomp C LV.X
1 Toxicroak G Promo
1 Dragonite FB
1 Ambipom G
1 Unown Q
1 Crobat G
1 Bronzong G
1 Azelf LA

Trainers/Stadiums/Supporters (29):

4 Cyrus’s Conspiracy
4 Pokemon Collector
4 Poke Turn
3 Energy Gain
2 SP Radar
2 Bebe’s Search
1 Aaron's Collection
1 Looker’s Investigation
1 Premier Ball
1 Luxury Ball
1 Energy exchanger
1 Junk arm
1 Twins
1 Technical Machine TS-2
1 Expert Belt
1 Power Spray

Energy (14):

4 Double Colorless
3 Metal (special)
3 Call
2 Metal (basic)
1 Psychic
1 Warp

(In order to include a 1-1 Staraptor FB LV.X, 1 Skuntank G, and any 3 Stadiums of your choice, you’ll have to make some rough edits. Some lists I’ve seen scrap single copies such as Junk Arm, and others scrap their Call Energy entirely. Regardless, it’s going to be rough.)

What Worked: for starters, I had MANY options to combo, string plays, etc…Since my all-time favorite decks play a lot of single cards, this jived with my style, and so I felt like all of the moves were natural.

As you can see, it’s also very pumped up to deal with mirror. Twins and Energy Exchanger are both great for SP mirror, and actually make more sense in a Dialga list than Luxchomp, which is more prone to fall behind in some matchups. Due to these two cards, I was easily able to tank up on Special Metals, and heal as I pleased.

What didn’t: Many, many, many things. Without a Lucario, or without a Toxicroak G Platinum, it has a negative Machamp matchup, and without stadiums and Skuntank G, it has a negative matchup against most Gyarados lists. Since Gyarados is a solid tier one deck, and since Machamp is a constantly-played tier two, a list such as this one was obviously a HUGE gamble. Granted, the Technical Machine-TS 2 is a saving grace in each of those games, but not enough of one to save you consistently.

Some of the single copies were not good choices: one Power Spray was risky beyond belief, and I think it showed in my game against Amalio, which could’ve been tilted in my favor by even the slightest tweak to my list. As for the one Warp Energy, that too was a waste, and could’ve easily been a 4th Call, 2nd Power Spray, Lucario GL, 4th Special metal, or anything else…Good.

Basically, this build suffered from being caught in limbo between Luxchomp and conventional Dialgachomp. While that played in my favor throughout the event, this list is easily a couple cards off of how to properly play such a deck.

If I knew then what I do now, here are the following tweaks I would make to a Luxchomp-wannabe Dialgachomp list:

-1 Technical Machine TS-2 (still helpful in some matchups, though)
-1 Warp Energy
-1 Bebe’s Search

+1 Uxie LA
+1 Lucario GL
+1 Power Spray or Call

With these tweaks, you’re giving up on Gyarados in exchange for a solid Machamp, as well as a better mirror. In my metagame, that would have been a sound play.


Regarding the uncertainty on Call: I’ve found Energy Exchanger to be sufficient in acting as your faux-fourth call in a pinch when going second, and going first, it doesn’t make that much of a difference in your starting percentiles to justify playing the forth. Hence, I make the third tweak be Power Spray “or” Call, with heavy favoritism towards the second Power Spray. For more faux-Luxchompy goodness, you may even want to find space for a third Power Spray!

That’s enough about the list…Now onto the matches. With over 50 people, we were bound to have a long day, with six rounds of swiss and a top eight cut. Yikes…

Round 1: VS Cade K. (Donphan/Yanmega Primes)

My first round of the tournament, and I’m already thankful for making the switch, as what could have been a contentious game with Luxchomp was instead turned into an auto win for Dialgachomp. All I needed to do to assure a game in my favor was to just tank Dialga G with Special Metals, keep a Power Spray/Junk Arm in hand for any moment where he could pull a surprise KO on me, and Poke Turn up a seriously-damaged attacker. Most importantly, though, is keeping Time Crystal in play at all cost, which shuts off both Yanmega Prime’s Insight and Donphan Prime’s Exoskeleton.
Due to his energy lineup, he was left with virtually no options against me, and so Dialga was able to charge into a very solid 6-0/6-1 victory on prizes.


Win (1-0)


As I walked towards the next round pairings, I was beyond shocked to see my round two pairing: Demarcus, who I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt was playing…Yanmega. Yes, you read that right: a Dialgachomp got two Yanmegas in a row. Given that there were only about 3 Yanmega decks in the whole field, the odds of this were beyond absurd. However, you take good fortune as it comes…

Round 2: VS Demarcus R. (Yanmega Prime)

Due to his list being much more focused, as well as my start being less than stellar, he was able to assert a furious charge against me with an early Yanmega; however, once my board began to stabilize, and I could finally access a Dialga G LV.X, things turned around very quickly. While he used cards such as Judge and Giratina to disrupt me, SP’s attackers are just too powerful, and I was able to find several adequate targets for Dragon Rush sniping this match (due to circumstance, I was unable to really ever “tank” a Dialga until later on).

Win (2-0)

Round 3: VS Demetre F. (Machamp/Prime)

I suppose it’s fair that, after getting two Yanmega Prime variants in a row, I pair against a bad matchup in the form of Machamp. However, he mulliganed at least three times, which gave me a good idea of what his deck list consisted of: standard fare for a Machamp SF/Prime list, but an unusual card that stuck out to me was Ruins of Alph. It does make some sense to run as a Gyarados counter, but for me and every other SP player there, it was a wasted slot.

Anyways, he went first, Machop to my Bronzong G. After attaching and benching an Uxie for Set Up, he hit me for ten, and I took the time needed to build a bench, ready for an imminent Machamp KO. This much happened, but – perhaps fearing a Lucario/Uxie LV.X response I didn’t have – he opted to exert the resources to go for a turn two Machamp Prime KO instead of one with Machamp SF, which he had access to. Given this, I setup a play to catch back up involving a hit for 50 followed up with a couple Flash Bites and a Technical Machine TS-2 the next turn (via Twins)…But he just Judged my hand away. However, the 50 hit was just enough to make the x2 weak Machamp Prime vulnerable to a clean KO from Uxie LV.X anyways, and so he was left to struggle from there. I think after this he Looker’s Investigation’d for five cards, only to be a single one off of the response Machamp. After sniping his Machop, and after drawing one more prize, he scooped from there, as he had no way to keep up with my rate of knock-outs.

Win (3-0)

Round 4: VS Cameron H. (Luxchomp/ERL)

This game, Cameron went first with a Luxray GL, opting to just draw and pass with no other options. Although playing hard for it, I somehow whiffed on the DCE or Energy Exchanger necessary to score the first turn knockout with Dragonite FB; however, this energy whiff, as well as my initial jump on setup, were enough to give me a decisive early edge in our tried-and-true mirror exchange. I believe that he had whiffed some sort of attachment a few turns after this as well, which made things even harder to recover. Although I never fell behind on prizes, making Twins useless, I felt like the Dragonite/Ambipom combo, as well as the Energy Exchanger, were extremely useful in helping me edge out SP mirror. I can only imagine what Staraptor FB LV.X must be thinking some games…Hah.

Win (4-0)

Round 5: VS Josh H. (Gyarados/Mew Prime)

Gyarados/Mew is currently the second-most popular variant on Mew Prime, and for good reason, as a 120 damage Tail Revenge is very, very useful. However, in the Dialgachomp matchup, all those Mews and Psychic Energy generally become useless in the face of Time Crystal. That’s just what happened, and so he was starved of one of his most crucial elements of the deck.
Still, he was able to function with just Gyarados, and so he put up his fight that way. However, my snipes helped put me too far in the lead, as well as my tanking Dialga G LV.X for good measure. Between these two, Josh was hard-pressed to ever edge me out of the win.

Win (5-0)

Round 6: VS Amalio O. (Luxchomp/Mewtwo)

While I was glad with being assured top cut, I didn’t like the prospect of starting a mirror game with Dialga G…Or with no Supporters…Or with nothing good in my prizes, either (Azelf yielded junk). To make matters worse, a turn one Toxic Fang from Crobat G made tanking against him null, so I just tried to aim for a quick KO via my own Crobat G’s Flash Bite, a Poke Turn to reuse it, and a second strike. I got this, and it helped me wiggle out of a losing game, but no luck. Eventually I drew into a Twins while behind, which was enormous in helping me get back into this match; unfortunately, though, he always seemed to have everything he needed for a response.
A rather strange play of his helped give me a shot at victory, though: a Mewtwo LV.X promotion, which was easily parried by Dialga G LV.X and its Time Crystal. While I, by the grace of 3-1 Garchomp and several other happenstance things, got this game down to 1-1 prizes, he eventually had the Bright Look response on one of my cheap guys near the end for a final knock-out, and the end of a very good game.

Loss (5-1)

The above was about the only match on the other (aside from the Machamp one) where I felt like a Luxchomp/1-1 dialga would’ve been the more optimal play. But yes, it most certainly would have…However, I also get the vibe that this game was cost through either some sub-optimal play or a sub-optimal deck decision. Be it a slight shift in resource conservation, or the inclusion of a second Power Spray, I feel as if "anything" could have turned the tide in my favor this game…But oh well: live and learn.

Anyways, here’s everything that cut:

1st Seed Amalio (Luxchomp/Mewtwo) VS 8th Seed Cameron (Luxchomp/ERL)
4th Seed Ron (Vilegar) VS 5th Seed Dana (Garchomp C/Honchkrow SV)
2nd Seed Me (Dialgachomp) VS 7th Seed Cade (Donphan/Yanmega Primes)
3rd Seed Josh (Gyarados/Mew Prime) VS 6th Seed Robert (Gyarados)

Unlike many of the past City Championships I have either played in or heard about, this field was very diverse, as were the decks that succeeded: there were only two duplicates (Luxchomp/Gyarados), and even their lists were noticeably different from one-another.
 

Top Eight: Cade K. (Donphan/Yanmega Prime)

Games One and Two –  by the mercy of good fortune, I hit my absolute best matchup out of every deck in top cut, and so I approached it much the same way I did in my swiss match against Cade. The only difference was that there was one window of opportunity for him to claim some board control, but he didn’t hit the Expert Belt to pull it off. That immediately-proceeding turn, I sealed up all holes in my iron-tight Dialga defense, and won as comfortably as I did previously.
Yeah…I have a feeling Cade didn’t expect anybody to be playing Dialgachomp today…But I have his word he’s made the list better against Dialgachomp since, so I look forward to a potential rematch in the future. 😛

Win (6-1)

Top Four: Josh H. (Gyarados/Mew Prime)

Game One – My hand this game was looking awesome enough to cruise me directly into the top two…However, there was only one problem:
Josh plays Judge.

And he also just happened to not play it against me in our swiss match, which made it a total surprise to me here in cut. This alone was rough enough, but the fact that I drew an unplayable hand as a result was murder. Thus, for the rest of the game, I would go without playing a single supporter…Horrid? Yeah, you bet.

However, by the glory of something, I was able to hang on for dear life, scoring little chump knock-outs whenever I could. So, despite not getting to play Supporters, I “did” bring myself down to two prizes thanks to Dragon Rush, Dialga attacking, and a Technical Machine TS-2 kill.

Games Two and Three –  Unlike the last game, these were much like the swiss match. His Judges made things scary for me once or twice, but unlike the first game, I was able to pull off a quick Azelf to gather vital intelligence on what to draw so that I could get out of my rut. Time was called deep into game three, but I was well on my way to winning it (I believe I was three prizes up after the “+3” turns).

Win (7-1)

Finals: Cameron H. (Luxchomp/ERL)

Game One – despite starting with a lone Azelf and no other benched Pokemon – horrid vis-à-vis his Garchomp with other basics – I was able to rapidly edge him out with my colorless basic advantage. Miraculously, I got the situation turned around so hard, he felt it necessary to save time…Prudent on his part, sure, but surprising nonetheless.

Game Two – once again, I started weirdly with Dialga G; however, I was able to make this work in my favor, as Deafen kept his equally weird starter, Bronzong G, stuck in the active position. This allowed for a rare Second Strike KO being good in the mirror, triggered through either my own Flash Bite or his Galactic Switch – I don’t remember. From here, I started playing the exchange regularly, and we kept very close the entire match. Eventually, due to me topping off his setup with Looker’s Investigation, I was able to edge further ahead. Unfortunately, I was a resource or two off of nabbing my last prize, so he was given the window of opportunity to set up a very slick Roserade GL play…However, I finally hit what I needed to get out of the active position, and snipe for the last prize.

Win (8-1)

Unfortunately, I didn’t take the time to report on the unabridged metagame of this event. Due to there being over 50 players, and due to Dialgachomp requiring me to play long, drawn-out games at every step of the event, I was really left without any other option.

I hope you got something out of this report. While this Dialgachomp is far from perfect (haha), it should give you a variety of ideas to chew on, and to maybe incorporate into your own list come States/Provincials/Territorials. Tomorrow, I’ll be posting my fifth and final report, which again features Dialgachomp…Only this next time, it'll actually have Stadiums.
 

Luxchomp Deck Examination City Championship Tournament Reports (Part 4/7)

12/19/2010: Tom Bean, TX​

(From the list referenced in Part III, Section 1…)
​
-1 Drifloon
-1 Drifblim​
-1 VS Seeker

+1 Call Energy
​+1 Premier Ball​
+1 Uxie​


Pokemon (18):

3 Garchomp C
1 Garchomp C LV.X
2 Luxray GL
1 Luxray GL LV.X
3 Uxie LA
1 Uxie LV.X
1 Crobat G
1 Ambipom G
1 Bronzong G
1 Lucario GL
1 Toxicroak G Promo
1 Unown Q
1 Azelf LA

Trainers (30):

4 Cyrus's Conspiracy
4 Pokemon Collector
4 PokeTurn
3 Energy Gain
3 Power Spray​
2 SP Radar
2 Bebe's Search
2 Junk Arm
2 Premier Ball
1 VS Seeker
1 Looker's Investigation
1 Luxury Ball
1 Aaron's Collection

Energy (12)

4 DCE
4 Call
3 Lightning
1 Psychic

What worked: for starters, the consistency. I had finally gotten around to making space for the 4th Call, as well as the third Uxie – two steps in the right direction which I had been meaning to take, but chose not to due to miscellaneous reasons. However, as you can tell from the past three entries, the deck didn’t change too radically, since it really was just a three card switch.

All in all, I’d say that this is the strongest list I used all City Championship season: while I didn’t feel as powerful versus mirror as I would have liked to, I felt like the deck was very well-rounded.

This would be the last time for me to use Luxchomp, as I would switch to Dialgachomp for the last two.

What didn't: Mewtwo LV.X vulnerability is bad, but I made a metagame call that I wouldn’t have to deal with it at this tournament. I turned out to be right on the money, but if Mewtwo is everywhere, then you can’t quite as easily get by without a Dialga G LV.X or something thereabouts.

The debate between running a single Luxury Ball versus a single Pokemon Communication still rages. In the occasional hand where you have no other Pokemon, Luxury Ball is clearly the better choice, and since I’m paranoid about making bad hands playable, I deemed Luxury Ball to be the better choice. Ultimately, the higher your Pokemon count, the more justifiable Pokemon Communication over Luxury Ball is, and for today, it was less justifiable than either of my past events.

Round 1: VS Dale L. (Blaziken FB/Luxray GL/Garchomp C)

            Despite all of the added consistency bells and whistles, I would proceed to mulligan once, followed by a lone Garchomp C start going first. All I could do was attach a Lightning Energy, pass, and then watch him proceed to first turn me with two Flash Bites and a Claw Swipe of his own.

Loss (0-1)

Round 2: VS Martin M. (Luxchomp)

            In stark contrast to the last game, I would open with a very nice Luxray start, which – when combined with Call and Uxie’s Set Up) – gave me what could be the perfect opportunity to double Power Spray him. This is just what happens, and so he is forced to Mimic into a new hand. Since my first turn deck search revealed to me that my Garchomp C LV.X was prized, I knew that I had to use Azelf’s Time Walk Poke-Power to locate it, and then rearrange appropriately so I could get into it by my first prize. Perhaps a bit too overeager to get it out, I accidentally “Bite” for 50 damage instead of 60 (Chatot Majestic Dawn’s Weakness is +20 – not x2). This ended up playing to my favor later on, as it led to a bench spot being clogged on his part.

            I would redeem the misplay with a Crobat G Flash Bite KO, which helped edge me back into board control with the Garchomp. Since our lists were virtually identical, the exchange would remain very typical of the match. He pushed for a comeback when I was stuck without a KO response, but then I came right back when his own responses were dry. Our match went to time, and I drew my last prize in the “+3 turns” phase.

While he didn’t have too much trouble hitting Double Colorless Energy, I don’t think he saw Power Spray during our game, which made my last string of moves a bit fortunate.

Win (1-1)

Round 3: VS Kevin S. (Vespiquen/Shaymin/Sunflora/Cherrim)

I was stuck with no supporters or draw for the first three turns of the game, being forced to pathetically Tail Code energy off of a 30 HP Combee just so I wouldn’t get steamrolled. However, by the fourth turn, I hit a Pokemon Collector, and the matchup turned around to what both Kevin and myself believed it to be: a Luxchomp blowout. The Vespiquen’s Poke-body allowed for one easy KO on me, but it didn’t last long, as I was able to instantly respond back to it.

Win (2-1)

Round 4: VS (Charizard/Ninetales/Typhlosion)​

I very quickly dismantled this deck, scoring six prized from the first turn-onward, and having the Spray whenever I needed it. This was, yet again, another one of those stupid games where SP steamrolls a deck because it can’t set up.

Win (3-1)

Round 5: VS Dana L. (Garchomp C/Honchkrow SV)

With the inclusion of Honchkrow SV, but without the inclusion of Sableye or Cyrus’s Initiative, Dana is allowed to play his SP game as regularly as possible, yet still have some slick options in the mirror. Bar the lack of Dragonite and Power Sprays, and I thik he’d be set in every possible way.

We were looking to have a very competitive game given our starts: I had Called on the first turn, but with no Power Spray in my hand, which amounted to a solid setup on his part. However, for some reason, his Portraiting my Cyrus caused a brain fart that led to him not playing his Supporter for the turn, so he passed with just two Pokemon in play. This turned everything around, and allowed me to turn a contentious mirror match into a blowout.

He naturally felt bad about it, and I felt bad for him, since lord knows I’ve had at least a couple games like that. Still, he had a chance to redeem himself, since… Our top four cut would consist of the following:

1st Seed Dana L. (Garchomp C/Honchkrow SV) VS 4th Seed John K. (Luxchomp)
2nd Seed Dale L. (BLG) VS 3rd Seed Cameron H. (Luxchomp/ERL)

Top Four: VS Dana L. (Garchomp C/Honchkrow SV)

Game one – I don't setup too poorly, but he did get the early edge against me in our garchomp mirror despite running a 2-2. Whiffing on DCEs hurt me pretty badly, and gave him the punch. T

Granted, several things kept me in the game, such as my Power Sprays, but after it became hopeless, I decided to scoop, knowing full well that every second would count. Dragonite FB or even a 4th Energy Gain would’ve been very nice…

Game two – Ambipom G vs Ambipom G. I hit him for a first turn 60 after a Set Up. Luckily for me, his hand was trash, so with a combo of benching Crobat G for “Flash Bite,” Poketurn, two Junk Arms, and Uxie LV.X's Zen Blade, I was able to KO both pokemon by the second turn for a double donk.

Game three – I go first, set up a bit, and pass. To thin his hand for Uxie, he makes a huge gamble by dropping an Expert Belt on his active Promocroak, as he failed the Leap Away, and whiffed on PokeTurns, so was forced to keep it stuck active. The next turn, after a stream of plays, I was able to respond to the Promocroak with a near-immediate Zen Blade, granting me the early edge From here, we kept making little prize exchanges, but the edge this gave me in resources and prizes guaranteed the game. Due to Azelf and Crobat G being prized, my hands were largely tied in terms of options, but the 3-1 Garchomp helped me persevere.

Win (5-1)

Game one –  What a miserable game: I didn’t get a single supporter until the very last turn, yet even then I was able to draw two prizes throughout. He had made a huge gamble early on, Expert Belting his Luxray GL LV.X to run through my guys – something that was continually frustrating, since I was sitting on a Toxicroak G Promo and an Energy Gain for five-six turns in a row, just waiting to top deck anything.

Some games are just not meant to be, and SP, for all its merits, has some horrid hands like this. Variance dictates that you’re simply just supposed to have the occasional game where you go fifteen turns with no supporter. This was one such game.

Game two – This game was looking much the same way as game one, but fortunately, I had many nice playing options, and was able to put up some very quick aggression: once again, I had no supporters for the first eight turns of the game, but I conveniently had everything that I needed to allow for proper prize exchanges, attacking, and so forth. Eventually, I would finally draw into a Collector, and from there, the game was mine to lose. He played this out until the bitter end, perhaps hoping to score an Entei/Raikou sudden death on me, but it just didn’t happen.

Game three – It seems as if the two horrid hands from the last two games were balanced out by how insanely good the one in this third game was, giving me the option of the first turn Power Spray, several great attackers, and the overall edge. It got to the point where he was starved of any Colorless attackers, and so my Garchomp C LV.X was allowed to go unchecked. Time was eventually called when I was up two prizes, but since I felt vulnerable to a potential Entei/Raikou Thunder Fall, I decided to use Lock Up to keep his Smeargle stuck in the active position on the “+3” turns, thus assuring the timed win.

Win (6-1)

Metagame considerations: our 20-person field was smaller than expected, but it's fortunately simple enough to give us a nearly-perfect accurate understanding of what the metagame consisted of. Below are all of the decks represented at the event…

Luxchomp x5​
Gyarados x2​
Unaccounted for x2​
Vespiquen
Garchomp C/Honchkrow
BLG
Sablelock
Vilegar
"Dark" rogue deck
Weavile disruption hand thing (could be the same deck as the Houndoom build listed above)
Jumpluff
Charizard
Scizor/Yanmega
Machamp

Yes…A tournament I got nearly every deck from!

As expected, SP was far and away the favorite to win this event. With at least 40% of all competitors using some form of it, the odds were so tilted in its favor to sweep it was disgusting. This was indeed represented in the cut, which was – surprise, surprise – all SP. Furthermore, it helped that several players with proven track records were using it: of the eight, four who used it had top cut the previous day's Cities (Watauga and McKinney, held roughly an hour and fifteen minutes away from each other).

In hindsight, I actually felt like this twenty person metagame was stronger than either of the previous two, revealing that bigger events are not always harder. Almost every deck was either a proven archetype, or a well-built rogue with a clearly-focused build (other than the 30 HP Combee, I actually thought the Vespiquen was very well-built for what it was).


So another tournament…And another win. However, this would be my last event with Luxchomp, as I decided I needed to work with Dialga for a while. How did I fare with that deck relative to Luxchomp? Well, read Part 5 to find out!

Luxchomp Deck Examination City Championship Tournament Reports (Part 2/7)


Luxchomp Deck Examination/City Championship Tournament Reports

Part 2: College Station, TX



Pokemon (19):



3 Garchomp C

1 Garchomp C LV.X

2 Luxray GL

1 Luxray GL LV.X

2 Uxie LA

1 Uxie LV.X

2 Crobat G

1 Ambipom G

1 Bronzong G

1 Lucario GL

1 Dragonite FB

1 Toxicroak G Promo

1 Unown Q

1 Azelf LA



Trainers (30):



4 Cyrus's Conspiracy

4 Pokemon Collector

4 PokeTurn

4 Energy Gain

2 SP Radar

2 Bebe's Search

2 Power Spray

2 Junk Arm

2 VS Seeker

1 Looker's Investigation

1 Luxury Ball

1 Premier Ball

1 Aaron's Collection



Energy (11)



4 DCE

3 Call

3 Lightning

1 Psychic

What I liked about it: Even though the "X-1 vs X-2" debate for the Garchomp line has been raging for the past few months, I've been playing X-1 since last season's CCs (check my old deck lists). However, the concerns back then were more associated with deck space, whereas the purpose right now is due 50% to wanting more good starters, and the other 50% to wanting to edge out mirror. If you don't believe me, then just play out the mirror some: what happens when you have Garchomps, and your opponent doesn't? You usually win – that's what. This is the core principle behind why so many players have traded in a 2-2 Garchomp line for a 3-1 this season, and I was no exception.



Some less common aspects are the heavy counts on VS Seeker and Junk Arm. The Junk Arms I'll stand by due to how extraordinary they are for consistency, for versatility, and for recovery…

*For consistency, they not only thin your hand for stronger Set Ups, but they can grab Luxury Balls/Pokemon Communications.
*For versatility, it's pretty obvious: getting back your TG'S I Inventions.
*For recovery, a combo of Junk Arm and VS Seeker allow you to use Aaron's Collection up to five times in a game.

While I would go on to cut a Junk Arm in at least one of my SP lists, I would never "not" run at least one simply due to how GOOD it is.


VS Seeker, on the other hand, is a whole other story. Between College Station and McKinney, I found that running two was simply way too much overkill: I would start way more often with a "dead hand" as a result of the wasted spot, and it was an unnecessarily high count of trainers for the Vilegar matchup.

The Dragonite FB/Ambipom G/Toxicroak G trio provide for ultimate attacking versatility in the SP mirror, and with 3-1 Garchomp, you ought to _always_ have the colorless attacker ready to go. Although not reflected in the vomit list from my earlier post, I actually learned how absurd this trio is in SP mirror due to witnessing it in action firsthand, during the eleventh hour play-testing phase the night before. For my own purposes that day, the Dragonite FB was largely irrelevant since I wasn't running SP (bar a desperate Giant Tail or a Crobat G donk with Mach Blow, Draggy FB is useless against Jumpluff)…And because of this, I would for the time being ignore it. However, now that I moved into actually playing SP, I knew that it was all-too important to return to.

Last of all is the two Crobat, which allows for maximum donk capability in a format where donks are more common than ever. While it didn't really factor in during the tournament, I can see many situations – against Gyarados in partiular – where running two can lead to some great results.

What I didn't like about it: three Call. Up until now, a dogma my deck-building had lived by was "4 Call or no Call," and my clunkier-than-desirable starts today helped show me that. However, I would remain stubborn on this choice for another tournament.

The other thing that annoyed me was Two Power Spray. All of the games I played at this event revealed to me how useless Spray becomes as a two-of; it's an unhappy balance between the zero/one (trade for consistency/emergency uses) and three/four (stop at every turn) counts. Since it's there too often when you don't need it, and too rarely when you do, I would advise against two.

Now with that out of the way, let's explore my matchups for the day…



Round 1: VS Michael S. (Jumpluff)

Jumpluff has lost so much due to the rotation, but one plus side to its Luxchomp matchup is that it now plays no vulnerable target to Bright Look (last season, the most oft-spammed play was Bright Looking a two retreat Claydol, followed up by Dragon Rush).

Anyways, things started going off for me pretty well: I was able to start scoring plenty of easy kills from turn two-onward, and never looked back. Uxie LV.X assured that I wouldn't hit a snag consistency-wise, so the game was just about me killing anything from the Pluff family. If memory serves me well, I think he had some early-game clunks, such as a Warp Point or Energy whiff, which made the sniping job even easier.

Win (1-0)

Round 2: VS Stephen S. (Gyarados)

By virtue of the double Crobat G and two Junk Arm, I came extremely close to the second turn double knock out, but a whiff on a PokeTurn (3 left in deck) or Junk Arm (2 left) from a Uxie Set Up for six required the playing of the full game. However, my decision to go after his Magikarp was well-placed, as he struggled to find a Broken Time-Space for 3-4 turns of the game. By the time he could finally get out, I was already too far ahead, and so Trash Bolt or Flash Impact + a Flash Bite from Crobat G would pretty much be enough every time.

As a side note, this has generally been my worst situation with Gyarados: when you can't get Broken Time-Space for the life of you. Granted, Mesprit is really useful in freezing them from Flash Bites/Bright Look, even after the initial Psychic Bind, you'll have troubles.

Win (2-0)

Round 3: VS Phillip B. (Gyarados)

Phil's our league's organizer, and I have to say that he's improved tremendously. He definitely did his research, and as a result, ended up with a Gyarados list that was on par with or ahead of the metagame.

Anyways, he started with a significant jump on me, getting out a turn one Gyarados with KO'ing potential. This set me back pretty far, and to top it off, my prizes were pretty trashy too. However, my one saving grace was that he was constantly forced to Belt Gyarados, which gave me the prime opportunity to score four prizes in a matter of 2-3 turns. My Looker's Investigation was clutch here, as it was able to deny him the game-winning response KO for the sixth prize, and put me into a situation where I'd draw my final two prizes due to the wrecked hand. 

Great game, man.

Win (3-0)

Round 4: VS Caleb C. (Luxchomp)

Caleb is an upstart from Houston who not only did really well at Cities up to this point, but I think nabbed a lot of early points thanks to Battle Roads. He was roughly 1700 when I played him at this point, which – for ratings and rankings purposes – can only mean good things. Be it a huge point gain for a win, or a meager point deduction for a loss, the result ends up being pretty acceptable either way…Even for the most bitter of us, lol.

However, the game ended before it began due to his double Power Spraying me, which, as any long-time SP player knows, is more than enough to take you out of a game entirely. I somehow weaseled four prizes out of him, but Caleb still never lost board control, and went on to win the non-exchange.

Loss (3-1)

Round 5: VS Dana L. (Luxray/Blaziken/Manectric/ERL)

My starting hand was initially 100% unplayable garbage, sans a single Lightning Energy. However, by a stroke of luck. I top decked a Premier Ball…Meaning that I wasn’t completely dead-on-arrival! So I dropped my energy, passed, and spent the rest of his turn uneventfully not getting donked. The next turn, I top-decked a Double Colorless Energy, which was all that I needed to start actually doing something. Seeing that he had an Electrike on the bench, I knew that leaving Manectric alone for too long would cause mirror troubles, especially if he was running Garchomp, so I promptly Dragon Rushed it. Between my prize and the top-deck on my third turn, I was able to get a Pokemon Collector and get 100% into the game. Over the course of it, I discovered that he wasn’t running Garchomp, but in fact had the Manectric in there for his own Entei/Raikou LEGEND. Between my snipes and Power Sprays, though, he wasn’t able to get out what he needed.

This was an interesting SP variant, but it seems like it was maybe one or two cards off of being truly secure in the mirror. Even with Manectric, Garchomp is the undisputed MVP in typical SP exchanges. He would later switch to a very mirror-savvy SP list a couple tournaments later.

Win (4-1)



Top cut was as follows…

1st Seed Alex F. (Luxchomp) VS 4th Seed Phillip B. (Gyarados)
2nd Seed Caleb C. (Luxchomp) VS 3rd Seed John K. (Luxchomp)

Top Four: VS Caleb C. (Luxchomp)

My memory is fuzzy, so for this match, I’ll quote from Caleb’s report. Keep in mind that the first person “I” is his voice:

Game 1
Game one was short drawing into a spray, and using Cyrus to grab a second, I did the same thing as I did in game one. This game was short, John scooping when he realized the odds were against him, and we moved onto game 2.
1-0

Game 2
The game starts off, and I feel pretty decent about my opening hand. Garchomp, DCE, and Cyrus stick out in my mind, and John decides to go second with only one active. Flipping the cards, it's a Garchomp to Garchomp battle. First turn there wasn't much I could do, so I decide to DCE, and claw swipe for sixty, man was that a mistake.

The following turn John drops a collector, two more garchomps, a uxie, and a DCE, E-gain. First turn KO's my chomp, and I struggle to recover the rest of the game. The game finish with me down by 2 or 3 prizes (I believe, correct me if I'm wrong John, I'm not the best with these types of things).
1-1

(Side-note: I think Caleb was running a 3-1 Garchomp, because I remembered this not completely crippling him despite the notable disadvantage it causes.)

Game 3
The game starts off with my having an Unown Q, call start. I draw into my Roserade first turn, but decide to just call with Q as it has free retreat on my turn (and I didn't want to waste a turn), that was probably a mistake considering that either way I would lose the energy so I could have retreated, but none the less, that's just how things go.

On John's turn he can't pull the right set-up to get the Q directly, so he drops a Azelf + Time Walk + Psychic energy, and used Lock Up for the first turn KO. I respond the next turn by dropping the Roserade, and we proceed to bind each other for the next few turns, giving me the chance to get set up a little better.

After the initial trade off, I manage to somehow get up in prizes, but it doesn't last long as John proceeds to dominate the field, pretty much taking control of the game. It ended up coming down to time, and he had 2 prizes to my three, but I have no doubts he would have one the game, even without time.”

(Side-note: “manage to somehow get up in prizes” was actually a calculated exchange on his part to end Roserade GL’s poison on my turn, followed by a Snipe.

From that turn, I would draw a prize, he would draw a prize, and then from there I would draw two more to get ahead. Time+3 was called on my turn with me drawing my 5th prize, and being set up to draw the sixth)

Win (5-1)

Finals: VS Alex F. (Luxchomp)

Ahhh yes, another of my newer rivals. For those who don’t know him, this guy (butlerforhire) has a pretty nice track record: before he returned to the game, he was just one of a handful who got to play in the Wizards-era Tropical Mega Battle. Then, about a year or so after he returned, he went a really consistent track record last season, making top four at both of his State Championships, T16’ing Regionals, and T16’ing Nationals, which all culminated in a Worlds invite. Given this, he’s naturally one of the first people I think of when I’m asked to list off all of Texas’s good players.

Games one and two:  after consulting Alex about our match at this event, we both agree that the games went similarly enough to lump into one. Basically, the 3-1 Garchomp, Ambipom, and Dragonite FB were enough to have him at every point in the mirror. His 2-2 Garchomp also became a point of relevance in game two, because I gained a huge edge due to a FTKO on his active Garchomp via Ambipom, as well as his other one being prized. Whenever he would play 3-4 of his Cyrus’s, I would conclude both games with a Looker’s Investigation so that I could attempt to shut out his options.  

Win (6-1)

Metagame reflections: Coming in at a respectable 24 players, this field pretty much reflected the nationwide standard for City Championships of five swiss rounds with a top four cut.

Luxchomp x3

Gyarados x2

Dialgachomp x2

Uxie donk x2

BLG

Blazeray/ERL

Charizard/Ninetales

Donphan/Nidoqueen/Mewtwo

Feraligatr/Blastoise/Kingdra tech

Jumpluff

Crobat Prime
Magnezone

Umbreon/Mightyena/Houndoom dark thing? I saw this near the bottom tables, so it must've had a rough day.

Unaccounted for x6



While I don't have a totally clear idea of what the field consisted of (roughly 30% unaccounted for), this ~70% should give you a very good idea of how the rest of it was spread out. The reason why I know all of these unlisted single decks that didn't show up in any of my matches was because they were all decks being used by my friends at the College Station league. The Donphan, the Charizard, the Crobat Prime, the Gatrstoise, and one of the Uxies are all decks I've had a hand in editing at least a little, with the last one being my own deck.

Of the 17 known decks, 7 were SP. This clearly shows strength in numbers, with odds being in its favor to take the event, and that indeed happened. However, Gyarados made a minor impact, as Phillip ("Pbarta") was able to slide into the cut and put up a good fight against #1 seed Alex (again, our very own board member Butlerforhire).

I think the other decks listed didn't do as well as they could have for a number of reasons: the non-Luxchomp SP generally couldn't keep up in mirror; the Uxies were shut out by the Dialga; the Donphan/Charizard were pushed down by the moderately successful water presence; and the dark deck…Didn't do a very good job at countering the metagame it was supposed to beat.

            As an aside, none of the Gyarados I saw played Mesprit, which seemed to be a mistaken metagame play given how absurdly synergetic it is with Seeker. In testing, I've had games where Mesprit/Seeker were virtually all that Gyarados needed to assure a quick, easy victory, and without it, many decks in the format are given a chance to pull come-from-behind wins that shouldn't happen otherwise.

            While the metagame would catch up on the Gyarados front eventually, I would soon discover that it was Vilegar I had to watch out for at my next event…

Luxchomp Deck Examination Pre-Cities (Part 1/7)


Pre-Cities: the Battle Road-era vomit list, and why I had to change it

Although Worlds was an amazing experience, the event itself was a rather disappointing 3-4 bomb. Yeah…Not a good way to finish an otherwise stellar season that was marked with 4 city wins, a regional win, and an insane Nats swiss run, but as the vernacular goes…Shit happens.

However, I picked up several valuable learning experiences – especially in Yuta Komatsuda's winning Luxray GL/Garchomp C list, which was an eerie reflection of a build I used back during the first City of 09-10. Spurred on by this, I decided to use a similar build for the next few weeks after the event, which looked something like this:

Pokemon (19):

3 Garchomp C
1 Garchomp C LV.X
2 Luxray GL
1 Luxray GL LV.X
1 Dialga G
1 Dialga G LV.X
2 Uxie LA
1 Uxie LV.X
1 Ambipom G/Dragonite FB (interchanged throughout all of league)
1 Unown Q MD
1 Crobat G
1 Bronzong G
1 Lucario GL
1 Azelf LA
1 Toxicroak G PR
Trainers (29):

4 Cyrus's Conspiracy

4 Pokemon Collector

4 Energy Gain

4 Poke Turn

2 Bebe's Search

2 Professor Oak's New Theory

2 SP Radar

1 Aaron's Collection

1 VS Seeker

1 Power Spray

1 Pokemon Communication

1 Luxury Ball

1 Energy Exchanger

1 Premier Ball

Energy (12):

4 DCE
3 Lightning
2 Warp
2 Metal
1 Psychic 

I never used this list in any premier event: during all of Battle Roads I was off studying for the LSAT ("Law School Admission Test"), so the only contexts this deck was ever used in were in testing vs Fulop's Magnezone, or in College Station, TX league play. (Normally I'd be more apt to play rogue stuff, but  Phil and Caroline mentioned a need for the players to have more SP to test against.)

Anyways, the influence from Yuta is pretty clear, what with the playing of PONT, no Call, and 1-1 Dialga. However, at times it really felt like a clunky pile of nonsense – largely due to the lack of Call. Although I only dropped about one game with this during the whole time I tested it, it just wasn't good enough, and was stuck with too many disgusting hands.

It doesn't just end with that, though…Otherwise, I wouldn't call this a "vomit" list. While the draw sure was nice, it felt like it had no real solid games due to the lack of Power Spray. While Luxing and Chomping are still ever-prevalent here, I don't feel like it could've been what it should've due to all of the…"Stuff" going on.

Did I have a lot of options? Yes. Did it greatly resemble the list that would eventually be used? Also yes. However, I'm not interested in losing because my hand is trash once every other game – that's been my failing with SP, and I'd much rather not see that happen.

So I eventually traded this back in for a standard build with Calls and higher Spray, and by Cities, most aspects of it were all-out average. Still, the build I would go on to use would be far from your "typical" Luxchomp…