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| Does Zekrom keep on reigning? |
Hi everyone!
I’ve been busy with the new The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword last few days so I wasn’t answering to your comments daily. Sorry for that! On Sunday I was in the first tournament in 1½ months and it was the last States of this year. But here is the catch, the tournament was held in HGSS-NV format and I didn’t have any NV cards. So, that’s why I ended up head judging the event. Thankfully I got very much out of judging because there really wasn’t many issues during the tournament and everything went smoothly. Also, I was able to get the permission from all the top4 finishers of Masters for using their decklists for my blog.
This far I’ve been able to give you guys tournament-viable decklists but now I can give you tournament winning decklists! I’m very grateful for all the Finnish players that allowed me to use their lists for my blog and I also hope you enjoy this update as well. In this update you will find all the lists of top4 finishers and my analysis of these decks.
Well, first of all, let’s look at the top8 and their decks of Helsinki States.
I’ve been busy with the new The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword last few days so I wasn’t answering to your comments daily. Sorry for that! On Sunday I was in the first tournament in 1½ months and it was the last States of this year. But here is the catch, the tournament was held in HGSS-NV format and I didn’t have any NV cards. So, that’s why I ended up head judging the event. Thankfully I got very much out of judging because there really wasn’t many issues during the tournament and everything went smoothly. Also, I was able to get the permission from all the top4 finishers of Masters for using their decklists for my blog.
This far I’ve been able to give you guys tournament-viable decklists but now I can give you tournament winning decklists! I’m very grateful for all the Finnish players that allowed me to use their lists for my blog and I also hope you enjoy this update as well. In this update you will find all the lists of top4 finishers and my analysis of these decks.
Well, first of all, let’s look at the top8 and their decks of Helsinki States.
1. Eelektrik/Tornadus/Zekrom
2. Reshiram/Typhlosion
3. Reshiram/Typhlosion
4. Vanilluxe/Vileplume/Victini/Bellosom
5. Reshiram/Typhlosion
6. Reshiram/Emboar/Cobalion
7. Virizion/Kyurem/Reshiram/Zekrom/Terrakion
8. Reshiram/Typhlosion
4th Place
Pokémon:
4x Vanillite
4x Vanillish
3x Vanilluxe
3x Oddish
2x Gloom
2x Vileplume
1x Bellosom
2x Cleffa
2x Pichu
2x Victini(Reflip)
=25
Trainer:
4x Collector
4x Sage’s Training
4x Twins
3x N
1x Professor Oak’s New Theory
4x Communication
3x Rare Candy
=23
Energy:
8x Water Energy
4x Rescue Energy
=12
This deck is cool as ice. It’s also one of the decks that were discussed as soon as NV was released. I’m not a huge Vanilluxe fan because of its flip factor (even though with Victini you don’t really need to worry about the flips). However, ironically enough the deck lost the games it ended up flipping double tails 2 times in a row so even with Victini this deck isn’t bullet-proof. I didn’t even include Vanilluxe in my Impact Crater: Noble Victories entry because I didn’t feel like it. I guess I was wrong. This deck showed real power against a metagame that wasn’t prepared for it. It went 5-1 in the Swiss Rounds only losing to the 3rd placing ReshiPlosion in the last round.
As you can see from the list, it’s pretty orthodox build of Vanilluxe/Vileplume. The only real “twist” is Bellosom. The greatness of Bellosom is that you don’t lose to things like Tynamo’s paralyze. Your opponent may try to paralyze your Vaniluxe with Tynamo’s Thundershock which makes it 120 HP being KOed. After that Zekrom can just OHKO the Vanilluxe. Bellosom heals the 10 damage away that Thundershock deals thus making it invulnerable to paralyze stall. Remember, Bellosom also evolves from Gloom so it’s a great addition for this deck.
This deck worked very well during the whole tournament and it end up losing in top4 to the tournament winner in a donk. The matches ended up going 1-2. I’ll make a complete entry of this deck in the entry so if you’re a Vanilla Ice fan and look forward to deeper analysis of this deck, be sure to check out my blog regularly!
3rd Place
Pokémon:
1x Cleffa
4x Cyndaquil
2x Quilava
4x Typhlosion
4x Reshiram
=15
Trainer:
4x Pokémon Collector
4x Sage’s Training
2x Professor Oak’s New Theory
2x N
1x Black Belt
3x Pokegear 3.0.
4x Rare Candy
3x Eviolite
1x PlusPower
2x Potion
4x Junk Arm
2x Pokémon Catcher
1x Switch
=33
Energy:
10x Fire Energy
2x Rescue Energy
=12
This is probably my favorite list of the whole tournament. The deck shows a great personality and creativity of the deck builder. It also makes the always so boring ReshiPlosion look like a very interesting deck. There are a few unique things in the deck.
1) No communications
This was a very interesting deck-building decision in my opinion. I have seen people running 2 or 3 Communications in ReshiPlosion’s because it doesn’t run that many Pokémon. 4 is overkill in most people’s opinion. However, this deck set-upped very well and ended up going 6-0 in the Swiss Rounds.
2) Three Pokegears
I love this card and I love to see that people run many Pokegears in their decks. This decision reminded me of the Japanese lists, which I’ve seen lot of. Japanese players love to run a lot of Pokegears in every deck and it has proved to be useful there. 3 Pokegears also helped this deck to set-up in a very quick manner even though the list didn’t run any Communications. I think this decision shows a real deck-building skill.
3) Potion + Eviolite
I know that many of you see didn’t this one coming. However, it’s a very simple and effective twist to ReshiPlosion. You can Afterburner 3 energy to the Reshiram which has Eviolite attached to it, use Potion and then you have 150 HP Reshiram ready to hit 120 damage. It’s a killer move in ReshiPlosion mirrors and against Zekroms. Potion is a card that is usually underestimated in every format but I think it could very well become a staple for ReshiPlosions that need to win mirrors.
This combination also makes best use of Reshiram’s Outrage. You can completely control how much you do damage of Outrage after your opponent has hit you with Reshiram Or Zekrom thanks to AfterBurner. You always get 2 prizes with 1 Reshiram thanks to this combo and it automatically wins you every ReshiPlosion mirror you play. However, if you want to find room for these cards, you need to find space for your deck. This deck found the space from Communications and you may find them from somewhere else.
This deck ended up losing – surprisingly – a mirror match to the 2nd placing ReshiPlosion, which I’ll analyze next.
Caveat: Remember to run Legendary Collection Reverese Holo Potions – otherwise it really doesn’t work!
2nd Place
Pokémon:
1x Cleffa
4x Cyndaquil
3x Quilava
4x Typhlosion Prime
4x Reshiram
=16
Trainer:
4x Pokémon Collector
4x Professor Juniper
3x Sage’s Training
1x Judge
1x Professor Oak’s New Theory
2x Pokegear 3.0.
3x Pokémon Communication
4x Junk Arm
4x Rare Candy
3x Pokémon Catcher
1x Super Rod
2x PlusPower
=32
Energy:
2x Rescue Energy
10x Fire Energy
=12
Well, if you have read my previous entry carefully you might notice something. Yes, this list is pretty much the same as my last entry’s list and it worked VERY well throughout the whole tournament. It won the 3rd placing ReshiPlosion in a tough mirror 2-1. There isn’t much of this deck I haven’t already said so if you want to know details of this deck’s card decisions look my last entry. I was very happy to see this exact list do very well because it made me proud as a deck builder.
This deck ended up losing in the finals 2-1 to Cleffa vs. Tyrogue donk.
1st Place
Pokemon:
4x Zekrom
3x Tornadus
4x Tynamo
3x Eelektrik
1x Tyrogue
=15
Trainer:
4x Pokémon Collector
4x Professor Juniper
3x Sage’s Training
2x N
1x Professor Oak’s New Theory
2x Pokegear 3.0.
1x Black Belt
4x Pokémon Catcher
4x Junk Arm
2x Eviolite
2x PlusPower
1x Pokémon Communication
1x Switch
1x Super Rod
=32
Energy:
4x Double Colorless Energy
9x Lighting Energy
=13
This was one of the deck I expected to do well in the States. This list had some influence from my blog’s list (mainly the draw engine) but it had some personal preferences as well. First of all one card needs to be mentioned. Tyrogue – this card won many and many more games for this deck. It sealed both 3rd games in top4 and in the finals and the use of Tyrogue was very skillful in every game I watched.
The second personal preference was Black Belt which surprised the Vanilluxe deck completely in top4. Black Belt is one of the make or break cards. It can be completely useless throughout the whole tournament but when you use it even once to win a tough game it really is worth the 1 space it took from the list.
This deck had superb and very consistent set-ups throughout the whole tournament and its only losses came to Vanilluxe deck in the round 1 and to Reshiboar in the round 6. The win of the deck proved in my opinion the fact that in order to win tournaments in the current format all you need to do is to be consistent enough. This tournament included many strange and even unique decks but the two that ended up being in the finals were the 2 most “normal” looking like decks. Consistency won – once again.
About the metagame
The metagame in Helsinki States was very predictable. There were Durants, which ended up not winning because ReshiPlosions and Boars are so big in Finland. There also were few Cobalion/Kyurem/Electrodes but they all failed due the lack of consistency.
Eelektrik/Zekrom was played in many variations and it was interesting to see all the different decks that Eelektrik was able to create.
The format was more versatile than in HGSS-EP format and that’s a sigh of a healthier format. Even though the format has now more competitive decks the results still look the same. ReshiPlosion almost all the way. I’m pretty sure that the 6-corners of this tournament would’ve gone very far if it hadn’t met Vanilluxe (which is probably an autoloss to 6-corners) in top8. The player piloted it very well but there wasn’t much to do against Vanilluxes paralyze.
What to expect from my blog in the near future
I must admit that after the tournament I felt completely energized. It was more fun in the tournament than it was ever before even though I wasn’t playing. I also took pictures from the tournament so I will make a new entry of them once I have chosen the best ones. That way you can see what the playing looks like in Finland.
I know people are eagerly waiting for the Eye on Japan: Part 2 and don’t worry – it’s almost complete. There is one thing in the Eye on Japan entry, which is so difficult to explain that I have to prepare the entry very carefully. That’s why the release of the Eye on Japan: Part 2 has taken longer than estimated. I’ll probably. I’ll make announce the date of release in the Facebook and Twitter once I’m ready with it so be sure to follow TheDeckOut in both of those to be up-to-date!
I also finished my first interview in the Sunday’s tournament, which I’ll release in the upcoming weeks as well. I’m very busy with everything at the moment and I have so many ideas to my blog that I might not even have time to make all of them happen.
Remember that I’m here to provide quality material for all of you and I highly appreciate every single comment and all the feedback I get from you guys. If you have ideas or requests when it comes to my blog feel free to express them. I’ll take every suggestion into the account and make every request happen even though there are lots of them all the time!
I hope you enjoyed reading this entry and I hope it gave you new ideas and new point of views into the deck building. Also, thank you very much to all the players that game me the permission to use their lists in my blog- without you I wouldn’t have been able to make this entry! I hope I can co-operate with tournament winning players in the future as well.
Energy:
10x Fire Energy
2x Rescue Energy
=12
This is probably my favorite list of the whole tournament. The deck shows a great personality and creativity of the deck builder. It also makes the always so boring ReshiPlosion look like a very interesting deck. There are a few unique things in the deck.
1) No communications
This was a very interesting deck-building decision in my opinion. I have seen people running 2 or 3 Communications in ReshiPlosion’s because it doesn’t run that many Pokémon. 4 is overkill in most people’s opinion. However, this deck set-upped very well and ended up going 6-0 in the Swiss Rounds.
2) Three Pokegears
I love this card and I love to see that people run many Pokegears in their decks. This decision reminded me of the Japanese lists, which I’ve seen lot of. Japanese players love to run a lot of Pokegears in every deck and it has proved to be useful there. 3 Pokegears also helped this deck to set-up in a very quick manner even though the list didn’t run any Communications. I think this decision shows a real deck-building skill.
3) Potion + Eviolite
I know that many of you see didn’t this one coming. However, it’s a very simple and effective twist to ReshiPlosion. You can Afterburner 3 energy to the Reshiram which has Eviolite attached to it, use Potion and then you have 150 HP Reshiram ready to hit 120 damage. It’s a killer move in ReshiPlosion mirrors and against Zekroms. Potion is a card that is usually underestimated in every format but I think it could very well become a staple for ReshiPlosions that need to win mirrors.
This combination also makes best use of Reshiram’s Outrage. You can completely control how much you do damage of Outrage after your opponent has hit you with Reshiram Or Zekrom thanks to AfterBurner. You always get 2 prizes with 1 Reshiram thanks to this combo and it automatically wins you every ReshiPlosion mirror you play. However, if you want to find room for these cards, you need to find space for your deck. This deck found the space from Communications and you may find them from somewhere else.
This deck ended up losing – surprisingly – a mirror match to the 2nd placing ReshiPlosion, which I’ll analyze next.
Caveat: Remember to run Legendary Collection Reverese Holo Potions – otherwise it really doesn’t work!
2nd Place
Pokémon:
1x Cleffa
4x Cyndaquil
3x Quilava
4x Typhlosion Prime
4x Reshiram
=16
Trainer:
4x Pokémon Collector
4x Professor Juniper
3x Sage’s Training
1x Judge
1x Professor Oak’s New Theory
2x Pokegear 3.0.
3x Pokémon Communication
4x Junk Arm
4x Rare Candy
3x Pokémon Catcher
1x Super Rod
2x PlusPower
=32
Energy:
2x Rescue Energy
10x Fire Energy
=12
Well, if you have read my previous entry carefully you might notice something. Yes, this list is pretty much the same as my last entry’s list and it worked VERY well throughout the whole tournament. It won the 3rd placing ReshiPlosion in a tough mirror 2-1. There isn’t much of this deck I haven’t already said so if you want to know details of this deck’s card decisions look my last entry. I was very happy to see this exact list do very well because it made me proud as a deck builder.
This deck ended up losing in the finals 2-1 to Cleffa vs. Tyrogue donk.
1st Place
Pokemon:
4x Zekrom
3x Tornadus
4x Tynamo
3x Eelektrik
1x Tyrogue
=15
Trainer:
4x Pokémon Collector
4x Professor Juniper
3x Sage’s Training
2x N
1x Professor Oak’s New Theory
2x Pokegear 3.0.
1x Black Belt
4x Pokémon Catcher
4x Junk Arm
2x Eviolite
2x PlusPower
1x Pokémon Communication
1x Switch
1x Super Rod
=32
Energy:
4x Double Colorless Energy
9x Lighting Energy
=13
This was one of the deck I expected to do well in the States. This list had some influence from my blog’s list (mainly the draw engine) but it had some personal preferences as well. First of all one card needs to be mentioned. Tyrogue – this card won many and many more games for this deck. It sealed both 3rd games in top4 and in the finals and the use of Tyrogue was very skillful in every game I watched.
The second personal preference was Black Belt which surprised the Vanilluxe deck completely in top4. Black Belt is one of the make or break cards. It can be completely useless throughout the whole tournament but when you use it even once to win a tough game it really is worth the 1 space it took from the list.
This deck had superb and very consistent set-ups throughout the whole tournament and its only losses came to Vanilluxe deck in the round 1 and to Reshiboar in the round 6. The win of the deck proved in my opinion the fact that in order to win tournaments in the current format all you need to do is to be consistent enough. This tournament included many strange and even unique decks but the two that ended up being in the finals were the 2 most “normal” looking like decks. Consistency won – once again.
About the metagame
The metagame in Helsinki States was very predictable. There were Durants, which ended up not winning because ReshiPlosions and Boars are so big in Finland. There also were few Cobalion/Kyurem/Electrodes but they all failed due the lack of consistency.
Eelektrik/Zekrom was played in many variations and it was interesting to see all the different decks that Eelektrik was able to create.
The format was more versatile than in HGSS-EP format and that’s a sigh of a healthier format. Even though the format has now more competitive decks the results still look the same. ReshiPlosion almost all the way. I’m pretty sure that the 6-corners of this tournament would’ve gone very far if it hadn’t met Vanilluxe (which is probably an autoloss to 6-corners) in top8. The player piloted it very well but there wasn’t much to do against Vanilluxes paralyze.
What to expect from my blog in the near future
I must admit that after the tournament I felt completely energized. It was more fun in the tournament than it was ever before even though I wasn’t playing. I also took pictures from the tournament so I will make a new entry of them once I have chosen the best ones. That way you can see what the playing looks like in Finland.
I know people are eagerly waiting for the Eye on Japan: Part 2 and don’t worry – it’s almost complete. There is one thing in the Eye on Japan entry, which is so difficult to explain that I have to prepare the entry very carefully. That’s why the release of the Eye on Japan: Part 2 has taken longer than estimated. I’ll probably. I’ll make announce the date of release in the Facebook and Twitter once I’m ready with it so be sure to follow TheDeckOut in both of those to be up-to-date!
I also finished my first interview in the Sunday’s tournament, which I’ll release in the upcoming weeks as well. I’m very busy with everything at the moment and I have so many ideas to my blog that I might not even have time to make all of them happen.
Remember that I’m here to provide quality material for all of you and I highly appreciate every single comment and all the feedback I get from you guys. If you have ideas or requests when it comes to my blog feel free to express them. I’ll take every suggestion into the account and make every request happen even though there are lots of them all the time!
I hope you enjoyed reading this entry and I hope it gave you new ideas and new point of views into the deck building. Also, thank you very much to all the players that game me the permission to use their lists in my blog- without you I wouldn’t have been able to make this entry! I hope I can co-operate with tournament winning players in the future as well.
Sorry that I haven't posted before. I really haven't had a time to read your blog earlier and I started to read it through yesterday. I spent a few hours to read some of the earliest articles and will use multiple hours more to read rest of 'em, too. So far, this blog is a top notch. So thanks for making such a great work.
ReplyDeletePS: Thanks for judging the tournament and thanks for liking my Reshiram/Typhlosion list. I should try to get another copy of the LC reverse Potion since the set has the greatest reverse holos ever printed. :)
Great stuff here. Congrats to the deckbuilders.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised to not see any Kyurem. Was that digimon played ?
I'm curious about RCBoar.
Nice ! Happy to see a trainer-locker there.
ReplyDeleteHey bro, just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate the time you spend blogging. I am now into my second year as a pokedad and your blog has been such a HUGE resource for me and my son. Seriously, thank you so much! We LOVE your blog!
ReplyDeleteTonu: No problem. At least you have lots of to read now :D I really liked your deck in such a heavy ReshiPlosion metagame like ours.
ReplyDeleteZarmakuizz: There were some Cobalion/Kyurem/Electrodes but they didn't do that well. Energymite failed too many times. It might be argued if the build were correct but I didn't check their lists so I can't comment on those.
Reshiboar had Cobalion as a Kyurem tech but I think it was only in the way when the deck faced ReshiPlosion in top8. Good tech but didn't fit the current metagame.
ken: Thank you very much! There is nothing that gives me more energy for writing my blog than a happy reader. It's always great to hear that I am able to help people!
Another quality article with very interesting lists.
ReplyDeleteLooks like your blog is having a big impact in Finland . . . Zekrom/Eel wins, 6 Corners top cuts, and your Typh list takes second.
Looking forward to the next post.
~Jak (baby mario)
Thanks so much for your writing. Inspiring and helpful ;-)
ReplyDeleteNo Kyurem/Gatr did well? Chandelure?
ReplyDeleteThoughts on Reshiboar's viability post-Mewtwo EX?
ReplyDeleteJak: Yeah, I noticed the same thing. I was bit surprised about that even though it isn't anewq thing. I have always influenced on Finnish metagame since people usually consider me as the number one player in Finland due my Nats victories. Glad you like it.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous: Thanks a lot!
Politoed666: My testings have showns that Kyurem/Gatr hasn't done well enough to stand against the metagame. I'm pretty sure most of the people have came to same conclusion. I don't know why it doesn't work well but it just lacks something in order to do well. I think Kyurem/Electrode is better. I was a bit surprised that noone wasn't playing Chandelure in any form but I'm pretty sure someone will play it in the next tournament.
Anonymous: I think ReshiBoar has potential after Mewtwo EX is released. It can very easily tech in Mewtwo EX or RDL in order to counter Mewtwo EX. Magneboar is also being played in Japan due Mewtwo EX being popular but about that more in Eye on Japan: Part 2.
Thanks for comments everyone!
Yeah, that Cobalion tech wasn't that good an addition. I thought more people would play Kyurem, but...
ReplyDeleteDurant got burned, aaw. :(
ReplyDelete