Double tournament report w/ Chandelure - once again

Still missing Litwicks

Hello to all The Deck Out followers!


I just came back from a great weekend of 2 Cities and here I am with a report from them. If you've read my latest report you know that I played the offensive version, which was surprising for many players worldwide. I think it's better than the healing version in the random match-ups, which are the scariest ones and that's why I play it. I also love how well trainer lock and Special Conditions comboes together.

I played once again Chandelure like in my last Cities weekend but this time with a bit modified list. I didn't feel like switching the deck since I did so well in the last Cities. I usually switch the deck only if I get too bored to it or if I don't do well enough with it.

I played this list in both of the Cities this weekend and didn't modify it between the tournaments like 2 weeks ago. Here is the list this time.

Pokemon:

4x Litwick(Teleportation Burst – Yeah I didn't still have any Promos lol)
4x Lampent
4x Chandelure
2x Doduo
2x Dodrio
3x Oddish
2x Vileplume
1x Chansey
1x Blissey Prime
1x Jirachi
2x Pichu
1x Cleffa
=27

Trainer:

4x Pokémon Collector
4x Twins
4x Sage's Training
2x N
3x Pokémon Communication
2x Tropical Beach
3x Rare Candy
=22

Energy:
3x Rescue Energy
8x Psychic Energy
=11


As you can see – if you read my previous report – I dropped Switch/PONT and 1 Rescue Energy for 1-1 Blissey Prime line. This decision was not necessarily because I needed Blissey before but because I wanted to test how Blissey works in this deck. If I'm gonna write an article about Chandelure I must fully understand both versions of the deck. So, to be honest I just changed the list for the change. A little change can't hurt much – I think.

Anyways, let's get down to the first tournament on Saturday.


1. Round Vanilluxe/Victini/Vileplume

So, attacking version of Chandelure or non-attacking version of Chandelure – Vanilluxe is an autowin. Don't set-up Plume – get a fast Chandelure and once you have targeted down their Victinis with Cursed Shadow, they start flipping double tails time to time. In this match, the 2^nd Victini was prized so it wasn't really a match at all. Blissey makes the match-up the most autowinnable match in the whole format.
1-0

2. Landorus/Machamp Prime/Vileplume

I built this deck with him a day before the tournament. We both had very slow set-ups and that really hurt him. Machamp would be very good against the ordinary spreading version of Chandelure but it really can't handle the attacking version because Chandelure OHKOs Machamp. Nuff' said, I won the game thanks to Eerie Glow.
2-0

Rounds from 3 to 5

I completely forgot. I suspect them to be Zekrom / Reshiram match-ups because I don't remember much of them. All the games are so similar that they usually get mixed up together. I really should start taking notes in a tournament so I can make better reports. Anyways, I'll add these matches as soon as I'll release my report in Finnish on the Finnish Pokémon forums and ask who I played against.

5-0

6. Round Mirror

This was very straightforward game and it was against my big brother which suprised me a little bit. I don't remember the last time we were the only undefeated players left in the last Swiss round. He had a bad start compared to my ok start and I just run through him.
6-0


Top8 Zekrom/Eelektrik/Tornadus

1. Game

In this match-up it all comes down to how many prizes you gave them before you're able to set-up. Once you've given 3 prizes, you can still win. With 4 you must play perfectly and with 5 prizes, it's almost impossible to make a come back. However, in this game Pichu slept in the front a long time so I was able to set-up maybe too long. I guess I gave 2 prizes before I came attacking. Tynamos at 40 HP are too easy for Chandelure to kill thanks to Jirachi.
1-0(7-0)


Game 2

Look at the game number one. Instead of 2 prizes, I gave 3 prizes and it came down to 1-1 prizes but I still had the game all the time.
2-0(8-0)

Top4 looked like this:Chandelure/Vileplume
Typhlosion/Magnezone

6 Corners
6 Corners



Top4 Six Corners/Spinarak

1. Game

I just hate this match-up. I also know that the players tech in Spinarak just to give Chandelure huge issues. Thanks to Spinarak I really can't use Babies at all because I took out the Switch from my list. I have to set-up without Babies which makes things difficult. Fortunately, I had a good start but made a huge misplay in turn 3, which costed me the game. I used Sage and had an option to take a Chandelure (3 energy Lampent on the bench) but for some reason thought that I already had the Communication in my hand. So I discarded Chandelure, looked at my hand and facepalmed. After a couple of turns Kyurem killed me to the death.
0-1 (8-1)

2. Game

Ok, because I lost the first game Baby option was completely unavailable. Thankfully I had a very good start and got a very early Chandelure spreading damage all over. His start was pretty slow and I was able to load energy to my active Chandelure. Once trainer lock is set-upped and I can start making havoc with Confusion to the big Pokémons, I gain the advantage. Six Corners doesn't have any energy acceleration so Confuse is HUGE against it unless they flip all the confuse flips heads. The game was pretty quickly mine.
1-1(9-1)

3. Game
We had about 20 minutes left so Babies were once again out of the option. I had a decent start but so did he. The game went pretty much back and forth until he made a very crucial mistake -played Terrakion on the bench before Juniper. He had a full bench so I decided to use this situation as my advantage. I used Lampents Luring Light on Terrakion and brought it to active Position. Without Shaymin, he would never be able to retreat or attach enough energy to attack 90 with it so for the rest of the game the Terrakion just stood in the front while I slowly killed his bench with Cursed Shadow.
2-1(10-1)

Finals Typhlosion/Magnezone


1. Game

I haven't tested this match-up at all because I really didn't think Typhlosion/Magnezone wasn't a viable option but I guess it really is in a format full of Zekrom/Eelektrik. I once again took an early control with Lampents Luring Light and while he struggled getting any energy I was able to spread around some serious damage. Trainer lock is just too much for a stage2 deck that isn't designed to set itself up in a trainer lock. The deck really start up at all once I killed its only Magnezone Prime.
1-0(11-1)


2. Game

I didn't get as fast trainer lock as in the early game so he was able to set-up 2 Typhlosions. I soon realised that it didn't really matter because Reshiram wasn't threat because it can't OHKO Chandelures and if they keep attacking with Magnezones they run out of resources too fast. Thanks to trainer lock they can't even get energy in the discard pile with Junk Arm, which makes things for them even more difficult. Typhlosion also inflicts damage on them, which makes killing things with Chandelure and Jirachi even easier. Last seal is confusion on the Magnezone, which are helpless in confusion and burn because they can't retreat because of trainer lock and can't use their powers thanks to special conditions. Chandelure is too good.
2-0(12-1)


I won the tournament! I was very happy about it since it was my 3^rd win in a row. My CC victories are now in total of 19, which is pretty nice in my opinion. I also finally got some NVI (loaned almost the whole deck for the tournaments from a friend) for myself and opened them for 4-3-1 Chandelure line.

I was satisfied with boosters but really wasn't that satisfied with the deck. Yes, it worked very well but I really didn't need Blissey that much in any of the games. There really wasn't that much of a challenge because the most familiar match-ups go all the time the same way around. Give a few prizes for them and win the game with Twins.

I really felt like I need a change of deck but didn't have energy to build a second good deck for the next tournament. So, I went to the next tournament with one promise in my mind. No matter what the result is, this will be my last tournament with Chandelure.


1. Round Kyurem/Cobalion/Electrode

I made a one very simple mistake in this game – forgot my game plan against a deck like this. I really shouldn't be set-upping Vileplume against this deck but somehow I played an Oddish on my bench. My opponent took an easy prize from it and once I N'd him to 1 card, he drew Juniper from it. Nuff' said I had nothing to do after that.
0-1

2. Round Zekrom/Eelektrik/Thundurus

So here's the deal. As I said in the previous tournament, this match-up is pretty much an autowin if you lay your damage counters correctly. They can't OHKO you, which is pretty ridiculous and they really can't too anything else either if you don't let them. I played this match-up too many times this weekend and they all went the same way – activate Twins, set-up trainer lock, win the game. This would happen for many times during this tournament.
1-1

3. Round Six Corners

This was against Miska. We have pretty much played the match-up and analyzed it and if he doesn't have any teches against Chandelure, there is nothing 6-corners can do. He removed all his Chandelure teches from the Saturday tournament so once he opened with Shaymin, I showed my hand to him and he scooped. We could've played for 15 minutes but the outcome of the match-up wouldn't have really changed from it.
2-1

4. Round Zekrom/Eelektrik/Tornadus

See Round 2.
3-1

5. Round Zekrom/Eelektrik/Tornadus

See round 4.
4-1

6. Round Zekrom/Eelektrik/Tornadus

See round 5. Yes, the metagame was pretty much full of these decks.
5-1

Top8 Reuniclus/Vileplume/Steelix/SuiTei/Kyurem

1. Game

I enjoyed a lot of this match-up because it was completely new to me. Steelix is a theorymon solution against Chandelure but it really doesn't solve the real problem – Lampent. He tried to set-up Reuniclus through Duosion playing 3 Solosis on the bench at the same time in the beginning. He was able to set-up Reuniclus but I just dragged it to the active position with Lampent. Reuniclus has 2x weak to Psychic, so I guess you figured already out what's gonna happen to an active Reuniclus if its the defending Pokémon in my turn. Nuff' said, I soon noticed that against all odds, this is near to an autowin as well.
1-0(6-1)

2. Game

He tried to win the game with a Steelix since he realised Reuniclus would be dead-weight but since Onix only has 90 HP, Jirachi took Steelix quite easily down thanks to a few Cursed Shadows.
2-0(7-1)

I was pretty disappointed because I felt like Chandelure was so overpowered at the moment that it was pretty much tearing through the whole format. I guess it has done the same in the tournaments all over the world now when it's public for everyone.

Top4 looked like this:

Kyurem/Cobalion/Electrode
Chandelure/Vileplume
Chandelure/Vileplume
Chandelure/Vileplume



Top4 Mirror

1. Game
I tested only 1 mirror match before the tournament and noticed that it was pretty brainless match-up. The player who set-ups first has a huge advantage because he can pretty much control the game. I was fortunate enough to set-up very early and to begin the game so I had the game in hand. I noticed that he only had Litwicks on his bench and I already had Chandelure on play so I took a risk and Candied a Vileplume into the game. I spread some more damage and soon he scooped because thanks to trainer lock he wasn't able to get any Chandelures to play because I didn't give him Twins.
1-0(8-1)

2. Game

Obviously he chooses to go first. For some reason I was able to set-up a T3 Chandelure once again. He was a turn late from me but since he went first, it was a very tough game. This was one of the best Chandelure mirrors that can ever happen because no one had a too huge advantage. I probably won the game to one not that big mistake. He played Chansey on his bench. I immediately checked his discard pile and noticed that he had used almost all his energy (he was playing the attacking version as well). His bench was full and he didn't had a Dodrio (Killed it) on it so I used the broken Lampent once again to drag the Chansey to the front. He had his last energy prized so I was able to damage Blissey Prime to 120 damage with Will o' Wisp and then killed his Jirachi, Blissey and Cleffa in the same turn with Chandelure. Lampent is so underrated.
2-0(9-1)

Finals Kyurem/Cobalion/Electrode

1. Game

This was against the 2007 World Champion Tom Roos. We always have very tough and weird games with Tom and this match was no exception. Tom said after these games that in his testings the match-up has been pretty much an autowin to Kyurem/Cobalion/Electrode. I knew this wouldn't be easy and I really enjoyed the challenge. Most of the games with Chandelure is just repeating the same formula all over again and again. The reason I enjoy Pokémon is the challenged it offers time to time and this match-up really is one of the challenges it offers.

I didn't have that much of a good opening in this game (no collector in my opening hand) but had a Communication. I really hadn't any other option than to use Pichu, which I drew from the Sage. That gave him too many Trodes and knew I was in trouble because my Chansey was prized and my opening was weak. He blew up 3 Trodes by turn 4 and I didn't draw Chansey from the 3 prizes I got. I knew the game was over because he didn't get any under 3 energy Energymite, which is unbelievable without Research Records. I scooped soon enough. I told Tom after the game that I have no chance if the deck works like that in every game.
0-1(9-2)


2. Game

We both mulliganed once and had horrible starts. We both set-upped soon enough but he set-upped a little bit faster. Once again I was in trouble thanks to my horrible draw and start but I had Blissey this time to buy me some time. I used Lampent to drag off energyless big Pokémons to the front a few times but he somehow got all the time everything he needed for retreating. I really didn't get get how much the deck has resources even after Energymites. However, something very funny happened in this game. I thought very carefully my every move and after many and many more turns I had a decent set-up and he was running out of resources. We both talked about the game later on the tournament and no one really understood what happened. I understood that I was in fact able to win the game after a few very crucial moves because I noticed that all the people in the tournament was gathered around our game and literally hold their breaths. I would have loved to have this game recorded. I can't explain in English or in Finnish what happened but I'm pretty sure that I played as perfectly as it's possible and made a right decision in every step of the game. This was probably one of the best games I have ever played in my life. And that's pretty much to say from a player who has won Yuta Komatsuda in a Palkia G mirror match.
1-1(10-2)


3. Game

I once again had a very slow and bad start and had Chansey prized once again. I was pretty frustrated about those 2 things because I pretty much felt like the 2^nd game went in vain because of these 2 things. Soon enough, he blow up 2 Trodes – I once again didn't draw Chansey from the prizes and lost the game.
1-2(10-3)

Conclusion

So I placed 2^nd in my 4th Cities this year. My placement for 4 CC are now 1^st, 1^st,1^st and 2^nd place. The best finish limit is just around the corner! I already have 23 Championship Points, which I'm very happy with since I wasn't able to attend any States/Regionals. I was very happy with the results from the tournament even though I had some bad luck in the finals. Well, it would be inhuman to win every time and bad luck happens so I wasn't that mad about it. I was also very happy to play a few very good and interesting games during the tournament. I also got some very important experience about playing Chandelure so I can make a very good article about it.

Now is time for change. After playing against 4 Zekroms in the Swiss I knew that I just wanted to get over the tournament start making a new deck. Playing Chandelure is fun when the match-ups are difficult and versatile but playing almost autowin and brainless match-ups isn't fun at all. I also have enough CP points from CC s to start playing more interesting decks like Six Corners in the future. I hope I can come up with good new approaches to decks just like before.

I hope you enjoyed the report and that you learnt a thing or two how Chandelure and its match-up work. My next update will be about the Ross.dec/The Truth and I'll be releasing at the same time as always my 2^nd update of the week. Thanks for reading and feel free to comment!

P.S. Everyone who has contacted me regarding to The Deck Out goes global and offered their help – now would be great time to submit your entries about your country! I'm still missing a half of them.