States report with Celebi/Mewtwo/Tornadus

And the "LVP" award goes to...

Hi everyone!

So I was in my first States this year and it was a pretty important tournament for me because in our bye system, I was only 4^th (top4 gets two byes for Nationals). I would only have 1 tournament before Nationals after this tournament, so the importance of the tournament was HUGE. I had to do well, if I wanted to keep up with the race with our bye system.

Since the tournament was important, I had to play the BDIF in my opinion – Celebi/Mewtwo/Tornadus. Well, to be completely honest, more like Celebi/Mewtwo with Tornadus tech. The previous list of mine worked very well in the ECC and I was very comfortable with the list and deck I played back then, so I only made a few changes to the decklist.

This is what the tournament list looked like.

Pokémon:

4x Celebi Prime
3x Mewtwo EX
1x Tornadus
=8

Trainer:

4x Professor Juniper
4x Dual Ball
2x Copycat
3x N
2x Professor Oak’s New Theory
3x Pokegear 3.0.
2x Skyarrow Bridge
4x Junk Arm
4x Pokémon Catcher
3x Switch
2x Eviolite
3x PlusPower
1x Revive
1x Energy Retrieval
=38

Energy:

4x Double Colorless Energy
10x Grass Energy
=14


I wanted to put in Tornadus to help in donking against Durant and to help in some situations in Mewtwo EX wars. I thought it was a great addition alongside with Energy Retrieval, which was also a tech against Durant match-up because it’s very difficult ever since Durant has started teching Mewtwo EXs and DCEs to the deck. Anyways, the changes I made… Well, let’s just say that things didn’t go as planned.

So let’s see how the tournament went!

1. Round Zekrom/Eelektrik/Zapdos/Mewtwo EX

As soon as I drew my opening hand, I was happy that I put Tornadus in my deck. My opening hand had: Grass energy, DCE, Celebi Prime, Tornadus, Skyarrow Bridge, Juniper and Catcher. So, as you can see, it was a perfect start. Well, I even went first and was pretty sure that I had a chance to win T1. Well, she opened with Zapdos, so naturally I couldn’t donk him. Nevertheless, I got T1 Tornadus going and with Catchers and with good flow of supporters, she never got a decent set-up. I just pretty much run through her deck thanks to my fast start.
1-0

2. Round MagneBoar

He was playing my MagneBoar build, which I introduced in my last Underground article. I got a quick T1 Mewtwo EX with Catchers but he immediately responded to it with Twins, Magnezone Prime and Emboar and OHKOed my Mewtwo EX. I knew, I was in huge problems but thankfully I knew the deck’s weaknesses since it was my own build. I was pretty sure, I could win the game even though I was behind prizes as long as I could kill off his Magnezones and N him to 1 card. That’s exactly what I did. I lured him into 1 prize and started a comeback with Mewtwo EX. However, he draw very well from the 1 card N and in the end he N’d me to 2 cards. We both draw the perfect cards from N and I was able to seal the game just a turn before he would’ve gotten his last prize. It was a very good game.
2-0

3. Round Quad-Terrakion

I had thought the match-up inside out and was pretty comfortable with it. However, this was a downer-pairing and since so many players didn’t show up to the tournament we only had top4 and 5 Swiss rounds. That meant that my tie break would be so horrible after this match that there was no hope for me to get to top4, unless I go undefeated. Unfortunately, we both had horrible opening hands and I killed his only Terrakion with 1 DCE Mewtwo EX in 3 turns while he was draw-passing and I was draw-hitting. Terrible game.
3-0

I checked the standings and my tie-break was 33,33%. Yeah right…

4. Durant/Mewtwo EX

I didn’t know he had Mewtwo EX in his deck but as soon as he laughed at his opening hand, I had a feeling, he was going to start with Mewtwo. Well, my hand was horrible with my lone Tornadus, Dual Ball and PONT. He went first and opened with Mewtwo EX. However, he also had a DCE in hand and hit my Tornadus for 40. I Dual Balled for double tails, PONTd and draw into nothing and passed. He Junipered and was 10 damage away from finishing me since I didn’t attach an energy to my Tornadus. Then, I N’d and drew into Mewtwo EX. After I killed his Mewtwo EX with my Mewtwo EX, the game was pretty simple. I tried to hit for energy/Energy Retrieval with my draw cards but they all seemed to be in the bottom of my deck. He also drew a perfectly timed Lost Remover and hit heads from his Crushing Hammers. These combined to my misplay Forest Breath to my Celebi and my horrible draws, I scooped since I hadn’t drawn a single prize after the Mewtwo EX KO.
3-1

5. Celebi/Mewtwo EX/Tornadus/Shaymin

This guy was very nervous since he had a very big confusion in his last game. Once again, I opened with my only Tornadus and a very bad hand. I started the game and drew 3 turns straight until he ran out of energy and was forced to N (which was a misplay in my opinion). Well, I didn’t draw that well from the N anyways and couldn’t go with my normal strategy (Mewtwo EX race with 1 Celebi Prime in play) and in the end it came down to if he had a DCE, PlusPower and a Mewtwo EX in his hand. In the end, he had those cards in his hand and I lost the game.
3-2


So, I went 3-2 thanks to horrible opening hands and horrible games but the funny part of the tournament was yet to come. Since top8 of States get ranking points, I could’ve gotten CPs if I could’ve made into top8 of the tournament. I came to check the standings and noticed that the last game of the tournament decided, if I was 8^th and the player who was in tie with me in the CP points race was 9^th. The game ended the way, it was better for me and we went to check the final standings. In the end, I was 8^th, with the same opponent’s win percentage as the 9^th but with 6% better opponent’s opponent’s percentage. Yeah, I consider myself very lucky even though the tournament was a disaster for me. Also, my girlfriend played very well (a 4-1 result) but didn’t make the top cut since there were five 4-1s and one 5-0.

Even though, the tournament didn’t go well, I learnt something. Either you play CMT with big Tornadus line or go with my old build. I was very comfortable with my own old build and the changes, I made, cost me the tournament. In every game, where I opened with the lone Tornadus AND a horrible hand, I would’ve mulliganed with my old build. However, thanks to the Tornadus addition, I had horrible hands and I couldn’t go with my normal game-plan in any of the games. In short, I could give Tornadus the “least valuable player” reward of the tournament.

Thanks to CPs, I got from the tournament I claimed the second spot of the CP system in Finland. The current situation looks like this.

51p Jouni L
31p Esa J
29p Mauri V
26p Miska S
----------------- 2x bye
23p Henrik L
19p Mikko A
14p Toni T
14p Ville V
----------------- 1x bye

As you can see, it’s a very tough race for the 4^th 2-bye place and since I will be missing our last States, I MUST guarantee the 2 byes in my next tournament, which will be next weekend. Nothing is decided and next weekend will be a very important for everyone. I have guaranteed 1 bye but with 2 byes, I can lose a few bad opening hands/donks in Nationals and still be able to top cut. It’s the second-most important tournament of the year and having 2 byes there is a huge advantage.

Also, there was a tournament on Sunday, in which a lot of Finnish players went (in Sweden) but since I was tired and foreign tournaments didn’t count into points system, I decided not to play there. I would’ve loved to test my MagneBoar list in a tournament atmosphere but unfortunately that wasn’t a possibility.

My last real tournament  before Nationals will be next weekend and I’m planning to go there with only one goal in my mind – to guarantee the byes. I already have almost enough CP points to get the ranking invite since I’ve done well in international tournaments but since they aren’t counted for bye-system, it’s a close race.

All in all, the tournament didn’t go as planned but I get what I came for – more CPs. The whole weekend was a blast just like Turku-Stockholm weekends always are. There wasn’t much to experience game-wise but I learnt a bit more once again and that’s all what matters – the real tournament are still yet to come.

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment or question anything!