6-time National Champion's Report

It's Hammertime!

Hello everyone!

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you already probably know it. Even if you don’t follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you may still know it. Anyways, I WON NATIONALS. For the 6^th time to be exact. I know most of you are dying to know about how my tournament went and what deck I played so I won’t bother you with the introductions any more than necessary.

The deck I played was Darkrai EX/Tornadus EX. However, the list differs probably from everything you have seen before and the deck fundamental strategy differs from other Darkrai decks as well. I played the deck a lot and made the decision to play it a long time ago. I won’t probably be playing it in the World Championships because I would like to go rogue in the Worlds, so I don’t mind giving the deck list for everyone. I hope you’ll have a great success with this deck as I did and if you play it, it would be cool if you let me know about it and how you did with it. E-mail, FB and Twitter are all easy ways to get touch with me.

Anyways, let’s start the report. Here’s the final list, which won me a trip to Hawaii. I like to call the deck “Hammertime”. As soon as you see the list, you probably know why.

Pokémon:

3x Darkrai EX
2x Tornadus EX
3x Sableye (DEX)
1x Smeargle
1x Shaymin
=10

Trainer:

4x Random Receiver
4x Professor Juniper
4x Professor Oak’s New Theory
2x N
4x Crushing Hammer
2x Enhanced Hammer
3x Pokémon Catcher
3x Junk Arm
1x Super Scoop Up
4x Dark Patch
3x Ultra Ball
2x Eviolite
1x Dark Claw
=37


Energy:

10x Basic Darkness
3x Special Darkness
=13

The deck functioned perfectly throughout the whole tournament and there is not much tweaking to do in my opinion. I love how the deck worked and fixed it a lot in the previous months. I won’t be getting too in-depth with the deck in this entry but will make an entry about the deck probably later this week. However, there are few things I would like to point out about the deck right now.

- Sableye is the most underrated card in the whole format (It’s especially sick with Hammer trainers and Random Receiver).
- I ran Enchanced Hammers instead of Lost Remover because I feel like the Lost Removers disrupt the deck’s “feng shui” – yes, I’m superstitious about Pokémon TCG
- The deck autowins any deck that can’t energy accelerate (as you will see from the report)
- The deck has a great mirror match-up against any Darkrai variants thanks to Hammers
- I hate DCE in this deck because there is nothing worse than attaching a DCE to Darkrai EX and then get OHKOed by Mewtwo EX
- The deck’s only goal is to be faster than your opponent, it really doesn’t matter if you have a slow start because thanks to Sableye and Hammers, you can slow your opponent down a lot as well
- The deck is eaten alive by Vileplume

Here’s the points I wanted to make. Well, let’s get into the report. I was afraid that Masters would have very few players but gladly 60 Masters turned out to the tournament. The sad part was that it meant that probably no 4-2’s could make the top. You needed at least a 5-1 to get to the top cut or a sick tie break with 4-2 result. Thankfully I had two byes so I would have a sick tie break if it came to that.


1. Round Bye Number One

I went to toilet.
1-0

2. Round Bye Number Two

I ate some food.
2-0

It’s always nerve-wrecking to start the tournament with 2 byes. It’s good but at the same time you’ll play against a person that already has won two games. For you, it’s the tournament’s first game and if you lose the first game of the tournament, it never is good for you.

3. Round (Darkrai EX/Tornadus EX)

Nice, a mirror match to the beginning. Usually I hate mirrors because they depend so much on luck (especially with the current rules) and can just end up into prize racing. However, as I have a huge edge in the mirrors thanks to my disruption, I was pretty confident. He started the game but couldn’t get a T1 energy attachment. At that point I knew already that I was in a very strong situation. If you want to win a deck with a lot of Hammers in it, you need every single energy attachment, you can get. I got of a decent start with Smeargle and while he got a T2 DCE (which I hammered away as soon as DCE landed on the bench), he had no chance. He portraited me and saw that next turn I would have Darkrai EX ready to attack. At the same time he hadn’t any energy on the field or basic energy in the discard pile and decided to scoop for a lunch break. The game would have been over the next turn, I would have started attacking.
3-0

Lunch break. I hate lunch breaks. I love to play lots of games in a row and lunch breaks usually disrupt my tempo in tournaments.

4. Round (Darkrai EX/Terrakion/Kyurem EX/Mewtwo EX/Shaymin/Cobalion – Six Corners variant)

I wasn’t sure what he played but I knew that he once played 6 Corners. He opened with Heatmor and benched some different Pokémon on the bench. He hit 20 for my Darkrai EX with Heatmor and DCE. I knew my strategy as soon as I saw what the deck has – infinite Hammer time. I started to run through my deck to get every single Junk Arm/Hammers to my discard pile so I could just Junk Hunt them over and over again once he had run out of energy. The deck played only special energy so it was a very easy task thanks to my 2 Enhanced Hammers. He noticed very quickly what was happening but there was nothing he could do about it. I discarded all his energy with Junk Hunt + Hammers combo and he decked out. Autowin is an autowin and there’s nothing you can do about it.
4-0

I added the 2^nd Enhanced Hammer and 3^rd Sableye only a night before the tournament and after that match I was very happy that I did so. The cards I ended up cutting were 1-1 Weavile line. Later in the tournament I missed my Weavile…

5. Round (Darkrai EX/?)

This was a downer pairing, which meant that I needed to win the game. Otherwise it would screw up my opponent’s percentage. Fortunately I got a god start in this match. I started with Sableye and got a T2 Darkrai EX with the help of Shaymin. He struggled with my fast start and the only thing I saw was 2 Darkrai EXs and 2 Sneasels.
5-0

6. Round (Zekrom/Eelektrik/Mewtwo EX)

Well, I was in the top cut already so I had no pressure. However, this match-up was once again an autowin. The reason for this was that he played 30 HP Tynamos. In this metagame you can’t afford using 30 HP Tynamos, otherwise you’ll be slaughtered by any Darkrai variants. 90 Eelektrik and 30 to Tynamo is just too deadly.
6-0

Interesting fact: even though I have won Nationals 5 times before, I have NEVER gone X-0 in the Swiss rounds. Usually I have horrible luck on my side (horrible opening hands or donks) so I was very happy how well my deck functioned. Anyways, after the swiss the top8 looked liked this. I’m not 100% sure about the placements in 3-6 places.

1. Esa J.( Darkrai EX/Tornadus EX)
2. Jouni L (Darkrai EX/Tornadus EX) (6-0 as well)
3. Miska S. (Eelektrik/Zekrom EX/Mewtwo EX)
4. Petri T (Mewtwo EX/Darkrai EX/ Vileplume/Mismagius UL/Terrakion) (Don’t worry – I’ll be making an article about this deck as well.
5. Ville V (Celebi/Mewtwo EX/Tornadus)
6. Santtu K.  (Darkrai EX/Terrakion/Kyurem EX/Mewtwo EX/Shaymin/Cobalion – Six Corners variant)
7. Joni V. (Darkrai EX/Tornadus EX)
8. Patrik R. (Zoroark/Weavile/Darkrai EX)

My big brother lost in the last round with the same deck as mine to the 6 corners variant. I don’t know how he succeeded in it but somehow he did. Also, I was very surprised that I was the number 1 seed because I played against 2 downer pairings, very weird.


Top8 Zoroark/Weavile/Darkrai EX

Game 1.

I didn’t know what he played and the last time I saw him playing, he was playing CMT. I mulliganed 2 times, he went first and I had a lone Sableye as my starter. I was very afraid of the donk. However, he flips over a Zorua and a Sneasel and I’m relieved. Thanks to Special Darkness energy the match-up is very good. Also, the Hammers disrupt the deck’s Zoroark-flow so badly that I have a huge upper hand in the match-up. The game went exactly as planned. I had a good start thanks to the Sableye and started Hammering his energy away. Once I got my Darkrai EX set-upped, one Darkrai took 4 prizes until it was KOed. After that, the 2^nd Darkrai EX took care of the rest.
1-0 (7-0)

Game 2.

This was pretty much a replay of the first match but he got a very slow start even without my disruption (except for one early Catcher). I think he didn’t KO a single Darkrai EX before he scooped the game. There really was nothing he could do as long as I had a good opening hand.
2-0 (8-0)

The game were over pretty quickly so I started to look at the other games. I knew that I only had one difficult match-up in left in the top cut. And it was the Kumis.dec, which had Vileplume in it. My deck runs about 30 trainers so if 50% of my deck was useless, how could I win? Well, unfortunately I needed to find out.


Top4 (Kumis dec.- (Mewtwo EX/Darkrai EX/ Vileplume/Mismagius UL/Terrakion) )

Game 1.

He started the game and there was only one thing I knew for sure – I couldn’t give him Twins before he set-upped the Vileplume. If I went aggro, I would be doomed because his Twins would be activated and there was nothing I could to with my trainers. I tried to draw into my Eviolites to my Darkrai EXs and set-up a double Oddish KO for the same turn but I was one turn late. I didn’t draw into any Eviolites and he draw into the Vileplume just at the right moment. One turn later and I would’ve gotten a double KO on his Oddishes. Well, the match went pretty much downhill after that. I was stuck with my trainers and Sableye was useless as well. He kept Seekering his damaged Pokémon and moving energy around. I was completely destroyed.
0-1 (8-1)

Game 2.

The reason why I think that I’m a good player is that I’m very adaptable in new and difficult situations. Adaptability is something that everyone needs to train. It’s something that you will get only by playing a lot and with a lot of different decks. I’ve played 9 years competitively know and I was still destroyed in the game 1 because I didn’t know what to do. However, this was a best-of-three series so I still had a chance for a comeback. In this game I went first (obviously) and decided to gamble. I could’ve gotten a T2 Darkrai EX with draw supporters but when I looked at my hand after a PONT – I saw another option. I could got a T1 Darkrai EX if I got rid of every card in my hand. Desperate times need desperate measures so I went for T1 option and hoped I would top deck or draw SOMETHING in the next few turns. However, I draw into every single useless card in my deck or 3-4 turns. He finally got Plume up when I was 2-6 ahead in prizes and I still hadn’t draw into any good trainers/supporters so he had a chance. Thankfully the aggression put him in a very difficult spot and he just couldn’t draw into everything he needed, and as the time was on my side, he decided to scoop the game since he saw no room for a comeback. Phew.
1-1 (9-1)

Game 3.

I knew that the upper-hand was in the beginner’s side so I wasn’t too confident. Also, my start wasn’t that fast PLUS he Sage’d himself a T2 Vileplume. I had used 1 trainer card in my first turn and now the rest of them were completely useless. However, after the two games I played, I was much wiser about the match-up. There was no need chance for quick KOs since I was trainer locked and Terrakion would Retaliate as soon as I put Darkrai EX to the active position. The match was one of the most difficult matches, I’ve ever played and I’m sad that it wasn’t recorded. We both made perfect choices during the game and the crowd was literally holding their breaths. It’s one of those games you just can’t explain- you have to see it to believe it. It belongs to my all-time top5 matches easily. I made no mistakes and neither did my opponent. Perfect game from great decks and players, nuff’ said. Time ran out and we looked at the table for a moment. I noticed that I had the win, no matter what my opponent did in his 2 turns. I’m pretty sure that I would’ve won the game even without the time because all his Pokémons were nearly KOed. Great game!
2-1 (10-1)

After my game there was still the other top4 game left. It was as epic as my third match. The games were 1-1 when the players got in a sudden death. In the first turn Jouni (the Finnish CP leader) decided to make the game interesting by using N turn one because his hand was so crappy. Sudden Death + N =1 card for both players. After a few turns of draw&passing his opponent (the 6 corners variant player from my swiss rounds) got everything he needed to OHKO Jouni’s energyless Mewtwo EX with Eviolite and won the game.

Finals (Darkrai EX/Terrakion/Kyurem EX/Mewtwo EX/Shaymin/Cobalion – Six Corners variant)

Game 1.

Theorymonical autowin match-up in the Nationals’ finals? Fine with me. Me, my opponent and the audience knew the match-up and I would say that the games were played in pretty laid-back manners. Once I got the Hammers + Junk Hunt combo going in T2, my opponent knew it was over.
1-0 (11-1)

Game 2.

He N’d me T2 1 Enhanced Hammer, 2 Crushing Hammers and a Random Receiver and I already had 2 Sableyes in play…
2-0 (12-1)

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s just crazy and I still can’t comprehend it. I’m a 6-time National Champion of Finland. A country that even has two World Champions and one of the most talented player bases in the World. Of course I was happy as a man can be but at the same time I was confused – I did it AGAIN.

The deck worked very well throughout the tournament as you could see and it was built to perfection. A great deck combined with some innovative playing in a tough spot got me my victory. I could be proud of myself since I did great job in building the deck and playing the deck.

I hope I can come up with good result in the World Championships as well. Even though I have attended in 6 World Championships – I have missed both Hawaii Worlds, so I’m very excited to go to Hawaii to play some Pokémon TCG. Historically Hawaii is a great place for Finnish Pokémon TCG since Tom R. won Masters’ Worlds in Hawaii in 2007. My best placement in the Worlds is “only” top8 so far and I’m hoping planning to advance further this year.

To the end, props and slops.


Props:

+ 6^th National Championship
+ Matti Kettunen for card loans during the whole season (I own no Darkrai EXs, Mewtwo EXs or Tornadus EXs)
+ You for reading my blog
+ My gf went 4-2 with a deck I built a day before the tournament
+ Everyone for their comments during the whole season – it’s been a great year for me and my blog!
+ Yuki-san for the great discussion about decks during the whole season!
+ Julia for translation help
+ Matti Kettunen for card loans during the whole season
+ The deck worked perfectly
+ My big bro for playtesting the deck
+ First Hawaii worlds for me
+ Matti Kettunen for card loans during the whole season
+ Kumis.dec
+ Everyone who cheered for my victory
+ GO
+ Jouni L. for a great season
+ Matti Kettunen for card loans during the whole season
+ The whole year has been great for me personally
+ Players, who topcutted without Darkrai EX
AND
+ Matti Kettunen for card loans during the whole season

Slops:

- No Scholarships this year
- Not so many too difficult games



Once again, thanks for reading and thank you everyone who wished me luck in FB/Twitter. It’s great to play when you know that people are interested how you do – it’s gives extra incentive for an already fun game. I still have the last struggle on 12^th of June when is my entrance exams so before that I won’t be as active as before in my blog but after that everything will be back to normal.

Thanks everyone and feel free to comment or ask any questions!