Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Cities w/ Landorus EX/Mewtwo EX


And the award of the most useless card
of the tournament goes to....


Hello everyone!


After a lot of Eye on Japan articles, it’ back to basics as I played in my second CC this year last weekend! I’ll attend the European Challenge Cup in the Netherlands, which will be held this Saturday-Sunday, so this was my last chance to test any deck for the tournament. If you want to be up-to-date on for my ECC-run, remember to follow me on

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I already know that I had tested Hammertime enough for ECC, so I was left with 2 tier1 decks – Landorus EX/Mewtwo Ex and Blastoise/Keldeo EX. On the day before the tournament, I decided to give a try for Landorus EX/Mewtwo EX as I saw a lot of Eelektriks in our last City Championships. So, how it went? We shall see. But let’s start with the list.



Pokémon:

3x Landorus EX
3x Mewtwo EX
2x Tornadus EX
1x Bouffalant(Gold Breaker)
1x Terrakion
=10

Trainer:


4x Professor Juniper
4x N
4x Bianca
2x Skyla
1x Computer Search
4x Ultra Ball
4x Switch
4x Pokémon Catcher
2x Energy Switch
2x Max Potion
2x Aspertia City Gym
2x Eviolite
3x PlusPower
=38

Energy:


8x Fighting Energy
4x Double Colorless Energy
=12


Nothing too surprising in this list. Tornadus EX and Aspertia City Gym are a must if I want to deal with Blastoise/Keldeo EXs and rest of the deck should be pretty self-explanatory. Bouffalant, Eviolite and Aspertia City Gym are just too good together and playing2 Bouffalants would have been an option. Anyways, I was very well prepared for the tournament and was confident with my deck. I desperately need Championship Points in order to get 2 Byes to National Championships, so I wanted to play with a deck that would guarantee my top4 place (Quad Sigilyph and Aggron/Sableye aren’t the most surefire decks for getting CPs)



1. Round (Eelektrik/Rayquaza)

Great, an Eelektrik deck! It’s pretty much an autowin for Landorus EX/Mewtwo EX,so I was pretty confident. I went first and donked his sinlge Tynamo with Landorus EX…Ok. That’s one of the many reasons, why I haven’t really ever enjoy playing with Eelektrik decks.
1-0


2. Round (Blastoise/Keldeo EX)

After getting a solid opening hand in the last game, this game my opening hand was horrible. I had to open with Landorus EX (against Blastoise decks, it usually seals the whole game) and had no supporter in hand. He had 2 Keldeo EXs in his opening, but didn’t have a supporter either. Unfortunately for me Keldeo EX is just too powerful against Landorus EX when they are going first, as it will OHKO Landorus EX in T3!

We both draw, attached and passed until he OHKOed my Landorus EX with Keldeo EX. From that point I was able to KO his Keldeo EX back, but from the prizes he drew the necessary cards for Blastoise and it all downhill from there. I got him into a situation where we both had 2 prizes and I was able to N him to 2. unfortunately, he drew a Juniper from the N. And from the Juniper he got the 4 energy he needed for his Mewtwo EX in order to retreat his Keldeo EX and KO my 2 energy Mewtwo EX. Close match.
1-1



3. Round (Eelektrik/Rayquaza)

I went first and donked his lone Tynamo…Seriously?
2-1


4. Round (Darkrai EX/Mewtwo EX)

So, at this point I was at 2-1 and had played only one game… So in theory I was at 0-1. I really wasn’t by the donks I got from the early rounds, because I really need some tournament games in order to get my full play repertoire back. Thakfully this game gave me a good game. I opened with Landorus EX, which gave me huge advantage and pretty must rolled over him with my Landorus EX and Bouffalant + Aspertia Vity Gym (Seriously, SO good against Darkrai EX9. Bouffalant must really be the most underrated cards of this format. I didn’t even Retaliate once! Good game, even though it was pretty one-sided.
3-1


5. Round (Darkrai EX/Mewtwo EX)


I knew the match-up was favorable. However, I still needed the win in order to get to the top cut. Once again, I had a god hand, except for the supporter. I opened with Terrakion (oh, why), so good bye surprise while she opened with Sableye and Darkrai EX on the bench. Anyways, I went first and drew Tornadus EXm benched it and looked at my hand. I played, Switch, DCE; Aspertia City Gym and PlusPower. Goodbye Sableye.

I knew I had a HUGE upper-hand at this point of the game. Anwyays, she got a pretty decent opening hand as well, because she was able to Dark Patch Sableye, retreat Darkrai EX, Catcher my Terrakion and Junk Hunt. I drew Juniper from prizes and used it. No energy and no PlusPower or Switch. I just passed. From here I was pretty much just Switching for Tornadus EX to the active spot, while she hammered my Terrakion. 2 turns later, the turning point of the game happened. Stupidly I had attached 3 energy to my Terrakion, which was on the bench and in the active spot was a Bouffalant that was once again Catchered since I was forced to play it down before my earlier Juniper. I needed a Switch from my N if she draws a Catcher from the same N. Well, Catcher for her, no Switch for me. Terrakion dies with 3 energy while I did NOTHING during that turn. At that point, I just glanced at my table and didn’t really realize how I managed to screw up things this bad.

I had to slow my game down, which in the end wasn’t a good thing. Time was called in her turn and I had all the cards I needed for the win in my hand. Catcher and Skyla, so I could get rid off her benched Darkrai EX and win the prizes. However, I only needed one turn in order to use the Skyla. She Ns me to 3, I draw Bianca and a (about 30% of my deck were draw supporters). Nice, so all I needed was a Catcher from the Bianca. I succeed in drawing a Skyla once again, so I will be able to win in turn 3 of the game. Unless… She N’s me again! I draw N and and 2 Ultra Balls, yeahhh... Ugh. I draw. Nothing. I have 2 Switched and a Catcher in my 10 card deck and when I use the N, I have 13 cards in the deck. The odds are against me. I use N as I can’t do anything else and start drawing. First card, Skyla. Second, Switch(!!!!!!). Third…Landorus EX. GG. Time ran out and I could have finished the game in the next turn.
3-2


The last game was very frustrating for two reasons. First, the match-up was positive and I had an upper-hand, but completely misplayed and didn’t have a good-enough luck to get back from it. And second, the last time I lost due to the time was in Worlds Championships 2005 top32 match against Bobby Malec… It’s been 8 years!! I have always been a fast player, but it seems that since I don’t have played in enough tournaments this year, my game-pace has slowed down too much. It’s also good to remember that I haven’t been able to even top cut in a tournament this season, so I don’t really know what has happened. Something has happened and I really am not happy about it.

Btw, here are the final standings of the tournament.

1. Hydreigon/Darkrai EX
2. Darkrai EX/Mewtwo EX
3. Blastoise/Keldeo EX
4. Blastoise/Keldeo EX


Anyways, ECC will be in just 5 days, so I’m very excited! Maybe I’ll get to the top cut for the first time this
season, lol. After the tournament, I had a very clear vision on what to play and I’m now already sure what to play in ECC. I hope the deck won’t let me down. I’ll try to do an ECC –entry before I’ll depart to the Netherlands on Friday (it feels like I’m traveling more often than I’m in Finland, but that’s who the student life is, eh?) .

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment on anything!




2 comments:

  1. what about Skyarrow Bridge? i know you lose 20hp with tornadus and bouffalant, but u can make tornadus retreat for free
    is it a good idea?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah ↑ but like he said Bouffalant + Aspertia + Eviolite its just too damn good, and Tornadus + Aspertia + DCS its a 60 1turn damage

    ReplyDelete

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