molerator @ baltimore

 

Hello everyone, I haven’t played irl in a few weeks because I’ve been busy with life stuff. LA is in a week and I have no idea what to play so that post will probably be a crashout. Regardless, I wanted to post something so I dug up this really old tournament report from my first major ever. Hopefully it’s enjoyable even if it’s Snorlax. 

Preparation:
I didn’t really know what to play and I wasn’t very good at the game, but Azul played Snorlax to Worlds in this format and he explained the deck and some potential changes on his stream so I figured it was probably good enough for me as a first timer.

Azul's list with Lugia tech package

 

My improved(?) list

I cut out all the Lugia tech to be a little stronger into Regidrago and added a third fan to beat Gardevoir (not sure why I thought this was important) - I didn't know about Kirlia suicide, if I did I would have just punted on Gardevoir and added either another Artazon or Mist. This Charm/Vest split was also pretty bad, 2 charm would've been better. I don't remember using the Iono for anything either, maybe that could've been another slot saved.

The reason I attended this tournament in the first place was because my parents offered me free flight if I visited home for a few days before and after the tournament. I worked from the house for a few days, then got a ride up to Baltimore Friday afternoon. This venue is horrible, there is no light and it is in the actual basement, so I try to get my friends to leave as soon as possible. We have a locals meetup at a locally renowned seafood restaurant and I get to eat some delicious fresh crab slathered in butter. We uber back to the hotel which has a really weird wallpaper of a dog and I fall asleep trying not to look at it.

Wake up, walk to venue, find table, chat with opponent, you know the drill. 

Round 1 Drago WW

This first opponent didn't seem to know the matchup. I see Jamming tower instead of Sinnoh on one of my peek cards so I figure it's safe to mist a Mimikyu once he burned cologne and the Vstar. He also discards his Mew with a research which was definitely not right. He realizes this Cape Mist Mimikyu is unbreakable but keeps playing for a while before he scoops.

Game 2 I hit his cologne early with Eri and he never really pressured me.

Round 2 Bolt WW

Game 1 was easy, his answer to Mimikyu was Flutter which takes way longer than Sandy Shocks to set up. I was able to discard switches and then Penny loop my two HP boosted Mimikyus with tools while gusting his 3 retreat Raging Bolts. He used his pal pad on something besides Sada and just runs out of energy. 

Game 2 he opens Flutter and I get behind and actually need a misplay to win. I notice early in the game that he attacks a Snorlax with Flutter instead of retreating so I thought he might not know how the abilities interact. Later when I need to buy a turn I gust the flutter into a Snorlax and Instant charge. To my delight he doesn't retreat. To close the game I hit double heads on Cyllene and put two counter catchers back to rip off his pokestop (I prized my other 2 counter catchers and a boss) and he wasn't able to retreat his Bolt again.

Round 3 Miraidon W

I open Rotom and he flips over Squawk. He grumbles a bunch and then squawks his opening hand away including 2 switch carts and a prime catcher. He then grumbles again when I start benching Snorlaxes on my turn. He actually managed to get decently setup otherwise but playing against block without any switches seems impossible.

G2 I spread his energy out with Fans and Ogerpons (only Iron Hands can touch Cornerstone) and he couldn't take enough prizes. This opponent did a good job setting up a board of viable attackers both games but wasn't able to energize all of them. 

Round 4 Drago WW

This opponent also doesn't know the matchup and plays a little too fast, he reaches with his Vstar for eswitches and has to pass with no dragons to copy. I'm then able to burn away cologne and some switches and he scoops it up.

Game 2 I catch Kyurem off a flute, he tries to Turo it away but doesn't discard it so I Erika it back out.

After the games we looked through trade binders (which is kind of weird for me because I usually don't carry extra cards but this was a long time ago) and I got one of those cute promo Charmanders. 

Round 5 Moon LL

This opponent knew exactly what to do against Snorlax and owns me pretty quickly. Both games they got Pecharunt, baby Moon, Moon ex within 2 turns and there isn't much I can do.
In game 2 he sets up the perfect board again so I Penny up my lone Mimikyu and sign the slip. I take some time to wander the venue and get an overpriced but solid hot dog.

Round 6 Tina LL

Game 1 Despite prizing Erika and whiffing 5(!) flutes I actually fight super hard and manage to spread all the energy away to prevent my final mist Mimikyu from getting shredded by Giratina V but he was holding temple to star requiem it. A few turns into game 2 we realize he had previously used his vstar with FSS and I would have decked him out. I'd already marked the slip and we'd started the next game though so Oops.
Game 2 he plays his jet energies to take prizes and there's not much I can do.

Round 7 Bolt WW

Game 1 he discards Sandy Shocks and I put down a Mimikyu against a full ex board. Scoop, G2.

 Game 2 he gets the Shocks out but I'm able to Penny loop my stuff while gusting Bolts. My last Sisters hits Switch Pal Pad Retrieval Retrieval and he decks out.

Round 8 Lugia W

I am super unhappy to see a Lugia here because losing or tying means I'll be out and I cut all of my techs hoping to dodge. 

Game 1 I manage to lock him out of rats and Penny loop his Flutter mane (only cornerstone answer because he evolved both his Lugias for some reason) with handheld fan until he runs out of energy and concedes. At one point his Lugia Vstar has 3 DTE on it so my Rotom is invincible. 

Game 2 starts with about 10 minutes left and is always going to hit time so I try to force my opponent through 6 Snorlaxes. My flutes are kind of insane and I deny him boardspace for Archeops so he's manual attaching to a rat to try and take his prizes. When I go to heavy ball for my 4th lax I find it but am holding too many cards to put my prizes back and we realize I set out 7 prize cards. Oops. Judge resolved, I get a DPL and suddenly I could feasibly lose game 2 if he plays a Jet every turn for the rest of the game. I have an Iono ready to make it more difficult but he doesn't find any Jets and can't win. 

If we started a game 3 I would probably have to give up the gentleman's agreement because the matchup is so bad. 

Round 9 Charizard Dusknoir WLW*

Opponent gets board locked game 1 and scoops quickly. 

Game 2 I was one Penny turn short of clearing my board off and my cape Mimikyu gets double dusked and my last stray Snorlax is bossed for game.

Game 3 my setup is pretty good but we are for sure going to time. We finish +3 with him with ghosts ready to go against my two tooled up Ogerpons. My opponent is adamant that they can win off this board but I am very doubtful because he doesn't play any actual way to break my cornerstones. We go back and forth and eventually I just refuse to concede with my double cornerstone board and he gives me the win.

My locals that were watching my game take me to a restaurant that's attached to a nearby hotel bar to get some celebratory beers and burgers, then go home. I resleeve my deck and fall asleep after pretending to analyze some of the stream games from the day.

Round 10 Ancient Box WW

I sat next to this guy during day 1 and saw Sada and dark types so I thought it was another Moon ex and I was going to get farmed again. Luckily it's not, it's actually free for me :)

Game one I get going a bit slow and he makes his board 4x flutter and 1 Moon, but I hit a tusk on a flute and took it. I thought I could lose to milling but realize he doesn't want to play his supporters and churn his own deck so I just play my mill cards and do it for him.

Game 2 he hits Pal Pad Super Rod off a Pokestop spin so I grab Eri with FSS Pidgeot and deck him out again.

Round 11 Drago LWW

I get donked game 1 with lone Snorlax. They retreat their Cleffa start with cologne and use Apex Dragon. This game probably should have clued me in that I should be choosing first against Drago btw, I lost every flip and they all wanted first so I should be stealing it from them and maybe getting an extra Instant Charge.

Games 2 and 3 I figure out they have no Sinnoh so I mill cologne and then go down to lone mimkyu with mist after the Vstar is forced. He spends a few turns trying to power up a Radzard I fluted but that seems impossible.

Round 12 Drago WW

 

G1 I mill the cologne and cape a single Ogerpon with no mew on a benchlocked board and he scoops. He maybe could have threatened me a little more, not sure. 

G2 He mills his cologne with an early Vstar and doesn't grab it so I go down to solo Mimikyu with cape and mist and he scoops again. No Sinnoh in this deck either.

Round 13 Drago LL

I talk with one of the other players at 10-2 and find out that basically everyone at this threshold is a Lugia or something worse, so it doesn't look great. Pairings go up and I see a famous name and a surprisingly okay matchup. This list also doesn't play cologne (which I didn't know) but it does play both Jamming tower and Sinnoh, 2 very annoying stadiums for me. We get tagged for stream and I answer some questions on the way to the table. I want to preface that I remember very little of being on stream, everything about this game I'm about to write is from rewatching the stream. My brain was absolutely liquefied by the white noise in the headsets and it shows.

I win the flip and choose second because I like going second, but obviously I am supposed to go first to get extra time to set up before they start attacking. I get immediately punished because my opening hand is dead and my one Snorlax gets easily KO'd by Apex Dragon on his T2.

After this happens I choose second again because I am very smart. This game is just a disaster, there's like a five minute video somewhere on youtube of all the stuff I did wrong. I probably should have tried to get Cape/Mist Rotom to stabilize my board but I was scared off by him hitting me with the baby drago v’s bench damage. Instead both my Snorlaxes are knocked out under Jamming Tower with Dragon Laser x2. I gust a blank Drago V for some reason instead of a Squawk or even an Ogerpon, and he instantly loads this one up too and KO's my Rotom with a Boss. I find a Penny to get into a Mimikyu but I have no way to get my 1 copy of Mist out of the deck and Mew finishes the game.

Losing causes me to bubble out of top 32 which is sad, but to date this is the best I've ever done at a tournament. If you made it this far thanks for reading, I'll post more when I play more.