Pokemon Toxic

Round 1 – Michael McChesney, Yveltal Gallade Zoroark

Starting the day off with a roughly even matchup if he can draw out of the lock, I knew this would be a bit more interesting and potentially more challenging than the barrage of Night March I hit in Missouri. He wins the flip, and starts off Game 1 going first, He opens a solid hand to use Maxie's to get Gallade into play, and does just that, knowing it will give him some edge to have both a way to stack his deck effectively and an attacker that can prize exchange well by killing anything in my deck (given he hits a supporter). He gets a Zorua in play as well, promotes either a Shaymin-EX or Yveltal XY as a sacrifice (I don't exactly recall which, but it's not super relevant really) and is forced to end his turn. I then go, do my thing and get Plume and Vespiquen up attacking. I start the prize exchange and hand it over to him. He attaches a DCE to Zorua, uses Sycamore hoping to hit the Zoroark, but misses. He drops another Zorua, promotes another sacrifice, and passes. I have my trusty Lysandre ready to go here, and actually Lysandre around the active Shaymin to hit a Zorua with energy. If these get up and attacking, it can run through my Vespiquens pretty handily. In his following turn, he tries to Sycamore into a Zoroark again after attaching another DCE, but misses. We go into Game 2.

Great card against VV, if you can get it out.

Game 2 he gets another Maxie's, and is able to Lysandre during his turn 2 to kill my Vileplume. Unfortunately for him, he would have been better off killing the active Vespiquen with energy, as I would have had a much harder time following up. I later find out Lysandre was his only Supporter, and he wouldn't have been able to KO anything without it due to Sensative Blade's stipulations. We begin the prize exchange a new, and he's actually able to get 2 Gallade into play during the game, but it isn't enough. He misses energy too often, and is forced to bench an Yveltal-EX just to have a heavy hitter to attach a Dark Energy to. This is his downfall, as it enables me to Lysandre it for my last two prizes.

WW 1-0

Round 2 – Treynor Wolfe, Night March

While considered a better matchup than YGZ generally, there's also more of a potential for him to outmaneuver and take games too. Fortunately for me, but unfortunately for him, he doesn't end up getting much room to do so.
I believe he starts game 1, but doesn't get much going for him throughout his first turn. He's forced to pass it over to me, and I get the lock into place and start prize exchanging on his Night Marchers. Due to his slow turn 1, he now has limited options and I'm able to simply out prize exchange to go to game 2.
In game 2 he also has a slow start, and this game goes similar to the first. He's unable to draw out of the item lock and come back, and ends up getting out exchanged again. 

WW 2-0

Round 3 – Carington Huffman, Night March
Night March once again wasn't a matchup I minded much, but unfortunately it was my friend Carington on the other side of the table this time. He starts out bragging about his 3 Hex Maniac, but if he can't get to them, they don't have the ability to help too much, haha. I really wish we were both in a position to ID here though, as I wanted him to go onto top 8 nearly as much as I wanted to.
He starts game 1 off with an okay start, and is able to get into a decent position for my turn. I believe he ends his turn by playing Hex and passing. I don't play too much, just enough to not get benched, and pass. He continues on his previous lead by playing out a bit more of his hand, and kills active. I'm then able to get the lock in place and start taking prizes in return. He draws poorly from here, and we go onto game 2.
In Game 2, he starts lone Shaymin-EX and has to Judge with the hopes of drawing into something useful (and me not). He Judge's himself into nothing, and me into a Shaymin, DCE, and Trainers' mail to start running through the deck to evolve my active Combee for the win. I discard 7 Pokemon and Sycamore into a Forest, Vespiquen, and Battle Compressor for the win.

WW 3-0

When you play against Night March 8 out of 13 rounds

Disclaimer: after 8 rounds against Night March over 2 weekends, the details of matches began to slur together a bit. Some of these games were too similar to keep distinct, so unfortunately they may not be as accurate as I'd like.

Round 4 – Dawson Michel, Entei/Charizard

This round was by far the most controversial of the day, if not the most interesting.
Dawson wins the flip and starts off strong. He gets two Entei on the board, both Assault Vest/Muscle Banded, hits a DCE and Blacksmith, VS Seekers a Sycamore back to his hand for next turn and ends his turn. I get a Vileplume but otherwise lackluster start against his imposing board, and opt to Sky Return a Shaymin off the field instead of doing subpar damage with Vespiquen in hopes to hit KO numbers. In the next couple turns he kills off a Shaymin and a Vespiquen, but after the Vespiquen KO I'm able to finally knock out his first tank of an Entei. After doing so, I turn it over to him and he starts his turn by attaching a Japanese VS Fire Energy. Wait, what? As many of you may know, Japanese cards of any sort, including energy, are not legal and I'm required to inform a judge. Apparently his friend's opponent behind me heard me say "that japanese energy isn't legal, I have to call a judge" and confirmed his own suspicions and also called a judge. Both Dawson and his friend got Game Losses for an illegal deck situation, even though I strongly suspect he would have taken the game and series from here, and we go to a game 2 after he replaces the energy.
In Game 2 he gets a very similar start as Game 1 despite being on tilt due to the events of said game, and handily edges me out of the game. To Game 3 we go.
In Game 3, I get a perfect set up against his lone Entei, and he scoops before even taking a full turn.

WLW 4-0

I do feel bad for him this round, as it is a rough mistake to find out about in the fourth round of States after being previously undefeated. For anyone who doesn't know still, please don't play Japanese or illegal cards! It puts your opponent in a weird situation where they either call a judge on you and get what some would consider an unfair advantage, or allow you to continue playing an illegal deck. It's awkward and unfortunate for everyone. The whole situation was a bit unsettling, but I don't have any particular regrets about how I handled it overall.

Round 5 – Steven Singer, Trevenant BREAK
While not 100% guaranteed, drawing here gives us both a very strong chance of topping, and neither of us particularly want to play this out. We opt for the ID, as there are only 58 people/6 rounds.

TTT 4-0-1

 Round 6 – Miguel Escutia, Night March

A tie gets me in for sure, and Miguel at 4-1 has a very strong chance of cutting too. I didn't know it at the time, but he was playing Night March, and definitely didn't want to play this one out just yet. We opt to ID and prep for cut.

TTT 4-0-2

Now knowing both myself, Steven, and Kaleb Higdon (Steven's round 6 opponent who was also 4-0-2 now) were all guaranteed, we waited on the remainder of cut to be decided by the final rounds. Seeing an unsurprising set of decks make top 8 after 6^th round, we found the final top cut to be (in order):

Trevenant
Vespiquen Vileplume
Night March
Giratina/Uno Tyrantrum/Bronzong/Aegislash
Night March
Night March
Night March
Night March

Coming back around to more Night March! Surprise. Our top 8 was set for about half an hour after standings were posted, so I prepped for the fated game against Miguel. 

Top 8 vs Miguel Escutia, Night March
This feels oddly familiar... Coming back around to Night March in top 8 against an opponent I had crossed paths with in Swiss.
Also oddly familiar, I lose the flip. Surprise.
Miguel starts off game 1 with a decent start, and gets going. This goes similar to other games in that we have a pretty solid prize exchange back and forth until one of us runs out of energy. Pretty far into this game, Miguel is the first to hit a drought, as I utilize Sky Return to its fullest extent. On one occasion, I also Lysandre a bench Feebas to get a nice Sky Return KO and avoid him getting over 80 damage with Night March just yet. I'm able to take this game on prizes and we go into game 2.
In game 2, he does what my previous top 8 opponent Kyle had to do as well- he's cornered into having to chose his top 3 cards with Time Puzzle, and Hex to slow me down and give himself another turn. Literal deja vu, and definitely did not help with previous Night March matches running into each other in my mind. I set myself up just enough to avoid being benched, and pass it back. He gets a decent start, but doesn't get many Night March in the ditch. He hits an Unown for 40 and gives me a chance to get going. I get a decent setup and am able to Float the Unown off active, starting off killing a Joltik and locking him out. I start off the game by exchanging a bit until we both run low on energy, but then he gets a good Hex turn and puts me on the ropes. At this point in the game he starts ignoring my Bunnelby and getting tunnel vision on my Vileplume. He kills it to get items back, only for me to Revitilizer it back, Lysandre his Milotic, and start putting resources back in with Rototiller. His Vileplume blood lust hasn't ended though- he plays a Sycamore into what I presume to be the DCE and Lysandre that he holds for next turn to go after Plume again. At this point he has 4 cards in deck, I have a Bunnelby with a double, and not much else left. He opts to Lysandre and 2HKO Vileplume with a Fury Belted Joltik (70 each turn), which puts me in a position to Burrow for the game. Had he played a bit more conservatively he might have been able to squeak this one out, but his low damage output and even lower deck made it quite an uphill battle regardless.

WW to Top 4

Top 4 – Kaleb Higdon, Night March

The fear of donks

This game is a bit of a different match than my previous top 4, but my deck approaches it quite the same. I win the flip to go first, but my slight moment of triumph is thrown directly back into my face when I draw Unown, Toxicroak-EX, Gloom, Vileplume, Vespiquen, Vespiquen, and Revitalizer. Literal worst hand I have ever seen, and barely workable in any setting. I opt to start Unown, expecting to have to stall a turn at least and not wanting to get Toxicroak donked if I whiffed on Farewell Letter (a similar Top 4 experience of me donking my opponent in an Expanded Cities with Kyogre-EX DEX after he whiffed off an Unown came to mind). I draw into... Lysandre. Yay. I drop Croak and pass, expecting this one to be quick. Surprisingly I'm able to draw into something after a couple of turns into him starting to 3HKO Croak with Joltik+a Lysandre'd Shaymin, but it's too late. I'm essentially 3 prizes down and he handily takes the game from here.
Game 2 I start slightly better but still whiff the setup entirely. I'm not in a position to lose in less than 3 turns, but I'm definitely not in a good position. With his few turns of items and handy lead, he's able to keep the edge even throughout my item lock and take this one too. Near the end he got within about 7 cards of decking out, and I was hoping he would go a bit deeper and open up a Bunnelby Burrow win, but he seemed to be ready for this and never dug deeper than was safe.

LL – Out

While I obviously would have liked to have gotten a bit further than 3rd again, I couldn't complain at all. Kaleb ended up going into finals against Trevenant (which is at best on a coin flip for me) and pulled off a pretty quick win to take down the States tournament. Once again went undefeated in swiss, with my only eventual loss to the winner of it all. Starting to see a pattern here.
Kudos to Kaleb for taking down two lock decks in a row to take it all!
Overall, my opponents were generally more friendly out in Nebraska, which was also awesome. Always feels great to be welcomed in unknown territory.

Cut also only shifted around a little bit to end the day, being the closest I've seen to precut seeds resolving in a near perfect postcut distribution.
1. Kaleb Higdon
2. Steven Singer
3. Brandon Flowers
4. Kyle Haverland
5. Dustin Born
6. Treynor Wolfe
7.  Miguel Escutia
8. Brandon Smiley 

Nothing super new here, as I only took Andrew Wamboldt/Tyler Holt's adaptations from week 1 and stuck them into my list, and ended up at the following list:

Pokemon – 28 4 Combee AOR 4 Vespiquen AOR 4 Oddish AOR 4 Gloom AOR 3 Vileplume AOR 3 Unown AOR 4 Shaymin EX 1 Bunnelby PRC 1 Toxicroak EX

Trainers – 28 2 Professor Sycamore 1 Lysandre 1 AZ 4 Ultra Ball 2 Revitalizer 3 Acro Bike 4 Trainers’ Mail 4 Battle Compressor 1 Town Map 2 Float Stone 4 Forest of Giant Plants

Energy – 4 4 Double Colorless

Don't mess (too much) with a good thing really. As States go on, I'm starting to see some dicier matchups popping up a bit more, which isn't entirely surprising. Trevenant and Giratina are strong in this format, and the fact that they didn't show up any sooner in larger numbers was either due to mass indecision (welcome to Standard) or a fear of Greninja and other strong sleepers, which have options to take down both of these decks. And of course, Night March, which has outs to beat anything. Andrew Wamboldt's article from last week on the overpowering strength of Night March was only reinforced this week, as Night March once again topped in swarms and took down both Nebraska, New York and Tennessee (and possibly more).

Given my own fears and the general trend of the format, I could certainly see Toad/Giratina with a tech Latios/Muscle Band taking a few placements next week, as it hits some key weaknesses in the format (Energy and Item lock with a soft Mega lockout) and opens up possibilities to donk Trevenant, Night March, Vespiquen, and Greninja. Were I going to States this weekend this would be the deck I'd be optimizing and have my eye on, but I'll likely sit this one out to conserve money for Regionals/Nationals.
Good luck to all going to more States, and see you around at Regionals and Nationals!

Round 1 – Random Bye

Riveting, I know! I started the day with the random bye, lucky me- it gave me a chance to chill out, play a few games of Pokken, and get in the zone. And of course, scope out the competition. It was at this point that I found out Andrew Wamboldt of Charizard Lounge fame appeared to be the only other running Vespiplume, and the field was saturated with Greninja and Night March. While there were a few Trevenant running rampant, but I was in hopes I could avoid them (or go first). Flareon-EX saw much more play than I expected, but I wasn’t terribly worried about that either.

???  1-0

Round 2 – Rick Neiheiser, Greninja

After scoping out the field previously, this wasn’t terribly surprising. Much to my opponent’s chagrin, I won the flip and went first. I got the optimal setup, passed, and gave him a turn. He played Sycamore and immediately scooped, having no other Pokemon and knowing he would be knocked out next turn.

Game 2 was slightly more eventful – he went second, got a few Pokes out, and then passed. I got my setup, knocked out the active, and turned it over to him allowing him to Water Duplicates to get 2 Frogadier out – he frantically searched multiple times in hopes he missed the third somewhere, but alas, it was prized. I knocked out the next Frog and turned it back over to him – he attached, and played Judge in hopes to get a Greninja. When he missed it, he scooped this game as well.

WW 2-0

Round 3 – Dema Boatman, Night March/Puzzle/Milotic

This was the matchup I was ready for, and most anticipating. These games were much longer (and more intense) but I’ll just hit the high points to keep with the flow.

Dema wins the flip, and goes first of course. He gets a fairly optimal setup, prepared for what to come,  and passes. Much prize and energy trading ensues – when I can, I Sky Return for knockouts to preserve my few energy and keep up with the constant barrage of Night March. He is able to outpace the attacks, and with a final clutch Milotic play, gets the last energy he needs to take game 1.

Simply Maniacally good.

Game 2 I go first, but have an awful decision laid out in front of me immediately- I start Sycamore, Double Colorless (DCE), DCE, Oddish, and Toxicroak EX. I’m forced to drop the Croak and attach the DCE to it, hoping it isn’t immediately killed if I miss the Vileplume or just go unused. Off the Sycamore I get the setup, but find in my initial search my remaining DCEs are prized. This is definitely an uphill battle. Luckily I’m able to use Triple Poison to take 4 prizes before Dema can get setup, and take the energy I need to finish off the game.

Game 3 was a great end to a great series – it went very similarly to game 1, but I was able to pull ahead a bit more with better draws and good Town Map utilization to play off prizes. The game ended in time on turn 3- turn 0, I get a Judge played on me and knocked out. Turn 1, I lay down a clutch Shaymin, drop a Combee, and Sky Return the active Joltik to take Vespiquen off my prizes. At this point, he only has a Milotic left, and Vespiquen wins me the game. He passes, I use the Float Stone on my active Vileplume to retreat into Combee, evolve, attach, and end the game. Luck was definitely on my side here, even without winning the opening flip. Hex Maniac certainly made a difference in this series too, and allowed for some interesting plays here and there. 

LWW 3-0

Round 4 – Kyle Haverland, Night March/Puzzle/Gallade

This round was the beginning of a trend that won’t stop til top 4 – even seeing some repeats along the way.

I lose the flip again, and he goes first. I don’t recall anything especially different about this game, as it went very similarly to my game 1 against Dema – including losing game 1 of the round. The main thing that went different was Kyle using Maxie’s for Gallade turn 1, allowing him to control his top 5 cards for the rest of the game and use this advantage to his favor.

Game 2 went a bit more in my favor. I went first, got my set up, and passed. Not having anything, he immediately scooped to settle things in game 3.

Game 3 was… Interesting. He went first, used Puzzle of Time to see the top 3 cards of his deck and arrange them, but not play much else. He played Hex Maniac, knowing this would give him at least a turn, and passed. I was able to get about a third of the setup with just items, getting out a few Combees and a Gloom, but had to turn it back over to him without doing anything too spectacular. He got a decent turn, and we began the prize and energy exchange anew. Once I had whittled him down to 6-7 cards in deck, 1 Dimension Valley left, 1 Double Colorless left, a seemingly stranded Pumpkaboo on active and an inkling he didn’t have either in hand, I took a different route. I turned to Bunnelby to pull the rest of the weight and he took the mantle well. My first Burrow hit the last Dimension Valley, and I knew I was in safe territory. I used Burrow for the remainder of the game to deck him and take the series.

LWW 4-0

Round 5 – Dalton Fowler, Night March/Vespiquen

Seeing Vespiquen made me a little leery. I knew immediately I would have to rely on my own Vespiquen a bit more, and as such would need to get to my energy in a timely manner.

Game 1 of this series is very similar to the previous two series – I lose the flip, he goes first, and takes the first game. This had a bit less Sky Return and a bit more Bee Revenge, but he was able to edge me out of game 1 to start the series off in his favor.

Game 2, I went first, and believe I got decently set up immediately – one of these games I didn’t and it got interesting, but I believe this one went relatively quickly and we went onto game 3.

One of few non-reprints in Generations

Game 3 was rocky – he went first and started off well, and I went second and hit all the bad luck I had coming to me. I had a very unremarkable first turn, and had to pass without doing much. He started the prize exchange quickly after, forcing my top deck to be usable – luckily it was an out to get going. Getting an out to a Shaymin and getting back in the game, I quickly got the lock into place and started attacking myself. After a couple of turns of back and forth, I’ve killed off two of his energy, with two left in a sizable (approximately 25 card) deck, but I’m on my last energy. In this moment I know I have to go hyper aggressive and use Vespiquen  to try and take my last 4 prizes before he gets to an energy or I don’t stand  much of a chance. While Bunnelby was waiting on the bench patiently, this wasn’t his time, as I didn’t have a reliable out to get any energy put back into the deck. Vespiquen starts the exchange, taking 2 prizes before Dalton begins an Unown chain – Farewell Letter into Farewell Letter into… nothing usable. He then gives me my second to last prize, draws his next card, and concedes finding it isn’t an energy. I take my last prize and the game. The best part – his very next card was the DCE he needed to edge me out of the game. Had I even slightly hesitated I would not have lasted.

This game was certainly the most riveting, and one of the friendliest opponent’s I had all day. Most people get a little disgruntled upon finding out my deck choice, but he was intrigued by the concept and really liked my utilization of Revitalizer for a fallback in setting up your grass lines. After talking a bit after the game, I even find out he had played Sarah earlier in the day and she had offered him a place to crash as well. Good wrap up to one of the closest games all day.

LWW 5-0

 Round 6 – Conner Lavelle, Manectric Toolbox

Being the only 5-0 so far, we take a mutually advantageous tie, and then banter a bit about what we expect to see in our now guaranteed top 8 placements.

TTT 5-0-1

Round 7 – Andrew Wamboldt,  Vespiquen Vileplume

Neither of us wanting to play this one out just yet, we once again take a mutually advantageous tie. This match would come back around to me again, but for now, we’re both guaranteed cut.

TTT 5-0-2

Now knowing both myself, Andrew, and Conner were all guaranteed, we waited on the remainder of cut to be decided by the final rounds. Seeing an interesting set of decks make top 8 after 7^th round, we found the final top cut to be (in order):

Vespiquen Vileplume

Manectric Toolbox

Night March/Milotic/Puzzle

Vespiquen Vileplume

Night March/Gallade/Puzzle

Seismitoad-EX/Giratina

Trevenant/Disruption

Night March/Gallade/Puzzle

Coming back around to more Night March! Our top 8 was played the following day, so I had a chance to rest up and return bright and early through our dreary, Midwestern snow flurries the following morning.

Top Eight  vs Kyle Haverland, Night March/Gallade/Puzzle

Knowing exactly what he’s playing due to Swiss play, I feel fairly confident in my matchup here. I psyched myself up quite a bit the night before, just so I kept myself in check and didn’t get cocky, but I know how to play the matchup and didn’t get too overeager.

Actually winning the flip for the first time in 4 rounds, I choose to go first. This goes exactly like our second game in Swiss- he watches me get the setup, waits for me to pass, and immediately scoops to go to game 2.

Game 2 here goes remarkably close to our previously game 3 as well, with a little twist. He was able to chain Hex Maniac for a couple turns, keeping me at bay for a bit. I made a remarkably dumb misplay here that could have easily cost me the game – I started Unown, had a benched Vespiquen by turn 2, and 2 DCE in hand. I’m so used to getting Shaymin and such Lysandre’d, or the Unown killed, that I didn’t even think to attach to Vespiquen and pass and have game the following turn by killing his active Pumpkaboo with Bee Revenge. Instead, I hold both DCE in anticipation of getting a turn of abilities. He used Hex Maniac again to bide a bit more time for himself, and it’s at this point I realize my dire mistake. I start attaching to Vespiquen now, attempting to rectify the mistake, but Kyle is in the game at this point as well- going back to him, he is able to net an Ultra Ball to start using Shaymins and his trainer draw engine to get set up. He kills the active Unown now and actually gives me a turn of abilities, allowing me to set up my own field, kill his energy, stadium, and item lock him. In the process of getting the Float Stone on my Vileplume however, I had filled my bench with Shaymin-EX and put myself down to 2 cards in deck. Luckily Kyle is only able to Sky Return me, and puts out another Pumpkaboo in anticipation of sacrificing something. I take the opening, assuming without Kyle having a Dimension Valley on the field, I should be safe to Sky Return and open a space for Bunnelby on the bench. He passes, and I see my chance – I draw my last card in deck, drop the Bunnelby and DCE on the Bunnelby, and begin a Rototiller chain. I used 6-7 turns to safely pad my deck with stadiums, Vespiquen lines, and lost energy, and a Sycamore just in case. During this time Kyle isn’t drawing anything useful and is only biding his time to attach a DCE to something that can attack and Judge me. Once I break the Rototiller and knock out the active Pumpkaboo, he does just that, padding my deck even more with my approximately 16 card hand going back to my deck after the Judge was played. Having recovered any useful resources, I’m able to outpace him for the rest of the game and take the game on prizes.

WW – to Top 4! 

The misplay that I caught a turn too late is something I (hope) to learn from and not make the same mistake again. Previous confirmation bias led me to make a bit of a stretched conclusion and play suboptimally. I didn’t let it get to me however, and the game still came back around to me.

At this point I got a bit more at ease, as I started the tournament at 230 championship points, and top 4 was my primary goal. Just having made top 4 nets me 70 championship points, putting me at 300 and my invite! Not even entirely sure it’s fully sunk in just yet.

Top 4 – Andrew Wamboldt, Vespiquen Vileplume

So this is what all the buzz is about.

Anyone who knows the tournament results knows how this one goes – Andrew did not in fact lose to his own deck at this Missouri States, and ended up taking this one home.

Games 1 and 2 are nearly identical – I go first, whiff the setup entirely, and am forced to pass. Game 1 Andrew just entirely edged me out and handily took the game. Game 2 went a bit differently from here though – he also had a terrible first turn, and was forced to pass it back to me. I go deep and start to go agro to see if I can make a come back. Unfortunately, I went 1 card too deep, and took my second to last prize in the same turn I took the last card from my deck. Thus ends my run.

LL – Out

Only giving a full round to the eventual winner and creator of the deck, I’m pretty happy with my run here. I ended up walking away with a box of Breakpoint, a T4 M Scizor mat, a Mewtwo hat (sorry Finals for leaving you guys with Hoopa), just enough points to make it to Worlds and a peace of mind that I can have a bit more fun with the rest of the season without being on edge, and even making a few more friends along the way.

Kudos to you if you made it this far too! I know I’m long winded, and I’m definitely a sucker for the details.

A few new things that I toyed around with in this deck that I liked were:

Revitalizer – all around great card.  Allowed for super aggressive games against mega decks without going for Plume, giving easy access to more Vespiquen lines when needed. Not that I played any though, but it was good to be prepared. Was also the way I got the Vileplume about half the time – early discarding a 1-1-1 line gives you access to a Gloom/Vileplume it as soon as you hit one of these.

Toxicroak-EX – This was in fact great. I was mostly forced to use it against Night March, but its ability to kill Pumpkaboos going back into your turn was clutch. And if they didn’t have Valley or 9 Night March in the discard for Joltik, it can also take a bit of a beating. The Aegislash-EX tech turned utility attacker did its job well.

Town Map – Too good. I dropped Red Card for it when I realized a lot of games have to be played off of prizes when your ability to get outs to get cards gets limited by your own lock. Especially when you have Vespiquen lines or DCE prized (or both, which happens often) this card allows you to literally play off prizes as you take the necessary cards for your future turns.

Other considerations:

Judge or Lysandre. I considered Judge for the exact reason it saved me in Top 4 – when you dig too deep for the set up, you average about 10-16 cards left in deck, and have limited time to win the game. Not drawing your energy timely means this may not be enough time, and being able to Judge your large hand back in when close to deck out gives you more time.

Lysandre is just a good card to have the option of, especially when your opponent isn’t expecting such a deck to play it. 

If I could have played 63 cards, I would have certainly added Judge, Lysandre, and a third Float Stone.

Pokemon – 28 4 Combee AOR 4 Vespiquen AOR 4 Oddish AOR 4 Gloom AOR 3 Vileplume AOR 3 Unown AOR 4 Shaymin EX 1 Bunnelby PRC 1 Toxicroak EX

Trainers – 28 3 Professor Sycamore 4 Ultra Ball 2 Revitalizer 4 Acro Bike 4 Trainers’ Mail 4 Battle Compressor 1 Town Map 2 Float Stone 4 Forest of Giant Plants

Energy – 4 4 Double Colorless

While States meta varied widely state to state, I feel I definitely made the right meta call for this one. More importantly, I was well versed with the deck, having tried it out at a few Cities during the Chicago Marathon, winning a moderately sized League Challenge with it, and constantly playing test games with it to find any pitfalls that may occur and how to work around them. In my opinion, knowing your deck inside out and trusting your gut will get you a lot farther than simply playing the most popular deck around. It just happens to help if said deck is one of the stronger ones in the format, haha. Congrats to fellow TT Jay Young for making Top 4 as well, and Andrew Wamboldt for taking it all and also rounding out his invite to Worlds.

Anyway, this past weekend was a great one overall, and I hope to see some of you around at the next few weekends of States (and Worlds!).