Tale of Two City Championships // NY Champion & T8 Recap
Hello everyone! Tyler here. This is my first post so I'll try my best to make it as interesting as possible.
The city championships for the 2015-2016 season started on November 27th. Bryan and myself traveled to the Albany, NY area (roughly a three-and-a-half-hour drive) to stay with a friend for the weekend. We attended the city championships in Watervilet on the 28th and Catskill on the 29th. Both of these events were expanded.
The night before the Watervilet championship I was testing a lot with some friends and Bryan. I was pretty set on playing Speed Rayquaza (Also known as HexRay). The list I was testing was very similar to Zander Bennet's list that he topped four with during the first week of fall regionals this season. The only matchups I was pretty concerned about was Vespiquen/Flareon and M-Manectric. After a not-so-good night's sleep, we awoke, got ready, and drove to Watervilet. As I was about to write down my list, I heard there was going to be some M-Manectric (there actually wasn't, at least to my knowledge) so I last-minute switched to something I was fairly comfortable with, Vespiquen/Flareon. I played a list similar to Dylan Bryan's list from Lancaster regionals.
So the first round started, and guess what my first MU was against? Yup, Speed Rayquaza. I was pretty comfortable playing against it, also because my opponent didn't play an Altaria line to combat me taking advantage of the AOR Jolteon. He whiffed a couple Mega Turbos and I was able to swing the game and clean up quick.
1-0-0
My next game was against Giratina/Toad, a pretty unfavorable matchup for me. To try to combat this and prepare for it I made sure I threw in two Stardust Jirachis in to give myself a good chance. He had a pretty bad start, and wasn't able to get a Giratina going after I knocked out his Seismitoad with my Vespiquen. He couldn't recover quickly enough and I was able to snag the win, only using Jirachi once in the game.
2-0-0
My third match was against a really old but super nice guy. I forgot his name, but he was playing a Gardevoir/M Gardevoir deck. I knew this was a really favorable matchup as well because I go for the OHKOs, so he wouldn't be able to take advantage of Aromatisse's Fairy Transfer ability to Max Potion heal his Pokemon. He whiffed two turns of energy attachments and the rest was history.
3-0-0
My fourth match, the match before the dreaded lunch break (I almost always do terrible after a lunch break at tournaments. I don't know why), was against one of the friends I stayed with over the weekend, Chris Siakala. Chris is a pretty formidable opponent who was playing Seismitoad/Bats. Because of this, and because he was my friend, I asked him if he wanted to ID. He politely declined, and joked about how now that he declined he'll lose the match. This was a difficult match, and it usually is for two reasons. One, being that it's toad and, if you don't set up enough Vespiquens with at least seven Pokemon in the discard, you won't be able to play any items that help you draw and discard Pokemon to power up Vespiquen's Bee Revenge attack. The other reason is that enough bat damage stacks up and can get easy knockouts. Chris went first and dropped a Silent Lab right from the top-deck. My stomach sank once I saw this because I had no counter-stadium and Silent Lab messes with my MANY basic abilities (Shaymin Ex, Unown, Exeggcute, etc.). He put down two more Zubats on the bench after he started with one. He also threw down a toad. It then went to me and all I could do was start with my Combee and bench a Combee, then Colress for four. I couldn't play anything from that hand so I passed. Chris overextended to try to donk both of my Combees. He put down a Virbank, lasered me, and was only able to find one Golbat. He also whiffed the DCE. Because of this, I was able to bounce back after a lucky Sycamore top-deck, and not having to worry about Silent Lab anymore. I was able to get the win after a very close game.
4-0-0
Lunch break. After I came back I decided to ID my next two rounds to secure my top eight placement. I ended up third seed.
4-0-2
My first match in top eight was against Giratina/Tyrantrum. I tested this matchup and it was roughly even. The first game took probably around thirty minutes, and I was able to win it. The next game he won as I couldn't get set up once he was swinging with Giratina. Right as we were shuffling to start game three, time was called. That meant sudden death. We each started with one prize and I led with a Jirachi intentionally (I knew he would try to start Giratina). Unfortunately for me, he won the coin flip so he went first. Guess what? He started Giratina. He attached a DDE, which I then thought, "Okay, sweet, I have a fire energy in hand so I can start Stardust'ing him". Boy was I wrong. Right before he ended his turn, he attached a Rock Guard. My stomach sank, as I knew what that meant. I drew for turn, threw down a couple Combees and one Eevee, attached a fire energy to Jirachi, and played Sycamore. I KNEW I had to get the Life Dew off of the Sycamore otherwise I would lose. I managed to get it and attach it to Jirachi, thus preventing him from winning when I attacked into his Giratina. He attached a basic steel energy onto his Giratina for the turn and passed. I was then able to attack with a Flareon for 100 damage, thus taking 60 in the process. He was only able to attach a DDE and pass. He had no other bench Pokemon so I attacked him again with Flareon, taking the match.
5-0-2
My top four match was against Peter Kica, who was also playing Vespiquen/Flareon. He was playing Computer Search in his build, which I thought gave me an edge because I could up him on the prize exchange. I won the first game, then he was able to pull out a win on a very close second game. The third game was also pretty close, and Life Dew attached to one of my Shaymin EXs on the bench prevented it from getting Lysandre'd up for the game. I was able to pull out a win by counter-Lysandre'ing one of his benched Shaymins. This was by-far the most stressful game of the entire event for me.
6-0-2
I made it into the finals, and my nerves were starting to act up. I had to face Archiestoise, which I thought was nearly an autowin for me because of Keldeo EX's weakness. I was definitely wrong, as this match went to game three as well. As any smart player should when playing Archiestoise against Bees, you should focus Tri-Edge Articuno, which he did. That was his saving grace against me, as he was able to pull a quick win in the first round. I was able to take the win in round two after about twenty minutes of play. The final game was pretty tough, and after he N'd me down to two cards, I thought I was done, as he had a better board-state once he knocked out my Flareon. I needed a Lysandre and a DCE to be able to pull out the win. Fortunately for me, he N'd me into a DCE and a VS Seeker, which I used to grab Lysandre for the game. I got pretty lucky on that one.
7-0-2
I won my first City Championship of the season! I was ecstatic, and was really happy in my performance. My plan for the next day was to at least get top eight, which I ended up getting.
After a celebratory night of drinking and Taco Bell, my friends and I prepared our decks for Catskill the next day. I decided to run the same deck, except I took out the Jolteon for a Faded Town. A decent night's sleep, and on the couch this time, I felt ready for my next City Championship.
I'm not going to go into as much detail on this city run, but I did manage to finish with the same record in Swiss as I did the day before, 4-0-2. My first match in top eight was against Peter Kica. After a close game three, he was able to get his revenge on me. Unfortunately for him, he was only able to get top four again. Bryan and my friend Chris were playing the same deck as Chris's from the previous day, except they both used Rock Guard this time. Chris was able to pull out a second place finish which was awesome! He faced the same Archiestoise deck that I faced in the finals the day before. Bryan, unfortunately, was unable to get a top eight during the weekend. The first day he played Giratina/Tyrantrum.
With both of those placings over the weekend, I was sitting at a comfortable 94 CP. Owen is now sitting at 124 CP after he got top four at Willoughby, OH. with Mienshao (Standard).
The following weekend (Dec 5th), Bryan and Owen went to Ashtabula, Ohio. It was a Standard City Championship but nothing noteworthy came of the tournament both members placing far outside top 8.
To wrap things up, I just wanted to say Bryan and I will be heading down to the St. Louis area on the 17th and will be staying with another friend. We will go to two cities during that weekend and a week from when we get there, I'll be heading up to another friend's place to take part in the Chicago City Marathon, as was what Bryan and I did last year. The competition will be more difficult, but I'm looking forward to at least getting a few top eights. Wish us all luck!
-Tyler
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