Athena Games Spring League Cup Report

Welcome back to The Pelipper Post

This article is going to include my own report for the tournament, plus the final standings and results from the finished Top 4 and Final. The cup was Best of Three (BO3) 50 minute rounds, with a total of five rounds swiss. Overall there were 15 Masters with only 9 Juniors and Seniors. This was going to be a very good test for myself as there is a very talented pool of players up at Athena in Norwich, near the nice chip shop that does battered gherkins (Sadly was not open).

The League Cup was not my first at Athena, myself, Timur, James and Mitchell had previously played in the Autumn Cup when Burning Shadows was first released. I would like to say a quick thank you to everyone who organised the tournament as it was extremely enjoyable. This was a lot smaller compared to the last few tournaments that we had been to including our local shop down at Marquee Models. Although the size of the event was lower there was a lot of people that we knew from playing previously on the Friday or have played against before. With another 50 Championship Points up for grabs I was hoping to at least make the Top 4 this time round having bubbled my previous Cups by a couple of points, losing my win and in or missing out on the slightest resistance difference.

This tournament though I was feeling quite relaxed about generally because I knew the deck I was playing and I had a little insight into what other decks were going to be in the field. I played my Silvally/Zoroark deck list, which I will be doing a profile and breakdown on both my Youtube Channel and on my Blog. The only match up I was not very keen on seeing today was the Zoroark/Lucario deck which had been quite popular over the last few weeks since it has hit legality in standard. Ideally I was hoping for lots of Buzzwole GX to hit weakness against and it so happened to be the case, my first and third round were against some of my friends who both were playing Buzzwole GX/Lycanroc GX.

First Round: Tied, WL. VS Bruce Kelf - Buzzwole/Lycanroc

To give a bit of appropriate back story, Bruce before handing deck lists in, told us that there was at least two Greninja decks appearing at the League Cup. So he had managed to convince me to look past the possible bluffs of players and tech in a Giratina Promo into my deck. This was probably the best decision I had made. First game I draw my starting hand and guess what was my only basic Pokémon... Giratina. I was able to manually attach to my Giratina and knock out two Buzzwole GX while setting up my bench for the remainder of the game before my Giratina went down. So far it had taken 5 prizes. I then got mauled T2 by Bruce who was able to have an amazing start and completely ruin my board state in a close but intense battle in game two. We were not able to pull out a game three quick enough so we took a tie and progressed into the next round both hoping to gain a Top 4 finish. Bruce had finished previously in the Top 4 at Marquee Models which had earned him his worlds invite gaining over 250 Championship points with the 32 he picked up from Friday. 

Second Round: Won, WW. VS Neil Miller - Aerodactyl (AGAIN!)

For the second time in three days I had faced Neil, as we settled down for game one we reflected on the round at Marquee and shared a good laugh about it and he was an incredibly nice opponent to play against. He started a lone Hoopa which was only 1/5 chance of him starting this due to his 4 talonflame and he was unlucky enough to draw the hoopa. Game one went pretty quickly due to the Hoopa being taken out by a Type: Null, even though Crushing Hammers and Assault Vest's could not quite save the Hoopa. Game two was much more of an open game as Neil had the perfect start and was really racking through his deck finding multiple Aerodactyl and his set up was overall quite scary at one stage. The first priority was to get rid of all of his Aerodactyl as they were going to be causing the majority of the damage to my Pokémon especially with discarding my DCE. I was able to power up a Dawn Wings Necrozma to start KOing his Pokémon. Which only had 120 HP which is the magic number in my deck. After having some quite unfortunate luck with his Old Amber's failing 5 in a row after having 2 fossil excavation in his hand, I soon overwhelmed his side of the board and was able to scrape out the win against Neil. This time it was a much more enjoyable game rather than the turn one donk of previous!

Third Round: Won, WW. VS Matt Wheat - Buzzwole/Lycanroc

Looking at the player match ups for the next round having only 15 Masters. it was already written amongst the stars that I would be playing one of our own, Matt Wheat. He had just come off getting his first Top 4 at a cup earning himself his best finish this season, since he has only been playing the last 5/6 months. Starting the first game I completely overwhelmed Matt with, the best card in the deck, Giratina. It took 8 prizes in both games which meant that surely it had to be an inclusion after this tournament is done. I say about me hitting all my Max Elixirs but Matt hit every single one he played against me and still it was not enough to stop Giratina. In the second game Matt was unable to get going with his slow set up costing him the game and meant that I was able to take the W. Although it was a incredibly fun round, I believe we both learnt a lot and was able to take away some good points away to help our gameplay better, as we ran it more like a testing match. Sorry Wheaty! But do check out his Youtube channel as he posts stuff about Pokémon and some other unimportant games (MAGIC): https://www.youtube.com/user/WheatyMTG

Fourth Round: Tied, WL. VS Scot Symonds - Turbo Metal (Dusk Mane Necrozma)

Heading into this match I was slightly nervous generally because I was going up against Scot Symonds, who I have a lot of respect for and it was going to be a challenge to make a match of this game. It did not help when I could have had the Turn 1 KO on a Mew (FCO) but discarded the wrong card when looking to Guzma KO. Instead I carried on my board state as I would do being able to grab Brigette to set up my field. This was when I was lucky enough to draw the Fire Memory at the right time without using a mallow, allowing me to stream KO's onto Scots Dusk Mane Necrozma's (DMN) to take game one. Game two was when I was not able to keep up with Scot's deck, it is called 'Turbo' Metals for a reason! He took 4 Prizes relatively easy and from there it was an uphill struggle for myself. We were able to start game three but although I had a very fast and good start, time was called on the round to which if I was to face Scot again in the Top cut I would be able to turn the game in my own favour. Well played to Scot though as it was a really calm game as we sat and spoke for a bit while setting up. I do not know why I was as nervous looking back at the game because it was a great learning experience playing against a great player.

Fifth Round: Loss, LL VS Seb Symonds - Zoroark/Golisopod

Having faced one Symonds, it lead straight to the other. I think possibly one of the shortest games I have played with this deck, due to how much it bricked against Seb. In exactly the same situation against Scott, I wanted to try and see how I faired against one of, if not the best, player in the UK currently. Personally I was pretty calm in the game against Seb only due to the fact that I had played Scot in the previous round and was able to steady my nerves a little bit. Once I saw the two starts I did have in both the games against Seb, I could not really do much in a way to turn the tide. Both times Seb had access to T1 Brigette and I played Cynthia I believe on my first turns of both games, struggling to find a basic to advance my own state. Silvally is the important key in this match up, needing to hit both Zoroark and Golisopod for weakness and any time I was able to get one down, kudos to Seb he backhanded it into my discard with either a First Impression or a Riotous beating. From the point of the game it was long gone so personally this allowed me to relax some more and was able to enjoy a bit of a laugh and a joke with Seb, especially when finding out he did not prize any of his Golisopod's sadly in our games, unlike the final at Marquee! It was a very good experience and I was hoping to still sneak into Top Cut with resistance if results worked out my way. I really enjoyed playing Seb in this round as it highlights to myself why I play the game at all, to have fun and to improve my knowledge of the game.

The Final Standings of Swiss at Athena Games

Top 4: Loss, LWL. VS Seb Symonds - Zoroark/Golisopod

So I managed to squeeze into the Top 4 for the first time, finally breaking the curse and the nickname, Bubble. But once again it was against Seb, which I was hoping to find a bit more luck heading into the round rather than the previous match up we had. Game one I started poorly, I started Giratina, Lunala Prism and it did not really get better from there. Seb was ruthless, every time I tried to set up a Type: Null or Zorua, it was knocked out that turn. So ideally not the best of starts especially when you get paralleled down to three cards on your bench leaving you with Dark-weak Pokémon. Seb took game one convincingly.

Game two went a lot better as I was able to get a T1 Brigette which allowed me to develop my own board state and start taking key KO's onto Seb's Wimpods. Looking back at is I was so nervous during this game because we had everyone staring at the match up as Scott and Bruce finished their game and it was us to decide who was heading into the final game. I can not remember the entire ins and outs of what I played and how I played it due to the adrenaline kicking in once Seb took a prize to go down to two prizes and I was also on two prizes. This was when I had to figure out how I was going to win the game, checking my own discard and thinning my deck down with ultra balls in search of an energy and some puzzles of time. I was able to grab the psychic energy and Silvally GX I needed off of a single trade and it was down to try and find a puzzle of time to use a multi switch and to find a fighting memory. I pulled both with my final act of the game by pulling double puzzle and the fighting memory from my incredibly thin deck to take game 2. 

After that I was not really thinking properly as I do not know still how I managed to pull that game out, it must have just been genuine skill or luck. You can make your mind up! Game 3 started well again but I misplayed pretty much straight away not developing two Type Nulls on my side of the field choosing to Brigette for 3 Zoruas. This showed me once again why Seb is one of the best as he was critically KO'd the only Type: Null on my field and started to strip his way through my Pokémon. He took Game 3 even when it went to time and still had enough turns to take all of his prize cards. Kudos to him as he is a quality player and he showed me at where I want to be come next season.

Final Thoughts

Making my first Top cut was amazing and I would like to thank all of the boys who ventured up with me, they allowed me to feel confidence within my deck and kept me from playing a different deck. Especially with Bruce's bonus tech of the Giratina, personally my MVP of the day. 

I would like to also make a special note to Scot and Seb for three fantastic rounds of Pokémon and I will take a lot away from the experience and develop my game for the next time we cross paths, plus making the day extremely enjoyable from the start right till the end. 

Finally I would not change anything in my deck list at all as everything was perfectly useful today and I was able to be creative with my ideas. This has allowed me to create a deck which possibly could have a place in the current meta, not Top Tier, but definitely an underdog deck. Thank you all of those who have helped me test the list, mainly Timur Yusuf for testing the list at a challenge. I will be writing up a deck profile on the workings of the deck.

Thank you very much for reading and I look forward to seeing you at the next Event!

Charlie

Championship Points
67/250