I visited Cornwall with three fellow players: Tim Yusuf, James Vincent and Mitchell Taylor. After detours to see the Stonehenge and traffic delaying our arrival we finally landed in Redruth and the play testing began for the weekend. I decided that day one Zoroark/Garbodor would be the play to which we wrote up the lists we all were going to play then settled for the evening to play some other card games and enjoy the evening. Mad for Miniatures League Cup
The Cup at Mad for Miniatures only had around 15 Masters overall so we had 4 rounds of Swiss with no top cut, this was a tad odd due to the norm of a top cut in the majority of tournaments we have been to. So who ever finished as top seed, won the entire 50 points and mat.Prior to the tournament, we were able to encounter a wild Ross Gilbert, creator of PTCGradio and has worked on numerous occasions with the Pokémon Company. This was a really awesome moment to meet someone who enabled me to get into Pokémon with the videos and podcasts he produces, so it was great fun sharing a laugh and listening to Ross.
This was a very fun League Cup in which personally I was not incredibly well with being ill the Friday night so not only did I suffer in the way that I played but it allowed me to really enjoy playing my opponents and helped me as a warm up coming up to the second cup on the Sunday (which is how I took it).
I finished 10th playing Zoroark/Garbodor, the deck itself was very interesting and ran extremely well apart from the round two loss to Mitchell Taylor in which we fought a close match. Then I drew two games either side of playing Mitch, which I finished the day with a rather interesting win over Sylveon after winning the first game then resource management for the eventual win as Oranguru pushed my resistance up allowing me to finish with an amazing 62%.
This helped a lot with fellow player Mitchell, who went on to win the event with some amazing plays to completely dominate his remaining rounds after a close tie with Ross Gilbert in the first. He finished on a record of 3-0-1 which allowed him to gain his first points and champion's mat since the beginning of his playing career.
This was the list that was played over at the cup on the Saturday:
Once we got back to the house we decided to switch up decks due to the fact that we wanted to try a different part of the meta as personally I thought there was not enough ability to hit big numbers in the deck so I switched up my variant to Zoroark/Lycanroc. I have been practising a lot with both of these variants for competitions if I ever had to play in one and this was my time to play both decks in two separate tournament.
Xeon City Gym League Cup
The Sunday of the cup at Bazbo Comics, we all were feeling pretty lifted after the day one win at the other cup and each of us really felt we had a chance with the decks we had picked. The field was pretty similar to the first day with a few players changing decks but the majority all playing the same deck. There was an increase in metal variants with Turbo Metals and Metagross and friends coming out which took up the top tabled for the majority of the day.
There also was a vast amount of Vikavolt Tapu Bulu which turned up making up three of the decks, overall there was a total of 16 Masters. Judging ZoroRoc being a majority two-shot deck, this was a meta which did not ideally suit my deck choice although it is incredibly consistent.
Round One: Vs VikaBulu - Jessica Brennan
Jessica came second in the cup on the Saturday playing exactly the same list as she did to make it that far then and from the convincing play style shown throughout the match, she played it so well. The first game was an extremely close game in which I was able to take the game by the narrowest of margins, especially due to Lycanroc's weakness to Grass-type Pokémon.
Parallel city was a major card in this match up allowing me to reduce my opponents bench space as well as being able to reduce the damage given from attacking Tapu Bulu's. This saved my Zoroark's in the first game so that I was able to take two-hit knockouts, plus the demanding needs of Bulu needing a grass attachment and a strong charge to be able to consistently attack.
I was able to get rid of the Oranguru early with Parallel and then slowly make Jess burn through her resources to finally arrive at the win.
The tie was the correct and fair result for the match up which personally from this moment I was wondering if I should have stuck with Zoroark/Garbodor seeing the amount of Tapu Bulu in the field.
WL (Tie), 0-0-1
Round Two: Vs BuzzRoc - Mitchell Taylor
This seemed familiar, mainly due to us being paired up in the second round of the cup at St Austell, this was going to be an incredibly interesting match up with Buzzwole Gx being an unfavourable match up especially the fact I substituted the Mewtwo from Evolutions for an Oranguru from Ultra Prism due to the threat of Mill that turned up day one.
The first game, Mitch had such a fast and explosive start taking out a Rockruff early with a Jet Punch for 60 with a Strong Energy and Regirock Ex on the bench. It was then followed up with Knockouts onto numerous Gx Pokémon and he quickly ran away with the first game after developing another Buzzwole Gx.
The second game was a lot closer as I was able to take an early knockout onto a Remoraid stopping the draw support from Mitch's deck which allowed a slow and clunk game from him. I was able to take knockouts using Lycanroc's Dangerous Rogue Gx and after that Mitch was not able to recover.
In the third, I had such a horrible start to the game starting Tapu Lele Gx and missing the chance to get a starting hand Brigette. I was able to take the initiative to start taking knockouts using Mew Ex, early and fast forcing four prizes in two turns. When Mitch then placed three energies and attacked with Regirock Ex for 100 damage on the Mew while benching another Buzzwole Gx that was when I was able to search out for a Guzma in my deck to take out the final Buzzwole to turn the game into a win.
LWW, 1-0-1
Round Three: Vs VikaBulu - Dan Clatworthy
Once again another Tapu Bulu match up, this was not a great game.
Both players misplayed in this match a lot allowing each other to win a game a piece and make the game a tie. I missed 10 damage onto a bulu with a Lycanroc Gx which was an instant return knockout and then in the second game my opponent decided to retreat out to save a Pokémon rather than knocking out the active.
I think a tie was a fair result for the match as time way called.
Both players misplayed in this match a lot allowing each other to win a game a piece and make the game a tie. I missed 10 damage onto a bulu with a Lycanroc Gx which was an instant return knockout and then in the second game my opponent decided to retreat out to save a Pokémon rather than knocking out the active.
I think a tie was a fair result for the match as time way called.
LW, 1-0-2
Round Four: Vs Gardevoir - Anas Toumia
This was the first game which was incredibly close to being a tie but I ran out winning, this was due to in the first game I was able to take knockouts onto Remoraid and Gallade early to not give my opponent a chance to continue setting up his bench. Playing a stage 2 Pokémon is obviously extremely clunky and they were only able to achieve 1 Gallade and 1 Gardevoir which were dealt with in the first game. I started Mew Ex on this occasion which due to the slow start took 4 prizes before a Gardevoir finally knocked it out.
In the second game there was not that much time left with 15 minutes being left by the time this game started. This was either going to be where I was in for a chance to get into T4 or not, so I needed to make sure either I took a quick win or had to tie out the game so I won overall. Anas hit everything in his opening hand playing everything down he needed having Alolan Vulpix in the active and searching his deck while I had an Oranguru in the active, and an opening brigette but nothing else for the next few turns.
If Anas was able to be quicker attacking into my Pokémon he could have won the game and it would have ventured to a tie. He did not start being aggressive early but waiting for me to start playing my Zoroark Gx's down to play, which I did not do for the entire game due to knowing he had two Gallade ready to knockout any of my Zoroark. Instead I was able to play my game around Rockruff's Corner attack which enabled me to get the win after making it awkward for my opponent to do anything in the game.
If Anas was able to be quicker attacking into my Pokémon he could have won the game and it would have ventured to a tie. He did not start being aggressive early but waiting for me to start playing my Zoroark Gx's down to play, which I did not do for the entire game due to knowing he had two Gallade ready to knockout any of my Zoroark. Instead I was able to play my game around Rockruff's Corner attack which enabled me to get the win after making it awkward for my opponent to do anything in the game.
WT, 2-0-2
Round Five: Vs Metagross Box - James Raymond
This was my win and in round and both me and James needed to win this to be able to reach a top cut finish. I lost the toss and went second although James' turn one was very weak for a Metagross deck. I was able to take some early prizes. Here due to the high Hp of Metagross the majority of my attacks were two shots until I was able to power up a Dangerous Rogue Gx to sweep something up towards the middle of the game.
James tried extremely hard to fight back in this game but he struggled with the initial energy discard which helps with developing his board state for later in the game and with a minimal amount of energy in the discard and no Metagross to swing or use the Geotech ability to charge so game one was an incredible uphill struggle for him due to Zoroark's consistency.
The second game was very pressured and interesting as both players were able to set up well and start looking to take prizes when they could. James was very aggressive with his energy discard this time round and was able to start charging Metagross up turn three or four, before he then placed Dusk Mane Necrozma down to start swinging.
It was close to coming down to time again and James only had a couple of prizes to take, time was called and James had two turns to take a knock out onto two Pokémon. He managed to on turn 0 forcing me to promote a Tapu Lele Gx so I knew it would get immediately knocked out with out a choice band. I then drew into Guzma and a Strong energy to place onto my benched Rockruff, used the Guzma to bring up a Metagross with no energy attached and used Corner once again to stop him from retreating. If he was able to find a Guzma then that would have been game but thanks to a previous N the turn before I was able to shrink his hand so he could not draw into one.
Corner winning me two rounds of the day.
I would like to make a special thanks to James and Jess, they were absolutely lovely throughout both the days and both were very kind giving a fantastic reputation for the area as it has been the first time travelling to Cornwall to play! (You need to get a cat and call it Meowth!)
James tried extremely hard to fight back in this game but he struggled with the initial energy discard which helps with developing his board state for later in the game and with a minimal amount of energy in the discard and no Metagross to swing or use the Geotech ability to charge so game one was an incredible uphill struggle for him due to Zoroark's consistency.
The second game was very pressured and interesting as both players were able to set up well and start looking to take prizes when they could. James was very aggressive with his energy discard this time round and was able to start charging Metagross up turn three or four, before he then placed Dusk Mane Necrozma down to start swinging.
It was close to coming down to time again and James only had a couple of prizes to take, time was called and James had two turns to take a knock out onto two Pokémon. He managed to on turn 0 forcing me to promote a Tapu Lele Gx so I knew it would get immediately knocked out with out a choice band. I then drew into Guzma and a Strong energy to place onto my benched Rockruff, used the Guzma to bring up a Metagross with no energy attached and used Corner once again to stop him from retreating. If he was able to find a Guzma then that would have been game but thanks to a previous N the turn before I was able to shrink his hand so he could not draw into one.Corner winning me two rounds of the day.
I would like to make a special thanks to James and Jess, they were absolutely lovely throughout both the days and both were very kind giving a fantastic reputation for the area as it has been the first time travelling to Cornwall to play! (You need to get a cat and call it Meowth!)
WT, 3-0-2
Top 4: Vs Turbo Metals - Ross Gilbert
Once into the Top 4 I was paired with Ross, which was extremely exciting for myself as we had been finally paired against each other after having shared a laugh and a joke through the weekend at both cups. Before I break down the game, this has had to be one of the most entertaining and enjoyable games of Pokémon I have ever played. It did not seem like a Top 4 match up and was more like a fun game at league or a testing session, with both myself and Ross exchanging sassy jokes and talking about generic Pokémon TCG trivia.
As game one started we both got off to incredibly good starts, with Ross firing on all cylinders with a turn one sycamore to discard nothing (swiftly met with a high five). As he developed his board state incredibly quickly and filling up his bench. Within my first turn I was able to Parallel his board state so he had to get rid of some of his bench sitting Pokémon such as Mr Mime and Oranguru.
My personal aim here was to force Ross into taking the first price with a big Meteor Tempest so I could reply with a Watch and Learn from Sudowoodo to then force a trade in prizes with either of us having to then take a turn to set back up due to the nature of the Turbo Metals deck I was sure it was more likely to be Ross. The first game did not plan out amazingly well as instead of me using Guzma to bring up the benched Dusk Mane I instead Acerola'd a Zoroark which straight away turned out into Ross' favour and he ran out with the first game.
In the second game how ever, I distinctly remember both of us getting amazing starts again although this time Ross had started a Cobalion in the active rather than a Mew, this lead to him retreating and radiant starring to get his energy around the board. with there being 5 benched Pokémon I once again hit him with an early Parallel and made him discard his Oranguru and a Tapu Lele leaving him with no options of a draw support. I then used Corner to keep the Cobalion in the active position.
The corners had been my way of getting an extra turn back throughout all my games this weekend especially if I was behind at any point. This was even much the case against Ross as it turned out I had used Corner to stop his energy acceleration causing him to lose vital turns of Radiant Star. Although he did pull out a Guzma with a Skyla, it was a shame that I did not have an N for my next turn.
One of my favourite plays of the weekend was being able to knockout a Dusk Mane Necrozma in game 2 with a Tapu Lele as I was able to bring up a fully charged Dusk Mane with Bloodthirsty eyes and then use Kukui to gain 20 damage and draw the Double Colourless Energy off of those two cards, with a choice band and DCE already attached I was able to take the knockout with the most suprising attacker.
With Ross needing to take three prizes where as I had to take two, this lead him to an awkward situation as he was not able to get the extra energy to be able to knockout anything else due to a missed elixir and he took out a Tapu Lele but I 2 puzzle of time to grab the Sudowoodo and Counter energy to win the game by copying the Dusk Mane's, Suns Eclipse Gx.
In the final game of the Top 4 it went to sudden death as neither of us were able to take a Knockout easily. I was able to hit a corner with a strong energy onto the Solgaleo Prism star and then was able to search out all the pieces I needed to take a knockout by using 4 puzzles of time at once to be able to guzma up my own Rockruff to be active, then hit a lycanrox GX and an energy to be able to Dangerous Rogue to win the game.
It was unfortunate for Ross as he was unable to find a Float Stone in his 8 card deck in his previous turn which allowed me to win the game. If he was able to find one then he would have won. This is why Pokémon is such a great game as this one moment was down to the luck of the draw and you never know what could happen.
Although I can not remember every detail of this game I was just full of so much adrenaline when it had finished, it felt like I blacked out for an hour while playing.
I would just like to say that Ross was a fantastic competitor to play against and he made it extremely hard to win the round through all the jokes, it was an absolutely fantastic game of Pokémon. It was a pleasure spending time with him over the last few days.
As game one started we both got off to incredibly good starts, with Ross firing on all cylinders with a turn one sycamore to discard nothing (swiftly met with a high five). As he developed his board state incredibly quickly and filling up his bench. Within my first turn I was able to Parallel his board state so he had to get rid of some of his bench sitting Pokémon such as Mr Mime and Oranguru.
My personal aim here was to force Ross into taking the first price with a big Meteor Tempest so I could reply with a Watch and Learn from Sudowoodo to then force a trade in prizes with either of us having to then take a turn to set back up due to the nature of the Turbo Metals deck I was sure it was more likely to be Ross. The first game did not plan out amazingly well as instead of me using Guzma to bring up the benched Dusk Mane I instead Acerola'd a Zoroark which straight away turned out into Ross' favour and he ran out with the first game.
In the second game how ever, I distinctly remember both of us getting amazing starts again although this time Ross had started a Cobalion in the active rather than a Mew, this lead to him retreating and radiant starring to get his energy around the board. with there being 5 benched Pokémon I once again hit him with an early Parallel and made him discard his Oranguru and a Tapu Lele leaving him with no options of a draw support. I then used Corner to keep the Cobalion in the active position.
The corners had been my way of getting an extra turn back throughout all my games this weekend especially if I was behind at any point. This was even much the case against Ross as it turned out I had used Corner to stop his energy acceleration causing him to lose vital turns of Radiant Star. Although he did pull out a Guzma with a Skyla, it was a shame that I did not have an N for my next turn.
One of my favourite plays of the weekend was being able to knockout a Dusk Mane Necrozma in game 2 with a Tapu Lele as I was able to bring up a fully charged Dusk Mane with Bloodthirsty eyes and then use Kukui to gain 20 damage and draw the Double Colourless Energy off of those two cards, with a choice band and DCE already attached I was able to take the knockout with the most suprising attacker.
With Ross needing to take three prizes where as I had to take two, this lead him to an awkward situation as he was not able to get the extra energy to be able to knockout anything else due to a missed elixir and he took out a Tapu Lele but I 2 puzzle of time to grab the Sudowoodo and Counter energy to win the game by copying the Dusk Mane's, Suns Eclipse Gx.
In the final game of the Top 4 it went to sudden death as neither of us were able to take a Knockout easily. I was able to hit a corner with a strong energy onto the Solgaleo Prism star and then was able to search out all the pieces I needed to take a knockout by using 4 puzzles of time at once to be able to guzma up my own Rockruff to be active, then hit a lycanrox GX and an energy to be able to Dangerous Rogue to win the game.
It was unfortunate for Ross as he was unable to find a Float Stone in his 8 card deck in his previous turn which allowed me to win the game. If he was able to find one then he would have won. This is why Pokémon is such a great game as this one moment was down to the luck of the draw and you never know what could happen.
Although I can not remember every detail of this game I was just full of so much adrenaline when it had finished, it felt like I blacked out for an hour while playing.
I would just like to say that Ross was a fantastic competitor to play against and he made it extremely hard to win the round through all the jokes, it was an absolutely fantastic game of Pokémon. It was a pleasure spending time with him over the last few days.
LWW (Sudden Death), 4-0-2
Final: Vs Turbo Metals - Michael Hill
The final was also incredibly fun game as I ran away with Game one against Michael with the roguest of Tapu Lele Gx I have ever seen in a competitive game. With the Tapu Lele taking a knockout on a Dusk Mane Necrozma with 3 DCE on the Tapu Lele and then with a choice band after using Guzma to bring up a charged Dusk Mane, took a knockout. This was much of the same in the first game and after that the final was an extremely tight game with both players coming out happy from the final game.
Just like the others I would like to say thank you to Michael, Gemma and Austin who were fantastic people who as a group we have met and made some extremely good friends going forward into our final weeks of our first competitive season playing Pokémon.
Here is the list I played:
Final Thoughts
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| My Rogue Tapu Lele Gx in the final! |
With Forbidden Light to be legal for the first time this weekend we now look at Tours, France to see how the current meta will change with quite a few viable cards being included in this new set. This will help everyone with their development of decks to come for regionals, especially Sheffield for those in Europe.
The next event I will be at playing will probably be Sheffield as I will be Judging at the Marquee Models League Cup, 3rd June. I do not know when I will be available to get to the next League Cup but hopefully I can put in some testing before travelling up north to the Steel City.
I look forward to seeing many of you at Sheffield,
Charlie
@ThePelipperPost107/250 Championship Points
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