By Kohrok
Hello, welcome to my first article for Hardrock-Pokemon! My name is Nic, and I’m currently a League Leader, Professor, and Tournament Organizer. This is my first tournament report, and hopefully it’ll help everyone this crazy format.
So I had decided to play a Vileplume/Gengar deck, in an attempt to deal with all of the crazy Sableye decks. I figured that by playing Spiritomb, Gastly, AND Sableye, I could minimize the chance of getting donked. I had also teched in a 1-1 Mewtwo Lv. X. As it would turn out, this ended up being a bad play, but more on that later.
So, away we go!
Pittsburgh, PA Battle Roads
Round 1 vs. Hank F (Reshi/Typhlosion/Emboar)
I brought Hank here, and it was his first event. I had practiced against him once, and lost by a little. He wasn’t running trainers, so poltergeist wasn’t very effective, and he didn’t have Uxie, so he was relying on Professor Juniper, Engineer’s Adjustment, and PONT to get his draw on.
Game started ok, and I thought I would be able to get the drop on him because I had Mewtwo Lv. X in hand, and I got a collector off to get my Mewtwo. He powered up his bench, I powered up mine, and I realized that my Gloom was prized. š Regardless, he really didn’t have trainers, so I just got my Gengar up and swinging. He countered with one of his Zekrom (Weird, right?) and we traded prizes. I wasn’t drawing into much energy and my deck was clogging, but I managed to get Mewtwo Lv. X out, shutting down his basics. I was doing damage, making a comeback, until he actually got Emboar out, attached 4 energy, and attacked for the knockout. I had rescue energy, which helped me bring Mewtwo back, but he RETREATED EMBOAR and brought out a fresh Typhlosion Prime. Flare Destroy was just a problem, given my energy problems, and I ended up losing in a close match after 30+3.
(0-1)
Round 2
Bye. Of courseā¦
(“1”-1)
Round 3 vs. Josh V (MagneRock)
We both started Spiritomb, and he groaned when he saw that I was playing Gengar, so I hoped for some good luck. We set up, and I managed to get my lone Gengar Prime out and with Seeker, Lost-Zone one of his Uxie. I thought I had him at this point, and I had a powered up benched Gengar. He got out a Magnezone Prime, and then, through MY Broken Time-Space, got 2 Machamps on one turn, Set-up with another Uxie, benched Regirock, removed my BTS, and creamed my Gengar Prime. Wow. So I brought up Gengar, used Looker’s Investigation to force him to draw into trainers, and managed to poltergeist for some damage. It really didn’t help, though, because he Lost Burned again, and I missed my first Fainting Spell of the day. Rescue Energy saved the day and brought Gengar back, and with Twins, I was able to re-load my Gengar and knock out his Magnezone Prime. At this point, we were low on time, with myself ahead by one prize thanks to a knockout of a Machamp (he tried to Take Out Gengarā¦ I’m not sure what he was thinking there), and as time was called, he used Lost Burn again and knocked out Gengar. Fainting spell tails number 2 of the day, and I lost after our +3 turns.
(“1”-2)
Round 4 vs. Chris N (Blaziken/Blaziken FB)
Ironically, I had played this exact match (Vilegar v. Clutchiken FB) against Chris in Fall Battle Roads, and I expected more of the same this time. The only difference was that we were both 1-2, and laughed about that together. We played the equivalent of a League fun game, laughing and joking around the entire game. It was pretty close, thanks to my permanent trainer lock, but he ended up drawing into what he needed and clutching for the win. It was easily the most fun game of the day, props to you Chris!
(“1”-3)
Round 5 Vs. John R (ZPS)
When I saw John check in with Zekrom/Pachirisu/Shaymin, I was scared. I haven’t played against it, and I was pretty nervous about my matchup against it after my R1 loss to Reshiram and Friends. Also, I didn’t really care about winning or losing, since Nationals, and certainly Worlds, were not in my future. I basically planned to lose, until I realized that he had NO evolved Pokemon. No Yanmega, Lanturn, Donphan, or anything. I didn’t want to steal it, but when prizes were 6-1 in his favor, I managed to set up my Mewtwo Lv. X. He read the card, and just looked really upset. I explained to him that if he wanted to keep playing, he should try to tech against this kind of problem, and I scooped. I could’ve just stalled and creamed him with Mewtwo, but I really didn’t feel like that’s the way the game should be one – with one game-breaking card.
(“1”-4)
So all in all, I lost every single game (with the exception of R5 which I scooped) but I really reached the conclusion that it wasn’t necessary to try to counter Sableye the way I did. I know a very good player tried to use Sabledonk and dropped after going 2-2, and I also know that the player who ended up winning using Sableye with Cincinno, in a trainer-heavy build. Two of my League kids brought Gyarados and DialgaChomp, and got 1st and 3rd respectively, which was good. We have more Battle Roads this weekend, so we’ll have to see how things turn out. I can say for sure that I won’t be playing Vilegar, though.
If you’re curious about the list, and enough people request, I may write an article about it. It’s certainly a very difficult deck to play, as I experienced firsthand.
Good luck, fellow players, and have fun!
~Nic