Delphox league challenge 04/10/14 Hi guys, so heres a break down and explanation of my deck, its techs, and its matchups, both in theory and actual play. 1 Yveltal 3 Yveltal EX 2 Mewtwo EX 1 Seismitoad EX 1 Darkrai EX 1 Keldeo EX 2 Trubbish 2 Garbador 4 Professor Juniper 4 N 1 Skyla 2 Lysandre 1 Cassius 1 Computer Search 2 Random Receiver 4 Ultra Ball 3 Muscle Band 3 Float Stone 3 Energy Switch 1 Max Potion 4 Hypnotoxic Laser 2 Virbank City Gym 4 Double Colorless Energy 1 Rainbow Energy 7 Dark Energy I originally had 2-2 Yveltal/Yveltal EX, but after considering the current meta decks, I realized that rarely when i went second did i want to use Yveltal as my attacker. Heres a quick break down!! Against VirGen: I want to go first, although i cant attack, neither can VirGen on their first turn, so i get an extra energy attachment allowing me to hit with Yveltal EX, or Mewtwo EX for decent damage. Against Lucario EX / Landorus EX: I want to go second without a doubt, as they both can hit for up to 90 damage if they go second. Against Lucario EX I want Mewtwo EX for weakness, and against Landorus EX I want Seismitoad EX for weakness. Against TDK: I want to go second again, Seismitoad EX slows TDK down a little, and Mewtwo EX trades decently, and in no way am i leaving a Yveltal out for a free prize due to weakness to Thundurus EX. Against Pyroar: Going first has its advantage for setting up Trubbish/Garbador, and going second means potential KOs with Seismitoad EX against Litleos. Against the mirror: This is the only occasion where Yveltal has its uses in setting up and placing small damage to set up KOs later with Mewtwo EX or Yveltal EX. So summing up, with my play style in mind, rarely do I want to start Yveltal in this metagame, outside of forcing my opponent into a 7 prize game. I ended up going 2 Mewtwo EX rather than my original 1. I felt this gives me the edge in a Mewtwo EX war. Against VirGen and TDK, Mewtwo EX is your best attacker and just 1 was too few. I was also expecting lucario to be played in a fair few big basic decks, and hitting for weakness is is important against dish a fast hard hitting deck. Seismitoad is just too brutal not to play, not to mention it slows down TDK, hits Landorus EX and Pyroar for weakness, and with Garbador renders your opponent locked out of most options. Darkrai EX and Keldeo EX go hand in hand (or should that be claw in hoof??) In a format where Hypnotoxic Laser and Seismitoad EX are in nearly every deck, I knew I needed a counter to either lock. Keldeo with a Dark Energy means Seismitoad EX cant lysandre lock you even if you didnt get a Float Stone on Keldeo. And countering any extra poison damage or a turn lost to sleep, mean the mirror match goes slightly in your favour. Ala note the one Rainbow Energy, this means keldeo and a muscle band can now one shot a Landorus EX or two shot any other EX. My supporter line is fairly standard, Cassius is there to keep Double Colorless Energy in your deck, maybe act as a Max Potion, or sometimes even as a Switch. I ran 2 Random Receiver over Bicycle or Colress, mainly to try and increase consistency and because its suits my playstyle. I went computer search over dowsing machine, only because Im running the rainbow tech, and always found myself needing a Double Colorless Energy, when I had my ace spec in my hand. The one Max Potion is in there simply to either give my Seismitoad EX another few turns locking my opponents, or to swing the mirror in my advantage. So now Ive broken down my deck for you, and the reason behind the techs and numbers, let talk about actual play. Round 1 - bye 1-0 Not much to say here, flat 50% resistance is ok, and free won to boot, but the best part... a chance to see what decks i would be playing against as the tournament progressed. As i already said earlier, going first or second against certain decks, and knowing who to start with, can either set up a potential win for me, or a free prize for my opponent. Heres a list of what decks where being run: Virgen - 3 TDK- 2 Yveltal- 2 Lucario/Landorus- 2 Pyroar- 2 Big Basics- 2 Fairies- 2 Rogues- 2 Round 2 - against Yveltal Win (2-0) 2-0 The mirror as the first game of the day, and as speculated, Keldeo EX rendering their Lasers less useful, proved vital in securing a win. Cassius and Max Potion, also denied them Prizes on a few occasions. The other factor here was they ran multiple Yveltal against my single copy meaning, meaning I only had to take 6 Prizes yet they had to take 7. My second copy of Mewtwo EX also gave me the edge if a Mewtwo EX war broke out. Round 3 - against VirGen Loss (0-2) 2-1 VirGen being my toughest match up, I didnt hold too much hope for this game. The speed of VirGen meant i never got Garbador out, and made my Lasers useless. Try as I might, I couldnt match the speed of the monster insect. Not much to ponder in this matchup, outside of running a fire type tech, or a Sigilyph, but then you still have red signal to worry about. Round 4 - against Yveltal Loss (0-2) 2-2 Another mirror match, yay!! Or so I had thought, but this variant was insanely fast and consistent. This guy drew into everything he could possibly need, and at first I pegged him as just lucky, until I asked him more about his deck. He explained he ran no counter to Pyroar, meaning he had a good 4-5 extra slots, giving him the speed and consistency I had lost to. Sure enough he did auto lose to Pyroar earlier that day, but with there being only two of the fiery lion in the tournament, he blitzed through his other matches with superior speed. Round 5 - against Lucario/Landorus Win (2-1) 3-2 Finally, a matchup I was confident against, that is until I dead drew game 1, resulting in a lone supporter until I ended up scooping. Now pressure was on, I needed to win the next two games, with less than 40min left in the round. Game 2 started off a lot better than the first, with me getting Seismitoad EX lock on his Landorus EX T2, giving me an almost guaranteed 2 Prize lead and giving me time to set up both Mewtwo EX on the bench. Cassius also helped me recycle the Double Colorless Energy and deny a return Prize on the troublesome toad. Game 3 was a lot closer, I do remember finally getting to utilize my Keldeo EX and Rainbow Energy to 1 shot a Landorus EX, much to their surprise. He also drew down to less than 5 cards in his deck and time was called roughly at this point, with me leading 4 Prizes left to his 2. Once again Cassius and Max Potion denied him a chance to get the Prizes he needed, and eventually I secured the last 2 Prizes I needed on T3 of time. So in hindsight, I definitely need to include some way of beating VirGen, be it through a different deck list, or techs, and I would probably include a Jirachi EX in my list as well. On a good note, I dont think I couldve played any better in the two games I lost, thinking back, I played the best course i could have out of every hand. As Im sure we all know, there is nothing worse than thinking back and wishing you had played a hand differently, or realize a turn later the mistake you made. Keldeo EX and the Rainbow Energy, definitely proved useful, and not once did the Rainbow Energy lose me a game, and also secured me victories against the mirror and toads with the Rush In ability. Cassius and Max Potion certainly helped against the mirror and big basics as well. The only tech that didnt ever have a use, was Garbador, due to me not getting paired against Pyroar, but i think they need to be in the list while Pyroar remains a threat. This concludes my report for the delphox league challenge, and my list breakdown. I hope you all enjoyed the read.
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 06:16:25 +0000
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