Hi there. Another Pokemon Tournament locals blog by me.
I had to revisit Toronto to pick up cards. One card store gave the ready to pickup e-mail just after I left Toronto last week. So I go to another locals tournament and eat after.
This post is long. Read and see what you want.
I revisit A & C Games near Toronto's Chinatown and near the University of Toronto campus.
The tournament format has changed slightly. It is still free but you have to get 1 loss out of 3 rounds in order to get prizing. You get one Prize Pack per win if you have 1 loss.
The turnout was at full capacity with 24 players. What was weird was that the event page did not open until the night before. Usually the event is available days in advance.
I decide to play the Toucannon archetype again. Some modifications were made this time around. Minus Tatsugiri and a few cards for Solrock + Lunatone, 1 more Fighting Gong, 2 more Fighting Energy.
Approximate Decklist - May Be Off By Few Cards
Pokémon: 19
4 Pikipek PBL 66
3 Trumbeak PBL 67
4 Toucannon PBL 68
2 Solrock ASC 106
2 Lunatone ASC 105
2 Fan Rotom ASC 171
2 Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex PRE 58
Trainer: 33
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
2 Dawn PFL 87
2 Boss's Orders MEG 114
1 Kieran PRE 113
4 Poké Pad POR 81
4 Fighting Gong ASC 187
3 Rare Candy MEG 125
3 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
2 Night Stretcher SFA 61
1 Prime Catcher PRE 119
1 Sacred Ash DRI 168
1 Brave Bangle WHT 80
1 Air Balloon BLK 79
3 Area Zero Underdepths SCR 131
1 Special Red Card CRI 82
Energy: 8
8 Fighting Energy MEE 6
My round one opponent was a familiar opponent. Might be my fourth encounter here.
I think my first turn was going second. The opponent led with a Boosted Evolution Eevee and had the Flareon ex to evolve on the first turn. This threw me off a little bit. That was fast.
For my first turn, I just setup my board and expect that my Active Pokemon gets Knocked out the next turn. I need a few turns to setup a Toucannon then I can start swinging.
I don't remember the next few turns. My opponent just attacks with Flareon ex. To my surprise, there were no Benched Pokemon. I take advantage of this soon.
Around turn 3, I get a Toucannon ready. I had enough Benched Pokemon to go for the knockout on the Flareon ex and win. What seemed scary at first was not too bad for me at the end.
Unofficial Rematch
After reporting my result, I offered an unofficial rematch. My opponent agreed. This game 2 was longer this time.
Sylveon ex's Angelite was kind of annoying to my full Bench. It ended being not too bad. On my next turn, I did end up recovering my board. Eventually, I knocked out the Sylveon ex. This was for my first 2 prizes.
The next Knockout I had was on Flareon ex. The final knockout was on Leafeon ex. I won the prize race.
These two matches were done within 30 minutes. Kind of fast.
My round 2 opponent was someone I faced before and have seen around often. I lost to him at a Perfect Order prerelease event with a Mega Zygarde ex. (What do you do if the opponent has a Mega and you don't at prerelease?)
To spare the details, I lose this one. Toucannon does not have enough firepower against two 320 HP Blaziken ex. The opponent used up 3 Boss's Orders kind of fast too. His setup of 2 Blaziken ex was kind of fast too. He sort of high rolled even though there was no N's Zoroark ex really in play.
Once I saw Fezandipiti ex bench sniping my Pikipeks, it was over. I needed recovery and setup but my opponent was at 2 Prize cards versus 4 left for me.
My round 3 opponent was also at 1 win and 1 loss. He was new to in-person play. The deck was Mega Chandelure ex. I found out quickly after he thought was a mulligan hand. It was a mistake by him as he quickly realized that he a Basic Pokemon in hand. It was just a Dunsparce. The opponent chose first I think.
This Mega Chandelure ex deck sort of caught me by surprise. I did not think someone would play this. When it comes to local tournaments, people play whatever deck they want (good deck/meta deck or bad deck). I have faced a Mega Chandelure ex deck on online ladder once. It was a painful, slow game against a control/stall/mill deck that had no plans in attacking you. The online deck/player tried to stop you from attacking, gets you to draw cards until deck out. I did win that online game eventually. With this third round matchup, I expected a long game.
It turned out that my opponent had an awful hand and a nothing first turn going second. When it came to my turn, I had a Solrock in the Active Spot and a Lunatone on the Bench. I just attach Fighting Energy to active and Solrock attack for the win. Done in 3 minutes. I'll take the easy win against a potentially annoying deck.
Unofficial Rematch
I report my result to the organizer/judge and play an unofficial rematch. This was to pass the time and to also kind of help the opponent gain experience with in-person play.
This rematch was not too difficult still. I find out his ACE SPEC is Neo Upper Energy. This information gave it away that it was an attacking version of Mega Chandelure ex. It made things a little easier in terms of gameplan.
In the end, I win this rematch kind of comfortably. First knockout was Solrock against 70HP Litwick. The second knockout was attack for 70 damage with Fan Rotom one turn then knockout the 3 Prize Mega Chandelure ex with Toucannon. Knockout 3 and 4 was against two fire Chandelures with a Toucannon each.
This ended up being a 2-0 victory here.
I get 2 wins and 1 loss again. This is still pretty good. My rank was maybe 8 out of 24 players. Not bad for taking an experimental archetype deck to locals. I did not play against top decks though so I won't rate this Toucannon deck that highly.
My version of Toucannon seems consistent and does not brick often. It does lack firepower past 300 damage against Stage 2 decks. The locals there has a fair bit of Dragapult ex and Blaziken ex. It may be better to have Toucannon as an alternate attacker instead of a main one.
Here is what I got from my two prize packs. Stickers were free.
Mega Starmie ex ain't too bad.
For Sunday August 16, I plan to take a break from in-person events. The store has their Worlds Celebration event on the 23rd. It is a free event with the winner earning a Pikachu Promo card. People will try hard at that event.
On Aug 30, most Toronto card stores hold their Worlds celebration event. The store has a free Gym Leader Challenge (GLC) event instead. The store's plan is to have a GLC event at the end of each month. Not many card stores hold casual GLC events. I will try that format out and see how it goes. The current standard format being heavy on Dragapult ex and Unfair Stamp annoys me anyways plus I have no plans for larger events, travelling around and Championship Points.
Thank you for reading.
