Hi there. I have another Pokemon TCG local tournament blog post. The deck I play is Archaludon ex again.
This free tournament is in Toronto at this place. I make my way to Toronto to do some shopping, pick up some cards and play at this store.
The tournament format is all best of one matches and three rounds. You earn a prize pack for each win. They have the latest Pokemon Prize Pack Series Six. The chase cards are stamped Terapagos ex and Fezandipiti ex.
Last time I went with Ceruledge ex with Palkia VSTAR. I returned with Archaludon ex with a 1-1 line of Scyther and Scizor. It was a backup attacker for any possible walls like Mimikyu or Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex.
Decklist
Pokémon: 9
Trainer: 14
Total Cards: 60
The decklist may be off by 1 or two cards. I copied this from my PTCGL game client desktop app. (Plus I used LimitlessTCG Builder to make the decklist + Screenshot)
Two Black Belt's Training Supporter cards are for the Dragapult ex matchup and against any Gholdengo ex. As Archalduon ex does 220 damage, the Black Belt supporter adds 40 damage to deal 260 damage for the one hit knockout on Gholdengo ex.
For the Dragapult ex matchup. If they hit with 200 damage from Phantom Dive on Archaludon ex, then I can use Relicanth's ability plus Black Belt's Training. The damage calcuation is 80 from the Duraludon's Raging Hammer with Relicanth plus 200 plus 40 from the Black Belt Supporter. This results in 320 damage knocking out the Dragapult ex.
My first round opponent had a mulligan to start (No Basic Pokemon in starting 7 cards in hand). From the mulligan I saw a Penny. Penny usually means a control deck but it could be a tech option in a deck with Basic Pokemon attackers. I've seen this guy once before so I figured a wall deck and/or Snorlax.
He opened with Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex I think and I had a Scyther to start. Because I saw a Wall Pokemon like Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex and a Mimikyu I had to play carefully and less aggressive than normal. The Cornerstone Ogerpon can be only be attacked by non ability Pokemon. I had to use Duraludon and Scizor as attackers.
I don't remember the full details and the sequencing of turns. My opponent did play multiple Miss Fortune Sisters to remove item cards from my deck. There was one Erika's Invitation to being out a Radiant Greninja from my hand, a Boss's Order Stall to bring out Iron Bundle to the active as he had Snorlax in the active. Jamming Tower was used to negate the effects of Tools like his Bravery Charms.
My knockouts and prize mapping were something like knockout Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex for two prizes, one prize knockout on Mimikyu, one prize knockout on Snorlax, maybe one more knockout. Then my opponent saw no way out as his hand size was low. I don't think he played Rotom V as I did not see one. Maybe it was prized.
That was actually my first time playing against Snorlax Stall in person. I generally avoid playing against it online as it takes too long and the matchup is annoying. As I was playing Archaludon ex with Professor's Turo Scenario and Scoop Up Cyclone I have ways to avoid being retreat locked and can attack outside of the usual Archaludon ex.
Snorlax Stall decks generally don't knockout your own Pokemon. They want to stall you out so you can deck out slowly (and painfully). In a best of one format the games can take really long. I managed to get the win in 20 ish minutes. If I played a different deck, did not have Scizor or had worse luck then the outcome would have been much different. I was grateful to get this win against a difficult matchup.
Whoever faces this Snorlax player in the next round in the 1 loss bracket will have a tougher time I think.
When I saw what my opponent was playing in this round, I thought to myself Aww man. He revealed a Cornerstone Ogerpon ex in the active. From round one, I knew he was playing a Milotic ex wall type of deck.
Snorlax stall decks (as mentioned in round one) typically don't attack you. Wall decks like these do attack you and remove some of your attackers. This matchup is actually more dangerous than Snorlax stall. Because Cornerstone Ogerpon ex cannot be damaged from Pokemon with abilities, I had to attack it with Scizor and Duraludon.
My opponent manages to get three Energy on his active Cornerstone Ogerpon ex kind of fast. In 3 to 4 turns I think. I had to give up 2 Prizes before I start counterattacking. The details are fuzzy but I recall using Scizor and Duraludon to remove his Cornerstone Ogerpon ex. Once that was gone the second Cornerstone Ogerpon ex, Mimikyu and Munkidori were not threats. They had not enough energy to attack.
I pick off the second Cornerstone ex with Duraludon and a recycled Scizor from Super Rod. I recall picking off a Noibat too.
What helped a lot was Jamming Tower again. That shut off his Rock Chestplate and Bravery Charms.
Since the second Cornerstone Ogerpon ex knockout, the opponent was not able to get any setup in terms of attackers. My momentum was too strong at this point. Normally this Archaludon ex deck does not play from behind but given the matchup I had to play slower and in a more tactical manner. I go 2 wins and 0 losses. Not easy matchups from these first two rounds but my deck is well equipped to handle these control decks thankfully.
My round three was a familiar opponent. We had played twice before with at least one of us a playing different deck. He was 2 wins and 0 losses as well.
At first I thought he was playing just Dragapult ex. Later in the game he revealed a Charmander which meant there was a Charizard ex as well. He played a Dragapult ex + Charizard ex dual deck. This type of deck does exist and is sometimes played. The Drakloaks help with drawing cards and Charizard ex is very good in the late game.
My hand and setup was good overall. The opponent's setup was not good with him going second on his first turn. No Buddy Buddy Poffin, no Arven, no Rotom V to be seen.
From the second turn onwards I got a fast Archaludon ex to knockout with active Manaphy. Any possible threats were eliminated ASAP. A powered up Drakloak on the Bench was hunted down by my Boss's Orders.
His hand was not good and he could not manage to setup. I pick off his Pokemon one by one. My luck was good and his was very bad. I felt bad about this win but luck differentials like this do happen.
After this third round, the round 3 opponent and I had time to play another game. It was to pass the time and to practice. He was not familiar with the Archaludon ex matchup and I wanted some practice against Dragapult.
This game was much closer than the previous one. The details are fuzzy but I recall being in the lead. My prize trade was 1 then two prizes for a Dragapult ex knockout, a Dreepy knockout, Drakloak knockout and then Fezandipiti ex knockout. It was 1-2-1-1-2.
The late game was not easy for me. As I took 4 prizes his Charizard ex was able to do 300 damage for the knockout on my Archaludon ex. I had to play to the end and get lucky. He played Iono to put me down to 1 card (I knocked out his Drakloak for prize card 5). Then he knocks out my Archaludon ex to get his prize card 3 and 4. He is down to 2 Prize Cards and I have 1 left.
There were some spectators rooting for my opponent. They are probably regulars too. (I am a semi-regular at the store.) My end game was something like Nest Ball for a second Iron Bundle from Super Rod with a powered up Archaludon ex evolve. His board state was a Charizard ex with a Fezandipiti ex with a Hero's Cape. I had Jamming Tower in play to disable the 100 HP effect from Hero's Cape. Use Iron Bundle to bring out the Fezandipiti ex and knockout with Archaludon ex for the game.
The three spectators were disappointed that my opponent did not get the comeback win and I won. It was revealed that my opponent had Counter Catcher in hand before I used Iono to put him down to 1 card.
I go 3 wins and zero losses. The third round was lucky for me but the first two games were tough. A very good result. There was another guy who got 3 wins and zero losses but he got first. I might've placed second. My opponent's win rates were not high enough to break the tiebreak for first. That is something out of my control. I wanted the Prize Packs so 3 wins is very good.
Here are the cards I pulled from the 3 Prize Pack Series Six packs. I did not get a Pokemon ex pull unfortunately. Getting a Night Stretcher was nice though. Night Stretcher cards are not that available and the price of them is around 2 to 3 CAD each. Other playable staple cards like Earthen Vessel and Buddy Buddy Poffin have gone done a lot to under 1.50 CAD.
This game feels like Poker in a way. When you spectate you have information from both sides. That way you can see the best possible plays for each player. When you play yourself the information you have that is public is the board state for both players, your discard pile, the opponent's discard pile and your hand. You don't know your opponent's hand but you know their hand size. If the opponent has a low hand size their options are limited unless they have draw power cards like Professor's Research.
When it comes to deck builidng and matchups you cannot win every mathcup possible. You and your deck wants to have good matchups against most of the metagame decks and popular decks. Some decks are good against certain decks but have (near) auto-loss matchups versus some other decks. Some players kind of gamble with their deck choices and hope to not run into certain decks. With mine I intentionally added the Scizor just in case. I am glad I put it in.
I thought I played a good tournament overall. My gameplay was near perfect. I expected to run into a lot of Dragapult ex decks but I hit one in the end. Hitting two wall decks in round 1 and two felt unlucky with the matchup roulette. The result of 3-0 I got here was a mix of good luck and good gameplay.
Thank you for reading.
