YOLO - Battle Roads Tournament Report

[makiri]

Report by: makiri
Deck: Darkrai
Event: Spring Battle Roads 2012
Location: The Mon Store, Montclair, CA

The tournament is scheduled to begin at around 12 so I grab breakfast/lunch prior to arriving so I don't play on an empty stomach (very important never play without food in your stomach!). Sign-ups were uneventful usual same old trading with people and waiting for the tournament to begin.

Pairings go up and I'm ready to go with a new deck based on Darkrai, my decks goal is to get Night Spear as soon as possible, using Smeargle to help set up, and just keep attacking with Darkrai while trying to take multiple prizes each turn with the 90+30.

Round 1 vs Anthony S. - Empoleon/Terrakion
This game starts nothing like I want it to, neither of us have supporters so we are both incredibly slow. For several turns I am stuck Tail Rapping with Smeargle doing damage to his Piplups. He gets a Terrakion up and starts dropping energy on it. Eventually he has a Terrakion that can Land Crush while I still have nothing. I start praying that he doesn't get a switch before I can power up my benched Darkrai. He doesn't and I'm able to begin taking KOs at will. He is able to get 2 Terrakion down but Darkrai was able to negate their attacks by KOing them as soon as they get down. His third Terrakion is prized so he never gets going and I plow through the rest of his field for the win.
Win 1-0

Round 2 vs Carlos D. - Zoroark/Sableye/Darkrai
After the slow start to my first game I'm able to reverse that and get a Turn 2 Darkrai while my opponent loses Zoroarks at an alarming pace. The match was fairly uneventful as I was able to just KO anything he put down. I do make a misplay at the end of the game putting the win at risk, I failed to Junk Arm for a Catcher and get the double KO for the game so my heart stops until the end of his turn but he gets nothing and I win it.
Win 2-0

We have a lunch break now but I decide to just stick around and watch the Seniors finals which happened to have misplays everywhere, which surprised me since these Seniors were ranked highly.

Round 3 vs Sky Y. - Darkrai/Smeargle/Tornadus
We have similar decks but he runs Tornadus EX which doesn't change the matchup very much, if anything it makes him slower. Every time I get a supporter I burn it and due to my low supporter count he is never able to Portrait for anything really slowing him down while I set up quickly again. He keeps it fairly close but a clutch Super Scoop Up sealed the game for me and I win my third match of the day.
Win 3-0

Round 4 vs Thomas K. - CMT
I get a Turn 2 Night Spear, and since CMT relies so much on cheap, easy prizes my opponent just can't do anything to keep up, the game ended on Turn 5 because I took 3 prizes on two separate occasions. There is just nothing CMT can do to a deck just as fast and able to KO it's acceleration.
Win 4-0

Round 5 vs Glenn V. - Mirror
Really wasn't much of a match, I hit multiple Super Scoop Ups to keep my Darkrai healthy and he is totally unable to do anything to stop that from happening. On top of keeping my Darkrai alive, his Portraits never hit anything because I burn my supporters before he can Portrait them.
Win 5-0

Round 6 vs Jerry D. - Something with Mew and Tyrogue
This wasn't really a match, he led with Mew and a benched Tyrogue. I got a Turn 1 Night Spear Koing his Mew and Tyrogue at the same time. He never got to play a card.
Win 6-0

I am the only undefeated after the 6 rounds guarunteeing a top cut for me and with how hot my deck has been running I am pretty confident I can do well and get my first Victory Cup.

Top Cut

Top 4 vs Chris N. - I promised not to reveal too much of his deck
Game 1 - I get a quick (Turn 2 if I recall) Night Spear and am able to take KOs at will, he can't set up at all while I keep all my Darkrai alive as he tries to mount a comeback. I win without him taking a single prize.

Game 2 - He elects to go first and he gets a first turn Playground. I fill my bench with 2 Darkrai and 2 Smeargle along with my opening Smeargle and he fills his bench with the Pokemon he requires for his set-up. I Portrait on my turn only seeing a Twins so I'm forced to go the manual route for powering Darkrais. I do eventually get a Darkrai powered by about turn 3 but he hasn't accomplished his set-up and due to my Portraits I am able to keep tabs on what he has. He dares me to KO Pichu but I refuse because I don't want to activate Twins before I can get at least 2 Darkrai going. During my every turn Portraiting I eventually walk into a Seeker, it was no big deal I just pick up a Smeargle and put it back down. Then I look at my hand and get a bright idea, Juniper, Switch, Junk Arm, Dual Ball, Dual Ball, and Super Scoop Up. I use Switch and Portrait Seeker picking up Smeargle. Junk Arm the Dual Balls for Switch, Portrait Seeker again. Everyone watching starts to go nuts, I play Super Scoop Up, get the Heads, Portrait Seeker again and he is now down to an active Pichu and a benched Pokemon. I play Juniper, get Pokemon Catcher, Catcher his benched Pokemon and Night Spear for the double KO and game. Everyone, including us, is just flabbergasted but everyone enjoys the moment so much that there was nothing left to do other than smile over what transpired. You Only Live Once
Win 7-0

I am now in the finals of my first TCG tournament, but with my play all day I feel confident I can take home the first place Victory Cup. Turns out my final opponent will be a rematch of Round 5!

Final vs Glenn V. - Mirror
Game 1 - I lose one of my Darkrais to a Portraited Juniper early which means I'm down to two attackers, I can't trade in the mirror with only 2 Darkrai so the second I know he locks it up I scoop.

Game 2 - Basically a repeat of our Round 5 match, I steamroll him and he can't get going at all so he scoops fairly early into the match.

Game 3 - This match was the closest of all the matches we had today, we both trade evenly and the game goes to time on his turn with the prizes 3-2 in his favor but I have a much better board position 2 powered no damage Darkrai, 2 Smeargle (1 with 6 damage) and a Shaymin. He doesn't take any prizes on his turn, basically him trying to stall since he really doesn't have much. I am able to KO his damaged Darkrai for 2 prizes taking the lead 1-2. However, whether it was due to overconfidence since his board position stunk or just a dumb play I leave 2 Junk Arms in my hand as a precaution for any shennanigans. He drops a Darkrai with an Energy, Catchers my Shaymin and uses PONT. He needs 2 Dark Patch and he nabs them both powering his Darkrai and taking the double KO on my Shaymin and Smeargle with 6 damage giving him the tournament win. I shake my head but I can't complain and congratulate him. I think the proper play there would've been to Junk Arm for Super Scoop Up and pick up the damaged Smeargle severely limiting his options for a KO. I can't complain though so props to him for winning it.
Loss 7-1 2nd Place

Props:
+Running hot all day
+Porydonking
+eReader Trainers

Slops:
-Tournament losing misplays
-Pulling nothing from my winning packs

[FearZeCrawdaunt]

Haha, I still love that play in Top 4. That's amazing. You are a champ for pulling that off.

Also, at least the last play in Top 2 was only to try for a 50% chance. :| Still, that was your first TCG tourney? I thought you'd been playing way longer! Congrats on a great run nonetheless!

[Huy]

Can't use Dark Void in VGC, just spam the Dark Void mons in TCG.

[makiri]

Originally Posted by Fat FearZeCrawdaunt

Still, that was your first TCG tourney? I thought you'd been playing way longer! Congrats on a great run nonetheless!

First finals*

I've been playing since August so TCG tournaments aren't anything new, and I've placed well previously, but this was my first tournament finals for TCG ever.

[Synre]

Needed more 10 HP Terrakions in the finals but that was a fun read, nice job

Though I kinda imagined this happened when I got a text of the Swiss scores and then nothing after

Kinda makes me wanna try out a similar deck though some slick plays available like that one in Top 4. Interesting to think about...

[Cybertron]

Should have been a win...

Solid, Paul, solid.

[Alakapimp]

Fast Darkrai is so fun and good. Glad you did well with it, I picked up another t4 and t2 this weekend with it too. Also used a Portrait Seeker to bench someone lol.

[Ravix]

Dear god Alaka, that avatar.

Nice Darkrai run and masterful seeker donk, have you given Dark/Torn any thought?

[makiri]

Yes and I can confidently say that Tornadus EX, while seemingly it would be a natural fit, is just subpar when paired with Darkrai. It detracts too much from what Darkrai wants to do and clogs up your energy with DCEs and the reason you would want to use Tornadus (fighting Pokemon) are actually handled quite well by Darkrai surprisingly.

[Mekkah**]

like a boss

[jle1076]

He only won due to luck by drawing BOTH dark patches he needed :/ that stinks but wonderful read