Then I read about US Nationals, and the success of Wailord. A group of friends working in secret to develop an idea and break the meta for a weekend is the ultimate TCG achievement in my opinion. These events inspired me to update my collection and keep playing.
I had played casually online since the release of Ancient Origins, but really buckled down about a month ago when cities started up. Tulsa cities were the second weekend in January, and performing well at them was my goal.
I played the list below at both Tulsa and Jenks:
| Pokemon - 14 | Trainers -35 | Energy - 11 |
| 4 - Yveltal XY | 2 -Professor Sycamore | 7 - Dark |
| 2 - Zorua BKT 89 | 1 - Professor Birch's Observations | 4 - Double Colorless |
| 1 - Zorua BKT 90 | 1 - Judge | - |
| 3 - Zoroark BKT 91 | 1 - Lysandre | - |
| 2 - Yveltal EX | 1 - Skyla | - |
| 2 - Shaymin EX | 1 - Giovanni's Scheme | - |
| - | - | - |
| - | 4 - Ultra Ball | - |
| - | 4 - VS Seeker | - |
| - | 4 - Trainer's Mail | - |
| - | 3 - Battle Compressor | - |
| - | 2 - Acro Bike | - |
| - | 1 - Town Map | - |
| - | 1 - Target Whistle | - |
| - | 1 - Startling Megaphone | - |
| - | 1 - Professor's Letter | - |
| - | - | - |
| - | 3 - Muscle Band | - |
| - | 2 - Float Stone | - |
| - | - | - |
| - | 2 - Parallel City | - |
I originally experimented with more typical Y/Z/G lists, I could just never get Gallade out in situations where it mattered, and felt like I was getting a ridiculous volume of Shaymin starts. I changed the deck up to have some techier items and thicker Yveltal XY and Zoroark lines. This improved my early game consistency, and provided some fun options during the game (I'll admit it, I only used Target Whistle once during both weekends... but it was cool?).
Obviously, this makes the matchup against any form of Manectric virtually unwinnable, but when I wasn't hitting Maxie's with meaningful regularity, I figured the consistency was more helpful than the lack of a strong Manectric counter was hurtful.
1/9 Jenks cities, 33 masters
R1: Vespiqueen/Vileplume/Forest of Giant Plants L ( 0-1-0 )
R2: Mienshao W ( 1-1-0 )
R3: Entei L ( 1-2-0 )
R4: Night March W ( 2-2-0 )
R5: Vespiqueen W ( 3-2-0 )
R6: Yveltal/Zoroark/Gallade T ( 3-2-1 )
Final Standing: 12/33
Round 1 I started lone Zorua, went first, couldn't dig out a second pokemon and got donked. Round 2 I just setup too fast and benched my opponent on my third prize.
I had the Entei matchup under control, using parallel city to dampen their damage output and hitting a timely megaphone, I just couldn't hit a dark energy to save my life (the professor's letter in the list above was actually a Hex Maniac in Jenks, this game inspired the change!). I hit heads on Birch and drew my remaining 7 cards to find 4 dark energy... extremely frustrating.
Night March is extremely easy with this build, barring horrendous prizes. Bumping Shaymin EX off with Parallel City early game is a must, then just stream baby Yveltal until they run out of attackers/DCE.
Round 5, my opponent had a decent setup, I was just too fast and ended up taking 4 prizes off Shaymins.
I am pretty comfortable in the mirror, it is just typically a very slow game. Without Laser Bank, it is difficult swing for 170+ barring careless play by your opponent. I played this game well, and would have taken the game given a few more turns as I wiped all of his energy off the board with a clutch Giovanni's attack on his last Yveltal EX, but we hit the time limit and thus, a tie.
This day wasn't a total disappointment considering it was my first competition in over a year. Some bad luck in rounds 1 and 3 hurt, but overall I was pleased with the result.
1/10 Tulsa cities, 38 masters
Round 1: Mewtwo (damage swap) W ( 1-0-0 )
Round 2: Yveltal/Zoroark/Gallade/Jirachi W ( 2-0-0 )
Round 3: Mega Manectric W ( 3-0-0 )
Round 4: Night March/Bronzong/Milotic W ( 4-0-0 )
Round 5: Manectric/Toad/Bats ID ( 4-0-1 )
Round 6: Yveltal/Zoroark/Gallade ID ( 4-0-2 )
T8: Yveltal/Zoroark/Gallade LWL ( 4-1-2 )
Final Standing: 7/38
My luck was better overall in this tournament. I got out to a fast start in round 1 and benched my opponent before he was able to mount anything threatening.
The round 2 semi mirror match was kind of interesting. I started baby Yveltal with Yveltal EX and Zorua on the bench, hit Oblivion Wing on the first turn and attached dark to Yveltal EX. My opponent started baby Yveltal, with Zorua on the bench and by the end of his turn had added Yveltal EX, Shaymin EX and Jirachi. He also hit the Oblivion Wing and attached to Yveltal EX.
I knew I didn't want to mess with Jirachi nonsense, so I evolved to Zoroark and used Lysandre to take the KO. I was expecting my opponent to come back with baby Yveltal and resume setting up... but instead he brought up Yveltal EX, attached DCE and used Evil Ball for the knockout.
I look at my hand. I have DCE, Parallel City, Muscle Band, and two VS Seeker. My opponent had three cards in hand. Assuming he couldn't find an out to a DCE in that... I had just won the game. He didn't, so I did.
Round 3 my opponent could not get a manectric out, and I quickly took down Articuno and Regice. This was very lucky on my part. I got ahead of my round 4 opponent, kept baby Yveltal streaming without exposing Shaymin EX. Two intentional draws and I entered top cut as the third seed.
The top 8 matchup was against my round 6 opponent. He is an accomplished player, and the first two games were extremely intense and technical, with the winner in both being determined by who recovered their Shaymin most efficiently.
The only play I regret from game 1 was overextending to KO Gallade. I went for Giovannie's with VS Seeker to hit 160 with Evil Ball... which isn't a bad play, but I only had a dark energy and a muscle band in hand, so I probably would have been better off with a chip shot attack and some sort of draw supporter.
I went first in game 2 (after going second in game 1), and had one of the smoothest setups of the day. Things got close at the end, but I thinned my deck well throughout, so I was able to get the muscle band + VS Seeker I needed to win the game on prizes, taking my last two on Shaymin with Y Cyclone.
Time was called as my opponent began game three. I had kind of a clunky start, but I lost due to a horrendous misplay. On the first turn of sudden death, I had baby Yveltal active, with Yveltal EX and Shaymin EX on the bench. Dark on baby Yveltal with no outs to get it into the discard. Lysandre in hand. He had baby Yveltal with dark attached active, Yveltal EX with dark attached, Gallade (yes, turn one Maxie's fml) and two Shaymin EX on the bench. I needed to stall him.
So looking at his bench, I am trying to choose between Yveltal EX, Gallade or Shaymin. I don't want Yveltal EX, because if he has a DCE, he can Y Cyclone for the game. Shaymin has a retreat cost of 1. What if he has a basic energy in hand and just retreats back into the current game state? A HAH! Gallade has retreat cost of two! He will have to burn a DCE to retreat that, I thought.
But lo, Gallade also has a serious attack that costs a measly DCE. So of course, I try to stall with Lysandre on Gallade, Oblivion Wing. He has DCE and VS Seeker in hand. VS Seeker, Lysandre Shaymin, attach DCE to Gallade, Sensitive Blade for game.
ugggggggggggggghhh
Such an awful misplay.
It probably would not have mattered. I was too far behind in energy attachments to reasonably expect to take a prize before him. I probably should have scooped game 1 and played faster in game 2 to give myself more time in game 3, blah blah blah... Mental fatigue is real, man.
Favorite Card of the weekend: Town Map
Some people like to hate on Town Map. "You can deduce your prizes through a deck check with ultra ball/etc." they say. This statement ignores the utility of Town Map. Playing low supporter counts, it can be crucial to get some of them (Lysandre especially) out of your prizes ASAP. Just in general, with so little hand disruption in the format right now, tools that you can use to line up subsequent turns are invaluable.
Least favorite card of the weekend: Second Parallel City
75% of the time, this deck uses Parallel City to bump Shaymin EX into the discard pile for free. This is extremely valuable for holding an edge in prize trade. This also requires the stadium only be active for a turn. I played a second in anticipation of more Entei in the meta, as denying the OHKO on Yveltal EX is pretty clutch. However, this was almost always a dead card.
Overall, I was happy with how this deck performed. There is some more tweaking to do, and I have room to improve as a player ( specifically in the area of time management ), but I am glad to return to the pokemon TCG community!
