Testing Standard: Vespiquen pt: 2

In an effort to increase his content output, Johnny is going to begin posting test logs. These will be short entries with high level thoughts and observations that will hopefully increase thinkspiration in the Pokemon TCG space.

Male pronouns will be used throughout these articles because Johnny has fallen victim to cis male white hetero normative corporate oppression. Or he is just trying to spin these blogs off in less than 30 minutes and making universally agreeable+grammatically correct pronouns is exhausting.

All obvious considerations about small sample size should be observed.

Played: Vespiquen

Used the Charizard Lounge list again. Thought I might have to change things up a tiny bit to prepare for the league challenge tomorrow since I only have 3 Shaymin, but my local game store had a Shaymin show up since Wednesday. I have never paid $60 for a pokemon card before, but I did spend $100 on tins black friday 2015 (50% off yo) in an (failed) effort to pull my fourth one... which is kind of the same thing? Anyway, word to Wizard's Asylum. Let's go!

Game1 vs Haxorus. Got to a quick lead knocking out a couple of axew before my opponent got setup, but was 10 damage short of knocking out the first Haxorus. This decided the game as he intelligently kept his bench small, and I missed the cards necessary to put resurrect vespi from the discard once things got to that point. In the turn I missed Haxorus, I could have discarded combee off of a Sycamore, but benched it to prep a second vespi. Should have paid more attention to opponent's board state and extended to take the ko. Perhaps a good rule on this is to dump <= x (x = 3?) parts of the Vespi line as long as you have Revitalizer in deck? 0-1

Game2 vs M Ray. This player made a few puzzling plays, and I had kind of a slow start, but eventually pulled out of it. Klefki is so clutch in this matchup. 1-1

Game3 vs M Scizor/Garb. Started zorua with a klefki on the bench. One appealing thing about using Raichu instead of Zoroark is that Pikachu actually has a useful attack (nuzzle for one colorless, flip coin for paralysis), whereas Zorua does not (all require dark energy). Opponent had a strong setup, and I had hand of evolutions, non draw supporters, and energy. I don’t think this matchup would be too bad if you can get a couple Zoroark setup to attack immediately, and get Unown (and possibly Klefki, if you don’t have a setup to take down Garb immediately). Whiff on that stuff, and get basically no setup like I did… and it gets ugly fast. 1-2

Game4 vs Yveltal/Yveltal EX/Zoroark. I went first, started with Forest of Giant Plants in hand and blew up from there. I knocked out baby Yveltal on my second turn with Bee Revenge for 150 and he conceded. 2-2

Game5 vs M Mewtwo/Garb: In the game, damage change goes through Klefki, which seems wrong, but I need to check. After that happened I just went HAM on Shaymin and Hoopa. I should have taken garb out early though. I had it set up to draw out my deck with Shaymin and Lysandre an injured Mewtwo (bumped shrine with forest, natch) for game, but my opponent got Garb up the turn leading into when all this stuff was going to happen. It didn’t occur to me until this happened that I would need abilities late. I had ignored trub early because I had already used 4 Unown and all but 2 Klefki by the time I was attacking for OHKOs. Solid game, ignoring Garb was dumb. To win this matchup, I think Lysandre will need to be used at least 3-4 times… which is kind of extreme, but getting up to 210 damage with 26 pokemon in the deck is difficult since outside of Klefki and Unown, your engine for discarding them is Ultra Ball + Sycamore, and discarding 19 with that combo requires some combination of luck and a willingness to burn pokes out of your hand at a break neck pace, assuring yourself Revitalizer and Special Charge can re-assemble anything you lose in the process. Might be worth experimenting with Giovanni’s Scheme? 2-3

Update: I looked at the cards and the PTCGO behavior is correct. Damage Change doesn't inflict damage equal to the amount on Mewtwo EX, it moves that number of damage counters onto the opposing active pokemon. Klefki's Wonder Lock ability prevents damage done from the attacks of Mega Evolution Pokemon, but not effects of attacks, which the placement of damage counters is. I think this is why my wife hates this game?

fyi Suicune BKP Wind Charm ability reads "As long as this Pokemon is your Active Pokemon, prevent all effects of your opponent's attacks, except damage, done to each of your Pokemon (existing effects are not removed). Doesn't fix anything here, but if Mewtwo gets big... something interesting could be built with Suicune, Klefki and Palkia?

Game6 vs M Audino: not sure how much this one was modified from the wordl’s winning list, but my opponent ran the same pokemon lines and lots of 1 of tech supporters, which makes me think it probably wasn’t modified very much. My setup came really slow, and I had to drop shaymin several times early. Was able to sky return twice (in part due to lack of better attacker) promoting miracle locked Vespiquens. Got some nice hands in mid game and was able to N him to 2 before knocking out his only M Audino with energy on it (Audino EX on bench with no link or energy, Shaymin on bench with no tool or energy, Magaerna EX on bench with on metal energy), and after digging some, he conceded on his next turn. Among the 8 cards I had in hand was Lysandre, DCE, VS Seeker, etc. so I am pretty confident I would have been able to ride this one to a win. 3-3

Game7 vs M Scizor/Garb: Went first and setup pretty solid, was doing 110 damage with Vespi on my first attacking turn (probably should have sky returned tho, played down one shaymin on first turn). Discarded both Special Charge on my first turn, but had checked the deck and I had all four DCE… so I thought this would probably go ok if I didn’t get caught by hammers. Grabbed trub with Lysandre on my third turn, benched a Klefki, and my opponent conceded. Would have liked to see how this played out :[ 4-3

Thoughts on the list: I was leaning hard toward experimenting with the AOR eeveelutions in place of fourth shaymin and some of the zoroark line, and teching the trainers a bit more in place of the duplicates of revitalizer and special charge... but after playing today, and getting a better feel for the deck, I think the only changes I would look into is Raichu for Zoroark, and finding a way to add Giovanni's.

I don't find myself using Stand in very often, and I don't have a strong grasp on how much people are playing around Zoroark vs. just being sensible with their bench usage. I am beginning to see more times when the extra HP from the Break is clutch, so as long as Zoroark is in, the break is staying in too.

I think my thirst for Giovanni's is just an attempt to cover for early game misplays I am making. Hopefully I will continue to improve my feel for when+how to discard my attacker lines. A better solution here may be finding room for level ball?

Overall: I feel a lot better about this deck than I did earlier in the week, and I think most of that has to do with my overall comfort level with the game returning. Before a tournament I typically go with decks that I am winning ~80% of my PTCGO games with. That isn't the case here, and I hope my level of play returns to where it was a couple seasons ago soon, but I am happy with the progress I have made.

I am surprised that I have only seen Volcanion once since getting back into PTCGO. That isn't even my biggest matchup concern though. If the in PTCGO ruling, that Damage Change is not blocked by Klefki when used by M Mewtwo, then that matchup will be brutal. If that is the case, I think the M Mewtwo/Vespi matchup will be totally reliant on having access to Lysandre at the right times... Which is sub optimal if the deck is popular :[