League Cup Report

I went to a League Cup last weekend.

This has been my most active season since 2013-14. I attribute this mainly to how enjoyable the standard format has been this season. Nothing has been consensus BDIF for more than a week or two. I am not sure if that is due to the constant stream of high profile tournaments, or just to the lack of a single dominant archetype.

I have been playing Vespiquen throughout the season, picking up some decent League Challenge finishes when I am not identifying truly horrible alternate attackers to feature (if rattata is good for removing tools, you might as well go ahead and add Raticate BKP... right? right??!?).

I was expecting to see a lot of Decidueye/Vileplume at this League Cup, and through being familiar with the local league knew there would be a healthy amount of Volcanion and Turbo Dark as well. I ran the list below.

Pokemon - 27	Trainers -29	Energy - 4
4 - Combee AOR	4 -Professor Sycamore	4 - Double Colorless
4 - Vespiquen AOR	2 - N	-
2 - Zorua BKT	2 - Lysandre	-
2 - Zoroark BKT	1 - Teammates	-
1 - Tauros GX	-	-
-	4 - Ultra Ball	-
4 - Unown AOR	4 - VS Seeker	-
3 - Shaymin EX	4 - Acro Bike	-
2 - Klefki STS	2 - Special Charge	-
1 - Oranguru SUM	1 - Revitalizer	-
-	1 - Buddy Buddy Rescue	-
2 - Eevee AOR	-	-
1 - Vaporeon AOR	2 - Float Stone	-
1 - Flareon AOR	-	-
-	1 - Forest of Giant Plants	-
-	1 - Faded Town	-

This is a pretty straightforward Vespi list. 2 Revitalizer is nice because it lets you get wild discarding the vespi line early, but I prefer the flexibility of being able to recover Vaporeon/Flareon, or just like... recycle an Unown or something. I tried hard to cut out the second stadium, but being able to bump opponent stadiums can be super clutch.

3/19 Tulsa, 27 Masters

R1: Decidueye/Vileplume L ( 0-1-0 )
R2: Decidueye/Vileplume W ( 1-1-0 )
R3: Turbo Dark W ( 2-1-0 )
R4: Lapras GX W ( 3-1-0 )
R5: Volcanion W ( 4-1-0 )

T8: Decidueye/Vileplume WLL ( 4-2-0 )

Final Standing: 5/27

In Round 1 I had an opportunity to Lysandre Vileplume and Mad Bull GX for 180, but instead chose to Lysandre a Decidueye GX and Mad Bull GX for 180 hoping Decidueye would be stuck active and I could horn attack for KO on the next turn. This was very dumb, and while it may not have cost me the game, it certainly didn't help me win it.

In round 2 my opponent over benched Shaymin and locked himself out of a second Decidueye until he could sky return, or I KO'd something. Unfortunately for him, I had flareon up, and Zoroark+Lysandre in hand. I took out his lone Decidueye, then plowed the rest of his board.

Turbo dark can be a rough matchup for vespi, as fighting fury belt puts Darkrai's HP to a level that is challenging to hit early in the game. Additionally, early Chaos Wheel wins the game. In round 3 though, I had a very quick setup and was swinging for 180 by turn 3, so this never got close.

Round 4 was uneventful to the point I felt kind of guilty. I wanted to see what my opponent's deck could do. I mean, he had won two games with Lapras. Grass weakness is just not something you will overcome against Vespi. I benched him on my third turn.

So we get to round 5. This game was not very interesting. I had Vaporeon in my opening hand and discarded with Sycamore, assuming I could get back with Buddy-Buddy later on. I got my first ultra ball 3 turns later and discovered Buddy-Buddy was prized! This would normally make things kind of sketchy, but my opponent's nerves seemed to be locking him up, and he made a couple of misplays that opened doors to a fairly simple victory.

Why was my opponent nervous? well, everyone at the top 4 tables had ID'd. I had been down paired due to low resistance (second round opponent dropped). There were at least 4 3-1's at the top four tables, and when they realized there was an unaccounted for 3-1 who was still playing, they all started watching the match. We had at least 20 people watching. It was weird.

Anyhow, I won, and ruined the day of a guy I had never seen before. I felt kind of bad, because I am familiar with the pressure to ID at the top tables at these small events where it seems like everyone knows eachother. There are so many variables to account for, and the decision has to happen pretty quick. If this was his first tournament with a top cut, it was a rough way to learn bout dat bubble life. That is as far as my pity extends though. There are few things I despise more than experienced players whining about bubbling top-X. If you don't want to bubble, don't ID. Or learn to math better.

In top 8 I was matched against a pillar of the local league whom I had never defeated, so it was nice to take game 1 off of him. I got Flareon setup and hit a timely Lysandre to take down a Shaymin with Zoroark for the win. In game 2 I got my first search card on my 4th or 5th turn and discovered that Flareon was prized. I considered scooping right then. We had about 10 minutes left and I didn't have the remaining resources to win the game lysandreing Shamins... But the prize trade was even, and with the exception of Flareon, I was set up really well so I chose to play it out. Dumb. I lost and we started game 3 with 2 minutes remaining. I went first, got a solid setup, and time was called as his first turn began. No prizes were taken during the three turns, and he double feather arrowed to finish off Flareon on the first turn of sudden death. This was a rough way to lose, but I have to say it was due to my being too stubborn to concede game 2. He went on to lose in the final against Mega Mewtwo.

Favorite card of the tournament: Tauros GX. I didn't really mention it above, but it is so nice having a good option to sky return into. I had people wasting resources to get around it, and in some cases just choosing to end their turn without attacking. All of this adds to the prize trade edge that makes Vespiquen viable.

Least favorite card of the tournament: Teammates. OMG Teammates by a mile. I have this really bad habit of latching on to cards like this because I will remember all of the super clutch+obnoxiously cute plays they enabled during testing. You know what would have actually improved my record during this tournament though? Another out to search my deck! I was considering cutting Teammates for Hex on my way to the tournament. Going forward I plan on dropping it for a Town Map, level ball... or like... Skyla.

I loved Flareon PLF, and I love Vespiquen AOR. Barring a huge meta shift that makes it hot garbage, or one of the clever Lurantis GX builds I have been discussing with some friends at league actually like... working, I plan on riding Vespi through the end of the season.

League Challenge Report

I went to a league challenge today and played the same list I have been using on PTCGO, created by and seen first at The Charizard Lounge.

Pokemon - 26	Trainers - 30	Energy - 4
4 - Combee AOR	4 -Professor Sycamore	4 - Double Colorless
4 - Vespiquen AOR	2 - N	-
4 - Unown AOR	2 - Lysandre	-
4 - Klefki STS	1 - Pokemon Ranger	-
4 - Shaymin EX	-	-
3 - Zorua BKT	4 - Ultra Ball	-
2 - Zoroark BKT	4 - VS Seeker	-
1 - Zoroark Break	4 - Acro Bike	-
-	2 - Revitalizer	-
-	2 - Special Charge	-
-	2 - Trainers Mail	-
-	-	-
-	2 - Float Stone	-
-	-	-
-	1 - Forest of Giant Plants	-

I went with this deck because I feel like it can beat anything that could show up in Standard currently. My experience on PTCGO told me that the meta is completely undefined right now. I expected things like Mega Mewtwo and Mega Ray to be present... but not in huge numbers.

There were 24 masters in this tournament. here is how my day went:

Round 1: W vs Durant/Slowking/mill stuff
Round 2: L vs Mega Ray/Mega Gardevoir STS
Round 3: W vs Darkrai/Giratina
Round 4: W vs Primal Kyogre
Round 5: L vs Volcanion

I drew into energy as I needed it in round 1, so I was never really threatened.

I went second in Round 2 and on my opponent's first turn he played N and I pulled out a truly disgusting hand. 2 Revitalizer, 2 Zoroark, a DCE and Professor Sycamore. I had a Zorua active and a Klefki on the bench and drew a float stone............ So I could play the Sycamore and knowing that it would stick me with my only attackers being whatever portion of the Vespiquen line was in the deck, or wait a turn and probably be in the same position plus one Zoroark.

I went ahead and played Sycamore, and was nearly able to pull this out. My opponent was spamming Hex most of the game to prevent Miracle Lock. He played Hex and knocked out a Vespiquen to go down to 2 prizes. I promoted a Combee, leaving Klefki on bench. I evolved to Vespiquen and attached, played N to knock him down to 2 cards in hand, knocked out Mega Gard (his only pokemon with energy attached) to go down to 2 prizes myself, and crossed my fingers that he would not get outs to some combination of energy+mega turbo to power up his benched M Gardevoir. He had an out to Shaymin and was able to draw into the needed energy resources, knocking out Vespiquen, which was game, since all of my Vespiquen were now in the discard pile, along with my Revitalizer. Frustrating.

I had outs to Pokemon Ranger when I needed it in Round 4 Had kind of a clunky start, but Vespi just hits too hard in this matchup, assuming you can keep up with energy attachments.

I went first and got a decent setup in round 4, eventually pulling 3 VS Seeker off a Sycamore while Lysandre was in the discard, which would let me cherry pick KO targets assuming my opponent didn't get access to N. He didn't, so I did. Weakness+prize trade+how fast Vespi is/how slow Kyogre is makes this a matchup I have trouble imagining Primal Kyogre ever winning.

Round 5 was against the only undefeated player. I went first and got a great start in terms of dumping unown and klefki, but not in terms of setting up attackers. I had Combee active and Zorua on the bench at the end of turn 1. My opponent knocked out Combee on his first turn, finishing with baby Volcanion active and two Volcanion EX on the bench.

Based on the game I played online, and some theorymon and solitaire I have done since, I knew I HAD to knock out baby Volcanion. I couldn't do it with Zoroark, and would need forest of giant plants to get it with Vespiquen... so I started digging. I burned my deck hard this turn, but ultimately couldn't get it, finishing with Zoroark+float stone active, Combee with DCE benched, Shaymin benched, and second Combee benched. I had Vespi in hand, but couldn't get the Forest out of the deck.

I may be remembering incorrectly, but I believe I attached DCE in front of a Setup. I had a hand with Shaymin, Ultra Ball, DCE, DCE, and Special Charge. I discarded Shaymin and DCE to grab a Shaymin. played Special Charge (my second, first was discarded by Sycamore on previous turn)... So do I play down DCE knowing that my ideal will require DCE on Vespiquen, and drawing into Vespi and Forest? Or do I Setup for 5 instead of 6, knowing that if I miss it will allow me to Sky Return?

The latter is probably the play I should have made, as this Shaymin ultimately cost me the game.

After whiffing Forest, I passed, and my opponent did however many steamups are necessary to KO Zoroark.

I promoted Combee with Energy, attached DCE to the combee on the bench, evolved both to Vespi, benched my fourth Combee, and knocked out baby Volcanion.

He promoted Volcanion EX, Knocked out Vespi. (he has 3 prizes left)

I promoted other Vespi, drew an Unown, used Farewell Letter to get my damage up, and took the OHKO on Volcanion EX. (I have 3 prizes left)

He promotes another Volcanion EX, Lysandres Shaymin, gets knockout to go down to 1 prize.

I send Vespi back up, if I can't get N to allow a prayer that he can't power up his bench (can't remember what it was). After a couple of Acro Bikes I end with a hand of DCE, Sycamore, DCE and Revitalizer. Not Helpful.

It was a good game, but it really turned on whiffing on baby Volcanion early. If I had knocked it out, I would have jammed his energy. If I had Sky Returned Shaymin, I would have stayed ahead in prize trade. Little things, but this is the difference between winning a tournament and finishing 8th.

I am going to keep playing this deck. It's fun, and doesn't really have any bad matchups. Karen might blow it up, but I am skeptical that Karen will see much play. I suppose it could be clutch if you are set up and only need to take 2 or 3 more prizes, bet getting an N to 1 or 2 and getting a hand full of pokemon is rough.

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 :[

Testing Standard: Vespiquen

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

I used the list Andrew Wamboldt posted on the Charizard Lounge a couple days ago. I have huge respect for the resources Andrew has developed. He is an inspiring deck builder and his stuff is enjoyable to read.

A big part of the respect I have for him is due to him keeping his blog free. I am still stunned that pokemon sites have pay walls. It is 2016. You are not a newspaper exploiting baby boomers. Half of your writers barely seem literate (and a large number of the remainder open all of their articles with intensely uninteresting recounts of their resume). I am not paying more for a few pokemon articles a week than I do for Netflix, or nearly as much as I pay for NBA League Pass. Maybe it is just because my day to day as an embedded software engineer exposes me to a world where everything is either open source, or has viable open source alternatives, but I am still shocked that the pokemon community supports this model of information sharing.

ANYWAY

the games:

Game1 vs Xerneas Break/Giratina. Awful setup, didn’t draw into a supporter until the fourth turn, by which time I was way too far behind. 0-1

Game2 vs Darkrai/Giratina/Garbodor. I wasn’t able to get my mid game board state to a point where I could use Pokemon Ranger against Giratina without falling behind. The solution here is probably to make a more aggressive run at Giratina early. This seems extremely obvious now that I type it out, but didn’t occur to me in game… Probably because I am still feeling out this deck? I played Flareon variants a lot in the 2014/15 season… but that was a long time ago man. 0-2

Game3 vs Wailord. Had a solid start and came out really aggressive since I knew I could knock Wailord out. Drew through most of my deck without hitting DCE… which showed up when I had 8 cards left in deck. And by showed up I mean he discarded three on a team rockets handiwork and the last one on the same turn with Bunnelby. Nice. 0-3

Game4 vs Mega Rayquaza. Kind of difficult to decide who to protect with Klefki at times in this one. I won fairly easily, chipping down one mega ray early and then lysandreing Shaymin for the final four prizes. Zoroark and Klefki seemed to push my opponent into sub optimal plays. 1-3

Game5 vs Volcanion EX. The game didn’t recognize me playing a Lysandre and timed out… which was annoying, because despite the weakness issue, I think this is definitely a winable matchup. I need to work on being more aggressive with early discards, especially when it comes to discarding parts of the Vespiquen line, as falling 10 or 20 damage short of a KO can really set the deck back. 1-3 (I just won't count game errors?)

Game6 vs Mega Tyranitar + Clauncher. Much like the Mega Rayquaza matchup, to lose this game you have to either have a horrendous start, or they have to get extremely lucky draws, ie being able to lysandre around klefki for several turns. The situation klefki presents reminds me of Substitute Robot in Donphan when it ran wild on cities in 2014. 2-3

Thoughts on the list I need to spend some more time with this deck to pick up on some of the intricacies. I had a few situations where I was short 10-30 damage, that I am pretty sure were do to benching extraneous attackers early on.

I kind of hate Acro bike, but I understand why it is here. Really... I just hate discarding VS Seeker.

In the solitaire games I ran, and in the Xerneas game, I had serious supporter drought early game. This is probably due to reluctance to play Shaymin. I never had more than one on the field, and never lost on to knockout thanks to sky return... but perhaps I need to read these situations better and push Shaymin occasionally?

I am going to experiment with replacing Zoroark Break with something else. I understand the logic Wamboldt presented in his article, but I never had it in hand when I could use it, and usually didn't have the resources or motive to go find it.

Overall The only issues I ran into with this deck were due to my own misplays, or supporter drought/the deck seeming to come out backwards... Which could also possibly root in misplays. So I am confident that with some more practice and study I pilot this deck to more success than I found online tonight.