Speciální report z turnaje v Černém Rytíři - 17. 10. 2015

Cerny Rytir - Prague League Challenge Tournament Report – 17.10.2015

I’d like to thank, first of all, the opportunity provided by Pokémon-Guru that made it possible for me to be writing this article. As a prominently Czech language site, necessity for English content was seen as a development factor for the website and I couldn’t be more honoured to be the one designated to share my experiences with all the viewers, whether Czech-speaking or worldwide Pokémon TCG players.

My name is Paulo Mimoso and I’m a Portuguese Master Division TCG player, currently studying in Prague by the Erasmus programme until February 2016; I’m taking this unique opportunity to not just travel around Central Europe and see for myself different environments, people and culture, but also to gain experience and participate in as many tournaments as possible, something that is fairly difficult in Portugal as both logistics and lack of interest on behalf of the distributor don’t allow many tourneys to be held. The outcome so far has been pleasantly positive since I was able to learn about other metas and gather competitive routine.

This League Challenge, held in the Cerny Rytir (Black Knight – what a cool shop name!) venue right in the centre of Prague, was my second participation in sanctioned events after my trip to Jihlava last week and an unofficial tournament earlier also held in Cerny Rytir. All of them had Top 4 placements; in all of them I placed 5^th, bubbling in two occasions. Terribly frustrating. But these results mean I can ponder on my strategies and my opponents’ playstyle and perform more convincingly in the following tournaments, especially having in account that most Regionals in Central Europe will be in Expanded format, and more than ever a good choice will be paramount to reach top flight and subsequently, much needed Championship Points. This League Challenge, however, was held in Standard format, and had the participation of 12 Masters.

The deck I’ve been choosing in all my entries has been M Manectric-EX/Golurk, a rather unique Megaman version, much more popular in their Regice/Articuno and Bats/Regice forms. The reason I chose this deck comes from versatility: often, in tournaments, you’ll want to choose not the best deck, but the one that performs best against the general player pool in order to avoid unpleasant surprises (looking at you, Mienshao!!). What I didn’t stick in my head, though, is that 4 rounds doesn’t leave any margin for error and the best option is just risking it all. I really adore Golurk due to its combination of Ancient Trait Theta Stop, that prevents being hurt by Bats, Forretress and in general being targeted by abilities; and its own Ability, that confers him dual-type, Psychic and Fighting, allowing to hit for two weaknesses, being able to use Dimension Valley and also Focus Sash so he can survive a possible Mega attack and hit massively for 2 turns. It only gives one prize, has 130 HP, which is considerable, has weakness to an unused type in the current Standard format and a really good resistance (which includes to himself!). The downsides? Needs 3-4 energy, has a really high retreat cost and…doesn’t OHKO Shaymins. That’s why Manectric exists though. The flaws are covered by him and myself, along with another teammate, discovered this synergy between the wolf and the golem. The only and single reason it didn’t make any top thus far is that I’m still inexperienced and non-adapted to tournaments – I’m slowly starting to countering that and getting closer each time. As someone playing for such little time and only participating in 4 sanctioned events until now, I really feel that I’m learning fast and become better in every single occasion – that’s the most important thing for now. However, you’re reading this to see a report rather than personal rants, so let’s get to the story of how I bubbled…yet again.

1^st Round – Jimi Xu (Groudon-EX/Hawlucha) 1-0-0

I met Jimi during the Cerny Rytir Cup (the unofficial event held by the store that marked my first encounter with the Czech TCG Community) and in that occasion I lost to him – burned and crashed actually – due to the inherent bad matchup that Groudon constitutes to Manectric, but this time I came better prepared and knowing how to play against it. My first priority was to take out his Groudon but he cleverly covered him pretty well with Regirock, an interesting addition because it one-shots Manectric. He kept doing pressure with a DCE in his benched Regi with Hawlucha in the front facing my Manectric and since I don’t run any Enhanced Hammers, it was impossible for me to charge Golurk, using Xerosic and Lysandre at the same time to get rid of the Regi threat. I did charge my trusty golem and hoped for the best; he couldn’t find suitable answers immediately since the deck doesn’t run Shaymin but he did a really smart thing: placed Silent Lab and blew my Manectric to smithereens. This left him vulnerable to Golurk since there were no more targets for him on my side and I placed a new Golett. He tried fully hard to power Primal Groudon and actually succeeded, while his Hawluchas and Regis all went down, and his biggest misplay was playing Hard Charm on a Regirock to avoided getting one-shot by Golurk instead of Primal Groudon – hadn’t he done so, and he would’ve won. Prize trade was favourable for me, as I was able to two-shot Primal Groudon with my two golems hitting for 120 as the continental Pokémon had a Muscle Band on him. We went for Game 2, but it was too late for a reaction and I took a sweaty, intense and strategic win against one of my worst possible matchups.

 

2^nd Round – Martin Belohlavek (Manectric-EX/Regice/Articuno) 1-1-0

The reason I favour Golurk rather than Regice is due to versatility, damage output and overall more utility in certain matchups where Regice is useless; but in the mirror, Regice proved to be crucial in beating me. I had no chance for reaction since I only had Manectrics on the field and no Golett, and when I did put one, Martin was hasty in eliminating it as soon as possible. I managed to get out another Golurk with enough energies, but he made a brilliant move: he anticipated a Lysandre on his M Manectric and used Hex Maniac to prevent me from knocking him out, and eventually I lost my last non-EX attacker against Regice; hopelessness reigned while I was watching that fridge slowly draining my prizes to death. In the second game, I played much more aggressively and my starting hand consisted of a Golett, a Dimension Valley, a Lightining Energy, a DCE, and no supporters at all, while he started with Regice. I wished for a top deck Ultra Ball but an ever better thing came out of it: a Golurk. I instantly smashed his Regice and he put his Articuno ahead to gain time (it has fighting resistance) and Lysandre’d his Manectric to prevent any power-ups. I was one prize away from tying the round but stoppage time, Articuno’s resistance and a timely Enhanced Hammer blew my chances. A worthy loss against a worthy opponent.

 

3^rd Round – Jaroslav Michajlovic (Gallade-EX/Forretress) 2-1-0

I’ve had encountered Mr. Jaroslav earlier in the Cerny Rytir Cup and at that time I took the win as well. The match was pretty straightforward since Gallade-EX is weak to Golurk. On top of it all, Golurk’s Ancient Trait prevented being hit by Forretress, which meant it from being safe from the spikes and being able to maintain his Focus Sash for extra durability. I drew exactly what I wanted and always made sure to keep myself three steps ahead and not being too aggressive; my opponent tried the best he could to keep up, but Golurk was just simply too strong against his deck choice particularly.

4^th Round – Otakar Bursa (Mienshao/Hawlucha) 2-1-1

Otakar and I have intertwined destinies: we are the unlikely combination of classmates in the same course and same faculty, and we also pair with each other in every single occasion. Otakar was pretty much eliminated but a win could keep his hope alive; I needed a win to guarantee Top 4 but a tie could do as well as long as I had better resistance. The first time I played him I got completely beatdown and, in all honesty, amazed by how simple and effective Mienshao is; although being obviously weak to disruption and bats. Fortunately, Otakar is really skilled in the art of handling Mienshao and deals every game with enormous patience and intelligence. I had to adapt to this in order to win: generally, the Portuguese player has a much more aggressive playstyle and likes to setup as soon as possible to avoid any turnarounds, even if that means wasting resources and expecting the opponent doesn’t have enough time to react – I’m a whole lot like that as well. The Czech player is much more calm and pondered, making Pokémon TCG almost like a game of chess. This wasn’t the case this time, as I knew if Otakar would put everything he wanted, he would definitely win, so Game 1 was a complete assault on Robo and Basics fortress, beginning with Manectric’s Overrun to start disabling any possible Focus Sashes. Mienshao, not having Shaymins, sometimes faces consistency problems and although he was full of Korrinas to fill his bench with Mienfoos and Hawluchas, he didn’t have Robos early on and that allowed me to gain momentum and feed my Golurk. Lysandre was my best friend as I KO’d all his Mienfoo and left him no chance to attack the golem as Hawlucha doesn’t work against it, leaving me just one step away from Top 4. Game 2 was way different, however, and he began really aggressively, while I couldn’t manage to get out any Golurk early on, costing me the game and eventually the tourney. His Mienshao one-shot my Manectric and he brilliantly decided not to use Aero Turn, instead remaining with all his Mienshao on the field, because he knew I ran Ace Trainer. I eventually used it a couple of times, in hopes of getting better draws and drying him up, but to no avail. When I got my Golurk, he limited to Lysandre my benched Manectric for a Game 2 win, just 4 minutes away from stoppage time. I began my last game in an offensive rush to try and take his Pokémon out really quickly, but he revealed a Korrina, which could pick him up 2 Pokémon more, leaving me without reaction. The game ended in a tie and 7 points was enough for Top 4, but my resistance failed to be better than the other equally classified player. Knowing that made me wail in desperation as it had happen for so many times in a row by now, but it opened my doors to be able to integrate myself deeper into the community, and more importantly, ended up giving me better prospects for future contests.

Paulo Mimoso

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