New England Regional
Championship
TJ Collectibles
Milford, MA
5/29/05
TOTAL = 98
10 & Under = 24
11-to-14 = 29
15 & Up = 45
Ok here we go my 2nd Regional
Championship. All the pics can be found here:
http://community.webshots.com/album/357123933OUyzXK
The
night before I have FireFighter Joe and Jeff and
Daniel Mermelstein stay overnite at my house. We
get some playtesting in and I decide to go with my
Wail-Wall deck that was made famous by Newman and
then proven by Colin (Swanton) at 2004 Worlds last
year. It really is a good deck in todays
metagame. It pretty much pwns Ludicargo which I
know is going to be big at the New England Regionals
and it does very well against Zappy-ex. It does
have problems against Blaze especially with Rayquaza
–ex from the Dragon set. Other problematic
matchups are Green Heal with Sceptile-ex and
surprisingly the Overzealous Machamp. My only loss
at the Brooklyn City Championships was to Bolt from
Pokemon Zeo Machamp’s deck. It can pretty much
handle any Team Magma decks that are still out there
and hold its own against Dark Draggy.
The concept is pretty
straightforward stall with fossils until you get
Wailord-ex built. Hopefully in 4 turns then smack
for 100 each turn. When Wailord-ex gets enough
damage (usually 60 or more), use Bellossom’s Heal
Dance then use Wailord-ex 1st attack
Super Deep Dive then switch out with a benched
fossil and rinse and repeat until you are ready to
smack for another 100. Bellossom can also be used
as an attacker against Team Magma’s Groudon,
Ludicolo, Swampert-ex, and possible some other
match-ups. But those were the ones I knew that
would be played that Bellossom would come in handy,
therefore the 2 Multi’s were thrown in.
Here is my final decklist
that I played:
Pokemon – 13
4 - Wailmer
3 - Wailord-ex
2 – Oddish
2 – Gloom
2 – Bellossom (Heal Dance)
Trainers – 30
4 – Steven’s Advice
4 – Celio’s Network
4 – Claw Fossil
4 – Root Fossil
3 – Mysterious Fossil
3 – Pro. Oak’s Research
3 – Pokemon Reversal
2 – Rocket’s Admin.
1 – Crystal Shard
1 – Island Cave
1 – VS. Seeker
Energy - 17
15 – Water
2 - Multi
Without further adieu here is
my report:
Round 1 vs.
Greg Sauk
I’ve known Greg for a few years now.
Greg
also has 2 sons that play the game competitively.
They drove up from Philly, Pa. to compete today. We
also hung out at the Seattle World Championships a
few years back and ate at the Wendy’s in downtown
Seattle. After today’s tournament we go to the
Wendy’s in Milford to eat. lol
Well on to the match. Interestingly enough the 1st
Round of the tournament usually decides how I fare
for the rest of the tourney. Usually when I lose in
the 1st round and even go like 4-2 and I
don’t make it into the Top 8 or 16. Whenever I win
my 1st round I usually do good the rest
of the day. Greg is running Machamp (Overzealous,
the ex killer) with Magcargo (Smooth Over) and a
bunch of draw trainers. This is really a bad match
up for me as I discussed earlier. As it turns out
this match was also the hardest of the Swiss rounds
that I played as you will see in a moment.
I
go 1st and get a decent setup with
Fossils and Wailmer I start with a Claw Fossil
active and then attach a water to the benched
Wailmer. Greg then goes and attaches an energy to
Machop and passes. It goes like this back and forth
with both of us setting up until Greg can ohko the
Claw Fossil with Machamp. Greg is annoyed by all
the Fossils. By then I had a built Wailord-ex
dishing out damage but in the meantime Machamp is
dealing out heavy damage with Cross Chop + the extra
30 damage from Overzealous. Luckily he doesn’t flip
heads on Cross Chop for the whole game. This is
what ultimately saves me. He uses Briney on a
couple of his damaged Machamps. In the meantime I
use Super Deep Dive attack with Bellosom’s Heal
Dance to heal 50 a turn. Greg makes a a terrible
error by using ATM Rock when my Wailord-ex has 60
damage on it. I de-evolve and he sees that Wailmer
has 80 HP and not 60. I re-evolve next turn Heal
Dance and smack his Machamp for 60. This is going
back and forth until he uses another ATM Rock on my
benched damage Wailord-ex to ko the Wailmer
underneath. That is ok because I had another
Wailord-ex built and ko’d his Machamp. Prize count
is still only 5-5. People are gathered around
watching this extraordinary match-up. Time is then
called and we proceed to Sudden Death. Fortunately
for me Greg ran out of Briney’s by this time and
between his 3 Machamps there is a total of 310
damage on his side of the playing field. Greg
sends up an undamaged Magcargo. I have a Wailord-ex
on the bench with 70 damage. I heal dance Wailord
down to 50 and ko his Magcargo for the game. This
was definitely my best match all day long. Thank
you Greg!
Record 1-0
Round 2 vs.
Caleb Johnson
I’ve known Caleb from tournaments
at
the old Pokemon Center NYC. Caleb traveled up from
NYC with a group of players to participate in the
New England Regionals. Caleb has always preferred
to run Blaziken and this is what he is playing
today. Normally you would think Blaze is an auto
win for my deck but that is not necessarily the case
because Blaze with Blaze-ex and Rayquaza can dish
out an enormous amount of damage. On top of that,
Caleb’s version included Electrode-ex. We both get
set up pretty quickly. He keeps a Quaza benched
with a Multi and is building up an Electrode-ex. I
stall with Fossils and heal my Claw Fossil with
Bellosom’s Heal Dance. Eventually his Dunsparce is
ko’d by Claw Fossil’s Jagged Stone. He brings up
another Dunsparce. I go for a Reversal on his
Electrode-ex and hit it. I then Switch out the Claw
Fossil with my built up Wailord and ko the
Electrode-ex for the 2 prizes. It is now 3-6 in my
favor. He brings up Quaza to do only 80 damage to
Wailord. I then proceed to Super Deep Dive and Heal
Dance the Wailord-ex. He build up a Blaze-ex and
Switches the Rayquaza to Volcanic Ash my Bellosom on
the bench. My Wailord now has 20 damage on it so I
bring it up to ohko the Blaze-ex. I have 1 prize
left and he brings up Rayquaza to stall with Water
weakness and uses Spiral Growth successfully to get
3 energies on his Quaza. Unluckily for Caleb I am
holding a Crystal Shard for the win.
Record 2-0
Round 3 vs.
Nick Starr
Nick is a regular at TJ
Collectibles and loves to play
Swampert.
This time Nick is also using the Emerald Swampert in
his deck for the Energy Cyclone power. Nick goes 1st
and gets a 1st turn Swampert-ex and
Hyper Pumps my Root Fossil. Nick has the early game
advantage with Swampert-ex dishing out bench damage
with Crushing Wave on my Bellosom and Wailord-ex.
Luckily for me he does not hit a heads for the
energy discard for like 5 times. So I rotate back
and forth with Heal Dance until I can hit his
Swampert-ex for 100 damage. My Bellossom is also
built by this time. He Hyper Pumps my Wailord for I
think 80 so I don’t have enough to ko the Swampert-ex
even if I Heal Dance so I switch out and ko his
Swampert-ex for 2 prizes. Next turn he sends up a
Water Call Swampert and attaches an ATM Rock to ko
the Wailmer. I have another Wailord-ex built and
hit his Swampert for 100. He is on the ropes now.
I am able to ko 2 of his other Pokes during the
match. Time is then called and I win on a prize
count of 2-5.
Record 3-0
Round 4 vs.
Alex Alvarez
Alex is another top player
fro
m
the NYC area that traveled up with the NYC group.
Alex is playing the ever popular Ludicargo deck.
Unfortunately for Alex this was a very quick match.
It was a refresher for me since I have been having
long matches thus far. Alex goes 1st and
starts with a Dunsparce with no energy. I start
with only a Wailmer but I have Wailord-ex, 4 Water
energies, VS. Seeker, and a Steven’s Advice in my
hand. Not the best but it turns out that I get a 4th
turn Wailord-ex and all he gets are 2 Dunpsarces and
that’s game. We play for fun another match and like
I said before Wailord-ex pretty much pwns Ludicargo.
So I win that fun match.
Record 4-0
Round 5 vs.
Mike
Mike is another regular
from TJ Collectibles. 
Mike is also running LudiCargo. Mike’s version is
running Lantern tech for Zapdos-ex decks. Mike was
dreaded playing me and hates all the Fossils.
Wailord-ex’s attack Dwindling Wave is just enough to
ohko everything in Mike’s deck. Everytime he builds
a Lantern on the bench I hit a Reversal flip to ko
it. I end up winning the match by taking all 6
prizes fairly easy.
Record 5-0
Round 6 vs. Drew (The Dark Twins)
Drew has a superstition to not take a photo prior to
the match but at the end instead. 6th
and final round and I go up against another
LudiCargo deck. Yeah just what I wanted! Drew
however as you see in his pic has Zapdos-ex as tech
in his Ludicargo deck. I’m not too worried however
as Wailord-ex consistently beats Zapdos especially
when it appears in Ludicargo. Drew goes 1st
and is excited about this.
He
eventually gets up a Ludicolo and Magcargo. I keep
my bench as small as I can with only 2 Fossils at a
time and a Bellossom. Eventually he gets out
another Ludicolo and Magcargo out. So he is using
Smooth Over + Swing Dancing 2 times in one turn. I
also have 2 Wailords out at this time. I
eventuallty take out 2 of his Ludicolos and he has 1
on the bench with a Lightning energy and a Dunsparce
with a Lightning energy. I know what is coming next
turn a Zappy-ex. I target the benched Ludicolo with
3 reversals and fail all flips. I ko instead his
active Dunsparce with no energy for another prize.
His Zappy comes into play and dishes out 160 damage
with the help of a Strength Charm. I go on the heal
strategy with that Wailord and start using my other
Wailord for the game. I am pretty much in control of
the entire match and pull out the victory. Out of
the 3 Ludicargo decks I faced I have to say that
Drew’s gave me the best match.
Record 6-0
So
at the end of Swiss I am the only undefeated. Here
are the standings:
Top 8 vs.
Frankie Durso
Frankie is the one with the Black Hat. I’ve known
Frankie for a long time now. Frankie traveled up
with the NYC group also.
He
also attended the 2004 World Championship last
year. Frankie won a trip this year by placing 2nd
at the Meadowlands Regional Championship with
Zappy-ex. But Frankie is really known as a Blaziken
player. Frankie is one of the best Blaze players
that I know. Frankie is playing his Blaze,
Blaze-ex, Rayquaza, Pidgeot deck today.
Game 1
Frankie wins the roll and decides to play 1st.
Frankie gets a God start with my bleh start.
Frankie starts with a lone Pidgey but before I could
blink he Rare Candy into Pidgeot. Quick Searched for
a Dunsparce attached a Fire and SARs for Rayquaza,
and 2 Torchic’s. The game goes back and forth with
his Dunsparce active against my Claw Fossil with him
not attacking for like 5 turns. I have a Wailord ex
built with a Gloom on my bench but both Bellossom’s
are in my prizes. Frankie gets the 1st
prize in by Volcanic Ashing my bench Gloom. I hit
back with Wailord-ex for 2 prizes on his Blaze-ex.
I pull one of the Bellossom’s that were prized.
Its too late because he has a Rayquaza benched with
a Lightning and 2 Fire. He sends up Pidgeot and
Fire Starter 3x on the Rayquaza. He sends up
Rayquaza and ohko’s my Wailord-ex. I have another
Wailord-ex but I am very, very short on Fossils to
Super Deep Dive and eventually his Rayquaza wins the
game for him.
Game 2
I decide to go 1st and ended up
mulliganing 3x. This is not even funny because out
of my mulligans I don’t even get any Fossils to
start with. Frankie draws into a Dunsparce due to
my 3rd Mulligan. This eventually wins
him the game because before all he had were
Torchic’s. I do end up getting a Wailord, and
Oddish with a Root and Mysterious Fossil but no
energies. I do get in the 1st hit with 60
to his Combusken with a Wailmer but then I get
energy screwed and Wailord-ex screwed. He evolves
into Blaze-ex and wipes out my Bellosom that I built
with Volcanic Ash and then over the next few turns,
he Volcanic Ashes 2 of my Wailmers. I have 1 chance
left, I have a built Wailmer on the bench with 4
Fossils. My hand is too large for a Steven’s so I
discard all 4 of my Fossils in play and place 4 more
Fossils from my hand. I still have to burn cards so
I use Switch and then another Switch. Since his
Blaziken-ex is already damaged what I am looking for
is a Reversal, Crystal Shard, and Wailord-ex to ko
his benched Quaza with a Multi and Fire energy on
it. I play Steven’s Advice and draw the Crystal
Shard and Wailord-ex no Reversal. I ko hi Blaze-ex
and then he sends up Pidgeot then Firestarts to
Rayquaza-ex 2x and sends him up to ko my Wailord-ex
for game. So I go undefeated all day and then lose
1st round of Top 8. Go figure!
Here are the final Top 4 standings and decks for
each age group:
10 & Under:
1st ~ Chris F. - Ludicargo
2nd ~ Geoffrey S. - Exegutor
3rd ~ Paul A. - Altaria-ex/Ampharos-ex
4th ~ Jacob B.- Metagross
11-to-14:
1st ~ Michael R.(North Carolina) -Blaze
2nd ~ Michael B.(North Carolina) - Blaze
3rd ~ Nick K. - Voodoo
4th ~ Daniel M. - HairyPig
15 & Up:
1st ~ Allan S.(Monkey) - Lantern/Dark Hypno
2nd ~ Nick C.(Hot Mustid) - Voodoo
3rd ~ Dan R.(Obi-Wan) - Ludicargo
4th ~ Frankie D.(DeckMaster) – Blaze
Thanks for reading.
Please contact me at
JSChimento@aol.com for any discussions or advice
on decks. - Johnny
