Hello lil' Flexers and welcome back to my site. Saturday I had the pleasure of attending my first tournament since Ft. Wayne Regionals, and man... do I miss locals. This was my first League Challenge and first tournament in the Scarlet and Violet format! The local scene in Columbus is very healthy and only growing bigger. We had three stores pre-pandemic for players to accrue points at and we are steadily adding more. The players are all extremely nice and don't take themselves too seriously.
This tournament was billed as a Win-a-Box event which meant that the player with the highest record would walk away with an entire box of Scarlet and Violet! Of course, I also desperately need the points - I'm currently sitting at 220 out of a necessary 350 for World's qualification. This tournament had 15 players for a total of 4 rounds.
Coming into the tournament, I had a four options - Mew, Lost Zone Box, Gardevoir, and Lugia. I figured plenty of players would play Gardevoir and I wasn't particularly stoked to play the mirror. I checked in to EUIC and noticed Lost Zone Box had a pretty terrible conversion rate as well as a generally poor showing overall. That left Mew and Lugia. I generally tend to play decks with better pop off potential in these best-of-1, low stakes tournament. That meant that while Lugia would have been a strong call, I was more comfortable with Mew in this environment. Was I scared of Drapion V? Yes, absolutely, but I also figured players would enjoy trying the new toy - Gardevoir ex.
Round 1 - Gardevoir / Mewtwo W
Huh... Gardevoir round 1? Sure! This game was awkward as I am unable to build the board I wanted to have. My opponent got a really strong Turn one, but fortunately, his deck faltered slightly in the mid game. He opts to prioritize getting Mewtwo VUnion out, but by the time it rears it's ugly paw, I have boss in hand to take a KO on a benched Pokemon for my last prize. A super tight game, but I pulled it out in the end.
Round 2 - Goodra L
This was among the best Goodra games I've ever seen. I win the flip, fill my bench, and I have a lot of plays on my second turn. However, my opponent manages (quite easily, I might add) to get 4 in the Lost Zone and an attack off with Cramorant, hitting one of my Mew. I KO a Goodra, and he responds with a Drapion V. I can't seem to find the Judge on either turn to reset his hand, so I make the decision to play Skwovet. With Skwovet in play, I was able to shuffle my hand to the bottom and find the Judge I was looking for. I Judge my opponents huge hand and play down Path to the Peak. The only thing that I can lose to at this point is a Greninja play - but without Concealed cards or Beach Court in play for the easy pivot, I should win this game, right? My opponent draws his four and it's the perfect four card hand with a water energy, mirage gate, and switch out. My opponent uses Greninja to take out my Skwovet and Mew for his last three prizes. Darn, probably can't win at this point, but still fighting for the Top 4.
Round 3 - Gardevoir w/ Mewtwo W
Not much to say about this round - it went exactly how the Mew / Gardy matchup should go in my eyes... Boss as many times as possible to disable Gardy's draw, and take big KOs on Gardevoir or Zacian when possible. After a couple KOs from me, my opponent is able to bring up a Gardevoir ex and swing for 190. I'm able to KO that with a few Power Tablets. At this point, I have two damaged Mew VMAXes, and he is able to get Mewtwo VUnion in play. he snipes my benched Mewtwo for 3 prizes which means I not only have to find a boss, but also an Escape Rope to switch out my active Mew. I am able to cycle through my entire deck with my 3 Genesect and find both pieces for a nice round 3 victory.
Round 4 - Gardevoir W
A former Yu-Gi-Oh player who kept saying how bad he was. All I can say is he definitely didn't win.
After all the players finish their matches, the judges call all players with a 3-1 record up to the front desk. "Since all four of you finished with the same record, we don't feel it's appropriate to give the box to the top finisher because we told you the box would go to the player with the best record." They then handed us a piece of paper and told us to write split or play. In the split scenario, I would have walked away with a quarter box. In the play scenario, I could walk away with an entire box. I thought about it for approximately one second and quickly wrote "PLAY" on my sheet. The judges tell us to shuffle up for a mini 4-player, Best-of-1 top cut. LET'S GO!
** As a note, the championship point totals received by every player would not change with the result of the playoff - this "top cut" was purely for prize allocation as standings were made final after round 4.**
Top 4 - Goodra W
This was the same player I lost to in round 2 so I was excited to get some revenge. The game played out much differently, though with a similar cadence. I knew not to get a Skwovet on my bench in fear of Greninja snipes, but it ended up not mattering as my opponent has a difficult first Flower Selecting having to choose between Greninja and Battle VIP Pass. He ultimately chooses the VIP Pass, shipping Greninja straight to the Lost Zone. Poor guy. Unfortunately for my opponent, he isn't able to find a Colress's Experiment, and thus can't get a turn 1 Cramorant, but he does get a solid board position with a few Comfey and 2 Goodra. I am able to take a KO with Mew on one of his Goodra. He responds with Drapion V. I take KO on Drapion after playing Roxanne. I knew from out first game that he didn't play a second Drapion, so I didn't bother playing Path down considering Greninja was in the Lost Zone. His cards from Roxanne were abysmal and I take an easy W.
Finals - Dialga VStar / Magnezone W
The judge asks us once against before finals if we'd like to split the packs. Not a chance I say. GAME ON GAMERS! I win the flip and dig extremely hard for a Path. My opponent has both a Rotom V and a Miraidon ex in play. I know that if I can prevent Abilities for even one turn, I'll have a great shot at a win. I dig and dig and on my final Fusion Strike System, I find Path! Excellent. My opponent simply has to draw, bench a Dialga and pass. I bump my own path with Vacuum and continue drawing. I Judge and know I need to KO this Active Miradon. I dig and dig, and on the last card of my final Fusion Strike System, I find the Power Tablet! Joe Bernard and Ross Gilbert would have popped off. I take a KO on the Miraidon, then follow that up on the next turn with a Boss KO on Rotom. At this point, he finally gets a Magnemite down. I dig and dig for Bosses Orders to KO a benched Dialga V... and I whiff... However, I do have escape rope, which is pretty much as good since he only has a single Magnemite as his only one-prizer on bench. I force it active, KO it and then find boss for game on the following turn. Skwovet put in a ton of work in this matchup to help me dig harder. Thanks buddy.
With that, they hand me my winnings - an entire booster Box of Scarlet and Violet, plus a Series 2 prize pack, my first ever! Nice. You want the list? You can watch a video over on my Youtube channel sometime this week :) youtube.com/flexdaddyrighteous. This finish puts me at 230/350, which is still in spitting range of an invite, especially with League Cups just around the corner. I'll be attending as many Cups as I can to secure 2 finishes as well as Milwaukee Regionals and NAIC.
Thanks for reading and Happy Mew Year!
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