Frankfurt regionals with dianciebomb

Introduction

Hi, I’m longterm player which doesn’t play regularly anymore and is just here for the fun of it. As I find it fun to write tournament reports I wanted to try and write one more in-depth instead of small twitter posts.

Deck – DiancieBombs

Over the summer when the official Pokémon events stopped I almost didn’t play any standard Pokémon. I had more fun with retro and fun events so I also didn’t really build my off-meta decks. I’m known at my league for playing another deck every week but as this didn’t really happen I fell back on one of my older decks. My last choices were between Mega Diancie and Mega Venusaur (which gave me a finals in a worlds celebration cup). As I was scared Mega Venusaur would lead to many non-games as it can be a bit inconsistent so I went for a runback with Mega Diancie. After my top 32 result with it at regionals Utrecht in May last season I knew the deck, so I didn’t have to test anything different.

At last locals I tested this deck with the new Mew ex and Unown from the 30th celebration set, but they felt lackluster as Mew ex got ko’d too easily. So I took the exact same 60 from my Utrecht result, it didn’t felt like it needed updates.

Tournament report

In game 2 he decided to go first as he probably wanted to win a turn where I could not attack. My opponent started slowly and had only one Dreepy, Fezandipiti ex and Meowth ex in play. He promoted the Meowth ex hoping it could take a hit. But sometimes the Mega Diance deck gets to attack turn 1. I almost had the perfect hand for the first turn but was missing a basic psychic energy, and lucky me topdecked it so I could go in the first turn attack by Ultra balling for Mega Diancie, discarding the basic psychic energy. I started Clefairy ex and attached a telephatic energy to my benched Mega Diancie to get Latias ex and Duskull. After the wonder patch I could retreat into my Mega Diance and to boot I also had the turn 1 Judge which probably already spelled game for him. Of the Judge I even got a Powerglass so I could keep swinging the following turns.

So my opponent started with a two prize deficit and could not attack the coming turns. He eventually got a Dragapult ex and attacking with his Neo Upper energy ko’ing my Clefairy ex, but I had the cards in hand to get it back and KO his Dragapult ex for the game. Lucky games from my side and my deck kind of waltzed over his.

As predicted my opponent Itchy Pollened me after filling his board with Dreepy and Torchic. Thanks to Telephatic Energy I could find Latias ex and get Mega Diancie in the active. I decided to use Dusclops to KO his Budew and take a prize and lucked into a Lillie out of the prizes, getting met more cards. For the rest of the game this was pretty straightforward until the end game. I was on two prizes and he attacked into my Clefairy ex using his Blaziken netting him is first two prizes, unable to KO it back. I had a Dusclops on my bench but failed to find Dusknoir to KO the Blaziken ex. He had a Munkidori and Torchic on his bench with 20 damage on them thanks to Risky Ruins. So if I swinged into the Blaziken ex he could move 30 damage to my Dusclops and use Dragapult ex to KO the Dusclops, combined with a boss on my other Clefairy ex (always bench two Clefairy against Dragapult!) this could take me out of the game. So the best decision was not to hit the Blaziken ex and just pass, making him unable to ko Dusclops except for bossing it and taking only one prize. He had to attack with Dragapult ex indeed ko’ing my Clefairy ex. With the Dusclops living I had two options to take the game, finding Clefairy or Dusknoir and attack with the loaded Mega Diancie, which succeeded to net me game 1.

Game 2 ran very similarly, but had an interesting endgame state for me where I again chose not to attack in to the Blaziken ex. I instead promoted Meowth ex because I had the stretcher in hand so I could boss for game. Since he had only one Blaziken ex he had to attack with Dragapult ex so stretcher gave me the Clefairy ex for game.

On his first Zoroark attack he used Flamebody Cannon to ko my two Duskull taking his first two prizes. I had two rescue stretcher in hand and was doubting to bench one Duskull or two. If I had benched one he could Flamebody Cannon my Mega Diancie and Duskull, and go to three prizes to only have to finish my Mega Diancie for game. So I chose to bench two Duskull and boss his Fezandipiti to go to two prizes, which was answered by ko’ing my two Duskull. Next turn he had the boss for Latias ex winning him the game. Game was winnable if I didn’t rebench two Duskull but only put one. I then had Judge the next turn and attack with Mega Diancie so he would need binding mochi and Black Belt.

Game 2 my opponent started and was faster and managed to evolve everything on his second turn and take a prize on a Duskull, I only took one small ko meaning I had to take 5 more prizes instead of 4 which made it more difficult. I managed to ko a Zoroark using Dusclops and a Mega Diancie attack. But then he found the two tomes to turn a Meowth into Darumaka and evolve into Darmanitan to hit 60 on my Mega Diancie and ko a Duskull so he only needs 3 more prizes. This time I didn’t want to prize any more Duskull and take the gameplan of hitting only 120 with a fresh Mega Diancie to prevent Reshiram doubling his damage and easily ko my mega for his last three prizes. But I forgot he poisoned himself thus the Zoroark going to 140 damage which means he only needed Mochi or Black belt for game. The Judge gave him Secret box though which he used for the boss and N’s PP up on my Mega Diancie with 60 damage, giving him the game.

I played the Lillie I got turn one with Secret box but didn’t got all the cards for an attack, so I promoted the damaged duskull to prevent a two prize turn. Luckily Mega Diancies ability also works on the bench so that was safe. He ko’d the Duskull and I got to attack with a fresh Diancie to take 2 prizes. But by now the Trevenants were on the board and had their choice band so my judges couldn’t really disrupt much. I tried using a Clefairy as secondary attacker as my last Mega Diancie was prized but he found the stadium to do a clean 190.

Game 2 I chose to start again but didn’t find an energy even after Lillie turn 2, and against such an aggressive deck this spells doom. So he rolled over me and I took my second loss of the day, meaning I couldn’t lose anymore today.

She made the smart decision to attach on the Drakloak on the bench and promoted a new Budew, hindering my further setup and so she could boss the second clefairy the next turn. I managed to Judge and she whiffed the Dragapult attack, instead stretchering Budew to win a turn. She still had a single prize board so I couldn’t win even with a Boss so Judged again hoping to get another turn. But then I noticed I had Dusknoir on my bench and could ko the active Budew for my last two remaining prizes.

Game 2 went similarly but she rolled tails on her second hammer, making me able to attack a bit sooner. When this happens this matchup becomes pretty easy and it didn’t help that she slowed down in the endgame, not finding Dragapult ex after drawing with Drakoak and Dudunsparce. So with 3-2 I’m still in the tournament.

Game 1 went first and opened Clefairy ex with no way to search for other cards. I topdecked Flutter Mane, benched it, attached to Clefairy ex and wonder patched to it. So at least I have a Flutter mane active to prevent Mega Kangaskhan ex drawing some cards. My opponent managed to find his prime catcher and with some teal masks and then Mega Kangaskhan draws ko’d my Clefairy ex for his first two prizes. A bad start for me as I need Dusknoir to ko Mega Kangaskhan. I promoted Flutter Mane and played Lillie, which nets me a Mega Diancie with Telephatic energy finding some Duskull which will be needed later. But I can’t attack and have to pass. He ko’s my Flutter Mane and has only three prizes left, which a Mega Diancie can give him.

Not wanting to feed him a Mega Diancie that easily I chose to attack with Clefairy ex which held a pearl, so I could attack and Dusknoir later to ko the Mega kangaskhan and get back in the game. Also playing Judge I hoped he didn’t find the Boss so he can flip with Mega Kangaskhan for the win, but the judge (+ draws) gave him Night Stretcher for Raging Bolt, energy Switch, lightning energy and the Boss so he doesn’t even need to flip.

So for game 2 I chose to go first again and managed to get a Mega Diancie with an energy on the bench, and has to leave Clefairy ex in the active as I couldn’t find Latias ex to retreat it. My opponent started Passimian so couldn’t ko it with the Passimian. He did manage to load up a Mega Kangaskhan ko’ing Clefairy for two prizes. As I can’t ko the Mega Kangaskhan with only two Dusclops on the board I chose to boss his Fezandipiti ex and hopefully my Mega Diancie survives. He swings with Mega Kangaskhan, if the flips two heads and ko’s my active the game is basically over but he flips tails on his first one.

Excitedly I start my turn as I have a Dusknoir in hand, and only needed to find the second Dusknoir or a night stretcher to take game (One Dusknoir for Passimian, one for Mega kangaskhan ex + attack for four prizes). I luckily topdecked Ultra ball so discarded Boss + Judge to find my second Dusknoir which was unfortunately prized (who prize checks anyway). So I instead Lillie’d for 6 hoping to find a Night Stretcher but failed. I chose to use Dusknoir ko’ing the Passimian hoping to get Dusknoir out of my remaining prizes but this failed as well. I promoted a fresh Mega Diancie which couldn’t attack and a Boss from my opponent ended the game and my chance for day 2. I definitely played too risky here which costed me the game, but good to look back and see your mistakes. If I had prize checked and knew the second Dusknoir was prized I would always Judge instead of Lillie to have a chance my opponent didn’t have Boss, but even in this position it would been have better to try and setup a second Mega diancie to attack with and ko the Mega kangaskhan.

In the second game 2 opponent decided to go first and had a pretty aggressive setup with turn 2 attacks and Dusknoir ko’ing my Mega Diancie and I scooped pretty quickly, knowing that I can go first in game 3.

So game 3 will decide the 5-3 or 4-4 score, I decide to go first to have the evolution advantage. I open Mega Diancie and have to pass, not a single playable card in my hand. Really disheartening to happen in the final game and I felt a bit down. My opponent then setup his board with a Mew ex, Frillish, two Duskull and two Buneary. I topdeck a Duskull, bencht it and has to pass again, not even an energy to attach. This really felt like the end, but then my opponent evolved into Dusknoir ko’ing my Duskull netting me a Lillie from the prizes. I still think was a misplay from my opponent but apparently his hand was bricked from his Lillie as well, and only attack he could do was another Oceanic Gloom. So then I could come in the game and attach a Telepathic energy for some Duskull and pass, opponent has another Oceanic Gloom and that’s it. I finally start attacking and further evolving my board. The turn after I can Boss his Buneary and take out the other one with Dusknoir, leaving him without an attacker on board.

The writing was on the wall as even a Bloodmoon in combination with a Dusclops couldn’t take out my Mega Diancie and I take the game. This was a roller coaster as my early turns led me to believe that I would lose this game, but my opponent’s deck bricked harder and I could take over the game.

So I managed to get a 5-3 record but it became clear very early that this would miss out on T512, as only a few of them would get it. A pity for me but not that important as I’m still happy with the result.

Conclusion

I learned a lot about the deck and matchup after this tournament, and feel like all my losses came from my misplays. It’s always good to look back at the games and see all small things that you could have done better to learn for future games. For me this is the best lesson you can get from a tournament and improves me as a player.

And now my mind is free to build rogue decks again!