Greetings to all of you. First time here writing a report about my successful finish in recently concluded Philippine Battle Roads (BR) Spring 2013 last April 21. There were twenty-two (22) participants in Masters Division (where I belong), thirty-two (32) in total together with junior and senior players. Before going further, let me introduce myself. My name is Ljubo Lambino, player from Valenzuela, Philippines. I am the current league leader of our mini gym there called Valenzuela Chapter League, with a population of fourteen (14) enthusiastic players.
What made me push to write a report? As we all know, pre-release for Plasma Freeze set will be on next week. New ‘meta’ will be introduced again. For me, this article would serve as the final report about the current ‘meta’ for BW – Plasma Storm. At the same time, I want to share the list of my BlastPony deck and let you know that you can win using this deck in a major event without the help of ‘Tropical Beach’.
I was not informed that our last BR for this season would be a best of three, forty-five minute type every round, until the tournament itself started. Surprising, isn’t it? However, I think that helped me boost my confidence about the deck because even if my opponent donked my lone Squirtle, considering that I have a very bad start, I still have the chance to win in game 2 because the loser has to go first. The idea of sudden death did not bother me that time because my list has three Mewtwo Exs. Let me share my deck list:
Pokemon (14)
Keldeo EX 3
Mewtwo EX 3
Bouffalant 1
Squirtle 4
Blastoise 3
Trainers / Supporters (32)
Ace-Spec Computer Search 1
Energy Retrieval 3
Pokemon Catcher 4
Rare Candy 4
Super Scoop Up 2
Ultra Ball 3
Heavy Ball 1
Bianca 3
Cilan 1
N 3
Professor Juniper 4
Skyla 3
Energy (14)
10 Water Energies
4 DCE
From the looks of it, it’s only a typical BlastPony deck, except that I made an offensive version of it, with Mewtwo EXs as my attacker and DCEs as my special energies. And as mentioned before, I do not have a perfect stadium card spelled as T-R-O-P-I-C-A-L B-E-A-C-H. About the special energy, I have already thought DCE would be a very good combination because it definitely helps Keldeo EX to do seventy damage within two attachments of water and a DCE, considering you really had a bad luck and unable to setup a Blastoise. This list also promotes a large possibility of T2 Blastoise. with four Squirtles, rare candies, three Blastoise and Ultra Ball and a Heavy Ball.
Without any further ado, let me begin my report.
1st Round – against Rogerson Villangca with his Lugia Ex Big Basics
He is one of the players who made the top cut in our last City Championships held last December, 2012. Having him as opponent in first round, it really served as a real challenge to me.
Game 1 – I started with two pokemons, Mewtwo EX and Squirtle, against his lone starter Landorus EX. I got DCE on my first turn, attached and X- ball’d his Landorus EX. On his turn, he attached an eviolite and energy to damage my Mewtwo. To make this short, I managed to setup a Blastoise, the other player did not get any pokemon, and KO’d his lone Landorus with my Mewtwo using ‘Deluge’ and enough energies.
Game 2 – With him going first, he rapidly setup Lugia EX using colress machine. He got the prize exhange advantage. I still setup a Blastoise, but with his eviolited Lugia EX and Aspertia Gym stadium, I did not get any chance to KO it with one shot. He won the prize race.
Game 3 – I went up first, with Mewtwo EX as active and two Squirtles sitting on the bench. His active pokemon that time was Tornadus EX. I had DCE on my hand and X-Ball’d his active. He also got DCE, ultra ball’d for Lugia EX, and attack with Blow Through for 30 damage. This time, T2 Blastoise did not happen, until he KO’d my first Squirtle using Lugia EX. Yes, it took a charged Lugia EX for me to have a Blastoise and Rare Candy in my hand. After setting my engine up, I played Professor Juniper supporter. In those seven cards that I have drawn, I got enough energies to return KO his tooled energized Lugia EX. Prizes were tied to four but I have a charged Mewtwo EX and he has two Tornadus EX, both without energies and the other one has 100 damage as far as I can remember. To put it simply, while my active Mewtwo EX was busy KO’ing his Pokemons, I established a backup Mewtwo EX and Keldeo EX on bench.Just in case that he managed to get his Mewtwo EX to return KO my active, it would be game over for him. And that scenario really did happen.
Standing: 1-0
2nd Round – against Sandy Lee Domingo with his Big Basics
Sandy, also known as ‘Idol’ Sandy, is the current runner-up of recently held States Championship last February. Similar with round one, I asked myself “why do I have to face them at this early stage of the tournament?”.
Game 1 – ‘Idol’ Sandy got a bad start. With Terrakion and Landorus EX as his starters, I also managed to setup a T2 Blastoise and Keldeo EX as my attacker. After KO’ing his Landorus EX, he then played a supporter, Professor Juniper, and did not get any pokemon. He scooped because I can OHKO his active Terrakion by attaching only one water energy to my Keldeo EX for 130 damage.
Game 2 – After our game 1, Sandy has an idea that time how bad would be his situation if I successfully setup a Blastoise. So he started KO’ing my bench Squirtles, and get ahead of prize race. But still, even he did those tricks to me, my Blastoise came out from its shell and charged my Keldeo EX and Mewtwo EX. But the effect of setting up a Blastoise there was all my Pokemons were damaged by attacks and HTLs. With Super Scoop Up not cooperating for me, I lost the game.
Game 3 – Going first, I was optimistic that I could setup a T2 Blastoise. And it happened. He also setup his big basic attackers and HTL’d my pokemons to death. But the combination of abilities, ‘Deluge’ and ‘Rush In’ of Blastoise and Keldeo EX respectively, prevailed.
Standing: 2-0
3rd Round – against Jerome Stephen Bernas with his RayEels Deck
That was the first time I battled him in a premier event. I did recall one time we already faced each other with me using Empoleon deck diving his Zekeels Deck in a regular tourney. What I did not recall was the result of that matchup (if you know what I mean).
Game 1 – The game was exciting. I have a Blastoise Keldeo setup and he has Eelektrik Rayquaza setup. The only advantage I had was everytime he KO’d my active pokemon, I can easily charged up my another Keldeo to kill his benched Eelektrik. He could not return KO my active pokemon because his engine was wrecked. I won the prize race.
Game 2 – He got a bad start and some misplays. With Raikou EX as a starter, he did manage to get an Emolga but did not retreat to call for Tynamos. I have already setup my Blastoise and I prevented him to setup any Eelektrik on play.
Standing: 3-0
4th Round – against Aljino Lambino with his PlasmaKlang Deck
He is my brother to begin with. He placed 4th in the Philippine City Championship and finished 11th in Southeast Asia Regionals both held last December. More importantly, his deck, PlasmaKlang, is really the weakness of my deck. All of my main attackers were EXs, except I have lone Bouffalant and three Blastoise. His game plan would probably be knocking out my Squirtles then game over. But that did not happen, he conceded this round and let me win. For the main reason that, he has already one loss, and I have none. In other words, I was downpaired to him. For me to be on the track pursuing the elusive first place Victory Cup, he definitely gave me this round. That was very heroic and unselfish.
Standing: 4-0
Last Round – against Adrian Velasco with his SpeedRai Deck
My greatest rival, Adrian Velasco, is one of the respected players in the Philippine Pokemon TCG community. He is the current City Champion, and I am his runner up. We had already faced each other and he beat me into a pulp that time using his SpeedRai against my Empire. He also finished 5th place in our States Championships. A very consistent and talented player, he always made himself present in top cut on each premier event here in our country.
Game 1 – The game begins with Mewtwo and Squirtle for me versus Sableye and Victini V-create for him. I have Blastoise and Skyla in my hand so I decided to get a rare candy this turn and catcher’d his Victini to trim down the possibility of Sableye KO’ing my lone squirtle using DarkClaw-HTL-Virbank-Catcher combination. I ended my turn and was expecting him to use N to get rid of my rare candy. Well, that did not happen because he used Professor Juniper. After that, he setup his main attackers, namely Darkrai EX of course, and HTL’d my active Mewtwo. I was very glad that time for the reason that he did not catcher my lone Squirtle on the bench. When he declared ‘Junk hunt’ as the attack, we both knew that the T2 Blastoise could not be avoided, and that was what I did the next turn. After setting up my main engine, I used Professor Juniper to get Keldeo EX and several energies which were enough to KO his active Sableye. I was pretty comfortable at that point, I have charged Mewtwo and Keldeo EXs sitting on the bench. The only resistance I felt was when he successfully OHKO’d my lone Blastoise by exhausting all of his resources. However, thanks to my other bench Squirtle I still managed to setup another engine. He ran out of resources that time and he scooped.
Game 2 – If I would be given a chance to give a title for this round, I would name it “Mewtwo overpowered-overkill” round. Mewtwo EX was my MVP for this because as we all know I can successfully setup a Blastoise in T2. As we played, I noticed his game plan was to destroy all my Blastoise, which is pretty thematic. While he was busy executing his game plan, I continuously charge up my Mewtwo EX until it reached ten energy-attachments (3 DCE and 4 water energies). He did not have any Mewtwo EX (I noticed it during Game 1) so the so-called “Mewtwo war” was non-existent in our matchup. All of his Darkrai are in queue for my Mewtwo’s X-Ball (10 energies equals to 200 damage, less the resistance it is exact 180). He congratulated me and that ends our top table matchup.
Standing: 5-0
And at last, I am holding now my first ever Victory Cup which says 1st-Place on the card.
I am not expecting that everybody would like my BlastPony deck. What I would like to engrave to my fellow player’s heart and Blastoise players out there, you can win it even without Tropical Beach.
That concludes my report.
