Kyan finishes Top 4 at Plymouth Cup
This weekend was the start of the Sword and Shield TCG format and I attended the only Cup in the UK this weekend in Plymouth. I played the new Boom Box deck it was a deck I enjoyed playing so thought it would be fun to play while the format is still fresh. Here’s my list I used:
Pokémon (19) | Trainers (27) | Energy (14) |
3x Grookey (SSH #011) | 3x Net Ball | 11x Grass Energy |
3x Thwackey (SSH #012) | 3x Quick Ball | 2x Lighting Energy |
3x Rillaboom (SSH #014) | 3x Tag Call | 1x Aurora Energy |
1x Shaymin Prism (TEU #10) | 3x Switch | |
1x Dedenne GX (UNB #57) | 1x Ordinary Rod | |
2x Rayquaza GX (CES #109) | 1x Energy Recycler | |
2x Mewtwo & Mew GX (UNM #71) | 2x Big Charm | |
2x Rowlet & Alolan Exeggutor GX (UNM #1) | 2x Chaotic Swell | |
1x Venusaur & Snivy GX (CEC #1) | 1x Cynthia & Caitlin | |
1x Mega Lopunny & Jigglypuff GX (CEC #165) | 1x Guzma & Hala | |
2x Mallow & Lana | ||
3x Marnie | ||
2x Professor’s Research |
The event was quite small, having 14 competitors in total and only 11 masters meaning it was a 4 rounds tournament before a top 4 top cut, with only the top 4 to obtaining competitive points. The main way to play this deck is to go second and use Rowlet & Exeggutor’s first attack to evolve Grookey into Thwackey then Rillaboom, and then power up pokémon with Rillaboom ability which attaches 2 energy from your deck to one of your pokémon every turn. Here’s how all my rounds went:
Round One : Goons LWD 0/0/1
This match up seems on paper to be good for this deck because of weakness advantage but this matchup can be difficult and restricting because of specific energy attachments are required, the main way Goons attacks is with it’s title pokémon Obstagoon, which forces this to either use Venusaur & Snivy GX to switch their active pokémon or attacking with Rillaboom which can leave you vulnerable if it gets knocked out. The first round my opponent got an ideal start and managed to get an powered up Obstagoon on his 2nd turn which left me on the back foot and I struggled to get back into the game after my only Rillaboom got knocked out. The 2nd game was easier as my opponent struggled to get set up and was missing energy attachments for turn allowing me to attack with my GX pokémon for the win, just after time was called.
Round Two : Boom Box LWW 1/0/1
This was not a match up me or my opponent was expecting to play but it was interesting to see both of us trying to figure out how to play the mirror match. The first match went quite easily to my opponent as I bricked of a my own Marnie, which lost me any options to play such as healing or switching which turns out to be vital to winning. The 2nd game went better and turns out one of the best cards for the mirror is Big Charm as it allows Rowlet & Exeggutor to survive 2 hits from another Rowlet & Exeggutor which it normally wouldn’t be able to. The 3rd game I managed to get very lucky and managed to get 2 Rillabooms out by my 3rd turn which allowed me to attack with my Shaymin and Rayqauaza for OHKO’s on 3 prize pokémon which gave me the win.
Round Three : Zacian ADP LWW 2/1/1
This match up relies on the luckiness on your opponent on if they get their Aurora energy by their 2nd turn for Arceus, Dialga & Palkia’s GX attack and if they get energies off Zacian V’s ability. The way to play this match up is knock out your opponents ADP with Rowlet & Exeggutor’s GX attack after they first attack with ADP’s normal attack, this way your opponent has no energy on their pokémon moving onto their turn and less likelihood of having metal energy in their discard pile and with metal saucer’s in hand. 1st game I made a mistake and GXed to early and my opponent had enough time to set up Zacian to knock my pokémon out. The next 2 games my plan went of without a hitch and due to my opponents poor luck they couldn’t find a way to power up their Zacian before my board was fully set up and their attempts to stall me where often thwarted by switches being in hand when required. Just to express my opponents unluckiness he only manage to get 2 energy onto his Zacian in the entire 3 games.
Round Four : Zacian ADP LL 2/1/1
Going from an unlucky opponent to be a one of the luckiest I’ve seen, though the deck is similar to the previous match this deck is much harder to face considering it contains many more catchers, 10 in total, which makes the bench much less safe. These matches were annoying, considering though I would set up, as my opponent kept top decking cards he needed or drawing complex combos with Professor’s research or Marnie as well as seemingly only getting heads on pokémon catcher coin flips, my opponent would often take out my Rillabooms as well as knocking out my pokémon the turn after I used my GX attack. These 2 games both returned loses for me. I should note I believed it was a 5 round tournament however it wasn’t so I could of got a ID and automatically got into the top 4, but luckily because of resistance I managed to get into top cut anyway.
Top 4 : Zacian ADP LL
This was the same player as my last round, so I don’t need to say more than I was brutally defeated in both games.
Overview
Another top 4 tournament and 32 more CP for this season, I currently have 223/350 CP this season. This result was much better than I expected as I kind of just went to get a feel for this format and I feel that Zacian ADP is definitively very good and every deck needs to think about ways to beat it before heading to any competitive tournament. I managed to miss facing any fire matchup, which even though they lose turn 1 welder going first are still a formidable threat, so this maybe why I did so well. Though I like this deck, I probably won’t play it again though I think it is a deck that can do well in a tournament as a rouge deck. The next tournament I plan to attend is Eastbourne next weekend, hopefully I can take what I’ve learnt this tournament and implement it there.