IRL Pokémon Tournaments!

On Saturday I went up to Black Swamp Games for an IRL Pokémon TCG Standard tournament (with Brilliant Stars being legal). I was toying around with bringing my Int++ deck (that I’ve shared before), but with Manaphy’s bench barrier in the mix I thought against it. So I put together a new deck based loosely on Michael Pramawat’s deck from the “$2,000 Brilliant Stars Tournament at Full Grip Games“.. I called it “I Got Worms!” (like in Dumb and Dumber). I played it on PTCGO for quite a few matches, and made some tweaks. The list below is my what I ended up taking to the tournament:

The deck performed great, and better yet – no one was expecting it. Everyone is playing things like Mew VMAX, Gengar VMAX, and all the other meta decks.. So a single prize deck that comes out swinging was a surprise for people. It was a four round tournament, each round was best of three, and a 50 minute limit. I ended up snagging a tie for 3rd place out of 16 players. My final score was 2-1-1.

First round I played the person who I ended up in a tie with for 3rd place. He was playing Mew VMAX. First match I went first, only was able to put one basic in play (shocker for my list), and he dunked on me with a quick match. We then setup for match two – which ended up taking 45 minutes (Mew decks take soooo long to play). I won that match with a smexy one hit knock out on the Mew VMAX at the end. We set up for game three and immediately went to turns. There was no way for either of us to take all 6 prizes on the first turns of the game, so we ended up with a tie. I was sad because my board state was absolutely awesome, and a good setup for a win. So starting out with round one at 0-0-1.

Second round I played against an Eternatus VMAX deck. With the Galar Wheezing setup early I was worried, but I still managed to pull off a sweet victory. He was really surprised with some of the combos that the worm deck comes up with. Next match he played a bit more cautious, and tried to play around what I did in the first match. However I was able to clean up the win with a solid board state and secured my first win, putting me at 1-0-1. I am not sure what this player ended up placing, but they were sub 8th place (they only announced the top 8 as they had prizes).

Third round I played against a Galarian Slowking deck. This player ended up placing second (and I gave them their only loss). Having a single prize deck really gave them a run for their money. I was able to win the first match when they only had one prize left. The second match I also won, but was not so close of a match. I was able to boss it for the win (and made me really want to run a 4th boss, but I lucked out). So I am now 2-0-1 going into the final round.

For the fourth and final round I played against a Suicune V deck, and this deck was one of those bling bling with everything max rarity. This player had previously placed high at the Full Grip tournament I mentioned earlier. He ended up taking a win on the first match as I could just not get anything setup. Suicune is quick to setup, and I could just not pull any balls or draw support out of my deck. Match two was a lot closer. After some intense board state, we get down to him needing two prizes and me needing four. In order to get my Wormadam setup with enough damage to one hit his Suicune I get down to three cards in deck, and one card in hand. I knock out his active Suicune, and we both go to two prizes. He brings up his last Suicune, and thinks for a bit. He uses his shady dealings to pull a Marnie out of his deck. He uses the Marnie, making me take all of my remaining cards out of my deck, and passes. I loss to a deck out, but was setup for a win on the next turn (another Wormadam setup on the bench, plus a boss in hand if needed). So I took my only loss to the person who got first (and was a close match at that). Final score being 2-1-1.

At the end I ended up winning 9 packs of Brilliant Stars (first place got a booster box, second place 18 packs, 3rd/4th got 9 packs, 5th/6th got 3 packs, and then everyone else got a single pack). I only lost to the 1st place player, I beat the second place player, and I tied (both match and place) with the other person who got 3rd. It was a fun event, and “I Got Worms!” really showed its power. I am pumped to do more in person events in the future!