November Cup and Life Things!

It’s wild to think that Thanksgiving is already coming up tomorrow! Time is flying by for me lately. So let’s get into it already… This will mainly be about a League Cup, and some life update things.

On the 18th was the Black Swamp Games Pokémon League Cup. I brought my Miraidon & Friends (v.4.0) deck (list below recap), and it did amazing! I felt like I knew the deck in and out, and things just went so smoothly (for the most part). I was in the zone! I have been playing Miraidon since it has been standard legal. I’ve taken a version of Miraidon to almost every tournament (except a few where I was having fun). For this cup I ended up losing at the start of top cut (top 4) with a 4-1-1 final record.

The cup was (sadly) a best of 3 with 50 minute rounds (I was really hoping for a best of 1 for time reasons). I almost brought Zor-o-Box because I was wanting to have some fun, but I had a feeling Block-Lax was going to be present.. After the fact I find out there were FIVE different players doing Block-Lax.

• R1: Win 2-0 Miraidon/Regieleki
• R2: Win 2-0 Chien-Pao
• R3: Win 2-1 Miraidon Path
• R4: Win 2-0 Block-Lax
• R5: Tie 1-1-1 Block-Lax
• R6 (top cut): Loss 0-1-1 Block-Lax (same player from R4)

My deck did amazing against the Block-Lax players, but that deck is just so good at the thing it does.. controlling. The R4 match up was just flawless execution. I was playing so patient, and not letting myself get stuck. Resource management is absolutely key against that deck. I was able to get a clean 2-0 win, and it felt great. Going into R5 I find out I am playing against another Block-Lax deck (ugh). The match was really close, but time was the ultimate deciding factor. With the first two games taking all but a few minutes, we basically se up game three and hit turns. I chose to go second hoping I could pull off the donk.. and I was actually on a path for it. However, they drew into Arven and got the nest ball which secured the tie. So we were not able to finish up the R5 match.

Then came the Top Cut of the top 4 players. The other decks in the top cut were the R4 and R5 Block-Lax players and a Chien-Pao list. I got paired with the R4 player, so at this point we were both really aware of what was going on with each player’s strategy. Game 1 went super long (57 minutes). I was really just a few cards off the win! I was trying to get to my last rope with my Flaaffy stuck in the active. I don’t think I’ve ever said pass so many times in a row with no other action. Sadly they were able to Miss Fortune Sisters both my Lost Vacuum and Escape Rope which denied me any chance of winning that match. So I ended up having to scoop and going for game two. Which is sad because I was so close on prizes and board state. Game two I setup perfectly and was really in control of the control deck. However I made a misplay that burned one of my few switch cards. I said promote Raikou as I pulled up a Miraidon with only two energy (time was getting short, and no lunch, and already well into dinner time). That was a big oof that hurt my mental state (didn’t really change outcome of game). I had to burn my other switch cart to actually get the card up that I wanted. Then I spent about 10 draws trying to get my last energy out of the deck. I had two boss in hand, just needed one energy to manually attach to get the knockouts I needed. They were able to draw into their Penny and pull my chances at getting the Rotom V kill – which could have saved me with the extra prize. We hit turns and I still do not have the energy. I get the energy right on my last turn, so I went out swinging. Since I couldn’t draw the last prize it ended in a tie. I could have gotten the win if we had literally one more turn, but game one was SO long.

It was a fun cup overall, but I wished it was a little shorter. It started at 11 AM and I was headed to my car around 6:25 PM.. The prizing was solid, as I enjoyed all the prize packs.

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Life things! So we were supposed to take a trip to Virginia Beach.. however, some sickness caught up with us. My daughter actually got sick during the cup, so I was distracted a bit as I was texting my wife seeing if I needed to drop to come home. Luckily she was mainly just able to rest, and I was getting updates in-between rounds. After taking care of our daughter all weekend, both my wife and I got sick Monday. We were supposed to leave Tuesday morning. Since we were still recovering on Tuesday, and could be contagious for a period of time, we decided it was best to cancel our cabin and hotel reservations and stay home. This was the second planned vacation this year that we had to cancel. Big sad that we had to do that, but we are making the best of it. We are all feeling a lot better today (Wednesday). Hoping to still enjoy some Thanksgiving and fun activities for the rest of the time off work. We ended up doing our Christmas decorations early (normally I say they have to be after Black Friday), but what better to do when you are stuck in the house.

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Next week is a League Challenge at Post Board Gaming on the 29th. I am probably going to make a tweak or two to the Miraidon list, and take that (shocker right?). Now that Miraidon is performing so well I wonder if people will tech against it more.. only time will tell!

I will try to get more frequent on the posts here.. but we know how that’s gone in the past. Peace!