My First Stambler Open: Hey, Not Too Bad
This is the 4th Stambler Open and my first time playing in it. I'd still consider myself a novice when it comes to the EX Block but I can see why people love this era so much. There's a lot of variety and room to keep adapting and adjusting. This is still an ever developing format.
So what am I playing?
This is a tier list I saw early on when digging into multiple retro formats and this was a broadly agreed upon list from the people I'm around and so I was just looking at this and seeing so many c tier options that I feel could be explored more to bring up one or two to B tier. One pokemon I've always wanted to play is Kabutops since that's one of my favorite Pokemon ever and seeing a possible deck option with it peaked my interest. I saw Jason Klaczynskis build on his blog and went from here.
I look at Jason's list and test it for a little bit and see why this deck is C tier. The main problem is the set up of this deck. This version of the deck has no fossils but heavys Strange Cave. I started asking around and was directed to one of the best deck builders in this format Erik Reed. He is the one that created Ratlock and help develop the RSPK in multiple ways. We discuss what should change or could help this deck and he gives an important piece of this puzzle. Masterball and Holon Fossil
These two cards I feel speed up the process of getting out the fossils. There's multiple routes to getting the board set up but I feel after playtesting there's two routes to go with this deck. You have to heavy the Strange Cave and just add one fossil per turn without guaranteed Team Assembly. Holon Fossil and Master Ball excellerate the set up process and help me find my evolutions without using a Supporter for turn.
Tord Reklev, Jason Klaczynski, Alex Chuck Brosseau AND Vance Kelly are all playing in this tournament. I'm jumping in with the sharks.
Round 1 : 1-0
Got the first round bye. I would not have preferred this. Now my standings will be rough if I'm not perfect.
Round 2 : 1-1 Flygon Altaria
Ok this was a terrible match up for me. Flygons ability just killed this game for me. Did not playtest against this before but I know better now. Also my hand was bricked for the first three turns and a Rockets Admin happened in between there as well and still trash hand. Congrats Delzoun.
Round 3 : 2-1 Swampert Metagross
Easy dub. Metal Ex Pokemon do not want to see me. Kabutops just shreds through these guys and Cursed Stone chipping away at Swampert just gives me this game.
Round 4 : 2-2 Nidoqueen Sceptile
I don't think this is a bad match up for me. I just didn't get a Team Assembly off this game so I was just, on the jump, on the back foot but 2 Nidoqueen got set up and I was pretty sure I was doomed there. Congrats James.
Round 5 : 3-2 Swampert Agron
Another easy win with type advantage.
Round 6 : 4-2 Bombtar
This was easily the closest game. This one came down to the wire. Usually I can win these match ups but we both were just hitting the right things at the right times. Came down to Tyrannitars weakness once again Kabutops saves the day.
Event Highlight
I had not seen Vance being active within the retro community but always glad to see other big names taking an interest into this side of the community. His quad Rayquaza deck was the stand out to me since no one else was running it and surprisingly held up well. When I would look back at the Twitch stream and see this jacked Raquaza sitting in front of these players like a wall.
Also if you're want to check out the stream for the tournament here's the vod:
Conclusion
Not too bad for my first Stambler. My early loses destroyed my chances of top 8 but still not too bad for my first try. I've figured I need to go two different routes with this deck. Either play from ahead or play from behind. If the plan is to explode out the gate and try to get control of the board as quick as I can then cut the Solid Rage and have 2 Fluffy Berry and 1 Cessession Crystal to help with the Flygon matchup next time. The play from behind route will have 2 Solid Rage and some Pow Hand Extensions and a second Drag Off Omastar because of the amount of control this one card alone gives me. I need to play test against Flygon, Rayler and Nidoqueen to get my match ups more rounded out. Thank you for reading.