Wigglytech (Wigglytuff/Scyther/TecH)
by Alexander Farrugia a.k.a. X-Act
National Malta Pokemon Tournament
Organised by Forbidden Power
Venue: Salesians Game Center, Sliema
Date: 3rd July 2004
Participants: 33
Well, it seems like Malta was staging a pretty interesting national tournament for Pokemon players. My brother Mark (a.k.a. Ankhyus, who judged the event) told me about it and urged me to join it. At first I was reluctant, but then I accepted. So I went on a big shopping spree buying Pokemon cards over the ‘net. Since my brother has since switched to Yu-Gi-Oh!, I could also use his Pokemon cards as well.
The tournament, it turned out, was Unlimited with Nintendo rules and with promo cards banned. I didn’t know which deck to use. I couldn’t find any Slowkings on the net, although I didn’t really want to play Slowking, since I wanted to have a good, but fun, deck (I don’t really find Slowking fun to play). After some pondering, I ended up with this:
Wigglytech
Pokemon (16):
3 Jigglypuff (Jungle)
3 Wigglytuff (Jungle)
3 Scyther (Jungle)
3 Cleffa
1 Tyrogue
1 Pichu
1 Erika’s Jigglypuff
1 Erika’s Dratini
Trainers (31):
4 Professor Oak
4 Computer Search
3 Item Finder
3 Super Energy Removal
3 Pluspower
3 Gust Of Wind
2 Focus Band
2 Pokemon Fan Club
2 Energy Charge
1 Professor Elm
1 Switch
1 Low Pressure System
1 Gold Berry
1 Town Volunteers
Energy (13):
4 Double Colorless Energy
4 Recycle Energy
2 Boost Energy
2 Grass Energy
1 Warp Energy
As you will see while you’re reading this, this will not be your usual killer deck report. I won’t go into lauding myself how my deck is brilliant and such; actually I will do the reverse. I will tell you where my mistakes were, and where the mistakes of my opponents were, so that you won’t repeat them. Learn from the experience of others.
OK, first things first. I know this isn’t the best deck for Wiggly. I’m sure you noticed my lack of Lass. Why did I risk not playing Lass at all? The answer is simple. I underestimated my opponents a bit, assuming that they wouldn’t play good trainers, which would make my Lass pretty useless. So I went for an “all-out” Wiggly, a fast Wiggly that gets out turn 2 pounding for 60 per turn. In hindsight, though, not playing Lass proved to be my mistake. The guys in the Top 4 all played good trainers, and played numerous trainers too. Even the very idea of playing Wiggly was bad in my opinion. Wiggly is what I call an “anti-noob” deck. Although I didn’t underestimate my opponents while playing, I underestimated them in the deck construction. Don’t do that mistake.
Something about the Pokemon: Erika’s Jiggly is always nice for the surprise FTKO. And Erika’s Dratini was there basically against haymaker Pokemon and big Basic ex Pokemon such as Suicune ex and Aero ex (if it gets out using Fossil Egg).
About the Low Pressure System: again don’t make my mistake, don’t use it, at least in Wiggly decks. It was basically worthless, and I put it in just for the sake of not having a better gym to play. I didn’t want to play No Removal Gym for some reason. In hindsight, I should have played that. And two too, not one. Again that was underestimation: I predicted nobody would use Sprout Tower. (Nobody did actually. ;x) (Pokemon Tower was out of the question since the tourney banned promos.)
Finally, if you’re wondering why I didn’t play the ex version of Wiggly, the answer is simple: Hidden Legends haven’t yet arrived in Malta.
Speaking of Hidden Legends, the tourney had an interesting twist at the start of it. Hidden Legends were to arrive on the same day as the National tourney here. So the organisers tried to make the tournament slightly more interesting. We were to buy a HL booster for reduced price, and, if we wanted to, we could improve our deck using its contents before deck registration. Of course, you could imagine how I was praying to get Wiggly ex in my booster. ;x However, it turned out that HL still didn’t arrive in time for the tourney, so we had to content ourselves with… a Team Magma vs Team Aqua booster. :/ I found cards worthy of trading, but, of course, none were interesting enough to put in my deck.
Enough chitchat. Let’s start with the tourney proper. It was 6 rounds of Swiss, and 33 players took part. That’s pretty impressive actually; I didn’t know that the small island of Malta, comprising of just 99 square miles, had 33 Pokemon players. (That’s a player per 3 square miles. ;x) The games were best of 3 matches in 45 minutes.
Round 1 – Me vs. Marcello Vallastro (kid with totally random deck)
In the first game, I didn’t actually have a good hand, but my opponent was so random that it didn’t really matter. I started with Scyther and Tyrogue, and he started with an array of Grimers and Makuhita. So I started to attack with Tyrogue and Scyther until something interesting appeared in my hand. Eventually I started picking up prizes, and when the Makuhita were gone, Jiggly finally appeared. By that time, I was ready to do the wave every turn, picking up 6 prizes.
In the second game, I realised just HOW random my opponent’s deck was. Turns out his deck consisted of Team Magma’s Rhydon, Team Magma’s Aggron, Hariyama, Muk ex, Suicune ex and some kind of Gyarados (I only saw a few Magikarps, which I gusted and slashed). I can’t really believe that he had ALL those cards in a single deck. He actually got out Hariyama, but my Scyther just slashed him three times. :/ Then he somehow also managed to get Muk ex, but again that was academic (or, two free prizes). Anyway, to make an irrelevant game short, I proceeded to kill Grimers and Team Magma’s Rhyhorns for another 6-0 win. The poor kid almost broke in tears after losing the game. My message to Marcello and to similar kids who might be reading this is: don’t play Pokemon until you’re older. Well, actually, the advice is: Don’t fall for Nintendo’s “advertising for the kids” ploy. :/
Record: 1-0-0, 3 points.
At this point I went to order two hot-dogs for later. ;x
Round 2 – Me vs. Neil Axisa (with Base Machamp deck)
This guy wasn’t as horrible as the Round 1 guy. His deck was, at least, focused on one Stage 2 line (albeit not that solid). In the first game, he managed to get out Machamp, albeit with no energies, which Scyther had fun killing for an easy win, since he barely got anything else.
In the second game, I noticed that he was hiding his cards doing something before he drew his 7 cards, and I concluded he was cheating, but I didn’t tell him anything. I started, attached grass to Scyther and Swords Danced against his lone Machop (again). He played 3 Bill (confirming my suspicion that he stacked the cards), then he attached a Fighting Energy and passed. I attached DCE to slash and win. He later congratulated me for me having a “very strong and powerful deck” (in his own words). Another advice from me, this time goes to Neil (and to guys like him): don’t cheat. You’ll be even more miserable if you cheat and STILL lose on the second turn, not to mention that if you cheat, it means you don’t have any confidence in your own deck and/or your own abilities.
Record: 2-0-0, 6 points.
Right at this time, I was feeling pretty confident about my chances of winning this tournament. After all, nobody had managed to take a prize against me yet, but I was also wary of how bad the guys I played were. So I went round a bit on the other guys to see what decks they had. Hmm… there was nothing that immediately caught my eye at that moment.
Round 3 – Me vs. Carlos Zammit (with Psychic Pokemon and Fossil Aerodactyl)
I knew this guy, and his deck was semi-decent; he played Sandstorm Wobbuffet, Sandstorm Espeon (which is actually pretty solid in my opinion) and Mr. Mime, besides other things. He started to fetch with Kangaskhan while I built up Wiggly in three turns. I quickly set about KO-ing four of his Pokemon, then he put up Mr. Mime as his Active Pokemon. He had talked to me about Mr. Mime before, and I had told him how good Mr. Mime can be, so he seemed to heed my advice. I hadn’t told him that Pichu could obliterate Mime though ;x. Actually I was tempted to Lullaby to turn off its power, but he would have had two chances of waking up, which wasn’t what I wanted. He had another Mr. Mime on his bench. So I retreated for Pichu, zapped twice and took the last two prizes. He was like “wow, Pichu is REALLY strong”.
In the second game, he got out the Espeon while I built up Scyther. He also didn’t bench his Mr. Mimes this time, for fear of them suffering the same fate as before. I didn’t have a very good start this time, and I struggled to get Jiggly. Scyther started taking a few prizes in the meantime, though, and discarded a few Mysterious Fossils in the process too. Wiggly finally came when he had only Wobbuffet left in play. So I played Boost Energy on Wiggly, searched for two Pluspowers and won.
Record: 3-0-0, 9 points.
It was time for me to eat something, so I went to get one of the hot-dogs I ordered earlier, and bought something to drink, since it was really hot. The hot-dog was pretty huge. Most of the other guys barely managed to eat one, but I managed to devour two pretty comfortably. ;x Regarding the heat, it really was super-hot, which was probably good for the owner of the bar since everyone kept going back for more liquids to drink.
Round 4 – Me vs. Ivan Grixti (Sandstorm Espeon/array of haymaker-like Fighting Pokemon like Rocket’s Hitmonchan and Gligar)
This guy was last year’s national tournament winner, so I knew this was do-or-die. I knew that if I won against him, I had high chances of winning the tournament. In the first game, things were going my way. He only got out Espeon, which Wiggly didn’t have too much problems to take care of.
In the second game, however, things went differently. He had a much better start this time, and, knowing my Wiggly was weak to fighting, he got out a few Fighting Pokemon to try to counter me, while against my Scyther he put up Espeon. He also played No Removal Gym, and since I had made the mistake of playing only one gym, I had trouble changing it, which meant I was going to find removing energies difficult. We were basically nip-and-tuck the whole game though, but eventually it came to a point where I was going to deck and he took the advantage. He eventually took his last prize to force the deciding third game.
In the third game, I took control of the proceedings again as in the first game, and was a prize up when time was called. The game thus ended in a draw. I congratulated him for having a good deck, and he told me he was grateful that time was called, because he thought I was going to beat him. Turns out last year’s winner (and this year’s, too) is a pretty quiet guy and seems pretty humble to me, too.
Record: 3-1-0, 10 points.
Turns out that all the 4 people who were on maximum points up to Round 3 all drew, so I was still joint first with all of them. Since the last game took so long, I didn’t have time to do anything else except prepare myself for the fifth round.
Round 5 – Me vs. Mark Axiaq (Clefable/Suicune ex/Kingdra ex)
This guy’s deck was pretty okay actually. My strategy against big ex Stage 2’s was to try to kill the pre evolutions, so that’s what I set out to do. In the first game, he started to fetch with Kangaskhan (he also played Oracle once and then Fetch, which wasn’t too bad… but then again, he could have used Bill, or just Computer Search the card he wanted :/). I got out Tyrogue and proceeded to Smash Punch the stupid kangaroo wannabe. My coin didn’t disappoint me; his Kangaskhan was in his discard pile in two turns. ;x Then my Wigglytuff simply was too fast for him to cope with, and it literally brushed aside the challenge of Horseas and Clefairies for the win.
In the second match, he got out Clefable early and was going to be a nuisance against my Wiggly, but I managed to OHKO it with a pluspower. Clefable had managed to KO my Tyrogue though (using Smash Punch against it… yes he got two heads :/), and we had both taken two prizes. However, I started to Gust out lone Horseas and KO them one by one until I had only one prize left. But then he ERed me and slowed me down, allowing him to get out Kingdra ex and Suicune ex. After some time, he made a mistake: he benched another Clefairy. So I attached DCE to Erika’s Jigglypuff, attached Pluspower, Item Findered for a Gust, and won the game.
After the tournament my brother told me how this guy used to bully everyone into thinking he’s the next big thing in Pokemon. Against me, he didn’t show that attitude though, and I must admit that Kingdra ex is a pretty valid deck in Unlimited. Maybe it’s because he knew I had drew with last year’s champion… who knows? Anyway, if he bullied everyone before, I’m glad I managed to win 2-0 against him. ;x
Record: 4-1-0, 13 points.
At this point, me and Ivan Grixti (the guy at Round 3 that I drew with) were the only guys tied in first place. I went off to eat my second hot-dog and buy something to drink again (since it was way too hot and I was practically dehydrating).
Round 6 – Me vs. Glenn Steer (Swampert ex/Wailord ex)
I also knew this guy, and I underestimated his deck, to be honest. In the first game, I won pretty quickly; I got out Wiggly and proceeded to kill his only two Pokemon that he got: Suicune ex and Mudkip. So I grew in confidence, which was a mistake.
In the second game he managed to get out Wailord ex, and my game went downhill from then onwards. He had pretty good trainers: decent card drawing, cards to search for evolutions, and a high removal line. I simply couldn’t find my SERs and I hadn’t really made a good start, so he started doing 100 per turn. :/ Then I finally got Wiggly and did 70 to the thing with a Pluspower, but he simply used the first attack to switch the thing for Marshtomp. All the while he kept ERing and SERing me, making my life very difficult, and consequently I was running out of energies. It got worse when he got out Swampert ex. At first I thought “cool, a Fighting Pokemon weak to grass; perfect for Scyther” but it wasn’t that easy. I managed to do 120 to it before he SERed me again and started doing 40 to all my babies in my bench, so as to finally kill all of my Pokemon.
In the third game, there wasn’t enough time for us to play it, so we drew. However, had we have time, I might even have lost the second game, which was an eye-opener for me that you should NEVER become over-confident in yourself. Also, I didn’t know what most of the new cards did, so maybe, if I knew that before the tourney, I could have taken more severe actions against the huge ex Pokemon.
Record: 4-2-0, 14 points.
Because of my draw in my final game, Ivan Grixti won the national tourney again, and an outsider (a guy named Carlos Cachia, who played Fossil Egg/Aerodactyl ex with something else I cannot remember) managed to win his final round game to pip me into second place. So I ended up third. Glenn Steer (the guy I played last round) got fourth. Actually Glenn’s only loss was against a guy who played a Lightning deck (Ampharos ex/Linoone/Electabuzz), which was his weakness, so he really did quite well. I was a bit peeved that a guy I didn’t even get to play against ended ahead of me, but that was how the pairings were made, and you really cannot complain about that. Still, I was satisfied that I went through 6 rounds and emerged unbeaten. It was especially satisfying that Ivan Grixti, the champion, won against everyone he played except me.
Final standings (Top 4 only) were as follows:
#1: Ivan Grixti (5 wins, 1 draw, 0 losses) – 16 points
#2: Carlos Cachia (5 wins, 0 draws, 1 loss) – 15 points
#3: Alexander Farrugia (me) (4 wins, 2 draws, 0 losses) – 14 points
#4: Glenn Steer (4 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss) – 13 points
The top 3 players all got seven badges for their endeavours, while the fourth runner up got three. Additionally, the winner got 16 boosters, the guy who ended up second got 10 boosters, the third placed guy got 5 boosters, and the fourth placed guy got 3. So I ended up with 7 badges and 5 boosters… not bad. (Especially if you consider that the price to enter the tourney was for slightly less than the price of one booster pack. ;x)
Now, the traditional props and slops, X-Act style. :o
Props go to:
Slops go to:
Thanks for reading. I’d be grateful if someone learns something useful after reading through all this.
Alexander Farrugia a.k.a. X-Act