KashiZard Strikes Again: League Challenge winner & Pro Circuit Invitational winner!

What a crazy week it was. I started it off feeling miserable in camp being with a different unit not knowing a single person there and just wanting to survive the week. By the end of the week, with little to no chance to playtest as well, I would end up taking my first League Challenge win and my first Pro Circuit Invitational win. How that was even possible, I'll never know. Lady luck sure was smiling on me that weekend. So I thought I share my story of that weekend and everything building up to it.


THE TOURNEYS

It was to be a huge week of Pokemon TCG games. We had not just one League Challenge to come but two! One was at the usual spot at Project EXT while PokeBar would host their first League Challenge ever. And on Sunday was the big one, the Singapore Pro Circuit Invitational tournament for the Summer season with $800 up for grabs.

But I had one big issue, what was I going to play and how would I do well with no play testing session for me to use during the week as I was stuck in camp? Plus, my testing with the new rotation had not gone swimming well in all honesty.


THE CHOICES

I had been testing the likes of Malamar, PikaRom, Green's ReshiZard and Mew2Mew but apart from the latter, nothing was working right in testing for me. For a while I thought I might go for the surprise factor with Mew2Mew but then worlds happened.

When Thomas showed me the winner's playmat, I made it my mission to win it. It was a ReshiZard playmat and I wanted to win it with Zard. I forced myself to learn to play the Green variant as everyone kept saying that's the only way to play it but I disagreed.

My choices

I tried it out but I hated it. For a deck that's supposed to let you do whatever you want, that never happened for me. And I never started a Volcanion either. My motivation at this point was at an all time low. I still had not found a comfort deck for this new format nor was I doing well in most of my games.

I went back to the drawing board and started working a new ReshiZard deck but a throwback to the original. 3 to 4 Jirachis? Check. 3 Dedennes like I did at the SPE? Check. Turtonator? Check. Volcanion? Check. The new Hoopa? Check. The new Heatran-GX? Check. Ninetales line? Check. Salazzle line? Check. I tried to put in maybe a bit too much things into it and didn't quite get the right 60 card combo down. And then Worlds happened.

By this point I was resigned to Mew2Mew or even Charizard TEU for the 3 events as I couldn't get my ReshiZard list working thecway it should. So I tuned in to watch Words just to see what might show up. The first match had a Mew2Mew on stream and it was working well which was nice to see. But then Philip Schulz showed up in the second match with a ReshiZard deck.


THE RETURN OF KASHIZARD

Not the Greens one but the REAL ReshiZard. With Jirachis and Dedennes as it should in my own view. But his list was different. 18 energies! No fire crystal. Super scoop up. Welder as the single supporter of the deck. It worked so well. I enjoyed seeing that in action and right away ny brain was in overdrive trying to recreate what I had just seen.

The legend that is Tord Reklev would end up finising 4th with it, showing it's true power. He was just unlucky to get a horrible matchup in his top 4 match but I was still happy to see him do well with that version of ReshiZard.

Now my mind was made up, I was going to play that for the upcoming big 3 tournaments. I may not have much preparation but I knew I could make this version of ReshiZard work. Yup it's time for KashiZard to return (my good friend Nicholas would call my deck and then me that after my top 8 finish at the SPE).

I was just hoping everyone would be caught up with the Mew2Mew, Blace and PikaRom hype that they would skip this new gem the European guys had come up with. I would use Tord's list as a baseline for the weekend.



THE DECK

One of the best parts of the game for me is the deck building side of things. I do enjoy coming up with ideas, trying to mesh all the bits and pieces into the perfect 60 list. And yes sure sometimes I might be inspired from someone else's list but I don't really like to copy paste someone's exact 60 card list.

I would try to find some change to the deck and switch some stuff around to suit me. Not the case here. This list was perfect. I looked though it 3 times over and I couldn't spot a fault in it apart from my own change of playing 4 Pokemon Communication and 3 Cherish Ball when Tord Reklev's list was the opposite ratio.

I was familiar with the concept of the deck. In the last rotation, I would try to set up a ReshiZard as quickly as possible with either Kiawe/Welder, Volcanion/Welder or Double Welder with the help of Jirachi and Dedenne (I might have been the only one to depend on Dedenne past rotation). And after that I would look to my non-GX guys for help. Previously it was Arcanine who would get the job done for me, as the attacker and the energy accelerator engine. Now it's Turtonator and/or Victini Prism with Ninetales providing the help to gust people out.

Tord Reklev's 4th Place Worlds ReshiZard deck

This deck is honestly one of the best built deck I've ever seen. I tested it out on PTCGO just to get a feel for it before making my changes and I enjoyed it right away. Completely different to the idea I had a week or so ago, my list may have had similiar ideas but clearly my deck building skills still have some ways to go as this one was amazingly built. Every card has in some ways are linked to something else in the deck.

• 2 ReshiZards were just fine for me because, 
• Both Heatran-GX and Turtonator can also hit 300 damage if needed. Heatran gives the deck a lot more options against many differebt decks instead of just hammering with ReshiZard
• 2-2 line of Ninetales is just enough to get the job done for you to keep hitting the constant gusts.
• 4 Jirachi just to max out your chances of starting with it
• 3 Dedennes to keep the deck moving. You might even get a 4th or 5th DedeChange if SSU flips are in your favor
• Victini Prism is the MVP. Since you're already using a lot of fire energies, Victini's Infinity attack can take out big tag team KOs.
• 3 Giant Hearth. It synergies so well with the deck with Welder and Ninetales in mind. It can also be used to store up as many Fire energies in your hand so you can throw them all away with DedeChange to build up Infinity.
• 3 Acro Bike. Easiest way to rid of energies or find a non GX pokemon.
• Pokemon Communication & Cherish Ball. This was the only thing I really changed in the deck. I didn't feel the need to have 4 Cherish Balls but 4 Comms felt just right for this deck in order to set up Ninetales.
• 2 Switch and 2 Escape Boards feels just enough to help you move around but ideally I'd prefer a 3rd switch
• 3 Super Scoop Up. I was never a fan of flippy cards but had a new found respect for it after trying it out. Lots of uses for it, from using it mainly to retreat, to have another DedeChange, pick up a Pokemon with lots of fire on it or just save someone from a KO.
• 4 Welder + 1 Pal Pad. It's all you really need in the deck anyway to keep the attackers going. 

THE GAMEPLAN

While in camp I started writing a few notes on all the matchup I thought I might see. These were just ideas in my head on how I might approach these matches and how to win those games with no actual testing done to prepare myself for the weekend. Just a man and his thoughts.

Big thing to note about the deck as well is that we have not one but three guys who can hit for 300 damage. ReshiZard's GX for 6 energy, Heatran's GX also for 6 energy and Turtonator for 6 energy to hit for 300 anywhere across the board as long as it has 3 energies itself.

Vs Pikachu & Zekrom-GX

• Not the greatest matchup but still winnable. Magic number to keep in mind is 16. If not, go Plan B.
• Plan A: Set ReshiZard up for the 6 energy TAG KO (preferably on ChuChu). Avoid using Heatran or Turtonator ad they can be easily KOed if they have the right setup. Have answers to Reset Stamp/Judge so don't waste Acro Bikes & Dedennes and set Ninetales and Victini up for the last KO.
• Plan B: Use Heatran to knock out one of their single prize attackers. If able to set up 6 energies, go for TAG KO. If not, go for GX KO. Finally, whichever prize is left, set Victini up accordingly. 
• After talking to Klive who was curious about trying the deck out, we came up with Plan C. Set Heatran up to KO a PikaRom first. Get it to 5 energies and 1 on ReshiZard in case opponent has a Zeraora to respond and KO our Heatran. Then get ReshiZard set up for Flare Strike on Zeraora and opponent should have no way of escaping our last prize with Ninetales around. 

Vs Reshiram & Charizard-GX (either variant)

• Beat them to the energy race! Whoever sets it up first usually wins. 
• If against a fellow TurboZard, kill off their important engine when necessary. If they put a Victini down early, punish them. 
• Or Plan B. If you can't set up a 300 damage attacker right away, don't give one to them. If the opportunity presents itself, it might be better to take out one of their GX attackers first if they have not set up an attacker so you can have the 300 damage attacker ready next turn (preferably ReshiZard in this instance)

Vs Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX

• Setup ReshiZard or Heatran for the 6 energy 300 hit on the first GardeSylv. Preferably ReshiZard as GardeSylv can still knock a Heatran clean with it's GX. 
• Save Switch, Stadiums and Dedenne until necessary. They will attempt to disrupt your hand at least twice and with their GX. Save switch for Turtonator as it can help to take the 2nd GardeSylv down with 3 other energies on board. 
• Pressure the second GardeSylv with Flare Strike, make them use up as many resources to heal it up. Try to set up Ninetales if they attempt to switch around their attackers. Finish off with Victini.

Vs Malamar

• Ninetales is extremely important in this matchup. Try to set up Heatran first. 
• Disrupt their set up as much as possible but gusting up Malamars. Also useful to avoid hitting anyone with a Spell Tag. 
• Keep in mind that Ninetales itself can KO a Malamar
• Hope they brick! If they get the perfect set up, not much you can really do. 
• Try not use ReshiZard unless you're 3 prizes up or a GX shows up

Vs Keldeo-GX

• Set ReshiZard or Turtonator up for the first KO on a Keldeo. Try to set up the next attacker for the second Keldeo. Prefer to use Zard first so Turtonator can discard it's energies. 
• Ninetales needed in this match to drag out Keldeos or any other GX attackers they might try to use
• Take out the last Keldeo with Victini

Vs Dark Box (Naga varaint & Incineroar variant)

• If vs Naganadel variant, set ReshiZard or Heatran up for the big TAG KO. Fine is to use Heatran to do two hits if they're slow to set-up. 
• They will eventually item lock you for one turn so just build up next attacker, possibly Turtonator. Also set Ninetales up to drag out a TAG for Victini to KO later on. 
• If vs Incinerorar variant, set up Ninetales ASAP and drag out their Littens to kill off their engine. Any Litten that shows up, drag it out and KO it. 

Vs Stupid Decks (Control/Lock/Stall/Disruption) 

• For hand disruption Victini the best bet to use as they'll throw your energies away for you. Ninetales very important in this kind of matches to drag up the right person, be it a Pidgeotto or a non-Shedinja pokemon. 
• If vs Beheeyem, get ReshiZard ready to attack right away. By the time they KO it, you should be left with 3 prizes.  

Vs Mewtwo & Mew-GX

• Set ReshiZard or Heatran up for the 6 energy KO but be mindful that they can use Latios' GX attack to wipe out your own GX move. If they do, keep 3 on the GX attackers and bring out Turtonator, get 3 energies on it to kill off the first Mew2Mew. You're fine to two shot the next Mew2Mew as they won't run healing options all that much, especially if they have used their GX. Then set Victini to kill off the next one.

Vs Blacephalon-GX

• Very bad matchup. Need some luck to win this one. Might want to include Tapu Fini in the deck to deal with this match.
• Set Heatran/Turtonator up for the first Blacephalon KO. Need to set up Ninetales here. 
• Ideally have a ReshiZard ready to take the second Blacephalon KO with your own GX.
• If they can't KO Zard, Flare Strike for the last KO. If not, Victini will have a much easier time KOing Blace than other attackers mentioned above.

Vs Quag/Nag or Froslass or Any Water-Based Deck that can KO your attackers with ease

• Shake Opponent's hand
• Cry
• Cry some more
• In all honesty, you need them to brick to stand a chance of winning this matchup

LEAGUE CHALLENGE @ PROJECT EXT (23rd August 2019) - 37 Masters

Changes I made to the deck compared to Tord's list:
-3 Super Scoop Up
-1 Cherish Ball
+2 Fire Crystal
+1 Acro Bike
+1 Pokemon Communication

I had never liked flippy cards so I didn't bother with SSU for that day. Spoiler alert, that was my biggest mistake. I went for 2 Fire Crystals and a 4th Acro Bike. Crystals were there in case I was worried that I didn't have enough energy to pull off a Nine Temptation or to charge up another attacker.

My aim was to challenge for at least a top 8 to show that I can do well in such a big field of players. But I should have known better as I had rushed from camp to play and was feeling tired.

R1 vs Clifton Goh (Pikachu & Zekrom-GX) LL

Of course I start the week playing against the best player in Singapore. Two very quick games. Only had Heatran and Fire Energy at the start of Game 1.

Game 2 was just me being a bit fatigued from army training and not paying attention. Started with just Vulpix and passed, not realizing I top drew a Poke Comm when I had Ninetales in hand. Clif punished me with a turn 1 Zapdos KO.

R2 vs Danial Faiszal (Oranguru/Pidgeotto) WW

Oh great a control deck. His constant need to discard cards from my hand actually helped me in game 1 as I started with Victini and just kept picking off all the birds

He started an Articuno-GX in game 2 so I went for the kill with ReshiZard right away. Clean sailing from there on with Victini and Ninetales doing their job.

R3 vs Anselm Sim (Mewtwo & Mew-GX/Fire) WLW

I managed to set up my ReshiZard to kill off Mew2Mew in Game 1. I couldn't set up in Game 2 and scooped quickly. 

He had a slow start in Game 3 but did Clear Vision GX right off. I had to go with the two shot KO on his Mew2Mew. Super Scoop Up won me this game as I managed to scoop up my ReshiZard with 5 energies or so only to throw it away to bring the number up to 13 to get the KO on his Mew2Mew. For once I beat Anselm!

R4 vs Vincent Quek (Keldeo-GX/Fossil) WLT

I was prepared to face Keldeo but not with Caracosta which hurt my Jirachi pivoting strategy. I did set my Ninetales up early to KO one of his fossils and then the first Keldeo. ReshiZard then got KOed right back by Caracosta. I still had enough energies to kill it off with Turtonator. I managed to set up Victini just in time for the last KO on an Aerodactyl. 

I never git going in the 2nd game and really struggled to keep up with how fast he got his attackers ready. Game 3 well...never really got going. For starters he took 11 mulligans which would have been nice if not for the fact that I started with a Dedenne. 

He also said he didn't mind all that mulligan just so he can stall me out to take a draw which really pissed me off. "If I can't win, I make sure he can't win". My chances at a top 8 finish were all but over because of stall. What a horrible way to lose out. What can you do when someone wants to prevent you from having a fair shot to win.

R5 vs Syamil Sani (Pikachu & Zekrom-GX) LL

Once again I fell to the PikaRom. I was struggling to set up and I was still upset about that last game that I wasn't focused enough and misplayed a few times. Deserved the loss there.

R6 vs ??? T

I left right after round 5 as it was almost 12.30am and I wanted to catch my last bus and I had no hope of doing well so why waste my time when I can re-group my thoughts and ideas for tomorrow. My R5 opponent also left so we both got a tie.

Final Result: 18th (2/2/2)

Wasn't my best of tournaments but what I did take away from it was how much I enjoyed playing this deck. And it was working fine most of the time. 

LEAGUE CHALLENGE @ POKE BAR (24rd August 2019) - 19 Masters

Changes I made to the deck compared to Tord's list:

-1 Cherish Ball

-1 Fire Energy

+1 Pokemon Communication

+1 Acro Bike

I wanted to test out if the maximum Acro Bike count would help with the consistency of the deck. It did for some games but not enough for me to keep it that way for Sunday. 18 Fire Energy felt like the right number for it but 17 works too apparently. 

I added Super Scoop Up back in on the advice of Clifton, he told me it might not me the best of ideas to run Fire Crystal for this deck. My aim for this challenge was the same as the previous day but as there were less people, I wanted to go for a Top 4 finish instead, try to correct yesterday's wrong and prove to myself that I can make this deck work.

R1 vs Harry Yew (Reshiram & Charizard-GX/Green) LWW

I didn't set up at all and he took the first win. I beat him to the 6 energy race and he scooped right after the GX. 3rd game was closer. I tried to be cheeky by using Turtonator right away to kill off his Zard and it worked. It bought me some time to set Heatran up for a KO on Volcanion and do some big numbers on a ReshiZard. In the end I had enough energies in the discard for Victini to finish it off.

R2 vs Edmund Khoo (Fossil Box) LL

The combination of Carracosta and Rampardos were just horrible for my deck, let alone the fact I could not set up in both games. His Aerodactyl did enough to prevent me from taking the game as I ran out of energies. He had an almighty set up in game 2 and I couldn't do much to stop it. 

R3 vs Walter Ho (Reshiram & Charizard-GX/Green) WW

This is where I thought my run might be over as I've never beaten Walter in these big competitions. I won the 6 energy race in the first game and was able to handle his second ReshiZard with the combo of a Flare Strike and then Victini finishing it off. 

Game 2 was when lady luck finally smiled on me.

• I started with a Vulpix and a ReshiZard. 
• He just had his Volcanion. 
• He attaches and pass. 
• I top drew a Jirachi. I used Super Scoop Up in my hand to hopefully get rid of the Vulpix and I got heads. 
• I promote Jirachi to the active, used Stellar Wish and found Welder. 
• Used Giant Hearth to take 2 Fire energies and then used Welder to attach them to ReshiZard. Attaches the 3rd energy. 
• One if the cards I drew off Welder was another Super Scoop Up. Used it and got heads again to get rid of Jirachi and win the game with the GX kill. Super Scoop Up won me that game.

R4 vs Irvin Cai (Malamar/Ultra Necrozma-GX) LWW

He had the better set up in game 1 and took the win. He didn't set up and I took the win in game 2 with Ninetales picking off his Malamar. 

Game 3 he had an even poorer start while I got a Heatran up and ready in Turn 2. Ninetales was the MVP again, helping to pick off all the Malamars and avoid hitting anyone with Spell Tags. 

Now I was suddenly in with a good chance to get that Top 4 finish I had aimed for. Just one small little issue...I had to play against Clifton again and he wanted to go for the win and I was happy to oblige. 

R5 vs Clifton Goh (Pikachu & Zekrom-GX) LWW

Close first game but he got his PikaRom ready for a huge Tag Bolt GX and I scooped upon seeing the fact that I had no possible comeback from this predicament.

I got my ReshiZard set up and ready for the first kill on his Raichu & Alolan Raichu-GX. He reset stamps me into a really good hand. Turtonator came in clutch in this game, needing only 5 energies to kill of PikaRom. 

And onto the decider that is game 3. He struggles to set up at all and I took the chance to take the first KO with Heatran on a Jirachi. He still couldn't kill off my Heatran the next turn so I took my time to set up a ReshiZard for hopefully a big 3 prize attack next. That's when the game got interesting. 

• He promotes a Sigilyph-GX which put me in an awkward spot due to it's ability to hit back any damage it took. And I couldn't gust out of this. 
• What if I killed my own ReshiZard knowing that I'm out of Scoop Ups and those 6 energies would put my energy count in the discard to 11. 
• I had 1 in hand and needed 2 more to pull this move off. 
• So I went for the GX kill, wondering if I did hit myself due to the added effects. On hindsight, I should have just used Flare Strike here. 
• I promote a Vupix for it to be the sacrificial lamb. 
• Next turn I drew Giant Hearth which was enough to get me to 12 energies to KO the PikaRom for the win.

Lady luck was smiling on me again! I beat the great Clifton (that's a first too). It was a really close series as well. While waiting for the results I had a test game with Klive and somehow won that series too. During the match we heard the results and I was 1st! 

Stunned silence from my side. Wait hang on...I just won that League Challenge? I couldn't believe it, I finally won a big tournament (well local scene at least). 3 years of trying and all that hardwork finally paid off. 

I'll cherish this Lusamine promo with the "1st place" stamp on it. I had one of my best matches against Clifton to win that card and 15 CPs. I'm now up to 25 CP and I wasn't planning to push for an invite this year because of university. And yes, I did prove to myself that I did make this deck work.

Final Result: 1st Place (4/1/0)

PRO CIRCUIT INVITATIONAL SUMMER SEASON @ PROJECT EXT (25th August 2019) - 35 Masters

Changes I made to the deck compared to Tord's list:

- 1 Cherish Ball

+ 1 Pokemon Communication

For the big event, I kept it simple, just 1 change for the event. $800 was at stake and I could really use that money. I didn't want to take any risk. The way it works was that I started out with 2 byes due to my top 8 finish in the final standings of the league season. And with no ties allowed, I couldn't just win the next 2 rounds and ID myself into top cut, we had to fight it out every round, which I liked! 

My hope was to make top cut (Top 8) and hopefully finish inside the top 4, $100 is still a lot of money for someone like me but money wasn't my main target, I just wanted to know if I did have what it takes to beat the top guys in an environment like this one. I was worried that there might be more counters to ReshiZard after my League Challenge win from yesterday but hey, it's still the only deck I feel comfortable with so let's just go for broke. Swing for the fences, take chances, just see how it pans out. I had nothing to lose with how my week had been going anyway, I just wanted to have fun.

R1 and R2 Bye Wins due to my top 8 finish in the season

R3 vs Choy Kwok Hoe (Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX) WW
Really good matchup for me. First game was the norm, set ReshiZard up, KO first Garde. Do a bit of damage and then kill the second one off. Started off slow in the second game with a Dedenne start. Forced to use Heatran to two shot one GardeSylv.

He reset stamps me into a Dedenne, building up my next attacker. My own mistake here was mot setting up a Ninetales as he kept retreating his GardeSylvs.

R4 vs Bertrand Yan (Pikachu & Zekrom-GX) LWW
Up against my friend Bertrand next. He had the much better start in the first game and I conceded early on. He had a slow start in game 2 and ReshiZard did the job, putting me 1 prize to 6 after two big KOs.

Game 3 was much closer. Heatran took out the first Jirachi. Then I had enough time to set ReshiZard up for a KO on ChuChu as he was struggling to set up. And then his 2nd PikaRom shows up. I was a bit worried now.

• I had no Switches left
• I had two Super Scoop Ups to save this ReshiZard from a huge KO. If I had flipped tails, he could easily put his energies on his next PikaRom and with enough switches take his last 3 prizes with Tag Bolt.
• Hard retreat was not an option for me as Turtonator was prized. Heatran had been KOed by a ChuChu +Electropwer. 
• My only hope was to flip heads on Scoop Up, save the ReshiZard. I had one Dedenne in hand to throw all my energies away but it still would only be 11 energies in the discard (including Giant Hearth usage).
• Flipped heads on Super Scoop Up. Put Hearth down. Benched Victini and threw everything away (no Welder in hand but still 3 in Deck with about 4 energies left in deck. 
• Drew into said Welder. Stellar Wish for another Welder. Discarded energy number 11 for Hearth. That's when I noticed I only had 2 energies left in a 10 card deck. 
• I had my last Acro Bike in hand off the Welder onto Victini. What are the odds of me hitting this one energy?
• Used Acro Bike and the first thing I saw was Ninetales. Second was the Fire Energy and discarded it right away. 12 Energies in discard, Infinity for the win.

Acro Bike of all things won me that game as did Super Scoop Up. Lady luck was on my side again.

R5 vs Wong Wei Kit (Reshiram & Charizard-GX/Green's) LWW
This match was actually streamed on Team Silv's Facebook page. We both had slow starts to the game. I was getting my pieces to set up my ReshiZard so I went in on Heatran to take the first KO on Volcanion. He responded with the KO back and winning the 6 energy race and so I scooped.

Game 2 I had a slow start again and he had his ReshiZard up to 4 energies after the first turn. He custom catcher my Heatran and started applying pressure on it. Heatran took the KO on Volcanion and now I had a ReshiZard with 3 energies on it. He returns the KO with his ReshiZard but I did take the big Tag KO with my Double Blaze GX. He had no answer after that.

We took so much time that when we were setting up for Game 3, we heard time was called.

•  There was no ties in swiss round so knowing that we had to go for the win, we agreed to roll two dices to see who would take the win.
• He rolled first and got a 6 and 4, 10 total. Now I was thinking, how the heck do I beat that? Two seconds later...
• I rolled a 6 and 6! Lady luck really was smiling on me with that particular dice roll, perfect number! And perfect swiss record continues with it.

R6 vs Tan Jun Hao (Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX) WLW
Final match of swiss round and little did we know, the final matches of the tournament as well. I had the ideal set up and got the first KO. He made the comeback and it looked iffy but some help from Super Scoop Up and getting the pieces I needed for the Victini KO sealed it for me.

Second game was horrible. I started off with Dedenne with a second Dedenne in hand but he put a Power Plant right away. I did draw a Heatran to power it up but just wasn't enough since GardeSylv KO's it with it's GX.

Now the deciding match. I had a horrible looking hand with just Victini, Dedenne, Poke Comm and 4 Fire energies to work with. I took me until turn 2 to get a Cherish Ball and I decided to just go with Heatran right away since I had Victini on board already, might as well save ReshiZard for later.

Both of them did the two hit on GardeSylv, healing wasn't enough to stop Infinity. By this point I had a ReshiZard with 2 energies and a Vulpix set up. This is where the game got interesting.

• ReshiZard hit one of his GardeSylv for 230. 
• He heals off 140 damage off it from 2 Great Potions and two Mixed Herbs.
• Hard retreats it to another GardeSylv. It's already got 3 energies on it. Places down Power Plant and Reset Stamps me to 3 cards.
• Now I'm in trouble. If I don't draw out of this he'd be left with one prize and I don't have any big attackers left to deal with it as Turtonator was prized. Situation looked very bleak here and I was feared this would end the winning streak I was on.
• Off the 3 cards I got, one was Giant Hearth. The other was a Dedenne-GX. The absolute perfect draw. I top drew a Fire Energy as well to power up ReshiZard. Dede Change and a Nine Temptation to drag out the benched GardeSylv for the win.

His reset stamp, which should have lost me the game, ended up winning me the game. The perfect swiss round for once, 6/0/0 after 6 rounds and to be fair I didn't really care if I won or lost, I was pretty safe into top cut. 

Standings were released and I was first seed going into top cut with a PikaRom waiting for me. I was feeling good about my chances of winning it. And then there was an announcement. No top cut. Final results to follow swiss round standings since the rest were tired and all of them wanted to split the prize. I hesitantly agreed as I still wanted to play on. At this point it still hasn't registered to me that because there was no top cut, I would up as the overall winner of the Pro Circuit Invitational!

I had always wanted to win this as I was always on board the idea of us local players having our own pro circuit in the spirit of competition. It was a good way to test myself against our best players here. I had written in my goals list to finish top 2 in one of these this year and I accomplished two of those goals in 2 days with the League Challenge top 2 finish too. 

I still left feeling a bit empty. Did I really earn that win? I didn't go through top cut to win it unlike others before. And sure, I won two tournaments back to back but let's be real, I got really luck in a few situations (vs Clifton where he didn't disrupt my Victini play, vs Bertrand where I hit one of just two energies off a ten card deck from Acro Bike, rolling a 12 to Wei Kit's 10, and drawing off everything I needed against Jun Hao.)

Still, what a crazy weekend. If you had told me that I would end up winning a League Challenge and the Pro Circuit Invitational with NO playtesting done at all during the week, I would have thought you're crazy and perhaps you got my name mixed up with Klive. 

Final Result: 1st Place (6/0/0)

THE AFTERMATH

Overall, the deck just works. Sure you'll get those hands were it might look bleak but this deck has a lot of outs to get out of it which is weird for a deck with 30% of it being Energy cards. Some had been struggling with the list and I know a few said they tried and it wasn't to their liking. For myself, it didn't take me long to get used to it. Maybe it's just the familiarity of it, being a loyal ReshiZard player myself and having used the 3 Dedenne engine in my ReshiZard list before, I was more than comfortable throwing away some pieces if it meant advancing my board state.

Perhaps the fact that not many had jumped onto the Turbo Zard bandwagon helped me to do well. While Mew2Mew and Blacephalon were taking all the love for their finals in Worlds and PikaZek and Malamar still being super popular so perhaps ReshiZard was being overlooked initially. My research showed me something interesting. And I glad I was right, ReshiZard once again gave me another great week in Pokemon TCG.

I had made up my mind that I was going to play this version of ReshiZard but I didn't realize it was the best performing deck at Worlds too and with that not on the radar initially, that might have helped me out. Although after these tournaments, Turbo ReshiZard has seen a lot more play at local games. Perhaps my results might have shown the way for others to follow and if that's the case, I'm happy I could have helped out.

It was cool to know that more players were starting to talk to me and some bigger names coming to me for help with the deck, which is quite surreal as I'm usually the one asking others for advice on my decks. Even guys like Rauf and Klive, when they were rocking Zygarde/Lycanroc, I jumped on the bandwagon and looked to them for advice so it was surreal to see them playing ReshiZard because of how well I did with it. That was really cool to see.


THE DECK TEMPLATE

I would say going forward, this would be the basic template for my ReshiZard lists. 3 Cards missing are the Super Scoop Ups. I'm still trying to justify the reasons on keeping those Super Scoop Up or switching them for 3 more consistent boosting cards. But if I don't, there were a few cards I had in mind to try out in games for the next week or so before the upcoming League Cup on September 6th:

• Volcanion to help speed up the set-up for ReshiZard or the other two 300-damage attackers
• Tapu Fini to help in the Blacephalon matchup or anyone using UBs
• Reset Stamp to disrupt opponent's hand especially against decks that need a specific way to work (aka Naganadel-GX/Control)
• Fire Crystal to help with either a Welder attachment or to gust someone out with Ninetales
• Additional Switch to help us out in awkward situations or another way to get Turtonator or Heatran-GX right into the action for big KOs
• Additional Pokemon Communication to help set up non-GX guys (I play 4 of them anyways so this one is a for sure addition to me)
• Additional Acro Bike for consistency

I'm just still in shock that I won the League Challenge and the Pro Circuit Invitational on back to back days. Before that I've never won a big tournament ever. And now I've done well in a Tier 4 Pokemon TCG official tournament (League Challenge), and also a Tier 2 tournament (Top 8 at SPE also with a ReshiZard deck that played 3 Dedennes). Hopefully I can finally do well at a Tier 3 tournament this coming week (League Cup), I've been so poor at League Cups that I've never even gotten those League Cup promos before.

I still have a long way to go in this game though, still not happy with my results being very inconsistent. Until I reach the consistency level of someone like Rauf or Klive in our local games, both guys I look up to in this game and have always been consistent in the game, only then I can be satisfied. Still learning in this journey of Pokemon TCG.

I hope this will be of any help to those planning to give ReshiZard (Turbo) a try in the upcoming weeks and hopefully the notes will be useful as well. I'm looking forward to getting more game time with the deck and hopefully come up with the best 60 list possible in time for the League Cup, a tournament I've never ever done well in. Would be nice to click off yet another check on the achievement list. Those of you who are now playing this deck, have fun with it!