"You Failed... HaHa!"- A 125th Place 2016 U.S. Nationals Report with Night March!

     Hello, fellow Pokemon players! My name is Evan Smith and today, I am going to be giving you all my 2016 U.S. Nationals tournament report with Night March!

Y U Choose Might Narch?

I'm pumped up!

     I chose to play Night March because my Vespiquen/Toolbox deck was clunky, and everyone wanted to beat Greninja BREAK, so I got the 3rd ShayminEX I needed and played Night March I evaluated the Pros and Cons of the three available decks I had and chose the one with the best Pros and Cons.

Vespiquen/Toolbox

Pros:

- Has answers to a lot of decks.

- Can hit for high damage

Cons: 

- Extremely Clunky

- Turn 1 item lock ruins the deck

Greninja BREAK

Pros:

- Has its own consistent engine

- Usually has control over the board 

- Great prize trades

Cons: 

- Most people want to counter Greninja

- Too many things can go wrong with it

- Loses to Turn 1 item lock

- Not fast enough

Night March

Pros:

- Extremely consistent

- Can hit for high damage

- Great Prize Trades

- Hits for weakness on Mega Rayquaza decks

Cons:

- Susceptible to deck outs

- Mirror matches are usually based off of who goes second

     As you can see, these are the Pros and Cons that I had in mind when I was deciding my deck, and what made my choice was the sheer consistency of Night March. In my opinion, consistency is key. 

My Night March List

     I ran a very consistent and straight-forward Night March list. You can find my card explanations here. Here is the list I ran:

Pokemon- 15

4 Joltik  PHF 26

4 Pumpkaboo PHF 44

4 Lampent PHF 42

3 ShayminEX ROS 77

Trainers-41

2 Professor Sycamore

1 N

1 Hex Maniac

1 Lysandre

1 Xerosic

1 AZ

1 Teammates

4 VS Seeker

4 Battle Compressor

4 Trainers' Mail

3 Acro Bike

4 Puzzle of Time

4 Ultra Ball

2 Fighting Fury Belt

1 Float Stone

1 Escape Rope

1 Buddy-Buddy Rescue

1 Target Whistle

1 Town Map

3 Dimension Valley

Energy-4

The Report

     I had a blast playing Night March at this year's Nationals, just didn't have great match-ups.


Round 1 ??? w/ Waterbox

     Game 1: He dead drew most of the game and set up after I had taken a good amount of Prizes. He also got Articuno out way too late. W

     Game 2: We both got really good starts. I got a few more prizes than him at first, then he was about to kill off my last Joltik (Last attacker w/ no way to get attackers back), and time was called. So he KO'ed my Joltik on Turn 0, and he couldn't get enough prizes in time to win the game. if time was called a little bit later, this would've been a tie. T

1-0-0

Round 2 ??? w/ Mega Sceptile/ JolteonEX

     Game 1: He drew inconsistently most of the game, but I missed a turn 1 donk on his SceptileEX by 1 Night Marcher. After that, he used HoopaEX to get a ton of Pokemon onto his bench. Target Whistle ShayminEX ftw. W

     Game 2: I didn't get OHKOs on his Pokemon and he was, this was not a good game for me. L

     Game 3: While we were shuffling to prepare for Game 3, we looked at the clock to find out that we only had 5 minutes let of Game Time, so we tied. T

1-0-1

Round 3 ??? w/ Mega Rayquaza/ JolteonEX

     Game 1: He got a full JolteonEX set up anannihilated me. L

     Game 2: I used Target Whistle ShayminEX with a Double Puzzle of Time to follow up. W

     Game 3: We decided to tie since we had 5 minutes left on the clock. T

1-0-2

Round 4 ??? w/ Vespiquen/ Night March

     Game 1: He won the coin flip and decided to go second. We made back and forth prize trades and he won ( I only had 1 Prize left). L

     Game 2: I decided to go second... And I dead drew. L
Bron
1-1-2

Round 5 ??? w/ AegislashEX/ Bronzong BREAK/ Zoroark

     Game 1: He never got Bronzong BREAK into play, and I managed to play around his AegislahEXs with Lysandre and Escape Rope. W

     Game 2: He started off with a lone AegislashEX, but then had to put down bench Pokemon after I used Hex Maniac. W

2-1-2

Round 6 ??? w/ Mega SceptileEX

     Game 1: He didn't get that fast of a set-up, and I got a pretty good start. W

     Game 2: I believe we went to time in this game. I'm not 100% sure though, all I remember is that I won this round.

3-1-2

At this point, I was talking with Anthony C. about how we both need to win our next 3 rounds in a row if we wanted to make cut. I did not realize that I just jinxed myself

Round 7 ??? w/ Vespiquen/ Vileplume/ JolteonEX

     Game 1:  He started first and he didn't get the turn 1 Vileplume out. I take the chance ad set up, but then he uses JolteonEX on me with a Vileplume in play, there was nothing I could do about that. L

     Game 2: He got the turn 2 JolteonEX and a turn 1 Vileplume... I stood no chance of
 winning. Goodbye cut! L

3-2-2

Round 8 ??? w/ Waterbox

     Game 1: He got the turn 1 Quaking Punch and I had a bad start. I used AZ to pick up my final ShayminEX. L

     Game 2:  I had another bad start so I just used AZ to pick up my final ShayminEX again. L

3-3-2

Round 9 ??? w/ DarkraiEX/ GiratinaEX/ Garbodor

     Game 1: I got the perfect start and she dead drew. W

     Game 2: She dead drew again and I got a decent start. W

Final Record : 4-3-2

     Thanks for reading, and until next time, test on!