Pokemon TCG State Championships 2015: Primal Kyogre

Omar Rehan

The following is an interview with Omar Rehan, who placed in the top four of the Masters Division of the 2015 Pokémon TCG Wisconsin State Championships using a Primal Kyogre deck.

Where are you from, and how did you get into playing the TCG? 
I am from Maple Grove, MN. I grew up watching the show like most other children of the 90’s, and I remember having the cards and wanting to play the game back then, but it wasn’t until I was sixteen that I had the money and transportation to start getting into the game competitively.

What made you choose to play Primal Kyogre for this tournament?
I saw the list that Kevin Baxter posted in his interview on YouTube and thought that this deck would be very under the radar and a strong contender. With a bolstering 240 HP, an Ancient Trait allowing for a double attachment of energy to Primal Kyogre that is impossible to stop, and an attack that does 150 damage to the active and thirty to every other EX Pokémon on the field, it can very quickly create overwhelming board pressure and be a Goliath to opposing Pokémon. Going into the tourney I was expecting a large amount of Yveltal and Toad variants and some Fighting + Crobat decks, which I thought Kyogre would do well against. I did know that matches against Genesect variants would be heavily not in my favor, however thankfully that deck performed poorly at this year’s event and I didn’t play against any of them.

What are some of the other cards in your deck that help Kyogre out?
Rough Seas was the MVP of my weekend. Healing thirty per turn from every Pokémon on my field was such a nice advantage to have. Besides that, Dive Ball was also a card I really enjoyed. I remember playing in 2009 and Luxury Ball was one of my favorite cards, and it felt like I was playing four of them in this deck. Keldeo EX with Float Stone was a combination of cards great against any deck with Hypnotoxic Laser. I think the final card that really allowed this deck to be so successful was Suicune. In my top eight match it was able to win a game pretty much on its own.

Do you use the Kyogre Spirit Link card? Why or why not?
I definitely did. It is of utmost importance that you are able to stream Kyogre’s attack, and since you have to move 2 energy off of Primal Kyogre to another Pokémon on the bench with each time, you can pump up other Kyogre on your bench.

What worked well for the deck in the tournament?
I think that the main reason for my success was the metagame. A majority of my opponents hadn’t ever played against this deck before and weren’t prepared for it. The lack of successful Grass decks also was a huge blessing. I did end up playing against two Flareon/Leafeon decks in Swiss, but I was able to come out the victor in both of those matches.

How did those matches go?
The first guy I played against using Eeveelutions crushed me in game one as expected, but lost the second game due to an extreme misplay. The third game went down to the wire and I won after he did 230 damage (ten short of the knock out) to my last Primal Kyogre with his last Flareon using every card left in his deck. The second person I played using the deck was much more aggressive with his discards and much less aware of his resources, so game one he only set up one Leafeon and he set up 3 Flareon all on the second or third turn. I was able to KO the lone Leafeon and then played Lysandre’s Trump Card two or three times to sneak that game. The second game he discarded a lot of energy and all his VS Seeker and Lysandre’s Trump Card while burning through his deck. At the end of his explosion, he had one Leafeon on the field and a full bench of stuff he was unable to attack with. I actually didn’t attach any energies and used the stadium Rough Seas until he decked himself out.

What didn’t work so well, and are there any changes you might make if you used this deck again?
Until my loss in top four, there were very few issues that I had (my record to that point was 7-0-2). The deck I ended up losing to (which ended up going on to win the tourney) was Aromatisse. The first game I prized two of the three Primal Kyogre in my deck, so it was hard to swing blow for blow with him over the course of the game and I lost. The second game I was unable to draw any supporters and he just slowly rolled me. Despite all that, based on what the metagame for this tourney ended up being, I was really happy with the sixty cards I chose.