hanaan
New Member
About myself
I'm a 39 year old owner of a small high-tech company from Providence. Mainly, I play Pokemon as Aylam’s dad. Aylam won 3 cities and 2 states, so I get my butt kicked playing at home on a regular basis.
It's the first year for both of us. Aylam played one tournament last year as a Junior, so he's a first year senior.
About my deck
My Gengar deck is a modified Cresselia teched with bats and Poketurns.
A and I started playing it right after SF. It was our collective effort that came up with the 2-2 Cress tech. I'm sure others thought about it as well, but for us it was an original.
I played it with some success in cities but flunked 1-4 in RI States. In earlier tournaments I used blowers to drag an unsuspecting pixie up and moonskip it, but later abandoned it for more consistency.
For Regionals, I decided to make a strategy change: I removed stadium, warp point and two other inconsistent trainers, and added 4 pokedrawers. I was now running 3 dex, 4 drawers, 4-3 Roseanne Bebe, and a Lux ball. The idea was to outspeed everyone and have super consistency.
This deck flowed really well.
Preparation
Unlike for cities when I had time, for states and regionals I had no time to prepare. My company just incorporated and we have a major product launch next week in Colorado, which I’m still developing. For the past month I have been pretty much programming from 7 am through late night. Needless to say, more than a game here and there, I was out of the loop, working on my laptop even through league. The final deck I modified two days before league and got a handful of games with.
OK, on to the tournament.
Aylam always makes sure we arrive early. He dragged me out of the house at 7:40, while lecturing me about my poor time management skills. He just doesn’t understand how big and confusing the world is when you’re a dad.
We arrive and I sit to make my deck list.
I make my list and then try to get to everyone I know, give a pat on the back, and see what’s up.
I then try to get in a good zone for the games. My mantra is “I always get the cards I need, and I always know what to do with them”. I say it over and over to myself. Every time the word “T-Tar”, “Unknow-G” or “Facing Con-Le” comes to my mind, I just repeat my mantra and zen-out.
Finally the pairing is up, and we get going.
Round 1:
Pat? w/Gengar
OK, so Pat is a new player and his Gengar deck was not that well thought out. It had 4 Sableye with 4 dark to donk, luckly he didn't start with one, or I'm done with.
He also didn't realize that putting damage counters on Gengar did not envoke fainting spell.
He gets Gengar up , shadow-rooms my Gengar, but oops, I have Unknown-G attached. Does nothing. It was downhill from there for him :-(
What a great guy, though. Took it well - went out and bought himself an electric guitar.
1-0
Round 2:
Shauna w/Ge-Champ
Tough battle! This girl can play her deck.
Turn 2 she has an unknown-G on her Gengar and I'm sweating a bit. I like attaching unk-g to Gengar - you do that and get rid of trainers, and they're scrambling. Well, I was scrambling.
We were tied in prizes all the way to the end, her having the occasional advantage.
Finally, after a long battle, time is called.
With 2 prizes each, I have Gengar up. Full moon dance and shadowroom to knockout to Uxie and I win. Would have rather played it to the bitter end, but it might have been more bitter to me than to her.
2-0
Round 3:
Andrew Cox w/Dusk-champ
One thing is sure about Andrew - he hates facing Gengar. Not a good place to be in a tourney that is swarming with them.
He's having a horrible luck getting going. Not too much more to say, other than it was Andrews only loss.
I win.
3-0
So, before the battle, I talk to Dana on the sideline about the 'joy' of facing T-Tar. I hate it. Lost to it the last 6 times, even though Gengar has a chance to out-speed it.
After talking to Dana I realize that this talk was a prep to my next battle. Sure enough - Vikas is my next opponent.
Round 4:
Vikas w/T-tar
I collect my nerves to face the beast (T-tar, that is, Vikas is just a guy), and we start.
Vikas has a slow start. I shadow-room his Rotom on the bench and start on the others, as he flips heads with Life Herb to clean off 6 counters from a benched Pokemon.
I set it up so that he knocks out two Gengars with one shot. I flip heads on one fainting spell, and one of two beasts are down.
Next trun he spins his nasty tail to k/o 4, and I’m left with only Gengar.
I put baltoy on the bench and attach a call.
For the next T-Tar, my plan is to charge Claydol, get T-tar up to 4 demage, and than attack for 70 + full moon dance and two bats. The plan is perfect - I have a baltoy with call energy on the bench and Rainbow+Claydol in my hand. It’s all but done.
His turn – he plays warp point.
Ouch! Baltoy is gone, and so are my chances.
I lose.
3-1
Round 5:
Initially I'm paired with Brandon. We sit and setup. My starting hand is a god start: Gastly, psych. energy, candy, Gengar and some search cards. It has donk written all over it.
But oops, I'm re-paired. I had to reshuffle, but luckily not get up from my seat
My new opponent is Unki-Dan, running Dusknoir.
He has a horrible start, and I set up pretty quick. I snipe some bench and try to avoid the damage even guy on the bench.
I have a problem, though - my unknown-G is prized.
He damage-evens my Claydol and for the next several miserable turns I draw nothing but garbage as he slaps me around.
I never recover and lose.
3-2
At this point I think that all I have to do is win two games and I'm in top 16. Since I lost twice, I know my matches won't be too tough. I also beat Andrew, who was 5-1, and Unki-dan who’s up there. Both gave me good resistance, so I'm comfortable.
Round 6:
Cirrus from upstate NY w/Dialga G
The guy I faced did not have enough practice with the deck and played so excruciatingly slow, that I thought I was going to lose on time. He kept on poketurning guys before the job was done and managed his bench well.
His unknown-G never made it into play though, so his Skuntank went in one shadowroom + bats.
Nonetheless, he was ahead in prizes, so I got concerned.
He was nice though - I explained that we had only a few minutes to go and if he dragged things he'll win on time. He started to speed things up, and I barely knocked-out his Dialga with moon skip to take a 2-1 prize advantage. In the final turns he was desperately looking for a poketurn, but no use. Time is called, I win.
Man - another one way to close for comfort, but the 'w' is circled around my end of the match slip, so I'm moving on.
4-2
At this point I take a little walk around the room. I can feel something good is happening, so not questioning, just being in the moment. One more win and I must be in top 16.
Round 7:
??? w/Dusknoir
I don't remember this guy's name, but as nice as they get. His Dusknoir's strategy revolved around doing 50 damage with Night spin.
I think he never damage-evened once.
Fun game - I win.
5-2
I made the 13th place and I'm happy! But I'm not here for 9 packs - I'm here for the trophy. At 39, Pokemon is not my life, however, for these few hours that I'm battling in the tournament, I am all about one thing – going home as a champion. What about the money and travel? Forget it! This will be great later. Right now it's all about being the trophy.
I knew I had a chance - I can beat any of them - just trust my deck and the right cards will show up.
So what do I do to psych myself just enough to be in a mental state to win, but not freak out? I don't 'want' to win, and I don't 'try' to win. Instead, I enjoy the fact that I've already won. I imagine Brian handing me the trophy, and how good it feels. silly? maybe but highly effective. Nothing can get you closer to what you want than the feeling that you've already got it. Stress, worry and anxiety will only get you further away.
OK, enough with all that zen nonesense - time for top 16. I'm paired against Matt Adair running Gengar with Cresselia and bats - almost a mirror of my deck.
Game 1: He sets up a tad faster than me, slaps a G on his attacking Gengar, and starts sniping anything in sight. I struggle to keep up. My Claydol is protected, but all the cards in the world don't get me out of the hole. He ends by moon-skipping my active for the last two prizes. He says: "It looks like you wanted this one to be over". Yes, I did.
Game 2: I set up real quick, hit a levelmax to arm the bench. He protects his Cres-X and I snipe the Claydol.
I take a 2 prize lead and he scoops. On to game 3 - and we have time.
Game 3: He starts with a Cresselia and I pitch dark a few times while setting up. He finally get a Gastly up and starts to pitch dark as well, saying "Well, how do you like it now?" Well, I didn't mind.
I had a Cresselia all charged up and moonskipped his Gastly as time was called.
I win 2-1. (I did have a small illegal play that Matt let go, so thanks!)
Movin' up to top 8.
Top 8: My opponent is Adam Yusif running Ge-champ (I think).
Adam was reaaaaly tired and not really focusing. In the first game I had a 4-2 prize advantage when he used 2 supporters. A 10 minute judge deliberation netted me a prize. I would have let it go but the game was a foregone conclusion.
Game 2: Adam can't get any Gengar or Machamp up for more than a turn or two. Finally, he gets me with an active Gengar having 9 damage counters on it.
He thinks for a while, than brings his Uxie Lv. X, charged with one energy up. He does Psychic restore, but... doesn't put Uxie under his deck. Ouch! could he really have just forgotten it? I flip heads for fainting spell.
The rest of the bench go down like flies. I win 2-0.
At this point there's a break while the judges sort out the decks and we re-sleeve. Steve asks me to put my deck in order. I have no clue what he means. There's a first time for everything. I get me deck in order and hand it over. About an hour later we continue playing.
Top 4 are Jon Frezza, Tyler Jones, Sara Crane and myself.
Somehow I know that I'll be facing Tyler. I want to, knowing Sara, who's the newest kid on top 4, ran 3 unknown-G's and just beat Con Le running a similar deck to mine. I didn't mind facing Jon, but really wanted to face Kingdra.
top 4: Tyler Jones with Kingdra with a few techs (Skuntank, Zangoose, Mesprit).
Game 1: Tyler sets up fast and I struggle to get setup. I start with Uxie and have T-3 Uxie-X. I decide to use trade-off as my engine instead of struggling to get Claydol running, but drop a baltoy on the bench just in case I get Claydol.
We're now tied in prizes and I feel so so about my chances. I use trade-off, get Bebe, and decide to go for the Claydol.
I use bebe to get it, evolve baltoy, and as I'm about to cosmic power, Tyler mutters "you couldn't have used trade-off". Ouch! The turn before he dropped Mesprit and locked my powers. Another judge deliberation. We sit and wait. I see that Tyler feels a bit bad and calm him by telling him not to worry, it's all in the game and I would do the same to him. Somehow he feels better.
The judgement is a prize penalty to me and a warning to Tyler for allowing me to use powers while under a lock.
Now he has a prize advantage and we continue.
I start sniping his bench, get a 2 prize advantage, and he scoops. I lead 1-0.
Game 2: Probably the most miserable game I ever had the pleasure to win.
I got setup so fast, it made Tyler's lone horse's head spin. Within 5-6 turns, Tyler was in a pretty bad shape: 1 card in his hand, no bench, and one Kingdra with energy.
On my end, I had two Cresselia Lv. X on the bench, Claydol and Gengar.
I shadow-roomed his Kingdra once, and then brought up Cresselia.
My plan was to use future sight until Kingdra got to 100, using full moon dance, and then shadow-room for the knockout and the win. Tyler, having no cards in his hand, had to rely on top-decking something. But with future sight, I was in charge of his draws, so made sure he got nothing he could use.
One time I got him a super-scoopup, but he didn’t bite…
A few turns later I brought Gengar up and finished the job.
I win 2-0.
Moving on!
Finals: Myself against the legend himself, cool as ice, Jon Frezza. Jon was playing a hybrid Abamasnow Bronzong teched up with Manetric and other friends.
We start, Jon has Uxie or something and I start faster. He has a hard time drawing into something good. Eventually gets Abamasnow up and start attacking with snow-play.
We’re generally tied in prizes, but with moon-skip I take a prize advantage and win.
I lead 1 – 0
This was a good game for me, but not the best Jon could do. I knew that he had more than that performance in his plans for game 2, and that with a good start I had my work cut out for me. I was prepared.
We both started a bit slow – I had to pitch dark forever not being able to get a darn candy. Finally we were both at full force.
I took 2-prize lead, and saw the end nearing. It was then I really felt I had it. I had one prize left. Me bench was beat-up, but he had a bat on his bench I could one-hit with Full moon dance and a bat of my own. Jon had 3 prizes and Abamasnow active. It was all but over.
The thing is with facing Jon is that he’s so cool and collected when he plays, you can’t tell if it’s a fun game at league or the final game of regionals. Since I couldn’t read him, I opted not to try.
It’s now his turn, in my mind, his last for the tournament.
Hi pulls 3 poketurns, gets it so that 3 of my guys are 20 away from being knocked-out, and snowplay for the win.
OMG! This was such a well executed last turn I couldn’t believe it. I actually didn’t mind losing this game – it was fantastic.
Jon wins 1-1.
Final game.
I have a god start! Gengar up on turn 1, with Claydol shortly after followed by Cress-X.
I started with a prize advantage, used Moonskip once or twice and took all three cards.
I win 2-1
At this point I take a deep breath and try to figure out what just happened, where I was, what year was it and who were all these people with their mouths wide open. I just couldn’t freakin’ believe it. Just the day before at league I was getting used to the idea of table 20+, and now, 13 hours after reginals started, I beat one of my biggest Pokemon role models to win the third largest Poekmon tournament in the world. Cool!
Props:
Jon Frezza for being an awesome guy, and for helping me put 20 damage on my pokemon each turn.
Michelle Rock for making it 9-0 even though she had to beat Con Le (her non-biological kid).
The awesome judging team for keeping cool and making this even well organized and fun .
Going bowling with the Frezzas until past midnight after the event.
All the hugs I got after winning
Nick C. for winning it all
Mark M. Jr. for taking 5th
Sara for making 3rd in her first tournament. Wow!
Unki-Dan and Meg for, well, being themselves
Aaron C. for winning Juniors and Mass States, after falling hard in RI states.
Duncan for making top 4.
Team Disposable Heros for breeding champions!
Slops:
Alex Frezza for getting 17 place – just out of top 16.
Con for flipping 10 of 10 tails against Sara and losing to her in top 8.
I'm a 39 year old owner of a small high-tech company from Providence. Mainly, I play Pokemon as Aylam’s dad. Aylam won 3 cities and 2 states, so I get my butt kicked playing at home on a regular basis.
It's the first year for both of us. Aylam played one tournament last year as a Junior, so he's a first year senior.
About my deck
My Gengar deck is a modified Cresselia teched with bats and Poketurns.
A and I started playing it right after SF. It was our collective effort that came up with the 2-2 Cress tech. I'm sure others thought about it as well, but for us it was an original.
I played it with some success in cities but flunked 1-4 in RI States. In earlier tournaments I used blowers to drag an unsuspecting pixie up and moonskip it, but later abandoned it for more consistency.
For Regionals, I decided to make a strategy change: I removed stadium, warp point and two other inconsistent trainers, and added 4 pokedrawers. I was now running 3 dex, 4 drawers, 4-3 Roseanne Bebe, and a Lux ball. The idea was to outspeed everyone and have super consistency.
This deck flowed really well.
Preparation
Unlike for cities when I had time, for states and regionals I had no time to prepare. My company just incorporated and we have a major product launch next week in Colorado, which I’m still developing. For the past month I have been pretty much programming from 7 am through late night. Needless to say, more than a game here and there, I was out of the loop, working on my laptop even through league. The final deck I modified two days before league and got a handful of games with.
OK, on to the tournament.
Aylam always makes sure we arrive early. He dragged me out of the house at 7:40, while lecturing me about my poor time management skills. He just doesn’t understand how big and confusing the world is when you’re a dad.
We arrive and I sit to make my deck list.
I make my list and then try to get to everyone I know, give a pat on the back, and see what’s up.
I then try to get in a good zone for the games. My mantra is “I always get the cards I need, and I always know what to do with them”. I say it over and over to myself. Every time the word “T-Tar”, “Unknow-G” or “Facing Con-Le” comes to my mind, I just repeat my mantra and zen-out.
Finally the pairing is up, and we get going.
Round 1:
Pat? w/Gengar
OK, so Pat is a new player and his Gengar deck was not that well thought out. It had 4 Sableye with 4 dark to donk, luckly he didn't start with one, or I'm done with.
He also didn't realize that putting damage counters on Gengar did not envoke fainting spell.
He gets Gengar up , shadow-rooms my Gengar, but oops, I have Unknown-G attached. Does nothing. It was downhill from there for him :-(
What a great guy, though. Took it well - went out and bought himself an electric guitar.
1-0
Round 2:
Shauna w/Ge-Champ
Tough battle! This girl can play her deck.
Turn 2 she has an unknown-G on her Gengar and I'm sweating a bit. I like attaching unk-g to Gengar - you do that and get rid of trainers, and they're scrambling. Well, I was scrambling.
We were tied in prizes all the way to the end, her having the occasional advantage.
Finally, after a long battle, time is called.
With 2 prizes each, I have Gengar up. Full moon dance and shadowroom to knockout to Uxie and I win. Would have rather played it to the bitter end, but it might have been more bitter to me than to her.
2-0
Round 3:
Andrew Cox w/Dusk-champ
One thing is sure about Andrew - he hates facing Gengar. Not a good place to be in a tourney that is swarming with them.
He's having a horrible luck getting going. Not too much more to say, other than it was Andrews only loss.
I win.
3-0
So, before the battle, I talk to Dana on the sideline about the 'joy' of facing T-Tar. I hate it. Lost to it the last 6 times, even though Gengar has a chance to out-speed it.
After talking to Dana I realize that this talk was a prep to my next battle. Sure enough - Vikas is my next opponent.
Round 4:
Vikas w/T-tar
I collect my nerves to face the beast (T-tar, that is, Vikas is just a guy), and we start.
Vikas has a slow start. I shadow-room his Rotom on the bench and start on the others, as he flips heads with Life Herb to clean off 6 counters from a benched Pokemon.
I set it up so that he knocks out two Gengars with one shot. I flip heads on one fainting spell, and one of two beasts are down.
Next trun he spins his nasty tail to k/o 4, and I’m left with only Gengar.
I put baltoy on the bench and attach a call.
For the next T-Tar, my plan is to charge Claydol, get T-tar up to 4 demage, and than attack for 70 + full moon dance and two bats. The plan is perfect - I have a baltoy with call energy on the bench and Rainbow+Claydol in my hand. It’s all but done.
His turn – he plays warp point.
Ouch! Baltoy is gone, and so are my chances.
I lose.
3-1
Round 5:
Initially I'm paired with Brandon. We sit and setup. My starting hand is a god start: Gastly, psych. energy, candy, Gengar and some search cards. It has donk written all over it.
But oops, I'm re-paired. I had to reshuffle, but luckily not get up from my seat
My new opponent is Unki-Dan, running Dusknoir.
He has a horrible start, and I set up pretty quick. I snipe some bench and try to avoid the damage even guy on the bench.
I have a problem, though - my unknown-G is prized.
He damage-evens my Claydol and for the next several miserable turns I draw nothing but garbage as he slaps me around.
I never recover and lose.
3-2
At this point I think that all I have to do is win two games and I'm in top 16. Since I lost twice, I know my matches won't be too tough. I also beat Andrew, who was 5-1, and Unki-dan who’s up there. Both gave me good resistance, so I'm comfortable.
Round 6:
Cirrus from upstate NY w/Dialga G
The guy I faced did not have enough practice with the deck and played so excruciatingly slow, that I thought I was going to lose on time. He kept on poketurning guys before the job was done and managed his bench well.
His unknown-G never made it into play though, so his Skuntank went in one shadowroom + bats.
Nonetheless, he was ahead in prizes, so I got concerned.
He was nice though - I explained that we had only a few minutes to go and if he dragged things he'll win on time. He started to speed things up, and I barely knocked-out his Dialga with moon skip to take a 2-1 prize advantage. In the final turns he was desperately looking for a poketurn, but no use. Time is called, I win.
Man - another one way to close for comfort, but the 'w' is circled around my end of the match slip, so I'm moving on.
4-2
At this point I take a little walk around the room. I can feel something good is happening, so not questioning, just being in the moment. One more win and I must be in top 16.
Round 7:
??? w/Dusknoir
I don't remember this guy's name, but as nice as they get. His Dusknoir's strategy revolved around doing 50 damage with Night spin.
I think he never damage-evened once.
Fun game - I win.
5-2
I made the 13th place and I'm happy! But I'm not here for 9 packs - I'm here for the trophy. At 39, Pokemon is not my life, however, for these few hours that I'm battling in the tournament, I am all about one thing – going home as a champion. What about the money and travel? Forget it! This will be great later. Right now it's all about being the trophy.
I knew I had a chance - I can beat any of them - just trust my deck and the right cards will show up.
So what do I do to psych myself just enough to be in a mental state to win, but not freak out? I don't 'want' to win, and I don't 'try' to win. Instead, I enjoy the fact that I've already won. I imagine Brian handing me the trophy, and how good it feels. silly? maybe but highly effective. Nothing can get you closer to what you want than the feeling that you've already got it. Stress, worry and anxiety will only get you further away.
OK, enough with all that zen nonesense - time for top 16. I'm paired against Matt Adair running Gengar with Cresselia and bats - almost a mirror of my deck.
Game 1: He sets up a tad faster than me, slaps a G on his attacking Gengar, and starts sniping anything in sight. I struggle to keep up. My Claydol is protected, but all the cards in the world don't get me out of the hole. He ends by moon-skipping my active for the last two prizes. He says: "It looks like you wanted this one to be over". Yes, I did.
Game 2: I set up real quick, hit a levelmax to arm the bench. He protects his Cres-X and I snipe the Claydol.
I take a 2 prize lead and he scoops. On to game 3 - and we have time.
Game 3: He starts with a Cresselia and I pitch dark a few times while setting up. He finally get a Gastly up and starts to pitch dark as well, saying "Well, how do you like it now?" Well, I didn't mind.
I had a Cresselia all charged up and moonskipped his Gastly as time was called.
I win 2-1. (I did have a small illegal play that Matt let go, so thanks!)
Movin' up to top 8.
Top 8: My opponent is Adam Yusif running Ge-champ (I think).
Adam was reaaaaly tired and not really focusing. In the first game I had a 4-2 prize advantage when he used 2 supporters. A 10 minute judge deliberation netted me a prize. I would have let it go but the game was a foregone conclusion.
Game 2: Adam can't get any Gengar or Machamp up for more than a turn or two. Finally, he gets me with an active Gengar having 9 damage counters on it.
He thinks for a while, than brings his Uxie Lv. X, charged with one energy up. He does Psychic restore, but... doesn't put Uxie under his deck. Ouch! could he really have just forgotten it? I flip heads for fainting spell.
The rest of the bench go down like flies. I win 2-0.
At this point there's a break while the judges sort out the decks and we re-sleeve. Steve asks me to put my deck in order. I have no clue what he means. There's a first time for everything. I get me deck in order and hand it over. About an hour later we continue playing.
Top 4 are Jon Frezza, Tyler Jones, Sara Crane and myself.
Somehow I know that I'll be facing Tyler. I want to, knowing Sara, who's the newest kid on top 4, ran 3 unknown-G's and just beat Con Le running a similar deck to mine. I didn't mind facing Jon, but really wanted to face Kingdra.
top 4: Tyler Jones with Kingdra with a few techs (Skuntank, Zangoose, Mesprit).
Game 1: Tyler sets up fast and I struggle to get setup. I start with Uxie and have T-3 Uxie-X. I decide to use trade-off as my engine instead of struggling to get Claydol running, but drop a baltoy on the bench just in case I get Claydol.
We're now tied in prizes and I feel so so about my chances. I use trade-off, get Bebe, and decide to go for the Claydol.
I use bebe to get it, evolve baltoy, and as I'm about to cosmic power, Tyler mutters "you couldn't have used trade-off". Ouch! The turn before he dropped Mesprit and locked my powers. Another judge deliberation. We sit and wait. I see that Tyler feels a bit bad and calm him by telling him not to worry, it's all in the game and I would do the same to him. Somehow he feels better.
The judgement is a prize penalty to me and a warning to Tyler for allowing me to use powers while under a lock.
Now he has a prize advantage and we continue.
I start sniping his bench, get a 2 prize advantage, and he scoops. I lead 1-0.
Game 2: Probably the most miserable game I ever had the pleasure to win.
I got setup so fast, it made Tyler's lone horse's head spin. Within 5-6 turns, Tyler was in a pretty bad shape: 1 card in his hand, no bench, and one Kingdra with energy.
On my end, I had two Cresselia Lv. X on the bench, Claydol and Gengar.
I shadow-roomed his Kingdra once, and then brought up Cresselia.
My plan was to use future sight until Kingdra got to 100, using full moon dance, and then shadow-room for the knockout and the win. Tyler, having no cards in his hand, had to rely on top-decking something. But with future sight, I was in charge of his draws, so made sure he got nothing he could use.
One time I got him a super-scoopup, but he didn’t bite…
A few turns later I brought Gengar up and finished the job.
I win 2-0.
Moving on!
Finals: Myself against the legend himself, cool as ice, Jon Frezza. Jon was playing a hybrid Abamasnow Bronzong teched up with Manetric and other friends.
We start, Jon has Uxie or something and I start faster. He has a hard time drawing into something good. Eventually gets Abamasnow up and start attacking with snow-play.
We’re generally tied in prizes, but with moon-skip I take a prize advantage and win.
I lead 1 – 0
This was a good game for me, but not the best Jon could do. I knew that he had more than that performance in his plans for game 2, and that with a good start I had my work cut out for me. I was prepared.
We both started a bit slow – I had to pitch dark forever not being able to get a darn candy. Finally we were both at full force.
I took 2-prize lead, and saw the end nearing. It was then I really felt I had it. I had one prize left. Me bench was beat-up, but he had a bat on his bench I could one-hit with Full moon dance and a bat of my own. Jon had 3 prizes and Abamasnow active. It was all but over.
The thing is with facing Jon is that he’s so cool and collected when he plays, you can’t tell if it’s a fun game at league or the final game of regionals. Since I couldn’t read him, I opted not to try.
It’s now his turn, in my mind, his last for the tournament.
Hi pulls 3 poketurns, gets it so that 3 of my guys are 20 away from being knocked-out, and snowplay for the win.
OMG! This was such a well executed last turn I couldn’t believe it. I actually didn’t mind losing this game – it was fantastic.
Jon wins 1-1.
Final game.
I have a god start! Gengar up on turn 1, with Claydol shortly after followed by Cress-X.
I started with a prize advantage, used Moonskip once or twice and took all three cards.
I win 2-1
At this point I take a deep breath and try to figure out what just happened, where I was, what year was it and who were all these people with their mouths wide open. I just couldn’t freakin’ believe it. Just the day before at league I was getting used to the idea of table 20+, and now, 13 hours after reginals started, I beat one of my biggest Pokemon role models to win the third largest Poekmon tournament in the world. Cool!
Props:
Jon Frezza for being an awesome guy, and for helping me put 20 damage on my pokemon each turn.
Michelle Rock for making it 9-0 even though she had to beat Con Le (her non-biological kid).
The awesome judging team for keeping cool and making this even well organized and fun .
Going bowling with the Frezzas until past midnight after the event.
All the hugs I got after winning
Nick C. for winning it all
Mark M. Jr. for taking 5th
Sara for making 3rd in her first tournament. Wow!
Unki-Dan and Meg for, well, being themselves
Aaron C. for winning Juniors and Mass States, after falling hard in RI states.
Duncan for making top 4.
Team Disposable Heros for breeding champions!
Slops:
Alex Frezza for getting 17 place – just out of top 16.
Con for flipping 10 of 10 tails against Sara and losing to her in top 8.
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