Our story begins a couple weeks into July, post nationals, when my dear friend Tyler Ninomura shipped me a magneboar list and claimed "ITS SO GOOD." What do you know? It was SO GOOD. But not really. Well, it was alright.
It had an amazing typhlosion game which was a great selling point. I also didn't want to play one of the many other decks which A: relied on going first to have a huge advantage, and B: had many reversal flips which they relied on. RDL was a big reason as well, being able to come from behind after abusing twins all game was too much for my little mind to handle. I was as excited as a schoolgirl going to their first Green day concert.
Over the next couple weeks however, my initial excitement dwindled after finding its rather abysmal matchup to Yanmega. There was also a lot of trouble against vileplume decks, since the incredibly tight list did not allow for more than one stage 1 of each line. As I'm stating many times though, I really hated every other deck.
The days leading up the the event are basically a blur of joy, sorrow, and anger. Joy at finally arriving in beautiful San Diego to see all my wonderful friends, sorrow at the lack of free breakfast at the hotel, and much anger directed towards Kevin cow and his unwillingness to arrive on a reasonable date, aka before Thursday night.
Anyway, I'll use the excuse that you guys don't want to read about my various adventures in the days preceding worlds, but mostly I'm just lazy. SO.
By the time Wednesday rolled around and I flew out to Cali, I was mostly set on magneboar, due to the fact that I, remarkably, STILL hated every other deck in the format. I tried everything in the days prior, mew, typhlosion, yanmega, stage 1s, random rogues, everything you could think of. I felt Magneboar would have been a very strong grinder choice due to the large amount of typhlosion, but I expected a much larger percentage of yanmegas with jirachi and kingdra (aka my I-scoop matchup) during the main event. Try as I might however to find a different deck, I ended up with only magneboar left by my side at 2 am saturday. I replaced my very beat up pink sleeves with some orange (for red and yellow of course, my decks are very color coordinated!) and proceeded to my bedside blanket on the floor for some recharging.
I entered the playing area with my friend Jaron to watch the opening ceremonies, which were amazing might I add, and continued to my assigned seat. After picking up decklists runners began placing match slips right as pairings were being posted. And what do you know, I saw a David Cohen name come fluttering down right next to where I was sitting, and across from that name? Tsuguyoshi Yamato. oh boy.
Now, as a disclaimer, I did not plan on writing a report so I did not take any notes or write any names down. I'll do my best to detail as much as possible, but my memory is atrocious and the days are largely blended together in my head. Matches may be a bit short as this is mostly an excuse to post a shoutout and thank you to all the people who I love in this game, and if I mix up any games, forget names, etc, you'll have to forgive me. Every game I played was amazing (even if my report makes it sound dismal or uneventful, all of them involved a great level of play from my opponents, who were all some of the most courteous and skilled players I've ever met. So kudos to all of you, and I mean no disrespect!
Game 1: Yamato w/ zps/lanturn/yanmega
I open cleffa I believe and go second to a yanma start. I take a few turns eeking into garbage continuously while he also sits for a few turns waiting to draw. Eventually he draws into a yanmega and supporters to begin setting up his field while rolling through my undeveloped field, killing two cleffas and a magnemite. I eventually manage to get a decent hand off my last cleffa and begin twinsing into magnezones and an emboar. I manage to mount a come back since he cannot kill both 130 hp reshirams and 140 hp magnezones successively, and the game eventually comes down to my field of (I think) 1 magnezone, an emboar, and 2 reshirams?. 3-2 in prizes with rdl in hand. I had thought his lanturn (with dce and lightning) was 40+ every water on it, but had a feeling he was up to something dastardly, so I place a second tepig down in my last bench spot since I didn't feel i had the resources to get rdl that turn. I take a kill with magnezone, and he proceeds to reversal up emboar, plus power, and judge before slaughtering it with lanturn. I junk arm for candy and evolve emboar with 1 card remaining in my hand; fisherman, I check my deck; 6 cards. Iknow the last play came down to me desperately hoping the lightning or an rdl piece isn't the bottom card and draw 5 cards. I hit em, drop the piece, fisherman, and retreat magnezone for game. What I do have full memory of is that it was an amazing game good sir!
I'm not even close to certain that is how it happened, but it was something along those lines. I know there were some people watching so if you have more info feel free to let me know. :|
1-0
Game 2: I'm sorry my mind is totally blank :[ w/ stage 1s
memory? I don't believe in one! I know he got up 3 prizes, and I mounted a comeback due to his inability to OHKO magnezones and ended up just tanking with magnezone for the last 2 instead of going for the ozone kill.
2-0
Lunch time. Food. yay.
Game 3: Josue from MX I believe? w/ Reshiram
Here's where the games really start blending together, as most of the reshiram matches are similar. Normally in testing I only went down 1 prize before springing back with twins and things to a fully set up field. Now that it was mid-tournament however, what did my deck like to do best? why, get terrible starts of course! he goes up 2 or 3 prizes before I get anything set up, but this is where I start learning the true power of the magneboar-typhlosion matchup. After going down so far I manage to get developed at last, and much like stage 1s he fails to ohko magnezones enough that I can stage a defense and begin evening up the prizes. It gets to 2-1 before I blow up everything with RDL.
3-0
game 4: Alan K. w/ typhlosion
I draw tepig, some energy, and twins. I sit there for a couple turns before he goes kaput. Haha, sorry I couldn't give you a better game dude. But you're an awesome guy, and it was great meeting you.
3-1
Game 5: Simone Soldo (thank you!) Super cool Italian dude w/ yanmega/jirachi/kingdra
Here we go! my nemesis, the cunning Yanmega. He gets a terrible start however to my pretty good one, and after he makes a misplay of killing my cleffa before he's set up I explode with twins. he recognized his misplay right after though, and told me he had tested the matchup many times. We all have brain farts sometimes, I was guilty of a few throughout the day. Due to his mediocre start, I win easily after that. Sorry! wish we coulda had a more legit game.
4-1
Game 6: Dylan L w/ Typhlosion
I get a so-so start, and go down a couple prizes before jumpstarting my field and begin taking prizes. Once again it comes down to reshirams not being able to one shot magnezones, and I use rdl at the end for the win.
5-1
Once again for all my opponents I state, all these games were much better than I make them sound! I had a great time playing and meeting you all, and every match was incredible.
Game 7: Jeremy J. w/ Typhlosion
here's my turn for brain fart of the day. I get my first t2 magnezone to his field of tyrogue and two basics, and I get excited and begin attacking like an idiot. I fail to develop any more of a field due to lack of twins and without the ability to retreat magnezone I lose him after 2 more turns. With my board returning to nothing again he easily sweeps me. haha, gg. We ended up cheering each other on throughout top cut.
5-2
I sit at 5-2 with my nerves all frazzled, and await the final match to finish so they can post the standings. I was sitting at table 4 so I'm pretty confident, plus to my knowledge all my opponents had good records. I end up at 9th, with fellow Washingtonian Ross squeaking in at 16th. I did some quick calculations and figured we wouldn't meet each other until the very end. What a cool prospect that would be, I thought.
Another 5 hours of sleep later, it's day 2! I check the brackets in the morning, and see a lot of possible typhlosions coming my way if they beat the yanmegas out. Things were looking up for my deck choice!
Top 16: David M w/ Typhlosion
game 1: After realizing I prized 2 tepigs, I try to draw the attention away from my lone piggy on the field, but to no avail. I take a prize and draw another, and lay it down next turn with a rescue. He reversals and kills it. :[ I play him down yet again, aaaaaand he doesn't manage to kill him yay! I get set up and once again it comes down to 2-1 prizes, with him either whiffing a reversal flip for game, or missing a plus power. I don't recall, but it was extremely tense before he ends up doing flare destroy for his final turn and I ozone buster for game
game 2: it was largely uneventful compared with the first, due to the first game eating up so much time. I set up pretty well and take a pretty easy victory. Great games man
I notice Dylan L won in the Dylan vs. Dylan matchup, and check the bracket for who I would play in top 4 and see that is typhlosion mirror. Typhlosions everywhere, weeeeeeeee
Top 8; Dylan L w/ typhlosion
game 1: I start with magnemite and a hand of energy and twins, and topdeck for the next 3 turns while he eeks. The turn before he can kill me I draw a collector and grab 2 tepigs and a magnemite since I had twins in hand. he takes a prize and I start setting up my dudes using the strength of two adolescent children. he gets bad luck on reversals, and I manage to take a win.
game 2: I hardly remember this at all, but I remember none of the game 2s were as stressful as the first ones. I got a pretty good start and there wasn't much he could do in response to my constant bombardments. Once again, great games dude. I'm very glad I got to play you so many times, and it was a pleasure meeting you
Jeremy was knocked out via mirror in top 8, so we are unable to have our epic rematch. ;(
But you had an amazing run dude, congrats to you for making it this far!
Top 4: Josue from MX w/ Typhlosion
game 1: I remember almost nothing as to how exactly either of these games went, but I do know I went down the first match before coming back and him whiffing a reversal for the last prize against my emboar with his samurott tech before I rdl for game.
game 2: Imaintain a steady advantage all game iirc. Good games!
And it all comes down to a double Washington, US top 2. Proving that once again, WA is the greatest state in the game.
Now before I continue, I'd like to once again mention all my astounding opponents who I played throughout this event. You were all some of the best players I've ever met in this game, and I'm honored to have played you guys.
Once the videos are posted of the matchup, and my memory is jogged I'll come back and edit this post to be more thorough about my thought process behind each turn and a play-by-play, but until then here's the short n' crappy (and probably wrong...) version!
Top 2: Ross C w/ROSS.DEK
Game 1: I win the flip and get an amazing start, burning through my candies and trainers before he can get a vileplume up. I notice he has no room for cleffa on his field, so I can safely set up without killing his pichu and activating twins while he has to sit there waiting to draw into more cards. I make a misplay and begin playing/charging reshirams, which in afterthought I noticed would have been more useful as another magnezone and rdl, so I could just run through one shotting everything. I had figured I wouldn't have enough energy to take all my prizes via lost burn and still be able to ozone buster, but I still feel I made a weaker play.
I take the first prize with a lost burn to the pichu, and so begins the trade off. I take another via the magnezone, and trade reshirams for zekroms after that. he judges me into fisherman and I let him take a prize lead iirc so I can twins into the rdl bits. I think ends up as 3-1, and I fisherman for a lightning and 3 fire, and attach 2 of the fire leaving enough in my hand before dumping 4 to kill a donphan leaving nothing on my active mag. he promotes ESL, and does 80. I attach the lightning and fire and take 2 prizes for game
Game 2: My set up is pretty mediocre, and I just play it out to soak up time. it was my fault for not having a watch, and just based on intuition thought we still had around 10 minutes left when the second game ended, aka plenty of time for me to choose to go first, set up a bit and take a few quick prizes before he had time to come back. Unfortunately, time is called during shuffle and its on to sudden death...
Game 3: SUDDEN DEATH!!!!
I draw a magnemite, tepig and an oaks to his phanpy start with oddish on the bench. I call tails for the flip, aaaaaaaand tails!
I oaks into a t2 magnezone hand, and play down cleffa before attaching rescue to my magnemite. A second after I said go I remember I was planning on switching to cleffa since I had realized he had no way of doing 30 damage that turn. That way I could retreat to reshiram the next turn if things got hairy. He draws and flails for nothing, and I candy to magnezone and draw 4 off the top to snatch a lightning. I hit it, attach, and Lost burn for the game! Afterwords he shows me he had t2 plume and donphan in hand, with a copycat to try and get the energy. Literally coming down to that coinflip, this match was quite possibly the greatest game I have ever played, and I thank you Ross for the amazing match. Congrats on your success dude. I don't think the top 2 has ever come down to players from the same state before, so we have quite possibly created history!
Now a moment of being totally humble while I brag about Washington's success.
4 Worlds wins, 3 second places, and numerous nats finalists and winnings. Hot dang we're awesome.
Alright shameless state-ego aside, I'd now like the address the reason that this thread came into existence, and that is to thank everybody who I know and helped me along the way. All the old friends I got to cherish more time with, and all the new faces I've met over this weekend.
HONORABLE MENTIONS (In no particular order):
My non-playing friends Dominic, Jesse, Matt, and Garth who I'm sure will read this regardless, and provided endless encouragement via text. With advice such as "Don't screw up!" throughout the event.
Karl Blake for showing me how to properly attract women
Jak Armstead for being awesome and hanging out with us the last day
Daniel Norton for being a great room mate and assisting me in matters of a numerical origin
Ann-Marie who had mercy on my soul, and did not force me to play jumpluff. Thanks for putting up with me all weekend, and don't fall for too many freshman pranks!
Kevin C; Oh how I long for the day we are reunited. Your endless racial humor is what kept me going throughout the tournament.
Amelia B because she's short. Compressed awesomeness.
Tyler Ninomura who originally gave me the chosen Magneboar deck
Kenny and Ashley who were very entertaining room mates!
Ryan Merrifield... I don't need to say why.
Isaiah who was a part-time room mate, and cool all around young man. he doesn't afraid of much.
Wyatt and Quinn W. who originally got me into this wonderful game. Without you guys quite literally none of this would have happened.
All 3 Fouchets (and your mom!) for letting us bombard your room for testing that one day, and being great people. I had fun hanging out with you guys!
That one McClure kid. yeah he's pretty cool.
Super Wooper whom I refuse to call by his name, only because he told me he hates being known by the screen name. I love pushing buttons!
The Anderson family who provided a comfortable place from which to have our post-worlds disneyland adventures
The Bradfords, for their awesome congratulatory card and Mamoswine which I keep in my wallet.
Jeremy Jallen who's an awesome guy! Sad we couldn't make it a top 4 epic battle, but hopefully we can fix that next year
Andrew Murray for reminding me not to rub hotsauce in my eyes. Thank you buddy, I would never have learned this life lesson otherwise.
Chris Fulop who was one of the few remaining magneboar supporters. We just had to believe!
The Whitons for endless entertainment, support, and water bottles. Congrats to Ian for a job well done at Nats. His day at worlds will come soon!
Dylan Lefavour; Great opponent, great player, great guy. Congrats dude.
Alan Kang: Nice meeting you bro, good job making it through the crapshoot that was the grinder, and I had fun playing you despite my lack of...anything.
Jayson Harry for teaching us Munchkin saturday night. I'll be buying the game myself within the next few days to share amongst the world
Matthew and Michael Chin, who are great testing partners, and fun peoples. (And Matthew who continued hyping magneboar throughout the weeks prior!)
The Dias family for making the trek out here for worlds, and being a source of fun back home in WA
Zane Nelson for being a great friend, and testing buddy once the summer rolls around and we're both free of schoolwork.
Mirman of the Zachary variety, as well as the brethren. Cuz you guys are cool.
Jaron, who despite losing his beloved regigigas sucked it up and did his best at worlds. Just take out tyrogue next time!
I'm sure I've forgotten a bunch of people, but I'll keep updating this rough draft list until I'm content that I've listed everybody.
Everyone else in Washington and Oregon who I forgot to mention but also deserve a spot, but I really have to pee so I'm gonna wrap it up for now!
Oh yeah, also EVERYONE WHO PLAYS THIS GAME <3
Thank you everyone, for everything.
It had an amazing typhlosion game which was a great selling point. I also didn't want to play one of the many other decks which A: relied on going first to have a huge advantage, and B: had many reversal flips which they relied on. RDL was a big reason as well, being able to come from behind after abusing twins all game was too much for my little mind to handle. I was as excited as a schoolgirl going to their first Green day concert.
Over the next couple weeks however, my initial excitement dwindled after finding its rather abysmal matchup to Yanmega. There was also a lot of trouble against vileplume decks, since the incredibly tight list did not allow for more than one stage 1 of each line. As I'm stating many times though, I really hated every other deck.
The days leading up the the event are basically a blur of joy, sorrow, and anger. Joy at finally arriving in beautiful San Diego to see all my wonderful friends, sorrow at the lack of free breakfast at the hotel, and much anger directed towards Kevin cow and his unwillingness to arrive on a reasonable date, aka before Thursday night.
Anyway, I'll use the excuse that you guys don't want to read about my various adventures in the days preceding worlds, but mostly I'm just lazy. SO.
By the time Wednesday rolled around and I flew out to Cali, I was mostly set on magneboar, due to the fact that I, remarkably, STILL hated every other deck in the format. I tried everything in the days prior, mew, typhlosion, yanmega, stage 1s, random rogues, everything you could think of. I felt Magneboar would have been a very strong grinder choice due to the large amount of typhlosion, but I expected a much larger percentage of yanmegas with jirachi and kingdra (aka my I-scoop matchup) during the main event. Try as I might however to find a different deck, I ended up with only magneboar left by my side at 2 am saturday. I replaced my very beat up pink sleeves with some orange (for red and yellow of course, my decks are very color coordinated!) and proceeded to my bedside blanket on the floor for some recharging.
I entered the playing area with my friend Jaron to watch the opening ceremonies, which were amazing might I add, and continued to my assigned seat. After picking up decklists runners began placing match slips right as pairings were being posted. And what do you know, I saw a David Cohen name come fluttering down right next to where I was sitting, and across from that name? Tsuguyoshi Yamato. oh boy.
Now, as a disclaimer, I did not plan on writing a report so I did not take any notes or write any names down. I'll do my best to detail as much as possible, but my memory is atrocious and the days are largely blended together in my head. Matches may be a bit short as this is mostly an excuse to post a shoutout and thank you to all the people who I love in this game, and if I mix up any games, forget names, etc, you'll have to forgive me. Every game I played was amazing (even if my report makes it sound dismal or uneventful, all of them involved a great level of play from my opponents, who were all some of the most courteous and skilled players I've ever met. So kudos to all of you, and I mean no disrespect!
Game 1: Yamato w/ zps/lanturn/yanmega
I open cleffa I believe and go second to a yanma start. I take a few turns eeking into garbage continuously while he also sits for a few turns waiting to draw. Eventually he draws into a yanmega and supporters to begin setting up his field while rolling through my undeveloped field, killing two cleffas and a magnemite. I eventually manage to get a decent hand off my last cleffa and begin twinsing into magnezones and an emboar. I manage to mount a come back since he cannot kill both 130 hp reshirams and 140 hp magnezones successively, and the game eventually comes down to my field of (I think) 1 magnezone, an emboar, and 2 reshirams?. 3-2 in prizes with rdl in hand. I had thought his lanturn (with dce and lightning) was 40+ every water on it, but had a feeling he was up to something dastardly, so I place a second tepig down in my last bench spot since I didn't feel i had the resources to get rdl that turn. I take a kill with magnezone, and he proceeds to reversal up emboar, plus power, and judge before slaughtering it with lanturn. I junk arm for candy and evolve emboar with 1 card remaining in my hand; fisherman, I check my deck; 6 cards. Iknow the last play came down to me desperately hoping the lightning or an rdl piece isn't the bottom card and draw 5 cards. I hit em, drop the piece, fisherman, and retreat magnezone for game. What I do have full memory of is that it was an amazing game good sir!
I'm not even close to certain that is how it happened, but it was something along those lines. I know there were some people watching so if you have more info feel free to let me know. :|
1-0
Game 2: I'm sorry my mind is totally blank :[ w/ stage 1s
memory? I don't believe in one! I know he got up 3 prizes, and I mounted a comeback due to his inability to OHKO magnezones and ended up just tanking with magnezone for the last 2 instead of going for the ozone kill.
2-0
Lunch time. Food. yay.
Game 3: Josue from MX I believe? w/ Reshiram
Here's where the games really start blending together, as most of the reshiram matches are similar. Normally in testing I only went down 1 prize before springing back with twins and things to a fully set up field. Now that it was mid-tournament however, what did my deck like to do best? why, get terrible starts of course! he goes up 2 or 3 prizes before I get anything set up, but this is where I start learning the true power of the magneboar-typhlosion matchup. After going down so far I manage to get developed at last, and much like stage 1s he fails to ohko magnezones enough that I can stage a defense and begin evening up the prizes. It gets to 2-1 before I blow up everything with RDL.
3-0
game 4: Alan K. w/ typhlosion
I draw tepig, some energy, and twins. I sit there for a couple turns before he goes kaput. Haha, sorry I couldn't give you a better game dude. But you're an awesome guy, and it was great meeting you.
3-1
Game 5: Simone Soldo (thank you!) Super cool Italian dude w/ yanmega/jirachi/kingdra
Here we go! my nemesis, the cunning Yanmega. He gets a terrible start however to my pretty good one, and after he makes a misplay of killing my cleffa before he's set up I explode with twins. he recognized his misplay right after though, and told me he had tested the matchup many times. We all have brain farts sometimes, I was guilty of a few throughout the day. Due to his mediocre start, I win easily after that. Sorry! wish we coulda had a more legit game.
4-1
Game 6: Dylan L w/ Typhlosion
I get a so-so start, and go down a couple prizes before jumpstarting my field and begin taking prizes. Once again it comes down to reshirams not being able to one shot magnezones, and I use rdl at the end for the win.
5-1
Once again for all my opponents I state, all these games were much better than I make them sound! I had a great time playing and meeting you all, and every match was incredible.
Game 7: Jeremy J. w/ Typhlosion
here's my turn for brain fart of the day. I get my first t2 magnezone to his field of tyrogue and two basics, and I get excited and begin attacking like an idiot. I fail to develop any more of a field due to lack of twins and without the ability to retreat magnezone I lose him after 2 more turns. With my board returning to nothing again he easily sweeps me. haha, gg. We ended up cheering each other on throughout top cut.
5-2
I sit at 5-2 with my nerves all frazzled, and await the final match to finish so they can post the standings. I was sitting at table 4 so I'm pretty confident, plus to my knowledge all my opponents had good records. I end up at 9th, with fellow Washingtonian Ross squeaking in at 16th. I did some quick calculations and figured we wouldn't meet each other until the very end. What a cool prospect that would be, I thought.
Another 5 hours of sleep later, it's day 2! I check the brackets in the morning, and see a lot of possible typhlosions coming my way if they beat the yanmegas out. Things were looking up for my deck choice!
Top 16: David M w/ Typhlosion
game 1: After realizing I prized 2 tepigs, I try to draw the attention away from my lone piggy on the field, but to no avail. I take a prize and draw another, and lay it down next turn with a rescue. He reversals and kills it. :[ I play him down yet again, aaaaaand he doesn't manage to kill him yay! I get set up and once again it comes down to 2-1 prizes, with him either whiffing a reversal flip for game, or missing a plus power. I don't recall, but it was extremely tense before he ends up doing flare destroy for his final turn and I ozone buster for game
game 2: it was largely uneventful compared with the first, due to the first game eating up so much time. I set up pretty well and take a pretty easy victory. Great games man
I notice Dylan L won in the Dylan vs. Dylan matchup, and check the bracket for who I would play in top 4 and see that is typhlosion mirror. Typhlosions everywhere, weeeeeeeee
Top 8; Dylan L w/ typhlosion
game 1: I start with magnemite and a hand of energy and twins, and topdeck for the next 3 turns while he eeks. The turn before he can kill me I draw a collector and grab 2 tepigs and a magnemite since I had twins in hand. he takes a prize and I start setting up my dudes using the strength of two adolescent children. he gets bad luck on reversals, and I manage to take a win.
game 2: I hardly remember this at all, but I remember none of the game 2s were as stressful as the first ones. I got a pretty good start and there wasn't much he could do in response to my constant bombardments. Once again, great games dude. I'm very glad I got to play you so many times, and it was a pleasure meeting you
Jeremy was knocked out via mirror in top 8, so we are unable to have our epic rematch. ;(
But you had an amazing run dude, congrats to you for making it this far!
Top 4: Josue from MX w/ Typhlosion
game 1: I remember almost nothing as to how exactly either of these games went, but I do know I went down the first match before coming back and him whiffing a reversal for the last prize against my emboar with his samurott tech before I rdl for game.
game 2: Imaintain a steady advantage all game iirc. Good games!
And it all comes down to a double Washington, US top 2. Proving that once again, WA is the greatest state in the game.
Now before I continue, I'd like to once again mention all my astounding opponents who I played throughout this event. You were all some of the best players I've ever met in this game, and I'm honored to have played you guys.
Once the videos are posted of the matchup, and my memory is jogged I'll come back and edit this post to be more thorough about my thought process behind each turn and a play-by-play, but until then here's the short n' crappy (and probably wrong...) version!
Top 2: Ross C w/ROSS.DEK
Game 1: I win the flip and get an amazing start, burning through my candies and trainers before he can get a vileplume up. I notice he has no room for cleffa on his field, so I can safely set up without killing his pichu and activating twins while he has to sit there waiting to draw into more cards. I make a misplay and begin playing/charging reshirams, which in afterthought I noticed would have been more useful as another magnezone and rdl, so I could just run through one shotting everything. I had figured I wouldn't have enough energy to take all my prizes via lost burn and still be able to ozone buster, but I still feel I made a weaker play.
I take the first prize with a lost burn to the pichu, and so begins the trade off. I take another via the magnezone, and trade reshirams for zekroms after that. he judges me into fisherman and I let him take a prize lead iirc so I can twins into the rdl bits. I think ends up as 3-1, and I fisherman for a lightning and 3 fire, and attach 2 of the fire leaving enough in my hand before dumping 4 to kill a donphan leaving nothing on my active mag. he promotes ESL, and does 80. I attach the lightning and fire and take 2 prizes for game
Game 2: My set up is pretty mediocre, and I just play it out to soak up time. it was my fault for not having a watch, and just based on intuition thought we still had around 10 minutes left when the second game ended, aka plenty of time for me to choose to go first, set up a bit and take a few quick prizes before he had time to come back. Unfortunately, time is called during shuffle and its on to sudden death...
Game 3: SUDDEN DEATH!!!!
I draw a magnemite, tepig and an oaks to his phanpy start with oddish on the bench. I call tails for the flip, aaaaaaaand tails!
I oaks into a t2 magnezone hand, and play down cleffa before attaching rescue to my magnemite. A second after I said go I remember I was planning on switching to cleffa since I had realized he had no way of doing 30 damage that turn. That way I could retreat to reshiram the next turn if things got hairy. He draws and flails for nothing, and I candy to magnezone and draw 4 off the top to snatch a lightning. I hit it, attach, and Lost burn for the game! Afterwords he shows me he had t2 plume and donphan in hand, with a copycat to try and get the energy. Literally coming down to that coinflip, this match was quite possibly the greatest game I have ever played, and I thank you Ross for the amazing match. Congrats on your success dude.
I don't think the top 2 has ever come down to players from the same state before, so we have quite possibly created history! Now a moment of being totally humble while I brag about Washington's success.
4 Worlds wins, 3 second places, and numerous nats finalists and winnings. Hot dang we're awesome.
Alright shameless state-ego aside, I'd now like the address the reason that this thread came into existence, and that is to thank everybody who I know and helped me along the way. All the old friends I got to cherish more time with, and all the new faces I've met over this weekend.
HONORABLE MENTIONS (In no particular order):
My non-playing friends Dominic, Jesse, Matt, and Garth who I'm sure will read this regardless, and provided endless encouragement via text. With advice such as "Don't screw up!" throughout the event.
Karl Blake for showing me how to properly attract women
Jak Armstead for being awesome and hanging out with us the last day
Daniel Norton for being a great room mate and assisting me in matters of a numerical origin
Ann-Marie who had mercy on my soul, and did not force me to play jumpluff. Thanks for putting up with me all weekend, and don't fall for too many freshman pranks!
Kevin C; Oh how I long for the day we are reunited. Your endless racial humor is what kept me going throughout the tournament.
Amelia B because she's short. Compressed awesomeness.
Tyler Ninomura who originally gave me the chosen Magneboar deck
Kenny and Ashley who were very entertaining room mates!
Ryan Merrifield... I don't need to say why.
Isaiah who was a part-time room mate, and cool all around young man. he doesn't afraid of much.
Wyatt and Quinn W. who originally got me into this wonderful game. Without you guys quite literally none of this would have happened.
All 3 Fouchets (and your mom!) for letting us bombard your room for testing that one day, and being great people. I had fun hanging out with you guys!
That one McClure kid. yeah he's pretty cool.
Super Wooper whom I refuse to call by his name, only because he told me he hates being known by the screen name. I love pushing buttons!
The Anderson family who provided a comfortable place from which to have our post-worlds disneyland adventures
The Bradfords, for their awesome congratulatory card and Mamoswine which I keep in my wallet.
Jeremy Jallen who's an awesome guy! Sad we couldn't make it a top 4 epic battle, but hopefully we can fix that next year
Andrew Murray for reminding me not to rub hotsauce in my eyes. Thank you buddy, I would never have learned this life lesson otherwise.
Chris Fulop who was one of the few remaining magneboar supporters. We just had to believe!
The Whitons for endless entertainment, support, and water bottles. Congrats to Ian for a job well done at Nats. His day at worlds will come soon!
Dylan Lefavour; Great opponent, great player, great guy. Congrats dude.
Alan Kang: Nice meeting you bro, good job making it through the crapshoot that was the grinder, and I had fun playing you despite my lack of...anything.
Jayson Harry for teaching us Munchkin saturday night. I'll be buying the game myself within the next few days to share amongst the world
Matthew and Michael Chin, who are great testing partners, and fun peoples. (And Matthew who continued hyping magneboar throughout the weeks prior!)
The Dias family for making the trek out here for worlds, and being a source of fun back home in WA
Zane Nelson for being a great friend, and testing buddy once the summer rolls around and we're both free of schoolwork.
Mirman of the Zachary variety, as well as the brethren. Cuz you guys are cool.
Jaron, who despite losing his beloved regigigas sucked it up and did his best at worlds. Just take out tyrogue next time!
I'm sure I've forgotten a bunch of people, but I'll keep updating this rough draft list until I'm content that I've listed everybody.
Everyone else in Washington and Oregon who I forgot to mention but also deserve a spot, but I really have to pee so I'm gonna wrap it up for now!
Oh yeah, also EVERYONE WHO PLAYS THIS GAME <3
Thank you everyone, for everything.
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