Okay, fist off, my name is Tim, and I've been playing the pokemon TCG in the LA-MS environment for almost one year (i started by going to a BW prerelease last april). This was my very first state championship, and I was very excited for the opportunity to play at a larger tournement, meet new people from far away, and hopefully do well enough to get more championship points.
The night before we were supposed to be staying at a teammate's house in Bougalusa, but that plan was changed last minute and most of us slept in our own beds that night... This meant that for those us in Hattiesburg, we had to be up at 5:30 A.M. to get showered, dressed, ready, and coffee-ed enough to make the trip to Metairie, LA and +1 Gaming. This is okay, but basically forces us to take seperate cars. Just because we all left at different times.
So, after a uneventful and safe trip down to Louisiana, we arrive at +1 gaming at about 8:30am. We have plenty of time to greet old friends and talk to some of the new faces. There were many friendly players from Texas that had made the long drive out. Registration started at 9:00 and I took the time to look for trade opportunities. (This means getting my hands on the second Mewtwo EX I needed for the day). This turns out to be more fruitful than I had imagined, as I wind up buying one off of a guy easy for the low end of ebay price ($50) and I trade another player some Magnezones for a FA mewtwo. This was the extent of trading I did on that day. So at this point I complete my (and my team's) pre-game ritual and take half of my 5-hour power and eat half my protein bar. I am ready for competition.
I'm playing Zebstrika/Eelectrik/Zekrom EX/Mewtwo EX, so here we go!
Round 1: Lisa w/Chandelure Vileplume
This is my first game of the day, and let me tell you, it could not have gone worse in any fashion. I started with a 30 HP tynamo some junkarms, lightning energy, 2 DCEs, and a pluspower. Not ideal. My opponent, a poke-mom, started oddish, with a Fire Litwick on the bench. So right here I know I'm in really bad shape. I played Chandelure for all of City Championships, and I know there are about eighty three ways that Chandelure can screw with Eelectriks.
I lose the flip and she draws and passes, so far so good. I proceed to draw my 3rd DCE.... This can't be this bad, right? Well I look at my hand and note that I don't have enough cards to attach, plus power, JA for plus-power, and JA for plus-power again. I was one card short, so I just attach, play my plus-power, and tackle for 20. On her turn she draws, evolves to gloom, and passes. I begin my turn by drawing a lightning energy. This isn't looking good? but what am I supposed to do? JA away all of my DCE's just to do a little more damage to the gloom? All I can do is tackle.
Next turn, down comes Vileplume, Doduo, and Lampent. I draw for my turn and get a Sage's Training. Not the best supporter to get now, but I'll take anything I can get. I notably get a Zekrom EX, That I am able to power up, but It is eventually trapped and confused in the active position.
The rest of the match is a blur of dead Tynamos, Zebstrikas, and Confused Zekroms. I manage to take two prizes, but we all know how rescue energy allows Chandelure to defy the discard pile over and over and over again. Eventually, my only option is to go agro with Mewtwo EX, but this too proves fruitless as the rotating door of Chandelures is able to deny my KO's and stack damage on Mewtwo. She has one prize left to my two, and Eventually the math just goes out of my favor. I can't kill chandelures fast enough with Mewtwo, and Mewtwo goes down.
This match was not that bad, as far as the game is concerned, it was just alot of bad luck at the beginning. The bad part of this match was what I did after. I was very upset after beginning the day with a loss after a starting hand that bad. So much so that I said something about "losing to a Poke-mom hurting my resistance getting into top cut." This was very rude of me. There are many very skilled poke-moms and dads.
0-1
Round 2: Anette
Coming into round two, I'm very unsettled about the bad first round loss. I know I'm playing down and I find my table. I'm playing a girl named Anette, but she never show's. I know know who she is or what happened to her, but eventually she gets a game loss for being a no-show.
Talk about insult to injury. I lose round one, and then when I'm fired up to prove that I still have some fight left in me I don't get a game and have to mill around and watch my teammates play their match ups.
A win is a win I guess?
Round 3: Hopson w/Zekrom Eelectrik
The round was a huge blur of Bolt Strikes and sadness. This was a mirror match, but we had vastly different decks. Early on I was able to stifle his set up with Zebstrika, but this didn't last long. Conventional Zekrom BW is not in any way the friend of zebstrika. As a matter of fact, compared to Zekrom EX, Zekrom BW is blisteringly fast. Fortunately I was able to set up enough some Eels behind Zebstrika and for the most part they stayed safe the whole match. Because it took two bolt strikes to KO Zekrom, I targeted down his Eels and for the most part, limited him to one at a time.
At the end of the game, during my turn, I have two prizes left two his one. He tells me he thinks this is game as he flashes me a Pokemon Catcher. He has a fully powered Zekrom and I have Eels, Tynamos, and a Blitzle on my bench. This didn't matter either way because I had an N in my had that I would have used either way. Why not put your opponent down to one card? So from there I take one prize on my turn, and catcher for another prize on the next one while he draws nothing helpful.
This is one of those games that demonstrates just how powerful N is as a card.
2-1
Round 4: Christi w/Celebi Tornadus Mewtwo
This round I sit down across from one of the players from Texas that I had met ealier. She mulliganed once and I saw a grass energy... so I was pretty sure I knew what she was playing. I start Blitzle and bench a Mewtwo EX(I was worried about the donk) and I win the coinslip. I find and bench another Blitzle and some tynamo. I attach and use 'agility' but fail the flip. On her turn she uses Forest breath and attaches a Grass, but she cant find a Skyarrow Bridge or a DCE so she passes. On my turn, I evolve and attach and begin 'disconnecting.
From this point on there isn't much to tell about this match. I continue to 'disconnect' on Celebis and Tornaduses (Tornadi?) and basically lock her out of 50% of her deck. Since the standard version of that deck only runs dual ball for search, she never find any of her Mewtwo EX, but that didn't really matter, because if she had, I had a mewtwo on the bench ready to revenge kill, and I had also set up a Zekrom EX. The match ended with Zebstrika taking 5 Prizes and Zekrom EX taking the last one.
3-1
Round 5: William w/ Celebi Tornadus Mewtwo
In this round, I find myself against another player from Texas. Same group from this morning and I find myself opening with Blitzle and Mewtwo again. I bench mewtwo on the fear that I will be donked if I lose the coin flip. I go first in this game again. I am in prime condition to set up a T2 'disconnect' but on William's first turn he N's me into a hand that is much less favorable. On my turn I am only able to set up an Eelectrik and pass. He catchers and plus power kills my Eelectrik with 'hurricane'. On my turn I set up a Second Eel and the same things happens. PlusPower>>'hurricane'. At this point I start disconnecting while I set up my last Eel. From this point on I take 3 prizes off of tornaduses with disconnect while he takes down 2 Zebstrika. So I have 3 prizes left and he has 2 Prizes.
The problem with this is I was completely out of Zebstrika. I had been unable to find my super rod the entire game, which made me unable to set up a third Zebstrika, more Eels, or keep up the trainer lock. This let William take his last two prizes off of my Mewtwo with one of his. I had played energy on my Mewtwo... because i'm bad at Pokemon, I guess. and I had neglected to N him down to 2 cards on my previous turn, perfering to overextend for prizes that I wasn't able to get. On William’s turn he junipered and it would have been just unfair if he hadn’t gotten the one of several cards he needed to win. One of the best games of the tournament IMO.
3-2
Round 6: Patrick w/Zekrom Eelectrik
This is a mirror match against one of my teammates and we are both 3-2. Its always a bad feeling to play a teammate in these conditions, because the loser of this match will most likely lose the chance to top cut.
This match was fairly close, but I get an early lead by trapping an Eelectrik active with ‘disconnect’ He takes some prizes with Zekrom BW, which again, I am not playing in my deck, but I pull ahead. All that said, he would have won if I hadn’t have attached an eviolite to my Mewtwo a few turns before the end. I took rocky helment damage on Mewtwo, and he would have been able to ‘strong volt’ mew for his last two prizes but the eviolite prevents this and I take my last prize.
It always sucks to play a teammate in an important round, but it happens. Sorry Pat.
4-2
Round 7: ??? w/ Magnezone Eelectrik Thunderous
I wish I could say that this match showed me that Magnezone is still a force, but this match didn’t do a lot to convince me that this is true.
My opponent goes first and I get an unfortunate Mewtwo start. He starts Cleffa, and benches a Tynamo and a Magnemite, attaches a lightning energy to magnemite, but doesn’t ‘eeeeeeek’. This tips me off that he has a strong hand, so I catcher his magnemite and use N. I get a DCE off the N and ‘X-ball’ for KO.
The rest of the match has him benching magnemite and attaching the energy that I need to use ‘X-ball’ for KO. I KO’d 4 Magnemite and a Cleffa with X-ball and KO’d a Thunderous with Zekrom EX.
My opponent just never got anything going, but he really beat himself by attaching NRGs to Magnemites.
5-2
TOP 16:
So at this point I know I’m in top 16. We turn in our decks to be checked and I try to take a breather. At this point I find out that two other team members have made it into top 16: Mikey and Kristi. This is great news, but bad news, since I don’t want to play either of them and their ReshiBoar decks.
It turns out that I play another LA local in my Top 16 Match. This guy is a top notch player. Intellegent and friendly. I’ve found myself sitting across from him more than once in top cut. Either way it goes I know its going to be a tough, but rewarding match.
Round 8: Randal w/ Zekrom Eelectrik
Game 1:
I go first and set up my Zebestrikas and start killing Tynamo’s on turn two. I keep him locked out of items and Eelectriks for the majority of the beginning of the game. Because of the early lead I stay ahead on prizes, and never get N’d into a completely useless hand, and take all six prizes.
Game 2:
This game goes pretty much the same way. Zebstrika makes the difference, but this game is a lot closer. In the end I take my six prizes first, but Randal put up a great fight.
I was very surprised this didn’t go into game three, like I said, my opponent is a great player. That said, these games were ANYTHING but one-sided.
6-2
Top 8:
Round 9: Brad w/ Terrakion Landourus
This round I’m playing a guy I hadn’t met, and didn’t know. I found out later that he was from Florida…. Yeah, that right there tells you something about the calibur of player I’m likely to be facing.
Game 1:
We set up and he starts Terrakion to my Blitzle. AWESOME! This guy is using tech Terrakion in his Mewtwo or Zekrom deck and he just started as bad as he possibly could.
Okay… this didn’t turn out to be the case. On his turn he collectors for 3 more Terrakion…. WHAT???? Okay, so this is a strange deck to say the least. On my turn I over extend to get T2 disconnect and find an eviolite for the Zekrom EX that I benched to attempt to one shot Terrakions.
At this point the EXP shares start dropping and he starts getting KO’s. I play this game out to see what he has in his deck and take note of two things: He isn’t playing Mewtwo and he is playing Lost Remover.
Game 2:
We set up and I find a Mewtwo and go agro with it, knowing I can’t be revenge killed. I take easy prizes with Plus Power and ‘X ball’ and Brad scoops into game 3.
Game 3:
This game was much like game two, but I was dumb enough to bench Tynamo’s withough knowing that I had TWO Eelectrik in my prizes. I Take 4 Prizes with Mewtwo EX, but he kept hammering away with Terrakion and Landourus. With EXP share it is impossible to target down the energy on the field because it just doesn't go away.
The game ends on his turn, T3 after time has been called. He finds a catcher and KO’s my one Eelectric and simultaneously KO’s My Cleffa and a Tynamo to take 3 Prizes. This put me behind by one prize, making me the loser.
6-3
Well, That was certainly a let down. I find out later that Brad played local player James S. in Top 4 and got put out. James was playing CMT, and like I predicted, Terrakion probably had a rough matchup there.
James S. ended up getting first. I finished 7-th. Mikey got put out in top 8 finishing 6-th and Kristi got put out in top 16 finishing 15-th. Pretty decent showings for most of us, too bad I had such a bad match up in top 8, but all in all not too bad for my very first State Championship. I also ended up apologizing to the poke-mom for what I said, I had to clear up my conscience.
Props:
Top Cutting in my first states.
2 other teammates top cutting.
Slops:
Being rude to a poke-mom
Losing on T3 game three in Top 8
If you want my decklist PM me.
The night before we were supposed to be staying at a teammate's house in Bougalusa, but that plan was changed last minute and most of us slept in our own beds that night... This meant that for those us in Hattiesburg, we had to be up at 5:30 A.M. to get showered, dressed, ready, and coffee-ed enough to make the trip to Metairie, LA and +1 Gaming. This is okay, but basically forces us to take seperate cars. Just because we all left at different times.
So, after a uneventful and safe trip down to Louisiana, we arrive at +1 gaming at about 8:30am. We have plenty of time to greet old friends and talk to some of the new faces. There were many friendly players from Texas that had made the long drive out. Registration started at 9:00 and I took the time to look for trade opportunities. (This means getting my hands on the second Mewtwo EX I needed for the day). This turns out to be more fruitful than I had imagined, as I wind up buying one off of a guy easy for the low end of ebay price ($50) and I trade another player some Magnezones for a FA mewtwo. This was the extent of trading I did on that day. So at this point I complete my (and my team's) pre-game ritual and take half of my 5-hour power and eat half my protein bar. I am ready for competition.
I'm playing Zebstrika/Eelectrik/Zekrom EX/Mewtwo EX, so here we go!
Round 1: Lisa w/Chandelure Vileplume
This is my first game of the day, and let me tell you, it could not have gone worse in any fashion. I started with a 30 HP tynamo some junkarms, lightning energy, 2 DCEs, and a pluspower. Not ideal. My opponent, a poke-mom, started oddish, with a Fire Litwick on the bench. So right here I know I'm in really bad shape. I played Chandelure for all of City Championships, and I know there are about eighty three ways that Chandelure can screw with Eelectriks.
I lose the flip and she draws and passes, so far so good. I proceed to draw my 3rd DCE.... This can't be this bad, right? Well I look at my hand and note that I don't have enough cards to attach, plus power, JA for plus-power, and JA for plus-power again. I was one card short, so I just attach, play my plus-power, and tackle for 20. On her turn she draws, evolves to gloom, and passes. I begin my turn by drawing a lightning energy. This isn't looking good? but what am I supposed to do? JA away all of my DCE's just to do a little more damage to the gloom? All I can do is tackle.
Next turn, down comes Vileplume, Doduo, and Lampent. I draw for my turn and get a Sage's Training. Not the best supporter to get now, but I'll take anything I can get. I notably get a Zekrom EX, That I am able to power up, but It is eventually trapped and confused in the active position.
The rest of the match is a blur of dead Tynamos, Zebstrikas, and Confused Zekroms. I manage to take two prizes, but we all know how rescue energy allows Chandelure to defy the discard pile over and over and over again. Eventually, my only option is to go agro with Mewtwo EX, but this too proves fruitless as the rotating door of Chandelures is able to deny my KO's and stack damage on Mewtwo. She has one prize left to my two, and Eventually the math just goes out of my favor. I can't kill chandelures fast enough with Mewtwo, and Mewtwo goes down.
This match was not that bad, as far as the game is concerned, it was just alot of bad luck at the beginning. The bad part of this match was what I did after. I was very upset after beginning the day with a loss after a starting hand that bad. So much so that I said something about "losing to a Poke-mom hurting my resistance getting into top cut." This was very rude of me. There are many very skilled poke-moms and dads.
0-1
Round 2: Anette
Coming into round two, I'm very unsettled about the bad first round loss. I know I'm playing down and I find my table. I'm playing a girl named Anette, but she never show's. I know know who she is or what happened to her, but eventually she gets a game loss for being a no-show.
Talk about insult to injury. I lose round one, and then when I'm fired up to prove that I still have some fight left in me I don't get a game and have to mill around and watch my teammates play their match ups.
A win is a win I guess?
Round 3: Hopson w/Zekrom Eelectrik
The round was a huge blur of Bolt Strikes and sadness. This was a mirror match, but we had vastly different decks. Early on I was able to stifle his set up with Zebstrika, but this didn't last long. Conventional Zekrom BW is not in any way the friend of zebstrika. As a matter of fact, compared to Zekrom EX, Zekrom BW is blisteringly fast. Fortunately I was able to set up enough some Eels behind Zebstrika and for the most part they stayed safe the whole match. Because it took two bolt strikes to KO Zekrom, I targeted down his Eels and for the most part, limited him to one at a time.
At the end of the game, during my turn, I have two prizes left two his one. He tells me he thinks this is game as he flashes me a Pokemon Catcher. He has a fully powered Zekrom and I have Eels, Tynamos, and a Blitzle on my bench. This didn't matter either way because I had an N in my had that I would have used either way. Why not put your opponent down to one card? So from there I take one prize on my turn, and catcher for another prize on the next one while he draws nothing helpful.
This is one of those games that demonstrates just how powerful N is as a card.
2-1
Round 4: Christi w/Celebi Tornadus Mewtwo
This round I sit down across from one of the players from Texas that I had met ealier. She mulliganed once and I saw a grass energy... so I was pretty sure I knew what she was playing. I start Blitzle and bench a Mewtwo EX(I was worried about the donk) and I win the coinslip. I find and bench another Blitzle and some tynamo. I attach and use 'agility' but fail the flip. On her turn she uses Forest breath and attaches a Grass, but she cant find a Skyarrow Bridge or a DCE so she passes. On my turn, I evolve and attach and begin 'disconnecting.
From this point on there isn't much to tell about this match. I continue to 'disconnect' on Celebis and Tornaduses (Tornadi?) and basically lock her out of 50% of her deck. Since the standard version of that deck only runs dual ball for search, she never find any of her Mewtwo EX, but that didn't really matter, because if she had, I had a mewtwo on the bench ready to revenge kill, and I had also set up a Zekrom EX. The match ended with Zebstrika taking 5 Prizes and Zekrom EX taking the last one.
3-1
Round 5: William w/ Celebi Tornadus Mewtwo
In this round, I find myself against another player from Texas. Same group from this morning and I find myself opening with Blitzle and Mewtwo again. I bench mewtwo on the fear that I will be donked if I lose the coin flip. I go first in this game again. I am in prime condition to set up a T2 'disconnect' but on William's first turn he N's me into a hand that is much less favorable. On my turn I am only able to set up an Eelectrik and pass. He catchers and plus power kills my Eelectrik with 'hurricane'. On my turn I set up a Second Eel and the same things happens. PlusPower>>'hurricane'. At this point I start disconnecting while I set up my last Eel. From this point on I take 3 prizes off of tornaduses with disconnect while he takes down 2 Zebstrika. So I have 3 prizes left and he has 2 Prizes.
The problem with this is I was completely out of Zebstrika. I had been unable to find my super rod the entire game, which made me unable to set up a third Zebstrika, more Eels, or keep up the trainer lock. This let William take his last two prizes off of my Mewtwo with one of his. I had played energy on my Mewtwo... because i'm bad at Pokemon, I guess. and I had neglected to N him down to 2 cards on my previous turn, perfering to overextend for prizes that I wasn't able to get. On William’s turn he junipered and it would have been just unfair if he hadn’t gotten the one of several cards he needed to win. One of the best games of the tournament IMO.
3-2
Round 6: Patrick w/Zekrom Eelectrik
This is a mirror match against one of my teammates and we are both 3-2. Its always a bad feeling to play a teammate in these conditions, because the loser of this match will most likely lose the chance to top cut.
This match was fairly close, but I get an early lead by trapping an Eelectrik active with ‘disconnect’ He takes some prizes with Zekrom BW, which again, I am not playing in my deck, but I pull ahead. All that said, he would have won if I hadn’t have attached an eviolite to my Mewtwo a few turns before the end. I took rocky helment damage on Mewtwo, and he would have been able to ‘strong volt’ mew for his last two prizes but the eviolite prevents this and I take my last prize.
It always sucks to play a teammate in an important round, but it happens. Sorry Pat.
4-2
Round 7: ??? w/ Magnezone Eelectrik Thunderous
I wish I could say that this match showed me that Magnezone is still a force, but this match didn’t do a lot to convince me that this is true.
My opponent goes first and I get an unfortunate Mewtwo start. He starts Cleffa, and benches a Tynamo and a Magnemite, attaches a lightning energy to magnemite, but doesn’t ‘eeeeeeek’. This tips me off that he has a strong hand, so I catcher his magnemite and use N. I get a DCE off the N and ‘X-ball’ for KO.
The rest of the match has him benching magnemite and attaching the energy that I need to use ‘X-ball’ for KO. I KO’d 4 Magnemite and a Cleffa with X-ball and KO’d a Thunderous with Zekrom EX.
My opponent just never got anything going, but he really beat himself by attaching NRGs to Magnemites.
5-2
TOP 16:
So at this point I know I’m in top 16. We turn in our decks to be checked and I try to take a breather. At this point I find out that two other team members have made it into top 16: Mikey and Kristi. This is great news, but bad news, since I don’t want to play either of them and their ReshiBoar decks.
It turns out that I play another LA local in my Top 16 Match. This guy is a top notch player. Intellegent and friendly. I’ve found myself sitting across from him more than once in top cut. Either way it goes I know its going to be a tough, but rewarding match.
Round 8: Randal w/ Zekrom Eelectrik
Game 1:
I go first and set up my Zebestrikas and start killing Tynamo’s on turn two. I keep him locked out of items and Eelectriks for the majority of the beginning of the game. Because of the early lead I stay ahead on prizes, and never get N’d into a completely useless hand, and take all six prizes.
Game 2:
This game goes pretty much the same way. Zebstrika makes the difference, but this game is a lot closer. In the end I take my six prizes first, but Randal put up a great fight.
I was very surprised this didn’t go into game three, like I said, my opponent is a great player. That said, these games were ANYTHING but one-sided.
6-2
Top 8:
Round 9: Brad w/ Terrakion Landourus
This round I’m playing a guy I hadn’t met, and didn’t know. I found out later that he was from Florida…. Yeah, that right there tells you something about the calibur of player I’m likely to be facing.
Game 1:
We set up and he starts Terrakion to my Blitzle. AWESOME! This guy is using tech Terrakion in his Mewtwo or Zekrom deck and he just started as bad as he possibly could.
Okay… this didn’t turn out to be the case. On his turn he collectors for 3 more Terrakion…. WHAT???? Okay, so this is a strange deck to say the least. On my turn I over extend to get T2 disconnect and find an eviolite for the Zekrom EX that I benched to attempt to one shot Terrakions.
At this point the EXP shares start dropping and he starts getting KO’s. I play this game out to see what he has in his deck and take note of two things: He isn’t playing Mewtwo and he is playing Lost Remover.
Game 2:
We set up and I find a Mewtwo and go agro with it, knowing I can’t be revenge killed. I take easy prizes with Plus Power and ‘X ball’ and Brad scoops into game 3.
Game 3:
This game was much like game two, but I was dumb enough to bench Tynamo’s withough knowing that I had TWO Eelectrik in my prizes. I Take 4 Prizes with Mewtwo EX, but he kept hammering away with Terrakion and Landourus. With EXP share it is impossible to target down the energy on the field because it just doesn't go away.
The game ends on his turn, T3 after time has been called. He finds a catcher and KO’s my one Eelectric and simultaneously KO’s My Cleffa and a Tynamo to take 3 Prizes. This put me behind by one prize, making me the loser.
6-3
Well, That was certainly a let down. I find out later that Brad played local player James S. in Top 4 and got put out. James was playing CMT, and like I predicted, Terrakion probably had a rough matchup there.
James S. ended up getting first. I finished 7-th. Mikey got put out in top 8 finishing 6-th and Kristi got put out in top 16 finishing 15-th. Pretty decent showings for most of us, too bad I had such a bad match up in top 8, but all in all not too bad for my very first State Championship. I also ended up apologizing to the poke-mom for what I said, I had to clear up my conscience.
Props:
Top Cutting in my first states.
2 other teammates top cutting.
Slops:
Being rude to a poke-mom
Losing on T3 game three in Top 8
If you want my decklist PM me.
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