Hi everyone! For most of you reading this my name is Professor Kevin. I'm a PokeDad and league leader on the north side of Indianapolis. I'm mostly writing this for my league kids (we just started less than 6 months ago and we've got over 100+ just beginning juniors registered. Crazy!) Anyway, this was my best showing in a major tourney so it was very exciting for me. I finished 33rd in the Ft. Wayne Regionals last year. So being seeded 5th after Swiss was very cool. Hope you all enjoy the report. I didn't take notes during the tourney, so this is all what I can remember the day after (and my
wife says I never remember anything so this will be a challenge). I hope you enjoy the read and just wanted to say to all the PokeDads out there, keep battling! Anyway onto the report.
So pre-tourney:
I played Goth for all of Battle Roads. As a fairly new player (4 years since my kids and I picked up the game), "patient, complex strategy" decks have never worked for me, too many chances for me to make mistakes. But the past year, I've been trying to expand my game and shutting off trainers while still using Catchers just seemed like fun. . BRs was full of TyRams so I thought that I'd be okay (not that I saw all that many during the actual tourney, I look left/right at tables and all I see is fire, but do I get them, oh no...) anyway so the week before Regionals, I'm testing ZPST. I played Sabledonk for a
Spring BR last year and played all of like 5 minutes the whole day. I was really close to switching as 8 rounds of "stress" with a deck like Goth that has to play a full game. Big PROPS to my friend Brad who brought me back Goth/Reuniclus sleeves from his Japan trip so I guess that made playing Goth inevitable. Not to mention my son Josh in juniors took ZPST from me the night before as his choice so
the night before, I sleeve up, print out deck lists for me and the kids, (my other son Peyton goes with his "favorite Pokemon" Serperior deck with Mew prime and Sawsbuck. Yea, I didn't get it either...
We meet up with another Pokemon family from League and Jimmy another Masters player from league and we head up to Ft. Wayne. We arrive, setup a "league table" with like 6 families all from our new league, way to represent guys! Deck check and we're off to round 1.
Apologies to all my opponents that I didn't remember names (which is most of you). You were all great players and friendly. I just don't do well with names and like I said no notes...
Round 1: ??? with PrimeTime
Opponent was from Ohio (which I think almost everyone I played was, all I can say is Ohio really represented and travelled well, great job guys)
So side note to this match. I think I barely begun my turn and I see son Josh comes sauntering by the table on his way back to our family table and he gives me the thumbs up and says "Donk" with ZPST. I tell my opponent I knew I should've used that deck. lol
So we start out both fairly good. He builds up an early Zone and I've got up an early Goth to lock him. He's got the 3 energies he needs in T3/T4 and goes aggressive to get trainers back as I don't have a backup yet. But after blasting my Goth, I'm pretty sure I twins for double Rare Candy for Goth/Reunclis and use Beach/Jirachi/Shaymin to swing for 90 to 2HKO his zone ove the next few turns. Once
locked out of trainers and no way to Candy to zone I control the board using damage from Yanmega to self KO little things like Cleffa/Solosis before catchering up Magnetons/Magnemites as he tries to manually build them up. GG 1-0.
Dad is 1-0. Josh is 1-0. Peyton is 1-0.
Round 2: ??? with YMCA
So we setup and he flips the Purple Kitty. I jokingly say I should just scoop now, which I really just should've. a T1 See of Cincino and two Pokemon Collectors later, he's buzzsawing through my deck. Even my Tech Tornadus was no match as he's got a Cinncino (and maybe a Pluspower or just 2HKO). It ends ugly as expected. 7 turns, 6 prizes. GG 1-1.
Dad is 1-1. Josh is 2-0. (another 1 minute game) Peyton is 1-1.
Round 3: ??? with Truth
So as I sit down my opponent has a cool Worlds mat from Hawaii two years ago. I asked if it was "earned" and he said yes so I knew he'd be good. We setup and he flips his cards (lone phanpy maybe and at first I'm thinking Stage 1s ok). then he collectors drops Zekrom, solosis, oddish and i'm like oh it's the Truth.
At here I'll pause and give props to my friend Jimmy. He chose to play the Truth for Regionals as well and we practiced this matchup for both of us a few days beforehand. Without this practice (cause I just never bothered to practice it because like I said, patient/strategy decks just aren't my type), I'd never had known how to approach this matchup. Thanks Jimmy for the practice!
So we both begin our setup. I get an early Goth and lock him out of trainers. This is huge because he can never setup a Plume, but he does get a Reunclis. I think he Cleffa stalls trying to find what he needs in combo with reusing my Beach over a bunch of turns. I get Goth/Reunclis on board and the best he has is a Donphan with 3 energies and 1 damage counter from a rainbow. he finally decides (maybe something was prized and he needed to go get it) he brings up Donphan and hits me for 90.
This was the turning point as I used the damage to self KO things 3 turns in a row to keep the game balanced in prizes but giving me Twins during my turns. I jirachi/shaymin trick to get 5 energies on Goth (remember that lone damage counter he forgot to move off his donphan) just enough to KO it. Without that I would've been a damage counter short. Maybe I had the 6th energy, I can't remember. But anyway, this was a game I've never "passed" so much in my life. With the prize count like 4-4 he was eeeking and even sent up a baited oddish for me to kill. I never took the bait so I had a hand full of cards and just kept passing. I think I finally get the concept of "board control". He gets another Donphan up with 1 energy and earthquakes to give him damage on his field. Another earthquake would give his Zekrom enough juice to KO me. So I sacrifice something else and KO his donphan. he uses the damage on his side to self KO a solosis I think and now he can Twins. But don't think he had an answer. At this point I think i'm pretty safe. So with time running down I just mow through his
remaining pokemon. GG. 2-1
Dad is 2-1. Josh is 3-0. Peyton is 1-2.
Lunch Break:
So I got the kids some lunchables from the grocery store while I have a peanut butter sandwich from home. Not 10 minutes after Josh is done eating he starts saying "I don't feel good". He's out of it for another few minutes then races off to the bathroom and well you know... loses his lunch. Literally. He comes back and is just zonked. I ask he if wants to continue and says no, but says maybe he'll
feel better later and doesn't want to drop. We send a league family friend to get him some motrin as I wasn't sure if he was "sick" or "something he ate" (fortunately it was just the food). And he rests up. Though for Round 4 they're about to get started. So Josh "scoop/forfeits" his match and returns to "lay down" and skip the round. So while I'm handling this with him, I rush over to my opponent
and says "I'm coming" but I explain the situation and rush off to get my son settled. Once he's resting with friends, I return to my table "late" but not past the deadline. I call over the judges to see about a time extension or whatever, but the ruling was simply "for being late, I can't win on time". I was totally cool with their ruling, but playing Goth, I was like, okay gotta play fast.
Round 4: Stephanie with TyRam
So I chat with Stephanie about my son who was great about it and a totally awesome person. Thanks Steph! We get going. Usually as I start playing a deck search card, I check to see what cards may have been prized through process of elimination. Though with my mind on my son and knowing this had to be a quick game, I didn't bother with any of that and just played the strategy of early Goth lock and wait until I got enough energy to OHKO stuff. Poor Stephanie never got any good hands. She starts with 3 cyndaquils and 2 Reshirams during the early game. Manually powers up a Resh against my early Goth/Reunclis. I'm prety sure I started with Beach this game so I just drew everything I needed. She gives me a Blue Flare which I use to KO stuff and activate twins. I get Goth powered up and KO her first Resh. Over the next few turns I give her 4 prizes by killing stuff on my side, using twins, and catchering up any cyndaquils/quilavas/and a horsea she manually tries to build. But eventually, she can't do anything and I just start OHKOing her field. She does get a ceremonious second and last Blue Flare before I take my final prize. GG
Dad is 3-1. Josh is 3-1 (with the scoop). Peyton is 2-2.
For those wondering, Josh does seem to bounce back after the rest and says he wants to keep playing. He looks a bit pale, but some Sprite to settle his stomach and give him a bit of sugar seems to help.
Round 5: ??? with TyRam
Finally another TyRam. Here's all the fire I've been seeing all around me. Like the match before he starts setting up, and I think he kills something a goth or probably a solosis with a pluspower outrage. This one wasn't as easy as the last round. I twins into a goth which slows him down and chain a couple of twins over the next few turns to setup. I play the Typholosion denial game but he does setup 2
reshs manually with 3 energies each. I wasn't sure if I had the bench sponges to soak up multiple blue flares, but it works out. As the game is pretty controlled near the end (I was scared of going ahead and seeing some Black Belt tech or something... foreshadowing here). he starts emptying his deck with multiple junipers and ultimately draws his last card the turn before I KO his pokemon for
the last prize. GG.
Dad is 4-1. Josh is 3-2 (lost the mirror with a bad start). Peyton is 2-3.
Round 6: ??? with PrimeTime
can't remember my opponents name, but he was a great guy wearing a Minnesota Twins shirt. We chatted as PokeDads for a bit and he was sitting at the table next to mine so he remember that my "Goth" sleeves meant I was playing Goth. This match was very reminicent of the first match. He gets an early zone manually built up I think or Candied before I could Goth lock him and he has to make the choice to KO my first Goth or not. He does which activates my Twins and I relock him and proceed to setup. I KO the first Zone over two turns and I'm pretty sure he searches for like 6-7 turns trying to
find a Magneton, but never really does. I think he got one right before the end, but didn't have the Zone anyway. He like copycated/eeekkkked like 10+ times and never got what he needed. I had Catcher/Junk Arm waiting for the Magneton to KO it. I think I "passed" a whole bunch in this game like the Truth game just to keep it close and not getting ahead until the end. He scoops after I kill his just evolved Magneton. GG.
Dad is 5-1. Josh is 4-2 (won the last match so he's on the bubble for top cut.). Peyton is 2-4. (Sawsbuck, yea)
Fortunately, I did have a good teaching moment with Peyton about "going to battle with your best weapons". He's doesnt have a competitive bone in his body unlike his dad/brother but he was sad when he didn't understand why it was so hard for him today. It was a good father, son moment which maybe he'll retain some of it.
Round 7: ??? with Primetime w/Cinncinno
Okay can I just say, 3x PrimeTimes and only 2x Fire... Why does everyone else get the Fire? this was a great match though. Hardest PrimeTime of the day (or so I though until later... more foreshadowing...)
Anyway, so we setup and he T2 Candies Zone and I have to manually build a Goth. I don't have Reunclis and can't twins. I think I was even short on energies. I think he may have gotten and early Pachi drop with 2 energies so he's loaded. He also throws me a curve ball with droping Mincinnos so I'm like What?!? Maybe it's more Yanmega/Cincinno with a light Zone draw line. Anyway, he KOs my first Goth and has 2 Zones on board. I know I'm going to have to go through both of them to have a
shot. My first risky play was with my 2nd Goth I use a psychic and DCE to 3HKO the first zone. I didn't want to use too much energy on the first one knowing the 2nd one would be harder. I'm not sure if he wasnt getting his things or not, but I did kill that first Zone. I think he counters with the next Zone and somehow I get a lot of energies out to kill OHKO it. Probably more Jirachi/Shaymin antics. so now here's the dilemma, we're midgame and he's got a field of Cincinnos with DCEs and Yanmegas. I use damage from his attacks to self KO stuff and keep my Twins going and killing his Cincinnos. I never see another zone. He does making a comment about "oh yeah I do play one of these". I'm thinking twins so I know I need to keep it close. However, eventually the game is 2-2 and time is running out. I'm running short of my deck so I guess I have to KO something but he's got a Cincinno coming
back and go ahead. 1-2 prizes. So what's he do... <drum rolll> drops Black Belt that he's been holding on for ages and KO's my Goth. Prizes 1-1. I can't quite remember the end. I know anti-climatic. I believe I saged for something to evolve a final goth or 3rd energy to KO the last Cincinno. I'm pretty sure I didn't "auto" have the final KO cause I was pretty floored by the Black Belt. But I did get the
win. GG.
Dad is 6-1. Josh ended up 10th and got 1/2 box plus more CPs. Not sure how many, but added to the 6 he got from BRs, he's doing great in this young season. Josh pulled a FA Tekrion so he was happy.
Round 8: Isaac with YMCA (and Vileplume/Sunflora).
So we're both very happy to be 6-1. Someone near us says some 6-2 might miss cut. So I'm like oh we're not "for sure in" at this point. He flips over the Purple Kitty and felt sunk. I start with Gothita and put him to sleep. He stays asleep. Yay! No see off for you. I think he benches some stuff one of which was a yanma.
Passes and stays asleep. I probably collectored and had the Tornadus benched. I added a second energy to Gothita and said "what the heck I'm gonna lose anyway" and did whatever her flippy attack for 1 Heads... and 2 heads... Yay KO on a mew. He promotes yanma, does another collector or something for a mew, see's off Cincinno. Okay here we go again. I want to say at this point, I Jirachi/Shaymin/DCE energy to Tornadus, retreat and KO another mew. He catchers up my gothita I think and KOs that with a Cincinno. I think I 2HKO his Cincino and he returns the KO. We go back and forth a bit. I think I get a Goth with 3 energies finally against a Mew that was had killed Torandus and something else. His bench has a couple oddishes and yanmegas and a Sunflora. So after I kill his 3rd Mew with Goth. And the prizes are even I think 2-2. He return KOs with his 4th Mew. Now he only needs 1 prize.
I'm pretty sure all 4 Goths were in the discard though Sages or whatever so I'm like now what? My bench looks like 1x solosis, Reunclis and a Gothorita #46 with 2 energies and a Jirachi. Remember he's got a bunch of Yanmegas ready to kill my poor solosis next turn. So it's not looking good. I promote the gothoria, draw and top deck Duosion! Yay I attach a 3rd energy and Super Psy Bolt to kill a mew. Prizes 1-1. But he gets trainers and it's just a 80HP Gothorita. So 1-1. He promotes a Yanmega and doesn't have much else to do so he Sonic booms to put as much damage on
the field as possible. I had just enough sponge space on the bench to prevent a linear attack. Given my bench, anyone see the play? Well I think I may have Flower Shop Lady'd the Goth's back in or maybe there was 1 left. So silly me attaches a 4th energy to gothorita in hopes I can Top deck the goth to OHKO a Yanmega, (maybe you all see the play... based on what I wrote earlier). So I Psy Bolt his Yanmega for 50. As his turn begins I see the play and hoped I could get 1 more energy. (It was in my hand all the time which I forgot). He retreats for another Yanmega and Sonic Booms my Gothorita. When I start, I draw no energy, but as I cycle through my cards I realize I have the last energy and and attach to Jirachi. Retreat Gothorita and KO the Yanmega with 50 by devolving it. GG. I think everyone thought I was nuts when I kept saying "I killed a Mew"
One self slops, I'll mention, is that during this match because I really thought, Isaac would just roll me, we kept up the friendly banter and "random talk" throughout the match. I know I was being silly by singing YMCA and "Doing the Wave" when he'd attack. (Yea, we're all big kids sometimes). I'm not sure if that bothered him or those around us so if that was bothersome, my apologies. It was just all in good fun. As it turned out Isaac made top cut as well. So great game Isaac!
So I'm 7-1 Sorting my deck and getting ready to turn in the deck and leave when those nearby said "stop T32 is tonite". I'm like. Ugh. Tired, hungry kids at the end of a long day and we've got 1 more match. But kids were great. Families all had snacks to share and can I just say the iPad is a wonderful invention.
At 7-1 I was 5th and get paired with Austin R. in T32.
T32 vs. Austin R. with PrimeTime
For those who don't know Austin, he was a T4 Senior at Worlds and a T8 Master at worlds. Very cool and awesome guy though.
Game 1:
We setup, he wins the coin flip. He gets a T2 Zone with a start of Jirachi with a lightning on it. After a couple turns he gets energy on the field and only way I slow him down was a Candy Goth. Well, he deevolves me after attaching a psychic to Jirachi and hes gets fully setup. I may have manually evolved a Goth, but he Lost Burns it and after a few more minutes he's down to 2 prizes and I scoop.
Game 2:
In short, see Game 1. T2 Zone (double zone in fact) and very key Judges by him wrecked any Twins chaining or Tropical Beaching I may have done. He put me out of my misery quickly. We were one of the first games done I think. But all in all a great competitor and match. It was a pleasure battling such an accomplished young man. After the match Chris Fulop was nearby judging/watching our
match and so I got to meet in person a great Pokemon legendary player. Props to Chris!
So after a very long day (and on one positive note, I didn't have to explain to my wife how I'd be driving back to Ft Wayne, a 2 hour trip each way, on the morrow for more Pokemon.) 7 packs were the prize and 2 CPs (which I enviously watched my Josh rack them up in BRs so that was cool.) Most packs went to my kids this morning but the couple I got to open myself inside was a Full Art Fliptini!
So that's my Regionals report. To all my league kids, can't wait to show you the Fliptini I won and share all the battles how as we all practice and play more, I hope to see many of them claiming Pokemon prizes in the near future.
Props:
- Christ Jesus, who invites us all to his family!
- Derek and the Pokemon crew, great tourney as always guys
- All my opponents, all were class act, friendly PokePeople. You all are the reason we keep playing. And given that most of my opponents were from Ohio, I guess I have to give Ohio their props!
- My opponent in the Minnesota Twins shirt, who wasn't from Minnesota, (okay he was
but that was just our running joke of the day)
- Families from Pokemon League who helped me take care of Josh, you all rock
- My friend Brian who came with his son and made it through his first big tournament and even got a couple of legit wins
- Brad for the uber cool Gothitelle/Reuniclis sleeves from Japan
- And Gothitelle for being a great Pokemon partner this early season
Slops:
- Bad Oscar Meyer Lunchable that made Josh sick
- Fuzzy, Purple Kitties
wife says I never remember anything so this will be a challenge). I hope you enjoy the read and just wanted to say to all the PokeDads out there, keep battling! Anyway onto the report.
So pre-tourney:
I played Goth for all of Battle Roads. As a fairly new player (4 years since my kids and I picked up the game), "patient, complex strategy" decks have never worked for me, too many chances for me to make mistakes. But the past year, I've been trying to expand my game and shutting off trainers while still using Catchers just seemed like fun. . BRs was full of TyRams so I thought that I'd be okay (not that I saw all that many during the actual tourney, I look left/right at tables and all I see is fire, but do I get them, oh no...) anyway so the week before Regionals, I'm testing ZPST. I played Sabledonk for a
Spring BR last year and played all of like 5 minutes the whole day. I was really close to switching as 8 rounds of "stress" with a deck like Goth that has to play a full game. Big PROPS to my friend Brad who brought me back Goth/Reuniclus sleeves from his Japan trip so I guess that made playing Goth inevitable. Not to mention my son Josh in juniors took ZPST from me the night before as his choice so
the night before, I sleeve up, print out deck lists for me and the kids, (my other son Peyton goes with his "favorite Pokemon" Serperior deck with Mew prime and Sawsbuck. Yea, I didn't get it either...
We meet up with another Pokemon family from League and Jimmy another Masters player from league and we head up to Ft. Wayne. We arrive, setup a "league table" with like 6 families all from our new league, way to represent guys! Deck check and we're off to round 1.
Apologies to all my opponents that I didn't remember names (which is most of you). You were all great players and friendly. I just don't do well with names and like I said no notes...
Round 1: ??? with PrimeTime
Opponent was from Ohio (which I think almost everyone I played was, all I can say is Ohio really represented and travelled well, great job guys)
So side note to this match. I think I barely begun my turn and I see son Josh comes sauntering by the table on his way back to our family table and he gives me the thumbs up and says "Donk" with ZPST. I tell my opponent I knew I should've used that deck. lol
So we start out both fairly good. He builds up an early Zone and I've got up an early Goth to lock him. He's got the 3 energies he needs in T3/T4 and goes aggressive to get trainers back as I don't have a backup yet. But after blasting my Goth, I'm pretty sure I twins for double Rare Candy for Goth/Reunclis and use Beach/Jirachi/Shaymin to swing for 90 to 2HKO his zone ove the next few turns. Once
locked out of trainers and no way to Candy to zone I control the board using damage from Yanmega to self KO little things like Cleffa/Solosis before catchering up Magnetons/Magnemites as he tries to manually build them up. GG 1-0.
Dad is 1-0. Josh is 1-0. Peyton is 1-0.
Round 2: ??? with YMCA
So we setup and he flips the Purple Kitty. I jokingly say I should just scoop now, which I really just should've. a T1 See of Cincino and two Pokemon Collectors later, he's buzzsawing through my deck. Even my Tech Tornadus was no match as he's got a Cinncino (and maybe a Pluspower or just 2HKO). It ends ugly as expected. 7 turns, 6 prizes. GG 1-1.
Dad is 1-1. Josh is 2-0. (another 1 minute game) Peyton is 1-1.
Round 3: ??? with Truth
So as I sit down my opponent has a cool Worlds mat from Hawaii two years ago. I asked if it was "earned" and he said yes so I knew he'd be good. We setup and he flips his cards (lone phanpy maybe and at first I'm thinking Stage 1s ok). then he collectors drops Zekrom, solosis, oddish and i'm like oh it's the Truth.
At here I'll pause and give props to my friend Jimmy. He chose to play the Truth for Regionals as well and we practiced this matchup for both of us a few days beforehand. Without this practice (cause I just never bothered to practice it because like I said, patient/strategy decks just aren't my type), I'd never had known how to approach this matchup. Thanks Jimmy for the practice!
So we both begin our setup. I get an early Goth and lock him out of trainers. This is huge because he can never setup a Plume, but he does get a Reunclis. I think he Cleffa stalls trying to find what he needs in combo with reusing my Beach over a bunch of turns. I get Goth/Reunclis on board and the best he has is a Donphan with 3 energies and 1 damage counter from a rainbow. he finally decides (maybe something was prized and he needed to go get it) he brings up Donphan and hits me for 90.
This was the turning point as I used the damage to self KO things 3 turns in a row to keep the game balanced in prizes but giving me Twins during my turns. I jirachi/shaymin trick to get 5 energies on Goth (remember that lone damage counter he forgot to move off his donphan) just enough to KO it. Without that I would've been a damage counter short. Maybe I had the 6th energy, I can't remember. But anyway, this was a game I've never "passed" so much in my life. With the prize count like 4-4 he was eeeking and even sent up a baited oddish for me to kill. I never took the bait so I had a hand full of cards and just kept passing. I think I finally get the concept of "board control". He gets another Donphan up with 1 energy and earthquakes to give him damage on his field. Another earthquake would give his Zekrom enough juice to KO me. So I sacrifice something else and KO his donphan. he uses the damage on his side to self KO a solosis I think and now he can Twins. But don't think he had an answer. At this point I think i'm pretty safe. So with time running down I just mow through his
remaining pokemon. GG. 2-1
Dad is 2-1. Josh is 3-0. Peyton is 1-2.
Lunch Break:
So I got the kids some lunchables from the grocery store while I have a peanut butter sandwich from home. Not 10 minutes after Josh is done eating he starts saying "I don't feel good". He's out of it for another few minutes then races off to the bathroom and well you know... loses his lunch. Literally. He comes back and is just zonked. I ask he if wants to continue and says no, but says maybe he'll
feel better later and doesn't want to drop. We send a league family friend to get him some motrin as I wasn't sure if he was "sick" or "something he ate" (fortunately it was just the food). And he rests up. Though for Round 4 they're about to get started. So Josh "scoop/forfeits" his match and returns to "lay down" and skip the round. So while I'm handling this with him, I rush over to my opponent
and says "I'm coming" but I explain the situation and rush off to get my son settled. Once he's resting with friends, I return to my table "late" but not past the deadline. I call over the judges to see about a time extension or whatever, but the ruling was simply "for being late, I can't win on time". I was totally cool with their ruling, but playing Goth, I was like, okay gotta play fast.
Round 4: Stephanie with TyRam
So I chat with Stephanie about my son who was great about it and a totally awesome person. Thanks Steph! We get going. Usually as I start playing a deck search card, I check to see what cards may have been prized through process of elimination. Though with my mind on my son and knowing this had to be a quick game, I didn't bother with any of that and just played the strategy of early Goth lock and wait until I got enough energy to OHKO stuff. Poor Stephanie never got any good hands. She starts with 3 cyndaquils and 2 Reshirams during the early game. Manually powers up a Resh against my early Goth/Reunclis. I'm prety sure I started with Beach this game so I just drew everything I needed. She gives me a Blue Flare which I use to KO stuff and activate twins. I get Goth powered up and KO her first Resh. Over the next few turns I give her 4 prizes by killing stuff on my side, using twins, and catchering up any cyndaquils/quilavas/and a horsea she manually tries to build. But eventually, she can't do anything and I just start OHKOing her field. She does get a ceremonious second and last Blue Flare before I take my final prize. GG
Dad is 3-1. Josh is 3-1 (with the scoop). Peyton is 2-2.
For those wondering, Josh does seem to bounce back after the rest and says he wants to keep playing. He looks a bit pale, but some Sprite to settle his stomach and give him a bit of sugar seems to help.
Round 5: ??? with TyRam
Finally another TyRam. Here's all the fire I've been seeing all around me. Like the match before he starts setting up, and I think he kills something a goth or probably a solosis with a pluspower outrage. This one wasn't as easy as the last round. I twins into a goth which slows him down and chain a couple of twins over the next few turns to setup. I play the Typholosion denial game but he does setup 2
reshs manually with 3 energies each. I wasn't sure if I had the bench sponges to soak up multiple blue flares, but it works out. As the game is pretty controlled near the end (I was scared of going ahead and seeing some Black Belt tech or something... foreshadowing here). he starts emptying his deck with multiple junipers and ultimately draws his last card the turn before I KO his pokemon for
the last prize. GG.
Dad is 4-1. Josh is 3-2 (lost the mirror with a bad start). Peyton is 2-3.
Round 6: ??? with PrimeTime
can't remember my opponents name, but he was a great guy wearing a Minnesota Twins shirt. We chatted as PokeDads for a bit and he was sitting at the table next to mine so he remember that my "Goth" sleeves meant I was playing Goth. This match was very reminicent of the first match. He gets an early zone manually built up I think or Candied before I could Goth lock him and he has to make the choice to KO my first Goth or not. He does which activates my Twins and I relock him and proceed to setup. I KO the first Zone over two turns and I'm pretty sure he searches for like 6-7 turns trying to
find a Magneton, but never really does. I think he got one right before the end, but didn't have the Zone anyway. He like copycated/eeekkkked like 10+ times and never got what he needed. I had Catcher/Junk Arm waiting for the Magneton to KO it. I think I "passed" a whole bunch in this game like the Truth game just to keep it close and not getting ahead until the end. He scoops after I kill his just evolved Magneton. GG.
Dad is 5-1. Josh is 4-2 (won the last match so he's on the bubble for top cut.). Peyton is 2-4. (Sawsbuck, yea)
Fortunately, I did have a good teaching moment with Peyton about "going to battle with your best weapons". He's doesnt have a competitive bone in his body unlike his dad/brother but he was sad when he didn't understand why it was so hard for him today. It was a good father, son moment which maybe he'll retain some of it.
Round 7: ??? with Primetime w/Cinncinno
Okay can I just say, 3x PrimeTimes and only 2x Fire... Why does everyone else get the Fire? this was a great match though. Hardest PrimeTime of the day (or so I though until later... more foreshadowing...)
Anyway, so we setup and he T2 Candies Zone and I have to manually build a Goth. I don't have Reunclis and can't twins. I think I was even short on energies. I think he may have gotten and early Pachi drop with 2 energies so he's loaded. He also throws me a curve ball with droping Mincinnos so I'm like What?!? Maybe it's more Yanmega/Cincinno with a light Zone draw line. Anyway, he KOs my first Goth and has 2 Zones on board. I know I'm going to have to go through both of them to have a
shot. My first risky play was with my 2nd Goth I use a psychic and DCE to 3HKO the first zone. I didn't want to use too much energy on the first one knowing the 2nd one would be harder. I'm not sure if he wasnt getting his things or not, but I did kill that first Zone. I think he counters with the next Zone and somehow I get a lot of energies out to kill OHKO it. Probably more Jirachi/Shaymin antics. so now here's the dilemma, we're midgame and he's got a field of Cincinnos with DCEs and Yanmegas. I use damage from his attacks to self KO stuff and keep my Twins going and killing his Cincinnos. I never see another zone. He does making a comment about "oh yeah I do play one of these". I'm thinking twins so I know I need to keep it close. However, eventually the game is 2-2 and time is running out. I'm running short of my deck so I guess I have to KO something but he's got a Cincinno coming
back and go ahead. 1-2 prizes. So what's he do... <drum rolll> drops Black Belt that he's been holding on for ages and KO's my Goth. Prizes 1-1. I can't quite remember the end. I know anti-climatic. I believe I saged for something to evolve a final goth or 3rd energy to KO the last Cincinno. I'm pretty sure I didn't "auto" have the final KO cause I was pretty floored by the Black Belt. But I did get the
win. GG.
Dad is 6-1. Josh ended up 10th and got 1/2 box plus more CPs. Not sure how many, but added to the 6 he got from BRs, he's doing great in this young season. Josh pulled a FA Tekrion so he was happy.
Round 8: Isaac with YMCA (and Vileplume/Sunflora).
So we're both very happy to be 6-1. Someone near us says some 6-2 might miss cut. So I'm like oh we're not "for sure in" at this point. He flips over the Purple Kitty and felt sunk. I start with Gothita and put him to sleep. He stays asleep. Yay! No see off for you. I think he benches some stuff one of which was a yanma.
Passes and stays asleep. I probably collectored and had the Tornadus benched. I added a second energy to Gothita and said "what the heck I'm gonna lose anyway" and did whatever her flippy attack for 1 Heads... and 2 heads... Yay KO on a mew. He promotes yanma, does another collector or something for a mew, see's off Cincinno. Okay here we go again. I want to say at this point, I Jirachi/Shaymin/DCE energy to Tornadus, retreat and KO another mew. He catchers up my gothita I think and KOs that with a Cincinno. I think I 2HKO his Cincino and he returns the KO. We go back and forth a bit. I think I get a Goth with 3 energies finally against a Mew that was had killed Torandus and something else. His bench has a couple oddishes and yanmegas and a Sunflora. So after I kill his 3rd Mew with Goth. And the prizes are even I think 2-2. He return KOs with his 4th Mew. Now he only needs 1 prize.
I'm pretty sure all 4 Goths were in the discard though Sages or whatever so I'm like now what? My bench looks like 1x solosis, Reunclis and a Gothorita #46 with 2 energies and a Jirachi. Remember he's got a bunch of Yanmegas ready to kill my poor solosis next turn. So it's not looking good. I promote the gothoria, draw and top deck Duosion! Yay I attach a 3rd energy and Super Psy Bolt to kill a mew. Prizes 1-1. But he gets trainers and it's just a 80HP Gothorita. So 1-1. He promotes a Yanmega and doesn't have much else to do so he Sonic booms to put as much damage on
the field as possible. I had just enough sponge space on the bench to prevent a linear attack. Given my bench, anyone see the play? Well I think I may have Flower Shop Lady'd the Goth's back in or maybe there was 1 left. So silly me attaches a 4th energy to gothorita in hopes I can Top deck the goth to OHKO a Yanmega, (maybe you all see the play... based on what I wrote earlier). So I Psy Bolt his Yanmega for 50. As his turn begins I see the play and hoped I could get 1 more energy. (It was in my hand all the time which I forgot). He retreats for another Yanmega and Sonic Booms my Gothorita. When I start, I draw no energy, but as I cycle through my cards I realize I have the last energy and and attach to Jirachi. Retreat Gothorita and KO the Yanmega with 50 by devolving it. GG. I think everyone thought I was nuts when I kept saying "I killed a Mew"
One self slops, I'll mention, is that during this match because I really thought, Isaac would just roll me, we kept up the friendly banter and "random talk" throughout the match. I know I was being silly by singing YMCA and "Doing the Wave" when he'd attack. (Yea, we're all big kids sometimes). I'm not sure if that bothered him or those around us so if that was bothersome, my apologies. It was just all in good fun. As it turned out Isaac made top cut as well. So great game Isaac!
So I'm 7-1 Sorting my deck and getting ready to turn in the deck and leave when those nearby said "stop T32 is tonite". I'm like. Ugh. Tired, hungry kids at the end of a long day and we've got 1 more match. But kids were great. Families all had snacks to share and can I just say the iPad is a wonderful invention.
At 7-1 I was 5th and get paired with Austin R. in T32.
T32 vs. Austin R. with PrimeTime
For those who don't know Austin, he was a T4 Senior at Worlds and a T8 Master at worlds. Very cool and awesome guy though.
Game 1:
We setup, he wins the coin flip. He gets a T2 Zone with a start of Jirachi with a lightning on it. After a couple turns he gets energy on the field and only way I slow him down was a Candy Goth. Well, he deevolves me after attaching a psychic to Jirachi and hes gets fully setup. I may have manually evolved a Goth, but he Lost Burns it and after a few more minutes he's down to 2 prizes and I scoop.
Game 2:
In short, see Game 1. T2 Zone (double zone in fact) and very key Judges by him wrecked any Twins chaining or Tropical Beaching I may have done. He put me out of my misery quickly. We were one of the first games done I think. But all in all a great competitor and match. It was a pleasure battling such an accomplished young man. After the match Chris Fulop was nearby judging/watching our
match and so I got to meet in person a great Pokemon legendary player. Props to Chris!
So after a very long day (and on one positive note, I didn't have to explain to my wife how I'd be driving back to Ft Wayne, a 2 hour trip each way, on the morrow for more Pokemon.) 7 packs were the prize and 2 CPs (which I enviously watched my Josh rack them up in BRs so that was cool.) Most packs went to my kids this morning but the couple I got to open myself inside was a Full Art Fliptini!
So that's my Regionals report. To all my league kids, can't wait to show you the Fliptini I won and share all the battles how as we all practice and play more, I hope to see many of them claiming Pokemon prizes in the near future.
Props:
- Christ Jesus, who invites us all to his family!
- Derek and the Pokemon crew, great tourney as always guys
- All my opponents, all were class act, friendly PokePeople. You all are the reason we keep playing. And given that most of my opponents were from Ohio, I guess I have to give Ohio their props!
- My opponent in the Minnesota Twins shirt, who wasn't from Minnesota, (okay he was
but that was just our running joke of the day)
- Families from Pokemon League who helped me take care of Josh, you all rock
- My friend Brian who came with his son and made it through his first big tournament and even got a couple of legit wins
- Brad for the uber cool Gothitelle/Reuniclis sleeves from Japan
- And Gothitelle for being a great Pokemon partner this early season
Slops:
- Bad Oscar Meyer Lunchable that made Josh sick
- Fuzzy, Purple Kitties
