JohnnyBlaze
New Member
Pokemon National Championships Indianapolis 7/7/11-7/10/11
We stay at the Park Center City Square hotel and I recommend this place for any groups larger than 6 people to stay here. They have 3 bedroom apts like place for only $99 a nite and a full kitchen. The bathroom is small for so many people but it has free parking and a nice pool and is only like a 10 min drive to the Convention Center. So we pre-register Thurs nite and get this year’s T-Shirt and promo Politoed. This years T-Shirt is white background with 5 octagon shapes with Oshawatt, Tepig, Snivy ,Reshiram, and Zekrom on it. Each Octagon has its own color associated with the Pokemon, for instance Oshawatt’s type is Water so its Octagon is blue, etc.. Very nice T-Shirt and different than in years past. So after registering we go in the play area to play a few practice games and it is mobbed in there. See a lot of people from around the country that we know. Around 8:30pm that night Rosters go up for every age division. There will be 2 Flights for MA, we then go eat at Steak and Shake and call it a night.
Day 1 : 7/8/11 – Im paired up in the Orange Flight. There are roughly 440 players in each flight and will play 9 rounds with T64 players from each flight advancing.
I decide to play Donphan w/Samurott and techs for other matchups. The Samurott ability was for mirror matches as it ohoks other Donphans. Furthermore, Samurott’s attack is all colorless that can be powered up with DCE and another energy and his ability is exactly like Exoskeleton and does not take bench damage from any Earthquakes from my Donphans. Im not going to include my list as I am still tweaking this deck for Worlds.
Round 1 vs Dave from Wisconsin
Dave is League Leader at Pooka’s league and is a cool guy. He is playing a pretty standard Magneboar list with Judges. Basically this match goes to the winner of the coin flips. I flip 3 tails on reversals to ko his Magnezones. He hits his Pokemon Reversals. The game is tied 1-1 when I flip heads on Tyrogue baby flip to wake up and he then tyrogues me back!!
L 0-1 I lose -18.36 points from this match.
Round 2 vs Ben from Indy
Ben is a local player from Indy playing Reshiboar. I had a Turn 2 Donphan taking 2 early baby prizes and also a Reshiram as I attach a Plus Power to 2 ko a Reshiram with Donphan. I also build up a Samurott to take my remaining 3 prizes.
W 1-1 Gain +13.18
Round 3 vs Robin from Florida
Robin is a Pokemom from Florida playing MewGar. I get a quick turn 2 Donphan koing like 3 Mews then 2 Reversal Flips back to back let me ko her Haunters. So Im down to 1 prize. Then the baby flips are super annoying in this game as she keeps a Mime Jr sleeping for gadzillion turns. I think total she was able to Lost Zone 4 of my Pokemon before her Mime Jr finally wakes up for my last prize.
W 2-1 Gain +12.37
Round 4 vs Frank from Florida
Another Florida player and Frank is a wicked cool guy. He is a realtor and hands me his card if I am ever looking to move to FL to give him a call. He runs Pokemon League out of his office. Frank is running MagneBoar. I actually start with my tech Bouffalant so this makes Frank early discard one of his RDL top half. But with a DCE and Plus Power I get an early ko on his Cleffa with Bouffalant. I Switch out the Bouffalant with my Cleffa and start using Eeek. Of course I always wake up and his Tyrogue takes me out. I get out a Donphan by turn 4 and take some prizes using Plus Power to ko his Magnezones. I am down to 1 prize and Frank is down to 2 Prizes after he Reversals up my benched Bouffalant and ko’s it. This is where it gets really exciting. He uses Flower Shop Lady to bring back the Top RDL piece. At this point he only has about 6-7 cards left in his deck. He burns through all of them using a Juniper. He drops the RDL but is 1 Lightning short to get his last 2 Prizes. His last Lightning energy was one of his remaining 2 prizes. So he concedes as he was going to deck out.
W 3-1 Gain +13.54
Round 5 vs Tatiana
Ive known Tatiana and her family for a few years now, her and her brother play and her father and mother judge. She states she is in her Sr year of college now, wow does time fly bye!! Tati was running a 3 Stage 2 deck with Feraligatr, Blastoise, and Magnezone. We both have slow starts trying to setup. And I remember attacking with an early Samurott koing one of her babies and a Magnemite. She does get up a Blastoise and hits my benched Zekrom for 100 damage. I then pull a Switch, attach a DCE and use Outrage for the ko on Blastosie. From there she couldn’t really recover and I win by taking my last 3 prizes with Donphan.
W 4-1 Gain +17.53
Round 6 vs Sam from Tenessee
Im feeling real good at 4-1 as this has been my best record yet at NATS. I face Sam next and he is running MegaJudge. This match is a great one indeed. We go back and forth koing Pokemon with his Yanmegas neutralizing my Donphans/babies and my damaged Zekroms koing his Yanmegas. The prize count is down 1-1 after his Magnezone surprise kos my fully healed and final Donphan after he drops a Pachi and attaches 2 energies to Pachi while his Magnezone has 2 Energies. Sam only has 1 card left in his deck and 5 cards in hand. He has a benched Tyrogue and Yanmega Prime. I have an 8 card hand and he is all out of Judges and Copycats. I have a benched Tyrogue and Reshiram. I bring out the Tyrogue to damage his active Magnezone and hope to flip tails to stay sleeping. I flip heads and wake up. He draws his last card, Switch. Then brings up his Tyrogue for his last prize. I shake his hand and he says that is the best game he has played all day. Afterwards I am so flipping mad that all I had to do was promote my benched Reshiram and he had no way to ko my Reshiram.
L 4-2 Lost -8.32 points
So I end Day 1 with a 4-2 record, I was hoping so much to go into Day 2 at 5-1. But great news in the Blue bracket, my son Nick is 5-1. Like 20 of us go out to eat at Chilis and I had the best Salmon and Rib combo then we head back to the hotel to swim and get some sleep for the next day.
Day 2 of Pokemon Nationals Saturday July 9th, 2011
So not only is it Day 2 of Pokemon NATS but its also my big 40th Birthday. That’s right I celebrate my 40th Bday playing Pokemon!! Haha!! Today is the final 3 Rounds of Swiss before Top Cut. I know that I have to go 3-0 today in order to make it at 7-2. Many 6-3 records wont make Top 64 due to players with Byes automatically have the higher resistance.
Round 7 vs Chas from Louisiana
We talk a little bit before the Round starts. Unlike yesterday with over an 1hr wait before Round 1 due to 50 people not showing up to play at NATS. I could have easily found 50 people that I know who would have loved to go to NATS and played. For 50 people and that’s just in the Orange flight not to show is just ridiculous.
I start with double Phanpy and Chas gets a Turn 2 Yanmega. I don’t even see the rest of his deck as he proceeds to Sonic Boom both of my Phanpys for a donk!! I ask if he wants to play best 2 out of 3 and he says yes. I start with Zekrom both games and pretty much donk is Yanmas. Now why couldn’t I get that start in the real tournament!!
4-3 Lost -16.01
Round 8 vs Randall Louisiana
Randall knows Chad from the previous round. Randall was playing Yanmega, Kingdra Jirachi, and Tyrogue. His Tyrogue took the first 2 prizes but I was able to completely set up with Samurott and Zekrom and both of those proved too difficult for Yanmegas/Kingdras to take down.
5-3 Gain +16.99 points
Round 9 vs Johnny R
Johnny R and I sat across from each other yesterday during decklist submission time as they seat rosters in 1st name alphabetical order. Johnny was running Mew, Vileplume, Yanmega, and Jirachi. I hit some early Reversals to ko his Glooms b4 they evolved to Vileplume. I hardly ever evolved into Donphan because he used Mew’s attack See Off to Lost Zone a Muk to drag somebody on the bench and Confuses and Poisons that Poke. I actually Revenge kos most of his Mews after he gets prizes. I am down to my last 2 Prizes and he tries to stall with babies and wakes up so then my Donphan takes my final 2 Prizes.
6-3 Gain +19.57
So I tie my best record at NATS 6-3. Still striving for that 7-2 or better record. After final standings go up I am in 95th place with a 52.1 resistance. My son Nick in the Blue flight ends up going 8-1 in 9th place and makes Top 32. After all of the NATS has been uploaded he is #40 in North America with an 1844.44 rating and has an invite to Worlds!! We end up hanging out to see the rest of the tournament and play in League and later we celebrate my bday at the Indy Hard Rock restaurant!! Hope you enjoyed my report!! See you all at Worlds in San Diego in August.
We stay at the Park Center City Square hotel and I recommend this place for any groups larger than 6 people to stay here. They have 3 bedroom apts like place for only $99 a nite and a full kitchen. The bathroom is small for so many people but it has free parking and a nice pool and is only like a 10 min drive to the Convention Center. So we pre-register Thurs nite and get this year’s T-Shirt and promo Politoed. This years T-Shirt is white background with 5 octagon shapes with Oshawatt, Tepig, Snivy ,Reshiram, and Zekrom on it. Each Octagon has its own color associated with the Pokemon, for instance Oshawatt’s type is Water so its Octagon is blue, etc.. Very nice T-Shirt and different than in years past. So after registering we go in the play area to play a few practice games and it is mobbed in there. See a lot of people from around the country that we know. Around 8:30pm that night Rosters go up for every age division. There will be 2 Flights for MA, we then go eat at Steak and Shake and call it a night.
Day 1 : 7/8/11 – Im paired up in the Orange Flight. There are roughly 440 players in each flight and will play 9 rounds with T64 players from each flight advancing.
I decide to play Donphan w/Samurott and techs for other matchups. The Samurott ability was for mirror matches as it ohoks other Donphans. Furthermore, Samurott’s attack is all colorless that can be powered up with DCE and another energy and his ability is exactly like Exoskeleton and does not take bench damage from any Earthquakes from my Donphans. Im not going to include my list as I am still tweaking this deck for Worlds.
Round 1 vs Dave from Wisconsin
Dave is League Leader at Pooka’s league and is a cool guy. He is playing a pretty standard Magneboar list with Judges. Basically this match goes to the winner of the coin flips. I flip 3 tails on reversals to ko his Magnezones. He hits his Pokemon Reversals. The game is tied 1-1 when I flip heads on Tyrogue baby flip to wake up and he then tyrogues me back!!
L 0-1 I lose -18.36 points from this match.
Round 2 vs Ben from Indy
Ben is a local player from Indy playing Reshiboar. I had a Turn 2 Donphan taking 2 early baby prizes and also a Reshiram as I attach a Plus Power to 2 ko a Reshiram with Donphan. I also build up a Samurott to take my remaining 3 prizes.
W 1-1 Gain +13.18
Round 3 vs Robin from Florida
Robin is a Pokemom from Florida playing MewGar. I get a quick turn 2 Donphan koing like 3 Mews then 2 Reversal Flips back to back let me ko her Haunters. So Im down to 1 prize. Then the baby flips are super annoying in this game as she keeps a Mime Jr sleeping for gadzillion turns. I think total she was able to Lost Zone 4 of my Pokemon before her Mime Jr finally wakes up for my last prize.
W 2-1 Gain +12.37
Round 4 vs Frank from Florida
Another Florida player and Frank is a wicked cool guy. He is a realtor and hands me his card if I am ever looking to move to FL to give him a call. He runs Pokemon League out of his office. Frank is running MagneBoar. I actually start with my tech Bouffalant so this makes Frank early discard one of his RDL top half. But with a DCE and Plus Power I get an early ko on his Cleffa with Bouffalant. I Switch out the Bouffalant with my Cleffa and start using Eeek. Of course I always wake up and his Tyrogue takes me out. I get out a Donphan by turn 4 and take some prizes using Plus Power to ko his Magnezones. I am down to 1 prize and Frank is down to 2 Prizes after he Reversals up my benched Bouffalant and ko’s it. This is where it gets really exciting. He uses Flower Shop Lady to bring back the Top RDL piece. At this point he only has about 6-7 cards left in his deck. He burns through all of them using a Juniper. He drops the RDL but is 1 Lightning short to get his last 2 Prizes. His last Lightning energy was one of his remaining 2 prizes. So he concedes as he was going to deck out.
W 3-1 Gain +13.54
Round 5 vs Tatiana
Ive known Tatiana and her family for a few years now, her and her brother play and her father and mother judge. She states she is in her Sr year of college now, wow does time fly bye!! Tati was running a 3 Stage 2 deck with Feraligatr, Blastoise, and Magnezone. We both have slow starts trying to setup. And I remember attacking with an early Samurott koing one of her babies and a Magnemite. She does get up a Blastoise and hits my benched Zekrom for 100 damage. I then pull a Switch, attach a DCE and use Outrage for the ko on Blastosie. From there she couldn’t really recover and I win by taking my last 3 prizes with Donphan.
W 4-1 Gain +17.53
Round 6 vs Sam from Tenessee
Im feeling real good at 4-1 as this has been my best record yet at NATS. I face Sam next and he is running MegaJudge. This match is a great one indeed. We go back and forth koing Pokemon with his Yanmegas neutralizing my Donphans/babies and my damaged Zekroms koing his Yanmegas. The prize count is down 1-1 after his Magnezone surprise kos my fully healed and final Donphan after he drops a Pachi and attaches 2 energies to Pachi while his Magnezone has 2 Energies. Sam only has 1 card left in his deck and 5 cards in hand. He has a benched Tyrogue and Yanmega Prime. I have an 8 card hand and he is all out of Judges and Copycats. I have a benched Tyrogue and Reshiram. I bring out the Tyrogue to damage his active Magnezone and hope to flip tails to stay sleeping. I flip heads and wake up. He draws his last card, Switch. Then brings up his Tyrogue for his last prize. I shake his hand and he says that is the best game he has played all day. Afterwards I am so flipping mad that all I had to do was promote my benched Reshiram and he had no way to ko my Reshiram.
L 4-2 Lost -8.32 points
So I end Day 1 with a 4-2 record, I was hoping so much to go into Day 2 at 5-1. But great news in the Blue bracket, my son Nick is 5-1. Like 20 of us go out to eat at Chilis and I had the best Salmon and Rib combo then we head back to the hotel to swim and get some sleep for the next day.
Day 2 of Pokemon Nationals Saturday July 9th, 2011
So not only is it Day 2 of Pokemon NATS but its also my big 40th Birthday. That’s right I celebrate my 40th Bday playing Pokemon!! Haha!! Today is the final 3 Rounds of Swiss before Top Cut. I know that I have to go 3-0 today in order to make it at 7-2. Many 6-3 records wont make Top 64 due to players with Byes automatically have the higher resistance.
Round 7 vs Chas from Louisiana
We talk a little bit before the Round starts. Unlike yesterday with over an 1hr wait before Round 1 due to 50 people not showing up to play at NATS. I could have easily found 50 people that I know who would have loved to go to NATS and played. For 50 people and that’s just in the Orange flight not to show is just ridiculous.
I start with double Phanpy and Chas gets a Turn 2 Yanmega. I don’t even see the rest of his deck as he proceeds to Sonic Boom both of my Phanpys for a donk!! I ask if he wants to play best 2 out of 3 and he says yes. I start with Zekrom both games and pretty much donk is Yanmas. Now why couldn’t I get that start in the real tournament!!
4-3 Lost -16.01
Round 8 vs Randall Louisiana
Randall knows Chad from the previous round. Randall was playing Yanmega, Kingdra Jirachi, and Tyrogue. His Tyrogue took the first 2 prizes but I was able to completely set up with Samurott and Zekrom and both of those proved too difficult for Yanmegas/Kingdras to take down.
5-3 Gain +16.99 points
Round 9 vs Johnny R
Johnny R and I sat across from each other yesterday during decklist submission time as they seat rosters in 1st name alphabetical order. Johnny was running Mew, Vileplume, Yanmega, and Jirachi. I hit some early Reversals to ko his Glooms b4 they evolved to Vileplume. I hardly ever evolved into Donphan because he used Mew’s attack See Off to Lost Zone a Muk to drag somebody on the bench and Confuses and Poisons that Poke. I actually Revenge kos most of his Mews after he gets prizes. I am down to my last 2 Prizes and he tries to stall with babies and wakes up so then my Donphan takes my final 2 Prizes.
6-3 Gain +19.57
So I tie my best record at NATS 6-3. Still striving for that 7-2 or better record. After final standings go up I am in 95th place with a 52.1 resistance. My son Nick in the Blue flight ends up going 8-1 in 9th place and makes Top 32. After all of the NATS has been uploaded he is #40 in North America with an 1844.44 rating and has an invite to Worlds!! We end up hanging out to see the rest of the tournament and play in League and later we celebrate my bday at the Indy Hard Rock restaurant!! Hope you enjoyed my report!! See you all at Worlds in San Diego in August.
