amphyrules
New Member
Masters 1st place UK Nationals Report.
I can’t make this report as detailed as I usually do because I’m swamped with work, but don’t let the quantity of it fool you, no amount of words can describe how much this Nationals and its participants meant to me.
This season started off with me not wanting to play at all. I was tired of Pokémon, tired of all its drama, and wanted to work hard at college. Inevitably, I come back and find it’s going to be a hard year, with power blocking cards, swarming basics and turn one knock outs. I played mainly post December, forming a pretty solid friendship with Tom Hall along the way. We benefitted dramatically from partnering up, as he had most of the cards I needed and I had access to the best lists. Anyway, the lead up to Nationals was pretty quiet, except of course for the return of a great friend. Clive (Avmozz) had been away for a while due to personal reasons, but his return was comfortably the highlight of my Pokémon year.
So, a week before Nationals, Tom comes down to chill. It’s annoying at first because he insists decks like Garchomp/Blissey are good, but we retire the deck after I beat him a bunch. We start testing legitimate matchups, and decide Kingdra beats most of the UK metagame, but struggles with Dialga based Galactic decks. The day’s pass and my girlfriend makes us delicious meals, and looks after us the whole time. Yacine hadn’t played the whole year, but took an instant liking to Kingdra and decided he would play it regardless of its matchups.
We play NBA09 on PS3, and just chill until Friday. I have college, and a really long stressful day of exam preparation. When I finish my ten-hour school day, I get home and find everyone ready to leave for the hotel. I didn’t live too far from the tournament, but wanted the security of being a walk away. Also, it meant getting to see Clive earlier and a few cool Manchurian players I’d talked to online. Mozz brought me some really great stuff for the next day, and Scarlett couldn’t stop talking about how generous he was. I opted not to use the rare sleeves he gave me as I shuffle like a madman and probably would have ruined them. I can’t fall asleep until around 3, but just talk to Tom about how i’m sure there will be a lot of anti-dialga/Gengar/Machamp the next day.
We wake up early and get to the event courtesy of a lift from Clive. When I get there, I look to find Freddy and wish him good luck for the tournament. There had been bad blood between (alliteration) us, and I wanted to at least be civil. I hand in my decklist after deliberating between Eric/Fulops DialgaPalkia and my Kingdra. A lot of people have Pm’d me for the list, but I figured its fairer (easier) if I just post it here. Good luck to you all that have remaining DP-PT tournaments.
I go with:
4 Kingdra
3 Seadra
4 Horsea
3 Claydol
3 Baltoy
2 Crobat g
1 Skuntank g
2 Unown G
2 Uxie
4 Broken Time Space
4 Rare Candy
4 Bebe’s Search
4 Roseanne’s Research
4 Super Scoop Up
2 Luxury Ball
2 Cynthia’s Feelings
3 Warp point
1 Night Maintenance
8 Water energy
Really consistent list.
Gonna rush this bit. I’m tired and in no way mean disrespect to any of my opponents, but I have exams that need revising for! All of my opponents were really polite and played really well.
R1 – Scizor/Cherrim (W)
R2 – Porygon Z (W)
R3 – Dialga/Palkia (W)
R4 – Machamp (W)
R5 – Toxicroak/Skuntank/Weavile/Honch (W)
R6 – Kingdra/Dusknoir (W)
R7 – Gardevoir/Gallade/Weavile (L)
In round 7, I ask my friend if he wants me to concede to him, but he says he wants to legitimately beat me. 4-5 Dragon pumps later, with not much left on his side of the field, I repeat the question. He says yes please, and I do so to guarantee him entry to the cut.
T8 – ‘Dante’ Kingdra
Really chill guy. Played two really quick games, in which he never really got going. Had a laugh and a joke, and was just one of the many banter filled games I played this day.
T4 – ‘Yacine Sekkoum’ Kingdra (W)
I win game one because I go second and can poison structure his Kingdra’s. He wins game two by turn 2’ing my Baltoy. And I win game 3 because I have the choice to play second. Good games.
T2 – Gengar/Cress (W)
I don’t think many people wanted me to win this game. I heard people talking about wanting Andy to win, and my opening hand seemed to agree with them. I look at a trainer-less Unown G hand and am going first I topdeck a Baltoy, retreat and attach it. He T1 Gengar Calls. I have to luxury ball for a claydol as I’m cautious about dropping Uxie’s. Long story short, its looking bad as he takes 3 prizes before I get a Kingdra. I set up two Kingdra and an Unown G’d Skuntank/Claydol. I Cosmic and Dragon pump my trainers so he can only put 3 on Kingdra. I work my way back into the game and super scoop Kingdra’s when they come close to dying. Whenever he plays lookers, I opt to draw 1-2 and there’s not much he can do vs poison structure + pump/stream. Small issue in this game is dealt with quickly, and Andy scoops the game. Game two he doesn’t get anything, and flips over a bunch of horrible prizes. Great games pal.
☺
Too many props to list, no slops
Thank you all for making it a great day.
Sami Sekkoum
I can’t make this report as detailed as I usually do because I’m swamped with work, but don’t let the quantity of it fool you, no amount of words can describe how much this Nationals and its participants meant to me.
This season started off with me not wanting to play at all. I was tired of Pokémon, tired of all its drama, and wanted to work hard at college. Inevitably, I come back and find it’s going to be a hard year, with power blocking cards, swarming basics and turn one knock outs. I played mainly post December, forming a pretty solid friendship with Tom Hall along the way. We benefitted dramatically from partnering up, as he had most of the cards I needed and I had access to the best lists. Anyway, the lead up to Nationals was pretty quiet, except of course for the return of a great friend. Clive (Avmozz) had been away for a while due to personal reasons, but his return was comfortably the highlight of my Pokémon year.
So, a week before Nationals, Tom comes down to chill. It’s annoying at first because he insists decks like Garchomp/Blissey are good, but we retire the deck after I beat him a bunch. We start testing legitimate matchups, and decide Kingdra beats most of the UK metagame, but struggles with Dialga based Galactic decks. The day’s pass and my girlfriend makes us delicious meals, and looks after us the whole time. Yacine hadn’t played the whole year, but took an instant liking to Kingdra and decided he would play it regardless of its matchups.
We play NBA09 on PS3, and just chill until Friday. I have college, and a really long stressful day of exam preparation. When I finish my ten-hour school day, I get home and find everyone ready to leave for the hotel. I didn’t live too far from the tournament, but wanted the security of being a walk away. Also, it meant getting to see Clive earlier and a few cool Manchurian players I’d talked to online. Mozz brought me some really great stuff for the next day, and Scarlett couldn’t stop talking about how generous he was. I opted not to use the rare sleeves he gave me as I shuffle like a madman and probably would have ruined them. I can’t fall asleep until around 3, but just talk to Tom about how i’m sure there will be a lot of anti-dialga/Gengar/Machamp the next day.
We wake up early and get to the event courtesy of a lift from Clive. When I get there, I look to find Freddy and wish him good luck for the tournament. There had been bad blood between (alliteration) us, and I wanted to at least be civil. I hand in my decklist after deliberating between Eric/Fulops DialgaPalkia and my Kingdra. A lot of people have Pm’d me for the list, but I figured its fairer (easier) if I just post it here. Good luck to you all that have remaining DP-PT tournaments.
I go with:
4 Kingdra
3 Seadra
4 Horsea
3 Claydol
3 Baltoy
2 Crobat g
1 Skuntank g
2 Unown G
2 Uxie
4 Broken Time Space
4 Rare Candy
4 Bebe’s Search
4 Roseanne’s Research
4 Super Scoop Up
2 Luxury Ball
2 Cynthia’s Feelings
3 Warp point
1 Night Maintenance
8 Water energy
Really consistent list.
Gonna rush this bit. I’m tired and in no way mean disrespect to any of my opponents, but I have exams that need revising for! All of my opponents were really polite and played really well.
R1 – Scizor/Cherrim (W)
R2 – Porygon Z (W)
R3 – Dialga/Palkia (W)
R4 – Machamp (W)
R5 – Toxicroak/Skuntank/Weavile/Honch (W)
R6 – Kingdra/Dusknoir (W)
R7 – Gardevoir/Gallade/Weavile (L)
In round 7, I ask my friend if he wants me to concede to him, but he says he wants to legitimately beat me. 4-5 Dragon pumps later, with not much left on his side of the field, I repeat the question. He says yes please, and I do so to guarantee him entry to the cut.
T8 – ‘Dante’ Kingdra
Really chill guy. Played two really quick games, in which he never really got going. Had a laugh and a joke, and was just one of the many banter filled games I played this day.
T4 – ‘Yacine Sekkoum’ Kingdra (W)
I win game one because I go second and can poison structure his Kingdra’s. He wins game two by turn 2’ing my Baltoy. And I win game 3 because I have the choice to play second. Good games.
T2 – Gengar/Cress (W)
I don’t think many people wanted me to win this game. I heard people talking about wanting Andy to win, and my opening hand seemed to agree with them. I look at a trainer-less Unown G hand and am going first I topdeck a Baltoy, retreat and attach it. He T1 Gengar Calls. I have to luxury ball for a claydol as I’m cautious about dropping Uxie’s. Long story short, its looking bad as he takes 3 prizes before I get a Kingdra. I set up two Kingdra and an Unown G’d Skuntank/Claydol. I Cosmic and Dragon pump my trainers so he can only put 3 on Kingdra. I work my way back into the game and super scoop Kingdra’s when they come close to dying. Whenever he plays lookers, I opt to draw 1-2 and there’s not much he can do vs poison structure + pump/stream. Small issue in this game is dealt with quickly, and Andy scoops the game. Game two he doesn’t get anything, and flips over a bunch of horrible prizes. Great games pal.
☺
Too many props to list, no slops
Thank you all for making it a great day.
Sami Sekkoum
