Rai
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So really not much exciting before Nationals itself (except GEEZ the flight into Salt Lake City for a brief connection was the single most awful turbulence I've ever seen). Rooming with Trevor W., his son Ian, Ted B., and Greg R. with Zane N. and David C. popping in constantly and playtesting all Friday does that to one's memory.
The good news about Friday is that we call some place, and wait a long time. When the food came long after we had given up hope (the place didn't actually pick up the phone and we had placed our order on the answering machine XD), we get some of the best Barbeque delivered to the hotel that I've ever had. Even the bread was good.
Anyway, back to pokemons. I'm aware of how Gathering Grounds is selling out of Luxrays reeeeally fast, a lot of people are whispering how good it is. So I'm considering whipping out my Flygon/Typholosion deck. I determine that my supposed consistency during Battle Roads was a fluke though on Friday, so I fall back on Tyranitar which I know is at least decent.
So Saturday rolls around, I decide to remove a moonlight stadium for a warp point at the last minute, and we run to the ballroom (partially 'cause I overslept like always).
So for the uninformed...
Name: Patrick “Rai” Feren
Division: Masters Flight 1
From: Washington
Playing: Tyranitar
Round 1: Flygon/Blissey (Gino)
So I look at the roster to see who my opponent is. Gino Lombardi. Gino. Round 1. Great. Keeping in mind that this is my first Nationals ever, and how the highest I've placed in a huge tournament is Top 16 Oregon States... I'm probably shaking without realizing it at the table. Our starts are my lone Sneasel LA to his Trapinch RR. He goes first, meaning he turn 1 grinds me for 20. I don't draw into a Roseanne's until my second turn, and his Trapinch has two energy on it, meaning I've taken 50 damage on my lone Sneasel. Fortunately, I had a rare candy too, so get out Jirachi and Baltoy with Roseanne's, rare candying to Claydol. Jirachi, being the single most amazing set up card ever, gets me a Tyranitar reasonably quickly afterwards, while Gino himself never sees a Claydol. At some point I Warp Point (with my active pokemon being Jirachi), he sends up the only Baltoy he ever sees, which I spinning tail KO. He tries to KO that Tyranitar with a Flygon SW, but misplays by leveling it up and forgetting that he lost the weakness advantage (and milled something useless, to be OHKOed in return by grind to make it even more painful <_<). He sets up a real Flygon RR later which tries to be annoying with Sand Wall, if it weren't for my Warp Point that I had just added in. Tyranitar winds up shrugging off its Power Swing, though I eventually am run down to a lone Tyranitar and useless stuff on the bench. We're sitting with me having one prize left and him having at least three, so he decides to gamble by retreating his active Flygon SW and bring up a Trapinch RR. He counts my discard, 7 energy and I had taken 10 damage from Irratating Buzz earlier. So an Energy Typhoon KOs my Ttar (by dealing 20*7=140 damage) which would leave me with nothing, yes? He needs an energy on the Trapinch, so he uses Gather Sand, evolves to Vibrava, and attacks with Energy Typhoon. Slight problem though: The Gather Sand power removed an energy from my discard and gave it to Ttar. He comes 10 short on damage, and I grind for last prize. Woooooow. That's all I have to say, Wow (and in a good way).
1-0
This round was kinda weird for our group, as Trevor explains some weiiiiird coincidence opponent round one, and Greg beats Omar (who subsequently drops)
Round 2: SP Toolbox (Tracey)
Well right before the game, I hear her talking to someone about “Hey, the Honchkrow is amazing!”. You'd think I'd be smart and know to expect it in this game. Of course not. My opening hand is... Pokemon, pokemon, pokemon, pokemon, pokemon, pokemon, and special dark. At least one of them was a Sableye. Her opening was Raichu GL, which I wound up underestimating very quickly. I have a Larvitar on the bench with a Special Dark, she comes around and smacks it with Raichu GL, I wiff on drawing any evolutions, and she turns around with Honchkrow G and snipes it to death. To be even more embarressing, I play another Larvitar without waiting for a BTS or Rare Candy, just for her to drop a Crobat G and repeat the Honchkrow G snipe <_<. So I'm already having to use my lone Night Maintenance on something like turn 5. I don't even see a Weavile to try and come back from the lame start. I get one Tyranitar with mediocre amounts of energy, only to have Toxicroak G (the promo) come running out of her hand to smack me hard. I at least can get a Nidoqueen out somewhat fast, and that's about the only thing I have the ability to take prizes with. She then builds a Dialga G LV.X with one prize left, and I can't do much to stop it.
1-1
Lunch Break: So I know that all of the restaurants nearby have closed after seeing their signs Friday night. Then Steven R. (Senior from Washington)'s dad comes over and tells Zane, David, and I about this Chinese place right in front of a Casino. So we go down stairs, through an underground tunnel with the walkways like at huge airports, and wind up at the Lumiere Place casino, and see Chinese (with take-out!) to the right. Slightly expensive, but no line and was open, so can't complain too badly (though the food was sorta weird Chinese). I also decide to get a Snow Cone, Steven does the same. Right as David asks me if my cone was as large as Steven's was (they gave him a super tall one which was interesting), Steven drops half his ice onto the floor. Classy. Someone runs out, tells us they have Pairings up, even though its only 1:20 (supposed to be back at 1:30) so we give up and resume the grind.
Round 3: Flygon/Gengar
...To be honest, this is where I stop noticing the names of my opponents. Sorry guys. :[ Anyway, he opens with Unown G and I get... Sableye! Second time in a row, but no Special Dark this time, so I attach a basic dark, decide “screw it, might as well try” and Overconfident'd to put him at 10 HP left. He roseanne's immediately for Baltoy and... Gastly (the only one I saw all day). He attaches and retreats the Unown G for Gastly, attaches G to Baltoy, and says Pitch Dark. I stare for a bit, making sure to at least Roseanne's for my Larvitar (and something else which I forget), and repeat Overconfident. Due to weakness, its a kill this time, which takes him by surprise with a lone Baltoy remaining. He gets a Claydol next turn, but has problems removing it from the active spot before I turn around and Grind him with Ttar the very next turn for 50 (love special dark). We both set up slightly more, as I eventually spam Spinning Tail. He sends up a Gengar, which does very little (trying to use Shadow Room to pick off a Tyranitar is paaaainfully slow), while I spinning tail to hit it for something obscene like 70 damage (one special dark + weakness =) and still spreading. He PokeHealer+s, which to his frustration won't heal his benched Claydol but winds up healing his active Gengar. ...Which actually helps me more then anything, as now I get another turn of Spinning Tail without having to worry about Fainting Spell. I then after another round of Spinning tail retreat my Ttar, discarding 4 basic energies (owch) and sending up the Sableye from forever ago. I overconfident for the Gengar KO, as he flips heads on Fainting Spell (Whoooo dodged the bullet by sacrificing Sableye instead). Hilariously, this gets me back one of the basic darks, which lets me resume Grinding ASAP, while his Flygons struggle to find energy fast enough. I'm actually able to resume Spinning Tail spam before long with him using Claydol desperately, which leads to a rather brutal death with at least three prizes in one turn.
2-1
Round 4: Luxray (Andrew something)
I'm playing against a speed deck with a well known slow deck. And yet I manage to get a Ttar wth 4 energies rather quickly. Then BAM Toxicroak G (Promo) with... Lake Boundary and Crobat G this time! ...140 damage out of nowhere isn't very fun. My Rare Candies all flee from the top of my deck, and I finally get out a Claydol super late, which happens right as he draws into Power Spray after Power Spray. It is frustrating the weakness of Tyranitar: being able to set up one really fast usually means you won't have the ability to build a second one <_<.
2-2
I notice a funny pattern at this point. Actually, several, all of which I wished would turn false later in the day.
1) I was losing to every SP deck I played against
2) I was winning each odd numbered round and losing each even numbered round.
3) My games are getting less and less interesting. :[
Round 5: Drapion
I was sorta surprised to see the Skorupi at the start. Really rogue decks FTW. It seemed he had a 1-1 Darkrai LV.X tech in there too, which he got out (unlike me, who decided I'd rather run Nidoqueen and actually turn some matchups around then play Darkrai and not really change anything but Spinning Tail spam). My favorite part of Ttar, the fast building of the first Tyrant, happens as usual, and he never really has an answer to it. He eventually manages to pull together a Drapion for long enough to use Derail for 90 damage and removing three special darks, but I Lucian's up some energy I had let stagnate on my second Tyranitar for the KO and game finisher.
3-2
Round 6: Abomasnow
I start with a Nidoran and he immediately starts swearing he's going to lose. I'm ready for my patterns to start breaking, so I don't say anything. This happens to be the only game that I didn't see a Tyranitar particularly quickly, and my Nidoqueen was prized or something. So he's spreading like a nut, my Nidoran dies before I finally get the Nidoqueen and Candy (forcing me to use yet another early Night Maintenance), and when I do get out the Queen, I've already lost about four prizes. Oh, and he's built up a Mewtwo. My Tyranitar's looking kind of sad with 40 damage on it (after using Maternal Comfort a few times, yes), and a Mewtwo LV.X comes up and smacks it for exactly enough for KO. I can't quite build anything else up, and he sweeps with a few repeated Energy Absorbtions and Giga Burns. Owch. Probably the game where I hit the worst luck due to start fail, Nidoqueen fail, and Ttar setting up fail. :[
3-3
Round 7: Machamp (Janet B.)
...So the funny story about Janet. She's a player from Oregon. We've ran into each other at both Washington AND Oregon States, and both times she was playing Kingdra and both times I was playing SP (Not much of a better name for it XD). Both times I got Giratina Let Loose on turn 1 and both times I gave her God hands while giving myself impossibly horrid hands. And now I'm playing her at Nationals too. What's next, we see each other in the Grinder? But I digress, we've changed decks which means the luck has switched. My start is Larvitar vs. her Unown G. I get a turn 2 Claydol, she gets a Turn 1 Machamp. She has... one energy for what must have been 14 or so turns, despite all the Uxie drops. She wastes it on Unown G retreating (but at least recovers it with a Regirock, only to see no Stark Mountain for a long time). I'm building a Ttar, OHKOing pokemon after pokemon with Grind. She eventually finds three energy and decides to attack using Regirock on Ttar. She flips tails and only does 70 damage and is promptly ground to death afterwards. I guess revenge was served? But to tack onto the weird patterns: both decks that I faced where Fighting was prominent, I won, and both decks where Fighting was a one card tech, I lost.
4-3
Apparently Round 7 was the weird round for Washington. Tyler N. and Ross C. were playing each other in Flight 2, Trevor W. had sat down two tables lower then he was supposed to, the correct opponent never showed up and Trevor got a game loss despite winning the game he played at the wrong table really quickly (like before the match slips came around). I also wound up sitting next to Matthew D. who wound up losing to Regigigias with Gengar.
Round 8: Palkia G w/ Pixies
Oooooooh boy. Time to reeeeeally test my luck. I get greeted with what must have been 4 turns of Mesprit Lock ASAP, Claydol Hydro Shot'd, Nidoran Hydro Shot'd, and Larvitar Hydro Shot'd. Even against Abomasnow my deck didn't freeze this badly.
4-4
So... Remember those patterns? I hate how I'm so predictable.
1) I lost against every SP deck, true.
2) I won each odd numbered round and lost each even numbered round, true.
3) My matches were becoming less interesting as the day went on. It's really not a very fair or nice statement, but also true. (finishing with a complete lock? Oh how very fun)
4) Win against all fighting based decks and lose against decks that merely tech fighting pokemon. True, considering Gino's Flygon used exclusively Fighting energy, and both of the two early SP decks I faced played Toxicroak G (promo).
So the day finishes with Ian W. (yay Junior) going Top 64 and losing despite us spending all of yesterday testing that particular matchup (Flygon vs. Gengar) and neglecting to test the matchup that cost him three games (Flygon vs. Beedrill). Greg R. comes 5-3 with the most insane deck possible (“The One”, playing exactly enough different types of cards to completely fill out the deck list sheet) and misses cut. I know Trevor W. and Matthew D. had been having rough days, and I get too tired to care about Tyler or Ross's results. So I return to the room pretty much right after Masters Round 8 finishes, crash and apparently sleep talk or something to Trevor later. I wake up very confused to Greg building a deck, claiming he broke the format at like 10:30 Saturday Night.
I find out that overall Washington didn't do too hot at Nationals, though quite a few people made it in via Rankings anyway, so whatever. I spend the next few days relaxing and playing a few fun games against people. And the pickup tournaments prove even more to me that I would have made a mistake playing in Nationals with my Flygon deck, so whatever. Ttar's a heck of a lot more fun to play anyway.
We finish off with Spaghetti Factory with an ever growing party (starting with the five of us in “Zane's Uncle's room” plus the two Ninomuras, then adding in a bunch of random people found on the streets for 12 total though we only tell the people we have 10 XD) for an epic last night dinner followed by Uno in the room and yet more pokemon.
Props:
- Washington players for being amazingly fun to hang out with (Other then the Clantons saying hi on Monday, that's about it we ran into :[. Lack of Oregon :/)
- Zane's “Uncle” XD
- Spaghetti Factory for actually being open unlike everything else XD
- Steven's dad for finding food on Saturday... ...At a Casino. That was actually quite a ways away unless we used the moving walkways.
- Ttar for being amazingly cool (though a loner. And everyone knows lone wolves fail. Toxicroak G techs in particular know this)
- Round 1. I don't know what to attribute stuff to, skill or luck. I just know that I can call it awesome.
- Event Staff for making the event exceptionally well run (for the most part)
- Barbeque in St. Louis being amazing, if you know where to go.
Slops:
- Patterns. Patterns. WHYYYYYY.
- Flight stopping at Salt Lake City. Worst. Turbulence. Ever.
- Freaking Toxicroak G. Ugh.
- The restaurants being closed all around downtown St.Louis
- Zane for turning off the AC in our room. And turning away the fan. Why so Anti-Cool? <_<
- The AC in our room never really working. The heat wasn't too bad. The humidity was.
- Us not testing Beedrill vs. Ian like we should have. :[
- Me not being smarter and bringing better decks with me like a Plox or Luxray/Anything, or something. ...Though I probably wouldn't have had as much fun as with Grind/Spinning Tail spam, so bleh.
- “Chicago Cheese Steak”. I really do sound like an idiot sometimes <_<
- Greg never sleeping. What. The. Heck. :/
- Me forgetting the DS Lite charger cable. Hate non-standard plugs. : [[[
- All of the death related news recently
The good news about Friday is that we call some place, and wait a long time. When the food came long after we had given up hope (the place didn't actually pick up the phone and we had placed our order on the answering machine XD), we get some of the best Barbeque delivered to the hotel that I've ever had. Even the bread was good.
Anyway, back to pokemons. I'm aware of how Gathering Grounds is selling out of Luxrays reeeeally fast, a lot of people are whispering how good it is. So I'm considering whipping out my Flygon/Typholosion deck. I determine that my supposed consistency during Battle Roads was a fluke though on Friday, so I fall back on Tyranitar which I know is at least decent.
So Saturday rolls around, I decide to remove a moonlight stadium for a warp point at the last minute, and we run to the ballroom (partially 'cause I overslept like always).
So for the uninformed...
Name: Patrick “Rai” Feren
Division: Masters Flight 1
From: Washington
Playing: Tyranitar
Round 1: Flygon/Blissey (Gino)
So I look at the roster to see who my opponent is. Gino Lombardi. Gino. Round 1. Great. Keeping in mind that this is my first Nationals ever, and how the highest I've placed in a huge tournament is Top 16 Oregon States... I'm probably shaking without realizing it at the table. Our starts are my lone Sneasel LA to his Trapinch RR. He goes first, meaning he turn 1 grinds me for 20. I don't draw into a Roseanne's until my second turn, and his Trapinch has two energy on it, meaning I've taken 50 damage on my lone Sneasel. Fortunately, I had a rare candy too, so get out Jirachi and Baltoy with Roseanne's, rare candying to Claydol. Jirachi, being the single most amazing set up card ever, gets me a Tyranitar reasonably quickly afterwards, while Gino himself never sees a Claydol. At some point I Warp Point (with my active pokemon being Jirachi
), he sends up the only Baltoy he ever sees, which I spinning tail KO. He tries to KO that Tyranitar with a Flygon SW, but misplays by leveling it up and forgetting that he lost the weakness advantage (and milled something useless, to be OHKOed in return by grind to make it even more painful <_<). He sets up a real Flygon RR later which tries to be annoying with Sand Wall, if it weren't for my Warp Point that I had just added in. Tyranitar winds up shrugging off its Power Swing, though I eventually am run down to a lone Tyranitar and useless stuff on the bench. We're sitting with me having one prize left and him having at least three, so he decides to gamble by retreating his active Flygon SW and bring up a Trapinch RR. He counts my discard, 7 energy and I had taken 10 damage from Irratating Buzz earlier. So an Energy Typhoon KOs my Ttar (by dealing 20*7=140 damage) which would leave me with nothing, yes? He needs an energy on the Trapinch, so he uses Gather Sand, evolves to Vibrava, and attacks with Energy Typhoon. Slight problem though: The Gather Sand power removed an energy from my discard and gave it to Ttar. He comes 10 short on damage, and I grind for last prize. Woooooow. That's all I have to say, Wow (and in a good way).1-0
This round was kinda weird for our group, as Trevor explains some weiiiiird coincidence opponent round one, and Greg beats Omar (who subsequently drops)
Round 2: SP Toolbox (Tracey)
Well right before the game, I hear her talking to someone about “Hey, the Honchkrow is amazing!”. You'd think I'd be smart and know to expect it in this game. Of course not. My opening hand is... Pokemon, pokemon, pokemon, pokemon, pokemon, pokemon, and special dark. At least one of them was a Sableye. Her opening was Raichu GL, which I wound up underestimating very quickly. I have a Larvitar on the bench with a Special Dark, she comes around and smacks it with Raichu GL, I wiff on drawing any evolutions, and she turns around with Honchkrow G and snipes it to death. To be even more embarressing, I play another Larvitar without waiting for a BTS or Rare Candy, just for her to drop a Crobat G and repeat the Honchkrow G snipe <_<. So I'm already having to use my lone Night Maintenance on something like turn 5. I don't even see a Weavile to try and come back from the lame start. I get one Tyranitar with mediocre amounts of energy, only to have Toxicroak G (the promo) come running out of her hand to smack me hard. I at least can get a Nidoqueen out somewhat fast, and that's about the only thing I have the ability to take prizes with. She then builds a Dialga G LV.X with one prize left, and I can't do much to stop it.
1-1
Lunch Break: So I know that all of the restaurants nearby have closed after seeing their signs Friday night. Then Steven R. (Senior from Washington)'s dad comes over and tells Zane, David, and I about this Chinese place right in front of a Casino. So we go down stairs, through an underground tunnel with the walkways like at huge airports, and wind up at the Lumiere Place casino, and see Chinese (with take-out!
) to the right. Slightly expensive, but no line and was open, so can't complain too badly (though the food was sorta weird Chinese). I also decide to get a Snow Cone, Steven does the same. Right as David asks me if my cone was as large as Steven's was (they gave him a super tall one which was interesting), Steven drops half his ice onto the floor. Classy. Someone runs out, tells us they have Pairings up, even though its only 1:20 (supposed to be back at 1:30) so we give up and resume the grind.Round 3: Flygon/Gengar
...To be honest, this is where I stop noticing the names of my opponents. Sorry guys. :[ Anyway, he opens with Unown G and I get... Sableye! Second time in a row, but no Special Dark this time, so I attach a basic dark, decide “screw it, might as well try” and Overconfident'd to put him at 10 HP left. He roseanne's immediately for Baltoy and... Gastly (the only one I saw all day). He attaches and retreats the Unown G for Gastly, attaches G to Baltoy, and says Pitch Dark. I stare for a bit, making sure to at least Roseanne's for my Larvitar (and something else which I forget), and repeat Overconfident. Due to weakness, its a kill this time, which takes him by surprise with a lone Baltoy remaining. He gets a Claydol next turn, but has problems removing it from the active spot before I turn around and Grind him with Ttar the very next turn for 50 (love special dark). We both set up slightly more, as I eventually spam Spinning Tail. He sends up a Gengar, which does very little (trying to use Shadow Room to pick off a Tyranitar is paaaainfully slow), while I spinning tail to hit it for something obscene like 70 damage (one special dark + weakness =
) and still spreading. He PokeHealer+s, which to his frustration won't heal his benched Claydol but winds up healing his active Gengar. ...Which actually helps me more then anything, as now I get another turn of Spinning Tail without having to worry about Fainting Spell. I then after another round of Spinning tail retreat my Ttar, discarding 4 basic energies (owch) and sending up the Sableye from forever ago. I overconfident for the Gengar KO, as he flips heads on Fainting Spell (Whoooo dodged the bullet by sacrificing Sableye instead). Hilariously, this gets me back one of the basic darks, which lets me resume Grinding ASAP, while his Flygons struggle to find energy fast enough. I'm actually able to resume Spinning Tail spam before long with him using Claydol desperately, which leads to a rather brutal death with at least three prizes in one turn.2-1
Round 4: Luxray (Andrew something)
I'm playing against a speed deck with a well known slow deck. And yet I manage to get a Ttar wth 4 energies rather quickly. Then BAM Toxicroak G (Promo) with... Lake Boundary and Crobat G this time! ...140 damage out of nowhere isn't very fun. My Rare Candies all flee from the top of my deck, and I finally get out a Claydol super late, which happens right as he draws into Power Spray after Power Spray. It is frustrating the weakness of Tyranitar: being able to set up one really fast usually means you won't have the ability to build a second one <_<.
2-2
I notice a funny pattern at this point. Actually, several, all of which I wished would turn false later in the day.
1) I was losing to every SP deck I played against
2) I was winning each odd numbered round and losing each even numbered round.
3) My games are getting less and less interesting. :[
Round 5: Drapion
I was sorta surprised to see the Skorupi at the start. Really rogue decks FTW. It seemed he had a 1-1 Darkrai LV.X tech in there too, which he got out (unlike me, who decided I'd rather run Nidoqueen and actually turn some matchups around then play Darkrai and not really change anything but Spinning Tail spam). My favorite part of Ttar, the fast building of the first Tyrant, happens as usual, and he never really has an answer to it. He eventually manages to pull together a Drapion for long enough to use Derail for 90 damage and removing three special darks, but I Lucian's up some energy I had let stagnate on my second Tyranitar for the KO and game finisher.
3-2
Round 6: Abomasnow
I start with a Nidoran and he immediately starts swearing he's going to lose. I'm ready for my patterns to start breaking, so I don't say anything. This happens to be the only game that I didn't see a Tyranitar particularly quickly, and my Nidoqueen was prized or something. So he's spreading like a nut, my Nidoran dies before I finally get the Nidoqueen and Candy (forcing me to use yet another early Night Maintenance), and when I do get out the Queen, I've already lost about four prizes. Oh, and he's built up a Mewtwo. My Tyranitar's looking kind of sad with 40 damage on it (after using Maternal Comfort a few times, yes), and a Mewtwo LV.X comes up and smacks it for exactly enough for KO. I can't quite build anything else up, and he sweeps with a few repeated Energy Absorbtions and Giga Burns. Owch. Probably the game where I hit the worst luck due to start fail, Nidoqueen fail, and Ttar setting up fail. :[
3-3
Round 7: Machamp (Janet B.)
...So the funny story about Janet. She's a player from Oregon. We've ran into each other at both Washington AND Oregon States, and both times she was playing Kingdra and both times I was playing SP (Not much of a better name for it XD). Both times I got Giratina Let Loose on turn 1 and both times I gave her God hands while giving myself impossibly horrid hands. And now I'm playing her at Nationals too. What's next, we see each other in the Grinder? But I digress, we've changed decks which means the luck has switched. My start is Larvitar vs. her Unown G. I get a turn 2 Claydol, she gets a Turn 1 Machamp. She has... one energy for what must have been 14 or so turns, despite all the Uxie drops. She wastes it on Unown G retreating (but at least recovers it with a Regirock, only to see no Stark Mountain for a long time). I'm building a Ttar, OHKOing pokemon after pokemon with Grind. She eventually finds three energy and decides to attack using Regirock on Ttar. She flips tails and only does 70 damage and is promptly ground to death afterwards. I guess revenge was served? But to tack onto the weird patterns: both decks that I faced where Fighting was prominent, I won, and both decks where Fighting was a one card tech, I lost.
4-3
Apparently Round 7 was the weird round for Washington. Tyler N. and Ross C. were playing each other in Flight 2, Trevor W. had sat down two tables lower then he was supposed to, the correct opponent never showed up and Trevor got a game loss despite winning the game he played at the wrong table really quickly (like before the match slips came around). I also wound up sitting next to Matthew D. who wound up losing to Regigigias with Gengar.
Round 8: Palkia G w/ Pixies
Oooooooh boy. Time to reeeeeally test my luck. I get greeted with what must have been 4 turns of Mesprit Lock ASAP, Claydol Hydro Shot'd, Nidoran Hydro Shot'd, and Larvitar Hydro Shot'd. Even against Abomasnow my deck didn't freeze this badly.
4-4
So... Remember those patterns? I hate how I'm so predictable.
1) I lost against every SP deck, true.
2) I won each odd numbered round and lost each even numbered round, true.
3) My matches were becoming less interesting as the day went on. It's really not a very fair or nice statement, but also true. (finishing with a complete lock? Oh how very fun)
4) Win against all fighting based decks and lose against decks that merely tech fighting pokemon. True, considering Gino's Flygon used exclusively Fighting energy, and both of the two early SP decks I faced played Toxicroak G (promo).
So the day finishes with Ian W. (yay Junior) going Top 64 and losing despite us spending all of yesterday testing that particular matchup (Flygon vs. Gengar) and neglecting to test the matchup that cost him three games (Flygon vs. Beedrill). Greg R. comes 5-3 with the most insane deck possible (“The One”, playing exactly enough different types of cards to completely fill out the deck list sheet) and misses cut. I know Trevor W. and Matthew D. had been having rough days, and I get too tired to care about Tyler or Ross's results. So I return to the room pretty much right after Masters Round 8 finishes, crash and apparently sleep talk or something to Trevor later. I wake up very confused to Greg building a deck, claiming he broke the format at like 10:30 Saturday Night.
I find out that overall Washington didn't do too hot at Nationals, though quite a few people made it in via Rankings anyway, so whatever. I spend the next few days relaxing and playing a few fun games against people. And the pickup tournaments prove even more to me that I would have made a mistake playing in Nationals with my Flygon deck, so whatever. Ttar's a heck of a lot more fun to play anyway.
We finish off with Spaghetti Factory with an ever growing party (starting with the five of us in “Zane's Uncle's room” plus the two Ninomuras, then adding in a bunch of random people found on the streets for 12 total though we only tell the people we have 10 XD) for an epic last night dinner followed by Uno in the room and yet more pokemon.
Props:
- Washington players for being amazingly fun to hang out with (Other then the Clantons saying hi on Monday, that's about it we ran into :[. Lack of Oregon :/)
- Zane's “Uncle” XD
- Spaghetti Factory for actually being open unlike everything else XD
- Steven's dad for finding food on Saturday... ...At a Casino. That was actually quite a ways away unless we used the moving walkways.
- Ttar for being amazingly cool (though a loner. And everyone knows lone wolves fail. Toxicroak G techs in particular know this)
- Round 1. I don't know what to attribute stuff to, skill or luck. I just know that I can call it awesome.
- Event Staff for making the event exceptionally well run (for the most part)
- Barbeque in St. Louis being amazing, if you know where to go.
Slops:
- Patterns. Patterns. WHYYYYYY.
- Flight stopping at Salt Lake City. Worst. Turbulence. Ever.
- Freaking Toxicroak G. Ugh.
- The restaurants being closed all around downtown St.Louis
- Zane for turning off the AC in our room. And turning away the fan. Why so Anti-Cool? <_<
- The AC in our room never really working. The heat wasn't too bad. The humidity was.
- Us not testing Beedrill vs. Ian like we should have. :[
- Me not being smarter and bringing better decks with me like a Plox or Luxray/Anything, or something. ...Though I probably wouldn't have had as much fun as with Grind/Spinning Tail spam, so bleh.
- “Chicago Cheese Steak”. I really do sound like an idiot sometimes <_<
- Greg never sleeping. What. The. Heck. :/
- Me forgetting the DS Lite charger cable. Hate non-standard plugs. : [[[
- All of the death related news recently
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