[Backstory (feel free to skip)]: My best friend, Will, and I were chatting over the phone about a month ago about games we used to play and I brought up how Pokemon was not a bad game, the players in our area were just a pain (for example, there was a Japanese card called "Graceful Attack" that didn't have the best english translation [it was something like "if a pokemon of yours is to be doing the damage, it can not do damage but for 10 instead"] which these people took to mean you play it on your pokemon, the pokemon cannot take damage unless it is OHKO, and Graceful Attack returns to your hand if it's discarded from anywhere... the tourney organizers actually backed up this interperitation which made for some real fun games :nonono: then, when I made Mulligan Mewtwo to counter it [the purpose of the deck was to run your opponent out of cards] the tourney organizers decided [while I was playing one in a tourney] that running out of cards did not lose you the game). So that lead to us discussing the merits of old decks, which lead to us looking to see if there were actually still tourneys played, which lead to regionals and a month to get ready. [/Backstory]
So that's how I ended up in NC on a Saturday morning not really knowing what I was doing. I didn't want to write a full report because I didn't copy anything down, and due to lack of sleep the night before the tourney, my memory of events is kind of fuzzy... but due to my friend's and my decent performance I thought I'd at least post up a couple of deck lists and a vague overview of the tournament.
First off: my best friend's deck, he went 6-1 in swiss and entered the top 16 in 2nd place... unfortunetly he then got screwed with a one pokemon start twice versus a turn two charged ho-oh and scrubed out of top 16. I think he finished 9th overall (maybe??).
4 Togepi
2 Togetic
4 Togekiss
3 Magmar
3 Magmortar (the good one)
1 Magmortar Lv. X
2 Baltoy
2 Claydol
(21)
4 Celio's Network
4 Bebe's Search
4 Rare Candy
(16)
23 Fire Energy
(23)
He was mostly happy with the performance of the deck, and contributed his loss in the top 16 to going first twice... he said that both times his one Togepi was KOed on his opponent's first turn he was holding a Celio's, Magmortar, Togekiss, and Rare Candy... and that if he'd gone second either of those games they would have been as good as won. He was very happy with the performance of the deck and said if he'd change anything it would be to try to make room for 3 Pachirisu and maybe a Tauros because if he'd started one either of those games they would have gone very differently.
My deck: I went 5-2 in Swiss and entered top 16 at 7th, I had a little better luck than my buddy and ended up 3rd.
4 Ralts
2 Kirlia
2 Gallade
2 Gardevoir (lock version)
1 Gardevoir Lv. X
4 Absol
3 Darkrai (80HP)
1 Darkrai Lv. X
2 Baltoy
2 Claydol
(23)
4 Rare Candy
4 Celio's Network
3 Steven's Advice
3 Team Galactic's Mars
2 Team Galactic's Wager
3 Cessation Crystal
1 Premier Ball
1 Moonlight Stadium
(21)
4 Psychic
4 Darkness
4 Special Darkness
4 DRE
(16)
I was very happy with the deck's performance, it's basically a G&G deck with quite a bit more disruption. The Darkrais complement the Absols as decent starters (especially if you're going first... bye-bye pachirisu, get up here baltoy :thumb
and the Dark Lv. X + Cess Crystal is a fairly powerful lock and finisher. A dark or psychic pokemon with Cess Crystal, Gardy Lv. X, and Moonlight Stadium allows you to retreat the Crystaled pokemon for free, bring up the Gardy X, use all your poke-powers/bodies, teleport the Crystaled pokemon back up and lock your oponent out of his... it's a pretty cool trick, but by the time I got it out those games were as good as won, so it was pretty superfluous. Other than the one round I lost due to stupidity, my losses were because of either basic pokemon screw or energy screw, so if I played the deck again at Nats or something, I'd drop one Kirlia, the Premier Ball, and the Moonlight Stadium and put in 3 Roseanne's Research. Oh, well, I may have gotten 3rd at this tournament, but I know I'm actually the best trainer in the world... my DS told me so :tongue:.
I had a lot of fun at the tourney, most players were really cool and laid back and didn't seem to mind that I had no idea what any of their cards did and had to read everything they played. The only problems I had were that the sound system was screwy which was especially annoying when we had what I believe was the entirety of the rule book recited to us before the first round, and some of the judges seemed to be having a bad day and an extrememly short fuse, but otherwise it was great... I do believe I'll be back and hitting up some of the tourneys in the upcoming season. Thanks to everyone for a great time (even the angry judges seemed to chill out and be pretty cool people near the end of the day... maybe they were just as anxious as I was to get home) and I hope to see everyone again next time.
So that's how I ended up in NC on a Saturday morning not really knowing what I was doing. I didn't want to write a full report because I didn't copy anything down, and due to lack of sleep the night before the tourney, my memory of events is kind of fuzzy... but due to my friend's and my decent performance I thought I'd at least post up a couple of deck lists and a vague overview of the tournament.
First off: my best friend's deck, he went 6-1 in swiss and entered the top 16 in 2nd place... unfortunetly he then got screwed with a one pokemon start twice versus a turn two charged ho-oh and scrubed out of top 16. I think he finished 9th overall (maybe??).
4 Togepi
2 Togetic
4 Togekiss
3 Magmar
3 Magmortar (the good one)
1 Magmortar Lv. X
2 Baltoy
2 Claydol
(21)
4 Celio's Network
4 Bebe's Search
4 Rare Candy
(16)
23 Fire Energy
(23)
He was mostly happy with the performance of the deck, and contributed his loss in the top 16 to going first twice... he said that both times his one Togepi was KOed on his opponent's first turn he was holding a Celio's, Magmortar, Togekiss, and Rare Candy... and that if he'd gone second either of those games they would have been as good as won. He was very happy with the performance of the deck and said if he'd change anything it would be to try to make room for 3 Pachirisu and maybe a Tauros because if he'd started one either of those games they would have gone very differently.
My deck: I went 5-2 in Swiss and entered top 16 at 7th, I had a little better luck than my buddy and ended up 3rd.
4 Ralts
2 Kirlia
2 Gallade
2 Gardevoir (lock version)
1 Gardevoir Lv. X
4 Absol
3 Darkrai (80HP)
1 Darkrai Lv. X
2 Baltoy
2 Claydol
(23)
4 Rare Candy
4 Celio's Network
3 Steven's Advice
3 Team Galactic's Mars
2 Team Galactic's Wager
3 Cessation Crystal
1 Premier Ball
1 Moonlight Stadium
(21)
4 Psychic
4 Darkness
4 Special Darkness
4 DRE
(16)
I was very happy with the deck's performance, it's basically a G&G deck with quite a bit more disruption. The Darkrais complement the Absols as decent starters (especially if you're going first... bye-bye pachirisu, get up here baltoy :thumb
and the Dark Lv. X + Cess Crystal is a fairly powerful lock and finisher. A dark or psychic pokemon with Cess Crystal, Gardy Lv. X, and Moonlight Stadium allows you to retreat the Crystaled pokemon for free, bring up the Gardy X, use all your poke-powers/bodies, teleport the Crystaled pokemon back up and lock your oponent out of his... it's a pretty cool trick, but by the time I got it out those games were as good as won, so it was pretty superfluous. Other than the one round I lost due to stupidity, my losses were because of either basic pokemon screw or energy screw, so if I played the deck again at Nats or something, I'd drop one Kirlia, the Premier Ball, and the Moonlight Stadium and put in 3 Roseanne's Research. Oh, well, I may have gotten 3rd at this tournament, but I know I'm actually the best trainer in the world... my DS told me so :tongue:.I had a lot of fun at the tourney, most players were really cool and laid back and didn't seem to mind that I had no idea what any of their cards did and had to read everything they played. The only problems I had were that the sound system was screwy which was especially annoying when we had what I believe was the entirety of the rule book recited to us before the first round, and some of the judges seemed to be having a bad day and an extrememly short fuse, but otherwise it was great... I do believe I'll be back and hitting up some of the tourneys in the upcoming season. Thanks to everyone for a great time (even the angry judges seemed to chill out and be pretty cool people near the end of the day... maybe they were just as anxious as I was to get home) and I hope to see everyone again next time.