bullados
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First time doing this in a LONG time, so it's gonna be a bit rough.
I played TyRam last week at Wisconsin States, going 5-2 and missing the cut by 1.53% at 18th. It's a good metagame choice right now for this area. There's a lot of Durant, which TyRam steamrolls. There's a lot of ZekEels, which TyRam goes 40-60 against. There's not much CMT, which TyRam generally loses to. And most of the "other" things out there TyRam can generally play through with smart moves and simply executing its strategy. Some people call Durant the most autopilot deck of the current metagame. I disagree. TyRam has one strategy, and executes it remarkably well. You get out your Typhlosions, and then swarm with Reshirams. And that's about it.
I'm up at 5am so that I can at least feel somewhat awake before getting there. Breakfast, shower, all the good stuff. 20 minute drive later, I'm the first at the tournament location. I meet Camille, Keith, and Christina and help bring in their supplies. Then, when Jimmy and Carlos get there, we all get in and start setting up the room with some 250 chairs.
Jimmy lets me and Pooka on stage to set up our recording "studios" to the best of our abilities. I envy Pooka's resources. Seriously. He has a viewer gift him a good computer for streaming, and I'm stuck with this 5 year old Gateway laptop that I bought specifically for school usage. I tried to set up streaming, but my computer's too old and too slow to handle constant video internet streaming, so I'm stuck with kludging together a recording solution with a borrowed tripod and some Scotch tape. BTW, you can check out all of my recordings on my Youtube channel, featuring both IL and WI State Championships.
During Registration, I'm running around like a crazy man trying to see where I can be of use to Jimmy. Eventually Registration closes officially, and Jimmy's got nothing for me. So I quickly get my ID on a registration sheet and fill out a decklist in about 3 minutes. This would cause me some grief later.
Here's my list, cuz I really don't care who sees this.
Pokemon (17):
4 Reshiram BW
4-2-4 Typhlosion Prime
2 Cleffa
1 Mewtwo EX
Trainers (30):
4 Communication
4 Candy
3 Junk Arm
2 Catcher
2 PlusPower
1 Super Rod
4 Collector
4 PONT
4 Sage
2 Juniper
Energy (13):
2 DCE
11 Fire
There probably isn't anything I'd change about this list right now. It's pretty much working exactly as I want it to work. I'd like to get some more Supporter draw in there, but I don't really know what to take out to get it.
I am angry that I won't be able to play the Straight Ballin version of this deck once Dark Explorers comes out. At least, not competitively. I'll be out of the country for Nationals, and Worlds is in Hawaii. I'll get to play it for, maybe, 2 BRs, and that's about it. I consider the Straight Ballin version of this deck to be the absolute best version. Lots of Trainers, maxxing on Ultra Ball, using Supporters only when necessary, it'll be great.
Anyhoo, I don't remember the names of the people I played against. I remember every deck, and most of what happens, but the names at times I just don't know.
Round 1 vs. ZekEels
We're both in trouble early. He prizes two of his 3 Tynamo. I'm Eeking for like 4 straight turns. I can't get my Typhlosions going, but I need to start taking prizes b/c I know ZekEels is a locomotive once it gets going; it can't be stopped. So I'm using every trick I know to just take prizes, regardless of prizes getting taken back. Catchers, PlusPowers, Junk Arms, I'm going nuts just taking prizes when I need them. Two-shotting Mewtwo is annoying as heck. Thankfully, he either doesn't get or doesn't play a ZekX, which would have ruined my day. It comes down to 1 prize, and I Catcher for the win.
Win, 1-0
Round 2 vs. Durant
I start Cydnaquil/Reshiram, looking to Collector into more Cyndaquils and a Cleffa. Then he flips a Rotom. And I completely shift strategies. Aggro a Typhlosion, but I can't find Energy. He max-mills me 4 times, hits zero energy. And I'm behind, though I know I can come back. Eventually, I get 3 Energy on my Typhlosion, and the prizes start falling. 7 turns later, and the game is mine.
Win, 2-0
Round 3 vs. ???
I have no idea what's being played here. Really, I don't. I start with Reshiram, DCE, and PONT against his lone Cleffa. I go first. The result is predictable.
Win, 3-0
Round 4 vs. Quinn D ChandyMewPlume
I faced him last week at Wisconsin, so I basically know how the game goes. If he can get to my Quils early, I'm done. But once I get my big HP guys going, he doesn't have a shot. I get set up faster than he does. He spreads 60 to my Typhlosions, and never gets them any higher. I take my one-shots as I get them, and he runs out of Energy (which is strange, cuz he runs 14).
BTW, I recorded this match for my Youtube channel. So enjoy seeing me play like an idiot ^_^
Win, 4-0
Round 5 vs. Durant
This one was easier. I started lone Cyndaquil. He started Durant. I T2 the Typhlosion with a Fire in the discard, and steamroll him. He hits a couple of timely heads on Hammer, but it generally doesn't matter. I've got about 25 cards left in my deck. I'm good.
Win, 5-0
Round 6 vs. Yoshi CMT
I knew that my earlier Donk would come back to bite me. And it did. This round. I start two Cyndaquils, no Supporters. He uses Tyrogue to hit the first Cyndaquil, but stays asleep. If he wakes up, I have two Pluspowers to OHKO it and get something started. My first prize would have been a PONT. But I generally play like an idiot, and lose in 3 turns.
Loss, 5-1.
At this point, I start saying that I'm going to be the first 5-0 to miss the cut at 5-2. Yeah, I'm a pessimist. Sue me.
Round 7 vs. Vernola Magnezone/Eelektrik/Kyurem
Yeah, I got blindsided by this deck. Plus, I played stupid. I get 4 Cyndaquils in play turn 1 with a Cleffa active and a Reshiram benched. I Eek into a GODLY hand. And he probably saw it. I mean GODLY. Typhlosion, Candy, Quilava, Quilava, PONT. Beautiful hand. And he plays an N. And I just can't recover from that. I make a stupid move after his first Glaciate by attaching manually to the benched Reshi then Burning the Active and gift him 3 prizes on a Resh and two Quils. Yeah, not my finest moment. I can play pretty much even from there, but playing even with a 3 prize disadvantage is not a good proposition.
Loss, 5-2.
Now I know I'm gonna miss the Cut. I know that one of my first 3 opponents dropped, and at least one other didn't do too hot. I've sorted my deck just in case, but I'm pretty certain I've missed by half a percent or something equally silly. I also thought that only 3-4 5-2s would make it, which was a bold-faced lie. I make it in 8th, turn in my deck, and sit back and wait.
As deck checks are happening, the Jrs and Srs Top Cut start, and I start recording those guys. You can check those out on my YouTube channel.
As this is happening, I'm overhearing some things being said about the deck checking. You know how there's a lot of duplicate cards in the format right now? And how there's a ton of people who are lazy on their deck lists and list all the copies of those duplicates as a single type? I did that too. Well, apparently, they were going to make us take out all of the cards that didn't match the list, and replace them with Basic Energy. I had 2 Promo Typhlosions, a CoL Cleffa, and a FA Resh all listed as the wrong cards. And I'm certain that would have completely ruined my deck. Plus, there's this little section in the Penalty Guidelines...
Bolded for emphasis.
Thankfully, somebody knocked some sense into the Judges (I think I heard Meganium45's name thrown around), and all of us just got Warnings.
Anyhoo, on to the games...
Top 16 vs. ZekEels
Game 1:
He runs 2 BW Zek and 1 Zek EX. All 3 were prized. He probably should have scooped a lot sooner than he did. I think this game took about 15 minutes. I got most of what I needed pretty quickly, and I think he took 2 prizes all game.
Game 2:
Exact opposite. I didn't get prized out. TyRam is prone to having a couple of bad games in a tournament. This was one of them. Plus, he hit EVERYTHING that he needed exactly as he needed it. If Jimmy were sitting behind him, he would have been making donkey sound effects the entire game. I took 3 prizes, but all of them he let me take to get his next attacker Active. Another 10-15 minutes here.
Game 3:
This was an odd game where neither deck seemed to work correctly. We both got set up in roughly the same amount of time, then proceeded to trade prizes. He had one Eel, and I had one Typhlosion. He decided to get an early Mewtwo to smack my first Resh, which I immediately countered with my own Mewtwo and a Pluspower, Burning it in the process. He brought that Mewtwo back with Super Rod, and revenged my Mewtwo. I had I think a Cyndaquil Active, and I couldn't get either the 3rd Energy on Mewtwo, or didn't have the Pluspower. I Retreat for a Resh and Wall for a turn. He attacks but doesn't KO the Resh. I needed the turn to get the Mewtwo with the correct number of Energy and a Pluspower, but it Revenged its own Revenger. And then it was down to me pulling a Catcher for the final Prize.
Win, 6-2
In between rounds, I go back to the Standings and notice that my next opponent is either Pooka or the #16. I learned that #16 was DQ'd for marked cards, so Pooka's been chilling for the last hour while I played 3 pretty decent matches. I knew I was about to get steamrolled.
Top 8 vs. Pooka Zekeels
Game 1:
I start lone Cleffa. He starts Tynamo 30. He goes first. Collector. Tyrogue. GG.
Game 2:
I go first, get 3 Cyndaquils out with a Cleffa active, and Eek. He goes 6 for 6 on Dual Balls with a Junk Arm for good measure. Yesh, was that a storm. To top it off, I lose 2 of my 4 Resh on an early Sage where I had no choice. It was either grab 2 Resh and be without draw power, or grab 1 Resh and have half a chance. At some point during the game, I discarded my Super Rod, probably from another Sage. This would come back to bite me. I weather his early storm, and eventually somehow clear his field of everything except Eels. But I'm also out of attackers. I'm frantically searching through my deck for my one Super Rod to get my now 3 Reshis back into the deck, all the time holding a Junk Arm and having my Super Rod in the Discard. So I lose for being an idiot.
Loss, 6-3.
So, for a career Judge/TO/Staff, I got T8 at one of the most competitive State Championships historically. This one had Ness and his friends, Pooka and a couple of his friends, as well as several other Worlds-caliber players. I'd consider that a bit of an achievement, don't you?
Plus, losing to the eventual State Champion is nothing to sneeze at. I knew I was getting steamrolled the moment I saw those standings. But I've now got 11 CPs playing in only 4 Premier level events (Judging/Staffing/TOing everything else).
Props:
Jimmy -- The most efficient TO I've ever worked with. Nobody else gets 7/16 done by 9pm. Nobody. I was home by 9:30. It was great.
Pooka -- For helping me at least try and set up a halfway reasonable stream. My computer sucks, and I've got no monies.
Carlos -- What a location! And thx for taking my goofy suggestion about the music. And for the Tripod.
Everybody else -- Damn, that was fun ^_^.
I played TyRam last week at Wisconsin States, going 5-2 and missing the cut by 1.53% at 18th. It's a good metagame choice right now for this area. There's a lot of Durant, which TyRam steamrolls. There's a lot of ZekEels, which TyRam goes 40-60 against. There's not much CMT, which TyRam generally loses to. And most of the "other" things out there TyRam can generally play through with smart moves and simply executing its strategy. Some people call Durant the most autopilot deck of the current metagame. I disagree. TyRam has one strategy, and executes it remarkably well. You get out your Typhlosions, and then swarm with Reshirams. And that's about it.
I'm up at 5am so that I can at least feel somewhat awake before getting there. Breakfast, shower, all the good stuff. 20 minute drive later, I'm the first at the tournament location. I meet Camille, Keith, and Christina and help bring in their supplies. Then, when Jimmy and Carlos get there, we all get in and start setting up the room with some 250 chairs.
Jimmy lets me and Pooka on stage to set up our recording "studios" to the best of our abilities. I envy Pooka's resources. Seriously. He has a viewer gift him a good computer for streaming, and I'm stuck with this 5 year old Gateway laptop that I bought specifically for school usage. I tried to set up streaming, but my computer's too old and too slow to handle constant video internet streaming, so I'm stuck with kludging together a recording solution with a borrowed tripod and some Scotch tape. BTW, you can check out all of my recordings on my Youtube channel, featuring both IL and WI State Championships.
During Registration, I'm running around like a crazy man trying to see where I can be of use to Jimmy. Eventually Registration closes officially, and Jimmy's got nothing for me. So I quickly get my ID on a registration sheet and fill out a decklist in about 3 minutes. This would cause me some grief later.
Here's my list, cuz I really don't care who sees this.
Pokemon (17):
4 Reshiram BW
4-2-4 Typhlosion Prime
2 Cleffa
1 Mewtwo EX
Trainers (30):
4 Communication
4 Candy
3 Junk Arm
2 Catcher
2 PlusPower
1 Super Rod
4 Collector
4 PONT
4 Sage
2 Juniper
Energy (13):
2 DCE
11 Fire
There probably isn't anything I'd change about this list right now. It's pretty much working exactly as I want it to work. I'd like to get some more Supporter draw in there, but I don't really know what to take out to get it.
I am angry that I won't be able to play the Straight Ballin version of this deck once Dark Explorers comes out. At least, not competitively. I'll be out of the country for Nationals, and Worlds is in Hawaii. I'll get to play it for, maybe, 2 BRs, and that's about it. I consider the Straight Ballin version of this deck to be the absolute best version. Lots of Trainers, maxxing on Ultra Ball, using Supporters only when necessary, it'll be great.
Anyhoo, I don't remember the names of the people I played against. I remember every deck, and most of what happens, but the names at times I just don't know.
Round 1 vs. ZekEels
We're both in trouble early. He prizes two of his 3 Tynamo. I'm Eeking for like 4 straight turns. I can't get my Typhlosions going, but I need to start taking prizes b/c I know ZekEels is a locomotive once it gets going; it can't be stopped. So I'm using every trick I know to just take prizes, regardless of prizes getting taken back. Catchers, PlusPowers, Junk Arms, I'm going nuts just taking prizes when I need them. Two-shotting Mewtwo is annoying as heck. Thankfully, he either doesn't get or doesn't play a ZekX, which would have ruined my day. It comes down to 1 prize, and I Catcher for the win.
Win, 1-0
Round 2 vs. Durant
I start Cydnaquil/Reshiram, looking to Collector into more Cyndaquils and a Cleffa. Then he flips a Rotom. And I completely shift strategies. Aggro a Typhlosion, but I can't find Energy. He max-mills me 4 times, hits zero energy. And I'm behind, though I know I can come back. Eventually, I get 3 Energy on my Typhlosion, and the prizes start falling. 7 turns later, and the game is mine.
Win, 2-0
Round 3 vs. ???
I have no idea what's being played here. Really, I don't. I start with Reshiram, DCE, and PONT against his lone Cleffa. I go first. The result is predictable.
Win, 3-0
Round 4 vs. Quinn D ChandyMewPlume
I faced him last week at Wisconsin, so I basically know how the game goes. If he can get to my Quils early, I'm done. But once I get my big HP guys going, he doesn't have a shot. I get set up faster than he does. He spreads 60 to my Typhlosions, and never gets them any higher. I take my one-shots as I get them, and he runs out of Energy (which is strange, cuz he runs 14).
BTW, I recorded this match for my Youtube channel. So enjoy seeing me play like an idiot ^_^
Win, 4-0
Round 5 vs. Durant
This one was easier. I started lone Cyndaquil. He started Durant. I T2 the Typhlosion with a Fire in the discard, and steamroll him. He hits a couple of timely heads on Hammer, but it generally doesn't matter. I've got about 25 cards left in my deck. I'm good.
Win, 5-0
Round 6 vs. Yoshi CMT
I knew that my earlier Donk would come back to bite me. And it did. This round. I start two Cyndaquils, no Supporters. He uses Tyrogue to hit the first Cyndaquil, but stays asleep. If he wakes up, I have two Pluspowers to OHKO it and get something started. My first prize would have been a PONT. But I generally play like an idiot, and lose in 3 turns.
Loss, 5-1.
At this point, I start saying that I'm going to be the first 5-0 to miss the cut at 5-2. Yeah, I'm a pessimist. Sue me.
Round 7 vs. Vernola Magnezone/Eelektrik/Kyurem
Yeah, I got blindsided by this deck. Plus, I played stupid. I get 4 Cyndaquils in play turn 1 with a Cleffa active and a Reshiram benched. I Eek into a GODLY hand. And he probably saw it. I mean GODLY. Typhlosion, Candy, Quilava, Quilava, PONT. Beautiful hand. And he plays an N. And I just can't recover from that. I make a stupid move after his first Glaciate by attaching manually to the benched Reshi then Burning the Active and gift him 3 prizes on a Resh and two Quils. Yeah, not my finest moment. I can play pretty much even from there, but playing even with a 3 prize disadvantage is not a good proposition.
Loss, 5-2.
Now I know I'm gonna miss the Cut. I know that one of my first 3 opponents dropped, and at least one other didn't do too hot. I've sorted my deck just in case, but I'm pretty certain I've missed by half a percent or something equally silly. I also thought that only 3-4 5-2s would make it, which was a bold-faced lie. I make it in 8th, turn in my deck, and sit back and wait.
As deck checks are happening, the Jrs and Srs Top Cut start, and I start recording those guys. You can check those out on my YouTube channel.
As this is happening, I'm overhearing some things being said about the deck checking. You know how there's a lot of duplicate cards in the format right now? And how there's a ton of people who are lazy on their deck lists and list all the copies of those duplicates as a single type? I did that too. Well, apparently, they were going to make us take out all of the cards that didn't match the list, and replace them with Basic Energy. I had 2 Promo Typhlosions, a CoL Cleffa, and a FA Resh all listed as the wrong cards. And I'm certain that would have completely ruined my deck. Plus, there's this little section in the Penalty Guidelines...
Bolded for emphasis.
Thankfully, somebody knocked some sense into the Judges (I think I heard Meganium45's name thrown around), and all of us just got Warnings.
Anyhoo, on to the games...
Top 16 vs. ZekEels
Game 1:
He runs 2 BW Zek and 1 Zek EX. All 3 were prized. He probably should have scooped a lot sooner than he did. I think this game took about 15 minutes. I got most of what I needed pretty quickly, and I think he took 2 prizes all game.
Game 2:
Exact opposite. I didn't get prized out. TyRam is prone to having a couple of bad games in a tournament. This was one of them. Plus, he hit EVERYTHING that he needed exactly as he needed it. If Jimmy were sitting behind him, he would have been making donkey sound effects the entire game. I took 3 prizes, but all of them he let me take to get his next attacker Active. Another 10-15 minutes here.
Game 3:
This was an odd game where neither deck seemed to work correctly. We both got set up in roughly the same amount of time, then proceeded to trade prizes. He had one Eel, and I had one Typhlosion. He decided to get an early Mewtwo to smack my first Resh, which I immediately countered with my own Mewtwo and a Pluspower, Burning it in the process. He brought that Mewtwo back with Super Rod, and revenged my Mewtwo. I had I think a Cyndaquil Active, and I couldn't get either the 3rd Energy on Mewtwo, or didn't have the Pluspower. I Retreat for a Resh and Wall for a turn. He attacks but doesn't KO the Resh. I needed the turn to get the Mewtwo with the correct number of Energy and a Pluspower, but it Revenged its own Revenger. And then it was down to me pulling a Catcher for the final Prize.
Win, 6-2
In between rounds, I go back to the Standings and notice that my next opponent is either Pooka or the #16. I learned that #16 was DQ'd for marked cards, so Pooka's been chilling for the last hour while I played 3 pretty decent matches. I knew I was about to get steamrolled.
Top 8 vs. Pooka Zekeels
Game 1:
I start lone Cleffa. He starts Tynamo 30. He goes first. Collector. Tyrogue. GG.
Game 2:
I go first, get 3 Cyndaquils out with a Cleffa active, and Eek. He goes 6 for 6 on Dual Balls with a Junk Arm for good measure. Yesh, was that a storm. To top it off, I lose 2 of my 4 Resh on an early Sage where I had no choice. It was either grab 2 Resh and be without draw power, or grab 1 Resh and have half a chance. At some point during the game, I discarded my Super Rod, probably from another Sage. This would come back to bite me. I weather his early storm, and eventually somehow clear his field of everything except Eels. But I'm also out of attackers. I'm frantically searching through my deck for my one Super Rod to get my now 3 Reshis back into the deck, all the time holding a Junk Arm and having my Super Rod in the Discard. So I lose for being an idiot.
Loss, 6-3.
So, for a career Judge/TO/Staff, I got T8 at one of the most competitive State Championships historically. This one had Ness and his friends, Pooka and a couple of his friends, as well as several other Worlds-caliber players. I'd consider that a bit of an achievement, don't you?
Plus, losing to the eventual State Champion is nothing to sneeze at. I knew I was getting steamrolled the moment I saw those standings. But I've now got 11 CPs playing in only 4 Premier level events (Judging/Staffing/TOing everything else).
Props:
Jimmy -- The most efficient TO I've ever worked with. Nobody else gets 7/16 done by 9pm. Nobody. I was home by 9:30. It was great.
Pooka -- For helping me at least try and set up a halfway reasonable stream. My computer sucks, and I've got no monies.
Carlos -- What a location! And thx for taking my goofy suggestion about the music. And for the Tripod.
Everybody else -- Damn, that was fun ^_^.
