JandPDS
New Member
Rumor is that this could be the final LCQ so if that is the case here is my final LCQ report.
Full Disclosure, it would be an understatement to say that I was externally disappointed with the format change of the LCQ this year from single game Swiss to a Top Cut format of best 2 out of 3. I have met so many wonderful players from all over the worlds in the past 5 years of LCQ play that I was really saddened with the change to single elimination.
I was so upset that I fully intended to sit this LCQ out. My family had already booked and paid for most of our trip so we were still going to worlds, but I figured that as I did not want to eliminate anyone any more then I wanted to get eliminated, that maybe it would be best if me and my family tried the Video Game LCQ instead (At least that one had always been Single elimination) But the closer we got to worlds the less enthused I became with the video game (If the battle subway give you fits at times how are you supposed to beat real teams) So then I decided we would not do any LCQ and just go have a nice dinner in San Diego that night. And that was the plan until my fellow League member at Phoenix Games Gym kept on and kept on trying to get me to change my mind and join them in Participating in the LCQ. Finally a few weeks before worlds at the Annual Summer Pokémon Pool party that is held every year by one of our PTO's. I don’t know if it was the heat or possibly the effects of an adult lavation one of our League members tried one last time to convince me to play. I was going to tell him no, but somehow me and my wife were convinced to say yes. So I had two weeks to get our deck up to speed from fun league play status to tourney ready. So a mad testing period began.
My wife loves tepig (it reminds her if P-Chan from the Ranma 1/2 anime) so a Reshiboar deck was the obvious choice for her. Got that up and running pretty good.
My daughter decided she wanted to play Water because of all the Fire being played so she got Sammurot. That deck was harder to make work right but I finally got a build I was happy with. Then my deck I did not decide on until the day before the LCQ. I brought two deck ideas down. My favorite was a Metagross/Muk deck where I dragged something big and ugly up with Muk and then 40/40'd the bench with Metagross. when this deck had the right matchup it was devastating, but vs a free or cheap retreating deck like Yanmega or Kingdra it was a struggle.
My second deck choice was T2 Cinccino Swarm. With Magnezone draw engine. This deck did well against Yanmegas but struggled vs any of the 130 HP dragons.
I decided to play Cinccino Swarm the night before the LCQ so I get up early on Friday decklist our three decks and off we go to register. We get there at 8:20 as supposedly no one is supposed to be in line for the Trading Card LCQ before 8:30, but once we get there we see that there are over 200 people already in line so we find the end and stand in the ready. After 30 min or so the line finally starts to move and about 30 min more were are all 3 registered. One funny thing is that I was only planning to run a 2-1-2 Magenzone line but someone walked by with a binder of cards for sale. He flashed the front page to me and there was a Magnezone. I asked what he wanted and he said $25.00 I told him I would give him $20.00 but he countered with throwing in a RH Magnemite if I gave him $25.00 so I agreed to the deal and then went back and forth over the merits of 2-1-2 vs 3-1-3. Finally I decided to go with the extra Magnezone and changed my list when I was about 30 places away from the registration desk.
We were finally ready to play but then came the long loooong loooooong wait. Because it was a top cut format they were checking each and every decklist to make sure it was legal before the event started. Then they had to call the players up with bad lists and get them corrected. They also announced that Masters would play two rounds before Juniors and Seniors even started. The plan was to have juniors and seniors start at 11:30 with Masters round 3, but once the first hour came and went and we had not yet started it was clear that time goal was not going to be met.
Now I do not want anyone to think that the delay was in anyway the fault of the organizers and judges of the LCQ. No they were set up with a deck stacked against them. I judge BR's and Cities and I know how hard and tiring it is to set up and get underway a top cut of 4 or 8 players. It is a lot of work and not easy. I can not imagine the difficulty faced by trying to get a 600 player top cut underway. And to make it worse it was decided to give 2/3 of the masters players a bye in R1. That was a logistic nightmare because there was no significant player elimination from the LCQ until after the 2nd round. I really felt sorry for the people running the event I thought it was going to be way harder on the staff then a normal Swiss tourney would have been but I underestimated that. It was way, way way harder to do it this way.
My wife had to play Round one while I was one of the many many players not to play in the 1st round. For some reason all of the Japanese participants were in the 1st round and she got paired against one of them. From her report back to me he was playing the Typhlosian version of her deck. In the first game she ran into an energy crisis early and she took the early lead and she could not come back. Game two was the opposite. She got set up early and he was forced to attack midgame with a Typhlosian that he powered up without damaging it. She surprised him with and OHKO thanks to Reshriam and a plus power/junk arm (The plus powers rule is so broken) then the next turn she surprised him by throwing down and sweeping with her RDL for the last two prizes. So they went on to a 3rd game to decide who went on. She started with a Reshiram and she got a lone Vulpix, she failed to draw anything to save her in the two cards she drew before she was KO's on his T3. So her day was done.
Finally after over 3 hours of waiting pairing for R2 was up and I found myself paired against a very well known Pokegym staffer from the Chicago area. He was playing Typhlosian/Reshiram and I knew I was in trouble because this was not my matchup. He told me that he was not sure how good his deck was, witch is a sign I always take to mean that my opponent is a serious player and is downplaying a deck, wile actually being confident that it is solid. We wish each other luck and get started.
I get a quick set up of a full bench and two fully powered Minccinos by T4. Yea not a lot of help. Finally I loose my Starter on his T4 so I bring up one Minccinco and figure I can fall any further behind. So I play my plus power and discard my hand to draw 7 cards with Juniper, I figure with a 4-4 line and Pokémon communicators there is no way I can miss the Do the Wave attack this turn. Boy was I wrong, I whiff. I have to retreat and sacrifice another prize. Needless to say this is fatal and I do manage to finally get some Cinccino in play but its way too late to be any good and I loose 6-2. So now I am down to what could be my final game. Game two tables are turned and I am set up and running with a T2 Magnezone and he is forced to manually power up a dragon. He gets one KO but I revenge kill him with a big bad bull. and he is forced to bring up his ninetails. I retreat for a Cinccino and take out the Ninetails and a cleffa for a 3-1 lead before he finally gets a Typhlosian in play and gets another Reshiram powered up. He KO's my cinccino and Makes it 3-2. But he his dragon has 20 on it from the Typhlosian powers so one Full powered Do the wave and a plus Powers gives me a 4-3 lead. On his turn he is brings up his Typhlosian with one energy on it, then Rare candies a benched Cyndiquil into a second Typhlosian and powers up his active using two powers Plays a Collector and fetches and benches another reshiram and hits my Cinccino for 70 and rips his double colorless energy. I look down at my field, My Magnezone has 2 energy on it, and my Bouffalant has a double colorless attached. I will attach one energy for my turn giving me 4 to discard, So I can KO the Typhlosian but if I use three energy to do it I wont be able to KO the Reshiram the following turn. I figure it is do or die time so either I win the game here or I loose trying. So I free retreat my active (thanks to my Dotrio) Bring up the Magnezone. Attach a third energy to it and junk arm for my plus power. Play it but I still am 10 damage short. So I need another plus power or another junk arm. I have two cards left in my hand and use the Magnezone power to draw 4. This time luck is on my side and I get another junk arm discard two cards from my hand plus power again and am able to KO the Typhlosian by only lost zoning two of my 4 energy in play. Now if I survive the next turn the game is mine. In the first game I brought up an unpowered up Magnezone to stall for hopefully two turns, but it went down to a Reshiram pluspower/junkarm OHKO so I am hopeful he cant do it again. He brings up the Reshiram with one energy, attaches from his hand and powers another one looks at me and announces his attack for 120. Whew that was a close call. All I have to do is draw attach to Magnezone and lostzone all 3 remaining energy for the OHKO and the win.
So now its my turn to face the finality of the Game 3. While we are randomizing our decks the time up announcement is given. So now our final game is down to a final prize. One KO will mean moving on or being finished. So we both decide to keep on randomizing our decks a few min more before we start, a judge comes by to see what is going on and we tell him that we are in Game 3 sudden death, he sits down to watch. I hope for a good start but am devastated when I get a lone Doduo (I am only running a 1-1 line for free retreat) but it is what I have so I send it up. I do have a Prof Oaks so I have a chance. We flip and my opponent wins and goes first. Also has only one Pokémon. But its a lone Vulpix. He attaches a fire to it and throws down a plus power and bam I have 30 damage on my 50 HP Pokémon in a sudden death match before I even get a chance to draw a card. Looks like I could go down the same way my wife did an hour earlier. I draw. Do not get a basic Pokémon. So I attach an energy and play my Oaks and shuffle my hand really really hoping I get another Pokémon so I can retreat and not have to tell everyone I was T2 donked by a vuplix.
After giving my deck a good 4 shuffles I hand it to my opponent and he cuts it. I have 6 chances to draw a basic. I draw all six and reveal them all at once to myself. with great relief I see I get both of my Bouffalants and a double colorless and a plus power. Whew I still have a chance!! I retreat the damaged bird and bring up the 100HP Buffalo.
My turn then ends. My opponents looks at my Bouffalant and exclaims that he cant KO that. So he plays a Collector. Benches a Fire dragon and two Cyndiquil retreats vulpix for the Reshiram and ends his turn without playing an energy. Now I am moving from survival mode to thinking that maybe I can win before he gets out a Typhlosian.
My 2nd turn I draw a minccino bench it attach my double colorless and hit his reshriam for 20. His turn 3 he draws gets fire energy. plays it on his Reshiram and ends his turn. Wow no rare candy Typhlosian. I have a chance. I draw and know that if I can survive one more of my opponents turns the game will be mine. I have two energy in hand but I luck into a second double colorless with my draw card. so I place an electric energy on my minccino as a feint to make him think I am going for the Do the wave KO and then I hit him again with the Revenge attack from Bouffalant taking Reshiram to 40 damage. So as long as he does not get the Typhlosian in play I am going to be good. He draws, just like the previous turn he gets what I assume is an energy because all he does is attach to reshiram and hits me for 60 damage.
Wow I survived. I draw. lay down my 2nd double colorless on the Bouffalant and play my plus power for the 90 damage attack I need to KO the Dragon and take the match 2 games to 1. Wow I cant believe I was able to pull that game out after beginning with a lone doduo start and going 2nd. But I was able to survive and now it is on to Round 3
Meanwhile my wife comes up and informs me that I was the very last master game to stil be playing. Then she grabs my daugters deck and gets Sarah set up to play. Of course she does not get paired vs a fire deck but instead draws a Donphn Machamp. Her report back to me was that in game 1 she gets set up quickly with a powered up Sammurot while her Opponet is stuck fighting just with Donpahns. This game is over quickly and she takes game 1. Her opponet learned quickly to not use donphan and he fights just with Machamp in the next two games. this strategy pays off and Sarah drops both games and is out of the LCQ.
I get paired up with a player from Finland. He tells me that he is trying to grind in with 6 other friends, and 3 were out and he is one of 3 remaining. We get started and I draw the same matchup as before. Typholian/Reshiram. Only differeance is the Finnish player is running rescue energy otherwise the list is very similar to the one I just faced. Game one we both get set up and at first I am able to match his OHKO's with my own with Plus Powers/Junk arms and the fact that he is damaging his Reshirams with the Typlosian Power. But I can not keep this up the entire game and midway I am forced to trade two of my prizes for each one I get from him. Thank to his rescue energy his Reshiram swarm never ends. He takes game one 6-4. Game two is very similar to by first round match. He starts with a dragon and gets a T2 Ninetails but get can not get a Cynsicquil to save his life. I know from experiance v my wifes deck that I need to go agro on this deck when I get the chance even if that means I loose my 1st Cinccinco to a rage attack. So I get a T2 80 on him while he attaches a Fire and a rescue on his two turns and then after he Evovles to ninetails he draws 3 cards and get a Cleffa that he benches then he rages me for the first KO. My turn I send up my Buffalo, attacho Double colorless and Revenge kill him. He brings up the Cleffa and Eeeks, flips heads and wakes up. For 6 cards. My turn I attach an enegy to a benched Cinccino. Play donw a plus power and judge him from 6 to 4 cards. Then I KO the cleffa for a 2-1 lead. He had a reshiram and Ninetals on the bench, I have 3 benched pokemon so he brings up the ninetails, Plays down Pokemone comunicator and get out a Cyndiquil. Becnhes it attaches an enegy to Benched Reshiram and ends his turn. I lucked into a Collector on my Judge play and pay the retreat cost on the Buffalo Birng up the Cinncino. Attach a 2nd energy to it and Collect for three basics and bench two and OHKO the Ninetails for a 3-1 lead. He brings up his Reshiram. darws a card. Looks at my field and then his. Looks at his hand and tells me "I conceed". This was a good move on his part becuase I had way two big of a lead and a good bench he had no Power in play. I was hopeing he would play the game out so I could eat some more time but his ending the game early meant that we were going to have a lot of time left for game 3. Last game he starts with a cleffa Vs my plusle start. He eeks and stays asleep. I start with a collector and call for family to fill my bench on T1. His cleffa wakes up. T2 he setus up Reshiram. Plays a collector of his own for annother Rehsiram and Typlosian and Vulpix. Eeeks again wakes up again. I dont know how much time is left but I figure I should take any lead I can so I KO his Cleffa with a Plus Power/Junk arm combo and take the first prize.
He brings up a Reshiram. Is abele to Rare Candy down a Typlosian and OHKO's my poor little Plusle. I hit him for 100 damage but not the OHKO. He Rages me to take a 2-1 lead. I bring up Buffolant and KO him. Then on his turn they call time. T0 and we are tied 2-2 in prizes. He brings up A reshiram. Evloves to Ninetails. Uses it power benches annother Cyndiquil and attaches rescue energy from hand and Typlosian powers a fire and hits my Buffalo for 30. T1. I attach energy to benched Cinccino and hit his Reashiram for 20. T2 his turn and we are still 2-2 in Prizes. He Junk arms for Rare candy and gets a 2nd Typlosian in play. and communicates for annother Reshiram and benches it. Dose not look good now. Then He double Typlosians the benched Reshiram and attaches an enegy to the acive and KO's my Buffalo. T3 and he is up 3-2. I bring up my Cinccino attach a 2nd energy to it. Lay down annother basic and KO the Reshiram that had 30 damamge on it. Of course we are in sudden death but I know I wont get annother turn. He brings up the Benched Reshiram with two energy on it, Draws. Powers on annother Fire and OHKO's my cinccino for the game 3 win.
So I beat one Typlosian deck and loose to annother one and my particpation in the LCQ is now over. I wish him the best of luck as he was a real nice person to play against, but Latter I check for his name in R5 and find out that he did not survive the next round.
The LCQ went about as I figured it would. With a change froms Swiss play to Top Cut format there was way more sitting and waiting the actually playing. IF they Keep the LCQ in place for next year I really hope they go back to braeaking the field up in POD's and play swiss. It is easier on the players and the staff then trying to run a 600 player Top cut. But I am glad I was talked into playing the LCQ this year. If I had skipped it as planned I probably would have regretted it.
Full Disclosure, it would be an understatement to say that I was externally disappointed with the format change of the LCQ this year from single game Swiss to a Top Cut format of best 2 out of 3. I have met so many wonderful players from all over the worlds in the past 5 years of LCQ play that I was really saddened with the change to single elimination.
I was so upset that I fully intended to sit this LCQ out. My family had already booked and paid for most of our trip so we were still going to worlds, but I figured that as I did not want to eliminate anyone any more then I wanted to get eliminated, that maybe it would be best if me and my family tried the Video Game LCQ instead (At least that one had always been Single elimination) But the closer we got to worlds the less enthused I became with the video game (If the battle subway give you fits at times how are you supposed to beat real teams) So then I decided we would not do any LCQ and just go have a nice dinner in San Diego that night. And that was the plan until my fellow League member at Phoenix Games Gym kept on and kept on trying to get me to change my mind and join them in Participating in the LCQ. Finally a few weeks before worlds at the Annual Summer Pokémon Pool party that is held every year by one of our PTO's. I don’t know if it was the heat or possibly the effects of an adult lavation one of our League members tried one last time to convince me to play. I was going to tell him no, but somehow me and my wife were convinced to say yes. So I had two weeks to get our deck up to speed from fun league play status to tourney ready. So a mad testing period began.
My wife loves tepig (it reminds her if P-Chan from the Ranma 1/2 anime) so a Reshiboar deck was the obvious choice for her. Got that up and running pretty good.
My daughter decided she wanted to play Water because of all the Fire being played so she got Sammurot. That deck was harder to make work right but I finally got a build I was happy with. Then my deck I did not decide on until the day before the LCQ. I brought two deck ideas down. My favorite was a Metagross/Muk deck where I dragged something big and ugly up with Muk and then 40/40'd the bench with Metagross. when this deck had the right matchup it was devastating, but vs a free or cheap retreating deck like Yanmega or Kingdra it was a struggle.
My second deck choice was T2 Cinccino Swarm. With Magnezone draw engine. This deck did well against Yanmegas but struggled vs any of the 130 HP dragons.
I decided to play Cinccino Swarm the night before the LCQ so I get up early on Friday decklist our three decks and off we go to register. We get there at 8:20 as supposedly no one is supposed to be in line for the Trading Card LCQ before 8:30, but once we get there we see that there are over 200 people already in line so we find the end and stand in the ready. After 30 min or so the line finally starts to move and about 30 min more were are all 3 registered. One funny thing is that I was only planning to run a 2-1-2 Magenzone line but someone walked by with a binder of cards for sale. He flashed the front page to me and there was a Magnezone. I asked what he wanted and he said $25.00 I told him I would give him $20.00 but he countered with throwing in a RH Magnemite if I gave him $25.00 so I agreed to the deal and then went back and forth over the merits of 2-1-2 vs 3-1-3. Finally I decided to go with the extra Magnezone and changed my list when I was about 30 places away from the registration desk.
We were finally ready to play but then came the long loooong loooooong wait. Because it was a top cut format they were checking each and every decklist to make sure it was legal before the event started. Then they had to call the players up with bad lists and get them corrected. They also announced that Masters would play two rounds before Juniors and Seniors even started. The plan was to have juniors and seniors start at 11:30 with Masters round 3, but once the first hour came and went and we had not yet started it was clear that time goal was not going to be met.
Now I do not want anyone to think that the delay was in anyway the fault of the organizers and judges of the LCQ. No they were set up with a deck stacked against them. I judge BR's and Cities and I know how hard and tiring it is to set up and get underway a top cut of 4 or 8 players. It is a lot of work and not easy. I can not imagine the difficulty faced by trying to get a 600 player top cut underway. And to make it worse it was decided to give 2/3 of the masters players a bye in R1. That was a logistic nightmare because there was no significant player elimination from the LCQ until after the 2nd round. I really felt sorry for the people running the event I thought it was going to be way harder on the staff then a normal Swiss tourney would have been but I underestimated that. It was way, way way harder to do it this way.
My wife had to play Round one while I was one of the many many players not to play in the 1st round. For some reason all of the Japanese participants were in the 1st round and she got paired against one of them. From her report back to me he was playing the Typhlosian version of her deck. In the first game she ran into an energy crisis early and she took the early lead and she could not come back. Game two was the opposite. She got set up early and he was forced to attack midgame with a Typhlosian that he powered up without damaging it. She surprised him with and OHKO thanks to Reshriam and a plus power/junk arm (The plus powers rule is so broken) then the next turn she surprised him by throwing down and sweeping with her RDL for the last two prizes. So they went on to a 3rd game to decide who went on. She started with a Reshiram and she got a lone Vulpix, she failed to draw anything to save her in the two cards she drew before she was KO's on his T3. So her day was done.
Finally after over 3 hours of waiting pairing for R2 was up and I found myself paired against a very well known Pokegym staffer from the Chicago area. He was playing Typhlosian/Reshiram and I knew I was in trouble because this was not my matchup. He told me that he was not sure how good his deck was, witch is a sign I always take to mean that my opponent is a serious player and is downplaying a deck, wile actually being confident that it is solid. We wish each other luck and get started.
I get a quick set up of a full bench and two fully powered Minccinos by T4. Yea not a lot of help. Finally I loose my Starter on his T4 so I bring up one Minccinco and figure I can fall any further behind. So I play my plus power and discard my hand to draw 7 cards with Juniper, I figure with a 4-4 line and Pokémon communicators there is no way I can miss the Do the Wave attack this turn. Boy was I wrong, I whiff. I have to retreat and sacrifice another prize. Needless to say this is fatal and I do manage to finally get some Cinccino in play but its way too late to be any good and I loose 6-2. So now I am down to what could be my final game. Game two tables are turned and I am set up and running with a T2 Magnezone and he is forced to manually power up a dragon. He gets one KO but I revenge kill him with a big bad bull. and he is forced to bring up his ninetails. I retreat for a Cinccino and take out the Ninetails and a cleffa for a 3-1 lead before he finally gets a Typhlosian in play and gets another Reshiram powered up. He KO's my cinccino and Makes it 3-2. But he his dragon has 20 on it from the Typhlosian powers so one Full powered Do the wave and a plus Powers gives me a 4-3 lead. On his turn he is brings up his Typhlosian with one energy on it, then Rare candies a benched Cyndiquil into a second Typhlosian and powers up his active using two powers Plays a Collector and fetches and benches another reshiram and hits my Cinccino for 70 and rips his double colorless energy. I look down at my field, My Magnezone has 2 energy on it, and my Bouffalant has a double colorless attached. I will attach one energy for my turn giving me 4 to discard, So I can KO the Typhlosian but if I use three energy to do it I wont be able to KO the Reshiram the following turn. I figure it is do or die time so either I win the game here or I loose trying. So I free retreat my active (thanks to my Dotrio) Bring up the Magnezone. Attach a third energy to it and junk arm for my plus power. Play it but I still am 10 damage short. So I need another plus power or another junk arm. I have two cards left in my hand and use the Magnezone power to draw 4. This time luck is on my side and I get another junk arm discard two cards from my hand plus power again and am able to KO the Typhlosian by only lost zoning two of my 4 energy in play. Now if I survive the next turn the game is mine. In the first game I brought up an unpowered up Magnezone to stall for hopefully two turns, but it went down to a Reshiram pluspower/junkarm OHKO so I am hopeful he cant do it again. He brings up the Reshiram with one energy, attaches from his hand and powers another one looks at me and announces his attack for 120. Whew that was a close call. All I have to do is draw attach to Magnezone and lostzone all 3 remaining energy for the OHKO and the win.
So now its my turn to face the finality of the Game 3. While we are randomizing our decks the time up announcement is given. So now our final game is down to a final prize. One KO will mean moving on or being finished. So we both decide to keep on randomizing our decks a few min more before we start, a judge comes by to see what is going on and we tell him that we are in Game 3 sudden death, he sits down to watch. I hope for a good start but am devastated when I get a lone Doduo (I am only running a 1-1 line for free retreat) but it is what I have so I send it up. I do have a Prof Oaks so I have a chance. We flip and my opponent wins and goes first. Also has only one Pokémon. But its a lone Vulpix. He attaches a fire to it and throws down a plus power and bam I have 30 damage on my 50 HP Pokémon in a sudden death match before I even get a chance to draw a card. Looks like I could go down the same way my wife did an hour earlier. I draw. Do not get a basic Pokémon. So I attach an energy and play my Oaks and shuffle my hand really really hoping I get another Pokémon so I can retreat and not have to tell everyone I was T2 donked by a vuplix.
After giving my deck a good 4 shuffles I hand it to my opponent and he cuts it. I have 6 chances to draw a basic. I draw all six and reveal them all at once to myself. with great relief I see I get both of my Bouffalants and a double colorless and a plus power. Whew I still have a chance!! I retreat the damaged bird and bring up the 100HP Buffalo.
My turn then ends. My opponents looks at my Bouffalant and exclaims that he cant KO that. So he plays a Collector. Benches a Fire dragon and two Cyndiquil retreats vulpix for the Reshiram and ends his turn without playing an energy. Now I am moving from survival mode to thinking that maybe I can win before he gets out a Typhlosian.
My 2nd turn I draw a minccino bench it attach my double colorless and hit his reshriam for 20. His turn 3 he draws gets fire energy. plays it on his Reshiram and ends his turn. Wow no rare candy Typhlosian. I have a chance. I draw and know that if I can survive one more of my opponents turns the game will be mine. I have two energy in hand but I luck into a second double colorless with my draw card. so I place an electric energy on my minccino as a feint to make him think I am going for the Do the wave KO and then I hit him again with the Revenge attack from Bouffalant taking Reshiram to 40 damage. So as long as he does not get the Typhlosian in play I am going to be good. He draws, just like the previous turn he gets what I assume is an energy because all he does is attach to reshiram and hits me for 60 damage.
Wow I survived. I draw. lay down my 2nd double colorless on the Bouffalant and play my plus power for the 90 damage attack I need to KO the Dragon and take the match 2 games to 1. Wow I cant believe I was able to pull that game out after beginning with a lone doduo start and going 2nd. But I was able to survive and now it is on to Round 3
Meanwhile my wife comes up and informs me that I was the very last master game to stil be playing. Then she grabs my daugters deck and gets Sarah set up to play. Of course she does not get paired vs a fire deck but instead draws a Donphn Machamp. Her report back to me was that in game 1 she gets set up quickly with a powered up Sammurot while her Opponet is stuck fighting just with Donpahns. This game is over quickly and she takes game 1. Her opponet learned quickly to not use donphan and he fights just with Machamp in the next two games. this strategy pays off and Sarah drops both games and is out of the LCQ.
I get paired up with a player from Finland. He tells me that he is trying to grind in with 6 other friends, and 3 were out and he is one of 3 remaining. We get started and I draw the same matchup as before. Typholian/Reshiram. Only differeance is the Finnish player is running rescue energy otherwise the list is very similar to the one I just faced. Game one we both get set up and at first I am able to match his OHKO's with my own with Plus Powers/Junk arms and the fact that he is damaging his Reshirams with the Typlosian Power. But I can not keep this up the entire game and midway I am forced to trade two of my prizes for each one I get from him. Thank to his rescue energy his Reshiram swarm never ends. He takes game one 6-4. Game two is very similar to by first round match. He starts with a dragon and gets a T2 Ninetails but get can not get a Cynsicquil to save his life. I know from experiance v my wifes deck that I need to go agro on this deck when I get the chance even if that means I loose my 1st Cinccinco to a rage attack. So I get a T2 80 on him while he attaches a Fire and a rescue on his two turns and then after he Evovles to ninetails he draws 3 cards and get a Cleffa that he benches then he rages me for the first KO. My turn I send up my Buffalo, attacho Double colorless and Revenge kill him. He brings up the Cleffa and Eeeks, flips heads and wakes up. For 6 cards. My turn I attach an enegy to a benched Cinccino. Play donw a plus power and judge him from 6 to 4 cards. Then I KO the cleffa for a 2-1 lead. He had a reshiram and Ninetals on the bench, I have 3 benched pokemon so he brings up the ninetails, Plays down Pokemone comunicator and get out a Cyndiquil. Becnhes it attaches an enegy to Benched Reshiram and ends his turn. I lucked into a Collector on my Judge play and pay the retreat cost on the Buffalo Birng up the Cinncino. Attach a 2nd energy to it and Collect for three basics and bench two and OHKO the Ninetails for a 3-1 lead. He brings up his Reshiram. darws a card. Looks at my field and then his. Looks at his hand and tells me "I conceed". This was a good move on his part becuase I had way two big of a lead and a good bench he had no Power in play. I was hopeing he would play the game out so I could eat some more time but his ending the game early meant that we were going to have a lot of time left for game 3. Last game he starts with a cleffa Vs my plusle start. He eeks and stays asleep. I start with a collector and call for family to fill my bench on T1. His cleffa wakes up. T2 he setus up Reshiram. Plays a collector of his own for annother Rehsiram and Typlosian and Vulpix. Eeeks again wakes up again. I dont know how much time is left but I figure I should take any lead I can so I KO his Cleffa with a Plus Power/Junk arm combo and take the first prize.
He brings up a Reshiram. Is abele to Rare Candy down a Typlosian and OHKO's my poor little Plusle. I hit him for 100 damage but not the OHKO. He Rages me to take a 2-1 lead. I bring up Buffolant and KO him. Then on his turn they call time. T0 and we are tied 2-2 in prizes. He brings up A reshiram. Evloves to Ninetails. Uses it power benches annother Cyndiquil and attaches rescue energy from hand and Typlosian powers a fire and hits my Buffalo for 30. T1. I attach energy to benched Cinccino and hit his Reashiram for 20. T2 his turn and we are still 2-2 in Prizes. He Junk arms for Rare candy and gets a 2nd Typlosian in play. and communicates for annother Reshiram and benches it. Dose not look good now. Then He double Typlosians the benched Reshiram and attaches an enegy to the acive and KO's my Buffalo. T3 and he is up 3-2. I bring up my Cinccino attach a 2nd energy to it. Lay down annother basic and KO the Reshiram that had 30 damamge on it. Of course we are in sudden death but I know I wont get annother turn. He brings up the Benched Reshiram with two energy on it, Draws. Powers on annother Fire and OHKO's my cinccino for the game 3 win.
So I beat one Typlosian deck and loose to annother one and my particpation in the LCQ is now over. I wish him the best of luck as he was a real nice person to play against, but Latter I check for his name in R5 and find out that he did not survive the next round.
The LCQ went about as I figured it would. With a change froms Swiss play to Top Cut format there was way more sitting and waiting the actually playing. IF they Keep the LCQ in place for next year I really hope they go back to braeaking the field up in POD's and play swiss. It is easier on the players and the staff then trying to run a 600 player Top cut. But I am glad I was talked into playing the LCQ this year. If I had skipped it as planned I probably would have regretted it.
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