SuperWooper
New Member
Rockville, Maryland Gym Challenge
06/26/05
I was up until about 1 AM the morning of the tournament. I couldn’t sleep for the life of me. It was my last shot at a trip to the World Championships, and the deck I would play would be crucial because the metagame is fairly wide-open right now. Pidgeotto Trainer and I had been collaborating on a Ludicargo deck that ran Battle Frontier and Rhydon from Hidden Legends to shut down Rock-Lock. I used Rhydon over the standard Marowak because Rhydon stops damage to the bench, like Blaziken ex’s Volcanic Ash or Dark Tyranitar’s Spinning Tail. Our lists were the same except for one card, and for this reason, he has asked me not to post the list. Although it’s not something I would usually hold back, this time I’m obliged to do so.
I fall asleep late that morning and wake up the next morning at 8 so I can double and triple check to make sure I have everything. Deckbox, deck, sleeves, dice, binder, box, decklists. Nothing’s missing, so I grab a shower and breakfast and wait around for Devon and Ryan. Mrs. C drops her boys off at our front door and Mason, my younger brother, comes along too. We hop in the car, and after making sure we’ve got everything we need, and set off for Rockville. Devon and Ryan left us borrow about a billion cards so Mason and I will have our decks near-finished, being the misers that we are.
We arrive at the hotel that the ECSC was run at last year, thinking the tournament will be held at the same place. The location of the tournament was rather vague, and so I assumed that since the ECSC was held at “Dream Wizards” last year, it would be held at the same Dream Wizards this year. When we got there, though, the ballroom was completely empty. We ask the lady at the front desk and she gives up Mapquest directions to the card store where it’s actually being held. Of course the directions are wrong, so we call the store and get directions while we’re driving. We get there at about 11:40 (registration was supposed to have ended 10 minutes earlier).
I burst through the front door of Dream Wizards and start looking frantically around for Physics Squirrel, who has the cards I need right in front of him when he notices me. “I thought you weren’t going to show,” were his exact words. He gives Mason the Blaziken ex and Rayquaza ex and Combusken he needs, and me the Lombre, Battle Frontier and random Rhyhorn. (Yeah, I only had one Rhyhorn.) I get in a few five or six stack shuffles before Brian (RainbowRichards) gets everybody’s attention and tells us the rules, etc. We learn that there will be 5 rounds of Swiss, one group for the 15+, and one group for the 11-14 and 10- combined (attendance was in the 50s: there weren’t enough players to do 3 separate Swiss groups). After that, the 15+ would have a Top 8 and the 11-14 and 10- would each get separate Top 4 cuts.
In the 11-14, Devon was running Dragtrode and Mason was running Blaziken. Ryan, for our 10- representative, was running a Monarchy variant. I was using Ludicargo, as I mentioned earlier. It has great matchups versus Rock-Lock and Dragtrode, but you have to know how to play against both decks. Its Blaziken and Hariyama matchups are excellent as well. Even its Muk matchup is winnable. Its only auto-loss is Zapdos ex, but that was a chance I was willing to take. Sean was running Rock-Lock, so I figured there would be no Zapdos. This was a crucial mistake on my part, but I’ll get to that later. On to the tournament!
Round One: Cacturne ex/Shiftry/Zangoose
I’m paired up against somebody I’ve never heard of before, which is a good thing I guess. He won the opening roll, which I was fairly grateful for, actually, after seeing my hand. Yeah, I got the lone Dunsparce with no energy. He had a Cacnea and an Emerald Zangoose. I had forgotten Cacturne was an actual card. ;x I get off to a roaring setup after Topdecking a Water energy, running for Jirachi and Striking for Lotad and Slugma as well. He’s energy screwed and can only watch as I get a T3 Ludicolo, Magcargo, Rhydon, Lombre setup on the bench. I have the game in the bag at this point. He benches another Cacnea and plays a Grass energy to the benched one, knowing that I’m about to go for the KO. I use Jirachi’s power once more, Ludicargo for a Heal, and retreat Jirachi for Ludicolo, KO’ing his Cacnea.
He brings up Zangoose as an attempt to stall. I KO that and he uses Wally’s Training for Cacturne ex. I needed to look at Cacturne ex, because I couldn’t remember exactly what it did. I mentioned out loud, “I’ve never faced an opponent who used Cacturne ex before,” and Jon (Physics Squirrel) brilliantly blurted, “That’s because Cacturne ex is the worst card ever,” which was about as sensitive as a block of concrete. Way to go, Jon. =/ Lol, anyway, I flip a couple heads on confusion (Cacturne ex confuses for one energy) and get a second Magcargo out. I win the match within the first fifteen minutes and we go up and report. GG.
1-0
I walk around and see who’s who and what’s what. It seems there was a lot less Rock-Lock than I had anticipated, and a lot more Hariyama ex, too. Hari was an easy win for Ludicolo, though, as the Battle Frontier lock did nothing to me. Here’s a breakdown of the competition at the tournament:
Pramawat - Hariyama ex
Brooks - Hariyama ex
Physics Squirrel - Dragtrode
^’s younger brother - Dragtrode
Dragonite Freak (CFK) - Rock-Lock
Luke - Blaziken
Brett M - Blaziken
LeBlanc - 4 Corners
Kevin W - Blaziken
Everything looked smooth. I had positive records against all those decks, with the possible exception of 4 Corners, but I decided I’d worry about that bridge when I had to cross it. Mike, Luke, Jon, LeBlanc, and Brooks all win their first rounds, so I’m worried I’ll have to play one of them. My fears are calmed, however, when I see that the software has matched me up with nobody I know.
Round Two: Darkelf1313 w/ Dark Crobat/Muk ex
Muk ex is a winnable matchup, but it still gives Ludicargo a bit of trouble. I win the opening roll, I’m not looking too hot as my deck comes out of the gates a bit slowly. I have to Swoop my Rhyhorn for a Dunsparce, and I have an energy, but even then I have no evolutions in my hand. I run for Jirachi, of course, and she’s started with Zubat. She benches a Grimer and attaches a Grass to Zubat. Now we all know that Jirachi has resistance to Grass, right? Apparently, this girl didn’t. She should have used Surprise and taken a card from my hand, but instead she tries to damage me. -_- I immediately realize I have the game tucked away as I Topdeck a Celio’s Network and get Magcargo, and promptly Jirachi/Magcargo a Rare Candy into my hand and evolve into Ludicolo and use its power to draw a Scramble energy. Am I a lucksac or WHAT? ^_^
She hits all the wrong Pokemon with Golbat’s Skill Dive for a couple turns (while using Pokenav and attaching Oran Berry =/) before evolving and poisoning my Jirachi. I let it get KO’d and my Scramble on Ludicolo activates and I OHKO her Dark Crobat (she didn’t realize that playing the Dunsparce from her hand got me just enough for the KO, but I had the Charm ready anyway). She brings up another Dark Crobat and poisons me, and I counter her 2nd and final Team Aqua’s Hideout with Battle Frontier, but it’s a bit too late. Ludicolo takes a bit of damage, but not before Charming and KO’ing her 2nd Dark Crobat. She brings up a couple Muk ex for my final four prizes. She shut off my powers, but I was swarming way too fast.
2-0
So far I’ve played a couple poorly-constructed decks, but with about 30 players in the 15+, I know that only 6-8 can be undefeated so far. Brooks, LeBlanc, and a couple others have achieved that record so far, and I figure that my chances of playing LeBlanc are pretty low with all the other undefeated players so far. Devon, Mason, and Ryan are all 1-1. We take a 30 minute lunch break, and my mom brings Wendys for us, so we sit around, eat, shuffle, and wait for the next round. I score a couple Plusle from Deoxys by trading random Pidgeys and Marshtomps, since Dunsparce will soon be rotated out. I’m eager to play because I usually never get 2 Dunsparce starts in a row, so I’m feeling pretty confident.
Of course, Luke decides to come over to where we’re sitting and suck all the joy out of the room by being himself. I’ll leave the rest up to your imagination, those of you that know him. Those that don’t, you probably don’t want to, so I’m going to skip to the part where I get my deck all shuffled up and wait for the pairings. This was easily my most unlucky game of the tournament, and luck decided to play a trick on me by combining an awful hand with a pairing that put me up against the eventual winner of the tournament.
Round Three: Eric Brooks w/ Hariyama ex
Yeah, it’s just my luck that I get paired with an STS winner in the Round that would possibly clinch it for me (two 3-2 records end up making it). I could identify Brooks by his face, but I’d never actually met him before. Although I had an advantage over his deck, I mulliganed twice after he wins the flip. He has to stop and pause to read a couple of my Special Energy during my mulligans, but to his credit, he’s been out of the game for a while and he immediately recognized my deck as a Ludicolo/Magcargo when he saw my Lombre. I get a Dunsparce in my opening hand for the third time that tournament, but this time, my hand isn’t as hot as before. This is it, card for card:
Dunsparce
Battle Frontier
Battle Frontier
Battle Frontier
Battle Frontier
Lombre
Lombre
-______- He goes first and uses Wishing Star with Jirachi, attaches a Metal to Jirachi, and passes. He flips tails on sleep. I draw a Ludicolo. Still no basics, still no energy, still no supporters. I pass and he flips heads, uses the power again, thinks for a minute, and Swoops to Makuhita, evolves, attaches Fighting and KOs my Dunsparce. “Well, sir, it looks like you’ve been Turn 2’d,” Mike comments from my left. Ugh. Well, I couldn’t keep up my luck for all of Swiss. I shake his hand and I go up and report.
2-1
So now I, Mike, Physics, Luke, David, and a handful of others are 2-1. I have good matchups versus all of their decks (Yama, Drag and Blaze, respectively), so I’m really not worried. Devon, Mason and Ryan are all 2-1 now, and Melody (the only 11-14 player besides Devon and Mason I would consider to be a threat, besides the 2nd placing player at NJ Regionals) is undefeated, if I recall correctly. At this point only Brooks, LeBlanc, Mike R and Kevin W are undefeated, I believe. I’m pretty sure I’ve got to win the next 2 to make the cut, because I have one of the lowest resistances of the 2-1 players. This worries me, but again, I’m paired up against nobody I’m worried about. Props, TMS.
Round Four: Timothy F w/ Green Heal
This is one of my deck’s auto-losses, but I didn’t think any would show. It’s a mediocre-poor deck in this metagame. The primary matchup it was used for was Rock-Lock back during States, but now the emphasis of Rock-Lock decks is put up St TTar, which can OHKO Sceptile ex with Scramble Dark Dark Ruins. And what can Slowbro do against OHKOs? Even with Rock aside, Blaziken and Muk give it a rough time, and it’s not really the greatest choice for a competitive tournament right now unless you can outplay everybody in your area.
I went first, and got a Jirachi start. I used Wishing Star and pulled a basic, because I thought he was playing Dark Slowking: he had a Slowpoke active. But then I saw him place an Azurill on the bench, so I just figured he was running a horrible variant. Then I saw that he had the kind of Slowpoke out that Green Heal uses, so I was relieved. When he attached a Grass energy to it, I was sure that it wasn’t Dark Slowking. I got heads on sleep and used Star again. He evolved into Slowbro next turn and passed. By T5 I had Ludicolo, Magcargo, and a Lombre out, as well as a couple basics. I proceeded to rip through his entire deck. I didn’t see another energy from him besides the one he laid first turn, to his credit. He showed me his hand after I had beaten him by KO’ing his last in-play Pokemon (a Dunsparce), and he had:
Sceptile ex
Sceptile
Slowbro
Boost Energy
Grovyle
Among other things. That’s tough luck, Tim. GG.
3-1
In the 11-14, Devon, Mason, and Melody are 3-1 as well, so I figure at least one of them will make the Top 4 cut. Cool beans. LeBlanc is 4-0 now, and I’m pretty sure he’s the only one left. I don’t recall seeing anybody with 15 points after the end of the 5th round, so there couldn’t have been two undefeated players. Jon, Mike, Brooks, and several others share my record. David and Luke are 2-2. There’s a good chance somebody from our team will play an Anderson next round, which will be sad, because they’re all deserving players and other than myself, Devon, Mason or Ryan, I would choose the Andersons to take it home. Pairings are up, and in an amazing twist of fate, none of our crew has to play Melody, David or Jon. Instead, Jon is matched up against Brook’s Hariyama ex, which is basically an auto-loss, but I’m still pulling for him.
Round Five: Kingdra ex/Lapras ex
I recognize my opponent as the guy who’s been sitting next to me in a lot of my rounds. He’s asked a judge for a ruling about 10 times today, as this is his first modified tournament and he’s unfamiliar with the rules, let alone erratas and cards with complex text and game functions. I start with a Lotad, and he with Lapras ex. He looks at my Lotad for a while and decides to start powering a Horsea on the bench while I Admin T3 and finally get a Dunsparce. He chuckles and says, “That’s a horrible card.” So I’m like =/. He got a Seadra and a couple water energy in his hand, so I actually ended up helping him, but next turn I’m able to Candy into Ludicolo and get a DRE on it. I have a Heal in my hand, and I can’t OHKO his Lapras ex, so I use Healing Steps.
Apparently, this guy is a Magic vet. He calls Brian over to the table and asks if Brian can tell him what a certain card does. Brian asks, “Which card?” and looks at the field. My opponent says that he needs the text on one of the cards in his deck. So Brian is dumbfounded. Clearly he’s never heard a question like this, and I don’t blame him. The kid I’m playing explains that in Magic, you can ask a judge for a “Card Oracle”, which is a text spoiler for every card in the game, at any point in the game. That’s an interesting rule. I don’t doubt his claim, but there’s nothing like that in Pokemon. Brian explains that he can’t ask for that and the player says okay, and we go back at it.
He tries to confuses my Ludicolo with Lapras (after looking at Ludicolo for the 3rd time that game -_-), but I attach the Heal and Charm it for the KO. I take another prize by way of a random Mudkip, but then he puts up Seadra w/ 4 energy and uses Wally’s Training, so I’m afraid that he’ll be able to OHKO me by using Kingdra ex (since he did 10 to me w/ Lapras ex before, if I remember right). He can’t decide whether or not to use Kingdra or Kingdra ex. I let him look at the two cards in his deck for about two minutes (which was generous, IMO) before I call Brian over. My opponent looks frustrated and Brian tells him he needs to make his move in just a couple of minutes. He stands over his shoulder for another couple minutes, and it doesn’t look like he’s any closer to making up his mind. Brian is called over to resolve a dispute in another match, so I’m pressuring my opponent to pick. It’s been about 5 minutes now, and FINALLY he chooses Kingdra ex (which was the better choice, if he had chosen Kingdra from TRR I would have screamed) and attaches the water for the KO. During my turn, I’m looking through my hand for about 10 seconds and he asks me to speed up play. =/ He takes a couple of long turns and I can’t KO his Kingdra ex (my other 2 Ludicolo are prized), but I manage to get 120 on it. Eventually, time is called right after he takes his 3rd prize, putting us at a draw. He can OHKO anything in my deck (he’s doing 90 a turn), and my last three prizes are 2 Ludicolo and a Retriever, so I’m completely screwed). His hand is 12 cards, so I attach to my Lotad that I’ve just put active and use Copycat. I look through my hand for a while and I see a Lombre and an ATM: Rock. I play them down and I get the win. There’s a five minute dispute about whether or not I can make the move. Brian explains that it was perfectly legal. My opponent was really frustrated, as he probably hadn’t ever heard of ATM: Rock, or even knew deevolution was possible. GG anyway. =/
4-1
So I’m in for sure. Mason and Devon have both gone 4-1, and Ryan has gone 3-2. We wait patiently for the results to see if they all made it in. I was confident that all four of us would all get it, which would be a team record. =D Jon lost to Brook’s Yama, as I had expected, and Melody had lost again to put her at 3-2. David had won, putting him at 3-2, but his tiebreaker wasn’t nearly good enough to put him anywhere within the range of CFK, who came in at 8th seed. However, Jon missed the cut by only 4%, coming in at 9th seed in the 15+. After a bug in the TMS software which had completely erased Devon’s name from the records (-_____-) we find out that Mason comes in at 4th, Devon comes in at 5th, and Melody at 6th. =( Tough break, guys! Ryan makes 4th in the 10-, so we have one representative in each age group!
There’s a hiatus of roughly 30 minutes while deck checks are done for all 3 age groups. I get mine checked close to first, so I shuffle really good. We’re told that we’ll have single elimination rounds because of time constraints. That was cool with me. Ludicargo is a fast deck. I knew there was a Zapdos ex in the T8, but the chances of me playing that were slim. Big mistake. =/ I know the Top 8 for the 15+ and the Top 4 for the 11-14, but I’m not sure of what the 10- looked like. I know Brian’s son Benjamin got the trip trickled down to him in the finals after losing to Alex H. Good job, Alex and congrats on the trip, Ben! Here’s what I know of the Top 8 cuts...
Top 8: 15+
1st: Mike R (Metagross) 4-1
vs
8th: Sean G (Rock-Lock) 3-2
2nd: Matt L (4 Corners) 4-1
vs
7th: Brett M (Blaziken) 3-2
3rd: Eric B (Hariyama ex) 4-1
vs
6th: Mike P (Hariyama ex) 4-1
4th: SuperWooper (Ludicargo) 4-1
vs
5th: Kevin F (Zapdos ex) 4-1
Top 4: 11-14
1st: ? (Beedrill)
vs
4th: Mason N (Blaziken)
2nd: Collin H (Gardevoir)
vs
3rd: Angelina W (Dragtrode)
The pairings are called out, and I’m ready to go. I’m paired up against Kevin F, who’s 5th seed to my 4th. Sean’s told me he’s playing Zapdos ex, and the only one in the tournament, at that. I’m figuring that I’m just having bad luck, but then a string of events so unlucky occur that there must have been some unseen hand of evil guiding me towards doom in solely the top cut, driven by a hate for me that originates from within the depths of its twisted, pitch black soul. =P Before the game starts, he drops a Super Scoop while shuffling, and I make a comment like, “Only a Zapdos deck would play that.” He replies with, “You’re forgetting about Blaziken.” I look up at him. His expression is all too serious. I asked if he was joking. He simply raised an eyebrow. And of course, to be as helpful as possible, Pramawat piped up next to us with, “I used 4 Super Scoop Up in my Blaziken.” You’re such a scrub, Mike. Rofl. ;/
Top 8: Kevin F w/ Zapdos ex
So I figure I need to win the flip to have a chance at the win, because I heard from CFK earlier that this guy’s build was completely outdated, and he had been getting T2 starts the entire tournament, which was the reason he was in. I guess that’s what Zapdos ex is supposed to do, though, right? =/ Ehh, I lose the flip, plus, I start with a Rhyhorn, so my day is now complete. The good thing is, he’s using Elekid, which is completely obsolete in Zapdos ex now that Electrike was released in EX: Deoxys. CFK was right, this guy’s build was outdated. He attaches Lightning to Elekid and finds another Lightning, and he shows me his hand. He’s got a Lanette and another Lightning. It’s GG if I don’t draw a basic. I draw Dunsparce. It was the next card in my deck, of COURSE. Suddenly, though, I realize that I can attach to Rhyhorn (this is the HL one) and use its attack that does 10x the number of heads. You get to flip two coins. Since Elekid is weak to fighting, I can Tyrogue him for the game. I use Admin and get rid of his perfect hand, and find an energy. So I’m feeling like I might win this matchup. I have a 25% chance of Tyrogue’ing him right here, and my Admin gets me a horrible hand, but I get an energy for Rhyhorn. Now get this - he draws his 6 for Admin and draws the SAME HAND, CARD FOR CARD. The only difference was that the Lanette’s Net Search is now a Zapdos ex. For lack of a better word(s), I was extremely unhappy. =/ But I still got the Tyrogue factor going for me. I pick up a die and it seems like it’s falling to the table in slow motion.
I get...
3.
Okay, so I don’t win the game Turn 1, but I can still do 20 to Elekid, right?
I get...
3.
-_________________-
OMG BBQ TNT FORDFOCUS. >:O What really got me angry was the fact that I started to make a comeback by Topdecking a couple Candy exactly when I needed them and Scrambling everything in sight, and he flipped two straight heads on Super Scoop Up. When I saw him use Professor Oak’s Research and Professor Cozmo’s Discovery, I knew Sean was right. To Kevin’s credit, he knew exactly when to use Super Scoop Up and didn’t misplay a single time. He took all 6 prizes before I got to take 1. It was extremely frustrating to lose my only chance at Worlds 2005 on a couple of coin flips, and be paired up against the only deck (besides LeBlanc’s 4 Corners and maybe Mike R’s Metagross, which were both eliminated in the 1st round) that could take me down so easily. Kevin is a cool person, though. We talked some after the tournament, and I explained how a normal Blaziken list worked. I told him that there was an Electrike in DX that did the same thing as Elekid but had 50 HP and not 40, and that TV Reporter would be a better option than Professor Cozmo’s Discovery. “If you’re going to play a bad deck, play it right,” Scru...Mike had said later on that day. =P It was my favorite quote of this tournament season.
4-2, Eliminated
Here’s how the rest of the tournament panned out:
Top 8: 15+
Winners in bold.
1st: Mike R (Metagross) 4-1
vs
8th: Sean G (Rock-Lock) 3-2
2nd: Matt L (4 Corners) 4-1
vs
7th: Brett M (Blaziken) 3-2
3rd: Eric B (Hariyama ex) 4-1
vs
6th: Mike P (Hariyama ex) 4-1
4th: Me (Ludicargo) 4-1
vs
5th: Kevin F (Zapdos ex) 4-1
Top 4: 15+
Winners in bold.
5th: Kevin F (Zapdos ex) 5-1
vs
7th: Brett M (Blaziken) 4-2
3rd: Eric B (Hariyama ex) 5-1
vs
8th: Sean G (Rock-Lock) 4-2
Finals: 15+
Winners in bold.
3rd: Eric B (Hariyama ex) 6-1
vs
7th: Brett M (Blaziken) 5-2
Brooks won the trip w/ Hariyama ex. He would have got the trip anyway, since Brett won Woodbridge, but they decided to play it out for the box, and more importantly, the NOTEBOOK!!!1one! I didn’t see the game, but it must have been close, as Blaziken gives Hariyama rough time, usually. Congrats, Eric!
Top 4: 11-14
Winners in bold.
1st: ? (Beedrill) 5-0
vs
4th: Mason N (Blaziken) 4-1
2nd: Collin H (Gardevoir) 5-0
vs
3rd: Angelina W (Dragtrode) 4-1
Finals: 11-14
Winners in bold.
4th: Mason N (Blaziken) 5-1
vs
2nd: Collin H (Gardevoir) 6-0
My little brother lost in the finals. I was really disappointed that he didn’t win, since Blaziken has the obvious advantage over Gardevoir, and Collin had a really mediocre list. He had a history of making lists with gigantic flaws, such as using Multi energy in Dragtrode instead of Rainbow, but Mason made some big misplays. Oh well, whacha gonna do? Ryan ended up taking 4th in his age group, netting him 9 packs. Devon and I made T8 in our age groups, so we each got 4 packs, and Mason got 18 for second place. We scored 37 packs overall, which more than pays for the gas it tooks for 2 trips there and back. Sweet!
The Andersons had stuck around because Mason and I had their cards, and we gave back the Bex, Ray, Frontier, Admin, etc. I accidentally gave them one of Devon’s Ray ex, but I gave them my address over AIM, so they can send it back (I hope =P). We said goodbye to everybody, gathered up our cards, and left Dream Wizards after I scored some Primeape off Luke for a few Matrix energy. I really don’t care about Matrix energy - they don’t do anything different than normal energy. =/
My dad picked us up from Dream Wizards and after driving around to find a place to eat, Devon saw a Fuddruckers on the right, so we had to make this really sharp turn at the last second, which caused my deck to fly everywhere. I eventually got it all back together, but not before having to reach way under the seat to get a lousy water energy, and probably disgesting several billion dust particles in the process. We went inside and all ordered Bacon Cheddar burgers, and Mason got the best strawberry milkshake I’d ever tasted in my life. It was worth driving all the way to Rockville for. =D Ryan also developed a lemon addiction of some kind while we were there. He would go down to the refill station with his cup, and come back with an empty cup and like, three lemons at a time. Mason only ate about 10 bites of his burger before he just decided to fill up on his milkshake and fries. I was more than happy to finish it (hehe) but we just boxed it and drove on home.
After returning all the cards to their original owners, we dropped Ryan and Devon off at their house. I opened my Emerald packs, as did Mason, and we scored 3 exs (2 of them were Dusclops, though -_-), which is better than average. I hit the hay content with my loss, deciding that next year would be the year that Wooper would return. With Brooks returning to the game, it will be more challenging than ever to win in the Virginia and Maryland area, but next year I’ll be up for it! =)
And now it’s time for everybody’s favorite...
Props! :thumb:
-Dream Wizards for hosting the tournament!
-Laurel for PTO’ing.
-Brian for HJ’ing! Special thanks for handling some of the difficult calls that came up with an extraordinary amount of professionalism. Great job.
-Eric Brooks for making his big return and winning the whole thing!
-Collin H for 1st in the 11-14.
-Alex H for 1st in 10-.
-Benjamin R for getting the trip after the trickle down in 10-!
-Chris for fixing the TMS bug that happened after the 3rd round with only a minor amount of holdup. Other than a few slight bumps, you handled the computer like a pro.
-Mason, aka “<(^.^)>”, for 2nd in the 11-14! WTG, lil’ bro.
-Ryan for 4th in the 10-! Great showing, dude!
-Devon for 5th in the 11-14. It’s too bad the attendance wasn’t high enough for a Top 8 cut. You were certainly deserving of a spot. Next time we’ll get ’em.
-Myself for my 7th place finish. This was my most successful tournament season yet. “Maybe some day you’ll actually win a tournament!” ~CFK
-Sean for going Rock-Lock over Zapdos. I’m sick of Rock, but I’m more sick of Zapdos. Urghh. Also, thanks for bringing that binder even though I found the cards I needed on time. Sorry I made you drag your 150+ Dragonite card collection all the way to Rockville. You’re such a loser. Grow some hair. ;/
-Kevin F for being a cool guy and a gracious winner. You got some good flips, man, but you earned 3rd place for sure. Keep it up.
-The Andersons for loaning me all the stuff I needed. Without you guys I wouldn’t have done as well as I did. Thanks for being cool people as well, and not scrubs like Mike. =D Thanks for taking losing by 4% resistance better than I would have, Jon. I probably would have just exploded on the spot and flipped all the tables in the tournament. Good game.
-Patriarch, Magnechu, Pidgeotto Trainer, and Plaidlesspez as the four main sources of inspiration I needed to make Ludicargo with Rhydon. It’s a metagame beast, and I hope you guys do well at Worlds. You’re all outstanding players and I wish you nothing but the best.
-Fuddrucker’s burgers and milkshakes.
-My first EX: Emerald packs which didn’t consist solely of Nosepass and Relicanth as my rares.
-TMS matching me up with players I knew I could beat for most of Swiss.
-Our T8 for being pretty darn competitive and so diverse, too. We had:
2 Hariyama ex
1 Blaziken
1 Metagross
1 Lanturn/Stage 1s
1 Zapdos ex
1 Ludicargo
1 Rock-Lock
-The guy who traded me Plusle for random Emerald Marshtomp.
-The props for once again outnumbering the slops!
Slops... :nonono:
-Mason for his stupid misplays which cost him a trip to San Diego. You had that game if you had just seen the Multi in your hand, man.
-Devon and Jon for not making it on Tiebreakers. But it’s like Meg45 says, “You live by tiebreakers, you die by ’em, too.”
-TMS for screwing up and erasing Devon’s name from the rankings after Round 3 and after Round 5. Everything worked out in the end, though.
-Mason’s last name being down as “Maile” before it was fixed after Round 1, and for Devon’s first name as “Evon”. Interesting alternatives to the regular spelling, though. ;/
-Having the opportunity to Tyrogue a Zappy player out of the tournament and flipping two tails. Urrgghh.
-Bad flips.
-Wally’s Trainings which take 4-5 minutes to complete.
-Zapdos in general. Haha.
-Cramawaffle for bombing like me. GJ, N00B. XD
-Luke, cuz I give you one every time. I won’t elaborate. =P
-Mike R for telling me I sucked cuz I didn’t use Lanturn in Ludicargo. Yeah, sure, I’ll use Lanturn to counter the ONLY Zapdos at the tournament. What an intellegent comment. =/
-Brett for not dropping and letting Jon in. It really wouldn’t have cost you anything. You had the trip, and you know how badly he wanted it. Did you really need 18 packs over giving Jon a shot at the World Championships? I guess it’s just a matter of personal opinion, but I would have dropped.
-Me for not winning, and for taking the time to make such a huge tournament report. Only a nerd of my caliber would attempt such a feat, let alone make such an pwnage one.
-Battle Frontier for being completely useless, except for shutting off Dark Crobat’s power in a game I had won since the second turn. It was 4 wasted spots today. Not that I shouldn’t have used the maximum amount of Battle Frontier, but it just sucks that I didn’t get to play any deck today where it came in handy.
-Shard, cuz it was another wasted spot that day.
-Me for forgetting something (cuz I know I did...).
I’m out for the ’04-’05 Modified season. Next year, I’ll be back on the path for a 2006 Worlds invite, and this time, it’ll be “FOR BLOOOOD”. Thanks for a great season, Nintendo.
~SuperWooper
06/26/05
I was up until about 1 AM the morning of the tournament. I couldn’t sleep for the life of me. It was my last shot at a trip to the World Championships, and the deck I would play would be crucial because the metagame is fairly wide-open right now. Pidgeotto Trainer and I had been collaborating on a Ludicargo deck that ran Battle Frontier and Rhydon from Hidden Legends to shut down Rock-Lock. I used Rhydon over the standard Marowak because Rhydon stops damage to the bench, like Blaziken ex’s Volcanic Ash or Dark Tyranitar’s Spinning Tail. Our lists were the same except for one card, and for this reason, he has asked me not to post the list. Although it’s not something I would usually hold back, this time I’m obliged to do so.
I fall asleep late that morning and wake up the next morning at 8 so I can double and triple check to make sure I have everything. Deckbox, deck, sleeves, dice, binder, box, decklists. Nothing’s missing, so I grab a shower and breakfast and wait around for Devon and Ryan. Mrs. C drops her boys off at our front door and Mason, my younger brother, comes along too. We hop in the car, and after making sure we’ve got everything we need, and set off for Rockville. Devon and Ryan left us borrow about a billion cards so Mason and I will have our decks near-finished, being the misers that we are.
We arrive at the hotel that the ECSC was run at last year, thinking the tournament will be held at the same place. The location of the tournament was rather vague, and so I assumed that since the ECSC was held at “Dream Wizards” last year, it would be held at the same Dream Wizards this year. When we got there, though, the ballroom was completely empty. We ask the lady at the front desk and she gives up Mapquest directions to the card store where it’s actually being held. Of course the directions are wrong, so we call the store and get directions while we’re driving. We get there at about 11:40 (registration was supposed to have ended 10 minutes earlier).
I burst through the front door of Dream Wizards and start looking frantically around for Physics Squirrel, who has the cards I need right in front of him when he notices me. “I thought you weren’t going to show,” were his exact words. He gives Mason the Blaziken ex and Rayquaza ex and Combusken he needs, and me the Lombre, Battle Frontier and random Rhyhorn. (Yeah, I only had one Rhyhorn.) I get in a few five or six stack shuffles before Brian (RainbowRichards) gets everybody’s attention and tells us the rules, etc. We learn that there will be 5 rounds of Swiss, one group for the 15+, and one group for the 11-14 and 10- combined (attendance was in the 50s: there weren’t enough players to do 3 separate Swiss groups). After that, the 15+ would have a Top 8 and the 11-14 and 10- would each get separate Top 4 cuts.
In the 11-14, Devon was running Dragtrode and Mason was running Blaziken. Ryan, for our 10- representative, was running a Monarchy variant. I was using Ludicargo, as I mentioned earlier. It has great matchups versus Rock-Lock and Dragtrode, but you have to know how to play against both decks. Its Blaziken and Hariyama matchups are excellent as well. Even its Muk matchup is winnable. Its only auto-loss is Zapdos ex, but that was a chance I was willing to take. Sean was running Rock-Lock, so I figured there would be no Zapdos. This was a crucial mistake on my part, but I’ll get to that later. On to the tournament!
Round One: Cacturne ex/Shiftry/Zangoose
I’m paired up against somebody I’ve never heard of before, which is a good thing I guess. He won the opening roll, which I was fairly grateful for, actually, after seeing my hand. Yeah, I got the lone Dunsparce with no energy. He had a Cacnea and an Emerald Zangoose. I had forgotten Cacturne was an actual card. ;x I get off to a roaring setup after Topdecking a Water energy, running for Jirachi and Striking for Lotad and Slugma as well. He’s energy screwed and can only watch as I get a T3 Ludicolo, Magcargo, Rhydon, Lombre setup on the bench. I have the game in the bag at this point. He benches another Cacnea and plays a Grass energy to the benched one, knowing that I’m about to go for the KO. I use Jirachi’s power once more, Ludicargo for a Heal, and retreat Jirachi for Ludicolo, KO’ing his Cacnea.
He brings up Zangoose as an attempt to stall. I KO that and he uses Wally’s Training for Cacturne ex. I needed to look at Cacturne ex, because I couldn’t remember exactly what it did. I mentioned out loud, “I’ve never faced an opponent who used Cacturne ex before,” and Jon (Physics Squirrel) brilliantly blurted, “That’s because Cacturne ex is the worst card ever,” which was about as sensitive as a block of concrete. Way to go, Jon. =/ Lol, anyway, I flip a couple heads on confusion (Cacturne ex confuses for one energy) and get a second Magcargo out. I win the match within the first fifteen minutes and we go up and report. GG.
1-0
I walk around and see who’s who and what’s what. It seems there was a lot less Rock-Lock than I had anticipated, and a lot more Hariyama ex, too. Hari was an easy win for Ludicolo, though, as the Battle Frontier lock did nothing to me. Here’s a breakdown of the competition at the tournament:
Pramawat - Hariyama ex
Brooks - Hariyama ex
Physics Squirrel - Dragtrode
^’s younger brother - Dragtrode
Dragonite Freak (CFK) - Rock-Lock
Luke - Blaziken
Brett M - Blaziken
LeBlanc - 4 Corners
Kevin W - Blaziken
Everything looked smooth. I had positive records against all those decks, with the possible exception of 4 Corners, but I decided I’d worry about that bridge when I had to cross it. Mike, Luke, Jon, LeBlanc, and Brooks all win their first rounds, so I’m worried I’ll have to play one of them. My fears are calmed, however, when I see that the software has matched me up with nobody I know.
Round Two: Darkelf1313 w/ Dark Crobat/Muk ex
Muk ex is a winnable matchup, but it still gives Ludicargo a bit of trouble. I win the opening roll, I’m not looking too hot as my deck comes out of the gates a bit slowly. I have to Swoop my Rhyhorn for a Dunsparce, and I have an energy, but even then I have no evolutions in my hand. I run for Jirachi, of course, and she’s started with Zubat. She benches a Grimer and attaches a Grass to Zubat. Now we all know that Jirachi has resistance to Grass, right? Apparently, this girl didn’t. She should have used Surprise and taken a card from my hand, but instead she tries to damage me. -_- I immediately realize I have the game tucked away as I Topdeck a Celio’s Network and get Magcargo, and promptly Jirachi/Magcargo a Rare Candy into my hand and evolve into Ludicolo and use its power to draw a Scramble energy. Am I a lucksac or WHAT? ^_^
She hits all the wrong Pokemon with Golbat’s Skill Dive for a couple turns (while using Pokenav and attaching Oran Berry =/) before evolving and poisoning my Jirachi. I let it get KO’d and my Scramble on Ludicolo activates and I OHKO her Dark Crobat (she didn’t realize that playing the Dunsparce from her hand got me just enough for the KO, but I had the Charm ready anyway). She brings up another Dark Crobat and poisons me, and I counter her 2nd and final Team Aqua’s Hideout with Battle Frontier, but it’s a bit too late. Ludicolo takes a bit of damage, but not before Charming and KO’ing her 2nd Dark Crobat. She brings up a couple Muk ex for my final four prizes. She shut off my powers, but I was swarming way too fast.
2-0
So far I’ve played a couple poorly-constructed decks, but with about 30 players in the 15+, I know that only 6-8 can be undefeated so far. Brooks, LeBlanc, and a couple others have achieved that record so far, and I figure that my chances of playing LeBlanc are pretty low with all the other undefeated players so far. Devon, Mason, and Ryan are all 1-1. We take a 30 minute lunch break, and my mom brings Wendys for us, so we sit around, eat, shuffle, and wait for the next round. I score a couple Plusle from Deoxys by trading random Pidgeys and Marshtomps, since Dunsparce will soon be rotated out. I’m eager to play because I usually never get 2 Dunsparce starts in a row, so I’m feeling pretty confident.
Of course, Luke decides to come over to where we’re sitting and suck all the joy out of the room by being himself. I’ll leave the rest up to your imagination, those of you that know him. Those that don’t, you probably don’t want to, so I’m going to skip to the part where I get my deck all shuffled up and wait for the pairings. This was easily my most unlucky game of the tournament, and luck decided to play a trick on me by combining an awful hand with a pairing that put me up against the eventual winner of the tournament.
Round Three: Eric Brooks w/ Hariyama ex
Yeah, it’s just my luck that I get paired with an STS winner in the Round that would possibly clinch it for me (two 3-2 records end up making it). I could identify Brooks by his face, but I’d never actually met him before. Although I had an advantage over his deck, I mulliganed twice after he wins the flip. He has to stop and pause to read a couple of my Special Energy during my mulligans, but to his credit, he’s been out of the game for a while and he immediately recognized my deck as a Ludicolo/Magcargo when he saw my Lombre. I get a Dunsparce in my opening hand for the third time that tournament, but this time, my hand isn’t as hot as before. This is it, card for card:
Dunsparce
Battle Frontier
Battle Frontier
Battle Frontier
Battle Frontier
Lombre
Lombre
-______- He goes first and uses Wishing Star with Jirachi, attaches a Metal to Jirachi, and passes. He flips tails on sleep. I draw a Ludicolo. Still no basics, still no energy, still no supporters. I pass and he flips heads, uses the power again, thinks for a minute, and Swoops to Makuhita, evolves, attaches Fighting and KOs my Dunsparce. “Well, sir, it looks like you’ve been Turn 2’d,” Mike comments from my left. Ugh. Well, I couldn’t keep up my luck for all of Swiss. I shake his hand and I go up and report.
2-1
So now I, Mike, Physics, Luke, David, and a handful of others are 2-1. I have good matchups versus all of their decks (Yama, Drag and Blaze, respectively), so I’m really not worried. Devon, Mason and Ryan are all 2-1 now, and Melody (the only 11-14 player besides Devon and Mason I would consider to be a threat, besides the 2nd placing player at NJ Regionals) is undefeated, if I recall correctly. At this point only Brooks, LeBlanc, Mike R and Kevin W are undefeated, I believe. I’m pretty sure I’ve got to win the next 2 to make the cut, because I have one of the lowest resistances of the 2-1 players. This worries me, but again, I’m paired up against nobody I’m worried about. Props, TMS.
Round Four: Timothy F w/ Green Heal
This is one of my deck’s auto-losses, but I didn’t think any would show. It’s a mediocre-poor deck in this metagame. The primary matchup it was used for was Rock-Lock back during States, but now the emphasis of Rock-Lock decks is put up St TTar, which can OHKO Sceptile ex with Scramble Dark Dark Ruins. And what can Slowbro do against OHKOs? Even with Rock aside, Blaziken and Muk give it a rough time, and it’s not really the greatest choice for a competitive tournament right now unless you can outplay everybody in your area.
I went first, and got a Jirachi start. I used Wishing Star and pulled a basic, because I thought he was playing Dark Slowking: he had a Slowpoke active. But then I saw him place an Azurill on the bench, so I just figured he was running a horrible variant. Then I saw that he had the kind of Slowpoke out that Green Heal uses, so I was relieved. When he attached a Grass energy to it, I was sure that it wasn’t Dark Slowking. I got heads on sleep and used Star again. He evolved into Slowbro next turn and passed. By T5 I had Ludicolo, Magcargo, and a Lombre out, as well as a couple basics. I proceeded to rip through his entire deck. I didn’t see another energy from him besides the one he laid first turn, to his credit. He showed me his hand after I had beaten him by KO’ing his last in-play Pokemon (a Dunsparce), and he had:
Sceptile ex
Sceptile
Slowbro
Boost Energy
Grovyle
Among other things. That’s tough luck, Tim. GG.
3-1
In the 11-14, Devon, Mason, and Melody are 3-1 as well, so I figure at least one of them will make the Top 4 cut. Cool beans. LeBlanc is 4-0 now, and I’m pretty sure he’s the only one left. I don’t recall seeing anybody with 15 points after the end of the 5th round, so there couldn’t have been two undefeated players. Jon, Mike, Brooks, and several others share my record. David and Luke are 2-2. There’s a good chance somebody from our team will play an Anderson next round, which will be sad, because they’re all deserving players and other than myself, Devon, Mason or Ryan, I would choose the Andersons to take it home. Pairings are up, and in an amazing twist of fate, none of our crew has to play Melody, David or Jon. Instead, Jon is matched up against Brook’s Hariyama ex, which is basically an auto-loss, but I’m still pulling for him.
Round Five: Kingdra ex/Lapras ex
I recognize my opponent as the guy who’s been sitting next to me in a lot of my rounds. He’s asked a judge for a ruling about 10 times today, as this is his first modified tournament and he’s unfamiliar with the rules, let alone erratas and cards with complex text and game functions. I start with a Lotad, and he with Lapras ex. He looks at my Lotad for a while and decides to start powering a Horsea on the bench while I Admin T3 and finally get a Dunsparce. He chuckles and says, “That’s a horrible card.” So I’m like =/. He got a Seadra and a couple water energy in his hand, so I actually ended up helping him, but next turn I’m able to Candy into Ludicolo and get a DRE on it. I have a Heal in my hand, and I can’t OHKO his Lapras ex, so I use Healing Steps.
Apparently, this guy is a Magic vet. He calls Brian over to the table and asks if Brian can tell him what a certain card does. Brian asks, “Which card?” and looks at the field. My opponent says that he needs the text on one of the cards in his deck. So Brian is dumbfounded. Clearly he’s never heard a question like this, and I don’t blame him. The kid I’m playing explains that in Magic, you can ask a judge for a “Card Oracle”, which is a text spoiler for every card in the game, at any point in the game. That’s an interesting rule. I don’t doubt his claim, but there’s nothing like that in Pokemon. Brian explains that he can’t ask for that and the player says okay, and we go back at it.
He tries to confuses my Ludicolo with Lapras (after looking at Ludicolo for the 3rd time that game -_-), but I attach the Heal and Charm it for the KO. I take another prize by way of a random Mudkip, but then he puts up Seadra w/ 4 energy and uses Wally’s Training, so I’m afraid that he’ll be able to OHKO me by using Kingdra ex (since he did 10 to me w/ Lapras ex before, if I remember right). He can’t decide whether or not to use Kingdra or Kingdra ex. I let him look at the two cards in his deck for about two minutes (which was generous, IMO) before I call Brian over. My opponent looks frustrated and Brian tells him he needs to make his move in just a couple of minutes. He stands over his shoulder for another couple minutes, and it doesn’t look like he’s any closer to making up his mind. Brian is called over to resolve a dispute in another match, so I’m pressuring my opponent to pick. It’s been about 5 minutes now, and FINALLY he chooses Kingdra ex (which was the better choice, if he had chosen Kingdra from TRR I would have screamed) and attaches the water for the KO. During my turn, I’m looking through my hand for about 10 seconds and he asks me to speed up play. =/ He takes a couple of long turns and I can’t KO his Kingdra ex (my other 2 Ludicolo are prized), but I manage to get 120 on it. Eventually, time is called right after he takes his 3rd prize, putting us at a draw. He can OHKO anything in my deck (he’s doing 90 a turn), and my last three prizes are 2 Ludicolo and a Retriever, so I’m completely screwed). His hand is 12 cards, so I attach to my Lotad that I’ve just put active and use Copycat. I look through my hand for a while and I see a Lombre and an ATM: Rock. I play them down and I get the win. There’s a five minute dispute about whether or not I can make the move. Brian explains that it was perfectly legal. My opponent was really frustrated, as he probably hadn’t ever heard of ATM: Rock, or even knew deevolution was possible. GG anyway. =/
4-1
So I’m in for sure. Mason and Devon have both gone 4-1, and Ryan has gone 3-2. We wait patiently for the results to see if they all made it in. I was confident that all four of us would all get it, which would be a team record. =D Jon lost to Brook’s Yama, as I had expected, and Melody had lost again to put her at 3-2. David had won, putting him at 3-2, but his tiebreaker wasn’t nearly good enough to put him anywhere within the range of CFK, who came in at 8th seed. However, Jon missed the cut by only 4%, coming in at 9th seed in the 15+. After a bug in the TMS software which had completely erased Devon’s name from the records (-_____-) we find out that Mason comes in at 4th, Devon comes in at 5th, and Melody at 6th. =( Tough break, guys! Ryan makes 4th in the 10-, so we have one representative in each age group!
There’s a hiatus of roughly 30 minutes while deck checks are done for all 3 age groups. I get mine checked close to first, so I shuffle really good. We’re told that we’ll have single elimination rounds because of time constraints. That was cool with me. Ludicargo is a fast deck. I knew there was a Zapdos ex in the T8, but the chances of me playing that were slim. Big mistake. =/ I know the Top 8 for the 15+ and the Top 4 for the 11-14, but I’m not sure of what the 10- looked like. I know Brian’s son Benjamin got the trip trickled down to him in the finals after losing to Alex H. Good job, Alex and congrats on the trip, Ben! Here’s what I know of the Top 8 cuts...
Top 8: 15+
1st: Mike R (Metagross) 4-1
vs
8th: Sean G (Rock-Lock) 3-2
2nd: Matt L (4 Corners) 4-1
vs
7th: Brett M (Blaziken) 3-2
3rd: Eric B (Hariyama ex) 4-1
vs
6th: Mike P (Hariyama ex) 4-1
4th: SuperWooper (Ludicargo) 4-1
vs
5th: Kevin F (Zapdos ex) 4-1
Top 4: 11-14
1st: ? (Beedrill)
vs
4th: Mason N (Blaziken)
2nd: Collin H (Gardevoir)
vs
3rd: Angelina W (Dragtrode)
The pairings are called out, and I’m ready to go. I’m paired up against Kevin F, who’s 5th seed to my 4th. Sean’s told me he’s playing Zapdos ex, and the only one in the tournament, at that. I’m figuring that I’m just having bad luck, but then a string of events so unlucky occur that there must have been some unseen hand of evil guiding me towards doom in solely the top cut, driven by a hate for me that originates from within the depths of its twisted, pitch black soul. =P Before the game starts, he drops a Super Scoop while shuffling, and I make a comment like, “Only a Zapdos deck would play that.” He replies with, “You’re forgetting about Blaziken.” I look up at him. His expression is all too serious. I asked if he was joking. He simply raised an eyebrow. And of course, to be as helpful as possible, Pramawat piped up next to us with, “I used 4 Super Scoop Up in my Blaziken.” You’re such a scrub, Mike. Rofl. ;/
Top 8: Kevin F w/ Zapdos ex
So I figure I need to win the flip to have a chance at the win, because I heard from CFK earlier that this guy’s build was completely outdated, and he had been getting T2 starts the entire tournament, which was the reason he was in. I guess that’s what Zapdos ex is supposed to do, though, right? =/ Ehh, I lose the flip, plus, I start with a Rhyhorn, so my day is now complete. The good thing is, he’s using Elekid, which is completely obsolete in Zapdos ex now that Electrike was released in EX: Deoxys. CFK was right, this guy’s build was outdated. He attaches Lightning to Elekid and finds another Lightning, and he shows me his hand. He’s got a Lanette and another Lightning. It’s GG if I don’t draw a basic. I draw Dunsparce. It was the next card in my deck, of COURSE. Suddenly, though, I realize that I can attach to Rhyhorn (this is the HL one) and use its attack that does 10x the number of heads. You get to flip two coins. Since Elekid is weak to fighting, I can Tyrogue him for the game. I use Admin and get rid of his perfect hand, and find an energy. So I’m feeling like I might win this matchup. I have a 25% chance of Tyrogue’ing him right here, and my Admin gets me a horrible hand, but I get an energy for Rhyhorn. Now get this - he draws his 6 for Admin and draws the SAME HAND, CARD FOR CARD. The only difference was that the Lanette’s Net Search is now a Zapdos ex. For lack of a better word(s), I was extremely unhappy. =/ But I still got the Tyrogue factor going for me. I pick up a die and it seems like it’s falling to the table in slow motion.
I get...
3.
Okay, so I don’t win the game Turn 1, but I can still do 20 to Elekid, right?
I get...
3.
-_________________-
OMG BBQ TNT FORDFOCUS. >:O What really got me angry was the fact that I started to make a comeback by Topdecking a couple Candy exactly when I needed them and Scrambling everything in sight, and he flipped two straight heads on Super Scoop Up. When I saw him use Professor Oak’s Research and Professor Cozmo’s Discovery, I knew Sean was right. To Kevin’s credit, he knew exactly when to use Super Scoop Up and didn’t misplay a single time. He took all 6 prizes before I got to take 1. It was extremely frustrating to lose my only chance at Worlds 2005 on a couple of coin flips, and be paired up against the only deck (besides LeBlanc’s 4 Corners and maybe Mike R’s Metagross, which were both eliminated in the 1st round) that could take me down so easily. Kevin is a cool person, though. We talked some after the tournament, and I explained how a normal Blaziken list worked. I told him that there was an Electrike in DX that did the same thing as Elekid but had 50 HP and not 40, and that TV Reporter would be a better option than Professor Cozmo’s Discovery. “If you’re going to play a bad deck, play it right,” Scru...Mike had said later on that day. =P It was my favorite quote of this tournament season.
4-2, Eliminated
Here’s how the rest of the tournament panned out:
Top 8: 15+
Winners in bold.
1st: Mike R (Metagross) 4-1
vs
8th: Sean G (Rock-Lock) 3-2
2nd: Matt L (4 Corners) 4-1
vs
7th: Brett M (Blaziken) 3-2
3rd: Eric B (Hariyama ex) 4-1
vs
6th: Mike P (Hariyama ex) 4-1
4th: Me (Ludicargo) 4-1
vs
5th: Kevin F (Zapdos ex) 4-1
Top 4: 15+
Winners in bold.
5th: Kevin F (Zapdos ex) 5-1
vs
7th: Brett M (Blaziken) 4-2
3rd: Eric B (Hariyama ex) 5-1
vs
8th: Sean G (Rock-Lock) 4-2
Finals: 15+
Winners in bold.
3rd: Eric B (Hariyama ex) 6-1
vs
7th: Brett M (Blaziken) 5-2
Brooks won the trip w/ Hariyama ex. He would have got the trip anyway, since Brett won Woodbridge, but they decided to play it out for the box, and more importantly, the NOTEBOOK!!!1one! I didn’t see the game, but it must have been close, as Blaziken gives Hariyama rough time, usually. Congrats, Eric!
Top 4: 11-14
Winners in bold.
1st: ? (Beedrill) 5-0
vs
4th: Mason N (Blaziken) 4-1
2nd: Collin H (Gardevoir) 5-0
vs
3rd: Angelina W (Dragtrode) 4-1
Finals: 11-14
Winners in bold.
4th: Mason N (Blaziken) 5-1
vs
2nd: Collin H (Gardevoir) 6-0
My little brother lost in the finals. I was really disappointed that he didn’t win, since Blaziken has the obvious advantage over Gardevoir, and Collin had a really mediocre list. He had a history of making lists with gigantic flaws, such as using Multi energy in Dragtrode instead of Rainbow, but Mason made some big misplays. Oh well, whacha gonna do? Ryan ended up taking 4th in his age group, netting him 9 packs. Devon and I made T8 in our age groups, so we each got 4 packs, and Mason got 18 for second place. We scored 37 packs overall, which more than pays for the gas it tooks for 2 trips there and back. Sweet!
The Andersons had stuck around because Mason and I had their cards, and we gave back the Bex, Ray, Frontier, Admin, etc. I accidentally gave them one of Devon’s Ray ex, but I gave them my address over AIM, so they can send it back (I hope =P). We said goodbye to everybody, gathered up our cards, and left Dream Wizards after I scored some Primeape off Luke for a few Matrix energy. I really don’t care about Matrix energy - they don’t do anything different than normal energy. =/
My dad picked us up from Dream Wizards and after driving around to find a place to eat, Devon saw a Fuddruckers on the right, so we had to make this really sharp turn at the last second, which caused my deck to fly everywhere. I eventually got it all back together, but not before having to reach way under the seat to get a lousy water energy, and probably disgesting several billion dust particles in the process. We went inside and all ordered Bacon Cheddar burgers, and Mason got the best strawberry milkshake I’d ever tasted in my life. It was worth driving all the way to Rockville for. =D Ryan also developed a lemon addiction of some kind while we were there. He would go down to the refill station with his cup, and come back with an empty cup and like, three lemons at a time. Mason only ate about 10 bites of his burger before he just decided to fill up on his milkshake and fries. I was more than happy to finish it (hehe) but we just boxed it and drove on home.
After returning all the cards to their original owners, we dropped Ryan and Devon off at their house. I opened my Emerald packs, as did Mason, and we scored 3 exs (2 of them were Dusclops, though -_-), which is better than average. I hit the hay content with my loss, deciding that next year would be the year that Wooper would return. With Brooks returning to the game, it will be more challenging than ever to win in the Virginia and Maryland area, but next year I’ll be up for it! =)
And now it’s time for everybody’s favorite...
Props! :thumb:
-Dream Wizards for hosting the tournament!
-Laurel for PTO’ing.
-Brian for HJ’ing! Special thanks for handling some of the difficult calls that came up with an extraordinary amount of professionalism. Great job.
-Eric Brooks for making his big return and winning the whole thing!
-Collin H for 1st in the 11-14.
-Alex H for 1st in 10-.
-Benjamin R for getting the trip after the trickle down in 10-!
-Chris for fixing the TMS bug that happened after the 3rd round with only a minor amount of holdup. Other than a few slight bumps, you handled the computer like a pro.
-Mason, aka “<(^.^)>”, for 2nd in the 11-14! WTG, lil’ bro.
-Ryan for 4th in the 10-! Great showing, dude!
-Devon for 5th in the 11-14. It’s too bad the attendance wasn’t high enough for a Top 8 cut. You were certainly deserving of a spot. Next time we’ll get ’em.
-Myself for my 7th place finish. This was my most successful tournament season yet. “Maybe some day you’ll actually win a tournament!” ~CFK
-Sean for going Rock-Lock over Zapdos. I’m sick of Rock, but I’m more sick of Zapdos. Urghh. Also, thanks for bringing that binder even though I found the cards I needed on time. Sorry I made you drag your 150+ Dragonite card collection all the way to Rockville. You’re such a loser. Grow some hair. ;/
-Kevin F for being a cool guy and a gracious winner. You got some good flips, man, but you earned 3rd place for sure. Keep it up.
-The Andersons for loaning me all the stuff I needed. Without you guys I wouldn’t have done as well as I did. Thanks for being cool people as well, and not scrubs like Mike. =D Thanks for taking losing by 4% resistance better than I would have, Jon. I probably would have just exploded on the spot and flipped all the tables in the tournament. Good game.
-Patriarch, Magnechu, Pidgeotto Trainer, and Plaidlesspez as the four main sources of inspiration I needed to make Ludicargo with Rhydon. It’s a metagame beast, and I hope you guys do well at Worlds. You’re all outstanding players and I wish you nothing but the best.
-Fuddrucker’s burgers and milkshakes.
-My first EX: Emerald packs which didn’t consist solely of Nosepass and Relicanth as my rares.
-TMS matching me up with players I knew I could beat for most of Swiss.
-Our T8 for being pretty darn competitive and so diverse, too. We had:
2 Hariyama ex
1 Blaziken
1 Metagross
1 Lanturn/Stage 1s
1 Zapdos ex
1 Ludicargo
1 Rock-Lock
-The guy who traded me Plusle for random Emerald Marshtomp.
-The props for once again outnumbering the slops!
Slops... :nonono:
-Mason for his stupid misplays which cost him a trip to San Diego. You had that game if you had just seen the Multi in your hand, man.
-Devon and Jon for not making it on Tiebreakers. But it’s like Meg45 says, “You live by tiebreakers, you die by ’em, too.”
-TMS for screwing up and erasing Devon’s name from the rankings after Round 3 and after Round 5. Everything worked out in the end, though.
-Mason’s last name being down as “Maile” before it was fixed after Round 1, and for Devon’s first name as “Evon”. Interesting alternatives to the regular spelling, though. ;/
-Having the opportunity to Tyrogue a Zappy player out of the tournament and flipping two tails. Urrgghh.
-Bad flips.
-Wally’s Trainings which take 4-5 minutes to complete.
-Zapdos in general. Haha.
-Cramawaffle for bombing like me. GJ, N00B. XD
-Luke, cuz I give you one every time. I won’t elaborate. =P
-Mike R for telling me I sucked cuz I didn’t use Lanturn in Ludicargo. Yeah, sure, I’ll use Lanturn to counter the ONLY Zapdos at the tournament. What an intellegent comment. =/
-Brett for not dropping and letting Jon in. It really wouldn’t have cost you anything. You had the trip, and you know how badly he wanted it. Did you really need 18 packs over giving Jon a shot at the World Championships? I guess it’s just a matter of personal opinion, but I would have dropped.
-Me for not winning, and for taking the time to make such a huge tournament report. Only a nerd of my caliber would attempt such a feat, let alone make such an pwnage one.
-Battle Frontier for being completely useless, except for shutting off Dark Crobat’s power in a game I had won since the second turn. It was 4 wasted spots today. Not that I shouldn’t have used the maximum amount of Battle Frontier, but it just sucks that I didn’t get to play any deck today where it came in handy.
-Shard, cuz it was another wasted spot that day.
-Me for forgetting something (cuz I know I did...).
I’m out for the ’04-’05 Modified season. Next year, I’ll be back on the path for a 2006 Worlds invite, and this time, it’ll be “FOR BLOOOOD”. Thanks for a great season, Nintendo.
~SuperWooper
Haha. 
