Pokemon Center Gym Challenge Report

[GOROY]

Here is my deck that I used at the GC-

4 Torchic
2 Combusken
3 Blaziken
2 Blaziken ex
2 Rayquaza ex
2 Skitty
2 Delcatty
4 Dunsparce
1 Wobuffet

2 Oak
1 Elm
1 Copycat
1 Town Volunteers
4 TV Reporter
3 Oracle
3 Rare Candy
3 Warp Point
2 Switch

12 Fire
3 Lightning
3 Multi

Well, I got up at 7 and left around 7:30, drove to a nearby McDonald's and got picked up by Dark T-tar and his son. We left a little after 8 and arrived at the Poke Center around 10-10:30. We waited in line and signed up for the tourney. I finally got to meet a bunch of Gym Members like JohnnyBlaze and BJJ763 and had a lot of fun. We finally got started pretty late and into round 1.

Here is the good stuff...

Round 1 vs BJJ763
BJJ763 had a Scep-tech deck but had a very bad energy drought in our game, and when he finally got an Oak's research, he got nothing. Hopefully next time Oak will come in handy.
1-0

Round 2 vs JohnnyBlaze
JohnnyBlaze had a Swampert/Suicune deck that seemed pretty cool. He started with Suicune ex, and I had Torchic and Rayquaza ex. I gave Rayquaza a multi and got some energy on him to KO Suicune. Then Johnny got another Suicune and used Dunsparce to fill his bench. I used Rayquaza on Suicune again. Then he got up a Swampert and did some big damage to my Blaze/ex but I think I had warp point to help Blaze. Johnny's Wobbuffet was in his prizes, and would've been a very hard poke to take down if it wasn't a prize.
2-0

From now untill the end of the tourney I played Bar-varients. So after lunch, Dark T-tar, his son, and I get lost on our way back from McDonald's but made it back in time for the next round.

Round 3 vs Jeremy
We both got pretty good starts, and i played him before - at the PA states I had a Blaze ex out and had a choice of KO-ing Rayquaza or a torchic, and chose Rayquaza, then Torchic evolved and I lost - So this time I took out the Torchic. Soon we both had like three-four prizes left and he plays a Mysterious Fossil. I was confused - why was there a Mysterious Fossil there? Then it gets in the active position and he plays rare candy. i have no clue why there was a mysteious fossil and actually thought it would become an Aerodactyl ex, for protection against Crystal Shard, but it becomes an Omastar and Pulls down my evos. It knocked out my Combusken - who was a Blaze/ex with a lot of damage on it, and put the rest of my evos in my hand. Soon I pulled a KO on his Omastar, right before time is called, he Ko's my active with ray. Now we both have 2 prizes and I could have Ko'ed his ray with my ray but time was called and we tied.
2-0-1

Round 4 vs Magnechu
Magnechu had played a bunch of people in my age division even though he is in the 11-14 age group. We still played our game, and he won the trip in his age group anyway-Good Job!
It was basically Blaze vs Blaze. I used Oracle for 2 Candies then forgot and used Dunsparce, that was one of my memories I am trying to forget.... So i have a bunch of Torchics for a little while untill i get another Oracle or something of that sorts, and I search for the candies, and they were the next 2 top cards, there goes my second oracle...
In the end I think I took my last prize around the same time that time was called.
3-0-1

Round 5 (the last round before the Top 8) vs Kenneth
He is a very good player, and i started with an extremely bad hand......so you can guess what happened...
3-1-1

Now to the Top 8- there were tie breakers in the system since a bunch of people had similar records...
I knew I had to be one of the first three people they call for the top 8 since they went from 8th place to 1st place, and I knew there were players with much better records than me....
8th person not me....
7th person.......me! yay I made it.
Dark T-tar made it too!
and his son also did in the 10- division! yay

OK, Top 8- Round 1 vs Kenneth (yes, the same guy)
Well, the first game had me going off with an extremely bad hand, I didn't last long....
Game 2 I had a pretty decent start and we both started going at it with making our things bigger.
Soon I got 2 Blaze and 1 Blaze/ex out and Ko'ed a benched pokemon. Then I did it two more times with the combination of multiple Switch/Warp points. I won that one.
Final game, we both got pretty good starts again, then I got my Switch/Warp Point combo out again, and won as time ran out.

Top 4-yay!
I play FlareStarfire who of course has BAR w/ Amphy!
Well, first game wasn't much of a game, he had Singe I had Skitty, he got heads, I got heads! then I got tails and he Elm's for a Combusken and Flares me.....
Game 2 I actually lasted longer! I had a some-way decent start, he had a pretty good start. I only draw 2 energy and get a quick Blaze/ex out and attack for a couple of turns. He gets an Amphy, and I KO it. I also got a Torchic. Most of this game, I had been drawing candies and sparces. Soon I got my Dunsparce and filled my bench and started to begin, and used a bunch of trainers whenever I could, but wasn't able to keep up with his onslaught of Fire Stream attacks. I then put up Rayquaza with 40 damage to get a prize, but alas, I forgot that Delcatty has Quaza's weakness, and he gets out a second Amphy and moves as much energy that he needed up to Catty, of course only 3 energy....

Oh well, Good Job FlareStarfie, I hope next time we can have ome games where I can get a good start, maybe next time...

Dark T-tar's son got 2nd and Dark T-tar got top 8, and we did a great job!

Props
John, who did a great job judging,
Dark T-tar for bringing me
Dark T-Tar's son-good job!
JohnnyBlaze and the other gym members i met (and good job to your son)
Flarestarfire-good games, i hope we can play again.
and magnechu-good job!

Slops
My oracle mistake....that will haunt me forever...

Look out for Dark T-tar's report too!

[JohnnyBlaze]

GOROY - Nice report. Yeah it would have been a different game if my lonely Wobby wasnt stuck in the prizes. I pretty much whooped the other BAR decks I played that day except for yours. The tie with Cory got me 9th place just missing the Top 8 . It was nice to meet you and T-Tar and hope to see you again in the future.

[Magnechu]

I used Oracle for 2 Candies then forgot and used Dunsparce, that was one of my memories I am trying to forget....
XD Silly GOROY, you can't shuffle your deck after you Oracle. ;) Great game we had, and GL at your next tourney.

[DarkTyranitar]

Goroy already gave a pretty good, accurate account of our adventures leading up to the beginning of tournament play at the Pokemon Center’s Gym Challenge yesterday.

To quickly rehash what he mentioned, I picked him up a little after 8 am on Sunday morning before heading up the NJ turnpike to Weehauken, NJ. A quick bus ride through the tunnel, followed by a 30 – 40 minute walk to the Pokemon center from the Port Authority found us arriving just after 10:00 am.

I ended up bringing my youngest son Michael - (alias “The MUDKIPINATERMINATOR” – sorry, his chosen nickname here) – with me. My eldest son Anthony decided to skip this tournament and opted instead to sleep late on Sunday (after staying up and watching most of the Adult Swim cartoons).

Anyway, once we arrived at the Pokemon Center, registered and moseyed on down to the Rockefeller Center, I got a chance to meet face-to-face a number of regulars who are here: PokePop was there with his 2 sons. I also met (and traded with Johnny Blaze), who was there with his 1 (or 2?) son(s). I also met BJJ763. I’m pretty sure I met FireFighter095ReBorn as well. I also met up with some of the regulars at the Pokemon Center, like EternalFire and Lissanne. I know I met up with a number of additional Pokegym members, but can’t recollect either their names or their call signs – (sorry guys!)

It was also really nice to see the tournament organizer, John, back on the scene running things after being out of commission for some time!

Since I was running on around 4 & 1/2 hours of sleep I can’t recollect all of the details of my personal rounds, nor those of Michael’s nor Goroy’s.

The following was the BBR deck I went with:
19 Fire Energies
3 Electric Energies

4 TV Reporters
3 Oracles
3 Rare Candies
3 Professor Elm’s Training Method
1 Professor Oak’s Research
2 Switches
1 Warp Point

4 Oracles
4 Torchics
3 Skittys
1 Delcatty
2 Combuskens
3 Blazikens (Firestarter)
2 Blaziken Exs
2 Rayquazas

The following was (close to) the Gardy deck that my son was playing with:

20 Psychic Energies
4 Boost Energies

1 Smoochum (the old, baby power type)
4 Ralts
4 Wynauts
3 Wobbefetts
2 Dunsparces

2 Kirlias (sp?)
2 Gardevours (sp again?)
2 Gardeviour Exs (sp once again?)

4 TV Reporters
4 Professor Elm’s Training Method
2 Professor Oak’s Research
3 Rare Candies
2 Switches
1 Warp Point

I started out pretty strong, going 2 – 0. (I was getting some pretty good lady-luck with my cards falling right in place when I needed them – I was pretty sure from experience that this wouldn’t continue being the case for me).

After the second round we had a 40 – 45 minute brake for a late lunch.

Afterwards, I went up against one of the local NY Pokemon players - (Kenneth, I think?) Kenneth usually finishes in the top 8 in tournament play the times I’ve been up there.

I do (unfortunately) remember the gory details of this battle: He was running with a very similar deck to mine. I rolled high and originally planned on going first. My draw included 1 Rayquaza, a bunch of FIRE ENERGIES AND NO OTHER BASICS NOR TRAINERS TO HELP ME OUT!!

I put my Rayquaza out, decided to let him go first and was surprise when he turned over his active Pokemon - ALSO, A RAYQUAZA! In addition, though he had a Torchic on his bench. (Mann! I’m in trouble here!)

He then proceeded to play a TV Reporter – (Awww MANN! I’M REALLY IN TROUBLE HERE!) He pulls his 3 cards, discards a Fire energy card, attaches an Electric Energy card to his Rayquaza and flips a STUPID heads enabling him to attach his discarded Fire Energy card to his Rayquaza.

“Ok, I still have a chance here” I’m thinking. I draw a card – A TV REPORTER!!!!!! I draw three cards and see THREE MORE FIRE ENERGIES STARING BACK AT ME!!!!!!! Ok nothing to do but discard a Fire Energy, attach a second one onto my Rayquaza, roll a heads and attach that discarded Fire Energy card back onto Rayquaza, and hope that Kenneth doesn't have another Electric nor Fire Energy card to attach during his next turn.

During Kenneth's next turn he draws a card, attaches a second Fire Energy card onto his Rayquaza and the game was over!!! (Talk about CHEAP WINS!!! - He even admitted that this wasn’t quite right!).

No problem, though since I figured that if that was my only loss, I would probably get into the finals.

I won my next match and then ended up going up against Venusaur. He had another deck that was similar to mine, with the additions of a Team Aqua Manetric line.

Slight story-background/deviation here: Jeremy, (alias Venusaur), and I have in one fashion or another been battling each other in the last 3 or 4 local tournaments, usually with the winner either going onto the final rounds or the winner advancing in the final rounds. I’m pretty sure that he defeated me sometime last year at a tournament held at TimeWarp. Then, during the PA State Championship I SQUEEZED into the top-8 in the 8th slot and found myself facing Venusaur, who was in the top slot. He mulliganed about a million times, which helped me get off to a very good start, which ultimately helped me win the match.

Then, just one week ago at the PA Gym Challenge I met up against Venusaur once again, around midway through the first set of rounds. He pulled out a close win when time was called with him being up ONE prize, which ultimately helped to springboard him into the final 8, (along with bouncing me down to 9th place - that was particularly painful, since I had a powered up Blaze-EX on my bench, that would have come out and KO his wounded Blaze-EX that was on his bench on my next turn, if I got a chance!)

With this history I wasn’t really looking forward to going up against him once again. Our battle started out pretty evenly, with both of us getting a good start.

This go-round I decided to be as aggressive as I could possibly be with my decision making, to try to keep him on the ropes and off-balance as much as possible, trying to prevent his deck from getting a chance to get started. Once again, the specifics are very fuzzy. However, I did ultimately end up winning a very tough and intense match.

At that point, I was 4 - 1, and feeling pretty good about getting into the final round. When it was announced, I discovered that I got into the 5th place, along with my bud Goroy squeaking into the 7th place with a 3 – 1 – 1 record. My son Michael - (despite his gloomy predictions of DOOM for himself) - got into the 3rd slot in the 10 and under age group.

Since this was the first time I finished in the top-8 at the Center, I was just glad to be playing in the latter rounds. Unfortunately, I didn’t go far. The guy I faced in the first round (ALSO) has a very similar Blaze-deck, with the addition of that TA/TM Manetric line.

After two very hard fought and close games he emerged victorious, 2 – 0. Oh well!!! Even though I didn’t advance further, I still did pretty well, and went home with more boosters.

Goroy ended up advancing to the final four, before loosing in a very closely fought match.

Michael actually made it to the FINALS in his age category. (I had initially made a point of not checking out his battles, since I didn’t want to get drawn into them and end up becoming a basket case). However, when I was told that Micheal was up, 1 to nothing in the final match I had to check out how his match was going.

Michael actually had his opponent, (Johnny Blaze’s son) down initially in the second game. Ironically enough, I was standing right next to Johnny Blaze, and we started exchanging observations about both kid’s play before I later realized that it was his son that my son was playing.

Michael’s deck ran out of Psychic cards (in his hand) at a key juncture in the game and Johnny Blaze’s son came back to win the second game.

With the third game Johnny Blaze’s son started out quickly with a good bench, along with a good number of helpful trainers to play. Michael started out slowly, and was quickly down a prize or 2. When Michael’s unpowered Ralts was facing an evolved Blaze EX (that had 4 energy cards on it), along with little help from Michael’s bench I was pretty sure that the match was over.

However, when Michael played a Rare Candy, evolved his Ralts into a Gardy-EX, used a benched Gardy to power up the Gardy-EX with a Psychic Energy card from his deck, AND THEN DROPPED A BOOST ENERGY CARD FROM HIS HAND ONTO THE GARDY-EX AND KNOCKED OUT THE BLAZE-EX I began thinking, “Hey, Michael may just pull this one out.”

However, he couldn’t draw any more energy cards from his deck and Johnny Blaze’s son quickly used some card drawing Delcatty powers and trainers to help boost his bench back up to get him the win.


SLOPS: Not many here! They did start game-play just after 12 noon, (with registration at 10 am). However, since there have been several times that I turned up late after the 11 am designated game-start and was STILL able to play because they were running late I’m not going to fault them very much here).

Also, being booted out, 0 - 2 during the first match of the final-8!

PROPS: Other than an initial snafu with the pairings, JOHN had the tournament running very smoothly. (Welcome Back John!)

All of the very nice and friendly Pokegym folks whom I met up at the Center.

Venusaur, for a very tough match that had me on my toes the entire time.

Goroy, for finishing VERY STRONG despite a 3 – 1 – 1 record and advancing to the Final FOUR.

…and lastly, to my son Michael, who despite not heeding the warnings of his dear-old wise Dad to practice his deck BEFORE tournament play, STILL made it up to the FINAL ROUND in the 10-under age category, and was THIIIIIISSSS close to getting the trip to Orlando.

- Tony

[GOROY]

"'I used Oracle for 2 Candies then forgot and used Dunsparce, that was one of my memories I am trying to forget.... '

XD Silly GOROY, you can't shuffle your deck after you Oracle. Great game we had, and GL at your next tourney."

Originally posted by Magnechu.


Hopefully I won't have to worry about that again....I hope:)