Andy's Nats Report

[afirule]

hey guys- my first tournament all season and its long overdue. Im there for a bit of fun and not to play very competitively! So good seeing loads of people agen- Russell, Sekkoums, Nitish, Manicgiraffe/Stefan, Daryl, Scott, Chris Mc, Clive etc etc (list is endless...)

Ian Elliott (pokeblob) and I sat up til 2 the nite before making the list, and hadnt playd it before the first round!

So i decide to go with 4-2-4 gengar with a 1-1 cresselia tech (Edit:List Below). Before the tourney starts, our friend Brian makes Grifbull (TM)- Red Bull, Lucozade, Blue charge etc and that keeps us going until like.... round 2!

4 ghastly
2 haunter
4 gengar
1 cresselia (future sight)
1 cresselia lvl x
2 crobat sp
2 unown g
1 pachirisu
1 uxie
2 baltoy
2 claydol
22 pokemon

4 roseannes
4 lookers
3 bebes
1 luxury ball
4 rare candy
2 night maintenance
2 warp point
3 miasma valley
3 poketurn
26 trainers

9 psychic
3 call energy
12 energy

(On the above list- simplicity was the order of the day because of a lack of testing, sleep, and game practice.)

Round 1- Scott (Kingdra).
Im so expecting a loss here- scott's quality, but unfortunately his start wasn't. I have two claydol my third turn and he eventually scoops. Unlucky mate!
1-0

Round 2- Nitish (plox/weavile)
Nitish and I are old friends, so we're both used to each other's play styles. We both play a little sloppily (im still easing in at this point!!!! ) but i manage to limit him to two psychic locks all game. Nitish went on to make cut, and deservedly too!
2-0

wow im 2 and 0!

Round 3- Nathan (Gengar)
If we're honest- it was Nathan's performance at a state championship recently that showed us how effective gengar could be! I'm not looking forward to this match- I hate mirrors so much. Nathan is a really nice lad, and knows his deck inside out. He gets a great start and I misplay
horribly a couple of times (like giving an unown g as a free prize....). Nathan was clinical, and I enjoyed speaking to him for the rest of the day. One for the future definitely!
2-1

Ok, now im expecting the losses to start mounting. I think I mite have a shot at cut if Nathan keeps winning. Meanwhile, Ian E is 3-0 with the deck and we both have our jaws on the floor at how well we're both doing...

Round 4- Tommy R (Shaymin/Gardy)
Nice chap, havent seen him before. I didnt c much of his deck, but it looked quite cool. I ko ralts, baltoy, shaymin x (gengar flip), ralts for game.
3-1

Another win? Nathan lost at this point vs Freddy tho :(

Round 5- Chris G (DPSP)
Donk on Uxie! Sorry dude! He must have been sick of Gengar- Ian had beaten him the game before! Had a very enjoyable friendly afterwards. In the notes I scribbled after the games it says "nice guy"! He really was!
4-1

Ok two rounds left- Ian is also 4-1 after his first lost vs Johvan whose now on 5-0. Who do u reckon I get paired against?

Round 6- Johvan (DPSP)
I play up! argh! Johvan unfortunately just didnt get anything to start with, whilst I'm blessed with a good start (and loads of headflips!). He started a comeback at the end, but he kept getting tails on Gengar's power and I win on time. This reminded us both of Nats 07 wen he got a rubbish start against me and I won- sorry dude!
5-1

I'm at this point told by Freddy that I should make cut regardless, and that he was confident he would too. Ian is 5-1 too, and I really don't wana get paired with him.

Round 7-Freddy! (Plox)
Oh lord. I still feel bad. This game, my tiredness/general game-weariness/outofthegame-ness all catch up with me, and my play starts to unintentionally slow a little. I got off to a fairly roaring start, and had board control early. However, Freddy being the cheeky devil he is manages to make it very even. Freddy made me aware of time on each card as the game progressed, and I was desperately trying to play fast, but still think properly about each action. Time is called on my turn, and I win on prizes. I think I may have *just* won the game had it been completed, but I'm gutted because I feel like I had just cheated Freddy out of cut. After the game, I admit that my play mite have been unintentionally edging towards the slow side, but thankfully, he's a perfect gent and accepts my deepest and sincerest apologies.
I'm praying to all my gods that he makes it, but unfortunately his round 6 opponent dropped and he ended 9th. We chatted later outside before top4, and he was a star, full of eager words of encouragement.
6-1

Ian and I both made cut- me in 3rd, Ian in 4th! I'm really drained at this point after such a tough match, and thank the lord that maureen is on hand with cookies! (AMAZING)

I walk into the top 8 game in the knowledge that I have a box, which is GREAT cos I'm saving for various stuff atm. I'm not however that hopeful that I'm going to progress. The cut looks as follows-

1. Sami (Kingdra/Tech) v 8. Not Sure! (Not sure!)
2. Nitish (Plox) v 7. Johvan (DPSP)
3. Me (Gengar) v 6. Tom Hall (Kingdra/Tech)
4. Ian (Gengar) v 5. Yacine(Kingdra/Tech)

Top 8- Tom Hall (Kingdra/Tech)
Tom has come on leaps and bounds in the last couple of years. He has become a formidable force this season and last, and today came in with a deck that I honestly couldn't see myself beating. Luckily, I had one of those games where lots of things went right for me. Although my starts were rubbish both games, Tom's Unown g was prized both games and so I was able, via a few very crazy plays, to take 6 prizes, both games. His skuntanks hurt a lot, but I cud usually hit them for 80 for one (with a cresselia power/crobat sp power). In both games I DID NOT KO A KINGDRA. I picked off around them, and got some heads flips. My last play was so crazy, ripping through like 12-15 cards and setting a gengar nicely to take my last prize. If his unown g had been in the deck, he would have easily have won, I'm sure- but my 80's to skuntanks/claydols etc were too much.
Tom was thankfully chipper about the whole experience- he's invited and going regardless. We had one disagreement over a card (we both thought it had been played in two different orders) but the judging team resolved it like pros.
7-1 (2-0)

Trophy time! woooOOOooooooooooOOOOOOOOooooooooooo! Ian unfortunately lost to Yacine, but we're both still very proud of the double-cut!

Top4- Johvan (DPSP)
I knew immediately that this game would be so much harder than the last vs Johvan! And boy, was I right. I got early board control and looked like stomping it. His Palkia lvl x used that stupid lost zone power thingy and I lost my two crobat sp! (which made the poke-turns in the deck useless ) The game came down to whether Johvan had a warp point- I had a bench of uxie, ghastly,
claydol, claydol, cresselia (all slightly damaged) and he could have ko'd anything on the bench with dialga lvl x had he had the WP. I realised in this game just how good the dialga/palkia are- they were so hard to KO, and every time I got close, he just poketurned it! argh!!! I realised that I had to take use lookers to my advantage, which I did a couple of times to ko lvl xs. If I could tweak my list I mite have dropped one lookers for a cynthias, but hey ho- they helped in this game. Great game Johvan.
8-1

Two finals in three years? I was never expecting this. Nor was I expecting the sheer amount of moral support I got from everybody in going into what was clearly ANYONES toughest matchup of the UK season- Sami in the Nats final.

Final- Sami (Kingdra/Tech)
Samis deck was built ever so slightly differently to Tom's and it won him the game by a mile. I had the turn 1 donk on him (had it not been for his unown stinking g! ) but still forged ahead to take early prizes. However- he gets set up with a skuntank/claydol with unowns on them and two kingdra which he super scoops up when necessary. I thought I was playing ok, but the game was slipping away from me, as were my powers of concentration. I made a terrible mistake which I didn't even realise. It was ruled as a caution, but I folded immediately after. The game had startd to go sour for me, but even if I could have come back- it wouldn't have felt right. Sami was really great about it and we settled into another game- in which my prizes were baltoy baltoy gengar energy supporter supporter. I scooped after his great start and that was that!
8-2

Ian and I were absolutely delighted with how we'd done- we had never both top 8'd before, let alone with the same untested deck! I won an invite, two boxes and some scholarship money which is so appreciated, i don't think POP will ever understand!

Rite- well I've babbled long enough, P and S

Props
Ian- my dawwwg! We did it baby!
Sami- jesus man, ur head and shoulders ahead of us all. win worlds dammit!
Freddy- a true gent. Much love x
Crawley gang (OMG HOW WELL DID WE ALL DO?!) This includes the almighty Brian, Chris Mc/kids/nigel, Edderz, Clan Fotheringham , Judge Kishy et al!
Seeing all the people I hadnt seen in ages (listed above!) If i didn't write you in above- im really tired, and im sorry if my mind is giving out!
Nintendo official coins (sorry Johvan!)
Russell and Ben- great tournament guys, and the judging was fantastic. Brilliant!

Slops
Missing Match of the Day.

I don't know how much I will be in the game next year. Ian and I are both on the sidelines atm due to money/time issues, but would love to stay simply for the immense banter and fun of pokemon. If i'm not there next year, much love ppl

[TheLegendKiller]

Well done Andy , Just show how well u played all day to make a deck just hours before and play it well.......props to Ian E to!!

[Jason]

Good job on making it that far, Andy.

Hope you can make it to Worlds, cauz I would like to see you one date mate. ;)

[PokemonSteve]

Very well done guys for both making the cut and well done andy for making final again and ONCE AGAIN MISSING OUT on a trip. You going to worlds?

Originally Posted by afirule

Sami- jesus man, ur head and shoulders ahead of us all. win worlds dammit!

I second that!!

[TORCHWOOD]

Congratulations Andy!!!

[The Machampion]

Well done Andy, you did well

[nnaann]

Hey,

I didn't hang around to see the end of the masters, but congratulations on second! Your deck seems really simmilar to mine and my brothers with the Crobat and 1-1 Cresselia. Do you mind PM'ing me the list, so I can compare mine to it?

Is that 4/6 people in the 3 Top 2's from Crawley?

Nathan

[amphyrules]

This guys an absolute pro, good job bro :)

[thegatekeeper]

Enjoyed reading this mate. Had a great day yesterday and was great catching up with you and others! Mr Mc :)

[kiwill]

Awesome job Andy! :)

[fire spin]

congrats Andy. (Ian E too as it was a joint team 2am production)

[Edderz]

Yeah, congrats Andy, and bad luck to Ian E - Yacine knew just how to pull off that recovery in the last game of T8 otherwise we could have had two trophies...

Well done!

[dreamborn]

Congratulations mate, losing to an Uxie donk was not cool :'(. But also made me quite happy knowing that two people I lost against (in which had some awesome friendlies afterwards) made top 8.

Best of luck at worlds and keep on sniping

[DarkJake]

Were you able to use Rising Rivals?

[Yoshi-]

European PRs are this weekend so I doubt it :P

[TORCHWOOD]

Nope. No RR for us on saturday

[ice_brakerz]

WEELLL DONE ANDY!!!! WOO-hoooo..... hope to see you in worlds mate :)

[venomex]

Have to say the final was great to watch (For playing and good sportsmanship!)

[Jaeger]

Congrats to you and Sami, hope to see you at Worlds. How did Yacine do?

[Edderz]

Yacine got knocked out by Sami... T4, in the rounds he was 6-1.

[Fireborn]

Congrats Andy, sounds like a great tournament! Gengar is awesome :)

[kaworu]

Congrats man, always a pleasure talking to you.

Haha, had to play you first and scoop due to my awful start lol @_@

[ukpokemonpro]

Very well done indeed Andy and a great final to watch .. you and sammi both played like the champs you are and showed a true spirit of the game..

Congrats and are you going to follow Sammi's lead and publish your decklist?

[Avmozz]

Originally Posted by ukpokemonpro

Very well done indeed Andy and a great final to watch .. you and sammi both played like the champs you are and showed a true spirit of the game..

Indeed....well said Ben!

Shame there has to be only one winner

Andy, Let me know if you are going to be able to make worlds and if you need any help with cards etc.

Well done again!

Mozz

[afirule]

Guys thanks for your kind words- here are some back!
jason/nitish/machampion/torchwood/chris/WILL!!!!/fire spin/dreamborn/kylie/sparks/jaeger/anna/scott- THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR CONGRATULATIONS!

avmozz- i am considering worlds so I might give u a cheeky PM at some point if thats ok? thankyou!!!!
kish- see above and thanks for your support as ever!

Originally Posted by 'pro

Very well done indeed Andy and a great final to watch .. you and sammi both played like the champs you are and showed a true spirit of the game..

Thankyou kind sir, I try my best!

Originally Posted by 'pro

Congrats and are you going to follow Sammi's lead and publish your decklist?

Absolutely, see edit above.