Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Top 16 CA Masters Report! (Luxchomp)

Forte

New Member
It has been a year since I have gotten into the competitive scene with States '09 being my first big premier event.
Last year I ran Shuppet Donk and went 5-2, I could have went 6-1 if I had more experience (I lost due to Azelf MT but I had memory berry and banette in hand), so I was very excited this year to see how I have grown as a player.

This year I chose Luxchomp with Diagla tech.

Round 1 v Jeremy B (SpeeDos)

Jeremy is #10 in the world with premier rating, so I was kind of scared to play him. I've seen him at some other tournaments before and heard that he was a very good player. Either way, I start Azelf with a bebe's and a cyrus in my hand and he starts magikarp bench and unown r.

I draw, pass.

He draws. Uses retire so his only poke is karp active. He plays dual ball... tails... tails... he then uses junk arm to get it back and says he doesn't like my dice :O. Plays the dual ball again. tails... tails. I was sitting there kind of amazed with that kind of luck but he ends up doing sea spray for one. I am happy since I play cyrus for my psychic and sp radar flash bite lock up.

1-0

Round 2 v Derek M (LuxChomp)

For the longest time, I drew bad cards. I started something like unown q and toxicroak g and I basically stalled for turns until I got a supporter. My first supporter ended up being Aarons Collection. I don't remember how it went but he started to KO alot of my garchomps and luxrays and I would bring them back with aarons until I got a decent field. I took one or two prizes until all his energy was spent via Dragon Rush or used to return KO.

I got out a smeargle and he sprayed my portrait. I set up and he also sprays. I'm in a very bad situation but I at least got a q and used poison revenge the next turn where he flash bite snap attacks my smeargle

He was down to 2 prizes with me with my 5.

What it all came down to was Looker's investigation

I saw that he had not alot of energy on his field and was very weak with 2 or 3 e-gains in his discard and 1 energy on his dragonite. I looker'd his big hand away and passed. This was when he sent out his Uxie X active, tried to trade off but I sprayed and pass. I got out my own Uxie x and zen bladed him. The only resources available to him was his luxray x.

He flash impacts and puts 30 on crobat. I retreat with uxie and bright look his crobat and bite.
He flash impacts me again.

What it all came down to was getting my last dragon rush and it happened.
I somehow made a comeback to which seemed like a losing game and was a very satisfying victory.

He shakes his head after and says "I had that."

2-0

Round 3 vs Matt S (Vilegar)

First time at table 1!
I had seen Matt around SD cities and sort of knew of him. We sat down and the table we played on had no cloth and was very irritating but anyways...

He starts tomb and I start with Luxray GL.

I draw a dialga, attach DCE and bite.
He does some crazy stuff on his turn and got a gloom and some ghastly and did all these shenanigans. I tried setting up my DGX as soon as possible via cyrus and bebes but at some point I should have gone for the collector.

He uses seeker and Poltergeist for ALOT.
(I saw this move at another match played by Stephen T.)


Also, I won a HGSS mat :)

2-1

Round 4 vs Forgot Name sorry :( (Tyranitar)
Was a nice fellow and I basically donked him turn 2 Via Flashbite Earthquake.
We played another round after and he ended up spreading so much damage + bad draws = GG

3-1

Round 5 vs Christine (Kingdra/Feraligatr Prime/ KGL?)
I think I saw a KGL when she was shuffling but basically I KO'd an early Uxie. Started sniping around. But she got a Feraligatr with and Expert belt and I spent quite a bit of time KO'ing that but she ended up taking two prizes. My field was heavily damaged and Healing breath is so nice. It was very on sided and I wonder how her other games went.

4-1

Round 6 vs William (Machamp)
Things got very tense and these later matches decided top cut. He flips over and Azelf and I flip over my luxray. I bite and do 30. He collectors for a Q and some other cards I don't remember. But basically, I took out a very early Machop via Dragon Rush. He gets a takeout machamp and start to wreck. I psychic restore to do 50 (20 + 30 weak) and go under. He takes another prize via take out and I'm getting kind of nervous. I topdeck DCE and rush his active machamp. He doesn't have the energy for take out so he did some drawing stuff and passed.

I basically tried to get an Uxie X out. He finally his 2nd Take out machamp and took a prize. I zen blade lucario flashbite to 1hit ko him and he spends the rest of the game trying to get out his third machamp. During the game he kept dropping his cards on the floor and dice which made me kind of nervous, but I decided to trust him instead of being mean and calling a judge every 2 seconds.

The end of the game was memorable, he tried really hard to draw that energy/machamp but ended up using a junk arm for a SSU(super scoop up) and asked me if I had a spray. He flipped tails on several SSU that game but this one time I was prepared for with a spray. We shook hands and he wished me luck.

5-1

Round 7 vs Chris S. (Vilegar)
Lost, terribly. At one point he had Lookers and chose to do his own hand with 0 Cards. He started to draw and I reminded him that you always have a hand and must shuffle if it says etc. Prof Oak and Lookers / Judge. I hope I didn't sound too much a rule shark but he was a nice guy and a good player too. He ended up top cutting. ( and winning the tourny)

5-2

Round 8 vs Keith (Magnezone)
Now this was a very tense battle. We sat at the edge of the table near the cold doors. We talked and he seemed like a nice guy. We had met before I believe and I think he beat me at SD Cities. Either way we met and talked and discuss the tenseness of the top cut deciding battle. I thought I had a good chance because I played some pretty good people along the way and hope their records would boost my resistance. We were both pretty tired and were about to play it out for top cut.

He flipped over Spiritomb and had magnemite benched or magmemite active retreat with energy to spiritomb. I don't necessarily remember because a bigger memory had taken place in my mind.

On one of his turns, he used bebe's for a magneton and then evolved to a magnezone prime. he attached energy and did some stuff. Then he played judge, I was thinking how this would effect me as I shuffled my hand into my deck as I started at the magnezone prime, then a little lower... and quickly realized he played bebe's in the same turn.

I stop him and we both realize the situation in horror. We had both shuffled our hands and committed an irreversible gameplay error. I called a judge and it took a 5-10 minute time for them to decide what to do.

He came back and told Keith that he was to get a gameloss, and I was to get a warning/caution.

I sat there in my heart happy with a win, but sadness because it did not mean anything. All I did was play a few cards and not try while my opponent got a game loss.

I told him how I was feeling, I was sorry and I hoped that we would play again some other time in a fair good way. The judge overheard and told me that's the SOTG that he wanted to see. He wished me luck in top cut and told me I had a better chance than he did with Luxchomp then with his Magnezone but the way he talked about it made me feel better about the situation.

6-2


It was then time for the top cut to be revealed and I was very lazy to look. My friends became very excited and told me I had made it. I was more happy that they were instead of making top cut but I was pretty nervous because from now on things will be insane.

Top 16 Cut.

Round 1 vs Jeremy J.
Now he is pretty known and I played him at regionals last year. He deafened me to heck and wrecked me.
Now was the time to get my revenge!

I Started Luxray and did some stuff first turn and passed. He did some of the same and attacked with luxray or something. He ended up getting very far down the garchomp war and winning. He ran 3-1 Garchomp, Ambipom, 2 Premier, AND Dragonite. His mirror matchup was way better than mine because he always got that Uxie X for revenge killing my promocroak.

Round 2 vs Jeremy J.
I stared with Smeargle and he started with Uxie. I portrait his collector and got some stuff but in the end. His mirror match just annihilated mine. I remember trying for a vital portrait, then set up but he had two sprays ready. One from the prize he JUST drew.

It was pretty intense because he went 8-0 in swiss, but he was very friendly and let me take back some moves. The judge was being mean to me, saying I announced portraiting Aaron's collection and I kindly reminded him that my opponent let me take re choose the supporter. His phone also ringing during the match. I used poison revenge and he asked if I had a poison marker. I had to tell the judge that Jeremy did not KO and of my pokemon last turn / the effect of the attack.

Overall, it was a great tournament. States is my favorite tournament out of them all and its nice to see alot of people you haven't in a long time. There are matches like Round 2, where it shows my improvement of turning a losing game into a win. Also matches like with Jeremy showing me that there is still lots of room for improvement and you can still be good, win, and be nice at the same time.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Mini Story -

I brought 3 friends along with me to States this year. I let 2 of my friends borrow my decks. One of my friends had lost my gyrados deck and was panicking pretty hard. I went around looking for it and could not find it. I ended up asking the staff if they had found my deck, they said no. After about 10 minutes of wandering I come back and it showed up in the lost and found. Thankfully, players didn't steal my deck and turned it in, instead.

I am really grateful our community is very friendly and nice and thats what makes these events so fun.
The man who I told about my lost deck, was also the same man who saw me walking around like I had a question, came up to me and asked me if I did.

I really appreciated the effort and I wanted to thank him before I left. I didn't even get his name, but he was the man with a beard wearing a blue staff shirt.


Pokemon is awesome.






Props:
Air condition
Meeting new players!
Seeing old friends.
Beating good people.
Great staffing and location.
Getting friends into the game.
WINNING A HGSS MAT.

Beatbox session in the car ride home.


Slops:
Almost losing my deck.
Might have made my friend lose interest.
Expensive food and parking
8 Rounds

(If you stick around long enough, the sell the food REALLY cheap once they start closing shop)


Thanks for Reading!
 
Last edited:
Hey, this is Chris Silver, your R6 Opponent, Great job on making T16. The looker thing was no biggie, I forget sometimes ^_^.

See you at Worlds if you go.
 
Gratz man. Top 16 at CA States is a very big deal. And as for your mini story, I have a similar one.

At Nationals 2009 in St. Louis, my first ever Nationals, I was sitting with friends in between rounds discussing our previous rounds/other stuff, when the next pairings for the next round were announced. I had put my bag down beside my chair, and when I got up to check the pairings, I had forgotten to pick up my bag. Right when I got to where pairings were being posted, I realized what I had done, and sprinted back to where we sitting, only to find my bag wasn't there. Panicking, I found a staff member and asked for help finding my bag. It was nowhere to be found. I was near tears. After about 10 minutes of searching the area, I finally made my way to the lost & found. And guess what? My bag was sitting right on top of the pile. While I did have to receive a game loss for being absurdly late to my game, I was able to find my bag, and stay in the tournament.

Things like this make me love Pokemon. Pokemon hands down has THE BEST community of any card game. There's no question about that.
 
Hey Forte. Great job with California States. I don't think I got to formally meet you (sad face). Good luck in any other States you decide to play in :) Great that somebody would return an entire deck. That reminds me how fantastic this game's community is. With an entire community of 200 something players, I love how nobody decided to steal it. :) You guys are fantastic people... all of you ;D Once again, though, Forte, good job and good luck in your next event.
 
Back
Top