Cyrus
Iron Chef - Master Emeritus
Hey all....Well, it's Monday, and I am STILL recovering from the epic known as Worlds 2009. Phew!
Pre-Tournament
After a disappointing 2009 Nationals run, I knew that I just couldn't sit at home, twiddling my thumbs as someone else would see glory come to them, so my brother and I decided that we would head to the 2009 Last Chance Qualifier...For the second time in which I would have to play in it. Last year, I was fortunate enough to earn a LCQ seat by finishing fourth in the legendary "blue pod," which included Alex Brosseau, Ross Cawthon, and Jimmy O'Brien, et al. I realized that this year would be no different, and I was right...It was harder!
Since this year wasn't nearly about perfecting one's playing so much as it was about settling on the right deck choice, I made it my duty to get in a minimum of 25 games with all of the format's major decks. From there, I would determine my favorites that would earn the right to move past preliminary testing, and, eventually, my grinder choice would be made.
Beedrill got off to a rocking-good start, going a combined 21-3-1 in testing, while nearly every other stage two deck that I tested floundered (save Gengar/Starmie and Porygon-Z). As for SP, well...It's SP: the mechanics of these decks are amazing! So, after starting with 14 or so different decks, I settled on Beedrill, Gengar/Starmie, Porygon-Z, Palkia Lock, Luxape, and a weird sp variant that I called Garbage.dec, featuring Luxray/Manectric, and Starmie.
Slowly but surely, all of my variants of Beedrill began to lose favor with me, including Silvestrodrill, so that was out, and later, all non-sp decks were taken out of the mix. From that point on, I knew that I would run Pokemon-SP at the LCQ...But what kind?
Even though I play Luxape very well, something just didn't feel right about it; it didn't seem like a grinder "champion." So, I was torn between Palkia Lock and Garbage.dec.
However, a string of critical Apprentice games between the two decks (me using Garbage; my brother Billy using Palkia Lock) determined my choice. Although Palkia Lock lost the games, it did so by the slimmest of margins...To something that is supposedly an "auto loss." How could Palkia Lock do this?
Simple: it was a deck with extraordinary mechanics, and had what it took to go all the way. Therefore, I was determined to play it, and settled on this exact list:
Pokemon (21):
3 Palkia G
1 Palkia G LV.X
3 Uxie LA
1 Uxie LV.X
4 Mesprit LA
2 Unown G
1 Azelf LA
1 Azelf MT
1 Mewtwo MD
1 Mewtwo LV.X
1 Crobat G
1 Bronzong G
1 Toxicroak G PR
Trainers (27):
4 Roseanne's Research
4 Cyrus's Conspiracy
4 TGI Energy Gain
4 TGI PokeTurn
4 TGI Power Spray
2 TGI SP Radar
2 Night Maintenance
1 Bebe's Search
1 Luxury Ball
1 Premier Ball
Energy (12):
5 Water
4 Call
3 Psychic
The Grinder
Round 1: VS Timmy Erven (Luxape)
According to Tim, this was his first event back in a while, but, knowing all of the mind games people may or may not play, I just tuned it out. We both got off to decent starts, with me going aggro Uxie LV.X, After about a prize or two, he roared back with a Luxray GL LV.X, which I was unable to Psychic Bind or Power Spray; however, I simply just Poison Revenged, and took full control of the game. Although he tried to make a comeback, it was negated by the titular Palkia lock, which finally got out around the middle/late-middle fo the game, and eventually another Toxicroak G Poison Revenge. (1-0)
Round 2: VS Eric Craig (Dialga/Palkia/Luxray)
It seems that lady luck wasn't on our side today, as Eric Craig and I, two people who have made Worlds every year prior to this one, were forced to play so early on. Ouch.
Eric's hand was about the worst I had seen in ages: no supporters, no consistency crutches (e.g., Chatot and Pachi), and not even the right energy for his Dialga. Meanwhile, I was able to get a quick Psychic Bind lock, as well as Downer Material. We played it to near completion, but near my second-to-last prize being pulled, he conceded, and that was that. Sorry, man (2-0)
Round 3: VS Oregon gentleman (Flygon/Palkia)
My setup is slow, but fortunately a few mistakes on his part gave me the opportunity to roar back, and take an absolute 6-0 win in this game. I was also very careful to keep him from Inviting Trap-locking me. (3-0)
Round 4: VS John W. (Gengar/Nidoqueen)
This game starts out as a very hotly-contested match, with him getting out a quick Gengar versus my legitimate board. After some clever Palkia switcheroo'ing, I'm forced to dive into a Fainting Spell, which lands heads. This sets me back some, but once my Palkia G LV.X sees the light of day, I take decisive control of the game. After a decent stare down at four prizes to four, I Psychic Restore with Uxie in order to go ahead, and from there I dominate this game. Good game, man! (4-0)
Round 5: VS Daniel Chin (Luxtric/Gallade; "Chad.dec")
After talking to him for a little while, I found out that Daniel was not only a player in the area of my friend Chris Silver ("TRUK"), but a solid player in his own right, as he was a former national champion of the Seniors division. Needless to say, he gave me a good run for my money this game.
Anyways, I get out a quick Mewtwo LV.X, and, unlike garbage.dec, which has all sorts of anti-Mewtwo tricks with Starmie, Manectric only maxes out at 40 without the aid of Pluspowers, Gallade 4 LV.X's, or Spiritombs. However, he had plenty of targets on my bench to nab easy prizes on, so he was able to make a very strong comeback. Since I am very familiar with Gallade 4 LV.X variants, I tried to not play a full bench so as to avoid him drawing all of his prizes. His deck plays out as I expect it to, and, through a combination of Power Wave, Gallade 4 LV.X, and Cursed Breath, he knocks out everything on my bench except a Palkia G. I then proceeded to Poke-Turn it, and, because Mewtwo LV.X doesn't afraid of anything, proceeded to draw my remaining prizes through Psyburn, a conservative Flash Bite, and Giga Burn. Great game, man. (5-0)
Round 6: VS Colin Moll (Gengar/Nidoqueen)
Colin gets out a turn one Gengar vs me, but unfortunately has nothing else to back it up. I am forced to play carefully around his Poltergeist, which sets me back a bit, and unfortunately I had to again jump head-first into a Fainting Spell. However, Colin lands tails, and I sweep the game easily from there. After the initial Gengar, he really didn't have much of anything, so a couple of gimpy draws made life a pain. Sorry, man. (6-0)
Round 7: VS Dexter (Palkia/Luxray)
Mewtwo LV.X truly doesn't afraid of anything, as I was able to get out a turn three Mewtwo LV.X versus a list with no counters to it. Upon my Mewtwo LV.X hitting the board, we had a conversation with the basic gist of:
Me: Do you run any Mewtwo counters?
Him: no
Me: would you like to concede?
Him: yes.
And, after trying to see if he could've played things a bit differently, that was that! I was now one of only four people who were 7-0 in a tournament of over 450 people! Exciting! (7-0)
After this game, I went and did some mental fist pumps; against all odds, I was guaranteed into Worlds for the sixth year in a row, and am thus one of only five people who has never missed an invite to a Nintendo World Championship. In addition to this, I am one of only a handful of people who has ever grinded in twice...And probably the only one who is 2/2 on grinder invites.
However, despite all of these exciting things going through my head, I still wanted to do my best for the sake of Colin and Daniel's resistance, and was hoping I could finish the swiss 8-0.
Round 8: VS Tyler Ninomura (Flygon/Nidoqueen/Mewtwo)
Early on, this game felt decisively in my favor, but unfortunately for me, he runs a Mewtwo of his own! Since I had a slightly clunky Mesprit start, I was unable to snipe the Mewtwo in time, and he was able to get it out, level it up, and...Not do anything at all, because I had Downer Material in play. *Fist pump*
Using this window of opportunity, I begin to try and get his bench damaged enough so that I can stop a Flygon LV.X in its tracks, but unfortunately he gets one out, even with all of my power lock. This gives him the window of opportunity to discard three cards off my deck before the LV.X goes down...With two of them being absolutely _crucial_ (Night Maintenance/Crobat G). Because these two guys are discarded, and because my other Night Maintenance is prized, I have no way to hit his next Flygon for more than 80. Thus, he gets out his second Flygon LV.X, and cleans up the remainder of my board. (7-1)
My report isn't doing this matchup the justice it could, because interspersed between the events listed here are many Mewtwo stare-downs, including the last 8-10 turns of the game.
I was disappointed with not finishing 8-0, but I "did" make it into Worlds by the will of a deity known as Mewtwo LV.X. From there, I just wanted to SLEEP!!! But, as always, there are things to do...Such as get Worlds swag.
From there, I went to reload on some thai food with Billy and Cameron, and then got as much sleep as possible for the next day...I only made three small modifications to my list from the previous day:
- 1/1 Mewtwo LV.X
-1 Power Spray
+1/1 Mismagius SF
+1 Bebe's Search
Although the Mewtwo LV.X worked very well the previous day, I felt like it would be useless for two major reasons:
A) A much larger percentage of this field either had a way to counter Mewtwo, or no need to ward off Mewtwo at all.
B) My ability to counter Mewtwo was in itself very lacking. Given the looming threat of "insert stage two here + Mewtwo LV.X," I felt like I needed a superior way to deal with it that went beyond stalemating with my own Mewtwo LV.X
The Main Event
After waiting for what seemed like an eternity (including one instance where they had said "BEGIN BATTLING," yet we actually 'weren't' allowed to start playing), the tournament began!
Round 1: VS Helga (Toolbox)
Although I have very little to back myself up during the early game (my Uxie gets Power Sprayed and I'm stuck just aggro Pearl Breathing), that turns out to be enough, as my Azelf Downer Material is giving her major, major troubles. This essentially rendered her Weaviles useless, so whenever a Dialga G hit the board, I'd just do whatever I could to take it out. She never saw the Dialga G LV.X set up, and Downer Material was maintained throughout the entire game. (1-0)
Round 2: VS Daniel (Luxray/Gallade)
Somehow, I won this game with hardly any Downer Material at all (fits of dead draws in between turns). But fortunately, some well-timed Power Sprays and Toxicroak G Poison Revenges gave me control in this game, and I was able to take the win by Zen Blading. (2-0)
After grinding in, I started the day at Worlds 2-0! Wow! But after that...
Round 3: VS Jay Hornung (Flygon/Machamp)
No supporters for the first four turns; his setup is average, but it's enough for him to pummel me with Flygon and Machamp. (2-1)
Round 4: VS Flygon/Blissey
Loss. (2-2)
Round 5: VS Gino Lombardi (Flygon/Machamp)
No supporters for the first six turns of the game, plus my Unown G's being prized. Kinda hurt to Call and not find a G =(. (2-3)
At this point, part of me reaaaally wanted to drop, but I'm no quitter...Besides, I figured that, win or lose, I spent until 11:00 PM the previous night earning this invite, so I'll do it justice.
Round 6: VS Igor (Palkia/Luxray)
It was in this match that I sorely regret cutting the Mewtwo, and REALLY regretted not playing the Raichu GL. Needless to say, this game was all him - I had a fairly weak Unown G start, no call, versus his T1 Psychic Bind and Downer Material. (2-4)
Round 7: VS ??? (Luxape)
This game, I started with an Uxie active, alongside...No supporters, and no energy...Ouch. Meanwhile, he had a superb opening, and, again, due to my embarrassingly bad hand, it was all him. (2-5)
But, despite these hands and situations, I don't have much to grape about at all, because I had the explosive ending to this season that I wanted; I grinded AGAIN!
I'll put the finishing touches on this report sometime later, but this is pretty much the finalized one.
Pre-Tournament
After a disappointing 2009 Nationals run, I knew that I just couldn't sit at home, twiddling my thumbs as someone else would see glory come to them, so my brother and I decided that we would head to the 2009 Last Chance Qualifier...For the second time in which I would have to play in it. Last year, I was fortunate enough to earn a LCQ seat by finishing fourth in the legendary "blue pod," which included Alex Brosseau, Ross Cawthon, and Jimmy O'Brien, et al. I realized that this year would be no different, and I was right...It was harder!
Since this year wasn't nearly about perfecting one's playing so much as it was about settling on the right deck choice, I made it my duty to get in a minimum of 25 games with all of the format's major decks. From there, I would determine my favorites that would earn the right to move past preliminary testing, and, eventually, my grinder choice would be made.
Beedrill got off to a rocking-good start, going a combined 21-3-1 in testing, while nearly every other stage two deck that I tested floundered (save Gengar/Starmie and Porygon-Z). As for SP, well...It's SP: the mechanics of these decks are amazing! So, after starting with 14 or so different decks, I settled on Beedrill, Gengar/Starmie, Porygon-Z, Palkia Lock, Luxape, and a weird sp variant that I called Garbage.dec, featuring Luxray/Manectric, and Starmie.
Slowly but surely, all of my variants of Beedrill began to lose favor with me, including Silvestrodrill, so that was out, and later, all non-sp decks were taken out of the mix. From that point on, I knew that I would run Pokemon-SP at the LCQ...But what kind?
Even though I play Luxape very well, something just didn't feel right about it; it didn't seem like a grinder "champion." So, I was torn between Palkia Lock and Garbage.dec.
However, a string of critical Apprentice games between the two decks (me using Garbage; my brother Billy using Palkia Lock) determined my choice. Although Palkia Lock lost the games, it did so by the slimmest of margins...To something that is supposedly an "auto loss." How could Palkia Lock do this?
Simple: it was a deck with extraordinary mechanics, and had what it took to go all the way. Therefore, I was determined to play it, and settled on this exact list:
Pokemon (21):
3 Palkia G
1 Palkia G LV.X
3 Uxie LA
1 Uxie LV.X
4 Mesprit LA
2 Unown G
1 Azelf LA
1 Azelf MT
1 Mewtwo MD
1 Mewtwo LV.X
1 Crobat G
1 Bronzong G
1 Toxicroak G PR
Trainers (27):
4 Roseanne's Research
4 Cyrus's Conspiracy
4 TGI Energy Gain
4 TGI PokeTurn
4 TGI Power Spray
2 TGI SP Radar
2 Night Maintenance
1 Bebe's Search
1 Luxury Ball
1 Premier Ball
Energy (12):
5 Water
4 Call
3 Psychic
The Grinder
Round 1: VS Timmy Erven (Luxape)
According to Tim, this was his first event back in a while, but, knowing all of the mind games people may or may not play, I just tuned it out. We both got off to decent starts, with me going aggro Uxie LV.X, After about a prize or two, he roared back with a Luxray GL LV.X, which I was unable to Psychic Bind or Power Spray; however, I simply just Poison Revenged, and took full control of the game. Although he tried to make a comeback, it was negated by the titular Palkia lock, which finally got out around the middle/late-middle fo the game, and eventually another Toxicroak G Poison Revenge. (1-0)
Round 2: VS Eric Craig (Dialga/Palkia/Luxray)
It seems that lady luck wasn't on our side today, as Eric Craig and I, two people who have made Worlds every year prior to this one, were forced to play so early on. Ouch.
Eric's hand was about the worst I had seen in ages: no supporters, no consistency crutches (e.g., Chatot and Pachi), and not even the right energy for his Dialga. Meanwhile, I was able to get a quick Psychic Bind lock, as well as Downer Material. We played it to near completion, but near my second-to-last prize being pulled, he conceded, and that was that. Sorry, man (2-0)
Round 3: VS Oregon gentleman (Flygon/Palkia)
My setup is slow, but fortunately a few mistakes on his part gave me the opportunity to roar back, and take an absolute 6-0 win in this game. I was also very careful to keep him from Inviting Trap-locking me. (3-0)
Round 4: VS John W. (Gengar/Nidoqueen)
This game starts out as a very hotly-contested match, with him getting out a quick Gengar versus my legitimate board. After some clever Palkia switcheroo'ing, I'm forced to dive into a Fainting Spell, which lands heads. This sets me back some, but once my Palkia G LV.X sees the light of day, I take decisive control of the game. After a decent stare down at four prizes to four, I Psychic Restore with Uxie in order to go ahead, and from there I dominate this game. Good game, man! (4-0)
Round 5: VS Daniel Chin (Luxtric/Gallade; "Chad.dec")
After talking to him for a little while, I found out that Daniel was not only a player in the area of my friend Chris Silver ("TRUK"), but a solid player in his own right, as he was a former national champion of the Seniors division. Needless to say, he gave me a good run for my money this game.
Anyways, I get out a quick Mewtwo LV.X, and, unlike garbage.dec, which has all sorts of anti-Mewtwo tricks with Starmie, Manectric only maxes out at 40 without the aid of Pluspowers, Gallade 4 LV.X's, or Spiritombs. However, he had plenty of targets on my bench to nab easy prizes on, so he was able to make a very strong comeback. Since I am very familiar with Gallade 4 LV.X variants, I tried to not play a full bench so as to avoid him drawing all of his prizes. His deck plays out as I expect it to, and, through a combination of Power Wave, Gallade 4 LV.X, and Cursed Breath, he knocks out everything on my bench except a Palkia G. I then proceeded to Poke-Turn it, and, because Mewtwo LV.X doesn't afraid of anything, proceeded to draw my remaining prizes through Psyburn, a conservative Flash Bite, and Giga Burn. Great game, man. (5-0)
Round 6: VS Colin Moll (Gengar/Nidoqueen)
Colin gets out a turn one Gengar vs me, but unfortunately has nothing else to back it up. I am forced to play carefully around his Poltergeist, which sets me back a bit, and unfortunately I had to again jump head-first into a Fainting Spell. However, Colin lands tails, and I sweep the game easily from there. After the initial Gengar, he really didn't have much of anything, so a couple of gimpy draws made life a pain. Sorry, man. (6-0)
Round 7: VS Dexter (Palkia/Luxray)
Mewtwo LV.X truly doesn't afraid of anything, as I was able to get out a turn three Mewtwo LV.X versus a list with no counters to it. Upon my Mewtwo LV.X hitting the board, we had a conversation with the basic gist of:
Me: Do you run any Mewtwo counters?
Him: no
Me: would you like to concede?
Him: yes.
And, after trying to see if he could've played things a bit differently, that was that! I was now one of only four people who were 7-0 in a tournament of over 450 people! Exciting! (7-0)
After this game, I went and did some mental fist pumps; against all odds, I was guaranteed into Worlds for the sixth year in a row, and am thus one of only five people who has never missed an invite to a Nintendo World Championship. In addition to this, I am one of only a handful of people who has ever grinded in twice...And probably the only one who is 2/2 on grinder invites.
However, despite all of these exciting things going through my head, I still wanted to do my best for the sake of Colin and Daniel's resistance, and was hoping I could finish the swiss 8-0.
Round 8: VS Tyler Ninomura (Flygon/Nidoqueen/Mewtwo)
Early on, this game felt decisively in my favor, but unfortunately for me, he runs a Mewtwo of his own! Since I had a slightly clunky Mesprit start, I was unable to snipe the Mewtwo in time, and he was able to get it out, level it up, and...Not do anything at all, because I had Downer Material in play. *Fist pump*
Using this window of opportunity, I begin to try and get his bench damaged enough so that I can stop a Flygon LV.X in its tracks, but unfortunately he gets one out, even with all of my power lock. This gives him the window of opportunity to discard three cards off my deck before the LV.X goes down...With two of them being absolutely _crucial_ (Night Maintenance/Crobat G). Because these two guys are discarded, and because my other Night Maintenance is prized, I have no way to hit his next Flygon for more than 80. Thus, he gets out his second Flygon LV.X, and cleans up the remainder of my board. (7-1)
My report isn't doing this matchup the justice it could, because interspersed between the events listed here are many Mewtwo stare-downs, including the last 8-10 turns of the game.
I was disappointed with not finishing 8-0, but I "did" make it into Worlds by the will of a deity known as Mewtwo LV.X. From there, I just wanted to SLEEP!!! But, as always, there are things to do...Such as get Worlds swag.
From there, I went to reload on some thai food with Billy and Cameron, and then got as much sleep as possible for the next day...I only made three small modifications to my list from the previous day:
- 1/1 Mewtwo LV.X
-1 Power Spray
+1/1 Mismagius SF
+1 Bebe's Search
Although the Mewtwo LV.X worked very well the previous day, I felt like it would be useless for two major reasons:
A) A much larger percentage of this field either had a way to counter Mewtwo, or no need to ward off Mewtwo at all.
B) My ability to counter Mewtwo was in itself very lacking. Given the looming threat of "insert stage two here + Mewtwo LV.X," I felt like I needed a superior way to deal with it that went beyond stalemating with my own Mewtwo LV.X
The Main Event
After waiting for what seemed like an eternity (including one instance where they had said "BEGIN BATTLING," yet we actually 'weren't' allowed to start playing), the tournament began!
Round 1: VS Helga (Toolbox)
Although I have very little to back myself up during the early game (my Uxie gets Power Sprayed and I'm stuck just aggro Pearl Breathing), that turns out to be enough, as my Azelf Downer Material is giving her major, major troubles. This essentially rendered her Weaviles useless, so whenever a Dialga G hit the board, I'd just do whatever I could to take it out. She never saw the Dialga G LV.X set up, and Downer Material was maintained throughout the entire game. (1-0)
Round 2: VS Daniel (Luxray/Gallade)
Somehow, I won this game with hardly any Downer Material at all (fits of dead draws in between turns). But fortunately, some well-timed Power Sprays and Toxicroak G Poison Revenges gave me control in this game, and I was able to take the win by Zen Blading. (2-0)
After grinding in, I started the day at Worlds 2-0! Wow! But after that...
Round 3: VS Jay Hornung (Flygon/Machamp)
No supporters for the first four turns; his setup is average, but it's enough for him to pummel me with Flygon and Machamp. (2-1)
Round 4: VS Flygon/Blissey
Loss. (2-2)
Round 5: VS Gino Lombardi (Flygon/Machamp)
No supporters for the first six turns of the game, plus my Unown G's being prized. Kinda hurt to Call and not find a G =(. (2-3)
At this point, part of me reaaaally wanted to drop, but I'm no quitter...Besides, I figured that, win or lose, I spent until 11:00 PM the previous night earning this invite, so I'll do it justice.
Round 6: VS Igor (Palkia/Luxray)
It was in this match that I sorely regret cutting the Mewtwo, and REALLY regretted not playing the Raichu GL. Needless to say, this game was all him - I had a fairly weak Unown G start, no call, versus his T1 Psychic Bind and Downer Material. (2-4)
Round 7: VS ??? (Luxape)
This game, I started with an Uxie active, alongside...No supporters, and no energy...Ouch. Meanwhile, he had a superb opening, and, again, due to my embarrassingly bad hand, it was all him. (2-5)
But, despite these hands and situations, I don't have much to grape about at all, because I had the explosive ending to this season that I wanted; I grinded AGAIN!
I'll put the finishing touches on this report sometime later, but this is pretty much the finalized one.
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