As each year we as a Polish players have organised our very own Nationals. As far as I'm concerned next year we MIGHT actually see official nationals but the promises from our distributor are very thin.
I don't want to go into details about why aren't we having official PoP. Still... the tournament was taking place in Katowice just yesterday.
There were 3 players that helped with rulings so you may say we took a role of judges. 2 of which were having an official professor title.
I know you may find it strange for players to be also judges but none of them judged their own case. That's why there are 3 judges (since I had a game vs one of them and I was the other one
).
We had very fair play competition except for one game where a player was on verge of decking out, but he was winning in prizes and was trying to hold on until terminations. He had nothing to do as his active pokemon had no energies and he had only trainer cards in his hand and there was Vileplume in the game. No Poke-Powers/Abilities on his side yet he tried to stall making his turns very slowly. Basically Stalling.
Here are standings for what i think are first nationals with Dark Explorers available for players (without names, but with Decks instead)
We played top8 cut cuz we're small group. We had total of 26 players present becuase changing into HS-on and timing of the tournament were bad this year but then again it's not our fault we're hosting Euro 2012. (Soccer/football cup)
1. Piterr - MewBox (with Weaviles, Terrakions and to see off Jumpluff/Crobat. No junk arms in his deck!)
2. misiek_86 - CMT
3. Kakel - Empholeons + Terrakions
4. arturomod - ZekEels
5. Rexio - TyRam (Including Mewtwo Ex, Cobalion)
6. barti - ZekEels (Including Raikou Ex)
7. Qzin - ZPST (You can find my decklist below)
8. keeshii - Durants
So i guess I'll translate what I wrote on Polish forum for you guys.
Pokemon(11):
3 x Zekrom
3 x Tornadus
1 x Mewtwo Ex
2 x Pachirisu
2 x Shyamin
Supporter(11):
4 x Bianca
4 x PONT
3 x Cilan
Stadium(1):
1 x Skyarrow Bridge
Trainer(24):
4 x Level Ball
3 x PokeGear 3.0
4 x Junk Arm
4 x Pokemon Catcher
3 x Dual Ball
3 x Eviolite
2 x Super Scoop Up
1 x Plus Power
Energy(13):
9 x Lightning Energy
4 x DCE
As you may have noticed there are 6 cards giving me basically 3 Lightning energy cards on my first hand and even MORE cards to search for Pachirisu/Shyamin. I went for "Donk as fast as you can!". That was kind of surprise for Polish players as I am literally known for ALWAYS having Vileplume in my deck. Whatever that may be.
Round 1 vs Jameaz666
The game ended in my first turn. I started with Zekrom, Cilan, Pachirisu and Shyamin in my hand. We finished it in 5 seconds and there were whispers around "He donked with his Oddish?"
1-0
Round 2 vs Matilol (ZekEeels)
I starded with Mewtwo Ex. He opened with active Tynamo and Shyamin on his bench. I attached DCE and took first prize as I started but then he attached Eviolite to Shyamin and used Lost Remover on me. He passed. It took me 2 turns to kill his shyamin, but he had dead hand so it was my victory.
2-0
Round 3 vs Kakel(Empholeon+Terrakion)
It was the first game I lost and I can't really write down everything that happened there. Game was very even. None of us had EVER had a dead hand. We went prize for prize and then it happened. He almost decks out taking my last Zekrom on the field out. How? He goes with catcher, Plus power. Juniper. Junk arm for plus power. Ability of Empholeon. Another ability of Empholeon. He goes down to last 2 cards in his deck. But he finds enough basic pokemons to supply for Commando attack. He hits precisely for amount of HP i had left.
Then I decided to dig for my eviolite as with which I would've survived the attack of Empholeon with my shyamin - the only pokemon left on my field. I dug hard and deep into my deck but unfortunately it was just 3 cards out of my reach.
We shook hands because even with me Catchering his Terrakion he had Switch. However he didn't have a second one and If i succeed with survivng that one turn another Catcher on Terrakion would've made him deck out. Very good game between 2 of our Judges. No misplays no problems with rulings.
2-1
Round 4 vs Lesiu(LaKE)
I actually never belived in Electrode Prime. I've never seen anyone sucessfully getting enough energies out of it. And the prize card cost of using this power is too much in my opinion.
So anyway. I started with Tornadus against his Landorus.
I went first but was unable to do more than 80 dmg. Well I still did that 80 with Pachi/Shyamin acceleration so deck run very smoothly.
He used Pokemon Collector, sets up Kyurem, Landorus and 2 Voltorbs (one Landorus from his hand).
He attached Exp Share to Landorus on his bench and passes.
I decided to kill that one first so I catchered his landorus and hit him again for 80. I didn't want to activate his twins too early. Also I didnt want to kill voltorbs as I knew he'd give me free prize by himself.
So he did. He evolved into Electrode, used it's power and found only 2 prism energies in top 7 cards.
He Glaciated with Kyurem (I think he used switch there). So there was first problem for me. I decided to search for my Mewtwo Ex. I used Dual Ball. Got 2 lucky Heads and Managed to grab Mewtwo Ex and second Shyamin. I atached enough energies to one hit KO his Kyurem.
Next turn he used another Electrode to find only ONE energy card among top 7. The game was over for him at that moment as he didnt have Mewtwo Ex in his decklist.
3-1
Runda 5 vs Reksio(TyRam)
He is my very good friend. Also he was Top8 in Prague last year as you might remember. We went there together. I played better version of what he brought to prague, he played wicked TyRam. Or maybe TyReMC as previously posted. But he couldnt possibly win it.
He won coin flip but he lost the game. I had most epic hand in my life. And i belive in whole history of ZPST.
Cilan, Shyamin, Level Ball, Pachirisu, Pachirisu, Mewtwo Ex, Double Colorless Energy.
My top deck was 4th Lightning energy. He had just one basic pokemon and although he used pokemon Collector he couldn't find his own Mewtwo ex. It was prized. He lost the game few turns later.
(Actually I've played pachirisus but I havn't moved all energies to mewtwo ex as It'd be stupid at that moment he had Cleeffa as active pokemon and it wasn't sleeping)
4-1 (We already knew that everyone with at least 5-2 would get into Top8 so I felt pretty calm)
Round 6 vs Piterrr (MewBox)
I wanted to play against him. He went 5-0 so far, but he had so many squishy Pokemons. He asked if I played CMT as he had seen me playing Tornadus before. I replied : "Something much better"
I still stand by with that opinion. CMT has too many weak spots IMO but I'll dwell on that later.
I started with Mewtwo Ex with Level Ball, Junk arm, Cilan and DCE in my hand. He started with Sneasel. I won a coin flip and it was over as I had Pachirisu and Shyamin in my deck. I did 80 dmg - 20 for resistance and that was enough.
He wrote in his report that he teched Weaviles as he belived that Sneasels would be hard to donk for Mewtwo Ex in CMT. I find it strangely true. Usually it's either Tornadus doing 80 or Mewtwo ex but with resistance It'd do just 40 dmg with DCE and Grass energy. He thought his deck really well. He just didn't consider the other ways to play Mew2.
5-1 and I knew i was in top8
Round7 vs Arturomod(ZekEels)
I can't actually say much about this game as my mind was somewhere else at that time.
I played for fun and when I decided that I've already lost a match (and I knew that) I tried to Scoop Up my only Pokemon in play. Unfortunately coin said : Tails and I'm giving up very rarely so I continued to play only to lose 6-4 in prize cards taken.
5-2
Top8 I played vs Misiek_86 (CMT)
I've won the first match by killing 3 Mewtwo's Ex one by one with Zekroms.
I've almost won the second match, but the turn before what was meant to be in my opinion last turn of the game he used N. I drew only one card and it wasn't catcher i was looking for. I had 2 turns to draw either supporter or Catcher or Junk arm even. I havn't done that (Although majority of cards in my deck WERE actually game winners at that point). He did good job with that and it was pure luck that I didn't get what I needed but again. That's why he had N's in his deck.
Unfortunately 3rd match was something that was bound to happen at some point. It always is. I started with Shyamin with no Dual Balls in my hand. No supporters in my hand except for Bianca. And I tried to use every single card i had in my hand to dig to Dual Ball. I lacked just one more card. I've of course lost it, but then again I've tested at home Junipers vs Biancas and I must say. If you own just one Mewtwo Ex and have no room in your deck for Super Rod or Revive you simply CAN NOT play junipers. Also it's not ZekEels to pick up energies from discard. This was bound to happen sometimes and I am usually very unlucky about getting to top4 so well.
That would usually be the end but we play for places from 5-8 in the same manner as players from 1-4.
I was paired with Rexio again. We played 2 games and I scooped up because both times he had whole bench of Typhlosions so quickly that I was unable to sustain dmg dealt by reshirams. We have pretty even match-up but I was somehow indifferent about what place will I be in the end.
Then I played vs Durants for place number 7.
I kinda trolled the first match simply by drawing a lot of cards but then i lost while i still had 2 prize cards to take.
Next game I had no other thing to do but win. Tornadus vs single Durant. He lost without even drawing a card.
The last one was a little bit longer where he stalled me to the point where i had all my energies on the field without way to move them. DCE and L at Tornadus and LLL at Zekrom.
His active durant had just Eviolite. No special Metal energies.
I knew i had 4 junk arms and 4 pokemon Catchers in my discard pile. But there was no Plus Power there.
I decided it's either win or lose. Because I couldn't possibly kill his durants with 2 attacks as he was able to retreat freely with my Skyarrow. He Crush hammered my L from Zekrom so i couldn't kill him with that either.
I used everything I had in my hand and drew 6 cards from Bianca. The last one was a Plus Power that won a game for me.
In general most of deck at the tournament were ZekEels. There were 2 CMT's, 2 Durants, 1 TyRam, 1 MewBox, 1 TheTruth Ex, 2 decks with 4-4 Donphan prime... and many many more.
If you have any questions here we'll try to answer them.
I don't want to go into details about why aren't we having official PoP. Still... the tournament was taking place in Katowice just yesterday.
There were 3 players that helped with rulings so you may say we took a role of judges. 2 of which were having an official professor title.
I know you may find it strange for players to be also judges but none of them judged their own case. That's why there are 3 judges (since I had a game vs one of them and I was the other one
).We had very fair play competition except for one game where a player was on verge of decking out, but he was winning in prizes and was trying to hold on until terminations. He had nothing to do as his active pokemon had no energies and he had only trainer cards in his hand and there was Vileplume in the game. No Poke-Powers/Abilities on his side yet he tried to stall making his turns very slowly. Basically Stalling.
Here are standings for what i think are first nationals with Dark Explorers available for players (without names, but with Decks instead)
We played top8 cut cuz we're small group. We had total of 26 players present becuase changing into HS-on and timing of the tournament were bad this year but then again it's not our fault we're hosting Euro 2012. (Soccer/football cup)
1. Piterr - MewBox (with Weaviles, Terrakions and to see off Jumpluff/Crobat. No junk arms in his deck!)
2. misiek_86 - CMT
3. Kakel - Empholeons + Terrakions
4. arturomod - ZekEels
5. Rexio - TyRam (Including Mewtwo Ex, Cobalion)
6. barti - ZekEels (Including Raikou Ex)
7. Qzin - ZPST (You can find my decklist below)
8. keeshii - Durants
So i guess I'll translate what I wrote on Polish forum for you guys.
Pokemon(11):
3 x Zekrom
3 x Tornadus
1 x Mewtwo Ex
2 x Pachirisu
2 x Shyamin
Supporter(11):
4 x Bianca
4 x PONT
3 x Cilan
Stadium(1):
1 x Skyarrow Bridge
Trainer(24):
4 x Level Ball
3 x PokeGear 3.0
4 x Junk Arm
4 x Pokemon Catcher
3 x Dual Ball
3 x Eviolite
2 x Super Scoop Up
1 x Plus Power
Energy(13):
9 x Lightning Energy
4 x DCE
As you may have noticed there are 6 cards giving me basically 3 Lightning energy cards on my first hand and even MORE cards to search for Pachirisu/Shyamin. I went for "Donk as fast as you can!". That was kind of surprise for Polish players as I am literally known for ALWAYS having Vileplume in my deck. Whatever that may be.
Round 1 vs Jameaz666
The game ended in my first turn. I started with Zekrom, Cilan, Pachirisu and Shyamin in my hand. We finished it in 5 seconds and there were whispers around "He donked with his Oddish?"
1-0
Round 2 vs Matilol (ZekEeels)
I starded with Mewtwo Ex. He opened with active Tynamo and Shyamin on his bench. I attached DCE and took first prize as I started but then he attached Eviolite to Shyamin and used Lost Remover on me. He passed. It took me 2 turns to kill his shyamin, but he had dead hand so it was my victory.
2-0
Round 3 vs Kakel(Empholeon+Terrakion)
It was the first game I lost and I can't really write down everything that happened there. Game was very even. None of us had EVER had a dead hand. We went prize for prize and then it happened. He almost decks out taking my last Zekrom on the field out. How? He goes with catcher, Plus power. Juniper. Junk arm for plus power. Ability of Empholeon. Another ability of Empholeon. He goes down to last 2 cards in his deck. But he finds enough basic pokemons to supply for Commando attack. He hits precisely for amount of HP i had left.
Then I decided to dig for my eviolite as with which I would've survived the attack of Empholeon with my shyamin - the only pokemon left on my field. I dug hard and deep into my deck but unfortunately it was just 3 cards out of my reach.
We shook hands because even with me Catchering his Terrakion he had Switch. However he didn't have a second one and If i succeed with survivng that one turn another Catcher on Terrakion would've made him deck out. Very good game between 2 of our Judges. No misplays no problems with rulings
.2-1
Round 4 vs Lesiu(LaKE)
I actually never belived in Electrode Prime. I've never seen anyone sucessfully getting enough energies out of it. And the prize card cost of using this power is too much in my opinion.
So anyway. I started with Tornadus against his Landorus.
I went first but was unable to do more than 80 dmg. Well I still did that 80 with Pachi/Shyamin acceleration so deck run very smoothly.
He used Pokemon Collector, sets up Kyurem, Landorus and 2 Voltorbs (one Landorus from his hand).
He attached Exp Share to Landorus on his bench and passes.
I decided to kill that one first so I catchered his landorus and hit him again for 80. I didn't want to activate his twins too early. Also I didnt want to kill voltorbs as I knew he'd give me free prize by himself.
So he did. He evolved into Electrode, used it's power and found only 2 prism energies in top 7 cards.
He Glaciated with Kyurem (I think he used switch there). So there was first problem for me. I decided to search for my Mewtwo Ex. I used Dual Ball. Got 2 lucky Heads and Managed to grab Mewtwo Ex and second Shyamin. I atached enough energies to one hit KO his Kyurem.
Next turn he used another Electrode to find only ONE energy card among top 7. The game was over for him at that moment as he didnt have Mewtwo Ex in his decklist.
3-1
Runda 5 vs Reksio(TyRam)
He is my very good friend. Also he was Top8 in Prague last year as you might remember. We went there together. I played better version of what he brought to prague, he played wicked TyRam. Or maybe TyReMC as previously posted. But he couldnt possibly win it.
He won coin flip but he lost the game. I had most epic hand in my life. And i belive in whole history of ZPST.
Cilan, Shyamin, Level Ball, Pachirisu, Pachirisu, Mewtwo Ex, Double Colorless Energy.
My top deck was 4th Lightning energy. He had just one basic pokemon and although he used pokemon Collector he couldn't find his own Mewtwo ex. It was prized. He lost the game few turns later.
(Actually I've played pachirisus but I havn't moved all energies to mewtwo ex as It'd be stupid at that moment he had Cleeffa as active pokemon and it wasn't sleeping)
4-1 (We already knew that everyone with at least 5-2 would get into Top8 so I felt pretty calm)
Round 6 vs Piterrr (MewBox)
I wanted to play against him. He went 5-0 so far, but he had so many squishy Pokemons. He asked if I played CMT as he had seen me playing Tornadus before. I replied : "Something much better"
I still stand by with that opinion. CMT has too many weak spots IMO but I'll dwell on that later.
I started with Mewtwo Ex with Level Ball, Junk arm, Cilan and DCE in my hand. He started with Sneasel. I won a coin flip and it was over as I had Pachirisu and Shyamin in my deck. I did 80 dmg - 20 for resistance and that was enough.
He wrote in his report that he teched Weaviles as he belived that Sneasels would be hard to donk for Mewtwo Ex in CMT. I find it strangely true. Usually it's either Tornadus doing 80 or Mewtwo ex but with resistance It'd do just 40 dmg with DCE and Grass energy. He thought his deck really well. He just didn't consider the other ways to play Mew2.
5-1 and I knew i was in top8
Round7 vs Arturomod(ZekEels)
I can't actually say much about this game as my mind was somewhere else at that time.
I played for fun and when I decided that I've already lost a match (and I knew that) I tried to Scoop Up my only Pokemon in play. Unfortunately coin said : Tails and I'm giving up very rarely so I continued to play only to lose 6-4 in prize cards taken.
5-2
Top8 I played vs Misiek_86 (CMT)
I've won the first match by killing 3 Mewtwo's Ex one by one with Zekroms.
I've almost won the second match, but the turn before what was meant to be in my opinion last turn of the game he used N. I drew only one card and it wasn't catcher i was looking for. I had 2 turns to draw either supporter or Catcher or Junk arm even. I havn't done that (Although majority of cards in my deck WERE actually game winners at that point). He did good job with that and it was pure luck that I didn't get what I needed but again. That's why he had N's in his deck.
Unfortunately 3rd match was something that was bound to happen at some point. It always is. I started with Shyamin with no Dual Balls in my hand. No supporters in my hand except for Bianca. And I tried to use every single card i had in my hand to dig to Dual Ball. I lacked just one more card. I've of course lost it, but then again I've tested at home Junipers vs Biancas and I must say. If you own just one Mewtwo Ex and have no room in your deck for Super Rod or Revive you simply CAN NOT play junipers. Also it's not ZekEels to pick up energies from discard. This was bound to happen sometimes and I am usually very unlucky about getting to top4 so well
.That would usually be the end but we play for places from 5-8 in the same manner as players from 1-4.
I was paired with Rexio again. We played 2 games and I scooped up because both times he had whole bench of Typhlosions so quickly that I was unable to sustain dmg dealt by reshirams. We have pretty even match-up but I was somehow indifferent about what place will I be in the end.
Then I played vs Durants for place number 7.
I kinda trolled the first match simply by drawing a lot of cards but then i lost while i still had 2 prize cards to take.
Next game I had no other thing to do but win. Tornadus vs single Durant. He lost without even drawing a card.
The last one was a little bit longer where he stalled me to the point where i had all my energies on the field without way to move them. DCE and L at Tornadus and LLL at Zekrom.
His active durant had just Eviolite. No special Metal energies.
I knew i had 4 junk arms and 4 pokemon Catchers in my discard pile. But there was no Plus Power there.
I decided it's either win or lose. Because I couldn't possibly kill his durants with 2 attacks as he was able to retreat freely with my Skyarrow. He Crush hammered my L from Zekrom so i couldn't kill him with that either.
I used everything I had in my hand and drew 6 cards from Bianca. The last one was a Plus Power that won a game for me.
In general most of deck at the tournament were ZekEels. There were 2 CMT's, 2 Durants, 1 TyRam, 1 MewBox, 1 TheTruth Ex, 2 decks with 4-4 Donphan prime... and many many more.
If you have any questions here we'll try to answer them
.