Hey guys!
It's late Sunday night and it's been a long weekend but I am here to give you the updates.
Alright, so we left my school at 11:30 AM to head out for Phili. Funny thing is, in Ashland, we realize we left the convention tickets at home and now have to go 45 min back and get them. YIKES! As things went on, things sucked. The car ride up was miserable. We we're going 30 mph for about 4 hours, and hwne you are trying to travel 400 miles, that hurts. We finally get there around 9 and check into the hotel. We head out for dinner and I nab myself a delicious Phili Cheese Steak.
Next morming I'm semi nervous. I haven't played in a premier constructed for about 10 months, so it's intense. I shuffle all morning long, and the deck never leaves my hand. We head out to the convention which was across the street from the hotel. We register in and get our deck lists going. I'm still not so sure on Vileplume, but I won all my practice matches last night against the Tuskeys so I was pumped. The tourney starts late and the 88 man turn out was rather intimidating for my age group alone! Dorian the event runner sets it up as a 7 rounds for us and cut to top 8, then she changes it to top 16. First round pairings go up, Megan and I wish eachother good luck and head to our tables.
1st Match - Alex and his Tech Deck (D. Hypno, Lanturn, Macargo, Jirachi)
This match was really intense. I start off with a horrible hand. 2 wurmple, 3 BF and 2 Energy! It takes me a little while but I get the plume up and going, and he iis quickly sending out the army of D. Hypno. Turn 4 I have plume ready and I head for the first shot at hypno. He flips head for his confusion and it's pretty much back and forth with me slapping him and him slapping me. I kept retreating and switching my plume to lower prize cards. I have Bellossom healing like crazy but when I need Bellossom active, he ATM Rocks me and I lose 2 Oddish! From here it seems downhill but I get luck on my side. I keep rolling heads with special formula and he keeps rolling tales for waking up. I slowly but surely come back from him having 2 Prize Cards left and me having 6! Sorry about the poor rolling on his part, but that was definetly my best match of the day.
1-0
2nd Match Frank Diaz and Magma Deck
When I saw it was Magma I was grinning ear to ear. He really struggle to keep his Baltoy alive and his Groudons alive. He kept attacking with Claydol but it didn't have the speed or the power. At one point he stalled with Zangoose for about 6 turns. Great match!
2-0
LUNCH BREAK
I meet up with the Tuskeys and we head out for lunch upstairs. We check out the convention and everything is groovey. Megan is 0-2. She fought a Dusclops ex deck against her Slaking and was unlucky the other match. Patrick is 2-0 with his Blastoise deck as most kids in his age group are going with Blaze.
3rd Match - Lori and her Anti-Plume (Dark Muk and Exeggutor)
This was just sad. I had a bad opening hand and an even worse situation. I tried to outspeed her but it was difficult. She stalled with the muk and it hurt to have Block Pollen blocked. Eventualy an Exegutor with at least 8 energy came out and had some fun. I tried my best and even though she doesn't admit it, she could have ended it earlier than she stated. Great Match, it is hard to fight weakness and a deck that goes against mine.
2-1
4th Match - Ludicargo
I was excited to fight this deck. I hadn't fought it yet and it sounded fierce. Early game it seemed lick I had him. I just never expected fo many DRE in a row with that stupid Lanturn! It was harsh and while i kept off his Ludicolo with bellossom, he took that with Macgargo. He too pulled off an ATM Rock and killed offmy oddish. By the end of the game I had two Vileplume, two gloom, and two rare candy in hand, just no oddish. It was a really intense match. Great job!
2-2
THE DECISION
Nintendo had a booth upstairs at the convention. If you were a professor you could demo the card game for 6 packs an hour. I really really sweet deal. Dorian had cut our matched to only 6 rounds. I knew that I would need to be 4-2 to go the top 16. So what I did was I told myself that if I lost the next round I would drop to demo the game, I wanted to walk away with some packs. I had tried plume, it had done well and I was proud of it, now it was time to earn my packs!
5th Round - Blaze
I was excited to play this deck. I always play grass, always have, always will. With this in mind I greatly anticipated this match. I knew Plume could beat him because it was weak to Pyschic. I wanted a little revenge against fire. I start off with a decent hand, which goes downhill. I soon end up with no energy, nake plumes, and am fighting a turn 2 Blaze ex who is beating the crud out of my fire-weak basics. It went downhill from here and I lost.
2-3
I then trudged over to the judges table and dropped myself. I marched over to RainbowRichards who was selling Golden Sea, Silvery Sky packs for $4. I wanted to buy 5 but he only had 3, oh well. I open the first pack and it has Bellossom, Gloom, and Oddish in it ... fate right? I then head upstairs to try and squeeze in two hours of demoing. Then the punks up there tell me three demoers is enough and they don't need me .... great. I head downstairs to play in the booster draft but then realize I don't have the money. I ask Dorian if I can judge and she agrees. I judge two booster drafts and end up getting 8 packs for my earnings and 10 whole Professor Points. I head back to the hotel, watch Teen Titans, The Batman, and Justice League of America. I take a cold shower, eat some food and set work to Vileplume. Here's what it is now
4 Vileplume ex
1 Bellossom
3 Gloom
4 Oddish
4 Dunsparce
2 Horsea
1 Seadra
2 Kingdra
3 Copycat
3 Steven
2 Crystal Shard
2 Wally
4 Rare Candy
2 Switch
1 Scott
1 VS Seeker
2 BF
2 LPS
4 Multi
13 Grass
It was a good weekend, despite the defeat. I was proud of my deck, and overjoyed to find a Vileplume deck got 2nd in 10-. I'll keep playing grass, as long as there is grass. I hope next year I'll see worlds and let everyone see the power of grass pokemon!
Props:
The Tuskeys for the Ride
Dorian for letting me Judge
Plume for beating D. Hypno!
Kid who got second in 10-
Improving Plume
RainbowRichards for the Golden Sea, Silvery Sky Packs
My deck for having all Matrix Grass and halo Multi!
Slops:
Weakly organized tourney, but oeverall fun. Going from 7 to 6 rounds int he middle of a tourney was bad. :frown:
Nintendo for not letting me Demo
