Hi everyone!
I'm a Swedish Pokémon TCG player, and I've been using the gym a lot these past years, without contributing much. This weekend I was attending the Swedish nationals, held in Karlstad, the 18th biggest town near the west coast of Sweden. I haven't seen any Swedish reports here, so I thought that I could finally contribute with something that you guys might find interesting if you're curious about what the game looks like here, Hope you'll enjoy my report!
About the image links in the text: I originally posted this article on another forum, where I was allowed to embed the pictures, but since I couldn't here I just left them as links. Most are just links to the tower for pictures of cards though.
----------------------------------------------
Pokémon Swedish National Championships 2011 Tournament Report
Let's start with describing the venue. Previous years, the championships have always been held in Stockholm, but this year Jens (the Scandinavian Pokémon baws) wanted to encourage the great player base in Karlstad so he shrewdly placed it within another event, the comic strip festival Karlstad Comicon. This way, nationals would get publicity and no hiring fees had to be paid. Comicon was arranged in a hockey arena, with paper covering the ice. Since the arena is so open sounds and announcements from the festival spread all over the place, making it quite noisy in there. I personally preferred Stockholm, mostly of this reason. However, the Comicon organizers should have lots of kudos for letting us TCG players in for free!
A picture of the arena. Imagine that those red hockey players are Pokémon players.
Another reason for me disliking Karlstad is the horrible connections between Malmö-Karlstad. The trip takes about 7 hrs by train (including waiting times for train changes), so I had to leave the day before nationals to be able to make it in time. I slept in the Comicon sleeping venue with low powerlevel cosplayers, on the floor with only a sleeping bag... with the intruder alarm ringing periodically all night... resulting in me getting no sleep AT ALL. I felt fine the following day though (slept earlier on the train), so I can't blame any losses on sleep deficiency, but still I obviously could have felt better. Fortunately I had my girlfriend keeping me company also. The following night I realized that my body and mind and sanity wouldn't stand one more night like that, so I coughed up 600SEK to sleep at a hotel.
Okay, now let's begin the interesting part! For the tournament, I played a rogue deck I've made myself, and been playing consistently with all season, going 4th and 3rd at 2 different regionals. With "made myself" I don't mean unique - I know that similar decks are played - I mean that I didn't use any article as a reference for building it. It's a slow deck, which isn't the best with SP in the format, but I know that if I just get time to setup, I can win. Of course I'm not claiming it to be generally better than, say LuxChomp, but it's my own creation and so it has a lot of emotional value :v
Umbreon/Scizor LOCK:
Pokemon
4 x Sableye - SF-48
2 x Scyther - PL-130
2 x Scizor - UD-84
2 x Eevee - MD-62
2 x Umbreon - UD-10
1 x Unown Q - MD-49
2 x Uxie - LA-43
1 x Uxie LV.X - LA-146
2 x Mesprit - LA-34
Trainer/Supporter/Stadium
1 x Luxury Ball - SF-86
1 x Pokemon Communication - HS-98
2 x Expert Belt - AR-87
1 x Warp Point - MD-88
1 x Super Scoop Up - UL-83
3 x Junk Arm - TM-87
3 x VS Seeker - SV-140
2 x Poke Healer + - SF-90
3 x Pokemon Collector - HS-97
2 x Bebe's Search - RR-89
1 x Black Belt - TM-85
2 x Twins - TM-89
3 x Seeker - TM-88
1 x Palmer's Contribution - SV-139
1 x Judge - UL-78
1 x Cyrus's Initiative - SV-137
2 x Conductive Quarry - SF-82
Energy
4 x Darkness Energy - Special - CL-86
4 x Metal Energy - Special - CL-87
1 x Rainbow Energy - Special - HS-104
3 x Metal Energy - Basic
The deck initially behaves like Sablock, ideally impersonating for Initiative/Judge to cripple, and then using either Umbreon or Scizor as the main attacker depending on what Pokémon my opponent uses, locking either powers/bodies or special energies respectively. However, usually opponents can work around both, but it takes some time, letting me load a Scizor with energies making him an imba-TANK cutting with his metal scissors for ~130 damage a turn for the game.
2 Mesprit + 3 Seekers + 3 VS Seekers + 3 Junk Arms + 1 Super Scoop Up gives me a THEORETICAL 12 rounds of power lock, further slowing my opponent down. Of course the trainers are used for other purposes as well, so the lock usually ends up lasting around 5-10 rounds depending on matchup and hand. Still that's a lot, and without it the deck would be crap. I really love Mesprit!
So, since SP decks abuse powers/special energies, I thought I had a fair marchup against them, and I expected a lot of SP decks to show up. Rogue decks also often rely on some poké-power combo, so I felt pretty safe there. Machamp is unfavourable, but thanks to Uxie X + Black Belt I have a chance (during the 2nd regionals I beat lot of Machamp decks). I was mostly worried of Gyarados, since my deck lack counter to that atrocious monster.
We were 17 players in masters, making it 5 rounds, 4 persons in top cut.
---------------------------------------------------------
Round 1: Martin Isdal (Magnezone/Raichu/Blissey)
I started lone Sableye against his Magnemite and Chansey benched. Had a Special Darkness Energy in hand, but resisted the temptation of KOing Magnemite, instead Impersonating for Initiative. Turned out to be a good choice since I got to remove Bebe's from his hand, leaving him with unnecessary cards and no way to fetch Uxie/Magnezone. He attacks a bit with Chansey, evolves to Blissey, and then gets a Spiritomb to setup a Magnezone prime. During that time I had tanked a Scizor prime and had taken 2 prizes with it. However, Spiritomb is a pain since it prevents the VS Seeker + Seeker combo for re-using Mesprit, so he is relieved of the lock. He uses Magnezone prime to draw and Gyro Ball Magnezone to keep switching in Spiritombs. On the upside, that's tasty fodder for Scizor so I draw 2 more prizes. When he finally KOs my Scizor, I promote Umbreon w/ 2 special dark & belt, and Moonlight Fang for 70. He has no answer to that and loses the game.
Highlight of the game: He surprisingly used Raichu Lv.X (lets you attack 2 times!) and drew 2 prizes!
WIN - 1-0
Round 2: Karl Persson (Sablock w/ Blaziken FB)
I start lone Sableye against his Sableye and 2 benched. He won the coin flip. He... drops a Crobat G! And... attaches a special energy! And... Overconfidonks me! ;___;
This guy went on to go 2nd place. Gratz!
Highlight of the game: None.
LOSS - 1-1
3rd round: Martin Johansson (Tyrogue DONK xD)
Hahahaha, this was such a funny deck! It contained 2 Tyrogue, some Crobats, and the rest was Trainers. He told me that he just started playing, got the deck from a friend with the exhortation: "Win nationals." Well, he didn't succeed with his Tyrogue donk, I Seeker his only benched and 1HKO Tyrogue with Umbreon. Haha, it baffles me that his strange deck actually had won a match!
Highlight of the game: He stalled a turn with Tyrogues baby power.
WIN - 2-1
4th round: Niklas Bengtsson (Tangrowth/Scizor)
I got downpaired this round, against a guy who also was relatively new to the game, but his deck was okay. It used Cherrim to boost Scizors damage, making him invincible with Accelerate. However, it was incredibly slow, at least in our game. My power locking didn't affect him since he didn't use any (I didn't know about Scizor's attack, buffing Scizor if no Pokémon with powers are in play.), but even so he just sat with a Tangela ingraining while my metal Scizor was getting pumped. He got a Tangrowth Lv.X, but my Scizor just cut through everything. When he got some Scizors out, I started to power Umbreon, and he scoops since he didn't have a counter. He was very friendly, and I’m looking forward to a rematch next year!
Highlight of the game: Sorry, I forgot most of this match!
WIN - 3-1
5th round: Henrik Reimer (LuxChomp)
In this game, I really was reminded of my deck's weak spot - speed. I started lone Scyther, against some different Pokémon of his. He does some damage on his turn. I Collector for Sableye, Mesprit and Uxie, retreat Scyther to Sableye and Impersonate for Initiative, getting double tails. I try to keep setting up while locking, but sadly, next turn or so, when I got a hand full of good stuff from Impersonating and drawing, he played Looker's on me. He also sprays my Mesprit, playing Uxie and stuff and getting Luxray X, Garchomp X, and whatnot on the field. My hand isn't bad since I had Twins, and Uxie X out, but my Scythers were sniped 2 times before getting to evolve. With no Scythers left I attacked with Umbreon, but it was like tickling his Pokémon, since he could retreat/pokéturn. He took prizes by sniping behind Umbreon. When time was called I was down 5-2 in prizes. I think I used Twins 4 times in total in this game, to no helping!
I wish that I could blame this loss on something stupid, but I can't. Probably I could have played differently and better in general. Indeed, my LuxChomp experience is severely lacking since noone at league plays it, and when I force/bribe friends to playtest it against me they don't know how to play it. Gotta start lurking on Apprentice lol. Well, this means I just treated it like any rogue-matchup! What made matters even worse was that my opponent played very slowly. His turns took long and whenever I used a power I had to take a pause for 15 seconds waiting for him to look through his discard, counting my cards and thinking before deciding whether to power spray or not. None of my other games went into time. I don't blame him though; he didn't make any misplays so his thinking was not for stalling. He was a nice guy too. Next time I'll just play a faster deck. Never wanted BTS as much as in this game!
Highlight of the game: Him Portraiting with Smeargle two times, both times revealing only Twins in my hand
LOSS - 3-2
FINAL PLACE: 6th
The persons to top cut were:
1. Hampus E. (Gyarados w/ Mew prime)
2. Karl P. (Sablock w/ Blaziken FB, see round 2)
3. Henrik R. (Luxchomp, see round 5)
4. Albert S. (A super cool Seviper/Skuntank G deck)
The final standings were as listed above. Hampus won his 3rd nationals in a row after an exciting final where he got donked match 1. Hope he does well at worlds, go Sweden!
Last nationals I went 8th, so well, I'm not unhappy with the result. If the curve's linear I'll top cut next year, in a healthier format! My B&W collection got some nice additions thanks to all the prize boosters from the main tournament and the sealed deck tournament, and some extras from Jens just being super generous! He's such a nice guy! I also traded for cards, got my medal from Regionals, a beach ball and 2 playmats (giving me a total of 3) which are up to trade, that's awesome!
I wrote this whole report on my cell phone on the train home, and now there's only 30 minutes left of the trip! Next level time killing maneuver! Thanks a lot for reading, feel free to comment whtever you wish. Over and out!
I'm a Swedish Pokémon TCG player, and I've been using the gym a lot these past years, without contributing much. This weekend I was attending the Swedish nationals, held in Karlstad, the 18th biggest town near the west coast of Sweden. I haven't seen any Swedish reports here, so I thought that I could finally contribute with something that you guys might find interesting if you're curious about what the game looks like here, Hope you'll enjoy my report!
About the image links in the text: I originally posted this article on another forum, where I was allowed to embed the pictures, but since I couldn't here I just left them as links. Most are just links to the tower for pictures of cards though.
----------------------------------------------
Pokémon Swedish National Championships 2011 Tournament Report
Let's start with describing the venue. Previous years, the championships have always been held in Stockholm, but this year Jens (the Scandinavian Pokémon baws) wanted to encourage the great player base in Karlstad so he shrewdly placed it within another event, the comic strip festival Karlstad Comicon. This way, nationals would get publicity and no hiring fees had to be paid. Comicon was arranged in a hockey arena, with paper covering the ice. Since the arena is so open sounds and announcements from the festival spread all over the place, making it quite noisy in there. I personally preferred Stockholm, mostly of this reason. However, the Comicon organizers should have lots of kudos for letting us TCG players in for free!
A picture of the arena. Imagine that those red hockey players are Pokémon players.
Another reason for me disliking Karlstad is the horrible connections between Malmö-Karlstad. The trip takes about 7 hrs by train (including waiting times for train changes), so I had to leave the day before nationals to be able to make it in time. I slept in the Comicon sleeping venue with low powerlevel cosplayers, on the floor with only a sleeping bag... with the intruder alarm ringing periodically all night... resulting in me getting no sleep AT ALL. I felt fine the following day though (slept earlier on the train), so I can't blame any losses on sleep deficiency, but still I obviously could have felt better. Fortunately I had my girlfriend keeping me company also. The following night I realized that my body and mind and sanity wouldn't stand one more night like that, so I coughed up 600SEK to sleep at a hotel.
Okay, now let's begin the interesting part! For the tournament, I played a rogue deck I've made myself, and been playing consistently with all season, going 4th and 3rd at 2 different regionals. With "made myself" I don't mean unique - I know that similar decks are played - I mean that I didn't use any article as a reference for building it. It's a slow deck, which isn't the best with SP in the format, but I know that if I just get time to setup, I can win. Of course I'm not claiming it to be generally better than, say LuxChomp, but it's my own creation and so it has a lot of emotional value :v
Umbreon/Scizor LOCK:
Pokemon
4 x Sableye - SF-48
2 x Scyther - PL-130
2 x Scizor - UD-84
2 x Eevee - MD-62
2 x Umbreon - UD-10
1 x Unown Q - MD-49
2 x Uxie - LA-43
1 x Uxie LV.X - LA-146
2 x Mesprit - LA-34
Trainer/Supporter/Stadium
1 x Luxury Ball - SF-86
1 x Pokemon Communication - HS-98
2 x Expert Belt - AR-87
1 x Warp Point - MD-88
1 x Super Scoop Up - UL-83
3 x Junk Arm - TM-87
3 x VS Seeker - SV-140
2 x Poke Healer + - SF-90
3 x Pokemon Collector - HS-97
2 x Bebe's Search - RR-89
1 x Black Belt - TM-85
2 x Twins - TM-89
3 x Seeker - TM-88
1 x Palmer's Contribution - SV-139
1 x Judge - UL-78
1 x Cyrus's Initiative - SV-137
2 x Conductive Quarry - SF-82
Energy
4 x Darkness Energy - Special - CL-86
4 x Metal Energy - Special - CL-87
1 x Rainbow Energy - Special - HS-104
3 x Metal Energy - Basic
The deck initially behaves like Sablock, ideally impersonating for Initiative/Judge to cripple, and then using either Umbreon or Scizor as the main attacker depending on what Pokémon my opponent uses, locking either powers/bodies or special energies respectively. However, usually opponents can work around both, but it takes some time, letting me load a Scizor with energies making him an imba-TANK cutting with his metal scissors for ~130 damage a turn for the game.
2 Mesprit + 3 Seekers + 3 VS Seekers + 3 Junk Arms + 1 Super Scoop Up gives me a THEORETICAL 12 rounds of power lock, further slowing my opponent down. Of course the trainers are used for other purposes as well, so the lock usually ends up lasting around 5-10 rounds depending on matchup and hand. Still that's a lot, and without it the deck would be crap. I really love Mesprit!
So, since SP decks abuse powers/special energies, I thought I had a fair marchup against them, and I expected a lot of SP decks to show up. Rogue decks also often rely on some poké-power combo, so I felt pretty safe there. Machamp is unfavourable, but thanks to Uxie X + Black Belt I have a chance (during the 2nd regionals I beat lot of Machamp decks). I was mostly worried of Gyarados, since my deck lack counter to that atrocious monster.
We were 17 players in masters, making it 5 rounds, 4 persons in top cut.
---------------------------------------------------------
Round 1: Martin Isdal (Magnezone/Raichu/Blissey)
I started lone Sableye against his Magnemite and Chansey benched. Had a Special Darkness Energy in hand, but resisted the temptation of KOing Magnemite, instead Impersonating for Initiative. Turned out to be a good choice since I got to remove Bebe's from his hand, leaving him with unnecessary cards and no way to fetch Uxie/Magnezone. He attacks a bit with Chansey, evolves to Blissey, and then gets a Spiritomb to setup a Magnezone prime. During that time I had tanked a Scizor prime and had taken 2 prizes with it. However, Spiritomb is a pain since it prevents the VS Seeker + Seeker combo for re-using Mesprit, so he is relieved of the lock. He uses Magnezone prime to draw and Gyro Ball Magnezone to keep switching in Spiritombs. On the upside, that's tasty fodder for Scizor so I draw 2 more prizes. When he finally KOs my Scizor, I promote Umbreon w/ 2 special dark & belt, and Moonlight Fang for 70. He has no answer to that and loses the game.
Highlight of the game: He surprisingly used Raichu Lv.X (lets you attack 2 times!) and drew 2 prizes!
WIN - 1-0
Round 2: Karl Persson (Sablock w/ Blaziken FB)
I start lone Sableye against his Sableye and 2 benched. He won the coin flip. He... drops a Crobat G! And... attaches a special energy! And... Overconfidonks me! ;___;
This guy went on to go 2nd place. Gratz!
Highlight of the game: None.
LOSS - 1-1
3rd round: Martin Johansson (Tyrogue DONK xD)
Hahahaha, this was such a funny deck! It contained 2 Tyrogue, some Crobats, and the rest was Trainers. He told me that he just started playing, got the deck from a friend with the exhortation: "Win nationals." Well, he didn't succeed with his Tyrogue donk, I Seeker his only benched and 1HKO Tyrogue with Umbreon. Haha, it baffles me that his strange deck actually had won a match!
Highlight of the game: He stalled a turn with Tyrogues baby power.
WIN - 2-1
4th round: Niklas Bengtsson (Tangrowth/Scizor)
I got downpaired this round, against a guy who also was relatively new to the game, but his deck was okay. It used Cherrim to boost Scizors damage, making him invincible with Accelerate. However, it was incredibly slow, at least in our game. My power locking didn't affect him since he didn't use any (I didn't know about Scizor's attack, buffing Scizor if no Pokémon with powers are in play.), but even so he just sat with a Tangela ingraining while my metal Scizor was getting pumped. He got a Tangrowth Lv.X, but my Scizor just cut through everything. When he got some Scizors out, I started to power Umbreon, and he scoops since he didn't have a counter. He was very friendly, and I’m looking forward to a rematch next year!
Highlight of the game: Sorry, I forgot most of this match!
WIN - 3-1
5th round: Henrik Reimer (LuxChomp)
In this game, I really was reminded of my deck's weak spot - speed. I started lone Scyther, against some different Pokémon of his. He does some damage on his turn. I Collector for Sableye, Mesprit and Uxie, retreat Scyther to Sableye and Impersonate for Initiative, getting double tails. I try to keep setting up while locking, but sadly, next turn or so, when I got a hand full of good stuff from Impersonating and drawing, he played Looker's on me. He also sprays my Mesprit, playing Uxie and stuff and getting Luxray X, Garchomp X, and whatnot on the field. My hand isn't bad since I had Twins, and Uxie X out, but my Scythers were sniped 2 times before getting to evolve. With no Scythers left I attacked with Umbreon, but it was like tickling his Pokémon, since he could retreat/pokéturn. He took prizes by sniping behind Umbreon. When time was called I was down 5-2 in prizes. I think I used Twins 4 times in total in this game, to no helping!
I wish that I could blame this loss on something stupid, but I can't. Probably I could have played differently and better in general. Indeed, my LuxChomp experience is severely lacking since noone at league plays it, and when I force/bribe friends to playtest it against me they don't know how to play it. Gotta start lurking on Apprentice lol. Well, this means I just treated it like any rogue-matchup! What made matters even worse was that my opponent played very slowly. His turns took long and whenever I used a power I had to take a pause for 15 seconds waiting for him to look through his discard, counting my cards and thinking before deciding whether to power spray or not. None of my other games went into time. I don't blame him though; he didn't make any misplays so his thinking was not for stalling. He was a nice guy too. Next time I'll just play a faster deck. Never wanted BTS as much as in this game!
Highlight of the game: Him Portraiting with Smeargle two times, both times revealing only Twins in my hand
LOSS - 3-2
FINAL PLACE: 6th
The persons to top cut were:
1. Hampus E. (Gyarados w/ Mew prime)
2. Karl P. (Sablock w/ Blaziken FB, see round 2)
3. Henrik R. (Luxchomp, see round 5)
4. Albert S. (A super cool Seviper/Skuntank G deck)
The final standings were as listed above. Hampus won his 3rd nationals in a row after an exciting final where he got donked match 1. Hope he does well at worlds, go Sweden!
Last nationals I went 8th, so well, I'm not unhappy with the result. If the curve's linear I'll top cut next year, in a healthier format! My B&W collection got some nice additions thanks to all the prize boosters from the main tournament and the sealed deck tournament, and some extras from Jens just being super generous! He's such a nice guy! I also traded for cards, got my medal from Regionals, a beach ball and 2 playmats (giving me a total of 3) which are up to trade, that's awesome!
I wrote this whole report on my cell phone on the train home, and now there's only 30 minutes left of the trip! Next level time killing maneuver! Thanks a lot for reading, feel free to comment whtever you wish. Over and out!
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