GinoLombardi21
New Member
Pokemon TCG World Championship 2009 by Gino Lombardi
A lot of people asked me how come I didn’t write a Nationals report. I didn’t write a Nationals report because I felt like my FlyTech deck was the best deck in the format and I wanted to keep it secret so it couldn’t spread. I still feel like it is the best deck in the format but i’ve suffered extremely bad luck over the course of Nationals and Worlds. Fellow teammates of team underground who have used my deck have also suffered some bad luck as well. The deck has been tweaked since May of 2009 and has gotten better ever since.
I play tested vs. Palkia Lock, ApeRay, DiaglaPalkia, Gengar Varients, Kingdra, Beedrill, and Flygon variants in preparation of Nationals and Worlds. My results with my FlyTech through play testing was amazing. I had positive matches vs. the metagame and was in bad shape vs. only beedrill which wasn’t to big in Nationals and Worlds. When I was at worlds I realized with my experience with FlyTech and looking at the metagame that FlyTech was the play.
In California I had friends trying to grind into the LCQ so I gave them the decklist and explained the deck. They tweaked it and made their own twists to it which is easy to do because Flygon is a pokemon that allows a lot of options. After the LCQ was over I was extremely happy because two of the two players that played FlyTech grinded into worlds! The deck was a success and I felt like me or someone at worlds who played it would win. I would post a decklist but next year it still might have a shot and I wouldn’t want to ruin the chances of my friends who might still play it.
At worlds I received a game loss for having unintentional marked sleeves. The sleeves that I used during worlds were the ones that pokemon gave me in the worlds competitor package when you sign in to confirm that you are playing. This penalty cost me any hope of becoming a world champion and should have easily been avoided. I could sit here and blame the judges, the sleeves, the pokemon staff, or the ruling but I don’t want to leave pokemon with a negative attitude. This was my final year playing and I wanted to leave on a clean slate.
I’ve made a lot of friends through pokemon and don’t regret ever playing. I’ve won pre-releases, battle roads, city championships, state championships, a regional championships, a national championship, but never a world championship. I’ve been playing since 2005 and every tournament i’ve ever played in believe me when I say I cherish. Win or Lose I strive to have fun in every match I play. I want to be the best and to be the best you have to win, thats what drives me.
Round 1 vs. Flygon Deckout
I have no experience vs. this deck and Im really nervous because its round one. I play- test the matchup in my head while we are playing to scramble for the right options and avoid any sort of misplay. He gets out a flygon lv.x and knockouts my active around turn four. This is the biggest play of the game. He discards a flygon from Rising Rivals early with wind erosion and I have an amazing play that he doesn’t see coming.
I use gather sand with trapinch and attach an upper energy and burn double poke drawer looking for rare candy and flygon rr. Now I play two flygon rr and one flygon sw. I look inside my deck and a flygon RR is prized and he just discarded one. If it wasn’t prized the game was a wrap right then and there. I was forced to grab rare candy and flygon sw to make a comeback.
I thought of using azelf to look at my prizes to swing the game right then and there but in my head I saw me losing if I did it because he would drag it out and continuously make it so I couldn’t retreat until I decked. Not to mention my unown g was on my claydol. Later in the game I brought it down to one - one prizes and I had about 5 cards in my deck and energy typhooned his vibrava for my last prize. I should have lost this game because of my prizes but I made probably one of my greatest comebacks ever.
1-0
Round 2 vs. Flygon Deckout
Soon as I saw him flip a sw trapinch I knew this would be another hard game. So I got focused really quick. I made an amazing move early in the game of gather sand + energy attachment + rare candy + flygon rr + plus power to do 100 to his flygon lv.x which already had 40 on it. This game I honestly feel I should have won but I got unfocused during mid game and ending up making ridiculous misplays such as playing a machamp just to knock out a mewtwo he sent active to stall and getting a nidoqueen out early to attack with.
I’ve done so much mirror match testing that I forgot the number one rule. Swarm of more flygons will win the game. The strategy is similar to Plox mirror matches last season. Whoever kept the psychic lock in longer and swarmed with gardevoirs won. I didn’t do it with flygons and it allowed him to comeback and deck me out. It showed great perseverance on his part though.
1-1
Round 3 vs. Palkia
He opens with palkia while I open with my pachirisu. He kept the mespirit lock for the first few turns but it didn’t do anything because I had double poke drawer which made him keep his energy gains in his hand. Pachirisu and Machamp force palkia into almost a game loss because they cant play unown g and cant play energy gain. Not to mention my flygon lv.x forces them not to level up. My options where to much for his setup to overcome but he tried to put up a fight which I gave him a lot of respect for after the match.
2-1
Round 4 vs. Flygon Deckout *GAME LOSS*
I’ve known Khane Le for almost a year now and we’ve become friends through pokemon. We talked before the match and started to setup. I shuffled my deck and handed it to him to cut or shuffle. He grabs my deck and immediately raises his hand and calls a judge over. He asks the judge if my sleeves are marked. The judge examines my sleeves and says he needs the deck and he will go look them over with some judges.
The judges come back with my deck and say the deck is unintentionally marked because 10 out of 60 of my sleeves are marked. They believe this was caused unintentional by the sleeves because the only way to make a deck of 60 with the sleeves is to buy two packs of 50 and mix them together. I got these sleeves in my pokemon worlds competitor package which I explained to the judges.
The judges explained that they were being kind by not giving me a disqualification because it was unintentional I would receive a game loss rather than a disqualification. They claimed that poke drawers, and rare candy’s were in these 10 marked sleeves. I was very upset at this point because I didn’t do anything wrong so I decided to blame the judges for claiming I had drawers and candies in the marked sleeves because they did a deck check in another area were I couldn’t see if they changed anything. I was very upset and didn’t mean to accuse the judges of such a thing so I appoligized to the judges after I cooled off.
I tried to plead my case of how pokemon gave me the sleeves and your giving me a game loss with the sleeves. I pleaded on how the round hasn’t started yet so if there was anything wrong I would change them. I pleaded that the unintentional penalty didn’t fit the crime that wasn’t committed. Everything I said they weren’t hearing so I decided to grab my stuff and just walk away to cool off.
I cant lie I wanted to flip a table but that sets a bad example of sportsmanship so I kept my cool in the best way that I could. I didn’t want to set a bad example towards any of the younger players because I know if I would have done something stupid it would be followed in future tournaments. Over the years playing pokemon the junior and senior division looks up to the Masters Division as role models for themselves on how they should act in a tournament and outside pokemon events.
This loss was a very tough one to swallow but I sucked it up and moved on. It was definitely the worse loss i’ve ever taken in my history of playing pokemon and It may have been the right penalty but the penalty shouldn’t have been a game loss for being unintentional.
2-2
Round 5 vs. Palkia
I open with chatot to his shaky start. His start was mainly shaky because I got a T3 machamp with backup. Not to mention he had unown g prized and couldn’t draw a cyrus. He eventually got out mismaguis and knocked out my machamp. I responded with the colorless flygon with three evolutions on the bench and a plus power and knock him out. He scoops after that.
3-2
Round 6 vs. Flygon Deckout
I open with nidoran, psychic, fighting, fighting, rare candy, rare candy, rare candy. I always hear about people opening with hands like this but it never has happend to me. He goes first and uses call energy with a trapinch start. I draw a bebes search! I say thank got it wasn’t looking good for me. I grabbed Nidoqueen and rare candied and did 40. He responds with rare candy + flygon + claydol and nidoran, palkia, and another trapinch benched. He attaches to flygon and does 40 which turns into 20.
I draw top deck nothing and attach and do 40. He responds and hits me for 80 and is 20 shy. I draw and get a trapinch so I bench it and attach an energy and knock out his flygon for 40. He brings up palkia and drags up trapinch and kills it. Im still dead drawing and its about turn nine. After playing the game, if I could replay this game I would have grabbed a chatot with bebes turn one and drew 5 but i’ll never know. Instead I lost my first ever draw pass game in history. When I took this lost I took it hard because I shouldn’t have gotten a game loss, nor dead draw for eight turns straight.
I was a good sport about it though. I shook his hand and told him I know you feel bad because you beat someone like that but thats a part of the game. I wished him luck in the next round and he ended up making top 8 eventually. Good job!
3-3
Round 7 vs. FlyTech
Im facing my friend who’s also using my deck and neither of us want to play each other. One of us is going to be 4-3 and are resistance isn’t good. Two people are going to make top 32 with a 4-3 record. We know neither of us will make it and whoever wins out of this game won’t prove anything. He doesn’t want to play so he conceded. He was really hungry so we went to get something to eat after that.
4-3
I wish I could have done better at this world championships because this was my final year in masters. The only way I would have played next year was if I got top 4 again. Naturally Im upset on how I lost but I can’t hold a grudge. I know a lot of people feel I didn’t deserve a game loss because of the sleeves in round four but Im going to move on with my life and remember the good times rather then the bad.
I’ve always strived to be the best pokemon player I could be since I was 15 years old. Im 19 years old now and Im going to humbly say i’ve accomplished that. The only thing missing on my resume is a world championship. Maybe i’ll come back one day and fight for that goal but for now I have to respectfully step down from playing the pokemon trading card game.
Yours truly,
Gino Lombardi
A lot of people asked me how come I didn’t write a Nationals report. I didn’t write a Nationals report because I felt like my FlyTech deck was the best deck in the format and I wanted to keep it secret so it couldn’t spread. I still feel like it is the best deck in the format but i’ve suffered extremely bad luck over the course of Nationals and Worlds. Fellow teammates of team underground who have used my deck have also suffered some bad luck as well. The deck has been tweaked since May of 2009 and has gotten better ever since.
I play tested vs. Palkia Lock, ApeRay, DiaglaPalkia, Gengar Varients, Kingdra, Beedrill, and Flygon variants in preparation of Nationals and Worlds. My results with my FlyTech through play testing was amazing. I had positive matches vs. the metagame and was in bad shape vs. only beedrill which wasn’t to big in Nationals and Worlds. When I was at worlds I realized with my experience with FlyTech and looking at the metagame that FlyTech was the play.
In California I had friends trying to grind into the LCQ so I gave them the decklist and explained the deck. They tweaked it and made their own twists to it which is easy to do because Flygon is a pokemon that allows a lot of options. After the LCQ was over I was extremely happy because two of the two players that played FlyTech grinded into worlds! The deck was a success and I felt like me or someone at worlds who played it would win. I would post a decklist but next year it still might have a shot and I wouldn’t want to ruin the chances of my friends who might still play it.
At worlds I received a game loss for having unintentional marked sleeves. The sleeves that I used during worlds were the ones that pokemon gave me in the worlds competitor package when you sign in to confirm that you are playing. This penalty cost me any hope of becoming a world champion and should have easily been avoided. I could sit here and blame the judges, the sleeves, the pokemon staff, or the ruling but I don’t want to leave pokemon with a negative attitude. This was my final year playing and I wanted to leave on a clean slate.
I’ve made a lot of friends through pokemon and don’t regret ever playing. I’ve won pre-releases, battle roads, city championships, state championships, a regional championships, a national championship, but never a world championship. I’ve been playing since 2005 and every tournament i’ve ever played in believe me when I say I cherish. Win or Lose I strive to have fun in every match I play. I want to be the best and to be the best you have to win, thats what drives me.
Round 1 vs. Flygon Deckout
I have no experience vs. this deck and Im really nervous because its round one. I play- test the matchup in my head while we are playing to scramble for the right options and avoid any sort of misplay. He gets out a flygon lv.x and knockouts my active around turn four. This is the biggest play of the game. He discards a flygon from Rising Rivals early with wind erosion and I have an amazing play that he doesn’t see coming.
I use gather sand with trapinch and attach an upper energy and burn double poke drawer looking for rare candy and flygon rr. Now I play two flygon rr and one flygon sw. I look inside my deck and a flygon RR is prized and he just discarded one. If it wasn’t prized the game was a wrap right then and there. I was forced to grab rare candy and flygon sw to make a comeback.
I thought of using azelf to look at my prizes to swing the game right then and there but in my head I saw me losing if I did it because he would drag it out and continuously make it so I couldn’t retreat until I decked. Not to mention my unown g was on my claydol. Later in the game I brought it down to one - one prizes and I had about 5 cards in my deck and energy typhooned his vibrava for my last prize. I should have lost this game because of my prizes but I made probably one of my greatest comebacks ever.
1-0
Round 2 vs. Flygon Deckout
Soon as I saw him flip a sw trapinch I knew this would be another hard game. So I got focused really quick. I made an amazing move early in the game of gather sand + energy attachment + rare candy + flygon rr + plus power to do 100 to his flygon lv.x which already had 40 on it. This game I honestly feel I should have won but I got unfocused during mid game and ending up making ridiculous misplays such as playing a machamp just to knock out a mewtwo he sent active to stall and getting a nidoqueen out early to attack with.
I’ve done so much mirror match testing that I forgot the number one rule. Swarm of more flygons will win the game. The strategy is similar to Plox mirror matches last season. Whoever kept the psychic lock in longer and swarmed with gardevoirs won. I didn’t do it with flygons and it allowed him to comeback and deck me out. It showed great perseverance on his part though.
1-1
Round 3 vs. Palkia
He opens with palkia while I open with my pachirisu. He kept the mespirit lock for the first few turns but it didn’t do anything because I had double poke drawer which made him keep his energy gains in his hand. Pachirisu and Machamp force palkia into almost a game loss because they cant play unown g and cant play energy gain. Not to mention my flygon lv.x forces them not to level up. My options where to much for his setup to overcome but he tried to put up a fight which I gave him a lot of respect for after the match.
2-1
Round 4 vs. Flygon Deckout *GAME LOSS*
I’ve known Khane Le for almost a year now and we’ve become friends through pokemon. We talked before the match and started to setup. I shuffled my deck and handed it to him to cut or shuffle. He grabs my deck and immediately raises his hand and calls a judge over. He asks the judge if my sleeves are marked. The judge examines my sleeves and says he needs the deck and he will go look them over with some judges.
The judges come back with my deck and say the deck is unintentionally marked because 10 out of 60 of my sleeves are marked. They believe this was caused unintentional by the sleeves because the only way to make a deck of 60 with the sleeves is to buy two packs of 50 and mix them together. I got these sleeves in my pokemon worlds competitor package which I explained to the judges.
The judges explained that they were being kind by not giving me a disqualification because it was unintentional I would receive a game loss rather than a disqualification. They claimed that poke drawers, and rare candy’s were in these 10 marked sleeves. I was very upset at this point because I didn’t do anything wrong so I decided to blame the judges for claiming I had drawers and candies in the marked sleeves because they did a deck check in another area were I couldn’t see if they changed anything. I was very upset and didn’t mean to accuse the judges of such a thing so I appoligized to the judges after I cooled off.
I tried to plead my case of how pokemon gave me the sleeves and your giving me a game loss with the sleeves. I pleaded on how the round hasn’t started yet so if there was anything wrong I would change them. I pleaded that the unintentional penalty didn’t fit the crime that wasn’t committed. Everything I said they weren’t hearing so I decided to grab my stuff and just walk away to cool off.
I cant lie I wanted to flip a table but that sets a bad example of sportsmanship so I kept my cool in the best way that I could. I didn’t want to set a bad example towards any of the younger players because I know if I would have done something stupid it would be followed in future tournaments. Over the years playing pokemon the junior and senior division looks up to the Masters Division as role models for themselves on how they should act in a tournament and outside pokemon events.
This loss was a very tough one to swallow but I sucked it up and moved on. It was definitely the worse loss i’ve ever taken in my history of playing pokemon and It may have been the right penalty but the penalty shouldn’t have been a game loss for being unintentional.
2-2
Round 5 vs. Palkia
I open with chatot to his shaky start. His start was mainly shaky because I got a T3 machamp with backup. Not to mention he had unown g prized and couldn’t draw a cyrus. He eventually got out mismaguis and knocked out my machamp. I responded with the colorless flygon with three evolutions on the bench and a plus power and knock him out. He scoops after that.
3-2
Round 6 vs. Flygon Deckout
I open with nidoran, psychic, fighting, fighting, rare candy, rare candy, rare candy. I always hear about people opening with hands like this but it never has happend to me. He goes first and uses call energy with a trapinch start. I draw a bebes search! I say thank got it wasn’t looking good for me. I grabbed Nidoqueen and rare candied and did 40. He responds with rare candy + flygon + claydol and nidoran, palkia, and another trapinch benched. He attaches to flygon and does 40 which turns into 20.
I draw top deck nothing and attach and do 40. He responds and hits me for 80 and is 20 shy. I draw and get a trapinch so I bench it and attach an energy and knock out his flygon for 40. He brings up palkia and drags up trapinch and kills it. Im still dead drawing and its about turn nine. After playing the game, if I could replay this game I would have grabbed a chatot with bebes turn one and drew 5 but i’ll never know. Instead I lost my first ever draw pass game in history. When I took this lost I took it hard because I shouldn’t have gotten a game loss, nor dead draw for eight turns straight.
I was a good sport about it though. I shook his hand and told him I know you feel bad because you beat someone like that but thats a part of the game. I wished him luck in the next round and he ended up making top 8 eventually. Good job!
3-3
Round 7 vs. FlyTech
Im facing my friend who’s also using my deck and neither of us want to play each other. One of us is going to be 4-3 and are resistance isn’t good. Two people are going to make top 32 with a 4-3 record. We know neither of us will make it and whoever wins out of this game won’t prove anything. He doesn’t want to play so he conceded. He was really hungry so we went to get something to eat after that.
4-3
I wish I could have done better at this world championships because this was my final year in masters. The only way I would have played next year was if I got top 4 again. Naturally Im upset on how I lost but I can’t hold a grudge. I know a lot of people feel I didn’t deserve a game loss because of the sleeves in round four but Im going to move on with my life and remember the good times rather then the bad.
I’ve always strived to be the best pokemon player I could be since I was 15 years old. Im 19 years old now and Im going to humbly say i’ve accomplished that. The only thing missing on my resume is a world championship. Maybe i’ll come back one day and fight for that goal but for now I have to respectfully step down from playing the pokemon trading card game.
Yours truly,
Gino Lombardi
