THURSDAY
So I get distracted talking to Fulop until like 11pm Wednesday night when I usually meet my friends at the bar in Evansville at 10. I finally finish packing up and make the drive up there to meet up with Emily, my Pokemon partner in crime for this past season. We get smashed and pass out at her place, then wake up and make the drive over to St. Louis the next morning, getting to the Holiday Inn where a bunch of my friends are staying at around 1 pm.
We have our two choices for Nationals built and we find a few pickup games up in Tavish's hotel room and then later down in the lobby. I run into like a billion people I know and I start getting the Nationals euphoria I always get when I'm around everyone and we're all having a good time.
Added July 9: Oh yeah! There was a cash tourney at B&B, which I totally forgot about somehow. I went 5-0 with Palkia and won 100 bucks. Emily, Chris and Kevin all came with me, and the Maldonados, Branders and some other people were supposed to show up too, but didn't. So there were only like 18 players but it was still fun. It gave me a chance to get more comfortable with Palkia in a tourney setting, as I had only been playing untimed and informal practice games with it up until then. My matchups were Gengar/Nidoqueen/Mewtwo, Gigas, Gardy, Shuppet, Gengar/Rampardos.
After that, we hang out around the hotel and just goof off until late at night, then I get a few hours of sleep before the Professor Cup the next day.
FRIDAY
In the cup, I'm drafting with John Goodman, a pokedad from Louisville. In the 16 packs we open, there are 0 Aerodactyl and 0 draw supporters. I start drafting eeveelutions early but he takes the eevees when they show up, so I go for Keckleon and special energies but he starts taking special energies too. So I basically get screwed out of a decent deck and just end up playing a bunch of random jank that goes 2-4. At least I nabbed the Luxray X and Frost Rotom, and the Professor sleeves were gorgeous, so I'm happy.
I spend the rest of the day catching up with friends from all over the country and play a few league games to stock up on free stuff. I watch the finals of the Professor Cup, trying to root for like three out of four players in the top 4 equally. Vince, Tracy and Andrew are all freaking amazing.
Then Fulop and I head back to the Holiday Inn to get my chess board and some food. We play with the board aligned the wrong way and it throws us both off in the first game but it all ends in lulz, and in the second game he tries to remember some tricky opening he used to use and botches it up. He ends up picking one of his pawns as his favorite and naming it Rudo, Reaper of Souls. I manage to take it, crushing all of his hopes and dreams. More lulz ensue. After salad, we head back up to the hotel to get more board games, and bring them down to the ballroom where some players are playtesting. We get into a very long game of Carcassonne and we keep getting distracted and forgetting to take our turns, or getting called away by other Pokemon players who are fretting over their Nationals decks. Meanwhile Emily and I have already settled comfortably on a list and Fulop is just in town to chill, so it's a very stress free night. After the game, Emily and I get our stuff from Tavish's room and drive out to Zach's house to take apart our other deck that we opted not to use, and build a second copy of the deck we did decide to use.
SATURDAY
We get a couple hours of sleep, then rush back over to the convention center and scramble to borrow a few cards and write out our lists. I'm using my professor sleeves because they're gorgeous. Oh, and my deck is Palkia because he is also gorgeous, in a scary timespace dinosaur kind of way.
Round 1 - Jack Creager w/ Tyranitar
I deny him his Cosmic Powers for several turns but he still manages to set up completely, never missing an energy, evolution, or supporter drop. An unexpected Upper energy kills my Palkia X a turn earlier than I had planned, but I have the Toxicroak response, but he somehow has the double healer response to that without ever using a power. My other croak is in my prizes so it takes me a while to come up with a response to his huge T-tar which just walks right through a bunch of sacrifices before I can finally take it down. He has another one set up though, and it 1-hits my recycled croak for his last prize.
0-1
Round 2 - ? w/ Grass Basics
I KO a Turtwig, a Scyther, and a Scizor 4.
1-1
Round 3 - Someone who looked like MK Choy, but apparently wasn't? w/ Gallade 4
I start with 3 sprays in hand, and a fast Palkia X. He sets up a Claydol and a Gallade but I spray both and he's just short of a KO with Gallade X's attack. After I drop 80 + crobats on its head and set up my pixie lock, he scoops.
2-1
Round 4 - Pokedad w/ Gengar
I get a very aggressive start with a power lock to back it up, and spread from my Pearl Breaths and a couple Crobat drops knock out his Nidoran before it can evolve. He keeps playing Lookers and other supporters trying to get set up but only manages to get out one Gengar which poltergeists my Lv.X for 90, putting me at 10 HP left as I had taken 20 from an Uxie earlier. I figure he will probably Crobat it for a cheap KO the next turn anyway, and I already have another Palkia fully loaded on the bench, so I go ahead and go up against his Fainting Spell flip and he gets heads. No matter, because that puts me at 2 prizes left to his 4 or 5. My second Palkia snipes two things for the win.
3-1
Round 5 - Pokemom w/ Galactics
I get another aggressive start with my pixie lock backing me up. I think she only ever did 20 damage to me the entire game.
4-1
Round 6 - Con Le w/ Flygon
He candies to a Flygon really early and sets up a Claydol but can't do much else under my power lock. I flash bite for 10, splash turn for 20, he pluspowers and power swings a crobat for 80, I get another bat for another 10 plus 80 from Palkia X for the KO. I deny him powers for a long time so he starts using alternative means to draw cards, such as Blissey's first attack. At one point he fetches a Chatot out but I have the pixie lock to stop him from mimicing for free. I work my way through his pokemon while keeping the power lock going on most turns.
5-1
Round 7 - Emmanuel w/ Flygon
I power lock a lot, but he almost always has a Cynthia response to my KOs. They don't really net him anything and it turns out three of his candies are prized. Bad beats =/
6-1
Round 8 - Some cool guy w/ Gengar
I don't remember his name, but he was really chill. He sets up some gengars but I manage to get around Fainting Spell until all that's left is two gengars on his field, and a flurry of bat drops and an 80 drop knocks them both out in one turn and benches him.
7-1
Top 128 - Some guy w/ Gengar
He's a really nice guy, but to be honest I'm not entirely sure a player on his level really deserves to be in top cut at nationals. Sometimes he passes instead of using pitch dark, so I kill a bunch of prevolutions in game 1 and win. In game 2 it's pretty much the same thing and he scoops to me after a few minutes.
8-1
Top 64 - Another cool guy w/ Luxape
My pixie lock and type advantage are huge in this matchup. Also, I tend to outplay people in this matchup because I know the deck really well. His uses Claydol for draw, and he uses a lot of time and resources setting it up even though I'm playing a power locking deck. I think he scooped game 1 after I secured my board position and decimated his, and game 2 went similarly well for me.
9-1
I made it to day two! And so did Emily! In her first year of tournament play! We are pretty darn excited. They collect our decks for deck checks and we head out to try and find my car. It takes a bit of wandering but eventually we find the parking lot we left it in, and head back over to Zach's house for some Smash.
SUNDAY
I stay up entirely too late, and we oversleep and almost end up missing top cut the next morning. So I'm brushing my teeth and changing clothes while speeding down the I44 at 8:50 in the morning when we were supposed to be there at 8:45. Whoops. We get back to the parking lot we used the previous day and sprint down the street to the convention center. Apparently we're not quite disqualified for tardiness so they have us resleeve our decks and get us sat down with our opponents.
Top 32 - Tracy w/ Galactics
Both games she has terrible supporter droughts and ends up with zero or one card hands. Her lightning energy is prized game 1 and I'm able to snipe her Raichu in game 2, and other than that most of her deck is pretty weak against Palkia. My pixie lock seals the deal.
10-1
Top 16 - Seena w/ DPL
Game 1, he gets his hand down to 3 and drops an Uxie, which I spray. He passes. My turn is very eventful and he scoops. Game 2, he dominates my weak setup with power locking and some critical bright looks that I wasn't able to prevent. Game 3, he tries really hard to keep his pixie lock in play, which ends up being detrimental to him because he has no room to build up backup attackers due to my lost cyclone. I keep pinging his Dialga with splash turn and he keeps pinging my Crobat with deafen until eventually I'm fully setup while he still has naked pixies and a lone attacker active. Time is called when I'm up on prizes and am prepared to take more. The judges had issues with both of our paces of play but neither of us had issues with the other player's pace (to the best of my knowledge). It's a really complicated matchup and every decision is very important. In any case I don't think time would have been an issue as I am 2 prizes up at the end of my turn, killing his 4th Mesprit and ending his pixie lock.
11-1
Top 8 - Darrel (sp?) w/ Luxray Manectric Sunnyshore Pluspowers
Ouch, autoloss much? I set up my pixie lock in game 1 and he is slow to get out his stadium, so I am able to get some 1-hits in with Toxicroak. I take six prizes, he takes maybe three. Game 2, my Azelf MT and one croak are prized, and he has the spray for my Azelf LA. I scoop because I know his deck can take quick prizes and I want enough time to come back in game 3 if he does. Game 3, both of my Azelfs are prized. My start is Uxie so I go aggro with it. At one point I Roseanne for Mesprit and Uxie, but he sprays the Uxie and my draw suffers for a while. I should've gone for double Uxie. I keep getting random jank off of my trade offs. Anyways I take a prize, he takes two, then I take one more when time is called, to tie it up. He has a crobat active and attaches to his bench and passes. I need a Cyrus, Poketurn, Roseanne or SP Radar to get 20 damage from flash bites plus 60 from Zen Blade to take a prize and win. My draw is nothing, and my trade off is a couple more nothings, so next turn he bright looks me for the game.
11-2
I get my picture taken! By a professional photographer! Unfortunately without a trophy or anything to hold. I'm not sure what they plan on doing with that picture. Maybe they'll send it to my local newspaper or something. I dunno. It was pretty cool anyways.
The rest of Sunday was super awesome except Gathering Ground wouldn't buy my common/uncommon/rares for .02. After I lugged all of them from my car to the convention center. Ugh those suckers are heavy. I got 60 for a binder of old EX-series stuff though, only expecting to get maybe 40 for it. I think he overpaid a bit on that so I was happy. Anyways much merriment and urban adventuring ensues, and eventually we end up back at the hotel and I get people to play a bunch of board games and card games with me late into the night, in homage to Origins. Downtown St. Louis is pretty cool and all, but I'm gonna miss that place.
PROPS
This game
The people that run this game
The people that play this game
Everyone I've ever met through this game
I'm going to worlds for the first time!
Which means, I get to see all of my out-of-state friends a second time this year!
Emily for making top 32 in her first year of play. Expect big things!
SLOPS
Nationals for never being long enough. I'm missing everyone already and I can't wait for next year!
So I get distracted talking to Fulop until like 11pm Wednesday night when I usually meet my friends at the bar in Evansville at 10. I finally finish packing up and make the drive up there to meet up with Emily, my Pokemon partner in crime for this past season. We get smashed and pass out at her place, then wake up and make the drive over to St. Louis the next morning, getting to the Holiday Inn where a bunch of my friends are staying at around 1 pm.
We have our two choices for Nationals built and we find a few pickup games up in Tavish's hotel room and then later down in the lobby. I run into like a billion people I know and I start getting the Nationals euphoria I always get when I'm around everyone and we're all having a good time.
Added July 9: Oh yeah! There was a cash tourney at B&B, which I totally forgot about somehow. I went 5-0 with Palkia and won 100 bucks. Emily, Chris and Kevin all came with me, and the Maldonados, Branders and some other people were supposed to show up too, but didn't. So there were only like 18 players but it was still fun. It gave me a chance to get more comfortable with Palkia in a tourney setting, as I had only been playing untimed and informal practice games with it up until then. My matchups were Gengar/Nidoqueen/Mewtwo, Gigas, Gardy, Shuppet, Gengar/Rampardos.
After that, we hang out around the hotel and just goof off until late at night, then I get a few hours of sleep before the Professor Cup the next day.
FRIDAY
In the cup, I'm drafting with John Goodman, a pokedad from Louisville. In the 16 packs we open, there are 0 Aerodactyl and 0 draw supporters. I start drafting eeveelutions early but he takes the eevees when they show up, so I go for Keckleon and special energies but he starts taking special energies too. So I basically get screwed out of a decent deck and just end up playing a bunch of random jank that goes 2-4. At least I nabbed the Luxray X and Frost Rotom, and the Professor sleeves were gorgeous, so I'm happy.
I spend the rest of the day catching up with friends from all over the country and play a few league games to stock up on free stuff. I watch the finals of the Professor Cup, trying to root for like three out of four players in the top 4 equally. Vince, Tracy and Andrew are all freaking amazing.
Then Fulop and I head back to the Holiday Inn to get my chess board and some food. We play with the board aligned the wrong way and it throws us both off in the first game but it all ends in lulz, and in the second game he tries to remember some tricky opening he used to use and botches it up. He ends up picking one of his pawns as his favorite and naming it Rudo, Reaper of Souls. I manage to take it, crushing all of his hopes and dreams. More lulz ensue. After salad, we head back up to the hotel to get more board games, and bring them down to the ballroom where some players are playtesting. We get into a very long game of Carcassonne and we keep getting distracted and forgetting to take our turns, or getting called away by other Pokemon players who are fretting over their Nationals decks. Meanwhile Emily and I have already settled comfortably on a list and Fulop is just in town to chill, so it's a very stress free night. After the game, Emily and I get our stuff from Tavish's room and drive out to Zach's house to take apart our other deck that we opted not to use, and build a second copy of the deck we did decide to use.
SATURDAY
We get a couple hours of sleep, then rush back over to the convention center and scramble to borrow a few cards and write out our lists. I'm using my professor sleeves because they're gorgeous. Oh, and my deck is Palkia because he is also gorgeous, in a scary timespace dinosaur kind of way.
Round 1 - Jack Creager w/ Tyranitar
I deny him his Cosmic Powers for several turns but he still manages to set up completely, never missing an energy, evolution, or supporter drop. An unexpected Upper energy kills my Palkia X a turn earlier than I had planned, but I have the Toxicroak response, but he somehow has the double healer response to that without ever using a power. My other croak is in my prizes so it takes me a while to come up with a response to his huge T-tar which just walks right through a bunch of sacrifices before I can finally take it down. He has another one set up though, and it 1-hits my recycled croak for his last prize.
0-1
Round 2 - ? w/ Grass Basics
I KO a Turtwig, a Scyther, and a Scizor 4.
1-1
Round 3 - Someone who looked like MK Choy, but apparently wasn't? w/ Gallade 4
I start with 3 sprays in hand, and a fast Palkia X. He sets up a Claydol and a Gallade but I spray both and he's just short of a KO with Gallade X's attack. After I drop 80 + crobats on its head and set up my pixie lock, he scoops.
2-1
Round 4 - Pokedad w/ Gengar
I get a very aggressive start with a power lock to back it up, and spread from my Pearl Breaths and a couple Crobat drops knock out his Nidoran before it can evolve. He keeps playing Lookers and other supporters trying to get set up but only manages to get out one Gengar which poltergeists my Lv.X for 90, putting me at 10 HP left as I had taken 20 from an Uxie earlier. I figure he will probably Crobat it for a cheap KO the next turn anyway, and I already have another Palkia fully loaded on the bench, so I go ahead and go up against his Fainting Spell flip and he gets heads. No matter, because that puts me at 2 prizes left to his 4 or 5. My second Palkia snipes two things for the win.
3-1
Round 5 - Pokemom w/ Galactics
I get another aggressive start with my pixie lock backing me up. I think she only ever did 20 damage to me the entire game.
4-1
Round 6 - Con Le w/ Flygon
He candies to a Flygon really early and sets up a Claydol but can't do much else under my power lock. I flash bite for 10, splash turn for 20, he pluspowers and power swings a crobat for 80, I get another bat for another 10 plus 80 from Palkia X for the KO. I deny him powers for a long time so he starts using alternative means to draw cards, such as Blissey's first attack. At one point he fetches a Chatot out but I have the pixie lock to stop him from mimicing for free. I work my way through his pokemon while keeping the power lock going on most turns.
5-1
Round 7 - Emmanuel w/ Flygon
I power lock a lot, but he almost always has a Cynthia response to my KOs. They don't really net him anything and it turns out three of his candies are prized. Bad beats =/
6-1
Round 8 - Some cool guy w/ Gengar
I don't remember his name, but he was really chill. He sets up some gengars but I manage to get around Fainting Spell until all that's left is two gengars on his field, and a flurry of bat drops and an 80 drop knocks them both out in one turn and benches him.
7-1
Top 128 - Some guy w/ Gengar
He's a really nice guy, but to be honest I'm not entirely sure a player on his level really deserves to be in top cut at nationals. Sometimes he passes instead of using pitch dark, so I kill a bunch of prevolutions in game 1 and win. In game 2 it's pretty much the same thing and he scoops to me after a few minutes.
8-1
Top 64 - Another cool guy w/ Luxape
My pixie lock and type advantage are huge in this matchup. Also, I tend to outplay people in this matchup because I know the deck really well. His uses Claydol for draw, and he uses a lot of time and resources setting it up even though I'm playing a power locking deck. I think he scooped game 1 after I secured my board position and decimated his, and game 2 went similarly well for me.
9-1
I made it to day two! And so did Emily! In her first year of tournament play! We are pretty darn excited. They collect our decks for deck checks and we head out to try and find my car. It takes a bit of wandering but eventually we find the parking lot we left it in, and head back over to Zach's house for some Smash.
SUNDAY
I stay up entirely too late, and we oversleep and almost end up missing top cut the next morning. So I'm brushing my teeth and changing clothes while speeding down the I44 at 8:50 in the morning when we were supposed to be there at 8:45. Whoops. We get back to the parking lot we used the previous day and sprint down the street to the convention center. Apparently we're not quite disqualified for tardiness so they have us resleeve our decks and get us sat down with our opponents.
Top 32 - Tracy w/ Galactics
Both games she has terrible supporter droughts and ends up with zero or one card hands. Her lightning energy is prized game 1 and I'm able to snipe her Raichu in game 2, and other than that most of her deck is pretty weak against Palkia. My pixie lock seals the deal.
10-1
Top 16 - Seena w/ DPL
Game 1, he gets his hand down to 3 and drops an Uxie, which I spray. He passes. My turn is very eventful and he scoops. Game 2, he dominates my weak setup with power locking and some critical bright looks that I wasn't able to prevent. Game 3, he tries really hard to keep his pixie lock in play, which ends up being detrimental to him because he has no room to build up backup attackers due to my lost cyclone. I keep pinging his Dialga with splash turn and he keeps pinging my Crobat with deafen until eventually I'm fully setup while he still has naked pixies and a lone attacker active. Time is called when I'm up on prizes and am prepared to take more. The judges had issues with both of our paces of play but neither of us had issues with the other player's pace (to the best of my knowledge). It's a really complicated matchup and every decision is very important. In any case I don't think time would have been an issue as I am 2 prizes up at the end of my turn, killing his 4th Mesprit and ending his pixie lock.
11-1
Top 8 - Darrel (sp?) w/ Luxray Manectric Sunnyshore Pluspowers
Ouch, autoloss much? I set up my pixie lock in game 1 and he is slow to get out his stadium, so I am able to get some 1-hits in with Toxicroak. I take six prizes, he takes maybe three. Game 2, my Azelf MT and one croak are prized, and he has the spray for my Azelf LA. I scoop because I know his deck can take quick prizes and I want enough time to come back in game 3 if he does. Game 3, both of my Azelfs are prized. My start is Uxie so I go aggro with it. At one point I Roseanne for Mesprit and Uxie, but he sprays the Uxie and my draw suffers for a while. I should've gone for double Uxie. I keep getting random jank off of my trade offs. Anyways I take a prize, he takes two, then I take one more when time is called, to tie it up. He has a crobat active and attaches to his bench and passes. I need a Cyrus, Poketurn, Roseanne or SP Radar to get 20 damage from flash bites plus 60 from Zen Blade to take a prize and win. My draw is nothing, and my trade off is a couple more nothings, so next turn he bright looks me for the game.
11-2
I get my picture taken! By a professional photographer! Unfortunately without a trophy or anything to hold. I'm not sure what they plan on doing with that picture. Maybe they'll send it to my local newspaper or something. I dunno. It was pretty cool anyways.
The rest of Sunday was super awesome except Gathering Ground wouldn't buy my common/uncommon/rares for .02. After I lugged all of them from my car to the convention center. Ugh those suckers are heavy. I got 60 for a binder of old EX-series stuff though, only expecting to get maybe 40 for it. I think he overpaid a bit on that so I was happy. Anyways much merriment and urban adventuring ensues, and eventually we end up back at the hotel and I get people to play a bunch of board games and card games with me late into the night, in homage to Origins. Downtown St. Louis is pretty cool and all, but I'm gonna miss that place.
PROPS
This game
The people that run this game
The people that play this game
Everyone I've ever met through this game
I'm going to worlds for the first time!
Which means, I get to see all of my out-of-state friends a second time this year!
Emily for making top 32 in her first year of play. Expect big things!
SLOPS
Nationals for never being long enough. I'm missing everyone already and I can't wait for next year!
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