vanderbilt_grad
New Member
There is an old saying that failure to prepare is preparation for failure. I think that I’ve learned that lesson pretty well this past weekend.
Long story short I have NO idea what deck to run for nats. I build and test like a million things. What I really want to run at first is Flygon ... but my son falls in love with it and “steals” the deck from me so I’m left to punt. I don’t want to run pure SP, even though I have a number of builds that I like. I run Porygon-Z at a BR and really like it so I tweak and hope it does OK, but when I play it at the modified event on Friday it bombs badly so I decide to go with my fallback deck, Gengar. Now I’ve tested Gengar a fair amount, but I haven’t played nearly all the matchups and don’t know the deck cold like I do a few others.
I must apologize for the overall lack of names as I didn’t take notepad or pen with me this time.
Round 1 – Gengar vs IDK
My opponent goes first and flips over a DP Sneasel. He gets 2 heads on double slap. My hand is a bunch of stage 2s and other stuff I can’t play, so I pass. On his turn he draws a special darkness and Feint Attacks me for the T2 win. It was a sad way to start nats.
0-1
Round 2 – Gengar vs Flygon / Weavile / Dusknoir
So this is a bad matchup for me anyway, but I misplay several times making things worse. This is clearly a game that I would have done better at with a bit more testing. My opponent played well here and I see that the dice are against me today as I get 1 out of 5 heads on various flips in this game.
0-2
Round 3 – Gengar vs Lux/Ape
I get back from lunch and assume that I’ll get an easier pairing this time. But when I look at the sheet I see that I’m going to be facing Kettler and my jaw nearly hits the floor. Kettler plays well and I do so-so. He wins up 3 prizes, but I was a topdeck away from possibly winning myself. Had I been able to draw one of my remaining Poke Blowers prizes would have been in my favor 1-2 and I could have avoided that final ape attack he had FTW. But of course I whiff. This game was fun from a skills perspective. I really liked the thinking involved. Afterwards I decided that my day is done and I’m just playing for fun. Why drop after taking all the $$ and effort to get here. Besides I know that I owe my best effort to all my opponents too and I figure that it’s still possible to end the day 5-3.
0-3
Round 4 – Gengar vs Kingdra
I demolish this guy and feel really bad about it. A reasonably early Nidoqueen kills his spread and I prevent him from ever getting a Claydol.
1-3
Round 5 – Gengar vs Palkia Lock
Early game he’s setting up slowly ... he has a Guarded Baltoy benched for at least 6 turns before he can do anything to get Claydol and I get a slight lead. However I can’t build Queen to counter his spread and I make some key misplays right as he gets Claydol and starts locking me hard. Again a match where I get no heads and don’t play as well as I probably could have. Ugh. My opponent asks the runner where to sign to drop once we both sign the sheet. Double UGH.
1-4
Round 6 – Gengar vs THE CHAIR
Hardest game all day! :lol: My opponent never shows so I get the default win. Sadly I take it.
2-4
Round 7 – Gengar vs T-Tar
Easily the most fun game all day. I’m playing another Poke-Dad with a great sense of humor. We have a fun start and I avoid the Sableye donk. He’s crippled by having both of his Unown Gs prized though and that really turns the match in my favor. I just KO everything that’s not named T-Tar and let him dare the fainting spell rolls. Nidoqueen negates much of his spread.
3-4
Round 8 – Gengar vs Shuppet / Starmie donk
So he goes first and puts 40 on my lone Gastly nearly ending the game there. However I have Call Energy in hand and just set up in a major way, pitch darking, after avoiding the donk. My opponent is fun to play against so we just kind of take the whole game easy.
4-4
So I finish the day a very poor 4-4 and am correspondingly low in the standings, but still it was a fun day. I had a blast at nats meeting all sorts of folks. My older son is 4-2 after 6 rounds of Jr play with Flygon and is high in the standings ... but game 7 has ALL 3 FLYGONS PRIZED! He still finishes 66th with his 4-3 record barely missing the cut. We all felt so bad for him, but he played an amazing day. My younger son also finished 4-3 and had lots of fun, but didn’t face nearly as many tough opponents as my older one did.
Sue worked with the staff as the lead runner for Seniors and busted her tail doing it. It was so much fun to watch her help make the event happen. Major props to her and all the other staff who really made the weekend possible!
Long story short I have NO idea what deck to run for nats. I build and test like a million things. What I really want to run at first is Flygon ... but my son falls in love with it and “steals” the deck from me so I’m left to punt. I don’t want to run pure SP, even though I have a number of builds that I like. I run Porygon-Z at a BR and really like it so I tweak and hope it does OK, but when I play it at the modified event on Friday it bombs badly so I decide to go with my fallback deck, Gengar. Now I’ve tested Gengar a fair amount, but I haven’t played nearly all the matchups and don’t know the deck cold like I do a few others.
I must apologize for the overall lack of names as I didn’t take notepad or pen with me this time.
Round 1 – Gengar vs IDK
My opponent goes first and flips over a DP Sneasel. He gets 2 heads on double slap. My hand is a bunch of stage 2s and other stuff I can’t play, so I pass. On his turn he draws a special darkness and Feint Attacks me for the T2 win. It was a sad way to start nats.
0-1
Round 2 – Gengar vs Flygon / Weavile / Dusknoir
So this is a bad matchup for me anyway, but I misplay several times making things worse. This is clearly a game that I would have done better at with a bit more testing. My opponent played well here and I see that the dice are against me today as I get 1 out of 5 heads on various flips in this game.
0-2
Round 3 – Gengar vs Lux/Ape
I get back from lunch and assume that I’ll get an easier pairing this time. But when I look at the sheet I see that I’m going to be facing Kettler and my jaw nearly hits the floor. Kettler plays well and I do so-so. He wins up 3 prizes, but I was a topdeck away from possibly winning myself. Had I been able to draw one of my remaining Poke Blowers prizes would have been in my favor 1-2 and I could have avoided that final ape attack he had FTW. But of course I whiff. This game was fun from a skills perspective. I really liked the thinking involved. Afterwards I decided that my day is done and I’m just playing for fun. Why drop after taking all the $$ and effort to get here. Besides I know that I owe my best effort to all my opponents too and I figure that it’s still possible to end the day 5-3.
0-3
Round 4 – Gengar vs Kingdra
I demolish this guy and feel really bad about it. A reasonably early Nidoqueen kills his spread and I prevent him from ever getting a Claydol.
1-3
Round 5 – Gengar vs Palkia Lock
Early game he’s setting up slowly ... he has a Guarded Baltoy benched for at least 6 turns before he can do anything to get Claydol and I get a slight lead. However I can’t build Queen to counter his spread and I make some key misplays right as he gets Claydol and starts locking me hard. Again a match where I get no heads and don’t play as well as I probably could have. Ugh. My opponent asks the runner where to sign to drop once we both sign the sheet. Double UGH.
1-4
Round 6 – Gengar vs THE CHAIR
Hardest game all day! :lol: My opponent never shows so I get the default win. Sadly I take it.
2-4
Round 7 – Gengar vs T-Tar
Easily the most fun game all day. I’m playing another Poke-Dad with a great sense of humor. We have a fun start and I avoid the Sableye donk. He’s crippled by having both of his Unown Gs prized though and that really turns the match in my favor. I just KO everything that’s not named T-Tar and let him dare the fainting spell rolls. Nidoqueen negates much of his spread.
3-4
Round 8 – Gengar vs Shuppet / Starmie donk
So he goes first and puts 40 on my lone Gastly nearly ending the game there. However I have Call Energy in hand and just set up in a major way, pitch darking, after avoiding the donk. My opponent is fun to play against so we just kind of take the whole game easy.
4-4
So I finish the day a very poor 4-4 and am correspondingly low in the standings, but still it was a fun day. I had a blast at nats meeting all sorts of folks. My older son is 4-2 after 6 rounds of Jr play with Flygon and is high in the standings ... but game 7 has ALL 3 FLYGONS PRIZED! He still finishes 66th with his 4-3 record barely missing the cut. We all felt so bad for him, but he played an amazing day. My younger son also finished 4-3 and had lots of fun, but didn’t face nearly as many tough opponents as my older one did.
Sue worked with the staff as the lead runner for Seniors and busted her tail doing it. It was so much fun to watch her help make the event happen. Major props to her and all the other staff who really made the weekend possible!
