Southern California Regionals – A Stranger in a Stranger Land

destination360.comFirst off I’d like to say “hi” to everyone reading and introduce myself as Alex Holdway from Manchester, England. This is my first tournament report of my first tournament and contrary to where I’m from, was at Long Beach, California.

After getting back into Pokémon TCG around the release of HeartGold SoulSilver it took me over a year of collecting and a move to Arizona for me to finally play at a League and try to build a competitive deck. After much deliberation and a lot of article and report reading on SixPrizes, I chose to build Gyarados as it fit my (limited) budget and seemed simple enough.

Anyway, onto the decklist:

Pokémon – 214 Magikarp SF
3 Gyarados SF
1 Eevee RR
1 Umbreon CL
2 Crobat G PL
2 Uxie LA
1 Azelf LA
1 Combee SF
3 Sableye SF
1 Smeargle UD
1 Unown Q MD
1 Regice LA

 

Trainers – 303 Pokémon Collector
2 Bebe’s Search
3 Seeker
1 Professor Oak’s Visit
1 Judge
3 Pokémon Communication
3 Junk Arm
3 Super Scoop Up
4 Poké Turn
1 Luxury Ball
1 Pokémon Rescue
2 Expert Belt
3 Broken Time Space
Energy – 94 Special D
3 Rescue
2 Warp

 

I feel this is a fairly standard Gyarados list with Umbreon teched (albeit rarely used) in, Combee for that extra recovery and Judge for when stuck in a pickle or for much needed disruption. At League I had tested against DialgaChomp, Sablelock, Charizard and LostGar among others, but no one there tests with LuxChomp or VileGar so these were two match ups I hoped not to run into. I guess I was not so lucky.

Game 1 vs. Ryan with VileGar

pokebeach.comI had heard rumours before the 8 rounds of Swiss started that there was a lot of VileGar at the tournament and was worried about it, especially with the high trainer count in my deck. So after the usual pleasantries, I shuffled and eagerly dealt my first ever tournament hand hoping for the perfect start. Except I started with a lone Unown Q; and no supporters.

Ryan won the toss and started with a Gastly and Oddish, drew and used “Pitch-Dark”. Thinking that this was going to be a very short first game, I fortunately topdecked a Sableye, benched it, retreated Unown Q and attached the Darkness Energy in hand for the knock-out.

Ryan used Pokémon Collector on his next turn to grab an Uxie, Spiritomb and Gastly, dropped the latter two, retreated Oddish with a Psychic Energy I believe, and used “Darkness Grace” for a Gloom. The following also resulted in a dead-draw and decided to KO the Spiritomb hoping he had resources for the Vileplume.

During the next turns he began to set up, getting a Haunter and Gengar on the bench, as well as having Vileplume in hand but couldn’t draw into any Psychic Energy.

I took 2 more prizes (Uxie and Spiritomb) with the same Sableye and it wasn’t until turn 10 or so that it was obvious I was playing Gyarados. At some point I made a misplay of not doing a Regimove to discard Magikarp and rightly so Ryan didn’t let me do it after my turn.

He started to catch up and I was down to 2 Prizes, Ryan to three. I Knocked Out a Gengar with a Rescue Energy using a Belted Gyarados to leave me 1 Prize, and my early misplay was evened out as Ryan forgot to “Fainting Spell” me and started his turn before he realised. I KO’d another Gengar the following turn to take my final prize and the game. Gyarados victorious!

1-0

Game 2 vs. Jason with Healix

pokebeach.comIn Game 2 I had a much better start with Sableye and managed to get the ‘Karp train rolling. The same went for Jason’s Steelix Tank, attaching energy every turn and getting a “Nurse Call” Blissey on the bench. The game may have gone a different way had Jason not rolled only 1 heads out of 3 Moo-Moo Milks and a tails on a Life Herb but I guess that’s luck.

Toward the end of the game, with us both at 2 Prizes, a Crobat G active and the majority of my recovery resources used up, including all Seekers, Junk Arms, and Super Scoop Ups and Combee already being benched, I knew I was close to losing.

All 4 Magikarp were in the discard pile as Gyarados had been Knocked Out by Skuntank G’s “Poison Structure,” but I know my deck well and knew there was still Luxury Ball, Pokémon Communication, 2 Sableyes and more importantly, Pokémon Rescue in the deck.

I played the 1 Judge which I had kept for such a situation and needed the Pokémon Rescue and a way to get a Gyarados for the win and drew Sableye, Luxury Ball, Pokémon Collector and Pokémon Rescue. I rescued a ‘Karp, played Luxury Ball for the ‘Dos and took the win.

That was two close games in a row and I managed to pull them off and take the wins.

2-0

Game 3 vs. Marshall with LuxChomp

 

 

 

 

In Game 3 I had moved up to table 10, which I’m told meant I was doing well and was sure to be matched up against an SP deck and Marshall didn’t disappoint. We both had average starts setting up relatively quickly and exchanged the first couple of prizes, one of mine being his Garchomp C.

However, I couldn’t draw into a Rescue Energy or any other recovery resources and after spraying a much needed “Set Up,” my game was pretty much over.

Marshall took the remaining prizes and I hit my first loss of the tourney.

2-1

Game 4 vs. Nicole with Gengar SF

pokebeach.comThis game went relatively straight-forward from the get go with both of us having good starts (albeit hindered by the guy next to us punching the table in a rage after getting donked turn 1) and I set up Gyarados to her Gengars.

She didn’t run Vileplume so I was able to use all my trainers, but she did run Crobat G meaning her “Shadow Room” would KO my Pixies turn after turn.

I couldn’t keep up in the prize race even with 3 tails on Fainting Spell and Nicole eventually took the win with a Fainting Spell, even though she had the win next turn.

2-2

At this point lunch was taken and I was pretty bummed to be at 2-2 after being 2-0 and knowing that another loss pretty much put me out of contention of Top Cut. I carried on anyway, hoping to finish the day at least 4-4 and have a 50% record.

Game 5 vs. Kevin with Healix

 

This was second game against a Steelix deck and thought that it would be breeze for me as I did well against one earlier on in the day and hoped to go to 3-2. I had a Sableye start and managed to get Gyarados out fast and my ‘Karps in the discard pile by my second turn.

Kevin flipped a lot of heads on his Moo-Moo milks and had already belted his Steelix, but after top decking a Collector I could search for my ‘Bats and get the big knockout. Kevin had put most of his resources on this Steelix so I knew it would be tough for him to come back.

And then I look for my prizes. And they weren’t there. I had forgotten them. In my first tournament. In a game I was probably going to win. Kevin was pretty bummed about it too because he had forgotten to notice and after a Judge was called over I was given a Game-Loss penalty as we had got pretty far into the game.

It was really annoying and I was pretty peeved for a couple minutes but knew there was nothing I could do after that. We finished the game out (apologies for not remembering details) and at turn 3 were equal on prizes. We decided not to finish the game so I wouldn’t be too disheartened if I won and I moved to 2-3.

2-3

Game 6 vs. Ryan with Legend Box/Octillery/Cleffa

This game was easily the quickest win I may have ever had with us shuffling up and dealing, starting with Sableye to Ryan’s Cleffa and top decking a Special Dark for the donk. I felt bad but I knew that’s Pokémon so we played another game, which again resulted in me donking a Cleffa.

3-3

Game 7 vs. Chris with Scizor

 

Chris’ game was probably my most enjoyable of the day as he was a real nice guy and we both knew our Top Cut chances were gone and I felt before I arrived that Scizor is a good matchup against Gyarados.

After an early Collector I knew I was in a huge spot of bother as both Azelf and one of Magikarps were in the Prizes so could only pump out 80 damage even without Special Metals. Fortunately, my opponent couldn’t get any energy out of his deck, including zilch from an Interviewer’s Questions so I was safe for a few turns.

Prizes were exchanged and we were both left with 3. I had set up Umbreon on the bench thinking that his game was done for with “Moonlight Fang” but only after I attacked did I realise it did no damage because of the Special Energy. The effect was still in play and Chris had said he had gone about 15 turns in the game before to an Umbreon deck until someone did damage.

He used a Warp-Point to promote a Skarmory , I sent up a Gyarados. Still in an energy drought, Chris passed and I KO’d the Skarmory the following turn to finally draw the Azelf out of the prizes!

That turn Gyarados stayed in play by the skin of its teeth, Chris needing one more energy on the Belted Scizor for the KO and on my turn I played Azelf to get the ‘Karp, used Regimove and dropped the remaining ‘Bats to take 2 Prizes and the game.

4-3

Game 8 vs. Noosh with Garchomp C/Kingdra Prime

Noosh was another real good guy to play against and he told me he had only been playing a few weeks and this was also his first tournament. I think I had the perfect start with Gyarados and took 4 early prizes taking out Pixies and the Garchomp.

After this the game slowed down a lot as I was unable to knockout either of his two Kingdras in one shot and he took 2 Prizes. Time was called with me left at 2 and Noosh left at 4. I knew that he only had Kingdra as an attacker so promoted Umbreon for the last two turns to lock and take the game.

5-3

redbubble.com
“Thanks, I like your shirt too!”

So after finishing 5-3 I was pretty pleased and glad I had made the trip from Phoenix for my first tournament (a thousand thank yous, Bruce) and hoped that I may scrape in the Top 32. It turned out I was a long way off and finished 54th out of 190. Not too bad. Had I not forgotten my prizes then it may have been a different story.

After the main event Bruce and I played in a Triumphant Draft and pulled a Magnezone Prime, Mew Prime and bottom half of Cresselia-Darkrai Legend so was pretty chuffed with that. Also, the Umbreon shirt I bought especially for the event went down a treat with several “cool shirt, man” comments.

All in all an excellent weekend and look forward to Nationals in the UK upon my return.

Props:

  • Going 5-3 at my first tournament
  • Pulling 2 Primes in the Draft side event
  • Beating a VileGar
  • Fellow Arizonan William making Top 4 in Seniors

Slops:

  • Forgetting my prizes in a crucial game
  • Not making Top Cut
  • Bruce starting 0-3 with SpeedLucario to finish 3-5

Reader Interactions

7 replies

  1. Anonymous

    I was there in Seniors! Lots of people in Seniors who usually do at least decent did horrible today. States’ 6-0 player, Bradley Pettit, only went 3-3 at Regs, James L., who went 5-1 at States went 3-3 today, and me and two of my friends (Trent and James D.) all managed to accomplish a horrible 2-4. :P BTW: Did you see Steven Toman?

  2. Dhanushka Kumarasing

    Cool! I got a mention in the article! ^_^ lol

    Alex definitely played a good game and his deck was pretty awesome. I learned a lot from that game and next time I’m going to be ready for Gyarados decks. I’m bummed to hear he didn’t make Top Cut. I was really hoping he would have made Top Cut since he flew all the way out from Arizona!

    Well, there’s always next year!

  3. Garrett Williamson

    Haha I lost to Bruce at AZ states. Gotta love losing to a 64 year old :P That lucario was nuts. First turn 4 lost zoned pokemon and 2 belted lucario 1 shotting everything I had… Wasnt fun lol

    • Anonymous  → Garrett

      Yeah, my Lucario fizzled at SoCal Regionals because there was too much trainer lock. And now with the rule change, that deck is dead. Gotta find something else that an old geezer like me can play.

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