Worlds 2011: The Experience

Let me open this portion of the article by saying that it’s largely going to be based around things that are not the Pokemon TCG. I’m going to talk a lot about meeting different people, travel, the experience of physically being at Worlds, and the like. If that’s not something you’re into please skip down to the next bolded portion, as that will be my (albeit brief) grinder report with a deck list and the like.

As most of you know, this was my first Worlds ever. I only started playing in 2009 and wasn’t competitive enough to justify attending Worlds. I was supposed to attend last year, but the price of Hawaii combined with some personal financial issues got in the way of that.

My fiancé and I finally made the commitment to be strict enough about saving money to be able to go, and I have to say it was an absolute blast. It’s everything that I’ve always been told it was and more.

As an aside, I’d like to mention that none of this I’m going to be writing about would’ve ever been possible if not for Melanie Cohen (David’s mother) who generously allowed my fiancé (Ashley) and I to stay in her room at the Hilton Bayfront for absolutely free, and even provided us with a bed (David chose to sleep on the floor instead of with his Mother or as I had insisted, me).

She also played host to our good friend Ryan Merryfield after a few too many drinks at the hotel bar, and one of my closest friends (whom Melanie has never even met) Daniel Norton after he had some financial issues of his own. To say that I’m appreciative of what she’s done would be perhaps the biggest understatement ever uttered. I absolutely love her.

My Worlds trip began on Monday night at 3AM when, after a long night of chillin’ with my local non-Pokemon friends, we headed to the airport to catch our 7AM flight. This was my first time flying and although I was a little nervous upon take-off, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

What I didn’t enjoy, however, was the tediousness of checking bags, security, and airports in general. I’ve only ever flown four times (we had connecting flights both to and from SD) and I’ve had more than my fill of airports. From here on out it’s direct flights only (I guarantee I’ll forget about this proclamation on my next trip. Cheap etc.).

The flight from SEA to LAX was only around 2 hours, which was just about enough time for me to listen to the hottest rap record of the year, WATCH THE THRONE, twice. I don’t think we have an abundance of hip hop heads on SixPrizes, but if you are one of the few and you haven’t checked that album out yet, you’re missing out.

It’s certainly not as good as DARK FANTASY (Kanye’s last album), but still very good and much better than any of Jay’s recent work.

Tuesday was kind of a blur for me. In fact, as you’ll see through the rest of this article, a lot of the Worlds week was a blur for me. Of the 7 nights I stayed I probably accumulated just as many hours sleep, and as I said, part way through the trip I developed a cold, which didn’t help things. Days are blending together, a lot of hours are lost in the depths of my memory, etc., etc. but please bear with me.

One thing that specifically sticks out from Tuesday was meeting SixPrizes Underground writer Tom Hall, who was an incredibly nice guy. He introduced himself to me right away and wasn’t awkward or rude about it at all (which, as I found out, is quite the rarity in the Pokemon community, apparently), complimented my articles, played a quick match and had a few drinks with me. Incredibly nice guy.

Speaking of incredibly nice people, Matt Dunford was the MVP of Worlds. He took infinite players to and from the airport, out to restaurants, to different hotels, just everywhere. What makes this even more incredible to me is that previous to Worlds, Dunford and I had never met.

Facebook tells me he and I have been friends since August of 2009, at which point we bonded over Pokemon and comic books, but we’d never actually met face to face until two weeks ago. That kind of generosity would be an incredible feat for someone to do for their very good friends, not to mention two people he had never even met. Huge, huge ups to Uncle Dunfy.

Wednesday was important to me as it was the first time I had ever met one of my best friends in the world, Dan Norton. I’m not sure how many of you know of Dan, but he is a founding member of Team B-Side, the founder of the Ultimate Pokemon Card Collectors Club (the UPCCC), a Pokegym moderator, a big-name collector and an amazing friend.

Needless to say, meeting him was awesome, and honestly was a pretty big part of the reason I decided to come to Worlds in the first place. I met a lot of interesting people (and a lot of awful people) over the week in San Diego, but meeting Dan was on a whole other level. You could call it the greatest bromance of all-time (next to Troy and Abed, of course). Just sayin’.

The next few days blur together, but here are a few key moments I specifically remember:

- Meeting Ann-Marie Thompson, another fairly long-time friend/teammate who I had never gotten the chance to meet in-person before. She is amazing.

- Meeting Kevin Chao, another long-time Facebook friend who turned out to be quite the guy.

- Jak Armstead aka Baby Mario, the newest addition to B-Side, with the same story as Kevin/AMT.

- Meeting most of the SixPrizes Underground staff, including Jay Hornung (who was an incredibly nice, personable guy, who I can’t say enough great things about), Chris Fulop, J-Wittz, John Kettler, and Mikey Fouchet (who was ridiculously generous in letting Team B-Side/Team X-Files test in his lavish suite throughout Wednesday and Thursday). All great people.

- There are a lot of others too…Martin Moreno, Albert Lee, Jason Windham, Scott Pratte, Baby Mario’s older brother (whose first named eludes me), Louis Thompson, Jason Klacynzki, Kevin Kobayashi, Anthony Caspanello, Andrew Murray and the Utah crew, Sami and Yacine Sekkoum, Colin Peterik, Charlene Clements, Emily Engle, Jimmy O’Brien, Michael Wijaya, Jacob Lesage, and probably countless others I’m forgetting.

If I left you out I apologize greatly, and will defer to my sleep and sickness excuses from before. In the end, I met tons of great people, the high majority of which were very nice and welcoming to me. There were quite a few people who I didn’t get to talk to over the week, but I guess that’s what Nats and Worlds 2012 are for. :D

Probably the most shocking thing about the entire experience was the number of people who came up to me and asked for pictures/autographs as fans. I know that people read my articles, the majority of whom like them, but it’s still a bit surreal seeing people come up to me and ask for an autograph when there are literally hundreds of better/more famous players in the building at any given moment.

Thank you to each and everyone of you that came up to me, seeing the appreciation of my work and people telling me that I’ve helped them in some way or another is why I keep writing. You guys are the best. I also noticed a few people who would look at me, or hear my name, look at me, and then just keep on walking.

I can’t be sure if these people were fans and too shy to say anything, or if they were just the opposite and think I am the scum of the earth, OR if they were just staring at my ridiculously good looks (the obvious answer), but regardless: If any of you ever see me at an event, please feel free to come up and say hi.

I may look stressed, tired, or like I’m in the hurry, but I’m always up for a handshake or some good conversation with my readers. Nothing to fear at all.

Thursday night was full of shenanigans, but I’ll focus on the two that everyone probably cares about the most: learning of Ross’ deck and helping with testing/building/etc of David’s winning deck. To do either is going to take a little bit of backstory though. Never fear, after these stories are told I’ll get to the real competitive discussion of the article, aka what all of you actually care about.

I’ll start with learning of Ross’ deck…for those of you who don’t know Tyler Ninomura, you’re missing out. He’s one of the very best players this game has ever seen (2nd @ Nats in SRs, 3x Regional Champion in MAs, the list goes on). However, in addition to that he is one of the best rogue deck builders I’ve ever witnessed.

You may remember that he was one of the main founders of the Flygon Lock deck that had numerous impressive showings at Worlds 2009. As with every rogue deck builder though, the highs are not without the lows. You see, Tyler and I are apart of a Facebook group that basically amounts to random discussion that sometimes is Pokemon related, as well as being apart of Team B-Side.

So needless to say, I see all of the rogue decks before they hit the shelves, so to speak. Almost every day Tyler copies and pastes some sort of zany rogue deck into the group chat and, if no one berates him enough about it, he’ll then copy and paste it to B-Side, at which point the entire team will see it and tell him how awful it is, leading him to passionately refute us until a few days later when he pops in with “errr nvm this is awful” which prompts Isaiah to lock the thread. Thug life.

So when he comes down to open gaming at 2AM on Friday night to show us the “Team X-Files secret deck” I immediately laugh and throw the deck list at him. Then he mentions that it’s not his deck, it’s Ross’ deck. At which point I un-crumple the deck list, take a look at it, and think “Wow, this is insane, and I can tell by how many 1-of copies it has, Tyler definitely had some part in it.”

I can’t remember what I told Tyler exactly, but I believe it was something along the lines of “it seems decent, but I’d have to actually play it. Definitely interesting.” In retrospect, had I not been dead tired I probably would’ve taken a closer look and asked if I could play the deck in a few pick-up games for fun, but I was so exhausted I probably wouldn’t have gained anything anyway.

Needless to say, whatever I thought of the deck was completely wrong as it lead Ross to his strongest Worlds finish since 2005. Bravo, XF.

Onto David’s deck…I’ll be the first to say that I didn’t really have much help in building it. Obviously we had a thread about it on B-Side where we all shared opinions and whatnot, and I’m sure I tested a bit with him, but I wasn’t a big fan of MagneBoar and ultimately advised against playing it.

I believe it was Matt Chin who convinced David to play the deck and helped him with the list the most, although don’t quote me on that. Again, I was pretty wrong about that as well, eh? This is why Chris Fulop and David Cohen are better players than I could ever dream of being. Amelia Bottemiller and Kevin Chao also played Cohen’s exact list as far as I know, but they both scrubbed so no props for them.

I’d also like to point out that, although I am very into the concept of a team in Pokemon and do feel that it was in part a team effort for David to win Worlds, he did it himself and anything that any of the team might’ve said in the vein of “Team B-Side wins worlds!” was only meant as a celebration of our friendship and success and not meant to take anything away from David whatsoever.

In the end, David chose the list and played his heart out and is the one who deserves all the glory. As I said on B-Side in the celebration thread “David is King. B-S4L.”

I’m already 2,000 words in so I’m going to skip directly to my short grinder report and get into the real meat of the tournament. Hopefully you enjoyed reading this kind of “report” and if not, the rest of this article takes a pretty different lean, so you should be able to find something here that you like.

Last Chance Qualifier Report

Upon arriving in San Diego I had decided that there were only four decks you could play in this format.

1. MegaZone
2. ReshiPhlosion
3. MegaZorD
4. MagneBoar

I didn’t like MagneBoar after a poor showing at Nationals, even with the Twin-based engine. Being ignorant about the deck was probably my biggest retreat of Worlds 2011.

I was high on MegaZorD for a long time, but after arriving in San Diego the deck completely crapped out on me. I decided fairly early on that it simply wasn’t good enough, and put it on the shelf.

ReshiPhlosion was the play in my mind. However, I felt it had certainly vulnerabilities and straight-up un-winnable match-ups, so after much debating I decided on the only other deck…

MegaZone.

I don’t think it’s entirely relevant to post a deck list as the format has changed, but if enough people request it, it shall be done. I played a 2-1-2 Kingdra w/ 2 Waters, and unfortunately didn’t play Jirachi. At first I was a very hard anti-Jirachi supporter, and then I tested it more extensively in San Diego and found that it was pretty good, and then had a bad two-days of testing with it and decided that I wasn’t going to play it.

In the end, I realize that it was the correct choice and that playing it was strictly a mistake, but hindsight is 20/20 and all that.

Round 1: BYE

I, along with the rest of my crew besides Daniel Norton, was thankful enough to get a bye in the first round of the LCQ. I spent the next hour wandering around, listening to WATCH THE THRONE, and birding Daniel’s game, which he eventually lost (so mediocre).

Round 2: Yanmega/Vileplume/Roserade

Game 1: My opponent flips over a Yanma and an Oddish and I know that I’m playing a real deck. I get a slow start to his turn 2 Vileplume, and can never recover. He plays very tightly and definitely knows that he’s doing, through my futile attempts to mount a comeback. He takes his last prize, while I still had 2 on board and we shuffle up for game 2.

Going into game 2 I’m thinking I’m in a decent position. I get to go first, by playing the game until the end I was able to see all of his techs/the majority of his list, and I feel pretty confident that I can turn things around, at least for this game.

Game 2: I opt to go first and open with this spicy grip…

Horsea
Lighting Energy
Lightning Energy
Junk Arm
Junk Arm
Switch
Rare Candy

Okay, so it’s an awful start, but luckily I can channel the powers of David Cohen and topdeck like a God, right? I put my finger to the sky, picture the Star of David, peel the top card of my deck aaaaaaaand….

It’s a Magnezone.

I attach and use Beat for 10 damage to a Yanma. My opponent goes, Collectors for Oddish, Sunkern, and Tyrogue. Retreats Yanma into Tyrogue and uses Mischevous Punch for 30.

Before I get into discussing the next series of events, let me say this: My opponent was a nice guy and a good player. I can’t fault him at all, and I lost fair and square. The sour grapes you’re about to read have everything to do with the format and the design of this game as a whole, and absolutely nothing with him.

He flips his coin for his Sleep, and it comes up….

HEADS

So, with 6 unplayable cards in hand, one Reversal, and one energy, I play the Reversal hoping that, if I can land the coin flip, I can at least pray to Arceus that my opponent doesn’t have the energy to retreat…

TAILS.

Okay, so not what I expected, but still, the dream isn’t dead yet, you see Horsea has an attack called Fin Smack, and if I get 2/2 heads on it, I can KO the Tyrogue and hope that my opponent doesn’t have a way to swing for twenty. I attach, Fin Smack, and…

HEADS

Yes! Now I have a very marginal chance of winning. C’mon, Daddy needs a new pair of shoesssss

TAILS!

Aaaand the dream is dead. My opponent draws, turns his Tyrogue sideways and shakes my hand.

Definitely a disappointing way to go out, but I can’t even complain. I opened with a slow hand and simply got out-played game 1, and had some luck issues in game 2. It happens, and I’m sure that there are much worse stories than mine.

At the end of the day, I had the opportunity to play against a skilled, well-mannered opponent, I played the right deck and made the right decisions, and that’s all I could’ve asked for.

The rest of the Grinder was largely uneventful. Ashley lost in round 3, Amelia lost in round 3, Trevor lost in round 2, and, after some sweating, Ryan and Zane were both unseated in round 5. There was definitely some bitterness and disappointment, but at the end of the day we did our best, and still had another 4-days of vacation in beautiful San Diego, so who are we to complain.

Plus, there were multiple teammates and friends already qualified for the main event, so now it was time to re-focus our efforts onto them (turns out it worked!).

The only B-Side member to qualify via LCQ was Derrick Nelsen, who, at 8 years old is the youngest member of the team, and with a career of 6 months, was also the least tenured of any of us. He played the team’s version of ReshiPhlosion with a few twists of his own and ended up not dropping a single game all day.

With three years left in the division, I can say without a doubt that he’s the future of Juniors in the Northwest and beyond. Swag.

A lot of celebrating and a LOT of drinks later, it was time for the world championship…

Worlds 2011 Day One

I had a rather unfortunate personal issue involving a friend’s health that I would rather not discuss here, which led to me being away from the hotel for pretty much the entire duration of the tournament. I came back that evening to learn that David was the only B-Side who topped, and that Ross had slid in at 16th seed. Colter, a Junior player from Oregon was the first seed in Juniors, as well.

As I wasn’t present and therefore can’t speak about what went on that day I’m going to mainly focus on what I was there for, the before and after.

The only experience I was actually there for was seeing David get paired up against Yamato first round, and subsequently win. Among our group of friends we have a joke about taunting David with anything related to Kyogre Kid (who beat David in the finals of Worlds 2009).

Over the weekend we texted him pictures of Kyogre Kid, pictures of us with Kyogre Kid, pictures of Kyogre hats, Kyogre cards, everything. What else are friends for? We even went as far as to try and track down a Kyogre hat for Ross to wear during the finals, but alas we were unsuccessful.

Anyway, after David defeated Yamato, we now have another in-joke that it’s Kyogre Kid who is sending Yamato pictures of David, in the same taunting way we do to David. None of us are actually friends with either Yamato or Takuto so we can’t actually say whether this happens or not, but in our minds it does.

The only memory I have of after the main event was watching David play Munchkin with Jayson Harry until the wee hours of the morning. That’s right. While most top 16 competitors are testing their match-ups for the following day or at the very least trying to prepare mentally by getting a good nights sleep, your 2011 World Champion plays Munchkin. Swag.

Worlds 2011 Day Two

I kicked it a little too hard Saturday night and ended up sleeping in fairly late, only waking up to a text that said “David is in the top 8.” Feeling like a bad friend, I quickly showered and got dressed in time to bird the rest of his top cut games.

Short of actually being a top 8 competitor, I can’t say that there’s any better feeling than watching one of your friends do well. It was certainly stress inducing watching Ross and David play for huge prizes, but it was a level of excitement and bonding that I don’t think I’ve ever experienced before in Pokemon. Such a great feeling.

I’m not gonna lie, we were all pretty excited. We saw the top 8 brackets and realized that David and Ross wouldn’t play each other until the finals, and if that happened we would probably all explode out of sheer joy. Watching that match become a reality was so surreal I can’t even put it into words.

I do have to make an apology to David’s top 4 opponent for accidentally letting out a single clap when he missed a Reversal flip that would’ve won him the game. It was uber disrespectful to do and something that will never happen again, I just got caught up in the excitement, I swear.

I didn’t get a chance to watch a lot of Ross’ games as most of my focus was on David, but from the little I did watch I can honestly say that all of David and Ross’ games were very well played, on both ends. I didn’t feel like there was too much luck on either side, and (besides the Sami issue in the top 16) all of the games seemed to go very smoothly the entire way through. Bravo to all who played.

Soon enough it was David vs. Ross in the finals, and we were all ecstatic. There were about a dozen XF and B-Side members and affiliates taking up the left front row of the crowd giggling like school girls about an all Washington, all incredibly-skilled players final.

At the time of writing this Pokemon hasn’t released any official footage from the event, so let me be the first to describe the games. I’m not going to go into painful detail, but I can give an overall gist…

Game 1 is a super legitimate game that David ended up winning due to getting a Magnezone up quickly. I wasn’t sure how Ross’ deck performed so unfortunately I couldn’t analyze the game while it was happening as well as I would’ve liked, but luckily Tyler Ninomura and Spencer Nalle of XF were right next to me to describe the action. When David got the early Magnezone they both seemed to be pretty worried, and as it turns out, David took the game.

David 1 – 0 Ross

Game 2 was another completely legitimate game that, as far as I can remember, Ross took a hold of early and never let go. In the crowd we were discussing how David probably should’ve scooped minutes earlier to save time for Game 3, but we aren’t playing the game and we aren’t under the kind of pressure he was at the time, so who are we to say. Ross takes the game.

David 1 – 1 Ross

As they’re shuffling time is called, which leads to a very audible “ahh!” and “sigh” throughout the crowd. They eventually get all set-up, flip their coin, and…

Heads, David goes first.

David opens Magnemite, Cleffa, and Reshiram to Ross’ Phanpy (and perhaps something else, I can’t quite remember). David attaches, and then uses Professor Oak’s New Theory to shuffle away a god-awful hand into one that, among other things, gave him access to turn 2 Magnezone, but no energy.

He debates whether or not to Magnetic Switch to Cleffa (Fulop and I both agreed that doing so would’ve been the correct course of action, but again, we’re not in that seat, etc.), but ultimately decides to pass the turn.

I was so stressed about David potentially hitting that energy for game that I admit I can’t remember what Ross’ turn was like. In the end I know that he didn’t advance anything too much, and ended up passing without an attachment.

David draws, whiffs the energy, but is able to Rare Candy into Magnezone, do some other things, and eventually Magnetic Draw for 4. He hits the energy on his third card, attaches, and Lost Burns for the game, the match, and the World Championship.

All of us freak out, jump up and down, hug each other, etc. while we let sink in that our friend and teammate just won Worlds, and another one of our friends who has proven himself as one of the best players of all time solidifies that title even further. An incredibly emotional moment.

As Ross is walking off stage I congratulate him with a handshake, and he tells me that if he would’ve gone first he had turn 2 Donphan and would’ve had the game. So it goes, I thought. So it goes.

The night was capped off with deck naming (let’s gooo MagneBolt!), incredible mexican food, XF vs. B-Side pack wars, and TCG vs. VGC World Champions playing each other in the open gaming room. Quite an incredible time indeed.

In closing…

I had a lot more I wanted to write about, but seeing as I’m already over twice the amount that I usually write, I think I’ll save the rest of this for next time.

Next week I’ll write an Emerging Powers set review, and will also discuss the details of next season (2 Regionals? Pro Points?) assuming that they’ve been released by then.

The week after, The Face of Modified series will return in which I’ll go over the Battle Road format, and what you should play.

If you stuck around for this long, I applaud you. You are the reason I do this.

xoxo,
kw

Kenny’s Wisdom: Worlds 2011 is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

I really hope you enjoy it — I tried to cram in as much “good stuff” as I could while I end this season on a high note, and I hope that it helps you out as you gear up for a new year of organized play!

Looking Back

Chances are very high that you came into this article already knowing that I placed 5th at this year’s World Championships. While I know that this is an honor that requires both skill and luck, I truly believe that I did a lot right on my part to remain as prepared as possible, and that the hard work paid off.

I’m going to try and divulge the things I did to prepare the best that I can, and I hope that some of my philosophy here can help you out in some way. If there’s something I’ve learned this year, it’s that a lot of what goes into a tournament depends on the work you’ve put in weeks before over what happens on the tournament day itself.

I know this is the second time I’ve looked back on this article, but I really like to use my “Everything I Know” article as a great place to look back and evaluate my season. At that point, City Championships had just ended, and the “big” second half of the season was about to begin.

We didn’t know anything about a possible new rotation, we had no idea what to expect in Call of Legends, and I had just one Battle Road and one City Championship under my belt. My rating was under what I wanted it to be at around exactly 1700, and I knew I had to really book it if I wanted to stay on top of my game.

Here’s what I left that article off with:

This season I stand a bit below 1700 — not quite where I wanted to be at this point, but close enough where if I can perform decently in the last 4 big events, I should have a fairly unchallenging run to get my invite.

I found a deck that I really like, and I’ve tested it into the ground to the point where I can play it in my sleep. Other players of Sablock associate the deck’s success with my name amongst others, and many people come to me for advice with their builds. I feel respected, wanted, and just on the verge of having the breakthrough performance that will put my name up with the other pros.

This is everything I know so far, and hopefully through this story, you guys will stand at the same level I’m at, eagerly awaiting a chance to be considered one of the very best there ever was.

===

There was a lot that went into that article, and it was probably one of the most emotional that I’ve ever written. A lot went behind my desire to be a better player. A big part of it is the YouTube show that I run — I want to perform well so that the viewers know they’re getting the best information I can give.

Another part was me feeling like I didn’t belong on the SixPrizes Underground Staff — my accomplishments paled compared to the other writers, and I knew I had a long way to go before anyone, let alone other accomplished players, would come to respect me.

And finally, it just feels good knowing that you can compete with the best. Not everybody shares that competitive drive, and I completely respect you if you don’t, but a lot of the thrill that this game brings me is a mindset that I feel I can beat anybody with enough hard work and practice, paired with luck.

Beyond that pivotal moment, I never looked back. I tested all that I could — I built more decks in real life than I ever had before, and I did a LOT of reading up on the articles of the other writers as I had been before. I say this many times, because I really mean it — SixPrizes Underground probably saved me multiple seasons of effort that I could have only achieved through a long period of work and networking.

Before Underground, I had to work with the best players that I knew, and the only access I had to great deck lists were either through the ones I could find myself, or by looking at often-rotated World Championship decks. Having an elite group of players essentially in my back pocket brought me forward to a level that I probably would have never reached otherwise.

But since you’re all members, you don’t really need me to tell you why Underground is awesome. However, I’m sure many of you are curious as to how I suddenly went from “average” to “awesome” over in one turning point in a season. SixPrizes gave me the tools, but that still meant that I had to use them.

I went from a mediocre run (1700 on rating after travelling to 7 City Championships is a pretty average performance) to a season ending in a record of 35-9 (2nd at States + 2nd at States + 5th at Regionals + 2-1 drop at Nationals to guarantee Worlds + 5th at Worlds). These stats are ones I was dreaming of at this point, and while it sounds EXTEMELY corny and lame, I made my dreams come true.

Hopefully, with my help, I can help you make yours come true, too! From this season on, I actually feel like I belong writing here. I could probably write tomes about what I’ve learned this year, and I think that my advice has finally matured to a point where it’s helpful enough to get you guys learning and improving your game. Since I don’t have time for a tome, how about a big article?

While I’ve been trying to keep you guys up to date on the little ends and odds that I do to test the best that I can, I also want to give you guys something recent. Seeing as we’re now around a thousand words in with no real content yet, let’s get recent. The time is now Post-Nationals, Pre-Worlds. Here’s what I did to prepare.

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Battle of Wittz: Looking Back, Worlds, and Emerging Powers is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

So, let’s start with a name. I’ve gone by several in the last couple of years; most notably my real name, Michael Schaefer. My first name choice when I originally got into Pokemon was “Charwolf”, a nod to my still-number-one favorite Pokemon, Arcanine. I spent a lot of the early Wizards years responding to that from my friends off the boards, and it still brings a smile to my face to hear it.

These days though, my chosen nickname is the equally firey-typed Flare Starfire, or perhaps just “Arcanine guy”. I will say not everyone needs a “nick”, and off the top of my head I can only think of one other player that has a public one. (Jason “Ness” K.) It fits with my demeanor though, and I think lends a bit of fun and style to the game for me, too.

So, name aside, let’s go back a few months to March 2011. Up until that point, I had been living in central California, and isolated from any chance at participating in organized play due to lack of a job and a car. Being nearly an hour and a half away from any league at all was very depressing, for sure.

The best I could do was to follow along with the set releases on my computer from home, and I always kept a modified legal Arcanine deck on the shelf in my room. Least I could do, right? Well, that all changed in March when I moved to Florida to finally snag a job, one that I could ride a bike to no less. This turned things around in a big way; the Haines City league, run by an old friend of mine Heidi Craig, was right around the corner.

Regionals were right on top of us, and I rushed to put together something, anything I could play; I went with Charizard since I could get it out of the blister packs, and well, I’ve always been a fire type deck player. Predictably, that didn’t go well record wise, hitting 50/50 at 4-4.

It was at this point that I signed up for Underground, because I was working and I needed to be on top of the information coming out and really didn’t have a lot of time to test with my new job. Research has always been a big factor for me; you have to know what you’re facing to be able to play at your fullest, I believe.

Moving forward a bit or so, Black and White releases, and it’s the Battle Roads that everyone hated. I went to two battle roads; the first of which I still played Charizard, if memory serves. Looking at the match table on my POP ID page here, I went 3-3.

I can’t remember precisely when the announcement came down, but I do remember that I decided to start testing Reshiboar as soon as I was able to get the cards for it, and I took my HGSS on deck to the Lakeland Battle Roads. It was my own styling on the deck; it aimed to put 2-3 Ninetales on the bench, and then draw through the entire deck and use recursion cards (Fisherman, FSL, Energy Retrieval) to fuel the actual attacks. It also ran RDL with 2 lightning energy in the deck.

In the end, it was a smaller tournament but I went 4-1, and actually made the cut into Top 4. I played against a Gengar deck in my Top 4 match and pulled out a narrow victory there; Top 2 was vs Gyarados though and while I almost pulled it out, I remember both of my Lightning energy being prized so I couldn’t use RDL.

This is the first tournament where I raised a few eyebrows, taking an off format deck into the finals. It did feel good, and I felt like my research had paid off, and being able to talk to some of the top players in the game here on the forums really helped my confidence.

So then, I had to decide. Did I want to do Nationals? The last time I had been at a National Championship, it was still being hosted by the Origins Gaming convention. It would be a lot of money, and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get the time off for it.

But, I was totally stoked at getting to play in general again, and my testing was going really well. I was slowly but surely filling my binder out with cards for the rotation, as I assumed that it would happen. That turned out to be correct, thankfully! I set up things to give myself a chance to make it, and found out that my friend Rax not only had gotten into organized play, but was going to be at Nationals as well.

With some ride assistance from Rax, Nationals became viable finance wise, and I bought the plane ticket. In testing, my deck was slowly evolving with the input of the forums and my own style of play. I had made the shift over to Magnezone as draw power, but I didn’t like only having 1 Reshiram in the deck and so little recursion at all.

In fact, you can ask my old housemates how furious I was at how unforgiving Magboar was when I first played it. It felt like if you made one error, one card off, one bad card prized, the deck just fell on its face. But, I kept practicing with it, and blending the “stock” Magboar list with my Reshiboar list, and I called the resulting Hybrid “Red Zone”.

Resources were still rough, but it had more options; you could swarm Reshiram or Magnezone, depending on what you needed, and you could be super aggressive with Sage because you could drag almost all of the cards back out of the discard later in the game. Here is the list I took to Nationals:

Red Zone v2

I found this list to be really flexible, and once it had a Magnezone set up, it didn’t have a lot of problems when I needed to search for a specific card, even without Twins. So, Round 1 opens at the National tournament, and I get my face bashed in by a friend with Kingdra Cinccino; he hit Reversal heads on turns 2, 3, and 4 to score repeated KOs. My deck simply crumbles even after setting up a Magnezone, and it feels like I’m in for a long day.

However, that would be my first and last loss in Swiss; I went 8-1 on the day, facing a little bit of everything, including a Vileplume deck.

I will say two things about the list; the Reversals have helped me way more often than not, either to stall out an opponent (Bringing up an Oddish / Gloom, or a heavy retreat Pokemon like an emptyMagnezone vs Primetime) and the first thing I’m going to test is just using Catcher instead and seeing if I can free up some room in the deck otherwise to adapt.

Second, this deck can really turn miracles if you just give yourself the chance to win. One of my Swiss games I won because I was in a bad position and hit a heads on Magnemite’s Thundershock, which lead me into top decking a Magnezone for my Magneton on the bench to take the winning prize vs Vileplume.

That is one lesson that I have learned again and again over the years: if it seems really crazy, but it has a chance to work, do it! I’d forget this advice later in the day and lose my Top 64 match because of it.

That said; here I was in Indianapolis, only a few months back into serious organized play, and I hit the top cut. I was really proud of myself for that, and once again it seemed that the communication and research I had been doing with my friends and 6Prizes was paying out.

I ended up losing to a straight Donphan deck; The first game one of my two Reshi’s was prized, and my RDL piece was prized as well, which led to having to swarm Magnezones against a Donphan deck. That didn’t end well, and in the second game it was Reshi and Cleffa in the prizes; I was one energy short of the game winning Ozone Buster, and I had a Switch card in hand.

I promoted Emboar to tank for one hit, leaving RDL and Cleffa on the bench. He Reversal’d the Cleffa for the game. If I had followed my own advice from above, I would have shuffled my hand in to look for the energy and hope for a tails on the Cleffa / Switch back in hand to force a game 3. I have no regrets about the game, one way or another.

So, I returned from Nationals to find that my name had grown a little more, at least in local circles. I made the news report of the Indianapolis Star, and they took some footage of my Top 64 match. Overall, it felt really good that people were behind me; one of the worst things that I remember from previous tournament experiences is that it sucks to be alone.

Having someone to fight for, to report back to, to help cheer you on…. these are things that I’d never had before. Granted, back then I was more likely to build a deck with Arcanine in it than a meta deck (I loved it when Arcanine EX was out!) but they were always well built. Now I was playing with fire, literally and figuratively, and I wanted to keep going. Except, I missed the trip and invite.

As it turns out, fate had one more twist in store for me. Ever lost your house before? Well, it’s not fun. Due to really junky circumstances with the landlord, and some of the people I was living with moving out, it steadily became impossible for me to stay at my new home in Florida.

My job was working out really well, and thankfully I was able to get a transfer to work in a store about an hours drive away from where I used to live. This meant that I needed to get back to the west coast, and my old roommate still had a space for me to come back to.

The plan was on; move back to California by attending Worlds. My friends Cathy, Malo and TRUK were gracious enough to not only give me some floor space, but a ride back up to the central valley after the event was over.

So, I had a choice to make. I, like many other people I’m sure, had built and tested Reshiphlosion. My problem with it was that if it got Judged in the first couple of turns, it usually had a tough time recovering before it was too late. I had gotten used to the insurance of Magnezone.

It was either take Reshiphlosion with mirrors everywhere and a 50/50 against the field, or take Red Zone and have the underdog matchup vs Primetime, but have a great matchup vs the Reshiphlosions. I decided to play the deck I had become comfortable with, and take the risk on a meta call since I knew Magnezone Emboar and its variants weren’t being targeted any more.

Immediately I found that I rather liked match play; the deck is susceptible to bad starts on the occasion, but if I can get a Collector or get to a Cleffa I can get it started. The list I decided to run? It’s the same as my Nationals deck, -1 Tyrogue and +1 Twins.

As it turns out, a lot of people decided to take Tyrogue out of their decks, which made leaving Cleffa in hugely beneficial! My first opponent was a kind Japanese gentleman running Primetime. I went second, but we both opened with Collector, and I had a turn 2 Zone to protect me from Judge.

Typically if I can set up alongside my opponent with Primetime I’ll usually pull out the win, and the gentleman scooped to save time for the next games. Game 2 is a wash for me; I don’t have anything in hand, and I scoop to buy time for Game 3, but being guaranteed to go first, I ask the deck for a Collector and an energy, and indeed, I set up fully by turn 3.

This is where it got interesting, though. I played next against an American, and you’ll have to forgive me as I’ve forgotten your name. :( He was playing Donphan Dragons, but he openly admitted that he had just come back to the game, and that his entire deck was borrowed. I was apt to believe him, because he didn’t know about RDL, and so I won the first game quite handily.

The next two however, I just couldn’t get set up at all. By the end of the third game, we’ve hit time. My Turn 3 consisted of my Reshi with 60 damage on it taking a prize to tie it up at 2-2, bringing us to sudden death. He had an option of a fresh Donphan, or a Dewott with 4 colorless energy on it. He looked at his hand, promoted the Donphan, attached and Earthquaked.

I had to stop for a second, because I didn’t really believe it; I used my 120 damage Reshi to Outrage his Donphan to take the sudden death prize and the game. I acknowledged that it was a huge misplay, and we both laughed about it. He simply needed to stop attacking and he would’ve had the game. I in turn promised him that I would do my best to carry the torch all the way.

Next two rounds I had my desired opponent: Reshiphlosion decks! Reshiphlosion just doesn’t have enough PlusPowers to handle an RDL played at the end of the game after chewing through multiple Magnezones, and since I run so much energy recursion, discarding it doesn’t really slow the deck down. Each of those matches was 2-0.

Approaching the end, it was the Top 32; My opponent was Nick Fotheringham, who I found out later had been getting some buzz on the boards himself. I don’t remember much of the matches themself, except that I had some better than average flips in the first game, getting two turns of tails => heads for Cleffa to start off.

It’s a bit touch and go, and Nick was playing Megazord if my memory serves. I do have trouble with that deck depending on the Donphan count. But, I pull it out, and in game 2 Time is called with his 4 prizes remaining to my 1. He scoops, telling me he can’t take that many prizes.

At this point, Cabd (Yanmega Guy, who I met for the first time at this tournament and found out goes to League in the same city I now work in) texts me saying that the 6P boards are behind me, and that I’ve gone the farthest of everyone in the grinder.

This stuns me; I wasn’t really thinking about it that way. I try to play one game at a time, but I really had come far at this point! I was hoping, praying that they’d make it Top 16 so I wouldn’t have to play again. It was late, and my nerves were already shot.

Unfortunately for me, they posted the pairings, and we sat down for one more game. Looking at my hand, it didn’t look very hot, set up, opponent wins the coin flip. And then, they tell us to all come back tomorrow and congratulations for winning the grinder.

I’m not too proud to admit that I fell apart. I shook hands with my opponent and congratulated him, and I probably sounded like an idiot because I couldn’t form words for the emotions welling up inside of me. Sounded like wails, if anything. I’m mildly autistic and I just couldn’t handle the moment, and I actually started hyperventilating, causing the people around me to make sure I was ok.

I hadn’t had anything to eat all day, I was tired, but the people around us were all happy, cheering us on! Richard really fooled me hard, but I was euphoric and manic for the rest of the night. Here, here was success! And to think that I was planning on volunteering for the rest of the weekend like I usually did at Worlds, way back when. I asked where Cathy had gone and they had went to the Fox Sports bar.

Everyone from my old event area in California was there, and when they saw me they all applauded… it was surreal. I want to thank all of you who had my back at Worlds for making it possible for me to make it through the day.

Johnny Blaze and the Chimentos doubly so, for giving me something to eat before what turned out to be the final round of the grinders, some last minute testing and just being able to hang out with you in general, it kept me centered. Thank you so much, and I hope to see you at more national events.

So, the big event; the experience was everything I’d imagined it to be. I knew going in that my performance wouldn’t so much matter as add to what was already a fantastic weekend. In short form, I had 5 close games and 2 bleh games; I thoroughly enjoyed the games that I actually got to play.

For the records, this was my opening hand Round 3: Tepig, Legend Piece, and 5 Energy. My Reshiphlosion opponent was equally hand locked, and we’ll just say Tepig’s burn took a prize (energy) and I drew into a Reversal and more energy and the other legend piece and manually fired Ozone Buster to take….2 more prizes of energy. Oh well! X)

I pile shuffled like crazy and in round 4 I got Reshiram, Magnemite, 4 Energy, and Fisherman. X) Ended how it sounds. I take 85th place at 3-4. Wouldn’t trade it for the world, and I get a chance to play Yoneda Takuya at the gunslinging table while David’s Magneboar deck is up on the big screen.

I would find out later that David and I have somewhat similar lists; as I call it, a “Reshiram heavy” Magneboar. Knowing that I had made the right deck choice for the day, for the grinder, that made me feel awesome for following my own path. I also ended up winning my battle with Yoneda Takuya and getting an Emerging Powers pack. Little did I know, that J-Wittz was watching my fight.

Josh and I had been keeping in contact since we met at Nationals; I had wanted to tell him how much his show, Prof-it, had helped my research. He’s a really cool guy, and back then he traded me a signed Hoppip card, which I intend to keep in my binder. I was psyched to see him do so well, making Top Cut at Worlds.

I don’t know if the word is impressed, but he was certainly happy at how well I was doing, and he along with Matt7 and Cabd urged me to write my experience up for you all, so here it is. One of the last things I did was offer to strike up a friendly rivalry with J-Wittz, and he accepted.

One of the things I firmly believe in is that you have to set mileposts for yourself; you need someone above you to train with and against, to strive to surpass. I couldn’t ask for a better friend, or a better rival. I hope we will both be sitting at the top tables come around Nationals and Worlds next year!

A closing thought for you all; I played a practice game against Yanmega Guy, Cabd. During the fight, he noticed my fluid hand and card movements, and commented that I “play with style”. For all intents and purposes, this is the first time someones ever noticed, but I explained.

When I’m really in the zone, I do move with purpose, I play my cards a certain way, I draw them a certain way. You could say I even emulate the styles of play you find on card battler animes like Yugioh or my favorite, Cardfight: Vanguard!.

My stance on this is threefold; If I look good, my deck looks good, and I play with style and confidence, then I won’t make any mistakes. Not only that, but I’ll enjoy myself and feel good! I can safely say that before this season, back when I used to play, losing bothered me. I didn’t have my reason for being, and I didn’t have anyone behind me.

Now, I can enjoy the experience, -and- pick up a few wins while I’m at it while accepting the losses that naturally come with a randomized game.

So with that, I want to wish you all luck for the next season; my team is the people around me, the people I work and play and test with. I would be thrilled if you would like to sit down and have a battle with me- I’ll do my best to deliver a fun and challenging fight.

My name is Mike Schaefer, but you can call me Flare or even Arcanine Guy. This season, much like my avatar, I was the firey underdog. Next season, I’ll be running with the pack, and I hope you’ll join me.

Till then, play with style and enjoy this wonderful community for all it’s worth!

Flare
“Arcanine Guy”

The Firey (Under)Dog – The Arcanine Guy’s Worlds Journey is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

I couldn’t help to think to myself how bad of a play the deck was in such a Luxchomp heavy format, but how much potential it might have after our next rotation. Thankfully I traded for Yanmega Primes early, partly for this reason and partly because there was a fun deck I wanted to do with them.

Fast forward to after Regional’s and P!P announces the new HGSS on format, and at the time I could not have been more thrilled. I honestly thought that this new format would bring more skill and diversity into the game.

The first deck I built for the new format was Yanmega/Magnezone, my first take on the deck was horrible, and even if I could I find my old list for it I don’t think I would show it to you. I ran like 2 Junk Arm, Serperior, just tons of bad choices, I don’t even want to go into.

Shortly afterwards Magneboar starts making huge waves and with good reason, it’s a deck with near unlimited damage potential and a built-in draw engine. I start testing it almost exclusively up until Canada Nationals. After Canadian Nationals I quickly start to realize how much more diverse this format is than I originally realized.

Despite having no intention to play at US Nationals, I started testing Yanmega/Magnezone again almost non-stop. I tried to push the deck on my little brother feeling that it was the BDIF of the format, but he sticks with Magneboar though and I really can’t fault him over that. He had been testing the deck non-stop for the last 2 months or so and felt comfortable with it.

After US Nationals the metagame was finally starting to take shape with a large number of decks having potential but only a small handful top tier in my opinion. My testing revolved around 3 main decks Yanmega/Magnezone, Stage 1s, and Typhlosion/Reshiram.

One of my core beliefs in this game is that if you want to grow and become a better player you have to realize and own up to your mistakes, and at this point I have made two huge ones. I gave up on two very good decks way to quickly. My first attempt at Yanmega/Magnezone didn’t fail due to the concept, but rather due to my poor list.

The more I tested this new format the better I became at understanding it and building decks accordingly. Once I had gotten more experience in this new format, I should have come back and tried to come up with a better list rather than to simply write it off.

The same thing with Emboar/Magnezone; the deck had so much potential, but it just simply wasn’t as consistent as most of the other decks in the format. However, once it got set up, the deck simply did not lose. I was so focused on my new deck and what the current metagame was that I didn’t even bother to go back and test Emboar/Zone (even after Chris Fulop posted his new and updated list).

I read his article, and thought the idea was sound, but the bottom-line is I never bothered to test it. I thought Chris was mainly pulling at straws desperately trying to save himself from the backlash that had been coming after the deck widely under preformed at both U.S. and Canadian Nationals.

I’m sure Chris is going to have a well deserved field day with his next article. I only wish I would have taken his last article more seriously. I always loved Emboar/Magnezone and wish I would have spent more time trying to correct the problems in the list than simply abandoning it.

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Jay’s Gym: Top 16 Worlds Report is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Not only so you, as readers, can get access to it quicker, but so that I can make sure my memory of events and games remains crisp and accurate. The weekend was extremely long, and tiring (but most importantly fun!) so I apologize if I get any tiny details mixed up, and I will gladly correct them after the article goes up if anything gets brought up.

I do not think it will be an issue, but I have a lot to write about, and since this article is primarily a tournament report, some things may be a little off but it shouldn’t be too bad.

Magneboar Wins!

Go me!

Let me first lead off that I will take a brief moment to feel vindicated. First and foremost, Masters was won by Magneboar. After some degree of backlash for my support of what some claimed was an “inferior deck”, having it go on to win Worlds in the hardest age group is, at the very least, a testament to the fact that I was not merely “incorrect” or ” giving out false information ” the past few months, as some members continue to have claimed.

I am sure they will not be swayed in their conviction, but I feel that having TWO Magneboar lists make the Top 8 of Worlds (David Cohen, who took first, and an Italian player who lost in top 8 to Ross’s Vileplume deck) is as good of defense of the validity of my information as anything else.

It goes to show the cyclical state of the format that I had addressed previously. Just because a deck isn’t ideal at any given point in time does not mean that it is not powerful and a potential tier 1 deck. A deck’s viability is (generally) dependent on what other decks are being played.

At US Nationals, Magneboar was the primary target: players came in with decks gunning for it. To make it worse, most players who used Magneboar simply had lists prepared for mirror and decks which had been a bit behind curve. Magneboar is “Deck A”, and the other decks in the format are “Deck B”.

Deck A is facing a huge handicap when it is being teched against by all of the Deck Bs at the tournament, and in turn does not run any cards to try and “fight back”. Had Magneboar lists been tweaked to try and fight back against the tactics used to exploit it, things could have been very different. The issue is, at Nationals, it was very difficult to really get a read as to what would be the most played deck, and it is also difficult to figure out in the very short period of time we had to tweak decks, how to properly “counter-tech”.

Now, we look at the Worlds metagame. Judging by the LCQ, and the open play area, a vast majority of decks could be summed up as Megazone, Typhlosion, and Stage 1 decks. Arguably 80% of the decks being played fell under those categories. This left a fairly defined format, and one in which Magneboar was suddenly a pretty strong choice again.

The deck was an overwhelming favorite against the Typhlosion decks, had a varying matchup against Megazone (60-40 vs Pachi without Kingdra, 40-60 vs builds with Jirachi and 2 Kingdras, with other lists falling closer to 50-50) and a 60-40 matchup against the Stage 1 decks.

Zekrom had also done well in the LCQ, and the deck’s Zekrom matchup was very strong. With the adaption of Twins in the list and a tweaked list, Magneboar was again well positioned in the format. With the swarms of Typhlosion seeing play, you were likely to face a load of 70-30 or better matchups all day long.

The Flippy Format

One other thing I feel like I need to address is the nature of this “flippy” format. Now, Pokemon Reversal flips are annoying (and you’ll see how they impacted my games on the course of the weekend, but I flipped roughly 30% on Reversals over the course of the whole time I was in San Diego), but the biggest factor of this format is clearly the opening flip.

The format has become inherently aggressive. Every deck wants to be the fast deck, take prizes, and ideally, through the use of Reversals, slow down an opponents set up. All of the Yanmega decks were at a huge advantage going first, but could fall behind when stuck on the draw. This became more and more relevent as the “speed” decks faced off against each other.

The fact that both decks hinged heavily on being aggressive meant that whoever went second was at a ridiculous disadvantage. I could use this as a means by which to insult the awful decision to change the opening first turn rules, but I feel thats redundant and done to death. I think that there are two trains of thought for how to approach the format.

The first seems to be the prevailing one: Build a deck trying to exploit the advantage that speed decks have. Yanmega Magnezone, Stage 1s, Zekrom, and to a degree Typhlosion are all built to exploit the huge edge going first gives. The way players have build decks emphasizes the importance of the opening flip. Often times, if these decks do go first with a strong hand, they merely steamroll the opposition.

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Fulop’s Korner: Worlds 2011 is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Christopher Kan, David Cohen, Gustavo Wada

It seems to be the cool thing to do, have a name for you articles. So, my pathetic attempt to come up with a name is Airhawk’s Eye. What do you all think? Please, if you have a better idea put it in the comments. I would love to hear some cool ideas.

Anyway, let’s get onto the meat of this article. We are going to take a look at the World Championship and the LCQ. We are going to cover more than just what decks did well (but don’t worry, we will talk about the decks). If you really want just the deck reports go to the bottom.

I do not have the lists for you, but I’m sure that they will trickle out over the next few weeks. I personally look forward to all the awesome reports. I’m sure that some will be gracing this website (or at least I hope so).

Also, I do not have much coverage from the Juniors and Seniors. So, the stuff that I am going to go over is all about the Masters. I really hope that this does not offend anyone.

The very first thing I want to do is look at some of the personal storylines that I talked about in my pre-Worlds article.

How did the Japanese do?

Unfortunately, the Japanese players did not have a strong showing at Worlds. Pokémon players ever where are always interested in what the Japanese are doing. The Japanese get the sets much earlier than the rest of the world. This tends to lead to the Japanese knowing all of the tricks of the Worlds’ format.

Unfortunately, this year (due to the Tsunami) the Japanese did not have their qualifying tournament. Therefore, only reigning champion Yuta was guaranteed into the main event. The fan favorite, Yamato, did make it through the LCQ, but that meant that only two Japanese players were in the big dance.

So, the odds were against them from the start and neither made it to the Top Cut. Yamato did not let the fan base down as he played an original deck that featured Zekrom/Yanmega/Lanturn.

How did the non-Japanese foreign players fair?

Well they had a decent showing in the Top Cut. Six of the Top 16 were not United States Citizens. There was Sammi Sekkoum from Great Britian, David Meulenbroeks from the Netherlands, Lorenzo Voltoline from Italy, Filipp Lausch form Australia, Miska Saari from Finland, and Josue Palomino from Mexico.

Josue made it to the final four, guaranteeing himself a trip to next year’s World Championships. The number one seed in the Top Cut was Sammi Sekkoum, but much like myself he succumbed to the “curse of the first” and was knocked out in the opening salvo of what turned out to be a masterful run for Ross Cawthon.

How did the American “Superstars” do?

Justin and Kyle

Justin Sanchez: Our recently crowned USA National champion did not fair well. He ended up going 1-4 and dropped in the main event. The man deserves a lot of credit for winning the US Nats tourney. However, he was a relative newcomer to the big show.

This leaves the question: does he have staying power? Many people can hit that magical run into stardom. They deserve all the credit and respect that a National Champion is due, but staying at the top of the game is hard. He will have a whole new season to start his national defense in less than a month.

Kyle “Pooka” Sucevich: The early fan favorite for the USA National tournament, the most decorated Nats competitor, and consistent Worlds qualifier also did not fare well in the main event. Pooka stuck with his second place deck, Megazord, but was only able to manage a 3-4 Swiss record. The man is ultra consistent and a master of the game. However, he is still in the hunt for his “one shining moment” on the World’s stage.

John Kettler: The HeyTrainer favorite had his streak broken. If I am not mistaken, Kettler had qualified for Worlds every year that he has competed. Unfortunately, the LCQ was not as friendly as it has been in the past for him. He failed to make it through to the main event.

2 time World Champion Jason K

Jason “Ness” Klaczynski: The former two time World Champion had an unfortunate run at Nationals and lost his ranking invite. So, like many other great players, Ness was relegated to the Grinder. In a surprise move (OK, not really) Pokémon decided to let in the Top 16 competitors from the LCQ instead of the advertised eight.

According to sources (I figured I would use most journalists’ favorite phrase), Ness made it to the round of 32 in the LCQ. However, his attempt at making the main event ended in sudden death heart break. The man who has been one of the top faces in the competitive scene for ever missed out on his chance to play for the World Championship. You can’t win them all, right?

Tom Dolezal: I was personally interested in this man’s tournament success. He took tyRam deeper than anyone else at USA Nationals. I figured that he would run the deck again and was possibly the best hope for the deck to win it all. Tom went 6-1 in Swiss losing one to J-Wittz’s MegaJudge deck.

However, Tom got his revenge in the round of 8 and knocked Jwittz from the tournament. He secured his trip to next year’s World Championship and possibly could take tyRam to new heights next season. He lost in the top 4 to Ross Cawthon’s rogue deck (more to come on that later).

Josh “Jwittz” Wittenkeller: The webepisode host has grown massively in popularity over the last year. The man was one of the founding fathers of SableLock last format and after a 2-1 Nats record he took to the new format like a fish to water. The man went 6-1 in the Swiss losing in round seven to Sammi Sekkoum. Then Josh made it to top 8 and lost to Tom Dolezal in the rematch.

Josh is quickly growing into one of the lead personalities that the game has to offer. His honest commentary and caring heart has done more than most to grow the game recently. Hopefully, he will be a mainstay for the next couple seasons.

Chris Fulop: One of the game’s elder statesmen went out with class. Fulop has recently announced that this was going to be his last full season of competitive Pokémon. The gaming guru is moving to Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon Judging next season. He was looking to go out with a bang at this year’s Worlds. It just happened in a way that no one foresaw. He ended up scooping his last Swiss match to Ross Cawthon.

This victory for Cawthon propelled him into the 16th position. He ended up taking his rogue beast to the top two. Cawthon fell in sudden death to a turn two Magnezone to the face for 100 damage (I know that feeling…).

Overall, the USA contingent had a massive showing. It helps that it is the most represented country in the tournament. Yet, the USA held six of the top eight spots on the final leader board. I’m sure that I missed someone’s favorite player. Just ask in the comments and I’m sure that we can get you an answer to how he/she did. I do not want to offend anyone.

How was the coverage?

The much ballyhooed live coverage came through with a should shrug this year. It was a mixed bag of results to be sure.

The live coverage for the LCQ was not good at all. Most people were relying on personal text messages and then information getting leaked out on PokeGym to get information. I was a little shocked by this. There were many players at the event that already had invites. To be honest, I expected more Twitter coverage from them.

The live coverage did get slightly better the next day. In the Swiss rounds, the guy over at The Top Cut did an average job getting the pairings out. It is not their fault because three of them were playing in the event.

However, the best coverage of the Swiss rounds ended up being the official Pokémon website. The official site ended up being the fasted place to get the pairing and standing coverage. The official site even had a mini strategy article with someone writing it who actually sounded like he/she halfway knew what was going on.

The coverage picked up in a big way the final day. Fortunately, tylertyphlosion and haryp over on PokeGym had the coverage on lock down with real time updates on the games states. The community was really into the event and Ross Cawthon’s epic rogue deck was gaining popularity as the day wore on. It was a great thing to behold.

While the guys over at the Top Cut struggled in the “live” coverage arena, I feel that everyone will be extremely pleased with their recorded video coverage. From their Tweet updates, the guys got great video coverage from everything.

They have video from the team challenge, the event location, interview with players, the Swiss rounds, and the Top Cut rounds. These videos will be available at their YouTube page soon. I have a feeling that these videos will be wildly popular with the player base and push the envelope in event coverage of the future.

Also, Jwittz got some coverage footage that I’m sure will make it into future Prof-It episodes.

I do have one suggestion to the people over at the Top Cut: use Justin.tv’s mobile broadcasting app next season. With any Android based phone, you could have coverage at local events all over the country. The Top cut guys could “outsource” the coverage to local players using Android phones.

This way we could get live coverage on a national scale at smaller events. You could cover Battle Roads, Cities, States, and Regional in this manner. You could run multiple channels and have 3-4 highlighted locations every weekend. I have tried this app on my phone and it works pretty well. I have a 5 megapixel camera that take pretty solid video. If I get to tournaments next season I would be interested in doing this and I’m sure that others would be interested.

Overall, the coverage is going in the right direction. It is still shaky, but that is understandable.

The Top 16

Here is the breakdown of the Top 16 players and decks. Now, not to be rude, but we are going to cover the decks more than the players now.

Masters Division

Sami Sekkoum (GB) Yanmega/Magnezone
Dylan Bryan (US) Stage 1 (not sure on the lines, likely Donphan, Yanmega, Zoroark)
Luke Reed (US) Reshiram/Typhlosion
Josh Wittenkeller (US) Yanmega/Magnezone
Tom Dolezal (US) Reshiram/Typhlosion
Jeremy Jallen (US) Reshiram/Typhlosion
David Meulenbroeks (NL) Reshiram/Typhlosion
Lorenzo Voltolina (IT) Magnezone/Emboar
Filipp Lausch (AT)  Yanmega/Magnezone
David Cohen (US) Reshiram/Emboar/Magnezone tech/ RDL Tech
Mitchel Silva (US) Reshiram/Typhlosion
Jay Hornung (US)
Miska Saari (FI) Reshiram/Typhlosion
Josue Palomino (MX) Reshiram/Typhlosion
Dylan Lefavour (US) Reshiram/Typhlosion
Ross Cawthon (US) Vileplume, Reuniclus, Blissey Prime, Suicune& Entei Legend, Zekrom, Donphan Prime, Pichu, Tropical Beach Stadium

*At the time of this writing I did not have the decks for Jay Hornung, Dylan Bryan, and Dyle Lefavour, someone should really help me out. We could go back and edit them in. All figures to follow are based on this incomplete data, but can be edited in later. I just wanted to get an article up so that the information could be in one easy to access place for people.

Let me start the mini-deck analysis portion by just saying what an interesting set of results we got. This tournament was all over the place. I do need to state that this is not going to go into what the future holds for each of these decks.

I will likely share my thoughts on that in a later article. This will also be a rather quick overview. I am sure that other people (and even myself) will create longer articles dedicated to each of these decks post-worlds. Let’s dive into the break down.

Numbers in Top 16

tyRam: at least 8
Yanmega/Magnezone: at least 3
MagneBoar: 1
Vileplume/Reuniclus, Blissey Prime, Suicune & Entei Legend, Zekrom, Donphan Prime, Pichu: only 1
Stage 1: 1
ReshirBoar (teched): 1

The Top 4

tyRam: 2
Yanmega/Magnezone: 0
ReshiBoar (teched): 1
Epic Rogue: 1

That is an interesting break down, let’s dive into the decks themselves.

Yanmega/Magenzone: I ultimately feel that this tournament was a big letdown for this deck. Many, many people were claiming that this deck was the BDIF after the strong showing and Canada and Mexico Nationals along with winning the USA National. Yet, it did not crack the top 4 and only had one in the top 8. This was quite a shock to many people. How can the BDIF be locked out of the top 4?

This deck hits for fast damage and used Magnezone to do the heavy lifting. However, many people felt that this deck was weak to tyRam. It would appear as though maybe there is some truth to that. Once people realized that the babies were not a safe play against Yanmega, all the easy prize opportunities dried up for this deck.

The deck is then forced into either 2HKOing the active with Yanmega or OHKOing Reshirams or Typhlosions at the cost of Lost Burning three energy. Given that most decks only run around 12 energy, MegaJudge can really struggle to keep the OHKOs rolling against heavy hp decks. Also, it does not help that tyRam can OHKO anything in MegaJudge on a consistent basis.

This certainly remains one of the best decks in the format, but it is not the clear cut BDIF like some people thought. Maybe the price will come down a bit?

tyRam: Most of the people who refused to believe that Yanmega/Magnezone was the BDIF, believed that tyRam was the BDIF. This deck held at least seven of the top 16 spots. I suspect it might be played by at least one of the three unknown slots; thus, it would have half of the top 16 spots. Now, these are certainly not LuxChomp type numbers, but they are very solid. The deck also owned half of the top 4 spots, but failed to reach the finals.

The deck obviously is fairly quick to set up. Many people like it for its internal consistency and the resistance to hand disruption in the mid to late game. The deck can virtually always be swinging for 120 no later than turn 3. That is a very rough thing to play against. It is obviously a little weak to Item-Lock.

I honestly believe this deck to be the BDIF. When the announcement of an early rotation was made public this deck’s relative, ReshiBoar, was quickly hyped. A select few remained loyal to tyRam though. USA Nationals seemed to convince the world that the deck was here to stay.

One player (cough, cough) went 9-0 in Swiss with the deck, and Tom Dolezal top it to the top 8. I honestly believe the only reason why this deck did not win US Nats was because not many of the game’s truly great players were playing it. Now that some of the best are running it, it is showing it’s true colors as a beast.

MagneBoar: This deck was the supposed clear, cut BDIF prior to US Nationals. This deck was hyped into oblivion by some many people. Yet, if massively failed to live up to expectations at US Nationals. Then Chris Fulop continued to put his support behind the deck. Many people gave him a very hard time about that (myself included), but I want to be the first to say, “You were right, again.”

The deck uses Magnezone for draw and attack power and Emboar to power up the attacks. RDL can also be teched into the deck for a big hitter that takes extra prizes. Once set up this deck is an absolute beast to take out. However, if you can hit your Reversal flips you can neutralize this deck fairly quickly. So, it was probably good that this deck performed well, because the future does not look too bright for it.

I still do not believe that this deck the BDIF, but if your list is tight and you are running hot, it can take down anything.

ReshiBoar (teched): This is a subset of ReshiBoar and MagneBoar. The Champ’s deck was self-described as a “straightforward Reshiram deck. I also use Magnezone and Rayquaza & Deoxys LEGEND. It’s designed to do a lot of damage. I avoid coin flips as much as I can, and there’s not much trickery. I don’t even play Pokémon Reversals, unlike pretty much everyone else.”

It operates much the same as a straight Reshiboar, but it replaces Ninetales with Magnezone. It allows you to run less recovery (no discarding with Ninetales and you already run the Rare Candy). Then you toss in a couple Lightning Energy and you can use Magnezone and RDL as heavy hitters.

Ultimately, the champ decided to take as much luck out of the game as he could and it paid off. Great call.

Epic Rogue: That is what I am going to start calling this deck. Epic Rogue consists of Donphan Prime, Reuniclus, Vileplume, Zekrom, Pichu, Blissey Prime, and Suicune & Entei Legend. Basically, the idea is to Item-Lock the game. Then utilize your heavy Supporter count to gain the upper hand.

You can use Blissey Prime and Reuniclus to regulate the damage on Zekrom and then score OHKOs. SEL is there to OHKO anything in tyRam or ReshiBoar. It was a wicked awesome creation by a great deck builder, Ross Cawthon. I really hope that this deck gets printed as a World Championship deck. It was by far the most unique deck at the tournament.

As the tournament wore on, the buzz continued to build around this deck. Jwittz really accelerated the buzz when he Tweeted that he played the most random HGSS-on he had ever seen. On the PokeGym, the support for the deck and its evil-genius grew throughout the event, until it because the obvious fan favorite.

Ultimately, if fell to MagneBoar in a sudden death game three. I really wish that they finals would be an open time limit so that the games could have a “pure” winner. I would have liked to have seen what this deck would have done over the course of a whole third game. I was KOd by a turn two Magnezone 100 damage to the face (I know the feeling, that was how I went out at Nats).

Even though this deck obviously works, people need so stay calm about it. First, the deck was the last deck into the Top Cut. So, one more early loss, or if Fulop does not scoop and ends up winning, Ross’s Epic Rogue would not even be a conversations starter right now. People were speculating at how much Blissey would be on T&T tomorrow.

I want to remind everyone that many people thought the same thing about Xander/Carlos’ deck from US Nats. It was a great rogue deck that was a great meta game call. However, after a ton of playtesting and learning how to approach it, that deck was good, but beatable. This deck might be similar.

Yes, it could go Tier 1, or people could learn how to play against it and it could be a one hit wonder. I’m sure that there will be articles dissecting this thing into pieces.

Just off the top of my head, it would seem that Zoroark + SP Darkness Energy would be the bane of this deck’s existence. tyRam players could also tech in a 1-0-1 Samurott or copies of Zekrom to combat the SEL. There seem to be plays that can go against this deck, but we won’t know for sure until people go out and test it a lot.

For now, it was a brilliant play and Ross deserves all the credit in the world! Great job Ross Cawthon.

Ultimately, I just want to congratulate all of the player who got to compete at Worlds. I was jealous of you. The swag was absolutely awesome. I really want one of the playmats (someone hook me up maybe :P  ). The promo card is awesome and might actually be playable.

Congratulations to all of the players who made the Top Cut.

Finally, congratulations to David Cohen. He is our 2011 Masters World Champion!

Airhawk’s Eye: Worlds!!! is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Hey everybody! My name is Josh Wittenkeller, and over the past 2 years I’m sure most of you have begun calling me J-Wittz. I’ve been working since November of 2009 on a YouTube show called Prof-It! The show’s aim is to help the beginning player with the competitive atmosphere of the Pokémon Trading Card Game.

Eventually as time went on, I’ve made it my goal to improve myself as a player to A) perform the best that I can while still having fun, B) legitimize the show by showing that the information comes from a good and experienced player, and C) eventually allow myself to provide information to both the new and seasoned players at the same time.

Despite not really achieving much as the show started, things got way bigger (and I mean way, WAY bigger) than I ever expected while still having minimal experience back in the game, I was also forced with D) the expectation that I needed to well because I’m “that famous YouTube guy”.

Inversely, I also wanted to do better because of E) the guys who DON’T expect me to do well because “I’m that YouTube guy” and nothing more.

I feel like with this season finally over, I’ll come much closer to achieving those five things.

Long story short, I’ve worked hard and turned out a heck of a season. I had a mediocre Cities slump that was broken with a win at the very end, and things just turned around from there. I ended up taking 2nd at IL and WI states, followed by a 5th place at Regionals, and from there my rating skyrocketed and I was pretty much set for a spot to compete in the 2011 World Championships.

At Nationals I went 2-1 drop to play it safe and not take any possible risk of dropping below the “safe zone” for qualifying on rating. I ended up being far above what was needed to be safe, but I regret nothing. I had an amazing time at Nationals meeting everyone and getting the best coverage that I could, and I left the event very satisfied.

After now being at Worlds and seeing “what the fuss” is all about, I’d make the same decision every single time—EVEN if I went 2-5 for the day at Worlds itself! Yes, the rating system is a little flawed, but being given the option to at least deal with its flaws and prevent myself from losing the opportunity was enough for me.

I know everyone has their opinions, but for me Worlds was another level from Nationals entirely. I felt like I was still able to meet a large amount of the people that I’ve grown to become friends with in the game, all while meeting an amazing amount of friends and fans from across the globe. Throw in the greater hype, atmosphere, and sheer amount of options than any tournament out there, and I was blown away.

But let’s be honest, you didn’t come here to read some sappy emotional stuff! You probably just want to get to my report and see how the games went! As I’ve put at the top—you can skip out on my life story and instead listen to me talk about my games in my video.

I thought it’d be a nice quick way to deal with things, but I actually went into a great amount of detail with my full story—the video itself is half an hour! I know that might sound daunting, but just play it in the background while doing something else that requires a minimal attention span, and I’m sure you’ll still get a lot out of it without getting bored : P.

One last thing before I get to what you really came here to read—thank you, everybody! Staff of all kinds, players of all kinds, and fans of all kinds, you guys truly are the best community for a competitive card game, and I hope to see things grow year after year.

Thanks for all the support for me as either a YouTuber or a player, and I definitely wouldn’t be doing anything close to what I’ve done in either category without the thousands of you that make this game awesome. I hope you all had a great season, and I’ll see you guys at Battle Roads soon!

- J-Wittz (but I’ll still always just be Josh : P)

Quick-And-Dirty Report

I played: Magnezone/Yanmega with 1-0-1 Kingdra and Jirachi

Round 1 vs. Curtis Lyon (CA) w/ Reshiphlosion + Kingdra

I go first, set up fast, and take over his slower setup.

1-0

Round 2 vs. Tom Hall (UK) w/ Zekrom/Yanmega

I go first, and take a large lead off his weak start. I’m about 2-3 prizes up on time despite a few misplays, and he can’t come back after the +3 time extention.

2-0

Round 3 vs. Bruno Martin (AR) w/ ZoneMega + Kingdra

I go first, and he gets 2 basics over the course of his 2 turns. I set up basics turn 1, and ko each of his basics turns 2 and 3 for a very lucky and fast win.

3-0

Round 4 vs. Jayson Harry (US) w/ ZoneMega + Kingdra

I go first, but start slower. I use Reversals on his 0-energy zones to buy time to catch up, and eventually getting the only Kingdra on either side of the board lets me mount a comeback. I eventually win with a double devolve with Jirachi sealing the deal.

4-0

Round 5 vs. Ross Cawthorn (US) w/ Pichu/Tropical Beach/Vileplume/Reuniclus/Blissey/Donphan/Zekrom/Entei Suicune Legend

Yes I’m serious. That was the deck. Yes, the Tropical Beach was the promo we got the DAY BEFORE. Props for going so risky and so rogue.

I go second. This one is best explained in the video, but long story short I take the first 4 prizes, and he isn’t given enough time with 30+3 to mount a potential comeback.

5-0

Round 6 vs. Tom Dolezal (US) w/ Reshiphlosion

I go second. He starts poor, I start poor.  Ends up being a close prize exchange, with me pulling ahead for the win on turn 3 of time, despite drawing my entire deck to do it.

6-0

Round 7 vs. Sami Sekoum (UK) w/ ZoneMega + Kingdra/Jirachi

I go second. I start terribly while he sets up well. He goes up around 2 prizes before I’m able to come back and get the Kingdra out to start doing what I did against Jayson. I mount a great comeback but am just one turn and one prize behind to end up on the great game.

6-1

I enter top 16 as the 4th seed!

Top 16 vs. Miska Sarim (FI) w/ Reshiphlosion

I go second games 1 and 2. Both games he struggles to setup with Manaphy starts, while I go exceptionally well with both setup and reversal flips. I win both pretty easily and quickly to earn a spot in the top 8.

7-1

Top 8 vs. Tom Dolezal (US) w/ Reshiphlosion

Game 1: I go second. He sets up 2 Typhlosion Primes before I have anything, and proceeds to go up 2-3 prizes before I quickly scoop to a new game.

Game 2: I choose to go first and set up well. I misplay several times, but started well enough to carry the game to victory regardless.

Game 3: He chooses to go first and sets up very well to my incredibly poor start. I luck out with great Cleffa flips to deny prizes and set up myself. We end the game in a prize exchange that is cut short by time about halfway through the game prize-wise.

I attempt to Eeeeeeek with Cleffa to deny him his chance at taking a prize every turn, and flip heads this time. It doesn’t give him the game right there, but it allows him to take the lead before I tie back up again on turn 3, allowing him to end the game on “turn 4” with a double pluspower blue flare.

7-2, 5th Place Overall.

Whether you watched the full video or just read my mini report, I hope you enjoyed it!

Props

• Renae, my girlfriend, for coming with, getting great coverage for when I couldn’t, providing constant support, and being the reason I even came back to this game in the first place. I love that girl to death.
• My friends and family for the encouragement and practice along the season
• Having an amazing run for my first Worlds
• SixPrizes Underground Staff for helping me hone my skills and test before the event
• Alex, Con, and Jay for crushing me in the mirror, and then helping me make my list more consistent
• Countless Reshiram players who helped me test the night before the main event
• Mike S. and Kevin K. for surviving the grinder
• Alex from Oregon for letting us keep our luggage safely in your room until I could switch over to the new hotel. It shows a lot about this community that I could trust someone I met at Worlds for the first time with all of my Worlds swag and personal belongings.
• Carlos P. for providing additional Reshiphlosion testing (and additional beatings), along with the generous help providing a room for Renae and me when he had an extra.
• Every match I played had a respectful and fun opponent
• Countless foreign players coming up to me with praise for the show (and more local players I didn’t meet at Nats!)
• Judges, staff, translators, and everyone who helped the project come together!
• Lucky Hoppips!
• Exobyte (Dylan M—TPCi) for the lols, praise, and gift of a signed WC Hoppip card!
• Amazing venue, atmosphere, and event
• Everyone else I forgot!

Slops

• Hour+ delays due to having to move planes
• Cloudy and moderately chilly weather in San Diego
• Nothing Else!

The Video Report

J-Wittz’s 5th Place 2011 World Championships Report is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

TRADING CARD GAME AND VIDEO GAME CHAMPIONS CROWNED AT 2010 POKÉMON WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Elite Players from More than 25 Countries Converge on Hawaii for Ultimate Competition

Kona, HI-August 16, 2010- For nearly a year, the goal for tens of thousands of Pokémon™ Trading Card Game (TCG) and video game players around the world has been becoming World Champion, but only a few hundred made it to the big stage this weekend, August 14-15, at the 2010 Pokémon World Championships in Kona, Hawaii. When the dust settled after two days of intense competition featuring more than 375 players from over 25 countries, five World Champions were crowned. The Pokémon Company International announced today its 2010 World Champions: Junior TCG World Champion Yuka Furusawa from Japan and Junior video game World Champion Shota Yamamoto from Japan; Senior TCG World Champion Jacob Lesage from Canada and Senior video game World Champion Ray Rizzo from the United States; and Masters TCG World Champion Yuta Komatsuda from Japan.

Many of the world’s elite Pokémon TCG and video game players traveled to Hawaii to compete in the prestigious, invite-only Pokémon World Championships, vying for the title of World Champion, custom Nintendo® DSi XL game systems, trophies, vacations, and more than $100,000 in scholarships. Staged as two separate tournaments under the same roof at the Hilton Waikoloa Village, the two-day event emphasized the skill, strategy, creativity, sportsmanship, and fun involved in playing the Pokémon Trading Card Game and Pokémon HeartGold Version and Pokémon SoulSilver Version video games for the Nintendo DS family of systems. Players, called “Trainers,” enjoyed an entire weekend of action-packed battles in the tropics to determine the world’s best.

“We are so proud of all the players who competed in another exciting Pokémon World Championships, and we want to extend special congratulations to the 2010 World Champions who battled their way through a truly global event,” said J.C. Smith, Director of Consumer Marketing for The Pokémon Company International. “Hawaii was an amazing backdrop for this year’s tournament, providing a breathtaking arena for the hundreds of Pokémon players who competed with skill and sportsmanship.”

2010 Pokémon Trading Card Game World Finalists-Junior Division (born in 1999 or later)
World Champion: Yuka Furusawa from Japan
Second Place: Juan Pablo Arenas from the United States

2010 Pokémon Trading Card Game World Finalists-Senior Division (born in 1995-1998)
World Champion: Jacob Lesage from Canada
Second Place: Mychael Bryan from the United States

2010 Pokémon Trading Card Game World Finalists-Masters Division (born in 1994 or earlier)
World Champion: Yuta Komatsuda from Japan
Second Place: Michael Pramawat from the United States

2010 Pokémon Video Game World Finalists-Junior Division (born in 1998 or later)
World Champion: Shota Yamamoto from Japan
Second Place: Santa Ito from Japan

2010 Pokémon Video Game World Finalists-Senior Division (born in 1997 or earlier)
World Champion: Ray Rizzo from the United States
Second Place: Yasuki Tochigi from Japan

To view the results of the 2010 Pokémon World Championships, including official standings, photos, videos, and player interviews, visit www.pokemonworldchampionships.com and www.pokemon.com.

For broadcast quality video, download footage from the 2010 Pokémon World Championships at www.championmediaclients.com/PokemonPress

Check out that last link there… I don’t know if I’m supposed to be posting it, but there’s a bunch of video footage that wasn’t on the Worlds site over the weekend.

Pokemon World Champions Crowned in Hawaii is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

This was my less active Pokemon season. I only played in 5 tournaments total before Worlds (2 BR’s, 1 CC, 1 SC and the National Championships). I earned my invite this year by a trickle down by obtaining 5th place at the Mexico National Championships.

I had low expectations of this years tournament, given how it was my less active season out of the 6 I have played in. I knew I did not practice enough, and I even chose a deck I wasn’t very comfortable with, as it doesn’t come close to matching my preferred playstyle of decks that have potential to OHKO whatever Active Pokemon the opponent has.

My deck choice for this year was the renowned Palkia Lock deck. My build was fairly standard, and the most consistent it could possibly be in my opinion. Here is the list I used during the tournament:

Pokemon: 24 3 Palkia G PL 1 Palkia G Lv.X PL 4 Mesprit LA 3 Uxie LA 1 Uxie Lv.X LA 1 Azelf LA 1 Azelf MT 2 Crobat G PL 2 Unown G GE 1 Toxicroak G Promo 1 Bronzong G PL 1 Honchkrow G PL 1 Raichu GL RR 1 Misdreavus SF 1 Mismagius SF

Supporters: 10 4 Cyrus’s Conspiracy 4 Roseanne’s Research 1 Bebe’s Search 1 Aaron’s Collection Trainers: 14 4 TGI Energy Gain 4 TGI Poke Turn 3 TGI Power Spray 2 TGI SP Radar 1 Luxury Ball

Energy: 12 4 Call Energy 4 Water Energy 2 Psychic Energy 1 Lightning Energy 1 Darkness Energy

I think this list finds an extremely good balance between consistency and tech cards that allow me to play against mirror matches (Raichu GL) and abuse board control even more by direct quick bench damage (Honchkrow G). The rest of the cards are very standard, and I figured I wouldn’t waste my time with a single Warp Point or Night Maintenance, as they are cards I cannot search directly for when I need them. Mismagius is the obligatory Mewtwo Lv.X counter, and a very effective one at that.

So now onto the matches. Pairings are finally posted after a long openening ceremony, and I am feeling good about being there and being able to compete for the 5th time at Worlds.

Round 1 vs Akira Nakatani (JP) – Luxray GL / Infernape 4 (?)

When I saw I was facing a JP player right off the bat, I got a bit nervous. My record against JP players isn’t exactly the best one, standing at 2-3. I was also afraid he would be playing Gengar/Machamp/Mewtwo Lv.X as that is apparently what most JP players qualified to Worlds with, but as we set up, all these thoughts would be irrelevant.

He goes first, and opens with a single Unown Q against my Crobat G. He draws, attaches a Fire Energy and does 20 damage. Unfortunately for him, I have a Roseanne’s Research in my hand and simply fetch an Uxie and an energy to call it a game. Akira seemed upset about this, but he shook my hand and and was a good sport about his loss.

1 – 0

Round 2 vs Herve Marcant (FR) – Machamp / Ampharos

Since I finished my Round so early, I walked around to see how my friends were doing. I saw my friend Miguel Lopez (using the same deck as me) was getting badly beaten by a Machamp deck, and so I instantly recognized Herve when I saw him.

I got off to a strong start this game, having a nice early Power Lock on him and drawing a few prizes. Unfortunately for me, he managed to get a Machamp going and started Koing my Pokemon quite easily. There were 2 key turns, which turned the game around for him. The first was where he had a 4 card hand, maybe 5, and played 2 Poke Drawer at once. This did not worry me much as I had an active Pokemon with an Unown G and he had no energy on anything but a Claydol. For those 2 cards, he got a Stark Mountain and something else I forgot. He used Stark Mountain and attached an energy to his active Machamp, and was able to Hurricane Punch me that turn, something I did not expect. Finally after planning accordingly to his Stark Mountain, he was then able to get his only Machamp Lv.X under my Power Lock off a Volkner’s Philosophy. This turned the game around completely and I was left energy-less and without any more Unown G’s, and thus I couldn’t recover after those 2 key turns he had, resulting in my first loss.

1 – 1

Round 3 vs Diego Cassiraga (AR-NC) – Palkia Lock

Diego and I had been sharing a room since the Saturday before Worlds. We had tested and planned the list we were using, and so we both knew this would be a very even match, or at least we thought so.

He opened up with a very strong start, against my very bad starting hand containing no Trainers and no Supporters. Four turns went by with him just setting up and dominating me and me drawing dead. I conceded after those four turns, as I knew I would never be able to catch up to him, in terms of energy drops and set up.

1 – 2

[This so far has been my worst start at a Worlds Tournament. I was very disappointed that my last game I couldn’t fight back, but I knew Diego had much more experience with the deck and would probably do better against the stronger opponents he would eventually face. I knew I had to win out to have a chance, and I at least wanted to finish 4-3, as I have never finished a tournament with a negative record, and so I got myself together and sat down to play the 4th Round.]

Round 4 vs Rafael Pacheco (SL) – Porygon-Z

This Round my deck decided to compensate me for my horrible draws last Round, and it ran perfectly, as one would hope it would run every single game based on the build, strategy and overall consistency of the deck. I grabbed all my prizes fairly easily and never had to stop attacking with Palkia G since Turn 2.

2 – 2

Round 5 vs Yacine Sekkoum (UK) – Luxray GL / Infernape 4

I was now facing yet again another familiar face. I have known Yacine for 6 years now, and I know he’s a very good player. He also had just beat my friend Miguel Lopez as well, so I knew he had a good idea of what my list looked like and what to do against it.

Unfortunately for him, he didn’t start very strong, and I started with an average-strong starting hand. I dominated him early but he was able to make a slow comeback. There was one key turn in the game where he whiffed on a few cards to KO my active Palkia G and leave me in a really tight spot, but I had planned accordingly and was expecting for him to get that KO, it just didn’t happen, and I was able to take my last prizes to win the game.

3 – 2

Round 6 vs Alex Brosseau (US) – Kingdra

When I saw the pairings for this Round, I had mixed feelings about this Round. First of all I did not like facing another good friend, and with our records, probably whoever lost would be left out of the running to make the Top 32 cut. Secondly, I had played Jason K. the day before against just this exact same list, and had beaten him confidently 2-0. Finally despite my winning from the previous day, Alex has been playing this deck all season, and doing extremely well with it, so I knew it would definitely play a lot differently than against Jason.

Once again though, my opponent got a bad opening hand, despite having a Turn 2 Kingdra, he was left without Supporters or any form of draw. I on the other hand started out better than average, but I even made the game longer by several misplays committed during the game. I felt bad for winning against his bad start, as I realized all the misplays I did and figured the result wasn’t very fair.

4 – 2

[At this point I’m feeling both happy and sad. I was able to recover from a 1-2 start to the point where I had a realistic chance of making the Top 32 cut with a 5-2 record, but I was sad as all the misplays I did against Alex, and probably against my previous opponents meant my own skills weren’t up to par and could cost me the cut. I tried to relax and concentrate for the next match, as it was do or die, just like every Worlds I have played in besides 2005.]

Round 7 vs Brian Garcia (US-LCQ) – Flygon

Another unfamiliar face, but I had heard about Brian before. I had no idea what he was using before the Round, and this had me a little worried.

We both started out with average hands, but I was able to keep a Power Lock against him, and this set him back several turns. Once I got ahead, he didn’t have enough turns to recover and I was able to just finish off his last Flygon and the few remaining basics he had left.

5 – 2

I was so happy at this point, as I managed to recover from what looked to be a bad day for me and made the Top Cut, something I hadn’t accomplished since 2005, due to a suspension (2006), tie breakers (2007) or a loss in the final round after a 4-2 record (2008).

I checked the standings to see whom I would be facing and it was none other than Jay Hornung, the eventual 3rd place finisher. I knew from other people and asking around that he was playing Flygon / Machamp, and that it would be the hardest match of the day, but I hoped a Power Lock early would be enough to seal the win.

Top 32 vs Jay Hornung (US) – Flygon / Machamp

Pre-game we had a nice chat, as we had battled last year at Worlds, where I was victorious in what was one of my most memorable and favourite matches out of all I have played at Worlds.

Game 1 – We started the game, and I was under control, but unfortunately for me, my Honchkrow AND my Darkness energy were prized, so I was not able to snipe his benched Machop early in the game. While under the Power Lock, he topdecked a Rare Candy he needed to build a Machamp and KO my active Palkia G. If my Honchkrow and Darkness energy had not been prized, or he hadn’t topdecked the Rare Candy I would’ve had a decent chance as I had a strong start, but after my Palkia G was KO’d, I was not able to recover and scooped to save time for Game 2.

Game 2 – I started off worse, and he managed to build both a Nidoqueen and Flygon Lv. X under the Power Lock, and I knew I would never recover based on my hand and that I had very few energy on the field, so I conceded and wished Jay luck in Top 16 and onwards.

5 – 3

So my Worlds run ended there, and once again I had mixed feelings. I was very happy to have made it so far with my little practice, but I was sad I couldn’t do much in the matches against Jay to make the games more exciting and end the day at least on a more exciting note. I find it ironic I got 3rd place in 2005 when Worlds was in San Diego, and that the eventual 3rd place of Worlds would eliminate me out of all people, with a deck that can potentially deck out opponent’s (Flygon Lv.X).

Oh well with this result, I ended up in 27th place overall, and being he highest Mexican player of the tournament. Some people had doubted the legitimacy of my invite as I received it from a technicality if you will, but I think this result proves I have what it takes to compete at a global level, even when I’m not at my best and that giving me the invite to represent Mexico in the tournament was justified, instead of letting it get lost and gone to the grinder.

I feel my deck choice could have been a bit better, but I could have never predicted so many Flygon / Machamp decks would be played at Worlds, I definitely expected more Luxray GL / Infernape 4 than those. With more practice I could have probably adjusted my list better to the metagame and figured out plays quicker, as I kept getting asked to play faster, but for the record I have only ever finished 3 games on time total in my Pokemon career out of 6 years, so I will never ever stall anyone out.

Well I hope you enjoyed reading this, and expect an article coming soon on the intricacies of the Palkia Lock deck, and how it can possibly be adjusted for the upcoming format with the new Supreme Victors cards.

Pokemon 2009 TCG World Championship Report by Pablo Meza is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.