PreGame Conditions:
The very night before this particular Battle Roads, my fiancé Savannah, was having her surprise Bachelorette party. I will spare you all the details, but let’s just say it was “an experience,” and neither of us were really ready to participate in any events afterwards; social, Pokémon or the like. Regardless after only an hour of sleep I awoke and prepared myself for what I knew would most likely become a long day.
Having a rough idea of what the meta was going to be I opted to run my MD-on modified King-Gar list, in the event that trainer lock was ridiculous, I had tested this list extensively and it handled trainer lock like a pro! Unfortunately my educated guess as to what the meta was going to be was extremely wrong. I never have been good at guess work.
Round 1: Bye
This was the first bye I have ever received in Pokémon so naturally I spent the majority of it taking a look at the other matches. That’s when I realized there was 2 different people playing Sablock as well as 2 different DialgaChomp’s running around, incidentally that’s when I also decided I had probably picked the wrong deck to play, and severely regretted letting my friend Kenny run my Machamp/Donphan deck.
1-0
Round 2: Kenneth Hood – Machamp Donphan
Kenny actually had the donk, but accidently placed Phanphy in the active position as opposed to Machop, regardless he managed to set up 2 Donphans and a Machamp on his first turn (of course I was forced to go first with a single Uxie start). He still almost donked me but was shy the Expert Belt, and so after dropping a hefty 60 on my only Pokémon, I managed to set up 2 Kingdra’s and a Gengar and pulled through the match with a win. Terrible start against a great player, but I was very fortunate and played well and managed to steal the win. Great game Kenny, and may Machamp murder SP at our next Battle Roads.
2-0
Round 3: ??? – DialgaChomp:
I can’t remember the exact details of this match but I remember setting up two Gengars and I had taken a 3 prize lead, but due to a lack of energy was steamrolled late game and lost miserably. First loss of the day, to a great player, whom I would face again later in top cut.
2-1
Round 4: An awesome Kid with a 6P Shirt on – DialgaChomp:
I open with an amazing hand and he opens with a single Uxie. I proceeded to “Pitch Dark” him and as I announced the attack he stated “Pitch Dark isn’t going to help me out any” or something to that nature and I laughed because I was under the impression he was playing VileTomb, when he informed me he was played Dialga/Chomp I realized it was time to get serious, especially after receiving my only loss for the day to DialgaChomp earlier that day.
Basically I killed all of his bench and kept forcing him to rush into Fainting Spell (which by the way always landed on tails) until I actually KOed his Dialga G with a belted Kingdra, having no benched Pokémon left, caused me to emerge victorious. I’m not going to lie, I felt better after already losing to Dialga, and then immediately turning around and beating it.
3-1
Round 5: Brit – Sablock (with a moderate Blaze Line)
Brit was undefeated at this point so naturally I was leery. Having played him before at the last Battle Roads I already knew he was a great player and that this match-up was going to be difficult. Neither of us were looking forward to this match but we almost expected it.
We both started pretty decently, and he almost immediately set up a few Blaziken’s which made my Kingdras utterly useless as they were only swinging for 20, 40 with a Belt. The major play that really saved my rear in this match was simply leveling down his Blazikens and Garchomps even when it was possible to KO them while leveled up. I did this because I had a strong feeling he was playing more than one Aarons and I didn’t want him to simply level up the next Blaze/Garchomp on his bench after I just KOed the first one.
This isn’t the first time I have done this while playing SP decks, and the reason for this is because I always enjoy being able to KO all of the basics of a given SP and leaving the LV.X in their deck for a future dead card draw after they have already used all available resources for recovering there pokes from the discard. Now-a-days it is a lot harder to achieve this, given the fact that trainer lock is causing more people to play more supporter recover and the like, so I have to admit it was a risky play to say the least but in the end, it payed off. Great game Brit and I look forward to any future games we may play.
4-1
Top 4, Game 1: ??? – Straight Kingdra:
I was a little nervous about being donked, but my start was pretty great and I cruised through the match with a five prize lead and then out of no-where he makes the world’s most incredible recovery and matches me in prizes. This was by far the most stressful game of the day and took almost an entire hour to play out. I was ready to take my final prize more times than I could count, and the whole time I was wondering why he didn’t play any Super Scoops, well just about every time I got close to taking my last prize he ended up Super Scooping it or putting it under (Uxie) thus killing my active Gengar (guess he was saving them the whole time). So he certainly put up one hell of a fight.
In the end, he had 2 or 3 Kingdra’s in play (2 of which were belted primes) and I had 2 in play. We both kept switching out to keep from losing one to a KO. Right near the end of the match I was about to scoop figuring I wouldn’t be able to beat him when he asked, if I was going to scoop, there must have been an uncertainty in his voice because the way he asked made it sound as if he thought he was fixing to lose. That’s when I looked down and realized I could actually pull the win, and then I proceeded to do so.
5-1
Game 2:
Having but a few minutes left, we were forced to start another game; I started Gastly active and Horsea on the bench, to his single Horsea start. He made me go first and I attached an energy to Gastly and “Pitch Darked”, thus ending my turn. He goes and attaches an energy and “Smokescreens.” I had the entire Kingdra line in my hand but was shy the BTS, so I evolved my Gaslty to Haunter and my Horsea into a Seadra, and played a Judge, hoping for the BTS and Water Energy.
We both shuffled in and lo-and-behold, in my hand I find the only Expert belt I run. I looked over at him and smiled, attached the E-Belt and declare “Hoodwink, Good Game”. He starts to draw his card for the turn then realizes I donked him and replies “good game.”
I wish I could remember his name but I can’t, none the less he was an exceptional player and he played a mean Kingdra, well done man, well done!
6-1
Top 2, Game 1: ??? – DialgaChomp:
I was utterly dreading this match and even exclaimed so to anyone who would listen. Having already suffered defeat to him earlier that day I wasn’t in any mood to suffer the same fate twice. We both start decent but he pretty much steam rolled me yet again and after switching out my Gengar (that again didn’t have any energy) with several other benched Pokémon so as to not allow my only built up attacker to become Dialga chow, I eventually just scooped, as there wasn’t much I could do.
6-2
Game 2:
This game started off great for me; I started with a Horsea, Uxie and 2 Unown R’s. Needless to say I ended up setting up and his start of 2 Garchomp C’s just wasn’t helping him any. He ends up setting up a Dialga G but by then it was too late and I pulled the win. Excellent game.
7-2
Game 3:
This game went rather quickly, I ended up having a great start and he started with a Uxie active and a Unown Q on the bench. I felt bad for his terrible start but at this point I had been playing the majority of the day and I was so ready to end the tournament I couldn’t hardly stand it. I set up flawlessly and he started to set up as well but in the end I out sped him for the win. He was an amazing player and under different circumstances most likely would have beaten me. Good game sir!
8-2
End Note:
Seeing as how September 25th is the date in which I am getting married I couldn’t have had a better gift from the Pokémon community than to win the first Battle Roads of the new season. I very much enjoyed all of the games (however grueling they were) and readily look forward to the up and coming games for the rest of this season. I would like to throw a big shout out to Team B-Side and everyone that participated in the tournament. I would also like to thank Michael Kendle for honorably judging the event even though he was sicker than a dog.
Props:
- Winning the weekend before I get married
- Somehow beating Dialga/Chomp and Sablock
Slops:
- Hungover
- Hitting tails on every single feinting spell (not that I rely on the but I mean seriously it would have been nice for Gengar to take a pokemon down with him every now and again)
