Holmes, PA City Championship Report

Well, I finally made it out to my first City Championship of the season over the weekend! I own almost no cards right now, but thankfully my friend Ian was able to bail me out by throwing together a Beedrill deck for me to use. He used an SP deck with pretty much every SP in it, so I think his plan was for me to take out any of his troublesome matchups, like Flygon and Gyarados, and give him smooth sailing towards victory.

I woke up around 7:30 Sunday morning and started my new morning routine where I try to drink a lot of fluids and stretch after I get up, just to kinda get myself going. I threw on a few layers as it had been frigid as of late, and waited for Ian to pick me up around 8:30. Ian got a new GPS gizmo from his girlfriend for Christmas, so we were sure to not get lost. Those things are incredible, definitely a sign of the future.

Anyways we got to the tournament about an hour before anyone else even showed up…don’t ask me why. We sat in the parking lot of a CVS and scribbled down our deck lists. Ian’s friend Bobby called and we had an interesting conversation with him on speakerphone. Anyone that knows Bobby knows that he is quite a character.

The store finally opened and we handed our deck lists in. This is what mine looked like:

I chatted it up with Brian of BebesSearch.com before the tournament started. We should be getting a custom 6P BebesSearch module for the site pretty soon, by the way. The pairings for round 1 were put up, and there were enough people for 5 rounds in the Masters division. I’m not sure how many rounds there were for Juniors and Seniors, but there were only about a total of maybe 10 Juniors and Seniors all together (maybe less). The Seniors had to be mixed in with the Masters, I do know that.

Round 1 vs Chad H. with Flygon / Nidoqueen / Dusknoir
This was the first game of Pokemon cards I’d played in a while to be honest. I’ve never used Beedrill before, but I was pretty sure it wouldn’t be too tough to use. I opened with a Weedle and some other Pokemon I think. Neither of us had a blazing start, but Chad at least was able to draw into Energies. I couldn’t draw an Energy until about turn 6 or so. Neither of us had taken a prize until about 20 minutes into the game, so though things appeared somewhat close, I knew he had complete control.

The only way I could possible win would be on time. It was 2 prizes taken each with about 10 minutes left and I knew I might have a shot, but Chad made a really nice move with Duskull (of all Pokemon) which was able to do 10 to the bench, thus knocking out my Beedrill RR that had 100 damage on it. That actually seemed to seal the game, as I couldn’t recover, and Chad took his remaining prizes from there. Nice playing!

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Between rounds SMGausch introduced himself to me; it was awesome to meet you dude! Sam is a really cool guy and I hope to see him around at more tournaments. Anyone else from the site that sees me at a tournament, please say hi!

Round 2 vs Brian B. with Gyarados
Ah, fellow webmasters meet in a battle for the ages…well not really. Brian got a terrible start and I was just able to overpower him with an Expert Belt equipped Beedrill. Sorry Brian!

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Round 3 vs Greg S. with Kabutops / Gengar / Spiritomb
Greg usually judges tournaments (and is the best judge I know), but he has apparently been duking it out the past few Cities. Today was no exception and I knew I’d be in for an interesting match. Greg’s kids are exceptional players and while he plays odd decks sometimes, he sure knows how to play them.

I started off with Weedle and an adequate, but not not awesome hand. Greg started with a lone Unown Q for apparently the second or third time of the day. (He ended up with lone Unown Q starts 4 out of 5 games…someone do that math on that!) I unfortunately had no way to search out Uxie and get the quick kill, so the game took longer than I would have liked. Greg drew nothing the first few turns, so he was forced to focus his resources onto the Unown Q so he could use Uxie and Looker’s Investigation to draw the most cards possible. It was pretty ridiculous; Unown Q with 3 Fightings and an Expert Belt. It even took out one of my Weedles! I doubt I’ll ever see anything like that ever again.

I didn’t even know what Greg was playing until about 5 or 6 turns into the game, but by then I had pretty much everything set up and Greg would be playing behind by far to much to come back. I think if he had an average start he probably could have beat me, as Kabutops preventing me from playing Expert Belts and Night Maintenance would be a huge issue. Sorry Greg, hopefully we’ll have a better game next time we play.

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Round 4 vs Geoff S. with Flygon / Machamp
Geoff is in the Senior division, but could easily be in the Masters. He is a boy wonder; he got 2nd place at Worlds a few years back and survives on a diet consisting of only macaroni and ketchup.

I start off with a Baltoy or Unown G (I forget) and Geoff starts with a Machop. Unfortunately for me, I win the toss and have to go first. Luckily, I top deck a Weedle which I am able to bench it, otherwise Geoff would have won on his first turn of the game. I pass, Geoff evolves to Machamp and takes out my basic. All I have left is Weedle.

I luck out again and topdeck an Expert Belt. Geoff played a Broken Time-Space down I think, and I have Kakuna and Beedrill GE in play in my hand, so I evolve to Beedrill, attach Expert Belt, and pass. I don’t think I had any Energy. Geoff then searches out Machamp LV.X and goes for the win with “Hurricane Punch”. He only lands 2 heads, so I am left with a meager 10 HP left again.

I then get another great topdeck, a Luxury Ball. I am able to search out Uxie, “Set Up” for a bunch of cards, hit a Super Scoop Up on my Beedrill, send Uxie out, get a bench of Pokemon in play, then “Psychic Restore” for 120. Ouch. I was on the brink for 3 straight turns, but after that final lucky break, I was able to take full control and win pretty easily. I did kinda luck out that I had a Multi attached to my Claydol at one point so that when it was dragged active by a Memory Berry‘d Flygon, I was able to attack it, and so trying to deck me wasn’t a feasible option for Geoff. Great game.

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Round 5 vs Anthony with Gengar / Gallade / Spiritomb / Nidoqueen
This game did not go well. He got Spiritomb out early, which stopped my key trainers like Poke Drawer, Luxury Ball, and Rare Candy. Then he sent out Gardy with an Expert Belt attached when he was set up and just Psychic Locked for 80 the whole game. Nidoqueen healed away any damage I was able to get in play. It was a slow, painful death. I had flashbacks to 2 years ago; it was not fun.

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So I felt I did alright on the day. I made a few small misplays here and there, but the games I lost were unavoidable. The game vs Geoff made me feel like I still have some skills. ;)

I don’t know what won, but Anthony and Chad whom I play against both made the top 4 cut. I missed it, obviously. If anyone know what won, feel free to chime in.

Thanks for reading!