Gyarados Rocks Minnesota State Championships

by Ed ~ March 20th, 2010.

Magikarp SFAfter cities, I built an SP deck. You may have read about the LuxApe deck I was building. I had thought it would be a deck that I could play at States, but the more I played it, the less I was confident with it as a tourney choice. A few weeks ago, I decided on playing Gyarados, and I feel that, in retrospect, it was a smart choice. Ava was ready to go with her Scizor/Cherrim deck that she’s been practicing with.

We woke up, watched a couple episodes of Indigo League, and then headed out for Misty Mountain Games. It’s about a 45 minute drive from our house, and we arrived around 9:30. I had our decklists ready, so registration was smooth sailing.

The Team Omar contingent consisted of Omar, Abdi, Tre, Louis, Ava, and myself. I hope I get this right. Omar played LuxChomp. Abdi played Jumpluff. Tre played Flygon. Louis played Typhlosion. Hopefully, one or more of them will add their report sometime. I know that Michael (who also posts here) is on the hook for a report, but we’ll get to that later. Let’s get to the action from Ava’s and my perspectives.

Round 1: Traci W. (Feraligatr Prime, Gyarados G, and other water Pokemon)
When I sat down, she told me that all I had to do was let her take at least one prize. I must be a jerk, because I didn’t. I actually wanted her to take a prize, but she really couldn’t. She played a Rain Dance deck, but she only got about 2 energy the entire game. That’s not enough for Feraligatr and his pals. I got set up rather quickly. I think I started with Crobat G active, went second, played Collector, and Impersonated Felicity’s and was set up by turn 2. It went fairly quickly after that.

The interesting part was that Ava played Traci’s son, Chris, at the same time. This was Ava’s second tourney, and her first was winless. Ava pulled out an awesome sudden-death victory to start the day, so we knew that she wouldn’t be winless this time.

Result: Ed 1-0, Ava 1-0

Round 2: Radu Ciocan (LuxChomp with a good dose of Blaziken)
I don’t recall what I started with, but it wasn’t Sableye. I didn’t start with active Sableye ever. Radu started with 2 Blaziken FB. I was liking that. I set up fairly quickly. I think I went second, and it was a pretty close repeat of my round 1 setup. I also had answers for just about everything Radu came up with. I KO’d a Lucario to get rid of the X2 weakness. Then, he set up Luxray and got rid of my unbelted Gyarados (I was saving the belt). The next turn, I re-established Gyarados, but this time he got belted and took out Luxray. It played so smooth in that game.

Ava played a guy named Tristan in this round. I didn’t see the match. I find it really difficult to watch her play, because I’m always thinking of things that I want to tell her. It’s best for me to just stay back. Anyway, Ava lost this round.

Results: Ed 2-0, Ava, 1-1

Round 3: Gary Q (Typhlosion Prime with Magmortar Lv. X)
Gary was playing Typhlosion, and at this point I’m stuck wondering if some divine intervention has sent me down the path to victory. He couldn’t really compete with my water, because most of his attackershad X2 weakness. I recall not setting up quickly, but it didn’t matter. In fact, I remember being mad at myself for a misplay of not dropping Karp to my bench (so I could evolve it next turn). I’m a bit used to playing SP and not wanting that tiny Magikarp sitting all alone on the bench, but Gary’s deck didn’t seem to have a good way to bring it up. Divine intervention placed BTS on the top of my deck, and I set up the next turn. Once it was set up, he couldn’t keep his guys going.

Interestingly enough, this was the second time that I played against a parent of one of Ava’s opponents. In Ava’s final round, she played Gary’s son. In the 3rd round, though, she played a kid named Stone. I seem to recall her coming to tell me that she won about midway through my match. I asked how it went, and she said she just did Pound Down the whole game. That’s how it should be!

Results: Ed 3-0, Ava 2-1

Round 4: Thomas Veazie (Gyarados with Blissey Prime and Ditto)
This was a tough mirror match. Thomas played Gyarados with Blissey Prime (and even Ditto just for opponents like me). I didn’t see Ditto in our match, but Blissey helped him. I think this was the match that I started with active Baltoy, and I remember thinking that I made a mistake, but I don’t recall what. I do know that this was a prize race, and Thomas got the early lead. I think that I belted Sableye to get a KO, and then he returned with 2 heads on SSU Crobat G. Maybe that was to KO the belted Gyarados later. I dunno. I’m pretty sure he took 2 double prizes thanks to the Expert Belt, though.

Ava played a boy named Shane. I have no idea what happened, except that she did not win.

Results: Ed 3-1, Ava 2-2

Round 5: Alex H. (Dialga Garchomp)
This was funny (unless you were Alex, I think, and then maybe even it had some comical irony to it). I sat down, and Alex said something like, “Please donk me, so I don’t have to play.” It seems that he was feeling a bit under the weather.

I started with lone Karp, and I thought, “He’ll get his wish to not play, but it’ll be because I’m the one that will get donked.” He went first, and I thought I was done for. He drew and said, “Go.” I felt quite lucky, becasue he couldn’t attach any energy to his lone Garchomp C. If he’d had a double-colorless, he would have also had the win.

I started my turn with Pokemon Collector. I ALMOST got a Baltoy, because I had BTS and a Claydol in hand. At the last second, I came to my senses and grabbed 2 Karp and Regice. I discarded the 2 Karp to Regi Move. Alex very jokingly said something like, “Well, now if you just have BTS, Belt, Gyarados, then it’s over.” I showed him my hand of BTS, Belt, and Luxury Ball. It was over. Then he tells me he was kidding about me donking him. Sorry Alex. I took you at your word.

This was Ava’s final round. She played Gary’s son, Gregory. I remember thinking that this was a VERY long match for her, but in retrospect, it’s probably just because my 5th match was so short. In the end she lost, but Gregory was very complimentary of her play.

Results: Ed 4-1, Ava 2-3

Round 6: James S. (Gardevoir, Spiritomb)
I started with Karp active. I made a real big mistake by attaching energy on my benched Sableye and going for Karp’s card draw. I pretty much never got anything good after that. Psychic lock stopped Claydol’s Cosmic Power, and my mistake stopped Sableye’s Impersonate. I did finally get a Gyarados set up and took a double prize thanks to his belted Gardevoir. I just never got any control. I feel like I should have won if it wasn’t for my early misplay not Impersonating on turn 1 when I should have. This was a very winable matchup for me. It’s the only game that I feel like I actively lost (as opposed to when Thomas beat me).

Result: Ed 4-2 and 5th Place, Ava still 2-3

I had some real life to attend to, and Ava was all done playing. I wrestled back and forth with myself a bit, but I decided to drop just before the top cut. At the time, I was actually 5th thanks to the awesome strength of my opponents. If I’d have stayed, I would have been paired against 4th place. 4th just so happened to be James, who was my 6th round opponent. I really think I could have won that matchup, but we’ll never know.

Overall, I feel good about my play, and I think it was a good day for both Ava and I. Michael (who will be supplying us with his version of the day’s events) made top cut as number 8 after I dropped, so that makes me feel good about him getting a shot at the championship. I heard that he lost to Thomas, though. It’s not surprising. Thomas is obviously a good player, and he deserved to be in first and play the 8th seed.

I’d like to thank Jeff and the rest of the Midwest Pokemon team for putting on another great tournament. I’d also like to thank everyone that was nice to my precious daughter, Ava. Not only did she have a good time playing and trading cards with her opponents, but she came home with a bunch of loot. Someone that I never got to meet or thank (because I think they left) gave her a nice little homemade deck carrying bag. Abdi was also gracious enough to provide her with some special items. On top of all that, she won some cards and a set of Pokemon card sleeves.

EDIT/UPDATE:
Acording to a post by Andy Wieman himself on the Midwest Pokemon forums, here’s the top-4 players/decks.

1st: Andy W. (LuxChomp)
2nd: Jake L. (LuxChomp)
3rd: Thomas V. (Gyarados)
4th: Emmanuel D. (SP)

And I think that Emmanuel played Dialga/Garchomp, but I could be mistaken. I can’t help but wonder if I could have been in that group had I stayed, but I don’t have any regrets.

One other thing that was cool was that I met a minor celebrity there. Clayton C. was there with his Junior. Most of you wouldn’t know Clayton, but I remember him from my early days playing tourneys with base set cards. He owned a card shop in Richfield called Mirkwood CCG. I played a lot of Magic and Pokemon there. Here, you can read a tourney report I did way back in the day and see some pics of his store.

I have a pretty nice digital camera, but there’s one problem with it. The wheel/knob that changes the settings gets bumped very easily, and I often end up taking pictures on the wrong setting. This happened for most of the pictures I took at the tourney, because I didn’t notice it until the end of the day when I actually wanted to change the setting. Oh well, here are my low-quality pictures.

Category: State Championships, Tourney Report | Tags: , , ,