One Hit KO

Hey everyone in Omar-Nation, this is Pikkdogs here with a tournament report for Indiana’s states.  I again decided to run Uxie, after briefly flirting with an Umbreon/Scizor Prime deck.   

I woke up a little after 5:30, and got on the road before 6:30.  This was very early for me, but it was cool to go outside and see a huge full moon hanging in the sky before sunrise.  I then took the 3 hour drive to Fort Wayne, Indiana.  When I got there I met my friend James in the parking lot.  James, who is a testing buddy of mine, tried really hard to get me to come today and I’m glad I capitulated to his requests. Before the tournament started I made some trades with some players, borrowed some cards, said hello to a lot of my Pokemon friends, and received a cool deck box from James.  The format again was very Luxchomp heavy.  It was a little more diverse than last week, but Luxchomp was by far the most popular deck.

The tournament was held at a neat venue, a minor league baseball stadium.  Just past right field is a long narrow room where we had the tournament.  The venue was pretty sweet, though there was a noticeable lack of comfy chairs.  There was a lot of people there on that day.  I think there was 114 masters with people from Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio attending.  This meant a lot of good competition and a tough day for anyone hoping to top cut.   

My goal that day was simple, to grab the gold medal from Indiana and take it back to Michigan.   The winner of last week’s Michigan State’s was from Indiana, so nothing would feel better than to take one from them.  After turning in my decklist I was ready to get going.

Round 1- Kingdra.

He starts first with 2 Unown R’s benched, and a Horsea active.  I start with Crobat G and Unown R and get going on  my strategy.  I am able to “Flash Bite” an R to death, I seeker up the other, then “Psychic Restore” the Horsea for the win.

1-0. A good start to the day, this is what is supposed to happen.

Round 2- Matt Kish with Vilegar.

Matt was the gentleman who took 2nd last week in Michigam, for that reason and because I am auto-loss to trainerlock; I was shaking in my boots.  But, I was lucky and he has a bad start.  He starts first with Uxie and Gloom, while I start with Uxie and I am able to play the turn out until I get the Seeker+knockout.

2-0, Sorry Matt you just got a bad start.           

Round 3-Brandon with Luxchomp.

This was the rubber game for me and Brandon, and what a game it was.  We first met in the first round of a Michigan cities, he ended up winning that game and the tournament.  We also met last week in Lansing, when I had donked his two Magnemites.  This game ended up being one of the best of the season.

The game starts off really bad for me.  Even though I go 2nd, he starts with a Call energy and has a large bench when I start.  I try to knock out the Garchomp C with the energy with “Flash Bites” but am unable to do so, and I am forced to let it stay on the field.  I am not able to finish it because I got 9 tails on my first 10 dice rolls.  I also make a dumb misplay and Expert Belt an Uxie, which he can easily Dragon Rush.  I do however get one knockout on my 2nd turn.

He comes back and sets up fast getting a Cyrus chain.  However, he can only get 1 Level X on the field.  Since I went through my deck on the first turn, I can just use Uxie to draw all of the cards I need and then use Cyclone Energy to bring up a weak Pokemon for the knock out.  This pattern goes back and forth until time is called.

One funny thing about this game is that Brandon tried 3 times to spray my “Setup” but I fought it off all three times.  The first time I had a 2nd Uxie, so I just dropped the other one to draw the cards I need.  I then drew  a Pokemon Rescue for a prize. The 2nd time he again Sprayed an Uxie, and I used “Seeker” to do it again.  Then on the last turn he used his last spray, but I used the Pokemon Rescue to get another Uxie.  Brandon thought he had me there, but I planned ahead well enough to fight him off.      

On turn 2 of plus 3 prizes are even.  He has just run out of ways to draw DCE, and he has no Luxray in sight.  He has to “Claw Swipe” for 3o.  I go next and can win with a prize.  I attach a Cyclone Energy to Uxie, and he brings up Honchkrow Sv.  Honchkrow has 90 HP, one away from what Uxie can do.  But, I am able to play the last card in my hand, a Crobat G, for the win.

3-0. What an amazing game.  Brandon is a really good player and he put me through a great match.

Round 4-Andrew C. with Luxchomp

Not much to say here. I go first with a Unown R, and he has an Ambipom G, an energy gain, and a Cyrus; so I scoop.

3-1.  Getting donked sucks, but it happens.

Round 5-  Dan Machamp

This is another one of my great matchups.  Dan ended up getting 4th at the end of the day.  This game would have gone by very quickly if I would have started 2nd, but I had to start 1st.  It also would have gone quicker if the opponent didn’t run Mespirt, but he ran 2.

I start with an Unown Q active and a Crobat G on the bench.  I go first, drop an Uxie and an energy to do “Hidden Power” for 30.  He then plays a Pokemon Collector for two Mesprits, and sends out a Machoke.  I am able to take advantage of the damage counters on Machoke when  I bring up Uxie and “Psychic Restore” for the KO.  Even though he psychic binded me this turn I still was able to get a knockout.

We go back and forth trading knockouts.  He is unable to establish a second Machamp until later in the game, so I am able to get a knockout on most turns.  My big misplay came when I used Seeker, and he picked up  Mesprit, to just “Psychic Bind” me again.  Throughout the game he used VS Seeker 3-4 times for great results.

We are tied up at prizes at the end, and I have 2 Pokemon left.  He uses a VS seeker to get Seeker back and then uses it to get me down to 1 Pokemon and then uses “Take Out” on the last guy.

3-2.  I started out the day great, but then fell face first.  This was a great game, but I just couldn’t pull it out.  I knew that I needed to win out and have luck to be able to top cut.

Round 6- SP

I don’t quite know who my opponent was but I know he’s a nice guy.  He goes first and uses Call Energy to get 4 basics.

I make a bad move during this game.  My opponent left an Unown Q on the bench, and I knocked it out with “Flash Bites.”  But, I forgot to take  a prize.  Fast forward 15 minutes later when I’m still on my same turn,  but have ran out of Uxies.  My opponent has a damaged Weaville G, but I have to use Seeker to pick up an Uxie, so he picks up Weaville.  When I do that I remember,”hey I should have taken the Uxie with my prize, oh crap I didn’t take my prize.”  I call a judge over and a humorous moment occurs.

The judge asks me what cards I played after I knocked out the Q, and I handed him my discard pile full of like 45 cards.  After having a good laugh we go through the deck and find out that I didn’t play a card that would force me to put my hand in my deck, so I was okay with just taking the prize.  I did get a caution, but thats nothing more than a slap on the hand.

The game went well for me after that.  My opponent just couldn’t draw a supporter so I was able to take 5 prizes, and I win on time.

4-2. I still have a chance at making top cut, but I am feeling the pain right now.  I have a back ache and am feeling really tired.  That last game took a lot out of me.

Round 7- Andrew with Gyarados.                       

Andrew is the cool chap who wrote a Regigas article for this site a couple months ago.  But, for some reason he switched to Gyarados.

Andrew knew what was coming because he sat by me for one game.  But, he also told me that he ran Mesprits, so I also knew what was coming.

He starts with  a Registeel and a Magikarp and goes 1st.  I start Crobat G and am ready to go to town.  Andrew draws and slowly reveals a Psychic Pokemon, but I can see the yellow tail of an Uxie, instead of Mesprit.  He lays down Uxie and prays that he can survive.

I quickly knock out the Magikarp and Seeker the Uxie.  Registeel has a Psychic resistance, so this makes the game more interesting.  I am able to get 3 “Flash Bites” on the active, but do not have many Plus Powers.  I actually make a couple misplays and am unable to cycle though the deck.  But, at the end I only need 2 Plus Powers to win.  I can’t “Setup” again, but have 1 Pokedrawer + in my hand.  I use a Pokedex to reveal another Pokedrawer +, thats game!

5-2. For a second week in a row I am on the bubble and am waiting to see if I top cut.  I order my deck and talk to my buddy Robert Hall to pass the time.  The standings are finally announced and I am placed at #18, not good enough for top cut.

Props

• The judges always do a great job, thanks to them
• All  my opponents for being nice.
• James for buying me lunch.
• My Pokemon friends for being cool.
• The nice location for the tourney.  Ft. Wayne is a cool city, and one I could see myself moving to.  It was really cool to play at a ball park too.
• Lots of restaurants around the ball park.

Slops

• the early 3 hour drive.
• Not top cutting at any States.
• A lot of my Michigan buddies not being there.
• Having 17 people go 5-2.
• No comfy chairs.
• Mesprit.

I feel that I did pretty well with Uxie during States.  I went a combined 9-5 and made my rating a lot better.  But, since I didn’t top cut at all, I have to call this States season a disappointment, but not by too much.  It is really hard to do well in Michigan right now, and just having a 64% ain’t too bad.

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