Nationals Day 2 (Ed’s Quick Update)

by Ed ~ July 9th, 2011.

I’m back with some more pictures and the continuation of my weak little report.

I needed to win out on the second day. If I did, I would (most likely) make top cut. If I lost any of the day’s matches, I’d be playing in side events.

Round 7: I think this guy’s name was Ronald, and he was playing Yanmega, Donphan, and Zekrom. Once I got set up, I ran through his stuff. I don’t remember much else. Sorry, my brain is kinda fried at the moment.
4-3

Round 8: I drive this far, and I have to player Conner M. from MN. Conner and I have played before (most recently in States when I ran over his Donphan with my Gyarados), and I always seem to come out on top somehow. He’s due for revenge, though. He’s playing Donphan, Machamp, and Zoroark, but I am not playing water. He’s got a good chance if he can set up Machamp and use Zoroark to get one shots on my Reshiram. Unfortunately for Conner, he can’t get Machamp set up until it’s too late. I think he finally got one set up but had lost most of his energy already.
5-3

Round 9: I need to win this game to top cut. Once I see Oddish, I know my day is done. I have no answer to that. It turned out that he was playing the Vileplume, Yanmega, Mew, Muk, Jumpluff deck that saw some success. I think that’s what Radu got Top-64 with.
5-4

I definitely did not choose the best deck or the best build. I knew going in that it wouldn’t be great, but I didn’t think it would be this bad.

Also, I talked to SO many people that commented on how random this format is. Any player can lose/win any game. It’s very flippy, and it’s especially weighted toward who goes first. The only real winners were those that sat it out to protect their worlds invites. I heard about multiple people that played and lost in the early rounds potentially losing them so many points that they may not get to play in worlds.

When the rotation was announced, I thought that the lack of established decks would cause the best players/deckbuilders to rise to the top. It turns out that it’s nowhere near that. Yeah, good players still made the top cut, but some very good players got handed early losses to random stuff and dropped. The consistency is gone, at least for the moment.

After the main event, there was a large side event. The winner was gonna get himself a Nintendo 3DS (and maybe a box of cards). I signed up for it. I figured that if I lost, I’d go play some 8-man pods. Well, I lost, and every time I went to play pods, there was a huge line. I never dropped.

Before the 3DS side event, I decided to screw with my deck. I added a 1-1 Ninetales, 4 Pokemon Reversal, 3 Judge, and some other junk. Oh, and I removed some energy. It was horrible. The Ninetales really helped, actually. The rest of it failed.

The side event only had prizes for the top 32, and the real prize was only for the winner. Many people dropped once they had a loss. Many people just didn’t show up for matches. I stuck it out even after losing horribly to matchups I should normally win easily. I dunno why. It’s like when you stay up late, but are too tired and zoned out to remember to go to sleep. I just stuck it out, and my main bragging point for the day is that I got dead last in the side event. I went 2-4, and one of my wins was to a no-show (who actually showed up like 30 seconds after being marked absent). Oh, and the other win, you ask? It was to Conner M from MN. I can’t lose to that guy. Sorry Conner.

When I get over being done with Pokemon, I’ll probably post my decklist and why it sucks. Maybe someone can get something out of it. It was a poor choice, but I was bull-headed and decided to go with it. I think the deck can be good, but I’m not convinced it can be GREAT. My build was neither, but it may only take a few cards or so to make it work MUCH better.

Category: National Championships | Tags: ,