One Hit KO

I have to admit that I’ve been disappointed with the number of participants in the OneHitKO.com Challenge. When I first proposed it, people said that it might get low participation, but I didn’t expect it to be this low. I figured locals would chip in. I figured that some people would fine the idea oddly intriguing. I figured that, for the cost of a stamp, thinning your card pool of stuff you didn’t intend to play could be turned into entertainment. I guess I figured wrong.

Now, I’m not all sad or anything. In other ways, I’m very pleased with how things have turned out. I’m playing a deck that I otherwise never would have used in tourneys, and I’m having fun with it.

I’m happy with the cards that have been donated. There’s another area in which things have exceeded expectations. When I expected to be running a deck full of the best picks from random junk, I’m running a deck with 3 Primes, several popular trainers/supporters, some great dragons, and one of the most impactful Pokemon of the moment.

My goal was to build a community around this project, and in that I feel like I’ve failed. I’ve been thinking of ways I can continue with a similar experiment/project, though. Again, it’s not all bad, but it’s not what I aimed for. I have ideas for future targets, though.

My in-game goal was to go better than 50/50 in any tourney. Let’s get to the report.

Round 1) Vs Alex with EelZone
Alex is a good player that always plays a top deck. He’s fresh off of the Chicago Cities marathon scene, so I’m sure he’s got no worries against my deck. However, he doesn’t know what I’m playing, and I think his expectations are that I’ve got some odd trick up my sleeve. I think he expects me to be a top-cut contender, and he’s confused by the things he sees coming from my deck. Pokemon Circulator is one of those confusing plays. Anyway, I pretty much know from the moment we sat down that I didn’t have a realistic shot, but it goes much better than expected. I think in the picture, I’m down to 3 prizes. I think I may have worked down to 2 prizes by the time he finally won. It was a good game all through, but I knew I needed a miracle to win.
LOSE 0-1

Round 2) Vs Cody with Fire (Emboar, Reshiram, Darumaka, etc)
I’m pretty sure this was Cody’s second tourney ever. He was a very nice guy, but he needs some deck help if he’s going to continue in the tourney scene. That’s the norm for a new guy like that, and I’m sure that once he gets more Collector, PONT, Catcher, he’ll have a better time of it. As it was, Cody ended up finding no supporters (IIRC), and only got 2 basics. I think I got Thundurus and a Raichu set up right away, and KO’d his field of 2 on maybe the 3rd or 4th turn. We played another game for fun, and I won that in a much longer match (which is actually what’s in the picture).
WIN 1-1

Round 3) Vs OneHitKO’s own TAndrewT with Chandelure
Andy started the game by claiming that he’d help me out. He dropped a Tropical Beach (for me of course) and used Pichu to fill both of our bench. Without Catcher, his Oddish just meant that I had 1 turn of trainers. I set some stuff up, and (with 3 Tynamo out) used Pokemon Communication to grab an Eelektrik (I had already drawn 1). Well, I ended up grabbing the same Raichu I put in the deck, because the other 2 Eel were prized. That pretty much meant the game was over for me. His Chandelure could KO my Tynamo, and I didn’t have much for recovery options. I think I went for Zekrom for a while, and I believe that it was a close game in spite of all my problems. Andy made an error on one turn and put Chandelure damage on a guy he ended up attacking (for overkill KO), and that opened the door a bit. I almost pulled it out, but I ran out of power by the end of it all. Click the little pic on the left if you want to see the field near the end of the game. I actually had only 1 prize left to take when he had 2.
LOSE 1-2

Round 4) Vs Bob C with Druddigon/Chandelure/PsyVictini
If you recall the previous report, I played Bob and mulliganed a LOT. I have added 2 basics since then, and I didn’t mulligan all day (until this match). I gave Bob 2 extra cards before I pulled a lone basic. He’s got the cutting touch, but I got the dice rolling touch and ended up going first. Sadly, I quickly found out that I prized 2 (of 3) Tynamo, so again, I was on the ropes like the previous match. I overextended to try for a couple KOs to retrieve the Tynamos, but they weren’t coming. I had to go back and forth with Thundurus and Raichu, and I think I got down to like 4 or 5 cards left in my deck before I won on time. It was very close.
WIN 2-2

So, at this point, I have a chance to go above 50%, right? I mean, I just need to win my next match. Well, it turns out that my second daughter, Petra, has her first hockey game ever starting at 4:30. I thought I might get a full 5 rounds by 4PM, but it didn’t happen. I had to drop and run out. That put me right at 50% for the day. Ava ended up 2-2 also. I don’t know what happened to her.

It was a good day. I wish I could have played the 5th match to see if I could have won. The deck was working well (besides unlucky prizing). I think I could have pulled off a win. :D

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