Pikkdogs Battle Roads Report: Ann Arbor
Pikkdogs Hello to all you OHKOers out there, this is Pikkdogs here with a Battle Roads report. Of course I am also joined by my extra-dimesnionary sidekick Pedro.
Before we start, I gotta thank Pedro for filling in for me recently while I was serving my 1 article suspension. I couldn’t do it and Pedro wrote an article and he did a ………….. well he wrote an article. So thanks.
Well, your welcome Pikkdogs. Say, you had some time off lately, what did you do with your time?
Well I took a vacation. I went to Amish country. In Intercourse, Pennsylvania.
Ohhhh, what did you do?
Well, I have always been inspired by the simple life of the Amish. I just walked around the center of town and talked with the locals.
So, in other words, you like to talk in the middle of Intercourse?
Yes. You know the one good thing about the Amish is that they don’t have computers so you can say whatever you want about them and they will never know.
Yes, the Amish and other Americans are very different. One is a group of people that never read your articles…… and the other group is Amish.
Hey! Don’t say that. It’s true, but I do have feelings.
Okay, should we just get on to the article?
Let’s do that. So this saturday the Pokemon world in Michigan shifted towards Ann Arbor, Mi. This tournament is actually the closest one for me. So it was nice to not have to drive too far, but the location was far from ideal. What I saved in gas I had to pay to the parking garage. It was held in a fairly nice card shop in the middle of downtown Ann Arbor. I do not like having to play in such an urban area. There also wasn’t room for all the players that wanted to come, they ended up turning a couple players away. So although I like the people of Ann Arbor, I hope they can provide a more spacious venue next time. When the pairings were posted on the wall it took about 5 minutes to move across the room. The whole room was like a big rugby scrum, the only way to get to the other side was just to lower your shoulder and push. I tell ya Pedro, that room was pretty much clogged.
Oh yeah, how clogged was it? 
It was so clogged that my arteries were jealous.
It was so clogged that Frank (pictured right) couldn’t fit his Fedora in the room.
It was so clogged that I had use a Junior to pry my way to my seat.
So Juniors are good for some things, well that’s enough of the bad comedy, lets just continue on to the report.
Anyway, I got up a little earlier than I would like to, and made the about 40 minute drive to Ann Arbor. I had to park in a parking garage, and I know that I already complained about that, but I really don’t like paying for parking. But, I got there fairly early with my decklist ready and got to say hi to a lot of people from my area. It was nice to see all these people, and it was great to meet new people who are friends of the website.
You mean people actually read this crappy website?
Well I guess, but they must have wandered here by mistake.
I had again played my Donphan and Dragons deck. Although I was not 100% happy with the deck, I knew it was my best shot at a win right now, so I took it again. I won’t provide the list since the deck is basically the same. But I did swap out the Reshiram for a Tornadus, and swapped a Juniper for a PONT. I liked the addition of Tornadus because it adds more pop to the deck.
What kind of pop?
Faygo. Enough distractions let’s get on to the article.
Round 1- Ampharos/Leavannny
This round was against a guy who was very new to the game. This was his first tournament and he was playing a deck with a lot of different Pokemon and not a lot of supporters. I think he started with a Doduo and the secret rare Pikachu. I got Donphan Prime going turn 2, and just started swinging. I used Pokemon Catcher to take out Pikachu, and then a Mareep. The game was over in just a couple turns since his deck wasn’t very consistent. I think he attacked for a total of 30 damage all game.
1-0. Not much pride taking out someone who’s deck was less than a theme deck, but I’ll always take the 1-0 start. I was able to give him advice about his deck and the game after. Hopefully he will stick around and play the game more till he improves.
Round 2- Dave R. with Zekrom
For the second week in a row I got the pleasure of facing off against Dave, I’m just happy that I didn’t have to fight the whole Richards clan like I did last week. I swear that Dave and his brother Dan have some kind of weird thing going on with their luck. Whenever I play Dan he can never get a break and always flips tails, but Dave gets all the breaks he needs and beats me easily. This game kind of went that way.
I started with Tornadus and got a couple knock outs early. But I also lost that Tornadus and a Phanpy early. At one point I thought I was done fairly early in the game, but I was able to get a Pokemon Collector a couple Phanpys. I did manage to get a couple Donphans, so I kept myself in it. But, Dave set himself up pretty early, he always had 2-3 Tornadi on the field with a Zekrom ready. He switched between attackers flawlessy, and was able to rescue a couple of prizes by getting heads on Super Scoop Ups on damaged Tornadi. After losing on those Super Scoop Up flips, I just scooped and congratulated Dave.
1-1– So another loss to Dave, but he is a Nationals champ so there is no shame in losing to him. I just hoped that I could win out and come back.
Round 3- Zoroark, Yanmega Prime and Crobat Prime 
I had talked with this guy throughout the tournament, and was impressed with how much he improved since I had seen him last. He had top cutted last week with this deck, and was doing pretty well. I was kind of excited for this matchup. Crobat Prime should beat my Donphan, but my Zekrom should beat his Crobat. He would then bring up Zoroark to deal with the Zekrom, in which case I would bring up Donphan and we would start again. It should have been a great game of revenge KOs. But, all this didn’t happen.
It did not happen because I had to mulligan a number of times. Not 2 times, not 3 times, not 4 times, not 5 times ….. well yes 5 times! I had to mulligan 5 times in order to get a Basic. Once I got the basic the only Supproter I saw was a Sages, and I could not catch up with his 12 card hand.
1-2– If ya wanna lose, give you opponent a 12 card hand. At this point I almost dropped because I knew I couldn’t Top Cut. But I decided to stay anyway.
Round 4- Mew/Lucario
This game was against another beginner. She used Mew, Relicanth, and Absol to get Lucario and Muk in the Lost Zone, and then do major damage. She started with Relicanth and was able to Lost Zone a lot of key Pokemon. The problem for her was that I was able to get a turn 2 or 3 Donphan Prime, and used Pokemon Catcher to control the number of Mew Primes on the field. By the time she found a Pokemon Collector and Revive to get a lot of Mews on the field, I was able to get a big prize lead. Her deck was just too slow, and Donphan is just too good.
2-2– I’m still mad here, but I’ll take any win I can get.
Round 5- Frank S. with Gothitelle. 
Now this was really stupid of me. I have an autoloss to Gothitelle, so I told my friend Frank to play the deck. I don’t know why. I even lent him cards so he could play it. And then I have to play him. I knew my only hope was to use Pokemon Catcher to knock out Gothita’s before they evolve.
Frank starts first with a Solosis and Reshiram, and uses “Cell Culture.” I start with a Phanpy and a Zekrom, Pokemon Catcher the Zekrom, and pass. Next turn Frank finds a Gothita and plays it. I use a Juniper to evolve to Donphan and get a Junk Arm to get the Pokemon Catcher back, and take away the Gothita. On the next turn Frank gets another Gothita, but I get another supporter to find a Pokemon Catcher. Skip ahead a few turns, and Frank finally finds a Pokemon Collector…… but he prized a Gothita!! I cheer and Sean the Judge looks at me strangely. I was able to get another Pokemon Catcher and take care of the last Gothita (that had evolved into a Gothorita).
3-2– I get really lucky and am able to take care of Gothtielle before it set up, and was able to take the game. 
Round 6 Joe with Stage 1 Rush (The traditional build).
Joe is a nice guy, but at this point he was pretty frustrated. He thought he was going to top cut, but he lost last round, so he was not very focused on this game. The nice thing was we were sitting by our friends Bohdan and Ryan G.
I go first and have the better setup. I have a Tornadus and a Zekrom, and soon get a Donphan. I am able to “Hurricane” his Donphan twice for the Knock Out. Then I promoted my Donphan Prime and was able to “Heavy Impact” his Donphans and Yanmegas. Because i had three energies on Donphan, I was able to win the Donphan Battle and pretty much control the field. He got a knock out with Zoroark, but I revenged knocked it with Donphan. And of course, in the end his Yanmegas and Donphans could not stand up to the “Heavy Impacts.”
4-2- Well a nice record to end the day, but the beginning of the day was not very good. I end the day on a good note, and hope to keep it going tomorrow.
Thanks again to all my buddies I saw today, and to all the judges, and to Derek. 
Derek? Is he your boyfriend?
No, he’s the tournament organizer. How do you wanna end the article?
Oooo, I got a news story.
You got a news story?
Yep, it seems that Nintendo has revealed the full name of the character N. His name is “Natural Harmonia Gropius.”
What a coincidence, that’s the name I used to dance under.
I thought I remembered you. That’s all we got people, you can leave now.
Misnos 
