One Hit KO

Hey all members of Omar-Nation,  as you can see by the fact that I’m writing a Pre-Release tournament report, I don’t have much to write about.  But I had fun at the local Pre-Release and learned some stuff about the new set.  I will share my account of the day, then talk about some of the cards in the set.                            

This tournament report starts the way all Pokemon reports start, with the sentence: “I woke up early the morning of the tournament not having slept very much the night before. “  Seriously does any Pokemon player sleep before a tournament?

Well I got my day off to a groggy start and chugged down a couple of glasses of water, got changed into my Team Omar uniform, then went to Burger King for a quick breakfast.  The breakfast turned out to be not so quick, and left me about 10 minutes late.  Then I was 10 minutes later when I ran into a traffic jam.  Anyway, I make it to the card shop just when the organizer was about to hand out the decks.

After paying for the two tournaments (sealed theme deck and sealed booster) I sit down by the only familiar face in the rather small crowd, Card Selling Ed.  We both pick the same theme deck and then get a couple packs to try to improve the theme deck.  As we go we both look at the cards and see a couple we like.  I start with the Espeon deck and pull Flareons and an Umbreon Prime, so I make an Eeveelution deck.  Pairings are announced and I face the guy sitting across from me, Card Selling Ed

Theme Deck Tournament Round 1- Card Selling Ed.

Not much to talk about here, I start with 2 basics and can’t draw into much.  He, on the other hand, starts rather well and was able to beat me in about 3 or 4 turns.  We play again just for fun and I beat him just the way he beat me.

0-1.

Theme Deck Tournament Round 2- Some Junior

My round 2 starting hand was just as bad as my round 1 hand.  But this time I am able to keep in the game for longer.  He sets up with a metang, while I get an Umbreon Prime out.  He is able to use Metang’s attack to knock out my Umbreon before I get him loaded up.  He finishes me up when he finds his Metagross.                                     

0-2

Theme Deck Tournament Round 3- Peggy

This day was the first day I met Peggy, she is a Poke-Mom who has a son who is still very young, but is extremely knowledgeable about the game.  He really impressed me with how well we understood the game.  Peggy told me that they went to Indy for the Nationals and her son just missed Top Cut.  But anyway back to the game.  I again don’t start very well, but start better than the last two times.  She gets a muk out fast and starts knocking out three of my Pokemon, while I load up an Eevee on the bench.  It only has 1 energy on it when Eevee is forced to become active, I draw and attach an energy then use the attack “Tickle.”  Now this is a bland attack that does 10 damage and lets you flip a coin, and if heads paralyze the defending Pokemon.  But, it was one of the funniest and uncomfortable things to tell a middle-age Woman that, “I’m going to tickle you.”  Well I did tickle her and I paralyzed her twice, which prevented me from being Knocked Out.  The next turn starts and I draw, and I top deck the Flareon that I need.  I knock out her active Muk, then I knock out the Bellossom that she brings up.  Then I knock out two more Pokemon and win the game.

1-2.

This is the end of the theme deck tournament, I put the cards away and then I get ready for the  sealed booster event.  I get my six packs and start opening them.  For the tournament I am  hoping to pull a stage 1 prime and/or some Sneazels.  But for collecting purposes, I really want a Vileplume or the Smeargle.  I end up getting 3 Sneaszls and a houndoom prime, but fail to pull any useful trainers.  As I make my deck I keep on talking to Peggy and her son, the deck building was interrupted when a kid tried to go out the fire door, that woke everyone up.   The alarm was seriously on for 2 to 3 minutes, I should sue that kid for damage to my hearing.                              

Sealed Booster Tournament- Round 1- Peggy

I again get to play the person I sat next to while building the decks.  This game wasn’t half as exciting as our last one.  It was basically over once I looked at my starting hand, I had a Houndoor, a Houndoom prime, a Special Darkness Energy, and a Darkness Energy.  I just set up Houndoom Prime and it takes me 4 turns from there to end it.

1-0

Sealed Booster Tournament- Round 2-Card Selling Ed.

I again play my buddy Card Selling Ed.  I again start with a Houndoom Prime, but can not find the Houndours.  I do find a Sneazel early and load it up and use “Beat Up” to knock out a couple Pokemon.  By the time he knocks out my Sneazel I only have 1 prize card left and he has several damage counters on his Pokemon.  I bring out a Hondour and end the game with “Sharp Fang.”

2-0.

Sealed Booster Tournament-Round 3- Some League Guy.

Im sorry, but I forgot this guys name.  He is a guy that plays at League at this shop, but isn’t really a tournament guy.  As we both reveal our starting Pokemon I notice that, depending on the energy situation, the winner of this match will be the one who goes first.  Going first is usually bad in this game, but we both had Sneazel starts.  So that means who ever could attach two energies first would probably win.  I ended up winning the coin flip and attach and use “Fury Swipes.”  He attaches and does the same thing, then I attach and use “Beat Up.”  We end up knocking each others Sneazel out, but by this time I only had 1 prize left, so I brought up a charged up Sneazel and ended the game with “Beat Up.”

3-0

I inform the judge of who has won, and she gives me the 2 packs we get for playing and 1 pack for finishing with the best record.  I then open the packs, and make some trades.  I end up getting two Vileplumes (just what I wanted), but people wanted to hang on to their Smeargles (boo).  I then stay later and orgainize my cards.  As I leave the tournament and head for work, I realize that i just won my first Premier Event.  Eventhough it didn’t mean anything, its still nice to win.

Okay so thats its for a pointless tournament report, lets get to some cards.  I won’t go too far indepth here, I will just tell you what I saw.  The reason is that I want to cover some of these more in my Pikk 3 article.

Before I touch on some cards I will say a little bit about making a good pre-release deck.  In this limited format you must play a little slower than you do in the Modified format. Here it is important to use trainers and supporters, so use everyone that you pull.  Also it is important to use a higher percent of energies then you normally use, but don’t go overboard use about 14-15.  Also starting Pokemon are nice, so if there is a Pokemon that has a low energy attack that lets you draw cards, put it in the deck.

First for those going to a Pre-Release soon, here are some good combos.  Eevee decks are always great for Pre-Releases.  So if you can pull a Prime and some Flareons or Jolteons, I would use those.  Sneazel is a great card that lets you do 20 damage times the number of heads, for each Pokemon you have in play.  It won me this tournament, so if you get them, play them.  Of course, if you pull a stage 1 prime I would play it along with 4 or 5 of the Pokemon it evolves from.  Houndoom Prime is good in this format, as is Umbreon Prime, and the dreaded Slowking Prime (trade him as soon as the tournament is over though.)  The non primes of Scizor and Houndoom are also good cards.

Now for some cards that might see some play in the modified format.  Vileplume is a card that I don’t think anyone was able to get out in the tournament, but it will be awesome in the next format.  If you can trade for any of these, do so, it will be a valuable card.  Smeargle from this set is amazing.  I can’t remember what his Poke-Power is called, but it lets you look at your opponents hand and use a Supporter card they have and use it as the effect of this power.  This card had the potential to be a staple.  Energy Exchanger seems like a junk trainer, but I think it could see some play.  It is basically a Pokemon Communication, for energies.  You take an energy from your hand, place it on the top of your deck and search your deck for any energy card (even special energies!)  I could see this card being used in some decks that use Double Colorless Energy or Special Metal or Darkness Energies.  Rotom is also a good tech card that could see some play.  And if your a rogue, the new Magcargo can be used with Typhlosion Prime for some fun knockouts.

Well thats all for this time, this is Pikkdogs signing off saying, so long and thanks for all the fish.

Category: Tourney Report, Uncategorized | Tags: HS" Undaunted, Undaunted Prerelease