One Hit KO

My fellow Seinfeld fans will appreciate the reference to the episode where Jerry continually loses things and then gains things back again.  This is how I felt today at the Rochester Hills City Championships. No matter how hard I fight to break away from the crutches of mediocrity, it pulled me back in, but then I was reminded that it wasn’t that bad.                           

The story of the 2010 Rochester Hills Michigan City Championship begins on Friday afternoon.  I got back from my jog and fired up the computer.  I got a message from Derek, our tournament organizer, saying that he expects a record draw to the next cities and reccomends that we all show up early.  I decided to pass that info on to my buddy Jona, and hope to make it there when registration starts, at 11.  I end up making it by 11:10, the parking lot was full, but I was able to register.  At about 11:20, they begin turning people away, because the fire code only lets 70 people in the building.  This left several players, including last years state champion, away from the tournament.  When I saw this I thought I might have a better shot today, with a cut of top 8 and one less great player.

Lets backtrack here to when I first chose my deck.  Last weekend I went to a cities and wanted to play Gyarados, but mine wasn’t working properly, so I threw together a Magnezone deck.  It was pretty cool, probably the best Magnezone deck I ever seen.  It was a little slow, but once it got going it was unbeatable.  I went to the cities with that deck, and played a Luxchomp, Sablelock, and SP Toolbox.  The Luxchomp made quick work of me, I got donked by sablelock (but then beat him easily in the rematch), and then lost to the SP toolbox, which I had beat the previous night in testing.  After receiving a bye, I went home pretty angry.  The next week I took Ed’s advice and used Austino’s Gyarados List.  This is a basic Gyarados build, so I won’t explain the list.  I like the list because, its all consistency, it only has 1 tech, and this is Dialga G Lv.X, for the trainer lock matchup.  I made 1 small change to his list(another Pokemon Communication instead of a VS seeker) and went with that list. If you wanna see the list you can find it at:

http://www.sixprizes.com/deck-analysis/the-elite-4-decks-part-24-gyarados/ .

Its in the comment section.

Before getting to the tournament, I cranked up the jams from the CD “Family Guy: Live in Las Vegas”, and made the one hour drive north to Rochester Hills.  Once I got there I turned in my list, saw my freind Jona, lent him a card, and then played him in a practice game.  When parings were up I went to the table to meet my first opponent.

Round 1 v.s Cradily.

I think I start Sableye and he starts with two Root Fossils.  I was kinda shaken up cause I didn’t know what deck he was playing.  I remembered seeing the Cradily card, but for the life of me couldn’t remember what it did.  I start a little slower then I want to having to “Time Walk” for a Magikarp, he starts a little slow as well.  When he finally gets  a Cradily I look at it, and see that it has two attacks, “Drain Down” does 30 (for G) damage to a Pokemon on the bench that you can make active and you can heal all damage counters if you knock out that Pokemon, and “Acid” which does 50 (for GCC) and prevents retreating.                                                 

I actually start fairly well after a little slow beginning. I end up taking 5 prizes with a couple good “Flash Bite” drops.  For most of the game he didn’t do much, he once got my Regice active, but I was able to warp him out.  Then all of a sudden he goes crazy out of no where.  He drops 3 SF Cherrims and Shaymin Ground Form Level X, which gives him +30 for all attacks and +40 HP.  He then proceeds to drop Plus Powers and attach an expert belt to knock out Uxies and Crobat G’s with “Drain Down” and heal all damage.  He does this until he takes 4 prizes.  After this, I become very annoyed and decide that I will take no more of this.  I scoop up all Uxies, the Regice, and the Azelf, then I Poke-Turn all Crobat G’s, which leaves the bench empty.  With nothing on the bench, he can’t really do anything and loses when I am able to “Tail Revenge” for the win.

1-0, I commend him on the great comeback, and then get ready for round 2.

Round 2- v.s. Collan Baker and SP Toolbox.

Collan is a friend from Team Warp Point.  I beat him at BR’s at this same venue, and he was looking for some revenge.  I think I start with Uxie and Regice, I pass first turn, the second turn he starts to set up, on my 2nd turn I use collector for Karp, Sableye, and Azelf.  I try to “Regimove” but I get sprayed.  So I scoop up Regice and “Regimove” again, this time I get it.  Then I use Azelf (cause I notice that I prized 2 Magikarps), but when I say “Time Walk” he says “Power Spray.”  So I thought, “no matter I’ll just scoop up Azelf next turn.  5 Super Scoop Ups later I am unable to get a heads and with only 1 karp in the discard pile, my Gyarados is no threat to him.  He just knocks it out and continues to watch as I am unable to get a heads on Super Scoop Up.  I then scoop as time is called.

1-1.  Not much can be done when you prize 2 Magikarps and are unable to get to them.  When I look at the pairings for next round I notice that I get paired up, yay!

Round 3- v.s. Trainerlock

I enter this game still fuming about the 5 tails I got last turn.  But, there’s no time to think about that, I am playing one of my worst matchups.  I don’t start Sableye, but I get him my 2nd turn and collector for 2 Magikarps and my Dialga G.  He starts with 2 Oddish’s, it takes him a while but he does get a SF Gengar out.  I have to waste my Bebe’s Searchs so I cannot get Dialga G X out in time.  I also prize Azelf and Regice, and since I am under trainerlock I have to use Volkners to discard Magikarps.  Towards the middle of the game I get 9 damage counters on Gengar SF, 2 Crobat G’s in my hand, and the Dialga G X.  But just as I am about to bust the game wide open, he uses a Lookers Investigation on me and puts my awesome hand into the deck.  Without the Crobats, I am unable to avoid Fainting Spell, and Gengar takes me with him as I knock him out.  After this I cannot rebound, so I lose another one.                                                                                            

1-2.  Not much can be done about a bad matchup and another bad coin flip.  But a little luck is just around the corner.

Round 4- Trainerlock.

I play another Trainerlock deck, but this one is teched out more with Slowking HGSS and Bellossom Ud.  Those techs are nice, but it seemed to hurt his consistency.  This time I set up faster then his trainerlock does and am able to get setup fast.  The turning point was when I knocked out a Gengar SF and avoid the “Fainting Spell”.  This gives me a huge advantage, and I am able to beat the Bellossom, Vileplume, and Cursegar.

2-2- This time the coin flips go my way.  After this game I look at the parings and I again get paired up, this time against Evan Baker, Yay!

Round 5- Evan’s Luxchomp

For those that don’t know Evan is no doubt the hottest player in the state.  He is consistently beating everyone, even last years state’s winner.  So needless to say I am intimidated and expect to get steamrolled.  He gets a promocroak starts and I get a sableye.  I get going fast, but am unable to find a gyrados for a couple turns.  This proves to be the difference as he is able to get the first kill.  From then on the race is on and we just exchange kill after kill. I am able to get enough Poke Turns to get knock outs without the expert belt, and run over 3 Luxray Gl’s, 1 Garchomp C, and an Uxie.  But alas, after time is called and turn 3 is over, its his turn and he has Garchomp C X active.  He attachs a DCE and shows me a Cyrus’s Conspiracy with a gain in his deck.

2-3.  What an awesome game!  I take one of the hottest players in the country to sudden death and darn near almost beat him!  Evan won all of the Cities last weekend, and took his streak into today’s tournament.  It was all I could do to keep up with him.

Round 6- Magnezone

I am familiar with this matchup since I have a similar deck.  My Magnezone deck has a very favorable matchup to Gyarados.  But, I think my deck is more consistent then this one.  He runs Heatran and Raichu, which slows him down.  He also runs the Level X and does not run the Prime, which I think hurts the deck.                                                                  

He starts with a Spirtomb and a Magnemite.  I start Crobat G and Dialga G.  I again have troubles getting a Gyarados, it takes me like 8 turns because I prized both of my Bebes.   It was weird, I ended up belting a Sableye and getting a couple prizes with “Over Confident.”   But I eventually do get one and a Dialga G X, which makes Spiritomb useless.  Unfortunately, he is able to setup 3 Magnezones and is ready to go crazy on me.  Thankfully, he does not run Lucario Gl and after the loss of 1 Gyarados I am able to “Flash Bite” the field, and OHKO everything with Gyarados after I Super Scoop him up each turn.

3-3.  Just like Jerry Seinfeld, I am an Even Steven.  I think I played well today, even though the record is only mediocre.  Especially with the fact that I always started first, even though I only started Sableye twice.  I didn’t make any misplays my only losses were because of: 5 tails on Super Scoop Up, a bad “Fainting Spell” roll and Lookers Investigation, and playing one of the best players around.  So thats nothing terrible.  I went home pretty happy.

As for comments on the entire field, there was a lot of SPs.  The best players in Michigan play SP’s and a couple play Gyarados and Trainerlock, thats about it.  The Top 4 at this tournament according to Pokegym.net’s City Championship forum was:

1. Marvin A. (LuxChomp)
2. Evan B. (LuxChomp) TEAM WARP POINT
3. Kyle L. (LuxChomp/Mewtwo)
4. Mike M. (Gyarados)

Big Ups to Austino for sharing his list, thanks man!

Category: City Championships, Uncategorized | Tags: Gyarados, Rochester Hills City Championships