2011

Pikkdogs and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day: Findlay, Oh Cities Report

Pikkdogs December 12, 2011 4 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with a tournament report for you.  I usually try to bring you guys photographs of the event, but I left my camera at my apartment, so no pictures today.  It’s just as well, since my photography skills suck anyway.

Today’s City Championship was in Findlay, Oh.  It was about an hour and a half drive for me, about 2 hours south of Detroit.  I was joined by my buddy Frank and two other Team Warp Point members.  The guys arrived to my apartment about a half hour late, but luckily, the judges were all later than us.  So we got there in plenty of time, but the tournament was also delayed.

This Cities was mostly made up of Ohio players.  Fort Wayne, In also had a Cities on the same day, that kept all the Indiana players away.  The 2 hour drive also kept a lot of Michiganders away, since my car, my buddy Matt K, and Team Bertolli were the only ones there.  But, Ohio sure came out swinging.  Regionals winner Carl S. was there, along with The Top Cut member Drew Holton, and one of Ohio’s most consistent players: Jack Iller.  There ended up being 62 masters, so we had some quality players and lots of them.

I have toyed with playing a lot of decks this Cities season.  I tried Steelix Ross and Durant, but none of those turned out to be any good.  So I had to fall back on my old standard, Donphan and Dragons.  Here is my list.

Pokemon-15

• 4-Phanpy HGSS
• 4-Donphan Prime
• 2-Tornadus
• 1-Reshiram
• 1-Zekrom
• 2-Kyurem

Trainers-31

• 3-Pokemon Collector
• 4-Professor Oak’s New Theory
• 3-Professor Juniper
• 3-Sage’s Training
• 2-Cheren
• 3-Pokemon Communication
• 1-Dual Ball
• 4-Junk Arm
• 4-Pokemon Catcher
• 2-Plus Power
• 2-Switch

Energy-13

• 4-Double Colorless Energy
• 4-Rainbow Energy
• 5-Fighting Energies

The list is basically a slightly tweaked version of what I have been playing since BRs.  Kyurem is played more than the other dragons because he has weakness on Reshiram and his spreading attack can cause decks like Ross Deck to have a bad day.  I might want to play 1 Terrakion NV next weekend, that seems to fit in well in this deck.  So let’s get back to the tourney and see how it went.

Round 1- 6 Corners (deck with a bunch of Legends)

I am not sure of how this deck is as good as it seems to be since it seems to be like a theme deck, but with legends.  But, I knew the player of this deck was good, so I knew the match would be hard to win.

I start with Phanpy and he starts with Verizion NV.  I go first attach, and pass.  He attaches and uses “Dual Draw.”  I start to get a Donphan going and damage the Verizion.  I knock it out on the next turn, but he gets a Kyurem going.  All of his random Pokemon seem to come together to work somehow.  They are able to knock out about 2 Donphans, but I am able to get rid of Kyurem with Tornadus.  At one point I had taken 3-4 prizes and got him down to one Pokemon.  But, he uses a Collector and somehow gets everybody setup very quickly.  I run out of Donphans and he is able to win a very close game.

0-1- Not a good start but it was a good game with a good player.  It was at this time that Frank left his Ipod by me, so I took it so he wouldn’t lose it.  I decided to play with him a little and put it in his backpack without telling him.  It was really funny watching him trying to figure out how with Ipod got into a place where he knew he didn’t put it. Lol good things, I don’t think he ever found out how it got there.

Round 2- Eelektrik with Magnezone Prime and Zekrom

This game was against my buddy Matt K., and boy was it ever a great game.  I start with a Phanpy and a Collector, and get 3 Donphan Primes on turn 2.  Matt was very shocked that I got so many Donphans so quickly, but the battle was far from over.  On turn 2 I am able to knock out a Zekrom, except the Plus Power eluded me.  So I had to put 120 on him, and “Outrage” eventually led to a prize for Matt.  Next turn I drew a Plus Power but didn’t need it to finish off the Zekrom.  On his next turn Matt used N to take my Plus Power away.  Then I had a chance to knock out a Magnezone, but I again did not have the Plus Power.  So I had to take 2 turns to knock out Magnezone.  This gave Matt time to setup up Eelektriks and maximize the playability of Zekrom and Magnezone.  He is able to get a string of 3 knockout on my Donphans, but this only gives him a 1 prize lead after I took down 3 Magnezones.  By the time that time was called, the field was setup for a great finish.  I had a Reshiram with no energy active, and he had a Pichu on the bench.  I had a Plus Power and a Pokemon  Catcher in my hand, so I played them.  All I needed was a DCE, and I knew I had 2 of them in my deck.  So  I used a PONT, and knew I had a decent shot to hit the DCE.  If I did get the DCE I would be able to knock out the Pichu, and Matt would not be able to attack since he Lost Zoned all his energies by this time.  I draw my 6 cards but I did not reveal a DCE.  I think for a bit and then scoop.  Just for fun I revealed the top card of my deck, and it was a DCE, so I swore a couple times.

0-2. Sorry Matt, I didn’t mean to swear so much, just got caught up in a really great game.  That will go down as one of the better games in a career filled with great games.  At Regionals Matt was screwed by his opponent getting a DCE out of nowhere, but it didn’t happen this time.  So I know my day is over after a 0-2 start, but I had some great games, so I knew the rest of the games would be really fun.

Round 3- Chandelure

I have never really played a Chandelure.  I don’t think my opponent was really comfortable with her deck, and never really attacked with Chandelure.  But that didn’t mean that the Ability along with Vileplume still couldn’t give me a bad day.

I again start with Phanpy but she goes first.  She starts with Promo Litwick, uses a Collector, and does Call For Family for a total of 2 Oddishes and 2 Litwicks.  I start to get my Phanpys going and get a Kyurem out.  I also Pokemon Catcher an Oddish and then end.  She retreats the Oddish and evolves into Lanturn before passing.  On my next turn I evolve into Donphan, Catcher an Oddish, and get a knock out.  On her next turn she evolves into Gloom on her other Oddish, and then passes.  I am able to again use a Pokemon Catcher, but I am not able to get the 2 Plus Powers needed to get a knock out on Gloom.  So on her turn she retreats Gloom, evolves in Chandelure and Dodrio, and starts putting damage counters all over.  Although she never really attacked, she was able to setup 2 Donphans for a Jirachi double De-Evolve KO.  She also took advantage of the damage counters placed thanks to “Earthquake” and knocked out a Tornadus.  However, during this time I put 2 Rainbow Energies and a DCE on Kyurem.  I meant to finish off Vileplume this way, but she uses Blissey Prime to get rid of all damage counters on the field.  However, this just delayed the inevitable since she lost some energies because of Blissey.  I was able to “Glaciate” 3 times and take my last 2 prizes.

1-2. I finally get a win and I do it by taking out a deck that is tough to beat.

Round 4- Reshiphlosion

I again go first and get a Phanpy start.  On my second turn I am able to “Earthquake” a Cyndaquil for a knockout.  On his next turn he Catchers my benched Kyurem with no energy, and passes.  Luckily, I am able to find a DCE and use a Pokemon Catcher to knock out a 2^nd Cyndaquil.  He then evolves his third Cyndaquil, and lays down the 4^th.  On my next turn I again Catcher a Cyndaquil, and get my 3^rd prize.  But, now he is ready with an army of Reshirams to get going.  He takes advantage of the damage counters on my Donphans to get some easy “Blue Flare” knock outs.  I don’t remember exactly how this game ended, but I think I got another Kyurem in play and he had a Reshiram with 7 damage counters on it.  He ended up taking a prize by knocking out Donphan, but I was able to take my last prize when a damaged Kyurem “Outraged” for the win.

2-2.  Another great game.  Some really good games today, no win was easy.

Round 5- Weird 6 Corner Variant with Landorus, Terrakion, Kyurem, Zekrom, and the rest here on Gilligan’s Isle. 

This was another one of those weird legendary hodgepodge legend decks.  My opponent said she made the deck just to beat people who were playing Eelektrik.  This game was very weird for me.  She goes first with Landorus and passes.  I have a lone Kyurem and a bunch of energies and Catchers in my hand.  I draw a Juniper, but cannot afford to kill all those energies and Catchers.  I am able to “Outrage” 3 times on Landorus to get the first knock out.  She uses Terrakion NV to do 90 with “Retaliate”, but I top deck a Max Potion.  I attach another DCE and then knock out a Cleffa (I think).  After she puts a couple damage counters on me, I use them to “Outrage” on another Landorus for a knockout.  So at this point I have a 3 prize lead, but a hand full of energies and no Donphans in sight.  I finally get a Communication so I switch my Donphan for  a Phanpy, and get the Donphan chain going after I finally use the Juniper.  She then mounts a comeback using a fully powered Terrakion with an Eviolite and a bunch of Defenders.  That was a big tank that took me a long time to take out.  I think the game ends when I run out of energies, but am not sure.  Either way it was a great game.

2-3.  An Amazing back and forth game that shows how good basics and Eviolite are.  Of course I hate to lose, but so far all my losses have been fun.  I still don’t know how I took 3 prizes without setting up.  But, man is Terrakion ever a big tank with Eviolite and Defenders.

Round 6- Reshiphlosion

My last match was again a very boring Reshiphlosion deck.  Once I saw the Cyndaquil I thought of just scooping since this matchup is really boring, but I decide to play it through.  He starts with Reshiram and Cyndaquil, attaches, and passes.  I start with Phanpy, I attach, and use Pokemon Collector.  On his turn he uses Rare Candy to get a Typhlosion and gets another Cyndaquil out.  On my turn I get a Donphan and Pokemon Catcher to knock out a Cyndaquil.  The next turn he uses Junk Arm to get Rare Candy back, and gets his second Typhlosion.  On my next couple turns I “Earthquaked” a couple times on Reshirams.  The Reshirams eventually won the battle, but I evened it up with “Outrage” from Kyurem.  Then, I get 2 Rainbow Energies on Zekrom and do “Bolt Strike” for a knock out on another Reshiram.  We are tied late in the game and he only has 1 Typhlosion left.  I am in the spot to get a knock out, however, I can’t get another energy.  So he wins.

2-4.  So overall lots of really good games, with really bad outcomes.  I was in every game until the very end.  Luck just was not with me at all today.

Frank and Amanda (who also came with us) were about to make top cut, but did not have good enough tiebreakers to make it in.  So we took off and rode down to Arbys and had some really good Roast Beef.  I don’t know why, but all my tourney reports seem to end at Arbys.

So long and thanks for all the fish.