Well, I don’t really think I was ever a “hero” but it sounded good in the title. Maybe a better title would have been “Riches to Rags,” but it’s already up there. My previous installment saw me winning the Minnesota state tourney, so that’s what I’m talking about with “Hero” or “Riches.” The “Zero” and “Rags” will be discussed below.
I got back into the game a bit over a year ago, because I thought it would be something that my daughter, Ava, would be into. We started during Cities last season, which didn’t go so hot. By the time States preparation rolled around, though, I knew I needed a new deck, and I chose Gyarados based on several factors. After making that choice, I started looking for the right combination of cards for the meta, and that’s how I got in contact with Austino.
At the time, Team Omar was meeting almost weekly, so I got plenty of practice and experience against multiple decks. With Austino‘s deck help and Team Omar’s playtesting help, I was able to ride Gyarados to 5th place after Swiss in the 2010 MN State Championship. I then dropped before top cut, but it was a decision that I always wondered about. Should I have canceled my other plans? Should I have stayed and played. I felt like my top-8 matchup was favorable, and I think I could have made top4.
This season saw Omar depart the state and with him went the regular playtesting sessions. I hung onto Gyarados and still kept in contact with Austino, but I started playing much less Pokemon. Andy (the reigning State Champion) and I got together to try to get a regular playtesting thing going. It worked well, but as time went on the regular turned into irregular and seemed to fall apart completely in the month leading up to States.
I had thought of switching to a new deck. I had planned on making a new deck for Ava. I had even considered rebuilding Gyarados for Ava and coming up with something completely new for myself. With my hobbytime focus diverted to other things for a while, none of this happened. I decided that I would once again lean on my old pals Magikarp and Gyarados to get me through. I’m a big believer in playing what you’re comfortable with, and this tale just further solidifies my stance, but we’ll get more into that as things unfold.
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Hey Everyone, this is Pikkdogs and Ed here to give you a dual article about the Cities we attended this weekend. We’re going to see how merging the two reports works. Pikkdogs played on Jan 8th, and Ed played both the 8th and 9th. Pikkdog’s matches will be in blue and Ed’s in red. The article intro is by Pikkdogs, and the wrapup is by Ed.
Jan 8th Misty Mountain Games in Burnsville
I was able to attend a tournament in Minnesota this weekend. I normally play in Michigan, but I spend my time away from school in Minnesota so I was able to attend the tournament on Saturday in Burnsville, MN. I was really excited to go to this tournament, because it was slated to be the reunion of Team Omar. This is because both me and Omar will be in town, so the team will be able to get together for one more tournament. I have fond memories of this past summer, when Omar won 3 cities so I was excited to see if we can take another victory medal.
I always like to play in Minnesota because the Metgame is much more relaxed. It is a lot easier to just relax and have a good time with your friends. I love playing in Michigan as well, but things are more competitive there. First, you have a lot of really good players who like to win. This is good but can take some of the fun out of it. Second, the Metagame is a meat grinder; there are so many players there with good decks that it takes a lot to stand out. Third, since things are bigger there the game is more official with match slips and stuff like that; its sometimes nice to have a friendlier atmosphere. Then again Michigan does have some of my best buds like Jona and my Team Warp Point buddies, and there are a bunch of original decks. So each metagame has different advantages, but it is nice to have a change of pace and play in a quieter environment.
I arrived at Misty Mountain games right at 10 a.m. and was the first T.O. member to arrive. I turned in my decklist and patiently waited for the tourney to start. Shortly after registering my team members all arrived, I greeted them and got ready for the tournament.
I stuck with my basic Gyarados list. I used the same one as in my last tournament; but I switched out a Pokemon Communication for Ditto La, and the 3 Special Dark Energies were changed for 3 Rainbow Energies. I decided to go with Ditto and the rainbows because of the myriad of 1 or 0 energy decks. Ditto is not only great against Gyarados, but can work well against Jumpluff and Gengar SF. So it is a very versatile card. I do lose a little bit of my donking ability without the Special Dark Energies, but those rarely help anyway. So without any more distractions, lets go to the report.
Round 1
Pikkdogs Vs. Card Selling Ed (Gengar Sf and Crobat Prime)
Officially I had a bye this round, but my buddy Card Selling Ed (not to be confused with Ed the owner of this site) had a good deck ready and wasn’t playing today, so he invited me for a game while I wait. This was nice of him since I would be able to get warmed up.
He starts with lone Gastly and “Pitchdarks” the first turn. I started Crobat G and Uxie then Bebe’s’d for a Sablye and began my setup. He sets up a Gengar right away, and I knock it out with a “Tail Revenge” and Crobat G “Flash Bites.” He then tries a Crobat Prime and the “Severe Poison” attack, but whenever he does that I either Scoop it up or warp it out. I win this game after knocking out a couple more Crobat Primes and Gengar Sf’s.
1-0
Ed Vs. T. Andrew T. with Tyranitar
I don’t recall much, but I got set up fairly quickly. I was able to run through his Tyranitars, because he was unable to keep up with energy drops (which my Gyarados doesn’t even require).
1-0
Round 2
Pikkdogs Vs. Abdi with Jumpluff
I, of course, hate playing Team Members, especially Abdi. He’s like one of the nicest guys ever. But it was me and him, so I have to try to beat him.
I think he starts Uxie and I start Sableye. I “Impersonate” for a collector and get rolling. I use “Flash Bites” to knock out a benched Hoppip and then take out the active Uxie on turn 4. About 4 turns later I use “Flash Bites” to knock out a damaged Jumpluff and “Regimove” up a belted Crobat G for the win.
2-0, easy win, sorry Abdi.
Ed Vs. Andy Wieman with LuxChomp
I Judge twice (thanks to VS Seeker). The first one wasn’t especially good for me. The second wrecked him and gave me the two cards I needed to win.
2-0
Round 3
Pikkdogs Vs. Ed with Gyarados
Just before this game I told Ed that I had a premonition that we would play today. We had played together in 3 tournaments and had yet to face each other. When I went to look at the parings I am not surprised to see me matched up against Ed.
I had actually not played the mirror matchup in a tournament before, so this was kinda new to me. He gets setup first and gets a knockout on my Sableye. I am unable to get a Broken Time Space and therefore a Gyarados. To combat this I chuck all my Magikarps in the discard pile, attach an Expert Belt, and “Tail Revenge” for 140. I could have avoided this by using a Crobat G, but I couldn’t find that either. Ed responds by belting his Sableye and knocking out Ditto with “Over Confident”. At this point I am 3 prizes down and don’t wanna have to play anymore, so I scoop. I might have played it out, but since Ed was an undefeated Team Member I just scoop.
My weird draws cause me to not have much a chance against Ed, so now I need to win out to have a chance.
2-1
Ed Vs. Josh (Pikkdogs) with Gyarados
We run almost the same lists, except Josh teched for the Gengar/Mirror with Ditto and Rainbow energy. He immediately went for the Ditto strategy, and I think it hurt him when I was able to KO his belted Ditto with my belted Sableye.
3-0
Round 4
Pikkdogs Vs. Michael Slutsky with Luxchomp
Mike is a nice Bieberish looking kid who plays a lot better then he looks. He previously have donked me with a Horsea, I still don’t know how.
I won’t go into too much detail here. I found out that unless Luxchomp starts bad, I lose. Luxchomp started well here.
I am officially out of the running.
2-2
Ed Vs. Soari with LuxChomp
I dunno. It was LuxChomp. Actually, I think I came close to winning about 4 different times. Between him having well-timed Power Sprays and me getting tails on SSUs and such, I think it could have easily been a win if I had slightly better luck.
3-1
Round 5
Pikkdogs Vs. Collan with Gyarados
Another mirror matchup, good thing I included Ditto. I never met Collan before today, but he seems like a nice guy.
We start fairly evenly, but I think I get the first G-dos. I am able to stay in front of the Prize race through most of the game. I kept Ditto on the bench, and after the game he mentioned that he never wanted to knockout my G-dos because he knew that I could just return the kill with Ditto. After we exchange prizes, time gets called and I have a 1 or 2 prize lead. I get scared when he says “Flash Bite” on Ditto and drops a Crobat G, 3 Turns and a Junk Arm. But, after we count the damage, he is left 1 damage counter away from knocking him out.
3-2 Not the best record, but was just happy to play with some friends.
Ed Vs. Michael S. with LuxChomp
I’m not sure why, but when I play Michael with Gyarados vs his LuxChomp, I never seem to have a chance. I “hid” an Expert Belt on a Crobat at one point, and in hindsight, I’m not really sure why. After I didn’t PokeTurn it, he Bright Looked it and KO’d it. That was pretty much it.
3-2
After the Tourney
I sulk a bit while reflecting on my bad luck for pairing up against 3 LuxChomps. Just 3 days earlier, I had played Uxie Donk in a tourney and got matched up against the only 3 (as far as I know) people that played 4 Spiritomb in their decks. I got lucky against one of them and went 2-2 that day.
Today, I got lucky against Andy (who I can beat in Swiss but never in tops), and came out 1-2 versus LuxChomp. OHKOs on Gyarados is just too much for me to handle. So, I grab my daughter’s and my backpacks and toss them in the car. I come back in for the door prizes and find out that Soari (4-1) is dropping, because he has to be somewhere else. That means the top 4 is a 5-0, two 4-1s, and a 3-2. I think that I spy my name just after Andy (who was 4-1), so I think there’s a bit of luck streaming my way. Indeed, when the top4 is re-set, I’m in 4th. This means that I’m playing the 5-0 Jay Hornung.
Because I was done, and Ed was still playing (props to Sudi for dropping and allowing someone else to get in top 4), I decide to stick around, keep an eye on Ed’s daughter, and watch Ed play Jay H.
I end up playing a fun game against Ed’s daughter, and then watch the end of his game. He holds everyone up by failing to take a prize when he knocked out a Pokemon, when we finally get the ruling, Ed is able to wrap it up and win game 3.
So I am thankful for just being able to hang out with Team Omar and being able to support Ed as he gets another Top 2 finish. Benny even won Senior’s with Gyarados, so that was cool. It was no doubt a successful weekend.
From here on out, the report is all Ed’s, so we’ll just stick with black text.
Top-4 Game 1: Jay Hornung playing VileGar
I get a good lead, and as Jay is beginning to come back, I opt to risk a Fainting Spell. Jay gets tails, and scoops soonafter. I make a slight mistake at one point and forget to pull a prize off of my Flash Bite KO, but I grab it just after that, and Jay pretty much just says not to let it happen again.
Top-4 Game 2:
I do not get a good lead in this one, but it’s not too one-sided. About halfway through the game, Jay looks at me and says, “You take like thirty seconds to make every decision!” After that, I make an effort to play faster, but it has nothing to do with the outcome of the game. Jay ends up winning it.
Top-4 Game 3:
I don’t recall the details here, but I’m pretty sure that Jay never gets Vileplume set up. I’m able to Regimove or KO Spiritomb almost every time I need to. I get ahead, and he has a Mewtwo with 70 damage sitting on his bench. I Flash Bite it, PokeTurn, and Flash Bite it again. Jay puts it in his discard, and then I drop Uxie to Set Up to 7 in hand. I announce Tail Revenge, go to grab my prize, and after I grab one, I realize that I did it again. I think he already knew that I forgot to take my Flash Bite prize, so I figured that I’d just take it now. What I didn’t figure is that, because I played the Uxie, I drew an extra card from Set Up (because I “saved” my prize draw until afterward). The head judge (that’s sitting right next to me and watching our game, because the other one is already done) didn’t notice it, and doesn’t really know how to rule it. His first reaction seems to be that I just don’t draw my prize. Andy Wieman speaks up mentioning that I absolutely have to take a prize. When a Pokemon is KO’d, it is not an option whether you take the prize. The problem is that, while Andy is a professor, he plays the winner of the match in top-2. Because he has a stake in the outcome, he should not be making a ruling. Several calls are made to other Professors/TOs, and we get a ruling after about 20min. Jay gets to randomly remove 1 card from my hand and shuffle it back into my deck. Then, I take my prize. I get warnings, and play resumes. Jay hits tails on his second Fainting Spell of our 3 games (maybe this was before all the hoopla), and concedes after we’re in +3.
I don’t like this win. I mean, yeah, I like beating a player of Jay’s caliber, but it was very bittersweet. First, Jay is pissed that I play too slowly, and then my mistake makes us sit and wait 20min (at least what it felt like) for a ruling. Ultimately, I think this was a bad impression to make. He already thinks I’m a Nazi for banning Radu from this site (which never actually happened).
4-2
Top-2 Game 1: Andy Wieman playing LuxChomp
I think he gets a KO on Gyarados, and I can’t find BTS. Game.
Top-2 Game 2:
I lose. These games were a bit of a blur. I recall not being able to put Gyarados back together like I usually can, but maybe that was the lack of BTS in the first game. I really need Rescue Energy and Judge in this matchup. Oh well.
4-3
So, again, I can beat Andy in Swiss, but never in top cuts. This is the 3rd time I’ve lost to Andy in top-2 (both Cities I’ve played thus far this season and a Battle Roads last season). Andy wins all 3 MN Cities thus far with his LuxChomp. What is in store tomorrow?
Jan 9th Outpost 2000 & Beyond in Coon Rapids
Round 1: CJ with a preconstructed deck
Can you believe that he Beat me on his first turn (after I go first with Sableye)? Luckily for me, Beat only does 10 damage. I get set up fast. He has X2 weakness to Gyarados.
1-0
Round 2: Justin with the deck his son made (Masquerain, Shuppet, Sableye, etc.)
Justin has Sableye, but I don’t think he ever used it to Impersonate. He just keeps hitting with Overconfident + Special Dark (which only does 10 +SpDarks for him). He gets a Shuppet with 3 Plus Powers set up at one point, so I play Judge. That’s about the end of it. Really, that’s about the end of my tourney.
2-0
Round 3: Michael with LuxChomp
What did I tell you about me playing Gyarados against Michael’s LuxChomp?
2-1
Round 4: Nate with Machamp
This one was pretty silly. It’s one of those things that should be frustrating, but what can you do? I start Sableye to his Smeargle. I have a lone Karp on the bench, but I can’t do anything else (my hand is like Judge and a bunch of trainers), so I Impersonate. Now, I should expect him to Portrait, but I don’t really have anything else to do. I impersonate Collector and get Karp, Karp, and Regice. He starts his turn and calls Portrait. The only supporter I have is Judge. He’s kinda upset, because he has all the pieces to play Take Out that turn. He now has to Judge them away. I wish he hadn’t. I can afford to lose Sableye. I can’t afford to lose the rest of my hand. He Judges into a full Machamp Prime on his bench, but has to pass due to no Take Out. I draw and Impersonate (as my new hand from Judge is horrible with like Expert Belt and Junk Arm or some garbage like that). He sets up Machamp SF, plays a Seeker (returning my Karp), and KOs Sableye. Donk
2-2
Round 5: Ross playing Jumpluff
I’ve played against Ross and his Jumpluff before. I don’t know how much it’s changed since then. I’m pretty tired of thinking for 2 days straight. I ought to exercise my brain more, so that it’s ready for this sort of thing. I know I can’t top. I have a hard time caring. Ross starts Unown Q (Hoppip on bench) to my Sableye. I throw caution to the wind and drop SpDark to get a “Quick” KO (pun intended). From there, I get a good prize lead, but (thanks to Ross’s repeated use of Judge and Let Loose) I have no good recovery. My lack of caution in the match leads me to go for card drawing and the chance of winning instead of Impersonating to give Ross a prize (but me a better chance in upcoming turns). I recall wasting my hand to Junk Arm a SSU and getting tails. I think I got tails on all my SSUs in this match. I’m convinced that I wasted all my luck on the previous day (lucking into top 4 and then beating Jay on Fainting Spells). I finally get a Combee (which I seem to forget about, because I went SOOO long without playing it) and a Gyarados. The problem is that I need 2 bench slots to use Combee. I have to sacrifice something to use it, and that puts Ross in position to win. In fact, I think I get Gyarados back on my final turn, but Ross has the belted Jumpluff doing 140 (thanks to Combee filling my bench).
2-3
So, I go from 2nd one day to 2-3 the next only beating a preconstructed deck and the deck Justin’s kid tossed together the night before. Ick.
Now, on to the only redeeming part of the day. After Juniors is done (in which Ava went 0-3), they give out door prizes. The first prize is obviously (though we’ll revisit that in a few moments) going to be a mat. There are 8 Juniors, so the TO asks for 2 dice. I’m not really certain of what happening until I see it happen. The first roll adds up to more than 8, so it’s rerolled. The second roll adds up to 8, so the 8th name is announced as the winner. I have to step in. My first thought (which I voice) is, “How do you roll a ONE on 2 dice?” My daughter, Ava, is first in alphabetical order, and happens to be name number one. If this is the method, then there’s no way she can possibly win anything. They realize that I’m 100% right and quickly change the dice rolling. The first roll is odd/even (names 1-4 odd, names 5-8 even). The second roll determines the winner. They reroll, and it comes up odd then a one. I already said that Ava is kid #1, so she wins the mat. I’m so pleased!
It occurred to me, afterward, that the original 2-die roll had WAY more wrong with it than just not having a possibility of rolling a 1. Have you ever heard of a Bell Curve or the game of Craps? Take a look at this picture (shamelessly stolen from anther website). So, if there were 8 players, and anything over 8 was a reroll, then player 1 has 0 chance of winning. We already established that. But look at how much higher probability it is for players 6, 7, and 8 to win compared to players 2, 3, and 4. It’s a combination thing. When you roll 2 (6-sided dice) there is only ONE way to get a two (1-1). There are 6 ways to get a 7 (1-6, 2-5, 3-4, 4-3, 5-2, and 6-1). Player 7 would have 6 times more of a chance to win the mat than player 2 would have.
Now, back to the obviousness of the mat going to the first winner. In Masters, I recall there being 2 mats. The first winner took a playmatmat. The next winner was a girl named Frankie. She was there with someone else that was really prompting her to take the mat. She wanted a hat. They said it was her choice, and she grabbed the hat. The 3rd door prize was called, and the winner chose the mat. Here’s another lesson in odds. If there is a prize that’s obviously sought after more than others, odds are that people are willing to trade you for the more coveted prize. If you win a mat, but you really want a hat, you can get more than just a hat out of the deal. Take the mat, and while you’re doing it, announce that you really want a hat, and you have a mat for trade. There’s a high probability that your mat will fetch a hat PLUS. I bet some players would give a hat plus a $10 bill. Others might bid a hat plus the cards you need to finish your deck. Odds are in your favor, and if you really really want that hat and can’t get more than a hat, I have no doubt that the hat winner would trade straight-up.
So, Frankie, if you’re out there, you weren’t wrong for wanting a hat more than a playmat. It’s just that you could have done even better, and there’s Ed’s probability lessons for the day.
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(anot
her 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!
This past Saturday (12-04-10), I went up to The Source to play in their city championships. 25 masters showed up, giving us 5 rounds of Swiss with a cut to top 4. I brought Gyarados with me, but I left my sick daughter, Ava, at home. Hopefully she can join me this weekend.
Round 1) Justin K. with Lefeon/Flareon/Arceus
I don’t know why, but I’ve played Justin in just about every tourney we’ve both participated in. Heck, I even got matched against him at regionals. Well, at least he’s used to playing against me. He started with a fire Arceus on his bench. I think I Regimoved it active, and he ended up belting it. I used the 2X water weakness to my advantage and went up 2-0 in prizes. After that, he couldn’t recover.
1-0
Round 2) Emmanuel D. with Machamp SF/Prime and Kingdra Prime
I’ve played against this deck before. You might think it’s heavily weighted in my favor, but it’s not that bad for him. What is bad is prizing like all his primes and 2 Bebe’s. I am pretty sure he used Seeker to use Azelf’s Time Walk 3 times. In theory, he should be able to set up Machamp Prime and Kingdra Prime to get OHKOs on Gyarados (which is impressive, because Gyarados is resistant). In practice, it didn’t work out for him. He was on the ropes the entire game. I think this was his only loss in Swiss.
2-0
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Ed’s Note: This is Team Omar’s 100th article! Try to imagine 100 balloons dropping from your ceiling and people blowing silly noisemakers as you read this. Anyway, I wanted to point that out and say THANKS to all you guys who read our ramblings. Well, without further ado, I’ll let you get back to your regularly scheduled PokeClass, and we’ll start working on our next 100!
Yes, the angry dragon/eel/fish is STILL here and kickin’ (or splashing, rather)! Over the past few weeks of going through old tournament reports and decklists, I remembered how well Gyarados has treated me every time I’ve played it. However, I had a small issue with the deck concerning the recent rotation. The exclusion of Claydol (GE), Night Maintenance, and Felicity’s Drawing were something of a hindrance to the efficiency of the deck. Sure, there are cards like Uxie and Volkner’s Philosophy that could fill in, but would it work? Some….no, MANY have completely written of Gyarados until Junk Arm and Rescue Energy are released. While I agreed with the assumptions that the deck won’t work without Felicity’s/Claydol for a while, I quickly found that the deck can not only still fully function without them, but THRIVES in a format with trainer lock where using supporters is required as well as a pokemon that can FISH (har har, puns) them out of your deck.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: “What are you going to do against Vileplume, scrub? Good luck winning when you can’t play SSU, Communications, Poketurns, and most importantly, your rescues, which Gyarados hinges on.” This is a very valid argument for not running the deck, but the key to victory lies in Dialga G Lv. X. Yeah, DGX as some call it gives Gyarados the edge it needs in a meta full of trainer locks whether it’s from Spiritombs or Vileplumes. I initially thought Floatzel GL Lv. X was a more solid play, not requiring me to run recovery cards, but G’dos is also about NOT being KO’d (thanks to super scoop ups), and another pokemon with Lightning weakness is no fun. When you combine the 1-1 DGX along with 3 warp energy, you can get it out relatively quickly and continue your beatdown on some of the most played decks in the format right now. While it doesn’t help the SP matchup in the slightest, you should be able to do well against them anyway, considering you OHKO them while they are typically forced to take cheap prizes around gyarados as well as the occasional Trash Bolt/Lucario OHKO. The SP matchup hasn’t really changed as much post rotation, I’d put it at an even 50-50 because so much of the matchup depends on who can keep up the stream of KO’s as well as the use of Expert Belt on G’dos’ side of the field. Regimove also plays a huge factor, allowing Gyarados to take a prize nearly every turn, barring Power Sprays.
I was also asked to discuss the relevance and efficiency of Volkner’s Philosophy as a Felicity’s Drawing substitute. Yes, Volkner is a moody guy, nowhere nearly as cheerful as Felicity, and he makes it clear that he doesn’t care that you can only discard one Magikarp with his “Philosophy”. Aside from the 1 card discard, Volkner’s can do wonders for the deck. Judge is a commonly played card right now, and getting rid of G’dos’ large hand for a measly 4 can suck, especially when holding onto those recovery cards you need. Volkner’s can not only get rid of a trash card from your hand, but also let you keep the good cards while drawing until you have 6, which is pretty good for not having claydol. The other reason it still works is because you need 3 magikarp in the discard. Regice can take care of 2 while Volkner’s drops the 3rd, still getting the same amount of discard *required* to set up, but not necessarily drawing as many cards mid-late game as Felicity’s would.
One last note before posting the list is the importance of Warp Energy. Between Bright Looks, Luring Flames, Sleep Inducers (Froslass GL), Reversals, and starting with Regice or Dialga G X, Warp Energy has saved my bacon several times. It can also be used to get out of a Status Condition such as Paralysis, Poison, Sleep, Confusion, etc. It also comes in handy when getting Gyarados back to the bench so that you can Psychic Restore back into the deck for late-game Set Up. The main reason it’s so essential in the current list is really to get your DGX to the bench safely after you level up, though. Read More
Eh, there’s not much to say, but I figure that I ought to write something up. This weekend, there were 2 BRs in the area. Ava, Abdi, and I went to the first one. Abdi played Machamp, I played “Hot TOSSED” (as it was dubbed), and Ava played Donphan. Ava and Abdi couldn’t make Sunday’s tourney, so Gyarados and his pals accompanied me.
We had a higher than normal turnout at both events, thanks in part to a group of guys that road tripped it from South Dakota. It seems that the Sioux Falls league is poorly run, and they never receive their proper promos or prerelease swag at the events there. Someone ought to do something about that, because if these guys are that into the game attending a mismanaged league, just think how well things could be going (and how many people they could get into the game) if league and other events were run properly.
Well, on to the reports. Read More
A big hello to all of you in Omar-Nation. This is Pikkdogs here with a deck workshop.
Before we get started I would like to talk a little about Twitter. I loved hearing you guys tweet during Nationals, and because of that I decided to get into Twitter more. I have started to tweet about my decks and have found a couple of other people who do the same. So if you are on twitter I would love to have you follow me and hopefully we can converse about the game. Also, if you know anyone in the game who tweets also about it, please let me know. My user name on there is “Pikkdogs.”
Like most of you, I am currently working on getting my decks post-rotation ready. Some of my decks are working well, and some aren’t. One that I am kind of on the fence about is Gyarados.
Just a small run through the strategy of the deck for all the new-comers. Gyarados decks try to discard three Magikarps by turn 2 and then promote a Gyarados SF to do 90 damage with its “Tail Revenge” attack. To get the karps in the discard pile, most people use Sableye SF’s “Impersonate” attack to set up, and then use Regice’s Poke-Power “Regi-Move” to discard the karps.
I have been talking to Ed about this deck and how it will be post-rotation. As some of you might know, Ed has been playing Gyarados for a while and is somewhat of an expert on it. When he tried to make it post rotation he noticed that he really missed the card called “Felicities Drawing.”
When I made my deck post-rotation I didn’t really notice this too much. My major problem was mid game draw power. I can usually set up in 2-3 turns, but I had trouble recovering from a knock out. My deck really misses Claydol and the draw power it provides.
So I will provide you guys with the list that I’m currently running and would appreciate any fixes to it, or any comments on post-rotation decks.
Pokemon-18
4 – Gyarados SF
4 – Magikarp SF
4 – Sableye SF
1 – Azelf LA
2 – Crobat G PT
2 – Uxie LA (The main draw Power of the deck)
1 – Regice LA
Energy-4
4 – Special Dark (For the Sableye Donk)
Trainers- 38
1 – Bench Shield (Just for those matchups versus snipers)
2 – Expert Belt
2 – Warp Point (mostly to get Regice out of the active spot)
3 – Poke Turn
3 – Pokemon Collector
4 – Super Scoop Up (To reuse Uxies and to heal Gyarados)
1 – Engineers Adjustment (To make some use out of the energies after the donk fails)
2 – Bebes Search
1 – Copy Cat
1 – Judge (One of the better cards in the format, man is this card great.)
1 – Cynthia’s Feelings
2 – Volkner’s Philosophy-2 (To discard a Magikarp)
1 – Pokeradar
1 – Luxury Ball
1 – Quick Ball
1 – Pokedex
3 – Pokemon Rescue
3 – Broken Time-Space
4 – Pokemon ReversalVersion 2 Changes
-1 Quick Ball
-1 Bench Shield
-1 Pokemon Reversal
+1 Uxie Lv.X La
+1 Copy Cat
+1 Pokemon Rescue
So there it is, nothing special. Just a post-rotation form of a basic Gyarados deck. My Gyarados deck is just supposed to be a prototype used only in testing, because I dont like the deck enough to bring it to a tournament. Of course other decks use Luxray Gl, and thats a good choice, and Adam from www.sixprizes.com swears that a build with Lunatone and Solrock is best. But this is just supposed to be a bland build.
Any hints to make it faster and better mid-game would be great. Thanks
Hopefully we’ll see ya on Twitter.
Saturday saw Team Omar take 3 of the top 4 spots in MN’s second Battle Roads. Sunday brought us a new opportunity to claim a Victory Medal. This time it was at Dreamers. My daughter, Ava, had birthday parties to attend both days, so she couldn’t attend. Here’s how my day went down. This will be somewhat of a mini-report, because Omar is going to come along and give full coverage of the weekend’s events.
Round 1: Radu Ciocan – Sabledonk/SPionage/Sablelock
Radu starts Uxie. I donk him with my Sableye.
1-0
Round 2: Thomas Veazie – DialgaChomp
It wasn’t a super-quick battle, but Thomas never got anything set up for long. Most of the game was me bringing up his 110HP Pokemon and one-shotting them with Gyarados.
2-0
Round 3: Mark – BLG (Blaziken, Luxray, Garchomp)
This was a pretty good battle. I donked Mark the previous day when I played Shuppet and he played Jumpluff. Today was a tougher battle. Garchomp uses up a lot of energy, and if they can’t take prizes each turn, it’s tough once I get Gyarados set up. He got desperate near the end, and I recall having to use many Warp Energy and Super Scoop Up to get Regice and Claydol out of the way. In the end, it’s was all that Warping that won me the game.
3-0
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Ed 
Pikkdogs 
PokemanDan 
Austino