Wow, this was one fun trip. It’s a shame I turn 15 this January, and won’t be able to go again. Well, at least it’s likely I won’t be able to. But that’s another article isn’t it? =)
I left Monday (the 29th of July) on an early flight out of Moline, IL. Went to Denver. Landed in Seattle. You wouldn’t believe how tired you are after flying for three or four hours. We end up staying the night at my neighbor’s relatives’ house. (My neighbor decided to come with us, watch my brother Friday-Saturday of the tournament, and stay an extra week with her relatives.) I had a good time that night, but it was only the beginning.
Tuesday-Thursday nights, we stayed at a campground near Chehalis. Basically, it was decent. No pool, but there was a spa. The cabin was nice. We were barely around the campground long enough to use any of the stuff… we traveled over 1000 miles during the week total. Not kidding. It was sick. We went to Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier, and the beach… along with tons of tourist traps along the way. I truly recommend seeing the mountains, but forget tourist traps. Eesh… -_- (Honestly, there was this place called “3 copper monument” where they had 3 elongated poles, saying it represented Mother Teresa, the Holocaust victims, and the removal of Native Americans. Am I missing something here?)
Friday, we wake up and get to the hotel. Basically, the whole day I hung out on the 3rd floor with everyone else. It was a lot of fun. I played in a couple of tournaments… met a lot of people, and did a lot of playtesting. I saw a LOT OF Kingdra, and a little bit of Dark Feraligatr. I was like, =/. Little did I know it would dominate. Slowking was also extremely popular.
I finally decided (like I hadn’t done that 2 months ago -_-) on Dark Blastoise. Here is the decklist. =)
Arithmestoise V. 1 point something (MMF)
Squirtle x4
Dark Wartortle x4
Dark Blastoise x4
Cleffa x3
Tyrogue x2
Elekid x1
Qwilfish x1
Professor Elm x4
Bill x4
Double Gust x4
Gold Berry x3
Focus Band x2
Pokemon Trader x2
The Boss’ Way x2
Healing Field x2
Rocket’s Hideout x1
Time Capsule x1
Water x10
Darkness x3
Metal x3
It was actually really strong. Very underrated. Very trashed. Very “THAT DECK SUCKS” – ed. And it didn’t. Honestly, it was a great deck. The drawing was very good, and I normally got a dark blastoise out with 6 or 7 energy by the 7th or 8th turn. X_X!
So Saturday, we get to the convention center. Eric Brooks, Jonathan Brooks, myself, and a couple others decided it’d be fun to throw off commons to see if they really could fly. We’ve now proven geodude doesn’t fall like a rock, yet zubat can’t fly.
Basically, it moved quickly. They got us checked in, we sat down, and stared. Eric sat across from me, so we joked a bit. Croconaw88 was like, NOT THERE until 10 minutes before the thing started. Nice entrance =P
… what is with King RaRa X_X
… no really.
… ok NOW I’m scared.
Round 1: Vs. Kingdra/Center
The deck I looked forward to playing. Too bad this was my only match with it X_X. It was great though. He started off getting 3 or 4 kingdras out turn 4 or 5. Broken. I actually hadn’t lost to a Kingdra prior to this match. However, game 1 I lost.
Game 2, I got Dark Blastoise w/ 4 waters, 2 darkness, and a metal. What a deal. It ripped through kingdras, and I actually was doing 90 at a point in time. (I think I played an extra water, and retreated it and the metal. =\)
Game 3 actually started with about 5 minutes left. I got a dark blastoise slightly powered, w/ 2 water and a darkness. I rocket tackled his only kingdra, tails. 10 to self after I already had 10 on dark blastoise because of a mud splash. Ouch. What’s worse, all I have on the bench are two tyrogues. His turn. I’m hoping for tails tails on twister, but instead, he got two heads. Dark Blastoise was knocked out. I drew my card, and time was called. I got to finish my turn. I joke to my friends behind me that I should elm and get a darkness and rogue kingdra. =/ Then I realized that was my only hope. I elm, draw 7 cards, and get a darkness! I put it on a tyrogue, send it up, smash punch, HEADS! 40 damage. KO. Focus Band flip… tails. I won! What a game!
1-0 (2-1)
Well, after I caught my breath, I decided I was going to the bathroom… OHHH but round 2 decides to start. Great. =\ I think that had SOMETHING to do with this game. =\
Round 2: Vs. Crobat/Muk
This was like, =/. I got featured match. Nice. But his luck was ridiculous. First game I barely remember except for the fact that it was useless to even build dark blastoise, because he kept double gusting, getting 4 heads on cross, and koing it. =\ He did this like, 3 times, and I’m not exaggerating. I even tried playing rocket’s hideout to prevent that, but no cigar.
Game 2 I actually had a chance in. We went tit-for-tat, but when it mattered the most, I had a dry spell w/ energy. Basically, I had 6 cards left in my deck. I knew from a trader from the last turn I had 5 waters there. I had to draw ONE of them. The odds were favorable, like whoa. But did I draw a water? Course not. Basically, this killed any hope of double gusting a grimer for the game. (I had 2 waters on dark blastoise at the time) Basically, this game was a great one for my opponent, and a =/ one for me.
1-1 (2-3)
I was nervous. I was sort of all, =/. Oh well, =/.
Round 3 Vs. Dark Gatr (Brian Gurta)
Brian made top 8. I took pictures of all these people, yet somehow lost the camera. X_X This deck was nice. This game was close. And I thought (and I was probably right) this game was the game that would exclude me from the top 8. I don’t actually remember what happened totally, except I won game 1 easily, he won game 2 easily, and then the third game was cool. He kept getting heads on that removal thing, I got heads on rocket tackle quite a bit. We went on and on, and basically, he won. It was unbelievably close, and I hoped he’d do well. He did, losing to Dylan Austin in the top 8. (Losing to the winning deck ain’t too shabby. Wow, I lost to the deck that lost to the winning deck. I should feel cool. -_-)
1-2 (3-5)
Well, I felt defeated here. It reminded me of how I did at the WCSTS… and that wasn’t good. I was worried about a horrible record, etc. Basically, I had to win my next two matches, AND have a good op/win percentage. What WERE the odds. =\
Round 4 Vs. Steelix/Kingdra
Basically, I was all “Why me?” Steelix is definitely by far my worst nightmare, and I didn’t want to have to play against it. But I did. First game was interesting. Basically, he got two steelix w/ 2 metal each out, and I got a dark blastoise with 3 darkness, a metal, and 4 water. I ripped through the steelix’s, and with gold berries, healing fields, and other healing items, it was near impossible to stop me.
Game 2 was another interesting one. This time, he did get 4 metal on a steelix. However, it was very late. He only played two, and BOTH WERE IN HIS PRIZES. He used kingdra, took a couple babies as prizes, and finally got steelix out. It was well too late. Dark Blastoise already had like, 8 or 9 energy on it, and it was barely damaged by anything. I took this easily.
2-2 (5-5)
I knew I had to win this last match. =\
Round 5 Vs. Entei/Cargo w/ Ho-oh
I got to play a girl! =/ I tried to make it fun, but I doubt she cared. I asked her if she wanted to be mentioned on pojo, and she asked “what is that?”. I just sorta quit with the stuff after that. She won game 1 because I was playing easily, not really worrying, sorta doing random stuff like bubbling with squirtle when I had a dark blastoise loaded, etc. Pretty stupid playing. But she double gusted my dark blastoise and flipped heads on dive bomb with ho-oh once, and I sorta wised up after that. So she beat me first game.
Second was simple for me. Basically, I rocket tackled doing 80 to everything. It was pretty easy.
Third was a good one, getting close, but she sends up Magcargo and flips tails on a baby rule. (with a double gust in hand she told me later) I send up dark blastoise, rocket tackle, heads, she flips tails on band, so that’s gone. All she has is slugmas, and they die pretty quick.
3-2 (7-5)
We waited. And waited. And waited. And then they were posted. I scanned the list and found my name at 31st place. WHAT A DEAL! I made day 2, 2 spots away from not. =\ Most of my friends didn’t, which sort of stunk, but many of them were screwed over. *cough Croconaw88 *cough.
That night was basically pretty fun. Croc spent the night at the hotel, and we jumped on elevators. It’s REALLY fun. See, you are on the 3rd floor. You go to the 6th. When the light hits 5, you jump, and you float! It’s really interesting. Of course, realsk8erlakai7 was there and attempted to do it the other way, and hit the floor. THAT was funny. =\
We watched this weird movie, but we fell asleep awful quick. I just remember Croc ROLLING OVER ON ME like 4 times in the night. That was pretty weird. =\
Sunday comes. We get up, get going, and go. We get to the convention center, and just sort of hang out. Of course, a pikachu and a pichu come in. What were we supposed to do, NOT hug them? Yeah, THAT works. So of course we went over there and hugged the things. Interesting. =\
We uh, hung out, and uh round 1 or 6 as they were calling it, started. Uh, yeah. =/
Round 6 Vs. Dark Feraligatr (Muk007)
This, we knew, would be a great game. First game I took quickly, getting Dark Blastoise out and um, well, doing what it does. We ALMOST drew right there, but of course, I decided against it. I’m up 1-0, why would I draw?
Game 2 went fast, and he took me out. Couldn’t get any flips heads on rocket when I could rocket, and couldn’t get the dark blastoise out quickly.
Game 3 was =/. Basically, we were 30 seconds away from a forced draw, and I passed with a lone tyrogue active vs. Dark Gatr. He needed heads to win, and not draw. Of course, he did. In fact, he killed 3 babies straight -_-
3-3 (8-9)
Well, there went my top 8 hopes. But I wanted to play on, and have fun. So I did… figuring I’d place 25 or something.
Round 7 Vs. Gyarados/Steelix
This game was funny… I couldn’t stop laughing. I played RaindanceKid, and it was a great match. Some hilarious things happened, like me tradering for a squirtle, then thinking I was elming and drawing a new 7 cards. =/ And of course the legendary “I’m going to roll an all tails dice” mistake.
First game was great. He got Gyarados out like, twice, and a steelix. I got dark blastoise fully loaded twice too. Basically, we had a point in time where I was rocket tackling steelix for 10, and he was trying to do damage to me because rocket tackle was either always heads, or he got tails and did 20. (We ALSO had a healing field in play) Finally, I was capable of doing more than a rocket tackle, and starting ripping through his deck. I won the first game.
Game 2 was interesting, but still cool. I kept trying to elekid a magikarp with a dice, and kept getting a 5, aka tails. Then we realized the dice had all 5’s. Well… that was neat. I ended up getting a reflip the last time I used it, which was like, the 6th time overall. I got heads. So I killed a magikarp, at least. But once again, Dark Blastoise overpowered with ownage damage. This game was won, overall easily.
4-3 (10-9)
Round 8 Vs. …uh…
Well, this is funny, I can see the face, and the person, and everything, but somehow… -_-
I forgot totally what I played against, or who, I just remember going 2-0.
So uh, yeah. =\
5-3 (12-9)
Round 9 Vs. Dark Gatr/Slowking
I won first match easily, killing every totodile in sight, and DARING him to play slowkings. Basically easy.
Second was great. We went on and on, trading blows from Dark Feraligatr to Dark Blastoise. Continual recovery from both sides made this a great game. Ever seen one of those games where the lead changes about 30 times? Yeah, this was it. Both of us were pushed to the limit of our playing abilities, and he squeaked out of it.
Third match was unfortunate for him. He couldn’t draw much of anything, and I got dark blastoise loaded and owning. I killed his three totodiles quickly, and left him with a lone slowking. I did 80, and won the game.
6-3 (14-10)
I sat and waited. I figured I hadn’t made top 8, but it was possible. And I didn’t. I ended up with 18 swiss points, and 8th place had 19, with a lower resistance >_<! So that game with Muk, if I would’ve played 30 seconds slower, I would’ve top 8’ed. Oh well. =\
Overall, the tournament was beautifully run, and was excellent. I enjoyed it. I actually played in two side events afterwards, winning a Legendary Collection sealed with a 4-3-2 line of Dark Blastoise! (What ARE the odds?) And winning a modified tournament with my MMF Dark Blastoise! Overall, I’ve fallen in love with Dark Blastoise… like whoa. Thanks a LOT to Satoshi who showed me this beautiful card. If it wasn’t for him I’d probably be playing Kingdra, or something. -_-
Now time for props and … slops?
Props: The tournament in general, Dark Blastoise, ALL my friends that I met, (I won’t even DARE list them because I know I’ll forget somebody… there were just so many.) Wizards, the professors who helped run the tourney, and to all those leetists out there that “ruin the game”! (I got called a leetist by uh, somebody. It uh, made my day. =P) and of course, the leet Satoshi, long time deck mechanic for Pojo, who uh, totally owned me with the idea of Dark Blastoise. =P
Slops: Martin for breaking his ankle Thursday night… What’s your PROBLEM…, turning 15 in January… goodbye free trips, and uh… well… can I honestly think of any? Oh yeah, a Gatr winning AGAIN. Real uncool! Geez Dylan, you THOUGHT you were playing an original deck, but of course, Gatr’s curse will always exist. =P (Good job man ;/)
Great tourney, great people, ohhh what a deal =)
~ RaNd0m
P.S. – I’m also starting a new section. Basically, at the end of each article, I’ll post 5 questions/comments from YOU GUYS! Just send me an email, and 5 will be posted about my last article (or some other random topic) in the next one. I’ll be trying this out for now, but it may become a mainstay. We’ll see. ~ RaNd0m