Gollee, what a CRAZY day I had! lol. There was just so much to today, and I had just a load of fun, with my North Texas pokeyman crew ;x

So lo and behold, this was my first Pokemon tournament to actually get lost at. My mother and I had literally driven down Richardson for almost 45 minutes trying to finding the damn place. ARGH, darn you, MAPSCO!!!

So anyways, thank god that, right when my mother is frustrated enough to just head on back to the house, I give one last chance at calling my main bro, Soles/EvilCacturne666 (he didn't play ), and lo and behold, he picks up! So, I get the cell number of Gilbert Valdes, yet another member of my team of diverse ethnicity...however, he left his cell at the house, but thank god that his mother Maria picks it up, and gives me the elder Gilbert Valdes' number!!! So I FINALLY get to the freaking place, and rush to get my decklist filled in. So I'm finally filling the list in, and then think, "why am I 4 cards over?!" So I quickly scan it over again, and realize that, "what the crap, that's right! I don't play that!!!" After marking that card out, I handed in my list, and prepared for the tourney.

Figuring that Jacy Sturkie and Team Cook Dad had some awesome ideas on their hands with the Santa Claus hat thing, I decided to do just that...along with the staple pair of sunglasses which make the Patriarch name so...Patriarch-y.

Mmm, so the deck was Dark Tyranitar, and the tournament was...NOW!

Round 1: Thomas Chambers (Drag/Trode)

I had obviously shuffled like a madman before this game, since i gave t-tar quite a few test hands the night before, and behold...i get lone pidgey =/. However, he gets tini, so that seems fine. I go first and corner. He plays rainbow energy to dragon song me. with the rainbow damage i knew i had a 50/50 win right there if i flipped on sleep...nope. So, I just attach, flip for sleep (fails), and pass. He evos to nair, preps for the nite, and passes again. I TD a candy, so I'm able to whip out Pidgeot for the game. We decided to play again, and in a somewhat closer bout, T-tar succeeded again. (1-0)

Round 2: Phillip Chambers (ZapDOS)

Lol, I play against round 1's son. No surprise, lol! Dark Tyranitar really annihilates the Zapdos matchup unless there's like, awful hands on my part, so the type disadvantage was enough to give Dark Pupitar a T2ko. gg, wish it could have been better (2-0)

Round 3: Clay Carney (Chimera)

Okay, I'm referring to blazeot/catty as that lame name aforementioned just 'cause it's easier and cooler, lol. So I basically just got an abysmal start with a bunch of little basics that didn't get setup. Even when I got up a t-tar, it was too late, as he just reamed through it with a Ray. GG man, 'cause we ended up having more =x (2-1)

Round 4: Robert Riner (Chimera)

Robert was previously 3rd at nationals in the 11-14, and it was his first tournament back here, so I was really glad to see him and his aunt again. He seemed to get a semi-decent start, whereas I just whipped out a T2 Pidgeot, preparing a a larvitar to inevitably become the T3 beast it was! When he took out spinning tail t-tar, i send up sand damage to ohko his active. since he had two pokemon that would be ko'ed by sand damage, and he wasn't familiar with the matchup, he sent up a dunsparce, to which I said "look at the power bro, do something else!" So I let him bring up an alternate poke. I still won with the late poop-out. GG man (3-1)

Round 5: Trent Chambers (Muk ex)

This is a relatively interesting metagame deck that, although is brutally annihilated by any psychic deck, is well-suited for a format with blazes, draggies, etc. However, he doesn't quite get his evos when he needs them, so I get my setup ready. He taunted my Larvitar, which I evo'd to Pupitar and did some damage. However, instead of Muk ex, he evos to Dark muk, and is a little bit short of the ko. I build up more damage so that I am able to ko the guy. GG, sorry it wasn't better (4-1)

So we had just finished with a relatively pithy 5 rounds! The 30+ players at the event all got done on time, and were able to cut in the age divisions. They did top two cuts for the two younger age groups, and a top four cut for the 15+.

10-: Nathan Dalton VS Demetre Fish

11-14: Tracy Cho VS (I think) Sam Hodde

15+: Clay Carney (1st) VS Trent Chambers (4th)

John Kettler (2nd) VS Gilbert Valdes (3rd)

So, since Gilbert and Trent already won cities in South Texas, they debate whether or not to just scoop and let me/clay play it out in the finals. However, Gilbert wants to play it out, to which I wholeheartidly accept, since we're good pals who play weekly =x

Semis: VS Gilbert Valdes (Blastyton/sire)

He had been running a variation of my BaD Mom list, only with quagsire too. A cool deck idea that I showed some concern about, as my bench damage would barely do anything to a self-healing quagsire, lol. So we both get awkward setups, but I recover extremely quickly, and he kinda...doesn't. Eventually, it just gets to where he's trying to mow thorugh stuff with a tortle, but now I've got a fully-fuctional T-tar up, mizing a mite, lol. I'm able to atm rock his stoise ex (i believe, but dun remember), and later on, build massive bench damage. He got a sire fully powered later, and since he was forced to take damage without being able to heal, sand dmg t-tar is able to beat it down, and the prizes just come my way with the power. GG Gilbert, nice to see the Sugarland champ is still pwning ;x (5-1)

So, our match is done, and Trent/Clay are STILL debating on who should go on. Since Trent's already won, and Clay earned a technical "right" to at least move on, being 1st seed (and not wanting the curse, lol), Trent conceded, and it was a battle of epic proportions: an excellent Blaziken list vs an excellent t-tar! Since it's best 2/3, we obv played that way:

Finals: VS Clay Carney/~Blazi-King~ (Chimera)

Game 1: He got the absolute WORST start for a blaze deck I have ever seen...like...worse than a Lone Skitty with 6 energy, and not being able to draw for 3 turns lol. My tar is setup fast, and begins to do good, quick damage to his cards. It gets so bad that he just concedes, so we have time for what was an EXCELLENT finals match (6-1)

Game 2: This was probably the best game I've had in a long time. In recent memory, the only games quite as good were a casual one with Gilby and the T4 at plano with Soles. So we both start kind of awkward, with advantages here or there. I am able to get my t-tars rolling after a while, and sand damage is immediately first up. It begins to put him in a bind, and he's forced to sit with an energy-screwed blaze as active. I KO it after a bit, but his hand gets much better with pidgeot/catty and stuff drawing for him like mad. I get a better setup later on as well, and we begin to just go at it for a really long amount of time. It eventually gets to where he has a stranded ray, and, after an extremely long bout of stalling for attachment, I send up a pidgeot to clutch his Ray-ray. Although he is able to ohko anyone of my actives with bex and ray, he has run out of switching cards, and I'm able to clutch for a couple prizes. He sends out a pidgeotto-less pidgey, and it takes a bit of a hit from clutch. when it dies, he sends up a bex to pwn, noticing my 3 rocket's energy in the pile. I send up my 3 energy t-tar, drop the fateful fourth energy, and win what turned out to be the best game I've had with Clay in a while.

So, the deck NOBODY knew I was going to run came through, and was a surprise to all that I was even playing it. It seemed to succeed against a diverse field, running pretty much up against every deck.

All in all, it was a well run event, with VERY kind staff, letting me write up my deck 15 minutes before start, lol.

Props:

-Richard, Sam, and Big Gilbert, for running an EXCELLENT event

-Kristy and Robert, for popping out of the sky

-Clay, for a bloody-good game!

-Nate Dalton and Tracy Cho, for their second wins in 10- and 11-14.

-All my opponents.

-Texan Pokemon in general. Really nice, somewhat above-average competition that isn't TOO cutthroat, lol.

-Austin, for getting to hear from me that even really good players don't do well sometimes (17/34 at Plano Gym Challenge, anyone? =x)

-The fishes, for also coming out of the sky to play Pokemon!

-Pichu, for being SEXY. :P

-Tom, an EXCELLENT store owner. He is by far my favorite out of everyone i've met in the Metroplex in my Pokemon career.

-MY MOTHER, Ryan, and the entire Valdes family. I would not have even been there if not for you all. MAJOR MAJOR PROPS

Slops:

-Me, for posting the uncut version on Neo and NS only, lol. =(

-Me, for getting there one hour late

-Me, for being me. j/k =x

-Ryan and Andrew, for not showing =(

So all in all, I had a very successful day, and got in several exciting games with some of my favorite folks from the Texas scene. Third and First aren't' bad...now, to decide if I want to judge fort worth, or play...Science? =)

~Patriarch