From:
William Hung Sent: Saturday, January 29, 2005 9:28 PM
Subject: Malibu City Championships Report - Importance of Metagame and
Strategy
From:
William Hung
Sent: Saturday, January 29, 2005 9:28 PM
Subject: Malibu City Championships Report - Importance of Metagame and
Strategy
Malibu City Championships
Malibu County Library
48 participants
Malibu, CA
1/29/2005
Well, I haven't write a tournament report for a long while. I chose to write this time because I believe there is something to be learned for everybody, including myself. I did scout like usual and found most "good" players to be playing Dark Dragonite and Blastoise. I was deciding between Magma and Dark TTar/Dark Amphy. I built other decks like Vileplume and Lanturn/Togetic, and I quickly tossed away Vileplume. I tested Magma a lot and enjoyed success, and since I believe I can beat Blastoise and Dark Dragonite with it, I finally decided to play Magma.
Pokemon (16):
4x Team Magma's Zangoose
4x Team Magma's Groudon
2x Team Magma's Baltoy (Night Attack)
3x Team Magma's Claydol (Magma Switch)
1x Team Magma's Numel
2x Team Magma's Camerupt
Trainers (26):
4x Steven's Advice
4x TV Reporter
4x Team Magma Ball
2x Team Magma Conspirator
4x Pokemon Reversal
2x Magnetic Storm
2x Maxie
2x Mr. Briney's Compassion
2x VS Seeker
Energies (1:
6x Fighting
2x Rainbow
1x Psychic
1x Fire
4x Darkness
4x Magma
The tournament got started pretty late - because of software problems and the 3 kids that had illegal decks. Jon (Water Pokemon Master) and I helped those kids out so they won't cause more problems during the tournament. Finally, I will not assume that everybody knows how everything works - because I want to make my report more educational.
Round 1: vs. Matt Brooks - Blastoise ex, Delcatty, Magneton, and Pidgeot If you're an experienced player, you know how this works. You start with Dunsparce and get everything out - keep the draw cycle going with discarding Energies to discard pile (Delcatty), getting them back with Magneton, and attach like crazy.
Okay, so I started with Team Magma's Zangoose and Matt started with Dunsparce and Pidgey. I had no attachable Energy I can use to do Call for Family - I had a Magma Energy. Very bad, since I went first and cannot play Supporter. We both got started quickly from turn 2 and on. I could have gotten a critical KO at turn 3, but he Paralyzed me with his Dunsparce. He tried Sudden Flash again and evolved a lot of stuff - Pidgeot, Delcatty, and Magneton. So he needs his Blastoise ex.
I wasted no time in doing a Pokemon Reversal on Squirtle and KOed it. Then he went for a quick Steven's and Energy Draw - got his Pokemon Retrevier - so he played that and got back Squirtle, Quick Search for Blastoise ex, and Rare Candy it. The whole game is starting to get difficult.
I was trading KOs with my Team Magma's Groudon and his Magneton, and then he knows he can't get enough Energies to One-Hit KO my next Team Magma's Groudon, so he Clutched for 40. Only if I had one of my two Mr. Briney's - oh well. So his Blastoise ex sitting on the Bench had 110 damage.
Since I have no Magnetic Storm yet, I chose to use Team Magma's Camerupt's Overheat for a Fighting Energy, Magma Switch and did a Linear Attack on his heavily damaged Blastoise ex (130). He was smart - he made a good play by using a Switch, send in his damaged Blastoise ex and KOed my Team Magma's Groudon (with 40 damage) that was Clutched a turn ago.
I brought up another Team Magma's Groudon and took the 2 prizes, but he already has Wartortle ready to evolve into Blastoise ex. So his 2nd Magneton did its thing, along with all the Quick Search, Energy Draw, and Magnetic Fields, and One-Hit KO my Team Magma's Groudon. Ouch! Prizes tied at 2-2.
So here's a difficult decision - He KOed 3 of my Team Magma's Groudon, so I have Team Magma's Zangoose, Team Magma's Groudon, Team Magma's Camerupt (has 60 damage), and 2 Team Magma's Claydol.
I need to decide who to send up.
My hand (revelant cards): Maxie, TV Reporter, Magnetic Storm, Team Magma's Numel, Team Magma's Camerupt, Maxie, Pokemon Reversal (my 3rd), Energies (with 1 Dark, no Magma)
Opponent's discard pile (revelant cards): Switch, Pokemon Retreiver, 2 Rare Candies, 1 Magnemite,
1 Magneton.
So my plan was to send in Team Magma's Zangoose, lay down a Team Magma's Numel, attach a Darkness to Team Magma's Groudon, and use Pokemon Reversal to KO his Magneton the turn after. So I plan to sacrifice my Team Magma's Zangoose to attempt a comeback.
But the whole plan fell apart because he did a Rocket's Admin. Not only that, he retreats his Magneton and get the KO with his new Blastoise that had only 10 damage. He did Quick Search for a Water Energy - very smart.
I was going to do what I can with Team Magma's Groudon with a Linear Attack on his Pidgeot, but he retreats his Blastoise ex for 3, did Magnetic Fields to get back 2, and barely got enough to One-Hit KO my Magneton and for the game.
Loss 0-1 0pts.
Lunch Break - the worse one I've had - only 1/2 hr. and I had to play a long Round 1, all the way to the last second.
Round 2: vs. Old Man (sorry I don't know your name) with a random deck - like Team Magma's Aggron and Sceptile
We both didn't get a good start. I began with Team Magma's Groudon and he had Team Magma's Aron and Treecko. I eventually took advantage of his Team Magma's Aron with like 3 TV Reporters and finally beat him, setting up my 2 Team Magma's Claydol and Team Magma's Camerupt, along with my 2 Team Magma's Zangoose and a Team Magma's Groudon.
Win 1-1 3pts.
Round 3: vs. Marshall Clay - Dark Amphy/Dark Crobat I went 2nd, but got no attachable Energies again! Luckily, he had no Basics and I got a Psyhic Energy. He had a lone Mareep. I got Team Magma's Zangoose, Team Magma Conspirator, Team Magma Ball, Magma Energy, Mr. Briney, and other stuff. So I quickly decided to attach Psychic Energy to Team Magma's Groudon - did Team Magma Conspirator to get 2 Basics and passed. He got a Dark Flaafy with Rocket's Pokeball and did Thunder Slash. I quickly did Mr. Briney's on Team Magma's Zangoose, attach a Magma Energy to Team Magma's Groudon, and won easily.
Win 2-1 6pts.
All right, I'm at least on the right track.
Round 4: vs. Mary Gutierrez (Sorry if I misspell your name, lol) - Blastoise ex/Quagsire/Electrode w/ Pidgeot
Very interesting choice, except she had bad luck in terms of getting draw power and Energies early on. I won't elaborate much as I pretty much set-up and beat her easily.
Win 3-1 9pts.
I have a gut feeling that I need to win the last match to go to top 8, so here comes the final
round:
Round 5: vs. Javier - Dark Dragonite/Pidgeot/Dark Trode w/Rocket's Scyther ex All right, this was terrible luck for me, as I very little draw power (with exception to like 2 TV
Reporter) throughout the early and middle stages of the game. He went 1st, and he got a GOD hand with Dunsparce, turn 2 Pidgeot. I started with Baltoy, had Team Magma Ball, Claydol, and like a Fighting, a Magma Energy, and 3 Pokemon Reversals. When he did Strike and Run, he switched with Dratini. So I have to figure out if I want to use up my Pokemon Reversals on his Pidgey. I decided not to. So as soon as he plays Rare
Candy and Pidgeot, I was glad I didn't use my Reversals, but very horrified because I know he'll set-up very fast.
Honestly, I didn't expect him to run Dark Dragonite - because he usually runs Zapdos ex. I thought I had an auto-win. Not so. I struggled to keep anything on my side of the "board", especially when he went for his Rocket's Scyther ex and murdered my Team Magma's Groudon. My prizes are bad too - I knew it had 2 Team Magma's Groudon, lol.
I didn't get a Steven's until it was too late - with Javier with 1 prize left.
Loss 3-2 9pts.
I don't think my tiebreakers are terrible, but not great either. I faced 2 people with 4-1's and 1 person with 3-2, but 1 person with 1-2 or 1-3 drop, and another who probably went 0-2 or 0-3 drop.
It turns out that there were 3 people who can make it to top 8 with 3-2 record. So 2 people had good tiebreakers, the last spot was a 3-way tie with 36% resistance. The head judge said the person who lost the latest got in. I was heartbroken, but oh well, it's just City Championships.
The key thing to take away from this tournament is to observe what others are about to play in the tournament. I should have chosen Dark Tyranitar/Dark Ampharos. It would easily beat Blastoise ex decks and Dark Dragonite decks - much easier than Magma can. I was simply overconfident that my Magma can handle anything and everything.
Props:
-To the tournament organizer(s), it was great fun to have Gameboy tournament and booster draft as side events
-To numerous people who helped me with my decks. Seriously, even though I couldn't win a City Championship, I never got worse than a 3-2 record. So, I'm at least giving myself a chance to win the tournament every time I play.
Slops:
-To Myself, I am an idiot to choose Magma today. Of course, I did choose Magma based on my playtesting results and how it's winning Japanese premier tournaments recently.
-To all the Blastoise ex players, I just don't like Blastoise ex at all right now. How it can beat Dark Dragonite decks is simply a mystery to me. Maybe the Dark Dragonite players are not playing at their best, or simply have bad luck.