Blaze
City Championships
By Bradley Hammitt
Dolly’s
Scarborough, ON
01/15/05
About 30 participants
This was my first Modified tournament, so I was really excited. When I first got to the store, I was amazed at how many people were in the 11-14 age group. And, as I later found out, there was ONE kid in the -10 division. Haha Anyway… On To The Deck!!!
Pokemon: 21
3 Torchic (Dragon # 77)
2 Combusken (Dragon #25)
1 Combusken (Promo #009)
2 Blaziken (RS of course)
3 Growlithe (FRLG)
2 RK9 (FRLG)
3 Magnemite (Dragon # 42)
2 Dark Magneton
1 Magneton (FRLG)
2 Dunsparce
NRGies: 22
18 Fire
4 Lightning
Trainers: 17
3 Prof Oak’s Research
3 Bill’s Maintenance
3 Life Herb
3 VS Seeker
2 Celio’s Network
2 ATM (Rock) (for some reason, it did nothing the entire tournament)
1 Desert Ruins
In retrospect I see that my deck did not have many big hitters, only a few ok Pokémon. Pokémon like RK9 and Dark Magneton are in there because I thought they would do good, not because they actually were good. I will change that for my next tournament.
Round 1: Verse some guy (I don’t remember many names, so bear with me)
We start and I go first. I have Dunsparce out and Strike and run. He has out SEEDOT, so I’m thinking *grass deck, sweet torchableness*. Anyway, he attacks and does 10 damage. I draw and attach an energy to a Torchic on my bench and use Prof Oak. I draw a Combusken, Celio’s, 2 NRG, and RK9(for my benched Growly). I evolve the Torchic and Growly and attack with Dunsparce for 10 + paralysis. He draws and passes. I draw a VS seeker and play NRG on Combusken. I switch Dunsparce with Combusken and play Celio’s for Blaze. I DON’T evolve, but I kill the Seedot anyway. He send out Koffing and attacks for 10 damage. I draw, evolve to Blaze, use Firestarter to RK9, and play an energy on Blaze. Then I VS Seeker for the Oaks Research and get a new hand. I attack for 50 and discard an energy for bench damage. He evolves his benched Seedot to Nuzleaf and sends out another Pokémon. I draw, attach an energy to Blaze, Firestarter to RK9 and KO his Pokémon. He evolves to Shiftry and does 60 to me (Shiftry is the SS non-holo one) I draw, attach NRG to Blaze, Firestarter to RK9 and kill the Shiftry. He draws and kills my Blaze. I send out RK9 and destroy his other Pokémon for the WIN!!!
Record: 1-0
3 Points
Round 2: VS some other guy…
This game started with me in the lead, and I kinda underestimated my opponent because he was playing a Variant of the Dragon Salamance Theme Deck. I was thinking *this will be a piece of cake.* But then he pulled out an Articuno EX! I got scared there. Fortunately I got my Desert Ruins, so I started whittling his health down with that and Dark Magnetons. I finally KOed it with my Blaze, but then he brought out a Cloyster he had been saving and slaughtered the rest of my Pokémon. I got a chance to see what was in his deck, and he also had a Latias EX, Macargo EX, and Magmar EX, but to my surprise, he did not have Salamance, even though he had Bagon and Shelgon… oh well. (TIP: never underestimate your opponents, no matter what you see at first.)
Record 1-1
3 Points
Round 3: VS Steven Cain
I had faced this guy in the HL Pre-Release and I did not think that he would be that hard to beat. BIG MISTAKE!!! After I took one prize, he got out a Kingdra EX, but with only 2 NRG. The turn after, I got my Desert Ruins (I am SO glad I played that card!). I started stalling and tried to build Magnetons. The very next turn he put down an Amphy EX, a Team Rocket’s Mewtwo EX, and an Entei EX. Fortunately all of them had at least 100 HP, so Desert Ruins worked on all of them. The next 8-9 turns (total) were uneventful, me stalling and trying to build, while he was attacking. (He was not playing any NRG on his Pokémon, so that saved me in the end). Finally I sent out an RK9 and KOed his Kingdra EX. Now the prize count was 3-1, his favor. I have an RK9 with 30 damage on him, and he has all of his benched EX’s with 90 damage on them and he sends out a Seadra. He draws a card, and DOES NOT get the NRG he needed. He attacks and I win with Desert Ruins! (2 EX’s [TR Mewtwo+Entei] knocked out = 4 prizez)
Record 2-1
6 Points
Round 4: VS Don
This was the Buffalo Grudge Match. Both of us were from Buffalo, NY, which was cool, because I did not know if anybody still liked Pokémon around here. Anyway… I start off with a Torchic (no bench) and he starts with a Dunsparce (no bench). He goes first and Strike and Runs(switching for Horsea… OH NO!). My turn, I draw and bench the Growly, and attach NRG to Torchic. He goes and evolves to Seadra and attacks me. I draw and evolve to RK9 and Combusken and attack. He draws and evolves to Kingdra EX (big suprize…ugh) from there it went downhill. I got Desert Ruins, but it was not enough. 3 more turns and I was dead.
Record 2-2
6 Points
I did not get in the top 4, but it was still fun. I found that most people were using either Blex w/ Pigeot variants, or some form of water, with Kingdra EX being the most prevalent in my age group. I did see 1 Dark T-Tar deck, (with TR Sneasle EX and Dark Steelix), but either the deck itself was bad, or it was played worse, because he lost all of his games. (xcept 1, which was a bye) It looks like a metagame of Water (Blastex or Kingler or Kingdra EX) and Lightning (Zappy EX or Raichu [FRLG] +Lanturn [HL] Combo) would do nicely here. Jason “Ness” Klaczynski’s Dragtrode deck might work too, or I could just play Gardybyss…
Props:
Finding some cool deck ideas
Finding out that someone in my area likes Pokémon
That there is another Pre-Release on the 12th of Feb
To Sandslash
Slops:
That I did not get top 4
That there are no tournaments in my area
Bradley Hammitt