Subject: Regional Report, Atlanta

Atlanta Regional

Friday, April 16 2004
Early departure from home, a long, annoying drive, and a boring day. Managed to bypass the registration line by being bold though, that’s always good. Nothing to do but wait till Saturday.

Saturday, April 17 2004
An early wake up call so we can get to the convention in time. After a half mile walk, we arrived at the Atlanta Comicon, home of the Atlanta Regional. After a few introductions, a few people recognizing me when I told them who I was on Pojo, and a very unexpected Arrival of Dustin Morabito. He was nice. Also ran into King Brolly and a few others well known people as well.

After con registration, which was late because of bad Convention Center hours, tournament registration began, with a major development. I’m calling this the Atlanta Regional nightmare. With a room set up for roughly 80 people, more than that would be a fire hazard, there was 120+ show up! With a major fire hazard, and major lack of room, the tournament starting time of 11am was held off till nearly 2pm! Several times we were told to disperse, but we couldn’t go anywhere. We couldn’t go outside, we couldn’t go to the other rooms (too many events in one place), and we couldn’t go into the scheduled room. After a long debate, they finally LET us play on the floor outside the room, but only so many could be there. The tournament room was always packed, leaving little to no playing room. You had to find ways to set up your stuff so you had room to play and respect the people around you. Not fun with non-combat decks.

Anyway, because of time restraints, they cut the round time down to make things go faster. Anyway, here is how things shaped up.

I was running my Pan Blue Destruction Mastery Energy Beatdown that I’ve been working on since the release of GT. That’s cool and all, but I got called a copy for using the almost same deck as Dustin Morabito! Whats up with that, I’ve been working on this thing for nearly 2 months! Oh well, no bother.

My deck strategy was simple. Speed level to 3, control the none combats, and beat down the opponent with comboed energy attacks. A wonderful strategy that worked in 99% of the play tests that I used. My goal, just make the cut of the top 32, and play from there.

Round 1
Versus Brandon’s Brolly Orange Anger Physical Beatdown This was a very interesting, and surprising deck. He had all the staples as I looked over his deck later that day, but it seemed to work well. The game was a fun and close match all through it. I thought I had him one turn, as I just kept hitting him with a constant string of energies, and dispite him getting to two, I quickly knocked him back down to one, leaving myself in a DB pulling position. However, my final hand, I had 2 stop alls, and he Kicked, got Brolly to stage 2, and one the game as I was defenseless against the onslaught. A one sided match got reversed quickly. Good game.
0-1

Round 2
Versus Unknowns Supreme West Kai Orange Tech This kid sucked, no other qualms about it. I wanted to disqualify him several times over for little things he was doing, like not removing the cards he used as defense for SWK, or putting his removed from the game pile on top his discard pile to check or show me how much he was winning by, only to either not split them, or just cut it in half (though is removed pile was huge from my prepped attacks and his endurance and defenses). In the end, I guessed correctly on 3 straight energy attacks, pummeling him for nearly 20 each hit. Reported that they needed to watched the kid, I think he did get a few auto losses for some of his actions later.
1-1

Round 3
Versus Travis Uubs Drill Physical Beatdown
This match just totally went my way. Opening hand, Alt Namek 7, shutting off his development.. He enters, I level jump to three, combat ends after I stop all. Pull Uubs Energy Drill, and Alt Namek 2, pass, he plays a full hand of non-combats, I force him to enter with your Invited, and rip him to shreds in one turn with blue Terror and 2 Blue double blasts. Good game, though very quick.
2-1

Round 4
Versus Nate King Cold Black Energetic Discard DB/Steal This was just a random deck, who looked like he won by DB the 2 times he had played. When I leveled him, I screwed him over badly, and then shut off his mastery, which simply just ruined his game. I had to call a judge a few times for stalling because he was doing just that. Every action was taking him nearly 3 to 5 minutes, which forced a game I was winning on all ends to end via time. Timed victory, sadly.
3-1 , 1 timed win

Round 5
Versus Murdock Trunks Saiyan Hybrid
As soon as he flipped over Trunks, I knew I was screwed. This deck was totally random, and I think that’s why it was doing so well. In the higher up tables, I watched his man Apocalyptic Battle me, win and go to 4, which shut off my entire deck. My goal at this point was to stall, and force the timed match. However, I stalled without wasting time. In the end, he killed me with just a moment left to go. I managed to get him off of 4 with blue happiness, but it still couldn’t do enough damage to turn the tides. Had fun, and me and him joked the whole match. He was surprised though, as I was the first to last that long, and I managed to hold him back long enough to nearly pull off the timed loss, which was something no one had done to him it seemed. Traded e-mails, and went on. Had fun, that’s what mattered.
3-2

Round 6
Versus Mark Krillin Freestyle Energy
This match was to see if I could make it into the top 32, though the odds were against me with 2 losses and a timed victory. This was a fairly even match, but when he saw what Pan could do, he was running in fear the whole match. Every combat was either ended, or finished in a stop all lock up. After a lot of turns where nothing could happen, the fates sided against me. In a hand where I could win it, Pan on 4, him on 3, he enters, I pulled draining kamehameha, double blast, and a blue impulse. He attacks, I epic battle of saiyans, he spheres, I sphere, he spheres again, I forfeit. With no way to stop him, and knowing he had at least one Krillin’s heat seeking, the match ended as he pummeled me for 24 life cards in 3 attacks ( that’s what we figured up), and ended my hopes of advancing.

My final, 3 -3 with one timed victory. Atlanta was fiercely competitive, beyond what I imagined, and was far large than what anyone anticipated. I feel I should have done better, but I can’t change the past. I made little to no mistakes, and none of the matches I regretted. I met a lot of people, and even talked to Dustin a bit, though I don’t think he realized who I was.

Thanks to everyone I met, David, Mark, Murdock, Brandon, Nate, the 3 that offered to take me to Wendy’s during the small break we had.
Also thanks to everyone who traded cards to me, helping me finish off some of the stuff I was after, and others who complimented me on my deck an how it ran, despite is sub par performance.

I had fun, though I didn’t’ stay to see who won. When the swiss round was over it was nearly 8:30, so I decided to head back and just rest after a hard day of battle. I wish I had made the cut, but some times you have fluke match or two. The fates were against me on this day it seemed. The important thing is I had fun, I just wish I could have at least made the cut.

~Surllio~