pitch perfect prerelease

 

Is this thing on? Friends asked for a tournament report since I've been out of action for a while.

I signed up for a Sunday 11 am Pitch Black prerelease a couple weeks ago, Good Games runs these decently well and it's an okay way to spend a few hours playing cards. Unfortunately for me, I didn't realize that I would be ruining my sleep schedule this entire month staying up to watch MSI, with the final on this exact night/morning. This stupid BLG team keeps me up to 6am for Game 5 after blowing their 2-1 lead, then drafts a complete tragedy and gets walked over by HLE. 

I try to cram in a few hours of sleep but my alarm to leave goes off before I can get any real rest so I grumpily head down to Fullerton on the train. I arrive, check in, open my box. My friend next to me is unhappy about getting Miraidon again so we swap kits so they can play Slowbro today. I open my packs, pull a bunch of nothing, then sleeve the exact 40 cards in the precon and shuffle up for round 1.

Got this paste off a reddit post yay 

Round 1 Bastiodon W

I think my opponent is a relatively new player, we chat a bit and I help them set up. Despite my best efforts they draw a completely unplayable hand after 4ish mulligans and don't really play any cards besides a Lillie into another mostly dead hand as I hit them with Miraidon 3 times. On their last turn they play a Petrel for pad for Shieldon to get out of range of my Miraidon's 90 but I have a loaded Vikavolt on the bench to close out the game.

Round 2 Miraidon W

My opponent flips over a Grubbin which means it's a mirror, but more importantly means that because  I started Miraidon, they're going to lose the prize trade if I attach to the correct places since this bug has 2 retreat for some reason. I attach a basic energy to my active, then a Voltaic to a benched Vikavolt line, then a second basic to my active and swing for knockout. A powered up Vikavolt is promoted and KO's my Miraidon, so I use the ability to charge up my benched Vikavolt while attaching a Voltaic to another line. I revenge their Vikavolt with the big attack and they don't have enough to answer so my guy takes 2 knockouts while I charge up the other Vikavolt line to create a checkmate. Pretty bad mirror tbh.

Round 3 Hide 'n' Sneak W

I pair into a friend at table 1 playing hide and sneak. They open the Dhelmise and item search for some of the guys and I'm immediately grumpy because I was hoping to attach to my Miraidon in peace, but my topdeck is a Brock which I use to grab another Miraidon and a Grubbin. This probably should've been two Grubbins because I'm holding a candy and multiple ways to search evos, but whatever. Gwynn tosses a bunch of guys in the discard along with some ultra balls and the Dhelmise takes the knockout on my Miraidon. I move the energy to my Grubbin and candy out a Vikavolt to answer. Their next two turns are spent doing the teacup spread attack while showing a Spiritomb and a lot of sneakers in discard so I try to spread my energy onto 3 attackers, the active Vikavolt, a Miraidon with 1 energy, and a Chargabug with 1 energy. Spiritomb comes online and takes out my active Vikavolt and my Miraidon but my hand has Vikavolt + Voltaic so I'm always winning no matter what two of my guys are KO'd.

We open our participation packs and I pull an art rare Gladion out of one of the packs that I traded with him for. I feel kind of bad and I don't plan on using playing or selling this card so I just offer him dibs in exchange for stuff out of his pulls, some Wailmer/Wailord stuff + Drilburs for the very serious Excadrill deck, chat with my locals for a bit, pick up the leap out Feebas AR I ordered from the shop, then get on the train and go home so I can play Slay the Spire 2 all day.

Pokemon was alright today, I guess. I plan on playing the mole deck for at least one day on ladder, maybe on a twitch stream for some accountability. See you there?

molerator @ indianapolis

 
This Pokemon is so weird man.

I went to Indy Regionals this weekend and did bad again with the same bad deck, who could have seen this coming?

I haven't been playing much at all since the LA disaster, I don't think I've attended a single standard local since rotation. I played an afternoon's worth of games on Beedrill but besides that the only Pokemon I played was like 3 nights of TCGmasters with Yihao on Starmie. Slay the Spire cross training obviously doesn't count for anything as much as I would like to cope that it does.

I don't know what's wrong with me right now to be honest, I just don't really have any desire to play standard so I just don't. On Wednesday this week I had some brief last second panic and TCGmastered some Zoroark but I could not figure out how to beat Slop/Bolt if they knew how to Sob, then I fully crashed out on Thursday night when Yihao kept drawing insanely hot regardless of which matchups we played. I tried some Toxtricity, that was as bad as expected, then I tinkered with a Froslass/Munkidori deck for an hour and didn't get anywhere, then I asked Blitzle about his Clefairy deck but he didn't seem super confident, so I just gave up and submitted Starmie again. Theory is I don't like playing the game so I want to try and end games very quickly, if I was a serious player/person I would have been playing Dragapult.

Looks kind of like FroslassIrl idk, I didn't test that much. 

My ride to Indy is a Zoroark fangirl and tried for like 30 minutes to get me to switch to the new Zoroark/Froslass list but that deck looked harder than I was willing to first-time so I didn't really entertain it. We arrive in Indianapolis around dinner time, so after reclaiming my room from KK who is in the middle of his own preparation crashout, I retrieve Yihao and his roommate for a meal at the Old Spaghetti Factory. Yihao claims he's never had pasta before (what) and gets the most boring meat sauce spaghetti imaginable, then tells me it tastes "exactly like he thought it would". Sure man. 

I walk back to the hotel through a dark bridge tunnel that smells like urine and find KK hunched over the desk tapping away at his laptop trying to learn the VGC format. I scroll on my phone for a bit, check my deck and sleeves, then go to bed. I wake up in the middle of the night like I always do when I'm stressed at tournaments and KK hasn't moved, still grinding Showdown games with the light on. I decide to just roll over and go back to sleep and wake up again at 6, scroll on my phone for an hour, then get hotel breakfast and walk to the venue.

Before I get into game recaps, I want to say that my pairings for this event were kind of egregious, but I probably deserved anything and everything that happened to me anyway.

Round 1 

Pultnoir WLL

My opponent arrives just a few minutes before the round starts and sets up a camera and does a brief vlog intro. He shuffles for a while on camera, then offers me the deck to cut which I obviously decline because it would be extremely funny if he recorded himself stacking his deck. 

He flips over a Latias and we get started. I draw pretty well and get quickly into a Starmie, Jetting Blow the Latias for 120 and use a Munkidori to KO his only Drakloak between turns with Froslass. He lines up a Fez + Unfair Stamp turn and then tries to play the stamp before I stop him and he instantly concedes.

In game 2 he sets up a lot better and I'm not able to evolve my Snorunt into MFroslass to respond to a dive. I still feel okay about my position but when I go to Secret Box my Energy Search is prized so I just scoop up my cards and go to game 3 because being behind against Dragapult doesn't seem super good for my deck.

I go first again but I miss the Starmie attack and he gets multiple Drakloaks evolved before I can do anything. I don't really draw any playable cards while he's building a very strong Pult board so I just clear the Dudunsparce off my board and pass with a lone Munkidori, telling him my win condition is he forgets to Phantom Dive for the rest of the game. He does not forget, I lose.

Round 2 

Chicken Pult WW

My opponent tries to stunt my setup with his Watchtowers, but I use my four copies of Ruins to set up and run him over with Starmie, taking four quick prizes on his tiny basics. He concedes after he can't find his Unfair Stamp off Fez draw.

I draw a bit slower in game 2, but I think he mismanaged his energy attachments (there was a purple energy on a Blaziken) and he gets stuck with a Meowth in the active one turn and can't Phantom Dive so I just hit the Meowth for 120 and spread checkmate damage onto his bench.

Round 3 

Hydrapple LL

I know how I would like to play this matchup (MunkiLass), but I prize 2 of my 3 Snorunts and have to do Starmie stuff to try and fish the Runts out of the prizes. My Starmie lives for a turn longer than I had expected, and I eventually get to a spot with my Froslass ticks where if my opponent misses respawning his Meganium for one more turn I can win the game, but he has a stadium in his hand, Meowths for Dawn and gets the line back.

I go first (wrong?) and open Snorunt attach pass. He leaves an Ogerpon in the active for some reason so I'm at least able to take the KO with MFroslass, but he uses his next turn to hit me with Dipplin for 100? I'm not really sure how to progress the game here since KOing the active doesn't seem good enough so I go into my Mega Starmie to take out his Dipplin and damage his Bayleef, but he responds with full hand dump Meganium Hydrapple 500 energy KO and then I can't finish the game.

Round 4 

MLucario WW

My opponent draws a bunch of garbage and I win a quick one with Jetting Blow, then he can't play his hand down enough and gets run over by Mega Froslass one tapping his Lucario in game 2. I have checkmate on board so he tells me he's going to go play sides. Nice guy, ugly games.

Round 5 

Dragapult Rabsca LL

Do NOT look at my pairing for this round. Going second I'm a turn slow on the Starmie and have to bunch a bunch of low hp guys to try and sack into it with Dudunsparce, but even though I get to Jetting Blow the Munkidori and the Rellor the Unfair Stamp Phantom Dive cooks my board/hand and I lose. 

I draw very poorly in game 2, I try to save the hand with a Dudunsparce draw but find some more useless energy cards. Three Drakloaks go up and I don't really have much I can do after my Starmie eats a Dive because I've prized Wally. 

During one of these games I'm trying to decide what to do with the 50 from Jetting Blow and say "anywhere but Pult" but if I was actually locked in and understood the game I would probably have hit the Pult for 0 to deny Munkidori damage. Anyway I lose, consider dropping but I decide to continue playing to see if I can generate a truly horrendous record to file as anti Starmie evidence. We chat a bit about 2010 at the table and then again when I run into him a few minutes later at a table we are both interested in watching. Jumpluff?

Round 6 

MLopunny Dunsparce LL

This matchup is usually pretty good because I can quickly take 3 prizes on little guys, then work through a Lopunny to end the game, as it's very hard for them to chain Wallys and stay out of MFroslass range while drawing cards and taking prizes. Unfortunately for me, my opponent's entire hand after his last two ultra balls is 3 copies of Wally which he plays back to back to back and I can't do anything about it. 

I prize Mega Froslass and my copy of Wally in game 2 so I'm not able to win. 2-4 now, for anyone keeping track.

Round 7 

MStarmie Froslass WLW

The mirror is really stupid but it's extra stupid because I have Larry's Skill to neutralize their Mega Froslass. I KO their only Staryu on my second turn going first and then work through a bunch (3?) of Wallys while healing my Starmie with Munkidoris to win the game.

I prize Mega Froslass but have a slight lead in this game so I play until he KO's my Starmie with the second 210 attack before I concede.

Game 3, I prize the Mega Froslass again but I find it off the first few knockouts while keeping my hand small with Larrys. He tries to buy time to Wally by sleeping my Starmie with Ignition Energy Absolute Snow but I flip heads, attach Air Balloon and retreat to blow him up with Resentful Refrain.

Round 8 

MLucario WW

My opponent flips over a Cornerstone so I assume it's Crustle, also because there's a Crustle next to us, but it's actually Lucario and I avoid getting Solrock donked only because he prized both Solrocks. I evolve into Mega Starmie and pick off his Riolu with energy while setting up Munkidoris. I KO the Cornerstone the next turn and a Makuhita off the bench to protect my MFroslass from gust. After he plays his hand down and KOs my Starmie with Lucario, I Lucian him to 6, Munkidori the Lucario below 300 HP and end the game.

In game 2 I have to set up a Froslass because my Ruins keep getting bumped by Watchtowers before I can get enough 20s to progress the game, so I'm super paranoid about my Snorunts being chased, but he just isn't able to play his hand down and gets cleaned up by Resentful Refrain and then Jetting Blow hitting his benched Meowth.

I sit and wait for my friends that are actually good at the game to finish R9, then we go to a sports bar with a million TVs to watch the electric first half of Thunder-Spurs Game 7. The food was quite good too, they had a famous dipped sandwich that made me very sleepy. I walk through the urine scented tunnel again, find KK absolutely KO'd (probably because he didn't sleep at all the night before) and taking up the entire bed so I roll him over, watch the rest of the game, then go to sleep.

Sunday

I wake up the next morning and shower before packing up my stuff and heading to the venue around 10. I play a few games of 2010 where I learn that I do not enjoy the Dusknoir deck, watch Blitzle win 1000 dollars, play a few more games of 2010, watch my friends absolutely butcher a Regidrago SSP format game, then get in the car and ride away from the awful state of Indiana.

I'm not going to NAIC and I don't have that many points so this is the end of my second season. The first half was fun even if I punted way too many match points but the post rotation segment made me pretty miserable so I'm not sure how much I'll be playing going forward. As always, thanks for reading, I'll try and find interesting stuff to write about eventually.

Retro 2010: Deafen Time

I played in Good Games 2010 retro tournament today, going 2-2, but I had a lot of fun and an overall good day so I am writing about it.

 

Preparation: 

I play the format (my favorite, because I was 12 in 2010) at the shop usually once a week on Thursdays but my current theory for retro is that decks should mostly be time capsules and netdecks in the spirit of celebrating the past. I've tinkered with some of the decks in my box but teching for my own lists doesn't usually result in more fun/interesting games so most of the lists are stagnant. That said, I woke up slightly hungover with a stomachache at like 10:45 for an 11 am start time so I was definitely not changing anything for this tournament. I Uber to the shop because the train won't get me there on time and get there at exactly 11.

 

DialgaChomp, my favorite 2010 deck.

For readers more familiar with standard. this is probably comparable to something like Jellicent Gardevoir, shoving a massive item locker in the active and slowly grinding out the opponent. Taking the last prize or two with Garchomp is also reminiscent of Scream Tail. Anyway I really like playing this deck because tanking is fun and the SP cards are really cool. Deafen!

 

I'm going to include card images in addition to deck sprites for some of these old decks in an effort to provide informative context. 

Also, here's the super cool Heal Combo:

Attach Warp Energy to damaged Dialga and switch it with Garchomp. Use Bronzong's Galactic Switch to move the Warp Energy from Dialga onto Garchomp, placing 2 damage counters on Bronzong.

Level Up Garchomp and use Healing Breath to heal both Dialga and Bronzong, then use PokeTurn to pick up the Garchomp and the Warp Energy. Rebench Garchomp, watch the light disappear from your opponent's eyes. You can do this combo as long as you have more Poke Turns!

The Actual Tournament: 

Round 1

LuxChomp L

My head still hurts which is not good for me and I get paired into a friend who actually plays the format which is also not good for me. Their LuxChomp list has basically no tech or tricks in it in exchange for being very consistent at using Bright Look and Dragon Rush, which are really strong things to do.

 

I go down prizes trading Garchomps and feeding Uxies but am able to build a huge Dialga with an expert belt on 1-4.  Some energy issues on their side means that they've been attacking with Luxray and the 30 damage recoil from Flash Impact has really started to add up, especially after I Power Spray their Garchomp's Healing Breath and run them out of PokeTurns. My Late Snowpoint Temple drop catches them off guard and they don't have a great way to take their last prize since I have held onto 3 of my own PokeTurns and have managed to assemble the heal combo without any liabilities remaning on my board. I Remove Lost the energy off their Luxray and go to 3-1, but for some reason the round clock for this famously slow format was set to 30 minutes and we only get +3 and then winner is determined on prizes. 

I complain a little because I would definitely have won this game with a little more time but this is my friend and I was kind of playing slow because of alcohol so I just sign the slip. Future rounds are either 35 or 40 minutes, don't remember. 

Round 2 CurseGar W

 

My opponent draws a bit slow in this one so after I get Judged from a good hand into a bad hand I'm able to stabilize and build a large Dialga, despite the fact that both my Uxies are chased down with Shadow Room so I'm playing without Uxie Lv X this game. Dialga resists Psychic and it's very hard for Gengar to make progress with Shadow Skip through the Special Metal Energy damage reduction. Usually they try to cheese the big Dialga with Fainting Spell, but my list is pretty good at getting around this with Skuntank and Crobat. My Expert Belt Deafen lock sticks after I dodge Fainting Spell with Crobat's Flash Bite, and the lack of Moonlight Stadium makes it so my opponent starts to have energy problems after manual retreating Spiritomb a few times. I build up the heal combo after the last Judge is played, heal my huge Dialga and take the rest of my prizes with Deafen.

Round 3

SableLock L

 

This one isn't too interesting, my initial draw is kind of weak and then both of my Cyrus are removed from my hand and put on the bottom of the deck with double heads on Initiative. I feed a bunch of prizes while I attach to a Dialga but since my opponent gets to 1 before my Dialga gets in the active I'm not allowed to bench a Garchomp for healing since that will get sniped off the bench by their Garchomp. I ask nicely when they have game if they'll pass back to me so I can PokeTurn my only guy, which they do.

Round 4

Arceus W

This game was recorded, maybe that footage will show up at some point. 

I'm not really sure how to approach this matchup because I'm extremely scared of the Fire Arceus, but after I hit him a few times with Toxicroak we get in a position where my opponent isn't able to use the fire one on my Dialga because he's spread his energy out to avoid being chased down by my Garchomps, and Dialga G Lv X shuts off the text on Arceus Lv X, in addition to preventing him from moving energy using his Arceus Stadium. I get slowed down a bit by the Metal Arceus which is immune to damage/effects from my Lv X, but I chew through this one with Skuntank Poison, then I use Deafen a lot of times in a row until I can Dragon Rush to end the game.

I finish 2-2 for 6th but there's no top cut anyway so whatever. If I played better/faster in Round I might have had a better tournament. Maybe my deck is supposed to have a Judge in it? 

After: 

The group heads to Red Light Chicken for lunch which is a local restaurant that I like. Afterwards I get one of my promo Claydols signed by Whimsicast (who won the tournament) and play a few more games with a friend. 

I learn that Regigigas seems unplayable into CurseGar because my Gigas are constantly dying to Poltergeist, then I win a game with FlyTerra against the Arceus deck where he can't get the right Arceus on the board and I set up healing exodia. Finally I lose a tight game against Kingdra with Gyarados where my active gets KO'd by Spray Splash to dodge Floatzel recovery and I miss a new Gyarados off Judge, I'm not able to clean the board with Scoop Ups and lose to Warp Point. I take the train home and fall asleep in like two seconds when I walk into my room, I've been typing on my computer since I woke up.

molerator @ los angeles

 

I should write even if I had a bad tournament, so here we go.

Preparation: 

I didn't want to play Dragapult because I am stubborn and like being different, so in the weeks leading up the event I was practicing and working on Wally.deck, which had a reasonable chance into Dragapult and solid matchups across the remainder of the field. 

  

Froslass irl 💔

I laddered this deck into the 1800s fairly smoothly once I added a second copy of Fan Rotom - why would we play just one when this guy is almost essential to deck function and a good lead attacker? + some Pokegears for increased dig. The Lucians were originally paired with a Gravity Mountain but I found in my testing that one tapping the Dragapult was not actually that important if you can just keep hitting them in the face and playing Wally to heal. Not sure if the Acerola was ever going to be good, but I was told it was strong into the beatsticks at the end of games and I had a slot, so I did my usual routine of sleeving my 60 cards at home and then bringing basically no other cards to the tournament. I boarded my airplane Friday morning, moderately excited for the weekend. Slept for a few hours, listened to music, and watched the first five episodes of Running Point which was pretty good.

Off the airplane, Yihao picks me up. I'm barely inside the door and this guy wants me to switch to his "broken deck" and swears he solved the format. 

I do not switch decks because I am mentally strong. 

Lunch is at a Korean soul food restaurant Yihao hypes up. We slightly overorder because Roger eats like a small bird but it's a good meal. I will take a moment to slander Korean metal chopsticks, which are ridiculously hard to use for no good reason. Wood clears.

There's a couple hours until Flap lands at LAX so we head to a nearby card shop to play some games which I normally don't do on Friday but there's four of us so I try to be a good friend. In hindsight there was no reason for me to play my deck into Yihao instead of Pult or something, both decks are tiny percentages, but we play and I get rolled because his deck is way better at the type of tank and heal game we are both trying to play since he has monkeys and bench snipe. In the last game before we leave I draw 9 cards + Pokegear and whiff both copies of Boss I need to win. 

I still do not switch decks because I am mentally strong.

Last draft of FrostBunny before "the incident", featuring duck. I should have played this :( 

We pick up Flap from the airport and drop off Roger and Ming at their hotel. He was going to play the Froslass deck with me, but he's abandoned ship to play Pultnoir. Now I'm stressing a bit about Pultnoir so I'm trying to find a slot in my deck to play a Psyduck, coming up with a new draft that seemed decent. At this point I am more than a little poisoned from continuous exposure to Starmie propaganda, so I agree to collect the cards to build a copy of this deck "just in case." The three of us head to a card shop and I play another set of testing games with Flap and his Pultnoir deck. I draw slightly poorly in these but pick up some trauma from a brutal Unfair Stamp Watchtower brick.

I build the stupid Starmie deck because I am mentally weak. 

Certainly a Standard legal deck with 60 cards in it! 

We grab In-N-Out for a late dinner, I botch my order and get normal fries but the burger itself is quite good. Back home I win a Bo3 against the Pultnoir deck before submitting the new deck. I shower and then have very very bad sleep.

Up early the next morning, McDonalds drive through for breakfast on the way to the convention center to pick up wristbands. No one was actually in these wristband lines for some reason so there's about an hour to collect anxiety before round 1. Luckily lists are locked so I take solace in the fact that I can't do anything about it at this point. One of the Staryu I was given is a pretty blatantly marked RH so we have to beg vendors to look in their bulk, but I do end up with a clean copy to switch in. Pairings go up and I go find my table.

Round 1

Pult Dun WLW

My opponent was like extremely chatty, I don't really engage that much because he is like turbo oversharing his life and it is 830 am, so he starts dumping it on the adjacent tables. 

I run him over in a quick G1, he promotes a clean Dreepy instead of the one on the bench I hit for 50 so I clean the damaged one up with a Munkidori and take more prizes on the way to an easy win.

In G2, I get a bad start and I start scooping as he's lining up a Phantom Dive on 5-6, but he plays boss on a Snorunt for some reason as I'm conceding so I think I might have actually won this game. 

It's fine, I go first in G3 and run him over again. 

Round 2

Pult Dun WW

I look at my hand and it has Secret Box in it so I set up perfectly before my opponent really has a chance to do anything and run him off the board.

I open the Secret Box again but also Lillie and some search cards so I opt to save the pink card for later. His setup is a lot better this time and he has a winning chance at the end of the game if he can find boss but I've removed all his draw from the board and he's not able to find it so I finish the game with my own copy of Boss. Yihao was right about this deck beating Pult I suppose. 

Round 3

Hydrapple LL

This matchup is kind of unpleasant and the Celebi he finds T1 to get a Forest is really strong. I knock this out with Starmie + 50 his Meganium line, he punches me, I punch him and KO his Meganium, he KOs my Starmie, then I go into Budew and try to buy 1-2 turns to spread finish the game. I need one more turn, he Teal Dances into Boss to pick off the Meowth I started that has been sitting on my bench for 15 minutes ready to cost me the game.

Game 2 goes mostly the same, but I can't find Froslass quick enough so I'm a turn short of being able to wipe his Ogerpons at the end of the game. Oh well. 

Round 4

Lopunny Froslass WW

I learned yesterday playing against Yihao that this matchup is super free, I repeatedly Larry down my hand to neutralize the threat of his Mega Froslass and heal my Starmie with Wally/Munkidori while I'm pressuring his board with Jetting Blow. He can't keep up and I get my 6 prizes fairly easily.

G2 I get off to a decent start but my opponent randomly bricks off his Lillie for 6 in the middle of the game and can't find a Mega for multiple turns, so I win this one easily too. 

Thought I had a smooth round? Guess again. I left my deckbox at the table when I went to turn in the match slip. 

Round 5

Raging Bolt LL

I arrive at my table, and find out that my deckbox is not in my bag. I let my opponent and a nearby judge know, and I am directed to lost and found which is on the actual other side of the hall. I walk all the way over there, find nothing, walk back expecting to concede. Luckily my deckbox has magically found it's way to the table and I get away with just a late penalty.

My Budew is KO'd by Kang, so I get to hit the active with my Starmie and establish double Froslass. My opponent whiffs the 350 KO on Starmie so I get to hit the Kang again and get down a Munki-Dark. I've stacked a ton of damage on the Latias as well so I have 5 prizes lined up after my Starmie goes down. Unfortunately I've prized my 3rd Snorunt so I have to settle for a Staryu as a backup attacker. Some bad board management leaves me in a damage deficit on my last turn, but I definitely messed up and should have healed both my Munkidoris instead of just the active like I chose. Because of this my benched one is too low and is KO'd by my own Froslass to finish the game. Oops!

I opt first so I can be aggressive, but my opponent is holding maybe the greatest hand ever. After not even starting Waterpon, I see Ultra Ball Meowth Crispin Trumpet Eswitch Teal Dance come down and my Budew and Staryu are pumped leaving me with no guys. Should have drawn another guy, that's my bad.

Round 6

Mega Gardevoir LL

My opponent flips over a Frillish while I set up my board. I remember screwing up by forgetting to play Ruins before I bench my basics. I pass over to him and am very surprised to see a Ralts come down. Frillish gloom locks me, but importantly I use the gifted 20 to KO his Ralts off the bench. Not having Ruins damage does cost me though, because I can't camp the next 2 Ralts with Boss and a Mega Gardevoir comes up through Grand Tree and floods the board with purple energy. I'm on 3 so I feel reasonably confident about being able to finish the game, but I am wrong and bad because my opponent is able to double Ultra Ball their hand down to nothing and KO my Starmie so my Froslass is not able to respond. I concede and opt first.

His start in G2 is very weak and if I find a Starmie on my first attacking turn I am probably going to win by clearing his board of Ralts. Unfortunately, I lost my only copy of Starmie (second prized) off my Carmine the turn before so I whiff off 8 cards and he sets up again. Once the 360 Mega goes up with a smallish hand I have no real way to win. I play out because I plan on dropping after this loss. We have a brief conversation about his cool deck before he takes the slip to the hive.

Round 7 

Festival Lead (forgot to drop) 

I run into my friend Keva after I lost and they (also eliminated) ask if I want to drop and get food. I agree and click some Drop related buttons on my phone before we head to a chain udon place a short walk from the venue. On the way there I get a text from my friend Matt saying we paired? I open Rk9 and find one last confirmation I didn't finish clicking through so I text him back and tell him I'm not coming / congrats on the +3 match points. I'm pretty sure the judge made him wait the 10 minutes anyway but I'm not that sorry.

I have nothing to do except wait for my friends who are better at the game than me, so I find a spot to wait for them while I stew about my bad tournament run. Once they're finished we find a Ramen restaurant to eat at, we have enough car spots to facilitate multiple bed locations. The food is solid, even if KK again gets one shot by spicy ramen that he claims he didn't order on purpose. We drive home and I have much better sleep on the couch but I offset this by forgetting to charge my phone. 

The next morning I pack my bag and have a Chinese rice roll for breakfast, before we head to the venue. I look at vendors, buy nothing, and regret not bringing my 2010 box. KK drops after losing his 3rd game and we sit there on our phones sharing one basically dead portable charger the whole day. After games are over we head to a Chinese BBQ restaurant and have a good lunch even though I'm like 90% sure the steamed buns we are served are the same ones sitting in my freezer at home. We hit an ice cream joint in a neighborhood that looks like everyone owns a boat, then play a bunch of a co-op card game before heading to the airport. My flight is delayed and then cancelled and then rebooked, but I make it back to Chicago at 6 am the next morning.

The tournament might have sucked but I had a fun weekend and I learned (the hard way) not to mess with my deck on Friday. Hopefully I can do better at Indy because that city is way worse than LA to have nothing to do on Sunday.