Hey, everyone. As you know, I'm returning from a two year long hiatus of playing Pokemon. So far the greatest thing I've done this season is win a Battle Roads, which is all right I guess. I tested for Regionals extremely heavily before the event and was confident in my choice of Tyram. After modifying the list many times, I finally found one that I thought ran well. It ended up running very well, and I only had a few so-so starts the whole day.
Blah blah blah, pre-tournament stuff. I'd rather talk about the actual tournament.
Round 1: Mudkip with Magnezone/Yanmega/Zoroark
Net.deck right here. But it's okay, it's Zele so I know I'm going to have a good game. Really sucks we're paired against each other round 1. He had an awful start and saw an energy drought the whole game. I built my field up really fast, but we started exchanging prizes once he got several Magnezone out. He stalled with Jirachi and pretty much gave me a hand of 3 Typhlosion Prime and a Kingdra Prime for several turns before I could actually get anything accomplished. When we both have about four prizes left each, he tries desperately to get an energy to use Lost Burn but does not succeed. I just sweep up the Yanmega from there. His last three prizes were three energy, so I felt pretty bad about that.
Record: 1-0
Times went first: 1
Round 2: Jacob with YMCA
Jacob is part of the Ohio group that created YMCA. He allllso happens to be my best friend, so that's great that I get to play him. I felt really relaxed this game and didn't feel pressure, but mostly because I knew the matchup was in my favor. He didn't really play Mew often and went full Cinccino aggro, but as usual Typhlosion swarm is too strong. There's pretty much nothing YMCA can do at that point, especially when you have a Reshiram you use for cleaning up.
Record: 2-0
Times went first: 1
Round 3: Blech, sorry, didn't write your name down x_x with Reshiboar
So he had a pretty bad start to my t2 Typhlosion and Ninetales. He eventually gets going, and actually ties it pretty well. He has continuous Emboars and Reshis and I'm seriously just barely keeping up. Kingdra was MVP in this match obviously. Without it I wouldn't have been able to easily Catcher-kill the Ability Boars. I know at one point I Flare Destroy a DCE on his "Bad"Boar, which was huge at the time. It gets really close in prizes after us exchanging knockouts with Reshiram, and I believe it comes to the situation where my Kingdra has been knocked out, we each have 1 prize left, and he can get another KO next turn. I know there's a pluspower somewhere in my deck. I can Blue Flare for the win if I get it. I Juniper, and I have exactly seven cards left.
I get it.
Really intense game, definitely did not think I was gonna win that one.
Record: 3-0
Times went first: 1
Round 4: Matt with Mirror
I believe his name was Matt, but I'm not 100% sure. Anyway, he's playing mirror, except I mulligan 3 times in a row aaaand draw into nothing. He pretty much just rolls through me. I begin to mount a comeback in a few turns but he's way too far ahead. Not much to say other than I just couldn't do anything.
Record: 3-1
Times went first: 1
Round 5: Pooka with Mirror
A little nervous to be playing Pooka, not going to lie. He's a pretty cool guy to play against. He seems to have an awful start of draw-attach-pass for about three turns while I struggle myself to get set up. He gets a Juniper finally and gets pretty much everything he needs. For some reason, I have a zero card hand most of the time trying to get what I need. Either way, he rebounds and takes the win.
Record: 3-2
Times went first: 1
Round 6: I have your name on the tip of my tongue but I can't quiiite remember it with Donphan Dragons/Reuniclus
So this guy was playing an... interesting version of Donphan/Dragons. He played Reuniclus. That really caught me by surprise, because I originally thought he was playing The Truth. This deck was actually somewhat legitimate despite how slow you might think it would be. I think the real game-changer here was Basculin. Flail actually... killed two of my Typhlosion. Somewhat surprising. Not unheard of I guess, and the tech makes sense. I do kill both the Basculin, kill both of his Zekroms, kill a Donphan, and it gets to be so he has one prize and so do I. Feels familiar. I'm in the position, however, to drop a Reshi, attach a fire, double Afterburner, retreat my active Reshi with 120 on it, bring up Reshi, and Catcher up his Reuniclus for the ko. Really great game, felt very close.
Record: 4-2
Times went first: 2 (oh man, it's going up)
Round 7: Definitely don't remember your name, sorry with Reshiboar
So he started Reshiram, I started God hand. He attaches and passes turn one, I attach to active Resh, Collector for 2 Cynda and a Vulpix, and pass. T2 I have 1 Typhlosion, Quilava, and a Ninetales, and on T3 I kill him for the game. We play again for fun and it was a lot closer. I did end up winning though.
Record: 5-2
Times went first : 2
Round 8: Levi with Primetime
So I don't know Levi, but some of my friends have seen him around apparently. I feel like this could have been a great game, but it was unfortunately ruined by a number of things. For one, I don't go first. Again. For the sixth time today. I wouldn't complain but I mean, seriously. It's not a huge deal, but it just gets a little frustrating. Regardless, as we play, I get early knockouts on Magnemites, and am able to eat through Yanmega. It gets to the point where I have 2 prizes left, 2 cards left in my deck, and 2 cards in my hand. My opponent asks to see my discard pile, so I show it to him, and he puts it back down literally RIGHT on top of my prizes.
So I pick my prizes up by accident, see them because I wondered why there were upside down cards in my discard pile, realize my mistake, and we call judges over.
I have to say I don't agree with the ruling on this one. Judges issued me a prize penalty, and my opponent a warning, when my opponent altered the board and gamestate. t wasn't accounted for that this situation would not have occurred had my opponent just placed my discard pile back where my discard pile was originally, which was under my deck. My opponent also had his discard pile right next to his deck the entire game instead of underneath it, and also had at least seven ripped sleeves.
I'm not salty or upset about any of my earlier losses at all. I'm upset about the final game because for one, if I had won, I would have been in top cut which I absolutely deserved to do (I would have taken my last two prizes easily).
This ruling was total nonsense and I feel like if I got a prize penalty he should have received one as well. I don't want to call anyone out, but seriously, I feel like I did /nothing/ wrong compared to what my opponent did.
I don't want to be one of those guys who complains about rulings on the Internet, but after talking with almost twenty other people including some other judges, I've received nothing but agreement that either we both should have received a prize penalty (in which case I would have won), or we both should have received a warning (in which case I would have won).
Final record: 5-3
Times went first: 2
This has been known for a while, but whoever goes first has an insane advantage. The advantage is just too great. Every game where I did not go first, even if I won, I did so after fighting a hugely uphill battle. People have exhausted this statement for so long, but I do want to make it clear again that if I went first in my last game, I would have won regardless of the prize penalty.
Another thing, this format sucks as far as decks go. All day I faced some Reshiram variant, some Primetime variant, one Reuniclus variant, and one Mew variant. There is just no variety. I played Tyram not because I enjoy playing it, but because I knew I wouldn't do poorly with it. And I didn't. I went 6-2 in my opinion even though that's not the 'official' record. This format is rock-paper-scissors all day every day and I honestly don't see Noble Victories changing that. In fact, I see it supporting it even more, with the addition of Eviolite. I was happy to hear google's deck did well at so many Regionals (I believe it got top 8 at my Regionals), so that's awesome. I want more decks like google's deck, Gothitelle, those kinds of things. I'm so tired of Tyram, ZPST, and Primetime.
One last thing, I think that at the beginning of the year, it should have been made so Regionals that have an attendance in Masters of over 200 people have a top 64. We had 240 players I believe with only a top 32. That means NO 5-3's got in, and one of the 6-2's didn't even get in. Pokemon has to realize the scale of these events is just going to keep getting larger and larger, and they need to account for that.
I had fun at Regionals, and considering it was my first major tournament in Masters, and first time playing in two years, I think I did pretty well. Not as well as I should have, but there's nothing I can do about it. Oh, well. Looking forward to Cities!
Blah blah blah, pre-tournament stuff. I'd rather talk about the actual tournament.
Round 1: Mudkip with Magnezone/Yanmega/Zoroark
Net.deck right here. But it's okay, it's Zele so I know I'm going to have a good game. Really sucks we're paired against each other round 1. He had an awful start and saw an energy drought the whole game. I built my field up really fast, but we started exchanging prizes once he got several Magnezone out. He stalled with Jirachi and pretty much gave me a hand of 3 Typhlosion Prime and a Kingdra Prime for several turns before I could actually get anything accomplished. When we both have about four prizes left each, he tries desperately to get an energy to use Lost Burn but does not succeed. I just sweep up the Yanmega from there. His last three prizes were three energy, so I felt pretty bad about that.
Record: 1-0
Times went first: 1
Round 2: Jacob with YMCA
Jacob is part of the Ohio group that created YMCA. He allllso happens to be my best friend, so that's great that I get to play him. I felt really relaxed this game and didn't feel pressure, but mostly because I knew the matchup was in my favor. He didn't really play Mew often and went full Cinccino aggro, but as usual Typhlosion swarm is too strong. There's pretty much nothing YMCA can do at that point, especially when you have a Reshiram you use for cleaning up.
Record: 2-0
Times went first: 1
Round 3: Blech, sorry, didn't write your name down x_x with Reshiboar
So he had a pretty bad start to my t2 Typhlosion and Ninetales. He eventually gets going, and actually ties it pretty well. He has continuous Emboars and Reshis and I'm seriously just barely keeping up. Kingdra was MVP in this match obviously. Without it I wouldn't have been able to easily Catcher-kill the Ability Boars. I know at one point I Flare Destroy a DCE on his "Bad"Boar, which was huge at the time. It gets really close in prizes after us exchanging knockouts with Reshiram, and I believe it comes to the situation where my Kingdra has been knocked out, we each have 1 prize left, and he can get another KO next turn. I know there's a pluspower somewhere in my deck. I can Blue Flare for the win if I get it. I Juniper, and I have exactly seven cards left.
I get it.
Really intense game, definitely did not think I was gonna win that one.
Record: 3-0
Times went first: 1
Round 4: Matt with Mirror
I believe his name was Matt, but I'm not 100% sure. Anyway, he's playing mirror, except I mulligan 3 times in a row aaaand draw into nothing. He pretty much just rolls through me. I begin to mount a comeback in a few turns but he's way too far ahead. Not much to say other than I just couldn't do anything.
Record: 3-1
Times went first: 1
Round 5: Pooka with Mirror
A little nervous to be playing Pooka, not going to lie. He's a pretty cool guy to play against. He seems to have an awful start of draw-attach-pass for about three turns while I struggle myself to get set up. He gets a Juniper finally and gets pretty much everything he needs. For some reason, I have a zero card hand most of the time trying to get what I need. Either way, he rebounds and takes the win.
Record: 3-2
Times went first: 1
Round 6: I have your name on the tip of my tongue but I can't quiiite remember it with Donphan Dragons/Reuniclus
So this guy was playing an... interesting version of Donphan/Dragons. He played Reuniclus. That really caught me by surprise, because I originally thought he was playing The Truth. This deck was actually somewhat legitimate despite how slow you might think it would be. I think the real game-changer here was Basculin. Flail actually... killed two of my Typhlosion. Somewhat surprising. Not unheard of I guess, and the tech makes sense. I do kill both the Basculin, kill both of his Zekroms, kill a Donphan, and it gets to be so he has one prize and so do I. Feels familiar. I'm in the position, however, to drop a Reshi, attach a fire, double Afterburner, retreat my active Reshi with 120 on it, bring up Reshi, and Catcher up his Reuniclus for the ko. Really great game, felt very close.
Record: 4-2
Times went first: 2 (oh man, it's going up)
Round 7: Definitely don't remember your name, sorry with Reshiboar
So he started Reshiram, I started God hand. He attaches and passes turn one, I attach to active Resh, Collector for 2 Cynda and a Vulpix, and pass. T2 I have 1 Typhlosion, Quilava, and a Ninetales, and on T3 I kill him for the game. We play again for fun and it was a lot closer. I did end up winning though.
Record: 5-2
Times went first : 2
Round 8: Levi with Primetime
So I don't know Levi, but some of my friends have seen him around apparently. I feel like this could have been a great game, but it was unfortunately ruined by a number of things. For one, I don't go first. Again. For the sixth time today. I wouldn't complain but I mean, seriously. It's not a huge deal, but it just gets a little frustrating. Regardless, as we play, I get early knockouts on Magnemites, and am able to eat through Yanmega. It gets to the point where I have 2 prizes left, 2 cards left in my deck, and 2 cards in my hand. My opponent asks to see my discard pile, so I show it to him, and he puts it back down literally RIGHT on top of my prizes.
So I pick my prizes up by accident, see them because I wondered why there were upside down cards in my discard pile, realize my mistake, and we call judges over.
I have to say I don't agree with the ruling on this one. Judges issued me a prize penalty, and my opponent a warning, when my opponent altered the board and gamestate. t wasn't accounted for that this situation would not have occurred had my opponent just placed my discard pile back where my discard pile was originally, which was under my deck. My opponent also had his discard pile right next to his deck the entire game instead of underneath it, and also had at least seven ripped sleeves.
I'm not salty or upset about any of my earlier losses at all. I'm upset about the final game because for one, if I had won, I would have been in top cut which I absolutely deserved to do (I would have taken my last two prizes easily).
This ruling was total nonsense and I feel like if I got a prize penalty he should have received one as well. I don't want to call anyone out, but seriously, I feel like I did /nothing/ wrong compared to what my opponent did.
I don't want to be one of those guys who complains about rulings on the Internet, but after talking with almost twenty other people including some other judges, I've received nothing but agreement that either we both should have received a prize penalty (in which case I would have won), or we both should have received a warning (in which case I would have won).
Final record: 5-3
Times went first: 2
My thoughts on the current format:
This has been known for a while, but whoever goes first has an insane advantage. The advantage is just too great. Every game where I did not go first, even if I won, I did so after fighting a hugely uphill battle. People have exhausted this statement for so long, but I do want to make it clear again that if I went first in my last game, I would have won regardless of the prize penalty.
Another thing, this format sucks as far as decks go. All day I faced some Reshiram variant, some Primetime variant, one Reuniclus variant, and one Mew variant. There is just no variety. I played Tyram not because I enjoy playing it, but because I knew I wouldn't do poorly with it. And I didn't. I went 6-2 in my opinion even though that's not the 'official' record. This format is rock-paper-scissors all day every day and I honestly don't see Noble Victories changing that. In fact, I see it supporting it even more, with the addition of Eviolite. I was happy to hear google's deck did well at so many Regionals (I believe it got top 8 at my Regionals), so that's awesome. I want more decks like google's deck, Gothitelle, those kinds of things. I'm so tired of Tyram, ZPST, and Primetime.
One last thing, I think that at the beginning of the year, it should have been made so Regionals that have an attendance in Masters of over 200 people have a top 64. We had 240 players I believe with only a top 32. That means NO 5-3's got in, and one of the 6-2's didn't even get in. Pokemon has to realize the scale of these events is just going to keep getting larger and larger, and they need to account for that.
I had fun at Regionals, and considering it was my first major tournament in Masters, and first time playing in two years, I think I did pretty well. Not as well as I should have, but there's nothing I can do about it. Oh, well. Looking forward to Cities!
