So yeah, I'm stopping with playing this game. Due to incertainties in my life, coupled with a general dislike of the direction the game is taking, I find it best to stop. I will stay active as a judge and keep my league going on until replacement is found, but this I wager was my final tournament.
Since I wanted to play a Pokémon of my likings at the final tournament, I went through my options:
Honchkrow, Gardevoir, Ninetales, Sandslash, Persian, Kingdra, Houndoom.
Honchkrow was first to be stricken off. I didn't want to run a rush SP build, and on his own, Honchkrow SV just won't cut it. Gardevoir went next, its attack power is just not enough. Sandslash and Persian are both jokes, pretty much, so they too left.
Ninetales was promising given its fiery options, but then I remembered the prevalence of Gyarados in the area, so that was a no. Houndoom is fun, but given its frailty I settled for Kingdra.
Standard Kingdra line with 3 prime and 1 LA (It does hit for more, even with Spray Splash counted, helps you get rid of trainers vs Gengar and helps in case of benched Blaziken/Infernape, both moderately popular here). So we began:
Round 1: Vs. Kristel (BEL) with Sabledonk with tech 4-3-4 Tyranitar.
So I open with Bebe, Luxury Ball, Palmer, Unown Q and 3 Kingdra Prime. She opens Sableye and dark.
0-1 and bad tiebreaks ahoy. Admittedly, we did play as if she wouldn't go for the donk and won by 1 prize, but then again my start was rather horrid.
Round 2: Vs. Forgot Name with A Lot Of Lines
This is the other extreme. He opened Pichu and went to fetch Gastlys, Duskull, Eevee, and there was Gardevoir in his deck too. Needless to say that with Kingdra I pretty much steamed straight through his deck, he got exactly 1 attack off.
1-1
Round 3: Vs. Henna with Machamp Prime
This was a very close one. My start was bad and she opened Spiritomb. I started putting pressure on her and she couldnt get Vileplume in time which gave me time to play out my Belts. She got several Champs out and our Seekers helped one another, but I managed to make sure she couldn't KO Kingdras while her Champs slowly slid into KO range. In the +3 turns she had a 2 prize lead but I managed to take 2, she missed the fact that her Machoke could KO my Kingdra and I took my final prize for the win.
2-1
Round 4: Vs. Bert with Gyarados
Gyarados vs Kingdra is an interesting matchup. Kingdra is the faster party but Gyarados deals more damage and recovers faster. This proved true here too. What I did was keep Gyarados on low damage - yet enough that it was ensured that Spray Splashes + Attack would KO. Seeker antics kept this game low, but I finished with a great move. Having 3 Kingdra Prime out, he had a Gyara with 70 HP, Uxie with 30 and Crobat G. I triple Splashed the Uxie for the KO, dropped Seeker on my Bench Kingdra and with BTS went for Kingdra again to KO his lone Gyara ftw.
Seeker really needs to get looked at, that line about FORCING your opponent to take a card back into their hand is just...ew.
3-1
Round 5: Vs. David with Vilegar/Queen
I had a bad start again (Seriously, I had 0 Horsea starts in the entire tourney). At one point I get to 8 cards in my hand and use Portrait on his hand..Copycat. Copy for 3, get Horsea, Energy and Collector. Fair enough. Sadly my hand got pretty useless even after that. When he got Nidoqueen out the battle became uphill, him freely retreating Gengar to heal. Collector having an off day ensured that he managed to pull a win by shooting for a few cheap prizes.
3-2 and out due to bad tiebreaks
Round 6: Vs. Emanuel with Gyarados
He had a Lone Karp start and sighed in relief when I had to start. Still, I got early pressure going on and went with the same strategy as earlier vs Gyarados. Simply make sure Gyara keeps staying in Multiple Splash KO range while threatening the bench and eventually Kingdra goes on to take more prizes. Kingdra LA helped here by adding to the snipes, getting a KO on Azelf clinching my final game in my favor.
4-2, 13th place (Doesnt help I literally played the nrs. last and second-to-last, tiebreaks are trash)
So yeah, + and - I guess?
- DONKS. Anyone saying they're healthy can buzz off.
+ Kingdra beating Gyarados
- Never starting second - the one time I do its Sabledonk
- Tiebreaks
- The format
+ At least the crowd was good
Since I wanted to play a Pokémon of my likings at the final tournament, I went through my options:
Honchkrow, Gardevoir, Ninetales, Sandslash, Persian, Kingdra, Houndoom.
Honchkrow was first to be stricken off. I didn't want to run a rush SP build, and on his own, Honchkrow SV just won't cut it. Gardevoir went next, its attack power is just not enough. Sandslash and Persian are both jokes, pretty much, so they too left.
Ninetales was promising given its fiery options, but then I remembered the prevalence of Gyarados in the area, so that was a no. Houndoom is fun, but given its frailty I settled for Kingdra.
Standard Kingdra line with 3 prime and 1 LA (It does hit for more, even with Spray Splash counted, helps you get rid of trainers vs Gengar and helps in case of benched Blaziken/Infernape, both moderately popular here). So we began:
Round 1: Vs. Kristel (BEL) with Sabledonk with tech 4-3-4 Tyranitar.
So I open with Bebe, Luxury Ball, Palmer, Unown Q and 3 Kingdra Prime. She opens Sableye and dark.
0-1 and bad tiebreaks ahoy. Admittedly, we did play as if she wouldn't go for the donk and won by 1 prize, but then again my start was rather horrid.
Round 2: Vs. Forgot Name with A Lot Of Lines
This is the other extreme. He opened Pichu and went to fetch Gastlys, Duskull, Eevee, and there was Gardevoir in his deck too. Needless to say that with Kingdra I pretty much steamed straight through his deck, he got exactly 1 attack off.
1-1
Round 3: Vs. Henna with Machamp Prime
This was a very close one. My start was bad and she opened Spiritomb. I started putting pressure on her and she couldnt get Vileplume in time which gave me time to play out my Belts. She got several Champs out and our Seekers helped one another, but I managed to make sure she couldn't KO Kingdras while her Champs slowly slid into KO range. In the +3 turns she had a 2 prize lead but I managed to take 2, she missed the fact that her Machoke could KO my Kingdra and I took my final prize for the win.
2-1
Round 4: Vs. Bert with Gyarados
Gyarados vs Kingdra is an interesting matchup. Kingdra is the faster party but Gyarados deals more damage and recovers faster. This proved true here too. What I did was keep Gyarados on low damage - yet enough that it was ensured that Spray Splashes + Attack would KO. Seeker antics kept this game low, but I finished with a great move. Having 3 Kingdra Prime out, he had a Gyara with 70 HP, Uxie with 30 and Crobat G. I triple Splashed the Uxie for the KO, dropped Seeker on my Bench Kingdra and with BTS went for Kingdra again to KO his lone Gyara ftw.
Seeker really needs to get looked at, that line about FORCING your opponent to take a card back into their hand is just...ew.
3-1
Round 5: Vs. David with Vilegar/Queen
I had a bad start again (Seriously, I had 0 Horsea starts in the entire tourney). At one point I get to 8 cards in my hand and use Portrait on his hand..Copycat. Copy for 3, get Horsea, Energy and Collector. Fair enough. Sadly my hand got pretty useless even after that. When he got Nidoqueen out the battle became uphill, him freely retreating Gengar to heal. Collector having an off day ensured that he managed to pull a win by shooting for a few cheap prizes.
3-2 and out due to bad tiebreaks
Round 6: Vs. Emanuel with Gyarados
He had a Lone Karp start and sighed in relief when I had to start. Still, I got early pressure going on and went with the same strategy as earlier vs Gyarados. Simply make sure Gyara keeps staying in Multiple Splash KO range while threatening the bench and eventually Kingdra goes on to take more prizes. Kingdra LA helped here by adding to the snipes, getting a KO on Azelf clinching my final game in my favor.
4-2, 13th place (Doesnt help I literally played the nrs. last and second-to-last, tiebreaks are trash)
So yeah, + and - I guess?
- DONKS. Anyone saying they're healthy can buzz off.
+ Kingdra beating Gyarados
- Never starting second - the one time I do its Sabledonk
- Tiebreaks
- The format
+ At least the crowd was good
