Sup. I guess I'll use this thread for Regionals and Nationals and stuff when the time comes around, but for now it's just states because I was too lazy I was too busy to write up any stuff prior to this. I'll also include a tl;dr version at the bottom, since not a lot of full reports are being written anymore.
So, Wisconsin State Championships. I woke up at 4 AM (wtf) to catch my ride, and we arrived at the tourney scene like an hour and a half early, lol. That extra sleep would've been pretty nice. I made use of the extra time, though. I talked strategy with the guys around me, scouted a little bit, and saw Plasma and Darkrai everywhere. I didn't mind this since I was playing Plasma myself, and mirror matches are always one of, if not the match I'm most confident in. On of my buds, Yoshi, saw Fairy.dec everywhere as well, which is a bit harder of a matchup, but it was the one I had playtested against th emost. Before I turned my list in, I made 2 crucial last-minute decisions:
1) I dropped the 2nd Plasma Snorlax for a Palkia EX, to help against Blastoise and RayBoar
2) I dropped my only Max Potion for a 3rd Switch. This wasn't really planned - I filled my initial decklist out and realized that Genesect EX wasn't anywhere on my list, so I just dumped the most expendable card I could think of at the time to get it back in. I looked at my list on PlayTCG after the tournament just because I was curious as to how I accidentally dropped Genesect, and saw only 2 Switch and 1 Escape Rope as opposed to 3 and 1. I must've accidentally added it while resleeving, but the 3rd switch came in handy quite often, while I never used Max Potion.
Anyways, the registration closes and the roster ACTUALLY goes up on time, thanks to Jimmy Ballard's fantastic tournament hosting. There are 117 masters division competitors, including Pooka, Jay Hornung, google Cawthon, and 3-time World Champ Jason Klaczynski. My tourney store in Green Bay managed to bring 23 people to the tournament, I felt like that was a pretty cool accomplishment. Anyways, tournament is best-of-3 format with 7 rounds, top 8 cut. To round 1 we go!
Round 1: vs Andrew Lee (Darkrai/Yveltal)
Round 1 and I'm already playing against somebody I know. Not what I wanted to see, but it's bound to happen when 23 of you are at the same tournament.
Game 1: Due to my massive 3.5 hours of sleep, I don't remember much of this game. But I do remember misplaying spectacularly. I played Shadow Triad to get Thundurus EX out of my discard pile, and Scramble Switched 4 energy onto it with the intent of swinging at his Darkrai for 120 (90 + 3 Deoxys) but I only had 1 Prism Energy attached. Whoops. Anyways, I'm not sure that game was winnable regardless since he had a much better start than I did, but that misplay definitely put it out of reach.
Game 2: I didn't make any derpy misplays, thank God. On turn 2 (since I opted to go first) I Raiden Knuckled his Sableye for a KO, and I was able to get 70 damage onto his Darkrai the following turn. I then proceeded to Plasma Gale for 3 prizes, and remove all his energy from the board. It was a pretty mindless game from there.
Game 3: Time was called on turn 2, and I didn't have enough of a setup to get all 6 of my prizes.
TIE: 0-0-1
Round 2: vs Yehoshua Tate (BinderDrop.dec)
Awesome. 2 rounds, 2 players from my tourney center. Yoshi is infamous in my area for coming up with the most obscure rogue decks (ie: Chandelure/Darkrai, Sablelock, Absol Prime/Gyarados). Today he was playing the type matchups with a deck that included Kyurem EX (the one with Outrage), Raichu, Sawk, and Ninetales.
Game 1: Sawk @Silver bangle @HypnoToxic Laser goes online on his first turn and just OHKOs my Thundurus. He just got the appropriate type attacker out and OHKO'd whatever he needed to. I believe I was able to N him to 2 and then start attacking with Lugia, but he managed to get his Raichu out off of his 2 cards, so nothing I could do there.
Game 2: Once again I'm going to blame my 3.5 hours of sleep on another spectacular misplay. Turn 1 I go first, and I open 2 Deoxys EX to his Mewtwo EX and Sawk. I proceed to attach a Double Colorless to Deoxys (with the intent of retreating it) and then I play Ultra Ball to get a Thundurus EX out. I'm about to retreat when I look at my board and think "well, I can't attack with Thundurus, so why let it take damage?" So I just passed turn. He just looks at me funny, draws, attaches a Double Colorless to his Mewtwo, and X-balls for 160. I just went "oh." That about sums up how this game went. He got 2 Prizes off of Sawk again, and was able to Bright Look my Deoxys later. I just conceded because I had no hope of winning, so we could go get lunch.
LOSS: 0-1-1
At this point, I'm starting to have flashbacks to regionals earlier this year, where I started the day off 0-2-1. I remember telling myself "welp, can't lose for the rest of the day" and I didn't. Ended up going 4-2-3, which isn't that great, but it was enough to win me some boosters, and I was hoping for similar results here. I got a little bit better than I expected.
Round 3: vs Derrick Krenke (Empoleon w/ Dugtrio and Eeveelutions)
Yoshi just looked at me and said "dude, if you don't win this game, we're not talking to you for the rest of the day. Derrick is not a bad player at all, but Empoleon is literally an autowin for you. You could give that deck a 2-turn head start and STILL win against it."
Game 1: He wasn't kidding. I open with Deoxys and Lugia, but I get N'd to a hand of 3 Energy, a Shadow Triad, a Tool Scrapper, and a Muscle Band. So I ended up spending the next 4 turns going "draw attach pass." I eventually benched a thundurus, so by the time I finally was able to get Deoxys out of the active spot, I had a Banded Thundurus with a Lightning, and a Lugia with 2 Plasma. From there I just took a prize card every single turn.
Game 2: I got Lugia online instantly, and just killed 3 pokemon in 3 turns for the game.
WIN: 1-1-1
Round 4: vs Enrique (Virizion/Genesect with Ho-oh)
Enrique also goes to the same tourney center as I, so I've played 3 of 4 rounds against people from my league. Awesome.
Game 1: He got the ideal setup and played very well. He KO'd Thundurus after 2 Emerald Slashes and a Megalo Cannon, and then followed it up by G-boostering my Lugia EX for the KO. I don't remember too much, but it was in his favor from the word 'go'.
Game 2: I got lugia set up immediately, and I was able to Tool Scrapper his G-booster, since he drew into it right before a Professor Juniper. At that point, I just got 3 Deoxys and Muscle Band out, and just killed 2 pokemon.
Game 3: This is probably the most obscure game of pokemon I've ever played. He opens Terrakion and Genesect to my 3 Deoxys EX. He draws, Ultra Balls for Virizion, attaches to Virizion, and passes. I drew, got a Thundurus and a Lugia EX out, switched, and Raiden Knuckled an energy to lugia. He gets the Switch, and Emerald Slashes to Genesect the next turn. I draw, I bench a 2nd Thundurus, and just Raiden Knuckled as usual. The next few turns are a bit odd: He Red Signals my Lugia EX, and hits it with Virizion, so if I ever attack with it, I'm at risk of just losing all my energy. I believe I ended up retreating for my 2nd Thundurus EX, and Raiden Knuckling his Virizion for the KO, while putting the discarded Plasma Energy (from Lugia retreat) onto a Deoxys EX. The next 4 turns end up in multiple obscure plays of Switch, Retreating, and Escape Rope from both of us, and I ended up attacking with 2 seperate Deoxys EX and Thundurus EX for the entire game. In the end, I forced him to a point where I had 2 EX's powered up and ready to attack while he just had too many prizes left to take, so he conceded.
WIN: 2-1-1
Round 5: vs Paul Dytska (Virizion/Genesect)
Game 1: He opens a double Genesect EX to my Thundurus and Deoxys. We both had a supporter drought early, but I was at least able to Ultra Ball for a Deoxys, Plasma Ball for Lugia, and start using Raiden Knuckle to get energy into play. He Red Signaled my Deoxys twice though, so it took a few turns before I was able to attack. In the end, I was just able to kill 2 pokemon with Lugia EX while I wasn't able to hit any energy.
Game 2: I set up Lugia and kill 2 pokemon. Moving on.
WIN: 3-1-1
Round 6: vs Jeremy Pettit (TDK w/ Lugia)
Game 1: He wins the toss but opts to go 2nd. I thought for sure this meant he was playing Fairy Box with that played an aggressive way to get Xerneas going on turn 1, but it was just an oldschool TDK deck. We both get 3 Deoxys set up and start a prize exchange, but I made a fatal misplay. In the closing turns of the game with a score of 3-4 in my favor, I discarded my 4th Deoxys EX with Ultra Ball, because I didn't think I would need it. He drops a Lugia EX of his own, and I'm unable to draw into a Shadow Triad to bring my Deoxys EX out of the discard pile, so my own Lugia EX and Thundurus EX are not able to OHKO it. He ends up Plasma Galeing me to take the 3-1 lead, and the win shortly after.
Game 2: I opt to go first, and get 3 Deoxys and Lugia out ASAP and start Raiden Knuckling his active Thundurus, putting a Double Colorless onto Lugia. He mirrors me, getting 3 Deoxys out, and Raiden Knuckling to the lugia himself. I draw, bench the Plasma Snorlax, attach Muscle Band to my Lugia EX, and then attach Plasma and Colress Machine. Now I look at the board, and my mind just went absolutely blank. So I Raiden Knuckled, attaching to Snorlax. I then looked at the board and went "wait... I could have just Plasma Galed for 3 Prize Cards." I thought I made an attrocious misplay yet again. My opponent promotes his own Lugia EX, attaches a Prism to his benched Deoxys EX, and KOs my Thundurus for 3 Prize Cards. It is at this point I looked at the board this time, I realized that I had accidentally just made the correct play. I promoted my own Lugia EX, Plasma Balled, and OHKO'd his Lugia EX for 3 Prize Cards, removing all of his energy from play. He's able to respond with a Raiden Knuckle for 120, and puts a Plasma Energy onto his Deoxys - basically preventing Snorlax from coming out. The next 3-ish turns are me playing a supporter in a hope to get my Lugia EX powered up, and then retreating for a random EX that he is unable to KO, and the 5 switch cards (3 Switch, 1 Escape Rope, 1 Scramble Switch) that I Played were a massive help here. I eventually hit the energy that I need as well as the 2nd Muscle Band (he had Tool Scrappered the original one) and KO'd his active Thundurus for the game.
Game 3: Time is called immediately, and neither of us are able to get all 6 prize cards.
TIE: 3-1-2
Round 7: vs Nik Nikodem (RayBoar)
Up until this point, I was a bit frustrated that I had put Palkia EX in last minute and never gotten paired against RayBoar or Blastoise. That frustration all melted away after Palkia EX proceeded to slaughter the next 2 games.
Game 1: I initially start to get a Lugia EX powered up, but search my Palkia EX out turn 3-ish and Raiden Knuckle a DCE to it. The turns that followed were alternating of Palkia using Strafe for the KO, and my opponent KOing whatever pokemon I pushed up into the active position. I eventually get ahead on Prizes by just saccing the Plasma Snorlax, and take game 1.
Game 2: Palkia is using Strafe by turn 2, and on top of it, my opponent just wasn't able to get an emboar in play. I KO'd 2 tepigs and a Fennekin early game, and by that point he was just stalling for time to see what would happen. He eventually got Rayquaza and Delphox going, but it was just too little too late. Time was called and I took my 6th prize on turn 3.
TL;DR VERSION:
Results: 13th place at a final record of 4-1-2. The final results made me cringe: Yoshi (the guy from my tourney center that I played round 2) ended up going 5-1-1 and MISSED top 8, getting 9th, and he was the only 5-1-1 to miss the cut. Yoshi, myself, and another guy from my tourney center all ended up placing in the top 16, which I was pretty happy about. I got 9 boosters and $20 of in-store credit at the vendor, which I spent on the most awesome sleeves I've ever seen. With that, the day was over, and my group rolled out to our hotel for the day. We came back to watch the top cut, and Franco Llamass III eventually become the state champion with Blastoise. Top cut consisted of 2 Blastoise, 2 RayBoar, 2 Fairies.dec, 2 Yveltal/Garbodor (WITHOUT Darkrai).
Shoutouts:
First, I have 2 huge shoutouts to make. First shoutout is to Jimmy Ballard, the TO. This is the first large-scale event I have ever attended that got absolutely everything perfect. The event stayed perfectly on schedule through BOTH days, the venue (Monona Terrace in Madison, WI) was amazing, the atmosphere he brought with him was great, the side events and secondary League Challenge ran equally as smoothly, and rulings team was spot-on. It was a flawless event.
Second shoutout is to the 2nd-place finisher Caleb. Here's the scenario: State Championship match. Franco playing Blastoise vs Caleb who's playing RayBoar. They both had their respective energy accelerators and Dragon-type attackers set up, as well as their 'baby' attackers on the bench (Black Kyurem non-EX, and Rayquaza Dragon Vault.) Fraco takes 2 prize cards via Keldeo, Caleb responds with Ray EX and takes 2 Prize Cards. Franco pushes up the baby Black Kyurem, accidentally says "Dual Claw" and IMMEDIATELY recognizes his mistake. He knows what the rules are, and flips the coins for Dual Claw as the attack he uses. There's some discussion, and I overhear somebody say "it's your call, man." So, Caleb can take the win here. With the wrong attack announced, the prize trade swings to RayBoar's favor, and if the trade continues, RayBoar would be the winner. Instead, I see him pick up his Rayquaza EX, and put it in the discard pile, allowing Franco to take back the attack. Great sportsmanship, especially considering how hard Caleb is trying to get an invite to worlds. That play literally determined the winner of game 1, and possibly the entire tournament, and Caleb lets him take it back regardless. That is great sportsmanship.
Props:
~Tournament ended both days on time
~Placing top 16
~"That's the spirit"
~Great sportsmanship
~Flawless event
~Baller-level status venue
~Jordan for letting me borrow and then buy his Palkia EX
~23 people from Green Bay showing up
~3 people from Green Bay making top 16
Slops:
~Poor Sportsmanship (I'm looking at you, google.)
~Misplaying throughout the entire day
~3.5 hours of sleep
~UNC Losing after the tournament to Duke
~Draws
~Yoshi missing cut at 5-1-1
~nobody from Green Bay making top 8
~Shawn for loosing on stream/recording
~The broken vending machines that would only accept quarters and not dollars
So, Wisconsin State Championships. I woke up at 4 AM (wtf) to catch my ride, and we arrived at the tourney scene like an hour and a half early, lol. That extra sleep would've been pretty nice. I made use of the extra time, though. I talked strategy with the guys around me, scouted a little bit, and saw Plasma and Darkrai everywhere. I didn't mind this since I was playing Plasma myself, and mirror matches are always one of, if not the match I'm most confident in. On of my buds, Yoshi, saw Fairy.dec everywhere as well, which is a bit harder of a matchup, but it was the one I had playtested against th emost. Before I turned my list in, I made 2 crucial last-minute decisions:
1) I dropped the 2nd Plasma Snorlax for a Palkia EX, to help against Blastoise and RayBoar
2) I dropped my only Max Potion for a 3rd Switch. This wasn't really planned - I filled my initial decklist out and realized that Genesect EX wasn't anywhere on my list, so I just dumped the most expendable card I could think of at the time to get it back in. I looked at my list on PlayTCG after the tournament just because I was curious as to how I accidentally dropped Genesect, and saw only 2 Switch and 1 Escape Rope as opposed to 3 and 1. I must've accidentally added it while resleeving, but the 3rd switch came in handy quite often, while I never used Max Potion.
Anyways, the registration closes and the roster ACTUALLY goes up on time, thanks to Jimmy Ballard's fantastic tournament hosting. There are 117 masters division competitors, including Pooka, Jay Hornung, google Cawthon, and 3-time World Champ Jason Klaczynski. My tourney store in Green Bay managed to bring 23 people to the tournament, I felt like that was a pretty cool accomplishment. Anyways, tournament is best-of-3 format with 7 rounds, top 8 cut. To round 1 we go!
Round 1: vs Andrew Lee (Darkrai/Yveltal)
Round 1 and I'm already playing against somebody I know. Not what I wanted to see, but it's bound to happen when 23 of you are at the same tournament.
Game 1: Due to my massive 3.5 hours of sleep, I don't remember much of this game. But I do remember misplaying spectacularly. I played Shadow Triad to get Thundurus EX out of my discard pile, and Scramble Switched 4 energy onto it with the intent of swinging at his Darkrai for 120 (90 + 3 Deoxys) but I only had 1 Prism Energy attached. Whoops. Anyways, I'm not sure that game was winnable regardless since he had a much better start than I did, but that misplay definitely put it out of reach.
Game 2: I didn't make any derpy misplays, thank God. On turn 2 (since I opted to go first) I Raiden Knuckled his Sableye for a KO, and I was able to get 70 damage onto his Darkrai the following turn. I then proceeded to Plasma Gale for 3 prizes, and remove all his energy from the board. It was a pretty mindless game from there.
Game 3: Time was called on turn 2, and I didn't have enough of a setup to get all 6 of my prizes.
TIE: 0-0-1
Round 2: vs Yehoshua Tate (BinderDrop.dec)
Awesome. 2 rounds, 2 players from my tourney center. Yoshi is infamous in my area for coming up with the most obscure rogue decks (ie: Chandelure/Darkrai, Sablelock, Absol Prime/Gyarados). Today he was playing the type matchups with a deck that included Kyurem EX (the one with Outrage), Raichu, Sawk, and Ninetales.
Game 1: Sawk @Silver bangle @HypnoToxic Laser goes online on his first turn and just OHKOs my Thundurus. He just got the appropriate type attacker out and OHKO'd whatever he needed to. I believe I was able to N him to 2 and then start attacking with Lugia, but he managed to get his Raichu out off of his 2 cards, so nothing I could do there.
Game 2: Once again I'm going to blame my 3.5 hours of sleep on another spectacular misplay. Turn 1 I go first, and I open 2 Deoxys EX to his Mewtwo EX and Sawk. I proceed to attach a Double Colorless to Deoxys (with the intent of retreating it) and then I play Ultra Ball to get a Thundurus EX out. I'm about to retreat when I look at my board and think "well, I can't attack with Thundurus, so why let it take damage?" So I just passed turn. He just looks at me funny, draws, attaches a Double Colorless to his Mewtwo, and X-balls for 160. I just went "oh." That about sums up how this game went. He got 2 Prizes off of Sawk again, and was able to Bright Look my Deoxys later. I just conceded because I had no hope of winning, so we could go get lunch.
LOSS: 0-1-1
At this point, I'm starting to have flashbacks to regionals earlier this year, where I started the day off 0-2-1. I remember telling myself "welp, can't lose for the rest of the day" and I didn't. Ended up going 4-2-3, which isn't that great, but it was enough to win me some boosters, and I was hoping for similar results here. I got a little bit better than I expected.
Round 3: vs Derrick Krenke (Empoleon w/ Dugtrio and Eeveelutions)
Yoshi just looked at me and said "dude, if you don't win this game, we're not talking to you for the rest of the day. Derrick is not a bad player at all, but Empoleon is literally an autowin for you. You could give that deck a 2-turn head start and STILL win against it."
Game 1: He wasn't kidding. I open with Deoxys and Lugia, but I get N'd to a hand of 3 Energy, a Shadow Triad, a Tool Scrapper, and a Muscle Band. So I ended up spending the next 4 turns going "draw attach pass." I eventually benched a thundurus, so by the time I finally was able to get Deoxys out of the active spot, I had a Banded Thundurus with a Lightning, and a Lugia with 2 Plasma. From there I just took a prize card every single turn.
Game 2: I got Lugia online instantly, and just killed 3 pokemon in 3 turns for the game.
WIN: 1-1-1
Round 4: vs Enrique (Virizion/Genesect with Ho-oh)
Enrique also goes to the same tourney center as I, so I've played 3 of 4 rounds against people from my league. Awesome.
Game 1: He got the ideal setup and played very well. He KO'd Thundurus after 2 Emerald Slashes and a Megalo Cannon, and then followed it up by G-boostering my Lugia EX for the KO. I don't remember too much, but it was in his favor from the word 'go'.
Game 2: I got lugia set up immediately, and I was able to Tool Scrapper his G-booster, since he drew into it right before a Professor Juniper. At that point, I just got 3 Deoxys and Muscle Band out, and just killed 2 pokemon.
Game 3: This is probably the most obscure game of pokemon I've ever played. He opens Terrakion and Genesect to my 3 Deoxys EX. He draws, Ultra Balls for Virizion, attaches to Virizion, and passes. I drew, got a Thundurus and a Lugia EX out, switched, and Raiden Knuckled an energy to lugia. He gets the Switch, and Emerald Slashes to Genesect the next turn. I draw, I bench a 2nd Thundurus, and just Raiden Knuckled as usual. The next few turns are a bit odd: He Red Signals my Lugia EX, and hits it with Virizion, so if I ever attack with it, I'm at risk of just losing all my energy. I believe I ended up retreating for my 2nd Thundurus EX, and Raiden Knuckling his Virizion for the KO, while putting the discarded Plasma Energy (from Lugia retreat) onto a Deoxys EX. The next 4 turns end up in multiple obscure plays of Switch, Retreating, and Escape Rope from both of us, and I ended up attacking with 2 seperate Deoxys EX and Thundurus EX for the entire game. In the end, I forced him to a point where I had 2 EX's powered up and ready to attack while he just had too many prizes left to take, so he conceded.
WIN: 2-1-1
Round 5: vs Paul Dytska (Virizion/Genesect)
Game 1: He opens a double Genesect EX to my Thundurus and Deoxys. We both had a supporter drought early, but I was at least able to Ultra Ball for a Deoxys, Plasma Ball for Lugia, and start using Raiden Knuckle to get energy into play. He Red Signaled my Deoxys twice though, so it took a few turns before I was able to attack. In the end, I was just able to kill 2 pokemon with Lugia EX while I wasn't able to hit any energy.
Game 2: I set up Lugia and kill 2 pokemon. Moving on.
WIN: 3-1-1
Round 6: vs Jeremy Pettit (TDK w/ Lugia)
Game 1: He wins the toss but opts to go 2nd. I thought for sure this meant he was playing Fairy Box with that played an aggressive way to get Xerneas going on turn 1, but it was just an oldschool TDK deck. We both get 3 Deoxys set up and start a prize exchange, but I made a fatal misplay. In the closing turns of the game with a score of 3-4 in my favor, I discarded my 4th Deoxys EX with Ultra Ball, because I didn't think I would need it. He drops a Lugia EX of his own, and I'm unable to draw into a Shadow Triad to bring my Deoxys EX out of the discard pile, so my own Lugia EX and Thundurus EX are not able to OHKO it. He ends up Plasma Galeing me to take the 3-1 lead, and the win shortly after.
Game 2: I opt to go first, and get 3 Deoxys and Lugia out ASAP and start Raiden Knuckling his active Thundurus, putting a Double Colorless onto Lugia. He mirrors me, getting 3 Deoxys out, and Raiden Knuckling to the lugia himself. I draw, bench the Plasma Snorlax, attach Muscle Band to my Lugia EX, and then attach Plasma and Colress Machine. Now I look at the board, and my mind just went absolutely blank. So I Raiden Knuckled, attaching to Snorlax. I then looked at the board and went "wait... I could have just Plasma Galed for 3 Prize Cards." I thought I made an attrocious misplay yet again. My opponent promotes his own Lugia EX, attaches a Prism to his benched Deoxys EX, and KOs my Thundurus for 3 Prize Cards. It is at this point I looked at the board this time, I realized that I had accidentally just made the correct play. I promoted my own Lugia EX, Plasma Balled, and OHKO'd his Lugia EX for 3 Prize Cards, removing all of his energy from play. He's able to respond with a Raiden Knuckle for 120, and puts a Plasma Energy onto his Deoxys - basically preventing Snorlax from coming out. The next 3-ish turns are me playing a supporter in a hope to get my Lugia EX powered up, and then retreating for a random EX that he is unable to KO, and the 5 switch cards (3 Switch, 1 Escape Rope, 1 Scramble Switch) that I Played were a massive help here. I eventually hit the energy that I need as well as the 2nd Muscle Band (he had Tool Scrappered the original one) and KO'd his active Thundurus for the game.
Game 3: Time is called immediately, and neither of us are able to get all 6 prize cards.
TIE: 3-1-2
Round 7: vs Nik Nikodem (RayBoar)
Up until this point, I was a bit frustrated that I had put Palkia EX in last minute and never gotten paired against RayBoar or Blastoise. That frustration all melted away after Palkia EX proceeded to slaughter the next 2 games.
Game 1: I initially start to get a Lugia EX powered up, but search my Palkia EX out turn 3-ish and Raiden Knuckle a DCE to it. The turns that followed were alternating of Palkia using Strafe for the KO, and my opponent KOing whatever pokemon I pushed up into the active position. I eventually get ahead on Prizes by just saccing the Plasma Snorlax, and take game 1.
Game 2: Palkia is using Strafe by turn 2, and on top of it, my opponent just wasn't able to get an emboar in play. I KO'd 2 tepigs and a Fennekin early game, and by that point he was just stalling for time to see what would happen. He eventually got Rayquaza and Delphox going, but it was just too little too late. Time was called and I took my 6th prize on turn 3.
TL;DR VERSION:
~Wake up at 4 am for no reason
Round 1: Tie vs Darkrai/Yveltal
Round 2: Loss vs BinderDrop.dec
Round 3: Win vs Empoleon + Attackers
Round 4: Win vs Virizion/Genesect/Ho-oh
Round 5: Win vs Virizion/Genesect
Round 6: Tie vs TDK
Round 7: Win vs RayBoar
Round 1: Tie vs Darkrai/Yveltal
Round 2: Loss vs BinderDrop.dec
Round 3: Win vs Empoleon + Attackers
Round 4: Win vs Virizion/Genesect/Ho-oh
Round 5: Win vs Virizion/Genesect
Round 6: Tie vs TDK
Round 7: Win vs RayBoar
Results: 13th place at a final record of 4-1-2. The final results made me cringe: Yoshi (the guy from my tourney center that I played round 2) ended up going 5-1-1 and MISSED top 8, getting 9th, and he was the only 5-1-1 to miss the cut. Yoshi, myself, and another guy from my tourney center all ended up placing in the top 16, which I was pretty happy about. I got 9 boosters and $20 of in-store credit at the vendor, which I spent on the most awesome sleeves I've ever seen. With that, the day was over, and my group rolled out to our hotel for the day. We came back to watch the top cut, and Franco Llamass III eventually become the state champion with Blastoise. Top cut consisted of 2 Blastoise, 2 RayBoar, 2 Fairies.dec, 2 Yveltal/Garbodor (WITHOUT Darkrai).
Shoutouts:
First, I have 2 huge shoutouts to make. First shoutout is to Jimmy Ballard, the TO. This is the first large-scale event I have ever attended that got absolutely everything perfect. The event stayed perfectly on schedule through BOTH days, the venue (Monona Terrace in Madison, WI) was amazing, the atmosphere he brought with him was great, the side events and secondary League Challenge ran equally as smoothly, and rulings team was spot-on. It was a flawless event.
Second shoutout is to the 2nd-place finisher Caleb. Here's the scenario: State Championship match. Franco playing Blastoise vs Caleb who's playing RayBoar. They both had their respective energy accelerators and Dragon-type attackers set up, as well as their 'baby' attackers on the bench (Black Kyurem non-EX, and Rayquaza Dragon Vault.) Fraco takes 2 prize cards via Keldeo, Caleb responds with Ray EX and takes 2 Prize Cards. Franco pushes up the baby Black Kyurem, accidentally says "Dual Claw" and IMMEDIATELY recognizes his mistake. He knows what the rules are, and flips the coins for Dual Claw as the attack he uses. There's some discussion, and I overhear somebody say "it's your call, man." So, Caleb can take the win here. With the wrong attack announced, the prize trade swings to RayBoar's favor, and if the trade continues, RayBoar would be the winner. Instead, I see him pick up his Rayquaza EX, and put it in the discard pile, allowing Franco to take back the attack. Great sportsmanship, especially considering how hard Caleb is trying to get an invite to worlds. That play literally determined the winner of game 1, and possibly the entire tournament, and Caleb lets him take it back regardless. That is great sportsmanship.
Props:
~Tournament ended both days on time
~Placing top 16
~"That's the spirit"
~Great sportsmanship
~Flawless event
~Baller-level status venue
~Jordan for letting me borrow and then buy his Palkia EX
~23 people from Green Bay showing up
~3 people from Green Bay making top 16
Slops:
~Poor Sportsmanship (I'm looking at you, google.)
~Misplaying throughout the entire day
~3.5 hours of sleep
~UNC Losing after the tournament to Duke
~Draws
~Yoshi missing cut at 5-1-1
~nobody from Green Bay making top 8
~Shawn for loosing on stream/recording
~The broken vending machines that would only accept quarters and not dollars