Let me start this off by saying that I don't play in real life at all; I haven't even played at all in a few months at the least. The only reason I'm playing in this tournament at all is because my cousin (Blah on this forum) came over and had all the cards as well as the sleeves I needed to finish a deck and was playing in the cities anyway, so I figured wynaut. From what I'd seen at PRs I attended a while ago, the senios in my area were god awful. However, cities attracted a much bigger crowd; there was a surprising amount of decks that gave me a run for my money. With that, let's be on with this.
Round 1: vs Groudon/Kyogre/Sealeo/Palpitoad/Sawk/probably more
I was sitting near this guy before the pairings went up; apparently this is his first cities as well and he said he's only played with a small group of 4 or so friends before. I heard him bragging about how his 2 EXes would help him beat his friend's 1 EX if they played, but Kyurem EX was very strong and how his other friend's Reshiram/Zekrom/Kyurem deck would win the whole thing, so I wasn't expecting him to be terribly informed or good.
I start a lone Sableye to his active Sawk and benched Kyogre and Groudon. I worry a bit that he's going to donk me, but I get the Deino t1 and confuse ray (nothing notable to junk hunt for) and get the confusion. He attaches an energy to Sawk but doesn't attack, evidently fearing flipping tails. Turn 2 I've got a Hydreigon and a Darkrai with 2 energy on the field, he still doesn't attack, so I draw into another energy and sweep his board for an easy victory with him not attacking once.
1-0
Round 2: vs Eelektrik/Rayquaza/Zekrom/Raikou
This time I think I've got a pretty good hand. I lead with Sableye active and Darkrai benched. He leads with a lone Rayquaza non-EX and goes first. He plays Great Ball, hits a Tynamo and drops it (its the 30 hp variant, by this point I know he's got the right idea but a really bad list) then Cherens, tells me that he drew a second Tynamo, but he doesn't play that one.
I'm forced to retreat to Darkrai t1 so he doesn't get a KO. I also get up a Deino. He hits for another 40, manually attaching to his Rayquaza normal and evolving his lone Tyanmo. I get the Hydreigon, second energy, patch for a third, and attack, sniping his Eels. By this point he has a Rayquaza EX, Raikou EX, and Zekrom benched. He hits my Darkrai for 90, and at this point because I overextended for the Hydreigon/patch I have no hand. I could retreat to Sableye and get Random Receiver and something else at the cost of a prize, but incredibly I get lucky and topdeck a Juniper. I draw Max Potion off of the Juniper and we're rolling again. I KO his Rayquaza and because he doesn't have enough energy on his RayEX yet he sends up Raikou to stall. I have a catcher however, so I catcher his RayEX and kill the Eels on the same turn, while also landing an Eviolite on Darkrai. I live the triple discard attack because of it, finish his EX, and proceed to get KOed by a Ray normal. Its fine however; I have Revive and 2 Dark Patches, so I sweep the rest of his board with the same Darkrai.
2-0
Round 3: vs Blastoise Keldeo
I'm positive that I will lose this. I start Shaymin, whiff on energy constantly. and don't get a Hydreigon up until turn 7 or so. In contrast, by turn 2 he has a Blastoise and is attacking with Keldeo EX, and turn 3 he has a second Blastoise, guaranteeing that I cannot do a thing. However, he never gets enough energy on his Keldeos to OHKO an EX so I'm able to trade with him for a bit with Darkrais and Mewtwos. He flips tails on the only SSU he played; I'm not sure if it mattered. He misplays by dropping 2 energy onto a benched Mewtwo of his after a Cheren; I Catcher and kill it with my own then manage to kill his Keldeo EX and he's left with only a Keldeo normal to whack me with and unable to take his final prize or two so I sweep with a Darkrai.
Round 4: vs Klinklang/Landorus/Keldeo/BKEX/Darkrai
Yes, you read that right. He goes first, gets a Klinklang turn 2, kills my Hydreigon turn 3, kills a Zweilous turn 4, and I can't get up my third Hydra (I'm pretty sure I had to discard it early with a Juniper, idk) and he sweeps with a Lando, hitting lots of Max Potions and I never get the energy to kill a Klinklang. He later goes 5-0 in swiss and only lost 1 prize card in all 5 games-to me.
3-1
Round 5: vs Tornadus EX/Mewtwo/Landorus
I'm thinking going into this that I need to win this to cut (top 4). My round 5 opponent is actually the sister of my round 4 opponent. I basically hit an energy drought for most of the game and she's attacking with Landorus. I get several KOs, but I never hit a Max Potion, I kill her Mewtwo with my own but it then falls, unable to do much of anything, to a Landorus, and from there I simply cannot keep up with Darkrais as I can't hit the energy that I desperately need to even try and keep up (I didn't get my Revive either for M2, and I had to discard Shaymin to a turn 1 Juniper).
3-2
At this point I don't think I can cut. I prepare to sit back and watch Blah play out his 6th game (Masters had 1 more than Seniors) when they call my name. Somehow, there were only 2 4-1s and I had the higher resistance of the 3-2s. The cruel thing is that my round 5 opponent came 5th, and had her brother scooped the last round it would probably have hurt my resistance enough for her to make it in.
Top 4: Vs Klinklang/Landorus/Keldeo/BKEX/Darkrai
Note: This is [member]Daddy[/member] on the forums.
I go first this time, but I face an energy drought and a Hydreigon drought. He still manages the turn 2 or 3 Klinklang despite losing 2 of his Candies to an early Juniper, 1 being prized, and not running any Klangs (and he didn't get it with Skyla or PC Com). Bleh. I Catcher his Klinklang, however, and he reveals that he doesn't run any Switch and with no energy that count as Dark on Klinklang, he's stuck. I stall for a while and get set up, but once he finds the Keldeo he starts sweeping me. I don't take a single prize, though I get a Hydreigon to stick finally this game. At last, at 6-1, my Shaymin finally comes in handy. He has a Landorus EX active with 3 energy and a benched Darkrai with 2 or 3. I kill the Landorus, he is unable to kill me with his Darkrai or benched BKEX, so he tries to stall by sending up something else. I've N'd him by now and he's constantly drawing only 1 card; I then Catcher past his stalling EX and remove all his energy from the board. He then loses in 2 more turns, unable to attack and finish the Shaymin.
4-2
This marks the first time he's lost this tournament. This time he gets to choose to go first and gets a turn 2 or 3 Klinklang. He kills a Hydreigon quickly, and I realize too late that I have 2 Deino prized and no way to get them out. I stall some with Sableyes and Max Potions, forcing the game to go into time; finally, he's got 2 prizes left (he doesn't want to fully power Shaymin) and I've got 6 still. I N him with the Shaymin out, but whiff the manual attach (I had all of 2-3 non energy cards left in my 10+ card deck after that N...) but hit them on the next 2 turns. Eventually I'm able to retreat a Mewtwo stuck active and doing nothing to his Landorus, then I can Catcher Keldeo to kill it, but there's no point because its my final turn and I can't take 4 prizes, only 2.
4-3
Here we go into sudden death. I get to choose to go first. I start Darkrai, he starts Shaymin and curses his luck. He's got 3 Klink and those are considerable worse to start with, but still bad for him. I get the energy turn 1 and Juniper. He gets the Lando and attachs a Blend to Shaymin. I get another energy, an Eviolite, and pass. He retreats to Lando, attaches another Blend to it, Scrappers my Eviolite, and hits for 60. I hit another Eviolite, another Energy, and N. That's game; there's no way he can possibly get the energy onto the Lando in time. The card on top of his deck when he lost was a Max Potion, but truly it wouldn't have mattered because he'd remove a turn of damage for a turn of energy attachments, and he couldn't draw enough off of N.
5-3
Top 2: vs Keldeo Blastoise
He gets a quick Blastoise and I struggle to set up Hydreigons and keep up; he gets enough energy to OHKO my Hydreigon turn 3 and promptly does so. After that I can't set up another as he Catchers the line periodically, and once they're all gone he gets up 7 energy on it and wrecks me. I can Mewtwo, but he has his Mewtwo on the bench and I can only kill one, and because I hit a huge energy drought I lose all my energy (2) when my Mewtwo dies, so no matter which of his EXes I kill it ends up a loss.
5-4
I get to go first this time. I get a better start, getting a Sableye and Darkrai start with a Level Ball for Deino. I have to attach to Sableye and retreat to Darkrai, fearing the KO with a Blastoise. He gets 3 Squirtle and a Keldeo normal. goes first, and hits the attachment. Turn 2 he gets a Blastoise and a Wartortle and 3 energy on the Keldeo normal. On the next turn he gets his Keldeo EX, attaches a bunch of energy to it, and starts attacking. This time he gets enough energy to OHKO my Darkrais; I've got a Mewtwo, but so does he. I KO one of them and lose Mewtwo to the other. I had to Juniper away Shaymin t1 so I don't have that, but I hit Revive off a Juniper with an 11 card deck. All he's got left is his Keldeo normal with 3 energy. However, he pulls his last catcher and drags up a Zweilous and kills it for his final prize. I know I had a Hydreigon in the 11 cards because I Level Balled before Junpering, but I can't remember if it was in my hand-either way, caused my loss.
5-5
Second place
Yeah, I went completely even and got 2nd out of 17. That's how I roll.
Pros:
Getting to play with a competitive, if slightly sup-optimal list (thanks Blah)
There were a lot more good matches and players in Seniors than I had expected
Barely making cut on resistance
Coming in 2nd in my first Cities
Getting 10 packs
Meeting new people
Becoming re-interested in Klinklang after discarding it as Hydreigon's inferior brother for so long
Cons:
Catcher and Hydreigon still going to be annoyingly expensive if I ever get around to completing the list myself
Not coming in 1st
Getting 10 Boundaries Crossed packs
Blah had a lackluster performance
Seniors so this hardly means anything
Also, I won 10 BC packs, but I haven't opened them yet. Should I sell them or open them? Poll! "Give them to me" is not an option for a reason.
Round 1: vs Groudon/Kyogre/Sealeo/Palpitoad/Sawk/probably more
I was sitting near this guy before the pairings went up; apparently this is his first cities as well and he said he's only played with a small group of 4 or so friends before. I heard him bragging about how his 2 EXes would help him beat his friend's 1 EX if they played, but Kyurem EX was very strong and how his other friend's Reshiram/Zekrom/Kyurem deck would win the whole thing, so I wasn't expecting him to be terribly informed or good.
I start a lone Sableye to his active Sawk and benched Kyogre and Groudon. I worry a bit that he's going to donk me, but I get the Deino t1 and confuse ray (nothing notable to junk hunt for) and get the confusion. He attaches an energy to Sawk but doesn't attack, evidently fearing flipping tails. Turn 2 I've got a Hydreigon and a Darkrai with 2 energy on the field, he still doesn't attack, so I draw into another energy and sweep his board for an easy victory with him not attacking once.
1-0
Round 2: vs Eelektrik/Rayquaza/Zekrom/Raikou
This time I think I've got a pretty good hand. I lead with Sableye active and Darkrai benched. He leads with a lone Rayquaza non-EX and goes first. He plays Great Ball, hits a Tynamo and drops it (its the 30 hp variant, by this point I know he's got the right idea but a really bad list) then Cherens, tells me that he drew a second Tynamo, but he doesn't play that one.
I'm forced to retreat to Darkrai t1 so he doesn't get a KO. I also get up a Deino. He hits for another 40, manually attaching to his Rayquaza normal and evolving his lone Tyanmo. I get the Hydreigon, second energy, patch for a third, and attack, sniping his Eels. By this point he has a Rayquaza EX, Raikou EX, and Zekrom benched. He hits my Darkrai for 90, and at this point because I overextended for the Hydreigon/patch I have no hand. I could retreat to Sableye and get Random Receiver and something else at the cost of a prize, but incredibly I get lucky and topdeck a Juniper. I draw Max Potion off of the Juniper and we're rolling again. I KO his Rayquaza and because he doesn't have enough energy on his RayEX yet he sends up Raikou to stall. I have a catcher however, so I catcher his RayEX and kill the Eels on the same turn, while also landing an Eviolite on Darkrai. I live the triple discard attack because of it, finish his EX, and proceed to get KOed by a Ray normal. Its fine however; I have Revive and 2 Dark Patches, so I sweep the rest of his board with the same Darkrai.
2-0
Round 3: vs Blastoise Keldeo
I'm positive that I will lose this. I start Shaymin, whiff on energy constantly. and don't get a Hydreigon up until turn 7 or so. In contrast, by turn 2 he has a Blastoise and is attacking with Keldeo EX, and turn 3 he has a second Blastoise, guaranteeing that I cannot do a thing. However, he never gets enough energy on his Keldeos to OHKO an EX so I'm able to trade with him for a bit with Darkrais and Mewtwos. He flips tails on the only SSU he played; I'm not sure if it mattered. He misplays by dropping 2 energy onto a benched Mewtwo of his after a Cheren; I Catcher and kill it with my own then manage to kill his Keldeo EX and he's left with only a Keldeo normal to whack me with and unable to take his final prize or two so I sweep with a Darkrai.
Round 4: vs Klinklang/Landorus/Keldeo/BKEX/Darkrai
Yes, you read that right. He goes first, gets a Klinklang turn 2, kills my Hydreigon turn 3, kills a Zweilous turn 4, and I can't get up my third Hydra (I'm pretty sure I had to discard it early with a Juniper, idk) and he sweeps with a Lando, hitting lots of Max Potions and I never get the energy to kill a Klinklang. He later goes 5-0 in swiss and only lost 1 prize card in all 5 games-to me.
3-1
Round 5: vs Tornadus EX/Mewtwo/Landorus
I'm thinking going into this that I need to win this to cut (top 4). My round 5 opponent is actually the sister of my round 4 opponent. I basically hit an energy drought for most of the game and she's attacking with Landorus. I get several KOs, but I never hit a Max Potion, I kill her Mewtwo with my own but it then falls, unable to do much of anything, to a Landorus, and from there I simply cannot keep up with Darkrais as I can't hit the energy that I desperately need to even try and keep up (I didn't get my Revive either for M2, and I had to discard Shaymin to a turn 1 Juniper).
3-2
At this point I don't think I can cut. I prepare to sit back and watch Blah play out his 6th game (Masters had 1 more than Seniors) when they call my name. Somehow, there were only 2 4-1s and I had the higher resistance of the 3-2s. The cruel thing is that my round 5 opponent came 5th, and had her brother scooped the last round it would probably have hurt my resistance enough for her to make it in.
Top 4: Vs Klinklang/Landorus/Keldeo/BKEX/Darkrai
Note: This is [member]Daddy[/member] on the forums.
I go first this time, but I face an energy drought and a Hydreigon drought. He still manages the turn 2 or 3 Klinklang despite losing 2 of his Candies to an early Juniper, 1 being prized, and not running any Klangs (and he didn't get it with Skyla or PC Com). Bleh. I Catcher his Klinklang, however, and he reveals that he doesn't run any Switch and with no energy that count as Dark on Klinklang, he's stuck. I stall for a while and get set up, but once he finds the Keldeo he starts sweeping me. I don't take a single prize, though I get a Hydreigon to stick finally this game. At last, at 6-1, my Shaymin finally comes in handy. He has a Landorus EX active with 3 energy and a benched Darkrai with 2 or 3. I kill the Landorus, he is unable to kill me with his Darkrai or benched BKEX, so he tries to stall by sending up something else. I've N'd him by now and he's constantly drawing only 1 card; I then Catcher past his stalling EX and remove all his energy from the board. He then loses in 2 more turns, unable to attack and finish the Shaymin.
4-2
This marks the first time he's lost this tournament. This time he gets to choose to go first and gets a turn 2 or 3 Klinklang. He kills a Hydreigon quickly, and I realize too late that I have 2 Deino prized and no way to get them out. I stall some with Sableyes and Max Potions, forcing the game to go into time; finally, he's got 2 prizes left (he doesn't want to fully power Shaymin) and I've got 6 still. I N him with the Shaymin out, but whiff the manual attach (I had all of 2-3 non energy cards left in my 10+ card deck after that N...) but hit them on the next 2 turns. Eventually I'm able to retreat a Mewtwo stuck active and doing nothing to his Landorus, then I can Catcher Keldeo to kill it, but there's no point because its my final turn and I can't take 4 prizes, only 2.
4-3
Here we go into sudden death. I get to choose to go first. I start Darkrai, he starts Shaymin and curses his luck. He's got 3 Klink and those are considerable worse to start with, but still bad for him. I get the energy turn 1 and Juniper. He gets the Lando and attachs a Blend to Shaymin. I get another energy, an Eviolite, and pass. He retreats to Lando, attaches another Blend to it, Scrappers my Eviolite, and hits for 60. I hit another Eviolite, another Energy, and N. That's game; there's no way he can possibly get the energy onto the Lando in time. The card on top of his deck when he lost was a Max Potion, but truly it wouldn't have mattered because he'd remove a turn of damage for a turn of energy attachments, and he couldn't draw enough off of N.
5-3
Top 2: vs Keldeo Blastoise
He gets a quick Blastoise and I struggle to set up Hydreigons and keep up; he gets enough energy to OHKO my Hydreigon turn 3 and promptly does so. After that I can't set up another as he Catchers the line periodically, and once they're all gone he gets up 7 energy on it and wrecks me. I can Mewtwo, but he has his Mewtwo on the bench and I can only kill one, and because I hit a huge energy drought I lose all my energy (2) when my Mewtwo dies, so no matter which of his EXes I kill it ends up a loss.
5-4
I get to go first this time. I get a better start, getting a Sableye and Darkrai start with a Level Ball for Deino. I have to attach to Sableye and retreat to Darkrai, fearing the KO with a Blastoise. He gets 3 Squirtle and a Keldeo normal. goes first, and hits the attachment. Turn 2 he gets a Blastoise and a Wartortle and 3 energy on the Keldeo normal. On the next turn he gets his Keldeo EX, attaches a bunch of energy to it, and starts attacking. This time he gets enough energy to OHKO my Darkrais; I've got a Mewtwo, but so does he. I KO one of them and lose Mewtwo to the other. I had to Juniper away Shaymin t1 so I don't have that, but I hit Revive off a Juniper with an 11 card deck. All he's got left is his Keldeo normal with 3 energy. However, he pulls his last catcher and drags up a Zweilous and kills it for his final prize. I know I had a Hydreigon in the 11 cards because I Level Balled before Junpering, but I can't remember if it was in my hand-either way, caused my loss.
5-5
Second place
Yeah, I went completely even and got 2nd out of 17. That's how I roll.
Pros:
Getting to play with a competitive, if slightly sup-optimal list (thanks Blah)
There were a lot more good matches and players in Seniors than I had expected
Barely making cut on resistance
Coming in 2nd in my first Cities
Getting 10 packs
Meeting new people
Becoming re-interested in Klinklang after discarding it as Hydreigon's inferior brother for so long
Cons:
Catcher and Hydreigon still going to be annoyingly expensive if I ever get around to completing the list myself
Not coming in 1st
Getting 10 Boundaries Crossed packs
Blah had a lackluster performance
Seniors so this hardly means anything
Also, I won 10 BC packs, but I haven't opened them yet. Should I sell them or open them? Poll! "Give them to me" is not an option for a reason.
lol (actually I would either trade/sell them as they are then buy the cards you need or open them then trade/sell the contents to finish your list. I would open them because that's always more fun