My local comic/gaming shop, Olympic Cards & Comics, held it’s Supreme Victors prerelease on Sunday, August 23rd. I play with my fiance Batmylashes, so our usual system is for her to play, me to judge, and then both of us to play in the draft. This time was no different. After the main tournament was over, we signed up for the draft, got seated, and got on our way. Unfortunately we weren’t drafted in the same pod, but I was seated with a local league player, which is always cool.
My main effort was to try and get Pinsir, Cherrim, and Masquerain. Pinsir for its “Gripthrow” attack, Cherrim for its “Petal Dance” attack, and Masquerain for it’s “Skim Attack” attack, and Poké Body. For those who don’t know, “Gripthrow” allows a 50/50 chance of the defending Pokémon getting returned to your opponent’s hand, “Petal Dance”, for one energy, allows you to flip 3 coins, dealing 30 damage for each coin flipped. Lastly, “Skim Attack” does 30 damage for one energy, and also allows you to draw 2 cards. Masquerain’s Poké-Body, Intimidating Pattern, reduces all damage done to your Pokémon by -20 as long as Masquerain remains active.
I got lucky and was able to pull 2 Pinsir, a 2-2 line of Cherrim, and a 3-1 line of Masquerain. I didn’t get any Level X’s or other Super Rares, but I did get some Rare-Foils, and some Reverse Foil trainers that I didn’t have before. All in all, I was pretty satisfied, as this is the first time I’ve drafted to actually play (rather than just ninjaing all the rares), and I pulled what I wanted. Would that luck turn into wins, though?
Round 1 vs Janice R.
I can’t remember all of the exact details of this match, but I started with a Mudkip and couldn’t get any of my main 3 guys out. Still, I was able to take 3 Prizes before she could take 1, making me feel a bit more confident. After my Marshtomp got KO’d, I was kind of stuck, and she fired back by taking 3 Prizes. During that time I did have a Cherubi and a Surskit out, but couldn’t get their evolutions. On the turn it was about to be game, I drew into a Cythnia’s Guidance, and was able to get a Cherrim, and luckily flipped all 3 heads for the win. A very hard-fought win, and at this point I wasn’t feeling too confident.
1-0
pokemon-paradijs.comRound 2 vs. David N.
David N. is the PTO for our area, and is a super nice guy. When I first got into Pokémon and started running a league, he’s the one who answered all of my stupid questions, haha. Which made it even worse when I donked him with a T3 Masquerain. =[. We played 3 more games, 2 of which I donked in, and one of which he completely owned me.
2-0
Round 3 vs. Elva B.
This was another hard-fought match. I took the lead drawing 3 Prizes, but then, as with my round 1 opponent, she came back to take her first 3 Prizes, and it was on from there. She had a Garchomp out, and was using it’s “Speed Impact” attack to hit for 100-110 damage each turn, which was insane. Luckily I was able to ping it for 10-20 damage every few turns. On the last turn of the game, I draw into an Energy, attached it to Masquerain (leaving it with 2 energy), and attacked with “Skim Attack”. With 2 energies and a Poké Body, “Speed Impact” is only doing 60, which Masquerain can withstand. Next turn, she Speed Impacts for 60, I draw into an energy, retreat Masquerain, and bring up Dragonite FB for the K.O., a very close game.
3-0
Round 4 vs. Gregory R.
This was probably the most lucksack game I’ve ever done. He got Garchomp C LV.X out very early, and was running through me. He drew his first 3 Prizes before I could do anything, unfortunately. Again, in one of those last-ditch efforts, I brought up Pinsir and used “Gripthrow” to put Garchomp C LV.X back into Greg’s hand, and win the game.
4-0
pokemon-paradijs.comSo there it is. My first tournament win and it’s not even a premier event, haha. Cherrim and Masquerain are definitely the play for prereleases and drafts, though.
Here was the final haul, after Batmylashes’ prerelease packs, my judge support, our draft packs, and our winnings (Batmylashes got 3rd).
Garchomp C LV.X
Rayquaza C LV.X
Charizard G LV.X
Articuno Re-Print
Props:
Niki N. for organizing
Debbie B. for judging
Olympic Cards & Comics
All the players
SVs great ratio
Slops:
Nothing, really. :D
Hope you enjoyed the report!
– Kenny (twitter.com/kwisdumb, facebook.com/kennywisdom, kennywisdom.com)
Daniel Norton
Nice report, and some awesome pulls Kenny.
kwisdumb
Thanks Daniel!
Sorry for messing up the formatting, Adam! I am a complete failure and didn’t bother to check the guidelines until I had already submitted the story.
Thanks for featuring it!
Dave Hueglin
Congratulations Kenny. This pre-release was my first tournament win also. I was lucky enough to pull a Blaziken FB, Garchomp C and Lv. X, plus Paras/Parasect. That was pretty much a powerhouse that ran through everyone else’s decks.
BENDINGSPOONS1
Hey kwisdumb congrats on your first win. I think this was one of the best sets for a prerelease tournament. I think most of the cards were balanced, in the sense that no one card stood out as the best prerelease Pokemon. In the last set, Rising Rivals, cards like Nidoqueen RR, Alakazam 4 Lv.X and Turtwig GL were very unfair to play against. All the cards that i pulled however were unplayable in both prereleases lol.
J-Wittz
I kindof feel the same way. It was one of the most fun prereleases in a while, but I feel like the set in general is one of the least playable in a while
kwisdumb
@Dave: Nice! I used that Paras too.
@BENDINGSPOONS1: Thanks! I kind of have mixed feelings about this set as far as the pre-releases go. I definitely didn’t enjoy drafting at the tournament before this one, so I can see how it can go both ways. Great point about RR.
@J-Wittz: Yeah, I feel like this set is going to have a few things that are going to become staples, but there’s also a whole lot of crap.
Adam Capriola
Nice report k dub! That’s awesome that it was your first tournament win…hopefully the first of many this season. :)
And don’t worry about the formatting, I got your back this time haha.
Very nice report, I really enjoyed reading it :). You are right in those being the best cards to draft for. I got a 2-2 line of Masquerain in my Prerealease packs in San Diego, but unfortunately never managed to get it out in either game, and my opponent did and I was never able to kill it while he got alot of cards and set up everything.
Kyle Morris
Nice job, this was a fun article and I enjoyed reading it.
Zachary Bayne
My 3-0 1st place draft deck was the same, except with Loudred and Gabite instead of Pinsir. It was easy getting the evolutions out as it was a Mutant Draft, as they only had enough packs for 5 packs a person. It was also helpful that I always would draw Cherrim as my first or second card and get 2 heads at least every single time with Petal Dance.
BiskitFoo
Pinsir looks like he’s going Super Saiyan.
Adam Keibler
AHHHH ALL THE TIN LV.XS
Really, though. Nice job. Masquerain was definitely the play for SV prereleases.
kwisdumb
@Hammertime: Awesome, congratulations.
@Biskit: Hahaha indeed!
@Politoed: Haha, yeah. I was happy though. I’m 100% behind putting playable Lv. Xs in tins. :D
Thanks for all the comments!
steve
turtwig GL is soooo unfair! it shouldn't be allowed.