Missed the Zone – Missouri Regionals Report

Let me open by thanking Vince. He put on a truly spectacular three-day event.

The Night Before

pokebeach.comI played in one “win a mat.” I went one and one. Lost to a Vilegar when I could not draw into any energy.

Then I played in an eight person Triumphant booster draft. In the draft, I passed on some pretty sweet cards. Instead, I selected playable cards for the 40-card deck. I settled on a 3-2 Machoke line, 3 Kanghaskan, and a 1-1 Sharpedo line. The big advantage was that I picked one Twins and two Seeker.

The first two games went by pretty smoothly. Open Machop and set up either Machoke, Khanghaskan, or Sharpedo. The only hitch, in game one I stalled against an Elkid that kept staying asleep on my turn and wake up for my opponent. The last game was all luck. Dakota set up Lightning Pokémon that were weak to my Fighting.

On around turns four and five I top decked two Seekers. I got the donk on that second turn. Sorry Dakota. I got my 8 Prizes packs. In opened the first one to see a shiny Gengar Prime smiling back at me.

Match Summary

Now onto the main event. I was running MagneRock. I had only played the deck for about 1.5 weeks. It just took me too long to get the cards together.

Round 1: David Slutsky

I’m going to be up front and honest about this match. I. GOT. STEAMROLLED. It was ridiculous. David was running BlazeChomp. I had tested against LuxChomp, DiaglaChomp, and Sableye but not BlazeChomp. He caught me completely off guard. He repeatedly luring flamed my Magnezones.

I could not draw because of the burn. Most of the game I played with a two or three card hand, except for the one turn that I used Engineer’s Adjustment. Props to David, he owned me. He was also very gracious about it. He was my favorite opponent on the day.

0-1

Round 2: Michael Patterson

pokebeach.comMichael was another really cool guy. He was running a Healix deck (Steelix Prime, Blissey). This game went pretty quickly. I got a Spiritomb start and set up quickly. He could only draw into three lines of Pokémon. So, after setting up, I 1HKO’d his stuff three turns in a row for the win.

I was really excited to play his deck. I had never seen one played in person but had heard great things. It is unfortunate that it would not set up for him.

1-1

Round 3: Nick Nelson

I was most nervous about this matchup. Through six matches at the State Tournament and two matches at this Regional, I had yet to play against LuxChomp. I knew that I was not going to be able to hide forever and here it was.

My deck ran like a charm for me. It opened Spiritomb, Magnemite with plenty of set up cards in my hand. I held the Keystone Seal for several turns. If I remember correctly, the first prize was taken roughly 10 minutes into the match. Then it just went downhill for Nick. I KOs some good stuff and went up 4-2 on prizes. He scooped. My first game ever against LuxChomp ended in victory.

2-1

Round 4: ???

This was a VileGar deck. I left this game very frustrated. I made monumental misplays. Early in the game, I played Skuntank G to the bench. It was supposed to be my Gengar SF counter. However, I could not use it the turn that I played it down. I should have just waited to play it. Instead, he Shadow Room’d it two consecutive turns. A couple Fainting Spells later, and I had effectively given the game away. I also could not get to an Engineer’s to discard the F Energy.

Congratulations to him for taking advantage of my mistakes and tough draws. He was a very kind player and very gracious in victory. It is extremely frustrating to continue to make those stupid mental mistakes. All I needed was for one of my Magnezone Primes to survive the stupid Fainting Spell, but I wasted my counter.

Sorry I forgot your name. You were a really cool guy!

2-2

Round 5: Benjamin Brinkman

pokebeach.comThis game was a fun for me. Benjamin was playing Regigigas. It was another deck that I had never played against in real life. Early in the match, he Sacrificed with no energy in the discard. This set me up with a prize lead and time to set up my Magnezones. It was too big of an advantage for him to overcome.

After the match I asked him why he did that, and he was trying to use Twins to get set up. Unfortunately for him, Regigigas cannot 1HKO Magnezone Prime. It was just dealing too much damage.

3-2

Round 6: Anonymous

This game was the most frustrating game of the whole day. He was running a Scizor Prime deck. Again, I made massive misplays. Early in the game, I accidentally attached a Rescue Energy to my Magnezone Prime; so, that set me back one turn in the set up. I had to waste a turn of attacking to get rid of the Rescue Energy. I could have taken the early lead if not for that.

This game went to time with him having 1 Prize left and me having three. I had a Magnezone Prime active and ready to go with another Magnezone Prime without any energy and Regirock on the bench. On his turn, he warp points, and I stupidly send out Regirock. He brings out his set up belted Scizor Prime and 1HKO’d Regirock for the win.

If I had sent out my unloaded Magnezone Prime, I would have tied the game and sent it to sudden death. In my hand, I had a Warp Energy, Magnemite, Magneton, Bebe’s Search, a lightning energy in the discard, a fighting energy in the discard, and Broken Time-Space in play.

On my turn, the last turn of the game, I would have Warp Energy my Magnezone Prime, set up Magnezone SF, Regi Cycled, Super Connectivity and Knocked Out his belted Scizor for the tie. I straight up gave this game away with three huge misplays. Congratulations taking advantage of my misplays, but…

This game was frustrating, for more than my misplays, because my opponent was rather rude. He boldly claimed that I must be new because I did not run any Uxies (Magnezone often runs one or less Uxies). He gloated and boldly proclaimed that if I had sent up Magenzone instead of Regirock, it would not have mattered, when in fact I had a way to tie the game. He was just rude and fairly mouthy. I do not know if it was because I was a new face to him, but it was obnoxious.

3-3

The tournament is showing strong parity.

Round 7: Tim Talley

pokebeach.comThis game had me confused early on. He opened Spiritomb and Ghastly. So, I figured it was a VileGar deck. The he played down Mr. Mime and used Trick Reveal to show me two Gengar Prime. Now, I thought that he was playing LostGar with Vileplume. Then he proceeded to set up Gengar SF.

It turns out he was playing a deck with two Gengar Primes and one Gengar SF and no Vileplume. I won on prizes, but he had sent three Pokémon to the Lost Zone. He had a Gengar Prime with three energy on the bench and I had three Pokémon in my hand. Two more turns and he would have won. It was a fun game.

4-3

Round 8: Jack Lange

We were sitting at table 23 for the last round with a top 32 cut. He was running DiaglaChomp. We both knew that if you win you have a very good chance at making the cut. Props to Jack for taking advantage of my misplays, but I gave him this game. He opened with Ambipom G and kept moving energy off Magnezone Prime.

What did I do? I set up another Magnezone Prime, when I could have set up Magnezone SF. Mistake one, this let him stall. Then get set’s up Promocroak G to hit for weakness. I had a Sunyshore City Gym in my hand. Did I use it?

Nope, I left Broken Time-Space out just in case I needed to recover. Mistake two. Throughout the game, I stupidly played Expert Belts when I did not need the extra 20 damage or health to stay alive. This game him two free prizes. Mistake three.

At a crucial moment, I Regi Cycled and accidentally laid Judge in the discard. I meant to use Twins to discard and then play Judge. He would not let me take that back. That pretty much sealed the game. Mistake four. The game went to time.

I had 1 Prize left and he took his third prize on turn three. This game was extremely frustrating. If I had avoided one of the four mistakes, I win this game and likely make top cut. Instead, I give another game away and miss top cutting.

4-4

This tournament was extremely fun. It was awesome getting to see so many people and play against so many different decks. However, I left the tournament very frustrated. I was so frustrated that I drove almost halfway home before realizing that I still had the Broken Time-Space that the kind people from Kentucky let me borrow.

So, I had to drive back to Yeti to give the card back. I talked to him for a while about my experiences and he gave me some good pointers. It was very good for me, because it gave me some perspective. Four and four is OK, but giving three games away really stings.

It is extremely frustrating to know that your deck worked like a charm only for you to mess it up. I failed my deck in this tournament. It was good enough to top cut, but I simply gave three games to my opponents in shiny gift-wrapped boxes with a gift card and all.

Decklist

Pokémon – 20  4 Magnemite TM 4 Magneton TM 3 Magnezone Prime 1 Magnezone SF 4 Spiritomb AR 2 Regirock LA 1 Skuntank G PL 1 Azelf LA

Trainers – 22  3 Pokémon Collector 3 Bebe’s Search 2 Expert Belt 2 Broken Time-Space 2 Sunyshore City Gym 2 Twins 3 Judge 4 Engineer’s Adjustments 1 Palmer’s Contribution

Energy – 18  7 F 7 L 2 Warp 2 Rescue

The Good

Let me be extremely clear:

THE GOOD STUFF FROM THE WEEKEND VASTLY OUTWEIGHED THE BAD STUFF WHICH I WILL TALK ABOUT IN A SECOND.

– Ronnie and the Kentucky crew where there. It was awesome to get to see them again.

– Also, I want to thank Ronnie. He is going into active duty for the Army. I appreciate all that you do! It was an honor to meet you.

– Getting a Broken Time-Space lent to me. I only had one and needed two in my deck.

– Being so close to Top Cutting at my first Regional, even though I made so many mistakes

– Getting to play against so many different decks

– Vince and Yeti Gaming put on an awesome event. The weekend was packed full of fun stuff to do. Friday night was a lot of fun and let me fine-tune my deck. Saturday was great and went smoothly until the computer crashed.

– I finally purchased a game mat. It is solid black, but that is just my style.

– I ran into Mike Taphorn again. I played against him at the Missouri State Tournament. He is one of the nicest guys I have met through the game. He had switched from VileGar to Gyarados. He was at 4-3 going into the last round. He also introduced me to his son and his crew. They were all awesome young men who were very kind. A special shout out to Connor Cavelle. He’s a really cool kid.

The Bad

Being relatively new to the to the competitive scene, you could say that I was “green.” I attended the Missouri State tournament, and there my experience was nothing but positive. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about this tournament.

First, some people are just plain rude. I know that there are rotten apples in every basket, but I was extremely pleased with how amazingly friendly the community was.

Let me offer an example, in one of my game when the judge walked by he loudly stated, “Those are some pretty reflective sleeves you are playing with.” He was not looking at me but rather at the judge. He paused a second, looked at me, looked at the judge and repeated what he said, again in a loud voice. He said it a third time. Then when I called him out for trying to get a judge to interfere, he acted like I shot his dog. How dare I call him out.

Another example: one game went to time with me down 3 to 1. On his turn he played Warp Point and I misplayed by sending out Regirock. I miscalculated his damage output, and the moment I took my hand off Regirock he KO’d it for the win. He then rather boldly declared that it didn’t matter because there was not way for me to take 2 Prizes. However, I had Bebe’s, Warp Energy, Magnemite, and Magneton. If I had not messed up, I would have easily KO’d his Belted active for 2 Prizes.

The second point relates to misplays. I guarantee that I gave back at least 10 misplays throughout the day. I know that your opponent does not have to let you take back misplays, but a couple of times I had given people back a misplay earlier in the game. Then when I asked for one back, they refused. This was very frustrating. I guess nice guys really do finish last.

Tips for New Players from a Newish Player

– As much as it pains me and goes against my character, if you want to win, do not be a nice guy in the middle of your match. In between games, be as nice as you want. Yet, from when you set your field to the conclusion do not give anything back. This will cost you, and it likely cost me a couple of games.

– Playtesting against the meta is key. I tried to playtest a lot. In my town there is only one player with a meta deck (D-Chomp). So, I do not have the ability to test in person. I joined literally 20 Hamachi networks, but no one would play a meta deck against me.

I would offer to play one so they could test, but many people would never repay the courtesy. I do not know how to solve this personally. I have little options to test, since my Hamachi networks will not do that.

– Know your deck. I had only been playing MagneRock for about 1.5 weeks prior to Regionals. I made a few key mistakes because of this.

– Actually declare by name everything you are doing. I know this seems to be common sense. For example, I declared Regi Cycle and discarded two cards without declaring them. I intended to discard a F Energy and Bebe’s, but accidentally discarded Fighting and Judge.

This was a crucial turning point because I intended to play that Judge next. I talked to a judge after the match and he said if I had declared my discarded cards and then accidentally laid down a different one, he would almost always let me take back the mistake card and discard the one I intended.

Till Next Time

The Regional was the end of my competitive season, unless a Battle Road tournament is played in my town. I might make it to a pre-release or two. I hope that I get to get back to it this fall and turn out some better results.

Airhawk06