
After a number of months of not playing since Regionals and getting to watch America fret over and compete in its City Championships (and taking time off for Christmas/New Year’s), it was finally time for City Championships to commence here in Australia.
The first two weeks of tournaments roll by and I place 4th with Hammertime and 3rd with Blastoise BCR/Keldeo-EX during each of the tournaments I attended. With one week left, I decided that I wanted to shoot for another tournament and try to nab the final 15 points I needed to qualify for the World Championships.
Looking at my options, I decided a trip to our country’s capital would be the best path to take. Cities was over in my state and no matter what, I would need to jump on a plane to get anywhere.
So about $600 in airfares and accommodation later, I found myself booked for Canberra – home of Parliament House, our country’s decision makers, Julia Gillard, and other stuff… not the least of which being Exhibition Park and the venue for the City Championship. CanCon is an annual table top gaming event held in Canberra and cities was to take place there on Sunday.
The flight in wasn’t too memorable. The landing at my stopover in Sydney was a little rougher than I expected and there was a grumpy old man on the flight to Canberra who insisted that weight distribution meant nothing and that he should be able to sit in the empty row in front of him.
I spent the flights trying to catch up on some reading, but settled for catching up on sleep and beginning to write this article.
As an aside, I noticed that there weren’t any particularly attractive, young, female stewardesses, but a combo of males and old ladies on my flight (I was flying Qantas). There was maybe one woman who was a combo of young and attractive. While the budget airlines here usually have them in droves. Especially Virgin.
The play for the weekend would be Keldeo-EX/Blastoise BCR once again with one card difference to my list from the week before – making it exactly the same list as described in the article written by Dylan Lefavour titled “My 100 CP Cities Lists.”
I had originally taken that list and added a Baby Keldeo (Hydro Pump) to deal with Sigilyph DRX, but after the Cities just past and play-testing, I felt that it was an incorrect metagame call. It just wasn’t helping in the matches with Sigilyph DRX present and regardless of when they hit the field. It seems odd but that’s just how my matches played out.
With no real fear of anybody playing Quad Sigilyph, I decided to cut the Keldeo BCR 47 and re-add a Level Ball.
I like Level Ball in the deck as it gives you a turn 1 option with Skyla if you already have Tropical Beach down. If you don’t want to sacrifice resources in hand, you can Skyla for the Level Ball instead of Ultra Ball for another Squirtle BCR.
The spot vacated by Baby Keldeo also had a few other candidates, most notably a W Energy, Double Colorless Energy or Town Map.
The 14th Water would just up the availability of that resource and a DCE would give me something to Computer Search for mid Mewtwo war. The Town Map is a tech I’d seen run in a friend’s Keldeo deck and also the result of thinking about something Jay mentioned in his latest Underground article about using a Skyla to either secure a KO or to secure another Supporter. Play Town Map and with any luck you’ll be able to pick a Supporter from your Prizes.
Another card I wanted to find room for is Heavy Ball for a similar reason to the 1-of Level Ball, but I didn’t want to cut anything for it and I would prefer 4 Ultra Balls than a 3/1 split.
With the decklist more or less sorted at this point, I was hoping to enjoy the couple of days before the tournament. I was able to catch up with people I know from playing Super Smash Bros. Melee and Brawl competitively, with one of them putting me up for the night.
The Theme Deck Tournament
Saturday comes round and I arrive at CanCon, a massive venue with three main playing areas for a ton of different table top games. I got there relatively early, so I decided to look around and work on this article as well. Today’s event is a Theme Deck tournament.
BulbapediaPeople start turning up, about 12 or 13 in all, and I make friends with one player who was planning on playing Flygon BCR/Dusknoir BCR during City Championships the next day. We play a Theme Deck match between my “Shadows” Zoroark/Empoleon theme deck and his “Fire Frenzy” Emboar deck. We also play a game that goes a bit roughly for my Keldeo.
I also catch up with Shanan Kan, who had won the Burwood City Championships the previous week with Empoleon/Dusknoir.
Professor Steven is the man running the event, the local Pokémon Professor. He explains before the event that it was unnecessary for people to purchase theme decks ahead of the tournament, and that the tournament entry fee was to cover the distribution of a theme deck to each player at random.
However, we were also told that we were free to use the decks that we purchased ahead of time. The two of us (myself and the Fire Frenzy player), each elected to simply donate the decks allocated to us as a lucky door prize.
The first round is drawn and I am matched with Shanan Kan who is playing the “IceShock” Black Kyurem theme deck. This deck features Black Kyurem BCR and Blastoise BCR, making it a reasonably solid deck.
However, my deck “Shadows” features Zoroark DEX, with “Brutal Bash” dealing 20× the number of Dark Pokémon you have in play for two C energy and “Dark Rush” dealing 20× the damage counters currently on Zoroark. This is not to mention the existence of Empoleon DEX in the deck too.
The thing that makes “Shadows” so great, as RisingDawn pointed out to me (and for which I owe him a certain card, I haven’t forgotten), is the inclusion of four “Ascension” Zorua DEX, which for a single D Energy allows you to search your deck for a Zoroark and put it onto Zorua, evolving it on the first turn.
The combination of speed and search which is nearly non-existent otherwise saw me defeat Shanan and go on to defeat the “Fire Frenzy” player in round two and another “Ice Shock” theme deck in round 3, making me the winner.
Toward the end of the day, some of the more regular Pokémon players in the area had turned up, and were keen to playtest. Unfortunately, the moment our event had finished, our tables were filled up with Magic: The Gathering players in an event that seemed to be hurting for space.
Pre-Cities Playtesting
pokemon-paradijs.comA trip across town ensued, with 7 or 8-of us seeking playtesting space at one of the shared workspaces at a University Dormitory called “UniLodge.” Taking up residence on the second floor, we all got out our cards and started testing.
I ended up playing several games against local player Bori, who seemed set on RayEels for the tournament before we set off for dinner at a local pub, O’Malleys. Shanan and I shared nachos that seemed to have been sitting for a while, making the cheese difficult to get through.
Bowls of nachos and many inappropriate jokes later we returned to our testing location, braving a downpour of rain to do so. I happened to have an umbrella but the others didn’t fare as well.
I sat down to play some games with Shanan, who was testing a Garbodor DRX/Mewtwo EX deck he had put together he had put together just before dinner. He seemed conflicted on whether to run Garbodor or to stick to Empoleon/Dusknoir and was testing with Garbodor tonight to help make his decision. He was already 2-1 against Rayquaza/Eelektrik, and ended up 3-0 against my Keldeo/Blastoise deck before the night was over.
After losing three times to Garbodor I stood up to step back and have a bit of a think. Garbodor presents an obvious problem and the results of Regional Championships in America seemed to highlight it as well.
Thinking back to the last time we had a proper “lock” deck in the format, I recalled a time when Gothitelle EPO 47 was a Pokémon to worry about. A popular tech back then was to use Bellsprout TM as a means to drag Reuniclus BLW active with its “Inviting Scent” attack, which for a single Colorless allowed you to switch their active Pokémon with one you choose from their bench.
I asked out loud what Pokémon in the format currently exist with a similar ability. Shanan was the first to chime in with Carnivine DEX, which for a G Energy performs a similar attack with the added effect of Poisoning the new active Pokémon.
It wasn’t quite what I was looking for, so I decided to hit up Bebe’s Search to search for anything with a ‘Gust’ switch effect (Referencing ‘Gust of Wind’, or more recently ‘Pokémon Catcher’).
There are a few out there. Cincinno NXD and Liepard BLW are a couple of Stage 1 examples and slightly more familiar is the Stage 2 Elektross DEX with its “Slurp Shakedown” attack. Other than Carnivine, there was one other Basic Pokémon with an “Inviting Scent” attack and that is Cryogonal NVI 33.
This Cryogonal in particular is a funny little card. Everyone may remember the first Cryogonal printed some sets ago which featured an attack which increased in damage against Fighting Pokémon, touted as a counter to the then popular Donphan Prime. Cryogonal NVI 33 on the other hand is disruptive.
80 HP, Metal Weakness, Water type, 1 Retreat Cost, no resistance.
For 1 W Energy, “Ice Chain” provides that Pokémon Catcher effect I had been searching for. For 2 W Energy, “Frost Vanish” deals 40 damage and gives you the option of returning Cryogonal and anything attached to it back to your hand.
Both attacks are interesting at most, but as a package this card reeks of situational uses. I will be the first to admit that it doesn’t look like much. But, the matches I played against Shanan had me wanting something more from Keldeo/Blastoise. Something more than a one-time use “Tool Scrapper” and something that could operate under the proviso that I wouldn’t have any abilities available.
All of this being said, an obvious problem is that being a rather obscure card from Noble Victories, I didn’t exactly have one on hand, nor did anyone in the room. Holding little hope for the snowflake to make an appearance, I was content enough with the list I would be taking. I went back to my hotel room at close to midnight and got some sleep.
The Day Of City Championships
I got up and had a hefty breakfast. The Canberra Rex Hotel has a great buffet breakfast, with just about every breakfast food you could want. Breakfast down, I stepped out and called a taxi for a short ride to the venue.
I got there reasonably early and watched as people began filing in. People from all over the place. Canberra, Sydney, and even Melbourne. I was the sole representative from my state, so I had a lot to carry into this tournament.
I asked around as my playtesting buddies from the night before filed in, but nobody had a Cryogonal on hand. At that point I was fairly settled, but then I spied a player sitting by the entrance with a large binder. This balding man had an array of Psychic Pokémon across the table. Some form of Gothitelle based deck.
I asked him if he had the Pokémon I was looking for. Lo and behold, his binder had exactly one reverse-holo Cryogonal. Eventually we made a trade – two Dark Patches for his Cryogonal.
There I had it. Cryogonal. It was a terrible card and I was picking a terrible time to try out such a gimmicky tech, but nonetheless I cut the Level Ball I had settled on and put in Cryogonal, edited my decklist and handed it in.
Having helped me come up with the idea, I decided to take the card and show it to Shanan and the others. This worried Shanan straight away and everyone else cheered – I’d found the card.
In a few short minutes we were addressed by Professor Steven and the pairings for round one went up.
Round 1 vs. Sunny C. (Rayquaza EX/Eelektrik)
Sunny and I setup and he wins the flip. Both games proceed in a similar manner where I continually deny his Eelektrik through Pokémon Catcher KOs and protect myself from Mewtwo EX by using an awkward number of energies on my Keldeo. Each game saw a consistent set up from my side, with turn 1 Tropical Beach and turn 2 Blastoise being achieved.
He made a few procedural errors while playing as well, with the biggest one being that he accidentally started the 2nd match with 7 Prizes, which we didn’t realise until after he KO’d one of my Keldeo.
Steven wasn’t too sure about the ruling he should make, so I told him to just make the nice guy ruling. He instructed us to resolve the effect of the N he had just played, and then for him to shuffle 1 Prize card back into his deck while I took a Prize Penalty.
On the last turn of the second match, I had 1 Prize to take. He had KO’d something the turn before, so I had a Squirtle active. With his Skyarrow Birdge in play Squirtle had free retreat, allowing me to retreat to a Mewtwo EX I benched this turn. I played Energy Retrieval to retrieve W Energy to be played down onto the Mewtwo and used Pokémon Catcher on a Tynamo to score the last KO.
1-0
Round 2 vs. William L. (Darkrai EX/Hydreigon)
William is a player from Sydney, New South Wales, a few hours’ drive from Canberra. We sit down and draw out our opening hands. The snowflake appears in my opening hand – Cryogonal, along with a Squirtle.
Game 1
pokemon-paradijs.comI didn’t want to play down Cryogonal, but on the other hand, I couldn’t afford to risk starting with a lone Squirtle as at this point I had no idea what William was playing. I play down Cryogonal in the Active Spot with Squirtle on the bench and William wins the coin flip for who goes first. We reveal and I don’t quite remember what William started with, but he had a Deino on the bench at the very least by the end of the turn.
I get set up about as much as one can on the first turn and William’s second turn sees him manage to get a Hydreigon into play. On my second turn I set up with a Blastoise and decide to play down two energy onto Cryogonal. I play Pokémon Catcher to bring his Hydreigon active and hit it for 40 with “Frost Vanish,” returning Cryogonal to my hand along with the W Energy, promoting a Keldeo in its place.
The next turn passes, and I thought he might try KOing a Blastoise since he had enough energy to 1-shot my Blastoise with Hydreigon. However, he elects to instead put damage on my Keldeo with Darkrai. When the turn passes to me I am able to KO his Hydreigon with 3 energy on Keldeo and a Catcher, I pick up a Juniper.
However, that’s about all she wrote for that game. I only see three energy the whole game and I end up losing.
Game 2
I start Squirtle to his Sableye + Shaymin EX. My turn 1 ends with Keldeo active and two Squirtle on the bench. Turn 2 I take a KO on Shaymin EX with Keldeo-EX powered by Blastoise’s “Deluge” Ability. It is important to remember that Shaymin EX has a Fighting Resistance and not a Water one.
I take the early lead and run with it to victory.
Game 3
There are just five minutes left in the round and I end up deciding not to bench any Squirtles. The game proceeds at an awkward pace as we proceed into time. I am somewhat lucky as he struggles to set up during the limited time, and he makes the mistake of benching Shaymin EX to whittle down his hand for a better draw (Off Bianca or something similar).
I had already taken a Prize by then and Shaymin EX netted me Prizes 2 and 3, cementing the victory at the end of +3 turns.
2-0
Round 3 vs. Antony (Garbodor/Attackers)
Okay. Round 3 is against Antony, whom was part of the play-testing group the previous night. He said he was considering playing this deck, and as it turns out he did end up going with it. This is the matchup I included Cryogonal in my deck to shore up. We set up and he wins the flip.
Game 1
pokemon-paradijs.comHe starts a lone Trubbish to my lone Squirtle. He gets to a rocky start, attaching a Rescue Scarf to Trubbish and using Skyla to place an N into his hand. On my first turn I get another Squirtle and a Mewtwo EX onto the bench. I finish with a Tropical Beach for 6 cards.
After our first turns I spend two turns Knocking Out Trubbish. I pick up Catcher from my Prizes as well, helping me continue to keep Garbodor from hitting the board all game. He is unable to bench more than a single Trubbish at a time. Eventually I take the win and we move to Game 2.
Game 2
Once again he misses the turn 2 Garbodor, however I also miss setting up Blastoise. After two turns of Trubbish knock outs, he retreats to something and I am still unable to hit a Blastoise. I play down Cryogonal in this game and use Ice Chain on his Terrakion to stall for some time to set up.
However as I feared, he has the Switch in hand and he gets Terrakion NVI out of there. I am beginning to fall into a bad situation as he has two Mewtwo EX on the Bench beginning to energise. I stop taking notes at this point to concentrate on the game, but I believe I end up losing in the end.
Game 3
This game proceeds into time very quickly and at the end of +3 turns we are at equal Prizes. I believe he asked me if we were supposed to proceed to sudden death at that point and I think I may have agreed with him that it should. I quickly realised my error, but I wasn’t able to stop him from packing up his side.
Equal prizes at the end of Game 3 means the game plays out until the next prize is taken. I called over Steven and he decided to be “Nice Guy Judge” and let us play out Sudden Death instead. Fortunately I was able to win Sudden Death just by playing down Keldeo and manually attaching.
3-0
Round 4 vs. Shanan K. (Empoleon/Dusknoir)
So I am paired against Shanan, the winner of Burwood City Championships and the person whose Garbodor deck compelled me to fit the Cryogonal in my own deck. As it turns out, he is playing Empoleon/Dusknoir once again instead of Garbodor.
However as I would find out later, he was nervous about the inclusion of Cryogonal in my deck as Dusknoir has a reasonably hefty retreat. If I had included Tool Scrapper, there wouldn’t be anything for him to worry about.
Earlier in the first round, Shanan had faced off against and beaten the person he faced in the finals of Burwood City Championships – Marcus R. of Melbourne who once again was piloting Keldeo/Blastoise today.
We set up and he wins the flip. That is the 4th time I’ve lost the opening flip today.
Game 1
pokemon-paradijs.comHe mulligans twice and I open Keldeo to his Duskull BCR. He gets a Mewtwo EX from the deck, plays Skyla for Switch, plays the Switch to put Mewtwo EX active and attaches a DCE, placing early damage on Keldeo.
On my second turn, I am forced to discard two Energy Retrievals as I use Juniper to setup. I manage to KO his Duskull with Keldeo. After my Keldeo-EX is KO’d, we begin what looks to be a Mewtwo war.
After a Mewtwo EX exchange, I want to go after his benched Duskull to keep Dusknoir out of the game. However, discarding the Energy Retrievals hurt early game. I Skyla for the Energy Retrieval I need and it is prized.
During the exchange, Shanan has benched a Roselia DRX which becomes Roserade DRX. I can’t recall why he needed Switch. Perhaps to make sure he doesn’t miss an energy drop this turn with getting Duskull out of the Active Spot. At this point he also, finally, benches two Piplups DEX he manages to get into hand after an N. He evolves up to Dusknoir during this turn as well and moves the damage on my side to KO Blastoise.
On my turn I manage to play out my hand (using Catcher on Dusknoir in the process) and I use Tropical Beach for 6 cards. In response he plays his 3rd switch and uses Dusknoir’s ability to KO a Squirtle.
At this point in the game I am running out of options. I play an Ultra Ball and retrieve Cryogonal and play it down. I use ‘Ice Chain’ on Dusknoir to bring it active again. He uses N on his turn which puts him at just one card and myself at two or three and he uses Tropical Beach.
I respond with another N and do the same thing. However, it turns out I N’d him to a Computer Search. It takes a couple more turns but he eventually gets enough cards in hand to Computer Search for DCE, retreat to his energised Mewtwo EX and KO my Cryogonal for the last Prize.
Game 2
I start Keldeo and two Squirtle to his lone Piplup, however not much happens during my turn. I am forced to N for a better hand and I attach an energy to Keldeo. He uses Skyla to retrieve a Pokémon Communication from his deck, using it to obtain a Mewtwo EX. He uses a Switch in hand to bring Mewtwo EX active and attaches a Double Colorless Energy to hit Keldeo-EX for 60 damage with ‘X-Ball’.
I Rare Candy to Blastoise, play a Juniper and attack for 110. On his turn he plays his Rare Candy for Empoleon and plays Juniper. He benches two more Piplup, plays Level Ball for Duskull, discards a Catcher for ‘Diving Draw’, and then seems frustrated with the outcome, which I think is because he discarded the Catcher. He attacks with Mewtwo EX and I believe he KOs it.
I Skyla for Ultra Ball and grab Keldeo-EX from it. I rush in and use Energy Retrieval to assist in powering it up. I KO Mewtwo EX. In response, he puts up another Mewtwo, attaches a Double Colorless Energy and swings for 100 damage with X-Ball. On my turn I play an N, use a Pokémon Catcher to drag Duskull active and KO it.
The game eventually goes to time and he has an energyless Mewtwo EX from manually retreating it and three Empoleon. I had a very ordinary field at this point with nothing in hand. I just couldn’t win.
3-1
Round 5 vs. Marcus R. (Keldeo/Blastoise)
Somehow I had avoided the mirror match all day, but then here it came as piloted by Marcus, 2nd Place finisher at Burwood City Championships and a well-known player throughout Australia. We both exchange jokes about how the other is probably just going to roll the other and we sit down to play our game. The flip goes my way for the first time today.
Game 1
On turn 1 I manage to be set up with a Keldeo-EX active, 3 Squirtle on the Bench and a Tropical Beach in play and the game proceeds just as strongly. I make a misplay in the middle of the game where I use Mewtwo to KO one of Marcus’ Keldeo-EX, where I should have really responded with my own Keldeo-EX. He is able to take the KO back with his own Mewtwo EX as a result.
Toward the end of the game I have 1 Prize left to take to his 2-3 Prizes remaining. However, I am in an awkward spot where I can’t quite hit the cards I need to take the final prize. In my notes I wrote that I wasn’t able to get out another Keldeo. Instead I have in hand Cryogonal.
I didn’t particularly want to bench it, however I wanted to maximise the Bianca I intended on playing so I did. Marcus picked up on the odd tech immediately, but seemed to dismiss the snowflake at first. When I started attaching energy to it, he decided to check the card.
At this point, he had his Blastoise active. I used “Frost Vanish” on it for 40 damage, returning Cryogonal and the energy attached back to hand, promoting my Blastoise in its place. He uses “Rush In” with Keldeo and either attacks or uses Tropical Beach (I can’t quite remember).
During my turn, I Deluge 4 energy onto Blastoise (I have the Energy Retrieval) and use Pokémon Catcher to bring his damaged Blastoise active. I KO it with “Hydro Pump” for the final Prize.
Game 2
I slow down on the notes this game since I’m focussed on trying to win. I start Keldeo to his Mewtwo and benched Squirtle. He uses Level Ball to bench a second Squirtle on his first turn, while I manage to get two Squirtle of my own and I use Tropical Beach to draw five cards.
Each of us manage to get a turn 2 Blastoise, however, his flow is disrupted by a need to Skyla for Juniper on turn 3. The rest of the match plays out about as interestingly as the mirror does. The big difference is that I am able to play Juniper 3 turns in a row and keep control of the flow of the game, allowing me to take the win at the end.
4-1
With the conclusion of that match, Swiss was over. I was happy, I was so sure that I had made top cut.
But then the results were posted. 5th place. With 28 players, there is only a top 4 cut. The definition of bubbling.
There was one 5-0 player and five 4-1 players. I lost to Shanan, and Shanan lost to the 5-0 player, while the others lost only to the 5-0 player.
Top 8 after Swiss looked like this:
1st Eric H. (Keldeo/Blastoise/Sigilyph) – Placed 3rd in Top Cut – Lost to Shane Q.
2nd Shanan K. (Empoleon/Dusknoir) – Placed 4th in Top Cut – Lost to Eric H.
3rd Jon B. (Darkrai/Mewtwo) – Placed 2nd in Top Cut
4th Shane Q. (Keldeo/Blastoise) – Placed 1st in Top Cut
5th Anthony Smith (Keldeo/Blastoise)
6th Myles O. (Keldeo/Blastoise)
7th William L. (Darkrai/Hydreigon)
8th Joel S. (I’m not actually sure, someone tell me?)
It was somewhat disappointing. I was happy to do as well as I had and I suppose I only have myself to blame for simply not ensuring I went into round 5 with 4 wins. Shanan K. played against Eric H. and lost, sealing my fate.

I stayed to see out the remainder of the tournament and got to watch Shane, whom I had met at my first National Championships, who at the time was playing Blastoise/Feraligatr, take the title from fellow Sydney player Jon. If you’re reading this Shane, congratulations. I look forward to seeing you again.
After Cities, a bunch of us headed out to the same pub we went to the night before, drinking and reading inappropriate fan-fiction out loud. After a fun night, I was dropped off back at my hotel and got some sleep before day 3 of the event.
Team Tournament
Day 3 was the last day of the event. A fun team tournament where each team consisted of two people and each player had to use a 30 card deck they constructed before the tournament (with only one of them being allowed an ACE SPEC). I showed up and sorta just turned my Keldeo deck into a 30 card deck.
Now originally I was going to team with Pin J. who is a relatively new player to the Canberra scene. However, after we had put our decks together a younger player, Andrew, had thought he was teaming with Pin. Eventually, Andrew teamed with Pin and I teamed with young 11-year old Theodore, who was a Junior National Champion and former World Championship competitor.

I told him he had to remember our team name; “The Marvelous Adventures of Cryogonal NVI #33.” I had to help him say it out loud word by word.
It was a fun experience. Arguing with an 11 year old about who got to have the ACE SPEC between us was quite funny. I told him he could have it if he could remember our team name. He grabbed the Cryogonal card and stared at it intensely, trying to remember the rest of the name. Fortunately Steven was on hand with the name on a piece of paper to help him.
We also had silly arguments during each match, but when push came to shove, Theodore was very dependable. He was playing Landorus/Terrakion and seemed to be very capable of supporting my Pokémon with healing items and Super Scoop Up, while I tried to get set up with Blastoise and Keldeo to sweep late game.
When putting my deck together, I decided it would be funny to fit Sigilyph and Skyarrow Bridge to use in conjunction with Cryogonal for a “Frost Vanish” to Sigilyph Loop. However it never worked.
My list for those interested was:
Pokémon – 9 2 Squirtle BCR |
Trainers – 13 2 Skyla
2 Energy Retrieval
|
Energy – 8 |
We ended up going 2-1 and I think we placed 3rd out of 4. I pulled a Full Art Keldeo-EX from my packs for participating.
That just about concludes the report. After the tournament, Alexis. B borrowed my Keldeo Deck (in its 60 card form) to road test it against William L. to get a feel of the deck (and beat William in the process I think). After they played a few rounds, we all eventually went our separate ways.
Over the weekend, Brisbane had been ravaged by a cyclone. I came back to uprooted trees and flooding, but I had made it home. I had just a couple of days to relax and enjoy the remainder of my holidays.
pokemon.comDuring day 2, I recall Sydney player Ellis asking me a question. She asked me quite simply “Why do you and the others travel so much to compete?”
Well Ellis, the response I gave you, “Because I want to be a Pokémon Master,” may have sounded like a joke, but it does ring somewhat true in that I do want to compete because I want to be the best (like no one ever was). It’s challenging and rewarding.
It also just comes from a love for Pokémon. Pokémon means something to me, while other card games don’t have any special significance toward me. Everybody knows what a Pikachu is.
It brings people together. It bridges people that would never normally have anything to do with each other together.
Finally, it’s fun. Simple fun. That seems reason enough.
I’d get more philosophical with this, but it’s 1:34 in the morning and that’s all about I’ve got I’m afraid.
Props
- Keldeo-EX for being so STRONK
- Awesome Canberra Rex Hotel
- Staying with my friend Luke the first night
- Testing!
- Cryogonal!
- The Canberra community
- Meeting new people!
Slops
- Bubbling
- Feeling like death from my cough
- Flipping tails 4 times for the start of the match
So I hope you all enjoyed reading. Many thanks to Canberra for being so kind to me.
Finally, for those of you out there who read and enjoyed this and would like to keep up with the things I do:
- Please like my fan page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Vysekun
- You can also follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/VysePlaysGames
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I’d really appreciate it!
Til’ next time,
Anthony.
Unless I’m reading incorrectly, really not kosher to make a “friendly” ruling like in your round one match at a premier event. You really should have called a judge over. Even if the same outcome would have happened warnings should be reported, and TBH it might not have been a prize penalty.
I’m pretty sure Steven aka Professor Steven was a judge.
Ohhhh I did in fact misread completely, thanks for the heads up!
no prob :)
At this point, I haven’t done much more than skim, but huge kudos to you for thinking outside the box.
The thing I realise is, the longer you play, the more you remember the impact cards like Belsprout TR had.
You can remember the solutions to similar problems and you come up with contemporary solutions.
Cheers Bleak.
Wow, I was mentioned in a sixprizes article haha. Joel S was playing Keldeo Blastoise. That was me!
Haha, hi Joel!
A mistake: Shanan K. Iost to Jon B. not Eric in top cut. If you read what I wrote, top cut doesn’t actually make sense.
Also Joel S. played Keldeo/Blastoise.
Great read, Vyse, I love how you can write so much about your trip and games. I can’t even remember what I had for breakfast.
I wrote whenever I had a spare moment of nothing. So that helped.