Flytrap on the Prowl (otherwise known as Victory Lock) By Jimmy C., AKA SuperSheep77 Holiday Inn, Holidome, STS Qualifier Kansas City, Kansas Saturday, October 14, 2001 About 30 people in the 11-14 age group, at least 100 people total attended Hey! Sheepy here, SuperSheep77 on the Pojo Boards, SuperSheep7 on AOL Instant Messenger. Here’s my delayed QT report…sorry, I was kinda busy so I couldn’t write it earlier. But shame on everyone else who came to the Kansas City Qualifier! I haven’t seen one report about it yet. So I figured I’d actually waste some time writing one… The actual STS QT was held on October 14, 2001, within a large ballroom inside of a Holiday Inn. I live 15 minutes away from the location of this QT, so I’m glad that I don’t have to spend three hours getting there like I had to last time (Wichita, May 2001). The tournament format was Swiss for 5 rounds, and then a playoff for the top 8. If you place from #9-16, you get 4 packs. If you place #4-8, you get half a box. Third and fourth get an entire box. First and second place get the coveted free trips plus three-fourths of a box. All packs were of Neo Discovery. =/ Warning: This KDR is long…I seem to have a disability, I can’t write anything short, it has to be LONG. Oh, well. If you want to read my entire report, it’ll take a while…but it’ll be good, I promise. >=) First and foremost, my deck… Flytrap on the Prowl (Okay, so what if it’s corny…I couldn’t think of anything better…) Pokemon: 19 4 Erika's Bellsprout (Careless Tackle) 4 Erika's Weepinbell (Sleep Poison) 3 Erika's Victreebel 2 Murkrow 2 Yanma 1 Rocket's Scyther 3 Cleffa Trainers: 24 4 Professor Elm 3 Focus Band 3 Gold Berry 2 Chaos Gym 1 Resistance Gym 1 Celadon Gym 2 Misty's Wrath 1 Double Gust 2 Warp Point 2 Nightly Garbage Run 1 Trash Exchange 2 Erika's Maids Energy: 17 4 Darkness Energy 13 Grass Gosh. I wish I could have had my Qualifier a few weeks later, because now I see a few potential weaknesses of this deck and would have put in the right trainers and Pokemon (most namely Smeargle) to counter them. Anyways. I got to Holiday Inn relatively early, before most people showed up. The one person that I was looking for was my bud Kyledem, who ended up playing Gatr in this tournament. He arrived a few minutes after I did. I tested out my deck a few times, beating a fighting deck and a weird colorless one. A few guys from a local card shop called Collector’s Cache showed up, and started selling Neo Revelation boosters for $3.00 apiece. This turned out to be a huge profit for them, as almost everyone bought as many as they could. Most stuck a few of these novel cards into their decks, a decision which most would probably regret after the tournament. I, however, decided not to include any Neo Revelation in my deck; the only card I thought about adding was Balloon Berry, and I figured Warp Point was better for my deck anyway. I was looking for a few cards to complete my deck. I had 2 Rocket’s Scyther and 1 Yanma originally, but Kyledem and a few other people convinced me to use 2 Yanma and 1 Rocket’s Scyther…Kyledem was even nice enough to just give me a free Yanma (he had 5 anyway). Thanks, man. ;) I also traded someone a Murkrow for a second Chaos Gym. So, I’m pumped up, ready to begin. I looked at the round pairings…first round…here we go! Round 1- Roy R. with Gatr I was extremely anxious, since the first round is one of the most important. If you lose, then you’re gonna be in a huge hole for the rest of the tournament, and the pressure to win and stay alive will be on in the later rounds. My opponent obviously felt the same way- both of us with sweaty palms, unsure shuffles, and deep concentration and determination. This was one of my closer games of the day. I don’t remember too much about what happened, but he got out a Gatr and started Riptiding early in the game. However, with Erika’s Maids, I got out Erika’s Victreebel sooner. ^_^ At one point, he had an energized Gatr with some damage on it, and me a charged up V-Bel. Both had Focus Bands on them. He Riptided- heads, for my Focus flip. I added another Focus, and Razor Leafed- heads, his Focus. >_< I got another heads Focus flip the next time he Riptided. Eventually, though, I got through that Gatr and it was all downhill for him from there. He had some Neo Revelation Pokemon in there, like holo Suicune and Sudowoodo with Mimic. I went through them relatively easily. We were both low in our decks, and he had Wrathed a little bit too much and lost all three (I think it was three) of his Gatrs to his discard. He had 6 cards left in his deck, and I had 5…we both had 2 prizes left. I counted my discard, and found that I’d used only one of my two NGRs, and eventually drew into it. As a last-ditch effort, he played an Erika, and looked at me expectantly. I, of course, didn’t budge. We both had a good laugh about it afterwards. My memory betrays me and I forgot what happened, but I knew that I beat him by drawing both prizes, not by decking or time limit. NOTE: This was the first and only game when I actually used the effect of Celadon Gym (I use Celadon almost strictly as a counter-gym). To replace the Gym that he had out (a Healing Plains that he was using to his advantage), I played my Celadon. Later on, his holo Suicune paralyzed my Erika’s Weepinbell, and I actually used the discard/full heal effect of Celadon gym. =D Cool. Between rounds: Wow, I won the first round against a pretty darn good deck. I didn’t really have bad or good luck that game, but won anyway, so it was a confidence booster. I find out that Kyledem wins too. My record: 1-0-0 Round 2: Jessica F. with practically random Erika Pokemon _< Stupid computer. The TO (tournament organizer) announced that there were an odd number of people playing in the tournament; one person from 10 and under would have to play someone from 11-14 and one person from 15 and over would have to play someone from 11-14. Guess who the lucky people were… Note: Kyledem also lucked out. He was the one who got to play someone from 15 and over. =/ Well, this game was kind of fast. She had a grass deck, and she slowed the game down because I had to explain what all of my cards did. Can’t really blame her though… I beat her entire deck with a Yanma doing Swift against her 50 HP grass/colorless Pokemon. She didn’t have very much drawing power, and her hand remained energy-less for quite a while. I was kinda energy-screwed also, and I had a Chaos out, so I didn’t want to risk Elming and helping her out. So I just Fragrance Trapped out whatever I perceived as a threat, and killed it with a few Swift attacks. Later, I found out that Jessica made Top 8 in the 10 and under division. My record: 2-0-0 Between Rounds: Kyledem wins again. Not surprising. Well, now that I’m 2-0, I’m expecting some tighter competition… Round 3 vs. CJ W. I’m drawing a total blank about what happened in this game. Except that I won handily in less than 10 turns. Sorry…=/ CJ’s deck was grass, but revolved around some “creative” choices, like Dark Arbok. ;p My record: 3-0-0 Between Rounds: Kyledem wins…again…not surprised. Since my game with CJ was rather quick, we talked a little afterwards. I found out that he enjoyed playing the game as much as I did, and that he “played against himself” when he didn’t have real opponents, just like I do sometimes to playtest. I wished him luck for the rest of the tournament. Well, I’m 3-0, so I’ve got two more rounds left to go in Swiss. Kyledem and I do the math, and we figure that to get into Top 8, we both have to win at least one more game. Round 4 vs. Andy M. and Dark Golbat “hunter” I think this guy’s main strategy was to get out Dark Golbat and hunt down babies on the bench. It seems to be working, since he’s undefeated as well. However, I didn’t see much of that strategy; it was another quick game. I got out a Yanma/Erika’s Victreebel (can’t remember which) with 3 Grass and quickly disposed of his Zubats and Dark Golbats, and he benched out. Wow. Another Annoying Little Note: This guy’s 15 and over, but, due to another stupid computer placement problem, I ended up playing him…the new rule was that 15 and over could play in the tournament, but would not be allowed to play in Top 8. My record: 4-0-0 Between Rounds: Kyledem wins…I know that’s getting old… Since both Kyledem and I had quick games, we talked a little bit, and he started asking people if there were any Tyranitar decks going around. I asked him why, and he said that his deck would be screwed if he played against T-Tar, since it was just the Gatr line and babies as backup. Someone tells Kyledem that there’s one T-Tar in the tournament. So Kyledem goes to investigate, and he comes back a minute later with a smile on his face and tells us that the T-Tar player is 1-3. ^_^ Kyledem and I are sure we’re going to have to face off in the final Swiss round, being the only two undefeated. We decide beforehand to take a draw in the final round. If we take the draw, then he’ll be #1 (higher resistance) and I’ll be #2 for sure, both of us with 13 points. If we play an actual game, one of us might get bumped down to 8 or lower, and miss the Top 8 playoffs. So we decide to take a draw. I guess that wasn’t the most popular decision with others in the tournament, since people wanted to see who was the better of the two of us or something, but we decided that since the trip was on the line, we’d better not take any chances. Okay. Here we go…fingers crossed… Round 5 (FINAL SWISS ROUND) vs. Kyledem and Gatr ^_^ We decided to play a practice game, just for the fun of it. I won, even though he basically stopped playing after a while. After we played about half a game, I could tell that he wasn’t really trying (just sending up baby after baby, and passing without attacking most of the time). Aw well, braggin’ rights go to me… 4-1-0 + braggin’ rights As planned, Kyledem and I made Top 8! I’m #2 and he’s #1, each of us with 13 points. We’re both excited to start playing the games that will determine the winner of the free trip. Between Rounds: We have our lunch break; Kyledem’s mom brings in some McDonald’s. This is like a tradition now- the two of us playing in a QT, Kyledem’s mom bringing us McDonald’s for lunch, both of us making Top 8 and going home with an armful of boosters. Hopefully more than just boosters this time, though…>=) Top 8 is composed of three Gatr decks, one Typhlosion/B’s RK9, one odd fire deck, one Steelix/Rocket’s Hitmonchan, one Darkness deck, and my Erika’s Victreebel. It seems to be a very diverse Top 8, unlike others that I’ve seen which are similar to 6 Gatr, 2 Erika’s Victreebel or something like that. All right, here we go again. It’s the single elimination, so if you lose, everything you’ve won prior to this point, everyone you beat before this doesn’t matter at all. Round 6, Round 1 of Single Elimination vs. Lainie (Forgot your last initial, sorry) w/ Gatr She’s playing Gatr…cool. =D I was nervous, but confident because of my earlier wins and the fact that she’s playing Gatr (I play ANTI-Gatr!). I draw my starting hand… Oh, crap… I have Cleffa, a few useless trainers, and energy. She has active…a Fury Swipes Totodile. >__< Four heads flips in a row are sure a lot, but it’s definitely possible and has been done before. She attacks, Fury Swipes…tails on baby power. Phew. I don’t draw anything significant, so I’m forced to attach a grass energy to Cleffa and Eeeeeeek, knowing that this gives her another chance to try her luck with Fury Swipes. She attacks…heads, baby power…heads…tails…tails. Only ten damage to me, good. My Eeeeeeek got me an Erika’s Bellsprout and a Rocket’s Scyther. I play down both. I don’t get a Darkness, so I can’t Careless Tackle the Totodile for the quick KO…darn. I attach grass to Rocket’s Scyther, thinking that I’ll stall with it for a while until I get out my V-Bel. I Eeeeeeek. She evolves to Croconaw, heads on the baby power, and kills my Cleffa with a Tackle. What happened in the middle of our game is a blur in my memory, but we exchanged prizes, with her getting out Gatr and me getting out V-Bel, and both getting KOed. I have 4 prizes left and she has 3 left. She pulls out a…Skarmory? And then she puts a Cleffa active and stalls with it. Meanwhile, her Skarmory now has THREE METAL energy attached to it. >_< I do have a Yanma out (Swift gets through Metal and Resistance), but my hand is totally devoid of energy, and I have no way to get a new hand (no Elms, no Cleffa). Murkrow (Feint Attack also gets through Metal) is also nowhere to be seen. I have a Rocket’s Scyther with a grass energy on it, so I decide that I should stall with Shadow Images. She attacks, gets a heads flip with her Skarmory, 30 damage from Steel Wing. >_< I attach Focus Band and Shadow Images. I do this a few more turns until I get 2 grass attached to an Erika’s Weepinbell, retreat Rocket’s Scyther, and Sleep Poison. I do this for quite a while, with her Steel Winging basically every other turn and me attaching Gold Berries and Focus Bands to keep Erika’s Weepinbell alive. She eventually kills the Weepinbell, and I kill her STUPID 3-Metal Skarmory with poison. She sends up another Skarmory, with only one Metal attached to it this time. I send up my other Erika’s Weepinbell. What happened before basically repeats itself. She has seemingly run out of Pokemon and trainers to get Pokemon with, and sends up a Cleffa with a Focus, with no bench. She Eeeeeeeks. I still have Erika’s Weepinbell active (we both have 2 prizes left), so I see this as a chance to go for the win. I attach a grass energy and try to Vine Whip…heads on the baby flip but she gets heads with Focus. >_< She plays another Cleffa on her bench and then a Trash Exchange…and it puts both of her Skarmory AND some of her Metals back. >_< yet again I play a Chaos Gym, and start getting energy on my Yanma. I try to Vine Whip- tails on baby power. Argh… She plays an Elm, and shuffles her hand back into her deck. However, she forgets to flip for Chaos Gym, and her entire hand is already shuffled back in her deck. We decide that she should just flip, and if she gets heads, we’ll just proceed like normal. She flips…tails. =/ We ask the judge what to do, he says that I have to choose- I can either let her draw the seven cards, pretending that the flip was a heads, or I can choose to draw my last two prizes and win the game. I thought this over for a while. I chose to let her draw her hand, not because I’m particularly nice or anything, but I’d feel bad winning an elimination game on someone else’s mistake. If I had been on the other side of the fence, being the one who’d made the slip-up, I wouldn’t have wanted to be eliminated because I forgot a flip. She benches a Totodile (this is only the second Totodile I’ve seen the entire game!). I see this as a chance to end the game, and evolve both Erika’s Weepinbells on my bench (I was saving them as Weepinbell because I was afraid of another stupid Skarmory), and Fragrance Trap twice. I got a tails…then heads. Razor Leaf the Totodile for 100 and I draw my last prize. >=) Between Rounds: Kyledem wins against the one Typhlosion deck that made Top 8, big surprise. I’m glad that I don’t have to face the Typhlosion though. =/ My game took the longest out of all four playoff games, so I didn’t have any time in between rounds to do much. Round 7, Round 2 of Single Elimination (SEMIFINALS, WINNER GETS THE FREE TRIP!) vs. ??? w/ Dark deck (Dark Dragonite, Dark Charizard, Umbreon, and Houndoom) Sorry, I totally forgot your name. I want to say that your name is Scott, but that isn’t much more than a hunch. But…I need a name for you, so I’m gonna call you Scott anyway. =/ Oh, man. This game was absolutely horrible. So I’m gonna go over it in grotesque detail. To start the semifinals, I mulligan. This really isn’t that big of a deal, but it was my first mulligan of the day, so I feel some bad luck coming on… My starting hand was this (I still remember it CARD FOR CARD): 1 Erika’s Bellsprout, 1 Trash Exchange, 1 Gold Berry, 1 Darkness Energy, and 3 Grass Energy. I see this as bad, but not totally horrible, since I could easily get an FTKO if he has only a Totodile or only a baby in play, and I go first. Of course, he goes first. >_< And he DOESN’T have a baby…or a Totodile… But he does have 2 Fire Type Houndours, one active and one benched. He attaches a Fire Energy to the active Houndour, and uses Smog. He flips tails for poison- my Bellsprout has 20 damage on it, and will be KOed by Collect Fire next turn unless I draw something useful. My draw…Focus Band! =D =D =D I realize that he still has a 50% chance of winning with Collect Fire, but I also understand that 50% is better than 0%. So, not wanting to damage myself, I just attach the Focus and pass. He draws into a Fire Energy, and attaches it to his Houndour…he announces Collect Fire. Here we go…I pick up the stupid metal Lugia coin, and do my Focus flip. Tails. I lose. It just goes to show you, six wins in a row means absolutely nothing in single elimination. I’ve gone over this situation over in my head a million times, thinking of every possible situation, racking my brain to see if there was some solution that I had missed; of course, I came up with nothing. The only thing I realized I should’ve done differently would be to just DROP the Trash Exchange from my deck, since it didn’t do anything at all today. Well, that’s it; I place third out of about 30 people. Kyledem wins his game nearly as quickly as I lost mine- he’s going to San Diego! And I was one game away from joining him there. Kyledem is practically running around the room, jumping up and down. (Okay, not really, but at least we can pretend…) I was allowed to watch the finals, and saw Kyledem tear through Scott’s deck. Wow…Kyledem goes undefeated (in DCI games) today. --- Props: To Kyledem, for winning the QT To me, for ALMOST winning the QT ^_^ To my deck, for doing really well To the judges, who were very good and knew the rules thoroughly, I didn’t see a single bad decision the entire day To Collector’s Cache (a local card shop), for trading 3/4 of a Neo Revelation box for my Neo Discovery box To my 3/4 of a NR box, from which I pulled a Shining Magikarp AND Shining Gyarados To Lainie, Roy, Scott, and CJ for being there and doing well To the Arizona Diamondbacks, Curt Schilling, and Randy Johnson for…uh… To Pokemon Fan Fiction, which I really need to start working on again To whoever invented Victory Lock To Linkin Park And, of course, mad props to SHEEP! Slops: To me for having such a horrible draw in my last game To Murkrow and Trash Exchange for not doing much at all in my deck To the STS Placement computer for messing up the match-ups To Neo Discovery for being a crappy set To Feraligatr for being so darn popular that I made a deck to counter it To the Kansas City area, for having not nearly enough competition whatsoever! If you want an easy Qualifier, come over to Kansas City ;p To pulling FOUR Sneasels and FOUR non-holo Suicunes as rares from my Neo Revelation box To stupid Lugia coins for being…stupid and not flipping in my favor most of the time =/ I guess there’s not much more to say, and I’m darn glad of it. But since I’m in the habit, I’m going to include song lyrics at the end of this KDR as well. It’s “In The End”, by Linkin Park. It fits my current Pokemon situation because I’m now 14, and so I have one more chance at winning a QT trip and actually going to the STS; I’ve never gone to the real EC or WCSTS, only three QTs. At the age of fifteen, I’ll probably “retire” from Pokemon, although I don’t want to… Anyways. Here it is: ~~~ ...All I know Time is a valuable thing Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings Watch it count down to the end of the day The clock ticks life away It's so unreal Didn't look out below Watch the time go right out the window Trying to hold on, but didn't even know Wasted it all just to watch you go I kept everything inside and even though I tried, it all fell apart What it meant to me will eventually be a memory of a time I tried so hard And got so far But in the end It doesn't even matter I had to fall To lose it all But in the end It doesn't even matter... -Linkin Park Lata’. >=) ~Sheepy SuperSheep87@aol.com AIM: SuperSheep7 _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp