~Constellation~
Pat Kennedy
Dragon King Gaming & Hobbies St. Louis, Missouri
May 24, 2003 32 Participants
Wow, I love big tournaments, mainly because
its the only tournies I'm able to attend. It was so much fun playing SOO
much pokemon in one day. I got to our Super Battlezone location around
10:45 after a 2 hour drive with my sister, Mandy. I saw a few people
playing some practice games.
After getting situated with my cards and deck and such, I met
Swanton1717 and talked with him. He loaned out 3 Energy Removal 2's to
me for my deck (Thank you!) and I talked with him for a short time. I
put them in my deck, but still needed some Eevee, a Gold Berry, and a
Copycat. My sis also needed some Double Gust for her deck and some Gold
Berry as well (which we did not get).
About 20 min. after we arrived, Meganium45 announces that we were going
to have a draft tourney. Me and my sis enter, paying out 14 dollars
(ouch, lol) for 2 Genesis packs and 4 Skyridge packs. We do the standard
"look at pack, pick one, pass" draft and in my 2nd Genesis pack I get a
Gold Berry, YES!!! Well, that takes care of one need in my modified
deck.
After everything is drafted, I end up building a Sunflora deck with some
other grass such as SK Heracross and Yanma. Silly me, due to this being
the first draft I have ever been in, I pretty much only drafted grass,
forgetting to get some other colors with colorless attacks.
Here's how the draft went for me.. I don't remember what the exact deck
looked like.
Draft - Round 1
vs. Andy Newman - Beedrill SK
I started out relatively good. I loaded up a Heracross, which slashed
when it got 2 energy. I moo moo milked and removed 20 from me when it
got hit by... i think some water pokemon he had. Eventually it gets 40
dmg on it, then I drill his water pokemon for 50 with Heracross's 2nd
attack. Heracross dies the next turn, then I bring up Sneasel (I think)
and start Fury Swiping and getting pretty lucky. I kill something, then
another Pokemon with a Sunkern i had. I'm up 1-3 when he gets his
friggin SK Beedrill. Poison/Para my Sunkern and kills it with a 2 heads
on Needle Rush. I had Sunflora in my hand too... Anyway, he takes the
game from there, simply needle rushing the crap out of all of my guys,
as I don't get very much energy later on.
Draft | 0-1 |
Between the rounds, I check with my sis, and she is all happy that she
won her first Draft game against Colin (Swanton1717). I congratulate
her, only to have to hear her get kinda mad about the next 2 games she
played... as she lost both of em.
Draft - Round 2
vs. Vince Krekeler ( Meganium45 )
Vince is a really cool guy, and he judged the main tourney. He had a
bunch of different colors in his deck, and his lone Growlithe in his
deck pops up first turn and he starts double kicking me to heck and
back. He retreated it and hit me with some other stuff, but Growlithe is
what got him the game, hitting my Sunflora for 80 and killing it after I
got Tails on "Trip Over" thus only doing 30 to the stupid dog. His other
stuff just 0wnz me bad, and I lose once again.... gah, I suck at draft
lol.
Draft | 0-2 |
Draft - Round 3
vs. Mike Kendle
A really cool kid, and nice too. He gets a horrid start, and I get a
godly one, starting with good stuff which turns into a Sunflora by t2 or
3, not sure. Anyway, his lone Oddish sits there and hides and Absorbs a
few turns as I Energy Plant with Sunflora to build up my bench.
Eventually he fails on Hide and I kill it. His only other basic was
Ditto, which I tore apart with a Trip Over + heads. We shook hands, said
good game, and I asked him if he could trade any cards, and I believe he
gave me 2 Double Gusts for my sis's deck. Awesome!
Draft | 1-2 | yay I won one!
The draft ended there, I have no idea who won, but it was fun. I pulled
some good stuff out of my packs that wasn't in my deck too. In the
between time between the draft and main tourney, we got free pizza,
which I scarfed in less than 20 seconds literally because I was
scrounging for my Eevees and other crap. We couldn't find Gold Berries
for my sis, so I threw in 2 Moo Moo Milks and a Hyper potion she got
from the draft into her Typhlosion/Rapidash deck. Her deck was done, so
she hastily fills out her Decklist sheet as I ask a nice older guy
(older as in like 30s, not old old) if he has any Eevee, Copycat, or GBs.
He looks for like 10 min for Eevee (told you he was nice, lol) but
couldn't find the ND one, however I do get a Copycat from him and an
Aqua eevee from him in a trade. So, now I need one more Eevee, but still
have no ND Eevee. I desperately ask Colin who in turn points me to Juli
(I think) and she gives away 3 ND Eevee to me (Thank you SOOOOOO
MUCH!!!!)
Sweet. I have my deck completely assembled the way I had it, minus 1 ND
Eevee. I write my decklist out as fast as possible and hand it in... it
looked a little something like this:
--------------------------------------------------
4x Elm
2x Copycat
1x Prof Oak's Research
1x Bill's Maintenance
2x Pokemon Trader
4x Energy Removal 2
4x Double Gust
3x Focus Band
2x Gold Berry
2x Rocket's Hideout
Energy - ||| 16 |||
11x Psychic
4x Darkness
1x Recycle
----------------------------------------
There was my modfiied deck, Constellation, in its first every
tournament. I've been testing the deck for over 2 weeks, not really
seeing it work all that well, but playing irl is quite different from on
Apprentice. I played a practice game with my sister, then started a
practice game with Swanton, only to have it cut off because the start of
SBZ was about to begin.
So, without further delay, the Main Tourney. Let's get ready to rumble!
ROUND ONE - ||| 0-0 ||| - || 0 POINTS ||
VS. Chad Young _ Epseon/Tentacruel
Let me start out by saying, Chad's hair is fricking awesome. Ahem... ok.
Sorry if I can't exactly remember these games... we had to play a ton of
em, lol. We both start pretty well I think, gets an Espy going and a
Tentacruel w/o energy on the bench. I have aqua espy on the bench
somewhere but 2 Murkrows also are there. Of course, the resistance is
what I need going for me here, and I load the 2 Krows up. He uses
Tentacruel nicely, putting a dark on my stinking Cleffa before I had AQ
Espy to pick it back up, so he takes a prize on that. My Krows hit his
espy pretty well, but he tries to load more, and I end up getting 2-3
ER2's off with Even rolls for heads, knocking some energy off of his
Espy and a Water off of his Tentacruel. My krows are followed up by Xatu
which pose major threats. I end up taking out an espy, and I think
another Espy, then he starts to stall with babies, which I run through
on more even rolls. I'm down to having 1 prize left to take, and he
decides to basically forfeit by sending up Espy with 2 energy, tackling
me for 50 due to a S. Charm. I then Super Psy for the win. We both had
great luck on Focus bands, which I NEVER EVER land. We shake hands, wish
each other good luck in the future and part.
Colin ends up getting revenge on my sister, by destroying her in the
first round of the modi tourney. How'd those 2 get paired up in both of
the tournies? lol. Anyway, I talk to some people, but not for long,
because my game lasted with only 3 min left. I talk with Colin and my
sister a bit, and got ready to listen for next round.
ROUND TWO - ||| 1-0 ||| - || 3 POINTS ||
VS. Kenny ( KCtheProfessorOfPoke ) _ "Double Threat"
Wow, another cool pojo person I get to meet ^_^. His Double Threat deck
consisted of an Espeon/Umbreon combo. He started out.... well, really
really good, and the sheer speed is what killed me. He had 2 Darks on
his Umbreon right away, and he started chipping away and later ko'ing
half of my guys, taking like 4 prizes before I could do practically
anytyhing. Finally, my Xatu exacts some revenge and lands energy cycle,
and I land a few ER2's. Xatu moves a total of 3 Darks, 1 onto an Elekid,
Cleffa, and an Espeon respectively. This eventually wipes them out, but
I still have to deal with his other friggin Espeon, who hits my Xatu and
I think kills it. I was able to hit him with something else, but he
lands his focus band, which was for the game pretty much. If he died, i
coulda kept going, heads he ko's me next turn, and he ends up landing
it, then killing me. A really good game.
KC and I talk a bit as we put away our decks, then I take a look around
at what's being played and see a lot of different decks.
ROUND THREE - ||| 1-1 ||| - || 3 POINTS ||
VS. Scott Holder _ Meganium/Exeggutor(psy&grass)
First off, he had a really great deck, and second off, I started with a
Murkrow... and no darks. I got totally screwed over on this game, as he
brought out Meganium on turn 3, and proceeded to destroy me with Scyther
and co. I had absolutely no chance with the crap draws I had, and this
game was over in no time. Even if I had a good start, I believe he
probably would've beaten me, but it would've been more fun.
So with the time I have to do nothing with, I check out a few other
games, talk with Swanton and KC, who played each other 3rd round with
Swanton winning, and KC losing his first place ranking. I eat some
snacks, chat about the previous games and get ready for the next round.
ROUND FOUR - ||| 1-2 ||| - || 3 POINTS ||
VS. Zak Krekeler _ Jumpluff/Kingdra
A very small kid, not very old at all, but he was a very very good
player. We start out with lone cleffas, but he's able to trader
something away for a Tyrogue. Yes, Tyrogue. I almost crapped my pants
right then and there, as he attaches a recycle energy, retreats and says
"Smash Punch"
He rolls, the dice hit up against the box of cards next to us...
HEADS
TAILS
Whew... I draw and bench another Cleffa, then eventually get an Aqua
Espy loaded up before as he gets a Skiploom down.
Baby flip.. Tails... Baby Flip.. Tails.. Baby flip.. Tails. Gaaah! I
couldn't get through his babies for the longest time, then he gets
Jumpluff out by that time and I start powering up a Xatu. I ER2 him a
few times and actually stop him from attacking because he didn't have
any energy. Finally, I take out the Jumpluff with a Dark Espeon that I
had been loading, which also takes out a benched Cleffa with Psysplash.
He gets bad flips on Fluff, and it goes down. He gets a Kingdra and
starts hitting me, killing something, but then my Murkrow starts to get
the best of him as I'm needing only 1 prize left to win. Murkrow Feints
his Kingdra for 40, as he hits me for 30 and takes out one of my Cleffas
(I think) in the wake of Mud Splash's Bench damage. I hit him for 40
again, then he Genetic Memory's for Reverse Thrust from Horsea, and
sends up Hoppip. I get tails on Focus band and Krow goes down. However,
Kingdra still had 1 energy on it, so my Dark Espeon Psysplashes for the
win. Great game, and one that I needed to win.
ROUND FIVE - ||| 2-2 ||| - || 4 POINTS ||
VS. Tony Rufino _ Crobat SK/Noctowl
This is a really cool idea for a deck, and one other person was playing
this as well. I get an OK start I guess, but he really has the upper
hand the whole game, even with his weakness to Psy with Zubat-Crobat. He
has like 2 Crobat's up, a Noctowl up and hoot-hoot benched along with a
Murkrow. I'm so screwed.. only the Crobats are loaded though. He double
gusts something, which makes me think that he has no double gusts in his
hand, considering his hand size is down to 3. I bench a Krow, darkness,
Double gust and Mean Look his Noctowl. He draws on his turn... Passes.
SCORE!!!!!! I attach to Krow and start obliterating his bench. Starting
out with his Focus Banded Crobat, then onto his GB'd Crobat. He finally
starts attaching energy to Noctowl after I hit the active noctowl for
30. He gets 2 energy onto Noctowl after like 5-6 turns, and by this time
I have a Dark Espeon and an AQ Espeon loaded, waiting for the Crobats.
He kinda screws up my strategy by attaching to Noctowl, but I go ahead
and kill it, take a prize and wait to see what he does. His Crobat comes
out, hits Krow for 40, and I bring up AQ Espy to kill off Crobat. Dark
Espy tries to take it out but I think he lands heads with Focus, Dk
Espy's attack also takes out the Gold Berry on the benched Crobat. I'm
not too sure of what happens next, but he lands 2 heads with Crobat,
wiping out my Dk Espy >_<. My other Espy comes up, kills it, which
brings it down to 1 prize for me, 3 for him. He gets Krow loaded, and
proceeds to hit my bench. He kills one thing on it. Time is at like 1
Minute now, and I end my turn really quickly, allowing him one more shot
at me. He's at 2 prizes, I'm at 1. Time is called, I'm not exaggerating,
3 seconds after I end my turn. He thinks he has it tied, but I then
remind him that darkness energy doesn't increase bench damage. He looks
at his hand, says he can still tie, then Double Gusts out my Cleffa,
argh! He announces Feint Attack... rolls.
A 3! YES!!!!!!! This was one of the more fun games I played, it really
required a crap load of strategy. He got kinda mad about not tieing on a
flip, but I could've ended my turn 4 seconds later and not even allowed
him to attack. Another game I needed to win, and I got it... albeit only
2 pts for the win, but hey, its more than a draw.
I talk with Colin, my sis, and KC for like 5 seconds before the next
round has to start.
ROUND SIX - ||| 3-2 ||| - || 8 POINTS ||
VS. Garrick Buckland _ Houndoom AQ/Scizor
Another really cool little kid. He was playing exactly the kind of deck
I wanted to face. This was the easiest game I played all day not because
of his skill level (he was a pretty darned good sport about losing and
he had a pretty cool deck) but because first turn he plays a metal on
Scyther. ER2'd it. The same thing happened on t2 as I got some GODLY
start and had TWO Natu's Benched with a focus band attached to each of
them. I had one Xatu in hand, then Tradered for another one. So, he
starts loading up the scizor with Rainbow Energies, and he got one metal
onto it, but that one got Energy Cycled onto his Houndoom. He hits me
for 50, and I try Energy Cycle again as I load up a Murkrow on the bench
with 2 darks and a psychic. He attaches another rainbow to make it 40
dmg on it, then hits my Xatu, but I get heads on band. Next turn I
retreat, and kill the thing with Krow. The game just went downhill from
there. He was dry on energy, and my Krow and Xatu that got loaded for
Super Psy just 0wned his guys left and right. His babies didn't survive
more than 1 turn a piece, and he kept just sending Cleffas at me
exclaiming "Cleffa attack!" Lol, a very good sport about his match, and
I commend him for that. He's a very good player and should get even
better in the future.
Whew...
END OF SWISS ROUNDS - ||| 4-2 ||| - || 11 POINTS ||
I meet up, after my match, with Colin and he has a piece of notebook
paper on the table next to him, saying that the top 8 is all people with
12 points or higher, so i'm like "crap, that sucks" But lo and behold,
Vince reads off the matches that are in top 8 and i hear, "Table 1,
Colin and Pat!" And so, yeah, that's me. So, i'm forced to play against
Swanton...
TOP EIGHT - ROUND ONE
VS. Colin Moll (Swanton1717) _ Typhlosion/Exeggutor
He laughs as he actually gets to go first, then we flip over our guys.
He has something on the bench I believe, with a non-holo Entei active. I
get a decent start, Eevee is a Turn 1 Dark Espeon and I start pounding
on his Non-Holo Entei. He doesn't get any drawing, and I try to build up
some other stuff. Eventually, I get another Espy running, this time the
AQ one. However, he gets a Professor Elm, makes me immediately sign it,
lol, then starts the beatdown. He busts out TWO Typhlosions after I take
out an Exeggutor, and starts the Fire Recharging. He gets double heads
twice in a row, and eventually gets a few tails. I do some considerable
damage to one Typhlo, but he starts pulling Double Gusts from seemingly
nowhere... FOR THREE TURNS IN A ROW!!! He wipes out Espy, wipes out Dark
Espy, destroys Xatu, destroys anything that ever had a chance of
becoming big. So I eventually take out his Typhlosion... with... lol,
Natu as he hits himself in Confusion and then I take it out. I knew I
had no chance from there and he takes out Natu with his other Typhlo.
Eventually, he takes his last prize quite a bit before time is called.
Oh well, I was happy i got top 8, lol! I wish him good luck and we wait
for the other games to finish.
The one deck he didn't want to face, he has to face, and you can read
that in his report.
Overall, I had a blast at SBZ. With a cool deck that was EXTREMELY fun
to play, and I met a ton of cool people. I had Swanton sign my Jumpluff,
got a ton of cards from my prizes, drafted some good stuff, and ate a
crap load of junk food ^_^
Most of all though, the SBZ showed me what I needed to change in my
deck, so expect Constellation 2 sometime soon.
Thanks for reading everyone... props and slops and such:
Props to:
Everyone, especially Colin who I talked to most with, what an Awesome
player and an awesome guy. Thanks for loaning me those ER2s! Also, to
Juli (is that how you spell it?) for the Eevees which I got to keep, you
rock! Everyone that played was awesome, good sports, and really nice.
Also, Props to Mapquest... for the directions and stuff lol.
Slops to:
MLB Showdown. They had a tourney the same time as us, that made it
pretty crowded... but oh well, they left well before we finished.
Thanks for reading!
Pat Kennedy, aka "nikePK" & on the boards "Jumpluff Madness"