Boring v1.51 (Zap-turn-dos)
by Alexander Farrugia a.k.a. X-Act
National Malta Pokemon Tournament
Organised by Forbidden Power
Venue: Salesians Game Center, Sliema
Date: 7^th August 2005
Participants: 24 

            Interesting, this. The very first official Maltese Pokemon National Championships that are recognised by POP. Except that you don’t win a trip if you actually win it. You need to spend your own money to get there yourself. :/ 

            The tournament was just 5 Swiss rounds, best out of 3 games. We had 40 minutes to play the three games. Whoever ended up on top after those 5 games was the winner. There was no Top 8. 

            I actually didn’t know what deck to use. I had around 10 possible decks that I could use: Dragtrode, Ludicargo, Rock Lock, Gardy, Dark Slowking, Magma, Monarchy, and a few rogue decks (Metalix, Machamp, etc.) Note the list does not include T2L and Zap-turn-dos. The former is because I don’t actually own any Medicham ex or Muk ex, and I only got 1 Hariyama ex. The latter is because, up till 3 weeks before the tourney, I had only 1 Zapdos ex. Things changed though; I traded for another Zappy, and got the other two off eBay. I built a Zappy deck with 3 Manectrics and 1 Manectric ex but I didn’t like it… it seemed not consistent enough, especially since it had no way of getting energies back when they’re discarded. I longed for Electrode ex, and got 2 just the day before the tourney via trades. So I fixed the deck at the last moment, and the result was this (excuse the corny name, but Zap-turn-dos is pretty boring): 

Boring v1.51

Pokemon (16):

4 Zapdos ex
4 Electrike (Recharge)
2 Manectric (EX Deoxys)
4 Voltorb (Recharge)
2 Electrode ex

Trainers (27):

4 Super Scoop Up
4 TV Reporter
4 Lanette’s Net Search
3 Dual Ball
3 Battle Frontier
3 Pokemon Reversal
2 Steven’s Advice
2 Rocket’s Admin.
2 Strength Charm

Energy (17):

17 Lightning Energy

            The reason why I finally decided to go for Zap-turn-dos is twofold. Firstly, it’s a fast deck that can win you the game in 5 minutes if it gets the combo going, which was cool in this tournament having three games that needed to be played in 40 minutes. Secondly, after examining the metagame in my area carefully (that contained practically NO fighting types and scant Lightning), I decided that the best course of action was to play a lightning deck that was fast and wasn’t switched off by Battle Frontier, so that I could play it myself. 

            As you can see, my deck is a pretty standard Zap-turn-dos. I played only 2 Stevens because after getting your good start, it immediately becomes much less effective. Rocket’s Admin. was also a card I couldn’t go without when I inserted Electrode ex in my deck. You can use Electrode ex’s power to attach 5 Energies to Manectric, giving your opponent 2 prizes, possibly leaving him with only 1 or 2 prizes to take, then you immediately Admin and bring their hand to 1 or 2 and make a comeback with your Manectric dealing 90+ per turn. 

            Here is what happened during the five rounds of the tournament. 

Round 1 – Me vs. Luigi Porto (Team Aqua’s Walrein/Emerald Blaziken/Ninetales HL) 

            In the first game, I started with Electrike and had Manectric in hand, so by the turn 2 I had already taken a prize. He played Archie to get Aqua’s Walrein immediately, however, and started pumping him up. However, I got my Zappy soon after then, and was able to 2HKO it for a very easy win. 

            The second game, however, was worse for me. I again got Zapdos ex quickly and KOed one of his Pokemon, but this time he countered by getting out Ninetales, and my Zapdos couldn’t touch it. Manectric eventually appeared, but when it did, it was too late and I was losing heavily, since Ninetales just kept doing 50 to every Pokemon I had. I decided to Scoop Up the Zappy and not play it again so that I lose earlier, to have more time available for the third game. So I let him win it and we were tied one game apiece. 

            In the third game, I got Zappy going and this time Ninetales didn’t show up to stop me for an even easier win than that of the first game. (2-1) 

Record: 1-0, 3 points. 

            At this point I went to see the decks of the other players that were still playing. Last year’s winner (Ivan Grixti) and last year’s runner up (Carlos Cauchi) were paired against each other in the first round. Ivan played Camerupt and Camerupt ex with Metagross (Deoxys) and Exeggutor (don’t ask me the strategy of his deck, I thought last year’s champion had a rather poor deck this year) and Carlos played Vileplume ex with Bellossom and Pidgeot, which is considerably better. Because of Carlos being practically weak to every card that Ivan had, the game went to sudden death, and Carlos eventually won it. Then, of course, the round 2 pairings were called, and I had to play again. 

Round 2 – Me vs. Sharon Drago (Gardy) 

            There were only 2 females playing at the Nationals out of the 24 players… I got to play against one of them now, and, as you shall see later, I got to play against the other girl as well. Anyway, she was playing the usual Gardevoir having Gardy RS, Gardy ex and Gardy EM, and also played Wobbuffet. 

            In the first game, I got my turn 2 Zapdos ex going and killed 2 Ralts for a very simple win. 

            The second game, again, proved much more difficult, for the same reason as the second game in Round 1. I started with a lone Zappy, and she started with Wobbuffet. OUCH. Besides trying to deal with the fact that I couldn’t possibly do the Turn 2 combo, I also had to contend with doing no damage at all even if I powered Zapdos ex up. I got an Electrike but I couldn’t find Manectric again. I managed to Reversal one of her Benched Pokemon for a prize but eventually the Zappy was in the prizes. Eventually I got an Electrode ex going and tried giving her 2 more prizes, attaching all 5 Energies to my Electrike. Sadly, Manectric still refused to appear so she also KOed my Electrike for the win. So again we were tied with one game apiece. 

            In the third game, I got my turn 2 Zapdos ex combo going, however, but she managed to get out Gardevoir EM turn 2 with Rare Candy. However, Zapdos ex still managed to KO it in two hits, and won easily. (2-1) 

Record: 2-0, 6 points. 

            Exactly when I ended the game and congratulated my opponent, I saw that she had tears in her eyes. She must have realised that she now had no chance of winning the tournament. Sorry Sharon, better luck next time, but that is competitive play. 

            Elsewhere, Carlos Cauchi won his second game too. Little did I know what was in store for me next… 

Round 3 – Me vs. Alessandro Vallastro (Dragtrode with Togetic) 

            I remember playing against his younger brother in last year’s nationals, but I don’t remember ever playing Alessandro himself. I heard he had won his two matches by winning two consecutive games in both of them (while I had to drop the second game in both) so I was a bit prudent to see what his deck is. Turned out he played Dragtrode with Togetic. 

            In the first game, however, I got a very easy win. He started with a lone Voltorb and I got my Zappy T2 combo going. By that time, he had benched a Dratini, but Zappy took care of it also. 

            The second game was much harder again, but this time I did contrive to win it. It was one of the most exciting games I’ve every played. I started, and, realising now that he played Dragtrode, immediately put down my Battle Frontier. He setupped much faster this time, and got out Dark Dragonair by drawing it with TV Reporter and Dark Electrode with Rocket’s Pokeball, but now couldn’t use their powers, so he played Scott and got two gyms and a supporter, and played Rocket’s Hideout. He now, of course, got Dark Dragonite and attacked my Zapdos ex for 60. Things were looking a bit gloomy, but I also had a good start, getting a Zapdos ex in play and another one in my hand. I swapped my Zapdos that had 3 damage counters left with my fresh Zapdos and tried to Scoop Up my damaged Zapdos: tails. At one point I forgot all about Rocket’s Hideout and used Pokemon Reversal on a Dark Electrode and did 70, only to realise that it wasn’t KOed that way. He used Potion on Dark Electrode and changed his gym to Tricky Gym, and proceeded to KO my benched Zapdos ex (having 8 damage counters) with Feint Attack. By the time I had finally killed his two Dark Dragonites and his Dark Electrode, he had only 1 prize left, and I had 3. However, he got nothing after this, and my fully-powered third Zappy proceeded to kill two 50HP basics and a Togetic for the win. Very good game! (2-0) 

Record: 3-0, 9 points. 

            Only three players were on 9 points now: Me, Carlos Cauchi and Glenn Borg, who played Deoxys ex. Carlos and Glenn were paired against each other, while I was somewhat lucky and was paired with someone who had won only two games. This proved to be the second girl. 

Round 4 – Me vs. Michelle Drago (Swampert/Swampert ex/Rare Salamence/Entei ex) 

            In my opinion, her deck was actually pretty random, which was even better for me. I don’t really know how she lost only one game, but anyway… 

            In the first game, I got my quick start I needed and killed her lone two Bagons. However, it must be noted that I got 4 tails on two Dual Balls in the process, and she also got tails whenever she flipped for Bagon’s Singe attack. We laughed about how the coin only wanted to get tails. 

            The second game wasn’t very difficult either, for a change. She got a Salamence in the third turn with Intimidate, so I played Battle Frontier so that I could do the normal damage instead of 10 less; almost irrelevant but still useful. She didn’t know Battle Frontier even existed, so I told her what it did and that it was from the latest EX Emerald set, and she’s all like ‘oh, that card would have really helped me against the deck I lost to earlier’. Anyway, she somehow managed to KO a Zapdos ex, but not before her Salamence had only 10HP left, in the process changing the gym to Ancient Tomb. Out went Voltorb and did Rolling Attack to kill Salamence (lol). She them brought out Swampert ex with one Energy, and I had weakness to her, but her own Ancient Tomb made my Voltorb have no weakness, so she could only do 20 to Voltorb (lol). That proved crucial because I was going to Legendary Ascent the next turn, and if Voltorb had died, I would have lost two Energy cards. So I then Legendary Ascent, 3HKOing the Swampert ex. She could only do 80 to me in total before she did that. I had 2 prizes left, so I proceeded to kill an Entei ex for the win. (2-0) 

Record: 4-0, 12 points. 

            I knew that my final round will be against the winner between Carlos Cauchi and Glenn Borg. Carlos Cauchi’s brother, Christian, who played Slaking/Pidgeot, fell prey to another Battle Frontier user earlier, and was moaning about Battle Frontier to me. His face turned evil when I told him that I was also playing it… 

            Anyway, I was watching Carlos’ and Glenn’s game intently. Carlos eventually won the first game when there was only 10 minutes left on the clock, but Glenn managed to take the second game, and managed to tie Carlos 4-4 on prizes in the third before time was called. So again, Carlos was down to sudden death. This time Carlos lost the game, after Glenn used ATM Rock to kill one of his benched Stage 1. 

            So it was me versus Glenn in the final. Great comeback Glenn! 

Round 5 – Me vs. Glenn Borg (Deoxys ex various forms/Bellossom/Pidgeot) 

            I was kinda afraid of this deck, since Deoxys ex (Defense) owned my Zappy, and he also played Wobbuffet. The idea of Bellossom was to heal his Deoxys turn after turn, but in my opinion, Metagross DX is better. 

            In the first game, I got Zappy out quickly to dispose of a Gloom and a couple of basics that he had found, including a powerless Deoxys ex. Thankfully, he didn’t find Wobbuffet, which gave me a very useful early one game cushion. 

            In the second game, however, he did get Wobbuffet out early, and again I was desperately drawing to get Manectric, and again I failed to do so. I managed to reversal a Pidgeot and OHKO it, but I couldn’t do much more than that. He basically proceeded to own whatever I had with Wobbuffet, in the meanwhile building a Deoxys ex on the bench. He then converted his Deoxys ex to Attack form to OHKO my second, undamaged Zapdos ex. Again I did as I did in the first round. I had another Zapdos ex in my hand, but I did not play it, so that I have more time available for the third and decisive round. 

            So here we are. The National tournament now boiled down to the single game that I was going to play now. He gets to choose to start first, and I mulligan. Not a very good way to start. I then get an Electrike and a Voltorb, and could do the Zapdos combo turn 2 and kill one Pokemon. Alas, as soon as I do this, he gets Wobbuffet. I thought “That’s it. I lost” since again there was no Manectric in sight. However, he had an energy drought so he just put his Wobbuffet in the active spot and couldn’t attack with it, so I brought forward my Electrike and Quick Attacked the Wobbuffet. Tails. Next turn I get heads, so Wobbuffet has now 40HP remaining. By this time, most of the other players had finished their games and are watching ours. He tries a Life Herb flip. Tails. Another Life Herb flip. Tails again. He still doesn’t have enough Energy to attack my Electrike, so he passes. I look at my hand, and see that the two Strength Charms are both in my hand, together with a Zapdos ex and various other things (no Manectric in sight though). That meant that, at worst, I could use the two Strength Charms and do 20 and 20 to Wobbu (if both tails), and at best, I could use Strength Charm and do 40 damage if heads. So I attach Strength Charm. Quick Attack. Heads! Wobbuffet faints. Everyone was now “It’s over. Now Zapdos comes and wreaks havoc.” And that’s exactly what happened. I practically dropped down my Zapdos and overwhelmed whatever he had left for the win, and the title! I am the Maltese Pokemon Champion! (2-1) 

Record: 5-0, 15 points.

            I was the only player on maximum points now, so the tournament went to a close. There were actually 5 players who got second, losing only one game: Carlos Cauchi, Glenn Borg, Ivan Grixti, Luigi Porto (the guy I played at Round 1) and another guy who I forgot. However, Glenn Borg and Carlos Cauchi were proclaimed second and third, respectively, due to better matchups.

Final standings (Top 3 only) were as follows:

#1: Alexander Farrugia (5 wins, 0 losses) – 15 points

#2: Glenn Borg (4 wins, 1 loss) – 12 points

#3: Carlos Cauchi (4 wins, 1 loss) – 12 points

            All the 24 players got an HL Machamp nationals promo card, and a badge showing that they participated in the National Tournament. The top 3 players, of course, won the official National Championship trophy given by POP. Mine, of course, was bigger than the two others. :) My badge also contained the words “National Pokemon Winner”.

Props go to:

• Eric the Tournament Organiser and the store owner of Forbidden Power, who organised the tournament really impeccably.
• My brother Mark, who did an excellent job of judging the tournament.
• Me for winning the tournament and becoming Maltese Pokemon Champion. :)

Slops go to:

• The guys who I gave some of my cards to for free, only to find them on the pavement when I exited the building, trampled and torn. (The reason I can think of for them to do this is because I only gave them crappy commons and a few uncommons, but still, that’s not very nice. Next time, just don’t take them in the first place.)
• Manectric, it probably was too shy to appear at the time I needed it most.
• Microsoft Word, for underlining every Pokemon name in red, and the word Pokemon itself.

            Thanks for reading.

Alexander Farrugia a.k.a. X-Act

xactcreations@yahoo.com