Once you leave school, the school holidays mostly become meaningless. A
couple of days ago I was struck with the realisation that they actually
do serve a purpose for older Card Housians like myself - Pokemon TCG
tourneys!
I was excited when I first saw the dates for two
Pokemon events for these holidays, and while one has passed already (of
which I'll go into detail in a minute) there's still one more to enjoy.
While Pokemon TCG may not have the popularity of Yu-Gi-Oh! or Magic: The
Gathering, it's actually a really fun and generally balanced game that
anyone can enjoy. I say "generally" because there are always methods to
break a trading card game and make the small children that they're aimed
at cry. Not that anyone I've played against goes out of their way to
make children cry.
Anyway, the first event of the holidays has
gone by and it was certainly great fun. Only a turnout of about twelve
people, but that also made for a nice and relaxing atmosphere. (More
people should get into Pokemon TCG, just so there are more players and
we can have more tourneys!) It was also the first competitive outing for
the latest version of my deck, known as Plasma Steel. It's a loosely
anti-meta deck, designed to shut down the opponent's powerful Pokemon-EX
cards with Klinklang (Plasma Storm 90/135) sitting on the bench with
its Plasma Steel ability rendering all damage from Pokemon-EX against
steel type Pokemon null. Cobalion-EX (Plasma Storm 93/135) and Cobalion
(Noble Victories 84/101) are the main attackers of the deck, but I've
also added in Lucario (Plasma Storm 78/135) because its Dual Armor
ability lets it fit in easily enough and also gives me something that
doesn't immediately become molten slag at the first sight of a fire type
Pokemon.
I faced a variety of decks at the event, which is
always a good thing opposed to going up against the same meta decks over
and over again (Wind-Up and Rabbit players, are you paying attention?).
The first game of the day was against a combined water and steel deck,
and was a very fun game as well as a close fought victory for me. My
second opponent was using what I'm going to dub "Classic Darkrai", in
that it seemed to mostly do what the current Darkrai-EX deck does but
also had a lot of hand control going on. I fell victim to my biggest
flaw when playing card games, in that I don't want to immediately commit
everything just in case it backfires too early. That was what lost it
for me.
Of course, my next game was against a current Darkrai-EX
build, complete with the horrifying Hypnotoxic Laser/Virbank City Gym
combination. This opponent also made good use of Bouffalant (Dragons
Exalted 110/124), which meant that Klinklang could keep Darkrai-EX out
of the main fight but a combination of poison and blocking meant that I
couldn't get set up quickly enough. Which makes two losses. Fourth game
was against a water deck, and while my opponent had a Wailord fully set
up it was at the cost of having no energy anywhere else. Cobalion kept
Wailord at bay, before going on to take the win for me. This opponent
got an honourable mention at the end, which I think he deserved fully.
Admittedly I can't remember what deck my final opponent was using, but I
do remember Cobalion-EX running through it without too many problems.
It was a prize guarantee event, though I did walk away with Player of
the Day which in my opinion is one of the better awards as it shows that
I'm a nice guy.
So, what did I learn? Mostly, it was that poison
sucks. The composition of my deck won't allow me to add in Full Heals
without gimping in in other ways, but I do have an idea on how to combat
it by adding in a Keldeo-EX for its Rush In ability. Keldeo-EX can
offer more than that as well, as it's a water type and will counter
those nasty fire types. On top of that I already use Blend Energy
(Lightning/Fighting/Steel/Water), which can activate the secondary
effect of Keldeo-EX's attack for even more damage. Well, it's something
to think about for the future, along with a shirt that has a Lucario
hitting Mewtwo over the head with a Klinklang while yelling "DUAL
ARMOR!" that I can wear to Pokemon TCG tourneys.
Definitely
looking forward to the next event, which is on Tuesday 9th of April for
those of you who have any Pokemon cards (no matter how old) and want to
have a go. I hope to see more people enjoying this game, so that I can
enjoy it more!
Troy, Lucario and Photon Fanatic
Disclaimer:
I was not in any way bribed to write this. Nope, not at all. What do
you mean you don't believe me? Do you really think The Chad would bribe
anyone into writing stuff for him?*
*Boudaries Crossed, please.
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