This past weekend, Nate came over to Melbourne because my preferred card shop was having their Q2 Pokemon TCG League Cup, the biggest local tournament a card shop can host. Nathan came to this store's Q1 cup in early February, and it was a good time despite both of our mediocre performances (Nate lost early, I squeaked into the top-cut playoffs and lost in the first round). I ran it back with Dragapult for this cup, if you want to know anything more about that deck check out my last post.
The cup was on Saturday, so Nate came over Friday night. Katie and I took him to Long Doggers and we got some Caribs :)
The Cup
I started out 1-0 after facing off against a guy who had very recently started playing Dragapult and therefore did not know the mirror match very well. Not good for him.
My second match, the guy did not draw very well and I unceremoniously took all 6 of my prizes before he took a single one. The worst part is that his deck is supposed to be aggressive :( 2-0.
My third match.... was against Nathan!
Here's a pic from Nathan's perspective of me jotting down some notes on my prize cards. You'll notice my Bloodmoon Ursaluna is in the active spot. When playing Dragapult, you really never want to start that guy because of his hefty hefty 3-retreat cost. Unfortunately, Nathan's got what we in the bizz call a "terrible hand" and he isn't able to capitalize. I don't recall the exact sequence of events, but I get out my Dragapults relatively early, while Nate is forced to repeatedly use Raging Bolt's Burst Roar to draw a new hand. 3-0... and there's only three rounds!
Due to the two Juniors (I think <12 years old? kiddy kids), we had two undefeated players after 3 rounds and the winner of this cup had to be decided by the dreaded TIE BREAKERS. In round 3, with a record of 2-0, I was paired down to Nate with a record of 1-1, giving me a natural disadvantage in my "Opponent's Win %", the primary tie-breaker (because if I win round 3 my 3rd round opponent will be 1-2, whereas the other 2-0's are both playing each other, and the loser will be 2-1). I was able to overcome these odds thanks to both of my Rounds 1 and 2 opponents finishing 2-1! Ez tie break, not even close.
My rewards for winning are this sweet Champion mat and some Journey Together packs.
The hits from my packs and the mat. Good prizing all-together! We got a special art Noibat & Lille's Ribombee along with some assorted EX Pokemon, the best being a Lille's Clefairy EX that is super playable.
Only 8 (adult) players showed up to this cup, which had me fiending for a larger player pool. I saw there was a week-night League Challenge in Orlando yesterday, 4/29, and decided to go! I don't know if it was the Orlando players being better (probably not, I've played against a lot of these guys before), general sleepiness, everyone seeking out to counter Dragapult, or plain bad luck, but I went 1-3 and dropped before round 5 even started. Sheesh. My first time with a losing record since I don't even remember when. I had some pretty unlucky prizing in one of the games, with my Gholdengo-counter tech card being prized the first time I've played against a Gholdengo in months being the primary example.
Alas. The pendulum swings.
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