US National Championship 2007
7-7-2007
Greater Columbus Convention Center- Columbus, OH
Modified-Constructed
Swiss + Single Elimination
Nicholas Kirkpatrick

So Mike Mattingly, Tara Mattingly, Ryan Webb, Rob Price, LJ W, April S, Donnie G, Nick Sandy, Ryan Simmons, and I went to Nationals (that’s 10 people from one league!).
Some of us carpooled up to BWI. We were going to not check bags to get through the airport quicker, but all of us (but me!) ended up having to take more than what they could carry). Donnie’s baggage seemed to be the most excessive and we quickly found out why- he had shampoo! We made fun of him for thinking the hotel wouldn’t have any.

We got to the convention center. The ceilings were high and the place was epically large and the air conditioning was impressive. The ticket/badge line was short for me, the only one in our group who preregistered (I was also the only one who came with decklist ready). I’m a good boy- I come prepared! I came into the Pokémon room- it’s not hard to miss, it’s the one with the big freakin Pikachu! I said hi to De Shaw and met some other people.

Nick, Donnie, and I were sharing a room at Holiday Inn Columbus City Center (reserve hotel rooms early!) which was 0.9 miles from the convention center. We decided to start walkin’ there about 15min before check in time. The three of us went for about a mile not seeing any of the roads on my map. We discovered that we were reading the map backwards. The map I printed from mapquest, I asked it for directions from the hotel to the convention center, not the other way around. Eventually, on Saturday, we discovered a free bus that goes by Holiday Inn and the Convention Center.

In the middle of the Prof Cup, someone with a cameraperson came up to me and asked me if I could help him with a survey of political views or something. He asked me what I thought of scientology, global warming, and who I was voting for in the next presidential election. When the camera stopped I asked the young man if he was doing this for school or something. He then said he was just messin’ with me and introduced himself as moza. OK

So, directly after the Professor cup, I see Kevin, Angelina, Pedro, and Pablo walkin’ into the place. I talk with Kevin and we showed each other our RaiEggs lists and we played 4 matches against each other, 3 of which he won (He had the 1-1 Arbok!). The four of us had a good time talking about what decks we’re thinkin about and Angelina showed off her damage counters which were rolled up pieces paper shaped like stars.

Kevin tried to get me to play 2 Researcher instead of one Researcher and one Celio (a RaiEggs player at my league tried to get me to do this earlier, but I disagreed, because sometimes I don’t have Mentor in my hand to get a valuable H. Magnemite or Castform). Kevin got me to change it. He also confirmed something I was thinking about earlier, to change one of my Holon Legacy to Battle Frontier, because shutting down “Energy Draw” in Fire Monkey decks will be very important. So, I made those changes to my decklist, then changed it again, right before I went to bed. I changed back to 1 Reasearcher and 1 Celio. That Power Keepers Raichu would be too much out of my reach without the Celio. Playing Celio over Researcher was not a mistake at all, as I never needed to play Researcher to get energy.

One of the great things about my RaiEggs deck is the T2 “donk” wins that occur when I start with Pikachu and am ready to play Raichu and DRE on the second turn to do 80 damage to my opponent’s only basic. This has happened many times in playtesting at Aardvark’s, but did not happen in any of my fun games at Origins or any of my matches in Nationals. I played 9 rounds, “it’s sure to happen at least once or twice”, I thought. Didn’t happen.

While I was hangin’ with the Rockville people, Mike and Tara summoned the Aardvark group to a burger place right across the street from the convention center. There were about 10 of us sittin’ on this big table, and right next to us was Timothy Foley’s group and we bothered them and they bothered us and we took pictures and it was a great time.

Tara decided we all needed nicknames, so we started thinkin’ up names. We called Donnie “shampoo” making fun of him bringing extra stuff with him for the trip. When we were ordering beverages, I was the only one to order milk and I asked if they had fat free. They only had two percent- I said that’ll do.
So, from then on, my nickname is “2 Percent”.

Me, Nick, and Donnie got up and into the pre-registration line fairly early. Good for us, cos the line was pretty long behind us. I was not at all surprised by the final number of 735 participants. I got through registration wondering how they could afford shirts for over 600 people.

And of all things that could happen to me while I was waiting for registration to be over... Dave approached me and asked me if I could help with deck checks in the Seniors/Juniors. I was sooo excited. To make it better, I got to sit next to Tara! This was the best part of Nationals (but really Dave, if you're reading this, you made my day, I could've gone 0-9 that day and be happy). The deckcheckers received a special promo item, which will be cherished (and I will rub in the faces of my league players who didn’t go to Nationals- haha!) They gave us bottles of water too. I won’t say too much, but I must say, POP sure knows how to take care of its staff!

I met up with the Rockville group again and playtested against Pedro’s Rhyperior deck (which we knew was now a popular deck and not some obscure “I’m gonna deck you out and it’s gonna be real fun!” deck). He beat me. RaiEggs was only an autowin against everything when it was a secret deck.

I got to see for the first time what it’s like when the pairings go up at a 200+ player event. If you think it’s hard to walk up to the pairings sheet to read it at CCs, SCs, and BRs, you need to see what it’s like at Nationals. Every time the parings went up I was happy, because the name of my opponent was someone I never heard of, so I was like, “Hey! It’s a nobody! This should be easy!” (OK, that’s not really what I was thinking, maybe only subconsciously. Anyway, I was wrong).

RaiEggs

4x Pikachu [HP]
3x Raichu [HP]
1x Raichu [PK]
4x Exeggcute [HP]
4x Exeggcutor [HP]
4x Holon’s Castform
2x H. Magnemite

4x Cessation Crystal
4x Cursed Stone
3x Holon Mentor
2x Holon Transceiver
2x Mary’s Request
2x Copycat
1x Holon Adventurer
1x Scott
1x Holon Legacy
1x Battle Frontier
1x Holon Researcher
1x Celio’s Network
1x Mr. Briney’s Compassion
1x Holon Scientist
1x Crystal Shard

4x Scramble Energy
4x Double Rainbow Energy
3x Metal Energy
1x Cyclone Energy

Round One: Meganium ex/Torterra/Roserade
I started with Exeggcutor and he started with Turtwig. He barely got any energy to attack. I had enough energy by turn three to do “Split Bomb” to his active and then to his benched Chikorita. I KO’d his active Turtwig next turn and he sent out Roselia. He put an energy on it so he could use “Sweet Spikes”. The sleep flip kept Exeggcutor asleep, but when he woke up, I decided to take out Roselia before he could get catch up in the game. I used “Delta Circle”, but, oh- misplay!- I evolved my benched Pikachu with my secret "OHKO Monkey with a Scramble and take advantage of L weakness" TeCh too early and did 10 less damage than I needed to get rid of Roselia. A Cursed Stone I had in play got rid of his benched Budew. Then I “Split Bomb” to get rid of everything.
1-0

As I walked away from my first match, I looked at the tables around me to see that the fears about Fire Monkey being the big deck were not exaggerated. Every third deck (OK, not literally true, but darn, it was popular!).

Round Two: MadHatter (Lucario + Eeveelutions-ex w/Cessation Crystal)
I had a Castform start. He had an Eevee start with Riolu on the bench. I had no energy turn one and I went first. On his turn, he decided to Super Scoop Up (heads) and send out Riolu for the T1 kill. Fortunately, the “Wild Kick” flip failed. He said, “I guess I can’t expect to get all heads in one turn!”

On his second turn he evolved his active Riolu and then KO’d my Castform. I was behind on prizes, so I sent out my Pikachu and evolved, used Scramble and “Metallic Thunder” to get rid of his Lucario. He had two Eevee on the bench. Next turn, I sent out an Exeggcutor and used DRE to “Delta Circle” and OHKO his Eevee. He could not recover and he scooped.
2-0 (At this point I am the only undefeated Aardvark player)

Round Three: SLOW DECK (Rayquaza ex [DF])
I decided to “Zzzzzzap” as soon as I could to do 20 to his Rayquaza ex, so “Metallic Thunder” could take it out later (I don’t remember his active. He was able to get 4 energy to use Rayquaza ex’s “Sky High Claws” but it fortunately was 10 less than he needed for Raichu, because it had a Metal Energy on it. I don’t remember much about what happened except his Crystal Beach was in play most of the time but never hurt me. I got rid of it easily when the time was right. I won on time, we were 1-5.
3-0

Round Four: Jeff S (RaiEggs)
When this guy flipped over his basics I thought, “oh [insert bad word here]!” I did not want to have to do this. All I had to do was outplay him, I thought. Fortunately, he wasn’t playing 1-1 Arbok for the mirror match. He pretty much had the same list as me. We both had Castform starts, so it was just a matter of who would come up for the KO first. He decided to go first with Exeggcutor. I then sent out Exeggcutor and had a Scramble on it, to do “Split Bomb” (instead of Raichu to “Metallic Thunder” his Exeggcutor). I did that to stay behind on prizes. I kept on doing “Split Bomb” and could’ve KO’d some stuff but didn’t to stay behind. My next Exeggcutor with Scramble used “Split Bomb” to KO some stuff, and still leave me behind on prizes. This was not necessarily a misplay. He outplayed me. He picked up all six prizes and I only picked up five. This guy had me on my toes the whole time, heart beating fast- I thanked him for an exciting match.
3-1

Round Five: Tim Metro (Eeveelutions + Cacturne)
He had Cacnea active and CFF’d twice. He evolved his benched Eevee to Jolteon ex early. Fortunately I played Cursed Stone next turn. He Windstorm’d it later. We both surpassed each other in prizes throughout the game and I lost my Cessation Crystal at an inconvenient time. His “Spike Storm” gave him enough to take out a lone active Pikachu (weakness FTL). He was then ahead on prizes. I saw his benched Jolteon ex with 20 HP left and I was staring at my benched Exeggcutor with a DRE and H. Magnemite on it, which I would inevitably use to KO it. When there were about three minutes on the clock and he started playing slow (taking two long to think about what to do). I was scared. I did not want him to win on time, because I knew if the match played out entirely, I would win. However, I am not one to abuse judge calling and don’t want to accuse people of stalling for fear that would make me look bad (I probably should have called a judge anyway just to watch. Oh well, now I know for next time!). I've never called a judge at a Premier Event before. Oh well, there's a first time for everything. Again, I don't think he was malicious at all.

I had my hand on my heart and was breathing hard. My opponent was nice to me and said to calm down, and that I probably have the game anyway. He ended his turn and I did what I had to do. “Split Bomb” on Jolteon ex to draw two prizes.
4-1

Round Six: MetaNite
He got a H. Magnemite start. What else can I say? He was able to “Linear Attack” a few turns. He got one Metagross out but Cursed Stone + “Metallic Thunder” was too much for it. He later got out a Dragonite, but again, my Cursed Stone was too much. He spent the last few turns trying to get lucky on coin flips with a lone Dratini (“Thunder Wave”).
5-1

Round Seven: Ice'Cold (Fire Monkey)
I tried to beat it the best way I knew how. “Split Bomb” the search engines, the Skitty. He had two, so I hit both. I never had the chance to KO a Skitty. It was amazing (-ly bad)! He had DRE every time he needed it. Fire Monkey beats RaiEggs fair and square.
5-2

Round Eight: HotCarl (Ambush)
I got very little energy. My Cursed Stone and Cessation Crystal meant nothing. No way to recover with Scramble Energy cos I only got one the whole game. I kept on doing “Tail Whap” most of the game. I never had the chance to use the Raichu Empoleon is weak to.

5-3
Round Nine: BT (Fire Monkey)
So, I see this guy with “I’m a n00b” shirt and hat, so assume he’s someone important or he’s just trying to show how much he prepared. I looked at the Pokéballs at his waist and said he must have been to Burger King quite a few times. I saw the Jirachi/Torchic on his hat and thought to myself that there’s someone on PokéGym I should associate this image with. I don’t know who.

I “Split Bomb” his two Skitty twice for the KO. I had a fairly large hand. His Holon Scientist and another single card were prized. I won. Then he told me he was BT.
6-3

I didn’t hear about anyone dropping before the final standings. I wondered if I made the cut, as some 6-3s made it in last year. But apparently someone figured out some of the 7-2s wouldn’t make it. I looked at the final standings, and what do ya know? Something like 5 of the 7-2s were out of the top 32. It was bound to happen- at a tournament this big..

Of course people commented on this (pretty much everyone I talked to)- the size of the SE cut. I was just glad they caved in and did T32 instead of T16 as listed on the website (everyone should have known this would happen. I was pretty sure they would). But pretty much everyone I talked to wished there was a T64, because the Masters was soooooo large. The SE cut is supposed to be roughly 25% of the players, true, but the cap on SE is T32. It’s in the rules. Everyone goes into the tournament knowing this.

As Dave Swchimmer said about swiss+SE tournaments, (this is something we agree on):

If you don’t like the size of the cut (which you cannot control) or your OP Win% (which you cannot control), then win more matches (which you can control, kind of, sort of…).

So, at the end of it all, none of “our guys” made it into the top cut. No one to root for but Pedro.

Of course, Tara and a few others showered me with praise on the way home cos I had the best standing of all the Aardvark players.

Props

Slops