For the first time since college, I walked through the hallowed halls of a conference center in my hometown. I remembered my first convention and cosplay contest that were held in the building, but then I walked into the Calhoun Room, where nostalgia hit me like a freight train. I walked into a Pokemon Trading Card Game tournament.
It had been a several years since I went to a competition because I'm a broke college student, but being Spring Break and having nothing to do I decided, why not? I picked up the "Mind Wipe" and "Psy Crusher" theme decks from the Plasma Blast and Plasma Freeze series respectively and figured I could put all of the psychic Pokemon from each deck into one deck and see how far I could get.
When the first round came up, I realized some new rules had been added to the tournament format. In order to win the round you had to win two out of three matches instead of just one. I figured this out the hard way when I stood up and was promptly told to sit back down or face a penalty.You now lack the ability to attack on the first turn if you are the first person to play due to some powerful cards that had been released that could set up and win the game in seconds. This rule made sense, but the cards it was created for had long been out of tournament legality. The rule that really blew my mind is that coins could no longer be flipped! People had become so good at flipping heads, that dice were the only method used to decide heads or tails by getting an even or odd number.
I sat down to face my first opponent and was absolutely destroyed. Every card in this guy's deck consisted of EX cards, or at least it seemed that way. He had an excellent strategy that involved Blastoise's ability "Deluge" allowing him to attach multiple water energy cards per turn and 2 Keldeo EX's which could switch in for the other with their ability. Needless to say my mixed starter deck didn't stand a chance.
By round three I really started to realize the potential that some of my cards had and started to understand how my deck needed to work. With Espeon, Cofagrigus and Drifloon I could constantly attack my opponent's benched Pokemon that were not in play and take them out while they were still preparing to fight. If I was able to set them up well, Muk and Gollurk were able to use high HP and attack values to take down Pokemon that couldn't knock them out on the first shot. Even Solosis came in handy with its "Hide" attack which prevents damage from being done to it if I flipped (or rolled) heads, which allowed me to stall and wait for the cards that I needed.
I realized that Espeon was my champion in the end. Eevee was quick to set up Espeon by using an attack that allowed me to search for Espeon within my deck and put it into my hand. The best thing about Espeon was that its "Shadow Ball" attack only required one psychic energy to use. "Shadow Ball" allowed me to hit any one of my opponents Pokemon (even on the bench) and deal 40 damage to it while applying weakness and resistance. This move was a godsend because almost everybody that I played against used a Deoxys EX on the bench and I could deal 80 damage to it right off the bat with a one energy cost move!
If you wondered what my placing was....well, let's just say I didn't have the top percentage of Rattata in my deck. As the day progressed, I learned that even with a makeshift deck you can have fun at a tournament. Half of the fun was learning about the cards you use and how they work in different situations. Sure, tournaments are about competition, but don't forget that the whole point of playing this game is to have fun and enjoy yourself.
Theme deck pic credit: Bulbapedia.com
