The AceTrainer Team! From Left to Right:
Shanan Kan, Bodhi Cutler, Anthony Smith, Myles O’Neil

Yo! Anthony here with a tournament report from Brisbane City Championships. Going to be keeping it reasonably brief.

First tournament at the new Good Games location was awesome. Great new venue, more room, better (Cold!) air conditioning.

I was playing a fairly standard Blastoise.

Pokémon – 14
4 Squirtle BCR
3 Blastoise BCR
3 Keldeo EX
2 Black Kyurem EX PLS
1 Black Kyurem BCR
1 Jirachi EX

Trainers – 35
4 Professor Juniper
3 N
4 Skyla
2 Colress

4 Rare Candy
4 Superior Energy Retrieval
2 Energy Retrieval
3 Ultra Ball
1 Heavy Ball
1 Level Ball
1 Energy Search
2 Tool Scrapper
1 Dowsing Machine

3 Tropical Beach

Energy – 11
9 Water
2 Lightning

The first time I played with double Energy Retrieval, I felt it did a lot of work, so I decided to keep it. I dropped the Zekrom PLF I had been testing as I felt Empoleon would have a diminished presence.

I didn’t run Exeggcute because I wasn’t keen on running both it and Jirachi in the same list, and I ran a lot of retrieval to begin with.

After some amount of deliberation, I decided I wasn’t able to afford skipping out on the double Tool Scrapper. I believe that if you want to have a Garbodor Matchup worth playing, you have to run Double Scrapper since we no longer run Pokémon Catcher (usually) in Blastoise.

Round 1 vs Toki Ng (Empire) – Win
Game one he prized Dusknoir, game 2 I rolled through his set up with Keldeo. Secret Sword too strong.

Round 2 vs Marcus Peck (Psychic Lugia) – Win
He took an early lead but I managed to catch up. Dealing Frozen City as  Blastoise player can be difficult, but is the reason why owning Tropical Beach is a must. At one point I had to attack with Blastoise to take down a sigilyph and in the same turn I made sure to make the most of Blastoise’s Deluge ability as it was my last one.

Fortunately, my Blastoise survives and I ‘Rush In’ with Keldeo to keep it safe and close out the game.

I donked his Deoxys in game 2. (Or was it game 3? I can’t remember if we went to 3 games).

Round 3 vs Bodhi Cutler (Blastoise) – Draw

We chose to intentionally draw (we simply elect to draw and submitted our match slip indicating this). We were destined to play a mirror match that hinges on the coin flip in game one. He had a slight edge in his list with two card differences, but I believe that the result of the coin flip would have outweighed them (Computer Search and Cilan being those two choices).

Many players may be unaware in Australia, but intentional draws are deemed fair and legal in premier events. I hope to write about Intentional Draws in the game soon, but here are some articles to read on the subject until then:

http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/print.php?Article=50

http://kaijudo247.wordpress.com/2013/09/09/intentional-draws-the-lesser-of-two-evils/

Round 4 vs Jon Blair (Darkrai/Garbodor) –  Draw

In the first game I set up very strongly, with a 6 energy Black Kyurem EX whilst walling/attacking with Keldeo. To make matters worse for Jon, he discovers that both Garbodor are prized.

Game 2 he has a much better game. I struggle to set up and only scoop after he gets 5 prizes on me. I should have scooped this game earlier.

We start game 3 and time is called not long after.

Round 5 vs Lachlan Russell (Yeti with Kyurem) – Win

I dominate the first game, only to lose as he N’s me to 1 and takes 6 prizes over two turns.

I win the second game (although I don’t recall the details of this match sadly).

Game 3 is set to play through to a draw and he decides to scoop so that I can advance. He didn’t want us to draw as neither of us would make it. It’s a difficult situation to resolve since I felt we were both equally deserving, so I must thank him kindly for his generosity.

Top 8 vs Shane Quinn (Blastoise) – Lose

In game 1 I simply lose the prize exchange.
In game 2 I struggle to set up and once again fall behind.

‘Blastoise’ Ugh.

Shout outs to all the interstaters. And shout outs to Amy Wilson for placing 3rd (making her the top performing Brisbane player).

Congratulations and well done to everyone else. I am extremely pleased with the new player base for this season and the calibre of players we’re seeing across the board. Many props to the Brisbanites that made cut.

And congratulations to to our top 2, Shanan Kan and Shane Quinn who placed 2nd and 1st respectively. See you again soon.