I Finally Won

Yes, it's true. I did finally win. I actually won three times. I beat Kim (he was helping me think through the moves though and so that doesn't really count in my mind). I beat Laura, Sarah's friend, and I beat Sarah. Now I have beaten Sarah at home on occasion, but not 'in public.' Alas, as a mature adult I couldn't do any sort of end zone dance, but I was tempted.

I suppose what made me really happy was that a couple of the Gym's players took me a little more seriously. Two very sharp players asked me to play, and then proceeded to wipe the floor with me of course. LOL. But it *did* take them a while longer than I thought it would.

I noticed I'm still slow. I miss things. Opportunities. Often choices come up in the game, and the decision you make will have consequences for several rounds. Here's an example. I had Dark Tyranitar out with three Energies attached, one of which was a Dark Energy. Do I do Grind or Spinning tail?

1 energy = Grind (10+) Does 10 damage plus 10 more damage for each Energy attached to Dark Tyranitar.
2 energies, one of which is a Dark Energy = Spinning Tail - Does 20 damage to each of your opponent's Pokemon.

Grind would yield 50 hit points on one guy: 10+( 3*10) + 10 extra for the Dark Energy. But, Spinning Tail would do 20 points of damage to all Pokemon on the bench, as well as 30 to the defending Pokemon (because of the Dark Energy bonus). So do I try to faint the main guy or do I try to wear down the bench where even nastier Pokemon were being built up with Energies on each turn. If I knock the main guy out, I draw a prize card, and it seemed like I was going to need to win whenever I could.

But wait, there's more to this decision. For sitting in my hand is the infamous Ancient Technical Machine card, Rock. This card is sooooo sweet, if you use it at the right moment. The card is a Trainer card that offers a substitute attack, and what an attack. You play it and your opponent has to devolve each of his Pokemon, i.e., remove the highest Evolution card on each Pokemon. That card goes back into the player's hand.

Now you may be thinking, "So what, he can re-evolve next turn." Well, yes...and no, because when he removes the highest card, he cannot remove the damage counters on that Pokemon. Those remain, and are thus transferred onto the card below which he reveals. The lower evolution or basic card that is left has lower hit points. So... his 150 point Blastoise EX card with only 70 points of damage on it, is devolved to reveal a Wartortle with a mere 60 hit points, and boom, his Wartortle is fainted. Bye, bye. And though he keeps the Blastoise EX in his hand, he no longer has a Wartortle handy to evolve. Yeah, baby, that's what I'm talking about. But wait, it gets better. This de-evolution process hits ALL his cards on the bench too. Mmm, mmm, mmm.

There you go. I had to think...for like a half a second. LOL. I got two KOs out of that card, the defending Pokemon and one guy on the bench! Sweet.

He did, however, beat me in the end. As I watched his moves I realized that my deck was pretty good, but I needed some better Trainers.

Good players often take a long time to play each turn, and it isn't because they're slow thinkers. They know their cards well. Why the hold up? They are playing lots of Trainer cards of all sorts, ones that let them draw cards: Energy, Pokemon basics, Evolutions, and of course, more Trainers. You can play an unlimited number of Trainer cards each turn, and this is in addition to the actual 'turn' itself: laying down an Energy, evolving Pokemon, and using an 'attack.' It's kind of fun to watch; they just run through a whole series of card moves while I sit there with my mouth hanging open, like Bambi in the headlights of the oncoming car. Boom, in one turn like that the whole complexion of the game has changed. I want to be able to do that too!

So I'm looking for Trainers, more on that next post.