Tweakin'

Sarah and I decided to attend the City Championships in El Segundo. It was free, no entry fee, and you could play some and get a small pack of cards. Once you get into Pokemon TCG (Trading Card Game) you tend to get a little nuts about getting good cards to use or trade. Besides it was Saturday of the long Thanksgiving holiday and Sarah was reaching the ennui that only kids on vacation have the luxury of suffering.

When we got to the library where the event was being held we were immediately pleasantly surprised by two things. First, almost everyone from our local Pokemon Gym was there. Ah, friendlies! And second, there were girls, not a lot, but more than we'd expected, about seven or eight (out of probably sixty or more people), all ages and ethnicities. Gotta dig that!

City Championship is a different kind of event than the Prerelease. You bring your own deck. It's about how well you and your deck do against others in your group. =gulp= First thing we had to do was submit a deck list of each card in our deck. Once that deck list is turned in, it's locked in for the day; you can't change it. Suddenly I knew why Kim had sent the Gym members that Excel template. Sure would have been easier to just bring along the printout.

We played all day. I think we got four rounds in. I lost all four. Sarah was playing in the 10 and under category, which she will be able to enjoy for another week before she has to move up to the 11-14 year old group. That's a tough group. She managed a fourth place with two wins and three losses. She got a couple of card packets. I was hoping to get the crumbs of her discards.

Fortunately, I have no ego investment in being cool. When the kids (yeah, KIDS, from 10 to the 20-somethings) beat me, I'd ask them about their deck. Why do you use that trainer? I don't get why you moved the energy from this card to that one. How many Basic Pokemon do you have in your deck? How many energies? You get an insight or two from each person. Some kids are marvelously articulate about their deck strategies; others just grunt inaudibly.

After the City I tweaked my deck. Even while I was playing, and losing, I could see what needed to be changed. You learn something everytime you play, and especially when you play against lots of different kinds of decks and players. I'm still learning the obvious beginner stuff. I was having trouble getting my Basics out, the fundamental cards upon which the Evolutions are built. My evolution cards were killler, but without a basic to build on, Dark Tyranitar couldn't come out and play.

First epiphany: Oh, duh, why did I have so many different 'lines' or families of Pokemon in my deck: Zubat, Larvitar, Onix, Ekans. The answer, of course, is that I liked them, the way a child likes to have ALL the different Sesame Street characters, not just Elmo or Cookie Monster. Each of those Basic cards has subsequent evolutions. Zube and Larvi go three stages. That's a bit of a wait time when you're drawing from a 60 card deck.

Zubat > Dark Golbat > Dark Crobat
Larvitar > Dark Pupitar > Dark Tyranitar
Onix > Dark Steelix
Ekans > Dark Arbok

A deck is not a show case; it is a strategic plan. I needed to commit to fewer families, so I picked two with good attacks: Zubat and Larvitar and their evolutions. Dark Golbat has a great 30 pt. hit with ambush for just one energy card, and the subsequent Dark Crobat can hit the bench AND heal itself. Sweet. Dark Tyranitar is just an awesome card. Period. That reduction in scope let me put in lots of multiples and increase the odds of drawing the cards I need from my deck at the time I needed them. Everyone knows this, except us beginners. It's okay to love your cards, to like the shiny holo of Torchic, but that's what your binder is for, not your deck.

Okay, so here we are way down the page and I'm just rambling about my first insight about my deck. I've changed it so many times already. I know it's still not quite right. I have 'trainer' problems, but I'll work those out in another posting.

Tomorrow night is Gym night. I'm hoping to play Kim and Dan and get some expert advice.