Addicted to Pikachu

Uh oh.

You know, I've been dying to play some MMOG online but I'm afraid I might get caught up in it and spend too much time and money adventuring. Maybe it's because I was an English major that I find the engagement in shared fantasy so seductive. Not only do you get to "step inside the book," so to speak, but you also get to co-author the tale. Yeah, definitely a dangerous playground for me. But Pokémon?

I knew I was in trouble the first time I, not Sarah, suggested a run to Eight Ball for a booster pack. It was a weekend; we'd been playing and tweaking our decks. Let's make a run, I suggested. We went into the store and asked to see the "booster packs" for Team Rocket Returns and for Fire Red/Leaf Green. They're only $2.99 each so we decided to splurge and buy a few of each. We waved our hands over the carton to ensure good vibes in the packets we chose. We walked out with four packs; hopped in the car, and before we even started the car, we tore open our packets to see what we had scored. "Oh wow, Zapdos EX!"

So here it was, barely a day after we'd spent an entire day playing Pokémon at the Malibu City Championships, and we succumbed to the urge to tweak our decks with new cards. But hey, we're not the only addicts. As we were coming out of the store, we ran into David, from our gym, going in. David's heading for college next year and we are hoping he gets in to UCLA, his first choice. Sarah did an actual cartoonish double-take as we passed each other in the parking lot. It always feels strange to see people you know in one context show up in another.

So why do I continue to play Pokémon? It's not the same addiction I fear when I contemplate MMOGs. There's no story here. (No one in his right mind actually watches the Pokémon tv show or movies.) Turns out the game itself is addicting. It is the perfect blend of luck (the shuffle and draw), variation (your opponent's moves and deck) and skill (your own ability to maximize opportunities that present themselves). As a result, whether I win or lose, I am compelled to play again, to try again, to improve my game. It's actually a bit like golf, only more about thinking than physical prowess with a 3 iron (private joke). No, it's considerably more complicated than golf. It's like chess, but each time you play the pieces are different, drawn from a finite but huge pool of potential pieces with a variety of moves that are, in turn, affected by the presence of other pieces.

Yeah, the complexity is the source of the addiction.

Malibu City Championship

It was a gorgeous Saturday morning, my favorite weather, LA after a cold rain: crisp and clear as crystal. Sarah and I saddled up for the ride up to Malibu public library for the Pokémon city championships. You never know with the McClure tunnel, but I rolled the dice and took the freeway up to PCH. Empty. And although PCH was still recovering from a variety of mud slides, both lanes were open and we bopped along effortlessly, with the traffic thin enough to steal glances at the dark ocean without fear of a head-on collison.

Given the light traffic, we got there early, saw a buddy from our gym who also had arrived early, chatted a bit, and decided to hit the Starbucks at Crosscreek for refreshments. Sarah and I played a hand in the car whilst we sipped our respective brews, and ate the yogurt and bananas we brought with us. When Kim arrived, he got the library meeting room opened and the few of us there on time began setting up the room. I wondered if there would be a light turnout, always a good thing for us beginners. However, by 10 a.m. there were about 45 people of all ages, ethnicities, economic strata and expertise writing out their reg form and deck registration. I was particularly pleased to see the van of kids from South Central LA.

Clever girls that we are, we had filled out Kim's handy decklist BEFORE we drove up, and thus did not have to sit and copy out our deck contents by hand. While others toiled over this task, we walked around and checked out their decks. Clearly the Team Rocket Returns deck release had had an impact on deck construction (see PreRelease entry). Gone were the leaf decks, and to our surprise we saw no TeamMagma or Blaziken decks. Instead everyone seemed to be playing Dark Dragonite decks with their awesome energy transfer Poké power. Serious bummer there. They can just keep moving energy around as needed, from bench to defender and back again.

Sarah and I had discussed our goal for the day. We just wanted to win one game. Well, that was my goal, though Sarah said she hoped to win more than she had at the El Segunda City Championship. There, Sarah playing in "10 and Under" had taken fourth place with two wins. Now she would be playing in "11 to 14," a much more populated and experienced group of mostly male players. She was going to have a tough time, even with her fairly awesome electric deck.

The first round started. I chatted up the fellow I was playing. He had considerably more experience. He had driven down from SLO. He was playing a leaf deck of mostly Sceptile. I got lucky and, with my newly tweaked deck, got my dudes out, evolved, and fired up, pretty quickly. The game lasted a while. In fact, when they called time I won because I was ahead on prize cards, 2 to his 3. I was stoked!

Sarah was not as lucky and feeling a little blue. Lest you worry over her, let me tell you she then won two in a row, ending the day at 2 wins and 3 losses. I, on the other hand, went straight downhill, ending with one win and four losses, two of which were flukey heartbreakers. Check out this one. We set up our cards; we each see we only have one basic. We're both feeling a little vulnerable. We turn them over. I go second. He puts an energy on his Something EX but can't attack. I put an energy on my little Zubat. I roll, but can't paralyze him. He pulls out an R-Energy which gives his EX enough power to faint my 40 point Zubat, and wham. That's it. Neither of us has anything on the bench, and he wins. Everyone sitting around us felt bad for me; that's how unusual and stunning that was, and there was nothing I could have done to avoid it.

We had fun though. We saw all our gym buddies. We saw decks other than those we always see at our own gym. And...we found out about the next Pre-Release. It's next Saturday in Irvine, same place as the Team Rocket Returns pre-lease last November. This will be the pre-release for EX Deoxys Pokémon. Should be some good psychics, which is great as I've been dying to make a psychic deck every since I found out I couldn't use my first one as it was made of 'unmodified' cards.

My Favorite Errors

Am I really that lame brained or are there just so many options and decisions in each card that I can't hold them all in my mind? I've been working my Dark Bat and Tyranitar deck for three months now. I think I know the cards. Yeah well...

Error #1 - Dark Golbat

I was staring at the card, Dark Golbat. I like him because for one plant energy he can drop 30 damage points. I smiled and said, "Ambush for 30." My opponent asked, "on which one?"

Does 30 damage to one of your opponent's Pokémon."

Huhwha? I hadn't read carefully enough and didn't realize that I could hit the bench with that attack. I always assumed it was only on the defending Pokémon. I mean, sheesh, 30 points on the bench. Basic Pokémon often have as little as 40 or 50 points on them, and on the bench they can't apply resistance to your attack. Two rounds with ambush and you've scored a prize card. Hello?!

Error #2 - Dark Pupitar

The puper, as I fondly call him, is a fascinating card. I don't know what he is, or why anything called a Pupitar would evolve into something called a Tyranitar (or the Ta-tar, as I call him). Dig this. You put out the basic, Larvitar, and evolve to Stage I, Dark Pupitar. Attach one energy of any kind. Flip a coin, if heads, boom...double evolve on one turn, as you'll see below. But I'd not been tuning in to the coin flip. I mean, 10 damage points, big deal, right? OOOOOOOPS it's not just 10 damage points to the defending pokémon; it's 10 damage points to each Pokémon. Another bench hitter. Yo!

Flip a coin. If heads, this attack does 10 damage to each of your opponent's Pokémon. Then search your deck for a card that evolves from Dark Pupitar and put it on Dark Pupitar.

I think it's no coincidence that both of my common errors occur with Stage 1 cards that I probably have been viewing as the necessary middle step between basic and Stage 2. Of course you want to get to the top of your evolutionary chain as fast as possible and bring out the big guns. But, these middle cards are powerful in their own right.

Let's hear it for careful reading.

Unmodded Revisited and the Rise of the Chicks

Well, Marc-Lloyd got me. I was all stoked cause I beat John, a good player. He had a Team Magma deck and I beat him with my Dark Tyrannitar/Dark Crobat deck. I also beat Makenna. And, later I beat Hope's Dad (sorry, don't know his name). But Marc-Lloyd sucker punched me.

"Let's play," he said. I agreed. Then he told me he was going to use his unmodded deck. "Whatever," I thought. We started to play and the really, really, good kid walked by and said, "Oh no, you're playing modded against unmodded? You're doomed."

Because I'm an idiot I assumed he meant Marc-Lloyd. But curious, I asked, "Why?"

Then I found out. Unmodded cards, from before they changed the water (Firesign Theatre joke), have many advantages over the modded cards. They are not built to run in the same mathematical world. To my credit, I lasted a good while before he finally took the last prize card. It just got boring after a while; I found myself making plays to speed up the game rather than try to win. Turns in the unmodded world just go on forever. There are wacky Poke powers like: your opponent has to flip a coin to see if he can use a trainer, and if he can't, he puts the trainer on the top of his deck (thus drawing it next turn). It's a great way to turn off the trainer advantage. However, I dont' use many trainers. The good kid I beat tonight has 24 trainers in his deck. I know; I asked. I have maybe 12. Maybe that's why I lasted so long.

On another topic, tonight I noticed that Sarah and her friend, Makenna, weren't the only girls. In fact, even though Laura didn't make it, nor the two older girls who are daughters of the gym professor, there were still four girls there. Hope was there, and a new girl whose name I didn't get.

Makenna's mom stayed to watch for a second when she dropped off Makenna, and she stayed about 90 minutes. Turns out she went home and had a conversation with the mother of another girl Sarah and Makenna hang out with, and suggested that JayCee might like to come to this Pokémon thing too. I'm tellin' ya, the girls are taken over this gym. It's awesome.