Hanging In

There comes a time in most Pokémon games when you know the jig is up. Your opponent has an insurmountable advantage, and all you can do is hope for stupid play on her part matched by clever play and some very lucky draws on yours. At that point the game takes on a very different feel and strategy.

Perhaps because I have a very strong and somewhat perverse stubborn streak, I rather enjoy these moments. I want to see how far I can go, how long I can last, and to what extent sheer wit can make a dent against might.

Last night at the gym I decided to play my new Ludicolo/Manectric deck (water and electric). I haven't played in a while and I was a little fuzzy on what I actually had in the deck. Nevertheless on the first round I beat a premier trainer, largely because he didn't shuffle his deck well and was energy starved through most of the game. The second player, also a premier trainer, beat me, though it was a good game and I did take a few prizes before he KOed me. Then I play my daughter's friend and handily beat her. Then I played a very small, very cute little boy, who turned out to be a sixth grader. He beat me, based on prize cards when time was called, but he probably would have won outright. This last game was the most interesting one all night.

At the beginning I sensed I was in for a fight when I realized he was playing a Team Aqua deck, an older deck, largely powerful by virtue of its theme-based trainer cards. For instance, he played a stadium card that added an extra energy to the retreat cost of all Pokémon without Team Aqua in their name.

He got his Something EX out and evolved faster than I could get my Ludicolo rolling, but I had a lot of useful stand-in basics I was willing to sacrifice. Mantine and Ludicolo offered useful Poké powers that were healing cards as he hit them, buying me time to find some energy. Delibird and a second Ludicolo were getting me draws and eventually I started rolling. I KO'ed the nasty EX and drew two cards, both water energy, and I was almost on my way. Then I made a stupid mistake that came from not paying attention to WHICH Ludicolo was which. I was piling on energy to use the Water Punch attack:

40+
Flip a coin for each Water Energy attached to Ludicolo. This attack does 40 damage plus 20 more damage for each heads.

I have, on occasion, hit another card for 120 damage points with that attack. However, I wasn't paying attention and had stacked energy on the wrong Ludicolo. Instead I should have been loading my bench with the Basics in my hand to use Ciruclar Steps.

10 X
Does 10 damage times the number of Pokémon in play (both yours and your opponent's), excluding Ludicolo.

At that point in the game, his bench was full (5 cards) and mine could have been. That would have meant an attack of 11 * 10 or 110 points. Instead I think I fired off 70 points. Still good, but not a KO. This left him free to attack me with his massive energy-based attack and finish me off. I realized my error, but I had wasted a chance to get back in the game by slamming his big nasty lead card. And, with Ludicolo KOed, I had wasted energy needed to power up other cards. He was playing a strong card with a lot of hit power, but the big hit required him to remove energy after he played it. That meant he had to build back up after each attack.

This was the point in the game where I realized I was doomed, and the game became about hanging in and trying to sneak back in to the game during his energy recharging periods. I could heal myself fairly well, but I wasn't drawing trainers; I had a wasteful retreat cost because of his Team Aqua stadium card (described above); and though I had basics and some evolved, I was having trouble finding energy. As I said, I did last a while, but in the end, my error cost me too much momentum. We had to stop because of time, but it was pretty clear I was going to have trouble coming back with any kind of serious challenge. Of course, he could always have made an error as stupid as mine, so you never know.