I absolutely love talking about Pokemon, because when I first started playing this game, I never thought I’d be granted the opportunity to do so. When I first started, premium content was never in existence barring Pojo and a few other sources, but today people usually have to pay in order to read quality content. For this very reason, I always try to write the most current and up-to-date content in order to dive into critical information.
This all begins with my trip to Australia, my thought processes, my eventual play, and what I’d like to change if I was given another opportunity. To give you a little bit of overview, my play was as sound as it gets, the tournament played out exactly how I predicted it would, I made some very endearing misplays that played out against me, I learned about cultural playing mannerisms, and I discovered new extraneous variables that I had never encountered. Without further ado, I’m beyond excited to tell you all about my lovely experience at the 2017 Oceania International Championships!
The following events are depicted as they occurred chronologically. Some information may have been gained at certain further points – just something to keep in mind!
PRE-UP
Before the trip, I knew that I was going to play Darkrai. Following up to events, I thoroughly enjoy being knowledgeable of what has currently been winning larger Regionals and other events. In this case, I knew Chris Siakala had won one of the more recent Regionals with Speed Darkrai, and in turn it was the defined best deck at that point in time. I knew that with my own skill, I could outplay most opponents and properly sequence my cards better than most, and that was the cornerstone that I based myself on.
Darkrai was a relatively easy deck to play, didn’t require a lot of testing, and was also the most consistent deck in format. Darkrai also boasted one of the most level playing fields of all the decks available in my arsenal. Overall, this deck choice was a no brainer for myself. Below is Chris’ list, and although I don’t have my base list at this point in time, I can tell you that my list was extremely close to what is depicted below:
| Pokémon – 9 | Trainers – 39 | Energy – 12 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Darkrai BKP | 4 | Professor Sycamore | 4 | Max Elixir | 12 | Darkness | ||
| 2 | Yveltal STS | 3 | N | 4 | Ultra Ball | ||||
| 2 | Shaymin EX ROS | 2 | Lysandre | 4 | VS Seeker | ||||
| 1 | Hoopa EX | 1 | Hex Maniac | 3 | Trainers’ Mail | ||||
| 1 | Pokemon Center Lady | 2 | Escape Rope | ||||||
| 1 | Team Flare Grunt | 2 | Exp Sahre | ||||||
| 2 | Fighting Fury Belt | ||||||||
| 1 | Enhanced Hammer | ||||||||
| 1 | Float Stone | ||||||||
| 1 | Switch | ||||||||
| 2 | Silent Lab | ||||||||
| 1 | Parallel City | ||||||||
I’m not going to beat the dead horse on this one, because discussing Darkrai is actually not the main point of this article; moreso, the main objective of this article is to educate people on the leadup to an event. Many things can change in the blink of an eye, and the closer to the event you are, the more that time pressures you into making what may or may not be the correct decision. Objectively, time is always present, but doesn’t become apparent until its resourcefulness is running at an all-time-low. From Chris’s list, the main points we can pick out are his one-of Supporter cards, as well as his thick lines of Item cards. Darkrai wasn’t extremely established up until this point, and this was Darkrai’s first “breakout” performance in Standard.
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