Day 0
Before NAIC, I had a long trip to get there. And before departing on the trip, I had an opportunity to test my deck out. My match ups were gardevoir ex, 2 separate lugia vstars, roaring moon lost box with added flavor, and oger-bolt. Out of all the matches, the only one I lost was against lost box. Once I got my winnings and had my fun at the bar, I went home and did some last minute prep before bed. Once I woke up, I had some food and caffeine before finishing the packing process and departing. As per usual, it was 5 grueling hours in Florida before driving straight through Alabama and Mississippi. Once I touched down in Louisiana, I made a trip to get my badge. That didn't go over very smoothly. I got my own but failed to acquire one for my spectator. But the worst part was I forgot where I parked. I swear I coulda been a goner but I finally found the car and left before anything else went wrong. After all that hell, I could rest easy for now. Sadly I have no one to do any last minute testing so I'll just have to wing it. With all that said, it's time to go over the stats.
Stats
• 1 truck & trailer use a median marked official use only.
• 2 slowdowns with one resolving itself and one that was fairly avoidable.
• 8 speed traps and 4 vehicles caught in speed traps
•1 or a couple of dipshits who think it's funny to make me believe a decent stretch of I-10 is sniper alley
•5 intermittent rain showers
•1 burrito, sandvich, and bag of chips consumed during the trip.
•About a dozen drivers I wanted to honk at and/or flip off after overtaking them
15-17 gallons of gas consumed for the trip
•45 minutes wandering aimlessly to get my badge and return to my car
•2 sore legs after aforementioned wandering
1 potential tricky gym sighting
• 2 stops for gas
• 1 disappointed sister
• 1 friend stuck at work and can't go to NAIC
Day 1
Today's the big day. After the regional, I made sure to be better prepared. I definitely have hella nerves going into this one too. Maybe it's the caffeine in my system that's causing it. I hope I'll make it in time for my 1st round. I don't want tardiness to be my 1st impression and I definitely don't want an automatic loss on my record either. So apparently security gave zero fucks about searching me(6F privilege W?). I dunno if I said this during Orlando but apparently I could've snuck in an adult beverage if I damn well pleased.
Round 1
Ah yes, gardy. Something I thought would be an auto win with my dark deck didn't go my way. All I was able to accomplish this match was a donk on game 1 and a brick fest(not the lego kind) for basically the remaining games. Did I have all my important shit prized or were draws just that unlucky? Both? Neither? But at least I didn't auto lose.
Round 2
Dragapult ex. My new worst nightmare. Through my play testing, I still haven't had any luck beating dragapult with moon. I have beaten it with tinkaton though. Sadly I don't have that deck built and I dunno if I would've gotten a better record with it. It will probably too late to find out should I go to another one. Anyway, how did the match go? I forgor but it probably involves tryna slow down their set up, bringing in a pult to finish it off, and saying fuck you to unfair stamp with a full ancient board and awakening drum. Or was that from one of my gardy matches? Again, I forgor.
Round 3
Another gardy match up and I get stamped again. Disgustang! Also, all around me are familiar and unfamiliar faces. I still haven't won but I have a new channel subbed to. Seriously, how in the everloving fuck do I beat gardy at locals once but absolutely fail against them here?
Round 4
Hello zard, my old friend. This loss was basically in record time. Yeah, I'm not making it to day 2. Nothing I do could make any real dents in their board. It gives me more time for some photo ops and to find Azul. He's no Blue but he'll have to do.
Round 5
Fuck yeah. 2-0 against chien pao. Once a ferocious leopard has been reduced to a mere polecat(I can't be the only one who thought it looked like a ferret or similar mustelids). I'm not sure what possessed the pirate(yes, my opponent was dressed as a pirate) to try retreating a bibarel but I definitely wasn't letting misplays slide. While I took a few hits in my games, I was OHKOing ex's like I was scott motherfucking pilgrim. Oh, and I got to witness a lost box player apparently fall victim to snorlax stall(or did the lost box player win? I forgor).
Round 6
Hold up, there are fun decks being played here? All ogerpons and festival grounds is about the absolute last thing I expected to see in a big event like this. Apparently my opponent threw it together at the 7th hour(not 11th) before submission closed. Isn't it crazy how the strategy designed for ogerpon ex is a rogue strategy now? I was tempted to play memes like festival as well or brambleghast but I wasn't feeling that insane. Out of all the matches, this surprisingly was the only one I needed to call a judge for a ruling.
Round 7
Ah, I haven't seen midraidon in a long time. I can see why I haven't encountered it though. I'm not entirely sure about the player's ability to pilot the deck based on my games but leaving an active mex ex against a dark type was not a smart move on game 2. This definitely tested my ability to think on my feet though. Even though I didn't have to worry about the bench game against snorlax, raikou v was a grave reminder to watch how you bench.
Round 8
Wow. It seems like I'm gonna have a default win on my record. What I wouldn't give to find out what my opponent would've played. I nearly got in trouble while waiting but I sat idly by with my dick in my hand(not literally or I would've really been in trouble).
Round 9
Two of my worst nightmares in one package; lost box and iron hands. Like imagine a megalodon and a collosal squid could mate and have a baby. That's what my match up against lost box hands was like. While the first game was fairly close, the 2nd one was failure after failure. No greninja, no moon, no nothing. I literally couldn't play to save my life. This is beyond going out sad.
Outro
Let's get this bit out of the way 1st. CONFOUND THESE POKEMON! OH HOW I HATE THEM! I HATE PULT, I HATE HANDS, AND I HATE GARDY! THEY DRIVE ME TO DRINK! Confound them. Now back to business as usual. So I got more wins this time compared to Orlando, some nice photo ops and more signatures for my mat. It was hella nice to speak to some of the influencers too. Maybe I need a notepad if I do an event again. I'll definitely have plenty of stories to share back home. Where I'm staying is like a whole hour away from the convention center but I thankfully don't have to drive. Well, it's time to go now. I've got stuff to smoke, drinks to pound, and a pizza to absolutely destroy. Enjoy the stats, nerds.
Stats
• 6(?) Marnies
• 4 Unfair stamps
• 3 fellow Reds
• 1 LDF encounter, signature, and short convo
• 1 Tricky Gym encounter and signature
• 1 AzulGG encounter and signature
• 1 bug catcher sighting
• 1 Iono(cosplayer, that is. It would be more if I counted the cards played)
•1 rika(again cosplayer, but no card of that character played)
• 1 snorlax stall I thankfully didn't have to vs myself
• 1 meowscarada cosplayer with photo op
• 0 control deck matches
Day 2
There isn't really anything to go over since I was unable to advance so I'll just talk about what I did with my time instead. Basically I spent a good portion of the time hanging out at my sister's place watching TV, talking about my matches and going over a couple decks. Guess I can segue into an analysis of the deck I was playing. If I didn't mention it at all in my day 1 recap, the deck I played was a variant of ancient box with only single prizers and roaring moon as basically the only attacker. So... Turbo Moon maybe? Or would that name be more apt for moon-sparce with the baby and ex roaring moons? Anyway, having a one trick pony deck is probably not the optimal way to be playing ancient box but I guess I'm attracted to the going fast and eating ass style of gameplay. Before that point, I was playing an old variant with koraidon in there as a back up attacker, slither wing, and a single big roaring moon. I then changed it to fit a combo involving slowpoke, thorton, and slowbro. I then landed on the current build once LDF made a video about it. I already had ancient box locked in as my deck anyway so it sidn't take too long to change it. Deck talk aside, ehat else happened? We went out to a smoke shop and had PF Chang's delivered to us for dinner. There was still a whole lot of nothing happening until late in the night. My sis asked if I wanted to go to a rave with her a couple times and I said it would depend on the outcome of my matches. That and if I felt like going out anymore afterwards. I did end up going and met with a friend who I was hoping would be at NAIC but couldn't make it. Well when me made it to the club and got in, I did a double take. Apparently I found some of my people from Florida there too. No idea if anyone else from Florida was there too or if other attendees at NAIC were party people but whatever we saw of the opening act was nice and the main event, WreckNo, was pretty lit. So I never had my sister properly introduced to my people in Florida since neither of the individuals in question were nearby during NAIC at the time but it's safe to say they hit it off alright. Even though the place was hella loud, they could hold a decent conversation about what they do and my accolades at the bar. Fingers crossed that my sis books him as a DJ at her wedding or something. Compared to the last rave at the same venue I went to, we were able to get to the front more easilt and I even got to have a spot near the railing. It's safe to say after all my walking the past couple days and the dancing that I definitely got my workout for the weekend.
