A Great Competitor — Practices of Highly Effective Players

What’s up everyone! Welcome to PokeBeach. I hope you all are doing well and are as excited about the direction of the new format as I am.

I’ve been hard at work since returning from the North American International Championships, where I was able to finish seventh place in a field of 1,356 players with my [card name=”Zoroark BREAK” set=”BREAKthrough” no=”92″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Drampa-GX” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”115″ c=”name”][/card] deck. It was pretty surreal to finish in the Top 8 of the largest Pokemon Trading Card tournament ever held.

Honestly though, despite posting one of the best accomplishments of my career and winning a couple grand, I’m not entirely satisfied with my performance either. I made a couple of suboptimal decisions in my Top 8 match that cost me my tournament run. Sam Chen is a very good player and was an extremely formidable opponent in Top 8, but it burns inside knowing that I was so close to the finish line and stumbled. Because of the line of play I chose in game three, I got myself into a situation in the final turn where I had to [card name=”Professor Kukui” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”148″ c=”name”][/card] for two cards in a 10 card deck, and if I draw either of my two [card name=”Double Colorless Energy” set=”Evolutions” no=”90″ c=”name”][/card], I win the series. Those weren’t great odds, but I had boxed myself into the play because of my previous turn and naturally, the DCE was the third card down.

For weeks after Internationals, all I could think about was the things I could have done better. Those were potential thousand dollar misplays! Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited to see my hard work produce tangible results, but my ultimate goal for any given tournament is to win, no matter how many players are in attendance. Like Ricky Bobby’s said, if you’re not first, you’re last!

Rather than dwell on the past though, I have fueled my energy into testing relentlessly for the World Championships in Anaheim, CA. If my Pokemon career is anything, it’s proof that hard work produces results, no matter what your aspirations are. In this article, I will talk about the process required to go deep at a large scale Pokemon tournament and point out the things that separate good players from outstanding tournament players. As always, I hope that my experiences can help you achieve your goals going forward. Enjoy!

Scoring Big at Internationals

Anyone who has ever done well at a large tournament will tell you that in order to score big, you need to play well, build a good deck and get lucky. Depending on who you talk to, some players attribute success more towards luck while others attribute success more to gameplay and deck choice. While I acknowledge the fact that some luck is involved in a hot tournament run, I think many players tend to underestimate the amount of skill required to pilot a deck optimally for the duration of a large scale tournament. The way I see it, there is almost no point of acknowledging luck or giving it any credence when it comes to tournament performance. Crediting tournament results or losses on luck will never make you a better player and will not help you improve your game whatsoever. Rather, there are a number of constructive things that the best players all focus on. Below are a list of things that make a great tournament player.

Focus on Time

I’ve written thousands of words on time management in the tournament setting, but it still needs addressed. Time management is the great tournament player’s best kept secret. Think about it. When players play test, they rarely practice in timed situations. When players play at League Cups and League Challenges, the most attended tournaments in any competitive season, players have a leisurely 30 minutes to complete a single game of Pokemon. If players are accustomed to these time constraints, and it takes the average player 20-30 minutes to complete a game of Pokemon, then we could deduce that the average player will not be able to complete three full games in 50 minutes best-of-three. Which is true. But I don’t think that’s a bad thing. In my opinion, the 50 minute best-of-three Swiss rounds utilized at large scale tournaments vastly increase the skill ceiling in the Pokemon Trading Card Game. In essence, 50 minutes best-of-three is a blockade that separates those who are tournament ready and those who are not.

Practice Makes Perfect

In order to consistently complete a best-of-three series in 50 minutes, a multitude of skills are necessary. First of all, you have to be able to make decisions quickly. This means that you have to be able to foresee the best route of play, and play your cards accordingly in a timely fashion. This might seem obvious, but it’s worth mentioning that routes are easier to see if you know your deck and know your matchups. It is possible for a skilled player to play a deck well the first time picking it up, but it is doubtful that they would be able to pilot the deck with near perfection when also trying to complete a game three in 15 minutes. So the first tip for managing time is to practice your selection of decks leading up to the tournament. Make sure that you are comfortable enough with your deck and your matchups so that when you are in a crunch time situation, you can play for a 10-15 minute game three instead of chalking things up as a tie.

Shuffling

Another area to keep in mind when preparing for a tournament is your ability to quickly and effortlessly perform game actions like shuffling and deck searches. With as much search as there is in Pokemon, these skills are essential to completing matches on time. I have seen some players take so much care to not bend their cards that they take far too long to shuffle. Everything in Pokemon adds up. Four extra seconds per shuffle with 15 shuffles per game adds up to an extra minute of game time wasted. I have also seen some players take a whole minute or more just to complete their opening deck search! How many series have you finished where you might have had game if you just had one more turn in plus-three?

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In regard to shuffling, I am a huge advocate of riffles and overhands, as they are the fastest and most efficient way to randomize your deck. In my opinion, there is no use in trying to preserve the condition of the cards you play with if you are serious about tournament performance. Do athletes worry not to stain their jerseys when they play? Heck no! Likewise, the condition of your cards should be the last of your concern when you are focusing on the game of Pokemon in front of you. Sleeve choice applies here as well. When selecting a sleeve for a tournament, the last thing on your mind should be how cool or “swaggy” your sleeves look. I know that those sleeves that the Japanese Pokemon Center sells look super sweet, but I wouldn’t suggest them for tournament play. Those sleeves are sticky and tougher to shuffle than your average matte sleeves. Not to mention, they cost more! If you are into collecting, that’s sweet, cause I like collecting things too. I just make sure not to intertwine my collecting with my competitive play. I put my cool Japanese sleeves on the old decks I collect and play with, decks that I also attempt to keep in good condition. The difference is, when I am playing with old decks, it is with friends in a leisurely setting, so we have the luxury of time to make sure that we can take care of our cards and sleeves! In a tournament setting however, this should be none of your concern. And please, please, please, don’t double sleeve at a tournament! There is nothing efficient about shuffling a cumbersome deck, I don’t care how much it cost!

Deck Searches

As far as deck searches go, you want to make sure that they are timely and efficient. Even some of the best players will try to figure out every card that is in their Prizes during the first search of the game. I think this is generally unnecessary and is a waste of time. It is important, however, to make sure that you have an idea of the essential things that are in your deck during your opening search. In your initial search, you want to take quick mental notes to make sure that your primary attackers are in deck and the Energy required to use them. Then, if you have a tech for a specific matchup, or a one-of card that is essential for the matchup in front of you, you want to see if those cards are in the deck as well so that you can adapt your strategy accordingly. Throughout the game, you will find yourself needing to know more specific counts on certain cards in your deck in order to make proper judgement and approximate probability. Based on my experiences, it seems as if the most optimal way to perform deck searches is on the fly, as you go. Each deck search should allow you to check for something else, so as the game progresses, you can have an idea of what resources you have left to close the game out.

For example, I usually find myself checking my remaining [card name=”VS Seeker” set=”Roaring Skies” no=”110″ c=”name”][/card] count later in the game rather than earlier. Early on, I like to look for my Pokemon and tech cards. Let me give an example to illustrate the importance of efficient deck searches. Say you waste an extra minute and a half of your first turn performing a deck search and are able to figure out what all your Prize cards are. Great! But as the game progresses, you decide on turn four that you need to scoop and go to the next game because you aren’t drawing very well! In this case, you would have wasted precious time performing your initial search before you even knew if the game was going to head in the right direction or not. This is why we space out our deck searches. You want to fully invest yourself and take more time on the games that you think you are going to win. This is impossible to know on the first turn of the game, so why waste a ridiculous amount of time on your first search? Likewise,  you want to spend as little time as possible on the games you are going to lose. If your first search is brief, this means that you can scoop on turn two or three while wasting as little time as possible. It seems obvious, but in order to give yourself the best odds of winning any 50 minute best-of-three set, it is essential that you only put significant time into games that you plan on winning, or matches that you don’t plan on winning, but won’t scoop for strategic reasons, which leads into my next point.

When to Scoop

This topic has been covered a lot, but players still need to hear it because I see people do a poor job of this basic time management skill at nearly every large tournament I attend. Scooping is a great tournament player’s ace maneuver. Everyone knows that it’s difficult to play three games of Pokemon in 50 minutes. Even if your in game decisions are fast and your shuffling and searches are optimal, it is still difficult to complete a best-of-three series of Pokemon in 50 minutes. This is where scooping comes into play. No one ever said you have to complete three full games of Pokemon in 50 minutes, and I don’t expect anyone to do so. The way I look at it, you have 50 minutes to decide a winner, and the winner is the person who can win two games in 50 minutes, or win one while preventing the opponent from winning at all. When you look at 50 minutes in this light, winning seems a lot more attainable, doesn’t it?

Say you are a fast and well rehearsed player who is comfortable with your deck. Maybe your average game of Pokemon takes about 20 minutes. Obviously opponent’s play time plays a big role on this subject, something I will touch on later, but for this example let’s say that 20 minutes is your average game time. If you win your first game in a series in 20 minutes, then you go to game two. After shuffling, you and your opponent have 28 minutes remaining on the clock when game two begins to determine a victor. The way I look at it, you have about six minutes to decide whether or not to keep game two. That amounts to roughly two, maybe three turns if you are lucky. By the time you get into your fourth or fifth turn, you have probably put more than 10 minutes into the second game, meaning that you have less than 15 minutes remaining in the series, and all hopes of completing a game three are out the window.

I can’t tell you how often I see an opponent look at me with surprise when I scoop a game on the second or third turn of play. It doesn’t seem natural. If I wan’t to win, why don’t I fight my hardest to win each game, down to the last Prize? It’s because I’m realistic and pragmatic. Scooping takes a lot of confidence. It feels bad giving your opponent a free game that they did not entirely earn, however, it feels even worse tying a round you could have won because you took too long to scoop a losing game. You have to have the confidence and the foresight to be able to see the 50 minute series as a whole, and give your deck the best odds of winning, which sometimes means moving on to the next game and allowing yourself to play first.

Scooping is a competitive player’s power move. If your opponent is setting up perfectly while your deck is flailing and drawing poorly, scooping allows you to nip your opponent’s confidence in the bud and put the ball back in your court. Think of it this way. If you are able to win a long game one in a 50 minute series, you feel great. There is only 30 minutes remaining in the round, 28 after you shuffle and in order for the opponent to strip this win away from you, they will have to win two games in that remaining time, which is pretty much undoable. Alternatively, if you see your opponent is winning game one and scoop within the first 6-10 minutes, you give yourselves ample time to complete the series, and stunt the amount of confidence they get from their win. Instead of feeling high and mighty like they are about to win the series, your opponent will probably think to themselves, “Well, there is still plenty of time left and certainly anything could happen.” In this way, we see that not only does scooping give you leverage by allowing you to play first in the next game, it shows your opponent that you are in control of the time for this round and plan to play for the win, rather than the tie.

Playing for the Tie

Speaking of playing for the tie, playing for the tie is an equally valid strategy to scooping. Some matchups are bad and we know this. That being said, sometimes you are able to squeak out a long game one win versus a bad matchup. Usually, your opponent will know that this is a good matchup for them, and will refuse to scoop their game since they expect to win anyways. In this kind of situation, if you are able to squeak out a long game one win, it is sometimes advantageous to let game two play out naturally, without scooping, even if you know you are losing. This makes it so that game three is highly unlikely to conclude, making it so that the worst case scenario in the series is a tie. This kind of result is fine for you if you are facing a matchup you would typically lose anyways! And of course, if you are able to squeeze out a win in game two, that makes the matchup all the sweeter. Either way, you should be wary of the fact that your opponent has the upper hand in the matchup and run with your game one win if you happen to get one.

Keeping Your Opponents Honest

Say you’ve mastered your deck, optimized your gameplay actions and learned how to scoop appropriately. There is still one more factor that plays into completing a 50 minute best-of-three on time: your opponent’s play speed. This one is largely out of your control, which increases the importance of your skills being honed to perfection. Usually, if my opponent is deliberating longer than they should on a gameplay action, I will say, “I’m going to need you to make a decision.” This suggestion has never failed me, however, there have been some scenarios where I am fully aware that asking my opponent to speed up will not help the situation. This is particularly the case with newer or more casual opponents. A lot of the time, their gameplay actions are simply not up to par, and asking them to speed up their play is fruitless since they are going as fast as they can. In situations like this, you have to just take note of what’s going on and adjust your strategy accordingly. Are you going to be able to win a 30 minute game one against your slower opponent? Great. Game two will probably not conclude if you play at a similar pace. If you know that your opponent probably will not be completing a game in under 20 minutes, it makes no sense to scoop game two and try to complete game three on time. You would only attempt this if you were literally getting benched out of the game. Otherwise, sit back and relax and let your opponent dictate the game of play after you win your first game. Odds are that you will probably walk away with the second one as well, but take your time. Do your deck searches. Make sure that you are making plays as optimally as possible. If your opponent is not in a rush after you win a long game one, there is usually no need for you to be either. This problem doesn’t end at the bottom tables.

During Top 8 of the North American International Championships, my opponent, Sam Chen, was actually given an official warning for slow play. Now, Sam is a very good player and a great guy, and I’m sure he was not trying to slow play me, however, he is also very mathematically minded and tries to calculate his odds of taking certain play routes to perfection. Sam knew that we had extended time to complete our match, 75 minutes plus three, and intended to milk that time for all that it was worth. Unfortunately, both of us could not have played at the slow pace that he had adopted. If I had matched his pace, we would not have concluded our series, and it would have ended somewhere in the middle of game three. I asked Sam to expedite his play multiple times, and the judge agreed, to which Sam was very apologetic, but continued to take his time selecting his cards, most notably during [card name=”Teammates” set=”Primal Clash” no=”141″ c=”name”][/card] searches and initial deck search. I was actually astonished when Sam told me that during his initial deck search he was actually trying to figure out what all of his Prize cards were! I have literally never done that in a tournament during an initial deck search. Sam’s precision ended up benefiting him in our match, and he was able to walk away with the series, however, I just wanted to mention this to point out that even the best players can take far too long on their searches sometimes. There is no written rule that states that you are allowed to take a minute or two on your opening deck search, and it is in your best interest to hold your opponents accountable when they are taking too much time to make their play.

Focus

Focus is an underrated part of performing well at a long Pokemon tournament. Short term focus isn’t terribly difficult for most of us, however, the amount of focus required to execute strategy with near perfection for an entire weekend is downright exhausting. Though I’ve been deep in tournaments before, I found my focus starting to wane during the second day of play at Internationals, and it got me thinking about what I could be doing to help keep myself alert and motivated for extended periods of time.

By now, many of you have probably seen my game face. It’s kind of hilarious, because anyone who knows me knows that I am not a very serious person. I am usually very lighthearted and carefree. I am not a stickler for details, and I am not particularly mathematical or analytical. Unfortunately, this kind of attitude, my natural personality, isn’t super conducive to winning games of Pokemon in high pressure situations. When I enter a game, I quite literally need to alter my demeanor so that I can be a more effective opponent. Instead of being the kind of person who is laid back, holds doors open for strangers and greets people with a smile, in game, I am the kind of cutthroat opponent who is going to take advantage of your misplays and attempt to outwit you at every turn.

If my opponent is a cheater, I want them to feel that I intend to catch them. I want my opponent to know that I am watching everything they do during their turn. While my opponent takes their turn, I usually set my hand on the table so that I can focus better. I pay attention to the things they play and discard. I let my opponent know that I agree with the maneuvers they are making by giving an affirmative every time they make a play. Just a little, “yep,” or, “ok,” usually. I occasionally count my opponents’ hand after they draw cards to make sure that they don’t draw extras. I want my focus to be palpable. Intense focus can easily make the difference between a win and a loss, and contributes drastically towards being able to play quickly and efficiently. Frankly, holding this amount of concentration for extended periods of time is not for the feint of heart, and it takes practice and preparation to master.

A particular weakness of mine is that I tend to get so enthralled on tournament days that I forget to take care of myself. I’ll eat a small breakfast and have some caffeine in the morning, but by the time the final rounds roll around, I am usually struggling to maintain composure. Listening to music, packing food and consuming caffeine throughout the day can all help with these lulls. And, of course, sleep matters too. I used to run track and cross country competitively in college, and sometimes nerves would be so bad that I could hardly sleep the night before a race. My coach used to tell me that the sleep the night before isn’t as important as the sleep two nights before, and I agree. Though some people may be able to get away with a stellar day one performance off of little sleep the night before, I would be doubtful that their fortitude would hold up during day two of swiss after two nights of sleep deprivation. Getting appropriate sleep at tournaments is hard, especially in crammed hotel rooms where friends that haven’t seen each other all year are socializing and having a good time. I understand that. But if you and your friends have similar goals, than there should be an agreement in regards to sleep set forth ahead of time. And don’t tell me you still need to decide what to play on the night before the tournament! I’ve been there and done that, however, in all of my best finishes I have had my deck picked out and tested long well before tournament weekend. You should have your best decks tested and ready to go by tournament weekend so that your game decisions come naturally and there is no excuse to deprive yourself of valuable sleep.

Play to Win

Finally, I wanted to take a moment to talk about my win-and-in to day two of play at the North American International Championships, as I think that it teaches an important lesson about success at large events. At the end of a long and exhausting day one, I was at 6-1-1. Win and I would be guaranteed a spot in day two, lose and I was out. Tie, and I would be somewhere on the bubble. My opponent was Zach Lesage and he was piloting [card name=”Decidueye-GX” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”12″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Alolan Ninetales-GX” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”22″ c=”name”][/card]. This would be my third time facing this deck on the day. When we sit down, I have every intention of playing my match. I had marched all the way to 6-1-1 from 3-1-1. I was on a 3-0 winning streak and wanted to keep my momentum going into day two. As soon as we sit down, Zach starts talking to me about intentionally tying our match. Zach thinks that his resistance is pretty good, and says that his friends counted things out and think that about 10 out of 18 people with a 6-1-2 record will make it into day two. Zach’s pitch is very tempting. I had won my last three rounds, maybe my resistance was pretty good too? I could call it quits right here and just let fate decide whether or not I make day two. After all, I’m tired and I know Zach is a good player. I look to my right, and sure enough, I see Brit Pybass, an accomplished player who’s expertise I respect and have asked for before. Unsure of what to do, and wanting to check other sources, I ask Brit what he might do in my situation. Brit is aware of the matchup I am about to play, and tells me that he would take the draw, as he does not like my odds of winning. This isn’t what I wanted to hear. I’ve played this matchup twice now. I was able to win once, while the other was my only loss on the day. However, in the matchup I lost to Decidueye earlier, I had win in hand before it was [card name=”Delinquent” set=”BREAKpoint” no=”98″ c=”name”][/card]ed away! I was so close. The judges start the round and people around us begin to play. I tell Zach that I want to play, and that if the match ends in a tie, then so be it.

Now there were a few reasons that I choose to play for my spot in the face of uncertainty. First of all, I felt confident enough in the matchup that I thought I could navigate it appropriately. In retrospect, this seems like a crazy decision, as I have come to realize that Decidueye / Ninetales is indeed a pretty bad matchup for [card name=”Zoroark BREAK” set=”BREAKthrough” no=”92″ c=”name”][/card]! In my mind though, I considered that I probably had a 50 / 50 chance of winning the matchup in front of me, and a 50 / 50 chance of making it into day two of competition with a tie. If both options left me with a 50% chance of making day two, than I would be silly not to try and play for it! Ultimately, I had my sights set on trying to win the largest Pokemon tournament ever held. If I tied my way into day two, I would have to start at the bottom of Top 64 and claw my way back up to the top as I had just done. If I were to win my final match in day two, I would be rewarded with a high seed in day two Swiss, and a better chance of making Top 8 later in the day. This all being said, the primary reason I chose to play it out was out of personal pride. If I had intentionally tied and lost out of day two on resistance, I would have not been able to forgive myself. I was aware of my skills at the game, I was confident, and I wanted to lay my deck on the line to see how far I could go. Isn’t that the goal of any tournament? If I lost my win and in, I could have at least gone home with pride that I had given it my best shot and failed, rather than being too scared to try at all.

Sure enough, during my win and in game with Zach, everything I’ve talked about in this article so far came into play. Though I was tired, I was keenly focused on what I had to do to win. I was sure, confident, and my adrenaline was firing on all six cylinders. In the end, my superior time management won me the series. As I have talked about before, Zach made the classic error of fighting out a long and awkward game one when he had a favorable matchup in front of him. He should have scooped game one up very early, but instead decided to fight it out, which ended up sealing his fate.

Lucky for me, I go first and am able to set up with a huge Big Wheel GX that Zach is unable to [card name=”N” set=”Noble Victories” no=”101″ c=”name”][/card] away. I start firing off multiple Berserk attacks for 180 with [card name=”Drampa-GX” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”115″ c=”name”][/card] while chaining [card name=”Hex Maniac” set=”Ancient Origins” no=”75″ c=”name”][/card] with back to back [card name=”VS Seeker” set=”Roaring Skies” no=”110″ c=”name”][/card] because of my gigantic hand that Zach fails to disrupt. By the time Zach gets to use any Feather Arrow, I have already taken a couple of Prizes and critically damaged a couple of Decidueye-GX. Zach should have seen the writing on the wall and scooped, knowing that this game was an outlier and that he could outrun me if he goes first in game two. Instead, he tries to fight back and loses a 30 minute game one. While we shuffle up for game two, I tell Zach that if he wins game two, we can agree to ID instead of going to game three, he agrees and we go to game two. This maneuver guarantees me some safety in case I get quickly benched in game two, as at this point, I have no intention of walking away from this series with a loss.

Since I won a long game one, I will not be scooping game two, no matter how bad it looks. Instead, I stay the course and play game two out as long as we can go. Since game one took 30 minutes, we only had about 18 minutes to complete game two. Zach begins to run away with the game, but before he can seal the win, time is called and I begin to play defensively. I Sky Return my [card name=”Shaymin-EX” set=”Roaring Skies” no=”77″ c=”name”][/card] from play in order to deny him Prizes, and put him in a situation where he cannot win game two before the end of the plus-three turns. Zach sees this, and at the end of his turn three, he points out that he would have probably taken the game had it gone on for a couple more turns. I agree with him, and sign the matchup as a win, solidifying myself as the sixth seed in the orange pod heading into day two of competition!

Conclusion

I had so many of you guys come up to me at Internationals and let me know how much you enjoy my articles. I just wanted to take a moment to let you know that this means so much to me and that I genuinely appreciate the positive feedback!

I hope that this article can help some of you make the step from good player to great tournament player. I really believe in the stuff that I talk about here, and I hope that you all can see, this is not all talk, I actually do the stuff I write here in my articles!

At this juncture in the season, many of you are either preparing for Worlds, getting your decks together for the Anaheim Open, or just trying to figure out how to improve your game for next season. If you are headed to Worlds, best of luck, and say hi to me if you see me there! For everyone else, I hope that this article illustrates the importance preparation, focus and good time management to a successful tournament run. These things really make all the difference.

Thanks for reading guys! Next time I write, I will be discussing all the sweet decks I have been testing for next format!

Later trainers,

Andrew Mahone

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