Pooka Interview
Kyle “Pooka” Sucevich, fresh from his top 2 performance at US Nationals 2011 gives us his opinion on the format with the reasons behind his choices on the day. Here you go:
Q. You’ve managed to make it to at least the top 4 of US Nats for the past 3 years now, how are you feeling?
A. To be honest, I’m grateful that I’ve been lucky enough to go on such a run. Even if you play perfectly in a tournament, you have to be fortunate enough to draw good hands, face good matchups, and flip well. Every year I go into Nationals not expecting to do well because of how many players and rounds you have to get through, but it has been going my way for the past three years. All you can do is prepare a deck and play your best; the rest is out of your control.
Q. A lot of us know already, but which deck did you run and how did you come to choosing it for the event?
A. Going into Nationals I was fairly set on playing Yanmega/Magnezone, but I decided not to after my friend Sebastian Crema got knocked out of Canadian Nationals by losing on the first turn twice. When I thought about it, nearly every Basic in the deck had 50 HP or less, meaning it was very easy to lose on the first turn. So, I started to think about ideas for a deck with two things in mind – setting up consistently and not losing on the first turn. Eventually I decided on Yanmega/Donphan/Zoroark, a Stage 1 deck with a lot of Basics and Supporters. I figured my best chance at success was playing a deck that could set up every round.
Q. This format is still fairly fresh to us, so what are your thoughts on it at the moment? Did you find the transition fairly easy?
A. At first, I thought the rotation to HS-on would be a great thing for the game. Unfortunately, I found out very quickly that often the games degenerated into nothing more than flipping coins. I enjoyed the MD-on format quite a bit and feel like it would have been fine if they did something to prevent losses on the first turn, but we’re past that now. Compared to the previous format, everything in HS-on is simplified and more luck-based. From a spectator’s point of view, it provides more exciting games, but it hurts the skilled players when you make coin flips such a focal point.
Q. Your last game came down to a nail-biting set of flips. How vital are you finding flips to be in this current format both during the game and the initial flip at the beginning?
A. For the most part, whoever goes first and flips more heads for Reversal wins the game. Unless you can eliminate the flips by getting a Vileplume into play, your game most likely will be decided on flips.
Q. Are you going to be attending Worlds and if so, do you reckon you’ll be sticking with the same deck or have you got something else planned?
A. Yes, I earned a trip to Worlds by taking 2nd at Nationals, so I will be there. I’m not sure what I’ll be playing yet, but it will be hard to get away from the deck I played at Nationals.
Q. Any thoughts on what will be sitting at the top tables when we get to Worlds?
A. It’s impossible to know that, but my guess is you’ll see a lot of Yanmega at the top tables.
Q. The ‘Baby Donks’ seem to be quite a predominant part of the game right now, do you think this will put people off running them in the run up to Worlds?
A. Unfortunately, the only good support Pokemon in this format is Cleffa, which has 30 HP. Therefore, people run Tyrogue to get an easy KO on Cleffa, so you will see a lot of decks have anywhere from 2-4 Babies. With the high Baby count, you see a lot of games ending on the first turn via Tyrogue. If you want to avoid using Cleffa, you have to use vastly inferior cards like Manaphy. So, you’ll see some people play the inferior cards with higher HP just to avoid cheap losses, and others will continue to risk it.
Q. What advice can you give to people to get the most out of their testing for events like this one?
A. It’s important to grind out a lot of games to see how your deck functions and to learn the matchups, but sometimes you just have to take a step back and analyze your results. A lot of deck building involves theory and logic. Even if you won every testing game, you have to take a look at how or why you won. For example, if you won because you went first every game and got a turn 2 Magnezone and Yanmega every time, your results may be skewed.
Q. Do you think you’ll be able to make it 4 years in a row of a Top 4 performance?
A. Even though I would love to keep making it deep into the tournament, it can’t keep happening. The fact that I was able to do it once was great, and then twice was surreal, and three times was just absurd. I actually took 2nd in 2004 and made Top 8 in 2005, so I’ve made it to at least Top 8 5/8 years. I don’t know what it is, but Nationals seems to be my place to step up.
Q. Lastly, with Pokemon Catcher confirmed for the next set, what kind of impact do you think it will have on the current format?
A. Normally I don’t like to look ahead (especially with Worlds just around the corner), but it feels like any sort of Stage 2 setup deck becomes unplayable with Pokemon Catcher around. Cards like Donphan and Yanmega will become even stronger, and we will see fast decks dominate the format for a while.
Thank you for interviewing me! Please check out our website, http://thetopcut.net/ for all sorts of Pokemon coverage. Recently we posted video coverage of US Nationals, and we also do a weekly live show called “The Top Cut” to discuss current events in the Pokemon community. In addition, right after Worlds concludes this year, we will be doing the first ever Top Cut Invitational: Tournament of Champions live in San Diego. We plan on having 8 National and World Champions duke it out on camera to see who the best in the world really is – people like the 2011 US National Champion, Justin Sanchez, and the 2-time World Champion, Jason “Ness” Klaczynski. If anybody would like to donate to help improve the production quality and/or prize pool, please contact us at thetopcutpokemon@gmail.com. Thank you!
Thanks a lot for your time, Kyle and make sure you check out thetopcut.net for some great coverage, news and more.
