Hello it's the "Impossible Man" Henry-Michael Brown here again with another
report on the Cleaner's road to becoming a better deck. Once again I attended
Pokemon Day at Nuetral Ground New York in Manhatten in a 16 Player DCI
Sactioned Swiss Tournament. I was accompanied by fellow friends on my quest
to win with the Cleaner.

First and foremost here is the Cleaner with its strategy for those who do not
know this deck:

The Cleaner
12 Fire Energy
10 Grass Energy
3 Double Colorless
4 Koffing (main team)
3 Tangela (main team)
3 Fossil Magmar (support team)
3 Growlithe (main team)
2 Arcanine (The Cleaner)
3 Lickitung (support team)
4 Bill
4 Energy Removal
3 Gust of Wind
2 Switch
2 Prof. Oak
2 Energy Retreival

Substitute Team: 3 Grimer and 3 Ditto

The Strategy
Koffing and Tangela are the main hitters with Magmar and Lickitung for
support. They are to KO as much Pokemon as possible using their Status
Effects while Growlithe sits in the bench to become Arcanine and pumped up by
energy. Then after at least three prizes are won and Arcanine is powered with
energy you retreat to make Arcanine active and Clean up either a)your
opponents bench or b) your prizes.

Now that you have been formally introduced to the Cleaner here are it's
matches:

1st Match
Charlse Dunbar
Deck: Psychic/Fighting/Colorless
Pokemon: Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan, Dragonair, Aerodactyl, and Mewtwo
This deck is very well built. We both went pound for pound each hit against
each other. In the first match Ihad control of the game with the basics. I
struggled to get Arcanine out but proved useless for Aerodactyl came out. I
started pummeling Aero with my Grimer and Koffings but he did a good job
protecting it. So I had no choice but to use my basics until I had a shot at
eliminating Aero for the win. In the end Arcanine never came out and I picked
up my last prize with Koffing. This round last nearly 30 minutes. My opponent
said he never battled this long before.

In the second round of this match I had a very good draw with one problem I
got energy screwed for most of the first half of the round. My opponent began
to ko each of my Pokemon one by one until he was down to two. I Oaked for
recovery and that's when the energy came out and I began to feed my bench.
After taking out three of his Pokemon Arcanine arrived and I started Take
Down. I give him credit for he tried to slow me down with Fossil but I Gusted
up another Pokemon and Take Down for the win.

Won: 2-0 Points: 3

2nd Match
Nick
Deck: Preconstructed Bodyguard deck
Pokemon: Geodude/Graveler, Grimer/Muk, Koffing
Well I didn't know what to say. He is very inexperienced and a beginner. I
just took advatage of Geodudes weakness and concentrated on eliminating them
for some prizes. He held up well especially with a last minute Gambler
effort. He played the card then flipped. He got tails and drew one card. That
card happened to be Prof. Oak. So he drew 7 cards but I had the last hit and
drew my final prize. The second round he fought well but he blackout as
Arcanine came out and Cleaned his weaknened bench. I felt sorry that he
decided to use a Precon deck in unknown tournament. I wish him the best of
luck in his Pokemon quest.

Won: 2-0  Overall: 4-0 Points: 6

3rd Match
Leon
Deck: Mulligan Mewtwo
Pokemon: Mewtwo
While sitting with fellow friends we all witnessed history in the making. I
never faced a Mullie Mew deck before but we all talked about how we can
handle it. We had two words for it: Fossil Magmar. In the first match well we
all know the scenario Mulligan, draw, Mulligan, draw. Good news is that
drawing on mulligan was not mandatory as stated in rule book version 3. So
when my opponent Mulliganed I drew the necessary amount of cards needed. In
other words I drew out F.Magmar, Growlithe and Arcanine. I put Magmar as the
starting Pokemon and Growlithe on the bench to be built. My opponent had two
Mewtwos out. When we started I Smokesreened Mewtwo. I also slowed him down
with ERs. When he began to Barrier I just Smokesreened Mewtwo forcing a flip.
After building Arcanine up he flipped Tails on Smokescreen and I switched
Magmar for Arcnaine and flamethrowed it. Since his second Mewtwo had no
energy on it I used Take Down.

In the second match its was same thing all over again. But this time he one
Mewtwo. As we began I smokscreened Mewtwo then began to barrier and used
Super Potions to slow me down. Suddenly he attacked Magmar and Ko it. Saddly
though I had another Magmar ready in the bench. He attacked again but this
time Arcanine was built up and out he came for another Take Down. My opponent
couldn't believe that his deck suffered and realized that I discovered its
weakness. He took the lose in stride and played one more game before leaving.

Won: 2-0 Overall 6-0 Points: 9

Championship
Robert "Voltorb" Ng
Deck: Surfin the Beach v4.0 (Wiggly Deck)
Pokemon: Jiggly/Wiggly, Hitmonchan, F.Magmar
Once again the Mulligan bug hit me hardWell I got two words to describe this
match of the undeafeated Trainers: BRAWL! All we did was exchange hits after
hits as we KO'd our Pokemon left and right. In the first match I broke the
startegy of the Cleaner and brought Arcanine out before picking up 3 prizes
and it got Ko'd. I never recovered after that even though our Pokemon were
beating each other silly. In the second match it was another massive brawl as
we continued to beat each other silly but unfortunately Arcanine came in to
late and the Cleaner lost again.

Lost: 0-2 Overall: 6-2 Points: 9

In the end I got no second place prize but making it to the championship was
more worth it than ever. When the final standings were posted I was tied with
fellow friend Michael Ju and 2 other people at nine points apiece. Due to
tiebreaker I fell to third overall with Michael Ju getting second. This is
the second Pokemon Day in a row that the Cleaner made the Top 5 in the final
standings and I am proud of it. There is another Pokemon Day next month and I
will be ready for another run. Good Night everyone.

Henry-Michael Brown
The Impossible Man
Fuego90702@aol.com