Name: Keith Williams

Location: Texas Game Company
          Allen, TX


Tournament Report (10/29/99)
Attendance: 12-14



Once again another report from Texas. This weekend was a disaster for me. On
Thursday night, my wife fell ill and
I spent all night in the hospital until a nice 10:00AM Friday. We get home
and I cook my wife up some broth then
crash for around 7 hours.  I wake up and my wife is drugged up nicely on her
prescribed medicine and I figure I can
get a quick Pokemon tournament this night since I took off work and
basically shot this whole day.

This week at Texas Game Company, we have a deck restriction in place. All
decks MUST have a stage 2 evolution. In
addition, whatever line the stage 2 comes from must consist of at least 7
cards.  (i.e. I want to use Blastoise, so I
need 4 Squirtle, 1 Wartortle, 2 Blastoise, or some other bizzare mix of your
own choosing as long as it has at least
seven total.)

In the future, Frank, Texas Game Company's owner, will be imposing different
deck restrictions from week to week. I
personally like the idea.  It's challenging and makes players have to use
their minds and come up with something
clever. Perhaps next time it will be no energy removals allowed, or no
Professor Oak/Gambler.

The problem with this idea is that alot of people get upset when they can't
play their favorite deck. Or conversely
they can't think for themselves and need someone to hold their hand and
BUILD them something. If they can't get that
to happen, they just don't show.  Thus attendance this week was down, but
all the top gang was present and each
brought some very interesting deck ideas. It also put a curb on Haymakers,
since they would have to do some SERIOUS
modifications to even be able to compete.

So going into the tournament I know right off hand that the most popular
deck is going to be Rain Dance. I could
play that myself, knowing most people cannot deal with a 2nd turn Blastoise
but I would most probably be facing
mirror matchups all night. This is not to my personal liking. The other deck
I thought would be popular was Damage
Swap. I believe only 1 person played that deck. However it wasn't a
conventional swap deck. It had Alakazam line,
Mr. Mime, Chansey and Moltres. Thats right, Moltres and it had like 6
psychic energy and the rest was fire. It won
by...you guessed it running you out of cards.  Guess what?  It also won the
tournament! <Go Mark!> =)

So back to me now, Rain Dance will be the dominate deck in my estimation. I
think I will metagame a bit. I look at
my old deck lists and see my Gloom deck which I used to trash Haymakers back
before Fossil. I haven't even thought
of this deck because of the new Fossil Magmar.  He basically turned my Gloom
deck into an endangered species
overnight. However since the format requires a stage 2 evolution, maybe,
just maybe it could work. Plus it will be
alot of fun. So I put together the original deck without Fossil cards.
Electabuzz should just wreck Rain Dance
decks. However I have to dedicate electric energy to fuel him. It also
occurs to me that if I should happend to play
a Damage Swap deck, it might give my deck problems. I look into Fossil cards
to see what could assist me to combat
both. Enter the nightmare called MUK. With Muk in play, Blastoise is just a
60HP dealing tank with nothing else.
Alakazam is basically becomes an 80HP paper weight. Mr. Mime is now ripe for
any 40HP shot I can deal out.  Almost
every stage 2 evolution has a Pokemon Power of some sort. Muk is the PERFECT
metagame card in this type of
tournament. So now I get real happy and know that I should be able to just
shut down everyone with Muk. I then
realize another problem: I only got one Muk. BLAH! Luckily Gordon hooks me
up at the tournament with another Muk.

This deck is still pretty good, however vs. Magmar, it will lie down and
die. Period.


Gloom Day (Green Day...Gloom Day...get it?  Oh well...who cares about the
name anyhow!)


4 Oddish
3 GLOOM
1 Vileplume (used only to heal Gloom)
3 Grimer
2 Muk (shut down...Sludge is a pretty good attack too)
4 Scyther
2 Lickitung

3 Bill
3 Professor Oak
3 Switch (key card...explained below)
3 Super Energy Removal (disruption)
2 Gust of Wind
2 Scoop Up
1 Energy Retrieval
1 Item Finder
1 Pokemon Trader

18 Grass Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy



The original idea behind this deck was to crush Haymakers and it still will,
just be wary of Magmar.  Here's how it
works.  The trick is Gloom's Foul Odor.  It is a GUARANTEED confusion.
However it confuses Gloom as well. Thats not
a problem. Retreat cost of 1 gives a 50/50 chance of successful retreat. 3
Switches also help to cure it and last is
Vileplume. I RARELY use Vileplume at all.  He is merely there to cure Gloom
and of course, he is a heavy hitter for
3 grass. Anyhow once Gloom retreats, Scyther moves up, then Scyther
retreats, Gloom comes back, no longer confused
and ready to strike. Hit the opponent's active with Gloom's GUARANTEED
poison and now it's in a rough spot. 

Ok so how do I kill a Haymaker deck? Well I wait for Hitmonchan or
Electabuzz to come out to active.  Both have a
nasty retreat cost. I use Gloom's Foul Odor to confuse them. This makes sure
that they will sit there and either
a.) waste energy TRYING to retreat or b.) attack and TRY to not to deal 20
to themselves. Follow this up with poison
and usually it's game over. This used to work great after Jungle came out
because people were removing Scoop Ups
from their Haymakers to add other cards. People just don't realize how
IMPORTANT Scoop Up is until they hit a status
altering deck.  Lickitung was added for psychic protection and his confusion
ability as well.  Scyther is used for
extra punch but mainly for keeping Hitmonchans frustrated and the retreat
trick mentioned above.

Okay, okay, enough strategy talk. I could spend hours debating on Pokemon
strategy.  Let's get back to the report.

Texas Game Company plays a swiss format, best of three series and ALLOWS
sideboards (nobody uses them, but you could
if you chose to do so.) The time limit is 45 minute rounds, I believe.



1st Round - Same kid as last week. (Still don't remember his name...sorry)
playing Rain Dance.

Once again I face the same kid.  He is basically intimidated by me and I
tell him not to judge his game by his size.
He could easily swing a win off of me.  Well that pep talk sure helped
because he almost did win.  First game he
comes out early with Blastoise but has no follow up Professor Oak for
massive energy dispersal.  I keep him locked
down on energy and then I use my Gloom tech to eliminate Blastoise. I get a
Muk down before he gets his next
Blastoise or Oak and I use Gloom on everything.  Come to find out, he only
has 1 Blastoise in his deck. Ouch.
Next game he again comes out early on me but cannot get the solo Blastoise
from his deck.  I keep getting good flips
on Grimer/Oddish to keep his boys paralyzed but I know time is against me.
Finally I decide to just use my Muk as
a beatdown machine and let him sludge poison and 30 HPs damage on everything
in sight.

Games: 2-0, Matches: 1-0



2nd Round vs. Kolby (I spelled his name right this time) playing Rain Dance
(what a shock)

Once again I face Kolby and we laugh. It's kind of a personally rivalry. I
always seem to be one card ahead of him
and pull out the wins versus him.  I keep encouraging him telling him he is
going to crush me someday...today just
might be that day.  First game we open up with him energy hosed and me with
a solo Grimer on board.  I have to use
Professor Oak early just to save me from empty bench defeat.  I start to
swing things in my favor by confusing his
Lapras/Articunos with my Gloomy friend, but he gets some good flips and is
able to swing them back into my face.
They end up crushing me with Blastoise making a cameo at some point.  Second
game I have full control as he cannot
even get an extra Pokemon on his bench.  However he makes a strong comeback
and his deck gives him the juice he
needs to push back my offense and take the win from me.  (Sorry I can't
remember exact details, but since everyone
was playing Rain Dance, it's hard to remember who did what against me
accurately)

Games: 2-2, Matches: 1-1



3rd Round vs. David Laufenburg? (sp?) playing Rapidash/Gengar/Magmar/Scyther
mix of doom deck? (I don't know...)

David is borrowing my Ghastly/Gengars. He usually does the Wiggly Haymaker
w/Rapidash but this week he wants to test
Gengar.  Well luckily I never get cursed to death, but Magmar beats on me
hard in this matchup.  First
game he rocks me badly as I cannot get anything going and he has 2 fully
loaded Rapidash's and Scythers which
crush me. Second game, I stall him quickly with some nice Lickitung luck. I
flip 7 consecutive heads to kill Magmar
Tongue Wrap. David hates my Chansey coin now. =) I cannot effectively use my
Gloom tech because all of David's
Pokemon have 0-1 retreat cost.  I don't see how I can pull it off
Grimer/Lickitung prove to be his downfall.
Before we get a real chance to start our third game, time is called and we
each are at 5 prizes.  (It's a bizzare
format...each game you only have to 4 prizes to move onto the next game.
First person to get 8 prizes total, wins
the match.)  We tell Frank, the owner and organizer of the tournament and
after discussion with David I decide to
concede and give him the win.  Frank won't listen to any of it and reports
it as is. <shrug>


Games: 3-3-1. Matches: 1-1-1



4th Round vs. Kid (sorry on not knowing his name) playing Rain Dance
(gee...who would of thought of it?)

This was perhaps the UGLIEST game of Pokemon ever.  First game I get no
energy.  I get one the entire game and he
gets Blastoise second turn.  Hmmm wonder who won that game.  Second game I
start with Grimer as active.  He has one
MagiKarp. I pulverize it with nasty goo and he gets another on his bench.  I
quickly disperse of it with Scyther.
Third game he starts with one MagiKarp again.  I start with Grimer and again
I use nasty goo to win.  See?  I told
you it was ugly.  We both got lousy draws in our respective losses.  Blah!
I hate those games.

Games 5-4-1, Matches: 2-1-1



5th Round - Gordon Kane playing Rain Dance (sigh...4 outta five isn't bad ya
think?) =)

Gordon pretty much knows what I am doing, seeing as I borrowed a Muk from
him.  Unfortunately for me, I didn't know
what trick was in his Rain Dance.  I found out quick enough though.  He
opens with Articuno and Mysterious Fossil.
I think to myself, (Wow, he's playing with Omanyte...props to him for
that...uh wrong.)  I start with dual Grimers.
I use the goo on Articuno and keep him subdued with energy removals.  I draw
a Muk but don't play it as I don't see
Squirtle on the horizon...err bench.  All of a sudden BANG!  Aerodactyl hits
the board!  HOLY HANNA! Where did that
come from!  Now I can't evolve for Muk and Articunos (he had 2 by this time)
were powering up. This game went
downhill fast for me, as my measly low HP's can't compete with Blizzard and
Freeze attacks.  Next game I am the one
who gets the early advantage with some gusted Squirtle kills and when Gordon
can't keep Blastoise properly
energized due to energy removals, Gloom does his job.  I think I even gusted
a Fossil to KO it before 'Dactyl came
into play. Third game Gordon opens with his Articuno's and I drop a Muk
early.  I get another down the next turn.
With Aerodactyl's power not a problem anymore, and Gordon's deck not pulling
good cards for him, I slide victory
away by using Muk's sludge attacks and Gordon concedes.

Games: 7-5-1, Matches: 3-1-1



Mark wins the tournament with his Moltres/Damage Swap deck. Kolby claims
second with his Rain Dance deck. I am tied
at third place with David but my tiebrakers were better.  I get one pack of
Jungle but give it to David since he
should have won our matchup and that would of catapulted him above me.



PROPS:


All my opponents for being the best...our tournaments rule.

The Elite list for being my 'lifeline' for support and encouragement. (Oh
yeah...the Slowbro deck works now!) =)

Gordon: Thanks for the lending me the Muk. Sorry it worked well against you.

Mark: Thanks for getting me the good cards. You still owe me big time. Oh I
need some Muks! =)

David: Blah...stupid fire deck...good match. You OWNED me.

Kolby: First win versus me! Congratz! It was only a matter of time...now I
have the loss streak of 1. =)



SLOPS:

Scott Gerhardt: Slop me and I slop ya back! =) Oh BTW thanks for the help on
the Slowbro deck! (I'll explain later)

<Ed. Note:  Uh, gee...thanks Keith *smile*>

Maurice: (My best friend's kid) You need to learn (a.) DON'T MOOCH, (b.) BE
QUIET! (c.) RESPECT, and (d.) MANNERS




Sorry for grammer, sloppiness, attitude, etc.


Keith Williams