Well, it was the Halloween tournament at the War Room in Atlanta, and was
sure to be interesting.  28 people were out that halloween, ready to make
sure their treats this week were 10 packs of fossil.  The judge there (The
Rules Nazi) had dressed in a rune lined cloak, handing out candy, and
generally eminating a good feeling.  He told us this would be his last
tourney.  Comments were mixed, but it did not take too long for us to push
that out of our minds.

He actually allowed Japanese cards at this tourney.  We were all shocked, and
only a few poeple knew and head fitted their decks with them.  He said he
would be trying it this week and next week, and see if it we liked it or not.
 Needless to say, I was a bit scared.

However, nothing ventured nothing gained, so I entered.  The ghosts were out
in force in most people's decks and mine was no exception.  I was playing a
fast deck with a touch of redirection (ala Mr. Gerhardt's Escalator)  Here's
the deck I played.

Energy:
14 Psychic Energy
9 Lightning Energy

Pokemon:
4 Gastly
3 Haunter
3 Gengar
4 Electabuzz
3 Lickitung
3 Mr. Mime

Trainers:
4 Energy Removal
4 Bill
3 Computer Search
3 Gust of Wind
2 Energy Retrieval

Like usual, it was five rounds of age modified swiss.

Round 1
Against Kevin's Girlfriend again, just like last tournament.  Needless to
say, she was not happy to see me again.  She was playing the same Rain Dance
deck as last time.

The game started with my Gastlys and Haunters Stalling and knocking out a few
basic pokemon for a while.  Her Kangaskhan was ready to trash me, but ER-ing
3 DCE really slowed her down.  She eventually managed to get out a Blastoise,
and although it smashed me for a while, I was able to gust it to the bench,
and slowly kill it there, and the game went my way from then on.
WIN

Round 2
Against Unho Kim.  Yet again, I had to play him.  He kept me out of the
finals last week, and I was ready for revenge.  He was playing a bench killer
deck in which which he had tossed in a couple of Alakazams.  It was quite
similar to mine though, using the Gengar line, Mr. Mimes, and Lickitungs.

It was close.  We traded pokemon, and I did eventually deal with his
Alakazams due to their weakness.  However, a couple of pokemon centers before
that really saved him, and he had worn me down just enough to beat me with
his scythers.  A very close game, but Unho had gotten the best of me again,
and I was ready to see him again in the semifinals.
LOSS

Round 3
Against Steve Yang.  The winner of the last tourney.  Some 1-1 match-up!  It
was funtalking to him, though.  he's the most open member of the elite team
here, and we discussed our old games, and our hour long final match.  He was
playing an experimental deck with both Alakazams and Blastoises in it.

I managed to get to an early lead, as his starting draw contained only a
squirtle and a Articuno in it.  I was able to evolve very quickly, and killed
them both, but by that time, he had built up two Blastoises, one fully
loaded, and proceeded to stomp on me with it.  However, I gusted up the
energyless one, and, after some careful cursing, was able to kill both in one
Gengar attack.  He couldn't come back after that.
WIN

Round 4
Against a friendly guy I had run into earlier, I never caught his name.  (A
judge told me that it was illegal to take notes during a tourney, so I'm
working off of memory here.) He seemed like a nice enough guy, and quite a
gentleman.  He was playing a deck with Gengars and Articunos in it.

It started as gastly versus gastly, but a gust and some fast evolutions
killed his benched Articuno quickly.  Another one stomped n me for a while,
but thanks to some fast evolutions and the power of a couple of Electabuzzes,
I could kill what I chose to, and I managed to beat him.
WIN

Round 5
I hate to say it, but I can't remember his name either.  He was playing some
sort of a strange mix deck, with Hitmonchans, Chanceys, Scythers, Dittos, and
all sorts of others.

It wasn't even close.  A haunter killed his Hitmonchan, and he brought up
ditto.  But, thanks to my ER and a lack of energy on his part, I was able to
keep his defunct Ditto out there, and I scored 4 bench kills, and finally
smashed the Ditto for the last prize.
WIN

4-1.  I was #2 out of 28, so I got to go to the semifinals.  It was the only
all 15+ year old tourney, and we were concratulated, and went on to play the
first game.

Semifinals
Against Unho Kim.  Just great.  However, I was ready to come out fighting.  A
bad draw held me to simply stalling with my Lickitungs, and he very quickly
built up a 4 prize advantage.  However, I managed to stall himby gusting up
an Alakazam three times so he had to keep retreating it to save it.  After he
had blown 9 energy on it, though, I managed to Curse it and Dark Mind it for
the kill.  Then, I managed to use My Gengars and Electabuzzes to get it back
down to 2 prizes to 1 (!).  I decided I couldn't get two fast enough, and
tried to stall his to run him out of cards, but he drew his deck's last gust
and killed my weak Lickitung with a Scyther.
LOSS

I'm really sick of losing to this guy over and over again.  Ah well, I
suppose the competition keeps me sharp.  Now it's time for what I have
learned.

What have I learned from this?

Curse rules.  People were telling me my deck wasn't good enough since Curse
was so weak, but my killing 2 Blastoises in one shot showed them all.

I really could have used an Alakazam in here.  I couldn't figure out how to
do it and solve my all psychic problem, but with all the guys just sitting on
the bench doing their powers, it would have been nice.

Man, Lickitung sure gave those psychic cards all sorts of problems.  He was
smashing a bunch of those bad dudes.

This Japanese cards thing is not a good idea.  Some of us without cards were
at the mercy of big Blaine cards played by a kid who didn't know the
translation correctly.  I proved him wrong on at least two after the tourney.
 And I am not willing to shell out $10 a pack for these stupid cards.  I do
have the Erika pre-con deck, maybe I can cram some stuff in from there...

Well, that's it.  I should be out of town for the other Japanese tournament,
but I should be back in 2 weeks.  I'm planning on playing a Muk deck, so see
you later, and I hope grass will finally let me beat Unho.

Daihakusei@aol.com
Gengar curses you!