Or

Well, for those of you who read the Pokegym, you know who I am. Those who don’t might not. My name is Scott Gerhardt and I play in the Dallas/Ft. Worth. After seeing the wonderful quality of the site that is The Pojo, I decided to start doing my tournament reports here. Without further adieu, here is the report.

It was a sweltering Sunday up in Plano, TX. For the twelfth consecutive day, it was over 100 degrees, so getting comfortable was awful hard. Sam, the owner of Rama Llama Comics, had recently rearranged the store, planning to accommodate up to seventy Pokemon players. Well, but to lack of tables and chairs, we were still only able to get about forty comfortably. Well, I don’t think anyone was prepared for what happened on that Sunday. By twelve forty-five, not counting parents and store employees, there were ninety-eight Pokemon players. When the number was announced, the entire room was shocked. This was incredible. Easily the largest sanctioned tournament ever – there would be some pride for the winner (or the one with the best record) being able to say they won the largest sanctioned Pokemon tournament ever. Making matters worse, the body heat of over 100 individuals made it sweltering inside. Cokes were on the house, and the prize was $50 per division for a FREE tournament. Wow. Here we go…

Round 1 vs. Gordon Kane (feature match)

Great, my long standing nemesis is first. Great guy, but always gives me quite the run for money. He goes first opening with Pinsir. He has problems with basics, as I’m able to build up a Ponyta, DC, and 2 PlusPower in my hand. Scyther is active, but he gets 3 heads flips on Irongrip to give him time to get another basic and thwart my chance to win this one quick. Eventually, Pony comes out, but Venomoth is ready for him, making him sick and confused. I scoop Pony, then bring him back out to cause some carnage. A couple 2 turn kills on Koffings give me an advantage, but eventually Pinsir comes and evens it out. Venomoth keeps me at bay for a while with the Chansey coin of love (or hate for me), but with me having one prize left, a badly damaged Venomoth is the downfall. Once he makes it 1-1, I promote Mime, Gust out the Venomoth, and get the kill

Matches (1-0)

Round 2 vs. Josh "ER" Minnon

I go first, and my Electabuzz eats Farfetch’d up. He gets stripped, but I scoop him and draw some with Kangiskhan. He dies eventually to a small Wigglytuff. Hitmonchan comes and dishes out on Wigglytuff. A promotion with Scyther is met with my Ponyta. Thanks to Gust and PlusPower, I pokemon him out at 2 prizes left.

Matches (2-0)

Round 3 vs. Ryan Lassberg

I had never actually heard of Ryan before, so I didn’t know what to expect. Despite opening with Mankey, I learned not to underestimate my opponent. He was fire/fight with some BIG fire. After getting Mankey, Rapidash comes out and I learn why I’m such a bad Pokemon player – my opponents always flip heads!!! He gets Agile like 3 times in a row, killing my Hitmonchan. Eventually I get to SER the large Pony, but he’s got support. Luckily I have Mr. Mime and that changes everything. He builds back up the Pony and fails a stomp (my opponent needed tails for once). The brings in Scyther to do 30. Scyther dies to Charmeleon, but I bring back out Mime. He retreats Charmeleon for a smaller Pony, but I gust out the big one and removal the small one. By now I have mime back up, and once the first Mime goes, the second is ready. I bring up the second, and do a Plus Power meditate for 30 to the Pony, and get the win.

Matches (3-0)

Round 4 vs. David "Chipmunk" Eckhard

Okay. Deck mechanic. Never lost in tournament….guess this one would be hard. I open with Scyther, but doesn’t matter because I have no energy. He gets quick kills on Scyther and Kangiskhan using a Wigglytuff, but I get energy and an SER to remove him and make him gust bait for Hitmonchan. Hitmo runs for Mr. Mime, but he brings Jigglypuff to hurt it. I Scoop Mime, Oak, Remove on the Jiggly, bring up Hitmo and dish 40. Time running low, he does not have energy to play to retreat the singing balloon, so it gets knocked out. We played kinda slow due to being very meticulous, and the game ends in a 4-4 prize tie.

Matches (3-0-1)

Round 5 vs. David Buchannan

I defeated David in the finals of a tournament just a day earlier, so he was anxious for some revenge. He swtiched to mono-fire. I do some fancy gust work, and my opening Mime is able to avoid the wrath of a Vulpix. Eevee shows up, but Hitmo hurts him. He wags, so I scoop Hitmo and finish him with Mime. Now Mime gets confused from Vulpix, but after failing to retreat he comes through on the attack. Eevee then comes out and kills Mime. At this point, Hitmo is fully powered, and runs through Eevee, gusts out Magmar with PlusPower, then gets the kill over an energyless Ninetails.

Matches (4-0-1)

Round 6 vs. Jonathan Coveney

Tough match-up against the 4 ER/4 SER deck that’s been running around. My Scyther opens up against buzz, and quickly runs for Kangiskhan. We dance around for a little while, while a Lass nails 5 trainers from his hand, including a Search and an Oak. The subsequent knock-out yields an Oak, so I’m sitting good. Eventually, Ponyta comes down against the Scyther army and cleans house. Prizes 3-1, I’m low on my library, but he can’t remove the Mime. Consequently, the recently retreated Hitmonchan is gusted back out and meditated for the kill.

Matches (5-0-1)

Round 7 vs. Mark Woodworth

Great. I’m loving this. His only loss is to Chipmunk, and he has SOME desire to beat me, so here we go. I go first and open with Hitmo vs. ‘buzz. I figured it over quick, but he pays some Bills and gets Scyther down. We both play the Energy Removal dance with a few Scoop Ups mixed I at critical times. After a late Oak, he’s low on cards. I go into ultra-defense mode, keeping to Scythers out and nothing else. Hitmonchan runs, but I gust it back out, and that secures he can not win without decking. He conceeds with 2 prizes and 2 cards left in the library.

Matches (6-0-1)

Okay. The tournament is supposed to be over now. We have a slight problem, though. Chipmunk is also 6-0-1. Looks like we have to settle this once and for all.

Sudden Death vs. David "Chipmunk" Eckhard

Sure, this game was for credit, but we agreed to a 30/20 split before the match, so this was more for pride than anything else. I open like a cannon, getting two Jigglypuffs in my site within the first couple turns. Down a couple prizes, he thunderpunches a kill on my Scyther, but flipping tails was key, as it put ‘buzz within Meditate range, and the Mime unloads. I then gust out a hurt Scyther for another kill. Prizes 5-2 is bad for him. After a couple kills for him and one for me, He brings out Jiggly to deal with Mr. Mime. I smell blood and go for it. I scoop Mime, bring out Hitmonchan, slap energy on it, slap a PlusPower on it, and Oak. My seventh card off the Oak is an Item Finder for the PlusPower. I get the win.

Matches (7-0-1)

Wow. The only undefeated in a room of 98. It took an extra round to do it, but happened. I was really drained afterwards and happily took my credit.

My deck:

Haymaker’s Potpourri v1.5

3 Hitmonchan
3 Electabuzz
3 Scyther
3 Mr. Mime
1 Ponyta
1 Kangiskhan
3 Bill
3 Prof. Oak
3 Gust of Wind
3 Super Energy Removal
2 Energy Removal
2 PlusPower
2 Item Finder
2 Energy Retrieval
2 Scoop Up
1 Computer Search
1 Lass
7 Fighting Energy
6 Electric Energy
6 Psychic Energy
3 Double Colorless Energy

I can not say enough good things about my deck. Ever since I created it the day jungle was released, it has been nothing less than a complete monster for me. It had undergone several changes to become what I feel it is now: the most dominant deck in the environment. Maybe that’s not true. Maybe it’s only dominant in my hands because it either loves me, or I’m the only one to do extremely well with it. I invite others to try this monster and let me know what kind of results you get with it. It has won me somewhere around $200 in about 8 or so tournaments, so it’s quite battle-tested.

Props and Slops

Props to Chipmunk. I have new DFW competition, but I hope to stay half a step ahead of you.

Props to Mark Woodworth. You just get them. You’ll get me eventually….maybe…J

Props to Sam at Rama Llama. Cokes made the tournament bearable, and $50 makes me keep coming back as long as the prizes are attendance appropriate.

Props to Scott Majerzyck. How do you keep your sanity running these things week after week?

Props to Mr. Mime for being ten times the beating other people think he is.

Combo Prop/Slop to Jonathan Coveney. I can understand your frustration having to play both me and Chipmunk rounds 6 and 7, especially after going 5-0 in your division. That might should have been avoided someway (having to play up like that twice), but then again, it’s just a game, and there will be another tournament next week to win – don’t take it so serious.

Slops to the Texas weather. I got a mild sunburn from being inside. I’m not kidding. Hence, the subtitle, The Human Furnace.

Slops to Keith Williams for not coming to Rama Llama and playing despite living 2 blocks away. Keith will continue to get slops on every report until he at least shows for one, then he’ll get propped.

That’s it for the slops and the props. Hope y’all enjoyed the report, and please direct all questions, comments, complaints, money, dates, or anything else of value to scott@gerhardt.cx. Thanks for listening and keep playing! Until next time……

Scott "Simba" Gerhardt

Back to PoJo Killer Decks