Well, it was another good turnout at the Gathering Ground.  There were 35 
participants and 4 rounds to the top 8.  I was running old faithful:  
Fighting/Grass.

Round 1: Some Scrub
I beat him down so quickly it wasn't funny.  He didn't draw a prize either 
game, and when he started to pump something up, it got energy removed.  I 
think he was playing grass/fire.
Match record:1-0
Game record:2-0 (3 points)

Round 2: Chris Brown playing fighting/psychic
These were very good games, but super energy removals and plus powers do very 
well against Jynx and Mewtwo.  His Farfetch'd were annoying, but I eventually 
took both games with Scyther going the distance.
Match record:2-0
Game record:4-0 (6 points)

Round 3:  Gerrod Heise playing fighting/grass
I had to play my friend, whose deck was the same as mine except he played 
Lickitung instead of Chansey and Ponyta instead of Farfetch'd.  We had early 
Scyther duels, but later he got Ponyta out and wrecked one of my Scythers.  I 
couldn't recover at that point.  In the second game, he got an awesome hand 
and wrecked me quickly.  Let me just say that in almost every round, I was 
drawing no basics once or twice.  This was because i ran only 12 basic.  
Gerrod was running 12 also, but somehow never mulliganed.  
Match record:2-1
Game record:4-2 (6 points)

Round 4:Jason Waters playing fighting/electric
Well, I needed to win to make top 8 for sure, but I knew it would be tough.  
This guy makes top 8 all the time and he's always a tough match-up.  He was 
running 4 Chansey which scared me sometimes, but my hitmonchans did a pretty 
good job on them.  Basically, two/thirds of his deck was weak to hitmonchan 
and I beat his chanseys and buzzes down pretty quickly.
Match record:3-1
Game record:6-2 (9 points)

Round 1 of the top 8:Mike Jente playing fighting/grass
Incidently my 12 year old brother and my 8 year old sister also made the top 
8!  I couldn't believe it.  My brother made it running a 
Venemoth/Scyther/Electabuzz deck I had made for him, and my little sister 
made it playing the same deck as I was playing.  Well, I knew Mike was 
running 1 Lass in his deck, so I had to be careful not to deck myself.  In 
the first game, I started way too fast for him and won fairly quickly.  In 
the second game, we were low on cards, but I had the prize advantage: I had 1 
left and he had 3 left.  I was afraid of a Lass, so I stocked up to 11 
trainers in my hand!!!!  Well, he could have item findered for it, but I 
would still have won, so he conceded.
Match record:4-1
Game record:8-2 (12 points)

Semifinals:Chris Brown (again)
I was pretty confident since I had beaten him before.  Well, after he 
double-mulligans, he decks me because we super removed every shred of energy 
on the board.  I couldn't get rid of his farfetch'd, so i decked.  Now I'm 
scared because I have to win the next 2 games.  Well, Scyther absolutely 
wrecked his mewtwos, jynxes, and hitmonchans in the next 2 games.  We 
continued to Super each other, but I had enough energy to go all the way with 
Scyther.  He played extremely well, but I eventually pulled it off thanks to 
the help of Plus Power.
Match record:5-1
Game record:10-3 (15 points)

Finals:Gerrod Heise (again)
Well, I definately didn't feel good about this one after what happened 
earlier.  He ends up pulling divine draws, while I double-mulligan each game! 
 You can't win when your opponent gets perfect draws, then draws 4 more cards 
because you drew jack.  That's basically what happened and it cost me both 
games.  Oh well, I got 5 1st edition jungle packs for 2nd place.  I pulled a 
1st edition Scyther out of 1 for my 13th Scyther.  

Props:
Gathering Grounds for yet another great tournament.  Entry fee is steep, but 
prizes are awesome.  
Chris Brown for being cool about everything
Gerrod for winning
Gerrod for beating my brother (good job)

Slops:
Gerrod for winning :)     Lucky...
Nick for beating my sister (hehe)

Dan Mayo (Haymaker18@aol.com) P.S. Check out the Pojo deck workshop, because 
it's awesome and that's where I work.    :)