Dear Pojo, GEN CON POKEMON TOURNAMENTS!! I FINALLY get my butt over to the Gen con convention over in Milwaukee Wisconsin (not even 2 hrs away from my home) AND I AM ASTONSIShED on how cool this place was... I won't say any more than GO GO GO!!!!...ahem... the convention lasts 4 days, and there is only ONE pokemon tourny PER DAY. I suppose thats 'ok', but when you concider about 25 magic tournys a day, it looks pretty weak...but I won't complain. I decided, to test my skills, for the FIRST TIME SINCE APRIL! which, if you look, is the LAST killer deck submission I posted. I was NOT able to get to the convention thursday OR friday, BUUUUT I stayed for Saturday AND sunday, so I could get into each of those poke tournys... SATURDAY! Saturday's Tourny was crazy, there was about 60-70 participants and over 35 ADULT players...thats a good amount! The strange thing was, They seperated the 15+ players from the rest, so there were really TWO tournys at the same time. THIS meant, there was only 35 people in the tournament i was in, BUUT, they were ALL hard core adult players:) THIS WAS SOOOO COOL. NOW i could play some GOOD games:)(no offense younger players..its a quick generalization, not a bash on kid players...some of the best players ARE under 15....:) The tourny is Swiss with only ONE game per round...six rounds. I go into the tourny with My: "H oly B utt S licer Deck:)" (h.b.s= hitmonchan, Buzz, scyther) 4 Dbl Color 12 fighting 9 electric 4 Hitmonchans STILL works wonders even w/jungle out 4 Electrabuzz steady Butt kicker 3 scyther mmmm...juicy 2 Chansey Forever the heavy hitter in my decks 1 Kanguskhan CARD ADVANTAGe! 1 Jigglypuff ANTI MR MIME!!! PERIOD! 4 E.R. 4 S.E.R. 3 Gusts 3 Oaks 2 Bills 1 Scoop up 3 Plus Powers The surprise card in my deck, I now love 'em OK, i'll go round by round. I WROTE everyone's name down, so THATS right, but if i mess up on what deck you played, im terribly sorry, I can't get EVERYTHING right...sheesh:) Round ONE: I get paired w/Kyle Barnes, A guy with a Psi Fighting deck. He seems pretty new at the game. I start with a pretty poor hand, so for a while he gets the upper hand, but a few Oaks and I get back on top...relativly quick game, but it sure gave me a sweat... ROUND TWO: Todd Brinsky, with a jiggly deck. I MET and talked with this guy for two hours before the tourny, it sucked playing against him..i hate playing players I know... His deck WAS good, but with out the mimes to support the alakazaams and jigglys... he falls quick to my hitmonchans..and gusts...it was fun, it gave him something to think about ROUND THREE: Anthony Stark, A.K.A. heart attack man with haymaker. THIS GUY WAS TOO SPAZZZASTIC! he needed to calm down. He was the closest player to beat me in both tournys I played in. I have to admit he was good, but with too much addrenalin(sp?) in his blood, he Oaked one to many times and Decked himself.....i say this to EVERY PLAYER OUT THERE! CALM DOWN, THINK ABOUT BUDDA OR SOMETHING, a calm mind is a clear thinking mind....:) he was 3 turns from winning, but only 2 cards left. ROUND FOUR: Ken Roberts III, A.K.A. VAMPIRE DUDE! lol...he was playing a good raindance deck, that was striking fear into other players...before this match a bunch of kids warned me about him...:) starts out...he gets two kanguskhans and a squirtle...I get a nearly God hand with my deck. I keep pushing the beatdown...slowly taking away prizes, until he FINALLY GOT THE BLASTOISE OUT...BUUUT, too late, I had a nearly FULLY pumped bench, so that blastoise didn't last long. I understand not using Gyrados now that scyther is everywhere, but he is a necessity in raindance decks.... I liked this guy, he had a good sense of humor, and good personality, guys like this ARE COOL! ..hint hint! ROUND FIVE: Jeffrey R. Timler, COOL guy with a electric psi deck..that i didnt' see much of...at all. He was a REALLY nice guy, fun to talk to. Its just too bad he drew ONE jungle pikachu, and I drew hitmonchan, fight energy, and a plus power....first turn kill...seems to happen once in almost EVERY tourny. Sorry Jeff. Its really no fun to win OR lose this way. There SHOULD be an editing to the rules...it just plain sucks:) Round SIX: didn't really have to play, since I was Shoe-in for the top 8, but THe judge asked if i would like to play Casey Tomkins, the unbeaten 14 and below section player of the tourny. hes playing a chansey alakazaam deck, and hes a pretty decent player...BUUUT spazzastic to the last. He decked himself just like spazzy anthony. The game really meant nothing, but he was pissed. OK, this is what sucked....the 6 rounds took 5 hours!! we ran out of time....BUUT, since I was undefeated, I was given the first place. (even though I was confidant I would have held my own just fine if there WAS a final 8) I get 17 packs of jungle unlimited...and a DCI ranked Win. NOTE* Casey complained to the judge that HE only got 11 packs for winning the 14- tourny, and was definatly being a poor sport. He doesn't understand HE beat a good number of unexperienced 5 year olds...so the Judge told him, quite sternly, that he was WELCOME to join the 15+ group next time, and that he has no right complaining. SunDAYS TOURNY. Ok, this tourny only had 25 particapants, so I'm not going to bother with a full report, I'll just list the 5 players I played in the five rounds: Byan Howland (pojo Mech: Bryan's Bench, actually met him firstat the Troy Gould Pokemon mall tour In Chicago, pretty nice guY:) Micah Paape Mike Nickoloff Kyle Morris The tourny was fast...they decided in the beggining NOT to have a final 8, just 5 rounds of play. It went quick. NO decking wins at all, and I was 5 and the win....I ONLY got 9 packs for this tourny win, but I suppose I cant ask for much more in a 25 player event. Note* each player got at least 1 pack...the judge was really cool, and besides, I think this is a good indication on how much cooler, and kinder of a game pokemon is, versus magic or L5R.... These were fun Tournys....They were MY FIRST IN OVER 4 MONTHS! This was a great confidance booster, both as a pokemon player, and in helping kids out in their strategies...If I couldn't win Tournys...what's my Help worth?? lol. THanks For Reading My LONG Tourny report... Its Great To be Back PLAYING THE POKEMON! Tyler J. Grund Tylergrund@hotmail.com