"Rapidash Wild"   Saturday- September 18, 1999
Hi pojo, the name's Matt.  I recently attended a DCI sanctioned tourney with
my best friend Mark at T&J Collectibles in Milford, MA.  We played it swiss
style (best 2 out of 3 games) for 4 rounds only.  About 25 kids
participated, but it was split up into two divisions.  I went to the 12 and
older divisions.  There were 11 people in our division so whoever didn't get
a partner received an auto victory.  I'll keep it semi-confidential by using
only my opponent's first names.  This was my third time at a tournament.
This report is sort of long so bear with me.

Here's the deck, Just call it "Rapidash Wild"  It's a
Fire/Colorless/Lightning deck focusing on using Rapidash's Agility attack.

Pokémon- 20/Basic- 12/Stage1 cards- 8
Ponyta-4
Rapidash-3 (A great under-appreciated uncommon card, free retreat too)
Spearow-3 (To cover my fighting weakness)
Fearow-2 (If I had more DC I'd be a lot happier)
Eevee-3 (I only use three because it seems like reasonable amount plus the
Eevee evo's don't seem to help me much any ways)
Jolteon- 2 (In for the color theme)
Flareon-1 (In for the color theme)
Electabuzz-1 (I only have one)
Lickitung-1 (saved my butt with lucky coins tosses)

Energy cards- 24   Energy-26
Fire- 12
Electric- 10
Double Colorless-2

Trainers- 16
Energy removal- 4
Super energy removal- 2
Switch-1 (Just in case I want to retreat Lickitung)
Gust of wind- 3  (Love using it against Pinsirs and Scythers)
Prof. Oak- 3 (Great for getting out of a Jam)
Potion- 3

These rounds are to the best of my recollection so don't sue me If I get
something wrong. :-)
Round 1-  Me against an older fellow by the name of Steve.  The details of
the match are a little sketchy since I was so tense.  It was his first game
and I thought I'd get an easy win.  I guess I was wrong.  He played my main
weaknesses Fighting and Water.
Game-1   He gets the coin toss.  Time to draw cards.  Unfortunately for me I
didn't get any basics two times in a row.  Finally I get some basic and
acquired an Electabuzz and Ponyta.  I send Electabuzz out first and bench
Ponyta.  He sends Seel out first with a Ryhorn on the Bench.  He attaches an
energy on Ryhorn.  Electabuzz then proceeds to Thunder Punch his way out,
but was taken out by a Rhyhorn's Horn  attack later on.  Most of the game is
just me getting pummeled by Machokes, Seels and Rhydons while I try to stay
in the pink with Lickitung, Eevees, Ponyta and Spearow.  Near the end of the
game we both had only one prize left and he beat my last pokémon an Eevee
with a Hitmonchan. The thing is that I NEVER got to play even one evolution
card.
Game-2  He gets the coin toss again.  I start with 2 Ponytas.  He starts
with Hitmonchan.  He beats my Ponyta in two strikes with Jab.  I knew it was
going to happen so instead I put the energy on my other Ponyta.  I get a
Rapidash card and evolve Ponyta.  Rapidash beats Hitmonchan.  The rest was a
battle against his Machokes and Seaking, against my Spearows and Eevees.  I
ditched my two Fearows with a Prof Oak early on in the game because I needed
the energy so it never showed up again.  I finally beat him with one prize
left. 
Game-3  The earlier two took a long time to battle out so while we were in
the middle of play it was a called draw.  He had 5 prizes left and I had 5
left.  We shook each other's hands and went off to face our next challengers.
Results- 1 win, 1 loss, and 1 tie.
My record- 1/1/1

Round- 2  Me against a kid named Chris.   He played a Mono-Fire deck.  It
was his first time in a tourney.
Game 1-  The opponent gets the flip once again.  Very short though, I beat
his only basic, a Charmander with a Ponyta.
Game 2- He got the flip so he goes first.  This match Lasted a while longer.
He starts with a Vulpix while I start with a Lickitung, Spearow and Ponyta.
He computer searches and gets a Nintales.  He then proceeds to load it with
Fire energy.  I counter with Spearow and Energy Removals as best I can.  He
lured my Lickitung into play.  Bad mistake Lickitung had paralyzed Ninetales
for about 4 rounds and I had a Rapidash and Fearow now on the bench.  I also
had Electabuzz and Jolteon on the bench to boot, but they never came in to
play.  Well, then Lickitung got what was coming to him and got hit by Fire
Blast, ouch!  Luckily I had a Super Potion and two potions.  I attack and
paralyze again.  He switches and sends out Charmander.  I still manage to
paralyze it, but then he evolved it into Charmeleon.  He slashes and sends
Lickitung with 50 Hp left.  I manage to paralyze it again but, then when
Charmeleon recovered he slashed again.  I switch Lickitung for a pumped
Rapidash and use Agility.  Heads so Charmeleon can't attack me.  He evolves
Charmeleon into Charizard.  Uh oh, I use agility again, but land tails.  He
uses Fire Spin and picks a prize.  I send out Lickitung, biding my time.  I
was surprised to see LICKITUNG paralyze and K-O a CHARIZARD! His Ninetales
then kills my Lickitung.  By that time he had three Ninetales!  I send out a
fully pumped Fearow.  I try to do as much damage as I can hoping that he
doesn't Fire blast me again.  Lucky for me he didn't draw any energy for 6
turns.  I then knock out each Ninetales one by one with Fearow's Drill Peck
until he had no basic left.  I win again.  We left each other with a hearty
handshake.
Results- 2 wins.
My record- 3/1/1

Round- 3  Me against Dan.  It was his first time too.   It was apparent when
I saw he had a extremely little energy during the match.  He plays a
Fire/Fighting deck. 
Game- 1  He gets the coin toss.  I draw two Ponytas as my basics.  He starts
out with a Hitmonchan.  I thought Ponyta was going to get killed by his
Hitmonchan in two turns like in Round #1.  So instead I attach the Fire
energies to my benched Ponyta and evolve.  Hmm. . .he gets no Fighting
energy how odd, I thought?  I manage to get a Rapidash and retreat Ponyta
for it.  He has a Charmander, two Machops on the bench and evolves one into
Machamp.  I beat his Hitmonchan with 0 energy, Machoke with 2 energy, and
Machop with 0 energy with good ol' Rapidash.  He then sends out a fully
pumped Charizard and annihilates my Rapidash.  I send Fearow and faint it
with a couple Drill Pecks.  He sends out Dugtrio with 0 energy and I beat it
for the game.  It lasted pretty long though, considering his energy was
almost non existent.
Game-2  He forfeits because he has to go home.  He packs his cards and leaves.
Results- 2 wins
My record- 5/1/1

Round-4  (Last round!)  Me against another Chris.  Chris has registered in
the tournament before and is good friends with the local champion/cheater.
I'll get to why later on.  Before the match he and his friend came up to me
and my friend.  His friend Brian said that we were going to lose because
Mark was up against Brian and I against Brian's friend Chris.  Chris plays a
Grass/Lightning deck with no trainers.
Game- 1  I get the coin flip (finally!)  I get a Ponyta and a Spearow.  He
draws a Zapdos, NidoranMale, and Pinsir.  I put Spearow as my active and put
a Ponyta on the bench.  I draw an Electabuzz and plop him on the bench.  I
retreat Spearow and have Electabuzz do Thundershock.  I paralyze his Zapdos.
I continue to Thundershock his Zapdos while loading up my bench with a
Rapidash, Fearow and Lickitung.  He loads his bench with a Jolteon, Scyther
and Electrode.  He buzzaps Electrode and puts him on Zapdos.  I forget to
get my prize for that Buzzap, otherwise the game would have ended a lot
sooner.  I energy removaled Zapdos' energy and faint his Zapdos and my
Electabuzz's Thunderpunch.  He sends out Pikachu while I send out Lickitung.
Pikachu does Spark 2 times sending ten damage to Rapidash on the bench each
time.  I potion Rapidash and Switch Lickitung out then proceed to knock-out
his Pikachu.  He sends out Jolteon.  I gust of wind his Pinsir and K-O it
with Agility, I get heads.  He sends out Jolteon.  I gust of wind his
Scyther and use Agility and land heads.  I use it again and vanquish his
Scyther.  He sends out Nidorino with no energy.  I knock it out in two
turns.  He sends out Jolteon and I knock it out.  Game 1 is over as I pick
my last prize. 
Game- 2  He gets the coin flip this time.  I draw my seven and get three
Ponytas.  I send one out and bench the rest.  He starts out with Zapdos a
Scyther and another Electrode.  I whittle away at his Zapdos' HP and energy
removal him as best I can.  I add a Rapidash, Lickitung and Fearow to the
bench.  He adds Jolteon, and Nidoran Male to his bench.  He buzzaps and this
time I don't forget to take a prize! ;-)  He then retreats his Zapdos and I
retreat my Ponyta too.  I draw another Ponyta so this makes four.  I send
out Rapidash and he sends out his Jolteon.  By this time Mark and Brian had
finished their battle and came to watch us play.  Looks like the cheater
beat Mark, go figure. :-P  Well, I proceed to use Agility and land tails.
He uses Pin Missile and gets two heads.  My opponent puts 4 damage counters
on Rapidash, but his cheater friend puts another 2.  I noticed, and removed
the extra two thinking it was just an innocent mistake on his part.  I use
Agility and land heads use agility again and beat his Jolteon.  He sends out
another Zapdos.  I use agility twice.  He retreats his Zapdos back to the
bench and sends out Nidoking.  Nidoking uses Toxic knocking out Rapidash. I
send out Ponyta, it gets knocked out.  Send another Ponyta and it gets
knocked out.  Then lucky Lickitung comes to the rescue!  I use Tongue Wrap
and Paralyze.  I do damage again and paralyze.  I then switch Lickitung and
send out Fearow when I got enough energy.  I use Agility and he retreats.
He sends out Zapdos with no Energy.  Fearow has a field day.  When I knocked
it out he sent out Scyther and I knocked it out with Fearow.  He sends out
Nidoking and I send out Ponyta because Fearow is 10 HP away from death.  I
was one Smash Kick  away from victory when I saw that Brian took Chris' deck
and put a switch on top from a box of cards he had.  Brian anxiously tells
Chris to draw a card from his deck so he could send out Zapdos to use
thunderbolt and win the game.  We both had one prize left.  His Nidoking had
0 energy from a previous retreat, while my Ponyta had an electric and a fire
energy card attached.  I told Mark to get the judge because I saw Brain
cheat for his friend.  The judge comes over to access the situation.  Brian
acts all innocent while I tell the judge what happened.  I knew Chris didn't
have any trainers because he told me earlier.  Well, the judge counts Chris
deck and ends up with 61 for a count.  Chris is automatically disqualified
and I end up with the win.   I would have won anyway because his Nidoking
was just one Smash Kick away from fainting.  I said good game and left.
Results- 2 auto wins.
My record- 7/1/1    

Well, I came in second place and got $18 store credit.  Brian came in 1st
and Mark came in 4th.  I bought two first edition Jungle packs and pulled a
Holo-Clefable and a Nonholo-Snorlax.  For the most part a good day.  Also if
you think about making deck like this and don't have the rare cards like
Flareon and Jolteon you could easily replace them with Meowths and Persians.
Even though they're not the best cards I've had some good experiences with them.

Now time for props and slops.
Props to Mark for coming to the tournament with me week after week.
Props to T&J's for hosting the tournament and to still sell 1st edition
Jungle packs.
Props to my cards, I couldn't of done it without them. :-)
Props to Chris for being a good sport about the incident.
Props to the person who invented props and slops.

Slops to Brian for cheating. >:-P
Slops to Brian for being a bad sport after the incident.
Slops to the Pizza for being to oily. :-)

If you want to contact me, send e-mail to (thankupo@ma.ultranet.com)  Thanks
to the Pojo and you the viewer!
Signed,
Matt