Team DIAMONDS Sweeps Albuquerque Tourney!
Father-Son Team Goes 12-0! (A Pokemon First?!?!)
Entire Family Goes 21-3!!!

On Sunday, September 19, 1999 the great folks at Wargamers West (a game
shop) held the first DCI-style Pokemon tournament in Albuquerque.  About 25
people showed up to play.  Originally it was supposed to be a
DCI-sanctioned event, but the judge decided that not enough people signed
up, so he rescheduled the official DCI tourney for October.  The event was
held following DCI rules since the judge is a DCI-certified "Magic: TG"
judge and wanted us to "practice" for future DCI event.  The players were
divided into two groups, 10-and-below and 11-and-above.  My 10-y.o. son
Devin (see his deck below) and my 7-y.o. daughter Shayna played among 5
players in the younger group.  My wife Mary and I (see my deck below)
played among 20 players in the older group.  It was Swiss-style competition.

Devin played 4 other players, including his sister, and was undefeated
(4-0). I played 8 others (all of whom were 30-35 years younger than I!) and
also went undefeated at 8-0.  My daughter Shayna took second place (3-1),
while my wife had a respectable record of  6-2.  For you math wizards out
there, that means "Team DIAMONDS" had a collective tournament record of 21-3.

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Devin designed the Grass deck entirely himself as follows:

24 Energies:
21 Grass Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy

10 Pokemon: (I can't believe he plays only 10 Pokemon!!!)
1 Clefairy
1 Kangaskhan
1 Snorlax
3 Pinsir
4 Scyther

26 Trainers:
4 Bill
1 Computer Search
4 Energy Removals
2 Gusts of Wind
1 PlusPower
3 PokeBalls
3 Potions
2 Professor Oaks
1 Scoop Up
1 Super Potion
4 Switches


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My Haymaker (similar to Tyler Grund's) was this:

25 Energies: 
11 Fighting Energy
10 Lightning Energy
4 Double Colorless

15 Pokemon:
2 Chansey
3 Electabuzz
2 Farfetch'd
3 Hitmonchan
1 Lickitung
4 Scyther

20 Trainers:
3 Bill
4 Energy Removal
3 Gust of Wind
4 PlusPower
2 Professor Oak
2 Scoop Up
2 Super Energy Removal

Devin didn't keep track of his matches, so I can only tell you about my
own. I didn't take a lot of notes (I didn't expect to win!), but I asked my
opponents a few days later about their decks when I saw them again at
Wargamers West.  These matches were single-game elimination--a perfect
set-up for a speed deck like Haymaker! 

Match 1 vs. Brett #1 (I played 2 "Bretts"!).  My first tournament match
ever, and I was nervous!  I opened with a weak hand, only a E'buzz.  But he
couldn't come up with anything better. Like a lot of other players, he was
counting on evolving his Charmander to Charizard--between Electrabuzz and
Scyther, he never had a chance.  (1-0).  Lasted about 15 minutes.

Match 2 vs. Michael:  The longest game of the day for me--we went the full
30 minutes allowed by the judge, and at the last minute I took my last
prize (he still had 4 left).  He played an Electric-Colorless deck
w/Wigglytuff & Zapdos as main attackers.  He never got the Wiggly buffed up
to "Do the Wave"--my Energy Removals and Super E.R.'s saw to that.  Mostly
he used Jigglypuff to put me asleep again & again & again!  I finally
Scooped Up to put a new Scyther into play to start finishing him off, then
swapped out a powered up Chansey for 2 kills (including suicide) to end the
game.  (2-0)

Match 3 vs. Brett #2:  Can't remember a thing about this match!  Must be
getting old...(3-0)

Match 4 vs. Luke:  He played a Fighting-Fire-Colorless deck with Machamp as
his main hitter and a Charizard which he later told me was there for
"Energy Burn."  I think his strategy was to use a Pokemon Breeder to evolve
a Charmander to Charizard quickly, but I suppose he had too few Charmanders
and I never even saw Charizard. His Charmander, Machops, etc. fell quickly
to several Scythers.  (4-0)

Match 5 vs. Joshua:  The oldest opponent I faced (20, I think).  I think he
was playing a psychic stall deck, and he was skillful with using sleep and
paralysis.  But making Abras his active Pokemon was like setting out a
dinner for Hitmonchan!  I lucked out and pulled 2 PlusPowers early on.
Hitmo's Jab with PlusPowers helped kill two Abras in a row each with one
blow.  Again my opponent only got out 3-4 Pokemon, and with no bench, he
was an early goner...(5-0)

Match 6 vs. Paul:  Paul played a three-color deck with Fire, Grass & Water
pokemon (plus a few colorless).  His main hitter was supposed to be a
Charizard that I never saw.  He opened w/Charmander, which scared my
opening Scyther a little.  But I brought out Farfetch'd who dealt with
Charmander, then my E'buzz fried his follow-up Squirtle.  I think he only
had a chance to put out 3 Pokemon.  With no bench, this one was over too
soon. (6-0)

Match 7 vs. Luke (again!):  After watching him refuel with a bag of Doritos
and try to psych himself up for the match, we finally began.  But the
"meta-game" was clearly at work here--he'd already lost once to my
Haymaker, and he felt it was over as soon as my first Scyther appeared.  I
won again due to my opponent's lack of bench.

Match 8 vs. Cody: Before we played I offered to split the 1st-2nd prizes
50-50 with Cody, and he agreed.  Wish this one would've lasted longer, but
again the speed of the Haymaker finished his deck in no time.  He said
afterward he was surprised he'd made it to the finals--I think he was
playing with a borrowed deck(!?). Once again my opponent only got 3-4
Pokemon out, and it was over. 

Bottom line:  In 8 wins, I only won once by winning all my prizes.  All the
other wins were by eliminating all active Pokemon and leaving my opponents
without a bench.  Haymaker is merciless...

First Place won 12 boosters (our choice of Basic/Jungle), 2nd Place won 6,
so Cody & I split and we each picked 9. With a Pokemon-playing family of
four, I just had to divide them up--three to Devin (although he had already
got 3 as his own 1st place prize!), three to Shayna (she also had got 1 as
a prize!), and one to my wife ("PokeMom") who insisted that I open at least
two.  We pulled a Poliwhirl and a bunch of other stuff out of the
boosters--who can remember it all?

Kudos to all the kids (ages 11-20) who allowed an old guy like me to play
them!  All were polite and were good sports.  Between official matches I
played a few people to try and make up for the quick tournament games.  I
must tell you that since putting together this Haymaker I've gone
undefeated--about 30-0.  I even played on-line against someone who has a
similar Haymaker--still I won (although that match went down to the wire,
each of us having only 1 prize left!). 

***Haymaker Rules!*** (at least, until Fossil comes out...)

Comments & polite conversation available by e-mail <diamondz@nmia.com>
Occasionally I'm on-line via Gooey as "diamondz" and on AIM as "diamondz123"


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Mary & Steve Diamond
Shayna & Devin Diamond
"Los Diamantes de Alburquerque"
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