Where: Game HQ (Edmond, OK)
When: June 3, 2000
Players in Attendance: 31.
Deck name: "Wildfire!"

Deck list:

4 Moltres
4 Chansey
4 Scyther

4 Pokémon Center
4 Scoop Up
4 Energy Removal
4 Super Energy Removal
2 Professor Oak
2 Computer Search
2 Super Energy Retrieval
3 Item Finder
1 Gambler

18 Fire Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy

This is actually the first Pokémon tournament that I have played in this
year.  Being a bit older than the other players, I am usually asked to
host the local Pokémon tournaments.  However, I had enough of that and
decided to see if I could still compete with the newer group of Pokémon
players (who, I must say, are much better than they were back when I
stopped playing!).  But enough pomp and circumstance.  Here's the
report:

ROUND 1 vs. Brandon's Psychic Stall
Brandon uses a nasty Alakazam deck to stall his opponent to defeat,
although sometimes he uses his Mr. Mimes to beat down an unsuspecting
opponent.  None of the above took place, however; there was so little
precious Energy in the deck that the Energy Removal cards I drew early
took away the little bite the deck had in the first place.  He sent out
Mr. Mime against my Moltres, and I kept using Wildfire every turn while
using Energy Removal to keep him at bay while I waited for Chansey to
show up.  While I was discarding his deck, I wiped both of his Energy
Retrievals, not to mention some key evolution cards, out of the deck.
In the end, he was helpless to prevent his own decking.

WIN, 1-0

ROUND 2 vs. Ben's Lightning/Fire deck
My previous opponent was defensive enough that I didn't have to worry
about taking damage much, but this deck was entirely different.  Ben's
Electabuzzes and Charmeleons went immediately on the offensive.  I kept
using Energy Removal on key energy cards (the one Lightning energy on
Electabuzz, for example), and since he had two colors of Pokémon, it was
sometimes difficult for him to keep coming up with the energy.  I drew
two Chanseys early on, and kept switching them both in as damage
sponges, getting them dangerously low on HP before using Pokémon
Centers.  (That's why you should play Gust, folks.)  I didn't get to
Wildfire that many cards away this time, but I still had plenty of cards
left when Ben's draw pile went empty after he Oaked it all away.

WIN, 2-0

ROUND 3 vs. Darrell's Mewtwo Haymaker
Darrell's a great guy and a great player, but his deck consisted of
Electabuzzes and Promo Mewtwos, neither of which could put much of a
dent in the wall of Chanseys.  Because I wanted to take out some key
Pokémon (and energy cards with them), this was the first match all day
that I actually dealt damage (by using Double-Edge).  It wasn't the
first time I drew a prize, though, because Ben's Electabuzz killed
itself with Thunder Punch.  Anyway, Darrell kept using Bill and Oak (and
even Comp. Searched for an Oak early on with a full hand) so that he
could get more Energy, which made my job a whole lot easier.

WIN, 3-0

ROUND 4 vs. John's Haymaker
This match was close because John was my first opponent all day to make
use of Fighting Pokémon, which threatened my Chanseys.  When I sent out
Moltres or Scyther, however, he used Resistance-Lowering Gym, which
lowered their resistances to Fighting down to just -10.  It looked tense
for a long time, but eventually, I was able to Run John out of most of
his energy.  All he had left was enough to Jab with Hitmonchan, so I
sent out Moltres, Wildfired for 1 card every turn while taking ten
damage every turn, then Scooped up, used Super Energy Retrieval, and
kept on discarding cards from his deck.  It was close, but when the
smoke cleared, John had deck just a few cards ahead of me, and I was one
of the only two undefeated players in the tournament going into the
final 8.

WIN, 4-0

FINAL 8 vs. Arthur's Psychic Lock deck
Arthur's deck uses almost more Japanese Pokémon than American, but the
thing that makes it very difficult to stop is the Confusion Gyms.  (If
either player plays a trainer, he or she flips a coin, and if tails, the
other player gets to use it instead.)  Art put the Confusion Gym out
early against me, to slow me down, I slowed him down just as much by
drawing nothing but two Chanseys, a DCE and a bunch of Scoops and
Centers (his whole deck is Psychic).  This was another very close
battle.  My bench was full of damage, so I used a Pokémon Center, an
flipped tails.  I pulled another one out of my hand, and flipped tails.
I had one more left, tried to use it, and finally got heads!  I was
lucky my trainers worked when I needed them to, but I also used Energy
Removals only when my Pokémon didn't have any energy on them, so that if
they failed, they  wouldn't come back to bite me.  In the end, Arthur
used Mr. Fuji on a Mewtwo that had been absorbing Psychic energy for the
last few turns to increase his deck size, but it wasn't enough: I hadn't
used Oak or Gambler the whole time, so his replenished deck ran out just
a little ahead of mine.

WIN, 5-0

FINAL 4 vs. Darrell (again)
This match went even more quickly than the one before it.  When I used
Wildfire on turns 1, 2 and 3 and ate away three of Darrell's most
crucial cards, he went on an Oaking spree, and that's all that needs to
be said about that.

WIn, 6-0

FINAL GAME vs. John's Haymaker (again!)
I was worried about this match when I mulliganed twice right off the
bat.  This time, John was ready for the fact that I would be trying to
deck him, so he took things at my pace, and didn't use any Oaks or draw
any unnecessary cards at all.  I was still able to keep his Pokémon at
bay, however, because I drew multiple Energy Removal cards and Scoop Ups
early in the game.  John wanted to Oak to get some more energy, but felt
he couldn't, because he would deck again.  When I used an Oak of my own,
he went ahead and did likewise.  That's when I brought up the Moltres I
had been powering up for the past five turns and started to eat away the
remaining cards in his deck.  Again, because of the Resistance-Lowering
Gym, the game was close, bcause his Hitmonchans kept beating down my
Chanseys and even my Scythers, but he failed to use Gust of Wind or Item
Finder to get the KOs he needed (although he did draw most of his
prizes).  I was able to use one last Item Finder to get a Pokémon Center
back right at the end and wipe the damage slate clean.

WIN, 7-0!!

Props to John, and Darrell, for being great players and playing me
twice!  Props to Joe, the tournament organizer (who wasn't mentioned
here), for winning the Magic Regional championship.

Slops to whoever made up this silly props-slops thing anyway! :)

This report was submitted by Elquemis.  E-mail comments to:
elquemis@hotmail.com.