Hey! I finally went to a tournament at Big Kids Too Comics at Tucson, AZ on
6/25/00. About 9 people participated in a double elimination tourney. Each
round was best 2 out of 3. I played my Lightning Psychic deck that I call
DNA, for no reason other than I think that the name sounds cool. I went to
the tourney with my good friend Sam, who also entered. OK here's my deck DNA,
along with a detailed description of why I chose each card. I know I have a
lot of singles in my deck, but I can't really do anything about that till I
get some more cards.
 
DNA

Pokemon
                  
4 Jungle Pikachu
 Raichu has to come from somewhere. I usually don't attack with him unless
I'm in a really tight spot.

3 Raichu (2 fossil, 1 base)
Mass destruction. Since this is a bench destruction deck, that's what the
Fossil Raichus do. Pounding the bench turn after turn is very powerful. I
added the Base Raichu because sometimes I just need to do some heavy damage.
I'd like to get some Dark Raichu for my deck, but haven't found any yet.

2 Electabuzz (base)
I love to open my battles with Electabuzz. I use his speed and attacking
power while Raichu gets powered up on the bench. Very fast, very useful. In
my opinion, all electric decks should use these guys.


2 Movie Promo Mewtwo
This is my favorite card besides Raichu. Using the sponge trick by discarding
some energy, then absorbing it, thus powering him up by turn 2 he is very
fast and powerful. He is a heavy attacker. I can't really say any more.

1 Nintendo Power Promo Mewtwo
I would use more of him if I had them, but oh well. He can put 30 damage on
any Pokemon in the battle, and avoid psy resistance. I like him, though not
as on opener, more of a late game move. Pretty good.

3 Gastly (fossil)
Once again, I only use Gastly to evolve, but his attack that can recover
energy is pretty useful. He is resistant to fighting and has no weakness
which is helpful is a major electric/psy deck. Always avoid using the base
Gastly. Destiny Bond is a terrible attack.

1 Haunter (fossil)
I only have 1 of these, but I make up for it with my Pokemon Breeder. Another
Pokemon used only for evolution. I use him to stall, because Transparency and
Nightmare can keep your opponent from attacking. Once again, he has a useful
fighting resistance and zero weakness and retreat cost.

2 Gengar
He's the king! I love this card! Being able to manipulate your opponent's
damage is awesome. The potential for combos is great. He follows the
tradition of hitting the bench with his Dark Mind. He also has no weakness,
resistance to fighting, making him hard to kill.

3 Scyther
Why's he here? Well, he has a colorless attack, 70 HP, resistance to
fighting, zero retreat cost. Scyther = Metagame. Not much else to say.

Trainers

4 Bill
2 Cards on demand. Cool. Every deck should have these, even stalls.

2 Prof. Oak
Oak is card drawing power. 7 cards, discard your hand. Very useful. I only
use 2 because any more will cause me to deck.

2 Nightly Garbage Run
Anti decking. I can put lots of different cards into my deck. Very versatile.

1 Pokemon Breeder
I use this in place of a Haunter for my second Gengar.

2 Gust of Wind
Let's me choose who I want to fight.

2 Switch
Mewtwo and Electabuzz are expensive to retreat, plus I can cure my Pokemon of
status effects.

1 Computer Search
Very useful. Let's me get any card I want out of my deck. I really wish I had
more of these.

2 Energy Retrieval
This card is invaluable when trying to power up a Raichu.

1 Challenge
I really wish I had more of these, like so many other cards. It is a win/win
card. If they accept I get all the basics I need and if they decline I get 2
cards. Very cool.

1 Super Energy Removal
Another card I need more of. I use it only when my opponent is hitting me
with a high energy cost hitter. I usually never seem to get it since I only
have 1, but right now I can do anything about that.

Energy
10 Electric
9 Psychic
2 Double Colorless

The Matches

Round 1
King Cobra's DNA vs. Zach with Water/Fire deck.

Match 1
I was worried because Zach was the oldest guy there besides me and my friend
Sam. I found out he was still new to the game, which was a small relief. I
opened with Electabuzz as my active with no benched Pokemon and he had Krabby
active with Squirtle and. He went first and attached a water energy to
Krabby, using Call for Family. I used 3 Bills but didn't get a single
electric energy or basic Pokemon. The game was pretty slow because neither of
us were getting anywhere. I got Oak after about 9 turns and got the energy I
needed. Electabuzz finished off all of his water Pokemon which were just
Squirtles, Krabbies, and Magikarps.

Match 2
I opened with Movie Mewtwo with a Gastly and Pikachu on the bench and he had
a TR Charmander with Poliwag and Magikarp on the bench. I went first and
discarding 2 Psy energies with a Computer Search to get a Pokemon Breeder (I
had Gengar in my hand). I attached a Psychic energy to Mewtwo and did Energy
Absorption to get the psychic energies that I had discarding. He attached a
Fire energy to Charmander and used Oak. He put down a ton of basics, but I
forgot what they were. He did Fire tail to Mewtwo. On my turn, I evolved
Gastly into Gengar via Pokemon Breeder. I KOed Charmander and he put up
Squirtle. He evolved his other Squirtle to Blastoise with a Breeder, but had
no water energy. He also evolved Magikarp into Gyarados. To shorten this up,
Mewtwo and Gengar KOed everyone he had without mercy. He was very polite, we
shook hands after the match. No whining or anything. This guy is gonna become
a champion player someday.

W:1 L:0
Round 2
King Cobra's DNA vs. Sam's Smart Plant (psychic/grass)

Drat. Sam is a very good player and one of my best friends. I opened with
Pikachu (drat again) and no benched and he had Abra with Porygon benched.
Quite a few turns go by with Abra hurting Pikachu and nothing else. I was
really worried because I was about to bench out. I kept getting evolutions.
Sam played a Challenge and I accepted, filling my bench with Mewtwos and
Electabuzzes with 1 Gastly. Sam put 2 Abras, 1 Psyduck, and 1 Grimer on his
bench. He KOed Pikachu and I sent out my powered Movie Mewtwo. I attached a
Psy energy to Gastly and did Mewtwo's Psyburn, KOing Abra. He sent out
Porygon and changed my weakness to grass. I evolved Gastly to Haunter and
gave him a Psy energy. I used Psyburn which only did 10 damage due to
Porygon's resistance. He evolved Abra into Kadabra and Grimer into Dark Muk
and gave Dark Muk a grass energy. I drew a Bill and played it, getting an
energy and a Gust of Wind. I put a psychic energy on Haunter and evolved it
to Gengar. I played the gust of wind and KOed Dark Grimer. He sent Porygon
back out and put a Psy energy on Kadabra. I had some trouble KOing Porygon.
Just before Porygon was killed, he changed my weakness back to psy. I KOed
Porygon and he sent out the fully power Kadabra and KOed Mewtwo. I sent out
Gengar and finished off Kadabra. He didn't have any other powered Pokemon and
Gengar slowly KOed them.

Match 2
I know you guys hate to read stuff like this, but Electabuzz killed all of
his Pokemon. All he had was his Psyduck, Abra, and Doduo. We looked at his
deck and he had a bad shuffle. All of his basics were at the bottom.

W:2 L:0
Round 3
King Cobra's DNA vs. Brat with Grass deck

Match 1
This kid was a brat. He kept trying to steal my damage counters (he got away
with quite a few of them) and he would never pay attention. His deck was
pitiful, every Pokemon he had was Psy weak. I opened with Mewtwo and had
Electabuzz on the bench. He had a Nidoran Female active with 3 Zubat and 2
Koffing on his bench. He went first, but did nothing. I attached a Psy energy
to Mewtwo and used Oak. I didn't get anything great, but the Oak discarded
some psy energy, letting me use the Sponge trick. He fury swiped me with
Nidoran. He kept flipping even after 3 coins. In a polite voice, I said
sorry, but that extra 60 damage doesn't count. He got mad and tossed his hand
into his discard pile and forfeited. I tried to talk him out of it, because I
hate to win by forfeit, but no luck.

Match 2
This was scary. He had the almost EXACT same Pokemon he did during the first
game except that 1 of the Zubats was replaced by an Oddish. I had Mewtwo
active and he had a Zubat. I went first and attached a psy energy to Mewtwo.
He went and evolved Oddish into Dark Gloom (He didn't believe me when I said
that you aren't allowed to evolve on the first turn. I forgot to bring my
rulebook and lost the argument. On my turn, all I did was put a Psy energy on
Mewtwo and passed. He tried to evolve Dark Gloom into a Jungle Vileplume.
Luckily, Sam walked by and helped me out in the argument. He threw his hand
into his discard pile, but to my relief he didn't forfeit. I put a psy energy
on Mewtwo and KOed Zubat. He put a fire energy on another Zubat and sent him
out, doing Ram for 10. I didn't even bother with anything other than powering
Electabuzz, but I was sure Mewtwo would win. I was right. Mewtwo KOed his 2
Zubat, 2 Koffing and his Dark Gloom for the win. When I offered to shake his
hand, he grabbed my arm and used all of his strength to try to smash my hand
into the table. Unfortunately for him, I was about 7 years older than him,
and easily stopped him. He then cried and walked away. Oh well.

W:3 L:0
Final Round
King Cobra's DNA vs. Sam's Smart Plant

Sam made it into the finals by defeating Braxton. We agreed to just play one
game because we want to go home. I started with Mewtwo and had a Mewtwo
benched, he had Abra with Abra, Porygon, and Doduo benched. I did the Sponge
trick with my Computer Search and three Psychic energies. During the next few
turns I put down some Electabuzz and Pikachu. He put down some guys (I forgot
who). I thought the game was mine because I only had 2 prizes left and Sam
had 6.  I KOed his Porygon finally. He got out his Alakazam and started
smacking my Pokemon left and right. He had everyone KOed except for 1 Mewtwo,
who had 60 damage on him so I could not afford to use Energy Absorption. I
needed 1 Psy energy to be able to Psyburn. I drew my card and thank the lord
it was a psy energy! I psyburned Alakazam for the win! Man, that was a close
battle.


Wow! My first tourney and I went undefeated! I admit that most of my
opponents weren't the greatest players in the world. I got $8 is store credit
(not a really great prize, but oh well). I was gonna buy some booster packs
but they were sold out of everything. Sam placed second by defeating the
brat. He got $4 in store credit.

Props and Slops

Props to Zach for being so polite.
Props to Sam for getting second.
Props to God for everything.
Props to Scott Gerhardt (sorry if I misspelled) for inventing the Sponge
trick.
Props to my parents for letting me enter.
Props to everyone who works at Pojo
Props to you since you read this.

Slops to the Brat for, well, being a brat.
Slops to Justin Smith who think Psy is stall only and some other reasons.


Thanks for reading!
~King Cobra
Email:King_Cobra64@hotmail.com
OR
Mewtwo2498@aol.com