trainer: mark s dawson
. tournament: non-sanctioned/ 3 round swiss/ 2 round playoff
  when:may 20, y2k
  where: 'let the games begin'  greenville,sc
  deck name: 'whoa,are my cards out?'

   the deck
        3 moltres
        4 fossil magmar
        2 clefairy
        2 clefable

        3 computer search
        2 item finders
        4 energy removal
        1 plus power
        4 switch
        4 scoop up
        1 impostor proff. oak
        3 gust o' wind
        2 oak
        3 bill
        4 nighttime garbage run

        18 fire

   strategy: i wanted to build an attack deck that i could play and still
have the option of, not so much stalling but running you out of cards in the
lategame. what i find is that the best way to get through the first 15-20
turns is to attack, attack , attack with magmar and clefable. this is
because the best energy removal in the game is to kill pokemon. most of the
trainers i use are straightforward except for the garbage run. this trainer
allows me to make sure i have enough energy for the late game wildfire. the
other is my lone imp prof oak. i can use this late to end the game or to
swing the comparative deck balance in my favor, even if it is only 4 cards,
that makes a big difference.  now, the downside of this deck is that moltres
is useless early and if you don't get magmar and/or clefairy up early you
can be in for a long game.what happens is that while you wildfire early all
he is doing is building up multiple attackers.and your moltres is
defenseless to retaliate. to recap: attack early and wildfire late.

    wot happened

  first round vs kevin w/psychic
   poor kevin, each game i started with magmar and poisoned whenever i
flipped. on top of that i got to go first both times. game1 was like
smokescreen drowzee, poison drowzee , kill drowzee then he promoted a second
drowzee and it was smog with poison and then smog. game.    the second game
was smokescreen and then poison abra and... game. it lasted but 7 total
turns. we were done in no time at all.
 
  second round vs kaitlin w/dark vileplume /grass
   poor kaitlin. kaitlin is my daughter and she just built this deck the
night before. she said "daddy, i want dark vileplume so i can crush you"
(she knows i use alot of trainers). we started and she was so nice, she said
she would let me win since she had no shot at the playoffs. but we played
and my magmars killed her oddish and glooms, it almost was not fair. she
battled tough though and i was able to squeak out the first game. in the
second she could only get two oddishes and i got my magmars early again and
it was quick.

  third round vs justin w/ ditto/scyther/ promo mewtwo
   i felt good cause i was 4-0 but i had to face justin ,who was also 4-0. i
had not used a single moltres yet and i was getting out magmar early 4
straight games.we only got one game in during the time limit. i got magmar
again to start and justin and i traded attacks forever and i could sense it
was taking a long time. we both used scoop up over and over again and he had
to use 3 oaks to take a 1 prize card lead 6-5. this was working out good
because he had no idea i had moltres in my deck at all. the judge came over
and said we only had 7 minutes left and i saw justin was down to 14 cards
and he still had to kill 5 of mine and at the same time i had alot of cards
left but had to kill 6 in 7 minutes. i decided to scoop up a magmar and play
wildfire. justin made  a good go of it by using 2 nighttime garbage runs but
i just ran him out. we barely even got started the next game when time was
called. so i finished at 5-0 and advanced to the playoffs.

  playoffs
    first round vs josh w/haymaker(single elimination)
     this was the oddest haymaker as it had the standard buzz,chan ,scyther
but added grimers and muks and lickitung. i had no chance as i could only
get a lone moltres to start and two turns later i got magmar, but for all
intents and purposes i was toast. he had buzz and chan powered and he got
magmar after turn 7 and then all i had was my scooped moltres which only
lasted two turns before he, i and my deck crashed and burned.

    3rd / 4th place game vs tyler w/exeggcute
     this was bad. i was not really impressed with tylers deck and then he
comes in and crushes me like a grape. i could only get a magmar and a
clefable and he just used and abused them. it only took him about 9 turns to
dispense with me. i geuss the bright side is that i didn't have to stay all
night. on the other hand i played only 18 turns total in the playoffs. that
is sorta embarrassing.

    i still got 4 bucks(only 14 participants so the winnings were a bit
slim) in store gift credit and i bought two rocket packs and got some
rainbow energy and another sneak attack. i know i will need these in a deck
i am building so that helps.
     i will take any help y'all may offer. you can reach me at
Mark.Dawson@vacorp.com.  have a nice week