Arizona Gamer
Chad Mills
5-27-00

   This tournament was held at Arizona Gamer, a card shop in Tempe, Arizona (suburb of Phoenix). It took place on Saturday, May 27. There were approximately 30 people there, though I didn't get an exact number.

InSaNe StAlL (variation)

Pokemon: 12
4 moltres
4 scyther
4 chansey

Energy: 22
18 Fire Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy

Trainers: 26
4 Professor Oak
4 Scoop Up
4 Pokemon Center
3 Bill
3 Computer Search
3 Nightly Garbage Run
3 Super Energy Removal
2 Item Finder

   Well, first off I wanted to say thanks to Pie for playtesting with me all week. If it wasn't for Pie I wouldn't have been ready to run this deck in the tourney, because I wouldnt' have had enough experience playing it. Anyway, I found out that Mike Bahr, the regular judge, was judging at a Prophecy Pre-Release tournament for magic, so the tourney would be a little bit shaky and not as well run as usual. Unfortunately, with no DCI judges, the tournament would not be DCI sanctioned like usual. Bruce, a pretty good player around here, offered me a ride over to Sports Cards II for a sanctioned tourney, but I couldn't go. My whole family was at an amusement park, so I'd have to play at Arizona Gamer then get a ride over to ACP so I wouldnt be waiting around all day for them to get done... Thanks for the offer though, I woulda loved to go there and play Ryan Crimo in a DCI match =). Anyway, on to the tournament report, and remember I said there were new judges...

Round 1 vs. Matt Santucci
   He was playing a lapras/magmar haymaker type deck, with ditto in there as well. This would be my first match in a real tournament (not online) with this deck. I start out playing like I had a haymaker with a bad draw - with ditto out front and chansey on the bench. He thinks he has a good shot at beating me at this point, so he goes oak crazy getting his pokes powered. I have plenty of scoops and Pokemon Centers to tie him up, and he realizes he's gonna deck. He gets down to about 12 or so cards left in his deck, and asked how much time there was left =). Well, he couldn't stall me out cause we were only 4 minutes into the match. I was surprised myself, since I figured time was getting close myself, and I learned we would be having 25 minute rounds. Then, the judges say that they're giving us new pairings. This was a little odd, since we were already paired by the computer and playing our first round. I dunno exactly what happened, but we got new pairings. Though most of the people that were winning were mad, I was pretty happy cause my deck had succeeded in it's first real life trial.

Round 1 (again) vs. Kaylen
   Well, I didn't like this pairing. For 2 very silly reasons. One, he was half my height. I don't mind beating teenagers to a pulp with a stall deck, but it's just not right to do that to little kids =). Then, the 2nd reason: he was the enemy I feared most. Kids play slow, and stalling against a slow player doesn't work too well - especially when he didn't have any oaks in his deck. Oh well, i figured THIS would be an interesting match. It wasn't as interesting as I had feared, thankfully. My moltres was active vs his buzz, and I got to go first. Energy, his turn he energy removals and thundershocks. My turn energy/wildfire. His turn add energy thundershock (no energy for him). My turn I add an energy to a Chansey I topdecked and placed on my bench. His turn he thunderpunches (finally). My turn I scoop up moltres, another energy on Chansey and scrunch. He obviously didn't have a great draw, because he still didn't have a bench. Scrunch worked, he tried to paralyze but failed, and on my turn I played the Double Colorless Energy (DCE) on Chansey to run him out of pokemon. That went better than expected =). So far I'm doin pretty well.

Round 2 vs. Kory Erickson
   Hmmm, this was the match I had been hoping for. My stall vs. a haymaker. The only time haymakers usually have a chance to win is during the first few turns, though with a few well timed double-edges, it can be beaten. Well, his deck was mewtwo and hitmo. I'd bring out chansey when he had mewtwo, and then he'd retreat for hitmonchan, when I'd retreat for scyther, and then he'd bring out mewtwo (etc. etc. etc.). With my pokemon center, scoops, and some scrunching by chansey, I wasn't doing too bad. He got out a gengar, but with chansey that wasn't a problem. I thought it was a haymaker until I saw Gengar, then I realized it was a pretty unique deck. It was a haymaker with gengar splashed in, but it seemed to work against decks that didn't have psychic resistance. I wildfired away his gamblers, so he didn't get to stay alive longer. When he had hitmo out and I had energy, I'd bring up moltres and wildfire whenever I got a chance. Pretty nice match, and the deck worked great. Now I'm 2-0 and headed into the 3rd of 4 rounds.

Round 3 vs. Craig Erickson
   This was Kory's brother. He was playin a similar deck, except pure haymaker without the gengars. Same thing: retreating game between scyther vs. hitmo and chansey vs. mewtwo. When I finally drew the moltres late in the game I built it up on my bench, which is against my rules on playing the deck (don't want opponent to SER and gain 2 turns back, rather wildfire 1 per turn so they can't ER it). I wildfired for about 7 and won the game. He didnt see the wildfire comin to deck him, so I took this game pretty easily.

Round 4 vs. Mike Munch
   Well, I see this guy every week at ACP (2nd saturday tourney), so I knew he'd be a pretty tough opponent; a test for my moltres deck. He was runnin a standard haymaker, tweaked somewhere between the haymaker you read about in magazines and Insanity. He's been playin it for weeks, so I at least knew what to expect. Hitmonchan active I bring out moltres and wildfire, and when he has electabuzz active I put up chanseys and scoop and scrunch, waiting for him to kill himself. Once again it's just a matter of time. He starts out thinking he can get an early win and oaks, and ends up regretting it later. After a bit, he runs out of cards.

Fun Match
   I normally wouldn't mention any side games in the tournament, but I got done with R4 really early and wanted a fun game with Tod Meseck, one of the local Pokemon Masters. =) He was running a vileplume deck and didn't have such a hot day, and said if he had to play haymaker to win, he'd quit pokemon. I told him I wasn't playing a haymaker and was 4-0 (make it into T8 easily), so we agreed to play a fun match. His Vileplume deck was pretty cool, not only vileplume and the standard haymaker pokemon, but also Arcanine (base set). With no energy removals, he was VERY hard to deal with. I started off with Chansey and got a few lucky flips and an oak off before he could evolve to dark vileplume. I built up moltres on my bench, and got it REALLY built up - probably at least 12 energy on it. I wildfired for about 12, meanwhile him getting me down to just a couple prizes. This is just a fun game, so it doesn't count for anything, but it was the most exciting of the day. I was scrunching and flipping some heads for a change, while he was havin a great time knocking out all my pokemon with arcanine. It finally came down to one prize and one card left in his deck. He needs 1 more turn to draw his last prize, but he only has 1 card left in his deck. It all comes down to the card I draw - if it's a fire energy I can wildfire away his last card and win the game. If it's anything else I lose (no energy on moltres, he can KO it with Takedown for his last prize, can't scoop up, no DCE's left in deck). I am about to draw my card, and I look behind me. I realize that since we're backed up into a corner and I was facing the corner, I didn't notice there was a crowd gathered around. It doesn't happen very often, but it was great. Waiting for the Top 8 standings, they didnt have anything else to do :-P. So, everyone is watching in anticipation...and I draw ... a fire energy! That was a great match! I wildfired to take away his last card, and he had nothing to draw so he lost. I really feared playing the vileplume decks because I couldn't center/scoop the damage away, but that proved I had a shot against em, since Tod is one of the best players around here. All in all, it was a great game and fun for playtesting. Anyway, since that didn't have any signifigance, back to the tournament...

Top 8
   Well, what I'd been waiting for, top 8. InSaNe StAlL had only gotten about 2 prizes taken all day, and this was a nice place to playtest. Unfortunately, like I said before, my family was at an amusement park, so I couldn't get stuck at AZ Gamer all day. So, since the tourney at ACP had probably already started, I had to finish up at AZ Gamer and get stuck there for about 5 hours extra, or get a ride over to ACP and hopefully make the touranment. I decide to go to ACP and hopefully make the tournament and not wait around for hours. I wait for T8 to be called, then forfeit and get my prize - a starter deck with the pokemon CD thing. I leave to ACP (thanks rick and michelle for the ride!) and walk away with my prize for a $2 entry fee. Not bad. Also got some great playtesting in!

Chad Mills
AZKeeper@aol.com