DECK: Hay Is For Horses
by: Mark S Dawson
WHEN Oct 14  2000
WHERE: Let the Games Begin (if you are EVER in Greenville, SC at 4PM on a
Saturday afternoon, you HAVE to come to this tournament)
FORMAT: 3 rounds of 2-outta-3, top 4 make playoffs


This deck wanted to take advantage of Clefables ability to copy any
of the opponents attacks using a single of ANY energy, therefore making
Pokemon Center a good weapon. This led to the addition of Sabrina's Abra and
Fossil Magmar because they tend to power up easy and also fit the theme of
being readily available to PokeCenters. I  wanted to eliminate using any DCE
but did want 4 Full Heal Energy to combat status effects which seem to be a
growing theme lately.
I always liked F. Magmar and Clefable's as attackers and I have been
throwing in S. Abra cause of the free retreat and other possibilities
(mainly being that he is a surprise). He has turned out to be an acceptable
substitute for Scyther (blasphemer!) since he is 'Chan's weakness and he can
do 40 to Chan with a psychic energy.

The Decks Innards became:
3 Clefable
3 Clefairy
3 F. Magmar
2 S. Abra lv19
1 S. Abra lv12 (I threw this in cause I did not have a 3rd lv19 but
his Synchronize
attack looks to be interesting tho I never got to use it)

3 Pokemon Center
3 Oak
3 Bill
3 Computer Search
2 Item Finder
2 Energy Retrieval
3 Switch
3 Gust of Wind
4 Energy Removal
4 Plus Power
3 Nighttime Garbage Run
I went back to look at my old Hay decks and decided I wanted to use
the trainers from there since it used to be good to have so many options in
each turn. I am glad I did because I felt in control 90% of the time due to
them.

3 Full Heal Energy
4 Psychic
8 Fire
At first, this appeared to be pretty low energy, especially if I was
gonna use Pokemon Centers but I added the NGR and the energy retreival so it
worked out fine.
HOW IT TURNED OUT:
ROUND1- I played Brian right off the bat. He was playing the same odd deck
with Rocket Machop and Rocket Squirtle with Magmar, Scythers, and S.
Psyduck. It is a weird deck. He did play Rocket's Minefield and that made it
interesting but luckily I had my Pokecenters. I was able to add 2-3 to my
bench at just the right time and then pokecenter away all the damage. It got
frustrating for Brian. My Clefables got out pretty early in both games and
did a ton of damage to him and he would try to take Clefable out with
Machop. That did not work too well as S. Abra and a plus power just smoked
Machop time and again. I think I won the first guy by benching him 4 prize
cards in and the second game I won 6 prizes to 1.

ROUND2- against Patrick. Thankfully Patrick finally dropped that brock's
Rhyhorn deck that was just holding him up. He was going with a Psychic
Alakazam (light and dark) and Haunter. This game was falling into my lap if
I could just get Clefairy up. Luckily I did and he combo'd with the
occasional S Abra made it too easy for me. I felt bad for Patrick seeing as
how he went up against a deck that was all bad for him.
After 2 rounds I was 4-0

ROUND3- Charlie ("Chuckles" to his friends). I have never played against
Charlie before but I have seen him play my son a number of times. About a
month ago Charlie won it all. He was playing a Mime. Lickitung , Chansey
deck. This was very interesting for me. I can see where it posed a number of
problems if he had to stall in the late game or to just hold me at bay while
he was building up for some grand plan. 
 He was thinking the same as he was using Mime and Chansey to hold me off
for a good bit of time. But then I was able to use F. Magmar to poison Mime
and then Chansey and then another Mime, effectively wiping out those three.
I concentrated on ER for his mime and let the other ones go, knowing that I
could Double-edge Chansey at my leisure with Clefable.
In game 2 Charlie went for the stalll early but it did not work as I was
able to consistantly gust up pokemon to rub out and then get 2 Mimes with
poison.  

 Playoffs
Against Ben- I lost bad. Ben was playing a Tuff deck which I knew
was gonna be hard enough to beat but then I could only draw a S. Abra and a
Clefairy. He made quick work of me and I had to settle for the chance to
play for third.
Against James- James had a neat deck. It was a Hay variant with
Tauros, Lickitung and he was using Buzz and Chan, too. This game just fell
in my lap as it took about 9 turns to bench him. I was getting my Energy
Removals and Plus Powers and taking out a Pokemon every other turn. I killed
the only 3 basics he had and took 3rd place.
I got 5 dollars in store credit (and combined with store credit from
last week ) I bought 3 Challenge  packs. I got a Holo Machamp and a S.
Kadabra, which was great cause I want to build a LifeDown deck with Lt,
Surge Raticate and PokeCenters.
Any comments? E-mail me at Mark.Dawson@vacorp.com.    Later Gator