Ya Can't Spell Vampiric Without VP
by Mark S Dawson
March 31, 2001
at Let the Games Begin
Greenville, SC
11 participants
Swiss, 3 rounds

I wanted to go back and play an older deck of mine that I failed
with 2 months ago, seeing as how Dark VP is my most potent pokemon. I want
to suck your trainers dry (hence, the vampire reference)and win with my
advantage in energy quantity).  I also included the Lass/Cleffa combo since
the Lass is an integral part of the deck if Magby's are lurking. Magby would
be Dark VPs wooden stake. I tweaked the deck and practiced more with it
since I played it so poorly to a 3rd place finsih last time.

The Deck
4 Oddish (Rocket)
2 Dark Gloom
3 Dark Vileplume (this card kills alot of local decks since 25+
trainers is the norm here)
3 Murkrow (my bench sniper and to Mean Look a Cleffa or a Confused
Ditto/ Elekid)
2 Sneasel
2 Cleffa (so I can draw a new hand, if need be)
2 Ditto (I stopped playing him because everyone else was, but he
just fits this deck so well)
2 Gligar (free retreat and not leave me at Chansey's or Lickitung's
mercy)

3 Computer Search (to facilitate getting Dark VP)
3 Boss Way (to get Dark VP faster)
2 Breeder (to stop your trainers NOW)
2 Lass
2 Sprout Tower (to up the number of pokemon susceptible to Mean
Look)
2 Oak (really to help out in a bad situation. Elm has possiblities
here)

7 Grass
3 Fist (or I cannot poison with Gligar)
4 Dark
4 DCE (Ditto has to have these and they help with Gligar)
4 Rainbow (because I can only have 4 Dark)
4 Full Heal Energy (a must since Gloom's confusion power is a key
part of this deck)

1st round v Grant w/ alot of H2O
The problem here was that Grant had like 2 of everything and was
playing the Kingdra, Gyrados AND Blastoise lines. It was relatively easy
because he was not getting the chance to get to his evolutions. I was
messing up Magikarp and Horsea pretty bad and getting my Dark VP out by turn
5 and 8 respectively.
Record 2-0

2nd round v Geren w/ Nidoran line and Alakazam line
I was losing the first game bad and he never evolved. He was
flipping 80% heads with his Nidoran Fury swipes and I was flipping 70% Tails
on Sneasels flips. I was down 4-2 and could not believe it. I got to Dark VP
just in time to turn the tide and started using Ditto against his Psychic
pokemon and that allowed me to pull this one out late.
After the first game took so long I was dismayed to see him load up
his bench in turn 2 so I had to go the distance to win. I really needed a
first/ second turn win to move on , or so I thought. I ended up beating him
only because I got Sneasel with 2 Dark early and Dark VP in turn 3 as I drew
Oddish, Dark Gloom and Dark VP in my opening hand. My flips were all going
my way and I was able to play a fast game and win by quickly killing 6
pokemon.
Record 4-0

3rd round v Bryan w/Skarmory, Jigglypuff/Metal combo and Magmars
It was Bryan's birthday and he was 4-0 also. I got crushed in the
first game as I got only 3 pokemon and Bryan wasted no time in putting me
away as he played extremely well.
Then the inevitable happened. Bryan got cocky , which was fortuitous
for me. Everytime he gets cocky playing me I win. I understand he was
excited about making a spot in the playoffs and all but he needed to
concentrate.
Game 2 was bad for me as Bryan outplayed me early. He took 3 prizes
and left me with none. Then he made a big mistake. I was on the ropes but
had Dark VP out. He played his Cleffa and Eeeeeeeked. I brought up Murkrow
and Mean Looked it (yes, I fipped thru the Baby power) and then I was able
to pick off his bench one by one and kill 6 pokemon in a row as he was
unable to damage me with his trapped Cleffa. What Bryan should have done was
attach a Dark to Cleffa to sacrifice him and then free himself up.
Fortunately, that did not occur.
Now, we both were in the playoffs and Game 3 was anti-climactic. I
got a quick Dark VP and won in 6-7 turns.
Record 6-1

PLAYOFFS
1st round v. Andrew w/Fire deck (I saw little of his deck)
I was weak to fire and I knew it. I MAY have been able to work
around it but I did not have to. My opening hand was: Oddish, Dark Gloom,
Dark Vileplume, Sneasel, Cleffa, Dark energy and Lass. I played Sneasel
active and put Cleffa and Oddish on the bench. He flipped and... the game
was over. I got to go first , I attached the Dark to Sneasel and Lassed. He
lost his whole hand. I knew he was in trouble as he had that lone pokemon,
by turn 3 I had the Dark VP out and he was done. And, as Andrew had no
problem telling me, I am/was lucky. I have heard that in certain cases it is
better to be lucky than good. It is good to know the old axioms still can
ring true.

FINALS (2 of 3)
  v Ben w/ Skarmory/Sneasel/Cleffa/Clefable
As we started I informed Ben that having a Dark AND Metal on
Skarmory did not protect Skarmory from taking 10 damage each turn due to him
having a Dark energy on Skarmory. Ben was using a Skarmory with 2 Steel and
2 Darks so that he would add 20 to all of his attacks and then remove 20
from attacks to Skarmory and not taking the 20 Dark damage each turn. It is
a sweet deal if you can get it but it is not legal. ( If I am mistaken I
would like to hear from a pokemon judge or experienced DCI player about it).
We started game 1 and I was up big as my Gligar took out a Clefairy
first turn and left him with a lone powerless Sneasel. But that is why Ben
is good, he battled back from being 2 prize cards down to tying the game up
at 2 prize cards left apiece. Two things won it for me in the end and that
was a mid-game Dark VP and a bad mistake by Ben when we each needed one
prize to win. I had Murkrow active with a damage counter and he retreated
Cleffa to bring up an undamaged Clefable and  mean looked me. He had the
advantage and gave it up as I then attacked his benched Cleffa two straight
turns and took my last prize.
Game 2 was odd . Ben put out a lone pokemon and said "That's game".
So I knew he had the Clefairy out. I had Gligar and a DCE in my hand so I
made him active and benched Sneasel and Cleffa. Then Ben wins the coin flip
which allowed him to play his Oak and then a Mistys Wrath and another Oak
and he was set up and I had yet to see anything such as an Oddish or Dark
VP. I ended up getting out Dark VP in turn 4 and still wound up being down
6-2 in prize cards. He had a fully powered Sneasel up and I thought this
game was over when I noticed that he had only 14 or so cards left. I went
into stall mode by promoting one of my 2 Cleffas and by confusing Sneasel
with Dark Gloom (again I was lucky. I got heads). He ended up killing
Sneasel and I thought I had a chance but he had a hand of 15-16 cards and 2
Cleffa on the bench. I knew I had to get rid of the cleffas before he could
Eeeeeeek and get alot more turns. I promoted Murkrow and killed both Cleffas
and then Ben made another mistake. He brought up Clefable and was gonna try
to knock out my Dark VP with Feint Attack and use his Time Capsules to buy
more time, but again he Mean Looked me first and then fell one turn short of
killing Dark VP as he killed him after drawing his last card. This let me
complete a successful stall, which is amazing in and of itself, since I am
the world's worst staller. I am way to impatient to pull it off.
 
I won a store credit of 9 bucks. E-mail me at Mark.Dawson@vacorp.com with
any suggestions. The East Coast STS qualifier is in Gergia in 2 weeks and I
hope to go. And I am at a loss as to the deck I should play, any
suggestions?  Later Gator