Bonfire (Fire/Electric)
by Michael Zimmerman
Toys R Us
Muncy, PA

    After a good 2 long months of break, I finally made it back to the
Pokemon Trading Card Game League in time for the new Johto season. I was on
my way to the first badge, Zephyr. The first meeting, I managed to get a
Rocket's Zapdos in a trade, which I've heard is now used in almost every
electric deck. The next day, I got a promo Togepi (the one with the Metronome
attack) after getting enough points. I'm ready to try a new deck for next
time, but here's the new deck I got from a strategy guide. It's a "Bench
Attack" deck composed of Blaine's Charmeleon, Blaine's Rapidash, and
Magnemite, the main three hitters of this deck. Charmeleon can do the most
damage to the bench in this deck if you get three heads with Bonfire, and in
comination with Gust of Wind, you can finish off a damaged Pokemon with Fire
Claws. There are no Potion cards, so I lost a few battles. Master Ball helps
dig out any Pokemon you need and Energy Search finds either an Electric of
Fire energy card. And since most attacks require to discard energies, Energy
Retrieval gets them back. Well, here's the deck.

* key card

Bonfire
4x Blaine's Charmander (Gym Challenge)
2x Blaine's Charmeleon (Gym Challenge) *
4x Blaine's Ponyta (Gym Challenge)
2x Blaine's Rapidash (Gym Challenge) *
3x Lt. Surge's Voltorb (Gym Challenge)
1x Lt. Surge's Voltorb (Gym Heroes)
4x Magnemite (Base Set 2) *
4x Bill (Base Set 2)
2x Energy Retrieval (Base Set 2)
3x Energy Search (Fossil)
4x Gust of Wind (Base Set 2)
1x Master Ball (Gym Challenge)
2x Professor Oak (Gym Challenge)
14x Fire Energy
10x Lightning Energy

I forgot what happened, so I'll try and explain what happened.

Bonfire Versus Playful Punch (a deck with Elekid, duh!)
This kid had a Neo set Elekid, which was a baby Pokemon. I managed to get a
Blaine's Charmander in play, and had to flip two coins to determine if I
could attack Elekid and discard a card or not. Then he was going to use
Playful Punch to do 20 damage, and it succeeded. I don't know what else
happened, but I won against him.

1-0

Bonfire Versus ColdFusion
The owner of this preconstructed deck is 17 years old, and he was good. I
started off with a Blaine's Ponyta, I think, then I attached an energy card
to it. After my turn, he attached a Water energy to Horsea. The next turn, I
attached another energy to the horse, then used Hind Kick. I replaced Ponyta
with Magnemite after flipping heads. Then he used Horsea's Fin Slap on me.
When I attached an energy card to Mangnemite, I Self-Destructed and did
damage to his bench. Magnemite and Horsea were knocked out. This guy was good
after that, so I lost.

1-1

Sorry, that's all I know. Thanks for reading. Here are the props and slops.

Props
1. The kid who gave me the Rocket's Zapdos. Just a few more, then I can go
for the GC Raichus and build the Electric Rodents of Doom deck.
2. The Gym Leader who was hilarious, and who gave me the Togepi promo card.

Slops
1. Me for not remembering what happened.
2. Some of the bratty kids who were there.
3. The kid who would not appear the next day for the Misty's Golduck. I want
that card!
4. Not for getting any other cards to build my new decks. :(

Michael Zimmerman
cartmankun@aol.com