TDD (The Dark Destroyer)
Josue Rojano
Fan Quest
Rocket & Up tournament
Yuma, Az
Feb. 17, 2001
32 participants


    First i want to start off by saying that i would not have written my
killer deck report if  it wasn't for Jose Esquerra.  He wrote his version of
the tournament and i guess now its time for me to write mine. 

    The tournament  was a single elimination best 2 out of 3 tournament with
32 participants.  It is also the only real tournament in Yuma, so all of our
best competitors come and give it there all.  Only cards from the Rocket,
Gym: Heroes, Gym: Challenge, and Neo expansions could be used.  Also no promo
cards were allowed.  This was done because the other tournaments that there
had been before this were all won by decks that had really broken cards from
the base expansion.  Decks such as the moltres stall, the arcanine cleaner
deck( which I used in order to win the preceeding tournament), and even the
ever so popular Wigglytuff deck.  Anyways, I felt like I was up to the
challenge and decided to make a deck for this tournament.  I also felt like I
had alot of weight on my shoulders considering that I had won the two
previous tournaments before this.  I knew that I would have to make a deck
that would be very concentrated.  Meaning, I would have to make a really
strategic deck that could really punish the opposition.  This is what I came
up with.

    The Dark Destroyer

 Pokemon

4 Sneasel
4 Murkrow
3 Gligar

 Energy

4 Darkness Energy
4 Rainbow Energy
4 Potion Energy
3 Full Heal Energy

 Trainers

4 Professor Elm
4 Erika
4 Challenge
3 Secret Mission
3 Mary
3 Imposter Oak's Revenge
4 Rockets Sneak Attack
3 Sprout Tower
3 Double Gust
3 Gold Berry

  I think that you can pretty much tell that my deck is focused mostly on
speed.  But if you look at my deck closely, you will be able to see a combo
that I myself thought was pretty killer.  It involved the seemingly useless
Murkrow.  My entire plan was to get a Murkrow first turn with a darkness
energy.  If i could be succesful at that i would try to get my opponent to
get out a colorless pokemon via challenge, and if they did i would use double
gust which would actually act as a gust of wind because all of my pokemon had
free retreat and gust out there colorless pokemon.  Then I would play sprout
tower and use Mean Look.  After that there would be very little my opponent
could do as i would Feint attack their bench away.  Unfortunately though, i
never faced a colorless pokemon and didn't get that combo to work.  But if
you look at my deck there are many other mini-combo's in there that did very
well.  Either way, here is how the tournament went for me.

Oh yeah, before i begin i would like to add that the tournament was from 1pm
to like  9:15pm, so in the later rounds we were all really exhausted.  Most
of us got headaches and got hungry, so major props to everyone who was in the
tournament because it was really hard and really tiring.


Round 1 me vs Jason Baldwin w/meganium deck

    I had known Jason for about two years so we were chatting throughout most
of the first match.  It was actually an easy match because all he had was 2
chikorita's which i quickly KO'ed with Sneasel.  The second match was almost
exactly the same except for all he had this time was hoppip's and only
survived 2 extra turns because he used sprout twice. Jason is a pretty good
player, he just needs to make better decks.  Good luck to him in the future.
                total: 2 win 0 loss

between rounds

me & my friend Noel (who had also won his first round match against a
particularly tough opponent) went to go eat seeing as how we had 3 hours
until our next matches.  After lunch we talked to others who had also won,
among those was Jose Esquerra and his younger brother Edgar.  Edgar was my
age (15) and Jose was 21.  We had a small conversation  and also an argument
which involved them saying that they can discard recycle energy from their
hand (via professor oak, C.S., Item Finder, Misty, etc...) and then get it
back.  Anyways, after a while of arguing Jose went in and battled and won. 
It was finally our turn.

Round 2  me vs Manuel w/ misty deck

Manuel is in Jose's little group which me and Noel like to call: the Jose E.
Esquerra and lackey's group.  Manuel is a pretty good player with some skill.
 It's just his deck wasn't very good.  He did his entire Misty recycle energy
combo which the judge let slide by because it was previously mentioned that
they could use it and get it back(but the judge said that after the tourney
that combo could no longer be used). 
He beat my Sneasel by using Misty but he still could not defeat me.  I beat
him even worse in the second match.  I guess seaking's and poliwhirl's cant
stand a chance against my Sneaselator.
             total: 4 win 0 loss

between rounds

    I noticed my next match was against Noel so during our 1 hour break we
just focused on our next match... against each other!!

Round 3  me vs Noel w/ Rocket's Zapdos, Lt. Surge's Electabuzz, Gligar deck

    Noel's trainers were almost identical to mine so that made me a little
nervous.  Some exceptions were warp points instead of Double Gust, and the
addition of 2 rockets training gym!  I was actually sweating before the
beginning of the first match.  After the match started i got a little relaxed
because i got a sneasel with a dark energy up front w/ an army of sneasel's
in the bench.  He knew my deck very well so he was very cautious throughout
the third round.  Challenge never worked against him so it acted as a bill. 
It was a relatively close first match but i ended up winning it after about
40 minutes.  The second match was even closer than the first but i won thanks
to the 1 hour time limit.  I had a 2 prize advantage when time was called. 
If we wouldn't have battled each other i am pretty sure that we would have
met each other in the finals.
                total:  6 win 0 loss

between rounds

    Jose started talking smack and mentioned something about the tournament
being his.  Jose actually had a pretty easy route to the finals, especially
his semifinal match.  Meanwhile my semifinal match was against the guy that i
defeated in the finals of the previous tournament. His name was Rigo Garcia
Jr. 

Round 4  me vs Rigo w/ neo haymaker

Rigo never ceases to surprise me. All he ever plays is haymaker decks, no
matter what he will play a haymaker deck and that to me is no fun.  Anyways,
his pokemon were neo Electabuzz, neo Magmar, Gligar, Sneasel, and i think he
had another pokemon which i forgot about.  The first match against him was
extremely easy he stood absolutely no chance.  The second match however was a
little different because he played an extremely smart match in which he made
little or no mistakes.  Also a bad draw gave me a disadvantage, i pretty much
had the match lost after he took out my sneasel w/ 2 dark energy.  The third
match was a controversial one because if you have read Jose's deck report you
know that Jose believes that Rigo had me beaten.  That was certainly not the
case as i was taking out all of Rigo's pokemon after a rocky start in which
Rigo took out my sneasel with a dark and a rainbow.  After a few turns i got
out a sneasel w/ 2 rainbow energy and started knocking out all of his
pokemon, not letting him get out any resistance.  Once again, time was called
and i was ahead by 1 prize.  I think that the match could have gone either
way and luckily went my way. 
                    Total:  8 win 1 loss

between rounds

    Jose easily defeated his semifinal opponent Anthony.  I had a really bad
headache and had to go outside and catch some fresh air.  Before the match
started i asked the judge if we could battle the matches in their entirety
without time restriction, unfortunately he said no and we had a 1 hour time
limit to finish our matches. So I got myself a soda and proceeded to battle
Jose in the finals.

Round 5 Finals  me vs Jose E. Esquerra w/ Rocket's Haymaker

honestly i think his deck kinda stunk.  For some odd reason though he always
got out what he wanted so his deck wasnt as bad as i thought it was before. 
During the first match he showed me what his deck was all about because he
got out his hitmonchans and cleaned house.  He was teaching my deck a lesson
and after a while i pretty much gave up, there was really nothing i could do.
 So i decided to see what his deck was made up of to come up with some sort
of strategy for the next match.  Time was starting to run out so i just
conceded there was really nothing i could do.  After i conceded i heard one
of Jose's lackey's saying something to Jose in his ear.  Daniel told Jose
that the box was his and that he had me beat.  After that i was determined to
prove them wrong.  I was actually getting pretty mad and was showing it
throughout the second game.  Jose this time was at the other end of the whip
as i was pummeling his hitmonchan's before they could even get set.  Oh yeah
i'm sorry but i forgot to mention that throughout the entire tournament we
were forced to use dice so that made things harder for my sneasel to ko other
pokemon.  I had some trouble with Jose because sometimes i wouldn't be doing
enough damage to KO his pokemon. Either way it was an excellent second match
and i got the better of him.  The third match was an even more controversial
one than the third against Rigo.  I started off really strong and took care
of his rockets scyther, and hitmonchan.  Jose started to make a comeback but
to no avail he could not beat my sneasel.  I was powering up one of my other
sneasels while my first was damaging the others.  Finally my sneasel was
really damaged and i dont believe i had anymore gold berry's in the deck.  At
one point Jose used warp point and i brought out my murkrow as bait because i
knew that he would take it.  He unsurprisingly took the bait and brought out
Rocket's Hitmonchan and magna punched my murkrow.  I then activated my
sneasel with no damage counters and benched a gligar.  I attached a rainbow
energy to another sneasel, having a darkness energy still in the deck and a
rainbow in my hand.  I then KO'ed his hitmonchan and left Jose with a bunch
of pokemon all without energy.  After that we had 3 minutes left and  i was
ahead by 2 prizes.  Jose, knowing that he could not win took up all 3 minutes
and then time was called.  I had just won my third straight fan quest pokemon
tournament in a row and had proved  Jose and all of his lackeys wrong. 
            Total:  10 win  2 loss

Now for the props and slops

Props:
to Noel for helping me playtest my deck before the tournament
to all participants in this great tournament and i hope to see them all again
in the next tournament
to Diane for hosting a great tournament

Slops:
To Jose for getting mad at Rigo for something that innevitably hapenned
To all people that said that i could not win this tourney

thats about it
if you liked my deck, hated my deck or whatever my e-mail address is 
IAMJOBOSKI@aol.com
Josue Rojano