RK9 By Alberto Alba Jr. SM Southmall Alabang, Philippines October 20, 2001 About 40-50 people This is the first time I’m sending a deck to KDR because I attended only one other official tournament before. This is not to say that I’m a newbie or anything. I just didn’t want to travel around just for the sake of playing Pokemon. But this time, I decided to go along because I wanted to test how I would do against others trainers. But enough about that, here’s my deck. Pokemon: 16 (10 Basic) 3 Growlithe 3 Arcanine 3 Voltorb (Team Rocket) 3 Electrode (Base) 3 Cleffa (Neo Genesis) 1 Elekid Trainers: 26 3 Super Energy Removal 3 Computer Search 3 Energy Removal 3 Professor Oak 2 Misty’s Wrath 2 Gust of Wind 2 Item Finder 2 Switch 2 Berry 2 Lass 1 Time Capsule 1 Gold Berry Energy: 18 3 Double Colorless Energy 3 Metal Energy 12 Fire Energy The format was like this: Only 3 copies are allowed for each card, no Japanese, Counterfeit, or Proxy cards and no NEO Revelation cards. It was P100 Philippine pesos to enter (roughly $2 dollars), 1st place prize gets 16 NEO Genesis boosters, 2nd gets 8, 3rd and 4th gets 4 each and 5th to 8th gets a single pack. There was an elimination round with each match given a 30-minute time limit. After 6 matches, your scores will be calculated and the top 8 records advanced to the finals. It started at 12:00 p.m. and ended at about 5:30 p.m. Match 1: RK9 vs. kid w/ Tyranitar deck I started out with a lone Voltorb. He started with a Pupitar and Unown D. I went first and, immediately used Oak. I drew a Cleffa and Growlithe and played it on my bench. I attached a metal energy to Cleffa, played Lass then passed. He attached a Fighting energy to Pupitar and attacked for 20 damage. I attached a fire energy to Voltorb, retreated then Eeeeeeeked. He attached another energy to Pupitar and passed. I evolved Voltorb to Electrode and Growlithe to Arcanine. I attached a fire energy to Arcanine then used Buzzap and played Lass for safety. I used flamethrower and knocked out Pupitar. He drew nothing useful and passed. I used takedown on Unown D for the win. Record 1-0 Match 2: RK9 vs. guy w/ Sneasel & Slowking deck I started out with Cleffa as my active and Growlithe as my bench pokemon. He started out with a lone Sneasel. I played energy on Cleffa, used Computer Search to find Voltorb, played Lass then Eeeeeeeked. I was waiting for him to take his turn when he suddenly called an official. I asked him why and then he told me I had no prizes!!! Fortunately I was only given a warning and I was allowed to continue playing. During his turn, he drew and attached a rainbow energy to Sneasel and used fury swipes but flipped tails on Cleffa. I attached a fire energy to Growlithe, evolved Growlithe and Voltorb, Buzzaped and used flame-thrower to finish the game. Record 2-0 Match 3: RK9 vs. weird guy w/ Grass something deck This match was a weird one. He had two Chikoritas and I had a Cleffa and Growlithe. For reasons I don’t know, he didn’t play anything from his hands except energy cards. After several turns, I got Arcanine out and toasted all of his grass Pokemon. Record 3-0 Match 4: RK9 vs. kid w/ Wiggly & Sneasel deck I started with Growlithe and he started with a Cleffa and Sneasel as bench. I attached a fire energy to Growlithe, used Oak and got two Voltorbs, a Misty’s Wrath and nothing more useful. I used Misty’s Wrath and got a Cleffa and Com. Search. I used Computer Search for Lass, used switch and played my Lass-Eeeeeeek combo. I flipped heads on his baby pokemon and got a new set of cards. On his turn, he played energy on his Cleffa but flipped tails. I evolved Growlithe to Arcanine, attached Double Colorless and used Item Finder for Oak. I attached a Gold Berry to Arcanine then used Electrode’s Buzzap for two fire energy. I retreated my Cleffa and burned his Cleffa. He played a Jigglypuff, retreated his Sneasel and used energy removal. I draw a metal energy, attached it to Arcanine and Buzzaped my other Electrode for Arcanine and used take-down for 70 damage and 10 damage to self. He draws a darkness energy and used fury swipes. I used take-down to knock out his last pokemon. Record 4-0 Match 5: RK9 vs. guy w/ Tyranitar & Slowking deck I started out with a Voltorb and Growlithe. He started with a Slowpoke and Pupitar. I attached energy to Growlithe and used Computer Search for Oak. I drew an Arcanine and a couple of trainers. He attached an energy to Pupitar, used switch and attacked for 10 damage on Growlithe. I evolved Growlithe to Arcanine, attached a fire energy and passed. He evolved Pupitar to Tyranitar and Slowpoke to Slowking. He then attached a DCE and used body slam and flipped no heads. I used a lot of trainers including lass and energy removal and he kept flipping tails. I attached a DCE to Arcanine, and then used take-down. He used a top-deck Gold Berry on Tyranitar and passed. I drew a Gust of Wind and thanks to his clumsy flipping, I KOed Slowking. Finally, he gusted my Voltorb in the hopes of stalling but I just attached an Energy to Voltorb, retreated and double KOed Arcanine and Tyranitar. Record 5-0 Match 6: RK vs. guy w/ Chansey-Metal deck By this time, I had a secure position on the final eight. My opponent offered that we declare our game a draw but I refused. I heard that this guy had a good reputation and I really wanted to test my skills because that was my reason for joining in the first place. I don’t remember much about this game because it was so darn long. We kept hitting each other’s pokemon with a lot of damage but due to the metal-berry combination, we couldn’t knock out each other’s pokemon. Then it came down to the last few cards in each player’s library. He played a Chaos Gym so that he could get a chance at using my trainers. I was nearly decked out but due to my Cleffa, I extended it to a few more turns. He also had a Cleffa but unfortunately for him, he couldn’t get heads on either his Eeeeeeek or his Lass. He decked out earning me my 6th victory. Record 6-0 Hooray! I entered the top eight undefeated!!! By then I felt that things were getting too good for me and I felt that something bad was about to happen… Match 1 of final eight: RK9 vs. kid w/ Wiggly & Sneasel deck Yes, this was the same kid I beat during match 4 of the elimination round and he’s back with vengeance. I couldn’t remember the details of this game (Is it because I hate to remember being defeated? Maybe…). All I remember was that I kept flipping tails on my baby-check on his Cleffa so Lass back-fired on me. Moreover, he kept using energy removals, and super energy removals on my Arcanine, until he knocked out all of my pokemon with his Sneasel. Top eight finisher… not to bad. I also finished top eight the last time I entered a tournament, getting eliminated in the first round also. Anyway, I got a single Neo Discovery booster pack and more importantly, experience. I’m going to join another tournament this coming November in the hope of exceeding what I have achieved. Now for Props and Slops Props to..... Nelmer & Ryan coz they let me borrow some of their cards Slops to.... Louie Espina for not entering the top eight (he didn’t get to qualify for the nationals) O well that's all. My e-mail is yawgmoth@eudoramail.com _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp