Philly QT Report
Plymouth Meeting Church on the Mall
Saturday 6/8/2002
Roughly 100 in attendance
By Johnny Blaze


Let me start out by saying that this was actually a Church in a Mall.  It
was so weird.  The mall also had a miniature golf course and Carousal.  Talk
about one stop shopping! Dale Champion, myself, and my son Nick arrive
Friday nite after a long and arduous haul on Rte 1 South in New Jersey.  We
check in at the Hampton Inn.  The hotel was real nice.  We met up with Luke
Reed, Mike Parmwat (sp), and the Bonham family Friday nite and played some
games until about 11:00p.m.  We waited for Dark Zapdos until about Midnite
in the lobby but he never showed.  So we ended up watching the Lakers beat
the Nets in the 2nd game of the NBA finals.  We head up to bed to get some
sleep as the tournament will start at 9 a.m. the next morning.  We get up
and get ready and head downstairs and eat some breakfast at their free
breafast bar.  We see Dark Zapdos there and talk with him.  They didn't get
in until around 12:30 a.m. the nite before.  We finish eating breakfast with
Dark Zapdos, take some extra donuts and head over to the Mall on the Church.
We meet Mr. Grass and he was handing out index cards to sign up for the
tournament. I also saw CleffyTuff, Bob Calannan(sp) and his daughter Alayna,
Shane Blodgett(sp) and his daughter Savannah,  Gregory Sauk and his son Ben
again and got to meet LunaMew. I thought that the turnout was great.  There
were about 26 players in the 10 and under, 30 something in the 11-14, and 29
in the 15+.    First I am going to post my son's tournament winning deck in
the 10 and under and report.  Bare with me if I am not that specific in his
because I was running back and forth to see what was going on in his
division.  Yup that's right my son Nick won and we will see you all that are
going to the World's in August.


HydroCrush

Pokemon - 22
4 - BS Squirtle
3 - Dark Wartortle
3 - Dark Blastoise
3 - SI Onix
3 - Steelix
3 - Cleffa
2 - Pichu

Trainers - 20
4 - Professor Elm
2 - Focus Band
3 - Double Gust
3 - Rocket's Hideout Gym
2 - Gold Berry
3 - Bill
3 - Pokemon Breeder

Energy - 18
14 - Water
4 - Metal


Round 1 Nick vs. Brandon L.
Brandon ended up making the Top 8 also.  Brandon was playing a Blaine's RK9
and Blaine's Rapidash.  Nick had a Water energy drought and only had Steelix
out that was weak to Fire.  Brandon also had Cinnabar City Gym out.  Nick
loses his 1st match. 

Record 0-1

Round 2 Nick had a Bye
This wont help his resistance at all.  Nick had a bye for round 2.

Record 1-1

Round 3 Nick vs. Savannah Blodgett
Savannah was running her Big Fire deck that she used in the Milford GC.
This was a very quick match.  All Savannah had out was a Blaine's Growlithe.
Nick wins the coin flip and goes 1st.  He attached Water to Squirtle and
paralyzes for 20.  Next turn he evolves into Dark Wartortle and Double Slaps
for 2 heads and that ends the game.

Record 2-1

Round 4 Nick vs. Kevin G.
Kevin was running a Slowking and Holo Espeon deck.  I don't know the
specifics but Nick ended up winning by prizes.

Record 3-1

Round 5 Nick vs. Martin S.
Martin was using  Azmarril (Bubble Jump) and Riptide Feraligatr together in
his deck.  I guess he couldn't get another Pokemon out and Nick won by
benching him.

Record 4-1

After a while the Top 8 was announced.  Nick was #4 with a 60.000 opp-def %
.




Top 8 - 10 and under

Quarter-finals Nick vs. Gulian (sp)
Gulian was playing an Erika's Victrebell deck.  He could not knock out the
Onix's before they evolved into Steelix.  Nick was taking out Gulian's
Resistance Lowering Gym with Rocket's Hideout to keep the -30 resistance on
Steelix.  Nick won by prizes.

Record 5-1

Semi-finals Nick vs. Chelsea
Nick remembers playing Chelsea at the ECSC in New Jersey earlier this year
where she beat him using Feraligatr again.  This time it was a more even
match up as Nick used a Fire deck in Jersey and Gatr just crushed him.
>From what I could see I thought that Nick was going to lose this one as when
I checked Chelsea was up 5 prizes to 1.  Her Gatr could not finish off
Nick's babies and Nick's Pichu was dishing off damage to Feraligatr and
Holo-Sucuine.  Nick got a pumped Dark Blastoise with a Rocket's Hideout Gym
in play and took out Gatr with 70 a turn.  He then proceeded to knock out
the remaining Suicune and benched Croconaw for the win.

Record 6-1

Finals Nick versus Ben Sauk
Ben is the son of Gregory Sauk who won the Professor Booster Draft at the
ECSC in New Jersey.  Apparantly Ben was undefeated all day long going into
this Finals match.  Unfortunately he was using Lass in his deck which is
illegal in this format and Nick drew a prize right off the bat for this
mistake.  Ben was playing a Holo Espeon deck with MP Mewtwo.  I see his
strategy to take out Anti-Gatr decks,  Crobat mainly.  Too bad a Crobat deck
did not reach the finals.  Nick was able to pump up a Steelix active while
building up swarms of Dark Blastoise's on the bench.  Once his Steelix went
down Nick had already taken 3 prizes.  Dark Blastoise then proceeded to
clean up the Espeons.  Nick won a trip to the Worlds in Seattle.  Hopefully
we will see Ben there as his dad will be going.

Final record 7-1

As you can imagine after this I was so elated that I didn't care what
happened in the 15+ as I also made the Top 8.  Here is the report for that
one:  On a side note you know it will be a long day in the 15+ when you see
James Craven (a.k.a.  Imposter James) using a Pikachu deck and Brianna
Bryson (10 and under) playing in the 15+ with her T-Tar deck.  Good for her
though.

Take Me Down (to Crippletown)

Pokemon - 14

4 - Growlithe (Destiny This will be a huge mistake for me not using LC
Growlithe later in the day.)
3 - LC Arcanine (1 Reverse Holo that I Traded with in the morning Thank you
who ever you are that card looks so sweet.)
3 - Cleffa
2 - Holo Entei
1 - Magby (Anti-Slowking and just so awesome to use against a successful
opponents Focus Band)
1 - Tyrouge (Anti - Ampharos for my friend Dale Champion)

Trainers - 27
4 - Elm
4-  Bill
4 - Mary (Sweet combo to shuffle in 2 Fire b4 Howl)
2 - Healing Fields
3 - Gold Berry
3 - Double Gust
3 - Pokemon Trader (Trade a Baby or extra Growlithe for Entei to Howl)
2 - Time Capsule
2 - Scoop Up (Scoop Up Entei for another Howl or to abuse with Double Gust)

Energy - 19
16 - Fire
 3 -  Metal

I experienced quite a bit of confusion from players when they saw Bill and
Base set RK9.  They were like those cards are illegal.   I explained to them
about Legendary Collection and the use of older cards if they are reprinted
in new sets.  Also I think if there was some sort of update or announcement
from the tournament organizers maybe that may have not caused so much
confusion.  Other than that the tournament was organized fairly well.  The
only thing that I was surprised at was that each player had to report their
own outcome to the T.O. that was operating the laptop instead of filling out
the usual half-sheet reports and signing them.  Another big confusion on
other players part was the Self-damaging part when using Metal energy on a
non-Metal Pokemon.  A lot of people thought that Takedown does 20 to RK9
instead of 10.  That was cleared up in a hurry.

Round 1 Me vs. Tim Evans
Tim was also playing Fire.  Tim was using the Promo Magmar, with Magcargo
and Light Flareon.  I got an early lead with RK9 and took out 2 Magmars and
a Light Flareon.  He was building a Magcargo on the bench and took out My
active RK9.  I got another one built up and Took Down (Pun intended) all of
his Pokes from there.  I took all 6 prizes and he took 2.

Record 1-0
Round 2 Me vs. Josh A.
Josh came down with my friend Shane Blodgett.  Josh states that he is a
relatively new player tournament scene wise.  He was playing all free
retreat deck with Murkrow and Espeons and babies. The game took longer than
expected due to his long and drawn out shuffling. I got up a early RK9 and
Took Down almost everything in sight.  He was able to get a prize with
Espeon but once I knocked out his last Espeon that was game.  I took all 6
prizes.

Record 2-0

Round 3 Me vs. Greg Sauk
I know Greg from the Professor Booster draft that he knocked me out from
making the Top 8 in New Jersey.  Greg is a very good player and I believe he
has 2 sons that also play.  Greg was playing a version of The Wall with
Slowking and Steelix.  Greg was not playing Steelix as I had RK9 built up by
Turn 3.  He did get one Slowking out that was preventing me from playing
Healing Fields successfully.  He kept on flipping tails on the baby power
and when he would flip heads he would flip tails on Onix's attacks.  His
only chance was that he was building up Smeargle on the bench to Sketch my
Takedown and k.o. RK9.  I double-gusted the Smeargle and k.o. it.  I then
took my remaining 6 prizes.

Record 3-0

Round 4 Me vs. Joe Ferguson
Joe was playing the classic Crobat deck with Murkrow and Chaos Gym.  Joe
kept on flipping 4 Tails on Cross Atttack and he was getting very
frustrated.  I had built up a pumped RK9 by Turn 2 that was steam rolling
everything he brought up.  It wasn't until I had taken 4 prizes that I
pulled draw power.  I replaced the Chaos Gym that was slowing me down a tad
bit and took the remaining 2 prizes.

Record 4-0

Round 5 Me vs. Colin
At this time it was the final round and I had to play Colin ( who already
won a trip from a previous qualifier)  Colin was in the 11-14 age group but
playing in the 15+.  Colin was playing Crobat.   We were both undefeated and
I asked him if he wanted to tie before the round started so we both would
definitely make Top 8.  He declined and said that he wanted to play it out.
He was also playing promo Scyther and babies with his Crobat namely Pichu.
He should of taken the tie because I was able to build 3 RK9's and the
Crobats could not k.o. any of my RK9's.  He did confuse 1 RK9 with Metal
energy on it and I was doing no damage to myself on the confusion flip.  I
took all 6 prizes to his none.

Record 5-0

Top 8 was announced and I was in 1st place with 15 points.  I've never gone
undefeated before in a large scale tourney like this so I was feeling pretty
good about my chances.

Quarter-Finals Me vs.  Christian
No one knew why this person made Top 8 because his deck was in no deck
protectors and he was using Abra.  I guess he must know what he is doing he
went 3-2.  Later I guess there was a 5 way tie at 3-2 and the T.O. did a
random pick to see who would make Top 8 and it was Christian.  He had Dark
Espeon, Mew and Dark Kadabra.  I took the game easily taking all 6 prizes.

Record 6-0

Semi-Finals Me vs. my friend Shane B. with Magcargo/Entei
This is where the NEO Destiny Growlithe would prove my undoing.  Shane runs
30 Fire energy in his deck and was able to Howl on Turn 1 and pump up
another Entei with 4 Fire Energy.  I attached a Metal to Growlithe and had
no other Pokes or draw power to get any.  This is why we need the best 2 out
of 3 format that will take place at Worlds.   Shane goes and Double Gusts to
bring up the powered Entei and Searing Flames for the win.  Ahhhhh my only
loss knocks me out.

Record 6-1

The finals was Shane versus Ian who was playing Feraligatr.  Ian just turned
15 2 days prior to the tourneyand could not compete in the 11-14 division
with his Gatr deck.  Shane had a early Magcargo and took 2 prizes early.
Ian recovered with Gatr to knock out 3 of Shane's Magcargos.  Ian ended up
winning the match and taking 1st place int the 15+.  I ended up with a
Pikachu world collection that I later traded, the whole set of Holos from
Neo-Revelation, and 10 NEO Destiny Booster packs.  See you all at the Worlds
in August.  Thanks for reading.  Any questions or comments email me at
AN7710@dfa.state.ny.us