From: MewtwoStruckBack@aol.com [mailto:MewtwoStruckBack@aol.com]
Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2002 2:41 PM
To: Cardtips@pojo.com
Subject: Re: Know your Opponent's Decks--Michael Lucas


Tim has brought up a good tournament strategy, but I would also like to
expand upon it.

Wait until the last minute to fill out your Deck Registration sheet.  If
your
tourney uses those, you can walk around and sneak a peek at other people's
decks, then plan on what you've seen, even if their deck isn't out.  (My
favorite kind of people are the ones who seperate their Pokemon, Trainers,
and Energy flat out on a table--this way it only takes you 2-3 seconds to
get
the general idea of what they're playing!)

Also, TAKE MORE THAN ONE DECK.  I myself have EIGHTEEN real life decks.
That's more than a lot of people can say.  This way if you see a lot of
Wiggly, you can play an anti-Wiggly, if you see Sneasel, play massive
Removal
and Unown D...you get the picture.

If someone else is doing the same thing as you are, use the "last bid"
strategy commonly used on eBay.com.  Whoever gets the last, and highest, bid
in will win.  If the person you fear playing is watching you, for example,
try leaving out a Fire deck, and he'll probably register with Rain Dance,
and
the minute he's turned in his deck registration sheet, switch to a
Zappy/Wiggly deck and fill out the deck registration sheet.  This works even
better if you have the deck you truly plan to use memorized, and you leave
the fake deck out, not even looking at it, writing down the cards in the
real
deck.  The reason it's "last bid" is because you wait until the last
possible
second to turn in your sheet, so they end up having to turn it in first.

Finally, try leaving out a deck that is nowhere near tournament worthy so
everyone underestimates you.  (Like a Dewgong deck, or something with only
10
Trainers in it, and those 10 would be the wrong ones...make sure the people
can see the low Trainer count in the pseudo-deck!)

Some sidenotes:  Archetypes are necessary.  (Directly speaking to Shadow
Assassin)  You can't destroy an archetype, really.  If you metagame it, the
metagame becomes an archetype.  (Ex. Feraligatr, then Crobat)  If you use
ER/SER up the wazoo, that becomes a "Standard Trainer Engine", and everyone
will start playing massive removal, and that's an archetype also.  You call
yourself the "destroyer of Archetype decks"...I take it the others play
their
archetypes poorly?

Contact:  MewtwoStruckBack@aol.com