East Coast Super Trainer Showdown 2001 - Reports

Back-Burner (Psychic)
by Adrian Cameron
Omni Comics & Comics
Hartford, CT
Saturday, June 23rd, 2001
About 280 players in 15+ Division

Like many, it took me forever to decide on a deck to play at the STS. (those that made original decks that is) Finally, after some thorough play-testing against some strong players I settled on Sabrina's Alakazam, a poke I'd never played with before. Just to give you some idea, the original version of this deck only used the S.Kadabra and S.ESP combo. It became painfully obvious, after I was beaten like a red-headed stepchild, that the deck needed some serious overhaul. Add a little S.Kazam, a dash of mewtwo and, Voila! (that's French for, "where's my other sock?") You're left with a deck that can do 100 damage to a Steelix for one energy and not have the damage affected by Metal cards, not to mention 60 damage a turn with Kazam and R.Mewtwo in play.

Back-Burner

2 Magby... [useful in a pinch]
3 Cleffa... [gimme my cards!]
2 Erika's Dratini... [something had to be resistant to other psy poke]
2 Rocket's Mewtwo... [3 attacks to choose from]
2 Mewtwo L60... [absorb = speed-kazam]
3 Sabrina's Alakazam... [with the kitties on bench, has a <i>good</i> attack for 1, 2, 3, or 4 energy]
4 Sabrina's Kadabra... [life drain with Sabrina's ESP, you'll never see it coming]
4 Sabrina's Abra L18... [what a gr8 poke!]

4 Gold Berry... [duhhh]
3 Nightly Garbage Run... [see below]
3 Misty's Wrath... [see above]
3 Professor Elm... [here an elm, there an elm...]
3 Sabrina's ESP... [like i said, sneaky]
3 Resistance Gym... [murkrow and colorless]

19 Psychic Energy... [my, what an odd number]
In retrospect, I wish I'd taken a little pocket recorder so I could remeber every detail, or even names. So please forgive me if I don't have your name here, I enjoyed playing you nonetheless. I'm also super-hazy on the order I played some decks, so again, forgive me.



ROUND 1 (vs. guy with magmar/gligar deck)
I was ready to see just about any kind of deck in the first round. The format really opened it up a lot, and I was glad to see a wide variety of decks. Anyway... I never got a chance to see what type of deck this was. First turn, he had 3 Magmar's on his bench and Gligar active. I had Cleffa Active, S.Abra on bench. After a few eeeeeks, I had S. Alakazam ready to go. Then I plowed through 5 of his pokes.
(1-0)


ROUND 2 (vs. guy w/Koga deck)
I had thought about making a Koga deck early, but eventually decided against it. This Koga deck had K.Muk and K.Golbat. The weakness to psychic didn't help matters for him. I think I started with R.Mewtwo. R.Mewtwo got poisoned early on, but not early enough and Gold Berry helped considerably. At one point he brought Zubat active and used group attack without adding extra Zubats to his bench. (???) The next turn he didn't forget, but was only able to get 2 down. A couple of turns later, it was all over.
(2-0)


ROUND 3 (vs. guy w/psychic Slowking/Murkrow)
I was worried about this type of deck a little. Murkrow's resistance to psychic, and mewtwos to boot! Me with my lovely weakness to all things psychic. When it started, I think he had Girafarig, Mewtwo, Slowbro, and Murkrow. I had Cleffa and Abra. This is where it gets hazy. I had played a couple of games before the tourney started, and one of them was against another Slowkrow deck. Problem is I can't seem to separate the two in my head. I recall he got two slowkings on his bench, but I was lucky with some flips and able to power Kazam up pretty quickly. His mewtwo's didn't stand a chance and neither did Slowking.
(3-0)


ROUND 4 (vs. guy with one of the most creative decks I saw the entire day)
I don't know how this guy kept it a secret, but his strategy/combo was off the hook! I was ready for Steelix decks, but I was not ready for this one.
Things are going pretty well, MP Mewtwo cruised through a couple of babies while the two of us developed our bench, me with Kadabra, him with Steelix. Finally he brought Steelix out and I put Kadabra in the spotlight. Life Drain with ESP, 100 damage. "Ha!", I thought. I thought wrong. Next turn he slaps down Recall. Recall!!!!! Why hadn't I htought of that?!?!? Neo Onix has two attacks, Screech and Rage. Rage, for those that don't know, does 10 damage plus 10 for each counter on Onix. Well, when Steelix uses Recall, you substitute Onix's name for Steelix when referring to the Rage attack. So.... Steelix then did a startling 110 damage, KOing my Kadabra (that I was about to evolve into Kazam) Needless to say, I was not prepared for this. Turns out those 2 babies I KOed earlier were the only two I'd get a chance to KO. RageRecall stomped my buttocks. Good game!
(3-1)


ROUND 5 (vs. guy w/DarkMachamp deck)
This didn't take long at all. He was able to fling (or whatever) one of my powered up Kazams back into my deck, but his weakness to psychic was his undoing. Good try!
(4-1)


ROUND 6 (vs. B.Arcanine/Charizard)
My deck was finely tuned playing against a K9 deck, so I wasn't too worried at the start, but it turned out to be a well played game on both sides that went down to 1 prize each. There was some Firestorming and some Life Draining, but in the end it was the Psyburn that won it.
(5-1)


ROUND 7 (vs. Catherine Fergerson w/Feraligatr deck)
As you may have read in Catherine's report, I got Kazam out and powered up way too fast. It was all a blur. 60 damage a turn took its toll.
(6-1)


ROUND 8 (vs. guy w/fire deck)
I think it may have been a typhlosion deck or a K9 deck, but all can remember is getting Charred by Quilava and having to ask a judge about a ruling. My Kadabra had been Charred, but had a GoldBerry attached. At the end of my opponent's turn, Kadabra had 60 damage. So which happens first, Char or Gold Berry? After a little deliberation and with three judges standing over my shoulder, I'm told it's my choice. So, discard Berry, then roll for Char, saving my Kadabra which I then evolved into Kazam. Burn baby, burn!
(7-1)

ROUND 9 (vs. older guy w/Feraligtr deck)
He went first, and in no time flat it was pouring. I don't think I got a single prize in my hand. This loss kept me out of the top16 (I had lost hope for top8 after my first loss).
(7-2)

I ended up finishing 18th overall. Out of 280 or so people, I think that's pretty good!


Props & Slops
Props to Wizards for the format and the location!
Props to the guy with the RageRecall deck, that was just really well though out.
Slops to $1.50/2.00 cans of soda.
Slops to people who just copy decks, you know who you are.


Peace all.

Adrian Cameron
acameron@L7square.com