Boy are you guys in for a treat with this one.  Last weekend entered a non-league  tournament at the local comic shop  "Cosmic Comics."  To the oppositions dismay and my extreme surprise I won with a perfect 5-0 record.  I entered myself in the "Senior" group with a couple of my friends.  The tournament took up most of the day, and had quite a few entrants  (40 people for the Senior group alone).  The organizers tried to make it interesting, so they let the players choose to be a "Traveling Trainer," "Team Rocket Member," or "Gym Leader."  I (being the pokemon gangster that I am) chose to be a Team Rocket Member.  Now let's get down to the nitty-gritty.

-Jackhammer-

3x Hitmonchan
3x Hitmonlee
2x Aerodactyl
4x Machop
4x Rattata

3x Super Energy Removal
3x Pokemon Trader
4x Plus Power
3x Energy Removal
3x Gust of wind
3x Mysterious Fossil
4x Bill

4x Double Colorless
17x Fighting Energy

-Results-

Match#- one
Opponent- James
Winner- Luke
Record- 1-0

This match was a slaughter.  James had this sort of "Haymaker" wannabe.  Except it seemed he only had one or two Scyther's, Hitmonchan's, and Electabuzze's.  I started strong with my Hitmonchan against his Electabuzz.  Big mistake on his part, my Hitmonchan ate him for breakfast, with his weakness to fighting.  The only thing I had to worry about was he had a souped up Scyther on his bench.  With some crafty retreating, some well played Plus Powers, my awaiting Hitmonlee took him down.  His last benched guy was another Electabuzz.  This one was not even close.

Match#- two
Opponent- Sarah
Winner- Luke
Record- 2-0

This girl certainly was a worthy opponent.  She had a very original deck revolving around pokemon of many types that have powerfull attacks that only use colorless energy.  The only thing that kept this game in line for me was my Aerodactyl keeping her guys from evolving.  The only evolution she managed to get out was a Charmeleon.  Yet, then again out came a horde of Scythers slashing away.  The bad part was I lost 3 guys to one Scyther (I think I found the decks weakness).  Finally I took them down, and cleared her bench, with only one of her prizes remaining.  WHEW!!!

Match#- three
Opponent- Sam
Winner- Luke
Record- 3-0

This kid was not very good.  My guess is that he is just a beginner.  Well actually it wasn't a guess.  His deck was pretty sloppy with bad evolution chains.  I figured that if he could make it this far he had to be OK... Boy was I wrong.  This kid sucked.  How the miracle occured that he made it to the third round is far beyond my grasp.  His best attacker (of the 3) was a Far'Fetched. A Far'Fetched.  Well at least I racked up another win.

Match- four
Opponent- Chris
Winner- Luke
Record- 4-0

At long last the semi-finals.  This was certainly an interesting battle.  I ended up fighting one of my best friends, Chris.  He, and I play everyday after school.  We have pretty even , as well as similar, decks.  His has the same type of idea accept he added electric type guys.  This was a battle.  I got a slow start with a bad lack of energy.  He got some quick kills one of which was a cheap shot on my lone Rattata.  The other was an energyless Hitmonlee.  I managed to slap out an Aerodactyl to slow down his electric evolutions.  I could tell he was trying to keep his electric guys as far away from battle as possible in order to avoid a quick death.   In the final rounds he had a Raichu, against my Hitmonlee.  I dropped his Raichu to twenty, then it really heated up.  He Thundered and killed himself.  We went to sudden death.  I had never played sudden death in a tournament before.  I could tell he hadn't either.  I drew a Hitmonchan, and a Rattata.  I of course started with Rattata, for his zero retreat cost.  I saw he started with an Electabuzz.  I quickly switched my guys, and started Jabbing away.  He didn't have a chance.

Match- five
Opponent- Bill
Winner- Luke
Record- 5-0

To my extreme surprise.  I had made it to the finals.  I faced this kid named Bill.  He had a big evolution deck.  I had a really slow start, but finally got out an Aerodactyl stunting his evolution.  He kept his wits with him, making some crafty retreats, and got a couple of kills.  Whoop-di-doo.  My Aeorodactyl kept stopping his attempts to do anything to me.  I just took out his little Bulbasaurs, and Charmanders without anything to stand in my way.  Victory is mine!!!!

-E-Mail-

Questions? Comments?  Write to Luke at:
J_Tweety@Juno.com