A note before I give you this report. Everyone thing in here is 100% honest
because the fake reports I've seen on some sites pertrube me.
I am a 15 year old male who lives in Berkeley , California. The tournament
was played at Games of Berkeley, an awesome store for pokemon and other
games. The tourny was held on October 24th and ran from noon to 4:10, yes
that's over four hours. There were only 13 people at the tourny but the
skill level was very high. Double Elimination. Entry fee : 5 bucks. Now on
to the interesting part.

"The Better Haymaker"
4 Hitmonchan
4 Electabuzz
2 Lickitung
2 Doduo
4 Bill
4 Energy Removal
4 Super Energy Removal
3 Proffesor Oak
2 Scoop Up
2 Gust of Wind
3 Plus Power
1 Item Finder
1 Lass
12 Fighting Energy
12 Electric Energy

The underlying strategy of this deck is that it does everything a regular
haymaker does but it is superior in other respects. The Lickitungs are
enormously useful for those stalling situations that come up and can be used
to confuse the couple of stage 2's that crop up and tend to cause you
trouble. The doduos eat up other haymakers with it's Resistance to fighting
plus they have 0 retreat and fight for one energy of either kind. I cannot
emphasize how strong these two guys are and how much more effective they are
than then the usual Pikachu/Farfecht'd/Machop stuff you see in Haymakers.
The trainers are the regular mix with the exception of the Lass which has
single-handedly won me games. Interesting note: This deck was supposed to
have 3 Scoop Ups and 2 Plus Power but I couldn't get my hands on another
Scoop Up...it turned out very well though.

ON TO THE TOURNAMENT!
It took place in the basement of the store, it was cramped but cozy and fun.
I did a little pre-tourny trading and snagged a Charizard for a pair of
Machamps, my kind of deal :). My younger brother was also there, he was
playing a Turbo Blastoise with 4/4/4 (Squirtle-Blastoise) with  Lapras
thrown in as all his pokemon. I thought he was going to do good too since I
designed his deck myself.

Round One:
I played the kid I traded the Machamps, he actually goes to my high school.
His deck was a Hitmonchan/Machamp mono-fighting deck. Well it was actually a
closer game than I would have thought. He got out two machamps in 4 turns
and we each killed one of eachother's hitmos. From here I brought out my
doduo and stalled for a bit with his resistance to fighting. He kept
building up energy on his Machamps but I knocked it down with ER and SER. He
never got off a seismic toss the whole game. A lickitung confused his
machamps so Strikes Back wouldn't bother me and from there it was only a
matter of time.
1-0
Round Two:
I had to play my brother! He had won his last game and I was kind of unhappy
to play him because I wanted him to win something too. Well our decks were
pretty evenly matched but he got a bad draw and I trashed him in like 5-7
turns. He got out a Blastoise but I used two PlusPowers plus one 'Lectabuzz
thunderpunch with a roll of heads (remember Blastoise has weakness to
electric) and knocked it out in one turn.
2-0
Round Three:
Bye Round. This counts as a win because it's just double elimination. I
watched my brother pick up his second win during this round.
3-0 or 2-0 if you don't think this counts =)
Round Four:
I played an adult with a stall deck. Very good. It had chanseys, mewtwos,
mimes, alakazams and the usual assortment of trainers. Unfortunately for him
this was a 20 minute tournament. At 20 minutes I had 4 prizes left he had 6.
I had 10 cards left in my deck and would have lost if that game could have
lasted forever. Oh well I'll take any win I can get.
4-0
Round Five:
This guy was the friend of the guy who I played in last round. He was
undefeated at this point but I can't fathom why. His deck was not very good.
It was Gyarodos, Dewgong, Articuno and Tauros. He had 5 prizes left when I
eliminated him. Now for a short rant: I really think Tauros is a lousy card,
60 HP and it's attacks cost 2 and 3 colorless energy. Too much of an energy
investment for something that dies so fast. I got half my prizes off of
those bulls.
5-0
Round Six:
I am only undefeated person left in tournament! This means I have yet
another bye round as the four people left fight for survival. My brother was
one of them. This time I went to go get some pizza and candy. When I came
back there were two people left, my brother had been eliminated in a very
close game as he told me.
6-0
Round Seven:
Two people left in losers bracket that must play eachother so that means
that I have another bye! I don't know whether to be happy or bored. I
shuffle my deck about 1000 times. Finally the person who will face me in the
finals finishes his game. He is coincedentally the same person that knocked
out my brother...time for revenge =)
7-0
FINALS:
Ok, the deal was I am undefeated and this kid had one loss (he actually lost
to my bro, they played two games each of them winning one) so I have to win
one game to win finals, he has to beat me twice to win. His deck was a very
frustrating deck to play against. It had all the regular haymaker elements
(Electabuzz, Hitmo, E.R., S.E.R.) but it also had a horde of stallers and
free retreaters: Scythers, Doduos, Chansey. The first game is a whirlwind of
Retreating, Scooping Up and Frustration. He keeps swapping around guys to
keep out people with resistance to what I have out. The Judge calls out 1
minute left with him up on prizes 5-4. I do a desperate Oak and draw two
PlusPowers to enable me to knock out his Chansey (It had 60 HP left on it).
This left me with two cards in my deck but it didn't matter because time was
up. A tie! He still has to beat me twice to win. This was an agonizing but
very thrilling game. One coin flip could have turned the balance on either
side.
We play again. This game starts off different than the last one (Electabuzz
vs. Electabuzz) but after a few turns and a Scoop-Up it becomes very similar
to the last game. This one is a nail-biter! It goes down to the wire. We
each have 3 prizes left when judge calls out 1 minute left in game. Then he
announces another rule: Whoever knocks out the next Pokemon wins! This was a
shock to both of us. The guy who was judging just laughed. He was cool even
though he pulled this trick on us though. It was the other guys turn. He
knocked my Doduo down to 10 HP left. On my turn I did a daring move. I oak
bringing myself down to 2 cards and my gamble pays off! I draw the fighting
energy and the PlusPower I need to pull off vicotry. My doduo retreats for
free and my hitmo comes flying out to knock out his Electabuzz (with the aid
of it's weakness to fighting and my PlusPower. What a thrilling game! One of
the most hard-fought games I have ever played.
We shook hands and discussed strategy for about 20 minutes. He was a really
cool guy. For prizes we split a Box of 1st Edition Fossil. He got 12 packs I
got 24. The store was really very generous, the guy told me they were
expecting a turnout of 30 or so thus the disproportiantely large prize. But
I wasn't complaining :)
Props:
To my bro for doing so good and only losing because he had to play me.
To GOB for running this wonderful tournament and being so generous with the
prizes.
To my competitors. No cheating. No stealing. No bad sportsmanship. Everyone
was smiling. Berkeley is a great place to live.
To me! This was my first pokemon tournament (but not the last!)however I do
have 6 years of CCG experience from Magic.
Slops:
Having 3 Bye rounds. I can't really blame anyone though because running a 13
man tourny is hard.

In conclusion Pokemon is a great game. The weakness/resistance scheme really
adds strategy in the game and ensures that every deck has it's undoing. Also
Lickitung is a ridicoulously good card. I think if it was a Rare everyone
would use but people don't respect it enough because it's uncommon. I am
however getting sick of Haymakers (playing with and against them). My next
deck will be a Psychic deck just to prove all my friends who say Psychic is
weak wrong. I enourage people to be more original and creative in their
decks. Although mine had some novel elements it was just a simple variant so
wild decks is what CCG's are all about!

Dario