Hullo. I'm Mohammed. This tourney I played in took place at J & J's Sports Cards and Comics, in San Diego, CA. It was on April 8.

 

The metagame at the store is frustrating to play. You'll find decks ranging from Wiggly, to Sponge, to Haymaker, to Moltres Stall, and even weird/odd decks. I tried my hardest to totally metagame everything, and I came up with this:

 

4 Magmar L31

3 Hitmonchan

3 Lickitung

 

9 Fire Energy

7 Fighting Energy

 

4 Bill

4 Professor Oak

4 PlusPower

4 Scoop Up

4 Energy Removal

4 Super Energy Removal

3 Gust of Wind

3 Computer Search

2 Energy Retrieval

2 Lass

 

 

I made it as metagame, it was never played until this tournament. I didn't even think it would perform as well as it did. Yet, it ended up getting me tied for 3rd. I made the Pokemon choices carefully, using Magmar as my main Pokemon due to it being absolutely INCREDIBLE, with high HP, low Retreat, a stalling attack, and a beatdown attack, add to the fact that RainDance will get torn down by the Lass, and you have one hell of a Pokemon. Hitmo was there to metagame all the colorless Pokemon and the Electabuzz that would be played. Lickitung was a nice twist, it renders Promo Mewtwo useless, and it has some serious fun with Ditto. As for Trainers, they don't need explanation, except for Lass. Lass literally shuts down RainDance, and gets you those nice fast 2 turn kills with Hitmo and Magmar. Anyway, here's the report:

 

(This tourney had a whopping 55 people, and was scheduled for 5 rounds of Swiss, 1 game matches, and then the Top 8 single elimination rounds.)

 

Round 1 - ???? (forgot this guys name.. I think it was Rick) - Some deck with 3 Evo lines, Meowth, Bulbasaur, and Ekans, and Scyther as support

 

Okay, this guy is new to the game, so I wasn't too happy on getting him first round. Anyway, he gets like 4 basics on the bench at the beginning, I get Magmar and Hitmo. I power both of them up, while killing his Pokemon along the way. I quickly get 6 prizes, while losing only 1 Hitmo to a Scyther, for which I Smogged his Scyther and got the KO.

 

1-0 | 3 points

 

(The tourney directors are using DCI Reporter to do this tourney, and me getting a newbie in the first round isn't gonna help my resist much, so I'm not happy.)

 

Round 2 - Christian(VERY good player. He usually wins all the big tournies here, I'm even less happy now.) - Hitmonchan/Magmar L31/Scyther/Lickitung Haymaker(he calls it Haybreaker...)

 

I'm very not pleased. I get one of the best players at the store. So, we start the game, his Magmar twins against my Hitmo. I win the flip, and draw Magmar, lay Energy on Hitmo, and Jab. He draws, lays Energy, Smokescreen. My turn, Jab, Heads. His turn, draw, judge passes by, notices that Chris forgot to lay prizes, and gives him the game loss. That was very not nice. I take the win, and talk to Chris after, we tell each other that we'll play a rematch game if we don't play in the T8 rounds.

 

2-0 | 6 points

 

(I get that BS win. I'm happy I get a win over Christian, not happy that I got it in that way. Oh well.)

 

Round 3 - Bobby - Turbo Wiggly: Magmar/Scyther/Wiggles(this was a deck I'd played in an earlier tourney... the EXACT same deck.)

 

He starts with Scyther, I start with Magmar, he groans. He wins the flip, and gets a Jiggly on his draw, which I'm not happy to see. He attaches Energy to Jiggly, end of turn. I draw, get Hitmo, lay him on bench, ER Jiggly, and Screen Scyther for 20. He then draws, retreats, attaches Energy to Jiggly, Lullaby, I flip Heads. I draw, Gust Scyther out, attach a PlusPower, and KO Scyther, prize is a Computer Search. He goes, double Bill's, and gets 2 Scyther to lay on the bench. He then attaches an Energy to Jiggly and Pounds Magmar. I draw a Scoop Up, and retreat for Hitmo, ER, Jab for 40. He draws, attaches Energy to Scyther, Lullaby, Tails, DOH! My turn, Scoop Hitmo, bring Magmar out, attach Energy, Lass, kill Jiggly. He draws a Scyther, drops it on bench, attacks Magmar for 30. I start Smog, and he concedes. Magmar and massive ER versus 3 Scyther is ugly.

 

3-0 | 9 points

 

(I'm amazed at the deck at the moment.)

 

Round 4 - Jacen(nice guy,he's very friendly and funny) - Wiggly: Wiggles/Pinsir/Scyther

 

I win flip this game, he starts with a lone Jiggly, I start with Magmar active, Hitmo on bench. I start by Scooping Magmar, attaching Energy to Hitmo, and Oaking. I get nothing, Oak again. I get a Bill and CPU Search, Bill, nothing, so I CPU Search for Oak, and use it. I get 1 PlusPower, and all Energy, I'm not very happy. So, I'm left on the first turn after Oaking 3 times without a first turn KO. He topdecks Scyther that turn. And after that, he ends up gettign Wiggly charged, and I'm screwed, until i started denying Wiggly with ER, and getting another Hitmo out, which he promptly killed. It finally ended up 3-1 in prizes, in his favor. I cleared out his bench, and he's left with a Wiggly with zero Energy, I Smog, pray for Heads, and get it. The next few turns, he scrambles for bench support, and doesn't get it. Whew, that was CLOSE, but my deck came through.

 

4-0 | 12 points

 

(I'm guaranteed Top 8. Party time.)

 

Round 5 - Chad(yet another of the best players in the store.) - "First Turn KILL" : Hitmonchan/Scyther/Ditto

 

This deck is EVIL. He gets Ditto out with a DCE fast, then proceeds to kill you with all his PlusPowers, or uses Lass, and then you're screwed. And that's exactly what happened. I start with Magmar, him with Ditto and Hitmonchan. He wins the flip, plays a DCE and PlusPower on Ditto, Oak, Lass. *groan* He gets Heads on Smog, my turn. I topdeck Lickitung, Magmar gets killed. Back to me, I use Lickitung to it's fullest, and it kills Ditto with a double PlusPowered Tongue Wrap with Paralyzation. I still have no bench, he has Hitmo fully powered, he attaches PlusPower, end of game.

 

(Oh well, I can do with one loss, on to the Top 8, here's how the pairings were: )

 

David vs. Christian(he made it in 8th place)      \

 

Myself vs. Jacen                                            /

 

Paul vs. Chris                                                 \

 

Jonathan vs. Chad                                           /

 

Top 8 round - Jacen

 

My deck runs way too well this round. Magmar gets out fast, and Hitmo does his job and takes out Wiggly fast and quickly. I take all 6 prizes in about 12 minutes.

 

(I make Top 4 in a 55 person tourney. And it's with a deck that's never been used before today. Can you just imagine my happiness?)

 

Top 4 round - Christian

 

Here's the real match. We took this game to the 25 minute time limit, and it was TIED for 5 more minutes. The starting Pokemon were my Lickitung versus his Scyther and Hitmonchan.  I panic, and mistakes cost me throughout the game. At 30 minutes, it was his Scyther with 30 damage and fully pumped Hitmo with no damage versus my fresh Magmar and Lickitung. I thought I had teh lock because of a Gust in hand, but on his turn, he topdecks Scoop Up. Scoops Scyther, attaches PlusPower, and Gusts for Lickitung. End of game, and my day. He got his revenge for the no prizes game loss in the second round.

 

Ok, I'm out in the Top 4. Christian goes on to win the tourney, which was the biggest at the store yet. He gets his mad props, as do I for just making it to T4. I got a few cards for my prize, a Hitmonlee, and a "Bad" Hypno.

 

Props: To the deck for performing so well.

 

Slops: none.

 

End of report.

 

Mohammed Knobouster - kid_w@geocities.com