The Sponge
by Ian Garrovillas
Future World Sports
Santa Maria, California
Friday, August 18, 2000
About 20 Participants

    In the past couple of tournaments that I've been in, I've done pretty
well, so I'm pretty proud of that. I've placed in each of them, but I still
have not come home with the feeling of being first. It's always 2nd or 3rd
for me, but not 1st. Hopefully with the new changes I made with my sponge, I
can do it this time around. After reading some articles on pojo (some from
Scott Gerhardt of course since he is the expert on the sponge), I've found
out that rainbow energy and rocket sneak attack are both very good cards, but
the people in my area just have not realized that. So I wanted to be the
first to use them in a deck, by time I would have enough of them both.

Here's my sponge w/ hitmonchans, or some may say my haymaker w/ mewtwos.

The Sponge

Pokemon x10
2x Electabuzz
2x Hitmonchan
2x Promo Mewtwo
2x Scyther
2x Ditto

Trainers x34
4x Professor Oak
3x Bill
3x Computer Search
4x Item Finder
4x Plus Power
4x Energy Removal
4x Rocket Sneak Attack
3x Scoop Up
2x Gust Of Wind
1x Lass
1x Energy Retrieval
1x Nightly Garbage Run

Energy x16
4x Rainbow
4x DCE
3x Fighting
3x Electric
2x Psychic

    With Electabuzz, Mewtwo, and Hitmonchan all in the same deck, you pretty
much will have some kind of advantage against your opponent. There aren't too
many trainers which can prevent stalling (actually only two with NGR and
lass) but if you play smart, you won't be needing to prevent yourself from
being stalled out. Plus Power, Energy Removal, and Rocket Sneak Attack are
all maxed out since they are aggresive and quick, which this deck is known
for. And don't worry, the energy works. When I first saw Scott's deck in his
STS I was dumbfounded and didn't know how he could have pulled it off. But if
you think about it, it's just like having 7 Fighting, 7 Electric, and 6
Psychic. Rainbow can is every energy remember?

    The amount of participants in Future World have been slowly going down,
maybe because it's summer time. But this week there were only 20
participants. But let me just say that more than half of those players are
good and experienced.

Round 1 vs. Alex Webb w/ a sponge deck (I think)
The game was pretty quick. RSA took care of him early. He couldn't do much
with his few pokemon, and didn't topdeck a prof. oak. The pokemon were
quickly taken down with mainly hitmonchan.

Round 2 vs. some kid I have never seen here before w/ a magmar/electabuzz
We both started w/ scyther, but I had a bench he didn't. I couldn't really do
much with the hand I had so I just swords danced, hoping he didn't have any
answers to it. He passed, and looked nervous. I used prof. oak but couldn't
find any DCE so I just attached another energy and swords danced again. But
he had put down another pokemon so that idea was gone. The game turned out to
be a long one. His magmars started taking over. Every time I sneak attacked
he had no trainers, all energy, which I think wasn't problem for him at all.
When he had a price left, with me having four, I took control. It seemed as
though he had no more energy so I started thunderpunching like crazy bringing
the prize count to 2 to 1, with me having one card left in my deck. I
thunderpunch his only pokemon in play for 40. If he drew a pokemon here it
would be over, he did. I had nothing in my hand to add cards in my deck so I
lose.

Round 3 vs. Matt w/ a haymaker (i think)
This kid usually had a worthy deck, but he just doesn't play well. The game
was over quickly since he had no bench.

Round 4 vs. I think some little kid who didn't play well???
I dont remember this match well at all. I think he wasn't a good player so I
won the match pretty easily. I do know that I won however.

Round 5 vs. Gabe w/ a new type of psychic/ fighting deck
He usually tries out new decks every week. This week he was playing a
jynx/rocket hitmonchan/machop.. weird deck. Well, even with the weird pokemon
he still played well and the match turned out to be a good one. Also, we both
had one loss each and since everyone in the tourney had already loss, and the
tourney would only be 5  rounds the winner of this one would go into the
finals, the other... wouldn't. Ok, I had the advantage early, being up in
prizes. All of the sudden he somehow takes control of the board. With his
jynx up against my hitmonchan. I scoop him up and send out mewtwo, which
suprises him. "I didn't know you had that in there," he says. I guess he
thought I was playing a straight out haymaker, he was wrong. Well mewtwo took
over psyburning anything that got in it's path and gave me the win.

I was happy with finally having an opportunity to be in the finals, hopefully
my deck would do well.

Round 1 vs. Art w/ a weird deck that is so weird I cannot even describe it
I never know how he gets so far. He always uses a deck with so many things
missing from it. He was actually the only undefeated person before he had
lost, which is again, amazing. Well, I knew that if I wasn't careful I might
become another victim of his luck. The match turned out to be pretty short.
RSA'd all his good stuff, knocked out some pokemon quick. And my hitmonchan
took care of his only eevee for the win.

Round 2 vs. TJ w/ a electabuzz/magmar deck (i think)
I've played this kid many times before. I usually win but sometimes he pulls
something off to beat me. I have some early RSA's to mess him up. The game
was pretty long. Mewtwo came out sometime around the end to start doing some
quick and bigtime damage. He was the factor that took him out.

Finals vs. Kean w/ magmar/hitmonchan
First off, I want to say that right when I came into the store, I was going
to use a wigglytuff deck with hitmonchan and mewtwo. He had challenged me and
beat me pretty badly. So I decided to change my deck real quick before the
tourney would start. In this game, I didn't want him to get 2 in a row on me.
I started with about 3 RSA's which gave me an early advantage. My ditto's
took care of his magmars and my scyther did some good work as well. I
eventually won beating him by bench out.

Yes, finally get 1st place. If your reading this (which I'm thinking your
not)

<ed note:  OF course I read them...well, I kinda skim them at least. =)  Report of the Month was abandoned for several reasons I do not want to go into.  As far as good reads go, I felt it was stroking the egos too much of people and did not want to do it anymore.  I want you to read them all and figure out for yourself what are good reads.  -Scott>

Scott, why don't you make anymore killer decks of the month, I really
looked forward to see who won. And also why don't you highlight any of the
"good reads" as you called them before. The only things that are highlighted
these days are STS reports. It doesn't really matter though, I just like
knowing which decks to read, and which to not. Well thanks for reading.
Respond to me if you can!

PiLiPiNOi@aol.com

Ian Garrovillas