December 16, 2001
Great Oaks Mall
Rochester Hills, Michigan
27 People
Char Command
Tim Svenson
Hello Pojo and all people reading this. I am Tim Svenson, many of you may recognize that name from the TCG strategies section. I just played my first DCI sanctioned booster draft. Man, was it fun. For those of you familiar with booster draft format, skip the rest of this paragraph. For those of you who aren’t, here is a quick run down. First, we were given five packs, three genesis, and two revelation. Then, each person opens one of their packs, chooses a card from that pack, and passes the rest to the person on their right. Then this person takes a card, and passes it, and this goes on until all the cards are taken. Then, the process repeats for the rest of the packs. If there is basic energy in the packs, it is taken out and put in the middle of the table. When you have all your cards taken, you then build a 40 card deck, including basic energy. You can bring your own basic energy, or borrow it from someone or whatever. There are four prizes, forty cards in the deck.
For the draft, we were given three genesis packs and two revelation. I decided that I would try to build a fire deck, featuring Magcargo and Quilava. In the genesis packs, I was able to get seven cyndaquils (oh yea, forgot to mention, you can have more than four of the same name card in your deck) and four Quilavas, three of which knew Char. I was hoping for a Typhlosion, but didn’t get one. I also got one Elm. Other good cards I got from Genesis were Pikachu (great in draft) and Gligar. Then came the revelation packs. I got four Slugmas, but no Magcargos. I got Quilfish, who I hoped would be okay, Zubat, Sudowoodo, non holo Ho- oh, non holo Enti and a couple others. I decided that twenty energy should be enough for this deck. Here’s the list.
Pokemon
Cyndaquill (swift) x4
Cyndaquill (fireworks) x3
Quilava (ember) x1
Quilava (char) x3
Pikachu x2
Gligar x1
Quilfish x1
Zubat x1
Stantler (genesis) x1
Ho- oh (non holo) x1
Enti (non holo) x1
Trainers
Professor Elm x1
Energy
Fire x20
Let the battles begin!
Match one- Char Command (like in Toy Story, char command, star command…) vs. a grass deck.
The only part of this deck that I saw were some Shuckles and a Sudowoodo. My Quilava went through them pretty quickly.
1-0
Match two- Char Command vs. a deck with Phanpy and Geodude and Pilowswine
He got Pilowswine up early, but I was able to Char it. It didn’t get enough energy to attack. My Quilava killed everything else it, and then killed some Phanpys and Geodudes.
2-0
Match three- Char Command vs. a deck with Noctowl and Mantine.
I start with a hand of six fire and one Cyndaquill knowing Swift. This is not good at all. He goes first. He puts an energy on Mantine. I draw- Pikachu, and put energy on it. He doesn’t send up Mantine and attack, but puts an energy on a Hoothoot. I draw Quilfish and attach energy. He still doesn’t kill me. Then, I draw an Ember Quilava. I attach energy to Cyndaquill. He still doesn’t kill me. I then evolve, and kill his Magby with ember. He sends up Mantine, undulates, tails. I retreat, and kill him with Pikachu. Then, he sends up Noctowl, which I kill the next turn. I begin to power a char Quilava. Finally, my Pikachu is KOed, but I take my last prize with Quilava.
3-0
Match four- Char Command vs. Golbat/ Octillary deck
Uh oh, I’m in trouble. I have to beat Octillary. We flip to go first, I win. Yay. Then, we draw our hands. I get Pikachu and six fire energy. He has just one Pokemon. It’s a…. REMAROID!!! Oh my god I could win first turn. I attach to Pikachu, flip for quick attack, and it’s… HEADS!!! Wow, I got lucky on that one. Yay.
4-0
Match five- Char Command vs. another Octillary deck. This one had Seadra and Kingdra as well.
Well, this time my opponent had a good start. I couldn’t flip heads with Pikachu, and he killed everything pretty quickly.
4-1
Match five- Char Command vs. a Lanturn deck
I know this kid well as being the one who manages to always wreck my DCI rating. He was in the fifteen hundreds while I was at 1993, and he beat me by KOing my Jigglypuff with a Tyrogue on turn one. So, I expected everything that could possibly go wrong to go wrong, and for me to lose horribly. I was right. I got up my Gligar to fight off his lanterns, but you know what happened? He KOed it in one hit with a Quilfish. Then, he paralyzed my Quilava three times in a row, so I didn’t get any attacks off. He also drew a revelation Lanturn at just the right turn he needed to KO my last Quilava. I lose.
4-2
Match five- Char Command vs. a bunch of Onixes and a Skarmory
I opened up with Gligar against his Skarmory. I attach energy to my Cyndaquill which knows Quick attack, and pass. He does twenty to Gligar. I attach another energy to Cyndaquill, and use quick attack, getting heads to kill the Skarmory. He sends up Onix, doesn’t do anything. I evolve, and use Char. Tails. I kill him the next turn. I power up another Quilava, but it isn’t needed, I win with this one.
5-2
Well, I got like second or third in my group. Not bad for a first draft if I do say so myself. Looks like it’s time for props and slops.
Props:
To everyone I played, they were all good
To Matt Catalano, the tournament director
To Duke Humphrey’s Pub, the place where we go in between matches to get chicken fingers and cheesey bread.
To Quilava, it rocked
To booster drafts, for being cool
To Jared and the Sprite can which almost exploded
To the fact that I’m on Christmas vacation in one week
Slops:
To people who hate and complain about Archetypes
To people who lie about others in the TCG strategies section
To Tyrogue, this thing should be banned from Modified instead of Sneasel. I can’t stand breaking first in a tournament, and then losing turn one to the guy that got eighth because he got super lucky against your friend because he kills your Cleffa with a Tyrogue. (this happened to me)
Well, I’m done for now. Have a nice day. Or don’t. Your choice.
-Tim Svenson
e- mail me at Victreebel29@juno.com