>From you to me, and back to you (colorless)

By Henrique Nigre Souza

Mart Center

Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil

Sunday, June 3rd, 2001

128 players 

5 rounds of Swiss, top 8 goes to single elimination.

        Hi people, My name is Henrique, I'm 23 and this is my first report

to Pojo, although

I constantly come here to see new decks and keep an eye on the new

collections.

        Finally, Devir bookstore (Only Pokemon distributor in Brazil)

decided to make a DCI

Pokemon Tournament in Brazil, and this was an event many people here were

waiting for a long

time. Despite the fact this tournament would be run in Sao Paulo (I live in

Rio de Janeiro,

300 miles away Sao Paulo), a friend and I decided to participate. For our

surprise, we found

many other players there from Rio, and other places equally far from there,

which left us a

sensation that a National would be run there.

        I took this deck:

1 Cleffa

3 Clefairy (Base set)

2 Clefable (jungle)

4 Ditto (fossil)

3 Dratini (Base set)

2 Dark Dragonair

1 Dark Dragonite

3 Doduo (base set)

2 Dodrio (base set)

======================> 21 Pokemons

3 Professor Elm

2 computer search

2 Item Finder

2 Gold Berry

4 Berry

3 Defender

1 Nightly Garbage Run

1 The Boss's Way

3 No Removal Gym

======================> 21 Trainers

4 Potion Energy 

4 Full Heal energy

4 Double Colorless Energy

4 recycle Energy

2 Dark Energy

======================> 18 Energy

        The idea is using the opponent's attack against himself, using

Ditto, Clefable,

and Clefairy. Dark Dragonair and Dark Dragonite are there to get the

pokemons I need, and Dodrio

for reduce the retreating cost for all of them.

        Since many pokemons have few HP, I throw Berry, Gold Berry and

Defender inside. Elm,

Comp Search, Boss way, Cleffa and Item Finder would find what I need, and,

if necessary,

Garbage Run would get Ditto and Clefable back to my deck. And to take the

Sprout Tower away,

No Removal Gym would fit perfectly.

        'There can't any problem...' I thought...

ROUND 1:

Fire => Typhosium/Dark Charizard/Cleffa were the main pokemons

        Have you ever tried to copy dark Charizard attack without fire

energy attached to Ditto

or to Clefable? Well, that was the situation...

Game 1 => The chronicle of the game was: His dark Charizard hitting hard

every pokemon I had,

until I get Dodrio or Dark Dragonair to hit him. Unfortunately, none of them

appeared. 0 x 1

Game 2 => The only pokemon he got was a Cleffa. And there was no basic

pokemons in my hand.

Then, he got a Charmander... To know about the rest of the game, read game 1

above... 0 x 2

Result: 0 x 2

Day score => 0-1, 0-2 

   

        Them, happened the real disaster for the day: one of the judges said

us that, different

from what was said in the beginning of the tournament, we would have 20

minutes between the

rounds. So, my friend and I decided to have lunch during this time. For our

surprise, when

we come back, the round had begun, and the had lost for W.O.

        After a long argumentation, in which the judge admitted his mistake,

the Head Judge

dishonestly (this will be the explained later) said that he would solve our

problem later, but

for the time he couldn't do anything. In his words he "would not commit a

new mistake to confirm

the other mistake".

        (Although IMHO, in doing nothing he was committing the real

mistake...)

ROUND 2:

W.O. against. 0 x 2

Day Score => 0-2, 0-4

        Well, tournament ruined, all the preparation gone to the sewer... So

I decided at least

end the day with 3 victories, to prove myself that I really had a chance to

be in the Top 8...

ROUND 3:

Psychic/Water => Gyrados, Fossil Articuno, Jigglypuff and many other

psychic/water basic pokemons

        'Table 48... Table 48... My deck does not deserve that...' I was

thinking while shuffling

to the match...

Game 1 => He began throwing many basic pokemons, and I had only a Dratini. I

still don't know

how it survived to the assault of a Horsea and a Jigglypuff. In fact, I

know, my opponent

was only beginning to play... Anyway, after 8 rounds (Berry, berry, item

finder for berry,

item finder again for berry), I got a Cleffa, and the game turned into my

side,

and I finally defeated him. But it took a long time... 1 x 0

Game 2 => When the game 2 started, we had only 5 minutes to play. My game

was fine, with a

Dark Dragonair and a Clefable hitting hard, but there was no time... So, the

judge decided

for a tie...

Result: 1 x 0

Day Score => 1-2, 1-4

ROUND 4:

Psychic => Sabrina Kadabra, Sabrina Hypno, Dark Alakazam

        Two games to go...

Game 1: He was playing very slowly, and didn't know very well about his own

pokemon attacks...

Dark Kadabra caused me some trouble, since I couldn't use Ditto as I wanted,

but when he lost

his Sabrina hypno, it runs quickly. 1 x 0

Game 2: This time, he got the Sabrina hypno early in the game, and it turned

bad to me, since he

defeated 2 ditto until I got a dark dragonair to hit him. I began to attack

with dragonair and

a later Clefable while he didn't got a Dark Kadabra. The game continued very

balanced, until

I got a second clefable, without damage counters, so he couldn't use Sabrina

Hypno's pendulum

curse. We were almost out of time, but Dark Dragonair defeated him just in

time. 2 x 0

Result: 2 x 0

Day Score => 2-2, 3-4

ROUND 5:

Fire => Charizard, Fossil Magmar

        One game to go... I was out of chances to get a better position,

only playing to save

my honor...

Game 1: I got in panic when he got a Magmar and 2 Charmander in bench, still

remembering first

round. I opened with a ditto, and a Clefairy on bench, which promptly become

a clefable. For my

luck, he didn't got many energies, and when he got his third energy, I had

already got 4 prizes,

due to clefable metronome. This game ended also with a metronome, I think,

that a Clefairy did

in a Charizard Fire Spin... 1 x 0 

Game 2: Relieved for the fact of his deck didn't have Dark Charizards, I

went to the battle more

confident in my deck. His Charizard, this time was charged early in the

game, and defeated a

Clefable and a Ditto. Meanwhile, I charged a Dark Dragonair, and got a

Clefairy. When he defeated

Ditto, I send Dragonair, used his pokemon power to get the other clefable,

and did 50 damage, due

to a heads flip and a dark energy attached to it. He defeated Dark

Dragonair, but was in bad

shape to face Clefable. Then, I played garbage run, to get the 2 ditto, and

the other clefable

back to the deck. Promptly, in the next draw, a ditto appeared, the I

defeated him... 2 x 0

Final score => 3-2, 5-4

Final standings: 51st. If I played that match, and won, I would be for sure

one of top 16,

or maybe, top 8, and go to the finals...

        I still stayed there to see the finals. In the end, all the top 4

were playing with

Sneasel-slowpoke decks, but the third game of the final was decided with a

Erika's Jigglypuff

(game begins, DCE attached to Jigglypuff, Plus Power, Plus Power, pulled

punch to defeated a

Sneasel, which was the only pokemon the opponent played).

        My friend, who also lost by W.O., ended in 25th... If he had won, he

would be in top 8.

Props:

- For all the players;

- Devir Bookstore, for finally begin to make sanctioned tournaments here in

Brazil.

- For Artur, who helped me to design the deck

- For Artur, Miguel and Arthur, for the cards

Slops:

- For Devir bookstore, why only making good tournaments in Sao Paulo?!

- For the judge who gave us the wrong information. No major comments, but...

it's hard to accept

that I've been preparing for the tournament during 3 weeks, and lost to a

wrong information.

MAJOR SLOPS: for the Head Judge. I can barely forgive the other judge, since

he was 12, and

really didn't want to cause trouble. But this head judge claimed that my

friend and I were

(in the middle of other things) dishonest, stupid, were trying to cause

trouble to the tournament.

Not enough, said that there isn't a Pokemon DCI World Ranking, and tried to

cheat the score ranks

to show that my friend wouldn't be top 8 if he had won the round 2 match.

Only to show the situation: my friend only defeat was the WO. He got 3 wins

and a tie for time,

scoring 10 points. The head judge appeared later saying the would have made

12 points. So he

kept the defeat on round 2, and changed the TIE ON ROUND 4! And the funniest

thing is that my

friend would be 8th instead of 5th, and still would have the right to play

in the top 8!

Unfortunately I have to put one more slop to Devir Bookstore, who let an

asshole like this be

the head judge of a big and cool tournament. This guy don't deserve even

these lines, but I think

is better to show what can happen when a dishonest person is put as a head

judge a tournament.

Any further comment, you can call me at hencs@lycos.com.