The Fire Storm (Fire/Blizzard)
by Norman Beusch
Qualification for Swiss Championship
Basel, Switzerland
Sunday, May 20th, 2001
11 participants (only...)

   Well, this is my first report. However me and my son play Pokemon since it came up in Switzerland spring 2000. We read lots about Pokemon, deck concepts and therefore Pojo is one of my preferred information resources. The qualification tournament event itself took place in two parts: May 1^st: around 8 participants and May 20^th exactly 11 participants. The main goal was to get the qualification for the Swiss championship in September 2001.  We where surprised by the small number of participants.

Here in Switzerland we play with all sets up to Neo Genesis – however the qualification tournament allowed only decks with: Base-, Jungle-, Fossil- and Team Rocket cards. Every participant had to play 4 games - I won 3 out of them and got the third place. I found that the deck has both – a strength against most decks, especially haymakers but a strong weakness against Rain Dance too… Please give me hints – but remember: Base-, Jungle-, Fossil- and Team Rocket cards only…

The Fire Storm

3 Charizard
4 Charmeleon
4 Charmander
4 Magmar (2 Base, 2 Fossil)
4 Electrabuzz

1 Goop Gas Attack
1 Professor Oak
2 Energy Retrieval
2 Energy Search
2 Gust of Wind
3 Potion
1 Bill (always a good surprise!)
1 Item Finder
2 Switch
 
14 Fire Energy
4 Electric Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy
2 Rainbow Energy
2 Full Heal Energy

I must admit, though, that I am writing this four days after the tournament, so a lot of the details are fuzzy. In reality, I should have written this right after I came home from the tournament, and I should be using more detail than I am, just to let you know. Hope to give you an idea of Switzerland’s qualification games with this.

Round 1 vs. Anh-Dung (Haymaker)
Anh-Dung is the Pokemon liga leader of Solothurn (Switzerland). He had a classic Haymaker as far as I could see it. He started with Electrabuzz, had an Energy crisis and got poisoned by my Magmar Fossil. Poison is a bad thing and so he had to bring in Scyther (weakness is fire). I switched and my Charmeleon killed it with Flame Burst attack (2 times 50). Because he had no more monsters on the bench I won very quickly. Finally he got the second rank.
1-0

Round 2 vs. Urs with mono-water (probably a basic Rain Dance…)
This was a very bad game for me. He brought in Kangashan and stopped me hitting with Super Energy Removals up to he had built up Gyarados and Lapras on his bench. I could kill one Lapras with my Electrabuzz. The he switched and applied gust of the wind and Gyarados killed my Fire Pokemons most of them in one hit. He won because he could kill 6 of my Pokemons. It was a very bad experience. This has shown the weakness of this deck. à who has an idea to strengthen it against water? Urs got the first rank in the end.
1-1

Round 3 vs. Brian (“Haymaker Potpourri”)
Haymaker Potpourri - is my own deck concept and proofed as flexible and strong. Brian, the colleague of my son played it on this tournament. It has only 13 Pokemon which sometimes is critical. Brian started with a Ditto and no Pokemon on the bench. Ditto hit my Charmander. I hit back but the next turn he put a second energy under Ditto and killed Charmander using a Pluspower. My Electrabuzz then shocked but on the other turn received 30 from Ditto. Fortunately I got “head” and hit him with 40: Ditto was killed, no other Pokemon on the bench and I won.
2-1

Round 4 vs. Benjamin (Haymaker)
This game took around 20 minutes and finally I won. However: sorry – I don’t know more details anymore.
3-1

Well, this was the first tournament in Switzerland and we could participate: thanks to the organization team from Basel. I won the fancy bronze medal, 2 boosters and 3 Promo cards. Very nice!!

Props and Slops
Props and slops? I found it a small nice and well organized tournament with good prices. What do you need more?

Many thanks for reading … and don’t forget: send me remarks, hints, feedbacks!!

Norman Beusch
mailto:nbeusch@bluemail.ch