You can't retreat... (Psychic)
by Eskil Vestre ("Golduck" from Team Europe)
Booster Draft (DCI Sanctioned, Limited)
Outland
Oslo, Norway
Sunday, June 21st, 2001
9 participants

This was my first ever Booster Draft tourney, and I was looking very forward to it.
We got only 9 people, because many thought the entry fee of 18 US Dollars was a bit too expensive.
We got 3 Heroes and 3 Challenge Boosters each.
I got Surge's Fearow in my first booster, and because it's a great Pokémon that can stop your opponent from retreating, and even uses only Colorless Energy, I chose to keep it.
As we drafted, I got a Sabrina's Haunter and tought it looked nice, and added it to my cards. I quickly got 5 Gastlies, and towards the end of the draft I even got a Gengar. I thought Gengar fitted great into the deck because he also can stop opponents from retreating. I even got Rocket's Training Gym, which made the retreating even harder.
The theme (and name) of the deck was clear enough:

You can't retreat...

Pokémon: (24)

2 Sabrina's Gastly (Spook)
1 Sabrina's Gastly (Fade Out)
1 Sabrina's Gastly (Gasgeous Form)
1 Sabrina's Haunter (Night Spirits)
1 Sabrina's Haunter (Nightmare)
1 Sabrina's Gengar (Non-Holo)
1 Surge's Spearow (30 HP)
2 Surge's Spearow (50 HP)
1 Surge's Fearow
2 Sabrina's Abra (Quick Attack)
1 Sabrina's Mr. Mime (Magic Darts)
1 Sabrina's Mr. Mime (Sleight of Hand)
2 Misty's Psyduck (ESP)
2 Sabrina's Jynx (Good Night)
1 Surge's Pikachu (40 HP)
1 Blaine's Tauros
1 Erika's Bellsprout (Careless Tackle)
1 Giovanni's Nidoran F
1 Brock's Onix (100 HP)
1 Blaine's Rhyhorn

Trainers: (10)

1 Rocket's Training Gym
1 Wrath
1 Warp Point
2 Secret Mission
2 Lt Surge
1 Sabrina
1 Trash Exchange

1 Blaine's Gamble

Energy: (25)

25 Psychic Energy

My two evolution lines got good backup with all the high-HP Basic Psychic Pokémon (like Jynx & Mr Mime).
I added a Surge's Pikachu because it needed only colorless Energy and could do 60 damage to a Water Pokémon. It was great versus Misty decks.
Nidoran F & Bellsprout were there to kill Brock decks, Rhyhorn for Lightning decks and Brock's Onix was simply a giant stalling machine.
Misty's Psyduck had to be in the deck because it has good HP and an awesome (and funny) attack.
I even got a few card-drawing Trainers like Wrath & Secret Mission.

Well, enough talk. Over to the tournament:

Round 1 - Me vs. Steven's Misty/Erika deck
Steven used fast-hitting Pokémon like Misty's Staryu and the Trainer Misty to do some quick damage (like 40 damage first turn)!

Lucky for me, he didn't get out Victreebel and I won.

1-0-0

Round 2- Me vs. Mads' Misty's Dewgong deck
We both had a bad start and it was my "Magic Darts" Mime versus Misty's Seel.
Seel had a Smokescreen-like attack that annoyed.
But then, he got out Dewgong and the game turned drastically.
Dewgong did 60 damage to everything.
Dewgong now had 20 on him. But I got out Pikachu and flipped heads for Quick Attack, doing 60 damage.

I KO'd the Dewgong!

Nice flip, and I won after a while.

2-0-0

Round 3 - Me vs. kid with Brock deck
I started with Surge's Spearow and he with a couple of Fighting Pokémon.
Because they all did 30 or less damage, they weren't able to damage my Spearow w/ resistance.

My Spearow kept on using Whirlwind and gusting out his Pokémon. I got heads on Razor Wind (40 damage) and KO'd a Geodude and a Sandshrew.

I whirlwinded out a Diglett. Then I played Caterpie from my hand, attached an Energy and retreated and did 40 damage to KO it.
Spearow now had taken 3 prizes and Caterpie one. ^_^
He got out a Brock's Zubat (finally a non-Fighting Pokémon) and was able to do damage to my Spearow. But I got heads on Razor Wind and Spearow took his 4th prize.
Now I only had one prize left.
I was getting slim on cards and he had an Erika's Dratini active.
KO'ing it would be tricky with all my Basics.
He was obviously going for a "take-10-damage-lots-of-times-and-then-retreat" strategy.
But as I got less and less cards left, I drew a Gengar.

He stopped Dratini from retreating and (even with its resistance) killed it after a few turns.
3-0-0

Round 4 - Me vs. Tanya's Sabrina's Golduck deck
I and Tanya were the day's best, because we both were 3-0-0.
She used many of the same Pokémon as me, like Mr. Mime & Jynx.
After very few turns she evolved her Sabrina's Abra. The Kadabra got lots of heads and Life Drained my Misty's Psyducks down to 10 HP. But I attached a Psychic to my Psyduck and used ESP (with 10 HP left). If flipped 3 heads! Wow - now I could use a Metronome. But should I go for Life Drain - and risk wasting the 3 heads - or just do a nice 30 damage with Psyshot?
I chose Life Drain, and funny enough it was a 4th heads. 60 damage!
Next turn I retreated and did the last 10 damage with an Abra.
She had a very good bench, including a Sabrina's Psyduck w/ 4 Energy.
Her active Sabrina's Mr. Mime had 10 HP left and no Energies.
Now I got a great idea. A Murkrow-like Lock!
I evolved into the bench-hitting Sabrina's Haunter and played Rocket's Training Gym.
Now her Mr. Mime got a high retreat and I kept on attacking her bench (even killing the loaded Psyduck).
I won.
4-0-0

o_O -SEMIFINALS- O_o
With 4 straight wins, I got into the Top 4 and the semifinal.

It was me vs. Tanya once again

I don't remember much about match, but it was very similar to the last one except she drew fewer prizes. I won again.

5-0-0

=/ -FINAL- /=
Me vs. Steven's Misty/Erika deck
Unlike last time, he now got out Victreebel. And that was not good for me.

The crazy thing Gusted out everything and did 50 damage (which was incredibly much in this sort of torunament).

I didn't have a chance.

Even my "stalling machine" Onix died in one hit when facing the Evil Flower.

5-0-1

2nd place wasn't bad at all, and I was satisfied. Booster Draft must be one of the coolest things I've ever tried! I recommend it to all of you, and it's definitely worth the money!

Now it's time for the typical, unoriginal, standard, must-have PROPS and SLOPS! (fanfare)

PROPS:

-to Outland, for deciding to hold a Booster Draft
-to the tournament for being DCI sanctioned
-to the Neo 4 booster I won for having Dark Tyranitar in it
-to me for getting 11 Rares in the draft when I got only 6 boosters! :)
-to my dice who got me 4 heads on ESP!

SLOPS:
-to Outland for not having any Neo Genesis Boosters for the draft
-to Blaine's Rhyhorn for being completely useless
-to Trash Exchange, for always discarding my one and only Gengar

Cya latr, Feraligatr!

Eskil Vestre,
(Golduck)
(Dark Golduck)
Norway

Team Europe rocks!