TyphloCanine (Fire) By Joe Bergen Church on the Mall WCSTSQT Philadelphia, PA About 100 people in the 14 and under group This is my first KDR. I just came back from the qualifiers in Philly, and decided to send this in. Anyway, here’s the deck: TyphloCanine 4 Cyndaquil (Quick Attack) 4 Quilava (Char) 4 Typhlosion (Fire Recharge) 3 Blaine’s Growlithe 3 Blaine’s Arcanine 2 Giovanni’s Nidoran F 2 Cleffa 1 Unown D 1 Brock’s Mankey 4 Elm 3 Wrath 3 Master Ball 3 Focus Band 3 Cinnabar City Gym 2 Double Gust 15 Fire 3 Metal The strategy is pretty obvious; get a certain Big Dog out w/ a few Typhlo on the bench and Firestorm away. Round 1 vs. Joseph w/ Feraligatr I was a bit worried when I saw he had a Gatr deck. He got a Croconaw out a little sooner than I would have liked, but I was able to Firestorm it away. I almost ran into a Gatr, but he decided not to play it and rely on Focus Band (I think). Too bad. He did go on to get 4th in the Swiss tourney. 1-0-0 3 pts. Round 2 vs. Joey Hogan w/ Dark Blastoise Things weren’t looking great. He started with two Squirtle and me with a Growlithe. He built up a Dark Blastoise on his bench while I pumped an RK9. We knocked out each other’s Gyms a few times, and the game came down to Focus Band flips. I played a Wrath w/ about ten in my deck, and ended up decking. 1-1-0 3 pts Round 3 vs. ??? with weird T-Tar His deck was T-Tar with Houndoom, Tyrogue, and Rocket’s Scyther. An early Scyther gave me some trouble, but I wiped it out due to the type advantage. I played Unown D, and took out his low HP basics with Typhlo. 2-1-0 6 pts. Round 4 vs. Some Jerk w/ Erika deck with too much evolution I don’t remember a thing about this match except I saw him at the STS. After the match, which I won, he insulted me saying I was bragging the entire match (???) 3-1-0 9 pts. Round 5 vs. Malcolm Scotland w/ Kingdra I hope Malcolm’s reading this. I played him in the 9th round at the STS. I locked his Cleffa and destroyed his bench, but drew on time. He had the same deck, which he plays well. He got a Kingdra early and started whomping me, but I took it out with a Firestorm. I’m able to stall with RK9, and time is called. Here’s where it gets interesting. It’s still my turn, so I finish. Here’s the story. I’m trailing in prizes by one. I have an RK9 w/ 4 fire against his Cleffa. My RK9 had 80 w/ no Focus Band. I had flipped for the baby power before time was called. The judge came over before I could announce my attack. Malcolm had gotten really jumpy as soon as they said that we had five minutes left. When the judge got there, Malcolm said I used a “self-damaging move” (funny how he didn’t know the name of it). I started to argue with the judge saying I didn’t even attack yet. At this time, Malcolm’s dad, the biggest Dork Chop I’ve ever seen (if you don’t watch WWF, you have no idea what that means) comes over from the other side of the room, listens to a few sentences, and sides with Malcolm. The judge believes them, because there was two of them and one of me. The worst part is that Malcolm got into the top eight, and that the extra point I should have gotten would have put me there. 3-2-0 9 pts. Round 6 vs. Dark Hypno and Golduck This kid was here for the Open Side Event, but decided to give the main tourney a try. He didn’t last too long. I powered an RK9 fast, played a Cinnabar, and Firestormed my way to victory. 4-2-0 12 pts. Round 7 vs. No one showed up. Not the way I wanted to win exactly, but I’ll take it. 5-2-0 15 pts. I’d like to take this time to tell you what happened after Round 7. I turns out in either Round 4 or 6 Malcolm falsely reported to the hag running the computer that he had won when he really lost. The real winner came forward when he realized his point total was 3 pts. lower than it should have been. The old bat refused to take the points from Malcolm and give them to the other kid (didn’t catch his name). If she did, I might have been in the top eight. Seriously, this kid Malcolm was about the biggest bucket of monkey P!$$ I’ve ever met. He screwed up the entire tourney. I think he should receive a ban from DCI just like a certain someone else. I ended up taking 10th place and four Neo Discovery boosters. Not bad, but not San Diego, either. I honestly believe I could have won if it wasn’t for Malcolm. But there’s not much I can do about it. Time for Props and Slops (it’s my first time, gimme a break): Props: To Joseph from Round 1. Great sport and person in general. If you’re reading this, e-mail me. To Joseph and Joey for making the top eight. To Gio’s Nidoran F. A real Life Saver (yum!) To Edge and Christian (not so much Christian anymore) for inventing the words Dork Chop, awesomeness, heinocity, and sucktitude. (my spellcheck just went nuts) Slops: To Malcolm Malcolm Malcolm And did I mention Malcolm? To Malcolm’s Dork Chop errr… dad To the witch at the computer, really, it’s not Halloween yet To the kid from Round 4, only person to get ticked at my trying to start a conversation To the really tall loud guy Feel free to e-mail me your comments, good or bad, your decks for me to tweak, or anything but viruses, especially if you’re Joseph from Round 1 or anyone I played. Pokeman159@hotmail.com _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp