Hey guys. Right now, I’ve spent 4 days brooding over this thing, and I think that I’ve finally found the best possible way to express what I want to say without destroying what little image I have left on this message board.

First off, for once, I didn’t come alone to one of these events. I brought along my 14 year old cousin Gregory Ser***, the South African Champion of 2001. I thought he might at least stand a chance of winning in the less heavily stacked 11-14 group than I would in the 15+. I spent about a week with him working and fine tuning the deck that I would give him for the event, as he has no cards of his own from any set past Gym: Heroes. Don't yell at me too hard for this, it's mostly made of stuff I had lying around the house. Here’s the decklist...

BlaziTrash v 0.2

Pokemon (24):
4 Torchic
2 Combusken
4 Blaziken
1 Blaziken ex
3 Magnemite
3 Magneton (Dragons rare)
2 Skitty
2 Delcatty
3 Dunsparce

Trainers (18):
3 TV Reporter
3 Professor Oak's Research
2 Oracle
1 Professor Elm's Training Method
3 Dual Ball
2 Town Volunteers
4 Rare Candy

Energy (18):
4 Multi
14 Fire

I know I'm missing somethign from that list, I'll think of it later.

I must thank Dave II and III for trading me the one Blaze and one Blex for 3 Swamperts right before the tournament, and also to all of the people who traded me Oracles and Dunsparces for Jugglers and others. For now, I’ll let Gregs take over the typing.

Round 1 vsw Nikki (Swampert)
She had my weakness, and, even with one of my best starts ever, couldn’t really take advantage of my Magneton’s attacking power. All of my Magnemite were destroyed before I could evolve them, and it was academic after that. Couldn’t attack for more than 30 all game.
0-1, 0 pts.

Round 2 vs Ashley (Aggron, Aggron ex, Raichu ex)
I couldn’t find any Skitty, and completely forgot about the new Confusion rule. She killed off my Blex and I couldn’t really recover from that severe blow.
0-2, 0 pts.

Round 3 vs Jeffrey Vernola (Salamence, Eeveon, Sharpedo)
Forgetting about my bench is a big mistake. For whatever reason, I completely forgot about all of my Poke-POWERs and got beat bad. I’m still not completely sure how his deck works.
0-3, 0 pts.

(Bullados note: Remember this guy, I’ll get back to him later)

Round 4 vs. Yoshi1001 (Swampert, Magneton, Dragonite ex)
I sent up a Blex to stall. That didn’t work too well, and Yosh got up the double Swampert for the easy victory.
0-4, 0 pts

(Bullados note: After this round, one of the more experienced players commented that Gregs has amazing potential just from watching him play, he just needs some more experience playing in these tournaments in order not to crumble.)

Round 5 Bye
I watched Bull playing against some person, I don’t remember his name. Learned a lot from this battle.
0-4, 3 pts

Round 6
I don’t remember much bout this, just got creamed, and didn’t really care at this point. There was no way for me to win anything.
0-5, 3 pts.

Bullados taking over here. This deck I’ve spent a good 40ish hours over the past 2 weeks trying to perfect this deck, and this is the best that I could come up with...

Strange Delusions

Pokemon (20):
4 Dunsparce
3 Wynaut
1 Wobbuffet
4 Ralts (2 SS, 2 RS 67)
3 Kirlia (I know, it should be 2, but I've been burned with 2)
3 Gardevoir
3 Gardevoir ex

Trainers (22):
4 Professor Oak's Research
3 Dual Ball
3 Fast Ball
2 Town Volunteers
4 Rare Candy
3 Copycat
3 Star Piece

Energy (18):
3 Boost
15 Psychic

Round 1 vs. John Wetz (YoungJohn03) (RAMBO)
Bad luck combined with a really good player did me in here. Not a *bad* start, with Wobb and Ralts, but just had nothing in the hand. He got, “My best start ever” which should’ve clued me in that I had no chance. His Ray and Blaze took oyut everything, me taking out 2 Sparce and a Blaze. Good game, bad luck.
0-1, 0 pts

Round 2 vs Arthur (Blaze/Amp/Delcatty)
I got a near perfect setup, and he got next to nothing, only evolving one Blaze and one Catty. Needless to say, it was a clean sweep.
1-1, 3 pts.

Round 3 vs. Eric Richard (Psychodood?)
I had a good start but went completely energy dry. He got a half-decent setup, which was better than my drawless, energyless hand and lone Gex. I don’t even remember what he ran, but it destroyed me fairly quickly.
1-2, 3 pts

Round 4 vs Brad (Discard Absol/Tyrannitar)
He got 3 total basics throughout the game and I got out both GArdy and Gex turn 3 or 4. No contest, I creamed him.
2-2, 6 pts.

Round 5 vs Jim (BAR)
I started with 3 RAlts and a Wynaut, himn with a lone Torchic and the Blex evolution. KO’d 2 of mine with Blex before I got out Gex and absolutely destroyed him. Blex was his only useful evolution the entire game.
3-2, 9 pts.

Round 6 vs. Jeffrey Vernola (Salamence, Eeveon, Sharpedo)
Yep, same kid who beat Gregs earlier today. Started off well enough, him with an active Eevee and a benched Dunsparce, and me with an active Dunsparce and a benched Ralts. He went first, attached to the Eevee, and searched for Vaporeon, Espeon, and Umbreon. I drew, attached to Sparce, and searched out 2 Ralts and a Wynaut, which I sent active. He went, evolved to Vaporeon, played one of the pressure systems, attached to Dunsparce, and SARS for Eevee, Carvahna, and Bagon. I went, attached to Wynaut, and searched out Kirlia. He went, and attached to Vaporeon, and failed on the Flash flip. I went, attached to a Ralts, evolved, and searched out Gardy. He went, attached to Vaporeon, sent it up discarding the NRG on Sparce, and KO’d my Wynaut. I sent up Kirlia with one Psy on it, evolved to Gardy, attached an NRG to Gardy, Psy Shadow’d to a benched Ralts, and killed off the Vaporeon. Next turn, he sent up the Carvahna, attached an energy to a benched Eevee, used either Copycat or POR, and attached an energy to a benched Eevee. I called him on that, he called over Sean, the judge, who, after talking to Adam Vernola, Jeffrey’s brother and co-judge of the event, allowed Jeffrey to play the energy, effectively sealing my eventual loss after his Espeon killed off Gardy and a Gex before my other Gex took out his Espeon, only to be taken out by Umbreon as time expired for the 5 prizes to 4 victory. No time extension was given for the judge call.
3-3, 9 pts.

After the battle, this kid said the single rudest thing I’ve ever heard being said, “I should’ve lost, because I already have a trip to Worlds.” After reporting the scores and waiting for the final standings to be posted, Jeffrey used nepotism to view the rankings, and came up to me and told me that, even if I had won, I wouldn’t have been T8, which was a complete and total lie, because with 12 points I would have probably been 6th or 7th in the standings.

There we go, I have said everything as it happened with few to no editorials on my part except for the speculation on what I might’ve been. Think what you will.