I've seen more than one person around here who say Mankey is worthless.  I
think he's great, and doesn't deserve the spanking he's been getting.  To
these people I say:  "Don't spank my Mankey!"

I recently purchased seven Base longpack boosters from a local 7-11.  The
first five packs all had rare Trainers in them, so I was understandably
delighted (your sarcasm meters should be peaking about now).  As I opened
the sixth pack, I remember thinking "The last two better both have holofoils
in 'em!"  Sure enough, the sixth pack had a holofoil Raichu in it.  With
trembling fingers, I opened the seventh pack, and BEHOLD!  it was Charizard!


Now that I had the mighty flying fire-lizard, I needed to build a deck
around him.  I took apart my Venusaur deck to make a mono-Grass deck with
the Venusaur family (with my one and only Venusaur) and the Charizard family
(Charmander and Charmeleon both have colorless attacks, and Charizard can
"burn" grass energy into fire energy).  I figured that if by a miracle I
could get both Venusaur and Charizard into the game, I could use Charizard's
big attack more often than every other turn by using Venusaur's Energy
Transfer.

But that's only eight basic pokémon!  We've got Charmander and Bulbasaur,
but unlike the TV show, "Eight Is Not Enough."  After putting in trainer
cards and energy, I had room for around four basic pokémon left.  What did I
choose?  MANKEY!

Why Mankey?  Think about it:  I only have one Venusaur, and I only have one
Charizard.  I already spend too much money on Pokémon cards, so how can I
maximize the money and pokémon I already have?  MANKEY.  You see, I stand a
one in five chance that one of my two Stage2 critters in this deck will wind
up in the prizes, and a one in 25 chance that BOTH Stage2's will wind up in
the prizes.  But with Mankey on my bench, I get to PEEK at my prizes, one
per turn.  If I discover one of my Stage2's in there, I can choose to draw
them first.

Alison
mailto:fries@hog.net