This tournament was held in Richfield, Minnesota, at Mirkwood Coffee Comics
and Games on October 31, 1999.  42 people participated from all around the
area.  Even some people came from as far away as Osceola, Wisconsin.  I was
playing a deck that I call "Water Hazard".  It's based on using Staryu for
fast, early damage and backing it up with Gyarados and Dewgong in the late
game.  Energy Removal and Super Energy Removal help to prevent the opponent
from gaining an advantage.

Here's the deck:

4 Staryu
4 Seel
3 Magikarp
2 Gyarados
2 Dewgong

4 Energy Removal
4 Super Energy Removal
4 PlusPower
4 Bill
3 Poke Ball

26 Water Energy

The tournament went well.  I enjoyed it.  Most of my matches were fun and my
opponents were very sportsmanlike.  I did rather well too.

Round 1:  Fire/Water deck
I talked to this guy after every round and his deck just didn't perform.  I
looked at it repeatedly and couldn't figure out why it wasn't working.  I
felt bad for him.  He went 0-5.  His first match didn't go very well.  I
knocked out his Psyduck turn 2 with Staryu and PlusPower.

1-0

Round 2:  Lightning/Psychic deck with Dragonair
Electabuzz was not my friend this round.  It's tough to win when it takes 3
of your Pokemon to take out your opponent's first Active Pokemon.  Dragonair
did a number on my energy after I knocked out Electabuzz.  Not a good game
for me at all.

1-1

Round 3:  Psychic Stall deck with Scyther
This deck didn't have enough energy.  Its player felt otherwise, but after I
destroyed all of it and still drew energy removal cards, I figured he wasn't
packing enough energy.  I knocked out 1 Scyther 3 times in this match.  He
was revived twice, but it wasn't enough to prevent the victory.  Scyther
couldn't do much without energy early on, so Staryu beat him down.  Abra got
taken down by the Slap too.  Then, Scyther came back and Alakazam showed up
to keep him alive.  A few Pokemon Centers and Scoop Ups later, Mr. Mime
appeared just in time to save Scyther and Alakazam from the mighty Dewgong.
 So Staryu had to come back to stop this threat.  When Mr. Mime was
defeated, Gyarados was sitting on the bench, just waiting to get in and
fight.  I drew my last prize when Gyarados knocked out Scyther for the 3rd
time.

2-1

Round 4:  Rain Dance
This deck's creator tried a trick I tried once in my Rain Dance deck:  no
basics except Squirtles.  That way, the player is guaranteed to get the
right basic Pokemon.  However, he had to mulligan 4 times to get it, giving
me a 15-card opening hand chock full of energy removal cards.  By the time
his 2nd Squirtle became the active and proceeded to evolve into Blastoise
(the first had been knocked out by staryu), I had 2 Super Energy Removal and
2 Energy Removal.  Without energy, Blastoise wasn't doing much.  A 3rd
Squirtle came out just before Dewgong knocked out Blastoise.  The Squirtle
was Breedered up to Blastoise, so it took 2 turns rather than 1 for Dewgong
to finish him off.

3-1

Round 5:  Haymaker or variant thereof
This deck scared me.  But mine also scared him.  His opening hand had 2
Electabuzzes but no electric energy.  So he Prof. Oaked twice to get it. 
Electabuzz caused some trouble, but with energy removal was under control. 
Scyther also had trouble getting enough energy to be a threat.  Dewgong made
a brief appearance, but was quickly squashed.  This battle came down to my
last prize.  This game was extremely close.  The trainers tipped the game in
my favor, though.

4-1

4-1, with my only loss due to my Pokemon's weakness.  I found that record
acceptable.  I was particularly happy when I reported to the judge and was
told, "You'll probably make the top 8."  But I didn't.  The random
assignment of round 1 opponents did me in.  1 person went undefeated.  8
went 4-1, meaning 1 4-1 player wouldn't make it.  Tiebreaker was opponents'
records.  With my 1st round 0-5 opponent, I didn't make it.  Oh, well,
there's always next time.

Richard Pennertz
penn0066@tc.umn.edu