Woohoo! It's that time of the week again! Time for
some good decks, some bad decks, and some ugly decks!
(well...no new truly ugly ones this week...an old one
though.)

First of all, my letter from an anti-Oak person
generated some mail. Read on:

***

>LOL I love to see people out there who dis Oak.
People who are like "But I dont want to discard my
WHOLE hand!" >are the funnest to play against, because
they always lose. They are sitting there with a 10
card hand, but its all crap.. >but even if they did
Oak, chances are they would replace 10 crappy cards
with 7 crappy cards. They have no basic >concept of
anything more then the fighting aspect of pokemon...
these are the same people who idolize Charizard. I
>primarily play on the Internet, using apprentince...
but I'd love to see the faces of these people when I
take my 5 >minute turn, setting up my bench fully by
round 3, then when i have a hand of 3 or less cards,
oaking, and being back >to full power. Anyways, to all
you out there... if you Dis Oak, then chances are you
dont understand enough about the >game to have the
card help you anways.

***

Thanks for the good feedback. By the way, I also got a
letter from the person who wrote the original anti-Oak
letter. It seems he's seen the light of day, and while
he still thinks Gambler is better, he admits that Oak
is pretty good. So at least he's willing to learn. In
return, I hereby remove him from the membership rolls
of the Idiot Corps.

Our next letter comes from the Pokemon Lady, who
apparently takes exception at my method of
deck-fixing. Because of this, she challenges me to a
battle of some sort...though I don't know what the
battle is.

***

>Spike! On-Guard!
>
>You and your silly fox got all hot under the buns
about getting a crappy deck!
>Shame, Shame! Crappy decks are the reason we're here!
*grin* Don't YOU just LIVE
>to get decks like the 162 card deck? Don't they
present some kind of Challenge for
>you to overcome?!? *mgrin*
>
>Seriously though, Spike...
>There are so many people out there who simply don't
know HOW to fix the decks
>that they've come up with--it makes me feel bad that
when they turn to us for advice
>that so many of my fellow deckmechaics are so cruel
and viscious in thier
>fixes! !
>
>I CHALLENGE YOU TO A BATTLE!
>
>I DARE you to fix the 162 Card deck! 
>
>and when I say fix it, I mean really FIX it... go
through and explain why you did what you did, so that
people who >send in really crappy decks can see what
you're doing... if you do...
>
>DO YOU ACCEPT MY CHALLENGE??DO YOU DARE??
>
>**grin, grin---gleefull cackle---**
>
>The Pokemon Lady --- Headmistress of PSYDUCK
> the PokeLady's School for Yielding Deckbuilders(that
suck) Unconcious and in  Critical Kare

***

Okay, Lady. You asked for it.

In this update is a true fix of that horrible deck.
Hope you like. In response, I challenge YOU.

I challenge you to take one of those hideous decks
which you fix--decks whose creators you encourage to
keep sending their horrible conglomerations of cards
to us poor mechanics--and BASH IT. Yes, I want you to
bash a deck. I want you to take a deck like that "All
of the Above" monstrosity you posted last week and
tell the creator exactly what you think of it.
Bringing one of your Pokemon along for comic relief is
optional. And yes, I realize that this is completely a
friendly competition <evil grin>

Now let me explain why I trash decks. I do my best to
explain my thought processes when I fix decks. I have
a huge-ass set of guidelines on the front of my deck
garage explaining how a good deck works. And it's not
just my garage. It's virtually impossible to remain on
the PoJo for more than about five seconds without
gaining some insight into how a good deck works.
Therefore, when I recieve bad decks, I feel no
obligation to fix them. There are people who are much
more deserving of my time and energy. Hell, WIZARDS
can build a better deck. And if you're not even
interested in following the rules (i.e. playing with
162 CARDS) then why should I bother? I have better
things to do.

And I'm still getting decks that I have to trash
(i.e., delete without even taking a second look at.)
Let me explain this--ONE LAST TIME.

If, for Stage 1s, you have anything less than
3-2...YOUR DECK WILL BE DELETED.

If, for Stage 2s, you have anything less than
3-2-1...YOUR DECK WILL BE DELETED.

If you have any Japanese cards that are not tourney
legal...YOUR DECK WILL BE DELETED.

Those are the most common mistakes. Of course, if
there are good explanations (for example, some guy who
used Sabrina's Mime in his deck, but replaced them
with Jungle Mime for tourneys) I can be flexible.

I think that's about it for this update. Oh yes...

SPIKE'S RANDOM THOUGHT OF THE DAY:

Well, I'm not really in the mood for something offbeat
like last week. I'm kind of bummed, to tell you the
truth. Yesterday my chess coach's house burned down,
and I just read a sad story about a young man who
killed himself...so ramblings about ferrets are kind
of out of the question for now. Thanks to the guy who
wrote in to tell me about Ootachi, though...I still
don't think he quite looks like a ferret...

William Shakespeare wrote "To thine own self be true."
I've always liked this quote. It can be interpreted
many different ways, but in the context of Pokemon, it
tells us that we should play with whatever suits us
best. If we're competitors, we should play haymakers
or something. If we're just in it for fun, we should
pick a Pokemon that we like playing with and go with
it. It's supposed to be a hobby. Lighten up.

To thine own self be true.

-Spike


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