Pokemon STS Report
Hello, this is a report about the trip my son and I took to the Pokemon STS on the Queen Mary on Saturday July 22, 2000. My son BJ was a grand prize winner for the STS. He entered a qualifier tournament at the Federal Way Washington Sea-Tac Mall. He entered the 3:00 p.m. time slot for the 10 and younger age group. He won all five rounds. About two weeks later, Wizards of the Coast called an informed BJ that he had won!!
We flew down early on Wednesday to visit relatives and go to Disneyland. We got checked into the Queen Mary at 4:00 p.m. on Friday. The rooms are quaint; old fashioned right out of the 1930's. We went to try and check out the STS playing area on Friday night, but no luck as no one would let us in. We went to dinner and went back to our room. I put together a deck for my son to play in the STS. I figured that the deck that everyone would be used would be a Wigglytuff-Haymaker. (I was later proved right.) Here is the following deck BJ played.
3 Hitmochan
3 Scyther
3 Magmar Fossil
4 Jigglypuff
3 Wigglytuff
4 Double colorless energy
7 fighting energy
7 fire energies
2 Full Heal Energy
3 Professor Oak
3 Bill
2 Computer Search
2 Potion
2 Item Finder
2 Nightly Garbage Run
2 Gust of Wind
2 Switch
4 Energy Removal
2 Challenge
We woke up at 5:30 am Saturday morning. We got outdoors about 6:15 am. We went down to the entrance of the STS at the Queen Mary convention center and waited with about 15 other persons. A Wizards of the Coast person came by and moved the line from in front of the entrance at the Queen Mary to the back of the parking lot behind yellow barriers. We had a lot of time to kill, so my son traded a couple cards with some other persons in line. He traded for a movie promo ancient mew. I played my psychic-electric deck with a teenager in line. I lost the match but enjoyed the game. I later traded with a teenager for the three legendary bird movie promo cards, Articuno, Moltres and
Zapdos.
After a while, I noticed the line was getting extremely long. I zipped out the camcorder and shot some video of the crowds, Queen Mary and surrounding area. At a little before 8:00 am, the line started to move. They divided the person's in line into three categories, persons with gold invitations for the STS tournament, persons wanting to register for the STS tournament without the gold invitation and those wanting to participate in all the other STS activities. My son and I zoomed through the line. I was glad to see that Wizards of the Coast had on file the paperwork I had faxed to them earlier in the month. This saved time by not having to fill out paperwork in line.
After registration, my son wondered around and played Pokemon Stadium for Nintendo 64. He was fascinated at the display of the yet to be released Gym Heroes cards that were on display. BJ and I later sat down in the Pokemon League playing area and played a match. He used his Wigglytuff-Haymaker deck against my psychic-electric sponge deck. He won the match. We ate lunch. He later went to the prize center and got his free T-shirt and immediately put it on.
The STS tournament started around 12:15 after several attempts to explain the rules to everyone over the PA system. The convention center on the Queen Mary did not have enough room on the lowest level where the actual Pokemon card playing took place. Hundreds of persons were crammed into small aisle spaces to try to get to their starting table assignments. Luckily, Wizards started to stagger the start times so the aisles wouldn't be so crowded. I eventually found BJs first table assignment and off he went to play.
Here is summary of my son BJ's games. They had the 10 and under age group play only seven rounds instead of the eight rounds like they had the 11-14 group and 15 and older group play.
Round 1
His opponent started with Seal. My son started with Hitmochan and another on the bench. He jabbed Seal for two turns, his opponent evolved into dewgong and by the fourth turn the match was over because she had no bench.
1 - 0, 3 points for win, 3 points total
Round 2
BJ started with Magmar active and Hitmochan and Scyther on the bench. His opponent played Wigglytuff-Haymaker deck with Ditto. His opponent had Ditto active and Scyther and Electrobuzz on the bench. His opponent got Wigglytuff out early and started to do the wave and use plus powers to take out three of BJ's Pokemon. BJ took three prizes, but his opponent took all six prizes before the time was out and he lost.
1 - 1, 0 points for loss, 3 points total
Round 3
BJ started with fossil Magmar active and fossil Magmar and Jigglypuff on the bench. His opponent had Articuno active and Lapras and Squirtle on the bench. BJ got Wigglytuff as his active Pokemon on his second turn with three Pokemon on the bench. He started to do the wave to Articuno who could not get energy fast enough to do an attack. Articuno was knocked out. BJ drew a prize. His opponent gusted up fossil Magmar and knocked him out. BJ got Wigglytuff back as his active Pokemon, placed another Pokemon on the bench and with the three Pokemon on his bench he eventually Koed Lapras, His opponent place Squirtle active and did ten damage and paralyzed Wigglytuff. BJ used a computer search to find a full heal energy and Koed Squirtle for the win as his opponent had no more Pokemon on the bench.
2 - 1 3 points for win, 6 points total
Round 4
BJ mulligans and then draws Hitmochan as active Pokemon with fossil Magmar and Hitmochan on the bench. His opponent starts with Hitmochan active with two Scythers on the bench. BJ eventually KOs his opponents Hitmochan. His opponent eventually gets a full bench with Wigglytuff and starts doing the wave to take out some of BJs Pokemon. BJ also gets Wigglytuff out with a full bench. BJ eventually takes out his opponents Wigglytuff with Hitmochan. BJ and his opponent each take 5 prizes when time is called. When time was called, BJ had Hitmochan active with an energy and his opponent had Wigglytuff active with no energies.
2 - 1 - 1, 1 point for tie, 7 points total
Round 5
BJs opponent was eight minutes late to his match and as a result, BJ was awarded two prizes. BJ started with Scyther active and Fossil Magmar and Jigglypuff on the bench. His opponent had Hitmochan active with Scyther and Chansey on the bench. BJ was able to place another fossil Magmar and Scyther on his bench and get Wigglytuff out early. BJ KOed Hitmochan and Scyther using Wigglytuff. Eventually his Wigglytuff was KOed. Eventually, his opponent had only Chansey active with no benched Pokemon. BJ placed Hitmochan on his bench and then during the next few turns used Hitmochan to KO Chansey with jab for the win.
3 - 1 - 1, 3 points for win, 10 points total
Round 6
BJ starts with fossil Magmar active with Scyther, and Hitmochan on the bench. His opponent starts with Scyther active with two Jigglypuff and a Hitmochan on the bench. His opponent gets a full bench and Wigglytuff out early and quickly KOs two of BJ Pokemon with the help of plus powers. BJ eventually gets his Wiggly tuff out and KOs a couple Pokemon. The match goes on back and forth and is nearing the five-minute remaining time limit. BJ at this point has a Scyther active with three energy and a Scyther on the bench with three energy. His opponent has take 5 prizes and BJ has taken only three. His opponent runs short on energy to charge up his Pokemon. He sends up Scyther to eventually get 60 damage and retreats. He sends up Jigglypuff to get 30 damage and retreats him. He sends up Hitmochan to get 60 damage and retreats him. BJ is able to take advantage and KO two more Pokemon. The prize count is now 5 prizes each. Eventually, his opponent can not retreat
Hitmochan with 60 damage and BJ slashes for 30 using Scyther to KO the last Pokemon and win the game with about a couple minutes to spare. BJ's opponent had only two or three cards left in his deck when the game was finished.
4 - 1 - 1, 3 points for win, 13 points total
Round 7
BJ mulligans twice prior to the start of the match. BJ eventually starts with fossil Magmar active with Hitmochan and Scyther on the bench. His opponent starts with Ditto active with fossil Magmar and Scyther on the bench. BJ eventually gets Wigglytuff active. His opponent uses Ditto to take out BJs Scyther and Wigglytuff. Eventually, BJ KOs Ditto. His opponent gets a fully loaded Wigglytuff out due to BJ's mulligan and places it active. He KOs two of BJs fossil Magmars and a Hitmochan doing the wave and with the use of plus powers. BJ is only able to draw two prizes and eventually decks himself and loses.
0 points for loss, 13 points total
After the 7th round, BJ was eager to find out his standings to find if he won more booster packs for finishing in the top 32. To his surprise and mind, he finished 28th out of 147. He proudly went over to the prize center and collected his booster packs. He got a holo Chansey, holo dark golbat, non-holo Articuno and several others.
After collecting his booster packs, he had his picture taken with Dark Raichu and played Pokemon Stadium on the Nintendo 64 consoles. I talked with several parents and purchased a psy-out preconstructed theme deck so that I could build an Alakazam damage swap deck for BJ to play at the Pokemon league. All in all, the STS was very enjoyable.
Terry Kamm
Comments can be sent to
Kammman@worldnet.att.net