Team Diamonds Sweeps Albuquerque Tourney--Again!

*** Mother-and-Son Take 1st and 1st! ***

Dad Takes a Lame 2nd (ARRRGGGH!)
submitted by Steven "Daddy-Oh" Diamond, October 1999--diamondz@nmia.com

It was a dark and stormy Sunday afternoon. Lightning crackled, thunder rolled, and through the doorway of the game shop burst four ominous, dark figures...Team DIAMONDS!

"Prepare for trouble, and make it TWO times double...!"

Well, maybe it wasn't quite that dramatic, after all. But on Sunday, October 17, Albuquerque had its first DCI-sanctioned Pokemon tournament (=finally!=) at Active Imagination, a game shop that has been hosting open Pokemon play on Wednesday afternoons for months. Our little family of Pokemon fanatics had been gearing up for this tournament by ignoring our decks and forgetting to practice for a week, so we'd be good and rested for the tourney(!). Saturday, the day before the event, found us scrambling to figure out what we'd play, trying to fill in decks that had somehow lost cards ("I could have sworn I had four Hitmonchans in this deck, not just three!"), and in general panicking. Saturday night my wife Mary & I played for several hours while she "tuned" her deck--mine was already perfect (LOL!)--and building up my confidence by losing to me 6 times in a row. Sunday came and we'd all more-or-less settled on our decks, as follows (sorry, there's =four= of them to go through!):

"All Stars Deck" (Devin Diamond, age 10)--
won 1st place in the 14-and-under category

3 DCE
12 Fighting
12 Water
Total Energies = 27

1 Clefairy
1 Ditto
1 Farfetch'd
2 Scyther
3 Hitmonchan
1 Hitmonlee
3 Articuno
2 Lapras
Total Pokemon = 14

3 Bill
3 energy removal
3 Energy Search
2 Gust of Wind
1 PlusPower
3 Potion
2 Prof. Oak
1 Scoop Up
1 Super Energy Removal
Total Trainers = 19

"No-Name Deck" (Mary Diamond, age ?)-- won 1st place in the 15-and-over category

1 DCE
23 Lightning
Total Energy = 24

4 Dratini
3 Dragonair
4 Pikachu (Jungle)
2 Raichu (Fossil)
3 Electabuzz
3 Scyther
Total Pokemon = 19

3 Bill
4 Energy Removal
3 Gust of Wind
1 Mr. Fuji
3 PlusPower
3 Prof. Oak
Total Trainers = 17
"Quickly Wiggly Deck" (Steve Diamond, 46)-- 2nd place in the 15-and-over category

4 DCE
10 Fighting
9 Lightning
Total energies = 23

4 Jigglypuff
3 Wigglytuff
3 Electabuzz
4 Hitmonchan
4 Scyther
Total Pokemon = 18

4 Bill
2 Computer Search
4 Energy Removal
2 Gust of Wind
1 Item Finder
3 PlusPower
3 Professor Oak
Total = 19 Trainers




 "Psychic Punch Deck" (Shayna Diamond, 7)-- 7th place in the 14-and-under category

3 DCE
11 Fighting
9 Psychic
Total energies = 23

3 Jigglypuff
1 Wigglytuff
3 Hitmonchan
3 Sandshrew
2 Sandslash
3 Drowzee
1 Hypno
3 Jynx
Total Pokemon = 19

4 Bill
1 Computer Search
3 Energy Removal
3 Energy Search
2 Gust of Wind
2 Potion
2 Prof. Oak
1 Scoop Up
Total Trainers = 18

Obviously I can't give you the details of =everyone's= games, but I (Daddy-Oh) went 7-0 throughout the tourney until making a HUMONGOUS, MONUMENTAL, UNFIXABLE MISTAKE playing against my wife--and lost to her! So I think =my= games should at least be of some interest...and anyway, she doesn't know how to use a computer (LOL!), so I get to do the tourney reports!

For this tournament I abandoned the Haymaker type deck I played before, which went 8-0 last tournament. As many have said, after a while Haymakers get boring. So I took the core hitters of the Haymaker (E'buzz, Hitmo & Scyther), added the Jiggly/Wiggly line (always fun to play!), and revised my line of trainers to add SPEED, SPEED and SPEED! (Oh, and card drawing power, as well). I'd never played with Computer Search before...very sweet...I can see why the Japanese have banned it! Anyhow, here's the play-by-play.

  • Game 1 vs. Jonathan
    Jonathan played with a deck of Water Pokemon like Gyarados, Articuno and Psyduck and Lightning guys like Pikachu. Didn't work vs. mine: I opened with Hitmo jabbing Psyduck a few times for the k.o.; then I GOW'd a Pikachu off his bench and k.o.'d him. A few turns later I evolved Jiggly to Wiggly, laid down a full bench, hit his Gyarados for 60. Gyarados took out my Wiggly, but then Scyther moved in for the k.o. Scyther also laid 30 on his Articuno before getting k.o.'d, but then my second Wigglytuff had appeared to lay Articuno to rest. Retreated Wiggly at one point and put in another Scyther. He played a Grimer vs. my Scyther with incredible luck! For five turns in a row his coin tosses paralyzed me! Grimer k.o.'d my Scyther finally (thankfully!) and I moved my fully-pumped Wiggly back in for the final k.o. (1-0)

  • Game 2 vs. Mary Diamond (Yes, my wife!)--our first tourney match vs. each other! How romantic...
    I let her know from the start that I thought it entirely unfair that she got a "bye" for the first round, allowing her to start off 1-0 without having to lift a card! Hah! We both opened with Electabuzz. Mary went first, and in a couple turns her Buzz k.o.'d mine. I knew I was in trouble, so I Computer Searched for a Hitmonchan, then k.o.'d her Buzz w/Hitmo. She sent up another Buzz, which Hitmo also k.o.'d in 2 turns through the timely use of a PlusPower. Mary promoted a Scyther, but I found a GOW, brought up another of her Buzzes, and k.o.'d that one as well. I got my Wigglytuff wrecking machine going and it was soon over. (2-0)

  • Game 3 vs. Jackie
    Jackie played a largely Psychic deck, giving me a long stall game. I opened with only a Jigglypuff in hand; she deployed Mr. Mime. Took me a few turns to k.o. Mime, by which time she had a Haunter out & energized. By then I had my Wiggly machine going, so Wiggly k.o.'d Haunter, then her Clefable. Another of her Mimes appeared, which made my Wiggly wrecking machine's 60 damages-per-turn useless! I finally Computer Searched for a GOW, pulled up a Gastly from her bench to replace Mr. Mime, and k.o.'d Gastly. Whew! Took forever... (3-0)

  • Game 4 vs. Bill

    I have to mention here that Bill is another Pokemon Dad whose kids play at the Pokemon League (Toy R Us) and at Active Imagination. In fact, my wife originally taught Bill & his daughter Pokemon basics at the League, while I taught his wife & son! Bill has come a long way, and deployed a mighty fine water deck full of Squirtles, Wartortles, Gyarados, etc. This was my longest, hardest game of the tourney (in fact, I've since discovered that Turbo Rain Dance decks give my Wiggly deck the hardest time). I opened with a Scyther...and that Scyther was my only Pokemon in hand for the next 6-7 turns! HEEELLLPPP! If Bill could've taken advantage I would have been toast. But while he had plenty of Pokemon, he couldn't find any energies. So we just sat there drawing card after card, tension building! Finally, I got Scyther energized, & k.o.'d Squirtle. But his Gyarados gave me plenty of grief, and we traded prize after prize for a while. I GOW'd his Kangaskhan, partly as a stall (since he couldn't retreat him--that awful 3 energy cost!), and partly cause I knew my Hitmo could do him in. Scyther k.o'd Kanga, but his Wartortle came off the bench and axed my Scyther. Finally, I got the Wiggly destructo-machine going, and Wartortle became turtle soup! This one went down to the wire, with each of us having only 1 prize left! We were both really sweating after that one (maybe the excitement is too much for old guys like us!). (4-0)

  • Game 5 vs. Bill AGAIN!

    After just finishing that close one, we had to play each other again! Sheesh! Fortunately for me, this one went quicker: I opened with Electabuzz vs. his Kangaskhan. Took me 3 turns and Kanga was out, and he couldn't find another basic! Enough excitement for one day! (5-0)

    Now we moved into the finals.

  • Game 6 vs. Andrew

    The Pokemon Spirits were toying with me as this one started--I mulliganed twice! Well, I thought, my unbeaten run will soon be over. But again, fortune smiled upon me: turns out Andrew was really a former big-time L5R player (Legend of the Five Rings), and this was his first foray into the "simple" game of Pokemon. HAH! Banzaiii! It actually took me a while to win, mostly because Andrew played a tad slowly. I opened with Jigglypuff, Computer Searched for Wiggly, Prof. Oaked to find a DCE, "Did the Wave" and laid 50 damage on his Mankey, bye-BYE! Then "waved" his Cubone bye-BYE. Wiggly had taken some damage, and his Rhydon came up next and finally k.o.'d my Wiggly, but by then I had a fully-pumped Scyther on the bench, who came in and slashed the Horn-dude into tomorrow. Finally, I retreated Scyther to bring in Hitmo and finish his Persian (Really!) quickly. (6-0)

  • Game 7 vs. Luke I had played & beaten Luke twice in the last, non-DCI tourney. He played a Fire-type deck, evidently with a couple Charizards in there, though the only time I saw one was when he discarded it as part of a Computer Search or something. Once again, my first Scyther k.o.'d his first Pokemon (Charmander?), my Hitmonchan took out something else, and by then my "Mean Lean Wiggly Machine" was going and took out his last 3 Pokemon one after another. (7-0)

  • Game 8 vs. Mary Diamond! (Yes, my wife, again!)
    Now, me being the reasonable one, I told Mary that since we were both tired and the kids had already finished their tourney, why don't we just declare a draw (since we'd be going home and sharing the 1/2 box of boosters anyway). But, Noooo! Did she listen?!?! She said, "Well, let's just play to finish it!" Ah, women! Well, since I had beaten her something like 6 times the night before with my Wiggly deck and once already in the tourney I figured, Oh well, let's get it over with. Then it happened: the single biggest mistake I've ever made in Pokemon! I had a full hand of Pokemon, I had Jiggly w/1 energy on the bench, Scyther up front, and =two= Wigglytuffs in my hand! And a Computer Search! All I needed was a DCE to move the Lean Mean Wiggly Machine into play, and finish off the game! So what do I do: (God, this is embarrassing even to write!): I mistakenly =DISCARD MY TWO WIGGLYTUFFS= to pay the Computer Search cost! Then I find a DCE, look at my hand again, and guess what? NO WIGGLYTUFFS! ARRRGGGH! Well, it took a while after that, and I almost caught up with Mary after that, to the point where she had 1 prize left and I had 2. I took my 2nd-to-last prize, but then she scored, took her last prize, and won the tournament. Ah, well, there's always next time...

    So I ended up 7-1 in 2nd place, my wife Mary also finished 7-1 in 1st place, and our son Devin ended up 7-1 in 1st place in his age group! Our 7-year-old daughter Shayna ended up 3-2. (BTW, Devin and Shayna had to "play up" in the older 11-14 year-old group for lack of enough younger players to form a 10-and-under group). Between the four of us we went home with almost a full box of 1st edition Fossil boosters (after splitting a few with fellow players). What can I say? Perhaps as a family we're a bit over the edge in this Pokemon thing...

    Team Diamonds record at this tournament: 24-5!

    Go Team Diamonds!