Atlanta, GA
The War Room, 11-19-99

Well, it's the first day of NATO, the 24-7 weekend card game event at the War
Room.  I entered 3 tourneys for 5 dollars, and the first one was for a
Charizard.  I was playing a Mewtwo Haymaker deck.  I got the idea the instant
I saw the card, and I knew I had to get for.  After much toil, sweat, and
tears, I got four, and tinkered with it.  After I finished it, I saw that
Scott played a Mewtwo deck, and I knew it was a blessing.  I immediately
sleeved it, and set off.

Mewtwomaker:
11 Psychic Energy
8 Lightining Energy
2 Double Colorless

4 Mewtwo (Movie Promo)
4 Electabuzz
2 Ditto

4 Bill
4 Energy Removal
4 Professor Oak
4 Pluspower
4 Pokemon Center
4 Computer Search
3 Gust of Wind
2 Energy Retrieval

About 20 people showed up to the tourney, mostly the younger ones. 
(Surprising, since it ran till midnight.  Unho Kim was nowhere to be seen,
but there were still a few challenges to face.

The tournament was run as 5 rounds of swiss, followed by semifinals and
finals.

Round 1:
I played against Matt, the nice guy from last time who played Articuno/Curse.
 I beat him in a pair of practice games, so we knew what we were facing.  He
was playing the Articuno/Curse deck with a touch of energy removal.

It started out with Mewtwo versus a Gastly, with a couple of others on the
bench.  I Oaked twice to get the Mewtwo energ, and started hacking away. 
Pluspowers spelled the deat of a pair of them, but when I got in trouble, I
sent up electabuzz, and with pluspowers and a bit of luck with the flips, I
managed to tear through another gastly, then ditto beat up an Articuno. 
Nothing really went his way, as I ran him out of pokemon.
WIN

Round 2:
Some kid (I can't remeber that names, and I'm not allowed to write them
down.)  He was playing energy removal with goldduck and dragonair.

He started with a dratini, and a second turn dragonair made things scary.  My
Mewtwo was beaten down, but My electabuzz came up and beat the Dragonair in
revenge.  Then, I got another Mewtwo on the bench, got a couple of good hits
in with Electabuzz, and started the Mewtwo massacre, and nuked a few Psyducks
with Mewtwo, and dratinis with Electabuzzes.
WIN

Round 3:
Against an older blond-haired guy I would see later.  He was not happy to see
me after what I had done earlier.  He was playing a Modified haymaker deck
with hitmonchans and dittos.

I started off on the offensive, and smashed up a Hitmonchan.  However, after
about a 6-3 lead, he used creative gusts of wind and a pumped up Hitmonchan
(!) to tear up 3 Mewtwos, and the cound was lowered to 3-2 in my favor. 
However, then I beat his Hitmonchan with a Electabuzz (!!) and killed his
Ditto for the last prize.
WIN

Round 4:
Against another kid (Isn't my memory awful?)  He was playing a grass deck
with Exeggutor and Muk.

Here's where I had to get creative.  With only 2 psy and a lightning in my
hand, I laid the psychic down on Mewtwo, and Energy Retrievaled discardin a
Psy, choosing to get 0 Energy.  Then, I absorbed, and by turn 2, I had the 3
I needed to gst to work.  Mewtwo smashed some pokemon until he was beaten
back by energy removal and psy-resistant pokemon, so Electabuzz came up, and
I pokecentered the Mewtwo.  I pounded away with him, even when he was
confused by Koffing, And got it down to about 3 left for me when Electabuzz
was defeated.  Mewtwo cam up with 1 psy, picked up 2 more, and gained me a
couple more, and a Ditto slashed away at his Scyther for the kill.
WIN

Round 5:
Against Paul Jr. (3rd in the state.  His father is also very highly ranked)
He was playing a Muk deck with big green basics.

He was shaking when I got to him.  Sad, it was the closest match.  Scyther
put up with Mewtwo for a while, and then a fully pumped up Pinsir started
giving me trouble, until I send up a Mewtwo and searched for 2 pluspowers for
the kill.  Then, more sycthers came out, as well as more pinsirs, but my ER
kept him down long enough.  He killed another Mewto and an Electabuzz, but I
managed to take out a couple more big basics, and finally his psy-weak Muk
for the last prize.
WIN

Ranked #1, and ready for the finals!

Semifinals
Against Paul.  This game was much more uneventful.  He though many things
through for a very long time, and a great play with a Scoop Up on a weak
pokemon, and a Grimer with 3 Plupowers made the start very interesting. 
However, mewtwo came out, and due to a miscalculation, he put out the wrong
pokemon (He should have sent out a sacrificial Muk, but played his Scyther
instead) and I beat down his last attacking unit.  With ER and gusts, he
could not get back up.

Finals:
Against the guy from Round 3.  This wasn't close enough.  He though he had a
chance when I had to Oak 3 times off the starting hand to get all the energy
I needed, but I plowed through two Farfetch'd with one hit from Mewtwo and
pluspower, and I used gusts to solve any problems like last time (Another
Hitmonchan was ready to punch away, but a gust killed it in one shot)  Sadly,
he wasn't even able to pick up a single prize, and I strolled to victory.
WIN

I won the tourney, and the Charizard!  After 2 months, I am riding high
again.  Now, it is time for what I have learned.

What have we learned from this?
Man, Mewtwo is so broken.  He tore through pokemon after pokemon, even
annoying small colorless guys like Dratini.  With a little bit of creativity
and luck, you can pump up a Mewtwo for turn 2 almost no matter what.

You have to be creatuve and risky to play this.  Most people don't want to
Oak three times first turn, and energy retrievaling for no cards takes
creativity.  Unless, you are one of those players who figures out
combinations in seconds, and actually really knows the strategy of the game,
practice this deck a lot before you play it seriously.

I'm not sure how you can beat this.  It tore apart colorless, haymaker, ER,
and just about everything on it's way to the top.  Everyone will be ready for
me tommorow, so we'll see then.

Well, that was tourney one this weekend.  Tourney 2 is tommorow, and I
finally have 4 SER, so Next time, there will be an improved deck and improved
competition.  Don't miss it!

Justin Purdy
daihakusei@aol.com