Deck Name: The Cleaner
Type: Grass/Fire
Tournament: Toys 'R' Us in Butterfield, IL
Participants: About 20
Date: February 26, 2000

Thanks to The Impossible Man for building this
awesome deck.  He's currently in the race of making it an archetype, and I'm
trying to help him out here.

Anywayz, this deck is truly awesome.  That is, if you do the right strategy.
Many people have said that this deck sucks, but that was because they played
it incorrectly.  The strategy is explained below the deck.

4 Koffing
3 Grimer
3 Fossil Magmar
2 Lickitung

3 Growlithe
2 Arcanine

4 Bill
4 Energy Removal
3 Gust of Wind
2 Professor Oak
2 Energy Retrieval
2 Scoop Up
2 Lass

12 Fire Energy
10 Grass Energy
2 Double Colorless Energy

The cool thing about this deck is that it only uses 4 common rares (oximoron
:-]).  Now listen to me: DO NOT BASH THIS DECK UNTIL YOU HAVE PLAYED IT.  Got
that?  Now it's time to move on to the strategy.

STRATEGY
Use Koffing, Fossil Magmar, Lickitung, and Grimer to stall with their
status-inflicting moves while Arcanine is powered up on the bench.  Once AT
LEAST 3 of your prizes have been taken, bring out Arcanine and clean either:
a) Your prizes
b) Your opponent's bench

On to the report:

Round 1
The Cleaner vs. Rainbow deck w/ Charizard, Venusaur, Blastoise, etc...

I don't wanna sound too cocky here, but this was a pretty quick match.  He
started with Bulbasaur active and Charmander benched.  I started with Fossil
Magmar and used Smokescreen.  He attached an energy and couldn't do anything,
so I killed his Bulbasaur off.  He was complaining that since I killed his
Bulbasaur, he wouldn't be able to use Venusaur.  I was just thinking "Use more
than 1 of each card then!!"  He brought out charmander.  I poisoned it with
Smog and killed it off by the next turn.  Quick game.

Wins: 1, Losses: 0

Round 2
The Cleaner vs. Some kinda Dodrio deck

This deck was against the second oldest kid there (I was the oldest) and he
was playing some kind of a Dodrio deck or something.  I didn't really get to
see that much of it because it was another quick game.  He started out with
Doduo.  I started with Lickitung.  He won the flip and did 20 damage to me.
Now listen up: THIS IS THE ONLY EXCEPTION IN BREAKING THE STRATEGY OF THE
CLEANER.  I stalled with Lickitung for about 5 turns, brought out Arcanine,
and killed his only Doduo using Flamethrower.

Wins: 2, Losses: 0

Round 3
The Cleaner vs. PokeNewbie w/ non-Blastoise water/fire deck

This was the only girl there.  She was pretty new and told me she wasn't that
good.  I like that kind of attitude in younger kids.  I don't like it when
some little snot comes up and says "I can beat anyone here cause I have 4
Charizards in my deck!"  Because of this, I was easy on her and let her
Pokemon heal themselves without killing most of them.  Anywayz, she started
with Horsea, Eevee, and Charmander.  I started with Grimer.  She won the flip,
attached an energy to Charmander, and Scratched me for 10.  I attached an
energy to Grimer, and paralyzed her for 10.  She couldn't do anything, so I
paralyzed her again and did 10.  She couldn't do anything again so I did 10 to
her and paralyzed her AGAIN (my lucky day).  She couldn't do anything, so I
retreated Grimer and brought out Koffing to finish Charmander off.  She
brought out Horsea, attached an energy, and smokscreened but failed.  I
confused her with Foul Gas and she tried to use smokescreen but failed and did
20 damage to herself.  I then finished her off with Koffing.  She brought out
Eevee, attached an energy, and used Tail Wag which failed.  I poisoned her
with Foul Gas, and she used Tail Wag which worked that time.  She know had 30
damage on Eevee.  I didn't do anything because of Tail Wag but still did 10
for poison.  She tried to use Tail Wag but failed.  At the end of her turn, 10
for poison and I won.  She was a good sport about it and shook my hand and
said "Good game."  It was about that time that a little brat came up to both
of us and said "I have 4 Charizards in my deck so I can kill anyone here."  I
was about to punch this kid right in the face.  But I didn't cause then I'd
get in a whole bunch 'o' trouble.

Wins: 3, Losses: 0

Round 4
The Cleaner vs. PokeNewbie's older brother w/ water/fighting deck

He won the flip and started with Ditto and I started with Fossil Magmar.  He
attached an energy to the Rhyhorn on his bench and didn't do anything.  I
smokescreened him for 10 and he attached a DCE to the Rhyhorn on the bench.  I
energy removal'd him for the DCE and Smog'd for 20 and poisoned him.  He
attached another energy to Rhyhorn.  I used Smog and finished off Ditto.  He
brought out Diglett and used Mud Slap.  I Smog'd him and poisoned him for a
one-hit KO.  He brought out Rhyhorn and used Leer.  It failed, so I poisoned
his Rhyhorn.  He attached an energy to Rhyhorn and did 30 damage to me.  I
used Smog again and finished him off.  He then brought out Vaporeon, attached
an energy, and couldn't do anything.  I used Scoop Up on Magmar and brought
out THE CLEANER: Arcanine.  I used Take Down on him and killed his Vaporeon
which was his last basic Pokemon.

Wins: 4, Losses: 0

Round 5
The Cleaner vs. PokeNewbie w/ non-Blastoise water/fire deck again

She challenged me to a rematch and I accepted.  I won the flip and started
with Lickitung.  She started with Eevee.  I basically stalled her for a few
turns, then used Scoop Up and brought out Koffing and confused her.  She tried
to use Quick Attack, but failed and did 20 damage back to herself which
finished the game.  That was quick.

Wins: 5, Losses: 0

Wow.  The Cleaner went undefeated a whole day.  And barely anyone KO'd any of
my Pokemon.  See?  You DON'T have to have so many rares to win.  Now for PROPS
and SLOPS.

PROPS
PROPS to PokeNewbie for being such a good sport about her losing.
PROPS to me for getting my Cascade Badge.
PROPS to the Gym Leader for being so good with the younger kids.
PROPS to me for going undefeated.

SLOPS
SLOPS to that little brat for bragging about his "ultimate deck" w/ 4
Charizards
SLOPS to my best friend Eric for going to Washington and not able to attend
the tourney.
SLOPS to me for having such a busy day - 3-hour long jazz band practice and a
half hour long piano lesson right before that.

Well, expect some more deck report from me soon!  Until next time!

~~Blade~~
****MEMBER OF THE SWORD DANCERS****
bladefunk@netscape.net

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