Haymaker Potpourri '99
by S. Gerhardt
The Core
Cedar Falls, Iowa
July 2, 2000
18 participants

Hey Pojo, I just recently decided to get myself back into the Pokemon card
craze.  i had stopped collecting for about a year after I completed the
Jungle set.  I was informed by my friend Alex that there was an upcoming
Pokemon tournament at the very place I used to play Pokemon every Tuesday
night.  They had turned it into a Pokemon League place now.  I went in to The
Core (the store) two days before the tournament just to register for the
pokemon league so I would be eligible to participate in the tournament.  I
was still using the same deck from a year ago, S. Gerhardt Potpourri.  It was
still awesome in my opinion.

Haymaker Potpourri
Energy: 22
7 Fighting
6 Lighting
6 Psychic
3 Double Colorless
Pokemon: 14
3 Hitmonchan
3 Electabuzz
3 Mr. Mime
3 Scyther
1 Kangaskhan
1 Ponyta
Trainers: 24
3 Bill
3 Professor Oak
3 Gust of Wind
3 Super Energy Removal
2 Energy Removal
2 Plus Power
2 Energy Retrieval
2 Item Finder
2 Scoop Up
1 Computer Search 
1 Lass

I have been using this deck for a while, in fact ever since I first saw it at
Pojo in September '99, so I knew how to use it.  Anyway, on to the tournament.

I show up at the tournament about fifteen minutes early with my brother who
is using a Psychich/Water deck with Blastoise and some Team Rocket cards, and
my friend Alex who has a fire/water deck.  We sign in and sit around for a
while.  Suddenly, huge bursts of kids bolt through the doors like 5 at a time
and all crowd the playing area.  It took like an hour for everyong to get
signed up and ready to play.  Each person got a pack of Team Rocket for
coming (handed out BEFORE tourney which I thought was weird).  I got a Holo
Dark Arbok(eh), my brother got a rainbow energy, and Alex got a Dark
Gyarados.  I was finally set up with my first opponent whose name I never did
catch.

Round 1 vs. Bucket Hat Guy (mono water)
Like I said, I never caught his name but he was wearing a funky bucket hat. 
He got out a squirtle and a Lapras.  I had an active Hitmonchan and a benched
Scyther and buzz.  I knocked out his squirtle on turn two and he sent up
Lapras.  Lapras did like maybe a total of 20 energy to me.  I knocked it out
with 2 special punches and that was it because he had no benched pokemon.  He
got really mad and slammed all his cards down when I won then walked away.
1-0


Round 2 vs Some Guy Who Joined Late (water/colorless deck)
I had a lone hitmonchan out and he had a lone jiggly.  Good for me.  I went
first and attached a fighting to chan and luckily i also had a pluspower, I
knocked out that lone jiggly and won the game.  That game was just weak.  The
whole game took like 30 seconds.  Since we had so much time left, we played
another game for fun, but I still beat him with Buzz against his Lapras's.
2-0


Round 3 vs Adam (Haymaker variant)
This game was just devastating.  I started off with an electabuzz and he had
a hitmonchan.  I had a scyther and a hitmonchan on the bench.  I held in
electabuzz as long as I could while pumping my 2 bench.  Adam had a full
bench of scyther's chan's and ditto's, it was very bad for me.  I sent out my
chan after buzz died (oops...knocked out), I did as must damage as I could,
but it just didn't cut it.  He ko'ed the rest of my pokemon with ease, I only
drew one prize that whole game.  He won, but ACK!
2-1


Round 4 vs Dario (mono-fire)
I don't know how I got matched against this kid.  He played so sloppy. 
Speaking of sloppy, practically all his cards were creased or ripped not in
cases.  Dario starts with a charmander, a vulpix, and a moltres.  I start
with Hitmonchan, and a buzz and a mime on the bench.  I pretty much
slaughtered him only using special punch.  I super energy removaled his fully
pumped moltres right before i sent it up.  He tried to get enough energy on
it to attack before I ko'ed it, but he couldn't.  He had no more bench.  I
win.
3-1


Round 5 vs Jonah (Psychic Stall)
I checked my rank before this match.  I was in 2nd overall, I really wanted
to keep that rank so I built up a lot of confidence before facing Jonah.  I
knew he was running an annoying stall deck, so I tried my best to wipe out
his basic abra's first.  I drew a really crappy hand, I drew one scyther and
no energy.  On turn 4, I had 2 energy on Scyther and an oak in hand.  Scyther
was running low on HP, he had about 30 left and Jonah already had Alakazam
and Chansey's out with Jynx's attacking.  I decide to Oak as a last resort. 
I draw nothing but trainer cards, GRRRRRR!!!!  I use another oak that same
turn and discard almost everything in that hand.  Finally, some pokemon.  I
placed down a Kangaskhan and a Mime on the bench.  I Slashed jynx before
Scyther was ko'ed about 2 turns later.  I put up my fully pumped Kangaskhan
(2 DCE) against his active Alakazam.  I was running really low on cards in
deck thanks to those 2 oaks in a row.  I kept comet punching and I would
usually get 3 out of 4 heads, but not enough to kill Alakazam.  The next turn
he would just move all the damage I did to him on a chansey and scoop up.  I
got luck one turn and flipped four heads and knocked out his Alakazam, only
to find that he had two more on the bench.  I had about six cards left in my
deck and was getting very annoyed so I oaked and killed myself.
3-2


That was it, we played five games.  I ended up coming in third, which isn't
bad out of 18 people.  Adam came in first undefeated, but that really isn't
fair because he is an employee at the store and policy is that employees
can't participate, but I guess they let it slide.  Jonah came in 2nd thanks
to my loss.  My brother placed 10th and Alex placed 11th, not bad because
they are pretty young and beat some older kids.  I won a holo eevee and a
choice of any pack in the store.  I picked a Gym 2 pack because they were the
most expensive, but more importantly because I want an Imakuni's Doduo really
bad.  I ended up getting a Giovanni's Gyarados (eh again).

I believe this deck did pretty good for being a year old, and also for being
my deck of choice for the first tournament in a year.

Props and Slops
Props to RJ for throwing a great tournament
Props to my mom for letting me drive to and from The Core.(Permit)
Props to eBay for being able to buy complete sets for so cheap.
Props to Pojo for being a great information source for just about everything
No slops - complaining sucks

(Mr. Monkey)