The Sponge
by Ian Garrovillas
KJG Games Group
Santa Maria, California
Saturday, July 15, 2000
18 Participants

    First of all I would just like to give props to Scott Gerhardt for making
this great deck which I think can handle anything. I was in such a dilemma
because I wanted to add some cards into the deck but didn't know what to take
out. But after reading another one of your articles, I was just amazed that
you came up with another good change to this sponge deck. I just wanted to
tell everyone that I give you (Scott) all the credit in the world for this
deck, it kicks ass.

    The deck that I copied off Scott (once again) is the sponge that Scott
"casually" fixed in his deck garage, but made a few changes.

The Sponge

Pokemon x9
3x Electabuzz
2x Promo Mewtwo
2x Scyther
2x Chansey

Trainers x34
4x Professor Oak
3x Bill
3x Computer Search
4x Item Finder
4x Energy Removal
2x Super Energy Removal
3x Plus Power
3x Scoop Up
2x Gust of Wind
2x Energy Retrieval
3x Nightly Garbage Run
1x Lass

Energy x17
6x Psychic Energy
7x Electric Energy
4x Double Colorless Energy

Ok, it didn't feel right when I took out my mews, but I realized that I would
still have protection from those mewtwos because of chansey. I chose to
change my sponge since I have been beaten many times because of being stalled
out. But with this deck you can easily get into stalling mode with chanseys,
scoop ups, nightly garbage runs, the item finders, and lass. And of course it
does real well if I choose to go on the offensive mode.

The tournament that I attended was held at KJG Games group. It was my first
tournament there (all my previous ones were at Future World Sports). It would
be my first DCI-Sanctioned Tournament. I don't think it would really matter
though because it's going to be a while before I am in the rankings if I try
to do so. This tournament was much more organized, but the competition was
much easier than in Future World. The most popular deck being used was a
clefable/hitmonchan combo. I have played here in pokemon league before and
have ran into them, and the sponge could not find an answer for them. Now I
do though, with chansey, and that is one of the reasons why I chose to add
them into the deck. Also, this would be my big tournament for July since I
won't be able to attend the STS in Long Beach since I will be gone.

Well enough with my talk, here's the report....

WAIT, sorry guys just let me tell you one more thing. It was 5 rounds, winner
of two out of three. I think it's called swiss, I'm not sure though. A win
gets you 3 points, loss gets you 0, and a tie gets you 1. You are matched up
by your point total (ex. if you have 10 points you play someone with 10
points). Then in the end, it would be an 8-man single elimination playoff
(like the nba playoffs, or the king of the ring) with the person with the
most points having the top seed. The prizes were big (24 boosters for 1st, 9
for 2nd, 3 for 3rd... the owner gave up a whole box).. considering the 5
dollar entry fee.

Round 1 vs Patrick w/ a fighting deck with too much pokemon
Match 1- This kid wasn't good at all, I knocked out his pokemon with mewtwo
quickly to win.
Match 2- This time I used chansey's double-edge to finish him off. This was
easy.
1-0
Total Points: 3

Round 2 vs Antonio w/ a Clefable/Hitmonchan
I've played this kid once before, he had beat me, since I just couldn't find
an answer to his clefables. Now I got chansey on my side. This is the first
person I played with the Clefable/Hitmonchan combo.

Match 1- Early, we both were on offensive then I noticed his cards were
running out. In the one game we played before he had me running out of cards,
I wanted revenge. Once chansey was in against his clefable, he couldn't do
anything really. He kept trying to retreat for hitmonchan to beat down my
chansey, but I would just bring out scyther, then back to chansey if he would
retreat for clefable. He eventually decked.
Match 2- I remember he had two pokemon that Mewtwo could knock out with one
hit, I think ditto and hitmonchan. I took a risk and used my lass to take
away his computer search and my prof. oak, then got mewtwo powered up. It was
over. Too Psyburns for the win.
2-0
Total Points: 6

Round 3 vs my own brother Leif w/ Magmar/Electabuzz/Ditto
I had to play my own brother, I knew that he was probably the biggest threat
to beat me out of all the people in the tourney. He was using a deck that I
helped him out with. So I would have the advantage since I knew what he had.

Match 1- A long and painful match. I made a mistake early by not knowing that
my chansey had 40 damage on it when I used double-edge. It ended up going
down the wire but he was the one who drew all his prizes.
Match 2- He only had two pokemon out early, I had chansey and two
double-colorless' in my hand. I used lass to take away every chance he had to
get more pokemon out and double-edged both of his pokemon for the win. I'm
beginning to like chansey (this is the first time I used him in a deck).
Match 3- In the beginning he was dominating. Since I had 3 prizes left with
him I think having 2. I decided to go into stalling mode. With him having one
more prize left but no more cards in his deck, he did lass. I found out he
had no chance of drawing his last prize. It would be over. But Ken (the
owner) announced that it was time for us so we ended up in a tie.
2-0-1
Total Points: 7

Round 4 vs Brett w/ a Clefable/Hitmonchan
This was another Figthing Clefable deck. The only difference is that he did
not run the deck as well as the others did.

Match 1- I could tell this guy was afraid to face me. I tried to boost up his
confidence by telling him that he could probably beat me. Well in the first
match he did not do what I told him. I got mewtwo out early and took out all
his psychic weak pokemon. Then his clefairy's came in which I took out with
scyther and electabuzz.
Match 2- I went into stalling mode just like how I did to Jeff with chansey
vs clefable and scyther vs hitmonchan so that he couldn't do anything to me.
He was feeling down and just forfeited. I do enjoy winning but I didn't enjoy
beating this guy. He started complaining about how he probably wouldn't make
the playoff now. I felt sorry for the guy.
3-0-1
Total Points: 10

Round 5 vs George w/ a Clefable/Hitmonchan
Yet another Clefable/Hitmonchan deck. I wasn't really sure how to play this
guy. I've played him many times before and had beaten him. But I think that
over time he has gotten better. Whoever would win this round would probably
earn top seed.

Match 1- Don't really remember what happened in this match. I remember using
chansey as an answer to those clefables. I won the match by forcing him to
deck.
Match 2- Similiar to the first match using chansey much of the game. Won this
one by getting all my prizes.
4-0-1
Total Points: 13

PLAYOFFS.
I ended up earning top seed matched up against Brett (beat him earlier). My
brother ended up being 4th and we would maybe end up fighting in the
semi-finals, that didn't happen though.

Round 1 vs 4th seeded Brett w/ Clefable/Hitmonchan
Here we were again. He started to complain once again how it's impossible to
beat me. I tried to boost his confidence again but that didn't work. I really
did not know what to say to this guy.

Match 1- I remembered getting mewtwo powered up early taking out some
hitmonchans. When clefable came out chansey was there to stall. He took a
risk and double-edged my chansey once, knocking out his clefable, but I just
scooped up and put him back in. My deck overpowered his and helped me take
all my prizes.
Match 2- Just like our last match 2 I lowered the size of his deck, and he
eventually forfeits. Sorry Brett.

Semi-finals vs 6th seeded Tim w/ Raindance
This guy had beat my brother. He was using a deck he had borrowed from a
friend.

Match 1- Blastoise comes out early, but with my lucky coin flips I scrunch
him to death.
Match 2- Once again he has almost all his water pokemon powered up and ready
for combat but my chansey just scrunches for the win. I think he was missing
cards in the deck like GOW, it had too much pokemon.

Finals vs. 5th seeded George w/ Clefable/Hitmonchan
The only person he had lost to in the whole tourney was me. But he climbed
his way back into the finals and wanted revenge against me and my new friend
chansey.

Match 1- The match started out pretty even. All of the sudden he computer
searched for a prof. oak. And found out they were all in his prizes. I took
advantage of this and powered up my mewtwo since he just had hitmonchans out
and took them out one by one.
Match 2- I started out using professor oak a couple of times since I couldn't
find any basic pokemon. Things seemed as though they were going downhill for
me. Then all he had left was a fully powered lee and a weak chan (bruce lee
and jackie chan.. AHH). Many times it seemed as though I was about to knock
out that hitmonlee but he used... POTION? to bring him back. I think I
should've lassed earlier to take those out but I wanted to save it for later
since it seemed as though I would deck. Hitmonlee took over though and kicked
his way to a win.
Match 3- This was it, all the 24 booster packs were on the line. I drew my
cards and things looked bad for me. 3 item finders, a gust, electabuzz and a
couple of energy. This sucks. He didn't have a good hand either but he had 2
dittos and energy removals which he used to take out my lone pokemon. I got
good hands all day but it just happened that I got a bad hand in the end. It
was ok though, 9 boosters are ok for me.

In the end I lost but more importantly I think I earned some respect from
some of the other players here. I heard people saying that they would lose to
me, that I was a good player, I felt pretty good about my accomplishments in
this tourney, and I look forward to the next tourney that they will have here
(usually host one every month).

I would like to thank all you guys who have read this report. It took me a
while. If any of you guys have a chance please email me and tell me what you
think. Whether it's bad or good I want to hear it. Especially all you pojo
people, if you read this, I want to hear from you. Whether it's the great
Scott Gerhardt or maybe the Pokemon Lady Kate Johnson. Please I want to hear
from you! Please email me, thanks.

PiLiPiNOi@aol.com

Ian Garrovillas

ps. Scott, if your reading this, don't you think this is a good read? Make my
name bold or write good read by it or something so that people could check
out my report. Please, well thanks anyway.