Psychic Tornado
Created by Matthew
Toys 'R' Us
Vancouver, BC
The tournament took place on Saturday, July 22, 2000

Psychic Tornado
20 Pokemon:
4x Gastly (Fossil)
3x Haunter (Fossil)
3x Gengar (Fossil)
1x Mew (Promo 8)
4x Mewtwo (Promo 3 and 14)
3x Mr. Mime (Jungle)
1x Scyther (Jungle)
1x Ditto (Fossil)
20 Trainers:
4x Bill (Base)
1x Professor Oak (Base)
1x Gambler (Fossil)
1x Nightly Garbage Run (Rocket)
2x Challenge! (Rocket)
1x CPU Search (Base)
2x Pokemon Breeder (Base)
2x Super Energy Removal (Base)
3x Pluspower (Base)
3x Gust of Wind (Base)
20 Energy:
18x Psychic Energy (Base)
2x Full Heal Energy (Rocket)

Translations:
Just in case any of you don't know the translations for these cards, here
they all are. I've also included some strategy for that card under its
description.
Pokemon:
F- Fighting, P- Psychic, E- Electric, R- Fire, W- Water, G- Grass, C-
Colourless
Gastly- 50 HP - 0 retreat - no weakness - F resistance (Basic Psychic
Pokemon)
Attack 1: (P) Lick; 10 damage (Flip a coin. If heads, the Defending Pokemon
is now paralyzed.)
Attack 2: (PP) Energy Conversion (Put up to 2 Energy cards from your discard
pile into your hand. Gastly does 10 damage to itself.)

A nice Basic; 50 HP is decent, and 10 damage with a chance of Paralysis is
moderate for a Basic. Energy Conversion is wonderful, though; returning
those Psychic Energy to power up your Gengar/ Mr. Mime could be a
life-saver. Resistance to Fighting is wonderful, too, as is no weakness or
retreat cost.

Haunter- 50 HP - 0 retreat - no weakness - F resistance - Evolves from
Gastly (Stage 1 Psychic Pokemon)
Pokemon Power: Transparency; (Whenever an attack does anything to Haunter,
flip a coin. If heads, prevent all effects of that attack, including damage,
done to Haunter. This power stops working while Haunter is Asleep, Confused,
or Paralyzed.)
Attack 1: Nightmare; (PC) 10 damage (The Defending Pokemon is now Asleep.)

50 HP is pretty sad for a Stage 1, but his Pokemon Power more than makes up
for it when combined with his attack; it evens out to a 75% chance of you
evading your opponent's attack! His only drawback is low damage-inflicting
potential. Free retreat and no weakness is a nice bonus, too, not to mention
Fighting Resistance.

Gengar- 80 HP - C retreat - no weakness - F resistance - Evolves from
Haunter (Stage 2 Psychic Pokemon)
Pokemon Power: Curse; (Once during your turn (before your attack), you may
move 1 damage counter from 1 of your opponent's Pokemon to another (even if
it would Knock Out the other Pokemon). This power can't be used if Gengar is
Asleep, Confused, or Paralyzed.)
Attack 1: Dark Mind; (PPP) 30 damage (If your opponent has any Benched
Pokemon, choose 1 of them and this attack does 10 damage to it (don't apply
Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokemon.))

Well, here it is again; the low HP that plagues evolved Psychic Pokemon. 80
HP for a Stage 2 isn't horrible, and I guess no weakness, resistance to
Fighting, and such a low retreat more than makes up for this. His Pokemon
Power is wonderful, and makes Mr. Mime a better card. Dark Mind is fairly
energy-intensive, but once powered is quite powerful.

Mew- 50 HP - C retreat - P weakness - no resistance - (Basic Psychic
Pokemon)
Attack 1: Psywave; (P) 10x damage (Does 10 damage times the number of Energy
cards attached to the Defending Pokemon.)
Attack 2: Devolution Beam; (PP) (Choose an evolved Pokemon (your own or your
opponent's). Return the highest Stage Evolution card on that Pokemon to its
player's hand. That Pokemon is no longer Asleep, Confused, Paralyzed, or
Poisoned, or anything else that might be the result of an attack (just as if
you had evolved it).)

I hate the low HP, which is why I included only 1 in this deck; merely a
precaution against getting only this in your starting hand. He'll only do
damage if you go 2nd, and his 2nd attack only heals your opponent's Pokemon,
unless he'd used a Pokemon Breeder. Again, he'll only be needed late-game.

Mewtwo- 70 HP - CC retreat - P weakness - no resistance - (Basic Psychic
Pokemon)
Attack 1: Energy Absorption; (P) (Choose up to 2 Energy cards from your
discard pile and attach them to Mewtwo.)
Attack 2: Psyburn; (PPC) 40 damage

One of the best Psychic Pokemon out yet, in my opinion! With the right
trainers to aid him (Professor Oak, CPU Search, Item Finder), Energy
Absorption will spell a quick end to most Haymaker Pokemon. Take that,
Electabuzz! (Granted, Electabuzz is guaranteed to do 40 damage by turn 2,
and maybe 50, but the self-damage potential is what I hate.) This report
would be about 2 pages longer if I could list the millions of times this
guy's come in handy.

Mr. Mime- 40 HP - C retreat - P weakness - no resistance - (Basic Psychic
Pokemon)
Pokemon Power: Invisible Wall; (Whenever an attack (including your own) does
30 or more damage to Mr. Mime (after applying weakness and resistance),
prevent that damage. (Any other effects of attacks still happen.) This power
stops working while Mr. Mime is Asleep, Confused, or Paralyzed.)
Attack 1: Meditate; (PC) 10+ damage (Does 10 damage plus 10 more damage for
each damage counter on the Defending Pokemon.)

Well, I doubt I need and explanation. He stalls, scores major damage paired
with Curse, and will last at least 2 turns against almost every Pokemon
(with the exception of Nidoking).

Scyther- 70 HP - 0 retreat - R weakness - F resistance (Basic Grass Pokemon)
Attack 1: Swords Dance; (During your next turn, Scyther's Slash attack's
base damage is 60 instead of 30.)
Attack 2: Slash; 30 damage

Mostly a place-holder, but I like the versatility of this card; free
retreat, Fighting Resistance, and the ability to use any energy. Plus, in my
deck his weakness is no problem (except Magmar could present a bit of a
problem), because Fire Pokemon tend to take lots of energy, and deal lots of
damage. and I happen to love Invisible Wall.

Ditto- 50 HP - 1 retreat - F weakness - P resistance (Basic Colourless
Pokemon)
Pokemon Power: Transform; (If Ditto is your Active Pokemon, treat it as if
it were the same card as the Defending Pokemon, including type, Hit Points,
Weakness, and so on, except Ditto can't evolve, always has this Pokemon
Power, and you may treat any Energy attached to Ditto as Energy of any type.
Ditto isn't a copy of any other Pokemon while Ditto is Asleep, Confused, or
Paralyzed.)

Another place-holder. Too unreliable in my opinion, but then, at times,
he'll suddenly get me 3 or 4 prizes in a row. I love starting with one and
going first, because that way you'll almost always win. But, then again, I
hate starting with one and going second.

Trainers:

Bill (Draw 2 cards.)

You should know this one.

Professor Oak (Discard your hand, then draw 7 cards.)

A fairly useful card, but I'm quite careful about using them. I've seen more
than one person deck from using these things too frequently.

Gambler (Shuffle your hand into your deck, then flip a coin. If heads, draw
8 cards. If tails, draw 1 card.)

* I normally have 2 Professor Utsugi and 2 Bellsprout Temple in place of
Gambler, Professor Oak, and 2 of the Bill, but you're not allowed Japanese
cards at this tournament, so I had to make due with these.

Nightly Garbage Run (Choose up to 3 Basic Pokemon cards, Evolution cards,
and/or Basic Energy cards from your discard pile. Show them to your opponent
and shuffle them into your deck.)

It seems to me this card is broken. You can get back valuable cards from
your discard pile and prevent yourself from decking at the same time.

Challenge! (Ask your opponent if he or she accepts your challenge. If your
opponent declines (or if both Benches are full), draw 2 cards. If your
opponent accepts, each of you searches your decks for any number of Basic
Pokemon cards and puts them face down onto your Benches. (A player can't do
this if his or her Bench is full.) When you both have finished, shuffle your
decks and turn those face up.)

It's either a full bench or a Bill. it's your opponent's choice
(unfortunately). Either way you seem to win.

Computer Search (Discard 2 of the other cards from your hand in order to
search your deck for any card and put it into your hand. Shuffle your deck
afterward.)

A mere search engine. I only have one because you don't really want to be
discarding too many cards, and it's only a search engine; it 'manipulates my
deck, making it easier to handle. Works wonderfully with Mewtwo, too.

Pokemon Breeder (Put a Stage 2 Evolution card from your hand on the matching
Basic Pokemon. You can only play this card when you would be allowed to
evolve that Pokemon anyway.)

Helps get my Gengar out faster, for those of you who don't already know.

Super Energy Removal (Discard 1 Energy card attached to 1 of your own
Pokemon in order to cheese 1 of your opponent's Pokemon and up to 2 Energy
cards attached to it. Discard those Energy cards.)

Hmm. it's no wonder they banned this in Japan. It's broken. I love it.

Pluspower (Attach Pluspower to your Active Pokemon. At the end of your turn,
discard Pluspower. If this Pokemon's attack does damage to the Defending
Pokemon (after applying Weakness and Resistance), the attack does 10 more
damage to the Defending Pokemon.)

I've grown to love this card. With Curse, it can turn out devastating. There
are countless other situation where it's got me a KO. For instance, I've
taught my friend how 10 more HP can really help (Base Abra + Fossil Gastly
and Pluspower).

Gust of Wind (Choose 1 of your opponent's Benched Pokemon and switch it with
his or her Active Pokemon.)

I'm not sure why there's a 'd' at the end of win. It must've been a mistake.

Full Heal Energy; Special Energy Card (If you play this card from your hand,
the Pokemon you attach it to is no longer Asleep, Confused, Paralyzed, or
Poisoned. Full Heal Energy provides on C energy. (Doesn't count as a basic
Energy card.))

After several lucky coin-flips by my opponent, he managed to knock out my
Mr. Mime with his Base Haunter. What a disgrace. Since I hated Full Heal, I
was wondering what I could use (aside from Promo Venusaur). Then, rocket
came out, and with it Full Heal Energy.

Strategy:
Use Mr. Mime and Haunter to stall while building up a Mewtwo and/or a
Gengar. Send Either out and knock as many Pokemon out as possible. Ditto and
Scyther are merely place-holders, because I haven't got any Lily Pad Mews or
any Team Rocket's Mewtwo's yet. When I do, they'll have to go (OK, so maybe
not Scyther). Mew is only in here to a.) stall be using Devolution Beam on a
Pokemon that was Bred or b.) Heal your beaten-up Gengar/Haunter. I only need
one because you probably won't need it until late-game. The trainers are
fairly self-explanatory; Pluspower and Gust of Wind help get you a quick
prize, and Pokemon Breeder helps Gengar out faster than usual. SER buys you
the time you need to power up Pokemon. Nightly Garbage Run both protects you
from decking and gets back valuable Pokemon and/or energy from your Discard
Pile. Bill/Challenge!/CPU Search all help me get the cards I need. (I'll
take it for granted you all know what energy is used for, eh?)

Before the matches:
I waited to verse the winner of a match... One of the kids seemed to have a
Ninetails Cleaner deck. The other one had a Dark Charizard/Magmar
(Fossil)/Electabuzz combo. The second guy won pretty fast, what with all the
CPU Searches and Pokemon Traders he had (I think he had 4). The first guy
didn't even draw a prize. I played the winner.

Match 1 vs. ? with Dark Charizard/Lightning deck:
This guy had a pretty good deck. He had a lot of CPU Search and Pokemon
Trader. This match lasted 10-15 minutes. He started with Electabuzz, and I
started with Mewtwo. He went first. He attached an energy and
Thunder-Shocked. I drew a Challenge and played it. Had he accepted, I
would've won with Mr. Mime. Unfortunately, he didn't. I drew two cards and
attached an energy. Anyways, he eventually loaded up a rocket Charmander
using its Pokemon Power and Breedered it into Dark Charizard. It was over
then, because all I had was a Mewtwo and a Gengar. He just kept getting
heads, and won around the 5th turn. I'd only drew one prize; he drew two,
but benched me.

Between the matches:
I went over to where the loser of the first match (which I mentioned before
the matches) was sitting and offered to play him. He accepted.

Match 2 vs. ? with Charizard/Dark Charizard/Fighting/Grass deck:
This guy didn't ever read the rule-book, I guess. First, he claimed you
could evolve (Base) Charmelion into Dark Charizard. said WotC's web-site had
said you could. Then, when I had 1 prize and he had 2 (though he only had 3
cards left in his deck), he said you didn't have to draw during your turn.
Funny, that's what it apparently said on WotC's web-site, too. I wonder what
section he was reading? I called the Gym Leader over, and he straightened
him out. I won after he decked; I didn't deck because I'd played a Gambler
around the middle of the game with about 12 cards in my hand. (Actually, I
would've won with Mr. Mime, but his Ninetails kept luring my Mewtwo.)

I had to go. altogether, these two matches took about 45 minutes. (The
second was quite long; He had this Clefairy (which had resistance to
Psychic), and we both kept running out of energy.

Here's some suggestions of Pokemon to put in a (normal) Psychic Assault
deck:
Gengar Line- Pretty solid overall. Lick, Energy Conversion, Nightmare, and
Dark Mind are all solid attacks, and the Pokemon powers all rock the house!
Again, I wish they had more HP. Oh, well, they can't be perfect.

Movie Mewtwo- The possibility of a 2nd-turn attack that does 40 damage is
wonderful. Fortunately, the trainers needed to create this combo are good
cards such as Professor Oak, CPU Search, and Item Finder. Then, even if you
can't get that combo up and running, 40 damage for PPC is pretty nice. Plus,
He lives up to his title, unlike that Base Mewtwo.

Team Rocket's Mewtwo- Well, this card is a miracle in more ways than one.
First of all, he has 3 attacks. 2nd, his first attack, Damage Swap, makes
all deck players who get him in their hand want to go 2nd. Then, Wave
Hypnotism isn't that bad. 20 damage is moderate, but a 25% chance of sleep
isn't exactly your best option. But, his 3rd attack is the one that
dominates. Psycho Burn; the attack of Sabrina's Alakazam on a Basic Pokemon!
Sweet! 60 Damage for PPC? Broken. I wish I had some.

Mr. Mime- So, some people say he belongs in a stall deck only? Wrong. After
Psyburning, send the Mime out and meditate. 50 damage? Ain't too shabby.
Plus, when paired with Curse, it seems to get better. Also, he's the only
Pokemon I know of whose weakness actually helps. And, I don't find it bad to
stall, if you need to power a Gengar or couldn't get that early Energy
Absorption in.

Scyther- You don't want Wigglytuff to come along and start whipping you
Pokemon into submission, do you? No, of course not! So, that's why Scyther's
here. Unfortunately, Wigglytuff will be able to KO him faster than he'll be
able to hurt Wigglytuff.

Wigglytuff- Well, though he'll probably be a lot less popular when
Bellsprout Temple comes out, not every deck will have one. They'll follow
the advice of Pojo's and use Ecolo Gym instead. Of course, in most cases
Pojo's right, but against Wiggly decks, Bellsprout Temple is a must.

Bellsprout Temple- Hmm, I think I've just found the cure for that so-called
'tuff' nuisance that's always plaguing Psychic Decks; Bellsprout Temple.
Wigglytuff does 30 damage for 3 Energy, and that's if your opponent has a
full bench! Ha! Just be sure not to use one with Wiggly in your deck.

Well, I'm sure there are plenty others, but that's all I can think of today.

Props:
To Toys 'R' Us for holding this tourney
For the guy in the first match, for a good game

E-mail me at Velocirapto17@hotmail.com

~Matthew~