Time Warp Comics and Games
Cedar Grove, NJ
Swiss Style Tournament
10+ participants
Entry Fee: $5

As usual, on Saturday June 17 I played in a tournament at Time Warp in Cedar
Grove.  I decided to bring my Clefable Center deck again since I was a little
disappointed with the near miss I had the last time I used it ( the report
for that tournament is in May Killer Decks).  Compared to the usual turnout,
this was a fairly small crowd but the competition was just as intense as
ever.  Once again, here is the Fire/Psychic Clefable Center deck:

Clefable Center V1.0
Pokémon (14)
4 Clefairy (Clefable has to come from something even if it is weak)
3 Clefable (One energy to do all the cool, powerful attacks in the game with
no discard or other costs!)
4 Fossil Magmar (A good low energy attacker that can fend off the swarms of
Scyther played in this area)
3 MP Mewtwo (Gets all his energy back for only one Psychic.  Oh yeah, and he
packs a punch, too.)

Energy (20)
10 Fire
10 Psychic

Trainers (26)
4 Bill
3 Professor Oak
3 Computer Search
3 Gust of Wind
4 Pokémon Center
3 Energy Removal
3 Super Energy Removal
3 Energy Retrieval

Strategy: This deck is so simple to play it scares even me.  The hardest
part, truthfully, is getting Clefable out early enough so that those puny
little Clefairy don't end up as lunch for a hungry Hitmonchan.  Once you've
accomplished that, the beatdown begins.  Use Clefable to send the opponent's
attacks back at them.  You get the advantage during this by healing yourself
with Centers and keeping them low on energy with removals.  Magmar and Mewtwo
are there to help out in the early game, get easy kills via weakness, and
give any needed support later on.  Card drawing and searching are a given and
gust of wind can get the optimal matchup for Clefable and Co.  The retrievals
are there to get back energy discarded with the Centers.   Energy removal has
little or no effect on this deck since all its attackers can operate nicely
using only one energy.

And now, finally, on to the report:

Round 1 vs. WHAT! A BYE?!
That's right, no match this round.  I guess I was lucky but I would have
rather played. (Record:1-0)

Round 2 vs. Kid w/ Raindance Deck
I didn't catch his name and I don't think I've seen him here before.  Anyway,
he couldn't get Blastoise out nearly fast enough and Clefable went to town. 
I started out with Magmar and soon after retreated him and got Clefable up
and running.  I KOed his Articunos with their own moves that were kept low on
energy with a lack of Raindancing and my removals.  Clefable, however slowly,
manged to take out two of his Seels after grueling 10 damage a turn battling.
 I made it through this using a Center.  Clefable, lastly had to face his
Blastoise, which finally reared its ugly head in the late game.  I took 40,
healed with a Center, and dished out 40.  I then took another 40 and dished
out 40 sacrificing Clefable the next turn.  I then brought out a pumped up MP
Mewtwo to finish off his Blastoise for the win.  I collected all six of my
prizes. (Record:2-0)

Round 3 vs. Rob w/ Gengar Deck
Rob and myself were pretty much the only people at the tournament not playing
a popular Archetype.  Rob's deck has the Gengar line, Electabuzz, MP Mewtwo,
Jynx, Chansey, and Dark Golduck thrown in for variety (actually, thrown in to
beat my old turbo Arcanine deck).  This was a long match.  I managed to get
Clefable out fairly early after holding him off with Magmar for a couple of
turns.  Clefable got a few KOs since he could dish out good damage and be
virtually untouched due to resistance.  MP Mewtwo then stepped up and took
out his Gastly only to be KOed himself by a buzz a turn later.  Then, with
the prizes three left for me and four left for him, the game started to slow
down.  I noticed his deck was half the size of my already shrinking deck so i
planned to stall him out.  I tried to get Clefable matched against his
Chansey but ended up slowly KOing a Buzz in the process.  Once I got the
Chansey matchup I scrunched away untill he had one card left in his draw
pile.  He then used a Nightly Garbage Run, but it was too little, too late. 
He couldn't take four prizes in five turns and ended up decking himself.
(Record:3-0)

Final Round vs. Cole w/ Aerodactyl Haymaker
I went first and that helped me out.  Clefable beat Aerodactyl to the table
on turn two since I won the toss.  I then set out to destroy Aero, since
Clefable is weak on fighting.  My active MP Mewtwo accomplished this in two
turns since I gusted him out and Super Removaled him to keep him from
retreating away.   At this point, the deck settled into its familiar rhythm. 
Mewtwo and Clefable comboed to knock out his Buzzes and I used a center or
two to keep damage off the board.  With three prizes remaining for me and
five for him, he was reduced to only a pair of Scythers while I stood with an
active Clefable and a pumped up Magmar on the bench.  I got two slashes in on
each depowered Scyther and using a Center to temporarily survive.  I then
sacrificed Clefable and easily finished off the two remaining Scyther with my
Magmar.  He ran out of basics with one prize left on my side and went
completely bonkers after the match was over! (Record:4-0)

Well, Clefable Center finally won its first tourney.  I got first place
overall and won $20 store credit for my effort.  Not bad for sitting in the
Air Conditioned comic book store playing games all day!  Despite the small
number of people, the competition was great and this tournament was
definitely worth playing in.  Congratulations to James and Cole for coming in
second and third.

-Jim (MrRK9)
<A HREF="mailto:MrRK9@aol.com">MrRK9@aol.com</A>