Winter Heaven, Florida
Downtown Comics
4-29-200

Well, this has been my favorite comic book store since I was five, and when
Pokémon was released, Matt (The store owner) started holding tournaments
right after the Magic tournaments that are held. Only about ten people showed
up for this. Really low turn out, because most of the people had the flu or a
really bad cold. But that didn't make it any easier. All of the hardcore
players were up and running. I used my trusty Ghostly Flames deck, which is
listed right here:


Fossil Magmar -- 4 (The best basic Fire Pokémon. Period.)

Fossil Gastly -- 3 (Not all that bad.)

Fossil Haunter -- 3 (One of the best stallers. And you have to love
auto-sleep.)

Gengar -- 2 (He rules. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.)

Mr. Mime -- 2 (Gotta love the power.)

League Promo Mew -- 3 (Psywave is not bad, and Devolution Beam can put a hurt
on any deck.)

Bill -- 4 (What can you say? Card advantage beats all.)

Mr. Fugi -- 2 (A highly underrated card... as long as something is on your
bench, it's like a Scoop Up that saves your prescious energy. And refills
your draw pile if you need it.)

Energy Removal -- 3 (You have to disrupt some way. This hurts. A lot.)

Super Energy Removal -- 2 (Hurts even more than regular one.)

Gust of Wind -- 3 (A great disruptor... gets out those weak basics.)

Super Potion -- 3 (Too much energy involved for Centers, but these are good.)

Psychic Energy -- 16

Fire Energy -- 10


And now... *Drum roll* Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages... Lets get
ready to rumble!


~^~ Round One! *DING!* ~^~
The Ghostly Flames versus The Venomous Rain Forest
    This match had been pretty much laid out for me from the start, because
he was playing with Grass and Poison Pokémon, and I was playing with Fire and
Psychic. Although it did end up lasting longer than I expected. He started
off with a Koffing, along with a Scyther and Bulbasaur on the bench. I had a
Gastly up, along with Mr. Mime and Magmar on the bench. He won the toss and
attached a G energy to Koffing. I drew, played a Psychic energy, and licked.
No paralysis but 20 damage. He laid another G energy, Gusted out Mr. Mime,
and Confused him. Now I was a bit worried. I drew, played my newly discovered
Haunter, attacked an Energy to Magmar, and passed. After a few more rounds,
the Mime was gone, a Gengar was powered on my bench, a non-powered Venusaur
was on his, along with a Iron Grip-ing Pinsir and his Scyther. I sent out
Magmar and drew... just what I needed! :-) Fire Energy! I threw it down on
Magmar, used Smog, and thankfully, Poisoned it for the KO. One prize each so
far. He sent out Pinsir, played an Enegy on Scyther, and Iron Gripped. No
para. I drew, played Mew with a Psychic Energy, and Smogged. Yet another
poison.  He tossed down a DCE and managed to KO Magmar, but Pinsir also bit
the dust because of Poison. Still a tie. He Promoted Scyther, while I
promoted a benched Magmar. I drew, played a Gust on a benched Bulbasaur, and
Smokescreened. Another turn and a Smog killed off the Bulbasaur. 3-2, Me. He
promoted Scyther again and laid down a DCE. He slashed, giving Magmar a
healthy 30 damage. Now it was time to bring out the big gun. I Gusted out
Venusaur, did a little Curse, and promoted Gengar, I Fugied Magmar, which
really pissed off my opponent, then laid down 30 damage plus ten to the
bench. His Venusaur was helpless, since he only had 2 Grass and one DCE in
play, so he played another Grass,and Scyther to the bench, and passed. I beat
Curse damage from one benched Scyther to the other, my mind now seeing the
perfect solution. Dark Mind, leaving Venusaur with only 30 HP left and a
benched Scyther with 40 damage. Another round went by, and he played another
grass on Scyther and passed. I KOed Venusaur my next turn, and left the bench
with 10 on one Scyther and 50 on another. Naturally, he promoted the lass
damaged and got in a Slash. Anoher Dark Mind, Defending with 40 and benched
with 60. He Slashed again, then Dark Mind finished off both Scythers, Giving
me all six prizes and a no bencher. Not a bad first match.

Score -- 1/0

~^~ Round Two! *DING!* ~^~
The Ghostly Flames versus a Turbo Wiggly Haymaker.
    Well, there wasn't much Turbo going on. He started off with Jigglypuff
and Scyther. I started off with Magmar and Gastly. I won the toss, and
Scyther took a fast 20 damage from Smokescreen. He laid a DCE on Jiggly and
passed. I drew, evolved Gastly, laid another Fire energy, Smogged, Poisoned,
and got a KO. He promoted Jigglypuff, played a Hitmonchan. He pounded for 20.
I drew, laid a Psychic energy on Gastly, and Smogged. No Poison. He drew,
laid an F energy on 'chan, Pounded again. I drew, laid down another Psychic
energy on Haunter, and Smogged. Poison this time. He drew, laid down another
F energy on 'chan, and pounded. Magmar had 60 and Jiggly died because of
poison.  I laid down what my second prize had been... namely Gengar. Attached
a Psychic energy, and let Magmar Smog. No poison. Next round a Special Punch
killed off Magmar and I promoted Gengar. Dark Mid killed it.

Score -- 2/0

~^~ Round Three! *DING!* ~^~
The Ghostly Flames versus a greatly modified Psyshock
    This match was too fast, He had out Abra and I had out Gastly, with
Magmar on the bench. Two rounds of Licks won the game.

Score -- 3/0

And now, for the Downtown Comics main event! A tangle of the titans! A
gridlock of the giants! In this corner, loaded with his so-far undefeated
Ghostly Flames deck...  *BEEP*! And in this corner, with his own undefeated
Earth Rattler deck... Dennis! Let the match begin!

~^~ Round Four! *DING DING DING!* ~^~
    Now, I have played this person before. And he is extremely good. The fact
that he made a deck with Dugtrios and Fearows work is amazing. He started off
with a mostly full bench -- Hitmonchan, Hitmonlee, Diglett, and Spearow up
front. I had Mew, Mime, Magmar, and another Magmar up front. Normally when I
play him, I have to wait for him to deck himself. And this was one of those
occations. We got in some damage here and there, but we were taking turns
ERing and SERing. When you add in retreats, we had both drained our decks of
energy on about turn sixty. It was a waiting game. Then he played a card that
made my hear stop. He laid down a Gambler. If he only had to draw one card I
was screwed. I watched as the coin flipped through the air, it seemed as if
it were moving in slow motion. And it landed... spinned a few times... and
flopped down... on... HEADS!! He was forced to draw eight cards. And only
eight cards were left in his draw pile. I drew, passed since I didn't have
enough energy to attack, and won since he had no draw pile left.

Score -- 4/0

And when the dust settled, I was the only one left standing. Everyone had
lost at least once, except me, so I took home First Prize... five booster
backs. I got an Alakazam out of one, so it wasn't too bad.

~^~ Props ~^~
To my deck, for being tried and true.
To Matt for holding the tournaments at his store... he's one cool guy!
To all my opponents for accepting defeat without trying to punch my lights
out like Magic players do...

~^~ Slops ~^~
To all those danged ERs and SERs in Dennis's deck...
Matt's dice rolls to make me play Dennis in the finals...


Send anything ya want to to me -- Hawk -- <A
HREF="mailto:blazinghawk@aol.com">blazinghawk@aol.com</A>.