Braintree, MA  STS Qualifier, Family Report
by The Marquis
South Shore Plaza
Braintree, MA
Saturday, October 7, 2000
Probably a full 288 participants.


Here's my family report for the STS qualifier tour stop Oct 7th in
Braintree, Mass. I'm the Dad, and my kids JL (age 7) and JE (age 5)
enjoy the art of deckbuilding and beating me.   We have little tournaments
among ourselves, then fix or redo the loser decks, switch decks with one
another, and start again.  This, however, was to be our first organized
event.

 We packed four decks for the tournament, but I was expecting the just the
7-year-old and myself to enter, and the 5 year old to watch and play on the
side.  We took an Arcanine/Magmar/Vileplume deck that JE likes,  a version
of a  Freezing Rain deck that JL likes,  A Wiggly/Hitmon/Clefable deck,  and
my new Dark Vileplume deck..   Losing 2/3 games to the Arcanine deck
resulted in a recent overhaul to the Dark Vileplume deck, but I still  had
an irresistible urge to try such a deck in a tournament.

To the tournament!

RISK OF SIDE EFFECTS deck, played by Dad

    The purpose of this deck is to disrupt the opponent's card
management with Dark Vileplume and Rocket's Trap,  slow down their offense
with status effects using the combined Pokemon Powers of Snorlax, Dark
Gloom, and Drowzee (TR),  then use the ever-popular Scyther an MP Mewtwo for
offense. 

Pokemon: 18
4 Oddish (TR)
3 Dk Gloom
2 Dark Vileplume 
2 Scyther
1 Rocket's Scyther
2 Drowzee (TR)
2 Snorlax
2 MP Mewtwo

Energy: 24
3 Double Colorless Energy
2 Full Heal Energy
9 Grass Energy
10 Psychic Energy

Trainers: 18
3 Professor Oak
2 Pokemon breeder
1 Pokemon Trader
3 CPU
2 Bill
1 Nightly garbage run
2 Boss's Way
2 Imposter Oak's Revenge
1 Rocket's Trap
1 Rocket's Sneak Attack

Round 1 vs. Paul (another Dad) with  Wiggly/Hitmon/MPM/Chansey

I start with no basics.  He draws 2 and opens with Hitmonchan.  I have TR
Drowzee and TR Oddish.  I got Hitmon poisoned and soon got a Scyther out
with a grass and a DCE.

He plays energy removal on the DCE, but his Hitmon is up to about 60 damage
so he scoops it.  Then, he Oaks, (losing the Hitmon) -soon he has an MP
Mewtwo, Chansey, and Wiggly.  I have my own Mewtwo and Rocket's Scyther. 

I lose an Oddish and I think a Scyther, but manage to slow him with Rocket
Scyther's Shadow Image and Drowzee's Pokemon power.  I luck out further by
playing Rocket's Sneak Attack - he's holding 2 energy cards and an Oak..
Goodbye Oak..   I play Dark Vileplume shortly afterward out of desperation,
but it's too late - although I take a prize or two, he draws several
Pokemon, sends out Wiggly, slaps down 3 on the bench, and does the wave.
His having both Wiggly and Chansey with resistance to Psychic was  a stopper
when all I had pumped was MP Mewtwo. 

Time is called and I lose 4-2,  with me showing that I could do little more
than slow down one of the popular deck types.  Back to the deck garage.

Where the heck is my son?  He's not where I last saw him!!!   Boy, the
little guy was really nervous.  I hope he's OK...


FREEZING RAIN,  played by JL

This deck is based on a right-out-of-the-book Freezing Rain deck, with the
dark pokemon used to make up for our lack of a more Blastoises. Actually
Dark Blastiose and Dark Wartortle are not bad.   I thought the Energy Flow
trainer and the No Removal Gym stadium card might be interesting in such a
deck., and added a Dark Gyarados.  Otherwise this is one my son had played
with for a while with some success against myself and Sis.

Pokemon (22):
4 Squirtle (base)
1 Dark Wartortle
1 Wartortle
2 Blastoise
1 Dark Blastoise
3 Seel
2 Dewgong
2 Magikarp  (TR)
1 Dark Gyarados
1 Gyrados
2 Lapras
2 Articuno

Trainers (18):
3 Pokemon Breeder
2 Computer Search
1 Energy Flow
3 Energy Retrieval
1 No Removal Gym
3 Oak
3 Bill
2 Gust of Wind

Energy:
20 Water Energy


Round 1:  JL vs a girl with a water/psychic deck.

Had to miss the very beginning.  When I went to look, JL had Dewgong vs her
Lapras.  She had MP Mewtwo on the bench.   His hand looked to be energy,
Blastoise and a couple of other Stage 1 or 2's.  He drew a Squirtle, pumped
Dewgong.  OK, he's got a shot.  I have to go get my deck checked (his age
group started before mine).    Turned out the girl never got another Pokemon
beyond those 2.   JL won it using Dewgong's Aurora Beam.
Way to go, son!
Son 1-0,  Dad 0-1.

Round 2  JL vs a boy with a fighting/fire deck,

Missed this while losing my game but got the summary from my son.   JL opened
with Seel to Dewgong again.  His opponent began bringing out
Hitmonlee,Machops, Charmanders/Charmeleons while JL was attaching energy.
Oops - the opponent comes up with a couple of Energy Removals against
Dewgong; meanwhile Blastoise is nowhere to be found.   JL draws the sole No
Removal Gym card in his deck and plays it.  Dewgong take a little damage but
is soon back up to speed.  ( The following is not for the pokemon parents who
are faint of heart)  Dewgong layeth the splasheth downeth and JL wins on
prizes, 6-0.  He said his young opponent "looked sad" at this outcome.

Son 2-0, Dad 0-1.   (Uh, son, making the old man look bad aren't we?)

Round 3. JL vs older kid with standard Scyther, MPMewtwo, etc.

Earlier when I joked about not being able to find my son, it was because he
won and went to the next area.   JL drew a few Pokemon, probably
Seel/Dewgong again against I think Scyther.   Also a Rocket's Magikarp which
he evolved to Dark Gyarados.   JL plays a Professor Oak, but gets a Squirtle,
another Oak, and a bunch of energy.  He does what he can but without
Blastoise and some backup help like Lapras or Articuno, it's an uphill
battle.   I can see my son's hand from outside the play area - about 5
energy cards and the second Oak.   My son is always reluctant to play Oak;
I'm sure he was thinking that the next card he drew would be a Blastoise or
a CPU, and he did not want to throw away a handful of energy.  I resisted
the fatherly urge to yell "Oak"  and watched him go down to defeat.
Dark Gyarados' Final Beam may have taken one opponent's pokemon out, and
that's
the only prize my son got that game before all of his pokemon were defeated.
He was a very good sport and was incredibly thrilled and surprised to get 4
booster packs.  Later, his mother was surprised to find he was one win away
from a trip to the East Coast STS.

Final Record  Son 2-1, Dad ... never mind


Props:
    To my son, for winning the first two tournament games he ever played
and being a good sport.
    To Dewgong for obvious reasons.
    To the event organizers - everyone I dealt with was friendly and
courteous, was able to deal with both adults and kids - there were many
other activities besides the qualifier tournament and my 5-year-old had lots
of fun as well.  I'd recommend the mall tour even if you're not
the most serious of competitors; go early, bring your best deck, and plan to
spend a few hours.
there. 

Best regards, we enjoy your site.
The Marquis
MarqofTwdl@aol.com