Hi

Hi! KarateKid13 here! My little sister (my mom says i can't say her name on the internet) and I were at a tourney at “The Card Shop” in Denver, Colorado, on September 20^th, 2000. Around 60 people (an all-time record) came for the 10-and-older tourney that I was in, and about 14 came for the 9 and under tourney; which my little sister was in. This time, they were non-archetype tourneys; so I couldn’t play my “do the jig” deck. So, instead, I played my “Char” deck. My little sister was playing her “Psy Squad” deck. Well, here they are:

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4 Magmar (fossil) (a great starter, can stall or go aggressive)

4 Charmander (rocket) (currently, I’m experimenting to see if rocket or base is better)

3 Charmeleon (base) (yummy…80hp, flamethrower, and an evolution that can really kill)

2 Charizard (guess what? BIG RED’S BACK! he’s mostly for cleaning up, though)

4 Electabuzz (base) (I needed some stuff to counter water)

10 Fire (for *duh* the fire pokemon)

6 Electric (for *duh* the buzzes)

4 DCE (for charizard)

2 No Removal Gym (DUH, this is a FIRE deck)

4 Bill (umm…good?)

3 Oak (a sheer GAMEBREAKER)

4 CPU Search (see above)

3 NGR (get that energy back!)

4 PlusPower (charizard + 2 pluspower = dead chansey)

3 GOW (this card has saved my butt so many times)

Ok, so it may not be my best deck I’ve ever made, but it works. Its strategy is to stall with magmar until you have a pumped up charmeleon, and attack your heart out. Then, get a charizard to clean up.

Now, here’s the deck my little sister was using:

3 MP Mewtwo (all on loan from me)

Ok, so I helped her make it a little bit, but she insisted some stuff stay in. This deck’s strategy is to whittle away with erika’s dratini while keeping it alive with potion, and move around the damage counters with gengar. Or, use misty’s wrath, CPU, or oak, discard energy, and absorb it with mewtwo. Then attack, and move around damage with gengar. Ditto is there just in case of heavy hitters, and chansey is there to clean up.

This would be the first tourney that more than one person in my family would be in, so we decided to make a team name. TEAM ANDROMEDA!

The 10-and-older tourney would be a 6-prize Double-Elimination (lose twice and you’re out) Prizes-for-first-second-and-third tourney. My little sister was in the 9-and-under tourney. I was in the 10-and-older tourney. So here’s my report, followed by my little sister’s report:

Round 1 vs. kid with Dark Weezing deck:

He had a scyther and 2 koffings. I had some magmars and a ‘buzz. The judge thought I was playing hay, but I let him look at my deck and he said “oh sorry” and shuffled it and put it back down. Well, long story short, my magmars toasted his scyther. He got a dark weezing a few turns later, but it was no match for a charmeleon with a pluspower. He got a scyther, which killed my energy-less buzz with help from pluspower. I then proceeded to k.o. that scyther and his last koffing for the win (he ran out of basics).

Round 2 vs. woman with Infinity deck:

AAUUUGGH! I HATE INFINITY DECKS! I knew that it was an infinity deck, because what self-respecting human being uses (fossil) slowpoke in a non-infinity deck? I decided to go aggressive and take out her basics before they evolved. So, basically, my ‘buzz took out a slowpoke while I was pumping up a charmeleon. She played a chansey, but I had a trick up my sleeve. I kept gusting out slowpokes and (rocket) dratinis until all she had was chansey. I evolved charmeleon into charizard, attached a DCE, and burned through my deck for 2 pluspowers; attached them, used energy burn, and fire blasted. 120 damage. No more basics for her. I win.

Round 3 vs. kid with Dark Charizard deck:

I got 2 charmanders, and he got 2 (rocket) charmanders and a (rocket) dratini. I figured that he would evolve dratini into dk. dragonair and use dragonair’s pokemon power to get a dk. charizard and breeder a charmander. I had to kill that dratini! I attached an energy, oaked, billed, and searched, attached 2 pluspowers along the way, gusted that dratini, and killed it. Long story short, I KOed a charmander, a scyther, and my regular charizard toasted his dark charizard. I then proceeded to kill another dratini. He gusted my magmar, and his dark charmeleon fireballed it successfully and killed it. My charmeleon toasted his dark charmeleon, and I won!

Round 4 vs. guy with Lapras/Dewgong/Hitmonchan deck:

Wow. He had a great deck. It was my charmander vs. his lapras. Guess who won? Hint: I had no card drawing.

My mom thought that I was out of the tourney. But I wasn’t done for yet! Now I was in the loser’s half of the tourney, which meant I could still make it to the finals!

Round 5 vs. Kid with Chansey/Erika’s Dratini/Mr. Mime deck:

Well, let’s see…my ‘buzzes thundershocked his erika’s dratinis into oblivion, my charmanders and ‘buzzes took care of his mimes, and my charizard cleaned up his chanseys with the help of pluspowers.

Semifinals vs. girl with Buzzapdos deck:

She had a voltorb and 2 (base) zapdoses. After some early damage from her voltorb, I got a charmeleon, and used slash w/pluspower on voltorb for a kill. Luckily, she didn’t have any card drawing other than bills, so she only got out another voltorb. Long story short, I evolved my charmeleon into charizard, played a no removal gym, and kept fire blasting and attaching DCEs until she had no more basics.

Finals vs. guy with Aerodactyl Potpourri deck: (note: the judge said that potpourri wasn’t technically an archetype)

Long story short: whenever he got out an aerodactyl, I gusted it and killed it with a charmeleon I’d gotten when he had no aeros. My ‘buzz took care of his (rocket) squirtles that killed 2 of my charmanders. Once I killed a third aerodactyl, I was ahead in prizes whereas I had one and he had four. So, I just gusted out a scyther he had sitting around, and used flamethrower for the win.

No one could believe that I’d won the tourney with a charizard deck. I got 2 booster boxes! I got 1 Base2, and 1 Gym.

The 9-and-under tourney would be a 4-prize single-elimination (lose once and you’re out) prize-for-first-place tourney.

I figured that, because it started after the tourney I was in, I’d go watch it.

Now, here’s my little sister’s report from the 9-and-under division:

Round 1 vs. kid with Seadra/Kingler/Dewgong deck:

Basically, my little sister claimed her first two prizes with an MP mewtwo, then CPU searched for a chansey; which cleaned up the last two prizes. I caught the very end of this match, so my mom had to tell me what happened.

Round 2 vs. kid with Colorless deck:

Here’s how it went: my little sister got a 2^nd turn gengar, and an erika’s dratini with a DCE. So, all she did was play a no removal gym, whittle away with erika’s dratini, keeping it alive with potion; while moving around damage with gengar. That managed to claim 3, count ‘em, 3 prizes. So she CPU searched for a chansey, attached 2 DCEs over the course of 2 turns, retreated her erika’s dratini, and put out chansey. Then, my little sister’s chansey double-edged a tauros for the win.

Semifinals vs. kid with Turbo Dk. Hypno deck:

Let’s see…by the 5^th turn, a full-fledged war was taking place. My little sister’s gengars taking out dk. hypnos left and right, while the other kid was squashing MP mewtwos and the like. They were down to 1 prize each. Gut-check time. My little sister had an idea. She burned through her deck, getting potions to heal her chansey with a DCE and 70 damage. She finally used 2 potions, reducing the damage to 30. She attached a DCE, retreated her hurting erika’s dratini, promoted chansey, and double-edged. The other kid’s MP mewtwo went down in all its glory. Chansey had 110 damage on it, 10 away from being KOed. My little sister won!

Finals vs. kid with Arcanine/Charmeleon/Magmar deck:

No one could’ve thought that it’d be this easy: my sister, with gastlys, a chansey, and an MP mewtwo vs. a lowly growlithe. The other kid apparently didn’t have any card drawing, so my sister just attached 2 DCEs over the course of 2 turns, and double-edged for the win.