The ICTOAN (Fire)
by James Kimbell
Tri County Mall
Cincinnati, Ohio
Saturday, 9/16/2000
WAY too many people too count(288 was the limit for the qualifier tournament,
but a lot more people showed up)

EAST COAST STS QUALIFIER TOURNAMENT MALL TOUR

    WAAAASSSSSSSSSUUUUUPPPPP!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
    Sorry, I just had to do that.
    I endured the 2 hour drive to the ECSTS Qualifier in Cincinnati, and got
there just on time. The line was had already reached "big," and was
approaching "huge" status. I talked to people, and met a couple of my friends
from Pokemon Aaah!(I'm DarkVenusaur.) After a LONG wait, I got an appointment
card and was told to get my deck checked. I did, and the lady that was
working there thought my DCI card was fake or something(It was one of the old
ones, with the different picture, and the number was one digit less than on
the new ones.) She accepted it though, but kept recounting my deck, seemingly
convinced that I had five Oak. She finally let me go to the next station,
where I was given a necklace thingy that told me what table I would be
sitting at in each round. Before I say any more, here's my decklist:

ICTOAN (I Can't Think Of A Name):
3 Fossil Magmar
3 Chansey
2 Erika's Dratini
2 Scyther
9 Fire Energy
4 DCE
4 Bill
4 Professor Oak
4 Energy Removal
4 Rocket's Sneak Attack
4 Nightly Garbage Run
3 Gust of Wind
3 Computer Search
3 Item Finder
3 Plus Power
3 Scoop Up
2 Narrow Gym

    Reasoning: I thought Wiggly would be popular, so I put in Chansey, Fossil
Magmar(for Scyther,) Scyther(for Hitmonchan, which was in a lot of wiggly
decks there,) and Narrow Gym. I thought Trapper would be popular, so I put in
Erika's Dratini, Chansey, and big card drawing. I knew Hay/InSaNiTy/Sponge
would be popular, so I put in Erika's Dratini(which is also in for the
occasional Articuno, which I saw a few of.) I thought Erika's Dratini would
be popular, so I used a BBP that can poison(Magmar.) Everything else is just
good. Now, onto the matches(I didn't catch even one of my opponents' names,
I'll call them all ???):

Exhibition Match: Me vs. ??? with ???
    I had an Erika's Dratini to his Chansey. He must not've known Drat's
power, because he double edged it, I showed him, and he went "crap!" I Tail
Struck with a plus power and got heads for the win.

Round 1: Me vs. ??? with water
    I started with an Erika's Dratini and Tail Struck a few Rocket Squirtle
to death, sufferring only minimal damage.

Round 2: Me vs. ???  with haymaker
    I HATE LICKITUNG. He kept SERing my Chansey, and stalled with a lickitung
the whole game. Late in the game, he took a 20-min turn, leaving me like 40
seconds for mine. I had no way to get all my prizes and I had less deck than
him when time was about to run out, and I had no chance of winning, so I
Oaked twice and decked myself at the last second. 

    I was out of the tournament, so I ran over to 'Pokémon Central' to sign
up for another. THEY WERE FULL UNTIL TOMORROW, NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!
My dad couldn't take me the second day, so no invitation for me. But hey, I
still had 3 hours of fun left! So I went to Chick-Fil-A and ate lunch, got
some Ice Cream at this little candy shop-type place, and bought some
way-overpriced Gym:Heroes boosters. I went to Misty's Fun Zone and made a
"Slooch" card. Then I went to ths thing called a 'King of the Hill'
Tournament where the object is to defend your 'hill' by winning 3 battles in
a row. Here's what happened there:

Round 1: Me vs. ??? with wierd deck
    I won third turn by scrunching, double edging a clefairy, then double
edging an abra.

Round 2: me vs. ??? with haymaker
    This guy kept saying, "Damnit!" real loud every time I energy removed,
RSAed, or KOed one of his Pokémon(And I did those things a lot.) His
Electabuzz put up a good fight, but I got the right coinflips and poisoned
them.

Round 3: Me vs. ??? with Wiggly
    I stripped his hand down to pure energy with all 4 RSAs and whooped up on
his lone jigglypuff for the win.

    Next I went to the league Zone, which is just like  Pokémon League.
Here's what happened there:

Me vs. ??? with Wiggly
    I got a Narrow Gym out turn 2, and he didn't have any Gyms to discard it,
so he was stuck doing ten less damage, and needing an extra plus power to KO
magmar and scyther. I RSAed and ERed him to death, and beat up on his worn
out Pokémon.

Me vs. Same Guy that I played King of the Hill Round 2
    I won second turn, double edging his magmar.

Me vs. Old Guy with grass deck
    I destroyed his weedle and grimer with magmar and dratini on turn 5 or 6.
He was a really nice guy, and we talked about stuff for a while.

Props and Slops:
    Props to: Wizards and Nintendo for hosting such a Kewl event for FREE!
    Props to: My opponents for being good sports
    Props to: Andy Jacobs(The Dirty Bum) for winning one of the 15+  Tourneys
    Props to: The Wizards for letting you transfer the STS points into league
points
    Slops to: The staff for not knowing anything about Pokémon

James Kimbell
Jakimbell@aol.com