Super Sponge
(Psychic and Lighting)
High Point, NC 10-14-00
Will Cousins

Hello everybody! I was able to go to the STS qualifier
tourney in High Point, NC last weekend. I know I am
writing this a little late, but I was busy. Well...I
might as well get on with my report...We (Me, my
friend, my brother, mom, and dad) stayed at a hotel on
friday night. We woke up and arrived at the mall at
about 8:30. We stood in line, did a little battling,
and also made a few trades. And while I am talking
about trading, I traded a resistance gym for a promo
#7 jigglypuff! I talked with this kid who was from the
area who had drived all the way up to Maryland just to
go to one of the qualifiers. When 10:00 came around,
the line started to move, and the line moved quite
quickly, I may add. When we went through the line,
they gave each of us a flight card and a bad with some
goodies like a prerelease misty's seadra. I then went
and got my deck checked (and it was legal incase you
wanted to know.) Then I had to wait around for 11
'oclock to come around. Well, when it was eleven
oclock they gave every participant a little id thingy
that told you your player number and where you would
be sitting. I was player number 11. Well...that is
about all, so here is my deck:

Pokemon # 10

3 Movie Promo Mewtwo
3 Electabuzz
2 Chansey
2 Ditto

Trainers # 32

4 Professor Oak
4 Bill
3 Computer Search
4 Item Finder
4 Energy Removal
2 Super Energy Removal
3 Nightly Garbage Runs
3 Scoop Up
3 Gust of Wind
2 Narrow Gym

Energy # 18

4 Double Colorless Energy
6 Electric Energy
8 Psychic Energy

Well, the strategy is basicly to get a turn two mewtwo
or hit them first turn, and after that, with a ditto
or buzz. Chansey is in there to possibly stall, but
mainly to clean up the board by getting my last two
prizes. And for the Trainers, Oak and Bill for
drawing. Computer Search for searching. Item Finder
for the late game. ER and SER for disruption. Gust of
Wind to kill hitmos with mewtwo and to get easy
prizes. Narrow Gym to fight off No Removal Gym. Scoop
up to save my near dead pokes. Nightly Garbage Run to
prevent decking and get back valueble energy. And the
energy, well, is used to attack.

Here are the matches:
(sorry, I didn't take down anyone's name)

Round 1: Super Sponge vs. New Guy

This guy seemed to be a beginner. And I also got an
awesome opening hand. Mewtwo just blew him out. Poor
guy.

Record: 1-0
Prizes: None Yet
Invitation: Not Yet

Round 2: Super Sponge vs. Hay

This guy had a pretty good deck, and was a fairly good
player. He starts out with 3 hitmos and a scyther to
my lone mewtwo. I go first, I lay down chansey, attach
and energy to Mewtwo and oak discarding some energy.
He jabs me for 20. On my turn I play buzz and attach a
lighning energy to him and psyburn for a ko. He sends
out scyther and passes. I draw, attach another
lightning to buzz, oak, gust out his benched hitmo,
and psyburn him for a ko. He goes, sends out scyther,
attaches a fighting to hitmo, and passes. I draw, play
another mewtwo, attach a psychic to it, and psyburn
his scyther. He attaches an energy to hitmo and
passes. I draw, and get a gust of wind, sweet! I gust
out his last hitmo, oak because it was the only card
in my hand and ko his hitmo with a psyburn from
mewtwo. My deck is pretty low from 3 oaks and numerous
bills. He plays a blaine's quiz 2 I believe and he
told me an attack of a pokemon in his hand. He said
"special punch" hmmmm, hard...NOT! I say hitmo and
draw three cards. He takes it back to his hand and
plays it again and says "special punch". Ohhhh, I see,
he is trying to deck me, but I call over the judge to
tell him that the blaine's quiz 2 doesn't return to
your hand, only the pokemon which you used with it
does. Then he passes. I go and psyburn ko-ing his last
pokemon which happened to be a scyther.

Record: 2-0
Prizes Won: 4 Packs
Invitation: Not Yet

Before the third round: We move to the last area where
we meet Master Trainer Jeff and Master Trainer Faith.
Master Trainer Jeff informs us that by progressing to
this area we have earned not 1, not 2, not even 3,
(gasp) but 4 gym heroes booster packs (Why couldn't
they be Gym Challenge? Arg!.)

Round 3: Super Sponge vs. Wacked up Wiggly

This guy played some kind of weird wiggly deck without
enough trainers and he also had electabuzz, scyther,
and magmar to support wiggly. This was simple, Chansey
took care of his two wigglies and mewtwo did the rest.


Record: 3-0
Prizes Won: 12 packs and a Hat
Invitation: Yes, finally!

Between Matches: Master Trainer Faith asked if we
wanted to sing a song...she suggested 'nsync, but we
weren't really for it.

Round 4: Super Sponge vs. Cleaner

Wow, a Cleaner deck made it to the top 4, maybe decks
that aren't hays or wigglies do stand a chance. He got
a turn 3 'canine and a no removal gym which hurt me,
but I played narrow gym and used a bunch of energy
removals and super energy removals and just smeared
him from there on. It was a good match though.

Record: 4-0
Prizes Won: 24 Packs, a hat, shirt, and a game boy
game.

Round 5: Super Sponge vs. Drayton with Hay

How ironic! I was to play one of my best friends in
the finals. He was using some kind of hay with magmar,
erica's dratini, scyther, chansey, and ditto. He
starts out with magmar and I have mewtwo. He
smokescreens a bit but only to delay the powering up
of my mewtwo. Mewtwo unleashes havoc upon all of his
pokes with the exception of erica's dratini and
chansey, buzz and ditto took care of them. This wasn't
a difficult match at all, I had the upper hand for the
game's entirety. When he realized that I was going to
win, he started to attempt to find ways that I was
"cheating." None of those attempts were valid, I might
add. So, after he's done complaining about how that
the coin making a 179.99999 degree angle with the
table top instead of making a 180 degree angle and how
the flip could have changed if it had landed flat, I
come away with the win.

Record: 5-0
Prizes Won: 36 Packs, Color Game Boy, Pokemon Tcg for
Game boy, a Hat, a Shirt, and an invitation.

So after all is said and done, I leave that day with
a total of 43 FREE BOOSTER PACKS!(36 Gym Heroes, 7
Rocket.) A game boy, a game, a shirt and hat, and also
an invite. Overall, this was a GREAT event. It was all
free and I won prizes that if I was to buy, would cost
way over 150 dollars. Also, while I was there, I
earned 2 promo jigglypuff, to go along with the one I
traded for. And there was this really cool guy who
threw you a twix whenever you asked him. And the best
part is...IT WAS ALL FREE!

Now it is time for Props and Slops, Hooray!

Props

Props to wizards for having a such a great event
Props to all of my opponents for playing a great match
except for drayton
Props to my parents for driving me three and a half
hours all the way to north carolina
Props to the twix guy for giving me a lot of free twix

Slops

Slops to drayton for being annoying and arguing with
coin flips and other junk
Slops to scott g. for his computer crashing (no, I'm
just kidding scott)

Mega slops to Drayton for being unable to pronounce
many words right such as archtype, potpourri, and
props.

Well, thank you all for reading my report, hope to see
you in Jersey!

See ya everyone,

Will Cousins

darkweedle@yahoo.com