Arlington, Va  (I live in Fairfax)
Comics and Cards
August 28, 2000





I went to a tourney as a early tune up for the east coast STS
Qualifier.  The bad thing about the ECSTS is that the nearest qualifier
is in Maryland.  This is was a great time to playtest this deck.  I call
this deck Raichu's Electrifying Party.  It is built in the mold of the
ever popular Haymaker.  This deck is more geared to cover its glaring
fighting weakness with Zapdos and Scyther.  Hitmonchan can take on
'Buzz.  'Buzz kills off all those annoying RainBallarena decks.  Scyther
takes on everthing well except Magmar.  If I run into a Wiggly deck
while at the ECSTS, Zapdos handles that very fast, for the small price
of discarding 4 Electric Energy, he takes out everything but Charizard
and Chansey.  Hitmonchan handles the Chansey, and not many people play a
good Charizard deck, that has beaten me with this deck yet.  I havn't
gotten a list of Gym Heroes cards, but as soon as Blaines Arcanine comes
out there will be nothing that will stop it.  That card will be in
almost every cleaner in the world.  120 damage while discarding 3 Fire
Energy ain't that bad, considering that a NGR get those back in a
flash.  If only it had Charizards Pokemon Power.  I would stick that in
a Raindance deck no matter what.  Well, enough about the best card in
the game.  Here is the deck.




Pokemon

3 Electabuzz
4 Pikachu (2 Jungle, 1 MP Pikachu, and 1 non-movie promo)
3 Raichu ( 1 Dark, and 2 Base set)
3 Hitmonchan
3 Scyther
1 Basic Zapdos


Trainers

4 SER
3 Bill
1 ER
2 Plus Power
1 Gust of Wind
2 Professor Oak
2 Item Finder
1 Computer Search
1 Energy Retrival
1 NGR


Energy

14 Lightning
9 Fighting
2 DCE




That's the deck.  I hope you liked it.  I can remove 13 energy and not
lose but 1 energy.  And those of you who think this stops for No Removal
Gym, think again.  This deck mowes through decks that use that card.  I
dont need to remove energy to win.  That is the weakness of most decks.
I hear some people whinning about how they got a bad hand.  Sometimes it
is just poor deck construction.  Same thing with not getting enough
energy.  You probably need to have more card drawing in your deck.  A
hint to all you playing Wiggly decks, don't use Challenge, because if
someone has a 'Chan or 2 or 3 or 4, that bad boy will destroy you.
Unless you are sure that your opponent has no fighting pokemon, don't
use Challenge.  Haymakers will get all the more stronger if you simply
let them dig for all those Hitmonchans, Electabuzzes, Magmars, or
Scythers.  I don't care how much ER and Plus Power you have.  Unless you
want to take the risk of getting your a-- kicked, don't do it.  Oak and
Bill are great ways to get the cards you need, and if your useing the MP
Mewtwo, Computer Searches become 2x better.  Enough tips.  I hope you
all learned a lesson.  I learned this the hard way when I lost a tourney
in the finals because of a Challenge that I played.  Here are the
results of my tune up League day.




Game 1     Me vs a HitmonMuk ('Lees, 'Chans, and Muks)

I won the coin flip.  I got a hand of 1 Scyther, 1 Ivy League Pikachu,
1 DCE, 2 Electric Energy, 1 Dark Raichu, and 1 Professor Oak.  I laid
down the Scyther to face his lone Hitmonchan and benched Pikachu.  I
played an Electric on Scyther.  He played a fighting on Hitmonchan.  I
played my DCE, Evolved Pikachu into Dark Raichu, and slashed.  He played
a Grimer and played another fighting on Hitmonchan.  Then he passed. I
drew a Pluspower.  I played it on Scyther, played an Electric Energy on
Dark Raichu.  I then slashed for the K.O..  My prize was a Scyther.  He
played Grimer and Evolved into Muk.  This didn't help him.  He then
remembered he had no grass in his deck.  He then ended his turn.  I
played a Zapdos, then Oaked.  I nabbed 5 Electric Energy and 2
Hitmonchans.  After 4 more turns.  He still had no more pokemon and my
Zapdos had 4 Electric energy on it.  Thunderbolt for the K.O. and the
win.

Record 1-0-0

Between Matches, I bought a Rocket Booster and got a holo Dark Arbok.
It's a great card.  "Wow!", I said when I looked at it's 2nd attack.  10
damage to all opponents pokemon and poison.  This card could combine
well with ER and Dark Muk very well.  I decided to make a deck out of
it.  So I sat down, looked over my cards looking for some other color
that goes well with Grass.  I picked water for obvious reasons (see
weakness and resistance in your pokemmon rule book).  So I decided to
make a ststus effect deck with Dark Arbok, Dark Muk, Venomoth, Articuno
and Lapras.  I added in a 3-1-3 Blastoise chain(3 Squirtle, 1 Wartortle
,  3 Blastoise).  This deck seemed pretty good.  I bought another TR
booster and nabbed a non-holo Rocket Sneak Attack.

Game 2 Me vs a raindance  ( I call them soaked balarena decks.)

I got out Electabuzz vs his active Blastoise and benched Gyrados.  I
thunder punched with 2 Plus Power for the K.O. on Blastoise.  By this
time he had 2 prizes left to my 5.  He brought out Gyrados and Dragon
Raged for 50.  I Retreated Electabuzz for Scyther and slashed.  He
gusted out Buzz and K.O.ed it, but no before ERing away my DCE on
Scyther.  I passed.  He then used 1 Item Finder to get 1 Plus Power then
Oaked.  He got another Oak and used it.  He had 0 cards in his deck, so
if he didnt kill my Scyther that turn, he would lose.  He didn't get the
other Plus Power he needed and gave up.  What A MATCH!

Record 2-0-0


I decided to play against him again.  I asked him to use his Wiggly.  My
reason was that I needed to practice against all the archtype decks I
could, because there was no doubt in my mind that I would see a lot of
archtype decks at the qualifier.  I also bought a Gym Heroes pack and
got a Blaine's Moltres.

Game 3  Me vs same kids Wiggly deck (I call them Jello decks.)

This one was quick.  Hitmonchan+Pluspower+Fighting Energy=Dead 1st turn
Jigglypuff.

Record 3-0-0

This was a good tune up for the qualifier.  Now it was up to me and my
friend Kevin Ford to help me think of all different types of decks,
build them, and play them against my Deck.


Props to people for playing
Props to the day Blaines Arcanine comes out
Props to Wiggly players who don't use Challenge
Props to Kevin Ford for trading me Dark Raichu, Dark Dragonite, and Dark
Magneton for 3 Pokemon Breeders

No Slopz 



 E-mail me, Henry, @ Darth_Maul_Sith_Lord@hotmail.com