Deathblow v. 1.1 (Dark/Colorless)
by William Hung
Kings Li Comics
Burbank, California
Saturday, July 21, 2000
11 Participants

Format - 3 rounds of swiss, then finals.

Practice in Pokemon League - Burbank - significant because I made key
changes in the overall deck mechanic and strategy to win the tournament.

Deathblow v. 1.1
Pokemon (18):
4x Jigglypuff (Need this against Brock's Ninetales and Mr. Mime)
4x Wigglytuff (You can figure this out.)
3x Sneasel (Core of the deck)
2x Scyther (Sometimes it is the only effective attacker)
2x Erika's Dratini (Very important against Rocket's Zapdos and Sneasel)
3x Cleffa (Neo - Eeeeeek!)

Trainers (27):
3x Computer Search (Essential)
4x Professor Oak (Can't win without them)
2x Item Finder (would have been more but don't feel the need)
4x Pluspower (helps me KO the tough Pokemon)
3x Ecogym (Can't put up a fight with Haymakers and Zapply / Wiggly
without these)
3x Gust of Wind (no hiding in the bench!)
3x Gold Berry (Devastating when I combine Dark Energy to Wigglytuff)
3x Lass (Good combo with Cleffa)
2x Energy Removal (avoid turn-2 Beat Ups and Do the Waves)

Energies (15):
4x Dark
2x Rainbow
4x Double Colorless
3x Recycle
2x Full Heal

Enough said, here are the key games to the Pokemon League in the morning.

Game #3: I vs. Guy w/ Charizard deck
He had good deck mechanics and the right stall cards, like Fossil Magmar.
He might have cheated on the Recycle Energy when he Energy Burn them and
returned them to his hand after Fire Spin. (I'm not sure what the
rulings are for WotC.) Anyways, I just took this loss by 1 prize.

Record: 2-1

Game #7: I vs. Gym Leader w/ Typhlosion and Dark Charizard
He had a bad hand, with only a 50HP Cyndaquil in play. I risked Sneasel
with Dark, 2 Pluspowers, and Fury Swipes. It did 40 damage and he Gold
Berry promptly. 2 turns later, I tried again, this time with Item Finder
for Pluspower. All TAILS! I knew it would haunt me and I would lose.
After this long swinging back and forth of KOs, he ended it with
Typhlosion's Flame Burst.

Record 5-2

I played about two more matches and packed up, and left. I got my lunch
and I headed down toward the tournament at 3:30 pm. I was quite early.
Thus, I was able to observe some games. Not as hard as I would expect.
I mean if I'm vulnerable to those slow fire decks, then what deck
archetypes can I positively beat? No need to panic. Well, it was one of
those kids named Demitri's birthday. His mom was cool. She served 2
slices of pizza and drinks to everyone. I asked one of the kids about
the prizes and he said only 1 first edition Neo Discovery pack for the $5
entry fee. I thought it was ridiculous. Later during the tourney,
though, there was a drawing for promo cards, booster packs, and a
Birthday Pikachu as Grand Prize. I got a Togepi. Oh, I know it is more
causal than serious gameplay. Demitri traded me a Rocket's Mewtwo, and
he accepted just two non-holo Rainbow Energies. He really gave me a
boost in the collections.

Round 1: I vs. Demitri
There was two sessions of League Tournament. I saw him battling Andrew
for a spot for finals. He failed. Well, I guess I'll have to "ruin" his
birthday dreams of winning the tournament. I started with a great hand.
Cleffa, Sneasel, Erika's Dratini, Jigglypuff, Computer Search, Item
Finder, and Ecogym. He had a Rocket version Dratini, and a Spearow. I
went first by winning the coin flip. I placed a Dark Energy on Sneasel.
I used CPU Search for a Professor Oak. I set down a Scyther and another
Jigglypuff. Fury Swipes. 20. He charges up Spearow. My turn. With
this hand, I got a Recycle so I put that on Jigglypuff. Fury Swipes and
knocked out his Dratini. He plays Double Colorless on Spearow and
evolved to Fearow. Agility. Tails. I got the Double Colorless. I
evolved Jigglypuff to Wigglytuff. Retreated Sneasel, Computer Search for
Pluspower. Game.

Record: 1-0-0

Round 2: Bye (Combination of luck and skill)

Record: 2-0-0

Note: The girl Melanie got a 1st round bye. She ripped through the 2nd
game. Prediction: Finalist

Round 3: I vs. Andrew
I don't know why the store didn't pair us up based on overall records
(1-1-0). Andrew had a bad deck. The Unown D, Unown N, did nothing to
save him. His trainers were weak - coin flips based. Poke Ball - tails.
Energy Ark- tails. Forget Juxtapose. Once Unown N fell, everything
fell prey to Wigglytuff.

Record 3-0-0

I was declared as the finalist. There was Melanie, Cory, Josh, and Max
hanging with 3-0-0 records. So here are the road to the final matches.

Semifinals: I vs. Max Reynolds (Haymaker/ Wiggly)
He gave me a reasonable challenge. We both took the first 5 to 10 turns
to set things up. He got the Wigglytuff out first and couldn't go
through Cleffa. Yes, he has the right mechanics - Comuter Search,
Professor Oak, etc. Anyways, I crushed his Wigglytuff and the rest of
everything by attaching a Dark to Wigglytuff, Gold Berry, Pluspower, full
bench, and there goes his Wigglytuff in the discard pile. No fighting
energies on his hand. So he sent out the Electrabuzz. I retreated with
a Recycle and Dark. Sneasel comes for Beat Up with full bench and one
Dark attached. 3 Heads in a row! KO Electrabuzz. Tries to stall with
Thundershock. Heads. I used Full Heal and another KO with Beat Up.
Then he paralyzed me with Thundershock. Sneasel had 40 damage now. 1
prize left for me. Wigglytuff was the key factor in this battle.
Thundershock and Tails. I retreated Sneasel and sent out Wigglytuff,
attach a Recycle, and burned the 3rd Pluspower for the win.

Record 4-0-0

Finals: I vs. Melanie (Fire/Electric)
I observed the semifinals of the other match between Melanie and Josh,
and I could tell she had good Pokemon, but weak trainers. Okay, some
people are rooting for me to win this final battle. Hmm, coin flip. I
lost to the tails and she went first. All I had was two Jigglypuffs.
She only had a Rocket's Zapdos. I had 2 Double Colorless, Rainbow,
Energy Removal, and a Dark Energy. Bad hands. Plasma. Pound. Potion
and Plasma. Lullaby and Rocket's Zapdos woke up. Plasma for KO.
Jigglypuff and I attached Double Colorless and Pound. I drew a
Pluspower. Then she Energy Removal my Double Colorless and Plasma. I
used Rainbow and Lullaby (took a risk here because I had a Cleffa now).
She fliped tails. I drew another Pluspower. I now attached the Dark
with 2 Pluspowers and Pound for 50 to KO Rocket's Zapdos and won the
tournament. We shook hands.

Record 5-0-0

Final Record (all matches thus far): 26-5-0 (Losses to 2 Haymakers, 2
Fire decks, and a Koga's Beedrill deck)
Overall, it wasn't a major concern of running out of resources (Pokemon,
energies, etc.). But I didn't make the same mistakes of taking wild
chances either.

Prize for winning this tournament: 1 first edition Neo Discovery booster
pack.

All right, time for PROPS and SLOPS!
PROPS -
to Demitri for being a nice kid (generosity always help);
to Melanie for being a smart girl - she is much younger and less
experienced than me and she has great potential. I plan to help her out
a little bit more;
to Demitri's mom for offering good food;
to King Li's Comics for Birthday Pikachu's drawings.

SLOPS -
to Andrew who almost lost his Nintendo Power Mewtwo - the judge picked it
up and gave it back to him;
to the kid who brags about being the best in the store (he left after the
first session tournaments of the two sessions) - I seriously think I can
handle him;
to King Li's Comics for being cheap with prizes. Even Game Dude (my
closer store) gives 5 first edition Neo Discovery packs.

Any comments about this deck or about me?
dragonlord53@juno.com

Thanks for reading.
Sincerely,
William Hung