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Killer Deck Reports - May 2001

Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 20:49:50 EDT 
Subject: Killer deck report: "Steel Phoenix" by ConfusedChartini 


"Steel Phoenix" 
by ConfusedChartini
Chicago STS Qualifiers
11-14 age group
Pastimes card shop
173 people


3 Growlithe
2 Arcanine
2 F. Magmar
2 Chansey
2 Cleffa
1 Pichu


4 Oak
4 C. Search 
3 Itemfinder
3 NGR
3 G. Berry
3 GOW
2 Scoop Up
2 Energy Charge
2 SER
2 RSA
3 Ecogym


7 Fire
4 Metal
3 Recycle
3 DCE


I ended up getting there around 7, it was held in this (relatively) small 
store, not the mall, like many people expected. There was only like 7 other 
people, all younger kids. Later 4 other people from Crazy Eddie's, my normal 
league, showed up, as well as Master_Lugia and Ice'Cold. The Guardians of 
Paradise were all there. I traded and finished my deck, and played a couple 
practice battles with my fun deck. Most people were playing Slowking and 
Sneasel, with ditto too, which I thought unwise, as there was supposed to be 
a lot of Magby and Pichu here that could easily KO ditto. Anyway, lots of 
people ended up coming, but they didn't let us in the store until 9 (!) Half 
an hour after the written registration time. There was also no line, just a 
sort of mob, so it was hard to get inside.
Inside, we had to fill out slips to register, then fill out our deck list. My 
deck was already in order since I was experienced with qualifiers, and no one 
saw it. Many people just laid their decks out though, so Master_lugia and I 
decided to walk around and ‘metagame'. We even asked a few people if they 
knew what metagame meant but none had any idea, not even Ice'Cold. The guy 
who seemed to be in charge was Alan, he was shouting a lot because they had 
no megaphone (although they got one later). He was also the idiot who threw 
cards out later, see below. I asked repeatedly if there would be a deck check 
(they hadn't even THOUGHT of it and asked if it was needed. Lugia and I were 
just like ‘uh, YEAH. Ever heard of cheating?') but it ended up not happening, 
this was not run by wizards at all (as far as I could see), and there were 
Mage Knight, D&D, and Magic events going on simultaneously, which just added 
to the chaos. It soon became apparent that they had no idea how to run a 
qualifier smoothly, the tables weren't even numbered or anything, and the 10 
and under lists had to be revised 3 times before the first round started. An 
announcement was also made about parents not being allowed to coach, they 
were supposed to go to the sides of the room, but that didn't happen either.
They posted the 11-14 lists, and I sat down, they said we couldn't do 
anything, not even set up and get our hands and prizes. Lots of people had 
done this so they made us shuffle again, then they posted a second list, the 
first was just so there wouldn't be any mistakes. I headed over to my seat 
and the first round began, somewhere around 11:30-12. Great use of time. 
::rolls eyes::
A quick note on the decks used...Slowking, slowking, sneasel, R's Zappy, and 
yet more slowking and sneasel. All cookie cutter decks, with a few rogue. 
Yeesh. Originality people!


Round 1 vs. Tony Barnes w/ Lightning/Psychic deck


I went first, started with cleffa active and a benched growlithe vs. his Lt. 
Surge's Pikachu. I Sneak Attacked his only trainer Master Ball, put energy 
and gold berry on growlithe and passed. He topdecks Master ball, gets a 
Koga's Ditto and benches it, attaches to Pika, then passes. I put a recycle 
energy on cleffa, evolved to arcanine, passed. . .after a few turns and a few 
eeeeeeks, Arcanine was powered up and cleffa had been KOed by Pikachu's 
Lightning Tail. Arcanine came out and quickly knocked out his Pikachu, 
Sabrina's Abra, Rocket's Snorlax and Togepi. He brings out Koga's ditto, his 
last pokemon, and flips heads for Giant Growth. I Itemfindered for SER, 
Supered his ditto, discarding the steel from arcanine, then attached recycle 
energy and used Take Down for the game.
1-0


After this they announced that the computers had crashed and they had to 
re-enter all the results again, so to make amends they decided to give out 
free boosters. This would have been fine, but they decided to throw them out 
to the crowd, immediately causing a mob. (At the beginning of all this, I was 
playing Master_lugia in a practice match and a japanese playmat and promo 
package hit me in the head, but not realizing what was going on I didn't grab 
it. :( ) After a few minutes they decided this was maybe not such a good idea 
and told us they'd give everyone a free booster at the end of the next round. 


Round 2 vs. Alex w/ Slowking 


Let me take a moment to complain about the horrible cheapness of using 
slowking before I go on. Stupid, stupid stupid slowking! He's a bloody 
broken card! ^_^ That said, on to the report. Anyway, I got a horrible hand 
with only a chansey and a growlithe while he got a perfect hand, of course. 
>_< I tried to power up chansey but couldn't find arcanine. Then of course he 
put out Sprout tower and removed all my energies. What fun! He ended up with 
2 slowking out and a sneasel with 3 dark, while I tried to play a computer 
search and failed 7 turns in a row. Pichu was in my prizes, and Sneasel 
proceeded to kill all my pokemon. Yay. 


1-1


We were given ½ hour for lunch, so I ran over to Bennigans and had a 
sandwich, then hurried back to the tourney, escaping the mad dash to Taco 
bell and Wendy's.


Round 3 vs. ??? w/ Haymaker


I probably could have won this, his deck wasn't very good, but once again I 
got a horrible hand and then didn't get an oak or search for somewhere around 
15 turns! Tell me, what is the point of having 4 oak and 4 search in a deck 
if you don't get them?! *sigh* I tried to stall but couldn't get any cards 
for lack of oak and search, so I lost. An interesting note though~~in his 
haste to clean up, he left a sprout tower on the table. I couldn't find him 
later, so I kept it. My friends suggested I turn him in as having an illegal 
deck­only 59 cards, but wanting to be honest I didn't. Judging by the 50-card 
fiasco later though, I don't think they'd have done anything.


1-2


Round 4 vs. ??? w/ Fighting deck


His deck wasn't very good, mostly Machops, and my hand was perfect. I kept 
using Recycle energy and SER on his MP Mewtwo, than arcanine came out and 
killed everything. 


2-2


Round 5 vs.??? w/ Fire arcanine deck


Ah, another Arcanine deck! Cool! He didn't know how to play it very well at 
all though. His opening pokemon was the promo entei , with F. Moltres and 
growlithe on the bench. I stalled a bit with cleffa and eeeeeeked, then 
brought out arcanine and quickly chomped all his pokemon into smithereens.


3-2


Somewhere in here I went over and talked to Jason K. (Ness) and had him sign 
one of my Jolteon cards(now at a count of 63), he seemed to be somewhat 
annoyed by all these people revering him, and the other thing I noticed was 
his speed of play. (!!!) He went immeasurably fast. I mentioned it to someone 
nearby, they said it was to intimidate his opponent. It worked. They also 
said he wasn't all that great a player, just freaked people out by playing 
fast and sorta tricked ‘em into bad decisions. He mowed down everyone who 
played him. Then there was a disturbing kid nearby who was attempting to eat 
a foil flareon, saying stuff like ‘cards are high in fiber' and ‘your teeth 
can't tear through the foil'. I told him he'd get lead poisoning and he 
replied that he'd get ink poisoning. Yuck. >_<


Round 6 vs. ??? w/ Dark Vileplume


The kid next to me said to kill any oddish I saw, and I also saw a breeder 
while cutting his deck, so it was obvious he was playing dark plume. Once 
again I got a horrid hand though, lost the flip to one of those stupid 
japanese coins (Y'know, the ones that are even more rigged than the wizards' 
ones?) While he got out Dark Plume 2nd turn, leaving me to say goodbye to any 
prayer of a chance that I might win, and to the game.


3-3


I played another kid in here, he was waiting for the next 15+ round to start, 
I actually won, picking up 3 prizes in one turn w/ Pichu. He left in a hurry 
too, leaving a Cleffa and No Removal Gym on the table. I looked for him, 
wanting to return the cards, but couldn't find him, so kept them. 


I left after this, although there was supposed to be one more round, being 
too tired from the heat, the people, the stench of garbage, and little sleep. 
I was later informed that it took 1 ½ to 2 hours to start round 
7...absolutely appalling. There has been enough ranting about the atrocious 
conditions at this qualifier (go to Wizard's Pokegym boards> Tournaments and 
League> Chicago Qualifier: The post-mortem; if you haven't heard.)


Overall, I probably would have had a better chance had I used a sneasel or 
other beatdown deck, which I'm more familiar with and better fits my 
playstyle, than the deck I did use. Still, I'm glad I tried to make it with a 
rogue deck and lost than the winners who just xeroxed their deck off. I also 
apologize for the lack of names, but after round 2 either my mom or one of 
team GOP checked the list for me on my table #, so I didn't see the name.


Props and Slops:
Props to the members of Guardians of Paradise
Props to Jon (master_lugia) who got 36th place
Props to the free cards I picked up after my opponents left


Slops to the lack of organization in any form 
Slops to dimeat, who keeps defending the organizers of this tournament
Slops that I can't go to Jersey, I was hoping for it. :(


There are many more slops, but all have been listed over at the topic on 
Pokegym, as mentioned above, and if I repeated them we'd be here all day. 
Just go there if you want to hear them. 


~~ConfusedChartini
ConfusedChartini@aol.com