PeKing Duck
New Modified Format Tournament
Excellent Adventures
Ballston Spa, N.Y.
Sunday 4/21/2002
8 participants
by Johnny Blaze

Pokemon - 23
4 - Psyduck Black Star Promo
4 - Light Golduck
3 - NG Cleffa
4 - NG Slowpoke
4 - NG Slowking
2 - NG Murkrow
2 - Tyrogue

Trainers - 21
4 - Professor Elm
4 - Focus Band
4 - Double Gust
3 - Balloon Berry
2 - Gold Berry
2 - Sprout Tower
2 - Broken Ground Gym

Energy - 16
8 - Psychic
4 - Rainbow Promo
4 - Recycle

Strategy-  In the new Modified format of Neo-on (NEON), drawing power is a must now with the absence of cards such as Misty's Wrath, Trash Exchange, NGR, Erika, etc..  Also with the exclusion of Good Manners and The Boss' Way this puts a severe cramp into Dark decks and decks like Magcargo/Entei.  Unless these cards are reprinted in the upcoming Legendary Collection, don't expect to see a lot of Dark Decks working properly.

Now on to the strategy of PeKing Duck.  Because of trainers being a must in NEON format, this deck is total trainer denial without the use of Chaos Gym.  A side note Choas Gym will also need to be reprinted in order to see play in this format.  The ideal set up is to Headache on 1st and/or 2nd turn with a Focus Band on Psyduck while getting 1-2 Slowkings in play by Turn 2.  This typically happens and is not difficult to do.  If facing a Fire deck (which will be by far very popular in this format),  the Rainbow energy can be used on Psyduck for a FTK against a Fire Basic by using Fury Swipes.  Whatever happens I always attach a Focus Band to Psyduck.  I cant say how far superior Focus Band is over Gold Berry.  That is why I typically run 4 Focus Bands in all of my Modified decks.   So while I am Headching, I am attaching energy, preferably Recycle to Psyduck and then evolve to Light Golduck.  This is where the Broken Ground Gym comes into play.  It does not affect Light Golduck as it is an evolution.  So I am paying only 1 Recycle to retreat Light Golduck.  Meanwhile if my opponent is not playing Recycle then they are wasting an energy to retreat on a baby or a Basic Pokemon.  On the flip side, if my opponent does run Recycle then Light Golduck's 2nd attack Core Blast does  30 damage plus 20 more damage for each special energy card attached to the Defending Pokemon.  So by turn 3 I am always doing 30 usually 60 against Fire types and then 50 against Special energy types.  And this is all on Turn 3 for only 3 energy!  So I highly disagree with Pojo's COTD analysis of this card not being that good in modified.  This Stage 2 Rocks in modified especially when teamed up with Promo Psyduck and Slowking. 

On to the combo of Slowking's Power and Light Golduck's 1st attack - Flipper Stroke.  Usually the opponent will always try to play 2-3 trainers during their turn after I evolved to Light Golduck.  As you know if heads on Slowking's power then those trainers will go on top of their deck.  So if I use Flipper Stroke on my next turn I get a way better chance of pulling Basic Energy from the Top 3 cards of my deck than my opponent does since he or she will already have those unsuccessful trainers on top of their deck.  Then after Flipper Stroke we both shuffle our decks.  So there goes that Elm that they last tried to play shuffled back in their deck.

The main weakness of this deck is of course the Lightning Weakness.  Now that Rocket Zapdos will be gone (unless reprinted in Legends) there is not a Great lightning attacker with resistance to Fighting like there was in R. Zappy.  Tyrogue just wrecks Ampharos and the rest of the puny little Lightning types.  And similar to Light Golduck I almost always attach a Focus Band to keep the Tyrogue alive for more punishment to Lightning types.

The Murkrow is in here for an ultimate lock with Slowking stopping trainers to break the lock.  By the way there is not a whole lot of trainers that break this lock in this new format.  Additionally with Sprout Tower I can lock colorless Pokes with the Krow.  Also Murkrow adds to the Bird/Ducky theme of the deck and benefits from Rainbow energy.
About the 4 Double Gusts.  Anyone that knows me, knows that I almost always play 4 Double Gusts in all of my Modified decks.  Why? Status effects are totally nasty.  I just hate Dark Gengar's power!  Simply put DG's  win games.


Tourney Report:  This was the very 1st Neo-On tournament held by Excellent Adventures.  I knew Big Fire would be prevelant so since Riptide Gatr is basically dead in this format I decided to go with Trainer denial and with Light Golduck.  NR Kingdra also rocks in this format against Big Fire.  If people think Big Fire ownz this format you are very wrong.  I'm not saying that it cant win.  All I am saying is that don't count out water decks just yet only because Feraligatr goes down the drain in this format.  The actual tourney was Round Robin with Top 4 going to the Single Elimination Finals.  There was a total of 8 participants.

Round 1 vs. Nick with Entie/Magcargo
It never fails whenever we play at Excellent Adventures I am always paired up against my son in the 1st round.  Needless to say we have practiced many times at home with Light Golduck winning 7 out of 10 times versus Entei/Magcargo.  In the Neo-On format the lack of Good Manners really hurts Entei/Magcargo.  Instead Nick used Pokemon March which also helped me.  He marched 2 times and I got 2 Slowpokes.  Each time I had a Slowking in my hand.  So the following turn I got to evolve.  I then headached the next 2 turns and evolved into Light Golduck.  Nick got a Searing Flames off and then I Double-Gusted his Slugma with a Focus Band and killed it with Core Blast.  Tails on Focus Band.  I then killed his Entei for the win.

Record 1-0.

Round 2 vs. Dale with NR Ampharos
Dale knew that I had weakness to his deck.  So he was bragging that he was going to beat me.  I told him no you are not because I have Tyrogue that will rip your deck apart.  I get the high roll and go 1st and have a Cleffa.  He mulligans and I draw 2 extra cards.  The 2 extra cards helped me tremendously.  Now I have the Tyrogue and Focus Band.  He places only 1 basic.  We flip our cards over.  Yes it is a NG Mareep!  I draw a card, attach Recycle, and Focus Band to tyrogue.  I roll a heads for the FTK.  No one else is ready to play so I offer Dale for a friendly re-match and even though the match went longer I still won.

Record 2-0

Round 3 vs. Dave with Dark Quilava/Light Ninetails
Until recently Dave has sworn off Modified.  He is now giving it another shot.  Dave loves Unlimited and has many hobbies and not enough money to buy all the new cards.  Currently he is 0-2 and not very happy.  He knows I am playing water so this further disappoints him.  Basically by Turn 3 I have a powered up Light Golduck.  The Broken Ground Gym that I played on Turn 2 hurt him when he had to discard a Fire to retreat.  He did get off Dark quilava's 2nd attack which is similar to Lava Burst.  He only discards 2 Fire for 40 damage.  I  k.o. his Dark Quilava and then his Vulpix for the win.  Dave ends up dropping out after Round 4 and bought a whole box of Magic Torment.

Record 3-0

Round 4 vs. Jeremiah with Entei/Magcargo/fire Ho-Oh
This match was long.  He goes 1st and starts with the Ho-Oh vs my Psyduck.  He Stokes.  I place Cleffa on my bench.  He attaches another energy and Stokes.  Now Ho-Oh has 4 Fire energy on it.  I Elm and place 2 Slowpokes on my bench.  I headache 1 more turn to set up for Light Golduck.  He says that's o.k. I don't play many trainers anyway.  He attaches another Fire to Ho-Oh and flips tails on Dive Bomb.  I evolve the 2 Slowpokes into Slowkings and a Light Golduck and attach Focus Band.  I Core Stream his Ho-Oh for 60.  He tries to play like 4 trainers his next turn and they all fail.  So much for him not using a lot of trainers.  He flips heads on Dive Bomb and draws a prize.  I tell him to put it back because I have to flip for Focus Band.  I flip heads and he shuffles his prizes. I attach another Focus Band to Light Golduck.  I Core Stream his Ho-Oh for a prize.  He promotes a Magcargo with 2 energy and passes.  I Core Stream for 60.  He attaches another energy and Lava Flows for 40.  I flip another heads on Focus Band.  He is so frustrated that my flips for Focus Band go off.  I knock out his Macargo next turn with Core Blast.

Record 4-0

Round 5 vs. Adam with Meganium/ND Scyther
I get set up perfectly with Psyduck and 2 Slowpokes on my bench.  He has 2 Chikorita's and Scyther.  I end up getting an early 3-0 prize lead.  He thinks it is all over for him.  But his trainers keep on working as I am flipping tails for Slowking's power.  He gets 2 Meganium going and I flip tails on Focus Band.  I am now attacking with Slowkings.  We are tied 1 prize each.  I have one chance left to win by locking his Smeargle with Murkrow and Sprout Tower and Double Gust.  He flips heads to k.o. a baby to win.

Record 4-1

Round 6 vs. Emma with Fighting Pokes and Shining Gyarados
I think that she is going to win as she gets an early Hitmonlee from Destiny up and going.  She takes the 1st prize knocking out my Tyrogue.  I Double gust her Psychic Lugia play Broken Ground Gym and then recover off an Elm.  I get a Murkrow and Rainbow energy from that Elm.  I then lock her Lugia with Mean Look.  She benches the Shining Gyarados and has it fully pumped up in 4 turns.  She doesn't attach any energy to the Lugia.  Bad move as I proceed to Feint attack the Shining Gyarados and k.o. it within the next 5 turns.  At this point she is tearing up because she does not play any Double Gusts.  Also earlier in the day her friend had spilt Milk on her cards and her deck prior to the tourney.  I end up winning and give her a box of 100 count Green sleeve Ultra-Pro deck protectors.  

Record 5-1

Round 7 vs. Tim with Tyranitar/Non-holo Umbreon
I need to beat Tim so that my son Nick has a chance at the Finals. This is a very quick match.  Tim gets a turn 3 Tyranitar and flips like 9 heads in a row for my baby powers and his Slam.   Tim wins and makes it to the Finals.

Record 5-2

I have the top record at 5-2 due to tiebreakers going into the Finals.  The finals are very diverse with 4 different types of decks making it.  There is mine, Tim with Tyranitar, Dale with NR Ampharos, and Jeremiah with Entei/Magcargo.

Semi-finals vs Dale
I end up getting by turn two 3 Slowkings out.  Dale is like "Well I guess I wont be playing any trainers the rest of the game.  This match was close due to me not being able to get Tyrogue out due to my bench being filled with Light Golducks and Slowkings.  After my Golducks get k.o.'d I start attacking with Slowking.  The prize count is in my favor 3-2 prizes taken.  He benches another Eevee and attaches a Lightning energy and flips heads on Energy Evolution.  He searches his deck and the rest of his Light Jolteon's are in his prizes.  This is my opportunity.  I Double-Gust the Eevee and play Sprout Tower and Mean Look with Murkrow.  I then pummel his Ampharos' on his bench.  The store owner announces that there is 5 minutes left in the match.  I have 2 cards left in my draw pile before I deck.  Dale thinks that he is going to deck me.  But I am holding my last Elm and he can't believe it.  He thought that he was going to win.  I shuffle back like 15 cards and I Feint attack Eevee in the next 2 turns to win by prizes.

Record 6-2.

Finals vs. Tim with Tyranitar
This is the rematch that I want.  Not only because his win against me in the Round Robin knocked out my son from contention but also because that win was very quick and I wanted a better match.  Tim is going into this match with a high level of confidence after he decimated the Entei/Magcargo deck to get into the Finals.  This is the second week in a row that we face off in the Finals.  Last week it was a the Rocket-Neo Booster draft in Catskills, NY.  I beat him in the finals that day.  I get off to a good start this game.  My Light Golducks take care of his Umbreons doing 50 damage a shot to them.  Tim builds up a T-Tar on his bench while I am flipping heads to kill of his babies.  I have 1 prize left and Tim has a fully loaded T-Tar to Trample and k.o. my Light Golduck.  Unfortunately for Tim he does not play Unown D.  After knocking out 2 babies on my bench he proceeds to flip for his bench.  Tails for his 1st Cleffa, heads for a Pupitar, and another heads on his 2nd Cleffa.  That gives me my Final Prize for the win.

Record 7-2.

1st place got 8- 1st edition Booster packs of NEO Destiny and 2nd place got 4.  Thank you for reading my report  and e-mail me at AN7710@dfa.state.ny.us for any questions or comments.