The Lucky Draft Deck That Could (Grass/Water/Colorless/Psychic)
By Joshua Hinkel
Warlord’s Den
Lebanon, Pennsylvania
Saturday, August 21 2004
Fire Red/Leaf Green Pre-release tournament
Attendance was roughly 30 with the largest age bracket being 15& up
This was, not only my first pre-release, but this was my first tournament I have ever entered. Given that my age is 22 I was placed in the 15 and up category. My 6 draft packs were, in a word, bad. I drew no EX’s and the really good rares I drew didn’t come with their previous forms. On the other hand my girlfriend who also entered not only drew a Gengar EX, but she also drew a Blastoise EX that she was able to use since everyone who entered received a pre-release Wartortle card. But I digress, onto the deck. As the name implies luck was involved a lot of the time I won, but a “w” is a “w”.
The Lucky Draft Deck That Could:
40 Card Draft Deck
Pokemon
Grass
2 Bulbasaur (psychic weak one, this came in handy)
1 Ivysaur
1 Nidoran
1 Nidorino
1 Tangela
Water
1 Krabby
2 Kingler
Psychic
1 Exeggcute
1 Slowpoke
Colorless
1 Meowth
1 Jigglypuff
1 Doduo
1 Dodrio
1 Spearow
1 Fearow
1 Lickitung
Trainers
1 Bill’s Maintenance
1 Super Scoop Up
1 Potion
1 Energy Switch
2 Switch
1 Celio’s Network
Energy
1 Multi-energy
9 Water
5 Grass
So not the greatest deck in to world, but I worked around it and used the best of my skills
First Match vs. John (Psychic/Fire/Colorless/Electric)
I discovered pretty early (as in my first match) that I needed to get going fast, and that while I my strategy would change based on who I could get in my hand, I needed to get something out fast. So I was able to get my Nidorino out and just kept doing rend and took him out pretty fast. Second match he destroyed me as he got out his Rapidash and Arcanine. In the final round of the first match Lickitung became my best friend, I used lick repeatedly and paralyzed somewhere in the vicinity of 80% of the time, eventually he got his Jigglypuff out and I had to switch somebody out and the were asleep. But each time this happened they woke up on my turn and using Dodrio’s power I had what amounted to a free retreat for everyone. So I ultimately one the round with lickitung and eventually Ivysaur (this is where John learned not all Bulbasaurs are weak to fire).
1-0
Second Match vs. Jack (or as I like to call him Phil Collins guy cause he looks like him, his deck was Grass/Colorless)
I beat him both rounds. In the first he could never get his Scyther to do big damage and I got out my Kingler, used salt water to get energy and took out his Scyther then his entire bench. Here I should probably note that at least during the beginning of the day I had trouble getting energy, so salt water proved helpful. Second round I got Ivysaur quick and just tore him up.
2-0
Third Match vs. Larry (Fire/Water)
Larry would provide me with my only lost until the final round. First game I got lucky again and got Nidorino out fast and smoke him. Second game I couldn’t get anything and he got one of his big hitters out, Arcanine. I tried to stall with Lickitung since he had proved useful before, but to no avail. Third match was a lot like the second except I did not lose as fast. Basically I could not get anything going and Larry had been lucky enough to draft a Moltres EX, so basically I looking at repeated OHKO’s so I tried to stall as long as I could and I tried to get Kingler. I confused with slowpoke, used to Jigglypuff to put new pokemon to sleep, and of course used Dodrio’s power to retreat as necessary, but ultimately he wore me out and his Moltres owned me.
2-1
Fourth Match vs. Shawn (Colorless/Water)
I’ll admit I was scared before I went against Shawn since he had a Clefable EX, Chansey, and Snorlax, among other things, but underpowered Pokemon and bad coin flips can bring anybody down. Basically in both matches (I won two in a row again) his Snorlax failed to remove damage counters as it just kept waking up. Also in neither match was he able to get his Clefable out which I imagine would have helped. In an regard I basically used Lickitung to paralyze or Slowpoke to confuse then powered up Ivysaur one match and Kingler the other and just wailed on him till he had no one left.
3-1
Fifth match vs. Shawn (a different one, his deck was Grass/Colorless)
Shawn’s deck was Similar to mine but with different grass Pokemon. He relied on poisoning to assist him though. Which probably would have helped him more if it weren’t for the fact that I had a deck that was very easy to retreat. First game I just out powered him since none of his Pokemon could do significant damage, basically all he could do was poison with Parasect and Kakuna, his attacks did very little though. Second game was fun as we both drew Lickitungs, but this round I had a bid advantage, a super scoop up that flipped heads. So I took back my almost dead Lickitung, then placed him right back to active thanks to Dorio retreat aid. After that I just whittled down his bench and there wasn’t anything he could do.
4-1
Sixth (Semi-final) match vs. Virginia (my girlfriend, whose record was the same as mine and she processed a more powerful deck, she ran (Water/Fighting/Colorless)
Up until this point Virginia had relied on stalling in her matches to get Blastoise out to dominate at the end, unfortunately for her that wasn’t happening against me. Basically she kept drawing weak fighting Pokemon and no helpful trainers, and knowing she had a Blastoise EX, I just worked as fast as I could to take out her weak Pokemon to win fast. Again Lickitung proved invaluable with paralysis until I could power up Ivysaur and soon enough I ended up in the final
5-1
Seventh match vs. John (again)
I’m not sure what John’s record was at this point but I think it was 5-1. I knew I was in trouble because not only did he have more powerful Pokemon than me (Rapidash, Arcanine), he had a Wigglytuff to get rid of status conditions. And status conditions are what he got rid of and I couldn’t make anything stick, he kept getting great cards and I was stuck with weak and now ineffectual Pokemon as paralysis, confusion, and sleep could easily be gotten rid of with Wigglytuff’s power. He swept me here and won both games and became the Champion as I took 2nd place (my Girlfriend ended up in 3rd with her record).
So in my first tournament I took 2nd which I think is pretty good, and my girlfriend got 3rd and it was her first tournament too. What is it they say about beginner’s luck again? In any event I plan on attending the Blue Bell pre-release on August 28, and hopefully I’ll be able to do a write up on that one also.
Props:
To good sportsmanship all around which facilitated a fun first event.
To myself here for getting 2nd place, I know it’s egotistical but I was excited
To my girlfriend for getting 3rd
Slops
To myself as I haven’t mentioned yet that I drew 2 Squirtles in my packs and could have easily used them with the Wartortle we were given for free and made my deck better. I realized this around half-way through the tournament, but everyone makes mistakes.
Thanks for reading my report, sorry if it was long. Feel free to e-mail.
Joshua Hinkel
hinkbert@earthlink.net