3x Nidoran
1x Nidorino
1x Koffing
3x Weedle
2x Kakuna
1x Beedrill
1x Koffing
1x Paras
1x Oddish
3x Diglett
2x Dugtrio
1x Onix
3x Mankey
2x Primeape
1x Rhyhorn
3x Abra
2x Kadabra
1x Drowzee
1x Mr. Mime (Holo for Japanese players, non-holo for English)
2x Seel
2x Dewgong
3x Squirtle
1x Wartortle
1x Poliwag
3x Ponya
2x Rapidash
3x Charmander
1x Charmeleon
1x Charizard
3x Ponyta
2x Rapidash
1x Growlithe
2x Eevee
1x Rattata
1x Doduo
3x Pikachu (Base Set)
1x Raichu (Base Set)
2x Magnemite
2x Voltorb
1x Electrode (Base Set)
1x Jolteon (Holo for Japanese players, non-holo for English)
2x Potion
2x Switch
2x Gust of Wind
1x Energy Retrieval
1x Bill
1x Super Potion
1x Professor Oak
1x PlusPower
1x Defender
1x Potion
1x Pokédex
1x Pokéball
1x Pokémon Trader
1x Computer Search
1x Energy Removal
1x Full Heal
1x Double Colorless Energy

What Is The Tropical Mega Battle?
The Tropical Mega Battle (or TMB for short) was a “world-wide” tournament extravaganza held on August 26th and 27th at the Hilton Hawai’ian Village in Honolulu, Hawai’i. Children from nine different countries, regions including Japan, the United states, Canada, Europe and Latin America were brought together through qualifiers in their respective countries to be part of this special event. Wizards of the Coast, Creatures and Media Factory generously hosted this event. The whole reasoning behind the gathering was to allow the children to make friends with children of other countries through one common item: the Pokemon Trading Card Game. Even though many of them could not understand each other verbally, they knew how to communicate through not only designated interpreters from their respective countries, but a large number of “special” interpreters: namely Charmander, Raichu, Scyther and Jigglypuff.

What Is This Report About?
This report is a recollection of one man’s two-day venture into the a world of Pokemon, and his observations on and interaction with the events that happened during that period. Hold on to your hats, folks.

If you have not read the TMB report that was written for last year’s event, you can do so here. Doing so will allow you some insights into what happened last year. Some items in this report reference to events that happened last year.

As a note, quotes and words that are incased in brackets [ ] were conversations in Japanese that I had, using my VERY bad Japanese skills.

Day 01:
The first’s day’s activities were due to start at 1:00pm. As I had arrived approximately two and a half hours early, I took the chance to go down the street and get something for breakfast, and read some Japanese comics (“manga”).

I made my way back to the hotel, to the Mid-Pacific Conference Center to see if anyone I know was waiting there. In a few moments, several of the Wizards of the Coast staff came up the escalators, including Ron Foster (the translator of the Pokemon Card game). In addition to him, I met additional Wizards employees, including Mike Gills (known as “Master Trainer” Mike), and Mike Boozer (known to some of the internal Wizards staff as “Dark Master Trainer” Mike) and Mike Elliot as Lt. Surge.

We conversed for a bit before the activities were supposed to start, about the Super Trainer Showdown that had just passed, about “Proposition 15” (i.e., putting a maximum of 15 Trainer cards in your deck for DCI sanctioned events), and about items that they are still testing in that respect. Once such item could be called “Proposition 20 B”, which would be placing a minimum of 20 Basic Pokemon in your deck. It should also be noted that Wizards of the Coast has NOT yet decided on which method, IF ANY, that they would be using. However, Mike Gills and I both agreed that with the constant appearance of Haymaker rather than original decks in the current environment, something needs to done about it; just what is up to the Research and Development department.

I was also fortunate to once again meet Reiko Foster, Ron’s wife.

For my own, and Wizards, press protection, I had to speak to Steven Kam about a press badge, to cover the TMB for myself and other internet sites. He would return later with such a badge. He also handed me a packet of press-release material concerning Wizards of the Coast’s involvement in the Pokemon Trading Card Game.

In a short time, the announcements began. A member of the Media Factory staff began to speak, and with Mr. Foster’s interpreting, explained the “ground rules” of the tournament. Japanese tournament rules are slightly different than the ones used outside of Japan. The most striking aspect is that when a tournament judge makes a call on a rules question, the ruling is FINAL: no if’s, and’s or but’s. Second, the matter was stressed that if a rules question arises, it should be brought to the attention of the judges as soon as possible.

The activities for the first day was called the “Gym Challenge”. This “challenge” was represented by a series of eight gyms that were spread across the Hilton Hawai’ian Village compound. The children were divided into teams, led by a translator/leader, that would take turns moving throughout the compound, participating in the challenges. Each of the leaders was given a map to designate where the Gyms were. I snagged one to see where I was going as well.

The initial room that the children were in was Nivi/Pewter City. The children played each other within their own teams. I saw a bit of what people fear when they go to tournaments: 80-90 percent of the decks were Haymaker variants decks, with FEW that were a mixture of other decks. The Japanese Gym personality of Takeshi/Brock (mis-pronounced “Bronx” by the Japanese speaker) walked around, and gave out the Japanese Boulder Badge to the winners. Reiko was one of the team leaders.

After a while, most of the teams had already left, except for one. I was waiting for Mr. Kam to return with my Press badge. He did, and the “badge” was simply a card that hung from my neck, with the Tropical Mega Battle logo, that had my name on it.

As the last team left (Reiko’s team), I saw Tsunekazu Ishihara sitting in one of the back row chairs. Mr. Ishihara is one of the driving forces behind the creation of Pokemon.

Saffron/Yamabuki City had the Japanese Natsume/Sabrina personality playing the teams. Along with her, the other Gym members were playing the teams (all female, of course).

Next stop was on the fourth floor of the same complex, the Kuchiba/Vermillion City Gym. This Gym was unique in that it did not have the Japanese personality playing Machisu/Lt. Surge. Instead, Mike Elliott took on that role. Wizards employees (including Ron Foster and Mike Gills) took on the roles of the Gym members.

Outside on one of the grassy areas was the Guren Town/Cinnabar Island Gym. Here, the Japanese personality of Katsura/Blaine tested the in-depth knowledge of Pokemon of the teams. In this test, between two players, the flavor text of a Pokemon was displayed in the contestants’ native language, and the players had to guess which Pokemon is was.

A short walk away was Tamamushi/Celadon City. Here was another type of quiz conducted by Erika/Erica, though it involved charades. A player was shown a Pokemon card, and had to make a variety of poses (without making sounds) to the other team members to have them guess what Pokemon it was.

Another short walk to the beach area was the Hanada/Cerulean City Gym where the Japanese Kasumi/Misty (the one in yellow) conducted a treasure hunt for points hidden in Poke Balls buried in the sand.

The original starting point for the teams changed to Sekichiku/Fuchsia City, where Kyou/Koga battled the teams.

The Gym Challenge was to last from 1:00pm until 5:00pm, which would end with an awards ceremony. Since there was agenerous amount of time left, I walked through the various Gyms again and took pictures. I went back around to the other Gyms, and back to Yamabuki/Saffron City. I was watching some of the players duke it out when a Japanese woman said (in English), “Hey! Look who it is!” and she pointed out the door. There was Imakuni?, in his Neo attire (with the long antennae). I laughed and said, [“Hey, it’s Imakuni?”], and did a brief wave. Then the strangest thing happened. He did a double take on me, and . . .

The time for the challenge disappeared quickly, and the teams disappeared before the awards ceremony. I went down the street to get something to eat.

The awards ceremony was held after an outdoor buffet, complete with music by a live band, and a group of hula dancers. The teams were ranked by the abilities displayed during the Gym Challenge.

Team G was the overall winner. They received a TMB T-shirt.

Team H had the “Most Interesting Gestures”, which meant that they were the best at charades. They received some Japanese promotional badges.

Team F had the “Best Teamwork”, and received a promotional coin.

Team D was the “Most Dangerous” in their display of card battling skills. They received an American Team Rocket card box.

Team B had no awards title, but could be considered “The Luckiest”. During the Treasure Hunt, there were a total of fifty Poke Balls that were buried in the sand of the beach. Out of those fifty, four had 50-point values in them. Team B found two of those four. They received Pokemon Bandanas, that had miscellaneous Pokemon on them, including the Neo Pokemon.

Team E put for the “Best Effort”, and received a promotional Pichu bandana.

Team C were the “Best Treasure Hunters”, and received a promotional Exeggutor bandana.

Team A had the “Most Skilled Players”, and received American Pokemon card binder.

In addition, all of the participants received a variety of gifts from ANA Airlines.

It was also the birthday of one of the players, and the band played “Happy Birthday” for him. Plus, he was given a T-Shirt.

Afterwards, the dancers “coerced” individuals to come up on stage and dance. Following them were a number of male individuals that danced with the infamous “fire batons” that Hawai’i is known for.

The Free Battle room opened up for the remaining two hours, where I tried to test out a deck I made. However, I found out that I needed to work on a way to quicken my energy output for the deck, as I lost twice.

I played a French gentleman, who was using a Haymaker variant. One of the surprising things that he informed me about was that even with the event of Jungle, they have not yet discovered the strength of Wigglytuff. He informed me that during the TMB, the French players had underestimated Jigglypuff. They thought they could handle it, but in the end, the evolution into Wigglytuff proved more than they could handle. The Free Battle room closed at 10:00pm, and I went home.

Day 02:
The second day activities started in the Mid-Pacific Conference Room once again, but this time at 8:30am. This day was to be the “World Communication Battle”.

The first order of business was a commemorative picture on one of the greens of the compound. All of the players were to be in the photo.

Reiko found me, as I was acting kind of dazed (little sleep on the last night, and the night before. [“Hello?”] she said.

The first individual to offer his congratulations was a representative from the Governor of Hawai’i, reading a letter of respect and awe for the players that would forge bonds of friendship between those of other countries. The female translator of him was more than a little embarrassed wen she found out that he could speak Japanese.

The second individual was a representative from City and County of Honolulu, with a message that was similar in effect.

Then the Media Factory staff gave the instructions for this day’s events. It was slightly different.

Players were placed at the six tables in front of the stage. Depending on their progress in this set of play, they would one on to one of three different leagues after the lunch break.

The players did not get to use their own decks for this play. Instead, they would make a deck of forty cards from the ninety cards provided by the staff; a sort of “sealed deck” tournament. They would be able to keep the cards as a gift. The list of those cards is (provided for people who think it would make good sealed-deck material):

03 Charmander 01 Computer Search
01 Charmeleon 01 Professor Oak
01 Charizard 01 Bill
01 Caterpie 01 Pokemon Trader
01 Onix 02 Gust of Wind
03 Weedle 02 Switch
02 Kakuna 01 Energy Removal
01 Beedrill 01 Pokedex
03 Pikachu (Base Set) 02 Potion
01 Raichu (Base Set) 01 Super Potion
02 Eevee 01 Double Colorless Energy
01 Jolteon 01 Poke Ball
02 Voltorb 01 Full Heal
01 Electrode 01 PlusPower
01 Rattata 01 Defender
02 Seel 01 Energy Retrieval
02 Dewgong
03 Abra
02 Kadabra
03 Mankey
02 Primeape
03 Diglett
02 Dugtrio
03 Nidoran (M)
01 Nidorino
02 Magnemite
02 Poliwag
03 Squirtle
01 Wartortle
02 Drowzee
01 Rhyhorn
01 Koffing (Base Set)
01 Paras
01 Oddish
01 Growlithe
03 Ponyta
02 Rapidash
01 Doduo
01 Meowth
01 Mr. Mime
01 Jynx
All players got the same cards. The only difference was that the Japanese players got a hologram Jolteon and Mr. Mime, since those cards only exist in hologram form in Japan. The other players got rare versions of those same cards. Yes, you read correctly in the above list: all of the players got a free Charizard.

Energy was provided by the staff. Unfortunate, they ran out of Fighting and Psychic Energy, and the result was that some Energy need to be used as proxies.

I walked around as they constructed decks, and Imakuni (out of costume) spotted me. We talked a bit, remarking on how everyone got a Charizard.

We talked some more, slightly about my life’s personal problems. I gave him my business card, and told him to call me up the next time that he was in Hawai’i. We then split off as we went separate ways.

One thing that I found out was that the Japanese national champion for this year was a girl (unlike last year). She was quite a fierce player to behold, and waded through players like they were butter, and she a hot knife.

Eventually the battles for this time came to a close at noon, and the players started to filter into an adjacent room for a the lunch break.

I was taking a small breather while sitting in one of the chairs. Reiko found me again.

An hour later at 1:00pm, the players came back in, and were placed according to their standings in the pre-lunch competition, and the battles began. Before the third round, the Japanese announcer was about to start the round when Imakuni? (in costume) ran up and pushed him out of the way, then yelled “Alright everyone! Let’s DANCE!”

Of course the players took this to mean the start of the round, not to dance (Imakuni? did, however). He concluded with, [“Boy am I tired”], ran off the stage, and deliberately fell over.

After a bit, I took this opportunity to walk over to a young lady I had met last year.

The players continued to play. The main cards that the appeared to be used reflected upon the lack of Fighting and Psychic Energy that the staff had remaining. The two huge powerhouses that I saw were Primeape and Dewgong, cards that some people may dismiss in casual play, but big-hitters in this “sealed deck” environment.

In the end, Jason Klaczynski (a 14 year-old from Chicago) won the final World Communication match against his Japanese opponent. The players slowly filtered out of the room, and were to be at the tour desk of one of the buildings at 5:00pm to take the busses to the dinner cruise.

But during that time, Ms. Himeno was autographing cards at the staff table. I had my Neo Pii and ____’s Chansey signed by her, then had her write her name in the ____ block (as “Himemaru”, a nickname that she goes by), and her birth date in the appropriate slot. Though she didn’t give the year that she was born; instead, she wrote a “?” . . .

I also took this opportunity to ask her a question that I wanted to since the release of Team Rocket in the United States.

A Japanese gentleman was trading with a child, and I asked if he wanted to trade. I got a Lucky Stadium (Tokyo version) for an English Team Rocket Meowth, and a used Imakuni? for an English First Movie Pikachu. He wanted some Legendary Bird cards from the Pokemon 2000 movie, but I didn’t have any for trade. I exchanged business cards with him, telling him that I would look for them.

I left the building and walked around a bit, and ran into Imakuni and Mr. Akabane, who were also walking around. We chatted a little, and they asked me to bring my deck to the cruise. I said I would, and we parted ways. I read some more of my comic, and made my way to the tour desk at the appropriate time.

Everyone boarded the buses. On the way, Mr. Foster showed me his “Foster” collection: a small binder of Magic: The Gathering cards, filled with one single card: “Foster”.

We were taken to the pier and boarded the boat.

The dinner that was served was quite good: it started off with a salad, then the main meal was steak, fish, vegetables and rice. Ice cream rounded out the desert.

I saw Imakuni? in his costume again, this time wearing a backpack with one of the those programmable signs that you see at banks and such. Different phrases would pop up, such as “Aloha!” and “Dance!”

The awards ceremony began on the bottom floor of the ship. All players and teams were awarded gifts. The most notable one continued in the tradition of the previous TMB. During the previous year’s TMB, the players were given the bilingual Exeggutor. This year was also a bilingual card, the NINTH Lucky Stadium card, for the area of Honolulu. What’s more, they received framed plaques for their ANA gifts, which included the two new ANA promotional cards (released in Japan earlier this summer): Marril and Togepi. Twelve boosters packs from various expansions rounded out the gift.

Imakuni? got up and sang his newest song, “Can you really say them all?”, essentially the Japanese PokeRap, but with all two-hundred and fifty one Pokemon, along with the dancing help of several children. This song is available on his Neo album, which contains his newest promotional card.

After he was done, he was asked the question, “How do you feel that you’ve now made your international debut?”

Once again the Free Battle room opened, and many players entered. When Imakuni? entered, I said [“Shall we battle?”]

He agreed, but I was to be the third person in line.

When my turn came around, I pulled out my Nyuura deck, but swapped out some cards for some far more fun cards. The game continued as normal. He handed one of his new promo cards to a child, then I asked for one and put it somewhere into my deck.

After a few turns, I had built up a number of damage counters on my Nyuura.

I said, [“Imakuni?, Mr. Ooyama wants to talk to you,”] and I pointed to his right.
[“Huh?”] he said, while looking
And I took my chance. I played a card, and remove the damage counters from my Nyuura.

He turned back and said, [“No, you can’t do that,”] and he tried to put the damage counters back on.

He couldn’t believe that he fell for his own card. An older onlooker couldn’t believe that I got away with it.

However, the game ended when I played a Scoop Up on my only Pokemon; on purpose, of course. I bowed, and repeated the same phrase from last year: [“Thank you very much, Lord Imakuni?”]

And one of the child onlookers next to me said, [“Lord?!”]

Imakuni? shook my hand, handing me an Imakuni? badge and an Imakuni?’s Doduo coin in the process.

As the Free Battling came to a close, I got another “Imakuni?’s Doduo” signed, along with his name and birth date written on a “____’s Chansey”. One thing that I did find out that most people may not have been sure of: yes, he is the same Tomoaki Imakuni that drew the Base Set 1 Porygon.

It was nearing the late hour, so I took it upon myself to leave.

I would like to thank all of the Wizards staff, including Ron Foster, Mike Elliott, Mike Gills, Andrew Finch, and Steven Kam for allowing me to attend and cover the Tropical Mega Battle again this year.

I would also like to extend my thanks to Reiko Foster, Tomoaki Imakuni, Takumi Akabane, Kagemaru Himeno, and all of the Japanese individuals that I communicated with who had to listen to my horrid accent while speaking Japanese.

I arrived on August 25th, Hawaii was beautiful. The hotel was awesome, and huge, and right by the beach. I spent my first day hanging out on the beach, and on August 26th we brought our decks around to 8 different “gyms.” The gyms were all over, Misty’s was on the beach, Lt. Surge’s was crammed in a hotel room with Wizards of the Coast employees, including Master Trainer Mike. Sabrina’s gym and Giovanni’s gym were among the hotel, Brock’s and Koga’s were in the ball room with a bunch of tables. Erika’s was right by the beach. Blaine’s was on the grass. Everyone started off at Brock’s gym where you played a random person with your deck in a 4 prize match. I ended up losing by decking myself. I was winning after Oaking 3 times and was pretty sure I could win. I was careless and this was a fun game so I didn’t think it would matter, but losing this first game won me the tournament. I’ll explain that later.

After that we went around to the different gyms and would battle people in there, in Giovanni’s gym you battled Team Rocket, which was easy, they weren’t very good players and all had bad fighting decks with Sandshrews. Lt. Surge’s gym was harder because these were all very good players from Wizards playing 4 Oak 4 Electabuzz 3 Wigglytuff decks. They weren’t allowed to use any Pokémon that weren’t colorless or lightning type. After all, it was an Electric Gym! My Hitmonchans easily beat Mike Elliot, actually Lt. Surge at the time, wearing a green military suit. Heh. I had him sign by Lt. Surge’s Magneton the next day. He wrote “S U R G E” with a lightning bolt on it. Heh. Well, anyway, you also members of the gym in Sabrina’s gym, and in Koga’s gym. For Erika’s gym they showed us a card and we had to have people guess what Pokémon it was by mimicking it without speaking, LoL. On the beach with Misty we had to find Poké Balls. Everyone had to find one hidden in the sand with points and a little Pokémon pin. The points were the whole thing of the day, whoever’s team got more points won stuff, and my 6 player team was pretty bad, I seemed to be the only one winning games. In Blaine’s gym we had to do his famous trivia. They show us a description of a Pokémon(in like 6 languages because of all the countries there) and we had to guess it. I didn’t get any right, LoL.. the other people know the cartoon better.

Anyway, our team didn’t do too good, but we won energy symbol pins at the barbecue. The barbecue was great.. my friends Jamie, Trevor, John, Zack and I haded upstairs for freeplay on the 2nd floor. Jamie made me carry him up there, LoL. Up there Wizards employees were giving promos to people that could beat them, good promos too. I won all my games with my Wigglytuff/Trap deck, I didn’t expect it to do that good. We played until about 10, then I went to my room and fell asleep immediately.

I woke up and walked around, bought a Japanese Jungle Booster from a small store or actually more like a hut. I got a Flareon, not bad. After a lot of walking I caught up with everyone and carried Jamie to the tournament. We went upstairs and I saw lots of kids.. they had that look professional Magic players have, it’s hard to describe, kind of like an intelligent “I’m better than you” look. I ignored it and while everyone hid their deck I didn’t mind showing mine, I don’t think any deck besides a Wigglytuff or Haymaker was in someone’s deck box. It IS Base and Jungle, remember. We ate a fancy lunch and watched unusually long Japanese Neo commercials with Imakuni dancing. We headed to the tournament.. we were told we’d all be given the same 90 cards to make a deck with. Interesting. More interesting was the fact that the deck we’d make was a 40 card deck. We’d be playing 4 prizes. I like that idea. These are the cards we got to make a 40 card deck with:

3x Nidoran
1x Nidorino
1x Koffing
3x Weedle
2x Kakuna
1x Beedrill
1x Koffing
1x Paras
1x Oddish
3x Diglett
2x Dugtrio
1x Onix
3x Mankey
2x Primeape
1x Rhyhorn
3x Abra
2x Kadabra
1x Drowzee
1x Mr. Mime
2x Seel
2x Dewgong
3x Squirtle
1x Wartortle
1x Poliwag
3x Ponya
2x Rapidash
3x Charmander
1x Charmeleon
1x Charizard
3x Ponyta
2x Rapidash
1x Growlithe
2x Eevee
1x Rattata
1x Doduo
3x Pikachu
1x Raichu
2x Magnemite
2x Voltorb
1x Electrode
1x Jolteon
2x Potion
2x Switch
2x Gust of Wind
1x Energy Retrieval
1x Bill
1x Super Potion
1x Professor Oak
1x PlusPower
1x Defender
1x Potion
1x Pokédex
1x Pokéball
1x Pokémon Trader
1x Computer Search
1x Energy Removal
1x Full Heal
1x Double Colorless Energy

I chose to make a Fighting/Fire deck with Primeape and Charmander (and the one charmeleon and charizard) along with 2 Eevee.. but at the last second I had to change my mind and get rid of fire. Fire does appear to be the strongest immediately when you see Charmander, which has a quick 30 damage attack, but I didn’t want to play it since many people would try the Dewgong idea. I ended up making this deck.

Primegong:

3x Mankey

2x Primeape

2x Seel

2x Dewgong

2x Eevee

1x Squirtle

1x Rhyhorn

2x Gust of Wind

2x Potion

1x PlusPower

1x Defender

1x Pokémon Trader

1x Computer Search

1x Professor Oak

1x Bill

1x Energy Removal

8x Water Energy

7x Fighting Energy

1x Double Colorless Energy

(After the tournament I think I should have played: 1 Mr. Mime, 1 Switch)

We would be doing a round robin with our teammates to see if who qualifies for the A league(top league, 1 player per team), B League(2nd best league), and C League. I won my first game against a grass deck and fighting deck I believe. I don’t know the kid’s name but I got Dewgong out early and there was no stopping it. I beamed down the Mankeys and Weedles. Mankey’s Peek was very useful.

I played my second game against a fire/water deck, which Master Trainer Mike later told me he believed was the strongest deck. The kid was from Italy, and he was pretty good, but my Dewgong got out and just took down the Charmanders. I could almost hear the little fire lizards screaming when a huge ice beam hit their tail. Heh.

Third game I was going to play my friend Eduardo, from the Dominican Republic. He didn’t seem that good yesterday after I saw him playing a Rain Dance with Jolteons, but he proved me wrong here. He got a Dewgong out- that’s my job!! He healed it with repeated potions and down 2-1 I Ice Beamed his Dewgong with mine, trying to paralyze it. If I paralyzed I could probably win, he had nothing else built on his bench, just an Eevee or two without energy. I announced Ice Beam and flipped. The coin started wobbling as it hit the table and I saw nothing but black.. Tails. He Aurora Beamed for the win. I couldn’t believe it. I won the last game against another kid from the Dominican Republic that played a Fire/Lightning. The top player would go to the A League, but Eduardo and I both won all of our games but one. (He lost to the Italian kid last round 0-4, ouch. Well I went up to Ron, a nice guy from Wizards who can speak English and Japanese very well. He told me it depends who drew more prizes.. I dashed to the sign and read the amount of prize drawn each round… and added.

Klaczynski, Jason (4) (4) (2) (4)

Then I read:

Hidalgo, Eduardo (4) (4) (4) (0)

18 to 16, haha I won it.. Thank god. I went to the A League, but first we took a break for another very, very fancy lunch in a huge ball room. I talked to Master Trainer Mike, Mike Elliot and Mike Boozer from Wizards. 3 Mikes, interesting. They both traded me about 20 promos for my 3 Japanese Traps and 3 Japanese Rocket’s Chan. I also found some Japanese people that traded me like 5 Neo2 holos each for my English Dark Raichus. I don’t think they know our Dark Raichu is as rare as theirs. Yay for me.

The next 3 games were going to be the best players there. My first game I had a terrible start against a kid from France or something, I don’t even know. Anyway, I was totally defensive and had to Oak. I was down by 5 cards. He knocked out something of mine early so I was down 3-4. He was playing quite defensive and the card total was about 16 – 11, with him having more cards. It looked like I was going to be decked. He sat, looked at his hand.. and believe it or not, he Oaked. When he did that I knew I had him. He sighed in disbelief when he drew his hand and told me to go. I ended up winning on prizes actually. What a relief.

Game 2 was against my friend Zack Davis I met on the plane ride here. He’s a really funny kid from St. Louis and is 12. I was 10 HP from knocking out his Mime with my Eevee which was taking forever because Eevee’s Quick Attack wasn’t getting tails. (I never got so many heads with it earlier, either.) 10 HP away from knockout and after about 15 turns he drew another basic. He was ahead in cards by 1 and towards the end when I had one prize left he was retreating his Mr. Mime and other Pokémon to stall. I decided with about 4 cards left to Gust of Wind his Onix. I Horn Attacked with Rhyhorn. He gusted a Dewgong. I attached energy next turn to retreat and brought out Rhyhorn, played Energy Removal, and Horn Attacked. 30 more HP left. I was praying he didn’t draw a switch. He gusted again for my energyless Dewgong! I had 3 cards left. I drew an energy, attached, passed. He rock threw. I drew an energy, attached, passed. He attached a fire to Onix, not a fighting, which could Harden and ensure victory. I looked at my last card and just had to pray it was an energy. It was either that or a Pokémon Trader or something, because I checked my discard for what I had left. I drew and the orange-brown stared at my face. Fighting energy! I attached it to Dewgong, and with no cards left in my deck, brought out good ol’ Rhiny and attacked for 30. I won. I couldn’t believe it. Zack walked away with sadness and disbelief.

The next game, if I won, I would definitely go to finals. My opponent played fighting/grass. He got a Dugtrio out.. but didn’t attach enough energy. I Gusted it and Paralyzed it with my Dewgong, it couldn’t even retreat. Next turn I Aurora Beamed it for the knockout. He couldn’t get anymore evolution out and I had to take a risky coin flip with Ice Beam. If I got tails one of his Pokémon could take out my Dewgong, leaving me without anything to fight.. but this was my only good option. I flipped, Exeguttor’s face stared at me.. heads. What a relief, again. After that I Aurora Beamed for the game.

So I would advance to finals.. wow, this was just amazing me. About 20 people approached me and told me congratulations and good luck. I saw my opponent, Toshiya, who was only 11, and from Japan, walking around and pointing at me, obviously asking what I play. Good ol’ Jamie ran up to me and told me these exact words, “He plays a lightning/psychic deck or somethin with Electrode.. you owe me a piggy back ride!” Well, after walking around being very, very, nervous, I finally sat down in the crowded table which was surrounded by about 100 people. A lot of the people were from the news, Wizards, or photographers.. or photographers from Wizards. Maybe a combination of all 3? Well we shuffled, shuffled, shuffled, then handed our decks to each other to be cut, and drew our opening hand. I drew 3 Mankeys, right next to each other in my opening hand. Uh-oh. I benched one too and the opening was his Voltorb against my Mankey, he had a Charmander on the bench, I had my Mankey. Peek looked at the top of my deck and then the other Peek for one prize. I Computer Searched for en Energy Removal(he went first and played a fire on Charmander I believe). I removed it, and scratched his Voltorb. He attached a double colorless energy to Voltorb and told me to go, I think. Soon he ended up Buzzaping his Electrode to turn it into a fire for Charmander which he used to Ember my Mankey for a knockout. His only active was Charmander with a lightning. I drew my prize, which was an Oak, I knew that already because of Peek. I oaked next turn even though I didn’t want to, but I needed it. I played a water on seel which threatened a Trader for a Dewgong, retreat and Aurora Beam for the game, but I would need to draw a water. I didn’t bring out Eevee and Quick Attack because if I got heads he might play another basic seeing the threat in his face. I thought this was more sneaky. He might not have wanted to bench any lightning Pokémon since I had a Primeape out too now with a fighting energy. (Gust it and Fury Swipe for an easy knockout.) So I ended up using a different attack, I don’t even know what. He scratched, and I prayed for a water energy: I drew fighting. I pretty much did nothing, and next turn still didn’t draw the water, and I pretty much did nothing.. he scratched, my draw: PlusPower? I looked at the table. I could attach an energy to my Eevee, and retreat, attach a PlusPower, and quick attack. If I got tails I’d do 20.. if I got heads I’d do 40 and win the game. I thought for a second but I would do it. I had a chance to win.. he gave me a chance to win and I took it. I retreated, sent out Eevee, attached the energy, attached the PlusPower, announced quietly “This is for the game,” and then was almost blinded by all the pictures taken that second. I flipped it in the air, we both stared at it, everyone stared at it. It landed solidly.. bright green reflecting into everyone’s eyes.. the Exeguttor was showing…. Heads!!! Loud applause came and Toshiyu started cleaning his cards. I could hear Jamie, Mike, Zack, my dad and many other people yelling for me. We went up on the stage and this Japanese guy kept asking me Japanese questions and kept expecting me to understand.. the translator translated questions for me about what I thought of my opponent and I just said he’s a great player and was difficult to defeat.. stuff like that. I was distracted by Jamie yelling “MAKE ME!” from below me. (Make me is a thing my friend Alex and I started.. when someone says something, pretty much ANYTHING, you say “Make Me,” they’ll be totally confused and ask “What???”. That’s when you tell them in a serious, quiet tone, “You heard me.”) Yeah, I say lots of things like that.. and I got all of the American players to go around yelling “Make me, yeah, you heard me..” to each other. It was pretty funny. Although Jamie was wrong about it being lightning/psychic, it did have Electrodes, so I carried him on my back back to our rooms followed by everyone and we just traded a bunch of cards for Spanish cards with the kids from the Dominican Republic, including Eduardo, who was the only person that beat me today. I got a Spanish Charizard and a bunch of Italian, Spanish, French etc. cards. We went to the cruise and I got ym Wiggly/Trap deck signed by pretty much everyone I met, all the good players, all cool Japanese people I met, and even the cool photographer. The cruise was cool and Imakuni came and ran around dancing and singing in Japanese.. that guy is hilarious. I got him to sign my Computer Search! He has a very unusual signature. We ate more very fancy food and some weird blue juice that got Jamie sick. Actually the monotnous rocking of the boat probably helped, too. We got called up for our awards, I got a gold medal and a plaque with 2 Japanese promo cards(Togepi, and Marril), a Japanese pre-paid phone card, a pin, and then the same stuff everyone got: The Bi-Lingual Lucky Stadium card, 12 Booster Packs(10 were from European countries.. I got like 5 different types of Computer Search).

The cruise was great and we played Bingo for my prizes. I got an extra hat cause “I’m the champ!” Heh. We went back and all traded and played more Pokémon, which we also did on the cruise. We exchanged phone numbers and E-mail, and Zack gave me his AOL screen name which when I got home I realized wasn’t a real screen name.. maybe he did it on purpose cause I beat him. Just kidding.

The Tropical Mega Battle was the coolest thing I have ever done in my life, and Hawaii is just an amazing place.. it was so cool and it’s too bad I can’t go back next year. I never had so much fun in my life. Everyone got a T-Shirt and a Medal. Thanks for hosting an awesome tournament, Wizards, Creatures.. and everyone who was responsible for it. Also guys, Wizards wants to put a 15 Trainer per deck rule on DCI Tournaments. E-mail Wizards of the Coast and tell them you disagree and why if you do, please.