One Hit KO

Hello to all members of Omar-Nation. Pikkdogs here, back with a little different article.  This one is all about switching our decks to the new modified format that starts in September.

Before we get into that, I’d like to say a little about Nats, which was held this weekend.  I wasn’t able to make it there, but I heard it was a great weekend.  A sablelock deck won, and luxchomp decks had a great showing.  So it looks like disruption decks are huge late in the season, but will it continue into the next season?

That is what this article is about.  Some players (Sp players) will be able to take 1 or 2 cards out of their deck and replace them with similar cards to make them modified legal.  But other people will have to totally remake their decks.

So what exactly will be popular after rotation?  Well no one knows exactly but here are a couple of decks we know will see lots of action.

1.  Sp Decks– As mentioned we know SP decks won’t lose much, so if their good now, they will be good later.

2. Donkphan Decks- Donkphan decks aren’t losing much either.  …

I just talked to Omar. We may have to rename the to Team Beast if he keeps this up. It seems that Omar’s only loss was to his unlucky pairing against Tyranitar. Otherwise, he won tough matches against Jumpluff and Sabledonk. He ended the day 6-1, which has to put him in the running for the top cut.

He mentioned that there were 1336 players (which he pointed out was one short of the LEET 1337 / 826 masters, 300 seniors, 210 juniors). That field is split into two groups, and there will be a top-64 in each group. I believe that the field will be cut down to top-16 in each group by the end of Saturday.

Abdi and Benny are also representing Team Omar. Each of them are 3-4 at the end of Day 1. That puts the team at 12-9, which I’m very proud of. Cheffords, reporting for #TeamOmar, went 4-3 for the day with his daughter going 3-3 in Juniors.

I also heard a little about the rest of the MN players. This could be completely wrong, but I’ll mention it anyway. It sounded like Andy, Radu, and Emmanuel were having a tough time with their …

Hello all members of Omar-nation.  This is Pikkdogs here bringing you the often imitated but never duplicated “Pikk” Three article.  In this article, like every article, I will review three cards; one that is played often, one which I feel is underated, and one from a new or unreleased set.

I wish to say “Good Luck” to all those headed to Indy at the end of this week for the U.S. Pokemon National Championship. I hope you guys have a fun time and get to meet a lot of cool people.

For those of you, who like me are unable to go, I hope that we get some good testing done.  It is a good time for us to take apart all our decks and make new ones that fit the post rotation rules.  This year Teamomar.com will hook us all up and with twitter feeds live from the tournament, so we just have to check in at the .com and see how our twitter correspondents are doing and what kinda things they are seeing.  I don’t think the list of correspondents is finished yet but I know a Minnesota player here, Andy, will be updating us, and also my …

Since I haven’t seen this discussed much, I figured I’d put it up for those of you who care. Please note that this may not be official or correct. I have taken my information from this schedule and this post.

Check our our Nationals Coverage if you can’t go but still want to follow along. If you are going and want to provide updates to those that can’t, please feel free to use the #teamomar hash tag.

Thursday, June 24th
4PM – 8PM : Preregistration (get your National Championships T-shirt and promo card)

Friday, June 25th

Get in line for registration by 8:30am, or you’re lookin’ at a first-round loss. Have your decklist complete and get seated by 9:30am. Then there will be a players’ meeting. If you’re not ready and seated, you may be dropped from the tournament.

8AM – 9AM : Final Registration (just the National Championships promo card)
9AM : Play Begins, Game On!
10AM – 5PM : Pikachu Character Appearances
10AM – 6PM : Mini League Play
10AM – 6PM : Creative Center
12PM – 11PM : Side Events
12PM – 2PM : Travel Allowance and Travel Reimbursement Pick-Up
5PM – 7PM : Travel Allowance and Travel Reimbursement Pick-Up

Saturday, June 26th

Be seated by 9:00am, or you’ll get a game loss for that round and will be dropped from the event if you’ve not reported by the end of that round. Top cuts will be played until there are 16 players left.

9AM : Play Begins, Game On!
10AM – 5PM : Pikachu Character Appearances
10AM – 6PM : Mini League Play
10:30AM – 5PM : Creative Center
12PM – 9PM : Side Events
12PM – 2PM : Travel Allowance and Travel Reimbursement Pick-Up

Sunday, June 27th

Today’s main event is the remaining single elimination rounds (top-16) for all age groups. Be ready to play by 8:30am!

8AM : North American Professor Cup
9AM : Game On for the top 16 players!
9AM – 3PM : Side Events
Continue reading "Pokemon TCG US Nationals Schedule for the Indiana Convention Center"

First of all, I’d like to hear some comments on this one. I have some ideas to present, and I would appreciate some input. Before we get to that, though, I am curious how many of you are going to the US Pokemon Nationals. If you didn’t know, it’s in Indianapolis, Indiana on June 25 to June 27. Here is some recent news about the registration process.

So, while you’re chiming in about how excited you are to go to Nats or filling us in on your sob story of why you can’t attend, maybe you want to weigh in on the idea of a twitter feed. For those of us (like myself) who won’t be attending, this is a way we can follow fellow players during their stay and while they progress through the tourney. For those of you that will be attending, it will be a way for you to let us know how you are doing, what the metagame is like, how your nightly partying fares, and brag about your wins to a wide audience.

So, that’s the idea, but the implementation is up for discussion. Here are some basic questions. Maybe you have some ideas about them or whatever. If you’re willing to tweet from Nats, let us know, and let us know how you’d want it to work. If you aren’t going, but you have experience with this sort of thing, let us know. If you think this is a stupid idea, let us know.

Continue reading "Are You Atwitter For Nationals?"

Hey, it’s Pikkdogs again, and I’m back this time with a Donphan deck article and a mini tournament report. Recently Omar, Ed, and I were throwing around deck ideas.  Ed and Omar began talking about Adam’s SixPrizes article discussing Mr. Mime and Dunsparce tech.  The idea was to use a Donkphan (or speed Donphan Prime) list and add Mr. Mime MT and Dunsprace GS to it.  These tech cards would both allow the player to stall and to improve Donphan’s otherwise bad matchups against decks like Gyarados, Kingdra, and Jumpluff.

Ed, Omar, and I came up with some good ideas of what should be in the deck. Then I went home and used the input to build my own version of the deck.  Here’s what I came up with:

Continue reading "Donkphan Deck : Donphan + Mr. Mime Decklist and Report"

I show up to Outpost 2000 100% set on the deck I’m am going to play (which is very odd for me). The only decision is what will be my 60th card. I am stuck between Mespirit, which is good in every matchup and can catch people totally off guard, and Unown G. I end up choosing Unown G because Emmanuel is going to be playing Gengar FB. We have tested that deck a bit and I realize the way he wins our matchup is by dragging up Claydols.

Small turnout. 10 Masters. 4 Rounds, Top 2.

Round 1: Michael- Gengar C
He is playing a fairly traditional Gengar C build. He sets up very fast using 3 Communications in the first two turns. I cannot find an energy for the first few turns and am under Pitch Dark so I can’t build my side up. Eventually he uses Garchomp to snipe my benched Luxray (for sure the right play), but this allows me to fully setup. We trade prizes back and forth. The major difference in this game is two turns that he cannot kill my pluff, just damage it. That and a missed Fainting Spell flip gives me a very close game.

Continue reading "Coon Rapids BR 1st Place Report"

So, this weekend was full of tons of excitement and fun games. There were 2 tourneys, Ed did his reports, and hyped up mine I guess. The 2 days I ran the same deck both days, Gengar Garchomp C (again). I almost played Blaziken Garchomp day 2 since Dialga is everywhere, but decided to go with what I was successful with.

So the first day was at the source in St. Paul, and there were 5 rounds cut to top 4. So, day 1 report begins here.

Game 1: Me vs. Charlie

So game 1 I play my teammate Charlie, who was playing Blaziken Garchomp. Since I built his deck, I knew what he could and couldn’t do, and he is a newer player so he would make more mistakes then me. The game was somewhat of a game for the first couple turns; I started horrible and had to pitch dark the first 2 turns with Gastly in play and on the bench. Luckily, his entire search was trainer, and he slowed as well. I finally top collector, and start rollin. I Garchomp his Garchomps, and unown G my claydol. This keeps my claydol safe and his bench owned. …

Hey Guys, Im back to “Pikk” three cards for you guys to look over and discuss.  As always one will be a staple card, one will be a card I think is under-rated, and one will be a card from a new or un-released set.

I hope your Spring Battle Roads season is going well.  Unfortunately I had a bad showing at the first battle roads in my area, and I wasn’t able to make it to the other ones, so its hasn’t been a great season for me.  Thats alright though, there will be more tournaments in my future.

Up until this post I had been reviewing Unleashed cards for my third category.  But now since the new set, Undaunted, has been announced I can go ahead and start looking at some new cards.  Of course the set list hasn’t been announced and only a few cards have been confirmed, but by process of elimination I know what other cards will appear in the set.  So its time to look ahead.

The Staple: Regice LA

Description- Regice’s stats are average at best.  It has a decent 90 HP, a weakness to Metal, and a horrid three retreat cost.  Its …

Saturday saw Team Omar take 3 of the top 4 spots in MN’s second Battle Roads. Sunday brought us a new opportunity to claim a Victory Medal. This time it was at Dreamers. My daughter, Ava, had birthday parties to attend both days, so she couldn’t attend. Here’s how my day went down. This will be somewhat of a mini-report, because Omar is going to come along and give full coverage of the weekend’s events.

Round 1: Radu Ciocan – Sabledonk/SPionage/Sablelock
Radu starts Uxie. I donk him with my Sableye.
1-0

Round 2: Thomas Veazie – DialgaChomp
It wasn’t a super-quick battle, but Thomas never got anything set up for long. Most of the game was me bringing up his 110HP Pokemon and one-shotting them with Gyarados.
2-0

Round 3: Mark – BLG (Blaziken, Luxray, Garchomp)
This was a pretty good battle. I donked Mark the previous day when I played Shuppet and he played Jumpluff. Today was a tougher battle. Garchomp uses up a lot of energy, and if they can’t take prizes each turn, it’s tough once I get Gyarados set up. He got desperate near the end, and I recall having to use many Warp Energy and Super Scoop Up to get Regice and Claydol out of the way. In the end, it’s was all that Warping that won me the game.
3-0

Continue reading "Battle Roads: Dreamers, St. Louis Park, MN"