One Hit KO

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with his extra-dimensionary sidekick, Pedro.  Officially, City Championships are not over.  They will still be carrying on for another week or two yet, but I’m all done playing mine, so I’ll just assume that everybody else is too.  Things have changed a lot over Cities so let’s take a look at what has happened.

Pikkdogs.

Yes Pedro.

Well before we recap Cities as a whole, don’t you think you should recap your own Cities season?

No I don’t.

Oh come on, if you won’t then I guess I will have to. 

How Pikkdogs Did

Pikkdogs went to 3 City Championships and went a combined 6 and 11.  That means he lost almost twice as often as he won.  That also means that he finishes with a very poor losing record.  Not only did he not win, he never made a top cut, nor did he have a winning record, nor did he ever have a non-losing record for any single tournament.  We can recap this tournament season by stating that Pikkdogs did very very bad. 

Thank You Pedro for reminding me.

You are welcome. 

Now, if you are through Pedro, we can go on to the actual article.

What Won, or is Winning?

The release of Noble Victories has changed the format a lot.  A lot of decks that came out in NV are actually doing very well.  We will start out this section by looking at the official unofficial numbers from www.pokegym.net.  The numbers are not that current right now, so I won’t post actual numbers, just rankings.

1. Magnezone/Eelektrik
2. Chandelure
3. Zekrom
4. The Truth
5. Six Corners
6. CaKE
7. Reshiphlosion
8. Lanturn Eelektrik
9. Donphan Dragons
10. Durant

While we do have a list here of top winners, these numbers are not all current, and Cities have not all ended yet.  What we can see from this list is that Zekrom now has friends at the top of the list.  No longer is Zekrom the best deck around, there are a lot of good decks out there.  Magnaeel has had  a lot of success, Chandelure has been winning lately, and Mew Lock is back and stronger than ever.  I don’t know if we can make a tier list right now, but its safe to say that there are a lot of good decks that are all doing really well.  One way to see how the format is different is to look at Durant.  Durant is in most places a crappy deck, while some Durant decks are good enough to win an entire tournament in a good area.  There are a lot of variants in lists right now, and that leads to many different decks doing well.  Here is a closer look at some of the newer decks

The New Decks 

1.  MagnaEel

Goal– To attack with either Magnezone or Zekrom to take 6 prizes.

What it uses– Eelektrik is used for recovering energies from the discard pile.  N is a major source of draw and disruption.  Magnezone is the draw engine and the main attacker.  While Zekrom and Thundurus can be used as secondary attackers.

How it works– You start with Magnemites and Tyanmos, and slowly evolve into Magnezone and Eelektrik.  Then use N to disrupt the opponent, while drawing cards with “Magnetic Draw.”  You can use “Dyanmotor” to load up Zekrom, or you can use it to put energies that can be “Lost Burned” away.  Every time something is knocked out the energies are recovered with “Dyanamotor”, and hopefully you will have enough energy that is not in the Lost Zone to take that last prize.

2. Chandelure

Goal– The goal of this deck is to use “Cursed Shadow” to put 3 damage counters on the field each turn and knock out some benched Pokemon.  Then use the attack, “Eerie Glow”, to cause confusion and paralysis.

What it uses– Dodrio is give Chandelure free retreat and the possibility of using “Cursed Shadow” twice in one turn.  Vileplume to disrupt and protect Dodrio.  And, Tropical Beach to draw cards early in the game.

How it works– This deck is very slow to attack.  It uses Twins to make up for the slow start.  It usually takes till about turn 5 to attack, the rest of the turns are spent using Tropical Beach.  It will take a while to get energies on Chandelure, but placing damage counters is almost more important than attacking anyway.  Eventually you should be able to switch between a couple Chandelure, place a lot of damage counters, and then attack for a bunch of prizes.

3. Six Corners

Goal– To get six prizes by exploiting weakness and cards like Eviolite.

What it uses– Just a hodgepodge of legendary basic Pokemon that came out in Black and White sets.  Kyurem, Landorus, Virizion, Cobalion, and Terrakion from NV, along with Reshiram and Zekrom from Black and White, and Tornadus from EP are most often used.  It also uses Eviolite to make it hard to knock out one of the Pokemon.

How it works– It mostly uses “Outrage” to attack, and Virizion to start.  But, it will try to get weakness on you after a couple of turns of using Virizion.

4. CAKE

Goal– Load a lot of energies on Kyurem and Cobalion very quickly.  You can either spread damage with Kyurem, or make it hard for y9ur opponent to attack with Cobalion.

What it uses– Of course Kyurem, Cobalion, and Electrode Prime are here.  Key trainers include Pokegear, Eviolite, and Twins.

How it works-  On the first turn you need to have 2 Voltorbs in play.  On your second turn you need to get at least 1 of each of your main attacker, and then you can use “Energy Mite” to knock out your Electorde and load energies on your attackers. 

5. Durant

Goal– Mill your opponent’s deck with Durant’s “Devour” attack.

What it uses– Durant, Special Metal Energies, Defender, Eviolite, Lost Remover, and Crushing Hammer are all staples.  Cobalion and Weavile are popular techs.

How it works– You need to use Pokemon Collector to get 4 Durants in play early, and then use Revive to keep the Durants in play.  You can use Lost Remover and Crushing Hammer to disrupt your opponent, and hopefully Eviolite and Defender will stop some KO’s.  Weavile is another tech that you can put in to add to the disruption.  A lot of people put Cobalion in this deck as well, I’m not exactly sure how it works, but I think it does.

6.  Mew/Unfezant/Vanilluxe

Goal– Make sure that once you setup, your opponent will never be able to attack you.

What it uses– Relincanth as the starter, Unfezant and Vanilluxe go in the Lost Zone, Mew is the main attacker, and Vileplume goes to the bench for disruption so that your opponent can’t use cards like Full Heal or Switch.  Twins is used a lot, and Rainbow Energy is very important.

How it works– You can start with Relincanth and use Pokemon Communication to get Vanilluxe and Unfezant into your hand, then you can Lost Zone with Relincanth and draw 3 cards.  Once you get Vileplume on the bench, you can then spread out energies on the Mews and then begin to attack.  You will want to use Vanilluxe’s “Doubel Freeze” to paralyze your opponent.  You can keep on using that attack until you get within 50 HP away from a knockout.  Then you can use “Fly”, and then Mew will be invincible on your opponent’s next turn.  Then you can just start again with “Double Freeze.”  It is a really good deck that will soon see a lot of play.

Conclusion

City Championships have shown us a lot this year.  The metagame has changed a lot with a lot of new decks sprouting up and doing well.  We now have a lot of decks that can win, and that makes for a very exciting and spontaneous format.  Pokemon is now going on a couple month hiatus until States come in March, so it will be an interesting couple months testing all these new decks and all the decks that will come with the release of the next set.

So Pedro, I’m all done.  What do you have for us today?

Well, today is Christmas Eve.  We would like to wish all of our readers a very Merry Christmas.

It sure is Pedro.  We hope you all can spend time with your family, and time reflecting on the season.

Merry Christmas everybody. 

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