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Last time we did the OneHitKO.com Challenge, things didn’t go quite as planned. At the end, I discussed doing some sort of budget challenge the next time around. Well, things again didn’t go as planned and real life took its toll. I didn’t quite get around to working out a real challenge for the rest of you to participate in, but I do have something going on anyway.

Last time I wrote about how I was getting my 5-year-old into the Pokemon tournament scene. Well, I don’t think she’s quite ready, but I have been working on a deck for her. Interestingly enough, I think it’s a great deck for the OneHitKO.com Budget Challenge. Depending on the incarnation, I think you can purchase the deck at a place like Troll And Toad for anywhere from $30 to $90. If you already have some cards (which most of us do), or if you can trade/buy some cards locally or at cheaper places (like scrounging eBay for deals), I think you can easily cut those figures in half.

Continue reading "OneHitKO.com Budget Challenge: Zoroark Rush Deck"

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here, today we will be talking about the possible rotation that may happen in late August.  A rotation can be a scary thing, especially for newer players, but in this article we will analyze why it can be a good thing.  The rotation is something that is fairly complicated, so let’s talk about that later after we talk to my extra-dimensional sidekick Pedro. How’s Pedro doing today?

Oh doing well.  Enjoying the lovely spring/summer weather.  You probably want me to do a news story to kick things off.  Okay, today’s news comes from the world of literature.  Today is the anniversary of the release of Bram Stocker’s most famous work, “Dracula.”  Do you like the Dracula Pikkdogs?

Oh, love the Dracula quite a good book.
Continue reading "Should There Be a Rotation?"

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with a tournament report. This past Saturday I was able to go to my first Battle Roads.  This one was in Toledo, although it is not currently in Michigan,  Toledo is actually the closest venue for me, so I had to be there to defend my turf.  I wasn’t looking forward to this event because Toledo events are usually held in the smallest game room ever, so it gets really hot and really stinky in there.  Although it is not  a fun place to play in, I still had to come and defend my back yard.

I have been trying to find a deck in this format that I like for a long time.  I don’t really like Zekrom, its just too robot like for me.  I would like to play CMT, but I am very poor and can’t afford the deck right now.  And I am not convinced about the other decks in the format, so I went with a rogue deck.

For about a month now I have been thinking about a tanking deck with either Groudon EX or Kyurem EX.  Onehitko writer TAndrewT convinced …

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here ready to debate James H.

Hi Pikkdogs!

The topic for this article is: “Are Dark Decks the Future?”  Dark Explorers has a lot of cool Dark Pokemon, and a lot of trainers that can be used with Dark Pokemon.  Some have speculated that dark decks may be the direction that this game is headed to.  Will Dark decks soon be everywhere?  Will they haunt the top tables?  These are the questions we will be asking today.  I am ready to take the affirmative and James is ready to take the negative.  This article has been going back and forth for a while between James and I.  We both had reasons to delay this article for  a couple weeks, so that’s why it is not very timely.  It would have been better to publish it a couple weeks ago, but I guess if you want quality you are looking in the wrong place.  So as to not delay this thing any longer, let’s get this debate going.

You Will Surrender to the Dark Side!

There is no doubt that dark decks are the future of the game, at …

Petra Doing a Magic Trick at Battle Roads?

This BR season, I wanted to do some sort of OneHitKO Budget Challenge, but life took its toll, and I really didn’t do much Pokemon for a while. We hit up states, but we were fairly unprepared. Now that a new set is out and a new BR season is already upon us, my plans will have to wait for some other time.

What has happened, though, is that I think it’s time to teach my second daughter how to play Pokemon and get her in on some tournament play. This past weekend, I brought Petra (my second daughter behind Ava) to Battle Roads. Ava and I played, and Petra watched. She sat with me quite a bit, and she was excited each time I won. We cut the day short, when I dropped (which helped TAndrewT get second on the day). The whole thing sparked the idea to get her started on playing the TCG, but she’s only 5 years old. How can we pull it off?

This article won’t get too deep into my plans for Petra. I hope to get to that in a future article. I will, however, discuss a bit of what I did when Ava was getting into the game 2 and a half years ago.

What I did at the time was take a known deck and childproof it. I did everything I could to choose a deck that had a single goal and build it in a way that limited all the options. You might say that I wanted an “autopilot” deck, but to a 6-year-old (as Ava was at the time), even “autopilot” requires plenty of thought.

Continue reading "Deckbuilding For Teaching Tournament Pokemon To A Child"

Welcome, you OHKO’ers, to Battle Roads! As a Poképarent, and as an active member of the Twin Cities Pokémon TCG community, I have always felt there is a lot to love about the Battle Roads season. Battle Roads tournaments are worth very few Championship Points, and this gives them a more relaxed and informal feel than larger State or Regional Championship tournaments. Battle Roads tourneys are also a great place for new players to start their experience with Competitive Play. I should know, because a 2010 Fall Battle Roads at Dreamers Cards in St. Louis Park, MN, was the very first Pokémon tournament that my son Paul and I attended. I will never forget that, during round 3 of that Battle Roads, Andy Wieman played our entire match with his cards upside down, just so that I could read the text on each card more clearly. And other Minnesota-area opponents gave Paul and me tips on play during our games that not only helped us become better players in the long run, but even resulted in us winning a couple of matches in that very tournament. So I have always been excited to return to Dreamers for Battle Roads.

This …

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs with a weird article for you guys.  I say “weird” because this article doesn’t really fit into any cookie cutter mode that’s out there now.  Its not that all my articles aren’t weird, this is just a little more so.  Do you guys remember how Oprah used to have a special where she would take a look at some her favorite products?  It was called “Oprah’s favorite things”, and since I am just as fat as Oprah, I thought I might as well do my Favorite Things-Pokemon Edition.  I am not just limiting myself to products here, it could be cards, or strategies.  So just sit back and enjoy the bumpy ride.  Wait, we gotta get Pedro in this.  Hey Pedro, what are some of your favorite things?

Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens

Okay?  Those seem like popular choices, why don’t you get us started with a news article?

Alright.  In world news, it seems that there is a controversy about the new $20 bill in Canada.  The new design has a picture of Queen Elizabeth II and the Vimy Memorial.  The controversy came about because …

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with a Battle Roads preview for you.  Now I do know that we already did a BR preview here on this site, and that the article was much better than this one will be, but I will come at it from a different angle.  Before we get this started I must apologize for not posting an article in a while, the bossman has been riding me hard and taking time away from writing.  Hopefully, in 2 weeks things should get more quiet.  So let’s go on and get this thing started by saying “hi” to Pedro.  Hey Pedro.

Hey Pikkdogs. 

Do you have a news story for us to get things started.

Sure.  Everybody has been cockahoop since last week when the new Time Magazine came out.  This magazine gave us a new figure to talk about, the breast feeding man.    Jamie Lynn Grumet is known as the Breast Feeding Mom.  She was the one that was on the controversial Time Magazine cover a week or so ago.  The article was supposed to be about a parenting style called Attachment Parenting that creates a bond …

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with a deck review for you.  I recently got a chance to get some testing time in with a dark deck, and I thought I would share my findings.  Before we get to sharing findings, I have a couple announcements for you.

The first is that the newest OnehitKO contest is coming to an end.  You can read everything about the contest here, but I am changing it a little.  I didn’t get a whole lot of responses to the contest, but still want to give away some tickets.  So if you want a pair of tickets, just email me at (pikkdogs@onehitko.com) and I will hook you up.  See you guys at the rock show!

The second is that we need to introduce my extra-dimensional sidekick Pedro.  Hey Pedro!

Hey Pikkdogs.  Shall we do the thing. 

Sure, but I want another this day in history.  Don’t worry if the date doesn’t make sense.

Okay.  On this day, May 14th, in 1998 the chairman of the board Frank Sinatra passed away.  Do you like the Frank Sinatra Pikkdogs?

Hate the Frank Sinatra.

What?  Sinatra is an …

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with a stupid deck idea for you.  A stupid deck idea is like a regular deck analysis, but for some reason we do not have a lot of confidence in the deck.  It could be more of a fun deck, or it could be a good deck that we just didn’t test out enough.   A comment on one of my recent articles inspired me to check this deck out.  It is kind of a swarm deck that features Empoleon as the main attacker and Aerodactyl in a Plus Power like role.  We will get to that later, but now we must say “hi” to Pedro.  Hey Pedro.

Hey Pikkdogs.

Would you care to start us off with a news story?

Sure.  Journalist Dylan Byers at “The Poltico” blog is reporting that the POTUS, President Barrack Obama, has told us a lie.  He did some researching and found out that in his 1995 Autobiography, Obama fabricated a story about a girl friend, when in truth no such girl friend exists. 

He lied about having a girl friend?  And that’s a scandal?  I made up about 75 girl …