One Hit KO

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 the Vimy Memorial has a statue of a naked lady on it.  Some say that the design on the bill is “shockingly pornographic”, why others state that it is a good depiction of a patriotic symbol.  The Vimy Memorial is a statue in France that honors members of the CEF (Canadian Expeditionary Force) that died in the battle of Vimy Ridge in World War I.  What do you think of this debate Pikkdogs?

I gotta be on the patriotic side here, the monument is a patriotic symbol of honor for brave men that gave their lives for the Allied cause.  And, I always like to see a picture of the Queen with naked women.  It gets me hot.

That’s understandable.  I think this is a brilliant idea, it should start a new trend.  I think all bills should have pictures of the Queen with Naked Women, its kind of kinky. 

My vote for the next one is Megan Fox.

She’s nice, but doesn’t she have a toe thumb?

Hey, she can have a pig thumbs for all I care, that’s not the part of body that I focus on.

One, pigs don’t have thumbs, and two before out talk gets too centered on lesbian scenes with the Queen, we should get to the article.

Pikkdogs’ Favorite Things

Japanese Sleeves and Deck Boxes

The first of my favorite things are Japanese character sleeves and deck boxes.  These are fairly normal sleeves and deck boxes that have Pokemon characters and scenes on them.  There are all kinds of different designs, from Pikachu in a meadow to Stunfisk, these sleeves and  matching deck boxes are cool and have unique Pokemon scenes on them.  The deck boxes are usually the biggest and roomiest around, with lots of space for your deck and other cards.  The sleeves are not the highest quality around, but they are from the lowest.

The biggest problem with these products are that they are very expensive in the United States.  They are usually only sold in Japan, so, in the United States, the demand is high and the supply is low.  These products can be found on Ebay from anywhere around 25 bucks to 40 bucks.  That does not include shipping, which could cost from $8 to $15.  If you add the two weeks or more that it usually takes to get these products to the U.S., they usually are not practical for everyday use.

But for special events like Nationals, these cool character deck boxes and sleeves are a great way to add some individuality for a special day.  I don’t know about other people, but I do enjoy playing with unique sleeves.  I do love my regular Dragon Shields, but sometimes you need to show some bling bling, and these Japanese sleeves are a good way of doing that.

Eviolite

One of my favorite cards in this format is Eviolite.  It was released alongside one of my least favorite cards, Rocky Helmet.  Eviolite will always be compared to Rocky Helmet because it is a similar Tool Card, but I think Eviolite is very superior to Rocky Helmet.

If you don’t know what it is, Eviolite is a tool card that when attached to a Basic Pokemon allows you to deduct 20 damage from each attack done to it.  Donphan Prime had a similar Poke-Body, and it propelled Donphan to being one of the most successful cards from the HGSS sets.  It works perfectly with today’s BBP (Big Basic Pokemon) that have decent attacks and a lot of HP.  It almost seems unfair that a basic Pokemon can have up to 180 HP and attacks that do up to 150 damage, while being able to bottle Donphan’s Poke-Body and give it to them.

Although it can be hard to find room in a deck for a non essential card like Eviolite, I still think it is one of the best cards in the format.  The One Hit Knock Out is very important in this format, even though it is getting harder and harder to obtain, an OHKO can help you set the pace for the game.  Even a 2HKO is very important, if you can’t at least consistently get a 2HKO, you will not win.  This is where Eviolite really shines.  Eviolite makes it very hard for any Pokemon to OHKO you, and it can also prevent a 2HKO.  Eviolite is a great defensive card that can change the face of a game, nobody really prepares for Eviolite, and it is this surprise factor that can give you a big advantage is a game.

As I said before, this card will always be compared to Rocky Helmet.  But, I must argue that Rocky Helmet is not a great card.  It does cause your opponent some problems, but it can be played around with cards like Pokemon Catcher.  Plus, who knows if those 2 extra damage counters will make a difference in a game.  It always makes sense to stop an OHKO, so it seems to me that Eviolite is a much better and versatile card than Rocky Helmet.

Locking

One of my favorite deck strategies is Locking.  Locking is a broad term that means trapping one of your opponent’s bench sitting Pokemon in the active spot.  There is not really a concept of locking in the current format because there are really not many bench sitting Pokemon.  Most of the bench sitting Pokemon that are currently in the format like Celebi Prime and Eelektrik are easily retreatable in one turn, but there was once a time when Locking was popular.

In modern times, the heyday of locking was when Claydol GE was in the format.  Claydol GE was a great Pokemon with draw power, but he had a 2 retreat cost with no DCE in the format.  It was very hard to get Claydol out of the active spot once he was pulled in, so it was fairly easy to pull off locking decks.

Locking itself is not really a strategy to win, because just screwing up your opponent does not let you win.  There are three ways to win once you have the lock on.  The most simple way to win is to snipe around the trapped Pokémon and hit the bench.  There are a lot of Pokemon that can attack the bench, the most popular right now is Raikou EX.  Sniping usually produces less damage, but if you can lock and snipe, you could be unstoppable.

The next most popular strategy is to mill your opponent’s deck.  Milling means discarding cards from the top of your opponent’s deck (the term comes from the Magic TCG and the “Millstone” card), you will win the game once your opponent has no card to draw at the beginning of the turn.  Milling is also one of favorite strategies in this game.  I just love the ability to discard cards from your opponent’s deck and know that your opponent can do nothing about it.  Unfortunately, the most famous milling card in recent history is Durant.  Durant is widely considered to be an unfair card that is no fun to play against.  Games against most milling decks are very fun, Durant has just given milling a bad name.

The third and final strategy is to win with the Lost World stadium card.  Lost World is a stadium card that allows you to call yourself the winner if your opponent has 6 Pokémon cards in his/her Lost Zone.  It is fairly hard to put Pokémon in the Lost Zone, and there are not a lot of Pokémon that do it.  So, it is not hard to imagine that Lost World decks have not had a lot of success.

Considering all the good and bad things about locking decks, I still really love the strategy.  Right now the strategy is not really feasible.  Switch is a card that is popular, and Skyarrow Bridge is a card that gives  a lot of Pokemon free retreat.  There are too many ways to get out of a trap right now, but I do love trapping.

Good Luck Varsity 

Now for some plugging for the Unofficial 2012 U.S. Pokemon Nationals After Party.  Good Luck Varsity will be headlining this concert, and I can’t wait to see it.  GLV is a band from the Detroit area that releases some really cool Indie rock music.  They are not just rock stars in waiting, but are some amazing Pokemon players.  They are some real cool guys that make some awesome music.  They actually just released a new CD, you can hear the single “Lakes” by following this link (I seriously can’t get this song out of my head).  You can find a little more about the concert here.  You can also find more about The Noozles here. 

The Unofficial 2012 U.S. Pokemon Nationals After Party should be really fun.  I am very excited to see and hear the three bands perform, and what tricks they have up their sleeves.  It is sure to be a cool party that will give everybody a good time.  So if you will make it to the Indy City for Nationals, make sure you stop by the VFW at  1850 S. East Street which is just a couple miles away from the convention center.

Nationals

Speaking of Nationals, it also is one of my favorite things.  I think one big Pokemon convention in the summer is a great thing.  It feels so great to test your skills against people from all over the nation.  Last year I played against people from California, Texas, Florida, and New York.  People from all over the U.S. come to the Indy City to celebrate all things Pokemon.

Nationals is not a perfect event.  It would be nice if there were some more vendors there, and if there were some events that take place to give it more of a Comic-Con like feel, but I do think that it is a very cool event.  One of the things that caught my eye last year was the decoration.  There were a ton of cool banners that were hung to the tall ceilings of the convention center.  There were also statues, large balloons, and people in character costumes.  The convention center looked very awesome, and that really added a cool ambiance to the event.

Card Art

Not everybody can pickup and play a Zekrom deck correctly, but everybody can enjoy some card art.  That’s why I love me some card art,  it transcends competitive play, and possibly Pokemon all together.

Modern Pokemon TCG art is fairly varied.  In recent sets we have had some real cool Pokemon cards with people in the background.  We have also had Pokemon art that have an almost clay like look to them, those have been kind of hit and miss in my opinion.  The greatest contribution to modern Pokemon TCG card art has been the Ultra Rares.  In the HGSS sets we had the Legend cards which were very cool to look at, possibly some of the best looking cards ever.  Now, we have full art cards and full art EX cards.  This mixes great art with playable cards which is always awesome.

Pokemon art is cool because it is very diverse.  Some art is scary like Terrakion Full Art, while others are scenic like Lapras ND, while still others are cute like just about every Pikachu card ever made.  The art does communicate a lot of different emotions that the world of Pokemon should convey.  Art let’s us feel that we are in the Pokemon World, and you can not ask for any more than that.  You gotta love Card Art, even if you think “The Starry Night” is a song by Paris Hilton.

POP Merchandise (or whatever they are calling it nowadays)

POP merchandise refers to a lot of cool exclusive merchandise that is only available for purchase to Pokemon Professors.  Judges earn points for every event they judge, and with those points they can get this cool stuff.  I am not sure exactly what kind of merchandise that are in the store, but I have seen anything from Binders to sleeves to bags of all sorts. 

I somehow was able to acquire a Groudon bag that was originally a POP item.  It is a really cool and really big bag.  Kind of like the sleeves and deck boxes that I mentioned earlier in the article, POP merchandise is cool because it has a lot of exclusive art on it.  Nintendo does not sell the professor mats, hats, and sleeves anywhere; so you need to get them here or from a professor to get them.   What you end up with when you order POP merchandise is really cool licensed stuff that really makes you stand out from the crowd.  I am thinking of being a judge just for the swag, it’s that cool.

 

Max Beef and Cheddar from Arbys

Finally, I gotta say that Pikkdogs loves his Arbys.  One of the most important parts of Pokemon is the lunch/dinner stop after the tournament.  While I can not find anything wrong with any fast food place ever, I gotta say that I prefer my Arbys.  Who doesn’t love Arbys, they have burgers made of Roast Beef, ya gotta love Roast Beef.  Plus, in commercials they used to use Barry White’s voice.  If you don’t like Barry White, you just shouldn’t play Pokemon.

 

Conclusion

So, those are some of my favorite things.  I think we are all done here, let’s get to the end of the article.  Why don’t you wrap things up Pedro?

Okay, on this day in history the Buttonwood Agreement was signed in 1792.

Is that dirty?  It sounds dirty.  Buttonwood.

It does sound dirty, but its not.  It was the agreement to begin the New York Stock Exchange. 

Stock trading, nothing more dirty than that.

I guess, even porn stars feel dirty when they walk past Wall Street. 

Have you been to New York Pedro?

Nope, never.  Have you?

Sure, I went there in 1999.  It was pretty cool.  But you gotta be careful in New York, it’s quite a dirty city, you can’t touch anything because people have pee’d on it.

It’s like your house after you had too much to drink. 

Kind of, good night everybody.

 

 

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