One Hit KO

Carly Rae and Iz: Musicians I'd like to get wet with. Well okay, maybe one more than the other.

By now we’ve all attended pre-releases for Dark Explorers, the second set in the Black-and-White series to contain EX cards. I hope you all pulled what you hoped for! I can’t say that I was praying for two copies of Glaceon, or to have to run 5 Chanseys in my 40-card deck, or to not pull any Pokémon EX across two pre-releases, but I guess that’s what happens sometimes. (Fortunately for me, my son Paul did a little better.) The release of those Pokémon EX in the Next Destinies set definitely changed the metagame, and I have no doubt that the EX’s in Dark Explorers will change it again. I don’t know if you OHKO’ers have noticed, but these shiny new EX’s are freakin’ BIG. No, I don’t mean virally-famous, Carly-Rae-Jepsen-style big. I mean BIG. More like Iz Kamakawiwo’ole big. Sporting 170 or 180 HP—except for Shaymin EX—it almost seems like the new EX Pokémon would be impossible to knock out in one hit. Okay, many of the EX’s have weakness to commonly used types in the current format, like Tornadus EX’s weakness to Lightning, or Mewtwo EX’s weakness to…well, Mewtwo. Play these Pokémon, and you really do have to watch out for your opponent’s one-hit KO. But a few of the EX’s are weak to uncommon types, and you would expect that these big boys could hold their own in the active spot for quite a while, taking hit after hit without being knocked out. Putting one of these Pokémon EX active is sort of like driving a tank—not very nimble, but definitely powerful.

So, in PokéSpeak, “tanking” has come to mean focusing a deck’s strategy around one or two Pokémon with extremely high HP, and working hard to make sure that those Pokémon can stay in the active position, dealing damage, without getting knocked out by an opponent’s attacks. Tank decks are almost as old as the game itself (I’m told), but the most recent example of a successful tank was probably Ross Cawthon’s “Truth”, which Ross piloted to 2nd place at Worlds 2011. That deck used Donphan Prime HS
Continue reading "TAndrewTesting: EX Tanking with QuadGroudon, and Her Cheaper, Easier Sister"

Introduction

It’s me, coolestman22, with an article about the Top 4 decks for Battle Roads. In this article are 4 lists of the decks I believe will have the biggest impact on Battle Roads, one of which emerges from our newest set, Dark EXplorers (I wish they would stop the EX puns already). Most of these I have at one point played so they are somewhat tested, but remember that each player has personal preferences so not every list will seem 100% perfect to you. It’s not the exact list that you have to use, so feel free to edit the lists to your personal preference.

First off, we’ll take a look at what did well at Regionals, even though there might be a few differences in the lists now that Dark EXplorers is out.

According to thetopcut.net, here are the Top 4 decks in all of the U.S. Regionals:

This looks pretty much metagame-oriented, with the only …

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  Since we are in the time right before serious testing is about to start for Spring Battle Roads, I thought it would be a good time to do a Pikk Three article.  This is a special Dark Explorers edition of Pikk Three,  we will showcase some of the more interesting cards from the Dark Explorers set that I haven’t talked about yet.

But first, we must bring in Pedro because if we don’t, I think the government will have to start paying him unemployment.  So its easier if we let him speak.  Hey Pedro.

Yo.

Hey Pedro, you have been doing a lot of news articles lately, why don’t you try a this day in history.

Because I don’t know which day it will be published?

Well, just pick a day.

Okay, on this day, May 5th, John T. Scopes was arrested for teaching Darwinism.  What followed was one of the more highly publicized trials of its day.  The trial was nicknamed the Scopes Monkey Trial.  Pikkdogs, you were once on trial for a crime that included monkeys weren’t you?

Well it’s best not to talk about that.

I guess.  Do …

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs with my quarterly article about the most impactful cards in the upcoming set.  This time we have  a set named “Dark Explorers.”  Though it sounds like a porn movie about African American chicks, it could be a set that impacts Nationals in a big way.  Is it full of cards that are all hype, or will this set set the pace for Nationals?   Let us take a look at some of the cards in this set to find out.  But, before we start we have a couple announcements for you.

The first is that I want you guys to put your own top 10 of Dark Explorers in the comment box.

The second is that we have a contest going on right now.  Look here for the rules and stuff.  Look here for some fun with Noozles.

The third is that Pedro has a news article for us to get us started.  Hows it going Pedro?

Oh doing well Pikkdogs. Today’s news comes from the world of medicine.  Foxnews.com is reporting that according to a new study, people who suffer from nighttime teeth grinding can be …