Ed

OneHitKO.com Challenge: Disappointment and Optimism

Ed December 3, 2011 4 Comments

First off, I need to share some disappointing news. Our first City Championship is on Dec. 10th. I had this marked on the calendar and was rather excited to kick off this challenge business.

Well, I got a small bit of bad news when my daughter, Petra’s, hockey practice schedule was announced. Her 3rd practice of her first season is conflicting. While contemplating how I could work around this (drop early from Cities, have my wife take her to practice, etc), I received an email about her team pictures. This event starts at the same time as the City Championship. Now, this pretty much seals it. I have to take Petra to pictures and practice. You see, I’m also one of the coaches. I might get away with missing a practice, but I should be in the team picture.

On top of this, it’s a pretty bad move for me to ask my wife to take Petra to these events. She’s pregnant with our 4th daughter, and she’s having some issues that make it pretty bad for her to exert herself. Maybe she could sit through a practice, but I really don’t think she could deal with pictures, as it’s like chaos everywhere at those things.

I wouldn’t normally bring my personal life into the discussions here, but I feel like I’m letting people down. I don’t really know how many of you care what happens in this OneHitKO.com Challenge experiment, but I feel like I have committed to playing in all the local City tourneys. I don’t want to start it out like this, and I really don’t want people to think I’m skipping out because of the cards/deck or anything like that.
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OneHitKO.com Challenge: First Donation Received

Ed December 1, 2011 5 Comments

This will be a short post.  I don’t have a whole lot to say other than I received the first cards for the card pool.  If you’re following along, you may want to open up the Challenge page and take a look at the card pool as I just added the new list to the page.

Pikkdogs’ package was larger than expected.  (I assume Pedro would make some comment here, but I sent him on some meaningless errand to keep him out of my head.)  It contained the following cards. Read More

OneHitKO.com Challenge: Initial Cards, Initial Deck

Ed November 28, 2011 7 Comments

I got an email today informing me that Pikkdogs sent in an envelope for the OneHitKO.com Challenge. It seems that he was waiting for me to announce the theme deck I’d be using as a base for the card pool. Well, in a way that’s why I waited to announce it. I wanted the donations to drive the deck instead of the donations being driven by the choice of theme deck.

I’ll take what I can get, though, and Pikkdogs has already informed me about what I’ll be getting. I figured that I’d take the opportunity to discuss what he sent, how it will help form the initial decklist, and maybe you’ll get a glimpse of my thought process that will go into these sessions. First of all, let’s look at the list of cards he sent. If you missed the last installment, you may also want to see the Ember Spark theme deck cardlist.

1-Pikachu
3-Raichu Prime
3-Tynamo
3-Eelektrik
4-Engineer’s
3-Minun
2-Black Belt
1-Victini (Fire Version)

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OneHitKO.com Challenge: Ember Spark

Ed November 26, 2011 4 Comments

In an attempt to “spark” your interest, I’m going to announce the preconstructed theme deck I plan to add to the card pool. My daughter, Ava, has offered to let us use her Ember Spark deck. Please understand that I do not want to base a deck around this. It’s not meant to be a basis for the deck I play.

Please don’t look at this and think, “He needs this Fire/Lightning Pokemon to go with that list.” If you want to send fire/lightning types, great, however I’d rather just trash all these Pokemon listed here and build something entirely from what you provide. I also need to make sure I have a tourney legal deck, and that’s the reason I’m adding this theme deck to the card pool. I have no allegiance to red or yellow at this point. It’s ultimately the donation-based card pool that will dictate which Pokemon will make the cut. If you want to help out with that send an email to challenge@onehitko.com or fill out the form over here.

When I discuss these cards in the OneHitKO.com Challenge, I will have a different perspective than I’d normally use for discussing tournament-viable cards. One main difference is that, in a tourney-ready deck, you would not choose a card that had an obvious “better.” For example, you wouldn’t play Pokemon Reversal over Pokemon Catcher. Catcher is clearly better. Most similar cards are less obvious, but players get into a consensus leader sort of mentality. For example, for draw supporters, most people would use PONT or Juniper over Bianca.

Well, when there’s not a better choice available, then the “not bad” choice becomes, well, not bad. It may even the best available.

That’s the way I will have to evaluate the cards in the OneHitKO.com Challenge. No longer are cards rated against the overall modified-legal pool. They’ll have to be evaluated on their general usefulness. Once the card pool is further along, then the cards can be weighed against each other.

So, let’s look at the cards in the “Ember Spark” deck. I can’t rightfully compare these against each other, but I can comment on their general usefulness in a yet-to-be-built deck.

Here’s the card list.
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OneHitKO.com Challenge: The Plan

Ed November 17, 2011 18 Comments

The Motivation: Okay, so maybe announcing the idea without discussing the plan wasn’t the best. I know that some people are very skeptical, but I’m hoping that you stick with me and hear me out. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, you might want to read the OneHitKO.com Challenge: Announcement before continuing.

Before I go further, let me dispel some obvious (as in I understand why you’d make them) misunderstandings. I’m not expecting people to build me a top-tier deck. I’m not doing this to save time, and I’m definitely not doing this to save money. I’m doing this as an experiment to build community around something new that I hope will be exciting and enjoyable for all participants.

I keep using the word “experiment,” because I feel very unsure about all of this. At times, I’m very excited about trying something new and crazy. At other times, like now, I feel fairly down, because I wonder if anyone will care to become part of this thing I’m hoping we can create together.

The main problem is that it’s a crazy idea, and I don’t know anything like this that has been attempted before. I’m hoping that makes it unique and intriguing, but only time will tell. I really want to find people that are willing to help me create something new and build a community that works together to make something out of nothing. I hope that is enough motivation for some to take the initial leap. Then maybe others will see how it’s working and join in later.
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