Ed

Battle Roads Double Header Weekend in Minnesota

I forgot to bring my camera for both days this past weekend, so I don’t have my usual slew of unfocused pictures. Because of that, I thought that I wouldn’t write much, so I didn’t take any notes. This is all from (my poor) memory.

Here’s a micro report from The Source Comics and Games on Oct. 15th. I knew that there was another tourney the next day, so I thought that if Ava was done playing, I might drop. I didn’t want to drop if there was a chance I could still win, but in the back of my mind, I almost hoped I’d hit that 2 loss mark early. We had a party to attend as a family, so it would be good to get home a bit earlier.

Juniors had 8 players. Aiden wasn’t there with his Beartic deck which has beaten Ava’s Donphan deck in the 2 previous events. Unfortunately, Paul decided that Beartic was the clear best deck (as it had won the previous 2 events) and decided to play it. I think Ava lost to Paul and forgot about Exoskeleton to lose another one. In the end, she snuck in at 4th place and got her third top-4 in 3 events.
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How To Lose With Zed PS and Still Take Home A Victory Cup

This past Saturday, my daughter and I hit up the Battle Roads at Legion Games in Minnesota. It was MN’s first BR of 4, so I expected a good turnout. I didn’t expect a big group of players to come down from Fargo, ND, so that was cool. They helped just put us over the top, so kickers went to the 3rd and 4th place finishers.

I usually try to take notes on my matches. Really, this is usually like 1 or two lines per match. Maybe I’ll write the name of my opponent, a couple major Pokemon in the deck, and the outcome. If it was more interesting, I might put something further. Well, I did all that, then I was busy on Sunday and went out of town on Monday through Wednesday. I’m finally getting to type up my report, and I can’t find my notes. All this leadup is just my excuse for having a short and most likely pointless report.

I played Zed PS. Ever since I heard Pokemandan call it that, I liked the name. I think “Zed” is a very absurd name for the letter Z. Also, adding Tornadus doesn’t quite make it Zed PST for some reason, even though I played more Tornadus than Zekrom. I don’t know what else to say on this topic.

My daughter, Ava, played Donphan/Zekrom. I did not expect this to be a popular deck. I thought that Donphan might be seen in some “Stage 1s”, but Donphan+Dragons didn’t really seem that hyped. I built Ava’s deck to be very straight-forward for her, and I left out several things I would definitely include if I were to play the deck. However, it was still very solid.
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Reshiram Emboar (ReshiBoar) Nationals Deck Analysis

Alright, let’s get this out of the way right off the bat. I did not do well at Nationals. Well, I didn’t do terribly. My record was positive (5-4). One of those “wins” was a BYE, so I was actually even on the day. If I had won my final match, I’d have been in the top cut. All that makes it sound better than I felt like I did, though. This isn’t about Nationals so much as it is about my deck, though. If you want to read more about my Nats experience, you can do that here, here, or even here.

First of all, I’d like to point out that I think that there really is (at the moment) multiple ways to build a Reshiram deck. To me, any deck that focuses on using Reshiram as the main attacker can be lumped together. The main 2 Reshiram decks now are Reshiram/Emboar and Reshiram/Typhlosion. Both decks strive to achieve the same main goal, but they go about it slightly differently.

When I built my deck, I was of the opinion that Typhlosion was unnecessary, and I was concerned that there would be many others running Reshiram, Zekrom, or Zoroark. Therefore, I did not want to put extra damage on my own Reshiram (which would make it easily OneHitKO-able by anyone that could do 120 damage). Ultimately, the Nationals field did not feature so many Reshiram or Zekrom based decks, so Typhlosion’s damage placement wasn’t as big of a concern as I first thought it might be.

Let’s jump right into the deck I ran at Nationals.
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Reflections On My Pokemon Nationals 2011

Ed's Unown Pleasures Of Being Home
I’m back, and I’ve had some time to reflect. The lesson is test, and test against all the decks you think will be tier 1. In retrospect, I only did one of those things. Early on, I decided to build a Reshiram/Emboar deck. I did it in my own style, though. I wanted to see if I could build it without any of the extra baggage I thought went along with most builds. My goal was to have the deck set up and then Blue Flare six times for 6 One Hit KO’s. It could definitely do that.

I played the deck a bunch, and it did well. There were issues with it, but they weren’t insurmountable. I had problems when I faced larger Pokemon (that I couldn’t one shot), so I put in Reversals and more Plus Power to try to get strategic KOs when necessary. With the changes made to accommodate these inclusions, the deck became unreliable and very inconsistent. I put it back the way it was and decided to just run it without the Pokemon Reversal (but still had 1 Circulator).

I went on vacation just before Nationals, and I even played for a bit one day at league in Rapid City. I did very well in my matches there, so I thought things were going well. I also had built a ZPS/Yanmega deck that I had a friend play against me several times. This was actually a good deck (even though my quick build of it was suboptimal). The problem here was that Reshiram has a good matchup against Zekrom. It can usually OHKO all of the Pokemon in ZPS (including Yanmega in this case). As it happened, each time, my wins were reinforcing bad behavior.
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Feedback Needed: Website Design

Hey guys. When we changed the website to the new name/URL, I also created a new look for the site. Now, the new look was not something that we originally discussed as being a part of the change. I mostly just felt that it would be fun to have a new look and feel to accompany the new name, so I took it upon myself to create the new design. After a weekend of getting used to the new look, what do you guys think?

I would really like feedback on this, because I’m not necessarily attached to the new layout. I could be persuaded to go back to the old, stick with the new, come up with something in between, or try something entirely new.

I’m no graphic artist here, so I know that my artistic abilities and tastes are (well let’s lay it out there) virtually nonexistent. I could use some help. If you’re into designing stuff like this, maybe you want a shot at it. Maybe you just want to voice your opinion. Maybe you’re like me and don’t have a strong opinion, but that’s important for me to know, too.

Here are a few options that are on the table. Any of these are ready to roll. New designs are definitely doable, too (but maybe not by me?). At any rate, please comment and let’s figure this out together.

Old Theme
Old Theme + New Background/Title
New Theme

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Introducing “One Hit KO”

One Hit KO Representative, Hitmonchan
You may have noticed, but I’ll say it anyway. Pikkdogs already alluded to it in his previous post. What was once TeamOmar.com is now OneHitKO.com. We’re hoping that the new name better represents what the site has become. It’s grown larger than just a place for a few guys to share their ramblings, and we’re really pleased with the site’s growth.

People from all over the world are reading and posting here, and we feel like they’re all part of the “team.” The problem is that we feel the name “Team Omar” might be too exclusive. People are reading, but we’d like to see more people contributing (commenting, writing articles, submitting videos, etc.). The new identity is our attempt at making this a place where everyone will feel welcome to participate.

This isn’t Omar’s website. This isn’t my team’s website. It’s a place where everyone can go to share information and read quality articles about the Pokemon Trading Card Game.

To help usher in the new name and URL, we’ve also given the website a facelift. I think it adds a freshness to the site. It definitely gives the site a new feel, but it’s still the same content you’ve come to expect. We hope you like the new look, the new name, and all that it represents.

One Hit KO for the win! Read More

Ava’s Art From Regionals

I am pretty sure that Ava’s favorite thing about Regionals is the art station. Thanks to PokeMama Camile, Ava has a place to hang out between rounds. It’s great that I know where she is, and it’s enjoyable for the kids that like coloring/drawing.

Ava At PokeMama's Art Station

Togepi Eggsecutor Pichu Cubone Mew Pikachu VictoryHat

There isn’t a whole lot to say here. It was requested that I post some more artwork, so here it is. If anyone else has art like this to show, let me know. Read More