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Pokemon TCG Decklists and Articles

Ed

Tourney Report

Battle Roads: Dreamers, St. Louis Park, MN

Ed 7 Comments

Saturday saw Team Omar take 3 of the top 4 spots in MN’s second Battle Roads. Sunday brought us a new opportunity to claim a Victory Medal. This time it was at Dreamers. My daughter, Ava, had birthday parties to attend both days, so she couldn’t attend. Here’s how my day went down. This will be somewhat of a mini-report, because Omar is going to come along and give full coverage of the weekend’s events.

Austino's GyaradosRound 1: Radu Ciocan – Sabledonk/SPionage/Sablelock
Radu starts Uxie. I donk him with my Sableye.
1-0

Round 2: Thomas Veazie – DialgaChomp
It wasn’t a super-quick battle, but Thomas never got anything set up for long. Most of the game was me bringing up his 110HP Pokemon and one-shotting them with Gyarados.
2-0

Round 3: Mark – BLG (Blaziken, Luxray, Garchomp)
This was a pretty good battle. I donked Mark the previous day when I played Shuppet and he played Jumpluff. Today was a tougher battle. Garchomp uses up a lot of energy, and if they can’t take prizes each turn, it’s tough once I get Gyarados set up. He got desperate near the end, and I recall having to use many Warp Energy and Super Scoop Up to get Regice and Claydol out of the way. In the end, it’s was all that Warping that won me the game.
3-0
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Tourney Report

Battle Roads Report: The Source, St. Paul, MN

Ed 7 Comments

Shuppet - PlatinumI’m going to keep this short. Maybe Omar will add his report, and mine won’t be as interesting. In fact, mine probably isn’t that great, but since it’s the first time I’ve played in top cut, I figured I’d better add something for the archives.

The details will be a bit blurry and maybe inaccurate. I didn’t take any notes, and I didn’t have my camera.

Game 1: Mark – Eevee
Mark goes first and attaches a call energy to his 50HP basic. He calls for Eevee and something else. On my turn, I KO his Eevee. He goes again, and doesn’t do a whole lot. I think I may have had Mr. Mime active. On my turn, I KO something else. Mark scoops.
1-0

Game 2: (different) Mark – Jumpluff
Mark starts with active Azelf (IIRC). I donk.
2-0
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Pokemon Education

Breaking News: Format Rotation Announced

Ed 7 Comments

It looks like the post-rotation format has been officially announced. Take a look at the official announcement at Pokemon.com.

Here’s what the new format will include.

  • Diamond & Pearl—Majestic Dawn
  • Diamond & Pearl—Legends Awakened
  • Diamond & Pearl—Stormfront
  • Platinum
  • Platinum—Rising Rivals
  • Platinum—Supreme Victors
  • Platinum—Arceus
  • Rumble
  • HeartGold & SoulSilver
  • HS—Unleashed
  • HS Trainer Kit

What do you think about that? Personally, I’m disappointed. I was hoping for more of a clean slate to start working on new decks. The metagame will shift, but it doesn’t look to be a major change.

Stupid Deck Idea

Stupid Deck Idea: Flyking (Flygon, Kingdra, Blastoise)

Ed 4 Comments

Flygon - RRThis idea is simple AND stupid, so it’s got a lot going for it.

Step 1: Steal someone’s Flychamp/Nidoqueen decklist. I’m sure you can use Google, but I’ve found a couple for you here and here in case you’re lazy.

Step 2: Rip out the Machamp line and replace it with Kingdra Prime. You should end up with something that looks like this.

2 Trapinich [SW]
1 Trapinich RI
2 Vibrava RI
3 Flygon RI
1 Flygon Lv.X RI
2 Horsea LA
1 Seadra LA
2 Kingdra Prime UL
3 Baltoy GE
3 Claydol GE
1 Nidoran RI
1 Nidoqueen RI
1 Unown G GE
1 Uxie LA

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Card Discussion

Quit With the Expert Belt, Enough Already!

Ed 7 Comments

Expert Belt - AR

He swings for 100 damage (belted).

His attack hits for 80 damage (100 with belt).

He’s got 100HP (Expert Belt attached).

He’s got 150HP (if you attach belt).

How many times have you seen phrases like these? They’re all over the Pokewebs. We get it! The Expert Belt gives your Pokemon +20 HP and +20 damage.

Why doesn’t anyone write up a new deck analysis like this?

“When you attack with Kingdra, you can take 2 prizes if you KO the defending Pokemon (when he’s belted).”

OR

“One of Luxray’s drawbacks is that the opponent takes two prizes when you KO him (with Expert Belt attached).”

How about we all just quit with the gratuitous Expert Belt inclusions in deck posts? Raise your hand if you don’t understand that you can attach an Expert Belt to do 20 extra damage and add 20 HP to your Pokemon. Nobody? Good!

Stupid Deck Idea

Stupid Deck Idea: Goose King

Ed 5 Comments

Kingdra Prime - ULI don’t yet know if this will be a recurring column or not. I would like it to be, but I’m not sure how well it will be received or if it’s something I will maintain. You see, I have deck ideas every once in a while. This seems to happen more when new cards come out. Usually, I come up with some great new idea. I write up a skeleton decklist, and then I ponder it. In the short term, the pondering process often results in minor tweaks. In the long term (being probably less than a day), it generally results in scrapping the idea because it’s not going to be competitive enough.

I don’t have a lot of opportunity to play weird decks at home. I’d love to try these ideas at league or something. The problem is that I often don’t own all the cards (especially for sets that haven’t been released yet). Also, league is only once a week, and I don’t make it to every session.

This means that the “Stupid Deck Idea” usually doesn’t make it past the initial decklist, therefore I will never know if the idea had any actual merit. As it is, these “Stupid Deck Ideas” may have some usefulness. Maybe the Pokemon have some good synergy, but the trainer line was all wrong to support them. Maybe there’s a hidden combo that hadn’t been widely considered before, but without testing, it’ll never be discovered. Maybe a year or two from now a new card comes out that makes the deck work, and people can find this archive. I don’t know. All I know is that the idea is going to get shelved, so I’ll put it here and see what happens. Maybe it gets universally ignored, but maybe someone takes it and runs with it.

So, that’s the setup for “Ed’s Stupid Deck Idea.” Today’s installment is “Goose King.” It combines Zangoose Platinum with Kingdra Prime from Unleashed.
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Regional Championships

Interview and Pictures From WI Regional

Ed 5 Comments

Hey guys. This will be a quick post. Check out this YouTube video. It’s an interview I did with Steven Reich of the Poke Press this last weekend right after I got eliminated from the regional tournament. Steven seems like an interesting fellow. I guess he’s been covering Pokemon events for around 10 years, and he runs a league, too. If you want to see more of his videos, check out the Poke Press YouTube channel.

In addition, I am finally posting the pictures that I took at the tournament. They are nothing special, but I figured that I ought to include them somewhere. Those are just after the video.


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Deck Discussion Regional Championships State Championships

Austino’s Gyarados Decklist

Ed 6 Comments

Austino's Gyarados“Austino’s Gyarados” No, it’s not a new gym leader’s Pokemon, but maybe it should be. After all, Austino rode Gyarados to 3 top cuts in States/Regionals ultimately grabbing second place in the CO regionals earning him a 2 round bye at nationals and a $1000 scholarship. All it got me was 5th (after Swiss) in MN states and 17th in the WI regionals.

Let’s take a look at the deck that helped Austino and I get all those match wins, but first I should provide a little background on why I am posting about Austino’s deck in the first place. Leading up to states, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to play. For a while, I had been thinking SP, but whenever I played it, it just didn’t feel right to me. I’m not saying that I didn’t have fun playing it or that I couldn’t play it well. It’s just not my style, I think. I could have worked it out, but I wanted something that felt more natural to me. I researched a lot, and I came to the conclusion that Gyarados would be a good fit for me. I started building the deck, but I got stuck on what techs to run in it. Lots of people were running Luxray. I tried that. Omar built a version with Blissey, but I wasn’t sold on it. I was really worried about the SP matchup and a bit worried about things like Mime and Spiritomb. I tried tossing in things like Combee, Promocroak, Relicanth, etc. I still wasn’t getting the feel that I was searching for.
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Regional Championships Tourney Report

Riding the Bubble in Wisconsin Dells

Ed 6 Comments

Team Omar Midwest Regionals
Team Omar at Midwest Regionals (photo by Steven from Poke Press)
Going in to regionals, I felt a bit ill prepared. I had wanted to run Jumpluff, because playing it pleases me. I didn’t get much play with the deck, and when I tested it with Omar about a week and a half before regionals, he handed me like 5 consecutive losses. After that, I felt much more comfortable with the Gyarados I played in MN states. I decided to use the same deck, which put me at ease.

Most Gyarados builds would have a pretty similar core. Some people tech in Blissey, Luxray, and maybe even Donphan. I didn’t. Enough about my deck, though. If you want to read about that, see this article about Austino’s Gyarados. Let’s get to the regionals action.
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Regional Championships

Pokemon Midwest Regional Championship Wisconsin Dells

Ed 10 Comments

Pokemon Midwest Regional Championships Wisconsin DellsTomorrow, we’re heading out to Wisconsin Dells, WI. We will head to the hotel, and wake up Saturday morning ready for the Midwest Regional Championship Tourney. My daughter, Ava, and my wife will be making the trip with me. All three of us plan to participate in the tournament.

Our front-man, Omar, has some real-life event to attend to, and Abdi is staying back to support him. Lesser known/mentioned teammates Meghan and Charlie will also be staying in MN. I think means that we will be the only “Team Omar” representatives there, but there’s a chance that Tre and Louis might try to catch a ride, too. I don’t know if they’ll be able to make it with us, and I’m not sure where they’ll sleep. If you’re heading from Minneapolis to the Dells and have some room, leave a comment. I know it’s late, but it might work out.

Ava will be the cute 6-year-old girl. I’m assuming that nobody here really cares much about Juniors, though. My wife would probably rather be left anonymous.

As for me, I will try to wear something that says “Team Omar” or “www.TeamOmar.com” on it. I wanted to have some shirts made, but that won’t happen in time. I might get something interesting, though. Hmm, I guess I’d have to do that tonight.

There’s not a whole lot to cover on this topic, but I am interested in whether or not you are playing in regionals. If not, why? If so, where? Leave a comment. It’ll be interesting to see what regions the readers here are attending.

Oh, you wanted to know what decks we’re playing? All 3 of them will be modified legal. I’m also pretty sure they’ve all been mentioned on this website before. If you still want to know, check back next week.

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