Pikkdogs

Cyrus’s Lost World- Absol G and Palkia G.

Pikkdogs February 6, 2011 4 Comments

Hey all members of Omar-Nation, this is Pikkdogs here with a deck analysis. This article is about a lost world deck. Not to be confused about one of my favorite novels,”The Lost World”, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. If you haven’t read it, I recommend it. Its about Dinosaurs, poisoned arrows, and Hot Air Balloons, what could be better than that? But anyway, this article is about the card, not the novel.

Like most people out there, I had long been interested by Lost World, and was thinking of ways to use the card. Most people were thinking of using Gengar Prime, but without Claydol, Gengar decks aren’t as consistent as they should be. Since they are also slower, it is very easy to play around Gengar. So I looked for other ways to play Lost World.

I remembered a match that I played at 2009 Fall Battle Roads against a person from Ohio. He was using a speed version of the Cyrus Engine, and Absol G to place a lot of cards in the lost zone. I ended up winning that game, but I always remembered that unique deck. So when I saw Lost World, I thought it was the right time to copy that guys idea and make a deck out of it.

So thats how I came up with Cyrus’s Lost World. The purpose of this deck is to get 6 Pokemon in the lost zone as fast as possible. This is achieved by using Palkia G and Absol G. Palkia will mostly be around to limit the opponent’s bench and clear room on your own, though it can help to put their opponent in the Lost Zone. Of course, Palkia G has a “Lost Cyclone” Poke-Power that lets each player choose three benched Pokemon, and the rest go to the Lost Zone. Absol G will be the main Pokemon that puts others in the Lost Zone. He has a Poke-Power “Darkness Send”, that lets you send up to the top 3 cards of your opponent’s deck into the lost zone, based on coin flips.
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Card Discussion

Top 5 Impactful Cards of Call of Legends.

Pikkdogs February 1, 2011 12 Comments

Hey all members of Omar-Nation, this is Pikkdogs here with a set review and the top 5 cards of Call of Legends.

If you look on any Pokemon site now a days, you will find no shortage of people bashing this set. A lot of people are calling it the worst set ever, and are just mad at it. It only has a handful of playable cards, and most cards are reprints of so-so cards from the last couple sets. Most players call this set a total blunder for Play Pokemon. The poster child for this so called blunder is Phanpy. Phanpy has a Poke-Body that twice misspells its names. The card just sums up what a lot of people think Play Pokemon did with this set.

But, there are people who think that this set is pretty good, we call these people collectors. These collectors love challenges, and this set features 11 shiny Pokemon, that is what I call a challenge. There is sure to be value in these Shiny Pokemon if you pull any from the pack, a lot of collectors will be happy to find the rare cards of this set.

Besides being a good set for collectors, this set does still have some luster in it. Of course this set has one big giant card, Lost World. This card is what players have been waiting for for months. In addition to Lost World, there are still some good playable cards here, so lets look at some of the best cards of the set.

5. Tangrowth

One of the cards that nobody has talked about is Tangrowth. It may not seem like a great card to look at, and it honestly never seems great, but it is a good combo with Tangrowth Lv.X. Well lets look at the card.

It has 110 HP, a 4 retreat cost, a weakness to fire, and a resistance to water. The HP is decent for a stage 1 and the resistance is good with Gyarados running around, but the retreat cost and weakness are terrible. It has one good attack, its called “Grind”, which does 20 damage times the amount of energy attached to it. Besides being able to use DCE, it works great with its Level X. Besides adding 20 HP, the Level X adds an attack that will let you attach as many grass energy cards from you discard pile as you like to any of your Pokemon. If you were able to discard a lot of Grass Energies, you can then use “Big Growth” to attach energies, and then attack with Grind for a lot of damage. The Level X also adds healing, which is always good for a tank.

This combo is a little slow and isn’t the best, but is worth a look. It will be a good fun deck, but it won’t ever be Tier 1.

4. Mr. Mime

Mr. Mime has 70 HP, a 1 retreat cost, and a psychic weakness. These stats aren’t very good, but they aren’t what we are here for.

We are here for the Poke-Power. “Trick Reveal” forces each player to reveal their hand to one another, and Mr. Mime can use this power each turn, and he does not need to be active. It is all in all a great power, it would be nice to not have to show your hand, but the only thing Mr. Mime will cost you is a bench spot.

The most common combo for this card is Gengar Sf, since you will be able to see if your opponent has enough trainers in his/her hand for a knock-out. It should find a home in any Trainerlock deck right away. This would be a great use for Mr. Mime, and I’m sure you could find other combinations for it.

3. The Reprints

In this category I am grouping a lot of different varied cards. There are a lot of decent cards that got a re-print in this set. Some of the good ones are Smeargle, Slowking, Professor Oaks New Theory, Copycat, Umbreon, Ninetails, Dual Ball, Interviewer’s Question, and the Reverse Holo Energies.

These cards are all playable and the reprint will let you get a lot of copies of these cool cards. Also if a card got new artwork in this set, its usually pretty sweet (except Eevee, I think this Eevee was inbred or something).

2. Lost Remover

Lost Remover is a trainer card that lets you put one special energy card that is attached to one of your opponent’s Pokemon, and stick it in the lost zone.

Right now this is not good enough to be a staple, but I think it soon will. Once the SP engine rotates out I think Special Energies will be more popular, and this card will stop them. Even now you can use it to combat Tyranitar Prime and Steelix Prime. Putting a Special Metal card attached to Steelix in the Lost Zone would be devastating. So its not a great card, but it is a card that I believe will be good soon.

1. Lost World-

This is the grand-daddy of them all, Lost World. This is what makes this set worth it, a game changing card.

It lets anyone win the game, if their opponent has 6 Pokemon in their Lost Zone.

It is format changing because it makes cards like Gengar Prime, Palkia G, Absol G, and others playable. It will probably make at least 1 or 2 first or second tier decks. Now people will be trying to get Pokemon cards in the Lost Zone, when the Lost Zone was once ignored.

It will cause a lot of things to be changed, because each deck and player will have to adjust to fight this new way to win a game. Only time will tell how impactful this will be, but for right now it seems like this card will be extremely impactful.

I don’t get a lot of people who bash this set, it is a decent set that will get you a lot of playable cards. Nobody seems to like this set, but I bet everyone would love to get another Smeargle, RH energy, or PONT. Despite what everyone says, it is a decent set that has some good cards in it. I highly recommend that everyone go to the next pre-release that its in your area. For some reason these pre-releases are very fun to go to. And of course, these events are always great to trade at.

So long and thanks for all the fish.

Tourney Report Uncategorized

Best Set Ever, For Pre-Releases: Call of Legends Tourney Report and Tournament Advice.

Pikkdogs January 30, 2011 7 Comments

A big hello to everyone in Omar-Nation, this is Pikkdogs here with a Pre-Release tourney Report and some advice for anyone going to Pre-Release tournaments next weekend.

A lot of people are saying that this is the worst set ever, while I don’t know Pokemon TCG history from Base Set to Diamond and Pearl, I do know that there are not many good cards in this set. There are 2 good trainer cards, maybe 2 good Pokemon, and a handful of good re-prints; thats it. No good Primes, Level X’s, or Legend Cards! These reasons make this set not hugely impactful, but it also does make it one of the best sets ever for Pre-Releases.

Guide to Winning a Call of Legends Pre-Release

Consistency

This set is full of re-prints of supporters that help in consistency including; Proffesor Oaks New Theory, Copy Cat, Professor Elms Training Method, Sages Training, and Cheerleaders Cheer. When you combine this with good search/draw Pokemon like Smeargle, Mawile, Pidgey, Ninetails, Relincanth, Skarmory, and Pachirisu; you will get quite the consistent deck. This means that if you get just a couple good attacking Pokemon, you should be able to get them out fairly quickly. If you pull any of these cards that I mentioned, it would probably be a good idea to run them in your deck.

Attacking

This set doesn’t have the attacking power like other sets have, but this is sure to make it a fun and competitive tournament. Most sets have a good basic or stage one Prime or Level X, not this time, you will have to rely on evolution cards. Here are some good options.

The Eeveelutions– If you get enough Eevee’s and some of its evolutions, they are not a bad play.
The Stage 2 Guys– If you pull a decent line of one stage 2, it is to your advantage to play it. Ampharos can provide a good attack and great energy acceleration. While the three GS starters aren’t bad in this format.
Seviper– Possibly the best starter of the bunch. If you want an early prize leader, Seviper will give it to you. If its poisoned it can do 80 damage, but it usually takes too long to get it poisoned late game.
The Stage 1’s– There are several stage 1 Pokemon that are good and easy to evolve. Donphan doesn’t have great stats but he can hit for weakness on a lot of good Pokemon. Ursaring isn’t great but only uses Colorless energy, so he is very versatile. And finally, Houndoom is a good card because a lot of people will play with fighting Pokemon, “Fire Counterattack” attack is almost un-matched. Gyarados takes a lot of energy, but he can come in later for your last knock-out, if needed.
The Big HP basics– No they aren’t very attractive for Modified play, but they do work well here. Pokemon like Snorlax, Groudon, Ho-Oh, Lugia, Palkia, and Dialga; aren’t great but can be built up all game when Pokemon like Seviper are attacking, and can provide your 4th and final Knock Out.

Basic Rules for Pre-Releases

Here are some basic rules that you can apply to all pre-releases that you go to.

Use all the use-able trainers you have. If you pull 6 PONT, then put them all in your deck. Make room for any trainer or supporter that you can use to improve consistency. The only drawback is that if you pull a card like Lost World you shouldn’t play it, because theres no way that you could use it to win the game.
Run about 12 energies. Usually 12 energies is pretty good for this type of tournament, its just enough so that you will seldom be in need of energy, but won’t always draw it. This pre-release is a little different, there are so many drawing supporters that you don’t have to run this many. You could probably get away with about 10 or so.
Keep your Pokemon types fairly low. Its usually best to stick to about 2 or 3 types of Pokemon. It can be tough to have consistency when you are running 5-6 types of energies. Pokemon that take only colorless energies are always nice.
When choosing your cards keep consistency in mind. Try to make a deck that will setup as fast as possible every time. If you pulled a 1-1-1 line of Feraligatr, its probably not the best idea to run it. Its better to have a Pokemon that can hit for 50 damage, but sets up faster, then a Pokemon that you will only be able to setup once the entire game. But, you can only make the deck that you pull, so just try to build the most consistent deck you can.

Pikkdog’s Call of Legends Pre-Release- Okemos (Lansing), Mi.

I go to the event early and meet Cheffords for some play-testing. He plays a Vespiquen deck against my Absol G Lost World deck (expect a good deck article once I get the deck perfected). I get, I think, 4 in the lost zone, when the packs start coming to the tables.

Of course I was more excited to pull some good cards, rather then cards for the tournament. But, I only pulled 1 Lost World and no Mr. Mimes or anything like that. I did pull Ninetails, Ursaring, Seviper, Mismagius, and Weesing; so those were my main Pokemon. This let me only run 2 types of energies, and still have a fairly balanced deck. Before pairings were up, I played Cheffords and he set up Ampharos and made quick work of me. Thats why I was nervous when I saw the pairings.

Round 1. vs. Cheffords Ampharos/ Gyarados

I sat down and told Cheffords that now we will see if our decks are consistent. I start with a lone Pidgey and he starts witha Pidgey and something else. He uses a Supporter and finds that he has prized a Flaffy, so his strategy is kind of shot. I then get Ursaring setup and take 3 prizes fairly easily. Then as I was about to take my last prize, he brings up this Totodile with 4 energies, and just owns everything.

Totodile has an attack, called “Aqua Tail” that for WCC does 30 damage plus 20 more for each heads you get from each water energy you have attached to Totodile. Cheffords gets like 7 heads in a row, and knocks out everybody he sees. As he has two prizes left I look at what I have in my hand, and what I have on the field. I see Weezing on the bench, and a bunch of energies in my hand. I look at Cheffords and ask him if he’s ready for sudden death. I load 2 energies on Weezing and do “Super Explosion” for 90 for both actives, and we each take our last prize. This takes away his Totodile and gives me an advantage, because I have two Sevipers in my deck.

So we shuffle everything and tell Cheffords that I need a Seviper start. I take 7 cards, and thats exactly what I got. I start with Seviper and a psychic energy, I start first and poison Seviper. Next turn I use PONT and find the last energy I need to knock out the defending Pokemon with “Poison Effect.”

1-0, hands down the most exciting Pre-Release game I have played up to this point. What an amazing game, a great comeback and then sudden death.

Round 2- Robert with Lugia and Houndoom.

I have talked to Robert before, but I have never played him. He is a Poke-Dad, and is more of a collector then a player. He got a good win over my buddy Andrew last round because of Houndoom. Too bad for him that I don’t use any fighting Pokemon in my deck.

I start with Seviper and get an early 3 prize lead. There is nothing he can really do early game. His Houndoom doesn’t do much against me and Lugia takes about 27 turns to get loaded up. He stalls with Pineco and knocks out Seviper. I switch to Ursaring and knock out the Pineco. But, he brings out Lugia with 2 energies, he attaches 1 and then snipes for 30. I “Confront” Palkia for 20. Then he attaches again and hits Ursaring for 30, I miss the coin flip on “Cross Chop” and hit Lugia for 50 more. Next turn he attaches, and knocks out Ursaring. Just like last game, I look at my bench, but this time I see a Mismagius. By this time we have gone to time, and on turn 2 he takes his third prize. On turn 3 I attach my last energy to Mismagius and hopes he has 1 trainer in his hand. He then shows an “Interviewer’s Question”, and I jump for joy.

2-0. I am informed that this is the first Pre-Release game in Michigan to go to +3, so its nice to be a part of history. So far my blood pressure has been rising with a lot of close and intense games.

Round 3- Bruce the Judge with Mightyena and Donphan.

I don’t get a great start here, so I attempt to load a bunch of energies on Snorlax. I eventually knock out his Houndoom with “Clomp Clomp Clobber” (excellent name for an attack), but then notice that all the attacking Pokemon I have out are weak to fighting, and he has a Donphan out. I know that I need to stall until I can get something else, but I never can get anything else, but I do stall. I call out my Mime Jr. and put him to sleep. His Poke-Body makes him invulnerable to attacks when he his asleep, and since his attack puts him to sleep, he just needs to stay asleep during turns. Amazingly enough, he stays asleep during each of Bruce’s turns, it must been like 5-8 times. But I eventually deck myself out.

2-1. I don’t know why, but I feel somewhat of a victory in getting decked out. Its weird that I didn’t have a normal victory this whole day. One win in sudden death, one after the +3, and a loss by decking out. This was no doubt the most fun I had in a pre-release, it was a great day.

After the tournament, I stuck around and made some trades. Before the game I told Jona that I had a premonition that I was going to pull a RH Lost World. When I got back to him after my third game, he had a RH Lost World waiting for me. I then traded him a Jirachi UD and Abamasnow (both RH) for it, awesome trade for us both. I then trade a get a Lost Remover, a DCE, 2 Junk Arms, and a bunch of other stuff.

When I was driving home I had another Premonition, that of a certain Ghost type Pokemon. So I stop at the Target by my house and make a purchase of a Porygon 2 Blister pack and 2 Triumphant Booster Packs. The Boosters turn out to be nothing, and I get nothing in the Platinum pack that was in the Blister pack. But, in the first Triumphant pack that was in the Blister I got a Gengar Prime, I was really pumped because those things are selling anywhere from 30-50 bones now a days, so I was pretty pumped. It was a great day, and I had fun with my Michigan pals.

So long and thanks for all the fish.

Uncategorized

The Techs of Luxchomp

Pikkdogs January 28, 2011 No Comments

Hey all members of Omar-Nation, Pikkdogs here with a little bit of a strategy article. This site hasn’t had a Luxchomp article posted here for quite sometime, and I am pretty proud of it. But alas, we can’t ignore it forever, so here is an article about Luxchomp.

We all know that since it became popular, Luxchomp has been the winning-est deck in the format. It is a great deck that is lightning quick and features a lot of elements of disruption. Of course it features the Pokemon Luxray Gl and Garchomp C, which gives the deck a lot of advantages. But to give it even more advantages, Luxchomp players have teched out their decks with a lot of different cards. There are too many cards to include them all in every deck. So to make things easier, this article will tell you a little more about the techs, and you can include the techs that fit your metagame the best.

The Staples– Before we talk about techs, lets first look at staples. I consider that Luxchomp has 5 staple Pokemon cards. 1. Luxray Gl (usually a 2-1. 3-1. or 2-2 line), 2.Garchomp C (usually a 2-2 or 3-1 line), 3. Bronzong G (just 1), Lucario Gl, and 4. The pixies (usually a 2-1 Uxie line and 1 Azelf).

Your Mirror Techs– Since the mirror matchup is one of the most important Luxchomp matchups, it is important that Luxchomp decks tech against each other. Garchomp C and Luxray Gl are great Pokemon but they are susceptible to revenge knock-outs.

Ambipom G– Ambipom G is a diverse little card, it can do a lot of things, but is not very flashy. It has 80 HP and is weak to fighting. Its first attack, called “Tail Code” lets you move an energy from your opponent’s active to a bench for just 1 energy. Even though this is a pretty pitiful attack, it is fairly good against speed decks, because they don’t run many energies. But, the reason this card is here is because its second attack, called “Snap Attack.” For CC it can do 60 damage if the defending Pokemon has no energy attached to it. That means you can do 120 damage to a Garchomp C for just 1 DCE, and “Snap Attack” adds donking ability.

Dragonite FB– Dragonite FB is also a diverse card. It has 100 HP, and is weak to colorless. It has more HP then Ambipom, it can always knockout Garchomp C, and can attack better then Ambipom; but it takes more energy, requires a coin flip on one of its attack, and can be hit by Garchomp C for weakness. Its first attack, called “Mach Blow,” does 80 damage to any SP, this will be the attack you use the most. It requires an energy gain and 1 DCE to attack, so it does take resources, but can be up and running in one turn. Its second attack, “Giant Tail”, can do 100 damage, but it requires a coin flip, and another energy.

Toxicroak G Promo– I feel like a broken record, but this card is very diverse. Any time your opponent knocks out a Pokemon, Toxicroak can be called up and do 60 damage plus poison. So this gives you a bunch of options, plus it is a fighting type so it can OHKO Luxray Gl. As mentioned, “Poison Revenge” can do 60 damage and poison the defending for PC. The bad part of this card is that you will need to include a psychic energy to use this card. Toxicroak G comes complete with his own built in Super Scoop Up, in the form of a Poke-Power called “Leap Away.” Why I don’t like cards who’s sole purpose is to go away, it does have its uses.

If you don’t have Toxicroak G promo, you could use Mankey SV as a tech against Luxray Gl. It can do 60 damage for just 1 fighting energy, but it only has 60 HP. The problem with this card is that unless you use Mankey to take the last prize, your opponent will be able to knock out Mankey, so its use doesn’t really make any sense.

The other techs-

Dialga G– Last years worlds winner had a lot of people looking at his deck for obvious reasons, and one of the things they noticed was that he ran Dialga G and Warp Energies. Dialga G is not a staple tech now adays, if you want Dialga G you might as well run Dialgachomp, but there are reasons to run this card in a Luxchomp deck. It is an excellent card to go against decks that run a lot Pokebodies; like Trainerlock varieties, Donphan Prime, and Mewtwo techs. It is an excellent play for bigger tournaments that have lots of deck variety. Though you will need to include some Warp Energies. If you use Dialga G, you would only use the Pokebody, you would most likely not want to attack with it.

Blaziken FB– Like Dialga G, Blaziken FB is very versatile. For one fire energy you can pick your opponent’s benched Pokemon, make him active and burn him. Then next turn you can level up and hit that Pokemon for 120 with “Jet Shoot” and the “Burning Spirit” Poke-Body. It can help you do a lot of things against a lot of different decks. It can be used against Gyarados, to bring up Regice and stall or snipe around. It is also a good tech against Vileplume, you can make him active, then attach another energy next turn and knock him out.

Drifblim Ud– Drifblim is a card that is not versatile, it is only good against tanking cards. If you don’t run Blaziken FB you will automatically lose to decks like Steelix Prime. So to counter big tanking decks, you can use Drifblim to get rid of the tanking card. Drifblim’s second attack, “Take Away” that costs CCC and its effect shuffles in both active Pokemon into their respective decks. The bad thing about this tech is that you need two spots for this card you need to evolve. Most Luxchomp decks should be able to work well without Drifblim, but you can include it in your deck if your format is full of tanking decks.

Mewtwo Lv.X– Mewtwo will be a good tech if you are playing a deck that does not have any evolution lines. Its Poke-Body “Psybarrier” prevents all attacks from Pokemon that aren’t evolved. It’s one attack, “Giga Burn”, does 120 damage for PPC, but you must discard all energy attached. This means that you will need to include at least 2 Psychic energies to be able to use this card. Though 120 damage is a good number. The problem about using Mewtwo Lv.X is that there are too many ways for your opponent to play around it. Some Luxchomp decks play an evolved Pokemon like Mismagius SF to counter Mewtwo, while others play Dialga G Lv. X. Or, Garchomp C LV. X can be used to knock out Mewtwo before it can be a Lv. X. I would only suggest Mewtwo if you know that most of the other SP decks in the format do not run a counter.

So that is all for this article. There are a few more techs like Mismagius, Skuntank Gl, Staraptor FB, and Smeargle UD. But these cards are either pretty self explanatory or not used very much.

Fortunately, SP decks will soon lose a lot of their luster, because a lot of the key cards will be rotated out next season. But, until then you can learn how to play this Luxchomp deck and be successful at your State and Regional Championships with it.

Pikks Three

Pikkdogs Pikks Three: Garchomp C Lv.X, Pokemon Reversal, and Seviper CoL

Pikkdogs January 24, 2011 5 Comments

Hello to all members of Omar-Nation. As you can see from the title of this article, Pikk Three is back. I have not done this article in a while, since the season was in full swing, there was a lot to talk about. The Undaunted set brought in some new decks, and the Triumphant set changed a lot of the decks out there. But now, Battle Roads and City Championships are over, there are no new decks out there (none that anyone will talk about anyway), and the next set seems to be fairly boring.

So because of these reasons, I think its time to go back to the Pikk Three article. If you don’t know what this article is, I’ll just have to tell you. Its an article where I review three cards, one that is popular, one that I think is under-used, and one that is coming out in a new or yet un-released set. Its basically a card of the day article on steroids, so without further wait, here is the article.

The Staple-Garchomp C Lv.X

Description-Its hard to believe that I have never reviewed this card before, because it is probably the best card in the format. It is of course a basic Lv.X with 110 HP, a free retreat, and a colorless weakness. It has one Poke-Power, called “Healing Breath”, it lets you remove all damage counters from all of your SP Pokemon when you level up Garchomp C. Garchomp’s one attack, “Dragon Rush” cost CCC and does 80 damage to any on of your opponent’s Pokemon.

Analysis-This card is one of the better cards in the format because a lot of these basic stats. Its free retreat combines great with “Healing Breath.” It is this combo that has made it such a great combo with Dialga G Lv.X. “Dragon Rush” gives the card a lot of sniping ability, which gives the card a lot of disruption ability. This makes it a great combo with Luxray Gl Lv.X.

Garchomp C has seen a lot of play with both Dialga G and Luxray GL. It has seen play in other decks, but not as much as in the Dialgachomp and Luxchomp decks. Garchomp C has made the Luxchomp deck what it was today, the best deck around. The ability to heal and snipe is a great thing to have in any deck.

Before the release of this card, SP decks relied on Luxray Gl Lv.X for knockouts. They used to count each Poketurn as a knockout from the “Bright Look” Poke-Power. Now, SP players count each Double Colorless Energy as a potential prize, because of its synergy with “Dragon Rush.”

To use Garchomp C Lv.X, an SP player would probably first attack with Luxray Gl or a different Pokemon, then promote Garchomp C. They would then put the Lv.X on Garchomp C, use “Healing Breath”, attach a DCE and an Energy Gain, and then be ready to knock out any Pokemon with less then 80 HP.

Final Rating-10/10– This is the epitome of a 10/10 card. It revolutionized the whole format and constructed the current best deck in format.

The Underdog-Pokemon Reversal

Description– This is a trainer card with a simple effect. You may flip a coin, if heads you may switch the defending Pokemon with any of your opponents benched Pokemon. If you are older then 20 years old you will know what I mean when I say that it is like a flippable Gust of Wind.

Analysis– This card was released in the HGSS set, and had seen some play when it first came out. Some people played it in decks like Donphan Prime, but it never really caught on in any major decks.

I think this card is underrated because it does what few other cards can do. It can pick one of your opponent’s benched Pokemon that he could be hiding and be able to knock it out. This is used in some decks that rely on a prize race, and do not do over 110 damage each turn. It could be used in Gyarados decks and other popular decks that have a flexible list. The ability to select your opponent is great and can help you win the prize race.

Though I think this card should be played more then it is, it could see a lot less play in the future. This is because in the Black and White Collection we might get a card called Pokemon Catcher, which is just basically a re-printed Gust of Wind. It does everything that Pokemon Reversal does, but without a coin flip. If this deck does make it to the U.S. it will kill all play of Pokemon Reversal, but until it does I think its a good play.

Final Rating- 7/10– A good play in a lot of decks. Even though this card may not be used later, I think its still a good play now for a lot of decks. It especially has a good combo now with Junk Arm.

The Young Gun- Seviper Call of Legends

Description-Seviper usually doesn’t get a lot of good cards, but this one isn’t too bad. It is from the new Call of Legneds Set, which begins its Pre-Release season this weekend. So we don’t have much time, lets look at the card.

It has 90 HP, it is a basic, it is weak to Psychic, and has a retreat cost of 2. It has two attacks. Its first attack is called “Poison Buildup” and its only effect is that is poisons Seviper. You may not think that it is not such a good thing, but wait until you read the next attack. For PC its next attack, “Poison Effect”, does 20 damage, or 80 damage if Seviper is poisoned. 80 damage for just 2 energies isn’t bad.

Analysis– So we can do 80 damage for 2 energies and you don’t have to evolve. But to get Seviper poisoned, you will want to find a better way then using his first attack. This is where Skuntank G comes in.

If you have Skunktank G on the bench, a Stadium in play, and Seviper active; you can use “Poison Structure” to poison both active Pokemon. If you need to have a stadium in play, I would suggest using Snowpoint Temple, which gives basic Pokemon extra HP. You might also want to look at Team Galactic HQ which penalizes your opponent for evolving. With this combo you can easily get 80 damage going in each turn.

If you use this combo you can also use Expert Belt to do 100 damage. If you combine this with the damage your opponent receives from poison, you would get the magic number of 110 damage each turn. 110 is the magic number because Gengar SF has 110. And since the last 10 damage comes from poison, your opponent will not get to flip for “Fainting Spell.” 100 damage also leaves you just a “Flash Bite” or Plus Power away from knocking out Luxray Gl Lv.X and Garchomp C Lv.x.

This can be a very effective combo, but I don’t think that this will be a top tier deck. Seviper only has 90 HP and a psychic weakness. Almost any deck can OHKO Seviper with Uxie Lv.X. And since it takes 2 energy to attack, it will take a lot to get a string of Seviper’s going. If the game turns into a prize race, Seviper may be in a bad spot. Perhaps one could add in Pokemon that disrupt, like Mesprit LA. This would slow down the opposing deck, and this would give you a big advantage.

Final Rating– 6/10- I don’t see this being a great deck or great attacker. It could be used in other decks, like Genar/Vileplume. But its best use is probably in its own fun deck. It is an interesting card, that I wouldn’t be mad if I pulled in a pack.

So that is my first Pikk Three article since the new season began. Feel free to add your own reviews of each card in the comment box, and leave any comments you have.

Stupid Deck Idea

Pikkdog’s Stupid Deck Idea-World B. Free-A Yanmega Prime Deck

Pikkdogs January 19, 2011 7 Comments

Hey all members of Omar Nation, this is Pikkdogs here with a Stupid Deck Idea. As most of you know, our Stupid Deck Ideas are basically fun decks that either show a little promise or are just fun to play. This deck fits in the former category, and features Yanmega Prime.

I call this deck World B. Free, after one of the craziest named NBA players. The name kind of fits because Yanmega Prime can attack without any energies, or for free.

First I got to give props to Cheffords and his buddies at work. While they did not help me with this deck, they are the only other people I know with a similar deck.

So, on to the deck strategy. The strategy of this deck is to have the same number of cards in your hand as your opponent does, so you do not need to pay for any of Yanmega Prime’s attacks, thanks to his “Insight” Pokebody. Yanmega Prime has two attacks. With “Linear Attack” you can snipe for 40 damage, and with “Sonicboom” you can do 70 damage. While 70 damage isn’t a great attack, if you can combine it with disruption it may be enough.

To make sure you have the same number of cards as your opponent does you can use either Judge or Giratina Pt #9. Both of these cards have the same effect, each player shuffles their hand in their deck and draws 4 cards. This not only lets you attack for free, but provides hand disruption. To further the disruption I have added Mesprit La to this deck. Its Poke Power “Psychic Bind” forbids your opponent from using Poke Powers on his/her next turn. This can be very disruptive, especially when used with “Let-Loose” or Judge.

Things to Remember

Keep an early powerlock on the opponent, don’t let them use any powers until their 4th or 5th turns, you should have a prize lead by then.
Don’t play any cards after you “Let Loose” or Judge. After you use these effects, the only thing you can do is attack. If you use any cards you may not be able to attack on this turn, because you won’t have exactly 4 cards in your hand.
Make sure you keep an eye on everyone’s hand size. You may not need to waste a Super Scoop Up or Seeker on Giratina.

The List

Here is my list- along with some insights on the cards.

Pokemon-20

4- Yanma- Any set as long as it isn’t Triumphant. The extra 20 HP and the lack of a x2 weakness is nice
4-Yanmega Prime
3-Giratina Pt #9
3-Mesprit La
1- Uxie
4-Sableye Sf- You really need to start this game off with a Pokemon Collector, so just use “Impersonate” to get one.
1- Giratina Lv.X. This card isn’t pivotal to this deck, but since you are running Giratina and 4 Warp Energies, there is no reason not to.

Energies-6

4-Warp- This card saves you from a bad start, and if someone decides to pull up Giratina to the active spot. You could switch this to Warp Points, but for some reason I liked Warp Energies.
2-Rescue Energies- Not needed, but these are good for an obvious reason, and can help you retreat if needed.

Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums-34

4- Junk Arms- This card lets you re-use all the trainers you have.
4- Super Scoop Up- Lets you create bench space or re-use “Let Loose” or “Psychic Bind.”
3- Pokemon Collector
3-Pokemon Communication- This card is key because you will sometimes have to use Seeker or Judge as your supporters.
2-Expert Belt- 70 damage isn’t enough.
4- Plus Powers- These cards could be substituted out, but they can help you add the damage you need to KO the defending opponent.
4-Judge- After your bench space is gone, you will need to use this a lot.
3-Seeker. Same as Super Scoop Up.
2- Bebe’s Search
1- Luxury Ball
2- V.S. Seeker- key to re-using Judge or Seeker late game.
2- Pokemon Rescue- kind of used as a place holder for now.

As you can see this list is not as tight as it should be. There is room to add in some new techs. Here are a few

Exploud SV- This card can negate your lightning weakness, though it will slow your deck down.
Regice– This card will let you discard cards from your hand, it might help you equal the number of cards in your opponents hand without using a Power or Supporter.
Pokemon Reversal– You can use this card to target any benched Pokemon, and make it active. It can be used to knock out a Dialga G before it becomes a Lv.X.

Matchups

A deck is only as good as its matchups, so here are a list of a few matchups.

Luxchomp– Unfavorable. You can provide a lot of disruption with Mesprit and Judges, they will have a hard time getting their Cyrus chain. But the fact is, your weakness makes sure that Luxchomp will almost never lose.
Gyarados– Favorable. The rule of thumb here is to Judge early and often. While you powerlock and Judge, your opponent will find it hard to get setup. Hopefully you can get a big enough prize lead before they finally get setup.
Dialgachomp– Autoloss. Right now you have no counter to Dialga G. “Time Crystal” negates “Insight” so you cannot even attack.
Uxie Donk– Balanced. You do run a lot of basics, so that is good. But you never know how things will work out.
Trainerlock– Unfavorable. You run a lot of trainers, so you need a lot of luck to be able to survive.
Machamp– Favorable. Yanmega is an evolved Pokemon that has a resistance to fighting, two things that help against Machamp. You will have a hard time getting a OHKO on Machamp, but they will be in the same boat. So as long as you Powerlock first, your opponent will not be able to setup as fast. If you setup faster, you win.
Regigas– Balanced. You both powerlock, so whoever gets the better setup will probably win. Regigas has the better attack, but you can Judge and setup faster; its fairly even.
Random Stuff– Favorable. Given that this category contains a lot of random rogue decks, it is hard to predict whats coming. But your disruption will keep most rogue decks at bay.

So there is a run down of this deck. It is a fun deck that will probably shock your freinds at league. But, I wouldn’t count on it as saving you at a State or Regional tournament. If your bored throw this deck together, it does work fairly well. Thats it for now, have fun in your initial testings for States.

So Long and Thanks for all the fish.

Uncategorized

Preservation of Pokemon Cards.

Pikkdogs January 13, 2011 8 Comments

As many of you probably do not know, I am in the Masters of Library Sciences Program at Wayne State University. In short, I am going to school to be a librarian.

Why should I care about that?

You shouldn’t.

So why are you telling me this?

Well, if you will let me finish my story, I’ll tell you.

Anyway, last semester I was in a class that was being given a presentation about the preservation of books. While I was listening to what kind of things can ruin books, I was thinking of how this kind of stuff can apply to cards as well. After class, I went online and learned a lot of stuff about card preservation.

While I will admit that I don’t practice great preservation, it is an important concept to anyone in the game. Preservation is one of the most important things about maintaining a card collection, no matter how big or how small. In this article I will tell you why you should preserve your cards and how you can do it.

Why You Should do It.

There are two main reasons to preserve your Pokemon card collection.

To preserve its value for trading purposes
To preserve it to pass on to a younger generation.

Even though you may not care about keeping your cards in mint condition, a lot of people out there do. They are not going to want to buy your damaged cards. The last thing you want is your poor preservation techniques getting in the way of getting a good deal on a trade.

One great thing about Pokemon is that you can share it with a younger generation. Whether it is your son, daughter, cousin, niece, or nephew; Pokemon is a game that people of all ages can enjoy. If you do not have children yet but will in the future, you can preserve your collection for later. It is a great thing to be able to pass on one of your passion to another generation, that is why preservation is important. But what good will it be when you go on to play with your son in 10 years, and find that your collection has been damaged by a flood?

For both of these reasons it is important to store your Pokemon cards in a good manner but how can you do it? Before we answer this, we should look at what we can protect our cards from.

Wear and Tear– This is perhaps the most common damage done to cards. Whenever you play with or touch a card you have a chance at damaging it. There is a good chance that this card will still be playable after this damage, but its trade value will plummet.
Water Damage– My favorite story of water damage is from when I was in college. My roommate used to play Magic, and would routinely leave tins filled with cards all around the apartment. One day he decided to put a tin in a windowsill, later he opened the window. One thunderstorm later he had a tin full of worthless cards. Water is a big threat to cards, whether it comes from a leaky roof, an open window, a water glass, or a flood; you must protect your cards from them. Water can easily make your cards unplayable.
Smoke damage– This one is easy, don’t smoke in your house. If you do your cards will get yellow spots on them.
Damage from food– Another one, that is easy to fix. Don’t eat any food by your cards. You can stain them, or make them sticky, or a lot of other things that aren’t good for card. Food can either make your cards un-tradeable, or un-playable.
Sunlight– Overtime, Sunlight will start to fade your cards, and you don’t want to have to play with a bunch of faded cards.

How do we do it?

So now we know what can hurt your cards. How do we keep them safe? Here are a couple suggestions

Store all of your important card singles in a three ring binder. If you use a basic three ring binder and basic plastic pages, you can store a lot of cards for a low price. Make sure you don’t shove too many cards in one slot, that can damage your cards. If you don’t overflow the binder, it can be a cheap good way to store your cards.
Use Screw and Non-Screw Holders. You know these, these are like plaques. This can be an expensive way to store cards. It is also one of the better ways, because it protects the cards from dust along with water, food, and smoke. I would recommend this for only your most prized cards, like ones that are autographed. Of course when a card is in this holder, it is no longer playable when its in the holder, so this is not a good strategy for all cards.
Pack them, and store them in cardboard card boxes. Don’t just throw them in a shoebox, though. Pack all of your cards individually in sleeves and toploaders, and then in specially designed card boxes. This will keep them away from outside influences like sunlight, smoke, and food.
Put whatever you use in a plastic storage container and store in a cool dry place. Put all of your binders and boxes in a plastic storage box, to protect it from water and dust. Then put your container in a cool dry place where it won’t be subject to temperature changes or floods. Ideally you would also be able to store them in a place that is free of air pollution, but this is not always possible.

What not to Do

Now you know what to do, just for reinforcement, here are some things that you should not do.

Store decks with a rubber band. The band hurts the cards, and does not protect it from the elements like a deckbox does.
Eat/smoke while playing the game. Its not a good thing to do. It hurts the condition of your cards.
Not using sleeves. Even though I don’t like sleeves, they are a must for anyone that wants to have some trade value in their cards. They are worth the investment.

Now you guys know a little bit about preservation enough to have your cards keep their value, and know how to keep your cards for the future. If you guys have any other preservation secrets, or horror stories, please put them in the comment box.

So long and thanks for all the fish.

Uncategorized

Results of teamomar.com First Anniversary Contest.

Pikkdogs January 13, 2011 7 Comments

A big hello to everyone from Omarnation. This is Pikkdogs here with a quick house cleaning article.

As most of you know, a few weeks ago we started our first contest to celebrate our first anniversary. Now that the results are back, we can finally share them with all of our readers.

Ed and I were excited to run the contest, but unfortunately it did not go as well as we hoped. We didn’t get half the entries as we thought we would. But, we still did get some entries and got to connect with a few of our readers. Here are the winners of the contest:

1. Evan C.-winner of a Pokemon TCG Tin

2. Alan T.-winner of a 2010 Play Pokemon Energy Pack

3. Myles D.-winner of a Ho-oh Legend.

The winners have all been contacted and the prizes are on their way.

Since we did not get the amount of entries that we thought we would, we would like to know why. This input would be very helpful in making our website better, especially if we ever decided to have another contest. Are you guys interested in contests? Was this specific contest not interesting enough? Was the contest ran at an inconvenient time? What would you like to see in another contest? If you could leave some of your thoughts on these questions in the comment box Ed and I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank You all and congratulations to the winners.

City Championships

Gyarados, Gyarados, Gyarados : City Championships, MN, Jan 8+9, 2011

Pikkdogs January 11, 2011 33 Comments

Hey Everyone, this is Pikkdogs and Ed here to give you a dual article about the Cities we attended this weekend. We’re going to see how merging the two reports works. Pikkdogs played on Jan 8th, and Ed played both the 8th and 9th. Pikkdog’s matches will be in blue and Ed’s in red. The article intro is by Pikkdogs, and the wrapup is by Ed.

Jan 8th Misty Mountain Games in Burnsville

I was able to attend a tournament in Minnesota this weekend. I normally play in Michigan, but I spend my time away from school in Minnesota so I was able to attend the tournament on Saturday in Burnsville, MN. I was really excited to go to this tournament, because it was slated to be the reunion of Team Omar. This is because both me and Omar will be in town, so the team will be able to get together for one more tournament. I have fond memories of this past summer, when Omar won 3 cities so I was excited to see if we can take another victory medal.

I always like to play in Minnesota because the Metgame is much more relaxed. It is a lot easier to just relax and have a good time with your friends. I love playing in Michigan as well, but things are more competitive there. First, you have a lot of really good players who like to win. This is good but can take some of the fun out of it. Second, the Metagame is a meat grinder; there are so many players there with good decks that it takes a lot to stand out. Third, since things are bigger there the game is more official with match slips and stuff like that; its sometimes nice to have a friendlier atmosphere. Then again Michigan does have some of my best buds like Jona and my Team Warp Point buddies, and there are a bunch of original decks. So each metagame has different advantages, but it is nice to have a change of pace and play in a quieter environment.

I arrived at Misty Mountain games right at 10 a.m. and was the first T.O. member to arrive. I turned in my decklist and patiently waited for the tourney to start. Shortly after registering my team members all arrived, I greeted them and got ready for the tournament.

I stuck with my basic Gyarados list. I used the same one as in my last tournament; but I switched out a Pokemon Communication for Ditto La, and the 3 Special Dark Energies were changed for 3 Rainbow Energies. I decided to go with Ditto and the rainbows because of the myriad of 1 or 0 energy decks. Ditto is not only great against Gyarados, but can work well against Jumpluff and Gengar SF. So it is a very versatile card. I do lose a little bit of my donking ability without the Special Dark Energies, but those rarely help anyway. So without any more distractions, lets go to the report.

Round 1
Pikkdogs Vs. Card Selling Ed (Gengar Sf and Crobat Prime)
Officially I had a bye this round, but my buddy Card Selling Ed (not to be confused with Ed the owner of this site) had a good deck ready and wasn’t playing today, so he invited me for a game while I wait. This was nice of him since I would be able to get warmed up.

He starts with lone Gastly and “Pitchdarks” the first turn. I started Crobat G and Uxie then Bebe’s’d for a Sablye and began my setup. He sets up a Gengar right away, and I knock it out with a “Tail Revenge” and Crobat G “Flash Bites.” He then tries a Crobat Prime and the “Severe Poison” attack, but whenever he does that I either Scoop it up or warp it out. I win this game after knocking out a couple more Crobat Primes and Gengar Sf’s.
1-0

Ed Vs. T. Andrew T. with Tyranitar
I don’t recall much, but I got set up fairly quickly. I was able to run through his Tyranitars, because he was unable to keep up with energy drops (which my Gyarados doesn’t even require).
1-0

Round 2
Pikkdogs Vs. Abdi with Jumpluff
I, of course, hate playing Team Members, especially Abdi. He’s like one of the nicest guys ever. But it was me and him, so I have to try to beat him.

I think he starts Uxie and I start Sableye. I “Impersonate” for a collector and get rolling. I use “Flash Bites” to knock out a benched Hoppip and then take out the active Uxie on turn 4. About 4 turns later I use “Flash Bites” to knock out a damaged Jumpluff and “Regimove” up a belted Crobat G for the win.

2-0, easy win, sorry Abdi.

Ed Vs. Andy Wieman with LuxChomp
I Judge twice (thanks to VS Seeker). The first one wasn’t especially good for me. The second wrecked him and gave me the two cards I needed to win.
2-0

Round 3
Pikkdogs Vs. Ed with Gyarados
Just before this game I told Ed that I had a premonition that we would play today. We had played together in 3 tournaments and had yet to face each other. When I went to look at the parings I am not surprised to see me matched up against Ed.

I had actually not played the mirror matchup in a tournament before, so this was kinda new to me. He gets setup first and gets a knockout on my Sableye. I am unable to get a Broken Time Space and therefore a Gyarados. To combat this I chuck all my Magikarps in the discard pile, attach an Expert Belt, and “Tail Revenge” for 140. I could have avoided this by using a Crobat G, but I couldn’t find that either. Ed responds by belting his Sableye and knocking out Ditto with “Over Confident”. At this point I am 3 prizes down and don’t wanna have to play anymore, so I scoop. I might have played it out, but since Ed was an undefeated Team Member I just scoop.

My weird draws cause me to not have much a chance against Ed, so now I need to win out to have a chance.

2-1

Ed Vs. Josh (Pikkdogs) with Gyarados
We run almost the same lists, except Josh teched for the Gengar/Mirror with Ditto and Rainbow energy. He immediately went for the Ditto strategy, and I think it hurt him when I was able to KO his belted Ditto with my belted Sableye.
3-0

Round 4
Pikkdogs Vs. Michael Slutsky with Luxchomp
Mike is a nice Bieberish looking kid who plays a lot better then he looks. He previously have donked me with a Horsea, I still don’t know how.

I won’t go into too much detail here. I found out that unless Luxchomp starts bad, I lose. Luxchomp started well here.

I am officially out of the running.

2-2

Ed Vs. Soari with LuxChomp
I dunno. It was LuxChomp. Actually, I think I came close to winning about 4 different times. Between him having well-timed Power Sprays and me getting tails on SSUs and such, I think it could have easily been a win if I had slightly better luck.
3-1

Round 5
Pikkdogs Vs. Collan with Gyarados
Another mirror matchup, good thing I included Ditto. I never met Collan before today, but he seems like a nice guy.

We start fairly evenly, but I think I get the first G-dos. I am able to stay in front of the Prize race through most of the game. I kept Ditto on the bench, and after the game he mentioned that he never wanted to knockout my G-dos because he knew that I could just return the kill with Ditto. After we exchange prizes, time gets called and I have a 1 or 2 prize lead. I get scared when he says “Flash Bite” on Ditto and drops a Crobat G, 3 Turns and a Junk Arm. But, after we count the damage, he is left 1 damage counter away from knocking him out.

3-2 Not the best record, but was just happy to play with some friends.

Ed Vs. Michael S. with LuxChomp
I’m not sure why, but when I play Michael with Gyarados vs his LuxChomp, I never seem to have a chance. I “hid” an Expert Belt on a Crobat at one point, and in hindsight, I’m not really sure why. After I didn’t PokeTurn it, he Bright Looked it and KO’d it. That was pretty much it.
3-2

After the Tourney
I sulk a bit while reflecting on my bad luck for pairing up against 3 LuxChomps. Just 3 days earlier, I had played Uxie Donk in a tourney and got matched up against the only 3 (as far as I know) people that played 4 Spiritomb in their decks. I got lucky against one of them and went 2-2 that day.

Today, I got lucky against Andy (who I can beat in Swiss but never in tops), and came out 1-2 versus LuxChomp. OHKOs on Gyarados is just too much for me to handle. So, I grab my daughter’s and my backpacks and toss them in the car. I come back in for the door prizes and find out that Soari (4-1) is dropping, because he has to be somewhere else. That means the top 4 is a 5-0, two 4-1s, and a 3-2. I think that I spy my name just after Andy (who was 4-1), so I think there’s a bit of luck streaming my way. Indeed, when the top4 is re-set, I’m in 4th. This means that I’m playing the 5-0 Jay Hornung.

Because I was done, and Ed was still playing (props to Sudi for dropping and allowing someone else to get in top 4), I decide to stick around, keep an eye on Ed’s daughter, and watch Ed play Jay H.

I end up playing a fun game against Ed’s daughter, and then watch the end of his game. He holds everyone up by failing to take a prize when he knocked out a Pokemon, when we finally get the ruling, Ed is able to wrap it up and win game 3.

So I am thankful for just being able to hang out with Team Omar and being able to support Ed as he gets another Top 2 finish. Benny even won Senior’s with Gyarados, so that was cool. It was no doubt a successful weekend.

From here on out, the report is all Ed’s, so we’ll just stick with black text.

Top-4 Game 1: Jay Hornung playing VileGar
I get a good lead, and as Jay is beginning to come back, I opt to risk a Fainting Spell. Jay gets tails, and scoops soonafter. I make a slight mistake at one point and forget to pull a prize off of my Flash Bite KO, but I grab it just after that, and Jay pretty much just says not to let it happen again.

Top-4 Game 2:
I do not get a good lead in this one, but it’s not too one-sided. About halfway through the game, Jay looks at me and says, “You take like thirty seconds to make every decision!” After that, I make an effort to play faster, but it has nothing to do with the outcome of the game. Jay ends up winning it.

Top-4 Game 3:
I don’t recall the details here, but I’m pretty sure that Jay never gets Vileplume set up. I’m able to Regimove or KO Spiritomb almost every time I need to. I get ahead, and he has a Mewtwo with 70 damage sitting on his bench. I Flash Bite it, PokeTurn, and Flash Bite it again. Jay puts it in his discard, and then I drop Uxie to Set Up to 7 in hand. I announce Tail Revenge, go to grab my prize, and after I grab one, I realize that I did it again. I think he already knew that I forgot to take my Flash Bite prize, so I figured that I’d just take it now. What I didn’t figure is that, because I played the Uxie, I drew an extra card from Set Up (because I “saved” my prize draw until afterward). The head judge (that’s sitting right next to me and watching our game, because the other one is already done) didn’t notice it, and doesn’t really know how to rule it. His first reaction seems to be that I just don’t draw my prize. Andy Wieman speaks up mentioning that I absolutely have to take a prize. When a Pokemon is KO’d, it is not an option whether you take the prize. The problem is that, while Andy is a professor, he plays the winner of the match in top-2. Because he has a stake in the outcome, he should not be making a ruling. Several calls are made to other Professors/TOs, and we get a ruling after about 20min. Jay gets to randomly remove 1 card from my hand and shuffle it back into my deck. Then, I take my prize. I get warnings, and play resumes. Jay hits tails on his second Fainting Spell of our 3 games (maybe this was before all the hoopla), and concedes after we’re in +3.

I don’t like this win. I mean, yeah, I like beating a player of Jay’s caliber, but it was very bittersweet. First, Jay is pissed that I play too slowly, and then my mistake makes us sit and wait 20min (at least what it felt like) for a ruling. Ultimately, I think this was a bad impression to make. He already thinks I’m a Nazi for banning Radu from this site (which never actually happened).

4-2

Top-2 Game 1: Andy Wieman playing LuxChomp
I think he gets a KO on Gyarados, and I can’t find BTS. Game.

Top-2 Game 2:
I lose. These games were a bit of a blur. I recall not being able to put Gyarados back together like I usually can, but maybe that was the lack of BTS in the first game. I really need Rescue Energy and Judge in this matchup. Oh well.
4-3

So, again, I can beat Andy in Swiss, but never in top cuts. This is the 3rd time I’ve lost to Andy in top-2 (both Cities I’ve played thus far this season and a Battle Roads last season). Andy wins all 3 MN Cities thus far with his LuxChomp. What is in store tomorrow?

Jan 9th Outpost 2000 & Beyond in Coon Rapids
Round 1: CJ with a preconstructed deck
Can you believe that he Beat me on his first turn (after I go first with Sableye)? Luckily for me, Beat only does 10 damage. I get set up fast. He has X2 weakness to Gyarados.
1-0

Round 2: Justin with the deck his son made (Masquerain, Shuppet, Sableye, etc.)
Justin has Sableye, but I don’t think he ever used it to Impersonate. He just keeps hitting with Overconfident + Special Dark (which only does 10 +SpDarks for him). He gets a Shuppet with 3 Plus Powers set up at one point, so I play Judge. That’s about the end of it. Really, that’s about the end of my tourney.
2-0

Round 3: Michael with LuxChomp
What did I tell you about me playing Gyarados against Michael’s LuxChomp?
2-1

Round 4: Nate with Machamp
This one was pretty silly. It’s one of those things that should be frustrating, but what can you do? I start Sableye to his Smeargle. I have a lone Karp on the bench, but I can’t do anything else (my hand is like Judge and a bunch of trainers), so I Impersonate. Now, I should expect him to Portrait, but I don’t really have anything else to do. I impersonate Collector and get Karp, Karp, and Regice. He starts his turn and calls Portrait. The only supporter I have is Judge. He’s kinda upset, because he has all the pieces to play Take Out that turn. He now has to Judge them away. I wish he hadn’t. I can afford to lose Sableye. I can’t afford to lose the rest of my hand. He Judges into a full Machamp Prime on his bench, but has to pass due to no Take Out. I draw and Impersonate (as my new hand from Judge is horrible with like Expert Belt and Junk Arm or some garbage like that). He sets up Machamp SF, plays a Seeker (returning my Karp), and KOs Sableye. Donk
2-2

Round 5: Ross playing Jumpluff
I’ve played against Ross and his Jumpluff before. I don’t know how much it’s changed since then. I’m pretty tired of thinking for 2 days straight. I ought to exercise my brain more, so that it’s ready for this sort of thing. I know I can’t top. I have a hard time caring. Ross starts Unown Q (Hoppip on bench) to my Sableye. I throw caution to the wind and drop SpDark to get a “Quick” KO (pun intended). From there, I get a good prize lead, but (thanks to Ross’s repeated use of Judge and Let Loose) I have no good recovery. My lack of caution in the match leads me to go for card drawing and the chance of winning instead of Impersonating to give Ross a prize (but me a better chance in upcoming turns). I recall wasting my hand to Junk Arm a SSU and getting tails. I think I got tails on all my SSUs in this match. I’m convinced that I wasted all my luck on the previous day (lucking into top 4 and then beating Jay on Fainting Spells). I finally get a Combee (which I seem to forget about, because I went SOOO long without playing it) and a Gyarados. The problem is that I need 2 bench slots to use Combee. I have to sacrifice something to use it, and that puts Ross in position to win. In fact, I think I get Gyarados back on my final turn, but Ross has the belted Jumpluff doing 140 (thanks to Combee filling my bench).
2-3

So, I go from 2nd one day to 2-3 the next only beating a preconstructed deck and the deck Justin’s kid tossed together the night before. Ick.

Now, on to the only redeeming part of the day. After Juniors is done (in which Ava went 0-3), they give out door prizes. The first prize is obviously (though we’ll revisit that in a few moments) going to be a mat. There are 8 Juniors, so the TO asks for 2 dice. I’m not really certain of what happening until I see it happen. The first roll adds up to more than 8, so it’s rerolled. The second roll adds up to 8, so the 8th name is announced as the winner. I have to step in. My first thought (which I voice) is, “How do you roll a ONE on 2 dice?” My daughter, Ava, is first in alphabetical order, and happens to be name number one. If this is the method, then there’s no way she can possibly win anything. They realize that I’m 100% right and quickly change the dice rolling. The first roll is odd/even (names 1-4 odd, names 5-8 even). The second roll determines the winner. They reroll, and it comes up odd then a one. I already said that Ava is kid #1, so she wins the mat. I’m so pleased!

Dice Roll Distribution It occurred to me, afterward, that the original 2-die roll had WAY more wrong with it than just not having a possibility of rolling a 1. Have you ever heard of a Bell Curve or the game of Craps? Take a look at this picture (shamelessly stolen from anther website). So, if there were 8 players, and anything over 8 was a reroll, then player 1 has 0 chance of winning. We already established that. But look at how much higher probability it is for players 6, 7, and 8 to win compared to players 2, 3, and 4. It’s a combination thing. When you roll 2 (6-sided dice) there is only ONE way to get a two (1-1). There are 6 ways to get a 7 (1-6, 2-5, 3-4, 4-3, 5-2, and 6-1). Player 7 would have 6 times more of a chance to win the mat than player 2 would have.

Now, back to the obviousness of the mat going to the first winner. In Masters, I recall there being 2 mats. The first winner took a playmatmat. The next winner was a girl named Frankie. She was there with someone else that was really prompting her to take the mat. She wanted a hat. They said it was her choice, and she grabbed the hat. The 3rd door prize was called, and the winner chose the mat. Here’s another lesson in odds. If there is a prize that’s obviously sought after more than others, odds are that people are willing to trade you for the more coveted prize. If you win a mat, but you really want a hat, you can get more than just a hat out of the deal. Take the mat, and while you’re doing it, announce that you really want a hat, and you have a mat for trade. There’s a high probability that your mat will fetch a hat PLUS. I bet some players would give a hat plus a $10 bill. Others might bid a hat plus the cards you need to finish your deck. Odds are in your favor, and if you really really want that hat and can’t get more than a hat, I have no doubt that the hat winner would trade straight-up.

So, Frankie, if you’re out there, you weren’t wrong for wanting a hat more than a playmat. It’s just that you could have done even better, and there’s Ed’s probability lessons for the day.

Practice

About Playtesting, and Skype.

Pikkdogs January 6, 2011 5 Comments

Hello all members of Omar-Nation, this is Pikkdogs here with an article about a different way to play test.

“Practice? We talking about Practice? …… Not a game, not a game, we talking about Practice. …… Not the game I go out there and die for, we talking bout Practice”

Yes Allen Iverson, today’s article is about practicing the Pokemon TCG.

As any good player will tell you, the only way to get better is to play-test a lot. It lets you know a lot more about the decks your are playing and lets you work out the tightest list for your deck. It also lets you know what other players are thinking, and how other decks operate. So if you face them in a tournament, you will have a better chance of beating that deck. But how can you get your play-testing done? I know of four major ways to play-test; at a league, by yourself, with your friends, or online.

Play Pokemon would rather you handle your play-testing at official leagues. Leagues are a great way to meet new people and learn about the game. You can even earn cool promo cards and other stuff like that. But, if you already are a veteran at the game, and can’t find competitive players at your league; going to a league probably won’t help you a lot. A lot of players can’t make it to leagues because they don’t live in the area, so they will need to find other ways to test.

You could also play test by yourself. This strategy is mostly done if you live in an isolated area without many competitive players around you. You can easily play two decks against each other and practice that way. The problems with this way of testing is that it takes longer, it requires a lot of cards or proxies, and can be hard to play when you know what is in the hand of the other “player.” Self testing is sometimes a very valuable way of testing, usually right before tournaments, but is not the best way to play-test.

If you can’t make it to a league then you could make your own informal league by inviting your friends over to your house to play-test. This strategy is good because it allows you to practice against several other people that have similar skill levels. You can also spend this time bouncing deck ideas off of each other. This strategy will also leave you with a lot of friends that you can rely on for Pokemon help, you can even start a team with these fellows. The main problem with starting your own informal league is that not everyone has a lot of friends who play the game, that can easily meet every week. If you can’t try any of these strategies, playing online might be better.

The main way to play-test online in the past several years has been to use software like Redshark and Apprentice. These programs allow you to create virtual decks and play test them against people all over the world. One good thing about these programs is you don’t have to buy cards to test with them. The main drawback of using Redshark and Apprentice is that it just doesn’t feel like Pokemon. Since you aren’t playing with real cards, it doesn’t really feel like you are playing the game and can feel pretty tedious.

In the last couple months I have found a solution to the problems with Redshark and Apprentice. I have been play-testing using a program called Skype. If you don’t know, Skype is a free software program that allows you to text, voice, or video chat with people online. You can easily play Pokemon with the person you are calling by pointing your webcam towards a playing surface, have your opponent do the same, and watch his/her playing surface on your screen.

Skype is really easy to setup. To get the program, all you need to do is download it online. To run the program to its fullest you will need a couple things. First you need a computer with a high speed internet connection. I’m not sure how fast your connection needs to be, but I know that a dialup connection won’t work for video chat. Second you need a microphone and a webcam. Both of these are available at most stores like Kmart, Target, and Walmart; for about 20 bucks each. Microphones and webcams also come standard with most laptops and desktops now a days. You will also need a set of speakers or a pair of headphones, but this kind of equipment is pretty much standard on all computers anyway.

Skype is nice because it allows you to play using real cards against a lot of people online. It allows you to play-test a lot of decks without ever leaving your computer station. You can even play-test against some of the better players in the country, if you have their Skype user name. If you play several times a week, it will make you a much better player, and allow you to know what kinds of decks other people are playing.

There are a few drawbacks of using Skype. Like with any software programs, technical problems are bound to occur with Skype. For example, whenever I play Ed online I hear a loud static sound and his camera always freezes up. But, this doesn’t happen with most people. The biggest disadvantage is that it can sometimes be hard to find people on Skype who want to play when you do.

To combat this problem I thought that maybe teamomar.com can start a registry with people who would like to test on Skype. People would send in their Skype Id’s and other people would be able to contact them to play games. If this is something you guys are interested in, please let us know by writing it in the comments box.

Well that was just some of my thoughts about how to perform play-testing and how to test with Skype. Skype is a fun way to play-test and it can make you a better player, I think it is definitely something to try out. If you have any thoughts about play-testing or Skype, please leave them in the comment box.

So Long and thanks for all the Fish.

Pikkdogs

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