Pikkdogs

Battle Roads Wrap-Up

Pikkdogs June 20, 2012 5 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with a Spring Battle Roads wrap-up for you. Spring Battle Roads is kind of a weird time. People are not half as excited for Spring BRs as they are for the Fall BRs and the Cities, even though the structure of these tournaments are very similar. Maybe it’s the fact that people associate Pokemon more with the Fall, or that people have other things to do during the spring (graduation parties, cookouts, sexy parties). Whatever the reason, some people are not high on Spring Battle Roads. However, there are people who are. A lot of people think of this season as the warm-ups for Nationals and are very excited to find out what the format will be like. So not only were Victory Cups and Championships Points on the line, but advantages for Nationals were also up for grabs. So let’s see what we learned about the format for Nationals.

But, before we do that there is a certain extra-dimensional sidekick that we must say “hi” to. Hey Pedro!

Hey Pikkdogs, I would like to be nice today and wish you a happy summer.

That is quite nice of you.

Yeah, I thought I better try to brighten up your day after you finished yet another Pokemon season with a losing record.

Thanks for the thought.

Your welcome. As most of you know, it is now officially the start of summer. Do you plan to take a summer vacation Pikkdogs?

Not really. Once I get back from the Indy city for Nationals, I think I have to spend the rest of my summer trying to find any loose change under couch cushions, three nights in a hotel are very expensive.

True dat. No plans to go to the beach and play with the beach balls?

Play with balls, yes. Go to the beach!!!..ahh I might try to hit up Lake Superior but you know how cold the lake is.

How cold is it?

It’s so cold that even the Kardashians wouldn’t go into it even if there was a camera around.

Not bad.

Its so cold that if Kate Upton went into the water she would be, ahh who am I kidding she will always be hot.

True, can we get a picture of Kate Upton, sure, but later.

It’s so cold that even Michael Fasbender’s junk might shrink in it.

That’s pretty good. Please don’t show a picture of Fassbender’s penis.

No problem there. It’s so cold that swimmers have been known to drive to the beach in hummers just to accelerate Global Warming.

Now your jokes are getting a little weak, let’s just skip to the article before you start putting up pictures of Michael Fassbender.

Just one.

And one of Kate Upton, for males and anyone who can see really.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…… yeah she’s so hot she could melt any lake. At least Fasbender’s pic wasn’t a XXX picture of him. I can live with that, now get on to your article.

What Won

The first step in reviewing Battle Roads is to find out what won. Here are the numbers that are being circulated on www.pokegym.net. Of course they are never going to be 100% accurate, but this what they gathered for what decks won in Masters:

”

46 Dark Deck (Mostly Darkrai EX./Tornadus EX)
15 Zeel
8 CMT (2 w/Terrakion)
6 Fighting (mostly Quad Terrakion)
4 Klingklang/ex
4 Tornadus/Terakion/Mewtwo (1w/areo 1w/sawk)
2 Entei

”

As you can see, Dark Decks have won about twice as often as almost all other decks. The most successful Dark Deck was Darkrai EX/Tornadus EX. It has proven to be a hard hitting and disruptive deck. What seems to have given Darkrai an advantage that people did not expect has been the combo of Crushing Hammer and Sableye. Even though Junk Arm does give you a trainer back in your hand, there now is just way too many trainers for Junk Arm to be sufficient. If you can find another way of replacing trainers, like with Sableye, you will be a lot better off. So, Sabelye came and gave a lot of disruption that people did not expect. Combine that with Tornadus EX and how good he is covering the weakness of Darkrai, and you get a real powerful, consistent, and disruptive deck that surprised a lot of people at Battle Roads this year. It should be a deck to watch out for going into Nationals.

Zekrom did not take as many wins as I thought it would. Although the deck got a ton of play, I guess it got left out in the mix of Terrakions and Dark Decks. It still is a really good deck, and it could be the most played deck at Nationals. Terrakion also fell short of winning a lot of games. I guess it was kind of shocked because of the energy removal of the Dark Deck and the resistance of Tornadus EX. I think that during the break before Nationals Terrakion players will retool their decks to include more energy, more cards to get energy back from the discard pile, and the Ruins of Alph needed to get their advantage back.

CMT and Troll continued to be two decks that are really good, but just can’t get over the hump. If you get a good player playing CMT or Troll, they have a really good chance at doing well at Nationals. But the number of these decks won’t be as great as the other three decks I already discussed. Just watch out for them, they are far from dead and could easily win U.S. Nats.

Klingklang came from absolutely nowhere to do well in Spring Battle Roads. It is a great rogue deck that uses Klingklang and a bunch of EXs to take advantage of different Abilities and weaknesses. It is a solid deck that is just a little bit slower than some of the other decks. During the pre-Nationals break, there just might be enough time for players to improve Klingklang enough that this deck becomes a contender for the crown. Players just have to worry about the lack of speed early game, and energy removal.

I did see some cool rogue and non tier 1/2 stuff at BRs. Make sure to watch out for those decks. Don’t sleep on decks like Quad Entei or Quad Kyurem EX, they can take some wins here and there against good decks. There will be a lot of diversity at Nats, these rogue decks probably won’t win because of the lack of numbers, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t lose to one of these guys.

Trends for Nats

From looking at how Spring Battle Roads went, here are some good things to keep in mind for Nationals.

Energy Removal

Watch out because they are coming to take your energies! With the success of the Darkrai EX/Tornadus EX/ Sabelye deck, we will see a lot of energy removal at Nationals. Make sure to throw in an extra energy or two in your deck. You might also want to think about adding a 2nd Super Rod or an Energy Retrieval. Also, try to run as little Special Energy as possible because they are much easier to remove than basic energies.

Look Out for Rogues

Just because Dark Decks, Fighting Decks, and CMT are going to be very popular doesn’t mean that those are going to be the only decks out there. U.S. Nationals is the biggest tournament of the year, and we know that the bigger a tournament is, the greater chance you have of playing weird decks. Especially because the Swiss rounds will be at least 9 rounds long, you will see a lot of things that aren’t tier 1. So just don’t prepare to counter 1 deck, make sure you play a deck that is a good sound deck that can do well against almost any deck you play against.

Choose Familiar Decks with Consistency

Piggybacking on the last point, Nationals is a very long tournament. At Battleroads you could get away with a risky deck that only sets up sometimes because you only needed it to work about 7 times. Now at Nats you are going to need your deck to work about 15 times to go really deep into top cut at Nationals. So don’t count on being lucky, count on being consistent. Also, make sure to play something you are comfortable with. If you choose a deck that your are familiar with, you could have a bad record at Nationals. Just stick with something you know and you should be okay.

Weaknesses are Going to be Big

A lot of the current decks right now have weakness to each other. The big weaknesses to exploit are electric, fighting, and psychic. If you can come up with a deck that can exploit those weaknesses you should have a good shot at doing well. Perhaps the troll deck could be a good choice for this tournament. It seems to be a very consistent deck that can exploit weaknesses. Just don’t expect to rely on weaknesses because you are going to have to have a deck that can win against almost any deck, but if you can exploit weaknesses you will be better off.

Watch your Opponent’s Energy

Energy Manipulation is very important in this format. Not only is removal important, but your opponent will be trying to use energy acceleration and recovery a lot. Celebi Prime will be loading up Mewtwo EX quickly, and Eelektrik will be keeping almost all of your opponent’s energy out of the discard pile back into play. You really must watch out for energies coming into play from no where. Perhaps energy removal cards could help you control your opponent’s energy.

Conclusion

Well, that is all I know about how Spring BRs went. Why don’t you end things with a news story Pedro.

Okay. Well apparently this is a very adult article today. In the start of this article we talked about Michael Fasbender and his famous full frontal nudity in a recent movie, now we have a news story about John Travolta. Travolta has been accused of sexual harassment by three different male masseuses. This kind of weird, it is very common to hear of hanky panky with a masseuse, but this time it is not the operation of an illegal movie for sex operation, but it is the customer who is going after the masseuse. Do you like the John Travolta Pikkdogs?

Of course. I kind of doubt that Travolta could do those things. The man played Vinny Barborino in Welcome Back Cotter. Barborino was the coolest kid around. He was cool enough to get a date with Rosalie “Hotsty” Totsy, and he was nice enough to be friends with Horshack.

That’s a ridiculous argument. Just because someone played a good character on tv does not make him a good person in real life. You are just as crazy as those Michael Jackson fans who stood with the Gloved One even when he was accused of touching kids inappropriately.

I guess, those wack jobs were just crazy. But, look at his wife, how can he be gay? Can we see a picture of his wife?

I guess you got a good point there. But, he still might be gay, can we see a picture of John Travolta’s album?

Ok he might be gay.

Good night everybody.

National Championships

Double Mini Article: Traveling with Friends and U.S. Nationals Tips

Pikkdogs June 15, 2012 2 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with a two part article for you. The first part of the article will be about traveling for Pokemon, and the second part will have some tips for U.S. Nationals. I know it’s a weird combination, but I am a weird person, so it all works out. Before we get going, let’s throw it over to my sidekick Pedro for some news. How you doing Pedro?

Oh doing well.

What do you got us today?

Well today is the anniversary of the resignation of the office of Secretary of State in 1915 by William Jennings Bryant. He resigned because he thought that President Woodrow Wilson was leading the nation into the war that we would come to know as World War I. Do you like the William Jennings Bryant Pikkdogs?

Oh yeah, love the William Jennigns Bryant. He isn’t my favorite politician, but he is up there. He was cool because he fought for democratic principles and he was against war. He seemed like he really cared about people. In fact his nickname was the Great Commoner.

That’s outrageous, a politician who cares about people? That’s ridiculous, that’s like a Kardashian that cares about hair removal.

Yes it does sound weird.

Bryant was a supporter for prohibition, do you like the prohibition?

No, he was probably wrong there. I don’t think you should take liberties away from people……….and I like Whiskey.

Though we should probably stop talking about William Jennings Bryant, it has been done to death on Pokemon sites. Just last week Pokemon Dan was talking on and on about William Jennings Bryant and Populism, we should do something different.

I guess. We hear was too much about William Jennings Bryant on Six Prizes already, let’s just get onto the article.

Traveling for Pokemon

I’m not really sure how I want to frame this part of the article. I want to talk about traveling with other people to Pokemon events, but I don’t really have a format in mind. I guess I will just talk about my experience and go from there.

Having a reliable means of transportation is important, whether you ride a chopper, drive a Camry, or an 82 Buick; it doesn’t really matter. The only thing that matters is that you can legally make it to the tournament. If you do not have a vehicle, it is very important for you to travel with others. Whether you have a car or not, traveling with friends to events is important.

When you travel with friends to events you usually can hit up more events then you could by yourself. This is because most Pokemon players usually have some kind of budgetary restraints. If a couple people can come together can pool their money together they can find a way to hit up more tournaments, and more tournaments mean more chances at winning and becoming a better player. I am originally from a rural area of the U.S. and where I come from teams of card players form for the purpose of traveling together, because tournaments are usually very far away. Traveling with friends is nice because it gives you time to talk more about your deck and do more testing, and that always is a good thing. However, there are challenges that comes with traveling in a group.

One challenging thing about traveling with a group of players is that there is always a good chance that somebody will top cut. If you are not the guy who is top cutting, you could be standing around for hours waiting for your partner to finish.

Something you know a lot about Pikkdogs.

Ahhh, I see what you did there. Anyway, another challenging thing is that it is very hard to equally share gas money. Usually the person who is driving ends up paying the greatest share for gas, which doesn’t seem right since they are providing the vehicle. There are other challenges that can arise when traveling with other players, but as long as you only travel with friends you should be okay.

Even though there are bad parts to traveling with other players, I personally do think that it is a very good thing. Originally when I started the game I always traveled alone. As I began to meet more people and make more friends, I started to travel more with friends. I find that for the most part it makes PokÃ©mon tournaments more enjoyable. It is especially more enjoyable when a bunch of players can travel far and get a motel room. This leads to a lot more testing and usually some good delivery pizza. One good rule of thumb when traveling with a group is if you go to a motel, never sleep in a bath tub. Although it may seem cool and comfortable, it is inevitable that sometime during the night somebody will turn the facet on and get you wet, which is not as fun as it sounds.

That is really all I can say about traveling for Pokemon. It is is usually a good thing to travel with others, so if you haven’t done it, you should. I know you guys out there have some good traveling stories, so please leave those in the comment section, it should be fun to read those.

Nationals Tips

Believe it or not, Nationals is just under 2 weeks away. Although I have only been to Nationals once, I do have some tips about Nats for you first timers. So let’s start those

Food

Of course the most important part of any event is the food. While you will be on your own for Breakfast and Dinner, you will need to find your lunch downtown during the event. There are a lot of places downtown that are good for lunch, but it can be hard to find a place if you don’t know what is around. You usually have about an hour for lunch, so you do have some time to take a walk around and find some places outside of the convention center. My first tip is to stay away from anything sit-down. There are a lot of fancy restaurants downtown that are really expensive, so stay with something more fast food like. There is a Steak and Shake next door, but unless you are lucky you will have to wait in line for a long time since it is very busy. Last year Ed liked to hit the bagel shop (it was an Einstein’s I think) just a couple blocks away, it was actually a fairly decent place for lunch. But, the best place to go for lunch is the food court in the mall. If you walk around the streets just outside the convention center you should see signs for a mall, just follow those signs and you will eventually find a mall and a food court (I believe it is on like the 3^rd floor). Last year I enjoyed getting some Chinese food and some Root Beer from A&W. There are a lot of places to choose from, so everyone in your group can choose what they want. You should be able to take your time eating at the mall, and still make it back to the convention center in plenty of time.

Parking

Whenever you have an event in an urban area parking will be a bitch, it is just a fact of life. It is actually not too bad in Indy. There are several parking garages in the area, some for the mall and others just for general downtown use. Most of those will charge you at least 10 bucks a day for parking. Last year the best place for parking was next door at Lucas Oil Stadium. Yes, the house that Peyton built is where you wanna be. I don’t know what it will be this year, but last year they only charged us 5 bucks a day for parking. Security wasn’t a huge problem either, they seemed to have people watching the lot. I wouldn’t leave my gold bars in the back window, but it seemed fairly safe.

Hotels

Of course it is best to be at a hotel downtown. You normally can find a decent deal on a hotel room that is connected to the convention center. This saves you a lot of worries, because you don’t have to deal with driving back and forth to and from downtown each day. You still may have to worry about paying for parking, but at least you don’t have to move your car each day. But, I still think that the best deal is a cheap hotel room on the outskirts of town. Even though you will have to drive in each day, it is still a heck of a lot cheaper than paying for a hotel room downtown. If you book early you can sometimes get a decent room for 40 bucks a night! And no the room won’t be that great, but this is Pokemon, you shouldn’t expect to be living the high life. Cheap hotel rooms are usually where they are at. Last year I loved our room because we got free biscuits and gravy, I sometimes still wake up and fantasize about biscuits and gravy.

Are “biscuits and gravy” what you call your testicles?

Of course.

Miscellaneous Tips

The first miscellaneous tip is to bring snacks and water to the convention center. Snacks and Drinks at the convention center are usually marked up about 300%, so you might not want to waste your money. Make sure to bring a small bag and stick some drinks and snacks in there, you will surely need it later. A second tip is to wear comfy shoes. Nationals will give you about 8 straight hours where you are on your feet. Sure you do sit down when you are playing, but most of the time you will be waiting for the next rounds parings to be put up. And while you are waiting you are likely to be walking around the convention center looking at everything that is going on. One bad thing about the convention center being so big is that it takes a lot of energy to move around. At the end of the day last year I was really tired and my feet hurt really bad. I didn’t have the best shoes on, but they were fairly comfortable, yet my feet were still killing me. So make sure to make sure to prepare for a long day on your feet.

And finally, make sure you guys make it to the Unofficial Pokemon Nationals Afterparty. It is at 1850 S. East Street in Indianapolis at 7:30 on Friday. The concert will have performances by Good Luck Varsity, Rival Summers, and PK Fire. So after you go 6-0 in the Swiss Rounds on Friday, head over to see some of the coolest Indy Rock bands in the Midwest play in Indy. It will be a good time, so make sure to plan your schedule ahead of time.

That’s all I really got for Nationals tips. I hope you guys will be able to make it, and I know that you guys will have a fun time. What kinda stuff do you got for us to end the article Pedro?

Well, Foxnews.com is reporting that a jar of anti-freckle cream has been found on the island of Nikumarroro in the South Pacific, which is a clue that Amelia Earhardt might have crashed there on her last flight.

We all know that she was not left on a deserted island, we all know from Star Trek: Voyager that she was abducted by aliens and then put in stasis and taken to the Delta Quadrant.

No. The only thing we learned from Star Trek: Voyager was that putting Jerri Ryan in a tight jumpsuit will give you three extra seasons. That was a great jumpsuit, can we see a picture of it?

Nice. You know you’ve been showing a lot of pictures of boobs lately.

Yeah that is kinda what I do.

Well, I have a picture of you with a lot of wieners for payback. Show the pictures of Pikkdogs with a lot of wieners.

That was one of my favorite days, so many wieners. Good night everybody.

Tourney Report

Pikkdogs Okemos Battle Roads Report and Quad Entei List

Pikkdogs June 11, 2012 13 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with a tournament report and a decklist for you.

If you read my last report you would have seen that I went to a BR a couple weeks ago with a Kyurem EX deck, and didn’t do very well. I thought the deck held its own, it just needed a little more pop. So, I thought I should change the deck up, and I decided that I should use the same basic concept but with Entei EX.

When I first did testing on this deck it was basically my other deck, but with fire energies and Entei EX. Than, I started to talk to Ed and we made some good changes to the list. After changing the list to make it more mainstream, I did some testing and came up with something that had some promise. I knew that I wouldn’t have a great shot to win, but hopefully this deck would play well and I could keep polishing it until Nationals.

Instead of my last deck which was entirley based on healing, I changed it so that the healing is still there but the deck is more versatile. I knew that I should have a decent match-up against most decks. I just need to make sure that I don’t get a bad start and that I keep up with my opponent.

The goal of this deck is simple. Get 3 energies on an Entei quickly, and then get another Entei on the bench. With the “Grand Flame” attack you can do 90 damage and attach a discarded fire energy to the bench. Then you use healing trainers to keep your guys alive while doing damage and getting other attackers going.

Here is the list that I ran:

Pokemon-4

Entei EX-4

Energy-13

Fire-13

Trainers-43

4-Potion
3-Moomoo Milk
4-Life Herb
2-Max Potion
4-Junk Arm
4-Pokemon Catcher
4-Eviolite
2-Random Receiver
4-PONT
4-Professor Juniper
2-N
1-Sage’s Training
2-Ultra Ball
1-Heavy Ball
2-Switch

So there is the list. No its not perfect, but its not quite Nationals, so I wasn’t too focused on actually winning this tourney. It is actually a pretty cool deck. I like the fact that it is kind of rogue, that is always cool. It never seems to completely fall apart, unless it gets a really bad start or finds a water deck. It also is fairly cheap, so if you want a decent nationals deck for a decent price, this could be a good deck for ya.

The Report

This tournament was i n Okemos, Mi, just outside of Lansing. This venue, or one just next door, has held Pokemon tourneys for as long as I have been in the game, so it felt good to be in a familiar place.

Registration started at 11:00 AM, and its a little more than an hour and a half drive for me. So I did get a decent sleep, but it could be better. I woke up and watched an episode of Dr. Who before hitting the road. The drive was not that bad even though there is road construction almost everywhere these days. I got to the venue just after 11, and found a bunch of ladies scrap-booking. While I am not against scrap-booking, I was kind of set on Pokemon. I had thought that I must have read the schedule wrong, but then a Pokemon friend walked in the door and said that the tourney got moved next door for some reason. So after finally finding the venue, I walked in and said hi to some friends and filled out a decklist. There were not a lot of players there, but we at least had enough for 5 rounds.

Rd 1 JW with Some kind of Eelish thing

I was not excited to see that I was playing JW in the first round. Even though JW is a newcomer to Pokemon, he has sure hit the ground running. He has Top Cut in all of his Spring Battle Roads so far, in fact he even ended up winning this tournament. I have never met JW before, at least not formally, but he seemed like a really nice guy, and I hope I found a new Poke-Buddy. He sure has the stuff to challenge for the #1 spot in Michigan next year. Anyway, enough of that stuff, let’s get down to the match.

The bad thing about this game is not only is JW a great player, he told me that he has had a lot of experience playing an Entei EX deck, so I knew that he would know how to beat me in an efficient way. But, this is not my first time to the Rodeo either; I still have a good shot at beating him.

I get a good start and hit all the energy drops I need to get Entei loaded up fast and to get a second Entei going. JW starts with an active Tynamo and a benched something, I can’t quite remember. At first I thought I needed to focus on getting rid of the Eelektriks, but then when JW grabs a couple Mewtwo EX and my priorities change. I know that if he gets a ton of energies on Mewtwo EX that it could ruin my day. I begin to Catcher up the Mewtwo and start pounding it. But, he is able to Eviolite both Mewtwo EXs and this makes my job tougher. As soon as I get a Mewtwo in to knockout range, he uses a Max Potion to get rid of the damage counters. This is a big turning point in the game. Meanwhile, on my side of the field I am using a lot of my healing trainers to keep damage off Enteis. There was a time when I forgot to use Moomoo Milk and that cost me 2 prizes, woops.

The game keeps on going for multiple turns until JW gets a ton of energy on both Mewtwo EXs and is able to OHKO Entei, at this point the game is over. When you have a million energies on Mewtwo EX, there is not really anything that I can do.

0 â€“ 1 The game was very close until the end, and both I and JW thought that the momentum could swing the other way at anytime. Congrats to JW on a good and close game, he really is one heck of a player.

Round 2 Claire with Tyrantitar Prime/Darkrai EX/Dark Bisharp

It’s nice to play a girl this round, complimenting JW so much made me feel quiet strange, hopefully all the man-love is over. Claire is of course a long time Poke-Player, I have enjoyed chatting with Claire and her husband Ryan ever since I joined the game. Clair was sitting right next to me during the first round, so I knew that she was playing a rogue dark deck.

She started with 2 Pupitars and a Pawniard, and I started first and gave us an N. I thought that this may give Clair a big advantage since she had a lot of Pokemon in play and a brand new hand, but apparently she had some bad luck. While I began to hit every energy drop and setup two Enteis, she was missing Supporters and energies. She did end up getting 2 Tyranitars, but without the right energies she could only do 20 damage to me. I do a steady 90 damage to whatever she can put out there, and she has trouble getting energies at the right time. This ends up being a one-sided game and I end up sweeping this thing six prizes to zero.

1 â€“ 1 I am very glad to get a win with this deck, but I do know that Claire would have put up a better fight if she would have had better luck.

Round 3 Preston with Durant

I haven’t met Preston before today, he must be a new guy. But I did kind of meet and trade with him before the pairings were posted and he seems like a good guy. When I first found out that he was playing Durant I was very scared. I knew that I haven’t really tested this match-up, and if he can pull out a bunch of Crushing Hammers he could easily win. The problem for Preston was that he revealed to me that he only plays 1 Crushing Hammer.

The bad match-up that I thought I had just turned into an Auto-Win. I start the game making all my energy drops and I took a prize on my 2^nd turn. I went on to attach an energy each time he tried to remove it, and ended up taking 6 prizes in 7 turns. I actually finished the game with a deck that was bigger than the deck that I usually finish with.

2 â€“ 1 Sorry Preston, you just ran into a bad match-up. I am going into round 4 thinking my deck is running very soundly and consistently.

Round 4 Darkrai EX/Tornadus EX

I apologize to my opponent for this round, I just can’t seem to remember your name. I usually take notes, but this game was so good that I forgot all about the notes. I was excited for this game because this is the deck that everyone says has gone to Tier 1, and is possibly the BDIF. I never played against this particular version so I was excited to see how it goes.

My opponent starts with Tornadus EX and attaches a DCE and hits me for 30. I get a good start and am able to use a Potion to get rid of that damage. In the next couple turns I am able to make all the energy drops I need to set-up. I start to target Tornadus EX because he can do the most damage to me, but I come up 10 damage away from getting the KO before my opponent brings Darkrai EX in and hides Tornadus on the bench. I get confused here because I don’t know if I should target the easy prize, or if I should target the thing that is trying to attack me. My job gets harder because is it at this point where he begins to use a million Crushing Hammers. I started off with one Entei with 3 energy and one with just 1. I ended his turn with 1 energy on each of them. I was able to recover (Thanks Ed for suggesting more energy) but losing energy did send me back a couple of turns. He started the game hitting a lot of those Crushing Hammer flips, but he ends up getting a lot of tails at the end of the game.

As I start getting energy back on to the field, my opponent is chopping away at my HP with Darkrai EX. I am able to get a lot of good flips with my healing cards and am able to keep a lot of the damage counters away from my field. There was one point deep into the game when the game was still up for grabs where I had a damaged Entei active and a fully powered up Entei on the bench. Even though I had no energy or supporter in my hand, I decided to retreat the active and use a Max Potion to clear damage counters from the field. My opponent could not Catcher up the Entei with one energy and decided to scoop because he ran out of resources and cards in his deck.

3 â€“ 1 My first two wins were not that impressive, but this game seemed to be a legit win. It was a really close game that could have gone either way right down to the end. Good game man.

Round 5 Bohdan with Kyurems and Mewtwo EX

Who plays Kyurem? This game is very bad for me because he can hit me for weakness, and my healing trainers don’t do any good to a knocked out Pokemon. I knew that I had to be really lucky to win this game.

Bohdan starts with the normal Kyurem and passes. I again get a good set-up and start executing the crucial energy drops. Bohdan plays a Pokemon Collector and gets 2 Kyurem EX and another regular Kyurem. He seesm set-up, but he is missing some energy. But, after a couple turns Bohdan does find a lot of energy off of an N and is able to use Kyurem EX to hit me for 240 damage and the win.

3 â€“ 2 I really was hoping to win this game and have a chance at getting Top Cut, but it wasn’t meant to be. I just ran into a bad match-up, and that is never a good thing. But, if I have to get slaughtered by someone, it isn’t a bad thing that it is to my favorite Ukrainian friend.

Overall I think my deck ran well. I seemed to set-up well each time and got a lot of consistency early game. I did have a couple of times when I wanted for supporters, but I’m sure that happens to everybody once in a while. All things considered I am happy with this deck. I do have to do a lot more polishing if I want to play it for Nationals, but I may be on my way. I may or may not play this deck in Indy, but at least I did learn more about the format and what it takes to win.

A big thanks to all my opponents, you were all great. Thanks also goes to the judges and Derek for being great. I also want to thank Ed for helping me get my deck on the right track. And also a thanks to Billie Piper, your hotness make David Tennants Dr. Who watchable.

So Long and Thanks for all the fish.

Pikks Three Professor Cup

Pikkdogs Pikks Three: Professor Cup Special: Seismitoad, Zebstrika ND, and Archaeops

Pikkdogs June 6, 2012 18 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with a special edition of Pikkdogs Pikks Three. This time we will be taking a look at three cards that will be good for the professor cup format this year at Nationals. Before we talk about to much we gotta do a disclaimer.

NOTE: EVERYTHING IN THIS ARTICLE IS NOT ABOUT THE MODIFIED FORMAT, IT IS ABOUT THE PROFESSOR CUP WHICH HAS SPECIAL RULES.

The rules for the professor cup are always a little bit different, this year we have rules that are very different. The first rule is that the format is Call of Legends on, only CL and Black and White set cards can be used. The second rule is that basic Pokemon are illegal. The third rule is that Stage 1’s are treated as basics and Stage 2’s are treated as Stage 1’s. That means you can start with a stage 1, and then evolve once into a stage 2. These rules make the format different and it should be a lot of fun. Before we talk about some cards for the format, let us say hi to my sidekick Pedro. Hey Pedro.

Hey Pikkdogs.

Do you have any news for us Pedro?

Well, it seems that it has finally come upon us.

What? Nationals?

No, the Zombie Apcolaypse. It seems that many newstories lately are linking up to hint that Zombies are already on the loose. First, a weekend or so ago a man in Miami was arrested for eating a man’s face, and would not stop eating even though the police shot him. A second zombie sighting did happen in Florida a week or so ago when a doctor was arrested by police officers. Apparently they could not restrain him with regular methods and he began spitting blood at the officers. A third story comes from New Jersey where a man is accused of throwing his own intestines at police officers. There is actually a fourth story. The Center for Disease Control released a pamphlett that contains survival tips if a Zombie Apocalypse did happen. Some are speculating that radioactive tuna found off the coast of California is the source for the current Zombie sightings. Do you think the Zombie Apocalypse is upon us Pikkdogs?

Of course not. All these instances can be explained. The story in New Jersey is not a zombie, because we know from watching Jersey Shore that all people from Jersey behave that way. The CDC was not insinuating that there could be a zombie event, they were trying to use it as a tongue-in-cheek metaphor for other disasters.

Well, then what about the face eating guy in Miami?

He was just hungry. Face is traditinally a good tasting part of the animal.

Well, I guess. Maybe the Zombie Apocalypse isn’t upon us. Did you see any Zombies the last time you went to Florida?

Nope.

Do you like it down there?

Yes……………..and I also like Florida.

I see what you did there. Do you like the Zombies?

Zombies are pretty cool. At least Zombies are always evil and badass, not like what modern people have done to Vampires. I haven’t heard about a Zombie love story yet.

True. We should get you an inter-dimensional porthold sometime so we could visit a dimension that is overun by zombies. Its a good summer vacation.

Sure.

Should we do it tomorrow?

No, busy.

Day after?

Gotta work.

Feasel day?

No, that’s when we take the children to see the feasels.

Why are we acting out a Cosby show sketch?

I guess we’re board, let’s just move onto another article.

Card #1 Seismitoad

Description– Seismitoad is perhaps the most hyped attacker in the Professor Cup format. In this format he is a stage 1 with 140 HP, a grass weakness, and a 3 retreat cost. The attack that everyone is talking about is “Round”, which does 30 damage times the amount of attackers that have the “Round” attack that you have in play.

Analysis– Let’s look at the stats here. 140 HP is very good in this EX-less format. The grass weakness will be no problem, and the three retreat cost is not great but it is workable attack in a deck that has many one energy card attackers.

Seismitoad will be in a deck that is all about the “Round” attack. I know something about being round, and it is a good thing. There are 2 other attackers that also have the “Round” attack, and in this format they are all basics. Since most of your attackers have CC attacks, you will be able to setup fast and attack fast. All of the bad things about the “Round” deck in the Modified Format are now gone in the Professor Cup format. Seismitoad should be a great attacker in this format, and it is well deserving of all the hype.

The operation of this deck should be fairly simple. This deck should have a bunch of Dual Balls and Pokemon Collectors to get you a bunch of “Round” attackers on turn 1. You might wanna start with Wigglytuff because he can attack on turn 1 without any energy acceleration. On turn 2 you can evolve into Seismitoad and start doing a lot of damage. The 140 HP is very good in this format and should be able to keep you alive in the format for a while.

There are some bad things about Seismitoad. The first is that Archeops is almost broken in this format, and Archeops can stop Seismitoad from hitting the board. Even though the “Round” deck is not dead without evolutions, it does hurt the deck. The 3 energy retreat cost is also fairly bad for Seismitoad. However, there is room enough in the “Round” deck to fit in some Switches, so it shouldn’t be too bad.

Final Rating–8.5/10-The Seismitoad “Round” deck will probably be the most popular deck during the Professor Cup. Although Archeops can hurt the deck, it is still one of the most solid decks in the format.

Card #2 Zebstrika ND

Description– The current format doesn’t really have a good deck that contains trainer lock, but the Professor Cup format does. Zebstrika ND has 90 HP, a fighting weakness, and a free retreat cost. It is a basic Pokemon in this format. It has two attacks. The first one is “Disconnect” and does 40 damage for LC and stops your opponent from playing trainer cards during his/her next turn. The second attack is called “Lightning Crash” and let’s you snipe for 80 for LLC while discarding all energy attached to Zebstrika.

Analysis– Zebstrika does not seem like a great Pokemon, but if you can deny your opponent the use of trainers for the entire game, you have a large advantage. Let’s start this analysis by looking at the basics.

90 HP is bad, but workable on what is now a basic. The fighting weakness is actually not bad in the Professor Cup format, so no problem there. The retreat cost is great, so that’s always a plus. So the stats are very workable.

Most people are thinking of pairing Zebstrika with Eelektrik. With a little help, the now basic Eelektrik can power up a Zebstrika on turn 1 and get the trainer lock going. Sniping for 80 is not a great thing, but if you do run evolutions, it could be a good way to take away Archeops. Discarding energy is not a big deal, because you can just use a bunch of Dual Balls for two Eelektriks and a Zebstrika, attach an energy to the Zebstrika and attach 2 more from the discard pile, and you are back to possibly doing 80 damage again. So these Pokemon do work well together.

It would be nice if there were a third Pokemon that could work in this deck to hit harder, but it may be able to work without another attacker. It is a great deck that is very fast and consistent, it should be able to work very well at the Professor Cup. The nice thing about this deck is that there is room for your own personal touch in it, so you can adjust it to your playstyle.

The bad thing about Zebstrika is the low 90 HP. It can now take advantage of Eviolite, but that still doesn’t do a lot of damage. The other bad part of this deck is that it can be a little challenging to get a lightning energy in the discard pile on turn 1, but if you make your deck for this purpose, you should be able to accomplish the task.

Final Rating– 8/10– This may not be a deck that has all the answers just yet, but it has a solid foundation. If you were to come up with some cool ideas and test it a lot, you could go deep into the Top Cut rounds.

Card #3- Archeops

Description– It is almost a crime that Archeops is a basic in this format. Archeops is a 130 HP basic Pokemon with a 2 retreat cost and a grass weakness. Its attack is called “Rock Slide” and does 60 damage for FFC and let’s you snipe two Pokemon for 10 each. The Pokemon is being hyped right now because of the Ability. It is called “Ancient Power” and does not let either player use Evolutions.

Analysis– Archeops is great at what it does, but it also leaves some questions for whoever plays it. Unlike the other two cards in this article, Archeops is not something to build your deck around. It is more of a tech against any stage 1 that you might come across. We don’t really know what kind of crazy decks you will see at the Professor Cup, but Archeops is sure to help protect you from most of them.

Archeops is cool because it is very splashable. Most people think of Archeops as a stage 2 in modified format, because that is what he would have been last year in Modified. But, now the fossil mechanics are different, while these rules changes have not affected the modified format whatsoever, they are now effecting the Professor Cup. Because we are by-passing the fossil mechanic because Archen no longer exists in the Professor Cup format, Archeops can be searched with cards like Dual Ball and Pokemon Collectors. That means you can easily get rid of all evolutions with just a basic Pokemon.

I am not sure what kind of decks Archeops is best in, but I do know that if I played a deck that did not contain one evolution, I would run Archeops without a second thought. It is just too good of a card not to run. It seems to protect you against almost every deck out there, all those good Stage 1s (Stage 2s) that are easy to get out now will be of no concern to you. He should be good in most decks.

There are some bad things about Archeops. The worst thing is his retreat cost. For some reason a bird Pokemon has a 2 retreat cost. This makes it very hard to retreat Archeops if your deck does not run DCE. You can run Skyarrow Bridge to turn the retreat cost to one, but that may take up more spots than you want to. The other bad thing about Archeops is that the attack is fairly poor. You are not going to want to spend the time of loading three energies on Archeops just go 60 damage. It would be nice if this guy could attack, but he is not here as an attacker anyway, so he can still be very playable.

Final Rating– 8.75/10– A very splashable versatile tech that can be very helpful. Yes the retreat cost sucks and it will hurt the deck if you start with this card, but overall it is a great card. It may not be in every deck in the Professor Cup, but it will be played a lot. As long as you don’t play any evolutions, you pretty much have to play this card.

Conclusion

Although I am not a professor and will not play in the Professor Cup, I still think the format is pretty cool. I kind of wish that I was able to play in this format, it should be really fun for all you professors. The cup will also be cool because you can win some cool prizes and stuff that is not available up to us normal players. Just one more hint, if you play in the cup but are not a professor, don’t tell everybody on Six Prizes that you aren’t. It didn’t work out too well for the last guy that did that.

Well, that’s all I got to say about these cards. Why don’t you wrap up the article Pedro?

Okay. Justin Bieber has been in the news lately. First, over the Memorial Day weekend he was brought to an L.A. police station for questioning because a paparazi accused Bieber of punching him. Then just a couple days later the Biebs left the country and headed to Norway. The Norweigian military was brought in to deal with the crowds of people effected with Bieber-Fever. So many people descended on the Scandanavian country that they could barely contain the crowds.

I think this reflects poorly on Norway. If you can’t contain a bunch of teenage girls, you shouldn’t be in the armed forces.

But these aren’t just any teenage girls, these are Bieber fans. You know that Bieber fans are a rowdy bunch of girls. They are of course known for starting many bar fights, and beating up the cops and stuff like that.

I think I could take a couple Bieber fans.

But then they’d probably have to take you to jail for rape.

I guess, there is that. Good Night everybody!

Opinion

Should There Be a Rotation?

Pikkdogs May 30, 2012 4 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here, today we will be talking about the possible rotation that may happen in late August. A rotation can be a scary thing, especially for newer players, but in this article we will analyze why it can be a good thing. The rotation is something that is fairly complicated, so let’s talk about that later after we talk to my extra-dimensional sidekick Pedro. How’s Pedro doing today?

Oh doing well. Enjoying the lovely spring/summer weather. You probably want me to do a news story to kick things off. Okay, today’s news comes from the world of literature. Today is the anniversary of the release of Bram Stocker’s most famous work, “Dracula.” Do you like the Dracula Pikkdogs?

Oh, love the Dracula quite a good book. Read More

Deck Discussion Tourney Report

Toledo, Oh Battle Roads Report and Kyurem EX Tank List

Pikkdogs May 28, 2012 6 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with a tournament report. This past Saturday I was able to go to my first Battle Roads. This one was in Toledo, although it is not currently in Michigan, Toledo is actually the closest venue for me, so I had to be there to defend my turf. I wasn’t looking forward to this event because Toledo events are usually held in the smallest game room ever, so it gets really hot and really stinky in there. Although it is not a fun place to play in, I still had to come and defend my back yard.

I have been trying to find a deck in this format that I like for a long time. I don’t really like Zekrom, its just too robot like for me. I would like to play CMT, but I am very poor and can’t afford the deck right now. And I am not convinced about the other decks in the format, so I went with a rogue deck.

For about a month now I have been thinking about a tanking deck with either Groudon EX or Kyurem EX. Onehitko writer TAndrewT convinced me to actually make the deck when he wrote an article about two tanking decks featuring both Pokemon. I made the deck and was pleasantly surprised that it seemed to hold its own fairly well. It did not really have an autowin, but it didn’t really have an auto-loss either. It seemed to give me a situation that was winable almost every time, though the situation was also very losable, it just depended on who had the most luck.

This deck idea is very simple, get Kyurem EX out there and have him attack. When he gets damaged, use trainer cards to heal him. Cards like Potion, MooMoo Milk, and Life Herb have been known as crap cards in the past couple years, but they actually worked in my testing. I did try this deck with some of those trainers and then Blissy DX, but the deck was more consistent with a bunch of trainers.

Smeragle is also in this deck to speed things up. He is actually a vital card in this deck, and he makes this deck fast and consistent enough to work.

Kyurem is a very under appreciated card. He may not be the EX that hits the hardest, but he has a weakness that is very hard to exploit. Plus, he can do things like discard Special Energies while still attacking. The goal of this deck is not to discard energies, but if you can it is always a good thing. Kyurem can hit for 120 damage, the downside is that he is unable to use the same attack the next turn. But, this deck does run 4 Switches and Smeargles with Skyarrow Bridge, so doing 120 damage twice is not a huge problem.

Here is the list. It is not a perfect list, it of course can be imporved. But, I did play this deck to see if I like it enough to play it for Nationals, and if the deck could stand up to the format. If you guys have any ideas on improvements, just let me know in the comment section.

Pokemon-7

4-Kyurem EX
3-Smeargle

Trainers-42

3-Potion
4- MooMoo Milk
4-Life Herb
4-Junk Arm
4-Switch
3-Pokemon Catcher
1-Super Rod
2- Skyarrow Bridge
2-Dual Ball
3-Eviolite
4-Professor Oak’s New Theory
4-Professor Juniper
2-N
2-Sage’s Training

Energy-11

Double Colorless Energy-4
Water Energy-7

The Tournament

I wake up at about quarter to 9, which is very early for me, but still a decent night’s sleep. I make some oatmeal and sit down to watch a rerun of the Graham Norton show, man that gay Irish guy isn’t that bad in the funny department. After waking up for a while I pack my car up and make the 40 minute drive to Toledo.

I get to the tournament early because I had to re-sleeve my deck, so I did that and turned my list in. Then I noticed that I had somehow got some kind of dirt on the front side of my shorts, so I walk across the street to the Family Dollar and pick up a cheap pair of shorts. Then I drive over to Little Caesars to get some lunch, and then head back to the venue to wait for the start of the tourney.

Round 1 vs John and Dark Deck

My first game is against a guy from Michigan named John. I think I might have played him earlier in the year, but I don’t really know the guy too well. I started the game with Kyurem EX and I have all the energies needed to get Kyurem going. I think I might have the donk on the next turn because he started with a lone Zorua, but on his turn he plays a collector and does “Ascension.” Once John started going with his attackers, he did well. I flip 1/8 on my first flips with Moomoo Milk and Dual Ball, and lose a Kyurem because of the bad flipping. But, my luck would soon turn around. I get another Kyurem EX and start discarding his Special Energy and knocking out Zoroarks whenever I am allowed to use my big attack. John pulls out all the stops once he loses his 4^th Zoroark, and starts to use Darkrai EX to attack. This time however, luck was with me. I start doing well on my flips with Moomoo Milk and Life Herb, and use Potion to fill in the gaps. He ends up doing a lot of damage with Darkrai, but I am able to wipe away the energy. The game ends one turn before I can take my last prize, when he decks out.

1-0 – The day starts off well. I didn’t think I could keep it going, but its always good to get a win right away.

Round 2 vs Mike with Zekrom (eels with Pachi/Shaymin)

Mike is a Pokedad from Cleveland who’s family I met during the Cities season. They seem like a real nice family, they are a credit to the Pokemon Community.

I start with a Smeargle to his Tynamo. I got first and bench another Smeargle, I then use two N’s in a row thanks to Portrait, but I still can’t get a Kyurem. On his next turn he uses collector to get 2 Tynamos and a Zekrom. He then passes, and I use another Supporter, but I still can’t find a Kyurem. I do attach a DCE to Smeargle and use his attack to knockout a Tynamo. But, on his next turn he gets 3 energies on Mewtwo EX, uses a Pokegear 3.0 to get a Seeker, and then uses it to get the Seeker win,.

1-1 Not mad here. I knew that my deck did not play a lot of Pokemon at the same time, so it was vulnerable to a Seeker win. It just sucks that I am play the only guy who still plays Seeker.

Round 3 vs Frank S. with Zekrom

Frank is a good buddy from Michigan, so it should be fun to play him.

I start double Smeargle, and he starts with a Tynamo. I use a Dual Ball, and two Switches to use 4 Supporters on the first turn, but am still on able to find a Kyurem again. But, I have the chance at the donk, so I attach a DCE to Smeargle and miss both flips on his attack. So Frank lives for another day. He gets a lot of Pokemon in play, but runs into an energy drought. I do end up getting the first knockout on a Tornadus after I finally find a Kyurem. I then get another KO on something, I don’t know what, but here is where I make my misplay. I see a Mewtwo EX on the bench with DCE, and instead of attacking it and getting rid of the DCE, I knock something else out. I do get a 3 prize lead, but Frank loads up Mewtwo EX and is able to OHKO everything I have. Misplays suck, I don’t know if that would really have made a difference, but it couldn’t have hurt. ]

1-2- Any hope of doing good is just about gone, but I thought I must solider on and keep on playing to see what I can learn about the deck and the format.

Round 4 vs Eric Richard with Zekrom/Terrakion

Another guy from Michigan, that’s three in a row. Of course Papa Richard is playing a Terrakion variant, I think he did in every tournament this season. This game goes weird, as our games normally do.

I start with Smeargle again, and he has a Terrakion. I do find a Kyurem on the first turn, but I cannot find an energy. I use a bunch of “Portraits”, but none of those help. The only things I seemed able to draw were healing trainers. Those helped delay the inevitable, but I need energy to attack. It took me several turns, but I was able to get some energies. The only thing was to keep Kyurem alive, I had to Junk Arm 2 Kyurems. I later learned that my Super Rod was prized, so I was kinda screwed.

I finally start attacking and I make Eric work with how many attacks he had to do just to get one knock out. I am able to heal off a lot of damage counters, but I eventually run out of healing trainers after using them as a crutch for the first 6-7 turns. Once he knocked out 2 Kyurems it was over because I had no Super Rod.

1-3– I wonder what would have happened if I didn’t hit an energy drought. Would have been a good match

Round 5 v.s. Lauren with Mew Lock (kind of)

Round 5 officially went in the books as a no show win for me since my opponent never showed up, but after I saw that my friend Lauren finished her game I asked her for a fun game.

I start with Smeargle and Kyurem and I get a good feel for the game going. I start setting the pace with some good supporters and some early knockouts on Mews. I take 4 prizes before she puts the lock on, but the lock eventually does come on. There was nothing I could do to stop the lock, I just had to wait for her to roll bad. She eventually knocks out a Kyurem with “Double Freeze” and decides to not use “Victory Star” to take the KO back. This allows me to get my last prize, and just as pairings are put up, she misses a “Fly” flip, and I end the game with a W.

2-3- Pretty easy match-up, I just gotta hope that eventually they roll bad, which they usually do. Thanks for the game Lauren, I really appreciate it. It made a deck report that would been horrible, to be just very bad.

Round 6 vs James H. with C.M.T. â€“T

This was a very pivotal game for my deck. If I win this game, I think this deck still has hope. If I lose, it is a crappy deck. And look who I am playing, my buddy and fellow OHKO writer James.

James and I play this game in a very laid back fashion since we all expected to do a little better. I again start with a Smeargle and Kyurem, and get a few Supporters the first couple turns to get going. I am able to get energies on Kyurem and am able to get a couple KOs on Mewtwos, but those things just kept on coming. I might have had a chance to win, but I was forced to burn some healing trainers on a Juniper early in the game, and then I didn’t have them when I needed them later. I should have been able to outlast the Mewtwos, but those healing trainers eluded me and James got the W.

2-4– The search for a Nationals deck continues as Kyurem EX kind of failed me this day. It is not a bad deck, I did do well in almost all of my games, but it just didn’t have that one or two cards that can put it over the top. I really need something to put a little kick in the deck. Maybe you guys have an idea, or maybe it is just a bad deck. I still need to look for a Nats deck, and that really sucks.

About the Deck

I did not do great with this deck, so it is no longer a front runner to be my nationals deck, but it is still a cool deck. It is also a deck that would be good for kids or people that are under a budget. This is a deck that you should be able to build for about 40 bucks, which is almost unheard of in this format. So I can recommend this to other players and hopefully they can do a better job with it then I did. I might try to run this deck with Groudon EX and see if that’s any better. Though, it is not a great deck, so don’t get the wrong idea about this deck. It won’t win Nationals, but its still pretty cool.

Well, that’s all I got. Thanks to the judges and T.O. in Ohio. And thanks to the Card Shop owner, I especially appreciated him when he took a big stick and hit the bar on the backdoor so we could open the door and get some air circulation in that sardine can. Thanks to all my opponents, you guys were all professionals. Have a good night, everybody.

Uncategorized

Pikkdogs’ Favorite Things

Pikkdogs May 20, 2012 7 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs with a weird article for you guys. I say “weird” because this article doesn’t really fit into any cookie cutter mode that’s out there now. Its not that all my articles aren’t weird, this is just a little more so. Do you guys remember how Oprah used to have a special where she would take a look at some her favorite products? It was called “Oprah’s favorite things”, and since I am just as fat as Oprah, I thought I might as well do my Favorite Things-Pokemon Edition. I am not just limiting myself to products here, it could be cards, or strategies. So just sit back and enjoy the bumpy ride. Wait, we gotta get Pedro in this. Hey Pedro, what are some of your favorite things?

Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens

Okay? Those seem like popular choices, why don’t you get us started with a news article?

Alright. In world news, it seems that there is a controversy about the new $20 bill in Canada. The new design has a picture of Queen Elizabeth II and the Vimy Memorial. The controversy came about because the Vimy Memorial has a statue of a naked lady on it. Some say that the design on the bill is “shockingly pornographic”, why others state that it is a good depiction of a patriotic symbol. The Vimy Memorial is a statue in France that honors members of the CEF (Canadian Expeditionary Force) that died in the battle of Vimy Ridge in World War I. What do you think of this debate Pikkdogs?

I gotta be on the patriotic side here, the monument is a patriotic symbol of honor for brave men that gave their lives for the Allied cause. And, I always like to see a picture of the Queen with naked women. It gets me hot.

That’s understandable. I think this is a brilliant idea, it should start a new trend. I think all bills should have pictures of the Queen with Naked Women, its kind of kinky.

My vote for the next one is Megan Fox.

She’s nice, but doesn’t she have a toe thumb?

Hey, she can have a pig thumbs for all I care, that’s not the part of body that I focus on.

One, pigs don’t have thumbs, and two before out talk gets too centered on lesbian scenes with the Queen, we should get to the article.

Pikkdogs’ Favorite Things

Japanese Sleeves and Deck Boxes

The first of my favorite things are Japanese character sleeves and deck boxes. These are fairly normal sleeves and deck boxes that have Pokemon characters and scenes on them. There are all kinds of different designs, from Pikachu in a meadow to Stunfisk, these sleeves and matching deck boxes are cool and have unique Pokemon scenes on them. The deck boxes are usually the biggest and roomiest around, with lots of space for your deck and other cards. The sleeves are not the highest quality around, but they are from the lowest.

The biggest problem with these products are that they are very expensive in the United States. They are usually only sold in Japan, so, in the United States, the demand is high and the supply is low. These products can be found on Ebay from anywhere around 25 bucks to 40 bucks. That does not include shipping, which could cost from $8 to $15. If you add the two weeks or more that it usually takes to get these products to the U.S., they usually are not practical for everyday use.

But for special events like Nationals, these cool character deck boxes and sleeves are a great way to add some individuality for a special day. I don’t know about other people, but I do enjoy playing with unique sleeves. I do love my regular Dragon Shields, but sometimes you need to show some bling bling, and these Japanese sleeves are a good way of doing that.

Eviolite

One of my favorite cards in this format is Eviolite. It was released alongside one of my least favorite cards, Rocky Helmet. Eviolite will always be compared to Rocky Helmet because it is a similar Tool Card, but I think Eviolite is very superior to Rocky Helmet.

If you don’t know what it is, Eviolite is a tool card that when attached to a Basic Pokemon allows you to deduct 20 damage from each attack done to it. Donphan Prime had a similar Poke-Body, and it propelled Donphan to being one of the most successful cards from the HGSS sets. It works perfectly with today’s BBP (Big Basic Pokemon) that have decent attacks and a lot of HP. It almost seems unfair that a basic Pokemon can have up to 180 HP and attacks that do up to 150 damage, while being able to bottle Donphan’s Poke-Body and give it to them.

Although it can be hard to find room in a deck for a non essential card like Eviolite, I still think it is one of the best cards in the format. The One Hit Knock Out is very important in this format, even though it is getting harder and harder to obtain, an OHKO can help you set the pace for the game. Even a 2HKO is very important, if you can’t at least consistently get a 2HKO, you will not win. This is where Eviolite really shines. Eviolite makes it very hard for any Pokemon to OHKO you, and it can also prevent a 2HKO. Eviolite is a great defensive card that can change the face of a game, nobody really prepares for Eviolite, and it is this surprise factor that can give you a big advantage is a game.

As I said before, this card will always be compared to Rocky Helmet. But, I must argue that Rocky Helmet is not a great card. It does cause your opponent some problems, but it can be played around with cards like Pokemon Catcher. Plus, who knows if those 2 extra damage counters will make a difference in a game. It always makes sense to stop an OHKO, so it seems to me that Eviolite is a much better and versatile card than Rocky Helmet.

Locking

One of my favorite deck strategies is Locking. Locking is a broad term that means trapping one of your opponent’s bench sitting Pokemon in the active spot. There is not really a concept of locking in the current format because there are really not many bench sitting Pokemon. Most of the bench sitting Pokemon that are currently in the format like Celebi Prime and Eelektrik are easily retreatable in one turn, but there was once a time when Locking was popular.

In modern times, the heyday of locking was when Claydol GE was in the format. Claydol GE was a great Pokemon with draw power, but he had a 2 retreat cost with no DCE in the format. It was very hard to get Claydol out of the active spot once he was pulled in, so it was fairly easy to pull off locking decks.

Locking itself is not really a strategy to win, because just screwing up your opponent does not let you win. There are three ways to win once you have the lock on. The most simple way to win is to snipe around the trapped PokÃ©mon and hit the bench. There are a lot of Pokemon that can attack the bench, the most popular right now is Raikou EX. Sniping usually produces less damage, but if you can lock and snipe, you could be unstoppable.

The next most popular strategy is to mill your opponent’s deck. Milling means discarding cards from the top of your opponent’s deck (the term comes from the Magic TCG and the “Millstone” card), you will win the game once your opponent has no card to draw at the beginning of the turn. Milling is also one of favorite strategies in this game. I just love the ability to discard cards from your opponent’s deck and know that your opponent can do nothing about it. Unfortunately, the most famous milling card in recent history is Durant. Durant is widely considered to be an unfair card that is no fun to play against. Games against most milling decks are very fun, Durant has just given milling a bad name.

The third and final strategy is to win with the Lost World stadium card. Lost World is a stadium card that allows you to call yourself the winner if your opponent has 6 PokÃ©mon cards in his/her Lost Zone. It is fairly hard to put PokÃ©mon in the Lost Zone, and there are not a lot of PokÃ©mon that do it. So, it is not hard to imagine that Lost World decks have not had a lot of success.

Considering all the good and bad things about locking decks, I still really love the strategy. Right now the strategy is not really feasible. Switch is a card that is popular, and Skyarrow Bridge is a card that gives a lot of Pokemon free retreat. There are too many ways to get out of a trap right now, but I do love trapping.

Good Luck Varsity

Now for some plugging for the Unofficial 2012 U.S. Pokemon Nationals After Party. Good Luck Varsity will be headlining this concert, and I can’t wait to see it. GLV is a band from the Detroit area that releases some really cool Indie rock music. They are not just rock stars in waiting, but are some amazing Pokemon players. They are some real cool guys that make some awesome music. They actually just released a new CD, you can hear the single “Lakes” by following this link (I seriously can’t get this song out of my head). You can find a little more about the concert here. You can also find more about The Noozles here.

The Unofficial 2012 U.S. Pokemon Nationals After Party should be really fun. I am very excited to see and hear the three bands perform, and what tricks they have up their sleeves. It is sure to be a cool party that will give everybody a good time. So if you will make it to the Indy City for Nationals, make sure you stop by the VFW at 1850 S. East Street which is just a couple miles away from the convention center.

Nationals

Speaking of Nationals, it also is one of my favorite things. I think one big Pokemon convention in the summer is a great thing. It feels so great to test your skills against people from all over the nation. Last year I played against people from California, Texas, Florida, and New York. People from all over the U.S. come to the Indy City to celebrate all things Pokemon.

Nationals is not a perfect event. It would be nice if there were some more vendors there, and if there were some events that take place to give it more of a Comic-Con like feel, but I do think that it is a very cool event. One of the things that caught my eye last year was the decoration. There were a ton of cool banners that were hung to the tall ceilings of the convention center. There were also statues, large balloons, and people in character costumes. The convention center looked very awesome, and that really added a cool ambiance to the event.

Card Art

Not everybody can pickup and play a Zekrom deck correctly, but everybody can enjoy some card art. That’s why I love me some card art, it transcends competitive play, and possibly Pokemon all together.

Modern Pokemon TCG art is fairly varied. In recent sets we have had some real cool Pokemon cards with people in the background. We have also had Pokemon art that have an almost clay like look to them, those have been kind of hit and miss in my opinion. The greatest contribution to modern Pokemon TCG card art has been the Ultra Rares. In the HGSS sets we had the Legend cards which were very cool to look at, possibly some of the best looking cards ever. Now, we have full art cards and full art EX cards. This mixes great art with playable cards which is always awesome.

Pokemon art is cool because it is very diverse. Some art is scary like Terrakion Full Art, while others are scenic like Lapras ND, while still others are cute like just about every Pikachu card ever made. The art does communicate a lot of different emotions that the world of Pokemon should convey. Art let’s us feel that we are in the Pokemon World, and you can not ask for any more than that. You gotta love Card Art, even if you think “The Starry Night” is a song by Paris Hilton.

POP Merchandise (or whatever they are calling it nowadays)

POP merchandise refers to a lot of cool exclusive merchandise that is only available for purchase to Pokemon Professors. Judges earn points for every event they judge, and with those points they can get this cool stuff. I am not sure exactly what kind of merchandise that are in the store, but I have seen anything from Binders to sleeves to bags of all sorts.

I somehow was able to acquire a Groudon bag that was originally a POP item. It is a really cool and really big bag. Kind of like the sleeves and deck boxes that I mentioned earlier in the article, POP merchandise is cool because it has a lot of exclusive art on it. Nintendo does not sell the professor mats, hats, and sleeves anywhere; so you need to get them here or from a professor to get them. What you end up with when you order POP merchandise is really cool licensed stuff that really makes you stand out from the crowd. I am thinking of being a judge just for the swag, it’s that cool.

Max Beef and Cheddar from Arbys

Finally, I gotta say that Pikkdogs loves his Arbys. One of the most important parts of Pokemon is the lunch/dinner stop after the tournament. While I can not find anything wrong with any fast food place ever, I gotta say that I prefer my Arbys. Who doesn’t love Arbys, they have burgers made of Roast Beef, ya gotta love Roast Beef. Plus, in commercials they used to use Barry White’s voice. If you don’t like Barry White, you just shouldn’t play Pokemon.

Conclusion

So, those are some of my favorite things. I think we are all done here, let’s get to the end of the article. Why don’t you wrap things up Pedro?

Okay, on this day in history the Buttonwood Agreement was signed in 1792.

Is that dirty? It sounds dirty. Buttonwood.

It does sound dirty, but its not. It was the agreement to begin the New York Stock Exchange.

Stock trading, nothing more dirty than that.

I guess, even porn stars feel dirty when they walk past Wall Street.

Have you been to New York Pedro?

Nope, never. Have you?

Sure, I went there in 1999. It was pretty cool. But you gotta be careful in New York, it’s quite a dirty city, you can’t touch anything because people have pee’d on it.

It’s like your house after you had too much to drink.

Kind of, good night everybody.

Uncategorized

The Path to Nationals Begins: Battle Roads Preview

Pikkdogs May 18, 2012 5 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with a Battle Roads preview for you. Now I do know that we already did a BR preview here on this site, and that the article was much better than this one will be, but I will come at it from a different angle. Before we get this started I must apologize for not posting an article in a while, the bossman has been riding me hard and taking time away from writing. Hopefully, in 2 weeks things should get more quiet. So let’s go on and get this thing started by saying “hi” to Pedro. Hey Pedro.

Hey Pikkdogs.

Do you have a news story for us to get things started.

Sure. Everybody has been cockahoop since last week when the new Time Magazine came out. This magazine gave us a new figure to talk about, the breast feeding man. Jamie Lynn Grumet is known as the Breast Feeding Mom. She was the one that was on the controversial Time Magazine cover a week or so ago. The article was supposed to be about a parenting style called Attachment Parenting that creates a bond between mother and child by spending more time with the child and becoming more intimate. But, this was not to be so. The discussion was more on the cover photo. What did you think of the cover photo.

It made me thirsty.

Understandable.

In all seriousness, that was quite the interesting technique they have for breastfeeding. Usually the kid is reclining back, here he is using a step ladder. Which is one way to do it I guess.

Yeah, that doesn’t seem efficient. But, I think it is safe to say that of all the three moms that have been in the news lately, Breast Feeding Mom is by far the hottest.

By far Pedro, by far. She is very attractive. I’m curious Pedro, in your dimension do they use attachment parenting and nursing until your 5 years old?

No, babies don’t drink milk in my universe, they drink Whiskey.

At least that gives them a reason for the irrational behavior of babies.

It does. What do you think of the extended breast feeding Pikkdogs? You are a man that is famous for liking boobs.

Well, most men are, but I do like boobs. I guess I don’t really see anything wrong with breastfeeding until they can go to school. It probably makes snack time at soccer practice awkward, but I don’t think there are any health risks besides sore nipples.

Toughens your nipples doesn’t it?

Nice Silence of the Lambs quote. Anyway, nothing wrong with it, just seems a little awkward. But I think I am happy for the kid. If I could still be breast feeding I probably would.

At least your honest about being creepy.

Toughens your nipples doesn’t it?

On the Road to the Indy City

As Nationals is getting closer and closer, people have been coming up to me and saying, “Pikkdogs, put on your pants!” Then after I put on my pants they say, “how are you preparing for Nationals?” I tell them that the best way to prepare for Nats is to begin in Spring Battle Roads.

The Spring Battle Roads never has the competitiveness that the Fall version has. Spring BRs are all about getting ready for Nationals. They are a good dry run. Even though the layout of BRs are different from Nationals, you still can benefit from BRs by getting adjusted to the format. There will be no big changes to the format until after Nats, so BRs are going to give you a good look at the Nationals format.

Nationals is such a great event that it is worth giving all the preparation that you can. Remember, it was won last year by an unknown-

those weird letter things

No not “Unowns”, an unknown player. Nationals is up for grabs for every player, if you put enough work into it, you can win Nationals. But, the process begins here and now in Spring Battle Roads, so let’s see what things are like.

The Format

Like I said, a big article on all of these decks was already written on this site, so I will not talk about it too much. Here is just my quick take on what to watch out for during Spring Battle Roads.

Tier 1

Zekrom– Zekrom decks will be the most played decks now that Durant lost a little steam. They can snipe and hit hard and are great at recovery. The weaknesses to Zekrom are the setup and the fighting weakness. If you can kill all of their Tyanmos before they can evolve, their hands will be tied. Look to play a fast deck like CMT to take advantage of this. The second weakness has to do with playing fighitng types. Although some players might play Tornadus EX to cover their weaknesses, Zekrom as a whole is vulnerable to fighting Pokemon. Look for Terrakion NV and Groudon EX to come up big. Even though this deck is fairly boring and has holes, it will probably be the most successfull deck during BRs.

CMT-Mewtwo is back again for domination with this really fast deck. Players that play Mewtwo EX as a tech can try to out Mewtwo CMT, but if you don’t have Mewtwo you will be in trouble. CMT is the fastest deck out there and it is great (on paper) against any deck. Maybe people will have pulled enough Mewtwo EXs by now that CMT can gain more popularity as a whole, even though it did recently take a hit against Zekrom decks. Look for this deck to be played a lot, and for it to do really well.

Tier 1.5

Dark Deck– The dark deck is the new kid on the block. It has a lot of hype, but a lot of questions needs to answer. Perhaps it will prove itself to be a Tier 1 deck, bet we are not sure yet. It is a fairly fast deck that can hit for a consistent amount of damage. It may not hit as hard as Zekrom, but its not that far off. It uses a lot of different trainers to accomplish its goals. Dark Claw is like Expert Belt and Dark Patch is kinda like Eelektrik. This helps increase consistency and damage output. The Dark deck should have a fairly even match-up across the board, while it struggles with fighting decks.

Fighting Deck– Fighting decks is a broad term for any deck that uses fighting Pokemon as the main attaker. These decks usually use some combination of Landorus, Terrakion NV, and Groudon EX. This deck relies on weakness and revenge kills to get a good match-up against other decks. Tornadus EX will be tough for this deck to get around, so that is a huge challenge. It also struggles against CMT decks. This seems like an all or nothing deck based on what the match-up is. There will be a decent number of these decks, but not a ton.

Durant– There ain’t no Heatmor that can kill the durable ant, it will survive. Since Heatmor is in the format, look for people to assume Durant will not be played. If they assume that, they will probably not play Heatmor, and will open the door for Durant. I think that Durant will lose some play, but not a whole lot of play. The better players probably will leave the deck, but the bulk of the players will still play the deck. Durant has a pretty good match-up against most decks that will be played. It may not be autowin against the best decks, but it at least has a good chance at every deck. Expect Durant to do better than most people expect.

What to Watch For

The first thing to watch out for is rogue decks. The only new deck that people are really talking about is the dark deck, but there must be a lot more new ideas out there. Expect the unexpected for battle roads. Spring BRs are a mix of the best players, and some middle of the road players with some interesting decks. Expect to be surprised at a lot of the decks that you see. Remember, some people count this season as a prep for Nats, so they might not be trying to win, but trying to get a hold of a deck they want to play. So there should be a lot of rogue stuff out there.

If you are trying to win Spring BRs, remember that it is a sprint. We just came out of States and Regionals, those are marathons. To win at spring Battle Roads, all you have to do is get lucky a handful of times. So you can try some lucky decks and still do well. Consistency will never be unimportant, but it is not as important in the smaller BR tournaments. So try some of those flippy decks, and maybe give disruption decks like Sharpedo a try, you could get lucky all the way to a trophy.

Another thing to remember out Spring Battle Roads is that you shouldn’t get discouraged. If you are playing in Nationals, don’t get upset if things don’t go your way at a BR. You must be lucky to win a BR, but don’t forget that it is more important to be practicing for Nationals then to win a BR. It is more improtant that you guys are familiarizing yourself with the format, and begin to look at different rogue strategies. If you get a tournament win, all the better, but I think your eyes should be on the bigger picture: competing at Nationals.

What Is the Play?

Well, there is no bad play for Battle Roads. As long as you are out there learning about the format, you are not wasting your time. But, I do think that for winning a single tournament, I would try a fighting deck. Zekrom decks will win most tournaments, but you should be able to get a win easier with fighting decks. These decks struggle the most against CMT, but CMT might have a little drop off in play and we all know that Zekrom will increase in play. So, it seems that if you can get a good fighting deck that beats Zekrom decks most of the time, that would be a good play. There is no bad play among the top decks, but I think next I would choose Durant. Most people expect Durant to die off, so now is the time to play it. You can’t go wrong with a top tier deck choice at Battle Roads. Just make sure you are comfortable with your deck. Make sure you know everything about your deck that there is to know, and it will give you a big advantage. When picking a deck it is always best to go with what you are comfortable with, so go with what you feel confident with and you will have a good shot.

Conclusion

Well, that’s all I got about Battle Roads. I hope I get shocked with a lot of cool rogue decks when I go to one. Hopefully you guys do well and get one more step closer to doing well at your own Nationals.

Well Pedro, I am all done. Why don’t you give us a news story to end the article.

Okay. Foxnews.com is reporting that scientists who studied fossils of an ancient sea monster type creature have diagnosed the animal with arthritis.

He might want to take something for that.

If he wasn’t dead, he might. This creature is known as a pliosaur.

Pliosaur, sounds like a finishing move in wrestling.

Is a Plliosaur a better move than a German suplex?

Yes, but not as good as “The Scorpion Death Lock.”

Do you like to watch the wrestling Pikkdogs?

A little, I did more when I was a kid. Though I think wrestling doesn’t like me, because when I was a kid they had all kinds of cool things like Bra and Panties matches, and everybody swore a lot. But, now that I am older and can appreciate obscene things, everything is clean. It’s like Vince McMahon doesn’t like me.

Well you know what they always say, wresting isn’t fair.

Just ask Brett Hart.

Good Night Everybody

Deck Discussion

Pikkdogs Reviews the Dark Deck

Pikkdogs May 14, 2012 11 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with a deck review for you. I recently got a chance to get some testing time in with a dark deck, and I thought I would share my findings. Before we get to sharing findings, I have a couple announcements for you.

The first is that the newest OnehitKO contest is coming to an end. You can read everything about the contest here, but I am changing it a little. I didn’t get a whole lot of responses to the contest, but still want to give away some tickets. So if you want a pair of tickets, just email me at (pikkdogs@onehitko.com) and I will hook you up. See you guys at the rock show!

The second is that we need to introduce my extra-dimensional sidekick Pedro. Hey Pedro!

Hey Pikkdogs. Shall we do the thing.

Sure, but I want another this day in history. Don’t worry if the date doesn’t make sense.

Okay. On this day, May 14th, in 1998 the chairman of the board Frank Sinatra passed away. Do you like the Frank Sinatra Pikkdogs?

Hate the Frank Sinatra.

What? Sinatra is an American icon, everybody loves him. You gotta love him.

Nope, don’t care for him.

Why not.

The man was a gangster. At the very least he hung around people who were criminals and killed people whenever they felt like it. Even though I like his singing, I just can’t look past the fact that he hung out with a bunch of murders.

Oh come on. Everybody hangs around with a bad crowd. Regis loved the Frank Sinatra, and if Regis loved somebody, he can’t be that bad.

I guess, if Regis likes him, you just gotta like him. Nobody can argue with Regis.

A scientific fact.

Unless we’re talking about College Football. Wolverines all the way baby! The Irish suck.

Really, I’m a University of South Carolina fan. Go Cocks!

Go Cocks indeed.

Goal of the Deck

The goal of this deck is to use the trainer cards released in the Dark Explorers set to deal damage efficiently with Dark type Pokemon. Not many decks in Pokemon consist of only one type. Besides Reshiphlosion and Reshiboar, not many decks have focused on one type like this one in recent history. But, this deck primarily used Dark type Pokemon to take advantage of Dark Claw and Dark Patch. Dark Claw is kinda like Expert Belt, it helps you do an extra 20 damage on each attack to the defending Pokemon. Dark Patch is kind of like Eelektrik’s “Dynamotor” Ability, it lets you attack a dark energy to a dark Pokemon on your bench. These cards make Dark Pokemon more powerful and consistent.

There are two Pokemon that are normally in this deck that can be considered the main attacker. The first is Zoroark DE. Zoroark has a swarming like attack that does 20 damage for each Dark Pokemon that you have in play. That means that if you have 5 Dark Pokemon on your bench, you can do 120 damage. This is increased to 140 with Dark Claw, and 160 with 2 Special Darkness Energies. 160 damage is nothing to sneeze at, it is really good, and it is better because it only costs CC. There are some bad things about Zoroark though. He has a fairly low HP, which means that your opponent will knock Zoroark out easily. That means that you will need to put out 4 Zoroarks, and then have another attacker waiting in the wings.

In the wings is Darkrai EX. Darkrai EX sports a great 180 HP, which means your opponent will probably need at least 2 hits to knock him out. Darkrai has an attack that does 90 damage and snipes for 30. With a Dark Claw and 2 Special Darkness Energies, that is increased to 130 damage to the active, and 30 for sniping. 130 may not be as good as 160, but it is still really good, especially for a Basic. The 30 damage to the bench doesn’t really matter that much, the baby Pokemon are almost all gone, people will start playing the 40 HP Tynanmo, and almost all other low HP Pokemon will require 3 attacks for a knockout. The bad thing about Darkrai is that you need 3 energies on him to attack. I know that you can load energies on him faster with Dark Patch, but if you get a bad start, those Dark Patches may not be there.

Setup

Speaking of the setup, it is very important for this deck. Since you have at least 2 attackers in this deck, your setup will determine the order in which you will use him. Ideally you would want to attack first with Zoroark because all of those Dark Pokemon that fuel your attack may not be around later in the game, but it could be hard to do this since Zoroark is actually a little faster than Zoroark. Setup is also important because this deck relies on at least 1 evolution line. Since decks are very fast right now with Mewtwo EX dominating the format, you will need to evolve quickly before they can start controlling your field with Pokemon Catcher.

It is hard to give you a blueprint for a setup since the list is not very focused right now. Hopefully you either start with Zorua or a benched Darkrai EX. No matter who you start with, you should try to attack energies right away, get a Pokemon Collector, and try to get an energy in the discard pile for Dark Patch. Your first job is to load energies on an attacker, and get ready to evolve into Zoroark and any other Stage 1 that you have. If you are trying to attack with Zoroark you can consider using DCE to attack quickly, if you are attacking with Darkrai EX you should try to load him up with energies with Dark Patch. You need Dark Patch with Darkrai EX because he is just too slow with his large energy requirement. Hopefully by turn 2 you should be able to get enough energy on whatever it is you are using to attack, and you are also filling up your bench with big HP basics and evolved Pokemon.

After your setup you can just start bringing up one attacker after the other. It doesn’t really matter which of your main attackers you are using, just make sure you keep the damage coming. I will give you one hint, try to use the sniping damage from Darkrai EX’s attack to setup a future OHKO instead of trying to chip away at a Pokemon that may or may not ever be active.

Tech Options

There is a consensus that this deck should have 4-4 Zoroark and 2 Darkrai EXs. There is also a consensus that there should be at least 2 more Dark Pokemon in this deck. The problem is answering the question, “who should take the last 2-6 spots?”. Here are some of my favorite options

Tornadus EX and/or Tornadus

The first tech option will not help Zoroark’s attack, but they will still help the deck. These Pokemon have fighting resistance and will help cover the weakness of the other Pokemon in this deck. These Pokemon are almost your only line of defense against fighting decks. Since fighting decks will be out there a lot, you will need to have a plan against them if you plan to play this deck in a tournament. Tornadus EX sounds like a good play in this deck. If you expect to see a lot of fighting decks, than I would suggest running 2 EXs and 1 normal Tornadus.

Absol Prime

Absol Prime is one my current favorite dark tech in this deck. I do not like this card because of the attack, a base damage of 70 isn’t bad for two energies, but I still don’t like the fact that you need to put a Pokmeon in the Lost Zone to attack. In my deck I could Lost Zone 2 Tornadi, but once those are gone, this attack will interfere with Zoroarks attack. It is also hard to get Pokemon in your hand at the right time without a good draw engine. What Absol has going for it is that it is basic and can attack if needed. It is really hard to evolve, so even though it is a fairly sucky card, Absol’s speed can make up for its pitfalls.

The Other Houndoom UD

There was one Houndoom Prime that was released in Undaunted, but there was another Houndoom in that set too. The other Houndoom is not that great of a card, but it does have an attack that could help in this deck. For one Dark Energy, “Fire Counterattack” does 80 damage to a fighting Pokemon. With a Special Darkness Energy and a Dark Claw you can do 110 damage, which is enough to OHKO a Landorus. It doesn’t help in most matchups, but with Tornadus it will all but guarantee you a win against fighting decks. Although it does not help against decks that aren’t fighting, it is still a Dark Pokemon that can help fuel the attack of Zoroark. Even though Houndoom could get pulled up with a Pokemon Catcher at the wrong time, you do not need to pay the retreat cost if he has an energy attached and Darkrai EX is in play. There are bad things about Houndoom, but there are also some good things. If you look at all the good things and bad things about the other Houndoom, I would say that he is a very good play if you are expecting a lot of fighting decks.

Weavile UD

Probably the most popular tech in this deck is Weavile UD. He has the “Claw Snag” Poke-Power that allows you to discard a card from your opponent’s hand upon Evolution. This is an amazing Poke-Power, and it is really nice to have this card in your deck. The problem is that this is not a disruption deck, it is one that tries to do a lot of damage. And if there is one thing that Weavile does not have, that is a good attack. In my opinion, playing Weavile UD is like putting snow tires on a Lamborghini. Lambos are built for speed, and snow tires are for grip in bad conditions. Although snow tires are great, it makes no sense to put them in a car that should not be driven in snowy areas in the winter. So don’t play Weavile, it doesn’t make much sense. The Power is nice, but you need to attack. Absol is the play if you are going for speed and consistency, and Houndoom is the play if you are expecting fighting decks.

The Dark Bisharp

Like the other Houndoom, the Dark Bisharp was ignored until now, but it has a one energy attack that can do 80 base damage. The catch with Bisharp is that you need at least 2 damage counters on the defending Pokemon to do the 80 damage. If you plan ahead, you can make sure that Darkrai EX hits the right Pokemon on the bench for the 30 damage, and then you can finish that Pokemon off later with Bisharp. It is a decent strategy if things go as planned, but in Pokemon you can never count on things going as planned. If things do go as planned, Bisharp is probably the tech that offers the most upside, and it gives some kind of use for Darkrai’s sniping damage. I have not tested out Bisharp yet, but it does have some good potential.

The List

Here is a list that I used to test with. I will point out that it is not a great list of this deck because it is not yet focused. There needs to be a better focus on what the deck does at what time, and the trainers need to be improved to make sure that happens. But, for the sake of this article I will show you the list that I am using.

Pokemon-18

4-Zorua DE
4-Zoroark DE
2-Tornadus EX
2-Darkrai EX
2-Houndoor UD
2-Houndoom UD (non Prime)

Trainers

3-Dark Claw
4-Dark Patch
4-Junk Arm
3-Pokemon Catcher
1-Super Rod
3-Pokemon Communication
4-Pokemon Collector
4-Professor Oak’s New Theory
4-Professor Juniper
3-Sage’s Training
1-Cheren

Energy-11

5-Basic Dark Energy
3-Special Dark Energy
3-Double Colorless Energy

Concerns and Future of the Deck

There are some big concerns with this deck. It did work better than I thought it did, but my testing did show some holes in the deck. The biggest hole in the deck is consistency. Your first two turns almost never go the same way twice, and if you run into a supporter drought you have no way out. If you want to make this deck really good, it has to be more focused than my build is. You need to have the deck focused on one attacker at one time and have a strict strategy for who you use to attack. Your deck needs to be really focused when it comes to trainers too. You will need to try out different trainers and see what works. Perhaps Engineer’s Adjustments or Ultra Ball would be better in this deck, you will need to try different combinations of trainers and see what works the best.

Even though there are a lot of bad things about the deck, I do think that it has some promise. If you can get the deck focused on one strategy, I do think that it can stand up on its own. If you can focus the deck, it will be the only deck that does not have a glaring weakness. With Tornadus and Houndoom in this deck, it will have no major weakness. This could be a good deck for Spring Battle Roads and Nationals.

Matchups

I did talk a little bit about matchups in my last paragraph, but here is a little more in depth talk. In this section I will assume that we are talking about my list with the other Houndoom and Tornadus EX, and I will assume that the list is more polished than the one that I gave you. So these matchups may be a little bit of wishful thinking, but it’s not too far off.

Zekrom

I would say that this matchup is around even or slightly favoring Zekrom. Zekrom is also a deck that has a lot of variants, so that makes it hard to get a good picture of a matchup. But, I think it should be a fairly even game. Both decks should be about as fast as the other one, so there is no big difference there. Zekrom can do a little more damage, but if Darkrai EX is used right, his high HP can even up the score. Watch out for Zekrom, he can do a lot of damage to Zoroark. In this matchup it might be nice to run Zoroark BW, but I don’t recommend running it unless you plan on running into Zekroms a lot. Zekrom should have a very slight advantage here, but if you have a really focused deck you should be able to get some good wins against this deck.

CMT

CMT is a very dangerous deck, it can flat out outspeed the Dark deck. If CMT gets setup early, watchout because it can control the board with Pokemon Catcher. But if it does not take control early, it will have to deal with the resistance of Darkness Pokemon. The resistance on all of those Dark Pokemon do make a big difference in this matchup, just that 20 damage can make a huge difference. If I would have to give someone an advantage, I would have to take the easy way out and call it even. CMT can take an early advantage, but the Dark Deck can win a long game. The game will come down to how fast you are able to rotate in attackers. Mewtwo EX will get a lot of knock outs, so you are going to have to keep bringing in attackers that can do damage. You don’t have anything that can OHKO Mewtwo EX, but if you keep on chipping away at the HP you should be able to get the job done.

Fighting Decks (Decks with some combination of Landorus, the Terrakions, and Groudon EX)

If you tech against Fighting Decks like I did, you should actually have a good chance against them. You should start out by using Tornadus to take a lot of hits and dish out some decent damage. Then you can get the last couple knockouts with Houndoom. If needed you can then bring in Darkrai to be your closer. This matchup is not as easy as I may make it sound, but you should have a slight advantage in this game. Although it may not seem that great to tech your deck so much and only get a slight advantage, you are still taking an autoloss and turning it into an advantage, and that is a great thing to do. I do need to test this match-up a little more and polish my list, but if I can do that, this match-up shouldn’t be that bad.

Durant

Durant may be losing a little bit of steam right now, but I don’t think it’s going to be going away anytime soon. I know that some people think that Durant will be an amazing match-up for this Dark Deck, but I just don’t see it. Darkrai and Tornandus just need too many energies to be effective. So now we look at Zoroark. Zoroark can do a lot with only one DCE, so he should be a good attacker to focus on. Durant will try to take out your energies, but you will need to use Dark Patch to try to balance that out. I would think that this match-up should be fairly even. You will have a little trouble getting energies on the right Pokemon at the right time, and that will give Durant the opening that it needs. Zoroark will need to lead the pack if you want to win this match-up, and hopefully you can keep energies on him.

Conclusion

I do like the Dark Deck now that I was able to test it a little bit, but the jury is still out on it. There are still questions like focus and consistency that it will have to answer, but it just could be a tier 1 or 2 deck. You just need to polish the list and make it more focused, than maybe you can answer the many questions of the Dark Deck.

Well Pedro, we are all done. Why don’t you end this with a news story?

Alright, I’m ready. In my, I mean our, last article I talked about the tanning mom who is accused of putting her child in a tanning machine. Now we have another award winning mom. There is a mom in New Jersey who was recently arrested for Prostitution. The kicker is that she is a stripper and hooker by night, but a hot dog salesman by day.

So you can visit her and she will handle your wiener, and then you can come back for a hot dog.

Good one. I do not really like this woman, but I do like the principle of combining food and sex.

Kind of like George Costanza in that Seinfeld episode where he ate food in bed. I always thought I was the George of our group.

Okay, you are George and I can be Kramer. Who’s Jerry?

I guess we gotta give that to Ed, he is the creator of the site.

Then can we get an Elaine?

Of course not, this is a Pokemon site, there are no girls here.

Than why are we still here?

Good point, I think it is time to get to where the girls are. Good night everybody.

Stupid Deck Idea

Pikkdogs Stupid Deck Idea: Aerpoleon (Empoleon DE + Aerodactyl)

Pikkdogs May 11, 2012 6 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with a stupid deck idea for you. A stupid deck idea is like a regular deck analysis, but for some reason we do not have a lot of confidence in the deck. It could be more of a fun deck, or it could be a good deck that we just didn’t test out enough. A comment on one of my recent articles inspired me to check this deck out. It is kind of a swarm deck that features Empoleon as the main attacker and Aerodactyl in a Plus Power like role. We will get to that later, but now we must say “hi” to Pedro. Hey Pedro.

Hey Pikkdogs.

Would you care to start us off with a news story?

Sure. Journalist Dylan Byers at “The Poltico” blog is reporting that the POTUS, President Barrack Obama, has told us a lie. He did some researching and found out that in his 1995 Autobiography, Obama fabricated a story about a girl friend, when in truth no such girl friend exists.

He lied about having a girl friend? And that’s a scandal? I made up about 75 girl friends, I hope I don’t come under fire for this.

Maybe there should be more of an investigation going on in this matter. I don’t think you should be able to lie to the world of Pokemon players. You always talk about your collection of “Pokemon Groupies”. Describe one of them.

Hmmmmmmmmm…………well…………..of course I can name you one of my Pokemon Groupies, I have a bunch of them whom I have a lot of casual sex with.

Then, what is the name of one of them?

Okay, one of them is Annie, a reporter from Baltimore. She recently got engaged to her fiance, Walter.

You just described Meg Ryan’s character in the movie “Sleepless in Seattle.”

Oh, I sometimes get them confused. Okay, give me another chance. Another one of my groupies is Janet. She is originally from Indiana and now lives in California with her two roommates. She’s great, she has short brown hair and works in a flowershop.

You just described Joyce Dewitt’s character in Three’s Company. I’m beginning to think that you don’t have any groupies.

Well, if the President doesn’t have to stop making up girlfriends, then neither shall I.

Seems fair, start the article.

The Purpose of Aeropoleon

The goal of this deck is to build of a steady stream of Empoleons while having Aerodactyls on the bench. Empoleon has a Jumpluff like attack that does 10 damage for every Pokemon in play for one energy. It also has a built in draw engine that lets you draw two cards if you discard one. Aerodactyl has the Ability that lets you deal an extra 10 damage for every Aerodactyl in play. It is basically a free Plus Power on every attack. The decks goal is simple, just keep on doing damage with Empoleon while Aerodactyl bumps up the amount of damage dealt.

This deck is kind of weird because it includes a Fossil Pokemon ( or a Restored Pokemon if you want to be politically correct, which I don’t). There are two ways to get a fossil Pokemon out. One of those is to play its corresponding card (in this case Old Amber) and hope it is one of the 7 last cards in your deck. The other way is to play the Twist Mountain stadium card and hope you get heads on the coin flip to search out a fossil Pokemon and put it onto your bench. These two ways are not great and they are far from efficient ways of getting these cards out, but they are not too unreasonable.

To help consistency in this deck I added Smeargle CL. Smeargle lets you use a supporter card that is in your opponent’s hand if Smeargle is active. There are drawbacks to this of course, you never know when you will hit a supporter or which one it will be, and it is hard to get Smeargle back to the bench because of his retreat cost. There are a lot of drawbacks here, but I don’t think this deck would work very well if it didn’t have something like Smeargle in it.

Setup

On the first turn you will want to get Smeargle active. This will help you get 4 Piplups on the bench. You need to set yourself up for at least 1 Empoleon on turn 2, so your first turn is very important. On your second turn you need to use Rare Candy to get an Empoleon, hopefully you will also be setting up a backup Empoleon. Don’t forget that Empoleon has that built in draw engine, so you should be able to find almost any card you want. Once you get an Empoleon out, you can start thinking about the fossils. The easiest way is to get a Twist Mountain out and start flipping coins. It can get frustrating if Aerodactyls always get stuck in your hand, but try to use Pokemon Communication to put them back in there. Hopefully you will also be finding the fossil cards and hitting heads on the Twist Mountain flips. Once you get a bunch of Aerodactyls out you should be able to do a lot of damage.

The List

Below is the list of the deck that I tested. I will tell you guys that I don’t like this deck how it is, and I would not run it like this. I would probably take out Aerodactyl and try to find another partner for Empoleon. If I wanted to fix this deck, I would probably take out the Old Ambers and see if that would give me a little more speed.

Pokemon-16

4-Piplup
2- Prinplup
4-Empoleon
2-Smeargle
4-Aerodactyl

Trainers-37

Sage’s Training-3
Oak’s New Theory-3
Juniper-4
Pokemon Collector-4
Pokemon Catcher-3
Junk Arm-4
Dual Ball-1
Pokemon Communication-3
3-Rare Candy
2-Switch
1-Super Rod
3-Twist Mountain
3-Old Amber

Energy-7

7-Water

Testing Reaction

I didn’t get to do a lot of testing with this deck, but I did do enough testing to form an opinion about it. After testing, I just don’t like the deck. I don’t mean to doom Empoleon, he could still work, but I think he needs a secondary attacker with him in the same deck. Right now, all your opponent has to do is kill 3 Empoleons and 1 Piplup and the game is over. The deck also needs something to cover the lightning weakness, it doesn’t really have a chance on its own against Zekrom. So, we need a fighting type Pokemon to attack.

I also am not sold with Aerodactyl in this deck. Right now you need at least 7 cards in this deck for Aerodactyl , more if you use Old Amber, that just takes up way too much space and hurts consistency. Especially since the fossil PokÃ©mon are never consistent even with those 10 cards.

There is a possibility that this deck could work with Terrakion NV, This will cover the lightning weakness, and will give you another attacker to use when an Empoleon goes down. You do lose the extra damage that Aerodactyl brings, but you also gain the one million card slots that you need to give up in order to play a fossil PokÃ©mon. This idea seems like it could possibly work more than the original idea.

I will give you a little thoughts about things that were good with this deck when I tested it. One of the good things about this deck is the draw engine that Empoelon gives us. It almost always gives you enough cards to find what you are looking for, and that is a huge advantage. Another good thing is Smeargle, it usually gives you the extra supporter you need to either setup or recover from a knockout. The bad things are mostly about Aerodactyl. Aerodactyl always gets stuck in your hand, and there’s nothing good about having a fossil Pokemon in your hand. Plus, it always sucks when you flip tails or find no fossil Pokemon in the bottom 7 cards of your deck. So, having fossil Pokemon really hurts consistency. And what’s worse is that he always gets stuck active and you can’t really do anything when that happens. There is one more bad thing about this deck, and that is the slow setup of Empoleon. If you don’t get a good setup and the right cards on turn 2, you are kinda screwed. You need a lot to get this deck right.

Conclusion

So what is the future of this deck? I think that if you rework the deck, it could possibly work. I do not like fossils in this deck, so you need something else. I don’t wanna say that Empoleon will never work, but I think that you need a couple things in this format to change in order for the deck to be tier 1 or 2.

Hey Pedro, its time to end the article.

Alright. One of the biggest stories in the news is this mother of a 5 year-old girl who is accused of putting her in a tanning bed. Have you seen this lady Pikkdogs? The people at TMZ said that she looks like Admiral Akbar.

Oh yeah. Well, then It is easy to see why she is saying that all of the attention she is getting is a “trap”.

Do you think she looks like Admiral Akbar?

A little bit. Though I do think that she looks more like Cuba Gooding Jr, or maybe Isiah Washington.

One thing I think we can all agree on is that she is just one hamburger shy of going David Hasselhoff crazy.

Yes, but the bad thing is that we are all done and we have nothing more to talk about.

Well we could talk a little more, did you see the new Avengers movie? That was pretty cool.

Yeah, but I am just mad that they cut Ant Man out of the Avengers. Ant Man is so much cooler than Thor.

Ant Man is only good at a picnic. Thor is much better, there is even a whole day named after him, Thursday.

I guess you got a good point there. There is no Ant Man day, at least not yet. But, Ant Man is really cool and versatile. He can shrink down to microscopic size, or he can grow to be as tall as a giant like Khloe Kardashian.

Maybe they can fit the good Dr. Pym into the next movie.

One can only hope. Good night everybody.

Pikkdogs

Battle Roads Wrap-Up

Double Mini Article: Traveling with Friends and U.S. Nationals Tips

Pikkdogs Okemos Battle Roads Report and Quad Entei List

Pikkdogs Pikks Three: Professor Cup Special: Seismitoad, Zebstrika ND, and Archaeops

Should There Be a Rotation?

Toledo, Oh Battle Roads Report and Kyurem EX Tank List

Pikkdogs’ Favorite Things

The Path to Nationals Begins: Battle Roads Preview

Pikkdogs Reviews the Dark Deck

Pikkdogs Stupid Deck Idea: Aerpoleon (Empoleon DE + Aerodactyl)

You Missed

New Handheld Retro Video Game System For You Pokemon Fans

iOS/Android Collectible Card Game, Trouble With Robots

New Card Game – Trouble With Robots – iOS/Android

OHKO Budget Challenge: Round Two (Fight!)