Pikkdogs

Deck Analysis: Troll

Pikkdogs April 5, 2012 10 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with a deck analysis. Today I will be talking about a deck that is called Troll. Though the deck is really just an Anti-Format Toolbox deck that uses Tornadus, Terrakion, and Mewtwo EX. Before we get into it more about the deck, we must say hello to my extra-dimensionary sidekick Pedro. Hey Pedro, how are things going today?

Hola, estoy bien.

Any reason why you are speaking in Spanish today?

Not really. Me Gusta Espanol.

Well, that’s fine, but will you start this article off with a news story for us, in English.

Si. Today is the anniversary of the arrest of Irish Play-write and author Oscar Wilde in 1895. He was arrested for preforming Homosexual acts, and was sentenced to two years of hard labor. Do you like the Oscar Wilde Pikkdogs?

Love the Oscar Wilde. My favorite play is the Importance of Being Earnest. Love that thing. Also thought that “The Picture of Dorian Gray” was a genius idea for a story.

It would be nice if we could still arrest people for being gay, just for one day, so we could finally get rid of Barney Frank for a while.

Also wouldn’t mind getting rid of “How I Met your Mother” for a couple years. Seriously, how long can 4 people sit in a booth. There on like 7 years of just sitting in a booth.

At least it doesn’t have Rob Schneider or Whitney Cummings in it. Seriously, do they choose who gets a sitcom based on how annoying people are?

I think so. Well, enough about sitcoms, let’s go to the article.

Deck Descriptions

Troll is kind of a mix between Six Corners and Stage 1 Rush. It does have the tool boxy feel of Six Corners, but it is much more controlled feeling like Stage 1 Rush. It uses basic Pokemon like Six Corners does, and it uses some of the same exact Pokemon. The main Pokemon are Terrakion NV, Tornadus EP, and Mewtwo EX. Terrakion is here to return knockouts Boufallant style, and to counter all of the fighting weak Lighting Pokemon that are being played right now. Just be careful to use him carefully. If Terrakion gets pulled active with no energy, that could set you back a couple turns. Tornadus is probably the main attacker here. Although he is lightning weak, he can attack quickly and do a decent amount of damage. He is really good against other Terrakion players. Mewtwo EX is here to counter any other Mewtwo EX that your opponent will be playing. It is important to use your Mewtwo wisely, since another deck will probably use Mewtwo better (with energy acceleration) he can be a free two prizes for your opponent. Make sure that if you get into a Mewtwo war, you are not the one who starts it. If you play Mewtwo down, you are going to want to lay it down and attack with it on the same turn. Otherwise, it is just 2 free prizes for your opponent, and that will likely end any hopes you have of winning that game.

Most Troll decks also include Shaymin and Tyrogue. Shaymin is used mid-game as an energy mover. “Celebration Wind” lets you move energy around as you see fit, that means you can quickly recover after someone has just Catchered your Terrakion active. You can also use it to move an energy back after a “Hurricane.” It is a cool versatile card, just don’t star with it. Tyrogue, on the other hand, you do want to start with. He can attack for 30 without an energy. This means that if your a bunch of Plus Powers and Junk Arms, you can get about 60 damage from Tyrogue on the first turn if things go your way. This would take out all of the Tyanmos that your opponent runs, and if you get lucky, possibly even some Durants and Celebi Primes. Though, it is not the most useful card once things get evolved on your opponent’s side.

How To Setup

The first thing you want to do with this deck is look for a donk. If they start with Tyrogue, Tynamo, or Cleffa; than you gotta go and get your Tyrogue and see if you can get him active. If you need more damage ouput, hopefully you can get a Juniper so you can have access to Plus Powers and Junk Arms. Remember, you can Junk Arm a Plus Power that you just used. Hopefully you will be able to get the donk and the easy win, but if not, than you are going to want to get out the appropriate counter. If you are playing a Zekrom deck, than go get some Terrakions. If they got anything else, than you should probably get some Tornadi going, and then you can whip out Mewtwo EX or Terrakion later. The setup with this deck is not that complicated, or super important as it is to other decks. Your main goal here is to first look for the donk, and your second look goes to countering whatever they have going. Fairly simple, the only thing that will screw you up is a bad start. If you start Terrakion and they ain’t using Electric Pokemon, you might want to look for your Super Scoop Up.

The List

I will give you a list that is similar to the one that I have been testing with. It is not a great list and does need a lot of improvement. So don’t complain that this list isn’t great, I already know that. I just included it so people have an idea of what a Troll deck is. Hopefully someone can take this list and polish it all up for Regionals. Note, this list does not have Tyrogue, but you should probably have him in this list.

Pokemon-11

4-Tornadus
3-Terrakion NV
1-Landorus-his resistance comes in handy
2-Mewtwo EX
1-Shaymin Ul

Trainers-36

3-Dual Ball
2-Pokemon Collector
4-Professor Juniper
3-PONT
3-Sage’s Training
2-N
4-Junk Arm
4-Pokemon Catcher
1-Super Rod
2-Super Scoop Up
4-EXP. Share
1-Eviolite
3-Plus Power

Energy-13

Double Colorless Energy-4
Fighting Energy-9

The Matchups

We know that a deck is as only as good as the matchups it has, so let’s take a closer look at them. Since Troll is kind of a tool box deck, it is made to have good matchups against the most played decks. But, that means if it meets a good deck that is not Meta, it could falter. So just because it has good match-ups doesn’t mean that it is a sound deck. But, we will look at them anyway.

CMT–Even-Like anything with CMT, it all depeneds on the first couple turns. If CMT has a Celebi Prime start, it could easily get donked by Troll. On the other hand, if Troll gets a Shaymin or Tyrogue start, it could easily go down to CMT. If CMT gets a great start, it may not matter what Troll does. CMT is that good of a deck that it can control a match-up from the start. The one thing that Troll has going for it is that it can be the second man into the Mewtwo war, and that is always a big advantage. If the CMT player has to start Mewtwo EX and gets a couple of energies on it, the Troll player can get a leg up on them by dropping their own Mewtwo with a DCE and get the two prize advantage early. It all depends on how things go early.
Zekrom–Favorable- Hopefully, you should be able to play this like a 4 Terrakion deck would. Just rely on Terrakion and Landorus with EXP. Share. Don’t crowd the playing field too much, just keep a steady stream of Terrakions coming. If you can do that, you will win. If the Zekrom player can use Pokemon Catcher to slow you down and then attack in the right circumstance, it could be a fairly even game.
Durant– Unfavorable- You do have a lot of attackers that can OHKO a Durant, but don’t sleep on the Durant deck here. He will use Lost Remover and Crushing Hammer to his advantage as you will have a hard time getting three energies on your Pokemon. The game will come down to Crushing Hammer flips, my money is on heads.
4 Terrrakion– Favorable-This is a match-up of similar decks, but you have more variety, and that should give you the win. Hopefully, attacking with Tornadus and a couple Terrrakions here and there will give you an eventual advantage. It may not be easy, and you may lose a lot of energy, but hopefully you should beat out the Terrakion player in the end.
Reshiphlosion–Even?- I admit that I didn’t get to test this match-up, but I want to try it because I find it interesting. You do not do enough damage to make Reshiram BW concerned, and you can’t hit him for weakness. You chance of winning will be using Pokemon Catchers and getting something that doesn’t have the “Outrage” attack active. Hopefully you can eventually knockout the Typhlosion Primes and whatever else they have in their deck. When you do have to attack a Reshiram, make sure that you have the Exp.Shares going so that you can return every K.O.

Conclusion

So, that is what I have to say about the deck and about its match-ups. It is a pretty good deck that takes advantage of basic Pokemon and the trainers we have avaliable to us. I love Super Scoop Up in this format, it is just an evil card. Exp. Share turns out to be a great card in this deck, and is always ready to help Terrakion return a KO. This deck does not do a whole heck of a lot of damage, but it does counter the format pretty well. Any of you guys who liked playing Six Corners will probably feel right at home with this deck.

Okay, Pedro I am all done. I think its time for you to put an end to this mediocre article.

Alright, I will do my best to salavage this thing. Just try to have better jokes prepared than you did with Oscar Wilde.

Okay.

Today’s news comes from www.foxnews.com. They are reporting that there is a new Facebook application is in development that will tell you how likely you are to get a Sexually Transmitted Disease. Apparently, each of your friends will be able to input if they have a disease, and what people they are having coitis with. This will tell you the likelyhood of catching a disease by just looking at who you are interacting with. Do you want Facebook to know that you have herpes Pikkdogs?

I don’t have herpes.

Don’t you?

Well, I do, but its just cold sores and stuff. I don’t get em down there. I was born with them.

That’s what they all say.

I do kind of like the idea for this app. They could call it……Chlamydia with Friends

Or maybe………….Angry Crabs.

What about……….. Plants v.s. Genital Warts.

Good one, but maybe Facebook and STDs shouldn’t mix.

Yeah, just keep them to yourself and don’t tell anyone, that seems to work.

That’s my plan. Good night everybody!

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A Look at the Metagame: Pikkdogs does a State’s Review and your 1st Spring Regionals Preview

Pikkdogs April 2, 2012 4 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with a wrap-up of States, and a quick look ahead to Spring Regionals. Before we get going, why don’t we have my extra-dimensionary sidekick come and start this article off with a news story. What do you got for us today Pedro?

Well, today we will start off by some news in the world of business. It seems that to nobodys surprise, Apple is in trouble for over-working their employees. It seems that Apple has been forcing their workers to work over 60 hours a week and for a week without a day off. In their defense, Apple says that they are not overworking their laborers for an unfair wage, they said that Chinese workers are greedy and they want to work more hours so they can make more money and put the money into their savings account. Do you believe that Pikkdogs?

Sure I do. I also believe that the victims in the Spanish Inquisition wanted to be tortured until they died because they thought God would like it. I also believe that the Native Americans in the early 19th Century weren’t forced from their homes, they just wanted to see what the west looked like. That is kind of like the African slaves, they weren’t abused for the benefit of wealthy plantation owners, they were just people who liked to work but thought that money would make them evil.

Of course they did. This may be a controversial stance for you Pikkdogs, you know that we get a lot of attractive nerds on this site, and we all know that nerds love their Iphones.

True. But this is the same company that when faced with high suicide rates from their employees jumping off their buildings rather than working for meager wages, decided to put a net around their buildings to catch the divers, instead of increase wages.

Are you a commy Pikkdogs?

Only on the weekends when I like to play the game “the Commie and the Americans”. It is kind of like “Cowboys and Indians”, except that you play it with no pants on.

Sounds………ah……….. fun. Let’s just go onto the article.

States by the Numbers

According to Pokegym.net, here is the decks that won States/Province/Territory Championships. This list does include the foreign States results as well, so it may not be a perfect look at the States Metagame.

Wins:

Zekrom: 24
CMT:20
Durant: 4
Terrakion: 4
Donphan Mewtwo: 2
Reshiphlosion: 2
Troll: 1

As we can see, the States metagame was split between Zekrom and CMT. Those two decks were the ones that had the most success. I did predict that CMT would have more wins, but they were split fairly evenly. So we can safely say that Zekrom and CMT are the decks to look out for, they make out the tier 1 of the format. On Tier 2 is basically everything else listed in the list. Durant should have a “*” by it, because it probably got more play than everything else in tier 2. Looking forward to Regionals, you need to be aware of Durant as much as you do Zekrom and CMT.

Analysis of What Won

What surprises me most about this list is the dissapearance of Magnezone. I know there are a lot of Terrakions out there, but I still expected Magnezone to have a better showing than it did. It only won 2 States and it only made top 4 5 times. Although the 2 number is fairly expected, I expected the deck to be played in greater numbers than it was.

Another surprise was the rise of 2 great decks, Terrakion and Troll. We will first talk about Terrakion. Terrakion is a deck that came out of nowhere during the first week of States. It didn’t have a whole lot of time to catch on, but there was considerable play of the deck through the next 2 weekends. The deck relied on a simple combination of Terrakion and………..some more Terrakions. It is a simple deck that just relies on EXP. Share to keep 90 damage going on each turn. It also is great because Zekrom did very well, and Zekrom is very weak to Terrakion. Even a poorly made Terrakion deck should have a decent shot at a good Zekrom deck. I like the deck because it is a very simple deck that uses the wealth of great trainers that this format has to offer. And I think that every deck that follows that principle should do very well. Terrakion relied on trainers like Crushing Hammer and Lost Remover to disrupt your opponent. While other decks could not fit in all these trainers, Terrakion is a simple deck that has the room.

The Troll deck took the format by storm in the last weekend of States. Troll is a very bad name for a deck that features Terrakion, Tornadus, and Mewtwo EX. I hope that I will soon have a deck review on this deck. I don’t know too much about this deck right now, but it uses EXP share just like Terrakion. It is a deck that features basic Pokemon that can counter the format fairly well. If you play against Zerkom you can use Terrakion. If you play against Terrakion you can use Tornadus. The deck also features Mewtwo EX to go against CMT decks. The Troll deck took its cue from Terrakion and got some good trainers in its deck, it uses cards like Rocky Helmet and Super Scoop Up.

What to Expect for Regionals

The cards that we will have to use at Spring Regionals are exactly the same cards that were open to use for States. So we should see the same basic patterns appearing at Regionals. My prediction is that States have set the format, Regionals is the time for rogues to come in and try to break it open. We have already seen some great rogue ideas being used, we just need some time to prefect them. But, don’t wait for too long because Regionals are just around the corner.

We can expect that Zekrom and CMT will be the most successful decks at Regionals. I also would think that Durant will see as much play as the other two decks, if not more. But, the decks you will have to watch out for are the rogue decks. Since a rogue deck can be anything, it is best to plan by expecting everything. Make sure you take a look at a lot of the cards in the format, and try to think of the strategy that you would use if you saw those cards. For example, how would your troll deck handle Steelix Prime? Or Scizor Prime? Or a Weavile based deck? Or, how would it handle new Pokemon like DarMAXitan and Cofagrius?

I think that since the format is faiirly predictable, we should see a lot of rogue decks doing well. Now, I don’t mean to say that Rogue decks will win most of the Regionals, I just think that they could do fairly well. CMT and Zekrom still will have the advantage when it comes to wins, but a lot of people will have their day ruined by rogue decks.

Sadly, I am too poor to be able to make it to a Spring Regionals (my area had the Fall Regionals). But, if I were to play in one of these to win, I would first look to see if I could master the CMT deck. This deck seems like hands-down the BDIF. It is fast enough to outspeed almost everything else in the format, and it can hit for a ton of damage by using your own energies against you. It is a game changing deck like Luxchomp was before it. But, if I could not master CMT, I would look for the deck that I am most comfortable with. Unless you have been working on a rogue for a while now, it is getting too late to start testing right now. If you have a great rogue idea right now, you should have just enough time to get some testing in. But, if you can’t start right now, just stick to a deck that you are familiar with. There are a lot of decks in the format right now that are easy to play. Playing a Troll deck or a Terrakion deck is not that hard. You should be able to master those decks in the next couple weeks. You just need to throw in a couple of techs to adjust to the metagame that you are playing in, and you should be ready. If you can find a deck that fits you like a glove, you should have a good shot at doing well at Regionals. Of course there are never any promises, but sticking with a deck you are familiar with is usually a great way to do well in a tournament like this.

Remember, Regionals is like States, it will be a large tournament. There are too many rounds for you to be able to rely on luck for you to win. So, don’t be taking out flippy decks and hope you get lucky, save those for the Spring Battle Roads. Regionals is a big tournament that will make you work the entire day. If you do not have a heavily tested well balanced deck, you will eventually be exposed by the great players in the area. So make sure to bring a consistent deck that is ready for a long day, it is not the time to rely on luck.

Well, Pedro that is all I have for the readers today. Do you have a news article to end this thing?

Sure. ESPN.COM is reporting that University of Florida Guard Erving Walker was arrested and jailed on one count of Petty Theft for stealing a taco. It seems that Walker was enjoying some street food, and decided to walk away without paying for a three dollar taco.

Since Walker stole the taco from a Latino area, the Hispanic heavy jury is likely to give him the death penalty.

That’s right.

If I learned one thing from working at a Mexican bar, its don’t touch a Latino’s beer or their food. I also learned to always check pretty girls for Adam’s Apples, but that’s another story.

Can we hear that one?

No, we must go. Goodnight everybody!

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Ask Pikkdogs: How to Build a Deck

Pikkdogs April 1, 2012 5 Comments

Hey everybody, this is Pikkdogs here with a segment of “Ask Pikkdogs”. Why don’t you set the article up for us Pedro?

Okay. If you guys remember about a month ago Pikkdogs asked for questions from you readers. Well, now that States are over, Pikkdogs will respond to the most asked question. Are you ready Pikkdogs?

Just got to get my pants on…………….okay, ready.

How professional. The most asked question was, “Dear Pikkdogs, what is the best way to build a deck?”

Thanks Pedro, I will handle it from here.

How To Build A Deck Read More

Pikks Three

Pikkdogs Pikks Three Durant Counters: Victini #15, Volcarona NV, and Zebstrika

Pikkdogs March 30, 2012 2 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with another Pikk Three article for you. This will be a special Pikk Three, where I will review cards that are considered Durant counters.

For those of you that know Ed personally, I have just received some great news. Ed and his wife welcomed their fourth daughter Friday morning. Baby Primrose is 9 pounds and 21 inches. Both her and Ed’s wife are doing well. So, big congrats to my buddy Ed and his wife, very happy for you guys. On behalf of myself and the OnehitKo community, Congrats Ed we wish ya guys the best.

So now onto another baby, Pedro. Let us see what Pedro has for us today. Can you give us a news article to start things off Pedro?

Well sure Pikkdogs. Foxnews.com is reporting that a Turkish shampoo company is being asked to pull its newest commercial from the airwaves. It seems like the commercial features Adolph Hitler speaking to men and telling them to buy this new Shampoo. Jewish activists are appalled that a company would use someone who is associated with hate and genocide as a spokesperson. Would you buy shampoo from HItler Pikkdogs?

Shampoo, no. Mustache cleaner, probably. The question is, is it too soon? I grew up watching “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” and that had Napoleon eating ice cream and Ghengis Khan playing hockey. Napoleon and Ghengis Khan both killed thousands, maybe even millions, of people. Ghengis Khan once conquered a territory, and poured melted silver into the eyes and ears of the former leader of that kingdom. These were not good people, yet I grew up with them being a “ziggy piggy” and playing hockey in the mall, and nobody seemed to think that that was wrong. If people in the media can do that, I don’t think it’s fair to single out that one shampoo company for a Hitler advertisement.

Do you think Hitler could “eat the pig” like Napoelon did?

The bigger question is will anyone get all these “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” references?

I doubt it. You are better off just going to your article.

Than let’s do it. Cue the first review!

Card #1-Victini #15

Description– Victini is a basic 70 HP Fire Pokemon. He has a water weakness and a 1 retreat cost. It has one attack, and it is called “V-Create”. This attack does 100 damage for RC, but if you do not have 5 Pokemon on your bench the attack does not do any damage.

Analysis– To start off our look into Durant counters we have Victini. This is known as, “the other Fire Victini.” There were so many Victinis released in Noble Victories that this one got lost in all the hoopla. It was probably the one that got the least amount of hype. But not from me, when it was released in Japan’s Red Collection I immediately saw how good of a card it was. It seemed to me like a basic Cincinno BW, but that needed 2 energy cards to attack. 100 damage for 2 energy is always going to be good, I know that this card is the best out there, but it seems to be better than the amount of hype it got.

After its release, I cannot recall it getting that much play. At first I thought it would help revitalize the ailing Stage 1 Rush deck, but I can’t recall anyone giving it the time of day. I did use it in my Mew Prime/Unfezant/Vanilluxe deck as a Durant counter during Cities this season, but that’s the only play that I know that it had.

And that brings us to what we are here to talk about, Durant counters. I think that Victini is my favorite Durant counter. He is the only one on this list that is a basic Pokemon, so that is really great in a format where every card slot is crucial. He does take one fire energy, but a lot of people are using Rainbow and Prism energy in their decks, and these energies work with his attack. His attack is good because it does 200 damage to a Durant. There may be some way to stop something that does 100 damage to a Durant, but you would have to run a lot of Defenders and Special Metals in order to survive 200 damage. Because Victini is so versatile and powerful, I think he is the best Durant counter out there for an average deck.

There are some bad things about Victini. 70 HP is not good, and it can easily be KO’ed by your opponent’s Cobalion. He also takes 2 energies to attack, this is not good in a format where Durant can run 8 energy removers. It can be very hard to keep only 1 energy on the field at once, let-alone two. He also needs a full bench to be able to attack. This is not a huge problem because most decks run a lot of basic Pokemon and have a lot of Dual Balls and Pokemon Collectors. But, I could see a situation where this could be a problem.

Final Rating–7.5/10- Gotta love this Victini. He is the most splashable Durant counter. Whenever he sees a Durant, he cannot help but destroy it. Sure they can try to take his energy away, but they will do that to every Pokemon they face. It will always be a game of, “can I flip heads on Crushing Hammer.” For all that it is I would say that Victini is a great Durant counter, and almost every deck needs a good Durant counter.

Card #2-Volcarona

Description– This is a Durant counter that I saw this past weekend at States. I hadn’t considered it too much before, but it is not a terrible card.

Volcarona is a 110 HP Stage 1 Fire Pokemon with a 1 retreat cost and a fire weakness. It has two attacks. The first attack, called “Fiery Dance”, does 30 damage for R and lets you attach one basic energy card from the discard pile to one of your Pokemon. The second attack, called “Heat Wave” does 60 damage for RCC, and it also allows you to burn the defending Pokemon.

Analysis– Let’s start with the basics. 110 HP isn’t terrible for a stage 1, though its always nice to have more. The 1 retreat cost is about all you can hope for from a fire Pokemon. And the water weakness is not that horrible in this format, its fairly good.

As mentioned, I have seen this card played at States 2012. I don’t think I heard any hype from this card, and this card was not played during Cities. So any play that this card gets is fairly recent. I haven’t found any decks online that have the card in it, but a few have mentioned it as a secondary attacker in a fire deck like Reshiphlosion. Now, I think some people are using it as a Durant counter in non fire decks, because it works well with DCE.

Although you will need to evolve Volcarona, it is still a good Durant counter because you may only need 1 energy to attack if you run a decent amount of Plus Powers in your deck. Sure its first attack only does 30 damage, but with a Plus Power, that damage goes up to 80 on the fire weak Durant. That will be enough to OHKO one that has a Special Metal on it, but no Eviolite. If they do have Eviolite on it, you may need to use “Heat Wave.” Although this attack does use two energies to attack, a lot of decks use DCE’s in them anyway, so it should be an easy fit in most decks. Since “Heat Wave” also brings the burn into the game, it can also be good against those high HP SP Pokemon that seem to survive forever.

The bad things about Volcarona are obvious. It is a stage 1 and that means that it takes up 2 spots in your deck. It also means that it is twice as likely to be prized, and that it is harder to get out without being knocked out first. There also is no guarantee that the one energy attack will knock out a Durant. Because of Crushing Hammer and Lost Remover, it is very important to knock out Durant with only one energy, which this deck can do, but cards like Defender and Eviolite can stop that. This card is also reliant on Plus Powers and DCE, if your deck does not run a lot of those cards, you can’t run Volcarona.

Final Rating– 5.5/10- Not a huge fan of this card. Though it is useful against the EXs and a decent Durant counter, I think cards like Victini are much better Durant counters.

Card #3 Zebstrika ND

Description– This is the only Durant counter on this list that does not attempt to knock it out right away. This card does not use weakness to knock out Durants, instead, it tries to provide an item lock to slowly choke the life out of the Durant deck.

Kind of like David Carradine?

Well, kind of. But, if I talk any more about that we could get censored again, so we should just leave it like that.

Zebstrika is a 90 HP Stage 1 Lightning Pokemon with a fighitng weakness and a free retreat cost. It has two attacks. The second attack is called “Lightning Crash,” it costs LLC, and it lets you snipe for 80 at the cost of discarding all of the energy attached to him. The first attack is what we are all here for. It is called “Disconnect”, and it does 40 damage for LC. The effect is that it also stops your opponent from playing item cards during his/her next turn.

Analysis– Let us again start with the basics. 90 HP is fairly terrible, though you are not going to put him in a position to be attacked anyway, 90 HP is actually decent enough for what you are using him for. The free retreat cost is always amazing. It is always great to have something that you can use to just retreat for free whenever you need to. The fighting weakness is terrible. Again, you probably are not going to use this guy when a fighting Pokemon is around, but that doesn’t mean that this card has to have terrible stats either.

This card received absolutely no hype when it came out in Next Destinies. Every body was talking about all of the EX Pokemon, and nobody cared to talk about Zebstrika. Despite the lack of hype, it got play right away at the ECC as a Durant counter. I think the deck even made Top Cut, it did turn a lot of heads at the ECC and here in the U,S. It did not receive a ton of play at the States in the U.S., but it did see some play. I even played against someone who used it with Mew Prime.

It can be hard to see why this card is a Durant counter, so I will show you how. “Disconnect” does 40 damage and stops all trainers. This means that your opponent cannot remove energy or replace fallen Durants. The plan is to just keep this 40 damage up until all the Durants are gone. You will be like a Burmese Python slowly constricting your prey until it eventually cannot do anything.

Hey Pikkdogs, if Burma is no longer a country, shouldn’t they call it a Myanmarish Python?

No.

Anyway, on to the bad stuff about Zebstrika. Like Volcarona, it is a stage 2 Pokemon which means you need to devote 2-4 spots in your deck just for him. That is a lot for a Durant counter, so you will be investing a lot to your Durant counter. Yes, you can use it in other match-ups, but it is more useful against Durant. The amount of damage it does also scares me. If it only does 40 damage, that means 30 of that damage can be taken away because of an Eviolite and a Special Metal energy. That means you would only be doing 10 damage, and you cannot take out Durants 10 damage at a time. You will need to do that 40 damage, so if they attach the Special Metals and the Eviolites early, you are in trouble.

Final Rating–6/10– It does work in some Zekrom decks. If you have some space you can throw some Zebstrikas right in there and have a decent Durant counter without having to run any other kinds of energies. It can be fueled up fairly easy with all of the Eelektriks that people are playing now, so getting this thing out isn’t a huge deal. I don’t think this is a great tech against Durant, but if you are playing a lightning deck, this will probably work better than trying to bring in fire energies.

Well, Pedro, that is all I have today. Do you have something for us to close out the article with?

First, we must tell everybody to check out the OneHitKO store. We now offer singles on the same website where you get all of your questionable strategy and deck articles. So, make sure to help out the people who are helping you out by doing your shopping at the OneHitKO Store. We offer fair prices on everything from the Next Destinies set, and we will soon have the best cards from other sets. So, please follow this link and check out the store. If you are a rebel, you can also follow this link to get you to the store, but don’t follow this link, because that’s to a Noozles video.

Love the Noozles.

Anyway, for our real news story to close things out. Surgeons at George Washington University Hospital are reporting that this past weekend’s heart transplant on former Vice President of the United States, Dick Cheney, has been a success. Doctors say that the world will probably have to deal with Cheney for about 10 more years. Do ya like the Dick Cheney Pikkdogs?

Of course not, nobody likes Dick Cheney. I think he even creeps himself out when he thinks of himself. I do kind of have positive thoughts when I think about him, because he seems very close to a real life Penguin from Batman. All he needs is an Umbrella and a couple of henchmen and he could be the perfect Batman villan.

He would have to change his last name to Cobblepot though.

Wouldn’t that be the best name, Dick Cobblepot?

No, sounds too much like a porn name. And if anyone knows anything about us two gentlemen, it is that we don’t like to be involved with porn in anyway.

That’s right. Now I must go to…………….water my plant.

Is that what you call it now?

Just end the article!

Good night everybody!

State Championships

Pikkdogs States Report and Scizor’s LGD (Late Game Durant) Decklist.

Pikkdogs March 25, 2012 7 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with a tournament report. This past Saturday I was lucky enough to get to go to Michigan States at Okemos, Mi (which is just outside of Lansing).

The Deck

Before I talk about the tournament I will give you the deck that I used. As you can see with the title, I ran a really weird deck. I knew that I wasn’t going to win with this deck, but I just wanted to have fun. I planned on doing a lot of testing and bringing a deck that I thought could win, but I came down with a case of Bronchial Pneumonia. This really screwed up my states testing, and I couldn’t come up with a good deck since I was too busy coughing up my lung. So I decided to just make up a quick rogue deck and just try to have fun instead of winning.

I came up with the idea for this deck while I was reading a Six Prizes tournament report by my buddy Airhawk. He had played a guy who had made an Ursraing Prime/Durant deck that tried to win by milling. The problem is that the deck didn’t turn out too well, and it seemed like it was an Ursaring Prime deck that could drop 4 Durants out of nowhere at the end of the game and win the game by milling. This gave me an idea to do the same thing. So I started the deck by using Scizor Prime, he is nice because he scares people by making them not use special energy cards. The plan is to just use Scizor Prime for a long time, and then when they aren’t looking to use Durant for the mill. I also put in Terrakion for the Zekrom match-up, and Victini for the Durant match-up. Here is the list.
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Bold Statements with Pikkdogs Opinion

Bold Statements with Pikkdogs. Volume #2.

Pikkdogs March 23, 2012 4 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with an opinion article for you. I didn’t really have many ideas on what article to write for today, so I decided we should do another opinion article. Before we start the bold statements, let’s introduce my extra dimensionary sidekick, Pedro. How’s Pedro doing?

Doing well.

What news have you today for us?

Well, in entertainment news Michael Bay has announced that he is making a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, but he is making them aliens. Which is weird because they are called “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”, which means they should be mutated adolescent kung-foo users, not aliens. Do you like the TMNT?

Sure, used to watch the cartoon series growing up, and I used to have the good Super Nintendo videogame. I agree with you Pedro, the turtles shouldn’t be aliens. To me, they are an extension of the awesomeness that was New York City in the 1980’s. You had lots of crime and pizza, so to stop the crime and eat the pizza you needed the turtles and a large rat. They also behaved like Teens, which made them part human, and making them aliens would take away from that.

You seem to have a strong feeling about this.

Well, I do. TMNT was also a lot about humanity, it just wasn’t about turtles eating pizza. They had some culture in the program. Even the fact that they are named after renaissance artists speaks to their connection to humanity.

And I thought it was just about eating pizza and chasing after cute tv newswomen.

No, that’s what my life is like.

Ah, I see.

Bold Statement #1- Lv. X’s were a better game mechanic than EXs (ex’s) or Primes.

We have had a lot of Ultra Rare mechanics in the last several years. The first was the ex mechanic, which had a long life. This were just like normal cards, but they had more a few more HPs, and they could attack a little better. The drawback was that if they got knocked out, your opponent took 2 prizes. Than with Diamond and Pearl came the Level X mechanic. Lv. X cards were cards that you put onto your active Pokemon of the same name. You could then use the attacks of both cards. But, you would have to use the HP, weakness, resistance, and retreat cost of the Lv. X. After about a dozen sets with Lv. X’s, we made a change to Pokemon Primes. Pokemon Primes were kind of like the old exs, but they did not need an extra prize on knockout. They also didn’t have Prime in their names, meaning there was no real difference between Primes and other cards of the same name, just the rarity. After only a few Prime sets, we shifted back to exs, but called them “EXs” instead. These EXs had more HP than the former exs did, and hit just a little harder.

After all of those changes, I think that the best ultra rares were the Lv. Xs. I believe this for two major reasons. The first is that leveling up provided the perfect balance of draw backs and advantages. The second reason is that the Level X mechanic kept prices down,

The Level X mechanic was great because it gave us a great system of advantages and disadvantages. The advantages were that we could get Pokemon with more HP, better Poke-Powers, and better attacks. These are similar to what we get with the EXs, exs, and the Primes. But, the drawbacks to Lv. Xs I think are much better than the drawbacks to the others. Instead of having to lose two prizes instead of 1, which never made any sense and made things balanced, it was a little harder to setup a Lv. X. The Pokemon had to be active to get a Lv. X, which made it harder to get out. And the fact that you had to put the Lv. X on a regular Pokemon was another drawback. It not only made you run at least 1 extra card, but it made your setup slower. These drawbacks made the game more balanced, the EXs now don’t have these drawbacks, and the game is a little more unbalanced because of it.

The other thing that was great about the Lv.X mechanic was that it helped keep prices down. Mewtwo EX is about as sought after today, as Flygon Lv. X was three years ago. They both had a similar price ($50-$70), but Flygon Lv. X forced you to build a much cheaper deck than Mewtwo EX does today. This is because you almost always only ran 1 Lv. X in your deck. If it was a stage 2, you would normaly run a 4-2-3-1 line. Even if it was a basic, you still normally ran a 2-1 or 3-1, depending on the Pokemon. Sure, sometimes you did run 2 Lv.X’s, but that is still cheaper than the 3 Mewtwo EXs that are standard in a CMT deck today. In fact, a CMT deck normally consists of 3-4 Celebi Primes and 3 Mewtwo EXs, that is 6 or 7 Ultra Rare cards. If Mewtwo EX’s attacks were on a Lv. X card instead, you would probably run a 2-1, 3-1, or 2-2 line. You would also run the same amount of Celebis, if “Forrest Breath” was on a Lv. X. That means you would be between 2 and 4 Ultra Rares, instead of 6 to 7. That would make the deck much cheaper and make it accessible to more people.

That is why I love the Level X’s, I think they gave us a slower and more balanced format than we have right now. Even though things did get out of hand once they introduced the SP Lv. X’s, I think that I will blame it more on the SP mechanic more than the Lv. X mechanic. The one thing I didn’t like about Lv. Xs were that it was harder to have a bench sitting Lv. X than it is to have a bench sitting Prime or EX. However, this now rarely comes up because the only bench sitting prime or EX that I know of is Slowking Prime, and we all know how good that card is.

Bold Statement #2- The Current Shiny Mechanic is the Best.

There have been a couple different systems of Shiny or Secret Rare Pokemon in the past coule years. I think that our current system, of having reprints is the best. I think they are really cool to play with, and are challenging to collect. Under our old systems of shinies and secret rares, the “cool to play with” factor rarely came up. Now it does, and it gives you a way to show off your collection.

In the Diamond and Pearl era, the secret rares were Shinies of basic Pokemon like Yanma and Duskull. Duskull saw a little play when Dusknoir DP was played, but for the most part, nobody cared about these cards. They were only valued at a couple bucks each.

This trend was continued in the Platinum era, but they did also change the secret rares a little. In the Rising Rivals set they released Rotoms as secret rares. These Pokemon could be used to make their own deck, but the deck was never anything more than expensive. The same was for the Arceus cards that came out in the Arceus set.

I think that now we have the best system of secret rares. The Diamond and Pearl method of giving us secret rares of basics that nobody likes wasn’t that fun. And, although Rotom and Arceus decks were cool, they were never a great deck.

I really like when we can actually use the secret rares in decks we are playing. It also covers the weakness of secret rares, because nobody has to play with Secret Rares because they are all reprints. But, a lot of people do want to use the SRs because they have really cool art. That is what Secret Rares should be. They should be really cool looking. They should be hard to collect. And, they should be playable. The only SR model that has been used in the past couple years that covers all of those three areas is the current one.

Bold Statement #3- Spring Regionals will be all about the Rogues.

We will be playing in a similar format for Spring Regionals that we did for States. Coming into States we didn’t really know what was going to be played. Just a couple weeks before it started, people were still creating decks like CMT and Zekrom. Now that we have a solid format that people can plan for, Regionals should be all about rogue decks.

It was very hard making rogue decks for States because rogue decks usually are made to go against meta decks, and since meta decks were so new, it was hard to counter them. Now that we have had a whole states season to find out what the meta is, we now have about a month to counter these decks. In fact, it is already happening. People are starting to work with cards like Cofagrius, Chandelure ND, and Vanilluxe ND to make rogue decks.

I predict that Spring Regionals will be all about the rogue decks. Now I won’t turn my back on CMT, I know that it is the BDIF and it will win most regionals. I also know that Zekrom and Durant are also good and will see a ton of play. But, all the story lines will be about the rogues. Compared to the beginning of the season, our format has a ton of cards. That means a lot of new combinations that people haven’t tried before. We should be seeing a lot of different combos that go outside of our normal box of thinking. If you think of it, we are really only talking about 3-5 decks doing well right now, come Regionals we should see the format getting broken open. Just like the Truth opened up the format during Worlds, we should see rogue decks taking over soon during Spring Regionals.

Bold Statement #4- Comic/Card Shops are the Worst Place for a Pokemon Tournament.

I can’t say that I have been at Pokemon Tournaments all the world, but I have been at tournaments all around the Great Lakes Region, and I think that my experience shows that card shops are generally the worst place for tournaments.

I first started out playing Pokemon in Minnesota. Almost all tournaments in the Minneapolis region are at card shops. Generally, I found that card shops in that area were very nice and fairly spacious. Of course, you also get the advantage of having a store that sells things like dice, sleeves, and snacks. But, upon starting to play in Michigan and Ohio, I realized that card shops in that area are terrible for tournaments.

While Minnesota card shops were big enough for tournaments, shops in Ohio were very small, and that seems to be the trend. Even though you do get the convenience of a store by a tournament, card shops are for the most part much to small to handle a Pokemon tournament with the current player base. There is just no where to move, and getting to your table is very hard to do. The whole tournament becomes one hot and sweaty encumbrance, and the game is no longer fun.

Most Michigan tournaments are held in places like Hotel conference rooms. These rooms are usually much bigger than card shops, and are designed to handle hundreds of people. We almost never have to turn people away, and there is plenty of room to spread out and relax. The inconvenience of not having a store on site, is more than made up for by all the space and comfy furniture. This is more important today because tournaments are getting bigger and longer.

I think that this is a very important topic for the game today. I do not think that the game can grow if tournaments are being held in shabby places that are not attractive to new players. Tournaments should be fun places to be where you can talk with friends, not a place where you can recreate what happens in a sardine can. It is important that the game be allowed enough space to grow, and card shops do not have that space. I can admit that not all card shops are small like this. I have heard of a large shop in Florida that works well, and of course the shops in Minnesota still work well, but it seems like card shops are too small for Pokemon tournaments over all. Tournament Organizers should think about moving away from card shops, and instead moving to municipal or commercial buildings.

Well, that’s all I got. Feel free to share your thoughts. If you like Primes, card shops, basic secret rares and meta decks at Spring Regionals; please let us know in the comment section. So Pedro, what do you got for us to close the article?

Well, today the whole world is going cockahoop for the new movie, “The Hunger Games.” Pikkdogs, you are a librarian and you like to read, do ya like the Hunger Games?

Never read it. I’m a fat guy, why would I want to hear about a place where there is no food?

I’m sorry I forgot.

I would much rather lay in my bed clutching my Big Mac.

And by “Big Mac” you mean?

My penis.

Okay, we should just end the article, good night everybody.

Pikks Three

Pikkdogs Pikks Four: Engineer’s Adjustments, Seeker, Fisherman, and Copycat

Pikkdogs March 20, 2012 3 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This will be a special edition of the Pikk Three article. It will actually be a Pikk Four, and it will feature 4 supporters that have fallen out of favor in the format. Maybe we can drum up support for these cards and they will see some play.

This is where I usually introduce Pedro and we talk about boobies and stuff. But, not today. Today there will be no boobie talk or fart jokes. I just found out that the older brother of my best friend during high school has died from an overdose. He, Jeremiah, had always struggled with substance abuse problems, but he was a nice guy.

I just don’t feel like making fart jokes today. I don’t feel bad for Jeremiah, he knew what he got himself into. But, he left his 3 year-old daughter without a father, and he forced his parents to bury him, that’s who I feel sorry for. So instead of making jokes today, I just want to tell everyone out there to be careful. I know that college students make up a lot of our reader-base, and I know that there is a lot of drug use among college students. So, I just want to tell you to be careful, and to think of how your decisions effect other people.

A man died, my friend died, and a beautiful three year-old girl will never know her father. There is nothing funny about that, and so that’s why I have no comedy in my heart today. Pedro will be back later this week, but I just hope that at least one of our readers can learn from this terrible story. Feel free to share your similar stories in the comment section.

Card #1 Engineer’s Adjustments

Description– Engineer’s Adjustments is a drawing supporter card. It has a simple effect, you can discard one energy and then draw four cards. It is kind of like a colorless energy version of Ninetales HGSS’s “Roast Reveal.”

Analysis– Engineer’s Adjustements has always been a card that I have liked, but it has never received too much play. The most competitive play that this card has seen was when Steelix Prime was a playable deck. Since he had an attack, “Energy Stream”, that let you attach energies from the discard pile, this card worked well. But, when Steelix Prime fell because of the rise of Blaziken FB, Engineer’s Adjustments has fallen out of favor.

Like I said before, I really love this card. There are a couple reasons why you want energy in the discard, and this card can do it while letting you draw 4 cards. Although it is not the best drawing card in the format, it does 2 things fairly well. This makes it versatile and really good for some decks. I really like this card with Eelektrik, since he needs energy in the discard pile to be useful. I especially like this card in Magnezone/Eels, because Magnezone almost never puts energy in the discard pile. So, there would be no reason to use Eelektrik, unless you use Engineer’s and get energy in the discard pile quickly to power up attacks. It also works well with Typholosion Prime, since that card too can attach energies from the discard pile. Even though Reshiram does discard energy by himself, it never hurts to put a copy or 2 of this card in a Reshiphlosion deck, it can only make the card more consistent in the early game.

Without Eelektrik and Typhlosion, I probably wouldn’t use this card. I would probably go more for a hand refresh card like Professor Oak’s New Theory. Drawing 4 cards is great, but people do not usually have an abundance of energy in their deck, and this card is not worth playing more energy.

Final Rating– 7.75/10– I love this card in the format right now. It has a lot of decks that it can sneak into and do well. It is not a great card, but it is a really good card that works well with a lot of decks out there.

Card #2 Seeker

Description– This is a supporter card that forces each player to pick up one of their benched Pokemon.

Analysis– This card was used a lot when it first came out, and then it slowly fell out of favor. It first saw play in almost all decks when it came out. It was used to disrupt your opponent, and to re-use Uxie. A lot of donk decks were playing it for the ability to take one Pokemon out of the game. When Lost World came out, Seeker was used in conjunction with Gengar Prime to get Pokemon in the Lost Zone. But, Gengar Prime is not played anymore, Uxie has rotated out, and Donk Decks are a thing of the past. So Seeker is a very rogue card right now.

I do like this card, it is very versatile. You can use it for disruption or to accomplish a goal in your deck. It can be very damaging to unexpectantly have to pick up one of your benched Pokemon. You can lose evolutions and energy very easily. I think it would work very well against the Terrakion deck, since it does not traditionally have a lot of benched Pokemon.

There doesn’t seems to be a great use for Seeker right now. It is a powerful card, but there just isn’t a deck that it works well in. The only deck I have seen it played in is a disruption deck with Weavile. If you collectored for 2 Sneasels last turn, you can evolve into Weavile, use “Claw Swipe”, pick up Weavile with Seeker, and then evolve the other Sneasel so you can “Claw Swipe” again.

There is nothing about Seeker that makes it bad. It is a good card that works in a lot of ways. The only bad thing is that there are not a lot of Pokemon to go with it. Uxie and a lot of good coming into play Poke-Powers are all gone, so there is less of a reason to use Seeker.

Final Rating– 6.5/10– A good card that just needs a good reason for someone to use it. It is an under-rated card that can help some decks out there, a lot of people should consider running 1 copy of this card in their decks.

Card #3- Fisherman

Description– This card let’s you take up to 4 basic energy cards from your discard pile, and put them into your hand.

Analysis– This is probably the best energy recovery card in the format. Getting 4 cards in your hand is amazing. It works really well with Emboar, this card means that you do not skip a beat when you lose a Pokemon. You just attach the energies back onto another Pokemon and go from there.

This card has not seen a lot of play in the past, the most play has been with Emboar in Reshiboar. It was really easy to recover from a couple “Blue Flare’s”, and it was easier to load up RDL for a two prize knock-out. This card made the deck work. However, when Typhlosion Prime replaced Emboar, the card fell out of use.

It is still seen in some rogue decks. If you see any Blastoise decks, or maybe sopme Rehiboar’s, you will almost always see Fisherman. It is good in some rogue decks, but it does not have a lot of use in Meta decks right now.

I do like the card. 4 energies to your hand gives you a lot of choices on what you want to do next. That will set you up on energies for 4 turns, or you can use it with another card like Engineer’s Adjustment or Ninetales HGSS for draw power.

The bad thing about Fisherman is that the discard pile seems like a good place for energies right now. A lot of decks have Eelektrik and Typhlosion Prime to attach energies from the discard pile. So you don’t really want the energies in your hand. Another bad thing is that draw power is very supporter heavy right now. You always want to use your supporter for drawing, so you won’t have time to use Fisherman. There are a lot of bad things about this card, but it is still cool and fun to use.

Final Rating–6/10– It is a nice card, it just doesn’t fit that great with the format right now. It will see some rogue play, just not that much.

Card #4- Copycat

Description-Copycat is a supporter that let’s you match the handsize of your opponent. You shuffle in your hand and draw the same number of cards that they have.

Analysis– Copycat has been in the format since HGSS and has a long history. When it first came out people were not sold on it being a great card. It did seem like a lot of the better players did like the card, but it didn’t really catch on to the greater playing community. That is until Yanmega Prime came out. Yanmega Prime’s “Insight” Poke-Body let you attack for free as long as you can match your opponent’s hand size. After Yanmega Prime became super popular, Copycat became a staple. It was used a lot and saw a ton of play. But, all good things must come to an end, and that was how it was with Copycat. Once Reshiram and Zekrom became more popular, Yamega Prime fell out of favor, and so did Copycat.

Copycat is an old card that is still around and is still good. There is no longer a reason to want to match hand size, but you can always use the card just for hand refreshing and draw power. You should be able to get a decent number of cards each time, and this card has the oppurtunity to get you more cards than even Juniper can give you.

Of course, it also could give you 2 or 3 cards. You never know how many cards you will get with Copycat, it might be just a couple. Pokemon is all about consistnecy, and in a day when the average hand size is small, around 5 cards, it doesn’t make sense to rely on this card for draw power. You can’t be losing a game just because your opponent has a small hand, so there might be better supporters out there.

Right now, I think I would use this card as a general supporter. It really doesn’t have a good partner anymore, because Yanmega Prime is no longer played. So, it should be used as a general supporter. Decks that have Ninetales and Magnezone Prime in them usually have large hand size, so Copycat works well against opponents who play those cards.

Final Rating–6.75– This is no longer a great card like it used to be, but it is still a nice rogue choice. You don’t need to play this card, but this card probably deserves more love than it is currently getting.

That’s it.

Rest In Peace Buddy. This ones for you.

State Championships Uncategorized

First Week of States Recap Plus Terrakion Decklist

Pikkdogs March 16, 2012 9 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKoers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with a short article about the first week of States. The first week has come and gone. Some things about States were very expected, while others were kind of a shock. We will go through all of that, and hopefully you will be all ready for your second week of states. But, before we go to that, let us say hi to my inter-dimensionary sidekick Pedro. How’s it going Pedro?

Going well, how is Pikkdogs?

Actually not doing that well. I am sick, I got a cold or something, but, as we all know that doesn’t matter to Ed, he makes me work no matter what disease I have.

How did you get sick this time? Did you catch something from all the Pokemon groupies that hang around you?

I think so. One was kind of sneezing, so that could be. In fact, that was the reason that I couldn’t go to States last weekend, lots of groupie sex.

Will you be doing more groupie sex this weekend, or can you go to States?

Well, I was going to States, but something came up.

So you are doing the groupie sex?

No, that’s not what I meant. Hey Pedro, I heard there is a new box coming out in the spring, can ya tell us more about that?

Sure, I am very excited about this box, it is called the “Forces of Nature Collection”. It retails of about 13 bucks, and it contains six things. It has a Full Art Landorus,and two special promos of Tornadus and Thundurus from Emerging Powers. The three other things are three booster packs. Two Emerging Powers and one Call of Legends.

That is pretty cool. I love the full arts, and this one looks really cool. The Thundurus and the Tornadus also look pretty cool, you can never have enough Tornadi, so its a good deal. Hey Pedro, since we didn’t really have time for a joke today, can you do a real quick one?

Sure, really quick. AOL’s Urlesque, their entertainment news program, recently featured a story where a full sized cat got stuck in one of those claw machines (the ones that have stuffed animals in them). The story has a happy ending, the cat was eventually rescued by the fire department. It is too bad that it took 17 dollars in quarters to get him out.

Okay, good enough. Let’s get on to the article.

Overview of the First Week of S/P/T’s

Before we get in to what won, let us look at how the attendance went. The numbers overall were not very impressive. Most states got about 75 people in the Master’s division. I think Alberta’s Province Championships had about 50. But, Ohio States had their attendance numbers go through the roof! There were 220 Masters! This kind of sucked for the people who were there. Not only did it slow things down, but they still only had 8 rounds and a top of 16, when they should have had at least a top 32. This made it really hard to stand out. So, besides Ohio, most States were fairly average in attendance. About 7 rounds with the customary top 16 is probably what you are looking at this coming weekend. Unless you are going to Indiana, which will probably have about 250 people, if last week’s trend continues, you shouldn’t have too hard of a road.

What Won in the First Weekend of States/Province/and Territory Championships.

According to www.pokegym.net, this is the list of decks that won on the first weekend of states.

Zekrom/Eelektrik-8
CMT-6
Durant-2
Terrakion-1
Reshphlosion-1 (This was in Italy, but I won’t really count this win because most of the Pokemon players got distracted that day by making Pizzas.

These are the decks that won the S/P/T’s. For 2nd to 4th places, the trend seemed to continue. CMT and Zekrom/Eels were two top decks from 2nd-4th places. Durant was 3rd and Terrakion was 4th. It seems like the day was won by Zekrom/Eels and CMT. These results were consistent with my predictions, so there are no surprises there. Zekrom can hit really hard, and CMT is faster than Usain Bolt. Durant did well and won a few, that was also expected. The surprise was when Terrakion did well.

Terrakion?

On Saturday night, in between all the groupie sex, I went to McDonalds and brought my laptop. I had the Mushroom and Swiss burger, which was really good. Anyway, on my laptop I saw that the guys from www.thetopcut.net were streaming coverage of States. In Top 8 there was a match between a normal Zekrom deck and a weird deck with only 4 Terrakions in it. The Top Cut personality, and former Onehitko.com guest writer, Kyle “Pooka” Sucevich nicknamed the deck 4 Terrakion. I really like that name.

This deck seems really simple, it just uses 4 Terrakion. There are a lot of trainers and supporters in the deck. This deck seemed to forgo the use of one of the best cards in the format, Eviolite, for Exp. Share. That way the player could attack with Terrakion even if he had lost one last turn for just the one energy that you can attach on that turn. I have also heard some people are using Landorus in this deck as well. The use of Landorus won’t change the deck up too much. Although Terrakion is the better attacker, Landorus gives you some more options. It is nice because if you were to prize 2 Terrakions, your deck would not instantly fall apart. Landorus is also resistant to lightning Pokemon, which makes it very good for the current format. This deck is different because it doesn’t use Mewtwo EX, which makes it a good choice for people who couldn’t find a couple Mewtwos.

Because the deck only runs a maximum of 8 Pokemon, it has a lot of room for energy removal cards. Lost Removers and Crushing Hammers are great cards, but we usually can’t fit them into decklists. These techs work really well against Mewtwo, and decks like Durant that don’t run a lot of energy cards. This should give you a decent advantage against some of the other decks in the format.

I really like this deck for two reasons. The first reason is that this deck is really simple. We have a lot of good trainers in this format, so why should we not try to play a list that let’s us maximize the potential of each of the good Item cards we have? The second reason is that Zekrom decks are being played a lot. One ‘Retaliate” shot can knock out both Zekrom and Zekrom EX. Those Pokemon are very very popular right now, and Terrakion is auto-win against it. If you play this deck, you will probably get 3 to 4 wins very easily.

I do have a lot of questions about this deck. The first question is, “how does it beat Durant.” Although Durant will not outspeed this deck, it should be able to use Eviolite and Special Metal energies to make sure that the 90 base damage that Terrakion can do is not enough to consistently OHKO Durants. The Terrakion player will try to remove energies, but will that be enough to stop a deck that relies on a 1 energy attack? The second question is, “How does this deck beat CMT?” Although this deck is fairly fast, it should give up KOs on “X-Ball” really easily. This seems like a deck that CMT will have no problem with. 90 damage will only put it in 2HKO range, and the Eviolite will make it 3HKO. So the Durant match-up seems iffy, and the CMT match-up seems like an Auto-Loss. The final question is, “does Seeker kill this deck.” If the Terrakion player only has 2 Pokemon in play and his/her opponent plays a Seeker and gets a knockout, the game is over. If people start playing more Seeker, the Terrakion player will need to play more Pokemon in their decks.

But, the deck did do well with very little play, so it must be a good deck. It really was the surprise of the tournament. I have not seen a list from one of the players last weekend, but I can come up with a sketch of what it might be like. Again, I have not tested this list, this is just me sketching something up. Hopefully in a week or so I will have time to test the deck. hopefully an article on it will be coming.

Pokemon-5

4-Terrakion
1-Landorus

Trainers-42

14- Hand Refresh/Draw Supporters/Pokegear
3-Lost Remover
4-Crushing Hammer
3-Plus Power
4-Junk Arm
4-Exp Share
2-Revive
4-Pokemon Catcher
2-Defender

Energy-13

10-Fighting Energy
3-Rescue Energy

What to Look Out For on the Second Weekend

Well, I think that we can expect more of the same on the second weekend, with more Terrakion decks. You can expect to see a lot of CMT, Zekrom, and Durant decks. Those should be all around any States that you go to. What will be interesting is to see how fast that Terrakion catches on. Terrakion was not played a lot last weekend because not many people thought of the deck, it will be different this weekend. Just how many people play it will have to be seen. But, it will be around more than it was last weekend, so be cautious if you are playing Zekrom. You might want to play some Zapdos and see if that will help you at all. The deck choice that I think will the safest is CMT. It has a decent Terrakion matchup, and is pretty good against everything else. The rise of Terrakion should not stop the rise of CMT. If you don’t have enough cards for CMT, Durant might be a safer deck than Zekrom, if you think that Terrakion is going to played a lot.

Conclusion

Well Pedro, I know that was a short article, but I’m sick and that’s all I can do. Why don’t you close the article out.

Okay. Foxnews.com is reporting that a New York Advertising Agency is trying to use homeless people as “walking Wi-Fi Hot Spots.” The plan, before it was recently canceled, was to give equipment to these homeless people, and a user would pay the vagrant 2 bucks for every 15 minutes they spend online. So Pikkdogs, would you follow a homeless person around with your Ipad?

I already follow them around.

Okay, would you get Wi-Fi from them?

No. Though it could have a catchy name, “Ho-Bo Hot Spots!”

That would be nice. But is a Wi-Fi hot spot worth spending time with guys who are smelly and sometimes crazy?

Sounds like dinner with my family.

True, if you use it at your families house, you might as well do it with the homeless.

That’s what I do. Anyway, this sounds a lot like Kramer’s idea of using the Homeless to power rickshaws in Seinfeld. That didn’t work either, but it was a lot funner. That’s enough, good night everybody!

Pikkdogs vs. Pedro

Pikkdogs vs. Pedro: Is Playing Durant Dishonorable?

Pikkdogs March 12, 2012 10 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with an opinion/debate article. In this article I shall debate against my sidekick/nemesis Pedro. Are you ready Pedro?

No, we gotta have our news article before we go on to the article.

Alright let’s go. What do you got for us today?

Well, today we have news from TMZ. TMZ is reporting that there is a Hulk Hogan sex tape that is being shopped around to different porn companies. Do you like the idea of a Hogan sex tape Pikkdogs?

Of course I am a huge fan of the Hulkster, though I don’t know if I want to see a Hogan porn.

The Hulkster is known for telling boys and girls to eat your vitamins and say your prayers, not eatting-

Hey, this is a family website.

Is it?

Well, no, if it is you are in a pretty screwed up family.

I actually got a free preview of the tape, and I must say that it actually is a fairly good movie. Everything was going well until “Rowdy” Roddy Piper comes in and hits Hulk with a steel chair. Then, the” Million Dollar Man” Ted Dibiase runs into the room and puts Hulk through a table. That kind of ruined the movie.

I would think so.

Is Playing Durant Dishonorable?

Before we get to the debate, let me do a little setup. There has been a debate among Pokemon players for some time now on whether playing the Durant deck is an honorable thing to do, or if it is kind of cheap. So, in this article me and Pedro will have a debate on the topic and settle the argument forever. Please feel free to put your own points into the discussion by writing in the comment section of the article. Also, be sure to vote on who you think debated better, Pedro or I.

noozles — haha I noozled you guys again!

So Pedro, we are ready to debate. What side of the argument do you want to take?

I don’t really care.

Well, I don’t care either.

Well, this should be a rousing debate then, no buddy seems to care.

Ok, then you can take the affirmative and I will do the negative.

Playing Durant is Dishonorable by Pedro.

Before I get to my argument, I must put my italics converter into my inter-dimensionary porthole. Here we go, all better.

There is no doubt that playing Durant is not an honorable thing to do. As Sheldon Cooper once said in the Big Bang Theory, “like a milking stool, my case rests on three legs.” The first leg of the argument is that the Durant deck does not take any skill to run. The second leg is that the deck gets illegitimate wins based on luck. Finally, the third leg has to do with the deck making the game boring.

Even though people have different reasons for playing this game, one of the more popular reasons is that the skill and thought that it takes to win makes the game fun and enjoyable. Pokemon is very much like Chess, it is a game of skill and people play to enjoy themselves and test their wits against each other. We could test our wits by jousting, but that takes a lot of expensive equipment, horses, and it can get bloody. So, instead we choose to match wits with Pokemon.

Durant takes this skill away from the game. Playing this deck does not take any skill. All you have to do is use Pokemon Collector to grab 3 Durants, and then say the word “Devour.” That is all you really need to do. To make things a little less simple, we can also talk about how the deck uses other cards. When use draw a card like Metal Energy, Lost Remover, Crushing Hammer, or Eviolite all you have to do is play it. There might be a little skill in deciding what energy to remove, but not much. For the most part all you do is play the cards as you get them, and then say “Devour.” There is no skill like there is with other decks.

In other decks you have to decide what Pokemon you want to knock out, and you have to use skill to try to do the highest amount of damage and certain parts of the game. There is none of this in Durant, all you gotta do is say the word “Devour.” You do not have the mind games that you do with other decks.

The second leg of my argument is similar. The Durant player does not win by using skill, but by using luck. Just like the #1 pick in the NFL draft this year, a Durant deck is all about Luck. It almost does not matter what deck you are playing against, the plan is the same, to setup fast and start milling quickly. And what determines how quickly you get milling, luck. The hand you get when you start the game, and what your next draw is, is what really determines the outcome of the game. We all know that it is not a question of can a Durant player win against this deck, but it is how fast will it take Durant to mill. If the answer is around 7-8 turns than it is an easy win for Durant. If it is more like 10 turns, than it is a win for the other deck. And, it is your starting hand, and your draw on the next turn or so, that determines how many turns it will take you. And you starting hand is determined by the luck of the draw.

What fun is a game if your entire day is determined by luck? This game is supposed to be fun and exciting, not just luck based. It is true that some decks rely on luck, even luck early in the game, but no deck is so reliant on getting luck early. There has to be skill somewhere in the deck, not just all luck. But, that is what Durant is all luck. You wonder why during Cities 2 similar Durant lists with 2 players of similar skill can do so differently? It is because of luck. We had some very similar Durant lists going 1-5 and then 6-0. Having that much variance in results surely indicate that the deck is way too reliant on luck to be honorable.

The final leg of my argument has to do with Durant making the game boring. Not only does Durant make skill go out the window, it makes fun go out the window. You have not seen boredom until you have seen a top cut filled with Durant decks. After the first couple turns, all anyone did was maybe play a Lost Remover or attach an energy, and then say the word “Devour”. All this does is Devour our precious time away. Nobody wants to see a Durant mirror match-up because all it is is two people yelling “Devour” to each other. The person who wins is usually the person who prizes the best. The person who has a Durant in their prizes usually loses. And it is no fun to have a game decided by what is in your prizes.

So in close it is dishonorable to play Durant because it takes everything that is good about the game and vomits all over it like party-goers at Charlie Sheen’s house. The deck takes no skill, relies on luck, and just makes the game very boring. I rest my case.

Playing Durant is no Dishonorable

Good job Pedro. I have a big job ahead of me.

My opponent is greatly under-estimating how much skill it does take to play Durant. He would have you think that just because the player only uses one attack, that would mean that there is no skill. Well, if that is so would you not think that Mewtwo EX would require no skill? He only uses the “X-Ball” attack. Just because you only use one attack does not mean that the deck is totally auto-pilot.

A good Durant player does not just use “Devour”, he also uses a lot of other attacks. Durant himself has an attack that does 30 damage, which is enough to knock out the games most popular starter, Cleffa. There are also other attackers in the Durant deck. Durant players frequently use Prism energy in their deck so they can attack with Rotom. Rotom can snipe out attackers, giving the Durant player more options, which needs more skill from the player to decide how to attack. One of the most popular Durant lists also runs Cobalion NV to attack. With Cobalion, the Durant player has the option to try to take 6 prizes. These options require more skill from the player to decide which ones to use.

There is also skill in deciding what version of the deck you would like to run. Although I would concede that the deck might take a little less skill than some other decks, there is a lot of skill to making your list. There are a lot of options to go with. You can decide to run more energy removers, or more defensive cards like Defender, or you can run other attackers like Cobalion. The number of variations of Durant decks that are out there right now is vast. You will need to use your skill and knowledge as a deck builder to build a version that is best for you area.

My opponent would also like you to believe that playing Durant is dishonorable because the deck is luck based. He would have you believe that the fact that your odds to win are based on what happens during the first couple turns of the game.

I would concede that this is true, but isn’t that same thing true of every deck right now? We always here people complaining that almost every game is decided by which player goes first. Just because this is true for Durant, why should Durant take all the hate. Shouldn’t the blame go to the rules and the format itself?

We also here people complain that they didn’t get to draw a supporter until several turns into the game, or that they got a terrible draw off of a supporter. So it is not Durant’s fault that what happens off the first couple supporters determines what happens in a game, that is what happens in every game. Doesn’t the Magnezone deck rely on an early Pokemon Collector just like Durant does, so why does Durant take all the blame?

The third argument that my opponent has made is that Durant takes the fun out of the game. While I concede that a lot of people play the game for fun, should I sacrifice my record just so other people can have fun. If you want to have fun you can go ride a rollercoaster, don’t tell me that I can’t succeed just because it isn’t fun for you.

If a player can be successful with Durant, why should they think about someone else’s level of fun? I would say that if you do very well with Durant you will be having a lot of fun. The most fun I have had at tournaments is when I win, so it seems that Durant does lead to a lot of fun.

Now that I have responded to my colleague’s points, I would like to make some points of my own. If you watch the first season the Pokemon anime, you would have listened to its legendary theme song. The first line is this, “I wanna be the very best, that no one ever was.” This series was very popular, almost as popular as the video game. And without a doubt, it has been more popular than competitive play of the Trading Card Game. This means that the Anime has been very influential in all aspects of Pokemon, and there is no doubt that almost all players have the passion “to be the very best”. So if everyone wants to “be the very best”, wouldn’t it be against the Pokemon way to not be the very best? It would be un-Pokemon like to not use every fair advantage possible to win.

We all know that Durant is a very good deck. It was the most successful deck of the last few weekends of City Championships. So, if you do not use this deck in favor of something that will not be as successful, it would be against the spirit of Pokemon. If you have a good deck like Durant that you think you can win with, you should use it. Some people might whine and complain that it is not fair, but that is a problem that Nintendo should have to answer for because they printed the card, you are just taking every fair advantage that you can. It would be silly not to run Durant just because other people don’t find the deck fun.

Another reason that I think that playing Durant is not dishonorable is because the deck is fun to play as an example of the legitimate game mechanic called “milling.” Milling is a more obscure part of this game that doesn’t get used very often. There are people, myself included, that love milling. Good milling decks don’t come around too often, so when they do you have to jump aboard. These people should not be disrespected just because they love to mill. If you love to mill, you will love to play Durant, and what is wrong with that?

My final point on this topic is that Durant can help newer players grow to love the game. Me and Pedro both agree that anyone would be insane to think that handing a new player Durant would be a good thing to do. There are much better decks that can teach players the basics of the game. The skills you learn while playing Durant are not as easily transferrable as those you learn by playing other decks. But, if a beginner does play Durant on a limited basis, it could be a good thing for them.

If a beginner does well with a Durant deck, they will get a rush of excitement from doing well in a tournament. Even if they decide to put down the Durant deck, that one good experience they had with the deck could hook them for life and encourage them to become better players. One good experience with a Durant deck can encourage a young player to become a player for life. And, it is always a good thing to have more people in the game.

Well Pedro, I think we beat this dead horse pretty hard, let’s just end it now.

Sounds good. We would like to remind our readers to provide more points on this topic, and to vote on who you think won the debate.

Well do you want to end this thing Pedro?

Sure. Today we have a this day in history. Today in 1974 the Wonder Woman TV Show premiered. Do you like the Wonder Woman Pikkdogs?

Well sure, but I wouldn’t say that she was one of my favorite super heroes. Did you know Pedro, that the person who invented Wonder Woman also was one of the founders of the lie detector test?

That is interesting.

Yes, he was a very interesting person. He thought that Comic Books were an important part of American Culture, and that women deserved better comic book heroes than they had. He felt that women were very strong and very honorable. He thought of this as he was cheating on his wife. He actually lived a double life with two families.

Well, that is not very nice of him. I thought you were going to point something else out about Wonder Woman.

What was that?

That Linda Carter had a great pair of boobs.

Do you think that I am that shallow?

No, I know that you are.

I guess so, you are right, she does have a great pair of boobs. Good Night everybody!

Pikks Three

Pikkdogs Pikks Three: States Edition: Thundurus, Virizion EP, and Battle City

Pikkdogs March 10, 2012 7 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there, this is Pikkdogs here with a Pikk Three article. As always, these articles are a three pack of card reviews. One is on a popular card, the second is on a card that I think is under-rated, and the third is from a new or yet to be released set. Before we go on to the reviews, let us first welcome my colleague from a different dimension, Pedro!

Hey Pikkdogs.

So, Pedro what do you got for us today.

Well today we have some news from DARPA.

The 90’s MTV cartoon?

No, that was Daria. This is a government agency called the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

That is a horrible name for an agency. I like the more classic and simple names like CIA and FBI.

I guess the guy who does the naming must have been sick that day. Anyway, DARPA has announced that it has made a robot Cheetah that has broken the Robot Land Speed Record.

I didn’t know they had a robot land speed record. Read More

Pikkdogs

Deck Analysis: Troll

A Look at the Metagame: Pikkdogs does a State’s Review and your 1st Spring Regionals Preview

Ask Pikkdogs: How to Build a Deck

Pikkdogs Pikks Three Durant Counters: Victini #15, Volcarona NV, and Zebstrika

Pikkdogs States Report and Scizor’s LGD (Late Game Durant) Decklist.

Bold Statements with Pikkdogs. Volume #2.

Pikkdogs Pikks Four: Engineer’s Adjustments, Seeker, Fisherman, and Copycat

First Week of States Recap Plus Terrakion Decklist

Pikkdogs vs. Pedro: Is Playing Durant Dishonorable?

Pikkdogs Pikks Three: States Edition: Thundurus, Virizion EP, and Battle City

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