One Hit KO

Welcome, you OHKO’ers, to Battle Roads! As a Poképarent, and as an active member of the Twin Cities Pokémon TCG community, I have always felt there is a lot to love about the Battle Roads season. Battle Roads tournaments are worth very few Championship Points, and this gives them a more relaxed and informal feel than larger State or Regional Championship tournaments. Battle Roads tourneys are also a great place for new players to start their experience with Competitive Play. I should know, because a 2010 Fall Battle Roads at Dreamers Cards in St. Louis Park, MN, was the very first Pokémon tournament that my son Paul and I attended. I will never forget that, during round 3 of that Battle Roads, Andy Wieman played our entire match with his cards upside down, just so that I could read the text on each card more clearly. And other Minnesota-area opponents gave Paul and me tips on play during our games that not only helped us become better players in the long run, but even resulted in us winning a couple of matches in that very tournament. So I have always been excited to return to Dreamers for Battle Roads.

This …

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 …

Carly Rae and Iz: Musicians I'd like to get wet with. Well okay, maybe one more than the other.

By now we’ve all attended pre-releases for Dark Explorers, the second set in the Black-and-White series to contain EX cards. I hope you all pulled what you hoped for! I can’t say that I was praying for two copies of Glaceon, or to have to run 5 Chanseys in my 40-card deck, or to not pull any Pokémon EX across two pre-releases, but I guess that’s what happens sometimes. (Fortunately for me, my son Paul did a little better.) The release of those Pokémon EX in the Next Destinies set definitely changed the metagame, and I have no doubt that the EX’s in Dark Explorers will change it again. I don’t know if you OHKO’ers have noticed, but these shiny new EX’s are freakin’ BIG. No, I don’t mean virally-famous, Carly-Rae-Jepsen-style big. I mean BIG. More like Iz Kamakawiwo’ole big. Sporting 170 or 180 HP—except for Shaymin EX—it almost seems like the new EX Pokémon would be impossible to knock out in one hit. Okay, many of the EX’s have weakness to commonly used types in the current format, like Tornadus EX’s weakness to Lightning, or Mewtwo EX’s weakness to…well, Mewtwo. Play these Pokémon, and you really do have to watch out for your opponent’s one-hit KO. But a few of the EX’s are weak to uncommon types, and you would expect that these big boys could hold their own in the active spot for quite a while, taking hit after hit without being knocked out. Putting one of these Pokémon EX active is sort of like driving a tank—not very nimble, but definitely powerful.

So, in PokéSpeak, “tanking” has come to mean focusing a deck’s strategy around one or two Pokémon with extremely high HP, and working hard to make sure that those Pokémon can stay in the active position, dealing damage, without getting knocked out by an opponent’s attacks. Tank decks are almost as old as the game itself (I’m told), but the most recent example of a successful tank was probably Ross Cawthon’s “Truth”, which Ross piloted to 2nd place at Worlds 2011. That deck used Donphan Prime HS
Continue reading "TAndrewTesting: EX Tanking with QuadGroudon, and Her Cheaper, Easier Sister"

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 …

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with my extra-dimensionary sidekick Pedro.  How are things going Pedro?

Going Well. 

What do you have for us today?

Well, today’s news comes from the world of American Football.  It seems like the Washington Redskins and the New Orleans Saints are under investigation for Bounty Hunting. 

Like Boba Fett?  Do they freeze quarterbacks in Carbonite?

Not exactly. 

So they are more like Samus from Metroid, when they fight  giant monsters.

Not quite that either. 

Oh, so they must be like real life bounty hunters like Dog the Bounty Hunter. Where they pick up people who are addicted to Crystal Meth.

Yes, that’s it.  The Redskins and the Saints are in trouble for picking up people on Crystal Meth.  Just start your article. 
Continue reading "Deck Discussion: Magnezone and Eelektrik"

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with a deck analysis for you.  I am also joined by my extra-dimensionary sidekick Pedro.  How are you doing today Pedro?

Oh doing, well. 

Do you have a bit of news for us to talk about?

Sure.  We have a couple of bit of news from the entertainment world.  First, we have just learned that Lady Gaga will appear in the new Men in Black movie. Do you like the Men in Black movies Pikkdogs?

They were pretty good, kinda funny.  I would say that Lady Gaga is a pretty good hire for an Alien movie.

An Alien and Lady Gaga are two different things.  One is a disgusting looking creature that has tentacles all over………….and the other is an Alien. 

Good one, Pedro.  Now what’s the other news.

  Well, the other news is that ABC has announced who will be on the  new season of Dancing with the Stars.  The cast includes such people as actor Jaleel White, Packers receiver Donald Driver, the View host Sherri Sheppard, musical icon Gladys Knight, and Welsh singer Katherine Jenkins.  Any of those personalities interest you Pikkdogs?

Well I …

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there, this is Pikkdogs here with a deck analysis for you.  I finally got along to test a Mewtwo deck, I tried the new CMT version of the Mewtwo EX deck.  The old CMT deck was around in Battle Roads and it was like Stage 1 Rush, but it had Mew Prime in it.  This deck is nothing like it, but it does have Tornadus in it, just like the original CMT.  This deck also has Celebi Prime and Mewtwo EX. Before we get to the article, let us welcome my sidekick Pedro. What do you have for us today Pedro?

Well I have some news in the field of Biology.  Fox News is reporting the researchers who are studying a group of Blacktip Reef Sharks are reporting that the sharks make friends with other sharks. Researchers state that the Sharks form groups with similar sharks based on age and other factors. Kind of like a clique in high school.  They use the group for protection and to increase their chances at survival.  Are you surprised to hear that Sharks make friends Pikkdogs?

Well of course they make friends, how else would …

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs with kind of  a deck profile of Durant.  All of the Pokemon writers right now are concentrating on Mewtwo EX and all the other EXs that just came out last week in Next Destinies.  But, a comment on my last article made me think that we are doing all this wrong.  At the end of the Cities season there was one deck that dominated all other decks, and yet we are not talking about it.  So let’s talk about it, let’s talk about Durant.

History and Basics

Durant is a milling deck.  Milling is a term that comes from Magic the Gathering.  There used to be a card named Millstone, and Millstone made your opponent put two cards from their library, or deck, into their graveyard, or discard pile.  Ever since this card came out, the act of discarding cards from the top of your deck has been called “milling.”

Durant came out in the Noble Victories set.  At first not many people recognized how good it was.  They dismissed it as a deck that had a good premise, but they thought that it couldn’t mill enough cards …

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with an article about decks from Next Destinies.  There is no question that Next Destinies will be an impactful set.  The set is chock full of cards that will make it into decks right away.   This article will kind of overview some of these decks and explain what they are all about.  Of course I can’t cover every deck, so this will be just the major changes.

New Deck(s)

Mewtwo

The card that has literally been the poster boy of Next Destinies is Mewtwo EX.  He is also probably the focal point of the only great new deck that will come out of Next Destinies.  There is no doubt that ND cards will be in a lot of decks, but the Mewtwo deck is the only one that is really new to the format.

Since you can only play 4 Mewtwo EX cards in one deck, that will leave you  with at most 56 cards to work with.  If you add in cards like Eviolite and DCE, that still gives you about 50 cards to work with.  If you add in the staples and some …

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with a deck analysis for you.  My extra-dimensionary sidekick Pedro is also with me today.  What’s going on today Pedro?

This weeks bit of news comes from the field we are most qualified in, politics.  Well this past week in Iowa they held the Iowa Caucuses, to help determine the Republican candidate for the Presidential elections that will be held later this year.  And we have to talk about it just so I can say the word “Caucus”.

Who won the Caucus?

That was Mitt Romney.  You know Pikkdogs, I once won a Caucus?

Is “won a caucus” code for amorus homosexual activity?

Maybe.

I have a feeling we should just go onto the article. 
Continue reading "Deck Analysis: Mew Prime, Unfezant, and Vanilluxe."