Canadian Nationals Recap:

This episode covers all of the very interesting results we received from Canada two weekends ago. We have a very nice range of decks making the Top 16 and I go over some of the most interesting ones.

US Nationals Recap:

This episode goes over all the happenings at the biggest HGSS-On tournament so far. I analyse the Top 16 decks in Masters as well as a little look at the unique rogue deck that took Juniors by storm.

At the end of the episode, I talked about my new project PokeClass Extra and it really needs you guys to visit regularly to keep it going and help it reach its desired potential. Please go to my website at www.pokemandan.co.uk (proudly hosted at OneHitKO.com!) and click on PokeClass Extra in the nav bar. I can assure you that it will be a great project to be a part of and I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy running it.

Thanks for watching and…

Now since the card Pokemon Catcher will come out in the Emerging Powers set, the format will totally change, but that is after Worlds, so we can still have a small discussion of this format.  I myself will not be headed to San Diego for worlds, but since anyone of our readers can attempt to grind in the day before the event, I will cover the decks as if I were.

This article will mainly focus on what the format is currently like, and what decks are considered tier 1 or 2.

The Format

This first part of the article will address what I think are myths about a great format.  Don’t believe all you hear about the format.  A lot of people are saying that this format stinks because it is all luck based.  While I admit that luck is always involved in this game, I say that it is no different than the previous few seasons.  They say that the winner of the game is based on who starts first and how well…

I played the deck a bunch, and it did well. There were issues with it, but they weren’t insurmountable. I had problems when I faced larger Pokemon (that I couldn’t one shot), so I put in Reversals and more Plus Power to try to get strategic KOs when necessary. With the changes made to accommodate these inclusions, the deck became unreliable and very inconsistent. I put it back the way it was and decided to just run it without the Pokemon Reversal (but still had 1 Circulator).

I went on vacation just before Nationals, and I even played for a bit one…

Day 2 Tournament Report

So, the last time we left our hero, he finished Day 1 with a 4-2 record, and knew that he needed to win out or go 2-1 and get a lot of help in order to make top cut.

Team Omar wakes up a little later than the previous day, and we try to scarf down some waffles and biscuits and gravy before we head downtown.  We get into the play area at about 8:35 and people are already about to being their match even though play was not scheduled till 9.  So I go and introduce myself to my opponent who says, “Darn I thought you weren’t gonna show.”  This guy actually turns out to be a little of an annoyance to me, I don’t know him, but he didn’t seem all that nice.  Classy Freddy Blassie might call him a…

I’m back with some more pictures and the continuation of my weak little report.

I needed to win out on the second day. If I did, I would (most likely) make top cut. If I lost any of the day’s matches, I’d be playing in side events.

Round 7: I think this guy’s name was Ronald, and he was playing Yanmega, Donphan, and Zekrom. Once I got set up, I ran through his stuff. I don’t remember much else. Sorry, my brain is kinda fried at the moment.
4-3

Round 8: I drive this far, and I have to player Conner M. from MN. Conner and I have played before (most recently in States when I ran over his Donphan with my Gyarados), and I always seem to come out on top somehow. He’s due for revenge, though. He’s playing Donphan, Machamp, and Zoroark, but I am not playing water. He’s got a good chance if he can set up Machamp and use Zoroark to get one shots on my Reshiram. Unfortunately for Conner, he can’t get Machamp set up until it’s too late. I think he finally got one set up but had lost…

The Location

Of course, this year’s U.S. nationals were located in Indianapolis.  The city is a decent choice, the location is only really bad for the people on the extreme edges of the country.  One bad thing about the city was that it was jam packed with people.  No matter where you went for lunch there was a million people standing in line.  Due to the city also holding several basketball tournaments and other events, the city was over crowded.  It was quite annoying, a quieter smaller city might be a better choice.

However, we will never find a perfect location.  Indy has a lot of hotels and is well equipped to handle us Pokemon Players, somethings are just a little inconvenient.

The convention center is a really nice and big…

Well, day 1 is over. I am not doing well. I chose to go with the deck I knew best, and unfortunately it’s garbage. I thought it wasn’t great, but I didn’t think it was this bad. Take a look at some pictures of day 0 (arrival/registration) and day 1 (the actual event) and read how the first day of Swiss went.

Round 1: I had a bye from winning states. It took so long to repair for the no-shows, that they announced that lunch would be after round 1. That means I don’t get to play until like 1:30PM. What did I wake up at 6:30AM for?

Round 2: I played a guy named Cliff (I think). He started Cleffa. I played Juniper, drew into a Cleffa and a Communication. I played Communication for Tyrogue. Great. I’m now 2-0 after playing 1 turn.

Round 3: I played Erik with MagneBoar. I revived Tyrogue twice in this match to get KOs on Cleffas and to put damage on Magnezone. I recall this being a close match. If I had pulled Plus Power or slept better on my Mischievous Punch, I could have had the win.
…

News and Introduction

Last night Play Pokemon gave us some big news, they are instituting a mid-season rotation to the HGSS-on format.  While this is not exactly a shock, it is disturbing to  alot of people.  While I would say that most people welcomed the news, a lot of people are not huge fans of the HGSS-on format, and are not happy of how Play Pokemon handled the rotation and rules changes.  I guess you are never going to please everyone, but I think for once Play Pokemon is making the right move.  The rotation freshens the format and puts a lot less emphasis on luck and starting first.  I for one will be happy if I never had to look at another SP card in my life.

So what does this mean for Nationals?  Well, it means a heck of a lot.  It drastically changes the format, all the top 1 or 2…

Thanks for watching!

P.S: Any comments about lists or anything else then please comment below :)

First, a little about the event. My daughter and I have been planning to attend Nationals this year ever since we failed to go last year. We knew we were golden when we convinced my wife to come along and treat it like a family vacation. The drive from Michigan was easy, about 5 hours, and we made it with plenty of time to get the early registration t-shirts. We didn’t really grasp the scale of the event until Friday morning though.

The venue was gigantic, easily the biggest single room I have been in for a long time (in fact I am having difficulty recalling another time when I was in a room this size.) There are tons of people milling about. There are people in line for the Video Game Tournament. There are side rooms with vendors, open playing, and just hanging out. In the main room there are separate sections for each of the age groups, one for league play and side events, one for eating with tables and one for the video game stuff too.

Throughout the weekend we see people we know from Michigan…

He mentioned that there were 1336 players (which he pointed out was one short of the LEET 1337 / 826 masters, 300 seniors, 210 juniors). That field is split into two groups, and there will be a top-64 in each group. I believe that the field will be cut down to top-16 in each group by the end of Saturday.

Abdi and Benny are also representing Team Omar. Each of them are 3-4 at the end of Day 1. That puts the team at 12-9, which I’m very proud of. Cheffords, reporting for #TeamOmar, went 4-3 for the day with his daughter going 3-3 in Juniors.

I also heard a little about the rest of the MN players. This could be completely wrong, but I’ll mention it anyway. It sounded like Andy, Radu, and Emmanuel were having a tough time with their…

Check our our Nationals Coverage if you can’t go but still want to follow along. If you are going and want to provide updates to those that can’t, please feel free to use the #teamomar hash tag.

Thursday, June 24th
4PM – 8PM : Preregistration (get your National Championships T-shirt and promo card)

Friday, June 25th

Get in line for registration by 8:30am, or you’re lookin’ at a first-round loss. Have your decklist complete and get seated by 9:30am. Then there will be a players’ meeting. If you’re not ready and seated, you may be dropped from the tournament.

8AM – 9AM : Final Registration (just the National Championships promo card)
9AM : Play Begins, Game On!
10AM – 5PM : Pikachu Character Appearances
10AM – 6PM : Mini League Play
10AM – 6PM : Creative Center
12PM – 11PM : Side Events
12PM – 2PM : Travel Allowance and Travel Reimbursement Pick-Up]]> http://www.onehitko.com/2010/06/21/pokemon-tcg-us-nationals-schedule-for-the-indiana-convention-center/feed/ 0