One Hit KO

Pokemon TCG Decklists and Articles

Regional Championships

Regional Championships Uncategorized

What Should You Play For Regionals – A Metagame Analysis Article

coolestman22 No Comments

Hey OneHitKO people, it’s been more than a month since this site had an article, so I figure I should get something out before Regionals. I’m sorry for not getting something out sooner, it completely slipped my mind. This article is mostly about what decks you should consider based on playstyle and what types of decks you have the most experience

Don’t be the one saying if only.

playing.

First of all, I want to start by saying that these are pretty much just things to try out, they are by no means official guidelines for you. I’m just throwing ideas out for you if you’re completely unsure of what to play, like I am.

I also want to do a little Cities recap and mention what I think the Tier system looks like right now. These are just my opinions, so you shouldn’t base any big decisions off these, I just wanted to give a bit of a guideline for you so that you have a guideline for your own opinions.

The BDIF

Blastoise/Keldeo. I think it’s pretty self-explanatory, actually, Blastoise is a deck that has both a good early game and a good late-game. Blastoise has the ability to go off on Turn Two and then keep going strong until you take your six prizes. Although for the past three Regionals the deck that I believed was the BDIF hasn’t won any (that being Gothitelle, CMT, and Hydreigon), I don’t think this will be the case for Blastoise as it has a lot more going for it than these decks and there should be a lot more people playing it as it isn’t as debatable as the last and it also isn’t as easily countered. The only big problem with the deck is that it’s hand reliant, so in the late game N is a threat to you, but people are playing Tropical Beach to semi-solve this problem. I feel like Blastoise is going to be the deck dominating Regionals.

Tier One

Landorus/Mewtwo/Tornadus. I am a bit skeptical on this deck as it doesn’t have much of a late-game, but everyone knows how good early-game pressure can be and the threat of donking is nice as well. It’s a solid play if it’s what you’re playstyle likes.

Darkrai/Hydreigon. It’s slow, but it makes up for that by fully healing Darkrais at no cost via Max Potion. I like the deck a lot because it’s got a nice feeling to it, because Darkrai is an amazing attacker and it’s even better when it can power up a supporting attacker this easily. The problem is that it has a bad matchup against anything with Landorus and the Deino you play is basically a statement of who you would rather get donked by.

RayEels. I really like this deck in this metagame because of all the focus around EX’s, however I hate how much you get donked when you play it. It takes advantage of the heavy EX reliance of the format. The Landorus matchup is good when you survive the donk, and it’s definitely a solid play for Regionals (Especially as it basically wins if it sets up and stays set up) if you’re willing to take a loss or two to a donk during the event.

Ho-oh. This is basically a version of Landorus/Mewtwo with a lategame instead of a whole lot of earlygame, and it also has easier access to Sigilyph. It’s also a lot of fun to play because of the colorfulness of the deck. It also has a better Blastoise matchup than people seem to think, because you play Sigilyph and you don’t especially rely on Ho-oh, you only need it in a couple situations. It also uses Terrakion better than any deck in the format right now because it can accelerate Fighting Energy. The problem with the deck is that because of the colorfulness, you don’t always have the exact Energy you need, but most Ho-oh variants I’ve seen only need two types (Fighting and Psychic) and those types are easily accessed via Rebirth.

Tier Two

Darkrai Variants including Darkrai/Fighting, Darkrai/Aspertia, and Darkrai/Mewtwo. Darkrai is still a strong play for Regionals regardless of how the meta develops, and I love using it as Energy acceleration for other attackers as well (Via Dark Patch/Energy Switch). The problem with Darkrai is that it doesn’t do too well against Landorus, but if you play the right supporting attackers this shouldn’t matter too much. They also aren’t great against Keldeo, but the matchup is winnable so long as you don’t play too many Landorus.

Klinklang – I really like Klinklang, but I haven’t tested it. I know that it is an interesting option and I really like the idea of a deck that hits for weakness everywhere, and I like how it has a nice little box of attackers that you can shift between at your disposal that do different things. I also really like the use of Max Potion with the deck because this format has a lot of cards that focus on 2HKOing, which is amazing for Klinklang. Of course, the less-than-ideal matchup against Hammertime and RayEels isn’t the best, so if you’re willing to take a couple autolosses Klinklang is a good play, and without these autolosses I have no doubt Klinklang would be a Tier One deck.

Hammertime – Hammertime probably has the most interesting concept of any deck in the format, and I really like the idea of Hammer spamming to lock the opponent out of Energy. Hammer Control single-handedly wins games, and being able to just sweep with Darkrai without the threat of being attacked back is amazing. This deck pretty much wins to a deck that doesn’t have energy acceleration, but it unfortunately has a bad matchup against Blastoise, probably the deck that will see the most play at Autumn Regionals. Still, Hammer Control is a really cool idea and Esa Juntunen is a genius to have come up with it.

Aspertia Eels – This is probably one of the most underrated decks right now. Bouffalant is one of the best attackers in the game right now in my opinion, and when you give it an Eviolite, an Aspertia, and a reliable engine like Eelektrik, it’s amazing against any EX in the game. Tornadus EX and Mewtwo EX are also great right now because of their sheer usefulness in the early game, and Aspertia is just amazing, and having access to Raikou is also great. The thing I like about Aspertia Eels the most, however, is that even though it uses an Eel engine, taking out the Eels won’t actually do much for you because you can manually power up all of your attackers in two turns, it just helps you in the early game. However, I’m not too convinced that there will be enough people who are playing this for it to succeed. I feel like if enough people played it it could easily be Tier One, but not enough people are convinced yet.

Matchups

A big part of every metagame is matchups. You can’t play something if it doesn’t beat the popular decks, even if it is amazing against everything else (I learned this the hard way), so knowing matchups are a big part of deciding on a deck.

While I’ll be talking about matchups for the entire article, I wanted to have a section devoted to it just to give you a basic guideline of what beats the decks that you need to be able to beat.

The decks you should be looking to beat right now are Blastoise, Landorus/Mewtwo/Tornadus, and Darkrai variants. If you can beat those, that’s huge, if not, you might want to play a tech.

I really want to put a chart here, but we don’t have tables, so I’ll just write what I can here:

The decks I feel have the best matchups against those are Ho-oh, Blastoise with Pokemon Center, and anything with Bouffalant/Aspertia/Eviolite. As I’ve said before, Bouffalant is amazing because it 2HKOes every EX we have and gets 2HKOed back by a good amount of them if you have the Aspertia/Eviolite. This is a favorable prize exchange for you because Bouffalant isn’t an EX. However, it’s too situational to be that good.

So yeah, if you’re playing Bouffalant or Keldeo you should be alright. I’m sorry I can’t say more, I really wanted to do a table, but that isn’t supported on this program.

So What Exactly Should I Play?

Well, that depends on the kind of deck you want to play. As I’ve said before, playstyle is key in choosing your deck. This serves as a guide to decks for what you want to play.

If you want to play a defensive deck, your best bet is probably Klinklang. I like Hydreigon, but it falls too much to Landorus and it just doesn’t have the same feel to it. Hydreigon isn’t a terrible call, and if you’d rather play Hydreigon go ahead, but I honestly am a bigger advocate of Klinklang now not only because of the not-autoloss to Landorus but also because of the toolboxy feeling to the deck, but if Hammertime is more prominent in your area I would say go with Hydreigon.

If you want to play a fast, aggressive deck that focuses on denying setup and attacking early, my recommendation to you is Ho-oh. Ho-oh is great because it applies early-game pressure and also has a late-game, unlike Landorus/Tornadus/Mewtwo which is all early-game and no late-game. It’s also great for Mewtwo wars, not only because Mewtwo is one of your main attackers, or that you play PlusPower, or you can take an early-game lead and then start one that will end up in your favor, but because you can actually pull off a Psydrive against a Mewtwo with no Energy attached. Ho-oh also has access to Terrakion, Sigilyph, and Bouffalant for the whole 7-prize thing, and you can tech pretty much anything into your list.

If you want to play a deck that aims for an early attack but then keeps going until the game is over, your best bet is probably Blastoise. With all due respect to Darkrai, the T1 Night Spear just isn’t common enough to justify playing Darkrai over Blastoise. Unless you’re really worried about N or you’ve been testing Darkrai longer, I would definitely rather play Blastoise. The T2 Secret Sword is just about as common as the T2 Night Spear, and Blastoise is a lot better in the late game seeing as you have the option of powering up a Keldeo to OHKO everything. Not to mention that a lot of people are teching Terrakion, which is amazing against Darkrai and insanely mediocre against Keldeo.

If you want to play a deck that focuses on limiting your opponent’s options, play Hammertime. With all due respect to Garbodor, Garbodor is just too inconsistent to work right in this metagame. Hammer Control is amazing, and unless you play against Blastoise all day long you should have alright matchups. Theoretically you could play Hammertime with Garbodor, but that’s probably too inconsistent unless you build it exactly right. And plus, limiting attacks is much better than limiting Abilities.

If you want to play a deck that focuses on killing whatever your opponent throws at you, you actually have a really interesting decision to make. Your two options are either RayEels or a Blastoise variant that focuses on loading up a Keldeo to kill everything instead of speed. Honestly this decision is based on how much you want to get donked. If you are fine with being donked once or twice, RayEels is much better when set up than Blastoise, even a variant that focuses on dishing out large amounts with Keldeo. However, if you want to play it safe, a Blastoise variant like that is almost as good, just a bit more hand-reliant.

If you have no idea what such Blastoise variant would look like, all I can say is that it plays 1-2 Cilan, 4 Energy Retrieval, and 15 Energy (I’ve even seen a version that plays 1-1 Musharna NXD) instead of techs like Super Scoop Up, Mini-Keldeo, or Eviolite. Honestly I was skeptical when I heard about this, but it works. I have no idea how it works or if it actually works or if the people I saw playing it were just lucksacking, so try it for yourself.

Overall I would say that the best possible play for Regionals in any age division is probably Blastoise/Keldeo with 1 Pokemon Center. Without Pokemon Center the matchup against Darkrai/Hydreigon is iffy, but with it it becomes 65/35 in your favor because they can no longer OHKO you with Hydreigon after hitting you with Night Spear bench damage. If you can access 3 Keldeo and 1 Beach, Blastoise is a great play because it is arguably the best Energy acceleration in the format and it is fast but can still maintain itself later on.

Here is a sample Blastoise list for those of you who have nothing to go off:

4-1-3 Blastoise
3 Keldeo EX
-11

4 Pokemon Catcher
4 Rare Candy
3 Ultra Ball
3 Energy Retrieval
1 Level/Heavy Ball
1 Super Rod
1 Computer Search
-17

4 Professor Juniper
4 Bianca
3 Skyla
2 N
-13

1 Tropical Beach
-1

13 Water Energy
-13

Total – 55

This list gives a bit of room for techs, which include Mewtwo EX, Keldeo BCR 47, Super Scoop Up, Pokemon Center, and I’ve even experimented with Kyogre EX for a bit. You could also opt for more consistency, as a T2 Blastoise is always important and great when you can get it.

To play the hard-hitting variant, add a Cilan, Energy Retrieval, and 2 Water Energy and you should have yourself a variant that focuses on killing things in one hit.

Another good play is Ho-oh because it has no real autolosses and a favorable Blastoise matchup if you know how to play it. Speed is huge in this format because you can take out your opponent’s strategy completely if you have a good enough early-game, and Ho-oh is a great deck to play to get that speed.

Again, if you’ve never played Ho-oh, I can give you an example list to get you started, because Ho-oh is one of those decks that everyone should get to play.

3 Ho-oh EX
3 Mewtwo EX
2 Tornadus EX
2 Terrakion NVI
1 Sigilyph DRX
-11

4 Ultra Ball
4 Pokemon Catcher
4 Energy Switch
3 PlusPower
3 Random Reciever
3 Switch
1 Computer Search
-22

4 Professor Juniper
4 N
2 Bianca
-10

1 Skyarrow Bridge
-1

4 Double Colorless
3 Fighting
2 Psychic
1 Lightning
1 Water
1 Fire (Got that Elemental Blast)
-12

Total – 56

Some possible techs include Landorus EX, Bouffalant DRX, Shaymin EX, and Registeel EX.

I think I’ve already explained this, but the reason I like Ho-oh in this metagame so much is because it has a good early game and a good late game. It’s amazing how many things this deck can do, and I like how playing a Water-weak EX hasn’t held it back. I don’t think this deck would be as popular if it weren’t for Pooka, but I’m glad that he has popularized this deck for us because I believe that it truly has the potential to be the BDIF. I bet it would be like Aspertia Eels if it weren’t for him: Good, but underrated.

I guess with Ho-oh you sometimes have to deal with poor flips, but this was never a problem for Pooka. You shouldn’t rely too much on Rebirth, and by the time you might need to you should have 2-3 Ho-oh already in the discard pile. It’s still a risk, but it’s probably a risk worth taking as Ho-oh is just amazing when it runs right, and it almost always runs right.

And finally, I’d like to touch on the deck I feel is the most underrated of any deck right now: Aspertia Eels. As you could probably guess from the deck’s name, it revolves around using Eelektrik to power up Colorless attackers, which you give an HP boost with Aspertia City Gym.

Here is a basic skeleton list to get you started, although to be honest I have no idea what a list should look like:

4-3 Eelektrik NVI

White Eel.

3 Bouffalant DRX
2 Tornadus EX
1 Mewtwo EX
1 Raikou EX
1 Emolga DRX
-15

4 Pokemon Catcher
4 Ultra Ball
3 Switch
3 Eviolite
3 Random Reciever
1 Super Rod
1 Computer Search
-19

4 Juniper
4 N
3 Bianca
-11

2 Aspertia City Gym
-2

7 Lightning Energy
4 Double Colorless
-11

Total – 58

As you can see, the list is a bit tight, but there’s a little wiggle room for techs. These include Zekrom BW, Regigigas EX, or my personal favorite, Zapdos NXD.

Let me advocate for Zapdos a bit: Let’s say you get a Random Spark on Turn Two. That 50 can set a Keldeo EX up for an OHKO from Bouffalant, or it can knock out a Tynamo your opponent has, or you can hit a Deino for 50 to then have Raikou come in and knock it out later. It’s completely untested, but I feel like Zapdos should get a bit of credit because it’s an interesting option for the deck.

So there you have it: The (In my opinion) most underrated deck in the format. I can see why people wouldn’t want to play it, but that’s a great deck and it’s definitely a great option if you want to play something good that people probably haven’t tested against. I love Bouffalant in this format, especially with Aspertia and Eviolite, and I want to see him used more often because he is amazing. I could even see an Aspertia Blastoise deck working (Although to be honest Eels are a much better engine). Tornadus EX is also amazing for early game pressure against decks like Blastoise, Hydreigon, and Klinklang that need to set Stage Twos up to win.

So that’s it! If you have any questions about the article or the decklists or comments about the metagame then feel free to let me know, we have a wonderful comment section below. I respond to everything, so go ahead and post. Good luck at Regionals if you’re going, and if I helped you choose a deck with this article that’s great, because this article was mostly for people who are unsure of what to play. I should have a Regionals report up if I do alright either here or on the SixPrizes forums, so check for that, and I should have something about Plasma out after Regionals. I bid you farewell until I decide to write again!

Deck Discussion Regional Championships

Regionals Preview

coolestman22 9 Comments

Hey OHKO people, it’s me, coolestman22 again. I wanted to get something out before Regionals, so I thought I’d do something like the Battle Roads preview I did back in May or something like that. I think what I’ll do is review the dominant decks from Autumn Battle Roads and then give you guys lists or something like that, so, without further ado, let’s get started.

Before I review any decks, I’ll post some results of Battle Roads. The results of the Battle Roads that The Top Cut has followed are the following (To save time I’m only doing the decks I’m covering):

Eels: 25 wins, 21 2nd, 45 3rd-4th.

Hydreigon: 24 wins, 26 2nd, 34 3rd-4th.

Ho-oh: 7 wins, 6 2nd, 4 3rd-4th.

Hydreigon

In my opinion, Hydreigon has proven itself to be the BDIF of this format. Why I never got the deck to work is beyond me, Darkrai must just not like me. Even though the numbers show Eels as the top deck, Eels also has two different variants, and Hydreigon has only one.

The basic strategy of the deck is to use Darkrai EX to attack and use Hydreigon DRX 97 to move energy from one Darkrai to another, or to do 140 with Hydreigon’s attack. With Dark Trance, not only can you free retreat everything for no cost, you can also abuse max Potion and attack with anything without having to attach an energy. You can use Dark Patch to get energy flowing around, and you can use techs so long as they comply with Blend Energy GRPD, such as Siglyph or Shaymin EX.

In short, the deck functions a lot like the Klinklang BW deck that won U.S. Nationals. I always liked that deck, and I was happy when I heard it had won. I’m glad Hydreigon has proven to be good even though I didn’t get it to work.

Here is a skeleton list for Hydreigon decks:

Pokemon – 12
2 Hydreigon DRX 97
1 Zwelious (Either NVI or DRX 96)
3 Deino NVI
3 Darkrai EX
3 Sableye DEXT/S/S – 32
4 Professor Juniper
4 N
3 Bianca/Cheren
3 Random Receiver
4 Max Potion
3 Dark Patch
3 Rare Candy
3 Pokemon Catcher
3 Ultra Ball
2 Eviolite
1 Super Rod
1 Tool ScrapperEnergy – 11
7 Darkness Energy
4 Blend Energy GRPDTotal Cards – 57
Open Space – 3

Techs

Shaymin EX

To be honest, I’m not a big fan of Shaymin EX. My reasoning behind this is that for every game Shaymin is a big help and you wouldn’t have won without it, you’ll start with it. You’ll probably start with it a bit less, which means that yes, it would win you games to have the Shaymin.

However, it might win you more games to not have the Shaymin and to play another tech or Supporter or Dark Patch instead. If you opt to play a Supporter over the Shaymin and you just happen to have that Supporter and no other Supporter, then having that Supporter might be the difference between winning and losing.

However, I did say that I haven’t tested the deck, and I know people who do play it and say they like Shaymin a lot. If you want to play the deck I would suggest trying Shaymin out and seeing if it’s worth the deck spot and occasional lone Shaymin start.

Siglyph DRX

Of all the techs I’m going to mention, Siglyph is probably the one I like the most. It’s the only tech I play in the build I have online that I use to test against (Which honestly isn’t that good). Without Siglyph, a Mewtwo with a lot of energy will run you over, and you need a response to that. the only time I beat a Hydreigon deck with an Eels build all BR’s long was the time I played against a build without Siglyph, that I knew beforehand had no Siglyph.

However, earlier in the tournament that player played against a Hydreigon build that used two Siglyph, and won. It may be that he got lucky, or, more likely, the two consistency spots he had that his opponent had devoted to Siglyph, which was a relatively useless card in the matchup to my knowledge, might have been the difference between a win and a loss.

I think it definitely is worth playing Siglyph in a Hydreigon build if you don’t have a different response to Mewtwo, but if your area has more Hydreigon than Eels it might be wise not to play it, and instead play a Mewtwo counter that helps in the Hydreigon matchup more, such as, I don’t know. You’ll have to think this up yourself.

Giratina EX

Giratina EX is an interesting tech option in a Hydreigon deck. The place where I bvelieve it would help the most is against a Terrakion deck or any deck involving Terrakion, but honestly I don’t know what it’s for. All I know is that there are people who play Giratina EX in their Hydreigon build.

Reshiram EX

Reshiram is another one of those techs that doesn’t make sense to me. I know it would be helpful in the Hydreigon mirror match, and honestly that’s all I know. What you could do is, out of nowhere, drop your Reshiram, Dark Trance to it, move it up because all of your Pokemon have free retreat with the combination of Dark Trance and Dark Cloak, Catcher your opponent’s Hydreigon, and take a prize. However, if you don’t manage to get an Eviolite on your Reshiram and flip tails for the self damage, you could get one-shot right back and lose 2 prizes, 2 Blend, and 2 Dark if your opponent was able to either get another Hydreigon out or use a Giratina or Shaymin EX to get a knockout. Honestly though I don’t think it’s too likely you’ll be OHKOed unless you whiff on the Catcher and attack anyway.

Hydreigon NVI

The last tech I want to review is the Hydreigon from Noble Victories. While it isn’t too likely you’ll set it up, it is a good card and when you do set it up its attack is pretty good, but it’s also fairly situational.

I remember reading somewhere about the combination between Night Spear and Dragon Blast (Or whatever Hydreigon’s attack is called). Basically what you can do is if your opponent drops an EX with 160 or 170 HP, you can Night Spear and put the bonus damage on that. Then, you can Catcher that EX up and hit it for 140 and the knockout, and essentially draw two prizes with one attack (Especially if you drew a prize with the 90 from Night Spear). Well, with the NVI Hydreigon you can essentially use the same combination on any non-Eviolited EX. You can also snipe something else, either that has low HP, 130 and you want it to be within Night Spear range, or another EX to Dragonblast later.

If you can get an early Hydreigon NVI, that also helps big, because you can snipe two Swablu or Tynamo or other low HP basics of support Pokemon. If you don’t draw a prize with it off the basic, it puts pressure on them to evolve it next turn or have it knocked out. This might force them to play a Juniper over an N, discarding some key resources and thinning out the deck. If they don’t hit it, they will have wasted the resources and they won’t be able to get their support Pokemon out.

To learn more about Hydreigon decks, as i don’t know all about Hydreigon, here is a link to a very well-written article about Hydreigon.

Eelektrik

Eel decks are decks that I am much more comfortable with. I played Eels for all four of my Battle Roads and I escaped with 25 Championship Points, so I can definitely provide more insight on Eels than any other deck.

Right now, there are three different ways to play an Eel deck: Zekeels with Mewtwo, which is the box version, Rayquaza/Eels, and TerraEels. I have played all three variations and the one I like the best right now is the Terrakion version. Here is a basic list you can use, and then you can build on to it which variation you like the best:

This is what a Shiny Eel would look like.
Pokemon – 13
4 Eelektrik NVI
4 Tynamo Split (NVI 38, NVI 39, DEX 45)
2 Zekrom BW
1 Raikou EX
2 Emolga DRXT/S/S – 31
4 Professor Juniper
4 N
3 Cheren/Bianca
3 Random Receiver
4 Ultra Ball
3 Switch
3 Pokemon Catcher
2 Tools (Eviolite, Rocky Helmet, etc.)
2 Tool Scrapper
2 Level Ball
1 Super RodEnergy – 12
8 Lightning Energy
4 Tech Energy (Depending on your variant)Total – 56
Open Space – 4

To make it a straight Zekeels variant, you would add 2 Mewtwo EX and then either more consistency cards or a few techs, and make the tech Energy Double Colorless. To make it RayEels you would add two Rayquaza EX and 2 Shiny Rayquaza. For the Terrakion variant, you would add 2 Terrakion, a single Mewtwo, and something else.

Techs

Thundurus EPO

Thundurus was considered necessary in an Eel deck during the HS-NXD format, but I played without it to success. In this format it is a good idea, though, because of the format’s dependence on basics that turn into Stage Ones and Stage Twos. if you get a T1 Charge off and hit both of your manual energy attachments you can, on Turn Two, Catcher-KO a Deino, Tynamo, Swablu, Shelmet, Gible, Piplup, or whatever. It allows you to take an early lead, as well, which could help you out a lot in the prize race later on. It also discards energy for Dynamotor later on.

The problem with Thundurus is that it doesn’t have quite high enough of a damage output to be good in the late game. Unless your opponent is playing Quad Tornadus Thundurus just doesn’t get the OHKOes you need to win games later on. So to play Thundurus effectively, I have found you need to run enough to consistently start with it. You also need to use Call For Family on Turn One a lot, meaning that a T1 Charge can be, well, a bad idea sometimes.

Zapdos NXD

Zapdos is another one of those early-game cards, but there are a few things that separate Zapdos from Thundurus.

The first is that Zapdos requires a Double Colorless Energy to attack on Turn Two without support from Eels, whereas Thundurus doesn’t. This means that your energy attachments aren’t going to be as easy as they are on Thundurus.

The second is that Zapdos doesn’t require a Pokemon Catcher to attack what you want to attack (Unless you want to hit for Weakness or get around Resistance). In a format without Junk Arm this is a big deal, because you only get to use 4 a game. Not using them in the early game will not only mean that you have them later, but you also have a larger number of them later, meaning you are more likely to draw the Catcher to get the Shaymin EX or Eelektrik active to KO it and win the game. Conserving resources is important in this format, especially in a deck like this without access to Sableye DEX.

The third is that Thundurus puts your energy in the discard pile, while Zapdos doesn’t. While this does seem like a positive at first (And it mostly is), keep in mind that also means you’ll need to hit your manual energy attachment next turn and use it on Thundurus. This is mostly good, though, as discarding energy in this format is extremely hard without Junk Arm.

The fourth is that Thundurus has a higher damage output than Zapdos does. The 30 more means that Thundurus OHKOes the Deinos, Gibles, Shelmets, Archens, etc. that Zapdos doesn’t without some sort of damage support such as PlusPower.

Tornadus EX

Tornadus EX is mainly used in Eel decks as a counter to Fighting. if your meta has a lot of Terrakion EX decks or Terrakion decks, Tornadus EX is a good option. Otherwise, it’s bad in the mirror and you should steer clear.

Zekrom EX

Zekrom EX is another tech I don’t like. I was big on it last format, but this one it just isn’t as useful. The only Stage Two deck you’re likely to have troubles with is Hydreigon, and they will usually Catcher-kill your Eels and make it so that you can’t use Zekrom EX effectively, and Rocky Helmet (I played this last season in Eels) will just get Tool Scrapped, making it no longer very good against Mewtwo for these sort of situations.. If your meta is full of Garchomp, though, it’s a decent idea.

Energy Switch

Energy Switch isn’t a card I’ve experimented with yet, but it could be good in some situations. It’s good for getting the energy attached to your Emolga somewhere more useful. You can also pull some good plays with Mewtwo with it, and move the third energy from Zekrom BW after retreating it.

To learn more about Eel decks with a more in-depth article, I found a pretty good Eel deck article here. This article definitely isn’t as good as the Hydreigon one, but it provides you with wwhat you need to know. I do think 4-4 Eels is necessary in BW-on, however, and that’s the one part of the article I disagree with. (Do note that the article was written before Dragons Exalted came out, however).

Ho-oh EX

Ho-oh EX is a really cool deck. It has built-in energy acceleration, can hit for 180 with some effort, and is fast with the right list.

I haven’t been able to get the deck to work properly, but I am able to provide some sort of list:

Phoenix? More like Scottsdale.
Pokemon – 10-11
3 Ho-oh EX
3 Sableye DEX
4-5 Tech AttackersT/S/S – 32
4 Professor Juniper
4 N
3 Bianca
3 Random Receiver
4 Ultra Ball
4 Pokemon Catcher
4 Energy Switch
3 Switch
2 Tool Scrapper
1 Super RodEnergy – 17
4 Double Colorless Energy
3 Darkness Energy
10 other Basic Energy (At least one of each)Total – 59-60
Free Space – 0-1

Techs

Mewtwo EX

Mewtwo EX is probably the best tech to put in here. It can get a T1 donk, and it helps a lot against Mewtwo coming in and OHKOing Ho-oh. Mewtwo is Mewtwo, and it’s pretty necessary in a deck like this.

Tornadus EX

Tornadus EX is a tech that a lot of people like, but I don’t see a reason for. Ho-oh already has a Fighting Resistance, and it just gets zapped by Eel decks for 2 prizes. It is good with Stadiums for a T1 60, but unless you choose to run SAB you don’t run any Stadiums.

Darkrai EX

Since you’re already running all those darks for Sableye, why not give all your Pokemon free retreat? It seems logical enough. If you have space for a Darkrai, I’d suggest playing one.

Sigilyph DRX

Sigilyph would serve two purposes in the deck: countering EX’s, and countering Sigilyph. If you play a Sigilyph you can stall for a bit, especially against Eel variants that are a bit teched out. They would be forced to use Eelektrik’s attack, which is a 2HKO on Sigilyph, and in the process possibly lose an Eel.

Terrakion NVI                                                                                                                

Ah, Fighting, the meta’s weakness, and Terrakion does the best job of capitalizing on that of anything in the modified format. With a Tool Scrapper it can OHKO any Fighting-weak EX with an Eviolite attached, and it does so for only two energy assuming your opponent got an OHKO the following turn. If they don’t KO it back, you can attach another Fighting and OHKO another EX (With the help of a Tool Scrapper or Catcher in most scenarios). If that happens, which is pretty likely, you will have taken four prizes while only giving up one. Terrakion is just that good.

There are so many techs I could talk about, but since I need to get this article published before Regionals, I’m just going to link you to another article that talks about them. There weren’t many Ho-oh articles to choose from, but I feel the Skittles part of this 6P article did a good job:

I would love to cover some more decks, but I started this article way too late and I need to get it published now, so I’m going to hold off on them. Those are the three main decks of the format and if I wanted to win a tournament I would play one of those three, so I feel like that’s enough.

Anyway, as always, leave a comment below if you have a comment, I’m open to any feedback, discussion, or whatever else. And, of course, good luck at Regionals!

Regional Championships

Introduction, Mini Report and Statement of Intentions

James Hall 17 Comments

Hello all OHKO’ers.  This is James Hall.  I am the newest addition to the highly paid staff here at OneHitKO.com.

INTRODUCTION

First off, I am in my late 20’s and I work as a Web Content Manager for Lincoln Financial Group here in Fort Wayne, IN.  I have an AS degree in Multimedia and a BS in Digital Entertainment and Game Design.  I also run a local league here and am proud to say that Pokemon is revived here.  When I started attending a league back in 2009, there were three of us.  Now, we are sporting a total of 42 people total with an average of 20 a week.  Our Friday leagues are our competitive league designed to prepare for tournaments.  Every other Saturday we have our kids league where it is very laid back and just for fun.  You can check us out at www.summitcitypokemon.com.

I met Pikkdogs at a local tournament about two years ago and we have been buds ever since.  When I first started he helped me with my VileGar deck and we were play testing almost nightly.  We run into each other in the tournaments that are basically northern Indiana/Ohio and southern Michigan.

MINI REPORT

Alright enough about that, to give a level set I have been a Pokemon Professor for a little over a year now and have been running the leagues here for about one and a half years.  So far I have placed 6th at a Fort Wayne Cities and recently went 6-1 drop at the Regionals in Philly.

Since I work for LFG, their new headquarters is in Radnor, PA which is just outside of Philly, so I was lucky to be able to be there that weekend anyway.  I decided to run am aggressive Celebi/Mewtwo EX deck but because of how my 3 States went, I figured I would go 2/3 drop and be able to attend a company dinner later on in the evening.  So here it goes! OH YEAH! I forgot everyone’s name as I didn’t think I was going to do that well so I just didn’t take notes or anything to that effect.  So if someone I faced is reading this and can give me your name or fill in anything please feel free to add it into the comments below and I will adjust accordingly.

Round 1 – MagEels (Table 5?): I start a Celebi and Dual Ball into two Mewtwo EX’s.  I take out his active Magnemite turn one with a PlusPower.  He puts up a free retreat Tynamo and gets 2 more Magnemites and another Tynamo.  I then proceed to knock out the eel.  He eventually gets a Magnezone out and Lost Burns the only four energy on his field.  From here on the only thing I remember is knocking out the Magnezone and taking the rest of my prizes securely.

1-0:  HMMMM, that was nice.  Bet I lose the next one!

Round 2 – ZekEels (Table 29): I started Celebi and get a Mewtwo EX on the bench.  I basically was clearing his field of Tynamos and Zekrom and I believe the final prize count came down to his 3 to my 0.

2-0:  HOLY CRAP!  I have never started a tournament like this.  I have now used up all of my luck, my next game I am going to bomb.

Round 3 – Reshiphlosion (Table 30): Great, just what I wanted to see.  My roommate runs this deck and I have never been able to beat him so this is going to be it, my luck did run out.  We sit down and as we are shuffling she tells me that she just started in March and her friends built her this deck and she has had some incredible luck.  So I am thinking, ok, not so bad.  She starts a lone Reshiram and I start Celebi and nothing else.  I Pass.  She goes and outrages for 40.  The next turn I get 2 Mewtwos out and power one up.  I attack.  She goes next and benches a Cyndaquil and a Mewtwo EX.  I quickly take advantage of that misplay and catcher up her benched Mewtwo EX and PlusPower/DCE for 2 prizes.  From here on out she Blue Flares once and I pick off the 3 Cyndaquil and Reshiram for game.  After the match we sat there a while and gave her some pointers.

3-0: This was PURE LUCK!  Not going to go that way next time!

So at this point it was lunch time and I had lunch with a local friend of mine out in the main hall.  As we were finishing up I look up and see about a 5′ 8” Diglett walking by.  So I do what any other person does and get a picture with it.  I was supposed to go to lunch with a local work associate but because I was undefeated I called her and she was cool about it as she didn’t have to drive into the city.

 

Round 4 – CMT (Table 15): All I can remember from this game is that I got early KO’s on Celebi and Tornados and it finished with the Mewtwo wars.

4-0: I am freaking out.  I have NEVER been 4-0.  I remember thinking, watch, next I’ll face Durant and have my deck and confidence devoured.

Diglett used Dig!... or Deflate... -_-

Round 5 – Durant (Table 2): OK, so this has been one of the most epic matches I have had.  She mulligans and I see that she is running Durant.  So I think, the only way to pull this off is the Rotom donk.  But the chances of that are very unlikely.  I go first and she turns over a lone Rotom.  I have Celebi active and energy in hand.  I Dual Ball for 1 Mewtwo EX, bench it.  I Forest Breath an energy to him and drop a SkyArrow Bridge and Juniper.  I draw Grass, Junk Arm, Junk Arm, PlusPower and three other cards.  I PULLED IT OFF!  This was such a breath holder of a moment that the players at table 1 actually stopped and watched to see if I pulled it off.

5-0: I was on Cloud 9 at that moment.  I have surpassed the best I have ever been.  I actually had a good chance at this tournament.

Round 6 – Lilligant (Table 1): Never played against this deck before so I was going in blind.  My strategy was just to keep Mewtwos cycling and hope for the best.  I got going and took a prize early and he Twins’d into a Vileplume but Lady Luck was on my side as I always had a Grass and DCE in my hand.  He was able to knock out one Mewtwo EX but he only paralyzed me once the whole game so I just kept retreating and attaching energy to Mewtwo and won on prizes.

6-0: Speechless.  I was guaranteed top cut at that moment.  I was beyond happy!

Round 7 – ZekEels (Table 1): This is where my luck ran out.  My opponent actually shuffled my deck instead of cutting initially.  I started a lone Celebi as usual.  We went back and forth on prizes and the Mewtwo war was done fast.  We were down to one prize a piece and he had to get a catcher for the lone Celebi I had on the bench and Bolt Strike it.  He didn’t have it in hand but he Junipered into a Junk Arm.  VERY GOOD GAME!

6-1: I feel great, but it is cut short.

I get a text about Dinner and I didn’t have the option to not go.  So I circle that I am dropping.  To all who were on the bubble, you are welcome.  To all whom I ruined your resistance, I am sorry from the bottom of my heart.  I go and say goodbye to the new people I met from Jersey and some Ohio players that I knew and head out.

That was fun and the vast majority of the players there were really awesome and I enjoyed each match.

INTENTIONS

My goal as a writer for this site is pretty simple.  I want to work with Pikkdogs on his articles and give some relief to Pedro.  I will also be doing tournament reports and different musings.  The one standard thing that I am going to do is a week-in-review where I will culminate all the news for the week into one article and give links out to their respective areas.  I plan to cover the TCG, VG and Anime.  If you guys have anything specific you would like to see please let me know and I will do my best to work on it or if I feel that I am not fit for the article I will pass it on to Pikkdogs with all of his infinite wisdom.

I hope you enjoyed my first article and please, if you critique, be constructive and please provide details.

Regional Championships Tourney Report

TAndrewTourney: Midwest Regionals 2012 in Madison, WI

TAndrewT 7 Comments

Before my Spring Regionals report, a confession: I wasn’t originally planning to go to Regionals. One of the things I like most about Pokémon TCG is its unpredictability—that with so many cards in format, you never know what combinations you’ll see in a tournament. I really enjoyed the City Championships (HS-NVI) format, where there were a lot of viable decks, and the metagame continued to evolve over the course of the winter. I think that some competitive players felt exactly the opposite about that time—that a Cities format with so many decks became a game of rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock, where it was difficult or impossible to practice a strategy that would win the most games. But the metagame had narrowed a lot by the State Championship series, partly because of the release of Mewtwo EX, and partly because of the steadily increasing advantage that Basic Pokémon now have. Going into Regionals, it seemed like almost everyone was either playing Zekrom/Mewtwo/Eels or Celebi/Mewtwo/Tornadus. And I didn’t like that one bit. So I didn’t play in any of the States events (though I did serve as a judge at MN States). And I resolved to stay in the Twin Cities last weekend, and catch a few of the Regionals matches on TheTopCut’s TwitchTV streams, instead of making the drive to Wisconsin.

But just two weeks out, I heard that the Hilton hotel adjacent to the Madison Convention Center venue had dropped the price of rooms for the weekend to $55/night—and, well, I guess my resolve was weaker than I thought! My son Paul and I did some furious, last-minute Ebaying to pick up the Mewtwos we needed to make one Zek/Eels and one CMT deck. Paul picked CMT, which meant that I was playing Zek/Eels, having never played the deck before. My goal for the weekend, as a result, was just to not be humiliated too badly.

Here’s the list I ran:

2  Tynamo NVI-38 3  Pokémon Collector 9  Lightning
2  Tynamo NVI-39 4  Professor Juniper 4  Double Colorless
3  Eelektrik 3  N
3  Mewtwo EX 3  Professor Oak’s New Theory
2  Zekrom BW 4  Junk Arm
1  Thundurus 3  Pokémon Catcher
1  Tornadus 2  Dual Ball
1  Tyrogue 2  Level Ball
 2  Switch
 2  Pokégear 3.0
2  PlusPower
1  Eviolite
1  Super Rod
15  Pokémon 32  Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums 13  Energy

This list was just slightly modified from one that I had made and proxied for the deck some two months earlier, so my apologies if it looks behind the times.

The event venue was awesome—a giant room that could easily fit all 320 players that had shown up for the day, and lots of extra space for families and for relaxing between rounds. I said hi to all of the MN locals that I knew, but soon enough, pairings were posted and we were off!

Round 1: Philip (Jumpluff/Accelgor/Sunflora)

As we were finding our seats, the judges passed out the promo card for the tournament, a Shelmet that most tournament-goers already have umpteen copies of by now. Philip smiled, and told me he might very well use it in his deck. I thought he was joking, but when he flipped over his face-down Pokémon to start the game, there was Shelmet, on his bench! I had started lone Mewtwo EX, and he started Hoppip Active. He played a Sunkern to the bench on his opening turn, but it really didn’t matter; I had a DCE in hand turn 1, and I just started loading up Mewtwo and taking things out. Phil mentioned it was his first TCG tournament, and was relieved to learn that unlike the video game tourney, his first loss didn’t knock him out for the whole day. I hope you had a good time Philip!
1-0

Round 2: Curtis Dietrich (Zek/Eels)

I see Curtis almost every week at Source Comics’ league in Saint Paul, so it was too bad that I had to play him at Regionals. Curtis had finished third at MN States, so I knew I was in for a challenging game. We both set up fairly slowly, but once we both started hitting supporters, I misplayed by dropping a Mewtwo on the bench instead of Junipering it, and then watched as Curtis Catcher-KO’d it to go up 5-2. At that point, I had just one chance to win this game—N Curtis down to 2 cards, get a Junk Arm and an energy from my draw, revenge KO his Mewtwo and hope that he drew garbage over the next two turns. All of those things happened, and I managed to steal this game from Curtis on sheer luck.
2-0

Round 3: Colin Peterik (QuadBulls)

Colin is well known in the TCG community as a strong player, so I knew I was in trouble even before the match started. Colin mulliganed a couple of times, and I saw plenty of fighting energy in those mulliganed hands, and that worried me even more. So when Colin flipped over his active Terrakion, I could only guess he was playing QuadBulls, which wasn’t good for me. Colin won the coin flip, but his start was pretty weak, and after he N’d us first turn, he still had a weak hand. Unfortunately, I also got garbage off of the N, and was limited to just 2 Tynamos and a Tyrogue for the first couple of turns. I gamely tried to stall with the baby, and then with Tynamo’s Thunderwave, but I missed the flips.But I doubt it mattered anyway. Colin had all four Terrakions up by turn 4 or so, taking a prize or two every turn, and I was going to have a tough time against Terrakion hitting me for weakness. Colin went on to place 7th in the event, so I don’t feel too bad, but Colin had a weak start, and it was too bad that I couldn’t capitalize on it.
2-1

Round 4: Kevin Goveia (Durant)

There were actually a surprising number of Durants at the tournament, which was great for me—Zek/Eels has a strong Durant matchup. Even better, Kevin started with Rotom, and didn’t hit a Collector the entire game, which limited his Devour attacks to three cards or less while I KO’d one of his guys every turn. But Kevin was clearly having fun, even though it seemed like he’d rather be playing Magic; he had MTG names for everything in the game. (“And Revive lets me search my Graveyard for a Durant.” Search your what?)
3-1

Round 5: Calvin Chang (Zek/Eels)

Calvin is an undergrad at the University of Minnesota, where I’m a professor, and so I get to see Calvin both at Pokémon events and occasionally on campus. A couple of weeks ago, Calvin e-mailed me to say that he was going to register for the Organic Chemistry II class that I teach over the summer, and that he was excited to take it. So before we play, we both have a laugh about what happens if I lose our upcoming matchup. Calvin and I ended up on very different strategic paths in this game: I successfully took out all of Calvin’s Eels, but he gradually loaded up his attackers, took out my Zekroms and Thundurus, and kept a Shaymin in his hand to move energies where he needed them and maintain a lead. I think I still could have won if I had been able to play N near the end, but all my Eel catchering had exhausted my Junk Arms, so I couldn’t Pokégear for it, and I didn’t manage to draw into one (even though I hadn’t played one all game). Great match—though, I think I *will* have the last laugh.
3-2

Round 6: Kevin Forbes (CMT)

Kevin is a Pokédad from Indianapolis who I know from the Pokégym boards, and it was great to meet him in person! Interestingly, not only were he and I 3-2 at this point, but so were my son Paul and his son Justin, and our sons got paired up this round too. I started just terribly, with no supporters for turns and turns, while he set up just fine and started taking prizes. I tried to stall with Tyrogue and Thunderwave again, against a Catchered-up Regigigas, but he had the cards he needed to escape all that, and took this match very quickly. On the plus side, Paul won against Justin, putting Paul at 4-2 for the day. But Paul’s resistance wasn’t high enough to secure one of the two available top cut slots for 4-2 players, and so Paul finished his day in 11th place out of 57 Juniors.
3-3

Round 7: Alejandro Luna (Durant)

Like my Round 4 opponent, Alejandro started Rotom, and had terrible luck getting things going. I actually won this game after just 3 KO’s by benching him, which is surprising given all the tools that Durant has for recovering KO’d Durants. Alejandro was a great-spirited opponent, and I hope I didn’t irritate him by spending most of our game trying to convince him to transfer from Northern Illinois U. to Univ. Illinois. (If you’re reading this Hondo, with a 4.0 GPA, you gotta do it.)
4-3

Round 8: Chad Spinks (Zek/Eels)

Chad and I were both super-relaxed for this match—we were exhausted, and we knew we had no real chance to top cut. This is the first game in which I played all four Junipers in my deck, which actually meant that when I played the last one for the last 7 cards in my deck, I knew exactly what I was about to draw. And that it was exactly what I needed to Catcher up the Mewtwo on his bench for my last two prizes. I talked Chad’s ear off this game, and at the end he actually thanked me for it—I guess his previous opponents had been really quiet. Not gonna get that from me!
5-3

So I finish 44th out of 201 Masters for the day. Way better than I expected! A few final observations:

  • I had originally planned to play Smeargle in the deck, but took it out for an additional Pokégear. I think that was a mistake. The Pokégear helped, but Smeargle would have gotten me out of a couple of rough starts, even though I had no Skyarrow Bridge to retreat him for free. I had cut him because I felt he was an easy prize once he hits the board, but let’s face it—with 30 HP Tynamos everywhere, a ZekEels’ opponent doesn’t have trouble finding easy prizes. With the next set there will be even more cards that we’ll be squeezing into our already crowded decks, and I think Smeargle can help with that by reducing the total number of supporters we will need to play.
  • All of my Zek/Eel opponents played Shaymin, which they used to help KO Mewtwos that I cavalierly placed on the bench. (“But he has no energy on him—he must be safe!”) Maybe I should have played Shaymin in my deck. Or just been more careful with Mewtwo.

In any case, it was great to see all of the MN area players in Wisconsin, and to meeting new friends from all over the Midwest. I’m looking forward to seeing many of you at upcoming Pre-Releases and Battle Roads!

Regional Championships

Pikkdogs Great Lakes Regionals Report.

Pikkdogs 9 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOERS out there, this is Pikkdogs here with a tournament report from the 2011 Fall Great Lakes Regionals.  Just a note for you guys, we have been having a lot technical problems with our server lately.  So we apologize for that stuff, Ed is trying to figure out what the problem is and if it will be fixed soon.  We ask that you bear with us with the delays, this article was delayed two days, so we are sorry for the delays.

Intro

                After Zekrom ended the Battle Road season very strong, I was not very excited about the format.  So I did not get a lot of practice in, in fact, I did not decide on my deck choice until about half an hour before the tournament started.  So when I decided to go to regionals, I knew very well that I was never going to cut.  The night before, I decided to make a Gothitelle deck because I thought it would be fun to play.  I didn’t get much chance to play-test it, but the testing I did do did not turn out well.  I could set Gothitelle up, but then my deck would stall.  So I needed to switch to something else or fix Gothitelle.  Before the tournament started, I decided to go back to my Donphan and Dragons deck, which is more of a Donphan/Tornadus/Zekrom deck.  If you guys want a list you can request one in the comment box.

I decided to go to the regionals in Fort Wayne, Indiana with my buddy and fellow onehitko writer, Mark.  I woke up early at 4:30 A.M. and warmed up some rolls for breakfast.  Then I watched a little tv and went to pick up Mark.  We ended up making very good time and made it to Fort Wayne in less than 3 hours.  The tournament ended up having about 220 masters, including people from Minnesota, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and the magical land of Canada.  It was really nice to see most of my friends from the area.  Almost all of my Team Warp Point buddies were there, James and the Fort Wayne players showed up to defend their turf, and my buddy Andy drove with a bunch of some of the cool Minnesota players; it was nice seeing all of those guys again.  I also got to meet some new people, I finally got to meet The Top Cut’s Kyle “Pooka” Sucevich.  I didn’t get to talk to him too much, but he seemed like a nice guy and it was nice to finally meet him in person.

Another cool part of the day was that I decided to where my Halloween costume.  I had decided to dress up as my buddy Frank S. for Halloween night at The two Franksthe league that Team Warp Point runs.  But, I was not able to make it to the event, so I wore it to regionals.  Frank always wears his Sonic shirt but for some reason he decided to make me mad and wear something else, oh well, at least the hat and the snake were right.  You can see the pictures to the right.  Anyway, that is enough distractions for the moment, let’s go to the tourney report.

Tournament Report

Round 1 against Reshiboar

`               My first round was against a new comer from Michigan with the last name of Moncreif.  I loved that because I am a big fan of the play, “The Importance of Being Earnest,” and there is a character in that play with the same name.  Unfortunately, the game was not as exciting as his name.  He started with a Reshiram and a Tepig, and I started with  a Phanpy and a Tornadus.  I go first and attach to Phanpy and pass.  On his turn he doesn’t do much, and passes to me.  On my turn I evolve to Donphan Prime and use a Pokemon Catcher and Plus Power to knock out the Tepig.  On his turn he uses a Professor Oak’s New Theory, but can’t come up with any more Pokemon, and passes again.  It takes me two more turns to knock out the Reshiram after he whiffed on another supporter and  I got another Plus Power.

1 – 0.   didn’t expect to do too much today, but I had a good start. 

Round 2 against Zekrom

My opponent was a guy named James who was from Columbus, Ohio.  We had the Michigan/Ohio State rivalry going in full force.  I happened to be playing with blue sleeves, and he had red sleeves.  Even though I knew I wasn’t doing well today, I knew that I had to beat this guy for Michigan.  This game was pretty much like the first.  He started first with Zekrom and I had Tornadus.  I had a bad hand with 3 Donphan Primes and a Professor Juniper, luckily he decided to Judge it away on the first turn.  I didn’t end up with a great hand, but it was good enough to get a Phanpy on the field.  On his next turn he used another supporter like PONT, but he was not able to find another basic, he did get to knock out my Tornadus.  On my turn I used a Sage’s Training to get both a Plus Power and a Donphan Prime for the win.

  2 – 0.   Another good win, but I know that there was still a lot more tournament to be played.

Round 3 against Zekrom/Magnezone/Vileplume

This game was against Moncriefs’ friend J.W.  The game started off pretty poorly as I had to mulligan 3 times to get a basic.  But it improved as I got two Donphan Primes by my second turn.  I then was able to use Supporters to draw into Pokemon Catchers.  With those Catchers I was able to knock out an Oddish and 2 Mangemites.  Eventually he was able to setup Vileplume and Magnezone, but I was down to 2 prizes left at this time.

Troll and Toad was at Regionals too.

 

3 – 0 Well I did get another win and I was happy to be undefeated at the lunch break.  Mark and I were able to drive on over to Five Guys Burgers and Fries and got a couple of crazy good burgers.  This was actually Marks first time to 5 guys, so it was nice to introduce him to the one of the happiest places on earth.

 

Round 4 against Gothitelle.

This round was against Sarah, she is known throughout the area as the best Gothitelle player around.  This ticked me off because my deck does not have a single Gothitelle tech in it.  The only way I can win this game is if I am able to take control of the game early with Pokemon Catchers, and knock out all of the Gothitas.  This did not happen in this game.  I started with a Zekrom and she started with a Gothita.  I attached a DCE, but was not able to get a Phanpy going until the next turn.  Sarah was not having a good time  in setting up either, but I knew she had Twins in her hand just waiting for a chance to use them.  I decided that I had to eventually take a prize, so I knocked out one of the Gothitas.  As expected, she used Twins about 3 times in a row to get setup.  My only hope now was that she had prized her Blissey Prime or something, but she was able to control the game and do whatever she wanted.  She used Blissey once, and then a couple turns later she used Seeker and “Mad Kinesis” for the win.

My buddy Matt K. (right) in action.

3 – 1 Good job Sarah, she played the deck well.  I just had no counters against it, so she was able to control the game easily.  I was not very mad at this game, I knew I had no chance against decks like this.

Round 5 against Ross Deck

As I mentioned, I have a bad Gothitelle matchup.  I also have a bad Ross Deck matchup.  I need to knock out the Oddishes and Solosi before they can evolve.  At first I was doing really well. I started with Phanpy and was able to get Donphan with an energy on turn 2.  I used Pokemon Catcher to knock out an Oddish on turn 2.  On his next turn he used Twins to get a Suicine/Entei Legend out.  I decided that SEL was a big threat because it could hit Donphan for weakness, so I used Pokemon Catcher to attack it for 90.  He was able to knock out my Donphan on his next turn, but I used Tornadus to get the revenge knock out for 2 prizes.  On his next turn he again used Twins, but was not able to get much going.  On my turn I used Pokemon Catcher to knock out a Phanpy, and then got another knock out next turn.  But before I could take my 6th prize, he setup Vileplume and Reuniclus.  After this he was able to make sure his Donphan Prime kept free of damage counters.  And was able to slowly knock out 6 Pokemon for the win.

 

3 – 2. I never expected to do well at this tournament, and here was my wakeup call.  I knew I had to win out from here on to top cut.

Round 6 against Donphan and Dragons

This game was against another Donphan player, this guy was from Fort Wayne and is a league member with my buddy James.  I have talked to him several times about the deck, and we have talked a little about the game before so it was nice to finally meet him in battle. 

I can’t recall too much about the specifics of this game, but I think he had a tough time setting up.  I think I had a Phanpy start and a fairly easy Donphan Prime.  I used Pokemon Catchers to take out his bench, so that left him with only one Donphan Prime to contend with.  I was able to use Donphan Prime and Tornadus to finish off the last Donphan and get the win.  Hopefully we have more interesting battles in the future. 

4 – 2. I kept my hope alive here with a win.  It’s nice to at least be in the hunt at this point.

 

Round 7 versus Primetime.

I had a really poor start in this match.  I probably should have won the game, but I just had some bad luck that prevented me from going on.  I started with a Zekrom, I eventually got a turn 2 or 3 Donphan, but had a hard time of getting it going.  On about his 5th turn he was able to respond to a knockout with my Donphan with an attack by Magnezone Prime.  I was able to get back going with the help of Tornadus and a couple Donphan Primes, but he had started taking prizes way before I did.  I ended the game by having 1 prize left as he took his last.

Andy W. (left) is also in action.

4 – 3.  I knew my small hopes of top cutting were over, so I started looking at the side events to see when a new 8 man tournament would start.  But there was not one until after the next round, so I decided to stay and play.

Round 8 versus Ross Deck

Ross Deck and Gothitelle were my two worst matchups, and I managed to play them three times.  This game was against Abraham from Wisconsin.  I think he was one of Pooka’s friends.  He seemed like a really nice guy and we talked about Wisconsin before the match started, since I was born in that state.  In my last Ross Deck game I was able to get 5 prizes before he setup, this time was much worse.  I did start with a Phanpy, but so did he.  I did knock out an Oddish with Pokemon Catcher, but he used Pokemon Collector to get a lot more basics out.  By his 4th or 5th turn he got all setup and I just decided to scoop.  I was fairly tired from a long day of Pokemon, and didn’t want to fight another losing battle.

The Aftermath

So I fizzled out to 4-4 after a 3-0 start, but my buddy Mark had better luck.  I will not tell you too much about how he did since Mark will probably write an article himself.  But I will say that he did Top Cut and eventually made top 16.  Since I had to wait around for Mark I decided to play in a side event with my friend James.  In my first game I played a Reshiphlosion deck and beat it in a long game.  In my second match I played James who was playing my Gothitelle deck.  Of course I again lost to a stupid Reuniclus deck.   One funny part was that during my first match I noticed that my buddy Andrew was walking by so I looked at him.  While I was distracted, Bruce the judge tried to throw a pack to the person who was sitting right next to me.  But instead of throwing to him, Bruce hit me right in the mouth with it.  The really bad part was that I didn’t even get to keep the pack.

 

After the side tournament Mark and I added Cody B. to our group after he also made top 16.  We were going to get a motel, but I wasn’t happy about having to pay for a room when I wanted to go home.  Luckily my buddy James stepped in and said we could stay with him for the night.  Dustin Z. from Indiana also joined us and we stopped at Arby’s before we got to James’ apartment.  After ordering, we got lucky and the Arby’s people gave us some free chicken, onion rings, and mozzarella sticks.  So  big thanks to Arby’s, that was really good.  Then we went to James and just about collapsed as we walked in, and woke up just in time for top 16 the next morning.  I won’t spoil the story of what happened to Mark, so let’s skip to the ride home.  We ended up stopping at a McDonalds and talked about cartoons and other television shows (Anime sucks by the way), and then we listened to “Family Guy: Live in Las Vegas” until we got home.

 

It ended up being a really fun trip.  I didn’t win, but I didn’t expect to, so that’s okay.  A big thanks to James for saving us and putting us up for the night.  Cities starts in only two weeks, so good luck to everybody who will be trying to get a hold of the new cards and make new decks.

 

So long and thanks for all the fish!

Regional Championships

Review of Battle Roads and your first Regionals Preview

Pikkdogs 6 Comments

Hello all you Earthlings.  Today we have an article about the ending of Fall Battle Roads.  Let me now introduce to you your author for this evening,  the other rock star from Mars, Pikkdogs!!

Why what an introduction, Pedro.  What has gotten in to you?  You usually are not this nice.

Well, I thought I would give you a good entrance to make you feel better about your dissapointing fall battle road season.  

Here we go, I thought there must have been something up your sleeve. 

No, nothing up my sleeve. I just thought it could be pretty bad to go to 6 tournaments without winning any.  0-6 is a tough thing.  Read More

Regional Championships

Review of Regionals 2011 and Testing Tips

Pikkdogs No Comments

A big hello to all members of Omar-Nation, this is Pikkdogs here.  I hope everyone had fun at Regionals this year.  Because of school, I was not able to make it to my regionals, but the high gas prices made me not so mad about not having to drive over 6 hours.

Even though I did not make it to regionals, other people did.  Regionals were full of a lot of people running a lot of different decks.  This article will give you a short Regionals wrap-up, and give you some tips for testing for Spring Battle Roads.  Regionals will not be a great indicator of what will happen at BRs and Nationals, this is because of new rule changes, but we should still review it anyway.

What won Regionals?

It was no surprise to see what won Regionals.  Here is what won:

7 Luxchomp
2 Vilegar
1 Sablelock
1 Machamp/Vileplume
1 MagneRock
Read More

Regional Championships

Topping Midwest Regionals with Andy Wieman

Andy Wieman 8 Comments

After a very disappointing run at states (6-1 then losing in Top 8 at MN States, then going 3-3 in NV) I was sure of two things: 1) I would be playing LuxChomp again and 2) I was going to fit Dialga in my list.  Dialga was only a 1-1 tech, but it helped with a tremendous number of matchups.  Some of the matchups that I want Dialga in against are: Mewperior, Donphan, Uxie/Shuppet donk, Charizard, Machamp/Vileplume and Vilegar.  Add all of these plus the fact that I refused to scoop to Mewtwo (as I did in round 6 of MN States to Radu) and Dialga was going to make the cut.  I was debating a few other spots in the deck, but never questioned the deck itself.  I also had one spot built in because I had determined I wasn’t going to run Weavile G (something I would later regret).  The Lostgar threat turned out to be non-existent and I felt Dialga helped the Vilegar matchup more.  The other change to the deck since states that I LOVED was the inclusion of Twins.  It can tilt the mirror single handedly, and is an all around great card.

That's Andy To the Right (next to Mike and across from Pooka and Nick)

The week before the event, I had my list settled except for three slots.  I was questioning my Energy Gain/Power Spray/Junk Arm count.  I currently had it at 4/2/1.  If felt the extra energy gain helped a lot in the mirror, and the Sprays would be less than optimal against Spiritomb and Vileplume decks.  I later switched it to 3/3/1 and felt that the more well-rounded approach would be better, but I would later regret this change.  I was also debating my Bebe’s/Communication count; I was currently at 2/0.  Jay Hornung advocated Communication, but I felt that the chance of prizing the single Bebe’s that I needed to get Dialga G Lvl. X against trainer lock was too much, so I decided to stick with 2/0.  My last question was whether I would cut my 3-1 Uxie line down to fit 1 Chatot.  I felt that the 3rd Uxie helped so much against the possible wave of Machamp that I needed to leave it in.

I get to the tournament a half hour before registration ends, turn in my final list (I switched the Gain/Spray count that morning) and wait a LONG time before the event gets under way.
Read More

Regional Championships

Midwest Regional Championships Report: From Hero To Zero

Ed 4 Comments

Well, I don’t really think I was ever a “hero” but it sounded good in the title. Maybe a better title would have been “Riches to Rags,” but it’s already up there. My previous installment saw me winning the Minnesota state tourney, so that’s what I’m talking about with “Hero” or “Riches.” The “Zero” and “Rags” will be discussed below.

Radu Vs. Andy

Read More

Regional Championships

Interview and Pictures From WI Regional

Ed 5 Comments

Hey guys. This will be a quick post. Check out this YouTube video. It’s an interview I did with Steven Reich of the Poke Press this last weekend right after I got eliminated from the regional tournament. Steven seems like an interesting fellow. I guess he’s been covering Pokemon events for around 10 years, and he runs a league, too. If you want to see more of his videos, check out the Poke Press YouTube channel.

In addition, I am finally posting the pictures that I took at the tournament. They are nothing special, but I figured that I ought to include them somewhere. Those are just after the video.


Read More

Next Page »

You Missed

Freeplaytech

New Handheld Retro Video Game System For You Pokemon Fans

Trouble With Robots

iOS/Android Collectible Card Game, Trouble With Robots

Trouble With Robots

New Card Game – Trouble With Robots – iOS/Android

OneHitKO.com Budget Challenge

OHKO Budget Challenge: Round Two (Fight!)