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Like Jerry Seinfeld, Pikkdogs is Even Steven, Rochester Hills Cities Report

Pikkdogs 18 Comments

My fellow Seinfeld fans will appreciate the reference to the episode where Jerry continually loses things and then gains things back again.  This is how I felt today at the Rochester Hills City Championships. No matter how hard I fight to break away from the crutches of mediocrity, it pulled me back in, but then I was reminded that it wasn’t that bad.                            Austino's Gyarados

The story of the 2010 Rochester Hills Michigan City Championship begins on Friday afternoon.  I got back from my jog and fired up the computer.  I got a message from Derek, our tournament organizer, saying that he expects a record draw to the next cities and reccomends that we all show up early.  I decided to pass that info on to my buddy Jona, and hope to make it there when registration starts, at 11.  I end up making it by 11:10, the parking lot was full, but I was able to register.  At about 11:20, they begin turning people away, because the fire code only lets 70 people in the building.  This left several players, including last years state champion, away from the tournament.  When I saw this I thought I might have a better shot today, with a cut of top 8 and one less great player.

Lets backtrack here to when I first chose my deck.  Last weekend I went to a cities and wanted to play Gyarados, but mine wasn’t working properly, so I threw together a Magnezone deck.  It was pretty cool, probably the best Magnezone deck I ever seen.  It was a little slow, but once it got going it was unbeatable.  I went to the cities with that deck, and played a Luxchomp, Sablelock, and SP Toolbox.  The Luxchomp made quick work of me, I got donked by sablelock (but then beat him easily in the rematch), and then lost to the SP toolbox, which I had beat the previous night in testing.  After receiving a bye, I went home pretty angry.  The next week I took Ed’s advice and used Austino’s Gyarados List.  This is a basic Gyarados build, so I won’t explain the list.  I like the list because, its all consistency, it only has 1 tech, and this is Dialga G Lv.X, for the trainer lock matchup.  I made 1 small change to his list(another Pokemon Communication instead of a VS seeker) and went with that list. If you wanna see the list you can find it at:

http://www.sixprizes.com/deck-analysis/the-elite-4-decks-part-24-gyarados/ .

Its in the comment section.

Before getting to the tournament, I cranked up the jams from the CD “Family Guy: Live in Las Vegas”, and made the one hour drive north to Rochester Hills.  Once I got there I turned in my list, saw my freind Jona, lent him a card, and then played him in a practice game.  When parings were up I went to the table to meet my first opponent.

Round 1 v.s Cradily.

I think I start Sableye and he starts with two Root Fossils.  I was kinda shaken up cause I didn’t know what deck he was playing.  I remembered seeing the Cradily card, but for the life of me couldn’t remember what it did.  I start a little slower then I want to having to “Time Walk” for a Magikarp, he starts a little slow as well.  When he finally gets  a Cradily I look at it, and see that it has two attacks, “Drain Down” does 30 (for G) damage to a Pokemon on the bench that you can make active and you can heal all damage counters if you knock out that Pokemon, and “Acid” which does 50 (for GCC) and prevents retreating.                                                 

I actually start fairly well after a little slow beginning. I end up taking 5 prizes with a couple good “Flash Bite” drops.  For most of the game he didn’t do much, he once got my Regice active, but I was able to warp him out.  Then all of a sudden he goes crazy out of no where.  He drops 3 SF Cherrims and Shaymin Ground Form Level X, which gives him +30 for all attacks and +40 HP.  He then proceeds to drop Plus Powers and attach an expert belt to knock out Uxies and Crobat G’s with “Drain Down” and heal all damage.  He does this until he takes 4 prizes.  After this, I become very annoyed and decide that I will take no more of this.  I scoop up all Uxies, the Regice, and the Azelf, then I Poke-Turn all Crobat G’s, which leaves the bench empty.  With nothing on the bench, he can’t really do anything and loses when I am able to “Tail Revenge” for the win.

1-0, I commend him on the great comeback, and then get ready for round 2.

Round 2- v.s. Collan Baker and SP Toolbox.

Collan is a friend from Team Warp Point.  I beat him at BR’s at this same venue, and he was looking for some revenge.  I think I start with Uxie and Regice, I pass first turn, the second turn he starts to set up, on my 2nd turn I use collector for Karp, Sableye, and Azelf.  I try to “Regimove” but I get sprayed.  So I scoop up Regice and “Regimove” again, this time I get it.  Then I use Azelf (cause I notice that I prized 2 Magikarps), but when I say “Time Walk” he says “Power Spray.”  So I thought, “no matter I’ll just scoop up Azelf next turn.  5 Super Scoop Ups later I am unable to get a heads and with only 1 karp in the discard pile, my Gyarados is no threat to him.  He just knocks it out and continues to watch as I am unable to get a heads on Super Scoop Up.  I then scoop as time is called.

1-1.  Not much can be done when you prize 2 Magikarps and are unable to get to them.  When I look at the pairings for next round I notice that I get paired up, yay!

Round 3- v.s. Trainerlock

I enter this game still fuming about the 5 tails I got last turn.  But, there’s no time to think about that, I am playing one of my worst matchups.  I don’t start Sableye, but I get him my 2nd turn and collector for 2 Magikarps and my Dialga G.  He starts with 2 Oddish’s, it takes him a while but he does get a SF Gengar out.  I have to waste my Bebe’s Searchs so I cannot get Dialga G X out in time.  I also prize Azelf and Regice, and since I am under trainerlock I have to use Volkners to discard Magikarps.  Towards the middle of the game I get 9 damage counters on Gengar SF, 2 Crobat G’s in my hand, and the Dialga G X.  But just as I am about to bust the game wide open, he uses a Lookers Investigation on me and puts my awesome hand into the deck.  Without the Crobats, I am unable to avoid Fainting Spell, and Gengar takes me with him as I knock him out.  After this I cannot rebound, so I lose another one.                                                                                            

1-2.  Not much can be done about a bad matchup and another bad coin flip.  But a little luck is just around the corner.

Round 4- Trainerlock.

I play another Trainerlock deck, but this one is teched out more with Slowking HGSS and Bellossom Ud.  Those techs are nice, but it seemed to hurt his consistency.  This time I set up faster then his trainerlock does and am able to get setup fast.  The turning point was when I knocked out a Gengar SF and avoid the “Fainting Spell”.  This gives me a huge advantage, and I am able to beat the Bellossom, Vileplume, and Cursegar.

2-2- This time the coin flips go my way.  After this game I look at the parings and I again get paired up, this time against Evan Baker, Yay!

Round 5- Evan’s Luxchomp

For those that don’t know Evan is no doubt the hottest player in the state.  He is consistently beating everyone, even last years state’s winner.  So needless to say I am intimidated and expect to get steamrolled.  He gets a promocroak starts and I get a sableye.  I get going fast, but am unable to find a gyrados for a couple turns.  This proves to be the difference as he is able to get the first kill.  From then on the race is on and we just exchange kill after kill. I am able to get enough Poke Turns to get knock outs without the expert belt, and run over 3 Luxray Gl’s, 1 Garchomp C, and an Uxie.  But alas, after time is called and turn 3 is over, its his turn and he has Garchomp C X active.  He attachs a DCE and shows me a Cyrus’s Conspiracy with a gain in his deck.

2-3.  What an awesome game!  I take one of the hottest players in the country to sudden death and darn near almost beat him!  Evan won all of the Cities last weekend, and took his streak into today’s tournament.  It was all I could do to keep up with him.

Round 6- Magnezone

I am familiar with this matchup since I have a similar deck.  My Magnezone deck has a very favorable matchup to Gyarados.  But, I think my deck is more consistent then this one.  He runs Heatran and Raichu, which slows him down.  He also runs the Level X and does not run the Prime, which I think hurts the deck.                                                                  

He starts with a Spirtomb and a Magnemite.  I start Crobat G and Dialga G.  I again have troubles getting a Gyarados, it takes me like 8 turns because I prized both of my Bebes.   It was weird, I ended up belting a Sableye and getting a couple prizes with “Over Confident.”   But I eventually do get one and a Dialga G X, which makes Spiritomb useless.  Unfortunately, he is able to setup 3 Magnezones and is ready to go crazy on me.  Thankfully, he does not run Lucario Gl and after the loss of 1 Gyarados I am able to “Flash Bite” the field, and OHKO everything with Gyarados after I Super Scoop him up each turn.

3-3.  Just like Jerry Seinfeld, I am an Even Steven.  I think I played well today, even though the record is only mediocre.  Especially with the fact that I always started first, even though I only started Sableye twice.  I didn’t make any misplays my only losses were because of: 5 tails on Super Scoop Up, a bad “Fainting Spell” roll and Lookers Investigation, and playing one of the best players around.  So thats nothing terrible.  I went home pretty happy.

As for comments on the entire field, there was a lot of SPs.  The best players in Michigan play SP’s and a couple play Gyarados and Trainerlock, thats about it.  The Top 4 at this tournament according to Pokegym.net’s City Championship forum was:

1. Marvin A. (LuxChomp)
2. Evan B. (LuxChomp) TEAM WARP POINT
3. Kyle L. (LuxChomp/Mewtwo)
4. Mike M. (Gyarados)

Big Ups to Austino for sharing his list, thanks man!

Pokemon Education Uncategorized

Opinion: Pikkdogs says stick to your age group.

Pikkdogs 7 Comments

Hey all you members of Omar-Nation.  This is Pikkdogs here. I will speak to you soon about the release of the new triumphant set, but today I will talk about age divisions in Pokemon.                                                                          

Speaking of Triumphant, this weekend is the start of pre-release tournaments.  So if you can, head out to your local tournament this weekend and get involved in the tournament.  This set should be pretty impactful, even with the recent news that Lost World will not be in the set.

We all know that Pokemon is a game that is popular with younger people.  I admit that I too played the game when I was young.  But, the fact is that Juniors and Masters are different.  We run different decks and play different styles.

We also know that because of this fact TPCI has made three age divisions: Junior, Senior, and Master.  With younger people laying in the junior category, the tweens playing in seniors, and high school age and older in the master category.   These divisions were a great idea, it keeps people of similar skill levels together.  There are a couple great senior players that can play with any master, but for the most part the age divisions are great.

What isn’t so great is when people are forced to play outside of their divisions.  These matchups are embarrassing, unfair, and pointless.  These matchups usually happen when one age group doesn’t have enough players for their own tournament.  When this happens age divisions mix and people are forced to play outside of their age division.

This article will try to argue that Play Pokemon should outlaw playing outside of your age division at all tournaments that effect your rating.  This  article will be written in the perspective of a masters player.

First, playing outside of your age division is pointless.  It does not effect your rating, so why are we playing this matchup?  It would be better to play a player in your own division who has a lesser record, then to play a game that has no effect on your rating.  It would even be better to take a bye, and get a win then to play a no-win game.

Why is this type of game a no-win game?  This is because, if a masters player defeats a junior it is doing something that he/she is supposed to do, and if the masters player loses it is a complete embarrassment.  I admit that sometimes a junior player can beat a master’s player.  But, for the most part a Master will always beat a Junior, they usually have better decks and more advanced skills.  It isn’t fair for the junior who has to play out of his league, and its not fair for the masters player who will face infinite embarassment if he/she does lose.

Another reason is that playing down in your division seems to take the player off of his/her game.  Every game that I play with a junior or a senior seems to feel like a practice game.  Personally, playing down makes me feel like I’m doing my opponent a favor and take me out of the game.  At a Pokemon tournament, a player needs to concentrate and keep momentum going, playing a younger person can throw someone off of his/her game and ruin his/her tournament.

So I propose, that except in cases where both the junior and senior divisions don’t have enough players, that combining divisions should be abolished.  If the senior division only has 4 players, let them play 2 or 3 games and call it a day. This would be a smart business decision for TPCI, because it might encourage those seniors to bring their friends to the next tournament, so more people will join the game.  Also, adding byes will be preferable to pairing people outside of their own age division.

So what do you guys think?  Am I crazy?  Well of course I am, but is my opinion of this topic crazy?  Do you guys feel the same, or do you like playing younger people.

Until next week this is Pikkdogs signing off saying, So long and thanks for all the fish.

Pokemon Education Uncategorized

Strategy Article: Harnessing (or Repelling) the Power of Power Spray

Pikkdogs 8 Comments

A big hello to all members of Omar-Nation, your buddy Pikkdogs is here to bring you a quick strategy article.

We all know that most decks in the upcoming format will rely on Uxie LA for draw power.  Just by putting him on your bench you can draw until you have 7 cards in your hand.  A lot of decks will be counting on getting good draws with Uxie for their deck to work.                  

But we also know what the counter to Uxie La is, Power Spray.  As long as you have 3 Pokemon SP in play you can play this card on your opponents turn and cancel out the effects of your opponent’s Poke-Power.  And without drawing those extra cards, most decks are locked down.

So Power-Spraying Uxie is good, but what are the best ways to use Power Spray, and what ways can you get around Power Spray?  Here are a list of ways to use Power Spray effectively and how to play against it effectively.

Ways to use Power-Spray

1. Use it Early– The most effective Power Sprays come early in the game before your opponent can fully setup.  You might want to run Call Energy or 4 Pokemon Collectors in your SP deck to get a lot of basics out quickly, which allow you to Power Spray. These things should help you have enough basics so you are able to Power Spray an Uxie.

2.  Run 4 in your Deck–  Power Spray is a good card and should occupy 4 slots in a normal SP deck.  There are some situations in which I only run a couple, but most SP decks should run 4 so you have a good chance at starting the game with it.  Drawing into the card is also key to keeping the surprise factor, as opposed to showing it to your opponent as a part of Cyrus’s Conspiracy.

3. Keep it a Surprise– This goes with the last step, if at all possible don’t show Power Spray to your opponent.  If your opponent knows you have a Power Spray in your hand he/she will either play around it or use a card like Judge or Looker’s Investigation to send your Power Spray away.

4.  Think it Through– Just because your opponent is using a Poke-Power and you have a Power Spray in your hand doesn’t mean that you have to spray it.  Save your sprays for something you really don’t want your opponent to do, don’t let your opponent play you like a fiddle.

5. Don’t Sleep on the Spray–  Your opponent may take a long time on his/her turn, but don’t zone out.  Keep close watch on what he/she is doing and the minute they try to use a Power that you don’t want them to, drop that spray.  This also goes back to the fact that before a tournament you should get enough rest and a good breakfast, so you don’t lose focus (yes, the Frosted Mini-Wheat commercial is right “Keeps em full, Keeps em focused.)

Ways to Avoid the Spray

1. Know Your Opponent–  Before the tournament do some studying and find out what decks run Power Spray and what decks don’t.  And if you think your opponent runs Power Spray then be aware when your opponent gets the card.

2. Decide when to use a Poke Power–  So what do you do if you need to use Uxie La, but you know your opponent has a spray?  You can try to use it quickly if you think your opponent is sleeping, but that doesn’t work against good players.  You first can try to use a Poke Power that you don’t really need and see if the opponent will spray that instead.  SP decks can drop extra “Flash Bites” or normal decks can include a Pokemon that has a sole purpose of using  up opponent’s Power Sprays (the new Smeargle comes to mind).  If all those options don’t work you can use Uxie anyway to make your opponent burn the Power Spray or choose to use your resources so you can try to run your deck without Uxie.  It may be worthwhile to play Uxie just to evolve into Uxie Lv.X.

3. Get Rid of the Sprays– It may be helpful to include a lot of Judges or Looker’s in your deck to get rid of your opponent’s Power Spray.  But also make sure to include a lot of  Pokemon Communications and Uxies in order to get an Uxie after to use Judge.

4. Lock em up–  One of the best ways to protect against Power Spray is to make sure that they can’t use the card.  If you have an active Spiritomb Ar or a benched Vileplume UD, your opponent cannot play any trainers, so they can’t play Power-Spray.  Spiritomb makes an excellent shield for you to drop as many Uxies as you want, then use Unown Q’s power, “Quick”, to retreat Spiritomb and then attack with your main attacker.   Vileplume may be a little slower then Spiritomb, but it will be very hard for an SP deck to get the win over any deck that gets Vileplume out in the first several turns.

So that’s what I learned about using and playing against Power Spray.  I encourage you guys to share your stories about playing and playing against this card.  My favorite moment was when I was playing against a BlazeRay deck.  I had a Claydol out and I knew my opponent had a Spray in his hand.  I only had one card in my hand, which was a Level X that I wanted to play next turn.  So Power Spray or not, I didn’t want to use “Cosmic Power” this turn because that would take away my Level X.  But since I knew he had a spray in his hand, I used “Cosmic Power” anyway, he sprayed it, I laughed, and next turn I used “Cosmic Power” for the cards I needed.

Thats all for today, once again this is Pikkdogs signing off saying So long and thanks for all the fish.

Tourney Report Uncategorized

A Day of Tickling and Beating Up: Pikkdogs Undaunted Pre-release report.

Pikkdogs 1 Comment

Hey all members of Omar-Nation,  as you can see by the fact that I’m writing a Pre-Release tournament report, I don’t have much to write about.  But I had fun at the local Pre-Release and learned some stuff about the new set.  I will share my account of the day, then talk about some of the cards in the set.                            

This tournament report starts the way all Pokemon reports start, with the sentence: “I woke up early the morning of the tournament not having slept very much the night before. ”  Seriously does any Pokemon player sleep before a tournament?

Well I got my day off to a groggy start and chugged down a couple of glasses of water, got changed into my Team Omar uniform, then went to Burger King for a quick breakfast.  The breakfast turned out to be not so quick, and left me about 10 minutes late.  Then I was 10 minutes later when I ran into a traffic jam.  Anyway, I make it to the card shop just when the organizer was about to hand out the decks.

After paying for the two tournaments (sealed theme deck and sealed booster) I sit down by the only familiar face in the rather small crowd, Card Selling Ed.  We both pick the same theme deck and then get a couple packs to try to improve the theme deck.  As we go we both look at the cards and see a couple we like.  I start with the Espeon deck and pull Flareons and an Umbreon Prime, so I make an Eeveelution deck.  Pairings are announced and I face the guy sitting across from me, Card Selling Ed

Theme Deck Tournament Round 1- Card Selling Ed.

Not much to talk about here, I start with 2 basics and can’t draw into much.  He, on the other hand, starts rather well and was able to beat me in about 3 or 4 turns.  We play again just for fun and I beat him just the way he beat me.

0-1.

Theme Deck Tournament Round 2- Some Junior

My round 2 starting hand was just as bad as my round 1 hand.  But this time I am able to keep in the game for longer.  He sets up with a metang, while I get an Umbreon Prime out.  He is able to use Metang’s attack to knock out my Umbreon before I get him loaded up.  He finishes me up when he finds his Metagross.                                     

0-2

Theme Deck Tournament Round 3- Peggy

This day was the first day I met Peggy, she is a Poke-Mom who has a son who is still very young, but is extremely knowledgeable about the game.  He really impressed me with how well we understood the game.  Peggy told me that they went to Indy for the Nationals and her son just missed Top Cut.  But anyway back to the game.  I again don’t start very well, but start better than the last two times.  She gets a muk out fast and starts knocking out three of my Pokemon, while I load up an Eevee on the bench.  It only has 1 energy on it when Eevee is forced to become active, I draw and attach an energy then use the attack “Tickle.”  Now this is a bland attack that does 10 damage and lets you flip a coin, and if heads paralyze the defending Pokemon.  But, it was one of the funniest and uncomfortable things to tell a middle-age Woman that, “I’m going to tickle you.”  Well I did tickle her and I paralyzed her twice, which prevented me from being Knocked Out.  The next turn starts and I draw, and I top deck the Flareon that I need.  I knock out her active Muk, then I knock out the Bellossom that she brings up.  Then I knock out two more Pokemon and win the game.

1-2.

This is the end of the theme deck tournament, I put the cards away and then I get ready for the  sealed booster event.  I get my six packs and start opening them.  For the tournament I am  hoping to pull a stage 1 prime and/or some Sneazels.  But for collecting purposes, I really want a Vileplume or the Smeargle.  I end up getting 3 Sneaszls and a houndoom prime, but fail to pull any useful trainers.  As I make my deck I keep on talking to Peggy and her son, the deck building was interrupted when a kid tried to go out the fire door, that woke everyone up.   The alarm was seriously on for 2 to 3 minutes, I should sue that kid for damage to my hearing.                              

Sealed Booster Tournament- Round 1- Peggy

I again get to play the person I sat next to while building the decks.  This game wasn’t half as exciting as our last one.  It was basically over once I looked at my starting hand, I had a Houndoor, a Houndoom prime, a Special Darkness Energy, and a Darkness Energy.  I just set up Houndoom Prime and it takes me 4 turns from there to end it.

1-0

Sealed Booster Tournament- Round 2-Card Selling Ed.

I again play my buddy Card Selling Ed.  I again start with a Houndoom Prime, but can not find the Houndours.  I do find a Sneazel early and load it up and use “Beat Up” to knock out a couple Pokemon.  By the time he knocks out my Sneazel I only have 1 prize card left and he has several damage counters on his Pokemon.  I bring out a Hondour and end the game with “Sharp Fang.”

2-0.

Sealed Booster Tournament-Round 3- Some League Guy.

Im sorry, but I forgot this guys name.  He is a guy that plays at League at this shop, but isn’t really a tournament guy.  As we both reveal our starting Pokemon I notice that, depending on the energy situation, the winner of this match will be the one who goes first.  Going first is usually bad in this game, but we both had Sneazel starts.  So that means who ever could attach two energies first would probably win.  I ended up winning the coin flip and attach and use “Fury Swipes.”  He attaches and does the same thing, then I attach and use “Beat Up.”  We end up knocking each others Sneazel out, but by this time I only had 1 prize left, so I brought up a charged up Sneazel and ended the game with “Beat Up.”

3-0

I inform the judge of who has won, and she gives me the 2 packs we get for playing and 1 pack for finishing with the best record.  I then open the packs, and make some trades.  I end up getting two Vileplumes (just what I wanted), but people wanted to hang on to their Smeargles (boo).  I then stay later and orgainize my cards.  As I leave the tournament and head for work, I realize that i just won my first Premier Event.  Eventhough it didn’t mean anything, its still nice to win.

Okay so thats its for a pointless tournament report, lets get to some cards.  I won’t go too far indepth here, I will just tell you what I saw.  The reason is that I want to cover some of these more in my Pikk 3 article.

Before I touch on some cards I will say a little bit about making a good pre-release deck.  In this limited format you must play a little slower than you do in the Modified format. Here it is important to use trainers and supporters, so use everyone that you pull.  Also it is important to use a higher percent of energies then you normally use, but don’t go overboard use about 14-15.  Also starting Pokemon are nice, so if there is a Pokemon that has a low energy attack that lets you draw cards, put it in the deck.

First for those going to a Pre-Release soon, here are some good combos.  Eevee decks are always great for Pre-Releases.  So if you can pull a Prime and some Flareons or Jolteons, I would use those.  Sneazel is a great card that lets you do 20 damage times the number of heads, for each Pokemon you have in play.  It won me this tournament, so if you get them, play them.  Of course, if you pull a stage 1 prime I would play it along with 4 or 5 of the Pokemon it evolves from.  Houndoom Prime is good in this format, as is Umbreon Prime, and the dreaded Slowking Prime (trade him as soon as the tournament is over though.)  The non primes of Scizor and Houndoom are also good cards.

Now for some cards that might see some play in the modified format.  Vileplume is a card that I don’t think anyone was able to get out in the tournament, but it will be awesome in the next format.  If you can trade for any of these, do so, it will be a valuable card.  Smeargle from this set is amazing.  I can’t remember what his Poke-Power is called, but it lets you look at your opponents hand and use a Supporter card they have and use it as the effect of this power.  This card had the potential to be a staple.  Energy Exchanger seems like a junk trainer, but I think it could see some play.  It is basically a Pokemon Communication, for energies.  You take an energy from your hand, place it on the top of your deck and search your deck for any energy card (even special energies!)  I could see this card being used in some decks that use Double Colorless Energy or Special Metal or Darkness Energies.  Rotom is also a good tech card that could see some play.  And if your a rogue, the new Magcargo can be used with Typhlosion Prime for some fun knockouts.

Well thats all for this time, this is Pikkdogs signing off saying, so long and thanks for all the fish.

Pikks Three Uncategorized

Pikkdogs Pikks Three: Uxie Lv.X, Cherrim SF, and Espeon Prime

Pikkdogs 2 Comments

Hello all members of Omar-nation.  This is Pikkdogs here bringing you the often imitated but never duplicated “Pikk” Three article.  In this article, like every article, I will review three cards; one that is played often, one which I feel is underated, and one from a new or unreleased set.

I wish to say “Good Luck” to all those headed to Indy at the end of this week for the U.S. Pokemon National Championship. I hope you guys have a fun time and get to meet a lot of cool people.

For those of you, who like me are unable to go, I hope that we get some good testing done.  It is a good time for us to take apart all our decks and make new ones that fit the post rotation rules.  This year Teamomar.com will hook us all up and with twitter feeds live from the tournament, so we just have to check in at the .com and see how our twitter correspondents are doing and what kinda things they are seeing.  I don’t think the list of correspondents is finished yet but I know a Minnesota player here, Andy, will be updating us, and also my buddy Cheffords from Michigan will take the trip south and keep us informed.

Now enough with the chit-chat lets Pikk three.

The Staple: Uxie Lv.X

Description: Uxie X is a psychic Pokemon with 90 HP, a x2 psychic weakness, and a 1 retreat cost.  It has the Poke-Power named “Trade Off”.  This power lets you look at the top 2 cards of your deck and choose one to put in your hand, the other goes to the bottom of your deck.  It also has an attack named “Zen Blade.”  This attack does 60 damage for CC.

Analysis: The basic stats of this card don’t seem very impressive. It only has 90 HP, a retreat cost, and a x2 weakness.  But it actually is a really good card, and one of the better cards in the format. It is mostly used for its Poke Power, but “Zen Blade” can also be a useful attack.

It is used mainly in SP decks to give the deck a little more draw power.  “Trade Off” can be just what you need to get that card you need late in the game. “Zen Blade” can also help the SP decks have a better Machamp matchup, with the use of only one Double Colorless Energy.

But with Claydol GE leaving the format soon, Uxie will now become the best draw engine in the game.  So players may want to use Uxie Lv.X in all of their decks in which they use Uxie.

That being said, Uxie La is a great card by itself.  Its Poke-Power is a lot better than the Lv.X’s, it might be unnecessary to run the Lv.X if the regular Uxie will suffice.  It also is a Lv.X so to use Uxie X you will need to make it active and then retreat it.  This will require you to slow down your attack, use Unown Q, or use Bronzong G or Shaymin Ul’s Poke Power.

7.5-All in all its a good card, it can fit into almost any deck because almost every deck runs Uxie.  And “Trade Off” is a Poke-Power that could be useful.  But, “Trade Off” is inconsistent in getting you useful cards, and it is hard to retreat Uxie.  So I would only use it in SP or DCE decks.

The Underdog: Cherrim SF

Description– Cherrim SF is a grass Pokemon, has a low 80 HP, a 1 retreat cost, and a + 20 weakness to fire.  Its Poke-Body “Sunny Day” adds an extra 10 damage to any attack done by fire or grass Pokemon.  It has two attacks, the first attack is called “Salty Sweet Pollen.”  This attack does 20 damage for no energy.  The second attack is called “Solar Beam” it costs GCC. Remember each attack does 10 more because of its Poke-Body.  

Analysis– Cherrim is a common Pokemon in the Scizor/Cherrim deck, but I think it has more potential than that.

Its stats arent very great, but it doesn’t have a x2 weakness and it has a useful no energy attack.

As mentioned it is common in Scizor/Cherrim decks, but it can work in other decks.  My nephew runs it, with some success, in his Jumpluff deck.  Cherrim lets Jumpluff attack hard enough to knock out almost every Pokemon for just 1 energy (with an expert belt).  Some people are also starting to build Torterra Ul decks.  If you were to add Cherrim to a Torterra Ul deck the user would be able to use his “Giga Drain” attack to do 80 damage ( with an expert belt and two Cherrims) and remove 8 damage counters from him.  This could be a deadly combination if set up fast enough.

7/10– This card can fit into any Grass or Fire deck and make an immediate impact.  The ability to add damage is invaluable.  But it is not a great attacker and does not help speed your deck in any way.  It can be a good card in the right deck, but is not a game changing card.

The Young Gun: Espeon Prime UD

Description-Espeon Prime is expected to be included in the Undaunted Set.  Here are its stats: it is a psychic Pokemon wiht 100 HP, a psychic weakness and a 1 retreat cost.  Its Pokebody, “Memory Of Evolution,” lets Espeon use any attack of any Pokemon on your bench that evolves from Eevee.  Its has 1 attack of its own, named “Solar Ray.”  For PC you do 30 damage and remove 1 damage counter from each of your Pokemon.

Analysis– The Eeveelution decks never seem to be very good, but people always love to play them.  I feel that the new eevee’s coming out in the Undaunted Set will share the same fate.

This Espeon is pretty cool though, it has the option to use an attack of any Pokemon on your bench that evolves from Eevee.  So if you are playing an Eeveelution deck and are playing a deck that is weak to psychic you can play Espeon Prime and load him with at least one Rainbow Energy and use any attack that benefits you.  Its not a great attack but it will be a fun Pokemon to play in an Eevelution deck.

Its stats (besides the Poke-Body) are very bland and un-impressive.  So if you are using this deck you are using it for the Poke-Body.

5/10- Its not a great attacker or support Pokemon, but if you must play an Eevee deck, this card is a must play.  It is a versatile card that may be able to get you out of a tight spot.

Well thanks for stopping by for another installment of “Pikk” Three.  As always I look forward to reading your take on these cards, and if you have any suggestions for future articles please leave them in the comments box.

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Ten Steps in Joining the Pokemon TCG Community.

Pikkdogs 3 Comments

A big howdy to all members of Omar nation, this is your friend Pikkdogs.  A month or so ago I wrote a “Ten Step” article about trading Pokemon cards online.  This month I will follow that up with another “Ten Step” article, this one is about starting the Pokemon TCG.   Sableye - SF

I am a huge follower of the POJO message boards, and at least once every few days we have people posting questions about how start playing the game.  So this article is for all you newbies out there.  Hopefully you’ll be able to take something away from this article and be another step closer to top cutting at worlds.  So without further ado here are my ten steps in joining the Pokemon TCG community.

1.  Decide what you want to do.

     This may sound like a vague step, but it is very important.  First you must decide what you want to get out of the Pokemon game.  You may just want to build a couple of fun decks to play with your friends a couple of times a month.  If that is all you want out of the game, there is no point in spending countless hours pouring over cards and websites.  If so, just pick up a couple of themes decks and once in a while buy a couple of packs and have fun.  But, if you want to become a competitive player you should be prepared to do some hard studying, and spend some money.

2.  Find People to Play With.

           No matter how serious you want to be with the game, it always helps to have friends who are in the game.  Hopefully you and a friend can join together, so you can each push each other to be better players.  If not I would reccomend going to a local league.  Most leagues have freindly players and judges who would love to help you join the game.  You can find a league near you by going to

 http://www.pokemon.com/us/organized-play/leagues/.

3.  Learn the Rules of the Game

    It may seem simple, but one of the first steps in joining the game is simply learning the rules.  Rule books are included in every theme deck or are avaliable on the official Pokemon website.  For more advanced rules I would use a “Ask the Masters” forum on a Pokemon discussion board.

4.  Surf That Internet

      Most Pokemon players spend a lot of time on Pokemon websites looking at other decks and researching cards.  When you are just starting out it is important to spend extra time searching the net for ideas.  You don’t have to spend all day on the computer, just take a look at what other people are playing and how the decks work.  At the end of the article I will provide some links to some vital sites.

Beginers always seem to want to know what the best decks are and where they can find decklists of them.  Well, in Pokemon people don’t always want to share their decklists.  So that makes it harder for the begineer.  But, most of the great decks now (like Luxchomp and Cursegar) are very advanced and require expierenced players to play them.  My advice to you is to not want to get a really good deck right away, just look around the net at different decks and find one that suits you the best.  Once you get more accustomed to the game you can move up and play the best decks.

5.  Begin your Collection.

     All Pokemon players have some type of card collection.  Some people have a complete collection of every Pokemon card made in the last 5-10 years, while others just have one deck and a handful of other cards.  It doesn’t matter how many cards you have, its just important to have the cards you need for a deck you want to play.  But. I will admit that it is easier to play the game if you have a lot of cards.  This game can get expensive so be prepared to spend some money. 

When I restarted this game (about a year and a half ago) I started my collection by buying several tins, some theme decks, and loose packs off EBAY.  I got them for a decent price, so that is always a decent way to start.  Some people prefer buying boxes of cards, thats a good way too, but can get pretty expensive.  If you can find a box at a good price (usually 70 or under) it could be worth your money to buy a box of a good set (like Platinum, or Rising Rivals).  Or you could just find  a deck you want to play and buy singles off the internet to complete the deck.  Either choice is fine. 

6.  Select Your First Deck

        One of the most important choices you will make is the choice of a deck.  There are two ways to choose a deck, either copy a list off the internet (and make minor adjustments) or make your own list.  The latter option is a risky choice for a first deck, but it will get your career off to an adventerous start.  In order to make your own deck I would suggest going to www.pokegym.net/tower and looking over some of the cards in the format.  Then pick 1 or 2 of the cards you like and make a deck that features them.  If you are netdecking (taking a list from off the internet) it would help to ask people online advice on how to play the deck.

   Since you are new to the game try to keep your deck idea simple.  Dont worry about a lot of techs, just find a deck that lets you attach low amounts of energy and do lots of damage.  I wrote an article about a good, cheap, fast deck that is excellent for beginers.  You can find it here

http://www.sixprizes.com/deck-analysis/deck-spotlight-scizor-cherrim-beatdown/

7.  Adjust Your Deck.

     The Wright Brothers smacked into the ground many times before they soared along with the birds, so your new deck will need some tweaking as well.  After you play the deck a couple of times you will see where your deck can improve.  Go back to the drawing board and improve your deck, look at cards online and see what cards can help your deck succedde more often. 

8.  Grow Your Collection/ Learn the Lingo

     Now that you have a decent deck and a small collection, it is time to grow the collection.  Take that small collection and make it larger.  Through trading with friends, buying packs and singles, and online trading; you can start to have a respectable collection.  A bigger collection means that you can run bigger and better decks.

I have a problem, I have an extra step that I want to talk about.  So Im going to add this step in with the previous step.  This step is called “Learn the Lingo”.  TCG players have a weird set of words they use to describe the games they play, and it is important for a newbie to learn them, so I have included a small list here.

Tech– A card used in the deck that differs from the other cards in the deck.  For example, Mewtwo Lv.X is a tech that can be put in a lot of decks to give it an advanatage against Basic Pokemon that the deck did not have in the first place. 

Staple– a card that is so good that it is included in most decks.  For people starting the game right now, the current staples are: Claydol GE, Uxie La, Warp Point, Night Maintenance and many others.

Set/ SP names You will always here people talk about “Gengar SF”, “Snorlax RR”, and “Garchomp C.”  So what are those letters after the names of Pokemon.  Well some of them are set names, SF means the set “Diamond and Pearl: StormFront”, and RR means the set “Platinum: Rising Rivals.”  Other lettters signify Pokemon SP, which are just SPecial forms of certain Pokemon.  C means “Champion” G means “Galactic” and GL means “Gym Leader.”  There are other sets and initials so make sure you ge them all down.

Donk– a Donk is a win that happens very quickly, usually on the first, second, or third turns. 

Metagame– Metagame is a broad term refering to the game in a certain place or the game as a whole.  For example, if every player in the state of Tennesse would run water decks you could say that Tennesse’s Metagame is heavy on water.  Currently, it is possible to say that the Metagame is very fast, so your decks will need to be very fast to have a shot at winning.

There are lot of other terms, but those are the major terms.  If you learn those you will be off to a good start.

9.  Practice, Pratice, Practice.

     Perhaps the most important step in learning the game is to practice your heart out.  It may not sound like a big deal, but practicing is the number 1 way in which you can improve your deck and your skills.  It doesn’t matter if you play online (with the help of the Apprentice, or Redshark software), with your friends, of by yourself; you must practice the game to get a leg up on your competition. 

10.  Just Have Fun!

     This step cannot be understated, Pokemon is a GAME, so have fun with it.  It would be nice if you could become one of the best players around, but no matter how serious you are never lose sight of the fact that Pokemon is for fun.  Some people play only to win, those are the kids that are crying after they miss top cut at a tournament.  No matter if your deck is steam rolling your opponents or is getting blown over, just maintain a positive outlook and have fun. 

Now here is a short list of important websites.

www.pojo.com–  This is the site I turn to most.  It has a “Card of the Day” section where you can get the opinions of some of the most expierenced players.  But its main draw is the forum where you can trade cards, get deck advice, and ask questions.

www.teamomar.com–  No need to go anywhere else.  TO has deck workshops, and a card of the day like article written by a handsome and smart guy named Pikkdogs.

www.sixprizes.com–  In the past couple months 6P has grown very large.  It has a lot of deck articles, tournament reports, and strategy advice.  It is ran by a nice guy from Philly named Adam.  Adam will keep you informed on the game and will even give you the oppurtunity to write an article or two for him once in a while. 

www.pokegym.net– Still one of the best Pokemon sites.  It has an awesome message board, and its researching tower is essential.

www.pokemon.com– This is the official Pokemon website.  Here you can serach for leagues in your area and chech your official rankings.  It is a little unorgainized and one part of it always seems to be down, but it is the only official site and that means that it can do things that others can’t.

www.pokebeach.com–  This website is designed more for Pokemon news.  If  you want to learn about the new promos that just came out, this is the site for you.  It is also a great site if you just want to look for over English translations of cards not released yet. 

TheJwittzs Youtube Show–  Just like 6P.com this youtube show came out of nowhere to be a really helpful Pokemon resource.  It is ran by a nice chap from Illinois named Jwittz, and he is always happy to be giving people advice.  This is a link to his YouTube page.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheJWittz

Thats all for now.  Hopefully this will answer some of your questions.  I know that it is hard and intimidating to be joining the Pokemon TCG, it seems like everyone is so much better than you.  But if you talk to most players they will be more than happy to give you some advice. 

Make sure to come back next week when I again will write my normal “Pikk Three” article.

And above all let me be the first to say, “welcome to the game.”

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