One Hit KO

At this year’s nationals, I had my best nationals finish.  I made Top 64, but it was bittersweet.  While I had done fairly well, I still made the same mistakes in deck building and deck choice which had led to my poor results in previous years. I played a build of a deck which was largely untested and that I was fairly unfamiliar with. While the list I played was by no means bad, it did suffer from being teched improperly.  In addition, there were logical flaws with the trainer engine and how it synched with the rest of the deck.

This article has two main points.  First, it will provide some insight into the Mew/Muk Jumpluff/Vileplume archetype.  Second, it will showcase some of my thoughts about the deckbuiling process highlighting what I did wrong with this deck.  Right now. I’m going to share the list I played and explain my reasoning behind my choices. Also, let me state that this list is not just my own. Emmanuel Divens is also a co-creator of this build and a lot of the ideas behind this list can be attributed to him.

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there, this is Pikkdogs here with another article for you guys.  For the top 40 players in North America and the players in Southern California all eyes are on World Championships.  All these people are thinking about is either countering the format or making a deck that will be consistent enough to grind into the main event.  But, for the rest of us, we have our eyes on Battle Roads and the new season.  And the new season means dealing with Pokemon Catcher.

Pokemon Catcher is a trainer card that lets you pick a Pokemon on your opponent’s bench and switch it with the active.  The last time this card was released, as a card named Gust of Wind, it was the best card in the format.  It ushered in an era of dominance for a very fast deck with all basic Pokemon.  The question was will Pokemon Catcher have the same format changing effect as Gust of Wind did?  To answer these questions I decided to test multiple decks in the PC (Post Catcher) format.  The testing yielded some surprising results.  To start this article off I will begin by …

[youtube width=”556″ height=”450″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVFPTDtIK-4[/youtube]

Hey everyone, this week we are going rogue; no political reference there.  By rogue we mean less mainstream, not bad by any means. We have always had a fascination with off-beat decks so this week we chose to look at two very different concepts. Jumpluff/Yanmega and Blastoise/Floatzel., are two decks you may have heard about, and we feel deserve a look.

We will start with Blastoise/Floatzel. Blastoise has always been a fan favorite Pokémon, and the Blastoise from UL seems to live up to the name. Sniping is something this format seems to lack and can be a very powerful tool with so many techs bench sitting these days. Blastoise’s attack Hydro Launcher combines well with his Wash Out ability allowing him to continuously snipe for 100 when combined with the Water Acceleration of Floatzel.

Blastoise has several favorable matchups against some of the more popular decks this format. Blastoise is a direct counter to Reshiram, a very popular archetype that will see large amounts of play for at least the next season or two. Reshiram also requires energy acceleration in the form or Emboar or Typhlosion, while weakness is not taken into effect on the bench, Blastoise can two shot either of these. Blastoise also has 130 HP and will not be OHKOd by Reshiram without the use of a Plus Power. Another bench sitter you will often see in a Reshiram deck is Ninatales or Shuckle, either of these can be taken out with just 1 Hydro Launcher. Donphan is probably the second most popular archetype that will be played this format. While Donphan is usually safe with 120 HP and Exoskeleton, this fails against Blastoise. Whatever Donphan is paired with also suffers from Blastoise, Machamp is normally slow to setup and its evolutionary forms will sure draw the attention of a Blastoise Player.
Continue reading "Going Rogue"

Hey all you members of Omar-Nation.  This is Pikkdogs here.

The Fall Battle Road season is well under way, and I hope you guys are having fun at your own tournaments.  I have had an interesting season so far, and will try to right up one big report once my season is over.  So make sure to try to play at as many tournaments as you can in the last couple weekends.                                                                                                      

I am here to give you a rundown of a Stupid Deck that I have been playing this week.  This time the stupid deck idea centers around Jumpluff.

Jumpluff has been very popular since it was released in the Heart Gold Soul Silver set.  It saw a lot of play at States, Regionals, and Nationals last year.  Jumpluff was popular because it is a cute Pokemon, that can do 10 damage for each Pokemon in play, for only 1 Grass energy.  The classic build featured Jumpluff with the support of Luxray Gl and Claydol Ge.  The deck was very successful, and appealed to many players.  But, after Worlds the format changed and Claydol Ge was rotated out.  Many players tried to play it after the rotation, but the deck was too slow to setup and too slow to recover.  Some other builds that have seen a little play since rotation included Jumpluff with Sunflora, and Jumpluff with the VileTomb combo.  But, these builds only seem to middle out at tournaments.
Continue reading "Pikkdogs Stupid Deck Idea: Slowpluff (Slowking Prime and Jumpluff)"

I show up to Outpost 2000 100% set on the deck I’m am going to play (which is very odd for me). The only decision is what will be my 60th card. I am stuck between Mespirit, which is good in every matchup and can catch people totally off guard, and Unown G. I end up choosing Unown G because Emmanuel is going to be playing Gengar FB. We have tested that deck a bit and I realize the way he wins our matchup is by dragging up Claydols.

Small turnout. 10 Masters. 4 Rounds, Top 2.

Round 1: Michael- Gengar C
He is playing a fairly traditional Gengar C build. He sets up very fast using 3 Communications in the first two turns. I cannot find an energy for the first few turns and am under Pitch Dark so I can’t build my side up. Eventually he uses Garchomp to snipe my benched Luxray (for sure the right play), but this allows me to fully setup. We trade prizes back and forth. The major difference in this game is two turns that he cannot kill my pluff, just damage it. That and a missed Fainting Spell flip gives me a very close game.

Continue reading "Coon Rapids BR 1st Place Report"