One Hit KO

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

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

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

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with my quarterly review of the next set.  I usually review the set by taking a look at the top 10 cards that will have an impact on the current format, and this set is no different.

This set is a very impactful one.  This set givs us a card that might dominate the format, and a bunch of other cards that are really good.  We even got some trainers, stadium cards, and special energies.  This set will shape what will be played at the top tables at States, though, it may not be to the extent that we currently think.  Before we start the countdown, let us welcome Pedro to the conversation.  How’s Pedro doing today?

Doing well.

Do you got any news for us today?

Well, not too much going on. February 8th is when you can start buying Next Destinies packs from the stores.  February 8th is also a holiday, it is National Kite Flying Day. 

So if you don’t pull a Mewtwo EX, you can go fly a kite.
Continue reading "Pikkdogs Presents: The Top 10 Most Impactful Cards from Next Destinies"