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Pokemon TCG Decklists and Articles

July 2010

Team Matters

History, Death, Rebirth? (or How to Con Your Way Onto a Pokemon Team)

Ed 35 Comments

We’ve been doing this Wednesday evening Pokemon thing for a while. It usually oscillates between Abdi’s house and mine. Omar and I are always there, and other team members are usually playing, too. Well, last night marked the last time that Omar will attend the weekly meeting. He’s going away to college. When I left, I could see it in him that he was a bit emotional about it. I didn’t shake his hand or give him a hug or anything. My coldness wasn’t entirely related to the fact that Meghan just relentlessly and repeatedly pummeled me with her Shuppet deck. I just didn’t know how to react, I guess.

On my drive home, though, I was kinda depressed. It’s been a good ride, and I feel like it’s coming to an end. I started to reminisce about the past year. When I left, I told Omar to have a good trip and have fun at college. What’s that? That doesn’t mean anything. So, I thought I’d write this, and he (and I) could keep it as an archive of what Team Omar once was.
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Pikks Three

Pikkdogs Pikks Three: Chatot Md, Plusle SV, Manaphy Ul.

Pikkdogs 3 Comments

Hello there to all members of Omar Nation. This is Pikkdogs here to Pikk three cards.  This weeks “Pikk Three” will  be a little bit different.  Instead of highlighting a popular card, an underused card, and a new card; I will instead review 3 cards that have the same theme.

This weeks theme is “Hand Refresh,” so if your looking for a card that can help your deck recover from bad hands hopefully you will find what you are looking for here.

Just for clarification a Hand Refreshing Pokemon is a Pokemon that has an attack that allows you to draw cards.  It is kind of like a starting Pokemon because it speeds your deck up, but it is mostly used towards the middle of the game, whereas a starter is used right away. A hand refresher also normally takes only 1 slot in your deck, where as a person normally runs 4 starting Pokemon.  Having a card that can refresh your hand is really important if you have a bad start, it is sometimes worth sacrificing a Pokemon.

Card #1 Chatot Md

Description– Chatot is basic normal type Pokemon with 60 HP.  He has free retreat, a +20 lightning weakness, and a fighting resistance. It has two attacks.  The first is called “Mimic”, this attack has no cost lets you shuffle your hand into your deck and draw as many cards as your opponent has.  Its second attack is called “Chatter,”  this attack does 20 damage and prevents your opponent from retreating for CC.

Analysis– Of all the hand refreshers in the format right now, there is no doubt that Chatot is the most popular.  He is most often found in SP and Jumpluff decks.  “Mimic” is a great attack that lets you shuffle your hand into your deck and draw a new hand with the same amount of cards as your opponent, which makes it like the supporter “Copycat.”
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Deck Workshop

Deck Workshop: Garchomp SV Lock

Pikkdogs 64 Comments

Hello to all in Omar-Nation.  This is Pikkdogs here with another Deck Workshop.

Like many of you out there I am working on post-rotation decks.  I have had little success getting a successful draw engine for a stage 2 deck out of Uxie La, so I tried something different.  This deck uses Ninetails HGSS for a draw engine, which I find to be more consistent then Uxie La in stage 2 decks.                             

Now that I had my draw engine set I just needed a main attacker.  The most popular combo with Ninetails is Chariard Ar, but this has been done too much and is a little slow because of the fact that if you use Uxie La you then lose damage on each of Charizard’s attacks.  So I looked at other Fire type Pokemon and Normal Pokemon.  I saw a deck with Regigas and Mesprit that I liked, but I didn’t like the fact that Regigias’s best attack has a metal, fighting, and water requirement.  Next, I looked at Garchomp SV.

Garchomp SV was never hyped that much after its release, but it was valued highly after it’s release.  I have seen some decks that use this card, but none have been really consistent.   It is a fairly good card because it does 120 damage for CCC, minus 20 damage for each energy attached to the defending Pokemon.  It also has a good Poke Body, named “Dragon Intimidation” which returns an energy card attached to the defending Pokemon to your opponents hands.  My list uses Spiritomb Ar and Judge to disrupt the opponent.  It is especially effective against SP decks, which will be very popular after the rotation.

So without further discussion here is the list I have used.

Pokemon-21

  • 4 Gible SV
  • 3 Gabite SV
  • 4 Garchomp SV
  • 2 Vulpix HGss
  • 2 Ninetails HGSS
  • 4 Spiritomb Ar                      
  • 1 Unown Q La
  • 1 Uxie La

Energy-17

  • 10-Fire
  • 4- Double Colorless Energy
  • 1- Warp Energy
  • 2- Cyclone Energy

Trainers- 22

  • 3- Judge
  • 4- Collector
  • 2- Broken Time Space
  • 1- Expert Belt
  • 1- Palmer’s Contribution
  • 1- Pokemon Rescue
  • 3- Bebes Search
  • 1- Warp Point
  • 2-Rare Candy
  • 1- Luxury Ball
  • 2- Fisherman
  • 1-Interviewers Question

The basic strategy of this deck is to stall with Spirtomb and to slowly evolve Ninetails and Garchomp on the bench.  Then when the time is right you can use the Judge  card to shuffle all of your opponents trainers that he/she was holding back into his/her deck.  Then you can retreat Spiritomb and start attacking with Garchomp.

I admit that is is not the most polished list, but I just put this up to give you guys an example of a Ninetails draw engine.  2 Fisherman’s, at least 1 Interviewer’s Question, and 1 Palmer’s Contribution are neccessary to manipulate the energy you discard with Ninetail’s Poke Body.

Instead of the normal 4-2-4 Line of a stage 2, and 4-3-4 line is better because of the fact that Spiritomb Ar helps you evolve without the use of Rare Candy.  Warp Energy is essential for a deck with Spiritomb, because someone could stall the game by using an attack like Chatot Md’s “Chatter” that doesn’t let you retreat.

I also use 1 Warp Point and 2 Cyclone Energies to switch out the defending Pokemon when Garchomp SV is attacking, because some high energy attackers could cause him problems.

Well there it is, the strategy behind a deck that uses Ninetails for a draw engine.  If you have any comments for any similar decks or any improvements to this deck I would love to hear them.

Deck Workshop

Deck Workshop: Egg-Meg = Blissey + Meganium Prime

Ed 10 Comments

Meganium Prime - GSFirst of all, I want to make it clear that I’m not trying to rip anyone’s idea off. It should be obvious to anyone that reads SixPrizes regularly that this “Egg-Meg” idea was from the recent Egg-Meg: Optimism for new seasons article by doeigts.

The basis of the deck isn’t completely novel. I mean, the idea of pairing these two cards that came out in the same set should have been considered by many. The same powers have been around since base set. Base Set Venusaur’s “Energy Trans” Pokemon Power does the same thing as Meganium Prime’s “Leaf Trans,” and Blissey Prime’s “Blissful Nurse” Poke-POWER does the same thing as the Base Set Pokemon Center trainer card. You can see that the themes are nothing new. In fact, I played a deck that centered around Chansey, Alakazam, and Pokemon Center in a recent unlimited tournament. It has the same idea, except that it moves damage to an energyless Pokemon, while this Egg-Meg deck moves energy to an undamaged Pokemon. The Alakazam deck I played recently was based off a deck that my wife used to play back in Base Set. When I saw the HGSS cards, I thought about building her the Blissey/Meganium version, but I never did. That is, until I saw doeigts’ article. So, I took his list and built a version of it for her, my daughter, and I to all mess with.

Doeigts’ deck used an SP engine to do extra damage with Crobat G and bring up key targets with Luxray GL Lv. X. I don’t want the complexity SP adds, trying to stick with his intent, I swapped Cherrim SF in as a Crobat G replacement and Pokemon Reversal (which fairly quickly got changed out for Warp Point) as a Luxray replacement. Keep in mind that I want to keep this a bit more simple, so that non-experts can play it.

I built the deck, and gave it to my wife to play. I was excited, because I thought that she would like having a deck similar to the old Alakazam deck that she has fond memories of. Basically, she thought the deck sucked. I played it, and I had a better time with it, but I have a different perspective. When it doesn’t work for her, she’s frustrated and loses. When it doesn’t work for me, I try to figure out how I can play or build it differently.

Cherubi - SV 096It did win one good game for me against Pikkdogs. He was playing his experimental deck that runs a bunch of Spiritomb for early game evolving and trainer lock. I happened to get 2 energy out on my turn 1 (thanks to Cherubi SV) and then do 60 damage on my second turn. He couldn’t keep the Tombs in play. He did get the game turned around, but I was already ahead on the prize race. I was able to finish the job.

The choice to put in a 4-4 line of Cherrim is suspect, though it did win me the game against Pokkdogs. Options such as Sunflora have been suggested in place of it. Running Spiritomb myself would not be a bad option to stall and evolve early game. Metapod may be nice to help against fire, but I don’t even want to worry about bad matchups yet. I just want to make a deck that works fairly well in general. We’re probably talking about a league-caliber deck anyway, so worrying about specific matchups isn’t a high priority.

So, here’s my list. It could be a fun league deck as it stands, but I want to make it more consistent. I think I need more search (Collector?), and maybe Judge should be swapped for PONT or some such. Please give me your ideas, but keep in mind that this deck must be kept a bit on the simple side. I don’t want the whole SP thing to creep back in.

Blissey Prime - GS

VERSION 1
Pokemon: 24
3 Chikorita
3 Bayleef
3 Meganium Prime
2 Chansey
2 Blissey Prime
2 Uxie
1 Chatot MD
4 Cherubi SV
4 Cherrim SF

Trainers: 14
1 Luxury Ball
4 Pokemon Communication
4 Super Scoop Up
1 Expert Belt
4 Warp Point

Supporters: 7
2 Pokemon Collector
2 Bebe’s Search
2 Judge
1 Palmer’s Contribution

Stadiums: 3
3 Broken Time-Space

Energy: 12
12 Grass

Pikks Three

Pikkdogs Pikks Three: Machamp SF, Super Scoop Up, and Vileplume Undaunted

Pikkdogs 2 Comments

Hello to all members of Omar Nation.  This is your buddy Pikkdogs here to tell you about three cards; one which is a card commonly played, one which I feel is under-rated, and one from a new or un-released set.

It is that time of the year, when the players who’ve had a great season pack up to go to worlds, and when the rest of us test our new post-rotation decks.  I hope all of you out there who are not going to worlds are having a better time at building post-rotation decks then I am.  I’m getting tired of all my decks starting really fast and then stalling out on turn 4 or 5.  But, I guess if success was easy it wouldn’t be as sweet.  So I hope that those of us who are having problems will soldier on and eventually find something that works.  Maybe you will find something while I “Pikk” three.                                          

The Staple- Machamp SF

Description: Machamp is a stage 2 Pokemon with 130 HP, a +30 psychic weakness, a 2 retreat cost and 3 attacks.  His most popular attack is “Takeout,” which does 40 damage for 1 fighting energy and knocks out the defending Pokemon if it is an unevolved Pokemon.  His second attack is called “Hurricane Punch”, costs CC, and does 30 damage times the number of heads once you flip 4 coins.  His final attack  called “Rage”, costs FFCC, and does 60 damage plus 10 more each damage counter on Machamp.

Analysis– Well if you want some versatility and brute force Machamp can give it to you.  Machamp has been a very important card ever since the Platinum series came out and introduced SP Pokemon.  This is because Machamp can knock out every SP Pokemon (except Toxicroak G Pt) for just 1 fighting energy.  Talk about a good SP counter!

Machamp decks, with Flygon RR, did very well at Worlds last year and in this years Fall Battle Roads.  But Machamp had fallen out of favor around Cities last year because of the popularity of Unown g, which can cancel out the effect of “Takeout”.  But now Unown g is getting rotated out of the format, so Machamp is once again a Pokemon to be feared. Read More

Deck Workshop

Deck Workshop: Will Gyarados Stil be Atrocious After Rotation?

Pikkdogs 19 Comments

A big hello to all of you in Omar-Nation.  This is Pikkdogs here with a deck workshop.

Before we get started I would like to talk a little about Twitter.  I loved hearing you guys tweet during Nationals, and because of that I decided to get into Twitter more.  I have started to tweet about my decks and have found a couple of other people who do the same.  So if you are on twitter I would love to have you follow me and hopefully we can converse about the game.  Also, if you know anyone in the game who tweets also about it, please let me know.  My user name on there is “Pikkdogs.”

Like most of you, I am currently working on getting my decks post-rotation ready.  Some of my decks are working well, and some aren’t.  One that I am kind of on the fence about is Gyarados.

Just a small run through the strategy of the deck for all the new-comers.  Gyarados decks try to discard three Magikarps by turn 2 and then promote a Gyarados SF to do 90 damage with its “Tail Revenge” attack.  To get the karps in the discard pile, most people use Sableye SF’s “Impersonate” attack to set up, and then use Regice’s Poke-Power “Regi-Move” to discard the karps.

I have been talking to Ed about this deck and how it will be post-rotation.  As some of you might know, Ed has been playing Gyarados for a while and is somewhat of an expert on it.  When he tried to make it post rotation he noticed that he really missed the card called “Felicities Drawing.”

When I made my deck post-rotation I didn’t really notice this too much.  My major problem was mid game draw power. I can usually set up in 2-3 turns, but I had trouble recovering from a knock out.  My deck really misses Claydol and the draw power it provides.

So I will provide you guys with the list that I’m currently running and would appreciate any fixes to it, or any comments on post-rotation decks.

Sableye - SF

Pokemon-18
4 – Gyarados SF
4 – Magikarp SF
4 – Sableye SF
1 – Azelf LA
2 – Crobat G PT
2 – Uxie LA (The main draw Power of the deck)
1 – Regice LA
Energy-4
4 – Special Dark (For the Sableye Donk)
Trainers- 38
1 – Bench Shield (Just for those matchups versus snipers)
2 – Expert Belt
2 – Warp Point (mostly to get Regice out of the active spot)
3 – Poke Turn
3 – Pokemon Collector
4 – Super Scoop Up (To reuse Uxies and to heal Gyarados)
1 – Engineers Adjustment (To make some use out of the energies after the donk fails)
2 – Bebes Search
1 – Copy Cat
1 – Judge (One of the better cards in the format, man is this card great.)
1 – Cynthia’s Feelings
2 – Volkner’s Philosophy-2 (To discard a Magikarp)
1 – Pokeradar
1 – Luxury Ball
1 – Quick Ball
1 – Pokedex
3 – Pokemon Rescue
3 – Broken Time-Space
4 – Pokemon Reversal

Version 2 Changes

-1 Quick Ball

-1 Bench Shield

-1 Pokemon Reversal

+1 Uxie Lv.X La

+1 Copy Cat

+1 Pokemon Rescue

So there it is, nothing special.  Just a post-rotation form of a basic Gyarados deck.  My Gyarados deck is just supposed to be a prototype used only in testing,  because  I dont like the deck enough to bring it to a tournament.  Of course other decks use Luxray Gl, and thats a good choice,  and Adam from www.sixprizes.com swears that a build with Lunatone and Solrock is  best.  But this is just supposed to be a bland build.

Any hints to make it faster and better mid-game would be great.  Thanks

Hopefully we’ll see ya on Twitter.

National Championships

Cheffords’ 2010 Pokemon National Championships

Cheffords 4 Comments

Here’s my report from the master’s division at this year’s Nationals.

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

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

Throughout the weekend we see people we know from Michigan but also folks we recognize from online like JWittz and Adam from SixPrizes.com. We spent a lot of time hanging out with Team Warp Point (Good Game) who make us honorary members before the weekend is over; YOU GUYS ROCK! And of course we make new friends too. If you didn’t make it this year, I strongly encourage you to plan on being there next year because it is a blast and there is a ton of poemon fun to be had.

Round 1 vs. Brandon (Indiana) with Dusknoir LvX, Gengar LvX

This was my first game and first donk of the event. It went down like this – I go first starting with Mr. Mime; I draw and pass. Brandon opens with Duskull who evolves using Reaper Cloth into Dusclops (who has 80 HP) and attacks with Dark One-eye, discarding to force me to discard. I use Roseanne’s Research to get Uxie and Shuppet (I have 2 PlusPower, 1 psychic energy, and Warp Point in hand); using Uxie’s Setup gets a Crobat G, another PlusPower, and a Super Scoop. I Flash Bite with Crobat G, hit heads on the Super Scoop, scoop and replay Crobat G for another 10 with Flash Bite and then attack with Shuppet with 3 PlusPowers for 60 and the KO.

Brandon takes it okay and we head over to the league tables for a friendly game that goes down to the wire but I win again.

Record: 1 win, 0 losses

Round 2 vs. Matthew (Indiana) with Jumpluff

Matthew goes first opening with Baltoy and passes. I don’t remember the details but I am able to KO the Baltoy and win the game with another donk.

Record: 2 wins, 0 losses

Round 3 vs. Hanaan (Rhode Island) with CurseGar

We chit-chat during setup and find out we are both “pokedads” with kids playing in the other age groups. Hanaan opens with a Spiritomb and Gastly and I immediately know what I am up against. I have played and beaten many CurseGar decks in past tournaments so I know what to expect and I feel confident. On my second turn I KO his Spiritomb and think I am off to the races, however on his next turn he uses Pokemon Collector to get 3 more Spiritombs from his deck and proceeds to trainer lock me for the rest of the game. I never faced a CurseGar that ran and used 4 Spiritomb, but all I have to say is when the game was over and I showed my hand to Hanaan we counted 14 trainer cards.

Record: 2 wins, 1 loss

Round 4 vs. Jay (Iowa) with Kingdra

Jay isn’t very talkative during setup and I get the sense he takes playing very seriously. I mulligan my first draw and Jay takes his time looking at my cards to figure out what I am running, he doesn’t look happy. We shake hands and flip our cards, he has a lone Horsea and I have either an Uxie or Dunsparce (I can’t recall which.) Jay goes first and passes. I play a Buck’s, attach a PlusPower and an energy, and drop Crobat G to the bench using Flash Bite for 10 damage. My attack takes care of the 40 remaining HP and gives me the game. That’s 3 donks out of 4 games, this is a huge difference from my deck’s performance during the 3 Battle Roads I went to.

Record: 3 wins, 1 loss

Round 5 vs. Alex (Indiana) with Dialga G LvX, Garchomp C LvX

We setup and I can’t believe that I am opening with a lone Unown Q. Seriously, I only run one of them and to not have any other basics in hand is unbelievable. I am dreading the donk but hope for the best as we turn over our cards. Alex has a Garchomp C active and a Baltoy on the bench. He goes first but doesn’t the double-colorless energy he needs to donk me and passes. I take a deep breath having survived the opening turn and gather my wits trying to get a quick KO. I use Roseanne’s Research to get Dunsparce and a psychic energy to exploit Garchomp’s weakness. My turn goes well and I KO the Garchomp, however that is the end of my good luck because Alex quickly sets up a Dialga G and proceeds to Deafen me for the remainder of the game. At some point he uses Judge to shuffle Dunsparce and the energy back into the deck. I am left to draw and hope to get an energy or another Roseanne’s but to no avail. He eventually attaches an Expert Belt on Dialga G and with a clever play with Crobat G he gets his last prize card. Another game where trainer lock wrecks me; my final hand had nearly 20 trainers in it.

Record: 3 wins, 2 losses

Round 6 vs. Katheryn (Alabama) with Fainting Spell Gengar

I don’t recall the details of this match but the executive summary is – my deck runs like a clock and I take 6 prizes while Kathryn struggles to get anything threatening setup for very long. I do remember being pleasantly surprised when she uses Shadow Room to KO my Mr. Mime. In the end though, I win without much trouble.

Record: 4 wins, 2 losses

At this point I am feeling pretty good about my deck and my playing. I begin to hope that I might make it into the top-cut.

Round 7 vs. Robert (New Hampshire) with Gardavoir, Nidoqueen

Another “pokedad” here with his kid playing in the seniors division. Robert confesses to being extremely tired because of the long drive the day before and I hope this bodes well for me. Another match where I don’t have many details but Robert plays well enough in his exhausted state to stave off my flurry of attacks and hold me to 3 prizes before time is called, too bad he already has taken 4 prizes. I really feel I could have won this matchup if it weren’t for the 2 Judge cards he played to shuffle away all of my resources at the right moments only to follow up with a Psychic Lock attack to limit my ability to recover. Hats off to Robert to play a smart game in such a state.

Record: 4 wins, 3 losses

This is the last game for the day and despite 3 losses and hopes of top-cut waning, I am feeling pretty good and look forward to the following morning.

Round 8 vs. Rebekah (Louisiana) with straight Machamp

The pairings are posted on time and we are seated and getting setup. During the small talk Rebekah informs me that if she losses again she is going to drop to which the guy next to me concurs. I don’t know what to make of this really because I don’t see the point of coming all that way only to drop before the final round, but whatever I guess.

This game is like the last few because I don’t have many details but do I know that I take one prize per turn and end Rebekah’s tournament (she dropped.) She struggles to get setup only to play to promote a Spiritomb when she needs to play Night Maintenance and Luxury Ball. The one Machamp she does get out and on the bench doesn’t last long enough for her to use because I flip heads on a Pokemon Reversal and hit it hard for the OHKO.

Record: 5 wins, 3 losses

Round 9 vs. Paul (Washington) with Jumpluff, Luxray GL LvX

This one is pretty fresh still in my head so I have more details than the last few. I go first and open with a Crobat G active and something else on the bench. On Paul’s first turn he gets his bench full and evolves up into a Jumpluff with 1 energy and OHKOs my Crobat G. I have a great hand and am able to get Shuppet, energy, several PlusPowers, an Expert belt and OHKO his Jumpluff. This seems to surprise Paul as he goes into he second turn. Again he gets a Jumpluff out and KOs whatever I have active (no Mr. Mime yet.) I know this is a slugfest and I a turn behind so I have to do something to stall him out. I play my turn going for the knock out on his Jumpluff but I see my opening for the next turn to get ahead on prizes. The plan I hatch is to use 2 Poke Blower+ to force his Claydol active so I can KO it. This will slow his recovery down at least for 1 full turn if not longer. As it turns out, when Paul gets control again, he searches for more Jumpluff but isn’t able to find it, he thinks about going for Luxray GL but decides not to. He promotes Chatot and uses Mimic to shuffle his hand and draw 14 cards. I decide to proceed as planned and go after his draw foregoing the easy KO on Chatot (he only has 60 HP.) I also get Mr. Mime in play with Unown Q attached.

It is a little early to celebrate, but I am up in prizes and he doesn’t have a Jumpluff in his deck. He decides to go for Luxray GL LvX and Bright Looks up an Uxie (why he didn’t go for the Crobat G I cannot say) only to retreat in favor of Chatot again. He Mimics for another new hand of 13 cards. Around this time I draw into a Cyclone Energy and keep it in my hand knowing that at some point he will attack with Luxray, leaving him active which is too much HP for me to one-shot. The last few turns are a blur to me, but I know he is obviously trying to get 3 energies on his Luxray in order to KO my Mr. Mime but doesn’t seem to have enough energy left (his multi-energy is already in the discard). My last turn of the game goes like this, I draw into a second Poke Drawer+ which I use to get the last PlusPower and a Crobat G, I retreat Mr. Mime and promote Dunsparce attaching cyclone energy. He switches Luxray for Chatot. I attach all of my PlusPower to Dunsparce and know I have the KO, however I also see Hoppip on the bench and feel like I can get the double KO if I get lucky on a couple of Super Scoop Ups and that is exactly what I do and it wins me the game.

Record: 6 wins, 3 losses

I decide that I have a slim chance still to get into the top-cut of 64 and sort my deck while waiting for the standings to get posted. After a while the standings go up; I finish 79th, well out of top 64. In my flight there were 25 players with 6-3 records who make it into the top-cut. Even so I had a great time and am very happy with the way my deck and I played at the end of the season.

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