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Pokemon TCG Decklists and Articles

January 2011

Tourney Report Uncategorized

Best Set Ever, For Pre-Releases: Call of Legends Tourney Report and Tournament Advice.

Pikkdogs 7 Comments

A big hello to everyone in Omar-Nation, this is Pikkdogs here with a Pre-Release tourney Report and some advice for anyone going to Pre-Release tournaments next weekend.

A lot of people are saying that this is the worst set ever, while I don’t know Pokemon TCG history from Base Set to Diamond and Pearl, I do know that there are not many good cards in this set.  There are 2 good trainer cards, maybe 2 good Pokemon, and a handful of good re-prints; thats it.   No good Primes, Level X’s, or Legend Cards!  These reasons make this set not hugely impactful, but it also does make it one of the best sets ever for Pre-Releases.   

Guide to Winning a Call of Legends Pre-Release

Consistency

This set is full of re-prints of supporters that help in consistency including; Proffesor Oaks New Theory, Copy Cat, Professor Elms Training Method, Sages Training, and Cheerleaders Cheer.  When you combine this with good search/draw Pokemon like Smeargle, Mawile, Pidgey, Ninetails, Relincanth, Skarmory, and Pachirisu; you will get quite the consistent deck.  This means that if you get just a couple good attacking Pokemon, you should be able to get them out fairly quickly.  If you pull any of these cards that I mentioned, it would probably be a good idea to run them in your deck.

Attacking

This set doesn’t have the attacking power like other sets have, but this is sure to make it a fun and competitive tournament.  Most sets have a good basic or stage one Prime or Level X, not this time, you will have to rely on evolution cards.  Here are some good options.

  1. The Eeveelutions– If you get enough Eevee’s and some of its evolutions, they are not a bad play.
  2. The Stage 2 Guys– If you pull a decent line of one stage 2, it is to your advantage to play it.  Ampharos can provide a good attack and great energy acceleration.  While the three GS starters aren’t bad in this format.
  3. Seviper– Possibly the best starter of the bunch.  If you want an early prize leader, Seviper will give it to you.  If its poisoned it can do 80 damage, but it usually takes too long to get it poisoned late game.
  4. The Stage 1’s– There are several stage 1 Pokemon that are good and easy to evolve.  Donphan doesn’t have great stats but he can hit for weakness on a lot of good Pokemon.  Ursaring isn’t great but only uses Colorless energy, so he is very versatile.  And finally, Houndoom is a good card because a lot of people will play with fighting Pokemon, “Fire Counterattack” attack is almost un-matched.  Gyarados takes a lot of energy, but he can come in later for your last knock-out, if needed.
  5. The Big HP basics–  No they aren’t very attractive for Modified play, but they do work well here.  Pokemon like Snorlax, Groudon, Ho-Oh, Lugia, Palkia, and Dialga; aren’t great but can be built up all game when Pokemon like Seviper are attacking, and can provide your 4th and final Knock Out.

Basic Rules for Pre-Releases

Here are some basic rules that you can apply to all pre-releases that you go to.

  1. Use all the use-able trainers you have.  If you pull 6 PONT, then put them all in your deck.  Make room for any trainer or supporter that you can use to improve consistency.  The only drawback is that if you pull a card like Lost World you shouldn’t play it, because theres no way that you could use it to win the game.
  2. Run about 12 energies.  Usually 12 energies is pretty good for this type of tournament, its just enough so that you will seldom be in need of energy, but won’t always draw it.  This pre-release is a little different, there are so many drawing supporters that you don’t have to run this many.  You could probably get away with about 10 or so.
  3. Keep your Pokemon types fairly low.  Its usually best to stick to about 2 or 3 types of Pokemon.  It can be tough to have consistency when you are running 5-6 types of energies.  Pokemon that take only colorless energies are always nice.
  4. When choosing your cards keep consistency in mind.  Try to make a deck that will setup as fast as possible every time.  If you pulled a 1-1-1 line of Feraligatr, its probably not the best idea to run it.  Its better to have a Pokemon that can hit for 50 damage, but sets up faster, then a Pokemon that you will only be able to setup once the entire game.  But, you can only make the deck that you pull, so just try to build the most consistent deck you can.

Pikkdog’s Call of Legends Pre-Release- Okemos (Lansing), Mi.

I go to the event early and meet Cheffords for some play-testing.  He plays a Vespiquen deck against my Absol G Lost World deck (expect a good deck article once I get the deck perfected).  I get, I think, 4 in the lost zone, when the packs start coming to the tables.

Of course I was more excited to pull some good cards, rather then cards for the tournament.  But, I only pulled 1 Lost World and no Mr. Mimes or anything like that.  I did pull Ninetails, Ursaring, Seviper, Mismagius, and Weesing; so those were my main Pokemon.  This let me only run 2 types of energies, and still have a fairly balanced deck.  Before pairings were up, I played Cheffords and he set up Ampharos and made quick work of me.  Thats why I was nervous when I saw the pairings.

Round 1.  vs. Cheffords Ampharos/ Gyarados

I sat down and told Cheffords that now we will see if our decks are consistent.  I start with a lone Pidgey and he starts witha Pidgey and something else.  He uses a Supporter and finds that he has prized a Flaffy, so his strategy is kind of shot.  I then get Ursaring setup and take 3 prizes fairly easily.  Then as I was about to take my last prize, he brings up this Totodile with 4 energies, and just owns everything.

Totodile has an attack, called “Aqua Tail” that for WCC does 30 damage plus 20 more for each heads you get from each water energy you have attached to Totodile.  Cheffords gets like 7 heads in a row, and knocks out everybody he sees.  As he has two prizes left I look at what I have in my hand, and what I have on the field.  I see Weezing on the bench, and a bunch of energies in my hand.  I look at Cheffords and ask him if he’s ready for sudden death.  I load 2 energies on Weezing and do “Super Explosion” for 90 for both actives, and we each take our last prize.  This takes away his Totodile and gives me an advantage, because I have two Sevipers in my deck.

So we shuffle everything and tell Cheffords that I need a Seviper start.  I take 7 cards, and thats exactly what I got.  I start with Seviper and a psychic energy, I start first and poison Seviper.  Next turn I use PONT and find the last energy I need to knock out the defending Pokemon with “Poison Effect.”

1-0, hands down the most exciting Pre-Release game I have played up to this point.  What an amazing game, a great comeback and then sudden death.

Round 2- Robert with Lugia and Houndoom.

I have talked to Robert before, but I have never played him.  He is a Poke-Dad, and is more of a collector then a player. He got a good win over my buddy Andrew last round because of Houndoom.  Too bad for him that I don’t use any fighting Pokemon in my deck.

I start with Seviper and get an early 3 prize lead.  There is nothing he can really do early game.  His Houndoom doesn’t do much against me and Lugia takes about 27 turns to get loaded up.  He stalls with Pineco and knocks out Seviper.  I switch to Ursaring and knock out the Pineco.  But, he brings out Lugia with 2 energies, he attaches 1 and then snipes for 30.  I “Confront” Palkia for 20.  Then he attaches again and hits Ursaring for 30, I miss the coin flip on “Cross Chop” and hit Lugia for 50 more.  Next turn he attaches, and knocks out Ursaring.  Just like last game, I look at my bench, but this time I see a Mismagius.  By this time we have gone to time, and on turn 2 he takes his third prize.  On turn 3 I attach my last energy to Mismagius and hopes he has 1 trainer in his hand.  He then shows an “Interviewer’s Question”, and I jump for joy.                                                 

2-0. I am informed that this is the first Pre-Release game in Michigan to go to +3, so its nice to be a part of history. So far my blood pressure has been rising with a lot of close and intense games.

Round 3- Bruce the Judge with Mightyena and Donphan.

I don’t get a great start here, so I attempt to load a bunch of energies on Snorlax.  I eventually knock out his Houndoom with “Clomp Clomp Clobber” (excellent name for an attack), but then notice that all the attacking Pokemon I have out are weak to fighting, and he has a Donphan out.  I know that I need to stall until I can get something else, but I never can get anything else, but I do stall.  I call out my Mime Jr. and put him to sleep.  His Poke-Body makes him invulnerable to attacks when he his asleep, and since his attack puts him to sleep, he just needs to stay asleep during turns.  Amazingly enough, he stays asleep during each of Bruce’s turns, it must been like 5-8 times.  But I eventually deck myself out.

2-1. I don’t know why, but I feel somewhat of a victory in getting decked out.  Its weird that I didn’t have a normal victory this whole day.  One win in sudden death, one after the +3, and a loss by decking out.  This was no doubt the most fun I had in a pre-release, it was a great day.

After the tournament, I stuck around and made some trades.  Before the game I told Jona that I had a premonition that I was going to pull a RH Lost World.  When I got back to him after my third game, he had a RH Lost World waiting for me.  I then traded him a Jirachi UD and Abamasnow (both RH) for it, awesome trade for us both.  I then trade a get a Lost Remover, a DCE, 2 Junk Arms, and a bunch of other stuff.

When I was driving home I had another Premonition, that of a certain Ghost type Pokemon.  So I stop at the Target by my house and make a purchase of a Porygon 2 Blister pack and 2 Triumphant Booster Packs.  The Boosters turn out to be nothing, and I get nothing in the Platinum pack that was in the Blister pack.  But, in the first Triumphant pack that was in the Blister I got a Gengar Prime, I was really pumped because those things are selling anywhere from 30-50 bones now a days, so I was pretty pumped.  It was a great day, and I had fun with my Michigan pals.

So long and thanks for all the fish.

Uncategorized

The Techs of Luxchomp

Pikkdogs No Comments

Hey all members of Omar-Nation, Pikkdogs here with a little bit of a strategy article.  This site hasn’t had a Luxchomp article posted here for quite sometime, and I am pretty proud of it.  But alas, we can’t ignore it forever, so here is an article about Luxchomp.                       

We all know that since it became popular, Luxchomp has been the winning-est deck in the format.  It is a great deck that is lightning quick and features a lot of elements of disruption.  Of course it features the Pokemon Luxray Gl and Garchomp C, which gives the deck a lot of advantages.  But to give it even more advantages, Luxchomp players have teched out their decks with a lot of different cards.  There are too many cards to include them all in every deck.  So to make things easier, this article will tell you a little more about the techs, and you can include the techs that fit your metagame the best.

The Staples– Before we talk about techs, lets first look at staples.  I consider that Luxchomp has 5 staple Pokemon cards.  1. Luxray Gl (usually a 2-1. 3-1. or 2-2 line), 2.Garchomp C (usually a 2-2 or 3-1 line), 3. Bronzong G (just 1), Lucario Gl, and 4. The pixies (usually a 2-1 Uxie line and 1 Azelf).

Your Mirror Techs– Since the mirror matchup is one of the most important Luxchomp matchups, it is important that Luxchomp decks tech against each other.  Garchomp C and Luxray Gl are  great Pokemon but they are susceptible to revenge knock-outs.                               

Ambipom G– Ambipom G is a diverse little card, it can do a lot of things, but is not very flashy.  It has 80 HP and is weak to fighting.  Its first attack, called “Tail Code” lets you move an energy from your opponent’s active to a bench for just 1 energy.  Even though this is a pretty pitiful attack, it is fairly good against speed decks, because they don’t run many energies.  But, the reason this card is here is because its second attack, called “Snap Attack.”  For CC it can do 60 damage if the defending Pokemon has no energy attached to it.  That means you can do 120 damage to a Garchomp C for just 1 DCE, and “Snap Attack” adds donking ability.

Dragonite FB– Dragonite FB is also a diverse card.  It has 100 HP, and is weak to colorless.  It has more HP then Ambipom, it can always knockout Garchomp C, and can attack better then Ambipom; but it takes more energy, requires a coin flip on one of its attack, and can be hit by Garchomp C for weakness.  Its first attack, called “Mach Blow,” does 80 damage to any SP, this will be the attack you use the most.  It requires an energy gain and 1 DCE to attack, so it does take resources, but can be up and running in one turn.  Its second attack, “Giant Tail”, can do 100 damage, but it requires a coin flip, and another energy.         

Toxicroak G Promo– I feel like a broken record, but this card is very diverse.  Any time your opponent knocks out a Pokemon, Toxicroak can be called up and do 60 damage plus poison.  So this gives you a bunch of options, plus it is a fighting type so it can OHKO Luxray Gl.  As mentioned, “Poison Revenge” can do 60 damage and poison the defending for PC.  The bad part of this card is that you will need to include a psychic energy to use this card. Toxicroak G comes complete with his own built in Super Scoop Up, in the form of a Poke-Power called “Leap Away.”  Why I don’t like cards who’s sole purpose is to go away, it does have its uses.

If you don’t have Toxicroak G promo, you could use Mankey SV as a tech against Luxray Gl.  It can do 60 damage for just 1 fighting energy, but it only has 60 HP.  The problem with this card is that unless you use Mankey to take the last prize, your opponent will be able to knock out Mankey, so its use doesn’t really make any sense.

The other techs-

Dialga G– Last years worlds winner had a lot of people looking at his deck for obvious reasons, and one of the things they noticed was that he ran Dialga G and Warp Energies.  Dialga G is not a staple tech now adays, if you want Dialga G you might as well run Dialgachomp, but there are reasons to run this card in a Luxchomp deck.  It is an excellent card to go against decks that run a lot Pokebodies; like Trainerlock varieties, Donphan Prime, and Mewtwo techs.  It is an excellent play for bigger tournaments that have lots of deck variety.  Though you will need to include some Warp Energies.  If you use Dialga G, you would only use the Pokebody, you would most likely not want to attack with it.

Blaziken FB– Like Dialga G, Blaziken FB is very versatile.  For one fire energy you can pick your opponent’s benched Pokemon, make him active and burn him.  Then next turn you can level up and hit that Pokemon for 120 with “Jet Shoot” and the “Burning Spirit” Poke-Body.  It can help you do a lot of things against a lot of different decks.  It can be used against Gyarados, to bring up Regice and stall or snipe around.  It is also a good tech against Vileplume, you can make him active, then attach another energy next turn and knock him out.

Drifblim Ud– Drifblim is a card that is not versatile, it is only good against tanking cards.  If you don’t run Blaziken FB you will automatically lose to decks like Steelix Prime.  So to counter big tanking decks, you can use Drifblim to get rid of the tanking card.  Drifblim’s second attack, “Take Away” that costs CCC and its effect shuffles in both active Pokemon into their respective decks.  The bad thing about this tech is that you need two spots for this card you need to evolve.  Most Luxchomp decks should be able to work well without Drifblim, but you can include it in your deck if your format is full of tanking decks.

Mewtwo Lv.X– Mewtwo will be a good tech if you are playing a deck that does not have any evolution lines.  Its Poke-Body “Psybarrier” prevents all attacks from Pokemon that aren’t evolved.  It’s one attack, “Giga Burn”, does 120 damage for PPC, but you must discard all energy attached.  This means that you will need to include at least 2 Psychic energies to be able to use this card.  Though 120 damage is a good number.  The problem about using Mewtwo Lv.X is that there are too many ways for your opponent to play around it.  Some Luxchomp decks play an evolved Pokemon like Mismagius SF to counter Mewtwo, while others play Dialga G Lv. X.  Or, Garchomp C LV. X can be used to knock out Mewtwo before it can be a Lv. X.  I would only suggest Mewtwo if you know that most of the other SP decks in the format do not run a counter.

So that is all for this article.  There are a few more techs like Mismagius, Skuntank Gl, Staraptor FB, and Smeargle UD.  But these cards are either pretty self explanatory or not used very much.

Fortunately, SP decks will soon lose a lot of their luster, because a lot of the key cards will be rotated out next season.  But, until then you can learn how to play this Luxchomp deck and be successful at your State and Regional Championships with it.

Pikks Three

Pikkdogs Pikks Three: Garchomp C Lv.X, Pokemon Reversal, and Seviper CoL

Pikkdogs 5 Comments

Hello to all members of Omar-Nation.  As you can see from the title of this article, Pikk Three is back. I have not done this article in a while, since the season was in full swing, there was a lot to talk about.   The Undaunted set brought in some new decks, and the Triumphant set changed a lot of the decks out there.  But now, Battle Roads and City Championships are over, there are no new decks out there (none that anyone will talk about anyway), and the next set seems to be fairly boring.

So because of these reasons, I think its time to go back to the Pikk Three article.  If you don’t know what this article is, I’ll just have to tell you.  Its an article where I review three cards, one that is popular, one that I think is under-used, and one that is coming out in a new or yet un-released set.  Its basically a card of the day article on steroids, so without further wait, here is the article.

The Staple-Garchomp C Lv.X

Description-Its hard to believe that I have never reviewed this card before, because it is probably the best card in the format.  It is of course a basic Lv.X with 110 HP, a free retreat, and a colorless weakness.  It has one Poke-Power, called “Healing Breath”, it lets you remove all damage counters from all of your SP Pokemon when you level up Garchomp C.  Garchomp’s one attack, “Dragon Rush” cost CCC and does 80 damage to any on of your opponent’s Pokemon.         

Analysis-This card is one of the better cards in the format because a lot of these basic stats.  Its free retreat combines great with “Healing Breath.”  It is this combo that has made it such a great combo with Dialga G Lv.X.  “Dragon Rush” gives the card a lot of sniping ability, which gives the card a lot of disruption ability.  This makes it a great combo with Luxray Gl Lv.X.

Garchomp C has seen a lot of play with both Dialga G and Luxray GL.  It has seen play in other decks, but not as much as in the Dialgachomp and Luxchomp decks.  Garchomp C has made the Luxchomp deck what it was today, the best deck around.  The ability to heal and snipe is a great thing to have in any deck.

Before the release of this card, SP decks relied on Luxray Gl Lv.X for knockouts.  They used to count each Poketurn as a knockout from the “Bright Look” Poke-Power.  Now, SP players count each Double Colorless Energy as a potential prize, because of its synergy with “Dragon Rush.”

To use Garchomp C Lv.X, an SP player would probably first attack with Luxray Gl or a different Pokemon, then promote Garchomp C.  They would then put the Lv.X on Garchomp C, use “Healing Breath”, attach a DCE and an Energy Gain, and then be ready to knock out any Pokemon with less then 80 HP.

Final Rating-10/10–  This is the epitome of a 10/10 card.  It revolutionized the whole format and constructed the current best deck in format.

The Underdog-Pokemon Reversal

Description– This is a trainer card with a simple effect.  You may flip a coin, if heads you may switch the defending Pokemon with any of your opponents benched Pokemon.  If you are older then 20 years old you will know what I mean when I say that it is like a flippable Gust of Wind.      Pokemon Reversal

Analysis– This card was released in the HGSS set, and had seen some play when it first came out.  Some people played it in decks like Donphan Prime, but it never really caught on in any major decks.

I think this card is underrated because it does what few other cards can do.  It can pick one of your opponent’s benched Pokemon that he could be hiding and be able to knock it out.  This is used in some decks that rely on a prize race, and do not do over 110 damage each turn.  It could be used in Gyarados decks and other popular decks that have a flexible list.  The ability to select your opponent is great and can help you win the prize race.

Though I think this card should be played more then it is, it could see a lot less play in the future.  This is because in the Black and White Collection we might get a card called Pokemon Catcher, which is just basically a re-printed Gust of Wind.  It does everything that Pokemon Reversal does, but without a coin flip.  If this deck does make it to the U.S. it will kill all play of Pokemon Reversal, but until it does I think its a good play.

Final Rating- 7/10– A good play in a lot of decks.  Even though this card may not be used later, I think its still a good play now for a lot of decks.  It especially has a good combo now with Junk Arm.

The Young Gun- Seviper Call of Legends

Description-Seviper usually doesn’t get a lot of good cards, but this one isn’t too bad.  It is from the new Call of Legneds Set, which begins its Pre-Release season this weekend.  So we don’t have much time, lets look at the card.                                                                                   

It has 90 HP, it is a basic, it is weak to Psychic, and has a retreat cost of 2.  It has two attacks.  Its first attack is called “Poison Buildup” and its only effect is that is poisons Seviper.  You may not think that it is not such a good thing, but wait until you read the next attack.  For PC its next attack, “Poison Effect”, does 20 damage, or 80 damage if Seviper is poisoned.  80 damage for just 2 energies isn’t bad.

Analysis–   So we can do 80 damage for 2 energies and you don’t have to evolve.  But to get Seviper poisoned, you will want to find a better way then using his first attack.  This is where Skuntank G comes in.

If you have Skunktank G on the bench, a Stadium in play, and Seviper active; you can use “Poison Structure” to poison both active Pokemon.  If you need to have a stadium in play, I would suggest using Snowpoint Temple, which gives basic Pokemon extra HP.  You might also want to look at Team Galactic HQ which penalizes your opponent for evolving.  With this combo you can easily get 80 damage going in each turn.

If you use this combo you can also use Expert Belt to do 100 damage.  If you combine this with the damage your opponent receives from poison, you would get the magic number of 110 damage each turn.  110 is the magic number because Gengar SF has 110.  And since the last 10 damage comes from poison, your opponent will not get to flip for “Fainting Spell.” 100 damage also leaves you just a “Flash Bite” or Plus Power away from knocking out Luxray Gl Lv.X and Garchomp C Lv.x.

This can be a very effective combo, but I don’t think that this will be a top tier deck.  Seviper only has 90 HP and a psychic weakness.  Almost any deck can OHKO Seviper with Uxie Lv.X.  And since it takes 2 energy to attack, it will take a lot to get a string of Seviper’s going.  If the game turns into a prize race, Seviper may be in a bad spot.  Perhaps one could add in Pokemon that disrupt, like Mesprit LA.  This would slow down the opposing deck, and this would give you a big advantage.

Final Rating– 6/10-  I don’t see this being a great deck or great attacker.  It could be used in other decks, like Genar/Vileplume.  But its best use is probably in its own fun deck.  It is an interesting card, that I wouldn’t be mad if I pulled in a pack.

So that is my first Pikk Three article since the new season began.  Feel free to add your own reviews of each card in the comment box, and leave any comments you have.

PokeClass

PokemanDan’s PokeClass Episode 17 – Money Matters, Cities and Deck Surgery!

PokemanDan No Comments

PokemanDan presents the longest episode ever!

If you watch the whole of this then thanks, I think you’ll find it’ll be worth it. As you can probably guess, I cover quite a lot in this episode. There’s my newest article called ‘Money Matters’ which covers all about the financial side of Pokemon along with a Cities report and finally two decklists from my shortlist in the Deck Surgery.

Thanks for watching and I hope you enjoy! Read More

Stupid Deck Idea

Pikkdog’s Stupid Deck Idea-World B. Free-A Yanmega Prime Deck

Pikkdogs 7 Comments

Hey all members of Omar Nation, this is Pikkdogs here with a Stupid Deck Idea.  As most of you know, our Stupid Deck Ideas are basically fun decks that either show a little promise or are just fun to play.  This deck fits in the former category, and features Yanmega Prime.

I call this deck World B. Free, after one of the craziest named NBA players.  The name kind of fits because Yanmega Prime can attack without any energies, or for free.       

First I got to give props to Cheffords and his buddies at work.  While they did not help me with this deck, they are the only other people I know with a similar deck.

So, on to the deck strategy.  The strategy of this deck is to have the same number of cards in your hand as your opponent does, so you do not need to pay for any of Yanmega Prime’s attacks, thanks to his “Insight” Pokebody.  Yanmega Prime has two attacks.  With “Linear Attack” you can snipe for 40 damage, and with “Sonicboom” you can do 70 damage.  While 70 damage isn’t a great attack, if you can combine it with disruption it may be enough.

To make sure you have the same number of cards as your opponent does you can use either Judge or Giratina Pt #9.  Both of these cards have the same effect, each player shuffles their hand in their deck and draws 4 cards.  This not only lets you attack for free, but provides hand disruption.  To further the disruption I have added Mesprit La to this deck.  Its Poke Power “Psychic Bind” forbids your opponent from using Poke Powers on his/her next turn.  This can be very disruptive, especially when used with “Let-Loose” or Judge.

Things to Remember

  1. Keep an early powerlock on the opponent, don’t let them use any powers until their 4th or 5th turns, you should have a prize lead by then.
  2. Don’t play any cards after you “Let Loose” or Judge.  After you use these effects, the only thing you can do is attack.  If you use any cards you may not be able to attack on this turn, because you won’t have exactly 4 cards in your hand.
  3. Make sure you keep an eye on everyone’s hand size.  You may not need to waste a Super Scoop Up or Seeker on Giratina.

The List

Here is my list- along with some insights on the cards.

Pokemon-20

  • 4- Yanma- Any set as long as it isn’t Triumphant.  The extra 20 HP and the lack of a x2 weakness is nice
  • 4-Yanmega Prime
  • 3-Giratina Pt #9
  • 3-Mesprit La
  • 1- Uxie
  • 4-Sableye Sf- You really need to start this game off with a Pokemon Collector, so just use “Impersonate” to get one.
  • 1- Giratina Lv.X.  This card isn’t pivotal to this deck, but since you are running Giratina and 4 Warp Energies, there is no reason not to.

Energies-6

  • 4-Warp- This card saves you from a bad start, and if someone decides to pull up Giratina to the active spot.  You could switch this to Warp Points, but for some reason I liked Warp Energies.
  • 2-Rescue Energies- Not needed, but these are good for an obvious reason, and can help you retreat if needed.

Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums-34

  • 4- Junk Arms- This card lets you re-use all the trainers you have.
  • 4- Super Scoop Up- Lets you create bench space or re-use “Let Loose” or “Psychic Bind.”
  • 3- Pokemon Collector
  • 3-Pokemon Communication- This card is key because you will sometimes have to use Seeker or Judge as your supporters.
  • 2-Expert Belt- 70 damage isn’t enough.
  • 4- Plus Powers- These cards could be substituted out, but they can help you add the damage you need to KO the defending opponent.
  • 4-Judge- After your bench space is gone, you will need to use this a lot.   Giratina - PL
  • 3-Seeker.  Same as Super Scoop Up.
  • 2- Bebe’s Search
  • 1- Luxury Ball
  • 2- V.S. Seeker- key to re-using Judge or Seeker late game.
  • 2- Pokemon Rescue- kind of used as a place holder for now.

As you can see this list is not as tight as it should be.  There is room to add in some new techs.  Here are a few

  1. Exploud SV- This card can negate your lightning weakness, though it will slow your deck down.
  2. Regice– This card will let you discard cards from your hand, it might help you equal the number of cards in your opponents hand without using a Power or Supporter.
  3. Pokemon Reversal– You can use this card to target any benched Pokemon, and make it active.  It can be used to knock out a Dialga G before it becomes a Lv.X.

Matchups

A deck is only as good as its matchups, so here are a list of a few matchups.         

  • Luxchomp– Unfavorable.  You can provide a lot of disruption with Mesprit and Judges, they will have a hard time getting their Cyrus chain.  But the fact is, your weakness makes sure that Luxchomp will almost never lose.
  • Gyarados– Favorable.  The rule of thumb here is to Judge early and often.  While you powerlock and Judge, your opponent will find it hard to get setup.  Hopefully you can get a big enough prize lead before they finally get setup.
  • Dialgachomp– Autoloss. Right now you have no counter to Dialga G. “Time Crystal” negates “Insight” so you cannot even attack.
  • Uxie Donk– Balanced.  You do run a lot of basics, so that is good.  But you never know how things will work out.
  • Trainerlock– Unfavorable.  You run a lot of trainers, so you need a lot of luck to be able to survive.
  • Machamp– Favorable.  Yanmega is an evolved Pokemon that has a resistance to fighting, two things that help against Machamp.  You will have a hard time getting a OHKO on Machamp, but they will be in the same boat.  So as long as you Powerlock first, your opponent will not be able to setup as fast.  If you setup faster, you win.
  • Regigas– Balanced. You both powerlock, so whoever gets the better setup will probably win.  Regigas has the better attack, but you can Judge and setup faster; its fairly even.
  • Random Stuff– Favorable.  Given that this category contains a lot of random rogue decks, it is hard to predict whats coming.  But your disruption will keep most rogue decks at bay.

So there is a run down of this deck.  It is a fun deck that will probably shock your freinds at league.  But, I wouldn’t count on it as saving you at a State or Regional tournament.  If your bored throw this deck together, it does work fairly well. Thats it for now, have fun in your initial testings for States.

So Long and Thanks for all the fish.

Deck Discussion

Donking for Dummies Part 2: Radu’s Guide To Cultivating Hatred

TheRadu 17 Comments

Victory Medal Spring 2007-2008This is the second part of a 2-part series. You can find part one here.
“Donking for Dummies Part 1: Radu’s Obnoxious Uxie Deck”

Time Management
I mentioned in the previous article that you will take extremely long turns. I said you will do it without stalling or slow play. I will explain how one goes about achieving this in this section. If I were to play a “fun” game against this deck the Uxie Donk players turn would probably be about 10-12 minutes, if I were to play against it in a tournament the average players turn would be somewhere between the 15-18 minute range. This is not ideal, not because you want to win on time, but because you are likely not taking all the time to think and plan that’s would be best. People just play this deck too fast. You have right to shuffle for more than two seconds, you have right to take a little bit of time to think between plays. What you will be doing may seem unreasonable given that you are denying your opponent a turn. It, however, is not. Honestly, you will be taking less time in between plays than a Luxchomp player would, your searches will be faster. You will check the discard pile three or four times during a game. That’s in 30 minutes of playing time. Most decks check the discard that many times in just 15 minutes of play. But your opponent will not like this regardless of any logic that is used. But keeping your opponent happy isn’t your job. Now, let’s look at some of the factors which lead to people not using enough of their time and losing game they should have won on time.
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Deck Discussion

Donking for Dummies Part 1: Radu’s Obnoxious Uxie Deck

TheRadu 19 Comments

This is guide to playing the universally hated Uxie Donk deck. The deck goes by some other names as well. The more common ones are Uxie Quadro, Solitaire, Donk Deck etc. I affectionately refer to is as Obnoxious, due to the fact that pretty much everything about the deck is incredibly obnoxious. If you don’t know why this deck is obnoxious then you simply have never heard of it before. The deck aims to FTK/OTK (First Turn Kill/One Turn Kill) the opponent even if they start four basics. This is my favorite deck to play this format.  That being said, I have never used it in a premier event due to my fear of Vilegar. Uxie Donk is also the deck I find to be, by far, the most intriguing this format.

As a card player, OTK and FTK decks always interested me.  They are somewhat common in Yugioh, but in modified Pokemon this is a true first. The engines that decks like this use are always incredibly intricate and fast. There are many people who have asserted that this deck and decks like it take no skill to play, or that it is only played by skill-less players. Those people are dead wrong. This deck does take a good amount of skill to play right, with the intention of winning tournaments. People simply don’t understand how much I cringe when I let people use this deck and they misplay horribly with it. It’s not a hard deck to learn, but if you fail to adhere to the simple academic rules which I will lay out here, you will not win as much as you should. To be fair, if an average player playing this deck has a 60% win rate, a very skilled player will only have 70 or 75% win rate, but when you are talking about winning in a larger field and going X-0 or X-1, those 10 or 15% make a huge difference.

This article will be broken into two parts. First, I will explain the strategy behind playing the deck and what it aims to do. Then, I will explain how one would go about playing this deck in a tournament, including a very large section on time management. A lot of what I say may seem obvious. I have learned over the several years I’ve been playing that nothing is too obvious for your average player to ignore, so I’m saying pretty much everything. Before all that, I will introduce myself for those that do not know who I am.
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Uncategorized

Preservation of Pokemon Cards.

Pikkdogs 8 Comments

As many of you probably do not know, I am in the Masters of Library Sciences Program at Wayne State University.  In short, I am going to school to be a librarian.                  

Why should I care about that?

You shouldn’t.

So why are you telling me this?

Well, if you will let me finish my story, I’ll tell you.

Anyway, last semester I was in a class that was being given a presentation about the preservation of books.  While I was listening to what kind of things can ruin books, I was thinking of how this kind of stuff can apply to cards as well.  After class, I went online and learned a lot of stuff about card preservation.

While I will admit that I don’t practice great preservation, it is an important concept to anyone in the game.  Preservation is one of the most important things about maintaining a card collection, no matter how big or how small.  In this article I will tell you why you should preserve your cards and how you can do it.

Why You Should do It.

There are two main reasons to preserve your Pokemon card collection.

  1. To preserve its value for trading purposes                                              
  2. To preserve it to pass on to a younger generation.

Even though you may not care about keeping your cards in mint condition, a lot of people out there do.  They are not going to want to buy your damaged cards.  The last thing you want is your poor preservation techniques getting in the way of getting a good deal on a trade.

One great thing about Pokemon is that you can share it with a younger generation.  Whether it is your son, daughter, cousin, niece, or nephew; Pokemon is a game that people of all ages can enjoy.  If you do not have children yet but will in the future, you can preserve your collection for later.  It is a great thing to be able to pass on one of your passion to another generation, that is why preservation is important.  But what good will it be when you go on to play with your son in 10 years, and find that your collection has been damaged by a flood?

For both of these reasons it is important to store your Pokemon cards in a good manner but how can you do it?  Before we answer this, we should look at what we can protect our cards from.

  1. Wear and Tear–  This is perhaps the most common damage done to cards.  Whenever you play with or touch a card you have a chance at damaging it.  There is a good chance that this card will still be playable after this damage, but its trade value will plummet.
  2. Water Damage– My favorite story of water damage is from when I was in college.  My roommate used to play Magic, and would routinely leave tins filled with cards all around the apartment.  One day he decided to put a tin in a windowsill, later he opened the window.  One thunderstorm later he had a tin full of worthless cards.  Water is a  big threat to cards, whether it comes from a leaky roof, an open window, a water glass, or a flood; you must protect your cards from them.  Water can easily make your cards unplayable.
  3. Smoke damage– This one is easy, don’t smoke in your house.  If you do your cards will get yellow spots on them.
  4. Damage from food– Another one, that is easy to fix.  Don’t eat any food by your cards.  You can stain them, or make them sticky, or a lot of other things that aren’t good for card.  Food can either make your cards un-tradeable, or un-playable.
  5. Sunlight– Overtime, Sunlight will start to fade your cards, and you don’t want to have to play with a bunch of faded cards.                                                  

How do we do it?

So now we know what can hurt your cards.  How do we keep them safe?  Here are a couple suggestions

  1. Store all of your important card singles in a three ring binder.  If you use a basic three ring binder and basic plastic pages, you can store a lot of cards for a low price.  Make sure you don’t shove too many cards in one slot, that can damage your cards.  If you don’t overflow the binder, it can be a cheap good way to store your cards.
  2. Use Screw and Non-Screw Holders.  You know these, these are like plaques.  This can be an expensive way to store cards.  It is also one of the better ways, because it protects the cards from dust along with water, food, and smoke.  I would recommend this for only your most prized cards, like ones that are autographed.  Of course when a card is in this holder, it is no longer playable when its in the holder, so this is not a good strategy for all cards.
  3. Pack them, and store them in cardboard card boxes.  Don’t just throw them in a shoebox, though.  Pack all of your cards individually in sleeves and toploaders, and then in specially designed card boxes.  This will keep them away from outside influences like sunlight, smoke, and food.
  4. Put whatever you use in a plastic storage container and store in a cool dry place.  Put all of your binders and boxes in a plastic storage box, to protect it from water and dust.  Then put your container in a cool dry place where it won’t be subject to temperature changes or floods.  Ideally you would also be able to store them in a place that is free of air pollution, but this is not always possible.                                                   

What not to Do

Now you know what to do, just for reinforcement, here are some things that you should not do.

  1. Store decks with a rubber band.  The band hurts the cards, and does not protect it from the elements like a deckbox does.
  2. Eat/smoke while playing the game.  Its not a good thing to do.  It hurts the condition of your cards.
  3. Not using sleeves.  Even though I don’t like sleeves, they are a must for anyone that wants to have some trade value in their cards.  They are worth the investment.

Now you guys know a little bit about preservation  enough to have your cards keep their value, and know how to keep your cards for the future. If you guys have any other preservation secrets, or horror stories, please put them in the comment box.

So long and thanks for all the fish.

Uncategorized

Results of teamomar.com First Anniversary Contest.

Pikkdogs 7 Comments

A big hello to everyone from Omarnation.  This is Pikkdogs here with a quick house cleaning article.

As most of you know, a few weeks ago we started our first contest to celebrate our first anniversary.  Now that the results are back, we can finally share them with all of our readers.

Ed and I were excited to run the contest, but unfortunately it did not go as well as we hoped.  We didn’t get half the entries as we thought we would.  But, we still did get some entries and got to  connect with a few of our readers.  Here are the winners of the contest:

1. Evan C.-winner of a Pokemon TCG Tin

2. Alan T.-winner of a 2010 Play Pokemon Energy Pack

3. Myles D.-winner of a Ho-oh Legend.

The winners have all been contacted and the prizes are on their way.

Since we did not get the amount of entries that we thought we would, we would like to know why.  This input would be very helpful in making our website better, especially if we ever decided to have another contest.  Are you guys interested in contests?  Was this specific contest not interesting enough?  Was the contest ran at an inconvenient time?  What would you like to see in another contest?  If you could leave some of your thoughts on these questions in the comment box Ed and I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank You all and congratulations to the winners.

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