One Hit KO

Last October the Pokemon world was shaken up by news from Japan.  When Japan got there Black and White sets they also got new rules changes and a mid season rotation.  Fast forward to April, and now North America, Europe, and South America are about to get the Black and White set.  What will this mean for the format?  Will we also get the rules changes and the format change?

If you haven’t guessed already, the topic of this article will be the possible changes to the rules and format changes.  Before we begin to talk about the impact of the changes too much, lets review what happened in Japan.

What were the changes in Japan?

1. Rules change so that Trainer/Goods cards can be played on the first turn of the game.
2. Supporters are now called “Supports” and are considered Trainer/Goods cards and can be played once per turn, even on the first turn.  They are now immediately discarded after use.
3. Stadium cards are also considered Trainer/Goods cards and can also be played on the first turn.
4. Rare Candy cannot be played on either player’s first turn, and they cannot be played on the same turn that you first

Hello everyone in Omar-Nation, this is Joel here with a fun deck idea to try out. I was originally going to write an article on Charizard, but with my new hectic work schedule, and a crazy idea on a Dusknoir deck, I decided to write about Dusknoir instead. I also would have had this article up sooner but as I said, my work schedule is hectic, and I don’t have as much free time as I used to have, now on with the deck!

I have always liked Dusknoir LV.X, and the Dusknoir from Stormfront. Dusknoir can allow you to draw 2 cards, and put 2 damage counters on it, however you have 7 or more cards in your hand; you have to discard cards until you have 6. Putting damage counters and discarding cards may seem like a pretty bad drawback, but Damage Even makes up for it. For a Psychic and a Colorless, you count the number of Damage counters on Dusknoir, and put that many damage counters on any one of your opponent’s Pokémon. And did I mention Dusknoir LV.X? With poke-power Ectoplasm, the level X card becomes a stadium that puts one damage counter on all of your opponent’s Pokémon between turns! Pretty sweet, isn’t it?

I got the idea to make a Dusknoir deck after seeing my friend Matt from Florida run one in a battle road. I also needed a fun deck to take to league since not everyone there can hold their own against Luxchomp. So I threw together a list with some interesting techs, took my deck to league and did pretty well with it. I tested the deck against my league’s more competitive players. I had a good matchup against my friend Austin with his Machamp/Mightyena build, and my friend Will had a hard time against the deck, and he was running Gyarados. I’ll share my list below and give you an idea on how I play it.

Continue reading "Fun Deck Idea: Dusknoir"

[youtube width=”640″ height=”390″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0H7mNssZto[/youtube]

It’s been a while, but I’m back after the States period. This week is a recap of how my States has gone so far, with one tournament bearing great results. How did you all do at yours? Watch for next week’s episode with another report and heaps of news!
Continue reading "PokemanDan’s PokeClass Episode 23 – Two States, One Top 8!"

Hey everyone in Omar-Nation.  This is Pikkdogs here with a short review of the new Pokemon TCG Online game.  This is the online TCG simulator that we’ve been hearing about.  It isn’t in its final version yet, its still in Beta testing, but you can still play with some theme decks right now.  You can find it at www.pokemontcg.com.

Right now Pokemon TCG Online doesn’t feel like the online version of the game that we’re all waiting for, it kinda feels like just a cheap Flash game.  But that could all change, in time it could become more comprehensive.

How it Works

The game is fairly simple to play.  They computer automatically deals you a hand of 7 cards, and you pick your starter and bench by clicking on the Pokemon.  After you pick heads or tails, you play out your hand as if it were a card game.  To attach an energy you click on the energy you want to attach, and then click the Pokemon you want to attach it to.  To play a trainer, stadium, or supporter card you just click it and the computer does the effect of the attack for you, unless you need to …

Well State/Province/Territory championships are all over, and its time to see what we have learned from it.  This article well recap what happened at states, and try to give you a little view of what will come up next month at Regionals.

Overview

Well, things at States were fairly predictable this year.  Luxchomp again won most tournaments, while a couple other popular decks got a couple wins.  According to Pokegym.net this is the list of winners of States.

16 Luxchomp (1 w/Honchkrow)
4 Vileplume/Gengar
4 Gyarados
3 DialgaChomp
3 Sablelock (1 w/ Luxray SP)
2 Lostgar w/Vileplume
2 Machamp (1 w/ vileplume)
2 Chenlock
1 Arceus
1 Steelix
1 Scizor Prime
1 Vilegar / Dusknoir
1 Magnezone

From this list, we can see a couple cool rogue decks winning here; like Steelix, Scizor, Mangezone, and Arceus.  And, some second tier decks took some states as well,  with help from the good players that champion them.  We also see 6 Vilegar variants winning and 5 Sablelock variants winning.  This somewhat surprising showing by these decks show that they are strong contenders for the title of 2nd best deck.        

How Did the Rogues Do?

The …

When the new fifth generation Pokémon were first released, I didn’t think I’d ever be a fan of them. I have to be honest, though. I’m incredibly excited for the new Black and White set. I had higher expectations for the preview tins, but was slightly disappointed in the fact that there are only 5 preview cards available and they come in all three tins. Nevertheless, I had to open all three! So here is the first one. I’m curious what everyone else’s opinion is on the new Pokémon and the new set.

[youtube width=”853″ height=”450″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX2xiGI4Jwc&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Continue reading "Opening a Tepig Black & White Preview Tin"

A big hello to all members of Omar-Nation.  This is Pikkdogs here with a deck idea for you.  It may not be the best deck ever, but it is actually a pretty good deck that deserves some credit.  

A couple weeks ago I wrote an article about walls in the Pokemon TCG, well this is a deck that uses two of those Pokemon.  The idea of this deck is to hit for a moderate amount, while not letting your opponent attack you.

The Main Attackers

Scizor Prime has the “Red Armor” Poke-Body which does not let any attack damage him from a Pokemon that has any Special Energy cards attached to it.  This means that if your opponent is playing Steelix Prime or Garchomp C Lv. X there is a good chance that those cards will need to adapt just to even scratch you.  Since Scizor Prime is a Steel type it can benefit from Special Metal Energies, making it somewhat of a tank.

Umbreon Ud has an attack called “Moonlight Fang” which does 30 damage and does not let any Pokemon with Poke-Powers or Poke-Bodies inflict any effects of an attack on to Umbreon.  Since Umbreon is a …

Hey everyone in Omar-Nation, this is Pikkdogs here with a tournament report for Indiana’s states.  I again decided to run Uxie, after briefly flirting with an Umbreon/Scizor Prime deck.   

I woke up a little after 5:30, and got on the road before 6:30.  This was very early for me, but it was cool to go outside and see a huge full moon hanging in the sky before sunrise.  I then took the 3 hour drive to Fort Wayne, Indiana.  When I got there I met my friend James in the parking lot.  James, who is a testing buddy of mine, tried really hard to get me to come today and I’m glad I capitulated to his requests. Before the tournament started I made some trades with some players, borrowed some cards, said hello to a lot of my Pokemon friends, and received a cool deck box from James.  The format again was very Luxchomp heavy.  It was a little more diverse than last week, but Luxchomp was by far the most popular deck.

The tournament was held at a neat venue, a minor league baseball stadium.  Just past right field is a long narrow room where we had …

Hello everyone out there in Omar Nation, this is Joel here with another article. This time I want to talk about leagues, and how they are an important part of the Pokémon Trading Card Game community. As a league leader myself, I cannot stress how important leagues are, and how much fun participating in one can be. I have been running my league for the past 3 years now and it is one of the busiest leagues in the Metro Detroit area. But enough about my league, lets go on to discuss what a league is, how it is ran, what makes it different from a tournament, and how it’s important to the Pokémon TCG community.                         

What is a Pokémon League?

A Pokémon league is an official Play! Pokémon event that is usually run once a week. Leagues provide players with a casual playing and trading environment for players of all ages. Most leagues are free to enter, however some charge a small fee (usually under $5), the fee is usually to help cover the cost …

Hey everyone in Omar-nation.  This is Pikkdogs here with an opinion article that analyzes an aspect of how tournaments are orgainized.  I want to point out that I am not a tourney orgainizer or a judge, or anything like that.  I don’t have the expierence that other people do, but I do have my expierence as a player.  And that is what this article shall be based on.

First, before I get going I want to officially welcome Joel to the Teamomar.com staff.  Joel is another Pokemon player in Michigan and I believe he runs a league in the area.  He is a nice guy and a good Pokemon player, he should be a great addition to the staff.  The only problem with Joel is his unhealthy obsession about Lady Gaga (the person not the deck).   Gaga fan or not, we are very happy to have Joel writing for us.  We thank Joel for writing and look forward to his future articles.

Pokemon tournaments are a marvel of diversity.  When I walked around the Michigan State Championships the other day I saw young people and old people, black people and white people, people who look like models and people who look like extras from the Planet of the Apes.

In today’s U.S. society diversity is a good thing, Americans are not just Finnish or Italian; they are African, Scottish, Irish, Polish, Norweigan, Croatian, Chinese etc …  It is this diversity that makes us fairly special.  But, however this article is about a diversity that I think is causing more harm than good.

Continue reading "Opinion: A Solution to the Kid Problem"