One Hit KO

Pokemon TCG Decklists and Articles

July 2011

Website

Pikkdogs Celebrates 100 Articles!

Pikkdogs 8 Comments

Hey all you OHKOers out there, this is Pikkdogs here.  Recently it came to my attention that I have passed the 100 article mark.  I waited till now to celebrate it because I didn’t want to start this during our Nationals coverage.  But now that Nationals is out of the way, we can party down.

To celebrate my 100th post, this article will be special.  It contains information about a contest, short biography, an excerpt of my interview featured in the upcoming issue of The Rolling Stone, and some other fun stuff.

The Contest

Last winter we had a contest for the first anniversary of the site.  That contest didn’t go so well, so I thought I would try it again.  Perhaps the last contest was a little too difficult, so this contest will be easy.  All you have to do is send an email to “pikkdogs@teamomar.com.”  In this email we ask you to tell us something you like, or do not like about the website.  Thats all you have to do.  Everyone who submits a successful entry, will get their name placed into a drawing.  When the contest is over, I will select two names at random.  The winners will each receive one www.onehitko.com t-shirt, just like the ones that Team Omar wore at nationals.  The shirt is an exclusive just for this contest, it features Zekrom on the front of the shirt, remember this is the only time we will be offering these.

Again, to win, all you have to do is send an email to “pikkdogs@teamomar.com” by midnight on Sunday July 24th.  Unfortunately, because of shipping costs, we will not be able to send prizes outside of the contiguous United States.  We also ask that you only send one email per person.  Of cours, we reserve the right to change the contest at any time, although we do not see this situation happening.

The Bio

It recently came to my attention that when I never told you guys anything about me when I started writing on this website.  So I figure after 100 articles, I can probably start the introduction.

I am a 24 year old who currently lives in the Detroit, Mi area, but was born and raised in a little town in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan called Wakefield.  I recently graduated with a Masters in Library and Information Science, and currently work as a librarian in a Seminary in Detroit.

I started playing the game when it first came out.  My friends Frank and Jerry picked up the game as well and all three of us learned how to play together.  Frank and Jerry were okay players, however, I was not.  They beat me in cards a couple times before they got tired of playing against me.  I eventually lost touch with the game,  because I didn’t really have the funds to play a TCG back then.

Then in Februrary of 2009 I  was sitting at my apartment being bored.  My roomate had just left for a card tournament, and I started thinking that I should start a hobby as well.  At first I wanted to play Magic like them, but nasty memories of Frank and Jerry popped into my mind.  So, I started thinking of other hobbies, while I was watching TV.  I clicked through a couple channels until I found an old Pokemon movie on.  At first I just watched the movie for a while, I started to think about the TCG and how fun it was.  I decided to check if it was still around, it was.

I will leave any other biographical information for the Rolling Stone interview, but that is basically all you need to know about me.  I am not a great player, my biggest accomplishments are finishing in the top 8 at Michigan States 2010 and finishing this season ranked 9th in the very competitive state of Michigan.  I do not have the laundry list of accomplishments that other writers have, but I am an experienced writer who has a lot to offer beginners.  I love writing on this site to help others and to connect with other players.  It was nice seeing all you guys at Nats this year, and hope I can connect with more of you at other tournaments.

It's me about to go Pete Townshend on a guitar on the cover of the Rolling Stone

The Rolling Stone Excerpt

Below is an excerpt from my upcoming interview with the guys from Rolling Stone magazine.

Thanks for coming in for the interview Pikkdogs, what inspired you to write for www.onehitko.com?

Great to be here guys.  Actually ever since I started playing this game I have been writing.  I didn’t start writing for Ed and the guys until I was about a year into it, but I wrote from day one.  I started with small stuff like “Card of the Day’s” on Pokegym.  Then I honed my Pokemon skills by helping people with their decklists on www.pojo.biz.  I responded to so many posts on there that it wasn’t even funny, it was time consuming but it helped me hone my skills.  All of that writing led me to write my first article on www.sixprizes.com.  Ed contacted me because of that article, and we could say the rest was history.  But, if anyone out there wants to be a Pokemon writer I would say to start small on stuff like cards of the day, and work your way up.

You get a lot of negative feedback and some might say you don’t get the respect from a lot of other people in the community that other writers do.  What is your response to that.

Well, I guess any respect I get has to be earned I don’t think I have earned respect on the top tables like people like J-Wittz has, so it just make sense that he is more respected than me.  If you look at the 6P Underground they have writers with 100 times better credentials than I do.  That part doesn’t bother me.  As for the negative feedback, a lot of it is deserved, I’m not the best player or writer so it’s good to be put back into your place once in a while.  But, a lot of the negative feedback is just haters hating, and you just gotta ignore that.  I know I do good at what I do, that’s all that matters.

You have had a lot of epic matches in your 2 year career, what would you say was your best match.

Wow, there were so many good ones, that its hard to pick just one.  I can say that some of my buddies like Robert Hall have given me great matches.  One especially great one was against fellow writer Joel Howe and his SP deck at a BR this year.  I played a Vilegar deck and narrowly took him down in the first round.  But, I gotta say the match I am most proud of was my top 16 match at Michigan States 2010.  I had barely squeaked into Top Cut as the 16 seed, and my real close friend Jona had skunked the competition on his way to an undefeated record.  I came into the game just feeling lucky to be around when I saw Jona who was confident after his recent win at a Cities tournament.  I didn’t think I would have a shot, but I was able to beat him in straight games to move on in the tournament.

What was your favorite deck to play?

I gotta say it was at that same State tournament when I played Flyperior.  The object of the deck was to mill your opponent’s deck by discarding cards with Flygon X’s Poke-Body and Rhyperior DP’s Poke-Power.  It was a real unique deck that was awfully fun to play.  Whenever I locked someone with that deck I felt really powerful, and that’s a great feeling.  I ended up having to put the deck away thanks to Garchomp C Lv. X, but  still have the memories of striking fear into my opponents.

If you could change the game, how would you do it?

Great question. I think the game has gotten 100 times better in the past year, however there are always improvements to be made.   It’s no secret that I don’t like having to play alongside Juniors, so getting rid of the kids would be nice, if a little too unrealistic.  Aside from that, I don’t think this game is that broken right now.  Pokemon Catcher scares me, but so have a lot of other things in the past, and the game has survived them.  If I could change one rule, it would be about the first turn.  Numerous people have suggested that the person who starts should be allowed to use Trainers and Supporters, but not attack.  I think this one help balance out the luck factor a little.  But, I think the system we have right now is good enough.

When it comes to the game, do you have any role models?

Well nothing comes to mind right away.  I have learned a lot from a lot of people like Omar, my old roommate, and my opponents that I have played; but I wouldn’t say that they are my role model.  I guess I try to model my performance on one of my sports heroes, Brett Favre.  Favre was cocky and confident, but never over confident.  He thought he could make every pass and used that confidence to make most of his throws.  He didn’t think the play was over until the whistle was blown, and I think I try to play with the same spirit.  For the most part, I don’t play meta decks, but still come to every tournament prepared to win it knowing that I will fight till my 6th prize to come out of the match victorious.  I rarely get down on myself, and try to think that the game isn’t over until the judge pry’s me off of the chair.  Also like Brett Favre, I like to text pictures of my genitals to women who work for the New York Jets…… okay so maybe he did not inspire me that much.

Thanks for the interview, before you go, can you tell us if you had any regrets about your Nationals performance and do you have a message for your readers/.

I didn’t win, so ya gotta regret that.  Also, I still think in a way Reshiphlosion sure came out of nowhere, and man did it get to me.  If I didn’t play so many of those, I’m pretty sure I would have topped no problem.  I guess I didn’t test enough.  Also, gotta thank my readers.  If there wasn’t someone out there benefiting from these articles I would not be writing.  Some of my fondest memories of the game were when someone took a deck I made up and posted here and won a Battle Roads, and when one of the readers said they got into the game partly because of me.  I never thought I would have any effect on people, so I gotta give it up to the readers.  Thanks for the interview guys.

You can pick up the full Rolling Stone article on news stands………ahhh…… probably never.

Top Ten Reasons Why You Lost U.S. Nationals

One last part of my 100th article celebration will be a top ten list.  Yes I know I’m stealing it from Letterman and about half a dozen people who did it on Six Prizes, but I hope mine is…… well…..funny.

The Number 10 reason you did not win U.S. Nationals.  Your Yanmega Prime got ran over by Omar’s Car.

Team Omar vs. Yanmega = One Hit KO

Don’t ya hate when that happens.

Number 9.  Your team overslept because they stayed up too late watching re-runs of the Golden Girls.

Oh that Betty White.

Number 8.  You were banned for tweeting pictures of your private parts to TPCI head David Schwimmer.

Ya don’t wanna do that.

Number 7.  You were about to leave for U.S. nationals from your hotel,  but you decided to stay with the waffle maker instead.

Mmmmm waffles.

Number 6. Your opponent was good.

Always tough.

Number 5.  You were gonna play Magneboar, but you had to play Volbeat/Illumisile because your little brother traded your deck for a poodle.

I do like Poodles

The Number 4 reason that you didn’t win U.S. Nationals.  They rotated Uxie.

Yeah, thats a problem.

Number 3.  You wanted to play Primetime, but your Yanmega’s were abused  by a Magnemite as  Yanmas, and were totally afraid of its own bench.

Number 2. Lindsay Lohan walked away with both halves of your RDL.

Hey come back!!!

And the Number 1 reason why you didn’t win U.S. nationals. You didn’t make it to your top 64 match because you couldn’t let that big Pikachu that was walking around beat you at a league game.

Tepig maybe, but not Pikachu.

There you go.  I hoped you liked this 100th article celebration.  Ya probably learned a little about me, finally, and I hope ya laughed a little at the top 10 list.  I wish you all good luck on the contest, and hope a lot of you guys choose to enter.  Check back next time, same bat time, same bat channel, for a regular article.

So long and thanks for all the fish!

National Championships

What We Learned From 2011 U.S. Nationals

Pikkdogs 11 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with a wrap-up of 2011 U.S. Natioanals.         

Now since the card Pokemon Catcher will come out in the Emerging Powers set, the format will totally change, but that is after Worlds, so we can still have a small discussion of this format.  I myself will not be headed to San Diego for worlds, but since anyone of our readers can attempt to grind in the day before the event, I will cover the decks as if I were.

This article will mainly focus on what the format is currently like, and what decks are considered tier 1 or 2.

The Format

This first part of the article will address what I think are myths about a great format.  Don’t believe all you hear about the format.  A lot of people are saying that this format stinks because it is all luck based.  While I admit that luck is always involved in this game, I say that it is no different than the previous few seasons.  They say that the winner of the game is based on who starts first and how well your flips go on Baby Pokemon and Pokemon Reversal.

The response to the first statement is that, isn’t that what we all said last season about going 2nd.  Last year, everyone said that the game was based on who went 2nd, because they could first play a supporter, they had the big advantage.  Also in the MD-BW format, people said that the game was at a worse state than ever before because of Sableye and the ability that it had to go first.  Having an advantage on the coin flip is nothing new to Pokemon.  It has been there ever since day 1, it is no worse now than it has ever been.  People who are complaining now are mostly SP players who are still mourning over the rotation.  For the most part, this comment on the game is just an excuse. 

The response to the second comment is that this is not a comment on the format, but on the deck the player had chosen.  So you are getting tired of getting your Cleffa or Tyrogue donked, so why do you keep playing Cleffa?  Sure Cleffa gives you an extra card over Mananphy, but if it gets you donked on a somewhat consistent basis, aren’t you the foolish one to play it?  The same goes with Pokemon Reversal, it is a good card, but it is a very flippy card.  If you average about 40% on your reversals’s, well thats about average.  You cannot play a flippy deck, and then complain that the deck is too flippy.  It’s a-kin to not liking Mexican food but going to a Taco Bell and then complaining to the staff that the restaurant does not have any food you like.  There are good decks out there that are not flippy, if you play a flippy deck it is your own choice, so don’t complain when things don’t go your way.

If you are stating that the format is lucked based, than the results of the tournament sure are proving you wrong.  Sure a lot of the good players did not top cut, but a lot of them did top cut, that is a reflection of a well balanced format.  If you think Kyle Sucevich got to the finals based on luck, well then he must have been awfully lucky to get first and third in the past 2 U.S. tournaments as well.  There were still a lot of great players in the top cut, so just because some good players didn’t make it, doesn’t mean that the entire format is luck based.

These comments are dragging down the perceptions of a format that I think is really good and balanced.  One thing is for sure, it is a lot more balanced than when SP was in the format.  Now, more than 1 deck can win.  It is nice to be able to see about 3-4 deck archetypes do well.  This format gives us fresh new ideas and does not rely on the luck of what tech you included into your cookie cutter SP deck.

The format proved to reward hard work.  Guys like Team Warp Point’s Evan Baker spent a lot of time polishing up his decklist, and was rewarded with a top 16 finish.  Yes he did play a meta deck, Reshiboar, but he included rogue things like a 2-2 Rayquaza/Deoxys Legend, 3-3 Ninetails HGSS, 4 Cheerleaders Cheer, and 3 Fisherman.  I know Evan did not take a cookie cutter list, play it for a couple hours, and come up with something like 4 Cheerleaders Cheer.  It took a long time to refine a deck like that and get it to where he wanted it.  I liked a format that rewards hard work and does not reward someone who got lucky on changing their net decked SP list to include something like 2 Toxicroak G promo’s.  This just shows you that if you plan on going to World’s and you wanna do well, you can, just practice a lot.

Another thing about this format is that weakness is a big factor.  Yes, with a good consistent deck you can still beat any deck with any other deck.  However, if both players setup at the same time, weakness will come into play most of the time.  Players must be aware that Pokemon who are water, fire, fighting, electric, and grass (and those weak to each of these types) must becareful of weakness.  Gone are the days of +30, all weaknesses (except the Pikachu promo) are x2, and can make all the difference.  So when making a deck choice, make sure to take weakness into effect.

Overall, I like how this format treats rogue decks.  One bad thing about rogue decks is that there are basically 5 sets in the current format, which means that there are not a lot of rogue choices.  But in this format a meta deck can be turned rogue by just a couple cards.  Yes Donchamp is a meta deck, but it can be made rogue by taking the Machamps out and putting in cards like Weavile Ul and Slowking Cl.  The word variants is very key in this format.  You can have 10 Donphan decks, and have each of them be very different.  So when you are testing, make sure you take this fact into consideration.

Nationals also proved that there are certain Pokemon to watch for.  Yanmega Prime appeared in over half of the top 16 decks, and all of the top 4 decks.  Every deck must be ready for Yanmega, because it is a card that is played by the best and worst players.  Players should be ready for Magnezone Prime.  It can OHKO any Pokemon for the right amount of energy.  The current most popular version is with Yanmega, which does not rely on as much energy as Reshiboar, but relies on more disruption.  Of course Reshiram and Zekrom are things to look out for.  Reshiram has proved to be effective with either Emboar or Typhlosion.  Each deck is different, so make sure to test against both.  Donphan is the last card to watch out for.  It is hard to OHKO and is a real problem for Magnezone and Zekrom, make sure you have some kind of plan for Donphan.  Those are the main Pokemon to watch out for, other Pokemon like Blastoise, Cincinno, Vileplume, Muk, Spinorak, Mew Prime, Tyranitar Prime, and Samurott did see their fair share of action at Nats; so make sure you are aware of them as well.  This brings us into an analysis of the top decks.

The Top Decks

Here is a list of the top 16 decks at U.S. Nationals.

  • Donphan/Zoroark/Yanmega
  • Kingdra/Yanmega (3)
  • Magneboar
  • Reshiphlosion
  • Yanmega/Mangezone (5)
  • Yanmega/Zoroark/Crobat/Cincinno
  • Reshiboar

    The real Primetime
  • Vileplume/Yanmega/Jumpluff/Muk
  • Tyranitar/Serperior
  • Dophan/Yanmega/Zekrom/Reshiram

We now can say there are a couple top decks.  While you can find skeleton lists of all of these decks online, nationals proved that the way you polish a list make all the difference in the world.  An 8-1 Reshiboar is probably just 5-7 cards away from a 2-7 Reshiboar.  Just running a top deck doesn’t cut it, the deck must be polished.  Here is a run down of the decks (in no particular order) that can be seen as top tier.

Yanmega/Magnezone

Also known as Primetime, this deck is very close to Magneboar, but is different.  It is more disruptive than Magneboar and is more cold and calculating.  It’s first big tournament was Canadian Nationals and was conceived shortly before.  Yanmega is a decent counter to Donphan and Machamp, which works well to cover Mangezone’s weakness.  Yanmega is there to disrupt and take easy prizes on Baby Pokemon, and to snipe around sleeping babies.  Magnezone can come in and take care of the heavy hitters.  It is known as one of the most consistent and best decks in the format.

Kingdra/Yanmega

This deck to me is really intriguing, and a lot of people have not explored it yet.  Louis from Team Omar took this deck into top cut at U.S. Nationals, and probably should have gone a couple rounds into it, had he not screwed up his decklist.  This deck has not been played a lot, but has shown a lot of promise.  The ability to place damage counters with Kingdra’s “Spray Splash”, and then Snipe with Yanmega’s “Linear Attack” is a great combo.  Its disruptive elements make sure that nobody on your opponent’s bench is safe.  I think this could be a great deck for worlds. Kingdra Prime - UL

Magneboar

I think this was one of the most played decks at U.S. nationals.  Of course this deck uses Emboar to attach energies, and the Mangezone to draw and then lost zone those energies to get OHKOs.  It is a fast deck once it sets up, and can hit for a lot.  It seems that players of this deck at U.S. Nationals did not really perfect their lists very well, because for the amount of players there were, there were not a lot of decks that did great.  Also, a lot of players are leaving this deck for Primetime.  But it is such a force that everyone should be ready for it.

Reshiboar

Reshiboar has been a standard deck since the release of Black and White.  A lot of people took cookie cutter Reshiboar decks to nationals and did not do very well.  Other people took some polished decklists and made topcut.  Although its hard to point out directly what a great Reshiboar deck is, it can be a great deck.  It is consistent and can do a lot of damage.  I think worlds players will have to do a lot to beat a good Reshiboar deck.

Reshiphlosion

Kind of like Prime Time, this deck kind of came out of no where right before nationals.  If it gets 2 Typhlosions and a Ninetails by turn 2 it can be almost unbeatable.  The draw power, energy attachment, and disruption of this deck is almost unparalleled.  It can be a little slow, but it can be a very hard deck to match up against.  If you can get a really polished list, you can do a lot of damage with this deck and get really far.  Make sure to test this matchup, don’t just test Reshiboar and call it a day.

ZPS (some lists may include Yanmega)

Zekrom was a Pokemon that people have been making decks out of since even before the card was released.  It is a fast and consistent deck that can be played in many forms.  It did not have a lot of late success at U.S. nationals, but that fact is negated by its win north of the border.

Some decks focus on the first turn win, while others focus on winning a long game, while still others use Yanmega for disruption and a secondary attacker.  The deck is versatile, powerful, and really is something to watch out for.

Donphan Variants

This Category includes a long list of Donphan decks that include Pokemon like: Weavile, Samurott, Machamp Prime, Yanmega Prime etc … .  Which variant you are playing makes all the differnce in the world.  Some variants rely on disruption, while others focus on heavy hitting, others focus on hitting for weakness, while still others focus on sniping.  The deck is very versatile and each version is tough to play against.  It has solidified itself as a deck archetype that will be around for a long while, and is something to be contended with.

So thats all I have to say about nats.  This leaves us looking towards worlds, and then to Pokemon Catcher.  I hope this article gives you a good look at the metagame, and a little look at the future. Please leave your thoughts on the format.

So long and thanks for all the fish.

National Championships

Reflections On My Pokemon Nationals 2011

Ed 5 Comments

Ed's Unown Pleasures Of Being Home
I’m back, and I’ve had some time to reflect. The lesson is test, and test against all the decks you think will be tier 1. In retrospect, I only did one of those things. Early on, I decided to build a Reshiram/Emboar deck. I did it in my own style, though. I wanted to see if I could build it without any of the extra baggage I thought went along with most builds. My goal was to have the deck set up and then Blue Flare six times for 6 One Hit KO’s. It could definitely do that.

I played the deck a bunch, and it did well. There were issues with it, but they weren’t insurmountable. I had problems when I faced larger Pokemon (that I couldn’t one shot), so I put in Reversals and more Plus Power to try to get strategic KOs when necessary. With the changes made to accommodate these inclusions, the deck became unreliable and very inconsistent. I put it back the way it was and decided to just run it without the Pokemon Reversal (but still had 1 Circulator).

I went on vacation just before Nationals, and I even played for a bit one day at league in Rapid City. I did very well in my matches there, so I thought things were going well. I also had built a ZPS/Yanmega deck that I had a friend play against me several times. This was actually a good deck (even though my quick build of it was suboptimal). The problem here was that Reshiram has a good matchup against Zekrom. It can usually OHKO all of the Pokemon in ZPS (including Yanmega in this case). As it happened, each time, my wins were reinforcing bad behavior.
Read More

National Championships

Pikkdogs Day 2 National Report: and Initial Reactions to the Tournament.

Pikkdogs 9 Comments

Hey all you OHKOers out there, this is Pikkdogs here with an article to finish up my nationals report.  I will give you the rest of the report, then will share my decklist, and finally I will give you some thoughts and musings about the tournament and the format. 

Day 2 Tournament Report

So, the last time we left our hero, he finished Day 1 with a 4-2 record, and knew that he needed to win out or go 2-1 and get a lot of help in order to make top cut.

Team Omar wakes up a little later than the previous day, and we try to scarf down some waffles and biscuits and gravy before we head downtown.  We get into the play area at about 8:35 and people are already about to being their match even though play was not scheduled till 9.  So I go and introduce myself to my opponent who says, “Darn I thought you weren’t gonna show.”  This guy actually turns out to be a little of an annoyance to me, I don’t know him, but he didn’t seem all that nice.  Classy Freddy Blassie might call him a “Pencil Neck Geek.”

Round 7-Magneboar

He starts Tepig and I am unsure what he is playing, so I collector for both Phanpys and Oshawotts.  I finally see a Magnemite and figure that I should work with Donphan.  I have a little trouble setting up and have some bad draws, but am able to exchange a couple prizes.  I have particular trouble getting the right kind of energies, the DCE’s kept Read More

National Championships

Pikkdogs Nationals Report Part 1

Pikkdogs No Comments

Hey Everybody, this is Pikkdogs here to talk about the first day of Nationals. I know I promised to be tweeting while I was there, but that didn’t happen because of phone problems.  I hope to make it up to you with this bigger report.  Along with the match report of my games the first day, I will give you my thoughts on everything about nats.

Team Omar, minus me, getting ready to go on day 1.

The Location

Of course, this year’s U.S. nationals were located in Indianapolis.  The city is a decent choice, the location is only really bad for the people on the extreme edges of the country.  One bad thing about the city was that it was jam packed with people.  No matter where you went for lunch there was a million people standing in line.  Due to the city also holding several basketball tournaments and other events, the city was over crowded.  It was quite annoying, a quieter smaller city might be a better choice.

However, we will never find a perfect location.  Indy has a lot of hotels and is well equipped to handle us Pokemon Players, somethings are just a little inconvenient.
Read More

Deck Discussion

Deck Analysis: Magneboar

Pikkdogs 14 Comments

A big hello to everyone in Omar-Nation.  This is Pikkdogs here with a deck analysis.  We just got done with a long card analysis series, now that we’re done with that we can talk about decks again.  

Before we get to that, lets talk about Nationals.  It’s looking like me and the team omar crew will be going to Indy.  I would love to be able to meet some of you guys at Indy.  If you wanna get in touch with me, the best way to do it would be to send me a tweet.  My handle is “pikkdogs”, just tweet me.  And for those of you who are wanting to keep up on national news at home, I will be sure to tweet what I see.  You can either follow me now, or I will try to make my tweets public before the event.

Also, we should talk about the National tournament in the magical land of Can-a-da.  Those Canadians took a break from watching hockey and drinking maple syrup to play a couple games of Pokemon.  The popular card in Canada was Yanmega Prime.  The free attacking made the card very quick and versatile.  It was in a lot of the top 16 decks.  Kingdra was a card that also saw a lot of unexpected play.  Canada usually is a little more rogue than the U.S. and their nats is a lot smaller than the one south of the border.  I do not expect to see a lot more Yanmega because of the Canadian Nats, so don’t change your deck too much.  If you have a deck that does not have a favorable matchup towards Yanmega, you might wanna think about changing, but don’t overreact too much.  Players in the U.S. have a lot of money and will play more expensive decks like Magneboar and Reshiboar. Read More

Uncategorized

How to Narrow Down a Deck Choice for U.S. Nationals

Pikkdogs 2 Comments

Hey all you OHKOers this is Pikkdogs here with an article about choosing a deck for nationals. 

Lately when people see me they ask: “Pikkdogs, what are you doing looking in my window?”  And then they ask me, “Which deck should I run for nationals?”  This article will be about the second question.

By the time your read this article, you will probably be celebrating the 4th of July (if your in the U.S. of course), and I will be sitting by a parade and consuming my fair share of adult beverages.  But, it will be just about a week before the start of Nationals.  By this time you should have your deck choice made, and are narrowing down your choices of techs.

But, if your like me, you probably are not on that schedule.  So if you are still trying to figure out which deck to pick, lets look at some principles for choosing a deck for nationals.  Here are six principles that you use to guide you on making a deck choice.

1. Do Something Silly.

By this I mean, don’t just netdeck a deck, put something in it that is uniquely yours.  You will have to be pretty lucky to run a deck that 100 other people are running, and still do well.  Put an interesting tech in your deck that counters the format and the bad matchups that your deck has.  It could be as simple as adding an Elekid, or as complex as adding a 1-0-1 stage 2 card like Kingdra Prime.  You won’t win with a cookie cutter deck, so make sure to test some zany combinations in your deck, and see what you are most comfortable with.

2. Do Little or No Disruption. 

While I’m not saying that a little Judge, Team Rocket’s Trickery, or a 1-1 Weavile line will not be great, but an entire deck built on disruption will not work.  It is not 2010 any more,  and there is no successor to Sabledonk. So if you think you can make an entire deck around disruption and have a chance to win, I think you are mistaken.  Disruption does not disrupt fast enough to make a difference.  Again, this does not mean you shouldn’t add a disruption tech, just don’t try to make an entire deck about it.

3. No Autoloss

The most played decks at Nats will probably be Reshiboar, Magneboar, ZPS, and Donphan.  If at all possible, choose a deck that does not have an  autoloss to any of these decks.  I know it will be hard to do this, but at least try to find a deck that doesn’t have an autoloss to two or more of these decks.  It is also not possisble to play a deck that doesn’t have an auto loss, but try to play one that doesn’t have an autoloss to a popular deck.  The winner of nationals will be lucky in that they will not play their autoloss a lot, but the winner will also have an answer for almost every deck.  Try to make sure that you are ready for each popular matchup.

4.  Stay Away from Lost World

No deck that plays the card “Lost World” will win Nationals.  In my testings, the deck has just been too slow to win at a consistent rate.  A good deck should be able to win the game in 7-8 turns.  While it will probably take a Lost World deck at least 8-9 turns to win.  Couple that with the fact that if the game goes to time, Lost World will almost always lose because it does not take any prize cards, and you have some reasons not to play this card. For right now, I would stay away from a Lost World deck, although they are very fun, and try to find a deck that can OHKO Pokemon. Lost World Clash of Legends

5.  Stay Consistent.

U.S. Nationals will probably be the biggest tournament ever.  It will be a very big tournament with a lot of rounds.  If you play a deck that runs on luck in a Battle Road, there is a decent chance that you will be able to get it to work about 5-7 times.  But, at nationals you will need your deck to work over a dozen times.  This means toning down the riskiness of your deck, and instead using a more consistent deck that is sure to work almost every time.

Decks like Reshiboar and Donphan are not flashy decks, but they setup consistently.  Just getting a deck to work at a high pressure situation like Nationals is a great thing.  Sure, you might be able to get your Lugia Legend deck work 5 times, but that will not be enough to do well in the top cut rounds.  It will take a sound consistent deck to make the top cut rounds and succeed.

6.  Don’t Listen To Me.

If I know anything, I know that I don’t know enough about the top players of this game to predict exactly what will happen.  I try to steer people to use safe consistent decks that will function most of the time.  But, I do not think that any deck like this will win nationals.  Sometimes you gotta take a chance and play a risky deck.  Safe consistent decks might win a lot of games, but probably will not win a lot in the top cut rounds.

So lets spice up your decks and maybe try something a little tricky. The trick is to know when to draw the line between a high reward deck, and  deck that’s just high risk.

I consider myself a knowledgeable player and a good player, but I am far from a great player.  I wouldn’t be surprised if you went against some of my rules (like no Lost World) and still did very very well.  You have to find the best deck for you, regardless about the trends in the meta.  Sometimes you just gotta go with your gut when it comes to deck choices, and not let my rules stop you.

Well those are my thoughts on narrowing down a deck choice.  If you are headed to Indy for the tournament, good luck.  I hope you complete your preparations and are ready to stay in the game for a long time.  It looks like I will probably be able to play in the main tournament, if I do, stay tuned for updates on how you guys can meet with me at Nats.  I’m hoping to meet a lot of you guys there and have fun, so stay tuned for more details.

So long and thanks for all the fish.

« Previous Page

You Missed

Freeplaytech

New Handheld Retro Video Game System For You Pokemon Fans

Trouble With Robots

iOS/Android Collectible Card Game, Trouble With Robots

Trouble With Robots

New Card Game – Trouble With Robots – iOS/Android

OneHitKO.com Budget Challenge

OHKO Budget Challenge: Round Two (Fight!)