October 2011

Guide to Winning Your Noble Victories Pre-Release

Pikkdogs October 28, 2011 6 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with my sidekick Pedro, and we have an article about strategy for Noble Victories pre-release tournaments. Now people don’t normally go to Pre-Releases for the thrill of victory. Pre-Releases are for fun and for getting the new cards. But, while your there, you might as win right? Some tournament organizers also give a free pack to the winner of the pre-release, so it s a good thing to win.

Pedro, are you going to a pre-release this weekend?

Well, no. I’m going to watch the UFC event.

Oh, you like the MMA hey? MMA is kinda cool, it’s like boxing but with colorful shirts.

Gotta love the colorful shirts.

John McCain doesn’t like MMA though, he said it’s like human cockfighting.

No, I’ve seen human cockfighting, and they don’t wear the colorful shirts. They don’t wear much of anything.

Well, there goes our hope of having a clean article, let’s get off the subject of cockfighting and let’s get onto the article.

How to Build a Pre-Release Deck

Pre-Release tournaments are held with a 40 card deck that you make out of 6 packs(unless your area holds a theme deck event). It is pretty much like a regular game, but you play with 4 prizes instead of 6. Since you get random cards, consistency is key. You won’t be able to run 4 Junipers and 4 Collectors in this deck, so you will have to build it as focused as possible. We’ll get in to what cards to play later, but for right now just focus on making your deck centered on a couple Pokemon that are similar. You usually play almost all of your useful trainers, and you play around 15 energies. You might want to add an extra energy or two this time around, because the only draw power that we get in this set is N.

Pokemon to look out for.

This set is not great for really impactful Pokemon, but it does have a lot of Pokemon that make Pre-Release tournaments fairly easy. There are a lot of good high HP basic Pokemon. The three members of the Musketeer trio are represented (Virizion, Terrakion, and Coballion), as well as the last member of the energy (Kyurem) and Kami (Landurus) trios. There is also a non legendary high HP basic, in Drudiggon. If you get any of these, you should probably play them. You have 2 shots at getting the members of the Musketeer trio, because they each have a Full Art form, so there is a decent chance of pulling one of those. All three of these Pokemon are great, but my favorite is Virizion because he has an attack that let’s you draw cards. Drudiggon is nice because he takes colorless energy, so you can throw him into any deck. But the best of all the high HP basics is Kyurem. If you are able to get an Eviolite on Kyurem, he will be almost impossible to knock out. Kyurem has 130 HP and has the “Outrage” attack that Reshiram and Zekrom have. If you are able to get Kyurem about, you should be able to “Outrage” for about 2-3 prizes before your opponent can knock it out. It is the best card in this limited format.

This is usually the spot where I tell people to play Pokemon that let them draw cards. But right now only Virizion does that, and it is a rare. So this format will be extra slow and inconsistent. Karrablast and Shelmet do have an attack that lets you evolve one of them if both are in play, but the chance of you getting an evolution with a bunch of each of the basics is not that great. So not a lot of consistency Pokemon to talk about.

The Stage 1 Pokemon in this set are pretty good, but nothing to write home about. If you pull a decent one like Amoongus you should play it, as long as you don’t have too many other energy types to begin with. Audino has a decent attack. “Do the Wave” will do ten times the number of your benched Pokemon, which is not great, but is decent.

As always, playing Stage 2 Pokemon in a Pre-Release is tricky. If you don’t pull at least a 3-2-1 line, it will be very hard to get your stage 2 Pokemon out consistently. If you can pull a good line, then play the good ones like Conkeldurr and Chandelure. But in this set, basic Pokemon will have more impact on games then the stage 2s.

For trainer cards, this set is pretty shallow. Play every N you have, it is the second best card in this set for this type of format, so make sure to try to play it. I would even play, Xtranciever, so you can search for it. Eviolite, Rocky Helmet, and Super Rod are great, but I wouldn’t play much more than two to three of each of them if I pull any more. I don’t know what to think about the fossils in this set. If you can pull a lot of the fossils and their corresponding Pokemon, then it is a good play. But if not it will not be consistent.

Conclusion

This set looks like a pretty tough one for Pre-Releases. There are basically only two consistency cards in the whole set, meaning that it will be very hard to get what you want out. And the consistency cards we have are fairly poor, one lets you draw 2 cards as the effect of an attack and the other let’s you draw a maximum of 4 cards. The winners this weekend will have to get very lucky. Because of the lack of consistency cards, I would probably run a couple more energies and just hope for good draws. The big HP basic Pokemon will be your best cards, but it will be hard to get them consistently because there are no search cards in the format.

Good luck to everyone, because in this format you will need it. Do you have anything to say Pedro?

Cockfighting.

Well there you go. Even though we had a short article, we did manage to say the word “cockfighting” 5 times. That’s pretty good.

Always good when you can say “cockfighting” a lot. That is six times.

We better stop saying “cockfighting” now, seven times. I wish ya good luck at your PR’s this weekend and I hope you have a good time and get some good trades going.

So long and thanks for all the fish!

Pikks Three

Pikkdogs Pikks Three: Cinccino BW, Porygon Z, and Super Rod

Pikkdogs October 27, 2011 4 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with a Pikk Three article for you. I also brought along my sidekick Pedro.

Well I expected to have the scans for the new Noble Victories set to be up by now, but as the time that I am writing this article, we know nothing about the set. We don’t even have a leaked set list or anything. The first pre-releases are just a little over a day away, so i am pretty ticked that we don’t have any news about the set to share with you. But, that’s not on us, that is on the people who have opened their boxes and decided not to share with us.

Anyway Pedro, do you have any good news for us?

Nope no news, I guess everyone else in the Pokemon world took the week off. The last time you wrote you were feeling sick. Are you feeling any better Pikkdogs?

Well, I do feel a lot better, but I still got the sneezing and for a couple days I have been hacking up something pretty fierce.

More information than we wanted to know. I guess that syphilis takes a while to take care of.

I don’t have syphilis. It’s just a cold.

Not syphilis hey? That’s weird I thought you would have caught something like that by now. Have the bubos came out yet?

I don’t have the bubonic plague either. I told you just the common cold. Can’t I just have the cold?

Well I guess since you are a common Pokemon player, you can have the common cold.

Yes, thank-you, let’s go onto the article. A Pikk Three Article is like a big card of the day article. I review three cards, one that is commonly used, one that I think is under-used, and one that is from a new or yet un-released set.

Card#1 The Staple-Cinccino BW

Description– Cinccino is a stage 1 Pokemon with 90 HP, a one retreat cost, and a weakness to Fighting. Its first attack costs 1 energy and let’s you flip two coins, and then do 20 damage times the number of heads. Its second attack, “Do the Wave,” costs CC, and does 20 damage times the number of Pokemon on your bench.

Analysis– Cinccino does not have the most solid stats out there. 90 HP is bad for a stage 1. A 1 retreat is great, but somewhat dissapointing for such a small Pokemon, and the first attack just plain stinks. But it is saved by the great 2nd attack. The ability to pull 100 damage out of nowhere for just 1 DCE is pretty cool.

Cinccino does not have a long play history. It was released in BW and did not receive a lot of play when it first came out. It did see a little play in some rogue Jumpluff decks, but that deck was not very competitive. Its most successful play came in BR season this year when it was paired with other Stage 1 Pokemon in a Stage 1 Variant that some people call YMCA. Pedro, what does YMCA stand for?

Young Men’s Christian Association.

Not that YMCA, the Pokemon one.

Well it stands for Yanmega Prime, Mew Prime, Cinccino, and Alcohol.

Are you sure about Alcohol?

I’m always sure about Alcohol.

Okay, let’s get back to the topic here. It is seeing play in stage 1 decks. The problem is that it is pretty feeble, and pretty useless when you match up against Donphan Prime.

But, the febbleness of Cinccino has not kept it from doing well. It came out of the BR season with a fair number of wins and will be a hot contender going into Fall Regionals. It is still a really fast hard hitting card.

Review–8.5/10– Not a perfect card, and there are drawbacks. But I will never pass up an easy 100 damage.

Card #2 The Underdog- Porygon Z

Description– I couldn’t think of a good Underdog for today, so I found a card that might be a good tech card somewhere down the line. Porygon Z is a stage 2 Pokemon with 110 HP, a fighting weakness, and a 2 retreat cost. It has the “Dimension Transfer” Poke-Power, which let’s you put a trainer from your discard pile to the top of your deck, if you get heads on a coin flip. Its attack does 80 damage and 20 damage to Porygon Z (unless it has a Rainbow Energy attached), and costs CCC.

Analysis– 80 damage for CCC is not bad, that is what Tornadus does. The difference here is Tornadus is a basic, and Porygon is a hefty Stage 2. And 110 is pretty bad for a Stage 2. So the only saving grace might be the Poke-Power. This Poke-Power and cards like Good Rod and Recycle are the only way to get a Junk Arm back from the discard pile. and it can be great to have a Junk Arm back. So Porygon Z does have some upside to it. It is nice to be able to get trainers back for a coin flip. If the right situation poped up, I could see it being a tech card.

The problem is that Porygon has a lot of bad things about it. It can be OHKOed by almost anything given the right situation, and you only get the trainer from the discard pile to your deck and not your hand. So combine that with the hefty retreat cost, and you come up with a Pokemon that doesn’t seem to be worth the trouble.

Review– 5/10- I do see this being a possible tech in the future, just not right now. There are good upsides to Porygon, but the conditions are not right at this moment.

Card #3- The Young Gun- Super Rod

Description– Super Rod is a card that will probably come out in our Noble Victories set. It has the Night Maintenance like effect, you can shuffle 3 Pokemon and Basic Energy cards from your discard pile to your deck.

Analysis– Ever since Night Maintenance left the format, the format has been missing some quick recovery. Sure there is Flowershop Lady and there was Palmer’s Contribution, but none were as fast as the trainer Night Maintenance. But now NM gets a re-print with Super Rod.

Super Rod. That’s a funny name for a card. If you want a Super Rod-################################################################ (the proceeding text was a comment edited for content.)

Hey, you guys can’t edit me.

I guess we can, I guess you will just have to save your Super Rod story for another time. That is quite a flithy name for a card, though. I sometimes wonder if Nintendo has ever heard of a double entendre. I know its impossible for everything not to be flithy in some langauge, but adding Rod into the name of a card is just asking for trouble.

I think Super Rod will hit the ground running. It will take up where NM left off. I think it could be a staple from day one. Every deck will probably want to run 1 of it, and since it is an item, it can be Junk Armed for later use. If i play Donphan and Dragons again, I know that I would love to play it with this card, it will make things go much more smoothly. It combo’s well with Pokemon Collector, just get 3 Pokemon with Super Rod, and then use Collector to get them back to your hand. That one two punch is a great trick to use against Pokemon Catcher heavy decks.

While there are always downsides of a card like this (you always seem to start with it, it can’t be used under an item lock), the benefits greatly out weight the risks.

Review– 8/10– Probably a staple from day one.

Well that’s all we got today Pedro.

That’s all? That was a pretty short article.

Well, I was waiting for some scans of the new set, but people are not being very nice right now, and aren’t telling us a darn thing about the set. So I couldn’t write a good preview of the new set. So I just threw this together at the last moment.

So that’s you excuse for the bad article this week. That and your mononucleosis.

I don’t have mono, just a little cold.

When will you just come out and admit that you have an STD?

I don’t have an STD!

Well, I guess it won’t be today. Good night everybody.

Stupid Deck Idea

Stupid Deck Idea: Audino Donk

Pikkdogs October 24, 2011 5 Comments

A big hello to all your OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs and my extra-dimensionary sidekick Pedro here with a Stupid Deck Idea. If you aren’t familiar with the stupid deck idea concept, it was Ed’s idea to have an article that reviews a deck that isn’t the best.

Couldn’t we say that about all of your deck lists?

Well I guess so, let’s rephrase that. A stupid deck idea is an article that highlights a deck that I don’t believe is as good as other decks. It could be a deck that I haven’t had a chance to test, or it could be a deck that is more of a fun league deck. This deck is more towards the fun league deck category, but it might be a little more if you can get a really polished deck.

Before we get into the deck, let’s check in with Pedro. How are things going Pedro?

Well, I’m doing good. How bout you Pikkdogs?

Not so well, I came down with a cold or something like that. So I have an excuse for writing a terrible article today, I’m not feeling too well.

What are your excuses for writing terrible articles the other times?

I don’t get paid.

Works for me, let’s look at this horrible Audino deck.

I gotta give credit to a friend of Team Warp Point who took an Audino deck to a Battle Roads. This is not his list, I basically came up with this list myself, but his deck did inspire me to test the deck out. So thanks Casey for the idea.

The Strategy

This deck is fairly simple. Audino’s “Powerful Slap” attack lets you flip a coin for each energy attached to Audino, and you can do 40 damage for each heads. Since you can’t rely on flipping heads every time, you gotta give yourself a good chance of getting 3-4 heads each time. The way you give yourself a better chance of hitting heads is to load a lot of energy on Audino. The goal is to get 10 energies on Audino, this way you should be able to hit at least 4 heads each time, this will knock out almost any Pokemon.

The best way to get that many energies on Audino is to use Electrode Prime. His Poke-Power, “Energy Mite”, lets you reveal the top 7 cards of your deck, and attach any energy you find there to any of your Pokemon. The drawback is that you have to discard all cards revealed that were not energies, and Electrode gets knocked out. Since this is more of a donk deck, you don’t mind giving up a couple prizes, and you don’t mind wasting some extra supporters. So the drawbacks to using Electrode are not huge.

So if you bring these Pokemon together you have an okay deck. On the first turn you want to do a Pokemon Collector so you have at least 2 Audino and 2 Voltorbs. On your second turn you want to have at least 1 energy attached to Audino (ideally you should have at least 2 cards attached), and you want to have at least 1 Electrode Prime in your hand. You then can use “Energy Mite” for as many energies as possible. This should give you about 6-9 energies on Audino, depending on how lucky you are and how many Double Colorless Energies are on Audino. Hopefully you will get lucky on your coin flips and be able to knock out the active.

There are a couple cards that I use to make the deck more effective. Research Records is an item card that lets you look at the top 4 cards of your deck and then rearrange them in any order on the top or bottom of your deck. The strategy is to use 1-2 of these before you use “Energy Mite”. So you can keep the energies at the top of your deck and put anything else on the bottom. Another card that works well is Poke Gear. It lets you look at the top 7 cards of your deck and choose any supporter there to go in to your hand, the other cards get shuffled back in the deck. This is good because you need to have the right supporters at the right time. If you run 4 each of Twins, Pokemon Collector, Professor Juniper, and Poke Gear you should be able to get the right supporter when you need it.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Because this is a stupid deck idea, you should be prepared for me to say that this will not win any regionals in November. It is a very cool and fun deck, but it just isn’t consistent enough. But that does not mean that I wouldn’t recommend people to play it. I would say that if you do not have confidence in playing the top tier decks, running Audino donk wouldn’t be the worst move ever. Audino donk would also be a good choice for beginners who don’t have access to the more expensive cards. You should be able to get Electrode Primes for about 4 bucks each on Ebay, and Audinos should only be about a buck each. So to look at the positives and neagtives of the deck, let’s look at the Good the Bad and the Ugly.

The Good.

It can beat any deck– All you need is a bad start for your opponent and you should be able to get the victory pretty easily.
Easy to play– It is a pretty straight forward deck that anybody can play. You don’t need to have a high Pokemon IQ to play this deck, it is something that most players should be able to play very easily.
Cheap to make– As mentioned, the Pokemon in this deck should only cost you around 20 bucks. The rest of your deck shouldn’t cost you that much money, if fact it will cost you a lot less for trainers than most decks. If you have a couple of friends who play the game, you can probably borrow the needed cards off of them since they aren’t used too much.
It is fun– If you are getting tired of playing other decks in this format, Audino Donk will be a refreshing change. It does not play like other decks, so it should keep you excited about your deck.
Can do a lot of damage fast– This deck can win a longer game, but it is mostly here to get a donk. The Zekrom deck is the only deck that is faster than Audino, but Audino can do a lot more damage than Zekrom.

The Bad

Very luck based– Since you are relying on coin flips to attack, the entire deck is luck based. You could have 3 energies on Audino and knock out a Tornadus, or you could have 10 energies and get no knock outs. It all depends upon how well you flip.
You need to start first– If you don’t start first you will have a very hard time at winning. Your opponent will be given an extra chance to get more Pokemon on the field and avoid the donk. Starting first with this deck is mandatory.
Not Consistent– This deck does have a shot to win regionals, but that shot is very miniscule. You basically will have to get very lucky 12 times in a row. While you could get lucky, it is not very likely.

The Ugly

Pedro.

Hey, I don’t appreciate that jab.

Nobody asked you. Anyway, the minuses of this deck do out weigh the positives, unless you can’t play some of the other better decks. So now that we talked about the deck, let’s look at the list.

The List

As always, I advise you that I do not usually provide great decklists. I only provide the lists so you guys can test it out and make the deck for yourself. I only made this deck last night, so it is not a great list, but it should be able to do give you a place to start.

Pokemon-12

4- Audino EP
4-Voltorb TM
4- Electrode Prime

Trainers-27

4- Twins
4- Professor Juniper- You can use PONT if you want.
4- Pokemon Collector
3- Research Records
4-Poke Gear
4-Pokemon Communication
2- Junk Arm
1- Energy Restore

Energy-21

4-Double Colorless Energy
4- Rescue Energy- if you don’t have this card it isn’t a big deal. But it is a good play if you have it.
13-Basic Energies- any energies will do.

Well that is all I have to say about this deck. How do you wanna end this article Pedro?

Well let’s talk about what we know best, world politics. What did you think about the Libyan people killing Ghadafi?

I normally don’t like executions, but as Napoleon has shown us, if you don’t kill dictators they will just come back.

That Napoleon was a pretty crazy guy. He was a pretty short guy, if he played Pokemon he would probably have to play at the Juniors table. Did you know that his brother’s grandson helped found the FBI?

I did not. That was not a very funny ending Pedro, but at least it was informative.

Well, we are rarely funny, so I will settle for informative. Good night all you Earthlings!

Opinion

Bold Statements with Pikkdogs

Pikkdogs October 22, 2011 14 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs and his sidekick Pedro here with a new opinion article. Nobody has posted anything on the site for a while, and I sure couldn’t think of anything to write about, so I decided to do an opinion article and give it a fancy new name. In this article I will make some statements about the game, and then try to back them up with facts or observations. But first, Pedro has some news for you.

Yes indeedy. The new set Nobel Victories will be starting it’s pre-releases next weekend. So expect some articles about the set to be coming up this week. Hopefully our friends at www.pokebeach.com will be having the scans for that set out very soon. And make plans to hit up the pre-releases in the coming weeks. Tournament Organizers rely on their players to support them at these events, and it is a great way to get new cards from the upcoming set. So make sure to get out to one of those, they will be a lot of fun.

So what have you been up to lately Pedro?

Well Fall is my favorite time of year. I’ve been watching my fair share of American Football.

Really your a football fan? What’s your favorite team?

Well, I always root for my alma mater, the Susquehanna University Crusaders.

Susquehanna U. Isn’t that Bullwinkle’s Alma Mater?

No, that was What’samatta U. Read More

Regional Championships

Review of Battle Roads and your first Regionals Preview

Pikkdogs October 19, 2011 6 Comments

Hello all you Earthlings. Today we have an article about the ending of Fall Battle Roads. Let me now introduce to you your author for this evening, the other rock star from Mars, Pikkdogs!!

Why what an introduction, Pedro. What has gotten in to you? You usually are not this nice.

Well, I thought I would give you a good entrance to make you feel better about your dissapointing fall battle road season.

Here we go, I thought there must have been something up your sleeve.

No, nothing up my sleeve. I just thought it could be pretty bad to go to 6 tournaments without winning any. 0-6 is a tough thing. Read More

Tourney Report

Michigan Double Header Battle Road Reports.

Joel October 17, 2011 4 Comments

Happy Monday to all you OneHitKO readers, Joel here with a report and a half from this weekend’s battle road events. I say report and a half for because I only took notes on half my matches from Saturday, mainly because I did so bad and I was getting so frustrated I just stopped taking notes. I did a lot better on Sunday, but nowhere near cut but at least it was a major improvement from Saturday. It was also a horrible weekend for sports as well. The Detroit Lions undefeated streak came to an end, the Detroit Tigers got eliminated, and Michigan lost to Michigan State. The Red Wings won their game however, so it wasn’t too bad. I will start the article with Saturday’s Battle Road, which took place in Ann Arbor, MI. I was happy to see an event in Ann Arbor, only because I live 15 minutes outside of A-squared and it is arguably the greatest city in Michigan. The event was held at my favorite store down there, Get Your Game On. The only downside was the venue was very small, so small it was cramped and people actually got turned away because we went to capacity. The Ann Arbor event was also one of my worst performances to date, which is why this report will be short and not so sweet. I ran my Stage 1 Rush deck that I ran in Hartland, with a few minor modifications for both battle roads.

Round 1 vs Diane S.-ZPST

Last time I played against Diane, she beat me in the finals of a Spring Battle Road, so I know she’s a good player. We both get a slow setup and the game ends up being a prize battle throughout most of the match. We got down to 1 prize each and I used catcher to bring up a Zekrom, and Zoroark won with the help of a pluspower.
1-0

Round 2 vs Mike M.- Yanmega/Magnezone

Not gonna lie, I was a little intimidated this round. Mike had a great rookie year last year, and continues to be an amazing player. He is also best friends with the Richard family, who happens to be on a hot streak right now. I managed to get an early prize lead, however he came back with his amazing draws, my poor draws and whiffing on both of my Pokegears. He manages to KO the rest of my pokemon and take his prizes. He was also nice enough to let me bum a cigarette post match too, because it was one of those games where you needed one after (by the way, don’t smoke. It’s one of those things both Mike and I wish we never started, and quitting is easier said than done.).
1-1

I stopped taking notes after Round 3, but my third round loss was to Jack I. running Mew/Yanmega/Cinccino. I lost that due to a wrong guess in whether he needed to increase or decrease hand size. My round 4 loss was to my good friend Levester W. running Gothitelle/Reuniclus. I misplayed horribly. My round 5 win was to my other good friend Alan T, running Pidgeot/Yanmega. And my round 6 loss was to Matt K. running Yanmega/Magnezone. I couldn’t draw anything and scooped. I ended up going 2-4 that day. My younger brother Hunter took 2nd again in seniors and got another championship point too.

Sunday’s tournament took place in Okemos, MI. This was my better performance. I still didn’t do as good as I hoped, but this was a major improvement. In all honesty, I was more excited about going to Chipotle after the tournament than the whole tournament itself.

Round 1 vs Tracy K.- Reshiphlosion

Tracy is quite possibly the best player in Michigan, and a really good friend of mine. This was one of the best matches I played all day too. I managed to get an early prize lead, and late game ended up being a prize battle. Bouffalant helped me out a lot with revenge KO’s. My downfall was benching a Cleffa, which she would catcher up and KO for game. I was tilted throughout most of the game, afterward she gave me advice. She told me to just take a deep breath and not be so stressed. It helped me later on in the tournament.
0-1

Round 2 vs Chris D.-Reshiphlosion

I did in this game what I should have done last round, which was take out the Cyndaquils early. Taking Typhlosion out of the mix helps greatly. I also took out his Dewott so his Samurott tech wouldn’t see the light of day too. He had a slow setup but managed to make this game a prize battle as well. Taking out the Cyndaquils helped me win though, as I was 4 prizes ahead by the time he had somewhat of a setup.
1-1

Round 3 vs Ryan D.-Crobat/Weavile

As long as I’ve known Ryan, he’s always had a knack for rogue decks or decks that you would usually not see, and he does well with them too. I knew he was running Crobat so I had to keep control early on in the game. Donphan helped KO Sneasels and Weaviles. He only managed to get prizes from my Donphan using Earthquake.
2-1

Round 4 vs Alex H.-ZPST

Donked. That’s all I can say to that.
2-2

Round 5 vs Nick K.-Ross.dec

I thought I was going to lose this one for sure. Nick is another one of Michigan’s best players. I managed to get an early prize lead, which helped me out in the end. He finally gets Vileplume and Reuniclus set up late game and slows me down. We play down to the wire, as we both have 1 prize card left. His mistake was my gain. He could have won the game by damage swapping damage counters from his Zekrom to Vileplume, but he didn’t do that. I added a 4th energy to Donphan, retreated, promoted Yanmega, used copycat and sniped out his Zekrom for game.
3-2

Round 6 vs Robert H.-Lilligant/Vileplume/Yanmega

I managed to keep control early game, I took out Oddishes with Yanmega so Vileplume couldn’t see play. He did manage to status lock me a few times but luckily Switch helped me out. He scooped a few turns into the game after I had an early prize lead.
4-2

I took 8th overall in that tournament, but the highlight of my day was going to Chipotle. After a horrible sports weekend, and utter disappointment in Pokemon, Chipotle is the perfect medicine and the key to happiness. Thanks everyone for reading , and as always-Go Lions, Go Wings and GO BLUE!

Tourney Report

Battle Roads Double Header Weekend in Minnesota

Ed October 17, 2011 5 Comments

I forgot to bring my camera for both days this past weekend, so I don’t have my usual slew of unfocused pictures. Because of that, I thought that I wouldn’t write much, so I didn’t take any notes. This is all from (my poor) memory.

Here’s a micro report from The Source Comics and Games on Oct. 15th. I knew that there was another tourney the next day, so I thought that if Ava was done playing, I might drop. I didn’t want to drop if there was a chance I could still win, but in the back of my mind, I almost hoped I’d hit that 2 loss mark early. We had a party to attend as a family, so it would be good to get home a bit earlier.

Juniors had 8 players. Aiden wasn’t there with his Beartic deck which has beaten Ava’s Donphan deck in the 2 previous events. Unfortunately, Paul decided that Beartic was the clear best deck (as it had won the previous 2 events) and decided to play it. I think Ava lost to Paul and forgot about Exoskeleton to lose another one. In the end, she snuck in at 4th place and got her third top-4 in 3 events.
Read More

Uncategorized

Pikkdogs Battle Roads Report: Ann Arbor

Pikkdogs October 15, 2011 3 Comments

Hello to all you OHKOers out there, this is Pikkdogs here with a Battle Roads report. Of course I am also joined by my extra-dimesnionary sidekick Pedro.

Before we start, I gotta thank Pedro for filling in for me recently while I was serving my 1 article suspension. I couldn’t do it and Pedro wrote an article and he did a ………….. well he wrote an article. So thanks.

Well, your welcome Pikkdogs. Say, you had some time off lately, what did you do with your time?

Well I took a vacation. I went to Amish country. In Intercourse, Pennsylvania.

Ohhhh, what did you do?

Well, I have always been inspired by the simple life of the Amish. I just walked around the center of town and talked with the locals.

So, in other words, you like to talk in the middle of Intercourse?

Yes. You know the one good thing about the Amish is that they don’t have computers so you can say whatever you want about them and they will never know.

Yes, the Amish and other Americans are very different. One is a group of people that never read your articles…… and the other group is Amish.

Hey! Don’t say that. It’s true, but I do have feelings.

Okay, should we just get on to the article?

Let’s do that. So this saturday the Pokemon world in Michigan shifted towards Ann Arbor, Mi. This tournament is actually the closest one for me. So it was nice to not have to drive too far, but the location was far from ideal. What I saved in gas I had to pay to the parking garage. It was held in a fairly nice card shop in the middle of downtown Ann Arbor. I do not like having to play in such an urban area. There also wasn’t room for all the players that wanted to come, they ended up turning a couple players away. So although I like the people of Ann Arbor, I hope they can provide a more spacious venue next time. When the pairings were posted on the wall it took about 5 minutes to move across the room. The whole room was like a big rugby scrum, the only way to get to the other side was just to lower your shoulder and push. I tell ya Pedro, that room was pretty much clogged.

Oh yeah, how clogged was it?

It was so clogged that my arteries were jealous.

It was so clogged that Frank (pictured right) couldn’t fit his Fedora in the room.

It was so clogged that I had use a Junior to pry my way to my seat.

So Juniors are good for some things, well that’s enough of the bad comedy, lets just continue on to the report.

Anyway, I got up a little earlier than I would like to, and made the about 40 minute drive to Ann Arbor. I had to park in a parking garage, and I know that I already complained about that, but I really don’t like paying for parking. But, I got there fairly early with my decklist ready and got to say hi to a lot of people from my area. It was nice to see all these people, and it was great to meet new people who are friends of the website.

You mean people actually read this crappy website?

Well I guess, but they must have wandered here by mistake.

I had again played my Donphan and Dragons deck. Although I was not 100% happy with the deck, I knew it was my best shot at a win right now, so I took it again. I won’t provide the list since the deck is basically the same. But I did swap out the Reshiram for a Tornadus, and swapped a Juniper for a PONT. I liked the addition of Tornadus because it adds more pop to the deck.

What kind of pop?

Faygo. Enough distractions let’s get on to the article.

Round 1- Ampharos/Leavannny

This round was against a guy who was very new to the game. This was his first tournament and he was playing a deck with a lot of different Pokemon and not a lot of supporters. I think he started with a Doduo and the secret rare Pikachu. I got Donphan Prime going turn 2, and just started swinging. I used Pokemon Catcher to take out Pikachu, and then a Mareep. The game was over in just a couple turns since his deck wasn’t very consistent. I think he attacked for a total of 30 damage all game.

1-0. Not much pride taking out someone who’s deck was less than a theme deck, but I’ll always take the 1-0 start. I was able to give him advice about his deck and the game after. Hopefully he will stick around and play the game more till he improves.

Round 2- Dave R. with Zekrom

For the second week in a row I got the pleasure of facing off against Dave, I’m just happy that I didn’t have to fight the whole Richards clan like I did last week. I swear that Dave and his brother Dan have some kind of weird thing going on with their luck. Whenever I play Dan he can never get a break and always flips tails, but Dave gets all the breaks he needs and beats me easily. This game kind of went that way.

I started with Tornadus and got a couple knock outs early. But I also lost that Tornadus and a Phanpy early. At one point I thought I was done fairly early in the game, but I was able to get a Pokemon Collector a couple Phanpys. I did manage to get a couple Donphans, so I kept myself in it. But, Dave set himself up pretty early, he always had 2-3 Tornadi on the field with a Zekrom ready. He switched between attackers flawlessy, and was able to rescue a couple of prizes by getting heads on Super Scoop Ups on damaged Tornadi. After losing on those Super Scoop Up flips, I just scooped and congratulated Dave.

1-1– So another loss to Dave, but he is a Nationals champ so there is no shame in losing to him. I just hoped that I could win out and come back.

Round 3- Zoroark, Yanmega Prime and Crobat Prime

I had talked with this guy throughout the tournament, and was impressed with how much he improved since I had seen him last. He had top cutted last week with this deck, and was doing pretty well. I was kind of excited for this matchup. Crobat Prime should beat my Donphan, but my Zekrom should beat his Crobat. He would then bring up Zoroark to deal with the Zekrom, in which case I would bring up Donphan and we would start again. It should have been a great game of revenge KOs. But, all this didn’t happen.

It did not happen because I had to mulligan a number of times. Not 2 times, not 3 times, not 4 times, not 5 times ….. well yes 5 times! I had to mulligan 5 times in order to get a Basic. Once I got the basic the only Supproter I saw was a Sages, and I could not catch up with his 12 card hand.

1-2– If ya wanna lose, give you opponent a 12 card hand. At this point I almost dropped because I knew I couldn’t Top Cut. But I decided to stay anyway.

Round 4- Mew/Lucario

This game was against another beginner. She used Mew, Relicanth, and Absol to get Lucario and Muk in the Lost Zone, and then do major damage. She started with Relicanth and was able to Lost Zone a lot of key Pokemon. The problem for her was that I was able to get a turn 2 or 3 Donphan Prime, and used Pokemon Catcher to control the number of Mew Primes on the field. By the time she found a Pokemon Collector and Revive to get a lot of Mews on the field, I was able to get a big prize lead. Her deck was just too slow, and Donphan is just too good.

2-2– I’m still mad here, but I’ll take any win I can get.

Round 5- Frank S. with Gothitelle.

Now this was really stupid of me. I have an autoloss to Gothitelle, so I told my friend Frank to play the deck. I don’t know why. I even lent him cards so he could play it. And then I have to play him. I knew my only hope was to use Pokemon Catcher to knock out Gothita’s before they evolve.

Frank starts first with a Solosis and Reshiram, and uses “Cell Culture.” I start with a Phanpy and a Zekrom, Pokemon Catcher the Zekrom, and pass. Next turn Frank finds a Gothita and plays it. I use a Juniper to evolve to Donphan and get a Junk Arm to get the Pokemon Catcher back, and take away the Gothita. On the next turn Frank gets another Gothita, but I get another supporter to find a Pokemon Catcher. Skip ahead a few turns, and Frank finally finds a Pokemon Collector…… but he prized a Gothita!! I cheer and Sean the Judge looks at me strangely. I was able to get another Pokemon Catcher and take care of the last Gothita (that had evolved into a Gothorita).

3-2– I get really lucky and am able to take care of Gothtielle before it set up, and was able to take the game.

Round 6 Joe with Stage 1 Rush (The traditional build).

Joe is a nice guy, but at this point he was pretty frustrated. He thought he was going to top cut, but he lost last round, so he was not very focused on this game. The nice thing was we were sitting by our friends Bohdan and Ryan G.

I go first and have the better setup. I have a Tornadus and a Zekrom, and soon get a Donphan. I am able to “Hurricane” his Donphan twice for the Knock Out. Then I promoted my Donphan Prime and was able to “Heavy Impact” his Donphans and Yanmegas. Because i had three energies on Donphan, I was able to win the Donphan Battle and pretty much control the field. He got a knock out with Zoroark, but I revenged knocked it with Donphan. And of course, in the end his Yanmegas and Donphans could not stand up to the “Heavy Impacts.”

4-2- Well a nice record to end the day, but the beginning of the day was not very good. I end the day on a good note, and hope to keep it going tomorrow.

Thanks again to all my buddies I saw today, and to all the judges, and to Derek.

Derek? Is he your boyfriend?

No, he’s the tournament organizer. How do you wanna end the article?

Oooo, I got a news story.

You got a news story?

Yep, it seems that Nintendo has revealed the full name of the character N. His name is “Natural Harmonia Gropius.”

What a coincidence, that’s the name I used to dance under.

I thought I remembered you. That’s all we got people, you can leave now.

Card Discussion

Pedro’s Corner: A Review of the Lost Zone

Pedro October 14, 2011 10 Comments

Hey all you earthlings, this is Pedro here. Pikkdogs receieved a one article suspension for his cussing last week. And because the show must go on, Ed asked me to fill in for him. While I don’t know much about this game, I should be able to do better than a fat kid that doesn’t know his grammar rules.

Before we get into the article, we should take care of these italics. Even though my normal langauge translates into italics, it would be hard to read an article full of italics, so I bought an italics converter. If I just pop it into my inter-dimensionary porthole like so, that should do it. Okay lets get to the article.

Obviously I am an extra-dimensionary being, so I don’t know that much about Pokemon, but one thing that interests me is the Lost Zone. Since I have to travel through an inter-dimensionary porthole, a portal to the Lost Zone feels very familiar. So I will start talking about Lost Zone cards and Lost Zone decks.

The Most Versatile Lost Zone Card- Lost Remover
Read More

Deck Discussion Opinion Tourney Report

TAndrewT October 12, 2011 12 Comments

So I know you OHKO’ers are knee-deep in Battle Roads right now, battling against all sorts of decksâ€”not just the Reshiram/Typhlosions, Yanmega/Magnezones and Stage 1’s you’ve become familiar with since Worlds, but brand new decks too, like Zekrom/Tornadus, toolboxy Mew decks, Yanmega/Cincinno/Weavile, Gothitelle, Beartic/Vileplume/whateverâ€”all kinds of builds you hadn’t thought of, but yearn to try. But how can you? I mean, you can’t just call up the guys every other day, asking to get together to test out your crazy Wobbuffet-donk deck whenever you please, right? We all have livesâ€”school and college just started up, we’re all working hard to make financial ends meet, and Dancing with the Stars has reclaimed our Monday and Tuesday nights. Personally, it took me like 2 whole weeks to set a series of forest fires in northern Minnesota with the goal of sending a blinding cloud of smoke at Pikkdogs’ Michigan apartment. Let’s face itâ€”we don’t always have the time to playtest like we should.

The PokÃ©mon Company International has just created a new platformâ€”PokÃ©mon TCG Online, or PTCGOâ€”that could make it much easier for us players to build and test decks. It also promises to attract a whole new set of players to the game. But it has its glitches, and its drawbacks. Pikkdogs wrote a brief introduction to PTCGO’s initial release, back when it was just a single-player game with old cards and set decks. Now, in its open beta, PTCGO has many of the features PokÃ©mon players would want: two-player online games, owning and trading of virtual cards, a fully functional deck-builder, and a multiplayer matchmaker. In this article, I hope to bring you up to speed on what has changed with the service since Pikk’s article, and to help you decide whether investing time and money into PTCGO is worth it for you. I’ll also tell you about my own effort to use PTCGO to get ready for my first tournament of the Battle Roads season: the October 9th BR in Coon Rapids, MN.
Read More

Guide to Winning Your Noble Victories Pre-Release

Pikkdogs Pikks Three: Cinccino BW, Porygon Z, and Super Rod

Stupid Deck Idea: Audino Donk

Bold Statements with Pikkdogs

Review of Battle Roads and your first Regionals Preview

Michigan Double Header Battle Road Reports.

Battle Roads Double Header Weekend in Minnesota

Pikkdogs Battle Roads Report: Ann Arbor

Pedro’s Corner: A Review of the Lost Zone

TAndrewTesting: PokÃ©mon TCG Online

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