2011

Pikkdogs Pikks Three: Druddigon, Bisharp, and Eelektrik

Pikkdogs November 4, 2011 7 Comments

A big hello to all you OHHOers out there. I am the Pikkdogs here bringing you another Pikk Three article. This Pikk Three articles is special because I will be reviewing three cards from the Noble Victories set that I was not able to cover in my top 10 impactful cards of the set. Two of these three cards were mentioned by readers in the comment section, so I felt obliged to talk about them. But first, let me introduce to you my extra-dimensionary sidekick Pedro.

Yo.

It’s nice to have you back Pedro. Man you didn’t show up to our last article and the peasants were rioting. I guess they can’t handle an article without you anymore. Where were you earlier in the week.

Yeah sorry about not being here the other day, I had to help my uncle with the company he runs.

Oh, he runs a business that’s cool. What does his company do?

It manufactures funeral home products such as caskets and Hooker Urns.

What’s a Hooker Urn?

About 500 bucks a night.

I walked right in to that one. Hooker jokes, didn’t Jwittz just do that last week? Anyway that was a horribly dumb joke Pedro, let’s move on, did you celebrate Halloween?

Oh Hell Yeah, I love Halloween. You get to go into bars and watch people wear sexy outfits. The people at a bar right by my place were very attractive. The ladies too.

Oh is that right? What did you dress up as?

I dressed up as everyone’s favorite dead dictator, Momar Gadhafi. Except I wore a fake duck bill with the costume, so I called myself Gadhafi Duck.

Gadhafi duck, this website just hit a new low. Can we please just get onto the article and stop all the lame jokes?

Sure, plus we gotta talk about the technical difficulties on the site.

Okay. Apparently our files on the server got corrupted on Thursday night. At first I had only lost one article, but by the next day all of the articles were gone. Thanks to Ed for coming to the rescue and straightening stuff out. I really didn’t know how to do anything in that situation except Pee my pants, so all thanks go to Ed for keeping the site a float. Hopefully our server will be able to hold out for the foreseeable future. If you see a lot of mistakes in this article, there are two reasons. The first is because I suck at writing, and secondly I had edited the article before the server crashed. And I lost some of my edits, but not all of them. So there probably are parts that I missed the second time around, so sorry about that. On to the article!

Card #1 Druddigon NV

Description-Durddigon is a really weird name. That has nothing to do with the card, but it is a very weird name. Anyway, Druddigon is one of the BBP (Big Basic Pokemon). It has 100 HP, has no weakness or resistance, and has a 2 retreat cost. Its ability is “Rough Skin”, it is like Rocky Helmet, it puts 2 damage counters on each Pokemon that attacks this Pokemon. It has one attack, it is called “Clutch.” This attack does 60 damage for CCC and does not allow the defending Pokemon to retreat next turn.

Analysis– First let’s look at the stats on this guy. 100HP is normally great for a basic, but now in the BBP era, it is just average. The fact that it has no resistance and weakness I think is really good. That means that it will be harder for the Stage 1 Rush deck to tech something against Druddigon. That makes it a lot harder to beat if you always have to do 100 damage to it. The Ability I think is good, but nothing that makes you want to run this card. It is a great bonus, but nothing huge.

The attack is very interesting. 60 damage for three is rather average and mundane.

That reminds me of someone.

Nice Pedro, thanks for the compliment. Back to Druddigon. The attack is not stellar, 60 damage on a normal Pokemon is not that great. But it can use Double Colorless Energy. That means you now can hit for 60 for two energies, that is not that bad. But I think 60 damage will only work if you can hit for weakness, and right now there are not a ton of Pokemon that are weak to Normal attacks. Another interesting thing about this attack is that it does not allow the defending Pokemon to retreat. This works really well because a lot of decks use free retreat Pokemon like Yanmega Prime. It is not a consistent strategy that you can use, but it does restrict the options of your opponent, and that is never a bad thing.

So you have a fairly lack luster attack, but there are a lot of good things about it. I see it being used in something like a Stage 1 Rush deck or another toolbox type deck. The main question here is, “is it better than Tornadus?” I think for right now we have to say no. Tornadus is resistant to Donphan Prime and can hit for 80 instead of 60. Druddigon is good, but in ways that are kind of unmeasurable compared to Tornadus. But, I do think that Druddigon is a good Pokemon that will be around for a little while in rogue decks.

Review– 6/10- No use for him right now, but it is a good Pokemon that will still see in some rogue decks. It is not good enough to have a deck of its own, but it still has something to give in a different deck.

Card #2- Bisharp NV #82

Description– One reader thought I was snubbing Bisharp by not putting him into my top 10 list, so now let’s sit down and talk about Bisharp. I hope this is the Bisharp they were talking about, because there is a Dark Bisharp as well. Now that I think about it, they probably are talking about the other Bisharp because that one can hit for 80 for one energy if the defending Pokemon is damaged. Yes it works well with Rocky Helmet. But it is not reliable given that it only has 90 HP. So the short review on the dark Bisharp is that it is a nice idea, but nothing that will be competitive, let’s look at the metal one now.

It is a stage 1 Metal Pokemon with 100 HP, a 2 retreat cost, a weakness to fire, and a resistance to psychic. It has two attacks. The first attack, “Energy Stream” does 20 damage for C and lets you attach a metal energy from the discard pile to Bisharp. “Metal Scissors” costs CCC and does 40 damage, it also does 20 more damage for every metal energy on Bisharp.

Analysis– Now before you start calling me a Bisharp hater, I gotta say I do like the Pokemon. The art on this card is great, and, Pawniard is perhaps the best Pokemon name ever. But, I gotta say I don’t find a space for this card in the format. Let’s look at the stats.

100 HP is good, but not that great for a Stage 1. Fire is a terrible weakness, but psychic is a good resistance. The attacks are good, but they remind me of Pokemon that have those attacks, but are better. “Energy Stream” reminds me of Steelix Prime, and how it basically is the same as Bisharp, but has a lot more HP and can attack for more. “Metal Scissors” reminds me of Scizor Prime, who has a Poke-Body that makes it better than Bisharp.

Bisharp is still a good Pokemon, but I just can’t even think of using him with Steelix and Scizor out there. Both of these Pokemon are a lot better than Bisharp, and I would much rather play them instead.

I don’t really see it fitting into a toolbox deck, but I don’t really see it being good enough to have its own deck either. It doesn’t really seem to have a place in the format. Call me a hater if you must.

Review– 4/10- Maybe a 6/10 later, but right now it is out classed by some Pokemon that themselves are not really that good.

Card #3- Elektrik

Description– This was another card that someone had mentioned would have an impact on the set. Let’s see if I agree with them. First, I have to say that I hate the name. We already have an Elektrike in the format, so to have an Elektrik makes things very confusing.

Elektrik is a stage 1 lightning Pokemon with 90 HP, a fighting weakness, and a 2 retreat cost. It has the great Ability called, “Dynamotor,” which let’s you attach a lightning energy from the discard pile to a benched Pokemon. It has one attack, “Electric Ball,” which costs LLC and does 50 damage.

Analysis– The stats are not good. A weakness to fighting will always stink when Donphan is around. The attack is also not that good. But, the worst part of this card is the 2 retreat cost. You want this card to be on your bench to load energies on Pokemon, but it can’t do that if your opponent can just drag it active with Pokemon Catcher, and you can’t consistently retreat it.

It does have a lot of uses. Almost any Pokemon can improve with more lightning energies. And those energies work well with Pokemon like Zekrom, Magnezone Prime, and Tornadus. There are also a lot of ways to get energy in the discard pile. So there are no shortages of opportunities to use this card.

I do not think that it should be used in an Eelektross deck. Even though Elektrik makes Eelektross a lot better, it still does not have the fire power to make it a good deck. Eelektross just does not have enough firepower to make in it todays format.

I do not think it will see any significant play. Sure you could use it in a deck with Vileplume, but right now Vileplume decks are not that great. So, I just don’t see this card being that great.

Review- 6/10-If this card every is in a format without Pokemon Catcher, then it might be a 9/10, but right now it is too much of a liability.

Well, that’s all we got today. Hey Pedro I see that Adam from www.sixprizes.com gave you a shout out in his last video. Are you guys friends or something? Do I smell a bromance going on here?

Well, I guess you could call it a bromance. Adam does live near Philadelpha, the city of brotherly love.

True, do you like Philly?

Oh Hell yeah. I love those cheesesteaks. Me and Adam go out for about 20 of those things when I come to visit. Love those things.

You and Adam go out for cheesesteaks. But I thought Adam was a vegetarian?

Uhhhh, ooops I think my interdimensionary porthole is losing power, I gotta go. Have a good night you Earthlings.

Card Discussion

The Top 10 Impactful Cards of Noble Victories

Pikkdogs November 1, 2011 21 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there, this is Pikkdogs here. We are now proud to bring you my quarterly review of the new set that is coming into the format. Before each set I usually write an article that highlights 10 cards that I think will make the most impact on this format and the future ones. Noble Victories is no different, here is the article.

Noble Victories was quite a mysterious set. We thought it might be a lot of the cards from the Red Collection that was released in Japan, but we weren’t sure. Now we can be be sure, it is mostly made up of Red Collection cards and some cards from Theme decks. The mystery of this set has obscured a lot of the hype that usually surronds these sets. The only card that was getting some hype was Victini. Now we know exactly what is in the set, we can give it a fuller review.

Before I talk about the set, let’s get one thing straight, these cards will not be legal for fall Regionals. So even though a lot of people have the Victini card now, you still can’t play it until Cities.

To me, this set is fairly disappointing. Emerging Powers was not a great set, but it did have some good main attackers like Gothitelle and Beartic. This set however does not have any main attackers that are slam dunks like Gothitelle was. There is definitely some value in this set, but it is not one of the better sets in the format. N is a great card, and there are a lot of cards here that will see some rogue play. But it is nothing like Pokemon Catcher. So let’s officially get into the list to see what I am talking about.

#10- Hydreigon

The first card on our list is one of those Pokemon that is more used for rogue decks than solid Tier 1 or 2 decks. It is Hydreigon.

Hydreigon is a stage 2 Dark Pokemon with 150 HP, a 3 retreat cost, and a fighting weakness. Its ability, “Dark Aura”, counts every energy attached to Hydreigon as dark. That means if you put 2 DCE’s on this Pokemon, it will be able to use its attack which costs DDDD. Speaking of the attack, “Berserker Blade”, does 60 damage to the active and 40 damage to two benched Pokemon.

That is a total of 140 damage! 140 damage for 2 DCE’s is nothing to sneeze at. Plus, since the energies don’t have to be dark, you can use the Shaymin/Pachirisu move with lightning energies or Emboar with fire energies. There are a lot of ways to skin the cat in this one. This makes Hydreigon very versatile.

Since you are attacking three Pokemon, you can get up to three knock outs a turn. It is really good against decks like Gothitelle that try to spread damage out. You might never knock out Gothitelle, but it will be easy to get 6 knockouts in a different way. It also works well against Stage 1 Rush decks, because they have fairly low HP and rely on a lot of different Pokemon on the bench.

Hydreigon is fairly poor against Donphan based decks. Donphan can hit Hydreigon for weakness and can negate a lot of the damage done to each Donphan.

I don’t think Hydreigon is a great deck right now, but it is actually not that bad. You should be able to come up with a list using some kind of energy acceleration (Emboar, Pachi/Shaymin) and then include techs that are good against problem decks like Donphan Prime. I would be interested to see if people could make a good deck with Hydreigon. It could be similar to a Zekrom deck with Pachirisu, Shaymin, and Tornadus; but it would be a little slower since Zekrom is a basic Pokemon. But it would be fun.

I don’t think this card will be too impactful. It will see a couple rogue decks, but nothing that will catch on in a big way. Should be a fun deck to play though.

#9- Durant

Durant is another rogue Pokemon in this list. It has received a fair amnount of hype since its release. I love the concept of milling, so I really want this Pokemon to work out and be very impactful on the format.

Durant is a 70 HP basic metal Pokemon with a 1 retreat cost, a fire weakness, and a resistance to psychic. His “Vice Grip” attack does 30 for CC, which means it is a candidate for donking a baby Pokemon like Cleffa. Though I don’t know if a deck with Durant would ever run DCE. The attack that everyone is talking about is “Devour” and it costs 1 metal energy. The effect of the attack is that you can mill (or discard from your opponent’s deck) 1 card for every Durant in play. So that means if you start with 1 Durant and use a Pokemon Collector for 3 more, you will be milling 4 cards a turn (with the help of cards like Revive).

The question is, “Is Durant good enough to mill the entire deck by istelf in 6-8 turns. Durant will be easy to knock out so you gotta expect that your opponent will not need more than 6-8 turns to knock out 6 Pokemon. The answer to that question is not easy to asnwer. It depends on how the deck is made, and how your opponent plays. But, I think that it will not be too risky to say that Durant needs some help in milling.

So the next question is, “is there enough help in the format to help Durant mill a lot of cards?” The answer to that question probably will be a “no.” Kyorge/Groudon Legend can mill cards, but it takes at least 3 energy cards, so it is not easy to do. There are not any more Pokemon that can mill a substantial amount of cards.

So I think that Durant will see a little play in Cities, but then die out after that. The final question is, “Will Durant ever get some help.” On that question the answer is, “who knows?” Durant just needs one more good milling Pokemon to come into the format to help him. I do not see the card in the horizon, but that does not mean that it will never come. I really hope that Pokemon will once again have a concept of Mill, because it is a very fun game mechanic.

#8- Terrakion

Terrakion is a very cool card. The full art version of the card can be described only in one word, badass. Terrakion looks like he is about to pounce and give somebody a really bad day. But is the card as impactful as the artwork?

It has 130 Hp, a massive 4 retreat cost, and a great weakness to grass. It has two attacks. The first attack does 30 for FC, but it could do 90 if you had lost a Pokemon to damage from an attack last turn. The second attack, Land Crush, costs FFC and does 90 damage.

At first site he looks very much like Bouffallant from Black and White. He can do 90 damage for two energies if you lost a Pokemon last turn. Revenge kills are always great, and Terrakion can take advantage of them. Fighting is also a great type to have right now, this Pokemon will make quick work of Zekrom and Magnezone.

But it is not all sunshine and roses for Terrakion. After you get done peeing your pants from that scary artwork, you realize that DCE does not work with this Pokemon. That means you will have to load 2 energies on him for the first attack, and 3 energies for the second attack. And if your opponent can Pokemon Catcher up Terrakion to stall, you could be in a tight spot because nobody can easily retreat for CCCC.

Terrakion is a very good card, but you need to use it wisely. I could see it ending up in a rogue Stage 1 Rush deck, but you will need to play it just right. Starting with the card could mean the end of the game, and having it active with no energy in your hand could cost you.

I do not see it getting a lot of play right away, but it is so good that I think it eventually will get some play. 130 HP from a basic is really great and the attacks aren’t that bad.

#7- Rocky Helmet

Rocky Helmet is the first trainer on the list, and is a nice idea for a trainer, though I doubt it will ever see consistent play.

Rocky Helmet is a Tool card, we haven’t seen one of those in a while. You can attach it to a Pokemon and if it is active and damaged by an attack, you can put 2 damage counters on the attacking Pokemon.

This card does show a lot of early promise. The format is all about OHKO’s, so if you can use the first turn that your opponent attacks as a way to set it up for a knock out next turn, that sounds like something good to me. It also is re-useable because of Junk Arm.

The problem is that there is not a lot of free spaces in decks these days. I would love to be able to just waste space on something that can damage an attacking Pokemon, but a lot of decks don’t have that luxury.

It is a card that can fit into any non-Vileplume deck and make an impact, and will see decent play at Cities. But, I am not sold that this card will be great in the long run. Look for it to have a little play in the beginning, and maybe some rogue play here and there, but eventually fall off into obscurity.

#6- Chandelure

This is the last of the Pokemon that will be featured because of their cool rogue aspects. Chandelure is a stage 2 Pokemon with 130 HP, a weakness to dark, and a 2 retreat cost. Its ability, “Cursed Shadow”, lets you put three damage counters on the field in any way that you like. Its attack, “Eerie Glow” does 50 damage and burns and confuses the defending Pokemon for PPC.

On paper Chandelure looks like the perfect Gothitelle counter. It can hit for weakness without being hit for weakness itself. It can OHKO a Gothitelle (30+(50 x 2)=130), and can place damage counters making it harder for Reuniclus to keep all the Pokemon alive.

The problem is that it takes a long time to put three energies on a Pokemon. Although I love the Ability, I don’t see people being able to put three energies on this Pokemon in a consistent manner. If you can find some way to put energies on Chandelure faster, I would love it, but right now it is below par.

Perhaps you can find room for it in some kind of Ross Deck type thing with Dodrio. Dodrio could give Chandelure free retreat, Chandelure can drop 3 damage counters then retreat, and you could bring something like Yanmega Prime up to attack. You would also need Vileplume on your bench. It is a nice idea, but it seems very complicated.

I do not see it having an impact on the format right away. It is a great card that probably will eventually see some play, I just don’t see it right now.

#5- Kyurem

In a moment where Reshiram and Zekrom are running rough shot over the format, their lesser known brother is ready to make his debut. Yes Reshiram and Zekrom are not a duo, but part of a Trio. And we are about to see if there is room at the top for another dragon.

Kyurem shares similar stats to the other Dragons, 130 HP, a 2 retreat cost, and no resistance. But this one is weak to metal, by far the best weakness of the three. Of course it has the “Outrage” attack. Its second attack let’s you spread 30 damage for WWC.

I know that Spread has been dead for years now and Reuniclus laughs at spreading 30, but that does not mean Kyurem is useless. Some people are trying to build decks that feature Kyurem, but I am not sure if they will ever ben anything more than a fun rogue deck.

I think the best use for Kyurem is in Donphan and Dragons. Now this deck has another Dragon that can be used to hit for weakness. Kyurem is just what the deck needs to get the clear advantage over Reshiram decks. Now with a decent Zekrom matchup and a good Reshiram matchup, Donphan and Dragons has taken itself from tier 3 to tier 2.

Kyurem will see instant play in the Donphan and Dragons deck, and will make the deck a lot better. It will be a very impactful card right out of the gate. But, I do not see this card being that great in the long term as a deck of its own. The spread is dead, and I don’t see it getting any better. It does not live up to the reputation of Zekrom and Reshiram.

#4 Victini

Victini has been hyped as the savior of rogue decks. We haven’t really seen many rogue decks pop up lately. We had Ross Deck at worlds and I did write an article about an Audino deck, but mostly things have gone as planned. We need someone to save us from the monotiny that has resulted from such a small format, and that savior might be Victini.

Victini has the “Victory Star” Ability, which lets you re-flip if you flipped any coins for your attack. It will not let you re-flip for things like Dual Ball, but it will still have an impact letting you re-flip on attacks. The rest of Victini is not that great, he has 70 HP and a 1 retreat cost, meaning that he will be a prize from Pokemon Catcher. But, he might be useful enough to warrant giving your opponent the extra prize.

Victini can be used with a lot of good Pokemon, to make them a lot better. Audino EP and Sharpedo are just two of the more popular choices. Victini could also bring back parlysis as a relevant special condition (since most parlaysis attacks require a flip), so there are many good uses of Victini.

Now will Victini be in a top tier deck, probably not. But will it be the savior that rogue decks need to make them relevant again? I think so. Look for it to see considerable play at Cities.

#3 Eviolite

This is the era of BBP (Big Basic Pokemon). We knew that when Reshiram and Zekrom were released, and we knew that when Tornadus did well at Battle Roads. But we now know that BBP are a lot better. Eviolite is like Donphan’s “Exoskeleton” Poke-Body for basic Pokemon. It reduces every attack by 20, but it can only be attached to basic Pokemon.

Well Eviolite sure does not have a shortage of good Pokemon to be attached to. Zekrom, Reshiram, and Torandus are three of the most played Pokemon right now. This makes Eviolite a lot more playable because it can be easily tossed in to any deck. And if the Pokemon it is attached to gets knocked out, it can be returned with Junk Arm.

Reducing an attack by 20 is really useful. Right now the goal of most decks is to get an OHKO on the defending Pokemon, and Eviolite makes it a lot harder to do that. It is already very hard to get knock outs on Reshiram, Zekrom, and Tornadus; now it just got a lot harder. It should give decks like Reshiphlosion and Zekrom a bigger advantage than they already have.

I think Eviolite could make BBP a lot better, and will make Reshiram and Zekrom the best decks until the next set comes out. When the next set comes out, Evoiolite will probably be used with the BBP that are also Pokemon EX. Eviolite is set to be a great card through its time in the format.

#2 N

N is one of the most interesting card in the set. It let’s both players shuffle their hands into their decks and draw as many cards as they have prize cards. It was previously released as Rockets Admin.

This card kind of reminds me of Judge. Both cards let you shuffle the hands of both players. Judge gives you a consistent 4 cards, and let’s you even hand size while providing disruption. Judge is also good for early disruption. N on the other hand does not always even up hand size. N does not always give disruption, because you could give your opponent 6 cards. N also is not extremely helpful at the beginning of the game for disruption.

But this does not mean that N is not a good card. N is perhaps best used in a deck that is not very good, the Lost World deck. No deck with Lost World in it is very good right now, but they almost never take prizes. So N will always give them 6 prizes, but it will give their opponents less than 6.

N will be useful in other decks. I do not see it as a card that you want to run 4 of, but I think a lot of decks will run about 2 of them. They are very versatile cards because they can provide disruption at some times and can provide hand refreshment at others.

Although I don’t think this card is a slam dunk like Professor Juniper, I think it has some good strategic uses. I also think it will be used a lot throughout the life of this card.

#1 Super Rod

I know this is a pretty anti-climatic #1, but I think it will be the most impactful card in the set. The card let’s you shuffle 3 in any combination of Pokemon and basic energy cards from your discard pile into your deck.

This card is impactful because it will see a lot of play from day one. I can see most decks playing one of these cards. Since most decks right now are not very focused (look at Stage 1 Rush, a lot of decks now are tool boxes), it is very helpful to re-use cards that you do not run a lot of copies of. This card was last in the format about a year ago as Night Maintenance. NM was used a lot in decks, and that was when we had better recover cards.

I could see this card being used in Donphan and Dragons, Stage 1 Rush, Zekrom, and about almost any other deck that is currently being used. It is a very versatile card that can be used in every deck.

Even though the card is not very exciting, it will be used in almost every deck and will be very helpful to the player.

Conclusion

Well, the more I look at this set, the more I like it. I still know that it has no big Pokemon that will change the format. But it does give the format a lot more depth and gives us rogue players a lot more tools to work with.

The set itself will not be as impactful as EP and BW, but it is still a good set that should be fun to work with. I hope you guys have fun trying to make rogue decks with Victini and Pokemon like Hyrdeigion, Drudiggon, and Chandelure. It is a fun set, but not the most impactful on the format.

Please feel free to leave your thoughts about the set and your top ten list in the comment section.

So Long and thanks for all the fish!

Card Discussion

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.

2011

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