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
So I know you OHKO’ers are knee-deep in Battle Roads right now, battling against all sorts of decks—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/whatever—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 lives—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 it—we don’t always have the time to playtest like we should.
Last weekend, I played Yanmega Magnezone with a Jirachi, but no Kingdra. It was a weird list. It worked, though it probably shouldn’t have. I didn’t test it much either. This time, I didn’t even touch the deck, and had it built for me. It was Yanmega Magnezone with Jirachi, but this time, I ran a 2-1-2 Kingdra line. Here’s the report. I remember some and some I don’t. It was a looooong day.
Round 1: VS Mike Juhl playing Whirlipede(I think that’s what it was)/Roserade
The deck was all about poisoning, but he just couldn’t get set up. Multiple Yanmegas allowed for a swarm he couldn’t seem to overcome, as I catchered his basics and one-shot them with Sonicboom. Relatively easy. GG man.
Fall Battle Roads at Outpost 2000 and BeyondAlrighty guys, here we go. MN’s second Battle Roads of the season was on Oct 9th at Outpost 2000 and Beyond. I’d say we had a better day than the previous weekend, so
You mean you didn’t totally scrub out, misplay for a game loss, try to blame it on the judge, and barely make 50/50 on the day?
Hi everyone in the OneHitKO universe, Joel here with a battle road report. Yesterday, I attended the Battle Road in Hartland, MI. I had the option of going with fellow OneHitKO writers Mark and Pikkdogs to Toledo, but I opted for Hartland mainly because it was 20 minutes away from my house. There were 26 masters, 5 rounds with a top 4 cut. I decided to run Donphan/Yanmega/Zoroark/Tornadus for this tournament.
Round 1 vs Jeff M. with Volbeat/Illumise.
I was happy to know I was playing against Jeff the first round, because he is both a good player and fun to talk to. I go first and start with a lone Tornadus. I collector for 2 Yanma and a Phanpy, then attach a DCE to Tornadus and pass. He goes, and plays a lost remover, slowing me down, then proceeds to attach a grass to his Illumise, collectors for 3 Volbeat and attacks. Luckily he gets only 1 heads. I use a switch to get Tornadus out of active and promote Phanpy. I then evolve to Donphan, attach a fighting and use a pluspower and earthquake for the first prize. He promotes another Illumise, flips a heads on a Crushing Hammer, and then gets 4 heads on Vulcan Beat. Luckily Exoskeleton saves me, however I cannot manage to draw an energy, therefore I use PONT, and still don’t get an energy. I reluctantly pass. He goes and manages to KO my Donphan, which is great for me because I have Copycat and I can use Yanmega. Over the next few turns, I luck out by getting a catcher and some form of hand refresh in my hand, which helps Yanmega pick off Volbeats for prizes. I manage to win the game with Zoroark copying Volbeat’s firefly light, burning and confusing a Volbeat to win the game. 1-0
Round 2 vs Sean F. with ReshiBoar
Everyone has that one game that is so horrible that they don’t want to talk about it. This is that game. All I can say is that all my Phanpy were prized, I couldn’t draw into any hand refresh and he just had fun picking off my basics. As you can tell by my lack of enthusiasm about this game, you know the result. 1-1
Round 3 vs Chris D. with Reshiphlosion w/Samurott tech
This game made up for the blunder that was Round 2. I start with Tornadus and I go first. I attach a DCE to Tornadus, and use a collector for 1 Phanpy and 2 Yanma. I pass. He attaches 1 fire to his Reshiram, and Collectors for a Vulpix and 2 Cyndaquil and passes. I attach a fighting to Tornadus and evolve Phanpy to Donphan and a Yanma to a Yanmega. I catcher up a Cyndaquil, and Hurricane for a KO. He promotes Reshiram back up, attaches, and evolves to Quilava. He then only outrages for 20. I go, and draw another fighting, attach to Tornadus and use a Junk Arm for a Catcher, then I catch up his Quilava and Hurricane for a KO. He goes, and collectors for 2 more Cyndaquil and an Oshawott and benches them. He then attaches to Reshiram and Blue Flares my Tornadus for a KO. I promote Donphan and catcher up the Oshawott and Earthquake for a KO. He was unable to catch up because I managed to have a Catcher in my hand every turn. 2-1
Round 4 vs AJ D. with Reshiphlosion
This is another one of those games where I have terrible draws, and AJ gets set up fast. I didn’t take many notes on this game, except for mid game where I managed to catch up a little bit, but I only managed to get 3 prizes out of it. His setup was just way too fast for me to win. I apologize for not taking notes and going into more detail, but like the 2nd round, it’s one of those games you just don’t want to talk about. 2-2
Round 5 vs Catherine T. with Serperior/Reuniclus
This game was entirely in my favor. I had the advantage of going first, on top of starting with a Tornadus, Phanpy, Yanma, on top of having a Collector, DCE, Catcher and Communication in my hand as well. I attach DCE to Tornadus, Collect for Yanma, Tornadus and Zorua and pass. She collects for 2 Solosis and a Snivy, and Eeeeeks into a new hand. I topdeck a PONT, and communicate for Donphan. I then catch up Solosis, and use PONT. I get a fighting energy in my hand, attach to Tornadus and Hurricane for KO. The game basically consisted of me steamrolling with Tornadus and Donphan, on top of me managing to have a Pokemon Catcher in my hand at all times. 3-2
All in all, it was a good day. I took 8th overall, and left on a winning record. I didn’t make top cut or get any championship points but I did have a good time. My little brother took 2nd in seniors, and got a 2nd place Victory Cup and a Championship Point. He was running Reshiphlosion. There was a lot of diversity at this tournament, however the winning decks were either ZPS or Reshiphlosion. I will be attending both Ann Arbor and Okemos Battle Roads next week so I will have reports for those as well. That’s all I have for today, so as WWE superstar Zack Ryder always says, “take care, spike your hair. Woo Woo Woo, you know it!”.
A big hello to all you OHKOers out there, this is Pikkdogs and his extra dimensionary sidekick Pedro here with a Battle Roads report. I decided to run Donphan and Dragons again at this
Frank and Amanda talking it up before the tournament
tournament because I had done well with it in my last tournament. I won’t post a list because it is basically the same one that I shared last time. The only change was that I replaced a Lost Remover with another Max Potion. After today I don’t think I would change anything about this deck. So enough about the deck, let’s set up the tournament.
Hey, we usually do a little schtick before we get to the article. Why are you getting into the article so fast.
Well, I can’t think of anything to talk about.
We can talk about Frank’s weird snake scarf in the picture to the right.
I think we already said that we think he is compensating for something, let’s just to the article.
This past Saturday there were two options for Michigan players. We could either get up early and go to a BR in Hartland, Mi (located kind of between Ann Arbor and Flint), or we could head south to the border town of Toledo, Ohio. Despite my pact to stay out of Ohio as much as possible (yes the University of Michigan and Ohio State rivalry has driven me crazy), I decided to go to the Toledo event since it allowed me to sleep in a little more. I was hoping that most of the better Michigan players would have stayed in state, but alas they all thought like me and decided to come to Toledo. I can’t describe everyone who was there, but there were some great players like 2nd place state finisher Matt K., perennial Ohio top cutter Jack I., Team Warp Point power houses Ryan G. and Collan B., and the contingent from Team Bertolli which includes the Richards brothers (and father) and Mike, A.K.A. Bertolli. The tournament today would be 6 Swiss rounds with a top cut of 4, since there were 34 players the 3rd and 4th place kicker points did “kick” in.
I was nice (and foolish) enough to bring with me fellow Onehitko.com writer Mark M. and my favorite Ukrainian, Bohdan P.
Bohdan is Ukranian? Did you ever tell him that “the Ukraine is weak” while you were playing a game?
Well no, but I think all Ukranian’s would have to smash the playing surface whenever they hear that phrase when a game is going on.
That’s what I think too.
So I got up extra early and went North to Detroit to pick up the guys. We get held up a little downtown and run into some traffic along the way, but we still entered Toledo on time. I had not been to this location before, so I used my G.P.S. to get us there. I had entered “Sylvan Road” into the GPS, but was puzzled when the road turned out to be more like an alley. I double checked my printed directions and
found out that I was supposed to be at “Slyvania Avenue.” Ooooops. It only took us an extra 10 minutes to find the right place, and we were able to get registered in plenty time.
So you got lost again? How dumb do you have to be to get lost with a GPS?
You would be suprised, I can get lost very easily.
The venue for this tournament was not the best. It was a small game room at a card shop that was very hot and smelly. But, it wasn’t too bad and it was nice to just be in a decent spot. I slipped away from the tournament for a while to get me and Mark a pizza, then came back to the shop and ate some pizza and talked to the many of my buddies that were there. It took a little too long, but the pairings were posted before the peasants got too rambunctious.
Round 1- I forgot his name but he was from Mansfield, Ohio. LostGar.
I find it funny that this place had the private parts of Vehicles in a box.
I usually get a tough first round game, but I wasn’t too afraid of Lostgar. I haven’t played against it for a while but I know that my deck is faster and can OHKO or 2HKO anything he has.
I start with Phanpy (the only time I had this good of a start all day) and he starts with a Gastly and a benched Slowpoke. He starts first and puts 1 damage counter on Phanpy. On my turn I attach a fighting energy and then use Pokemon Catcher to bring up the Slowpoke (hoping to stall my opponent out), I then “Flail” for 10. He cannot retreat the Slowpoke, so he has to pass after he used a Pokemon Collector. I then was able to use Pokemon Communication to get a Donphan Prime, and I used a Pokemon Catcher to knock out a Mew Prime.
I decided to target Mew Prime because I know that using Mew is a quick and easy way to put Pokemon in the Lost Zone. I also knew that if he didn’t “See Off” a Gengar Prime next turn, he would be unlikely to use Mew to any great effectiveness. Being a former Mew Prime player myself, I know that if you do not “See Off” on turn 1 or 2 you will be unlikely to use Mew effectively.
But, because I knocked out Mew, he was able to use Twins. With Twins he was able to setup his first Gengar Prime with a Rare Candy and a Gengar Prime. He then used Spiritomb’s “Spooky Whirlwind” to put a Pokemon in my hand, and was able to put it in the Lost Zone. On my turn I “Earthquake” the Gengar Prime for 60. On his turn he uses Seeker to Lost Zone a Zekrom and t
Dan R. getting pumped for the tournament
hat puts the number of Pokemon in my Lost Zone to 2. On my next turn I use a Plus Power to knock out the Gengar Prime with “Earthquake.” After he lost the Gengar he is not really able to do anything much. He ends up “Seeing Off” a Gengar Prime, but I am able to knock out the Mew’s before
th
ey could really do anything.
1-0 So I start the day on the right foot for the first time in the tournament season. I usually have to play from behind the eight ball. Maybe I am too used to playing from behind that it is hard for me to lead throughout the day.
Round 2- Dan R. with Zekrom
Today I experienced something really weird, I played 3 straight games against members of the same family. This round was the first of the 3 rounds. It seems like I got stuck running the Richards gauntlet. I used to be a big wrestling fan when I was younger. And whenever one face (or good guy) was feuding against a stable of heels (a group of bad guys) he would usually have to fight a gauntlet match. This meant that the one good guy would have to wrestle all members of the bad guy group either at one time or in quick succession. Well this is what I felt like in Toledo.
Team Warp Point goofing off again.
The Richards are a really nice family, but more importantly they are very talented. Dave is fresh of his Nationals victory (in Seniors) and has gotten a lot of good testing done. Dan has always been a good player, but I think recently he has been bitten by a radioactive spider. He has gone on a tear lately beating everyone he has matched up against, except yours truly (in fact at one point I think he was 20-2 with both losses being to me). And their father is a good knowledgeable player who always runs some cool rogue decks. Anyway, let’s get to my 2nd round match.
I start with Zekrom and Reshiram ending Dan’s hope of a donk. I am able to get a DCE and “Outrage” a Tornadus for 40. Dan starts his turn and begins to load up a Tornadus. On my turn I am able to get a Phanpy in play and then I attack the Tornadus again. He starts his turn and tries to knocks out the Phanpy, but is unable to. So on my turn I am able to get a Donphan Prime, and finally knock out that Tornadus.
So at this point I have a slight lead and have a Donphan going. I had 3 dragons in play and had 3 Phanpys in my deck. I know that this is 6 prizes and would lose me the game if he knocks them all out, because he usually tries to avoid attacking the Donphans. I decide to bring out the Phanpys and hope that I can get at least 1 Phanpy evolved to a Donphan instead of trying to face Dan with only 1 Donphan.
On his next turn he does use a Tornadus to knock out a Phanpy, and I am unable to evolve the next Phanpy on my turn. But lucky on his turn he again whiffs on getting the Pokemon Catcher, and the Phanpy survives long enough to evolve to Donphan Prime.
While this game was going on, I was able to get a knock out on Pachirisu and a Zekrom, while he took down one of my Zekroms. He then proceeds to knock out all my dragons with Tornadus, and is able to tie the score up with 1 prize a piece. On the previous turn I had used Pokemon Catcher to bring up a Shaymin, and I “Earth Quaked” it for 40. All I needed to do is use a catcher to bring the Shaymin back up, because he retreated it next turn. Dan attacks and asks if I have the catcher, I say “no”, but then I have to say “yes” as I revealed a Pokemon Catcher from my top deck for the win.
Joe and Rob playing a game and acting weird.
2-0. I have done what no player in the region had yet done in the entire Battle Road Season, beat Dan, and I did this twice. Dan is a great player and has an awesome deck that has stopped everyone like a Justin Verlander curve ball, but he has yet to beat the Pikkdogs this season. But, I cannot celebrate for too much longer because this is just round 1 of my gauntlet, I have another Richards waiting in the wings, and this one has won Nationals.
Round 3 Dave R. with Zekrom
The Richards Gauntlet moves forward with Dave, and he is running a similar deck to what Dan runs. Although the decks are the same, I can tell that Dave has a different play style. Dave was basically only using his Tornadi, while Dan used Zekrom as well. I don’t know whats better, Zekrom gives them a lot more choices, but its also an easy knockout.
I start again with Zekrom and Reshiram, and he starts with Tornadus. Dave does not get the donk, but he gets Tornadus going early. I am able to Dual Ball for two Phanpy’s. On Dave’s next turn only 1 Phanpy survives, which is evolved on my turn. I have a decent time using Zekrom and Donphan very effectively.
The problems start when I try to use Pokemon Collector for the other 2 Phanpy’s. I found out that they are both prized, meaning I will have no more Donphan’s in the game. Dave see’s his and goes for the dagger. He starts targeting Donphan Prime, but I am able to use Max Potion on my turn to keep Donphan alive. I get a knock out on my turn, but I do not get a Phanpy from the prizes. I then scoop next turn after I am unable to get another Max Potion.
2-1. So this one is kind of frustrating. I think I would have been fine if I did not have those 2 Phanpy’s prized. Sure Dave would have been a tough out, but I think I could have squeaked it out. But alas, it was not meant to be.
Round 4. Eric (I think that’s his name) R. with Stage 1 Rush.
The Fort Wayne players show they are the best at making weird faces
I always have a nice time talking to Papa Richards, and am actually glad to be playing another Richards. I was comforted by the fact that the gauntlet would soon be over since there were no more Richards left to play. He usually plays a cool rogue deck, but today he has a more traditional Stage 1 Rush deck. Well the only thing that is rogue about this deck is the inclusion of Terakkion instead of Donphan, I guess he couldn’t live with himself if he didn’t change the deck a little bit.
I start the game with Zekrom, get a Phanpy and then pass. He has a very poor start. He starts with Hoothoot and uses “Hypnosis” to put my Zekrom to sleep. It seems that his opening hand was kind of scattered, and he didn’t have a great start at all.
Unfortunately for him, my Zekrom woke up and had 2 Rainbows Energies on it, so I was able to “Outrage” for the knock out. He then promotes a Yanma, but decides to get a Terrakion and bring it active to try to stall.
I then attach a fighting to my Zekrom and am able to “Bolt Strike” 2 Terrakions for the knock out. He is able to get a revenge kill, but by this time my lead is to big for me to lose.
3-1. Well I survived the Richards gauntlet. But it did put me in a corner, I need to win out to have a chance with two rounds left.
Round 5 Ryan G. with Stage 1 Rush (C.M.T. version-Cincinno, Mew, and Tornadus)
Ryan is a good buddy and a very nice guy. I only played him once and that was in state’s last year when he donked me. So I was looking forward to a nice long game.
Matt K playing Sarah in the first round of Top Cut
I start with Zekrom and attach a DCE so I can “Outrage” for 40 on his Tornadus. Unfortunately, it was now that I found out that Ryan plays Lost Remover. He used it on his first turn to take away the DCE. On my turn I am able to get a Donphan Prime without the help of a supporter, but am not able to get the energy, so I pass a couple times while he sets up. My supporter drought ends 3-4 turns later, but the only energy I get is a Rainbow Energy. It works for one turn before Ryan uses Lost Remover to take it away. He then uses Mew to poison Donphan Prime with Crobat Prime’s attack. I then use a Switch to bring the Donphan back to the bench, but by this time Ryan is up about three prizes. I pass and he tries to use a Pokemon Catcher to bring up the Donphan, but I refuse. Now I know I can’t refuse so I use this time to scoop and congratulate my buddy on a win.
3-2- I learn that there are two 5-0 players, so I know that my day is now over, no top cut for me. Though I don’t feel bad about losing to Ryan, I just had some bad luck and he had some what he needed. I really needed a supporter early in the game, and he was deadly with the Lost Remover. I am happy that he had a chance at getting to the top cut.
Round 6. James H. with Zekrom.
James is my buddy from Fort Wayne I have tested with him for over a year now. So it’s nice to play a game with a friend, especially when we both know our day is over.
James does play Zekrom, but he does not play the fast version like the Richards boys do. He plays a version that emphasizes defense and uses a lot of Defenders. While I can’t say one strategy is better than the other, I only fear Zekrom decks that can win early (and all decks when I prize my Phanpys).
I again start with Zekrom, but this time I can’t get a Donphan quickly. Instead I am able to get my Tropical Beach and use it two times to get setup. James had to use his resources early to prevent me from attacking early, and then did not have the Defenders when he needed it. I was able to use Donphan to get a couple knock outs on Zekrom. James was able to get a couple prizes to keep it close. But eventually I am able to pull away and am able to clinch a winning record for the day.
Dan playing Bohdan in the first round of Top Cut
4-2. Yeah I feel like I didn’t get as much luck as I needed, but it was overall a good day. I got to see a lot of friends, and ended up winning 4 games.
After the tournament me and Mark had to wait around for Bohdan, who went 6-0. Unfortunately he met up with Dan R. the first round. Dan and Bohdan played a long first game, but Dan was able to win it. Bohdan controlled the flow of the second game, and evened It up to 1 game a piece. Dan started first in the third and deciding game. He started with Shaymin, but was able to throw a lot of Dual Balls around and somehow get all the energy, Plus Powers, and Pokemon he needed for a the knock out on Bohdan’s lone Phanpy.
When you say “he was able to throw a lot of Dual Balls around”, is that code?
No.
Anyway, Bohdan took his packs and he stopped at Wendy’s for some lunch. After lots of bacon I made my way back to the motor city and dropped off the black guy and the Ukrainian. Overall, I say it was a successful day. Dan ended up losing in the finals to Matt K. While I am happy to have had fun, hopefully soon I will be able to win it all once or twice. And I have a chance to next weekend with two Battle Roads in my home state of Michigan.
You wanna bet that you will win next weekend?
No
That’s what I thought.
So look for those reports next weekend.
Thanks again to all the judges and those who made all the tournaments possible.
This past Saturday, my daughter and I hit up the Battle Roads at Legion Games in Minnesota. It was MN’s first BR of 4, so I expected a good turnout. I didn’t expect a big group of players to come down from Fargo, ND, so that was cool. They helped just put us over the top, so kickers went to the 3rd and 4th place finishers.
I usually try to take notes on my matches. Really, this is usually like 1 or two lines per match. Maybe I’ll write the name of my opponent, a couple major Pokemon in the deck, and the outcome. If it was more interesting, I might put something further. Well, I did all that, then I was busy on Sunday and went out of town on Monday through Wednesday. I’m finally getting to type up my report, and I can’t find my notes. All this leadup is just my excuse for having a short and most likely pointless report.
I played Zed PS. Ever since I heard Pokemandan call it that, I liked the name. I think “Zed” is a very absurd name for the letter Z. Also, adding Tornadus doesn’t quite make it Zed PST for some reason, even though I played more Tornadus than Zekrom. I don’t know what else to say on this topic.
My daughter, Ava, played Donphan/Zekrom. I did not expect this to be a popular deck. I thought that Donphan might be seen in some “Stage 1s”, but Donphan+Dragons didn’t really seem that hyped. I built Ava’s deck to be very straight-forward for her, and I left out several things I would definitely include if I were to play the deck. However, it was still very solid. Read More
A big hello to all you OHKOers out there, this is Pikkdogs here with a Pikk Three article for you. I am also joined by my extra-dimensionary sidekick, Pedro.
Say, Pedro, a lot of people were talking smack about you on the last article.
Yeah, one guy even shot me.
He shot you, then why aren’t you dead?
Well, weapons of this dimension can’t hurt me, the only thing from this dimension that can bring me to my knees is a Barry White song.
Well you aren’t alone there. I know a lot of you out there have been telling me to ditch my sidekick. One reason I won’t is that if something happens to Pedro the people from Pedro’s dimension will start a war and kill us all, and another reason is he’s my fucking sidekick! I don’t care what you guys think. When I get tired of him I’ll kill him. In the meantime I look forward to your emails, your sane spell checked emails. Some people may not like these weird, creepy, and psychoctic articles-
But, if you changed that how would people know it was you?
I know I’m crazy, I can’t just start writing articles that are sane, legible, informative, helpful, and make sense. You gotta go over to six prizes and pay for that kinda stuff.
People have come to know this website as a bunch of crap with a fat guy who can’t write as the main contributor. Why should we change that now?
I don’t know Pedro, let’s just go on with the article and do a Pikk Three. Now for those of you that don’t know, a Pikk Three article is like a big card of the day section. We will feature three cards, one that is a popular card, one that I feel is under-rated, and one that is from a new or yet un-released set. As you see today’s article is very item focused.
So that means you didn’t have enough time to write a big article and talk about real cards so you give us a little article about items.
Well that wasn’t how I planned it, but it did work out. So without further wait, let’s look at the cards today.
Card # 1 The Staple- Pokegear 3.0
Description– Pokegear is an item card that lets you look at the top 7 cards of your deck, choose any supporter there, and put it into your hand.
It was released in the HGSS set and was thought of as a crap card until this Battle Road season. Nobody seemed to play this card for over a year, but in this fall battle road season, the card has gotten a lot of play.
Analysis– Well this is a surprise to see this card in the staple spot. Like I wrote in the description section, nobody cared about this car for so long. But right now 4 copies of it are being played by a lot of really good players. It is being used to search for some of the many great supporters in the current format. For example, instead of playing 4 Twins, 4 Collector, 4 Point, and 4 of another draw supporter; people are playing 3 of each of those and 4 Pokegear. The hope is that even if you play less supporters, you will still be able to get the right supporter that you want when you want it.
The question is does it actually work? The answer is yes….. and no. Most of the time it will give you a great supporter, but there are times when you could reveal no supporters from your top 7 cards. And when you really want that one supporter, the card may not be there.
Even though it is not perfect, the idea is solid. Pokegear will give you a good shot at getting a supporter, even more so than if you just ran more supporters. This is because Pokegear is Junk Arm-able. So if you don’t have a Pokegear or a supporter, you can still use a supporter by Junk Arm-ing for a Pokegear, and then using it.
Final Rating– 7.75/10-I’m not sold on Pokegear, I don’t run it, but it is very popular. It also is not a bad choice to run it. You can run 4 or just 1 or 2.
Card #2 The Underdog- Potion
Description– A simple item card that lets you remove 3 damage counters from any of your Pokemon.
Analysis– This card has been around since the likes of John Jacob Aster used to trek across the continent trapping animals for their furs.
Really, first Barry White, Now a John Jacob Aster comment. Will anyone over 60 know what you are talking about?
No, but that’s pretty normal. Anyway, this card was first released in the base set, and besides for a few rogue decks that didn’t do anything, Potion has NEVER seen play. But, I think this is changing now.
The format right now is based on one hit knock outs, or strategic two hit knock outs. If you can get a couple OHKOs during your game, you should be good. If you can get some 2HKOs you are right on track. But if something gets in your way of a 2HKO, then you could be in trouble. Enter Potion.
The first time I saw the brillance of this card in the current format was from a guy from Team Bertoli called Mike. When I first saw Potion in his deck I thought he was a noob, but then he proceeded to use it to do crazy amounts of harm to my plan. Think about it, you have an active Tornadus, your opponent has a Donphan Prime. You “Hurricane” it for 60, knowing that you got a KO in the bag next turn. But, your opponent plays a Potion and gets himself down to 3 damage counters. Now any hope of getting the 2HKO is out the door.
Potion is all about the little things. It doesn’t heal all the damage, but it doesn’t have to. Just being able to keep your Pokemon alive for one turn is amazing. Sure Max Potion is great on Donphan, but Potion can work on any Pokemon.
No, Potion did not go from being crap to being awesome, but I could see it as a decent tech.
Final Rating– 6.5/10-Potion is finally useable I think, in the right deck.
Card#3-The Young Gun- Ultra Ball
Description– Ultra Ball was released in the Reshiram and Zekrom EX Battle Strength decks in Japan. Who knows when it will reach America, it could come next month, or it could come in a year.
The card is another item, it lets you search your deck for another Pokemon and put it into your hand. The catch is that you have to discard 2 cards from your hand.
Analysis-Ladies and Gentlemen, we now have a better Professor Elms Training Method that is in an item form! This card is better because it is an extra Pokemon Communication that does not require you to have a Pokemon in your hand, but it does require the discard, which is not cool.
Not cool man
Hand size right now is a problem, people already want to play out there hand on most turns, and this will even put more stress on your shrinking hand. So using this card could be problematic if you either have to use this or Junk Arm, using both of the would be better. If your deck doesn’t have a great draw enigne, it could be hard to use this card.
But, this format does still does miss cards like Bebe’s Search, Bebe’s was an awesome card and Communication is great, to have more of that power would be great. I think when all is said and done, I could see this card getting play. I don’t see 4 in each deck, but a couple in a deck that is high on evolution cards. Pokemon searching is not fairlydead in the format, especially for non basics, so this card will help a lot. It will also help you find those hard to get Legend Pieces. This card could make RDL good again.
Final Rating-8/10– It is a good card, it will see a lot of play, it could even bring back legend decks. It will be a good card, and perhaps a staple, but it won’t be anything extraordinary.
So, that’s all we got today. How do you wanna end this article Pedro?
Well we can talk about Barry White or John Jacob Astor. You can pick.
Okay, lets go Barry White. Cause if I pick Astor, you’ll probably just talk about beaver pelts.
So you do know me Pikkdogs, okay Barry White it is. What’s your favorite Barry White song?
I like “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love Baby.”
Solid choice, did you know he provided the voice over for the Arby’s commercials.
I didn’t know that Pedro, hey do you wanna go and get some Arby’s?
A big hello to all you OHKoers out there, this is Pikkdogs and his sidekick Pedro here with an article about the drawing and hand refresh supporters we have available to us in the current format. A big thanks to www.onehitko.com reader “Quarter Turn” for the idea for the article.
You mean someone actually asked you for advice on cards?
Yep.
Don’t they know you’re a crappy player?
I guess nobody has told him yet. Hey Pedro, I was wondering something. Why do you always speak in Italics?
Well that’s how all people from my dimension speak.
Huh. What dimension is that?
Well I can’t tell you that, the people have to go about and buy my auto-biography.
You wrote an auto-biography?
Oh hell yeah. It’s called “Stick it in my inter-dimensionary port hole”.
I suppose it’s available on Amazon.com?
Well yes, but not in this dimension? You have to go to my own dimension’s Amazon.
Your dimension has an Amazon?
Of course, how else do you think South American countries get their water.
Oh so you live in Earth just a different dimension. Hmmmmm interesting!!. Anyway let’s just go to the article. Today we are talking about the drawing and Hand Refresh Supporters. We will start by talking about the history of using these cards. Then we will examine the most used cards and examine what their ups and downs are.
History
Well I haven’t been involved in the game for more than 2-3 years, so I don’t know what originally happened with draw/ hand refresh (DHR) supporters. So I will just pick up in the Diamond and Pearl era. After the release of Great Encounters, anybody who used a DHR supporter was thought of as a noob. Hand Refreshing was done solely with Claydol Ge (and a couple sets later Uxie La would join him). You got all you needed in the drawing department with your Poke-Powers, and your Supporter slot was filled with search cards like Bebe’s Search or Roseanne’s Research.
A couple decks did use Draw Supporters, Gyarados used Felicities’ Drawings and Scizor/Cherrim used Buck’s Training. But, these cards were mostly used for their other effects rather than the draw power. Felecities’ was used to discard Magikarps, and Buck’s Training was used for the extra Plus Power. And some disruption decks did use Team Galactic’s Wager, but that was just because people liked to play Rock-Paper-Scizors.
And people think that the current format is a “Rock-Paper-Scizors” format, they should have played when that card was used.
As we moved into the SP era, things again changed. SP decks dominated the format, and this deck rarely used Claydol. Instead, it used Uxie La for a little draw support. They didn’t really need to draw a lot of cards because they had a lot of trainers and supporters that could search.
That changed at Worlds 2010 when the winner used Professor Oak’s New Theory. A lot of SP players decided to copy the winner, and PONT became a staple card in SP decks and others.
DHR supporters were first used exclusively as Claydol and Uxie started to rotate out. We could no longer rely on Poke-Powers for Draw Power (there were still Pokemon like Magnezone Prime and Ninetales, but Magnezone is too slow as a Stage 2 and Ninetales is not as reliable throughout the game like Claydol was), so we had to use supporters. As mentioned, PONT was the first DHR supporter to gain wide spread acceptance. But as the HGSS sets were released, more DHR cards were being used. Judge was used because of its disruption power, Cheer Leaders Cheer was used a little, as was Copy Cat and Sage’s Training.
The world of DHR supporters was thrown on its side when Professor Juniper came out. The ability to draw 7 cards at once gave you a draw power that we haven’t seen since Uxie, and cemented DHS supporters as very important in the current format. So let’s look at what these cards bring to the current format.
Current Drawing and Hand Refresh Supporters
The cards are ranked according to how well I like them in the current format, but I’m sure Pedro will tell you that I don’t know too much.
It’s more like you don’t know enough.
However you wanna put it, let’s look at the current supporters we have.
Professor Juniper
Effect– Discard your hand and draw 7 cards.
Positives– No other card in the format will let you consistently draw this many cards at once. There is no reason not to like drawing 7 cards at once. It is very good for this format that relies on quick knock outs, because you can easily play out your hand on the first or second turn, and then draw a new 7 card hand. It also is nice because after you discard your hand, there is no chance that you will then draw them with Juniper, like you could with the shuffle and draw supporters.
Negatives– It does make you discard your entire hand. If you run a deck that has evolutions, there will is a significant chance that you will not want to use Juniper every time you get it, because you will not want to discard everything in your hand. Yes shuffling these cards in your deck does force you to lose those cards, but at least then there is a chance to get them back. Using Juniper could put you into a situation where you will either lose if you don’t use a draw supporter or you lose if you discard your valueable hand.
Best Used in Decks Like– Juniper is best used in decks that require a fast start and don’t run a lot of evolutions. This makes Juniper good in decks like Donphan and Dragons, Zekrom, Reshiram variants, and Mew Lock.
Professor Oak’s New Theory
Effect– Shuffle your hand into your deck and draw 6 cards.
Positives– A fresh hand of 6 cards is great to have. 6 cards is basically a full hand, and should give you the resources that you are looking for. It also does not make you discard your hand like Juniper forces you to.
Negatives– Once you shuffle your hand into your deck you are vulnerable to drawing those same cards that you tried to get out of your hand. It also only lets you draw 6 cards. Although 6 cards is great, Juniper does give you 7.
Best Used in Decks Like– PONT is basically great in any deck. But, I would rely on it more heavily in decks that don’t utilize Juniper too well. This would be decks like Ross Deck, Gothitelle, Stage 1 Rush, decks with Kindgra Prime, and Prime Time (and other Magnezone Prime decks).
Judge
Effect– You and your opponent shuffle your hands into your decks and draw 4 cards.
Positives– There is nothing more disruptive than a first turn Judge. A first turn Judge will set the pace, and should give you a good advantage (as long as they don’t get a lucky draw on the Judge). It is also very disruptive later in the game. If your opponent is trying to setup an evolution line and they just lied a basic down, you can use Judge to make it harder for them to evolve next turn. But the thing that Judge is used for the most is to equal hand size in decks that run Yanmega. It can be hard to equal hand size so you can use the “Insight” Poke-Body, but Judge makes this very easy.
Negatives– It only gives you 4 cards, no other cards will consistently give you a more pitiful number. I know that Judge is used more for disruption and Yanmega-ing than hand refreshing, but still it is considered a hand refresher. Another negative for Judge is that you never know if Judge will be disruptive or not. Your opponent may have a 10 card hand, but he/she might not have the card he/she wants for next turn. So if you Judge that big hand away, you might be giving him/her a better hand.
Momma always said Judge is like a box of chocolate you never know what you’re gonna get.
Well said Forrest, I mean Pedro.
Best Used in Decks Like– Judge is best used in decks that use Yanmega like: Stage 1 Rush, Primetime and Mew Lock. It is also a very crucial card in disruption decks like Slowking/Ambipom and Sharpedo (which will be big once we get that good Victini card).
Sage’s Training
Effect– Look at the top 5 cards of your deck and put two of them in your hand, discard the rest.
Positives– This card lets you look at the top 5 cards and choose which two cards you want while keeping your current hand. No other card gives you access to your deck 5 cards deep while keeping your current hand. This card is great because it lets you keep what you got in your hand, then pick 2 more. The upsides of this card are off the charts.
Negatives– Unfortunately, the negatives of this card are also off the charts. It seems like every time I play this card there are at least 3 cards that I don’t want to discard. Infact, if you get a really “good” top 5 in your deck, you could cost yourself the game. I have encountered situations where I have almost shot myself in the foot during the game by using a Sage’s.
Best Used in Decks Like– Sage’s is best used in decks that don’t have a lot of big evolution lines and require 1 or 2 cards in certain situations. This means that good decks to play this card in are Stage 1 Rush, Donphan and Dragons, and Zekrom.
Cheren
Effect– Draw 3 cards
Positives– This card lets you draw the top three cards of your deck and keep your current hand. No other supporter lets you consistently draw this man cards while not giving your opponent an advantage and keeping your current hand. A lot of decks like to keep their current hand and just add a couple cards, like Stage 1 Rush. It also works well with Junk Arm, if you need to use Junk Arm and you don’t have enough cards, Cheren will give those cards to you. It also is nice with Junk Arm because if you are looking for a trainer like Pokemon Catcher, Cheren gives you a good shot at either drawing the Catcher or a Junk Arm which you can use to get a Poekmon Catcher.
Negatives– Three cards isn’t always enough to get the cards you need. In a lot of decks it is better to jettison your entire hand for the 4 extra cards. It just doesn’t stack up to cards like Proffesor Juniper in most decks.
Best Used in Decks Like– Stage 1 Rush, Gothitelle, Prime Time, Reshiram variants, and Ross Deck. (Note: I would never rely on this card in my deck for consistent draw Power, a bigger card like Juniper or Pont is needed more than Cheren.)
Copy Cat
Effect– Shuffle your hand into your deck and draw as many cards as your opponent has in his/her hand.
Positives– This card can give you a hand of about 20 cards in some situations. There is almost no limit to the number of cards you can grab with Copy Cat. It also works great with Yanmega Prime. And unlike Judge, Copy Cat does not set a cap at four, you could use this card to equal hand size and still get a lot of cards out of it.
Negatives– This card is just not consistent and reliable. This format does not give you any insurance that your opponent’s hand size will be good. Your opponent’s hand size could be big or it could be small, you don’t know if you can count on the hand size to be big. There were times that I have used Copy Cat to give me 1 card, or 3 cards. It was not a pleasant experience.
Best Used in Decks Like– Anything that uses Yanmega Prime, like Stage 1 Rush, Mew Lock, or Prime Time.
Other Draw and Hand Refresh Supporters
There are some other decent DHR supporters out there, here is a little bit about the best of the worst.
1. Bianca– It lets you draw until you have 6 cards in your hand. I would rather use PONT or Juniper unless you can consistently play out your entire hand fairly early. So if you run a lot of trainers, Bianca is not a terrible choice. But I would wait until there are more trainers in the format to use this card.
2. Team Rocket’s Trickery-It lets you draw 2 cards and your opponent discards one card from his/her hand. Yes the disruption is nice, but unless the year is 1998, only drawing 2 cards is not a good thing.
3. Engineer’s Adjustment’s– It lets you discard an energy and draw 4 cards. It is good for decks that run a lot of energy and decks that have ways to get energy back from the discard pile. That means it fits excellently into Reshiphloison and Steelix. It is a good card, but unless you run the kind of deck that you want energy in the discard pile, it’s not really that great of a card.
So I guess that’s all I got for you today. Do you have anything to add Pedro?
Ummmmmm!! stay in school?
Okay we officially ran out of material. Let’s just end the article. How do we usually end the articles here?
Well we usually share our favorite bones.
Is that code?
Well yes we do do that too, but I actually do want to talk about our favorite bones.
Okay? What’s your favorite bone?
I think you know. The Coccyx.
Oh yeah, that’s a funny sounding bone. Speaking of funny bone, my favorite bone is the Humurus.
Ahhh, the original funny bone. I thought you were going to with Clavicle, but the Humurus is a classic choice.
A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with his sidekick Pedro, and we are here to talk about the new ratings system and how Battle Roads are going.
The New Ratings System
We’re talking about the ratings change now? Didn’t that occur like two weeks ago?
Well, yes, but I just understood it now.
Don’t lie to us, you don’t understand it.
Well, no, but nobody really does, so I will just pretend I do like everybody else does. And I’ll say the term “kicker points” a lot, that will make me look smart.
I see. “Kicker Points.” Oh, yeah those are how I won my fantasy football game last week.
You play fantasy football?
Oh Hell Yeah! Though my team is suffering this year. I always take Peyton Manning first because I like his tushy.
Pedro are you gay?
How can I be gay? I’m not human. I’ma freaking extra-dimensionary being.
Ok, good enough for me, lets get back to ratings points.
Play Points
As you probably found out a couple weeks ago, Pokemon is changing how ratings work, and how people get invited to certain events like Worlds and Nationals. Instead of using ELO, we are instead going to use Championship Points and Play Points.
I kind of liked the ELO. I like the cellos and the violins.
I don’t think we’re talking about the same ELO, and i think someone on www.sixprizes.com did that same joke last week.
Anyway, ELO is not used as much anymore and Championship Points (CP) are in. CPs reward you for winning or making top cut in premiere rated tournaments. Anytime you win a tournament or do well in it you will receive points. For winning a Battle Road you will get 2 points, for a City Championship it’s 6 points, and it is 10 points for a State or a Regional win. The second place finisher will always get points as well. 1 for a Battle Road, 5 for a City, and 8 for a State or a Regional. 3rd and 4th place finishers will also get points at cities, and 5-8 finishers will get points at states or regionals.
So just because you got 3rd and a victory cup at a Battle Roads, does not mean that you get a championship point. But, you could. That’s where Kicker Points come, or “kick”, in. If there are more than 31 people at your BR and you get 3rd you will get a championship point. This is nice because it rewards people who are in tough playing areas, while it doesn’t reward people who live in less competitve areas.
That’s about it for CPs, except for the fact hat CPs are given at Worlds. This is really weird because traditionally the season is over after Worlds, so why would you need a ratings system. The only thing the ELO really did was give us Worlds players, so why are we using a ratings system after it has out lived its usefulness? I’m not sure, but it sounds like either points will carry over next season, or we are going to have some kind of award for the most points. I hate either option. I don’t want winners from one season be given a pass in the next, and why should we have two champions for one year? Things are looking weird with this, but I bet Pokemon will keep their lips sealed until about a day before they are about to use these worlds points for something.
Play Points
There are now something called Play Points. Pokemon has not discussed exactly what will happen with these yet. It seems that if you go to a BR or a league season you will get a point. You probably will get more points for going to a bigger event like Regionals. Your player rewards will be determined from these, which is basically just what they do now, they just are giving more weight to bigger tournaments.
This is entirely speculation, but Play Points might also help you qualify for your national tournament. What Pokemon is trying to do here by making nationals by invitation only seems to be to try to stop one man, Tom Dolezal. Tom does not play in games most of the season, but always goes to nationals and always gets a high enough rating to go to worlds. I know it might seem unfair to point out Tom when other people do it too, but he does it the best. I guess Pokemon does not like people who sit out the entire season, and then pick the game up in the last 2 months of the year and win all the prizes. It has not yet been confirmed, but it seems like Pokemon might be requiring us to have so many Play Points to enter Nationals. While I do not like the idea of having to qualify for Nats, only rewarding us hardworking players seems like a good thing to me. The only problem is that for the area around Nationals, a lot of local people start the game at Nationals. I have a lot of friends who started the game at nats, now that will not be able to happen. So on the whole, I do support the Tom Dolezal rule but it is not the best rule.
Opinion
I think the new rating system does some good things, while also promoting some not so good things.
One good thing that comes out of this rule change is that there are less incentives to drop. Now a player cannot hurt himself by playing in a tournament. The worst thing that can happen by going to a tournament is that you don’t get any CPs. Before, the better players were dropping out of the bigger tournaments because they were afraid that they would lose and lose the rating points that they already earned. Now, this will not be the case.
But, this does not mean that the new system discourages dropping as a whole. I think that on the whole this system encourages dropping. If you know within the first couple rounds that you will not be making top cut and getting a CP, it only makes sense to drop. There is no longer an incentive to play a tournament out, once you know you will not top cut, you might as well drop.
Which brings us to another critique of the new ratings system, the fact that this system does not reward consistent play. This system does not reward people who consistently do just above average, it rewards the people that Top Cut. Sine CPs will probably only effect Worlds participants, this shouldn’t be a big problem, but I think there is a lot to be said for a consistent player.
Well that’s my overview and thoughts about the new ratings system. Although it is not perfect, I think it is a step in the right direction.
Fall Battle Roads at the Midway Point
Here is the second part of the two part article. Battle Roads have reached their mid point, and it is time to see how things have been going. Lets start by looking at what has been winning. According to Pokegym.net, here are the top preforming decks with their corresponding number of wins:
Reshiram (either Typholosion or Emboar)-10
Stage 1 Rush (varius variants)-10
Zekrom–9
PrimeTime–5
Magneboar–2
Gothitelle–2
That is just the number of BR’s that were reported to Pokegym, I am sure there are many other BR’s that did not report. Anyway, this should be a good list of what has gone on in the past couple weeks.
The interesting thing about this list (and the way I compiled it) is that it gives us three distinct decks that are doing very well. You could call Zekrom, Reshiram, and the Stage 1 Variants as our Top Tier. Next you have Prime as a solid Tier 2 (if not Tier 1) and then a bunch of decks coming later. Those decks include the likes of Gothitelle, Ross Deck, and Donphan and Dragons. You could think of these being solid Tier 2 or 3. This is just based on what has happened so far, the next couple weeks could change things, but for right now it seems we have some pretty neat categories.
If you read other sites, you will notice that their lists have a lot more decks in it than mine. This is because I have consolidated a lot of decks with other similar decks. I think there are basically only about 6 or so decks out there. Why other people list there being 15 is that people play a lot of different variants in this format. This means that one list is very different from another. This can make it difficult to play test if people are running decks that are different from what other people are running.
What is key in this format is the word “variation.” No stage 1 deck is the same, no Donphan and Dragons deck is the same. There is a lot of room for techs in this format and people are sure showing that.
Another thing we learned in this format is that so far Gothitelle is a good deck, but has not found good player support. The best players right now are playing Stage 1 Rush or Zekrom, but they are not playing Gothitelle. Once Gothtitelle gets more support from the best players (like Trainerlock deck last year) I think the deck will take off. Especially look it to take off during Fall Regionals.
Another thing I learned is that a lot of the nationals decks are still around. Yes, basically the same Reshiphlosion and Primetime decks are still pretty good. I suppose a good Stage 1 deck could still make it today, but the deck can be changed a lot. Of course, the biggest change is 4 Pokemon Catchers, and the importance of getting early knock outs.
So………….well……….I’m pretty much done here, I think I rambled on for enough words, Pedro how do we usually end articles here?
Well we usually leave by having a musical guest.
A musical guest? We can’t afford a musical guest. I’m just a poor fat guy who lives in a one bedroom shack somewhere. What do you expect us to have some cool and popular singer like Tony Basil?
No, but it does give us an excuse to show a picture of her in a cheerleaders outfit.
Pedro 
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. 
TAndrewT 
Michael 
Ed 
Joel 
Pikkdogs 
