One Hit KO

Pokemon TCG Decklists and Articles

April 2012

Card Discussion

My Rant About Rocky Helmet

coolestman22 11 Comments

Introduction

Hey, it’s me, coolestman22, with another article, this time it’s about a card that I feel is underrated. As you may have guessed from the title, it is Rocky Helmet. I played 2 copies of the card in my Zekkels list at Regionals because it was such an awesome tech. It came in really handy for me, I can say that. What I am going to do is rant about why Rocky Helmet is awesome in Zekeels, ReshiPhlosion, or any deck that doesn’t rely on EXP. Share or Dark Claw, really, except for Magnezone decks that already OHKO everything.

But first, if you don’t know what Rocky Helmet does, you should probably look at the pretty picture of Rocky Helmet on your right.

Now that you know what it does, I shall begin ranting:

1-120 damage, 130 HP
Rocky Helmet is awesome for the Zekeels matchup, because if they have a Zekrom BW with Eviolite, and they Bolt Strike, that puts them at 20, and you can hit them for 100, needing a PlusPower to complete the KO.

But with Rocky Helmet, that damage is already given to you, so you can use your Junk Arms on Catchers, Level Balls, Super Rods, Pokegears, or whatever you may need at the time.

It is also awesome for the Terrakion/Troll matchup. With Rocky Helmet, their Terrakions go down without needing a PlusPower, so you can keep up with the prize race easier. It also means Mewtwo only needs 3-4 energy to KO the Terrakion.

It helped me against ReshiPhlosion, too. When they were to Eviolite their Reshirams, I could simply negate that with Rocky Helmet, allowing me to OHKO the Reshirams.

2-OHKO Mewtwos (or Raikous, I guess) with Strong Volt
Everyone knows that you can’t play 2 PlusPower every turn, but you can theoretically by using Rocky Helmet. Rocky Helmet is cool because if you just Strong Volted, and your opponent has an active Mewtwo, and your Zekrom EX has a Rocky Helmet attached, your opponent has 4 choices:

1: Attack the Zekrom EX and pay the death penalty, giving up two prize cards
2: Don’t attack the Zekrom EX, and be Glinting Clawed for KO next turn
3: Burn resources trying to find a Catcher, and maybe get it, and maybe not, and if not leaving you with the two previous choices.
4: Retreat your active Mewtwo for another attacker.

This is a pretty tough decision. Any smart opponent would try to go for Option 3, but not all opponents are smart, first of all, if you’re not playing at the top tables, and Option 3 may or may not bail you out.

Also, keep in mind that your opponent may or may not have the resources in hand to get the Catcher. So option 3 might not always be an option. That leaves you with a “would you rather” type question

Option 4 isn’t perfect, either. A Mewtwo would have a two retreat cost (or 1 with Skyarrow Bridge), and they won’t necessarily have a Switch, or Junk Arm for Switch (even though if they had the Junk Arm they’d probably also have the Catcher in the discard pile) or if they do have the Junk Arm for Switch they might only have one other card in hand, or two, one of them being the crucial draw supporter that they don’t want to discard, or no hand at all (although you’ve probably won if that’s the case). If they do have the Switch, they might not have an attacker set up on the bench (you only get 4 DCE, and you might not have the Switch into Celebi or whatever) then they don’t have option 4.

A more risky opponent might have the Switch, but also has a Shuffle+Draw or Discard+Draw supporter, and would rather try for option 3 then use option 4. This risky opponent might not get the Catcher/Junk Arm, and be forced to attack right into the Zekrom EX, or be killed by Glinting Claw the following turn.

What I’ve noticed is that most of the time, I get two prizes out of this scenario. Not always will the opponent have the Catcher or another attacker, leaving the opponent with either A or B. I’ve noticed that most opponents choose A, which means you have an opportunity to get another free prize after that. Devoting two spaces of your deck to drawing three prizes in the course of an attack phase, and then another turn is a great option to have.

3-Win Mewtwo Wars

Let’s start this section with some math. 4×4=16, therefore 40×4=160. Mewtwo has 170 HP, meaning that Rocky Helmet can either be your PlusPower, or negate Eviolite, resetting it back to needing a PlusPower.

Mewtwo attacking a Mewtwo with Rocky Helmet can be even more suicidal, as you won’t need the third energy or PlusPower, as your extra damage has already been provided. Therefore, all you need to do to draw two prizes is to get a Mewtwo with either 2 energy or a Double Colorless. Then, the opponent might be forced to put 3 energy on their return Mewtwo, meaning that you only need 2 energy to draw two more prize cards. It can turn the Mewtwo prize race in your favor, equaling a PlusPower in the situation.

If the Mewtwo has an Eviolite attached, Mewtwo can just as easily play a PlusPower to get that extra damage if there is a Rocky Helmet attached. When your opponent’s Mewtwo war winner is negated, you gain an advantage in the Mewtwo war. It also greatly helps you to have a Rocky Helmet on your Mewtwo if they decide to attack with something else, such as Tornadus or Thundurus, the extra 20 damage means that the Tornadus’ moved energy or Thundurus’s discarded one is negated, so Mewtwo needs 3 energy or 2 and a PlusPower to kill the Tornadus or Thundurus.

4-Players Try To Go Around Rocky Helmet, and it Puts Pressure On Them.

I’ve noticed that when players play against Rocky Helmet, they try to avoid attacking the Pokemon with the Rocky Helmet and instead they Catcher around it (exceptions being stuff that is OHKOed, such as Zekrom BW and Mewtwo) so that means you can last longer. It also helps because if you have something like a Donphan Prime active with a Rocky Helmet attached, your opponent knows that to take it down, it will require a couple of attacks, or maybe even three. So the opponent would be more inclined to take cheap prizes instead of attacking straight into the Rocky Helmet. This means that Donphan will continue to use Earthquake, or maybe even build up a Heavy Impact, for a while.

Even in non-tank decks, this is extremely useful because Eviolite may increase the number of hits you can take, but Rocky Helmet decreases the number of hits you will take.

5-Rocky Helmet is Permanent, and Doesn’t Require an Attack.

Rocky Helmet lasts longer than PlusPower. With PlusPower, you play it, and it is discarded. It only is effective for the turn it is played. However, Rocky Helmet is permanent, so you can keep being bashed and still get 20 damage out of it every time. This isn’t something you get with PlusPower, and it’s something nice to have.

Also, if you play PlusPower and don’t attack that turn, it’s useless. But if you attach a Rocky Helmet, it’s useful still because you can bash something back for 20, even without attacking. That means that if you’re 2-shot, your opponent takes 40 damage, also, so you’re practically getting 4 PlusPower out of it.

6-Unlike PlusPower, it Doesn’t Increase Recoil.

This isn’t too much of a reason that Rocky Helmet is a cool card, but nevertheless it helps. When you play a PlusPower and you Bolt Strike, you do 50 recoil damage. However, Rocky Helmet is damage counters, so if Zekrom had a Rocky Helmet attached, it doesn’t take 20 extra recoil from it, and since it’s only the opponent’s active, you don’t hit yourself for 20. This is another reason why Rocky Helmet is kind of cool and is a good play, as PlusPower is the difference between having 80 HP left and 90 HP left, so Thundurus, Tornadus, and Cobalion wouldn’t KO it afterwards.

This may not be too big a reason, but it’s something that you should consider, and I believe that it may be enough to make you at least try out Rocky Helmet (which I suggest you do).

Conclusion

These are the reasons that I play 2 Rocky Helmet in my Zekeels build, and probably will for a while. Rocky Helmet is a nice overall card that is worth two spaces of your deck, and if you play it you can lower your PlusPower count if your deck is tight on space. It is an extremely underrated card that I believe is worth the time to test out, even if you don’t end up liking it. Rocky Helmet also puts a lot of pressure on your opponent, and might make them burn up resources trying to get the Catcher.

It’s an all-around cool card that I think should be put into every deck excluding Exp. Share decks, Dark decks with Dark Claw (as that pretty much is a Rocky Helmet), and Magnezone decks or OHKO decks (like Rayquaza-EX in the future) that don’t need it.

It can be used as Junk Arm for Super Rod against Durant, also, so it’s not completely useless there. You could also theoretically attach it to (unlikely) prevent Rotom snipes.

Thanks for reading, now I’m done. Please leave a comment below and leave your thoughts about Rocky Helmet, as it’s something I feel is very underrated.

Contest National Championships

2012 Unofficial Pokemon Nationals After Party Contest!!!! Free Tickets to a Concert with Good Luck Varisty, PK Fire, and Rival Summers

Pikkdogs 7 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. 

Nationals last year was great, but it just was missing some rock and roll.  That will not be the case this year.

I am here to confirm to you that there will be a Pokemon Nationals After Party this year.  On Friday June 29th, the first official day of Nats, there will be a concert after the Swiss rounds are over.  It will be held just a couple miles away from the convention center at the local VFW.  Here is the exact address: 1850 South East Street, Indianapolis, IN 46225.  It is just a little jaunt from the convention center, and the concert will start soon after Swiss Rounds end (officially scheduled to start somewhere around 7:30 local time).

The concert will be headlined by some of the craziest and most attractive indy rock bands from the midwest.  Here are the bands that will play:

  • Good Luck Varsity.  Here is their link, here is a link to my favorite GLV song.
  • PK Fire.  Here is their link, and here is a link to an episode of the Noozles.  Sorry PK Fire, but I couldn’t find a good video out there, you guys have the best name, that should count for something.
  • Rival Summers.  Here is their link, and here is the link to my favorite RS song.

There will be a $3 cover charge that will be used to cover the rental of the venue.  This is a really cheap cost to join what will be a very cool event. 

I shall be there, it is sure to be a good time for all involved.  It will be nice to get a chance to connect with all different people from the Pokemon world and blow off a little bit of steam.  I know these bands are really cool and it should be a great time.

So make sure you guys plan to have a ride to the VFW right after Swiss rounds are over.  Mark your calendar now, cause it should be a great time.

Contest

Sure the tickets are cheap, but why not party on the tab of Pikkdogs?  To help promote the concert and as a part of my ongoing 200th article celebration, I will give away a pair of tickets to each of the six winners of our 2012 Nationals After Party Contest.

Here are the rules.  The contest will be open until 11:59 PM on May 15th, 2012.  The contest is open to everyone except me and Ed.  Everybody can play and win, but obviously you will have to be in Indianapolis for Nationals to redeem your tickets. You can enter multiple times, but you may only win once.

So here is what you need to do to enter the contest.  The way to win this contest is to send an email to me (pikkdogs@onehitko.com) and answer only one of the questions below.  Entries that answer more than 1 question will not be entered into the contest.  There will only be one winner for each answer, and the first person to answer the question wins that prize.  If you answer a question and are the first one to do so, you cannot be wrong, just as long as you write something like “Answer #2: Chris Webber”, you will win.  The final requirement is that the subject title on the email be “OnehitKO Contest Answer”.  So all you have to do is be the first one to answer one of the questions below, and have “OnehitKO Contest Answer” in the subject line of an email to “pikkdogs@onehitko.com” and you will win.  Here are the questions:

1.  What do you like most about the Noozles?

2.  Why do you think Pedro and Tom Bosley are enemies?

3.  What is the thing you like least about the philosophies of Soren Kierkegaard.

4.  Who would you like to see Pikkdogs interview next?

5.  What is your favorite band of all the bands that will play at the Nationals After Party?

6.  What food is better to have while shopping for furniture than meatballs?

 

So all you guys gotta do is be the first to answer one of these questions, and I will buy you two tickets for the 2012 Pokemon Nationals Unofficial After Party with Good Luck Varsity, PK Fire, and Rival Summers.  So get those emails out as fast as possible, and if you win I will send you an email that will ask you for your name, and those will go on a list that will get you in free to the concert.

So Long and Thanks for all the fish.

Regional Championships

Introduction, Mini Report and Statement of Intentions

James Hall 17 Comments

Hello all OHKO’ers.  This is James Hall.  I am the newest addition to the highly paid staff here at OneHitKO.com.

INTRODUCTION

First off, I am in my late 20’s and I work as a Web Content Manager for Lincoln Financial Group here in Fort Wayne, IN.  I have an AS degree in Multimedia and a BS in Digital Entertainment and Game Design.  I also run a local league here and am proud to say that Pokemon is revived here.  When I started attending a league back in 2009, there were three of us.  Now, we are sporting a total of 42 people total with an average of 20 a week.  Our Friday leagues are our competitive league designed to prepare for tournaments.  Every other Saturday we have our kids league where it is very laid back and just for fun.  You can check us out at www.summitcitypokemon.com.

I met Pikkdogs at a local tournament about two years ago and we have been buds ever since.  When I first started he helped me with my VileGar deck and we were play testing almost nightly.  We run into each other in the tournaments that are basically northern Indiana/Ohio and southern Michigan.

MINI REPORT

Alright enough about that, to give a level set I have been a Pokemon Professor for a little over a year now and have been running the leagues here for about one and a half years.  So far I have placed 6th at a Fort Wayne Cities and recently went 6-1 drop at the Regionals in Philly.

Since I work for LFG, their new headquarters is in Radnor, PA which is just outside of Philly, so I was lucky to be able to be there that weekend anyway.  I decided to run am aggressive Celebi/Mewtwo EX deck but because of how my 3 States went, I figured I would go 2/3 drop and be able to attend a company dinner later on in the evening.  So here it goes! OH YEAH! I forgot everyone’s name as I didn’t think I was going to do that well so I just didn’t take notes or anything to that effect.  So if someone I faced is reading this and can give me your name or fill in anything please feel free to add it into the comments below and I will adjust accordingly.

Round 1 – MagEels (Table 5?): I start a Celebi and Dual Ball into two Mewtwo EX’s.  I take out his active Magnemite turn one with a PlusPower.  He puts up a free retreat Tynamo and gets 2 more Magnemites and another Tynamo.  I then proceed to knock out the eel.  He eventually gets a Magnezone out and Lost Burns the only four energy on his field.  From here on the only thing I remember is knocking out the Magnezone and taking the rest of my prizes securely.

1-0:  HMMMM, that was nice.  Bet I lose the next one!

Round 2 – ZekEels (Table 29): I started Celebi and get a Mewtwo EX on the bench.  I basically was clearing his field of Tynamos and Zekrom and I believe the final prize count came down to his 3 to my 0.

2-0:  HOLY CRAP!  I have never started a tournament like this.  I have now used up all of my luck, my next game I am going to bomb.

Round 3 – Reshiphlosion (Table 30): Great, just what I wanted to see.  My roommate runs this deck and I have never been able to beat him so this is going to be it, my luck did run out.  We sit down and as we are shuffling she tells me that she just started in March and her friends built her this deck and she has had some incredible luck.  So I am thinking, ok, not so bad.  She starts a lone Reshiram and I start Celebi and nothing else.  I Pass.  She goes and outrages for 40.  The next turn I get 2 Mewtwos out and power one up.  I attack.  She goes next and benches a Cyndaquil and a Mewtwo EX.  I quickly take advantage of that misplay and catcher up her benched Mewtwo EX and PlusPower/DCE for 2 prizes.  From here on out she Blue Flares once and I pick off the 3 Cyndaquil and Reshiram for game.  After the match we sat there a while and gave her some pointers.

3-0: This was PURE LUCK!  Not going to go that way next time!

So at this point it was lunch time and I had lunch with a local friend of mine out in the main hall.  As we were finishing up I look up and see about a 5′ 8” Diglett walking by.  So I do what any other person does and get a picture with it.  I was supposed to go to lunch with a local work associate but because I was undefeated I called her and she was cool about it as she didn’t have to drive into the city.

 

Round 4 – CMT (Table 15): All I can remember from this game is that I got early KO’s on Celebi and Tornados and it finished with the Mewtwo wars.

4-0: I am freaking out.  I have NEVER been 4-0.  I remember thinking, watch, next I’ll face Durant and have my deck and confidence devoured.

Diglett used Dig!... or Deflate... -_-

Round 5 – Durant (Table 2): OK, so this has been one of the most epic matches I have had.  She mulligans and I see that she is running Durant.  So I think, the only way to pull this off is the Rotom donk.  But the chances of that are very unlikely.  I go first and she turns over a lone Rotom.  I have Celebi active and energy in hand.  I Dual Ball for 1 Mewtwo EX, bench it.  I Forest Breath an energy to him and drop a SkyArrow Bridge and Juniper.  I draw Grass, Junk Arm, Junk Arm, PlusPower and three other cards.  I PULLED IT OFF!  This was such a breath holder of a moment that the players at table 1 actually stopped and watched to see if I pulled it off.

5-0: I was on Cloud 9 at that moment.  I have surpassed the best I have ever been.  I actually had a good chance at this tournament.

Round 6 – Lilligant (Table 1): Never played against this deck before so I was going in blind.  My strategy was just to keep Mewtwos cycling and hope for the best.  I got going and took a prize early and he Twins’d into a Vileplume but Lady Luck was on my side as I always had a Grass and DCE in my hand.  He was able to knock out one Mewtwo EX but he only paralyzed me once the whole game so I just kept retreating and attaching energy to Mewtwo and won on prizes.

6-0: Speechless.  I was guaranteed top cut at that moment.  I was beyond happy!

Round 7 – ZekEels (Table 1): This is where my luck ran out.  My opponent actually shuffled my deck instead of cutting initially.  I started a lone Celebi as usual.  We went back and forth on prizes and the Mewtwo war was done fast.  We were down to one prize a piece and he had to get a catcher for the lone Celebi I had on the bench and Bolt Strike it.  He didn’t have it in hand but he Junipered into a Junk Arm.  VERY GOOD GAME!

6-1: I feel great, but it is cut short.

I get a text about Dinner and I didn’t have the option to not go.  So I circle that I am dropping.  To all who were on the bubble, you are welcome.  To all whom I ruined your resistance, I am sorry from the bottom of my heart.  I go and say goodbye to the new people I met from Jersey and some Ohio players that I knew and head out.

That was fun and the vast majority of the players there were really awesome and I enjoyed each match.

INTENTIONS

My goal as a writer for this site is pretty simple.  I want to work with Pikkdogs on his articles and give some relief to Pedro.  I will also be doing tournament reports and different musings.  The one standard thing that I am going to do is a week-in-review where I will culminate all the news for the week into one article and give links out to their respective areas.  I plan to cover the TCG, VG and Anime.  If you guys have anything specific you would like to see please let me know and I will do my best to work on it or if I feel that I am not fit for the article I will pass it on to Pikkdogs with all of his infinite wisdom.

I hope you enjoyed my first article and please, if you critique, be constructive and please provide details.

Uncategorized

Tips on Winning your Dark Explorers Pre-Release

Pikkdogs 5 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  It is that time again, 4 times a year we get to attend a pre-release event.  And for every PR that there is, I try to give you guys tips on winning it.  I know winning is not always something associated with a PR, but if you go you might as well win.  Some places also give you a free pack if you win, so that is a good motivation to do well.  Before we get into the cards that you should play, I will give you my standard tips for PRs.  But, before that happens we have Pedro who wants to give us a news article.

Yes I do.  Today we have news from your favorite world, home design.  Former boy bander, Justin Timberlake has announced that he is teaming up with furniture companies to come up with Home Mint, his own interior design line.  It will feature things like furniture, pillows, and knick knacks.   Would you buy your furniture from Justin Timberlake Pikkdogs? 

No, I buy mine from Ikea, cause that’s the only store that combines my two great passions, furniture and meatballs.  How great is it when you can shop for furniture, and then follow those weird arrows to a lady who sells meatballs?  It would be like if car dealerships started selling chessesteaks.  It is just a great idea, if its one thing I love more than wicker bed frames, it is meatballs.

So you prefer meatballs to the work of Nsync?

Of course.

Who’s work do you favor more than meatballs?

I don’t know, but what if the singer Meatloaf had his own furniture store.  Than I would have to choose between Meatloaf and meatballs.

I don’t really care for either.  When I’m eating something I need a better description of a food than “meat.”  Its like we don’t really know whats in meatloaf, just throw some stuff together and call it meat. 

I could see that.  But, I gotta go and start the article now.

Principles for building your Pre-Release Deck

  1. The usual balance for a deck is 15 Pokemon, 15 Energies, and 10 Trainers.  Put more Trainers in if you have them, that will only increase consistency, and that is a great thing.  Don’t go over 15 energies unless you really need to.  And try to stay with 2 energy types, go three if you must, but 2 is best.
  2. Play as many consistency trainers that you can.  You want to try to run as many trainers as possible because that increases consistency.  Of course if you don’t have any Dark type Pokemon, you shouldn’t play Dark Patch.  But for the most part, having more trainers is a good thing.
  3. Look for consistency Pokemon.  You do not usually play a Pokemon that lets you draw 2 cards for one energy, but for a PR, this one will be a good card.  Any card that let’s you draw cards, search for cards, or evolve is great for a PR, so it is to your advantage to play these cards even though you know they will get no play after the PR season is over.
  4. Build your deck with the Ultra Rare cards in mind.  Even though this is just a PR deck, that doesn’t mean you can’t plan to counter the best cards in the format.  For example, during the Next Destinies PR I played a fighting deck.  The rationale here was that if I saw a Regigigas EX I would be able to take it, while others deck couldn’t.
  5. Be careful with Stage 2’s.  It is almost always a good idea to avoid Stage 2s in a PR deck.  It is just so hard to pull a 3-2-2 line of a Stage 2 Pokemon in a PR deck, and if you don’t have a line like that, there will be no consistency.  If you can get a Stage 2 out it will be great, but it is really hard to get it out.  There are Rare Candies in this set, so that may increase Stage 2 playability a little.  But still, be cautious of them.  Stage 1 Pokemon are the way to go, they have the best damage output and are fairly consistent.  If you can get an EX that is great, but not everybody will pull one of those.
  6. Stay away from fossils.  Consistency has always been a problem with fossils.  When you talk about consistency dropping more during PRs, that makes it even worse for fossils.  These new fossils do have a better chance at getting played since the deck is smaller.  But, I would still say that it would be smart to stay away from them if possible. 

Cards to Watch from Dark Explorers

Before we get started, at the time of writing this I didn’t have the exact setlist.  So there will be some things that aren’t in the set, and maybe some cards that I didn’t know about.  So if things are a little off, don’t beat me up too bad. 

  1. Professor Juniper–  Juniper is an overall great card, and using it will probably give you all the cards you need to win.  There is no doubt that Juniper will probably decide most of the games.  Plus, you even have Random Reciever which will let you get Juniper out easy.  Just becareful, Juniper can easily cause you to deck out with only a 40 card deck.  So make sure to count how many cards are in your deck before you use the card.  It can easily give you a sweeping win, or a deckout loss.  N is also reprinted in this set, remember N can only give you a maximum of 4 in a PR.  So don’t rely on N for a lot of draw power. 
  2. Scyther– 60 for CCC is not usually anything to write home about, but in a PR it is not bad.  If you pull some of these, I would play at least 1 or 2. 
  3. Slowpoke- For one energy, “Big Yawn” can put both actives to sleep.  This may not be an amazing attack, but it does have a good chance of providing some disruption.  So I would play one of these if I pulled it. 
  4. Carnivine– Carnivine has an attack that let’s you switch the defending Pokemon with a benched Pokemon, and then poison it.  That’s a good attack for early on, I would play that card if I pulled it.  This card may or may not be in the set. 
  5. Plusle– This Pokemon has an attack that lets you shuffle your hand into your deck and draw 4 cards, 8 if you have Minun on your bench.  Whether or not you pull any Minun, play every Plusle that you pull.  It is one of the best cards for PRs. 
  6. Sableye-If you play Darkness energy, than Sableye is a great card.  It lets you return 2 trainers from your discard pile to your hand.  This could be Dark Claw, Fossils, Rare Candy, Dark Patch, or Random Reciever.  It is a good card, but play it only if you have a lot of Dark energy and trainers in your deck. 
  7. Zorua/Zoroark– If you pull 1 Zoroark, than play all the Zoruas that you have.  Zorua #69 has the “Ascension” attack which evolves Zorua, this greatly increases consistency. 
  8. C hansey/Blissey– These Pokemon are like Scyther.  For CCC Chansey does 60 Damge and 30 to itself, and Blissey does 90 damage and 30 to itself.  Chansey also has the one energy “Sing” attack.  Blissey is nice because he has an Ability that can heal himself, but of course only play him if you have Chanseys in your deck. 
  9. The Eeveelutions– If you get enough Eevees, the Eeveelutions are always great.  But if you only pull 1 Eevee, its probably not time to play a bunch of Eeveelutions. There are two different Eevees in this set, so if you pull 3 or more, maybe you should play some Eeveelutions.  Remember, there are no card limits in a pre-release, so if you pull 8 Eevees than you can play them. 
  10. The EXs–  Of course if you are lucky enough to play an EX you should play it.  It will not win you tournament, but it should give you a big advantage. 
  11. Excadrill-If you are playing a fighting deck and can get a decent line of Excadrill you should have a fun time.  The ability to snipe, attack, and recover is all built into this one card.  Gotta love the versatility. 
  12. Volcarona- This is like Combusken but a little better.  For RCC you can do 70 damage, if you want to discard you can also burn the defending.  It also has the ability that turns the burn damage up from 2 to 4.  So if you can burn people, you want Volcarona around,
  13. If you must run a stage 2– If you gotta run a stage 2, I like Empoleon and Venasuar.  Venasuar lets you search your deck for  a Pokemon each turn, while Empoleon can attack well and has draw power.  Remember, Rare Candies are in this set, so this can help you get stage 2’s out quicker. 

Conclusion

So, you might be a little prepared for your PR now.  I hope you guys have fun in them and get some good cards.  Remember that trading cards is big at a PR, so make sure you bring all your cards so you can make some good trades.  People will usually over trade for the newer cards and give you a good deal on old cards.

Well, I’m done.  Why don’t you end this for us Pedro.

Sure.  Well, a maid service from Lubbock, Texas has been in the news recently.  Fantasy Maid service is not your regular maid service, they will clean your house, but they do it in the nude. The service employs three maids who are named Star, Hazel, and Kit.  Which don’t at all sound like stripper names do they Pikkdogs?

No.

One funny thing on their website is that they have a policy against the customer being nude.  Which seems normal for a maid service, but if they can be nude shouldn’t you?

Seems only fair. 

If you could hire a nude maid, what would you have them clean?

Well, first I would have them dust my banister……………and then I would have them clean my staircase. 

Of course.

It also wouldn’t hurt if when they dusted they used an old school feather duster with a narrow shaft and a big fuzzy end. 

I heard that you like the big fuzzy ends.

Who doesn’t like a big old fuzzy end.  Good night everybody.

 

Pokemon Education

The Spirit of the Game.

Pikkdogs 12 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with an article about the Pokemon document called, “The Spirit of the Game.”  This is a document that is rarely talked about on websites like this, but is supposed to be vital to any Pokemon player.  So I figured we should talk about it and analyze it.  We can talk about what we like about it, and what we don’t.  But first, we must get a news article from Pedro to start things out.  Hey Pedro, what do you have for us today?

Hey Pikkdogs.  Today, CNN is reporting that there is controversy with Sweden’s Minister of Culture.  It seems that she was attending an art exhibit opening and she ate a piece of a cake that was in the form of a stereotypical African figure.  Groups representing African Swedes are calling for the minister to resign after they feel that Africans were portrayed in a racist manner. 

Well this is quite a controversy, who knew there were black people in Sweden?

True, I always imagined that the whole country is full of blue eyed blondes who wear tight T-shirts and frolick in a meadow all day. 

That’s exactly what I imagine too.

The story gets even better.  It seems that the cake was made to bring awareness to female genital mutilation in Africa.  To strike home the point of the piece, the “artist” cut a piece of the African Girl shaped cake from the cake’s genital region and screamed loudly in pain. 

That sounds weird.

Agreed.

I think we should get that image out of our mind and just think about a bunch of Swedish blondes in tight T-shirts frolicking in a meadow.

Sounds good with me.  But, we should get to the article. 

Okay.

The Spirit of the Game

The Spirit of the Game (TSG) is one of the few documents that makes up official Pokemon TCG policies.  Along with the rule book and compendium, this is your Pokemon bible.  I am not sure of the history about TSG, such as when TSG was adopted, so if someone can fill us in on the historical information I would appreciate that.   

To start us off, here is TSG in its entirety.

”

  • Fun: The Pokémon TCG is a game, and games are meant to be fun for all parties involved. When a game ceases to be fun, players find other things to do.
  • Fairness: Games cease to be fun when players break the rules to achieve victory. A player should prefer to lose a game than to win by cheating.
  • Honesty: Players of any game should strive to act honestly while playing that game. If a player inadvertently breaks a rule during a game and becomes aware of the error before his or her opponent or a judge, that player should make the opponent and the judge aware of the misplay.
  • Respect: Players, spectators, and staff should be treated with the same respect that players would expect for themselves. Distracting an opponent or a judge to gain advantage shows disrespect to everyone involved in a Pokémon TCG event.
  • Sportsmanship: Winning or losing with grace is vital to the enjoyment of a game. The desire to continue playing a game can be soured by players that berate their opponents after winning or losing a match.
  • Learning: Players should strive to help each other increase their Pokémon TCG play skills. It is not a player’s responsibility to make his or her opponent’s plays for that opponent. However, discussing strategies, offering deck tips, or constructively critiquing game play decisions after the match has been completed helps both participants to become better players.

”

That is the exact text that is found of Pokemon’s website.  Although very brief and very broad, it does give us some interesting things to talk about.  I will go through each one of TSG’s six principles and give you my opinion on them and how they relate to how the game is actually played.  I will ask you guys to please use the comment section to tell us what you feel about TSG and how you see things happening in real life.  It will be interesting to see if these 6 principles are still important to us today.

Fun

TSG starts off with a simple statement.  The TCG is a game, and it is meant to be fun.  It sounds simple enough, games and fun seem to go hand and hand.  So no real problem there.  The second part of this principle says that when the game is not fun, people do other things.  This is really weird to put in here, I don’t really care what people do if they do other things, it just seems like a weird thing to put in here.

Even though the first statement is broad and understood by everyone, it is still very important.  It outlines the fact that the game is supposed to be fun, and that is the first and foremost rule of Pokemon.  If you are making things not fun for your opponent you are going against TSG, and the game itself.

I interpret this rule to mean that if someone plays a deck that is successful but not fun, it is unsportsmanlike.  I know that it sounds weird, but it is based on one of the foremost rules of the game.  I take this to mean that it is against TSG, and the game itself, to play a deck like Durant.  I don’t know if I ever heard anyone called Durant a fun deck.  Most people state that it is not fun, but tedious.  If this is so, Durant (and any deck that people generally do not find fun) does go against TSG and players should not play it.  This is a fairly standard interpretation of a very simple rule, that makes for a very interesting debate.

Since TSG is mandatory (we all signed that we would uphold these principles when we got our POP IDs), technically you should be kicked out of Pokemon for playing decks like Durant, if this strict interpretation is believed.  It all depends on how far you take the first principle.  Even if you don’t take this strict interpretation, it is significant to know that Pokemon is about fun first and foremost,  everything else takes a backseat to fun.

Fairness

The Fairness principle again brings fun into the equation.  The first part of it states that generally, games aren’t fun when one player cheats and wins.  The second part states that a player should want to lose before they want to win by cheating.

While I don’t want Pokemon telling me what is fun and what is not, this principle seems to state things very simply.  It states that cheating breaks the first principle of fun, therefore cheating is very much frowned upon.  Cheating in itself implies that it breaks the rules, so Pokemon is hitting it home for us that cheating is a good way to break the first principle of the TCG, fun.  It also gets us thinking that we should always have the concept of Fun in our hearts when we are playing the game.

The second part of this principle does not have anything to do with fun.  It implies that we all should have the morality needed to play a game as a civilized adult.  We should not try to win at all costs, instead we should take the rules to heart and live and die by them, not to forsake them for a chance to win.

This principle is very important.  I have seen some people cheat before, and it is not good for the game.  Winning should not consume you so much that you would break the rules of a game.  You should want to win, but you should want to have fun and interact with people more.  TSG spells this out very clearly and well.

Honesty

The principle of Honesty is closely tied to Fairness and cheating.  When they spell out Honesty, it does not have to do with cheating intentionaly, but unintentionally.  It says that if you break the rules without realizing it, when you do realize it , you need to tell your opponent and a judge.

This principle is all about being………well honest to your opponent and the game as a whole.  Mistakes happen, but you got to call yourself on them when they do.   It is actually a simple rule that is second nature to almost everybody.  You shouldn’t have to really tell people this, it should be done whether it was a rule or not.

Cheating by mistake does happen a lot.  It happened to me at a Cities this season.  I had to put my hand down to help someone get something behind me during a match, and I accidentally picked up my deck by mistake.  Mistakes like these happen and there is not much that can be done.  If it doesn’t effect the outcome of the game, like in my example, warnings are just given (the Pokemon equivalent of a slap on the wrist).  If it does hurt the game a lot, then you will see game losses being handed out, but that is fairly rare.  The most common occurrence now-a-days is when people use Pokegear 3.0 for a long time, and then shout out “N!”,  this sometimes can cause the other player to think you are playing N and shuffle his hand in the deck.  This wouldn’t happen if a player clearly announces his moves during the game, and if the other player pays attention.

Respect

haha I noozled you guys again!

 

The first part of this principle just re-states the Golden Rule, be kind to others as you would have them be to you.  That it is a real simple rule we all learned in Kindergarten and we all should know it by now.  The second part has to do with not distracting the judges or your opponent to gain an advantage.  This can be thought of as cheating and be put into the same category.  I don’t know why they put it with respect, it is just another form of cheating.

Sportsmanship

The principle is funny because it is just a restatement of the first principle, but includes winning and losing maturely.  It states that winning and losing with dignity are vital to the “fun factor” in the game, and if people become sore losers people will leave the game.

I’m sure we can all think of examples of people breaking this principle.  One profanity laced rant in Toledo comes to my mind.  It is probably the hardest one to uphold for a lot of people, but it is still a basic principle that you should have learned when you were 4.

We all should be adults here and be able to lose without sulking and win without taunting.  Its just a simple principle that everyone should follow, it is not that hard.

Learning

This final principle is one of the strangest in this list.  It states that it is your responsibility to help teach other players the game, and help them get better.  It also clearly states that you should go out of your way to help other people, and do everything short of telling your opponent exactly what to do while playing.

I find this principle to be really strange because during a tennis match, you never see Roger Federer telling John Isner that he should work on his backhand.  There is no parallel in sports to this principle, which is very strange.

While I do think that we should become a community and help each other learn the game, I do think that this principle goes a little too far by expecting everybody to help everybody else with their decks.  It isn’t practical or smart for that to happen.  I do try to follow this principle when I play a newcomer to the game, but I think it is a little arrogant to always be telling someone else what to do.  Up to a certain point people need to learn from their own mistakes and figure it out on their own.  It is not my responsibility to help each and every player to get to my skill level.  Make no mistake, I’m not being selfish here, just stating that it is not reasonable for Pokemon to expect us to be that dedicated to a principle.  So, they went just a little overboard in this principle.

Conclusion

I was really surprised when I started analyzing TSG.  I did not expect TSG to contain the things that it did.  It sets up a Pokemon world that is much more informal and fun based than the game actually is.  I think that the real world is more cut throat than TSG outlines. Should we all obey these rules more than we currently do?  I don’t know if we should say that.  Competitive play should be more aggressive than league play, and we need a slightly different attitude for it.  I would say while most Pokemon players do not follow TSG rules exactly, the game is not full of spoiled brats.  Most Pokemon players are nice people that don’t whine and cry when things don’t go there way.  There is no doubt that there are some of these players out there, but you can’t expect everybody to be nice.  It seems like most players are gracious about how they play the game, and that’s really what TSG is all about.  There are some players who do not follow TSG out there, but its not like making TSG more strict will change that.

So what do you guys think after you looked at TSG more closely?  Do you feel that we should change these principles at all?  Do other games have a similar set of principles?  I will be anxious to read your comments in the comment box.

Off the top of my head, I can’t really think of any principle that should be added.  Most things that I can think of are specific rules that need to be enforced on a local level.  TSG seems to be fairly balanced.

Okay, Pedro I am done.  Do you want to close things out for us?

Sure, today we have sad news from the world of entertainment.  Beloved TV host Dick Clark has passed away.  Clark hosted American Bandstand, which was a music show that inspired other shows like “Soul Train” and the UK’s “Top of the Pops.”  Producers of current music shows like American Ido and X-Factor all state that there would be none of those shows without American Bandstand and Dick Clark. 

Which is one bad thing about Dick Clark.

Yes, it seems weird like those producers would try to sully Clark’s name after he did all that.   

You know Pedro, a lot of celebrities and musicians preformed on American Bandstand.  Including people like: “The Polish Prince” Bobby Vinton, Johnny Cash, Run DMC, Richard Simmons, and Cher.

Richard Simmons and Cher are very different people of course.  One is an elaborate diva who is known for wearing dresses and thick makeup…………….and the other is Cher. 

Good one.  Good night everybody.

Regional Championships Tourney Report

TAndrewTourney: Midwest Regionals 2012 in Madison, WI

TAndrewT 7 Comments

Before my Spring Regionals report, a confession: I wasn’t originally planning to go to Regionals. One of the things I like most about Pokémon TCG is its unpredictability—that with so many cards in format, you never know what combinations you’ll see in a tournament. I really enjoyed the City Championships (HS-NVI) format, where there were a lot of viable decks, and the metagame continued to evolve over the course of the winter. I think that some competitive players felt exactly the opposite about that time—that a Cities format with so many decks became a game of rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock, where it was difficult or impossible to practice a strategy that would win the most games. But the metagame had narrowed a lot by the State Championship series, partly because of the release of Mewtwo EX, and partly because of the steadily increasing advantage that Basic Pokémon now have. Going into Regionals, it seemed like almost everyone was either playing Zekrom/Mewtwo/Eels or Celebi/Mewtwo/Tornadus. And I didn’t like that one bit. So I didn’t play in any of the States events (though I did serve as a judge at MN States). And I resolved to stay in the Twin Cities last weekend, and catch a few of the Regionals matches on TheTopCut’s TwitchTV streams, instead of making the drive to Wisconsin.

But just two weeks out, I heard that the Hilton hotel adjacent to the Madison Convention Center venue had dropped the price of rooms for the weekend to $55/night—and, well, I guess my resolve was weaker than I thought! My son Paul and I did some furious, last-minute Ebaying to pick up the Mewtwos we needed to make one Zek/Eels and one CMT deck. Paul picked CMT, which meant that I was playing Zek/Eels, having never played the deck before. My goal for the weekend, as a result, was just to not be humiliated too badly.

Here’s the list I ran:

2  Tynamo NVI-38 3  Pokémon Collector 9  Lightning
2  Tynamo NVI-39 4  Professor Juniper 4  Double Colorless
3  Eelektrik 3  N
3  Mewtwo EX 3  Professor Oak’s New Theory
2  Zekrom BW 4  Junk Arm
1  Thundurus 3  Pokémon Catcher
1  Tornadus 2  Dual Ball
1  Tyrogue 2  Level Ball
 2  Switch
 2  Pokégear 3.0
2  PlusPower
1  Eviolite
1  Super Rod
15  Pokémon 32  Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums 13  Energy

This list was just slightly modified from one that I had made and proxied for the deck some two months earlier, so my apologies if it looks behind the times.

The event venue was awesome—a giant room that could easily fit all 320 players that had shown up for the day, and lots of extra space for families and for relaxing between rounds. I said hi to all of the MN locals that I knew, but soon enough, pairings were posted and we were off!

Round 1: Philip (Jumpluff/Accelgor/Sunflora)

As we were finding our seats, the judges passed out the promo card for the tournament, a Shelmet that most tournament-goers already have umpteen copies of by now. Philip smiled, and told me he might very well use it in his deck. I thought he was joking, but when he flipped over his face-down Pokémon to start the game, there was Shelmet, on his bench! I had started lone Mewtwo EX, and he started Hoppip Active. He played a Sunkern to the bench on his opening turn, but it really didn’t matter; I had a DCE in hand turn 1, and I just started loading up Mewtwo and taking things out. Phil mentioned it was his first TCG tournament, and was relieved to learn that unlike the video game tourney, his first loss didn’t knock him out for the whole day. I hope you had a good time Philip!
1-0

Round 2: Curtis Dietrich (Zek/Eels)

I see Curtis almost every week at Source Comics’ league in Saint Paul, so it was too bad that I had to play him at Regionals. Curtis had finished third at MN States, so I knew I was in for a challenging game. We both set up fairly slowly, but once we both started hitting supporters, I misplayed by dropping a Mewtwo on the bench instead of Junipering it, and then watched as Curtis Catcher-KO’d it to go up 5-2. At that point, I had just one chance to win this game—N Curtis down to 2 cards, get a Junk Arm and an energy from my draw, revenge KO his Mewtwo and hope that he drew garbage over the next two turns. All of those things happened, and I managed to steal this game from Curtis on sheer luck.
2-0

Round 3: Colin Peterik (QuadBulls)

Colin is well known in the TCG community as a strong player, so I knew I was in trouble even before the match started. Colin mulliganed a couple of times, and I saw plenty of fighting energy in those mulliganed hands, and that worried me even more. So when Colin flipped over his active Terrakion, I could only guess he was playing QuadBulls, which wasn’t good for me. Colin won the coin flip, but his start was pretty weak, and after he N’d us first turn, he still had a weak hand. Unfortunately, I also got garbage off of the N, and was limited to just 2 Tynamos and a Tyrogue for the first couple of turns. I gamely tried to stall with the baby, and then with Tynamo’s Thunderwave, but I missed the flips.But I doubt it mattered anyway. Colin had all four Terrakions up by turn 4 or so, taking a prize or two every turn, and I was going to have a tough time against Terrakion hitting me for weakness. Colin went on to place 7th in the event, so I don’t feel too bad, but Colin had a weak start, and it was too bad that I couldn’t capitalize on it.
2-1

Round 4: Kevin Goveia (Durant)

There were actually a surprising number of Durants at the tournament, which was great for me—Zek/Eels has a strong Durant matchup. Even better, Kevin started with Rotom, and didn’t hit a Collector the entire game, which limited his Devour attacks to three cards or less while I KO’d one of his guys every turn. But Kevin was clearly having fun, even though it seemed like he’d rather be playing Magic; he had MTG names for everything in the game. (“And Revive lets me search my Graveyard for a Durant.” Search your what?)
3-1

Round 5: Calvin Chang (Zek/Eels)

Calvin is an undergrad at the University of Minnesota, where I’m a professor, and so I get to see Calvin both at Pokémon events and occasionally on campus. A couple of weeks ago, Calvin e-mailed me to say that he was going to register for the Organic Chemistry II class that I teach over the summer, and that he was excited to take it. So before we play, we both have a laugh about what happens if I lose our upcoming matchup. Calvin and I ended up on very different strategic paths in this game: I successfully took out all of Calvin’s Eels, but he gradually loaded up his attackers, took out my Zekroms and Thundurus, and kept a Shaymin in his hand to move energies where he needed them and maintain a lead. I think I still could have won if I had been able to play N near the end, but all my Eel catchering had exhausted my Junk Arms, so I couldn’t Pokégear for it, and I didn’t manage to draw into one (even though I hadn’t played one all game). Great match—though, I think I *will* have the last laugh.
3-2

Round 6: Kevin Forbes (CMT)

Kevin is a Pokédad from Indianapolis who I know from the Pokégym boards, and it was great to meet him in person! Interestingly, not only were he and I 3-2 at this point, but so were my son Paul and his son Justin, and our sons got paired up this round too. I started just terribly, with no supporters for turns and turns, while he set up just fine and started taking prizes. I tried to stall with Tyrogue and Thunderwave again, against a Catchered-up Regigigas, but he had the cards he needed to escape all that, and took this match very quickly. On the plus side, Paul won against Justin, putting Paul at 4-2 for the day. But Paul’s resistance wasn’t high enough to secure one of the two available top cut slots for 4-2 players, and so Paul finished his day in 11th place out of 57 Juniors.
3-3

Round 7: Alejandro Luna (Durant)

Like my Round 4 opponent, Alejandro started Rotom, and had terrible luck getting things going. I actually won this game after just 3 KO’s by benching him, which is surprising given all the tools that Durant has for recovering KO’d Durants. Alejandro was a great-spirited opponent, and I hope I didn’t irritate him by spending most of our game trying to convince him to transfer from Northern Illinois U. to Univ. Illinois. (If you’re reading this Hondo, with a 4.0 GPA, you gotta do it.)
4-3

Round 8: Chad Spinks (Zek/Eels)

Chad and I were both super-relaxed for this match—we were exhausted, and we knew we had no real chance to top cut. This is the first game in which I played all four Junipers in my deck, which actually meant that when I played the last one for the last 7 cards in my deck, I knew exactly what I was about to draw. And that it was exactly what I needed to Catcher up the Mewtwo on his bench for my last two prizes. I talked Chad’s ear off this game, and at the end he actually thanked me for it—I guess his previous opponents had been really quiet. Not gonna get that from me!
5-3

So I finish 44th out of 201 Masters for the day. Way better than I expected! A few final observations:

  • I had originally planned to play Smeargle in the deck, but took it out for an additional Pokégear. I think that was a mistake. The Pokégear helped, but Smeargle would have gotten me out of a couple of rough starts, even though I had no Skyarrow Bridge to retreat him for free. I had cut him because I felt he was an easy prize once he hits the board, but let’s face it—with 30 HP Tynamos everywhere, a ZekEels’ opponent doesn’t have trouble finding easy prizes. With the next set there will be even more cards that we’ll be squeezing into our already crowded decks, and I think Smeargle can help with that by reducing the total number of supporters we will need to play.
  • All of my Zek/Eel opponents played Shaymin, which they used to help KO Mewtwos that I cavalierly placed on the bench. (“But he has no energy on him—he must be safe!”) Maybe I should have played Shaymin in my deck. Or just been more careful with Mewtwo.

In any case, it was great to see all of the MN area players in Wisconsin, and to meeting new friends from all over the Midwest. I’m looking forward to seeing many of you at upcoming Pre-Releases and Battle Roads!

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200 Articles for Pikkdogs: Part Two

Pikkdogs 20 Comments

Hey everybody, we are back for the second part of my 200 article celebration.  I decided to break these interviews up

into two articles so they will be easier to read.  Here is the interview with Ed.  I recently got a chance to sit down with him for a half an hour or so and we chatted about the history of the site, his experience with the game, and my feud with Soren Kierkegaard.  If you didn’t get the first part of the article, you can view it here.  Here is nearly our entire conversation.  One note before we get started, Ed did swear once in the interview, so to be nice I replaced it with the word “Jigglypuff.” 

Interview with an Ed

 

Pikkdogs: Thanks for being a part of my 200th article.  I know you are busy with the 5 girls running around.

Ed: The wife doesn’t run around as much lately.

P:     woops I mean 4.  Lol.   You almost have enough for a basketball team now.  Was that your plan all along?

E: I keep hearing the basketball comment.  Can’t we make it a hockey team?   Maybe without goalies.

P: you Minnesota people.  B-ball is where it’s at.

E: Anyway, I dunno.  The Wife came from a family of 4 kids.  I was an only child.  1 kid was plenty for me. 2 seemed doable.  3 is crazy.  3-4 seems negligible.

P: My parents had 7 kids.  You could give them a run for their money.

E: I wouldn’t mind having the money, but I’m not into running.   Is this part of the interview?  :) Read More

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Two Hundred Articles for Pikkdogs! Part One

Pikkdogs 5 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with a bonus article for you guys.

Well, it has happened, I have reached the 200 article mark!  I am actually at around 210 if you count some of the Pedro articles, but to be simple, we shall say I just reached 200 articles!  Speaking of Pedro, we might as well bring him into this mix.  Hey Pedro!

Hey Pikkdogs.  Today is a sad day.  You have officially tortured the nice people of the Pokemon TCG 200 times.  Odds are that they would have picked up their pitchforks and revolted by now.  They must be into pain or something. 

Well, then I guess we have something in common.

Indeed. 

200 articles is a  really cool and prestigious mark.  There are few other people that can say that they have 200 articles or videos related to the TCG!  Although I still think I am probably the worst writer that Pokemon has ever seen, it is still nice to get to 200 articles.

I tried to think long and hard-

–haha, long and hard.

Thanks Pedro.  Yes, I tried to think long and hard about how to celebrate this historic mark.  I though about doing another contest, but those never bring out too many people.  I also thought about sponsoring a concert at Nationals, but the money just wasn’t there for this year.  So I guess we will have to make do with another boring article.

Well, they suffered through 200 boring articles, one more couldn’t hurt.

I guess.  This article series features two interviews.  The first article will include my Barbara Walter interview and some fun facts about the site.  The second article will include a real interview that I had with OnehitKO founder Ed.

For an anniversary article I usually try to get a preview of an interview I had with a magazine, but this time I have an advanced script of an interview that I recently did with Barbara Walters.  In fact, she was nice enough to pose for a picture with me. So here now we have an excerpt from that interview.

Barbara Walters: First of all, welcome and congrats on 200 articles!

Pikkdogs: Thanks Barbara, its an honor to be here.

BW:  How does one stay for so long on one sight without much thanks or any pay?

P:  I have no life.

BW: That explains it.  Pokeman Dan has 67 episodes of Pokeclass along with more articles. Jwittz had 54 Episodes of Profit along with a bunch of other videos and articles.  I don’t have the actual numbers, but I would assume that Pokemon Dan has just under 200 articles/video and that Jwittz has around 200.  What makes you tick and to write more than almost anyone has before?

P: I love writing and I love doing what other people don’t.  I don’t want to be known as just a guy who wrote 200 articles.  I want to be someone who wrote 200 articles that are different from any other article out there.  Even if that means they are complete crap.  Sometimes things can be so bad that they are good.

BW:  You mention that your articles are different.  They feature comedy and news as much as Pokemon, what made you want to do something different like that?

P: Well, I started writing like a lot of other people did.  I started by writing just whenever I had an idea, so I would write just a couple a month.  Than, a lot of writers on onehitko.com started dropping out, and I knew that if I didn’t write at least 1 article a week, the site would die.  Eventually 1 article a week turned into 3, and all of a sudden I got to 100 articles fast.  As I started to write a lot of articles, I noticed that I sucked.  I wasn’t a great writer and that other writers knew more about the game than I did.  So I just thought that  wouldn’t try to play a game I couldn’t win.  I would still write, but I would write my own way.  I would incorporate comedy that would be commonplace in a late night talk show, and put it into a Pokemon article.  Ed gave me creative control to do what I want, so I took it and tried to make it as bazaar as possible.  Anything to stand out and be different.  I still love sharing my love of the game, but Im gonna share it the way I want to and to the audience that I want to.

BW:  You have been called out before for your disdain towards Juniors and Seniors.  How can you bring something so adult to a game for children?

P:  We are not a site for children, we are a PG 13 site.  Although historically this is a game for kids, most of the players now are adults.  So we cater to the adults.  I have had people yell at me for saying that Juniors and Seniors are nothing but dragging down the game, but that’s what I feel, and that’s what Im gonna stand for.

BW: Your articles are known for kind of being more towards the ADD side, having popular news and historical items as well as Pokemon news, how do you account for that.

P:  Well, its all about emulating a late night talk show, that’s what they do, and so I decided to bring it in an article form.  Sure it gets weird when I talk more about English literature, philosophers, and Stacey Keibler but that’s a good thing I think.  If you don’t love English Literature and pretty looking girls, well I don’t want you to read the website.  We aren’t just talking about Pokemon we gotta celebrate all aspects of life.

BW:  And why is celebrating life and comedy so important to you, they do seem to be foreign concepts to Pokemon.

P: My philosophy is to always laugh, if you don’t laugh you will probably cry.  Life is full of bad things and heartbreak, comedy let’s us escape from all of the problems that the world gives us.  I live in Detroit, and here everyday I can see the bad things that can happen to people.  Comedy is a great escape from all of that.

BW: You also are known to make fun of your website and call it “crap”.  Why do you take such harsh tones?

P:  Because I honestly believe it is crap, and that’s how I like it.  Six Prizes is a great site, and it is like the eldest child in the Pokemon family.  It went to Harvard and came back with a doctorate, and our parents speak highly of it.  Onehitko on the other hand is like the drunken half-brother of the family.  Nobody really takes us seriously or gives us any credibility, and we respond by making a lot of fart jokes and talk about boobies a lot.  We aren’t looked at as a great site, so I think we should just run with it and act like the black sheep of the Pokemon family.

BW: You mentioned that you live in Detroit.  Do you like Detroit?

P:  Sure, I love Michigan.  And from Detroit, Michigan is only like 2 hours away by car.

BW: Has a cult of celebrity followed you in the Pokemon circles like it has to other writers like J-Wittz. 

P:  No, JWittz looks and acts a lot more rock star-y than I do.  Plus, people don’t see my face too often, so its hard to bring a face to a name.  There were a couple tournaments where people kept coming up to me and telling me that they loved the site, but for the most part I am still the same fat guy that sits in the corner that I always have been.  Aside from all the Pokemon groupies of course.

BW:  In your Pokemon career, what moment would you count as the most fun for you?

P:  That’s a tough one.  I think I had the most fun moment at a tournament was at Michigan States 2009.  I barely made it into Top Cut as the 16th seed, and had to play my buddy Jonah who was undefeated at the time.  I was able to sweep the best of three series and knock out the #1 seed in the first round.  It was one of the best feelings that I have had in a while, to know that nobody else could beat him, yet I did in straight games as a 16 seed.  The moment of adjulation was shortlived  however, as I have my top 8 game won, and then I make a horrible misplay for no reason and lose the game.  But, I still can say that I beat the #1 seed, and he would have had a really good chance to win out.

BW: Well, you do have 200 articles and 300 pounds under your belt, do you think that you will be riding off into the sunset any time soon.

P:  Well, the sunset plan was in place after 200 articles, but things have happened so that I can stay on for some more articles.  It seems that I will be writing for a little longer anyway, not sure for how long.  Probably until I say something racist and everybody forces me to resign.

 Fun Facts

We have one more interview to get to in this article series, a real one, with Ed that will be in the next post.  But, before we end this article and start another one, let me tell you some fun facts about this site.

  • The original URL of this site was “www.teamomar.info”
  • The site was originally intended as a way to communicate between about a dozen people among one Pokemon team.
  • Pikkdogs and Ed actually met through www.sixprizes.com, kind of.
  • The first decklist that was posted on the site featured Blaziken FB.
  • The first article on the website featured artwork from Ed’s first daughter.
  • The first episode of The Noozles premiered 2 years before Pikkdogs was born.
  • Onehitko has had a total of 28 authors, most of which who have written 3 articles or less.
  • Ed will soon hit his 100 article mark, but the person who wrote the 3rd most articles for this site is our buddy PokemanDan.
  • Pikkdogs does not care for the thoughts of Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard.

That is all for Part One.  Part Two is published now, so make sure and read the interview I had with Ed, it is cool.  You can get the link here.  Just don’t follow this link, that is to a chicken soup recipe.

So Long and Thanks for all the Fish!

 

Card Discussion

Review of Dark EXplorers and the cards that could be in it.

coolestman22 8 Comments

Introduction

I guess I’ll do the Pikkdogs intro by saying “A big hello to all you OHKOers out there”. It’s me, coolestman22, with a review of the cards that might be in Dark Explorers that are receiving some sort of hype, or I just personally feel that are cool cards. Not all of these will be in meta decks, but not all cool cards from other sets are either. I’ll explain these cards so everyone knows what they do, but most of these cards you should know about by now. If you have any questions, please tell me in the comment section, I’m open to any feedback.

Kyogre-EX

Kyogre-EX is a water-type basic from Hail Blizzard that never got released in Next Destinies, but it wasn’t that good anyway so it wasn’t too big a deal. It will get a shot at play now, so let’s see what it does.

Kyogre-EX is a water-type with 170 HP, which is good but mediocre for an EX, an awful x2 weakness to lightning, no resistance, and a hefty but Heavy Ball searchable four retreat cost, and of course the EX rule. For WC it does 30 and you have the option of switching it with one of your benched Pokemon. This is OK, but it’s not something you should be basing a deck around.

The other attack is Dual Splash, which for WWC does 50 to 2 of your opponent’s benched Pokemon. This doesn’t sound good at first, but when you think about it it’s actually a decent attack, because you can kill 2 Tynamos with it early game, if it’s set up early enough. This means to set up 2 Eelektriks you either have to go first and evolve them all or bench four Tynamo and have 2 killed, then get your 2 Eelektriks out.

The question is “is it worth it to set up a T2 Kyogre with whatever just to have it killed by a Zekrom later?
Read More

Uncategorized

Teach Me How to Rogue

Pikkdogs 3 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there, this is Pikkdogs here.  Today I want to talk to you guys about how I build rogue decks and rogue techs/strategies/ideas.  There are some other articles out there about how to build a rogue deck that aren’t that bad, but I thought I might as well try my hand at it since I wrote just about every other type of article-

except a winning tournament report.

Of course, who would want to write one of those.  Only people who like to brag write those.  And why are you talking?  I haven’t introduced you yet.

Well, I don’t think it will help.  When it comes down to understanding me, there are two groups of people.  One group is confused, but they did see me a couple times before.  And the other group is really confused, and an intro wouldn’t really help. 

But, I shall do it anyway.  Please welcome my extra-dimensionary sidekick Pedro.

Alright. 

The topic today is rogue decks, something I actually know a little about.

That’s the problem, you know too little about everything.

I know.  Hey are you here to give us a piece of news to start the article, or are ya here to go all Statler and Waldorf on me?

Both, but I will start us off with news.  The Associated Press reported that last weekend,  a band of thieves stole 2 tons of coffee worth about $72,000 in Austria. 

That must have been one big cup.

Indeed.

I wonder if committing this crime is “grounds” for punishment.

That pun may just be the worst joke ever.  How would you catch a thief that stole 2 tons of coffee Pikkdogs?

Keep an eye on the public urinals, and arrest the guy that stands there for 3 days straight.

I would feel sorry for the bladder of the guy who drank that much coffee.

I don’t, I have a principle where I never feel sorry for bladders.

That’s nice, just start the article all ready.

What is Rogue?

The ability to go rogue is one of the best things about Pokemon.  The ability to use your brain and t0 think up an idea or strategy that nobody else has, and use it to win is very gratifying.  It makes you feel proud and really smart, and if you are a guy like me, you need to savor those few moments.

Most people know what “rogue” means.  If not, picture all of the decks that are commonly used, the cards that are commonly included in decks, and the orthodox strategies that are used.  Now think of the opposite of all of those things, and that is what rogue is.  Rogue is going outside of the box and using your own creativity to come up with an idea.

When we normally think of the word “rogue”, we think about uncommon decks.

Actually, when I think about “Rogue” I think about Anna Paquin in a skin tight leather body suit.

True, one of the only good things about the X-Men movies.  Iceman as a kid, are you kidding me? Anyway, as I was saying.  The word rogue is thought to mean uncommon decks that people play.  But, it can have a broader definition that may encompass things like unorthodox strategies.

There is a big fallacy out there that says that the best strategies have already been thought of, and you have to sell your soul to Mewtwo EX in order to do well at Pokemon.  But, Rogue decks have always been around to show the middle finger at the conventional way of doing things.  A real rogue player is someone who is real creative and uses that creativity to find new ways at beating a stale format.

I categorize rogue decks into two types.  The first type of deck I will call a “reactionary rogue” deck.  This deck type includes all decks that seek to exploit a weakness in the current format.  For example, if you find that a lot of people are playing fire Pokemon, you can build a so-so deck that includes water Pokemon and do really well with it.  Your fire deck may not stack up to well when it meets a random good deck like a Psychic deck, but because the format is water-weak, your water deck could do well.  Another example is to build a mill deck if you find that a lot of the meta decks are using a lot of cards that thins their decks out.  Your mill deck will usually not be good enough to mill a normal deck, but if you come across these meta decks that are thinning their deck out at high rates, than this deck has a good chance.  So, this type of deck is not necessarily great by itself, but in the format it can win because of the match-ups it has.

The second type of rogue deck that I will talk about is a “conventional rogue” deck.  This type of rogue does not need any specific match-ups to do well, it has a strategy and it sticks with it.  For example, if you would use Palpitoad and Wigglytuff together in a deck to use the “Round” attack, that would be a conventional rogue.  It isn’t made because it does well against a specific deck, it is made because you think you can win while using “Round.”  Conventional decks are solid decks by themselves and are not in response to any other good deck in the format.

My History with RoguesScizor SF

Before we get in to talking about how to make a rogue deck, I would like to talk about the rogue decks and ideas that I have made.  I don’t bring this up because I want to talk about how great and good looking I am, I just want to let you in to my thought processes, so you can see how I think of rogue ideas.  All this might make some sense when I get deeper into the article, but now seems like a good time.  Here are the three rogue ideas that I have thought of and used in my playing days.

  1. Speed Engine in Scizor/Cherrrim.  I pride myself on being a no talent bum who has no effect on the outside world what so ever, but this case did make me think I effected the game in a very slight way.  Back when the format was Diamond and Pearl on, there was this cheap deck called Scizor/Cherrim.  Today, we would think of it kind of like Durant.  It was easy to make, easy to play, and good for beginners; except it did not have the negative connotation that Durant currently has.  Since this was the time that I was just starting back out, I did make the cheap Scizor/Cherrim deck.  I actually did well with it early, I got 2nd in my first tournament ever, but later I thought it was just too slow.  Then I saw that someone had created a deck that used Unown R, Pokemon Rescue, and Night Maintenance for a draw engine.  I decided to steal his idea and put it into the Scizor/Cherrim deck.  I wrote an article on my changes to the deck, and a meta deck was never the same again.  Whenever it was played after that, it usually contained the Unown R speed engine that I popularized.  No I didn’t invent the idea, but I put it into a place where it had never gone before, and that is no doubt a rogue strategy.  The speed engine worked really well and although the deck never really won anything, it was a more consistent deck because of the engine.  So, even meta decks can be played rogue, you just have to keep thinking.
  2. Who Let the Dogs Out?  This is a rogue deck that I came up with myself during Spring Battle Roads 2011.  This was when the format was in chaos because of Sabledonk, and people were trying to think of  a way to stop the trainers that  a Sabledonk player can now abuse on the first turn.  I racked my brain trying to think about how this deck could be stopped.  I just couldn’t think of any rational idea that could stop or keep up with Sabledonk without going meta.  So, I thought outside the box. I knew that I needed Spritomb Ar, and that I had to start with him.  The answer finally came to me while I was running.  I could put Legend pieces in the deck and be able to attack with them without having to risk a non-Spiritomb start.  So, I used the Legendary Dog Pokemon from the Unleashed set since they have similar energy requirements.  The deck did stop Sabledonk in its tracks, but it needed some help against SPs, Gyarados, and Gengar.  So, I wrote an article about it but I never tried it myself.  But, someone else did try the deck, and they won a Battle Roads with it!  Now I know that Who Let the Dogs Out is a bad deck, and it got very lucky to win, but it did somehow win.  So it does prove that if you think outside of the box, you can come up with a a totally strange deck that can win.   
  3. Scizor’s Late Game Durant.  This is the least successful of my three big rogue ideas, but it does show a good thinking process.  This deck is a reactionary deck to the current format, with a twist in it.  It is a tool box deck that is led by Scizor Prime, but it ends the game with 4 Durants milling your opponents deck.  I did not come up with the idea in fact, nobody actually did.  Airhawk wrote an article on Sixprizes about a deck that seemed like it used the same startegy, but it actually seemed to be more like a bad conventional Durant rogue.  I decided to actually use the late game Durant strategy, I just had to think about what cards I should use it with.  I instantly thought about Scizor because people get scared about not using Special Energies, and they tend to lose track of anything else.  Than I put in the most popular Pokemon of the day, Terrakion NV, to deal with lightning types.  And finally, I added the other fire Victini to go against Durant.  This was a direction reactionary deck to a format that thins out decks, uses fighting weak Pokemon, and uses a ton of Special Energy.  I only took it to one tournament, Michigan States, but I did get a winning record with it.  Although I wasn’t in Top Cut contention late, I was at a top table in the middle of the day, and did have a good chance at cutting until the last round or two.  It didn’t have a great day, but it did get a winning record in a very tough area.  This flimsy rogue deck was able to do a lot better than other decks that had multiple copies of the $60 Mewtwo EX card.  So, it may not have won, but it still proved that it belonged.

How to Rogue.

Okay, that was a long introduction, now we can finally talk about how to rogue.

The first step to construct a rogue deck from scratch is to start a basic plan of what you want to do.  If you want to do a “reactionary” deck or a more “conventional” deck.  Try to think about what strategy you are trying to do, and try to think if you know of any card that could help you achieve the strategy.  At this stage it is possible that you may have thought up a rogue deck all by yourself, but more likely you would be just as lost as ever.  So let’s go to step 2. 

Step 2 is to do research.  This usually involves sometime on the carpet with a box of cards and a couple binders.  Or, it could involve sometime online on sites like www.pokegym.net/tower .  Get a good look at every card that is in the format.  When looking it is important to look at each card without prejudice.  Just because the other Donphan from HGSS has never ever been used before, doesn’t necessarily mean that it can’t be used in the future.  Try to look at each card with a blank slate in your mind, don’t come in with any preconceptions.  Doing so could kill a good Rogue Deck before it is even made.  There are a lot of great ideas out there that haven’t been thought of yet, you just have to have an open mind and think about it.  Once you take in each card in the format, you can go on to step three.

Step three is to relax.  Do something that will clear your mind and will let you really concentrate on the rogue deck that you are thinking about.  I find that I come up with almost all of my rogue ideas while I am running.  I came up with the idea for “Who Let the Dog’s Out” on a jog.

you wrote the Baha Men song while jogging?

Sure.  Anyway, do whatever relaxes you and helps you think.  Maybe you are a little hippy dippy guy from California and you like to do the Yoga, that might work.  Or maybe you are in to the meditation, that should clear your head.  Whatever you like to do, swim, hunt, or hike, I feel like that will give you time to really connect with the cards that you just looked at.  Doing this seems to make sense of whatever format you are in, and whatever cards you just looked at.  There are around 800  or so cards in the format right now, so it can be hard to make sense of them all.  Doing something relaxing both takes your mind off of it for a little, and then frees your consciousness open to really strategize about your rogue deck.  This is where your rogue idea should just pop into your head, and you can start building off of it from here.

The next step after you took a jog, or a swim, or immitated a down-ward facing dog is to get input on your idea.  To do this you may want to go back on your computer and search your idea on Google.  You may find that someone has already thought of this deck, and you can take something from their ideas, or you may have found a different idea with similar cards.  Whatever input that those searches give you will be nothing but good for your deck.  After you took whatever you could from the internet, you can now call on some of your best Pokemon friends and tell them about the idea.  They will probably have some kind of ideas about your rogue deck, and might even add to it.  One note here, if your friends shoot you down, don’t be discouraged.  I always tell my rogue ideas to Ed, and he shot down both Who Let the Dogs Out and Scizor’s LGD, but I didn’t let that stop me.  Your friends should give you honest advice, and usually honest advice for a rogue deck will usually be pretty harsh.  But, if you still have confidence in your idea even after your friends have shot it down, you can move on to the next step.

The next step is to grab a pen and paper, lay down somewhere, turn on a cool tv show, and plan out a decklist.  You probably had suggestions from your friends and from the internet about what to run, so now you can implement them here.  One problem that I always have with a decklist is that I always want to run decks with 65 cards, I just can’t fit all the cards I want in the deck.  My trick is that I usually run 1 or 2 copies of different techs instead of 4, and if I don’t like it, I can later go back in and take out what didn’t work and add what did.

Your final step to making a rogue deck is to actually play test it.  Either grab a friend, or grab two decks and see if your deck does what it is supposed to do.  If it doesn’t work you can either draw up the decklist in a different way, or you may decide to scrap the idea.  But, make sure you give the initial deck a good testing against 4-5 different decks.  Hopefully it will accomplish the task that you set out to do.  If you still like the idea, go back a couple steps and share your results and decklist with your friends again.  Don’t tell everybody of course, just some Poke-Friends that you can trust.  They will give you some more feedback and you can begin to polish your decklist.

You should be able to take it from there.  I have said all I can think of about Rogue decks, so let’s have Pedro bring us a news article to end things here,

 

Okay.  Today’s new comes from the world of Food.  Pizza Hut is offering a new hotdog stuffed crust pizza in select U.K.  locations.  This will be a normal pizza, but with a long hot dog baked into the crust. 

Really?  That sounds amazing.  You know I once stuffed a pizza with a wiener.

Is that code?

Of course.

Anyway, Pizza Hut is also serving the pizza with “mustard drizzle.”

“Mustard Drizzle” , that’s the name I used to dance under.

I thought you danced under the name “Crusty Weiner.”

Maybe, but I think we better stop now or we could get censored again.  Good night everybody

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