One Hit KO

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with a Battle Roads preview for you.  Now I do know that we already did a BR preview here on this site, and that the article was much better than this one will be, but I will come at it from a different angle.  Before we get this started I must apologize for not posting an article in a while, the bossman has been riding me hard and taking time away from writing.  Hopefully, in 2 weeks things should get more quiet.  So let’s go on and get this thing started by saying “hi” to Pedro.  Hey Pedro.

Hey Pikkdogs. 

Do you have a news story for us to get things started.

Sure.  Everybody has been cockahoop since last week when the new Time Magazine came out.  This magazine gave us a new figure to talk about, the breast feeding man.    Jamie Lynn Grumet is known as the Breast Feeding Mom.  She was the one that was on the controversial Time Magazine cover a week or so ago.  The article was supposed to be about a parenting style called Attachment Parenting that creates a bond between mother and child by spending more time with the child and becoming more intimate.  But, this was not to be so.  The discussion was more on the cover photo.  What did you think of the cover photo. 

It made me thirsty.

Understandable. 

In all seriousness, that was quite the interesting technique they have for breastfeeding.  Usually the kid is reclining back,  here he is using a step ladder.  Which is one way to do it I guess.

Yeah, that doesn’t seem efficient.  But, I think it is safe to say that of all the three moms that have been in the news lately, Breast Feeding Mom is by far the hottest. 

By far Pedro, by far.  She is very attractive.  I’m curious Pedro, in your dimension do they use attachment parenting and nursing until your 5 years old?

No, babies don’t drink milk in my universe, they drink Whiskey. 

At least that gives them a reason for the irrational behavior of babies.

It does.  What do you think of the extended breast feeding Pikkdogs?  You are a man that is famous for liking boobs.

Well, most men are, but I do like boobs.  I guess I don’t really see anything wrong with breastfeeding until they can go to school.  It probably makes snack time at soccer practice awkward, but I don’t think there are any health risks besides sore nipples.

Toughens your nipples doesn’t it?

Nice Silence of the Lambs quote.  Anyway, nothing wrong with it, just seems a little awkward.  But I think I am happy for the kid.  If I could still be breast feeding I probably would.

At least your honest about being creepy.

Toughens your nipples doesn’t it?

On the Road to the Indy City

As Nationals is getting closer and closer, people have been coming up to me and saying, “Pikkdogs, put on your pants!”  Then after I put on my pants they say, “how are you preparing for Nationals?”  I tell them that the best way to prepare for Nats is to begin in Spring Battle Roads.

The Spring Battle Roads never has the competitiveness that the Fall version has.  Spring BRs are all about getting ready for Nationals.  They are a good dry run.  Even though the layout of BRs are different from Nationals, you still can benefit from BRs by getting adjusted to the format.  There will be no big changes to the format until after Nats, so BRs are going to give you a good look at the Nationals format.

Nationals is such a great event that it is worth giving all the preparation that you can.  Remember, it was won last year by an unknown-

those weird letter things

No not “Unowns”, an unknown player.  Nationals is up for grabs for every player, if you put enough work into it, you can win Nationals.  But, the process begins here and now in Spring Battle Roads, so let’s see what things are like.

The Format

Like I said, a big article on all of these decks was already written on this site, so I will not talk about it too much.    Here is just my quick take on what to watch out for during Spring Battle Roads.

Tier 1

Zekrom– Zekrom decks will be the most played decks now that Durant lost a little steam.  They can snipe and hit hard and are great at recovery.  The weaknesses to Zekrom are the setup and the fighting weakness.  If you can kill all of their Tyanmos before they can evolve, their hands will be tied.  Look to play a fast deck like CMT to take advantage of this.  The second weakness has to do with playing fighitng types.  Although some players might play Tornadus EX to cover their weaknesses, Zekrom as a whole is vulnerable to fighting Pokemon.  Look for Terrakion NV and Groudon EX to come up big.  Even though this deck is fairly boring and has holes, it will probably be the most successfull deck during BRs.

CMT-Mewtwo is back again for domination with this really fast deck.  Players that play Mewtwo EX as a tech can try to out Mewtwo CMT, but if you don’t have Mewtwo you will be in trouble.  CMT is the fastest deck out there and it is great (on paper) against any deck.  Maybe people will have pulled enough Mewtwo EXs by now that CMT can gain more popularity as a whole, even though it did recently take a hit against Zekrom decks.  Look for this deck to be played a lot, and for it to do really well.

Tier 1.5

Dark Deck– The dark deck is the new kid on the block.  It has a lot of hype, but a lot of questions  needs to answer.  Perhaps it will prove itself to be a Tier 1 deck, bet we are not sure yet.  It is a fairly fast deck that can hit for a consistent amount of damage.  It may not hit as hard as Zekrom, but its not that far off.  It uses a lot of different trainers to accomplish its goals. Dark Claw is like Expert Belt and Dark Patch is kinda like Eelektrik.  This helps increase consistency and damage output.  The Dark deck should have a fairly even match-up across the board, while it struggles with fighting decks.

Fighting Deck– Fighting decks is a broad term for any deck that uses fighting Pokemon as the main attaker.  These decks usually use some combination of Landorus, Terrakion NV, and Groudon EX.  This deck relies on weakness and revenge kills to get a good match-up against other decks.  Tornadus EX will be tough for this deck to get around, so that is a huge challenge.  It also struggles against CMT decks.  This seems like an all or nothing deck based on what the match-up is.  There will be a decent number of these decks, but not a ton.

Durant– There ain’t no Heatmor that can kill the durable ant, it will survive.   Since Heatmor is in the format, look for people to assume Durant will not be played.  If they assume that, they will probably not play Heatmor, and will open the door for Durant.  I think that Durant will lose some play, but not a whole lot of play.  The better players probably will leave the deck, but the bulk of the players will still play the deck.  Durant has a pretty good match-up against most decks that will be played.  It may not be autowin against the best decks, but it at least has a good chance at every deck.  Expect Durant to do better than most people expect.

What to Watch For

The first thing to watch out for is rogue decks.  The only new deck that people are really talking about is the dark deck, but there must be a lot more new ideas out there.  Expect the unexpected for battle roads.  Spring BRs are a mix of the best players, and some middle of the road players with some interesting decks.  Expect to be surprised at a lot of the decks that you see.  Remember, some people count this season as a prep for Nats, so they might not be trying to win, but trying to get a hold of a deck they want to play.  So there should be a lot of rogue stuff out there.

If you are trying to win Spring BRs, remember that it is a sprint.  We just came out of States and Regionals, those are marathons.  To win at spring Battle Roads, all you have to do is get lucky a handful of times.  So you can try some lucky decks and still do well.  Consistency will never be unimportant, but it is not as important in the smaller BR tournaments.  So try some of those flippy decks, and maybe give disruption decks like Sharpedo a try, you could get lucky all the way to a trophy.

Another thing to remember out Spring Battle Roads is that you shouldn’t get discouraged.  If you are playing in Nationals, don’t get upset if things don’t go your way at a BR.  You must be lucky to win a BR, but don’t forget that it is more important to be practicing for Nationals then to win a BR. It is more improtant that you guys are familiarizing yourself with the format, and begin to look at different rogue strategies.  If you get a tournament win, all the better, but I think your eyes should be on the bigger picture: competing at Nationals.

What Is the Play?

Well, there is no bad play for Battle Roads.  As long as you are out there learning about the format, you are not wasting your time.  But, I do think that for winning a single tournament, I would try a fighting deck.  Zekrom decks will win most tournaments, but you should be able to get a win easier with fighting decks.  These decks struggle the most against CMT, but CMT might have a little drop off in play and we all know that Zekrom will increase in play.  So, it seems that if you can get a good fighting deck that beats Zekrom decks most of the time, that would be a good play.  There is no bad play among the top decks, but I think next I would choose Durant.  Most people expect Durant to die off, so now is the time to play it.   You can’t go wrong with a top tier deck choice at Battle Roads.  Just make sure you are comfortable with your deck.  Make sure you know everything about your deck that there is to know, and it will give you a big advantage.  When picking a deck it is always best to go with what you are comfortable with, so go with what you feel confident with and you will have a good shot.

Conclusion

Well, that’s all I got about Battle Roads.  I hope I get shocked with a lot of cool rogue decks when I go to one.  Hopefully you guys do well and get one more step closer to doing well at your own Nationals.

Well Pedro, I am all done.  Why don’t you give us a news story to end the article.

Okay.  Foxnews.com is reporting that scientists who studied fossils of an ancient sea monster type creature have diagnosed the animal with arthritis.

He might want to take something for that.

If he wasn’t dead, he might.  This creature is known as a pliosaur. 

Pliosaur, sounds like a finishing move in wrestling.

Is a Plliosaur a better move than a German suplex?

Yes, but not as good as “The Scorpion Death Lock.”

Do you like to watch the wrestling Pikkdogs?

A little, I did more when I was a kid.  Though I think wrestling doesn’t like me, because when I was a kid they had all kinds of cool things like Bra and Panties matches, and everybody swore a lot.  But, now that I am older and can appreciate obscene things, everything is clean.  It’s like Vince McMahon doesn’t like me.

Well you know what they always say, wresting isn’t fair.

Just ask Brett Hart.

Good Night Everybody

 

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