One Hit KO

Pokemon TCG Decklists and Articles

September 2012

Is It Playable?

Is It Playable? Blastoise Cold Flare

coolestman22 12 Comments

Hey OneHitKO people, it’s me, coolestman22, trying to get out another article because of the absence of our good friend, Pikkdogs. Today I will do another of my Is It Playable? articles where I review a somewhat controversial card from an upcoming set and try to determine whether it’s playable or not.

But you ask “What controversy is there around Blastoise?”. Well, remember back in the Summer of 2011 when Emboar had just come out and we were about to rotate to HS-on? Remember how everyone had said “ReshiBoar and MagneBoar are BDIF!”

I assume you also remember how wrong they were. Yes, MagneBoar did win Worlds, but only after a very poor U.S. Nationals performance. And ReshiBoar was never good. Never ever. Reshiram found a partner with Typhlosion Prime HS and Emboar BW 20 became the laughingstock of the Pokemon community. In fact, the best Emboar deck ever may have been the Foretress LA/Emboar deck that revolves around using Inferno Fandango to attach fires to Foretress and using its Poke-Body to hit for 20 against everything on the field.

Well, now that a fairly similar card is coming out we must once again ask ourselves “Is this actually good, or does it just look good on paper, like the last two?” Well, let’s look at Blastoise (again):

Blastoise – Water – HP140
Stage 1 – Evolves from Wartortle
Ability: Bursting Stream
As often as you like during your turn (before your attack), you may attach 1 [W] Energy card to 1 of your Pokemon. (This doesn’t use up your 1 Energy card attachment for the turn.)
[C][C][C][C] Hydro Pump: 60+ damage. This attack does 10 more damage for each [W] Energy attached to this Pokemon.
Weakness: Grass (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 4

Well, let’s review the stats first: 140 HP is good, but it is still within OHKO range of Hydreigon DRX 97. Not something you want your Stage Two engine to have to deal with, but in BW-BoC I would assume it’s easier to set up an additional Stage Two.

The Weakness to grass is good. While it does mean it gets OHKOed by Virizion NVI with either Vileplume Freeze Bolt or an attack last turn, it also means that the Lightning attackers don’t hit it for weakness. This is why Kyogre EX was looked at as pish-posh by the community, because without the Lightning weakness it’s a very good card against Zekeels (I think John Roberts II proved this to some extent).

The No Resistance is fairly common. After all, what would the Resistance be on a water Pokemon? It might be fire in the VG, but in the TCG I don’t believe that has happened once (Except the random Quagsire or Swampert with the Lightning Resistance).

The Four retreat is less than optimal, but if you’re playing the variant with Keldeo EX that everyone is hyping, Keldeo’s Step In Ability will solve this problem for you.

The Ability, Bursting Stream, is pretty good. We have only had three other power/abilities like this ever. Blastoise Base Set had this as a Pokemon Power, and then Feraligatr Prime had a version of it that only attached to water types in HG/SS. Then, Emboar BW had a version that used fires that could go anywhere, and now the new Blastoise. Sure, there have been others like it (Blastoise ex, where you have Rain Dance but you put 10 damage where you dropped the energy, comes to mind), but these are the only four that I’ve heard of that have no drawbacks.

The Attack is probably the best ever from something with “Rain Dance”, which includes the Emboar. Being able to attack with Blastoise is a nice option to have, even though you generally only will against Sigilyph DRX.

Ability – Step In: Once during your turn, if this Pokemon is on your bench, you may switch it with your Active Pokemon.
CCC – Hydro Pump 50+
Does 20 more damage for each W energy attached to this Pokemon.

So, let’s move on to the question that’s on everyone’s mind: Is it playable?

Well, there were three main reasons that Emboar BW wasn’t playable:

The first was that with both ReshiBoar and MagneBoar you had to replace some energy almost every turn. Whether you used Blue Flare or Lost Burn, you were still using up energy, and at some points it could be fairly hard to replace. With the main partners people are playing Blastoise with, whether it’s Keldeo EX, Kyurem NVI, or even Wailord DRX, you don’t discard or lost zone energy to attack. While you may need to replace them due to a knockout or other reasons, you won’t need to every turn. With Emboar you did, and at some points in the game you missed your attack because of it.

The second was that Emboar had a retreat cost of four. Well, if you look at Blastoise’s retreat cost, it’s also four, so how do you solve this problem?

The answer is, of course, Keldeo EX’s Ability, Step In. Step In means that you can’t really Catcher-stall anything with

Blastoise, because the Keldeo you want attacking will always be able to attack providing there’s no Garbodor DRX with a tool on the field, at which point you aren’t in good shape anyway because you won’t be able to Rain Dance. But, there’s always a couple Tool Scrapper in most decks to counter Garbodor, and if you manage to get a Scrapper then you can again use Step In, and because of Skyla you will frequently be able to get a Scrapper in these sort of situations.

The third problem was Judge and N, which got rid of the energy from hand that Emboar would be attaching. At first you may think that there’s nothing that Blastoise can do about this, but remember Step In? If you play Musharna NXD your odds of drawing into a Supporter increase, and you will have more cards to look through to draw into an energy. While this doesn’t very effectively solve the problem, it still somewhat does. And not all Keldeo variants will play Musharna, but this would make it more of something to keep in mind while building any Keldeo variant. While this doesn’t completely solve the problem, it definitely does more than Emboar which had no answer to the problem other than having a higher retreat cost than Musharna.

Another thing to remember is that by solving problem one, you also somewhat solve problem three. By not needing to attach the energy, you don’t have the problem of needing to attach the energy. Unless your Keldeo just got knocked out and you need a replacement Keldeo, you won’t have to draw into energy right away off of the N. You can sit in topdeck mode a couple more turns while you Hydro Pump away, and when you draw the Bianca or Juniper or Bicycle you can play it and draw into what you need.

Another thing I want to take a brief look at why Feraligatr Prime was never good.

Well, you ask, why wasn’t it good? Well, it just never had a good partner. It never had a partner quite like Keldeo EX, and among the best it had were Lumineon MT, Lanturn Prime, and Blastoise UL. As you can see, none of those were particularly appealing to play, unlike Keldeo for Blastoise. As for Kyurem/Feraligatr, well, Kyurem was instead played in CaKE, because that was a faster option, and Kyurem was one of those things that you wanted attacking ASAP. In HS-NXD Kyurem saw a bit of play with Exp. Share when 30 HP Tynamo was the norm, and that was considered a better way to play it than Feraligatr.

Blastoise will have a better partner right off the bat in Keldeo, and it will also see some play with Kyurem NVI (Although I would prefer the Ether/Exp. Share variant or the Dusknoir variant) and possibly even Wailord DRX and Fliptini.

So I do think Blastoise will be good, however that doesn’t necessarily mean it will be. This hasn’t been a good game mechanic since Base Set, but I guess everything is good at some point.

What do you guys think of Blastoise? All discussion is welcomed in the comments below, and thanks for reading!

Tourney Report

Hammertime Darkrai BW-on : Battle Roads Report with Darkrai EX, Sableye, Dark Patch, Energy Switch, Crushing Hammer, etc.

Ed 11 Comments
Outpost 2000’s New Play Space

Usually I’m pretty pleased with doing well at a tournament and leaving feeling proud even when I haven’t won anything. In the past, I’ve seen the good in times like when I got 17th at Regionals and was able to drive home at a reasonable hour instead of playing top-16. When I dropped my first States, I still felt good about my performance even though I could have played in the top-8 (though I look back on it and think I probably wouldn’t make the same choice if it happened again, but it’s not a regret). I’m not the type of guy that gets pissed when I lose, but I’m also not the type of guy that jumps up and down when I win. However, I don’t think I’ve ever felt like I’ve done so well in a tournament and then walked away feeling so empty handed as I did this past weekend at Battle Roads. We’ll get to that a bit later.

First, I’ll give you a bit of backstory. When BW-on was announced, I wasn’t sure what I would do. I am now building decks for 3 people from my collection, because my second daughter, Petra, has started playing. When I played in Nationals 2011, I used Emboar. I had played and liked it (kinda), so it was easy for me to build. I also had a Zoroark deck from last format, and it was something that could be easily rebuilt for BW-on. That was 2 decks, so I needed something for another junior. I decided to throw together an autopilot style all EX deck. The idea was to just set stuff up without having to evolve, keep damage off, and keep the opponent down (with energy removal thanks to Kyurem EX and hammers). Part of my choice here was that I didn’t care a ton about my BR results, so I refused to buy any Darkrai EX or Mewtwo EX knowing that they’d come out in tins soon.
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History League Opinion Team Matters

Adam Klynsma – Pokemon Master

Ed 16 Comments

I really thought that I would be writing a Battle Roads tourney report this week, but I just can’t. I need to tell you about my friend, Adam. It’s been weighing on my heart. I meant to write this months ago, but I’ve been putting it off. I could make excuses about being busy, but it’s just my fault. I keep thinking about this, though, so I feel the need to put it out here.

I first met Adam around Christmas of 2009 when this site was in its infancy. Since then, I have been going to the Rapid City “South Side Pokémon League” about twice per year. I’m usually there for the 4th of July and again at Christmas time. The problem there is that both of those are holiday weekends, and there aren’t usually many league members around when we show up.

When I knew I’d be in Rapid City, I would usually email Adam to see when/where the league was taking place. From what I understand, Adam started the league in June of 2006, and it has been held in several locations since then, including the library, Hobbytown USA, First Chance Last Chance Games, and Who’s Game House. I wanted to be sure I knew where and when to show up and find out if there were any interesting formats (like 2-on-1 unlimited or old minus current) being played.

On May 25th of this year, I wrote such an email the day before I drove out to Rapid City. I didn’t get a response from Adam, but it was short notice. I had plenty of other things to do while we were out there, and, without his reply to remind me, Pokemon got put on the back burner for that trip.

On June 24th, I wrote to Adam again, telling him that we’d be around for our normal 4th of July trip. Petra (my second daughter) was just starting to play, and I thought his league would be a good environment for her. Again I didn’t hear back, but this time Ava, Petra, and I made it a priority to attend league. Well, we didn’t make it the top priority, because we showed up about halfway through the scheduled league time.

When we arrived, there were no Pokemon players around, but the guy that runs the shop told me that I just missed everyone. They had left, because there weren’t any players (which is kinda typical on the holiday weekends). I mentioned that I had emailed Adam a couple times without hearing anything back, and he said it’s because Adam died. Wow, what a shock.
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Deck Discussion

Who is Eelektrik’s Best Friend?

Pikkdogs 7 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs with an article that is kind of a deck review, but kind of a card review.  Today we will be talking about the Eelektrik card and which cards work best with it.

Before we get to the article I have an announcement to make.  Next weekend I will publish my final article on this website.  After a long deliberation, I have made the decision to leave the game and the article writing business for the time being.  This has been a tough decision since I love the game enjoy writing so much, but I am excited to go on to other things.  I will explain more in my final article, but I thought I would give you a one week heads up.  Make sure to show up for my final article, it will be something.

 

Eelektrik- The Basics

                Eelektrik is the best energy accelerator in the format.  He is a stage 1 that allows you to attach an electric energy from the discard pile to the bench with the “Dynamotor” Ability.  This works great with cards like Ultra Ball and Professor Juniper.  You just need to have energy in the discard pile, and you can power-up most Pokemon in just one or two turns.

The one draw-back to Eelektrik is the retreat cost.  The 2 retreat cost can be a killer, and it necessitates the running of DCE or cards like Switch.  Eelektrik also doesn’t have much of an attack, and there aren’t any good Eelektrosses to evolve into.

The good things about Eelektrik do outweigh the bad things.  However, you do need a partner or two for any Eelektrik based deck to work.  There are so many good Pokemon to pair with Eelektrik that you could hurt your deck even if you do choose to play some good cards.  It takes more than just a passing glance to choose the best friend for Eelektrik.  It takes an analysis of the format and your local metagame to choose the best variant of an Eel deck.  Here is a close look at some of the most popular pairings with Eelektrik.

The Most Popular Pairings

Here are a couple of the standard options for an Eelektrik deck

Zekrom–  Zekrom was the first pairing with Eelektrik, it’s the best, and it’s the most popular one today.  For three energies it can do 120 damage, that is pretty darn good.  It also has the great “Outrage’ attack that is good in a lot of different situations.  It can be hard to keep using the “Bolt Strike” attack with Zekrom’s retreat cost, and the fighting weakness is very annoying.  But since it is a good card that is not an EX, it should be in every Eelektrik deck.

Zekrom EX– Zekrom EX is a little more clunkier than Zekrom.  It is not as versatile and it does give up 2 prizes when it gets knocked out, and it still carries that annoying fighting weakness.  But, it is the heaviest hitter in this list.  150 damage in just one attack is enough to take out anything that is not an EX.  It also has a cool three energy attack that works with DCE that isn’t terrible.  It doesn’t need to be in every deck, but if your deck runs DCE, than you should run one copy of Zekrom EX.  It is just a good option to have in a tool boxy deck like Eelektrik.

Mewtwo EX– Before we even get going here, run 2 copies of this card in every deck.  It is just a great versatile card that is great against everything.  Yes, it might suck to start with this card, but it’s not the worst start ever.  Most other people will  be running at least one copy of this card, so since you have energy acceleration you can load up this card in one turn even if you don’t run DCE.  You should have an easy time with a lot of the rogue decks out there if you concentrate on loading energies one Mewtwo EX if you have an Eviolite on him.  It is so good and versatile that without question, you should add two in every deck.

Thundurus– Thundurus does not have the power that the Zekroms have, but he is a good starting Pokemon.  His “Charge” attack lets you attach an energy to Thundurus from your deck.  That means that he should be ready to do 80 damage and put an energy in the discard pile on turn 2.  It’s a win-win-win.  You not only get energy on the field, you get energy in the discard pile, and you get to do 80 damage.  Thundurus is kind of useless late-game because of the lack of pop in his attack, and he only adds to the frustrating fighting weakness of this deck.  Even though the list for this deck is very tight and it is hard to waste a couple spots on a starter, I do think that you should at least try this guy in every deck. I find that 2-3 copies of this card are really good for an Eelektrik deck to have. 

Rayquaza EX– Rayquaza EX is a card that is not standard in a regular Eelektrik deck, but is kind of thought of as a deck of its own.  It is still does contain Eelektrik, so it does belong in this list.  Rayquaza EX is a dragon type Pokemon that does 40 damage times the number of energies that you discard from an attack that costs PL.  Of course this deck doesn’t mind discarding energy since each Eelektrik can get one back per turn.  So if you have 3 Eelektriks in play and you discard 3 lightning energies a turn, than you end up being even.  You just need Switches to move Rayquaza EX on the bench.  The first weekend of Battle Roads was not super kind to Rayquaza EX, so this may not be a great deck right now, but it is worth a try.  One thing I should make clear is that Rayquaza is not something you can throw into any Eelektrik deck.  If you want to have Rayquaza EX in your deck, you need to make an effort to build it around only him.

Rogue Pairings

Here are some pairings that are known, but not really standard.

Terrakion– Terrakion/Eelektrik was a deck that was popular during Cities/States/Spring Regionals last year.  It is another variant of an Eelektrik deck that usually doesn’t contain a lot of the other cards and has a special purpose.  The purpose of this deck is to be able to use Eelektrik and Zekrom BLW while hitting other Eelektrik decks for weakness with Terrakion.  Terrakion does make this deck a little less consistent, but it adds a cool new ripple into this deck by helping you out in the mirror a lot.  I don’t know if this variant is still viable in the new year, but maybe it could be something to look out for.  If you think you might see this deck, take a look at our next card on the list.

Zapdos– Zapdos is one of those few legendary Pokemon that has a decent non-EX card.  It is not good in most decks, but Zapdos does work well in an Eelektrik deck.  The reason why Zapdos works is that he has an attack that is not terrible, and a fighting resistance.  If your opponent is just running over you with fighting Pokemon, you can bring Zapdos out and he will stop the onslaught.  If you expect to see some fighting Pokemon, I would run at least 1 of this card.  It may not have a lot of pop in its attack and may not be the shiniest Pokemon, but if you want something to counter fighting Pokemon, than Zapdos is your man!. Or weird bird thing. 

Tornadus– Another Pokemon that is great in this deck for going against fighting Pokemon is Tornadus.  Of course if you play Tornadus you will need to play DCE.  But if you are okay with playing DCE, than Tornadus is a good option.  I usually favored Zapdos over Tornadus, I don’t know why, but it just feels right.  Tornadus also is weak to lightning Pokemon, so it can be a liability in a mirror matchup.  But, it is a little better of an attacker, so if you don’t expect a lot of the mirror, Tornadus could be a better fighting counter.

Raikou EX– Raikou EX is a card that I really like.  His attack does 100 damage to anyone of your opponent’s Pokemon and forces you to discard three energies.  This is not a terrible thing since if you have at least two Eelektriks out you can just attach three energies to a benched Raikou, retreat one Raikou for another, and attack for 100 again.  Than you just rinse and repeat until you win the game.  I really like this card, but during testing I found out that 100 damage is a little weak with Eviolite and so many EXs in the format.  It feels like most of the time you are just attacking the defending Pokemon, so you might as well just run Zekrom EX and do 50 more damage.  I hope someone proves me wrong, but I don’t think Raikou is a great card in this format.

 

Obscure Pairings

Finally, here are some pairings that are a little off the wall.

Bouffalant DRX or BW– There are two Bouffalant’s that wouldn’t be bad in this deck.  The BW Bouffalant is a lot like Terrakion.  If you do run DCE, than Bouffalant wouldn’t be a terrible play if you want to play this guy.  The Dragons Exalted Bouffalant is a counter against EX Pokemon.  If you feel that you are always going up against EX Pokemon, than Bouffalant wouldn’t be a terrible play.  If you first attack with someone like Thundurus, than Bouffalant could come in and finish off the KO next turn.  It is not a card that will be the greatest thing ever in this deck, but if you run a more tool boxy version of this deck, than this card could help you out a little.  It could be worth testing depending on your metagame. 

Siglyph DRX–  We have another EX counter from DRX, Siglyph.  Siglyph does necessitate the running of some psychic or Blend Energies, but if you really need this card it is worth it.  It also works well with the Rayquaza EX variant, since both cards need psychic energies.  Though it would be kind of weird to run this card seeing that it is a Mewtwo EX counter.  You should already be running Mewtwo EX, and since you have an energy accelerator you should have a good advantage in the Mewtwo EX war.  But, maybe a wall like Siglyph could work against a more diverse base of EXs.  It could be something worth testing.

So, Who is Eelektrik’s Best Friend?

                Now it is time to answer the question, who fits the best with Eelektrik?  Here is my list.

  1. The best pairing is with Zekrom, you need to play Zekrom.
  2. Mewtwo EX is a standard in every deck.  You also need to play Mewtwo EX.
  3. Zapdos is needed in the match-up with fighting Pokemon, you probably should play him.
  4. I really like Thundurus, put Thundurus in your deck and only take him out if needed.

 

Those are my top 4.  You can add to your list from the rest of the Pokemon I talked about, but they are my top 4.  If you have other additions to either of my lists, please leave them in the comment section.

Well, that is all I have to say, make sure to show up next week for my fare-well article.  So long and thanks for all the fish.

 

Uncategorized

Your 2012-2013 Pokemon Calendar

Pikkdogs 6 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  I was trying to think of an idea for a different kind of article, and this popped into my head.  The image of Tawny Kitaen grinding on top of a car also came into my head, but that’s another story.  This idea is about a year preview, a look ahead to each thing that will be coming at us in the coming year.

This is the usual time that I introduce my extra-dimensional sidekick Pedro, however I have been unable to reach him since the last article.  So I guess we have to skip over this part.

So, first up in the 2012-2013 year after the release of Dragon’s Exalted is the Autumn Battle Road Season.  Before I get started I should mention that everything in this calendar is subject to change. I am just guessing on some of this stuff like the set releases.  But judging from the fact that i am a fat drunk guy, I probably made a lot of mistakes, so bare with me.

Autumn Battle Roads; Sept 1st-30th. 

As it always does, the season starts with Autumn Battle Roads.  Battle Roads are the smallest tournaments out there, think of them as small local tournaments.  Most people don’t travel more than an hour and a half for a BR.  They don’t carry that many Championship Points, so they aren’t very important in the grand scheme of things, but they are still my favorite tournament.

It seems like Pokemon is just made for the Fall, it feels great to play Pokemon with the leaves changing and the weather cooling down.  Even though the stakes are low, the tournament season is still very fun.

This year there are a lot of changes for Battle Roads.  There is no longer a top cut.  So in most cases you will just play rounds until there is just 1 undefeated, and then everybody can go home.  Since the tournaments are smaller, it will be nice to have a short day of Pokemon and then leave to watch Football.  It will feel bad to finish 2nd-4th and not get a chance to win, but this season is all about fun, not winning.  If you do want to win, you must think consistency.  You can’t count on getting lucky every time, try to find a deck that is consistent and try to win each game that you play, that is your only hope of winning.

So, that’s pretty much it for Battle Roads.  They are very fun tournaments that should be easy to get to.  So try to get as many as you can and you will have a great time.  If you have a Fall Regionals in your area, Fall Battle Roads serve as the introduction to the third most important tournament of the season.  Speaking of Fall Regionals!..

Fall Regionals: October 13th (Fort Wayne, In, Houston, Tx, Eastern Canada)

Regionals used to always happen in the Spring, now we get Regionals spread apart across three weekends.  I don’t really know if the spreading of Regionals across three weekends really makes a difference since most people don’t have more than one Regionals in their area, but there is not really too much of a downside.  The first will happen in the middle of October

If you got to one of these I really hope that you played in a lot of Battle Roads.  The Fall Battle Roads serves as the capstone for the Battle Roads season.  If you did really well at BRs and have a lot of knowledge of the format from the BRs, than you should do well at Fall Regionals.  The format for this Regionals is exactly the same as Fall Battle Roads, so if you want to do well at Regionals expect to hit a lot of Battle Roads.

Success at Regionals also involves a lot of strategy in picking your deck.  This tournament will have a large Top Cut, some places will see anywhere from a top 32 to a top 128.  So taking a deck that is all about consistency might not make as much sense as it did during Battle Roads.  Since you are looking at 7, 8, or even 9 rounds of Swiss, you can afford to lose a game or two.  So you can afford to tech out your deck a little more, or run a more risky deck.  This different format should cause more varied decks to be played then there were during Fall Battle Roads.  There should be more variations in decks, so Fall Regionals should be pretty fun.

Set Release of Boundaries Crossed (Equivalent of Freeze Bolt/Cold Flare)

Just before Thanksgiving comes upon us and we eat a lot of Turkey, the next set will come out.  It is expected to contain a lot of cards in the Japanese Freeze Bolt and Cold Flare sets. It will be called Boundaries Crossed, which sounds like what the title of a speech that police officers usually give me after I get arrested. I don’t really know why it’s called Boundaries Crossed, maybe Brock will finally take his woman chasing one step too far, who knows. Anyway, the Freeze Bolt and Cold Flare sets were really cool because they not only contained a lot of cool cards, but they contained some new game mechanics. 

The most notable game mechanic is the addition of ACE SPEC cards.  Since they have not been officially announced in the West, they are kind of mysterious, but we do know what the first ones are and what they do.  ACE SPEC cards are cards that are super powerful trainer cards.  You are limited to only one Ace Spec card in each deck.  There are currently 4 ACE SPEC cards.  The first one is Computer Search, which is like a Junk Arm that works on any card in your deck.  The next is Gold Potion.  Gold Potion works like a regular Potion, but it only works on your active Pokemon, and it heals 90 damage instead of 30.  The last two Ace Spec cards only work on Black Kyurem EX and White Kyurem EX.  Crystal Wall is a Tool Card that gives Black Kyurem EX 300 HP.  Crystal Edge is another Pokemon Tool Card that let’s White Kyurem EX do 50 more damage from each attack.  These cards are really powerful and will be great in most decks.

But this new set has more cards than just the ACE SPECs, it has a lot of cool cards.  Staying in the trainer arena, Warp Point gets a reprint with escape rope.  Bicycle is an item card that lets you draw until you have 4 cards into your hand.  Ether is a card that can help with energy acceleration.  Town Map let’s you flip your prize cards flip you.  And finally, Hugh is a supporter card that evens all hands at 5 cards each.

As far as new Pokemon, Vileplume has been getting hype for turning all weaknesses into X4.  Blastoise is like a repint of the Base Set one, but with updated HP and attacks.  We also get a new Charizard, it isn’t that good, but everybody loves Charizard.  There are a bunch of new EXs including Black Kyurem, White Kyurem, Celebi, Keldeo, Cresselia, and Landorus.

It is hard to know exactly how impactful this set will be, but it looks to be a great set.

City Championships: Nov. 17- Jan 6th

So now we got a new set, and City Championships are a whole new game.  We thought 180 HP Pokemon were bad, now we have 300 HP Giants running around.

City Championships are not really that much different from Battle Roads.  They are about the same size tournaments and they usually happen at the same location.  But, for some reason City Championships are very important in the scheme of Championship Points.  A lot of people really like Cities, but I really hate them.  I don’t really know why since they are very much like Battle Roads, but I guess it’s the timing.  Most Tournament Organizers seem to schedule Cities right next to Thanksgiving and Christmas, so it is pretty hard to attend all of the tournaments that you would like to.

Anyway, Cities are pretty must like BRs.  Expect, we think that they will still have Top Cut rounds.  Since the tournaments are still very small, consistency is still important, just not quite as important in a tournament without Top Cut.

It is pretty hard to imagine what the format will be like at this point.  I will assume that Black Kyurem EX will be a popular card, nobody can hate 300 HP, and the ability to do 200 damage in one attack does make White Kyurem EX pretty cool.  We don’t really know what exactly will happen, but we can imagine that Dragon Pokemon will be very important in Cities.  Perhaps you will be able to use Vileplume to use the Dragon weakness in your advantage.  Who knows exactly but will happen, but I can smell the rain (reign) of the Dragon Pokemon.

Winter Regionals: Jan 19th (Salem, Oregon)

Just like Fall Regionals were the capstone to the BR season, Winter Regionals are the capstone for the Cities season.  There is not much to say about Winter Regionals.  The format will be the same as in Cities, and the structure of the tournament is the same as in Fall Regionals.  Also the same is the fact that you can be a little more risky in Regionals than you could during Cities.  The tournament again will be huge, so do your best to do well and have fun.

Set Release of Black and White 8 (Equivalent of Plasma Gale).

We don’t know a lot about BW8 yet, but it is expected to contain a lot of Plasma Gale cards.  We also don’t even know a lot about Plasma Gale cards, but we do know some things.

We do know that this set will contain another new gimmick, Team Plasma Pokemon.  This is not the first time we have seen Pokemon that are owned by people.  The early days of the game saw Pokemon owned by gym leaders.  And most famously a couple years ago we had SP Pokemon, which were Pokemon that were owned  by people like Team Galactic and Elite Four members.  We will soon have more trainer owned Pokemon, though we do not really know what the exact mechanic will be.

We do know that Team Plasma won’t be in their name, but an indicator will  be directly under their name.  There will also be certain trainer cards that have Team Plasma in their name which work with other team plasma trainer cards, energy, and Pokemon.  This brings back disturbing memories of the Cyrus engine in the SP days.  Let’s hope that Pokemon has learned from their mistakes and that they don’t let Team Plasma cards be as powerful as the SP cards were.

Even though we don’t have scans of most of the cards, we do have some cards.  The first big card that we got a look at was Lugia EX.  Lugia has an Ability that lets you take one more prize card after you knock out a Pokemon.  It’s attack costs 4 energies and does 120 damage with a discard of one Plasma Energy.  We also have a Crobat that has an Ability that lets you draw one card, and has an attack like Crobat Prime had (the defending is poisoned and takes 4 damage between turns).  Another cool card that we have seen a scan of is Rotom, it has a “Boltergeist” attack that is like the attack of last format’s Mismagius and Gengar SF (20 damage times the number of trainers in your opponent’s hand).  The rest of the cards we have revealed have an Infernape and a Druddigon.

There are also a few trainers that were revealed.  One card that I like is Plasma Frigate.  It is a stadium card that gets rid of weaknesses for Pokemon that have Plasma Energy attached.  Colress Machine is an item card that lets you search your deck for a Plasma Energy and attach it to a Plasma Pokemon.  Colress is a supporter card that lets you shuffle your hand in your deck and draw an amount of cards equal to the amount of Pokemon in play, expect this card to get a lot of play.  The Plasma Energy card does not have any special effects, all it does is provide C energy.

State Championships: Mar 9th, 16th, and 23rd.

This is expected to be the first tournament after the release of BW8 (though these things have not been verified yet).  State Championships are big tournaments like Regionals, but are a little bit smaller attendance wise and not worth as many Championship points.  States are split up to three different weekends in march.  State tournaments are usually split up by date geographically, so you will at least have a shot to get to 2 or 3 states instead of just one.  I also like States because it is around the time of the NCAA basketball tournaments, and it is cool to think about brackets for Pokemon as the nation is talking about brackets for college basketball.

The strategy to winning this tournament is similar to the regionals.  It will be a big tournament probably 7 or 8 rounds.  Consistency will be important, but there will be some room to run a more risky build.

States is a fun tournament, just a little less serious than Regionals.  The tournament shouldn’t be as far from you as Regionals is, since it is in your state.  So just enjoy the day and be thankful that you don’t have to drive very far.

Spring Regionals (Western Canada, Madison, Wi)

I expect this will either be the first tournament since the release of BW9, or the release could come right after Spring Regionals.  The tips for winning these regionals is the same as the others.

Set Release of Black and White 9

I don’t know anything about this set, nobody does as far as I know.  Perhaps it will be the first Black and White 2 set because of the release of the video game. I expect some new game mechanics if so, and possible replacement of the EX Pokemon.  But, any kind of speculation is just that, speculation.  Nobody knows anything about this set.  So your guess is as good as mine.

Spring Battle Roads: May-June

Spring Regionals is like the red headed step child of Battle Roads.  Most people don’t respect Spring BRs.  Even Pokemon doesn’t really respect it, two years ago they used it as a testing ground for how the format will be for Nationals.  Most people don’t attend a lot of Spring Battle Roads because it is in the spring, and there are better things to do.  People are attending graduation parties and cookouts and stuff like that, they don’t really have the time or interest to play in as many Spring BRs as they do Cities or Fall BRs.

The claim to fame of this tournament is that it is the precursor to the National Championships and Worlds.  The format for Spring BRs is the same as what Nationals and Worlds will be, so if you are able to get to some Spring BRs you will have a leg up on the competition in the summer.

We do not know if there will be any new rule changes this year.  The fall BRs this year had no top cut, it is unlikely if this will change much for Spring Battle Roads.  Unless people get really made about no Top Cut in the fall, it is likely that the spring ones will also be sans-top cut.  The strategy for winning these BRs is same as the fall ones.

National Championships: June-July (more info to come)

To me National Championships is the capstone of the entire season. I know that Worlds is supposed to be the Super Bowl of Pokemon, but few people are invited to Worlds.  Nats is something that everybody can go to.  It is one of the most fun experiences that the game has to offer.  If you haven’t gone yet, plan to make a trip this year.

Where are you making the trip to?  I don’t know.  It is expected that U.S. Nationals will be back in Indianapolis, but it has not been announced as a sure thing.  Perhaps Pokemon will move it to another spot.  We do not know much about the location yet, but just make sure you go.

It is hard to give you tips for a tournament that is about a year away.  But, it will be a very very big tournament (the U.S. one will be anyway) so make sure you build your deck on that.  Make sure you have a balanced deck that is ready for everything, because you will see everything at Nationals.  You will see both meta and rogue decks played in high numbers.

World Championships:  August 9th-11th in Vancouver,  Canada. 

The final tournament of the season is actually one of the smallest non BR or City tournament of the year.   It does have the best players in it though.  And, even if you can’t make it to the tournament, Pokemon is expected to keep us updated by text and video updates online.  If you do make it there, there are some cool events like concerts and stuff like that.

The tournament this year will be held in Vancouver, which is in the magical land of Canada. Hopefully more people will be able to get to Vancouver than were able to make it to Hawaii this year.  But, it was in San Diego 2 years ago and they didn’t have great attendance there either.   Hopefully this year people will be drawn to Worlds because of Canadian things!!!like!!uh!.. maple syrup, Shania Twain, and hockey.

I have heard that Worlds is a fun event, but I have never been able to go.  I have heard that it is cool because you get to meet people from all over the world who enjoy the same game.  Like the Olympics, it brings people all over the world together in peace.  That is always a cool thing.  So if you are in the west coast of North America it would be cool to go and compete in worlds, but unless you do well at Nats it is hard to get to Worlds.

So that is all I know about the calendar year of Pokemon.  Just a note, there are also a couple European tournaments that take place during the year.  One of those is one that invites players from all over Europe.  Last year there were some Spanish players who flung their poo around, so that would be fun to see.  These tournaments are really only for serious European players, but I guess it would be cool for a North American player to go (if that’s even legal).  The only thing it does is that it gives us a look at a format and it tends to give us a hint at how the other tournaments that are next to it on the calendar will go.  Again, I must warn you that I guessed at the time of some of these events so it won’t be perfect, but it should be fairly correct.  Yet, I still don’t want ya to be disappointed if a couple events are switched around here and there.

So long and thanks for all the fish.

 

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