One Hit KO

Pokemon TCG Decklists and Articles

2012

Pikks Three

Pikkdogs Pikks Three: Dark Explorers Edition: Espeon DE, Hooligans Jim and Cass, and Raikou EX

Pikkdogs 6 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  Since we are in the time right before serious testing is about to start for Spring Battle Roads, I thought it would be a good time to do a Pikk Three article.  This is a special Dark Explorers edition of Pikk Three,  we will showcase some of the more interesting cards from the Dark Explorers set that I haven’t talked about yet.

But first, we must bring in Pedro because if we don’t, I think the government will have to start paying him unemployment.  So its easier if we let him speak.  Hey Pedro.

Yo.

Hey Pedro, you have been doing a lot of news articles lately, why don’t you try a this day in history.

Because I don’t know which day it will be published?

Well, just pick a day.

Okay, on this day, May 5th, John T. Scopes was arrested for teaching Darwinism.  What followed was one of the more highly publicized trials of its day.  The trial was nicknamed the Scopes Monkey Trial.  Pikkdogs, you were once on trial for a crime that included monkeys weren’t you?

Well it’s best not to talk about that.

I guess.  Do you like the evolution? 

I’m a skeptic.  I don’t not believe in it, but I’m not 100% sold on it either.  It does make some sense, but then again there are some HUGE holes in it.  Who knows what happened, I wasn’t there.

I don’t much like the evolution talk.  But, when we talk about early man, we can show the picture of Raquel Welch in a fur bikini from the movie “One Million Years B.C.” because that was about early man. 

Okay, show it.

Yep, much better than the Scopes Monkey Trial. 

True, time to get on with the article.

Card #1 Espeon DE.

Description– Espeon is a stage 1 Psychic Pokemon with 90 HP, a 1 retreat cost, and a psychic weakness.  Its Ability is called “Solar Revelation” and it stops all effects of attacks on any of your Pokemon that have energy on them.  The attack is just okay.  It is called “Psy Report” and it does 60 damage for PCC and lets you look at your opponents hand.

Analysis– Since Espeon has had no hype prior to its release, why don’t we go to the stats?  The stats of Espeon are fairly bad.  The one retreat cost is good, but it goes downhill from there.  The weakness is terrible and the HP is terrible.  It is a free prize to almost any deck.

The Ability is what we came here for.  The ability to stop effects of attacks can be great.  There doesn’t seem to be a great reason to use it right now, but this baby sure has potential to be used in the future.  It is a good Ability to have, it reminds me a lot of Pokemon three years ago with Unown G.  Unown G worked as a tool card that did the same thing as Espeon, but it was better since it was a basic Pokemon that didn’t really have to be on the field.

The attack of Espeon is not that great.  Even though I will take a look at my opponent’s hand if you give me a free one, it is not a great thing to do normally.  60 damage is very low in this format, its not even that much if you double it against Mewtwo EX.

So we got the basics out of the way, let’s talk about if we think it will see some play.  I already said that it could have some good uses in the future, which it could.  But, it is hard to really rate based on potential.  I do see some possible play with Mewtwo EX.  If in the near future special conditions rule the format, than Espeon will be a great tech.  Possibly there will be a good paralysis or burn deck out there that works well on EXs.  It does have potential, but its not a great choice right now.

Final Rating– 5.75.  Could be a good card in the future.  Even though you shouldn’t keep it close to you, do not keep it too far away, it could be a good card if the format changes just a little bit.

Card#2- Holligans Jim and Cas

Description– HJC is a supporter card that is very unlike most supporters in the format.  When you play it you get to flip a coin, if you get heads you can choose 3 random cards from your opponent’s hand and have your opponent shuffle them back into the deck.  If you get tails, you get to swear in frustration.

Analysis– This is a very interesting card.  We haven’t had much disruption in the game for about a year, so its nice to see the format get more versatile.

HJC didn’t get any hype before its release, and nobody talked about it being in any deck.  So there’s not much to talk about in this category.

As I mentioned, disruption is not really something we have in this format.  There are a couple cards like Weavile that can do the disruption, but it is yet to prove that it can be a viable deck.  So, the question is; “will HJC be good enough to resurrect disruption?”  While disruption is one of the best strategies in a TCG, I don’t feel that this card is consistent enough.

The problem with this card is not the 3 card max.  Three cards are good.  The problem is also not that you don’t get to see what cards you are sending back, with three chances you have a decent shot of getting something good with the low hand sizes in this format.  The problem is also not that the cards go back in the deck, the discard pile would be better, but just getting it out of the hand is good enough.  The problem is the coin flip.  You have a 50 percent chance of it not working.  In Pokemon you have to have a glass half empty philosophy, you just can’t count on luck to always bail you out.    You need to rely on what will work 100% of the time, not 50%.

So, I think the lack of consistency will hurt this card.  Does that mean that it will not be played?  I don’t think so, other cards have worked that include a coin flip, so its not like all the odds are against HJC.  But, this card just seems to be so all or nothing that it could be hard to get any consistency with it.  If you do want to try it, maybe make a disruption deck that was popular at last year’s nationals (Ambipom and Weavile), and see if the deck is any better now.

Final Rating– 5/10– There is potential here for this card to be better, just not a lot.  I don’t see this card doing well in the near future.

Card #3- Raikou EX

Description– Everybody went cockahoop when I didn’t put Raikou in my ten most impactful cards article.  So, I decided it deserved another look, maybe it is a good card.

It is a basic lightning EX Pokemon with 170 HP, a 1 retreat cost, and a fighting weakness.  The first attack isn’t that great.  “Thunder Fang” does 30 damage for LC and lets you flip a coin, if you get heads you can paralyze the defending.  The second attack is much better. “Volt Bolt” is hard to say 5 times fast, and lets you snipe for 100 and discard all energy attached.

Analysis– There was a small amount of hype when Raikou was announced, but not a whole lot.  Some people thought he could be a good addition to the Zekrom deck.  They didn’t think it was the best ever, but with Skyarrow Bridge and Eelektrik they thought it might work.

Let’s look at the stats.  170 and 1 retreat cost is normal for an EX, not bad.  The fighting weakness could be really bad, but we will have to see if fighting Pokmeon become a big thing.  The attacks aren’t bad, so the stats of this card aren’t that bad.

I do agree that this could be a good card in Zekrom.  The 1 retreat goes well with Skyarrow Bridge if you would want to put it in this deck, that would make up for the discarding.  Of course anything that uses electric energy works well with Eelektrik.  The ability to snipe is something that is always nice to have.  One good thing about this card in Zekrom is that it is fairly splashable.  Using this card wouldn’t screw up consistency or anything like that, it is an easy fit.  Plus, it is always nice to have the ability to paralyze, just in case you run into some weird rogue deck.

The reason that I didn’t include this card in my top 10 list is that I don’t think he will really impact the Zekrom deck at all, and I don’t see him making his own deck.  Players can already play Zapdos, and that has a sniping attack.  So, sniping is not something new in a Zekrom deck, there already is a sniping element there.  Even if you find that Raikou is better than Zapdos, it still doesn’t really change the deck or make it that much better.  The deck may be better with Raikou than without (or may not), but its not going to be that much better.  With or without Raikou the deck will go on and be the same as it always was.

I also do not think that sniping is that important these days.  There are no bench sitters these days, and in the rare event that you do want to hit someone for the bench, you can just run one of those little known cards called Pokemon Catcher.  With Catcher there is no real reason to really want to snipe a lot, it is nice to do it in certain situations, but it could be nice.  I just don’t think that being “nice” is very impactful.

Now, I am not badmouthing Raikou.  I do think that it is a good card.  Doing 100 damage with a 1 retreat is nice.  I could see a couple chain of attacks going on with a couple Raikous and three Eelektrik.  I could see it doing well in Zekrom.  It could be a very successful card, but I just don’t classify it as “impactful.”

 

Final Rating–8/10- It is a decent card, it just doesn’t seem like the best EX out there right now.  There are other options out there like Zekrom EX, he does 50 more damage for his big attack than Zekrom.  So, I would just rather use Zekrom and Pokemon Catcher than Raikou.  The best move for this format may be to add 1 or 2 Raikous to your Zekrom deck, but its not really going to push Zekrom over the top or anything like that.

 

Well, that was another below average article for us.  Why don’t you end it with something exciting Pedro.

Alright, our final bit of news comes from the world of technology.  It seems that scientists and robotics experts in Switzerland have created robots that you can control with your mind.  Apparently, the Swiss scientists are designing these robots so that paralyzed people can still do things like open doors and stuff like that by just using brainwaves.  Do you want a mind controlled robot Pikkdogs?

Of course.  That’s like asking “who wants ice cream?”  Everybody wants ice cream, and everybody wants a mind controlled robot.

What would you do with your mind controlled robot. 

Probably teach him to fight.

Like that Hugh Jackman movie, “Real Steel.”

Love that movie, it was like Rocky but with robots.  And if there was one thing that was missing from Rocky it was giant boxing robots.

Yeah, I think that that movie proved that all movies should have giant fighting robots in it.  Movies are just better with giant robots. 

Yeah,  what if “Gone with the Wind” had robots in it, than whatever that was gone with the wind probably wouldn’t go.

And all those “Sex and the City” movies.  The giant robots can just punch those whiny chicks in the face so we don’t have to hear them be annoying anymore.

Agreed, all movies are better with giant robots.  Good night everybody.

10 Impactful Cards

Top 10 Most Impactful Cards of Dark Explorers

Pikkdogs 15 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs with my quarterly article about the most impactful cards in the upcoming set.  This time we have  a set named “Dark Explorers.”  Though it sounds like a porn movie about African American chicks, it could be a set that impacts Nationals in a big way.  Is it full of cards that are all hype, or will this set set the pace for Nationals?   Let us take a look at some of the cards in this set to find out.  But, before we start we have a couple announcements for you.

The first is that I want you guys to put your own top 10 of Dark Explorers in the comment box.

The second is that we have a contest going on right now.  Look here for the rules and stuff.  Look here for some fun with Noozles.

The third is that Pedro has a news article for us to get us started.  Hows it going Pedro?

Oh doing well Pikkdogs. Today’s news comes from the world of medicine.  Foxnews.com is reporting that according to a new study, people who suffer from nighttime teeth grinding can be cured by receiving Botox injections.  But, it seems that there are side effects to this drug.  You will stop grinding your teeth, but you will have the irresistible urge to marry a Kardashian.  

That would be terrible.  What if you meet Khloe, the big one,  you’d be screwed.

Plus, you would go through life without having to show emotion.  It makes you like a real life Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

Hate that guy.  He butchered Mr. Freeze in one of those 90’s Batman movie.  One of my favorite villans of all time, and he slaughtered him.

But, he did make up for it with that funny, “Go Chargers” soundbite. 

I guess, but let’s go to the article.

The Top 10 Most Impactful Cards

10. Entei EX

What’s this?  We start our list off with a fire Pokemon not named “Reshiram”?  Yes, finally Reshiram takes a back seat to an old school fire Pokemon, one of the legendary dogs, Entei.

The card has solid stats.  180 HP is the best in the business.  The water weakness is expected and not that bad.  The three retreat cost is standard for an EX.

The first attack burns the defending Pokemon for 2 energies an does 30 damage.  This works well with one of the most interesting cards in the set, Volcarona.  I could see these two cards doing well together.  The second attack is a little under-powered, but it has a good twist in it.  Most big attacks by fire Pokemon do a lot of damage and require a discard, this is different as it only does 90 damage, but attaches an energy from the discard pile to the bench.

When we talk about the playability of Entei EX we are talking about two things.  One thing is a part of a combo with Volcarona.  This deck might work, it is something to test.  The other thing with Entei is as a secondary attacker in Reshiphlosion.  It may not have the pop that the Reshirams have, but it can burn the defending Pokemon.  Burning can go a long way against big HP EX Pokemon.  Special Conditions are something that those EX Pokemon do not like.  It may not take them out right away, but it will eventually do them in.

I could see Entei going right in to a Reshiphlosion deck.  Reshiphlosion is on life support right now, and I am not sure if Entei is enough to save it, but I do see this card making an impact on the format.  It is just a great card that can have an impact, even if we cannot see that impact right now.  I like this card and see it doing well eventually.

9.  Zoroark

Zororark is one of the Pokemon that the dark side will be relying on if they want to take over the format.  Zoroark is a nice versatile swarming attacker that can use a lot of the new dark trainers.  If Zoroark pans out and is good in this format, watch out, Dark decks can be really good.

The stats don’t seem too impressive. 100 HP is a little disappointing, the retreat cost is bad, and the fighting weakness is a tough thing to have.  The only good part of his stats is the psychic resistance.  His second attack is a rage like attack, but he doesn’t really have enough HP for that to make a difference.  It is his first attack that will be used.  It does 20 damage for every one of your Dark Pokemon in play, that means it maxes out at 120.

Or does it?  What gives Zoroark the potential to be so impactful are Special Darkness Energy, Dark Patch, and Dark Claw.  If Zoroark has 2 Special Darks attached and a Dark Claw, the attack now maxes out at 160.  That is just 2 Plus Powers away from OHKOing all EX Pokemon in the format.  While I realize that 2 Special Darks, a Dark Claw, and 2 Plus Powers are a lot to ask,  it’s not impossible to pull off a couple times a game.  With Dark Patch we could see a pretty good stream of Zoroarks out there, and that could scare people.

People will be trying out the Dark Deck, and I think that there is a lot of good things about the deck.  It could be a good deck going into Spring Battle Roads and Nationals, and Zoroark will be with this card every step of the way.  I am not sure if the dark side will once again rule the empire like some people think, but it is something to worry about.  I could see the deck doing well.

8.  Random Receiver

No Random Receiver is not who Tim Tebow throws the ball to, it’s the name of a Pokemon Card.  This card lets you reveal cards from your deck until you see a supporter, and then put that into your hand.

Random Receiver is a card that is automatically in competition with Poke Gear 3.0.  Most people have come to love Poke Gear, and they are not happy that Random Receiver is in the format.  They say that because Poke Gear let’s you choose between different supporters it is better.  I disagree.

I have never been a Poke Gear fan, and am very happy to see Random Receiver enter the format.   Although I think that supporter search cards are not that great.  If I did play a Supporter search card,  I would want one that always gets me a supporter, and that’s what RR does.  How many times have you heard people complain that Poke Gear did not net them any supporters?  It has happened a lot.

We can forget all of those times that we never got a supporter, and now run Random Receiver instead.  Trainers and Supporters are supposed to increase consistency, and Random Receiver is much more consistent than Poke Gear.  I think that in this format, just getting  a supporter is the most important thing.  Most people use supporters for draw and hand refresh, and don’t really care whether they get a Professor Juniper or a Professor Oak’s New Theory.  So, it doesn’t really matter what supporter you get.  Sure, there are other supporters out there that are used like Pokemon Collector, but most supporters are for draw or hand refresh.

So will Random Reciever be impactful? I think it will be.  I think that RR will soon replace Poke Gear, and decks will be more consistent because of it.

7. Ultra Ball

We go from one Item card that already has an equal, to another item card that has an equal.  Ultra Ball lets you search your deck for any Pokemon and put it into your hand, but you do have to discard two cards from your hand.

The tendency in Pokemon search cards has been to ease off of cards like Pokemon Communication and go for cards that just get basic Pokemon.  Since basic Pokemon are ruling the format right now, it only makes sense that we use more basic Pokemon friendly cards.  Cards that find evolution cards are not that important right now, but that doesn’t mean Ultra Ball will go un-noticed.

There were two bad things about Communication.  The first was that there were better cards for basic Pokemon, and the second was that you needed another Pokemon in your hand.  This was very problematic in this format where we do not run much more than 15 Pokemon.  Now we do not need to have an extra Pokemon just to search for one.

Sure discarding two cards is not good in a format that does not give us a draw engine in Pokemon form.  And we are already discarding two cards with Junk Arm, so it is hard to  discard cards from your hand.  But, I think most people would rather discard cards from their hand than try to find a Pokemon in their hand.

I do think that this card will have an impact on this format.  I expect it to be about as popular as Pokemon Communication.  The use of this card could also bring up the use of cards like Cheren and Bianca.  If you do use Ultra Ball, you better be prepared to draw a lot of cards to make up for the ones you are discarding.

6.  Groudon EX

There are three types that are expected to be big after the release of Dark Explorers.  Those types are Psychic, Dark, and Electric.  Two of those types are weak to fighting Pokemon, so we are in great need of fighting Pokemon.  One of the better fighting Pokemon that is out right now is Groudon EX.

Groudon is kind of like the anti-Zoroark.  Zoroark had terrible stats but great intangibles.  Groudon has great stats and only decent intangibles.  180 HP is great for  a fighting Pokemon, and with an Eviolite and the lightning resistance, he will be Zekrom’s worst nightmare.  Groudon’s first attack isn’t great, 20 damage for FC and spreading 10 to your opponents field.  But, his second attack does 80 damage for FFC and could do 40 more if your opponent’s defending Pokemon has at least 2 damage counters on it.

The second attack could be better.  I would rather have a base damage of 90 on the attack, and not have the possibility of 40 more.  That way you would be able to OHKO any Zekrom and Darkrai EX.  But, as the attack is worded right now, you will be able to OHKO all Fighting weak Pokemon if they have two damage counters on them.  How will you be able to get those damage counters on the defending Pokemon.  You could attack twice with the first attack, or you could use one of my least favorite cards, Rocky Helmet.  That card will put 2 damage on the defending Pokemon if they choose to attack you.  That is enough to do 120 base damage.  But, I fear that your opponent will be too smart to fall for that trap and they will do anything to prevent you getting an OHKO.  Without the easy 2 damage counters, it will be hard to get the OHKO.  This will hurt the card, but it is not the end of Groudon EX.  Adding a simple Plus Power will give you more than enough damage to OHKO a fighting weak EX.  And you will still be able to use the Pokemon Tool cards like Eviolite and Exp. Share.

So, does this card have a place in the format?  I think it does.  I don’t see a deck right now that this card can fit in, but kind of like Terrakion, Groudon is good enough to make its own deck.  It is simple enough to have a Terrakion style simple Item based deck.  I could see this card doing really well in the future.  This is an overall good card for the format.

5.  Darkrai EX

The Dark attacker that everyone is talking about is Darkrai EX.  Although I have always disliked Darkai because he looks like a big black chicken, he could be of the most impactful cards in Dark Explorers.

Darkrai EX has some of the best EX stats.  It has the full 180 HP, but only has a 2 retreat cost.  A resistance on an EX is unexpected, and it has a great one, psychic.  Sure the fighting weakness hurts, but that can be played around.  It has a decent Ability, “Dark Cloak”, gives everybody free retreat if they have a Dark energy attached.  This is good, but usually if you have one energy attached retreating is not a huge deal.  I see this Ability being used more in a rogue deck than a meta Dark Deck.  The attack does 90 damage and snipes 30.  90 isn’t great, but it can be approved with Dark Claw and stuff like that.  The 30 sniping isn’t something that I look for, but I would never pass up 30 damage on any Pokemon.

All of the Dark Decks that are being thought of out there have Darkai EX as a big part of its attack strategy.  Although the attacks base damage is just 90, it can be bumped up to 130 very easily.  130 may not be the 150 that Zekrom EX can do, but it is still enough to get the job done.  Don’t forget about the 30 that it does from sniping.  That could add up and knock out Pokemon like Eelektrik, Smerargle, and Celebi.  That extra prize could be what determines the outcome of the game.

So how impactful will Darkrai be?  I think he will be impactful.  I am not convinced if he will take over the format, but the Dark Deck will be played and will have at least some success.  You gotta love decks that are based on trainers in this format, and that is what the Dark Deck is all about.  As long as the Dark Deck can keep its strategies simple, it should be able to be around Tier 2.

4. Dark Claw

One of the most impactful cards of this set is an Expert Belt like card, you gotta love that.  All Dark Pokemon can now do 20 more damage to the active with all attacks.  This should give Dark Pokemon the advantage that they haven’t ever had.  Look for this card to make all Dark Pokemon more playable.

Dark Claw is the card that could possibly make the Dark Deck a tier 2 deck.  Having the ability to add 20 more damage means a whole heck of  a lot.  It could really put Dark Decks over the top and give them a huge advantage.  Not only do most Dark Pokemon have resistance on the best Pokemon in the format, now they can do 20 more damage.  There are a lot of Dark Pokemon out there that can OHKO most Pokemon in the format with Dark Claw and Special Darkness Energy, that means a whole lot in this format.

So will it be the most impactful card? No, will it be used a lot throughout its entire life?  I think so.  I think we will always see a dark deck around that uses Dark Claw, its such a  good card.

3.  Heatmor

All Durant players were dreading the release of Heatmor, and now the day is here.  But will Durant’s mortal enemy end his run as a top tier deck, or will it be too impractical?

Let’s take a quick look at its stats.  The 90 HP and 1 retreat cost are good stats to have.  That is basically everything we need to know here, except the first attack.  “Hot Lick” does 10 damage for one energy, or 60 damage  to Durant (120 with weakness).

Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s see if this card can get rid of Durant.  A Durant counter should have three aspects: a one energy attack, the ability to OHKO it, and the ability to be splashed in to any deck.  This counter has every one of those aspects.  I think Heatmor is all you need to win against Durant 90% of the time.

Now, will using Heatmor hurt your deck more than it will helps it?  Sure having Heatmor will give you an autowin against Durant, but will it hurt consistency more than it helps against Durant.  It will suck to start Heatmor against a non-Durant deck.  It could give your opponent a huge advantage, and with decks right now running 6-10 basics, starting with Heatmor is a real possibility.   But, this is not the first time that we have heard of  a player using one card for just one other deck.  It usually doesn’t hurt consistency that much, so I don’t see why Heatmor should be different. 

The interesting thing in my mind is the question of when will people stop playing Heatmor?  Most people will start playing Heatmor soon, and that will encourage people to not play Durant.  But, when people don’t play Durant, than there is no reason to play Heatmor.  When nobody plays Heatmor, than you should go back to playing Durant.  So it will be interesting to see how much play this card gets, and if it gets enough play to kill Durant.

Heatmor may or may not kill Durant, but it no doubt has a great deal of potential to effect the format in a negative and positive way.  Very impactful card here.

2. Tornadus EX

One of the most versatile EX attackers in the format will be Tornadus.  The regular Tornadus was a great card because it was versatile, it seems that these same traits will be in the EX version.  The EX card seems a lot like the regular Tornadus, just more HP nad more attack power.

Tornadus still has that pesky lightning weakness, which will be a HUGE problem for this card.  It was one thing to get OHKOed for 1 prize, but a 2 prize OHKO will hurt even more.  But, it still has a place in the format against the great fighting decks that will soon hit the format.  I like its two attacks.  The first does 30 damage for CC, or 60 if a stadium is in play.  And the third does 100 for CCC with the possibility of a discard.

This card can go right into all most any deck.  Any deck that has Tornadus can have Tornadus EX.  Expect to see it a lot in CMT and Zekrom.  Those cards will be a lot better because of this card.  One of the bad things about the regular Tornadus was the lack of a one energy card attack (one that does damage anyway), and now that has all changed.  Tornadus EX is more versatile than Tornadus and can hit harder.  It just needs to be aware of the OHKO with electric Pokemon.  If you can afford to sit Tornadus against electric decks, than you have a great deck.

Tornadus EX is a card that will be around for a long time, it will have a big impact on the format.

  1.      Dark Patch

In my opinion, the most impactful card in this set is this energy recovering trainer.  Anything with any kind of energy acceleration is much needed in this format.  People will go crazy over anything that can load up a Dark Pokemon in one turn.  Pokemon is all about being fast, so anything with energy acceleration will be impactful.

It might be a bit of a stretch to put Dark Patch at #1, but I think it is a safe bet.  How confident are you guys that the EXs will be around in a year?  I know that Dark Patch will always be around and make some sort of an impact.  You will never throw away an easy form of energy acceleration, it is that important.  I picked Dark Patch here because I know it will always be a good card.  Especially with cards like Dark Claw around, Dark Energy will always be a good thing to have attached.

So what kind of impact will this card have?  I think it has a good chance of being a big part of a tier 2 deck.  I also think that even if the Dark side does not rule the empire, it will still impact the format as a rogue card.  I think that this card has more upside, and more potential for an impact than other cards.  Sure Tornadus EX might be better, but is Tornadus EX  that much better than the regular Tornadus?  I don’t think so.  There are other options when it comes to most of the EXs out there, but there is not really a viable option for Dark energy acceleration.

I love trainers in this format, and Dark Patch is one heck of a trainer.  The ability to have energy acceleration is not an ability that comes around too often.  Plus, Junk Arm gives you the ability to grab it from the discard pile whenever you want.  A deck that runs off of great items is great in the format, and Dark Patch is the most important part in what could be one of the newest and best decks in the format.

 

Conclusion

Well, Pedro, I am all done here.  Do you have some news to end this article?

Sure.  Our last bit of news to end the article comes from the world of entertainment.  Last weekend the motion picture “The Raven” was released to theaters.   The movie of course is a fictional account of the life of American poet and author Edgard Allan Poe.  You, Pikkdogs, are a big fan of the Edgar Allan Poe aren’t you?

Love the Edgar Allen Poe.  Love his detective stories, and his short stories as a whole.

Did you know that Poe married his cousin?

Yes, we have something in common.  I am in a relationship with my third cousin.

It didn’t work out with the first two?

No.

Anyway, this movie stars the boombox holding John Cusak.  We couldn’t make the movie “Say Anything” these days, Cusak would just be holding up an Ipod instead of a boombox, and that is not as impressive.  

She probably wouldn’t have been able to see the Ipod, it would just look like he was shaking his fist at the girl.

And that won’t make a girl fall in love with you. 

Well, it depends on what kind of girl you want to attract I guess.  Have a good night everybody.

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

Website

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!

 

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