Choose deck at 4:00 am. Begin sleep at 4:30 am. End sleep at 8:30 am. 
Apparently it’s been too long since SixPrizes published a “How to Prepare for Tournaments” article because I sure blew it this time.
Here’s the (untested) list I decided to go with.
Pokemon – 16
4 Mew TM
2 Terrakion NV
1 Zorua BW
1 Zorua MCD
2 Zoroark BW
1 Tornadus EP
1 Mewtwo ND
1 Shaymin UL
1 Crobat UL
1 Chandelure ND
1 Jumpluff HS Read More
I really thought that I wasn’t going to make it to States this year. Part of me thought that I should make a strong effort to defend my title, and part of me thought that the effort would be wasted if I couldn’t attend anyway. I had it in the back of my mind that I might make it to the tourney, so all along I had been putting together a CMT deck. I really actually wanted to play a straight Celebi/Mewtwo deck (without Tornadus or any techs), but I didn’t want to go out of my way to buy a bunch of Mewtwo if I might not even use them.
I did end up scraping together all the pieces for a CMT minus the 2 Mewtwo EX. When I decided to try opening the OneHitKO Store, I bought 3 boxes of Next Destinies. I figured that if I did end up able to attend MN States, then I could just borrow a couple Mewtwo from the store for the day. Well, that idea fell apart rather quickly when I opened 3 boxes and saw a total of ZERO Mewtwo EX.
The weekend before the tournament, my wife went to the hospital 3 times with pregnancy issues, and I thought that each time we might have an extended stay there while delivering our new child. Nothing came of that, and on the Monday before States, I ended up emailing TAndrewT and talking about all of this. I told him essentially the same thing I just told you, still unsure that the pregnancy would last through the following weekend of MN States. I also added that I had considered Durant and straight 4-Terrakion deck.
I didn’t know if I even cared to build a deck at this point. Pokemon wasn’t a pressing issue, and I had barely played since Cities. Andy replied with, “Well, if you need Terrakions I have plenty for you to borrow.” and I thought that this sounded like the only plan I was going to come up with on late notice.
I netdecked a list, and I threw together the deck proxying the Terrakion (I had all the rest except for 1 old style Revive in place of the new one). There’s a guy here at work that I’ve been playing against over lunch sometimes. He has a Zekrom/Eelektrik deck (which I figured would be popular), so I challenged him to a match. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the deck with him, so he played an old Emboar/Reshiram deck of mine. The first game went very quickly as I lost due to not getting more than 1 Terrakion out. I think the deck wasn’t very shuffled yet, and 2 Terrakion were prized. The next game was a real match, and I think I ultimately won when he decked out. This one game turned out to be my only real tourney prep, though. Other than that, I never played the deck until the day of the tourney. At the tourney, a junior (another co-worker’s kid) challenged me to a game, and I ran though his Pokemon very quickly. Going into the tournament, I had only played one real and it was against a non-metagame deck.
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A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with a tournament report. This past Saturday I was lucky enough to get to go to Michigan States at Okemos, Mi (which is just outside of Lansing).
The Deck
Before I talk about the tournament I will give you the deck that I used. As you can see with the title, I ran a really weird deck. I knew that I wasn’t going to win with this deck, but I just wanted to have fun. I planned on doing a lot of testing and bringing a deck that I thought could win, but I came down with a case of Bronchial Pneumonia. This really screwed up my states testing, and I couldn’t come up with a good deck since I was too busy coughing up my lung. So I decided to just make up a quick rogue deck and just try to have fun instead of winning.
I came up with the idea for this deck while I was reading a Six Prizes tournament report by my buddy Airhawk. He had played a guy who had made an Ursraing Prime/Durant deck that tried to win by milling. The problem is that the deck didn’t turn out too well, and it seemed like it was an Ursaring Prime deck that could drop 4 Durants out of nowhere at the end of the game and win the game by milling. This gave me an idea to do the same thing. So I started the deck by using Scizor Prime, he is nice because he scares people by making them not use special energy cards. The plan is to just use Scizor Prime for a long time, and then when they aren’t looking to use Durant for the mill. I also put in Terrakion for the Zekrom match-up, and Victini for the Durant match-up. Here is the list.
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A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with an opinion article for you. I didn’t really have many ideas on what article to write for today, so I 
decided we should do another opinion article. Before we start the bold statements, let’s introduce my extra dimensionary sidekick, Pedro. How’s Pedro doing?
Doing well.
What news have you today for us?
Well, in entertainment news Michael Bay has announced that he is making a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, but he is making them aliens. Which is weird because they are called “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”, which means they should be mutated adolescent kung-foo users, not aliens. Do you like the TMNT?
Sure, used to watch the cartoon series growing up, and I used to have the good Super Nintendo videogame. I agree with you Pedro, the turtles shouldn’t be aliens. To me, they are an extension of the awesomeness that was New York City in the 1980’s. You had lots of crime and pizza, so to stop the crime and eat the pizza you needed the turtles and a large rat. They also behaved like Teens, which made them part human, and making them aliens would take away from that.
You seem to have a strong feeling about this.
Well, I do. TMNT was also a lot about humanity, it just wasn’t about turtles eating pizza. They had some culture in the program. Even the fact that they are named after renaissance artists speaks to their connection to humanity.
And I thought it was just about eating pizza and chasing after cute tv newswomen.
No, that’s what my life is like.
Ah, I see.
Bold Statement #1- Lv. X’s were a better game mechanic than EXs (ex’s) or Primes.
We have had a lot of Ultra Rare mechanics in the last several years. The first was the ex mechanic, which had a long life. This were just like normal cards, but they had more a few more HPs, and they could attack a little better. The drawback was that if they got knocked out, your opponent took 2 prizes. Than with Diamond and Pearl came the Level X mechanic. Lv. X cards were cards that you put onto your active Pokemon of the same name. You could then use the attacks of both cards. But, you would have to use the HP, weakness, resistance, and retreat cost of the Lv. X. After about a dozen sets with Lv. X’s, we made a change to Pokemon Primes. Pokemon Primes were kind of like the old exs, but they did not need an extra prize on knockout. They also didn’t have Prime in their names, meaning there was no real difference between Primes and other cards of the same name, just the rarity. After only a few Prime sets, we shifted back to exs, but called them “EXs” instead. These EXs had more HP than the former exs did, and hit just a little harder.
After all of those changes, I think that the best ultra rares were the Lv. Xs. I believe this for two major reasons. The first is that leveling up provided the perfect balance of draw backs and advantages. The second reason is that the Level X mechanic kept prices down,
The Level X mechanic was great because it gave us a great system of advantages and disadvantages. The advantages were that we could get Pokemon with more HP, better Poke-Powers, and better attacks. These are similar to what we get with the EXs, exs, and the Primes. But, the drawbacks to Lv. Xs I think are much better than the drawbacks to the others. Instead of having to lose two prizes instead of 1, which never made any sense and made things balanced, it was a little harder to setup a Lv. X. The Pokemon had to be active to get a Lv. X, which made it harder to get out. And the fact that you had to put the Lv. X on a regular Pokemon was another drawback. It not only made you run at least 1 extra card, but it made your setup slower. These drawbacks made the game more balanced, the EXs now don’t have these drawbacks, and the game is a little more unbalanced because of it.
The other thing that was great about the Lv.X mechanic was that it helped keep prices down. Mewtwo EX is about as sought after today, as Flygon Lv. X was three years ago. They both had a similar price ($50-$70), but Flygon Lv. X forced you to build a much cheaper deck than Mewtwo EX does today. This is because you almost always only ran 1 Lv. X in your deck. If it was a stage 2, you would normaly run a 4-2-3-1 line. Even if it was a basic, you still normally ran a 2-1 or 3-1, depending on the Pokemon. Sure, sometimes you did run 2 Lv.X’s, but that is still cheaper than the 3 Mewtwo EXs that are standard in a CMT deck today. In fact, a CMT deck normally consists of 3-4 Celebi Primes and 3 Mewtwo EXs, that is 6 or 7 Ultra Rare cards. If Mewtwo EX’s attacks were on a Lv. X card instead, you would probably run a 2-1, 3-1, or 2-2 line. You would also run the same amount of Celebis, if “Forrest Breath” was on a Lv. X. That means you would be between 2 and 4 Ultra Rares, instead of 6 to 7. That would make the deck much cheaper and make it accessible to more people.
That is why I love the Level X’s, I think they gave us a slower and more balanced format than we have right now. Even though things did get out of hand once they introduced the SP Lv. X’s, I think that I will blame it more on the SP mechanic more than the Lv. X mechanic. The one thing I didn’t like about Lv. Xs were that it was harder to have a bench sitting Lv. X than it is to have a bench sitting Prime or EX. However, this now rarely comes up because the only bench sitting prime or EX that I know of is Slowking Prime, and we all know how good that card is.
Bold Statement #2- The Current Shiny Mechanic is the Best.
There have been a couple different systems of Shiny or Secret Rare Pokemon in the past coule years. I think that our current system, of having reprints is the best. I think they are really cool to play with, and are challenging to collect. Under our old systems of shinies and secret rares, the “cool to play with” factor rarely came up. Now it does, and it gives you a way to show off your collection.
In the Diamond and Pearl era, the secret rares were Shinies of basic Pokemon like Yanma and Duskull. Duskull saw a little play when Dusknoir DP was played, but for the most part, nobody cared about these cards. They were only valued at a couple bucks each.
This trend was continued in the Platinum era, but they did also change the secret rares a little. In the Rising Rivals set they released Rotoms as secret rares. These Pokemon could be used to make their own deck, but the deck was never anything more than expensive. The same was for the Arceus cards that came out in the Arceus set.
I think that now we have the best system of secret rares. The Diamond and Pearl method of giving us secret rares of basics that nobody likes wasn’t that fun. And, although Rotom and Arceus decks were cool, they were never a great deck.
I really like when we can actually use the secret rares in decks we are playing. It also covers the weakness of secret rares, because nobody has to play with Secret Rares because they are all reprints. But, a lot of people do want to use the SRs because they have really cool art. That is what Secret Rares should be. They should be really cool looking. They should be hard to collect. And, they should be playable. The only SR model that has been used in the past couple years that covers all of those three areas is the current one.
Bold Statement #3- Spring Regionals will be all about the Rogues.
We will be playing in a similar format for Spring Regionals that we did for States. Coming into States we didn’t really know what was going to be played. Just a couple weeks before it started, people were still creating decks like CMT and Zekrom. Now that we have a solid format that people can plan for, Regionals should be all about rogue decks.
It was very hard making rogue decks for States because rogue decks usually are made to go against meta decks, and since meta decks were so new, it was hard to counter them. Now that we have had a whole states season to find out what the meta is, we now have about a month to counter these decks. In fact, it is already happening. People are starting to work with cards like Cofagrius, Chandelure ND, and Vanilluxe ND to make rogue decks.
I predict that Spring Regionals will be all about the rogue decks. Now I won’t turn my back on CMT, I know that it is the BDIF and it will win most regionals. I also know that Zekrom and Durant are also good and will see a ton of play. But, all the story lines will be about the rogues. Compared to the beginning of the season, our format has a ton of cards. That means a lot of new combinations that people haven’t tried before. We should be seeing a lot of different combos that go outside of our normal box of thinking. If you think of it, we are really only talking about 3-5 decks doing well right now, come Regionals we should see the format getting broken open. Just like the 
Truth opened up the format during Worlds, we should see rogue decks taking over soon during Spring Regionals.
Bold Statement #4- Comic/Card Shops are the Worst Place for a Pokemon Tournament.
I can’t say that I have been at Pokemon Tournaments all the world, but I have been at tournaments all around the Great Lakes Region, and I think that my experience shows that card shops are generally the worst place for tournaments.
I first started out playing Pokemon in Minnesota. Almost all tournaments in the Minneapolis region are at card shops. Generally, I found that card shops in that area were very nice and fairly spacious. Of course, you also get the advantage of having a store that sells things like dice, sleeves, and snacks. But, upon starting to play in Michigan and Ohio, I realized that card shops in that area are terrible for tournaments.
While Minnesota card shops were big enough for tournaments, shops in Ohio were very small, and that seems to be the trend. Even though you do get the convenience of a store by a tournament, card shops are for the most part much to small to handle a Pokemon tournament with the current player base. There is just no where to move, and getting to your table is very hard to do. The whole tournament becomes one hot and sweaty encumbrance, and the game is no longer fun.
Most Michigan tournaments are held in places like Hotel conference rooms. These rooms are usually much bigger than card shops, and are designed to handle hundreds of people. We almost never have to turn people away, and there is plenty of room to spread out and relax. The inconvenience of not having a store on site, is more than made up for by all the space and comfy furniture. This is more important today because tournaments are getting bigger and longer.
I think that this is a very important topic for the game today. I do not think that the game can grow if tournaments are being held in shabby places that are not attractive to new players. Tournaments should be fun places to be where you can talk with friends, not a place where you can recreate what happens in a sardine can. It is important that the game be allowed enough space to grow, and card shops do not have that space. I can admit that not all card shops are small like this. I have heard of a large shop in Florida that works well, and of course the shops in Minnesota still work well, but it seems like card shops are too small for Pokemon tournaments over all. Tournament Organizers should think about moving away from card shops, and instead moving to municipal or commercial buildings.
Well, that’s all I got. Feel free to share your thoughts. If you like Primes, card shops, basic secret rares and meta decks at Spring Regionals; please let us know in the comment section. So Pedro, what do you got for us to close the article?
Well, today the whole world is going cockahoop for the new movie, “The Hunger Games.” Pikkdogs, you are a librarian and you like to read, do ya like the Hunger Games?
Never read it. I’m a fat guy, why would I want to hear about a place where there is no food?
I’m sorry I forgot.
I would much rather lay in my bed clutching my Big Mac.
And by “Big Mac” you mean?
My penis.
Okay, we should just end the article, good night everybody.
A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This will be a special edition of the Pikk Three article. It will actually be a
Pikk Four, and it will feature 4 supporters that have fallen out of favor in the format. Maybe we can drum up support for these cards and they will see some play.
This is where I usually introduce Pedro and we talk about boobies and stuff. But, not today. Today there will be no boobie talk or fart jokes. I just found out that the older brother of my best friend during high school has died from an overdose. He, Jeremiah, had always struggled with substance abuse problems, but he was a nice guy.
I just don’t feel like making fart jokes today. I don’t feel bad for Jeremiah, he knew what he got himself into. But, he left his 3 year-old daughter without a father, and he forced his parents to bury him, that’s who I feel sorry for. So instead of making jokes today, I just want to tell everyone out there to be careful. I know that college students make up a lot of our reader-base, and I know that there is a lot of drug use among college students. So, I just want to tell you to be careful, and to think of how your decisions effect other people.
A man died, my friend died, and a beautiful three year-old girl will never know her father. There is nothing funny about that, and so that’s why I have no comedy in my heart today. Pedro will be back later this week, but I just hope that at least one of our readers can learn from this terrible story. Feel free to share your similar stories in the comment section.
Card #1 Engineer’s Adjustments
Description– Engineer’s Adjustments is a drawing supporter card. It has a simple effect, you can discard one energy and then draw four cards. It is kind of like a colorless energy version of Ninetales HGSS’s “Roast Reveal.”
Analysis– Engineer’s Adjustements has always been a card that I have liked, but it has never received too much play. The most competitive play that this card has seen was when Steelix Prime was a playable deck. Since he had an attack, “Energy Stream”, that let you attach energies from the discard pile, this card worked well. But, when Steelix Prime fell because of the rise of Blaziken FB, Engineer’s Adjustments has fallen out of favor.
Like I said before, I really love this card. There are a couple reasons why you want energy in the discard, and this card can do it while letting you draw 4 cards. Although it is not the best drawing card in the format, it does 2 things fairly well. This makes it versatile and really good for some decks. I really like this card with Eelektrik, since he needs energy in the discard pile to be useful. I especially like this card in Magnezone/Eels, because Magnezone almost never puts energy in the discard pile. So, there would be no reason to use Eelektrik, unless you use Engineer’s and get energy in the discard pile quickly to power up attacks. It also works well with Typholosion Prime, since that card too can attach energies from the discard pile. Even though Reshiram does discard energy by himself, it never hurts to put a copy or 2 of this card in a Reshiphlosion deck, it can only make the card more consistent in the early game. 
Without Eelektrik and Typhlosion, I probably wouldn’t use this card. I would probably go more for a hand refresh card like Professor Oak’s New Theory. Drawing 4 cards is great, but people do not usually have an abundance of energy in their deck, and this card is not worth playing more energy.
Final Rating– 7.75/10– I love this card in the format right now. It has a lot of decks that it can sneak into and do well. It is not a great card, but it is a really good card that works well with a lot of decks out there.
Card #2 Seeker
Description– This is a supporter card that forces each player to pick up one of their benched Pokemon.
Analysis– This card was used a lot when it first came out, and then it slowly fell out of favor. It first saw play in almost all decks when it came out. It was used to disrupt your opponent, and to re-use Uxie. A lot of donk decks were playing it for the ability to take one Pokemon out of the game. When Lost World came out, Seeker was used in conjunction with Gengar Prime to get Pokemon in the Lost Zone. But, Gengar Prime is not played anymore, Uxie has rotated out, and Donk Decks are a thing of the past. So Seeker is a very rogue card right now.
I do like this card, it is very versatile. You can use it for disruption or to accomplish a goal in your deck. It can be very damaging to unexpectantly have to pick up one of your benched Pokemon. You can lose evolutions and energy very easily. I think it would work very well against the Terrakion deck, since it does not traditionally have a lot of benched Pokemon.
There doesn’t seems to be a great use for Seeker right now. It is a powerful card, but there just isn’t a deck that it works well in. The only deck I have seen it played in is a disruption deck with Weavile. If you collectored for 2 Sneasels last turn, you can evolve into Weavile, use “Claw Swipe”, pick up Weavile with Seeker, and then evolve the other Sneasel so you can “Claw Swipe” again.
There is nothing about Seeker that makes it bad. It is a good card that works in a lot of ways. The only bad thing is that there are not a lot of Pokemon to go with it. Uxie and a lot of good coming into play Poke-Powers are all gone, so there is less of a reason to use Seeker.
Final Rating– 6.5/10– A good card that just needs a good reason for someone to use it. It is an under-rated card that can help some decks out there, a lot of people should consider running 1 copy of this card in their decks.
Card #3- Fisherman
Description– This card let’s you take up to 4 basic energy cards from your discard pile, and put them into your hand.
Analysis– This is probably the best energy recovery card in the format. Getting 4 cards in your hand is amazing. It works really well with Emboar, this card means that you do not skip a beat when you lose a Pokemon. You just attach the energies back onto another Pokemon and go from there.
This card has not seen a lot of play in the past, the most play has been with Emboar in Reshiboar. It was really easy to recover from a couple “Blue Flare’s”, and it was easier to load up RDL for a two prize knock-out. This card made the deck work. However, when Typhlosion Prime replaced Emboar, the card fell out of use.
It is still seen in some rogue decks. If you see any Blastoise decks, or maybe sopme Rehiboar’s, you will almost always see Fisherman. It is good in some rogue decks, but it does not have a lot of use in Meta decks right now.
I do like the card. 4 energies to your hand gives you a lot of choices on what you want to do next. That will set you up on energies for 4 turns, or you can use it with another card like Engineer’s Adjustment or Ninetales HGSS for draw power.
The bad thing about Fisherman is that the discard pile seems like a good place for energies right now. A lot of decks have Eelektrik and Typhlosion Prime to attach energies from the discard pile. So you don’t really want the energies in your hand. Another bad thing is that draw power is very supporter heavy right now. You always want to use your supporter for drawing, so you won’t have time to use Fisherman. There are a lot of bad things about this card, but it is still cool and fun to use. 
Final Rating–6/10– It is a nice card, it just doesn’t fit that great with the format right now. It will see some rogue play, just not that much.
Card #4- Copycat
Description-Copycat is a supporter that let’s you match the handsize of your opponent. You shuffle in your hand and draw the same number of cards that they have.
Analysis– Copycat has been in the format since HGSS and has a long history. When it first came out people were not sold on it being a great card. It did seem like a lot of the better players did like the card, but it didn’t really catch on to the greater playing community. That is until Yanmega Prime came out. Yanmega Prime’s “Insight” Poke-Body let you attack for free as long as you can match your opponent’s hand size. After Yanmega Prime became super popular, Copycat became a staple. It was used a lot and saw a ton of play. But, all good things must come to an end, and that was how it was with Copycat. Once Reshiram and Zekrom became more popular, Yamega Prime fell out of favor, and so did Copycat.
Copycat is an old card that is still around and is still good. There is no longer a reason to want to match hand size, but you can always use the card just for hand refreshing and draw power. You should be able to get a decent number of cards each time, and this card has the oppurtunity to get you more cards than even Juniper can give you.
Of course, it also could give you 2 or 3 cards. You never know how many cards you will get with Copycat, it might be just a couple. Pokemon is all about consistnecy, and in a day when the average hand size is small, around 5 cards, it doesn’t make sense to rely on this card for draw power. You can’t be losing a game just because your opponent has a small hand, so there might be better supporters out there.
Right now, I think I would use this card as a general supporter. It really doesn’t have a good partner anymore, because Yanmega Prime is no longer played. So, it should be used as a general supporter. Decks that have Ninetales and Magnezone Prime in them usually have large hand size, so Copycat works well against opponents who play those cards.
Final Rating–6.75– This is no longer a great card like it used to be, but it is still a nice rogue choice. You don’t need to play this card, but this card probably deserves more love than it is currently getting.
That’s it.
Rest In Peace Buddy. This ones for you.
as Darkwing34, in person as Scott Creech, or in comments as Balasar. I have been collecting the cards for seven years, and have been playing for four. I have never made it to top cut, but I’ve gotten close in the past two tournaments. One of those tournaments was the Muncie City Championship, and the other being the Indiana State Championship. In the Muncie Cities, I placed third out of eight, and at Indiana States I placed fourteenth out of fifty-three. Without further ado, let’s get to the article.
A big hello to all you OHKoers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with a short article about the first week of States. The first week has come and gone. Some things about 
States were very expected, while others were kind of a shock. We will go through all of that, and hopefully you will be all ready for your second week of states. But, before we go to that, let us say hi to my inter-dimensionary sidekick Pedro. How’s it going Pedro?
Going well, how is Pikkdogs?
Actually not doing that well. I am sick, I got a cold or something, but, as we all know that doesn’t matter to Ed, he makes me work no matter what disease I have.
How did you get sick this time? Did you catch something from all the Pokemon groupies that hang around you?
I think so. One was kind of sneezing, so that could be. In fact, that was the reason that I couldn’t go to States last weekend, lots of groupie sex.
Will you be doing more groupie sex this weekend, or can you go to States?
Well, I was going to States, but something came up.
So you are doing the groupie sex?
No, that’s not what I meant. Hey Pedro, I heard there is a new box coming out in the spring, can ya tell us more about that?
Sure, I am very excited about this box, it is called the “Forces of Nature Collection”. It retails of about 13 bucks, and it contains six things. It has a Full Art Landorus,and two special promos of Tornadus and Thundurus from Emerging Powers. The three other things are three booster packs. Two Emerging Powers and one Call of Legends.
That is pretty cool. I love the full arts, and this one looks really cool. The Thundurus and the Tornadus also look pretty cool, you can never have enough Tornadi, so its a good deal. Hey Pedro, since we didn’t really have time for a joke today, can you do a real quick one?
Sure, really quick. AOL’s Urlesque, their entertainment news program, recently featured a story where a full sized cat got stuck in one of those claw machines (the ones that have stuffed animals in them). The story has a happy ending, the cat was eventually rescued by the fire department. It is too bad that it took 17 dollars in quarters to get him out.
Okay, good enough. Let’s get on to the article.
Overview of the First Week of S/P/T’s
Before we get in to what won, let us look at how the attendance went. The numbers overall were not very impressive. Most states got about 75 people in the Master’s division. I think Alberta’s Province Championships had about 50. But, Ohio States had their attendance numbers go through the roof! There were 220 Masters! This kind of sucked for the people who were there. Not only did it slow things down, but they still only had 8 rounds and a top of 16, when they should have had at least a top 32. This made it really hard to stand out. So, besides Ohio, most States were fairly average in attendance. About 7 rounds with the customary top 16 is probably what you are looking at this coming weekend. Unless you are going to Indiana, which will probably have about 250 people, if last week’s trend continues, you shouldn’t have too hard of a road.
What Won in the First Weekend of States/Province/and Territory Championships.
According to www.pokegym.net, this is the list of decks that won on the first weekend of states.
These are the decks that won the S/P/T’s. For 2nd to 4th places, the trend seemed to continue. CMT and Zekrom/Eels were two top decks from 2nd-4th places. Durant was 3rd and Terrakion was 4th. It seems like the day was won by Zekrom/Eels and CMT. These results were consistent with my predictions, so there are no surprises there. Zekrom can hit really hard, and CMT is faster than Usain Bolt. Durant did well and won a few, that was also expected. The surprise was when Terrakion did well. 
Terrakion?
On Saturday night, in between all the groupie sex, I went to McDonalds and brought my laptop. I had the Mushroom and Swiss burger, which was really good. Anyway, on my laptop I saw that the guys from www.thetopcut.net were streaming coverage of States. In Top 8 there was a match between a normal Zekrom deck and a weird deck with only 4 Terrakions in it. The Top Cut personality, and former Onehitko.com guest writer, Kyle “Pooka” Sucevich nicknamed the deck 4 Terrakion. I really like that name.
This deck seems really simple, it just uses 4 Terrakion. There are a lot of trainers and supporters in the deck. This deck seemed to forgo the use of one of the best cards in the format, Eviolite, for Exp. Share. That way the player could attack with Terrakion even if he had lost one last turn for just the one energy that you can attach on that turn. I have also heard some people are using Landorus in this deck as well. The use of Landorus won’t change the deck up too much. Although Terrakion is the better attacker, Landorus gives you some more options. It is nice because if you were to prize 2 Terrakions, your deck would not instantly fall apart. Landorus is also resistant to lightning Pokemon, which makes it very good for the current format. This deck is different because it doesn’t use Mewtwo EX, which makes it a good choice for people who couldn’t find a couple Mewtwos.
Because the deck only runs a maximum of 8 Pokemon, it has a lot of room for energy removal cards. Lost Removers and Crushing Hammers are great cards, but we usually can’t fit them into decklists. These techs work really well against Mewtwo, and decks like Durant that don’t run a lot of energy cards. This should give you a decent advantage against some of the other decks in the format.
I really like this deck for two reasons. The first reason is that this deck is really simple. We have a lot of good trainers in this format, so why should we not try to play a list that let’s us maximize the potential of each of the good Item cards we have? The second reason is that Zekrom decks are being played a lot. One ‘Retaliate” shot can knock out both Zekrom and Zekrom EX. Those Pokemon are very very popular right now, and Terrakion is auto-win against it. If you play this deck, you will probably get 3 to 4 wins very easily.
I do have a lot of questions about this deck. The first question is, “how does it beat Durant.” Although Durant will not outspeed this deck, it should be able to use Eviolite and Special Metal energies to make sure that the 90 base damage that Terrakion can do is not enough to consistently OHKO Durants. The Terrakion player will try to remove energies, but will that be enough to stop a deck that relies on a 1 energy attack? The second question is, “How does this deck beat CMT?” Although this deck is fairly fast, it should give up KOs on “X-Ball” really easily. This seems like a deck that CMT will have no problem with. 90 damage will only put it in 2HKO range, and the Eviolite will make it 3HKO. So the Durant match-up seems iffy, and the CMT match-up seems like an Auto-Loss. The final question is, “does Seeker kill this deck.” If the Terrakion player only has 2 Pokemon in play and his/her opponent plays a Seeker and gets a knockout, the game is over. If people start playing more Seeker, the Terrakion player will need to play more Pokemon in their decks.
But, the deck did do well with very little play, so it must be a good deck. It really was the surprise of the tournament. I have not seen a list from one of the players last weekend, but I can come up with a sketch of what it might be like. Again, I have not tested this list, this is just me sketching something up. Hopefully in a week or so I will have time to test the deck. hopefully an article on it will be coming.
Pokemon-5
Trainers-42
Energy-13
What to Look Out For on the Second Weekend
Well, I think that we can expect more of the same on the second weekend, with more Terrakion decks. You can expect to see a lot of CMT, Zekrom, and Durant decks. Those should be all around any States that you go to. What will be interesting is to see how fast that Terrakion catches on. Terrakion was not played a lot last weekend because not many people thought of the deck, it will be different this weekend. Just how many people play it will have to be seen. But, it will be around more than it was last weekend, so be cautious if you are playing Zekrom. You might want to play some Zapdos and see if that will help you at all. The deck choice that I think will the safest is CMT. It has a decent Terrakion matchup, and is pretty good against everything else. The rise of Terrakion should not stop the rise of CMT. If you don’t have enough cards for CMT, Durant might be a safer deck than Zekrom, if you think that Terrakion is going to played a lot.
Conclusion
Well Pedro, I know that was a short article, but I’m sick and that’s all I can do. Why don’t you close the article out.
Okay. Foxnews.com is reporting that a New York Advertising Agency is trying to use homeless people as “walking Wi-Fi Hot Spots.” The plan, before it was recently canceled, was to give equipment to these homeless people, and a user would pay the vagrant 2 bucks for every 15 minutes they spend online. So Pikkdogs, would you follow a homeless person around with your Ipad?
I already follow them around.
Okay, would you get Wi-Fi from them?
No. Though it could have a catchy name, “Ho-Bo Hot Spots!”
That would be nice. But is a Wi-Fi hot spot worth spending time with guys who are smelly and sometimes crazy?
Sounds like dinner with my family.
True, if you use it at your families house, you might as well do it with the homeless.
That’s what I do. Anyway, this sounds a lot like Kramer’s idea of using the Homeless to power rickshaws in Seinfeld. That didn’t work either, but it was a lot funner. That’s enough, good night everybody!
Hey guys, it’s Ed here to talk to you about something new going on at OneHitKO.com. Maybe you’ve noticed the new ads around the site, but maybe you’ve been conditioned to ignore all the advertisements. I really can’t blame you for ignoring the ads. I mean, I do appreciate when you guys have clicked on the ads in the past, but let’s be honest. They ads are rarely related to anything you care about and they can get annoying.
Lately, Pikkdogs has been busy providing you guys with plenty of entertaining Pokemon TCG content. As a side note, we really ought to thank him more for that.
While he’s been writing articles, I’ve been working on something new, The OneHitKO.com Store. I just got it working, and while I’m pretty proud that it’s up and running, I know that it still definitely needs work. As you can see from the look of it, it’s a low budget operation.
We are currently only selling Next Destinies cards, and the shop looks a bit weak. I know. I mean, take a look around here. The site works, and we are pleased to have so many loyal readers. We’re not kidding anyone, though. Aesthetics is not the focus. I’m working on the issues, though.
I want this new idea to work out, because I think it will be a good thing for our readers. Ultimately, I want us to be able to provide any cards you guys might need, but right now we have to start somewhere. I also want to make it look more professional, but I just think that it’s better for us to get something up and running ASAP than to get it perfect before launching.
What does this mean to you? Well, we’re hoping that OneHitKO readers will support the site by patronizing http://shop.onehitko.com. Whenever you need some cards, all we ask is that you check out the OneHitKO Store and see if we have the cards you’re looking for.
Please consider taking a moment right now to browse our Pokemon Card Shop. Leave us some feedback about what you think. I know the selection isn’t impressive yet, but we need to start somewhere. Also, keep in mind that I will be editing the store quite a bit in the near future. The look and feel of it will likely change.
If you experience any technical difficulties, be sure to let us know. If you don’t like something you see (layout, pricing, etc.), let us know. If you make a purchase, leave a comment here and let us know.
Thanks guys! I really think this will be a better way bring you both the information you need and the cards you need to act on that information. The process will require some growing and learning, but I’m excited about this new way for us to serve the Pokemon TCG community.
A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with an opinion/debate article. In this article I shall debate against my sidekick/nemesis Pedro. Are you ready Pedro? 
No, we gotta have our news article before we go on to the article.
Alright let’s go. What do you got for us today?
Well, today we have news from TMZ. TMZ is reporting that there is a Hulk Hogan sex tape that is being shopped around to different porn companies. Do you like the idea of a Hogan sex tape Pikkdogs?
Of course I am a huge fan of the Hulkster, though I don’t know if I want to see a Hogan porn.
The Hulkster is known for telling boys and girls to eat your vitamins and say your prayers, not eatting-
Hey, this is a family website.
Is it?
Well, no, if it is you are in a pretty screwed up family.
I actually got a free preview of the tape, and I must say that it actually is a fairly good movie. Everything was going well until “Rowdy” Roddy Piper comes in and hits Hulk with a steel chair. Then, the” Million Dollar Man” Ted Dibiase runs into the room and puts Hulk through a table. That kind of ruined the movie.
I would think so.
Is Playing Durant Dishonorable?
Before we get to the debate, let me do a little setup. There has been a debate among Pokemon players for some time now on whether playing the Durant deck is an honorable thing to do, or if it is kind of cheap. So, in this article me and Pedro will have a debate on the topic and settle the argument forever. Please feel free to put your own points into the discussion by writing in the comment section of the article. Also, be sure to vote on who you think debated better, Pedro or I.
So Pedro, we are ready to debate. What side of the argument do you want to take?
I don’t really care.
Well, I don’t care either.
Well, this should be a rousing debate then, no buddy seems to care.
Ok, then you can take the affirmative and I will do the negative.
Playing Durant is Dishonorable by Pedro.
Before I get to my argument, I must put my italics converter into my inter-dimensionary porthole. Here we go, all better.
There is no doubt that playing Durant is not an honorable thing to do. As Sheldon Cooper once said in the Big Bang Theory, “like a milking stool, my case rests on three legs.” The first leg of the argument is that the Durant deck does not take any skill to run. The second leg is that the deck gets illegitimate wins based on luck. Finally, the third leg has to do with the deck making the game boring.
Even though people have different reasons for playing this game, one of the more popular reasons is that the skill and thought that it takes to win makes the game fun and enjoyable. Pokemon is very much like Chess, it is a game of skill and people play to enjoy themselves and test their wits against each other. We could test our wits by jousting, but that takes a lot of expensive equipment, horses, and it can get bloody. So, instead we choose to match wits with Pokemon.
Durant takes this skill away from the game. Playing this deck does not take any skill. All you have to do is use Pokemon Collector to grab 3 Durants, and then say the word “Devour.” That is all you really need to do. To make things a little less simple, we can also talk about how the deck uses other cards. When use draw a card like Metal Energy, Lost Remover, Crushing Hammer, or Eviolite all you have to do is play it. There might be a little skill in deciding what energy to remove, but not much. For the most part all you do is play the cards as you get them, and then say “Devour.” There is no skill like there is with other decks.
In other decks you have to decide what Pokemon you want to knock out, and you have to use skill to try to do the highest amount of damage and certain parts of the game. There is none of this in Durant, all you gotta do is say the word “Devour.” You do not have the mind games that you do with other decks.
The second leg of my argument is similar. The Durant player does not win by using skill, but by using luck. Just like the #1 pick in the NFL draft this year, a Durant deck is all about Luck. It almost does not matter what deck you are playing against, the plan is the same, to setup fast and start milling quickly. And what determines how quickly you get milling, luck. The hand you get when you start the game, and what your next draw is, is what really determines the outcome of the game. We all know that it is not a question of can a Durant player win against this deck, but it is how fast will it take Durant to mill. If the answer is around 7-8 turns than it is an easy win for Durant. If it is more like 10 turns, than it is a win for the other deck. And, it is your starting hand, and your draw on the next turn or so, that determines how many turns it will take you. And you starting hand is determined by the luck of the draw.
What fun is a game if your entire day is determined by luck? This game is supposed to be fun and exciting, not just luck based. It is true that some decks rely on luck, even luck early in the game, but no deck is so reliant on getting luck early. There has to be skill somewhere in the deck, not just all luck. But, that is what Durant is all luck. You wonder why during Cities 2 similar Durant lists with 2 players of similar skill can do so differently? It is because of luck. We had some very similar Durant lists going 1-5 and then 6-0. Having that much variance in results surely indicate that the deck is way too reliant on luck to be honorable.
The final leg of my argument has to do with Durant making the game boring. Not only does Durant make skill go out the window, it makes fun go out the window. You have not seen boredom until you have seen a top cut filled with Durant decks. After the first couple turns, all anyone did was maybe play a Lost Remover or attach an energy, and then say the word “Devour”. All this does is Devour our precious time away. Nobody wants to see a Durant mirror match-up because all it is is two people yelling “Devour” to each other. The person who wins is usually the person who prizes the best. The person who has a Durant in their prizes usually loses. And it is no fun to have a game decided by what is in your prizes.
So in close it is dishonorable to play Durant because it takes everything that is good about the game and vomits all over it like party-goers at Charlie Sheen’s house. The deck takes no skill, relies on luck, and just makes the game very boring. I rest my case.
Playing Durant is no Dishonorable
Good job Pedro. I have a big job ahead of me.
My opponent is greatly under-estimating how much skill it does take to play Durant. He would have you think that just because the player only uses one attack, that would mean that there is no skill. Well, if that is so would you not think that Mewtwo EX would require no skill? He only uses the “X-Ball” attack. Just because you only use one attack does not mean that the deck is totally auto-pilot.
A good Durant player does not just use “Devour”, he also uses a lot of other attacks. Durant himself has an attack that does 30 damage, which is enough to knock out the games most popular starter, Cleffa. There are also other attackers in the Durant deck. Durant players frequently use Prism energy in their deck so they can attack with Rotom. Rotom can snipe out attackers, giving the Durant player more options, which needs more skill from the player to decide how to attack. One of the most popular Durant lists also runs Cobalion NV to attack. With Cobalion, the Durant player has the option to try to take 6 prizes. These options require more skill from the player to decide which ones to use.
There is also skill in deciding what version of the deck you would like to run. Although I would concede that the deck might take a little less skill than some other decks, there is a lot of skill to making your list. There are a lot of options to go with. You can decide to run more energy removers, or more defensive cards like Defender, or you can run other attackers like Cobalion. The number of variations of Durant decks that are out there right now is vast. You will need to use your skill and knowledge as a deck builder to build a version that is best for you area.
My opponent would also like you to believe that playing Durant is dishonorable because the deck is luck based. He would have you believe that the fact that your odds to win are based on what happens during the first couple turns of the game.
I would concede that this is true, but isn’t that same thing true of every deck right now? We always here people complaining that almost every game is decided by which player goes first. Just because this is true for Durant, why should Durant take all the hate. Shouldn’t the blame go to the rules and the format itself?
We also here people complain that they didn’t get to draw a supporter until several turns into the game, or that they got a terrible draw off of a supporter. So it is not Durant’s fault that what happens off the first couple supporters determines what happens in a game, that is what happens in every game. Doesn’t the Magnezone deck rely on an early Pokemon Collector just like Durant does, so why does Durant take all the blame?
The third argument that my opponent has made is that Durant takes the fun out of the game. While I concede that a lot of people play the game for fun, should I sacrifice my record just so other people can have fun. If you want to have fun you can go ride a rollercoaster, don’t tell me that I can’t succeed just because it isn’t fun for you.
If a player can be successful with Durant, why should they think about someone else’s level of fun? I would say that if you do very well with Durant you will be having a lot of fun. The most fun I have had at tournaments is when I win, so it seems that Durant does lead to a lot of fun.
Now that I have responded to my colleague’s points, I would like to make some points of my own. If you watch the first season the Pokemon anime, you would have listened to its legendary theme song. The first line is this, “I wanna be the very best, that no one ever was.” This series was very popular, almost as popular as the video game. And without a doubt, it has been more popular than competitive play of the Trading Card Game. This means that the Anime has been very influential in all aspects of Pokemon, and there is no doubt that almost all players have the passion “to be the very best”. So if everyone wants to “be the very best”, wouldn’t it be against the Pokemon way to not be the very best? It would be un-Pokemon like to not use every fair advantage possible to win.
We all know that Durant is a very good deck. It was the most successful deck of the last few weekends of City Championships. So, if you do not use this deck in favor of something that will not be as successful, it would be against the spirit of Pokemon. If you have a good deck like Durant that you think you can win with, you should use it. Some people might whine and complain that it is not fair, but that is a problem that Nintendo should have to answer for because they printed the card, you are just taking every fair advantage that you can. It would be silly not to run Durant just because other people don’t find the deck fun.
Another reason that I think that playing Durant is not dishonorable is because the deck is fun to play as an example of the legitimate game mechanic called “milling.” Milling is a more obscure part of this game that doesn’t get used very often. There are people, myself included, that love milling. Good milling decks don’t come around too often, so when they do you have to jump aboard. These people should not be disrespected just because they love to mill. If you love to mill, you will love to play Durant, and what is wrong with that?
My final point on this topic is that Durant can help newer players grow to love the game. Me and Pedro both agree that anyone would be insane to think that handing a new player Durant would be a good thing to do. There are much better decks that can teach players the basics of the game. The skills you learn while playing Durant are not as easily transferrable as those you learn by playing other decks. But, if a beginner does play Durant on a limited basis, it could be a good thing for them.
If a beginner does well with a Durant deck, they will get a rush of excitement from doing well in a tournament. Even if they decide to put down the Durant deck, that one good experience they had with the deck could hook them for life and encourage them to become better players. One good experience with a Durant deck can encourage a young player to become a player for life. And, it is always a good thing to have more people in the game.
Well Pedro, I think we beat this dead horse pretty hard, let’s just end it now.
Sounds good. We would like to remind our readers to provide more points on this topic, and to vote on who you think won the debate.
Well do you want to end this thing Pedro?
Sure. Today we have a this day in history. Today in 1974 the Wonder Woman TV Show premiered. Do you like the Wonder Woman Pikkdogs? 
Well sure, but I wouldn’t say that she was one of my favorite super heroes. Did you know Pedro, that the person who invented Wonder Woman also was one of the founders of the lie detector test?
That is interesting.
Yes, he was a very interesting person. He thought that Comic Books were an important part of American Culture, and that women deserved better comic book heroes than they had. He felt that women were very strong and very honorable. He thought of this as he was cheating on his wife. He actually lived a double life with two families.
Well, that is not very nice of him. I thought you were going to point something else out about Wonder Woman.
What was that?
That Linda Carter had a great pair of boobs.
Do you think that I am that shallow?
No, I know that you are.
I guess so, you are right, she does have a great pair of boobs. Good Night everybody!
A big hello to all you OHKOers out there, this is Pikkdogs here with a Pikk Three article. As always, these articles are a three pack of card reviews. One is on a popular card, 
the second is on a card that I think is under-rated, and the third is from a new or yet to be released set. Before we go on to the reviews, let us first welcome my colleague from a different dimension, Pedro!
Hey Pikkdogs.
So, Pedro what do you got for us today.
Well today we have some news from DARPA.
The 90’s MTV cartoon?
No, that was Daria. This is a government agency called the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
That is a horrible name for an agency. I like the more classic and simple names like CIA and FBI.
I guess the guy who does the naming must have been sick that day. Anyway, DARPA has announced that it has made a robot Cheetah that has broken the Robot Land Speed Record.
I didn’t know they had a robot land speed record. Read More
Andrew A. 
Ed 
Pikkdogs 
balasar