Pikkdogs: The Final Article
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Pikkdogs
Who is Eelektrik’s Best Friend?
A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs with an article that is kind of a deck review, but kind of a card review. Today we will be talking about
the Eelektrik card and which cards work best with it.
Before we get to the article I have an announcement to make. Next weekend I will publish my final article on this website. After a long deliberation, I have made the decision to leave the game and the article writing business for the time being. This has been a tough decision since I love the game enjoy writing so much, but I am excited to go on to other things. I will explain more in my final article, but I thought I would give you a one week heads up. Make sure to show up for my final article, it will be something.
Eelektrik- The Basics
Eelektrik is the best energy accelerator in the format. He is a stage 1 that allows you to attach an electric energy from the discard pile to the bench with the “Dynamotor” Ability. This works great with cards like Ultra Ball and Professor Juniper. You just need to have energy in the discard pile, and you can power-up most Pokemon in just one or two turns.
The one draw-back to Eelektrik is the retreat cost. The 2 retreat cost can be a killer, and it necessitates the running of DCE or cards like Switch. Eelektrik also doesn’t have much of an attack, and there aren’t any good Eelektrosses to evolve into.
The good things about Eelektrik do outweigh the bad things. However, you do need a partner or two for any Eelektrik based deck to work. There are so many good Pokemon to pair with Eelektrik that you could hurt your deck even if you do choose to play some good cards. It takes more than just a passing glance to choose the best friend for Eelektrik. It takes an analysis of the format and your local metagame to choose the best variant of an Eel deck. Here is a close look at some of the most popular pairings with Eelektrik.
The Most Popular Pairings
Here are a couple of the standard options for an Eelektrik deck
Zekrom– Zekrom was the first pairing with Eelektrik, it’s the best, and it’s the most popular one today. For three energies it can do 120 damage, that is pretty darn good. It also has the great “Outrage’ attack that is good in a lot of different situations. It can be hard to keep using the “Bolt Strike” attack with Zekrom’s retreat cost, and the fighting weakness is very annoying. But since it is a good card that is not an EX, it should be in every Eelektrik deck.
Zekrom EX– Zekrom EX is a little more clunkier than Zekrom. It is not as versatile and it does give up 2 prizes when it gets knocked out, and it still carries that annoying fighting weakness. But, it is the heaviest hitter in this list. 150 damage in just one attack is enough to take out anything that is not an EX. It also has a cool three energy attack that works with DCE that isn’t terrible. It doesn’t need to be in every deck, but if your deck runs DCE, than you should run one copy of Zekrom EX. It is just a good option to have in a tool boxy deck like Eelektrik.
Mewtwo EX– Before we even get going here, run 2 copies of this card in every deck. It is just a great versatile card that is great against everything. Yes, it might suck to start with this card, but it’s not the worst start ever. Most other people will be running at least one copy of this card, so since you have energy acceleration you can load up this card in one turn even if you don’t run DCE. You should have an easy time with a lot of the rogue decks out there if you concentrate on loading energies one Mewtwo EX if you have an Eviolite on him. It is so good and versatile that without question, you should add two in every deck.
Thundurus– Thundurus does not have the power that the Zekroms have, but he is a good starting Pokemon. His “Charge” attack lets you attach an energy to Thundurus from your deck. That means that he should be ready to do 80 damage and put an energy in the discard pile on turn 2. It’s a win-win-win. You not only get energy on the field, you get energy in the discard pile, and you get to do 80 damage. Thundurus is kind of useless late-game because of the lack of pop in his attack, and he only adds to the frustrating fighting weakness of this deck. Even though the list for this deck is very tight and it is hard to waste a couple spots on a starter, I do think that you should at least try this guy in every deck. I find that 2-3 copies of this card are really good for an Eelektrik deck to have. 
Rayquaza EX– Rayquaza EX is a card that is not standard in a regular Eelektrik deck, but is kind of thought of as a deck of its own. It is still does contain Eelektrik, so it does belong in this list. Rayquaza EX is a dragon type Pokemon that does 40 damage times the number of energies that you discard from an attack that costs PL. Of course this deck doesn’t mind discarding energy since each Eelektrik can get one back per turn. So if you have 3 Eelektriks in play and you discard 3 lightning energies a turn, than you end up being even. You just need Switches to move Rayquaza EX on the bench. The first weekend of Battle Roads was not super kind to Rayquaza EX, so this may not be a great deck right now, but it is worth a try. One thing I should make clear is that Rayquaza is not something you can throw into any Eelektrik deck. If you want to have Rayquaza EX in your deck, you need to make an effort to build it around only him.
Rogue Pairings
Here are some pairings that are known, but not really standard.
Terrakion– Terrakion/Eelektrik was a deck that was popular during Cities/States/Spring Regionals last year. It is another variant of an Eelektrik deck that usually doesn’t contain a lot of the other cards and has a special purpose. The purpose of this deck is to be able to use Eelektrik and Zekrom BLW while hitting other Eelektrik decks for weakness with Terrakion. Terrakion does make this deck a little less consistent, but it adds a cool new ripple into this deck by helping you out in the mirror a lot. I don’t know if this variant is still viable in the new year, but maybe it could be something to look out for. If you think you might see this deck, take a look at our next card on the list.
Zapdos– Zapdos is one of those few legendary Pokemon that has a decent non-EX card. It is not good in most decks, but Zapdos does work well in an Eelektrik deck. The reason why Zapdos works is that he has an attack that is not terrible, and a fighting resistance. If your opponent is just running over you with fighting Pokemon, you can bring Zapdos out and he will stop the onslaught. If you expect to see some fighting Pokemon, I would run at least 1 of this card. It may not have a lot of pop in its attack and may not be the shiniest Pokemon, but if you want something to counter fighting Pokemon, than Zapdos is your man!. Or weird bird thing. 
Tornadus– Another Pokemon that is great in this deck for going against fighting Pokemon is Tornadus. Of course if you play Tornadus you will need to play DCE. But if you are okay with playing DCE, than Tornadus is a good option. I usually favored Zapdos over Tornadus, I don’t know why, but it just feels right. Tornadus also is weak to lightning Pokemon, so it can be a liability in a mirror matchup. But, it is a little better of an attacker, so if you don’t expect a lot of the mirror, Tornadus could be a better fighting counter.
Raikou EX– Raikou EX is a card that I really like. His attack does 100 damage to anyone of your opponent’s Pokemon and forces you to discard three energies. This is not a terrible thing since if you have at least two Eelektriks out you can just attach three energies to a benched Raikou, retreat one Raikou for another, and attack for 100 again. Than you just rinse and repeat until you win the game. I really like this card, but during testing I found out that 100 damage is a little weak with Eviolite and so many EXs in the format. It feels like most of the time you are just attacking the defending Pokemon, so you might as well just run Zekrom EX and do 50 more damage. I hope someone proves me wrong, but I don’t think Raikou is a great card in this format.
Obscure Pairings
Finally, here are some pairings that are a little off the wall.
Bouffalant DRX or BW– There are two Bouffalant’s that wouldn’t be bad in this deck. The BW Bouffalant is a lot like Terrakion. If you do run DCE, than Bouffalant wouldn’t be a terrible play if you want to play this guy. The Dragons Exalted Bouffalant is a counter against EX Pokemon. If you feel that you are always going up against EX Pokemon, than Bouffalant wouldn’t be a terrible play. If you first attack with someone like Thundurus, than Bouffalant could come in and finish off the KO next turn. It is not a card that will be the greatest thing ever in this deck, but if you run a more tool boxy version of this deck, than this card could help you out a little. It could be worth testing depending on your metagame. 
Siglyph DRX– We have another EX counter from DRX, Siglyph. Siglyph does necessitate the running of some psychic or Blend Energies, but if you really need this card it is worth it. It also works well with the Rayquaza EX variant, since both cards need psychic energies. Though it would be kind of weird to run this card seeing that it is a Mewtwo EX counter. You should already be running Mewtwo EX, and since you have an energy accelerator you should have a good advantage in the Mewtwo EX war. But, maybe a wall like Siglyph could work against a more diverse base of EXs. It could be something worth testing.
So, Who is Eelektrik’s Best Friend?
Now it is time to answer the question, who fits the best with Eelektrik? Here is my list.
- The best pairing is with Zekrom, you need to play Zekrom.
- Mewtwo EX is a standard in every deck. You also need to play Mewtwo EX.
- Zapdos is needed in the match-up with fighting Pokemon, you probably should play him.
- I really like Thundurus, put Thundurus in your deck and only take him out if needed.
Those are my top 4. You can add to your list from the rest of the Pokemon I talked about, but they are my top 4. If you have other additions to either of my lists, please leave them in the comment section.
Well, that is all I have to say, make sure to show up next week for my fare-well article. So long and thanks for all the fish.
Your 2012-2013 Pokemon Calendar
A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. I was trying to think of an idea for a different kind of article, and this popped into my head. The image of Tawny Kitaen grinding
on top of a car also came into my head, but that’s another story. This idea is about a year preview, a look ahead to each thing that will be coming at us in the coming year.
This is the usual time that I introduce my extra-dimensional sidekick Pedro, however I have been unable to reach him since the last article. So I guess we have to skip over this part.
So, first up in the 2012-2013 year after the release of Dragon’s Exalted is the Autumn Battle Road Season. Before I get started I should mention that everything in this calendar is subject to change. I am just guessing on some of this stuff like the set releases. But judging from the fact that i am a fat drunk guy, I probably made a lot of mistakes, so bare with me.
Autumn Battle Roads; Sept 1st-30th.
As it always does, the season starts with Autumn Battle Roads. Battle Roads are the smallest tournaments out there, think of them as small local tournaments. Most people don’t travel more than an hour and a half for a BR. They don’t carry that many Championship Points, so they aren’t very important in the grand scheme of things, but they are still my favorite tournament.
It seems like Pokemon is just made for the Fall, it feels great to play Pokemon with the leaves changing and the weather cooling down. Even though the stakes are low, the tournament season is still very fun.
This year there are a lot of changes for Battle Roads. There is no longer a top cut. So in most cases you will just play rounds until there is just 1 undefeated, and then everybody can go home. Since the tournaments are smaller, it will be nice to have a short day of Pokemon and then leave to watch Football. It will feel bad to finish 2nd-4th and not get a chance to win, but this season is all about fun, not winning. If you do want to win, you must think consistency. You can’t count on getting lucky every time, try to find a deck that is consistent and try to win each game that you play, that is your only hope of winning.
So, that’s pretty much it for Battle Roads. They are very fun tournaments that should be easy to get to. So try to get as many as you can and you will have a great time. If you have a Fall Regionals in your area, Fall Battle Roads serve as the introduction to the third most important tournament of the season. Speaking of Fall Regionals!..
Fall Regionals: October 13th (Fort Wayne, In, Houston, Tx, Eastern Canada)
Regionals used to always happen in the Spring, now we get Regionals spread apart across three weekends. I don’t really know if the spreading of Regionals across three weekends really makes a difference since most people don’t have more than one Regionals in their area, but there is not really too much of a downside. The first will happen in the middle of October
If you got to one of these I really hope that you played in a lot of Battle Roads. The Fall Battle Roads serves as the capstone for the Battle Roads season. If you did really well at BRs and have a lot of knowledge of the format from the BRs, than you should do well at Fall Regionals. The format for this Regionals is exactly the same as Fall Battle Roads, so if you want to do well at Regionals expect to hit a lot of Battle Roads.
Success at Regionals also involves a lot of strategy in picking your deck. This tournament will have a large Top Cut, some places will see anywhere from a top 32 to a top 128. So taking a deck that is all about consistency might not make as much sense as it did during Battle Roads. Since you are looking at 7, 8, or even 9 rounds of Swiss, you can afford to lose a game or two. So you can afford to tech out your deck a little more, or run a more risky deck. This different format should cause more varied decks to be played then there were during Fall Battle Roads. There should be more variations in decks, so Fall Regionals should be pretty fun.
Set Release of Boundaries Crossed (Equivalent of Freeze Bolt/Cold Flare)
Just before Thanksgiving comes upon us and we eat a lot of Turkey, the next set will come out. It is expected to contain a lot of cards in the Japanese Freeze Bolt and Cold Flare sets. It will be called Boundaries Crossed, which sounds like what the title of a speech that police officers usually give me after I get arrested. I don’t really know why it’s called Boundaries Crossed, maybe Brock will finally take his woman chasing one step too far, who knows. Anyway, the Freeze Bolt and Cold Flare sets were really cool because they not only contained a lot of cool cards, but they contained some new game mechanics. 
The most notable game mechanic is the addition of ACE SPEC cards. Since they have not been officially announced in the West, they are kind of mysterious, but we do know what the first ones are and what they do. ACE SPEC cards are cards that are super powerful trainer cards. You are limited to only one Ace Spec card in each deck. There are currently 4 ACE SPEC cards. The first one is Computer Search, which is like a Junk Arm that works on any card in your deck. The next is Gold Potion. Gold Potion works like a regular Potion, but it only works on your active Pokemon, and it heals 90 damage instead of 30. The last two Ace Spec cards only work on Black Kyurem EX and White Kyurem EX. Crystal Wall is a Tool Card that gives Black Kyurem EX 300 HP. Crystal Edge is another Pokemon Tool Card that let’s White Kyurem EX do 50 more damage from each attack. These cards are really powerful and will be great in most decks.
But this new set has more cards than just the ACE SPECs, it has a lot of cool cards. Staying in the trainer arena, Warp Point gets a reprint with escape rope. Bicycle is an item card that lets you draw until you have 4 cards into your hand. Ether is a card that can help with energy acceleration. Town Map let’s you flip your prize cards flip you. And finally, Hugh is a supporter card that evens all hands at 5 cards each.
As far as new Pokemon, Vileplume has been getting hype for turning all weaknesses into X4. Blastoise is like a repint of the Base Set one, but with updated HP and attacks. We also get a new Charizard, it isn’t that good, but everybody loves Charizard. There are a bunch of new EXs including Black Kyurem, White Kyurem, Celebi, Keldeo, Cresselia, and Landorus.
It is hard to know exactly how impactful this set will be, but it looks to be a great set.
City Championships: Nov. 17- Jan 6th
So now we got a new set, and City Championships are a whole new game. We thought 180 HP Pokemon were bad, now we have 300 HP Giants running around.
City Championships are not really that much different from Battle Roads. They are about the same size tournaments and they usually happen at the same location. But, for some reason City Championships are very important in the scheme of Championship Points. A lot of people really like Cities, but I really hate them. I don’t really know why since they are very much like Battle Roads, but I guess it’s the timing. Most Tournament Organizers seem to schedule Cities right next to Thanksgiving and Christmas, so it is pretty hard to attend all of the tournaments that you would like to.
Anyway, Cities are pretty must like BRs. Expect, we think that they will still have Top Cut rounds. Since the tournaments are still very small, consistency is still important, just not quite as important in a tournament without Top Cut.
It is pretty hard to imagine what the format will be like at this point. I will assume that Black Kyurem EX will be a popular card, nobody can hate 300 HP, and the ability to do 200 damage in one attack does make White Kyurem EX pretty cool. We don’t really know what exactly will happen, but we can imagine that Dragon Pokemon will be very important in Cities. Perhaps you will be able to use Vileplume to use the Dragon weakness in your advantage. Who knows exactly but will happen, but I can smell the rain (reign) of the Dragon Pokemon.
Winter Regionals: Jan 19th (Salem, Oregon)
Just like Fall Regionals were the capstone to the BR season, Winter Regionals are the capstone for the Cities season. There is not much to say about Winter Regionals. The format will be the same as in Cities, and the structure of the tournament is the same as in Fall Regionals. Also the same is the fact that you can be a little more risky in Regionals than you could during Cities. The tournament again will be huge, so do your best to do well and have fun.
Set Release of Black and White 8 (Equivalent of Plasma Gale).
We don’t know a lot about BW8 yet, but it is expected to contain a lot of Plasma Gale cards. We also don’t even know a lot about Plasma Gale cards, but we do know some things.
We do know that this set will contain another new gimmick, Team Plasma Pokemon. This is not the first time we have seen Pokemon that are owned by people. The early days of the game saw Pokemon owned by gym leaders. And most famously a couple years ago we had SP Pokemon, which were Pokemon that were owned by people like Team Galactic and Elite Four members. We will soon have more trainer owned Pokemon, though we do not really know what the exact mechanic will be.
We do know that Team Plasma won’t be in their name, but an indicator will be directly under their name. There will also be certain trainer cards that have Team Plasma in their name which work with other team plasma trainer cards, energy, and Pokemon. This brings back disturbing memories of the Cyrus engine in the SP days. Let’s hope that Pokemon has learned from their mistakes and that they don’t let Team Plasma cards be as powerful as the SP cards were.
Even though we don’t have scans of most of the cards, we do have some cards. The first big card that we got a look at was Lugia EX. Lugia has an Ability that lets you take one more prize card after you knock out a Pokemon. It’s attack costs 4 energies and does 120 damage with a discard of one Plasma Energy. We also have a Crobat that has an Ability that lets you draw one card, and has an attack like Crobat Prime had (the defending is poisoned and takes 4 damage between turns). Another cool card that we have seen a scan of is Rotom, it has a “Boltergeist” attack that is like the attack of last format’s Mismagius and Gengar SF (20 damage times the number of trainers in your opponent’s hand). The rest of the cards we have revealed have an Infernape and a Druddigon.
There are also a few trainers that were revealed. One card that I like is Plasma Frigate. It is a stadium card that gets rid of weaknesses for Pokemon that have Plasma Energy attached. Colress Machine is an item card that lets you search your deck for a Plasma Energy and attach it to a Plasma Pokemon. Colress is a supporter card that lets you shuffle your hand in your deck and draw an amount of cards equal to the amount of Pokemon in play, expect this card to get a lot of play. The Plasma Energy card does not have any special effects, all it does is provide C energy.
State Championships: Mar 9th, 16th, and 23rd.
This is expected to be the first tournament after the release of BW8 (though these things have not been verified yet). State Championships are big tournaments like Regionals, but are a little bit smaller attendance wise and not worth as many Championship points. States are split up to three different weekends in march. State tournaments are usually split up by date geographically, so you will at least have a shot to get to 2 or 3 states instead of just one. I also like States because it is around the time of the NCAA basketball tournaments, and it is cool to think about brackets for Pokemon as the nation is talking about brackets for college basketball.
The strategy to winning this tournament is similar to the regionals. It will be a big tournament probably 7 or 8 rounds. Consistency will be important, but there will be some room to run a more risky build.
States is a fun tournament, just a little less serious than Regionals. The tournament shouldn’t be as far from you as Regionals is, since it is in your state. So just enjoy the day and be thankful that you don’t have to drive very far.
Spring Regionals (Western Canada, Madison, Wi)
I expect this will either be the first tournament since the release of BW9, or the release could come right after Spring Regionals. The tips for winning these regionals is the same as the others.
Set Release of Black and White 9
I don’t know anything about this set, nobody does as far as I know. Perhaps it will be the first Black and White 2 set because of the release of the video game. I expect some new game mechanics if so, and possible replacement of the EX Pokemon. But, any kind of speculation is just that, speculation. Nobody knows anything about this set. So your guess is as good as mine.
Spring Battle Roads: May-June
Spring Regionals is like the red headed step child of Battle Roads. Most people don’t respect Spring BRs. Even Pokemon doesn’t really respect it, two years ago they used it as a testing ground for how the format will be for Nationals. Most people don’t attend a lot of Spring Battle Roads because it is in the spring, and there are better things to do. People are attending graduation parties and cookouts and stuff like that, they don’t really have the time or interest to play in as many Spring BRs as they do Cities or Fall BRs.
The claim to fame of this tournament is that it is the precursor to the National Championships and Worlds. The format for Spring BRs is the same as what Nationals and Worlds will be, so if you are able to get to some Spring BRs you will have a leg up on the competition in the summer.
We do not know if there will be any new rule changes this year. The fall BRs this year had no top cut, it is unlikely if this will change much for Spring Battle Roads. Unless people get really made about no Top Cut in the fall, it is likely that the spring ones will also be sans-top cut. The strategy for winning these BRs is same as the fall ones.
National Championships: June-July (more info to come)
To me National Championships is the capstone of the entire season. I know that Worlds is supposed to be the Super Bowl of Pokemon, but few people are invited to Worlds. Nats is something that everybody can go to. It is one of the most fun experiences that the game has to offer. If you haven’t gone yet, plan to make a trip this year.
Where are you making the trip to? I don’t know. It is expected that U.S. Nationals will be back in Indianapolis, but it has not been announced as a sure thing. Perhaps Pokemon will move it to another spot. We do not know much about the location yet, but just make sure you go.
It is hard to give you tips for a tournament that is about a year away. But, it will be a very very big tournament (the U.S. one will be anyway) so make sure you build your deck on that. Make sure you have a balanced deck that is ready for everything, because you will see everything at Nationals. You will see both meta and rogue decks played in high numbers.
World Championships: August 9th-11th in Vancouver, Canada.
The final tournament of the season is actually one of the smallest non BR or City tournament of the year. It does have the best players in it though. And, even if you can’t make it to the tournament, Pokemon is expected to keep us updated by text and video updates online. If you do make it there, there are some cool events like concerts and stuff like that.
The tournament this year will be held in Vancouver, which is in the magical land of Canada. Hopefully more people will be able to get to Vancouver than were able to make it to Hawaii this year. But, it was in San Diego 2 years ago and they didn’t have great attendance there either. Hopefully this year people will be drawn to Worlds because of Canadian things!!!like!!uh!.. maple syrup, Shania Twain, and hockey.
I have heard that Worlds is a fun event, but I have never been able to go. I have heard that it is cool because you get to meet people from all over the world who enjoy the same game. Like the Olympics, it brings people all over the world together in peace. That is always a cool thing. So if you are in the west coast of North America it would be cool to go and compete in worlds, but unless you do well at Nats it is hard to get to Worlds.
So that is all I know about the calendar year of Pokemon. Just a note, there are also a couple European tournaments that take place during the year. One of those is one that invites players from all over Europe. Last year there were some Spanish players who flung their poo around, so that would be fun to see. These tournaments are really only for serious European players, but I guess it would be cool for a North American player to go (if that’s even legal). The only thing it does is that it gives us a look at a format and it tends to give us a hint at how the other tournaments that are next to it on the calendar will go. Again, I must warn you that I guessed at the time of some of these events so it won’t be perfect, but it should be fairly correct. Yet, I still don’t want ya to be disappointed if a couple events are switched around here and there.
So long and thanks for all the fish.
Cards Pikkdogs Likes: Aggron DRX, Regigigas EX, Druddigon, Tool Scrapper
A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with an article about some of the cards I like. I was going to do a stupid deck idea, but I decided to do an
article about cards that I like because I’m feeling a little egotistical today. But before we get to cards that I like, I think my extra-dimensional sidekick Pedro has a news article for us.
Hey Pikkdogs, yep. Today we have news of a literal witch-hunt conducted by the folks at eBay. In the past, Ebay has allowed witches and other supernatural related beings to sell things like spells and potions on Ebay. According to Fox News.com, there are currently 41,000 spells avaliable on eBay for purchase. But, starting in September it will be illegal to buy or sell spells, potions, psychic readings, curses, hexes, prayers, and healing sesssions. One such person who sells spells on eBay has said that this is unfair discrimination against her and those like her. They say that since Holy Water is still okay to sell eBay is conducting a “Witch Hunt”. You don’t believe this witch non-sense do you Pikkdogs?
I don’t know. I like to think of myself as an enlightened man who does not believe in such foolishness, yet I don’t want to wake up with elephant tusks tomorrow, so I will not comment on stuff like this.
Come on, all this Psychic and witch stuff is foolishness, just another way for people to screw other people out of their hard earned money.
I think it’s best not to publically scold these type of people Pedro.
What can they do?
Well according to my recent Ebay search, they could turn you into a slave or a zombie.
I guess that would be pretty bad, but I don’t care Witchs are phonies.
Alright, before you get yourself into any more trouble, let’s start the article.
Card #1-Aggron DRX
What is it– Aggron is a stage 2 Metal Pokemon with 140 HP, a fire weakness, a psychic resistance, and a 4 retreat cost. It has the “Toppling Wind” Ability that lets you discard three cards from the top of your opponent’s deck when Aggron is evolved. Its attack is called “Giga Horn.” It costs MMC and does 90 damage and forces you to flip two coins. If both are tails the attack doesn’t do any damage.
Why I like it– There are many things about this card that are frustrating. The attack is bad, the retreat is bad, and the fact that it is a clunky stage 2 is bad. But, even though there are so many reasons to hate this card, I still love it. This is because it reminds me of Rhyperior DP. During Michigan States 2010 I was able to get top 8 with a deck that included Rhyperior. The deck relied on Flygon Lv. X to trap something in your opponent’s active spot, and then use Rhyperior to mill their deck away. Back then I only had Super Scoop Up to use, now we have both SSU and Devolution Spray. So there are plenty of ways to re-use the “Toppling Wind” Ability. I just love the idea of milling from the bench. Sure you can use cards like Durant to mill from the active spot, but I like having the option to vary your attackers. I was really happy when Aggron was released because I thought it may give me a chance to re-live some of my glory days, but is it playable?
Can it be played?– A lot of things have changed since Diamond and Pearl came out. The SP format has come and gone, Junk Arm has been celebrated and then reviled, who knows if a Rhyperior like card could still work. It hardly worked back in the day, it is doubtful if it could still work now. Stage 2 decks are slated to be fairly playable in this upcoming season, so a bench sitting stage 2 Pokemon that doesn’t need to be setup right away seems possible. So it is possible, but the question is “is there a partner for it to work with?” When I played Rhyperior I played it with Flygon Lv. X and a Memory Berry. I would lock a bench sitter like Claydol in the active spot and then mill away. This strategy could no longer work. There is really no bench sitter like Claydol that is in every deck. And even if you could find a bench sitter, there is not a great way to lock it in place and still have the option to attack. The options we have currently seem to be cards that can paralyze, like Lilligant EP. However, without Vileplume in the format Switch can ruin your plan. You could use the combo of Gothitelle and Accelgor, but that is a lot to setup. I think that possibly it could work in a rogue with 
Gothitelle and Accelgor, but it will be hard to get it to work consistently. I want the deck to work, but it may not right now.
Card #2 Regigigas EX
What is it– A 180 HP basic EX Pokemon with 4 retreat cost and a fighting weakness. It has two attacks. The first attack is called “Giga Power” and does 60 damage for CCC, if you choose you can do an additional 20 damage to each active Pokemon. The second attack is called “Raging Hammer: and does 50 damage for CCCC along with an additional 10 damage for each damage counter on Regigigas EX.
Why I like it– There are two reasons I like this card. The first reason is that Regigigas is a large Pokemon. He is depicted as one of the tallest Pokemon there is, and for someone who grew up watching and idolizing Andre the Giant, that is pretty cool. The second reason is that the card art on the Full Art version of the card is really cool. It depicts him being very large and having lots of shiny colors coming off of him and from behind. I think it is just one of the coolest card arts ever, and I would love to use it, but is it playable?
Can it be played?– I know that some people did play it in a version of CMT, but it never really became standard. Other than that, I don’t think anyone ever played the card. It is hard to recommend using a card that has a rage-like attach with an EX. The appeal of a rage-like attack is that you can take a hit and then return the favor for not much energy. But Gigas has two big problems with this. One reason is that the attack costs 4 energy, it may be hard to pile that much energy on him. The other is that if you can only take 2 hits from your opponent, you will be basically exchanging one prize for two, since an EX gives your opponent two prize cards and they give you one. So it just doesn’t seem reasonable to play this card, especially when there are some good fighting Pokemon in the format. It makes me sad to think that this card will only be good to make your binder prettier, but that is it.
Card #3 Druddigon
What is it– Druddigon is a 100 HP basic Pokemon with a 2 retreat cost. It has the “Rough Skin” Ability that lets you put 2 damage counters on the attacking Pokemon when Druddigon gets attacked. It has one attack called “Clutch.” This does 60 damage for CCC and prevents your opponent from retreating next turn.
Why I like it– I am not sure why I like this card. I do like the fact that it has a built in tool card, even if Rocky Helmet is my least favorite card in the format. It is kind of cool that you can attach an Eviolite to Druddigon and have the best of both Rocky Helmet and Eviolite. It does have a disappointing attack and no fighting resistance, so that does hurt the playability. I guess I like the card because I still remember running into Druddigon in the video game. It was a very scary Pokemon to go up against in just a regular wild Pokemon encounter in the grass just outside of a town. It looked very scary, and it looked like a Pokemon that could be one of the toughest in the game. Druddigon is just a badass scary looking Pokemon.
Can it be played?– I already touched on the fact that its attack really sucks. Just 60 damage doesn’t do much. Perhaps if the format changes and you can find a reason to prevent retreating, but right now this card looks pretty bad. The Ability will always be a good thing to have, but it isn’t a good enough reason to play this card with a bad attack like that. It looks that unless preventing retreating becomes big, Druddigon will just become a scary card in your binder.
Card #4 Tool Scrapper
What is it– Tool Scrapper is a simple item card that lets you discard two tool cards attached to your opponent’s Pokemon.
Why I like it– I love this card because Tool Cards are becoming very big in this format. Eviolite is a very important card with all of these Big Basic Pokemon that are out there right now. In my opinion, Eviolite is one of the, if not the best card in the format. It is a card that makes the BBP very hard to knock out, and if you can’t KO the EXs in 2 hits, you will probably lose. That was until now, now you can use Tool Scrapper to get rid of Eviolite and easily 2HKO EXs. You can also use it to get rid of the tool card on Garbador so you can begin to use Abilities again, if Garbador becomes as playable as some people expect it to be. Getting rid of tool cards is a great thing to do, and that is why I like the card. It is a great card that can counter most of the decks in the format and do a lot of versatile things, what is not to love about that? It also is cool to remove tool cards when your opponent doesn’t thing you can, it lets you be a little bit evil.
Can it be played?- This is a new card that did not have a lot of hype, but I still think it will get a lot of play. Most people do not hype item cards, so that accounts to the lack of hype. I think that because it does so much against so many decks out there, you can not afford to not play this card. This card will become a staple in almost every deck. It is not only one of my favorite cards, but it will soon be one of the most successful cards in the next season.
Conclusion
Well, that’s all I have to say about that, I think I have rambled on enough. Be sure to comment on if you like these cards too, and feel free to share your own favorite cards. Pedro, do you care to end things with a “This Day in History” segment. 
Sure, Today in 1928 The Kellogg-Briand pact was signed. This was an agreement between 15 nations (including Germany, The United States, France, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Poland, and Canada) to outlaw war. The pact stated that these 15 countries would never again resort to war to settle disputes between nations, instead they would settle them by diplomatic means. The pact was quickly looked upon as a failure, as within 7 years of being signed both Italy and Germany broke it. But, today it is looked upon as a symbol of hope that maybe these countries can try again to res……..
Pedro, are you there.
…..tore, peace. Yes, I am here. I guess I most have had problems with my inter-dimensional porthole there. No matter, its fine now. How do you like the Kellogg-Briand pact?
Oh love the Kellogg-Briand pact. Too bad it didn’t work, just like those toys that Kellogg always puts in his cereal.
I don’t think that is the same Kellogg.
Oh, okay. But I do know Aristide Briand, he was a French pacifist who tried to undo some of the things that happened at the conference that ended World War I in Versailles. He also won a Nobel Peace prize.
That doesn’t mean much. Barrack Obama won a Nobel Peace prize, and all he did was get elected president of the U.S. Yasser Arafat won a Nobel Peace Prize and he was a terrorist. Henry Kissinger also won a Nobel Peace Prize, he did do some good things for peace, but he was also partly responsible for getting the U.S. into Vietnam. All of this while true peace makers like Ghandi and Pope John Paul II got shut out. I officially poo poo the Nobel Peace Prize.
You can’t Poo Poo the peace prize.
Why not?
There’s too many “P’s” in that sentence. And you’ve already messed with witches today, you should be worried about them rather than the Nobel Committee.
Oh, well I guess ……………take…………….chicken…….he…………..back.
Pedro, I think something is happening with your inter-dimensional porthole again.
……..
Pedro?
Well, I guess Pedro is gone. Hopefully we will get him back for the next article. Good night everybody!
Deck Analysis: Hyrdreigon and Worlds Wrap-Up.
A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with a deck analysis for you. A lot of people will be banking on the new Hyrdreigon deck to do well in the
next format. Hydreigon is a new deck, but it actually comes into the format with some momentum. Klingklang BW does a similar thing that Hydreigon DRX does and it won the Format. Darkai, who is in this deck, has a ton of momentum coming from a Worlds win. So this deck has a lot of hype and a lot of expectations to live up to. Before we talk about the deck more, let me go through some news.
This past weekend was the Worlds championship. While I don’t usually provide news or anything like that, most of us do know that Worlds was held last weekend. In the masters end, two Speed Darkrai decks made it to the finals. The finals was a match-up of American Harrison Levin and four time, four time, four time, four time Portuguese National Champion Igor Costa. If you think Igor looks familar, he seems to be the vampire from Twilight. The Top Cut consisted of the top 16 players from the Swiss rounds. A lot of the top 16 players were very familiar. Sami Sekkoum, the perennial UK champ made it to the quarter finals. Yuta Kamatsuda from Japan and The Top Cut’s Michael Pramawat also made it to the Quarters. In the semi-finals was a friend of Onehitko.com and one of the U.S.’s greatest players, Jay Hornung. Jay is the greatest thing to come out of the state of Iowa since corn and John Wayne.
The finals was a thrilling three game final between two Darkrai decks. Igor did end up winning, but the game was very close. The weekend was not very good for American players. The U.S. sent one player to the finals in each three divisions, and they all lost. We even had three of the top 4 Master’s players, but we still couldn’t stop Edward, I mean Igor. The bad news for the U.S. continued when it was announced that for the first time ever, Worlds will not be held in the U.S. Worlds 2013 will be held in Vancouver, Canada. But, Vancouver is basically a border town, so unless you don’t have a passport this news shouldn’t bother you.
Pikkdogs Plays “Stock Up or Stock Down”
A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with a weird article for you today. Well, all my articles are weird, I have a
talking extra-dimensional sidekick for crying out loud, but this one is weird in a different way. This article will be all about cards that are in the sets Black and White through the set Dark Explorers. We all know how these cards did during the previous format, but how will the rotation effect the cards currently in the format and how they do in the future? To know that we will play a little bit of “Stock Up and Stock Down.” If I think a card will be played more than it has I will give it a “Stock Up” grade, and if I think it will lose playability it will get a “Stock Down” grade. Sounds simple enough, so let’s get to it…………after we say hello to Pedro.
Hey Pedro, do you have a news article for us today?
Hello Pikkdogs, I sure do. Today’s news comes from Foxnews.com. They are reporting that a private U.S. company is raising money to complete a project called the “Deepflight Super Falcon”. If completed, the project will create a submarine that is capable of maneuvering in the water similar to the way a plane does in a dog fight. This is great news, because the Super Falcon sets us up for some cool underwater dogfights. Are you excited for this Pikkdogs?
Oh hell yeah. That would be a cool thing to see in a James Bond movie, can’t wait to see those dogfights.
Though the name seems kind of weird, Deepflight Super Falcon. Seems like an old Super Nintendo game or something.
Plus, falcons don’t fly in the water. It should be something like Deepflight Super Finding Nemo.
Finding Nemo isn’t the name of a fish.
But, it does have a certain ring to it.
Did you enjoy the movie Finding Nemo Pikkdogs?
Ahhh, it was okay. I’m not gaga over it. I did like when they made fun of the clown fish.
It was a good life lesson to all the kids out there. Make fun of clowns and things will be okay.
Yep, let’s get onto the article though, it’s getting late.
Stock Up or Stock Down? 
Mewtwo EX
Stock: Unchanged
I know, I wrote a whole paragraph about putting all these cards in stock up or stock down categories, and then I start the article with a Stock Unchanged, which frankly doesn’t make any sense. But, I do believe that Mewtwo EX will be just as popular as it once was.
The conventional wisdom is that Mewtwo EX will drop a little bit in playability since it no longer has a deck of its own. But, I think that Mewtwo EX is such a good card that it doesn’t need its own deck to be good. I think it can be used in almost any deck in the next format and still be good. Eelektrik and Emboar will both be playable in the next format, and these decks are perfect for Mewtwo.
There are just so many decks that Mewtwo EX is good against that I couldn’t see it not being played in almost any deck. Plus, there is the fact that Mewtwo EX will soon be a tin promo, so everybody will be able to play it without cost being a factor. Mewtwo is just so power and versatile that I don’t know if he will never not be a staple.
Terrakion
Stock: Down
The format has changed a lot since Quad Terrakion first made its mark on the format. Back then most decks had electric Pokemon in them and Terrakion could just say, “I’m a fighting type, give me the win.” Things are different now, Terrakion does not just get to win because it is a fighting type. Sure, Electric and Dark decks will still be around, but there will be so many other things.
The format will still be favoring the Big Basic Pokemon, but there will also be stage 2 Pokemon in the format. Most of these Stage 2 Pokemon cannot be OHKOed with 90 damage, and they can match Terrakion blow for blow. Take for instance the Reshiboar deck. If you do 90 damage to Reshiram, he will just do 110 to you next turn. And if you do 90 damage to Emboar, he will still have 60 HP left, well out of the Plus Power range.
The more diverse the format gets, the less valuable Terrakion will get. Sure, I could still see Terrakion surviving in a tool box deck, or maybe some people will still play a mono-fighitng deck, but the format will not be at Terrakion’s feet any more. His stock has gone down in the last month or so.
Tornadus and Tornadus EX
Stock: Unchanged
Tornadus was a great Pokemon early in the season last year and into mid-season. It kind of petered out late in the season, but it is still a good card.
Tornadus started out the year on a great winning streak. It did well in the ZPST deck where it was fast and could knock out a lot of things very early in the game. Later in the season Tornadus helped cover the weakness of electric Pokemon against Terrakion. Then later in the season, Tornadus EX came out and caused a split in the player base of Tornadus. It was a good Pokemon with Darkari, but didn’t get too much player after that.
Without Junk Arm Darkrai and Tornadus will probably not be a great deck anymore. Eelektrik decks will still be around, but it is not clear as to if they will still play Tornadi. The Troll deck also may not be around. So it is unclear if Tornadus will be as playable as it is now.
But, an attack for CCC that does 80 from a basic will always be good. And CCC for 100 isn’t bad from an EX either. Those attacks will always be good to have around, and with the prominence of DCE it will always be easy to use this card. So kind of like Mewtwo EX, there will not be a lot of Tornadi decks around, but there will be a lot of decks with the Tornadi in there.
Klingklang
Stock: Unchanged
Klingklang was a crap rare until a few guys like our own TAndrewT and National Champion John Roberts II came up with a cool Klingklang deck that moved energy around. It went from being rogue to being the BDIF in just a few short months, and it is sure to have an impact in Worlds this weekend.
So why is it gonna be good in the next format? I think that all of the talk that Hydreigon is going to replace Klingklang is a bunch of hokum. The reason I don’t believe that Klingklang will be replaced is that Blend Energy kind of screws up the playability of Darkness energy with other energy types. The Blend Energy that works with Darkness energy only also works with Grass Energy, Psychic Energy, and Fire Energy. The only good Pokemon that would work well in Klingklang like deck is Darkrai EX, everything else is with the other Blend Energy card. That means that Klingklang can use cards like Kyorge EX and Groudon EX, while Hydriegon can’t (at least not as easily). Even though Klingklang does lose Darkrai and its Ability to easily retreat, that doesn’t mean all is lost. You can still load up your deck with Switches and stuff like that to make up for the difference.
Klingklang does lose a little from the rotation, but it does not lose enough to kill the deck or take it away from the 1 or 2 tiers. I think it should still be a decent choice entering Battle Roads.
Bianca and Cheren
Stock: Up
I don’t know if any card on this list has risen faster than these two. With PONT and Sage’s Training now out of the format, it is up to Biance and Cheren to save things. It doesn’t really matter if these cards aren’t as good as PONT and Sage’s, these cards are the only draw power we have left to take over the empty spots.
I did have some success with Bianca, if you pair it with cards that discard like Ultra Ball, it isn’t a terrible card. Cheren will never be great, but if you need something that let’s you always draw 3 cards, this will do it. They are both cards that will see a lot more play now. Maybe N and Juniper will be your favorite draw cards, but games will be won and lost depending on how things go with Bianca and Cheren.
Pokemon Communication
Stock: Down
Pokemon Communication is not the card that it once was. It once was a 3 or 4 of staple card in every deck. Later in the season last year it turned out to be more of a rogue card than a staple as the format started to favor BBP. Now we have almost no cards that can actually search out Pokemon, so you can’t really count on having one in your hand to switch for one you want. The playability of this card will be down from last season, but I don’t necessarily think it is done.
I still like Pokemon Communication in evolution decks. Some decks in the next season will run almost 20 Pokemon, if you do Pokemon Communication will still be good. If you run anywhere near 15 Pokemon, Pokemon Communication will be a good card to support other cards like Level Ball and Ultra Ball. I can see this card still being a really good card. That being said, a lot of decks will still run on the principles of BBP, which go against those of Pokemon Communication. It will never be the staple it once was, but it will be very playable.
Rare Candy
Stock: Up
Rare Candy is a card that seems like it has been in the format forever. It also seems like it always has been a staple. Last season it was not a staple. Most people wo
uld laugh at you if you played a stage 2 deck, until it won Worlds of course. Now we have a format is more conducive for stage 2s.
Stage 2 Pokemon first started declining during the reign of SP Pokemon. Garchomp C LV. X could snipe out any basic or stage 1 very easily. Then when SPs stopped, Pokemon Catcher came and could take out basics and Stage 1 whenever it wanted. Although we still have Pokemon Catcher, there is no longer Junk Arm, which almost doubled the playability of Pokemon Catcher. So although Pokemon Catcher is still a problem, its not that much of a problem, you should be able to get Stage 2’s out now.
Since we have playable stage 2s now, we should be able to use Rare Candy. It should effect the format in a big way, no more will BBP be the only play, we will have some variety in the format. I can see Rare Candy being around in a lot of decks and stage 2s not being just for rogues any more. It could soon be more of a staple, than a rogue.
Empoleon
Stock: Up
As I mentioned in the previous section, Stage 2s will become more playable. Empoleon was kind of playable at the end of last season, it was more of a rogue, but people still played it. It was often paired with Terrakion in a decent deck, but it never really won anything. Now that stage 2s are playable and the format is a little slower, Empoleon is ripe for the playing.
We have lost some draw power with the rotation. PONT and Sage’s Training were good supporters, but now they are gone in favor of supporters that are not that good. And we still don’t have any draw Pokemon to replace Uxie and Claydol, so the format is kind of open for a faster deck to take over. Empoleon has built in draw power which is amazing in this slow format. Even if its attack wasn’t good it could still be a good tech, but its attack is good and it can be used in a deck. Empoleon may not be tier 1, but I think it should be tier 2. Just having a decent amount of draw power will separate it from other decks in the format.
Who knows if this deck will be one of the best around, but I think this deck deserves a test before you hit your first battle road. It should be a good deck for the next format.
Darkrai EX
Stock: Down
I know all the hype in the last couple weeks was that Hydreigon will make Darkrai even better, but I don’t buy it. I tested the deck, and it was a good deck, but it is not something that is dominant. I also think that Klingklang may be a good deck still, so people will be split between the two similar decks. I know the deck will be played, but it will not be as popular as Darkrai was at Nationals.
Starting at Spring Battle Roads last year Darkrai EX was a dominating card. Almost all winning decks was some form of Darkrai deck. The most popular was a deck with Tornadus EX. These two BBP Pokemon could enlist the help of Sableye to use all of the item cards too the best of their ability. Now the format lost the most important item card of all, Junk Arm. No longer can BBP win just because they are BBP, the format will be a little more complex.
Darkari will need to include a stage 2 now to survive, but because it does include that stage 2 it could slow it down enough to bring other decks in the mix. Will a slower Darkarai deck be much better than a Reshiboar deck? I don’t know. Two things I know for sure, one is that Darkai EX will be played, and another is that it won’t be as dominant as it was during Spring Battle Roads.
Well that is all I have got to say for today. I was going to let Pedro finish things up like I normally do, but I gotta be a little serious here for a minute. This article was about a week late and I’m not sure when my next article will be out. Things at work have just been really busy the last couple weeks. I recently accepted additional work at my current job in the technology department, and last week we had the server die. If you know anything about technology and networking, you know that having a server die is about as fun as having a root canal. This coming week could be even a worse week at work, so I may be distracted for a while. So the site may be a little quite in the next couple days. If you guys want to write an article please contact me or Ed and we can get you going.
So long and thanks for all the fish!
Pikkdogs Stupid Deck Idea: Spread 2012 (Registeel EX and Kyurem).
A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs with a Stupid Deck Idea.
Hey Pikkdogs, Do you know what is the difference between your Stupid Deck Ideas and a regular Deck Analysis?
What?
Honesty.
Good one. Anyway, we are here to look at a more radical deck in the new format, one that has to do with spread. You have already met my Extra-Dimensional sidekick Pedro, so Pedro why don’t ya give us a news article and send us to the article with some comedic momentum.
Well I can try. Today in the news is Captain Morgan. Morgan was a 17th century pirate who the famous rum brand is named for. Foxnews.com is reporting that archaeologists recently found cannons and wood that they think were from Captain Morgan’s lost fleet. Henry Morgan was of course a pirate who terrorized the area around what is now the country of Panama, historians say that his ships ran aground near the shores of Panama, and that the find of his lost fleet could be very historically significant to the area. Do you like the pirates Pikkdogs?
Well, on one hand I like them because I can say the word “booty” a lot and not get in trouble. But, on the other hand it is kind of strange to think that children idolize pirates in movies and story books when they are people that destroy things and kill people.
Kind of like the Kardashians. Some people idolize them and want to be like them, but they are really just a vicious group of girls that love to terrorize American culture.
Yes, it is kind of a weird paradox. Maybe it is because people dream of bucking the trend and going against the rules.
And they love large butts.
Could be it is all about the booty. Let’s start the article.
The Evolution of this Deck
I had the idea for this spreading deck when I was looking through the cards that were to come out in the Dragons Exalted set. I have had my eyes on Registeel EX for a while. I thought it would make a good tanking card, but after the format changed I realized that tanking is taking a back seat for a while. But, I did notice that the “Triple Laser” attack does work well with decks that like to spread damage around. I thought that he could work well with Kyurem, they both like to spread damage around and can hit the defending Pokemon if needed.
When I first put this deck together it failed miserably against Mewtwo EX. I know that not every deck needs to be good about everything, but Mewtwo will be common enough that you need a deck that can at least hold its own against him. It also wasn’t great against most EXs, once they got Eviolited the game was about over. It would take me 18 turns to spread enough damage to knock one out, there was no doubt that the deck didn’t work.
But, I did a little more digging and found some cards that could help save the deck. The first card was Siglyph DRX. This Pokemon has an Ability that makes it un-hittable by EXs, and it can hit Mewtwo EX for weakness. This is probably the most versatile Mewtwo EX counter we have. In testing it has not worked perfectly, sometimes your opponent can Pokemon Catcher around this wall, but it does help your Mewtwo match-up a lot. The second card that I found was Tool Scrapper. This is an Item card that lets you discard two of your opponent’s tool cards that they have in play. This is a great card in this deck because it stops the Eviolite card that screws this deck up so much. If you are able to spread 30 damage twice with Eviolites in play, you will only do 20 damage, which is really not anything. But, if you spread 30 twice without Eviolites, you will have 60 damage on those EX Pokemon. This leaves them with 120 HP left, which leaves them in KO range of Kyurem EX. Cards like Siglyph and Tool Scrapper may not make this a Tier 1 deck, but they at least save it from being unplayable.
Basics
I already talked about the deck a little bit, but now I will describe it in some more detail. The goal of this deck is to spread damage around early game and get KOs on multiple Pokemon at once. You will eventually kill off enough low HP basics that you will only need to directly attack the active a couple times in order to get a win.
The attackers in this deck are Registeel EX, Kyurem, Kyurem EX, Siglyph, and Kyogre EX. Registeel is your first attacker. You just need to attach a DCE and another energy and you can attack for 30 and snipe twice for 30. Kyurem is kind of like Registeel, but it is not quite as fast. Hopefully you will be able to attach an Exp. Share to Kyurem and get him going when Registeel EX gets knocked out. Kyurem can then spread for 30 all around, by this time you should have taken around 3 prizes. Kyogre EX does similar things, except it can snipe twice for 50. Kyurem EX can come in at the end and finish things off with his 120 damage attack. Kyurem EX can also disrupt with his attack that discards an energy. And of course Siglyph is here to act as a wall against EXs and to hit Mewtwo EX for weakness.
Decklist
This is only a version of an early decklist that I have. It is far from perfect and not something that I would take to a tournament yet, but if this deck works maybe you can make it work. Hopefully you guys will like the deck and try to test it and protect it.
Pokemon-9
- 2-Registeel EX
- 3- Kyurem
- 1-Kyurem EX
- 2- Siglyph
- 1- Kyogre EX
Trainers-37
- 4- Professor Juniper
- 3-N
- 3-Bianca
- 1-Cheren
- 2-Random Receiver
- 4-Pokemon Catcher
- 1-Super Rod
- 3-Tool Scrapper
- 2-Eviolite
- 3-Exp. Share
- 3-Switch
- 3-Ultra Ball
- 2-Heavy Ball
- 3-Potion-Nice card to turn a 2HKO into a 3HKO, but can be substituted out for other cards is needed.
Energy-14
- Water-6
- Prism-4
- DCE-4
This is a fairly balanced and bland version of the deck. If you want to put another Pokemon into the deck, or something like Enhanced Hammer, you can take out the Potions and one supporter. There are about 5 spots you can work with and do what you want to without sacrificing any of the stuff that the deck has going on now, so that is a good thing with a deck that is in its early stages.
Match-Ups
It is very hard to give match-ups against a format that doesn’t really exist yet, but I can tell you a little about the match-ups I tested and what I can assume about the deck.
Reshiboar– This should be a decent match-up for you. Hopefully your spreading will do enough damage on Emboars and Pignites that you limit the number of Emboars that are out. Then you can Pokemon Catcher up Emboar to try to snipe around him. You will want to be careful against Reshiram, if you spread damage on him you will make It easy for him to “Outrage” for an easy two prizes against Registeel EX. Kyurem EX will be your friend if you need to knock out Reshiram. If you can hide Registeel EX and use Siglyph to counter Mewtwo EX you might be able to squeak out a win.
Zekrom and Eelektrik– This is another match-up that is fairly even. You need to use Siglyph here to go against Mewtwo EX, if you can’t take the Eviolites away and stop Mewtwo you will lose. Tool Scrapper and Siglyph need to be the MVPs of this game, if they aren’t you just might lose. The Eelektriks should be easy targets for your spreading. If you can stick to a plan against this deck you should be okay.
Hydreigon– Another game where you need to spread early to knock out evolutions. If you can limit them to one Hyrdreigon you should be able to win. Make sure to spread early to get around their Siglyphs, and have a Kyurem EX around to knock them out. If you can use Potion to turn Darkrai’s 2HKOs into 3HKOs you might be able to win. It should be a close match, but if you get your list down to how you like it, you might be able to win this more often than not.
Fighting– This match-up is hard to predict. Fighting decks have fairly high HP, so spreading could take a while. But, they also don’t do a lot of damage without you getting KOs. You should be able to use Potion to make it very hard for your opponent to get anything more than a 3HKO on any of your EXs. This match-up should go to the end, but hopefully the fact that you can take multiple prizes late game should give you a prize lead.
Troll– This match-up is kind of like the last one. It is a very hard one to predict. The game will be fairly slow as long as you use your Potions well. You can just hope that you can get rid of the Eviolites so that you can pick up some KOs on your spreading attacks late game.
Conclusion- Is it any good?
I don’t really know. It is still a decent deck, but if it is tournament worthy I do not know. This will be up to you if you can make the deck better than it is now. It will also depend on how the format works out too. I hope that this works out so we can bring the spread back. But, you know that they always say that the “spread is dead”, who knows if it will be resurrected.
Now that we got that done, Pedro, why don’t you end the article with some Olympic news?
Okay, the Olympics are about halfway done. The Americans had a very productive first week garnering the women’s individual and team gymnastic golds, a bunch of swimming medals, and in the hallowed grounds of Wimbeldon Serena Women’s grabbed the Women’s singles gold. What was your favorite part of the first week of the Olympics Pikkdogs?
All of the “Money Shots” in Water Polo. 
Yes, quite a funny term. Got another dirty and hopefully humorous moment?
I like to watch the “Snatches” in Weightlifting.
Do you have one more?
Nope, but my favorite volleyball player is Destiny Hooker, that seems to be quite a funny name.
That is quite a strange name, you would have think that her parents would have thought before naming her that.
You would think. Good night anybody.
Pikkdogs’ Top 10 Most Impactful Cards From Dragon’s Exalted
A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with my quarterly article about impactful cards for the next set. I will give you a countdown of the 10 cards that I think will be the most impactful from Dragon’s Exalted. I know that my list won’t be perfect, but this could be a decent look at some of the cards that you might see at Battle Roads.
Dragon’s Exalted is a decent set. It does not have the consistency cards that we all want to replace some of the rotated cards, but it does have some cool Pokemon that will be in tier 1 and 2 decks, as well as rogue decks. Let us look at those cards.
10. Garchomp
The countdown will lead off with a card that some people think will make up the bulk of a tier 1 or 2 deck, Garchomp. This Garchomp has two attacks, one that does 60 for 1, and two that does 100 for two and a mill of two. It also has some decent stats, 140 HP and a 1 retreat cost. A lot of people are thinking of building a deck with this guy. The deck would be with Garchomp and Altaria, who has an Ability that gives you the same as two plus powers each turn per Altaria (for Dragon Pokemon only). One of the Gabite’s in this set has an Ability that let’s you search out a Dragon Type card, so people think that this deck can give you a good mix of damage and consistency. If people actually make this deck and do well with it, there is no doubt that this will be a very impactful card.
So, why is it only #10 on my list? Right now I don’t buy the deck being as good as people think it does. There are still a lot of cards in the format that give advantages to the Big Basic Pokemon, and this deck not only runs 1 evolution line without disruption, it runs 2. It can be hard to get all of these Evoltion lines out quickly enough to beat Pokemon like Mewtwo EX to the punch. The Secret Rare Rayquaza can also OHKO Gible’s and Gabite’s for only one energy, so there are some problems out there for this deck. It also does not give you that high of a damge output. Assuming 2 Altaria’s, his first attack does 100 damage and his second does 140. 140, or even 160 does not OHKO most EXs. And if you are relying on his second attack, you will be discarding some valuable cards, possibly even some Altarias and Sawablus that you need.
So, will this card be impactful? I think it will be early on, do I think that it will carry on beyond that? Probably not. It is a card to look out for, but I do not know if it will be the most impactful card in the set. But, since I am hating on this card, that probably means that it will become the next Luxray Gl Lv.X.
9. Rescue Scarf
So we lost Rescue Energy, and now it’s back, kind of. Rescue Scarf is the same thing as Rescue Energy, except that it is Tool form and does not count for any energy. Rescue Energy was a good card, so why shouldn’t Rescue Scarf be a good card as well?
Rescue Energy was a great card when combined with Broken Time Space to allow for quick evolutions. We no longer have BTS, but the card still does have some uses in evolution decks. It is probably the best tool card to use in evolution decks, the new Garbador comes in mind as being a good combination, Eelektrik also jumps into mind as a good combo. Since most people play a pyramid style line to deal with Pokemon Catcher, Rescue Scarf will work well in this format. I could see this card being a strong rogue choice in the coming format, though it may never be a staple unless we get a BTS reprint.
There are some bad things about Rescue Scarf. One thing is that it is good at what it does, but it doesn’t do anything else. Rescue Energy also provided energy, this card does not. Rescue Scarf can also be taken off with Tool Scrapper and worked around with special conditions like burn and poison. It also interferes with other tool cards like Eviolite and Exp. Share, even though you probably won’t be playing those two cards in an evolution deck.
I think that this card will be impactful. It will not be a card that we see everywhere, but in Stage 2 decks it is a solid choice.
8. Garbador
Next on our list is Garbador, a card that can make a huge impact for this coming year and beyond. Garbador is a card that reminds me a lot of Dialga G Lv.X. That card could only take away Poke-Bodies, which only accounted for half of what he know today as Abilities. If Garbador has a Tool Card attached to him, he can take away all Abilities in play, except his own of course. This is a card that may not take the format by storm, but should have a big impact in the long run.
I love Garbador because it is versatile and can do something that nobody else can. Abilities may not be the best thing about most Pokemon right now, but they are very important in most decks out there. Imagine a Reshiboar deck without energy acceleration, an Eel deck without energy recovery, an Empoleon deck without its Draw Power, or a Hydreigon deck without the ability to move energies around; those scenarios would be disasterous for those decks. And one card that can do all fo that is Garbador.
But, all is not great when you talk about Garbador. One bad thing is that he is a great target for your opponent’s 4 Pokemon Catchers. He doesn’t have much on an attack and he has a high retreat cost. Another is that not all decks can play Garbador, since takes away all Abilites except his own, there is a good chance that he might screw up your deck too. He also needs a Pokemon Tool card attached to be useful. This means that if you can’t find the tool card, or your opponent uses Tool Scrapper, Garbador can be next to useless.
This is not a card that solves all problems of all the decks out there, but I sitll like it. I think it will be a very impactful card in the coming formats. It may not see a ton of action, but in the decks that we do see it in, it will be very disruptive. For being so unique and so versatile, I gotta put Garbador in my top 10 list, I have the feeling that some rogue deck builders are going to love this guy. Just load up on Swtiches and hope for the best.
7. Tool Scrapper
Finally we get a way to get rid of that stupid Eviolite.
In my opinion, Eviolite is the second best card around. It allows EX Pokemon like Mewtwo EX to become unstoppable tanks. I can’t tell you how many times I was stimied by an Eviolited EX. Now there is finally a card that can balance out the power shift that Eviolite brought us.
Tool Scrapper let’s you discard 2 tool cards that your opponent has attached to his Pokemon. That means that you can take down 2 Eviolites in one swoop. It should allow you to pull out an unexpected KO on an EX Pokemon when you use it at the right time. I can’t tell ya how I excited I am for this guy. Even though it will be hard to fit in decks, it finally can give evolution decks a chance against the BBP.
It is not a perfect card, however. There is nothing to stop your opponent from attaching an Eviolite back on a Pokemon that you just Tool Scrapped clean. People usually run 3 Eviolites in a deck, so if you only take away 1 or 2 with Tool Scrapper, you may not have solver your problem. You may end up needing to play 2-3 Tool Scrappers if you want the card to have any kind of consistent effect. This will take up precious deck slots that can be used to make your deck more effective.
If you find room for this card, I would highly reccomend it, especially if you are playing an evolution deck. I know that there has been no hype on this card,
but I am putting it on this list because I think it has the chance to even the format for the evolution decks. Most cards that have came out favor the BBP, but this is one that could start reversing the balance of power. I am pumped for Tool Scrapper.
6. Emolga
To me Emolga is one of the most interesting cards in Dragon’s Exalted. I am not sure if he will be impactful because there have been Pokemon like Emolga that have been junk cards. But, some people say that because of the loss of a lot of basic search cards, now someone with the “Call for Family” attack can be playable. Only time will tell, but so far I like Emolga.
It is hard for me not to like Emolga because he is so cute, but he does some good things on the playing surface. He let’s you search for two basics and put them on your bench, this is almost essential to any evolution deck these days. I could see this card going into every stage 2 deck that gets played, and unlike last year, this year some stage 2 decks will see some play. Another cool thing about Emolga is the fighting resistance, this will not save him from Terrakion, but at least he won’t be easy for the fighting Pokemon (like most electric types are),
There are some bad thing about Emolga. The first is that you will have to run at least 2-3 of it to make any consistent impact in your deck, and that takes up precious deck space. The next is that Emolga is pretty useless later game, though you can play Pokemon Communication in your deck if you run 3-4 Emolga’s. Another thing is that Emolga is almost always a late game prize for your opponent with Pokemon Catcher. Although stepping up 2 stage 2s may be worth losing a prize, it is still never a good thing to go down a prize.
I think Emolga will be fairly impactful. No “Call for Family” attacker has worked so far, but maybe this format is right for him. It seems like a card that you should at least test out in most of your decks. And although BBP decks might be most successful, stage 2 decks will make a huge impact in the 2012-2013 format.
5. Mew EX
The next card on our countdown is a versatile card that has a lot of upside and a lot of downside. Mew EX is kind of like Mew Prime, except it can use the attack of any Pokemon in play instead of the Lost Zone. Using Mew EX you can use the same energies and the same attacks as your deck normally does, except you can hit pokemon like Gothitelle and Mewtwo EX for weakness.
The upside of this card is that you don’t really have to change your deck at all just add Mew Prime. And you then can add another attacker to your deck, this means a 5th Garchomp if you so desire. It also means that you can use Mew EX and get rid of the weakness that Garchomp has. Since Mew can also use your opponent’s attacks, it can be a very versatile card. It never will be a card that can always get you out of trouble, but if your deck is in trouble, Mew EX can possibly come in and copy the attacks of your opponent’s Tornadus, or something similar to that. It is a very versatile card that can fit into almost any deck and can help you when you are in trouble.
The downside of this card is pretty obvious. It is an EX, but it only gives you 120 HP. So that means cards like Reshiram BW can knock out Mew for two prizes. It also is weak to Mewtwo EX and Gothitelle, so that means that those Pokemon will pretty much always be able to OHKO you. So even if Mew is very versatile, it will give your opponent two prizes if you don’t use it right.
Weighing the good against the bad gives you a confusing outcome. On onehand he is the most versatile Pokemon in history, on the other he is a huge liability. I think that Mew EX can be very impactful, but you must use him right. If he can be used to do a specific purpose, he will be very good in your deck. If not he could be the reason that you lose.
4. Hydreigon
Some people say that Klingklang will continue to be a good deck, while others say that Dark is now a better type and Hydreigon will take over for Klingklang. We do not know exactly if Hydreigon will be a tier 1 deck, but right now we can safely say that it will be a good deck. It can do some of the stuff that Klingklang did, and some of the stuff that the Darkrai EX decks did. Whether the hyped Hydreigon deck is more like Klingklang or it is more like Darkrai/Tornadus is a conversation for another day, but we do know that the deck does work.
I think that Hydreigon will be an impactful card because it can pick up where Klingklang left off, and it can make use of another popular card, Darkrai EX. A lot of good players are waiting for this card to come out because it is a card that everyone can be familiar with very easily. There should not be much of a learning curve with this deck, it should be a deck that everyone will know how to play and how to tech it against the format.
It is a stage 2, which brings with it the stigma of being slow. There also is no Junk Arm in the format to maximize Dark Patch. The new Blend Energy also puts fighting and water energy away from dark energy, which means that it will be hard for this deck to maximize the use of Groudon EX and Kyogre EX like Klingklang did. But, even though there are some things against this card it is set to become an integral part of a deck that is sure to be at least Tier 2. So watch out for this Hydreigon early in the season.
3. Blend Energy
The next incarnation of Rainbow Energy is here, and it is without damage counters, but it is split up into two separate cards.
Rainbow Energy has not always been a popular card, but this format demands versatile energy cards like Blend energy. There are some mono-type decks out there like Eel decks, Emboar decks, and Terrakion fighting decks; but the rest of the decks are all about versatility when it comes to types. Since we have Pokemon that have HP that is so large, we are going to be able to take advantage of weakness in order to keep getting our OHKOs. And if we have versatility in types, we need energy that is versatile. The success of Klingklang at U.S. Nationals will not go away, it is a harbinger of things to come. The best decks are going to have weakness over some of the other best decks, and so they will use Blend Energy.
In my preliminary testing, I have found that Blend Energy is useful in about half of the decks out there. Not to mention that the playing of Dragon type Pokemon will almost demand the play of Blend Energy. It can be frustrating when you are trying to make decks with types that are on different Blend Energy cards, but we will need to make our decks based on Blend Energy. And once we get all of our format straightened out, than we can start to build decks that maximize our use of Blend Energy.
I think Blend Energy will be very impactful in the next format, the three spot might be a little bit high, but we will see this card being played in about half of the decks out there. Because Blend Energy makes these decks work, it deserves a high score in the impact department.
2. Siglyph
Sigy is a surprise to make it this far up the list. There has been 0 hype about this card, yet it is poised to make a huge impact on this format. It may infact be our savior from the tyranny of Mewtwo EX.
Siglyph is great because of its Ability. No Pokemon EX can attack Siglyph, unless Garbador DRX is out. Sigy is also a psychic Pokemon, so he can hit Mewtwo EX for weakness without being able to be hit back. Sure we still do have Pokemon Catcher in the format to get around the Siglyph wall, but now Mewtwo EX can be hit for weakness without the threat of a revenge KO by another Mewtwo. Sigy’s attack will not always OHKO Mewtwo EX, but it will whenever your opponent is trying to load up energies on him to tank. Siglyph is also a good wall against other EX Pokemon, but his main goal will be to stop Mewtwo EX.
If Siglyph is successful, he can possibly erase Mewtwo EX from the format. If Siglyph becomes a staple at Battle Roads, we may just see people stop playing Mewtwo. Right now Mewtwo is a great Pokemon to add to any deck, but if we can keep seeing Sigy on the other side of the table, we might just stop playing this tech.
No Siglyph is not a perfect card. He can only go in decks that can spare room for either psychic or Blend Energies, and those that run DCE or some form of energy acceleration. He also will take a long time to chip away at the HP of Pokemon like Terrakion EX, and that will give the opponent an extra turn or two to find a Pokemon Catcher.
- Rayquaza EX
I have never been less sure of a #1 spot. I could put something like Siglyph, Hydreigon, or Blend Energy; those are cards that are good and have a bright future in front of them. But, all of those cards have a ceiling. Rayquaza EX has no ceiling. It can be a dominant card in the format. Hydreigon will not be the next Garchomp C Lv. X, but Rayquaza EX has a chance at it.
This card is a main attacker, and can do as much damage as you need to do. Even though the main attack requires a discard, it uses the energy types that have good energy acceleration and recovery. You can either built Rayquaza around the Eelektrik engine with lightning energies, or you can use fire energies and Emboar BW. Both builds will have a lot of good support to utilize, so there is really not a bad choice there.
But the future of this card is not certain. I do not know for sure that this card will be tier 1, I can’t even promise tier 2. Although it is a lot of damage from a basic, it is still not a slam dunk contender for the bigger tournaments next year. Perhaps the discard will haunt this card and Garchomp will be able to hit it for weakness, but it does have the upside.
I do not know for sure that this card will be the most impactful card of the set, but the potential to revolutionize the game is there. If you are a NFL draft nerd like me, I think we can equate him to Robert Griffin III. He has the potential to dominate the game like nobody ever has, yet we all know that if he doesn’t become a great player he will become a huge failure. I am going out on a limb and putting it all on Rayquaza here, I hope he realizes his huge potential.
Conclusion
Here is a quick run down of the best of the rest. 
11. Terrakion– Really good card in the next format. Will fit in well. But it didn’t make the list because its too similar to other cards that we have to really make a difference.
12. Registeel EX– Great spreader and okay tank. Will be good card, but we have yet to see if it can bring back the spread, so far the spread is still dead.
Honorable mention: Bouffallant, Altaria, and Giant Cape.
While this may not be a great set, it is full of some really good cards. We will continue to see some of these cards throughout the year and into next. The set may not be par, but it has some good treasurers for us to use while we are making our decks.
So long and Thanks for all the fish!
Deck Analysis: Reshiboar BW-On
A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with a deck article for you. This is my first deck analysis for the Black and White on format, so this should
be different. This article will be about Reshiboar, yes Reshiboar. This deck was first played in the HGSS-on format at Nationals 2011. It kind of won Worlds that year (if you wanna argue about whether that deck was a Reshiboar or a Magneboar, you should probably get a life), but then it kind of fizzled out in a format with Pokemon Catcher. But now it could be back, to check for sure , let us look at the deck more in-depth. I will also give a little of my insight about the new format at the end. Before we get into the article, let us say hi to Pedro. Hey Pedro do you have a news article for us?
Hey Pikkdogs. Today’s news article is about the Olympics. Do you have the Olympic favor Pikkdogs?
Oh I got the Olympic favor. All the symptoms are there; inactivity, loss of productivity at work, and the belief that archery can be interesting.
Yeah that sounds like it. As everybody knows the Olympic games started this past Friday with the opening ceremonies, that were kind of weird. Did you think they were weird Pikkdogs?
Nope, I think that nurses dancing, kids jumping on beds, and Mr. Bean leading an orchestra sounds pretty normal to me.
Okay, I guess. Now the Olympics are in full swing with all the weird sports that we kind of know and love.
The sports might be weird but I love the Olympics. It is the one time that the world comes together and bonds over their love of sports. If every day could be like the Olympics there would be no war and famine, we would all live together in harmony and peace.
That sounds nice.
Plus, it is cool that I can watch rhythmic gymnastics, synchronized diving, and the triple jump and not be called gay.
No, I wouldn’t call you gay for that. Maybe for that pink shirt you always wear, and for your incessant singing of “Call Me Maybe”. 
Fair enough, let’s just start the article.
Reshiboar- the Basics
Reshiboar is a very simple deck that has been around for a year. Emboar BW has an Ability called “Inferno Fandango” that lets you attach as many fire energies as you want. Reshiram BW has the “Blue Flare” attacks that costs RRC, and does 120 damage with a discard of two. So as long as Emboar is out you can keep feeding energies on Reshiram and keep doing 120 damage. Reshiram is also not an EX, so you don’t need to worry about giving up two prizes. The deck works very simply, just keep feeding energies to Reshiram, and you should be good.
Here are some good and bad things about the deck. The deck is good because it is simple and easy to use. Almost anybody can play this deck and tech it out how they want it. Reshiram hits hard enough to 2HKO any EX in the format, Eviolited or not. It will also take out just about any Stage 1, and most Stage 2’s in one hit. It is also simple enough to be set up fairly easily. One bad thing about this deck is that Emboar has a large retreat cost. If your opponent keeps on Catchering up your Emboar, this might be enough to stifle your strategy. Another bad thing is that this deck needs a stage 2 Pokemon, that means it is a little less consistent and has only a little room in the skeleton list.
The setup of this deck is very simple. In my decklist I run Emolga DRE as a starter. He would be the one that you would want to start with. If you don’t run Emolga, you can hope that you start with at least 1 Tepig, or with a card that can search him out. Hopefully by turn 2 or 3 you can get your first Emboar, and then find Reshiram to start your attacking. Things are fairly uncomplicated from there.
The Decklist
Here is the current decklist that I am using. Of course it is still early in my testing and this decklist is not perfect. When I first make a deck I usually make it very simple and bland, so you can tech it out and improve it from the list that I post here.
Pokemon-14
- 3- Tepig- I can’t tell you how badly I want to go to 4.
- 1-Pignite
- 2-Emboar- It would be nice to find room for a 3rd.
- 4-Reshiram
- 1-Entei EX- A great card lategame when you are running out of energy. More of a secondary attacker than something you want to rely on.
- 2-Emolga DRE- if you can fit in one more, that would great. If you can find a list that works without it, that’s great too.
- 1-Mewtwo EX- A good tech that can be used against just about anybody. You will never know when you will need this card. You can run 1 more copy if you want.
Trainers-33
- 3-Energy Retrieval
- 4-Pokemon Catcher
- 3-Switch
- 1-Super Rod
- 2-Communication
- 3-Ultra Ball
- 2-Heavy Ball
- 3-Rare Candy
- 2-Random Reciever
- 4-Professor Juniper
- 3-N
- 3-Bianca
Energy-13
- Fire-13
Tech Options
There are a lot of techs to consider in this deck.
- Badboar– This is the other Emboar from Black and White. It does not really help this deck out too much, but it can do 150 damage. So if you need something that can do 150 damage, this is a good option. You might need to run the 4th Tepig if you do choose this option.
- Reshiram EX– This card is pretty much like Badboar, it can do 150 damage for a bunch of energies. But, it does have sometimes damage itself which can lead your opponent to an easy two prizes. Badboar might better for a big attacker, if you want one, but it is a judgement call.
- Rayquaza EX– Rayquaza seems to fit fairly easily into this deck. You will need to put electric energies into your deck, but it wouldn’t be a huge hassle. You just need to ascertain that he will help your deck in your local metagame, if that happens then you should change the deck around to accommodate this guy.
- Bouffalant– He can do 120 damage for CCC to an EX, so why not play this guy. I don’t know if you need this card, but it doesn’t hurt.
Match-Ups
I don’t want to do a full on Match-Ups section, but I can talk a little about what this deck is good against.
This deck is generally a good all around deck and doesn’t have much that it is terrible or great against. Most Pokemon in this deck are of course weak to water. So if you go up against Empoleon or something like Kyurem EX, you can be screwed. Also, if your opponent can max out their Pokemon Catcher potential (maybe something like Sableye), you also can lose easily.
On the good side, this deck is actually a pretty good match-up against a lot of the decks that are supposed to be good. Mewtwo EX will be in all decks out there, and since Reshiram discards two energies after it attacks, Mewtwo will have a tough time OHKOing Reshiram. The fighting Pokemon like Terrakion can’t really OHKO Reshiram, so you should have a good match-up there, Tornadus is not really much of a threat either. Zekrom decks can use a Plus Power to get an OHKO on you, but you can do the same. So that match-up should be fairly even.
My Thoughts About Black and White-On
Okay, now that we are done with Reshiboar for a while, let us talk a little about the new format. I am not saying that I have tested everything, but I think I have learned a little. The format so far seems fairly even. There doesn’t seem to be one card or one deck that can beat up everything. Mewtwo EX is still the BDIF. Even though Mewtwo EX doesn’t really have a deck anymore, it fits well into most decks out there, and can do a lot of things against almost all decks out there. Mewtwo EX is a very versatile card that will be in every deck.
Stage 2’s are once again playable, but the format does still benefit the BBP (Big Basic Pokemon). Without Celebi Prime, Mewtwo can no longer tear through every evolution line before it starts. But there are still cards like Eviolite that favor these BBP. The EX Pokemon are now in full force and they have more HP and hit harder than Stage 2’s. But, the Quad decks no longer work as well without Junk Arm, so you are going to have to kind of adjust the current BBP decks. To recap, Stage 2’s are still at a disadvantage, but at least they are a little more playable.
To speak about Supporters, they still will be used in the same way. You can no longer use PONT, but decks can be changed so Bianca works as well. I like to use a high count of Ultra Ball in my decks so that Bianca will be even more effective after I discard stuff with Ultra Ball. Cheren can also come in to supplement things, but it’s not a crazy good card. N will be a very popular card in the next format. I know that some people hate this card, me included, but be prepared to shuffle your deck a lot. Even someone like me who hates N, will be forced to play three copies of this card. This means that if you have basic Pokemon in your opening hand that you want to play soon, you will want to play it down before the game starts because an N will normally come down on the first turn of the game. The basic supporter line that I use is 4-Juniper, 3-N, 3-Bianca, and 2 Random Receiver. This gives us 12 supporters and it seems to work fairly well. If you don’t use discarding cards like Ultra Ball, you can use Cheren instead of Bianca.
Searching cards have also changed in the new format. As I said before I tend to favor Ultra Ball because it works well with Bianca. Heavy Ball and Level Ball work good in decks that have Pokemon that can be searched out by those cards. I also still like Pokemon Communication. If you are running a deck that has between 15-20 Pokemon, you should play Communication. You should be able to almost always have a Pokemon in your hand, so you can play this card to get the Pokemon you want. We do not have Dual Ball or Collector any more, but these cards along with Emolga seem to do the job well enough.
Here are a couple other random tidbits. I do not like running two Super Rod’s.
Is this a comment about your feelings on gay marriage?
No. Anyway- I feel that most decks can still run just one Super Rod. Call me old fashioned, but one rod seems to work for me. If you run two you are sure to always have one in your hand early game, and they seem to taunt you, they seem to say that you should have ran more consistency cards instead of this darn discard pile card. Another tidbit is that I still can’t see anybody playing the Cilan card. There seems to be room enough for a bunch of energies in today’s decks, so you shouldn’t need Cilan. I also still like the Eel decks in this format, they work just as well as they always did. The same goes for the Tornadi in the format. I’m not sure if I like the fighting Pokemon, but I am not sure.
If anybody has anything to add, please do so in the comment section.
Conclusion
From my testing with the new format, I think that Reshiboar should be a good deck right away. It may not be Tier 1, but it should be around Tier 2. If you can get a good consistent list that has a lot of Switches in it, you should have a chance to do well at a tournament. I think we can safely say that Reshiboar is back!
I am ready to leave, why don’t you wrap things up Pedro?
Okay, since we had an Olympics news article at the start, why don’t we do an Olympics themed “This Day in History’? On this day in 1976 Bruce Jenner won the Decatholon for the U.S. This win was monumental for the Americans as Jenner became a national hero. His life has unfortunately been in a downward spiral ever since, as he is now relegated to the job of Kardashian babysitter and poster child of what can happen when you get your Botox at the 99 cent store.
It is really sad what happened to the guy, he was once a role model for every young boy, and now he is a cautionary tale for every man out there.
Let this be a lesson to every man out there, just say no the Kardashians and the world will become a much brighter place, until that happy day comes in which there are no more Kardashians to prey on single men.
Well, said Goodnight everybody.
Pikkdogs Tips For Winning Your Dragons Exalted Pre-Release
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVkUvmDQ3HY[/youtube]