Archive for the 'Deck Discussion' Category

Decks To Play If You Forgot to Prepare for Regionals, and a Brief Argument to the RPS Format Opinions

Wednesday, October 1st, 2014

Hello, everybody! I’m finally back with another article! The Pokemon Regionals are coming quick and you still have no idea what to play! No worries, the unorganized, unprepared, terrible senior with zero accomplishments will help you out today! Let me get straight in the article. (Side Note: I HATE most of these decks with a passion, but they are simple and easy… So…)

Yveltal/Garbodor

Why I chose this deck: I chose this because of how simple the deck is, how it would most likely not be teched against, and how it can easily fight Pyroar decks. Here is a quick list of what I would do for a Yveltal/Garbodor deck.

24/7 Evil Ballin'

24/7 Evil Ballin’

POKEMON-13
3 Yveltal EX (XY)
4 Yveltal (XY)
2 Darkrai
2 Trubbish (PLS)
2 Garbodor (LTR)

Trainers-40

DRAW/SUPPORTERS- 22
4 Professor Juniper
4 N
3 Colress
2 Lysandre
2 Skyla
2 Pokemon Fan Club
3 Bicycle
2 Roller Skates
ITEMS/STADIUMS- 18
2 Pokemon Catcher
3 Ultra Ball
2 Virbank City Gym
3 Hypnotoxic Laser
1 Sacred Ash
2 Muscle Band
2 Startling Megaphone
1 Dowsing Machine
2 Float Stone
ENERGY-7
7 Darkness

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Pokemon Analysis: Blastoise

Sunday, November 3rd, 2013

BlastoiseHello guys! Today I have a nice little article for you guys! This article will cover both competitive sides of Pokemon. However, I need to go over something pretty important to the future of this website.

I do understand that we have gotten a shout out from both the Deck Out and SixPrizes. I believe we can scratch off the Deck Out off the list, unfortunately. It looks like Esa took down the domain. I believe we can “replace” the Deck Out as your #2 source for Pokemon tcg. (SixPrizes for the win!)

If we want to succeed as a fanbase of pokemon, then we need your help. As it said in Balasar’s article, ever since Pikkadogs left, we were left in the dust. We need you guys to comment on our articles, even if you are not logged in, tell your friends, and keep reading, no matter how stupid our articles are.

Although some of our writers are new, still tell your friends about this website! I cannot force you, only beg. Now anyways, moving on…

FOR NOOBIES ONLY

TCG

Blastoise, the energy machine. Surprisingly, most Blastoise cards have to do with a fat retreat cost, and energy. If …

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Opening the Emerald Toolbox

Friday, September 27th, 2013

VirizionWhat’s up everyone!

I hope everyone is as stoked for X & Y as I am. They’ve really been slow-rolling the final evolutions of the starters in particular, and I for one am anxious to see what they look like so I can finally figure out which one I want to use (at the moment I am leaning towards Fennekin, like many others, but I am still undecided).

Anyways, we’re back, this time with a new rogue strategy article for you to ingest! Much like my second article (http://www.onehitko.com/2013/09/06/unveiling-b-side-plasma/), I will be delving into my thought processes as I was developing the deck, as well as giving you a card-for-card list with detailed explanations, and an in-depth matchup guide to boot. We’re closing in on Regionals season, so preparedness is of the utmost importance, regardless of what deck you’re looking to play!

 

The Discovery

 

Much like the Plasma alternative I spoke of in my second article, my quest to create this deck began during my testing of the Virizion/Genesect archetype, not long after the Plasma Blast set was released. Players have a tendency to evaluate strategies found in the Japanese metagame and compare them to our …

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Darkrai EX / Hydreigon In the New Format

Wednesday, September 25th, 2013
That's Me On The Right

That’s Me On The Right

Hi there, Onehitko readers, my name is Ethan Cooke and I will be writing a weekly deck analysis for this website every Wednesday. Before I begin this week’s analysis, I would like to introduce myself as far as the world of Pokemon is concerned. I’ve been a fan of everything related to Pokemon ever since I can remember, and my first premier TCG event I attended was the State Championships in Texas as a Master during the HS-NXD format with my girlfriend, Samantha.

We had no idea what the format was or even what was legal in the first place, and, consequently, our decks dated back to DP Base set. Luckily, we found a professor that goes by “Master Professor Birch” who was nice enough to give us each theme decks and sign our decklists thus eliminating the need to wait in line. We were so new to the world of Pokemon that we assumed it was played in Single Elimination as opposed to Swiss, and we went home after losing the first round.

Fast forward a bit to the BLW-BCR format, and I know a lot more about playing the TCG than I did at my first event; I got 2nd place at Tyler City Championships with my rogue deck, Registeel EX/Blissey DEX. Fast forward to BLW-PLF, and I took home a 2nd place victory cup with Rayeels. Here are a few other things you may want to know. I’ve never had an official local league so I do a great deal of testing online.  I tend to never play the same deck at 2 different premier events, and I recently passed my Professor Exam (the week after my 18th birthday, actually).

And finally on to the analysis!

The deck I have chosen to analyze today is a deck that has been around for quite some time now and that deck is Darkrai EX/Hydreigon. I feel like this deck is potentially one of the funnest decks around and can be more competitive than some would think. The goal of the deck is a simple one: use dark trance to alternate between attackers, heal attackers with the aid of Max Potion and even give all Pokemon free retreat with the aid of Darkrai’s Dark Cloak. It’s pretty easy to see how this deck can succeed in the right metagame but also easy to see how Max Potion can be a dead draw in some matchups including Blastoise, TDK, and even Virizion/ Genesect.

This is what I feel to be a pretty solid list for this deck:
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Updated Plasma and Thoughts on the Four “Tier 1” Decks

Monday, September 23rd, 2013

Hello readers!  I am back with another article for your reading pleasure!  This time we get back on track with the current modified format and talk a little bit about what many others including myself consider the top 4 decks at the moment

 Darkrai EX/Garbodor

 Blastoise/Keldeo EX/Black Kyurem EX

 Genesect/Drifblim/Virizion

 Plasma Variants

But before we go into that, let’s take a look at what changes plasma lists have undergone to combat this new proposed tier 1 of decks that contain a lot of Plasma hate.


11 Pokemon
4 Deoxys Ex
3 Kyurem
2 Thundurus Ex
1 Absol
1 Keldeo EX
36 TSS
4 Juniper
4 N
4 Catcher
4 Float stone
3 Colress machine
3 Colress
3 Skyla
3 Ultra ball
3 Silver Bangle
2 Tool scrapper
1 Plasma ball
1 Energy search
1 Dowsing machine/Computer search
13 Energy
4 Plasma
4 Prism
3 Blend WLFM/2 Blend WLFM 1 Blend PDGF
1 Water
1 Lightning



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Strategies in the Shadows

Friday, September 20th, 2013
Just A Funny Pic

Just A Funny Pic

What’s up guys!

To anyone who checked back last Friday expecting a new article from yours truly, I’d like to take this moment to apologize; I was halfway through writing it, but then my sweet laptop decided to crash on me. I lost everything I had written at that point (remember, CTRL+S is your friend). No matter though, because we are back this week and better than ever!

If you can recall my first article (http://www.onehitko.com/2013/08/30/thoughts-on-the-early-days-of-the-new-format/) I took a detailed look at the five strategies I felt were the ones to beat going into the new format. While this may go without saying, it is of the utmost importance that we have a strong understanding of what these decks are trying to do and how to best combat them. What is equally important, however, is that we keep a close eye on the decks that lurk in the shadows known as tier two, waiting for the perfect time to strike and spike the tournament; if you are not weary, you could find yourself in the losing bracket, regardless of how prepared you were for the big dogs.

So, today’s article will be a similar layout to my first article, but I will instead be taking a close look at the ‘tier 2’ strategies to expect going into Regionals and the like. I will also explain the environments each strategy needs in order to prosper, in an attempt to best prepare you for what you should expect at any given event. Let’s get started!

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Unveiling B-Side Plasma

Friday, September 6th, 2013

What’s up everyone!

First off, I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to read my debut article from last week. I’m sure this much is obvious by now, but I am very passionate about Pokemon and writing alike, so it means a lot to me that people would stop what they are doing to read what I have to say. Hopefully in time, as more articles are posted, more and more people will discover this website and what we have to offer to the community. Of course, you can help with that too; if you read our articles and dig what you see, don’t hesitate to tell your friends about us! Word of mouth really does go a long way, and every single person who shares us helps us out a tremendous amount.

(In case you didn’t catch my last article, you can view it via the link directly below.)

Silver Bangle

http://www.onehitko.com/2013/08/30/thoughts-on-the-early-days-of-the-new-format

While I am pretty confident with my predictions in last week’s article, only time will tell what archetypes truly prove themselves to be the cream of the crop. Trying to qualify for Worlds having not played in over two years is going to be a major challenge for me, and if I want to succeed, I have to make sure to make the right meta calls from the very first event. When determining what deck is an optimal play in the early days of a format, there are always a few factors I like to consider, the first of which being that since there are little-to-no results for us to analyze and learn from, everyone who turns in their deck registration sheet at that very first event is going off of theory, raw testing results and not much else.

Because of this, we can deduce that the decks that will perform the best throughout the early stages of a season are generally going to be more proactive than reactive, meaning they are more concerned with ‘asking a question’ than ‘providing an answer’; without an adequate amount of tournament results to go by, the reactive decks simply don’t know what questions they need to answer (or how to best address them, for that matter). Proactive decks, however, don’t need to know all the right answers, because, well, they are the question! This logic also applies to techs somewhat; there is nothing wrong with adding a card or two to counter what you predict you will be facing, but a fully teched-out deck is generally going to be less favored in a beginning-of-the-format tournament when compared to a consistent, streamlined one.

Take TDK for example- what is probably the biggest ‘question deck’ of this new format. The question TDK asks its opponent is this: ‘How are you going to deal with a consistent flurry of Kyurem backed by Team Plasma support?’. As we all know good and well, this is not an easy question to answer effectively, which is what makes TDK the consensus strongest strategy right now. See, TDK isn’t worried about attacking specific strategies it may or may not face; regardless of what you’re playing, TDK just wants to Blizzard Burn for obscene amounts of damage as early as possible until all six prizes are taken. This is what it means to be a proactive strategy.

Continue reading "Unveiling B-Side Plasma"

Thoughts on the Early Days of the New Format

Friday, August 30th, 2013

Tyler Lindsey
Hello everyone!

I don’t believe I’ve ever met any of you, so allow me a brief moment to introduce myself. My name is Tyler Lindsey (for those of you who didn’t catch that already). I’m a 21 year old lifelong gamer, hailing from the humid plains of southeast Alabama. Currently, I am making a return to the Pokemon TCG community after playing Magic: the Gathering competitively for two years. Magic was both fun and rewarding, but it was also very time consuming, and the nostalgia vibes given off by my favorite childhood game always keep me coming back! My primary goal for this season is to successfully reach the 400CP required to compete in Worlds 2014 in Washington DC, while writing resourceful and insightful strategy articles along the way. Hopefully I can deliver in both aspects!

Of course, if one wants to have a truly successful season, they must hit the ground running from day one, and I intend to do just that. The weeks after Worlds, where old season transfers into new, is definitely one of the best times to get reacquainted with the game; there is ample time to playtest, and everyone is starting with a clean slate as far as deck building goes. Fortunately, I have used this moment’s reprieve in competitive play to my advantage, and as a result, I feel I have a very good grip on what the format will shape up to in the months to come. In this article, I will delve into the five ‘main’ strategies I feel are the most noteworthy going into this new terrain, so allow me to share some of my findings with you.

(Bear in mind these archetypes are in no particular order.)

1.) TDK (and other similar flavors of Plasma)

So let’s get right to it and start with the obvious: TDK is still public enemy number one. It lost little to nothing from rotation (if you could even call it a rotation), and even gained a new toy from Plasma Blast in the form of Silver Bangle. Kyurem (PLF) continues to be one of the most efficient attackers in the format, and is still backed by all of the powerful support cards Team Plasma boasts. While Lugia-centered Plasma builds also stand to become a powerful force in the metagame, make no mistake- Kyurem is the undisputed king that all decks must answer to if they wish to excel post-rotation.

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Deck Workshop: The Unexpected Deck

Wednesday, July 3rd, 2013

Hi my name is Owen I am new to this site and hopefully a good addition. I am a senior and this is my first article so please comment and tell me how I did.

Snorlax101Anyway what I am going to talk about is quad Snorlax.
The strategy behind this deck is setting up Snorlax and using the ability “Block” to make it so that the opponents defending Pokémon can’t retreat. This ability is not too beneficial by itself but… combining it with Lasers and Virbank city gym you could have some serious damage and knockouts on the board since the opponent can’t retreat! Now, the only downside is they can switch so that card is being played a lot. But you can just catcher up another Pokémon and laser it. Also the poison damage sets up perfect leaving 180hp and 170hp knocked out after your opponents turn which is great since it leaves them open to catchers then lasers.
The list
Pokémon
4 Snorlax

Total= 4

Supporters
4 Shadow Triad
3 Professor Juniper
2 N
3 Colress
4 Ghetsis
2 Skyla
3 Bianca
3 Hugh

Total= 24

Items
4 Hypnotoxic Laser
1 Rock Guard
4 Team Plasma Ball
4 …

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Landorus EX/Lugia EX: The Ultimate Speed Deck?

Thursday, February 21st, 2013

Hey OneHitKO, it’s been awhile since I did a deck analysis article, so I decided to write up an article about a deck that I feel is amazing in this format, which is Landorus/Lugia. This article is mostly just me overhyping the deck, but I have tested it and it is amazing. The article may just lead you to believe it is more amazing than it actually is.

Before you start wondering if this is just another big basic deck, well, it pretty much is. However, it has a much different

strategy than many big basics do. With this deck, instead of just attacking with whatever you draw into, your goal is to use Landorus EX’s Hammerhead the first few turns to put 60 damage on two of your opponent’s EX’s. Then, use Lugia to kill both of them for three prizes a piece, and win when you kill both of them.

Now, there’s plenty of things that can go wrong with this plan. Eviolite, Aspertia City Gym, and your opponent not dropping an EX in the first place can mess with your strategy. However, winning by Turn Four is not always necessary, even if it is possible. Your gameplan …

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