One Hit KO

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with a wrap-up of 2011 U.S. Natioanals.         

Now since the card Pokemon Catcher will come out in the Emerging Powers set, the format will totally change, but that is after Worlds, so we can still have a small discussion of this format.  I myself will not be headed to San Diego for worlds, but since anyone of our readers can attempt to grind in the day before the event, I will cover the decks as if I were.

This article will mainly focus on what the format is currently like, and what decks are considered tier 1 or 2.

The Format

This first part of the article will address what I think are myths about a great format.  Don’t believe all you hear about the format.  A lot of people are saying that this format stinks because it is all luck based.  While I admit that luck is always involved in this game, I say that it is no different than the previous few seasons.  They say that the winner of the game is based on who starts first …

Continue reading "What We Learned From 2011 U.S. Nationals"

I’m back, and I’ve had some time to reflect. The lesson is test, and test against all the decks you think will be tier 1. In retrospect, I only did one of those things. Early on, I decided to build a Reshiram/Emboar deck. I did it in my own style, though. I wanted to see if I could build it without any of the extra baggage I thought went along with most builds. My goal was to have the deck set up and then Blue Flare six times for 6 One Hit KO’s. It could definitely do that.

I played the deck a bunch, and it did well. There were issues with it, but they weren’t insurmountable. I had problems when I faced larger Pokemon (that I couldn’t one shot), so I put in Reversals and more Plus Power to try to get strategic KOs when necessary. With the changes made to accommodate these inclusions, the deck became unreliable and very inconsistent. I put it back the way it was and decided to just run it without the Pokemon Reversal (but still had 1 Circulator).

I went on vacation just before Nationals, and I even played for a bit one day at league in Rapid City. I did very well in my matches there, so I thought things were going well. I also had built a ZPS/Yanmega deck that I had a friend play against me several times. This was actually a good deck (even though my quick build of it was suboptimal). The problem here was that Reshiram has a good matchup against Zekrom. It can usually OHKO all of the Pokemon in ZPS (including Yanmega in this case). As it happened, each time, my wins were reinforcing bad behavior.

Continue reading "Reflections On My Pokemon Nationals 2011"

Hey all you OHKOers out there, this is Pikkdogs here with an article to finish up my nationals report.  I will give you the rest of the report, then will share my decklist, and finally I will give you some thoughts and musings about the tournament and the format. 

Day 2 Tournament Report

So, the last time we left our hero, he finished Day 1 with a 4-2 record, and knew that he needed to win out or go 2-1 and get a lot of help in order to make top cut.

Team Omar wakes up a little later than the previous day, and we try to scarf down some waffles and biscuits and gravy before we head downtown.  We get into the play area at about 8:35 and people are already about to being their match even though play was not scheduled till 9.  So I go and introduce myself to my opponent who says, “Darn I thought you weren’t gonna show.”  This guy actually turns out to be a little of an annoyance to me, I don’t know him, but he didn’t seem all that nice.  Classy Freddy Blassie might call him a “Pencil Neck Geek.”

Round 7-Magneboar

He starts Tepig and I am unsure what he is playing, so I collector for both Phanpys and Oshawotts.  I finally see a Magnemite and figure that I should work with Donphan.  I have a little trouble setting up and have some bad draws, but am able to exchange a couple prizes.  I have particular trouble getting the right kind of energies, the DCE’s kept
Continue reading "Pikkdogs Day 2 National Report: and Initial Reactions to the Tournament."

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I’m back with some more pictures and the continuation of my weak little report.

I needed to win out on the second day. If I did, I would (most likely) make top cut. If I lost any of the day’s matches, I’d be playing in side events.

Continue reading "Nationals Day 2 (Ed’s Quick Update)"

Hey Everybody, this is Pikkdogs here to talk about the first day of Nationals. I know I promised to be tweeting while I was there, but that didn’t happen because of phone problems.  I hope to make it up to you with this bigger report.  Along with the match report of my games the first day, I will give you my thoughts on everything about nats.

The Location

Of course, this year’s U.S. nationals were located in Indianapolis.  The city is a decent choice, the location is only really bad for the people on the extreme edges of the country.  One bad thing about the city was that it was jam packed with people.  No matter where you went for lunch there was a million people standing in line.  Due to the city also holding several basketball tournaments and other events, the city was over crowded.  It was quite annoying, a quieter smaller city might be a better choice.

However, we will never find a perfect location.  Indy has a lot of hotels and is well equipped to handle us Pokemon Players, somethings are just a little inconvenient.

Continue reading "Pikkdogs Nationals Report Part 1"

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Well, day 1 is over. I am not doing well. I chose to go with the deck I knew best, and unfortunately it’s garbage. I thought it wasn’t great, but I didn’t think it was this bad. Take a look at some pictures of day 0 (arrival/registration) and day 1 (the actual event) and read how the first day of Swiss went.

Continue reading "Nationals Day 0 and Day 1 (quick update)"

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there, this is Pikkdogs here with your first preview of the 2011 U.S. Nationals.  Battle Road tournaments are now over so it is now time to look ahead to Indianapolis and the 2011 Nationals tournament.

News and Introduction

Last night Play Pokemon gave us some big news, they are instituting a mid-season rotation to the HGSS-on format.  While this is not exactly a shock, it is disturbing to  alot of people.  While I would say that most people welcomed the news, a lot of people are not huge fans of the HGSS-on format, and are not happy of how Play Pokemon handled the rotation and rules changes.  I guess you are never going to please everyone, but I think for once Play Pokemon is making the right move.  The rotation freshens the format and puts a lot less emphasis on luck and starting first.  I for one will be happy if I never had to look at another SP card in my life.

So what does this mean for Nationals?  Well, it means a heck of a lot.  It drastically changes the format, all the top 1 or 2 tier decks will be rotated out in favor of new decks.  So now is the time to get your practice with the new format.

Battle Roads Wrap Up

Even though the Spring Battle Roads will not impact Nationals whatsoever, it is still nice to take a look at what happened.

Continue reading "Your First U.S. Nationals Preview"

[youtube width=”640″ height=”390″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpYzX-htjW4[/youtube]

This week it’s all about UK Nationals and how I got on during the tournament. Overall, there was a surprising shift in the metagame where Vilegar clearly outweighed SP in the amount of play with a few other decks sneaking their way in. To whoever I met on the day, thanks a lot for making the day so enjoyable and I hope to see you all around the UK next season! Speaking of next season, PokeClass will be all about HGSS-On as of next week meaning more deck analysis, options for decks and there will be a return of my Deck Surgery Mini Episodes! Make sure you subscribe and check back next week for all the new HGSS stuff, exciting!

Thanks for watching!

P.S: Any comments about lists or anything else then please comment below :)

Continue reading "PokeClass Episode 28 – Top 16 UK Nationals 2011 Report!"

Here’s my report from the master’s division at this year’s Nationals.

First, a little about the event. My daughter and I have been planning to attend Nationals this year ever since we failed to go last year. We knew we were golden when we convinced my wife to come along and treat it like a family vacation. The drive from Michigan was easy, about 5 hours, and we made it with plenty of time to get the early registration t-shirts. We didn’t really grasp the scale of the event until Friday morning though.

The venue was gigantic, easily the biggest single room I have been in for a long time (in fact I am having difficulty recalling another time when I was in a room this size.) There are tons of people milling about. There are people in line for the Video Game Tournament. There are side rooms with vendors, open playing, and just hanging out. In the main room there are separate sections for each of the age groups, one for league play and side events, one for eating with tables and one for the video game stuff too.

Throughout the weekend we see people we know from Michigan …

Continue reading "Cheffords’ 2010 Pokemon National Championships"

I just talked to Omar. We may have to rename the to Team Beast if he keeps this up. It seems that Omar’s only loss was to his unlucky pairing against Tyranitar. Otherwise, he won tough matches against Jumpluff and Sabledonk. He ended the day 6-1, which has to put him in the running for the top cut.

He mentioned that there were 1336 players (which he pointed out was one short of the LEET 1337 / 826 masters, 300 seniors, 210 juniors). That field is split into two groups, and there will be a top-64 in each group. I believe that the field will be cut down to top-16 in each group by the end of Saturday.

Abdi and Benny are also representing Team Omar. Each of them are 3-4 at the end of Day 1. That puts the team at 12-9, which I’m very proud of. Cheffords, reporting for #TeamOmar, went 4-3 for the day with his daughter going 3-3 in Juniors.

I also heard a little about the rest of the MN players. This could be completely wrong, but I’ll mention it anyway. It sounded like Andy, Radu, and Emmanuel were having a tough time with their …

Continue reading "Team Beast Day 1 Nats"