Opinion

No EX tournament and My Outlook On the Upcoming Season!

garchompHello once again readers of OneHitKO, I’m back for my second article with an interesting experience for everyone to read about.  This previous weekend (9/14/13), I got the opportunity to play in a BW-on tournament that was single-game Swiss rounds.  The only different rule was, you couldn’t play any EX Pokemon!  I actually only found out I was going to this tournament about a week in advance, so I was limited on how much I could prepare.

At first I thought the Tool-Drop deck (Trubish/Sigilyph/Masqurain) would be the best choice, but it was very inconsistent and didn’t do as well against non-EX Pokemon.  Absol seemed strong, but was also easy to play around if that was the only focus of the deck.  Zoroark was promising, but just didn’t hold up to some of the stage 2 decks.  I wanted to play Gothitelle/Accelgor/Dusknoir but I no longer had any Gothitelle, so I decided to play Garchomp/Altaria.  It was consistent, had a good damage output (100-140) without too much effort, and was easy to play.  After testing a game or two and doing some theorizing, here is the list I came up with:
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Adam Klynsma – Pokemon Master

I really thought that I would be writing a Battle Roads tourney report this week, but I just can’t. I need to tell you about my friend, Adam. It’s been weighing on my heart. I meant to write this months ago, but I’ve been putting it off. I could make excuses about being busy, but it’s just my fault. I keep thinking about this, though, so I feel the need to put it out here.

I first met Adam around Christmas of 2009 when this site was in its infancy. Since then, I have been going to the Rapid City “South Side Pokémon League” about twice per year. I’m usually there for the 4th of July and again at Christmas time. The problem there is that both of those are holiday weekends, and there aren’t usually many league members around when we show up.

When I knew I’d be in Rapid City, I would usually email Adam to see when/where the league was taking place. From what I understand, Adam started the league in June of 2006, and it has been held in several locations since then, including the library, Hobbytown USA, First Chance Last Chance Games, and Who’s Game House. I wanted to be sure I knew where and when to show up and find out if there were any interesting formats (like 2-on-1 unlimited or old minus current) being played.

On May 25th of this year, I wrote such an email the day before I drove out to Rapid City. I didn’t get a response from Adam, but it was short notice. I had plenty of other things to do while we were out there, and, without his reply to remind me, Pokemon got put on the back burner for that trip.

On June 24th, I wrote to Adam again, telling him that we’d be around for our normal 4th of July trip. Petra (my second daughter) was just starting to play, and I thought his league would be a good environment for her. Again I didn’t hear back, but this time Ava, Petra, and I made it a priority to attend league. Well, we didn’t make it the top priority, because we showed up about halfway through the scheduled league time.

When we arrived, there were no Pokemon players around, but the guy that runs the shop told me that I just missed everyone. They had left, because there weren’t any players (which is kinda typical on the holiday weekends). I mentioned that I had emailed Adam a couple times without hearing anything back, and he said it’s because Adam died. Wow, what a shock.
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Opinion: U.S. Nationals 2012: What Was Done Right, How It Can be Improved, and My Take on the Loss of Top Cut.

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there, this is Pikkdogs here with an opinion article.  We are still in a down time here in the Pokemon world, since I don’t have much to talk about, I thought I would go over some thoughts about Nationals.  In a couple weeks we will have a new set and a new format to talk about, but right now we don’t know much about our format and the only people still playing in the older format are, as Team Warp Point likes to say, keeping things “close to the chest.”  So let’s have a discussion about how to make Nats better, than I will look at the breaking news about Battle Roads that we receieved yesterday.

Before we get into the discussion, let us invite my extra-dimensional sidekick Pedro in to do a news article for us, maybe he will tell us a funny story to save this sorry article from being the crap we all know it will be.  Pedro, what do you have for us today.

Today we have some news about your ancestoral homeland Pikkdogs.

Oooo, some Finnish news, love the Finnish news.  What is it today, another bleach blonde rock band have a fight or something?

No, no rockband, this time it is aliens.  It seems that divers have found a large unidentifiable object off of the coast of Finland.  It is believed to have been down there since the last Ice Age.  While some people think it is just a rock, others state that it does not look like just any old rock.  For some reason silt from the water does not stick to it like it would a rock, there are also evidence of some kind of workmanship on the object, such as straight lines and designs.  While the object is not made of metal, a researcher states that its disc like design could make it appear to be like a typical UFO regardless of the fact that it is not made of metal.  There is no law that states that space craft must be made of metal, not yet anyway.  What do you think about this Pikkdogs?  Do ya think this could be aliens? 

Who knows, possibly.  Maybe its just a weird rock that ancient beings carved things into.  The thing could have been covered up by a flood years ago for all we know.

True, but it kind of seems like a space craft.  But then again why would aliens want to go to Finland, not much there other than fish and saunas. 

Hey, that’s my ancestoral homeland you are talking bout there.

Sorry, well I guess Finland is near Sweden, maybe the aliens were looking for some ancient Swedish blondes. 

Seems like a sound theory.  Well, I guess we didn’t find any aliens today, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t out there.

True, they could be out there helping a fat blogger write an article. 

Could be.

Changes to Nationals 2012: What Worked

There were some great things about Nationals 2012 compared to the 2011 version.  The most obvious thing was that we did not have that awful re-pairing that we saw in 2011.

For those that were lucky enough not to be there in 2011, I will explain to you what happened.  We were called to the player’s meeting much as we were this year.  The wait after the meeting was a little longer than expected, but it wasn’t that bad.  Than they released us to look at our round 1 pairings and we sat down.  That is where the trouble started.

A lot of people were paired against opponents that never showed up.  There were way too many to just ignore, I want to say the number was about 75 but I could be wrong, so they decided to re-pair a lot of the matches.  This was not a 5 minute re-pair, it took a long time for the judges to figure things out.  I don’t remember the exact time it took to get the round going, but I would say it was probably around 45 minutes if not more.  To add up all the wasted time would give you at least an hour, probably much more, of wasted time while we waited for round 1 to start.  Needless to say, this did not go over to well for the players.

In 2012 the first day went very very smoothly.  We hardly waited at all between rounds, and there was almost no wait between the players meeting and the first round.  I was very happy with the efficiency of the judges and the staff, they worked together like a well oiled machine.  So the smoothness of day 1 was no doubt a plus for 2012 Nats.

Another great thing at Nats was the registration process.  In 2011 we just walked up to a table and wrote down our name and pop id number during registration.  This changed for 2012.  This year the judges had a list of players, and you were to go alphabetically arranged tables to get checked off (on) the list.  This made it possible for the staff to easily tell if people were qualified to play or not.  Although the tables were not well marked, there were staff around to guide us to the right tables, so that was good.  While this was great for the main tournament, it was excellent for the Professor Cup.  Last year we had the controversy of the winner of the Professor Cup not being qualified to enter, this year they actually checked if you were qualified before they let you in.  Last year was a disaster, professors felt cheated that the general public was being allowed to enter something that should honor them.  These changes in registration stopped these hurt feelings and made the event run much smoother.

The next great thing relates to the first one, the fact that T-Shirts were given out on the second day.  The T-shirts are nothing special and didn’t come in my size, but they were still pretty cool, and you can’t get mad at something free.  Anyway, this year the T-shirts were given out after the last round in day 1.  This may or may not have been a good thing, if it was a good thing it sure did the job.  The judges in 2011 blamed the long round 1 delay on the fact that people just wanted the t-shirts, and then decided to drop.  I don’t know who would take time out of their day just to get a cheap ass shirt, but apparently the judges thought that this was what was going to happen.  I don’t know exactly why, but round 1 did go by very quickly, it may not have had anything to do with the shirts getting handed out on day 1, but since things went smoothly, it just might have.

I don’t want to talk about the other things that I liked about the tournament too much, but I do want to touch on them a little.  The 64 man pod tournaments after the end of day 2 did turn out very well, even though they almost fell victim to the infamous lunch break that didn’t really happen (more on that later).  League play and the side tournaments seemed to do well, they weren’t perfect, but I can’t think of a way to improve them.  I have heard some people suggest that they add another table for people giving out prizes, this would speed up that infamously slow line.  Although, it may just cause people to take prizes without actually playing a game since the lines would be much faster.  If the lines were only 5 minutes long you could go through two lines and get 2 prizes as easily as you could if there were only one line.  Maybe a slow line is what we need for that area.  I did also like the shops that were at the convention center.  Although the prices were too high, I still enjoyed looking through stuff even though I am too poor to actually buy anything.

What Needs to Be Improved

Here are some improvments that I think they could make for next year.

The first things I want to complain about are the long delays on day two. The delays even forced some people to miss their lunch break on day 2, and that means a lot considering the lunch break was scheduled to be a lot later than it was the previous day.  It was safe to say that everybody was hungry after the first couple rounds.  I know that these delays were not the fault of the judges like they were in 2011, but they were the fault of players taking way too long to finish their games.  I don’t wanna point any fingers but, cough Pooka cough (j/k Pooka, love ya).  I know that the +3 format is doing well in keeping games going quickly, but certain decks can make turns go by very slowly.  This not really anything that the management should change just to make one tournament go faster, but maybe they should have slightly rules for Nationals.  Perhaps at Nationals the judges should be able to institute timed turns, or something to make sure that turns go by very quickly after a certain pre-determined time.  I know doing weird rules like this could end up angering people, but perhaps the speed of Nationals for 1000 people should supercede that of 2 people that are taking their sweet time.  Another possible solution is splitting the tournament into more flights, and letting the flights run independent schedules.  This could confuse people, but it would let people keep on playing as long as they aren’t in a group with a slow moving game.  Even if they don’t make more flights, they could do the same thing with the two flights they do have now.

On a related note, I think that it is time to text us our pairings.  There is just too many people playing now for all of us to go up to a couple boards and look for our names.  Almost all of us have phones, and the ones that don’t can still go to a board to look for a pairing.  I don’t know for sure, but it seems like it shouldn’t be too hard to link our phone number to our POP ID, and to have a text automatically sent once the pairings are up.  They would have to test it out and I know the system wouldn’t be perfect or needed for every tournamnet, but I think it is something that is needed for Nats.

On a related note to the last topic, the game is growing really fast.  Even though there were restrictions on who could attend Nationals this year, we still had the biggest attendance at any tournament ever!  We were just a couple dozen people away from getting a top 256.  Unless the game takes a nose dive for some reason, or the credentials for getting into the tourney are raised, we will have two top 128s next year.  I don’t know if the staff is ready for that.  We will need to probably take the top 64 in to day 3, which would be different.  There are also other time related questions to answer for next year.  This year the professor cup was held at night on days 1 and 2 (maybe three, I don’t know), this left a long day for the professors and the Juniors (who judge the event).  They were already held back until past 10 P.M. each day, we don’t need to make the day longer than it already is.  Perhaps the Professor Cup needs to go back to Sunday, or possibly start it on Thursday night.

Speaking about Thursday night, maybe something should happen on Thursday.  Even though the main tourney doesn’t need to start right away, perhaps they can bring back the draft on Thursday night.  It would give us something to do after 5 P.M.  Someone should try to do something on Thursday night even if it is just a little thing, it is better than what we have now.

Another place where a lot of people think that we can improve Nationals is in the streaming matches area.  The boys from The Top Cut tried to tape some matches, but they were only allowed to do it on a couple top cut matches, and were locked out of the finals.  I think it is time for Nintendo to step up and do some streaming themselves, we shouldn’t have to have a third party come in and do the coverage.  This way it could be professionally done and streamed to people all over the world.  Even if the Top Cut is the only plan they have to stream matches, they should work with them ahead of time to make sure that games from each round are streamed.  This is something that can be fixed easily, so it should be done.

The End of Top Cut?

I am done with talking about Nats, but this is not a super long article and a news piece was just announced that fits an opinion article very well.  During my favorite season of the year, Fall Battle Roads, there will no longer be any top cut rounds.  Meaning that the winner will be crowned by how well you do in Swiss rounds, and how your tie breaking percentages end up.  This was quite a shocking announcement, and I was pretty mad when I first heard the news, but now I have returned to sanity and am able to weigh both sides of the issue.  So here is my opinion on the elimination of Top Cut.  We will start by looking at the advantages of getting rid of Top Cut, than we will look at why it might be a bad choice, next we will look at how this might effect your deck and card choices, and finally I will give you my honest opinon on this issue.

There are good things about getting rid of the Top Cut rounds.  One good thing is that the Fall Battle Roads will be just like the current college football system, without the bowl games.  This means that every game is very important, you will no longer be able to have a bad game and still have a hope at winning it all.  You must now be on your game at all times, this means that games will be more intense because until you lose, every game will be very very important.  I guess you can say that every game is an elimination game now.    This should make for some very exciting games.  Another good thing is that this decision will save us a lot of time.  If the tournament is 5 rounds and you lose round 3 or 4, you may not want to waste any more time and be able to drop a couple hours earlier than you would if there was a top cut.  It also saves time for judges because they no longer have to wait for the top cut rounds to end.  I do understand that less people will be in the hunt for the win now, but it does speed things up considerably in a tournament where winning is not that important, and not too many Championship Points are up for grabs.   Another good thing about not being able to win with a loss now is that it forces people to play more consistent decks.  This could lead to more fun, balanced match-ups instead of a lot of donks.

Of course, there are also bad things about getting rid of Top Cut.  One bad thing is that just one string of bad luck can ruin your whole day, even if you know your deck is better than your opponent’s.  Just one donk now is good enough to stop you from winning your tournmanet.  Another bad thing is that the tournamnet as a whole will be less exciting.  Sure there will be a couple games each round that are very exciting, but the majority of the players will not be very excited because they know they will never be able to win.  Most people like having a chance to win, even though they know it is a long shot.  The final bad thing that I will be talking about is the fact that attendance could go down for these tournmanets.  Even though people usally don’t travel far for Battle Roads, sometimes people do drive a couple hours.  It is very possible that people will now not travel as far if they know that their chances of winning could be foiled by just 1 string of bad luck.  With the previous format people can think that they can use their skills to undo any bad luck that they might encounter, now just 1 aspect of bad luck will kill your day.  I think people will not travel as far if they think that they have a lower chance of winning.

Before I talk about my opinion of this news, I will talk about how this effects deck building.  Now that you can’t afford any bad luck, consistency is more important than ever.  I think that I will play less techs in my decks now, and I will play more consistency cards.  I don’t know what these consistency cards will be, but they could be more drawing supporters and cards like Emolga DRE (that allows you to search for two basics for a one energy attack).  Pokemon that let you draw cards with an attack or Ability will also be very very good in case you run into some bad luck.  Another tip is to not play decks with low HP basics.  I think that if I am worried about the donk, I wouldn’t play anything under 70 HP.  Tornadus EX can hit for 60 on the first turn without too much luck, so you want to have at least 70 HP to avoid him.  There is also a chance that possibly Darkrai EX might be attacking for 90 very quickly, so maybe having decks that only run BBP (Big Basic Pokemon) might be safer.  I might also want to run more copies of basic Pokemon and more Pokemon search cards, so you don’t lose after an early knock out.  It seems that because of the enw rules, Fall Battle Roads will emphasize the need of consistent decks that are bad luck proof.

I think that elminating the Top Cut rounds for Battle Roads is a decent thing for Pokemon to try.  There is no doubt that there are bad things about it, and that doing this is a huge risk, but its nice to see that Pokemon has enough huevos to take a chance.  Running with this format might encourage less attendance and more drops, but it will still be exciting.  Even if you lost a game, the day is not over, you can still pick up championship points and prizes for getting in the top 4 or 8.   The decision to cut top cut rounds will actually not impact the majority of players, it will only effect around 4 players, while the other 30 some players will encounter the same situations that they would before.  If we can shorten your day without screwing up things for the majority, that is a really good thing.  This also makes things easier for the judges, which is a nice thing.  This decision will also help make every game very interesting, so we are ready to see some games that mean a lot.  These close games will be great to experience and watch.  So what if the last round is not as exciting for 10 people, each game will now be very exciting for most people.  The same people will still be vying for some prizes, they just won’t be able to win 1st prize if they do get one of the top spots.  Even though I think that Pokemon should have waited till Spring Battle Roads to try this experiment, I do think that this could be a positive thing.  But, I am not gaga over it, and this decision may end up hurting the game.  Only time will tell.

Conclusion

Well, that’s all I got for you guys. Pedro why don’t you give us another science related news article before we leave.

Okay, another news piece from the world of science is given to us from the Christian Science Monitor.  NOAA, the Nationals Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, recently released a news report denying the exsistence of mermaids.  Some people recently began believing that the fabled creatures could exsist after some scientists have backed an “Aquatic Ape Theory”, stating that humans could have had a human like ancestor that was aquatic.  Do you believe that humans have a relative that lives in the sea?

No, that would be preposterous.  We all know from watching Dr. Who that our ancestors live underground near the core of the earth and look like dinosaur type things.

I refute the scientific validity of Dr. Who, if they are right than almost every interesting thing in human history leads back to London, don’t you think sometimes they would be somewhere else? 

Okay, so maybe they aren’t exactly accurate.  But they always have cute girls on there, that should count for something.

Oh, I think this is another excuse to show a racy picture. 

Excelent idea.

Good Night Everybody!

The Top 20 Rotated Cards of 2012

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there this is Pikkdogs here.  At rotation time last year I decided to write an article covering the 20 most successful cards that were getting rotated.  Since I am still on vacation and won’t be building any decks anytime soon, I figured that now is a good time to look at doing this article.  Before we get started we should get Pedro in here to give us a news article. Whats in the news today Pedro?

Hey Pikkdogs.  In the news today is Wendee Long, a Texas Middleschool Principle.  She is in the news because she put a camera in her daughter’s locker to catch inappropriate behavior by the school’s basketball coach.  When the word got out that this happened the authorities charged her with crimes that could put her in jail for up to 20 years.  What do you think about this Pikkdogs.

I say we lock her up and throw away the key.  Because that is what would happen if I put a camera in a girls locker room.  If I did that I probably would get burned at the stake.

Well, that’s because you’re a creepy fat middle aged guy.  The principle wasn’t doing it to get a thrill, she was trying to monitor her employees. 

I say that a crime is a crime.  If  you catch teenage girls in their underwear on camera, it doesn’t matter if you are a creepy guy or a concerned parent.

You do have a point there. 

And if I don’t and this lady is proven not-guilty, you can expect me to be dressing in drag and going by the name Pikkarita.

There you go, this website just got even more creepier.  Just get onto the article. 

#20 Celebi Prime

Celebi Prime was ignored for most of its life.  It was known as a “bad” prime and mostly useless.  Around Fall Battle Roads last year I did here of some people using it in a lock deck, but it never really saw a lot of play.  Then Mewtwo came out and all of a sudden Celebi was a great card.  It became one of the most used energy acceleration cards and it elevated the Mewtwo EX to one of the BDIFs.  Celebi instantly became a staple in one of the best decks around, and it had lots of success during States, Spring Regionals, and Nationals.  CMT never really dominated the format like some people forecasted, but it was a always a really good deck.  Celebi Prime was a really good card late in its life and had a great spot in metagame.  For those reasons Celebi Prime is one of the better cards that will be rotated at the end of the season.

#19  Jumpluff

Jumpluff is just about the opposite of Celebi Prime.  Although they each suffer from low HP and times of low and no play, Jumpluff was very successful when it was released.  Jumpluff immediately became a great card when it was released because it was good in a fast deck with both Uxie and Claydoll.  Jumpluff was almost tier 1, or at least tier 2, when the deck was at its peak.  However, after Claydol left the format Jumpluff lost all the chances it had for competitive play.  It did pop up again in  Vileplume decks and some Mew Prime decks, but it never really made its way back into the top tiers.  But, it did have a great run early in its life and some play in the middle, so it deserves a spot in the top 20.

#18  Entei/Raikou Legend and Rayquaza/Deoxys Legend

ERL and RDL are one of the few legends that actually was playable for a while.  I know they are separate cards and should not be combined in one spot, but I’m the boss here and I can do whatever I want.  ERL was a good card early in its life.  It was really good when Uxie, Crobat G, and Claydol were out there, it could OHKO all of them for  lots of prizes.  Everybody has heard horror stories of that card coming into play and taking 6 prizes out of nowhere.  Once Black and White came out ERL lost its play because Poke-Powers began to be fazed out.  RDL on the other-hand was a very good card, but it was kind of like a one weekend wonder.  It was only really good during Nationals 2011.  RDL was put into most Magneboar decks for Nationals and did a good job in one of the most played decks there.  RDL did see some play a little before and a little after nats, but it mostly was only good during Nationals 2011.  These cards did not stay into competitive play for long, but they were good when they were out.  So good that I think they are one of the better cards that are getting rotated out.

#17  Mew Prime

Mew Prime is a card that has been used a long time, but it never really took the format by storm.  It saw a lot of play in different tool boxy like variations that mainly featured Vileplume.  These decks did well, but they never quite made it to the top tier.  Mew decks featured a lot of different attackers including Jumpluff, Crobat Prime, Vanilluxe, Unfezant BW, and some others.  They were always fun decks to play because they were unorthodox in their strategies and they could adapt to a lot of different decks.  Mew did not really have many uses outside of its own deck, although it did get some use in a Stage 1 Rush variant earlier in the season.  But for its ability to always be good, it deserves a place on this list.

#16 Kingdra Prime

Kingdra is another card like Jumpluff, when it first came out it was a good card, but then it stopped being good.  Nobody in their right mind would play it these days, but it was not a terrible play when it came out.  When it first  was printed Kingdra LA was still a good Pokemon to base a deck around.  The release of Kingdra Prime kind of reinvigorated the Kingdra deck and it helped Kingdra stay playable for months after its release.  Kingdra never really picked up after last year’s rotation, and the card has been kind of dead ever since.  Even though the card hasn’t been playable for a while, Kingdra was once a very scary weapon that used “Spray Splash” very effectively to make some really good decks that were very difficult to play and play against.  It was once a good card and good deck, even though newbies would never have known it, that is why it deserves to be on the countdown.

#15  Pachirisu

Pachirisu is an energy acceleration card that came out in the Call of Legends set.  Pachi was just about the only good new card to come out in that set.  Pachirisu was first considered as a card in a rogue Raichu Prime deck, but then Black and White came out.  Zekrom from Black and White was a great card because it was basic and it could hit just about as hard as a stage 2.  Pachirisu just made the Zekrom deck not only hard hitting, but very fast.  For a time ZPST was the best deck in the game, but it was eventually replaced by Zekrom and Eelektrik.  Pachirisu did see some play after Eelektrik came out in faster versions of Zekrom, but for the most part Pachi’s days of dominance was over.  Pachirisu also did play a big part in another deck, Magnezone/Yanmega.  Magnezone/Yanmega was a good deck in its day, and Pachirisu was a card that could hit the field and add a lot more power to the deck.  Pachirisu was a very good card for most of this season that helped a couple decks do very well, for this reason Pachirisu deserves to be on this list.

#14 Judge

We now hit a spot on the countdown with a bunch of trainers.  The first trainer we will look at is the Supporter we called Judge.  Judge at first was a good card because we could yell “Judge!” and a bunch of judges would come scrambling to our table for no reason.  Besides messing with Judges, Judge was a great card because it could even your hand with your opponent’s hand.  This was very important when playing with one of the more popular cards of late last season and early this season, Yanmega Prime.  Yanmega was a very popular card and it could do a lot of good for you with no energy, you just had to even hands before you attacked.  Judge was the most popular way to even hand size because it did three great things for you.  The first thing was that it disrupted whatever your opponent was going to do, the second thing was that it let you draw a new hand, and the third was that it let you attack for free with Yanmega.  So, Judge was very good with Yanmega but it was also good on its own early in its life.  Judge was a card that was put into decks to counter decks like Uxie and Shuppet donk that put a lot of resources into your opponent’s hand to be used next turn.  At one time Judge was a very versatile card that was used for draw and disruption, that is why it belongs on this countdown.  Judge was eventually replaced because Yanmega became a liability in a format with Zekrom BW and supporter draw of at least 6 cards became necessary after the rotation of Uxie.   But, it was once one of the  best cards in the format.

#13  Pokegear 3.0

Pokegear was once a card that came out in HGSS and was thought of as a junk card.  Supporters at that time were more used for searching and supplemental draw, so there was not as great a need for supporters as there is today.  But once Uxie was rotated out, supporters became very very important, and Pokegear was a Junk-Armable card that could get you a supporter almost every time you used it.  Pokegear also let you choose which supporter you want, which gives it an advantage over a card like Random Receiever.  Even though Pokegear never actually guaranteed you a supporter, a lot of people like to use it because it lets you choose what supporter you want to grab from your deck.  Random Receiver came into the format in DEX and kind of replaced Pokegear after Pokemon Collector fell out of favor with most players.  Even after Random Receiver hit the format some people still preferred to use Pokegear.  The fact that you could use the card with Junk Arm meant that you could use Pokegear to get a supporter whenever you need it, that was very important for those games that are close late-game.  For being a great way to get your supporter engine going for a long time this card deserves to be recognized as one of the better cards in the format.

#12 Dual Ball

Dual Ball is a very important card in today’s format.  Today it is used as the most efficient way to grab basic Pokemon from your deck.  Right now we need to use our supporters to draw cards and not search, Dual Ball let’s you search with an item card and leaves you free your supporter usage for drawing.  The format currently does not have a lot of evolutions in it so you need less Pokemon.  That is where Dual Ball comes in, it may not get you a lot of Pokemon but most of the times it will get you enough of the Big Basic Pokemon that you need to get your deck going.  Dual Ball originally was used as a 1 of or 2 of card that some people would use to supplement Pokemon Collector.  It was also used in Uxie Donk decks to search out Pokemon without having to use up your supporter for the turn.  The card was not super popular at first, but it got more and more popular each month until it became a staple in most decks.  It is now a very heavily used card.  Some people do not like to use this card because it relies on flips and they really hate getting double tails with this card, but a lot of people do like the card because the odds favor you getting at least 1 Pokemon most times with the use of Junk Arm.  It was a heavily played card that ended its play on a high note, sounds like a top 20 card to me.

#11  Sage’s Training

Sage’s Training is Ed’s least favorite card, but most people do like it.  It started off as a very rogue card that was not played very much.  But after the 2011 rotation people starting using Sage’s Training as a staple drawing card.  It did make you discard 3 card from your deck, but that was good in some decks like Eelektrik based ones.  In most decks you could just pick the 2 cards you want, and discard the 3 cards that wouldn’t really help in that particular match-up.  This fact made it more useful in decks early in the season when Stage 1 rush decks were popular.  These decks had a lot of techs, so if you had to discard techs that you didn’t want to use, you really didn’t care.  Now decks are a lot more focused on one goal instead of having a lot of different tech cards.  You can’t really afford to discard cards in quad decks right now, so that is why Sage’s fell out of favor.  But, it still was a very good card throughout this season, and good drawing supporters are hard to come by, so this card was very coveted earlier this year.  It may not have had a lot of play early or late in its career, but it still was a great card at some time.  Even though Ed doesn’t like the card, it still is one of the better cards in the format.

#10  Shaymin

To start the top 10 we have Shaymin from Unleashed.  When it was first released, Shaymin was used in rogue decks to move energy, but it did not really take off until Zekrom BW came into the fold.  It was first used in a large scale to move energies attached to Pachirisu to Zekrom.  After ZPST went away, Shaymin still saw a lot of play in decks like Troll.  Moving energies is something that you can’t really do many other ways. and Shaymin is a really cheap and quick way to move the energies around.  It allowed a lot of different options for a player to utilize, and this versatility makes a very good card.  It seems like the best players always played Shaymin because it allowed them different options and more control as to whether they would succeed or fail.  Even though Nationals this year was not the most popular time for Shaymin, it still saw a lot of play in some really good decks.  One thing about Shaymin is that you rarely see it in bad decks anymore, for being a good choice and a popular card I think this card needs to be on the list.

#9  Cleffa

Cleffa is the card that drove everybody wild at U.S. Nationals 2011.  He was a good card because he allowed you to refresh your hand as an attack without any energy attached and allowed free retreat, but the fact that he put himself to sleep made things very flippy.  Combine that with the fact that people played Pokemon Reversal, things at the 2011 Nationals got really flippy.  A lot of people were mad that they had to rely on luck so often, but they all made the decisions to run Cleffa.  Anyway, Cleffa was huge during Nationals 2011 and did still stay playable for the next couple months after.  The ability to get a brand new hand after playing down your cards earlier in your turn and then with a chance to be unhittable next turn was very good about a year ago.  Now we have Pokemon Catcher to get around a Pokemon that can’t be attacked, but Pokemon Catcher was not always in the format.  Cleffa was once a very big wall, it had very good defensive capabilities as well as being something that helps you setup.  It was a really good card that could help your slow deck setup.  Decks right now are a little faster and can’t really use Cleffa as well, but it was perfect for the format about a year ago.  Cleffa saw play in just about every deck, so it was almost a staple.  For being a good wall, a good Pokemon that helps you setup, and a consistency/recovery Pokemon; Cleffa does deserve to be on this list, it was quite a good card about a year ago.

#8  Donphan Prime

Perhaps no attacking Pokemon on this list has had more success than Donphan Prime.  Donphan Prime has had success throughout its life.  When it first came out it was used, than it got really popular, and at the very end it got rogue status.  Donphan was originally used with Machamp SF, then it was used in some other various decks including one with Dunsparce, then this year it saw some action with Machamp Prime and then with Reshiram and Zekrom BW.  Donphan was almost always used as a main attacker throughout its life, there was not really a time where it was not played.  This is very different from a lot of cards on this list.  Donphan was a cool card by itself, it was a stage 1 that had 120 HP and had a Poke-Body that stops 20 damage from each attack.  These stats were very good for the time when it came out, now we have basics doing 150 damage, but Donphan used to be an impenetrable tank.  Being that powerful as a Stage 1 hadn’t been seen in that format yet, so it was a very strong card when it came out.  It never really won a huge tournament, but it did do very well in tournaments for a long time.  So I could see this card being higher on this list, but it no doubt deserves to be high on the list.

#7  Typhlosion Prime

The next Pokemon our list is Typhlosion Prime.  Like Donphan Prime, it came out in the HGSS set as one of the first primes.  Unlike Donphan, Typhlosion Prime was not used right away.  Its use went through the roof during Nationals 2011.  The release of Reshiram BW cried out for some kind of energy acceleration. People usually ran Emboar to put energies on Reshiram, but somehow people thought to use the long lost Typhlosion Prime as an acceleration tool.  He worked better than Emboar because he could attach from the discard pile and did not require the use of trainer cards to get energies back.  He also put damage counters on Pokemon, that usually is not a good thing, but it is for Reshiram BW because he has the “Outrage” attack.  He and Reshiram seemed to work really well together, this partnership took the deck to decent playability throughout most of this season.  It was always a good reliable deck that kind of set the standards for consistency in the format.  It was a good deck to use on beginners because it taught people how to play the game with a deck that took some genius to play but not too much. If or one am happy to see this card go because it is a very hard name to type,  I hope Pokemon like “Ditto” get popular soon.  Anyways,  the deck did very well and that alone set Typhlosion Prime as one of the better cards that we are going to lose in the rotation.

#6 Magnezone Prime

The final Pokemon before we get to the top 5 is Magnezone Prime.  The final Prime in our 3 Prime series is Magnezone Prime, one of the hardest hitting Pokemon in the format.  In fact, Magnezone could do 200 damage  a turn without much of a fuss.  Kind of like Donpahn Prime, Magnezone Prime has had success throughout its career.  It first hit its success after being used in a tournament in Europe a couple seasons ago.  It was combined with Regirock LA to make a consistent deck in an SP dominated format.  After Regirock was rotated it was combined with Emboar BW and RDL to make a very hard-hitting deck that we called Magneboar.  This deck was very good during Nationals 2011, and had a little success after.  When Magneboar finally died, it was replaced with Magnezone/Yanmega which had success through the first half of this year.  This was a deck that a lot of the good players seemed to run.  But, after Zekrom screwed up Yanmega decks Magnezone did drop in play.  It did see some play in a deck with Eelektrik later this year, but that deck never really caught on too much in popularity.  Magnezone was a really cool card because it could always get an OHKO on any Pokemon with enough energy.  It could stop things like Eviolite and resistance with just an extra energy card.  It was really intimidating to play against Magnezone because you never knew when your opponent could pull out an OHKO.  Magnezone was also a cool card because it had built in draw power, it is always good when you can draw more cards each turn.  Magnezone no doubt deserves to be on this list for being a hard hitter and a consistent Pokemon with draw power.

#5  Professor Oak’s New Theory

We start the top 5 with everybody’s favorite draw/hand refresh supporter, Professor Oak’s New Theory.  PONT did see some play throughout its life.  Originally it was used just to supplement Uxie and Claydol in decks.  Most decks would run a couple copies of this card.  PONT became much more valuable once Uxie rotated from the format.  Now PONT and other similar supporters were being asked to carry the bulk of your drawing needs.  It wasn’t long before 4 copies of this card was a staple in each deck.  Some people like me prefer the use of Professor Juniper in their decks instead of PONT, but there is room for both.  There are also decks where PONT works better than Juniper, such as decks that run lots of evolutions.  To put it simply, everybody loves PONT as a card.  Everybody runs 4 of it in every deck and nobody is mad when they get a PONT from a Random Receiver.  It may not be a perfect card, but it is safe to say that it is one of the most useful and well liked cards in the format.

#4 Pokemon Collector

I know what you are saying, “How can you put Collector over PONT?”  While Collector over PONT is a judgement call, I do think that Collector is better than Dual Ball more-so than PONT is better than Juniper.  I also think that Collector has been a staple longer than PONT has.  But enough talk about PONT, we are here to talk about Collector.  Collector came out in HGSS and came out just in time to replace Roseanne’s Research.  Collector was preferred more than Roseanne’s in the name that they overlapped in the format, and that is a lot to say knowing that Roseanne’s was the staple of all staples.  Being able to grab 3 basics from your deck was great because it let you setup any evolution line without the fear that all of your basics will get sniped before they can evolve.  Evolution lines will suffer now with the loss of Collector.  The format may have outgrew Collector, but that doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be considered a great card after being a staple for 2 years.  In fact, I bet most of the people who play today have never played in a format without Pokemon Collector.  It is a great card and it will be weird to play without it.

#3 Yanmega Prime

The last attacking Pokemon on this list is Yanmega Prime.  Yanmega Prime has had an up and down career.  At first it was considered a largely unplayable rogue card because of its lightning weakness and the popularity of Luxray GL.  But once the SP cards were rotated last year, Yanmega took their place as the most dominating and calculating deck.  Yanmega almost ruled the format from Nationals 2011 to the start of Cities 2012.  Its lightning weakness again got the best of him as it left the format thanks to Zekrom BW, but that did not take away how dominant the card was for a good amount of time.  It was very good in different Stage 1 decks with Pokemon like Donphan Prime and Cincinno BW.  It was also very good in a deck with Magnezone Prime.  It seemed like a lot of the best players liked to play Yanmega because it was a very versatile Pokemon that could do a lot of different things.  The ability to snipe for 40 was really good in a format that had a lot of 30 HP baby Pokemon.  It could also do 70 damage to the active, which was not bad in an era with lots of 110 HP stage 1 Pokemon.  The fact that Yanmega could preform all of those attacks for free was an amazing Poke-Body to have, and really set this card apart for a long time.  After Black and White came out Yanmega lost all of its playability, but we all still remember when this Pokmeon dominated the format.

#2 Junk ArmJunk Arm - TR

It is hard not to put Junk Arm at the #1 spot.  No Junk Arm did not dominate throughout its career, but it was the best card of the past year.  The reason I did not put Junk Arm at #1 is that it was not a staple until about a year ago.  Junk Arm was once only a card that was a 1 of option during the SP dominated formats.  It was used just in case you needed to use a 5th Poke-Turn or Power Spray. But Junk Arm started to become a 4 copy staple once the SPs were rotated and great items like Pokemon Catcher and Eviolite were released.  Junk Arm was an amazing card in this past format, it gave you quick access to almost all the good cards in your discard pile with just a two card discard.  Junk Arm ended up deciding games a lot of the times, just an extra Plus Power or Pokemon Catcher was enough to win the game for you or your opponent.  Junk Arm was not just a great card, it was the card of the format.  It effected deck building in every way, all of those Quad decks would never have worked without Junk Arm.  A lot of the decks out now would not work without Junk Arm, it is the card that has shaped the format.  There is no doubt that it deserves to be at the top of this list.

#1 Vileplume

This was a very hard decision.  I know that Junk Arm changed the format and that PONT was everybody’s favorite card, but Vileplume deserves a little boost because it is a Pokemon.  Unlike Yanmega Prime, Vileplume has been a great card throughout its life.  When it first came out it was used with Gengar SF to try to counter the SP decks.  It next got paired with Gengar Prime to try to make a Lost World deck.  Then it got paired with Mew Prime for a myriad of decks and variations of those decks.  It then went into the Ross deck at Worlds 2011, which was the talk of the format for months and months to come.  Then finally it showed itself in Nationals 2012 in a couple decks that screwed up the format.  It was combined with Accelgor, Mismagius, and sometimes Cincinno EP to make some powerful and disruptive decks.  Vileplume had a lot of hype before it came out, and man did it ever live up to the hype.  Vileplume is known as one of the most hated cards in the format, nobody ever wants to see the card in their opponent’s deck because all it does is try to screw your deck up.  It is a very hard card to play against because it takes away all trainers, which are very important in the present and in the SP dominated past.  For those reasons I am crowing Vileplume as the best card that will be rotated in 2012.  It might not have been the slayer of SPs that we all wanted, but it just was a great disruptive card that did a whole lot of good in its time in the format.

 

Well, that is all I have to say about that topic.  I hope you guys liked the article, thought I’m sure you guys would probably put the top 10 in different orders.  And I’m also sure that I missed a couple cards, so if you have comments on the article please leave them in the comment box.  Before we go we need to let Pedro lead us out with a news story.  What do you have for us today Pedro?

Today we are celebrating the birthday of Joe Schuster.

Oh, the book publisher?

No, not the book publisher.  This is the comic book artist who helped to create Superman.  Do you like the Superman Pikkdogs?

Kind of.  I liked Golden Age Superman, but since then he has been way too powerful.  You need a hero with some weaknesses.  If I am going for a DC hero I like me some Batman.

Who do you think would win in a fight between Superman and Batman?

That’s easy, Batman.  Batman has kryptonite.

Okay, sounds reasonable.   Who do you think would win in a fight between Wonderwoman and Catwoman?

Everybody.

Agreed. Goodnight everybody!

Help Thwart Cheating in Pokemon TCG

I’m sure that some, if not most, Pokémon players have had an opponent try to cheat at some point. That happened to me a few weeks ago at a Battle Road I attended. I believe that cheating needs to be brought to the attention of the players, so I want to use this article to raise awareness. If more people know how to spot it, cheaters will be less likely to attempt to cheat for fear of being noticed.

There are several ways to cheat at even the slightest things. Cheaters can draw an extra card, manipulate the outcome of a die roll or coin flip, or even stack their deck. This article will expose every way I know how to catch cheaters.  The two largest Nationals are virtually upon us, and I hope this will let potential would-be cheaters know that it’s not okay by exposing their tricks.

We all think we know what cheating is, but do we actually know? The definition of cheating as “to violate rules or regulations”. Seems simple enough, right? Wrong. Cheating is the act of purposely gaining an unfair advantage over an opponent through manipulation of events and outcomes. If someone were to draw an extra card from their deck without meaning to, it wouldn’t be cheating. If they did it purposely/consciously, however, it would be cheating.
Before we get into specifics, I must advise you that accusing your opponent of cheating is a very strong accusation and should never be done unless you have proof. If you believe that your opponent is cheating, report it to a judge so they can keep watch of the player.  Even if you truly believe that someone is cheating, there may be circumstances you don’t understand.  Always let the judge handle it.  Give them the information you have, and let them do their job.
Shuffling
Double Nickel:

                This is one of the easiest ways for someone to stack the deck without an opponent realizing it, and it will just seem that the lucky individual constantly gets those “god hands”. The way to spot the double nickel is when you see them do a five-pile shuffle, pick the piles up in reverse order of how they put them out, and repeat one more time. This only works if the deck is in an order similar to that of a decklist. So if they don’t have your deck in order, they have to “disappear” from the play area to rearrange the cards so they are in order. The reason why this cheat works is that it perfectly distributes the deck, so no matter how many times you cut the deck, your opponent has an evenly distributed hand (i.e. 2 Pokémon, 3 T/S/S, and 2 Energy). To prevent this, you should always shuffle your opponent’s deck instead of cutting it when you’re setting up. I know some of you are thinking, “You mean we can actually shuffle our opponent’s deck?”. The answer is yes, you can. They are allowed to cut after you shuffle though. I also don’t mean to just overhand shuffle either. I mean actually mixing the cards up. You should do a shuffle similar to Fig. 1, or you can even pile shuffle the opponent’s deck yourself.

Figure 1
Riffle Shuffle:
                Riffle shuffling (like how most people would shuffle a deck of playing cards) can be an easy way for someone to make sure certain cards stay on the top or bottom of the deck. By releasing the bottom card of one stack sooner than the other, they could prevent that card from mixing into the deck. The same goes for the top card. The only difference is that they release that card later than the top card of the other stack. Once again, the way to prevent this is to always shuffling your opponent’s deck like how I am in Fig. 1, or you can simply just cut your opponent’s deck (which wouldn’t help thwart the double nickel). My recommendation is to always cut (or shuffle) your opponent’s deck after they do.  It’s just a good habit to get into.
Overhand Shuffle:
                The overhand shuffle is the most common way of shuffling, because it’s so simple and fast, but a would-be cheater can manipulate the deck while doing an overhand shuffle. What they can do is grip the one card that they want left on top and release every other card just like they would with a proper overhand shuffle. If done correctly, an opponent may not notice that the top card isn’t moving. Once again, preventing this just comes down to making sure that you cut or shuffle your opponent’s deck.
Hindu Shuffling:
                This technique seems to be more prevalent in Yu-gi-oh, but the idea is similar to the overhand shuffle. What happens is the cheater can lock their fingers of their dominant hand on the bottom card(s) and pull out about half the deck and slowly places the cards on their deck until the card(s) they gripped is on top. If that’s not clear, it doesn’t matter.  The point isn’t to learn how to cheat, the point is to prevent and spot cheating.  Just know that this technique will result in one or more specific cards being placed at the top of the deck.  Again, this is easy to thwart. Just cut or shuffle your opponent’s deck.  Spotting these shuffling tricks can be difficult, so just watch the opponent and always cut their deck.
Card Manipulation
Roy Sinclair:
                I have never seen or heard of this happening in Pokémon, but it did happen in Yu-gi-oh, and it could theoretically be used in Pokémon during rare occasions. What happened was Roy Sinclair matched the number of cards played by the opponent so his cards were always equal. He conveniently “forgot” to draw a card during one of his turns and passes. His opponent draws and Roy asks how many cards are in his opponent’s hand. His opponent has one more card than him, because Roy didn’t draw on his turn. Roy then accuses the opponent of cheating.  Preventing this is easy as pie. All you need to do is make sure that your opponent draws when he needs to.  In Pokemon, you should always make sure your opponent is doing mandatory things like drawing to start their turn and taking a prize when they get a KO.  In fact, a judge can issue you a warning for not helping to keep the game state properly, so keep alert.
The Better Hand:
                This is another one of those tricks where a would-be cheater needs a specific situation to pull something. When a card, like Pokegear 3.0 for example, has them draw a certain number of cards (separate from their hand), they could look at the cards, then their hand, then the cards, and so-forth until they see fit. They could possibly thinks about which set of cards is better for the exact situation and follows the affects using the better one of the two “hands.” If the cards they drew from the Pokegear’s effect (in this example) are better, they could take those cards as their new hand. If not, then they just act like nothing happened and continue on normally. Again, watch your opponent. Make sure you keep track of which is really their hand.  Don’t think that because it’s not your turn that it means you’re not in the game.
Palming:
                Because a potential cheater will need large hands to pull this stunt, Juniors and Seniors probably need not concern themselves here.  A would-be cheater could place a card in the palm of their hand at some point in the game, and it can remain hidden by the back of their hand until they need it.  The way to spot this is that their hand becomes very rigid and can’t bend easily. If you suspect this, just ask them to spread their fingers to see if they are palming.  If they have nothing to hide, they will have nothing to worry about.  If they don’t want to show their palm, just call a judge.  When in doubt, never accuse, just call the judge and explain the facts.
Sleeving:
                Similar to palming, sleeving is hiding a card. The only difference is that it’s in a sleeve sleeve. If your opponent is wearing long sleeves, it’s okay to ask them to roll them up before the match. Most people are reasonable and will, but people are free to wear what they want.  Don’t be offended if they deny the request. Just keep alert as I recommended earlier, and watch the opponent’s sleeves and hands whenever they are handling cards. If you have to take your eyes off of them, ask the number of cards in their hand and for them to fan out the cards so you can count them before you switch your attention. Many high level players will ask the number of cards in their opponent’s hands multiple times even during the same turn. It’s a good way to understand your opponent’s game state, and the side effect is to thwart palming and sleeving.
Lapping:
                Another way to hide a card is also similar to palming and sleeving, only it takes place in the lap. Unless players are getting something off of the floor, they are actually required to keep their hands above the table. However, a cheater using lapping will often accidentally “drop” part of their hand during the set-up into their lap. Simply Just ask that they put all the cards back into the deck and for you to re-cut just to prevent them from cheating. You can ask them if it’s okay for you to count their deck 6-pile shuffle it (which will result in 6 piles of 10 cards).  Like people asked to pull up their sleeves, most will think that it’s the honorable thing to do and let you, but you’ll come across someone who won’t call a judge and ask them to randomize the opponent’s deck. You should never need a reason to shuffle an opponent’s deck after they’ve shuffled, but it’s polite to ask permission.
Dice/Coins
Figure 2

Always Flipping Heads:
This happened a few years ago at US Nationals in Juniors. A kid had flipped heads every time he needed to flip a coin. A judge finally noticed it and gave him another coin to use. The kid couldn’t pull of a head every time he flipped it. Apparently, he practiced with the coin so much that he could always flip heads. Just call the judge if you see this and tell them that you believe that the opponent has an insufficient method of randomization as far as always flipping heads.  Again, you never know why a person is doing something.  In Juniors for example, some kids think it’s a challenge to try to flip heads.  They may not realize that it’s against the rules.  A judge can help educate them, and you will be doing all of their future opponents a favor by giving the judge the opportunity to correct the behavior.

Always Rolling Heads:
This is one of those tricks that people in Las Vegas in try to use. A cheater attempting this picks up their die, then they’ll fit it between their middle finger and their palm like in Fig. 2. The number they want is placed towards their thumb, and their fingers are set even to each other.  When the die is dropped from the hand onto the table, they are careful to not “roll” it. This is what is referred to as a “straight drop”. If you see this, you can just ask your opponent to re-roll the die, because it has to turn at least three times according to official rulings. If they don’t want to, just ask a judge how to proceed.  The same thing goes for a coin. If it doesn’t turn three or more time, they should re-flip or re-roll.

                I hope this helps you in your future tournaments. The main two points to take away from this is to always shuffle/cut your opponent’s deck after they shuffle and always keep alert even when it’s not your turn.  These two things alone can help thwart attempted cheating.  If everyone does these things to keep cheating down, it will foster an environment where would-be cheaters become won’t-be cheaters. I hope you have a successful and cheat-free Nationals!

Should There Be a Rotation?

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here, today we will be talking about the possible rotation that may happen in late August.  A rotation can be a scary thing, especially for newer players, but in this article we will analyze why it can be a good thing.  The rotation is something that is fairly complicated, so let’s talk about that later after we talk to my extra-dimensional sidekick Pedro. How’s Pedro doing today?

Oh doing well.  Enjoying the lovely spring/summer weather.  You probably want me to do a news story to kick things off.  Okay, today’s news comes from the world of literature.  Today is the anniversary of the release of Bram Stocker’s most famous work, “Dracula.”  Do you like the Dracula Pikkdogs?

Oh, love the Dracula quite a good book. Read More

Bold Statements with Pikkdogs. Volume #2.

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with an opinion article for you.  I didn’t really have many ideas on what article to write for today, so I decided we should do another opinion article.  Before we start the bold statements, let’s introduce my extra dimensionary sidekick, Pedro.  How’s Pedro doing?

Doing well. 

What news have you today for us?

Well, in entertainment news Michael Bay has announced that he is making a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, but he is making them aliens.  Which is weird because they are called “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”, which means they should be mutated adolescent kung-foo users, not aliens.  Do you like the TMNT?

Sure,  used to watch the cartoon series growing up, and I used to have the good Super Nintendo videogame.  I agree with you Pedro, the turtles shouldn’t be aliens.  To me, they are an extension of the awesomeness that was New York City in the 1980’s.  You had lots of crime and pizza, so to stop the crime and eat the pizza you needed the turtles and a large rat.  They also behaved like Teens, which made them part human, and making them aliens would take away from that.

You seem to have a strong feeling about this.

Well, I do.  TMNT was also a lot about humanity, it just wasn’t about turtles eating pizza.  They had some culture in the program.  Even the fact that they are named after renaissance artists speaks to their connection to humanity.

And I thought it was just about eating pizza and chasing after cute tv newswomen. 

No, that’s what my life is like.

Ah, I see. 

Bold Statement #1- Lv. X’s were a better game mechanic than EXs (ex’s) or Primes.

We have had a lot of Ultra Rare mechanics in the last  several years.  The first was the ex mechanic, which had a long life.  This were just like normal cards, but they had more a few more HPs, and they could attack a little better.  The drawback was that if they got knocked out, your opponent took 2 prizes.  Than with Diamond and Pearl came the Level X mechanic.  Lv. X cards were cards that you put onto your active Pokemon of the same name.  You could then use the attacks of both cards.  But, you would have to use the HP, weakness, resistance, and retreat cost of the Lv. X.  After about a dozen sets with Lv. X’s, we made a change to Pokemon Primes.  Pokemon Primes were kind of like the old exs, but they did not need an extra prize on knockout.  They also didn’t have Prime in their names, meaning there was no real difference between Primes and other cards of the same name, just the rarity.  After only a few Prime sets, we shifted back to exs, but called them “EXs” instead.  These EXs had more HP than the former exs did, and hit just a little harder.

After all of those changes, I think that the best ultra rares were the Lv. Xs.  I believe this for two major reasons.  The first is that leveling up provided the perfect balance of draw backs and advantages.  The second reason is that the Level X mechanic kept prices down,

The Level X mechanic was great because it gave us a great system of advantages and disadvantages.  The advantages were that we could get Pokemon with more HP, better Poke-Powers, and better attacks.  These are similar to what we get with the EXs, exs, and the Primes.  But, the drawbacks to Lv. Xs I think are much better than the drawbacks to the others.  Instead of having to lose two prizes instead of 1, which never made any sense and made things balanced, it was a little harder to setup a Lv. X.  The Pokemon had to be active to get a Lv. X, which made it harder to get out.  And the fact that you had to put the Lv. X on a regular Pokemon was another drawback.  It not only made you run at least 1 extra card, but it made your setup slower.  These drawbacks made the game more balanced, the EXs now don’t have these drawbacks, and the game is a little more unbalanced because of it.

The other thing that was great about the Lv.X mechanic was that it helped keep prices down.  Mewtwo EX is about as sought after today, as Flygon Lv. X was three years ago.  They both had a similar price ($50-$70), but Flygon Lv. X forced you to build a much cheaper deck than Mewtwo EX does today.  This is because you almost always only ran 1 Lv. X in your deck.  If it was a stage 2, you would normaly run a 4-2-3-1 line.  Even if it was a basic, you still normally ran a 2-1 or 3-1, depending on the Pokemon.  Sure, sometimes you did run 2 Lv.X’s, but that is still cheaper than the 3 Mewtwo EXs that are standard in a CMT deck today.  In fact, a CMT deck normally consists of 3-4 Celebi Primes and 3 Mewtwo EXs, that is 6 or 7 Ultra Rare cards.  If Mewtwo EX’s attacks were on a Lv. X card instead, you would probably run a 2-1, 3-1, or 2-2 line.  You  would also run the same amount of Celebis, if “Forrest Breath” was on a Lv. X.  That means you would be between 2 and 4 Ultra Rares, instead of 6 to 7.  That would make the deck much cheaper and make it accessible to more people.

That is why I love the Level X’s, I think they gave us a slower and more balanced format than we have right now.  Even though things did get out of hand once they introduced the SP Lv. X’s, I think that I will blame it more on the SP mechanic more than the Lv. X mechanic.  The one thing I didn’t like about Lv. Xs were that it was harder to have a bench sitting Lv. X than it is to have a bench sitting Prime or EX.  However, this now rarely comes up because the only bench sitting prime or EX that I know of is Slowking Prime, and we all know how good that card is.

Bold Statement #2- The Current Shiny Mechanic is the Best.

There have been a couple different systems of Shiny or Secret Rare Pokemon in the past coule years.  I think that our current system, of having reprints is the best.  I think they are really cool to play with, and are challenging to collect.  Under our old systems of shinies and secret rares, the “cool to play with” factor rarely came up.  Now it does, and it gives you a way to show off your collection.

In the Diamond and Pearl era, the secret rares were Shinies of basic Pokemon like Yanma and Duskull.  Duskull saw a little play when Dusknoir DP was played, but for the most part, nobody cared about these cards.  They were only valued at a couple bucks each.

This trend was continued in the Platinum era, but they did also change the secret rares a little.  In the Rising Rivals set they released Rotoms as secret rares.  These Pokemon could be used to make their own deck, but the deck was never anything more than expensive.  The same was for the Arceus cards that came out in the Arceus set.

I think that now we have the best system of secret rares.  The Diamond and Pearl method of giving us secret rares of basics that nobody likes wasn’t that fun.  And, although Rotom and Arceus decks were cool, they were never a great deck.

I really like when we can actually use the secret rares in decks we are playing.  It also covers the weakness of secret rares, because nobody has to play with Secret Rares because they are all reprints.  But, a lot of people do want to use the SRs because they have really cool art. That is what Secret Rares should be.  They should be really cool looking.  They should be hard to collect.  And, they should be playable.  The only SR model that has been used in the past couple years that covers all of those three areas is the current one.

Bold Statement #3- Spring Regionals will be all about the Rogues.

We will be playing in a similar format for Spring Regionals that we did for States. Coming into States we didn’t really know what was going to be played.  Just a couple weeks before it started, people were still creating decks like CMT and Zekrom.  Now that we have a solid format that people can plan for, Regionals should be all about rogue decks.

It was  very hard making rogue decks for States because rogue decks usually are made to go against meta decks, and since meta decks were so new, it was hard to counter them.  Now that we have had a whole states season to find out what the meta is, we now have about a month to counter these decks.  In fact, it is already happening.  People are starting to work with cards like Cofagrius, Chandelure ND, and Vanilluxe ND to make rogue decks.

I predict that Spring Regionals will be all about the rogue decks.  Now I won’t turn my back on CMT, I know that it is the BDIF and it will win most regionals.  I also know that Zekrom and Durant are also good and will see a ton of play.  But, all the story lines will be about the rogues.  Compared to the beginning of the season, our format has a ton of cards.  That means a lot of new combinations that people haven’t tried before.  We should be seeing a lot of different combos that go outside of our normal box of thinking.  If you think of it, we are really only talking about 3-5 decks doing well right now, come Regionals we should see the format getting broken open.  Just like the Truth opened up the format during Worlds, we should see rogue decks taking over soon during Spring Regionals.

Bold Statement #4- Comic/Card Shops are the Worst Place for a Pokemon Tournament.

I can’t say that I have been at Pokemon Tournaments all the world, but I have been at tournaments all around the Great Lakes Region, and I think that my experience shows that card shops are generally the worst place for tournaments.

I first started out playing Pokemon in Minnesota.  Almost all tournaments in the Minneapolis region are at card shops.  Generally, I found that card shops in that area were very nice and fairly spacious.  Of course, you also get the advantage of having a store that sells things like dice, sleeves, and snacks.  But, upon starting to play in Michigan and Ohio, I realized that card shops in that area are terrible for tournaments.

While Minnesota card shops were big enough for tournaments, shops in Ohio were very small, and that seems to be the trend.  Even though you do get the convenience of a store by a tournament, card shops are for the most part much to small to handle a Pokemon tournament with the current player base.  There is just no where to move, and getting to your table is very hard to do.  The whole tournament becomes one hot and sweaty encumbrance, and the game is no longer fun.

Most Michigan tournaments are held in places like Hotel conference rooms.  These rooms are usually much bigger than card shops, and are designed to handle hundreds of people.  We almost never have to turn people away, and there is plenty of room to spread out and relax.  The inconvenience of not having a store on site, is more than made up for by all the space and comfy furniture.  This is more important today because tournaments are getting bigger and longer.

I think that this is a very important topic for the game today.  I do not think that the game can grow if tournaments are being held in shabby places that are not attractive to new players.  Tournaments should be fun places to be where you can talk with friends, not a place where you can recreate what happens in a sardine can.  It is important that the game be allowed enough space to grow, and card shops do not have that space.  I can admit that not all card shops are small like this. I have heard of a large shop in Florida that works well, and of course the shops in Minnesota still work well, but it seems like card shops are too small for Pokemon tournaments over all.  Tournament Organizers should think about moving away from card shops, and instead moving to municipal or commercial buildings.

 

Well, that’s all I got.  Feel free to share your thoughts.  If you like Primes, card shops, basic secret rares and meta decks at Spring Regionals; please let us know in the comment section.  So Pedro, what do you got for us to close the article?

Well, today the whole world is going cockahoop for the new movie, “The Hunger Games.”  Pikkdogs, you are a librarian and you like to read, do ya like the Hunger Games?

Never read it.  I’m a fat guy, why would I want to hear about a place where there is no food?

I’m sorry I forgot.

I would much rather lay in my bed clutching my Big Mac.

And by “Big Mac” you mean?

My penis.

Okay, we should just end the article, good night everybody. 

A Three Pack of Mini Articles: Your Favorite Card Art of 2011, How EXs Effect States, and Ask Pikkdogs?

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with a 3 pack of mini articles.  First, we have some old business to catch up on with, the award for best artwork in 2011.  Then, we have a new www.propokemon.com premium content article from Alex Fields, and I will bring you an exclusive look at that article. Finally, I have an idea for an article or two that I might want to do, I will run it past you guys, and we will see how it goes.  So, let’s get on to the article. 

Section 1: The Award for Best Overall Card Art.

If you have read the article about card art a couple weeks ago, you will remember that I did an award show type article that celebrated the best in card art.  I gave awards in many categories like: Best Full Art, Best Aerial Scene, and Cutest Card Art.  But, I let you guys pick your favorite overall card art.  Before we give away the last award, I just gotta say that I really liked doing the article this year.  This type of article is always very tough and labor intensive, it is not an easy article to do.  It also is not easy to pick a winner out of a pool of some really good art.  But, at the end I really enjoyed doing the article and hearing your responses.  I really think that card art is something that connects the casual 7 year-old player to the competitive 24 year-old player.  It brings everybody together because everybody can appreciate card art. 

Okay, so without any more ramblings on, let’s crown your winner for best overall card art.  In tallying the votes, I was not happy with how many overall votes we recieved.  But, that could have been because the comment section of our website crashed for the first couple days this article was up, so that was not a good thing.  But, all that aside we do have a winner, and it is………………….

That’s right, the first ever overall Favorite Card Art award goes to Full Art Victini from Noble Victories.  It won even though it was a write-in choice. 

Nobody cared to tell us why they liked it, so I will just guess.  First, Victini is a very popular Pokemon.  It is the star of two Pokemon movies.  Also, this Pokemon is very cute.  Victini does succedde in rivaling Pikachu in the cuteness department.  Just being cute will land you a lot of fans, I should know.  Next, we can look at the card art itself and we see a very nice closeup of Victini’s entire body.  He seems to be in the middle of a fight or something and he has his fangs peeking out of his cute little mouth.  His body appears to be summoning the power of some kind of fire.  Finally, what really stands out here are his baby blue eyes.  They really grab you and get your attention.  Victini does have the eyes to rival old blue eyes himself, Frank Sinatra.  But, Victini is better than Frank Sinatra because he doesn’t have any ties to the Mob, not so far anyway.  Add all these things together and you get a really cool piece of card art that is really cute. 

Thanks to you all that read the article and voted for your favorite card art. 

Section 2: www.propokemon.com Premium Article by Alex Fields, “How the Return of EXs will Effect the State Championships.

Our friends at www.propokemon.com have a new premium article out.  As always we will give you an exclusive sneak peek at the article that you can only find here, for free.  If you want to be ready for states, just follow this link, and you will have an oppurtunity to read the whole article and get yourself up to date on your Pokemon knowledge.

This article is all about EXs and how they will influence play at States.  The author takes the time to look at every EX individually and discusses decks where they will see play.  It just isn’t a rehash of the stuff you hear on this site and others, it does bring new stuff to the discussion.  It really is a pretty cool article.  It gives a pretty good decklist and it gets your mind in gear for play in the new format. 

Here is a sneak peek at the article. In this part of the article, Alex is giving you tips for States.

– Be prepared to play against a lot of decks that manipulate energy, whether through Eelektrik, Typhlosion, Emboar, or Celebi. Echo what I said above about what to do if your deck can’t beat them. Energy manipulation is a key part of this format, and most of the successful decks running Evolutions at this point are in this category.

– Be prepared for N. The presence of EXs makes this card potentially more disruptive early on, and it remains, as always, the ultimate comeback card.

– Durant is not only still a very solid deck, it is practically the go-to deck for a.) casual players and b.) players who don’t have access to Mewtwo and/or other expensive EXs/Primes/etc.. When I say this, I am not being derogatory toward either group a. or b.—I’m just giving an honest observation. It is favored by a lot of casual and limited-resource players because of how cheap it is to build, and how simple it is to run (playing the deck masterfully isn’t that easy, but you know what I mean—it isn’t hard to grasp the “Devour all game” strategy). Be prepared for it as well.

Those are just a fraction of some of the tips, there are others in the article, and also a lot of other good info.  To get your hands on the full article, just click here.  

Section 3: Ask Pikkdogs

I know that I am just asking for trouble here, but I will go against my better judgements and again ask for your help in an article.  I know that we have a lot of very attractive readers, but your participation rate has always been fairly low.  Well, I’m hoping that we can buck that trend and that will have good participation in this new article idea. 

The new article will be called, “Ask Pikkdogs.”  As the name suggessts, this article will be all about the benefits of adding chicken to a pizza.  Well, actually it won’t at all.  It will actaully be about me answering questions from you guys.  You will leave your questions in the comment box, and I will try to answer them. 

You can ask my opinion on anything.  Some good sample questions could be:

  • What deck should I play at states?
  • What decks can I play if I don’t have a lot of cash to throw around?
  • Do you follow the theories of Karl Jung, over the theories of Sigmund Freud?
  • What is the best way to start collecting cards from each set?
  • What type of fuel should I put in my 2002 Ford Taurus?
  • What is your favorite Wagner Opera?
  • Here is my decklist, can you help me make it better?

Those are just a sample of some good questions to ask.  As you can see I am up to talking about anything, even something silly, it’s always fun to let yourself hang a little loose and not to take yourself too seriously.  Personal  questions and questions about things like Pedro are also encouraged.  As I mentioned, you can post your question in the comment box of this article, you can also always email me questions at pikkdogs@yahoo.com, try to put something like “Ask Pikkdogs” in the subject.   I know I am not as much of an expert on the game as some people are, but I think it would be cool to answer some questions that people have.  Also, since I’m hoping that half of the questions include stuff about people like Geoffery Chaucer, it may not go too deep into Pokemon.  Hopefully we can get a lot of user particpation to make this a fun article. 

So that’s, 1…..2……and 3.  Three things completed in one article, I’m all done.  Hopefully we can get some cool questions for “Ask Pikkdogs,” so please don’t be shy, “Ask Pikkdogs” today!

The Second Annual Pikkes- Awards to Celebrate Pokemon Card Art

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  Last year I had an idea around awards-show time to give awards to the best card art in the format.  This year I decided to keep the tradition up, and name it after one of the best people I know, me.  Pikke (Pick-e) was my nickname in school, so I decided to call the awards the Pikkes.  No  matter what attractive chap the awards are named after, the Pikkes are all about greatness in card art.  And what a better time to have an award show, with the Oscars coming up around the corner.

A lot of Pokemon writers don’t mention card art, and only talk about playability.  But, card art is something that connects to the card collector and the serious player.  We all can appreciate a good piece of card art.  Not all of us can appreciate Mewtwo EX, but we all can appreciate how beautiful a Full Art card is.  I think its nice to take a step back from competitive play now and then and just appreciate something as simple as card art.   So let’s take a look at how we are going to give out the Pikkes.

I will choose most of the award winners in a variety of categories.  Cards that are eligible to win awards have been released since the last award show, that means Black and White and up.  Categories  include things like: Cutest Art, Scariest Art, Best Full Art, best Aerial Scene, best Nauctical scene, Best Supporting Actor in Card Art, and best Trainer.  There will be a new wrinkle in the way things are judge this year.  This is because there will be a best card art category.  In this category I will nominate 5 cards, and you guys can vote on the one you like the best.  All you have to do to vote is just put it in a comment, the winner will then be crowned in a later article.  It would be nice if you could also share some of your feelings on the card art that came out this year, and maybe we can work that into the next article.

So we have nothing else to do but start handing out the awards.  I must confess before I do this that I know nothing about art.  I didn’t take an art class in school, and don’t have any classical knowledge about art.  But, the nice thing about Pokemon is you don’t need any of that stuff.  You can just appreciate it the way you are, so that’s what I will try to do.

Cutest Art

One thing that Pokemon is being known for is for being cute.  Pikachu has always been a spokesman for the brand because he is cute.  Not every piece of Pokemon Art has to do with cuteness, but it is what Pokemon is probably best known for.  A lot of people call Pokemon a game for kids, whether it is or not is irrelevant, and the card art sure does lend itself to that assumption.  So, let us go and take a look at the best of Cuteness for this past year.

The Nominees for Cutest Art are:

  • Tropical Beach:  You gotta love the art of this Worlds Promo.  Most people talked about this card because it was good and had a high price tag, but the cuteness of this card was not all lost.  There is nothing that is not cute about this card; the Snivy sun bathing, Tepig caught in the lifesaver, Psyduck floating in the water, and Oshawott have a seizure, or whatever he is doing.
  • Gold Victory Cup:  The next nominee is another promo.  This card went to the winner of Battle Roads.  This art features the three starters jumping up and down in celebration among confetti, while Reshiram and Zekrom lurk in the background, and Victini is sitting in a loving cup.  It is a really cute card with a lot of nice flashy colors.
  • Darumaka Promo: What’s with the promo’s so far?  I guess the promotional cards are just the cutest cards of all.  This Darumaka card came with a mini binder.  This art shows Darumaka balancing on one foot with a platter full of fruit on his head.  There is some delicious looking grapes and pears falling off the platter, it all looks really cool and really tasty.

The winner is………………………………………

 

You can’t go wrong with Tropical Beach.  The other two cards are both very cute, but this is like 2 packages of cuteness packed into a one cute container.  There are so many Pokemon here that you can point at for being cute.   The colors here are very vibrant and you can almost feel the sun shining.  It all contributes to a bright, cool, and cute card.

Scariest Art

Unlike being cute, being scary is something you don’t normally associate with Pokemon.  But, there are a lot of different Pokemon out there.  Some are spooky ghosts, towering dragons, and others are creepy carnivores.  Most people out there find that being scared is a pleasant experience, just look at how much money slasher movies make.  Since Pokemon card art does include the scary variety, let’s take a look at the scariest art of this year.

  1. Hyrdreigon Nd–  If there is anything scarier than a three headed dragon, it is a three headed dragon that is colored green.  In this card art it seems that you have a mad three headed dragon coming after you.  It is very frightening, and not an experience that I would like to be in.  The card art is very cool with the green dragon and the colors popping out of space.  You just gotta love this art, it is beautiful……………and scary.
  2. Terrakion Full Art NV–  When I first made this article, I was sure that Terrakion was going to win, but now I’m not so sure.  It is not for the fault of Terrakion.  This Full Art has some very awesome artwork.  The art shows a close up picture of Terrakion, and he looks very mad.  I’m not sure how to describe his eyes, haunting maybe might work.  It is hard to put into words the deep fear that this card compels you to feel.  Terrakion is not a Pokemon you fool with, he seems very strong and ready to strike.
  3. Zoroark Promo #19–  I was about to give the last nomination away to the Zekrom that came with the Zekrom box, but another Promo caught my eye.  Proving that Nintendo sometimes saves the best art for the promo cards, Zoroark looks as ferocious as ever.  Zoroark looks very angry, he has his mouth open with his sharp teeth pointing out.  Then we gotta talk about the background, he seems to be standing in-front of some kind of vortex or black hole type thing.  It all contributes to a very cool looking card.

The winner of this very tough category is………………………………………………….

 

It was very hard not to give this award to Terrakion FA, it is a shame that it will not win this category.  But, when I saw this card I just knew that it had to win best scary art.  The colors and everything work so well together, and that green dragon is very scary.  Hydreigon is the giant killer, for a regular card to take down a full art it has to be really good, and that’s what this card is.

 Best Full Art

There is no doubt that this has been one of the best years for art, and that is because of the Full Arts.  The Full Art cards have all been amazingly good looking, the artists really have outdone themselves on these cards.  To crown a best Full Art is really a shame, they all are good enough to get a prize.  But, only one will win, and only 3 will even get nominated.  At this time, let us all look at the nominees.

  1. Terrakion NV–  Terrakion didn’t win scariest art, but its day is not over.  It is no doubt one of the best looking Full Arts in the set, and as scary as heck.  When I look at this card, all I can think about is fear.  Terrakkion looks like it is angry and is about to stick it to somebody.  It is just a really cool and scary card.
  2. Regigigas ND-  Regigigas is known as the Colossal Pokemon, but he could be known as the rainbow warrior.  This card art just pops with a lot of colors, it looks like a big wall of candy is moving towards you.  Gigas is also quite intimidating, you gotta be afraid this mammoth Pokemon walking towards you.  The card art really is intimidating, and is everything you could really want from card art.
  3. Mewtwo ND–  Everybody has been talking about this card for a while, but when I first saw it all I thought was, “awww that’s purrtty.”  If you like the color purple, not the Oprah movie, you will love this card.  So many shades of purple are popping out at you with this card.  Mewtwo seems to be conjuring some kind of psychic power, and all of this summoning is causing a beautiful blue and purple swirling background.  It is not really scary, but comes off as super saccharine and colorful.

And the Pikke goes to………………………………….

 

This was again a hard one to award.  It could have gone to either Terrakion or Mewtwo, but since Terrakion got shafted in the last category I thought I would give it the tie breaker.  It just is a really scary card and a beautiful one.  Big props to whoever drew this card.

Best Aerial Scene

Last year this category went to Latios, we will now see who dominates the skies this year.  Man has always dreamed of flying, so there is no doubt that we need a category for Pokemon that capture the dream every day.  While I can’t fly, I can still take pleasure in seeing Zapdos fly over a power plant.  What is critical about a flying scene is the background.  I am looking for a great background that shows off the beautiful sky and a downward look of the world.  So, Let’s look at the best in aviation this year.

  1. Manibuzz BW– The Bone Vulture Pokemon is the first nominee for this award.  This card could have easily been in the “Scariest Card Art” category.  While not as scary as a three headed dragon, this vulture is pretty scary as it has its wings extended in flight.  The card easily shows off the impressive body of Mandibuzz.  It has some very sharp looking spikes around its waist, and it has a bone in its hair.  It is a beast that is not to be messed with.  In the background are the peaks of some mountain along with the clouds covering up a blue sky.  It feels as if the clouds are blocking some pretty strong rays of the sun.  The sun and cloud effects of this card art are very cool.
  2. Braviary–  Braviary itself is quite a cool Pokemon.  It has a lot of colors that seem to pop right out of the card.  Its who body is a beautiful dark blue, and it has red, yellow, and light blue on the feathers.  The feathers by its face seem to come together to make a star.  The talons of this Pokemon are spread out in a fearful gesture.  The background of this art is just as good as that of the bird.  The background depicts a sea of trees that a cloudy blue sky.  Light is not used quite as well as it is on the other card, but the view of the earth sure is breathtaking.
  3. Moltres ND– Moltres, one of the first legendary Pokemon, is back in the Black and White era, and has come with some cool art.  This card art shows Moltres at flight, and the fire in this art is treated very well.  You gotta admire how his body seems to be engulfed in the fire, and the body seems to be the fire.  It is also cool how the fire seems to waft off of him as he fly’s by. The background is not that great in this card, but for the depiction of Moltres himself, you gotta put this card as one of the best of the year.

And the winner is………………………..

We did not have a lot of good aerial card this year, but that doesn’t take anything away from the winner.  The effect of contrasting colors is done early well in this card, and it works well with the aerial scenery.

Best Nautical scene

Golduck won this category last year, but there is no Golduck card left to win the title, so there will be a new winner this year.  Nautical and Aquatic scenes are very cool things to depict in art.  A good aquatic scene has a lot of bubbles and waves, while showing the sun and light from the sky.  There are many ferocious sea creatures in the Pokemon world, so let’s see who wins this year.

  1. Jellicent NV– I could have easily chosen Jillicent ND for this spot, but I thought I would go for card art that goes deep underwater.  This card art depicts two Jellicent swimming at the bottom of the ocean.  In the background there are marine plants, cool bubbles and waves, and the depiction of the sun.  It is cool to look at the sun through that view, because most of us don’t get that far under the water too often.  The Jellicent also look cool in this card, one is right near the picture and seems to be staring at you.  Just a really cool aquatic scene.
  2. Beartic ND–  I don’t really think of Beartic as a water Pokemon, although he is one in the TCG, in the VG he is more of an Ice Pokemon.  This card depicts him as going fully underwater.  He seems to be on the hunt, or maybe taking a bath.  The paws and claws of Beartic are up close in this art, and it is kind of a scary feeling.  It is cool to see the waves and bubbles in the water.  But, the best thing about this card is the fur.  The fur on Beartic is depicted as being long and it just looks very wet.  That may seem like a weird thing to say, but if you look at the art, you will see that the artist does an amazing job of drawing the fur in the water.
  3. Lapras ND #25– Lapras has always been one of my favorite Pokemon, and he has some great card art in ND.  In this art, Lapras is swimming under a bridge.  He seems to be smiling at people as he moves along the body of water.  The water is drawn really well here.  I love the waves, and there seems to be a mist coming off the water.  I also love the sun shining through the clouds.  It seems like a very happy scene, and it is a cool card.

The Pikke for Best Nautical Art goes to…………………………………

 

I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to draw this card.  It is very hard to draw a Pokemon in the water, but it is harder to draw the water when a bear is moving through it.  The  artist really outdid himself on this one.  You can see every movement, and not to mention how the hair looks.

Best Supporting Actor in Card Art

This category rewards people or Pokemon that have snuck onto a card.  For example, Piplup had  a great cameo on the art for Super Scoop Up in Majestic Dawn.  The winner of this category should have a Pokemon or Person that doesn’t really belong in the art, but seems to steal away all the attention from the thing that should have been the center of the card.  Let’s look at the nominees.

  1. Psyduck in Tropical Beach– Tropical Beach has already won 1 Pikke tonight and it just might take home one or two more.  In this category we are looking at Psyduck.  The art depicts the three Unova starters on the beach, but the scene is stolen by Psyduck floating by on a life saver.  It looks like Psyduck is waving to us and the three starters on the beach.  It all makes for a really cool and cute scene.  Psyduck is a real scene stealer in this one.
  2. Victini in the Silver Victory Cup– It seems like the Unova starters can’t get a break.  They are again in a card art together, this time they are hovering around a 2nd place trophy.  But, Victini steals the scene again.  This time Victini seems to have fallen in the trophy and is waving at you with one hand, while it hangs on by the other.  The card art is cool in itself with a spotlight shining and confetti flying in the air.
  3. The Red Stripped Basculin in Basculin ND– This is supposed to be a card about the Blue Striped Basculin, everybody’s favorite “Super Bass”, but a school of Red Stripped Basculin have came into the shot.  It looks like the Red ones might gang up on the blue one.  Maybe both colors of Basculin are out doing some hunting, who knows, but the red ones are sure looking hungry.  Overall, the card art is really cool.  With a lot of cool water and wave effects, and the light that shines through the water is drawn very well.

And the winner is……………………………………………..

For my buddies in Team Victini in Ann Arbor, the winner is Victini in 2nd place Victory Cup.  I love how he seems to be falling into the cup, and how he awkwardly waves.  Just a really cool card to be given out as a prize for a BR, I think that it was a great idea to give out a card like Victory Cup to the winner.  I know that a lot of people didn’t like this decision, but I thought it was pretty cool.

Best Trainer

The last category that I will award is the Best Trainer.  As a whole, trainer cards have sucked art work wise in Black and White.  What has happened to the cool artwork in the Super Scoop Ups, Poketurns, and Bubble Coats of the past sets?  The modern art works are really simple and don’t have a lot of flavor to them.  That being said, there are still some cool art out there, just not as cool as the past.  What I usually look for in a trainer card art is a good profile of whatever the trainer is, and then a cool and funny scene in the background.  Pokemon acting a fool is always fun to see in art like this.  So, let’s look at what modern trainer artwork is like.

  1. Cilan– This is one of my favorite pieces of art on a trainer this year.  Cilan seems to be standing in front of some hotel or something, and it has big gold Pokeball Statues next to it.  The hotel thing really works with Cilan, since he always seems to dress like a waiter.  The card art is nothing special, but I do like the architecture in the Hotel building.
  2. N – This is a really cool picture of the man they call Natural Harmonia Gropius.  He is standing against a forest backdrop, and he seems to have his arms wide open like he is about to hug somebody.  His jewelry and accessories are highlighted, as are his hat and his long flowing green hair.  All this contributes to some great card art, however, the thing that steals the show is the Ferris Wheel in the background.  The seats seem to be made to resemble Pokeballs.  The forest and the Ferris Wheel come together to make a very cool backdrop, and really cool card art.  Certainly it is nothing you are used to seeing about the bad guy of the video games.
  3. Full Art N–  It has been a while since a trainer has gotten the Ultra Rare treatment, but it happened again this year.  Full Arts have really been awesome for Pokemon artwork, and this card is no different.  Just the fact that this is a full art makes it award worthy.  This Full Art was one of the most coveted card in the NV set.  Just to be the guy who has a full art trainer makes you pretty cool.  The art itself is a lot different than the regular N.  This is a closeup of Natural and he seems to be Tebowing or something like that.

And the Pikke goes to ………………………………………………………..

Even though the Full Art N is cooler than the regular N, the regular N has better art.  The art on the full art N is cool, but it seems to be kind of messed up.  The regular N has one of the coolest backgrounds, and Natural Harmonia Gropius seems to be happy.  I think N is a very cool character, and it is nice to see this side of N.  N seems to be a character that has more than just 1 side, and is certainly not the cookie cutter characters that Team Rocket are.  This card art shows off a different side of N, and when a card adds to a character’s personality, well that is just awesome.

So that is all the Pikkes that I am going to give away, however there is one more left.

Best Overall Art

This category is all up to you guys.  So while you guys comment and tell me how I got all the other awards wrong, and please do so, don’t forget to leave a comment and vote for the best overall art of the year.  All you have to do is type the name of a nominee you want to vote for (or vote for a write-in candidate) in the comment box.  I will nominate 5 cards, but you can vote for any card that came out in the last year, just indicate that it is a write-in choice. Here are the nominees.  When you vote, don’t forget to tell us why you like the card.  Also, make sure to give your opinions on the other award winners, its always nice to talk about this stuff.  Here are the nominees.



So long and thanks for all the fish!