One Hit KO

For almost a month, I’ve been working on a Flareon deck.  I chose it due to economics and the fact that I like decks that play fast and loose.  I had it almost built in the Cofagrigous Six Feet Under configuration.  It was something of a “Turbo Flareon” build if you will.

There was a tourney coming up, and I didn’t think that version gave me enough chance against all decks.  I looked around and found Pooka’s decklist online, so I built that version.  I kept playing solitaire and tweaking it, but I never felt comfortable with it.  Basically, his build is a metagame counter, and I wasn’t very confident that the meta here would be anything like that of the real world.

The final straw was that, on Friday night, I played a game against my daughter, Ava, and she beat me.  The tourney was Saturday, and I didn’t have another deck.  I was REALLY kicking myself for not building the deck I had lots of experience with (Darkrai), due to not owning any Darkrai.

As it turned out, I did trade for a Darkrai EX the week before at league.  On the downside, that same day, I traded away all my Dark Patch, because I knew I wasn’t playing Darkrai.  On Friday night, I was really bugging Omar about this via text.  Could I get away with just 2 or 3 many Darkrai?  How many Dark Patch would I need,  minimum?  If I could trade/buy/borrow some Darkrai and Dark Patch, I might switch decks.

On Sat morning, I looked up a decklist for it, and the first one that popped up was Jason Klaczynski’s Worlds list.  I printed it off, stopped at the cash machine on the way, and hit up Who’s Game House.

When I arrived, the Tournament Organizer had a box of commons and uncommons.  I looked through it and came up with 2 Dark Patch and some other useful stuff.  Then I started asking around for Darkrai EX.  I thought maybe the only ones that existed in the town were in Brad’s deck.  That was almost true.  I was able to trade for one from Austin (the same guy that traded me one the previous week, actually).  Zach, yet another player, offered to lend me his full-art copy for the day.  The final piece fell into place when Ken offered up 2 Dark Patch and a couple Virbanks.

I had what I needed, and I had about 15 minutes to build the deck and write the decklist.  It was VERY hectic, and Zach ended up writing my decklist as I tossed newly-sleeved cards at him.  As the entry deadline was called, we realized I was 10 cards short, and I started tossing in Crushing Hammer, Energy Switch (LUCKILY), and something else.  I made it.
Continue reading "Tiny Report From Tiny Tourney"

Greetings readers of OneHitKO, my name is Mike Lesky (or Choncey as some people may know me ).   I am 21 years old and graduated from Culinary School last winter.  I am also a veteran of the Pokemon TCG and have had quite a bit of success in the game since 2003.  I have never written anything for a website before so this is a whole new experience for me, and I am very grateful that Ed is letting me do this.  I have always wanted to be a role model for players of the Pokemon TCG ever since I started helping locals in my area build decks, understand strategy, and win tournaments.  I am a very competitive player when it comes to this game so I tend to take it very seriously.

I have been following OneHitKO.com for quite a while now and have always kind of thought of it as a more casual Pokemon website because of the lack of “Big Names” writing for it.  As everyone has probably noticed the best way to get traffic nowadays is to put some big flashy titles and names on things to spark interest and draw in new crowds.  So some of you are probably wondering, who is this guy and how do we know that he knows what he is talking about?

I’m not some big name like 3 time world champion Jason Klaczynski or consistent nationals player and worlds qualifier Kyle “Pooka” Sucevich, but I do feel that I am a strong contender at any tournament I go to no matter who is there.   Some of my top accomplishments are:

2x Minnesota State Champion
1x Iowa State Champion
3^rd Place 2007 Midwest Regionals
2^nd Place 2007 Mississippi Valley Regionals
9-10^th Place x3 Midwest Regionals 2010 2011 2012
23^rd Place World Championships 2012
2x Top 128 National Championships 2012 and 2013
11x Battle Road Champion
6x City Champion

So it isn’t the most impressive list of accomplishments, but I do like to think that I know what I’m doing.

So anyways, the whole point of why I am here is to bring the competitive scene back to OneHitKO.  I feel that this is the best way to bring traffic back to the site.  I think this is the best way to go if we want to ensure the future of this community.  And to get it started, I want to go over my experience I had this past weekend (8/30/13) at the Klaczynski Open!

Continue reading "Introduction, A New Path, and The Klaczynski Open!"

Hey OneHitKO people, it’s getting to be time where you guys need to see another article, so I thought I may as well do a tournament report like Pikkdogs used to do (Except these will be somewhat successful reports) even though I usually don’t write reports (Although the purpose of the reports are more to show you more about playing the deck), and then so you have something interesting to read about I’ll do a deck analysis of the deck I believe is the BDIF of this format, Hydreigon/Darkrai. Anyway, I feel like getting this started, so here are the reports:

Saturday, November 17th: Cameron Park, CA

I wake up early, make my decklist, and wait for the people who I promised a ride to to show up. Once they both get here, we start the two hour drive to Cameron Park.

When we get there we are greeted by cabd from the SixPrizes forums, and I play some fun games with the people I came with. It turns out that 15 Seniors show up, 1 short of a Top 4. I wait a bit for pairings and I am already paired against someone I’d rather not play early.

Round …

Continue reading "Double Cities Report with Hydreigon plus Hydreigon Deck Analysis"

Hello everyone at OneHitKO! Today I’ve got a tournament report for you with none other than Ho-oh EX, which has been seeing some success at this season’s Battle Roads and is a very fun deck to play.

Before that, my name is Jared Weiss and I play out of Michigan. I started playing last summer, after a friend and I jokingly picked up a theme deck. I learned about the big mid-season rotation that had happened the previous season, so I was glad to start fresh into the HGSS-on format. I’d like to thank Josh, as he was one of the first people I met playing the game, so it’s sad that he won’t be around much anymore, but I’m glad to be writing for the site. Besides Pokémon though, I’m a college student and competitive figure skater which I’ve been doing for 10 years, and have been a national competitor among many other accomplishments in the sport.

Anyways last season I had started out playing Reshiram/Typhlosion, a great beginner’s deck, and netted me my first top cut. From there, I proceeded to play strictly Tier 1 decks that I knew were doing well like ZPST, CMT, and a Darkrai/Terrakion variant through nationals, which gave me a 6-3 record at nationals (after going 6-1 and then having to face some brutal trainer lock decks).

However, since this would be my second season, I wanted to branch out a bit more and be more creative with deck choice. Of course that went right on the afterburner when I started testing Darkrai/Hydreigon at the rotation to BW-on, and instantly loved it. It’s what I would end playing for my first couple BR’s of season, having a 4-1 bubble at the first, and then 4-2 for a top 8 and championship points finish at the second. Even though I still loved the deck, but I was very curious to try Ho-oh EX after some friend’s success and losing to it in the last round of the previous BR’s. So I threw it together and tested it a bit with fellow OHKO writer Joel the week of, and had a blast playing it (I mean, how can’t you with a deck that has every single energy type)! Here’s the list I took to the tournament:

Continue reading "Okemos 1st Place Battle Road Report and Ho-oh EX Deck Analysis"

Usually I’m pretty pleased with doing well at a tournament and leaving feeling proud even when I haven’t won anything. In the past, I’ve seen the good in times like when I got 17th at Regionals and was able to drive home at a reasonable hour instead of playing top-16. When I dropped my first States, I still felt good about my performance even though I could have played in the top-8 (though I look back on it and think I probably wouldn’t make the same choice if it happened again, but it’s not a regret). I’m not the type of guy that gets pissed when I lose, but I’m also not the type of guy that jumps up and down when I win. However, I don’t think I’ve ever felt like I’ve done so well in a tournament and then walked away feeling so empty handed as I did this past weekend at Battle Roads. We’ll get to that a bit later.

First, I’ll give you a bit of backstory. When BW-on was announced, I wasn’t sure what I would do. I am now building decks for 3 people from my collection, because my second daughter, Petra, has started playing. When I played in Nationals 2011, I used Emboar. I had played and liked it (kinda), so it was easy for me to build. I also had a Zoroark deck from last format, and it was something that could be easily rebuilt for BW-on. That was 2 decks, so I needed something for another junior. I decided to throw together an autopilot style all EX deck. The idea was to just set stuff up without having to evolve, keep damage off, and keep the opponent down (with energy removal thanks to Kyurem EX and hammers). Part of my choice here was that I didn’t care a ton about my BR results, so I refused to buy any Darkrai EX or Mewtwo EX knowing that they’d come out in tins soon.

Continue reading "Hammertime Darkrai BW-on : Battle Roads Report with Darkrai EX, Sableye, Dark Patch, Energy Switch, Crushing Hammer, etc."

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with a Spring Battle Roads wrap-up for you.  Spring Battle Roads is kind of a weird time.  People are not half as excited for Spring BRs as they are for the Fall BRs and the Cities, even though the structure of these tournaments are very similar.  Maybe it’s the fact that people associate Pokemon more with the Fall, or that people have other things to do during the spring (graduation parties, cookouts, sexy parties).  Whatever the reason, some people are not high on Spring Battle Roads.  However, there are people who are.  A lot of people think of this season as the warm-ups for Nationals and are very excited to find out what the format will be like.  So not only were Victory Cups and Championships Points on the line, but advantages for Nationals were also up for grabs.  So let’s see what we learned about the format for Nationals.

But, before we do that there is a certain extra-dimensional sidekick that we must say “hi” to.  Hey Pedro!

Hey Pikkdogs, I would like to be nice today and wish you a happy summer.

That is quite …

Continue reading "Battle Roads Wrap-Up"

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with a tournament report and a decklist for you.

If you read my last report you would have seen that I went to a BR a couple weeks ago with a Kyurem EX deck, and didn’t do very well.  I thought the deck held its own, it just needed a little more pop.  So, I thought I should change the deck up, and I decided that I should use the same basic concept but with Entei EX.

When I first did testing on this deck it was basically my other deck, but with fire energies and Entei EX.  Than, I started to talk to Ed and we made some good changes to the list.  After changing the list to make it more mainstream, I did some testing and came up with something that had some promise.  I knew that I wouldn’t have a great shot to win, but hopefully this deck would play well and I could keep polishing it until Nationals.

Instead of my last deck which was entirley based on healing, I changed it so that the healing is still there but the deck is …

Continue reading "Pikkdogs Okemos Battle Roads Report and Quad Entei List"

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with a tournament report. This past Saturday I was able to go to my first Battle Roads.  This one was in Toledo, although it is not currently in Michigan,  Toledo is actually the closest venue for me, so I had to be there to defend my turf.  I wasn’t looking forward to this event because Toledo events are usually held in the smallest game room ever, so it gets really hot and really stinky in there.  Although it is not  a fun place to play in, I still had to come and defend my back yard.

I have been trying to find a deck in this format that I like for a long time.  I don’t really like Zekrom, its just too robot like for me.  I would like to play CMT, but I am very poor and can’t afford the deck right now.  And I am not convinced about the other decks in the format, so I went with a rogue deck.

For about a month now I have been thinking about a tanking deck with either Groudon EX or Kyurem EX.  Onehitko writer TAndrewT convinced …

Continue reading "Toledo, Oh Battle Roads Report and Kyurem EX Tank List"

Welcome, you OHKO’ers, to Battle Roads! As a Poképarent, and as an active member of the Twin Cities Pokémon TCG community, I have always felt there is a lot to love about the Battle Roads season. Battle Roads tournaments are worth very few Championship Points, and this gives them a more relaxed and informal feel than larger State or Regional Championship tournaments. Battle Roads tourneys are also a great place for new players to start their experience with Competitive Play. I should know, because a 2010 Fall Battle Roads at Dreamers Cards in St. Louis Park, MN, was the very first Pokémon tournament that my son Paul and I attended. I will never forget that, during round 3 of that Battle Roads, Andy Wieman played our entire match with his cards upside down, just so that I could read the text on each card more clearly. And other Minnesota-area opponents gave Paul and me tips on play during our games that not only helped us become better players in the long run, but even resulted in us winning a couple of matches in that very tournament. So I have always been excited to return to Dreamers for Battle Roads.

This …

Continue reading "TAndrewTourney: Spring Battle Roads 2012 (St. Louis Park, MN) with Klinklang EX"

Before my Spring Regionals report, a confession: I wasn’t originally planning to go to Regionals. One of the things I like most about Pokémon TCG is its unpredictability—that with so many cards in format, you never know what combinations you’ll see in a tournament. I really enjoyed the City Championships (HS-NVI) format, where there were a lot of viable decks, and the metagame continued to evolve over the course of the winter. I think that some competitive players felt exactly the opposite about that time—that a Cities format with so many decks became a game of rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock, where it was difficult or impossible to practice a strategy that would win the most games. But the metagame had narrowed a lot by the State Championship series, partly because of the release of Mewtwo EX, and partly because of the steadily increasing advantage that Basic Pokémon now have. Going into Regionals, it seemed like almost everyone was either playing Zekrom/Mewtwo/Eels or Celebi/Mewtwo/Tornadus. And I didn’t like that one bit. So I didn’t play in any of the States events (though I did serve as a judge at MN States). And I resolved to stay in the Twin Cities last weekend, and …

Continue reading "TAndrewTourney: Midwest Regionals 2012 in Madison, WI"