Happy Monday to all you OneHitKO readers, Joel here with a report and a half from this weekend’s battle road events. I say report and a half for because I only took notes on half my matches from Saturday, mainly because I did so bad and I was getting so frustrated I just stopped taking notes. I did a lot better on Sunday, but nowhere near cut but at least it was a major improvement from Saturday. It was also a horrible weekend for sports as well. The Detroit Lions undefeated streak came to an end, the Detroit Tigers got eliminated, and Michigan lost to Michigan State. The Red Wings won their game however, so it wasn’t too bad. I will start the article with Saturday’s Battle Road, which took place in Ann Arbor, MI. I was happy to see an event in Ann Arbor, only because I live 15 minutes outside of A-squared and it is arguably the greatest city in Michigan. The event was held at my favorite store down there, Get Your Game On. The only downside was the venue was very small, so small it was cramped and people actually got turned away because we went to capacity. The Ann Arbor event was also one of my worst performances to date, which is why this report will be short and not so sweet. I ran my Stage 1 Rush deck that I ran in Hartland, with a few minor modifications for both battle roads.
Round 1 vs Diane S.-ZPST
Last time I played against Diane, she beat me in the finals of a Spring Battle Road, so I know she’s a good player. We both get a slow setup and the game ends up being a prize battle throughout most of the match. We got down to 1 prize each and I used catcher to bring up a Zekrom, and Zoroark won with the help of a pluspower. 1-0
Round 2 vs Mike M.- Yanmega/Magnezone
Not gonna lie, I was a little intimidated this round. Mike had a great rookie year last year, and continues to be an amazing player. He is also best friends with the Richard family, who happens to be on a hot streak right now. I managed to get an early prize lead, however he came back with his amazing draws, my poor draws and whiffing on both of my Pokegears. He manages to KO the rest of my pokemon and take his prizes. He was also nice enough to let me bum a cigarette post match too, because it was one of those games where you needed one after (by the way, don’t smoke. It’s one of those things both Mike and I wish we never started, and quitting is easier said than done.). 1-1
Scooping to Levester
I stopped taking notes after Round 3, but my third round loss was to Jack I. running Mew/Yanmega/Cinccino. I lost that due to a wrong guess in whether he needed to increase or decrease hand size. My round 4 loss was to my good friend Levester W. running Gothitelle/Reuniclus. I misplayed horribly. My round 5 win was to my other good friend Alan T, running Pidgeot/Yanmega. And my round 6 loss was to Matt K. running Yanmega/Magnezone. I couldn’t draw anything and scooped. I ended up going 2-4 that day. My younger brother Hunter took 2nd again in seniors and got another championship point too.
Sunday’s tournament took place in Okemos, MI. This was my better performance. I still didn’t do as good as I hoped, but this was a major improvement. In all honesty, I was more excited about going to Chipotle after the tournament than the whole tournament itself.
Round 1 vs Tracy K.- Reshiphlosion
Tracy is quite possibly the best player in Michigan, and a really good friend of mine. This was one of the best matches I played all day too. I managed to get an early prize lead, and late game ended up being a prize battle. Bouffalant helped me out a lot with revenge KO’s. My downfall was benching a Cleffa, which she would catcher up and KO for game. I was tilted throughout most of the game, afterward she gave me advice. She told me to just take a deep breath and not be so stressed. It helped me later on in the tournament. 0-1
Round 2 vs Chris D.-Reshiphlosion
I did in this game what I should have done last round, which was take out the Cyndaquils early. Taking Typhlosion out of the mix helps greatly. I also took out his Dewott so his Samurott tech wouldn’t see the light of day too. He had a slow setup but managed to make this game a prize battle as well. Taking out the Cyndaquils helped me win though, as I was 4 prizes ahead by the time he had somewhat of a setup. 1-1
Round 3 vs Ryan D.-Crobat/Weavile
As long as I’ve known Ryan, he’s always had a knack for rogue decks or decks that you would usually not see, and he does well with them too. I knew he was running Crobat so I had to keep control early on in the game. Donphan helped KO Sneasels and Weaviles. He only managed to get prizes from my Donphan using Earthquake. 2-1
Round 4 vs Alex H.-ZPST
Donked. That’s all I can say to that. 2-2
Round 5 vs Nick K.-Ross.dec
I thought I was going to lose this one for sure. Nick is another one of Michigan’s best players. I managed to get an early prize lead, which helped me out in the end. He finally gets Vileplume and Reuniclus set up late game and slows me down. We play down to the wire, as we both have 1 prize card left. His mistake was my gain. He could have won the game by damage swapping damage counters from his Zekrom to Vileplume, but he didn’t do that. I added a 4th energy to Donphan, retreated, promoted Yanmega, used copycat and sniped out his Zekrom for game. 3-2
Round 6 vs Robert H.-Lilligant/Vileplume/Yanmega
I managed to keep control early game, I took out Oddishes with Yanmega so Vileplume couldn’t see play. He did manage to status lock me a few times but luckily Switch helped me out. He scooped a few turns into the game after I had an early prize lead. 4-2
I took 8th overall in that tournament, but the highlight of my day was going to Chipotle. After a horrible sports weekend, and utter disappointment in Pokemon, Chipotle is the perfect medicine and the key to happiness. Thanks everyone for reading , and as always-Go Lions, Go Wings and GO BLUE!
I forgot to bring my camera for both days this past weekend, so I don’t have my usual slew of unfocused pictures. Because of that, I thought that I wouldn’t write much, so I didn’t take any notes. This is all from (my poor) memory.
Here’s a micro report from The Source Comics and Games on Oct. 15th. I knew that there was another tourney the next day, so I thought that if Ava was done playing, I might drop. I didn’t want to drop if there was a chance I could still win, but in the back of my mind, I almost hoped I’d hit that 2 loss mark early. We had a party to attend as a family, so it would be good to get home a bit earlier.
Juniors had 8 players. Aiden wasn’t there with his Beartic deck which has beaten Ava’s Donphan deck in the 2 previous events. Unfortunately, Paul decided that Beartic was the clear best deck (as it had won the previous 2 events) and decided to play it. I think Ava lost to Paul and forgot about Exoskeleton to lose another one. In the end, she snuck in at 4th place and got her third top-4 in 3 events. Read More
Hello to all you OHKOers out there, this is Pikkdogs here with a Battle Roads report. Of course I am also joined by my extra-dimesnionary sidekick Pedro.
Before we start, I gotta thank Pedro for filling in for me recently while I was serving my 1 article suspension. I couldn’t do it and Pedro wrote an article and he did a ………….. well he wrote an article. So thanks.
Well, your welcome Pikkdogs. Say, you had some time off lately, what did you do with your time?
Well I took a vacation. I went to Amish country. In Intercourse, Pennsylvania.
Ohhhh, what did you do?
Well, I have always been inspired by the simple life of the Amish. I just walked around the center of town and talked with the locals.
So, in other words, you like to talk in the middle of Intercourse?
Yes. You know the one good thing about the Amish is that they don’t have computers so you can say whatever you want about them and they will never know.
Yes, the Amish and other Americans are very different. One is a group of people that never read your articles…… and the other group is Amish.
Hey! Don’t say that. It’s true, but I do have feelings.
Okay, should we just get on to the article?
Let’s do that. So this saturday the Pokemon world in Michigan shifted towards Ann Arbor, Mi. This tournament is actually the closest one for me. So it was nice to not have to drive too far, but the location was far from ideal. What I saved in gas I had to pay to the parking garage. It was held in a fairly nice card shop in the middle of downtown Ann Arbor. I do not like having to play in such an urban area. There also wasn’t room for all the players that wanted to come, they ended up turning a couple players away. So although I like the people of Ann Arbor, I hope they can provide a more spacious venue next time. When the pairings were posted on the wall it took about 5 minutes to move across the room. The whole room was like a big rugby scrum, the only way to get to the other side was just to lower your shoulder and push. I tell ya Pedro, that room was pretty much clogged.
Oh yeah, how clogged was it?
It was so clogged that my arteries were jealous.
It was so clogged that Frank (pictured right) couldn’t fit his Fedora in the room.
It was so clogged that I had use a Junior to pry my way to my seat.
So Juniors are good for some things, well that’s enough of the bad comedy, lets just continue on to the report.
Anyway, I got up a little earlier than I would like to, and made the about 40 minute drive to Ann Arbor. I had to park in a parking garage, and I know that I already complained about that, but I really don’t like paying for parking. But, I got there fairly early with my decklist ready and got to say hi to a lot of people from my area. It was nice to see all these people, and it was great to meet new people who are friends of the website.
You mean people actually read this crappy website?
Well I guess, but they must have wandered here by mistake.
I had again played my Donphan and Dragons deck. Although I was not 100% happy with the deck, I knew it was my best shot at a win right now, so I took it again. I won’t provide the list since the deck is basically the same. But I did swap out the Reshiram for a Tornadus, and swapped a Juniper for a PONT. I liked the addition of Tornadus because it adds more pop to the deck.
What kind of pop?
Levester playing Joel H.
Faygo. Enough distractions let’s get on to the article.
Round 1- Ampharos/Leavannny
This round was against a guy who was very new to the game. This was his first tournament and he was playing a deck with a lot of different Pokemon and not a lot of supporters. I think he started with a Doduo and the secret rare Pikachu. I got Donphan Prime going turn 2, and just started swinging. I used Pokemon Catcher to take out Pikachu, and then a Mareep. The game was over in just a couple turns since his deck wasn’t very consistent. I think he attacked for a total of 30 damage all game.
1-0. Not much pride taking out someone who’s deck was less than a theme deck, but I’ll always take the 1-0 start. I was able to give him advice about his deck and the game after. Hopefully he will stick around and play the game more till he improves.
Round 2- Dave R. with Zekrom
For the second week in a row I got the pleasure of facing off against Dave, I’m just happy that I didn’t have to fight the whole Richards clan like I did last week. I swear that Dave and his brother Dan have some kind of weird thing going on with their luck. Whenever I play Dan he can never get a break and always flips tails, but Dave gets all the breaks he needs and beats me easily. This game kind of went that way.
I started with Tornadus and got a couple knock outs early. But I also lost that Tornadus and a Phanpy early. At one point I thought I was done fairly early in the game, but I was able to get a Pokemon Collector a couple Phanpys. I did manage to get a couple Donphans, so I kept myself in it. But, Dave set himself up pretty early, he always had 2-3 Tornadi on the field with a Zekrom ready. He switched between attackers flawlessy, and was able to rescue a couple of prizes by getting heads on Super Scoop Ups on damaged Tornadi. After losing on those Super Scoop Up flips, I just scooped and congratulated Dave.
1-1– So another loss to Dave, but he is a Nationals champ so there is no shame in losing to him. I just hoped that I could win out and come back.
Round 3- Zoroark, Yanmega Prime and Crobat Prime
I had talked with this guy throughout the tournament, and was impressed with how much he improved since I had seen him last. He had top cutted last week with this deck, and was doing pretty well. I was kind of excited for this matchup. Crobat Prime should beat my Donphan, but my Zekrom should beat his Crobat. He would then bring up Zoroark to deal with the Zekrom, in which case I would bring up Donphan and we would start again. It should have been a great game of revenge KOs. But, all this didn’t happen.
It did not happen because I had to mulligan a number of times. Not 2 times, not 3 times, not 4 times, not 5 times ….. well yes 5 times! I had to mulligan 5 times in order to get a Basic. Once I got the basic the only Supproter I saw was a Sages, and I could not catch up with his 12 card hand.
1-2– If ya wanna lose, give you opponent a 12 card hand. At this point I almost dropped because I knew I couldn’t Top Cut. But I decided to stay anyway.
Round 4- Mew/Lucario
This game was against another beginner. She used Mew, Relicanth, and Absol to get Lucario and Muk in the Lost Zone, and then do major damage. She started with Relicanth and was able to Lost Zone a lot of key Pokemon. The problem for her was that I was able to get a turn 2 or 3 Donphan Prime, and used Pokemon Catcher to control the number of Mew Primes on the field. By the time she found a Pokemon Collector and Revive to get a lot of Mews on the field, I was able to get a big prize lead. Her deck was just too slow, and Donphan is just too good.
2-2– I’m still mad here, but I’ll take any win I can get.
Round 5- Frank S. with Gothitelle.
Now this was really stupid of me. I have an autoloss to Gothitelle, so I told my friend Frank to play the deck. I don’t know why. I even lent him cards so he could play it. And then I have to play him. I knew my only hope was to use Pokemon Catcher to knock out Gothita’s before they evolve.
Frank starts first with a Solosis and Reshiram, and uses “Cell Culture.” I start with a Phanpy and a Zekrom, Pokemon Catcher the Zekrom, and pass. Next turn Frank finds a Gothita and plays it. I use a Juniper to evolve to Donphan and get a Junk Arm to get the Pokemon Catcher back, and take away the Gothita. On the next turn Frank gets another Gothita, but I get another supporter to find a Pokemon Catcher. Skip ahead a few turns, and Frank finally finds a Pokemon Collector…… but he prized a Gothita!! I cheer and Sean the Judge looks at me strangely. I was able to get another Pokemon Catcher and take care of the last Gothita (that had evolved into a Gothorita).
3-2– I get really lucky and am able to take care of Gothtielle before it set up, and was able to take the game.
Round 6 Joe with Stage 1 Rush (The traditional build).
Joe is a nice guy, but at this point he was pretty frustrated. He thought he was going to top cut, but he lost last round, so he was not very focused on this game. The nice thing was we were sitting by our friends Bohdan and Ryan G.
I go first and have the better setup. I have a Tornadus and a Zekrom, and soon get a Donphan. I am able to “Hurricane” his Donphan twice for the Knock Out. Then I promoted my Donphan Prime and was able to “Heavy Impact” his Donphans and Yanmegas. Because i had three energies on Donphan, I was able to win the Donphan Battle and pretty much control the field. He got a knock out with Zoroark, but I revenged knocked it with Donphan. And of course, in the end his Yanmegas and Donphans could not stand up to the “Heavy Impacts.”
4-2- Well a nice record to end the day, but the beginning of the day was not very good. I end the day on a good note, and hope to keep it going tomorrow.
Thanks again to all my buddies I saw today, and to all the judges, and to Derek.
Derek? Is he your boyfriend?
No, he’s the tournament organizer. How do you wanna end the article?
Oooo, I got a news story.
You got a news story?
Yep, it seems that Nintendo has revealed the full name of the character N. His name is “Natural Harmonia Gropius.”
What a coincidence, that’s the name I used to dance under.
I thought I remembered you. That’s all we got people, you can leave now.
Hey all you earthlings, this is Pedro here. Pikkdogs receieved a one article suspension for his cussing last week. And because the show must go on, Ed asked me to fill in for him. While I don’t know much about this game, I should be able to do better than a fat kid that doesn’t know his grammar rules.
Before we get into the article, we should take care of these italics. Even though my normal langauge translates into italics, it would be hard to read an article full of italics, so I bought an italics converter. If I just pop it into my inter-dimensionary porthole like so, that should do it. Okay lets get to the article.
Obviously I am an extra-dimensionary being, so I don’t know that much about Pokemon, but one thing that interests me is the Lost Zone. Since I have to travel through an inter-dimensionary porthole, a portal to the Lost Zone feels very familiar. So I will start talking about Lost Zone cards and Lost Zone decks.
The Most Versatile Lost Zone Card- Lost Remover Read More
So I know you OHKO’ers are knee-deep in Battle Roads right now, battling against all sorts of decks—not just the Reshiram/Typhlosions, Yanmega/Magnezones and Stage 1’s you’ve become familiar with since Worlds, but brand new decks too, like Zekrom/Tornadus, toolboxy Mew decks, Yanmega/Cincinno/Weavile, Gothitelle, Beartic/Vileplume/whatever—all kinds of builds you hadn’t thought of, but yearn to try. But how can you? I mean, you can’t just call up the guys every other day, asking to get together to test out your crazy Wobbuffet-donk deck whenever you please, right? We all have lives—school and college just started up, we’re all working hard to make financial ends meet, and Dancing with the Stars has reclaimed our Monday and Tuesday nights. Personally, it took me like 2 whole weeks to set a series of forest fires in northern Minnesota with the goal of sending a blinding cloud of smoke at Pikkdogs’ Michigan apartment. Let’s face it—we don’t always have the time to playtest like we should.
Last weekend, I played Yanmega Magnezone with a Jirachi, but no Kingdra. It was a weird list. It worked, though it probably shouldn’t have. I didn’t test it much either. This time, I didn’t even touch the deck, and had it built for me. It was Yanmega Magnezone with Jirachi, but this time, I ran a 2-1-2 Kingdra line. Here’s the report. I remember some and some I don’t. It was a looooong day.
Round 1: VS Mike Juhl playing Whirlipede(I think that’s what it was)/Roserade
The deck was all about poisoning, but he just couldn’t get set up. Multiple Yanmegas allowed for a swarm he couldn’t seem to overcome, as I catchered his basics and one-shot them with Sonicboom. Relatively easy. GG man.
Fall Battle Roads at Outpost 2000 and BeyondAlrighty guys, here we go. MN’s second Battle Roads of the season was on Oct 9th at Outpost 2000 and Beyond. I’d say we had a better day than the previous weekend, so
You mean you didn’t totally scrub out, misplay for a game loss, try to blame it on the judge, and barely make 50/50 on the day?
Hi everyone in the OneHitKO universe, Joel here with a battle road report. Yesterday, I attended the Battle Road in Hartland, MI. I had the option of going with fellow OneHitKO writers Mark and Pikkdogs to Toledo, but I opted for Hartland mainly because it was 20 minutes away from my house. There were 26 masters, 5 rounds with a top 4 cut. I decided to run Donphan/Yanmega/Zoroark/Tornadus for this tournament.
Round 1 vs Jeff M. with Volbeat/Illumise.
I was happy to know I was playing against Jeff the first round, because he is both a good player and fun to talk to. I go first and start with a lone Tornadus. I collector for 2 Yanma and a Phanpy, then attach a DCE to Tornadus and pass. He goes, and plays a lost remover, slowing me down, then proceeds to attach a grass to his Illumise, collectors for 3 Volbeat and attacks. Luckily he gets only 1 heads. I use a switch to get Tornadus out of active and promote Phanpy. I then evolve to Donphan, attach a fighting and use a pluspower and earthquake for the first prize. He promotes another Illumise, flips a heads on a Crushing Hammer, and then gets 4 heads on Vulcan Beat. Luckily Exoskeleton saves me, however I cannot manage to draw an energy, therefore I use PONT, and still don’t get an energy. I reluctantly pass. He goes and manages to KO my Donphan, which is great for me because I have Copycat and I can use Yanmega. Over the next few turns, I luck out by getting a catcher and some form of hand refresh in my hand, which helps Yanmega pick off Volbeats for prizes. I manage to win the game with Zoroark copying Volbeat’s firefly light, burning and confusing a Volbeat to win the game. 1-0
Round 2 vs Sean F. with ReshiBoar
Everyone has that one game that is so horrible that they don’t want to talk about it. This is that game. All I can say is that all my Phanpy were prized, I couldn’t draw into any hand refresh and he just had fun picking off my basics. As you can tell by my lack of enthusiasm about this game, you know the result. 1-1
Round 3 vs Chris D. with Reshiphlosion w/Samurott tech
This game made up for the blunder that was Round 2. I start with Tornadus and I go first. I attach a DCE to Tornadus, and use a collector for 1 Phanpy and 2 Yanma. I pass. He attaches 1 fire to his Reshiram, and Collectors for a Vulpix and 2 Cyndaquil and passes. I attach a fighting to Tornadus and evolve Phanpy to Donphan and a Yanma to a Yanmega. I catcher up a Cyndaquil, and Hurricane for a KO. He promotes Reshiram back up, attaches, and evolves to Quilava. He then only outrages for 20. I go, and draw another fighting, attach to Tornadus and use a Junk Arm for a Catcher, then I catch up his Quilava and Hurricane for a KO. He goes, and collectors for 2 more Cyndaquil and an Oshawott and benches them. He then attaches to Reshiram and Blue Flares my Tornadus for a KO. I promote Donphan and catcher up the Oshawott and Earthquake for a KO. He was unable to catch up because I managed to have a Catcher in my hand every turn. 2-1
Round 4 vs AJ D. with Reshiphlosion
This is another one of those games where I have terrible draws, and AJ gets set up fast. I didn’t take many notes on this game, except for mid game where I managed to catch up a little bit, but I only managed to get 3 prizes out of it. His setup was just way too fast for me to win. I apologize for not taking notes and going into more detail, but like the 2nd round, it’s one of those games you just don’t want to talk about. 2-2
Round 5 vs Catherine T. with Serperior/Reuniclus
This game was entirely in my favor. I had the advantage of going first, on top of starting with a Tornadus, Phanpy, Yanma, on top of having a Collector, DCE, Catcher and Communication in my hand as well. I attach DCE to Tornadus, Collect for Yanma, Tornadus and Zorua and pass. She collects for 2 Solosis and a Snivy, and Eeeeeks into a new hand. I topdeck a PONT, and communicate for Donphan. I then catch up Solosis, and use PONT. I get a fighting energy in my hand, attach to Tornadus and Hurricane for KO. The game basically consisted of me steamrolling with Tornadus and Donphan, on top of me managing to have a Pokemon Catcher in my hand at all times. 3-2
All in all, it was a good day. I took 8th overall, and left on a winning record. I didn’t make top cut or get any championship points but I did have a good time. My little brother took 2nd in seniors, and got a 2nd place Victory Cup and a Championship Point. He was running Reshiphlosion. There was a lot of diversity at this tournament, however the winning decks were either ZPS or Reshiphlosion. I will be attending both Ann Arbor and Okemos Battle Roads next week so I will have reports for those as well. That’s all I have for today, so as WWE superstar Zack Ryder always says, “take care, spike your hair. Woo Woo Woo, you know it!”.
A big hello to all you OHKOers out there, this is Pikkdogs and his extra dimensionary sidekick Pedro here with a Battle Roads report. I decided to run Donphan and Dragons again at this
Frank and Amanda talking it up before the tournament
tournament because I had done well with it in my last tournament. I won’t post a list because it is basically the same one that I shared last time. The only change was that I replaced a Lost Remover with another Max Potion. After today I don’t think I would change anything about this deck. So enough about the deck, let’s set up the tournament.
Hey, we usually do a little schtick before we get to the article. Why are you getting into the article so fast.
Well, I can’t think of anything to talk about.
We can talk about Frank’s weird snake scarf in the picture to the right.
I think we already said that we think he is compensating for something, let’s just to the article.
This past Saturday there were two options for Michigan players. We could either get up early and go to a BR in Hartland, Mi (located kind of between Ann Arbor and Flint), or we could head south to the border town of Toledo, Ohio. Despite my pact to stay out of Ohio as much as possible (yes the University of Michigan and Ohio State rivalry has driven me crazy), I decided to go to the Toledo event since it allowed me to sleep in a little more. I was hoping that most of the better Michigan players would have stayed in state, but alas they all thought like me and decided to come to Toledo. I can’t describe everyone who was there, but there were some great players like 2nd place state finisher Matt K., perennial Ohio top cutter Jack I., Team Warp Point power houses Ryan G. and Collan B., and the contingent from Team Bertolli which includes the Richards brothers (and father) and Mike, A.K.A. Bertolli. The tournament today would be 6 Swiss rounds with a top cut of 4, since there were 34 players the 3rd and 4th place kicker points did “kick” in.
I was nice (and foolish) enough to bring with me fellow Onehitko.com writer Mark M. and my favorite Ukrainian, Bohdan P.
Bohdan is Ukranian? Did you ever tell him that “the Ukraine is weak” while you were playing a game?
Well no, but I think all Ukranian’s would have to smash the playing surface whenever they hear that phrase when a game is going on.
That’s what I think too.
So I got up extra early and went North to Detroit to pick up the guys. We get held up a little downtown and run into some traffic along the way, but we still entered Toledo on time. I had not been to this location before, so I used my G.P.S. to get us there. I had entered “Sylvan Road” into the GPS, but was puzzled when the road turned out to be more like an alley. I double checked my printed directions and
found out that I was supposed to be at “Slyvania Avenue.” Ooooops. It only took us an extra 10 minutes to find the right place, and we were able to get registered in plenty time.
So you got lost again? How dumb do you have to be to get lost with a GPS?
You would be suprised, I can get lost very easily.
The venue for this tournament was not the best. It was a small game room at a card shop that was very hot and smelly. But, it wasn’t too bad and it was nice to just be in a decent spot. I slipped away from the tournament for a while to get me and Mark a pizza, then came back to the shop and ate some pizza and talked to the many of my buddies that were there. It took a little too long, but the pairings were posted before the peasants got too rambunctious.
Round 1- I forgot his name but he was from Mansfield, Ohio. LostGar.
I find it funny that this place had the private parts of Vehicles in a box.
I usually get a tough first round game, but I wasn’t too afraid of Lostgar. I haven’t played against it for a while but I know that my deck is faster and can OHKO or 2HKO anything he has.
I start with Phanpy (the only time I had this good of a start all day) and he starts with a Gastly and a benched Slowpoke. He starts first and puts 1 damage counter on Phanpy. On my turn I attach a fighting energy and then use Pokemon Catcher to bring up the Slowpoke (hoping to stall my opponent out), I then “Flail” for 10. He cannot retreat the Slowpoke, so he has to pass after he used a Pokemon Collector. I then was able to use Pokemon Communication to get a Donphan Prime, and I used a Pokemon Catcher to knock out a Mew Prime.
I decided to target Mew Prime because I know that using Mew is a quick and easy way to put Pokemon in the Lost Zone. I also knew that if he didn’t “See Off” a Gengar Prime next turn, he would be unlikely to use Mew to any great effectiveness. Being a former Mew Prime player myself, I know that if you do not “See Off” on turn 1 or 2 you will be unlikely to use Mew effectively.
But, because I knocked out Mew, he was able to use Twins. With Twins he was able to setup his first Gengar Prime with a Rare Candy and a Gengar Prime. He then used Spiritomb’s “Spooky Whirlwind” to put a Pokemon in my hand, and was able to put it in the Lost Zone. On my turn I “Earthquake” the Gengar Prime for 60. On his turn he uses Seeker to Lost Zone a Zekrom and t
Dan R. getting pumped for the tournament
hat puts the number of Pokemon in my Lost Zone to 2. On my next turn I use a Plus Power to knock out the Gengar Prime with “Earthquake.” After he lost the Gengar he is not really able to do anything much. He ends up “Seeing Off” a Gengar Prime, but I am able to knock out the Mew’s before
th
ey could really do anything.
1-0 So I start the day on the right foot for the first time in the tournament season. I usually have to play from behind the eight ball. Maybe I am too used to playing from behind that it is hard for me to lead throughout the day.
Round 2- Dan R. with Zekrom
Today I experienced something really weird, I played 3 straight games against members of the same family. This round was the first of the 3 rounds. It seems like I got stuck running the Richards gauntlet. I used to be a big wrestling fan when I was younger. And whenever one face (or good guy) was feuding against a stable of heels (a group of bad guys) he would usually have to fight a gauntlet match. This meant that the one good guy would have to wrestle all members of the bad guy group either at one time or in quick succession. Well this is what I felt like in Toledo.
Team Warp Point goofing off again.
The Richards are a really nice family, but more importantly they are very talented. Dave is fresh of his Nationals victory (in Seniors) and has gotten a lot of good testing done. Dan has always been a good player, but I think recently he has been bitten by a radioactive spider. He has gone on a tear lately beating everyone he has matched up against, except yours truly (in fact at one point I think he was 20-2 with both losses being to me). And their father is a good knowledgeable player who always runs some cool rogue decks. Anyway, let’s get to my 2nd round match.
I start with Zekrom and Reshiram ending Dan’s hope of a donk. I am able to get a DCE and “Outrage” a Tornadus for 40. Dan starts his turn and begins to load up a Tornadus. On my turn I am able to get a Phanpy in play and then I attack the Tornadus again. He starts his turn and tries to knocks out the Phanpy, but is unable to. So on my turn I am able to get a Donphan Prime, and finally knock out that Tornadus.
So at this point I have a slight lead and have a Donphan going. I had 3 dragons in play and had 3 Phanpys in my deck. I know that this is 6 prizes and would lose me the game if he knocks them all out, because he usually tries to avoid attacking the Donphans. I decide to bring out the Phanpys and hope that I can get at least 1 Phanpy evolved to a Donphan instead of trying to face Dan with only 1 Donphan.
On his next turn he does use a Tornadus to knock out a Phanpy, and I am unable to evolve the next Phanpy on my turn. But lucky on his turn he again whiffs on getting the Pokemon Catcher, and the Phanpy survives long enough to evolve to Donphan Prime.
While this game was going on, I was able to get a knock out on Pachirisu and a Zekrom, while he took down one of my Zekroms. He then proceeds to knock out all my dragons with Tornadus, and is able to tie the score up with 1 prize a piece. On the previous turn I had used Pokemon Catcher to bring up a Shaymin, and I “Earth Quaked” it for 40. All I needed to do is use a catcher to bring the Shaymin back up, because he retreated it next turn. Dan attacks and asks if I have the catcher, I say “no”, but then I have to say “yes” as I revealed a Pokemon Catcher from my top deck for the win.
Joe and Rob playing a game and acting weird.
2-0. I have done what no player in the region had yet done in the entire Battle Road Season, beat Dan, and I did this twice. Dan is a great player and has an awesome deck that has stopped everyone like a Justin Verlander curve ball, but he has yet to beat the Pikkdogs this season. But, I cannot celebrate for too much longer because this is just round 1 of my gauntlet, I have another Richards waiting in the wings, and this one has won Nationals.
Round 3 Dave R. with Zekrom
The Richards Gauntlet moves forward with Dave, and he is running a similar deck to what Dan runs. Although the decks are the same, I can tell that Dave has a different play style. Dave was basically only using his Tornadi, while Dan used Zekrom as well. I don’t know whats better, Zekrom gives them a lot more choices, but its also an easy knockout.
I start again with Zekrom and Reshiram, and he starts with Tornadus. Dave does not get the donk, but he gets Tornadus going early. I am able to Dual Ball for two Phanpy’s. On Dave’s next turn only 1 Phanpy survives, which is evolved on my turn. I have a decent time using Zekrom and Donphan very effectively.
The problems start when I try to use Pokemon Collector for the other 2 Phanpy’s. I found out that they are both prized, meaning I will have no more Donphan’s in the game. Dave see’s his and goes for the dagger. He starts targeting Donphan Prime, but I am able to use Max Potion on my turn to keep Donphan alive. I get a knock out on my turn, but I do not get a Phanpy from the prizes. I then scoop next turn after I am unable to get another Max Potion.
2-1. So this one is kind of frustrating. I think I would have been fine if I did not have those 2 Phanpy’s prized. Sure Dave would have been a tough out, but I think I could have squeaked it out. But alas, it was not meant to be.
Round 4. Eric (I think that’s his name) R. with Stage 1 Rush.
The Fort Wayne players show they are the best at making weird faces
I always have a nice time talking to Papa Richards, and am actually glad to be playing another Richards. I was comforted by the fact that the gauntlet would soon be over since there were no more Richards left to play. He usually plays a cool rogue deck, but today he has a more traditional Stage 1 Rush deck. Well the only thing that is rogue about this deck is the inclusion of Terakkion instead of Donphan, I guess he couldn’t live with himself if he didn’t change the deck a little bit.
I start the game with Zekrom, get a Phanpy and then pass. He has a very poor start. He starts with Hoothoot and uses “Hypnosis” to put my Zekrom to sleep. It seems that his opening hand was kind of scattered, and he didn’t have a great start at all.
Unfortunately for him, my Zekrom woke up and had 2 Rainbows Energies on it, so I was able to “Outrage” for the knock out. He then promotes a Yanma, but decides to get a Terrakion and bring it active to try to stall.
I then attach a fighting to my Zekrom and am able to “Bolt Strike” 2 Terrakions for the knock out. He is able to get a revenge kill, but by this time my lead is to big for me to lose.
3-1. Well I survived the Richards gauntlet. But it did put me in a corner, I need to win out to have a chance with two rounds left.
Round 5 Ryan G. with Stage 1 Rush (C.M.T. version-Cincinno, Mew, and Tornadus)
Ryan is a good buddy and a very nice guy. I only played him once and that was in state’s last year when he donked me. So I was looking forward to a nice long game.
Matt K playing Sarah in the first round of Top Cut
I start with Zekrom and attach a DCE so I can “Outrage” for 40 on his Tornadus. Unfortunately, it was now that I found out that Ryan plays Lost Remover. He used it on his first turn to take away the DCE. On my turn I am able to get a Donphan Prime without the help of a supporter, but am not able to get the energy, so I pass a couple times while he sets up. My supporter drought ends 3-4 turns later, but the only energy I get is a Rainbow Energy. It works for one turn before Ryan uses Lost Remover to take it away. He then uses Mew to poison Donphan Prime with Crobat Prime’s attack. I then use a Switch to bring the Donphan back to the bench, but by this time Ryan is up about three prizes. I pass and he tries to use a Pokemon Catcher to bring up the Donphan, but I refuse. Now I know I can’t refuse so I use this time to scoop and congratulate my buddy on a win.
3-2- I learn that there are two 5-0 players, so I know that my day is now over, no top cut for me. Though I don’t feel bad about losing to Ryan, I just had some bad luck and he had some what he needed. I really needed a supporter early in the game, and he was deadly with the Lost Remover. I am happy that he had a chance at getting to the top cut.
Round 6. James H. with Zekrom.
James is my buddy from Fort Wayne I have tested with him for over a year now. So it’s nice to play a game with a friend, especially when we both know our day is over.
James does play Zekrom, but he does not play the fast version like the Richards boys do. He plays a version that emphasizes defense and uses a lot of Defenders. While I can’t say one strategy is better than the other, I only fear Zekrom decks that can win early (and all decks when I prize my Phanpys).
I again start with Zekrom, but this time I can’t get a Donphan quickly. Instead I am able to get my Tropical Beach and use it two times to get setup. James had to use his resources early to prevent me from attacking early, and then did not have the Defenders when he needed it. I was able to use Donphan to get a couple knock outs on Zekrom. James was able to get a couple prizes to keep it close. But eventually I am able to pull away and am able to clinch a winning record for the day.
Dan playing Bohdan in the first round of Top Cut
4-2. Yeah I feel like I didn’t get as much luck as I needed, but it was overall a good day. I got to see a lot of friends, and ended up winning 4 games.
After the tournament me and Mark had to wait around for Bohdan, who went 6-0. Unfortunately he met up with Dan R. the first round. Dan and Bohdan played a long first game, but Dan was able to win it. Bohdan controlled the flow of the second game, and evened It up to 1 game a piece. Dan started first in the third and deciding game. He started with Shaymin, but was able to throw a lot of Dual Balls around and somehow get all the energy, Plus Powers, and Pokemon he needed for a the knock out on Bohdan’s lone Phanpy.
When you say “he was able to throw a lot of Dual Balls around”, is that code?
No.
Anyway, Bohdan took his packs and he stopped at Wendy’s for some lunch. After lots of bacon I made my way back to the motor city and dropped off the black guy and the Ukrainian. Overall, I say it was a successful day. Dan ended up losing in the finals to Matt K. While I am happy to have had fun, hopefully soon I will be able to win it all once or twice. And I have a chance to next weekend with two Battle Roads in my home state of Michigan.
You wanna bet that you will win next weekend?
No
That’s what I thought.
So look for those reports next weekend.
Thanks again to all the judges and those who made all the tournaments possible.
This past Saturday, my daughter and I hit up the Battle Roads at Legion Games in Minnesota. It was MN’s first BR of 4, so I expected a good turnout. I didn’t expect a big group of players to come down from Fargo, ND, so that was cool. They helped just put us over the top, so kickers went to the 3rd and 4th place finishers.
I usually try to take notes on my matches. Really, this is usually like 1 or two lines per match. Maybe I’ll write the name of my opponent, a couple major Pokemon in the deck, and the outcome. If it was more interesting, I might put something further. Well, I did all that, then I was busy on Sunday and went out of town on Monday through Wednesday. I’m finally getting to type up my report, and I can’t find my notes. All this leadup is just my excuse for having a short and most likely pointless report.
I played Zed PS. Ever since I heard Pokemandan call it that, I liked the name. I think “Zed” is a very absurd name for the letter Z. Also, adding Tornadus doesn’t quite make it Zed PST for some reason, even though I played more Tornadus than Zekrom. I don’t know what else to say on this topic.
My daughter, Ava, played Donphan/Zekrom. I did not expect this to be a popular deck. I thought that Donphan might be seen in some “Stage 1s”, but Donphan+Dragons didn’t really seem that hyped. I built Ava’s deck to be very straight-forward for her, and I left out several things I would definitely include if I were to play the deck. However, it was still very solid. Read More
Joel 
Happy Monday to all you OneHitKO readers, Joel here with a report and a half from this weekend’s battle road events. I say report and a half for because I only took notes on half my matches from Saturday, mainly because I did so bad and I was getting so frustrated I just stopped taking notes. I did a lot better on Sunday, but nowhere near cut but at least it was a major improvement from Saturday. It was also a horrible weekend for sports as well. The Detroit Lions undefeated streak came to an end, the Detroit Tigers got eliminated, and Michigan lost to Michigan State. The Red Wings won their game however, so it wasn’t too bad. I will start the article with Saturday’s Battle Road, which took place in Ann Arbor, MI. I was happy to see an event in Ann Arbor, only because I live 15 minutes outside of A-squared and it is arguably the greatest city in Michigan. The event was held at my favorite store down there, Get Your Game On. The only downside was the venue was very small, so small it was cramped and people actually got turned away because we went to capacity. The Ann Arbor event was also one of my worst performances to date, which is why this report will be short and not so sweet. I ran my Stage 1 Rush deck that I ran in Hartland, with a few minor modifications for both battle roads.
Ed 
Pikkdogs 
Pedro 
TAndrewT 
Michael 
