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Techs That You Will See at Fall Battle Roads 2011

Pikkdogs 5 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs and his sidekick Pedro here with a strategy article of sorts.

Before we get into the article I would like to thank my buddy Mark for writing the last article on the website, the one about Lilligant.  I hope this begins a long friendship with Mark and ONEHITKO.com.  Oh, before we get off the subject, I got a story for you, Pedro, you’ll like this one.

I doubt it, but go ahead.

Well when Mark and I were talking about the article, he hinted that we might not want to publish the article.  As if we had some kind of quality control or something.

Yeah that is funny.  You gotta have quality before you have quality control.

Haha, Like we have an Editor or something.  We just drive around down-town Detroit and ask the homeless to write articles for us in exchange for the promise of chicken.  But there’s never any chicken.  We publish whatever they give us, and hope it makes sense. 

Of course we do.  And nope, there’s never any chicken.  But, if you wanna check out Mark’s article, click here.  And thanks again Mark, we’re happy to have you around.

When talking about decks this year, the big word to use is variant.  With few exceptions (Reshiphlosion, mainly), most decks have a lot of room to be used to cater to your own play-style and your local metagame.  No two Stage 1 Rush, Gothitelle, or Mew deck is the same because there is a lot of room to work with.  Adding different cards makes the deck your own, and can give you an advantage in a Battle Road.  Picking the right tech is every important.  While it is impossible to talk about every tech that is out there right now, Pedro and I will do our best to talk about the most important techs out there.

Actually you will do that, and probably fail.  While I will stand back and make fun of you.

Isn’t that what I said?  Anyway, let’s go and talk about techs.

Starting Pokemon (Cleffa, Pichu, Manaphy, etc …)

The first techs we will look at are Pokemon that are usually looked upon as starters.  A lot of decks run Cleffa as a starter, but if you have another starter or usually don’t need a starter, you could think of Cleffa as a tech in your deck for  a better start or for hand refreshing to improve consistency.

Used For– I kind of already wrote about what it’s used for.

Yeah, good job ya jerk.  

Thanks, Pedro.  Anyway, you could use a starter like Cleffa as a tech to improve consistency or for a “just in case” card.  If your deck is behaving normally and you draw into a Juniper, you might think that everything is fine.  But if you get a really weird draw on your Juniper, you might need a starter like Cleffa to come in mid-game to help you recover from that weird draw you just got.  Cleffa, Pichu, and Manaphy are good early game and mid game to improve consistency.  If your deck does not already use a starter like this, you might want to consider teching in one just in case.

Used In– Decks like Mew that already have a different starter, or your deck that usually doesn’t use a starter.

Why it may be a good choice– It could be a good choice to run 1 of a starter just so you do not get screwed on the off chance that you get a weird draw.  Also, it is always good to have at least 1 Pokemon with free retreat.  It is also not a big investment, taking only 1 card slot in your 60 card deck is not a bad trade off for consistency.

Why there may be better choices–  I usually play Battle Roads in a “balls to the walls” manner.  I like to play risky decks and then go to a lot of tournaments and hope I get really lucky at one and win it all.  Having more consistency is really important in a 9 round tournament like Nationals, but it may not be that important for a 4-5 round tournament like Battle Roads.

Tropical Beach

After Worlds everyone was talking about the promo card that was given away.  Tropical Beach is a stadium card that lets you draw until you have 7 cards in your hand, and then your turn is over.  The down side is your opponent can use it too.

Used For– Again, we have another consistency or setup card.  Tropical Beach is a card that is mostly used to  help you improve consistency.  Since there is not a lot of draw power in the format, draw power, even if it is from a stadium, is valued.  There are times when you run out of options mid game, and would gladly sacrifice an attacker for some draw power.

Used In– Could fit in all decks, but has mostly been talked about in Ross Dot Deck and Gothitelle.

Why it may be a good choice– A Bianca like card that nets you one extra card  and is always in play is always nice.  It improves consistency a lot.

Why there may be better choices– Tropical Beach is very expensive.  If you are lucky you can get one for 50 bucks, but that still is out of the price range for a lot of players.  Another strike against this card is that your opponent can also use it.  Meaning that you could play a card that will help your opponent more than it will help you, which is never good.  The final downside about Tropical Beach is that it is not searchable.  This means that if you really want to use Tropical Beach and it is not in play, then you are out of luck.  You will have to draw into it to use it.

Basculin Emerging Powers #24

Wait do you hear something Pedro

Ahhh I get it.  Are you talking about the sound of my heart beat running away, beating like a drum and its coming your way, can’t your hear that boom badoom boom badoom, bass, he is that super Bass(culin)

Quick thinking Pedro.

Used For– Basculin is a Donphan destroyer.  He has the “Flail” attack which lets you do 10 times the number of damage counters on Basculin.  If you have a Vileplume on the bench it will be very hard for your opponent to get Donphan out of the active spot, and if you have Basculin active that has taken an “Earthquake” last turn, you will be able to OHKO Donphan. There is no way for the Donphan player to get out of this situation, if they would attack Basculin they know they would get knocked out last turn.  But if they do not attack the game would end, and if they have not taken more prize cards than you, they will lose.

Used In– Mewlock

Why it may be a good choice– Very good Donphan counter in a deck with Vileplume.

Why there may be better choices–  There are a lot of other ways to deal with Donphan Prime that do not involve Basculin.  Like just using the Yanmega to snipe around Donphan, and then use Ambipom or Smoochum to move the energy off of Donphan.  And if the Donphan player is winning, that super bass will be of no help because the opponent will just pass until either the game is over or your break your Basculin lock. 

Mew Prime

Used For– Mew Prime is a very versatile tech.  It can help in a lot of different matchups.  It can be used to counter Gothitelle, or to counter other Mew decks.  If you “See Off” your main attacker to the Lost Zone, you can then Mew next turn to attack Gothitelle for weakness.  You could also use Mew to use the Mew player’s Muk, and then use “Sludge Drag” to bring up their Vileplume so you can knock it out next turn.

Used In– Almost any deck.

Why it may be a good choice–  If you have a lot of item locking decks in your metagame, I think you should give Mew and Rainbow energies a very good look.

Why there may be better choices–  If item lock is not prevalent in your area, Mew is probably not needed.  You also don’t need it if you already have an answer to the trainer lock decks.

Solrock and Lunatone

Used For– Solrock and Lunatone are tech cards that are used to counter Gothitelle and Ross Dot Deck decks.  Both Gothitelle and Ross Dot Deck decks like to pile up damage counters and then heal them with cards like Blissey Prime and Max Potion.  Solrock has a Poke-Body that does not allow healing, so Solrock can be used to cunter these decks.  If these decks are allowed to pile up damage and then heal, you will never be able to pile up enough damage.  If Solrock and Luntone are in play, the damage counters will pile up fast.

Used In– A meta game that is heavy with item lock.

Why it may be a good choice– It only takes up 2 deck spaces and really gives you an advantage against Gothitelle.

Why there may be better choices–  A lot of decks take up most of their bench spaces already, so using 2 more spaces is not feasable in some decks.

Ditto Triumphant 

Used For–  As mentioned earlier, bench spaces are at a premium in this format.  A lot of decks use bench sitters like Vileplume and Reuniclus, and can clog up their bench really fast.  If you play Ditto down your opponent will have to discard one of their Pokemon, if they have 5 on the bench.  They will also not be able to play another one down until Ditto is taken out of play.  This can be a very disruptive card, especially when people tend to put a lot of extra basics on the bench to make up for the Pokemon Catcher threat.

Used In– Can be used in any deck.

Why it may be a good choice– It is a  very versatile tech that can be very disruptive against a lot of decks.

Why there may be better choices–  You never know when Ditto will be needed, so it is hard to recommend using it.  Also, the meager 40 HP is sniping bait for Yanmega Prime.

Tornadus  

Used For– It is a Donphan Counter.  It has an attack that can utilize DCE, and can knock out Donphan Prime in two hits.  It also can only get 3HKOed by Donphan and his “Earthquake” attack.  It is a card that has revolutionized the Zekrom deck and can be used in any deck with a bad Donphan matchup.

Used In– Zekrom and basically any other deck that uses DCE.

Why it may be a good choice–  It is a great Donphan counter that is easy to fit in to a lot of decks.  Not  a lot of cards can be you quite as good of a shot against Donphan Prime, but Tornadus can pull it off fairly easily.

Why there may be better choices– You may have another anti-Donphan tech in mind, but overall Tornadus is the best.

Smoochum/Aipom.

I can track the use of Aipom back to Worlds 2011.  Jason K. used it in a Mew lock deck to move the energy off the active onto the bench.  A very handsome guy named Joshua Pikka-

Ahh, I don’t think he’s that handsome.  I think he’s a fat guy who sits all day writing articles on a poor quality Pokemon website that nobody reads.

well I prefer handsome.  Anyway, I can only track the use of Smoochum to my use in a mew lock deck in early September of 2011.  I used it as a substiute for Aipom.  Aipom is not a bad play, but Smoochum does what he does for free and retreats for free, although it is a lot tougher to donk Aipom. 

Used For– Stalling, moving energy off of the active to a benched player.  A lot of the Stage 1 Rush decks out there only play about 6 fighting energies.  Imagine that you have 1 of those fighting energies prizes, 1 in the discard pile, 1 on  the active, and 3 left in a 40 card deck.  If the energy in play was moved onto the active, it could be pretty hard to get that energy back onto a Pokemon such as Donphan. 

Used In– Mewlock, but anything with Vileplume. 

Why it may be a good choice–  If you cannot match each player’s hand size for Yanmega Prime, Donphan Prime will be a difficult change for a Mew deck. But, if you can move the energy off of Donphan, that player may not be able to attack next turn.  This card could change the shape of a lot of different matchups.   

Where there may be better choices– It is kind of hard to know if your opponent has another energy in his/her hand.  To change the odds you can tech in Mr. Mime Cl, but that would take another valueable bench space.  You might think that it could be better to just run that super bass, Basculin. 

boom  badoom, boom, boom, badoom.

Indeed.  Well, Pedro we are finally done with this article. 

You mean you are done speculating about cards that probably w on’t be played at all.

Yeah, that’s pretty much it. 

Okay, then can I end the article?

I guess so, how are you going to end the article tonight.

How we always do it, just like the Teletubbies do.  Bye bye Tinky Winky, bye bye Dipsy, bye bye Lala, bye bye Po.  The sun is setting in sky, Teletubbies say good bye. 

Wow, that was great Pedro, even though I don’t think that is how we usually end the articles, you had everything except that creepy baby in the sun.

I know, that baby was pretty creepy. You know I like these articles, we don’t pretend to know anything, we just sit here and talk about the Teletubbies.  

Exactly, cause I know I don’t know anything.  And you aren’t even human, you of course are a extra dimensional being without a body, so you can’t even play Pokemon.

True, but it is time to end the article,  Teletubbie Bye Bye.

Card Discussion Deck Discussion Deck Workshop Opinion

Green Light Gridlock! Lilligant/Vileplume/Yanmega

Aurasphere87 10 Comments

Hello All and welcome to my first Article! 

Biography

Allow me to briefly introduce myself, My name is Mark McDonald. I am a native of Detroit, Mi. I am a member of the Michigan based Team Warp Point, and friend of the well known Pikkdogs. I’m relatively new to the card game. Nationals 2010 was my first tournament ever. I hadn’t even seen a battle roads, and there i was in the largest tournament of pokemon history. I ended 6-3 with dialgachomp (that i learned how to play a week prior) missing top cut in 75th place of my flight. In 2011, nationals saw me  ending with a  5-4 record with zekrom. But that’s enough about me. Today’s topic is lilligant!

The Idea:

On the horizon of the 2012 tournament seasons start we all have been in search of the deck that will handle the various threats the current format pose. The obvious presence of Pokemon catcher is definitely not being overlooked and the hype of gothitelle is spreading like wildfire. The release of Emerging Powers brought some interesting cards into the format with the potential to stir up our competitive meta game and question deck choices for events. Lilligant is an interesting card to say the least.

In a format with such huge early game damage output and massive HP basics, Lilligant brings a high degree of potential disruption. First lets ‘go over Lilligant. With a not so impressive 90 hp for a stage 1 Lilligant is pretty frail, however, it makes up for it with  low energy attacks that can be devastating for the opponent. For 1 grass energy Bemusing Aroma does 20 damage to the defending pokemon with the chance to poison AND paralyze the defending Pokemon with a heads on a  coin flip. With a result of tails the defending pokemon becomes confused. Lilligant has a good retreat cost of only 1, a x2 fire weakness, and decent water resistance (for beartic). At first glance this seems decent and not really ground breaking due to the heavy play of free retreat pokemon such as mew and yanmega. But that’s where Vilplume comes into play. With a benched Vileplume in play you are able to not only eliminate trainers but ensure that the active pokemon cant be switched by any means other than paying retreat cost. When matched up with popular decks such as donphan, magnezone, zekrom, reshiram, beartic, gothitelle or anything with a 2 or more retreat cost, Lilligant can render them useless for several turns if not the entire game. Yanmega Prime also serves as a secondary attacker, given its ability to snipe around stuck active pokemon for easy ko’s or simply deal good damage in general for no energy.

Paralysis and Poison Or Confusion:

With only 20 damage output, Lilligant is far from 1 shotting a Pokemon but it’s the residual damage that makes it such a scary card. By paralyzing the opponent it ensures that during the following turn, that particular Pokemon cant attack or retreat. Since trainer lock is present, it means that there is absolutely nothing the opponent can do. Since the defending Pokemon is also poisoned the attack technically does 30 damage because of the 1 damage poison adds. with a guaranteed damage after the opponents turn that equals a total of 40 damage and without the opponent being able to respond. In the case that confusion occurs, it presents the chance that the opponent can inflict 30 damage to itself by attempting to attack which in a way increases the initial damage output to 50, the downside is in this case the defending Pokemon can retreat. Confusion isn’t really the ideal result. but is relatively disruptive due to the current structure of decks relying on benched supporting Pokemon that rarely, if ever, attack. Lilligants second attack, “Cut”, does 60 damage for 1 grass and a DCE, and isn’t really worth using but it has potential to finish off a  crippled Pokemon after the status effects have taken its toll. Overall the point is to get vileplume up as early as possible preventing the opponents accelerated setup and catchers while getting early K.O.’s with Yanmega Prime and stalling out Pokemon that need to set up to attack with Lilligant.

Other cards that make this deck a force to be reckoned with:

A few techs that i have been trying out include Smoochum from HGSS, for it’s the ability to additionally disrupt the opponent by moving energy from any Pokemon on they’re field to any other Pokemon. By doing this you can target their main attackers early while you set up and render valuable energy drops useless as you stall them in return. Another benefit of moving an energy to another [Pokemon is, if you plan to snipe that Pokemon with Yanmega or especially if the Pokemon can’t utilize the type of energy moved.

Sunflora from HGSS is another option for this deck, for it s ability to search out grass Pokemon with it’s Poke Power “Sunshine Grace”.  You can use the power to search things  such as Vileplume, Yanmega or Lilligant. With no Pokemon Communication in the deck, this method of search is great for helping you set up.

Spinarak is an amazing tech to completely lock the opponent from retreating a Pokemon that can’t attack, which buys you more time to set up. Since the deck is all grass, it will be easy to find the correct energy for Spinorak to attack with.

The last tech I will talk about is Bellsprout from Triumphant. Bellsprout has an extremely useful Pokemon Catcher like attack built into it that can provide disruption and set up the defending pokemon for Lilligant on your following turn. For 1 colorless energy Bellsprout’s ‘Inviting Scent” simply allows you to switch the defending Pokemon with a Pokemon of your choice on the opponent’s bench. This works great with Yanmega and Lilligant.

My list for you to reference:

Lilligant can be partnered with other Pokemon for different variants of this deck but i feel this version with Vileplume and Yanmega is the most consistent. Here’s the list I’ve been trying.

27 Pokemon 23 Trainers/Supporters 10 Energy
3-4 Yanma
3 Yanmega Prime
3 Petilil
3 Lilligant Emerging Powers
3 Oddish
2 Gloom
2 Vileplume
2 Sunkern
2 Sunflora
1 Cleffa
1 Smoochum
1 Bellsprout
1 Spinarak		 4 Pokemon Collector
4 Twins
3 Copycat
3 PONT
2 Sages Training
2 Juniper
2 Judge
3 Rare Candy		 7 grass
3 Rescue

In conclusion:

By no means am i trying to convince anyone this deck is the BDIF but i believe it could be a lot of fun to play. It has the potential to lock the opponent in multiple ways, It can hit hard or snipe the bench and lock trainers also. Again the biggest weakness is its frailty and sort of luck reliance on coin flips.

 Definitely consider trying it out, and please comment below and give any advice that you think would help this deck. I hope i did okay for my first article and I plan on getting better to provide my perspective on different ideas. Thanks for reading!

Uncategorized

Decks You Will See at Battle Roads

Pikkdogs 6 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there, this is Pikkdogs and his sidekick Pedro here with an article about decks you are going to see at Battle Roads.  The rotation, Worlds, and the release of the Emerging Powers set all changed the face of the format.  This article will tell you about the decks that those changes brought on, what are there strengths, and what are there weaknesses.  If you know all about the decks before hand, you should have an easier time when you are sitting across from them.

Review of the Sigilyphs

Recently we had a request to review the Sigilyphs from Emerging Powers.

Why the heck would anybody want a review of 2 crappy cards like that.  They must be mentally deranged.

Now Pedro it’s not nice to make fun of the readers.  Bad Pedro.

I am a bad boy.  I might need-

Pedro this is a family website.  Please try to clean up your language.

A family website, must be a pretty desperate family to read this site.

Lets just go on to the article. Read More

Deck Discussion

Mew Lock Deck Update and Testing Results

Pikkdogs 13 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with his sidekick Pedro, here to give you an update on my Mew Prime deck.

The first post-catcher decklist I gave you was a Mew Prime deck.  It relied on Vileplume to lock trainers, Pidgeot to stall, and Jumpluff to attack (through Mew Prime of course).  Pedro, tell the nice people how to view the previous article.

If you were lucky enough to miss the last article about Mew Prime, and you for soe reason want to change your luck, you can view it here.

Thank You Pedro.  Since the last article my mind has changed about Mew Prime a couple times.  When I first tested it I thought it was one of the best decks in the post catcher era.  Than I did more testing, built other decks, and played matches against other people.  The final straw with my Mew deck was when Ed’s deck took apart my Mew deck.

If Ed beats you that bad, it indeed is a bad sign.

I agree Pedro.  So after that match I decided to try to find a different deck.  I tried a couple decks but nothing seemed to fit with me.  I know that for Battle Roads I needed something with Vileplume, I thought Pokemon Catcher made Pokemon to complicated.  After failing with a Beartic deck my mind kept on going back to the Mew deck.  I had watched on thetopcut.net’s youtube channel that Jason K. had made a similar deck.  His deck featured Sunflora HGSS and Aipom  as tech cards.

At first I had no confidence in a bad tech for a bad Jumpluff deck and a random common like Aipom.  I just didn’t see how that would work in a deck like Mew.  It was partly my ego, and partly my previous experience with Sunflora.  But eventually I was desperate enough to try the deck out.  Even I was shocked at the results.

Who would have guessed, Jason.K knows more about Pokemon then you.  You won a pre-release and he only won at a little tournament called worlds.

I know weird right? 

Anyway, I studied the videos on thetopcut.net’s youtube site and was able to come up with a rough decklist of what Jason was running.  I made some adjustments for my own playstyle, tweaked a few things, and changed a couple tires.  What I came up with was a deck that was very disruptive and very fast.  It does struggle in certain situations, but I think this version of the deck was one of the best versions that I have tested.  I hope to keep testing the deck and maybe take it to a Battle Roads.

I won’t talk about how this deck works too much because I talked about it in the last article.

Thanks for sparing us.

Your welcome Pedro.  But I must talk about how Sunflora changes the deck.  Sunflora makes the deck a lot faster by letting you search out Vileplume and Yanmega parts from your deck.  It is very important to get a turn 2 Sunflora.  The odds of getting a turn 2 Vileplume goes up by a lot if you get a turn 2 Sunflora. 

Never tell me the odds.

Okay Han Solo. At first I thought that running Sunflora would slow the deck down a little, but I have always been able to get the Sunflora out fast, and the Sunflora always gets Vileplume out faster.  And getting the Vileplume out faster is what will give you success at Battle Roads.

Here is a version of my list that I am working with.  I am probably planning on playing this deck for Battle Roads, but the list is not yet tournament worthy.  It is still just my testing deck so there are some tweaks to be made before a tournament.  It is a decent list to start, but I admit that it is far from perfect.

Pokemon-26

  • 4-Mew Prime
  • 3-Yanma
  • 3-Yanmega Prime
  • 2-Muk Ud
  • 1-Jumpluff HGSS
  • 1-Cleffa HGSS
  • 1-Smoochum HGSS-The idea here is to use Smoochum to deny energies to active Pokemon.  It works against low energy Donphan decks and cards that use more than 1 energy to attack.  It works a lot better than I thought it would.
  • 3-Oddish
  • 1-Gloom
  • 2-Vileplume
  • 1-Jirachi-The idea here is to spread damage with Yanmega and use Jirachi to de-evolve Pokemon for an easy knock-out.
  • 2-Sunkern
  • 2-Sunflora-This card speeds up the deck a lot.  Jumpluff - HGSS

Trainers-22

  • 4-Pokemon Collector
  • 4-Judge
  • 4-Juniper
  • 3-Rare Candy
  • 3-Pokemon Communication
  • 1-Flower Shop Lady
  • 2-Professor Elm’s Training Method
  • 1-Copy Cat

Energy-12

  • Psychic-6
  • Grass-2
  • Rainbow-4

One change from Jason K.’s deck to my version is the substitution of Aipom for Smoochum.

What a coincidence, I used to dance under the name Smoochums.

Really, I used to dance under the name “Spray Splash”. Anyway, back to Smoochum.  As I mentioned he is used to stall the game by moving energy around on your opponent’s side of the field.  I chose to use Smoochum instead of Aipom because they do a similar thing, but Smoochum attacks and retreats for free.  The bad things about Smoochum is that he only has a donkable 30 HP, and has the ability to stay asleep while on your turn.  Using either Aipom or Smoochum would be a good play, which card you play is more of a personal preference.

Testing Results

I didn’t get a lot of testing done with this deck before I went to the Pokebarn to test the deck against Michigan’s finest, but my initial testing was very good.  I thought it was worthwhile to head to the Poekbarn to test against the Team Warp Point guys to see if my version of the Mew Deck is Battle Roads worthy.  I will not be giving names out or explaining rogue decks because I respect the privacy of the players at the barn.  I don’t wanna give anything away because I know we have a lot of readers who live and play in Michigan. 

Since when do we have “A lot of readers” anywhere?

Okay, so maybe be have 1 or 2 people who live and play in Michigan, I still don’t wanna spoil any secrets for BRs.  If this report needs clarification please tell me so in the comment box and I will see what I can do.

Game 1– This game was against a Reshiphlosion player, and it was actually just a fun game played before the tournament started. The game started very well for me.  I started first, and a turn 2 Sunflora led to a turn 2 Vileplume.  Once I setup a Vileplume, all I needed to do was keep on “Sludge Draging” a benched Reshiram, and then snipe around it with Yanmega.  This game was pretty much over from the beginning.  1-0.

Game 2– I don’t remember the first game of the actual tournament very well. I think it was against a Stage 1 Rush deck.  Again I was able to get a turn 2 or 3 Vileplume and bring up a heavy retreater like Donphan.  I then was able to snipe around it, and eventually knock it out for the game. 2-0

Game 3–  This was a really cool game for me.  Again a turn 2 Sunflora led to a turn 2 Vileplume.  The minute I evolved my opponent decided to throw in the towel.

Which is of course the most useful object in the universe

Right you are.  That brought me to   3-0.  This just shows how terrifying an item lock can be.

Game 4–  This was no doubt the match of the night.  It was against a stage 1 Rush deck.  He got an early Donphan, and I got a turn 3 Vileplume.  I ran into an energy drought early, so I used Smoochum to move the energy to the bench a couple times.  Then I sniped around with Yanmega Prime for 6 turns until he was able to kill 2 of them.  I then got a 3rd Yanmega out before time was called.  By that time we were tied on prizes with 2 left for each of us.  I was able to take a prize on turn 1, and he scooped when he was unable to return the favor on turn 2. 4-0

Game 5– I don’t wanna talk too much about this game to protect some secrets.  I will say that I got a terrible start, and he got a great one.  He was able to knock out 3 Oddishes with 2 Pokemon Catchers and a Junk Arm.  I was unable to do too much since my Jumpluff was prized, so the game was pretty lopsided. 4-1.  After the game we decided to play a fun game, as time was called we each had taken 2 or 3 prizes.  I really hope I can play this guy at a Battle Road.  

Game 6-This game was for Top Cut. I honestly can’t remember what deck this was against, but I think it was against a Stage 1 Rush.  I was unable to get a decent setup, I think I had a turn 3 or 4 Vileplume.  He was able to put 2 energies on Donphan, so I was unable to Smoochum the energies off him.

You were unable to Smoochum him?  Is that the kind of thing that usually goes on at the barn?

Oh yeah we are all a bunch of big Smoochum guys. Anyway,  It can be hard to beat a stage 1 Rush if they get a lot of energies quickly and don’t put up anything to trap.  So I ended up at 4-2 including the practice match.  Even though this was an informal tournament, it was still a good testing session. I learned that the deck is pretty good and faster than I thought it would be.  I also learned that some matchups can be very hard to win, a lot of luck goes into winning.

Just a little bit about matchups.  It seems that against Reshiphlosion and Stage 1 Rush decks I should have a slight advantage.  Although the match can turn the other way fairly quickly.  I haven’t played this deck against a Beartic or Gothitelle deck, but I assume that they would be fairly favorable matchups.  However, anything that can attack fast and is hard to trap, will be tough for this deck to play against.

Here are a few tips for playing against this deck.  It can be fruitful to put in 1 Mew Prime and some Rainbow Energies.  Then you can use the other player’s Muk to “Sludge Drag” up the Vileplume, in hopes of either stalling or knocking it out.  This should be a pretty easy solution against this deck if the deck is played a lot in your meta game (though I don’t anticipate it to be).  It is also very helpful to not put down anything that can be trapped.  As long as each Pokemon can attack for 60 fairly easily, you should be okay.

Well that’s all we got for today.  I hope you enjoyed the article, feel free to leave your comments and questions in the comment box.  So uhhhhhh we’re all done here, Pedro, how do we usually end articles here.

We usually say goodnight to all of our regular writers like they do in the Waltons.

No, I don’t think we do.

No, we do.

Well alright.  Good Night Ed.  Good Night Joel.  Good Night Misnos.  Good Night PokemanDan.  Good Night Renaecollects. Good Night Andrew.  Good Night people who haven’t written in a long time.  Good Night Writers that came for Guest Writers week who I hope will come back to write again. 

Goodnight John Boy

Good one Pedro, I’m sure a lot of Pokemon players love the Waltons.  Thats the way to hit the big 18-24 demographic.  Bring up something popular with the kids, like the Waltons. 

Goodnight Pedro

Deck Discussion

TAndrewTesting: Gothitelle/Reuniclus

TAndrewT 12 Comments
Christina Ricci as Gothitelle

For Pokémon players, Labor Day week means the beginning of a new competitive season and preparing for Battle Roads. (And not wearing white pants, if you have any.) We now know that the Battle Roads season will start on September 17th, in just under two weeks (!), so it’s a great time to start thinking about what you’ll bring to BRs that first weekend.

As a bit of personal introduction, I’ve been playing Pokémon TCG for just a year, and 2010’s Fall Battle Roads was my very first tournament. In fact, my very first tournament opponent was Radu Ciocan, who posted an OHKO article on MewPlume just last month. (Yes, I lost that first game.) Since then, I’ve been splitting my Pokémon time between playing, judging, and volunteering at league and tournaments. With that short a resumé, I’m not sure how OHKO’ers will feel about my authority on Pokémon strategy or about my very first article on this site. The new format rotation has completely changed the competitive landscape and made us all take fresh looks at many new deck concepts, so even if you’ve played for years longer than I have, I hope this article contains some new perspective you can use in your upcoming Battle Roads play.

The Emerging Powers set gave us a brand new deck archetype—Gothitelle/Reuniclus—and this article will explore that deck. The real focus of the deck is Gothitelle, a Stage 2 cross between Christina Ricci and Mary Poppins. Gothitelle has an Ability, “Magic Room”, which prevents your opponent from playing Trainer-Items, but not you. Although this may sound like an unfair upgrade to Vileplume’s item-lock, Gothitelle’s Ability comes with a catch: she has to be active for the Ability to take effect. Now, with 130HP and a convenient weakness to Psychic (not a popular type in the current format), Gothitelle can certainly hold her own in the active spot. But her attack, Madkinesis, costs three colorless energy, and does just 30 damage, plus 20 damage for each Psychic energy attached to Gothitelle. Ideally, all three of the required energy will be Psychic, so that Gothitelle will initially do 90 for 3—okay, but not great, and attaching all those energies one-by-one will take time.
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PokeClass

PokeClass Episode 41 – Possible Changes to the 2011-2012 Season

PokemanDan No Comments

[youtube width=”640″ height=”390″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rBNkUEx5No[/youtube]

This week I cover a pretty controversial topic which has been the center of many rumours around the community at the moment. I will be talking about possible changes to the ELO system that we currently have in preparation for the new season which technically started on the 1st September.

Enjoy!
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Pikks Three

Pikkdogs Pikks Three: Vileplume Ud, Great Ball EP, and Hydreigon Red Collection

Pikkdogs 14 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with a Pikk Three Article.  If you haven’t seen this article before….

Yeah, like anyone reads your articles.

True dat, Pedro, but be quite while I’m trying to introduce the article.  Geez its hard to find a good side kick now a days.   Back to the article, some people may have had the unfortunate luck to stumble past this site before and read a Pikk Three article.  Pedro, will you explain the Pikk Three article.

Well, its like a big card of the day article on a site like Pojo, Pokegym, or Sixprizes.  Except this article will review three cards; one that is a popular card, one that the fat guy feels is under-rated, and one that is from a new or unreleased set; and nobody will read this article.

Thank You Pedro…… I think, now lets get on to the article.

Card #1 Vileplume UD

Details– Vileplume is one of the most popular cards in the last couple years.  He first saw play with Gengar Sf as a part of the popular Trainerlock deck.  This deck saw a lot of victories at tournaments, and was something to be feared.  After Gengar SF was rotated out, not many people played Vileplume right away.  Now, we expect to see a lot of Vileplume in the upcoming season.  Either in the deck with Mew Prime, or in a deck with Beartic.  If you do not play Vileplume you still should know all about it because you still will be seeing it around a lot.

It is a stage 2 120 HP Grass Pokemon.  It is weak to psychic and has a 2 retreat cost.  Its attack is pretty lack luster, “Dazzling Pollen” does 50 damage for GGC.  The attack also lets you flip a coin, if heads the attack does 20 more, if tails the defending is confused.  In over a year of playing this card I only used the attack 1 time.  The Poke-Body is what everybody is talking about, the ability to lock all tra…. items is very good.  With most decks running 4 Pokemon Communications, possibly 3 Rare Candies, 4 Pokemon Catchers, and 3-4 Junk Arms; that is about 15 trainers.  The ability to lock 15 important cards is really awesome.  Item lock will be very important in the next season, and Vileplume is the Pokemon that will bring it about.

Analysis– As mentioned, Vileplume will have a big impact on the upcoming season.  It is hard to get Vileplume out really quickly, but once it is out there is a huge advantage.  Just being able to take out Pokemon Catcher from use is quite an amazing thing.  It makes the game a lot simpler and that is to your advantage.  While it is true that decks without a lot of trainers will not be as good, at least your deck will be prepared for the loss of trainers, other decks will not.

As I previously mentioned, the most talked about Vileplume decks have been Mewbox and Beartic.  The strategy of Mewbox is to Lost Zone a Muk and a Jumpluff early.  While you are doing that you can set up the trainer lock.  You can bring up a bench sitter with Muk’s attack and then either snipe around them with Yanmega Prime or use “Mass Attack” to knock them out.  It is fairly slow, but it is very disruptive.   Beartic is a deck that we don’t really have a list for yet.  But, it will probably involve setting up a Vileplume fairly quickly and prevent your opponent from attacking by using Beartic’s “Sheer Cold” attack.  Without the use of Switch, you will not be able to attack or retreat, and will have to watch your Pokemon get beaten on by Beartic.

The drawback to Vileplume is the speed.  Most of the time you will not be able to lock trainers until your opponent has already setup.  Another drawback is the 2 retreat cost, your opponent can tech in a Bellsprout in an attempt to make your Vileplume active.  The Bellsprout can then retreat next turn and then Vileplume will be able to get knocked out.  The last drawback is the meager 40 HP on Oddish.  If you do not setup a Vileplume before your opponent can setup a Yanmega, you may not be able to get Vileplume out.

Final Rating– 9/10–  Yes there are drawbacks but you just gotta love the best item locker around.

Card #2 Great Ball EP

Details– Great Ball is  an item with a simple effect, look at the top 7 cards of your deck and put any one Pokemon you find there into your hand.

Analysis– If this card came into the format last year, I would not have taken another look at it.  We had cards like Bebe’s Search and Luxury Ball that could do the job better than Great Ball.  But, those cards are now gone and we do not have a lot of search cards.

If you play a deck with a legend in it, the only way to find a Legend Piece is basically to draw into it.  You cannot Elms it, nor can you Dual Ball it.  Now, with Great Ball you can finally grab a legend piece out of your deck.  Legend Pieces usually enter later in the game.  By this time you will have gone through enough of your deck as where the top 7 cards should be about 25-33 percent of your deck, if not more.  While you probably can’t rely on this card to get you the card you need, most of the time you will be able to grab at least 1 Pokemon.

And that is the weakness of this card.  It just is not consistent.  It is very versatile and very useful, but you never know what you are gonna get.  If all you need to do to get your first prize is search for a Yanmega Prime, the chances are you will not get it with Dual Ball.  For that reason I can only recommend this card if your deck has a lot of Pokemon in it.

Final Rating–6/10– Nobody is talking about this card, and that is a shame.  It is a good card that deserves some play.  Although it will not be a great card, decks that run about 20 Pokemon should fit this card in.

Card #3- Hydreigon Red Collection

Details– This card is from the Japanese set called Red Collection.  It will probably be in our Noble Victories set.

It is a 150 HP Stage 2 Dark Pokemon with a fighting weakness, psychic resistance, and a 3 retreat cost.  Its ability lets you treat every card attached to it as a Darkness Energy.  Its one attack lets you do 60 damage to the active, and then snipe for 40 to two benched Pokemon! The attack will cost 4 energies.

Analysis– Wow a 150 HP Pokemon that lets you attack for 60 and then snipe twice for 40.  If you are able to attach a couple Special Darkness Energies to this Pokemon, you could be taking 3 prizes every 2 turns!

Of course it is not always as easy as it looks.  Once you are able to pick off 2 Pokemon on the bench it is unlikely that your opponent will then put 2 more Pokemon out there to snipe.  Also, the fighting weakness is a big drawback because of how good Donphan is.  Although it is easy to counter Donphan, it is never nice to have a fighting weakness.

The biggest partner for Hydreigon is Emboar BW.  Emboar lets you attach as many fire energies per turn as you want to whoever you want.  With Hydreigon’s ability, you will be able to make all those fire energies dark, and be able to attack a lot faster.  Even though it is hard to get 2 Stage 2 Pokemon out, the Magneboar deck has proved that 2 Stage 2 Pokemon can work.

Final Rating– 8/10– While it is impossible to tell how big of an impact this card will have, I think it will see some play.  Doing 60 damage and sniping twice for 40 is just too good to pass up.

Well thats all we have for today.  Pedro, how do we usually end articles here.

Uhhh…. the mister Rogers song?

I don’t think we do, but lets try it anyway.

“

It’s such a good feeling to know you’re alive.
It’s such a happy feeling
You’re growing inside.
And when you wake up ready to say
I think I’ll make a snappy new day
It’s such a good feeling,
A very good feeling,
The feeling you know that we’re friends.

It’s a good feeling
It’s a happy feeling

It’s such a good feeling
To know you’re in tune.
It’s such a happy feeling to find you’re in bloom
And when you wake up ready to say
I think I’ll make a snappy new day.
It’s such a good feeling,
A very good feeling,
The feeling you know that we’re friends.

And I’ll be back
When the day is new
And I’ll have more ideas for you.
And you’ll have things you’ll want to talk about.
I will too.

”
No Pedro, I’m almost sure that is not the way we end things here.

Uncategorized

Pikkdogs Stupid Deck Idea:Victreebel Lock

Pikkdogs 4 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with a Stupid Deck Idea.  I haven’t done one of these for a while, so I thought I would try something different and throw a stupid deck idea together. 

Before we get to the article, lets go over some news.  The first piece on news is that the Victory Medal is no more.  The card that you won from winning a Battle Roads is now gone and replaced with a card called Victory Cup.  Not much is known about Victory Cup, but sine BR’s are right around the corner I’m sure Tournament Organizers will be getting them in the mail soon and they will let us know when they find out.

I don’t know what Victory Cup will do but I don’t think it could be better than an athletic cup, those things are life savers.

Right you are Pedro (If you have read my last article, first I apologize, but second if you did read it you would have known that Pedro is the name of my sidekick).

The next news article first came out about a month ago, but of course with the speed of this fine site we are just getting it to you now.  The news is that Pokemon EX are coming back.  In the next Japanese set there will be at least 3 EX Pokemon.  We don’t know if there any different other components of EX cards compared to the previous “ex” cards, but we assume its basically the same as the ex cards that were in the format so many years ago.  So far all of the Pokemon revealed have been basic and have had 180 HP.  The attacks have been somewhat lack luster, but the HP has been great.  Right now I don’t see these cards being great, but they seem to remind me of SP Pokemon.  At first they released SP Pokemon with high energy attacks that didn’t really work, and then they released other cards that were broken.  I only hope that Nintendo can have some restraint and not make these Pokemon be unbeatable.  The Pokemon that have currently been revealed are Mewtwo, Regigigas, and Kyurem (the 3rd Pokemon of the Reshiram and Zekrom Energy trio).

The final bit of news is that Pokemon TCG online is progressing very well.  When I played a couple weeks ago, all I could do was play with theme decks and win 1 match before the game froze on me, but that has all changed.  Now, you can build your own deck by purchasing real packs.  With every Emerging Powers pack you open, you will get a code for the game.  If you enter that code online you will be able to “buy” a pack online from any set that is in the format.  After you buy the pack  you will be able to open it, and every card will be sorted and added to your collection.  Once you have enough cards you can build a deck and play against computer or human opponents.  The problem is it will take a long time to build up your collection to the point where you can build a decent deck.  Its sort of like starting out as a new player again, having to build yourself up from a theme deck.  But once you get your collection set, you should be able to do a lot of good testing online.  I think this program could be really valuable.

Okay, now we can get on to the article and the stupid deck idea.

I thought all your deck idea’s were stupid?

Hey, watch it Pedro………okay maybe they are but  that’s not the point.  If you haven’t read one of these article before, a stupid deck idea is an article where I provide a deck analysis and list of a deck that I don’t think will be very good, but it could be pretty fun or cool.  It could just have a fun idea behind it, it could be a league deck, or it could be an okay deck that spotlights one of my favorite Pokemon. Anyway, these decks are not for tournaments but they are fun for talking about and maybe taking to league.

Today’s stupid deck idea is about Victreebel.  From the Triumphant set, Victreebel has been an interesting Pokemon since I first pulled it at a pre-release.  It is a 110 HP Stage 2 Grass Pokemon.  It has a 2 retreat cost and a weakness to fire.  Its Poke-Body adds CC to every Pokemon’s retreat cost.  Its attack, called “Acidic Drain” does 30 damage, poisons and burns the defending, and lets you heal 30 damage off Victreebell.

As you can tell, Victreebel is a locker.  If you get a Pokemon trapped in the active, it is unlikely that it will be able to escape (the number of Switches being played right now is very very very low, almost non-exsistant).

The strategy would be to setup a Victreebel quickly, then use a Pokemon Catcher to put a bench sitter in the active spot.  Once you get the lock on you can either attack it to finish it off.

The main problem with this deck would be fire decks.  Almost anything fire would be able to OHKO it, so it would not matter what you were able to trap.  But since this is only a stupid deck idea we do not care about that as much.

Well we got a Victreebell active, what sort of Pokemon can we use to backup Victreebell?  If we were trying to have a shot at beating fire decks, we might try to look at Zoroark BW or Swanna EP.  Zoroark lets you copy Reshirams attack and do 120 damage to him.  White Swanna lets you OHKO Reshiram because of weakness for WCC.

One other good Pokemon to partner Victreebell could be Yanmega Prime.  Since Yanmega is versatile and disruptive, it would work in this deck.  I would not put this in my list because they is supposed to be a league deck, and shouldn’t have one of the better Pokemon in the set.  But, if you did put it in this deck, the deck would probably be better for it.

So here is a basic thrown together list of a Victreebell deck.  As I said this is not a serious deck, just something fun to play at league.

Pokmeon-18

  • 4-Bellsprout 
  • 2-Weepinbell
  • 4-Victreebell
  • 2-Cleffa
  • 3-Zorua
  • 3-Zoroark BW

Trainers-30

  • Pokemon Collector-4
  • Elms-2
  • Pokemon Communication-4
  • Flowershop Lady-1
  • Professor Juniper-4
  • Judge-4
  • Switch-1
  • Pokemon Catcher-4
  • Junk Arm-4
  • Plus Power-2

Energy-12

  • Grass-8
  • Double Colorless Energy-4

Well, what time is it Pedro?

Time to go home and play with our dolls.

Okay, Pedro said it, lets go home.  If ya have any experience with Victreebell or have a cool fun deck idea please leave your thoughts in the comment box.

So long and thanks for all the fish!

Uncategorized

How to Pick a Battle Roads Deck

Pikkdogs 8 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with kind of a strategy article. 

 It may seem like the fourth of July was just a week or two ago, but the summer is now coming to an end.  With the end of summer comes some of my favorite things: cooler weather, cool colored trees, American Football, and Battle Roads.  Although I feel like writing an entire article about fall and how its the best time of the year (except bikini waxing day), I think we should get to the Battle Roads.

Setting the Stage

If you were not able to make it to Nationals, you must feel really out of the loop.  The last time you played you were looking at Garchomp C’s and stuff like that, Battle Roads will be a whole nother animal.  Those of us who made it to nationals, and those that went to world’s, basically know the format.  Stage 1 Rush is good along with decks like Reshiphlosion, Reshiboar, ZPS, and Primetime (Yanmega Prime and Magnezone Prime).  But, thanks to the release of Emerging Powers, Battle Roads will be a little different.  So before you start getting your deck ready for BRs, make sure you know what is coming your way.

The Effect of Pokemon Catcher

The most dramatic change in the game will be the rise of Pokemon Catcher.  Of course, Pokemon Catcher is a card that lets you switch your opponent’s active.  Meaning Knock Outs are easier to get and disruption is easier to do.  There is no question that Pokemon Catcher will be a very popular card, and there will be probably 4 Catchers in just about every deck.  So how will this effect your deck choice.

Just like when we had SP decks in the format, you can either use Catcher or plot against it.  If you want to use Pokemon Catcher you will need a fast deck.  Donphan Prime is great because it requires 1 energy to do 60 damage.  That attack will knock out almost all basic Pokemon, so it will be great for disruption.  But on the other hand, Pokemon Catcher is also great for decks that are a little slower like Reshiram based decks.  So although fast decks and Pokemon Catcher are a great fit, you don’t need to run an extremely fast deck.  Just be aware that if you don’t plan for your basics being knocked out and your bench sitters getting dragged into the active, you are in for a long day.

I  do not think that Pokemon Catcher will dramatically change the format.  We will see a lot of the same decks, games just will be a little quicker and we could see more lopsided wins.  We could see less big lumbering Pokemon like Magnezone Prime, and more speedier cards like Yanmega Prime.  We could also see a lot of cards that can stand up against Poekmon Catcher, like Vileplume.

Was that a Segway into the next part of your article?

No, I wouldn’t do that, segway’s are for professionals, I am just a creepy fat guy writing a Pokemon article on a website nobody reads, the only segway I know about is the geeky vehicle.

A Segway isn’t geeky

Of course it is Pedro (of course Pedro is the name of my sidekick who randomly jumps in).  Could you prove it isn’t by showing me a picture of an attractive Woman on a Segway.

Well met Pedro, well met. 

Anyway, we are talking about Vileplume.  Vileplume is great because it sets up an item lock that is very hard to break.  While Gothitelle can put one heck of a nice itemlock on your opponent, it is easy to knock out.  Vileplume might be a better play because it does not have to be active. 

Vileplume will make games a lot simpler because you won’t have to worry about Pokemon Catcher messing things up.  And it will also mess other things up like Pokemon Communication and Super Scoop Up.

The bad thing about Vileplume is that your deck will have Schizophrenia because you need to run trainers like Rare Candy to setup.  If you want to run Vileplume you will need to make sure your list is tight and polished for it to work in this trainer heavy format.

New Emerging Powers Decks!

Emerging Powers does not just have Pokemon Catcher, it has some other decks that might see some play at BRs, and you better know what they are you they don’t end up taking you by surprise.

I do not know of any specific deck lists that I can share right now, but I would at least be prepared to deal with two cards: Gothitelle and Beartic.  Gothitelle is fairly easy to take care of, just have something that doesn’t take a lot of setup to attack, and you will be able to match it blow for blow.  This is another reason to use a deck that is simple and fast.  Donphan is a good candidate here to take care of Gothitelle. I would reccomend Yanmega, but the trainerlock makes it a LOT harder to even your hand size.  

The other big card you might see is Beartic.  Beartic actually won’t be able to hit that hard, or that quickly.  With 3 and 4 energy attacks only doing 50 and 80, it will take a while for damage to add up.  The problem here is that his first attack does not let you attack next turn.  That is not so much of a problem if you have Yanmega Prime, you can just retreat and use another attacker.  However, Beartic could give you fits if you have a high retreat like Donphan, Zekrom, or Reshiram.  If you think a lot of your metagame will be made up of Beartic decks and techs, then make sure to run Yanmega Prime and Max Potion.  If you get 2 Yanmega’s out Beartic will not be able to do anything, and Max Potion will guarantee that the damage will not stack up. 

How to Pick A Deck

Battle Roads are a very tricky tournament to plan for.  Bigger tournaments like Nationals, States, and Regionals are fairly easy to plan for.  For the the bigger tournaments it is all about consistency.  For BR’s there are many ways to skin a cat.  Of course you usually see a lot of the better players do well with consistent decks, but that is not always the best play.  Battle Roads rely on luck a lot of the time since there are usually only 4-5 rounds.

For example, my first tournament was a Spring Battle Road.  I was playing a risky build of Scizor/Cherrim that relied on a lot of luck.  Despite the odds, I was able to grab 2nd place in the tournament, beating a lot more expierenced players on the way.  Sometimes its not all about consitency, sometimes in a BR its better to have a risky deck and a lot of luck.  Though, its always great to have a consistent deck.

So how should you pick your deck?  Well that is hard because even I do not know what I am going to play yet, but I would suggest that you go with a few principles.

1.  Go with what you are familiar with.  There are always growing pains with a deck, so if you haven’t had your growing pains with your deck, don’t take it to a tournament.  Make sure you know your deck in and out before you go.

2.  Be comfortable with Pokemon Catcher.  If you are not comfortable with either blocking this card or using it, you should get familiar very soon.  The card is very powerful, do not be caught un-prepared (see what I did there, “caught” and Catcher, haha).

3.  Consistency is always good.  If you got a really great consistent deck, than by all means play it. 

4.  But you can do well at a BR with luck and a risky deck. A deck that relies on flips and stuff like that could do well, if you are lucky.

5.  Leave disruption alone.  For some reason disruption does well in tournaments like States and Regionals, but does not do well at Battle Roads.  So wait for a while to break out your Ambipoms, Weaviles, and Sharpedos.

Well I wish you all good luck on preparing for states.  Remember make sure to test Pokemon catcher with Pokemon like Reshram, Zekrom, Magnezone Prime, Yanmega Prime, Beartic, Donphan Prime, Zororark Bw, and whatever else you hear will be popular in your metagame.   And if you can’t get your deck to where you want it, it might be best to just go balls to the walls with a risky deck and hope you get lucky. 

So long and thanks for all the fish!

Uncategorized

The Structure of the New Season. A News and Opinion Article.

Pikkdogs 7 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is kind of a news/opinion article about the upcoming season.

The Past

The structure of the tournament season has been pretty stagnant for the last couple of years.  The season starts in September and October with Fall Battle Roads, a small local tournament with a small ratings value.  Next we have Cities starting in November and continuing in December.  We then all celebrate Christmas and the New Year, and get ready for State Tournaments in March.  Next we go to one day in April which hold the Regional championships.  Battle Roads show up again in May and June, while Nationals are usually in June or July.  And of course, the World Championships are in August.

So that is what we have been doing for the past couple years.  It seems like a good schedule, lots of events but not too many where people would be spending an excess amount of time and money going to tournaments.  A lot of other card games have more tournaments, but this schedule seems to be pretty good for emphasizing local metagames.  So what’s the problem?

The problem is that when it comes to the bigger tournaments, the best players drop out to protect their ratings so they can be invited to worlds. This leaves the more exciting rounds of the tournament, a lot less exciting.  For example, at U.S. nationals I was excited to see the best players play deep into the day on Sunday.  Instead, most of the top players either dropped after a game or two, or never entered the tournament at all.  They were nice to talk to, but I would rather see them play then talk to them while we watch a league game.

How I Would Change Things.

If the goal is to make bigger events more exciting than one option is to put more emphasis on the bigger events. My favorite events are Battle Roads, but it seems like a lot of players are winning the BR’s and Cities, and using this to take them to Worlds.  I do not want to suggest that these tournaments should not mean anything, but I think if they were only worth about half of what they are worth now (especially Cities) it would be hard for some people to already make it into worlds before Regionals and Worlds.  If the only events that could make a difference in getting to Worlds would be Nationals, Regionals, and States; then I think those events would be a lot more exciting.

If you do not want to devalue the smaller tournaments, which I think might be best, then I think the rating system should be less important.  By this I mean that we should have more spots at Worlds decided by smaller tournaments.  Instead of having 40 invites to worlds (in North America) decided by ratings invites and only a few decided by invites from National tournaments, we should lower the number of ratings invites to about 5 and have invites to Worlds given out at States and Regionals.   

I think it is kind of similar to the problem that NASCAR is having right now.  Most casual fans only care about who wins the races, but the drivers who are doing well in the point standings are not winning races, instead they consistently doing good in races.  Even though consistency is very important in Pokemon, it is more exciting to see the best players win the tournaments.  So if there are only a few spots given out to rating qualifiers, the best players will stay in the bigger tournaments longer, if they don’t they probably won’t be invited to Worlds.  I think Pokemon should stop awarding players who just dominate their local area and instead award people who do well against the best in the country.

What Changes Have Been Made

So that is what I think should happen to solve the problem, lets look at what Pokemon has done so far.  We do not know exactly what Pokemon has up their sleeves, but they have tipped their hands a little.  This is the schedule that has so far been released for the upcoming season.

Battle Roads: Sept. 17-Oct.16th

Fall Regionals: Nov. 12-13.

Cities: Nov. 25- Jan 8.

As you can see, there is a new tournament added in, Fall Regionals.  This means that the regionals will be split between Spring and Fall.  This could mean that you will have a chance at going to 2 regionals this year instead of just 1.

I don’t think that this will solve the problem of having people qualify for Worlds before Nationals, it will probably just make it worse.  Now people can go to 2 regionals instead of 1, another reason not to play at Nationals.  I do not like this decision for another reason, if I were go to a second regionals, it would take me about 6 hours to drive there.  I do not like having to drive that far for a tournament that is not Nationals, and I am sure a lot of people feel the same way.  And if nobody goes to the 2nd regionals, why have them on different days?  Another bad thing about this decision is that it is taking another weekend in fall away.  Even though Pokemon is important to me, I live for watching football.  And this new regionals will take another day of football away from me.  Why should Pokemon try to play against the most popular game in the civilized world (that’s right Europe, I’m talking to you)?

I do not think that the new regionals will be the only change.  I do think we will see changes to the ratings system in the next few weeks in an attempt to keep the bigger tournaments more interesting.  Hopefully they will gives us more invites from tournaments and less from the rating system.

So, Will These Changes Be Enough?

Well it is too early to say if the changes Pokemon has made will fix the problem because they have not announced all the changes.  But, Pokemon has seemed to be open to change in the past, so lets hope they can think of a cool new system that gives us a cool local game while still making Nationals important.

Sorry about that European joke before, I do like Europe.  I’ll prove it to you, I enjoy many European things like Doctor Who…….ahhhhh….Danishes…..and………um…..wearing very small underwear.

If you have any thoughts about how to better fix the tournament season schedule, or my underwear choices, please leave your thoughts in the comment box.

So long and thanks for all the fish.

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New Card Game – Trouble With Robots – iOS/Android

OneHitKO.com Budget Challenge

OHKO Budget Challenge: Round Two (Fight!)