Electrode Prime

Deck Analysis: TCE-Terrakion, Cobalion, and Electrode Prime

Pikkdogs November 27, 2011 8 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with a deck analysis for you. I am also joined by my extra-dimensionary sidekick, Pedro. I had a hard time trying to decide if this should be a stupid deck idea or a regular deck analysis. I did try the deck, and it does work, but it does not work all that well. So I’m not sure if I got everything that this deck offers, or if there is more that can be sucked from this deck idea. I will let you guys decide for yourself.

So, Regionals and Battle Roads are all over and Cities are well under way. Football is winding down and basketball is starting up. It seems that Fall has worked its way into Winter.

That’s usually the order.

Yes it seems to be a pattern. Do you like the Winter Pedro?

Oh Hell Yeah! Love the winter.

What’s your favorite part about winter?

Snowball fights.

How come every time I ask you about something the conversation ends up being about you wanting to fight with people?

Well I guess I’m just a confrontational person. You know my dad is Mogor the conqueror.

Mogor the Conqueror?

Sure, in my dimension he is like the Alexander the Great of the Quadrant. I guess I get my aggressive side from him.

That would make sense. Let’s get onto the article, we can talk about your father another day.

I like to call the deck we will be talking about today TCE, for Terrakion, Cobalion, and Electrode Prime.

Strategy

The strategy of this deck is easy. Noble Victories brought us a lot of good high HP Pokemon that have steep energy costs (kind of reminds me of early SP Pokemon). What we want to do is get these Pokemon going turn 2 with a lot of energy on them. Then we will be able to easily do a lot of damage.

There are two main attackers in this deck. The first main attacker is Cobalion. The deck tries to use his “Iron Breaker” attack to do 80 damage and cause the defending Pokemon to be unable to attack next turn. It should be easy to do 80 damage and knock out a Pokemon on two hits without taking a hit. Then you can take advantage of Special Metal Energies and Eviolite to make sure Cobalion can survive a hit. After another “Iron Breaker” you should be able to knock out the second Pokemon. This should give you the advantage in the game. Also, since it is a metal Pokemon it can hit Kyurem, Vanillux, and Beartic for weakness. Cobalion is probably the attacker you would want to use in most matches.

The second attacker in this deck is Terrakion. Terrakion has a high 130 HP and can hit for 90 for three energies. While 90 isn’t a great number, it does have type advantage over the most popular deck, Zekrom. It also can take advantage of Eviolite to stick around for a while. Terrakion may not be the best Pokemon around, but 90 damage, 130 HP, and weakness over Magnezone Prime and Zekrom makes him a pretty good Pokemon.

The third piece of the puzzle is Electrode Prime. Electrode has the “Energy Mite” Poke-Power that will let you attach any energy card from the top 7 cards of your deck to any of your Pokemon. The drawback being that Electrode Prime is now knocked out, and any of the top 7 cards that weren’t energies get discarded. While you never like giving up a prize, it is the only way to get Terrakion and Cobalion powered up so quickly. The deck will not work without some form of energy acceleration and right now all we got that fits this deck is Electrode. So while we aren’t happy that we have to use Electrode Prime, it really is the glue that holds this deck together.

I have seen people talk about this deck with Kyurem in the place of Terrakion. Personally, I prefer Terrakion over Kyurem in this deck, but my feelings could betray me (can you tell that I’m writing this article why watching Star Wars?). You should be able to switch Terrakion for Kyurem and the fighting energies for water energies in the decklist without any other changes.

How to Setup

You are going to start with ether Voltorb, Terrakion, or Cobalion. It doesn’t really matter which one it is, unless you know what deck you are going against. On your first turn you are going to want to use a Pokemon Collector to get 2 Voltors in play, hopefully you will also get at least 2 attackers on the field. On your second turn you are going to evolve into Electrode Prime, then use all of your Research Records to put all non energy cards on the bottom of your deck. You can then use “Energy Mite” to power up one or two of your attackers. This move will allow you to use Twins if you wish. Then you can start attacking.

Matchups

TCE is kind of like a tool box deck similar to Stage 1 Rush. You can mold the deck and form it to fit your meta-game by adding in any number of the many Big Basic Pokemon (BBP). So it is hard to set matchups when you can easily change the deck. But we will assume you are using the Terrakion and Cobalion version fo the deck. We will also assume that you will be able to improve on the decklist that I will eventually give you guys, and make the list a little more consistent with a better late game.

Zekrom– even. The high HP of your Pokemon will make them very hard to donk. While it is true that you might get stuck having to attack with Cobalion, if you can get Terrakion going they will have a hard time responding. Good Zekrom players might be able to out play you, but you do have a good shot at winning if you can keep your deck consistent.
Primetime-Favorable. This deck is similar to Zekrom except that Yanmega is not as much of a threat has Tornadus is. Yanmega does have the free retreat that Cobalion hates, but you should be able to control the game with only Terrakion.
Gothitelle/Truth– slightly unfavorable. You will setup faster and hit really hard right away. However, if they can stop your momementum they should easily be able to control the game. So it just depends on their setup.
Donphan/Dragons– slightly favorable- Terrakion will probably match up well with Donphan with an Eviolite. Throw in some help with Cobalion and you should be okay.
Reshiram– Unfavorable. Cobalion will be of no help here because of the weakness. Terrakion will be able to hold its own, but with no weakness 90 damage doesn’t cut it.

So if you can get a consistent list, the matchups are not that bad. The hard part will just be to get your list polished up so it works all the time. That gives us a good segway to the part of the article where we talk about the decklist.

Decklist

I will admit that I have a very poor decklist of this deck. It is in no way ready for a tournament. I am still trying to make room for necessary cards like Junk Arm. This deck has to be very focused on getting a turn 2 Electrode. If it is not focused on Electrode the deck will never work. However, getting your deck focused so much on turn 2, will not leave a lot of room for trainers that will help you later game. So the balance in building this deck has to be kept. I will give you a list similar to the one I tested with, and although it is not a good list, it is something that you might be able to work with.

Pokemon-12

Terrakion NV-3
Cobalion NV-3
Voltorb-4
Electrode Prime-3

Trainers-31

4-Pokegear 3.0
4-Pokemon Collector
4-Twins
4-Professor Juniper
4-Research Records
3-Pokemon Catcher
4-Pokemon Communication
2-Eviolite
2-Switch

Energy-16

4-Special Metal Energies
4-Metal Energy
8-Fighting Energies

Summary

So there is my list and a run down of the deck. The list does need some work before I am convinced that this a great deck, but it does have some potential. This list doesn’t even have Junk Arm in it, you probably are going to need to fit that in somewhere. So if you have some time, you can test with this list to see if the deck is any good.

Well that’s all I can say about this deck. What you got for us to end the article Pedro?

In this day in history in 1942 Jimi Hendrix was born. Do you like the Jimi Hendrix Pikkdogs?

Love the Jimi Hendrix. I don’t know which song I like better, “Hey Joe” or “Foxy Lady.” I do enjoy the Jimi Hendrix. I actually have a Jimi Hendrix story.

But he died like 15 years before you were born?

Well I have a story about someone named James Hendrix. A couple towns over from where I grew up there was a guy named James Hendrix, and we always used to call him up and ask for “Jimi Hendrix”, then we would giggle and hang up.

That was not a funny story at all Pikkdogs.

No, I guess it wasn’t. Kind of anti-climactic. But, I guess it will fit right in with all the other un funny stuff. Have a good night everybody!

Pikks Three

Pikkdogs Pikks Three: Pachirisu Cl, Electrode Prime, and Eviolite

Pikkdogs November 18, 2011 2 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with another Pikk Three article for you. This Pikk Three article will be a normal article, but it will be about cards that will be impactful at Cities. Of course, today I am joined by my extra-dimensionary sidekick, Pedro. Pedro, what’s going on today? .

Hey Pikkdogs, well today I don’t have any news for you but I can bring you what happened this day in history. On this day, November 18, 1886, former U.S. President Chester Alan Arthur died of Bright’s disease.

Sounds like a cheery way to die.

It does, but I doubt it was that fun. Say Pikkdogs, Arthur was one of our more obscure Presidents, who is your favorite obscure President?

I guess I would say William Howard Taft. As a fat guy, I gotta support my fellow portly gentlemen.

Did you know he was so fat that he got stuck in his bath tub?

I did.

You’re over 300 pounds, have you gotten stuck in your bathtub yet?

I can’t say that I have. I would think it would be hard to get stuck in the bathtub, since you can always water yourself down and get your fat moist enough to slip out.

This is all getting very disguisting. Can we just stop talking about your fat and get onto the article?

Okay.

The Staple-Pachirisu Call of Legends

This cities themed Pikk Three will start with a card that has been great since Nationals, it is Pachirisu Cl.

Description– Pachirisu is a 60 HP basic lightning Pokemon from Call of Legends, it has a fighting weakness, a metal resistance, and a one retreat cost. Its one attack, “Shocking Bolt”, is good for an early game donk, it does 50 damage for LL. The reason why Pachirisu is good is because of the “Self Regeneration” Poke-Power. When you play Pachirisu down, you are allowed to attach up to 2 energies to Pachirisu.

Analysis– When Pachirisu was first released we knew it was going to be good at something, we just didn’t know what. We knew that anything that can bring 2 energies into play is good, but there really was no need for it. Remember this was still the SP format. People were talking about using him with Raichu Prime, which was a good use, but Raichu never became playable. So it stayed into our binders until around Nationals when we paired it with Zekrom. Zekrom was a good deck but it got tossed around by Donphan Prime a lot. Then Tornadus came out and Donphan wasn’t as big of a threat. So this means that Zekrom and Pachirisu became one of the better decks and cards in the format.

Let’s look at the stats. 60 HP is very low, so it is a Pokemon Catcher prize waiting to happen. The fighting weakness would be bad, but its HP is so low that it doesn’t really matter. It is always nice to have a resistance, but nobody plays Metal Pokemon right now. The 1 retreat cost is great, sure free would be nice, but we can’t always get free things.

Unless you have boobs.

I have man boobs, do I get anything free for that.

Yes, heart disease.

Oh, that’s not good. Anyway, let’s talk about the attack next. Usually 50 damage for 2 and a 2 discard (or Lost Zone) is not good, but this is different. Because Pachi can bring 2 energies onto the field on the first turn easily, his first attack is actually good. You should be able to donk almost any basic Pokemon with a Plus Power including but not limited to: Cleffa, Gothita, Reuniclus, Tepig, Cyndaquil, Tornadus, Yanma, Zorua, and Mincinno. The attack is really good early game, but almost useless later in the game.

And that will bring us to the reason we are all here, “Self Regeneration.” Being able to add an extra 2 energies onto the field out of nowhere is great. They can be moved over to another attack with Shaymin Ud, moved with a Poke-Power such as Raichu Prime, or be used on Pachirisu with an attack like that of Magnezone Prime’s “Lost Burn.” There are not many basic Pokemon out there that can provide a great energy accelration like that, so Pachirisu is very useful.

I kind of mentioned it already, but Pachirisu is mostly used in decks like Zekrom and Magnezone. He is a staple in most decks that feature these Pokemon as their main attacker. Pachirisu is also vital in these decks, they couldn’t do it without him. Pachirisu is why Zekrom is the best deck around.

Rating– 8/10- Energy acceleration and 2 great decks to use them in is great. Sure it is a free Pokemon Catcher prize, but not everything is perfect-

Except Stacey Keibler.

Of course, nobody is perfect except Stacey Keibler. Pachirisu is a great card and has a great use in the format. No wonder that most people sell it for 30 bucks, it is that good.

I bet it was hard finding a picture of Stacey Keibler to use?

Well it took me like a half an hour, because I was actually being kid friendly for once and trying to get one where she is covered up.

Where’s the fun in that?

I think the fun is looking at all the ones that are not covered up first.

Gotcha.

The Underdog-Electrode Prime

The next card will be a card that you will probably see very often in a deck with Cobalion and possibly other BBP (BIg Basic Pokemon), Electrode Prime. Electrode Prime was always the worst rare in a set of great Primes. Whenever someone opened a Triumphant pack they dreamed of pulling a Magnezone Prime, Yanmega Prime, or Mew Prime; and they almost ripped the card up when they instead saw an Electrode Prime. Let’s look at the card in this format to see if anything has changed.

Description– Electrode is a 90 HP stage 1 electric Pokemon with a fighting weakness, a metal resistance, and a one retreat cost. He has on attack called “Gigashock”. For LC it does 30 damage and snipes twice for 10. But the stats of Electrode are not as important as the Poke-Power, “Energymite.”

This Poke-Power has four steps. First you reveal the top 7 cards of your deck. Next, you attach any energy cards you find there to any Pokemon you have in play in any way you like. Then, you discard the non-energy cards that you revealed. Finally, you put Electrode in the discard pile and your opponent takes a prize. Quite an interesting Pokemon, its stats are bad; has a crappy attack, you have to discard a lot of cards from your own deck, and you have to give up a prize. But, yet a lot of people are seriously thinking of playing this card in a tournament. Let’s look a little deeper to see if these people are crazy or not.

Analysis– Well, as mentioned the stats are very crappy. If it ever sees the field on your opponents turn it will almost always be a prize for your opponent with Pokemon Catcher. The attack is perhaps the worst that has ever appeared on a super rare. But yet, all of this doesn’t matter because Electrode will probably be knocked out a couple seconds after he is evolved.

Electrode isn’t used to attack or to wall, it is used for energy acceleration. If you have a really focused deck Electrode can be a great way of loading a lot of energies on one attacker very quickly. There are of course a lot of positives and negatives of this Pokemon.

On the plus side there is not really anyone who can do what he can. Electrode can load a lot of any type of energies on any Pokemon. He also works well with a lot of good Pokemon who have a lot of potential, but have a high energy cost. Pokemon like Cobalion and Terrakion could be really good, but Electrode is needed to get them going by turn 2. Even though Electrode forces you to give a lot of things up, the energy acceleration he provides is amazing and unmatched.

However there are a lot of things on the negative side. The first thing is that you need a very focused deck for Electrode is to work. He is not a splashable Pokemon. You can’t just throw him into a deck with a stage 2 and a stage 1 and expect him to work. You will be running a lot of cards and the cards you discard with “Energymite” will be crippling to your deck. Electrode can only consistently work with a basic Pokemon or a stage 1. Another negative thing about Electrode is that you will have a hard time winning a prize race with him in your deck. Don’t expect to run Electrode and then be able to go blow for blow with another deck. Because he gets knocked out and you give your opponent a prize, you will need to run a deck that doesn’t give your opponent a chance to go toe to toe with you. Audino donk works because it hits the opponent before he or she can really setup. Cobalion will probably work because “Iron Breaker” will not allow your opponent to attack next turn. So Electrode doesn’t work with every deck, but when it does have a place in the deck I think that it can work.

Rating– 8/10– I expect big things for Electrode in the coming months, it should go from obscurity to the top tables. Expect Audino, Cobalion, and Kyurem to be a lot better for it.

The Young Gun- Eviolite.

The final card today will be a trainer from Noble Victories that should single the reign of the BBP, Eviolite.

Description– – Eviolite is a new card from Noble Victories that is ready to break the format. It is a Pokemon Tool card that can be attached to any basic Pokemon. When it is attached it reduces any damage done from an opponent’s attack by 20. So it basically makes every basic Pokemon like Donphan Prime.

Analysis–

Ever since Black and White came out we have been moving to the era of Big Basic Pokemon. You don’t need to evolve any more to do a lot of damage from a high HP Pokemon. It is no longer just Reshiram and Zekrom; Kyurem, Coballion NV, and Terrakion NV are all playable. Eviolite only makes them better.

The best use for Eviolite is probably on the energy trio (Reshiram, Zekrom, and Kyurem). This is because they have the “Outrage” attack. “Outrage” makes these Pokemon very powerful for only one Double Colorless Energy. “Outrage” is best used when these Pokemon take a big hit and are still alive and kicking, ready to return that big hit. Eviolite will almost make sure that no Pokemon (without using weakness) can OHKO one of the energy trio.

Even if you are not playing one of the energy trio, Eviolite will still be very valuable to the BBP. Terrakion NV has 130 HP and is weak to grass, it will be very very hard for your opponent to match up against a Terrakion that gets a lot of energy on him fast. Cobalion EP has 120 HP and can utilize Special Metal energies. Getting an OHKO on Cobalion with Special Metals and Eviolites will be very hard indeed.

I think the sky is the limit for Eviolite. It will help make sure that the age of BBP will never go away as long as it is around. I think the release of Eviolite with the BBP can be compared to the release of Double Colorless Energy with Garchomp C Lv. X. It could be that dominate.

Rating– 9/10– We are in the age of BBP and I don’t know if anything will be able to consistently beat the BBP.

Well, that’s all I got say, I guess we can wrap this article up. Say Pedro, I notice you again missed an article early in the week, what happened this time?

I kind of got into some legal trouble, I can’t really talk about it right now.

Legal trouble like domestic violence? or legal trouble like insurance fraud?

I got arrested for assault with a battery.

Don’t you mean assault and battery?

No, I hit somebody with a Duracell.

Oh I see, that’s not really nice of you. Assault with a battery is a new low, although “Hooker Urn” might have been lower.

I liked the Hooker Urn joke.

Of course, what’s not to like about a hooker joke. Anyway, we gotta go before Ed notices that we said “hooker” a bunch of times. Have a good night.

Stupid Deck Idea

Stupid Deck Idea: Audino Donk

Pikkdogs October 24, 2011 5 Comments

A big hello to all your OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs and my extra-dimensionary sidekick Pedro here with a Stupid Deck Idea. If you aren’t familiar with the stupid deck idea concept, it was Ed’s idea to have an article that reviews a deck that isn’t the best.

Couldn’t we say that about all of your deck lists?

Well I guess so, let’s rephrase that. A stupid deck idea is an article that highlights a deck that I don’t believe is as good as other decks. It could be a deck that I haven’t had a chance to test, or it could be a deck that is more of a fun league deck. This deck is more towards the fun league deck category, but it might be a little more if you can get a really polished deck.

Before we get into the deck, let’s check in with Pedro. How are things going Pedro?

Well, I’m doing good. How bout you Pikkdogs?

Not so well, I came down with a cold or something like that. So I have an excuse for writing a terrible article today, I’m not feeling too well.

What are your excuses for writing terrible articles the other times?

I don’t get paid.

Works for me, let’s look at this horrible Audino deck.

I gotta give credit to a friend of Team Warp Point who took an Audino deck to a Battle Roads. This is not his list, I basically came up with this list myself, but his deck did inspire me to test the deck out. So thanks Casey for the idea.

The Strategy

This deck is fairly simple. Audino’s “Powerful Slap” attack lets you flip a coin for each energy attached to Audino, and you can do 40 damage for each heads. Since you can’t rely on flipping heads every time, you gotta give yourself a good chance of getting 3-4 heads each time. The way you give yourself a better chance of hitting heads is to load a lot of energy on Audino. The goal is to get 10 energies on Audino, this way you should be able to hit at least 4 heads each time, this will knock out almost any Pokemon.

The best way to get that many energies on Audino is to use Electrode Prime. His Poke-Power, “Energy Mite”, lets you reveal the top 7 cards of your deck, and attach any energy you find there to any of your Pokemon. The drawback is that you have to discard all cards revealed that were not energies, and Electrode gets knocked out. Since this is more of a donk deck, you don’t mind giving up a couple prizes, and you don’t mind wasting some extra supporters. So the drawbacks to using Electrode are not huge.

So if you bring these Pokemon together you have an okay deck. On the first turn you want to do a Pokemon Collector so you have at least 2 Audino and 2 Voltorbs. On your second turn you want to have at least 1 energy attached to Audino (ideally you should have at least 2 cards attached), and you want to have at least 1 Electrode Prime in your hand. You then can use “Energy Mite” for as many energies as possible. This should give you about 6-9 energies on Audino, depending on how lucky you are and how many Double Colorless Energies are on Audino. Hopefully you will get lucky on your coin flips and be able to knock out the active.

There are a couple cards that I use to make the deck more effective. Research Records is an item card that lets you look at the top 4 cards of your deck and then rearrange them in any order on the top or bottom of your deck. The strategy is to use 1-2 of these before you use “Energy Mite”. So you can keep the energies at the top of your deck and put anything else on the bottom. Another card that works well is Poke Gear. It lets you look at the top 7 cards of your deck and choose any supporter there to go in to your hand, the other cards get shuffled back in the deck. This is good because you need to have the right supporters at the right time. If you run 4 each of Twins, Pokemon Collector, Professor Juniper, and Poke Gear you should be able to get the right supporter when you need it.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Because this is a stupid deck idea, you should be prepared for me to say that this will not win any regionals in November. It is a very cool and fun deck, but it just isn’t consistent enough. But that does not mean that I wouldn’t recommend people to play it. I would say that if you do not have confidence in playing the top tier decks, running Audino donk wouldn’t be the worst move ever. Audino donk would also be a good choice for beginners who don’t have access to the more expensive cards. You should be able to get Electrode Primes for about 4 bucks each on Ebay, and Audinos should only be about a buck each. So to look at the positives and neagtives of the deck, let’s look at the Good the Bad and the Ugly.

The Good.

It can beat any deck– All you need is a bad start for your opponent and you should be able to get the victory pretty easily.
Easy to play– It is a pretty straight forward deck that anybody can play. You don’t need to have a high Pokemon IQ to play this deck, it is something that most players should be able to play very easily.
Cheap to make– As mentioned, the Pokemon in this deck should only cost you around 20 bucks. The rest of your deck shouldn’t cost you that much money, if fact it will cost you a lot less for trainers than most decks. If you have a couple of friends who play the game, you can probably borrow the needed cards off of them since they aren’t used too much.
It is fun– If you are getting tired of playing other decks in this format, Audino Donk will be a refreshing change. It does not play like other decks, so it should keep you excited about your deck.
Can do a lot of damage fast– This deck can win a longer game, but it is mostly here to get a donk. The Zekrom deck is the only deck that is faster than Audino, but Audino can do a lot more damage than Zekrom.

The Bad

Very luck based– Since you are relying on coin flips to attack, the entire deck is luck based. You could have 3 energies on Audino and knock out a Tornadus, or you could have 10 energies and get no knock outs. It all depends upon how well you flip.
You need to start first– If you don’t start first you will have a very hard time at winning. Your opponent will be given an extra chance to get more Pokemon on the field and avoid the donk. Starting first with this deck is mandatory.
Not Consistent– This deck does have a shot to win regionals, but that shot is very miniscule. You basically will have to get very lucky 12 times in a row. While you could get lucky, it is not very likely.

The Ugly

Pedro.

Hey, I don’t appreciate that jab.

Nobody asked you. Anyway, the minuses of this deck do out weigh the positives, unless you can’t play some of the other better decks. So now that we talked about the deck, let’s look at the list.

The List

As always, I advise you that I do not usually provide great decklists. I only provide the lists so you guys can test it out and make the deck for yourself. I only made this deck last night, so it is not a great list, but it should be able to do give you a place to start.

Pokemon-12

4- Audino EP
4-Voltorb TM
4- Electrode Prime

Trainers-27

4- Twins
4- Professor Juniper- You can use PONT if you want.
4- Pokemon Collector
3- Research Records
4-Poke Gear
4-Pokemon Communication
2- Junk Arm
1- Energy Restore

Energy-21

4-Double Colorless Energy
4- Rescue Energy- if you don’t have this card it isn’t a big deal. But it is a good play if you have it.
13-Basic Energies- any energies will do.

Well that is all I have to say about this deck. How do you wanna end this article Pedro?

Well let’s talk about what we know best, world politics. What did you think about the Libyan people killing Ghadafi?

I normally don’t like executions, but as Napoleon has shown us, if you don’t kill dictators they will just come back.

That Napoleon was a pretty crazy guy. He was a pretty short guy, if he played Pokemon he would probably have to play at the Juniors table. Did you know that his brother’s grandson helped found the FBI?

I did not. That was not a very funny ending Pedro, but at least it was informative.

Well, we are rarely funny, so I will settle for informative. Good night all you Earthlings!

Electrode Prime

Deck Analysis: TCE-Terrakion, Cobalion, and Electrode Prime

Pikkdogs Pikks Three: Pachirisu Cl, Electrode Prime, and Eviolite

Stupid Deck Idea: Audino Donk

You Missed

New Handheld Retro Video Game System For You Pokemon Fans

iOS/Android Collectible Card Game, Trouble With Robots

New Card Game – Trouble With Robots – iOS/Android

OHKO Budget Challenge: Round Two (Fight!)