First Week of States Recap Plus Terrakion Decklist
Pikkdogs A big hello to all you OHKoers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with a short article about the first week of States. The first week has come and gone. Some things about 
States were very expected, while others were kind of a shock. We will go through all of that, and hopefully you will be all ready for your second week of states. But, before we go to that, let us say hi to my inter-dimensionary sidekick Pedro. How’s it going Pedro?
Going well, how is Pikkdogs?
Actually not doing that well. I am sick, I got a cold or something, but, as we all know that doesn’t matter to Ed, he makes me work no matter what disease I have.
How did you get sick this time? Did you catch something from all the Pokemon groupies that hang around you?
I think so. One was kind of sneezing, so that could be. In fact, that was the reason that I couldn’t go to States last weekend, lots of groupie sex.
Will you be doing more groupie sex this weekend, or can you go to States?
Well, I was going to States, but something came up.
So you are doing the groupie sex?
No, that’s not what I meant. Hey Pedro, I heard there is a new box coming out in the spring, can ya tell us more about that?
Sure, I am very excited about this box, it is called the “Forces of Nature Collection”. It retails of about 13 bucks, and it contains six things. It has a Full Art Landorus,and two special promos of Tornadus and Thundurus from Emerging Powers. The three other things are three booster packs. Two Emerging Powers and one Call of Legends.
That is pretty cool. I love the full arts, and this one looks really cool. The Thundurus and the Tornadus also look pretty cool, you can never have enough Tornadi, so its a good deal. Hey Pedro, since we didn’t really have time for a joke today, can you do a real quick one?
Sure, really quick. AOL’s Urlesque, their entertainment news program, recently featured a story where a full sized cat got stuck in one of those claw machines (the ones that have stuffed animals in them). The story has a happy ending, the cat was eventually rescued by the fire department. It is too bad that it took 17 dollars in quarters to get him out.
Okay, good enough. Let’s get on to the article.
Overview of the First Week of S/P/T’s
Before we get in to what won, let us look at how the attendance went. The numbers overall were not very impressive. Most states got about 75 people in the Master’s division. I think Alberta’s Province Championships had about 50. But, Ohio States had their attendance numbers go through the roof! There were 220 Masters! This kind of sucked for the people who were there. Not only did it slow things down, but they still only had 8 rounds and a top of 16, when they should have had at least a top 32. This made it really hard to stand out. So, besides Ohio, most States were fairly average in attendance. About 7 rounds with the customary top 16 is probably what you are looking at this coming weekend. Unless you are going to Indiana, which will probably have about 250 people, if last week’s trend continues, you shouldn’t have too hard of a road.
What Won in the First Weekend of States/Province/and Territory Championships.
According to www.pokegym.net, this is the list of decks that won on the first weekend of states.
- Zekrom/Eelektrik-8
- CMT-6
- Durant-2
- Terrakion-1
- Reshphlosion-1 (This was in Italy, but I won’t really count this win because most of the Pokemon players got distracted that day by making Pizzas.
These are the decks that won the S/P/T’s. For 2nd to 4th places, the trend seemed to continue. CMT and Zekrom/Eels were two top decks from 2nd-4th places. Durant was 3rd and Terrakion was 4th. It seems like the day was won by Zekrom/Eels and CMT. These results were consistent with my predictions, so there are no surprises there. Zekrom can hit really hard, and CMT is faster than Usain Bolt. Durant did well and won a few, that was also expected. The surprise was when Terrakion did well. 
Terrakion?
On Saturday night, in between all the groupie sex, I went to McDonalds and brought my laptop. I had the Mushroom and Swiss burger, which was really good. Anyway, on my laptop I saw that the guys from www.thetopcut.net were streaming coverage of States. In Top 8 there was a match between a normal Zekrom deck and a weird deck with only 4 Terrakions in it. The Top Cut personality, and former Onehitko.com guest writer, Kyle “Pooka” Sucevich nicknamed the deck 4 Terrakion. I really like that name.
This deck seems really simple, it just uses 4 Terrakion. There are a lot of trainers and supporters in the deck. This deck seemed to forgo the use of one of the best cards in the format, Eviolite, for Exp. Share. That way the player could attack with Terrakion even if he had lost one last turn for just the one energy that you can attach on that turn. I have also heard some people are using Landorus in this deck as well. The use of Landorus won’t change the deck up too much. Although Terrakion is the better attacker, Landorus gives you some more options. It is nice because if you were to prize 2 Terrakions, your deck would not instantly fall apart. Landorus is also resistant to lightning Pokemon, which makes it very good for the current format. This deck is different because it doesn’t use Mewtwo EX, which makes it a good choice for people who couldn’t find a couple Mewtwos.
Because the deck only runs a maximum of 8 Pokemon, it has a lot of room for energy removal cards. Lost Removers and Crushing Hammers are great cards, but we usually can’t fit them into decklists. These techs work really well against Mewtwo, and decks like Durant that don’t run a lot of energy cards. This should give you a decent advantage against some of the other decks in the format.
I really like this deck for two reasons. The first reason is that this deck is really simple. We have a lot of good trainers in this format, so why should we not try to play a list that let’s us maximize the potential of each of the good Item cards we have? The second reason is that Zekrom decks are being played a lot. One ‘Retaliate” shot can knock out both Zekrom and Zekrom EX. Those Pokemon are very very popular right now, and Terrakion is auto-win against it. If you play this deck, you will probably get 3 to 4 wins very easily.
I do have a lot of questions about this deck. The first question is, “how does it beat Durant.” Although Durant will not outspeed this deck, it should be able to use Eviolite and Special Metal energies to make sure that the 90 base damage that Terrakion can do is not enough to consistently OHKO Durants. The Terrakion player will try to remove energies, but will that be enough to stop a deck that relies on a 1 energy attack? The second question is, “How does this deck beat CMT?” Although this deck is fairly fast, it should give up KOs on “X-Ball” really easily. This seems like a deck that CMT will have no problem with. 90 damage will only put it in 2HKO range, and the Eviolite will make it 3HKO. So the Durant match-up seems iffy, and the CMT match-up seems like an Auto-Loss. The final question is, “does Seeker kill this deck.” If the Terrakion player only has 2 Pokemon in play and his/her opponent plays a Seeker and gets a knockout, the game is over. If people start playing more Seeker, the Terrakion player will need to play more Pokemon in their decks.
But, the deck did do well with very little play, so it must be a good deck. It really was the surprise of the tournament. I have not seen a list from one of the players last weekend, but I can come up with a sketch of what it might be like. Again, I have not tested this list, this is just me sketching something up. Hopefully in a week or so I will have time to test the deck. hopefully an article on it will be coming.
Pokemon-5
- 4-Terrakion
- 1-Landorus
Trainers-42
- 14- Hand Refresh/Draw Supporters/Pokegear
- 3-Lost Remover
- 4-Crushing Hammer
- 3-Plus Power
- 4-Junk Arm
- 4-Exp Share
- 2-Revive
- 4-Pokemon Catcher
- 2-Defender
Energy-13
- 10-Fighting Energy
- 3-Rescue Energy
What to Look Out For on the Second Weekend
Well, I think that we can expect more of the same on the second weekend, with more Terrakion decks. You can expect to see a lot of CMT, Zekrom, and Durant decks. Those should be all around any States that you go to. What will be interesting is to see how fast that Terrakion catches on. Terrakion was not played a lot last weekend because not many people thought of the deck, it will be different this weekend. Just how many people play it will have to be seen. But, it will be around more than it was last weekend, so be cautious if you are playing Zekrom. You might want to play some Zapdos and see if that will help you at all. The deck choice that I think will the safest is CMT. It has a decent Terrakion matchup, and is pretty good against everything else. The rise of Terrakion should not stop the rise of CMT. If you don’t have enough cards for CMT, Durant might be a safer deck than Zekrom, if you think that Terrakion is going to played a lot.
Conclusion
Well Pedro, I know that was a short article, but I’m sick and that’s all I can do. Why don’t you close the article out.
Okay. Foxnews.com is reporting that a New York Advertising Agency is trying to use homeless people as “walking Wi-Fi Hot Spots.” The plan, before it was recently canceled, was to give equipment to these homeless people, and a user would pay the vagrant 2 bucks for every 15 minutes they spend online. So Pikkdogs, would you follow a homeless person around with your Ipad?
I already follow them around.
Okay, would you get Wi-Fi from them?
No. Though it could have a catchy name, “Ho-Bo Hot Spots!”
That would be nice. But is a Wi-Fi hot spot worth spending time with guys who are smelly and sometimes crazy?
Sounds like dinner with my family.
True, if you use it at your families house, you might as well do it with the homeless.
That’s what I do. Anyway, this sounds a lot like Kramer’s idea of using the Homeless to power rickshaws in Seinfeld. That didn’t work either, but it was a lot funner. That’s enough, good night everybody!
