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Pokemon TCG Decklists and Articles

Terrakion

Deck Workshop

A Piggyback Ride! Suicune/Terrakion Deck Workshop

Eric No Comments

Hello once again One Hit KO community! If you saw the last article, there was a pretty interesting deck idea. However, all that Mike did was giving the decklist. So here you are reading this article, while you lazy bums are just waiting to decknet.
Anyways, here is the decklist, as shown in Mike’s mini-article:

7 Pokemon
4 Suicune PLB
3 Terrakion NVI
39 TSS
4 Professor Juniper
4 N
4 Skyla
2 Bianca
2 Tropical Beach
4 Pokemon Catcher
4 Switch
4 Silver Mirror
4 Evolite
2 Ultra Ball
2 Energy Search
1 Super rod
1 Tool Scrapper
1 Dowsing Machine
14 Energies
5 Water Energy
5 Fighting Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy

Alright guys, let’s take a look at the strategy!
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Stock Up or Stock Down

Pikkdogs Plays “Stock Up or Stock Down”

Pikkdogs 2 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with a weird article for you today.  Well, all my articles are weird, I have a talking extra-dimensional sidekick for crying out loud, but this one is weird in a different way.  This article will be all about cards that are in the sets Black and White through the set Dark Explorers.  We all know how these cards did during the previous format, but how will the rotation effect the cards currently in the format and how they do in the future?  To know that we will play a little bit of “Stock Up and Stock Down.”  If I think a card will be played more than it has I will give it a “Stock Up” grade, and if I think it will lose playability it will get a “Stock Down” grade.  Sounds simple enough, so let’s get to it…………after we say hello to Pedro.

Hey Pedro, do you have a news article for us today?

Hello Pikkdogs,  I sure do.  Today’s news comes from Foxnews.com.  They are reporting that a private U.S. company is raising money to complete a project called the “Deepflight Super Falcon”.  If completed, the project will create a submarine that is capable of maneuvering in the water similar to the way a plane does in a dog fight.  This is great news, because the Super Falcon sets us up for some cool underwater dogfights. Are you excited for this Pikkdogs?

Oh hell yeah.  That would be a cool thing to see in a James Bond movie, can’t wait to see those dogfights.

Though the name seems kind of weird, Deepflight Super Falcon.  Seems like an old Super Nintendo game or something.

Plus, falcons don’t fly in the water.  It should be something like Deepflight Super Finding Nemo.

Finding Nemo isn’t the name of a fish.

But, it does have a certain ring to it.

Did you enjoy the movie Finding Nemo Pikkdogs? 

Ahhh, it was okay.  I’m not gaga over it.  I did like when they made fun of the clown fish.

It was a good life lesson to all the kids out there.  Make fun of clowns and things will be okay.

Yep, let’s get onto the article though, it’s getting late.

Stock Up or Stock Down? 

Mewtwo EX

Stock: Unchanged

I know, I wrote a whole paragraph about putting all these cards in stock up or stock down categories, and then I start the article with a Stock Unchanged, which frankly doesn’t make any sense. But, I do believe that Mewtwo EX will be just as popular as it once was.

The conventional wisdom is that Mewtwo EX will drop a little bit in playability since it no longer has a deck of its own.  But, I think that Mewtwo EX is such a good card that it doesn’t need its own deck to be good.  I think it can be used in almost any deck in the next format and still be good.  Eelektrik and Emboar will both be playable in the next format, and these decks are perfect for Mewtwo.

There are just so many decks that Mewtwo EX is good against that I couldn’t see it not being played in almost any deck.  Plus, there is the fact that Mewtwo EX will soon be a tin promo, so everybody will be able to play it without cost being a factor.  Mewtwo is just so power and versatile that I don’t know if he will never not be a staple.

Terrakion

Stock: Down

The format has changed a lot since Quad Terrakion first made its mark on the format.  Back then most decks had electric Pokemon in them and Terrakion could just say, “I’m a fighting type, give me the win.”  Things are different now, Terrakion does not just get to win because it is a fighting type.  Sure, Electric and Dark decks will still be around, but there will be so many other things.

The format will still be favoring the Big Basic Pokemon, but there will also be stage 2 Pokemon in the format.  Most of these Stage 2 Pokemon cannot be OHKOed with 90 damage, and they can match Terrakion blow for blow.  Take for instance the Reshiboar deck. If you do 90 damage to Reshiram, he will just do 110 to you next turn.  And if you do 90 damage to Emboar, he will still have 60 HP left, well out of the Plus Power range.

The more diverse the format gets, the less valuable Terrakion will get.  Sure, I could still see Terrakion surviving in a tool box deck, or maybe some people will still play a mono-fighitng deck, but the format will not be at Terrakion’s feet any more.  His stock has gone down in the last month or so.

Tornadus and Tornadus EX

Stock: Unchanged

Tornadus was a great Pokemon early in the season last year and into mid-season.  It kind of petered out late in the season, but it is still a good card.

Tornadus started out the year on a great winning streak.  It did well in the ZPST deck where it was fast and could knock out a lot of things very early in the game.  Later in the season Tornadus helped cover the weakness of electric Pokemon against Terrakion.  Then later in the season, Tornadus EX came out and caused a split in the player base of Tornadus.  It was a good Pokemon with Darkari, but didn’t get too much player after that.

Without Junk Arm Darkrai and Tornadus will probably not be a great deck anymore.  Eelektrik decks will still be around, but it is not clear as to if they will still play Tornadi.  The Troll deck also may not be around.  So it is unclear if Tornadus will be as playable as it is now.

But, an attack for CCC that does 80 from a basic will always be good.  And CCC for 100 isn’t bad from an EX either.  Those attacks will always be good to have around, and with the prominence of DCE it will always be easy to use this card.  So kind of like Mewtwo EX, there will not be a lot of Tornadi decks around, but there will be a lot of decks with the Tornadi in there.

Klingklang

 Stock: Unchanged

Klingklang was a crap rare until a few guys like our own TAndrewT and National Champion John Roberts II came up with a cool Klingklang deck that moved energy around.  It went from being rogue to being the BDIF in just a few short months, and it is sure to have an impact in Worlds this weekend.

So why is it gonna be good in the next format?  I think that all of the talk that Hydreigon is going to replace Klingklang is a bunch of hokum.  The reason I don’t believe that Klingklang will be replaced is that Blend Energy kind of screws up the playability of Darkness energy with other energy types.  The Blend Energy that works with Darkness energy only also works with Grass Energy, Psychic Energy, and Fire Energy.  The only good Pokemon that would work well in  Klingklang like deck is Darkrai EX, everything else is with the other Blend Energy card.  That means that Klingklang can use cards like Kyorge EX and Groudon EX, while Hydriegon can’t (at least not as easily).  Even though Klingklang does lose Darkrai and its Ability to easily retreat, that doesn’t mean all is lost.  You can still load up your deck with Switches and stuff like that to make up for the difference.

Klingklang does lose a little from the rotation, but it does not lose enough to kill the deck or take it away from the 1 or 2 tiers.  I think it should still be a decent choice entering Battle Roads.

Bianca and Cheren

Stock: Up

I don’t know if any card on this list has risen faster than these two.  With PONT and Sage’s Training now out of the format, it is up to Biance and Cheren to save things.  It doesn’t really matter if these cards aren’t as good as PONT and Sage’s, these cards are the only draw power we have left to take over the empty spots.

I did have some success with Bianca, if you pair it with cards that discard like Ultra Ball, it isn’t a terrible card.  Cheren will never be great, but if you need something that let’s you always draw 3 cards, this will do it.  They are both cards that will see a lot more play now.  Maybe N and Juniper will be your favorite draw cards, but games will be won and lost depending on how things go with Bianca and Cheren.

Pokemon Communication

Stock: Down

Pokemon Communication is not the card that it once was.  It once was a 3 or 4 of staple card in every deck.  Later in the season last year it turned out to be more of a rogue card than a staple as the format started to favor BBP.  Now we have almost no cards that can actually search out Pokemon, so you can’t really count on having one in your hand to switch for one you want.  The playability of this card will be down from last season, but I don’t necessarily think it is done.

I still like Pokemon Communication in evolution decks.  Some decks in the next season will run almost 20 Pokemon, if you do Pokemon Communication will still be good.  If you run anywhere near 15 Pokemon, Pokemon Communication will be a good card to support other cards like Level Ball and Ultra Ball.  I can see this card still being a really good card.  That being said, a lot of decks will still run on the principles of BBP, which go against those of Pokemon Communication.  It will never be the staple it once was, but it will be very playable.

Rare Candy

Stock: Up

Rare Candy is a card that seems like it has been in the format forever.  It also seems like it always has been a staple.  Last season it was not a staple.  Most people would laugh at you if you played a stage 2 deck, until it won Worlds of course.  Now we have a format is more conducive for stage 2s.

Stage 2 Pokemon first started declining during the reign of SP Pokemon.  Garchomp C LV. X could snipe out any basic or stage 1 very easily.  Then when SPs stopped, Pokemon Catcher came and could take out basics and Stage 1 whenever it wanted.  Although we still have Pokemon Catcher, there is no longer Junk Arm, which almost doubled the playability of Pokemon Catcher.  So although Pokemon Catcher is still a problem, its not that much of a problem, you should be able to get Stage 2’s out now.

Since we have playable stage 2s now, we should be able to use Rare Candy.  It should effect the format in a big way, no more will BBP be the only play, we will have some variety in the format.  I can see Rare Candy being around in a lot of decks and stage 2s not being just for rogues any more.  It could soon be more of a staple, than a rogue.

Empoleon

Stock: Up

As I mentioned in the previous section, Stage 2s will become more playable.  Empoleon was kind of playable at the end of last season, it was more of a rogue, but people still played it.  It was often paired with Terrakion in a decent deck, but it never really won anything.  Now that stage 2s are playable and the format is a little slower, Empoleon is ripe for the playing.

We have lost some draw power with the rotation.  PONT and Sage’s Training were good supporters, but now they are gone in favor of supporters that are not that good.  And we still don’t have any draw Pokemon to replace Uxie and Claydol, so the format is kind of open for a faster deck to take over.  Empoleon has built in draw power which is amazing in this slow format.  Even if its attack wasn’t good it could still be a good tech, but its attack is good and it can be used in a deck.  Empoleon may not be tier 1, but I think it should be tier 2.  Just having a decent amount of draw power will separate it from other decks in the format.

Who knows if this deck will be one of the best around, but I think this deck deserves a test before you hit your first battle road.  It should be a good deck for the next format.

Darkrai EX

Stock: Down

I know all the hype in the last couple weeks was that Hydreigon will make Darkrai even better, but I don’t buy it.  I tested the deck, and it was a good deck, but it is not something that is dominant.  I also think that Klingklang may be a good deck still, so people will be split between the two similar decks.  I know the deck will be played, but it will not be as popular as Darkrai was at Nationals.

Starting at Spring Battle Roads last year Darkrai EX was a dominating card. Almost all winning decks was some form of Darkrai deck.  The most popular was a deck with Tornadus EX.  These two BBP Pokemon could enlist the help of Sableye to use all of the item cards too the best of their ability.  Now the format lost the most important item card of all, Junk Arm.  No longer can BBP win just because they are BBP, the format will be a little more complex.

Darkari will need to include a stage 2 now to survive, but because it does include that stage 2 it could slow it down enough to bring other decks in the mix.  Will a slower Darkarai deck be much better than a Reshiboar deck?  I don’t know.  Two things I know for sure, one is that Darkai EX will be played, and another is that it won’t  be as dominant as it was during Spring Battle Roads.

 

Well that is all I have got to say for today.  I was going to let Pedro finish things up like I normally do, but I gotta be a little serious here for a minute.  This article was about a week late and I’m not sure when my next article will be out.  Things at work have just been really busy the last couple weeks.  I recently accepted additional work at my current job in the technology department, and last week we had the server die.  If you know anything about technology and networking, you know that having a server die is about as fun as having a root canal.  This coming week could be even a worse week at work, so I may be distracted for a while.  So the site may be a little quite in the next couple days.  If you guys want to write an article please contact me or Ed and we can get you going.

So long and thanks for all the fish!

Strategy

How to Counter the Metagame

coolestman22 6 Comments

Hey, it’s coolestman22 again. I’ve been meaning to write another article for a while, but no good ideas for an article had really came to me in a while. I finally had an idea, so here is an article on how to tech for your matchups and what cards to tech in to your deck to make your matchup against X deck better.

First of all, by using any of these techs against one deck, I want people to understand that it might make other matchups worse for them. If you devote three spots of your deck to play against X deck, you’ll have less room for techs against Y deck, or less room for more consistency cards to help seal the matchup against Z deck.

Let’s start with the deck that’s won 30 Battle Roads in Masters alone already, Darkrai variants, and why not put the deck that shares a weakness with it alongside.

Darkrai/Zekeels

First off, Darkrai and most cards in Zekeels has a fighting weakness, so we can group them together into one category, and it’s also something we can exploit with a handful of cards, such as:

Terrakion NVI

Terrakion NVI is the most popular Fighting-type counter Pokemon, and is probably the best for two reasons. First of all, it can OHKO any Fighting-weak pokemon in the game right now, not regarding Eviolites or Defenders. This is a good reason to play it, as an OHKO is better than just getting damage on stuff.

Second of all, it does it for the lowest possible energy cost, and only uses one Fighting Energy. If you use two Fighting energy and don’t have Fighting-compatible energy acceleration (which isn’t currently in format) you can’t pull off an attack that needs two Fighting such as Gaia Hammer on Landorus NVI or Giant Claw on Groudon EX.

Terrakion is probably the most powerful option that gets the job done the best and quickest there is to choose from here, the only drawback being that you have to run Fighting Energy. But what doesn’t need Fighting Energy?

Stunfisk NVI 68

Stunfisk may not hit as hard as Terrakion, but if you play Zekeels it is arguably better. You don’t have to play any tech energy, so it takes up one or two spots instead of 3 to 6. This is good because, like most decks, Zekeels is pretty tight on space and you can’t afford to play random tech pokemon that take up that much space without hurting your consistency.

The problem with Stunfisk is that he isn’t all that hard hitting. You can only do 100 to a Fighting-type instead of the 180 Terrakion does. Stunfisk two-shots what Terrakion one-shots. The other attack has the possibility to do 60 (120 to a Fighting-weak Pokemon), which is 60 short of killing Darkrai EX or Raikou EX, meaning that if you have the space for Terrakion you should play it.

The last upside you get to playing Stunfisk over Terrakion is that Stunfisk has the ability to paralyze the Pokemon you attack. If your opponent has a Switch, then it doesn’t matter, but sometimes that 50% chance of paralysis can be a great thing to have. If you can buy yourself a turn against a Darkrai, you can KO it next turn for two prizes. It’s still much better to just play Terrakion in Zeels if you have the space, but if you don’t it can be nice to have something.

So, is there any other tech for Darkrai? Well, no good ones. Stunfisk and Terrakion are really the only half decent ones because everything else has nothing over Terrakion. Stunfisk probably isn’t your second best option in Zekeels, but it takes up less space than Terrakion and everything else (Groudon, Landorus mostly), it would just be better to play Terrakion. Stunfisk is the only card with an advantage over Terrakion at all.

CMT

CMT mainly consists of cards either weak to Lightning, or Mewtwo. Generally we can just play Mewtwo to counter the Mewtwos, which most decks do already. There’s also Regigigas that could pop up, so it’s hard to play a card to specifically counter all of CMT. But there are a few mentions I would want to give out.

Zekrom BW

Zekrom BW has two attacks, one which costs LLC, putting it out of the question for all decks other than Zeels already.

Outrage, however, can work to counter Tornadus EX and Tornadus (If you need to counter Tornadus EP anyway). What you do is send it out without energy, and leave it out for a turn. Then, hopefully it takes a hit, and you attach DCE, possibly Catcher a Tornadus EX, and knock out the Tornadus.

Zekrom probably isn’t a great tech, but it’s the best one there is against Tornadus-EX.

Weezing HS

Weezing HS is a card that was discussed as a good Mewtwo counter before Mewtwo came out, being able to OHKO Mewtwo for only two energy, without giving up two prizes (necessarily). However, it was tested, and it didn’t end up working out.

The answer to the Weezing problem is to play a line of AT LEAST 3-2 AND play at least 2 Defender. That’s 7 deck spots for a so-so Mewtwo counter. Is that something you would really want?

If you did opt to go the Weezing way, however, you would have to play 2 Koffing down at the same time, and then evolve one to Weezing and blow up in Mewtwo’s face, KOing the Mewtwo and yourself if you didn’t attach a Defender, and if you didn’t attach a Defender you’d give your opponent a free shot at whatever you brought up, so it’d be much better just to play Mewtwo if you had the money. It also spooks the opponent if they know what Weezing does.

Quad Fighting

Quad Fighting is an interesting deck, and there are few great ways to counter it. A lot of pokemon in this format have Fighting resistance, and you really should all know about how Tornadus EX counters it by now, so I won’t bore you with what you already know. There are other options that are not as good at doing so and take up a bit more space in your deck, but have different options against Fighting.

Shaymin EX

Shaymin EX with Prism Energy is a good counter to Fighting because a Shaymin will take two hits to KO (3 with Eviolite against anything but Groudon), and you also hit Terrakion for weakness, an OHKO after your opponent takes 2 prizes (or 1 with a PlusPower).

The problem with Shaymin is that it’s a terrible starter and isn’t all that good without N in any other matchups, he’ll probably just be OHKOed by whatever your opponent brings up next, and even with N he really isn’t that good.

I think that unless you were cash-strapped it would be much better to play Tornadus-EX, but Shaymin does bring an interesting option to the table, even if he isn’t the best option. He can swing for 180 late game, something not many other cards can do, and Shaymin is a decent option, but there are just too many downsides to it for it to work well enough to be worth 3 spots of your deck.

Conclusion

So that’s it for my article, I should be back with another one pretty soon though. I hope this gave you some insight about what techs to put in against what matchup, and feel free to leave a comment below. If you think I forgot something, just let me know.

State Championships Tourney Report

Quad Terrakion Deck – MN State Championship 2012

Ed 17 Comments

I really thought that I wasn’t going to make it to States this year. Part of me thought that I should make a strong effort to defend my title, and part of me thought that the effort would be wasted if I couldn’t attend anyway. I had it in the back of my mind that I might make it to the tourney, so all along I had been putting together a CMT deck. I really actually wanted to play a straight Celebi/Mewtwo deck (without Tornadus or any techs), but I didn’t want to go out of my way to buy a bunch of Mewtwo if I might not even use them.

I did end up scraping together all the pieces for a CMT minus the 2 Mewtwo EX. When I decided to try opening the OneHitKO Store, I bought 3 boxes of Next Destinies. I figured that if I did end up able to attend MN States, then I could just borrow a couple Mewtwo from the store for the day. Well, that idea fell apart rather quickly when I opened 3 boxes and saw a total of ZERO Mewtwo EX.

The weekend before the tournament, my wife went to the hospital 3 times with pregnancy issues, and I thought that each time we might have an extended stay there while delivering our new child. Nothing came of that, and on the Monday before States, I ended up emailing TAndrewT and talking about all of this. I told him essentially the same thing I just told you, still unsure that the pregnancy would last through the following weekend of MN States. I also added that I had considered Durant and straight 4-Terrakion deck.

I didn’t know if I even cared to build a deck at this point. Pokemon wasn’t a pressing issue, and I had barely played since Cities. Andy replied with, “Well, if you need Terrakions I have plenty for you to borrow.” and I thought that this sounded like the only plan I was going to come up with on late notice.

I netdecked a list, and I threw together the deck proxying the Terrakion (I had all the rest except for 1 old style Revive in place of the new one). There’s a guy here at work that I’ve been playing against over lunch sometimes. He has a Zekrom/Eelektrik deck (which I figured would be popular), so I challenged him to a match. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the deck with him, so he played an old Emboar/Reshiram deck of mine. The first game went very quickly as I lost due to not getting more than 1 Terrakion out. I think the deck wasn’t very shuffled yet, and 2 Terrakion were prized. The next game was a real match, and I think I ultimately won when he decked out. This one game turned out to be my only real tourney prep, though. Other than that, I never played the deck until the day of the tourney. At the tourney, a junior (another co-worker’s kid) challenged me to a game, and I ran though his Pokemon very quickly. Going into the tournament, I had only played one real and it was against a non-metagame deck.
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Deck Discussion

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

Pikkdogs 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!

Card Discussion

Introducing Pokemon Catcher

Pikkdogs 10 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with a discussion about the card Pokemon Catcher.  This card will come out in the Black and White: Emerging Powers set.  Its effect is simple, switch one of your opponent’s benched Pokemon with the active.  This makes it like Gust of Wind from the base set.  This article will tell you what this card means for the format.  This article will also speculate what the format will be like for this card, and what type of counter the new high HP Pokemon will be to Pokemon Catcher.

Before we start the article, just a little reminder about the contest.  The contest that celebrates my 100 articles is still going on.  All you have to do to enter is send an email to “pikkdogs@teamomar.com.”  In the email just tell us something you like or don’t like about the site.  When you enter you will be in the running to win one of two official www.onehitko.com t-shirts.  To see the complete rules, just read my 100th article celebration post here.  Okay, back to the article about Pokemon Catcher

What it does

Pokemon Catcher allows you to do 2 strategic things.  The most obvious thing it does is to bring an un-evolved Pokemon active.  Once that Pokemon is active you will be able to knock it out before it evolves to a scary stage 2 like Emboar, Tyranitar, or Magnezone.  The other thing you can do is to pull up a bench sitting Pokemon and then either knock it out, snipe around it, mill your opponent’s deck, or put Pokemon in the Lost Zone.  This card is very powerful, so lets talk about what happened last time it came out.

What Happened Last Time: Gust of Wind.

Gust of Wind was a card in the base set that did the same thing as Pokemon Catcher.  When it came to competitive play, Gust of Wind forced a deck called Haymaker to become the best in the format.  Haymaker was a deck with base set cards like Hitmonchan, Scyther, and Elektabuzz.  It was a fast deck that used Gust of Wind to bring up basic Pokemon and do damage for not a lot of energy.  Haymaker was not the only deck that saw play, but it was the winning-est deck of its time by far.

It worked by pulling up anything that was a threat and knocking it out before it could get going.  Haymaker was a powerful deck that had only one enemy, the first rotation.  Now, Gust of Wind is coming back and most Pokemon players are afraid of what it could do in today’s format.  The format is different from base set.  Back then, doing 40 damage for 2 energies was really good, now a 100 HP basic Pokemon is not hard to find.  Who knows what will happen when the wind changes and we get that some old gust coming back into the format.  Some people say the format will be very similar just a little more disruptive.  While most people are predicting the end of stage 2’s in the format, but could that be?

What do you mean I can’t evolve on the same turn?

About a year ago, the return of Gust of Wind would not be a huge problem.  You could just play a Rare Candy, or evolve through Broken Time Space.  Now you have to leave a Basic on the bench for one turn.  Unless you are able to play 2 copies of the same basic on one turn, it will be unlikely that you will be able to evolve on the upcoming turn.  To evolve to a stage 1 or 2 Pokemon you will need to be very speedy or very disruptive.

How to Combat Catcher

As mentioned,you can either try to keep Pokemon Catcher away from the opponent, find a way to evolve before they can disrupt the evolution, or don’t play any basics down that you don’t want in the active spot.

To keep catcher away from the opponent you can try to get an early Judge.  Pokemon like Weavile and Ambipom can disrupt your opponent’s hand so that they cannot setup.  If you get an early disruption on your opponent, he/she will not be to get the Pokemon Catcher that they need to disrupt you.  You can also make Pokemon Catcher useless by setting up a trainer lock with either Gothitelle or Vileplume.  However, these Pokemon are stage 2’s and can be disrupted by Pokemon Catcher.  So, in order to evolve them you will have to be quick about it.

One way of negating the effect of catcher is putting down 2 of the same basics at once, so they can knock out 1, and you can evolve the other.  This is where cards like Pokemon Collector, Revive, and Stantler come in really big.  After the big Cleffa donfest that was U.S. Nationals 2011, Stantler is a good Pokemon to use as a starter.  He will not be donked, and he can search out 2 basics and put them on the bench.  All you need on the next turn is  a Rare Candy and a Stage 2.  Look for 4 Rare Candies to be a staple in the next format.  Another way to go around Pokemon Catcher is to start fast.  If you start with a basic, there is a good chance there will probably be time to evolve the Pokemon before Catcher gets played.

If you don’t want your opponent to Catcher in a Pokemon, then don’t play it down.  With the number of big basic HP POkemon that can do damage, you don’t really need evolved Pokemon.  In the next couple sets there will be about 10 100+ HP Pokemon coming into the format.  The question is whether these Pokemon will be able to knock out Pokemon that are used with Pokemon Catcher, like Donphan Prime and Yanmega Prime.  Only time will tell whether these Pokemon will be good enough to stop the good stage 1’s.

The Big HP Pokemon

As mentioned, there are a lot of big HP Pokemon coming out, so lets look at them, since they are not very afraid of being made active by Pokemon Catcher.

1. Virizion

Japanese Set-  Battle Strength Deck                 English Set- Emerging Powers

Basics- 100 HP, 1 Retreat, Weak to Fire, Resistance to Water.

Attack 1- Giga Drain.  For GC you do 30 and heal from Virizion the amount of damage that you do to the defending Pokemon.

Attack 2-Sacred Sword.  For GGC you can do 100 damage, it can’t be used twice in a row.

2. Virizion

Japanese Set- Red Collection                    English Set- Probably the 3rd BW set

Basics- 100 HP, 1 retreat, weak to fire, resistant to water.

Attack 1- Dual Draw. For one energy you can draw 2 cards.

Attack 2-Leaf Slugger.  For GC you can do 40 damage. If you used this attack last turn, the attack does 80.

3. Terrakion 

Japanese Set- Battle Strength Deck                    English Set- Emerging Powers

Basics- 120 HP, 4 retreat, weakness to grass.

Attack 1- Boulder Crash.  For FC it does 40 damage.

Attack 2-Sacred Sword.  For FFC it does 100 damage and cannot be used next turn.

4. Terrakion

Japanese Set- Red Collection                    English Set- Probably 3rd BW set

Basics- 130 HP, 4 retreat, weakness to Grass.

Attack 1- Vengance.  Does 30 damage for FC.  Will do 90 damage if you lost a Pokemon last turn.

Attack 2- Land Crush.  For FFC it does 90 damage.

5. Coballion

Japanese Set-Battle Strength Deck                    English Set- Emerging Powers

Basics- 110 HP, 2 retreat, weak to fire, resistant to Psychic.

Attack 1- Metal Sword.  For MC you can do 30 damage and have your opponent switch the defending Pokemon.

Attack 2- Sacred Sword.  For MMC you can do 100 damage, and you can’t use this attack twice in a row.

6. Coballion

Japanese Set- Red Collection                    English Set- Probably the 3rd BW set.

Basics- 120 HP, 2 retreat, weak to Fire, resistant to Psychic.

Attack 1- Energy Breath.  For MC it does 20 damage times the number of energy attached to the defending.

Attack 2- For MMC you can do 80 damage and prevent the defending Pokemon from attacking next turn.

7. Landorus

Japanese Set-Red Collection                    English Set-?????? I would guess Emerging Powers, but it could be the 3rd Black and White Set.

Basics- 110 HP, 1 retreat, and weak to water.

Attack 1- Harvest.  For 1 energy you can attach an energy card from the discard pile to this Pokemon.

Attack 2- Gaia Hammer.  For FFC you can do 80 damage and spread 10 to everyone’s bench.

8. Volteros

Japanese Set- Black and White                    English Set-Emerging Powers

Basics- 110 HP, 1 retreat, weak to fighting

Attack 1- Recharge.  For 1 energy you can search your deck for a lightning energy and attack it to this Pokemon.

Attack 2- Discharge. For LLC you can do 80 damage and discard an energy card.

9. Torneros

Japanese Set- Black and White                   English Set- Emerging Powers

Basics- 110 HP, 1 retreat, weak to lightning, resistant to fighting.

Attack 1- Energy Well.  For 1 energy you move one energy from your bench to the active.

Attack 2-Gale Force. For CCC you can do 80 damage and move 1 energy card to the bench.

10. Kyurem

Japanese Set- Red Collection                   English Set- Probably the 3rd Black and White Set

Basics- 130 HP, 2 retreat, and weak to Metal.

Attack 1- Outrage.  For CC it does 20 damage plus 10 for every damage counter on this Pokemon.

Attack 2- Glaciate.  For WWC it spreads 30 damage to all of your Opponent’s Pokemon.

So those are the 10 big Pokemon that are coming out.  Most of these Pokemon will not be easy to knock out by Yanmega or Donphan, so they will be great counters to Pokemon Catcher.  The problem will be just coming up with other cards that can help make these cards attack faster.  None of these Pokemon seem like great Pokemon right now, but I think given the right situation, these cards could help to make a good deck.

Sot there is a look at Pokemon Catcher.  The card will sure change the format, maybe it will only change a little, or it may change it a lot.  I hope I gave you some ideas of how you can plan to play against this card in the fall.  Be sure to check on this website for more strategy articles about this impactful card.  So, what do you guys think of this card.  How will you play it and play against it?  Please leave your thoughts in the comment box.

So long and thanks for all the fish.

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