A Second Look at Each Set: Unleashed

Tuesday, June 21st, 2011

Welcome to the second part of this series of articles.  These articles look at each set and take a look at both the most played and mBlastoise - ULost overlooked cards of each set.  We are now on the HS: Unleashed set.  The hope is that by looking at the best cards of each set, we will be able to find some new techs or new deck ideas.

Before the article we have a bit of news.  Last week it was announced that the next English set will be called “Emerging Powers.”  The weird thing about the announcement is that it was announced that the set would include over 90 cards including 25 Pokemon that were never printed before.  Since our Black and White set did not have about 25 Pokemon cards that were not in the Japanese Black and White sets, this means that we probably will not be getting any cards from the Red Collection (the second Japanese Set).  Whats even stranger is the fact that we are getting some cards like Krookodile and Scolipede that have not been released in Japan.  So does that mean that we are getting a lot of new cards that Japan hasn’t received yet?  Anyway, it does seem that the next set will contain a lot of unreleased cards from the Black and White sets and cards from the Coballion, Virizion, and Terrakion decks.  Anyway, lets get on to the article.

The Top Cards

These are the top cards that have been talked about and played already.  You should be aware of these guys.
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Stupid Deck Idea: Goose King

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

Kingdra Prime - ULI don’t yet know if this will be a recurring column or not. I would like it to be, but I’m not sure how well it will be received or if it’s something I will maintain. You see, I have deck ideas every once in a while. This seems to happen more when new cards come out. Usually, I come up with some great new idea. I write up a skeleton decklist, and then I ponder it. In the short term, the pondering process often results in minor tweaks. In the long term (being probably less than a day), it generally results in scrapping the idea because it’s not going to be competitive enough.

I don’t have a lot of opportunity to play weird decks at home. I’d love to try these ideas at league or something. The problem is that I often don’t own all the cards (especially for sets that haven’t been released yet). Also, league is only once a week, and I don’t make it to every session.

This means that the “Stupid Deck Idea” usually doesn’t make it past the initial decklist, therefore I will never know if the idea had any actual merit. As it is, these “Stupid Deck Ideas” may have some usefulness. Maybe the Pokemon have some good synergy, but the trainer line was all wrong to support them. Maybe there’s a hidden combo that hadn’t been widely considered before, but without testing, it’ll never be discovered. Maybe a year or two from now a new card comes out that makes the deck work, and people can find this archive. I don’t know. All I know is that the idea is going to get shelved, so I’ll put it here and see what happens. Maybe it gets universally ignored, but maybe someone takes it and runs with it.

So, that’s the setup for “Ed’s Stupid Deck Idea.” Today’s installment is “Goose King.” It combines Zangoose Platinum with Kingdra Prime from Unleashed.

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HS Unleashed: Primes, Legends, Next Please

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

Well, regionals has come to an end, and its time to start preparing for the next set, HGSS Unleashed. Since 6 new primes are being released, and 3 new legends, there is plenty to chat about. With the primes (Kingdra, Crobat, Ursaring, Lanturn, Steelix, and Tyranitar) there are some new decks that can be made and techs to be considered. The new legends are the coupled dogs of Raikou, Suicune, and Entei. Please note that the analysis on the cards are before i have seen any trainer or supporter card of this set.

As far as the primes go, the only ones that i can see that will be competitive in some way shape or form are Kingdra and Ursaring. Kingdra is a Crobat G every turn, so if you had multiple Kingdras, you can add extra damage anywhere. On top of that, if he has a belt, he will do 80 damage with no discard effect. The only drawback this card has is when you see a fire match-up, or a deck that runs fire cards in it, because the base damage goes from 60 to 20. Ish. It’s a good thing that the original Kingdra we have grown to love isn’t cycled out yet. :) Luxray GL is the other huge issue, but then again who doesn’t know that when they are playing water?

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