Looking Past the Fundamentals

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Recently I’ve convinced my roommate to start playing the Pokemon TCG. He’s an avid Magic the Gathering player and plays rather seriously and competitively. He attended a couple of Battle Roads with the members of our Pokemon Podcast TCG group, Team Bouffie (formally Team Whimsy Tackle). Being new to the game we’ve had a lot of in-depth discussion about what the Pokemon TCG looks like as a whole. Last night we discussed information poisoning.

Information poisoning dictates a trend. For example, a lot of the decks we play in the US are influenced by what places well in Japan. Dragons Deck for example ranked fairly high Japan but here in the states hasn’t really shown much face. I have no doubt that the deck would have existed without Japan building it but would serious players have played it had it not done well in Japan?

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Expecting and Unexpected Decks

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Battle Roads start next week, which means it’s time to stop playing around with Stunfisk and get our game faces on. There are a few decks that, without doubt in my mind, we will see at Battle Roads. There are also a few decks that haven’t gotten nearly as much play testing and may come up to surprise a few players.

Deck 1: Dragons (Fluffy-Chomp)

A no brainer, especially because there is a starter deck based around it, will we see this deck being played. The deck is typically Altaria/Garchomp but I’ve played against some variations.

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Pre-Release Run Down

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Prerlease week 1 is over and unfortunately I was occupied with other card games. If you played I would love to hear how your games went in the comments below!  However you did or if you’ll be playing this weekend, I’ve got some bomb picks for the cards that will take you to the top of your prerelease next weekend.

In general when drafting a prerelease deck you’re trying to pick the cards that give you the most bang for your play. Pokemon with attacks that have multiple effects besides damage like status conditions or discard effects will be winners. A prerelease deck isn’t just a race for damage. That being said, EX’s will always have a huge play advantage. Just because you didn’t pull an EX, doesn’t mean the tournament is over. Lets look at Carnivine.

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The Odds Are Strong With This One

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Probably at some point probability could possibly predict the postgame results for a match you’re playing in. Instead of covering a certain a card or strategy tip this week I’m going to break down how to figure out probability and how you can use that while playing to help get the wins.

Lets do some basic math work first. Reading this next part you’re probably thinking “We already know all this” but in case you don't know how to figure out probability this should help. We have 60 cards in our deck. We will draw a hand of 7 and then set aside 6 prizes leaving 47 cards in our deck. So lets determine the likely hood of...

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Stating Stats from States

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Hey poke-nerds I’d like to start with a grand apology. I’M SORRY THIS ARTICLE IS LATE! See how grand that was? Done. Next, I want to give you some tips based on what I’ve seen and read from last weekends States. The big bad bidoof of the format is definitely Zekrom/Eelektrik. Reporting from Top Cut says 30 of the top four decks across the tournaments were a Zekrom/Eelektrik varying with some techs like Thundurus or Terrakion. Celebi/Mewtwo/Tornadus took 21 of the top four slots followed by my favorite deck. Dur-dur-durant , taking 10 spots.

Two awesome things we can take away from this. First, Mewtwo was not the bomb to the format that everyone thought it would be, more like a small hand grenade. Secondly, with the release of the spring tins the top deck in the format is relatively affordable. That also means you will see a lot of it so lets get into how to beat it.

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Trainers! Trainers for States

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The heart and soul of any great deck is its trainers. Even decks that run the silliest Pokemon lines still stand a solid chance if they’ve built their trainer base correctly. With the EX wave dropping into the format there are a few trainers that I think will spike in popularity before states.

The card that a lot of people have been talking about is Lost Remover. Its an important addition into your deck to get rid of Double Colorless Energy, which every EX is going to use. The card that people aren’t talking about is Crushing Hammer. Lets do some Pro-Con work here. Lost Remover is a guarantee removal of a special energy. Crushing Hammer flips a coin to remove any energy. So we can’t count on Crushing Hammer but it has more playability. How to pick between these two? Really it comes down to Junk Arms. If you’re running Junk Arm, and you like to push chance, I think Crushing Hammer is the better pick.  I’d run something like one or two Lost Removers and then three to four Crushing Hammers.

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Don't Play With Destiny, Preorder

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So Next Destinies is right around the corner and I have not been so excited for a set in a long time. Troll and Toad has opened up preorders for some singles and I’m doing everything I can to keep my bank account in check. There are a few cards that I think may be worth the trouble to preorder, lets take a look.

Card 1: Musharna http://tinyurl.com/7h8e4ku This is a perfect filler tech. Its Pokemon power allows you to look at the top two cards and put one into your hand. Granted Musharna is a

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Getting Ready To Deal With My EX's

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There was a time when I up and quit the Pokémon TCG. It was dramatic and over the top but deserved. I quit when I played my brother’s first deck that had a Pokémon EX in it. The next set contains the all-powerful Pokémon EX. I probably won’t end up quitting but I can promise there will be a serious change in game play.

Several cards I think will jump in value both in play and online. The first being...

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Luck and Fighting Fighting

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They came at the hands of decks that ran fighting pokemon. The first loss was to a Terrakion. My opponent started with a Terrakion then communicated for a Terrakion and those two alone rolled over me. The second loss was the same situation but with two Donphan. Cather was also key in these losses as my opponents waited and were patient, waiting for me to play a Magnamite, in order to catcher up the biggest threat and take care of it early.
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Comment or I'll One Hit KO

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So I’ve got a proposed deck list for the new Noble Victors set. I am most likely going to build this but I want your input. Read though the deck list and my thoughts on how it would match up and play. Then tell me I’m wrong in every way and tell me how you’d fix this list.
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