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Pokemon 2012 Season Overview

By Kohrok

Greetings everyone! I hope that you followed Worlds as eagerly as I did, and are ready for the 2011-2012 tournament season just like me! We’ll go through the new Battle Roads Promo, the structure of events, and conclude today’s article with some thoughts on possible deck ideas for this coming year. Without a pause, let’s go!

We were fortunate enough to get our first scans of the new promo – “Victory Cup” today. It is available in 3 versions – a “Bronze” version with Victini, “Silver” with Victini and Snivy, and a “Gold” with Victini and the three starters. Like previous “Victory Medal” cards, it is stamped with the tournament season and year. Unfortunately, the promo is not a unique effect like Victory Medal, instead coming as what amount to a “Poke Ball” reprint. The card, although thrice as available as the old promo, now has almost no competitive value in a deck, although, admittedly, it looks incredible and would be fun to pull out in a league deck.

The next topic of discussion revolves around the tournament schedule for this year. Although not yet set in stone, our Battle Roads will run from Mid-September until Mid-October, with Regionals taking place in November. Wait, Regionals in November? Yes, for the first time, Pokemon will have 2 separate “seasons” of Regional tournaments. The first set will be followed by the post-Thanksgiving City Championships, the tentative March State championships, and, if the schedule follows last year’s, July Nationals. The season will, of course, culminate in the World Championships in August. We’ll also have Prerelease events sporadically placed throughout the season, with our first, Emerging Powers, already having come and gone, we look to our third Black and White set, which should be released in November, and according to my information, AFTER the first Regionals events. We also have the return of the Gym cycle, this time looking at Unova’s 10 Gym Leaders. The 8 seasons will each feature a different Energy Type, with promo cards including basic energy and Pokemon of the corresponding type. Unfortunately, there will be no Collector print as a promo, at this time.

However, that all is for the future, as even the first official week of league does not start until September 26th. September 17th brings the first Battle Roads – Fall, and with it, the deck ideas can commence. Any follower of the current HGSS-EP metagame will recognize key contenders for this fall, including Typhlosion Prime/Reshiram, Magnezone/Emboar, the Worlds-winning deck, Yanmega/Donphan/Zoroark, and with the release of Emerging Powers, the use of Vileplume or Gothitelle to block the infamous Gust Of Win(d)/Pokemon Catcher. Just as Power Spray was key in stopping Luxray GL Lv. X’s “Bright Look” Pokemon Power when it was in play, these two Stage 2’s offer a solution to Pokemon Catcher.
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Pokemon Championships In Hawaii

By Pokemon Professor A

Who wouldn’t want to play Pokemon in paradise?

Get those trading card game decks tested and built. Or, if you prefer, train your Pokemon party in Black or White until they’re ready to take on the world. According to an article printed in the L.A. Times, the Pokemon World Championships will be held from August 10-12, 2012 in Kona, Hawaii. It could be more fun than watching Surfing Pikachu catch some waves.

Kona is a district on Hawaii’s Big Island. If you’re staying on Kona for your entire trip, the easiest flight option is to come in and out of Kona International Airport (KOA). It is a smart idea to keep your Nintendo DS or 3DS handy at the airport. Other players may be arriving around the same time and should be easy to spot wearing everything from Pikachu shirts to Oshawott hats. It’s a great opportunity to meet fellow Pokefans and exchange friend codes before the pressures of the competition set in.

Due to the large number of people flying in for World Championships, and with the generally high number of families that travel to Hawaii during the summer months, it can be hard to find last minute flight and hotel packages. If you want to attend the championships in Hawaii, you’ll need to plan well in advance to get the best deal. It’s generally not a good idea to wait and see if you’ve qualified for an invitation to Worlds. If you wait, Nationals typically takes place in July, and then you’ll only have a few weeks to prepare for the trip. If you’re committed to compete at Worlds, try your best to qualify for the trading card game or video game competition, but be prepared to attend the Last Chance Qualifier if you do not receive an invitation. When making your flight and hotel reservations in advance, make sure your reservation can be changed or cancelled within a reasonable time, typically a few days or weeks prior to your anticipated arrival date.

A trip to Hawaii doesn’t just have to please the Pokemon fans in your family. In the fall of 2011, Disney opened a new resort and spa facility named Aulani. Fun and famous Disney characters like Mickey, Minnie, Chip and Dale have made their way to the Hawaiian islands, too. As of this writing, the characters are mostly found at character dining opportunities, but this may change in the future. In addition to photos and autographs with the character celebrities, Aulani truly is a Hawaiian resort at heart. The amenities include a private snorkeling area, fireside puppet shows, adventure trails and nightly sunset ceremonies. With all of the magic of Disney and the rich nature and culture of Hawaii, a trip to Aulani can be the perfect complementary experience to Pokemon Worlds.
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Pokemon 2011 Last Chance Qualifier Report

By Kenny Wisdom

I’m back from San Diego, and decided that for my next article I would write about my Pokemon Worlds 2011 Last Chance Qualifier experience. As you’ll see, my time in the tournament was rather short, but I thought it would be a good way to re-introduce readers to my work here on the site, and the LCQ/Worlds in general is definitely a hot topic in the community as a whole. I’m a little pressed for time (still dealing with a backlog of work and other real-life issues in a post San Diego world), so without further ado…

Round 1: BYE

I’m not sure how many of you followed the LCQ this year, but they changed to a single elimination format (as opposed to the format which most tournaments are run under, Swiss). What this means is that they have to find some way to get to a power of 2. Since they can’t turn people away from registration or otherwise limit/fix the number of people playing, they decided to give the majority of players byes in the first round, with the idea being that after this round there would be a perfect power of 2, so that they could eventually give the top 16 or top 8 players remaining invites to Worlds.

I didn’t do a whole lot during the bye round. Everyone else besides one person from our group all got byes, so we mainly just watched his game, wandered around the tournament center, and awaited when we would finally get to play. Which we eventually did, as you’ll see…

Round 2: Yanmega/Vileplume

I was playing MegaZone w/ Kingdra, so when I saw my opponent flip over a Yanma and an Oddish I wasn’t necessarily downtrodden, but I knew that I was playing against a good player with a real deck, and I knew that Vileplume could be a serious problem for me, if I wasn’t careful.

Game 1: He gets out Vileplume on turn 2 and there’s simply not much I can do. The game is legitimate and goes a while as I try and mount a comeback, but it just wasn’t meant to happen. I let the game go on for quite a while, hoping that if time was called on Game 2 or 3 that I would have an advantage. Not sure if that was the right call or not. I eventually scoop up when I realize I simply cannot win.

Game 2: I have more confidence going into the second game, becasue I get to go first. Unfortunately I open with a hand of Horsea and 6 unplayable cards, and then draw a 7th unplayable card. He Tyrogues me twice while I fail to do much of anything, and am eliminated from the tournament.

I was a little bit better, but at the end of the day I lost to a great opponent, so there’s not much I can say. Good Game.

So, that’s all I’ve got. The week was still amazing, as a member of my team ended up winning the Pokemon World Championship in the Masters Division, and a member of our team in the Junior division grinded in. After those types of results I really can’t complain about much of anything, haha.

Next week I’ll be writing about the Emerging Powers set and the best competitive cards from it, so check back then for your Kenny Wisdom fix!

xoxo,

kw

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Pokemon Red Frenzy: Back to Basics

By JC

I took a stroll down memory lane and purchased a Pokemon Black and White Red Frenzy Theme Deck. The last time I bought a starter deck was the very first one that featured a holographic Machamp, so I really felt excited about opening this one. It comes with 60 cards, a deck box, a metallic coin, a checklist, damage counters, a play mat, and an online code card.

Red Frenzy
Pokemon: 30

2 Emboar
3 Pignite
4 Tepig
2 Simisear
3 Pansear
1 Darmanitan
4 Darumaka
2 Timburr
1 Stoutland
2 Herdier
3 Lillipup
1 Cincinno
2 Mincinno

Trainers and Supporters: 12
2 Energy Search
2 Switch
2 Energy Retrieval
2 Pokemon Communication
2 Professor Juniper
2 Revive

Energy: 18
12 Fire
6 Fighting

First of all, I can’t believe there are 30 Pokemon cards. You get 5 different evolution lines, 5 rares, 3 different types of Pokemon, and an awesome holographic Emboar card. Let me just get this out of the way and say that I’m relieved that Nintendo has stopped making so many rare trainers (Clefairy Doll and Devolution Spray come to mind). Energy Search looks like it could just be replaced with an energy card.

I’ve always found Switch useful, especially with the heavy Pokemon included in this deck. You’ll need them for the likes of Emboar, Stoutland, and Darmanitan.

Energy Retrieval will help in getting those fire energy cards back from discarding energy costs and Revive is a decent card. It seems like Professor Juniper is this card generation’s Professor Oak. Almost every deck will have 4 of these—it’s that good.

Pokemon Communication is an amazing card as well. You can trade any Pokemon card in your hand for any Pokemon card in your deck (Tepig for Emboar? Yes, thank you).
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DisasterBuzz Deck

By Megapoola

Have you ever needed or wanted a fun deck for league or playing friends? I am here to give you some ideas on how to build one. This is a fun deck I call disasterbuzz. This involves using Absol prime from HS Triumphant and its Poke Body eye of disaster. This says that whenever Absol is active and your opponent benches a Pokemon it takes 20 damage. It also has an attack for one Dark and one Colorless that does 70 but you are required to send a Pokemon from your hand to the lost zone. It may seem bad against Lostgar decks but it does one-shot Gengar prime. Absol is not the main attacker though.

Mandibuzz from Black and White is the most effective pokemon for attacking. For only one dark energy you can do 50 damage to any of your opponent’s pokemon with damage counters on it. With Absol’s body that means that you should be able to snipe your opponents benched pokemon. if your opponents has not evolved their bench yet you should be able to knock out most basic pokemon in one hit.

The Trainer supporter stadium line of this deck involves professor elm’s training method. This allows you to get the Mandibuzz very quickly. You should also have pokemon collectors to retrieve Vullaby and Absol prime from your deck. The deck also uses research records and professor oak’s new theory. Due to the deck’s low energy count, you may choose to run energy search and energy exchanger. This allows you to get special dark energies and double colorless energies. That allows you to either use Zororark form Pokemon Black and White or Mandibuzz’s punishment attack.
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Sabledonk Deck Discussion

By Kohrok

Hey guys, Kohrok back with a Deck Discussion on Pokezine!

Alright, so many of you may have been waiting for this – it’s the list that caused so much havoc and mayhem during the Spring Battle Roads in America! It’s a list that I found online, tweaked, and had a lot of fun with. Ultimately, I decided not to play it, because it really didn’t give me much of a good feeling inside, it didn’t feel very original, and overall, it just left the opposing player in a foul mood. I got to experience that last part in my games, so I definitely feel like I made the right choice not choosing it.

However, that’s not to say that people can’t learn from the deck, and try to take lessons away from strategies it used. Although the majority of the deck (IE over 90%) is being rotated, we can still look for new ways to build decks that don’t necessarily need Stage 2 attackers and tanks with 3 or 4 energy to win.

So here we go:
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The Analysis Of Rotation

By Kohrok

Hey guys, Kohrok back with another article for Pokezine!

Today, we’re going to be talking about the new rotation that has been implemented. For a little bit of background, let’s look at the past two seasons.

2009-2010: No rotation – by the end of the season, we had all of DP, HGSS, PT, and it was getting crazy. For those of you that followed it, Luxchomp, Machamp, and Gyarados all ran rampant and took top slots at the World Championships.

2010-2011: September, 2010 – rotation through HALF of Diamond-Pearl, leaving us with: Legends Awakened (Uxie, Azelf, Mesprit), Majestic Dawn (Unown Q, Call Energy), Stormfront (Machamp, Gengar, Warp Energy, Gyarados, and SABLEYE), Platinum, Rising Rivals, Supreme Victors, Arceus, HeartGold/Soulsilver, Unleashed, Undaunted, and as the season went on, Triumphant, Call of Legends, and finally, Black and White.

Now, that is a GIANT number of sets for two straight seasons, and when the rules change went into effect this April, the public was, in general, aghast. Basically, because with the ability to play trainers on the first turn, Sableye (SF) was now the most cheap card in the format. A whole deck-type developed around him, which was discussed lightly in my past two articles. I will be writing a Deck Discussion on it in the next week to go more in-depth on what happened and went wrong with the format.
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Pittsburgh, PA Battle Roads Report #2

By Kohrok

Hey, it’s time for another tournament report with Kohrok! This time, we have a slightly better outlook than last week. So we were at my local league where I judge, lead league, and help out. It’s also pretty much the only active league Western PA, so we’re pretty proud of that. If anyone’s interested in joining, just e-mail us at MurrysvillePokemonLeague@gmail.com

Murrysville, PA Battle Roads Spring

June 4, 2011

So, today I decided to bail on the VileGar from last week. Losing every game (basically) was pretty poor, and I wasn’t looking forward to more losses. So I switched to my Luxray/Garchomp deck from State Championships, tossed in some Sableye to block the donk, and got set to go. Oh, and Hoolon Mike had graduated this past month, so I gave him a Flareon EX as a graduation present because he’s an awesome person.

I got to the site early, helped AJ set up, talked to people, made some trades, and at 11:15, the event started. We had less than 10 Juniors and Seniors, but we had 14 Masters, meaning 4 rounds, top 2. This would end up coming to bite me later on.
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Pittsburgh, PA Battle Roads Report

By Kohrok

Hello, welcome to my first article for Hardrock-Pokemon! My name is Nic, and I’m currently a League Leader, Professor, and Tournament Organizer. This is my first tournament report, and hopefully it’ll help everyone this crazy format.

So I had decided to play a Vileplume/Gengar deck, in an attempt to deal with all of the crazy Sableye decks. I figured that by playing Spiritomb, Gastly, AND Sableye, I could minimize the chance of getting donked. I had also teched in a 1-1 Mewtwo Lv. X. As it would turn out, this ended up being a bad play, but more on that later.

So, away we go!

Pittsburgh, PA Battle Roads

Round 1 vs. Hank F (Reshi/Typhlosion/Emboar)
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LostGar Deck Review

By The Pidgeot

This time I am going to write about a deck that has a whole bunch of hype since the Call of Legends pokemon set came out. Some say it even has a chance to be the top tier deck higher than Luxchomp decks. Others say that this deck has been over hyped. The deck I am talking about is Lostgar. This article will be talking about some great tech cards to use in the deck and also the main way to win using this hyped up deck that everyone is talking about.

First I am going to tell you about the main cards in this deck. The cards are Gengar Prime from the HS Triumphant set, and the stadium Lost World from Call of Legends. The main idea of this deck is to use Gengar Prime’s “Hurl into the Darkness” attack to put six pokemon from your opponents hand into the lost zone. This is where Lost World comes in. Lost World lets you declare yourself the winner once your opponent has six of their pokemon in the lost zone. You want to put the Lost World stadium only when you have already put six of your opponents pokemon into the lost zone to ensure that you can declare yourself the winner without having to worry about your opponent knocking out your Lost World with another stadium card. Now this sure as heck is easier said than done.
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