By Pokay G
Pokemon World Championships 2011 is over and now the game has changed again because the new Emerging Powers set was released in America on August 31, 2011. Now, we are coming into the fall and that means Battle Roads! Here is a list of the most expected decks people are going to play this autumn. Yanmega Magnazone, Stage 1s, Magnaboar, Vileplume decks such as the one that Ross took to Worlds and got second place, and last, but not least, Mew variants. Of course, these decks are not all that is going to be played, but most of them are highly anticipated to do well. For those preparing for Battle Roads, here’s a look at why these decks work so well and perform what they are made to do.
Yanmega Magnazone or Megazone is the deck that was so hyped about from USA to Sweden to Japan. Lots of players made top cut at the 2011 World Competition with this deck. Thanks to Yanmega’s PokeBody, this card lets the player have free attack cost. This is huge. Anyone can play Yanmega and never need to attach any energy cards to him. To make this deck work, use the Judge card to make both players shuffle their hands into their decks and draw four cards. Both players will then have an even number of cards in their hand. Another option is to use Copy Cat to shuffle your hand into your deck and draw as many cards as your opponent. Copy Cat could be bad if the opposing player has only a few cards on hand, but it will usually give you draw power.
Magnazone is a good card, because if you don’t need energy to attack with Yanmega you can use Magnazone’s attack, Lost Burn. This attack costs two energy to use, but it lets you send energy cards you have in play into the Lost Zone. Plus, it does 50 damage times the number of energy placed in the Lost Zone. Its PokeBody lets you draw until you have six cards in your hand, giving you even more draw power.
If you like Magnazone, but aren’t crazy about Yanmega, and would like a more consistent deck that wins games quickly, think about putting Emboar into the mix to create the MagnaBoar or Magnazone Emboar deck. The Black and White base set was the first to feature Tepig and its evolutionary forms. In Stage 2, fans say it is “broken” in the coolest sense because as long as the player has fire energy in hand, he or she can attach multiple fire energy cards per turn. This ability is called Inferno Fandango. It’s a really amazing deck and will probably see a lot of play at Battle Roads.
This last highly anticipated deck is trending in popularity among Pokemon TCG players. When played right, this deck is supposed to win in six turns. It’s called the Stage 1s deck. This fantastic idea to use only Stage 1 Pokemon is done in many different ways, but the most common uses Donphan and Yanmega. Some people do add Kingdra, though, which is a Stage 2. Donphan card does 60 damage for just one fighting energy, and as we recall from earlier, Yanmega attacks for free.
The key to adding the king seahorse to the deck is in his PokePower, which allows the player to put one damage counter on any of your opponent’s lineup, active or bench. Yanmega also has a liner attack that lets the user put 40 damage on any opposing Pokemon. Couple that with the king’s PokePower and it gives the player the opportunity to put 50 damage counters on any opponent available. This combo is such a strong bench sniping team, and will be tough to beat at tournaments this year. Hopefully you’ve learned a lot about some of the front running decks for the beginning of the tournament season. Good luck making your own deck to play at battle roads!
Tags: Card Collecting, Pokemon Worlds