Cities Wrap-Up

Before we get to the meat of the article, I thought I’d wrap-up my Cities events. I was only able to attend one other Cities, but luckily I managed to get third with a Durant list that was very similar to the one that I posted in my last article/used at my 1st/3rd place Cities finishes. The tournament report isn’t really relevant now that we have a new format, but very quickly: I switched out the Smoochum HS for a Mime Jr. CL and was able to beat a ReshiPhlosion in a 45-minute Top 8 due to getting 8 perfect flips (that is, tails going into my opponent’s turn, heads going into mine) with Sleepy Lost.

I lost in three games in the Top 4 due to 2 lone Ditto TM starts (I had teched the Ditto to deal with V-Create Victini, which had become a fairly popular piece of anti-Durant technology in my area). If I had advanced to the finals I certainly would’ve lost to Grant McClellan’s ZPST, so I’m not too sour or anything.

This leaves me with 15 Championship Points thus far, which unfortunately means I’ve only got an outside chance of qualifying for the World Championship. I expect the cut-off to be around 40 points, so if I can spike a States or a Regionals, top cut the other two States, and then do okay at Nationals (which I should be attending this year, finally) and round it out with some decent BR performances, I should be alright, but that’s kind of a tall order.

Definitely not impossible and I wouldn’t be playing at all if I didn’t think I was capable of it, but it’s going to take some extreme focus, skill, and luck.

Card-by-Card Thoughts on Next Destinies

I think the best way we’ve found for doing set reviews is just to take a few select cards and write a paragraph or two about them. I tried to review every card in the set for a short time, but that was received poorly, took quite a bit of time, and, as is the nature of Pokemon, resulted in me saying things like “Isn’t good in this format, can’t imagine it being good later. Decent in limited” to a whole bunch of cards.

If anyone reading this has suggestions for how to make set reviews more enjoyable, please let me know in the comments or via e-mail at kenny@sixprizes.com! For the purposes of this set review I’m going to review the cards in set-list order, and will have a separate, small section on limited.

Shaymin EX

This card has a lot going for it, and a lot going against it. On one hand, it provides an incredibly good finisher for any deck that runs Grass or Rainbow effects (Prism, etc.), not to mention it’s absolutely adorable! On the other hand, you can’t really afford to be running more than a single copy of it, and starting with it would be incredibly bad news.

Additionally, as sad as it sounds, dealing 180 is often not enough to win games in this format, and that’s the only time it’d really be useful. Plus, 110 HP is incredibly small right now, particularly at the cost of two prizes.

With all that being said, I’m still overall positive on this card. Almost all of the Modified lists I’ve brewed since NDE was spoiled have included a single copy of this little guy, and although my testing hasn’t been too extensive, he definitely serves a purpose. Not sure if he’ll make it all the way through to my eventual States deck list, but at this point I think he’s got a pretty fair chance.

Financially, he’s going for $10/$14 (Regular/Full Art) on TrollandToad.com right now, which I would guess means $8/$12 once the set is out and the market settles. I’ll definitely be picking up a copy of the full-art for myself for States, but you could probably trade for it at a lower value if you have a decent trade stock and an active league in your area. I don’t see these going up anytime soon, so I would recommend against buying for profit.

Amoongus NDE

Not exactly sure how I feel about this guy, but I think overall he’s better than a lot of people are expecting. A Stage One that does nothing but Confuse/Poison obviously isn’t inherently great, particularly because it can only be activated once, but Confusion is pretty strong right now, and I’m sure there’s a case to be made for Poison setting up perfect KOs.

I’ve heard this talked about as a tech in a few things and although I’m unsure of all of them and I doubt this will see major play during States/Regionals, I don’t think it’s something you should write off right away. It’s interesting enough that it may have it’s uses somewhere.

Financially, the $4 TrollandToad are asking is insane. This should be no more than a $1-2 rare when the set drops. Even at that point I don’t think it’ll spike, so buying for profit would be a bad decision.

Chandelure NDE 20

Firstly, Litwick and Lampent are both strictly worse than their Promo and NVI counterparts, so don’t pay them any mind.

Chandelure is perfect as a one-of tech in NVI Chandelure lists. Unless there’s a compelling argument against it (and in reality there may be, as I said, I haven’t tested much at all), I’m going to plan my Chandelure lists to have one copy of this guy and some amount of Fire. 30 + Split Ball for R is quite good and fits right into what contemporary Chandelure lists are trying to do anyway.

80 Burn for RC is also fine and you won’t miss the energy as much due to Blissey Prime, etc. These cards were just meant to be together, and I don’t see any reason why they shouldn’t be.

Additionally, the rise of Durant makes this new Chandelure an even more sensible play, especially as you may already be running R for V-Create Victini.

Financially, TrollandToad has it at $4, which seems about right. If you can get it for lower that’s absolutely great, but I don’t see it going past $5 ever.

Reshiram EX

This is also a card that people seem pretty split on. Some say it’s awful and flippy and not worth the risk of giving your opponent two prizes and others say it’s the second coming of Christ and will obviously elevate MagneBoar, ReshiPhlosion, ReshiBoar, et al. back to their rightful place in tier one.

I personally fall somewhere in-between. Obviously it improves the aforementioned decks and is an obvious play in them. Additionally it’s an inherently good card, with RCC for 50 with a possible chance of 80 (an even higher chance if you run Victory Star Victini) is fine, and RRCC for 150, even with the possibility of self-damage is also quite good.

The main problem is that, if you happen to flip tails on Brave Fire and you don’t have an Eviolite attached, it becomes quite easy for most of the Pokemon in this format to KO you and subsequently take two prizes. The question, as with a lot of these EXs, just comes down to the risk vs. reward. Personally I think that Reshiram is better than most people speculating, but I’m not too terribly in love with it.

An important thing to remember regarding Reshiram, Kyurem, and Zekrom-EX is that their tins won’t hit shelves until March 21st, after the first two weekends of States have taken place! Obviously this means that you’re not going to be able to profit off of them, but you really have no choice about picking them up at $10. Luckily that price tag is about right, in my mind.

Kyurem EX

In my mind this is the most underrated EX thus far. It’s certainly not the best, and it’s definitely not the flashiest, but I think Kyurem has his place in the format. Particularly, I’ve been toying with the idea of including him in a Truth-based deck, possibly as the main attacker or even as a soft Mewtwo counter. Whatever the case, it legitimately surprises me to see so many people so down on this card.

As with the other tin EXs, you’re kind of forced to pick this up for States. The price isn’t going to drop because of the stalemate the tins are creating on the market, yet the tins aren’t released until after States. Luckily you’ll probably only need a single copy of this guy, and that full art artwork is ridiculous.

Zebstrika NDE

The most interesting non-EX Pokemon in the set, not close. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s the type of card that can succeed in this format. Trainer lock is huge and snipe is huge, but a Stage 1 with 90 HP just can’t cut it here. If it were a Basic, had slightly more HP, and did a little more damage along with the Trainer lock I could see this being a major sleeper hit, but as it’s printed it’s probably unplayable for now.

This brings up an interesting point about a few cards in this set (and cards in general). In Pokemon, we tend to view things in shades of black and white. A lot of this is because the game doesn’t have a super deep history or alternate formats, and because of this we tend to view things in a sense of “Good right now, bad right now. Period.”

Zebstrika is the ultimate example of this sort of thing because depending on what cards get printed in the future and how they’re released and depending on how rotations happen, this could end up being a very good card. Yes, it’s unlikely as we’ll have EXs and such for as long as this thing is modified legal, but the main point is that just because it’s not good right now doesn’t mean it won’t be later.

Zekrom EX

There’s not really a whole lot I can say about this card. It’s the exact same card as Reshiram EX, except for the fact that it has what’s probably a slightly more relevant weakness and it discards in order to do 150. It’s actually better than Reshiram EX though, as all of the Lightning decks in the format have some sort of energy acceleration or manipulation (Eelektrik NVI, Pachirisu CL, Shaymin UL, etc.).

Outside of that though, I just don’t find him terribly exciting. Yes, he’s obviously good and deserves a slot in ZPST, EelKrom, and probably EelZone, but he’s just not really worth talking about a lot.

For financial input, see Reshiram EX.

Mewtwo EX

Literally nothing I can say about this card that hasn’t already been said. Yes, it’s very good. No, it’s not the second coming of Christ. Yes, the price will drop. No, not before States. Yes, it deserves a spot in my every deck. No, it won’t auto win you the game.

Financially, you’re kind of in a bind here. Most every deck needs at least a copy of Mewtwo, but the price right now is insane. Normally you could just wait until the price dropped and be fine, but I don’t expect the price to drop significantly before States, so if you plan to attend an SPT you pretty much have to pony up for the Mewtwos. However, no one reading this should be paying full retail price.

I’m not sure how widespread this knowledge is, but let me drop some science on you: In order to snipe Mewtwos, set-up an eBay alert for “Mewtwo EX”; this will allow eBay to send you an e-mail whenever a new Mewtwo is listed. The idea here is that you can pick up Mewtwos that are underpriced before anyone else, or you can get ahead on the bidding of one. I’ve made hundreds of dollars in profit using this tactic over the years, and now hopefully you will too!

Gardevoir NDE & Musharna NDE

Decided to list these guys together as I have basically the same thing to say about them: They’re both inherently powerful cards that have some major downsides. For Musharna, it’s the fact that it’s a fatty fat fat fat, weighing in at 3 retreat. For Gardevoir, it’s the fact that it’s a Stage 2 that can pretty easily be Catcher-killed.

Both of these cards are fine and no one would laugh at you for playing them, but they definitely require the right deck (preferably something with Vileplume UD). I don’t see these cards being huge at the moment, but there’s no reason to write them off either.

Wigglytuff NDE

Funfact: David Cohen’s favorite card in the format is Seismitoad. A month from now when he realizes this card exists, this will be his second favorite card.

In all seriousness, the Round deck is probably a fun tier 1.5 – 2 deck that, like a lot of other cards/decks, could definitely gain a whole lot in the future.

Regigigas EX

Last night in HeyTrainer TinyChat, someone asked the group (myself, Isaiah Middleton, Jimmy O’Brien, Emily Engle, Brit Pybas, Chad Bosquez and some others) what EX is the worst. Most of us who took the time to answer (aka me, Chad, Brit, and Isaiah) were all pretty quick to say this guy. It’s not that he’s bad, exactly, it’s just that all of the EXs are so much better.

The biggest upside I see to this guy is how insane he would be in a Truth-based deck. I’ve tested him very slightly in an EX-based Truth deck and wasn’t in love with the deck, but he certainly shined through. The ability to manipulate damage counters and your damage output is very good. I’ve definitely pulled off some clutch plays by dumping a bunch of damage on him and Raging for infinite.

Obviously he’s much worse in a non-Trainer lock deck as he’s weak to Catcher and Lost Remover, but I’m sure he still has some use.

Financially, he’ll certainly go down within the next few weeks. I would wait on him.

Cilan

I like this card a lot more than other players, but I can still admit that it’s not amazing and its uses are very narrow. I’d like to play this in MagneBoar (if that’s still a deck) to thin your deck and boost the consistency levels, but even at that point it’s probably something like my 62nd card. Certainly there are other decks that it fits into, but I’m not sure if any of those exist at the moment.

Either way, it’s a powerful enough card that it could become something, eventually. Trade for your foils now, as they’ll probably never be cheaper.

Exp. Share

This is a super interesting card, but unfortunately the one deck in the format that I want to run it in (Durant) already has way more important tools, and therefore cannot afford to run it.

Not something to write off, but in my preliminary brewing I don’t see a deck that loves it.

Heavy Ball & Level Ball

Reviewing these two together because again, I have a lot of the same things to say about them. They’re both niche cards that will replace some number of Communication in certain decks, and their existence probably justifies a handful of decks that didn’t exist/couldn’t exist in HS-NV. That being said, I think they were both a little overhyped, and don’t replace Communication entirely in anything but the most niche of decks.

Financially, buy them now because they’ll only go up, even if it is ever so slightly.

Pokemon Center

Not entirely sure of all of the implications of this card, but I’m not a huge fan. The only deck that wants this card is Truth, and that already has a much more important Stadium (Tropical Beach). Will most likely be playable eventually, but not now.

Skyarrow Bridge

Fantastic in anything that runs low retreat Basics. Not so good in everything else. Quite good for Stadium wars, and I’m a huge fan of Stadiums mattering (even if it is every so slightly) again. The best part about the bridge is that it breathes new life into cards like Smeargle UD and Celebi Prime, and makes cards like Tornadus EPO even more insane.

Prism Energy

Clearly ridiculous considering that almost every relevant deck relies heavily on basics. My favorite special energy in quite a while. Maybe too good, but we’ll find out, I suppose.

Conclusion

In closing, thanks for sticking with me. I know this article is a little late, but hopefully we’re far enough off from States that this article will encourage a bit of discussion. Feel free to let me know in the comments of via e-mail at kenny@sixprizes.com if you want to hear my opinion on another card in the set, or just want to discuss my thoughts at all. These are usually some of my favorite articles to write just for all the discussion they spark.

I should be back with a hodgepodge article this month if I have the time, and I’ll certainly be back sometime late this month or early next month for my Face of Modified: SPTs 2012 article.

xo
kw

Kenny’s Wisdom: Next Destinies Set Review is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

“Never increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything” — William of Ockham (1285-1349)

The applications of this quote stretch far and wide into many areas such as science, philosophy, and probability to name a few. It’s a mindset I apply to Pokémon deck building and I thought it might be fun to get this out of my head and onto (digital) paper.

The quote above perhaps best sums up what is known as ‘Ockham’s Razor’, which is a principle that would have you believe ‘Simple solutions are better than complex ones’, and in particular ‘That we should prefer simpler solutions unless we have a justifiable reason’ or something to that effect.

How does this apply to the would-be deck builder?

The razor in this case, should the principle be correctly applied, would serve to shave away the unnecessary components of the deck until only what is necessary is left. Defining ‘what is necessary’ is never completely clear cut, but the easiest way to think about it is to always remember what your deck’s win condition is.

A win condition should be looked to as a vision statement in the deck building process. It is something you should be able to refer to in order to make decisions about your deck. Take for example; the simple decision that you want to win by taking 6 prizes is more powerful than you think.

There are two important things you should and must take from that statement:

1. You want to take prizes
2. You want to win

A statement that simple should then lead you down a particular path. Immediately you’re not going to consider anything that does not support that win condition – No Lostgar and no Durant. That you want to take prizes may make the decision making more difficult, since there are plenty of ways to go about it.

So I go back to the vision statement -> I want to win by taking 6 prizes.

No fuss, no frills, just a very straight-forward vision. So I can discard Trainer lock, heck, I can even discard thoughts of synergy. ZPST would be a pretty good choice as it follows the mentality looked to here.

So why don’t people just play ZPST?

Well, that’s because a statement that is too simple is not focussed enough to guide you towards an answer.

Organisational vision statements are simple, but focussed enough that the people that manage it, can make decisions that will guide their organisations towards a goal.

Nintendo’s mission statement (mission is interchangeable with vision) for example is:

“At Nintendo we are proud to be working for the leading company in our industry. We are strongly committed to producing and marketing the best products and support services available. We believe it is essential not only to provide products of the highest quality, but to treat every customer with attention, consideration and respect. By listening closely to our customers, we constantly improve our products and services”.

The vision displayed here is more complex than the example we explored before. There are several, simple to understand, well-defined goals with aims to be ‘best in class’. However, it is still complex enough that decision makers can manoeuvre and do what they believe is the correct path to achieve the vision.

In a way, a deck is not too different from an organisation when you look at it. Wikipedia defines an organisation as ‘a social group which distributes tasks for a collective goal.’ which is an excellent analogy in my mind for a deck.

A deck can be composed of several components which come together to form a strategy and that in turn is driven by your vision statement.

Re-tooling the Goal

So we can re-engineer the simple statement ‘Take 6 Prizes’ to allow for manoeuvring towards a deck that suits your vision.

• ‘Win via prizes by locking the opponent out of their options to take cheap prizes’
• ‘Win via prizes by disrupting the opponent’s set up’
• ‘Win via prizes by spreading damage’

Suddenly your options become focussed, but still provide you with several options. The vision you have and the strategy you take to achieve it are things that are dictated by your perception of the theoretical metagame and the actual metagame you expect at the event or events you are attending.

That’s when you want to add the keyword ‘because’.

• ‘Win via prizes by spreading damage because Trainer lock is popular’.

I could go on forever, but it would also defeat the purpose of writing an article like this. If you’re still reading, you probably acknowledge that the purpose of this article isn’t to provide you insight into today’s metagame, but to put you in the right mindset to approach formats now and in the future.

The rest of the articles here on sixprizes.com are a great place to start, and with a keen sense for what’s good and what’s not (often confirmed by reading the comments), you can begin to develop an understanding of the format, what works well and why.

“Bootstrapping” – Minimising & Control Vs. Maximise & Own

McDonalds (Maccas or Mickey D’s as it’s affectionately known in my part of the world) is a highly successful fast food restaurant chain which prides itself on universal recognition and an extremely effective business model.

The business model, or at least part of the business model I’m interested in is a theory that revolves around the ‘Just in time’ strategy commonly associated with retail or fast food and in my experience, McDonalds as a popular example.

To explain quite simply, McDonalds is successful because it delivers the final product to the customer, a Big Mac with fries and a Coke, just in time. I’m not just referring to making sure enough meat paddies are cooking at around 12 o’clock on a Saturday. I’m talking about making sure that shipment of paddies arrives at the store in time for that 12 o’clock rush which is often observed as being the case in city X during this time of year.

The effect extrapolates further than that. McDonalds has to consider the logistics of delivering the right amount of meat paddies and performing this as efficiently as possible by combining this delivery with the delivery of other items to this McDonalds along with many others from distribution centres that in turn must order the delivery of these items from their suppliers.

There is a lot that goes into this. Forecasting based on trends in past years which considers not only the day in the week, but the week in the month, and the month of the year. Where you are, and what is happening. The right delivery is forecasted, and this data is shared with suppliers who are able to make informed decisions on what to be producing for imminent shipment.

The point of this McDonalds business strategy tirade is to (re)introduce you some of the subtleties of deck building. I’ll be honest, much of this may not apply to the seasoned veteran. If you already have a sense of why a 4-4-4 line of anything is usually a bad idea, then you will already have a good grasp of what I want to address.

You see, deck building in competitive card games and the basic McDonalds strategy is not so different. Ideally, you want to design your deck that can achieve its vision in the most efficient manner possible and with the most amount of effectiveness possible. Your goal might be as simple as:

• Be attacking with a Reshiram with 3 Energy

This is a great goal to have! But the seasoned Pokémon veteran will take this a number of steps further. The seasoned player might state their goal as:

Be attacking with a Reshiram with 3 Energy, by turn 2, with enough resources spare to invest into benching more necessary Pokémon.

The marriage of Typhlosion Prime HGSS and Reshiram BLW is an excellent example of efficiency in design to me. To achieve a ‘Turn 2 Blue Flare’, you could go down a number of routes, but I believe one of most efficient and competitively viable ways to go about it.

This is because as a deck, you not only have the ability to achieve a turn 2 Blue Flare, you also have several options to maximise the reward in terms of reaching that goal.

In TyRam (Typhlosion Prime/Reshiram), you must discard a Fire Energy on either turn 1 or turn 2 in order to use Typhlosion’s Afterburner Poké-Power to attach it to Reshiram. This enables you to achieve a turn 2 Blue Flare assuming regular energy attachments to Reshiram occur on both turns.

The difference with TyRam, is that it turns paying a cost into a goal. Discarding is often viewed as a requisite of achieving an effect. For example, Junk Arm requires you to discard 2 cards.

This turns out great, because the potential, perceived weakness of strategies due to the cost involved actually turns out to be beneficial. You can now afford to run a Ninetales HS engine because you are aiming to discard Energy. You can afford to pay for a Junk Arm on turn 2 to get back a PlusPower because you want to discard an Energy. You can run Engineer’s Adjustments because you want to discard an Energy etc.

Now, there is a down side to all of this.

You could build your deck with all manner of ideas for efficiency to maximise the effectiveness of each of your turns. But going too far down that path will lead to decks with many two-of or one-of cards. Whilst last format’s ‘LuxChomp’ or Ross Cawthon’s ‘The Truth’ have demonstrated that running many one-of cards (only running a single copy) can be an effective strategy, they all have the potential to simply fall over flat if any important steps in their strategy cannot be achieved due to some cards not being in their hand or otherwise.

In much the same way, everyone has had that time when they’ve walked into their local fast food chain, only to find that their favourite meal is not currently available due to being out of some key ingredient.

Efficiency therefore, sits opposed to another deck building goal; Consistency.

Consistency describes an effort in deck building to ensure that the deck’s optimal strategy is achieved by a set number of turns and ideally, every single game.

Take for example, Pokémon Collector. It’s a Supporter that enables you to add 3 Basic Pokémon to your hand. This is a staple card, however, what of its actual effectiveness?

More often than not, this card is at peak effectiveness the first time you play it, especially on your first turn. After that, and the card often becomes dead weight when you consider the existence of other draw supporters and trainers that can search them out whilst having the utility of searching out other, non-Basic Pokémon and not suffering the disadvantage of being Supporters.

However, most players opt to run 4 copies of Pokémon Collector. Why?

Because of luck.

Whilst the deck provides you with options, it does not provide you with a guaranteed means of maximising the effectiveness of each card, or even that you’ll have the card in hand when you need it.

We mitigate this phenomena by running maximum counts of cards we need quickly or frequently, especially if they serve as an answer to several situations you may face. Draw supporters such as Professor Oak’s New Theory is a good example of this.

Consider the following logic:

• I need a specific card on the first turn and it is unsearchable, I should run 4 copies
• I need a specific basic Pokémon on the first turn only for a specific purpose, I should only run 2 copies and rely on search cards to obtain it
• I need a specific card late game, and only late game, I should only run 1 copy

Efficiency and consistency often counter-balance each other and having a keen sense of both of these concepts is important as consistency is what ensures that you are provided with the means to achieve your deck’s vision and the efficiency with which to achieve your vision before your opponent achieves theirs.

This takes us full-circle in the article, as you will often find that the decks that achieve this balance are simple in strategy. Such as TyRam. Reducing the number of goals you must achieve in order to win will allow you to maximise consistency and efficiency, bringing us back to the concept of the ‘Razor’ with which we shave away what is unnecessary (Often, you will see this referred to as a ‘Win-More’ strategy).

In short, ‘Keep It Simple Stupid’ is a good strategy to work by, don’t let your deck be a ‘Jack of All Trades and a Master of None’.

I hope you enjoyed this article. If you have any questions or criticisms, please direct them to me below.

Cheers,

Anthony Smith

Vyse’s Razor and Deck Building Concepts is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

The bulk of my article was already sketched out and started on before the accident, and was intended for last week, so I apologize if it feels like it has lost relevance. On the other hand, I think analyzing the top decks and the “ideal” lists of them after a series of tournaments like Cities is extremely valuable in looking ahead into the future tournaments.

I am going to just kind of go through the many decks I have had experience with through testing and going to Cities, and what some of my opinions are on each of them. Some I will give a list for, some I will not, mostly because other writers have given similar/close to identical lists on what I am playing.

EDIT: I just realized there is one more week of Cities! So everything is actually still relevant, woooo!

Alright so let me start by saying that I am not playing to go to Worlds this year. My play of Tyranitar at Regionals was questionable, and my deck choices at my City Championships (which I will outline) were also questionable. However, since I am not playing to rack up the Championship Points this year, I find it much more fun to play decks that I have not tested as much prior to the tournament, and want to see how they fare in a tournament setting.

So although I talked up Chandelure and Magnezone/Eels in my last article, I did not play Chandelure at all and I only played Magnezone/Eels in my first City, which I posted about on the forums. Just so you don’t have to go digging for it, here was my “report” from Cedar Grove, NJ Cities where I used Mag/Eel:

“Rounds 1 and 3: vs Typhlosion. I Sage 3 times each game, yielding no Energy any time. I prize a Magnemite in each game and am forced to Sage discard one each game as well. Draw poorly in general. Both Typhlosions play Rocky Helmet which gives them a chance to OHKO Magnezone with Reshi. I still bring both games to a point where I take a prize to tie it at 1-1 and N them to 1, killing their Ninetales that turn.

If they don’t hit Catcher I can deal infinity damage to whatever the next turn for the win. Both times they hit a Supporter in their 2 cards and hit the Catcher off the Supporter! The first game vs Typhlo I N him to 3, 2, 1 in the last four turns, and he hits a Supporter every single time I N him!

My win was a decent game vs Zekrom.”

So not too great there haha. Oh well.

I did not play another tournament until the NJ marathon, where I ran another Magnezone deck; this time Magnezone/Typhlosion:

I had only played a handful of games with this deck prior to the tournament, and I learned a lot about it as I played. The most important thing I learned about this deck though is that it is essentially just a worse Magnezone/Eels, and even a worse straight Typhlosion. Eelektrik NVI is better in almost every possible way than Typhlosion and more draw or Ninetales HS is better than Magnezone. Meshing the two together creates some interesting matchups, but makes a lot of your otherwise positive matchups, worse.

The deck also needed more draw. I thought running 10 Supporters with the thin line of Magnezone would be fine, but that is definitely not the case, and I should have known better. At least another three Supporters to make the list consistent enough, and the room really is not there.

Rocky Helmet and Pichu are two potential cuts, and possibly the second Catcher. I am not sure really what else can be cut. Maybe the 2nd Quilava as well if you are not fearing Trainer Lock so much.

Anyway, here are how my games went down at West Berlin, NJ:

...

Cities Analyses and Random Junk is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Their in-game talents may be unreal, and their ability to adapt to sudden changes is second to few, but they get flustered when you hand them a list of all the cards in HeartGold/SoulSilver-on and say, “Hey, you: build an Accelgor deck NOW!”

While we probably won’t need to be playing Accelgor NVI anytime soon, I will at least give you my advice on how not to be that person; that is, on how to build your own decks. I intend to cover as much of the spectrum as I can, ranging from basic (but oft-neglected) factoids to advanced discussion.

So whether you’re a netdecker who wants to get away from his evil ways, or a veteran interested in someone else’s perspective, then this article should be very useful.

Before Building: Stripping Away Misconceptions

This is intended to be a comprehensive workshop of sorts for deck builders, but before we move on, it is very important to address two crucial mistruths that are a little too common right now.

“I don’t have to build my own decks – I have someone else to do it for me!”

Obviously, I need to convince you that deck-building is a valuable tool before you express interest in doing it. In this day and age, with the advent of sites such as SixPrizes Underground, it may actually seem like a lost art: Why is it necessary to build decks when stock lists are everywhere? I’ll just use this great build I found online!

If that isn’t what you thought, then great! But if it is, then hold up for just a moment, and consider what you’re missing out on:

1. By not being able to build your own decks, you are effectively stunting your growth in one – possibly two – of the three major skill areas in Pokemon, which are: playing; deck constructing; metagaming.

The latter two skills are far less necessary to do well in tournaments than the first, but without them, your ability to adjust to rapid changes is vastly diminished.

For example, if you have been relying on an almost card-for-card copy of a ZPST list in order to do well, and then suddenly the metagame shifts against you with a swarm of Donphan Prime, what are you going to do: copy another list?

You could, but without at least some strong basis in constructing decks, you are throwing your hopes for your own future into somebody else’s hands. So unless you are supremely confident in the source of your materials, then that decision to net-deck again might come back to haunt you.

2. A growth in deck building abilities coincides with growth in other skill areas. If you have built decks from scratch, then making the last leap to prepare lists for different metagames becomes much easier. In addition, being able to build unusual, strange decks that work exercises your creative, non-lateral thinking, which in turn can augment your playing in scenarios that demand creative, non-lateral thought processes.

3. The better a deck builder you are, the more play-testing opportunities open up to you. Unless you have an extraordinary reputation or are just an absolutely enlightened player, then the truth is that play-testers do not have much to gain from unknowledgeable deck builders.

4. Stronger deck builders do better in alternative formats. At any one point, limited/unlimited/no-rares/Professor Cup/other alternate methods of play are “less significant” than 60 card modified. However, over the course of several years, the number of opportunities to play in less-explored formats will be great enough to make deck skills valuable.

5. Strong deck builders enjoy “the surprise factor” over opponents. When you are capable of building entirely new decks, or of making new engines/tweaks, you have the potential to win games due solely to a lack of intelligence on an opponent’s part. On the contrary, people without deck building skills are going to be less capable of creating these scenarios, leading to less of an advantage over high-tier competition.

“There is No Potential for Creativity in This Format”

This is something I completely disagree with. Although Pokemon Catcher, PlusPower, Junk Arm, and other “out” cards greatly diminish your options in HGSS-on, this is actually the healthiest the game has been in several months. Sure, the opening flip is brutal, but I am seeing the strangest decks all over the country top cut, make finals, and even win at rather respectable venues.

Maybe “creativity” means to be stuck playing an uninteresting engine, but there are a lot of options for techs, unique strategies, and more. Noble Victories alone gave us a “super Beartic” (Cobalion NVI), a very viable deck-out option (Durant NVI), and a card capable of unlimited HP (Conkeldurr NVI 64) – three cards that do not even begin to scratch the surface at what this format’s full potential might be.

So yes, building decks is a good idea; and yes, you actually can do neat things with this format guided by the opening flip. We have something to work with.

Deck Construction Foundations

When constructing a deck, there are three primary categories: building from scratch; revamping current decks; and cutting/pasting exchangeable elements (“plug-and-play”). Knowing how each of these processes work can speed up construction significantly, as well as direct your attention to some cool ideas that might not have been recognizable otherwise.

Building from Scratch

In a previous article of mine, “Lacks-Chomp,” I went through this process in decent detail. But since there’s more to share, let’s revisit that first point.

[If you would gain valued information or context out of reading that section of the article, then please do so.]

Step 1: Choose a Focus

- One major pitfall I warned you all about was overdoing things. At what point does a deck cross over from “good” to “overdone,” though?

As my Tyranitar/Umbreon/Houndooom/Honchkrow example in Lacks-Chomp implied, lists go sour quickly when they’re inconsistent. Knowing when a build approaches the “inconsistent” point demands several solitaire deals on PTCGO, Playtcg.me, Apprentice, or any of the other big programs (which are, by the way, all great resources for this purpose).

In order to turn yourself in the right direction before accidentally overdoing things, try to set minimum counts on hard draw and hard search (meaning no Twins). This simply helps you stay aware of what makes your list run well, and keeps you from falling into a pit of techy nonsense.

That said, don’t be afraid to mix things up. Just remember that it’s all about balance!

For reference, the other four points were…

Step 2: Add to the Focus (if necessary)
Step 3: Implement your Consistency Engine
Step 4: Fine-tune it
Step 5: Evaluate

Please keep these in mind, since I will indirectly address them throughout the rest of this article. As the next two sections will reveal, though, most decks are not built from scratch, so you shouldn’t have to worry too much about this. Building a totally new deck is probably one of the hardest skills to master in Pokemon, so try not to worry too much if you can’t make magic out of mulch in a day.

Revamping Archetypes

When you do not have to make a new deck, then usually, the foundation is built for you already: in the form of pre-existing archetypes. It’s a bit of a misnomer to call this “construction,” since you’re basically taking reconfiguring an archetype; however, some changes can be much more revolutionary than others.

Usually, this occurs in the form of switching out engines. In the olden days, for instance, many of the popular Blaziken/Delcatty decks functioned due to the use of Oracle: a card that let you choose the top two cards of your deck, effectively breaking Delcatty for that era. Once Oracle rotated, players were desperate for a similar effect, and so they began to abandon Delcatty, and embrace Pidgeot: a card with an arguably better effect than either card. Since it was a stage two, it led to a very thorough “revamp” of the old archetype, and turned it into something with a very different feel.

A more modern example of the archetype revamp would be when Jason Klaczynski , Kyle Sucevich, and even a few people before them (e.g., a friend in Oklahoma who top cut Nationals last year) took Magnezone/Emboar, axed the Magnezone, and replaced it with Ninetales, a greater attack Emboar presence, and more Energy Retrieval. What these lists did was take the overall concept of Magneboar, and then “tighten” it with a Stage One consistency card.

Next Destinies is bound to revamp some archetypes: between Musharna and the Level/Heavy Ball cards, we are bound to see some interesting things come State/Provincial/Territorial Championships.

...

From Fish to Fisherman: The Intricacies of Building Your Own Decks is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

It’s been a while since I last posted, but I’ll try to make up for it with a (hopefully) thought provoking article. Many people don’t know that I’m a relatively high rated chess player. Presently I’m somewhere in the top 3% of all rated chess players in the country (and about top 5% of all rated players in the world). It wasn’t always that way, however, and I had to put in a ton of work to improve my game.

One book in particular helped change the way I viewed the board and pieces, and it’s one that I now share with my students that are ready to reach a higher level. The book is “The Amateur’s Mind,” by IM Jeremy Silman, and it’s no more than a collection of games played by amateur players along with their thought process and commentary by coach Silman.

You’re probably thinking, “Ok, so what does this have to do with Pokemon?” Plenty, actually! While it would be hard to argue that Pokemon TCG is as complex as chess, there’s some striking similarities in the way I’ve approached and played the game, and I’ve had some slight success thus far. I started playing the game earlier this year, in May I believe, but have been able to adapt to the game and have 29 Championship Points currently and #1 ranking in AZ.

Some players have approached me at tournaments and asked me “How are you doing it!?,” which is very humbling. The truth is that I don’t have any particular secret strategies or secret deck list (anyone that wants it is entitled to it, as I’m happy to share), but I think maybe there can be some benefit to sharing the way I approach the game at and away from the table.

The insight I gained from peeking into the minds of amateur chess players helped me immensely, and perhaps the mind of this amateur Pokemon player can help some of you out as well!

1. Enjoy the game

This is probably the most important one to me. I truly believe that the only one way we can improve at something is to actually enjoy what we’re doing. While I believe that most players that play the game enjoy it, I’ve met a handful of people that seem to play for the wrong reasons (they’re trying to make someone else happy, they’re too competitive and just want to win at something else, etc).

Pokemon isn’t a game that will make you rich or famous regardless of how much you win. If winning is more enjoyable than meeting interesting people, being creative in building decks, and just going out and playing the game you’re probably setting yourself up for failure. Just have fun and the improvement will come.

2. Don’t give up

I don’t believe in giving up. Sure, there’s some instances where scooping is appropriate (saving time in a match comes to mind), but I take every game as a learning experience. If I’m losing I like to play the game to the bitter end because you never know what you can learn about your deck and about yourself sometimes. Sometimes it’s in these “desperation” modes that we find the brilliant combinations or flaws in our decks that make us better moving forward.

I also don’t feel any disrespect if you keep playing a game that is probably lost, and I don’t see why anyone should. If you’d like to make me earn a point and learn from the experience by all means do so, I appreciate the fighting spirit!

3. Calculate and calculate some more!

This is one that I’ve certainly carried over from chess, but one that anyone can get better at. Shortsightedness rarely pays off in anything, and the ability to see deep into a game is very beneficial. I’ve been able to win Blindfolded Chess Tournaments and plenty of Pokemon games on this skill alone! We can never see our opponent’s hand, but we can often rationalize from what’s on their side of the table and the way they play what they have in their hand.

If anything we can figure out what our opponent’s best move is by putting together what their best possible hand is (or can be if they possibly hold a hand refresher). They may or may not be holding the hand we believe they have, but if you always expect the best play then you’re always ready when they play it. If they don’t make the best play then we gained a slight edge there as well! It’s important not to gamble during a game, and simply make the strongest calculated move.

4. Learn from your mistakes

Learning from one’s mistakes (either yours or someone elses) is a great way to improve at something. When you make a misplay or see a misplay try to remember it so that you don’t make the same mistake again. The best way to do this is by forcing yourself to live with your mistakes. Don’t even think about asking to take something back during a game, as this will get you into the habit of being careless.  Acknowledge that you made a mistake, live with it, and move forward.

I’ve had plenty of opponents ask me if they can take a move back and I always let them, even when I know that it can turn the game in their favor. I always want to take their best shot, and having allowed them to take a move back I know they’re more likely to make a mistake again.

5. Be prepared

Be mindful of your meta! Sometimes the game is won not by the best deck, but by the player that was better prepared. That’s just the name of the game and it’s completely fair. If you perform really well, but don’t prepare your deck for a certain weakness it makes no sense to blame luck or the format. You just have yourself to blame for not doing your homework! A player that wins because he dominates the weakness of his meta isn’t a “bad” player, he’s a smart player.

6. Be a good sport

Being a good sport is beneficial during a game as well as away from one. If you know you’re not well-liked in your community every play you make feels watched-over. This can feel heavy and add extra pressure that you don’t need, often opening up the path for a misplay. Why not have the crowd on your side?

In a Cities top cut match I played this year one of my opponents was clearly upset after I swept him. He wouldn’t shake my hand and quickly picked up his belongings, progressing to complain about everything from “luck” to the format among other things.

Many people congratulated me after that match for beating a poor sport, and I can’t say I won’t be happy when I beat that player again.  That’s one pair of shoes I wouldn’t want to be in!

7. Stay humble

Staying humble is much more than just putting on an act. Acting polite is certainly better than the alternative, but truly feeling this way through everything is very important. Success is a roller coaster ride, and you should treat it as such. When you’re winning you have to remember that it wasn’t long ago that you were on the learning curve, and when you’re losing you have to remember that you’ll be improving soon enough.

You should also remember that even when you’re a strong player luck can play a part in any game, and not get upset when the luck isn’t on your side. Walk into every game knowing that you can beat anybody, but that anybody can beat you as well. This isn’t to lower your expectation, but rather to respect every opponent. When you respect every opponent every win is sweeter, and every loss less painful.

Hopefully some of this advice will help some of you out!

The Amateur’s Mind is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Usually during Cities I take a more relaxed view of writing and stick to tournament reports of events I did well at, giving a round-by-round summary, a deck list, etc. This is mostly because it’s hard to write top notch articles on a consistent basis when I’m playing Pokemon all weekend every weekend, my job gets much more busy, and there’s all of these “holiday” things everyone talks so much about. You’ve probably noticed that I haven’t been writing any articles as of late, particularly not tournament reports. Why?

The answer boils down to this: I haven’t been doing too hot at Cities. I’ve bubbled the cut a few times, and other times I’ve done downright awful. I’ve yet to make a single top cut, and I’ve got to admit that it’s pretty bittersweet to see your friends succeeding so much (Tyler Ninomura and Isaiah Middleton in particular) while you continue to finish so far outside the money it’s not even funny.

Instead of sulking around and telling bad beats stories, I decided that this article would be about dealing with those losses, learning from my mistakes, and coming to terms with why I continue to lose and make those mistakes. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think I’m an awful player, but if this season tells me anything it’s that everyone can improve, and that it’s important to reflect on your losses.

I’m going to forego listing deck lists or talking about metagame analysis and and simply going to make a list of all of the things I do wrong in Pokemon. If you have the ability to look inside your self and realize your shortcomings, I’d encourage you to post your personal list in the comments section.

22 Things I Do Wrong

1. I often get distracted during Swiss matches. If it’s a win-and-in or the first round or something I’ll be paying much more attention, but if I’m already 5-0 in 6-round Swiss tournament or if I think I have a good match-up, I’ll often look away from the table, get distracted by small things, and generally let my mind wander more than I should.

2. I care too much about having foils/the right versions of cards/nice sleeves/etc. and, although it doesn’t negatively affect my game, I could definitely be using that time to think about actual in-game play.

3. I get overconfident against players who I have never heard of or think I am better than. On the flip side, I get underconfident against players who I think are better than me, or who are “names” in the game.

4. There are times when I try to settle in-game mistakes of my opponents without calling a judge because I don’t want anyone to get in trouble.

5. My judgement often gets clouded by pressure in tense situations, and I’ll often take a much riskier line of play just to get out of the situation as fast as possible, regardless of whether it is correct or not.

6. In playtesting I’ll often scoop too early, which can lead to dismissing entire decks/technology prematurely.

7. I don’t play the game “one match at a time” and instead always thinking about how I need to win half of my games to make it, etc.

8. I often go to tournaments hoping that I’ll do well and not simply that I’ll win.

9. I’m pretty bad at remembering gamestates which, although it doesn’t directly affect my success, does make it harder to go over the game with friends and evaluate what I could’ve done differently.

10. I go through phases of not being innovative enough/discounting ideas completely (i.e. seeing The Truth the night of the Grinder and thinking it was awful) and overdoing it/innovating for the sake of innovating. I’m still struggling to find a happy medium.

11. I don’t think enough turns ahead and often lose to very straightforward lines of play because of it.

12. I will sometimes overextend to get the turn 1 or 2 win when I have a perfectly reasonable hand to play out a long game.

13. I often don’t evaluate all lines of play possible and get too hung up on what a deck “should do.”

14. Although this doesn’t particularly affect my actual play, I often put off an overserious/unfriendly attitude during  matches that aren’t even all that important, creating an unfriendly environment for my opponent and an overly stressful one for both of us.

15. I don’t remember everything that my opponents have played, which is often troubling when myself or a friend is facing the same opponent later in the tournament.

16. Going along with number 15 a bit, I’ve been more lax than ever about taking notes, when in reality I should be  taking even more notes now that we have such a huge metagame and wide variety of decks.

17. I sometimes write off decks/cards as mediocre/bad and don’t re-evaluate my thoughts on them when the format shifts. The same can be said to a lesser degree about decks that I like.

19. I have trouble playing to my outs and get stuck in situations which, had I played slightly tighter, I could work my way out of with ease.

20. Connected to number one sort of, I’m willing to bet there have been opponents that have drawn extra cards and things like that simply because I like the attention at times.

21. I have a hard time playing at a perfect pace, either going into the tank for too long during stressful matches or playing too fast during early turns/easier matches, etc.

22. I’ll play much looser in game 2 of a match in which I’ve won game 1 because “I can afford to lose one.”

So there you have it. Twenty-two of my biggest downfalls in Pokemon. Because I realize that reading a big list of stuff I do wrong isn’t all that entertaining, I wanted to try and make this article interactive — share your own personal list of things you could improve on in the comments section, and I’m hoping we’ll be able to conjure up a lively, honest discussion about our personal shortcomings. Think of it as a New Year’s Resolution of sorts!

Looking towards the future — my mailbag article!

Because there’s a lack of Cities over the Holiday break in my area, I thought a good way of getting content out would be to ask you the readers to submit questions. I’ll then post an article up shortly after the New Year with all of your questions answered to the best of my abilities (with some additional content as well, I’m sure). If all goes well it’d be great to make this into a regular series of articles that I can whip up when there’s a lull in tournaments or something.

Feel free to leave your questions here in the comments section, or e-mail me directly at kenny@sixprizes.com. Also please let me know if you’d prefer to stay anonymous, otherwise I’ll be publishing your names with the questions.

I’ve got a lot of cool things planned for 2012 in video, audio, and the written word, so I hope you’ll all stay tuned, and I want to personally thank you all for the incredible level of support you’ve given me in 2011!

xo
kw

Kenny’s Wisdom: Why You Are Bad At Pokemon (and so am I) is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Chandelure has been receiving quite a bit of interest recently, mostly due to it tending to top cut at premier events such as Cities. First let’s get an overview of Chandelure: he’s a 130 HP Stage 2 with a Retreat Cost of 2, and being a Ghost type has Weakness to Dark.

Next is his Ability – and major selling point – “Cursed Shadow,” which allows you to drop 3 damage counters onto your opponent’s side of the field in any way you like once per turn if he’s active. Finally, we have his attack “Eerie Glow” which for 2 Psychic and 1 Colorless Energy allows you to do 50 damage and then inflicts both Burn and Confusion on to the Defending Pokémon.

Standing alone, you can see that Chandelure isn’t a game breaker, so why is it receiving so much attention and doing so well? Mostly because an ideal setup for the deck is 2 Chandelure with a Dodrio UD on the bench, this allows you to use the ability of your active Chandelure then switch to your second and do it again (retreat and repeat).

Of course this strategy does carry a few minor flaws, most notably the fact that Dodrio can’t reduce its own retreat and can make itself into Catcher bait. Luckily, there is a way around this that can benefit the deck as a whole.

Vileplume UD’s ”Allergy Flower” Poké-Body stops either player from using Trainer Item cards while he’s in play, meaning that Pokemon Catcher can no longer affect your field, as well as potentially slow down your opponent’s setup by denying them cards like Pokémon Communication and Rare Candy.

Using Vileplume also allows Chandelure to take advantage of its strongest trait – its evolutionary line. Chandelure has a unique evolutionary in the sense that every part of it adds something to the mix and gives the deck something to work with. So lets break this down into its individual pieces.

Firstly we have Litwick BW Promo BW27. As you can see I’ve chosen the Promo Litwick, this is mostly for his “Call for Family.” This is wanted for 2 reasons: 1. To help avoid the donk, and 2. To start up the setup of a second Chandelure line. Of course along with the other 2 Litwick this is just a small additional extra, but it can always be helpful to have that extra Basic in play.

Secondly we have Lampent. Of course this is the only Lampent we have right now, but he does have the ability to give a Chandelure player a strong advantage throughout the game. His “Luring Light” acts in the exact same way as Catcher, but isn’t blocked by Trainer Lock with it being an attack. Using Luring Light you can drag up an opponent’s benched Pokémon that isn’t able to attack and snipe around it on your following turn, allowing you to place damage without taking any from attacks.

In addition to being able to disrupt, it’s also part of Chandelures standard evolutionary line, meaning that you won’t have to tech an additional Stage One when you can just hold off on evolving for a turn, place 30 damage, retreat, then drag something into the active spot, only to evolve next turn, place 30, retreat and place another 30.

As shown above all of the pieces of Chadelures evolutionary line add something to the deck, be it a small amount of consistency, disruption or being the main “attacker.” As some people may have noticed in order to make use of the Basic and Stage 1 you’re going to need Energy.

Of course some people might think this draws away from Chandelures overall strategy, but I respectfully disagree. Adding Energy doesn’t take away from what Chandelure, but can help it claim more decisive prizes. When the deck is up and running, using the attack can give you overall damage output of 110 or even 130 if they miss the flip on Burn, allowing you to potentially knockout a dragon in 1 turn and any other 130 HP Pokémon.

So what else can help Chandelure? Well the most obvious addition would be Rescue Energy. When playing under Trainer Lock, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll be running a line without the Stage 1 in play, as you can’t Candy up to Chandelure once the lock is in place, meaning that if you do lose a Chandelure from the active spot you can pick up the entire line and start playing it back onto the bench on your following turn. This means only a slight reduction in damage output for 2 turns and if you already had an additional Litwick on the bench you hold a chance of being able to use Luring Light to drag out a new defending Pokémon and stall for an additional turn.

Another addition to the deck that can help Chandelure is Bellossom UD. With running Vileplume, there’s a chance that you can set up a second Gloom just to remove the cards from your hand, so why not add in the option of healing 10 damage a turn from all of your Pokémon? With Kyurem NVI in format, the ability to heal all your Pokémon at once can act as a potent counter to Kyurem’s spread as well as buying more turns for Chandelure which can mean another 60 damage on your opponents field and even and additional prize.

The next addition for the deck is Blissey Prime. Blissey Prime allows you to take advantage of the fact that you wont relying on Energy attachments to attack or retreating. Blissey is added to the deck for “Blissful Nurse” which allows you to fully heal every Pokémon on your side of the field at the cost of any energy attached to the Pokémon healed, this allows the Chandelure your swapping to last an extra turn or 2 giving you access to another 60-120 damage to your opponent’s side of the field.

The last addition I’m going to cover is Jirachi UL/CL. Jirachi can provide a handful of KO’s at once against evolution based decks such as Vanilluxe, Truth variants and other Chandelure decks. Using “Time Hollow” after placing damage on your opponents evolved Pokémon you can send the highest stage of evolution back to their hand, leaving the damage on the lower stage to knock it out. Using this method you can potentially claim numerous prizes at once while avoiding the effect of cards like Rocky Helmet and Rescue Energy.

And that pretty much covers Chandelure plus a handful of his techs. I hope you guys found this useful and as usual I’m open to suggestions for upcoming articles.

Signing off for now,
RattataJoey

FutureSight Article 13: Chandelure is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

City Results (so far)

As I did with the Battle Road results, I have been compiling the City Top 4 results in a spreadsheet. Hopefully, at the end of the City Championship season this will give us more data about certain matchups, but for now we will stay on the aggregate level. Here is a list of decks that have scored multiple top four finishes along with the total number of top four finishes for each.

Top 4 Finishes

1. Magnezone/Eelektrik – 48
2. ZPST – 44
3. TyRam – 34
4. Cobalion, Kyurem, Electrode (aka CaKE/CoKE) – 23
5. Chandelure (w/ and w/o Vileplume) – 23
6. The Truth (basically anything with Vileplume/Reuniclus) – 19
7. Durant – 16
8. Zekrom/Eelektrik – 15
9. 6C (Virizion, Cobalion, Terrakion, Zekrom, Reshiram, Kyurem) – 11
10. Donphan and Dragons – 10
11. Magnezone/Yanmega – 9
12. Lanturn/Eelektrik – 9
13. Gothitelle – 6
14. VVV (Vanilluxe, Vileplume, Victini – some w/ Mew) – 6
15. Mew/Vileplume – 4
16. Kyurem/Feraligatr – 4
17. Stage 1s – 4
18. Donphan/Machamp/Vileplume – 4
19. Terrakion/Yanmega/Zoroark/Tornadus – 4
20. ReshiBoar – 3
21. Donphan/Machamp – 2
22. Yanmega/Mew/Cinccino/Stuff – 2

If you were to stop and do a quick analysis here, this is how we would break it down.

Tier 1

Magnezone/Eelektrik
ZPST

Tier 1.5

TyRam

Tier 2

Cobalion, Kyurem, Electrode (aka CaKE/CoKE)
Chandelure (w/ and w/o Vileplume)
The Truth (basically anything w/ Vileplume/Reuniclus)
Durant
Zekrom/Eelektrik
6C (Virzion, Cobalion, Terrakion, Zekrom, Reshiram, Kyurem)
Donphan and Dragons

Tier 3

Magnezone/Yanmega
Lanturn/Eelektrik
Gothitelle
VVV (Vanilluxe, Vileplume, Victini – some with Mew)
Mew/Vileplume
Kyurem/Feraligatr
Stage 1
Donphan/Machamp/Vileplume
ReshiBoar
Yanmega/Mew/Cinccino/Stuff
Terrakion/Yanmega/Zoroark/Tornadus
Donphan/Machamp

However, this does not tell the whole story. So, let’s take a look at top two finishes:

Top 2 Finishes

1. Magnezone/Eelektrik – 31
2. ZPST – 25
3. TyRam – 12
4. Chandelure (w/ and w/o Vileplume) – 12
5. Cobalion, Kyurem, Electrode (aka CaKE/CoKE) – 10
6. The Truth (basically anything w/ Vileplume/Reuniclus) – 10
7. 6C (Virzion, Cobalion, Terrakion, Zekrom, Reshiram, Kyurem) – 8
8. Donphan and Dragons – 7
9. Zekrom/Eelektrik – 6
10. Durant – 6
11. Lanturn/Eelektrik – 6
12. Magnezone/Yanmega – 5
13. Gothitelle – 4
14. Mew/Vileplume – 2
15. ReshiBoar – 2
16. VVV (Vanilluxe, Vileplume, Victini – some w/ Mew) – 2
17. Kyurem/Feraligatr – 2
18. Stage 1s – 2
19. Terrakion/Yanmega/Zoroak/Tornadus – 2

It is safe to say that if you stopped and did your analysis here there would still be two very clear Tier 1 decks: Magnezone/Eelektrik and ZPST. However, tyRam is caught by the rest of the previously established Tier 2 pack. I would just move tyRam into the Tier 2 set with all the other decks that have 10 or more top 2 finishes.  Then everything else would be Tier 3. But, let’s move on and look at outright championship victories. Here is everything with at least two first place finishes.

First Place Finishes

1. Magnezone/Eelektrik – 18
2. ZPST – 14
3. The Truth (basically anything w/ Vileplume/Reuniclus) – 8
4. Chandelure (w/ and w/o Vileplume) – 6
5. 6C (Virizion, Cobalion, Terrakion, Zekrom, Reshiram, Kyurem) – 6
6. Cobalion, Kyurem, Electrode (aka CaKE/CoKE) – 4
7. Donphan and Dragons – 4
8. Durant – 3
9. Magnezone/Yanmega – 3
10. Lanturn/Eelektrike – 3
11. TyRam – 2
12. Zekrom/Eelektrik – 2

Now when I do an analysis everything with at least two victories is at least a Tier 2 deck. So based on that assumption and the results, there are still two Tier 1 decks: Magnezone/Eelektrik and ZPST. However, the Truth, Chandellure, and 6C look to be the Tier 1.5 decks, with everything else being Tier 2.

So, viewing all of these breakdowns together I would personally rank the decks in the following manner.

Tier 1

Magnezone/Eelektrik
ZPST

Tier 1.5
TyRam
The Truth (basically anything w/ Vileplume/Reuniclus)
Chandelure (w/ and w/o Vileplume)
6C (Virizion, Cobalion, Terrakion, Zekrom, Reshiram, Kyurem)

Tier 2
Durant
Cobalion, Kyurem, Electrode (aka CaKE/CoKE)
Donphan and Dragons
Magnezone/Yanmega
Lanturn/Eelektrik
Zekrom/Eelektrik

So, let’s talk about some of these decks.

Magnezone/Eelektrik

This deck should be a surprise to anyone. We might as well just call it MagneRock 2.0. What is even more crazy is that this deck runs MUCH smoother than MagneRock. It is all contained within a single Energy type and just really works well. Also, between Professor Juniper, Junk Arm, retreating, Engineer’s Adjustments, Sage’s Training, and Thundurus EPO, there are plenty of options for getting Lightning in the discard.

Speaking of Thundurus, there are two big Basics that this deck needs to choose between. Some variations of the deck run Zekrom BLW as a backup attack, while others run Thundurus. Personally, I feel this is not even a close comparison. I know that everyone loves the fact that Thundurus discards Energy and is guaranteed to attack turn two, but I feel that Zekrom is just the outright superior choice.

The HP difference and attack strength is just too much. Also, most of the time I can get the turn two Bolt Strike anyway. With all the previously listed options for discard, and a Switch or two in the deck, getting the turn two Bolt Strike is not as hard as some would have you believe. That is merely my opinion though.

The other thing to mention is that this deck can abuse N about as well as any deck in the format. That is not to be underestimated. I have won more than one game with this deck after being down four prizes to open the game. That one N can really devastate your opponent. If they do not draw well it is normally just a matter of hunting their energy off the field and you win.

If I get more time, I might go into a more in-depth look at this deck but for now, this will have to do. If you have any questions about this deck or any of the decks, feel free to ask. I will gladly give you my two cents (if I have any thoughts about your questions). I really like to discuss this game and to help other people out.

ZPST

Well, a new set came out and we still have this bad boy staring us down. There is not a whole lot to say about this, but it just got even better with Eviolite. I will point out that many people were claiming that Zekrom/Eelektrik was a better version of this deck; those people appeared to have missed the mark a bit. Zekrom/Eelektrik is a great deck, but we will talk about that one a bit later.

ZPST’s greatest strength is pure, raw speed. The ability to turn one you for 120 (or at least 80) is just too good to pass up. The deck’s pure speed is not worth sacrificing to cure all the end-game struggles. Just let this baby do what it does best: put pressure on your opponent, starting on turn one.

Obviously, this deck got help from Eviolite. Eviolite is just a great little tool that helps with that nasty recoil damage and turns Zekrom into a tank. It also allows the deck to play the Outrage game a bit better.

I do think that Rocky Helmet’s value is overlooked here, but I will make my case for Rocky Helmet in general later on.

TyRam

So, the Noble Victories set has finally given most players what they wanted, a reason to leave TyRam. It’s cool. Well all know (myself included) that this deck is very linear and is a little bit of a one trick pony. However, in the past, that one trick was good enough for it to be the clear-cut BDIF. Now, it is the oddity deck.

The deck reached Top 2 twelve times, but only won twice. That does not seem like a good percentage to me. Furthermore, the deck is clearly sitting in the third spot as far as overall Top 4 appearances. So, why is it the third most consistent deck to a) Top Cut, b) Top 4, and c) Top 2, but then it is only tied for the 11th most wins? This seems to be a curious phenomenon to me.

Because of that (and that fact that I think it should be doing better at the final table), I dug a bit deeper into the numbers to see what it was losing to at the final tables.

This deck lost to 3 ZPST decks, 2 Magnezone/Eelektrik decks, 2 The Truth decks, and 1 Lanturn/Eelektrik deck at the final table. So, I built up some of those lists and went to town testing. Here was my personal results:

• Lanturn is just too hard to deal with. It is an unfavorable match up. Period.
• ZPST should still be about 50/50.
• TyRam won six of the ten games I tested it against Magnezone/Eelektrik.
• TyRam went 50/50 against The Truth.

So basically, the deck has a bunch of 50/50 matchups that can go either way. So I kind of just left it at that. The deck has 50/50 matchups against 7 of the decks it lost to at the top tables. If it wins 3 or 4 of those, then it is still sitting comfortably right in the middle of the pack, if it wins 5 or 6 it would be the clear third best deck according to first place finishes (which would put it in line with the other two compilations). That was enough to satisfy my curiosity.

I will say one thing, I think Rocky Helmet is very good here, but I will cover that a bit more later on.

The Truth

Well, I said all along that The Truth’s viability would hinge on the ability of Kyurem players to hit a turn two Glaciate. Even with CoKE in the meta it would seem that this is not happening enough for The Truth to be squashed out.

The Truth did get a lot of fun new toys from the last set. Terrakion, Cobalion, and Kyurem can all be added to The Truth’s toolbox of attackers. Also some old friends such as Steelix Prime have seen some rise in action. Basically, the deck is extremely customizable to any meta and can find great success.

However, this deck may still be one of the trickiest decks out there to play. First, you need to read your local meta correctly. Second, you need to be able to execute the game plan flawlessly.

Also, this deck is good without Tropical Beach, but it is very good with it. I would say that you can run the deck without Tropical Beach, but it will likely be sub-optimal.

Chandelure

Here’s an interesting deck. This is a deck that started out with people saying, “oh look that’s an interesting power.” Then people built the deck but most were thinking, “this should be a fun league deck” or “I don’t know how competitive this deck is, but it makes me want to play the game again.” Then there was a 50+ page thread explosion on HeyTrainer. The deck got covered by Esa. The rest is history.

Basically this deck can be run with or without Vileplume. I personally like the Vileplume version better. You pair this with Dodrio and you get to use the power twice for 60 damage and then attack for 50. Then if the flips go your way your opponent will take burn and confusion damage. Then they are in a world of hurt.

Without Vileplume the deck focuses more on using three or four Cursed Shadows per turn for 90-120 spread damage.

The problem with this deck is that it get substantially worse without Tropical Beach. No deck abuses not attacking like this deck does. Tropical Beach is the perfect fit here for consistency. Yes, I know some people have run this deck to success without Tropical Beach, but it is truly an inferior build without it.

I would almost recommend to look for something else to play if you do not have the beaches. (I know that is no fun to hear, but I really think it can be that big of a difference maker over the course of a tournament.)

If you want to know more, go look around the web. There are some great articles across a lot of the Pokémon sites.

6C (Virzion, Cobalion, Terrakion, Zekrom, Reshiram, Kyurem)

We all know that Esa brought this deck to the Western World in his Eye on Japan article. Then like most things, we collectively said… meh. It’s too unfocused. It must be inconsistent. Blah, Blah, Blah.

Well, guess what? It works. However, there is a big caveat. It is very difficult to play correctly. That is always the case with reactive decks like this. When a deck is reactive by nature, the margin for error is razor thin. Here you need to recognize the proper strategy very quickly and then execute it to perfection.

This is because most of the time you only have 1 or 2 copies of your main attacker for any given match up and you have next to nothing in the Energy acceleration department. So, developing your board and keeping things moving is a difficult task.

Durant

The ants have invaded and things are looking like they might stay for a while. This deck is the least fun deck to play against, in my opinion. If your opponent has a good list and is a skilled player, nothing else puts you on a “win now” clock like Durant does. It is scary the way people thought that LostGar was going to be scary. However, Durant has actually achieved the whole “I need to take 6 prizes in 6 turns or lose” thing.

This is the one deck that everyone knows is good, but they hate losing to. That being said, it is refreshing to have a deck that can legitimately win games in a different manner than taking six prizes first. It is also very cheap, which is always a bonus.

Cobalion/Kyurem/Electrode (aka CaKE/CoKE)

Here we have the most hyped card of Noble Victories. In my opinion, the hype was a little bit more than it deserved. Do not get me wrong, this is still a great deck. It is just not on the level that we thought it was going to be and here’s why:

Consistency.

This deck just fails a little too often to be a true Tier 1 deck. There are just too many times (even if it’s once per tournament) where you use Energymite and get… Nothing. Then you are really behind in the match. Also, this deck is missing mid to end game consistency. Yes, if might work on turn two. You might take 3 prizes on turn three, but if you lose the energy on your board, you might be in big trouble.

This is a very good deck, just not a great deck. I’m sure others will disagree with me, but hey, it is what it is.

Donphan and Dragons

Here’s a nice little surprise (and one I got right from my last article, OK enough braggin). Most people thought that D&D would fall off the face of the earth because of Kyurem (they also said that about tyRam). The problem though is that Kyurem actually helps D&D more it hurts it.

First, Kyurem allows D&D to cover more type advantages. Second, Kyurem cannot OHKO Donphan. I think that people underestimated that second point. Unless you can OHKO Donphan you are not a great counter. Third, Glaciate just works into D&D’s favor. It powers up the Outrage attack all the more quickly.

Toss in the fact that Donphan can really abuse Rocky Helmet and we still have a very solid deck. It also doesn’t hurt that the two best decks in the format currently are pure Lightning types.

Lanturn/Eelektrik

Overall, this is just a lesser version of Magnezone/Eelektrik. I know that it hits for two types of Weakness. I also know that it is a Stage 1 and is a bit faster. I also know that it does not struggle with Energy conservation as much. However, it is way more fragile and less consistent. Those two things wipe out its advantage in my book.

Zekrom/Eelektrik

Back to this deck. I had plenty of arguments with friends about why this deck was just OK. They swore to me that it was at least every bit as good as TyRam and better that ZPST. Well, it seems that both of those are untrue.

In my opinion, this deck is kind of stuck between TyRam and ZPST. It is not as fast as ZPST and it does not manipulate energy, is as consistent, or as sturdy as TyRam. It is a “jack of all trades, master of none” type of deck.  I still think it is a good deck, but I think that it is inferior to those two.

So, there you have it. A few thoughts about the decks of the current meta. Now, I want to talk specifically about one card. I honestly feel that this is the most undervalued card in the format. I know that some of you will say, “I like that card” or “that card sees play” or “it’s not undervalued.” I will stand up and disagree with all of those.

Rocky Helmet

I cannot stress enough how great this card can be and how it is just untapped potential staring us in the face. I honestly feel that this card is so good that every deck aside from ZPST and Magnezone/Eelektrk and Vileplume decks should be running AT LEAST two copies.

Let’s start with the decks that don’t need to be running it. First, Vileplume decks establish an Item lock. So, it would be useless in there. Second, Magnezone doesn’t play by the same rules as everything else. It’s attack scales by 50. So it takes just as many resources to KO something with 110 HP as something with 150 HP. Very rarely do you desperately wish that 110 HP thing was only at 90 HP.

However, starting with ZPST I think there is potential. I know everyone loves his or her Eviolites in ZPST. I get it. Eviolite is getting to be a staple in that deck to where if you play ZPST without Eviolite people look at your funny. Well, let me tell you, this is no laughing matter. Here’s why. You still take 20 damage recoil. Yes, I know you might be able to pull off an Eviolite + Defender once or twice and take 0 recoil.

However, you are still in a simple PlusPower + Bolt Strike/Blue Flare range. Last time I check most ZPST and TyRam builds played at least 3 PlusPower and 4 Junk Arm. So, they could (theoretically) use a PlusPower for every one of their prizes. Eviolite just does not do enough.

On the other hand, look at Rocky Helmet. You can put Rocky Helmet on your energized Pokémon or on the easy prizes like Pachirisu (depending on the game state). Then your opponent has a difficult decision to make.

Furthermore, I think that Rocky Helmet is the missing piece to most TyRam players build. Here, you are going to damage Reshiram with Afterburner anyway. So, there is no real reason to use Eviolite. However, if you can force your opponent into attacking a Rocky Helmet (not that hard to do if you have multiple in play, which is also not hard to do because TyRam remains one of the fastest drawing decks out there), virtually everything in the game is OHKO able on your next turn. That Zekrom with Eviolite, easy pickins. That Magnezone, send it to the scrap heap.

This card also gives you a pseudo-Vileplume counter. It is deadly if you can drop it on the field before Vileplume gets there. This is true for TyRam and ZPST.

When I was testing the TyRam v. MagneEel/The Truth/ZPST matchups, Rocky Helmet was the MVP. It really brings all of those games back to at least 50/50.

Furthermore, this is a great counter to Kyurem for both ZPST and tyRam. Even a Kyurem with Eviolite is just a single PlusPower drop away from being OHKOd by Reshiram or Zekrom when Rocky Helmet just damaged Kyurem. This is a great option to have.

As for every other deck, Rocky Helmet just helps get that little extra punch needed. It is essentially a double PlusPower drop every time you get your opponent to attack into it.

Basically, I think that if more people used Rocky Helmet in TyRam it would be knocking on the door step of Tier 1 placement. Also, if more people used Rocky Helmet in ZPST, it would close the (minor) gap between ZPST and Magnezone/Eelektrik.

I know a lot of people will disagree with me on this one. That’s OK. Mainly, I just wanted to give everyone an update on the City Championship national meta. I tossed in the Rocky Helmet part for free.

The Hawk’s Nest: City Midterms is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

However, despite these hurdles, I’ve been able to perform well at local tournaments pretty consistently. I’m currently on a seven year “top cut” streak. That is, I haven’t missed top cut at a Battle Road or City Championship in 7+ years. Keeping my record intact has not been easy and it has certainly come close to ending more than once.

I can say for a fact that I never would have done as well competitively as I have if I hadn’t learned how to stretch a dollar and really make my money go farther. I would be willing to bet that there are a lot of other players out there whose biggest hindrance in doing well at tournaments is they simply can’t afford all the cards to build their ideal deck.

This article won’t be about making cheap decks that aren’t really competitive. Instead, I’m gearing this article to players of all financial situations. Whether you plan to spend $20 or $300 this month on Pokemon, I’m sure you’d be interested in saving money without sacrificing tournament performance. I’ve included many of the tips and tricks that I use to build top tier, tournament winning lists.

I’ll readily admit that this piece won’t include every money saving Pokemon-related tip out there, but I feel like this will help get everyone on the right track. If you know of any other tricks that I haven’t included, I urge you to post them in the comments. With your help, I’m hoping this article can serve as a reference guide for players who want or need to save money on Pokemon.

Online Resources

Playing Pokemon online is by far the most cost efficient way to test out new concepts or decks. Playing solely against your team can be damaging to your game. Eventually, you get to know how they function. Do they take too many unnecessary risks, or do they miss out on a lot of opportunities because they play it too safe? Are their lists sacrificing match ups by not running enough techs, or do they undervalue consistency by running too many?

No matter how good of a player they are, each player has their own play style. If you only test against a few players over and over, you get an inaccurate sampling of how the Pokemon community in general plays and builds decks, often causing you to go into tournaments with wacky results.

While playing online has its downsides, like you have no idea the skill level of your opponents as well, this is no different than when you go to tournaments. In general, it just gives you better, less biased testing results.

By using Apprentice, Redshark, PlayTCG, etc., you’re able to build and test out entirely new decks without having to acquire all of the cards. This helps you be sure that all the cards you purchase actually have tournament potential.

Proxies can serve a similar purpose, but they’re not as user friendly. Unless if you print them off of bebessearch.com, which does become a hassle after a while (not to mention ink isn’t cheap), you’ll be stuck writing the names on a piece of paper. While this technically works, it does take a lot of fun out of playing the game.

Also, I’ve noticed a psychological hindrance on not actually seeing the card. You tend to only remember the important parts of the card. Take Magneton TM, for example. We all know it’s HP, element, Retreat Cost, Weakness, etc. However, we tend to forget about its attacks when we aren’t seeing them, sometimes causing us to miss opportunities.

One of the biggest benefits of playing online is there’s almost always an opponent available. If you wake up at 2:00 am and get the sudden urge to test out a new concept that came to you in a dream, you’ll have to wait. But with online play, you can start building your deck and find an opponent to play against within a couple of minutes.

I’m sure that most of you already have your favorites when it comes to what program you play online. But in case you don’t, my favorite is definitely PlayTCG. You get to see actual images instead of just words, you can play private or random games, and it just overall runs the smoothest for me.

The Art of the Trade

Trading with others for what you need is a great way to get the cards you need. A great place to find others who would like to trade with you can be at your local league. It’s generally a pretty relaxed environment, and you often know a lot of the people there, so initiating some trades is pretty easy. Smaller tournaments, like Battle Roads or City Championships, are solid places to try and get what you need as well.

Be careful when trading at larger tournaments with people you don’t know, especially if it’s before the tournament starts. Often times, they’ll think you desperately need the card for the tournament, so they’ll try getting you to accept less than fair deals. If you know the person somewhat well, this is far less of an issue, but if you don’t, be very careful before accepting any trades. Think it over and make sure you’re getting a fair deal.

I’ve seen people accepting deals like “a box of 300 random cards for two Magnezone Prime”. More often than not, most of what you get will be junk not nearly worth what you gave up. You might think that you’re getting a deal, but keep in mind that the person you’re trading with probably knows exactly what’s in that box and is confident it’s worth less than your Magnezone. You should especially be worried if they refuse to let you look at the box of cards before you make your decision.

Also, I strongly recommend that you don’t try to rip people off or do unfair deals, especially with Juniors or new players. It’s sure to give you a bad reputation, which will make it much harder to trade with others.

I can remember one particular example. A new kid came to league, he was nine or ten years old (we’ll call him Jimmy). He came into the store and asked the owner what products would best help him get into the game. He had about $35 to spend, so he bought two Starter decks and a tin that was on sale. His packs were pretty sub-par, but he did manage to pull a Luxray GL Lv.X (he got a Luxray GL as well).

One particular person at the store (we’ll call him Ralph) offered to help him get started. He helped him understand the basic rules, get set up, build a better deck, etc. Ralph spent about four league meets helping him out, but then he did something nasty. He managed to convince Jimmy to trade his Luxray GL Lv.X for a few worthless holos.

It didn’t take long for news of the trade to get around. When a few other players confronted Ralph about this, he said the card was his fee for helping Timmy get started. Most of the players at league now refuse to do any trades with him whatsoever.

Anyways, what you should take away from the story is your reputation is important. When other people are looking for a fair trade, they’re going to go to the person who’s known for making good trades. A good, honest reputation pays for itself many times over.

Another way you can trade with people is online, using sites like Pokegym. However, you want to be careful of people who try to scam valuable cards out of you. While there’s not really a way to be 100% confident you aren’t being scammed, there’s a few tell-tale signs that you should recognize.

Again, the classic “if it’s too good to be true…” comes into play here. If someone offers you two Magnezone, two Eelectric, and a full-art Zekrom for a Cobalion and want you to send your card first, it’s likely that they aren’t intending to go through with the trade.

The other thing you want to be wary of is traders with little to no trade history. I won’t tell you never to trade with these people, but do so with caution. My general rule is I don’t do large, high value trades with traders who don’t have a lot of history. The better feedback they’ve collected, the larger trades you can safely do with the person.

Some websites have the rule that the trader with the least good history sends the cards first, but not all of them do, so be careful with the ones that don’t.

Exchanging Cards for Cash

Purchasing cards from other players isn’t much different than trading cards, so most of the same rules apply. Keep your reputation in tact by making fair purchases and be careful of people who you do business with.

The only real difference between trading and buy cards is there’s the chance you’re getting fake cards. Technically, you could be trading for a fake card too, but it seems most of the time, people try to unload fake cards for money, not cards. The biggest warning sign is if someone tries to sell you cards far below their value (booster boxes for $35, packs for $1.50, Tropical Beaches for $35, etc.)

If you’re trading for single cards, you’ll need to know how to spot fakes. I learned a most of what I know about spotting fake cards from this Pokegym page, so instead of just repeating everything it said, check it out!

I would also like to touch upon one other aspect of buying cards. The absolute worst time to try and get a hold of them is at a large tournament, right before it begins. Everyone you try to buy cards from will know that you desperately need the card(s) right then and there, which gives them a huge amount of leverage over the price.

What is a $30 card, you can easily find yourself paying $40+ for. A good example of this is Yanmega Prime, which was going for $70 at Nationals. While there were a lot of other circumstances contributed to this price, like the mid-season rotation and whatnot, it was not a $70 card. However, like a 7/11 charges for convenience, anyone who’s buying high value cards at these big tournaments will be forced to pay an extra 10-25% to get what they need. Be smart and get the cards ahead of time.

Mass Market Shopping

Buying cards online can be a great way to purchase Pokemon cards. First off, if you’re planning to buy Booster Packs, always buy in bulk. When I played the Naruto CCG, there were a limited amount of products to choose from. But since Pokemon is a more popular game, they’ve got tons of other product sets that you can buy, which are almost always a better value than just buying individual packs.

One good example are the Prime Challenge Boxes. Many are upset that Yanmega (and to a much lesser extent, Machamp, Umbreon and Espeon) are being reprinted so far after their release, but since they are, I definitely recommend picking up a few.

Bonus Tip: If you’ve got your play set of Yanmega, try nabbing a few Machamp boxes. You never know when you’ll get the urge to try out a Machamp deck :P

Next I’d like to talk about the pros and cons of the different places that you can buy cards.

Mass merchants like Wal-Mart and Target will be the place to go if you’re looking for solid, consistent pricing. They’re also one of the best places to go for things like tins and promo boxes (like Legends or Prime Challenge boxes) because their pricing is usually the lowest and you won’t pay shipping on these larger/heavier items. They usually don’t carry booster boxes or older products, though.

I actually haven’t bought a ton of cards from hobby shops, but in my experience, their booster packs are usually .25-.50 cents more than Target. However, they help make up for this with their usually large supply including booster boxes and products that came out 6+ months ago.

I really like buying cards online. Because of the number of sites that sell cards, there’s always a wide variety of products to choose from and you can really compare prices (all from the comfort of your own home). In addition, virtual stores, in my experience, are the most common places that have sales on their products and online shopping is definitely the place to go if you’re looking for a deal.

However, unlike a store or hobby shop where you buy it and take it home, you’ll have to wait quite a while before you get the cards. Also, you’ll have to pay shipping costs. If you’re buying bulkier or heavier things like tins or Promo Boxes, this can add $5-10+ on to your order, depending on the number of items you buy.

Investing in Pokemon

Next I’d like to talk about a surprisingly underused way that anyone can make money off of Pokemon. When you think about it, Pokemon cards are a lot like the stock market in that their values can go up and down. Sometimes, they’ll keep climbing higher and higher for months and then the next day, they’ll drop 80%.

There are a lot of things that can affect a card’s value. This can be anything from a bad tournament performance to the card being reprinted to a new powerful deck utilizing the card being discovered. When the BW rules took effect earlier this year, the value of Sableye SF soared.

If you’re good at predicting the meta game, investing in Pokemon can make you some real money. However, just like investments, it is a high risk, high reward situation. If you buy 15 copies of a super rare only to have its value plummet, you’re going to take a major loss. On the other hand, if its value skyrockets, you stand to make a lot of money.

The best time for a Pokemon investor is when new sets are released. Often times, people aren’t aware yet of exactly how good a card will be, so sometimes the value of a card will be completely off. A great example of this is Chandelure NVI, which is now going for around $3-4 a piece.

However, just a month ago, before Cities started and before Chandelure was shown to be an actually viable card, it was selling for much less. Predicting this, I purchased a large quantity of Chandelure for around $1.50 each. Then, when their value increased, I sold them off at my league. Since I bought them for much cheaper, I was able to sell them for less than most other places wanted for them, thus ensuring that each copy sold and for a profit.

I only bought about 15 copies of Chandelure, so I didn’t exactly make a killing, but keep in mind that this is only one transaction. If you can make a few of these each time a new set comes you, you can easily make $100 every year.

The biggest risk I took when investing in Pokemon was with Tropical Beach. Once I read the card (and learned it was in one of the Finalist’s decks), I knew that it would be a big, hotly desired card. Over the next month or so, I bought or traded for 15 copies of Tropical Beach.

At the time, they were considered to be little more than promos, (rare promos, but not very playable) so many people were willing to trade or sell them. However, I was still trading about $60-70 worth of cards (or cash) for each copy. I had literally traded away 75% of my collection and I was completely out of money. If these cards didn’t take off in value, I was screwed.

Thankfully, Tropical Beach has consistently gone up in value and is now worth $150+ a card. I ended up selling five copies of Beach pretty quickly for about $100 each because at that point, I didn’t have even enough cards to build a solid deck. I am currently in possession of 10 copies that are worth far more than what I bought them for.

To go into a bit more detail about choosing cards to invest in, there are a few things you should consider. You first need to determine how many, if any, decks could possibly use the card. How prominent are those decks in the format? Finally, how important is this new card in those decks? Is it just a tech option or an instant 4-of staple?

Another good sign that a card is a good investment is if it’s a reprint. Take N for example, which is a reprint of Rocket’s Admin. Admin was a staple in 80% decks in the format for years and it had the ability to completely turn a game around. After close examination, it’s apparent that power will carry over to this format as well, making N a very safe investment.

When purchasing cards from new sets, it’s crucial that you aren’t letting the hype influence your decision. There have been many instances where a card was hyped as being the new BDIF only to fizzle out or never amount to much at all. Your decisions should never be based on theory. Test out cards before you buy them. Then, if they perform well in your testing, you can consider investing in some copies of that card.

It requires a lot of luck and even more experience at predicting the meta game to make money on Pokemon, but you’ll get better at it with practice. Start small and as you gain more confidence in your ability, gradually transition to making larger “investments”.

Pooling Resources

The next idea I’d like to discuss is having a card pool with one or more other players. A card pool is when a group of players will buy cards together and share them. This can be great for cards like Gengar Prime, Machamp Prime, Conkeldurr, etc. Each of us maintain our own collection of staple cards like Zekrom, Pokemon Collector, Rare Candy, Pokemon Catcher, Reshiram, etc.

However, there are often times when one of us will want to try out a new deck, like LostGar or LockChamp. So instead of us each buying these cards individually, we save a lot of money by purchasing these cards together and sharing them.

Let me stop right here and say one quick thing before I continue. You need to be very careful who you’re sharing cards with. It’s not a good idea to do so with someone you barely know. Complications can easily arise from a card pool, so you need to 100% trust that the other people in the card pool. I’ve been with in my team for many years and 100% trust each and every one of them. We’ve had this card pool for about three years and haven’t had any significant problems with it.

Again, the best cards to include in this pool are the “Tier 2” cards. Each person should have their own staples and components of the Tier 1 decks. Since these cards are going to be the ones you use the most often, it’s just more efficient for everyone to have their own. But for those cards that belong in lower tier decks, such as Scizor, Steelix, Gengar, Machamp, Darkrai & Cresselia Legend, etc., having one or two play sets in the pool is more than enough.

Pokemon TCGO 

The final topic I’d like to talk about is Pokemon TCG Online. I will start by saying that I actually don’t even have an account on there. Since they don’t have Premier events on there yet, I don’t really have the money to start building up another collection. However, it’s only a matter of time before they start having tournaments on PTCGO. Once they do, you can expect the cost of booster codes (and any codes, for that matter), to explode.

I haven’t checked too recently, but I think the booster codes are going for a little under $1 each. When they start doing online tournaments, expect that to price to jump closer to $2 a pack. As of writing this article, I’ve collected about 300 unused booster codes as well as codes for other things like Prime Challenge Boxes, Starter decks, Starter Kits, etc.

I still haven’t decided whether or not I’ll eventually use these codes myself if/when they start having virtual tournaments or if I’ll sell them for (hopefully) a nice profit.

Whenever you buy booster packs, starter decks or pretty much any other Pokemon TCG product that came out after Black & White, you’ll get a code that allows you to redeem that product online. Even if you have no intention of ever playing TCGO, do not throw them away. You can either sell/trade these codes in person or sell them to websites like T&T.

On the flip side, if you do play the online game, you definitely want to get a hold of as many of these codes as you can before the start doing online tournaments. Like I said, once they do, their values will are sure to increase and you’ll have to dish out a lot more cash to get these codes (outside of the physical cards that you buy yourself that come with codes).

In Conclusion

I’m hoping that everyone who read article this learned a little something one how to play Pokemon for less. Utilizing these methods, I’ve been able to keep playing Pokemon for years and it’s pretty much been self-sustaining for quite some time. It took a lot of time, patience and hard work, but it’s all been worth it. I get to keep playing the game I love without breaking the bank. What more can I ask for?

I will readily admit that there are many more ways to save money on Pokemon that I haven’t included or that I don’t even know about. With your help, by posting your suggestions and ideas in the comments below, this page can serve as a fundamental tool to help others who can’t afford to spend much on Pokemon do well competitively and have fun. If even one person is able to benefit from our work, then writing this article becomes 110% worth it.

Thanks for reading everybody!
Dakota Streck

Playing Pokemon for Less is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

It’s unorthodox; if your first experience with it comes from across the table, you can only make an educated guess at what your deck needs to do to pull out a win, and that places the Durant player in a position to win before the cards are even flipped.

What this article is for is to reveal the math and methods behind Durant. So that we, as players, can be better prepared if we ever do see a Durant deck staring us down. What Durant forces us to do is to play against our own deck; if you thought watching Uxie Donk or Sableye Donk last format was “Pokemon Solitaire,” consider this the next version. It has players understandably frustrated, and for good reason. Let’s start with the math.

Durant decks are designed to mill 4 cards from the deck from the first turn onwards until it either wins or loses. I’ve seen Durant decks that can attack (with Cobalion NVI, typically) but we are going to focus on the mill variant for the moment here. This allows us to create a formula to determine precisely how many turns you have left to take 6 prizes.

60 Cards in a deck

Initial Setup: 7 hand, 6 Prizes (If you see nothing but Metal Energy when they mulligan, I would advise against pulling a mulligan card unless you really need it or you can readily shuffle it back in. More on that later.)
47 Cards left in deck

If Durant starts:
43 Cards left in deck after mill
42 Cards left in deck after draw

If you start:
46 Cards left in deck after draw

After your initial turn, this routine can be simplified as X-5.  If this would result in a negative number, you lose the game from decking out. So, assuming you draw and pass each turn, this means you have 8 turns if they go first (8 of your turns, and they’ll mill the last 2 cards out on their 9th turn) or 9 turns if you go first (with 1 card left in your deck on your last turn.)

This is a very short time line; it means that assuming no deck replenishment, you must be set to take 6 prizes in 6 turns starting on your third turn. You can also think of it this way; you need 30 cards left in your deck to take those 6 prizes without decking out. That gives you a grand total of 17 cards to work with, again assuming no deck replenishment.

You can play that scenario out very easily without actually having a Durant deck to playtest against; in fact, I’d recommend it. The more people see that Durant can steal wins at events from unprepared players, the more people who are going to try it for themselves and increase the likelihood that you’ll see one.

But, as much as the game plays out the same way each time, there are things that can alter the outcome slightly; so now that we have our set timeline, let’s look at what alters it.

First things first; if you assume you have 17 cards to work with over the course of the game, realize the destructive power of some of the games most common Supporters. Professor Juniper removes 7 of those 17. Sage’s Training removes 5 of those 17. If you have to play 3 of those, you’ve effectively resigned the game if you are not completely set up and ready to go and can stay that way for 6 turns.

This is unless of course you’re running something that can take multiple prizes a turn, like Hydreigon; Kyurem not so much since Special metal and Eviolite makes them immune more often than not. If you are in your deckbuilding phase and you think you’ll run into the metal bug, you want to consider a higher count of the non-destructive draw Supporters, like Professor Oak’s New Theory, Judge, and N.

If you have 7 cards or more in hand, PONT doesn’t hit your countdown timer at all and gives you 6 different cards; Otherwise it’s 1-6 points off your 17, depending on cards in hand. Judge is the same way, only it’s more likely to put points back -on- your timer if you have 5 or more cards to shuffle in with it, and it hurts the Durant player slightly.

N is the best or worst of the 3 depending on when you need it; they will always draw 6 from N, so it’s great for them late game, and you can get all the way down to a 1 card hand assuming they’re not teching Spooky Whirlpool Spiritomb to force you to draw them all back. A higher count of non-destructive draw will improve your chances of meeting the conditions to win significantly, no matter which you run.

That covers most of the raw math power behind the Durant deck; but there are still a few things you need to watch out for when you’re actually playing one.  Here are a few points that you should expect.

1. Bank on losing any Special Energy card (DCE, Special Metal/Dark, Rainbow, Rescue) immediately the next turn.  Decks that run only Basic Energy have a small advantage over Durant because every Lost Remover in their hand is a card they can’t play. Generally you only want to use DCE for switching, or the Durant deck will happily take the free removal, and possibly follow it up with Crush Hammer in an effort to leave your attacker stripped clean, costing you more turns off your clock.

2. 1 or 3 Pokemon in play is the magic number, but if you go for just 1 be mindful that Rotom can do 60 for 1 assuming you have 3 Energy on you. 2 doesn’t work because they can Catcher whatever is on the bench, and Seeker your attacker; if your benched Pokemon isn’t capable of doing 100 (or 50, if it’s Fire type) you’ll lose a couple of turns off your clock setting back up. More often than not, that will cost the game, and you generally don’t see it coming.

3. If possible, only play Pokemon to the bench that have 0-1 retreat unless they are your attacker. You’ll often see a Durant player Catcher up a 2-retreat bench sitter and then Crushing Hammer hoping to knock an Energy off your attacker; you can prevent them from gaining a turn on the clock this way by loading extra Energy onto your attacker and keeping your bench light.

For instance, ZPST has a much easier time of meeting the conditions of the Durant deck than its new cousin, ZEET. Eels can’t save themselves so you have to hope your DCE is around or Switch; if not, you’re in a lot of trouble unless you can pre-load it for a retreat. ZPST by contrast going first has a chance at donk and after that all Pokemon on the bench have one retreat unless you benched multiple Zekrom for some reason.

4. Super Rod will add 3 points to your clock; Flower Shop Lady will add 6. But Junk Arming Super Rod only effectively moves cards from your hand back into your deck, which will likely be pulled back into your hand via Spooky Whirlpool if you are below 6 cards. Don’t count on them too much.

5. Your usual main attacker might not be the best bet against Durant. On average, you need to do 100 damage 6 turns in a row; you’d think Cincinno BLW would be great for this, except that it takes a DCE more often than not, or 2 turns to power up and being vulnerable to Crushing Hammer (although a double-heads Crushing Hammer is a 25% chance out of 2 flips).

You don’t need massive damage, and Fire types have it even easier with only needing to do 50 damage. Bring up that Ninetales, that Quilava, or let Ability Emboar take front and center; they’ll do far better than a Reshiram that needs to discard two fire every time unless you can fuel it with Typhlosion; but then, you should just use Typhlosion himself! Self-sustaining and a -great- counter against all those lucky Crushing Hammer flips.

6. Durant can’t really be teched against very effectively, for one very good reason; it’s just as likely that your tech will be discarded as part of the mill attack as getting it into play. The only thing I saw as a splashable source of Fire damage was the original Simisear with a 40x 3 coin heads attack for 3 Colorless. This would be heavy bait for Lost Remover, as well as Rotom, not to mention trying to find singleton copies of -any- card while 2/3rds of your deck is being milled away over the course of the game.

You want to look more towards what your deck can do to put out the required damage quickly, rather than trying to bring in a tech option for it. Change your play strategy, not the cards in the deck, so to speak.

As a final note, I’d like to bring up that asking 50 damage from a Fire deck or 100 from a non-Fire deck (always assume Eviolite/Special Metal) by the second to third turn is in fact difficult to do sometimes if you don’t have a nice hand. Durant plays off this, and once you do have that output up it tries to buy enough time to sneak by anyways. You could say by forcing you to play against the clock, it’s the ultimate speed deck. After all, it gets going on turn 1 the vast majority of the time.

This puts a sense of urgency into the opponent, and rushing causes mistakes. This is author’s opinion here, but playing Durant is betting not so much that the Durant deck plays well, but that your opponent will slip up under the pressure. Given the stigma surrounding the deck, I’d say that’s not a bad bet by any stretch of the imagination. We’re all human, and Durant is not really the deck you’re thinking about when you’re deckbuilding, either.

Think of it this way; remember Lostgar decks? Especially the MewGar variants; if you had a game plan ahead of time, it was significantly easier to win because nonsensical plays like “main attack with Ability Boar” are suddenly exactly what you need to come out on top. You just have to remember that there is a very finite plan that the Durant player can bring against you; you are playing against yourself first and foremost. Avoid the traps, and you’ll do just fine.

I wish you all the best against the coming swarm of ants, here to steal our picnic lunch! Thanks for reading, and good luck in the rest of your City Championships, everyone!

Playing Against Yourself: The Durant Problem is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.