AWKWARD ZOMBIE

With STP ending today, it's time to change the topic, and I think now might be the perfect chance to start talking about an upcoming event I'm planning:

Draft Tournament on PTCGO

That's right, I've gotten enough code cards together for this. Before I have sign ups though, I'd like some consensus. What set would you all like to draft in? Out of the sets available on PTCGO, I would like to suggest the following for choices for newcomers:

Next Destinies: This deck has decent Pokemon and great trainers. It's a good base set to work with that's not too hard to follow.

Dark Explorers: Plenty of nice Pokemon cards that offer great strategies, and lots of items available for newcomers.

Dragon's Exalted: Not quite as many trainers available, but this deck helped launch about half a dozen popular deck archetypes. Overall a very fun set.

Boundaries Crossed: A "base set" of sorts with lots of good basic cards needed for decks. The set is a bit large though, making it difficult to get evolution chains. Basic Pokemon often do straight damage without any major effects though.

Plasma Storm: Lots of neat Pokemon with insane effects. Might be hard to follow, but lots of great fun.

In addition, there's also Black and White Base Set, Emerging Powers, Noble Victories, and the HG/SS sets (which are out of format).

I will take votes on what people would like to draft, and once a decision is made, I will accept 8 people to compete. Rules will be out then, and the winners will win a little something from me.

But let's get down to business.

Thank you for your patience (I accidentally this post once already, asdf), so let's get to the lesson I've been promising you guys:

Deckbuilding 101: Playtesting and Teching



As you'll remember, this is the Skeleton of the deck we built previously:



Since this deck has 60 cards, it's playable for playtesting as it is. If you had a Skeleton that had less than 60 cards, work on filling it with more cards. Either bump the numbers of some of your cards and energies, or try out some other cards you think will be useful. Be sure to not add anything that would compromise your deck strategy though. If your deck isn't good about discarding cards, don't add more Junipers or Ultra Balls.

Playtesting

No deck is perfect, especially the instant you put it together before playing it. Decks are always open for tweaking, so in a sense, they're always evolving (I'll be here all weeks folks). Playtesting is the perfect opportunity to make these tweaks before you start really using the deck. Playtesting can be done in regular games, but having a more controlled environment often makes it easier to see what works or doesn't work in your deck. In addition, if you're building a deck for competitions and need to know what cards to buy, it's very important to play test before you purchase, or you might end up buying cards you don't need, or needing to order more cards.

There are two main parts to playtesting. First, you should playtest the start of the game, to see how consistent your deck is in getting a decent start. This involves playing out the first 2-5 turns by yourself, solitaire style. The easiest way to do this would be to build the deck and start a game with yourself on playtcg (using two tabs).

Start Up Testing

Make assumptions about what your opponent will do, including assuming they might get to go first, or that they might draw cards if you mulligan. These can give them an edge on you and should be noted. Are you starting a game where it'd be bad if they went first? If they used N during their turn, does it mess you up? What cards are you showing them as you play? Keep this in mind as you start up, but focus on the fact that you want to get up and running ASAP.

In the case of the Raticate deck, Raticate can get out and ready to attack by Turn 2 if Rattata is out on turn 1, and you can get a Darkness Energy and a DCE on it (or somehow get 3 Darkness if Ether is involved). If you get a HTL by then too, you're going to knock out a Pokemon on turn 2, giving you a big edge. The more turns you playtest, the more uncertain the results you'll have (after all, the opponent might be wrecking you by this point, or getting rid of cards you're using), so you might want to limit it to the very basics, such as "how many turns it takes to get out a Raticate with energy".

Take notes about your games (I had some detailed notes and now they're gone *sob*). You can be as detailed (keeping track of what's in your hand at all times and what you're looking for) or as basic (were the turns good or not?) as you want.

Here's the results of my testing:

Game 1: Emolga Start, 3 Raticates by turn 3, 3 knock outs with Super Fang and HTL by end of turn 5 (most decks wouldn't know knock outs exactly like Reticate would. Pokedex and Ether not really useful as they weren't in the hand at the same time. Dark Patch and Aspertia City Gym did not get out.

Game 2: Mulliganed twice, and started with a lone Rattata. Likely could have been knocked out easily. Regained ground with a lot of search cards, getting Raticate powered by turn 2. By the end of turn 5, 3 knockouts were made with Super Fang. Ether wasn't useful for powering up, Pokedex remained hidden in deck. Aspertia City Gym came out quickly this time.

Game 3: Rattata Start. pull out Sableye turn 1 and get Rattata to the bench. Junk Hunt the first 2 turns, then have Raticate attack for a KO on turn 3. Bring back Sableye turn 4 to pull out HTL, and KO again turn 5. Ether is useless yet again, and Pokedex is nowhere to be seen.

Results

Ether and Pokedex isn't helping much. Two games of starting with Rattata is concerning. Might need to look into beefing up my Pokemon a bit. A few dry spells with Supporters was concerning. Need more draw.

At this point, I can edit my deck for my concerns, and go back to playtesting the start up, but instead, I think I want to play some matches.

Matches

Perhaps the best way to test out your deck, at least initially, is to pit it against itself. Ideally, you should have a second person helping you, this way you don't know what the other player has in their hand. It's easy to figure out how to mess up the opponent with N if you know whether they have a good hand or not.

Now, I had match info all written out and lost it, but suffice to say, here are the general results.

Game 1: Raticate by turn 3. Won the game with effective use of hunting out HTL from the deck, and retrieving it from the discard with Sableye.

Game 2: Raticate by turn 2. Got 4 prizes, but stalled out a bit when I couldn't pull HTL out of the discard. Luckily, got Tornadus out, and used Hurricane to do the last bit of damage to knock the opponent out.

Game 3: Raticate by turn 2. Got early knock outs, and ended up using Tornadus for consistent knock outs while powering up more Raticates.

Results

Raticate is getting out pretty fast in all matches, concerns lie with getting HTL's out of the deck and back out of the discard later. Some issues getting other Raticates powered up. Ether and Pokedex definitely don't work in this deck in matches, though Pokedex at least gets Supporters out sooner if running dry, but it's probably better to put in more Supporters. Ditto isn't working out at all.

At this point, the deck needs to be edited, however, let's also consider further weaknesses of the deck, because while we're editing it, this is the perfect time to start teching.

Teching

Right now, all of the Pokemon in the deck are weak against Fighting types except Tornadus, Emolga, and Sableye, which are all there for support. If a fighting deck were to come across this, problems would arise pretty quickly. Aspertia City Gym helps a bit, but it's not going to fix everything. So here are the problems we can see with the deck currently:

-Ditto not useful
-Etherdex not working
-Weakness to Fighting is a problem
-If the deck slows down opponent can catch up. There isn't really a Pokemon in the deck that can seal the deal.
-Random Receiver is too random, might as well replace them with Supporters.
-Energy is consistent enough, but not enough in the deck to warrant Ether, might want to adjust some.

So here are the initial subtractions from the deck for space:

-2 Ditto
-3 Ether
-2 Pokedex
-2 Random Reciever
-2 Darkness Energy

This means our deck is down to 49 cards, giving us 11 spaces to work with. Here are some initial boosts I'd like to make:

+1 Tornadus EPO
+2 Bianca
+1 N
+1 Super Rod (this way it can be used or Junk Hunted back if needed)
+1 Level Ball
+2 Exp Share (this way if a Pokemon gets knocked out, a basic energy on them can be used by a Pokemon on the bench with EXP Share)

This leaves us 3 spaces for teching. I want something useful against Fighting Decks, and that can be used in a pinch at any time. Since fighting Pokemon are often weak against Grass Types, we should look for an effective Grass Type.



Bam.

Double Draw is useful anytime, and Leaf Wallop could be used to sweep a fighting deck by itself.

However, this means we need grass energy. We could easily put two grass energy in, but we might as well cover more bases while we're at it:



This little guy, as you might remember, can cover both types, and unlike Prism, will still provide colorful energy for your evolved Pokemon (though, since Raticate only need colorless, the distinction isn't as important, you could really run either.)

So, Virizion is an effective tech against the opponent, and with another Tornadus, you can stall if you need to.

So, this is the final version of the deck currently:

4-4 Raticate BCR
2 Emolga DRX
2 Sableye DEX
2 Tornadus EPO
1 Virizion NVI

15 Cockfighting Society Cards

3 Skyla
4 N
2 Professor Juniper
2 Bianca

2 Aspertia City Gym

4 Hypnotoxic Laser
3 Level Ball
2 Cockfighting Society Catcher
2 Ultra Ball
2 Dark Patch
2 Switch
2 Exp Share
1 Super Rod
1 Computer Search

32 Trainer Cards

4 Double Colorless Energy
2 Blend Energy GFPD
7 Darkness Energy

13 Energy Cards

60 Total

This deck looks great, but keep in mind, it still needs to be playtested. If you want, you can build this deck, maybe in its original form, or with changes you want to use, and test it out to see what works. Maybe something doesn't gel with you in this deck. Come up with other suggestions you think will work. Even if a deck runs better or plays better, doesn't mean it plays the way you want it to. Maybe you want to be a little less aggressive, or maybe you're not a fan of winning with poisoning. The final thing to help come up with ways to fix your deck is to ask for help from others.

Outside Help

Play the way you want to, but keep in mind, asking for help with your decks is a form of constructive criticism. Not everyone is going to know that you don't like certain cards, or how you like to play, their goal is to share their experience (including playtesting decks similar to yours) to help you make your deck strategy work.

All the same, no one should tell you to change your deck strategy or tell you to "scrap your deck" and play a "better one". Some people in the community can be bad about this, especially when talking about the meta and the "BDIF" (Best deck in format, which is usually shorthand for "my favorite deck that does decently in meta"). However, don't get defensive about changes they offer to you. You're asking for help, but it's ultimately up to you whether you take their advice.

-----------------

At this point, there's not much to say as far as deck building goes. There's a few more things I'll highlight in the future as I think of it, but from now on, I think I will begin highlighting and discussing certain types of cards, to help you with coming up with ideas.

In my next update, I hope to share my experience with States last week, so, I'll see you then.

pop flyin' Gaming.

-Professor Kamak

I'd definitely be interested in signing up. I have no clue how the system works, but hey, I'm open to learn. Also, the Dragons Exalted set sounds cool to me.

Plasma Storm homie, been loving the crazy cards so far. The EX's look swagtaculous too.

Drafting works by giving players 6 booster packs to open. They then have to build a 40 card deck using cards only from those booster packs, along with as much basic energy as they want, with no trading being allowed until everything is over with. Because we're doing this online, and I'm not sure PTCGO or PlayTCG can use 40 card decks, I'll have to see what we'll need to do to fix that, which might include just having to put in 20 extra cards, which might mess with the consistency of the deck. At the very least, PTCGO will be used to give you randomized booster packs of cards to use.

What I might do is have you guys build the decks on PlayTCG, and add 20 "dummy" cards, which will be removed at the beginning of the match.

But, I'll let you guys know when we choose a set.

Also, feel free to look up the sets available to you for background information. No harm in doing some preliminary studying to help decide. :P

Here are the sets available to look at

To help catch up on updating, here's the next one, my report on my experience at States.

Texas State Report



So, this was my first States competition, and the first time I really traveled more than an hour to compete. Luckily, I wasn't driving, and I had 3 people going with me to compete. Even though the competition was on Saturday, we decided to head out at noon on Friday so we would have plenty of time to relax and get in some preliminary gaming. Traffic was a bit terrifying at Dallas (who would make it to where it's impossible to get to the exit you need because of on ramps!?), but we got there okay. After some issues with our room (we reserved a room with two double beds, but apparently they gave them all away... whoops. Time to put 4 people in two single wide beds), we got checked in, and just in time to rush to the ballroom and get signed up for the Draft Tournament. We were originally going to play in the No Rares tournament (constructing a deck with no rare cards and no catchers), but we're glad we skipped out, as the Tournament lasted much longer than we really wanted to be up that day. At this point, I'm running on 4 hours of sleep, so I'm still aware, but I'm definitely feeling the effect of lack of sleep.

Friday Night Events

So, after signing up for the draft tournament, we found out it was a rotation draft, meaning that players would be getting into 8-10 person pods, open their pack, take one card out, and pass the rest of the cards to the person next to them. This would be repeated until each player had 60 cards, all from different packs. I unfortunately had to pass along a Hypnotoxic Laser in my first pack, because I got a reverse Holo Giratina that called out to me. Eventually, when I was done, I ended up with a lot of Zubats, Golbats, a Crobat, a Lotad line, Manaphy, Ralts, and Kirlia. I built them into a deck along with two Bicycles and an Ether (augh, so useless! XD). The players were divided into the 3 sections (Masters (my group), Seniors (High school age, basically), and Juniors (middle school and younger)), and paired up. There would be 3 rounds total. My friend Kelly pulled a Shiny Blastoise, and my other friend Axel got a Zapdos EX, so they were both pop flyin', though neither could put them in their decks (Axel didn't have any other good Electric Pokemon, and this set doesn't have any Wartortle or Rare Candy, making Blastoise impossible to use no matter what).

So, time to fight!

Round 1: Bye

Welp. I was the odd duck out. Kinda disappointed because I wanted to play, but I guess it's a free win, even if it means little. Getting a bye in a big tournament would be bad though.

Round 2: Vs. Donphan deck.

I played Lotad against Phanpy, and in two turns, I knocked it out due to its weakness to water. I was pop flyin' with the win, but disappointed that the match didn't last. It always sucks when a match ends too soon.

Round 3: Vs. Druddigon

He started Druddigon against my Zubat, which made me sweat it out a bit, luckily, I ended up getting Manaphy out and put it as the active Pokemon, forcing him to attack it. When he knocked it out, I was able to get Ludicolo out of the deck and get it going. After that, Ludicolo swept him, and he damaged himself from confusion. In case Ludicolo were to be knocked out, I got Crobat out. The game could have gone either way, but that confusion damage was his undoing. Great game.

Being the only person with 3 wins, I won the Draft in the Master's division! Neat. Normally I'd get more booster packs as a prize, but they ran out when too many people signed up. Oh well. We all got a special "Texas State" die for competing Friday night, and we got to see all of the Video Game players get excited. There wasn't very many of them though, VGC hasn't really caught on too much yet. The No Rares Tournament was still going.

By this point, it was 10:30, we were all tired and hungry, so we drove across the highway to eat at Whataburger. I enjoyed a patty melt and a shake, and when we came back, we joked that our parking space, the only one available when we left, was going to be taken by the person in front of us.

He almost did, and Kelly was about ready to smack us all for joking about it. Fortunately, he drove past it, so we got back our spot.

We got back to the room, playtested our decks a bit to see if we needed any changes. Axel was running the Darkrai HTL Hammers deck, which basically exists to frustrate you until you lose. Kelly ran a slightly modified version of her Eeveelution deck, and was hoping to mess with some of the players that wouldn't expect her. Austin was running a Lugia Landorus Tornadus deck. After boring them with tournament rules and guidelines so they wouldn't have to worry about misplaying, we finally went to bed with under 6 hours to go until we needed to wake up. However, because of how uncomfortable the room was (the beds were still, and every time you moved in the bed, the sheets scraped against you and made a loud sound, augh. And don't even get me started on how bad the shower was that evening), none of us got more than 4 hours of sleep that night.

Saturday Tournament

Breakfast was a bust since all that was quick was Starbucks, which was packed with other players (and also Beauty Pageant Mothers. Yeah, that was going on the same day). I just ate a nut bar I brought along. We got in line and confirmed for pre-registering the week before the event. We also turned in our deck lists and dried beans (for the food drive) and recieved a ton of raffle tickets. Axel ended up winning everything, because he's a big buttface that cheated. :I

Anyways, we played around for awhile, Axel beat me with Darkrai in a playtest, and I became a little worried about my deck.

But before I get any further, we need to discuss my deck.

Decklist:

I ran a double Klinklang Cobalion deck. The basic strategy is to get PlasmaKlang out to block EX cards from attacking my Metal Type Pokemon. The other Klinklang is there to move energy around to power up whatever I want. This opens up my attackers to mess up their field in various ways with little retaliation, since most meta decks run with EX cards. For those of you who don't know, this is an EX card:



They're notable in the current format for being generally overpowered and easy to get out because they're Basic. If they get knocked out though, the opponent gets to draw 2 prizes. Naturally, I love picking a deck that will take some of them down a peg.

Here's my actual list with relevant links to cards you may not know:

4-2/2 Klinklang (The Klinks come from Dark Explorers and have a retreat cost of 3 so I can use Heavy Ball. The Klinklangs are the BW Shift Gears one and "PlasmaKlang". There's a 2-2 split so I can pick and choose.
3 Cobalion EX (Gets rid of special energies, and can get through other KK decks)
2 Cobalion NVI (Capable of locking the opponent from attacking)
2 Durant DRX (the one we know about, for pulling things out)
1 Registeel EX (Triple Laser spreads damage and kells Eelektriks)
1 Keldeo EX (Capable of Rushing In without needing to use retreat costs, and good for getting rid of poisoning, also good for Fire types)
1 Moltres NXD (For Mirror Matches to get easy prizes)

18 Pokemon

4 Skyla
4 N
3 Juniper

1 Computer Search
4 Rare Candy
4 Switch
3 Pokemon Catcher
3 Heavy Ball
2 Ultra Ball
2 Max Potion (discard all energy attached to a Pokemon to heal all damage. Useful to use if you can move all of the energy off beforehand)
1 Tool Scrapper (Gets rid of those annoying tools, especially useful for Garbodor's Ability Lock)

31 Trainer Cards

9 Metal Energy
2 Prism Energy (for Keldeo EX and Moltres)

11 Energy

60 Total

So, let's get to the matches.

Pre-Round 1

It took forever to get started because of registration, and people being confused. Luckily, to speed things up, this year, instead of relying solely on pairings being printed and posted on the wall (because holy shit, 300 people gathering at a wall for table numbers would be terrible), a QR reader program was used to alert people to where they needed to sit. It was very nice for people who had smart phones, which was the vast majority.

I sat at my table, and the girl across from me didn't know the pairings were up, or about the program. She had to lug a lot of stuff with her for her boyfriend, who was in the bathroom at the time, only to find out that she was sitting at the table next to me. I got to talk to her while I waited for my opponent to arrive, and found out her name was Samantha. This was her second States, after bringing an illegal deck to play with last year and being given a preconstructed deck to play the tournament with. She said she lived north of Austin and was working on her Professorship so that her league application would look better, since it didn't go through. She was impressed to hear I was a professor.

Finally, my opponent showed up, and the three of us talked while the professors and judges got everyone organized. The Judges then got up on stage and sang "Another One Calls the Judge" (A parody of "Another One Bites the Dust" that's a joke amongst judges), and soon, we were ready to start.

I shook hands with the opponent, who was cosplaying as Nate (a very nice Cosplay at that), and it was time to begin.

Round 1: Vs. Quoc N. (Eel Deck)

This game almost started terribly. Registeel was my starter, which was perfect, but on turn 2, when I went to look for my Rare Candy to get PlasmaKlang evolved, I searched my deck and found none. I run 4 of them, and I was sweating that all of them might have ended up prized. Luckily, I skipped over one when I looked the first time, but indeed, 3 of the 4 Rare Candies I had were prized. I got PlasmaKlang running, and he didn't really have an answer to it besides Rayquaza. I killed 3 of his Eels at once with Triple Laser, and that got my Rare Candies back to set up my other Klinklang. After that, I just hammered away with Cobalion EX, and he couldn't do much besides minor damage.

Good game, even with the lock, he had a chance to beat me if I couldn't keep switching Plasmalang out after he Catchered and damaged it. My deck ran well, and that was game.

1-0

After the match, we were given our State Promo Card (Vaporeon), and a more "official" Texas State Die. The Holofoil on the Vaporeon card was the new league standard of Cross-stitching, which looks great.



Very nice. The rest of my group didn't fare as well, if I remember right, but since my match took awhile (as all of my matches would do, given the nature of my deck), there wasn't much time to talk, as round 2 was ready to begin.

My opponent was an older man, he was a bit jokey, and seemed a bit condescending to his friend sitting next to him, and insisted his deck was just "pretty". Overall, he was a nice guy to me while we were playing, so I appreciated that. We shook hands, and started the game.

Round 2: Vs. James L. (Everything But the Kitchen Sink)

When he said his deck was pretty, he wasn't kidding. Everything was full art Pokemon cards and reverse holos. There were Pokemon of many types in the deck, mostly EX cards though. I got a good start (though if I didn't go first, he was going to donk me with my lone Klink, whoo), locking him from hitting me with EX cards, but unfortunately, he pulled out something I wasn't really prepared for, Reshiram. Outrage meant if I couldn't kill it in one hit (Keldeo was needed for that), it'd hit me much harder. I misplayed a bit, letting him take my Registeel out with Reshiram. He also forced me to play all 4 of my Klinklangs. It was down to his last prize, and my last two, and all he had left to hit me with was a damaged Reshiram with no energy. If he got a DCE, I was boned. He attached Fire energy, and I breathed a sigh of relief. However, he Ultra Balled a Ho-oh EX to the discard, managed to flip heads on Rebirth, got it onto the field, and Energy Switched an energy to Reshiram for the win. Good game.

1-1

This round, I think everyone but me won, though Kelly was upset because she got a bye this round. That sucked.

Third round started quickly, and I ended up sitting next to the professor that ran the draft tournament, who was maybe a few years older than me. He seemed a bit icy, not being very talkative or friendly when I asked him if he had good matches, but whatever. My opponent, however was pretty nice, and I recognized him from Battle Roads in the fall. We shook hands, and started up.

Round 3: Vs. Michael D. (Keldeo Blastoise)

This match was one of my favorites. I have a favorable match up against Keldeo, but they're still capable of tricks. I got my lock up before they had Blastoise going, so even though they could power up their Pokemon, they couldn't do much. I had fun trying to get rid of their Squirtles and Blastoises, and they dropped the big threat, Moltres, but he couldn't get the energy out for it, so it sat there, waiting for the next turn to strike.

At this point, I had to play smart. I got another Plasmaklang going with the third Klink I dropped first turn, I Junipered my hand away, and I ended up with just what I needed. I catchered out Moltres, and sent out my regular Cobalion. I piled my energy on it, and put my hopes into Iron Breaker. Moltres wouldn't be able to attack unless he pulled a Switch (Keldeo would rush in, Moltres would switch back, and the attack lock would be gone). However, he needed an energy and a Switch, so a Supporter was needed. He didn't pull it, and at that point, I swept his Blastoise and ended any possibility of another Moltres coming out. Good Game.

2-1

At this point, it was lunch time. I had a sandwich from Starbucks that was drrrrrrry as could be, even when doused in condiments. We noticed a few pageant girls wandered over to the Pokemon side, and some kids gave them some cards for free. They loved watching the matches, but of course, the moms eventually dragged them away. It was a bit of a shame, but I hope maybe this sparked an interest for them to follow.

Round 4 was ready soon enough, and surprise surprise, I was facing a familiar face, my new friend, Samantha. We chatted about our matches, and then shook hands to begin.

Round 4: Vs. Samantha H. (Victini EX/Big Basics)

She ran a EX heavy deck, but started with a card I definitely do not like: Reshiram. It was her only defense against my deck, and if I could knock it out, the game was mine. I catchered it away a few times to build up my defenses before it could attack. She was murdering my Klinklangs, and Max Potion was terrible when I was so close to beating her. However, I was eating up all of her DCE, which made it harder for her to get powered up. Eventually, I had a Ultra Ball and a Computer search in my hand, with 4 cards to discard and a Juniper for hand refresh. All I needed was my Keldeo EX, and a Prism Energy to beat Reshiram.

Both of them were prized.

I had to hope I could either knock it out without, or that I could kill other Pokemon to get Keldeo out. However, I didn't have the time, and with my Klinklang Lock destroyed, Everything she had was free to attack. Good game, though I wish prizes didn't mess with me. :P

2-2

Oh well. At this point, I'd need all 4 wins in the remaining rounds to even have a shot at getting into the top 16. Kelly and Axel already didn't qualify, and Austin was 2-2 with me. It's do or die time.

Round 5 started quickly, and I shook hands with my opponent, who was very nice, but seemed a bit focused on doing his best to make top cuts. He had some bad games, apparently, so that sucked. However, I wanted that Top Cut too. :P

Round 5: Vs. Marcos G. (Darkrai Hydreigon)

He Mulliganed 3 times, and I only drew twice because I got good cards. When we flipped, I saw he had Deinos, and knew he was running a similar strategy to me in moving energy. My main threat from him was my Klinklangs being one-shotted by Hydreigon's attack. As such, I focused on getting Cobalion EX out, since the only way most of these decks can attack with Hydreigon is with Blend Energy GFPD. I had some trouble, they managed to kill one of each of my Klinklangs, but I got the other two out before any damage could be done. I was able to waste a couple of blend energies, but they max potioned to keep Hydreigon alive. At this point, they were hoping to stay ahead on prizes, as they knew they couldn't kill me. I got rid of the third Blend Energy, and their last one was prized. Max potion kept them in the game, but eventually, time was called, and they decked out before the 3 turns could be finished. Even if they didn't though, I would have passed them in prizes. Good game.

They were definitely bummed by losing, but admitted this was a really great game, since both decks run a bit slow, and were evenly matched. They ended up walking away before we signed the match slip, so I had to call a judge to call them back. We were both embarrassed about forgetting, but at this point, it was getting to be about 8 hours since we woke up. We were also the next to last match.

3-2

Austin did similarly to me, so we were both in the running for Top Cuts still. Onward to Round 6! I was definitely nervous, but the guy I played was pretty cool and joked around a bit. We shook hands, and it was ready to do or die.

Round 6: Vs. Hassan K. (Garbodor)

Ah, this deck. I didn't worry about it a lot in playtesting, because I was used to it being paired with Fighting types, which are slow as hell, or Mewtwo which I resist.

But, I didn't realize how fast Landorus EX could be, or how annoying a Mewtwo with tons of DCE could be. I was able to burn through his tools with Tool Scrapper and Durant pulling it back out each turn, but eventually, Durant died, and the lock was enforced before I could get Keldeo ready with energy. Had Keldeo been powered, I could have breezed through Landorus and wouldn't have to worry about Mewtwo because of the DCE eating I'd done earlier with Cobalion EX. However, the match ended with my not being able to keep up. It came down to one energy, and I couldn't pull it. Good game. My opponent complimented my Choice of running Durant, which gave them a hard time.

3-3

So I was out of the running, and Austin was too, which meant we could head out in two rounds, which was nice considering how tired we were at this point. Kelly had an opponent that dropped, so she got an auto win. She didn't really like that though, as the bye and the auto win were her only wins so far. That kinda sucked. :/

Axel was doing fairly okay, but he had some tough matches, so he was similarly 2-4 with Kelly.

States was definitely the hardest thing we came up against.

Round 7 began, and I found myself against someone Axel had lost to. I knew the deck she was running, and I also knew she was a bit... odd. She bent her cards around shuffling, but had a Tropical Beach (worth over $100) that she was very protective of. She was definitely odd, but she was a good sport. We shook hands, and I was ready to see what she had.

Round 7: Vs. Charlotte P. (Keldeo Blastoise)

Ugh, second time playing this deck. I really wanted a Mirror match by this point, because Moltres was itching for a fight.

She got a good start and tried killing off my Klinks quickly. It took me until turn 3 to get Klinklang out, and when I did, her strategy changed to poweruing up Blastoise and catchering my heavy EX cards out to stall and wear them out. Unfortunately, I couldn't recover from that too easily, and a little bit of misplaying occurred (I should have used Tropical Beach one turn instead of passing. Dumb dumb). It came down to her needing an energy with 2 cards in her hand (I N'd her). She drew, played Computer Search, and had no energy. However, she pulled out Energy Retrieval, all of her energy was on the field, so she Rushed in a Keldeo EX, then manually retreated it for 2 energy. She simply pulled them out, and attached them to Blastoise for the game. Good game.

3-4

At this point, I had great matches, but I really hoped I could break even. It was 5 pm at this point, and Round 8 was ready to begin. I sat down, shook hands with my opponent, and got ready for the best game of the day.

Round 8: Vs. Paul N. (Basic Eels)

He definitely started sweating when he saw my Klinks, and when I got both of them up by turn two along with a Registeel leering at him, he knew things were going to happen. He started dropping Zekrom, which had similar properties to Reshiram, only with recoil damage. I knew I had to play it careful. Both of us had slow points, and me managing to kill 2 eels set him back a good amount, however, one he got his Zekrom's ready, they were able to hammer me pretty bad until I could catch up. I N'd him down to one card, which messed him up for so long. Finally, I catchered out a wounded Zekrom and needed an energy, but didn't find it. The Zekrom was the only thing that could attack (for 1 more energy), and if it did, it would knock itself out, giving me the game. He needed an energy and a Catcher to tie, and there seemed to be no way for him to win. He ended up drawing Juniper, and pulled the Catcher and Energy. He was about to declare his attack when he saw the game would end in a tie. With that, he dropped the one card I didn't expect, and I applauded him for using an underused Ace Spec: Gold Potion. Awesome game.

3-5

With that, the Swiss rounds were over. We waited for rankings to come out, Austin got 4-4, I got 3-5, and Axel and Kelly ended with 2-6. Poor Kelly. :/

Out of 236 Masters, this was our ranks:

103rd Austin
132nd Me
145th Axel
146th Kelly

Not too bad, right around the middle of the pack.

In total, 34 people qualified for Top Cuts, but since only 16 could be taken (States Rule), 18 players who faced the "easiest" match ups and had a 6-2 win streak were turned away. Had we had 20 more people in the Masters Division, we would have had 1 more round, and the top cuts could have been clearer. It really sucked for those people, but nothing could be done. I think Samantha and her boyfriend were high up there, though I'm not sure if either of them Top Cutted. I'll be interested in meeting up with them at later events.

Around this time, the Juniors and Seniors had finished entirely, and Christine (the Professor/North Texas Tournament Organizer) was giving the winners their prizes. We got to watch as she shook each of their hands, and gave a short speech on how, as a professor, she was proud of each of them, handing them awards and booster packs. Definitely a cool thing for the kiddos.

This was the largest States tournament this year, with over 350 entrants total, which rivals the amount of people you'd see at a Regional Tournament (usually 400-500 people, and only at 5 places in the country at once). The fact that it ran so smoothly, with very little delay was great.

Well, anyways, we got out of there ASAP. We wanted to get food (eating at Cracker Barrel, first good meal in a long time), and get home to finally sleep. Naturally, I pretty much passed out for all of Sunday.

Now, time to summarize the whole thing:

Props:
+Won the Draft tournament (possibly a fluke, but oh well)
+Had great matches
+Did well for my first time
+The event was smooth
+No bad matches
+Everyone I played against was really nice and talkative. Very refreshing after the quiet bitterness that often surrounded Battle Roads. We all knew it was a big competition, but that didn't mean we couldn't have fun
+The Vaporeon Promo and the two Texas State Dice were pretty cool
+Had lots of fun with my friends, and we're hoping to do this again
+Was iffy about Registeel being in my deck, but man, he was a trooper in bodaciously EVERY game. Maybe he should get more focus.
+Was complimented on my choice of cards, including using Durant to pull cards back out.

Slops:
-Would have been nice to get a reward for the Draft Tournament. :C
-Tired
-Hotel was "nice" but the amenities and service left much to be desired. I'd actually be rustled if I had to spend $190 on the room rather than $90, and with that being split 4 ways, it was fine. Still not pop flyin' that Austin ended up having to sleep on the floor (though, the bed was big enough for the two of us, those were wiiiiide single beds)
-Wish I did a bit better, some silly mistakes were made, but things were out of my hands
-Really wish I could have mirrored another Klinklang, especially since they were everywhere. Moltres ended up being useless

----------------

So, that's my report on the event. I hope all of the information was easy to understand (though this post is long!), but if you're scratching your head about some of the meta jargon, feel free to point it out for explanation.

Next time, I'll be fondly reminiscing on the glory days of the TCG and my league play. Get ready for some nostalgia!

pop flyin' Gaming.

-Professor Kamak

Gonna vote Boundaries Crossed or Plasma Storm.
If only so I can tell the draft cards apart.

Would anyone mind critiquing a deck I made?

as in, I have the physical cards, and they are by no means new.

Whoops, I am terrible and have not had time to update. I will try to fix this. in the meantime, we have two votes for Plasma Storm, if we get 1 more, that will be the set we will draft. If you guys want to draft another set, be sure to vote. I hope to have a draft at least every other month, so don't worry if we don't do the set you want. I'm hoping to make the decision by tomorrow, and then sign ups will be available. People who voted on the sets will have first dibs on slots. If you're worried about missing out, you can put your name in now to reserve a spot, but keep in mind, the set may not be set in stone.

For my records:

People with first dibs (currently):

Tammerath
Blitz Walrus
Alec



I'm not quite as polished on the older cards as I used to be, but I can take a crack at it. I am terrible for not replying to this sooner but I figured I'd be updating, aaaaaaah.

Anyways, is that nostalgia I hear? You know what that means, it's time for HoP!

History of Pokemon: All that Glitters is not Gold and Silver



With the leagues ending their first year, changes were going to take place. Not only did WotC have to deal with the Sneasel fiasco, but also, older cards were overwhelmingly used instead of the newer ones, which didn't encourage players to use (or more importantly, buy) newer cards.

To temper this, something was set into place. This decision has remained into the current game, and it can be a very divisive issue for players.

I'm talking, of course, about the format.

Modified Format

Modified Format was a concept made to keep the game "fresh" and current. Japan had implemented a similar concept (though I cannot find good information on how they did it before R/S right now), and so Wizards decided it was needed for the game. Until awhile ago, I didn't even know Modified existed in the WotC days, mainly because most leagues didn't obey it (plus, the format was mainly used for official tournaments and big events). After all, leagues were for fun, and what was fun about checking everyone's decks for new cards and telling people to change their decks?

Now, what did the format actually do to the game?

Well, for one, the first 4 sets of cards were not allowed. This meant Base Set, Jungle, Fossil, and Base Set 2. When the format started, Rocket, Gym Heroes, Gym Challenge, Neo Genesis, and Neo Discovery were all you could draw from. This killed a lot of admittedly broken cards that in Base Set that didn't have a place in the game (Trainers). Fans were, to say the least, not very pleased, but since it didn't affect most people besides the competitive scene (who usually used new Pokemon anyways, as they were the strongest and easiest to use). However, the new sets were still built to supplement the older ones, so taking out some of the cards made for an incomplete game. It was madness.

But luckily, early on in the format, we were going to receive the next set. The Fossil of Gen 2 to cover the last of the Pokemon.

Neo Revelation



Like the first two Neo sets, this one also had a 9 card mini-set to tease the set. This time, however, all 9 cards made 3 scenes, similar to the Tropical Beach mini-set.

The most obvious to fans were the trio of Raikou, Entei, and Suicune. The other trios were a bit... odd. Lugia, Ho-oh, and Skarmory made a flying trio, and Sudowoodo, Sneasel, and...



Celebi?

Yup, much like the Japanese fossil set, this set didn't shy away from putting the secret legendary in it. There was also a Holofoil Celebi card in the main set.



My favorite card from the set.

The set was pretty small though. Which, of course, meant things were likely going to happen when it was brought over by WotC. Fans were preparing for the worst, that there were going to be regular and holofoil versions of each of the rare cards.

However, to the surprise of most fans, this did not happen. The set was made of the basic set cards and the file cards, giving us 64 cards.

Or rather, 66.

That's right, there were two secret cards, for the first time since Dark Raichu. And they were highly sought after. There was a saying back then that "foil sells" referring to the holofoil cards that were loved and sought after by anyone buying the cards. These were certainly no exception.



Yup. Shining Pokemon.

The odds of getting these cards in Japan was 1 in 300 packs, making them extremely hard to get. Shining Gyarados was the hardest amongst the two, as Shining Magikarp was released as a promo before being rereleased in the set. Overseas fans scrambled to grab up these cards, and often paid more than $300 for each of them.

When the cards came overseas, it seems the pull rates were tweaked in our favor, but these cards were still very hard to get.

Shining Pokemon also introduced a rule. Only 1 Shining Card could be in a deck. Because of this Rule, Shining Gyarados was a basic Pokemon, the first time an evolved Pokemon could be basic.

There was also one odd card in the set.



That's strange. Dark Pokemon hadn't been in the series since Team Rocket. Why would they make this card...

Unless...

Dark Pokemon were making a second appearance, and they were going to have a counterpart.

Neo Destiny



The final Neo Set. This set was remarkable in that all 113 cards in the set in Japan made it to the US unchanged. No added cards, no cards substituted, just a straight release. It's also the first set where the set symbol had color instead of being black and white.

This set centered around Light and Dark Pokemon. Like Dark Pokemon, Light Pokemon were different. Whereas Dark Pokemon had less HP and did more damage, Light Pokemon did less damage and had more HP. Their attacks also tended to help other Pokemon on the field.



Two of my favorites in the set.

Neo Destiny also featured an Energy Card to benefit Light Pokemon and Shining Pokemon.



Similarly to Shining Pokemon, Miracle Energy could only be in your deck as a 1 of.

And Neo 4 also featured a card that was released with many prints in Japan as a regional promotion, Lucky Stadium.

But, not to be outdone by Revelation, it also had 8 more Shining Pokemon. All of which had a foil treatment for the Pokemon artwork.



They also got their own rarity symbol, to mimic the game.



This gave every type a Shining Pokemon, with two Water Shinings. And in Japan, another Shining Card was made as a promo that never came to the US.



You can't even begin to tell how much I want to get this card.

Someday.

Speaking of disappointments that didn't make their way out of Japan, here's the next set, which has another familiar theme.

Pokemon Vs.



This set was analogous to the Gym sets, featuring the Johto Gym Leaders, the Elite 4 of Johto, and updated teams for the Kanto Gym Leaders (about two cards each).



This set reprinted a lot of vital Trainer cards, and the only Uncommon Cards in the set were Trainers. This lead to things such as Lance's Charizard being common.

In addition, all Pokemon were basic.

And in Japan, they were sold as 30 card random assortments, each pack would have two types in it that were predetermined. The only cards that could be pulled in all packs were Colorless Pokemon, Holofoil Darkness and Metal Pokemon, and Trainers.

There were also another type of card introduced, Technical Machines.



These gave Pokemon additional moves to use, but were discarded at the end of the turn, making them inconsistent.

In addition, Burned was officially made a Special Condition, and Special Conditions were made a formal thing. No longer would cards list "This Poke-Power can't be used if this Pokemon is Asleep, Confused, or Paralyzed", but would go to a new terminology of "is affected by a Special Condition".

This set also altered the formatting of the cards, giving them bigger edges. This was to get people ready for the release of future sets, but we'll get to the reason next time.

In all honesty, WotC was afraid of this set. It could cause a lot of problems for the format, and drown the game with powerful basic Pokemon. Keep in mind, most fully evolved Pokemon were the rarest cards in a set, meaning if you wanted to build a deck around them, you needed to get a lot of packs (or buy online). Having a set where everything was useful made it impossible to make a balanced set of Commons, Uncommons, and Rares, and people would flock to the new set. Even so, waiting was not an option. WotC needed a new set to tide fans over until Japan released the next one.

This is when WotC decided to go rouge. They were going to release their own set of cards yet again. They had many plans for sets, but this time, they decided to try to play it safe.

There was no turning back at this point.

Legendary Collection



The set that would be "Base Set 3". Rather than rereleasing the Neo cards, WotC did perhaps the dumbest thing ever.

They rereleased Gen 1 cards, many of which were in Base Set and Base Set 2. The cards went into Rocket, and was well liked by competitive players for a couple of reasons.

First, the cards that were brought back were legal, so if you had the original copies of them, you could play those instead of the new versions in tournaments. This brought good old cards that players liked back, without keeping the broken cards WotC hated. Secondly, if you bought packs, similarly to the Vs. set in Japan, the Pokemon were all of the same type, making it easier to get full evolutionary lines, and made drafting a lot more fun.

However, fans were really not amused by this. Having to buy the same cards a second, or at this point, a third time was getting grating.

They did try enticing players though with something new, and unfortunately, this disease is still a part of the TCG today, making avid collectors froth over them.



Reverse Holofoil Cards. One was in every booster pack, and every card in the set had a reverse holo version.

At tournaments, this set sold out amongst collectors, but stores didn't fare as well. In any case, the results seemed "positive" to WotC at the events, which made them want to do more rereleases in the future, including a conceptual set called "Crosstrainer" which would have the full Kanto Dex of Pokemon in it. There were even ideas of a follow up for the Neo sets.

But WotC was starting to get on the last nerve of the Pokemon Company in Japan. Things were going to change very soon.

---------------

These last few sets had lots of Shining, glittering cards that were well sought after. I remember that holofoil trading was pretty big, because no matter what, you were prone to collecting multiples of the ones you already had, and for some reason, other people just couldn't seem to find the ones you had. It felt a lot like Kinstone fusing at times, where you tried to find people who were unlucky enough to need cards that you had, and lucky enough to have cards that you need.

I wanted to talk about my league play in this update, but I think it's long enough. Next time, we'll talk all about it. It might even be a short update.

But before that, I'd like to start highlighting current cards in a new segment. Hope you all will enjoy it.

And remember to vote and sign up (when it's available) for the draft tournament!

pop flyin' Gaming!

-Professor Kamak

OH OH OH KAMAK

CAN I TELL THEM ABOUT IMAKUNI?

CAN I?

OH WELL I WILL

As you saw a bit earlier, Imakuni was a rather interesting set of cards that really didn't take themselves seriously, while they WERE still playable, they weren't anything special. In a nutshell, they were "joke" cards.


Well, ok, this one was interesting. Heres what it says.

Flash! With a dazzling feeling, everything is lit up. Each player plays with his or her prize cards face-up for the rest of the game. Then, each player turns over his or her deck and plays with it face-up. Don't be embarrassed. (When a player shuffles his or her deck, he or she turns the deck over again while he or she shuffles.)

Well wouldn't THIS change a game, huh? These cards were banned from tournaments for the obvious reason of being utter jokes, but enough on the cards, WHO IS IMAKUNI?!


This guy's Imakuni.

Before you say "What the fuck is this guys problem?" Let me address his part in Pokemon in its prime.

Imakuni is well known for creating some of the music for the original Anime, I'm not going to be specific on what songs he made because Bulbapedia won't tell me, dammit.
Imakuni later became a small part of the TCG, drawing his own cards and being pictured in others.

Hell, they did this shtick up to the 3rd generation, here is Imakuni's Exploud EX.

Wanna know its ability? If its in play, you have to keep your mouth wide open until the card is gone.

Its attack is weirder.
The attacks name?
You had to write it, the name of the attack is the same as the name of someone you like.
Wow.

Each of your opponent's Cockfighting Society is now Confused. If you don't have anyone you like, you can't use this attack (even a star would be okay). If you don't have someone you like, confess so.
(Smartasses)

Now, after everything thats gone on, Imakuni had his most recent effect on Pokemon with the first Pokemon Ranger game and its sequel, as he had a small part in the character design of that game.

Thats all folks!

Eh, i might have to back out of the tourney. I'lllet you know if i do tho. And I've got a bunch of those booster pack codes if you need 'em

Been lurking in this thread for a while now. I haven't played since the early WotC days (and even then, nowhere close to competitively) but this Draft gametype looks crazy fun...

So how does this TCG online thing work? I'm guessing I need to register, does it cost anything, do I have to download something?

I will probably have to refer heavily to your guide as far as constructing a deck goes, though, I'm way rusty.

You can register on Pokemon.com if you don't already have an account. The same login is used for things like Global Link and PTCGO, so if you go to the Dream World, you're already signed up. The game itself is free to play, though to get more cards to play with, you'll need code cards from booster packs, which you can either buy the product itself to get, or you can buy codes online for about $.50 apiece. However, for this, I'll be providing codes for you guys, so no worries about costs.

You'll have to download the client, since the website was taken down because it strained their servers too much. It should work for most computers though since it's not terribly graphic heavy. If there are any problems with this, let me know and I'll see what I can do for you.

If you're new to the game, I suggest you play through the single player mode a bit. It gives you some decks to play with (each with a different focus on playing), and sets you up against basic decks. Even if you have a type disadvantage, there's usually a way to win with your deck, though it might be a bit hard.

When I give you guys the codes, you'll put them into the redemption center, and it should verify that you can redeem them immediately. If they've already been used by someone, it'll let you know, and it will let you know if the code you entered was wrong, so double check that you did it right.

Each code will get you one booster credit that you can use to redeem for any booster pack. In this draft, you'll be picking the boosters from the set that we're drafting in. You'll be able to open the boosters in your collection, and once you open them, they will disappear into your collection, so please, for my sake and yours, screenshot or make a note of the cards you get in your packs. I'm not sure if I'll ask you to turn over your results to me (I mainly just want to see what you guys get and think about how I'd approach building a deck, and maybe assist you a bit with some basic things), but at the very least, I need you guys to know the 60 cards you received.

At that point, you'll likely build your deck on Bebe's Search, adding 20 junk cards to take out at the beginning of your matches. I'll probably give you guys a week to build your decks, since you guys will likely be new at this and have other obligations, unless things go pretty quickly.

I'll post parings once everyone is ready, and we'll see how people do. Matches will be done on PlayTCG, and we'll do either a best out of 3 matches if people want, or single match fights. I'm looking for at least 3 rounds to determine a "winner" but you're free to fight as many players as you want, and if people want more "official" rounds, I can come up with more pairings.

We'll need a minimum of 4 players and a max of 8.

Voting for sets will close in about 24 hours (if no winner is decided before then), and signups will last the 24 hours after that. If you think you won't be around to sign up, or are worried that you'll lose your spot, please let me know in PM and I will see about signing you up early.

As of right now, it looks like we'll be drafting Plasma Storm, but things might change.

Prof-It! claims that alot of the technical cards are really good.

I'm still trying to understand a bit more on how the metagame works, all I can say for now is that I want to base my deck off of Plasma Storms Articuno EX and any decent Garchomp(Not sure if there are any good EX cards...). This really looks daunting, but hey, I gotta find a Hobby other than Video Games.

I'll definitely look into it when I have the time, then, prolly this weekend.

Consider me signed up.
I don't have a vote for a deck because I haven't researched them yet, I'm cool with whatevs.

Well, since one of you displayed interest in Plasma Storm, and the other wants to look into the set I'm going to lock that in as the choice.

Sign ups are now open, and will be open until either I get 8 people, or until Saturday Night 11:59 PM EST.

So far for sign ups:

SaintCrazy
Alec
Dan de Board
Need Runes4
TerraChimera
Blitz Walrus

Voters have priority, so please, will the following people give me decisions on whether you're in or not:

Tammerath

If I don't hear from you be tomorrow morning, I will be sending out PMs. If I don't hear from you after that by 6PM EST Saturday Night, you'll lose your priority status and will be at the mercy of whatever spots are left.

Hope to see you all there.

-Professor Kamak

I'm in.