Poke Press Digest Podcast: Episode 34-Discussing the Music of Pokemon TCG for Game Boy

In this episode, Anne from Pikapi Podcast drops in to talk about the music of Pokemon Trading Card Game for Game Boy. Released years before the online version, this oddity mimics some of the structure of the regular games, but the tunes are original. Between the area themes, battle music, and a song for a real-world character, it produced a very interesting discussion. As usual, listen after the outro to find out what we thought of the game itself:


Links:
Pikapi Podcast
PCN Event Info
Pokemon TCG for Game Boy Walkthrough

Livestreaming Pokemon TCG GB2 + Sword/Shield Raids

Believe it or not, there was a sequel to the Pokemon Trading Card Game for Game Boy. Released only Japan, it focuses on the Team Rocket set and features a fair number of additional cards. Thanks to a copy I picked up off of eBay and a translation, I was able to play through part of it. Sandwiched in the middle, I took some time to feature a Poke Casters Network raid night:

Livestreaming Pokemon TCG For Game Boy

In preparation for next weekend's music discussion, I livestreamed footage from the Pokemon Trading Card Game for the Game Boy Color:

The actual music discussion will be Sunday, February 2nd at 10am Central.

Pokemon TCG Team Up Prerelease Recap

Another new Pokemon TCG set is coming, so get ready for another recap! This time, I'll be going over the cards I got at the "Team Up" prerelease in Madison, WI:

September 2018 League Cup: Madison, WI

William Pierce

The following is an interview with William Pierce, who finished in the top eight of a recent League Cup in Madison, WI using a Vikavolt/Tapu Bulu deck.

Where are you from, and how did you get into the Pokémon TCG?

I’m originally from Dubuque, Iowa and have been collecting as long as the TCG has been around. I knew how to play because of the Game Boy Color game and the terrible PC game, but I did not know of a community who played where I lived, so I collected on and off for about twelve years. When Black and White came out, I began playing on PTCGO casually, but didn’t attend my first league until XY-BREAKthrough in 2015. After that, I continued to play casually and collect until Sun/Moon, when I began building more meta decks. I attended my first League Cup about a year later in January 2018 and have been to several cups and regionals since.

What's the basic strategy of Vikavolt/Tapu Bulu, and why did you choose it for this tournament?

The main idea is to use Vikavolt’s ability, Strong Charge, along with a manual energy attachment to power up Tapu Bulu’s Nature’s Judgment, which does 120 Damage + 60 more if you choose to discard all energy attached. That level of damage puts most commonly played Pokémon within one or two-shot range.

As for why I chose the deck, since it was so soon after rotation, I had no idea what to expect or even how to build without some of the key supporters that had rotated. Vikavolt/Tapu Bulu is a deck I am very familiar with, so it felt safe. Also, I feel it is one of the fastest decks in the current format due to its ability to hit for 210 damage on the second turn of the game. The main decks I was expecting at the event were Zoroark-GX, which has a terrible time against Tapu Bulu, and Rayquaza, which I had thoroughly tested against and was confident I could beat.

What are some other important cards in the deck?

The most important card in the deck for this tournament (aside from Vikavolt) turned out to be Tapu Koko. There was an unexpected amount of Buzzwole/Shrine decks, which kept me from benching too many GX Pokémon due to the buildup of damage from Shrine of Punishment. This forced me to use Tapu Koko, Oranguru, Vikavolt and even Dedenne to trade prizes evenly.

What worked well for the deck?

With Tapu Bulu’s ability to heal itself using its GX attack, if you can keep it out of one-shot range, it can take three prizes before going down. I realized that early in the tournament and made sure to play cautiously until both players were down to three prizes, at which point I could overwhelm my opponent with Tapu Bulu.

More broadly, I attribute much of my success in this tournament to my familiarity with Garbodor and Weavile and my ability to manage my Items and abilities accordingly.

What didn't work so well, and what might you change if you used this deck again?

The main thing I plan on changing with this deck is to add more dedicated one-prize attackers, such as Dhelmise. What ended up losing me the match in top eight was starting with Bulu and failing to set up before it took too much damage from Shrine of Punishment, giving my opponent a strong lead on prizes.

What are you anticipating in this new tournament season?

I am looking forward to the rest of the season because I really enjoy this format. It punishes players harshly for playing too aggressively and encourages players to weigh the pros and cons of every play. 

Poke Press Digest Podcast: Episode 10-Jirachi Wish Maker/North American Internationals 2017

This episode has two segments. The first is a discussion of the ending themes of the sixth Pokémon Movie, Jirachi: Wish Maker. Anne from Pikapi Podcast helps me sort out some of the differences between the similar Japanese and English songs.

For the second segment, we have a pair of interviews from North American internationals 2017. Find out what strategies were used by some of the top TCG players at the event.


Links:

Segment 1:
Pikapi Podcast

TCG Interviews From Pokemon North American Internationals 2017

Last weekend, I had an opportunity to interview some of the top finishers from the TCG side of the event. First, Regan Retzloff discusses how he used his "Rainbow Road" deck to win in the Juniors division:

Second, Tord Reklev, winner of the Masters Division, discusses the Garbodor/Drampa deck that he used in the tournament:

Poke Press Digest Podcast: Episode 8-If INXS Did a Pokemon Song/Midwest Regionals 2016

 This time we have two segments. In the first (0:47-43:35), I discuss Australian rock group INXS, and which of their songs might have worked for Pokémon. Like the Perfume discussion from last time, Anne from Pikapi Podcast offers her thoughts as well.

Our second segment (43:44-48:21) is an archival interview from last year's Midwest regional, where I had a chance to talk to one of the top finishers in the TCG event. This year's regional is coming up, so I figured this was a good time to bring this one back.



INXS Corrections/Notes:
-Their self-titled debut album was released in 1980, not 1979.
-Garry somehow acquired the nickname "Gary" and ended up using both.
-Elegantly Wasted Music Videos: I'm a bit uncertain which videos from the Elegantly
Wasted album were released in 1997, and which came
out later.
-2000 Olympics: According to an article on the VH1 website, they
performed at the 2000 Olympics closing cermony.
-The Switch album has 11 tracks, not 13.

Links:

Segment 1:
Pikapi Podcast
Perfume/INXS Playlist

Pokemon Sun & Moon: Guardians Rising Prerelease: Madison, WI

The following in an interview with Jake, a participant at a recent Pokémon Sun & Moon: Guardians Rising prerelease in Madison, WI.

Where are you from, and how did you get into the Pokémon TCG?

I am a Pokémon player from Hartland, Wisconsin. I used to play this game as a kid but I stopped around when I turned 11, however even then I had always kept playing the videogames and never lost my love for them. A few years ago, I was in a Walmart near my house where I saw Pokémon packs on the shelves. I had a little bit of money on me and decided to relive some childhood memories. I don’t remember the exact tin that I bought but I pulled such amazing cards, including a full art Virizion EX. The card’s beautiful texture and color was something new to me, so I looked into the game by watching YouTube videos and became hooked yet again.

Which card stood out to you the most?

This set has many new cards that have caught my attention in the last few weeks. One of them is Sylveon GX- I could go on for days about just this card alone. The first attack, Magical Ribbon, lets you search for any three cards from your deck and put them into your hand, no questions asked. With this attack you are able to that completely swing the board state at any point during a game. Fairy Wind, Sylveon’s second attack, looks mediocre at first (and most of the time it is) but it does just the perfect amount of damage to OHKO Shaymin EXs and deal 2-shots to virtually any EX or Mega Evolution Pokémon. As for Plea GX, that takes two of your opponent’s benched Pokémon and puts them back into their hand. In the right circumstances, this can be completely game changing-you could stop a mega Pokémon from coming up and killing your Sylveon, or slow any deck down to your speed to keep them from overpowering you. This card in general is definitely a strong one and my favorite by far (I swear I’m not biased because Sylveon is my favorite Pokémon).

This is the second set to use the new Pokémon GX mechanic. How do you feel those cards are shaping up as a whole?

At first when the new GX mechanic was announced as part of the game I was actually not pleased. Being the naïve person I was I thought everything was going to change and I’d have to re-invent the way I play the game. While I did have to make some adjustments, since then I have grown to love these new GXs. With this new mechanic it takes more strategy to decide when to use your one GX attack for the game. Will it be Mad Bull GX for a prize swinging knock out, or will it be Hollow Hunt GX in order to get back lost resources that you may need later on? No matter what GX attack you use, it has a purpose. That's what I love about it!

What are you looking forward to this TCG season?

Meeting new people and traveling with friends to Regionals. This may be a normal thing for some, but this is the first year I have ever traveled a lot to tournaments with my friends, and I love that when I go I get the opportunity to meet all the people that I watch on YouTube and look up to as a player. It’s always a great experience when you sit across the table from a person you’ve seen online, someone that you can just have a good conversation with, or even just a random person. There is always room for interaction during the game and it allows you to make new friends that you never would have known otherwise. It has been a great experience so far and I hope that it continues in the same way for the rest of the season.

Pokemon TCG League Cup: Madison, WI

Daniel Martinez

The following is an interview with Daniel Martinez, one of the top four finishers in the Masters Division at a recent League Cup event in Madison, WI, who used a Lycanroc deck for the tournament.

Where are you from, and how did you get into the Pokémon TCG?

I was born and raised in Stevens Point, WI. I started collecting Pokémon cards as a child when the very first set was released, however I didn’t actually learn how to play until August 2015, around the time the Ancient Origins set came out. I got into playing the TCG from a friend who invited me to a league event one night, and from there I was hooked.

What’s the basic strategy of the deck, and why did you end up using it for this tournament?

So, funny story-my friend and I were talking about this deck and I told him it could be a good deck and he disagreed, so I actually made this deck just to try and prove him wrong. The strategy of the deck is to get the Carbink out so EXes can’t hurt you, then get the Carbink BREAK out and use the attack “Diamond Gift” to start powering up Rockruff/Lycanroc on the bench. I also ran Hammers to make it harder for my opponent to get themselves powered up.

What are some other important cards in the deck?

Definitely the Silent Lab Stadium card as it can shut off Volcanion’s “Steam Up”, as well as taking care of Shaymin EX and Hoopa EX, which makes it harder for the opponent to set up as fast as they would like. Also, the Strong Energy turned out to be the one of the most important cards, especially for Shaymin and Yveltal as they have Fighting resistance, which makes it hard to one-hit KO them. Another important card to mention would be Assault Vest. It reduces damage from defending Pokémon who have special energy attached to them by 40, so it really saved me against Mega Mewtwo decks.

What worked well?

Overall, the deck flowed pretty much how I wanted it to. The energy removal from Crushing and Enhanced Hammers allowed me to get a jump on opponents, especially ones with high energy cost attacks.

What didn’t work so well, and what might you change if you used this deck again?

I never accounted for the fact that I had no way to get my Rockruff back from the discard pile. This cost me a game against a Mega Mewtwo, where my opponent just kept switching out my Rockruff and knocking them out in one shot (they have only 60 HP). I had no way to get them back so my deck was essentially shut down. I’d definitely want to run Super Rod in the future.

Pokémon TCG Sun & Moon Prerelease: Madison, WI

Zane Rego

The following is an interview with Zane Rego, a participant from a recent Pokémon TCG Sun & Moon Prerelease event in Madison, WI.

Where are you from, and how did you get into the Pokemon TCG?
I am from Stoughton, Wisconsin. I always collected Pokémon cards since I was young, so I had a lot of cards but no idea how to use them. Eventually (about a year ago), I decided to learn how to play the game through the Pokémon Trading Card Game Online.

What got you to come to this prerelease?
I really wanted to get my hands on some cool cards right away. I also thought that building your deck out of random cards was a fun idea. This prerelease was the closest to me so that made it convenient to go.

What are some cards you liked from the Sun & Moon set? What did you like about them? 
The three cards I liked the most were Professor Kukui, the Oranguru prerelease card, and Lapras GX full art. I liked the Professor Kukui card because it was interesting; it doesn’t have the same effect as past professor cards. I liked the Oranguru prerelease card because as a collector having something unique and limited is what I like. The Lapras GX full art looked super good to me-the way the card shines catches your eye with ease. Not knowing much about the meta of the game, I don’t know how well it would do in play but I really liked pulling a rare card.

What's your opinion on the new GX mechanic? How does it compare to EXes?
I think the new GX mechanic will add another layer of strategy to the game. Being able to time when you use your GX move could help you win the game or maybe flip it in your favor. Being able to shift the course of the game that way makes them more interesting than EXes to me.

What kinds of things would you like to see in future Sun & Moon sets?
Personally, I would like to see more amazing art on the cards. Being a collector, that’s what I love most about them. Cards don’t have to be an EX or full art-I like the cards that are hand-drawn or clay. In this newest set, I have a Poliwag card where the art on the card is made of yarn. I think that is super cool. I also want to keep seeing more full art trainer cards.

Poke Press Digest Podcast: Episode 3-Eric Summerer/Neil Jason

For this episode, we have two segments. The first (0:55-26:00) is an interview with Eric Summerer, co-host of a board gaming podcast called “The Dice Tower”, regarding his experience with the Pokémon Trading Card Game. We discuss how he played the game in its early days, and how he got back into it.

Our second segment (26:06-37:53) is an archival interview with Neil Jason, who wrote and arranged a number of songs from the early seasons of the Pokémon dub. These include “Viridian City” and the movie versions of the first two season themes. We also talk about some of his work as a bass player, and some of his wife’s music as well.


Links:

Dice Tower Web Site
Dice Tower Season 13 Indiegogo
Board Game Geek Web Site
Flip the Table Podcast
Ludology Podcast

Poké Press Digest Podcast: Episode 2-London International Challenge TCG/Ralph Schuckett

In this episode, we have two segments. First (0:49-11:04), I interview Michael Pramawat, the winner of the Masters Division of the TCG competition at the recent International Championship in London, England. We talk about his deck, his time in London, and what he thinks of the upcoming Sun and Moon cards.

The second segment (11:10-43:15) is an archival interview with Ralph Schuckett, a musician who composed the scores for the dubs of the first three Pokémon movies. You’ll find out how he got started in music, as well as some behind-the-scenes details of those films.



Here's a transcript of the first segment:

Steven: Hi, I’m Steven Reich here at the Poke Press Studios in Madison, Wisconsin. I’m on the phone with Michael Pramawat, who is the winner in the Masters division of the recent Pokemon International Championship that was held in London, England. And Michael, we just have a few questions. First off, where are you from and how did you get into Pokemon, both the franchise and then to competitive TCG play?

Michael: Well, I live in Seattle, Washington now and I’m originally from the East coast, in Virginia. And I got started with the Red and Blue games from way back. And from there, I just kind of got into the trading card game because some of my friends had the cards. We didn’t even know there was a game with it. Then they got a theme deck, read the rules, and just started playing from there.

Steven: What would you say was the first major TCG tournament you went into?

Michael: The first major tournament I attended was the Super Trainer Showdown. This is back when Wizards or the Coast had the license for the trading card game. It was basically the equivalent of a-I think the closest equivalent now would be a Regionals, in terms of level, but in terms of like prestige, it was basically like a Nationals.

Steven: Yeah, the Super Trainer Showdown, that was sort of the initial big events they had, before Wizards ran their single Worlds, they had the Super Trainer Showdown, which there was an east coast and a west coast event each year for a couple years. And they would have qualifying events and bring people out there. Organized play was very different back then than it is now.

So moving on from there, for this particular tournament in London, you decided to play a Yveltal-Garbodor deck, which was very popular. Actually, based on some analysis I’ve heard, it was a little over 20% of the Masters metagame at the event. What made you choose that deck for this tournament?

Michael: Well I haven’t played too much since the World Championships, so I wanted play a deck that I knew I could run. I didn’t want to play anything that maybe you needed to know all the matchups in and out, like you would for Greninja. And I wasn’t a fan of Rainbow Road. And Volcanion seemed a little clunky at times. And I had seen the recent success of Yveltal-Garbodor, so I decided to go with that deck.

Steven: Do you think that that kind of reasoning partially explained why so many folks used it at this tournament?

Michael: Yeah, I think so. It’s one of those that it’s pretty easy to pick up but has a lot of intricate plays, which is why you see such a large disparity between people who are very good at using it and people who are just kind of picking it up. There’s a very big difference in results that they get.

Steven: So you’d say it’s like maybe a decently easy to learn but difficult to master type of deck?

Michael: Yeah, yeah. It’s definitely one of those. You have to have very good fundamentals of the game in order to properly pilot the deck.

Steven: And even though it’s a very common deck, obviously there is some wiggle room. Your particular decklist does have a little bit of a twist on it. Can you sort of explain that?

Michael: Yeah, so typically what people had been using was the deck list that when I took first place at the Regionals at Florida and Fort Wayne, I believe. And those lists had things like Delinquent in it. But it had a running trend of running Trainers’ Mail. And people had been talking about, “How many Trainers’ Mail do you run? Do you run 2? 3?” Some people are going down as low as 1. And for me, once you go down to the realm of 2 Trainers’ Mail and below, the consistency boost that you get becomes so miniscule that I’d rather just have options with things like Escape Rope, Team Flare Grunt, Delinquent, Pokemon Center Lady, things like that.

Steven: So you went that route. You sort of went without it. Do you think that maybe helped you out in the tournament, and helped you eventually win it? If so, how?

Michael: Yeah, it definitely helped me win. Because the cards I put in instead of Trainers’ Mail was cards that let me have advantages in certain matchups. For example, Escape Rope was very good versus Greninja. If they put down a Bursting Balloon, you can get around it with Escape Rope. Delinquent was one of the MVPs of the deck. You only play 2 Parallel City, and sometimes your opponent will play down Parallel City in a direction that’s not favorable to you. So, you’re going to want to use Delinquent to replace their Parallel City so you can lay down your own in the direction that would be more favorable to you. So, there’s a lot of tricky plays that you can do. And it ended up being really good. I like the list a lot.

Steven: Anything you think you should have played differently in this tournament, or going forward you might play differently?

Michael: I definitely think that Yveltal, if it didn’t already have a target on its back, it definitely does have one now. So you really have to into consideration, can you deal with Zebstrika, which is a deck that got played, and fortunately for me, got 9th place. Which, made sure it was not in the top 8 for me to have to contend with. It can be a tricky matchup because Zebstrika can one-shot your Yveltal EX even if you have a Fighting Fury Belt. So, people who want to play Yveltal going forward are going to need to take that into consideration.

Steven: Yeah, that was definitely one of the surprises that came out. Didn’t quite make it into the top cut for the top 8, but definitely one of the surprises that we saw, and something I think players should keep an eye out for in the future to see if more people pick that up.

Now of course, one last thing about last weekend’s event. You did spend a couple extra days there. What did you check out in the city?

Michael: Went sightseeing around the city. I went to see Big Ben. I went on the London Eye. I saw the Abbey. And I also just went and see what kind of food London had to offer. There’s a very high Indian population in London, so I went and got some Indian food, and a bunch of places. The food was good. I liked it.

Steven: Yeah, it’s definitely a good food city. And hopefully we’ll have some more chances with that with the upcoming International Championships. We don’t know exactly when or where those will be. But I’m hoping to go to at least one of the ones outside of North America myself. Do you think you’ll be able to have a chance to go to some other ones besides the North America one?

Michael: I hope I can get to one. I’m not sure where exactly they’re going to be outside of North America, but I’ve been hearing Australia. So, we’ll see. It’s definitely easier for me to go to an English-speaking country than somewhere else. But even if it’s not in an English-speaking country, I think I’d strongly consider going anyways.

Steven: Yeah, definitely something that’s on my to-do list; very excited about the possible opportunity. Alright, well, you did very well at that tournament and we’re looking forward a little bit here. So, the next logical thing is that we are coming very close to the Sun and Moon generation of TCG. Of course, the games came out back in November. The first set doesn’t come out for a couple months. What are your thoughts on what we’ve seen so far of the Sun and Moon TCG?

Michael: The set looks pretty fun. It’s definitely a breath of fresh air. But because they’ll put in the new mechanic of Pokemon GX. They’re kind of like exes back-the original exes where they could have been stage ones, stage twos, basics. It’s all over the place. And it’s just whatever the Pokemon happens to be. And the cool thing about these cards is they have a once per game attack, which is really cool. And depending on how you use that, it can come out with some pretty cool strategies. I haven’t delved too deep into the Sun and Moon strategy, but I think it looks very promising.

Steven: Yeah, it definitely has some different dynamics than what we’ve seen in the 5th and 6th generation, which are relatively similar to each other. This is definitely a bit of a turn here. So, we’ll have to see what happens. Alright, well, thank you very much, Michael. This has been Steven Reich from the Poke Press Studios in Madison, Wisconsin on the phone with Michael, the winner in the Masters division of the TCG competition at the recent London Pokemon International Championship.

Transcript by GetTranscribed.com

Pokémon TCG Steam Siege Prerelease: Madison, WI

Glen Ausse

The following is an interview with Glen Ausse, who participated (along with his son) at a recent Pokémon TCG Steam Siege Prerelease in Madison, WI.

Where are you from?

We’re from the Madison area.

How did you and your son get into Pokémon?

My son was introduced to Pokémon cards while attending camp last summer. A number of the kids were bringing the cards to camp and trading them and playing a simplified version of the game. He was really interested in the colorful cards and the social aspect of the game. That meant of course that he needed some cards for him to join in the fun, so we bought him a few tins to start off his collection.

After camp ended, my son wanted to continue playing so I located a local game store, where we quickly learned that they were not really using the Pokémon TCG rules at camp (for example, they didn’t use any Energy cards and just used any attack their Pokémon had). So we decided we needed to learn the rules so he could continue playing. That’s where I started to get more involved-I needed to learn the game myself so I could teach it to him and help him with questions and develop his skills. He learned quickly and his grasp of the strategy of the game often catches me by surprise. This year he even started a Pokémon Club at his elementary school (2nd graders) and I have gone in a few times to help teach the club members.

What’s it been like trying to learn about Pokémon as a parent?

I am a long-time gamer (RPG, strategy/war games, board games), so it wasn’t as hard for me to learn as it might be for others. I also have a few friends that play or have played Magic, so I was aware of the concepts of collectible card games but had never played them myself. We started by getting a couple of theme decks and a few card lots on eBay. We found a number of helpful videos on how to play on YouTube to get the basics down and eventually began attending Pokémon casual play events at local game stores. After we became comfortable with the basic rules we started attending the league events and that has become a weekly thing for us. That league play has helped us pick up some of the finer details and strategies for playing, deck building and trading.

The prerelease you attended was for the Steam Siege set-what are a few cards from that set you found interesting?

The stand out cards for me in Steam Siege are the new trainer cards Pokémon Ranger, Special Charge and Ninja Boy. Pokémon Ranger is useful because it allows players to bypass the effects of many popular “shut down” attacks like those seen on Jolteon, Seismitoad and Giratina EX. Special Charge will likely become a mainstay for decks (such as Night March) that rely on Special Energy Cards, allowing them to recover two of them from the discard pile. Finally, Ninja Boy is sure to create some surprises and interesting strategies with its ability to switch out the active Pokémon with another from your deck.

I also like the rereleased Yveltal, the new Yveltal BREAK and the full art Professor Sycamore cards. My son is looking forward to trying some strategies with the new dual-type Pokémon like Volcanion EX.

This is the second set using the new prerelease format. What are your thoughts so far?

I think the addition of the Evolution pack has really added to the playability and consistency of prerelease decks. Both my son and I were able to easily include ten useful Trainer cards to our decks with the new format. Before the addition of the Evolution pack we were lucky to find one or two useful Trainer cards. Without Trainers it was hard to employ any kind of strategy and it came down to basically the luck of the draw. The new format is much more fun to play.

One thing I have noticed is that if you are lucky enough to pull an EX card in a prerelease (like I was this time) it can really give your deck a power advantage. Maybe they could include one random EX in each prerelease package and place a limit of one EX in prelease deck builds to even that out.

Any general suggestions for other parents?

Get in there and learn to play, it is much more fun to play with your kids than just to watch them play. Start off with a couple of premade theme decks in a causal play environment. There are some good “how to play” videos on YouTube. The Pokémon TCG Online application is also a great place to learn the game.

Pokemon US Nationals 2016: Seniors TCG Winner Interview

At this year's Pokemon US Nationals, we got a chance to interview Brady Bourgeois, winner of the TCG event in the Seniors Division. Brady used a Giratina/Seismitoad  deck, with a few tweaks for this event:

Transcript:

Steven: I’m here with Brady Bourgeois, who is the winner of the TCG Seniors division at this year’s tournament. And Brady, we just have a few questions. First of all, where are you from?

Brady: I’m from St. Louis, Missouri.

Steven: So yep, we get people from all over the country. And what was the deck that you decided to play for this tournament?

Brady: Giratina-Seismitoad.

Steven: And what made you choose that particular deck for this tournament? Were you expecting a certain metagame? What went into the strategic choice there?

Brady: I knew there was going to be a lot of Night March and Vespiquen bees and Vespiquen. So, I decided that Giratina-Seismitoad would have amazing matchups against those. And it also had a good matchup for Mega Rayquaza, because of Giratina’s ability blocking Mega attacks. And it also had a good matchup against Mega Manectric. So, I knew it had good matchups most of the way around. It had a bad matchup to Greninja, which people thought was going to come. I thought I was going to hit a few Greninjas today, and might lose a few matches, and might get kicked out of the tournament.

Steven: Well, you certainly didn’t in the last couple rounds on your way to the championship, so that was pretty fortunate. Were there any fine tuning adjustments? Any specific cards you balanced out of the deck? Any adjustments you made there for this specific tournament?

Brady: I got rid of Hex Maniac and all the Super Scoop Ups and AZ and Garbodor, a two-one Garbodor line to block Abilities to further beat down Night March because of Mew, so that they can’t use Mew anymore, and I also have a better matchup against Greninja.

Steven: Yeah, being able to shut off abilities is obviously very important. Now obviously, your Giratina has one, but unless you’re playing against a Mega, you don’t have to worry about that too much. Alright, so you had your deck, you had your strategy there. Let’s go to the finals. You were on-stream for those, as well as the top 4, if people want to take a look at that. But let’s focus on the finals. You were pairing up against a deck that was playing Mega Manectric against Jolteon EX. So obviously, Giratina has a good matchup against that, just Jolteon EX is something to watch out for, isn’t it?

Brady: Yeah. You have to keep pressure on really early. And you have to use your Giratina to make sure that it can’t attach Double Colorless Energies so their Jolteon doesn’t get setup really fast. And you also try to use Crushing Hammers and Team Flare Grunt and other Items that discard energy to get rid of all of the energy on Jolteon until you can Lysandre it up twice and knock it out.

Steven: Yeah. Jolteon, because it had the attack that makes it temporarily invulnerable from Basics, is obviously a big problem. But, you work very effectively around that. Although, you did have some help in the finals. First of all, you hit heads very heads very consistently on the Crushing Hammers that you played to get rid of the Energy on your opponent’s side of the field. Even though earlier in the day, you had a streak in the top 4 where it just wasn’t coming for you. What’s it like with that card when you going from both the positive and the negative, how does that make you feel?

Brady: Well, when you hit a ton of tails, it just gets really annoying because your opponent gets a very big window to get back in the game in Energy. So, they might get a big attack off and knock out one of your main attackers, and it’s just annoying. It’s not fun. But when you get heads a ton of times, it helps you very in the long-run. Your opponent runs out of energy slowly. And, you’re also preventing them from attacking you.

Steven: Alright so, if folks have watched the finals stream, if folks at home have done that, then what they might have noticed is that during the finals match, there were a couple things that kind of got through for a little bit that shouldn’t have happened. Mainly on your opponent’s side. But, the first one happened, I think in game 1. He played a Rough Seas in order to get some damage off one of his Pokémon, even though you had used Giratina’s attack and he couldn’t play Stadiums. That was rewound fairly quickly. But, in the second game, there was a more major error. Your opponent actually had Parallel City out. And he had it pointed to him so that he could only have 3 on his Bench. And all of a sudden, he put more on, including a Shaymin. So, how did that all resolve out, and when did you realize that he had made a mistake?

Brady: I didn’t really notice it at first, because I usually have Parallel City pointed at me, because that’s the only Stadium I play in my decks. So, I’m used to having about 3 Pokémon on my Bench. And I didn’t notice it at the time, because it didn’t really matter. Actually, before they caught it, I was thinking about playing my own Parallel City in my favor to lock out his Parallel City. But, you can’t do that, actually now that I think about it. But, he got a major penalty, but it was only one Prize Card and it didn’t really affect the rest of the game. And they effectively just took the Shaymin, the cards he got from the Shaymin, and put them back on the top of the deck after showing me. It didn’t really affect the game too much, so it wasn’t a big deal.

Steven: It would be nice, obviously, if they had caught that a little bit sooner, before he had progressed and they could have at least gotten a warning instead of you getting a Prize for that. But, stuff like that does happen. And people can get a little nervous and move forward a little too quickly sometimes and that can happen. Alright. Well, of course, next month is Worlds in San Francisco. And there’s kind of a big question mark over this one because we have another set, Steam Siege, that comes out very early in August. And they’ve changed the legality rule so that it will be legal for Worlds. Do you have any opinion on that? Or, are you going to be planning anything out based on what happens with that set?

Brady: Not too much. I know I’m probably going to switch my deck from Giratina-Seismitoad to YZG or something else. But the reason why I don’t want to play Seismitoad anymore is because I think Night March is going to have a falling out with the new card that shuffles all Pokémon from both discard piles into the decks. So, Night March will not be played as much, which is one of my best matchups. So, I’m thinking about whether or not I want to play Giratina-Seismitoad or another deck.

Steven: Yeah, that’s the big question mark with Steam Siege. There’s a card coming out as a promo in Japan called Karen that is sort of a less broad Lysandre’s Trump Card, because it only shuffles Pokémon in. But, we’re not 100% sure if that’s going to come out in Steam Siege or somewhere separately, or it could even be a while. So, that’s the big question mark and we’ll know a lot more in a couple weeks. Alright. Well, thank you very much, Brady. This has been Steven Reich from the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio at the Pokémon US Nationals 2016.

Transcript by GetTranscribed.com

Cards of the Pokemon TGG Fates Collide Set (w/Marriland)

Devin (a.k.a. "Marriland") and I discuss some of the cards in the recently released Fates Collide Pokemon TCG set:

Cards discussed:

-Hawlucha
-Tyranitar
-Delphox

Transcript:

Steven: So while we are here, let’s go ahead and talk about a couple of the cards in the set. We got to see some of them today. Devin, why don’t you pick out a couple? Which ones do you want to talk about?

Devin: So, I unfortunately didn’t pull too many great cards. I didn’t pull like; any fantastic Pokémon EX until after the tournament was over. The cards I did use that were interesting for the prerelease, the one card that really sticks in my mind is Hawlucha. For one Energy, it lets you draw a card. It is a Colorless Energy. It can be put in any deck essentially, although you will want to play it in Fighting. It is so nice to have a good solid lead that you can just start with in a prerelease. So, I felt very comfortable with that. Plus, for two energy-one Fighting and one Colorless-it does thirty damage, you flip a coin, if you get heads the opponent is Paralyzed. So that is nice. The fact that it is also resistant to Fighting was an amazing help although the Hawlucha versus Hawlucha matches basically just led to a whole bunch of, “All right, we are going to just leave Hawlucha up here and set up the rest of our bench and see who goes for it first? Who is going to press the button first?” In my first battle it was me. It was really close. It actually ended up being a tie. It was just that ridiculous, but it added strategy that Hawlucha. I liked it for a card in a set. Terrible after the set is you know, not in prerelease mode anymore, but it was fun for the event.

I guess Lucario is also kind of interesting. It is very straight forward. Again, not something I would use beyond the prerelease but still kind of neat. The Tyranitar, I did pull that as my promo and it has such a high Energy cost but the fact that when you play it you get one Dark Energy from your discard pile for every Prize Card that your opponent has taken, then out of nowhere this Tyranitar can show up with five Energy, do a hundred and fifty damage. You discard the top two cards of your deck and it can do fifty more for each Supporter discarded. So, it can just come out of nowhere and really surprise you. I don’t know if I would put an Evolution line in my deck for it but it was kind of a neat concept.

Steven: It certainly could come in there in the late game. You mentioned Hawlucha. I guess, maybe it is a good thing that Resistance is not minus thirty any more.

Devin: Oh my goodness! That would have been so slow going. That would have been the worst if it was minus thirty. Even ten is bad.

Steven: Definitely there, but I guess the other cards I want to mention is in one of the packs there; one of the side packs the twenty-two carders. There is a Delphox that does damage based on the amount of Energy-total Energy in play between both players which is something to watch out for. I think that could even make it into the main tournament format.  What about you?

Devin: I have not been following competitive as much but I could see it having potential just because that is a lot of damage for just three Energy, especially since it does have at least, I am pretty sure it gets a BREAK Evolution right? I haven’t seen what it does but I think that coupled with a really solid attack would just be awesome. I got wrecked by that in round three. It was just not fun.

Steven: Unfortunately, I also saw that in round two because I made the mistake of not using the Water Pokémon in my twenty-two card pack to sort of beef things up I decided to focus more on the Fighting side of it.

All right, well, thank you very much Devin. This has been Steven Reich from Pegasus Games in Madison, Wisconsin at one of the Pokémon Trading Card Game Fates Collide Prereleases.

Transcript by GetTranscribed.com

New Pokemon TCG Prerelease Format Review (w/Marriland)

Devin (a.k.a. "Marriland") and I give our thoughts on the new Pokemon TCG Prerelease format for the Fates Collide set:

Transcript:

Steven: Hi, I’m Steven Reich, here at Pegasus Games in Madison, Wisconsin at one of the Pokémon Trading Card Game Fates Collide prereleases. I’m here with Devin, or as you know him, Marriland. This is kind of a big prerelease in a way because they changed up the way they do things here. They’ve really changed how you get packs, how you build decks, and stuff like that quite a bit. So let’s go over first of all, Devin, let’s go over some of the changes they made.

So it used to be that you would get six packs. You build a 40-card deck with Basic Energy that’s provided and then you just play a couple rounds. This time it’s a little different. You get a little package. What’s in there?

Devin: I was rather surprised when I heard they’re going to be changing how prereleases are run and you’re right. Nowadays you get a little package starting with this prerelease and it’s random. Everyone will end up with a different pack of 22 cards in addition to four packs, rather than six booster packs in the newest set like older prereleases.

It has its pros and cons. I at first thought, ‘well, are there going to just be Commons in here? Are there going to be good cards?’ And I found out today actually and it’s interesting, I’m kind of mixed on it to be honest.

Steven: Yeah, I can see some good and bad points too. but yeah, you get four booster packs and then you get the special 22-card pack that has one of four prerelease promos and then going along with that promo they have a set of about 20 or so cards that include some Trainer cards, a couple of evolution lines and some other stuff to choose from. So do you know which of the four possible insert packs did you get for your 22-card part portion?

Devin: So I ended up getting the Tyranitar promo and I guess that I’m not entirely sure what all the different ones are. This is my first prerelease. I haven’t looked-the first of this new prerelease, I haven’t looked too much into the different starter kit kind of things but I ended up with the Fighting and Dark one. So I used Lucario and Hawlucha and Carbink and I had Mandibuzz and Tyranitar lines for that. And one thing I will say, I was actually pleased to see that there is a good selection of lines and it had some Trainers in it which was kind of nice, but the fact that there are four promo cards, that’s really interesting from a collector standpoint.

Steven: That is one of the things people were kind of worried about, that since there’s no way to tell what you’re going to get until you open it, which I guess keeps it somewhat fair in a way, but it also makes it difficult to potentially get the cards you want. Now the pack that I got in there was the White Kyurem pack which comes with a similar fighting Pokémon to yours. It doesn’t have Tyranitar, obviously, but it has the Carbink and the Lucario, but on the Water side it has the “barnacle” Evolution line. I can’t remember the exact name but they have that, plus some supporters, which I think is a big thing that-a big plus, actually, going into this is that in prerelease tournaments if you’re limited to whatever is in a set, the problem you can run into there is that each set will have a different group of Supporters and it may work out okay, or may not work out very well at all, but of course,which ones you get the number can determine a whole lot. So this kind of evens it out a little bit. What do you think about the trainer selection that came in the packs?

Devin: So I’ve been there at prereleases where I’ve had to build a deck with zero Supporter cards, no Trainers, no Supporters, nothing to help. It’s like, ‘really?’ and it was refreshing knowing hey, I have some options here. I have Shauna. I have Tierno. I have a few different things that could help. Obviously, I like I drew, or I pulled an N that was really helpful in the third game that I played, but it was just really nice knowing that hey, there is some good Trainers here that can at least help. It’s not like perfect stuff that’s you know-Professor Sycamores or really good Trainer cards, but it’s at least good for prereleases which I guess is nice. It solves the problem of not having any Supporter cards in a prerelease and I do like that decision.

Steven: Yeah, I think it definitely helps maintain the balance and one thing we’ve seen in previous tournaments that the folks at home might be aware of, is that you often run into cases once EXes started coming into the metagames that people would play like one of those and then 39 mostly Energies with maybe a few Trainers if they got some of those and I didn’t particularly enjoy playing against those too much. I did try to tech against them, but I think A, having Carbink, which is a Safeguarder in this set really helps, but I think the other changes did too.  Do you think that the additional cards that are more structured kind of helped make decks that are maybe less random or stilted?

Devin: So, I like it and I don’t like it, Why I like it is the fact that now everyone kind of has a base and you’re guaranteed to at least have something that will kind of work for a deck because I’ve played prereleases where I just have nothing and it’s just, it’s not going to happen. I played prereleases where I get that one good Pokémon EX and I just played 39 Energy or whatever and I like that it’s now accessible to anyone to have at least somewhat of a working deck.

However, what I don’t like about it, is it takes away a lot of that originality. I felt like pretty much everyone was playing whatever the starter kit that they had. They were playing that. Usually maybe one line, maybe both, and then like a few other cards here and there. You saw less of the really out there kind of combos or things that might work very well in a prerelease just because you already had a lot of good stuff, or things that wouldn’t work well and you give it a shot and it works out pretty good anyhow. I think I miss that from the old prereleases where you really don’t know what you’re going to get, whereas with this, I felt like you know probably about half your deck by the time you’ve just seen the first starter kit promo card.

Steven: Yeah, you know that’s definitely an effect. The cards you get in there since they are so related, Evolution lines, you can sort of sort of just default to that. Which I guess might be a good thing for a newer players, which is what prereleases have been targeted at so that they don’t have to maybe obsess as much about what cards to put in or just not be able to figure things out from the cards they they’re getting sometimes. So maybe that helps there, but I do also see the point you’re having of that can it also reduce variety to a point that it’s sort of everyone has the same food, it’s just what garnish they put on top. So maybe there’s a happier medium to be found. So based on that suggestion, or that criticism, do you have any ideas on maybe how they can tweak it?  Obviously, each set is going to be different, the opportunities there are going to be different, but maybe if they do keep going with this system, but they want to try and improve it for next time-any suggestions?

Devin: One of my initial concerns with how this is being done was the fact we’re getting one less pack than before. We’re essentially sacrificing a pack for this 22-card kind of starter kit. So as a player and a collector I was really concerned okay, is asking to be worth my money now? And currently, I feel like there’s not quite enough of a value there. Like I wish I would have had that extra pack rather than the 22-card thing and I wish I didn’t say that. I think it made the prerelease maybe a little bit more enjoyable but then afterwards I look and I think, well, none of this really helps. I didn’t get anything good in my four packs so…and also a lot of the cards you get in the 22 well, everyone has these cards, so if you pull one normally in the set, it’s just not quite as good. I think they’re on the right track with that. I like it better than I thought I would. I was originally rather hostile to the idea, but I figure I would give it a shot and I liked it and I’ll definitely crave more of it if they’ll refine it a bit more so than we have just maybe better cards in the 22, or maybe like six options.

I don’t like the promos though. The fact that there’s four, I wish that it’d be two or maybe three. I feel like four is just too much from a collecting standpoint and it makes that just a little too random.

Steven: Yeah, I’m guessing from a packaging scenario that it was easier to have four promo cards cause there were four pack. I mean obviously, they could do two in four or two in eight. I think that might not be a bad idea if they want to continue to feature more of the set. They can try and pick out a different number, maybe six or eight different sets of cards so you are seeing more even though you’re still getting a set that’s very organized like that. Like I said, what they’re trying to do here is sort of maybe not make things quite as random, but still expose you to a larger portion of the set.

Transcript by GetTranscribed.com

Pokémon TCG WI States 2016-Masters Top 8 Interview

Justin Alford

The following is an interview with Justin Alford, one of the top 8 finishers in the Masters division of this year’s Pokémon TCG Wisconsin State Championships. Justin’s deck focused on Giratina EX, but had a few additional twists.

Where are you from, and how did you get into the Pokémon TCG?

I am from South St. Paul, Minnesota and have lived in that area my entire life. I got into the Pokémon TCG when it first came to America, but to me that doesn’t really count, because sometime soon after the Gym Heroes/Gym Challenge sets I stopped collecting the cards, and I didn’t play with very many people back then either. I regained my interest during the autumn of 2014 thanks to two key factors: My neighbor Dallas and a relatively new local game store called Level-Up Games. Level-Up had been hosting Pokémon TCG tournaments on their own for a while and my neighbor had been participating in them for some time. One day I made my first stop into the store and decided to buy some packs just to see what they were like now compared to a decade or so ago. I saw some cool things that sparked my curiosity and eventually asked Dallas for help constructing a new deck and getting information on how decks are built nowadays. After that, I went to nearly every tournament Level-Up has hosted and personally, I think I do pretty well.

What’s the basic strategy of your deck, and why did you choose this deck for this tournament? 

The deck I ran in this tournament uses the Fairy Transfer Ability from Aromatisse (XY) and Giratina EX (AOR) with Double Dragon and Fairy Energies. Double Dragons are considered any type of energy as long as they are attached to a Dragon-Type Pokémon, so I can transfer Double Dragons to other Giratina on my bench when my Active is hurt or in danger of being KO’d, then I can use AZ to remove the damaged Pokémon and resume attacking with a fresh card. There’s also the various locks that Giratina does to the opponent: Preventing Mega-Evolution damage with his Renegade Pulse ability limits some potential threats, and Chaos Wheel locks the opponent out of playing Tools, Special Energy, and Stadiums for one turn, a potentially crippling scenario for my opponent (I’m looking at you, Night Marchers).

If for some reason Giratina isn’t working out, Mega Mewtwo EX with Psychic Infinity is there to also take out threats, punishing high energy-using opponents. The result is a well-rounded, tightly built, versatile deck that can go first or second and still come out on top.

What are some of the other important cards in the deck?

While Fairy Transfer by itself is pretty good, kickstarting it with Xerneas’s Geomancy (XY) is crucial so I have plenty of energy to play with early on. A combo of Level Balls and Ultra Balls help ensure access to turn two Fairy Transfer which in turn helps ensure I can attack. For Pokémon Tools, since Giratina and Xerneas both have an attack that does 100 damage, I added Fighting Fury Belts for an extra ten to get KO’s on Shaymin EX. The extra HP also helps prevent potential one-hit KO’s from Night March, or even help in mirror matches (I had a friend in the tournament who played a similar deck). I also threw in Ace Trainer with the idea that I will usually lose a Pokémon to my opponent before my strategy to lock their hand takes effect (a well-timed Ace Trainer cripples their options even more when combined with Chaos Wheel). For Stadiums, Fairy Garden is almost a no-brainer in a deck that runs Fairy Transfer-after all, who doesn’t like free retreat? One more card that helps cover more bases is Hydreigon EX (ROS), whose Shred attack counters any Jirachi using Stardust, Regice’s Resistance Blizzard, or even Aegislash EX. You have staple Supporters (Sycamore, Birch, Lysandre) as well, so Trainers’ Mail helps when looking for the right card at the right moment. Also, while most decks run multiple, I’ve found I only need a single Shaymin EX to make that first turn successful while keeping that bench open for your battle-ready reserves.

What worked for the deck?

It’s very rare that I face a deck that doesn’t have some form of Special Energy, and this tournament was no different. With the love (or hate depending on who you ask) for Night March and Seismitoad , Double Colorless is very common. Those aren’t the only ones, though-I ran into Mega Manectric decks twice and as soon as my opponents saw Giratina they were forced to either sacrifice damage or energy reuse.

One of the harder matchups I was able to beat was YZG (Yveltal-Zoroark-Gallade). This was a difficult game because Yveltal EX destroys a fully-powered Giratina while the opposite is much harder to accomplish. In that match, I used Mega Mewtwo to take care of an issue that Giratina could not.

What didn’t work, and would you make any changes if you used this deck again?

In the two rounds I lost in this tournament, my opponents utilized a similar tactic-energy removal. Whether it was hammers, Xerosic, or Team Flare Grunt, I found myself losing because I was out of energy. This is the only thing I fear when I play with this deck, but in most cases I feel like I can overcome this as long as I get the early game Energy lead with Geomancy. For that reason, I still see no reason to change this deck, at least until the next set rotation, and even then I’ll keep this one intact for a long while for Expanded play.

Pokemon TCG Reprint Rules Changed!

Though not as much as we first thought. Turns out there was a misprint in the document TPCi put up a week or two ago:

Pokemon TCG e-Reader Demo

Remember that card-based Game Boy Advance accessory Nintendo released? It was quirky, but also proves tying something into Pokemon doesn't make it an instant hit: