Top 10 Pokémon in Dark EXplorers

This is a brief overview of what I consider to be the ten most interesting and playable Pokémon cards in the upcoming set Dark EXplorers. This is all conjecture until we have the cards and start playing with them, so take them with a grain of salt until then! 

10. Scrafty

Scrafty may not be a big hitter or a game changer, but with the Item cards in Dark EXplorers designed to increase the power of Dark Pokémon taken into account, he's not half bad. Team him with a Fliptini for added energy discard antics, Darkrai EX for free retreat, Krookodile for the late-game sweep, or Dark Claw to 2-hit any EX. Not a bad card.

 9. Venusaur 

 

We don't have an English scan of this card yet, but the notable part is the Ability "Floral Fragrance" (this name may be changed in translation). It allows you, once per turn, to search your deck for any Pokémon, reveal it, put it into your hand, and shuffle your deck. Useful, but it doesn't really make up for the fact that Venusaur is a Stage 2, has a huge retreat cost of four, and is weak to fire. This card won't see much play as a result. (English scan added! The Ability had been changed to "Floral Scent", as you can see!)


8. Heatmor

Annoyed by Durant ceaselessly milling your precious cards away? Here's your savior! For one colourless energy Heatmor does 120 damage after weakness to Durant. Ouch. This card is a hard counter and has few other uses, but if your deck is an auto-loss against Durant, this card is coming to save the day!


7. Minun

Minun isn't going to OHKO anything, it won't stall you to a win and it won't intimidate your opponent. But a Turn 1 Minun can start spreading damage across your opponent's board, chipping those EXs down into OHKO range for your big hitters, and maybe even taking out a baby Pokémon or benched Tynamo. Also, he's cute!


6. Accelgor

Again, we don't have an English scan of this card just yet, but the important attack here is "Deck and Cover", (formerly "Vanish Beat") which for DCE does 50 damage and "The Defending Pokémon is now Poisoned and Paralyzed. Shuffle this Pokémon and all cards attached to it into your deck" Guaranteed paralyzation is rare and powerful in this game - expect to see Accelgor paired with Ability Gothitelle and maybe Sunflora. He's a contender!


5. Zoroark

So now we have a second playable Zoroark? Crazy! Brutal bash can theoretically hit for 120 Turn 2 for DCE if you're running a Darkness deck, which is pretty impressive. Dark Rush can hit for up to 180 for two Dark energy. Stage 1 and two retreat aren't ideal, but expect to see this guy make more than a few appearances.


4. Tornadus EX

An inevitable companion for CMT? Looks like it. Not much can be said about Tornadus EX that doesn't apply to Tornadus - excellent damage output, good low retreat, decent Resistance - but a weakness to Electric is a big disadvantage in this Meta, and giving up two prizes makes him a risky play. Expect to see him popping up despite these disadvantages.


3. Raikou EX

Oh look, another card for ZekEels to abuse. Yay. Sniping your opponent's benched Eels with "Volt Bolt" is going to be the new big thing after Dark EXplorers comes out. Expect ZekEels mirror matches to devolve completely into bench-sniping Raikou EX-fests. Even more than before, whomever can take out Eels fastest will have a huge advantage, as ZekEels relies so heavily on their energy acceleration to stream attackers. We'll probably see as much or more Raikou EX than Zekrom EX after it drops.


2. Darkrai EX

This card is a key component of any upcoming dark deck, and probably a fair few other decks (expect Chandelure/Darkrai EX at least, as Darkrai replaces the more clunky Dodrio) due to the "Dark Cloak" Ability. The fact that it applies to any Pokémon that has Darkness energy attached means it's versatile enough to see a lot of play. The only real weakness of the preponderance of Darkness types in any deck focused on them is the weakness to Fighting, which in a Meta highly dominated by Electric types, means there will be more than a few Terrakion builds gaining popularity and making Dark a less than safe play. Still, Darkrai EX stands out as a very playable card.



1. Krookodile

At first glance this card may not look like much - three retreat cost, 2 Dark 2 Colourless for the best attack - but when you consider that cards like Darkrai EX, Dark Claw, and Dark Patch exist to further bolster it's power, give free retreat, and accelerate energy, you can see how it could be a contender. Maybe not likely to make the biggest splash in the set, but a dark horse contender to look out for!

Dark EXplorers Prerelease: May 6th, 11AM

Hello, everyone!

It's been a very short time since Battle Roads, but on the 6th of May we have a Prerelease Event for the new TCG set, Dark EXplorers. For those who are new to the League or TCG in general, this is a great opportunity to pick up cards from the new set before they are officially released, and below regular retail price. The entry fee on the day will be £22.50, which covers the cost of the eight boosters each participant receives and venue rental. All participants will take part in a Limited Format Tournament using a deck made up from cards they get from six boosters and energy supplied by Gordon. After the tournament is complete, each player then receives two additional booster packs, for a total of eight.

If you wish to participate in the Prerelease Event, you'll need to arrive at the IPCSC between 11AM and 11:30AM. Anyone that arrives after 11:30 may not be able to join in, so please be prompt! Gordon will likely have card sleeves on sale, so if you don't have any I would recommend picking some up to protect the awesome new cards you get for the tournament. Also, please note that if you do not stay for the entire tournament you will not receive the final two booster packs that the other participants receive.

If you attend the League but don't want to participate in the prerelease, that's no problem - you can still come and have regular League play at the venue as usual!

Hope to see a bunch of you there!

Battle Roads pictures!

Blogger looks different now, and it's making me feel slightly ill.

Edinburgh Pokémon League hosted a Spring Battle Roads Tournament this past Sunday, and it was a great success! Thirty-three people participated, and there were many prizes given out over the course of the day. We are lucky enough to be sponsored by Kool Kingdom and Chaos Cards, who supplied a good proportion of the prizes for the Event!

A selection of tournament Participants!

Some of our Juniors players!

Some of our Seniors players!

Some of our Masters players!

Thanks to everyone who attended and made it such a lovely day!

Edinburgh Spring Battle Roads 2012 - Sunday, April 22nd at 11AM

It's now less than a week until our Edinburgh Spring Battle Roads Tournament, so I'm going to post a brief guide to help new players prepare for the tournament and so everyone knows what to expect. This is our first sanctioned tournament that isn't a prerelease, I hope you're as excited as I am!

First of all, to participate in the tournament each player will require a 60-card deck of cards that are in the Modified Format. Card sleeves can be helpful to prevent damage to your deck, and in case a card becomes damaged or marked in some way which could preclude it's use.

Each player needs to have a deck list, which is a detailed listing of every card that is in that player's deck. You may want to print out a deck list before the tournament using an online resource such as Steve P's Deck List Program atPokéGym, as it will save you hassle on the day. However, if you are unable to make a list before the tournament, there will be people to help write up deck lists at the tournament during registration. Obviously all of this means that you can't change or alter the cards in your deck in any way after you are registered for the tournament.

Registration for the tournament costs £5. Registration is open between 11AM and 11:30AM, so understand that if you arrive later than 11:30 you may not be able to participate in the tournament. Depending on the number of participants that attend, players will usually be paired in their age divisions. After registration Gordon will announce the number of rounds, and the pairings for the first round. If you finish your match before the round is over it is imperative that you do not interfere with the matches that other players are participating in, as doing so could result in penalties or even a disqualification.

It might be a good plan to bring your DS, snacks, or even a book to read between rounds. Sometimes one match will lag behind the others, and while there is a round time limit you can still end up with a lot of free time between games. It is better to have ways to entertain yourself than to be bored! However you are allowed to have practice matches between rounds, as long as you immediately put that game aside as soon as the next round is announced.

The tournament will be done in Swiss Rounds, much like the practice tournament we had this weekend, so the number of rounds and length of the tournament depends highly on the number of participants.

Prizes will be awarded based on performance in the tournament. I believe that Limited edition Victory Cup TCG cards will be awarded to the top three competitors in each age division – they aren't intended to be incredibly powerful cards, rather they are collector's items and they have cute artwork on them, as you can see! I don't want to announce the additional prizes yet, as I do not have them all in my possession as of yet, but rest assured they are substantial and we're lucky to have the sponsorships we have!

I may have missed out on some information here, or some of this might be vague. If you have absolutely any questions about the Battle Roads Tournament or the League in general, please feel free to ask.

I hope to see you all on Sunday!

Thanks to everyone!

I just want to say thanks to everyone that attends the League for making my birthday awesome! I had a lovely time, and was genuinely touched by your unexpected birthday present to me. Special thanks to Neil for organizing it, and everyone else for contributing. :) Here are some (slightly blurry) pictures of the fantastic card(s!) I got!

I have a few articles in preparation just now, starting with a brief informational post about next weekend's Battle Roads Tournament, then a longer post that will hopefully be a more comprehensive look at deckbuilding, and finally a look ahead at the most interesting and competitive cards to be released in our next set, Dark EXplorers. I'm hoping to start posting these today, so prepare for a deluge of long-winded posts from your League Organizer!

Competitive Play: What is this “Modified Format?”

Today I was speaking with some Pokémon enthusiasts interested in visiting the League. In the course of this discussion I stumbled into explaining a common nuance of the Pokémon TCG not usually familiar to casual players. I have this conversation regularly enough that I thought making a blog post about it would be more concise than simply repeating the conversation ad infinitum.

So, in essence rather than running a ban list (where individual cards are banned from tournament play due to unforeseen game imbalances the mechanics of the card cause) Pokémon TCG operates a regular rotation where older sets of cards are no longer able to be played in sanctioned tournaments over time. Obviously the motivations behind this are varied and complex, but it's primarily a game design and financial decision. Given the serious issues my brother had that caused him to stop playing the Yu-Gi-Oh TCG due to it's massive ban list, I suspect a regular rotation is a better option.

So, what cards are valid for tournament play?

First of all, basic energy is always playable. You can incorporate basic energy cards from fifteen years ago into your deck, and it's not a problem. Special Energy and Trainer cards that have been reprinted in a set that is in rotation are also legal to play, even if the individual cards are from sets that have rotated out. You might need a rules reference if the card text has changed significantly, but you can use the card.

Whatever sets are currently tournament legal are part of the Modified Format. For play at our League we allow cards from any set going back to the Base set that began the Pokémon TCG, and this is called Unlimited Format. However all sanctioned tournaments and official Organized Play events that we host will operate in Modified Format or, in the case of Prerelease Events, Limited Format (which allows only cards from the Prerelease set.)

There is an excellent, comprehensive list of exactly what cards are in the Modified Format at PokéGym.

So, the current format incorporates cards from Heart Gold Soul Silver (HGSS) and onward. This is regularly abbreviated to “HGSS-On”. That means cards from HGSS, Undaunted, Unleashed, Triumphant, Call of Legends, Black and White, Emerging Powers, Noble Victories, and Next Destinies. It's likely that the next rotation will be announced this year at Worlds, which will mean some of the older sets won't be valid for tournament play, as they will no longer be in the Modified Format. I'll be sure to post when we get that information, but thankfully most of our players began collecting quite recently, and as such they will still retain the competitive use of most of their cards.

So, hopefully that was a succinct look at the Modified Format – questions are be welcomed!

Full Art Nen- Slaking

This episode of "Full Art Nen" features Slaking! Sadly, the upcoming Slaking card isn't up to much, nor is he paticularly viable in competitive video game teams (I'm working on it though!)

He is an ape-like Pokémon though, and for this he gets drawn :)

Best,
Nen