perthtcg

[perthtcg]

Perfect Dark(rai)

Josh considered his options as he finished his attack. He had just knocked out one Darkrai EX and now Richard had a Sableye sitting in the active. No energy on the board and he still needed to take three prizes while Josh only had to take the one. Richard pretty much had this one turn to take those three prizes and even with his Rayquaza EX sitting on only 30 hp, Josh was still confident. With a fully set-up bench of Eelektriks and another Rayquaza ready to roll, who wouldn't be? Richard started his turn with an ultra ball, discarding two dark energies to get a Darkrai EX. Then he manually attaches one dark energy to the Sableye, uses a dark patch to attach to Darkrai before using a Professor Juniper. Seven fresh cards bring two more Dark Patches and a Pokemon Catcher. Josh has lost, he just doesn't know it yet. Richard double Dark Patches to the Darkrai EX, giving it three energies in total, enough to attack. Then he brings up an Eelektrik with a Pokemon Catcher and uses Night Spear. Game over. 90 damage to an Eelektrik knocks it out and the 30 damage to any benched pokemon is placed on the Rayquaza EX, knocking it out as well. Three prizes in one turn.                                                     

Darkrai EX was the premier EX card of the Dark Explorers Set and by far the most sought after. Now days, it sits right up there in the list of top cards and is dominant because of roughly four factors: its ability, its attack, its flexibility and its survivability.

1. Attack - Night Spear For the low low cast of two dark energies and one colourless you can deal 90 damage to the active and 30 damage to a benched pokemon. 90 damage will two hit ko all EXs unless they have a tool, like Great Cloak or Evolite attached, and will soften up a lot of things on the opposing bench. Night Spear is relatively easy to power up when used in conjunction with Dark Patch. So, that's the Darkrai EX "FU Factor Number One" 2. Ability - Dark Cloak As long as Darkrai EX is on your field, any of your pokemon with a dark energy attached have free retreat, regardless of their retreat cost. It means you really don't need to run Switch, you can move freely around just about anything, you can save your attacker or send out a Sableye while you think without any side-effects. It means you can tech a Terrakion, retaliate with that Terrakion to knockout another Darkrai before free retreating it next turn. "FU Factor Number 2" ladies and gents.

3. Flexibility - IT WORKS WITH JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING. Darkrai EX works well with: Sableye Zoroark Hydreigon Kling-Klang AND MUCH, MUCH MORE. Darkrai EX takes full advantage of Dark Patch, Ultra-Ball, Dark Claw, Evolite and Great Cloak to make it a hard to kill, easily searchable, easily powered up and pretty damn effective attacker. You put it with Sableye's Junk Hunt to get your important item cards back, like Computer Search, Pokemon Catcher and Dark Patch, and it becomes stupid. Add in a Hydreigon line with Dark Trance to shift those dark energies around and it becomes aneurysm inducing. "FU Factor Number 3" folks.

4. Survivability - Dark Trance, Max Pot, I'M BACK AT FULL HEALTH! Darkrai EX has 180 hp which already makes it hard to take down. A lot of cards can two shot it but when you factor in the Dark Cloak or Dark Trance+Max Potion, you need to take it out in one shot. And that leaves you with a relatively small list of attackers who can feasibly do it. There's Terrakion with Retaliate, Terrakion EX with Pump Up Smash, Landorus EX with Land's Judgement and discarding the fighting energy and there's Rayquaza EX with a three energy discard Dragon Burst. So, right there we've got a serious issue in the fact that it's really only those four cards that can take a Darkrai down.

But it gets worse when you factor in Great Cloak and Evolite, those attacks become two-hit ko's except for Landorus' and Rayquaza's. And even then you have to add an extra energy to Rayquaza to get that KO. "FU Factor Number Four!".

So, ultimately, that's why I don't like Darkrai EX. It just fits in too well with what's going on around it and then exacerbates what would have already been some serious balance issues. Overall, you're looking at card which is quick to find, power and attack, which also is hard to kill and easily available through cheap promo tins.

I'm Josh. I dislike the fact that Darkrai is pretty much invincible when combined with Hydreigon and Max Potion. It rates highly on the "FU FACTOR AND SCALE" chart.

[perthtcg]

Scumbag Mewtwo EX.

The game was pretty much over. Josh didn't have to do much. His Terrakion was fully powered up and stomping across every that Richard could put down. His fault for playing an eels deck, Josh thought. He only need two prize cards but then again Richard only had to knock out the last remaining Terrakions. That was one problem with running the Quad Terrakion Deck. But Josh didn't think he need to worry about it. All he had to do was remove Richard's Zekrom and then one Eelektrik.That'd be game.

Richard made his turn. Skyarrow Brudge was down. Zekrom had an energy on it, so he could retreat it and there was a lot of energy in his discard. Between the three Dynamotors he could do, he could dump a lot of energy on to a Pokemon, The problem was which one. Richard played a P.O.N.T and refreshed his hand. He smiled as he saw not only a Double Colourless Energy but the Mewtwo EX to accompany it. He played the Mewtwo EX, attached the DCE and then Dynamotored three lightning energy onto the Mewtwo EX. He retreated his Zekrom and promoted the Mewtwo EX. Josh just sighed. He was beaten. Richard used X-Ball and between the total of five energies he had on Mewtwo and the three Josh had on Terrakion, Mewtwo was dishing out 160 damage. Terrakion was KO'd and Josh moved an energy over to the benched Terrakion with his EXP Share before promoting it. Myabe he could set-up two Retaliates or something. He could still win. He drew his card. Another fighting energy. That was it, with no supporter in hand he couldn't possibly get the last Terrakion and EXP Share without it. He attached the energy and used Retaliate for the 90 damage.

Richard didn't bother to keep setting up. Between Mewtwo EX and Terrakion, there were seven energies in play and seven times twenty was one hundred and forty. Terrakion only has one hundred and thirty hp. Just enough to take the game. Richard used X-Ball and won the game, leaving Josh to wonder at how much of a scumbag Mewtwo EX really was.

Mewtwo EX is a scumbag. I am so very much opposed to Mewtwo. He just dominates everything and it shits me. It shits me to tears.

Seriously, the amount of games that people have won just because they threw down a Mewtwo EX and there's nothing I could do about it. I don't mean to bitch about it but I kind of have to. This one card is a dominating force in the format and I see it continuing to be a large player in the future, especially as the Black & White onwards format is kind of limited at the moment.

The thing with Mewtwo EX is X-Ball. This attack does 20X the number of energies attached to both this pokemon and the defending pokemon. And that's for the low, low cost of one DCE or two random ass energies. That alone means you can tech in Mewtwo EX in just about any deck and still get some nice reward from it. There is practically no reason beyond price to not run Mewtwo. He fits in nicely to any deck and can and will fuck over your opponents. It doesn't take much.

Mewtwo EX is just the ultimate scumbag card because the only thing that can practically stop it is another Mewtwo EX. The sheer beat-stick quality of Mewtwo EX meant that before the release of Darkrai EX with Dark Explorers, tournaments would be decided with a Mewtwo War. It was just who could play their Mewtwo the best. And this wasn't just local tourneys; this was the big time. If someone was forced to drop a Mewtwo EX early, then they were fucked because their opponent just dropped their own and KO'd it.

I call Mewtwo EX a scumbag because it comes into your game and trashes it entirely. It's like that meme, Scumbag Steve, where the guy does something completely douchey and thinks it's fine. Like, say, using your energies to kill you. Like a scumbag.

The thing is, it's only going to become more wide-spread with the release of tins in September and at $15 a tin, you can afford to run all of them. So... I don't I know. I may have to put on my Scumbag Hat, buy some Mewtwos and just play them better than my opponent. That's the real reason I hate Mewtwo EX, people play them and win games they didn't deserve to.

I don't know. It's a dominating and destructive card. But it stops being fun when it starts being you on the receiving end of the X-Ball.

I'm Josh and I hate Mewtwo EX being played against me poorly and having it win my opponent the game.

[perthtcg]

Throwing a Hammer in the Works.

Richard attached the other Prism energy to his Shaymin EX. It was his last one and he had no way of getting back. But he was confident that Josh couldn't remove them both. At least not before he ko'd all of Josh's Terrakions. He could afford to lose one but not them both. Richard pretty much had the game in the bag.

Josh looked at his hand. A Prof Oak, fighting energy, enhanced hammer and an EXP Share. Not terrible. He could use that Enhanced Hammer to remove the Prism energy and buy himself another turn to set-up another Terrakion. He played the Enhanced Hammer and Richard calmly removed the Prism and put it in teh discard. Josh was worried; if Richard was calm that meant he had expected the Enhanced Hammer. Josh attached the EXP share to his benched Terrakion and the fighting energy to his active. He played the Prof Oak and got his six new cards. He smiled. There was another Enhanced Hammer. He played it and Richard just scooped.

'Why did you do that?' Josh asked. 'That was all my Prisms and without them I can't attack. It's pretty much game,' Richard said a little regretfully.

'Oh, that's cool,' Josh said. He suddenly very glad he had thrown the Enhanced Hammers into his Quad Terrakion decklist. They had just got him the game.

Enhanced Hammer is one of those cards that I pretty much ignored at first as a bit of gimmicky card. I mean I'd pull them from my packs and just shuffle them along into the piles of other cards I didn't think I was going to use. However, recently, I came back to look at them again and give them a test.

And I'm glad I did. Just by playing a couple of PlayTCG matches I quickly established just how useful they can be for disrupting your opponent. The guaranteed removal of one special energy is pretty good and when you run four of them, it insures that you can pretty much make your opponent discard all of one kind of special energy.

It's like that old saying, 'To throw a spanner in the works,' which means something came along and completely screwed something up. Except, you use a hammer.

Mewtwo with one DCE? Throw a hammer in the works. You've just bought yourself another couple of turns.

Prism energy to take advantage of Darkrai's Dark Cloak? Throw a hammer in the works. Now, what ever pokemon they had is stuck there.

They've thrown down a Rainbow Energy to take advantage of Klingklang? Throw a hammer in the works. Now, they can't use that energy.

It's a bit situational but for decks like Quad Terrakion, where you have a lot of room to move, it's very effective and it's only going to increase in usefulness with Dragons Exalted.

Dragons Exalted will see the release of Blend Energies and those too can be removed with Enhanced Hammer. So, when you consider the fact that a lot of the new top-decks for Dragons Exalted run a four card line of Blend Energy, Enhanced Hammer becomes a good counter.

So, if you draw them in a pack and you have the deck space I say, throw a hammer in the works.

I'm Josh and I didn't want to go for the cheesy tag line of 'Hammer Time'.

[perthtcg]

Richard's choice of top 5 Dragons Exalted Cards

Good morning PerthTCG readers! Richard here bringing you my top 5 cards of Dragons Exalted. If you've read any of my previous blogs you've already learned that I love the new set, Dragons Exalted. If you are lucky enough to have not read my nerdgasm of love for Dragons Exalted, then prepare yourself. 5. Bouffalant Bouffalant is that sweet EX killer that will be seen in a variety of decks. Probably because it has that sweet ability: Afro Guard. What else does a pokemon need? Its got an ability called Afro Guard! In all seriousness though it reduces damage by 20, just like Eviolite, meaning you can easily reduce damage by 40! First turn you attach an Eviolite to your Bouffalant and boom; your chances of being donked are reduced by 99% (Yes, that is a real statistic). Its attack is what makes the card extra special though: For three colourless it does 60 damage and if this bad ass buffalo headbutts an EX; it does another 60! (That is an easy 120damage). So what does Bouffalant KO in one go? List: Mew Ex Shaymin Ex Gothita Tepig Deino Gabite Tynamo (But who doesn't? This guy is so picked on!) So that's everyone on Bouffalants kill list but will what I say just fizzle and Bouffalant become useless? We can only find out. 4. Ho-Oh Ex Well Ho-Oh Ex is probably my favourite card. If you've been following us on Tumblr or had a chance to scroll down our page; you may have noticed the Rainbow Tornado decklist. (A deck that revolves around Tornadus Ex and more importantly, Ho-Oh Ex). The sole purpose of the deck is to attack quick and hard. Because of Ho-Oh Exs ability Pheonix it allows itself to be brought back from the discard on a coin flip. Which is pretty cool right? Wrong; Its ultra cool. Not because it brings itself back. But the fact it comes back with gusto! It comes back with any three energy that accompanied Ho-Oh in the discard! Creating a unique Pokemon card that is ultimate discard bait: “Juniper in hand? Ho-Oh Ex in hand? 1 Grass, 1 Fire, 1 Psychic Energy in hand? Juniper it away! And receive the fruits of your labour!” Those well earned fruits because you've managed to get that magic hand. That magic hand you luckily manage to get every game. The same magic hand that manages to beat down 80damage from turn 1. I'm making Ho-Oh Ex sound like a dream come true. Well it is; for me. I can combine it with my favourite of Dark Explorers, Tornadus Ex. As they both run off of Colourless energies I can attach what ever energy I like. Therefore making the deck I chose to be a Neapolitan Icecream of a deck: “Yes, I would like one of every energy! And I would like it in my deck by Dragons Exalted.” For further information of Rainbow Tornado deck: Click here. 3. Rayquaza The first dragon on my list for Dragons Exalted. Surprised it isn't Gabite or Garchomp to pop up on the list? Or if you've peaked down a bit that I haven't included Gabite or Garchomp later on? Or if you haven't peaked down that Garchomp and Gabite are further down. Mainly because I think Rayquaza just sorts out the Gabite and Garchomp decks. Rayquaza just blasts Gibble out of the water. Early game; Rayquaza smashes ahead! Rayquaza for 1 lightning damage does 40. Downside? Discard 2 cards from the top of your deck. Nothing major really. You can live a through a few discards from top of your deck, especially if you are leading on the prize race. After smashing around a few Gibbles, Gabites, Garchomps, Altarias and Deinos. It can then do its second attack for 1 Lightning, 1 Fire, 1 Colourless for 90damage which ignores all effects on that defending Pokemon. This includes Eviolite. The one weakness of Rayquaza is its retreat cost but at the same time it is also a plus. A huge plus. Its easily searchable! 3 Retreat is just in the range of Heavy Ball! Also. If you start with Rayquaza in the active. Your probably wanting to keep it in the active to do that 40damage first turn. Pretty simple overview but Rayquaza is not a complicated card: is easily searchable, easily achieves KO's and easily applies early and late game pressure! 2. Hydreigon The second dragon to be listed in my Dragons Exalted top 5 and in short: Hydreigon is simply a truck. A truck that floats around like a butterfly while delivering its cargo to each Pokemon. Then when its fed up of delivering the cargo. It charges up front and KO's whatever it wants with its amazing attack. So it attacks for 140 damage and discards to. (I wrote that way too casually). What I was meant to say: “OMGWTFBBQ, it attacks for 140damage! It can knock out anything it wants! Its the end of the world! This Pokemon is too powerful!” (slight exaggeration). In all honesty Hydreigon is a powerful Pokemon for its attack alone. It deals 140 damage for the cost of 1 psychic, 2 dark and a colourless. Then once it deals 140 damage you must discard 2 Darkness Energies. Easy peasy but wait there is a psychic energy? That would be a problem if blend energies didn't come out. Blend energy is an energy that provides four specific energies and the Psychic Blend Energy is also a Dark, Grass or Fire Energy. While it can be any of these four energies it can only be one of the energies at a time. Meaning that Hydreigon through his ability can switch around that Blend energy to another Pokemon. What? I haven't mentioned why Hydreigon is amazing? Oh well: Dark Trance: As often as you like during your turn (before you attack), you may move a Dark Energy to 1 of your Pokemon to another of your Pokemon. If you read that and reacted like this: Then good. You probably know why its good. Its just like the Klinklang Ex Deck that took US nationals. It switches around energies everywhere and deals huge damage each turn. It also allows darkrai to give free retreat to any Pokemon you care to move a dark energy to! Hydreigon is the perfect thing that Dark Pokemon was missing for the new format and easily makes the deck a contender for BDIF. Now that dark decks have the toolbox of free retreat, energy acceleration, energy staying on the board and a junk arm. Yeah. Next format will be dominant with Hydreigons. 1. Tool Scrapper After all that though. One card stands on top of them and says: “I change the format more than you.” And that card is Tool Scrapper. The only item card to make it to my top 5. Tool Scrapper, Item: Choose up to 2 Pokemon Tool cards attached to both your and your opponent's Pokemon and discard them. Tool Scrapper makes all deck makers go: Do I want to play Tools any more? Or if I do. How many do I play to counter Tool Scrapper? Or do I want to play tools and tool scrapper? Tool Scrapper has been making my head spin for theory crafting decks. From theorising 7/8 tools in a Bouffalant beatdown deck. To dropping them and adding more tech in. To keeping to the formats use of 2/3 Tools in a deck. This is the card I will be testing the most of. This card will either be played In all decks or non at all because people are too scared to play items. Thats my coverage of what I think will be the greatest cards in Dragons Exalted. Thanks for reading and this has been Richard with PerthTCG.  

[perthtcg]

Hype Train

Is it just me? Or does everyone do this? A new set comes out in Japan and I scramble to create new decks. So once Freeze Bolt/Cold Flare was completely revealed I scrambled to see the new cards. And as soon as I saw them I scramble to make new decks. While some are pretty obvious, such as Blastoise, others won't be. So I'm going to share what I thought of making as soon as I saw some cards. Pokemon 16 3 – 3 Raticate 2 – 2 Ninetales 3 – 3 Amoongus Supporters 10

4 Skyla 4 Bianca 2 N Items 21 4 Level Ball 4 De-evolution Spray 4 Exp Share 3 Rescue Scarf 3 Catcher 2 Switch 1 Super rod Ace Spec 1 Pc Communication Energies 12 4 Double Colorless 8 Fire Energy Raticate was one of the first cards to come to my attention. I was like: “Wow this card is amazing! You could 2hit KO anything.” It didn't dawn on me until this morning that we have Conditions in this card game. (And if you don't know Raticate's super fang does: This attack does damage until the Defending Pokemon has 10HP left). This super rough draft of a Raticate that chews through tools, a Ninetales that brings up unsuspecting Exs and an Amoongus that gasses it for the KO. A toolbox of Stage 1's. If only this deck could work but then again, who knows? Charizard Celebi is the second deck that I think could work.   Pokemon 12 4 – 2 – 4 Charizard 2 Celebi Ex Supporters 12 4 Juniper 4 Skyla 4 Hugh Items 21 4 Pokemon Catcher 4 Ultra Ball 4 Rare Candies 3 Switch 2 Heavy Ball 2 Super Rod 1 Town Map Ace Spec 1 Pc Communication Energies 15 11 Fire Energies 4 Double colourless Energies Why Charizard Celebi? Because All you want to do with your Charizard is use Charmander's Draw in Attack to attach fire energies to Charizard as quick as possible. While Charizard can use its attack Split Bomb; it won't be as powerful or as useful as Charmander's Draw in early game or Charizard's Burn Out for 150. Once a Charizard is set up for Burn Out its unlikely that much will stand in its way. This is a deck that I hope doesn't Burn Out. A final list that could abuse Celebi is a bit of a quirky deck list.   Pokemon 18 4 Sableye 4 – 2 – 4 Krookodile (Emerging Powers 62) 2 Victini (Victory Star) 2 Celebi Ex 2 Darkrai Ex Supporters 10 4 Bianca 4 Skyla 2 Juniper Items 25 4 Pokemon Catcher 4 Rare Candy 4 Ultra Ball 4 Crushing Hammers 4 Dark Patch 1 Super Rod Ace Spec 1 1 Pc Communication Energies 8 8 Dark Energies This is a quirky deck list I tried to set up for HGSS - Dark Explorers format. It never ever worked. So I'm thinking about repeating it once Celebi Ex is out. As Celebi Ex can let my Krookodile use the attacks of previous evolutions; I'd use Sandile's (Dark Explorers 64) Sand Dive. Flip a coin, if heads Krookodile doesn't get hurt next turn. Which means: One more turn of discarding! Yay! If that doesn't do you any good. Use Krokorok (Emerging Powers 61) for a slow but painful Torment. Torment stops your opponent from attacking with one attack for its next turn. So cards like Keldeo Ex may have a hard time getting passed the torment. If that doesn't work. Yeah Darkrai? Maybe? It could work. Don't crush my dreams! This deck is beautiful! But, in all honesty, the decks quirky and will probably not see play. Now onto my favourite deck that I have been theorising since its reveal: Vileploom.   Pokemon 13 3 Virizion 2 Rayquaza 2 Landorus Ex 3 – 0 – 3 Vileploom Supporters 13 4 Skyla 4 Juniper 3 Bianca 2 N Items 20 4 Catcher 4 Rare Candy 4 Heavy Ball 4 Switch 2 Bicycle 1 Town Map 1 Super Rod Ace Spec 1 1 Pc Communication Energies 13 5 Lightning Energy 4 Fighting Energy 4 Prism Energy If you have read any of my older posts I went into depths of how much I love Six Corners. This deck can finally bring back a Corner based deck. This deck will hit for every popular decks weakness: Dark, Lightning, Dragon, Water, Fighting. And this deck will do it all with one energy! Virizion is here for its amazing start up and its second attack. First turn draw 2. Second turn leaf wallop for 40. Next turn Leaf wallop for 80. Or 160 and 320 with Vileploom. Rayquaza is also here for its amazing starting attack. First turn attack for 40. Or 160 if Vileploom is miraculously out turn 1. Landorus Ex, the best Ex that could ever go in this deck, deals 30 and 30 again turn 1. Or it deals 120 and 30. These three amazing cards make the deck work. All run of little amounts of energies will dealing a tonne and OHKO'ing all your opponents Pokemon. Vileploom should be watched as soon as Freeze Bolt/Cold Flare is released. There is the really obvious Blastoise deck but, to be honest, I think everyone is theorising that deck. It's going to be a great deck. It has an easy switch, a lot of big damage and the best energy accelerator in the game. I think that's enough. I hope you enjoyed this quick review of decks, I think that will come with the new Japanese release. It was an interesting set but nothing really stood out. This has been Richard with PerthTCG.   

[perthtcg]

March of the Dark Penguins

Hey guys, Alex here presenting you the deck I've been using on and off for the last month: Dark Penguins! The Deck revolves around the use of Empoleon and Darkrai as the main attackers and utilizes their abilities to gain a solid advantage over quite a few other decks. Here is the decklist for my beloved penguin army: Pokemon: 12 4 x Piplup 4 x Empoleon (Dark Explorers) 1 x Sableye (Dark Explorers) 2 x Darkrai EX 1 x Shaymin EX Items: 28 4 x Rare Candy 4 x Junk Arm 4 x Level Ball 2 x Ultra Ball 3 x Dual ball 4 x Dark Patch 3 x Catcher 1 x Super Rod 3 x Random Receiver Supporters: 9 3 x Cheren 3 x Juniper 3 x N Energies: 11 2 x Water Energy 5 x Dark Energy 4 x Rainbow Energy The focus of the deck is to set up as many Empoleon's as possible, using Dark Energy as fodder for the ability Diving Draw as well as filling up the bench to power up Attack Command to seriously hurt any Pokemon the opponent may have. By throwing away the Dark Energy it is also possible to then Dark Patch it onto a Darkrai, further powering up your bench. I included Rainbow Energy so to enable Empoleon to use Darkrai's Dark Cloak effect and also be able to attack while only ever needing one energy. I find this especially useful for situations where I face an electric type deck to avoid being hit for weakness. Recently I have also added Shaymin EX for the sole purpose of getting rid of Terrakions. Terrakion seems to be a favorite amongst not only my friends but pretty much everyone where I play, my poor, poor Darkrai kept getting OHKO'd ='(. Shaymin acts as a counter to that of sorts, it can knock out a Terrakion in a single hit provided the opponent has taken two prize cards and can be very effective at turning a game on its head.

                               Empoleon's Attack Command is multiplied by how many Pokemon both player's have in play, this is the main reason why you will want to set up a full bench as fast as possible to maximize damage and have the potential to make your opponent reluctant to set up too much to avoid being hit for the 100-120 mark (enough to two shot almost anything in the game, ouch). Through proper use of Darkrai's Night spear, capable to dealing 30 to a benched Pokemon it is possible to avoid being hit big by any Outrage as well, I have never had a problem with decks like Zekeels due to that wonderful 30 damage. Sableye is included in the deck for trainer recycling for quicker setting up, Junk Hunting a Rare Candy and an Ultra Ball after I've used them on my first Empoleon to get a second one is always great. Empoleon may not be tier 1 at this time, but I do have a lot of fun playing it. The downside of playing Empoleon is how long it can take to set up, a common problem with all stage 2s in a basic dominated format, however I feel that with the release of Skyla in the (hopefully) near future it can only get better or at least far more consistent. Once you manage to set up one though I've almost always managed to get a second or even a third within the next two turns which has made me that close to decking out from abusing Diving Draw more times than I'd like to admit.

Once set up Empoleon proves to be one tough customer, only needs one energy and has a great drawing ability. I'm Alex and I use penguins to harm innocent Pokemon.

[perthtcg]

PerthTCG Video Links!

As it says in our description, we also have a Youtube channel where we post some vids of us all playing games of PokemonTCG. At the moment, it's only some PlayTCG footage and basic live commentary but as we go on we'll move into other stuff, like theory crafting, deck walk-throughs and speculation on new sets. But I've been forgetting to actually to post up links to all the new vids and I don't really want to make an individual post for each video we've done, so I'm going to include a basic link to our channel here and then post up the link on here for every new video update.

So, channel link is here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/perthtcg/videos

Please watch and throw us likes and favourites if you like what you watch. Or yell at us in the comments. It's a free world!

Latest vid shows off two interesting top tier decks, so have a look at that!

[perthtcg]

Terrakion: Retaliation is the Solution.

Josh watched the game with mild interest. It seemed like Bre might actually lose this game. She needed to take four prizes in probably three turns. Her opponent needed to take two. He had time in his favour, a Regigigas EX with all the energy it needed on the bench and a Kyogre EX in the active. Sure, the Kyogre had maybe 80 HP left but one quick Smash Turn and it would be back on the bench. He used Smash Turn, dealt the 30 damage to Bre's already beat up Kyurem, placed the Kyogre safely on the bench and promoted the Regigigas EX. Bre's eyes flashed. She had the game. Sure, Kyurem was going to be KO'd next turn but she had just drawn a Pokemon Catcher and had a Terrakion with just enough energy to use Retaliate on the bench. It was time to take prize cards. She used the Catcher on the Kyogre and used Outrage to get the KO. Things were suddenly tied. The Regigigas EX is still there though and her opponent just can't see why Bre is so excited to have Kyurem be knocked out. He dismissed any doubt he had and eagerly used Raging Hammer to get the KO. Time is running out. He's got a one prize card lead. Bre joyfully promoted the Terrakion. 'Retaliate for KO. And I win,' she says happily as she picked up her last two prize cards. Her opponent looks at her in disbelief. He had that game. How did he lose it? 'How?' he asks in shock. Maybe she had cheated. 'Retaliate does 30 damage plus an extra 60 damage if one of my pokemon was KO'd last turn. So, that's 90 damage. Regigigas is weak to fighting, so Retaliate does 180 damage. Enough to KO your Regigigas. And because it's an EX, I take two prize cards,' she explained.

Her opponent looked at her as the timer buzzed to signal the end of the game and Bre walked cheerfully to her next match.

                                                  *** Terrakion is a great pokemon and the Terrakion with Retaliate is pretty damn amazing. It's a popular tech card these days and can be a game changer for you. It might not be your main attacker but it is perfectly capable of being an avenging beast of a pokemon.Essentially, you only need to one fighting and one colourless energy to deal 90 damage with Retaliate if your opponent knocked out one of your pokemon the previous turn. That's pretty good, will do decent damage to any pokemon and put you in range to attach another fighting energy to use Land Crush for another 90 damage next turn. 180 damage in two turns? Not much is living through that.

When you combine that with the fact that Terrakion is a basic pokemon, has relatively good HP with 130 and has a grass weakness, you get a pokemon which can take a hit or two, deal decent damage, can be easily searched out with Heavy Ball, Dual Ball or Ultra Ball and is weak to a type which isn't common in the top tiers of decks.

However, Terrakion's greatest advantage is its fighting type. The fighting type gives Terrakion the ability to be dealing 180 damage in one attack to normal, electric and dark type pokemon for two energy. Things like Zekrom, Regigigas EX and Darkrai EX are completely swept away in one move. That makes Terrakion an excellent tech card in the Darkrai EX dominated scene. A quick Pokemon Catcher-Retaliate combination can be devastating to a Darkrai EX deck.

The big weakness of Terrakion would be its retreat cost. It's a four energy retreat cost. That can be incredibly annoying and detrimental to your set-up. If your Terrakion gets pulled to the active by a Pokemon Catcher early on, you're stuck there until you draw a Switch. It buys your opponent time as you suddenly can't attack and you won't be getting that Terrakion Retaliate because Terrakion will be the Pokemon that gets knocked out. Despite that, the retreat cost can still be a benefit because it allows to you use Heavy Ball to search it out from your deck which means you can save other cards, like Ultra Ball, for more important pokemon.

Terrakion is a solid card and a great tech card. It gives you a chance at that big comeback and to smack around a Darkrai EX. There are few things quite as satisfying in Pokemon TCG than a Terrakion Retaliate knock out. You turn your opponent's victory into the instrument of their defeat.

Quite fun.

I'm Josh, this is PerthTCG and Retaliation is the best cure for Darkrai EX.

[perthtcg]

TheoryMon: The Sounds of the Machine.

The Sounds of the Machine.

Dragons Exalted. How I will love you! Preferably over a table for two, a glass of cold Jagermeister, followed by a few rough hand shuffles and off to the bedroom (for storage). I cannot tell you how excited I am for this set. Dragons Exalted; you are one sexy, sexy set. Not only do you release the best legendaries ever into cards but you also make them playable! (Yes, I'm looking at you Registeel; you well oiled machine). Dragons Exalted: you make my Pokemon perfect. On top of that we also rotate out HeartGold SoulSilver (Perfect timing!). While some of you might be sad; I cannot be happier. Primes looked horrible and were usually horrible, the art just matched their abilities! Junk arm may be leaving us but seriously, how many of us liked that card? What? Everyone liked that card?... Okay I totally lied. I love Junk Arm but It's time to leave them. We can just casually round up all junk arms. Then blast them into space and hope nobody can find it. Now how to make a perfect metal Pokemon decklist? Well starting at basics we can just start at how to bake a deck. At the top of the Klinklang cake. - Can the deck deal high amounts of damage? Well. It can deal high amounts of damage. Nothing comparable to Rayquaza Ex but enough to knock out Pokemon in one/two/three turns. Cobalion is able to grab KO's with his attack Iron Breaker and sometimes Energy Press. The spongy, gooey middle part of the cake. - Can the deck recycle cards? Ho-Oh is the late game energy accelerator, card recycler. While not a good attacker in this deck. Ho-Oh becomes the best energy accelerator metal has. It's unafraid to be discarded and when discarded it will just come back. While it doesn't have the pro's like the rainbow tornado decklist posted earlier. Ho-Oh can still get those energies flowing. The base that keeps the Klinklang cake turning. - Can the deck keep energies on the bench? Here we have Klinklang. The engine of the deck. Klinklang spins energies everywhere and if used correctly can keep all your energies on the bench!

Now onto the standard decklist. Pokemon 13 2 Cobalion 1 Registeel Ex 2 Ho-Oh Ex 4 Klink (Dark Explorers) 4 Klinklang (Black and White) Supporters 11 4 Bianca 4 N 3 Juniper Items 24 4 Rare Candy 4 Pokemon Catcher 4 Switch 4 Heavy Ball 3 Max Potion 2 Tool Scrapper 2 Random Receiver 1 Super Rod Energies 12 Metal Energy 12 Klinklang, how you grind peoples gears. Klinklang is extremely annoying in this deck. First you have to deal with Cobalion. Then you have to deal with Klinklang. To top off the iron rich cake we've added an extra spoonful of Max Potion! So I cooked up the deck (a HGSS variant) and tested it out. I personally don't know how annoying Klinklang is to play against but I asked the other members of PerthTCG to describe Klinklang in one sentence: Josh: “Can I use the word '****holebag' more than twice?” Alex: “I find his artistic design to be far too childish for me to even remotely like it despite how good he may or may not be.” Bre: “Don't get me started on Klinklang!” Obviously we have a bunch of scholars in the team. Now I asked the same question but with Cobalion added into the cake mixture. Josh: “Well, it's not so bad, I'll just use switch. What do you mean I'm out of switches? What do you mean it wouldn't die anyway. Cockgoblins!” Alex: “He doesn't look like a retarded clock.” This is obviously science at work. So far from the test subjects they seem to dislike Klinklang and Cobalion. Smells like a recipe for success! Fortunately this HGSS cake is about to pass its expiry date. Fortunately? Because we get better, newer, shinier cards! Now a Klinklang cake with an added dash of Blended Rainbow! Basic overview of this yummy cake: At the top of the Blendklang cake. - Can the deck deal high amounts of damage? Cobalion is still in the deck and Terrakion and Terrakion's older brother Terrakion Ex has joined the deck! For the purpose of Terrakion's extremely cheap 90damage and Terrakion Ex's energy accelerating 90damage, this version of the deck is dealing more damage and more variety than the previous version! The spongy, gooey middle part of the cake. - Can the deck recycle cards? Well. Does Super rod count? I guess not. So after all this it has almost no recovery. Then again how many decks are able to recover? Some decks are teching and maining Sableye to retrieve back items. While it is possible to tech Sableye to the deck. I find it very slow, even in theorymon and especially when relying on prism energies. The base that keeps the Blendklang cake turning. - Can the deck keep energies on the bench? Klinklang and Terrakion Ex. That's about it. Nothing to see here folks. Except for some sexy amounts of energy acceleration and benched energy manipulation. Your opponents will be scooping when they see twelve energies staying on the board! Pokemon 12 2 Cobalion 2 Terrakion 2 Terrakion EX 3 Klink (Dark Explorers) 3 Klinklang (Black and White) Supporters 11 4 Bianca 4 N 3 Juniper Items 24 4 Rare Candy 4 Pokemon Catcher 4 Switch 4 Heavy Ball 3 Max Potion 2 Tool Scrapper 2 Random Receiver 2 Super Rod Energies 12 Metal Energy 6 Prism Energy 2 Blend Energy (WaterLightningFightingMetal) 4 Now that list is complete theorymon but the basic idea of this cake is to counter Darkrai. Darkrai will become a dominant Dragons Exalted deck, a free retreat that is easily applied and moved through Hydreigon's ability. In short: Darkrai/Hydreigon will dominate Cobalions Iron Breaker. So the team at PerthTCG threw Terrakions into the formula. Why did we throw them in? Probably because the full art looks cool; is able to One hit KO a Darkrai, withstand a hit from Darkrai and has an awesome grass weakness. Together with his older brother Terrakion EX who does all that Terrakion does but with energy acceleration makes the Terrakion crew a worthwhile member of the deck. In all I'd like to say that a metal deck can become best deck in format. The reality is I don't think it will. Or I don't think it will at this moment in time. Unfortunately after all this reading all you've probably gained is a bit of a rogue information. After baking up two decklists that look good, smell good and were all waiting on how it tastes. This has been Richard with PerthTCG.  

[perthtcg]

I'm Richard and I make Decks (And Other Players Cry).

Good morning and hello viewers of PerthTCG! I'm Richard! The royal dick of the group. And why is that?  It's because I like to play decks that are so obscure, annoying and troublesome. My friends will gladly tell me that ALL my decks are: “spawns of Satan,”. Now I wouldn't call any of my decks I play rogue. In fact, most are meta as my favourite deck to play that is obscure, annoying and troublesome; Six Corners. Nothing beats a double drawing, leaf walloping Virizion!

Annoying original deck I've recently used and made: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se4jdoJJGIM&feature=plcp My history of playing these decks stretches to as far as me and Alex playing Yu-Gi-Oh. I played a macro cosmos deck, for anyone who knows they know its a spawn of Satan. The amount of expletives I heard from 12year old children when Macro Cosmos was used against a sangan was hilarious. Lately I've net-decked the version of Klinklang with Exs and upgraded it to my liking. Groudon, Darkrai and Kyogre Ex smashing their undamaged selves to victory! The countless times I've max potioned 170 damage off of a Groudon Ex and every time I do; I smile. That's probably a little sadistic but in better news: Metal Pokemon are actually playable! Well... Just Klinklang that is. Which is okay but Klinklang is nothing compared to the awesome brute power of Steelix or agility of Scizor. Klinklang just floats around moving energies away from Exs that await a Max Potion. Nothing major. But better news for me! Scizor has been revealed in the new Japanese set Freeze Bolt/Cold Flare. And not only is he playable! But he's annoying! I'm positive I will be making an annoying deck with him (or her. I'm not fussy). I believe I'm going off on an unimportant tangent now. So I'll just leave you with what you can expect from me within the next week: Dragons Exalted Decklist of Metal Pokemon! I'm off for now. This has been Richard with PerthTCG.

[perthtcg]

Hooligans Jim & Cas: Who Would Ever Use This Card?

Josh opened up his booster pack from Dark Explorers. 'Come on Darkrai EX full art,' he muttered as he opened the pack. There was no EX pull from the pack but Josh scrolled through the rest of the cards and had a look at the supporter he had pulled. It was Hooligans Jim & Cas. 'Who would ever use this card?' Josh wondered aloud. Alex looked at him from over his own pack and said, 'Someone is bound to use it,' 'I'll find a way to make it work,' Richard said as he opened his pack. They all laughed and Josh forgot about Hooligans Jim & Cas entirely...

Hooligans Jim & Cas jsut seems to be one of those useless supporter cards. I mean, let's look at the risk reward ratio on this beast. You have a fifty-fifty shot of it even working, which alone is enough to make it a bad card. That's your supporter wasted for your turn. There goes a chance for N or Juniper. Or Bianca or Cheren. Pretty much any other supporter. And for what? You pick three cards from your opponent's hand randomly and send them back to the deck.I suppose it's a decent disrupter but in the face of all the other supporter choices, why bother? Three cards returned to deck on a fifty-fifty chance. N disrupts better than that and refreshes your hand too.

In fact the only time I've ever seen it be played was today. Richard and I were doing a little bit of PlayTCG gameplay and Richard came up with this strange out of nowhere deck. It revolves around Tyrogue and Aerodactyl and I can't really explain it so here's a link to the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se4jdoJJGIM&feature=g-u-u

But in that game, Richard actually used Hooligans Jim & Cas twice and to pretty good effect.

All in all, it's not a great card and when stacked up against other supporters it loses a lot of value. But there are ways to make it work and there are ways to make any card effective.

It's just a lot easier to use supporters other than Hooligans Jim & Cas...

I'm Josh and I actually had Hooligans Jim & Cas played against me.

[perthtcg]

N: The Card of Comebacks.

Josh was finally feeling confident about winning a game against Richard. He was on one prize card, had a Donphan active with 50 HP left and a benched Terrakion with two energies... just enough energy for the Retaliate. Richard has a Darkrai EX active and a benched Tornadus EX. He too needs to take two prize cards but Josh is confident. He's got this one. Finally. No matter what happens, he can do it. He's got a Pokemon Catcher in hand and a Juniper. If Donphan gets knocked out then it's okay because Terrakion will one hit ko the Darkrai.

Richard retreats the Darkrai, promotes the Tornadus and then he uses his supporter. It's N. Josh goes down to one card in hand... and it's an energy. Tornadus uses Power Blast and Donphan is sent spiralling to the discard. 'It's still okay,' Josh thinks, 'I just need a supporter to draw into the catcher and it's happy days,'. He draws his card... another energy. He attaches it to Terrakion and uses Land Crush which deals 50 damage. Resistance and Eviloite is a tough cookie. Richard plays a Juniper, refreshes his hand and uses Power Blast again to deal 100 damage to Terrakion. One more turn and it's over. Josh draws... and it's a Switch. He just passes and knows that without the bloody N the game could have been his...

N is a nice supporter card for both refreshing your hand and disrupting your opponents and in situations like the above story it can actually drive your opponent insane.

What the card does is make both players return their hand to their deck and draw the same amount of cards as they have prize cards. So, if you have four prizes left, you'd return your hand and draw four prize cards and your opponent would do the same except they'd draw the amount of prizes they had, in this case let's say two.

What that does to you is this. You can refresh your hand in the early game by just using it like a Professor Oak but with some side effects. If you suck at drawing basics and your opponent gets loads of cards from you, then you can N them back down to six and even things out. OR if you know they just drew a good card, say an Emboar with a Heavy Ball and they're going to Rare Candy a Tepig up, you can interrupt that with N, buying you another turn before that pokemon comes out.

In the late game N becomes much more of strategic card and a little more of a risk. This is where the disrupt really hits hard. If your opponent has the prize lead then you use this to mess up their hand and get yourself back in the game. If you have the prize lead then it's a risk, especially at one or two. Sure, you might draw something good but you also might not and then be stuck at two cards or one card. But you could do the same thing for your opponent. The advantage of that would if you were close to decking out, by using N you can buy yourself some more turns.

All in all, N is a decent supporter and suits a lot of scenarios. Whether you just need to refresh your hand, disrupt your opponent's set-up and maybe, just maybe, snatch victory from the jaws of defeat by using N to take your opponent to one card and save yourself from a loss.

I'm Josh and I hate seeing N be played when I'm one prize card and have the one card I need to win in hand.

[perthtcg]

i'm BRE! (the token girl)

hiya Tumblr people of the world who follow this blog, i’m Bre (pronounced like the cheese) and i am one of the people who help run this blog. 

as you are following this blog, you know we are ALL ABOUT THE POKEMON! (tcg) but first we have to introduce ourselves, so you get to know what you’re getting into. ;P like i said, i’m Bre, the token girl of the group. here’s a picture to prove i’m not some creepy dude pretending to be a chick.

not the best one, but one of my favs.  ANYWAY! let me tell you a little about why i’m a part of this pokemon group.  I started playing pokemon because these guys (the other people in this group) were into card games. they used to play yugioh (*read that in a nagging, droning voice*) which i never really got into. at all. but then they started playing pokemon and said i should give it a shot.  “FINE! i’ll try” good thing i did, because i freaking LOVE IT! the highlights of my month are going to the local tournaments (“highlights�� because there’s two per month) i love the tounaments, i love the people there, i love the game. WHOLE LOTTA LOVE EVERYWHERE! it’s my favourite hobby. my favourite moments playing TCG so far is at my first local tournament i won $6 (for being a participant, but still) and i got my very own deck box. its awesome!

(by the way, i dyed my hair. that’s why it’s two different colours on these pictures) i’m not the best player, but i love to play. and i LOVE my deck. (it’s amazing) it’s got terrakion, tornadus, kyurem, voltorb, electrode, random bouffant and cleffa, just to name a few. i’ll probably talk (more like rave) about my deck in the videos, because it’s hard to put into writing how much i like it. but…yeah.  you’ll probably notice throughout following us that i’m not the most, or as eloquent and sophisticated in my writing or in videos as these gentlemen surely will be. but i think i’m meant to be all girly and over-the-top and shit, because i’m the girl or some crap like that. i might get slightly less over-the-top as we go, but we shall see. 

this is bre, and this is PerthTCG.

[perthtcg]

I'm Alex! =D

Hey Pokefans! I'm Alex, one of the fabulous people here at PerthTCG. I have been playing Trading Card games for the better half of my life and I've loved every minute of it.

Initially my friend Richard and I picked up Yu-gi-oh and it was an interestingly fun game that had some ultra intense and heated battles that came down to either one of us only just winning by the skin of our teeth.

Unfortunately, the games heavily overcomplicated timing system coupled with ridiculously overpowered decks at the time dwindled my appeal for it. Once I gave up on Yu-gi-oh I recalled earlier days from my childhood frolicking though fields with Pokemon cards in hand and a stupid grin on my face and decided to do a bit of research into what the Pokemon TCG looked like today, a little while after that I was hooked. Having an incredibly small amount of funds to buy a decent deck with I went with a fusion of Zoroark and Beartic with Darkrai Cresselia legend to back it up. I thought I was going to absolutely die the first time i brought it to a local tournament but much to my surprise I managed to get within the top 3 (granted there was only something like 15 people). Playing this game has made me become friends with a lot of different people and made a few people swear that they will one day find me and kill me, can't win them all I suppose xD. Once I had decided that playing Pokemon was not going to be a one time thing for me i began to invest a lot of time and effort into getting brand new decks and learning what they are meant to do, how i can mitigate it being countered and what to do when everything goes balls up.

After all this squeezed into quite possibly the best montage of all time the second local tournament had arrived (they happen every other week or so) and I was more than prepared with my brand new shiny TZPS deck. Within the first few games i had managed to donk twice and always had everything fully powered very quickly, a great improvement over my Beartic deck and even got me First place! Currently I am playing Darkrai/Empoleon, a deck that focuses on setting up a full bench and using Empoleon's Attack Command, discarding Dark Energy with his diving draw ability and returning the discarded energy onto a Darkrai with Dark Patch. While it may not be the most consistent deck in this format I have had the most fun playing this so far (and it has the added bonus of giving everything free retreat =D).

Now here we are! With Dragons Exalted just on the horizon and the ever so amazing new EX cards spicing up the format the game has changed considerably, never losing it's appeal in the process. I, along with my wonderful friends will be doing livecoms, deck reviews and theory-crafting in the near future. I've been Alex, you've been you and this is PerthTCG! Check out our youtube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/user/perthtcg?feature=g-u-u for our live coms and gameplay footage!!

[perthtcg]

DONPHAN SMAAAAAAAAAASSSSSHHHHHH

                             Donphan Prime is the core of my PokemonTCG universe and to me he is just immense. Pretty much my deck currently revolves around Donphan Prime and Terrakion but when I started it was just Donphan Prime. And it worked for me.

I don't like decks that have this huge bloody strategy to make them effective. To me it just feels like you're too reliant on drawing the right cards at the right time and if you need a strategy to just get your deck to work, then how the balls are you supposed to counter someone else's?

So, Donphan worked awesomely for me because it was so simple and that simplicity made enjoy the game better. It was just, get Phanpy, evolve Phanpy, DONPHAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNN SSSSSMMMMMMAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSHH. And then if your Donphan got into trouble, you just popped a Max Potion and went about your merry way. I felt like that annoying Pokemon Gym Leader who would have the pokemon who just completely trounced yours. You would beat it down to say one hp and then.... max potion. It was back on full and smacking you around. That was me.

It didn't always work but when it did... oh when it worked it worked spectacularly. Donphan Prime's Exoskeleton ability reduced all damage by twenty which was something which caught people off guard constantly. They'd think they had the game wrapped up, think they had a knockout but they were ultimately twenty hp off. And then I'd max potion.

So, that's my overall play style. Get Donphan out and DONPHAN SMAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHH

I'm Josh, the Donphan guy.

[perthtcg]

I'm Josh (The Guy Who Does Some Writing)

I'm Josh and I know only a small amount about Pokemon TCG. I know how my deck works, I know the format, I know the rules and I know some of the top tier decks. What I really do is write and currently I'm the guy who's getting the gameplay footage from Playtcg.

Anyway, I got into the game a little over two months ago or so and have thoroughly enjoyed it since I started. I was almost nagged into giving it a shot and having some excessive cash I put together a straight DonphanPrime deck. I tried it out against my friends and managed to do relatively okay against their Zekeels decks and went along to our local, unlimited format tournament.

And that's where it got entertaining.

Playing against my friends is okay but getting smacked around in game kind of sucks. Playing competitively (well, as competitive as a local tournament can get) changes things. I quickly worked out that I could win and have a lot of fun in the process. After that, I looked at the game a little closer and decided that it was indeed both good fun and worthy of a little more attention.

And that brings me here. Now, I'm still running my Donphan Prime Deck (in fact about three games into the tourney I was dubbed 'The Donphan Guy') and I'm looking at expanding my collection of cards and to set-up a new deck with the release of Dragons Exalted.

In terms of Perthtcg, I write up the decklists that the others put together, commentate some of PlayTCG gameplay and upload them to our youtube channel.

So, I'm Josh, follow this blog, go to our youtube channel, http://www.youtube.com/user/perthtcg?feature=g-u-u and stay tuned.

[perthtcg]

WHAT MAKES YOU FEEL BETTER WHEN YOU ARE IN A BAD MOOD?

POKEMON! ;D - Bre