Thursday, May 31, 2012

Featured Writer: Petri "Kumis" Tommila - Kumis.dec


Hello everyone!

Golden Catcher is one of the key
cards of Kumis.dec
I said that I tried to make an article of my Nationals deck for today’ entry but fortunately hadn’t time for that. Because thank to that I have a more interesting article for you today! As you could see from the title, the following article isn’t written by me but the builder and player of the most interesting deck of Finnish Nationals (Mismagius/Vileplume/teches). I like to call the deck simply just Kumis.dec.

Anyways, Kumis will introduce himself in the article but first I want to say a few words about him and his deck in the beginning. He always comes up with great rogue decks in every single tournament and they are usually decks that anyone can even think of. He is also the only person to eliminate me from winning in the Finnish Nationals EVER. Ironically, this was in year 2008 when I had my best finish in the World Championships (top8). There is nothing more I need to say, so let me introduce you: Kumis and his Kumis.dec!

Monday, May 28, 2012

6-time National Champion's Report


It's Hammertime!
Hello everyone!

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you already probably know it. Even if you don’t follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you may still know it. Anyways, I WON NATIONALS. For the 6th time to be exact. I know most of you are dying to know about how my tournament went and what deck I played so I won’t bother you with the introductions any more than necessary.

The deck I played was Darkrai EX/Tornadus EX. However, the list differs probably from everything you have seen before and the deck fundamental strategy differs from other Darkrai decks as well. I played the deck a lot and made the decision to play it a long time ago. I won’t probably be playing it in the World Championships because I would like to go rogue in the Worlds, so I don’t mind giving the deck list for everyone. I hope you’ll have a great success with this deck as I did and if you play it, it would be cool if you let me know about it and how you did with it. E-mail, FB and Twitter are all easy ways to get touch with me.

Anyways, let’s start the report. Here’s the final list, which won me a trip to Hawaii. I like to call the deck “Hammertime”. As soon as you see the list, you probably know why.

Monday, May 21, 2012

The new metagame and brainstorming


Lugia LEGEND - The BCIF(s)
Hello everyone!

In today’s entry, I’ll just talk about random things and this will also be the only entry of the week. The first reason for this is that I’ll have my Nationals this weekend. The second reason for this is that I just began my summer internship. And at the same time, I’ll need to read for my entrance exams as well. So, yeah, I got lots to do.

I’ll playtesting heavily for Nationals this last week and I hope I can come up with my 6th National Championship title after this weekend. I haven’t decided my deck yet but I’m sure that whatever deck I’m choosing to Nationals, I’ll comfortable with it. If you’re having Nationals in the next few weeks, that’s something I recommend everyone doing – it doesn’t matter what you play – as long as you’re comfortable with it.


Thursday, May 17, 2012

Darkrai EX/Tornadus EX - The New BDIF?


Darkrai EX has nightmares as well!
Hello everyone!

Today’s article will discuss one of the most hyped decks at the moment – Darkrai EX/Tornadus EX. The reason for huge hype is that the deck won a shop tournament in Osaka a few months back. After that everyone knows what happened – Darkrai EXs price hit sky high and a huge hype began. If I bought the EXs for this deck from T&T it would cost me over 300$. As a student, I don’t have money like that and I’m pretty sure that there are some other people who can’t afford this deck either.

The question we must ask from ourselves is that is the deck really worth +300$? Is it the unbeatable BDIF that will storm over every Battle Roads, Nationals and even Worlds? If we look at the price, it would seem so. However, if you play with this deck, you’ll soon notice that it’s not unbeatable. In fact, it might even not be the BDIF due its weakness to fighting. I’ll get to match-ups and problems this deck has later in the article but now for the list.

Monday, May 14, 2012

The Deck Out goes global: France


Hello all The Deck Out readers!

In today’s goes global –entry, I’ll concentrate on France, which just had presidential election. France is a well-known country worldwide because of its rich culture but it’s also a home of one deck that was a secret deck in the World Championships but soon became a metagame deck all over the world – Gyarados. After that, France hasn’t been doing that well internationally (besides winning Prague Cup this year).

Just like in almost every middle-European countries, the Pokémon OP is going strong in France. The game has been growing for several years and there is no crisis to be seen. Let’s take a look what France has to offer for all of us!


Thursday, May 10, 2012

Eye on Japan: Worlds Qualifiers in Japan

BCIF - Who would've thought?
Hello everyone!

Originally I thought I would do an Eye on Japan –entry after my Nationals but due the sum of many things, I decided to release it this early. One of the reasons being that there has been a lot of talk about Japanese “Nationals” and a lot of information has gone out but only few know the sources for this information.

Also, It has been such a long time since my last Eye on Japan – entry and now there’s a lot to tell you about Japan. I’ll be updating the results from Japanese World qualifier tournaments to my blog whenever a qualifier is played so I’ll be making more Eye on Japan –entries in the future as well even though they will be a bit shorter.

In this Eye on Japan, I’ll talk about mainly about Japanese Worlds qualifier tournaments: how they are played, what’s the format, how many players from Japan are going to Worlds and what decks have been doing well. As I said, it’s been a while so there are lots of things to talk about so let’s get going!

Monday, May 7, 2012

Zoroark/Weavile - The Dark Toolbox


Zoroark is brutally Bashing the metagame
Hey all The Deck Out followers!

It’s been a while that I did an article entry. Today’s article will be about the most discussed and obvious deck of the new metagame – Zoroark/Weavile. It has many similarities to SP decks since they have their own energy acceleration engine (SP-decks had Energy Gain, Darkness decks have Dark Patch). It’s a fast deck that can stand against any deck of the former metagame.

The biggest weakness of the deck is that it’s a monotype deck thus having a weakness to fighting, which already is a strong type in the metagame. Thanks to Zoroark/Weavile, Fighting type decks and techs become even stronger. Anyways, let’s get into the decklist.  

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Impact Crater: Dark Explorers


Steelix EX revisited
Hey all The Deck Out followers!


Finally, the release of the new set is very close and we have all the cards confirmed from the new. That can mean only one thing – another entry of Impact Crater. As always, the cards will be divided in two parts, the ordinary Impact Crater, which includes the cards that have a great impact on the format and The Small Impact Crater, which includes cards that have smaller impact on the format.

As whole, Dark Explorers is one of the best sets of this season. It once again offers a wide range of EXs that almost all are playable and it also offers new engine for both - ordinary and Dark decks. It will also have a very big impact on the format and will affect the metagame for a very long time. The preorder hype is out there and cards like Darkrai EX are already in 79$ when Raikou EX and Tornadus EX are at 49,99$. Are these cards really worth that much? That’s what I’m here to find out! Let’s get into the card analysis.