The Top Cut Invitational 2012

Hello everyone!

Today I got some very exciting news from Kyle "Pooka" Sucevich of The Top Cut. Last year The Top Cut hold a tournament called "The Top Cut Invitational" after the Worlds 2011, which included 8 of the worlds' best players. These players included for example the two time World Champion Jason Klaczynski, the legendary Japanese player Tsuguyoshi Yamato among other great players.

This year The Top Cut team will hold the tournament once again and this year the invitation list looks like this:

- Jason Klaczynski (2-time World Champion)
- Tsuguyoshi Yamato (World Champion and 1 time top 4 in the Worlds)
- Sami Sekkoum (Multiple times the U.K. Nats winner and World top cutter)
- Yuta Komatsuda (World Champion and 1 time top 4 in the Worlds)
- John Roberts II (The U.S. National Champion of this year)
- David Cohen (Last year's World Champion)
- Esa Juntunen (Me?)
- Tom Dolezal (Worlds top4 and multiple times Nationals top cutter)

So, as you can see, I was invited to the tournament full of elite players! I can't really describe how honored I was to get the invite to this tournament. I know there are tons of players that disagree with the decision that I was invited to the tournament, so I'm very grateful for The Top Cut staff for inviting me.

How Finnish players prepare for Worlds: Part 2

Hey everyone!


It's only 3 weeks to Worlds and the heat is on! In fact, in my 9 year career, I've been never as excited about Worlds as this year. Although I haven't been testing as much as in the first years, I feel more ready than ever. The 3rd annual Kettus-camp took place last weekend in Pälkäne and the whole Finnish team was there once again.

This time the whole team was very concentrated on Pokémon and even though we got a set-back for our Master team(the Finnish CP winner Jouni Lehtinen can't come to Worlds due military service), the team is all set-upped for the tournament. Everyone has chose their decks (except me and the 2006 World Champion Miska Saari). Even though I haven't yet chosen my deck, I already have ruled out many decks. I'll probably make the final decision on the spot in Hawaii, when looking at the Grinder metagame.

Anyways, here are the pictures from Kettus-camp that me and Ville V. took. You'll notice that the way to become a true Champion is filled with sweat and tears. I hope you enjoy the pictures and get to the Worlds-mode if you already aren't!

How Finnish players prepare for Worlds: Part 2

The sun always shines while play testing.

Hydreigon/Darkrai - The Dark Dominator

Klinklang^5

Hello everyone!


It’s finally time to begin the BW-on era in my deck articles. I’m obviously preparing for Worlds, but thankfully the deck I’m going to analyze today, is very close to Nationals winning deck – Klinklang. I’ve tested the deck moderately and in BW-on environment it works like a dream.

As you know if you are a regular visitor of my blog, the deck I’m talking about won the Worlds Qualifiers in Japan. In this article, the list I’ll analyze differs only a few cards from the winning list since the winning list was a very good list (obviously it wouldn’t have won, if it was a bad list!).

Anyways, that’s for the introduction; let’s start by looking at the list.(All the translations are from the Pokebeach, by the way).

Worlds prize breakdown revealed!

Hey everyone!

It’s exciting news. Pokémon Company International finally released the prize support for Worlds 2012 and to everyone’s surprise, they were changed! I’m more than excited about Worlds now since it seems that PCI wants Worlds to be THE tournament of every season. I think Worlds deserve to be the highlight of Pokemon TCG season and these changes to prize support makes Worlds THE tournament to win.

If I wasn’t already excited about Worlds, now I am! I’ve copypasted the prize support from Worlds’ site, so here they are. And remember, these prizes apply to each age group.

How Finnish players prepare for Worlds: Part 1

Hello everyone!


The 7th annual Miska-camp took place this weekend. Miska-camp is a place where Finnish players gather and test for Worlds. At first it was only for testing and we played very hardcorely at least 8 hours a day while fixing our decks. However, over time other activities have taken over Pokémon TCG and Miska-camp is nowadays much more than just a Poké-camp.

I tested enough in the Miska-camp and even though I haven't decided my Worlds deck yet, I'm pretty certain of, which decks will do well. In this entry, I won't be analyzing any metagame for you, but show you how Finnish players prepare for Worlds. This is a good recipe since Finland has 2 World Champions, 4 top4 placements and 8 top8 placements in the history of World Championships!

Here are the pictures I and Ville V. took from this year's Miska-camp. Check the pictures from the entry below this. Click the pictures to enlarge. Enjoy.

How Finnish players prepare for Worlds: Part 1

Hyvinkää - my home town. Miska's house is about 15mins away from Hyvinkää.

Let's Celebrate - the 100th entry!

It's party-time!

Hello everyone!

It’s true – this is my 100th entry and this is the entry that I’ve been implying to for a while now. When I first started my blog, I would’ve never believed that I could get this far with my blog. A long time I debated, if I should write on Finnish or in English and in the end I decided to write in English. I’m glad that I did. If you have been following my blog for the very beginning, it must have been interesting to see how my entries have developed during time.

Since this is the 100th entry and since I love statistics, I’ve gathered some interesting statistics from my blog during the 100 entry-span. I’ll also walk through the remarkable dates that were important for my blog’s popularity and that have greatly affected the wide-spread conspicuousness of my blog. I’ll also tell you about how the idea of my own blog came to me. I know this might not be useful information, but thankfully it’s fun and interesting information! (At least in my opinion!).

So, let’s start dig deep in the past to the first remarkable day of my blog. I hope you enjoy!

The Nationals analysis and farewell to the HGSS-on -era

In the U.S. Nationals Klinklang didn't need
to Grind its way through (pun intended)

Hello everyone!


The last Nationals were played this weekend and what a weekend it was. A huge variety of decks took the top spot of the last 4 National Championships of this season. These 4 tournaments include Portugal, The United Kingdom, Canada and of course The United States. In this entry, I’ll mostly focus on the results of the U.S. Nationals and to all the past Nationals before it.

Also, as you know, I asked you to vote if you want me to write about BW-on decks or HGSS-on decks after last Nationals. The consensus among readers was pretty clear, over 80% of you want me to write about BW-on decks. However, some of you wanted me to make a breakdown of the U.S. Nationals, so players going to Worlds can get something out of my blog as well. I thought it was a great idea, so this will be my very last entry of HGSS-on format (excluding my Worlds report of course). I’ll be doing 1-2 entries for SixPrizes UG before Worlds, so if you are going to Worlds and want to learn about my opinion about World Championships metagame etc., tune into SixPrizes. 

Before Worlds, I’ll only probably make 1-2 entries per week, because I’ll spend so much time play testing for Worlds (all my free time that is). I will go to Hawaii 4^th of August, so after that you’ll probably only hear from me once in a while in Facebook or Twitter. It may be that I’ll sometimes update my status on my blog as well. But if you aren’t yet following me on Facebook/Twitter, now it’s the time to join, if you want to hear about my Worlds experience in real time.

Anyways, let’s get on-topic. The results of National Championships and how do I see them.