Tokyo's everyday league life

Hey people,

I hope you haven't forgotten about me, yet.

And even if you did, I have no right to be angry at you.

I know I haven't written an article in a long time and this article is not nearly long or interesting enough to make up for that, but it's a start. 

A start in the new season, where hopefully i will find time to write more articles and give you more insight on the japanese Pokemon TCG life.

This article will cover the time I spent in Tokyo visiting several shops there, going to small tournaments and getting in touch with the people. I will not cover every deck I faced and every game I played. This is not a tournament report, but a try to give you a picture of what the league and community looks like in Japan. I was very close to writing off the Pokémon TCG in Japan completely due to the frustration from earlier competitions and a missing sense of a community.

During my week in Tokyo my faith in the japanese Pokémon community got restored and even succeded all expectations I've ever had.

Battle Festa Sendai

Hisashiburi (Long time no see),
I hope you haven't missed me to much.

The finals and last classes are finally over and i have time to write articles again.
This first one will be about my second Battle Festa tournament in Sendai.
It was similar to the Tokyo one but only a one-day tournament.
There were probably about 300-400 competitors and the style was the same as in Tokyo.

But let's go chronologicaly.
I went to Sendai the day before the tournament to go to the Pokémon Center. At the same time my friends got to the Pokémon Center in Sapporo. I managed to make them get me some of the cool Greninja sleeves that were sold out everywhere else.
The Center in Sendai was really nice and small and after I was finished there I took a look around the famous shopping street in Sendai.

Pokemon Card Hunting in Japan

Hello people,

It was requested, and I also know, that many of you want to know more about this, so I decided to give you a deeper insight on this with a special article.

Content:

A. First Hand Cards

 1. Packs

 2. Theme Decks

 3. Promos

B Second Hand Cards

 1. Singles

 2. Bulk

C Special Promos

D Merchandise

A. First Hand Cards

First, I'll tell you about the easiest way to get Pokémon cards in Japan. Many of you will already know what I am about to tell you, but some don't, so I'll give it a look.

This way is buying them in store - either in standard Packs, or in Theme Decks.

1. Packs

 

Battle Festa Tokyo Tournament Report

Hello people,

I know, I posted this article already on 60cards.net, but I also wanted it here, just for completeness,and because I promised it to you. 

I was looking forward to this for since I am in Japan, and I was not disappointed.

The Battle Festa tournaments are some of the biggest tournaments in Japan every year, with easily over 1000 competitors and many of the strongest players in Japan go there to participate.

Table of Contents

1. The Preparations

2. The Deckchoice

3. The Tournament Rules

4. The First Day

5. The Second Day

6. Afterthoughts

1. The Preparations

Already about 2 months before the tournament I started to think about what deck to play, how to get to Tokyo, where to stay there, and so on. About a month ahead I learned that my friend, whom I always tested with, wanted to go, too. Also a good friend from uni had decided to visit her family in Tokyo that weekend, so we could all go together. My friend booked the night bus to Tokyo, and from there on there was no going back. I started testing all kinds of decks excessively, which was hard, because no online-playing portal had Phantom Gate scans back then. My only chance was playing with friends, only with the decks I built myself. It was a great challenge, and I know that's not the optimal way of testing, but it was the only way that was practicable for me.

A couple of weeks before, I decided on my deck and started gathering the cards. I already had quite a number of trainers and Pokemon I needed, from those big packs you might remember, I bought really cheap.

The Lightning Strikes Again

Hello people,

I'm back with a new deck archetype:

Mega Manectric EX.

Wait, that's not new!!!

Well, until now, I was looking for possible partners to play MManectric EX with.

That was until I realized, how powerful the card itself is.

That's why the new deck, I came up with, is just straight MManectric - without partners.

THE POKEMON

First, ill give you a small review about the card itself:

M Manectric-EX - Lightning - HP210
Mega Evolution - Evolves from Manectric-EX

When 1 of your Pokemon becomes a Mega Evolution, your turn ends.

[L][C] Turbo Bolt: 110 damage. Choose 2 basic Energy from your discard pile and attach them to 1 of your Benched Pokemon.

When a Pokemon-EX has been Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.

Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: Metal (-20)
Retreat: 0

New Decklist and Battle Festa Preparation

Hey people,

I am finally back with a new article.

The midterms in my uni have started, so I will have to concentrate more on those, but I will still try to write articles on a regular basis.

This one will revolve about another deck, and my preparations for Battle Festa, which gets closer and closer.

Many people found my last article, in which I featured MManectric and the Night's March deck, very interesting, and I got lots of feedback. I want to thank you all for your support.

Thats how my blog can get better.

Also I want to announce, that I will change this blog's name.

I was designing a logo for this one, but then stumbled upon the problem of copyright for the Pokémon logo, why I cant use I in the way I wanted to.

New Phantom Gate Decks

Hello people, and welcome back.

This time, I will talk about decks that revolve a little bit more around the new Phantom Gate cards.

One idea that immediatly came to my mind when I saw MManectric EX was to combine it with Virizion/Genesect. This deck has shown great potential in many tournaments since it appeared with the release of Plasma Blast.

It has a consistent, fast setup and is able to deal with any threat.

The strategy revolves around using Virizion EX's Emerald Slash to power up as many Genesect EX as possible, to then use Genesect EX to clean up the board and getting rid of threats as soon as possible by using the Red Signal Ability. In situations where it is neccesary you also have the possibility of using G-Booster to hit everything for 200 damage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the release of Flash Fire, though, Virizion/Genesect's natural enemy appeared:

Pyroar

This card gives VirGen a hard time and players piloting VirGen at tournaments usually try to avoid the match-up by all means.

Another problem that came up in VirGen decks after the rotation is the lack of Super Rod to get their energies back. With this you have to be much more carefull with discarding energies, than before.

MManectric EX solves the Pyroar problem as no other card could.

An evolved Pokémon, that does 110 damage for 2 energies, and then even gets 2 energies back from the discard pile.

This second effect of the attack solves the energie recovery problem.

 

Now you just have to find a way to fit this card into your VirGen deck.

 

I'll first give a decklist for expanded format, since that's what we play here in Japan in, and then try to help you convert the deck to standard.

 

My decklist is:

 

Pokémon:

3 Genesect EX

2 Virizion EX

2 Manectric EX

2 MManectric EX

1 Tropius PLB

10

Trainers:

4 Professor Juniper
4 N

4 Skyla

1 Shadow Triad

1 Colress
2 Skyarrow Bridge
3 Ultra Ball
3 Energy Switch
3 Muscle Band
2 Tool Scrapper

1 G Booster
1 Professo's Letter
2 Enhanced Hammer

3 VS Seeker

2 Manectric Spirit Link

36

Energies:

4 Plasma Energy
2 Lightning Energy

8 Grass Energy

14

Card choices:

 

Tropius PLB:

This card is a nice addition to the deck, since it makes your opponent draw odd prices and has fighting resistance. It helps in the Donphan match-up and it is also nice if you are stuck and just want to draw some cards.

3 Energy Switch:

This card is awesome!!!

You have so many two-energy-attackers, that as soon as you have one energy in play you can just slam down a fresh attacker, attack an energy, Energy Switch, and you are ready to go again.

I would never play less than 3.

 

2 Enhanced Hammer

Even though I don't play Balloons I can still take advantage of this card. It makes so many match-ups so much easier and helped me a lot in the meta here in Japan, that I wanted to include 2 of them.

 

Strategy:

The Strategie in this deck revolves around using Virizion and Genesects power to hit the opponent fast on a constant basis. Then, when the game is developed use MManectric to finish the opponent off by having the board advantage with many energies.

MManectric and even its basic EX do wonders against every lightning weak Pokémon like Yveltal EX, or Lugia EX, or even Empoleon.

On the other hand, it makes your Donphan match-up worse, but if you just don't play your Manectrics down it is just like playing with straight VirGen.