Plasma Counterattack

 This morning on Facebook, Pokemon announced the imminent arrival of the latest booster set to be released in the Pokemon Trading Card Game - Plasma Blast. This marks the arrival of another 101+ cards, and for the first time since they were introduced cards designed to counter the onslaught of Team Plasma. The Plasma Storm set introduced Team Plasma into the TCG, followed by Plasma Freeze which greatly improved their arsenal. Plasma Blast further empowers Team Plasma, but also sees the Unova region's champion Iris and member of the Elite 4 Caitlin stand up to their nefarious schemes.

From the official Pokemon website:
"Challenges ring out, Pokémon duel, and the battle for Unova enters the next chapter in the Pokémon TCG: Black & White—Plasma Blast expansion! With Virizion-EX by your side, you must lead the counterattack against the failing forces of Team Plasma as they mount their last stand behind the twinned might of Team Plasma Dialga-EX and Palkia-EX! Victory is within your grasp, when suddenly you face your greatest test...the mighty and mysterious Genesect-EX takes the battlefield, supported by devastating ACE SPEC cards that give it additional attacks! Trainers, it’s time to break the ice!

Pokémon TCG: Black & White—Plasma Blast is the latest expansion to the Pokémon Trading Card Game franchise and will be available in stores on August 14, 2013, bringing over 100 new cards to collect and play."

With that out of the way, let's have a look at some of the new cards that will feature in the upcoming expansion.

Starting with the aforementioned Virizion-EX, this card completes the legendary trio from Unova to join Terrakion-EX and Cobalion-EX. While Virizion-EX lacks the hitting power of its brothers, it comes with two very useful abilities. First of all, Verdant Wind prevents any pokemon you have in play with an attached grass energy from being affected by special conditions. Due to the popularity of Hypnotoxic Laser this ability with certainly come in handy for a grass type deck or any other deck that can make use of grass energy.

Emerald Slash might only hit for a modest 50 damage, but the ability to attach more grass energy from your deck straight onto your benched pokemon is invaluable. For a mere two energy cost, it can quickly pump up your waiting bench before retreating Virizion-EX to bring a heavy hitter out to fight.

The mysterious Genesect-EX has joined the battle under the control of Team Plasma, and it brings some powerful abilities to bear on those who would oppose them. Its Red Signal will allow you to drag out an opponents pokemon when attaching a Plasma Energy to it and let you attack where your opponent may want to be gathering their strength. Megalo Cannon hits for twice as much as Virizion-EX's attack, as well as making one of your opponent's benched pokemon take 20 damage in preparation for Genesect-EX's next strike.

This isn't the end of Genesect-EX's power, as two Ace Spec trainer cards are available for it - G Booster and G Scope. G Booster will hit for a massive 200 damage at the cost of discarding two energy, and G Scope allows Genesect-EX to hit any pokemon your opponent controls for 100 damage. It's also worth noting that those attacks only need the same amount of energy as you would already need to use Megalo Cannon, so you can start boosting up your other benched pokemon while Genesect-EX brings the fight to the foe.

Genesect-EX may be intimidating, but Champion Iris is well prepared with her dragon types. Her Haxorus is set to lead the charge against Team Plasma, and while its Dragonaxe may not seem too great at first but even a single extra energy will hit for 80 damage and put a dent in any pokemon.

Haxorus's true strength lies in it's Strike of the Champion attack. Are an opponent's Team Plasma aligned pokemon causing you some grief? This is for you. If the defending pokemon is a Team Plasma pokemon, Strike of the Champion will allow Haxorus to knock it out directly. From the smallest Durant up to the fearsome Lugia-EX or the previously mentioned Genesect-EX, rest assured that Haxorus can deal with your foe.

Alongside the Ace Spec cards G Booster and G Scope, there is now the option to include a single Master Ball in your deck. I couldn't find an English translated image, but then again I didn't look too hard either. According to Bulbapedia, Master Ball will let you search your deck for any pokemon and add it to your hand. While this may not seem too great at first, consider this:

• Poke Ball will fetch any pokemon, but you must flip a heads.
• Great Ball will fetch any pokemon from the top seven cards of your deck.
• Ultra Ball will fetch any pokemon, at the cost of discarding two cards.
• Heavy Ball will fetch any pokemon, but it must have a retreat cost of three or more.
• Level Ball will fetch any pokemon, but it must have 90HP or less.

Having said that, Master Ball will give you any pokemon in your deck for free. If I can get one, I would most likely swap out the Gold Potion in my Plasma Steel deck to include one.

The last card I'll talk about for now is Jirachi-EX, since Jirachi is one of my favourite pokemon. Now Jirachi-EX isn't a particularly good Pokemon-EX, given that it has only 90HP and its attack will put both itself and the defending pokemon to sleep. What makes it useful is its ability.

When played from your hand onto your bench, Jirachi-EX allows you to take a supporter card from your deck and add it to your hand. At first glance this means you would only be able to do it once, but if you combine it with Super Scoop Up or another Ace Spec card from Plasma Blast known as Scoop Up Cyclone (same effect but no coin flip, much like Master Ball) and you can search multiple supporter cards. With a little luck, Jirachi-EX can increase your search power by quite a bit.



What card am I looking forward to the most? I'd say it's the full art version of Iris. If you were to look on Serebii, you would find that my only weakness is full art trainer cards. Seriously, it's on there. Check it out if you don't believe me! While Iris's effect isn't quite as good as Caitlin's, she has a full art version. That makes it worth wanting, although I would love a full art Jirachi-EX too. Did you see that card just above here? Awesome, innit?

Before I end this session's ramblings, a quick reminder that Tuesday 25th (yes, that's the Tuesday next week) is the first Pokemon TCG tourney for the holidays and the last tournament at the Card House's current location. What better way to spend a final hurrah than by coming in to play some games of Pokemon? The next two scheduled Pokemon events will be at the new location on the 2nd and 7th of July, and I'd love to see you all there! If you don't come though, it would mean that I win by default. Come on down and try to make me work for the prize!

Signing off, Professor Troy (I might fill the new store with traps and change my title to Gym Leader)

The Heart of the Game

I'd say I learned a pretty good lesson yesterday at the Yu-Gi-Oh! tournament, and for once it had nothing to do with Lady Luck's mental unbalance. No, yesterday I learned that there is more than one way to enjoy a game, and just because someone enjoys one particular way it doesn't mean that it's the only way.

You see, yesterday marked the first outing for my Harpies in quite some time and I've been anticipating it for a while. The decks I tend to play aren't considered top tier when compared with archetypes like Dragon Rulers and Prophecy, but I like to think I can play decently well even if I don't expect to win all the time. For me, that is how I enjoy the game. That doesn't mean that someone who plays a top tier deck doesn't enjoy the game any less than I do, just that they do so in their own way.

However the icing on the cake for me at yesterday's tournament was that I got to play against several decks that I normally wouldn't play against. Given that there are thousands of cards in the game, variety in what I play against definitely makes the game even more fun. It means that each opponent plays differently, and that I have to think about my moves even more to suit each situation, which in turn helps to make me a better player.

Because I'm terrible with names, I'm just gonna list off the deck types I played against and say that I enjoyed playing against my opponents regardless of the result because each of them were truly great to play against. The first game of the day was against Elemental HEROes, an archetype I'm all too familiar with as I have a friend in England that plays against me on Dueling Network and the E-HEROes are his favourites. That may have been detrimental to me as I kept fretting about hearing the words "Super Polymerization" - words that have been the bane of anything I can play from Harpie Lady 1 all the way up to Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon. Even though I lost, I always enjoy playing against this opponent for his sterling attitude towards the game.

Game 2 saw my Harpies tackling the inedible Gadgets, which I found to be quite an interesting challenge to face. Another loss, but once again another very great opponent to play against. Then, for the first time I can remember I had a bye! De fault! De fault! Game 4 had the lovely ladies stand up to the ancient might of Exodia, and I had to really think about my moves to try and get around the various stalling tactics of the deck. In the end it didn't pay off, Exodia was whole again and I got OBLITERATE-d. Given that this was the first time I can remember facing off against Exodia, it was an interesting game with another great opponent.

The final game carried the threat of fried chicken, with my Harpies taking on the brightly burning Hazy Flames. This opponent was also one I've played against before, and I enjoy each game against him. This round went to me, though I have a feeling next time won't be the same. All in all it was probably one of the best Yu-Gi-Oh! tournaments I've attended and I'm glad I got to go this time. By the same token this could be called the spirit of the Card House, and while I haven't played in too many other places the Card House crowd by far demonstrates this attitude the best.

So thanks to everyone who attends these events as well as those who just come in to play from time to time, for making the best of a bad situation The Card House such a great place to go. I hope to have many more games against you all, and also that I start to remember names instead of sounding like an idiot on the blog.

There is one other thing to mention, and that's the upcoming school holidays. Being that I'm not in school I don't remember the exact dates, but given that there are a few upcoming Pokemon tournaments I'm gonna mention it here and say that I hope to see some good attendance for them! While the Plasma Steel deck serves me well, I may opt to play Dragons or even a whole new deck if I can get the cards I need (a psychic deck has my interest, as well as starting up a Team Plasma deck). It would be great to play against more people, and there's also the possibility of more regular tournaments on Sundays if attendance is up. So come on, get out your poke balls and have a go!

Signing off, Professor Troy (I can see you, and you shouldn't be riding your bike there).