Hey there, Pokémon Trading Card Game fans! You’re in the right place for all the latest news, views and hot tips from our resident PTCG expert! This month, some great pics from the State Championships and some of those brilliant double Legends cards! Then it’s over to Ditto for some more Hot Picks – enjoy!

London State Championships Win for Nicholas Fotheringham!

Nicholas Fotheringham didn’t let his move up to the Masters age group affect his play as he battled hard over five rounds of Swiss and two knockout rounds to claim the title of London State Champion. Last year Nicholas won UK Nationals in the Seniors age group and made the top four players in the Seniors at Worlds 2009, finally finishing in third place.

Nicholas is again proving to be a tough player to beat and we have to wonder can anyone stop him? National Champion and Worlds number two Sami Sekkoum has yet to face off against Nicholas this season; when they do finally meet to battle, it is sure to be a great game.

Meanwhile Luke Burke won seven of the nine games he played at the Benelux Championships and went on to finish in second place in the Seniors age group. He decided to protect the Premier Points he earned there and dropped from London States after a first-round loss. With places at Worlds 2010 up for grabs, protecting your Premier Points is a sensible thing to do. Players across the globe all face the same dilemma about playing on and potentially losing points or dropping quickly to save your rankings place.

Freddy K was in residence at London States too. Here he is pointing out that Gyarados was the Pokémon that won him his fourth place trophy. And second place Master Tom Hall must be cursing his slip of the pen that put 4x Expert Belt into his decklist by mistake.

HeartGold SoulSilver Unleashed – 12 May

12 May is the scheduled release date for the next HeartGold SoulSilver set… Unleashed. It will see the return of Suicune, Raikou and Entei as combined Legends Cards and it promises to be just as sought after as HeartGold SoulSilver.

We expect that Prereleases will be scheduled for the weekend of 8-9 May and will go on into the following week or two.

Spring Battle Roads started in April

The Battle Road series is designed to provide players with small, entry-level events on a local scale. Battle Roads Spring tournaments give players another opportunity to work on their Premier ratings, potentially earning an invite to Worlds 2010. Look out for one of these special events at a League or Tournament near you soon.

Ditto picks the decks that caught his eye at the 5th Benelux Championships and the London State Championships…

February and March have seen two of the big Pokémon events in Europe taking place and Ditto was there to get you the his hot picks from both of them. First up was the 5th Benelux Cup on 21 February in Utrecht, Netherlands. This large European Tournament is fast becoming a must-go-to fixture for the best Pokémon Trading Card Game players across the continent.

From the Benelux Championships comes Ditto’s first Hot Pick, which is a resurrected Gardevoir/Gallade Deck that uses a combination of Spiritomb’s ‘Keystone Seal’ Poké-BODY and ‘Darkness Grace’ attack to accelerate the evolution of Gardevoir/Gallade whilst stopping either player from playing Trainer cards. Spiritomb can use ‘Darkness Grace’ to evolve any of your Pokémon lines and the attack will search the deck for the next evolution and attach it to that Pokémon.

Poké-BODY: ‘Keystone Seal’
As long as Spiritomb is your Active Pokémon, each player can’t play any Trainer cards from his or her hand.

You could use ‘Darkness Grace’ to go for an early Gardevoir, Gallade or Claydol – which could help you draw into your deck using its Poké-POWER ‘Cosmic Power’. When working alongside Gardevoir and its ‘Telepass’ Poké-POWER, Claydol can help you overcome the downside of ‘Keystone Seal’ that stops you and your opponent playing Trainer cards.

Poké-BODY: ‘Darkness Grace’
Search your deck for a card that evolves from one of your Pokémon and put it onto that Pokémon. (This counts as evolving that Pokémon.) If you do, put 1 damage counter on Spiritomb. Shuffle your deck afterwards.

Now factor in your Gardevoir attacking with ‘Psychic Lock’ each turn and you start to see why the deck is fun to play: it can draw the cards you need with Claydol, with the Supporter cards it has in the deck, and it can use Gardevoir and the Telepass Poké-POWER to copy any one of the Supporters from your opponent’s discard pile each turn. Meanwhile an active Spiritomb can frustrate your opponent and limit their ability to play Trainer cards and once up and running, Gardevoir will be hitting them with ‘Psychic Lock’ for 60 damage each turn and will prevent them from using any Pokémon Powers, including Claydol, during their next turn!

Graceful Gardevoir Deck

27 Pokémon Cards
4 x Ralts (Platinum #89/127)
2 x Kirlia (Platinum #51/127)
1 x Gardevoir (Platinum #8/127)
2 x Gardevoir (Secret Wonders #7/132)
1 x Gardevoir LV.X (Secret Wonders #131/132)
1 x Gallade (Secret Wonders #6/132)
1 x Duskull (Stormfront #SH2/100)
1 x Dusknoir (Diamond and Pearl #2/130)
2 x Luxray GL (Rising Rivals #9/111)
2 x Luxray GL LV.X (Rising Rivals #109/111)
2 x Baltoy (Great Encounters #60/106)
2 x Claydol (Great Encounters #15/106)
3 x Spiritomb (Arceus #32/99)
2 x Unown G (Great Encounters #15/106)
1 x Azelf (Legends Awakened #19/146)

21 Trainers/Supporters/Stadium Cards
4 x Bebe’s Search
3 x Rare Candy
3 x Team Galactic’s Wager
4 x Roseanne’s Research
2 x Moonlight Stadium
2 x Expert Belt
1 x Night Maintenance
2 x Warp Point

12 Energy Cards
7 x Psychic Energy (GS)
4 x Double Colourless Energy (GS)
1 x Lightning Energy (GS)

The deck is also loaded with some of the now familiar tech cards such as Luxray GL and Luxray GL LV.X – with which you can control which of your opponent’s Pokémon are Active – and Dusknoir, which can take Pokémon and cards attached to them from your opponent’s Bench and shuffle them back into their deck. So combine Luxray GL LV.X and Dusknoir and you can shuffle any large threat away whilst choosing your opponent’s least threatening Pokémon as their Active Pokémon.

Moonlight Stadiums give your Psychic Pokémon free retreat and Gardevoir LV.X with ‘Teleportation’ lets you switch out your Active Pokémon with itself should you get a Pokémon locked in place or affected by a Special Condition.

Poké-POWER: ‘Teleportation’
Once during your turn (before your attack), choose one of your Active Pokémon or one of your Benched Pokémon and switch Gardevoir with that Pokémon. This power can’t be used if Gardevoir is affected by a Special Condition.

And of course Gardevoir LV.X can always attack with ‘Bring Down’ which, for two Psychic Energy, will knock the Pokémon with the lowest hit points in play out of the game; just remember, that includes your Pokémon too!

CurseGar Deck

27 Pokémon Cards
3 x Gastly (Stormfront #62/100)
2 x Haunter (Arceus #41/99)
2 x Gengar (Arceus #16/99)
1 x Gengar (Stormfront #18/100)
1 x Gengar LV.X (Arceus #97/99)
4 x Spiritomb (Arceus #32/99)
2 x Baltoy (Great Encounters #60/106)
2 x Claydol (Great Encounters #15/106)
1 x Duskull (Stormfront #SH2/100)
1 x Dusknoir (Diamond and Pearl #2/130)
1 x Mewtwo (Majestic Dawn #9/100)
1 x Mewtwo LV.X (Legends Awakened #144/146)
2 x Mr. Mime (Mysterious Treasures #30/123)
1 x Relicanth (Supreme Victors #79/147)
1 x Azelf (Legends Awakened #19/146)
1 x Unown G (Great Encounters #15/106)
1 x Unown Q (Majestic Dawn #49/100)

21 Trainers/Supporters/Stadium Cards
4 x Bebe’s Search
3 x Roseanne’s Research
3 x Team Galactic’s Wager
4 x Rare Candy
2 x Warp Point
1 x Night Maintenance
2 x Expert Belt
2 x Moonlight Stadium

12 Energy Cards
7 x Psychic Energy
4 x Call Energy
1 x Fighting Energy

Shadow Skip
(60 Damage)
Does 10 damage to one of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon. (Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.) You may switch Gengar with one of your Benched Pokémon.

Next up is a deck that is seeing increasing play: CurseGar. It can be used to counter decks that are Trainer-heavy like Gyarados. It uses Spiritomb to keep Trainers in your opponent’s hand whilst evolving up to Gengar from Stormfront, which will do 30 damage for each Trainer, Supporter and Stadium Card in their hand!

The ‘Curse’ part of the deck comes from the second Gengar being played from the Arceus set, which has the ‘Curse’ Poké-POWER. This allows you to move a damage counter from one of your opponent’s Pokémon to another of their Pokémon. And with two working together it is possible to line up a Pokémon for a One-Hit Knock Out or even Knock Out two Pokémon in one turn, by moving damage counters around on your opponent’s Benched Pokémon.

Poltergeist
(30 Damage)
Look at your opponent’s hand. This attack does 30 damage times the number of Trainer, Supporter and Stadium cards in your opponent’s hand.

And Gengar has another trick too: if the Stormfront Gengar is Knocked Out by damage from an attack, you flip a coin and if it’s heads, you Knock Out the Attacking Pokémon as well! So your opponent will be wary of Knocking Out Gengar, just in case they lose their Active Pokémon to ‘Fainting Spell’.

The real key to the deck is Arceus Gengar and its ‘Shadow Skip’ attack; this does 60 damage to the Defending Pokémon and then lets you switch Gengar with one of your Benched Pokémon, ideally a Spiritomb. You then attach an Unown Q from your Bench to Spiritomb or use Moonlight Stadium to free retreat and repeat Gengar’s ‘Shadow Skip’ attack.

The result is a very frustrated opponent who is again effectively locked out of playing any Trainers whilst you are protecting your main hitter, Gengar. Because Luxray GL LV.X can effectively break the lock, the deck also plays Mewtwo LV.X and Mr Mime, shutting down low-Energy-count attacks and attacks from Basic Pokémon.

That is it for Ditto this month. Why not give one of these Tournament-winning decks a whirl and see if you have what it takes to master one of Ditto’s Hot Pick decks?