UK Nationals Venue and Date Announced!

Another new home for the UK Nationals, pay attention now…

This summertime, 12 June will see UK Nationals moving to another new home: Wicksteed Park Pavilion near Kettering. Wicksteed Park can be found just off the A6003, not far from the A14, in the county of Northamptonshire.

As well as the Pavilion venue for UK Nationals, Wicksteed Park also offers a great fairground with a range of attractions that are designed specifically for families with young children, up to 14 years old. There are lots of cool rides like the Double Pirate Ship, Chairoplanes, Astroglide and Rockin’ Tug, or you could try your hand at Wicky’s Inflatable Laser Tag. All in preparation for your Pokémon Trading Card Game tournament, of course! Check out where this Pokémon event is going to be held by pointing your browser to www.wicksteedpark.co.uk and we will bring you more details on UK Nationals when we know them.

Dates For Your Diary

Provisional Prerelease dates for the next card set…

We have got some hot news for you on the next Pokémon Trading Card Game set to be released. The long-awaited HeartGold & SoulSilver has been given an official release date of 10 February in the UK. That should mean Prerelease tournaments happening around the end of January and the first weekend in February. This English-language set is the equivalent of Japan’s already released LEGEND: HeartGold and SoulSilver. Although with just 120 cards, the set does look light by 44 cards – the Japanese set had 150 cards and an additional 14 promos.

With 44 cards to be cut, it looks likely that our second English-language HeartGold & SoulSilver set will consist of the 44 cut cards, plus the 54 cards from the Battle Starter Decks and Expert Decks in Japan. So that is Leafeon vs Metagross and possibly some of the more recent Japanese promos such as Raichu (Prime). Revived Legends, the third of the HeartGold & SoulSilver sets, should be along with the Tyranitar and Steelix theme decks sometime in August.

HEARTGOLD & SOULSILVER
Release date: 10 February
Set contains: 120 cards
Details:
• New kinds of cards that will change the way you play
• Six new Pokémon Prime cards
• Astonishing dual-card Pokémon LEGENDS: Ho-Oh and Lugia
• New Trainer cards that will accelerate your game
• Select Energy cards with a brand-new look
• Three exciting theme decks built around…
Mind Flood – featuring Feraligatr
Ember Spark – with Typhlosion
Growth Clash – starring Meganium

City Championship Promo Gible

Take a look at the promotional card given out to all who played…

Despite the City Championship support being late in arriving here in the UK, we did manage to catch a glimpse of the promotional card being issued to all who attended a UK City Championships. Gible, from the Supreme Victors set, gets a nice shiny make-over for the CCs as a new-style reverse Holofoil Promo card. So a good guess for States promo would the Supreme Victors Gabite; and for UK Nationals Promo, the Supreme Victors Garchomp. Both should look great as Reverse Holo ‘Poké Ball’ Promos, and the set of three will be a must for Pokémon TCG card collectors.

The first of the UK City Championships are starting just as we are going to press, so the tournament reports will have to wait until next issue, when we will be bringing you pictures of the players in action, the latest of Ditto’s Hot Picks as well as more news and reviews from across the UK and the Pokémon Trading Card Game playing world.

Two Winter Warmers to keep the chill of losing away.…

The first of Ditto’s Winter Warmers is a deck that utilises the power of two of the latest Promo cards from Nintendo: Cresselia and Darkrai. Cresselia (DP Promo 51) and Darkrai (DP Promo 52) enhance each other when they are both in play. Cresselia has a healing Poké-BODY ‘Lunar Aura’ that heals itself for one damage counter between turns if you have Darkrai in play too. So that is ten damage removed between your opponent’s turn and your turn, and then another ten damage between your turn and your opponent’s next turn.

Very useful indeed when your one and only attack, ‘Lunar Flight’ does 80 damage for two Psychic Energy minus ten damage for each damage counter on Cresselia. With ‘Lunar Aura’ you can always make sure you are hitting your opponent’s Pokémon for a bigger attack than you would otherwise be able to do. But you will want to make sure that when Cresselia does attack, you have Levelled Up to the deadly Cresselia LV.X from the Diamond & Pearl: Great Encounters set. It has a great attack that can get you two Prizes when you Knock Out a Pokémon, and it has an awesome Poké-POWER too.

Poké-POWER: Full Moon Dance
Once during your turn (before your attack), you may move one damage counter from either player’s Pokémon to another Pokémon (yours or your opponent’s). This power can’t be used if Cresselia is affected by a Special Condition.

So now you can remove two damage counters between your opponent’s last turn and his or her next turn using ‘Lunar Aura’ and you can move a damage counter from any of your Pokémon to any one of their Pokémon on each of your turns too, using Cresselia’s ‘Full Moon Dance’ Poké-POWER.

‘If the Defending Pokémon is Knocked Out by this attack, take one more Prize card.’

Finally, Cresselia LV.X gives you yet another reason to play with Cresselia: its ‘Moon Skip’ attack. For the same two Psychic and one other Energy requirement of ‘Lunar Flight’, Cresselia can use ‘Moon Skip’ to attack and do 40 damage. Okay, it is only 40 damage instead of ‘Luna Flight’s 80 damage and you may think why should I bother to use it? The answer is, of course, because ‘Moon Skip’ gives you the chance to take one more Prize when you knock out an opponent’s Pokémon when you attack for a Knock Out; two for the price of one is always nice. Level Up at the right moment and attack with Cresselia LV.X utilising ‘Moon Skip’ and ‘Full Moon Dance’ and you could be winning your game early.

Winter Warmer One The ‘DarkCress’ Deck
23 Pokémon
4 x Sneasel
2 x Weavile
2 x Cresselia (Promo DP51)
2 x Cresselia LV.X
2 x Darkrai (Promo DP52)
2 x Darkrai LV.X
3 x Uxie
1 x Uxie LV.X
3 x Unown Q
2 x Unown G

23 Trainers/Supporters/Stadium
4 x Roseanne’s Research
2 x Bebe’s Search
1 x Lucian’s Assignment
2 x VS Seeker
2 x Night Maintenance
2 x Expert Belt
1 x Luxury Ball
4 x Great Ball
2 x Premier Ball
2 x Warp Point
1 x Technical Machine TS-2

14 Energy Cards
4 x Call Energy – Special
5 x Darkness Energy – Basic
5 x Psychic Energy – Basic

Darkrai itself is no slouch and it has a good Poké-BODY too, ‘Darkness Aura’ that adds 20 damage to each of Darkrai’s attacks if you have Cresselia in play. For two Dark Energy and one of any other type, Darkrai can attack for 60 damage with an additional coin flip of heads that will put your opponent’s Active Defending Pokémon to sleep. Of course, with Cresselia in play, that attack goes up to 80 – and with Special Darkness Energy attached, you could do even more damage.

Darkness Energy – Special Energy Card
If the Pokémon Darkness Energy is attached to attacks, the attack does 10 more damage to the Active Pokémon (before applying Weakness and Resistance). Ignore this effect if the Pokémon that Darkness Energy is attached to isn’t a Dark Pokémon. Darkness Energy provides one Dark Energy. (Doesn’t count as a basic Energy card.)

You are limited to just four Darkness Energy cards in your deck, but you can augment those with basic Dark Energy. And Darkrai LV.X has a nice Poké-BODY ‘Dark Shadow’ that can give Basic Dark Energy the same ability as Special Darkness Energy so that they all add +10 damage to an attack when attached to a Dark Pokémon.

Poké-BODY: Dark Shadow
Each basic Dark Energy card attached to your Dark Pokémon now has the effect “if the Pokémon Dark Energy is attached to attacks, the attack does 10 more damage to the Active Pokémon (before applying Weakness and Resistance).” You can’t use more than one Dark Shadow Poké-BODY each turn.

Now this deck has two potentially big problems; the first is the Energy requirements to use Cresselia and Darkrai’s attacks. All of Cresselia’s and Darkrai’s attacks require three Energy cards to be attached, to either the Basic Pokémon or their Level X Pokémon. That can get you into serious trouble at the start of the game when your opponent may be looking to rush you with cheap attacks. As well as being slow to get up and running, the deck would also have a horrible time dealing with Mewtwo LV.X and it’s ‘Psybarrier’ Poké-BODY.
Now there is a natural choice to get round both the speed problem and the possibility that your opponent will be playing Mewtwo Level X: the answer is to put Weavile into the deck. Not only can it provide Energy acceleration via its no-Energy-required ‘Shadow Charge’ attack, it can also use ‘Chip Off’ to hit back at any potential Mewtwo LV.X. If you start your game with an Active Sneasel and evolve to Weavile, you can quickly get a fully charged Darkrai up and running that can then use ‘Hypnoblast’ to hit for up to 110 damage with a Cresselia in play. An Expert Belt could push that even higher, but they should really be saved for use with Cresselia. Once it is charged up with two Psychic and one Dark Energy, Darkrai can then retreat and Cresselia can move up to attack with ‘Moon Skip’ for 70 damage.

Poké-POWER: Dark Engage
Once during your turn (before your attack), you may use this power. Each of your Active Pokémon’s type is Dark until the end of your turn. If that Pokémon is no longer your Active Pokémon, this effect ends. That is 40 damage for ‘Moon Skip’ and another 20 damage from the Expert Belt, taking it to 60 damage – and, of course, another ten damage from the Dark or Darkness Energy attached when you use Weavile’s Poké-POWER to turn Cresselia into a Dark Pokémon, while Darkrai effectively turns all Basic Dark Energy into Special Darkness Energy!

And don’t forget the ability to move a damage counter from Cresselia to one of your opponent’s Pokémon too. That will hopefully help increase your ability to take two Prizes in one turn. The downside of Expert Belt can be limited and worked around when it is attached to Cresselia. With its ability to heal itself and move damage counters, you can always retreat a badly damaged Cresselia to the Bench and wait for it to heal, thus preventing the two-Prize penalty from Expert Belt.

The deck rounds itself off with a nice back-up line of Pokémon, Supporters and Trainers. Uxie will help the deck draw into the cards it needs through its ‘Set Up’ Poké-POWER, while Unown G prevents effects of attacks and stops Machamp from KOing your Basic Pokémon for just one Energy! The Unown Qs help with paying your retreat costs.

Meanwhile Uxie LV.X gives you another potential attacker that can always soak up some damage and then return itself to the bottom of your deck. And, of course, Uxie LV.X also has the ‘Trade Off’ Poké-POWER too, which again can help you draw into the cards you need when you need them. Roseanne’s Research can get you Basic Pokémon and Basic Energy cards from your deck, while Bebe’s Search can get you any Pokémon including Level X ones. Great Ball will put any Basic Pokémon from your deck to your Bench – great for getting those Unowns just before you use their Poké-POWERs to attach them as Pokémon Tools.
Lucian’s Assignment helps you keep those all-important Energy cards in play, while Night Maintenance helps you get Energy and Pokémon back from your discard pile into your deck. VS Seeker will let you play your Supporters for a second time, while Premier Ball can raid your deck or discard pile for the Level X Pokémon your deck needs. Our next deck also abuses Expert Belt and shows how you can use one small Basic Pokémon to do a lot of damage very quickly. It also uses an insane 42 Trainer, Supporter and Stadium cards and just three Basic Energy!

Nicknamed Area 51 by some players, the deck looks to use the Pokémon TCG Platinum set Shuppet as its main attacker. The deck transforms this humble Basic Pokémon into a huge hitter through the use of and abuse of its one-Psychic-Energy-cost ‘Fade Out’ attack. So how does this deck turn the humble Shuppet into a deadly ninja warrior who hits hard and then disappears? Well, 42 Trainers help – the aim of the deck is to overwhelm your opponent in a rush so fast and furious that they will never recover.

Great Ball is used to get the Unown Rs and maybe Shuppet at a pinch, with the Unown Rs being discarded straight away to draw another card. Pokédex HANDY 910is draws two and then puts one of them (the one you don’t want just yet) on the bottom of your deck, while multiple Uxies help you get your hand back up to seven cards. Pokémon Contest Hall is used as yet another way to get Basic Unowns onto your bench, ready to use their Poké-POWERS, and again can be used to get Shuppet in a pinch.

Poke Blower+ is used to inflict ten damage on a Pokémon, or you can wait and use two together to bring out one of your opponent’s support Pokémon or a Benched threat they may be building up, before KOing it. Crobat G adds to your opponent’s pain, with the deck’s four Poké Turn and four Super Scoop Up allowing you to repeat that pain for up to eight times – especially if you are blessed with good luck on your heads/tails coin flips for Super Scoop Up. Expert Belt is abused again in the deck, this time when attached to Shuppet together with PlusPower: after attacking with ‘Fade Out’, Shuppet is returned to your hand together with all cards attached to it!

’Fade Out’:
Return Shuppet and all cards attached to it to your hand. (If you don’t have any Benched Pokémon, this attack does nothing.)

Winter Warmer TWO The ‘Area 51’ Deck
15 Pokémon
3 x Shuppet
4 x Uxie
1 x Unown Q
4 x Unown R
2 x Crobat G
1 x Banette

42 Trainers/Supporters/Stadium
3 x Time-Space Distortion
3 x Roseanne’s Research
1 x Luxury Ball
4 x Poke Drawer +
1 x Night Maintenance
4 x Super Scoop Up
4 x Night Teleporter
4 x Poké Blower +
4 x Poké Turn
2 x Expert Belt
4 x PlusPower
4 x Pokédex HANDY 910is
4 x Great Ball

3 Energy Cards
3 x Basic Psychic Energy

Finally, Banette completes the deck and ensures that Area 51 can get round that pesky Mewtwo LV.X to continue its rampage. Later in the game you could be hitting for 90 damage a turn with Shuppet: attach one Psychic Energy, Expert Belt and four Plus Powers, attack with Fade Out, return Shuppet and all cards attached back to your hand! Repeat next turn and Fade Out for the win.

So as the nights draw in and you sit huddled by the fire, grab one of Ditto’s Winter Warming Hot Picks and get yourself down to the local Pokémon TCG League or Tournament and give them a go. We’re sure you’ll do well and leave your opponents amazed at your TCG skills!