Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Youtube Videos

Blister Pack Openings:

Pokemon of the Day

Bulbasaur
Ivysaur
Venusaur
Charmander
Charmeleon
Charizard

Pokemon Trading Card Reviews

XY Base Set:
4/27/15 Venusaur EX
4/29/15 M Venusaur EX
4/29/15 Weedle
4/30/15 Kakuna
5/1/15 Beedrill

Pokemon Trading Card Game: How to Play

Starting the Game:
The first part of almost any card game is deciding who gets to go first. This is no different in the Pokemon Trading Card game or TCG for short. In order to decide who gets to start the TCG game off you will need either a coin or a six sided die. One person flips the coin or rolls the die and while this is done the other player must call out either heads or tails. For the die the even numbers (2, 4, and 6) represent heads and the odd numbers (1, 3, and 5) represent tails. If the player who called heads or tails guesses correctly he/she gets to pick whether or not if they want to go first. If this player did not guess correctly then it is the person who flipped the coin or rolled the die's decision on who gets to go first. *The person who goes first does not get to attack on their first turn.

The above picture is the layout for the Pokemon trading card game Board (Better known as the field) and will be referenced later in this blog.

The Setup:
After determining who goes first each player must shuffle their 60 card decks and place them in the upper right hand corner of their respective sides of the playing field (This is the brown area on the picture above). Then both players are to draw the top seven cards from their deck and place them into their hand. Both players must place one basic Pokemon from their hand onto the center of the field (This is the yellow area on the above picture). If a player has more then one basic Pokemon then they are allowed to place the others onto their bench area (This is the orange part of the field in the above picture). No more then 5 Pokemon can occupy the bench at one time. Pokemon who have evolved still only count as one Pokemon while on the bench. If a player does not draw a basic Pokemon in their first seven cards then they are to reshuffle their hands into the deck and draw another seven cards. If a reshuffle is necessary then the opponent is allowed to take one extra card from the top of their deck as compensation. This process can be repeated as many times as necessary until both players are able to play at least one basic type Pokemon. Next, each player takes the next 6 cards from the top of their deck and place them to the left hand side of the field. These 6 cards are their prize cards (This is the green area on the above picture). To begin the game both players flip their active and bench Pokemon.

A Typical Turn:


  1. First, draw a card from the top of your deck;
  2. Attach one Energy card to one of your Pokémon in play (either Active or Bench Pokémon);
  3. Play Basic Pokémon to your Bench,
  4. Evolve any of your Pokémon in play;
  5. Retreat your Active Pokémon if the Active Pokémon can satisfy the Energy card retreat cost;
  6. Play any Trainer cards in your Hand pertaining to the rules on each Trainer card and then typically placing that Trainer card face up in the player’s "Discard Pile", which is locked on the right side of the player's field just below that player's deck (This is the purple area on the above image)
  7. Use any Abilities or Pokémon Powers that appear on your Active or Bench Pokémon, and
  8. Finally, "Attack" if you have the appropriate Energy card(s) attached on your Active Pokémon. Attacking always ends your turn. *The first player to have a turn is not allowed to attack, but all other actions are allowed as described above.

How to Defeat the Defending Pokemon:
Most Pokemon attacks cause damage or apply a special condition to one of the two Pokemon involved. Any type of damage to any Pokemon is tracked via damage counters are dice. When the damage on a Pokemon equals or exceeds that Pokemon's HP then that Pokemon is knocked out, and the Pokemon is placed into the discard pile as well as any cards that were attached to the Pokemon. The player whose Pokemon was knocked out must replace this Pokemon with one from their benched Pokemon. At the same time the player who knocked out the Pokemon gets to take one prize card, and place that prize card into their hand.

How to Win:

  1. Take their six prize cards by knocking out their opponent's Pokémon by using Attacks to reduce the opponent's HP to zero.
  2. Players may also win when their opponent runs out of Pokémon on the field of play, which includes their Active Pokémon and Bench Pokémon, or
  3. If their opponent cannot draw a card from their Deck at the beginning of their turn.




Please do not hesitate to ask me any questions, and remember to check out my other blog entries and follow me on Facebook for more information on all things Pokemon!



Pokemon of the Day: Ivysaur

Pokemon of the Day 
Being the stage two of one of the starting Pokemon in the Original GameBoy game series Ivysaur has been one of the most popular Pokemon for a long time. Ivysaur is a grass type Pokemon, and has resistance to water, electric, fighting, grass, and fairy. Also, Ivysaur is weak against fire, psychic, and flying-type Pokemon. Ivysaur makes several appearances throughout the anime series as Ash is constantly faced with the problem of evolving his loved Bulbasaur.

Evolutionary Chain
Bulbasaur is a basic type Pokemon. His stage one Pokemon is Ivysaur, and his stage three evolution is Venusaur.




Fun Facts:
  1. Every Pokemon in Ivysaur's evolutionary chain has appeared in at least one Super Smash Bros. video game.
  2. Ivysaur is the second Pokemon in the national Pokedex.
  3. Ivysaur is said to be able to manipulate nature.
  4. When found in nature Ivysaur is usually found in fields, forests, jungles, and plains.
  5. Bulbasuar evolves into Ivysaur at level 16.

Statistics:
Gender Ratio: Male 88% and Female 12%
Catch Rate: 6%
Hatch Time from Egg: 5355 - 5609 steps
Height: 1 m
Weight: 13 kg

Thank you for reading my Pokemon of the day post. Remember to check out my other posts, and like me on Facebook!

XY Base Set Card Review! #2 M Venusaur

The Basics:The Pokemon card that I want to review today is the M Venusaur EX card from the XY Base Set. It is card number 2 out of 146. This is my second Pokemon card review ever, and I am excited to be doing several more of these in the future. M Venusaur EX is a Mega grass-type Pokemon with 230 HP. It has a weakness of x2 against fire-type Pokemon. M Venusaur only has one attack Crisis Vine that does 120 damage, and both poisons and paralyzes the defending Pokemon. Crisis Vine takes a total of 4 energy cards, 3 grass-type energy cards and 1 of any other type of energy card. The retreat cost of this card is 4 energy cards of any type.

The Strategy:
If I were to build a deck around M Venusaur EX I would need to first have the Venusaur EX card in my deck. Because of this I would again want to have ample supporting Pokemon that could offer as an alternative early on during the match so you do not have to start out with Venusaur EX at the beginning of the match. Again I would not recommend using this card at the end of a match because it does not have a one-hit KO move like other Mega Pokemon do. Instead I would highly recommend using this card in the middle portions of the match. Its high HP allows it to take a lot of damage without being killed and its attack both paralyzes and poisons the opponents Pokemon. Those two aspects can turn easily turn the tide of a match in the users favor.

The Rating:
I would give this card a rating of 7/10 for an M EX Pokemon Card. This is an above average card that will not deal out the much needed powerful attacks at the end of the match, but it is a great card to use during the middle stages of any match to turn the tide of the match in your favor. This card does have a high HP which only adds to the reasons why I would give this card an above average rating.

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Pokemon of the Day: Bulbasaur

Pokemon of the Day 
Being one of the starting Pokemon in the Original GameBoy game series Bulbasaur has been one of the most popular Pokemon for a long time. Bulbasaur is a grass type Pokemon, and has resistance to water, electric, fighting, grass, and fairy. Also, Bulbasaur is weak against fire, psychic, and flying-type Pokemon. Bulbasuar makes several appearances throughout the anime series as he is one of Ash's main Pokemon that he uses.

Evolutionary Chain
Bulbasaur is a basic type Pokemon. His stage one Pokemon is Ivysaur, and his stage three evolution is Venusaur.




Fun Facts:
  1. Every Pokemon in Bulbasaur's evolutionary chain has appeared in at least one Super Smash Bros. video game.
  2. Bulbasaur is the first Pokemon in the national Pokedex.
  3. Bulbasuar is the only starter Pokemon with two types, grass and poison.
  4. Many of the female Bulbasaurs will have little hearts on their heads.
  5. Besides Pikachu Bulbasaur has been in Ash's Pokemon team the longest of his Pokemon

Statistics:
Gender Ratio: Male 88% and Female 12%
Catch Rate: 6%
Hatch Time from Egg: 5355 - 5609 steps
Height: .7 m
Weight: 7 kg

Thank you for reading my Pokemon of the day post. Remember to check out my other posts, and like me on Facebook!