The Bargain Bin #2 – Plucky Duck

Today we are going to look at our 2nd budget deck of our “Bargain Bin” series.  As we pointed out last time, when new cards are released, some deck combos are strikingly obvious to experienced TCG players.  These instant decks (just add water) are usually the 1st to flood the flooded arena of “pay to keep reading” websites and the more accessible YouTube channels, as they both are always digging for content for their readers and viewers.  “Instant decks” are often those that receive a lot of hype when a set is released, usually bound to fade away into the shadows of the deck establishment.  Today’s deck is one of those “instant decks”.  However, this is one that we would caution you to not write off too quickly.  We’ve tested this one and we like it a lot.  And, to beat the band, it just happens to fall nicely into our budget category.

Halloween Pre-Release Photos

Wow.  What a fun couple of weeks at the Gym!  We always enjoy the weeks that surround new set releases and the accompanying pre-release tournaments, as they are nice breaks from the competitive season.  However, no other events, for us anyway, ever seem to hold a candle to the October pre-releases and our costume contests.  Yes, it gets pretty noisy… and yes, the Fincastle Library room was hotter than a billy goat butt in a pepper patch, especially for those in costumes, but it is worth it for us to get to see the creative side of many of our trainers.  Looking at some of the amazing efforts put forth by our trainers, we wonder if we should “re-class” our contest from that of a costume event to a cosplay event.  We think some of our guys and gals could compete with the best at area anime conventions and comi-cons (at little more about that later).

A Plethora Of October Events Remain At The Gym!

Would we say we have a plethora of events?  Oh yes, we have a plethora of events still remaining in October at the Gym.  And don’t worry, we would not tell someone that we have a plethora, if we did not have any idea what a plethora is.  We definitely know what it means to have a plethora.  Sorry to say, there will not be any pinatas involved, but we hope each event will be filled with little surprises.  We are sorry that we have not made the time to post here in the last week or so, but October has already been a very busy month for the Gym.  Gym Leaders Georgia and Logan got their feet wet in their 1st major event of the year, the Orlando Regional.  Gym Leader Marthe is knee-deep in the planning stages of the Blue Ridge Regional coming to Roanoke next May.  All of the leaders have been busy welcoming and teaching new players at both our Fincastle and Lexington leagues.  At times it feels like events are falling from the sky like gringos.  We try to handle them with a little more grace than El Guapo.

BREAKpoint Prerelease – Sunday 1/31

Fincastle Pokemon’s next Prerelease is happening on Sunday, January 31st – finishing up the prerelease events surrounding this exciting new set!  The newest set XY BREAKpoint introduces more new BREAK evolution cards, as well as some new heavy-hitting EX cards and others that threaten to impact the current “meta” game in a big way.

First on our list of “must have” cards: Gyarados EX – one of Gym Leader Logan’s favorite Pokemon.  With “Trick Coin” – or a few lucky dice rolls – you can be loaded with energy very quickly.  And with regular and Full Art versions of Gyarados and Mega-Gyarados, this set is a collector’s dream.

Fincastle Prerelease Friday, 10/30. Have you made your costume yet!?!

Fincastle Pokemon’s next Prerelease is happening on Friday, October 30th – just in time for another great Pokemon Costume Contest!  The newest set XY BREAKthrough introduces a new type of pokemon evolution – BREAK evolution.  Pokemon can add this card atop their Stage 2 level – horizontally.  BREAK evolution adds HP, abilities and attacks, but allows the pokemon to continue to use attacks, retreat, weakness and resistance on the Pokemon below it.

League Challenge Sunday 9/6/15

The Fincastle Gym Leaders are excited to host the next in our series of League Challenges this Sunday at the Fincastle library.  The Petalburg Gym League Challenge  is the first local chance that players will have to earn Championship Points for the 2015-2016 Pokemon Season.  Next year’s World Championships are set for San Francisco – let’s start earning our way there.  Here are this Sunday’s details.

Roaring Skies over Fincastle

 XY-Roaring Skies, the next set in the XY series, is coming this weekend.  Dragon lovers will want to be sure to load up on all new EX and Mega-EX Dragon-type pokemon!  Roaring Skies brings Rayquaza-EX (and its Mega Evolution) in multiple forms (one Colorless and one Dragon-type).  Other EX Pokemon in the set should include Shaymin, Thunderus, and Latios. This set is the second of the XY series to include the new “half-art” style, where the main pokemon image spills out of its usual box and into the area where Abilities and Attacks begin.  In addition to the “full-art” cards, where the image takes up the whole card, these “half-art” cards create a new artistic category for collectors and players alike.