If you haven't been on the tcgo recently, you might have missed a few announcements of note. One is: Mike Liesik is now taking over as Pokemon Community Manager of the TCG Online as Prof_Mathis. We wish Mike the best of luck and know that the game will benefit from his style and wisdom. Second is a more difficult to understand post about the future of the game. It seems at first like they're throwing in the towel on the beta test of the TCGO and starting over. http://www.pokemontcg.com/forums/front-page-posts/topics/2-22-12-community-message-thank-you-beta-trainers The important message to take away, is that they are keeping the features we like the best, and getting rid of the "Kinks" as it were. But to do this, they had to rethink their strategy, and this might even mean developing the game in something other than Flash (which is what they mean by "A new platform." Regardless, they are not lessening their commitment to the game. Does this mean they will take away codes in the booster packs? I don' t think so, and I don't think it will mean that we all lose our cards. We might have to open new packs when the new system rolls out, but really, that would be a good thing for most people. I know I wouldn't mind trading in the Call of Legends packs I opened in for fresh Next Destinies packs! I think we can agree that all the "Coming soon" aren't coming soon, but we kind of knew that anyway. As for bug fixes, well, just keep reporting them - our voices get heard when we all speak together.

I asked directly if selling Pokemon TCGO Cards on ebay was violation of their terms of service, and the answer came back a definitive yes. That being the case, I have remove the TCGO link from the front page of my web. I am considering a credit only system, where you can trade me either digital or physical cards for credit, and then use those credits towards selecting digital cards you are interested in. If you do need digital Pokemon cards, drop me an email and we'll discuss it. Professor Oak

I've reached 10,000 card in the Pokemon TCGO. I've had a number of sales from the site, so I don't have all of any set. Black and white is the closest, I'm missing Serperior. I had an awesome battle against a Reuniclus deck. Zekroms, Donphan Prime, and VIleplume. First turn he uses Pichu so we both fill our benches. This gives him two oddish down. I got to catcher out a gloom early and knock it out with CIncinno, so he drops twins to get Vileplume and rare candy. He pushes up Donphan with one fighting, and evolved the bench to Vileplume and Reuniclus. Donphan takes out my Cincinno with earthquake and the standoff begins. I drop Roserade and confuse his Donphan, bring up Yanmega and punch out first A Solosis, and then the next turn, Pichu. He manages to refill his bench with Zekrom and Chansey. Donphan gets off one earth quake and then hits himself twice, Each time he distributes the damage back to the bench, while I pile it on with Yanmega. We both suck at drawing supporters for a few turns, I finally get Oak and draw into double colorless and bring up Mincinno up to add to the pressure. If I can poison Donphan, and it hurts itself, then Mincinno can take it out. Instead, he gets off an earthquake which takes out Mincinno again. However, he had already balanced all of his bench at 50 remaining hp, and the earthquake brings his entire bench withing Yanmega range. I bring up Yanmega and punch out Reuniclus, now he can't move damage. Next I take out his other Vileplume - just in time. He plays blissy prime and clears out the damage, this whole time Donphan is still active and confuse. I drag up Blissy Prime and punch it with Yanmega. He retreats it, burning another double colorless energy,but I have a Judge, so it's game over. My deck is Yanmega Prime, Cincinno, Tyrogue and Roserade. Tyrogue acts like a chess pawn, often dealing the final blow to larger Pokemon, and sacrificing himself in the process. Roserade still does a great job of making the opponent burn energy to withdraw to the bench, and very few opponents bother to catcher her up. In a pinch, she can add a double colorless late in the game and swing for 20 for each energy attached, which is usually 5 by this time. It's a fun deck, and a lot of people underestimate it.

I have to say I am quite pleased recently with the quality of decks I have been encountering online. I am playing against better opponents with better decks than in the prior weeks, and that's really good to see. Recently I encountered a Mewtwo Trainerlock deck, and it was quite an exciting game. Each time I would knock out a Mew Prime he would Twins for another one and it was a tough battle all the way to the end. Initially my opponent let me knock out his starting Relicanth so that he could play Twins. He put Muk and Jumpluff in the lost zone, and twice used sludge drag when he could have used mass attack. Each time I was able to retreat the poisoned pokemon and knock out the Mew with Yanmega. later I encountered a Samurott / Feraligatr deck, unfortunately my deck came out slow and let him get two samurott's down, and I couldn't keep them tied up. I would poison and confuse one with Roserade, and he would retreat one, rain dance the water energy onto the other and just keep pounding. Don't be put off by your opponent's win count. I started looking for games with my Zekrom deck, and my first two opponents conceded within 10 seconds - but only because they didn't want to play against that kind of deck This is perfectly fine. I don't see many people playing in the Practice Match PvP area, everyone seems to head right for the Ranked Games, Which means if you don't have a top level deck, you still look for ranked games, but concede quickly to decks you can't compete against. Hope all your games are good ones. Professor Oak

Yes, if you visit my site at all, you have probably noticed that I am now selling Pokemon TCGO Singles. Well, actually, I am selling the promise to trade you those digital cards. I can't actually sell you the cards but I can trade them to your account, and will do so! Right now it's a bit awkward because both people must be logged in at the same time in order for me to generate the trade. But hopefully things will get better. I have a lot of cards in stock, and I've priced them lower than their physical counterparts, so why not check them out?

Well the codes are out and people everywhere are creating accounts and trying out the Pokemon TCGO, and I am pleased to report that the experience is improving. They have finally fixed the deceptive trade practices by making the wording in the trade screens clear. Finally! You can now buy packs in larger quantities than 1, so spending your credits has become pretty easy. All in all it's looking good, and still fun to play. Decks are starting to sprout Switch as a standard answer to cards like Beartic and Pokemon Catcher. Even my annoyance deck is starting to suffer from an opponents timely switch. I have put my opponent in trouble with a Poisoned burned and confused Reshiram, only to see it switched to the bench, cured of it's problems, and then back up and swinging. Public trading seems to be the way to go to get the cards you need, but guessing at what people want is hard, and if everyone is making dozens of public trades trying to get that one rare card, well it can make them really hard to wade through. I have seen one other site that is trying to sell the online cards, but offers no method for hooking up. You still need both people online at the same time. I will be offering online cards for sale soon, but I'm still working out the details of online connection other than by trading a million emails. Look for the announcement here soon. Oak

I've played three games of Pokemon today online. I'm playing a Level 1 Evolution deck with the usual suspects (Yanmega, Cincinno and Donphan Prime) along with a Reshiram, Ditto and a few other tricks. None of the games were worth recording. The first game started out slow, until I finally got an evolution going and the opponent conceded. The second game the opponent stalled for 15 minutes before conceding. I started fixing dinner while I waited. The third game the opponent disconnected, which leaves me with a five minute wait unless I wanted to concede. Fortunately the rules engine crashed so I wasn't stuck waiting to avoid giving the other player the win. I always check the # of wins and # of cards my opponent has, so I can tell when I'm playing someone with a small selection of cards. The question on my mind is why do they play in the Ranked Games? If you don't have a strong deck, you can play in unranked friendly games. I'm a proponent of never conceding. It only encourages the behavior. I must admit, that I appreciate more now the frustration players have with opponents who stall or play tediously slow in tournaments. Oak

Pokemon has announced that all Black and White expansions will come with codes for the TCGO in them, including (yay!) Prerelease packs. So what do you plan to do with your codes? I'm buying them at $.50 each if you happen to be at one of my prereleases. I'll also be uploading videos of me opening packs once the TCGO goes live.

I thought I would chronicle my experiences with the Pokemon TCGO (Trading Card Game Online). I know many people are on the fence about trying it, and I thought it would help if I explained it for others. Code cards will be coming out in all Black and White expansions, so it will definitely be drawing people in. The big question is, is it worth it? I have already decided the answer to that question is yes, and I plan to have digital singles available in the web site. However, I must wait until the beta period is over until I do so, because all data will be reset when they go live. The target date is August 16th. At that time, everyone will loose all of their single cards and will receive fresh booster pack credits with which to buy new packs. You will only receive 1 pack for each code you have entered, bonus packs and tournament packs will be lost. I enjoy playing, but it still has a lot of issues. Right now the biggest problem is scam trades. A player will offer a trade to the public with the title "Free X" Where X is a Magnezone Prime or other valuable card. When someone looks at the trade, there are two panels: Offered and Giving Offered is supposed to mean "Cards offered to you." Giving is supposed to mean, "Cards you are giving away." The Magnezone prime is in the "Giving" panel. The title makes you think the other person is giving you a Magnezone Prime, but in truth, you are giving it to them. Another issue is malicious disconnects. The player who is about to lose refuses to take their turn. When time is close to running out, they disconnect from the game. Which gives them a five minute extension. They can do this repeatedly in the hopes that you will give up and concede. This only works while the game is in beta, because wins and losses don't really mean anything, but when the game goes live, and games matter, people will not concede, but it will still be annoying. Game play is good, and there are many elements to help new players learn the game. I have some recorded videos of game play available for those interested. Follow the "Pokemon TCGO" Logo from the front page to see them. Until Next Time. Professor Oak