🌀 today: September 24 / all →
Thoughts on Players Cup II, Theories on the Play! Pokémon Team Challenge (the What??), and the Archenemy of My Dear Centiskorch, Inteleon VMAX/Frosmoth “The announcement of this event was something that I fully expected, and was happy to hear about. There are a lot of similarities between this event and the first Players Cup, but there are also some notable differences. My favorite change is that there’s no longer an invitational where one of the favored players gets to skip the hardest part of the Cup. There is also the new method of qualification. Rather than rely on Event Tickets, we now have Tournament Keys, which are exclusively for the Players Cup. The Tournament Rep system has also been redone into a much…
My Predicted Meta for Atlantic City and the Perfect (Maybe) Ability ReshiZard “Unfortunately, I don’t know enough about Europe or Latin America to be able to make a prediction on what those player bases will play in Cologne and São Paulo. The format hasn’t changed much since Worlds, but people’s perceptions on certain decks has. Ability ReshiZard was almost completely ignored by Americans, and that was an oversight. Now, most would say that it is the BDIF. Quagsire/Naganadel also emerged from the DC Open as a threat to be reckoned with, but after playing with and against it, I have to say that it isn’t a great deck. But what does this…
Shifts in Standard, Malamar: the Squid-surgence, Sequencing, and a Checkmate Update “Though I’m at a distance from the competitive scene, it’s still quite easy to keep track of what’s doing well because of social media posts. Almost all tournaments have their Top 8 posted, and most sponsored players post their list after each tournament. It’s been interesting to see the meta shift due to changes in popular opinion. For one, AbilityZard has become AbilityNoZard, with most lists playing 0 Reshiram & Charizard-GX! On another note, Malamar has become one of the popular decks of the format. Most notable players have always spurned Malamar, instead choosing to play more consistent decks. Magically,…
Isaiah’s Look at Building Decidueye/Zoroark for Memphis Standard “This deck plays a bit differently than most decks we have talked about before. Often in a game, you play to react. You analyze the board state and then consider the cards you have/ have access to that are able to counter said board state. Think Guzma-killing your opponent’s main attacker so that their board state is less threatening. In niche scenarios where the advantage gained is great enough, we should still follow this strategy. But often times, with this deck specifically, the general strategy provides more value to your board state then attempting to counter your opponents would. This…
Rounding out the Standard Format with M Rayquaza and Rainbow Road “The first deck that I started working on in this format was Vespiquen/Yanmega, modeled after the Jesper Eriksen’s Worlds-winning deck. Even with the loss of Battle Compressor, there are plenty of ways to get Pokemon into the discard pile and fuel Bee Revenge. Unown and Klefki can quickly be discarded and each Yanmega BREAK that gets knocked out adds 3 more Pokemon to the total. The deck also plays very fluidly and elegantly addresses the consistency problems that plague other decks in the format. Here’s the list I settled on: Unfortunately, the deck is very weak to Garbodor, and with the…
Intense hunger drives it to extremes of violence, and the electricity in its cheek sacs has converted into a Dark-type energy. (Morpeko)
Breaking the 2007-2008 Format “It’s really easy to say that you want to play your own “rogue” deck at huge tournament and achieve success, but it’s very difficult to do in practice. Players try to pick out the strongest cards when every new set comes out, test them, and the cards that perform well in a tournament setting become part of the metagame. Sometimes the format has tons of variety, but in 2007-2008 the format was dominated by two decks. The best first step I’ve found in coming up with a “rogue” deck in a narrow format is to look for an overlapping weakness…
Its shell is overflowing with its heightened otherworldly energy. The ectoplasm serves as protection for this Pokémon’s core spirit. (Cursola)
Never touch its shadowlike body, or you’ll be shown the horrific memories behind the picture carved into it. (Runerigus)
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