pokebeach.comRegionals, Regionals, Regionals. I would imagine that is what is on everyone’s mind at the moment. It is what is on my mind, and I am not even competing in them. As I mentioned last article, I will, on the other hand, be judging at Great Lakes Regionals in Fort Wayne Indiana. Having seen the full staff we have at the event, I’m confident that between that, and the large amount of top-notch players who will be attending, that this will be a great event.
I’m still not sure how I feel about the changes toward Regionals, primarily the issue with the further reduction of prize support for the event. I guess we get a second copy of the event this year, but I’m not sure how much that matters since the largest appeal to me as a player was the hefty scholarship money tacked onto the event.
Back in 2005 and 2006, these events were huge in that they not only paid large scholarship sums down to the top 4 placers, but they also gave out World Championship invitations. Now, we have far less reward for a victory, and attendance and quality of competition has since sky rocketed. I understand this isn’t necessarily PUI’s fault, as word has it that the budget for Organized Play has remained 100% stagnant since 2004, which is a true crime if it is true.
The cost of running so many more events, especially on an international scale, has forced Nintendo to provide less prize support, less worlds invites, and less paid trips each year. It is one of the reasons I have felt less and less motivated to continue playing every year. I know a lot of other players have become equally frustrated, but I don’t see things changing any time in the future either.
Now, on the bright side, I am a pretty big fan of this format. The fact I haven’t zero’d in on a “best deck” in the format yet says something. If you’ve ever listened to me on the topic of what to play, I pretty quickly narrow the choices down to one, maybe two or three, decks rather quickly into a format’s existence. I can’t really say that right now. There are a lot of viable decks, with a lot of different pros and cons to them.
Most decks have a slew of 50-50ish matchups, and then a few really good ones, and some really bad ones. Which I guess is either very healthy, or unhealthy, as it means no deck has much of a stranglehold on the format, but at the same time, it also makes it so that you are very much at the mercy of your pairings. Having a good grip on your local metagame will be crucial to your Regionals performance, I feel.
One of the cards I think is an absolute bombshell right now is Zoroark. You have players using Reshiram in both conjunction with Typhlosion, and Emboar. Especially against Emboar builds, the card is an all-star. Now, another popular deck is obviously ZPS, which Zoroark is well known for being strong against. Magnezone, both in Magneboar and in Yanmega Magnezone, are both semi exploitable by Zoroark, assuming you have some extra energy in play.
Clearly you don’t tech Zoroark as your anti-Magnezone card of choice, but it does offer a little bit of overlap in that it allows decks to get 1HKOs there, which a lot of popular decks at the moment wind up struggling to do. The challenge, of course, is finding the best deck to squeeze Zoroark into.
My first idea was to take my old World’s Yanmega Magnezone list, and plug him into there with a bit of re-working. For reference, the two lists:
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Pokémon – 20 4 Magnemite TM |
Trainers – 29 4 Pokémon Collector |
Energy – 11 |
Anyway, with the “updated” list to try and include Zoroark, we wanted to add a 2-2 line, since the deck’s “problem matchups” included ZPS and Emboar Reshiram, with Typhlosion Reshiram being pretty tight now (the addition of Catcher has actually benefitted Typhlosion Reshiram more than Magnezone Yanmega, so the matchup tightens a bit). The deck has a pretty strong matchup against most of the other decks. You beat The Truth, you beat Gothitelle, and you beat Mew toolbox decks.
pokegym.netThe deck is still armed with a quick start, strong disruption in the Judge package, and the ability to score one hit kills with Lost Burn, giving it a huge late game punch. With Yanmega, it also has a good early game, and thus, matchplay. The quick and easy “cut” is to remove the Kingdra line. As much as I’d love to have both lines, it does get a bit clunkier.
Next up on the chopping block? Tyrogue. I love Tyrogue, and have had pretty good success with him. Unfortunately, the card’s strengths are not completely capitalized upon without running any PlusPower, so he is a luxury, not a requirement, and this is the time to cut luxury cards in order to fit in the Zoroark line.
The last cut can come from a number of spots. You can try cutting a Judge, or a Twins, but I’m not too keen on getting rid of consistency from this list. The 4th Magnemite is expendable, but I’ve really been sold on the 4-1-3 line. The 4th Junk Arm is oddly “expendable” from the list.
It isn’t something I want to do, as the deck really benefits from the card, especially since it liven ups your Magnetic Draws. Yet unlike the other “consistency” cards, it requires you to actually get set up before its value really is seen, so I’d rather cut it than a supporter.
The 11th Energy is expendable, but I really have found myself wanting MORE energy, certainly not less, especially in matchups like ZPS where the primary challenge is to be able to score enough KOs on Zekrom. The last cuttable card is actually the 3rd Pokémon Catcher. I haven’t gotten to try that fix, but I find myself not using Catcher as much as you’d think.
In this deck, it has played a bit as a “win more” card, in that if they aren’t swinging at you with what you want to attack anyway, odds are they aren’t keeping up with you. Now, you need copies of it to snipe mid to late game with Yanmega, and you certainly can’t go below 3, but I haven’t had a major issue of needing them that early on in the game to make the additional copies that crucial.
So I started testing the following:
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Pokémon – 21 4 Magnemite TM |
Trainers – 28 4 Pokémon Collector |
Energy – 11 5 L |
The list played fine for me. I know a lot of people have switched back to Pachirisu over Jirachi, and not only do I disagree with this (the devolving attack is still very strong against all of the Trainer Lock decks), but you are forced to run such an unrealistic number of L Energy to really get maximum value out of it that I don’t like it. Thus, with us needing to squeeze 3 Double Colorless Energy into the deck, we definitely need to go with Jirachu because 7 Lightning would NOT be enough to reliably abuse Pachi.
So I started playing it, and I came to a pretty swift realization once I tested it against ZPS: Zoroark isn’t that great when you are forced to use it reactively against Zekrom. You can only do 120, and this deck doesn’t have PlusPower. So, rather than go back to the Zoroark drawing board, I said screw it, and decided I’d slam some PlusPowers into the deck.
I know some people ran PlusPower anyway previously in place of Kingdra, so I guess I’m not entirely out of left field here, but I made fun of that idea back then, so I’m still a bit hesitant to like the idea now. Zoroark obviously adds a new dynamic to the deck, though, so that does change things.
The revised list:
-1 Magnemite, -1 Catcher, +2 PlusPower
This helps offset the lack of Kingdra a little bit, as well. Being able to Junk Arm into PlusPower lets you do 90 to Zekrom with Yanmega, which is actually huge. This list actually wound up putting up some really good numbers against ZPS. The biggest “issue” was that they could Reversal Zorua/Zoroark before you got to use them, so perhaps a 3rd Zorua, or even a Revive (which is good with us cutting the 4th Magnemite) would help shore up the matchup even more.
What I do find funny is that I commented on how Tyrogue isn’t “as” good without PlusPower, so I cut him, and then proceeded to add PlusPowers to the list.
One thing I want to touch on, that may be a good point to start testing from, but I’m not sold on Twins in this deck as much anymore. It was pretty nice in last format, and with Kingdra, allowed for a nice full-blown spread deck. Now, with Catcher, the deck is a little less able to “willingly fall behind ” because if you do, there’s a good chance they will be putting too much pressure on you.
Twins has been playing fairly poorly, and now that we cut Kingdra, it may be better suited as an additional Copycat/Sages. The other reason I’m a bit sour on Twins is that some matchups you really do NOT want to fall behind against. Examples being Gothitelle, and Magneboar.
Next up, an updated Tyranitar Prime deck!
This has been my favorite deck to play lately, and the one I take to league to play with because its kind of out there. I actually got to play against someone on PTCGO who used my list against me. (I will give myself benefit of the doubt in that it was mine, as it ran Weavile and well, most of the cards I have in it, but they could have gotten it elsewhere or made it independently.) I wasn’t pleased with the draw power, so I made some adjustments.
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Pokémon – 21 4 Larvitar UL 51 |
Trainers – 28 4 Pokémon Collector |
Energy – 11 4 Special D |
I’m not a really big fan of having to run Flower Shop Lady, but due to the need to run good draw cards like Professor Juniper and Sage’s Training (the deck fared absolutely amazingly when it got a turn 2 Tyranitar up, so I wanted to be able to go more aggressively) I need to run it because otherwise I wind up discarding all of my one ofs, such as the Legend halves, and Jirachi/Shaymin.
pokemon-paradijs.comI believe there will be a new Item card that gets Pokémon back, and I will gladly add that over FSL, but until then I am stuck with it.
I would like a 2nd Max Potion fairly badly, and maybe a 3rd Twins. You could cut it down to 2-2 Weavile perhaps, but that card has played really well for me. As you noticed, I wound up cutting Super Scoop Up. The card played well, but was flippy and the deck needed more draw. As a result of cutting it, I felt the increase to 3-3 Weavile was almost mandatory.
One of the very annoying things about the deck is how Larvitar isn’t a Dark Pokémon. I would actually be perfectly content with using only 1 Max Potion if I didn’t end up wanting/needing to Max Potion benched Tyranitar Primes because of the Darkness Howl damage adding up. (I miss Broken Time-Space?)
We could experiment with a 1-0-1 Serperior BLW 6 line at the cost of the Weavile 3-3 lines, but that seems a bit fragile. Sadly, no answer to the “My Opponent Plays Donphan” problem has been found really.
That being said, while I do champion this little Tyranitar project, I wouldn’t swing it into a wide open field like Regionals unless your own testing has given you supporting reason to do so. I’ve taken this as more of a “prove Tyranitar can compete with the tier 1 decks” project, and I’ve gotten it to do that. That doesn’t necessarily mean it is one of the best choices to use, if you can understand what I am saying.
If you want a challenge, or just like playing something different, Tyranitar is a good choice. It is a perfectly viable deck, and has put up solid numbers against most decks, but at the same time, the numbers haven’t jumped out at me to say that its one of the BEST choices, so really, if you are serious about winning Regionals, you need to be championing one of the TOP decks, and while I feel Tyranitar is a VIABLE choice, I don’t think it falls under the category of a top deck.
Next up, an update to Emboar Reshiram, which is a deck that just baffles the hell out of me. The deck has been performing at Battle Roads around here, but still clunks a lot in testing. It’s incredible when it sets up, but I figure I need to try and take a different approach to the deck because somehow, despite “simplifying” itself by getting rid of Magnezone, it actually just wound up being less consistent. I’m not sure why, but it seems to be.
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Pokémon – 18 4 Tepig BW07 |
Trainers – 28 4 Pokémon Collector |
Energy – 14 12 R |
The deck forgoes all shuffle draw in the hopes of just compiling one very large hand. A lot of decks do not run Judge anymore, so this type of play seems rather strong. By stuffing so many draw cards in the deck, we lose Pokémon Catcher, Junk Arm, and PlusPower, but the deck has so much raw power it should be more than capable without them. They can always be stuffed back in if some of the draw cards get cut, or even some of the recovery, but I don’t think it’s entirely necessary.
Now while I like the decks matchups, it felt like I was playing a worse version of Emboar Magnezone. Here is a great list for Magneboar, complete with Tropical Beach.
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Pokémon – 19 4 Magnemite TM |
Trainers – 26 4 Pokémon Collector |
Energy – 15 9 R 4 L |
Tropical Beach has played SIGNIFICANTLY better than the Supporters used to in the deck. You could potentially add a Fisherman, Pokémon Catcher, 2nd Switch, 2nd Magneton, Burned Tower, or a few Supporters in addition to the Tropical Beach.
I went with a 2nd Cleffa over an additional Supporter because it is able to help you stabilize early but at the same time is an additional basic. The deck was running dangerously low at 10, and I much prefer 11 here. The fact it is “worse” than a Supporter midgame is irrelevant because Magnezone gets you set up fully.
Now, let’s loop back to Zoroark for a moment. I want to run a few “Stage 1” deck ideas involving Zoroark. We have the traditional Donphan Yanmega Zoroark decks, but we also have Lanturn Yanmega Zoroark as an option. Let’s start with a list for that.
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Pokémon – 21 4 Yanma TM |
Trainers – 27 4 Pokémon Collector |
Energy – 12 8 L |
This build can be tweaked to be a bit more heavy on the Pachirisu and Shaymin plan and perhaps even add in Zekrom. This gives you a bit more of a punch if you are low on energy and can’t get enough damage out of Lanturn.
Now, another deck that people have been using locally, that apparently no one else seems to use around the country is Yanmega Cinccino Mew (or YMCA). I’m not entirely sold on the deck, but I will offer up a list for it. If you expect a lot of Gothitelle, this deck overperforms against it. As found out recently, it is rather bad against Yanmega Magnezone, or well, decks with Magnezone in general.
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Pokémon – 19 4 Yanma TM |
Trainers – 31 4 Pokémon Collector |
Energy – 10 6 P |
Very aggressive, and adaptable. Now, the “fun” part of the deck is being able to splash in fun tech cards. You can try out Muk UD or Crobat Prime if you want to. If you want to get risky and try Rainbow Energy (let’s be honest, Mew dies to whatever attack hits it anyway) or some Energy Search and a splash Energy type, you can add fun things like Jumpluff HS.
pokegym.netJirachi makes an interesting addition too. It allows you to mitigate the fact that you realistically cap at 100 damage prior to PlusPower. Also, against Magnezone matchups, which are “bad,” if you end up using Zoroark with Mew, you can get back P Energy to dump for a copies Lost Burn.
I’ve also considered running an actual Zoroark line, maybe 2-2, or even trim some of the Trainers to go for a 3-3 line, because the card is really good against “issue” matchups. The one thing I have noticed is that a heavy PlusPower/Junk Arm line in a deck with Yanmega can be an all-star against ZPS.
Another deck I wanted to address is actually a slightly different approach to playing LostGar. I don’t want to take even close to a majority of the credit on this one, as the idea/inspiration came from Italian player Andrea Ceolin. We discussed Lostgar on Facebook a few weeks ago, and he suggested I try using the Mew/Gengar package alongside Vileplume as the disruption makes it harder for a lot of decks to score one hit kills on Gengar, and also cuts off Catcher and Junk Arm, two “problem cards” altogether.
I haven’t been a huge fan of Vileplume decks in the format as a whole right now, but I actually feel this may be a pretty good approach with the deck. The synergy with Twins is at an all-time high in this deck. If you plan to use LostGar, you accept having a poor “Game 3” for matchplay, so the downside of Vileplume decks, being slow and such, is redundant since it is already a downside you are accepting when you try to win with Lostgar in the first place.
Let’s look at a basic list for the deck.
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Pokémon – 22 3 Mew Prime |
Trainers – 29 4 Pokémon Collector |
Energy – 9 9 P |
Seeing how I haven’t gotten a chance to log very many games with this deck (before someone wants to call me out on having what I am openly admitting is a rough list here), I’m not really too sure on the numbers. As I’ve confessed before, I haven’t been the biggest fan of Vileplume decks in this format, and after having discarded most of the builds after disliking their results, I am far from a Vileplume expert.
pokegym.netYou’ll notice I have an awkward split on 2/2/2/2 on non-Collector/Twins Supporters, that is, in fact, because I am running an assortment of them to try and see which ones I am most pleased with. If you have preference, or already know the answer to that, allocate those 8 spots accordingly, please.
But let’s look at our current format. A lot of decks are chock full of Pokémon which will clutter in their hands. Also, a lot of decks will be unable to deal with Gengar’s natural 130 Hit Points once they get up and running. ZPS, previously a challenging matchup for the “Speedgar” builds due to Zekroms ability to easily dish out 130 damage with PlusPower, becomes much more managable when you cap them at 120 damage, denying them those one hit kills. Reshiram Typhlosion? The same thing.
I’m not sure if I even agree with my own Pokémon Communication count in this deck, by the way. It was either a 4th Poké Comm or an 8th Supporter, and while Poké Comm is awesome early, it loses a lot of value mid and late game once you do get Vileplume out. I’m still not sold on the engines available to Vileplume decks, especially with Gengar, since I foresee the deck using Seeker a majority of its turns.
Unlike the “SpeedGar” approach, you really aren’t very capable of splashing a thin Magnezone line, simply because you can’t use Rare Candy midgame to get it out. At which point you are stuck trying to run a 1-1-1 line, or larger, which is just grossly clunky, even by my standards.
Now, we get faced with the “Mew” issue of splashability. If you wanted to, you can try to tech in a Muk, allowing Mew to drag up Pokémon to stall as you set up. Certain decks, like those using Magnezone, are very weak to this play, and it can help to slow games down so you can start setting up your Lost World win condition. I’m not sold on running a Muk, but at the same time, I haven’t played enough with the deck to really know the intricacies of its matchups.
Now, let’s address the big decks for Regionals. We haven’t seen a huge influx of brand new decks in the past month or so, so let’s just make sure to get a good catalogue or what we may be seeing.
– ZPS
– Typhlosion Reshiram
– Emboar Magnezone
– Emboar Reshiram
– Donphan Zoroark Yanmega
– Vileplume Reuniclus aka “The Truth”
– Gothitelle
– Mew Box
– Lanturn Stage 1s
– Magnezone Yanmega
– Vileplume Yanmega Mew Lock
Those are the “big decks” you have to worry about. Primarily, the decks which should be fairly universal, will be Typhlosion Reshiram, ZPS, and Gothitelle. They are widespread and a lot of the average players will end up running these decks. The other decks are a bit more region specific, but if you went to the Battle Roads in your state, you should at least have an idea as to what will be played.
I guess this is where people are expecting me to give my opinion on what I think the best play for Regionals is then, right? Well, to this moment, I’m not really sure. Nothing sticks out. I think if I were playing at Regionals, I would be using Yanmega Magnezone. The deck has simply been playing more consistently then any of the other decks for me, and I have a lot of experience with the deck.
I know a lot of top players like Gothitelle, and Vileplume decks, as the “lock” approach gives them more control and an improved ability to try and outplay opponents, and the deck is strong against those. I’ll take any deck which gives me a good matchup against the best players in the field.
I know a common mindset is that decks such as Reshiphlosion and ZPS are “easy to play” and “mindless” aggressive decks which pretty much autopilot and attack, and a lot of experienced players tend to shy away from them, even if these negative connotations are unjustified. I personally consider ZPS to be a pretty good deck, even if it is a bit flukey in how it sets up.
I don’t know if I could pull the trigger on using it at an event, but I certainly would not fault you if you do. Reshiphlosion I feel is a bit worse of a choice, as the deck has a few things working against it. First, it hasn’t really gained all too much with Emerging Powers. Other decks have gained quite a bit, and I think its standing in the format is weaker than it was going into Worlds.
The deck suffers from a few rough matchups (The Truth, Emboar decks, Gothitelle) and doesn’t really have very many auto-wins. It has a bunch of coin flip matchups, any almost nothing left in the format that it is better than 60-40 against. The deck is a solid backup plan if you can’t find a better choice, but I wouldn’t feel particularly excited if that was what I was bringing into the tournament.
The deck has a few other factors working against it, which will bring up two key points for a bigger event like this. One, the deck has remained pretty much the same since Nationals. This means literally any capable player has testing against the deck inside and out, and it offers no surprise value. People know how to play against it. They have decks they believe are capable of competing against it.
Very few people will be headed into this event with the mindset that their deck is weak to Reshiphlosion, simply because the deck will be there in great numbers, due to ease of play, and its affordable price. I like going into an event with the prospect of being able to pick apart unprepared players, and cripple some auto-wins. A sad truth about a lot of “solid” Pokémon players is that they are “solid” due to repetition and practice.
I’ve said this a ton, and I’ll probably give this speech in every article before a big tournament. Players get “good” by playing their deck against the stocklists, either in playtesting or by learning in Battle Roads and other smaller events. Take them out of their element and they play significantly worse.
The degree by which this true is startling if you watch for it. Thus playing a very linear deck, like Reshiphlosion, at an event like Regionals where everyone and their mother has been testing against it for half a year while the deck still remains on the radar is a bit of a gamble.
The second issue has also been done to death: The deck isn’t particularly great in Sudden Death. In order to win Regionals, you are playing in at least 4 rounds of matchplay, and you better expect at least one of those to go to a Game 3. I don’t want to be the guy who is panicking because his deck is a bit slower. I want to be the guy threatening that reliable turn two kill.
Now, just so I’m not just picking on my favorite punching bag Typhlosion, the same is true for Vileplume, and Magneboar, and even Gothitelle (But not Tyranitar. That deck’s the best!). Even if these decks have just as good of winning percentages in long, full games, or better, once you hit matchplay, the entire dynamics of the game changes. Those decks all take a hit.
pokegym.netJust realize, most matchups are within 60-40 to 40-60. The odds two players split the first two games 1-1 are really high. So outside of having a nice aggressive deck, also, work on time management. If your deck is slow? Play fast, and make sure to concede if a game feels out of reach.
That being said, if you have the advantage in Game 3, make sure to abuse that! I’ve “sandbagged” wins a number of times in matchplay, in order to make sure I had a favorable time position. A game was approaching 30 minutes, and I was at 2 Prizes left to my opponent’s 3.
I pretended to whiff a key energy drop, and “stumbled” on my set up for a few turns, letting the game get closer, before winning. (Be careful to make sure you don’t let the opponent actually back in the game though, that’d be embarassing. You just need to know how much rope you can give.)
As a result? The game went nearly 15 minutes longer then it would have had I just taken my last 2 Prizes in probably 3 minutes. Thus, my opponent had 15 minutes (13 after set up) to win Game 2. Needless to say, I won the match 1-0. Not every player is comfortable forfeiting. If you are favored on time, make your opponent pull the trigger on scooping their games. You’d be surprised how many people will waste way too much time before packing it in.
Now, a lot of this advice is just common sense for large events, but the next little bit is more specific to this tournament. There is no clear cut best deck. Nothing has matchups that are great across the field. If you are not dead-set on a deck you feel is just the best bet for you, you have to sit down and realize you are gambling on a metagame call. No deck has winning matchups across the board.
Big events like this come down to, generally, who runs best. No matter how good you are, no one player is ever favored to win an event. There is too much variance. Anyone can have a good day, and anyone can have a bad day. You prepare to optimize your chances, but at the end of the day, you need luck on your side to hand you the opportunities you have prepared for.
pokebeach.comIn a wide field, especially if you don’t feel like you are the best player in the room, sometimes it’s a good idea to gamble. Have a deck that has an auto-loss, but a lot of auto-wins, and some otherwise solid matchups? Give it a run. Assume there are 7 rounds of Swiss. Even if you get paired against the deck twice (unlikely since this field is wide open) and lose, that puts you in top cut, at which point it’s a bit of a pairings crapshoot.
But if you accept you have to run well anyway (even more so when this format is already a bit pairing/start dependent) then that isn’t much of a deviation from the norm. I’ll use Worlds 2005 as an example. I couldn’t figure out a deck that I wanted to use. Medicham was arguably the “best deck,” but I didn’t feel comfortable with it, and everyone was gunning to beat it.
(Example: Nidoqueen, and even Dark Steelix, did well at the event, largely on the back of having a great Medicham matchup.)
Everything seemed to have its wins and losses. I decided to go with Rock Lock, which had an auto-loss against Medicham (ok, not an auto-loss, but it was certainly pretty poor!) hoping to dodge it enough to make cut and hope to ride it out, because the deck had fantastic matchups against every other deck. (Ok, not so much Nidoqueen but that deck wasn’t known headed into the event.)
While I didn’t do particularly well in that event (only one of those losses to Medicham, which I actually almost beat, I just had some pretty bad variance and bad draws) I stand by my choice, given the information headed into the event.
In hindsight I’d have used Muk EX, but there was no way to make that call prior to the event, and even now as I re-analyze the information I had available when I turned in my deck registration sheet, I agree with my Rock Lock choice.
Normally, I’d say that means Gothitelle is a good choice for Regionals, as your “Medicham” is Mew Prime, but the format has gotten a lot faster than it was back in the day, so its bad Game 3 works against it. (Use Tyranitar! Avoid Doncham!)
One card I did forget to address that I think is really strong, and great against ZPS is Bouffalant BLW 91. For a DCE it retaliate kills Zekrom. I’d consider tossing it into Yanmega Magnezone if you don’t like the Zoroark, or perhaps in addition to it.
Two other cards which seem to be tossed around these days as answers to Gothitelle (outside of Mew Prime) are Magby TM and Bellsprout TM. Magby burns Gothitelle, and there’s the flip at the end of their turn, and your turn to reduce it to 110 HP, allowing say, a Zekrom or Reshiram, to one shot it. The card is a bit flip dependent and grows weaker if Gothitelle plays Switch, which is an easy to search for if they have access to Twins.
Bellsprout is used to lure up Reuniclus, or disrupt your energy drops early on. This can definitely be a pain in the early stages of the game, as you have to overextend early to kill Bellsprout, turning off Twins, and likely giving them a few extra turns of Trainers in the early stages of the game to set up. A deck luring up something on the bench every turn allowing them to play PlusPower THEN Catcher up a Gothitelle for the KO (ZPS/Reshi decks) that has been unable to stay active is pretty ugly.
Bellsprout is also good against Vileplume decks, as they don’t get the Switch luxury, and you can really set them back on prizes. Remember how annoying Bright Look on Vileplume was? Well, you don’t have Unown Q MD anymore. The same applies. Vileplume and Reuniclus are both giant targets.
I think I prefer Bellsprout to Magby, simply due to its extra strength against Vileplume, and lack of “hoping they don’t have Switch or just flip 2 heads) factor. So there are my 4 cards to try for Regionals. Zoroark, Bouffalant, Magby, and Bellsprout. Good counters to popular decks. Well, those and Tyranitar. Guy’s a hoss.
Anyway, I just wanted to say that I got this article bumped up a few days because Josh was unable to get his done by Tuesday, so I was a bit rushed to get this to you guys because I’ve had a hectic couple of days since getting told I had the opening.
When I agreed, I had a bit more time on my hands, but that changed at the last second, so I did the best I could on short notice. Also, might I suggest everyone chime in on the PTCGO forums.
There is quite the debate going on over the game’s policy regarding the sale of online cards that I think is worth reading. If you feel like taking the initiative, go ahead and post your opinion (unless you disagree with me, then don’t click the link :P).
Anyway, I want to wish everyone good luck at Regionals, and I hope to see a lot of people in Fort Wayne on the 12th (and hopefully on the 13th as well!).
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