Santa Clara Regionals Wrap-Up, Featuring: A Zoroark-Less Top 8, an Analysis of Kian’s 1st-Place ReshiZard, and Other Important Takeaways “To start things off, let’s take a look at the Top 8 after the Swiss rounds (along with final placement in parentheses): Alex Schemanske—Reshizard (2nd) Michael Catron—Zapdos/Fighting (3rd) Kian Amini—Reshizard (1st) Jimmy Pendarvis—Shedinja Control (5th) Mike Morton—Zapdos/Ultra Beasts (4th) Preston Ellis—Lucario & Melmetal-GX/Vileplume (6th) Azul Garcia Griego—Shedinja Control (7th) Marcus Dodson—Pikarom (8th) There’s a ton to break down here, so let’s get right to it. First, I would like to focus on what wasn’t present in the Top 8… Zero Zoroark-GX decks in the Top 8 is quite the rare occurrence. We don’t have a full metagame breakdown (yet), but…
Coming in Last and Being Okay with It “I’m not crazy about this format, and I know I’m not the first person you’ve heard say that. I’ve been playing for about five years, and I’ve had success a number of times at major tournaments, culminating with a 2nd place finish at Worlds 2013 and top 8 in 2015. But this year, with limited consistency options and turn 1 Item lock, I feel deck builders are held back. I like to build wacky decks but am always too scared to take them to tournaments. This format in particular is not kind to rogue ideas, so if I want to win,…
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Regionals Weeks 2 and 3 “We all know the meaning of this saying. After all, only perfect practice makes perfect. It stands to reason that just because a deck has a certain number of good performances overall doesn’t mean it is inherently the best. It could just mean that it’s the most represented. I would argue that the ratio of successful placings to overall number played is an important detail that is often missing from these kinds of lists. It also occurred to me that success breeds success. So, I messaged all the players who made Top 8 at the three respective Regionals in North…
A Quick Look at Togekiss/Malamar “Because we’re playing a Stage 2 line and there are certain cards you absolutely must include, there isn’t a whole lot of room for adjustments here. However, I’ll go over some of the specific card choices, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of this particular build below. 4 Togepi ROS This Togepi has the absolute worst attack of all of the ones available in Standard. However, it is the only Togepi without a Fighting Weakness, which is why we’re playing it. You’re already not great versus Landorus-EX decks, and not even being able to survive a Hammerhead would turn…
Alternate Strategies to Victory “Blast From The Past: Delcatty ex/Electabuzz DF Strategizing Complementary Strategies Alternate Strategies Vulnerabilities “In A Pinch” Conclusion For this month’s Blast From The Past, I decided to ask myself one simple question: What’s the funnest deck you have ever played? That question produced a rich number of results, but many of them are well-known to the Pokemon TCG community, and I wanted to offer something this month that many of you might have never seen before. Therefore, we are going to talk about Delcatty ex/Electabuzz DF today. In the time “Energy Draw” Delcatty graced this game of ours, it found its…
With sly cunning, it tries to lure people into the woods. Some believe it to have the power to make crops grow. (Morgrem)
Restoring the Reputation of Rogue “First of all, I want to say what I don’t think constitutes a rogue deck. Slightly altering an established deck in order to improve a matchup is called ‘teching,’ not ‘rogue deck creation.’ Rarely played or outdated archetypes are not rogue. Decks consisting of Pokémon that no one plays because they are just bad aren’t rogue. So-called ‘fun’ decks with near-impossible combos aren’t rogue: in fact, most of the time they aren’t even fun because getting them to function at all is just frustrating. Decks that people use just because they are different aren’t rogue either: these are ‘hipster’ decks,…
It flies on wings of apple skin and spits a powerful acid. It can also change its shape into that of an apple. (Flapple)
This Pokémon has slumbered for many years. Some say it’s Zamazenta’s elder sister—others say the two Pokémon are rivals. (Zacian)
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