144 results for: "hello sixprizes"
Atlas League, the Online TEU–DAA Metagame Progression, Players Cup II: Qualifying Hindsight, and Mewtwo & Mew-GX Toolbox (in Expanded) “One of the interesting things about seeing the metagame develop over the past few months is how differently the metagame progression formula has shifted on the basis of all play being online. Quite often in the past, if a certain list of an archetype did well at an event or outright won, that would for a while be considered the “correct” way to play said archetype, and a lot of the subsequent finishes for that archetype would build that archetype similarly, if not exactly the same. However, as various different online Leagues have emerged to fill the gap left by…
A Crash Course on the Slow and Sturdy Deck of the Format, Lucario & Melmetal-GX/Zacian V “Before I start, I would like to give some explanation of why you should actually read this article from me, a player you may have never heard of before. If you are hesitant about trusting me on my knowledge with this deck, I hope the following will alleviate any of that. So far, this season, in the HegsterTCG tournament series (a tournament series that has a consistent attendance of around 150 players which I will mention a few times in this article), I have achieved two first place finishes, a second place finish, a top eight, top sixteen, and two…
A Look at One of the TEU–DAA Format’s Emerging Rogue Decks, TinaChamp/Magneton “This is the main star of the deck. Linear Attack, for 1 Energy, is still powerful in this format as an early attack, Calamitous Slash still remains a massive threat to many decks, and GG End-GX is still as powerful as ever. The ability to remove any threat from the field is still incredibly powerful, and is huge versus many decks currently. It is great to finally see this card shine again as a main attacker. In the past, TinaChomp had Naganadel & Guzzlord-GX as its partner in crime. Now Marshadow and Machamp GX takes that spot over. With…
Hot Thoughts on the POG Format (UPR–DAA), All the Decks I Want to Work On More, Eternatus VMAX Two Ways, and How, Now, to Play Ultimate Mewtwo “So far, in watching and playing, the more aggressive build of Vikavolt V feels like the best deck in the format. Vikavolt V’s Paralyzing Bolt is of course reminiscent of Seismitoad-EX’s Quaking Punch, and the effect on the format has felt the same. Item lock so severely cripples the consistency of many decks by simply limiting cards like Quick Ball, Acro Bike, Escape Board, and Switch, forcing players to reinvent their decks. Where Vikavolt V differs from Seismitoad-EX, however, is its support. Our new favorite bug can exploit Electropower, Tapu Koko Prism Star, and Thunder Mountain Prism Star to one-shot…
Charizard VMAX/Volcarona-GX and ADPZ for the Post-Rotation Format (TEU–DAA) “The deck is somewhat inconsistent and slow compared to other decks of the format like ADPZ or Eternatus VMAX. To tell you the truth, when I started testing Charizard VMAX I didn’t expect much from it, but little by little I started to understand the strength of the deck. It is true that the deck has its problems, but we also need to realize that the format has changed. There is no Pokémon capable of KOing an opponent’s VMAX Pokémon in a single attack without a tremendous effort behind it. Even with a little inconsistency and delay to be able…
By drumming, it taps into the power of its special tree stump. The roots of the stump follow its direction in battle. (Rillaboom)
My Top 5 Decks for Week 1 of Players Cup Bracket Play (Including: Spiritomb, Baby Blowns, PikaRom, Dragapult, and Zacian Combo) “Spiritomb/Ultra Beasts is a deck that emerged after the metagame was already established. If the metagame stays the way it is, then we have a great deck, but if opponents make a few changes to prepare for Spiritomb, it loses a lot of potential. In addition, it is a deck with very even matchups, without great advantages or disadvantages. Spiritomb needs other attackers because alone it will not be able to close out a match due to its low HP and limit of 4 copies. As much as you use Ordinary Rod or Lana’s Fishing Rod, you still need more…
Top 64 @ Limitless Q2 w/ ADPZ, the Hidden Benefits of Livestreaming Yourself, Upgrading to ADPZZ, and Toxtricity VMAX for LQ3 “After playing with Lapras VMAX in the previous tournament, I decided that this time I would like to play with a Tier 1 deck. My choice was ADPZ, as it is the most consistent deck in the format and I think it is a very easy deck to play. As I said before, my idea this time was to play all of the tournament while streaming, that way I could show other players my performance in the competition in addition to challenging myself to be a more focused player. In the end, this new experience was very positive for me and…
A Three-Step Plan for Preparing for the Return of the Pokémon TCG “My idea is to facilitate enjoyable, productive, and consistent training. To have fun training, set aside some time to play Pokémon TCG in the way that most amuses you. After all, I believe you started playing Pokémon TCG because you somehow found the game fun. To have productive training, try to practice the things that you didn’t have the time or opportunity to investigate. Maybe those Control decks that have always frustrated you can be… interesting and fun? And to do consistent training, it is important to establish a routine. Start playing slowly and then increase the pace. I’ll talk…
ADPZ, What Makes It So Strong, How to Curb It, Deck Updates, and a New Idea “Why is ADPZ so strong? What does this deck have that others don’t? To try to find a way to beat ADPZ, we first need to understand why the deck is so strong. In my opinion, there is a combination of factors that has led the deck to the title of “Best Deck in the Format” (BDIF). ADPZ is one of the most consistent decks in format. It’s a deck that only uses Basic Pokémon, so you don’t have to worry about evolution. It can use the best consistency Pokémon in format—like Zacian V, Jirachi TEU, Oranguru SSH, and Dedenne…
Top 8 @ Collinsville w/ Sceptile/Vileplume, Vileplume Variants Moving Forward, and Looking Toward Charlotte “After making Top 8 at Dallas Regionals with the list that my friend Aaron Friedman made, I took a bit of a break from the game until Collinsville. With my invite secured and a big Regional done, I enjoyed my time relaxing and grinding through schoolwork. I played some games of the format before Collinsville, but not a ton. As such, I spent a lot of time Friday night scrambling to figure out what to play. I was between three options: Doll Stall, Trevenant & Dusknoir-GX/Milotic FLF, and, of course, Sceptrow. I didn’t feel as prepared for the event as…
Living with a savage, seafaring people has toughened this Pokémon’s body so much that parts of it have turned to iron. (Galarian Meowth)
Building a Competitive Deck in Three Steps w/ Case Studies on Zacian V/ADP, PikaRom, and Lapras VMAX for OCIC “Whichever deck you choose or create, you need to make sure that that deck can work consistently. In this step, the idea is to create the most consistent list possible so that the main ideas of the deck can work without any problem. Another important point here is that we should not consider the metagame when building the list—that is, this isn’t the step to include tech cards like Phione CEC or Tapu Fini UNM. We will do that later, in Step 3. In fact, there is no exact order as to which is Step 1 and Step 2. It…
My Top 5 Plays for São Paulo Regionals, the Last Major Event of UPR–CEC “Malamar/Giratina/GXs GardEon PikaRom RoxieChomp Mewtwo Box Interestingly, four of the five decks that I like most for São Paulo are focused on TAG TEAMs. (And even Malamar/Giratina plays TAG TEAMs!) These decks just need a few cards in their opening hands to start developing their strategy, which makes them consistent and avoid silly losses due to bad starting hands or early pressure from the opponent. Also, I believe these decks are versatile and can adapt to many different game situations. My favorite Malamar/Giratina variant at the moment is a version similar to the one used by Team DDG at San…
Steven’s PikaRom in San Diego, Treasures & Traps (Post-Bans Edition), and Two Concepts for Dallas “I was feeling fairly confused heading into San Diego Regionals, following Daytona the week before. My top pick had been an Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX list not too dissimilar from the one Diego would take to a Top 4 finish later on, followed by a Malamar list which featured Ultra Necrozma-GX and Gengar & Mimikyu-GX, inspired by that of Daniel Altivilla. However, I wasn’t really feeling satisfied with either pick; I knew both were good, but ever since I had been working with Lost March, I wanted to find something else that felt like it had surprise factor. Speaking…
Archie’s Blastoise, Turbo Dark, and Ultra Night March for Richmond “Blastoise BCR has been a relevant card in almost every format it has been legal in. It won the World Championships in the Masters Division back in 2015 and has since frequently made deep runs at Regionals in our Expanded format. Throughout its history it’s received several buffs from cards such as Order Pad, Magikarp & Wailord GX, and now, most recently, Mewtwo & Mew GX in combination with Espeon & Deoxys GX. Having access to attacks, such as Kingdra GX’s Hydro Pump, through MewMew is extremely powerful and provides a lot of versatility to the deck. Here’s the list…
Daytona Top 8 Recap, Archie’s Blastoise and Shock Lock for Hartford, and a Bonus ZapBeasts List for the EUIC “For the most part, the metagame in Daytona was as expected. There were a ton of Archie’s Blastoise, Pikarom, and ZoroGarb decks in the field. This centralization of the metagame tends to happen when we have had so many major tournaments in the same format. Day 2 of Daytona is where things got interesting. We saw that many of the decks that did well in the field were not in the Big Three. Instead, many old favorites came out to make a big showing: Rahul Reddy’s 10th place Vespiquen/Flareon deck showed that even with the changes in the game over…
When it’s drumming out rapid beats in battle, it gets so caught up in the rhythm that it won’t even notice that it’s already knocked out its opponent. (Thwackey)
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