3,043 results for: –2020/04/01
A Look to Japan for Rebel Clash’s Impact on Standard’s Top Tiers, Including Dragapult VMAX, Toxtricity VMAX, ADPZ, and PikaRom “To understand some choices with Japanese decklists, we first have to understand Japanese tournaments. Their tournament levels roughly mirror ours: Trainer Challenges, City Leagues, Champions Leagues, and Japan Championship. Tournaments are Swiss + Top Cut, Best-of-1 with a 25-minute timer, except for Trainer Challenges. Much like our League Challenges, Trainer Challenges lack a Top Cut. Ties do not exist in Japanese tournament structure. This has an interesting effect on Stall decks. If a game would result in a tie by our standards, it results in a double loss in Japan. Because of this, Stall and Control decks don’t have nearly…
Nine Unlimited Decks That Win on Turn 1 in All Ways Possible (Including Bench Out, Deck Out, the Unown Trio, Lost World, and, Yes, Walk-Off Homer) “With the millions of possibilities, I decided to put down some guidelines for myself. I can use any card ever printed in English that was legal for tournament play at some point, plus Rebel Clash. I am permitted to assume my opponent doesn’t put any restrictions on me (i.e., no Spiritomb AR, Wobbuffet PHF, or Sudowoodo GRI/Ditto TM). I must play with current Sword & Shield rules (i.e., no Supporter turn 1). I can’t rely on coin flip cards for consistency (e.g., Bill’s Teleporter), and consistency cards that shuffle the deck should be limited (see: Trainers’ Mail). I must maximize…
Seaking (and Destroy…) and My Top Three VMAXs from Rebel Clash (Dragapult, Toxtricity & Inteleon) w/ Launchpad Lists “This leads me to the deck I mentioned before, Seaking SSH! I’ve been having a ton of fun messing with opponents and trying to exhaust all their resources before they can take 6 Prizes. The main resource you try to get rid of, of course, is Energy as Ripping Horn removes 3 Energy over the course of two turns (on average). When you consider that Zacian V decks can only have 4 Metal Saucer, or PikaRom decks only have 1 Tapu Koko {*} and 1 Thunder Mountain {*}, the loss of 3 Energy can be huge. And when you combine…
ADPZ @ Guatemala, Takuya’s Dragapult VMAX, and My Rebel Clash Top 5 “aka Tord’s List -1 Oranguru UPR, +1 Absol TEU This is the list Benjamin Branch and I played to 1st and 4th in Guatemala. We knew the event would be no more than five rounds, so we wanted to play something very consistent and safe. Ben and I started with Tord’s list he used to win Malmö Regionals. I personally did not like the Oranguru UPR, so I dropped it for Absol. I believe Absol has more merit since it’s great against anything that plays Jirachi and the ADPZ mirror as well. Tord is a phenomenal deck builder, so it was a…
Little can stand up to its psycho cut. Unleashed from this Pokémon’s horn, the move will punch a hole right through a thick metal sheet. (Galarian Rapidash)
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…
Salazzle Mill (for Toronto) and Morpeko VMAX 2.0 (for Charlotte), or What Would Have Been “I’ve probably never played more games with a single deck than I have with my Salazzle list. Even before OCIC, I had the deck built and was testing it. Unfortunately, I decided against playing it in favor of a “safe” deck in PikaRom. Local players have seen me play this at a few League Challenges now, and can attest to how broken it seems. I was going to bring it to Toronto, where I’m pretty sure I would have seen success. There are a lot of weird counts in this list, but this was ultimately the best way to build…
Coming to Terms w/ the Pandemic, PikaRom Two Ways (PikaHammers + PikaClay), and an Aside on the SPE/Region-Locking Debate “As my favorite Beatles song goes, “When I find myself in times of trouble, Pikachu & Zekrom comes to me.” Looking back over every single article I’ve written for this website, I’ve somehow only covered my trademark deck briefly following San Diego, which I attribute to the regrettable number of Expanded Regionals I’ve played in this season. Throughout this season, though, I’ve played Pikachu & Zekrom-GX at almost every local event and at four out of the five major Standard events I’ve attended. Looking forward, I’ve joined everyone else in trying to find answers to the extremely dominant ADP-GX/Zacian V…
Dethroning ADP/Z, Turbo ADP/Z, Sleep Mill (Best Mill), and, Yep!, Shock Lock “Traditionally, decks are prevented from becoming too dominant via the Weakness mechanic. As Gabriel pointed out, this doesn’t apply to ADP/Zacian, as there simply aren’t any good Fairy Pokemon to counter ADP, and Zacian V can have its Fire Weakness removed by Metal Frying Pan. (In case you have forgotten, Fairy Pokemon are being phased out of the TCG, so there will never be any more Fairies printed to stand up to ADP-GX.) So, if we want to counter ADP/Zacian, we are stuck dissecting it for exploitable weaknesses. I’ve compiled a short list here of quirks that you can look…
Where We Left Off, Decks I’m Worried About for Toronto, and Tanky/Tooly ADP, My Fav Play for this Weekend “If you recall, my last article was about my experience at OCIC with my very aggressive PikaRom list. I also went into how I think the deck should be built moving forward. While I do think that PikaRom is super solid in a vacuum, I don’t believe that it is the play for Toronto. The meta has a few pillars that it has trouble getting past. Its current ADP matchup is slightly negative, it struggles with Baby Blacephalon, and it still struggles with fringe decks like Obstagoon and Mill. Now this isn’t unheard of for PikaRom. In the past, it’s…
Its nictitating membranes let it pick out foes’ weak points so it can precisely blast them with water that shoots from its fingertips at Mach 3. (Inteleon)
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…
On TrevNoir in Dallas, Other Expanded Contenders, ADsPinner, and the Post-Malmö Standard Tier List “Granted, I expected the deck to be played more than in Dallas of course, which is why I had a specific tech for mirror in my list: Wobbuffet PHF. The deck ended up being the overall winner, but unfortunately not in my own hands. I did make Day 2, barely, after a 4-0 start, but I performed very poorly in Day 2 due to a combination of poor luck and poor play on my part due to me feeling terrible with the flu and a nonstop cough. 67th place meant reaching Day 2 meant nothing, as I could’ve just played…
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…
Morpeko VMAX/Dusknoir in Collinsville, Flaws with Our List, Updates, Matchups, and Briefly on Standard “As a note, whenever I say “we” in this portion, it generally refers to some combination of Alex Krekeler, Wes Hollenberg, Patrick Littleson, and me. Leading up to the event, I was frantically testing Expanded, and everything felt terrible. I didn’t want to play TrevNoir because I knew the mirror match would be common, and I didn’t want to play Zacian because of how linear it is which made it easy to counter. This led me to try out rogue decks that had no business being good. Ironically, I built Cramorant V/Mew FCO on Monday, but eventually tabled the deck…
The State of Expanded, Shock Lock in Collinsville, and What Almost Was (ADP/Alolan Raticate) “Needless to say, Expanded is not in a good place right now. I’ll try not to spend too much time complaining (my opinions won’t change what Pokemon will do about it), but there are some things I’d like to bring up. First, I don’t know why Trevenant & Dusknoir-GX was ever printed. This card is inherently degenerate—you will never put TrevNoir in your deck as an attacker intending to play a fair, back-and-forth game. (This applies to Standard, as well, though it isn’t oppressive in that format.) If Pokemon bans Milotic FLF, TrevNoir will inevitably rear its ugly head again…
Its mighty legs are capable of running at speeds exceeding 40 mph, but this Pokémon can’t breathe unless it’s underwater. (Dracovish)
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