13 results for: 2020/04
Looking Back on My Time in the Game, from Greenhorn Junior to Successful Senior and, at Long Last, When We Left Off, Top-Ranked Master “Now I don’t know how I want to break this up yet, but a good place to start would probably be my introduction to Pokémon as a concept entirely. This is going to be a flashback all the way to 3rd grade for me. I was a kid who had his small set group of friends, and frankly, without them, I don’t know if I would’ve fallen in love with Pokémon the way I did. It’s weird to look back and think about the butterfly effect in terms of where you started and ended up, but I’m certain that these…
How I’m Dealing w/ Being Stuck Inside, Myriad Online Tournaments, and Introducing Project Old Decks “As many of you know, there are online tournaments and circuits popping up left and right. The abrupt cancelation of the season seems to have finally gotten the community to make the push toward holding online tournaments. There isn’t the same level of prestige as in-person tournaments, but for the situation this is an incredible collective effort. I’m hoping that this gives TPCi the push they need to improve the online client because of how many players are finally using it. What kinds of online tournaments are there? Limitless Online Series UPR–SSH Pods BLW–SSH Pods PokéStats Old Formats Tournaments I’ll…
The Untapped Potential of Pokémon Research Lab, Omastar TEU, and Stonjourner VMAX “I placed Top 8 at the 2004 World Championship and Top 4 at the 2008 U.S. National Championship. I have won one Regional Championship (2008), two Gym Challenges (2004 and 2005), and seven State Championships (in most of the years leading up to and including my last full season of playing: 2013). I am also very proud of my smaller tournament wins and high placements at various States, Regionals, and Gym Challenges throughout the years. Since December, I have played and placed in a handful of League Cups and Challenges around Portland. I also played in the Collinsville Regional Championship…
A Retrospective on My First Worlds, the Fateful Beaches, What I Top 8’d With (Terrakion/Eels), That Awful/Great 2012 Format, and My Most Important Lesson, a Loss “The 2012 Worlds format, HS–DEX, is notoriously terrible, but I built the format and tried to find a bit of light in this proverbial abyss. 2012 was the first step into the “Big Basics” format that has been around for most of the time since. This was coincidentally my second year in the game at this point. We were still under the Elo rating system, and I had just come off of my second straight year of missing top cut at Nationals. The details are really blurry at this point, but if I’m remembering correctly, I was 1 DCE away…
A Handful of Underappreciated Cards from Rebel Clash (w/ Nuzzle ft. Boltund V, Scoop Up Mewtwo, and Lapras/Frosmoth) “This is a card that I’ve already said is crazy good, and most people acknowledge its power in Expanded for picking up Shaymin-EX ROS and Jirachi-EX. I’m certainly excited that it can pick up Raichu BUS. (The recent Expanded rules update didn’t ban this card, but it seems like they are kicking the can down the road since there aren’t any tournaments.) On the other hand, not many people have thought about Scoop Up Net’s uses in Standard come Rebel Clash. My first thought of using it was with Mewtwo UNB, specifically, to recycle Welders in decks that so badly…
It flies on wings of apple skin and spits a powerful acid. It can also change its shape into that of an apple. (Flapple)
My Lapras VMAX for the Limitless Online Series, Updated from Q1 for Q2 and w/ Rebel Clash for Q3 “As I said in my previous article, my goal since the pandemic started was basically to explore the Pokémon TCG more and get myself playing outside the metagame a little bit. In a nutshell, this could improve my skills as a player and deckbuilder, and it would still be quite fun, as I like to play with different ideas. Lapras VMAX is not yet a Tier 1 deck, mainly for consistency reasons, but it is a very strong card, and when the deck works it has the potential to beat anything. Besides, I was expecting a doable metagame for it…
My First Foray into Commentary, the Four Common Criticisms of Casters, and What I’ve Learned Behind the Mic So Far “For brevity’s sake, I’ve boiled down the complaints about commentary to four which I’ll be looking at more carefully. I’ve selected these four points to talk about because, well, I struggled with many of these in my first bout of commentary. By shrinking the overall complaints about commentary to just four categories, I hope to reach a broader audience of players who have felt frustration similar to me when watching live-streamed tournaments. After detailing the issue, I’ll go into the mind of the caster by reflecting on my own experience, in order to fully explain why some of these common…
My Life as a Competitive Pokémon TCG Player, from 2010 to Now “I got into playing the game during the era of Pokemon SP. At the time I had been playing Yu-Gi-Oh. However, I wasn’t playing it competitively; I’d more so just go to league and play casually. This is mainly due to the fact that I had no idea about competitive play at the time. Out of the blue, I thought about Pokemon and how the cards looked because I had old-school cards from Base Set and Fossil. I figured I’d take a look at some of the recent cards at the time. This is where I came upon cards like…
A Deep Look into HS–BLW, the Wild-Ride Anything-Goes 2011 Nationals and Worlds Format “If you asked top players what their favorite format to play at the time was, you would get mixed answer. The format was considered highly luck-based, filled with donks and some consistency issues. The randomness and uncertainty of the format caused me to sit out US Nationals that year to make sure I secured my Worlds invite. However, it’s also a very unexplored format which leaves a lot of room for creativity and rogue decks to shine. Many of the reasons I hated playing the Worlds 2011 format at the time are the same reasons I enjoy playing the format…
Philosophies for Becoming a Better Player During the Offseason (or This Unexpected Break in Organized Play) “The first step is to label where you want to improve. Quantifiable goals are best, but it’s difficult to quantify without rattling off hoped tournament placings. If possible, narrow down the area of your game that you want to improve. Do you want to learn one deck really well? Learn more decks? Sequencing? Playing faster? There are a million questions to ask. From there, you should formulate a plan of improvement. What strategy will you employ to actually achieve your goal? Watch VODs? Play many games on PTCGO? Hire a coach? Once again, the possibilities go on. There’s reason to…
When it gets wet, its skin changes color, and this Pokémon becomes invisible as if it were camouflaged. (Sobble)
What I Like About the Limitless Online Series, Mew3/Malamar (My Q1 Deck), and Malamar VMAX to Counter Dragapult, the Likely New BDIF “I think what I love the most about the Limitless Online Series is their format, with Best-of-1, 25-minute rounds, akin to what Japan runs for their own big tournaments. Best-of-1 adds variance, but in order to compensate for that, the original plan was to play 20 total rounds, and I expect that to stand. I love it because it makes strategies such as Cinccino Mill or Pidgeotto Control less viable. These, in my personal opinion, take away fun from the game as they essentially are solitaire decks where your opponent doesn’t get to do much during their turn, removing all…
My Other Standard Go-To, Magcargo-GX (for UPR–SSH Online Tournaments) “This has pretty much been my go-to deck when Mill is for some reason unplayable, and is definitely what I would be playing in the first Limitless event if I could convince myself the time investment was worth it. I’ve spent a decent amount of time with this list, and I think it has a pretty solid ADP matchup. ADP is the gatekeeper of the format, and will likely remain that way for a very long time, which is why I’m so bent on having a good matchup against it. A lot of people play Magma Ring Slugma CES in…
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…
When it contracts its body, over 220 pounds of sand sprays from its nose. If it ever runs out of sand, it becomes disheartened. (Sandaconda)
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