138 results for: joltik phf
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…
Powerhouse Plays—Nightmarch/Lucario-GX and Archie’s Blastoise—for Daytona “This was the Nightmarch/Lucario-GX list I played in Greensboro. This take on the deck began a few weeks prior to Toronto Regionals where we saw Jimmy Pendarvis take down the event with a similar list. Since Greensboro was being held only one week after Toronto, I knew going into Greensboro that there was going to be an influx of Nightmarch counters, such as Oricorio GRI 56 and Karen, included in a lot of decks. We even saw Azul’s 2nd place list run Articuno ROS 17 as a soft answer to Nightmarch. Although I knew this, I still went with my…
Recapping Toronto’s Headlines, the Two Paths, and on Trevenant, Zoroark/Garbodor, and Night March for Greensboro “Players had been clamoring for a Lusamine ban for quite some time, and about a month ago TPCi listened, giving it and Delinquent the boot from the format. While it’s probably not a good use of anyone’s time to envision how the results of Toronto would’ve looked had those two cards been legal, I think we can all agree we likely wouldn’t have seen such a diverse metagame under the old ban list. Even more importantly, the community has expressed almost unanimous positivity regarding the state of Expanded, following Toronto, which I never would’ve predicted three months ago. When was…
A Look into the Good, the Bad, and the Spooky for Halloween in Portland “Adapting Zoroark to the new Expanded format has been a bit interesting. As the deck clearly hit the hardest by the bans, it feels like a shell of the deck it used to be, but do not underestimate the raw power of Zoroark-GX and Sky Field. It is still consistent as ever while hitting like a truck, but now they can’t pull of a cheesy Red Card + Hex Maniac or Ghetsis plays that can completely shut one player out of the game. The deck is still incredibly powerful and likely Tier 1, but definitely not at the previous power…
Looking at the post-Ban World of Expanded and A Suite of Decks to Test “Here at SixPrizes, we try to avoid articles that are merely deck list after deck list. In general, they don’t help you understand the format or a specific deck in a better way, which tends to be a key to success at these large events. The twist right now is that we have a format that hasn’t been touched to any degree at a high level in months—and, it’s two sets and 4 bans removed. As such, I think the most important thing we can help you with right now is preparing for “the field” Expanded is going to offer.…
This very aggressive Pokémon will recklessly challenge opponents stronger than itself. (Galarian Linoone)
Looks at Night March, Trevenant, Zoroark/Exeggcute, and Buzzwole/Lycanroc for the Final Expanded Regional of 2018 “It’s not all that exciting of a list, but the power is still here, and that is what makes Buzzwole playable in both formats right now. I would say this would enter the weekend as a BDIF-presumptive if it weren’t set to be hard-countered. Nonetheless, as we’ve seen in Standard the last few weekends, Buzzwole can be hard-countered and still thrive, so I think it’s probably a playable archetype nonetheless. I’ll talk a bit more about the Buzzwole/Zoroark matchup a when we get to Buzzwole itself, but it’s no coincidence that the other two decks I’m going to get into…
Pablo on Night March, Zoroark/Golisopod, and Zoroark/Lycanroc for Dallas “Much like its Standard incarnation, this deck hits hard, is hard to take down, and can adapt easily to whatever the metagame calls for. This is my current list. I have it sleeved already, and I don’t think it will be changing much by Friday: Instead of trying to compete in the OHKO department with other Zoroark decks, it tries to level the playing field with Sudowoodo’s Road Block, and then out-resource them in an Acerola war, which other Zoroark-GX decks are hopeless to win. Golisopod-GX’s Grass typing is very appealing at the moment, as it gives you a natural…
A Review of Night March for Dallas and Ultra Prism Discussion “Listed above is the same 60 card list that Azul Garcia Griego, Michael Pramawat, and Rahul Reddy played to take 3/4 top spots. It’s quite telling that they collaborated and played the exact same list, other than Juniper/Sycamore discrepancies if you count those. There’s nothing too interesting with the list. They decided to keep the deck core together and slip in a 2-2 Zoroark-GX for added consistency throughout the game. Trade is excellent for discarding Night Marchers, unwanted cards, and general fodder throughout the game. Zoroark-GX is also great for tackling Seismitoad-EX, Trevenant BREAK, and Oricorio: Pokemon that feed off…
Running Through Top Picks for Dallas, a look into Vespiquen, and Night March Nightmares “Despite the vast card pool, the metagame is a bit centralized. Zoroark is clearly a meta-defining card, as it pairs so well with the recovery and high impact cards available in Expanded. I was listening to a Hearthstone podcast recently, and one of the players (Zalae) talked about how the format should be the stalest right before a rotation. His reasoning is that because there are so many cards, there are bound to be broken combinations of cards which lead to some decks just being that much stronger than any other decks. We see this effect in our Expanded format,…
Reflections on Playing Sableye in San Jose, ‘Marching to the Top, and Top Picks for Memphis “I didn’t get home from London until Tuesday, and I left for San Jose on Thursday, which left me with no time to test for the event at home. I played a few games with Sableye once I arrived at my hotel, and they were all going pretty well. No matchup felt like a poor one when I was playing against the popular decks, but I did feel the burn of Ghetsis quite a few times. This made me consider playing the Night March deck that all of my friends played, but I decided to stick with my boy Sableye…
It’s skilled at both offense and defense, and it gets pumped up when cheered on. But if it starts showboating, it could put itself in a tough spot. (Cinderace)
Looking at how Zoroark-GX “Trades” in Standard and Expanded “I also cannot help but wonder if the combo could not be better explored in Expanded, where Teammates seems like an obvious and incredible boon to the concept as a whole. I think Mallow + Zoroark is the best way to make it work in Standard, as Travis points out, but that’s considerably worse than just playing a staple supporters like Teammates. For reference, here is the deck list I have been working, inspired by many of Travis’s concoctions: Not much about the list deviates from Travis’s initial concept, and all of the attackers are discussed in his write up.…
Looking Back at Night March and Golisopod Garb in Expanded, Plus Gardevoir and Espeon for Standard “As an Expanded newbie, I approached my testing in a very simple way: practice the most straightforward and easy to pilot decks. This meant I logged in a ton of games with Expanded’s biggest 3 threats in Night March, Trevenant, and Turbo Dark. Practicing using these 3 decks in the ladder on PTCGO allowed me to get very comfortable with the format and how fast paced it is. In many ways, it was very similar to the Worlds format, but ACE SPECs, Colress and Battle Compressor definitely allow for it to be unique in it’s own way. As the event…
Standard Greninja and Thoughts for Toronto “Let us begin by exploring the list I have been working on: There is very little to discuss about the Pokemon count in this list. For the most part, this has been the norm since Steam Siege, and I think that is for good reason. There has been some debate over whether or not Talonflame is needed in the list, but I have argued for its inclusion since the Fall despite the trend somewhat reflecting otherwise. By no means is Talonflame “needed,” but Greninja, as many of are acutely aware, has some natural inconsistency, and I think Taloneflame is simply the…
Volcanion, Groudon, and Night March for Portland plus an Honest Discussion on the State of the Game “Volcanion is a deck that has received widespread attention in Standard, though very little attention in Expanded, up until St. Louis. This is a little ironic to me as I believe that Volcanion has consistently been a mediocre play in Standard, in spite of its victory in Melbourne (more on this below), yet has been a heavily underrated play in Expanded. This is almost singularly due to Blacksmith, which not only changes the entire structure of the deck, but also turns Volcanion’s Ability into a consistent and self-sustaining one. I had been briefly testing the deck to surprisingly good results…
St. Louis Regionals Recap, the Return of Aggressive Decks, and a Portland Regionals Preview “I had originally planned on attending last weekend’s Regionals in St. Louis, but unfortunately life got in the way. I’ve had some personal health issues that have made traveling the Pokemon circuit at a rapid pace difficult since 2012, and over the past few years I have chosen to ignore them. My advice to you is to take care of your life outside of Pokemon first! Not only will this make tournaments more enjoyable, but you will likely perform better at events. I will continue to pursue my goal of being invited to the 2017 World Championships in Anaheim, but…
With jaws that can shear through steel rods, this highly aggressive Pokémon chomps down on its unfortunate prey. (Drednaw)
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