SixPrizes Goes on Pause; 2020; the State of the Game, the Community, and Content Creation; Thanks; and Where to Find Me “I’ve talked about this with my girlfriend recently: I’m irked by people blaming anything that’s unfortunate on the current year. By doing this we’re being myopic and willfully ignorant. “2020 strikes again!” The year’s become a neobiblical hot take or an amorphous scapegoat (i.e., coping mechanism) that society has adopted in mass. Yes, many Bad Things have have happened since the most recent new year, maybe more than usual. But by broadly labeling issues as “2020,” we’re losing sight of the actual problems and possible solutions. We’re being lazy. Here’s what’s happened the past year-plus to bring us to this…
A Guide to Learning and Understanding the Control Archetype in the Pokémon TCG “One of the primary reasons I decided to write on this topic, and a major motivation I have for advocating for trying control in general, is that Control and other AWC decks get an undeserved bad rep within the community. People with minimal exposure to the archetype immediately label it problem rather than putting in the effort to understand it. More than anything else, I want to change this. By providing an easily-accessible, basic understanding of the archetype, I hope to shed light on the benefits of AWCs and shift the community’s opinion away from this constant distaste towards the…
Three Tips for Online Events and a Look at Blacephalon for the Players Cup II “If you make the Top 256 (or 128) in your region for the Players Cup II, you will qualify to play in a double-elimination tournament that plays until four players are left in your region. This means that as soon as you lose two rounds, you are eliminated from the tournament. With such little margin for error, your deck choice becomes incredibly important if you plan to make it to the Players Cup Finals. It is important to note that the Regional Qualifiers will be played in a best-of-three format. So, if you do not have the best luck one…
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 Green’s PikaRom and Ability PikaRom “We’re in the beginning of the Players Cup II qualification period, and from what the first week has shown, Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX with Zacian V is the most popular deck. ADPZ’s pure speed and aggression is something that can overcome pretty much anything, but that doesn’t mean that the deck wins every matchup every time. Green’s Exploration partnered with Pikachu & Zekrom-GX is one of the decks that often has a very good matchup against ADPZ, and that’s for one main reason: its lack of support Pokémon. Not playing Pokémon like Dedenne-GX and Crobat V, Pokémon that would…
Icy scales fall from its wings like snow as it flies over fields and mountains. The temperature of its wings is less than −290 degrees Fahrenheit. (Frosmoth)
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…
Green’s New Best Friend, Centiskorch VMAX (for TEU–DAA) “I will only discuss any counts where there is an argument that they could be different. Volcanion is a card used in both lists because of just how powerful it can be. Flare Starter is incredible at rapidly charging up Centiskorch, especially with its synergy with Green’s. Often this deck wants to go second, due to the power of 3 Energy instantly attached and how well Green’s can set you up for later turns. High-Heat Blast is also a strong attack, and its damage combines well with that of G-Max Centiferno. 110 twice knocks out Vikavolt V, and 110 t2…
A Discussion on Cubing and Using Tabletop Simulator “If you haven’t downloaded Tabletop Simulator yet, now’s your chance. It’s $20 on Steam, which is entirely worth it if anyone else you know owns it—the fun is in playing with friends. Now, whether it’s creating a deck, cube, or simply messing with cards, the first task is subscribing to RomyKing’s Steam Workshop with all of the card information. Then, when you boot up Tabletop Simulator and create a lobby, you can load it under your list of “Workshops.” If it doesn’t pop up immediately, there’s a tab called “Game” on the upper bar. Once you’ve loaded in, you’ll see…
An Update on Omastar, Advancing to the Top 64 of the North American Players Cup with Omastar/Inteleon VMAX, and Looking Ahead to Darkness Ablaze “I played Omastar/Stonjourner VMAX in the second of the Limitless Qualifiers, which was the last event before the release of Rebel Clash. I ended up at 5-5 before dropping the event. My losses were 2 Malamar variants, 1 Rillaboom, 1 Blacephalon, and 1 ADPZ. The first three losses were largely unavoidable—I had taken Mallow & Lana out of my list in exchange for Crushing Hammers. Mallow & Lana was a considerable help against many Malamar variants. Rillaboom is an autoloss due to Grass Weakness. The losses to Blacephalon and ADPZ can mostly be chalked up to big deltas in the…
An Introduction to Flygon/Torterra (aka Flyterra), the Missing Link of the 2010 DP–UL Format “Some Modified formats were better than others, and some of those formats have been more fondly remembered than the rest. What makes one format better than another is a topic for a different day, but I believe there is no denying that it is the case that some formats are just better and more fun to play. The allure of what made those formats so great has led to a growing movement within the Pokemon community to “go back in time” to play and revisit these formats. One of the most revered Modified formats of all time was DP–UL, which…
It emits psychic energy to observe and study what’s around it—and what’s around it can include things over six miles away. (Orbeetle)
An In-Depth Look at Cinccino Mill in the UPR–RCL Format “Part of Mill’s strength as an archetype lies in its ability to adapt to the metagame and survive most shifts in the meta. An example of this is Mill’s adaptation to counter ADP-GX with Zacian V (ADPZ) during the UPR–SSH format. Initially, Mill ran 4 Crushing Hammer, which made the matchup fairly reliant on flipping heads on Crushing Hammers. At this point, Mill had two major questionable matchups: ADPZ and Mewtwo/Malamar. Fire Box was also a threat; however, Fire Box saw a huge fall-off in play as the format developed further. In an attempt to improve its ADPZ matchup, Mill…
An In-Depth Look at the 2010 DP–UL Format, Part 2 “At the end of 2009, Pokemon announced that Worlds would be returning to Kona, Hawaii in 2010. Invites to the World Championships were given to the Top 4 of Worlds 2009, Top X of Nationals 2010 (the US was Top 4; most other countries got fewer invites—paid/unpaid—depending on size), and then the Top 40 in the Elo rating system. The last way to qualify was through the Last Chance Qualifier affectionately called “the grinders” by players. I went in depth on how the Elo system worked and my feelings about the system in my 2011 article. I’ll go ahead and…
Rillaboom VMAX/Rowlet & Alolan Exeggutor-GX for Limitless Q3 “There are a few different ways that you can play with Rillaboom VMAX, Rowlet & Alolan Exeggutor GX, or a combination of both, but after testing pretty extensively since Rebel Clash’s release, this is where I’ve landed. Credit for the list and a lot of the theory behind the archetype goes to Luke Morsa. The primary gameplan of this deck is to use RowEgg-GX’s Super Growth to get an early Rillaboom SSH 14 into play. What you do next largely depends on the matchup and how the first few turns have played out, but thankfully you’ve got a few different options. Against…
The Rebel Clash Up-and-Comers, Including Falinks V, Malamar VMAX, and Lost March Rebooted “To start off, we have Falinks V, a Fighting-typed brute reminiscent of Passimian SUM decks from a couple of formats ago. The deck utilizes Falinks V’s Iron Defense Formation Ability to decrease damage done to your Falinks’ by 20 damage. This pairs incredibly well with your main attacker, another Falinks! This single-Prize version does 30 damage for each of your Benched Falinks. With all 4 Vs and a 5th Falinks on board, you’re attacking for 150 with no other buffs and having damage reduced by 80, effectively giving Falinks at least 170 HP. Even better, the deck sets up incredibly…
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…
When it isn’t battling, it keeps Dreepy in the holes on its horns. Once a fight starts, it launches the Dreepy like supersonic missiles. (Dragapult)
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