Grimmsnarl w/ Fighting Techs (to Give It a Chance Versus PikaRom), Updated Since You May Have Saw It on Azul’s Stream “So, when RCL first dropped, I looked at Grimmsnarl and said, “This card is a really cool gimmick, but it is probably awful.” Part of that first impression was correct. The card is really cool, but it’s not totally awful. You don’t think about it much, but the ability to force your opponent to attach an extra Energy in order to attack is actually insanely broken in this format. As it is, multiple Energy attachments are already required for literally every top deck to be able to attack. Welder and Metal Saucer are there for acceleration of course, but those…
Sitting Out the Players Cup, Qualifying 101, My Personal Preparation Process, Trends from Limitless Q3, and Hybrid PikaRom for Q4 “To start, let’s go over the Players Cup and what I do and don’t like about it. The Players Cup is Pokemon’s attempt at bringing competitive tournaments with actual prizes—undoubtedly worth playing for—to your homes amidst this quarantine we are in. The fact that they are even doing this is immediately a plus in my mind. However, I do have some criticisms. For one, we all know about the Event Ticket situation right now. These tickets are essential to play in tournaments, but they are so scarce. Some lucky players have saved them up over all this time (since the…
Five Things I’ve Learned About the UPR–RCL Metagame, Format Favs (Fire Box, Mewtwo Welder, Inteleon VMAX/Frosmoth), the Players Cup, Playtesting, and Record Keeping “During this time, a lot of the community has come together to organize some of the best-run online events I’ve ever seen, including the Limitless Online Series. With the fourth and final qualifier this coming weekend, we have no idea what the meta will hold and who will be the final twelve competitors that advance into the Invitational tournament itself. Qualifier #3 showed us some interesting decks emerge with it being the first major event with Rebel Clash legal. What have we learned about the format so far? PikaRom is one of the most dominant decks in the format with the…
Analyzing the Limitless Q3 Meta and Exploring New Ideas for Q4 (Zacian V/Galarian Perrserker + Torkoal V/Magcargo-GX) “With the arrival of the Rebel Clash, no one knew exactly what the metagame would be like, so many new ideas could appear. The fact that the Limitless Online Series is a free online tournament also contributes to making players feel more relaxed and comfortable using decks outside Tier 1. So many new decks could surprise you. But it didn’t quite work out that way. The four main decks of the tournament—PikaRom, Baby Blowns, Dragapult VMAX, and ADPZ—in my opinion, are really a step ahead in the metagame. Dragapult VMAX proved to be difficult to counter; even with many players…
Investigating the Results of Limitless Qualifier #3, Plus My Glaceon-GX/Barbaracle Decklist for PokéStats Old Format Tournament #4 and Initial Thoughts on the Players Cup “The idea of a Pokemon-created online tournament series is amazing. I’m glad that organizations like Limitless and PokéStats have done a great job of organizing their own tournaments, but the fact that TPCi is getting involved takes it to another level. There’s a greater possible outreach through pokemon.com than on Twitter and each organization’s website. There are certainly players who didn’t know about Limitless’s tournaments that know about the Players Cup, and even more people who are motivated to play for the prospect of a free trip to an IC. I haven’t reviewed Tournament Rep (mentioned here) or the prospect…
This Pokémon is very popular as a herding dog in the Galar region. As it runs, it generates electricity from the base of its tail. (Yamper)
The Rise and Glory Days of My Pokémon Career, Including Every Deck I Played During HS-on/2012 and BLW-on/2013 Modified Formats “Emerging Powers was the set released after Worlds 2011, a year famous for its mid-season rotation, Pokemon Reversal flips, and Ross Cawthon’s The Truth deck. Jay Hornung wonderfully documented the pre-EPO HS-on format extensively in his recent article. Let me remind you of some rules at this point in the game: Player who wins the coin flip must go first. Player who goes first has no restrictions. Pokemon Catcher did not require a coin flip. Burn is permanent like Poison, and you flip to see if you take damage. Emerging Powers was a notably bad set in terms of Pokemon—you…
Vikavolt and Early Impressions of the UPR–RCL Format So Far (or: a Tentative Tier List) “A lot of people who are close to me can vouch for the fact that I’ve been talking about this deck a lot. When I first saw Vikavolt RCL, I was amazed that they were allowing Twin Energy to count as 40 damage for Powerful Storm. At this point, I hadn’t even remembered that Charjabug UNB was a card, and I already thought the deck was decent. And then I remembered that there’s 160 damage in free attachments just laying around in Charjabug. The really high damage numbers needed to be viable in this format became obtainable for Vikavolt. I…
Dragapult VMAX/Hammers, ADPZ/Hammers, Inteleon VMAX/…Hammers, and the Rebel Clash Economy “Here are a few things that I think could have a direct impact on Qualifier #3’s metagame: Card Accessibility: For live play, you can just order what you need from a site such as TCGplayer and be ready for the event. Online codes have a factor of chance; even though there are stores that sell PTCGO cards directly, this is against the terms of use (§13: Trading Virtual Content) of the game. Trading your packs directly for singles is the best way to acquire singles online, but you rely on the online supply being there by “chance.” No one really knows…
Inteleon VMAX/Energy Denial (w/ Clefable RCL or Cinccino SSH) and Toxtricity VMAX/Koga’s Trap “At first glance, I didn’t think this card was all that great until I recognized all the combos and options you can add to make its first attack, Hydro Snipe, quite powerful. Not only does it do a solid 60 damage for just 1 Water Energy, but it also lets you put an Energy from your opponent’s Active Pokemon back into their hand. Its second attack, Max Bullet, takes 3 Energy; this attack is used to clean up the board when you have drained the opponent of Energy. Eventually, doing 160 to the Active and 60 to a Bench-sitter will…
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…
With sly cunning, it tries to lure people into the woods. Some believe it to have the power to make crops grow. (Morgrem)
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…
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…
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…
As it digs, it swallows sand and stores it in its neck pouch. The pouch can hold more than 17 pounds of sand. (Silicobra)
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