Alex Schemanske
Author Archive
T64 Toronto Report, PikaRom’s Revenge, and Contemplating Yveltal BREAK for Greensboro “Toronto went decently well for me, netting me another 50 Championship Points with a 48th place finish. I played an adaption of Pablo’s Buzzwole/Jirachi/Garbodor list that he wrote about in his last article. Based on the most popular decks (Pikarom, Archie, ZoroGarb, and Lucario), I should have had a free walk into Day 2 at least. However, TOM (Tournament Operating Manager) had other plans for me. Instead of the heavy counts of meta decks I hoped to play against, I managed to hit a whopping two total. R1: BuzzGarbShrine WW (1-0-0) R2: Mimigar/Omastar LWT (1-0-1) R3: Zorogarb WLT (1-0-2) R4: Fighting…
PikaRom/Lightning Support and Lucario/Buzzwole for Toronto Regionals (BLW–TEU Expanded) “Expanded is a great example of how large the power creep has been in the last six or so years. Pikarom is the epitome of this. In Expanded, it’s not even close to unreasonable to hit a Turn 2 Tag Bolt-GX for 3–4 Prize cards. There aren’t many decks that can come back from that big of a turn. This is the list that I’ve been messing around with recently and I believe it to be very strong. 1 Xurkitree-GX The only reason I decided to include a copy of this is because it can singlehandedly beat any Night…
The Collinsville Meta, the Future of Standard, Variance Got Me, and What’s “the Play” Now? “We saw a Blacephalon/Naganadel deck take the win this past weekend. Zapdos/Jirachi and Zoroark/Lycanroc made up a major portion of the meta, Stall is back (and causing me a major headache), and the top players brought a variety of decks to the event. What influenced these plays though? Blacephalon was, in retrospect, the obvious choice for the weekend, having a borderline free matchup against Zoroark, 50/50s against Pikarom and Zapdos, and a chance against the Stall decks. The Zapdos and Zoroark players were influenced by the results from OCIC. Zoroark was still a very strong play for the weekend, and…
SUM–TEU as a Whole, Oceania Internationals Results Analysis, Ultra Necrozma for Collinsville, and Words on Zoroark/Lycanroc + PikaRom/Jirachi Too “I was rather unsure of my feelings about the new format. On one hand, I was, and still am, very excited to be able to play a format that isn’t the travesty that the previous Standard format was. On the other hand, I don’t know that I like the changes that Team Up brought. It seems to me that games are almost always decided by Turn 2 with very little chance to come back once you fall behind in many matchups. For instance, the Zapdos mirror match is the first matchup that I believe it is actually correct to choose…
Team Up Notables, the Oceania Meta, Lost March, Psychic Malamar, and Impressions of the New Standard “There are a lot of cards in Team Up, and quite a few of them are pretty good. Pikachu & Zekrom-GX: This is probably the card/deck that is seeing the most hype, and from my experience it has certainly lived up to that hype. The card is incredibly strong, combining high HP, insane Energy acceleration, and a broken GX attack. Add in the Lightning-type support we’ve received in the last two sets, and you get a truly powerful archetype. Celebi & Venusaur-GX: This is what I feel is probably the most interesting TAG TEAM to talk about, because it is played…
Living with a savage, seafaring people has toughened this Pokémon’s body so much that parts of it have turned to iron. (Galarian Meowth)
Primal Groudon in Dallas, Bans in Expanded, and Swampert in Standard (Pre-Team Up) “I’m trying to think of another deck that has had such longevity in the field of viability, and I’m drawing a blank. There have been no Regionals since the initial rise of Primal Groudon that I feel the deck has been utterly unplayable. Dallas was no exception to this. We saw a few vastly different takes on the deck this past weekend, all of them viable in their own right. My build was built more as an attacking–mill-style deck, whereas the others we saw focused more on healing their Groudon rather than alternate attackers. Hours of testing with my friend,…
ZoroGarb and Sylveon/Magnezone (in Fine Detail) for Dallas Regionals “I don’t think I can actually come up with a deck that has been so versatile in quite a bit of time. ZoroGarb quite literally has no matchup that it cannot win, and to my knowledge has a 50/50 or better against almost every deck in the format. I am certain that if I choose to play ZoroGarb, I can almost certainly walk away from Dallas with some amount of CP. However, my goal at this point is to secure a rather high finish—not just earn some CP—so I find myself wary of playing such a high-profile deck. There are…
A Look at Blacephalon and Decidueye as Standard Moves Through Lost Thunder “Standard is made up of 3 different archetypes: Control/Walls, Attach energy and kill stuff, and Stage 2 Decks. Of these three categories, the “attach energy and kill stuff” archetype seems to be the most prominent right now. This category contains decks like Buzzwole/Ninetales, Blacephalon, and the odd Rayquaza. What do all of these decks have in common though? Well, they all lose to Zoroark/Decidueye/Ninetales. I have been toying with DeciTales recently, but I don’t really like it much. I recently encountered the attacking Steelix deck that saw success in Harrogate, and I was quite surprised at its strength. Granted I…
Looking at Primal Clash’s Titans in 2018’s Expanded Format for Anaheim “I feel safe in saying that the Top 8 in Portland is going to determine what quite a few people are going to play in Anaheim this weekend. So, when we look at the plethora of control style decks that emerged/reemerged that weekend, it seems like we’re in for another fun filled weekend of staring at each other while playing Lusamine quite a bit. However, for me at least, there is a ray of hope amongst all of the degenerate control decks. Primal Groudon has once again defied the odds and achieved another Top 4 finish. Ironically, Groudon is also…
Alex’s Top 8 Buzzwole/Ninetales Recap from the Latin American International Championships “You hear stories of how people pour hundreds of hours into testing for these major events. However, I don’t have the time to be able to do such things which is likely why my list was far from optimal in my opinion. As I mentioned to a couple people when asked, I actually played zero games with my final list before the event. I had basically tested every possible concept at some point or another, as evidenced by my previous article, but none of them really stuck out to me. In the weeks leading up to the event, Wes Hollenberg…
On days when blizzards blow through, it comes down to where people live. It stashes food in the snowball on its head, taking it home for later. (Galarian Darmanitan)
Looking at Hydreigon and Tyranitar for Brazil’s Latin American International Championships in Lost Thunder Standard “Unlike a majority of people, I have to worry about LAIC in Brazil before I can even begin to worry about Virginia’s Regionals. This has led me to base my meta prediction more on theory than I would for Virginia, because we have no tournaments outside of Japan to represent the meta. For the sake of time and my sanity, I group Granbull LOT, Alolan Exeggutor, Spread variants, and Buzzwole/Stage 1’s into the category of single-prize attacker decks, because they generally have similar matchups. Going into Brazil, I fully expect to see a plethora of Zoroark-GX, Blacephalon-GX, and single-prize attacker…
A Profile of a Suite of Expanded Rogues for the Portland Regional Championships “Quite a few of the decks I am bringing to you today have been around for a long time as more fringe plays. I’m here to tell you that they have gained new viability due to the recent bans. The first of these is Medicham PRC. Medicham has always been a cute concept, being able to attack twice is truly a great gimmick. However, with the release of cards like Diancie Prism Star and Hustle Belt, Medicham can hit for numbers higher than ever before. This is the list that I’ve been testing somewhat extensively. Cards like Shining Celebi, Diancie,…
Examining Tapu Koko/Buzzwole Spread for Memphis Standard “This was a list that I threw together the night before a cup, logged a few games with, and said, “Why not?” This list actually functions quite smoothly, and I managed to win the cup, beating multiple Zoroark Variants, Malamar Variants, and a few other Buzzwole/Shrine decks. Despite this success, this list was far from optimal, so I set out to build a better list that might stand a chance at a higher level of play. Please note, the above list is only included as a baseline for the refined list, not as something I suggest bringing to a major…
Alex’s Melbourne SPE Report and Analysis of Metagross/Solgaleo for SUM–CES “Generally, when I test for new formats, I will always attempt to find a way to beat nearly everything that I expect to see at an event. This is what led me to try some rather odd concepts, but due to a lack of time because of lost baggage, I was unable to make much headway into breaking the meta. I wanted to play some new concept that could win me Melbourne’s Special Event, but I either did not have the physical cards with me, or the deck would contain some glaring flaw that turned me away from it. A…
Its hairs work like muscle fibers. When its hairs unfurl, they latch on to opponents, ensnaring them as tentacles would. (Grimmsnarl)
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