Brandon Smiley
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Bio: I began playing the Pokémon TCG in 2008 with the release of DP: Majestic Dawn. I stream both live and PTCGO games on my twitch channel. You should check it out.
Top 8 Boston Open Report, Vespiquen/Flareon, and Toad/Giratina “After Day 1 not going so well, I had no clue what to play for the Boston Open. I was able to register for it late Friday night and I decided to spend my time relaxing rather than testing for the event the next day. I messaged my friend Brandon Cantu the night before and asked him to send me the list he planned to play for Day 2 and I was going to play whatever it was, no matter how crazy it might be. At around 7:30 AM on Saturday Brandon sent me his list, I sleeved up the deck, and…
Recapping the BCR–PRC Format, Plays for Week 3, and This or That “After playing in 4 States, 1 Regional, and a few League Challenges, I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of the BCR–PRC format. It is one of the most diverse formats that the game has had in years, and it could be both extremely fun and desperately boring depending on the matchup being played. At the beginning of the format, Florida Regionals was the only large tournament that had played out and it left a huge impact on what was being played for quite a while. Flareon was one of the most played decks, as was Yveltal/Garbodor, both of which had…
An Overview of the First Week of States “I spent a lot of time testing with my teammates Andrew Zavala and Will McEowen in the weeks prior to the event since I felt like this was a format where a time investment was necessary to come out on top. We’re all fairly close to earning our invites, so we’ve been pushing as hard as we can to break the format and pick up those last few Championship Points. The first deck I want to mention is Yveltal/Seismitoad/Garbodor, which is the deck that I tested the most leading up to the first week of States. My initial, pre-Florida Regionals list ran…
Tales of the 2015 Texas Marathon “Pre-Marathon The Texas Marathon Day 1: Denton Day 2: Keller Day 3: Ft. Worth Day 4: Watauga Day 5: Coppell Day 6: Allen Day 7: Richardson Day 8: Wylie Post-Marathon Looking Forward Conclusion Before the Texas Marathon, I attended 3 City Championships: Tyler, Longview, and Tom Bean. In Tyler, I played a Seismitoad-EX/Victini-EX/Garbodor deck that I spent the prior week testing. Despite feeling very confident in the deck, I ended up only finishing 4-3. My cousin Sean Hipp went on to win the tournament with an Yveltal/Hard Charm deck, defeating a Virizion/Genesect deck piloted by Long Bui in the finals.…
The Top Cards of Phantom Forces, New Decks, and Revisions “Regionals Recap Week 1 – Phoenix Week 2 – Houston Top Cards of Phantom Forces New Decks Mewtric 2.0 Haunted House Metal Mansion Night March Updated Decks Tool Drop Seismitoad/Garbodor Virizion/Genesect Donphan Conclusion I attended both Phoenix and Houston Regionals last month, but I am not very proud of my performances. Although they weren’t bad, they did not meet my expectations of making at least day 2. I came short both weekends, ending 5-4 in Phoenix and 5-2-2 in Houston. Below you can see the deck that I played for Phoenix Regionals. It ran fairly well, but I ended up getting some bad luck…
It spins its tail fins to propel itself, surging forward at speeds of over 100 knots before ramming prey and spearing into them. (Barraskewda)
Decks for the BLW–FFI Expanded Format and Some Standard Stuff Too “What Comes Back? Top 5 Returning Cards Expanded Format Decks Some Standard Stuff Conclusion Here’s a list of the most notable cards that are available in each returning each set to the Expanded format: Black & White Klinklang BLW PlusPower Pokedex Pokemon Communication Revive Emerging Powers Recycle Noble Victories Victini NVI 15 Eelektrik NVI Trubbish NVI Durant NVI Super Rod Next Destinies Heavy Ball Level Ball Skyarrow Bridge Prism Energy Dark Explorers Accelgor DEX Entei-EX Raikou-EX Sableye DEX Dark Patch Enhanced Hammer Dragons Exalted Ho-Oh-EX Terrakion-EX Registeel-EX Rayquaza-EX Giratina-EX Bouffalant DRX Tool Scrapper Blend Energy GRPD Blend Energy WLFM Promos Tropical Beach…
A Couple of Decks from Singapore, Two from Norway, and a Duo of My Own “Norway David Jensen’s Top 8 Weavile Deck Richard Andersen’s Top 8 Empoleon Deck Singapore Jit Min’s 1st Place Charizard Deck Jeremy Leong’s 2nd Flygon Deck My Two Favorites Yveltal/Garbodor Virizion/Genesect/Raichu Conclusion Although this National Championship wasn’t streamed like Singapore, there was still a lot of talk about it. After the tournament, one of the players who made top 8 at the event posted their deck list in the “Virbank City” Facebook group. David Jensen’s Top 8 Weavile Deck This is the deck that surprised a lot of players, and gave others who spent time testing it a hard time. The deck had come…
2nd Place 2014 Oklahoma States Report “Going into States, I was sitting at 480 CP, so I was pretty comfortable. I only had to hit a Top 16 at one of the upcoming State Championships I was going to be attending, which I felt was fairly easy to do. Before I start talking about my performances, I’ll take a look at what was going through my mind before I ended up choosing my deck for the first week. I was pretty set on a Plasma-based deck after my article a couple months ago, and it was the only thing I had really tested extensively. On my…
A Detailed Look at Plasma Decks in the NXD-XY Format “Looking at XY, the set appears great. The cards all seem decently balanced, and most of the EXs aren’t completely overpowered, but the main thing that sticks out to me is… Muscle Band. This card alone makes Lugia-EX one of the best cards in the NXD-XY format. Now, with 3 to 4 Deoxys-EX benched, Lugia is able to swing for an absurd 170 to 180 damage, knocking out nearly every Pokemon in the game in one hit. On top of that, you take an additional Prize because of ‘Overflow.’ That means Lugia could take all 6 Prizes by turn two,…
This Pokémon keeps its heat-sensitive head cool with ice. It fishes for its food, dangling its single hair into the sea to lure in prey. (Eiscue)
It eats berries nonstop—a habit that has made it more resilient than it looks. It’ll show up on farms, searching for yet more berries. (Skwovet)
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