Jon Bristow
Author Archive
States Retrospective, Spring Regionals Outlook, and What Beats Rayquaza? “After Florida Regionals, there were probably 10-15 different playable decks. It was almost impossible to decide which decks were going to be popular and accurately metagame your way through a large event. Seeing my Facebook news feed after each weekend reaffirmed this view — I read countless woes about how Night March players would run into Seismitoad/Slurpluff in Top 8 or how Virizion/Genesect players would succumb to the only Flareon deck in cut. (Hey … it happens!) This seems to have become a trend: Players are more comfortable running into a bad matchup than having 50-50s across the board. I am not so sure…
Preparing for Florida and the Suddenly Stocked Primal Clash Format “Over winter break, I was able to come home without responsibilities, meet up with friends, and log a ridiculous amount of playtesting. My friends and I built almost every deck that we believed had any merit. We figured out what we thought should be played in different types of metagames, which decks had bad matchups that could be forged into wins, and which decks we could expect to always have a presence. One thing I’d like to note, however, is that I did not play a single game in testing with the deck I’ve used at each event so far — Virizion/Genesect. I felt…
The VS Seeker Engine Explained and Its Application to the Top Decks “The Logic of the VS Seeker Engine and When NOT to Use It Why I Run Jirachi in Almost Everything The Top Decks – Now Featuring VS Seeker! Virizion/Genesect Donphan Yveltal/Seismitoad Seismitoad/Garbodor Manectric/Toad Honorable Mentions Quad Reshiram Plasma (TDK) Conclusion The concept of the VS Seeker engine in a deck essentially requires a player to cut back on cards such as Professor Juniper, N, and Colress in order to make space for VS Seeker. By leaving high counts of the Supporters you want to open with and lower counts of the ones you’ll want later, you create a system in…
A Philadelphia Regionals Retrospective “What I Expected on Day 1 What I Played on Day 1 What Actually Happened on Day 1 What I Expected on Day 2 What Actually Happened on Day 2 Conclusion Frankly, I thought I had figured the format out from afar, observing what seemed like the death of Yveltal and the rise of Seismitoad-EX and Fighting decks, equipped with Hawlucha FFI, Fighting Stadium, and Strong Energy. I thought Virizion/Genesect would also have its place in the metagame. Donphan began to gain a lot of popularity as time went on as well. Strong Energy encouraged a lot of attempted innovation in…
Recapping the 2007-2008 Season “After the rotation in 2007, the format was wiped of many of its best decks and provided with its second legal Diamond & Pearl series set, Mysterious Treasures. While Lucario DP saw some play at both Nationals and Worlds before the new season began, Blissey MT was a card that stood out at this time because of its extremely high HP and unlimited damage cap. I personally had a lot of success running little besides a 4-4 Blissey line in my deck throughout Autumn Battle Roads. Blissey was a tank. Not long after Blissey had seemingly taken over, the format was tossed on its head…
It’s highly skilled at tap-dancing. It waves its cane of ice in time with its graceful movements. (Mr. Rime)
A Review of US Nationals, Projections for Worlds, and a Peek into Furious Fists “As the US Nationals event has probably been beaten nearly to death by now, I will try to keep my recap brief so as to spare you what a lot of you probably already know. At 11:50 PM the night before Nationals, I walked into my hotel room to check on my friend, Chris Murray, to find that he had masterminded the final changes to a Pyroar deck that had been put in the works by Michael Pramawat and Steven Varesko. Uncomfortable with my choice in Flygon as a play for the next day, I took one look at the…
The Emergence of Pyroar and Analysis of 11 Competitive Decks “Yveltal/Garbodor Yveltal/Raichu Pyroar/Charizard Pyroar/Landorus/Mewtwo Plasma: Lugia Plasma: TDK RayBoar Empoleon/Miltank Flygon/Dusknoir/Accelgor Kangaskhan/Fairies Virizion/Genesect Conclusion It suffices to say that this deck deserves to be spoken about first. It has been widely hailed as the best deck by many. The topic has been beaten to death by writers and players alike. This deck and its variants will cover a massive portion of the field for obvious reasons, namely that it is a safe play. This deck will top cut. It has few terrible matchups. It is quick, consistent, and has an unlimited damage capacity. For some players, the debate will be…
Week 1 Regionals Analysis, Projections, and Ramblings “I do not have results for the third week of States nor the first of Regionals because I did not attend them. Sitting at 495 Championship Points and in the middle of a whirlwind of obligations at school, it is just not worth doing anything except return to competition when my schedule lightens up and I can return to Massachusetts and finalize the invite at a League Challenge. However, I think I can confidently say that I have a handle on the metagame. As a person who doesn’t like losing to anything, I have been going the extra mile to…
Making the Most of Muscle Band and Flexing Your Thinking in the NXD-XY Format “Favorites and Not-So-Favorites of the New Format Old Lists with New Muscle Lugia/Plasma Garbodor/Darkness Virizion/Genesect Blastoise The Potentially Overlooked Landorus/Techs Palkia/Walls Exeggutor Lock Conclusion First though, I’d like to give my opinion on the major players of the NXD-XY format. I have done a large amount of testing and feel pretty confident in my results, but there are always decks that I will be unsure of at any given point. This is largely due to bias, as a player plays and feels more confident with certains decks over others. Lugia/Plasma – Like There’s no denying it: Lugia decks are amazing.…
Regionals Reflections and XY Predictions “Virginia Regionals A Need for Speed Thoughts for Florida The Finest of XY Updating the Old New School vs. Old School Conclusion Heading into my last weekend before Virginia Regionals, I attended a pair of City Championships, placing 5th and 1st. My 5th place finish was with RayBoar and my win was with TDK. During the days between then and Regionals, I was certain I’d be playing the Plasma deck in Virginia. However, much to my dismay, I began to hear about a large amount of Plasma hate due to the success Lugia/Snorlax/Thundurus (“The Yeti”) was beginning to have. I put the…
While it’s engaged in battle, its mountain of coal will burn bright red, sending off sparks that scorch the surrounding area. (Coalossal)
Finding Your Way in a Diverse Metagame “Notes on the Current Format What is Metagaming? Defining the Environment Small Events Medium Events Large Events Examples of Successful Metagaming My Top Picks and When to Play Them Deck #1 – Gothitelle/Accelgor/Dusknoir Deck #2 – Virizion/Genesect Deck #3 – Sableye/Hammers/Garbodor (aka Hovertoxin) Deck #4 – Trubbish Deck #5 – Blastoise Parting Words We’ve finally had some time to watch the format unfold. There have been many gatherings of League Challenges and City Championships are now in full swing. There are videos of recorded games online from some of these events, and while I have been unfortunately prevented from attending…
Regionals Recap and Deck Discussion Heading into City Championships “Philadelphia Regionals 2013 A Word on 50 Minutes Best-of-Three Deck Discussion Empoleon Blastoise Plasma Virizion/Genesect Ho-Oh Garbodor Trubbish Conclusion The format for this tournament had a lot of possibilities. The East Coast was getting its first tournament of the season when the West Coast had played the previous two weeks. Darkrai EX, piloted by Israel Sosa, had won two of those Regionals and was rightfully a hot deck on everyone’s mind. The tournament was insanely large and I knew that there would be a lot of games to play if I planned to get far. The deck I chose was…
With the hair wrapped around its body helping to enhance its muscles, this Pokémon can overwhelm even Machamp. (Grimmsnarl)
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