Brit Pybas
Author Archive
Bio: 7× Worlds Invitee
2× Worlds Top 32 (’15, ’16)
#1 Global 2011
3× NA Top 16 (’12, ’14, ’15)
3× Regionals Top 8s
2× State Champion
1× hot boy
Meditations on a Just-Short Season, A Look at Yveltal, and Final Notes “Yveltal BREAK was one of the surprise stars in Columbus this year. I recall the card being incredibly hyped upon release, promising to make Yveltal-EX even more powerful in Expanded but the card never quite took off. The concept for an Yveltal BREAK deck was brought to my attention a few weeks before Columbus by Travis Nunlist and Singapore’s own Clifton Goh, but I would be lying if I said I ever took it totally seriously. The idea behind the deck seemed lackluster at best and there was no obvious synergy to explain for it. Yveltal is simply a powerful…
Alolan Ninetales, Tapu Bulu/Vikavolt, and Volcanion with an Eye to NAIC “Volcanion-EX has fallen quite a long way from the very start of the season and is close to forgotten at this point. I personally think this to be the weakest of the three decks I will discuss today, but after reading through recent League Cup results, I have seen that it is showing some signs of light and so I wanted to discuss it. Since the rise of Zoroark-GX, Volcanion-EX was able to maintain some semblance of a presence by somewhat “countering” the best card in the format. Zoroark-GX lacks any meaningful way to do much beyond a 2HKO while…
Preparing Exeggcutor for NAIC “As I talked about in my last article, I tend to believe that the current Standard metagame follows a clear and distinct pattern of beating certain decks and losing to others. The top three decks are undoubtedly still Buzzwole, Zoroark-GX (in its many incarnations with Lycanroc-GX being the most popular and Golisopod-GX following close behind), and Malamar. All three of these archetypes are able to fluctuate somewhat in terms of what decks they want to hedge against and what decks they are willing to sacrifice ground against in order to be stronger others. The best of example of this is…
A Lesson on “Tilt” From Madison, State of the Meta, and Puzzling the State of Puzzle of Time “In general, this whole tournament was just a huge list of tiny woes for me. I lost 8/9 coin flips which made things exceedingly difficult for me. The Zoroark-GX mirror can be a little more complex than just a matter of who goes first, but by the end of the day, it became hard for me to see it in any other light. I won every game where I went first and was able to Guzma or Bloodthirsty Eyes up the main threat on my second turn, leaving them without ample time to respond—while the same thing happened to me…
In Pursuit of an the Ideal Worlds Invite Structure and Making Malamar for Madison “When announced this year, public enemy #1 of the 400 CP structure was undoubtedly the fact that any given player could qualify entirely by winning League Cups. Easier said than done, of course, and to my knowledge, there are precisely zero players that have achieved such a feat this year. That in and of itself should speak volumes for how League Cups were really not the main problem with the structure this year. I have very mixed feelings about League Cups as a concept and certainly would be in favor of seeming them go away or be lowered in priority in…
Jumping nimbly about, this small-bodied Pokémon takes advantage of even the slightest opportunity to disorient larger opponents. (Rookidee)
A Discussion of the (Good!) State of Expanded and Discussion of Malamar for FLI Standard “I do think there is great power in this banlist and you never want to appear as if you are caving in to the demands of the community, but if updated more frequently, I think it could easily be done if only as a charade that would make people more interested in Expanded. As stated above, the main problem with Expanded is that you simply do not have to care about it, and can plan your whole season around avoiding it if you really want to. It is simple to see how Expanded has always been something that you could…
Brit’s Analysis of Zoroark/Lycanroc and Gardevoir-GX for Latin America’s International Championship “I think this would easily be my top choice for this weekend (which, of course, can still be League Cups for those like me not going to Brazil). The power of this deck has been proven many times this format and in the format before it, so I do not think I really need explain much of how the deck functions. Zoroark-GX has been the most powerful card in the game since it was printed and provides an incredibly efficient attacker while simultaneously boosting the consistency of any given deck by an unprecedented amount. Lycanroc-GX is the current partner of…
An Analysis of Community Opinion and Updated Lonzoroark “One of the unfortunate parts of not chasing the top 16 race means that my own concerns within the game tend to be different from those looking to play a large event every weekend. As such, I do acknowledge that the Latin American International Championship is the next, big tournament, but I wanted to shift gears today and talk a little Expanded. Salt Lake City will (hopefully) be my next Regional Championship and I have been doing my very best to start preparing as much as possible for it. Expanded has such an incredibly large card pool and it may…
Brit’s Analysis of Secrecy, Deck Ideas, the Formats, and the Evolutions Thereof “In the old days, knowing the right people was the most important thing to finding the right decklist. I am certainly indebted to many of my older friends who showed me the ropes, but this was absolutely not a fair system. There was no public flow of information, which only further rewarded being withholding. There were secret decks from time to time, but what I think it ultimately amounts to (at least in terms of the game today) is that the players at the top were profiting from withholding very basic information. A lot of the secret decks then were…
Brit on Consistency, a Trio of Glaceon Lists, and Solgaleo/Zoroark for Charlotte “Though my testing was incredibly limited for Costa Mesa, as I knew early on that I would not be in attendance, I am happy to see that I was somewhat on the right track thinking Glaceon-GX had a real opportunity to shine in the format. The list I provided in my last article did one thing only—and that was evolve very quickly. Ultimately, I think that it would prove to be not enough to stand on its own in Expanded, but was not too far away from the list that many of our writers would favor in Costa Mesa. I…
Via the protrusion on its head, it senses other creatures’ emotions. If you don’t have a calm disposition, it will never warm up to you. (Hatenna)
Brit’s Collinsville Report, Firing up Standard, and Glaceon-GX for Costa Mesa “I toyed around quite a bit with a CounterBox list very close to what I had provided last time but never quite felt like it was in the right place. The deck functions differently in Expanded, as you have a better means to your Counter Energy + Attacker through Teammates, but also the versatility to OHKO nearly everything with Riotous Beating in conjunction with Skyfield. Mallow is a poor replacement for Teammates and always feels a little awkward unless your hand is already massive from multiple turns of using Trade. Non-EX attackers are also noticeably more useful in Expanded, and…
Brit’s Dallas Experience, Zoroark/Counters, Plus Standard Observations and Options “Dustin Zimmerman, a former SixPrizes writer was the main architect of the list but I believe that he received his own inspiration to build the deck from one of Christopher’s reports of a Zoroark-GX/Lycanroc-GX deck that played a few copies of Counter Energy. The idea was to use the simple, but strong, core to any Zoroark-GX to carry the initial weight of the deck. Instead of using a backup Stage 1 attacker to hedge against other matchups or try to counter a certain archetype, we would rely on some choice colorful basic Pokemon and Counter Energy to steal games from…
Examining Zoroark-GX’s Inherent Strengths and their Impacts on the Expanded Format “I think that the big question heading into Dallas is whether Zoroark-GX will truly be as impactful as everyone is predicting. Is there room in the format for older decks to still scrape by or have we been reduced to Zoroark or counter Zoroark? The Standard format remains somewhat of a mystery to me but I think the answer to this question for this weekend is a resounding “YES!”. Unfortunate as that may be, I think that Zoroark-GX really is that impactful. What it has done to the game in such a short amount of time is incredible and I…
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A Look at Motivation, Ability Lock’s Place, and 3 Buzzwole Lists for Standard “There might be a small gap right now between events, but Regionals basically run every weekend in March, and by the time those are all through, the season will almost be at its end for most. It is crazy to think about, but I haven’t played in a Regional Championship since Mexico City last May. No doubt, the race for top 16 will be as cutthroat as ever in the later months of 2018 but for a player like myself dwindling within the “casual” label, the invite will be very close or as far way as ever. As such, I…
The Path to a Successful 2018, Vikavolt/Tapu Bulu for Standard, and the Puzzle of Time Menace “My play for Memphis had I attended would most likely have been Vikavolt/Tapu Bulu-GX. It may sound strange, but I was trying to predict a curve in the meta-game and stay one step ahead of it. Gauging from the results and buzz I had ascertained in the week leading into Memphis, I could tell that many top players were hopping on board the Lycanroc-GX hype train. Instead of joining them, I knew that I wanted to counter them. Greninja seemed like one of the best ways to do this but I believed that many top players would already be playing…
It feeds on seaweed, using its teeth to scrape it off rocks. Electric current flows from the tips of its spines. (Pincurchin)
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63 articles written
@bpybas
