Kayan Oladi
Author Archive
A Guide to Learning and Understanding the Control Archetype in the Pokémon TCG “One of the primary reasons I decided to write on this topic, and a major motivation I have for advocating for trying control in general, is that Control and other AWC decks get an undeserved bad rep within the community. People with minimal exposure to the archetype immediately label it problem rather than putting in the effort to understand it. More than anything else, I want to change this. By providing an easily-accessible, basic understanding of the archetype, I hope to shed light on the benefits of AWCs and shift the community’s opinion away from this constant distaste towards the…
A Comprehensive Rodent-and-Bird-Filled Guide to Post-Rotation, Post-Bellelba & Brycen-Man Control “I’ve already covered a lot of my reasoning behind specific card choices, but I want to make sure every choice is clear. If it’s our win con why is there only 1??? Very good question! Essentially, this list is tight, especially because we need a good level of consistency to make up for its inherent clunkiness. The Bunny is a win con but it’s not the only win con. If you were to prize the Bunny, or choose not to use it, you would default to an aggressive Energy-denial playstyle, where, instead of pivoting between Bunny and Exca, you can…
Giving Mareep/Dragonite Its Time in the Spotlight “When I decided to start toying with Mill in Darkness Ablaze (DAA), I recognized that, despite my love for Cinccino, I’d have to look towards Mareep Mill. Dragapult’s place in the meta is severely compromised with the introduction of Eternatus VMAX, which looks to be a strong contender that completely steamrolls Dragapult. As a result of that, Mareep has its chance to shine. Looking at Mareep, I had two viable options: (1) Traditional Mareep Mill and (2) a newcomer to the metagame, Mareep/Dragonite Mill. The debut of Mareep/Dragonite Mill came via the unofficial Japan Nationals 2020 tournament, where the pilot…
The Debut of Gothita Lock “The main idea behind the deck is to get rid of the opponent’s hand and then infinitely lock them by pivoting between Gothita and Drilbur. You can accomplish this by using Reset Stamp late in the game and following it up with Jessie and James in order to remove the few cards that your opponent got off of Reset Stamp, or you can use Jessie and James opportunistically if your opponent overextends their hand. However, it’s likely that most games will follow the Reset Stamp strategy. From there you use Fortune Eye to arrange your opponent’s top 5 cards in…
A New and Improved Way to Play Cinccino Control “Without further ado, I present to you the new and improved Cinccino Control: Considering that the deck focuses on Energy denial, most of the list should be fairly self-explanatory. However, there are some very unorthodox includes that I feel need to be elaborated upon. Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Why is there a Shuckle-GX in a competitive deck, let alone a Control deck? Shuckle-GX is not only one of the most out-there inclusions, but also one of my favorite mechanics the deck has to offer. Spiritomb cannot handle Shuckle. The Spiritomb matchup becomes one of the most…
Powerful legs and jaws made it the apex predator of its time. Its own overhunting of its prey was what drove it to extinction. (Dracovish)
An In-Depth Look at Cinccino Mill in the UPR–RCL Format “Part of Mill’s strength as an archetype lies in its ability to adapt to the metagame and survive most shifts in the meta. An example of this is Mill’s adaptation to counter ADP-GX with Zacian V (ADPZ) during the UPR–SSH format. Initially, Mill ran 4 Crushing Hammer, which made the matchup fairly reliant on flipping heads on Crushing Hammers. At this point, Mill had two major questionable matchups: ADPZ and Mewtwo/Malamar. Fire Box was also a threat; however, Fire Box saw a huge fall-off in play as the format developed further. In an attempt to improve its ADPZ matchup, Mill…
It spends its entire life inside an apple. It hides from its natural enemies, bird Pokémon, by pretending it’s just an apple and nothing more. (Applin)
6 articles written
Playing since 2017
@kayan_oladi
