Henry Prior
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Mega Rayquaza, Trevenant/Accelgor, Speed Seismitoad, and the Mobile Realm “M Rayquaza-EX has received quite a bit of hype since it was revealed back in March, and it isn’t too surprising that Japanese players have found themselves in a format structured around perfecting or beating M Rayquaza-EX decks. Most players have seemed to lean towards the M Rayquaza-EX/Raichu XY build, which focuses on pairing two of the cards that gain the most from Sky Field. On top of the obvious synergy between extra Bench space and Raichu’s Circle Circuit, being a Lightning type is very important again other M Rayquaza-EX decks. The biggest issue I see with this combo is…
An Exploration into Primal Clash’s Expanded Format “The Rainbow Fish Blastoise’s Big Break Silent Tales Night March’s Ace in the Hole Almost Good Conclusion No, not the children’s book … one of the best combos to come out of Primal Clash: Huntail PRC & Ho-Oh-EX. Ho-Oh-EX gained a lot of traction in Expanded with the release of Battle Compressor, which makes Ho-Oh decks a lot more consistent, but it was lacking the right partners to push it into contention against other top decks. Being able to quickly get Energy onto the field works perfectly with Huntail’s Powerful Storm, which does 20 damage for each Energy attached to all…
Applied Mathematics and Economics to Pokémon “Game Theory Example 1: In-Game Analysis Example 2: Metagame Analysis Making Top Cut Conclusion Game theory, also known as interactive decision theory, allows us to look at the possible outcomes of a situation and pick the most optimal line of play. This is one of the more advanced ways to look at in-game decisions, as well as deck choices. There is quite a lot of simplification that has to be done in order to make the underlying concepts comprehensible, so let’s assume that the probabilities that play into the outcomes have been approximated and generalized for a range of different variables. One…
The Effect of Type-Themed Sets on the Metagame “Going forward into the season I would recommend everyone playtest for Expanded as much as possible. Even if you don’t expect to make it into day 2, you should always be prepared for the best possible outcome. More so than in Standard, those who prepared the most for Expanded seemed to come out on top in the end, while those who picked up a deck last minute weren’t so fortunate. The night before day 2 Nicholena Moon and I saw Alex Hill tweet a picture showing a plethora of deck options he had for Expanded and were worried that we didn’t…
A Comprehensive History of Shutdown Strategies “Wizards Era Sneasel/Slowking EX Era Medicham Mewtric Mynx Diamond & Pearl Era Gardevoir/Gallade Glisctomb Sablelock Black & White Era The Truth Chandelure/Vileplume Gothitelle/Accelgor XY Era Flygon/Accelgor Conclusion Format: BS-N3 As someone who joined Pokémon Organized Play and thus the competitive scene after Nintendo took over, I don’t trust myself to give enough information about this time period and know enough about each deck to write at length about them. That being said, there’s no way I could leave out the most infamous lock deck that we’ve seen in the game: Sneasel/Slowking. This deck was so dominant that both Sneasel and Slowking became banned…
The lessons of many harsh battles have taught it how to accurately judge an opponent’s strength. (Corvisquire)
Coverage of the 2014 Japanese Charizard Mega Battles “This event was unique in that a few American friends who were in Japan were attending the event. This gave me a better opportunity to get more information on the event as well as a perspective on differences from the rest of the world. The metagame mostly consisted of Eelektrik variants and Garbodor with some degree of Pyroar splashed in. From what we’ve seen at other countries’ Nationals, this is very similar to the list of Top 8 decks from those events that I’ve looked at. One card that has popped up in Europe has been Miltank FLF, which is…
NXD-XY Sypnosis, Fresh from Flashfire, and Nose on Japan “NXD-XY Synopsis Fresh from Flashfire Sniffing Out What’s New – Nose on Japan Conclusion XY ushered in quite a bit of changes to our format and created a lot of variation in what is doing well. At State Championships we saw wins out of everything from the usual Plasma, Blastoise, and Garbodor decks to Tool Drop, Ninetales, and Big Basics. As I’ve said before, I always like to see interesting decks that stray from the norm and try to play them myself if I find one I enjoy playing and am comfortable with. Blastoise has by far led the pack…
The Journey to Finalizing Team Plasma and Trevenant Lists for States “Team Plasma (with a Twist) Version 1 Version 2 Version 3 (Final) Trevenant/Accelgor Version 1 Version 2 (Final) Conclusion The first deck that caught my attention with the release of XY was Team Plasma. The ability to use Lugia-EX along with Muscle Band and Deoxys-EX to do up to 180 damage and one-shot an opposing EX is what made Plasma so appealing to me to begin my testing. I usually like to start out with a deck that has been popular for a while and gained something new with the most recent set. This is a great way to gradually…
The Best Decks of Winter Regionals 2014 “Blastoise and Emboar Virizion/Genesect Team Plasma Dragonite Conclusion 1st Place // Missouri // Aaron Tarbell // Blastoise PLB/Keldeo-EX/Black Kyurem-EX PLS 1st Place // California // Chris Silver // Emboar LTR/Rayquaza-EX 2nd Place // Virginia // Santiago Rodriquez // Emboar LTR/Rayquaza-EX 2nd Place // Oregon // Bidier Jing // Blastoise PLB/Keldeo-EX/Black Kyurem-EX PLS I decided to group the two “Rain Dance” decks together into one section because of their very similar strategies. I know they are better suited for different metagames, but down to the core they’re the same deck in my book. If I ever consider running Blastoise I’m also…
An Analysis of the 2013 Japanese Battle Fiesta “This was the first event using cards from Collection X and Collection Y and only a couple days after the set was released in Japan so many players didn’t have all the cards or weren’t sure what to play. My correspondent played an Exeggutor/Red Card deck with attackers and made it to the Top 8. I really like the concept of his deck so I’ll talk more about it later in the article. The Top 4 decks were… 1st – Rayquaza EX/Raikou EX/Eelektrik NVI 2nd – Darkrai EX/Yveltal EX/Landorus EX/Bouffalant DRX/Absol PLF 3rd – Zekrom BLW/Zekrom EX/Eelektrik NVI 4th -…
It carries electrically roasted seeds with it as if they’re precious treasures. No matter how much it eats, it always gets hungry again in short order. (Morpeko)
Delicious Decks and Talk of a Beach-less Future “Virizion/Genesect Dusknoir Darkrai/Terrakion Chandelure Conclusion + Looking Ahead It’s pretty obvious why this deck is so good with the rules changes. First of all, you don’t attack turn 1 to begin with. Secondly, it gains Energy Switch which really helps the deck out. And finally, you have Red Signal while other decks have to either flip for Catchers or have no gusting at all. So far from my testing Virizion/Genesect is the deck to beat. Along with the built-in Catcher effect it also has a 200 damage attack with G Booster and Energy acceleration with Virizion. The only problem with…
The Decks and Techs of Fall Regionals 2013 “Darkrai Virizion/Mewtwo Attackers/Drifblim Plasma Blastoise Conclusion Although Darkrai has had two very impressive Regionals wins by Israel Sosa we haven’t seen a particularly notable performance by the deck outside of those wins. Only two other Straight Darkrai and two Darkrai/Garbodor made it to the Top 8 of a Regionals throughout all 3 weekends. I mainly attribute this to the huge target on its back. Even after the first win we saw a good amount of Darkrai counters, but the second win was the final nail in the coffin. I’m not surprised by how well Darkrai has done, though. It’s one…
With the hair wrapped around its body helping to enhance its muscles, this Pokémon can overwhelm even Machamp. (Grimmsnarl)
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@HenryPrior
