Jay Hornung
Author Archive
Pyroar FLF vs. Mewtwo LV.X and My Top Three Decks Heading into US Nationals “Pyroar… It’s Actually Better Than Mewtwo LV.X My Top Three Decks Deck #3 – Blastoise Deck #2 – Yveltal/Darkrai/Raichu Deck #1 – ??? Bonus Deck Conclusion Both Erik Nance and Brit Pybas talked about Mewtwo LV.X and made some really good points about it. As somebody who also played and loved the era in which it was legal, there are a couple points I want to make as well. First off, Mewtwo took some time to find its footing in the meta. At first, pure Basic decks were not that popular, so people didn’t really run counters to Mewtwo. I…
Stories from States and Regionals with Thoughts on the New Set “Minnesota States Wisconsin Regionals Yea, I Wore a Watch Noteworthy from Flashfire Updated and New Decks Virizion/Genesect/Raichu Plasma Fairies Charizard/Pyroar Conclusion After playing Trevenant/Accelgor in Iowa I realized it wasn’t the format I hated as much as having games decided on Laser flips and who drew better off late game Ns. I actually think the format is pretty balanced right now with a large number of different decks being playable. There is still a lot of luck in the current format, but also a lot you can do to control and minimize that luck. Heading into the last week of…
Jay’s 2014 Wisconsin and Iowa States Reports “The Road to States Speed Lugia Yeti… Or Maybe Just “Hornung Plasma” Hello, Wisconsin! Hawk, I Conclusion I was quickly drawn to Plasma as I thought Muscle Band took the deck to a whole new level. The deck was able to simply put so much early pressure on the opponent that it was common to overwhelm them before they could ever get a foothold in the game. My list started out the same way that most people’s did, built around the strategy of attaching a Muscle Band to Lugia-EX and then 1HKOing opposing EXs with 4 Deoxys in play. In…
Consistency, Dragonite, New Set Highlights, Top Decks for NXD-XY, and More “What We’ve Learned From Regionals The Highlights of XY Clarifying Consistency A Discussion on Dragonite The Top Decks for States Rayquaza/Emboar Darkrai/Garbodor Thundurus/Deoxys/Lugia/Snorlax Conclusion 1. Pokémon Catcher is still really good. After the errata many players started dropping Catcher from their decks. Even some Darkrai decks stopped playing the card. Once Regionals started though, it was a near staple in Darkrai decks, but more interestingly, we started seeing it in Blastoise as well. I expect this trend to continue into States. While Pokémon Catcher won’t see play in every deck, I do expect it to be a near staple in…
The Winter Waging of Empoleon (from Cities to Regionals) “The Importance of Metagaming A Rise to Power The Penguin’s Plan My Top 3 Ways to Play Empoleon Anti-Mirror, Anti-Darkrai Anti-Virizion/Genesect A Balanced Take Chicago Cities Reports Day 1, Empoleon Day 2, Blastoise Conclusion Since for a majority of this article I want to discuss Empoleon, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to discuss metagaming and how important it is. Empoleon is a great deck to tie into with this as it is the easiest deck in the format to adapt, change, and effectively metagame against the format. Most people know what metagaming is, or should by now,…
This Pokémon was born from sweet-smelling particles in the air. Its body is made of cream. (Milcery)
My Most Successful Decks of the NXD–LTR Format “Fort Wayne Regionals Non-Report The New Rules The Return of Bench Sitters Numbers of Tropical Beach Decks Darkrai/Hydreigon Empoleon/Dusknoir Blastoise Darkrai Speed Darkrai with Ninetales Control Darkrai with Electrode Plasma Conclusion I really wish I had a fun and crazy report to tell you about, but sadly I wasn’t able to attend the first set of Regionals this year. The last few months have involved a lot of big changes for me. A friend of mine from Pokémon put in a good word for me at his company. The interview went well and I recently got hired for a full-time…
Advanced Looks at Darkrai/Garbodor and Team Plasma “As I was writing this article we received the news about some major rule changes coming on November 8th. Here is what will be different: Flip a coin before drawing your opening hand. The winner of the coin flip now decides who goes first. Also, whoever goes first now can’t attack on his or her first turn. If you win the flip, decide carefully if you want the first turn or not! Pokémon Catcher Flip a coin. If heads, switch 1 of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon with his or her Active Pokémon. Changes: This card now requires a coin flip. (This makes…
Highly intelligent but also very lazy, it keeps enemies out of its territory by laying traps everywhere. (Drizzile)
When it contracts its body, over 220 pounds of sand sprays from its nose. If it ever runs out of sand, it becomes disheartened. (Sandaconda)