Junior/Senior Metagame Analysis for the North American International Championship “4 Drampa/Garbodor 2 Lapras 2 Greninja 2 M Ray 1 Alolan Ninetales 1 Wobbuffet/Garbodor 1 Lurantis/Tapu Bulu 1 Lycanroc/Carbink 1 Vikavolt/Tapu Bulu 1 Umbreon/Zoroark Juniors Top 8 decklists for Seattle and Madison can be found at the preceding links. I’ve chosen to only include Seattle and Madison for Juniors results. Mexico and Origins saw some of the top Junior players competing, but each event only featured a Top 4 cut due to the size. I don’t think those smaller events are indicative of the decks that are being played or of their tournament viability, so I’ve left them off. As…
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Primer on Building the Best Owl List and Examining Its Place in the Standard Meta “Decidueye/Vileplume first saw competitive play in February at Anaheim Reigonals, where John Kettler piloted it to a Top 16 finish. He then brought it to St. Louis and played nearly an identical list for an Expanded Regional, finishing in 2nd place. That same weekend, Decidueye took down a European Regional streamed by Pokemon, further thrusting it into the spotlight. Oceania Internationals followed this power weekend from Decidueye, where we saw 5 Decidueye decks in Top 8. From there, it has been one of the most dominant decks of the year. Decidueye’s strength started to diminish in May at Virginia Regionals.…
Darkrai/Dragonair and Decidueye/Ninetales Cup Experiences, Musings on Raichu and Vespiquen, and Feelings on the Format “For my first League Cup, I piloted the Darkrai/Dragonair list that Travis Nunlist featured in his article last week. Quite honestly, I had absolutely no idea what to play even 12 hours before the tournament started. I wasn’t going to play Drampa/Garbodor, Vespiquen seemed too easy to counter, and very few other decks had any results to speak of at this point. It was actually the night before Madison Regionals that I was deliberating about my deck choice, and Christopher Schemanske told me that his top choices were Darkrai/Dragonair and Metagross-GX. Thankfully, he chose not to play Darkrai but I…
Junior/Senior Metagame Analysis for Guardians Standard “7 M Rayquaza 6 M Gardevoir PRC/Xerneas 5 Decidueye/Vileplume 5 Turbo Darkrai 4 M Mewtwo/Garbodor 3 Volcanion 3 Darkrai/Giratina 1 Water Toolbox 1 Yveltal/Garbodor 1 M Alakazam 1 Vespiquen 1 Lycanroc/Carbink 1 Lapras 1 Lurantis/Vileplume 1 M Gardevoir STS Juniors Top 8 decklists for all events can be found at this link (the 5 PRC-SUM events were Anaheim, Oceania, Salt Lake City, Latin America, and Roanoke). There is a very clear set of top decks in the Junior division. However, it’s more interesting to see how the metagame developed over the last 3 months and why those top decks got played when they…
A Look at Decidueye, Lycanroc, and Rayquaza, Plus Tips for Beating Sylveon “Decidueye/Vileplume is easily my favorite deck of the past 3 seasons. While it can be a tad inconsistent, almost every matchup is winnable and even the wildest comebacks can be achieved. I finally feel comfortable cutting the Tauros-GX with the expected decline in play of Turbo Dark. Darkrai decks thrived on burning through Item cards (which now makes them very weak to Garbodor’s Trashalanche) and Field Blower neuters both their sustainability and damage output. I still found Tauros to be useful in other matchups, but Tapu Lele serves a much better purpose in that spot now. Speaking of Lele, I’ve…
It has an electrical organ on its chest. While generating electricity, it fills its surroundings with what sounds like the strumming of a bass guitar. (Toxtricity)
Junior/Senior Metagame Analysis for Toronto Regionals “5 Rainbow Road 5 Turbo Darkrai 4 Darkrai/Giratina 4 Raikou/Eelektrik 4 Donphan 3 Yveltal Maxie’s 3 M Rayquaza 2 M Manectric 2 Archie’s Blastoise 2 Trevenant 2 Lurantis/Vileplume 1 Groudon 1 Wailord 1 M Gardevoir 1 Accelgor/Wobbuffet Juniors Top 8 decklists for all events can be found at this link (the 5 Expanded Regionals are Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Jose, St. Louis, and Portland). Overall, there aren’t a lot of trends. Dark decks are easily the favorite, but they still only took 12 of 40 potential slots in Top 8 cuts throughout this year. I wouldn’t want to play Trevenant in Juniors due…
Three More Archetypes for Guardians Standard “For this deck, I’ve basically started with the Lapras list that I played in Brazil. We played Max Elixir to better deal with the Volcanion we expected, but thankfully we’re able to play Puzzle of Time in that slot now. Otherwise, all of the cards that you could want are basically the same between the two decks. I’m incredibly interested in testing out Sylveon as it has a nearly foolproof gameplan against Decidueye. Being able to search out Hex Maniac turn after turn is insane. On the first turn, you grab a Hex Maniac and a VS Seeker, as well…
The Practice of Perfecting Practice in a Small Time Frame “The first step in a rapid-fire testing regimen is to gather data on recent tournaments. At the most basic level, this means just seeing which deck won the most recent tournament and finding out which decks made top 8. Many players will either gravitate towards the most popular/successful deck or try to counter it. Most of the time, I’d actually advocate waiting until an upcoming large tournament completes before heavily testing a deck. You want to make sure you are able to consider as much information as possible. If you prepare for a tournament using out of date metagame results,…
Analyzing Decidueye/Vileplume Techs, Matchups, and In-Game Strategy “Not much has changed in this list since Oceania. I dropped the Unown AOR for a Lysandre, as I’ll explain later in the tech section. Otherwise, I feel that every card is necessary for the deck’s set up. The cards I most often see omitted are Tauros-GX and the 3rd Shaymin. Having 3 Shaymin is important to make sure you have access to at least 2 of them in any given game. They’re that crucial to your set-up. Playing a 3rd also increases your odds of drawing into them naturally instead of having to waste a valuable Ultra Ball to grab one when…
Junior/Senior Metagame Analysis for PRC–SUM Standard Tournaments “2 M Gardevoir/Giratina-EX 2 Darkrai/Giratina 1 Yveltal/Garbodor 1 Turbo Darkrai 1 Water Toolbox (Lapras-GX/Manaphy-EX/Palkia-EX) 1 M Mewtwo/Garbodor 2 M Gardevoir/Giratina-EX 1 M Rayquaza 1 Turbo Darkrai 1 M Alakazam/Espeon-GX 1 Decidueye/Vileplume 1 Volcanion 1 Vespiquen Juniors Top 8 decklists for Anaheim and Melbourne can be found at the preceding links. The Juniors metagame seems to be shifting in Standard. Dark decks (Darkrai and Yveltal) were the focus of the division in Dallas, Athens, and Anaheim. But between Anaheim and Melbourne, we’re starting to see lots of decks that seem to be aimed at beating Dark decks. This is especially true when you consider…
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The six of them work together as one Pokémon. Teamwork is also their battle strategy, and they constantly change their formation as they fight. (Falinks)
Junior/Senior Metagame Analysis for Portland Regionals “1 Donphan 1 Darkrai/Giratina 1 M Rayquaza/Bronzong 1 Archie’s Blastoise 1 Raikou/Eelektrik 1 Wailord 1 Trevenant 1 Yveltal/Darkrai 2 Maxie’s Yveltal 2 Rainbow Road 1 Lurantis/Vileplume 1 M Gardevoir STS 1 Turbo Dark 1 Raikou/Eelektrik Juniors Top 8 decklists for San Jose and St. Louis can be found at the preceding links. Unlike in Standard, there doesn’t seem to be a clear trend in Juniors as far as popular “go-to” decks in the Expanded format. I can see two major factors creating this environment: The card pool is giant. There are so many viable decks, with plenty of tech options. Junior players typically play their favorite decks.…
Top 8 Melbourne Report, Tips for Mental Stability, Standard Metagame Analysis, and Counters to Decidueye “Leading up to Melbourne, my thoughts on the Standard format drastically changed in two weeks. I thought Vespiquen was far and away the best deck for Anaheim, with favorable or even matchups against Yveltal, Mewtwo, Rayquaza, Turbo Dark, and Gardevoir (without Karen). While the same would be true moving forward, I thought the popularity and success of Vespiquen could lead to Karen being teched in some decks. I even heard players contemplating this in their Yveltal and Mewtwo decks during Anaheim. My first thought for what to play in Melbourne was M Gardevoir. Yveltal, Mewtwo, and Turbo Dark were the…
Junior/Senior Metagame Analysis for Melbourne Internationals “Even before the competition in Athens and Anaheim, the two most recent Standard Regionals, it would have been a safe guess that Dark decks would be the best-performing decks in Juniors. Yveltal has won just about every Regional in the division this year, which is not surprising in the slightest. It has a decent matchup against almost any deck, it’s fairly easy to play at a respectable level, and it just hits hard. Juniors like decks that do a lot of damage and set up consistently. 3 Volcanion 1 Turbo Darkrai 1 Yveltal/Garbodor 1 M Rayquaza 1 Houndoom/Raticate 1 Mewtwo/Garbodor 2…
Future Points, Likely Competition, and Other Decks to Watch For in St. Louis (This Weekend!) “I originally planned to include a short write-up of the Expanded format and my thoughts on its development but Mike Fouchet’s summary from earlier in the week accurately represents my view. The metagame seems to be shifting away from BREAK Pokemon, even without the addition of Giratina. The only thing that I want to add is that I think Pokemon-GX could actually have a strong impact on Expanded in the next few months. Few things in the format can reliably take down multiple Pokemon with 240 HP in a game, and they will instead have to prey on non-evolved forms…
Plume Doom in Dallas, Frog Party in Athens, a Case Study on Consistency, and Three Decks Updated with Sun & Moon “Yveltal was still the deck to beat going into Dallas Regionals. The format hadn’t changed since London so we weren’t expecting much of a metagame shift. Unfortunately, Yveltal proved incredibly difficult to counter due to its consistency, high damage output, low maintenance, and Ability lock through Garbodor. Christopher Schemanske and I started considering all kinds of decks that either didn’t beat Yveltal in their current iteration, or at least weren’t thought to beat Yveltal. This was a pretty good period of testing for us as we started thinking outside of the box. Volcanion was an early favorite as it actually…
With the hair wrapped around its body helping to enhance its muscles, this Pokémon can overwhelm even Machamp. (Grimmsnarl)
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