Christopher Schemanske
Author Archive
Bio: I played the TCG competitively from the summer of 2010 through the end of the 2018 Worlds cycle. My time in the game started in the Senior division, with 3 years in the middle circuit, but I spent a longer duration on the elder circuit, and often I worked to offer a perspective on both aspects of the division discrepancies we can sometime see. I’ve wrote here at 6P from early 2015 through January 2019, but had been involved with the site for far longer on the forums and as an editor. From April 2017-January 2019, I managed the day-to-day article side of operations, and left site staff after that point.
I’m now at University of Michigan pursuing a degree in Industrial and Operations Engineering, and can be found judging at the major tournaments on the circuit.
Looking at Trevenant BREAK, Lucario-GX, and Primal Groudon for Dallas Expanded, Plus News “Trevenant is in a bit of an odd choice. Item Lock is a reasonable approach to much of what Expanded has to offer in terms of threats, and Archie’s Blastoise—an ugly specter of a matchup—has checked back out of the carousel of Expanded viability. The bad news is that there’s nothing revolutionary to offer for the Zoroark matchups: your reliance on Item Lock to offset their advantages and Faba/Enhanced Hammer to neutralize the attacking threat is as pronounced as ever. I’m of the persuasion that you have the ability to deal with control as a concept, but, admittedly, it’s as…
SixPrizes Podcast Ep. 28 “A bit delayed on the front page, but dropped a few days ago. Kirk from the Super Rod Cast and Noel Totomoch have been spouting about Lost March for a few weeks, so Mike got them to talk about it! They also look at the fallout of Anaheim Regionals, discuss the ever-popular topic of what to ban in Expanded, and some general gameplay topics. Also available: SixPrizes SoundCloudiTunes Podcasts
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Looking at the Foundations of Success in Expanded Coming off the Anaheim Regional Championship “This weekend was proof more enough that concepts, not specific lists, are the battle of the day in the larger format. The difference in success and failure this weekend wasn’t 3 cards in a mirror match; it was matchup-by-matchup battle through the weekend—or, in the case of that Zoroark/Toad fiasco Jimmy won with (again!), simply an attrition onslaught. For better or worse, a lot can come down to the deck selection in the first place, rather than the minutia of each card in a list. This differs from Standard where a lot more of tournament success comes down to card-by-card…
6P Podcast Ep. 27 “On today’s episode, Mike is joined by Maryland players Nguyen Tran and Charlie Lockyer—fresh off Top 8 at the latest Regional Championships in Roanoke, VA. They discuss their successful Virginia runs, the state of the Standard format, and give a peek into Expanded for Anaheim. iTunes SoundCloud
Profiling the Stupendous Stalling Strategies of the Lost Thunder Standard Format and Spicy Techs to Counter the Storm “While I was in attendance in Roanoke this weekend, I don’t have any sort of report or anything of that nature to offer—after being asked on Friday afternoon, I was added to the event’s judging staff (or, added back—long story). I spent the weekend floating between the stream and the floor, meaning the prep I’d done for the tournament wasn’t put to the test. Nevertheless, before I got that email on Friday, I was planning to play either Blacephalon-GX or Regigigas/Hoopa for the weekend, so I have some decent content to cover provided how the weekend went. When Alex and…
It emits psychic power strong enough to cause headaches as a deterrent to the approach of others. (Hatterene)
Christopher’s Look Back at Portland, ft. Trevenant BREAK Report & First Thoughts on Lost Thunder “Over the summer, we saw what was primed to be the biggest shakeup in Expanded’s history: bans of Wally, Ghetsis, Puzzle of Time, and Hex Manaic were shown their way to the ban list, seemingly ending Zoroark’s death grip on the format. The lead-up to the weekend was optimistic, and I don’t think we’ve ever covered as many decks in one tournament’s preparation as we did with Portland. As this weekend showed us, none of this was quite the case. Instead, Zoroark did reemerge from the bans a more oppressive version of itself, which raises significant questions about where the…
Friday Flyer #8: A Dearth of Remaining Expanded Puns, Commentary on the Expanded Format, and Mailbag “Hello again everyone! It’s been another exciting week of talking Expanded here on SixPrizes, with a trio of articles looking at some decks in the format. As I alluded in the Tweet on Mike Fouchet’s article yesterday, it’s a format that’s personally starting to feel a bit overwhelming—and if I’m feeling overwhelmed having played the whole time these cards have been legal, I imagine it’s a messier place yet for players newer to the scene. I hope we’ve helped players in spots like that make some progress toward understanding, but it’s admittedly a bit difficult with this much uncertainty. It could…
Friday Flyer #7: A Few More Expanded Notes and Nuggets “Hello everyone! Another week down, and this time, we moved thoroughly into the Expanded frontier. Travis, Pablo, and I had a trio of articles going into the larger format as we evolve past the bans it received this summer. It’s going to be an interesting format, and I’m curious to see what works out from here. Next week, I’ll do the October mailbag, so if you have any Pokemon questions for my address next week, feel free to drop them my way. I’ll Tweet out some reminders throughout the week, and try to fit them into the articles where I…
Looking at the post-Ban World of Expanded and A Suite of Decks to Test “Here at SixPrizes, we try to avoid articles that are merely deck list after deck list. In general, they don’t help you understand the format or a specific deck in a better way, which tends to be a key to success at these large events. The twist right now is that we have a format that hasn’t been touched to any degree at a high level in months—and, it’s two sets and 4 bans removed. As such, I think the most important thing we can help you with right now is preparing for “the field” Expanded is going to offer.…
Friday Flyer #6: A Look at Tournament Play Best Practices “When I started this idea of a column a few weeks ago, I planned to hit on Expanded a pretty great deal in this early portion. As it happens, that has turned out to be a bit of a miss—other stuff has been more important, it’s been unavoidable that I talk about Standard, whatever may be. As it happens, October’s scheduling puts us in another spot where I’d have initially discussed Expanded today, but believe the better use of time will instead be to concentrate those efforts on my Tuesday article—there may be some Standard stuff I mix in there,…
When it gets wet, its skin changes color, and this Pokémon becomes invisible as if it were camouflaged. (Sobble)
Friday Flyer #5: The Inaugural Mailbag Edition “Welcome back, everyone! I hope you’re enjoying this way of wrapping up the week—I’ve enjoyed writing them, if nothing else. As always, feel free to drop any feedback my way. I’m going to keep the intro short today, as we’re going to go through the questions submitted to me over the last few days. A few questions weren’t fit for this format—a few were just trolls, too—but I’m going to cover what I can in this space. From a programming perspective, Alex, Isaiah, and Xander will have the last competitive words before Memphis and I’ll probably cover Expanded a touch…
Friday Flyer #4: Next Week’s Mailbag and Thoughts on Philly Meta “Welcome back! I underestimated my week’s craziness when I initially planned out the Flyer schedule for the month, so the mailbag edition I had planned for this week is going to wait one more before coming into being. The advantage of this: I get to plug the submission link this week! If any questions arose out of Philly, or anything arises as you read through this week’s content, submit a question and I’ll do my best to answer what I can in next week’s edition—ideally, though, submit by Wednesday. Submission Link We had the first major event of the North…
Friday Flyer #3: A Look at 3 Dragon Majesty-Inspired Concepts “Other cards I considered: Shining Ho-Oh, Heatran FLI, Turtonator DRM, Blaine’s Last Stand. There are a lot of different potential directions to go here, including finding some sort of Kiawe/Ho-Oh concept to lead with, using that to relieve pressure from your vulnerable board. I’m fairly confident that this is a concept worth exploring generally, though, as Water has no place in the current format and the attackers here have the potential to do a lot. Firestarter is a little awkward in that it requires the Pokemon to have been on the bench, but we’re playing high switch counts to help…
Friday Flyer #2: An Examination of the 19 Point Day 2 Cutoff “Seven days are all that separate North America’s player base from the first Regional Championship of the 2019 Championship Series. Of course, we’re looking at a bit longer for Europe, and Latin America is getting a head start with a Regional tomorrow—and all lag behind Oceania’s Melbourne Open. Nevertheless, for many of the people that play Pokemon, Oaks will be their first shot at the SM-on situation in a large tournament. “What am I reading???” — Welcome to our new weekly column, where I’ll be taking every Friday to go through some smaller issue that isn’t fit for a full…
Podcast Ep. 23: Decks for Philadelphia Regionals “On today’s episode, Mike is joined by Russell LaParre, Chris Leandro, and Carl Barone to discuss the new format and top plays for Philadelphia Regionals—but, of course, not exclusive to Philadelphia! A must-listen for anyone looking to succeed in the upcoming format. iTunes SoundCloud
The core on its chest absorbs energy emanating from the lands of the Galar region. This energy is what allows _________ to stay active. (Eternatus)
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