Kenny Wisdom
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Bio: Kenny Wisdom is a player, commentator, and content creator from the Pacific Northwest.
Rillaboom VMAX/Rowlet & Alolan Exeggutor-GX for Limitless Q3 “There are a few different ways that you can play with Rillaboom VMAX, Rowlet & Alolan Exeggutor GX, or a combination of both, but after testing pretty extensively since Rebel Clash’s release, this is where I’ve landed. Credit for the list and a lot of the theory behind the archetype goes to Luke Morsa. The primary gameplan of this deck is to use RowEgg-GX’s Super Growth to get an early Rillaboom SSH 14 into play. What you do next largely depends on the matchup and how the first few turns have played out, but thankfully you’ve got a few different options. Against…
Santa Clara Regionals Wrap-Up, Featuring: A Zoroark-Less Top 8, an Analysis of Kian’s 1st-Place ReshiZard, and Other Important Takeaways “To start things off, let’s take a look at the Top 8 after the Swiss rounds (along with final placement in parentheses): Alex Schemanske—Reshizard (2nd) Michael Catron—Zapdos/Fighting (3rd) Kian Amini—Reshizard (1st) Jimmy Pendarvis—Shedinja Control (5th) Mike Morton—Zapdos/Ultra Beasts (4th) Preston Ellis—Lucario & Melmetal-GX/Vileplume (6th) Azul Garcia Griego—Shedinja Control (7th) Marcus Dodson—Pikarom (8th) There’s a ton to break down here, so let’s get right to it. First, I would like to focus on what wasn’t present in the Top 8… Zero Zoroark-GX decks in the Top 8 is quite the rare occurrence. We don’t have a full metagame breakdown (yet), but…
An Unbroken Bonds Review, Blastoise/Alolan Ninetales, and All-Basics ReshiZard “I’m going to start things off with what may be a controversial statement: I don’t believe this card is going to be good enough. While at face it resembles powerful cards that have led many players to great success, I believe that it has some weaknesses that are going to prove too difficult to overcome. Firstly, I believe Fire Weakness is going to be a huge liability in a format full of Reshiram & Charizard-GX. While cards with suboptimal Weaknesses have been successful in the past, I’m not too interested in putting myself at an immediate disadvantage in the early…
On Doing Homework, the Archetypes Masters, and Three Reasons Why Comfort is Key in Expanded “In the Standard format and at most levels of competition, I would encourage talented players to not worry too much about their inexperience with a deck, and to rely on their skill at the game to carry them. The reason for this way of thinking is largely that in most formats there is a best deck, or a small handful of “decks to beat” that are clearly better than anything else. When this is the case, I believe it’s correct for most players to pick the deck with the best matchup spread, even if that comes at the cost of…
How to Approach a “Solved” Format and Kenny’s Play for Denver (Zoroark/Lycanroc/Lucario) “This puts players in a situation that I always find interesting: Do you continue to do what you’ve done for most of the format, just jamming what you feel is the best deck and hoping for the best? Do you try to find a rogue deck that has good match ups versus your expected metagame? Do you try out some spicy new tech in an established archetype that you hope will give you an edge? Does the answer to any of these questions change if you’re also attending the European International Championship later this month? My days of worrying about…
By drumming, it taps into the power of its special tree stump. The roots of the stump follow its direction in battle. (Rillaboom)
Recapping Toronto’s Headlines, the Two Paths, and on Trevenant, Zoroark/Garbodor, and Night March for Greensboro “Players had been clamoring for a Lusamine ban for quite some time, and about a month ago TPCi listened, giving it and Delinquent the boot from the format. While it’s probably not a good use of anyone’s time to envision how the results of Toronto would’ve looked had those two cards been legal, I think we can all agree we likely wouldn’t have seen such a diverse metagame under the old ban list. Even more importantly, the community has expressed almost unanimous positivity regarding the state of Expanded, following Toronto, which I never would’ve predicted three months ago. When was…
Pikachu & Zekrom-GX/Electric.dec, Lost March (SUM–TEU, Pre-Oceania IC), and Some Commentary on the Recent DQs and Suspensions “First of all, I want the record to show that I don’t think TAG TEAM GX cards are particularly good for the game. I expect that most of these cards will either be too powerful—bordering on oppressive—or they won’t be good enough to see competitive play. Either result is not great and I don’t believe the card type is going to lead to fun, engaging gameplay. I would love to be wrong about this, but I haven’t had too much fun playing with the cards yet and I don’t think there’s enough design space to make these cards interesting. They…
Magikarp & Wailord-GX Stall/Mill for Dallas Regionals “4 Magikarp & Wailord-GX The card that makes the entire deck function also does the least—Magikarp & Wailord-GX, much like Wailord-EX before it, has one job: sit back and don’t get Knocked Out. The only relevant difference is, of course, the massively increased HP. I find myself wondering how good of an idea it was to release a new series of cards based around the idea of Basic Pokemon with gargantuan amounts of HP, but we’ll have to shelve that discussion until the proper release of Team Up. 1 Girafarig LOT Moving on from the big GX, we’ve got a handful…
Defending Yourself Against Shady Tactics and Tricks (Cheating) in the Pokémon TCG “I first want to talk about the reasons why people cheat, as I think this is extremely misunderstood by the majority of Pokemon players. Whenever a rumor circulates about a player—particularly if this player is well known and generally liked—the immediate response for some is to ask why this person would cheat, and shout about how being shady in this situation doesn’t make sense. Whether it’s because they were playing against a great match up, they were on camera, the match didn’t mean anything to them, or they have too much to lose by getting caught cheating, I’m sure you’ve…
Kenny’s Thoughts on a Mix of Current Community Conundrums “Starting from the oldest news and working our way forward, I obviously have to start with the news every competitive player has been waiting months for: The 2019 World Championship CP threshold. As anyone reading this certainly knows by now, the bar is set at 550 Championship Points. While this isn’t the number I would’ve guessed going into the season, I think it’s a sensible one. It presents more of a challenge while managing to stay in the range of what I feel is “reasonable.” Most players who dedicate themselves to playing well, staying disciplined and traveling to events will…
This Pokémon will look into your eyes and read the contents of your heart. If it finds evil there, it promptly hides away. (Galarian Ponyta)
Examining Drampa-GX/Garbodor’s Playability for the Expanded Portland Regional Championships “Hey guys, Kenny Wisdom here again with another strategy article. This time I wanted to focus this weekend’s Portland Regional Championship. Portland is the only remaining Regional Championship in the Pacific Northwest, is one of my favorite places in the world, and is only two hours from my house, so I wouldn’t miss it for the world. I know Portland can be expensive and time consuming to get to depending on where you’re located in the US, but I’d urge everyone reading this to visit the PNW, whether for a tournament or not, at least once. Truly a beautiful place.…
On Countering Buzzwole/Shrine of Punishments, Zoroark/Golisopod, and Zoroark/Lycanroc for Philly “The Baby Buzzwole/Shrine of Punishment deck first appeared on the radar a few weeks prior to the 2018 World Championship. Although the playerbase at large had mixed feelings on the deck, it made it’s presence known on both days of that tournament, putting up a dominant performance in Day 1 and putting a few players into the money on Day 2 as well. Looking back, it’s no surprise this deck turned out to be great. The combination of the early game aggression of Buzzwole and the late game one hit KO potential of Trashalance is obviously very powerful, especially when…
The Lowdown on the Likeliest Lists for Zoroark/Magcargo for Worlds ’18 “Like I said above, Zoroark/Magcargo is the best deck in the format. The combination of Zoroark-GX and Magcargo is even more powerful than it may seem on the surface. The ability to smooth out your draws in the early phases of the game and then transition to drawing whatever card you want every turn is just unreal. If the Zoroark/Magcargo deck is running properly (which, by its nature, it should be much more often than not), it will be able to find whatever answer it needs, dealing with whatever threat is presented, turn after turn. Which begs the question: What…
Initial Thoughts on Celestial Storm and How to Properly Evaluate New Cards “Without a doubt the most hyped card from Celestial Storm, Rayquaza-GX has been at the front of everyone’s mind in these weeks leading up to the World Championship. It’s easy to buy into the hype, as Rayquaza boasts a very threatening attack when combined with energy acceleration, and definitely has the potential to go off in the early turns and completely take over games. To be honest with you, I haven’t been too impressed with Rayquaza thus far. I’ve been playing around with a few lists, and this is what I’ve mostly settled on right now. Although Rayquaza-GX is a…
Kenny’s Thoughts on Qualifying for Worlds 2019 and a Retrospective on the 2018 Season Structure “I know from the feedback I’ve received over the years that a number of you are basically checked out on this season. Maybe you’re a less experienced player who is just getting a taste for the scene, or maybe you came up a little short on your invite. Either way, your sights are set on next year. It’s my hope that this section will provide some helpful advice on how best to achieve your goal of qualifying for the World Championship. Two disclaimers: Who knows what decisions TPCi is going to make regarding the invite structure for next year. All…
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After deflecting attacks with its hard leaf shield, it strikes back with its sharp leek stalk. The leek stalk is both weapon and food. (Sirfetch’d)
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